The Silence

To any ordinary pony, the night sky was little more than inky blackness and twinkling stars. Beautiful, of course, and vast, but still just stars and blackness.

Luna saw something else entirely. The magic of dreamweaving allowed her to see millions of tiny threads that danced majestically through the air to their own inaudible tunes. As she stood upon the tallest tower of Canterlot Castle, she witnessed a sea of colors, ever changing, ever shifting, swaying and waving and telling an untold number of stories. Every thread possessed its own reason and rhyme, rising up from the slumbering heads of sleeping ponies and stretching up, up, up, forever up, until at last touching the surface of the moon.

Tonight, that moon was new, black and invisible to any save Luna herself. The result was the appearance of a great river of colors flowing endlessly into a hole of perfect nothingness, dancing their way to oblivion. Equestria was the sea, but all of the sea flowed in one direction, interweaving to create something glorious. She was tempted to send a wave of her magic through the dream lines, a trick and personal secret she’d discovered long ago that would make those lines visible to even the least magically gifted of ponies.

They had come to be known as the auroras.

No, there would be no aurora tonight. Luna was always cautious as to when to produce them; too often and they would become redundant, glorious as they were. Besides, she had no time to play. The worst nightmares always came just after sunset, and she was determined to stop them as early as possible.

With this in mind, Luna closed her eyes so as to see the ever-changing lines more clearly. Every piece was inspected carefully, the colors that threaded through her mental hooves telling stories that could be wondrous or terrible to behold. Calm blues, cheerful greens, anxious yellows and passionate pinks swirled past her on route to their destination, all speaking to her in a magic very few were blessed to understand. Luna couldn’t resist a smile; tonight, it seemed, was going to be an easy one. Only a small number of reds, and those were so dim as to be little more than a passing spook or two.

Yet as pleasant a sight as this was, Luna knew that somewhere in this chaotic carpet of infinite hues would be hidden some pulsing, lashing crimsons, irradiating fear and anger and loss. It was these she sought out every night in her eternal quest to stamp out the horrors of the mind. In all her many years, she’d not gone a single night without encountering the terrors, and the peaceful scene before her failed to pacify her devotion.

Canterlot, it seemed, was peaceful. And so, with but a little extra concentration, she expanded her ethereal search in all directions. More lines, greater waves, vast oceans of colors spread out before her ever widening awareness. Across the empty fields lay vast expanses of black where no pony lived to dream. In other great landscapes she would find but a small patch of lines rising on their own amidst a plateau of darkness, sometimes a tiny village, at times even a small household struggling in the wilderness. There were isolated souls and great gatherings, each line as interesting to Luna as every other. She wove their dream lines like threads, examining each and every one with the speed of practice and magical awareness.

The bad dreams appeared, sometimes in isolated incidents, sometimes in small clusters where the nightmare had spread from line to line. She followed each of these crimson tendrils back to their source, and from there she could enter the dreams themselves. Demons to slay, friends to rescue, lives to rebuild. Every creature, be it a pony or a griffon or even a dragon, was a slave to their own mind.

But with the right words and the proper display, all could be made right in their world.

There were few pleasures in Luna’s life to match the happy faces of the creatures she met in dreams. Be it appreciation for a rescue or dawning comprehension of a lesson learned, few met her assistance with anything less than joy. Every night she met more ponies, and every morning more awoke with a greater appreciation of her hard work and devotion. They rewarded her with loyalty and kindness, and so Luna rediscovered the sheer delight of helping others. Celestia could garner affection and loyalty with laws, acts of charity and generosity, but Luna touched their very souls.

Could there be anything more satisfying?

What seemed like hours to Luna had only been one in the real world, or so she suspected. Another wonderful thing about dreams what that they compressed so much into so little. Already she’d interacted with over a dozen ponies, four griffons, a minotaur and even a diamond dog – the latter of which was rather exasperating. Her mental journey was reaching the farthest edges of Equestria, and the limits of her abilities. She would have to start channeling the power of the moon itself if she was to go much farther. Rarely did she do such a thing; while the citizens of Equestria enjoyed her aid, those outside the nation’s borders tended to worry less about nightmares and more about ‘spying.’

But she wasn’t done yet. A few locales remained, those on the very edge of Equestria’s borders. Las Pegasus in the west, Seaddle to the northwest, Appleloosa in the south, Vieux le Rênes in the southeast, and in the northeast…

In the physical world, Luna frowned. There should be a great river of color from Manehattan, just like any other city, but it was absent. It was as though one of the largest cities in Equestria had absolutely no sleeping citizen tonight, which Luna knew to be a statistical impossibility. Never before had she seen an entire cityscape just… disappear from her dream sight.

Worry itched at Luna’s insides as she contemplated the potential causes of such a thing. The worst case scenario that she could think of would involve some gargantuan disaster that wiped the entire city off the face of the world. It wouldn’t have been the first time – the Crystal Empire came to mind, and with it came a fresh horror of the possibilities.

Her first thought was to investigate more closely, but Luna was not so foolish as to go in unprepared. She began by closing off her ethereal search and giving her mental body a more true-to-life form. She would have to depart from Canterlot again, but she felt that the greater precision this would afford her was necessary.

“Star Strike.”

The night guard, one of half a dozen who always remained hidden nearby when she went on nightmare patrol, failed to hide his surprise. “Yes, your majesty?”

“I have discovered something… disturbing. Go, wake my sister. Have her come to see me immediately. I will be investigating this further.”

“As you say, princess.”

Comfortable in the knowledge that Celestia would soon be there to snap her from the dreamweaving trance if needed, Luna turned her attention back to the task at hoof. Her ethereal self approached the city, naught but a whisper in the night, merely a vague concept to the minds and eyes of awake ponies. The journey took seconds, for movement in this state was purely a matter of the mind. She saw nothing of the physical landscape – if she deigned to open her eyes, she would have merely observed the same Canterlot view as was before her in real world. Instead, she followed the dancing waves of dream lines, using a mental map and years of practice as her guide. The route by now was little more than rote memory, unhindered by the sheer absence of what would normally be a rising stream of brilliant, multihued imagination.

When she arrived before the region she knew to be Manehattan, she could see nothing but darkness. Even so, she felt the wrongness: a noxious anxiety that filled the non-atmosphere of this plane of existence. Her physical body recoiled from sensations of dread, anger, pain and sheer loathing that pushed towards her. The mode of contact was familiar for a dreamweaver, but the intensity was reserved for only the most vile of night terrors. And yet, as far as she could detect, nopony was dreaming.

Luna scowled at the blackness. Possibilities swam through her mind, dismissed one at a time as she considered all the options available. Whatever caused these intense emotions, it did not appear to be actively attacking her. It was more akin to an aura, a constant, lingering ball of emotion that did not move yet affected a great area. From this she theorized that she was experiencing the unintentional radiation of not one, but a great many nightmares.

This in itself was troubling. For a nightmare to take hold of so many as to produce such a vast effect would normally takes months of inattentiveness on her part, and this one had cropped up overnight! Which could only mean that there was a singular cause, to be found and stopped.

Yet where were the dreamers? She could detect not a single dream line in the region, but the sensation couldn’t exist unless somepony was generating them. Some creatures could generate these nonphysical sensations even while awake, this was true, and daydreaming did have some interaction with her dreamweaving senses, but this foul impression did not feel like either of those. It was the sensation of an active dream, so logically, there had to be somepony unconscious nearby.

This led Luna, at last, to a conclusion that made some semblance of sense: the dream lines were being blocked by something.

The princess promptly shifted gears, her attention focusing on studying both the ethereal and – as best as possible in this state – physical world. Her magic refined itself from sweeping examinations to pinpoint prying, touching at the blackness for some sign of tampering. Almost immediately, she was rewarded with a presence.

With a few exploratory touches, Luna realized that the only reason she’d not detected this thing already was that its ethereal state blended perfectly with the sightless dark that comprised the most basic aspect of the dreamweaving plane. In and of itself, this meant nothing save that it was hard to see even for her. Its existance, however, left Luna with a sense of foreboding; this was not the kind of interference that occurred naturally.

How much time had passed? Seconds? Minutes? Despite her long experience, not even Luna could accurately tell. It was entirely possible that Celestia had not even been woken up. But Luna was there, facing this mystery, and waiting for her sister to arrive did not sit well with her. If her guess proved accurate, then ponies were suffering in her domain, and she could tolerate such an invasion.

Luna was the mistress of dreams. This barrier intimidated her.

But it had to come down.

The first step was to analyze the magical makeup of the barrier. The magic itself was alien to her – wrapped up in energies that appeared outright birthed by negativity, if such a thing was possible – but the design seemed simple. As she fanned her magic out to feel at more and more of the surface, a picture grew in her head. This magic wasn’t just simple, it was downright plain. It was little more than a wall grid held together by loose strains. Any mage with knowledge above that of a grade schooler would be able to break it.

Which brought up a new thought: why hadn’t the undoubtedly talented mages at the Manehattan Academy of Magic done something about this? Maybe they were too busy trying to deal with whatever was happening inside, in the real world. Maybe they were simply unaware.

Or maybe the simplicity of the barrier was a ruse. Either the pony/creature/whatever that made this wasn’t very bright, or was a little too bright. Breaking the barrier all at once suddenly felt too risky; what if the thing had been built to keep something in, and the effect on dream lines an unintentional side effect?

Luna needed to be cautious. She resolved to only open a small section, just enough to let her get a glimpse of what lay within, no more. Granted, she wouldn’t be able to see the physical state of Manehattan, but perhaps she could infer things from the dream lines.

If there were any to see.

With this thought spurring her into action, Luna began to work. She chose a portion of the barrier about two-thirds up, speculating that such a position would give her an appropriate view.

Utilizing magic in a dream was a simple thing. However, since Luna was not actively in a dream but instead on the plane of dreamweaving itself, things proved a bit more complicated. She would have to channel magic from the real world into the ethereal through her horn, sending it along the spiritual signature of her very soul in order to cross the distance without losing too much strength. For normal ponies, it would be an outright drastic and reckless task. Any tampering with the connection between her physical and nonphysical forms could cause severe and permanent damage, and Luna had no interest in become a ghost because of a severed link.

The task might be difficult, but for an alicorn princess whose special talent practically was the night? Well within her capabilities. She was far more concerned about what she may find within. She resolved to return to her body the instant something appeared wrong, lest the source of all this hateful energy happened to take notice of her presence.

The tear was almost ready. Luna had just one thing left to do.

“Who is the highest ranking officer present?”

It was a moment before one of the thestrals replied, “I am Second Lieutenant Cast Iron, ma’am.”

The spell was ready. “I am about to attempt something that may be dangerous. Under no circumstances are you to aid me, no matter what you hear. Only Celestia is to interrupt. Am I clear, Second Lieutenant Cast Iron?”

Did he hesitate, or was it merely the inconsistent nature of time in this state? “Very clear, your majesty.”

She might have smiled for him, were she able to tell where he was in relation to her physical form. Hopefully he could see it, regardless. “Good. I am going in.”

Her guards thus protected from themselves, Luna focused on the barrier before and, with but a thought, put all the pieces of her spell together. Connections unwound, relays snapped, and soon a small tear appeared. The first thing Luna noticed was the intense red of the—

ohgoddessithurts Idontwanttodie runaway someponygetmeout mommyImscared gazingoutattheeternalfog killit killit dontleavemeplease isthatme babspleasehearme crystalwhatareyoudoing ithurts ithurts ithurts putthesworddown whyisthishappening makeitstop lunayourearly thatsnotcandy getitoff hurtshurtshurtshurts celestialunacadancetwilightanypony crystaldontdoit letmeoutbabsplease daddywheredidyougo itburns letmeout letmeout letmeout whydoesithurtsomuch mommycomeback youwerentrightdoyouhearme sohungry daddyimscared letmegoletme ithurts icantreach lunadontletitcatchyou diediediediedie dearchild rainbowisthatyou imburningplease getoutrunaway youcantdie crystalstopitsme ihateyou dearprincesscelestia keepback ithurtithurtsithurts itsonthewalls makeitstop ifyourcaughtnowequestriafalls ididntknow babshelpme Icantseeit imtheworstkindofpony abirdsgottaeat icantputherout donteatme wedontstandachance iloveyou Ihateyou standdown getitoff helpmeplease imsosorry youhavetoresist snapoutofit imwatching ohgoddessithurts nopapadont spikeitsnotyou whatintarnation fluttershy weareallgoingtodie youreallythinkyourgod ithurtspleaseithurts itstoodeep ohgoddessohgoddessohgoddess whyisthishappening myleg isanyponyoutthere ijustwantedtosaveyourhat Twilightisthat illprotectyouhoneypromise wherewereyou breathelunabreatheididntmeanto slowdown itscomingicanhearitinthewalls whywhywhymewhy getoutofmyhead wecantwin ihateyoucoco finishitsoarin whydoearthponiesdreamofflying youwerecrazyididntknowwhatotdo imsosorry bearwithitlunawegetthroughthis makeitstop upthere attack iknowithurts shutupshutupshutup pleasepinkieno inthenameofthecrystalheartiwillstopyou ithurts whatarewegoingtodo helpmehelpme fortheloveofcelestiafly makeitstop justalittlelonger whatisthisplace nodontgo doyouevenknowwhatyouredoing pleasedontiloveyou mommypleasesaveme ididntwantthis firefirehelp ithurtsithurts makeitstopmakeitstop listentome youpatheticpawn getawayfromme shesdead runawayplease dontletthemonstersgetme ithurts theyreeverywhere makeitstopmakeitstop imgoingtokillyou itllbeokayitllbeokay celestiawhy idontwanttodie whydidntyoucome idontneedwingstofly nononono makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop ihateyou soscared bloodeverywhere whydidyoudothis pleaseletmeout idontwanttodie makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop lunaconcentrate imsorrysister Luna thisisyourfault whydoesithurt makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop Luna makeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstopmakeitstop sister makeitstopmakeitstopmakeit—

“Luna!”

Shrieking filled Luna’s eardrums, punishing her already pounding skull. Her throat burned, as did her horn. Visions swam through her mind, crushed into her skull as if somepony had attempted to stuff it with barbed wire until it couldn’t fit, and then shoved still more inside. It wasn’t just what she was seeing; she could smell the blood, taste the ashes, feel the eternal nothingness stretching her body impossibly thin without ever letting her die.

Her eyes were closed, but the visions were still there. Horrible, hideous scenes of brutality, death and blood. She tore at her own face, desperate to make the imagery stop. And that infernal screaming…

At last, she understood: she was the one doing the screaming.

The moment the noise stopped, something faint whispered into her ear. Luna struggled to ignore the horror passing across her eyes to focus on the sound.

“It’s okay, Luna. I’m here. Please, come back to me. You’re okay.”

“C-Celestia?” Luna’s voice sounded frail even to her. “I can’t see. Can’t f-feel.” A whimper escaped her lips as something passed through her visions, something big and bloody and grinning with no small number of teeth. “Make it stop. Make it stop. Please, make it stop.”

“It’s alright, sister. I’m here. Just breathe. Can you hear me, Luna? I need you to breathe.”

Concentration came with great difficulty; every time Luna tried to take a deep breath, another horrible vision assaulted her senses. A phantom aching would settle over bones that weren’t as broken as they felt, or a morbid stench from thousands of rotting corpses would impact her nostrils. Finally, after an indeterminable time, she was able to suck in a single, long breath. Then another, and another. With every slow inhale, the mental battle quieted.

At last, Luna managed to open her eyes. She found herself on her bed, drenched in sweat and lying on her side. Her sister had been beside the bed, head resting close to Luna’s. She sat up straight as Luna shifted, relief clear in her tear-streaked face.

“Luna? Are you okay?”

Slowly, her eyes wide, Luna cast her gaze across her room. Shivers overtook her as the memories of her experience gained life in shadows that were normally her friends. Before she knew what she was doing, she’d grabbed Celestia in a tight hug and began to weep. Her sister held her close, whispering indecipherable soothings into her ears as she sobbed in a way she’d not done since she was but a filly. Even now, her eyes kept darting to the shadows, her ears perking to every faint sound, ready for some hideous, misaligned claw to come tearing at her throat, or a wicked tendril to stab into her insides, or flames to burn black her very soul.

Or the expanse. The sheer, gaping emptiness that took hold of her every hair and pulled upon her until she took up all space and time and existence and could see and feel everything but nothing. It was such an alien, painful feeling, burning her very pores until she’d wanted nothing more than to die.

And the voices. Good Goddess, the voices…

The fear ebbed, but wouldn’t leave. Luna took her time with the recovery, once again forcing herself to breath calmly as a means of breaking the cycle. It seemed like hours before she stopped crying. Even then, she kept a firm hold on her sister, grasping her in a way not unlike she once did as a foal. How magnificent it would be to return to the age when all her worst fears were little more than childish imagination.

But this hadn’t been something so simple as a dream. The longer Luna waited, the more clear her mind grew, and with that clarity came comprehension. Her horror for her own safety was passing.

A new one took its place.

At last, Luna sat up, blinking weariness from her eyes. Celestia, having climbed onto the bed at some point during the breakdown, raised her head. “Luna?”

“Yes, sister. I am… better now. How long was I out?”

Celestia closed her eyes. “A long time. Several hours. Luna, what happened?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but the answer eluded her. She thought about what she’d seen, unable to repress a shiver. But no, it was not the visions and the noises and the voices she had to think on. What had happened just before that?

It came back to her slowly, and she spoke at an even measure. “I found a barrier around Manehattan. I opened it to see what was inside.” She closed her eyes, fighting to recall exactly what she had encountered. “I thought I might find some villain, or perhaps a magical experiment gone awry. What I got…”

A shudder ran its course over her body, prompting Celestia to reach for her. Luna accepted her touch with a deep, recovering breathe. “Manehattan is in danger. I have to go out there again.”

Celestia’s face twisted into a scowl. “You can’t be serious. After what just happened?”

Luna nodded, then set a hoof atop one of Celestia’s. “It is because of what just happened – because of my actions – that I must go. I cut a hole in the barrier. If what is trapped inside is leaking into the world, it could spell disaster for us all. I must see if it is still open, and if so, attempt to close it.”

She braced herself, well aware that her sister would probably try to stop her. It was what Celestia did when important matters arose. Luna would have to argue her point very well if she was going to convince her, but there was precious little time for that. She began picking options for—

Celestia rested her wing over Luna’s back. “Please, at least tell me what it is you encountered.”

Luna blinked. She looked to the wing across her back, then to Celestia’s concerned gaze. “You won’t try to stop me?”

“No, sister.” Celestia offered a weak smile. “You are the Princess of the Night. You understand dreamweaving, a magic that I could never grasp. If you believe this threat is so great, I will bow before your knowledge and experience. But please, at least let me know what is going on before you risk yourself.”

Seconds passed as Luna stared at her, her schemes aborted before they could properly form. Part of her wanted to ask why her sister would say such things that were so unlike her. Then she relaxed, chastising herself for not recognizing it sooner. “I appreciate your trust in me, sister. It is… good to see.”

Celestia rested her neck over Luna’s withers with a sigh. “I won’t doubt you again, dear sister. I never should have in the first place.”

Luna smiled, in spite of the fear that scratched against the back of her mind. Had she more time, perhaps she would have spoken at length about this. Alas, time was not on her side, so instead she rested her chin on the sheets and began to speak.

“This barrier is blocking dreams, Celestia. It holds them within a confined space, letting them grow stronger, spreading their power. The Moon cannot funnel their energies away from Equestria as it is meant to.”

Celestia raised her head. When she spoke, it was with trepidation. “Sister, are you saying we may be facing a Lunatic Event?”

“Manehattan is already encased in one. What was probably the nightmare of a single individual has grown into a true terror so powerful and all-consuming that I can’t imagine it is not having some effect on the real world within the barrier.” Another shiver tore through Luna as the visions crept their way back into her mind. “Honestly, sister, I have never seen anything even close to what is inside.”

Celestia cocked her head. “But I thought that dream energy grew slowly. Manehattan was fine last night, was it not?”

Luna sat up, stretching and rolling her shoulders. “You are right, of course. Normally a dream would have to linger for years before it gathered any real strength, but this night terror has arisen overnight.” She leveled a firm look upon her sister. “Even with the barrier set in place, no dream could grow so quickly. Celestia, that night terror was made intentionally.”

Her sister’s wide-eyed stare steadily shifted to heavy-lidded severity. “I see. You are right, this is serious. Did you get an idea of the kind of mind we are dealing with?”

“I don’t think it is a mind that functions as we normally think of such things,” Luna replied, her tone at once thoughtful and worried. “I barely brushed the edge of the night terror, but that alone was enough to render me helpless. I don’t know how much of what I saw was the dream energy’s relentless assault or the work of intelligent action.” She licked her lips, recalling the faint taste and scent of blood. “But I can say this: what little I did touch was vile. It is a foulness of a sort I cannot comprehend.”

Celestia said nothing. She only stared at her hooves, expression stern and eyes shifting in thought. Luna watched her for some time, but finally pulled her hoof away. The motion made Celestia start with a small twitch, and she turned her attention back to her sister.

“Is there anything I can do to help?”

With a smile, Luna shook her head. “Only be here in case I fall into the madness again. Do not worry too much, dear sister; I have no intention of gazing into that morass a second time. I will only approach Manehattan to see if the hole I created remains, and seal it back if I can.”

“Somehow, I am not put at ease,” Celestia replied. “But I will do as you ask. What about real-world solutions?”

Luna thought on this, her hoof running small circles on her sheets. “It is impossible for the night terror to be this strong without a powerful reaction in the physical world. I hate to sound foreboding, but Manehattan could well be a living Tartarus right now, and there’s no telling if the… ‘entity’ that caused this intends to unleash that rancor upon Equestria. I think that, as soon as I finish this task, we must send out messages. Cadance will need to be alerted; if any power can battle what I just encountered, I would wager that power being love. At the very least, this felt like the very antithesis of that concept; perhaps she will become a target.”

Celestia gave a firm nod. “It will be done. But do you really think the intelligence, whatever it may be, will go after her?”

“It is a definite possibility.” Luna thought about other courses of action her sister could take. Against her better judgement, she began to cautiously go over some of the things she’d ‘heard’ while caught in that maelstrom of horrors. Most of it was a muddled mess, but there were things on the surface that she could recall. Lone words, screams, pleas…

Rainbow, is that you?

Her breath caught as the voice, faint but familiar, echoed in her skull.

Spike, it’s not you!

No. Coincidence. Surely, it had to be a coincidence.

Twilight? Is that…

Luna ground her jaw, rejecting the idea that was forming in her mind. There were plenty of ponies named…

Fluttershy!

“Luna?” Celestia leaned forward, concern once again masking her features. “What’s wrong?”

Please! Pinkie, no!

“Summon Twilight and her friends.” Luna shot Celestia a wide-eyed look. “Do it now. We must keep them close. Whatever that… that thing in there is, it will be after them.”

Celestia’s frown deepened. “Luna, how do you know?”

Luna stepped down from the bed and shook herself, as if having just stepped out of a shower. A cold one, if her shivers were any indication. “I saw things, heard things. Glimpses in the insanity. Twilight and her friends… They were there.”

“But that’s not possible.” Celestia followed her to the balcony. “I exchanged letters with Twilight just yesterday. She and her friends are in Ponyville tonight.”

Luna stared up at the moon, worry eating at her insides. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but I also know what I heard. They are somehow involved in this, even if they don’t know it yet. Summon them, Celestia, before whatever this is gets to them first.”

Celestia’s frown deepened. She opened her mouth, closed it, tried again. At last, she nodded. “I will do as you suggest.”

“But you doubt me,” Luna replied, not bothering to look at her sister.

“It’s not you I doubt so much as your information,” Celestia corrected. “Isn’t it possible that whatever you encountered was intentionally putting information into your head?”

The words dented Luna’s confidence. She grimaced as she considered the consequences of her sister’s suggestion. “It’s possible, yes. Maybe it merely wanted to feed my fears. Or worse, maybe it wants us to summon Twilight and her friends for some nefarious purpose. Even so—”

“You’d feel safer with them here?” Celestia nodded. “I understand. I will summon them as soon as you return.”

Relaxing, Luna turned her attention to the moon, which had sunken far lower in the sky than she’d anticipated. A couple more hours and it would be time for the sunrise. With but a thought, she brought back the dreamweaving spell, and the world was alight with color once more.

Celestia whispered in her ear. “Be careful, little sister.”

Luna allowed herself a second to nuzzle her elder sibling, smiling at her warmth. “I will.”

Then she launched her ethereal self into the world, skimming the brilliant waves of light. She made straight for Manehattan, her search centered upon any signs of the red that spoke of ominous events. The closer she came to her destination, the more fear crept into her mind. What would she encounter? Would the night terror be flooding into Equestria, too fast and powerful for the Moon to absorb all the energy? More and more often she thought she saw crimson in the corner of her mental gaze, but always she would find herself mistaken.

It was to Luna’s immense surprise that she arrived at Manehattan to not only find nothing spewing forth into the world at large, but to discover that the barrier had healed itself. She approached cautiously, not willing to believe that she could be so lucky. Yet, the closer she came, the more she recognized that the hole she’d cut into the thing had indeed been sealed up. When she paused outside the black obstruction and performed a closer examination, she could find no trace of the damage her magic had dealt.

And yet, as she felt at the near-invisible wall before her, Luna realized that something was indeed different about it. It was hard to define, given the unnatural nature of the magic before her, but if she had to describe it she might have called it ‘loose.’

“Luna, are you okay?” Celestia’s voice had come from nearby, which only made sense.

Luna permitted a smile from her physical form. “I am fine, Tia. I am at the barrier now. Shall I describe it to you?”

“Please.”

Luna nodded and considered the barrier before her yet again. How to put it into words her inexperienced sister would understand? “Well, when I am not within a dream, the world is a backdrop of total darkness, and the dreams are lines that stretch from each creature to the Moon in complicated waves. You remember how I showed that to you once?”

“That was so long ago,” Celestia replied hesitantly, “but yes, I think so. I remember it being quite beautiful.”

Luna’s ghostly form began to orbit the barrier, touching it in various places in an attempt to understand its magic. “The object surrounding Manehattan is itself black, and so it is hard to ‘see.’ Seeing is a relative term, of course; it’s hard to describe what the sense is really like when dreamweaving. The point is, if you didn’t know there was a whole city of dreaming ponies within it, you’d never notice its existence.”

It was a quiet moment before Celestia spoke again. “So it is meant to be hidden?”

“I do not believe so,” Luna replied, having completed a lap around the barrier. “I think it is merely the natural appearance of the magic, no more, no less. Besides, one would have a hard time hiding an entire city’s captivity to dreams. I promise, something is happening here in the physical world; it’s bound to be highly noticeable.”

Celestia hmm-ed. “I suppose we should be receiving reports of something amiss by daybreak. What of this hole you created?”

Luna hovered over the very place she’d made her incision, confusion and frustration clouding her mind. “It is gone, as though it never were. But I believe something has changed within. Before it was like…” She paused to consider her description. “It was as if a container had been filled with an intense pressure that has now been released somehow.”

“Perhaps your hole vented it, like air from a balloon,” Celestia suggested.

“Perhaps.” Luna pressed against the barrier, struggling to pierce its boundaries with her magic and get even the tiniest hint of what was inside. It was vastly more difficult than trying to break open the barrier outright, and she found she could make no progress. “But the dream energy had to go somewhere. If it was released from the barrier, why isn’t the surrounding area saturated in negative energy? The Moon didn’t absorb it, I would have felt the increase in my powers.”

Her sister made a huffing noise. She sounded not unlike a student frustrated at her own inability to learn a subject. “Well, where else could it have gone?”

Silence reigned as Luna pondered this question for some time. She circled the barrier again, fighting to get a look inside but failing miserably. Halfway through her third orbit, a thought occurred to her. It chilled her physical body as the implications grew in her mind.

“Luna?”

Knowing she couldn’t keep this to herself, she spoke hesitantly. “There is the possibility… I mean, I’ve never heard of anypony actually being able to do it, but…”

“What is it, Lulu?”

“Hold on, I’m returning.”

And she did, turning away from the barrier and hurrying her way through the ocean of brilliant colors. It took only seconds, and then she opened her eyes and found herself back on her balcony, Celestia sitting nearby and watching her with concern. She smiled for her elder sister. “I’m alright, Celestia.”

“You’re sure?” Celestia’s eyes roamed her form as if she were a mother seeking out that lone spot of mud on her foal. “You know I have only your word to go on when it comes to dreamweaving.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Trust me, sister, I am fine. We have work to do.”

As if Luna’s gentle tone were actually a reprimand, Celestia flinched and backed away a little. “Yes, you are correct. I assume you have a theory?”

“Less ‘theory’ and more ‘wild suspicion.’ ” Luna kept her tone firm, despite her own doubts. “The dream energy appears to have lessened, but I can’t detect anything indicating where it went. The only idea I have for why is that the energy was…” She paused to think on her words. “Consumed.”

Celestia’s brow furrowed as she took this statement in. “Is that even possible?”

Once more, Luna hesitated. “I cannot say for certain. I have studied the matter in depth in the past, even wrote a few treatises on the subject. All I can say for certain is that there are theories suggesting it can happen. If they are true, and I am right about this suspicion…”

At her pause, Celestia leaned closer. “How bad?”

“Bad.” Luna shivered, not knowing whether it was due to what she was considering or the vileness that continued to tug at the back of her mind. “I’m not even sure an alicorn could hold all that power. It would make our battle with Discord seem as child’s play. Take King Sombra, give him an Alicorn amulet, then multiply it by a number I cannot begin to estimate.”

Her eyes widened like saucers, Celestia balked. “But you are the only master of dreamweaving alive! Otherwise, would you not have noticed somepony else wandering the dreamscape?”

“Hmm… I suppose that is true.” Luna turned her eyes to the Moon yet again. “Perhaps I am overreacting. Yet the fact remains that the energy that has consumed Manehattan has dissipated, and it had to have gone somewhere I can’t detect via normal means. Either this is a form of dreamweaving I’ve not encountered before, or it is some natural and unexplainable phenomenon. I would say it must be the former; I swear, sister, there was an intelligence behind what I felt. A malevolence the likes of which I have never felt, not even from the Nightmare.”

The royal siblings were silent for some time, each pondering the recent discovery. At last, Celestia arose. “I must contact Twilight and her friends. You should get some rest. You’ve had an extreme night.”

Luna rose with her. “I shall, but first I believe I shall contact Cadance. I cannot shake the sensation that she is important in all of this, and won’t be able to rest easy until I have given her a warning.”

Celestia eyed her, lips pursed, but nodded. “Very well, I will leave that to you. But then you must get some sleep, sister. I will take care of lowering the moon, if I have your permission.”

The temptation to refuse this offer bubbled within Luna’s chest, but she shoved it down. Her sister was trusting her word on current events. Perhaps she should reciprocate in her own way. Besides, it had been a request, not a demand. “So be it… but just this once. Will you be alright, considering I have taken up the majority of your sleep for the night?”

“I’ve been through far worse,” Celestia replied with a grin. “Goodnight, little sister. Leave the rest to me. I’ll be sure to alert you should anything alarming take place.”

With a last nuzzle and some farewells, the princesses parted, and Luna found herself alone in her room once more. Left to her musings, she found the terrible memories of the night creeping upon her once more. Yet Luna would not be the mistress of dreams if she could not hold back her fears, and so she erected a mental wall between herself and the unpleasantness. Her memories would fade with time. For now, it was best to focus on her work.

She walked to the great mirror that stood over her rarely touched vanity. She never understood why Celestia insisted she have a vanity. It wasn’t like she needed one.

The mirror, on the other hoof, had all sorts of uses. Luna cast a spell upon it, and shadows began to wreath on its surface as if some creature were within. She sat before the glass to wait for the magic to complete its work, stifling a long yawn. In the silence, the isolation became much more noticeable. What happened to the guards she’d stationed around her quarters prior to her dreamweaving? Celestia probably dismissed them, to give the two of them some privacy.

The mirror flashed, like a piece of glass that shifted to catch the sun’s rays for the barest moment. Luna turned her attention back to it, her eyes narrowing when no face greeted her. Seconds passed, and Luna grew more and more agitated. At last, she gave a little cough.

A sound like something falling came out of the mirror, though it was muffled. A few seconds later, the face of a sleepy crystal pony in guard armor appeared. He glowered at her through bleary eyes, mumbling something indecipherable.

Then, as if struck by lightning, he came awake with wide eyes a red on his cheeks. “P-Princess Luna! My apologies, we weren’t expecting a call.”

Luna’s voice came out almost as a growl. “Noted. I have something of dire importance to relay. I require Princess Cadance. Wake her immediately.”

The guard appeared to want to argue this point, but he closed his mouth with an audible gulp when her eyes narrowed further. “R-right away, Your Majesty.”

He retreated, and Luna was left to her own thoughts. Again. Foremost among them was the desire to suggest to Cadance that her husband had to train her guards better. Before long, however, her thoughts meandered back to the situation at hoof, and what it might mean. No matter how she examined the matter, she couldn’t escape her most recent conclusion. The idea made the shivers run down her backside once more and left a twisting feeling in her gut.

The wait was long. Normally, Luna wouldn’t mind such things – one who spent a thousand years alone does not budge with the passing of mere minutes. Yet this was a call of great import, and Luna found herself fidgeting incessantly. What was taking Cadance so long?

At last, a new shape appeared in the mirror. To her credit, Cadance showed no sign of having been disturbed from sleep. Ignoring a mild case of bed mane, she appeared as awake and focused as she ever did. “Aunt Luna, I came as soon as I heard. What is going on? Is it Twilight?”

How curious, that she would immediately jump to such a conclusion. “No, your sister-in-law is safe.” For the moment. “My call is more for your own sake.”

Cadance gave a firm nod, her expression the definition of seriousness. “I understand. Should Shining be here? He was on his way, but I’ve always been the faster of the two of us.”

Luna nodded in turn. “That would be a good idea. We shall wait for him to… Cadance?”

Another flash came over the mirror, and Cadance’s image blurred. It lasted only a second, but whatever it was, it had Cadance’s full attention. The young alicorn looked about herself, brow furrowed and horn igniting gently.

The twisting in Luna’s stomach intensified. “Cadance? What is wrong?”

“I don’t know,” Cadance admitted. Her image faded for a moment, apparently due to her turning a circle in place. “I felt something. Some kind of magic, I think, but not like anything I’ve ever—”

The mirror went black. Not to its normal sheen, nor did it revert back to Luna’s reflection. It was just black.

Luna stared at the sight, her unease growing with every passing second. “Cadance?” She prodded the mirror with her magic, only to find her spell was still in place. Had the connection been severed somehow? Surely her worries weren’t coming to fruition so quickly…right? No. No, of course not. There was just some interference, that was all. Any moment now, Cadance would—

The noise that erupted from the mirror was deafening, forcing Luna to slam her hooves over her ears. It was like an indistinct crackling combined with a hiss, and something else. Something high pitched, something so intense in volume it rattled the windows and made Luna’s mane billow back against its normal flow. Even as she ground her teeth and closed her burning eyes, Luna struggled to understand what she was hearing.

She forced her eyes opened, and what she saw made her fall back on her rump.

Pressed against the inside of the mirror was something beyond her capacity for description. It was like a mass of misshapen flesh that had grown in random directions. Hooves, hands, claws, beaks, horns and tails were all mashed together in a single hideous cacophony of skin and meat. It pressed against the other side of the glass as if hoping to escape through the window of the mirror.

And the eyes. Dozens of them, arranged in nonsensical places, staring at her. Lidless, emotionless, coming in all shapes and sizes and colors, all meeting her gaze. An unfathomable audience that brooked no understanding, no recognition, not even a curiosity. Luna could only stare back, her mind struggling and failing to explain whatever this atrocity was.

And then, it disappeared. There was no fading away, no sudden burst of magic. One minute it was there, and the next, she was looking at her own reflection again. Through the ringing in her ears, Luna noticed that the sounds has ceased as well.

It was only then that she recognized what the high pitched sound had really been, and the comprehension sent a wave of cold dread through her body.

Something had been shrieking.