Luna yawned as she looked away from the dreams of that night. All was as it should be. Children dreamed of fantasies and adventures. Parents dreamed of intimacy and of success and love and harmony. Siblings slept, knowing their families would always be there for them - those were always her favorite dreams.
She looked around her balcony, shivering softly from the cold nights air. It was chilly out, as winter was approaching. She could see why few ponies stayed out for her night now - the winter sun, while still cold, did provide more heat than her silvery moon. She sighed softly, her breath puffing out into a little cloud as her warmth fought the winter.
She gazed up at the moon as she had every night. This was her time of silent contemplation, her solitary thinking time. She had done this since she had returned, every single night. The moon shone down on her, as though contemplating her as she did it; as though wondering why she was now held in Equestria, and not it’s cold, rocky embrace.
She was glad to be home. She was happy to see her beautiful moon unblemished by the craters forged by her darkness. She was overjoyed to be back where she belonged, watching over the beautiful, if frigid, night. There was something missing, however. She had known it since her return. Something was still missing, and that something made her night feel… incomplete. Like it was damaged. That lack of something made her nights bland, and how she longed to find it.
With a sigh, she turned to her bed - she was quite tired, after all. She trotted up to it and smoothed out the covers, making sure everything was in place to keep her comfortable. Just before she lied down, however, she felt something. It was a shiver down her spine, not caused by any chill of night or winters breath. No, this was an all too familiar shiver: the shiver of a nightmare.
She shut her eyes, her horn glowing, trying to find the source. She thought she had checked all the dreams that night - who in Equestria had she missed? She found the dark trail instantly - all nightmares were similarly dark in nature - and followed it. Her consciousness searched and she was surprised to see that the nightmare was in the castle. She was then furtherly shocked to see the trail lead straight for her sister’s bedroom.
With a quick flash, she stood outside her sister’s room. Luna knew better than to barge into her sister’s dream - she did have some sense of privacy, after all. Clearing her throat, she knocked on the door. “Sister? May we come in?”
She heard a small gasp on the other side of the door. No doubt Celestia had just awoken from her dream. She heard a soft reply and took it to be confirmation. She opened the door and trotted inside.
Celestia was a mess. Her feathers were ruffled and her usually flowing mane was tangled in spots. She gulped as she saw her sister, but her face showed no sign of the nightmare Luna knew just plagued her. “What is it, Luna,” she asked; Luna could just hear the slight waver in her voice, nearly hidden.
“We think thou knows of our reason of seeing thee,” Luna said, trotting next to the bed. Celestia looked away from her as she drew close. “Sister.. What was thy nightmare? Perhaps thou wishes to speak of it?”
Celestia sighed. “I… It was nothing, Luna.”
“Sister, a nightmare is not nothing. Please, thou may speak to us.”
Celestia shut her eyes tightly. “It…” She sighed again, looking defeated. “We were in our castle again.” Luna sat next to her, nodding. “I… I remember us walking around, laughing… having a good time…”
“T’is a good dream, sister. What, pray tell, soured this?”
“You…”
Luna tilted her head. “Sister?”
“You… went up to the throne again… and the moon… the moon rose…”
Luna’s eyes widened. “We… We transformed?”
Celestia winced at the surprise in her sister’s voice. It just brought back memories of the nightmare. Please, sister, you must lower the moon, she had cried. She had cried so much in the dream. She began to cry again, now, as she remembered.
“Lower the moon,” Nightmare said, laughing. “Why should I lower it? Why should I bow to you, Celestia? I am your equal, no?”
“Please, Luna, I know you’re still in there! T-twilight and her friends, they saved you once! They can do it again!”
“And will you not try yourself?!” The dark alicorn flew down to her, eyes full of wrath. “Why are you so weak, sister?! Why will you not help me?! Why didn’t you save me when you could?!”
“I’m sorry, Luna!” She was crying. “I’m sorry! I-I can’t save you now!”
“You never could! You will always be pathetic, Celestia! You will always be the Princess that never could!” With rage, Nightmare Moon blasted Celestia away, grinning as the alicorn slammed into a column, breaking it down. “You will always be weak and pitiful and helpless. You will always need somepony else to be stronger than you. Go run to Twilight, Celestia. Go find that little unicorn with more talent than you’ve ever had. Go find somepony stronger than you.”
“I’m sorry, Luna…” She looked up at her lost sister as the Elements soared around her. It was all she could do. All she could ever do. The screams of her sister would be all she truly remembered from that point on. The screams of her betrayal.
Celestia sniffed, trying in vain to wipe away the stream of tears. “We fought again, Luna… We fought, and I couldn’t save you… I never could.” Luna watched as her sister broke down, letting out what must have been 1000 years of regret and anguish. “I-I failed my own sister because I was too w-weak to stop it! I let my vanity and pride turn me away f-from the only pony who has dared get close to m-me! I hurt you in ways I can never fix… I-I shouldn’t be forgiven for what I did to you,” she said through her tears.
She gasped lightly as her sister embraced her, feeling tears fall from Luna’s face onto her fur. “S-sister?”
Luna held her older sister, crying softly. “We had… I had no idea how much pain you were in.”
Celestia put her wings around them both, keeping her sister close to her as they both cried. They were silent for a long time, both simply crying, finally admitting the fact that the past had happened. Celestia welcomed the warmth her sister offered in their hug and Luna relished the feeling of holding her sister. Time lost meaning as they held each other and simply cried.
But time has the tendency to catch up to people. With a sniff, Celestia pulled her wings away from her sister, wiping away her tears. “I am sorry to have kept you up, Luna… It was just a silly nightmare…”
“You know nightmares hold truth, sister…” Luna sat across from her on the bed, sniffing and wiping her nose and face with her hoof in a very unprincesslike manner. “I am almost… relieved, to see you cry.”
“Oh?”
“It means… you still care about me. About us.”
Celestia smiled softly. “LuLu… I never stopped caring about you. Even as I… I banished you… I loved you immensely. I never want to hurt my sister like that again.”
Luna smiled at the half familiar nickname. It had been so long since she last heard it. “I love you too, Tia… I missed you, on the moon. I’m… I’m happy to be here with you now, sister.”
“I’m happy you’re here too…”
Both of them smiled at each other. Luna hugged her sister again before slipping off the bed and looking at it critically. They needed a change of tone, before they cried again. “No wonder you’re having nightmares, sister - look at the state of these sheets!” Indeed, they were quite the mess, lumped up in places and haphazardly wrapped around her body.
Celestia stuck her muzzle up at the comment, her face serious, prideful, and mildly offended. “I’ll have you know I sleep fine with my bed messy. It doesn’t make a difference either way.”
Luna giggled at her sister’s face - she resembled Blueblood when she pouted like that. “Well, you’ll sleep much better if we sort this out.” With a smirk, she quickly levitated the bedsheets off her sister, who flipped over with a surprised gasp from how tangled in the covers she was. Her face fwomped into the pillows as Luna giggled, straightening out the covers for her.
Celestia flipped over to tell off her sister, but quickly found herself smiling softly as the covers all sorted out. Luna had been right - this was rather comfortable. She wasn’t about to admit that, though. “It’s almost exactly the same feeling,” she said. However, she wasn’t able to stifle a small, content yawn.
Luna chuckled, smiling warmly. “Your exhaustion disagrees.”
Celestia rolled her eyes, lying back happily. “It just might, at that…” She smiled, her eyes already drooping - she was tired, after all. However, one thing still worried her. “Luna,” she said hesitantly.
“Yes, Tia?”
“Do… Do you think you could sleep with me tonight? Like we used to?”
Luna was a bit surprised - they had been so young when they last had slept in the same bed. But, as she thought about it, she knew why. Celestia was scared of having another nightmare as she just had. She smiled softly. “I’m happy to, sister.”
Celestia smiled, and Luna suddenly realized - this is what had been missing from her nights. All the stars in the sky and the brilliant moon and the dreams of the night were nothing compared to her sister’s smile. That was what she longed for, each night - just to know her sister was happy and that she would rest well.
Luna crawled under the covers, nuzzling and cuddling her sister, giggling. They were grown mares - this was ridiculous. But sometimes, it was nice to be silly. Especially when it made your loved ones smile.
Together, the two sisters fell asleep. Together, they dreamed - and nopony, not even the ponies who had dark lives, or dark pasts, or dark futures, had a nightmare that night.
That night, there was only peace.
Author's Note
Tossed this together when I should've been working on an essay for school. What's that, you've been so busy with homework that you can't update any of your fics? TIME FOR A SEQUEL!
Honestly, been wanting to do another 'Sleep Well' for awhile now. I might make this a trope of mine, cause I have an idea for AJ and AB... I dunno, though. Who knows!~
Unedited at the current time.
