Your Loyal Subject

It had become fairly late in the night. Princess Luna, on the brink of exhaustion, was about ready to collapse on her walk back to her room. After a full day of fulfilling her routine royal duties, she was depleted of energy... yet it was only for her physical form. Her astral form had spent the day recovering from her dream-surfing the previous night, and was ready to continue her work of entering the dreams of the ponies of Equestria.

Once she made it back to her room, Luna took off her crown, neckpiece, and horseshoes, and climbed into bed. She was out almost immediately due to her fatigue. From there, her consciousness transcended the material realm, into the dream world.

The next couple of hours consisted of Luna casually browsing through a long corridor lined with doors. Each door was a representation of a portal into a pony's subconscious. The door was the color of their hide, with designs and patterns that served as a visual depiction of their personality, and their name and cutie mark were imprinted on the door as well. For blank flanks, it was only their name.

Most of the dreams she went through consisted of nothing more than some casual, dreamlike activity, such as several earth ponies flying without the use of wings, pegasus ponies flying through the colorful nebulae of space, and unicorns manipulating their entire dreamscapes with, godlike, impossible-in-real-life magic. She did come across a few nightmares, but nothing too serious, so she was able to quickly take care of them.

Her notetaking was yet again very draining on her. It was all just the same thing, over and over. How she wished she could break this long, straining cycle of monotony... and it just so happened, that would be the case...

The very next door Luna came across was one that seemed... different to her. Out of all other doors she had been through in a while, this one seemed the most alien. It was a light-gray door, with rust-red patterns on it, as well as a bright-blue flame for the cutie mark, and the name on it was...

"...'Aversion'." Luna said. "Hmm... I don't think I've ever been in this pony's dreams before..."

Deciding to squeeze another log in for her Dream Reports, she entered Aversion's subconscious. At first, the landscape appeared to be that of Ponyville on a bright, summer day. At first, Luna saw nothing of interest. She did not even see Aversion for a few moments... up until she saw the pony in question running along a path through the deserted town. It was a colt with a color scheme that matched his door.

"Aw... just look at him running on those little legs!" Luna said, a smile appearing on her face. "Such a little sweetie..."

What she did not realize, however, was that Aversion was running from something... it took her a moment to realize that he looked quite distressed, too. The sky began to rapidly be covered by clouds, and the ambient lighting turned blood-red. Confused and startled, Luna saw that, from the direction the colt Aversion was running from... there were some shapeless, spectral objects of glowing crimson mist.

One shot ahead of the colt and materialized into a large, hulking, demonic stallion, who looked quite enraged. The colt stopped, slowly stepping backward at the sight in front of him.

"...P-please, Daddy..." he whimpered. "...please... d-d-don't hurt... me..."

"QUIET!" the nightmare version of Aversion's father thundered. "YOU DON'T SPEAK UNLESS SPOKEN TO, YOU INSOLENT LITTLE ASS!"

Luna gasped in disbelief at what she had just witnessed. What did this mean? Could it have to do with something that happened to Aversion? The colt in question, choking up with tears filling his eyes, began to run in the opposite direction... only to be met by the spectral, nightmare entities that looked like stereotypical bully colts, who were towering over Aversion.

"YOU'RE SUCH A STUPID, SCRAWNY PIECE OF TRASH!" one bully shouted.

"WE GOTTA DO WHAT WE CAN TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T EXIST!" another added.

"THE WORLD WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE WITH YOU GONE!" the third one said.

Tears began to fill Luna's eyes as she witnessed this horrendous torment. It brought flashbacks to her of what other ponies said about her when she was just a filly. Aversion cowered as the demonic ponies began to hover around him in circles. The father swung his hoof at the poor colt, striking him over the head. The bullies all bucked at him, striking him in the legs, plot, and barrel. This caused him to bury his face into his forelegs on the ground and start bawling his eyes out as the spirit continued to insult him.

Luna could not bear to watch any more of the needless terror being inflicted on the young colt. Refusing to sit back any longer, she powered up her horn, and her eyes began to glow a bright white color. This caught the attention of the nightmare entities who were slowly encroaching on the terrified colt; they stopped and looked directly at the Princess, fear manifesting in their glowing red eyes.

"O foul phantasms who plagueth this poor pony's soul..." Luna spoke in her Royal Canterlot voice. "...I commandeth thou to BEGONE!"

With a flash of her horn, Luna successfully banished the nightmare spirits, their otherworldly shrieks echoing as they were forcefully and painfully carried off by the Light of the Moon, produced by Luna's spell. All that was left was the sobbing colt, who was barely peeking over his forelegs at the Princess, who glided down in front of him.

"Do not worry..." Luna said in a gentle voice. "...they are gone now. I made them go away."

Aversion began to stand more upright. The look of fear was still rich in his eyes, as were the tears. Luna's heart ached to see such a young colt be subjected to such terrible phantasms.

"Come here, young one." Luna said, holding her forelegs open.

Without hesitation, Aversion ran up to the Princess and wrapped his own forelegs around her, letting off his tears once more. Luna held him in a gentle, caring hug, slowly flapping her wings to lift him up off the nightmare dreamscape, which was now dissolving into a peaceful space void.

"...P-please... don't let them... h-h-hurt me... or t-talk like that to m-m-me... anym-more..." Aversion uttered.

He continued to cry while Luna held him. He was still immensely shaken up from the nightmare he had just experienced. She gently rubbed his head while nuzzling him.

"It's okay... just let it all out." Luna said. "You are safe, now."

Judging by the way he was behaving, it seemed as if Aversion's memory reverted to that of his child-self while in this particular dream... but of course, Luna simply assumed that he was a colt in the waking world as well.

"I promise that you have nothing to worry about, so long as I am here with you, dear..." Luna said.

The colt looked up at the Princess.

"W-will you... be my new M-Mommy...?" he asked.

With a warm smile, Luna rubbed her hoof through his mane.

"Of course, little one." she said.

She continued to try and comfort Aversion so that he would no longer feel threatened. Given her level of experience with such a thing during her own childhood, she had a fairly good understanding of what a frightened pony requires to feel better.

"...As long as you're with me, you'll always be safe, Aversion." Luna said, brushing a bang out of his face. "You are special, and they just don't see it."

Despite tears still being in his eyes... Aversion finally managed to smile at her. This struck a warm spot in Luna's heart, knowing that she succeeded in helping a traumatized pony, albeit for what could be a temporary period of time. And for a bit of good measure... she let go of him, causing him to float in front of her due to lack of gravity, closed her eyes as her horn glowed, and conjured a large, rainbow-colored lollypop, hovering in front of the colt's face.

The younger Aversion, now even happier, took the candy and started licking it. He stopped for a moment, though, to look back at Luna.

"...Thank you...!" he said. "...Thank you so much...!"

"You're quite welcome, little one!" Luna responded.

Now that she had relieved him of his nightmare, the Princess knew that she had other matters to attend to regarding the other sleeping ponies of Equestria. However, just as she was preparing to leave Aversion's dream, she caught sight of a bizarre apparition... something that looked out-of-place in this peaceful space environment... something that looked eerily darker and more monstrous, yet also more subtle, than the nightmare spirits that attacked Aversion...

...In the distance was a jet-black pony, almost resembling a materialized shadow, with bright white glowing eyes. There were dark particles emanating from its body.

Luna only saw it for a brief moment before she was brought out of Aversion's subconscious, but during that time, she could almost feel its gaze on her... like that of a vengeful glare. This made the Princess feel somewhat on edge, but regardless, she continued her dream surfing. Despite her efforts to report the ever-mundane and standard dreams of the ponies... she could not get her mind off of Aversion and his dream.

I don't understand... she thought. ...what was that dream supposed to represent? I could understand the bullies... but his own FATHER?

The imagery of foal abuse kept creeping to Luna's eyes from her brain, and she could not suppress it.

Also... what exactly was that... shadow pony? I have never seen anything like it! It might've just been a subconscious image of his fear, but...

There was definitely something off about this whole thing. Luna knew that his dream did not play out like that of a normal pony. The whole time she was there... she could feel a very malevolent force, even after banishing the nightmare spirits from Aversion's mind... something was wrong.

Perhaps I should keep an eye on this Aversion... Luna thought. ...perhaps tomorrow, since I have some free time, I'll see if I can meditate and channel energy to achieve astral projection, and see what he does throughout his day.