"No, Luna," Celly repeated amid the green grassy plain that was her dream that night. "You're always welcome in my dreams, but please, there's no need to yell at me all night as well as all evening."
"I'm not yelling!" I stamped my hoof. It wasn't as satisfying in a dream as in real life. "I'm just wanting you to tell me -"
"I told you already, Luna. Yes, I'm in love with him. No, I don’t know what we’re going to do together in the future. And yes, you're free to tell Mother and Father; they already know, and they don't mind."
I scrunched up my face for the biggest insult I could muster. "You're playing their game after all?"
She whisked a light breeze back at me, her face not hurt but simply sad.
"Good night!" I yelled brusquely, and then vanished from her dream.
Celestia's grassland vanished into mist behind me as I paraded down the dirt path between dreams, indignant that I couldn't even hurt her with my lowest shot. Soon, it split into four paths. My horn was only lightly twitching now - three nights of practice had probably helped drive away the ache - but I didn't know how much time I'd have when I started searching out other ponies' dreams, and I wanted to be sure I found the colt at fault! Fortunately, the school library's book had described an ancient searching spell which sounded like it might work in this dream-realm of metaphor. I focused on Sunburst's golden coat, his sun-rays-and-jewels cutie mark, and how he'd leaned in to steal a kiss from my sister - and then I leaned down and pushed all that out through my horn.
The dream-paths whirled around me, and then one laid itself out straight in front of my horn.
I trotted down it. My horn was starting to ache now, and the mist was closing in around me. Maybe that spell had taken more out of me than I realized, or maybe walking the dreams of someone less close to me than I'd done before was inherently exhausting, but it was worth it.
And then the dirt path turned into a marble-paved hallway, the mist solidifying into walls, and I was in Sunburst's dream. A mansion it was, with pictures of vague outlines of unicorns and pegasi on the wall. There was nopony in the hallway, but I could see an open doorway up ahead with sounds of cheerful conversation beyond it. My horn was aching all the more; I galloped ahead, my hooves silent on the dream-marble.
It was Celly herself who greeted me at the door. There was a crowd of ponies behind her, not quite well-enough defined to count them, but I could see a number of familiar faces from school. With her sunniest smile, she exclaimed, "Welcome to our ball!"
I shied in shock - first at her, and then at how she didn't recognize me - but then I shook myself; how dare Sunburst put my sister into his dream! "Excuse me, false copy," I said curtly.
She shot me a hurt stare as I pushed past her. That wasn't quite how my sister looked when hurt, I reminded myself; Sunburst had probably never seen it to copy... but it was close enough.
I slipped between pony after pony, overhearing their chatter about this wonderful mansion, these other ponies who were running races and making friends and falling in love, this lovely hostess... oh, and apparently somepony had figured out how to heal the sick with specially-focused sunlight... I shook my head. Just how lavish a dream had Sunburst made for himself tonight? Except for everypony avoiding politics and being nice to each other, my parents would be quite at home dreaming of this ball! If Sunburst was like them after all, then he really would be even more beneath Celly!
"Little miss?"
Sunburst suddenly appeared in front of me. I reared up, trying for every inch of height. "How dare you?"
"Dare what?" he said with perfect innocence. "I sensed somepony wasn't happy at our party..."
"Your party?" I neighed. The simulacra partygoers around us whinnied nervously and drew back. "You brought up images of my sister and hundreds of other ponies just so you could have a party for your magnificence and politics or whatever?"
"Your sister -" He blinked and focused on me. "Celestia's my wife."
I snorted and reared again, my horn aching now. "When did you marry her?"
He blinked, shook his mane, and blinked again. "I... don't remember... I guess this's just a dream. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." He reached up to rub his neck, as all the partygoers - including Celestia's image - vanished around us. "I wonder what it means that I dreamed of Celestia's little sister reminding me."
I snorted. "I'm no dream of yours. I'm the real Luna!"
His ears stood up in surprise. "You learned to dreamwalk? That's amazing! But no more than I should've expected from Celestia's sister..."
Despite myself, I couldn't find anything in there but legitimate praise. "What're you doing with my sister? You kissed her, you dragged her to your hurdle-race, you made her say she's in love with you, you dreamed her into a party for -"
"I love her." He touched my shoulder; I shied away. "All this I dreamed — I mean, I haven’t dreamed anything like this any other night; I suppose — I assume I was trying to dream of something she’d like too..."
"You're not halfway good enough to take her away from me!"
"Take her away?" He blinked. "I wouldn’t dream of it —"
"But you’re going to drag her away by yourselves and —"
"Oh!" He blinked. "I wouldn’t, er, doesn’t she already make time for all her friends? And it’s not like we’re going to actually get married anytime soon..."
"What're you meaning with this fancy ball? Are you trying to force her into making connections and striving and politics?"
"Of course not! I was just dreaming of having friends over for..." He paused. "You said... did Celestia say she loves me too?"
Sunburst reached out a hoof toward my shoulder. I sidestepped.
My whole head was hurting. For a moment, I wished I could have some of that specially-focused sunlight that'd gotten into Sunburst's dream. (Would it have worked for me too, when I was inside his dream? Another question for the books.) It was the pain from straining my magic, of course, but then also, everything I could say was just sliding off Sunburst! I reared up again and brought my hooves down upon him. "You're so insipid!" I exclaimed. "Just you stay away -"
Sunburst's magic caught me up, leaving me squirming in the air as mist burst through the walls to envelop both of us. A moment later, I was back in my blanket-nest, the first rays of dawn piercing my bedroom window.