The Beginning of a Nightmare
The land was dusky and quiet; as it always had been, as it always would be. The stillness of the air was broken by a sigh of defeat. The source of the sigh was Princess Luna, Alicorn and co-ruler of Equestria with her older sister, Celestia. But at the moment, Luna didn’t feel like a ruler and even less like sister.
“How dare they,” she said aloud as she looked across the land at the thousands of glowing spheres. This was no ordinary land, but the land of dreams known as the Dreamscape and each sphere was a pony’s dream. This was her realm and she was the caretaker of her subjects’ dreams.
There was just one tiny problem with being the caretaker of dreams, no pony dreamed of her or said thank you! This was the latest in a stack of offences to her royal rule. It was bad enough that her subjects slept during her beautiful night, but few of her subjects would seek her aid. For every one pony who sought her advice dozens more would go to her sister. The latest history book of Discord’s defeat only marked that she was there watching and not welding her own three elements! When a foreign dignitary had visited earlier in the week from Grifforia; he was surprised to see two rules as he had only been expecting and had never heard mention of her.
Despite all of this, the worst of it all was from her own sister. When she brought these thoughts to Celestia, her sister’s response was that she should stop being such a foal for allowing minor things to get under her skin. For the first time in her long life, Luna wanted to buck her sister across the castle. Instead of giving into her desire, Luna left and entered the Dreamscape for some piece and hopefully for a chance to see that there was a pony who respected her. However, after viewing a few thousand dreams she was getting sick of seeing her subjects’ dreams only of Celestia. It was as though she didn’t even exist.
“IS THERE ANYPONY OUT THERE, WHO WILL ACKNOWLEDGE ME!!?” She yelled at the top of her lungs with everything she had. She wasn’t expecting a response and for a moment nothing happened, but then something happened. Something that had never happened in her two hundred years of traversing the Dreamscape, a voice replied back.
“Well, I don’t know about anypony, but I’ll acknowledge you.” The voice replied.
“Who said that?” Luna asked as she looked around in shock. For nearly a century and a half, she was certain that she would be the only speaking voice in this realm.
“I did. Up here,” the voice replied giving the princess a direction to look.
Luna snapped her head up and was greeted by an unusual sight, to say the least. Floating above her was a cloud of dark purple/bluish mist with a few sparkling dots throughout it and bright eyes that were solid teal in color.
“Who are you? What are you?” Luna asked in wonder.
“I call myself, Moony,” the cloud of mist replied. “As for what I am, that’s a bit harder to explain. I am made up of several ponies’ dreams, ponies who passed on while dreaming. So, I’ve taking to calling my existence Dream Spector.”
“What ponies’ dreams are you made from?” Luna asked.
“That I do not know,” Moony replied. “I only know that they died while sleeping. Most of what I’ve learned I’ve learned when visiting dreams of other ponies.”
“You are able to enter the dreams of our subjects?” Luna questioned.
“I am able to. It is quite an interesting thing to experience.” Moony then asked, “Are you able to enter them as well?”
“No. We are unable to do that,” replied Luna.
“I can teach you, if you would like.” Moony offered.
“I would like that very much. Thank you.” Luna replied humbly.
“You’re welcome. What are friends for?”
Luna was slightly taken aback by this, for no one had ever called her friend before. She had been called many things, but never friend. She knew what a friend was and had longed to have one. Especially, one that wasn’t all about her sister. And now, at long last, it seems she was finally gaining her first true true friend.
“Let’s get started… friend.” Luna said allowing the word the hold a moment on her tongue.
Over the coming weeks Luna learned much from Moony about entering the dreams of her subjects and even interacting with the dreams. Just as Luna learned from Moony, so too did Moony learn from Luna. Luna would teach the cloud of mist everything she knew of the physical plane. Every night was like an adventure for the young Alicorn. She and Moony would visit the dreams of several subjects, sometimes they would comment on them and other times they would interact with the dream. Their favorite action was to pull a prank by pausing the dream and dressing the dreamer up in ridiculous outfits when the pony dreamed they were in school. The look on the ponies’ face was always a priceless one.
After months of being together, Luna felt certain that Moony knew her better than even her own sister. During their time together Luna shared her personal views of Celestia with Moony; including a slight desire to knock her sister down a peg. So, one evening it came as no surprise when Luna arrived to the Dreamscape furious.
“I cannot believe that sister of mine is being so unreasonable.” Luna yelled as she appeared.
“What has Celestia now?” Moony asked as she glided over.
“That pain in my plot want’s the nights to be shorter!” Luna replied.
“But doesn’t she already get the majority of time?” Moony asked for clarification.
“Yes! She gets fourteen hours of daylight. While I only have ten hours of my beautiful star filled nights.” Luna said, then continued saying, “She now however is wanting the nights to be limited to eight hours and her days to be sixteen hours.”
“You should stand up to her. Tell her you aren’t going to be her walking rug anymore,” Moony said with conviction.
“Oh, I couldn’t do that,” replied Luna. “Here on the Dreamscape I can be myself, but out there I have to be to obedient younger sister. It is also hard to do when you are the only one in your own corner.”
A moment of silence passed and then Moony asked a question. “What if I go with you?”
“I thought you couldn’t leave the Dreamscape?” Luna asked.
“In a normal situation, I wouldn’t be able to,” the bluish mist replied. “However, if I join with you, I’ll be there when you return to your body. I’ll be like the friend that never leaves and I’ll be able to feel what you feel.”
Luna thought for a moment, it would be nice to have Moony around outside of the dreamscape and she knew of her friend’s desire to feel things. No matter the dreamer and no matter the object they dreamed of, Moony could never touch it as nothing in the dream was real.
“You are a true friend, Moony,” Luna said with a smile. “Let’s do it.”
“Thank you, Luna,” replied Moony as she drifted over to Luna and began to be absorbed into Luna’s body.
After a couple of minutes, the absorbing was done and Luna was alone. When she opened her mouth to speak it sounded like two voices were speaking as one.
“Let’s go have a “chat” with dear sister on the importance of a long night,” Luna said as she began to return to her body, but not before her eyes flashed a bright teal with slits for pupils.
Luna would never know this, until it was too late, but her descriptions of Celestia started a desire deep within Moony. A desire to see Celestia pay for hurting her friend, to force her to see that she was no better than everyone else.
A desire to be Celestia’s NIGHTMARE!!!
Author's Note
That's my entry for The EFNW 2015 Pre-Con Contest. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it. I wanted to take slightly different look at making new friends as sometimes those we think we are making friends with actually are using us for their own goals.
