Chapters Luna always guarded dreams. When the foal had nightmares, she would come to their aid. She often gave advice to those who needed guidance. Some of the nightmares she encountered were with dragons or a imaginary creature that was trying to harm the foal. It was easy getting rid of the horrid creatures and beings since it was a dream. Some dreams acted like nightmares but without monsters or entities, it was when the pony was falling or hanging on to a loose rock. Those dreams resemble that the pony has no support in his life or anyone on his side. She always catches the ponies right before they hit the ground and tells them everything is going to be alright. Then there were good dreams. She often would hide in the shadows and see the foal playing with their family, friends, or even imaginary creatures. These dreams are always good to look at and provide a heartwarming feeling. She always smiled at those dreams. The last dreams she didn't enjoy the most were wet dreams. Of course Luna understood the meaning of them but she couldn't help but be a little uncomfortable with them. Most of the dreams were about the growing foal and his or her secret crush. A few times, it was with other creatures. But when she saw herself in the dream, she couldn't help but give a little chuckle but then look sad at the dreamer with gloomy eyes from the shadows. If only you knew that your fantasy is not possible, Luna always got herself out of there as fast as possible when she saw herself in the dream. The dreams with her and the dreamer have intercourse is highly unlikely because she doesn't want to grief over her lover's death since she lives longer than the average pony. But some dreams with her in it, there was an unsettling feeling and she had to find out what was going on. When she did, she couldn't help but shed a tear. She saw herself as Nightmare moon torturing the dreamer in unspeakable ways. Why do they think of me like that?, I am not her anymore, She always freed the dreamer from that imaginary Nightmare Moon. Dreams are really a precious thing. They can tell how your feeling. But the dream Luna entered was far from ordinary to the average dreamer.
She was just going through the dreams like a breeze that night. Fighting of creatures, giving advice to foals that really didn't know what to do when they didn't study for the test they have the next morning. Nothing really out of the ordinary. That dream she stumbled in had caught her attention. It felt like it very odd, you see Luna could also sense how the dreamer was feeling and it was calm. This was very odd because usually the dreamer would often have the feeling of love, happiness, dread, fear, sadness, etc. This one was too calm. It felt too like when you read a book out in a field of flowers under a tree in the hot summer days.
Luna saw a fireplace on the wall in front of her and to sofa chairs facing the lit fireplace. On the walls, there were some strange feathers and artifacts. she couldn't tell if she jumped into a dream or accidentally teleported into a room in the castle. She started to trot over to the 2 sofa chairs but then stopped when she heard a voice.
"I have been expecting you, Princess of the Night", The voice sounded like it came from one of the chairs and the voice sounded calm and sly like fox stalking its prey.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, Where are my manners, I know so much of you and you don't have a single clue about me", Princess Luna was on guard, there was no way this was a dream, ponies can't control dreams. "My name is Everlasting Shade, now why don't you sit down and relax", Luna found herself sitting on one of the chairs in disbelief. This really is a dream. She saw a Stallion with with a very dark blue coat and a black mane. His eyes were a green color and he had a stare like he could predict every single move you make."You can call me Shade for short", Luna could tell he wanted something.
"I won't be accepting anything you give me", Shade still had that smirk but closed his eyes.
"Even if its information about why I can control dreams?"
"I meant I won't accept any deals or items you give me", Luna could tell she had a hesitant look on her face because of the reaction Shade was showing, He still had the smirk but closed his eyes.
"So what about if my answers are on a sheet of paper?", Luna couldn't help but show how uncomfortable she while trying to explain about what she meant when she wouldn't agree.
"Relax, I was only teasing you", Luna couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief but quickly was back on guard for what he was going to say.
"I really can't tell you about any answers yet but I have a little proposal to make"
"Like I said, I won't be accepting any deals"
"Well just hear me out", On the coffee table, a piece of paper and a jar of ink with a feather in it appeared on the table.
"I want to help you guard dreams", Luna was about to speak but when she thought about the offer twice, she kept her mouth shut. "You see, I do admire you Princess and I really want to help you out in some way so why not help you keep the dreams safe and pleasant for all to enjoy?", Luna was unsure about this, sure she had just met him and really knew almost nothing about but it really could help handle the big nightmares with actual fights with monsters. She thought of it like a job, but instead of her asking ponies, the ponies were asking her. She really needed time to dwell on this offer. She wasn't always the one in the family that thought things through, that was always Tia's job, but this one was one simple yet hard to answer question. With that Luna looked Shade dead in the eyes.
"Do you really know what you are asking?"
""Of course I do, when I was a foal my ancestors made the dreams foals have into their own personal gain, they turned the dreams into a living horror story, if only I could have stopped them ", Luna could see the passion and anger Shade had in his eyes. He had dropped his smirk and had the face of hateful determination. Luna liked that. Wait did he say my kind?
"I will think about it", Luna said,whipping back to the matter at hand but don't think she was going to let that detail slide by, she really needed time to think about it. Shade's smirk came back.
"Are you sure you can't stay little longer and make up your mind"
"I never said I was done talking with you", Shade could tell there was something on Luna's mind."So can you tell what do you mean by 'my kind'?", Shade knew this was to be expected.
"I am a Crescent Moon"
"I have never heard of anything those before"
"That is because we spend most of our days in dreams"
"But what is your purpose?", Luna could finely see Shade give a Genuine smile, which instantly turned into a frown.
"Almost the same thing you do but instead, we give Nightmares", Luna's curiosity faded instantly and turned into a shocked emotion.
"So you are the ones that give the foals the nightmares?"
"Correct, we feed off the negative energy the foals produce and use it to strengthen our powers", Luna was about to blast Shade from existence but until she notice him look distraught, almost like he felt uncomfortable about talking about what he does.
"I feel very ashamed of what my ancestors have done to you" , Luna finally had that curious look on her face but still had her magic charged up if he tried anything funny. "You see, I am not like my ancestors, I do not feed off on the energy of nightmares, I feed off dread of those who are evil and wicked inside", Luna finally let go of her charged magic and listened. "The energy I feed off of is not really good since they were evil to begin with but it does keep healthy and fed", Luna was about to say something until she heard a little ring go off.
"What was that?"
"That was my alarm when its almost time for the moon to set"Luna suddenly jolted out her seat, has time already passed that quickly?"Don't worry I can send you back fast enough for you to prepare to lower the moon", Shade still looked relaxed and compared to Luna, she was freaking out.
"You can?, Thank you!", Luna bowed to him.
"No need for that", Luna remembered that deal Shade had offered her.
"Wait I haven't came up with an answer!", Shade came back to that cocky smirk.
"Than I will leave you to it", And with that, Luna was back to Equestria.
What, how did he do that without glowing his... horn?. Shade was right. It was almost time for her to lower the moon. She started rushing towards the balcony where she would meet up with her sister to lower the moon and raise the sun.But she couldn't help but think about the Shade and his offer. She had a feeling that it would decide of how dreams would be treated.
"Sister are you ready?"
"Yes"
"You don't look well, is something wrong?"
"Just.. tired"
Luna lowered the moon, Celestia raised the sun. Celestia really knew that something was really bothering her sister and after they were done with this task she would ask her about it. But after the had finished, Just before she could say anything to her sister. Her sister rushed onto the hall towards her bed chambers.
Luna ran through a dark alley way with a foal on her back. She tried to lose that cyclops that was following them. Just when she stopped to catch her breath the cyclops burst through the alley way wall and roared. The foal yelped and dug his face into Luna's mane. "Hold on," Luna charged a strong beam and blasted the Cyclops right in the chest. This only knocked back the Cyclops into the end of the alley way, destroying the wall but didn't destroy the Cyclops. Luna spread her wings and took flight. The foal still had his head in Luna's mane. "Don't worry, he can't hurt us in the sky," Luna scanned over the wreckage the cyclops had made, There was smoke so she couldn't tell where the Cyclops was but didn't see it leave the smoke so she just needed to keep a close eye on that spot. "N-no, it can jump really high", That's when the Cyclops did it, jumped really high, put both of his fist together, and put it down hard on Luna and the foal. Luna was quick enough on putting a small barrier on top of her but only lasted for 5 seconds, she went straight down, back in the rubble. The foal was only laying down a couple of meters away from her but certainly knocked out. Luna tried to get up but when the Cyclops landed in front of her with a tremendous quake, she fell back to the ground. Shade ... were are you? . Luna went out cold.
-(30 Minutes ago)-
After Luna was done checking on most of the foals' dreams, she went to Shade. She remembered his dream number, 2016. Last time, she came upon his dream by chance and out of the blue he gave her a deal. It was the same place as before, the to sofa chairs, a fireplace, and the table. She walked up to the sofa chair Shade had been sitting on. "Shade?" and again like last time, she found herself in the chair she sat in before.
"You know, it isn't nice sneaking up on ponies,", Shade looked up at Luna with a questioning look.
"My apologies, I was just making sure you were here," Shade really had a smile, shaking his head like Luna had just said something really dumb.
"If you can find my dream, than you must know if I'm here, correct?", Luna just remember that fact about dreams, the dreamer has to be there if she can access the dream.
"C-correct."
"Anyway, did you think about my deal?"
"Yes I have but first, I wanna see what you can do," a smirk fell across Shades face.
You see, just the day before, Luna thought hard about that deal, she wanted to know how his powers would help in a situation so she wanted to test it out the next night on all the types of dreams.
"Oh," Shade got up, "What do you want me to do?"
~OlO~
Luna and Shade hid in the shadows in a dream of happiness. The foal was playing with her family. They were celebrating her birthday.
"So what can you do in these types of dream besides turning this into a Nightmare?" Shade closed his eye and raised his hoof, pointing it at the foal. When Luna saw it, she dropped her jaw. At first she thought it was ordinary, the foal was being handed a present and when she opened it, a puppy poked it head out and licked the foals face.. "H-how did you do that?"
"It's a dream, anything can happen but it takes a lot of energy to do such a thing," It took Luna a while for her to get over the fact that Shade could do that, she never interfered with happy dreams since there was no problem, but she never had thought of making dreams like these even better.
"Okay, lets go."
The next one was a wet dream, The two of them hid in the shadows again and they could here pleasurable moans. "Okay, now how about this dream?" She turned to look at Shade but could see a blush form on his face, Luna also noticed that her cheeks were warm as well. Shade closed his eyes and added one of his hoofs to cover them and the other pointed at the dreamer. "Oh, YES!" Luna saw erotic things there, "Okay, we are done here!" She and Shade were gone to the next dream, Shade could not believe he did that.
"Now the last type of dream, the Nightmare" Luna and Shade could see a foal being chased by a Cyclops, Luna turned and looked at Shade, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Shade?" Luna looked down at the foal and the Cyclops, he wasn't there. The foal was backed against a wall, he closed his eyes and looked away. Oh no , Luna swooped in and put the foal on her back. The Cyclops had just completely missed them and smashed the wall.
"Princess Luna!" he started hugging her. "Thank you!" The princess landing yards away from the Cyclops.
"Its okay now," the foal's face of joy was soon replaced by terror.
"Look out!" Luna turned around to see and saw the Cyclops about to pound her in the ground. She moved swiftly, grabbed the foal, and put him and her back. She made a swift dash into an alley way.
~OlO~
The cyclops put his fists together, up in the air, that's when it heard a dragon roar. The cyclops turned around and saw a dragon, a black scaly dragon, 10 feet tall. The dragon breathed dark fire and turned the cyclops into ash. "Ace that's enough," Shade came down off the dragons back and walked towards Luna. She was still unconscious. He pick her up and carried over to his dragons back. He jumped up on the dragon and flew up in the sky. He looked down at the foal from above and pointed at him. The scenery changed and Shade was back in the real world. "Lets go ace, lets get the princess back to her castle."
Luna woke up, in her bed. She got up and opened her blinds. The sun shining and it looked like it was mid-day. But... How? She knew that the last time she was knocked out in a dream, she found herself in her usual place where she checks on dreams, laying on the floor. She slapped her face and could tell she was in the real world.
Luna's door creaked open. "Is everything alright sister?" Luna looked up and saw her sister.
"Yes sister, everything is fine."
"Okay then," Celestia closed the door behind her, she could hear her sister going back to bed. Celestia finally knew something was on her sister’s mind. She could feel it.
For these past days, Celestia grew more worried about her sister. Celestia didn't realize it at first but when she saw her sister, each time she had the same look on her face. Celestia didn't really think about it until it kept happening. Celestia worried that her sister was in some sort of conflict or... no it can't be. Luna would never turn back to that dreaded Nightmare Moon . Celestia would never forgive herself if she did. Celestia had to confront her sister about her worries before it’s too late.
Celestia walked up her sister's bedchambers. It was during the quiet and peaceful evening when Celestia knocked on her sisters door. Celestia could hear her sister groan and stumble out of bed. When her sister opened the door, she couldn’t help but giggle. Luna's mane looked like a forest of tangled vines and her eyes had had dark lines under it. And if that wasn't bad enough, her fur looked stuck up like a startled cat. If anypony saw this appearance, they would laugh so hard that Luna would never hear the end of it.
"Yes, sister?", Luna was impatient since she had just been awoken from her slumber. Celestia composed herself and thought about the worst joke she had ever heard and looked at her sister. But Celestia still small giggle turned into strong laugh. She just remembered that even the funniest thing about the bad joke was that it was so bad that it makes you cry laughing. Luna coughed which made Celestia stop laughing. "So sister, what do you need of me?"
"I want to know what's been troubling you," Luna had a questioning look on her face.
"What are you talking about sister?"
"Luna please, every time I see you, your always in deep thought,"Luna remembered the deal Shade offered her. It’s been a week since.
"This is something I need to do on my own sister, I can't tell you," Celestia sighed.
"Okay sister, just tell me when it gets out of hand, remember that I am always here for you," Luna nodded and closed her door.
Celestia went to the balcony where she had raised the sun. She looked across the land. She trusted her sister. She really wanted to help her sister in whatever it was but it was her choice, she gave Luna the decision to decide for herself. Celestia just worried if it was the right choice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luna didn't know what to do. Should she accept the offer? Luna couldn't tell her sister, her sister didn't know how to control dreams and this would end up in a global search for Shade. She didn't want that to happen. Luna rolled around in her bed. She thought about what happened with the cyclops and what Shade told her.
~The night after the Cyclops incident~
"How did I get in bed last night?"
"What do you mean?"
"I always go into dreams sitting on the floor, last night I found myself in bed, how?" Luna had a stern look on her face.
"You see, I have the power of going in and out of dreams when I want to but I also get teleported near the dreamers location," Luna 's looked dropped.
"But how, it takes really so much magic and you also have to be a Unicorn to do that," Luna face was filled with awe, This has to be a lie, not only does it take Magic and being a Unicorn but it would also take a while to gather all of your magic and teleport you out of the dream and put you near the dreamers location .
"Luna there is somepony I want you to meet," They both heard a majestic roar that shook the whole place. Luna, all of a sudden found herself out in an open field with Shade and a... dragon. "Luna this is Ace, Ace this is Luna," Luna stood in shock and looked up at the black scaly dragon. The dragon moved its head down and sniffed Luna. Then licked her. "Oh, well that was quick, he already likes you." Luna stood there, dripping from all the saliva the dragon had put on her. "Let me take care of that," with a tap of his hoof, the saliva was gone. Luna slowly started moving again, making sure nothing she did provoked Ace. "Try petting him, he really like being petted," Luna slowly moved her hoof on the dragons forehead, and tapped it gently. After a while of Luna getting used to Ace and playing with him, she was back in the chairs with Shade.
"Aww we were having so much fun," Luna pouted. She hasn't pouted in ages, the last time she did it was when her parents didn't let her stay by herself at home.
Shade chuckled and got out of his chair and went over to Luna. He put a hoof on her cheek and brought her face closer to his. Luna's look dropped and what was in its place was a look of uncertainty with a small dark blush forming on her cheeks. Shade whispered, "You look so cute when you don't get what you want," Luna’s blush got even darker. She looked away from him and gave him a shove. Shade fell back enough to get out of Luna's personal space. Shade suddenly popped in front of Luna's face again, looking into her eyes. "D-don't you have more to tell me?" Shade popped back into his chair.
"Sorry, where are my manners?"
~Present~
Luna couldn't help but blush again after remember that. I can't tell what his plan is . Luna had to really think about this. He gives me a deal out of nowhere but then also give a me a compliment . Luna couldn't think of an answer, there were signs of her going to be used but there were also signs of him genuinely wanting to help her out. Luna sat up in bed and pounded her hoof on her pillow. "This all so frustrating," Luna said in a whisper, she didn't want to alert the guards and her sister. It helped get some of her frustration out but it would have helped even more if she is yelled it out. Luna thought harder, maybe she missed something that he said. The only thing that came to mind was his complement. Luna gave another blush. Maybe... he is trying to... fall for him.
Luna had really thought about what she is going to do next. She knew she had to meet Shade in person but it didn't come to her until a run in with one of her guards. Luna ran into the guard just the other day, Luna was so deep in thought that she wasn't looking where she was headed, the guard was carrying a lot of significant bags that were all sorts of different colors and a list that looked like it had been scribbled on, the guard was looking down his list and not paying any attention to his sense of direction. When they bumped into each other, Luna went down on her rump with a thud and the guard was sent of his back with all the bags going in all sorts of directions. The only thing that wasn't on the ground was the shopping list which was held firmly in the guards right hoof. "Goodness, m-my apologies," Luna was finally back on the planet and deeply apologizing for her little "oops" she had caused.
"Its alright, princess?" the guard was getting up and surprised when she saw her picking up one of his bags. Luna saw that the bag contained a little golden colored crown with a pretty pink dress and tiny pink plastic slippers.
"If you don't mind me asking, what is this for?", Luna held the bag close to the guard for him to take it. The guard took it and went to another bag that was close to him.
"For a princess, I thought you would know that Nightmare Night is next week," when the guard was was done picking up and securing the bag he went over to, he looked at the princess who had her mouth wide open. "Is everything... alright?" The princess looked like she was about to have a faint.
"Y-yes everything is fine, absolutely fine," The guard felt disturbed by the look Luna was making.
When the guard was finished picking up all the bags, he saw Luna, still as a statue and making that disturbing face. "Well if you don't mind, I will be going now," Luna was finally snapped out of that disturbing trance.
"Oh, sorry if I unsettled you, I just have a lot of things to think about," the guard nodded and was heading off but stepped only 3 paces away from where he last stood. "Oh wait, I was just wondering why you are here in the castle when you have so many objects in your hoofs," The guard turned around.
"I needed to drop off my armor," Luna was processing this
"But couldn't you have taken the armor off first then go get the costumes?" The guard chuckled
"I decided to get these first because they said it will be sold out pretty soon and I didn't want to disappoint my daughter," the guard held out the bag with the little princess outfit in it.
"Oh," Luna should have known that about Nightmare Night.
"Well see you later Princess," the guard gave a small bow and trotted off. "Oh, and sorry I bumped into you,"
"No worries, I, myself was not looking," Luna started trotting the other way. She knew what she was going to plan. During her walk to the throne room, she looks outside the windows. She sees all the decorations scattered on the Canterlot homes. I can't believe I could have forgotten all about Nightmare Night .
Luna had finally reached the throne room. Her sister was sitting on that red pillow and looking over the recent letters her subjects have sent her. Luna could already tell on Celestia's face that these letters had to be for request. Luna walked up to her sister. "Luna?, I thought you would have been a deep slumber by now," Celestia looked above the letter and stared down at her sister with a curious look. "What seems to be troubling you?,"
"Have you planned what we are going to be doing on Nightmare Night?," Celestia put down the letter.
"Well, I thought of visiting Ponyville and visiting everypony there, why?"
"Well I was wondering if we could change it and make a party here," Celestia stared into her sisters eyes.
"Luna, you know it will be hard to make preparations for a party when the event is a week away."
"But sister, do we not know a pink-earth pony that knows how to organize a party in a day?" Celestia had a surprised look on her face, than gave a sigh.
"Well I guess I could change a the plans but I want to now why," Luna looked down at the floor.
"I want to meet somepony in person," When Luna looked up at her sister, all she could see was how giddy her sister was.
"So you are saying you want to host a party and make somepony come to it so you can meet them in person?" Celestia showed a big grin for her sister.
"Yes sister," Luna gave a uncertain nod to reinforce the decision. Celestia sighed.
"Guard! Can you send a note to princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony?" Celestia looked to her right and saw a guard pull a pen and paper from one of his armor pockets.
"What do you want me to tell them?" The guard looked up at the princess.
"Tell them that they are invited to a Canterlot party but we need their help to set it up," the guard handed the invitation to the princess. She teleported and it was set.
Luna face had a delighted look. She knew that if this party turned out well, she would be able to get the message all across the nations. If it spread that well than Shade would have to come.
"How do we even know this pony will even come?" Celestia still had a little doubt in her younger sister. But still couldn't believe somepony caught her eye.
"Sister, he will be there and when he is then I will be able to ask him questions without him teleporting me out of the dream."
"Well sister, I have my faith in you."
"Same as I, dearest sister."
For the rest of the day, Luna stayed with her sister until she had to lower the sun behind the horizon.
