//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Nightmares and Dreamscapes // Story: Shimmering Night // by PinkiePieFox //------------------------------// Shimmering Night - Chapter 3 Version 2 “I-It’s still there?” The Heart of stars remained around the moon, he sat there on his haunches, stunned and unmoving for a long time. And then he snapped out of it… He got up and made his way to Scoops' room, walked up to him and poked him with his hoof… “Scoops, Scoops wake up!” Scoops stirred awake and looked at Star Shadow with squinted eyes. “What's up star?” Said Scoops groggily while looking at the clock. It was little past midnight. “Get up, I need you on the balcony…” He grabbed his friend with his hoof and pulled him out of his bed… Scoops still showed signs of being tired, as he followed star dragging his sluggish body, and just when he thought he had caught up. He stopped in mid-motion, releasing a yawn that brought tears to his eyes. After they made their way to the balcony, Star pulled his friend close; grabbed his head with his foreleg then lifted his head to the moon and said, “Can you see that?” Scoops blinked a few times until his eyes adjusts to the moonlight. Then his eyes grew wider, “Whoa… What is that?” It took him a while to realize what was he looking at, then Scoops exclaimed aloud in awe of the sight before him, “The Princess really outdid herself!” Star looked at him and then back at the moon. He said nothing as he stared blankly into the night sky. Star Shadow thought to himself, “So Scoops can see it too, it was not just a dream then? That night really happened?” Two Scoops let out another long yawn, “Well, Star, it’s a nice sight but I’m going back to-” Scoops let out another yawn before he could finish what he was saying as he made his way back into his bedroom. For the next three days all there was to talk about was the Heart that surrounded the moon. Everypony was ecstatic about it, chatting excitedly about how sweet it was. While this was all good news, Star Shadow was not even as remotely excited as the rest of Ponyville. He let out a yawn, showing his exhaustion while he worked, “I feel so tired!” He moaned with his head laying on the counter at the ice cream shop. It’s been two days since the appearance of the heart, Star Shadow felt weak, and tired since that night; his magic was much weaker than normal. The doctors said he would be fine in a few days, but that did not help him now. High up in the Canterlot Castle; the royal sisters sat upon their thrones. Luna let out a yawn, she was supposed to be in bed several hours earlier; sleep wanted to take hold of her. But her sister had insisted for her to stay up a while longer, she was inclined to oblige. After several hours of waiting, the nobles are finally assembled in the throne room, presenting their complaints to the crown, but a few showed their gratitude to the sisters, mostly to Luna, who they believed have placed the heart around the moon. Such a loving gesture to ponykind. Luna had heard it all; from the letters sent night and day for her, to the nobles thanking her for something she had not done at all, she was feeling down. She did feel happy that ponies were happy with her stars. However, she could not accept it because it was not she who made the heart-shaped stars. And over the past few days she had wondered about who had moved them in the first place. It weighed heavily on her mind. “Luna?” Luna snapped out of her trance and looked toward her sister, “Yes sister?” Celestia looked at her with a slight frown before she continued speaking, “I have been calling to you for a while now. Is something bothering you?” Luna sighed, lowering her head slightly. “We worry sister. Who moved the stars? It was not you or I and...” she trailed off for a moment. “And its shape, I do not think that the heart was put there just for the celebration. We are not sure, but we feel as if it means more; we feel as if we are hollow, yet full and warm simultaneously.” She looked up to her sister who just looked at her with calm, but somewhat sad eyes. Celestia had known how much this affected her sister. It was strange for stars to move because moving the stars is not an easy task; a thousand years ago when Celestia had taken over the job after sending her sister to the moon. It drained the Sun Goddess’ magic every night until she strengthened her relationship with the night sky. Celestia looked at her sister, concerned, before speaking up with a sly smile, “Lulu, your we is showing.” Luna blushed. “Perhaps we- I am just tired, my dreams have been strange as of late.” Luna bowed her head closing her eyes. She felt a warm feeling around her as Celestia wrapped her large left wing over Luna’s body and pulled her close. “Luna, you should not worry. I am sure things will come to light when the time is right. And within the next few days we will have enough power to move the stars back into place. It troubles me however, all the power that was used in placing them around the moon. But it does not seem to be malicious in intent. I had, Twilight look through all the star magics as I am sure you have as well, and there is no known magic where stars are placed around the moon in the a shape of a heart.” Luna nodded slowly and Celestia nuzzled her sibling. “Do not fret Luna. Just enjoy it for the time it is here. And who knows, perhaps some unicorns got together to show how much they respect and love you and decided to show you how much by moving the very stars themselves.” Luna’s lips curled up at this and she looked at her sister before nuzzling her back. “Yes sister we suppose this is nice had the ponies done this for us.” /||~~·~~Two Nights Prior - Star S. POV~~·~~||\ That night, after Two Scoops went back to his bed, Star Shadow too went back to his room. He was still weak from his lack of magic and just overall tired. But that night sleep was slow to overtake him. Star tossed and turned while grumbling to himself, beating his pillows. He had done everything he could think of in order to get comfortable, but could never find a comfortable position that allowed him to drift into slumber. It was not until the wee hours of the morning, when the sky was just starting to shift from its dark navy blue color when he had finally managed sleep. His dreams were pretty normal he had to admit. He walked through a field at night, the stars shining brightly overhead, and the fireflies were glowing over the flowers within the field. As he kept walking the planet seemed to vanish completely around him flowing into shadows and allowing him to travel through the endless blanket of darkness and stars. Through most of his life he had dreams like the one he was having. Odd dreams where he would walk through space, walk around the stars themselves. His dreams always made him the most happy, as he had always loved the stars and to be this close, even if it was but a dream, it made him warm inside. Though tonight's dream had but a few speckles of light within the darkness. There was only a few hundred stars compared to the thousand that normally populated his dreams. Most of the stars were a white color, normal by star standards. But there was a few that were different as always, some of them were yellow, while one of them was a deep shade of crimson. The crimson star however, seemed to pollute others around it, and one of the other stars near it seemed slightly pink in color. After a while there was a light; the moon had appeared within the endless night, shining brightly through the darkness. He looked at the moon and smiled, and then his look became one of inquiry as a figure appeared slowly from the moon. It was a large, dark figure that flapped its wings making its way closer to the crimson star. As it neared the star, Star Shadow saw the figure turn into Princess Luna. Luna looked sullen as she approached the star and looked inside; her horn lit up with a magical dark blue aura. She leaned forwards touching the crimson star with her horn, soon after vanishing completely. Star Shadow moved up to the star and took a closer look. He blinked for only a moment, looking around the endless darkness before lighting his own horn, at the same time, keeping himself in mind. “This has got to be the weirdest dream I’ve ever had,” he said as he touched his horn to the star. There was a rush and a feeling of falling but just as suddenly as the feeling had appeared it was gone. Starshadow was now standing within the center of a endless orchard of trees. It was still dark and the moon was out, still shining brightly within all of its glory. “AHHHHHH!!!! ‘elp ‘ELP!” Star Shadow nearly jumped out of his skin as he turned around. A small yellow filly was running as fast as she could through the trees, she had a tattered pink bow in her mane, and it seemed as if she was being chased by, Apples? Yes, Apples…. With TEETH?! Star had no idea what to make of this, and that is when an apple fell down from out of a nearby tree and chomped down on his leg. He let out a squeal, tossing the apple off and stomping it into the dirt, smashing it into orange apple butter. “Well, thats weird.” He mused to himself, as he looked back towards where the filly had been running, but she was nowhere to be seen. “OW!” Star flenched as another pain hit him, but this one was the yellow filly running into his side. She wrapped her little hooves around his barrel with a death grip, crying her eyes out, and pleading for help as she shoved her face deeper into his chest. Star shadow sat still, wrapping his forehooves around the filly feeling her shiver with fear. “Don’t worry. I won't let anything happen to you…” Star said to the filly whom relaxed some with a sniffle, looking up at him as she did so. “AAaapplleeee blooooommmmm…..” The filly squeaked and dove closer into stars fur. Star looked up to spot the apples all around the orchard gathering together. They tumbled about on the ground through the grass, until they were all a single mass. The collection of evil apples shifted, changing into the shape of a pony with a large stetson on its head, all completely made out of the demonic fruit. “You did not do as I told you. You have failed the apple family! And because of this, you will never get your cutie mark! The beast rose up, splitting open a monstrous muzzle lined with large sharp teeth, that looked like the seeds of apples. Star stared at the beast before him, holding the filly close, but he did not appear nearly as frightened as the filly. In fact, he just laughed at the monster, causing it to freeze in place. He just smiled and lit up his horn, looking back at the monster with a stern face, before speaking again, loud and clear. “ENOUGH!” The nightmare shrieked before turning into a stack of glass jars sitting in the middle of the field, the jars appeared to be filled with apple butter. Star leaned down nuzzling the filly… “Its okay now…” He had a calm smile on his face as he sat the filly back down. “Nothing is going to get you now.” The filly looked up still shaking, but she managed to look around and saw that the monster was indeed gone. Star smiled at her, while messing her mane with his hoof. Star Shadow stood, walking over to the jars and with use of his aura, he took up a jar and opened it. Using his magic he took some of the contents out and ate it. “Its not bad. You want some?” He asked the filly “Y-yeah ‘ure.” She moved closer, sitting down near Star as he opened another jar and handed it to her. “So, how was a cute little filly like you being chased by a mean apple monster in the first place?” Star asked the filly while with one fluid motion he used a stick to fish out and eat some apple butter from the jar The filly paused for a moment. Star looked at the filly. “Whats your name?” he asked, with a smile on his face. He was hoping that this would help the young filly to open up to him. The filly looked over at him before speaking three simple words. “ ‘m Apple Bloom.” Star smiled at the earth pony as she continued on. “ And that apple monster was my sister.” Apple Bloom sniffed. Star looked down at her. “Your sister?” Apple Bloom nodded her head. “Ya’ See, I was suppose to do my chores today, and count the apple blossoms and help cross poll’nate any of them that has yet been got to by bees. But instead I went out crusading with my friends so that I could try to earn my cutie mark. ‘n when I returned home, AJ was so mad at me for not even starting my chores. And now she don’ love me.” Apple bloom sniffed back some tears. “I don’t believe that for one second…” He said causing the filly to look up. “I’m sure your sister loves you, and always will. Maybe you just have to show her that you can be trusted with your chores. Go out and get them done, surprise her.” And as he said this there was a rush of wind through the area ,and Star felt that feeling of dropping again. The dream around him began fading into darkness, as the dream began to vanish around him, there was another voice from within the dream, but he couldn't quite make it out. He woke bolt upright with a gasp, as he did this Two Scoops, whom was standing over him at the side of his bed, yelped as their heads collided and Scoops was pushed onto the floor by Stars abrupt awakening. As he lay on his back he realized he was still in his bed. Two Scoops sat up looking at Star, a hoof rubbing his sore head. “I was worried about you dude. You alright?” Star Shadow moaned, placing his hooves on his face in an effort to fight off the massive headache he was having from his bout with sleep deprivation, and now the pain from having his head smashed into his roommates, his days could be better.