My name is Princess Luna of Equestria, Princess of the night and all its domain. It is my solemn duty to watch over the night, to protect my dear subject from threats in the real world, and within their dreams. Often times this is a simple task, whether by assigning a force of my trusted Night Guard to an area in distress, or combating nightmares myself so that ponies may dream peacefully.
But lately there has been a disturbance within the dream realm, the realm I alone govern. For you see, each dream has a presence within my dreamscape, a door that I may use to enter a dream directly, and interact with my subjects on a subconscious level. That is how I combat nightmares, and help to put troubled minds at ease.
Those doors have been disappearing.
I take my duty to my subjects very seriously. As such I memorize each and every door in my dreamscape, and who they belong to. I feel a pang of sorrow whenever I find a door is gone, for it means the pony it belonged to no longer dreams. Usually... this is because they have died. I pray that in death they continue to dream, elsewhere, beyond my sight.
When the disappearances began, they were few, and I at first took it too be a natural thing. The ponies the doors belonged to were quite old, and I expected that they would pass away soon. But every night it seemed more and more were missing, far too many to be blame on simply equine mortality.
It could have been that ponies were dying for some reason, but I had heard nothing of the sort. Equestria has always had an extremely low death rate, something my sister takes pride in accomplishing.
So again I was foolish, and ignored it. I assumed it was merely as a few ponies (oh, how do they say it these days?) burning the midnight coffee? Those who's doors vanished seemed the type: business ponies, accountants, writers of horror movies...
What finally spurred me to action, the absent doors I could not ignore, were those of children. Specifically the children belonging to an orphanage just outside of South Detrot.
I shall admit I have always been fond of children. Their minds are so innocent, their perspectives so hopeful and full of wonder, and they show an eagerness for discovery and adventure that very few ponies retain when they mature. I feel almost driven to protect them from fears and doubts, to preserve that curiosity they hold.
Twenty-seven foals disappeared one night; during one of my patrols of the dreamscape their doors flickered out all at once! I immediately assumed the worst and took flight towards the city.
When I landed at the orphanage doors I half expected to find the building on fire. Thankfully t'was not the case. Though it begged the question of what exactly was wrong.
A simple phasing charm allowed me to enter the establishment easily. Tia would have had a fit over my 'not-breaking and entering', but I felt it was necessary. For all I knew, twenty-seven young lives were on the line.
There was nothing. The beds were empty, but the sheets still warm.
I scanned the whole building, all three stories, reaching out with my magic for anyone or anything alive.
Nothing was stirring, not even a mouse.
The next morning I consulted the local police department about any recent developments, any reason the orphanage might be abandoned. And might I say that these 'cops', as they are called nowadays, put the constabulary of a thousand years ago to shame! The lack of urgency they displayed was stunning. Not to mention the paperwork, warrants, proper procedures and protocol... they even had the gall to accuse me of wrongdoing. I can hear Tia's voice mockingly singing 'I told you so' right now.
In the end though, we were able to declare the children and the five orphanage staff officially missing, and search parties were sent out to look for them. I am still waiting for the results of the search, but in the meantime Police Chief Hard Buckle is 'keeping me posted on their progress'.
Apparently that is the term they use nowadays to keep one from asking questions or interfering while they work. Most curious. Back in my time we would forego politeness and plainly tell them as such.
As for myself, I refuse to let this matter rest. Regretfully, Celestia has little influence in matters of the night, and is far too busy running Equestria during the day to assist me. As is the case, I am currently en rout to the residence of Twilight Sparkle, a personal student of my sister, and a dear friend.
Hopefully she will have some insight on this matter.
Princess Luna tried her best to maintain her regal pose as her carriage descended from the skies and landed in the streets of Ponyville. Townsponies looked up at her in wonder, a few in a mild panic wondering what the occasion was and if they were supposed to prepare a welcoming party.
Landing alongside her were no less than two squadrons of her sister's pegasus guards. Luna knew that one or two would have sufficed, and indeed Celestia probably knew as well, but it was a formality she'd have to deal with.
As she walked towards Twilight tree/house library, she began thinking of what caused the disappearances of the children, not to mention the other ponies. In the time she'd been organizing ineffectual search parties, nearly ten more ponies had mysteriously vanished from her dreamscape. That amounted to over a hundred in the last week alone.
It dawned on her that this might have been going on for quite some time before she started taking notice, and the thought only served to worry her more. She desperately hoped Twilight Sparkle had come up with something. At this rate everypony in Equestria could be gone before she found out who was behind this and why, not to mention put a stop to them.
Luna remembered to breathe. Knowing Twilight, she probably started solving the problem as soon as she received her letter. The young unicorn took to books like most ponies took to apple pie. And mysteries... oh she adored those.
"I must remember to keep a level head." Luna thought to herself, "I'll be of no use to her otherwise."
"Changeling! Hail's a changeling! Somepony get help!"
Princess Luna heard the shout, and her previous thought was quickly thrown aside. A large crowd had gathered around the back end of the town bakery, an oddly shaped building that looked like a gingerbread house.
Immediately Luna took charge, ordering two of her guards forward and the rest to secure the perimeter in case the changeling tried to run. The two armored stallions shoved through the crowd, just in time to see a changeling glowering menacingly at them from behind fully charged spell.
It lobbed it at the crowd and the orb exploded in a blast of blinding light. While it retreated into the allyway, a panic broke out in the gathered crowd.
"It blinded me! I'm blind, I can't see anything!" ponies yelled.
"MY EYES!"
"BE CALM CITIZENS!" Luna boomed in her royal Canterlot voice while suspending the panicking crowd within her magical field, much to the relief of her guards whom were struggling to keep them under control. "Please remain calm. We have the situation well in hoof. Follow the guards while they escort you to safety."
With that she lowered each of them back onto solid ground and motioned for a quartet of her guards to lead them away. She then turned to address her Lieutenant.
"Have you detained it?" she asked.
"Yes your highness, but there was another with it. Corpral Leadhead gave chase just now." the stallion answered, snapping a salute as he did.
Luna nodded and moved to approach the one they had captured.
Changelings. The shapeshifting bugponies had been a constant source of fear and paranoia after their dramatic reveal at Canterlot, and it took quite a lot of effort behind the scenes before everypony calmed down.
It had been quite a while since they'd last had to deal with them, and Twilight had locked Chrysalis and her hive away after their encounter under the Secretariat Comet. It was far less than she would have done personally, for which Luna both applauded and severely questioned Twilight's sense of mercy.
It seemed there were still some stragglers hanging around though. Truly they'd gone from being the boogymares that made ponies jump at their own shadows, to something more akin to pests that popped up now and then.
One of the changeling's they'd caught was brought out of the alleyway, held firmly by two guardponies, a magic suppression ring already slid over its horn. It jerked and struggled in their grip until it spotted her. It locked eyes with her as she approached, barely blinking.
Luna took a moment to appraise the creature, looking it up and down, trying to determine what it was thinking as it stared back.
"Tell me changeling, is there a particular reason thou are residing in my kingdom?" she asked evenly.
The changeling sucked in a breath and spat in her face.
Though the slime was in her eyes, she could hear the sounds of her guards giving the changeling a good roughing up for that.
"Take it away. Have it locked up for questioning." Luna ordered, cringing as she tried to wiped the slime off with her hoof.
"Wait!" a mare's voice called out, making them all pause. She was a bright yellow with an orange mane and tail and dark blue eyes, full of determination that even startled the guards. She marched right up to the changeling and grabbed it by the throat. "Where's Hail?!" she demanded, "What did you do with him?! Tell me! Tell me! TELL ME!"
"Ahem... Miss?" Luna began.
"WHAT?!" Sunny snapped, only to realize she just snapped at royalty and quickly backpedaled. "Oh, Princess Luna. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Has this changeling done something to you?" Luna cut her off.
"Y-yes. Hail Slick. He was a pegasus I met in Neighagra." she jabbed a hoof at the changeling with a leer, "He did something to him and took his place. He took advantage of me for months!"
Luna looked back at the changeling and frowned. She expected something like this; replacing ponies and feeding off their loved ones was what they did to survive.
"Indeed." Luna said stiffly. "Tell us where he is, and we shall be lenient towards your transgression."
The changeling curled its mouth back into a snarl, and let out a feral hiss, but said nothing.
"Very well. Guards, as you were." Luna said, her guards continuing to drag the changeling away, though with much less of a struggle now. She couldn't help feel unsettled at the way it continued to glare at her until it's head couldn't swivel any further.
First missing ponies, now changelings in Ponyville. What a mess.
"Princess?" came the mare's voice, reminding Luna she was still there. "You'll find him, won't you? You'll find Hail Slick and bring him back? I'll help in any way I can!"
Luna shook her head at her last statement. "I shall do all I am able to find him, but I cannot allow you to risk your own safety for our sake. Worry not though, once we've captured the other changeling, one of them will talk. We'll bring him home."
"Princess, about that other changeling." the mare shifted nervously, "I think he was trying to stop that one that took Hail. I can't explain it but they were definitely fighting each other just now, like they weren't working together."
Luna raised a brow at this. Changelings working against each other was unheard of, at least until now. Perhaps without their Queen to lead them, the strays started competing for prey. Twilight was sure to be interested in that sort of thing, perhaps they'd discuss it when matters weren't so urgent.
"That is... interesting. Perhaps it shall be useful in obtaining the information we seek. Thank you..?"
"Sunny Delight." she introduced herself.
"Thank you Miss Delight. I'll... keep you posted, as they say."