Luna awoke the next morning in low spirits. She was deep in thought of the dream she had the previous night. She couldn't help but feel as though her dream was some sort of vision or message. It was stuck in the alicorn's mind so much, that the princess didn't notice that her sister was even speaking to her.
"Luna, are you alright? Can you hear me, Luna?" Celestia was trying desperately to awake her younger sister from her thoughts. Finally, after about the tenth time of the sun princess speaking to her, Luna noticed her elder sister, "Terribly sorry, sister. I was just thinking about a strange dream I experienced last night." Luna apologized somewhat distractly. Her sister's demeanor quickly caught Celestia's attention; she knew that her little sister would have strange dreams. After all, Luna was the Princess of the Night for crying out loud! But Celestia had never seen Luna so bothered by a dream.
"Little sister, what troubles you? You seem so off. I haven't seen you in this much distress in a very long time," Princess Celestia couldn't help but feel a brief moment of guilt as she remembered Luna's resentment towards her which caused her to turn into the demon known as Nightmare Moon.
As for Luna, she knew she was going to have to tell the ruler of Equestria at some point, but she had hoped that she would have figured out the meaning of the dream before she told her older and wiser sister. But she knew that if there was anypony aside from herself who could figure the meaning out, it was Celestia. Perhaps if she did tell her sister than Celestia would put Luna's worries at ease. She decided to tell Celestia, "Sister, this dream I had was very....nerving," and from there, Luna told Celestia everything she could remember from her dream. She spoke of black smoke, a black portal, snow and ice, and of a stallion she couldn't recognise.
Celestia listened carefully to the moon princess's tale as she tried to come up with an explanation for the dream. However, what really caught the sun princess's attention was the 'black smoke' and the 'snow and ice' Luna spoke of. There was only one pony she knew of who could conjure up black smoke and would be in a location with snow and ice. The princess felt an unpleasant chill run down her spine as she knew who her sister was talking about, "But he is imprisoned! He couldn't have escaped even if he wished to." thought the sun goddess. Then it hit Celestia like a bullet, "Unless..."
"Guards!" Celestia knew that she had to get in contact with Cadence and Shining Armor as quickly as she could. At her call, two Canterlot guards rushed to the two immortals in a flash. Without waiting for them to ask, Celestia gave them their orders, "Get into contact with Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor. Tell them to check their library for a book known as 'Dark Spells and Enchantments' immediately!" at her command, the two stallions galloped off.
Luna was stunned; she had never seen her sister so worked up over a dream. All the blue alicorn's hopes of being reassured went away instantly. She now knew that her dream was very important and she wanted to understand why, "What is the matter, dear sister? Is my dream...more?" at the blue princess's words, Celestia turned with a concerned expression plastered on her face as she answered, "I hope it is nothing, Luna. But if the book is what I fear it is, well, it will not be a good thing,"
A week later, Luna was still anxious for any word from the Crystal Empire. She was very confused about everything that was happening around her; Celestia was giving the guards orders non-stop, Celestia was looking frantically through all of her spellbooks, and every night Luna found it was getting harder and harder to raise the moon. What was even worse, Celestia received an urgent letter from Twilight Sparkle, informing her that the Elements of Harmony were missing! All except for the Element of Kindness.
All of these events hadn't gone un-noticed by the public; much of Equestria had gone into a panic upon hearing that most of the elements were missing. It was all getting so overwhelming for Luna as she grew more and more impatient with her niece. She was tired of seeing everypony in Canterlot so frightened and confused. It was all starting to get to her. Just when the alicorn princess was ready to call it quits however, a letter from the Empire arrived.
Once the princess heard of this news, she bolted to the throne room where she knew Celestia and the letter would be. At last, Luna arrived to her destination, but was met with not only her sister with the letter, but with the six mares who wield the Elements of Harmony. But instead of being greeted warmly by the young ponies, they held their heads in despair. Luna also noticed that their coats were pailer instead of them being well kept and colorful.
This was the case with all of the mane six but with the exception of the one mare who wore her element; Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus herself looked terrified, but she still looked healthier than her fellow elements. The Princess of the Night felt awful for all of the mares who saved her six years ago. They were all very nice to her even when she had tried to destroy them.
Turning away from the six mares, Luna turned to her sister on her throne to be met with an upset Celestia, looking down at her with tired eyes. With a jolt of realization, Luna felt petrified to the spot as her sister announced, "The book is gone. He took it. King Sombra." Celestia used her magic to close all the curtains in the room, shut and lock the throne room doors, and then materialized what looked to be a floating table that gave off an eerie arora to light up the middle of the room.
Princess Celestia didn't have to give an order as everypony in the space made their way to the table. Luna was the last to get there. Her heart was pounding so hard, she thought it was going to burst out of her chest. She couldn't believe that Sombra was back. She didn't want to believe it. Oh how she wanted all of it to be a nightmare, but she knew it wasn't.
Once everyone was gathered at the table, Celestia began to manifest images as she spoke, "Sombra has somehow escaped from his prison and has gone with this book," an image of an old looking spellbook appeared. Luna's eyes widened as she recognized it instantly. She stayed silent however so her sister could finish her speaking, "I believe he used this book to escape and go to another dimension," at those words, not only Luna, but the rest of the mares all gasped in awe.
"Another dimension? But, I thought the magic mirror and that transporter I built were the only ways anypony could travel to dimensions!" Twilight's voice was weak and very frail, it was hard for anypony even close to her to hear. Rarity's voice was equally weak as she spoke next, "I must agree. I thought there was no other way to travel dimensions. Was there a spell in that spellbook that took Sombra to a dimension?" "Yeah, ya'll reckon there's a spell that can do that." Applejack asked.
Celestia nodded her head as she continues on with the next image. This time was an image of a spell, "Sombra used this spell to get to a new dimension. The reason why you couldn't use this instead of the mirror Twilight was because it was suppose to never be cast or used ever again. If it was, than it could rip the fabric between dimensions and bring terrible misfortune to one of them. In this case, our dimension got lucky."
Luna could not believe what her ears were telling her; How were they lucky? The Elements of Harmony were missing except for kindness, Equestria was getting more and more scared, and she was losing control over the moon. By the way everything was going, they were anything but lucky, "Sister, what about the Elements of Harmony? How do we plan to defeat Sombra without them?" the moon princess was getting tired of sitting around doing nothing. She wanted to get back the elements and restore the harmony of her kingdom.
Rainbow dash couldn't agree with Luna more. She spoke in a tone that was determined, but her voice came out like a whisper, "Yeah, let's go and get that no good dark unicorn for a king." Rainbow dash attempted to zoom around the room at top speed, but instead found that she was too tired and weak to even lift up her wings. Celestia looked at the rainbow haired pegasus in sympathy, "Stop. You are weak,"
As the princess said this, she changed the image, which was of all the mane six wearing their respected elements, "You are all connected to your elements by spirit, heart, and soul. If anything were to happen to the elements, it would affect you. So, that would mean that if the elements were to be destroyed..." "We would be destroyed!?" Fluttershy blurted out of the blue.
With a tragic frown, the Princess of the Sun nodded her head. Everypony gasped at this, "No! That can't be true! I have so much to live for!" Pinkie Pie's mane was deflated and had tears coming out of her eyes at this terrible discovery. Luna watched in complete sadness as the mane six all crowded around each other, silently letting the tears flow down their faces as they gave up on the last of their hope.
Then Luna became determined; she was not going to lose hope that easy. The mane six had went through so much to help her, so now it was her time to repay them, "This is NOT over!" Luna slammed her front hooves on the table, causing it to shake and have everyone turn to her in surprise, "We can't just give up! Sister, I was the one who had the dream, so I should be the one to go after him and get back the elements!"
Celestia was in complete shock at her sister's outburst, but she had to admit that Luna had a valid point; Luna was connected to night and nightmares, and Sombra was the one who studied the night, black magic, and darkness. Perhaps fighting fire with fire would give them an advantage. As good as a plan as it was, Celestia was not going to let her younger sibling go to a new world alone, "Very well, Luna. But you are not doing this alone. You will need all the help you can get, which means that you will need the only element that is available to us," the white alicorn spoke.
At this, everypony turned to Fluttershy, who was dumbfounded by the statement, "Oh gosh, I-I don't know. I'm not strong or brave like any of you. What if I can't help?" Fluttershy hid behind her mane, "Don't worry, my little pony. You are much stronger than what you think. I have the up-most confidence in you," Celestia spoke in an encouraging and kind voice. Fluttershy then felt the hooves of her friends rap around her shoulder, "We all do," Twilight smiled at her pegasus friend as all six friends embraced in a tight hug.
From a few feet away, Luna couldn't help but crack a smile at the group. They were all so close it didn't even feel like they were all friends, but sisters. They were always there for each other no matter what. Luna was not about to have that kind of love jeopardized by a monster. No matter what.