**3**
Vines, covered in thorns covered the ground. The clouds, too, were covered in thorns.

Someone was dreaming about the events of last week.

Luna walked around a bit, her attention equally spent looking for the subject of this dream, and trying to survey what the conditions had been when she was trapped. Her musings stopped when she saw it.

Discord, on a throne of vines, laughing at a downtrodden Twilight Sparkle. Strangely enough, she wore a violet and ermine coat and held a odd scepter, looking only at the ground.

Luna held her head high, and made sure to put purpose behind her every step, until she reached discord.

“Discord! Be gone from this place!” She yelled, using The Royal Canterlot Voice too it’s full abilities. As expected, Discord only chuckled.

Twilight looked up at Luna, shaking her head.

“It’s no use, Princess. He’s just a dream, and eventually I’ll wake up.”

Luna shook her head. “Discord is the father of all nightmares. If he chooses to inhabit one, he is truly here. He can make it feel like an eternity, if he wishes. He is not bound by our laws in drams, as they have no lasting consequences. No, there will be no ‘waiting it out’. Come with me.”

Luna stretched her wings out, and flapped hard enough to raise her a few feet into the air. However, the dream seemed to follow no rules but Discord’s and she rocketed halfway to the moon.

Frustrated, she teleported back to the ground.

“Come along, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight rose, shaking off her cape.

“But where are we going?”

“Into the Everfree, of course.”

“Oh, do have fun!” Discord called. Luna pointedly ignored him.

She walked faster than necessary, and Twilight struggled to keep up. Luna didn’t care or notice, Discord was a personal foe of hers. She cared just as much about smacking him in the face as helping her sister’s pupil with her nightmare. So to the Everfree it was.

“But why?”

She stopped, and stared.She had spoken? either way, she would have thought Twilight could have figured it out.

“We’re getting the elements. We can’t do any real harm, even if you still had control of the elements. But we can banish him from this dream.”

Twilight nodded, her eyes suddenly bright with comprehension.

“I see! The abstract idea of harmony can be used to combat the abstact manifestation of my fears as Discord!”

“Not quite, Twilight Sparkle. This is no abstract manifestation of Discord. Discord and nightmares have a long relationship.”

Twilight looked more confused than ever, but Luna used a little distance-bending so the were ‘conveniently’ with her friends.

Luna nodded at Twilight.

“You know what to do.”

And with that, she rocketed up into the sky. She watched from above as the six mares found the element, and zapped Discord back to his… Wherever he lived.
With a smirk, Luna flew out of the dream.

**2**
Immediately, she had to put that to use.. She was in an endless expanse of sky, as most dream skies were. The sun’s final rays shone from behind the horizon, shedding the only light into the otherwise complete darkness.

The only sign of the dream’s subject was a blazing trail of rainbow.

Immediately Luna took off, faster. She had held the title as the best flyer in equestria before her banishment, and thought she still did until she met Rainbow Dash. Even without the added magic that came from being an alicorn, Rainbow Dash was able to put all she possesed into her flying in a way she had hardly ever seen.

And she was doing it now, heading straight down.

Luna knew that she could ever hope to catch the pegasus, she was obviously chasing something. If Rainbow had her way, she would keep chasing until she woke up, her heart pounding and fearing for whoever was falling.

So she employed the one feat she could pull off that Rainbow, or anypony else, ever, could: Mid-Flight teleportation.

She folded her limbs in, but kept her wings out and going as fast as she could, and let her horn flare up. In the dream-like state that was mid-teleport, she held onto one thought: Keep flying.

With a pop she landed next to Rainbow, and she immediately struggled to keep up.

“Rainbow Dash! You must stop!” She screamed, the wind tearing her voice away.

Rainbow Dash flicked her eyes back to the Princess, then looked back ahead.

“Can’t. Gotta… Gotta catch her.”

“Who?” Luna asked.

Rainbow just ignored her, and Luna came to the only logical conclusion: Rainbow didn’t know. These dreams were the worst, you could go and go and go and never get what you were after.

Luna grabbed the pegasus with her magic and brought them to aa cloud.

Rainbow kicked and struggled, and screamed at Luna.

“Let go of me! She’ll die! Stop being a feathering idiot!”

Luna sat calmly, letting the pegasus wear herself out. When the yelling stopped and the struggles slowed, Luna spoke.

“Rainbow Dash, who were you chasing?”

“It doesn’t matter, she’s dead now.”

Luna spread her wings to their full span, and utilized the tiniest bit of The Royal Canterlot Voice.

“Rainbow Dash. Who. Were. You. Chasing.”

The pegasus dropped her head, and let er wings finally fold down by her sides. She crumbled a bit as she spoke.

“I… I don’t know. Nopony, I guess.”

Luna relaxed a bit, dropping back into a normal posture.

“Just as I suspected. Do you have this dream often?”

“They… They stated after the best young flyer competition. First it was Rarity. Then they went away for a while. Then, after that one camping trip, it was Scootaloo. Then after the incident with Lightning Dust, it was all my friends. Now it’s just… I don’t know. But I always know it’s important.”

Luna nodded.

“Rainbow Dash, when I was younger, had a pet turtle. He was an adorable thing, fairly small and green… But he loved to walk. One day we were out in the garden and he walked, and I followed him, but he walked right into the lake. I was afraid, I thought he had drowned! But my sister explained to me that little Terrapen could take care of himself. Do you see what I am trying to tell you?”

She turned to the pegasus who shook her head.

Luna sighed. “What I am trying to say is, though it felt like I couldn’t rescue him, I could. I could levitate him out, or something. But he didn’t need to be saved. You are a wonderful friend, and I’m sure if your friends needed saving, you could. But they are capable of handling themselves.”

Rainbow nodded, slowly.

“So, I need to have more confidence, in myself and others?”

“Yes, I belive that would help.”

With that, Rainbow cracked up.

“Who would have thought Rainbow Dash, the awesome-and-she-knows-it pegasus, would need more confidence!”

Luna broke into a nervous chuckle.

“Ahem, mainly in others, Rainbow.”

“Yeah, I guess. Hay, I’m a faster flyer than you,what do I have to worry about?”

Luna stared straight into the pegasus’s eyes, and unfurled her wings.
“It. Is. On.”

Author's Note

I had to include the cane.