Echo-4882

-  -  - Echo's dream, Luna's POV - - -

Going into the dream was easy for Luna, what with the hundreds of years in experience that she had, it was what she found on the other side of the portal that made it far more difficult to focus.

Instead of seeing some foul creature that had entered Equestria, Luna found a young filly sitting before her.  She couldn't have been any older than a teenager. The land around her was utterly devastated, fires dotted the landscape while dark, menacing clouds covered the skyline as far as the eye could see.

Luna was speechless, never before had she seen a nightmare so... detailed. It was almost as if she had been in a world that looked like this.

Turning her attention to the filly before her, she found her staring forlornly down at the scene that played out before her, her ears splayed backwards and a frown dominating her face.

Attempting to ignore the devastation around her, Luna focused on trying to calm the filly. After all, that was her job in the end. Unfortunately this did not have the desired effect.

As soon as Luna took a step forward, the filly became aware of her. She spun around from her sitting position to face the intruder before her. Her face lit up in confusion when she apparently did not recognise who was before her.

“W-what?” She stuttered, clearly trying to understand how this pony was in her dream.

“It is okay, little one. I am not here to hurt you, I am here to help.” Luna replied, hoping to stop the young filly from panicking and waking up. If she woke now then Luna would not likely find her again so easily.

“Help? Help me how?”

“It is my duty to aid anypony that struggles in their dreams, and it would seem that you need some of that aid more than ever.”

At this, the filly looked down to the ground, thinking. After a few moments she lifted her head and asked, “so you are real then?”

“Of course, little one, my name is Luna, princess of Equestria and younger sister of Celestia. I control the moon's orbit and watch over all of the sleeping ponies during the night.” I responded with a smile. Surely she would calm now, knowing that a princess of Equestria was here to aid her.

However, instead of calming, or even becoming a slight bit happier, her face became one of fear.

“What!? Why are you here!? Oh no, I can't let this continue! I can't let you find out, it's too soon!”

Luna recoiled, never before had a pony reacted in this way when she had introduced herself.

“Please young one, there is no need to panic, panicking will only make it worse.” Luna said, trying to defuse the situation that was quickly getting out of hoof.

“How can I be calm!? You shouldn't be here! I should have realised this would happen, I gotta wake up!”

Luna was beginning to lose her hold in the realm, as the filly became more agitated her dream became less stable, chunks of land had already began to shift into darkness as the dream quickly began to deteriorate.

Realising that nothing would prevent her from waking at this point, Luna reluctantly backed away from the dream. As quickly as she had entered it, she left, and watched as the bubble imploded in upon itself before completely disappearing.

'What in Equestria was that?' She thought as she stared at the space that once housed the bubble to the filly's dream.

• - - Echo's POV - - -

I woke with a start, gasping for air as I tried to calm down.

'How could I have been so stupid, of course Luna would have seen my dream. I could have risked everything with that mistake. I need to be more careful in the future.' I thought as I slowly began to catch my breath. Looking at the moon it seemed that I had maybe gotten around five hours of sleep before I was awoken.

I sighed before standing, wobbling slightly as I was still trying to wake up. 'What am I going to do now? Now Luna has seen my mind AND what I look like. If she thinks that I am some sort of threat then it would make things far more difficult.'

I shook my head to try and clear my mind. I still had a lot of work to do before I could start telling ponies about why I was here. 'I only have one chance at this. If I can't stop this war from starting then my parents dies for nothing. I cannot accept that' I thought as I looked around to begin gathering sticks for a fire.

'But first, I could do with something to eat...'

• - - Canterlot castle, Luna's POV - - -

“Sister, are you awake?” Luna asked, she had left her realm shortly after the dream had ended and immediately left to alert her sister of what had happened.

“Yes Luna, come in.”

Hearing that, Luna pushed the door open to find her sister going through various documents. Most of which where likely requests from nobles for tax reductions.

“How can I help you, dear sister?” Celestia said as she looked up from the paperwork before her.

“I may have found something that connects with the unknown energy we found a few days ago.” Luna responded

That certainly got Celestia's attention, as she had nearly given up with searching for an answer for it.

“What have you found Luna?” She asked, her full attention on Luna.

“I had entered the Dreamscape to aid ponies in their sleep, as usual, when I came across a dream that was emanating the same energy we had found. The dream was clearly a nightmare which caused me to become curious, I hadn't expected to see a nightmare in that realm at all when I had thought of a monster. As I entered, however, instead of finding a monster, I found a filly. I tried to comfort her but she reacted... unexpectedly. She became incredibly agitated before ending the dream.”

Celestia thought about this for a moment before responding, “did you manage to learn anything about the filly? If we could speak with her we could learn about what this energy was and what had lead to it spiking.”

“No, sister. All I can describe it her appearance. I never managed to get her name and it ended too quickly for me to learn anything substantial about her.” Luna said, unhappy that she couldn't provide any more information.

At this Celestia stood and embraced Luna, “It is fine, Luna. This is wonderful news as it means that we can now begin to discover what had happened. If you can, please describe the filly to the best of your abilities and I will have the guard be on the lookout for her.”

Luna smiled before going into a detailed description of the filly, when she had finished, Celestia sent word to the guard to be looking out for a filly with the description that Luna had given.

'Finally, progress is being made' Celestia thought with a smile as she returned to her paperwork.

The smile quickly faded as she read another nobles attempts to extort money from the princesses.

-sigh- 'But some things will never change.'