Princess Luna rested her head against one of the cool marble pillars of Canterlot Castle. A small migrane, born out of exhaustion and exertion, was forming in her head. She took comfort in the fact that it wasn’t nearly as bad as the one last night. Even so, she sighed loudly and pressed her head deeper into the cooling stone.
Raising the moon was a much harder task than she remembered.
“Luna?” a soft voice called out to her. The Princess of the Night turned to see her sister walk around the corner, a look of concern on her face.
“Hello, Celestia,” Luna said. She was still not comfortable using the childhood nickname “Tia” that her big sister had once loved going by. It had only been a week after her banishment had ended; things were still getting back to normal. At least, that was what Luna kept telling herself. Her sister had been fairly distant since her return.
“Are you all right?” Princess Celestia asked. The white alicorn lowered herself to her knees, wanting to be eye level with her younger sister.
“I’m fine,” Luna insisted. “The headache is already fading.”
It was a lie; her head was still viciously throbbing. Luna only said that to make Celestia feel better, and it worked. Her sister smiled.
“That’s a relief. Don’t worry though, raising the moon will get easier once you’ve returned to your usual self. Perhaps it would be best if you got some rest.”
Luna nodded, fully aware of this. She had yet to regain all of her power since being freed from Nightmare Moon. She had also yet to grow back into her true form as a matter of fact.
Since returning, Luna had grown several inches, and her azure mane had lengthened, but she was a far cry from what she once was. Her hair had yet to flow and sparkle in a manner similar to her older sister’s, and her coat still needed to become many shades darker. Still, she was taller than even the most above average pony – at least enough to fit into her old regal attire.
“Actually, Celestia…” Luna allowed herself to trail off, not sure if it was appropriate to ask quite yet.
“What is it, Luna?” Princess Celestia asked.
“I was wondering if you would allow me to begin managing the Dreamscape again,” she asked.
Celestia’s face brightened, which wasn’t entirely the reaction Luna had expected. “Of course, Luna. That would be great!”
Her eyes widened. “Really?” Luna had though her sister would want to wait a little longer before relinquishing such a responsibility.
“Yes, of course,” Celestia merrily said. “You have absolutely no idea how taxing it is to handle the Dreamscape every night and politics everyday, Lulu.”
That last spoken word slipped out before Celestia knew what she said. The two paused briefly. Luna was shocked to hear her sister use her childhood nickname. Does this mean we’re finally… back to normal? Or was it just a slip of the tongue?
“I’m just happy to get back to work… Tia,” Luna replied, testing the waters. Her older sister smiled widely. For Celestia, hearing that name after nearly a thousand years was a fantastic feeling.
Princess Celestia hugged Luna out of the blue, eliciting a small squeak of surprise from the younger alicorn. It took her a moment to get over the shock and hug her sister back.
Maybe things are getting back to normal, Luna decided.
“Well, I’m exhausted,” Celestia declared. “Enjoy poking around the Dreamscape, Lulu. If you need me, I’ll be taking my first legitimate sleep in a thousand years.”
They parted, Celestia waving good-bye and disappearing around the corner again. Luna made her way to her bedchambers, excitement causing a skip in her step. She hadn’t been in the Dreamscape in a millennium, and was more than anxious to see what had become of it.
Eagerly, Luna magically tossed open the doors to her room. Pausing, she surveyed the large quarters that her sister had bequeathed to her nearly a week ago. It still felt weird. Luna had expected to return to their old castle after the Elements of Harmony had freed her, so she had been a little disappointed with Celestia had informed her of the change in locale. Still, it's not like having a larger castle was a bad thing.
The blue alicorn ensconced herself into her bed, and with a flick of her horn had the covers settle over her. Their warmth had Luna feel herself nodding off in no time.
In an instant, her body seemed to melt away. Her mind ascended to the Dreamscape. This was a feeling she hadn’t experienced in a long time. She lost touch with each and every part of her body simultaneously.
It was a swift, fluid transition, but as she entered the Dreamscape, she felt a stinging sensation all over her. The realm of dreams was rejecting her as a foreigner.
No, she told it. I am no stranger to you. She projected thoughts and memories into the Dreamscape, reminding it of who she was. Luna was the Princess of the Night, and therefore the monarch of dreams. Tia manages Equestria just fine, but the Dreamscape is my kingdom.
The stinging pain went away as the Dreamscape remembered her. Her mind was welcomed as if she were a hero returning from exile. In a way, that was not too far from the truth.
Now that she had arrived, Luna formed herself in the dream. Her mind reconstructed her alicorn body. Legs first, then torso, neck, head, and finally mane. It was a slow process; she was out of practice.
Eventually she was able to open her new eyes, finally allowed to view her beloved kingdom.
“Wow,” she whispered. “What a dump.”
The years under Celestia’s maintenance had not been kind to her beloved Dreamscape. The realm was so dim it was almost hard to see the state of disrepair. The realm was quite literally falling apart at the seams, with little tears decorating the sky. The ground was barren and dull, particles of dust clung to the air.
“All we’re missing is some tumbleweed.” Luna muttered to herself.
A mass of dried plants rolled across her field of vision. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight.
I must be more careful about what I say here, she remembered. The Dreamscape might mistake anything for a command.
Luna craned her neck around, seeing the tumbleweed she inadvertently created fade into the background. Not much further from that, there was a towering mass of glowing orbs.
“Dreams,” Luna whispered.
Unfurling her wings, the Princess of the Night took off, flying towards the tower. She didn’t need to fly in the Dreamscape. She could have just as easily teleported towards the tower, or brought it to her. Luna just preferred flying.
As she approached the structure of glowing white orbs, Luna found herself wondering how exactly they had come to be like this.
Tia, Luna decided. It had to have been her. She sighed, confused as to why her sister preferred to make things so organized. It took out all the fun out of being in the Dreamscape.
The tower stretched up for miles, each orb representing a single dream of each of Equestria’s denizens. Most were a pearly white; a few were a scarred with a blackish-red color.
Nightmares.
Luna would rectify each tarnished dream, but first she had to set things right in her kingdom. She spoke a simple command, asking it to return to the way she remembered it. The realm complied with her will. The orbs of light in front of her began a to slowly float away from the tower, rising up and off to the distance. Only a small portion stayed nearby.
At Luna’s command, buildings began forming out of the void of the Dreamscape, melting into existence seamlessly. They ranged in size from a humble one floor abode to towering sky scrapers that reached up to Luna’s hover height. The structures finally ceased appearing, each and every one of them sporting a nice blue aura.
The alicorn princess breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was just as she remembered it. The remaining orbs spread out, each fazing into the walls of the buildings. When they finished, Luna smiled.
She had just re-created Canterlot from memory. If everything was exactly as she had instructed the Dreamscape, every orb should be floating in the bedroom of the pony experiencing the dream.
Just like it had been a millennium ago.
Luna swooped through the streets with a grin on her face. The nostalgic feeling of hunting down bad dreams was fairly powerful, making he giddy with excitement.
Her first glimpse of a nightmare came shortly. A building in a relatively wealthy district of her microcosm of Canterlot was glowing red, unlike the many blue buildings surrounding it.
Here we go, she thought happily, swooping over to the building. Her body phased through the walls of the building, landing her directly in the room of the nightmare.
She paused, studying the glowing orb in front of her. It had many red scars on it, letting Luna know that this was a reoccurring nightmare for the foal.
I’ll have to solve this one immediately, Luna though to herself. Normally she would take the time to observe the pony and their nightmares for at least a night to see just what was afflicting their sleep. This was done partially to make sure Luna didn’t waste her time on a one-night dream, but also so she could take the time to fully understand the pony’s problem and offer a solution. After all, most nightmares were really just carried over worries from the waking hours.
Gingerly, the blue alicorn touched the orb with her hoof. The sensation that followed was one she had almost forgotten.
Memories, thoughts, and emotions whipped around in her mind, a veritable maelstrom of knowledge about the pony whose mind she was entering. As the rush subsided, Luna selected the only information she would need and brushed the rest aside. The pony was a filly named Firelock. She was only eight years old, and had been having the same nightmare everyday for the past week.
When her eyes opened, Luna was immediately able to see why this dream was a nightmare.
She was in a long, cold corridor comprised of wet, loosely held together stones. The lambent glow of a few musty torches prevented the entire hallway from being pitch dark. Coating everything from the floor to the ceiling were giant spider webs.
Luna’s eyes widened as she saw them. Giant webs tend to mean giant spiders, she thought. Flipping through Firelock’s fears, Luna found something she had in common with the filly: discontent for those eight-legged fiends.
“Help me!” A voice cried out in fear. Luna’s head jerked away from looking at the webs. The voice belongs to Firelock, and she wasn’t that far away.
Luna started running, but almost immediately her hoof was ensnared on one of the many webs decorating the corridor. She struggled, but could not disentangle herself. Instinctively, she fired a beam of magic at it. Well… she tried to.
“Buck,” Luna said to herself. She of all ponies should have remembered magic could not be called upon in dreams.
“Somepony please help me!” Firelock’s frightened voice cried out again.
Gritting her teeth, Luna concentrated. Using her control of the Dreamscape, she forced the webs to loosen and unravel, freeing her hoof. For a moment, the Princess of the Night was disappointed with herself for being so out of practice. Then another tormented cry for help forced her to regain her focus.
She tore through the corridor, trying to locate the victim of the nightmare. It didn’t take long. Firelock’s terrified screams acted as a beacon for Luna. She also had a fairly good idea as to what was causing them.
The corridor stretched on for what seemed like forever, but Luna saw a dead end fast approaching, and it wasn’t empty.
Firelock was backed into a corner, terror plastered onto her face. Surrounding her were four of the largest spiders Luna had ever seen. They were massive even by nightmare standards. Had they been real, they’d have towered over her sister easily. The beast began closing in on the orange filly.
“This has gone on long enough!” Luna decreed loudly. Exerting her will on the Dreamscape, she fazed the monster spiders out of existence. Firelock’s jaw slid open in shock. Luna walked over to the small filly, who was still shaking with fright.
“W-who are you?” She asked, her red mane covering a large portion of her face.
Luna sat down in order to be near eye-level with Firelock. “My name is Princess Luna,” she said, brushing the mane out of the filly’s eyes. “I’m here to help.”
Three other nightmares plagued the fillies and colts of Canterlot that night. After a long discussion with Firelock – which admittedly made her feel more like a therapist rather than a Princess of Dreams – Luna had gotten back to the hunt.
The remaining nightmares were nowhere near as bad as the young filly’s had been. Luna had been able to handle them with a flick of her hoof. Now she was soaring out of the model of Canterlot. There were plenty of other cities to cover before it was time to lower the moon. Luckily, her internal clock told her it was still early into the night.
Now, where to go… Luna mused. Regrettably, she had yet to become well acquainted with a map of Equestria since her return. A lot could change in a thousand years, and this left her unsure of just how many towns and cities she had yet to visit. In fact, only one came to mind.
“Ponyville it is,” she said to herself. It was really her only option at this point. The town had been the only place besides Canterlot she had been to. Once there she could find somepony willing to give her a crash course in geography. Perhaps Twilight Sparkle; she seemed like the type to have knowledge on those sorts of things.
Her flight was invariably short. One of the many benefits of controlling the Dreamscape was being able to travel long distances in mere seconds. She could have teleported herself there, but it just wasn't the same. Flying wasn’t something she had been able to do a lot of in the past week.
The rural town came into view, glowing the blue aura of benign dreaming. Luna almost considered skipping over the town upon seeing how non-nightmarish everything appeared to be from her bird’s eye view. The thought was pushed out of her head. It was her duty as Princess of Dreams to be thorough.
Even though she had barely spent a morning in Ponyville, the Dreamscape had done a remarkable job reconstructing it, likely drawing on memories from ponies who were dreaming as well as her own.
Without a clear direction in mind, Luna chose what appeared to be Main Street and wandered down it. Every house she saw had that soft, blue glow to it, letting her know that there were no nightmares to be found. As boring as it was, Luna walked down a few more streets. It was all the same.
Perhaps I should just visit Twilight now, Luna thought. It’s clear that no ponies here will be having nightmares tonight.
She knew her sister’s pupil was living in the town’s library, so Luna focused her attention to finding it. It took longer than expected. Now that she had a specific destination in mind, she found Ponyville to be far more labyrinthine than before. The princess found herself lost after only a few more turns.
About to give up and simply teleport to Twilight’s dream, something captured her attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that one of the blue glowing buildings wasn’t blue at all. It was actually a very deep green.
Luna stared, transfixed. A green glow meant a lucid dream. Blinking, Luna took a step closer, forgetting her goal of visiting Twilight Sparkle. A lucid dream was far more interesting.
To be aware that one was dreaming, and control what happened in it. It was something Luna had not seen in a very long time. Even before her banishment it was rare to find a lucid dream.
Curiosity began to gnaw at her. She knew intruding upon a pony’s dreams was usually unwelcome unless she was fixing a nightmare, but the chance to enter a lucid dream was just too great to pass up however.
Walking slowly towards the modest home that housed the lucid dreamer, Luna didn’t even blink. She passed through the walls, and made her way quickly to the source of the deep green glow.
The dream orb was resting in the dead center of the pony’s bedroom. Luna eyed it anxiously.
“Just take a look around,” she told herself softly, hoof already outstretched to touch the orb. “Don’t change anything, and certainly don’t let the dreamer know you’re there.”
Her hoof brushed against the orb, and a chilling rush took over. All the information pertaining to the dreamer flashed by, but Luna ignored it. She didn’t need to know anything about this pony.
Her eyes opened in the dream, and she was immediately confused. It was a bedroom. Luna scrutinized it, and saw that it was identical to the bedroom that modeled the one she was just in, just less green and lacking the giant glowing orb in the middle.
That’s odd, Luna thought. Why would somepony with the power to do anything merely recreate their own bedroom?
Movement caught her eye. Glancing over, Luna saw the covers of the bed were moving. More precisely, the two ponies under the covers were moving. A barely audible moan was uttered. Her blue cheeks ignited red as Luna realized exactly what kind of dream she was in.
She would’ve have left right then and there, but unfortunately embarrassment paralyzed her body. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. Luna’s cheeks burned, showing her shame of being an interloper in this very intimate moment.
The ponies on the bed rolled over, knocking the covers out of the way and exposing themselves to Luna obliviously. She hadn’t foreseen the action and was too late to look away. What she saw lying on the bed disturbed her greatly.
It was her.
Luna’s ice blue eyes were staring at herself lying on the bed. She was wrapped in an tight embrace with a mint-colored unicorn who must’ve been the dreamer. The Luna on the bed was preforming very un-princess like actions with her mouth and the minty mare’s horn. The Luna watching was disturbed by the large amounts of saliva cascading over the two of them. The green pony was nibbling delicately on the other Luna’s neck, moaning pleasurably as she did so. She shivered when the Luna on the bed thrust the horn deeper into her throat.
It’s a dreamed up version of me, she realized slowly. Then blind fury took hold.
“WHAT DOST THOU THINK THOU IS DOING TO US?” She screamed, rage causing her to slip into the Royal Canterlot Voice. It would have appeared much more regal if she had been her usual self, but it worked nonetheless.
The green mare’s eyes popped open, golden irises shrunken with shock. Her lips left the dream Luna’s neck and she rolled off the edge of the bed. Her back made a thumping sound as it hit the ground.
“Oof!” The unicorn exclaimed. Luna allowed a few snippets of memory to tell her the name of the pony in front of her. It was Lyra Heartstrings.
“Oh, sweetheart,” the dream Luna said, reaching down and twirling the green mane of Lyra. “You didn’t tell me you were making this a threesome.”
Lyra rubbed her head, sitting up. “To be honest, I didn’t tell myself.” She turned to face the real Luna. “So you going to join in or what?”
Princess Luna recoiled as if she had been slapped. “HOW DARE THOU SUGGEST SUCH A THING! WE ARE THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT, IN THE FLESH!”
“Uh huh,” Lyra said, scooting back into the bed. “So is this one,” she said, indicating the dream Luna. The figment alicorn blushed and giggled like a school filly. Luna wanted to throw up just watching it. “Come on, hop in. Here, I’ll even make the bed bigger for you.”
The double bed expanded, just as Lyra finished talking. If Luna wasn’t so enraged, she would have been impressed at the seamless level of dream control. A green hoof patted to open spot, expecting Luna to jump in eagerly
“WE ARE NO FIGMENT OF THOU’S DREAM, LYRA HEARTSTRINGS. WE TRULY ARE THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!”
To prove it, Luna outstretched her hoof, and willed the bed to move. It floated into the air. With a nod of her head, Luna caused the bed to rotate a hundred and eighty degrees. Lyra and the imposter Luna fell the floor, each screaming to some extent. As a final trick, Luna stuck the bed to the ceiling. Lyra’s head whipped from her bed to the pony controlling it.
“Oh no…” Lyra whispered, her pupils the size of peas. The dream Luna looked confused.
“Uh… are we still going to have sex?” The blue alicorn innocently asked.
With a snort of disgust, Luna evaporated her lustful counterpart on the spot. Lyra flinched at the suddenness of it. The green mare nervously glanced up at Luna, biting her lip.
“THOU HAST MADE A MOCKERY OF US!” Luna bellowed, adding a little lightning in the background for dramatic flare. “THOU HAST SOILED OUR IMAGE WITH UNPLEASANTNESS!”
“I’m sorry,” Lyra whimpered, backing up. Luna took a few steps forward, happily gaining ground. “I… I didn’t mean it like that! I swear!”
“THOU DIDN’T MEAN TO MAKE SASSY MOMENTS WITH US UNDERNEATH THE COVERS OF THINE BED?” Luna asked. She meant for it to be sarcastic, but the Royal Canterlot Voice didn’t really allow for that kind of tone. The mare backed up again.
“No… well, I suppose I did… But I swear I didn’t mean any harm in it!” Lyra said in a panic. Her back was against the wall now.
“THEN EXPLAIN TO US WHAT THOU DID INTEND BY COMMITING SUCH BLASPHEMY!”
“Oh crap, please don’t banish me to the moon!” Lyra screeched suddenly. The green mare threw herself to the floor, practically crying. Luna’s rage dissipated into surprise and horror. How could the mare think such a thing? Sure, she was mad, but banishment-to-the-moon mad? What kind of reputation did princesses have among the citizens?
“I… I'm not going to banish you,” Luna assured the weeping mare, unintentionally dropping the Royal Canterlot Voice.
Lyra sniffled. “You’re not?”
“No, I…” Luna stopped, realizing she was speaking normally. “NO, WE HAVE NO PLANS TO BANISH THOU, LYRA. NOW TELL US WHAT THOU MEANT TO ACCOMPLISH BY COMMITING SUCH AN ACT!”
Lyra whimpered, still frightened. Luna couldn’t quite understand why the unicorn mare before her was acting so terrified around her. Sure, she should feel guilty about what she did, but this was a whole other level. For ponies sake, she thought Luna was going to banish her to the moon! Ridiculous.
“SPEAK!” Luna demanded.
“I just… I wanted…” Lyra stumbled over her words. She sighed. “I guess wanted a change of scenery.”
Luna raised an eyebrow, confused. “WHAT DOST THOU MEAN?”
Shakily, Lyra said, “It’s just that… things between Bon Bon and me have gotten really boring lately.”
Luna didn’t recognize the name Bon Bon at first. She quickly took a peak inside Lyra’s memories so she could understand. What she learned was unnerving.
“THOU HAST A MAREFRIEND?” She exclaimed. Lyra nodded weakly. “AND THOU STILL ATTEMPTED TO MAKE LOVE TO US IN A DREAM?”
“Y-yes,” Lyra admitted.
“THOU FELT NO SHAME IN SUCH A DISHONEST ACT?” Luna shouted.
“It was just a dream,” Lyra said in a poor attempt to justify her actions. “There was no way Bonnie could’ve known. Besides it’s not like I actually cheated on her.”
Luna narrowed her eyes in a disapproving stare. “PERHAPS WE SHOULD FIND THIS BON BON AND SEE WHAT SHE THINKS OF THIS.”
Lyra’s golden eyes bulged in panic. She threw herself to the ground, groveling. “No, please don’t! She’ll be so upset. I can’t lose her, please…”
Her eyebrow was raised inquisitively. “DID THOU NOT JUST SAY THOU WAS BORED OF THIS BON BON?”
“No, I’m not bored of her. It’s just our relationship has been… well… stagnant. Look, I know you're really pissed – er, mad – at me right now, but please don’t tell Bonnie. I… I don’t want to hurt her.”
Luna snorted derisively. She was about to summon enough power to transport Bon Bon into the dream and expose Lyra, but she hesitated. As angry as she was, Luna could not forget her job. She was supposed to fix problems with dreams, not create them.
“All right,” she said, dropping the Royal Canterlot Voice on purpose. “I won’t tell Bon Bon about this.”
Lyra let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I’m glad you’re not mad anymore.”
“Oh no, I’m still very mad,” Luna said bluntly.
“What?” Lyra asked. “But you stopped shouting.”
Luna chuckled slightly. This mare was acting like she had never heard the Royal Canterlot Voice before. “That wasn’t shouting.”
Lyra looked dejectedly at the floor. Her sadness impacted her dream negatively, causing the bright and cheery bedroom to become dimly lit. “So, if you're still mad, then what are you going to do to me?” Lyra asked.
“I’m going to help you,” Luna said. The green mare’s head perked up, full of confusion. “It’s obvious to me that something else is going on. Something more than just you getting bored of your marefriend.”
“B-but why?” Lyra stuttered. “Why would you help me after I… uh… tried to violate you in a dream?”
“As Princess of the Night it is my duty to help ponies resolve problems they may be having while dreaming,” she said. “While in your case it may be a bit of a stretch, I’m still willing to try.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Lyra said gratefully. Whether she was grateful for the help or grateful that she wasn’t about to be punished, Luna wasn’t sure. “So… how do we begin?”
Luna put a hoof to her chin, giving it some thought. “I need to know more about you and Bon Bon. Take me to the time when you two first met.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” Lyra asked.
“We’re in a lucid dream,” Luna replied. “Just start remembering it and I can bring us there.”
“Oh, okay,” Lyra said. “Well… it was a sunny day…”
It was a sunny day in Ponyville. Too sunny. The pegasi had wasted too many clouds on a storm the previous day, leaving this one to be unbearably hot. Overzealous rays of sunshine beat down on the back of one filly in particular.
Lyra Heartstrings had been stuck outside for nearly two hours, and her green coat was beginning to get tinted red with sunburn. She sat on a park bench, dismally clutching her lyre. She should’ve been at home. Lyra preferred to be indoors, but today she was out of luck. After returning home from school the young filly had found her front door locked. Her mother was out doing Celestia knows what, and had forgotten to leave the house open for her only daughter.
Since she was trapped outside with nothing to do, Lyra had taken her instrument to the park, hoping to play softly to herself for a few hours. Unfortunately, the heat was making it impossible. Her hooves were too sweaty to play the elegant instrument, and she was too inexperienced with magic to play that way. She only held onto it now because it was like a security blanket. Lyra never went anywhere without her lyre. It was the one possession that she really cared about. With little else to occupy her, Lyra sat pouting on the bench doing nothing but getting new sunburns.
Another filly walked by after some time had passed. She had a cream colored coat, with a mane that had swirls of dark blue and pink. Hanging on her face was probably the dorkiest pair of azure glasses that Lyra had ever seen, and her yellow saddle-bag was bulging, however the contents were a mystery. Lyra felt like this filly was familiar to her, but she couldn’t quite place how she knew her.
The vaguely recognizable filly stopped when she saw Lyra sitting on the bench.
“Umm… hi,” the filly said to her. Lyra scrunched up her face. She wasn’t in the mood for conversation.
“Hello,” she reluctantly said. “Do I know you?”
“I don’t think we’ve been introduced yet,” the filly said. “My name’s Bon Bon. We go to school together.” Her white hoof outstretched toward Lyra. She shook it.
“Lyra,” she curtly said. Her memory of Bon Bon was slowly being pieced together. She did go to school with Lyra, but while Bon Bon sat at the front of the class Lyra preferred to be in the back. No wonder they had never met before.
“Why are you so depressed, Lyra?” Bon Bon inquired.
“I’m not depressed,” Lyra said defensively.
“Really?” Bon Bon pointedly asked. “You’re sitting alone on a park bench, holding you’re harp thingy like there’s no tomorrow.”
“It’s a lyre,” she said heatedly. It annoyed her when ponies confused her instrument with something else. “And I’m not depressed. Just bored.”
“Oh,” Bon Bon replied. The white filly seemed to mull something over for a moment. “Well… do you want to hang out?”
“What?” Lyra asked, surprised. “You want to hang out with me?”
“Sure,” Bon Bon said. “I know how boring being bored is. Come on, it could be fun.”
“I dunno,” Lyra said, voice dripping with ambivalence. It would be nice to get out of the sun, but she hardly knew Bon Bon. What if they had nothing to say to each other? “What did you have in mind?”
“I was about to go home and try out this new candy recipe,” Bon Bon said. Lyra’s stomach rumbled.
“Candy?” She asked, suddenly paying more attention.
“Yeah,” Bon Bon replied, reaching into her saddlebag and withdrawing some of its contents. She held out her hoof to reveal three pieces of candy, wrapped individually in small blue wrappers. “I usually make a lot. More than I could ever eat alone.” She patted her saddlebags, no doubt bulging because of all the treats they carried.
“I guess it couldn’t hurt to hang out,” Lyra said, the promise of sweets sealing the deal for her. She hopped of the bench with restrained eagerness.
Bon Bon smiled. “Great.” The two fillies began walking to her house, Lyra keeping a smile the entire way.
“Wow,” Luna said as the memory receded back to the depths of Lyra’s conscious. “It seems you two were destined to be friends from the start.”
“Yeah, we were.” Lyra smiled. “I botched up the candy recipe pretty badly later that day. Long story short we ended up covered in food dye and syrup. I thought she was going to be so pissed, but she just ended up laughing. Even invited me back the next day.”
Luna nodded, scrutinizing Lyra. The green mare acted totally different whenever she talked about Bon Bon. She acted happy.
“Bonnie and I became really close, really fast,” Lyra said, continuing. “Whenever my mom wasn’t home I just went over to Bonnie’s. It got to the point where I could walk in unannounced and nopony would think it was weird. I was practically living there at one point.” Luna noticed Lyra’s smile drop. “My mom was… never really around. She was always busy, and if I asked her where she was her reply was always ‘at work’. Funny thing was, I didn’t even know what ‘work’ was. She never told me anything. So I returned the favor. We were… pretty distant by the time I finally moved out.”
Luna could tell they were diving into a territory that made Lyra upset. It was also steering them away from the problem she was trying to fix. Time for some course correction.
“Tell me more about you and Bon Bon. What sort of stuff did the two of you do together?”
Lyra’s smile reappeared. “We did everything together. So much so that if I did anything by myself, like go to the market, ponies would come up to me asking ‘Hey Lyra, where’s Bon Bon?’ and the same thing happened to her. I was there when she got her Cutie Mark – candy making if that wasn’t already obvious – and she was there when I got mine. She even helped me through my first real break-up…”
Luna could feel another memory of Lyra’s tugging at her. It felt important. It slowly shimmered into view as both of them quieted down, prepared to watch.
A crack of lightning split the stormy sky as Lyra trudged home. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but luckily nopony could tell through all of the rain. Her hooves were getting caked with mud, but she really couldn’t care less.
Soon, but not soon enough, the tenant complex stumbled into view. Miserably, Lyra went in and headed to the apartment she shared with Bon Bon, silently praying her roommate wasn’t home. She couldn’t stand to talk to anypony right now.
Her golden magic flicked the knob open, and she found it unlocked. Lyra frowned slightly, realizing Bon Bon was home. She decided to just rush to her room, hoping not to attract too much attention. The door opened and she walked in.
Bon Bon was standing up at the kitchen counter; head bent down inspecting what could only be another candy experiment. When she heard to door open, she turned to greet her best friend.
“Hey Lyra, did you want to try-”
“I’ll be in my room,” Lyra cut her friend off. She took the few steps through the small apartment – tracking mud the whole way – to a slightly ajar door. It was magically pushed open and then unintentionally slammed behind her.
Bon Bon was struck with confusion. Lyra was never that rude, especially to her. Something was wrong. The white mare took off her well-worn apron, leaving her candy unfinished, and walked over to Lyra’s door. Gently, she tapped it a few times.
“Lyra, what’s the matter?” Bon Bon asked.
“Go away, Bon Bon. I… Nothing’s the matter.” Lyra mumbled from behind the door.
Knowing this wasn’t the case Bon Bon pushed the door open. She found her friend soaked to the bone, lying face down on the bed. One hoof was holding her lyre, which she had probably grabbed instinctively, in need of some comfort.
“Lyra!” Bon Bon scolded. “You’ll ruin your bedsheets.” Lyra made a farting noise with her mouth, head still buried in the covers. Bon Bon rolled her eyes. “What’s going on with you? Did your date go bad?”
The green mare rolled her head around so one plastered red eye was visible. “Bad? It was bucking horrible!”
Bon Bon gave an empathetic glance, and patted her friend on the back. “Oh don’t worry; the next one will be better.”
“There won’t be a next one!” Lyra exploded. “Vinyl dumped me.”
This surprised Bon Bon. “What? Why would she do that?”
Lyra shut her eye, trying not to let anymore tears slip out. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Bon Bon sat on the bed next to Lyra. “So you just want to sit here and wallow in your own…” she brushed away some of the mud Lyra had brought in. “…filth?”
Lyra nodded into the damp sheets of the bed.
“Come on, Lyra, it might help to talk about it. I promise it’ll make you feel better.”
Lyra sighed into the bed. “Fine.”
“So what happened?”
“Remember how Vinyl got all those gigs in Manehattan?” Lyra asked. Bon Bon nodded. “Well, turns out she lied to me. She only went up there because she had met some cellist in the Manehattan Philhamonic, and uh… they weren’t just friends.”
“She was cheating on you?” Bon Bon said in shock.
“For damn near two months,” Lyra choked on a sob. “I can’t believe I let myself care about her. That was so stupid of me.”
“Lyra don’t say that,” her best friend consoled. “It’s not stupid to care about other ponies.”
The green mare sighed. “Says the mare who’s never had a broken heart.”
“Lyra,” Bon Bon tsked. “Your heart isn’t broken. You just need a little pick-me-up. Come on.” Her friend lifted her up from the bed, and began dragging her into the kitchen.
“What are you doing?” Lyra mumbled, stumbling along awkwardly.
“We are going to do the one thing all best friends do after one of them goes through a particularly nasty break-up,” Bon Bon declared. “Eat tons of junk food and talk smack about our exes.”
Lyra gave a half-hearted grin. “Sounds nice.”
“It was nice,” Lyra said as the flashback ended. “We scarfed down so much candy that I threw up. Bonnie also indulged in a little bit of swearing, which was hilarious cause she had no idea what she was doing. It was one of the best nights ever, all things considered.”
“I see,” Luna said. She noticed that grin was back on Lyra’s face. Luna was slowly forming a theory, and decided now was a good time to test it. “So tell me about this Vinyl. Who is she?”
The smile dropped. “Eh, I met her at this dance club one night. She was DJing, but afterwards I bumped into her and we started talking. One thing led to another and we ended up sharing a coffee. She was pretty gutsy and asked for a second date. I admit at the time I was kind of infatuated by her, though she’s nothing compared to Bonnie. I really can’t believe I wasted three months with her.”
Luna nodded along. “I am also curious, what happened to Bon Bon’s glasses?”
Lyra looked at her. “That’s a pretty out of nowhere subject change.”
Luna shrugged. “I said I was curious.” Lyra relented, thinking nothing of it
“Well, she had actually just gotten rid of them earlier that week,” The smile was back. “She went to see an optometrist and learned about these new things called contacts. I don’t know all the specifics but basically she didn’t have to wear her glasses anymore. Honestly, I kinda missed them at first. They just made her look adorably dorky. After I got over that I… well I was shocked. She looked really beautiful. I can’t believe I didn’t say that to her the day she got them off.”
The Princess of the Night was only half listening to Lyra speak. She was focusing more effort to decode the unicorn’s mannerisms. Everything about Lyra seemed to change when she talked about Bon Bon. She stopped fidgeting, got a warm look in her eye, and – of course – smiled a great deal more.
“So when did the two of you decide to start a romantic relationship?” Luna asked.
Lyra put on a thinking face for a moment. “We never really decided it. It just sort of happened. I don’t even think we’ve said that we’re marefriends to each other.”
Luna raised an eyebrow to this. “Well, what was the moment that really defined it… for you at least?”
Lyra smiled fondly. “That’s an easy one.”
Another memory tugged at Luna, and she brought it into full display.
The heater in the apartment was broken beyond repair. It would’ve just been broken, but Lyra had insisted upon trying to fix it herself as opposed to calling a mechanic. That’s why it was broken beyond repair.
To make up for their lack of a heater, the mares had utilized the small fire place the apartment had provided but they had never needed. The blaze that began was modest, needing only two logs to sustain it. While it barely kept either of them warm, it did provide a nice atmosphere.
Both mares were staying up late. Lyra tuning her instrument, and Bon Bon wrapped up in a sappy romance novel. They sat on opposite ends of the couch. Bon Bon was sitting like a pony normally would, lying down with all four legs brought close to her body. Lyra, on the other hoof, was sitting like Lyra normally would, with her plot on the couch, two hooves reaching down to touch the floor, and her back snaking upward.
She always found sitting like that more comfortable, despite the weird looks other ponies gave her. Bon Bon never made her feel like it was weird though. She embraced it like she embraced all parts of Lyra.
Her lyre was hovering inches away from her head, and she released a small magical burst to strum the strings in a soft melody. Lyra looked over and saw Bon Bon shiver slightly as she read. The green mare felt stricken with guilt about breaking the heater. She got up suddenly and walked towards her bedroom.
Bon Bon watched her go; assuming Lyra was just going to bed. Lyra wasn’t, however. The mint colored unicorn magically yanked the covers off of her bed, and began levitating them into the pair’s living room. Bon Bon was completely unaware that Lyra had reentered the room, which just made her grin with giddiness.
Lyra hopped over the couch, landing on the cushion near Bon Bon. The warm blankets draped over the both of them seamlessly. Bon Bon was surprised at Lyra’s gesture, but grateful. The white mare nestled her head into Lyra’s neck as a thank you, and continued reading her book that way.
Blood rose to Lyra’s cheeks with Bon Bon’s pink and blue hair right underneath her chin. Luckily, her friend hadn’t seen it, or merciless teasing would have ensued. Reaching out with a gold aura, Lyra grabbed her lyre and levitated it nearby. Now that it was fully tuned, she could play anything on it. She chose a soft, whispering melody that sank into perfect harmony with the crackling fire in front of them.
As she played, Lyra looked down at Bon Bon. Her face was bathed in the orange hue of the fire, making her look even more radiant than usual. Though Lyra hadn’t admitted it to anypony, ever since her break-up with Vinyl two weeks ago she’d started thinking more and more about Bon Bon. The thoughts were just simple observations at first: Noticing her cute giggle, her beautiful mane, eloquent features. Then they quickly grew into something more though: thoughts of snuggling, kissing, and even a few less innocent ones that caused Lyra's blush to deepen.
After doting on these thoughts for days, Lyra began to feel a powerful attraction to her best friend. They’d casually been spending more time together – which given that they lived together was really saying something. Now that they were wrapped up together like this, Lyra felt like she might explode if she didn’t take advantage of the situation.
Her hoof slowly found it’s way across her friend while Lyra sneakily concealed it with a yawn. Bon Bon took immediate notice and turned her head causing Lyra’s incoming lips to collide with Bon Bon’s forehead.
Bon Bon blinked, but did not say anything. Instead, she set her book down. With a smile as wide as the moon, Bon Bon placed both her her forelegs around Lyra. Neither of them needed to speak. They just sat there as Lyra’s lyre and the fire played a warm symphony for them.
They fell asleep like that.
“Are you crying?” Lyra asked Luna as the memory faded.
“What?” Luna exclaimed, brushing a mutinous tear from her face. “No, of course not.”
“Whatever you say, Princess,” Lyra responded wryly. Luna decided now was the time to see if her theory was correct.
“Lyra,” she began. “How could you have gotten bored of that?”
The mint green mare didn’t respond for a long time. Luna materialized a wristwatch, just for the purpose of impatiently checking it.
“I guess… bored was the wrong word for it,” Lyra said, hiding something. Luna wasn’t going to give up.
“Then what is the right word?” She asked. When Lyra didn’t say it, Luna spoke. “Because I think I know it. Afraid.”
“What?” Lyra said. “That’s bulls- er… ridiculous, Princess. I’m not afraid of anything.”
“You’re afraid to have a real relationship with Bon Bon,” Luna countered.
“No,” Lyra said, looking away.
“You’re afraid to love,” Luna said more precisely. “Your mother never gave you the time of day, and your first relationship ended in dishonesty. You don’t want to get hurt, so you’ve spent the past week trying to convince yourself that you don’t love Bon Bon.”
“…”
“Admit it Lyra Heartstrings.”
“No.”
Luna’s eyes narrowed. “WE SAID, ADMIT THOU’S TRUE FEELINGS, LYRA HEARSTRINGS!”
Flinching, the green mare shouted, “All right, fine! You got me. I… I love Bon Bon.” She slumped to the floor. “You’re right, I was trying to hide from it. Last week, when you returned to Equestria, I saw you. After the whole Nightmare Moon thing ended at least.”
Luna sighed, not wanting to be reminded of that now.
“I thought it was the perfect way to prove to myself that I wasn’t in love with Bonnie. If I could just… you know… get it on for another mare, then that must mean I didn’t love her. I tried so hard, but being with that dream version of you just made me feel horrible.”
“But why me?” Luna said. “Surely there were better options.”
“Are you kidding?” Lyra asked. “You’re a flipping Princess. And hot! If anypony could make me not love Bon Bon it would be you. Besides, I would’ve felt too guilty if I tried to do it with a dream version of someone I knew personally. You were just the safest route you know? Sorry.”
“I’ve forgiven you already,” Luna assured her. “But that’s not important right now. You need to tell Bon Bon your true feelings for her.”
“I can’t,” Lyra said drearily. “What if she doesn’t feel the same way? What if I ask her if she loves me, and the answer is no?”
Luna knelt down to be eye level with Lyra, and put a hoof on her shoulder. “I can’t guarantee you that her answer will be yes, but I can guarantee you one thing. If you don’t ask her, the answer will always be no.”
Lyra mulled over the Princess’s words for a moment. “You know what… you’re right. I’m going to tell Bonnie first thing tomorrow!”
“No,” Luna said. “Tell her now. Seize the night, Lyra Heartstrings.” Luna began focusing the Dreamscape’s powers in order to wake up the mare.
Lyra firmly nodded. “Okay. Thank you, Princess.” She began fading out of the dream.
“You're welcome,” Luna said. “Oh, and what more thing.”
“What?” Lyra asked as the process of waking up was almost complete.
“Never try to dream something like this again… or I will tell Bon Bon.”
“Don’t worry,” Lyra said as almost all of her was woken up. “I’ll never dream about something like this ever again.”
Luna offered an encouraging smile as Lyra finally woke up. The Princess of the Night was pushed out of the green mares dream, as it now no longer existed. She exited the dream replica of Lyra’s apartment. The night was still young, and Luna still had a job to do.
Onwards to the next dream.
