After court we make our way to the dining hall, with me on Luna’s back, since I’m still in pain from the transformation earlier today. Luna orders some kind of soup and wine, while I order some fish and hard cider; transforming today has really made me want some meat. I can’t wait until there are more meat options from whatever trades that Celestia might make with the griffons. The wait for our meals isn’t very long and so I eagerly eat my fish. It’s good, but I could really use some red meat soon. We don’t really talk during dinner; I think we’re both too tired from the exhausting day.

When we finish eating, we both head up to our bed chambers. Luna gently sits me down on the bed and takes off her royal regalia. I take off my cape and new clothes, and Luna neatly puts them away. I then crawl under the sheets, Luna following me and snuggling closely. I nuzzle her and kiss her cheek. “Oh, it’s been such a tiring day, Luna… It feels so good to finally be in bed.”

Luna nuzzles me back and returns the kiss. “Indeed, it has, Travis… I am so proud of you for making the announcement with me, and for taking a more active part in court… But I am beginning to worry about you… I do not want you to be in the military…”

“I know that… But it might be for the best… But then again, I don’t really know… I mean, it’ll be good for getting the nobles on our side, and for hopefully making Blueblood a better stallion… And some part of me just wants to do it… But I don’t want to leave you alone either… And the more reasonable side of me is telling me that I’m not a soldier, and that I shouldn’t risk my life unless I absolutely need to…”

Luna lets out a sigh. “I really hope that you choose to stay with me in Canterlot… But I will not oppose you if your final decision is to go along with Fancy’s idea… I cannot deny that circumstances have changed substantially since we first talked about you keeping me company… Travis, if you do decide to go, promise me that you will write me letters as often as possible.”

I snuggle a little closer to her. “Of course, Luna. I promise that if I go along with the military option, I will write you letters whenever I can.” I fondly kiss her lips.

“Thank you… I love you, Travis.” Luna lovingly kisses me back.

“I love you too, Luna.” I kiss her again and slide my tongue out to her lips, which she allows into her mouth. I then affectionately caress her side as we make out. Luna is also stroking my side and my back with her hoof and a wing. Nothing is different this time compared to any other times we’ve made out, but I feel myself growing a little aroused, so I break the kiss. Well… I don’t think I want to do that kind of thing at the moment, even if my body might have other plans.

Luna looks into my eyes and softly brushes my cheek with a hoof. “Is something wrong, my love?” I guess she noticed something off from the way I broke the kiss…

“Um… Not necessarily. Nothing is wrong per say…” I blush and can’t quite look her in the eye. “But I’m in kind of an awkward situation…”

“What kind of awk-” Luna cuts herself off as she shifts a bit, incidentally rubbing against the bulge in my underwear. “I see…” She blushes. “There is nothing wrong with being aroused, Travis… We are a couple after all… W-Would you like to… Do… Do something about it?”

I shake my head. “N-No… I don’t, uh, think so… Which is why it’s kind of awkward…” Crap! I better clarify that I don’t mean not at all! “N-Not that I wouldn’t want to do something with you sometime! Just… Not yet…”

Luna comfortingly strokes my hair with a lingering blush. “I understand… Perhaps we could try to focus on something else if you would like to?”

I smile and nod lightly. “That would be a good idea… How about you try to teach me about lucid dreaming, before we go to sleep?”

Luna gives me a warm smile. “I can tell you about the basics, although you probably will not succeed tonight; it takes a while, before your mind is able to do it."

“That’s cool, as long as I get a start on it.”

“Very well… For starters, it is a good practice to pay extra attention to your surroundings, even when you are awake. You must question yourself whether you are dreaming or not and perform reality checks to determine the answer. It should suffice to see if you can feel pain, and attempt to do something impossible.”

“Pain should be pretty simple; just pinch myself or something every now and then, right? And define impossible… A bunch of things that have happened to me recently would be considered impossible on Earth.”

“Yes, pinching yourself works.” Luna then giggles as I ask her to define impossible. “You could attempt to do something without magic. For example, you could see if you can push one of your hands through another one of your hands. Or you could see if you can hover on your own, considering you do not have the ability to do so.”

I nod. “Right, that makes sense… So, what do I do after that?”

“Before you go to sleep, while you are in bed, you should recite in your head that you are going to sleep to have a dream.”

“Okay, anything else?”

She shakes her head with a smile. “No, that should be all for now.”

I nod. “Awesome. Pay attention to my surroundings, perform reality checks, and tell myself I’m going to sleep to have a dream. Got it.”

“Yes, that is it, Travis.” Luna kisses my forehead.

I kiss the underside of her muzzle. I then decide to pinch myself – which does sting a little – and then I try to phase my hand through myself. Obviously, I’m not dreaming now, but it’s a good idea to get into the habit of regular reality checks. “Well, I’m gonna try to sleep now. Good night, Luna.”

She holds me a little closer. “Good night, Travis.”

I close my eyes and relax as we are snuggled closely. I’m going to sleep to have a dream. I’m going to sleep to have a dream. I’m going to sleep to have a dream. I continue to tell myself in my head. I soon give in to my tiredness.

I open my eyes. Where the hell am I? It seems to be sunset, and there are fires and smoke all around. There’s screaming and shouting. Some of it sounds like it’s done out of pain, some of it out of anger, and some of it sounds like orders. I blink and look around again. There are two masses of people charging each other. Some of them are humans, and others are ponies. I’m now in one of the groups, and at the front. How did I get here? Some guy – a human – swings a sword right at me and I raise my arm in defence. I have a shield now? It blocks his attack, and so I make a counter-attack with a sword of my own. I slash his throat and his blood rushes out over me. He clutches at his throat and drops to the floor. What the fuck is going on?!

There are ponies on either side of me and they are also locked in deadly combat with the army in front of us. I am forced to pay attention as a spear nearly stabs me. It was a unicorn stallion who made the attack. Before he can retract the spear, I step into reach and plunge my blade through his chest. The unicorn lets out a cry of pain and drops as I pull out my sword. The ponies beside me step forward with me. Somewhere there is a call from behind. “Raise your shields!” Why? I look up and see a volley of arrows falling towards us. Shit! I crouch down and lift my shield above my head. The ponies beside me weren’t so quick.

I feel something odd and overpowering, which causes me to drop my shield. No. Fuck! I need it. Why did I drop it? I look down and see a spear lodged in my belly; my blood running down its length. Fuck! Fuck! Shit! I feel sick. I look up to see an earth pony holding the spear. I then see a man, and a unicorn approach with swords at the ready. I try to raise my sword to defend myself, but I can’t… They both stab at me with their blades… Time seems to slow as the points get closer to my chest… Then… They stop. There is a bright flash of light and the battle is no more. The spear is no longer in my belly, and I’m perfectly fine. I can’t help but shake uncontrollably and breathe rapidly. I thought I was gonna die…

My vision is then filled with a familiar dark blue, and Luna hugs me tightly with her wings and hooves. “Travis. It is okay… I am here now… It is just a dream…”

Oh… Right… I laugh nervously as I become lucid. “You were right about not being able to become lucid on my own first try…” I bury my face in her fluffy chest and nuzzle her firmly. “Fuck… I thought I was going to die… I’m glad you came to make me lucid…”

Luna rubs my back firmly, and quickly. It kind of feels like she’s nervous too. “I would never leave you with such a nightmare… You are all right… You will be all right…” It almost sounds like she’s reassuring herself as well.

I try my best to comfort her as well, petting the sides of her neck and holding her close. “Yeah, it was just a nightmare. There’s nothing to worry about. Of course, I’ll be all right.”

Luna takes a deep breath and pulls away to look into my eyes. “That may have just been a nightmare, but it might not be in the future… If you choose to join the military…” She closes her eyes and takes a few more deep breaths. “It is obvious that is why you had such a nightmare…”

I look back into her eyes and sigh. “I know… Joining the military and going to a real battle is dangerous… I might… I might die… But I doubt I’ll be in the front line if the attachment is ordered to protect me for your sake. I’ll probably be in the back somewhere. Maybe I’ll shoot some arrows in a volley or something.”

Luna shakes her head. “You have not seen or experienced a real battle. It may start with a plan… But it becomes chaos… And being at the back is not always the safest place. It is possible for the enemy to flank you and attack from the sides or from behind… There is no safe place in a battle.”

I nod and brush her cheek. “I know… I’m just trying to comfort you… You seem just as worried as me, if not more so… But still, the attachment will train and prepare me, and more importantly protect me. I know that no place is safe in a battle, but I’ll be safer than the others there.”

Luna sighs. “I feel like you have already made up your mind on it. You never needed that week to decide, did you?”

I look down. “I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll need the whole week, and I’m definitely leaning towards going, but I’m not certain. I guess I thought that the week would allow me to be more certain…” I look back up at her. “And I also wanted to take the week for you.”

Luna nods with a sad smile. “Thank you for taking the week for me… But I want to know, after this nightmare, are you more certain or less certain of your decision?”

I laugh a bit. “The nightmare sure made me more scared, but it was just a nightmare. After talking to you though, and thinking some more, I feel more certain.” I gently run a hand through her flowing mane. “Before I came to Equestria, I was considering joining the military in Australia, but I decided against it. Not necessarily because I was against the idea, but because I didn’t feel like I could fight for my country… Or any country on Earth for that matter… I might be really new here, but Equestria seems like it would be worth fighting for. Not to mention that I wouldn’t just be fighting for Equestria, but also for you.” I plant a soft kiss on her lips.

Luna returns the kiss. “I am honoured that you would fight for me… But I don’t want you to put yourself in danger for me…” She shakes her head, but then looks into my eyes. “However, if you feel that is what you must do, then I will not stop you…”

I nod. “Thanks… And now that I think about it, couldn’t you visit my dreams whenever our sleep schedules align, and you aren’t busy helping anybody else with their dreams? We could see each other during our sleep instead of me writing letters, although I’ll still write them if you want, since I did promise.”

“Yes, I could…” Luna giggles. “I do not know why I did not think of that myself, but I would still like you to write letters in addition to dream visits. If you write letters, I will have something physical to keep while you are away.”

I smile and give her a quick peck on the lips. “Of course, I will still write you letters.”

Luna smiles too and pecks me back. “Thank you, Travis my love… I will hold you to that.”

“You’re more than welcome, Luna sweetie… I wouldn’t expect anything less.” I idly stroke her ethereal mane. “So, would you like to do anything now in my dream?”

“Not that I can think of. Perhaps we should simply sleep? We did have an exhausting day after all.”

I chuckle. “Sounds good to me.” I focus and make us appear at the side of a bed, in the dream setting that Luna showed me before. The one with the big bioluminescent flower tree and the island with peaceful water surrounding it. We crawl into bed for the second time this night and snuggle closely. “Good night, Luna… Again.” I chuckle a little more and kiss her nose.

Luna giggles with me. “Yes, good night again, Travis.” She kisses my nose back and closes her eyes. I soon follow suit and close my eyes as well, drifting away into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note

Would you look at that? Another chapter not even a whole 24 hours later! Writing this while bludging in class sure does lead to a lot more writing being done.