Dreams were a reality that Princess Luna enjoyed. A space of pure imagination, mixed with a steady stream of magic, shunted slightly underneath reality. And slightly to the left, depending on who you asked. She could access it, ever since she was a little girl. It was something to do with the tidal pull of the moon, as much as it affected the waves of the ocean, it also pulled at the fabric of magic that was woven into the world like fine stitching. The sun did the same, but because the moon only came out at night, it pulled a chunk of the magic off of the world in such a way that there was no one living attached to it. Almost everyone was asleep, and so there was almost no one to tether the magic to the world. Every person in Equestria, and everyone beyond, had minds, and souls, that were constantly acting upon and accessing the latent flow of magic within the world; keeping it tethered down like so many fine staples in paper. Starswirl had been the first to theorise on the nature of this fabric, and over time, Luna had come to understand it more intimately than anyone. When no minds were awake to act upon it, such as during the night hours, it came loose due to the pull of the moon, and it infused with the reality beyond this one, forming the basis for all dream magic. The conscious minds of people went away, replaced by a more powerful subconscious mind that could very easily slip out of the world, and into this aether. This netherspace, Luna still didn't have a name for it. She was toying with the idea of naming it something as brooding as her, but because no one else could access it, that point was moot. The Dreamworld, or Dreamscape, would suffice.

As she glided through this non-space on her wings of starlight, she kept an eye out for the nightmares. Happy dreams erupted in this world as white balls of pleasure; blossoming like flowers in a field. A neutral dream, or a nonsense one, would dance in a kaleidoscope of colours. A bad dream would be black, or red depending on the emotion. Fear, or anger, would be very easy to spot in this ocean of swirling purple. A true Nightmare, however, was much more sinister. It would pulse with an energy that made Luna's spine tingle. It would sometimes reach black tendrils out to infest other nearby dreams, and so, if left unchecked, the infection would spread. Her charge as keeper of dreams was much more important than anyone knew—if a single Nightmare were to infest everyone's dreams in one night, however unlikely that would be, then as those minds kept accessing the aether of the dream world, the nightmare would feed, and fester, as much a living creature as any that inhabited the waking world. Eventually it would consume the very minds of the people in the dreams, and be able to access their bodies. The thought of anyone being possessed by a true Nightmare was horrifying.

Her thoughts quickly turned away from that dark path, as she reminded herself that that was relatively unlikely to happen. She was ever vigilant, and normally, one or two bad dreams would pop up. If she was unlucky, one out of every ten bad dreams would fester into a true, pulsating nightmare, which would then draw her in, ready to fight it off.

But, this time, as she looked around at the ocean of white spheres, there wasn't a single black spiderweb to be seen. No pulsating mass of darkness tormenting some poor soul, and no inky black tendrils searching for others to infest. She was about ready to leave for her own dreams for the night, as it was already far too late for any one nightmare to do any substantial damage to even one late sleeper. But then, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. It was pulsing, but it wasn't a nightmare. It was black, but it wasn't fear. As she stepped closer to it, she realised, with a raise of her brow, that it belonged to her niece. Princess Cadence was calling to her, in a fit of lucidity that stunned the matriarch of the Night. Not wanting to react too brashly, Luna bent at the waist, and took in the sight of the dream beyond like a homeowner would look through a keyhole.

There was the Princess of Love, alright; pacing up and down a nondescript, endless hallway. Half-formed ideas floated past the arches, dreams that almost were, but could never be. As the Night Princess watched, Cadence stopped, closed her eyes, and sent out another pulse. The entire dreamscape thrummed with that one ripple, and her name carried out over the aether. Luna chose then to be truly concerned. Lucid dreaming was one thing, and it wasn't often she encountered even seasoned dreamers who could do it. Lucid dreamers that could call out to her were even rarer, and this? This was something else. Cadence was actively manipulating the dreamscape, calling out to her, pulling her in. And, with a dream as dark with fear as this one, Luna would be a very poor princess, and indeed a very poor Aunt, if she ignored it.

Reaching out a hand, she touched the sphere of darkness, and expanded it just enough for her to step through. The doorway sealed shut behind her, cutting her off for the moment from the other dreamers, and she found herself in the windy archways of Cadence's mind.

Luna stepped up towards the other woman, her hands pressed together over her stomach. Her midnight-blue heels clacked on the stone beneath her, she gently cleared her throat, and the sound cracked the delicate concentration Cadence had over the dream. She wheeled about, and finally smiled when she saw who it was.

Luna held her hands out. "Cadence, my dearest niece." She stepped forward, bringing the younger Princess into a warm embrace. "You were calling to me."

Cadence let the hug last for a few seconds, before she pulled away. "I was," she said, nodding in confirmation.

"You seem troubled." Luna looked around, past the archways, into raw subconscious thought beyond. "I've never seen a dream like this," she said, holding her arms up around her.

"I'm anxious." Cadence twirled her hair around a finger, tapping a foot on the stone. "And lucid," she said. "And worried, and anxious."

Luna adopted a teasing smile despite herself. "You spoke of anxiety twice."

"Because that's how bad it is!" Cadence cried out, stomping one of her feet in emphasis.

Holding up her hands in a placating gesture, Luna summoned a bit of her magic and summoned a table and two chairs from out of the floor. "Calm yourself, Cadence." She motioned for the furniture, inviting the younger Princess to take a seat. "Tell me your troubles," Luna said, once she had taken a seat of her own.

Cadence sighed, and all but collapsed into the chair. She ran her hands through her hair and tried to think about how best to broach the subject. "It's about Twilight," Cadence finally said.

"Oh?" That got Luna's attention. She folded her arms, and pressed them down onto the tabletop. Her legs followed in short order. "What about Twilight?"

"I think she's in trouble, or, well," Cadence quickly backpedaled at Luna's startled expression. "I think she's putting herself in trouble."

Tilting her head, one of the sides of her hair covered a teal eye, leaving the other one to curiously take in every word the younger monarch was speaking. "How so?"

"I believe she's worried about becoming, well..." Cadence stuttered, "like you were, back then," she hesitated. "Back when you were her. Nightmare Moon," she said for clarifications sake.

Luna's face fell. "Oh," she said. It was a heavy sounding word, dropping into their conversation and leaving a suffocating silence in its wake. It was no secret that her guilt hounded her, even now. While since the Tantabus incident she had become better at controlling it, and no longer sought to punish herself for crimes long forgiven, she still allowed herself some time to reflect. To linger on that painful part of her life, before she was banished to the all-encompassing cold void of the moon. She was a firm believer in studying history so as not to repeat it, and she was determined to never repeat her fall. Luna closed her eyes, shutting out the painful memories. I have been forgiven she told herself. All is well.

"I'm sorry," Cadence winced as she saw Luna's normally beautiful face scrunch up in pain. "I know it's a... sensitive subject,"

Princess Luna nodded, but took a deep breath, and buried the emotions deep down inside of her, where they festered along side the part of herself she so violently tried to forget. "It is for Twilight." She tapped her perfectly-manicured, midnight blue nails onto the glass table surface. "Why do you suspect this?"

"Well, she keeps talking about change, and the future," Cadence said, "but then she changes the subject, and it started after the incident with Daybreaker, in Starlight's dreams."

Luna thought about it for a second or two. It sounded much like her own experiences, if with a different trigger. "This is most troubling," she said, bringing a hand up to her face and wiping away the stray hair that was covering her eyes. "Fear and anxiety about change often leads to one isolating themselves from the ones they love. If she continues watching her friends go on, while she stagnates, she is in danger of, indeed, falling to the same forces that corrupted me."

Cadence slumped in her chair. "That's what I was afraid of."

Luna continued tapping on the glass. The crystal clear notes of nail striking the clear surface rang like bells in Cadence's mind. It was a sharp and light sound, but to Cadence it was like the tolling of a church bell, signalling the end of someone's life. Luna was thinking. A little voice in the back of her mind whispered cruel things; fates for Twilight too terrible to imagine, and fates the world might suffer in her absence. She tried to shut out the voice, because she knew what—or who— it belonged to, but the more she tried, the louder it became.
Images of Twilight, bound in chains in the aether, doomed to banishment for a crime whatever alter-ego she had committed in her stead... it was almost too much to bear for Luna to think this way about one of her dearest friends.

Suddenly, Luna stopped tapping, stopped thinking, and pushed herself up from the table. "We must see for ourselves," she said. "If she is truly worried about this happening, then her dreams will reflect as such," she turned around, and raised her arms before Cadence could protest or ask what she planned.

Instead, she stood up as well, watching her dream crumble away into thoughts and feelings, flights of fancy, and then into mere concepts, and then... nothing. She felt the paradox of the dream world envelop her, like a cool mercury mixed with a fiery heat in her brain. It took her a second, and a stumble or two, to right herself in this world, and the more she focused on the background, the greater the ache in her head became.

Luna began walking, and so Cadence half-skipped to catch up. The two Princesses strolled through a seemingly endless sea of dreams, which looked to Cadence like nothing more than stars in a nebula. Except, unlike stars, every now and then, she thought she could glimpse something inside them. Fleeting things, here and there; a laugh, an image, things that happened so fast she was sure she mistook them. She knew that they were dreams, but she couldn't bring herself to focus on them. They were people's minds, but her own mind couldn't make that connection.

Luna came to a stop beside one sphere; as grey and foreboding as an overcast sky that promised rain. It looked out of place among the swirling colours, and other dreams. "This," Luna said, "is Twilight's dream."

Cadence watched it as it floated up and down, swaying and rotating in the same non-existent breeze that whipped Luna's hair about her head in its gentle way.

Cadence looked between the Night Princess—with her lips in a thin scowl—and the dream, not being able to make heads nor tails of what she was seeing. "Is she having a nightmare?"

"No," Luna said, shaking her head. She could see through the veil, and she didn't like what she saw. This dream was unlike Cadences, and unlike a Nightmare. It was a fearful dream, but it wasn't bad. It was tinted with a sadistic sort of joy that Luna had never seen before. The contents were even more disturbing; Twilight was trapped in what appeared to be a dungeon at first, but what later revealed itself to be a charred, burnt out tree that stretched into the sky infinitely.

"Well, that's good," Cadence said with a smile. Luna looked at her. Cadence's smile fell. "Right?"

"Understand something, Cadence." Luna turned around and placed a hand on her shoulder. "During the final days of my transformation, I did not have nightmares. My dreams did not change, but I grew to enjoy them. The freedom they offered, the exhilaration, the escape from the world..." she trailed off, lost in some vague memory, before she came back. "All of it. Nightmares are subjective, and are one of the reasons why I must be diligent in my duties, for there are no others that can do what I do. Nightmares that are born from the self are even harder to track down."

Cadence gulped. "Oh. That's bad."

"Very." Luna nodded, turning back to the dream. Her hand trailed down Cadence's arm. "Hold on to my hand," she commanded.

Cadence did so. "Why?" she asked, as her fingers linked around Luna's.

Princess Luna's other hand reached up, touched the orb, and expanded it. "You are coming with me."

Cadence felt a sensation rising up within her stomach, then her chest. The vertigo lasted for a scant second, but the sensation of falling never seemed to stop. Together, they stepped into Twilight's twisting, writhing dream.

Twilight only knew that she felt more terrified than ever before in her entire life. She was back in her old home, except it wasn't her home. It was a charred, black, ashen simulacrum of her old library. The stench of charred paper hung thick in the air alongside the smoke. It was suffocating in its intensity, and oppressively heavy in her lungs. Every step she took simply brought her back into the living room, where embers sputtered and sparked off of a hundred thousand different books; stretching up into the sky alongside the cracked, burnt oak. Pages fluttered forth in an invisible wind, torn from one book, before the wind brushed them past her cheek, and into the remains of another. A fell voice was carried with it, and it whispered her name. "Twilight."

She wheeled around at the source of this new fear. The whispered word alone was enough to send a shiver down her spine, and make the hairs on the back of her neck stand up straight. "Who's there?" she asked into the darkness.

"Twilight," the voice repeated from right behind her. There was a mischievous, sing-song quality to it this time, and a giggle broke through the haze as Twilight turned around to face it. The laughter retreated into the walls, and a shadow grew up one side. Wicked fangs glinted in a light source Twilight didn't know the source of, and she gulped down the lump in her throat as the shadow began peeling away from the wall.

Twilight dug her feet into the ash and the soil, raising her fists as she charged a spell. "You can't scare me!" she very bravely declared, her magic filling her hands with raw power. A magenta horn sprouted from her head as her unicorn magic took root, while a pair of matching magical wings sprouted from just below her shoulder blades, flaring out to their full span. Her porcelain skin turned to goosebumps as the figure stepping out of the wall became more and more pronounced. The more she watched, the smaller this figure became, and the closer the walls seemed to come. Book stacks toppled over, crumpled into charred black petals, and vanished into the floor. More and more the walls closed in, until Twilight could see that the shadow was hers, and the figure took the form of someone very familiar to Twilight indeed.

"I exist because of your fear, Twilight." Midnight Sparkle said, grinning impishly as she advanced on her mirror-image.

Twilight would have almost confused her for an actual mirror, had her eyes not been glowing with dark fire, and her magic swirling about her hands like black swarms of flies. "Midnight," Twilight said.

Midnight crossed her legs and curtseyed. "The one and only," she said, before snapping back up to attention and placing a finger to her chin. "Well, almost," she clarified. "There's the business your alternate self had with me." Waving her hands in a dismissive way as though the other Twilight wasn't even worth considering.

Twilight, ever the analytical, latched onto that in hope. "So, you're not Midnight?" she asked.

"I'm the version of Midnight that exists in here." Midnight motioned around, then balled her fist, extending her index finger. "Inside you!" she poked Twilight in the chest. It felt like a knife went through her heart.

Twilight slapped the hand away, much to the amusement of the dark shade across the room "You're not me!" Twilight yelled. "You will never be a part of me!" She raised her hands and fired a beam of pure destructive energy. Midnight phased into a dark smoke, cackling madly with glee as she swirled around the beam with a nimble agility Twilight had never seen from any creature. The magic bolts and spells she cast slashed harmlessly through the air—sometimes through Midnight's cloud, but never harming her. It shattered and broke the ashen walls of the tree until Twilight was standing in an open field of ash and smog, with the cackling, grinning smoke cloud still whirling around her like a tornado.

"I'm as much a part of you as your magic!" Midnight materialised behind Twilight, her own beam of darkness launching forth from her cupped hands. Twilight brought up a shield from the Earth, grunting with the sheer force of Midnight's attack. "The more you fight me, the stronger I become!" Midnight yelled over the rushing roar of dark spells. Twilight gritted her teeth, ignoring the way the dark magic chittered, and whined, and squealed like nails being dragged down a chalkboard. Twilight's shield held firm, despite Twilight feeling her magic drain away. Her magical horn lost its lustre; her wings disappeared, and suddenly she felt like a girl again.

Thankfully, Midnight seemed to choose that exact moment to stop as well. She landed on the floor, her feet making no noise. Twilight stood back up, readying her fists. "I can beat you!" she declared. Though she had never been in a purely physical fight in her life, she felt confident in her instinctual ability. Like a cornered animal, she was both angry and afraid.

"Oh really?" Midnight laughed a chilling laugh, and spread her arms out wide. "Then try it," she offered. Twilight didn't move. If anything, Midnight's confidence was terrifyingly disarming. After a while of waiting, Midnight's arms dropped a fraction of an inch, and she lost her smile. Her face became hard. "I'm waiting," she growled.

Twilight still didn't move. She dared not. Her legs felt rooted to the spot.

Midnight padded forward. Twilight's knees shook. Like lion moving in for the kill, Midnight stepped towards Twilight at a leisurely pace. "You really are scared of me, aren't you?" she asked. "Well, this'll be easier than I thought. There's no reason to fear the future, Twilight."

"You are not my future!" Twilight spat out the words as Midnight approached.

Midnight's face changed into one of false sympathy. A hand brushed away Twilight's hair out of her face, and cupped her cheek. There was no warmth in either the gesture, or Midnight's hand. It was as cold as ice. "You deny, and you deny," Midnight sighed out, stepping up behind Twilight, and draping her arms over the other woman's shoulders. "But look around at the world, Twilight." She snapped her fingers, and images appeared all around her. Twilight looked at them, astounded by the fact that she was witnessing her own memories. Memories of the time with her friends, and then her castle, and then her library, and her bedroom, with it gradually becoming darker, and less interspersed with her friends as time wend on. "It's moving on. It's changing, and progressing, and you're being left behind," Midnight whispered directly into Twilight's ear.

"No." Twilight shook her head, tears brimming in her eyes.

"Oh, but you are. Look at you." Midnight froze the image. Twilight was writing a letter in the bleak hours of dawn, having not slept all night. "Cooped up inside your castle, like a spinster, "Midnight said. "With your paperwork and edicts, your governing, and your politics! Your friends are having fun without you, Twilight. They barely even notice your absence." Midnight licked her lips, changing the memory to one of Twilight watching her six friends laugh with each other, with a familiar woman with purple hair sitting in the middle of them. "Starlight Glimmer has comfortably slipped herself in the little niche you left behind."

"My friends would never do that to me," Twilight wheeled around, her hands clenching tight. "They'd never abandon me!"

Midnight grinned. "Of course they wouldn't. You abandoned them, and you're going to do it again," Midnight said with absolute surety.

Twilight was caught off guard by the accusation. "What?"

"You're a Princess, Twilight." Midnight knitted her brow in that sympathetic way once again. She stroked up Twilight's arms, and this time her hands were warm. Radiating warmth, in fact. Against the cool air of the nothingness around them, it was almost welcome. "You ascended past your Mage Tribe roots, and adopted the magic of the Cloud Tribe and the Earth Tribe. You are steadfast and immobile," her voice sounded so proud, "you're a stagnant point in time." Midnight pointed up at the image. "But them?" She scoffed. "They are fragile," she said with a sneer. "And mortal. They're leaving you in the dust as they live their lives, because they have lives to live! You have all eternity, and all eternity without them!"

"Stop it!" Twilight pushed her away, but the cold of the air and the sting of her words took away all her strength, and she collapsed onto the floor. She raised her hands to block out Midnight's gleeful cackling. "Shut up!" she sobbed.

"When they finally fall, when they die, I'll be right here," Midnight said. "Forever!"

"No!" Twilight collapsed to the ground, and curled up in a ball, while the laughter of Midnight sounded out around them, overpowering Twilight's sobs, and continuing to echo in the darkness for all eternity.

Luna had been watching from the sidelines, as had Cadence. While Luna had buried her emotions deep beneath her veneer of icy coolness, Cadence wore hers like a mask. Her hands were in front of her mouth in shock, and tears were freshly streaking down her face, left to drop off into the nothingness below.

"It is worse than we feared," Luna said, raising her hands once again, and willing herself and Cadence out of the disturbing dreamscape. They could do nothing for Twilight, not when Midnight had already vanished. "Midnight, or, something that Twilight has identified as Midnight, has already taken root in her mind." Luna's voice was strained with emotion.

Cadence sniffed, wiping her tears away with her fingers. "Then, how do we get rid of it?" she asked. "We can get rid of it, right?"

Luna hated delivering bad news. So when she shook her head with a sympathetic upturn of her eyebrows, and Cadence's face fell, Luna felt like weeping. "We can't," she said.

"What?! What do you mean we can't? There has to be a way!" Cadence balled her fists. She wouldn't give up on Twilight. She wouldn't—couldn't— sit back while the girl she used to babysit, her sister-in law, her family suffered some form of self-imposed vicious cycle of negativity. She couldn't sit idly by and wait for that thing to turn her Twilight into some she-demon.

"Cadence." The gentle hand was back on her shoulder. It was warm, and yet it was firm. "This isn't simply possession. Midnight was telling the truth; the entity that exists within Twilight is Twilight. As much as Nightmare Moon is a part of me." She closed her eyes, and the night-princess turned into something straight out of a bad dream. Her voice became like ice, her cerulean magic constructed wings and a horn, and she appeared in full battle armour. When the Nightmare appeared in the dream world, right in front of Cadence, the Princess of Love took a startled step back. "Our magic," Luna continued, "as Princesses, gives our fears and hatreds life. They are a part of us, they are separate from us." Luna stepped... outside of the form she had chosen, and there were two of them. It was hard for Cadence to follow. All of a sudden both women were moving apart, even though there was only one. Luna appeared the very image of grace and poise, while Nightmare was aggression and cold, calculating slit-eyes that drank in Cadence's very soul. "If we let them, they can overwhelm us. Like it did me."

Cadence shook her head. "I didn't know..." she trailed off.

Luna snapped her fingers, and the apparition of Nightmare Moon vanished, with an upturn of her head, and her eyes closing. As if she were slipping back from whence she came. "There is nothing we can do for her," Luna sadly exclaimed, "except what we have always done. We must continue to show her that she is not alone, and will never be. We must show her she is loved, and that she is treasured."

"Didn't Celestia try that with you?" Cadence spoke before she realised what she was saying.

Luna's hand vanished from her shoulder, and her jaw set firmly.

Cadence quickly held up her hands. "I'm sorry, that wasn't my place to say."

"No, it's alright," Luna said, holding up a hand. "She did. She tried so hard to show me how much she cared, but I didn't listen. I thought her love for me was hollow, born of pity. But Midnight and Nightmare are very different. Midnight is based off of fear, whereas Nightmare was jealousy and rage. Love merely exacerbates jealousy, but nothing is better at fighting fear."

Cadence thought about it. She would have to be the one to show Twilight she was still appreciated. She was the best at fighting this, so she would have to be there for her. Nightmare Moon was jealousy and rage, and Love made that worse? Cadence got to thinking, about everything she had seen. The Nightmare within Luna, and Midnight inside of Twilight were simply errant thoughts given form through magic and willpower. Only Princesses could do this to their negative emotions, only Princesses could give them a voice that fed themselves, because it was them saying it. That description sounded too much like many illnesses born of the mind, it sounded too familiar. It sounded too easy. Cadence turned away from Luna, her mind still racing. Perhaps all that Nightmare Moon and Midnight were, was simply the bad parts of themselves that they chose to keep trapped. Twilight felt guilty for her new duties taking her away from her friends, she felt that she was abandoning them, she felt anxious that they would leave her in turn, and rather than talk to them about it, she had instead let the business with Daybreaker clam her up, make her worry about becoming like Luna. In the way of all self-fulfilling prophecies, that had come to pass. But, still, it was all in Twilight's head, Luna had confirmed this wasn't possession, this wasn't some outside force, this was Twilight tormenting herself, as it was with Luna all those years before.

Perhaps all they needed was a little "Love..." she whispered.

Luna ignored her, having been lost in thought herself. If the incident with Daybreaker had affected Twilight so much, then perhaps it was affecting someone else. Someone much closer to Luna's heart, and much closer to home. "This is troubling," Luna said. "If Twilight has already fallen afoul of Midnight, then what of my sister..."

Cadence was brought out of her thoughts by the voice of her Aunt. "Luna?"

"We must go." Luna turned away. "We must check on my sister's dreams," she said, sprinting off down the dreamscape.

Cadence spluttered in place as she felt her mind fold in on itself. She wasn't meant to be here unsupervised, it was proximity to Luna that kept her there. So, she ran to catch up before she could disappear into her own dreams once again. "Luna, wait!" she called after her Aunt, but still had to run at full-force to have any hope of catching up to her. When she did, all she saw was Luna's panic-stricken features. "Why are we checking on Celestia?" Cadence asked, fearing she already knew the answer.

"An awful feeling I have," was Luna's cryptic reply.

There were few things Celestia enjoyed better than a spot of freshly brewed tea. Her favourite flavoured tea, in her favourite tea-set, in her favourite mug, in her favourite room in the whole castle. The veranda overlooked the royal gardens and offered a spectacular view of the rose bushes. They bloomed late, every single year, so now, in the throes of summer, they had just begun to peek their red petals out of their buds, ready to splash some extra colour into the already colourful Fall. It felt like a dream.

"Celestia," a voice whispered.

Sighing, Celestia took a sip of her tea, and gulped it down without a second thought. There was always something to ruin the perfect tranquility of her afternoons off. An uninvited guest thinking it could scare her was most unwelcome. Standing up, Celestia smoothed down her white sundress, and snapped her fingers. The tea-set disappeared in a flash of golden yellow, and she clasped her hands together in a practiced way that gave away no hint of her emotion. "I'm not going to play this game, creature. Either show yourself, or leave me be," she said into the air. Her face was a stone mask; as placid and unmoving as the marble pillars surrounding her.

"Always the direct one, weren't we?" the voice said, materialising in a wisp of sunlight. Rather than being gentle and warm radiance, it did its best to blind her. Scorching heat that would have instantly burnt away any other person filled the room, and the dryness almost took Celestia's breath away. What actually managed to do it, however, was the figure that emerged from the sunlight, with a ring of scorched marble and melted stone underneath her. She was dressed much like Celestia; except the white sundress was gold, with splashes of red here and there. Her stomach was clad in armour plating, bangles and bonds adorned her arms, ending in gauntlets that were segmented into plates of their own, ending in long, sharp nail coverings that glinted wicked sharp in the sunlight. Her hair, unlike Celestia's gentle rainbow, was entirely aflame. She exuded the raw power of the sun, she exuded Celestia's grace, and she exuded a predatory air about her that Celestia couldn't pin an origin on, mostly carried in the narrow eyes, thin smile, and long nails.

Celestia recognised her immediately, having dealt with an entity much like her not too long ago. "Daybreaker," she turned to one side, bracing one foot on the marble. She knew that this would very quickly turn into a fight, if she was the same as she was in Starlight's dream.

Daybreaker herself shuddered. "It feels so good to hear you say that," she said, tapping closer on high stiletto heels. "I must say, I like that name. It wasn't until you visited that silly Mage's dreams that I thought of it, and the design." She raised her arms and twirled. The armour plates adorning her stomach clanged together like gongs. "Oh, it was simply too good to pass up."

Before Celestia could say anything else, something else happened. A voice in the room that wasn't either of theirs.

"Sister!" Luna called out as she stepped into the dream, seeing Celestia facing down a demon.

Cadence was right behind her, and she balked at the vicious, sharp-toothed snarl she got from the simulacrum of Celestia.

"Luna, Cadence," Celestia smiled. "Just in time. I have an unwanted guest," she shot a look towards Daybreaker, who took a step back.

"I feared we were too late," Luna said.

"The little sister." Daybreaker crossed her arms, tapping her long claws against her elbow. "Come to banish me? You of all people should know that I am more than just a bad dream!" she sneered.

Celestia recoiled in shock. A dream, of course! It would explain so much.

Luna stared her down for a while, but eventually relented. "She is right."

"What do you mean?" Celestia turned to face her sister.

"We have been to Twilight's dreams," Cadence said.

Luna nodded. "She was most disturbed by the thought of your darker self, she feels lonely, and abandoned by her friends. She fears change, and she fears leaving them behind."

Celestia threw a hand up to her mouth. "Is she...?" she trailed off, not wanted to finish the thought.

"Almost," Luna said. "An entity known as Midnight Sparkle has taken root within her mind, I cannot banish her, just as I cannot banish her." She pointed across the room, at the figure that had grown more irate with each passing second she was ignored. Finally, referring to Daybreaker as her had been the final straw, and she quite literally erupted into a column of golden flame.

"My name is Daybreaker!" she screeched, the fire tearing away the roof and floor of the castle, making it crumble out from underneath the three princesses. They fired up their magic, ethereal wings saving them from the fall. The three Princesses glided down to the next floor, while Daybreaker cackled and laughed from above them.

"What can we do?" Celestia asked, watching Daybreaker launch torrents of belching flame across the castle walls, melting murals and stained glass windows. Even though it was a dream, it was a little upsetting to have to watch her erase thousands of years of history immortalised in the windows.

"I don't know," Luna shook her head. "You must wake up!"

"And what if I do?" Celestia turned to face her, her expression hollow and fearful. "Will she continue to hound me whenever I go to sleep?"

Luna took in a breath and nodded. "I am afraid so. Every day, and every night will be a struggle, as it was for me, as it is for dear Twilight. You are stronger than her, sister!"

"No she isn't!" Daybreaker swooped down from above, landing with enough force to crack the stone foundations of the castle floor. "Not in this place! You forget, little sister," she spat the word as though they left a bad taste in her mouth, "hat while this may be a dream, it is my dream!"

Luna went to cast a spell, but chains sprouted from the floor and bound themselves around her. The more she struggled, the tighter the chains got. Similar chains struck out from the walls and floor like snakes, coiling around Celestia, and binding her arms to her sides. Cadence jumped up just as a third set went for her. The Love Monarch looked at her two Aunts with desperation in her eyes, as they both clawed for breath; the chains having lashed themselves around both of their necks.

As she watched her two Aunts, her family, writhe on the floor in this demon's grasp, she felt something she hadn't felt in a long time. It was rage. It was pure, unfiltered rage. She raised her hands, tapping into whatever Love she could find. She was shocked at the sheer volume of it. She had to remind herself this wasn't the real world, this was a dream. This was her Aunty Celestia's dream, and no one loved more than she did. No one had trained themselves, honed themselves over thousands of years, to love with unbridled compassion as Celestia did.

With power coursing through her, Cadence felt her horn and wings grow brighter than they ever had before in her life. Her eyes glowed as the excess magic spilled forth from her in waves, and she willed the chains to disappear. "Enough!" she cried, her voice echoing and flanging like an orchestra was speaking in her stead. A destructive wave rushed away from her body, shattering the links in the chains and making them drop to the floor.

Daybreaker was caught off guard, and swept back against the wall by the sheer force of the blow. "What is this?!" she yelled. "I will not be humiliated by you!" Daybreaker shot a ball of fire towards Cadence.

Cadence brought her hands up and effortlessly deflected the spell. Her hand made a fist in the air, and Daybreaker seized up; grabbed by an invisible force. Her arms and legs spread-eagled in the air, wispy pink magic coiled around her feet, then up her legs, around her midriff, and her head. "As monarch of the crystal empire, and Princess of Love, I hold more power here than any of you!" Cadence said. The confidence, the strength in her words shocked even Celestia. "There is no emotion within Celestia greater than this, and so, I command you," Cadence began to squeeze, and the tendrils tightened so hard that they dug into Daybreaker's skin. "I command you to leave my family alone!"

Daybreaker screamed in defiance as Cadence roared. A bright white light encompassed the entire room, and Cadence collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. It took her a while to realise that Celestia's dream had collapsed.

Luna stood up, dusted herself off, and fixed her diadem as though nothing was amiss. "She will be back," she said. "Daybreaker will return."

Cadence stood up on shaky legs. Luna helped her up. "Of course she will," Cadence said. "But Celestia is awake now. This will give us time to think."

"Think?" Luna furrowed her brow. "Think of what?"

"Well, for starters, I think I know how to make this right," Cadence said with a smile. Gears were turning, and a plan was forming in her mind. It was desperate, and it was a long shot, but it might be just what everyone needed.

"You do?" Luna tilted her head, trying to keep hope from seeping into her voice, but it was impossible. She's lying the voice said to her. She can't fix you!

"Yes," Cadence rubbed her chin with her index finger, chewing on the knuckle. "Twilight feels fearful, and alone, Celestia feels trapped by her duties, and you feel guilty," Cadence said.

Luna indignantly recoiled. "I do not!"

"Aunty," Cadence fixed her with a knowing look, and Luna wilted under the gaze. It was Cadence's turn to comfort her, and she did with a hand on the arm, reassuringly stroking up and down. "It's been a thousand years, plus your return. You are forgiven, you should know this."

Luna broke. She threw her arms around her niece and sobbed into her shoulder. "She never truly leaves," she said. Her voice sounded truly pained, and Cadence's heart went out to her. "I always try to... but she never—"

"I know. I know," Cadence stroked her silken hair. "It's alright. I have a way to be rid of her."

"You do?" Luna looked up at her and sniffed. She must have looked a state, and a part of her said that she must have looked terribly undignified, but at the prospect of being rid of the entity that had hounded her every moment for the past thousand years, it was enough for her to tell that part of her to shut up.

Cadence nodded. "All we need is a little love."

Luna's dream was more peaceful than the others Cadence had been to that night. It was a pure black abyss of nothing, and yet it wasn't menacing like Twilight's. It was peaceable, and the little bit of mist that did gather around Cadence's ankles wasn't as stifling as the smog.

Luna stood with her hands clasped in front of her expectantly, while Cadence was pacing in front of her. She was thinking about the best way to go about this. It was a rather unconventional idea, but like Luna said, there was no one better suited to this than her. She turned to Luna and offered her the most radiant smile she could. Luna raised an eyebrow in reply. In her eyes, the only reason someone would smile like that is if they were about to ask for a favour. She had seen it in noble ponies tens of thousands of times by this point.

"This is going to sound a little..." Cadence made a vague see-saw type gesture with her hand. "'Out there', maybe a little insane."

She stopped, and Luna gestured for her to continue with a wordless command.

Cadence's smile turned sheepish. "I want you to summon Nightmare,"

Luna blinked. Her face an unreadable deadpan. "That is insane."

"Trust me," Cadence said. "Trust your niece, she knows what she's doing."

Luna held her gaze for a few more moments. Over the years she thought she had gotten good at reading other people, but now all she was getting from Cadence was confidence. After her display in Celestia's dream, she had certainly proven herself more than capable of handling herself against entities such as Nightmare, and, really, Luna had nothing to lose. She sighed, and held up a hand, palm up. "I hope so. Brace yourself."

"This is Nightmare. I thought I was rid of her, so when I created the Tantabus to ensure I never forgot what I did, I put its maliciousness down to my own guilt. Twilight Sparkle and the others helped me to overcome the Tantabus, once she threatened to escape into the real world. I thought I overcame my guilt, by I suppose I merely buried it. The Tantabus was more than a separate Entity, it was what remained of Nightmare Moon herself."

Nightmare growled across from them both. Cadence took in her upturned lip, the twin fangs where canines should have been, the black dress that hugged her pale skin, and the midnight blue hair that hung around her like a halo.

"Guilt never really goes away," Cadence said. "Can she speak?"

"I can." Nightmare crossed her arms.

Cadence's eyebrows shot up in shock, and she hummed. "Well, that makes this easier then."

Nightmare hissed. Luna ignored her, turning away from her and towards her niece. "How do you plan on helping me?" she asked.

"Well," Cadence looked between the pair of them, and held up her hands. "I plan on helping you both."

"How?" It was Nightmare that spoke this time, surprising both of them.

Cadence looked between them again. They were curious, that was a start. She adopted a gentle smile on her face. "With love," she said. "You need to learn to love each other. You need to learn how to love yourself."

"Excuse me?" Luna drew back in shock.

"You're kidding, right?" Nightmare Moon laughed. "The power of love?" She laughed in a condescending way.

Cadence ignored her. "No, I'm not kidding." She shot a pointed glare towards Nightmare, silencing her with its intensity. "Luna, everything Nightmare Moon is, are pieces of you that you don't like looking at. Jealousy, rage," she listed off the ones she knew, before tilting her head. "Anything else?"

"Fear of people not accepting us," Luna said with a nod, looking at Nightmare with a scornful gaze.

"Anger at those same people," Nightmare spoke up with a wicked grin.

"Desire for power," Luna added.

"And ruthlessness, desire to pursue that power, no matter the cost!" Nightmare's eyes had lit up with a kind of fire that Cadence had never seen in her Aunt before, maybe even in anyone.

Luna shook her head in disgust, unwilling, or simply unable to believe that this was her. "How could I ever love some thing like that?" she asked.

"She was born of all of your negativity," Cadence said. "She came around during a dark time in your life," Cadence sighed. "She is everything negative about you, and what defeats negativity?" she asked. At Luna's clueless shrug, Cadence simply smiled. "Positivity. You need to train yourself to be happy with all aspects of your personality."

"How?" Luna asked. "I know love, but, I just can't!"

Cadence took her hand, and began to walk towards Nightmare, dragging Luna in tow. Both of them seemed to tense up as the other approached, but while Cadence knew they would normally like to have as much space separating them as possible, this had to happen, so she tried to distract them. "Where you see jealousy," she said, looking over Nightmare with an almost appraising eye, "I see a carefully guarded passion. Your rage is due to things you cannot control, so why worry about them? Your fear is misplaced," Cadence turned to Luna for a second. "Celestia, Twilight, and I will always accept you, no matter what."

"And our desire for power?" Nightmare spoke up once more. There was barely a foot of space between them, and Cadence decided that was enough.

She let Luna's hand go, and stepped to one side. "Ambition," she said after a second's worth of thought. "Directed somewhere constructive that is a very good thing indeed."

"But we wish to rule Equestria! Bring about night, everlasting, and shroud the sun in blackness!" Nightmare shouted.

Cadence ignored the volume, and asked one very simple question. "Why?"

"Because our sister does not deserve to rule!" Nightmare spat.

"Why?" Again, the question came.

This time, when Nightmare went to speak, she found she couldn't. Confusion gave way to panic as she could no longer think of why she wished for eternal night in the first place. Was it simply to get back at Celestia? Was it because of some childish slight? Was she, Nightmare Moon, really reduced to pettiness?

Luna seemed equally confused. "She doesn't know," she said.

Cadence nodded. "This is just jealousy. And what did I say about jealousy?" she asked them both.

Both of them shook their heads. "I do not know," Luna answered.

"It's passion." She took Nightmare's hand, and she took Luna's hand, and she brought them across that foot's worth of space so that they were close. She drew their hands together, and placed them into each other. "Turn your desire for conflict into confidence, approach Celestia with your ideas for Governance, they might be rejected, or they might open Celestia to new ways of thinking. You want to bring about night everlasting?" She focused on Nightmare. "But the night is so beautiful because it doesn't last, nothing beautiful ever does. Nightmare, your sister has every right to rule, and you do as well, but side by side. Together." She pushed them a bit closer to drive her point home, and was momentarily hopeful when they couldn't look away from each other. She hoped she was opening them up to the idea of a little self-love. Perhaps it would be the answer to stopping any more conflicts, any more transformations and banishments. Maybe she could keep her family intact with this guidance, and that thought alone gave Cadence more butterflies than her wedding day. Her proper wedding day.

"I know what you are trying to do," Luna sighed. "But I do not think it will work,"

"How do you know if you won't try?" Cadence asked. "At least start trying some physical affection."

"What?" Nightmare asked with a skeptical look.

"Hugging." She motioned down to their hands. "Holding hands is a good start, when I said 'love', I meant it." She folded her arms.

Luna flushed a deep red. Nightmare did the same, and for a moment they couldn't meet each other's' eyes as they were now painfully aware of their hands caressing each other's. "This is most embarrassing." Luna cleared her throat.

"If you have time to feel that then you should have plenty of time to focus on the positives," Cadence declared rather adamantly.

"The positives?" Luna scoffed. "What positives?"

Nightmare growled at her.

"We're not leaving until one of you thinks of something," Cadence adopted her motherly tone that she used when dealing with an impetuous Flurry Heart. "It can even be something as simple as how pretty you find yourself," she paused. "Each other, whatever."

There was silence, and Cadence genuinely thought for a second that her plan was going to fail, until they finally made eye contact again. Nightmare sighed, reaching a hand up to brush Luna's hair away from her teal eyes. "Well, I suppose I have always admired our eyes."

Luna flushed. "And our hair," she added.

Nightmare smiled, appraising Luna with a swift up-and-down of her eyes. "And, well," she smiled. "We work to keep our figure don't we?"

"We certainly do," Luna chuckled. "It's unbecoming of royalty to have chubby tummies," she adopted a gruff voice that sounded entirely out of place. Cadence took the opportunity while they were laughing to take another step back. She didn't want to be noticed and break the spell.

"Oh," Nightmare wistfully exclaimed at the voice. "Father used to say that all the time."

Luna nodded, watching Nightmare's hands in her own. The subtle differences were few, but they were there. She was sure they were there, but as she stroked over the back of Nightmare's hands, she couldn't see or feel them. Her mind was locked in the past now. "I have always wondered what would have happened if they were..." she choked back something akin to a sob. "If they were still here when I, well, when you came into being."

"You think things would have turned out different?" Nightmare asked. There wasn't anything sinister to the question, or condescending, it was genuine.

"Maybe. Maybe I would have had somewhere to turn," Luna said sadly.

"Well, if there's one thing I don't regret, it's keeping you company, even if sometimes it was only to torment." Nightmare stepped a bit closer.

"Sometimes?" Luna asked impishly.

"Yes, only sometimes." Nightmare very clearly defended herself. "Despite what you may think of me, or what I thought of you, I always wanted to keep us safe. When the world shunned us, I grew restless within you. My shock at becoming separate was what drove me to protect us the only way I knew how."

"I suppose we did what we thought was best." Luna nodded.

Nightmare sighed. For once, she was beginning to look more and more like Luna. The black dress was replaced by blue, her hair lost some of its intensity, her eyes were no longer slit pupils, she became more like a mirror image with each passing second. "We made a mistake," Nightmare said. "And we paid for it, and we learned from it."

"That's all anyone can ever expect from us," Luna said with a firm nod.

"Thank you," Nightmare said to Luna, drawing her into an embrace. One that the Night Princess was all too happy to return.

"Yes!" Cadence cheered, jumping up and down for joy,and spinning in place. "It totally worked. Once again, I am amazing—" she began to say, before she looked back over at the pair.

Luna had Nightmare's face in her hands, while Nightmare's hands had reached around Luna's back to slip the zipper of Luna's dress down. They were locked in a passionate kiss, as though the world around them was ending and they were finding final comfort in each other. As Cadence watched, Nightmare pressed Luna back against an invisible wall, slipping the blue dress entirely off of the Princess, and letting it pool at her feet, where it vanished into the floor.

Cadence's shock was matched only by her embarrassment, and she quickly found the decency to look away from her Aunt's naked body. As the noises of the kissing progressed into gentle gasps and moans, Cadence found her curiosity overwhelming that sense of decency. She had been the one to advocate for self love after all, maybe they were just taking it literally.

Nightmare's hands trailed up and down Luna's back, nails raking over alabaster skin, leaving angry red trails in their wake. Luna gasped into Nightmare's mouth, and the other woman took the opportunity to slip her tongue in between Luna's lips, exploring every inch. Luna responded with her own tongue coming to meet the invader, and the wrestle for dominance began. Feeling a little put out being the only one naked, Luna's hands came away from Nightmare's face, and trailed down her toned shoulders, slipping into the bust of her dress. Luna wasn't one to bother with the subtleties of zippers, she simply yanked the dress off with a cacophony of ripping noises. Nightmare shuddered at the sheer desire displayed, and responded by raking her fingers across Luna's scalp. The advantages of sharing a body in that moment became all too clear; both of them knew how to make the other one's knees weak.

Luna, despite shivering at the feeling of nails raking through her scalp, was not one to be outdone. She broke the kiss, trailing a flurry of them right down to a sensitive spot just above Nightmare's jugular. Nightmare felt a lance of lightning shoot down her spine towards her core, and she growled in desire. "That's cheating," she admonished, her hands coming to rest on Luna's hips and pressing her firmly into the invisible barrier.

With a gasp and a groan, Luna's head rolled back as Nightmare pressed a leg in between Luna's, and began to rock back and forth. Cadence felt like a voyeur as she watched, unable to tear her eyes away from the erotic display. This is your aunt she told herself.

Not by blood another voice in her head reminded her.

Cadence nibbled on her bottom lip. It's still wrong.

Then look away.

She couldn't. She was transfixed by the lights shining off of skin quickly becoming glossy with sweat. She watched in rapt fascination as the hair on both of them swept upwards in invisible winds, seeming to spread out around them as though through water. Cadence observed with a keen eye that both of them were shuddering and moaning in equal pitch and volume. Both of them knew which buttons to press, both of them knew how to make the other one yearn for more touches, because both of them were the same. Nightmare cupped Luna's generous heart-shaped ass, and hiked her up the wall. Now, she had easy access to Luna's chest, which she quickly lavished with kisses, sucks, and nibbles. Luna wrapped her legs around Nightmare's waist, grinding their hips together still. There wasn't much pleasure in the action itself, but it still showed just how much they desired one another.

Luna brought her hands up to Nightmare's head, pressing them on her neck as though trying to keep her in place forever. She arched her back, squeaked something into the sky, and shuddered once more before her voice rose. Nightmare purred in a sultry way as she felt a warm, wet sensation on her stomach. Her hands left Luna's buttocks, trailing up thighs with the same raking movements, and suddenly they were angling backwards onto the floor, without falling. Nightmare crawled up Luna's body, and settled herself in such a way that she was straddling the Princess's face. Without so much as a pause, or a confirmation, she began grinding down onto Luna's face, gripping a fistful of hair. By the way her back shivered, and Luna gripped Nightmare's thighs, the intention was clear.

The smell of arousal was thick around them, and their noises flowed unbidden, and unchecked. Nightmare was thrusting her hips back and forth, with little regard to Luna's wellbeing, or her ability to pleasure Nightmare at that pace. Neither of them cared, it wasn't about who was pleasuring who, it was about the act itself. It was about overcoming everything that had separated them, and smashing down the final barriers after all these years. Decades—centuries of frustrations were aired out in the way that Nightmare ground down against Luna, using her for her own pleasure. By the time Nightmare's voice caught in her throat, and her back arched in the throes of pleasure, Luna was already pushing Nightmare down. Now, it was her turn. Their hips hooked together, Luna lifted one of Nightmare's legs while bracing herself with her hand on the other one, and both of them began thrusting into each other with wild abandon.

Nightmare gripped fistfuls of the mist that surrounded them, bucking her hips and moaning Luna's name. Luna was in no better shape. Her hair had long since stopped swaying, matter to her skin like waves off of a waterfall. Cascading down her body and sticking to her glossy form. She uttered a breathy whisper of "nightmare" before she collapsed atop the other woman. They stared deep into each other's eyes, and Nightmare leaned up to plant a tender kiss on Luna's lips. They soon began to move again, but as Cadence watched, Nightmare seemed to glow. It wasn't just a radiant, happy look, but a literal white glow was surrounding her. Both of them approached their peak together, with each wild thrust they fell out of cohesion. There was no order, no harmony in their movements anymore, merely desperation. They sped towards climax, and teetered on the edge for a few more, short-lived and needy thrusts, before they both catapulted themselves over the edge. As they both cried out, Nightmare was enveloped in the white glow, which grew to cover the entire dream.

Cadence found herself shielding her eyes, and then the entire world went black.

Author's Note

Yes the Princesses are literally going to fuck themselves. All of them.

After this there won't be many more infodumps. It'll all be the, ah, 'action'. Mostly. Hopefully the 9000 words was worth the 800 of 'payoff' here.