Luna's Theatre
Doing the Job
Load Full StoryLuna was on the edge of her seat. She watched as the tension grew and felt her body constrict in response. She could feel her excitement, and worry, bubbling up in her throat. She had just experienced an epic fight scene where the protagonist's friend was flung into patch of Poison Joke. It all came down to the final blow, where the heroine arose from the rubble victorious. She had one last thing she had to do: she had to save her friend. She flew to her friend, picked him up in her arms, and...
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Another film interrupted," Luna sighed to herself, as she hovered out of a certain yellow pony's dream. "I suppose it can't be helped."
Once out in the open dreamscape, Luna reached with her magic to see if anything out of the ordinary had occurred while she was away. It appeared there was nothing requiring of her assistance. She fell down on her haunches, somewhat bored, and started scanning dreams for anything worthy of viewing. Was she doing her duty as the Princess of the Night; her duty being to watch over the dreams of the citizens of Equestria? Of course she was! She had treated all the nightmares for the night, she had assisted all the ponies that required her assistance, and was keeping a watchful eye in the dreamscape for any unwelcome creatures or forces... and cool films to watch!
She was most definitely watching over everyone's dreams. That was her job! As a princess of Equestria, she aimed to make her citizens happy, and proud in their new coleader. It just so happened there wasn't anything to do as this moment. She had already cleared all of the bad dreams and talked with the creator of each, as there weren't that many to begin with. Ponies simply did not have as many nightmares in this day and age: there were simply too many things to be happy about. And she was grateful for it. It made her job of protecting ponies from nightmares much easier.
Finally, an idea slithered its way into Luna's mind. What if she marathoned the Element Bearers?! After all, they almost always had exciting, or at least not boring, dreams! She had already watched one, even if it was interrupted. She had a few hours so she might as well watch the rest. As such, Luna summoned Applejack's dream and phased in.
Luna went in expecting either something calm, tranquil, and heartwarming, like a memory of her with her parents, or something fast-paced and fun, like a foot race against Rainbow Dash. What she was not expecting was some unique fusion of the two.
The dream started out well enough. It started with a smiling Applejack and a stoic Big Mac looking out over the acres. She leaned her head to her older brother and quietly asked, "Ya know what today is, don'tcha?"
"Eeyup," Big Mac responded.
"We're gonna have fun tonigh', aren't we?"
"Eeyup"
"Well then, let's go ahead and get some work done before they get here!" Applejack prompted before cantering off to buck some apple trees, with her brother trotting close behind.
Then the dream faded and returned, but now Applejack and her brother were hard at work gathering apples. They had already multiple baskets filled and the sun had just started to descend from the sky. Then mid-buck, Applejack heard someone call out, "Hey, AJ!" Applejack turned away from the tree to see her friends all coming up on the small hill. "Howdy, Ya'll. You all ready?"
"Of course we're ready!" Rainbow Dash bombastically replied. "Right guys?"
The rest all agreed in their own little ways.
"Well, just head on to the barn and wait there for a few, a'right? And Rainbow, no sneaking around!"
"Aw, man!"
After that, all sorts of family, friends, and neighbors walked up the small hill. They were greeted by Applejack on the way up and then they all travelled to the barnhouse. Ponies were talking among themselves as they waited in anticipation. As she opened the barndoor, the room slowly fell into a nigh silent murmur as they pointed their eyes at the straight-faced farmer as she calmly walked to behind the bar. Then she turned her head and with a gleeful smile, announced, "Everyone gets one cider free!!!" The room erupted into rambunctious cheers as Applejack started to pass out mugs.
Later, everyone was having fun. They were laughing, drinking cider, playing games, chatting, hanging out, whatever they saw fit. Then suddenly, they heard knocking at the door, and lightning flashed even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Applejack walked over to the door and smoothly opened the creaky barndoor. Discord was standing there with a slight frown on his face. "Why wasn't I invited?"
Ignoring the question, Applejack asked, "Do you Pinkie Promise to be on your best behavior and not cause too much trouble?" to which Discord merely blinked, nodded, and then remembered to go through the motions.
Applejack gazed at him with a suspicious stare before her face finally softened. "Well a'right, then" She moved aside to let Discord through as the activities resumed.
Luna watched from afar, smiling the entire time. She could feel the aura of joyfulness as they were celebrating. For what, Luna had no idea, but figured it didn't really matter. It was a happy enough party that Applejack even allowed Discord to join in, though it might be just a bit farfetched he would knock politely like that. This dream was fun and fast-paced, but there was a tranquil charm to it that just warmed the heart. Having snuck a mug of cider, Luna sipped on the delicious beverage as she watched. After she had finished drinking, she placed down the mug and left Applejack to her dream.
As Luna walked out of the farmer's dream, she ran another dreamscape check and summoned her internal clock. She found no problems with the realm check; everything was the same as always. Her clock was a different story. She didn't have enough time! She wouldn't be able to marathon all of the Element Bearers before her shift ended. However, she might have time for just one more dream. She quickly summoned the dream of her fellow princess, Twilight Sparkle, and almost literally bounded in.
Now this dream wasn't surprising in the slightest. Twilight as a filly was in a constructed "book fort" shouting orders and blindly throwing pillows (along with insults and taunts) at whoever her target was, who resided at the opposite side of the room in their own fort made of a single table on its side, its surface facing the onslaught of head cushions. None of them were hitting the supposed target, as he/she was currently hiding behind the fort's main defense. It was an adorable sight. As wonderful as the dream was, Luna felt it wasn't at its full potential.
"Let's make this even better!" Luna softly snickered to herself before she activated her dream magic to alter Twilight's dream. Now, she didn't do much. All she did was make it grander. So instead of a book fort and a table, it was a book castle and a giant wall. Instead of the living room floor, it was a vast open clearing surrounded by trees. And instead of throwing pillows, each side had pillow cannons.
At the same time, Twilight had run out of pillows. The other side started to laugh. Luna was curious who this combatant was. Then one could see a mare's head rising to look at Twilight with a playful grin on her face. Once her face was fully visible, Luna was put into just a bit of a shock! It was her own sister, fully dressed in battle armor, hovering a pillow by her head. Just the sight of this Celestia made Luna almost die laughing.
"Haha! You have run out of ammo, my dear personal student! Now it is my turn!" Celestia bragged. "Now you'll feel the wrath of the SUN QUEEN!!!"
Twilight squeaked and hid under the defenses of her book castle before the Sun Queen could return a barrage of comfy pillows. The attack shook the book castle's walls and Twilight could feel them threatening to collapse if she didn't do anything. So she had to make a quick decision and she decided to risk her own life to save her peoples'. Carefully, she walked out of the castle hoisting up a flag. The flag issued a challenge to the opponent: a 1-on-1 battle between rulers so long as the rest of the fighting stops. The onslaught slowed and eventually stopped. Out from under the great wall, Celestia walked out. She had accepted.
They both dawned their finest armor and best arsenal of pillows in order to battle each other. They marched towards each other in the middle of the field. Once they had reached appropriate distance to one another, Twilight said, "This has to end, Celestia!" to which Celestia replied "My dear personal student, why must you always do this? You know, I always win."
"I don't care!" Twilight retorted, "It is the only way to save my people. Are you ready to battle?"
Celestia answered "Oh, my dear, I always am."
The two of them charged towards each other with mighty roars, preparing to slam their light, comfortable weapons into each other. Then right as they were to make contact, the scene reverted back to its original form with filly Twilight and Celestia playfully hitting each other with pillows. They were laughing and having fun. Luna smiled once more as she carefully phased out of Twilight's dream.
As Luna exited the pillow-filled dream, she checked the dreamscape once more. Once again, there wasn't any change. She thought back to the amazing films she had witnessed that night. She had seen a somewhat cheesy action film, a heartwarming friendship movie, and finally a cute historical/imagination comedy. What feature films would be available tomorrow? Who will be the unconscious director? After all, every day is different from the last.
So was she doing her duty as the Princess of the Night? Was she watching over dreams? Most definitely.
Author's Note
Hope you liked this cute idea I had.
Just wondering, do you think this story had a problem with "show, don't tell"? Because even though this story was supposed to be a little telly for the humor, I don't want it to be too much so. Please let me know as I feel this is one of my problems I have with writing.
I stayed up till 4:30 in the morning writing this. That is the latest I have ever stayed up before. But I just had to get this out of my head. I'm sure some of you have felt the same.
