Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

When you look up at The Moon, what do you see? A looming threat? A great friend? A bringer of solace? Or just a rock?

Now think back to the past, when its visage displayed the silhouette of Nightmare Moon. Is your answer different?

When you live as long as I have, everything shifts meaning constantly, and oftentimes it would be the result of my own meddling with what I want the public to think. Call it what you will, but not everything that is part of history is completely true; sometimes it is better for ponies not to know.

No matter how hard I try, I can't influence, meddle, tamper, or shift the meaning of The Moon. Tales involving The Moon, ponies involving The Moon, and history involving The Moon can be changed, but it doesn't stop everypony from forming their own opinion about the cratered rock.

Why should I be surprised it is the one thing out of my own control? It's my opposite; anything the controller of The Sun says about The Moon is biased; why listen to her?

This is the same flipped around, though; Luna was never able to mess with The Sun and everything it was related to, yet I could. The meaning of such an object could only be determined by its specific handler. Anypony else would have no luck.

That night shifted The Moon's meaning once again; as cries of panic grew evermore louder it lingered above, watching.

This is my playing field, it says. Don't fool yourself in believing you have the upper hand.

"What is going on, Glowing?" I asked. Without breaking eye contact she answered.

"Do you remember the spell I mentioned earlier? Involving giving Luna more control in the dream-realm?" She waited until our earlier conversation struck my memory.

"I thought you said it was to get rid of nightmares, not lock somepony in sleep!" I exclaimed, aghast.

"It was to get rid of nightmares. At least, that's what she told me. The spell was actually able to shift the dream a pony was having in either direction."

I broke eye contact and looked at the sleeping guard behind me. "How does this still relate to being unable to wake up?"

"If Luna used enough magic, she could create a dream so real that it could affect the body of a pony; almost like a paralysis until the dream ends. The easiest way to do this would be to create a nightmare."

Not only was the sleeping guard stuck in sleep for an indefinite amount of time, it was all spent living the worst nightmare possible.

"Why didn't you mention this could happen earlier?" I derided.

"I didn't think she would do something like that! I made the spell early on, before I got to know her well. I still weaved that catch into the spell. Each time she locks someone like that guard into sleep, she inflicts more pain on herself."

"So she can only do this to a limited number of ponies, then."

Glowing didn't respond and instead looked into the air. I raised my head and my ears caught noise that I was afraid of.

Wake up!

I thought it was just loud yelling at first. But as more and more of the same words bounced off of The Moon, more and more of my hope began to dwindle.

I took my eyes out of the sky and instead focused on the group of ponies I had been conversing with. Gone were the happy smiles and jovial games, replaced by worry and fear. The green pegasus yawned, only to stop in the middle with wide open eyes. With eyes full of dread, she looked at me and started to speak.

"What happens when we start to get tired?"

Instead of answering, I looked back at the sky and frowned. The Moon had a new meaning for me.

The clock is ticking. Everypony will fall asleep eventually.

I couldn't prevent everypony from falling asleep entirely, but there had to be something I could do. I looked back to the green pegasus mare.

"Don't worry. I will find a way to stop this. From now on," I glanced across the group of ponies, "don't let one another fall asleep. Please."

Glowing Sera spoke up. "There's still a chance that not everypony asleep is under the spell yet. It takes a good amount of time to cast, and if she's feeling pain from my catch we might be able to wake up some ponies before they are afflicted."

There was that word again; affliction. This had to be The Affliction's work; Luna wouldn't do something so evil. I glanced toward The Moon for confirmation.

It didn't respond. What once was mocking me turned into an echo chamber. My eyes flashed with a way to solve a part of our problem.

"I know how to wake everypony up." I said. I took in a deep breath. "Everypony! Try to wake up anypony with you that is asleep. This is for your own safety! We are still fighting Princess Luna! I repeat, conflict has not ceased!"

There was no way anypony that was able to wake up wouldn't be opening their eyes shortly. I launched off into the air and floated in front of the ponies around the fire. Glowing Sera asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to see some of thr other groups, and how far Luna has gotten to them. I want to know how bad this really is."

"Be careful," She responded, as I raised higher in the air and aimed toward the closest light I could see.

Looking down on the forest, I found it was a lot more peaceful than what was transpiring down below. The thick trees muffled sound, and I began to worry that my warning wasn't heard by everypony. I hastened my flight.

The strange tranquility up above started to take a toll on me as well. My eyelids grew heavy. The world started to dim, and I found the trees growing larger, getting nearer, and looking more comfortable than ever before. I landed in the brush, and with stark terror woke back up. The spell keeping me awake must have worn off.

I was going to fall asleep soon.

Sleep had once been an inconvenience; now it was an enemy. I glanced up at The Moon once again.

It's nothing you can prevent.

Luna's words. They now made clear and horrible sense to me. I could prolong it, but there was no possible way that I could not fall asleep before the night was over. Fortunately, the light from a new campfire came into view, taking my mind off of those thoughts.

I landed on the ground a short trot away from the campfire. I couldn't hear anypony talking from its direction. As I grew nearer, I could make out the figure of one pony sitting up by the campfire, and four ponies lying down. I made my way through the brush and cantered over to the sitting pony. He had a rust-colored coat and a red mane.

He turned towards the noise and widened his eyes. Quickly, he bowed down low on the ground in front of me. "Your Highness!"

I watched as he shook on the ground. Whatever happened at this site was worse than what we dealt with. "Rise, my pony. Tell me what happened here."

He rose and nervously glanced at the bodies of the sleeping ponies around him. "I-I was sleeping, and then your voice woke me up," he said, and I was slightly relieved to know my warnings were heard and useful. "I went to everypony else and tried to wake them up but none of them would even budge."

It was just like Glowing had said, and what the guard was experiencing. Each pony was laying still upon the ground. On each face was a look of utter horror, accompanied by short, quiet breaths and eyes that were clenched shut. I turned my head away and looked back at the stallion.

"I'm sorry you had to see this. If you hadn't woken up in time, there's a chance you would have been in their place as well." I had seen enough, and most campsites were probably similar to the one here. "I'll be leaving now," I said, as I lowered myself to his level, "so find another group. You don't need to see this. Meet up with any other ponies who are still awake."

"Thank you, Your Highness."

"I haven't done anything yet," I said weakly. I took off into the air and started to fly back to my campsite and Glowing. I looked up at The Moon again.

There's no point in trying.

"Yes there is," I said aloud, even though I knew nopony could hear me. "There's something I can still do. There must."

I found myself above my campsite once again. I coasted to the ground and landed in the brush. Glowing Sera, whom I had landed behind, heard me, jumped up, and looked in my direction.

"Princess Celestia!" She yelled after seeing me emerge. "We've got a big problem."

I galloped up to her and could see she was shaking with nervousness. "What is it?" I asked. "I found that other ponies have fallen asleep as well. The guard isn't the only one."

She rubbed her hooves through her amber hair. "Oh, that's not good!" She said anxiously.

"What?" I repeated. "What isn't good?"

"What's to say Luna only attacked us? What if she locked people in sleep all across Equestria?"

In all of our tiredness we forgot to realize that we might not have been the only ones. My eyes widened as I scanned the area around me. "Why would she go after anypony else?" I asked.

"Fillydelphia!" Glowing exclaimed. "Any of the higher officials! If she's against you, why wouldn't she try to disable people who have disrespected her in the past?"

She was right. There was no way that some of my top supporters wouldn't have been targeted; not doing so would have been a bad move on her part, and she seemed to understand her plan well.

"We can't wake all of Equestria up. There's no way we have time to do that." Glowing started murmuring to herself different ideas and solutions to the problem, to no avail. "Maybe a spell? No, not enough power. Ah . . . I don't know." I looked back up once more at The Moon to see what it had to say.

The nighttime aids me. Try as much as you like, but as long as I am here, you will fail.

As long as the night was alive, more and more failure would reach us. I coudn't tamper with The Moon, I couldn't influence it, couldn't fight it. "Just be quiet," I told The Moon.

A light went off in my head. Although dangerous, I could wake up everypony on the planet by doing one simple movement.

I could silence The Moon by raising The Sun.

"I've got it, Glowing!" I proclaimed.

"What is it?" She inquired.

"I'm going to raise The Sun."

"Oh. That should work." She blanky muttered. Her eyes widened and she grinned. "That'll work wonderfully!"

"Let's hope so," I positively replied as I planted my feet on the ground.

I flared up my horn and started to lift the giant orb. After not sleeping for so long, it was significantly harder to do so than before. I felt like I was dragging The Sun along and barely moving it an inch. As it climbed higher and higher, the load grew heavier and heavier on my magic.

It wasn't just my tiredness stopping The Sun from rising, though. I could feel the aura of another around it. Luna was trying to hold it back, realizing my plan quickly enough to respond.

The Moon's controller didn't have much power on The Sun, though. Slowly and painfully, it came into view and basked the world in a warm light. I moved it in the direction of The Moon. As it grew closer, I felt more resistance on my end.

Finally, The Sun found its resting place; right in front of The Moon, blocking it from view and silencing its taunts.

This is my playing field now, I declared.

-Princess Celestia

Author's Note

It's been a little while, huh? I'm happy to say that I am back and ready to finish this! Who knows what will happen next? I do, but I'm not telling until the time is right.

I hope everyone is still enjoying and liking this story!