Dreamscape Dancing

by Soothing Stone

Rating: everyone
Tags: Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Adventure
Length: 6091

The adventures of Luna as she goes through the dreamscape one night, meeting several ponies in the process.

Luna's favorite royal task is one most people would expect: Her ability to go into ponies' dreams. Helping them out in surreal ways is something that gives her deep satisfaction, and a highlight of the day for her.

But when she finds that nobody needs her help one night, what's there to do for her that night?

To go dancing through the dreamscape, of course. That's not going to stop her from changing a few ponies' lives anyway.

Done for Salnalus' birthday. Happy birthday, Sal.

Cover image by Sion.

Published 2014-07-09 18:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-07-09 18:40:01 UTC

Dreamscape Dancing

Another day, another round of tasks to do.

That summed up Luna’s life for most ponies, noticing that her day consisted of meals, making herself look presentable, and serving Equestria by doing royal chores so important, the country would fall apart if she didn’t do them for one day. At least, not without the bizarre scene of the moon being up at noon.

But she didn’t mind it one bit. She felt important through her chores, knowing that her life served a vital purpose that way. That was more than enough for her to be satisfied.

And she really was satisfied watching the moon rise at her command, taking the place of the sun in the sky as the night began at its scheduled time. The sky dimmed down and the stars came out in the darkness, just as it should be.

But there was no time for her to rest her laurels, for the next royal duty was already here: Looking into the dreams of her subjects.

She went through her bedroom to the balcony outside, gazing at the land outside her doorstep. She could see Ponyville down through the valleys to the south, and Cloudsdale was barely visible to the west. The other major cities, like Las Pegasus and Manehattan, were too far away to see, but she knew them so well that she might have been there in person.

A breeze played with her mane and pushed it in her eyes. She moved them away with a hoof, and it felt like a good night to do her favorite chore of all. It helped that she had a very good day earlier, and she had the energy and passion needed to do this right. It was late enough that the ponies had to be asleep by now.

She closed her eyes and cast a spell, one that made her horn turn into an antenna of sorts. It sent waves throughout Equestria, traveling into the homes of ponies and getting inside their heads. It was a burden on Luna and would make her grow tired the longer it was cast, but she could take it. She was an alicorn after all.

After the magical waves were done with their work, they slowly came back to Luna’s horn and brought their desired effect with them. Her eyes flashed with thousands of images at once, the images of her subjects’ dreams. Even though each dream only had a quarter of a second to present itself, she soaked up every detail and evaluated them closely, to see if they needed her help tonight.

There would usually be a few dozen ponies that required assistance, and fast. Personal issues. Fears. Secrets that were screaming to be set free. Unrequited love expressed in heartbreaking visions.

But there was nothing for her to see that night. Not one problem. Everypony was content or happy, and they didn’t need her help after all. .

That couldn’t be right, she thought. There was always somepony with serious issues that only she could solve. She cast the spell again, double checking her kingdom to see if she missed something the first time. But when the waves came back, the images didn’t change.

Equestria was sleeping soundly that night.

She was astonished to witness such a thing. Nopony was seeing nightmares? Nopony? How could it be? It was so unusual for her to go through this situation that she had no idea what to do with herself.

The princess paced back and forth, curious what she could do now that she knew there was nothing for her to do that night. She wasn’t tired enough for bed when everypony else was, including her dear sister Celestia. Therefore, she couldn’t do anything like attend to tomorrow’s duties or anything like that.

There was one thing she could do, however…

When the thought came to her, she found it to be childish. Something fillies with her powers would do, not a princess that was over a thousand years old. But the idea was tempting all the same. It did sound fun, and came across like a good way to spend the time.

Realizing that there was nothing for her to do that night in the first place, she decided to do it anyways. She just didn’t want to come back to the castle burning down, all because she let her guard down for a couple of hours. But that was unlikely.

She took a deep breath and braced herself to enter the other state of reality. Her horn glowed with a different kind of spell, and the pupils of her eyes gave way to a pure white glow. Her ears exploded with sound, as if she was trapped inside a supernatural engine. The world spinned around her, and she could feel the rest that came with sleep…

She opened her eyes carefully. It worked.

At first glance, her environment didn’t change that much. Yes, it was day when it was previously night, but she was still on the balcony of her castle. It was the same castle as far as she could tell.

Except that the environment did change. How would one know that? Because the castle was floating in the middle of an ocean, one stretching as far as the eye could see. Even though the building had to be attached to a mountain to stay still, it floated on the water like it was just another boat.

Luna found herself smiling, knowing she entered the dreamscape at last. Here, she was no longer in the world of reality, but a world that she had full control over. And what would she do with that power? As she would have said once, she was going to double the fun.

Her wings spread out to the edge of their span and began to flap in the air. They sent gusts of wind in their wake, and she flapped them even harder to pick up speed. Her hooves stopped touching solid ground and found themselves in the air.

Let’s go enjoy ourselves tonight.

She took off to the clouds, leaving the castle behind in her wake. Her home disappeared in the horizon, and all she knew anymore was the sky, the wind, the ocean. She flew and flew, not knowing where she was going. And it didn’t matter at all. All she knew was she was free out here.

As the wind currents wrapped around her, she came closer to the ocean down below, feeling the refreshing smell and taste of saltwater on her face. She took a deep breath of its scent and felt alive than she had in a long time.

Dolphins, fish, and all kinds of sea life noticed the pony flying above them, and a few tried to catch up with her to see who she was. They drifted close to the surface, all of them watching the alicorn fly with them.

A lot of fish failed to keep up within seconds and fell back, but the dolphins managed to keep up the pace for a while. She gazed down below at them to get a better look, and she noticed that one of them was carrying a pony on its back/

The blue maned pony wore scuba gear, and she held on as hard as she could. It was totally worth the punishment, as she was having the time of her life with them. Luna quickly recognized her as the singer Sapphire Shores, and it quickly reminded her of the other dreams like this one, where Sapphire swimmed with her sealife friends of sorts.

Eventually, even the dolphins could not keep up with her. They stopped in their tracks and watched the princess blaze past them, wondering how a four hoofed creature could possibly outpace them.

The ocean truly did go on forever, but Luna knew what was coming. Knowing this, she tried to enjoy her trek across the water as long as she could. And so she did, staying close to the surface and taking in that wonderful sea air.

Then the inevitable happened. The water gave way to land, tiny islands forming on it at first. But the land mass grew bigger and bigger, taking the ocean away and stretching out to the air with Luna. She flew up with them as they skyrocketed to the clouds, not stopping until they were on the same level.

As Luna watched, the land took a life of its own. Rainbow liquid fell out of its creaks to the ocean below, and a tiny village formed on top of the cliff. An obstacle course sprung up next to the village, and almost all of the ponies on said course were pegasi.

Ah, Rainbow Falls. It was a long time since she last visited that place, but she wasn’t sure whose dream this was. There were many athletic pegasi in Equestria, especially in Cloudsdale and Ponyville. But it wouldn’t take long for her to see just who it was dreaming this up. It never did.

She watched a few ponies go through the course, flying inside a few hoops and such. However, one pony caught her eye immediately, and she would recognize that pony anywhere with the history they had.

The pony was a fully grown mare sporting an orange coat and purple mane, yet she did not have a cutie mark on her flank. She flew through the hoop course with ease, flying at speeds nopony had seen before. She was determined to get through the course at record pace, making sure she left nothing out on the field.

And yet, there was a pony on the ground encouraging her to keep it up, and even see if she could go faster. That pony was none other than Rainbow Dash, wearing a Wonderbolts workout outfit and acting as Scootaloo’s coach of sorts. Scootaloo listened closely to every command her idol barked at her, and went faster than ever.

But she noticed Luna in the corner of her eye, hovering and observing everything she was doing. She stopped in her tracks as soon as she recognized the princess, and her jaw dropped to the ground out of pure chock.

Luna only smiled at her, not wishing to disrupt the dream. But Scootaloo could not stop looking at her, remembering all the things the princess did for her when all hope was lost. There was no way she was going to ignore a pony like that.

Knowing that Scootaloo wouldn’t just ignore her presence anymore, Luna decided to do something fun with the pegasus. She noted the starting point of the hoop race, a tiny platform big enough for two ponies at the most, and she landed her hooves right on it. She invited Scootaloo to come over, thinking that a friendly race would be a great idea.

Scootaloo liked the idea very much, and she landed on the starting platform next to Luna. The hoops waited for the competitors to come for them, and Luna even did the honors of the countdown. The alicorn and the pegasus got into starting position.

3….2…..1….GO!

The fliers flew right out of the gate at breakneck speeds, their manes flying in all directions. Scootaloo was a little faster, and she managed to take the first hoop for Team Ponyville.

The next hoop required them to dive into a canyon to reach it, going straight down from where they were. Luna could do that in her sleep, and she sped past the orange pegasus and took the second hoop for Team Canterlot. This was going to be one race to remember.

Hoop 3 was almost impossible, forcing them to turn left immediately and fly up to the ground to even make it. It was something that would kill most fliers, and something that reality would never allow. In other words, perfect for a daredevil-in-training like Scootaloo.

It turned out to be so insane that even Luna couldn’t make it without slowing down. 2 to 1 in favor of Ponyville.

They kept it up, neither one having the advantage for very long. It was down to the final hoop at the finish, one that would decide the victor. Scootaloo was sweating so hard from the competition, even her real life body was exhausted and sweaty from such a hard battle. So was Luna, but she knew she had more in her than her “rival” did.

And yet, as their wings flapped impossibly hard and their bodies flew at the speed of sound, the princess decided to be the nice mare here. She slowed her pace down and allowed Scootaloo to win, and the look on the pegasus’ face when she crossed the finish line was pure joy.

Rainbow Dash flew up and joined her in celebration, and adult versions of Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle were there to celebrate with the most courageous flier in all of Equestria. Well, other than Rainbow Dash.

When Luna crossed the final hoop, she didn’t join the crowd in celebration. Rather, the hoop acted like a portal to another world, one much different from Rainbow Falls.

It was like she was in the nighttime sky, wherever she was, and she had no idea what was coming for her. The ocean was back underneath her, silent and peaceful just like she left it. She hovered a few hundred feet above it, just in case somepony had a nightmare after all. It wouldn’t be the first time a nightmare took her by surprise.

She drifted for a moment or two, the environment stubborn to change for a while. But she came across two bookshelves in the middle of the water, one to her left and one to her right. They went for miles and miles, and books of all shapes and sizes occupied them. The shelves were far apart at first, but they came closer to each other as Luna moved ahead.

The ocean gave way once again, this time leading to a carpeted floor. A few desks came out with them, all having piles of books stacked on top of them.

Ah, so I’m arriving to a library this time. I wonder who would dream of a library?

As the library took its final shape, a balcony came into existence, one that would give anypony a good view of the facility. She landed her hooves on it, and decided to go exploring for the pony having this dream. She had a hunch who it could be, but it wasn’t like there was only one bookworm in Equestria. Better to make sure than to make such assumptions.

She trotted around the second floor, looking for anypony out there. But nobody was there as far as she could tell. It was eerily quiet, even for a library. She did note that the tapestries hanging off the balcony carrying her likeness, and the type of books suggested that this was a regal library. That suggest that a regal type was having this dream.

She finally heard somepony’s hooves clop on the floor. Her ears tuned to see what direction the pony came from, and it sounded like it was ahead of her to the right.

The library made a shape right turn up ahead, and she turned to see who that pony was. The sight of the pony made her freeze at once, as she could not believe her eyes. She rubbed her eyelids to make sure she wasn’t seeing things, but the pony remained in the dream.

Standing in front of her was a white unicorn, his beard even whiter. He wore a magician’s hat and a cape on his backside, and he was seemingly the wisest pony she had ever seen. She should know, the stallion was a pony she would recognize anywhere.

S...Starswirl...Starswirl the Bearded?

He was reading a book to himself, looking over the words and making tiny comments over them. He soaked up every bit of wisdom he could carry with him, and there was almost an aura to him. As if being in the room with him made you a wiser pony alone.

The princess was wise enough to know this version of Starswirl the Bearded was not the real one, more of a mirage than the real thing. She didn’t have to be told that to know. But the pony was so canny in his appearance, so much like the one she knew from her youth, it was like she really did see her former mentor come back to the world of the living.

So many memories flooded in her mind as a result. The lessons he would teach her. The way he taught Celestia and Luna how important their royal duties would be. And how he pleaded with her furiously, trying to stop Nightmare Moon from coming out, knowing the thousand years of pain that would follow both sisters...

Starswirl didn’t know she was there, too absorbed in his lesson of the day to notice. Every muscle in her body screamed to say something, anything, in the hope that the dream Starswirl would be like the one she used to know. But she didn’t know what to say. Where would she even begin?

Hi, nice to see you again. Sorry about transforming into Nightmare Moon. I’m back now. I’ve been reformed, you see.

Please tell me you forgave me for not following your advice about rebellion. You were always so wise in these matters. I should have listened.

What happened to you when I was gone? How did you die?

Of course Starswirl wouldn’t respond like he would have. He couldn’t…

But Starswirl wasn’t the only pony in the library.

She heard somepony come up behind Starswirl, one she couldn’t fully see at first. Whoever she was, she came to see the unicorn, and he turned to greet her. He talked about how good it was to see her again, and how she came a full ten minutes before the lesson began.

Luna drew closer to see who it could be, and she would recognize that pony anywhere, that Twilight Sparkle. Twilight was positively thrilled to meet Starswirl, nodding with every sentence Starswirl spoke to her.

They went down the steps to begin the lesson, coming to one of the desks to start. Luna stayed up on the first floor, listening closely to their conversation.

As Starswirl taught his lesson to Twilight, Luna recognized his words as what they truly were. They were the very words Starswirl used for the lessons in his books. Twilight had recognized his books so much, it was like the bearded one himself took her under his wing.

You should see this for yourself, Starswirl, Luna thought. She’s a lot like you at that age. You would have been proud to see the legacy you left behind.

Seeing no reason to interrupt the scene, Luna tiptoed away from the unicorns. She went to the back of the library and wondered what the next dream would hold in store for her. As long as she didn’t interrupt anything like Twilight’s dream, it would be fine for her.

The library balcony gave way to a different type of environment, one just as quiet, yet for different reasons. The brown shelves and pages of the library’s walls were taken over by hard, green walls. Doors formed on them, leading to rooms that she mistook as hotel rooms at first. After all, they had big comfortable beds and...wait.

That couldn’t be right. All of the beds were medical beds, not the ones you would see in a hotel. One of them had an IV set up next to it, and another was being prepared by a doctor. But not one of them actually had ponies resting inside of them. Highly unusual for a hospital, as she quickly picked up.

She looked through every room, greeted with an empty bed in all of them. What was going on? This wasn’t like any dream she had been through. She couldn’t find the dreamer anywhere, and this was the longest she had gone before finding him or her.

But soon enough, she found was she was looking for.

A filly was resting inside one of the rooms, sound asleep in her own dream. There were tubes wrapped all around her right front hoof, and a heart monitor measured her beats by the second. She messed around in her sleep and tried to get more comfortable. She had a light purple coat and a yellow mane, along with a unicorn horn.

She was all alone in the room, and nobody would be coming for her anytime soon. She mumbled in her sleep, and a tear drop came down her cheek as she tried to rest.

Luna knew she had seen the filly before in Ponyville; she just couldn’t place the name. There was a folder attached to the front of the bed, something that would tell her everything she needed to know about the girl. She picked it up with her magic, and was surprised to see such detailed information listed inside. That suggested that the filly looked over her own folder several times.

Patient #52048
Name: Hooves, Dinky
Gender: Female
DOB: 4-12-2007

Patient “Dinky Hooves” is improving by the day, at least in her physical form. Ever since the tumor was successfully removed one month ago, Miss Hooves has made strides in her physical appearance. Mane has fully grown back now, and she has regained weight. Full recovery still expected.

Regardless, Miss Hooves appears to be distraught in recent weeks. Most likely theory is that the six months in the hospital has finally worn down on her, with more weeks of recovery ahead. Her mother(Hooves, Derpy) was majorly depressed when things looked bleaker, and this seems to have had a negative effect on her. Patient keeps talking about “Mother”, wanting her to stay for more hours and how she will be a good, strong filly for her.

Recommending somepony to keep a close eye on her at all times, just to make sure she’s OK. No major medical attention needed for the time being.

Luna put the folder down next to the bed, realizing exactly why Dinky would be dreaming of her own hospital room of all things: It was all she knew anymore. Six months of solitude would do that to you. She would know that more than anypony.

She stopped for a moment to figure out what to do about this. It didn’t look like she needed help like most of Luna’s subjects, the kind of help that might make or break their immediate future. And Dinky would be making a full recovery after all.

Still, there was no question about what she would be doing. She just couldn’t help herself. It was in her nature to do things like this.

Luna came over to the right side of the bed, seeing how Dinky was doing. Dinky was still sound asleep, whispering and talking to herself. The princess took a deep breath, hoping this wasn’t a bad idea like she feared it was.

She poked the filly on her side, and she just tossed and turned. Luna poked her again.

Dinky talked to herself, asking for five more minutes before she went to school. The princess decided to take another measure, and whispered directly in the filly’s ear.

“Dinky Hooves, is that how you talk to a princess?”

Dinky’s eyes shot wide open, and she freaked out when she realized Princess Luna was there. She hid underneath her blanket, thinking that Luna was there to punish her for something.

Luna playfully picked the blanket up with her magic, unveiling the cowering filly.

“Do not fear me, Dinky Hooves. I am here to help you tonight. Believe me.”

Her comforting tone convinced Dinky that eating five muffins when she was only supposed to eat two wasn’t a royal crime after all.

Dinky was curious why Luna was here, as she believed she was still in her room in Ponyville Hospital. The alicorn explained carefully that this was a dream, and like most children, Dinky couldn’t believe that this was all a big mirage. It was so real, repeating the line a thousand fillies and colts had said after they met the Princess of the Night.

Luna suggested that they would go someplace for a while, and Dinky tried to get out of her bed. The princess stopped her and suggested lying down. After all, the best place to be for this was the bed, she said to her.

Dinky brought the blanket over her body again, and Luna started pushing the bed with her magic from the back. The filly was nervous for a while, knowing the doctors wouldn’t be happy if anypony did that with their patients.

But Luna pressed on, opening the door and taking the filly out to the hallway. Dinky grew increasingly nervous about this, hoping Mommy would know she was just going out with Luna for a while. That didn’t sound weird at all, right?

Down ahead, there was a pair of double doors leading to the next section of the hospital. Luna knew that now was the time to do what she had in mind, and she raced the bed down the hallway for the double doors.

Dinky clung her hooves to the bed for dear life, screaming that they were going to crash right into the doors. Luna was undeterred, and kept going as fast as she could.

The double doors opened in front of them, and Dinky closed her eyes shut as they went through. But she noticed something strange about this wing of the hospital. There was a breeze. It wasn’t as bright as it was before. And she felt something like dust in her mane…

She opened her eyes, and she couldn’t believe what she was seeing. They weren’t in the hospital anymore.

No, the bed was floating in the middle of the nighttime sky like a magical carpet. The stars were right there with them, floating around her and leaving trails of stardust in their wake. Some came so close that the stardust got into her mane, making it glow bright yellow.

Dinky came and looked below her bed, and she saw nothing but the ocean beneath her. She really was floating in the sky, and she didn’t know how it was possible.

The princess sped right past her, flying through the sky gracefully. She smiled at the filly, showcasing her night as only Princess Luna could. Dinky just stared at her, overwhelmed by what she was seeing.

That’s when Luna decided to put on a show for her. She swirled around the stars and collected them with her magic, bundling them up into a little ball of otherworldly light. Once she was finished collecting them, she picked up a few with her hooves and went out creating something magical with them.

Dinky wanted to see what she was doing with those stars, but Luna hid them behind her back so she couldn’t see. It had to be a surprise. So the filly sat down on the bed, forced to be patient with it.

Luna looked back at her happily, and threw her creation to the sky.

A bear of light came over, one made out of the stars in space. It ran through the sky as fast as a bear could, causing the other stars to fly around in all directions in his wake. He stood up on his feet like a human would, and roared a loud roar.

Dinky watched in wonder at the bear, delighted and clapping her front hooves together in applause. It was one of the best things she had ever seen, and she would remember it as long as she lived.

But the princess wasn’t done yet. She took the bear down and brought its stars back to her hooves. She collected more of them as she went; after all, this next creation was far more ambitious.

She took the material and made something out of it again, but this creature was far larger than the bear or even herself. Dinky ducked her head down and thought this might be something that would give her nightmares.

But it wasn’t. This made the bear look like child’s play.

Out of the stars emerged a mystical dragon, his wings stretching out to touch the corners of the sky. It flew around in all directions, gliding as easily as any eagle or falcon. Dinky wasn’t terrified of it for some reason, even though she had been taught that dragons were the worst creatures in all of Equestria.

The dragon stopped in front of Dinky, looking at the filly curiously. But she didn’t run away or anything, and she came to the front of the bed to look at it closely.

The dragon gathered all of its breath for a fire breath attack, and she tried to hide underneath the blanket again. But when the dragon unleashed its attack, it shot out comets into the bed. They left star trails of all the colors of the rainbow around her, and they didn’t hurt when she touched them. They even tickled her, making her giggle from the touch.

Luna grinned from cheek to cheek, happy that her plan worked out after all. But there was one last thing she wanted to do before she was finished.

So she took down the dragon to its bare stars, much to Dinky’s disappointment. The filly complained that she liked the dragon, but Luna assured her that it would be worth it when she saw what the princess had in store. It better be good to top that.

Luna brought the stars closer to her that time, having something special this time. She would take each star one by one and use her magic to give it a certain color. It would be a different color with each one, something that would make sense when she saw what the princess was doing.

Once she was finished, it felt like she was holding a gigantic world in her hooves. Feeling that she was finished, she let go of them.

Yeah, she managed to top the dragon somehow.

Out of her hooves came forth the Elements of Harmony, all flying through the air with Rainbow Power. They left rainbow colored stars in their wake, causing Dinky to feel a sense of joy and happiness she never knew existed.

The Elements looked right at her, just as happy as Luna that Dinky was thrilled to see them. Dinky’s eyes were filled with wonder at the sight, seeing her role models entertain her right before her eyes. Forget the dragon and the bear, THIS was something that she would never forget as long as she lived.

Luna was in the middle of the Elements, controlling the sights like a maestro. All designed to entertain Dinky Hooves, so she knew what dreams were truly capable of.

But something happened that surprised even Luna. Dinky seemed wiped out and exhausted all to a sudden, and she yawned to herself. When she looked down, she panicked as her hind legs were slowly disappearing. They vanished completely, and her belly was starting to disappear as well.

“That’s the sign that you’re waking up,” Luna explained. “Promise me you won’t forget what you saw today.”

“No way,” Dinky said, cheerfully bittersweet. “I won’t forget any of this. Thank you, Princess Luna…”

As she trailed off, her dreamscape body had fully disappeared, her hospital bed following her out the door. The Elements of Harmony broke apart and went back to being the stars of the sky.

It hit Luna that it had been several hours since she started her adventure through the dreamscape. Sunrise would be approaching soon; while she was dreaming and sleeping while she was having fun, she had to get back home in time to set the moon.

So she went back towards the castle in the dreamscape, wherever that would be. The ocean led her through miles and miles of the land in search for her home.

Eventually, she found the castle waiting for her. It was still floating in the middle of the ocean, just how she left it.

As she came to the same balcony she started her adventure from, she noticed something in the corner of her eye. There was another pony on another balcony, observing her surroundings with a telescope.

Luna would recognize her sister Celestia anywhere, but didn’t bother with meeting her dream version anytime soon. She had to get back to the real world immediately. She did notice that Celestia had her telescope pointed at her, a little confused at what she was seeing. But it didn’t matter. She was home.

She planted her hooves down on the balcony, making a perfect landing. Her horn glowed with dream magic, and a wave of it washed all around her environment. The endless ocean was replaced with the mountains and valleys of the real Equestria, and the purple hued sky was replaced with a darker one. Finally, the castle went from floating on the ocean to being embedded in a mountainside, resembling some sense of logic again.

Ah, home sweet home.

Luna rubbed her eyelids a bit, feeling just as sleepy as Dinky was when she found her. She stumbled through the curtains to the bed, something she needed after such a long trek.

Not that she would mind. In the end, the whole thing was worth it. But she was still so exhausted from the adventure, she went to sleep as soon as she hit the hay.

The coffee today seemed to taste better than ever, especially with some sugar and cream. Celestia wasn’t sure what was different about this roast, but it went well with her oatmeal this morning. That was something she’d ask the chefs in her free time later today.

She enjoyed her breakfast in the dining hall that morning, having a good night’s rest last night. She felt energized like never before, which was perfect for a day that would have nothing extraordinary to attend to. Just the usual duties that came with her title and nothing more.

Celestia heard somepony come in. She lifted the silver platter for Luna’s breakfast out of instinct, knowing that pony’s hoofsteps anywhere. Luna’s breakfast was the same as hers, just with a few more blueberries in the oatmeal and extra buttery toast.

Luna stumbled to the dining hall, still not fully awake. Her crown was titled to the side, and the sandals on her hooves weren’t on properly.

“Had a long night again, Luna?” Celestia greeted.

“You could say that,” said Luna, taking the seat opposite Celestia. “I will still be able to attend to today’s events, if that’s a concern.”

“Not at all. I’ve seen you in worse shape than this and still get through the day. The coffee certainly helps.”

Luna took a few sips of coffee, and the life came back to her eyes. “Thank you for still having faith in me. Indeed, it was a long night. I attended to several dreams last night, and I had to do a few things that exhausted me in the real world.”

“Oh, that reminds me of something I wanted to ask you. Were you in my dream last night?”

The moon princess almost spat out her coffee, realizing what a massive fumble she made last night. She made a rule to never enter Celestia’s dreams unless there was something clearly bothering her, and even then that was only occasionally, such as the Tirek incident. And now she did it without even realizing it….

“N-No, sister!” Luna begged. “You know how I am with your dreams. I would never invade your privacy like that! You must believe me!”

“I believe you,” Celestia said, calming her sister down. “It’s nothing, really. Even if you were in my dreams last night, it was only for a second that I saw you.”

“Oh, I understand now. Why did you bring it up, then?”

“Well, I did notice something about that Luna in my dreams, even if she wasn’t really you. I haven’t seen you so happy like she was, not since you returned to the throne after the Nightmare Moon incident. It was an interesting sight to say the least.”

Hearing that made Luna happy again. She smiled to herself, knowing the truth.

“I’m sure she was happy in that dream, sister. I’m sure she was.”