Fillies of the Night

by Drunk Luna

Dream Patrol

"Stay out of my room, Cassie!” six-year-old Neoma yelled at the top of her lungs, slamming her bedroom door in her eighteen-month-old sister's face. Cassie plopped down on her bottom and howled, banging her hooves on the door. Neoma rolled her eyes as she heard Luna's approaching hoofbeats.

"Whassa matter, wittle Cassie?" Luna cooed in her stupid babytalk, which sounded like nails on a chalkboard to Neoma. "Did sissy lock you out of her room again? Come on, honey, let's go set her straight." Cassie’s screams quieted, and Luna magically flung Neoma’s door open. Cassie sat on Luna's back, giggling and playing with the alicorn's mane.

"Neoma," Luna said, glaring, "what did I tell you about locking your sister out of your room and slamming the door on her?"

"Mom, she's always getting in my stuff! Can't you teach her not to come in here? She has a whole castle to play in, but she always comes in my room." Neoma glowered at her younger sister, who had turned around on her mother's back and was trying to grab Luna's tail.

"You need to be more patient, Neoma. She's your baby sister, and she obviously worships the ground you walk on." Luna flicked her tail gently so that it brushed over Cassie’s face, making the foal giggle.

"Mama," Cassie babbled, hugging Luna's neck, then spreading her tiny wings and poising herself to jump off Luna's back. Instinctively, Neoma hurried to her mother's side and held out her hooves to catch her sister, but Cassie flapped her wings furiously and hovered in the air for a few seconds.

"What a big filly!" Neoma cheered. "Cassie, you flew for the first time!" Cassie squealed with delight and clapped her hooves. Neoma hugged her sister and kissed the filly's cheek.

The next morning, Cassie was exceptionally fussy and refusing to go to sleep. Even Phoebus’ usual trick of hanging the foal upside down didn't work. Luna used every trick she knew of to try to send her daughter to sleep, but her efforts were futile.

"Mom," Neoma whispered, tiptoeing into the nursery where an exhausted Luna sat in the rocking chair, humming a lullaby to a very restless Cassie, "can I try something? I have an idea."

"If you think you know of something that will work, go right ahead," Luna said eagerly. Neoma lowered her head and illuminated her horn, which sent a sparkly turquoise mist swirling around Cassie. The filly's eyes grew tired, and she yawned. Within seconds, she was sleeping peacefully, nestled in Luna's hooves.

"How did you do that?" Luna stared at Neoma in astonishment. "Did you learn a new sleep spell that I didn't know about?"

"No," Neoma said, as shocked as her mother. "I just… felt like she needed some help relaxing, and something inside me was telling me to point my horn at her."

"Neoma," Luna gasped, pointing at her daughter's flank, "look, you got your cutie mark!" Neoma’s eyes widened as she looked over her shoulder. A white dreamcatcher was now displayed on her hindquarters.

"So, I guess I have the power to put ponies to sleep and enter their dreams," Neoma said thoughtfully.

That night, Neoma decided to test out her new powers, and Luna agreed to help her. As soon as Luna had raised the moon, Neoma’s mind filled with visions. The first was of a stallion in Ponyville who was tossing and turning restlessly in bed. Neoma instinctively took off towards the stallion's house and hovered outside his window. She lowered her head once again, releasing the glittery turquoise mist from her horn. The mist encircled the stallion, and Neoma watched as his body immediately relaxed, and he drifted peacefully off to sleep.

"My magic is very powerful, but I can't cure insomnia," Luna told Neoma as they glided through the satiny blue sky. "I can enter everypony's dreams, and I can help calm them by taming their nightmares, but I don't actually have the power to put them to sleep. If I had that ability, I wouldn't have spent hours in the nursery trying to calm you when you were little. When you were teething, you screamed at the top of your lungs all day, every day for a week. It broke my heart, and I paced across the nursery with you for hours and used all of my power to soothe you, but I could never get you to sleep for very long; believe me, your power is going to be very useful to you one day when you have a foal of your own." They landed in a moonlit clearing in the Everfree Forest, and Luna nuzzled Neoma affectionately. "I am so proud of you, my darling," she whispered, wrapping her filly in a warm hug. “Here’s what we’re going to do now: I’m going to teach you all about the dream realm. Once you’re comfortable entering and exiting ponies’ dreams, we’ll start going into their nightmares, and you will help them go back to sleep once I’ve helped them solve whatever problems they might have. Never enter the dream realm without me, Neoma; at least not yet. This is not a rule from your mother, but an order from your Princess.”

“Okay, mom,” Neoma agreed. Luna nodded and lit up her horn, and the white light formed a bright portal in front of them. Luna motioned for Neoma to follow her.

“Stay close,” Luna said as they entered the portal. The white light dissipated, and two rows of brightly-colored doors appeared on both sides of the alicorns.

“Each of these doors leads to a different dream that somepony is having,” Luna explained. “Pick one.” Neoma looked around and chose the nearest door, which was wooden, golden brown and weathered. Luna led Neoma through the door and into a field of apple trees. In the middle of the field, a gold Earth pony wearing a cowboy hat was jumping on a trampoline, trying to grab honeycrisp apples from a tree.

“Howdy, Your Majesty! Howdy, Princess Neoma!” the pony said cheerfully. “The harvest is lookin’ real good this year.” She somersaulted off the trampoline, knocked a bunch of apples off the tree into a basket, and brought the basket over to the alicorns. “Help yourselves,” she said. “I know y’all must be hungrier than a grizzly bear at a vegetarian buffet.”

“Thank you, Applejack,” Luna said, levitating an apple and taking a bite. “Mmm,” she said. “Delicious, as always.” She teleported herself and Neoma out of the dream and back into the ethereal hallway. Neoma chose a sleek, modern-looking door, and she and Luna entered a fashion show. Models strutted up and down the runway to booming techno music. Rarity sat in the front row, staring intently at her creations. The last model walked out, wearing the most beautiful dress Neoma had ever seen. Rarity beamed with pride, then caught sight of Luna and gave her a deep curtsy. Luna smiled and nodded, then suddenly, the dream began to blur and glitch.

“That means she’s waking up,” Luna explained. “Why don’t you help Rarity get back to sleep?” Luna said to her daughter.

“Really?” Neoma asked excitedly. When Luna nodded, Neoma lowered her head and aimed her horn at Rarity. Immediately, the sparkling turquoise mist floated up from Neoma’s horn and swirled around Rarity, who immediately fell asleep. Neoma gasped and looked at Luna, who smiled proudly at her daughter and teleported them out of the dream realm.

“Wow!” Neoma said as they returned to the waking world. “Mom, that was incredible!” Luna hugged Neoma.

“We’ll practice like this for a while before we go into a nightmare,” Luna said. “Nightmares can be extremely overwhelming, so I want you to be totally comfortable with pleasant dreams first.” Neoma nodded understandingly, though she was a little disappointed that she wouldn’t get to experience the adrenaline rush of a nightmare yet.

“You should never, ever go straight into an intense nightmare from a good dream when you don’t know how to confidently navigate the dream realm,” Luna explained, as if she had read Neoma’s mind. “Trust me, sweetie. If you panic in somepony’s nightmare, you could cause a disaster. Do not enter the dream realm unless I am with you.” Neoma sighed and nodded.

“Okay, mom,” she said. “I’ll only come here with you.” Luna smiled warmly and kissed Neoma’s cheek, and the two alicorns flew back to the castle together.

Neoma paced in front of the mirror in her room. She couldn’t sleep; she had a gut feeling that something was terribly wrong. She could hear a voice calling for help. Against her better judgment, she recited the spell that her mother had just taught her, and the dream portal appeared before her. Neoma entered the realm without hesitation and followed the voice, which echoed from a white door embossed with a large silver shield. When she entered through the door, everything was dark, so she lit up her horn. There, shooting bolts of magic from his horn as a swarm of Changelings backed him against the wall, was Silver. Neoma’s eyes narrowed, and she took off into the air.

“Hey, bug brains,” she called, “why don’t you come get me?” The Changelings hissed and veered away from Silver, who jumped to the side and conjured a large ball of magic. Neoma did the same with her horn, and the two ponies’ powers combined to create a mushroom cloud of magic that paralyzed the Changelings so that they lay belly up on the ground like dying roaches, their legs flailing as they unsuccessfully tried to stand back up. Suddenly, a much larger swarm of Changelings appeared, and this time Neoma’s spell failed. Neoma and Silver took off running until they were floating in midair. Luckily Neoma could fly, but Silver began to fall. Neoma dove after him, but soon both ponies were caught in a ferocious cyclone that pitched them in every direction. Neoma screamed as her wings failed and she began to fall. Suddenly, a turquoise bolt appeared, and the cyclone vanished, revealing Luna. Luna swooped down and caught Neoma and Silver in her magic. Neoma could tell by the look in Luna’s eyes that her mother was furious.

“Silver Shield,” Luna said gently, “you are safe now. I will now cast a spell that will give you pleasant dreams for the rest of the night. As for you, Neoma,” she said, her voice low with anger, “I will wake you now. You are in a lot of trouble, young filly!” With a flash of white light, Luna and Neoma were back in the waking world.

“What in Equestria were you thinking, Neoma?” Luna yelled. “You deliberately disobeyed me. What do you have to say for yourself, young filly?”

“I—I’m so sorry, mom,” Neoma whimpered. “I just had a weird feeling that somepony needed me, so I opened the portal and came into Silver’s dream. I won’t come here alone again, I promise.” Luna’s eyes softened a little.

“It was quite noble of you to try to help your friend,” she said, “but it was also incredibly foolish, not to mention dangerous. You will not come here without me again until I feel that you are ready, Neoma. Am I understood?” Neoma nodded sheepishly, and Luna nodded, knowing the filly had learned her lesson.