Luna sighed and left the dreamscape for the fourth time that night and yet again, she had found nothing. She had been searching the dreamscape for three days and each time she had failed. Luna walked to her bed and sat down, trying to think of something else she could try. A knock on her door roused her from her thoughts and she stood. She walked towards the door and opened it to reveal Celestia standing on the other side.
Luna smiled slightly “Hello Celestia, what are you doing here? It seems a little late for you to be awake.”
Celestia nodded “I know. May I come in?” Luna nodded and Celestia walked slowly into Luna’s bedchamber. Celestia turned to face Luna and sighed “Luna, what is going on? Night Court has been cancelled three nights in a row. Are you feeling ill?”
Luna looked away and shook her head “No, I’m feeling very well. It’s just…I have been very busy with the dreamscape.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow "Oh? Have there been more nightmares than usual?"
Luna cocked her head slightly "Well...No. I've been searching for Aecorum."
Celestia sighed and nodded “Of course. Aecorum.” She walked over to the window “Luna, I don’t know what to do. I have tried talking to you, listening to you, I even sent Sound Council to you, and he is a psychiatrist. Every time I try to tell you the truth you don’t believe it. Doctor Council told me to let you figure it out on your own but I cannot let you ignore your duties.”
Luna sighed “Tia, it has only been three days.”
Celestia’s face grew slightly harder “But you have been talking about Aecorum and traveling all over Equestria in search of him for weeks. And frankly, my patience is wearing thin. I’m worried about you, Little Sister, and I have run out of ways I can help you. I hate to do this, but this has to stop now.” Celestia straightened up and unfurled her wings “Princess Luna, I order you to resume Night Court, and discontinue your search for Aecorum.”
Luna gasped “You…Order me?”
Celestia nodded with pain in her eyes “We have to think of Equestria. If this goes on, who knows what may happen.” She walked towards the door “I’m sorry, Luna. I really am, but this has to be done.”
Luna weakly nodded as the door shut behind Celestia and sat down. “What just happened? Does she really think I’ve gone mad?” After a moment Luna glared at the floor with a defiant glint in her eyes. She stood and walked over to the balcony, taking a deep breath of the cool night air.
“I’m going to find him, no matter what Celestia orders me to do.” She entered the dreamscape and focused on Equestria, searching for any points of light that were far away from any others.
---
Luna sighed and withdrew from the very, very strange dream of Cheese Sandwich. As well as being almost as odd as some of Pinkie Pie’s dreams, Pinkie actually made an appearance in Cheese’s. Luna had looked in over a dozen dreams but none of them belonged to Aecorum. She hovered over the dreamscape and thought. Maybe…Maybe she is right. Did I…Did I imagine it? It cannot be true, but…It cannot be wrong either. Oh gods I’ve lost my mind. She fought the urge to cry and was about to leave the dreamscape but suddenly a light sprang up, miles and miles away from anything else. Luna decided that she would try one more time and wearily focused on the dream.
Luna felt the familiar tingling sensation as she entered the dream of whoever was sleeping by the coast and gasped at what she saw. She was standing on the hill that overlooked all of Equestria, the one where she had first raised the moon with Aecorum and Celestia by her side. A firefly flitted by her in the soft breeze and she looked up towards the crest of the hill. She took a few uncertain steps forward to see if anypony was behind the cherry blossom tree and gasped in relief. Luna’s steps grew faster as the silhouette of an alicorn grew larger and when she was about a dozen feet away the soft moonlight allowed her to see the color of the dreaming pony’s coat.
“Aecorum…” She whispered before she ran towards her old friend. When she reached him she grinned widely and spoke clearly “Aecorum, it is me, it’s Luna! Oh, I knew I would find you, I am so happy!” Aecorum didn’t respond or even move and she raised an eyebrow. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw how ragged his mane and tail had become, how dull and lifeless his coat and eyes were, and how…Sad he looked as he stared at the nothing in front of him. “Aecorum? Are…Are you alright?” Luna was worried and it came out in her voice.
Aecorum sighed quietly and slightly turned his head away from Luna. Luna took a step forward and bent her head down closer to his. “Aecorum, it’s me, really. I have been looking for you for weeks, Tia doesn’t remember you, nopony does. Aecorum?” Aecorum said nothing and turned just a bit further from Luna as her mind began to swim with confusion. “Why won’t you look at me?”
He turned his face up towards the moon and Luna followed his gaze, shaking her head slightly. The moon was full with a dark formation across its face. Luna had seen pictures and heard descriptions but this was the first time she had actually seen the Mare in the Moon and she sighed. She turned back to Aecorum “No, no, Aecorum, it’s me, I promise. The Nightmare is gone, I’m me again.” She got no response and her voice grew more pained as tears welled up in her eyes “Aecorum…Please look at me. Please.”
Aecorum turned towards Luna and sighed as he stood slowly, as if he bore the weight of the entire world and its sorrows on his shoulders. He shook his head and sighed again “Oh, Luna. I have had this dream every night for a thousand years.” As he spoke he walked towards her and bent his head so their horns were almost touching. His voice dropped to a whisper as he closed his eyes and shook his head. “I know that you are not real.”
Luna took a step back in shock as she looked in his eyes and shook her head. “No, I am really here, I’m not a dream. I came to your dream, I found you!” There was something in his eyes, something she had never seen before that almost broke her heart. She saw a deep sadness and pain beyond anything she had ever imagined, and they were dull. The spark of life, the passion and spirit she had always seen in his eyes was…Gone. It was like she was looking into a void where his soul once was.
Aecorum sighed and turned away, taking a few steps away from Luna. “I almost believed it those first few nights, but not anymore. I have known ever since then that you are nothing more than a phantom my mind has created as a constant reminder of what I lost.”
Luna shook her head earnestly “No! I’m real, I swear! I was freed from the Nightmare by the Elements of Harmony almost four years ago!”
Aecorum chuckled, but it was a hollow, mirthless sound “I must say, these are new lies. Perhaps I am finally losing my grip on my sanity.”
Luna walked in front of him and looked him dead in the eye as tears started to fall down her face “How can you say that?! Aecorum, look at me! I entered your dream from the castle at Canterlot, I’m free!”
Aecorum shook his head “No, dear Luna, you are not. You are still a prisoner, if not of the Nightmare, then of me. I used the Elements of Harmony to banish you to the moon, and there you remain, if you are even alive.” He frowned sadly at Luna and looked up towards the moon.
Luna bowed her head and swallowed the lump in her throat “Why does nopony remember you? Why doesn’t Celestia know who you are?”
Aecorum shrugged slightly “Do you not know? You are, after all, a product of my mind.”
Luna bit her tongue and spoke through gritted teeth “Humor me. What happened?”
“Very well, I will tell you. It was a part of my sentence, to be forgotten, my name stricken from all records and my image erased.”
Luna’s mouth fell open “Your…Sentence? Who…Why? Did they blame you for what I did? Who sentenced you? Was it the ponies? Surely it couldn’t have been Tia…Could-”
“It was me, Luna.” Aecorum looked down at Luna with a weary expression.
“What? Y-You?” Luna’s breath hitched in her throat “Why? And…How? How could you possibly make everypony forget you, even Tia and Discord? How?”
Aecorum chuckled mirthlessly again “Do you not remember the old saying, Luna? ‘The Moon gives light to the dreams of all, and chases away the shadows. The Sun brings knowledge and shows inner strength, even when all hope is lost. And the Sea washes across the shore, bringing long forgotten shells to the surface as sandcastles new are torn down.’ Memories have always been my second domain, so I cast a spell to change any and all relating to me.”
Luna furrowed her brow as she thought “That doesn’t make sense…A spell that powerful would have required so much magic…It would have killed you!”
Aecorum nodded slightly “I believe it did, at least for a while. You know all too well that my emotions and my magic are intertwined beyond normal bounds. In the throes of intense emotion, my magic gets stronger, and I was…feeling very strongly when I cast the spell.”
Luna sat down in shock as his words sank in. She looked up at him with pain and confusion in her eyes “But…Why?”
Aecorum’s face grew hard “Because I failed you. The Nightmare was my doing, and I needed to be punished for my actions.”
“No, no you didn’t fail anypony, least of all me! I failed you, I failed Tia, it was my fault!”
Aecorum shook his head “There are times I sincerely wish I could believe that. But I know the truth, Luna.”
Luna stood and walked right up to Aecorum as her tears began to flow more freely “Aecorum, listen to me! You are not imagining me! I am real, I am home! Please, my friend, you have to believe me! The Nightmare is gone, it is gone forever!” She closed her eyes and lowered her voice as she wrapped her hooves around Aecorum’s neck and buried her face in his chest “I’m me, believe me. Oh, Aecorum, please, please, please, believe me. Everypony thinks I’ve lost my mind, you have to believe me.”
Aecorum shook his head slowly and raised Luna’s chin with his hoof, looking into her pleading eyes. After a second he sighed “You cannot fool me, no matter how much I wish you could. You are gone, and there is nothing I can do to change it.”
Luna was about to speak when the wind grew stronger and the dream began to fade into darkness. Luna shook her head quickly and tried to hold tighter to Aecorum “No, no, no! Please don’t wake up! I have to explain!” Aecorum closed his eyes and the dream vanished, bringing Luna’s vision back to the Equestrian dreamscape.
She opened her eyes and ran to her bed, letting her tears flow with impunity. After a moment she stopped crying and raised her head as her brow furrowed. A smile grew on her face and she turned towards the window. Luna ran back out onto the balcony and looked to the southwest, her smile growing wider as her sadness was replaced with joy.
“I found you.” She whispered “I found Aecorum.” Her voice grew louder “I found him!” Without another second of thought Luna leaped off the balcony and flew as fast as she could towards the hill.