All I saw was black; I didn't even seem to be standing on a solid surface. Everything was pitch black--there didn't seem o be anything to see. The crushing darkness started to make me feel exceedingly uncomfortable.
The never-ending black then started turning to a dark grey. I looked up and saw that an artificial moon was forming in what would have been the sky. The moon's brightness continued to rise until I finally had to look away, it was so bright.
In my peripheral vision I saw a shape form from out of the moon. It didn't have a specific shape. It was just an amoebic mass that was so black it seemed to absorb the light around it.
The viscous shadow lowered itself from the grey "sky" until it was eye-level with me at about five meters or so away.
Finally, the black amoeba writhed itself int an oval shape.
Images suddenly appeared on the oval, as though they were being projected from somewhere. A the images showed different things--my parents; me and Kwill when we were younger--I realized it was showing me my memories.
"Why?" I asked to nothing in particular.
The images shifted to memories of the small grocery store that my parents passed dwon to me.
"I remember that," I said, suddenly recalling why I was in Princess Celestia's Royal Guard, "I never got very good business."
The images shifted to two ponies in business suits.
"Without very much money I couldn't pay the rent to the company that my parents leased the building from. They threatened to evict me."
The image shifted again, this time to an image of a bank.
"I was desperate," I explained, "I tried to rob a bank to get enough money to pay the rent." Tears started to form as images of Celestia and the Guard appeared. "I was arrested in the act. The Princess said I could redeem myself if I served in her Guard."
The tears started to slowly slide down my cheeks.
Finally the images disappeared and the amoeba started writhing again. It grew front legs and back legs. It grew a neck and a head. The head sprouted ears and a spiraled horn. A mane that sparkled like starlight flowed outward form the back of the neck. It grew a tail the same color as the mane. A pair of wings sprouted form the amoeba's sides.
Standing where the amoeba was moments before was the Royal Princess of the Night, Princess Luna.
Suddenly my heart launched into my throat, my tear ducts felt like they burst, and I broke down right there in front of her. Tears streamed down my face as I practically shouted, "Oh, Luna! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I was desperate! Please! Please forgive me!"
She lifted my chin up with a gentle hoof and looked at me with a calm, understanding look in her eyes. "Thou are forgiven. But save thy tears for the news to come, Midnight."
She then spread her wings and lifted herself to the moon until she was but a silhouette against the white orb.
When she was in place an explosion of moonbeams scattered throughout the darkness until the void was as bright as day.
Soldiers from my squad started to materialize around me, Kwill coming up on my left. We looked at each other with confused looks. I saw that his eyes were red as though he had been crying.
"What are you doing in my dream?" he asked.
"Your dream?" As more ponies from our troop kept appearing I finally realized that everypony's dreams were being massed into one.
Round Shield and Silver Hooves were on my right.
When everypony form our troop had appeared, Princess Luna addressed us, "Everypony! We have distressing news: Princess Celestia has abandoned thee!"
At this, startled and surprised murmurs ran through the crowd.
Luna continued, "She has seen thee as nothing more than blights upon her Guard with thine injuries," she gestured to Round Shield who looked at the stump of his back-left leg, "thine defects," she gestured to Kwill who had more tears rolling down his face, "and thine criminal histories," she gestured to me. "She created the reports of the attacks on the Everfree Village, and sent thee out here on a false mission to freeze, and die alone.
"Well, we will tell you right now: thou are no blight, thou are not weak, and thou are not alone!"
She spread her feathered, ebony wings to their full width, her eyes turned as white as the moon behind her, and her horn glowed a dark blue that spread to the rest of her body. The blue light then spread to the rest of us and a very elaborate armor materialized on our bodies.
The armor was ebony, dark blue, and black. It was the same design as the armor that Nightmare Moon wore, but each piece was adorned with a different constellation. On the brow of the helmet and the middle of the chest-plate was a crescent moon.
The hoof guards were complex pieces of equipment; the hoof guard on my right forehoof had a cuff on the far outside that could swivel and lock in place by way of a gear. A sword's handle was supposed to go into the cuff and lock in place.
When not in use the cuff would swivel so that the sword pointed upward so it wouldn't jab into the ground.
On the opposite hoof guard was a lock where a shield would attach.
We looked at each other in awe until Luna said, "Thou are now my elite Soldiers of the Night! Thou are nocturnal! We rule through the night until the light of dawn!" She took a pause and said, "Now, by the powers vested in us, we hereby pardon thee of all wrongs thou may have committed!"
The dream finally started to fade away, but before it vanished completely Princess Luna said one more thing: "Sleep until the night, troops! We shall meet again to fight the evils that dwell in our shadows!"