Author's Note

This is my first ever FIM fiction I have ever written. It will get pretty dark and will be pretty slow getting up, but please enjoy anyways.

Prologue

Prologue

The night felt wonderful to her. The stars that twinkle in the sky…The ambient glow of the moon, a light that was neither painful nor vile in the slightest; a beacon of the night... It always made her smile.

Of course she smiled. She was the ruler of it. She was after all the Princess of the Night.

A small gust of wind tussled her mane of night slightly, a familiar presence appearing beside her. Celestia gave a smile and observed the scenery.

“Wonderful job as usual Luna. You make the night more beautiful every day.” Luna sheepishly nodded her head. Celestia had been giving her remarks and praise of the nights lately.

Many years had passed since Luna’s return from banishment. Things had grown distant between the once close siblings. Things have been very…awkward, to say the least, between them. Of course, they do not show this apprehension to the public; things could get restless.

The turmoil between the sisters wasn’t even the surface of the problems of the current era. Many things had happened in such a short amount of time. Discord was awoken, the Changelings attacked, Sombra returned, and Tirek had escaped Tartarus. These many catastrophic events caused unrest in Equestria.

Luna looked away from her sister and back to the night sky.

“Tis’ to be expected, sister. Night is the blanket of which I weave and comfort the lans with.” Celestia gave a wry smile, one of which Luna did not see. She didn’t say it, but it hurt to hear her sister talk in such old limericks. She did not experience how much language had changed the thousand years she had been gone. Hearing her talk was just one more reminder of what had been done so many years ago.

Celestia extended her wings and began to take flight.

“I will leave you to your duties then, sister.” Luna nodded her head.

“Fare thee well, sister. Pleasant dreams to you.” Luna said, whispering the last part. Within moments Celestia was off to her bed chambers, leaving Luna alone on her balcony

Luna stood there and breathed in the night air alone, as she had done for many nights before.

“Thy night is still young,” she murmured. “Perhaps I shall see what thy citizens are dreaming...” The horn atop her head began to glow a violet aura. She stopped almost immediately when she felt a small pin prick sting in her mind.

She blinked.

The feeling she felt was a nightmare in somepony’s dreams, but that wasn’t what caught her attention. It was the feelings that this nightmare gave her.

She had never before felt a nightmare like this. The magnitude of it was staggering; almost real. It was beyond unusual.

The feelings sent shudders down her spine. She turned her gaze towards the direction of the feeling; the same direction as the small town of Ponyville. She couldn’t help but wonder what created such a feeling.

Her horn began to gleam with a purple energy. She closed her eyes and felt her body melt away. When she opened her eyes, she found herself in the dream.

The princess of the night had to do a double take on her surroundings. There were strange buildings all around, all of which appeared very similar. They had a strange texture to them, one of which that appeared to not be stone, but not entirely appearing to be wood. She looked to the ground she was standing on. It was a dark stone. It appeared to be a single slab of smooth rock going on in both directions. (Note: Luna is standing on a residential street in a neighborhood)

Luna had never seen a place like this. It was otherworldly.

She held a hoof up to her head.

She felt lightheaded and out of breath…suffocated even. This place…The atmosphere…The deafening silence… It was so thick with dark feelings that it was making her feel faint.

She closed her eyes and began to wander without sight, moving towards the source of the dark feeling.

She spread her wings and began to glide deftly through the dreamscape. Even with her eyes closed, she could feel the landscape around begin to shift and change. Curious of what else this dream had in store, she opened her eyes and looked around. Her eyes widened at what she saw.

Tall buildings with glassy windows stood high into the sky, some even taller than the Canterlot castle. Many of them appeared to scrape into the very sky…

Skyscrapers...

Loud screeching and screaming abruptly echoed in the soundless city, breaking the silence that filled the air to the brim.

She looked down to see what appeared to be two metal carriage of some sorts flipped over. There appeared to be nopony pulling either carriage. Luna gently fluttered over the site, just out of range to where she was able to observe the scene, but not be observed herself.

She listened as she heard a sound echo in the distance. It was a loud siren, one that steadily got closer. She watched as two white and red, box shaped carriages came rushing down the smooth stone road. She was in awe as the carriages appeared to move forward on their own. Even though there was nopony pulling either wagon, they moved at outstanding paces, faster than anypony could run. Luna assumed there was some kind of life spell cast upon the vehicles.

The carriages stopped just beyond the wreckage.

Several tall figures exited the vehicles, each one wearing matching uniforms. She observed them curiously. Many of them stood tall, several of them taller than Luna and taller than Celestia as well. They wore clothing all over their bodies. Luna wondered why, but she noted that they didn’t appear to have any hair besides what was on their heads. They didn’t have hoofs or tails either.

She watched as the creatures dragged beds with wheels and other equipment out of their carriages, moving in sync and in very trained manners. She watched as they started pulling bodies out of the flipped carriages. They pulled what looked like a young boy from the wreck and made attempts to put him on one of the mobile beds. He was crying and fighting, screaming curses and blasphemy so vulgar it made the princess’s face flush. Luna took a closer look at the boy and choked down a gasp.

A large piece of metal skewed all the way through the boy’s midsection, painting his clothes with red. He appeared to have a dark eyepatch over his left eye. How he was alive, even more to how he was fighting, was beyond the princess.

The boy stopped struggling when one of the tall creatures shoved a needle in his arm, flooding his veins with a clear liquid. He stopped kicking almost immediately. He looked up just as his eyes were fluttering shut. Luna couldn’t move out of the way fast enough.

He saw her.

He woke up.

He didn’t wake up in the literal sense, as he was still sleeping. Rather, when somepony saw the Princess of the night in their dreams, they always, regardless of who, immediately became aware that they were dreaming; it didn’t matter if they knew who Luna was or what she could do.

In almost all cases, this did not matter. In fact, it made the calming of the dreamer easier for the princess.

However… This was not a normal creature.

The boy moved so quick that his movements were merely blurs. The boy was standing on the bed immediately. He fazed through the hands of those that were trying to restrain him. He stood up and ripped the piece of debris out of his body. The metal became an arrow. He reached behind himself into nothingness and pulled out a strange looking bow. He notched the arrow, pulled back, and released. The princess couldn’t even react before it happened.

Luna screamed as she awoke. She was breathing heavy, a veil of sweat covering her body. She was shaking.

She put a hoof to her head and tried to calm herself to no avail.

“What...was that creature…?” she muttered, still gasping for breath.

Never before had that happened. Never before has Luna been affected by the effects of somepony’s dream. Never before has anypony manage to make their dream lucid to such a level.

Never before had anypony cut Luna out of their dream.

Her hoof trailed over her chest. Her heart was beating fiercely.

She could still feel the arrow...Still feels its presence so close to her. Never before had anypony attacked her like that.

She looked towards Ponyville. She glanced up at Celestia’s balcony. She looked back towards Ponyville. She contemplated telling her sister of what she had just seen. But at the same time, there was a part of her that didn’t want to bother her sister. Her sister was a very busy person who needed her sleep.

Besides...There was still a doubt in Luna’s mind of what had happened, because she wasn’t even sure what did happen.

She decided to conjure up a quick note to tell her sister of where she was going. She teleported the parchment onto her sister’s bed stand before extending her wings and taking flight.