Why We Need Dream Catchers
Every so often a Dream Catcher needs to be emptied of it's nightmares. That is my job, or at least one of them as the Princess of The Night. As some of you may know I am a dreamwalker, which means I am able to enter your dreams and help fix any nightmares you may be having. Sadly I am the one who brought most of these nightmares to my subjects. Well, added fuel to a fire that already existed.
I enjoyed helping ponies for many years, but as time went on I noticed that more and more ponies were ignoring my beautiful night. I was able to suppress my emotions about this for many years. Until one thousand years ago when I let my emotions get the best of me. My rage, my jealousy towards my sister, and how everypony played in her sun while none enjoyed my moon brought forth Nightmare Moon. My thoughts became clouded, I could only feel hate and anger towards my sister and all of Equestria. I felt as if I had no control over my behavior, as if someone or something was controlling my every thought and action.
When Nightmare Moon took over she decided to fight my sister. The reason for them fighting was that I, or at least Nightmare Moon, refused to lower the moon, bringing eternal night. Celestia tried to talk us out of what we were doing, but Nightmare would not have it. My sister had no choice but to convince us another way; by defeating us. The fight went on for quite a while. I would have liked to avoid fighting my sister, but Nightmare’s power over me was too strong for me to resist. I did feel more powerful during the fight and it showed because I was able to defeat my sister, or so I thought. When we shot her down and she landed in our castle and did not rise again I thought she was down for good, we were wrong. When she rose back into the air she had the Elements of Harmony with her, she used their magic to banish me to the moon. I swore, right before she banished me, I saw her cry for me.
While on the moon I was coming up with ideas to get back at my sister. I did not know how long I would be here or if I could ever leave. For many years I practiced my new nightly powers. The more I practiced the more I learned that I did not just have the ability to enter dreams, but I could also manipulate them into nightmares.
Many years have passed since I was banished. Within that time I changed countless dreams into, what I thought to be, beautiful nightmares. It was my way of getting back at my sister. Knowing she could not dreamwalk she would have to deal with her subjects suffering from nightmares. To have my revenge plan work, I had go into their dreams and plant a seed, so to say, to give them nightmares without me having to be there myself each time or randomly happening upon a pony already in the midst of having a nightmare.
For this seed to work I would have to enter somepony’s dreams, find a portion of their subconscious that would allow my nightmare to take root, but not be noticed. It would build and fester until it would turn all of their dreams into nightmares, or that was my plan. I knew it would take some fine-tuning to manipulate a mind so the nightmare would emerge and go back into hiding when they awoke. It also needed time to be able to really take hold, I believed this would allow me to achieve my goal. I underestimated the power of a normal pony's mind. Each time I tried, their mind would be able to seek out my nightmares and stop their growth, or, in a very rare case, have them disappear altogether. It was frustrating, at least with the former they would still have nightmares every so often.
As one thousand years came closer I started to notice some of the signs, that I had once read in a book, about a spell similar to my banishment. After thinking about it for a while I remembered how to escape my lonely prison. 'Every so often all of the stars would align and a magical force would allow whoever was imprisoned to escape'. In this case that was me. All it took on my part was a well timed spell and I would be free, so I spent most of my free time from then on practicing the spell.
It was getting close to the time of my escape, I had the spell down to where I could not fail. Even though I could not get my nightmares to work correctly, I did not fret because when I escape the moon I would be able to rule with my nightmares and spread fear first hoof.
The day of my escape finally came, ironically it fell on the Summer Sun Celebration, a special day for my sister. I had everything planned, the spell was ready, my powers were at full capacity, nothing could go wrong. Now I just had to wait till the stars aligned.
As the stars came into alignment I cast the spell I had worked so hard to perfect, hoping that it would indeed be correct and I could escape my prison. I was transported back to Equestria. I appeared in a little town called Ponyville. We all know how the rest of that story goes.
The night I was transformed back into Princess Luna from Nightmare Moon my powers were very weak. Many months have passed since that day and my power is now back to full strength. I have also fully regained my adult physique. This has enabled me to take back my station alongside my sister. Her raising and lowering the sun, while I raise and lower the moon. Each ruling over her domain once again. I still can’t believe she was able to rule the kingdom and take control of both day and night all by herself for a thousand years. Actually, I can. She has always been very skilled and courageous.
I was also able to go back to dreamwalking. It turns out my nightmares were still working after I changed back. I wanted… No! I had to help my subjects, it was my duty as Princess, to get rid of these unnatural nightmares. So every night I seek them out, hoping to find ponies that Nightmare Moon planted these unnatural things in.
One night while dreamwalking I came up with an idea. I knew I could not help everypony with their dreams all by myself, so I decided to create a trinket with an enchantment in it. This trinket could seek out and capture nightmares on its own. This left me able to help my other subjects at the same time. Anypony could buy this trinket and hang it over or near their bed to catch these roguish nightmares while they were asleep and I was away. I called them Dream Catchers.
Every so often these Dream Catchers would get full and start leaking the captured nightmares. I have to go into the Dream Catchers and dispel the nightmares. This added an extra job for me to do. But it is worth it. I just “empty” the Dream Catchers when I visit that pony’s dreams again. I do not mind doing this, for it was my unnecessary rage and jealousy that caused it in the first place.
I’m just glad I am able to help the ponies I hurt for so many years.
Author's Note
Thank you for reading my story!
This is my first story I have posted on this site, or ever. I would appreciate any feed back on what I can do differently, or better.
Thank you again for reading my story and I hope you liked it! 
