Yet another day had reached its end. Luna walked out onto the balcony of the castle next to her sister. Using her magic, Luna raised the moon into the night sky while her sister made the sun sink into the horizon.
"How was the day today?" Luna asked her sister.
"It was like any other," her sister replied. "The sun was shining and all the ponies were going about their business."
"That sounds rather dull." said Luna.
"It was." her sister replied. "Did you sense anything while you were sleeping?" she asked.
Luna thought for a moment. "I sensed a dying light of sorts," she said. "As if something is slowly being eaten away."
Her sister looked concerned. "What do you mean?"
"I don't know," she said. "All I know is that whatever it is, it's nothing good"
"What's your plan for tonight then?" her sister asked, emitting a small yawn.
"I will travel into the dreamscape and see where this stems from." Luna said. "But, you really must get your rest dear sister." With that, she walked her tired sister to her bedroom and let her sleep. "May your dreams be sweeter than honey." she said as she closed the door. She then conjured a door in front of her and opened it.
The door opened onto a flat expanse. the sky was green as the sea and the ground was filled with a countless number of stars.
The dreamscape Luna thought to herself. Still as beautiful as ever She remembered back when she first made the dreamscape. She had made it out of the good dreams of ponies and the stars of the night sky. Her horn lit up and soon she was met with two rows of doors stretching endlessly in front of her. Gateways to the dreams of all the ponies in Equestria. However, this time, she noticed something off. More doors than usual were covered in shadows, a sign that the pony was having a nightmare. She wouldn't have thought much of it if it weren't for the shadow's color. Normally the shadows were blue and black, but these shadow were different, they were a smokey grey, as if somepony had taken a piece of nothing and given it a physical form. Knowing something was wrong, she found the first odd-shadowed door she saw and bolted through it.
As she was running through it, she noticed the door had a star with a blue ring around it for a symbol.
Astro she thought in the split second she had time to. As soon as she had stepped through the door, she was being pulled in by something. It was a black hole! She looked down to see Astro desperately clinging to a chunk of space rocks.
"What's happening?!" Luna tried to scream, but there was no sound in space, or air. She quickly conjured a space helmet for her so she could breath. She then began to talk to Astro through a radio in her helmet.
"Astro! What is going on?" she demanded.
"I don't know," he admitted. "I was just having the most wonderful dream about floating through space when, all of a sudden, this black hole opens."
Luna's horn began to glow and both Astro and her were transported back to the dreamscape.
"Thank you, Princess!" said Astro "I thought I was a goner!"
"If your dream was so bad, then why didn't you wake up?" Luna asked him.
"I tried everything, pinching, shaking my head, even slapping myself in the face," said Astro. "But my dreams only end when they want to."
"This is serious." said Luna to herself. "One can be trapped in a dream if it is lucid, but no one has ever been trapped in a nightmare."
"So, what should I do?" asked Astro.
"There's nothing I can do for you now, so you'll have to wake up." Luna said as her horn began glowing.
"No, that isn't happe-" is all Astro managed to say before he was teleported away to the waking world.
Luna walked up to one of the shadowed doors and her horn began to glow. The shadow was surrounded in a blue aura. However, rather than dissipating like it should have, it came to life! The shadow morphed into a black spider with a red marking on its back. Luna tried to step on it, but it wouldn't be crushed. Luna quickly got rid of the doors and teleported herself away, leaving the creature behind.
I can't do this on my own Luna thought to herself. Think, Luna! Where can you find ponies who know anything about this kind of thing As if the dreamscape had heard her, four doors were conjured up in front of Luna. The first one was lavender-blue with a tornado on it, the second one was reddish orange with a phoenix on it, the third one was light blue with water droplets on it, and the final one was light grey with a diamond-shaped rock on it. Luna could not see any significance to the doors until she saw that they were sparkling. But, sparkling doors only belong to those with extraordinary powers she thought, remembering the door of a pony who could bend time and space, marked by their hourglass Cutie Mark. "Well, if the dreamscape brought them here, then they must be worth looking into." Luna said to herself. She then walked into the first door.
When Luna stepped through the door, for the second time that night, she was whisked away by wind. She took the time to survey her surroundings, but all she could see were storm clouds. Knowing she was going to be sick soon from all the spinning she stopped time in the dream entirely.
"Awww!" said a high-pitched, girly voice. "You ruined the fun!"
Luna looked around until she spotted a lavender-blue mare a half mile away. She had a white and lavender-blue mane that looked like it was made of clouds. Her eyes were blue like a clear summer's sky and her Cutie Mark was a tornado.
"And with whom do I owe my apologies to?" Luna asked the mare.
Just then the mare created a gust of wind from her bare hooves and shot like a bullet straight at the princess. Luna was prepared to teleport, but the mare stopped about two feet from Luna's face. "Wind, The Air Elemental." the pony said with a smug expression on her face. Luna regained her composure and looked straight at the mare.
"Well, Wind, would you care to tell me where in Equestria we are?" she demanded.
"You silly!" said Wind. "We're nowhere near Equestria, we're on the planet Neptune!" she said, gesturing to the "planet" as she called it.
"Why would you want to visit a distant planet such as this?" Luna asked.
"It's simple," said Wind. "This planet is pretty much a giant storm cloud! I love riding the winds like a skateboard!" she exclaimed.
Quite the energetic mare, isn't she? Lua thought to herself. "So, what is an elemental?" Luna asked the mare.
"Well, an Elemental is a pony who can control one of the four elements." said Wind.
"That doesn't make sense," said Luna. "There are six Elements of Harmony, so how can you only control one of the four?"
"No, no, no," said Wind. "Not the Elements of Harmony, we control the four natural elements of the world."
"What?" Luna asked, even more confused than before.
"Look, it'll be a lot easier when all my friends are here," said Wind. "So let's go find them!" a door appeared in front of her and she bolted through it. Luna followed her and they were back in the dreamscape.
"How did we get back here?" Luna asked Wind.
"I opened the door you came through." she said.
I'm not even going to say anything Luna thought to herself.
"Looks like all my friends' dreams are right here." Wind noted.
"I think we should go through the door with the phoenix," said Luna. "Seeing as how it's right next to yours." she explained.
"Ok." said Wind. "But, I'd put these on." in front of her appeared four pairs of leather boots.
"What would we be needing these for?" Luna asked.
"Just put them on. You'll thank me later." Wind assured her. So, Luna put on the boots and the two of them stepped through the door.
Luna and Wind began falling. Before they hit the ground they used their wings and gusts respectively to cushion the blow.
Why do I feel so warm? Luna asked herself. She then looked down to see the answer to her question. Both her and Wind were knee-deep in lava!
"What's going on?!" Luna screamed, losing her composure "Why are we not burning alive"
"Calm down Your Highness," said Wind. "You'll be fine so long as none of it goes above your forearm."
Confused, Luna examined her foreleg and found that the boots were somehow protecting her from the lava's heat.
"What are these things?" Luna asked Wind.
"Flame-Proof Boots," said Wind. "I use them all the time when I visit Fire."
"Fire?" Luna asked.
"Yeah, Fire." she explained "He's one of my friends."
"I don't think I'd want to be friends with anyone named Fire." Luna said.
"Well, that's not very nice." said a male voice to Luna's side.
Luna looked to her right and saw an orange-ish red colt standing on a platform of black rocks. He had a spiky orange and red mane that made him look like a walking bonfire.
"Hi, Fire!" Wind said as she jumped out of the lava and onto the rocks.
"Wind, what are you doing here?" Fire asked her. "You know my dreams can get dangerous."
I'll say Luna thought to herself as she joined the two on the rocks.
"Well, Luna here entered my dream and completely ruined the fun." Wind began.
"Neptune?" Fire asked.
"Neptune." Wind responded. "Anyways, I told her that it would be easier to explain what we do when we're all together."
"That's not exactly why I'm here." Luna interrupted.
"Why are you here then?" Fire asked.
"Ponies' dreams are suddenly turning into nightmares," Luna said. "But these are no ordinary nightmares. I fear that someone or something has been causing this." she said.
"If it's such an issue, why not just handle it yourself?" Fire asked.
"I would if I could," Luna said "But I sense that whoever is causing this resides in the Nightscape."
"What's the Nightscape?" asked Wind.
"The Nightscape is a world made of nightmares and dying stars." Luna said. "I created it as a place to keep all of Equestria's nightmares in captivity.
"Sounds like the breeding ground for evil." Fire said.
"If whatever's causing this does reside there, then this is a far greater issue than I perceived." Luna said.
"We need to find the rest of our friends A.S.A.P!" Wind told Fire.
"Seriously?!" Fire interjected. "I was just about to raid the castle of the Demon Prince." He said, pointing to a looming black castle in the distance.
"It will have to wait until your next dream." Luna said. "Right now we have bigger problems."
Luna, Wind, and Fire exited the fearsome place and went back to the dreamscape, walking through a light blue door with water drops on it.
If Luna wasn't being sucked into dreams tonight, she was falling from great heights into dreams. All three of the ponies fell through clouds and finally hit the water below. Luna quickly conjured of a raft for them to stand on.
"Is everypony okay?" she asked.
"All good here." said Wind.
"I'm not."
Luna and Wind both look over to see Fire. Instead of his usual fiery red, he was a dark grey with a few patches of orange that looked like burning cinders. His mane had disappeared as well.
"You gonna stand there or are you going to help me?" Fire asked, his ears flattening.
"Right." Wind said. She then use wind gusts to dry him off and began blowing on him. He glowed brighter with each breath until his mane burst from his head like a match being lit.
"What a curious property you have there Fire." Luna remarked.
He just grumbled.
"Look over there!" Wind shouted.
Not too far away was a small boat with a red flag on it.
"I can't see who's sailing on that boat." Luna said. "Wind, could you-"
But Wind was already blowing as hard out the back of thraft as she could out the back of the raft and it began rocketing toward the boat.
As they neared it, the pony turned around and shot a rushing torrent of water at them.
