“Oh, Applejack, this is just wonderful!” Trixie laughed and sipped her mug of cider. “I’m so glad you wanted to spend today together.”
Trixie and Applejack were sitting together on a blanket in a small clearing. The apple trees around them swayed in the breeze, sounding almost like playful laughter as the rustling of leaves mixed with the whistle of wind. Rays of sunlight fought through the leaves to splatter pools of gold on the ground below. The weather was perfect, the birds were singing, and their picnic had everything a pony could ask for, from apple pie to apple fritters.
“I have to say, I am pleasantly surprised,” Applejack agreed. With a smile, she took off her hat and laid it nearby, then leaned in closer to Trixie. “Maybe we should make this a regular thing.”
“Hmm,” Trixie hummed as she leaned in as well, until their muzzles were only inches apart. “It’s a compelling offer. I suppose I could get used to being The Great Trixie and The Powerful Applejack.” She laughed and leaned in, offering a kiss.
Applejack was just about to take her up on the offer, but something caught her attention. Again, on the breeze, she could have sworn she heard a laugh. Not even a laugh, really, more of a giggle. Distracted, she straightened back up and started to look around, much to Trixie’s dismay.
“Hello?” Applejack called out. “Is somepony there?”
For a moment, nothing. No ponies, no birdsong, no noise at all. Then, as if she had been there all along, a tall, regal pony stepped out from behind a thin tree, her star-speckled mane billowing in the breeze.
Applejack was on her hooves in an instant, taking a confused step back. “P-Princess Luna?” she asked. “What are— wait… Aw, consarnit. I’m dreamin, ain’t I?”
Princess Luna put a hoof to her mouth to cover a smile as another ghostly giggle echoed through the woods. “Yes, Applejack, you are. I apologize for interrupting.”
Applejack looked around, processing what she was dreaming about, and a tiny blush found its way onto her cheeks. “Trixie?” she asked incredulously. “Why in the world am I dreamin about you? Get outta here!” She waved a hoof at Trixie, who dissolved into smoke and was whisked away by the wind.
Luna walked over and laid down in Trixie’s place. She managed to make even this relaxed position look elegant. “You shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss your heart’s desires,” she advised.
Applejack’s face grew redder, and she shook her head in an attempt to blow away the embarrassment. “Princess,” she said after, “I really don’t mean to be rude, but… Well, I’m a mite bothered by having been seen doing… All that.” She scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
Luna frowned. “I see… Hmm.” She reached out and patted the other empty spot on the blanket. “Come, join me.”
Hesitantly, Applejack stepped forward and joined Luna on the blanket. She was stiff and nervous, sitting as still as possible, while Luna casually picked up a treat and started snacking on it.
“There’s no need to be nervous,” Luna assured her. “I appreciate you saying something. I’ve often wondered how many citizens of Equestria take umbrage with my nightly patrols, and are simply too afraid to speak up. Knowing now that you are among them, I am truly sorry for my breach of your privacy.”
“Well, you don’t have to go all that far,” Applejack mumbled.
“I am, though,” Luna said. “Would you allow me to make it up to you?”
Applejack was taken aback. “I-I ain’t lookin for any sorta recompense,” she assured the princess, “I just wanted to make my feelings known is all.”
“I know,” Luna told her, “but I still feel I owe it to you to make things right. So, Applejack, would you allow me to join you for the rest of your dream?” She chuckled at herself. “I suppose it is somewhat vain of me to presume that that would be enough, but it is what I have to offer.”
Applejack’s jaw was gaping. “With me? Well, I mean, I can’t really say no to a princess… I-I would be honored, your highness.”
The princess laughed. “Tonight, for you, I am simply Luna.” She took her crown off and gently set it next to Applejack’s hat.
Applejack glanced back and forth between Luna and her crown. “Are you sure?” she asked.
“Completely,” Luna said. “I know I said that this was an apology, and it is, but in truth… Applejack, it has been a long time since I last spent time with another pony as their friend, rather than their ruler.” She let out a quiet sigh.
Applejack frowned sympathetically. “Well, I can’t very well say no to that, now can I?” She thought for a moment, then shifted around awkwardly, trying to get into a more comfortable position. “So, P- er, Luna, what is it you’d like to do?”
Luna’s face broke into a giddy smile. “A picnic sounds lovely right about now,” she said.
“Well, you’re in luck,” Applejack told her. “You just happen to be at one.”
Luna laughed. “So I am.” She picked up another treat excitedly. “So, Trixie?”
Applejack winced. “Right into it, huh? I, uh, really don’t know what was up with that. I mean, I don’t think I’m ignoring my heart or whatever. I don’t like Trixie at all! Heck, even Rainbow Dash is too much showboating for me half the time.”
Luna picked up Trixie’s leftover cider and downed it in one gulp. “Well,” she suggested, “perhaps that was the point? How has your love life been?”
Applejack shrugged. “Dry, I guess. Workin the farm doesn’t leave me much free time. So, you know, I’ve gotten offers, but none of them really seemed likely to work, so I don’t really see the point in spending my time trying.”
Luna nodded. “So if, say, Trixie asked you to join her for a picnic, you would never have found out if it could have gone like it did here?”
“Oh.” Applejack moved to take another snack, only to find none left as Luna swallowed the last fritter, so instead she just took a long drink from her mug. “Okay, yeah, I see your point. Maybe I oughta quit countin my chickens before they hatch.”
Luna chuckled. “I could not have said it better myself.”
“I imagine you can relate, though,” Applejack mentioned casually. “Princess duties probably don’t leave a whole lotta room for dating.”
“Ah,” Luna said with a sigh, “no, they do not. My last date was… Well, it was well before Nightmare Moon.”
“Hoowee. Heck, I woulda been crabby too.”
Luna looked at her with wide eyes. Then she broke out into a fit of laughter, trying in vain to stifle them with a hoof. It took a solid minute before she could speak again. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she said as she caught her breath. “It’s just… Well, nopony has ever referred to Nightmare Moon as anything akin to ‘crabby’ before. It caught me off guard.”
Applejack was smiling serenely, and spoke up without thinking. “You have a nice laugh, Luna.”
Luna smiled back and reached out, placing her hoof tenderly on top of Applejack’s. Applejack’s face was immediately a deep red, but she didn’t pull her hoof away.
Then Luna’s ears perked up, and a moment later she was standing, floating her crown back onto her head. “Applejack, I’m terribly sorry, but a pony is having a nightmare. I must go.”
“Oh.” Applejack tried to hide her disappointment, but she couldn’t keep the frown off her face. “That’s alright, Princess. It was nice to spend this time with you.”
Luna saw her expression and frowned. “Actually,” she said, “would you like to join me? I believe your insight would be a great help with this particular pony.”
Applejack perked up, but she still hesitated. “I don’t know…” she mumbled. “It just feels like prying.”
Luna leaned down to meet eyes with Applejack. Her eyes were soft and caring, like a full moon on a warm night. “I understand your qualms,” she said, “but it is not quite the same with a nightmare. You haven’t monitored them, you’ll simply be appearing in a time of need. Trust me, this pony will be glad to have you there.”
Applejack looked away for a moment, still unsure, but when she met Luna’s kind gaze again her tense body relaxed and a smile finally reached her. “Okay,” she nodded, “I’ll help.”
Luna smiled and offered a hoof out, which Applejack happily wrapped her own around, and the two stepped forward together.
Around them, the world changed. Frost overtook the grass, first coating it, then replacing it altogether. The trees surrounding them froze solid before shattering, collapsing into piles of sleet and snow. The sky grew dark and the wind whipped past them, stinging them with bitter cold. In the space of a mere moment, the entire universe altered itself as they shifted into this new dream.
Around them stretched a frozen tundra, vast fields of white blanketing the land all the way to the horizon in three directions. The fourth direction gave way to a grand sea, juts of ice breaking off and floating into the vast unknown. On one such floating island, just recently split from land, sat a crying yellow filly.
Applejack recognized her immediately. Before Luna could react, Applejack had sprinted away, the frigid winds pushing against her. Rather than go after her, Luna elected to sit back and watch.
“Apple Bloom!” Applejack yelled out for her sister as she skidded to a stop at the edge of the water. When she got no response, she braced herself and dove in.
The cold water bit into her immediately, chilling her down to her bones, but she pushed herself on. Pushing against the current, fighting towering waves, Applejack fought through the nightmare landscape separating her from her sister.
When she finally pulled herself onto the block of ice, she took in the scene before her. There wasn’t much space, only a few feet from one edge to the other, and Apple Bloom was in the center, crying into her hooves. Violent waves crashed in from every side, sending splashes of icy water into them, and a dense fog quickly rolled in, isolating them from the world.
Applejack could hardly feel her legs. She stumbled, nearly collapsing, but managed to reach Apple Bloom and wrap her in a hug.
“Apple Bloom,” she said softly, “I’m here. What’s wrong?”
Apple Bloom looked up with a start. “Applejack? What’re you doing here?”
“I’m here to help.”
“I don’t wanna be alone,” Apple Bloom said.
Applejack tilted her head. “You won’t be. You’ll always have me, and the rest of our family, and your friends.”
Apple Bloom choked up at the mention of her friends. “You don’t know that!” she yelled. “Anything could happen!”
Applejack frowned. Helping Apple Bloom in the waking world could be hard enough, and in dreams ponies don't exactly tend to think straight. “Well, you’re right, I don’t know for sure, but there ain’t no use in getting worked up over things you can’t know.”
“That’s easy for you to say.” Apple Bloom pushed herself away from her sister. “Your friends are magic. I don’t have fate to keep me with my friends.”
Applejack sighed sympathetically. She tried to think of something to say, but words failed her.
The, a figure broke through the fog. Luna came into view, the water freezing under her hooves as she walked. “Perhaps I should step in,” she said calmly as she knelt down before Apple Bloom. “Hello, Apple Bloom. You seem worried about losing your friends, is that right?”
Apple Bloom nodded.
“That is a fear we all deal with,” Luna told her. “Even your sister Applejack. I would imagine you have worried about it before. Tell me, what changed to make your fears resurface? Why are you afraid now, when yesterday you were not?”
Apple Bloom sniffed hard. “I was just thinkin about the future,” she explained, “and all the times my sister has to run off. There’s no way she has a chance to tell all her friends, right? So, what if she decided not to come back to Ponyville one time? All those ponies would just never see her again, and they might not even know why.”
Luna nodded. “I see. Well, think of how much you love your friends. Imagine if, perhaps, you were the one who went on an unexpected trip and decided not to come home. Is there anything in the world that could stop you from letting your friends know what happened, and seeing them again?”
Apple Bloom shook her head.
“You are not alone. These feelings, they often cloud our judgement. We forget to consider how others will act, and feel like we’re the only ponies in the world. If you can just look out past that fog, though,” she gestured at the wall of fog surrounding them, “you’ll see that the ponies around you may be in much the same situation.” In the distance, where there had once been fog, they all saw another block of ice. On it rode two more fillies, and it was slowly drifting towards them.
“Now,” Luna continued, “knowing that others feel the same, you can think of how hard you would try, and realize that they would try just as hard. Then it doesn’t feel quite so hopeless, does it?”
Apple Bloom sniffed and nodded again, a shaky smile showing on her face. “Thank you, Princess Luna. Oh, and,” she turned to Applejack, “thank you too.”
Applejack gave her sister a tight hug. “I only wish I coulda helped more,” she said. She pulled away and put her hooves on Apple Bloom’s shoulders. “You should talk to your friends about this. Get your feelings out into the open, and then you can work together to make things less scary. Also, just so you know, I’ll always be willing to cart any of you three anywhere in Equestria if need be so that you can meet up.”
Luna gently tapped Applejack, and she stood up to join the princess. “We should get going,” Luna said, “so that Apple Bloom is able to transition into a more pleasant dream.”
So, Applejack waved goodbye to her sister, took Luna’s hoof again, and stepped forward through the night.
What greeted her next was beyond her wildest dreams. A vast, glowing void stretched in all directions, filled everywhere with bubbles showing different ponies’ dreams. Applejack looked at the ground, only to find there was none. Underneath her, there were simply more windows into more dreams.
Applejack gasped as she took it in. “What is this?” she asked.
Luna inhaled sharply. “Oh no. I’m not supposed to bring anypony in here. Um, okay, here.” Her horn flashed, and in an instant all of the infinite bubbles flew into the distance. Then, the two were on a cliff together, overlooking the void they had just been in. There was darkness behind them, and above them, but below them was verdant green grass. Luna sighed in relief.
Applejack rubbed her neck. “Sorry, Princess. I can go back to my dream now, if you want.”
“No, no,” Luna said. “It’s too late now, you’re already here. I’ve pulled us away far enough that you can’t see them, so I believe it should be okay. Just… Please do not tell my sister.”
“I’ll try my best,” Applejack said. “I ain’t the best liar, though.” She sat down, getting comfortable in the soft grass, and patted the spot next to her.
Luna smiled and joined Applejack. To Applejack’s surprise, she even took her crown off again. “Thank you, my friend,” she said.
Applejack smiled back. “So,” she said after a moment, “why exactly am I not allowed here?”
“For precisely the reason that brought us here,” Luna explained. “It’s a matter of privacy. Ponies expect me to see their dreams, but they have no reason to believe that you would be able to see them as well. By allowing me to be the Princess of the Night, the ponies of Equestria have put their trust in me, and to allow another pony to watch their dreams in secret would violate that trust.”
“It sounds like you’ve put a lot of thought into it,” Applejack said.
“Yes, I have.” Idly, Luna put her hoof on Applejack’s. “I was not entirely truthful with you earlier. I said that I have questioned the moral foundations of my work here, but that was… an understatement.”
“How so?”
“Well…” Luna paused for a moment. “Applejack, I often wonder if I should monitor Equestria’s dreams at all. On many occasions, I’ve almost given it up entirely.”
“What about the nightmares, though?” Applejack asked. “There would be nopony left to help with them.”
“That is the conundrum,” Luna agreed. “Which is the greater evil, to leave ponies to their nightmares when I have the power to help, or to breach the privacy of my citizens in the pursuit of goodwill?”
“You weren’t watching Apple Bloom’s dream earlier, though,” Applejack said. “It didn’t seem like you were watching any dreams.”
“I wasn’t. I am quite ashamed to admit it, but… It is entirely a problem within me. In reality, I could sit on this hill every night, not watching any dreams, and I have tried. However, I… I get bored. I have always been an impulsive pony, and so every time I’ve tried, I’ve given in. It makes me question if I’m even fit to be a princess.”
“Have you tried talkin to Celestia?” Applejack asked.
Luna frowned. “I have… meant to try, yes. It is a struggle, though. My sister, sometimes it seems as though she is afraid of me. Afraid of Nightmare Moon. It’s irrational, I know, but I worry that bringing up my faults will justify those fears.
Applejack thought for a moment. She reached out her other hoof and cupped it around Luna’s, so that she was holding it with both hooves. “Luna, that all sounds real hard. I can’t even imagine that level of pressure, and I’m sorry, I really am. However…” Applejack looked away nervously for a moment, before looking back and locking eyes with Luna. “You are a princess. Whether you’re fit to be or not makes no difference anymore. You’re a princess either way, and that means you’ve got a responsibility to be the best princess you can be. And, well, far be it from me to presume a princess needs my advice, but it sounds to me like you’re at a standstill, worryin about things nopony knows you’re worryin about, and that means you gotta do exactly what I told Apple Bloom to do back there. You gotta go talk to Celestia.”
Luna stared into Applejack’s eyes, not talking, not moving, for what seemed like an eternity. Applejack’s lip started to quiver nervously, and she bit it to keep it still, but her anxiety was apparent.
Then, Luna broke out into a grin.
“Marvelous.” Luna squeezed Applejack’s hooves with her own. “Applejack, nopony has ever spoken to me so directly before. Even my sister tiptoes around me as though the slightest upset will send me spiraling back up to the moon. Oh, you have no idea how much it means to me that finally, finally somepony just told me the truth. You’re right, I do need to talk to her, and I will. Thank you so much.”
Applejack smiled nervously. “Heh, I was gettin worried you were gonna banish me or somethin.”
“They all worry that,” Luna said. “Nopony else ever has the courage to ignore those fears, though.”
“Well,” Applejack said, “I’m glad that I could make you so happy by… well, scolding you. Oh, and uh, I was thinkin… If you wanna, you can always come back to my dreams if you get bored.”
Luna chuckled. “Applejack, are you asking me out?”
Applejack sputtered. “Well, I, no, of course not, I mean, you’re a princess, I can’t ask out a princess, that’s—”
Luna put a hoof to Applejack’s mouth to shush her. “That’s good to hear,” she said, “because it would have hurt my pride if I wasn’t the one to ask you out.”
Applejack was completely at a loss for words, muttering nonsense under her breath as her face slowly grew redder and redder. Luna laughed softly as she watched her try to eke out a response.
“So,” Luna said after a minute, “is that a yes?”
Applejack nodded feebly, and Luna squealed in delight before wrapping Applejack up in a hug.
