Princess Luna looked up at her night sky to inspect her work. At least, that's what she told other ponies she was doing. In reality, she was just staring off into space and thinking her own thoughts. Each star had a place in the tapestry of her night. Some fit into constellations, others off on their own, but all of them fit somewhere.

The clock struck twelve, and Luna returned to her her quarters, steeling herself for her nightly patrol through the Dreamscape. Though she was a Princess of Equestria, Luna's room would be considered fairly normal by the average pony. Themed in midnight blues and a contrasting bright silver, the room felt as though it were an extension of the pony to whom it belonged. The walls were adorned with a few paintings of important ponies she'd met over the years. One such was of herself and Celestia when they were much, much younger.

The Princess lay down in her bed, the soft linens and plush foam of the bed making her quite comfortable. After ensuring she was adequately prepared for her task, Luna stepped otherways into the Dreamscape.

Otherways was the best way she could sum up what it felt like to enter the realm of dreams. If pressed, she'd add that it was like stepping backwards while facing backwards. Words had never been her strongest method of communication. She tended to get meaning and thoughts across better through art and music, her night sky being her greatest canvas for conveying her feelings. Yes, the stars betrayed her thoughts, shining brightly when joyful or excited, and twinkling like tears when she cried.

She stepped into the Dreamscape, and looked out into the night, each dream a star shining through the cold dark. She trotted along, seeking out those dreams that seemed dimmer and darker, peering in to check on the ponies within. Several dreams seemed to call her attention, the scent of fear urging her to come snuff the source.

But one dream seemed unfamiliar, almost alien. The star she saw was blackened out near completely, blazing with etheric umbra. Black flames licked outwards, threatening to infect those nearby with whatever poison was in that pony's mind. Though this one did not have the same pull on her that the others did, she feared what might happen to her subjects if it was left to pollute the Dreamscape. With nary a second thought, Luna dove into the strange dream.

Six strange creatures stood in a room only barely illuminated by crystals on the ceiling. The creatures were not ponies, that much was clear. They stood about as tall as her, and on only two legs like minotaurs. All of them were well armored and carried strange items in their hands and on their backs, each different from the last, but with similarities between them. None of the colors on the creatures' armor matched each other, but they seemed to be a cohesive enough unit. Two of the creatures had particularly light-looking armor and bore capes that fell down to their knees. Another two with bulkier armor had cloths hanging from their hips. The final two wore robes similar to those common among the royal mages from long ago, with glowing bands around their arms. All of them spoke in a language Luna had never heard in all her life.

Luna watched as one jabbed a massive battle standard into the ground, a skull of some creature crossed with spikes and circled in chains adorning the top. Each one touched the standard, and began noisily messing with their carried items.

One of the bipeds took a step forward, calling out into the dark, likely a name, but Luna couldn't tell. Before she had time to think on it, something emerged from the darkness.

A massive dragon-like creature crawled out into the dim light. Its face was covered in four bony plates covering its eyes and jaw. Even in the dream, this creature exuded an intense aura of dark magic. Even on all fours, the dragonoid was at least three times taller than Twilight's library. By estimation, she figured it could be more massive than Canterlot Palace.

What kind of creature is that? And where is this dream's host? Luna wondered to herself.

Upon that thought, one of the caped creatures fell to its knees screaming in agony. A voice, almost familiar, spoke in a language she didn't understand. The biped that fell began to transform, its body growing bones from its skin and through its armor. The same bony plates on the dragonoid's face developed on the biped's, followed by four long tentacles with sharp stingers at the end from the back of its head like a mane. A moment later, the formerly caped figure now closely resembled the looming dragon. The bipeds began to panic, and the sound of firecrackers filled the room for a brief moment.

If she wasn't watching so closely, she would have missed it. As fire and explosions burst forth from the ends of the strange items in the bipeds' hands, the transformed one turned against all of them. One of its stingers lurched forwards, impaling one of the two with the bulky armor with absolutely no effort. The second stinger made a wide sweep, smacking the exploding things from the hands of its targets. One of the robed ones went to raise its hand to attack, but didn't get to finish the motion. The transformed biped turned and opened its maw, spewing black flames at the robed one, causing it to scream and panic and attempt to snuff the flames. The other caped figure drew a blade, quick as lightning and charged it with some kind of magic. It attempted to lunge forward, and to its credit, it was fast; just not fast enough to avoid a roar that crushed it into the ground as though it had been stomped by the dragon. The remaining two bipeds were each stabbed with the remaining two stingers. As the two fell to the ground in shock with blood spilling from their abdomens, Luna caught the scent of arousal.

The final biped returned to its original form, its armor in shambles, exposing pale blue skin from tears in the armor's under layer. Words were spoken once more by the dragon, and the biped fell to its knees crying.

And there's the host, Luna mused to herself as she attempted to dull the shock of the violence she'd just witnessed.

As the dream faded away, Luna felt compelled to step forwards and comfort the being. This, however, turned out to be a mistake, as the moment she took a step the sound of hoof on stone echoed in the darkness. Luna froze, and time followed suit. Never before had she felt her heart pound so hard against her ribs. Never before had her body just refused to continue moving. Her breath caught in her throat and she watched in slow motion as the biped turned, pulling one of the exploding things from a loop on its belt and pointing it directly at her. The figure loosed the explosion, and before she could process seeing the fire escape the end of the thing—

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" she screamed out as pain exploded from her horn, as though it had been shattered into fragments. Luckily, that pain faded just enough for her to become capable of speech, though it did remain at a significant degree.

The door burst open and a bat-winged pony entered, halberd raised as its owner scanned for whatever made the princess scream. That pony, a mare whose cutie mark was a shield with a crescent moon, called out to Luna, "Princess!"

"I'm okay!" Luna managed to gasp out as she clutched at her head, trying in vain to dull the pain. "Please send for my sister!"

Without question, the thestral stepped outside, and bolted down the hall towards the Solar wing of the palace, leaving Luna to her pain and memories of the dream that caused it.

What even was that dream? Was it a dream? Or a memory? What was with that scent?

"Luna."

And what even was that creature whose dream that was? I've never seen anything like it.

"Luna!"

Something dangerous has appeared... and it falls to me to find out—

"LUNA!" Celestia's voice approaching Royal Canterlot volume, breaking Luna from her thoughts. With her sister now aware of her company, Celestia tried again. "Dearest sister, you sent for me, and Captain Sabre tells me you were screaming. What happened?"

Luna huffed indignantly, "It was but one scream," causing Captain Sabre to roll her eyes with a fanged grin. "But yes, I was forcibly ejected from the Dreamscape."

"Has that ever happened before?" Celestia asked.

"Never in all my years in that place," Luna confirmed. Celestia gave her a worried expression, asking without words for her to continue. "Remember how I described the Dreaming as like floating amongst my stars, with each star a dream of a pony sleeping beneath my night?"

Celestia nodded. "Yes, I remember."

"When I went into the Dreaming tonight, I found one star a sickly black. Never have I seen such a thing," Luna said. "It looked like it was on fire and threatened to poison the dreams nearest to it."

"So you investigated," Celestia said, pushing the story towards the pertinent information. "What did you see in that pony's dream?"

"It was no pony's dream," Luna said gravely, earning a rare shocked raised-eyebrow from her sister. "Nor griffon, nor minotaur, nor anything else on this world. Something other has emerged in Equestria."

Luna paused, waiting for a moment to see if her sister or her Captain had anything to say. When they stayed silent, she continued, "The dream I saw was violent. There were six armored creatures. They stood on two legs like minotaurs, and they carried strange weapons. They had come to slay a dragon-like creature that could easily have been the size of this palace. One of them transformed into something much like the dragon they came for, and slaughtered all of the others before you could cast a barrier. When it finished, it returned to normal and cried at its dead comrades."

Celestia now had both of her eyebrows raised, and the Captain fell back onto her haunches as she imagined the sheer combat prowess she'd need to best five of her equals at once.

"When I went to comfort the creature, it raised its weapon and somehow, it forced me from the Dreamscape," Luna said, as she debated in her mind whether or not to bring up the scent of arousal she'd picked up.

"Sister, as I cannot enter the Dreaming, I must yield to your expertise," Celestia said carefully. "What action should we take, if any, regarding this matter?"

"I feel we must gather more information. The more we have, the better it will go when it comes time to confront it. But one thing is certain. We must not engage this being in combat. Its weapons are ranged and have immediate lethality. We would only invite a massacre if we challenged this being head-on," Luna said solemnly. "Tonight I shall consult the Archives, and tomorrow, I shall head to the old castle to see if any of my squirreled-away texts have anything on this creature."

——————————

"Where the hell even are we?" a male-sounding voice said. Its owner, a Ghost, flitted around, looking at the plant life around their crash site. "I'm not picking up any signs of Vex, even though we should be in the Forest right now. How are we in an actual forest?"

"You're asking questions that are well above my pay grade," a feminine voice replied. Its owner, a humanoid clad in light armor and a cloak, stared at her burning shipwreck, sighing defeatedly as she checked her own equipment. "I'm just a Hunter. Can you check the constellations and cross reference the starmaps we got from the Academy?"

"Baaaah. Of course I—" the Ghost stopped abruptly, freezing for a moment before turning around and floating over to the Hunter. "Problem. I don't see any of the constellations I should. Not even Ursa Major or Orion."

The Hunter paused. "Shouldn't we see those even from Io?"

"That's the point. I don't see them!" the Ghost said, motioning with a piece of its shell upwards to the night sky. As the Hunter looked up, she froze, witnessing a brand new sky. Gone were all of the constellations of the Sol system. Gone was the pale glow of the Milky Way galaxy. Gone were the sickly shattered remains of the Moon. Instead, she saw a new moon, whole and glowing with a peaceful, pale light. "Luna, I think we're lost."

"Yeah, definitely," she replied. She pulled off her hood and helm, revealing her face for the first time in two years. Her skin was a pale blue, and her amber eyes glowed with their own light. Soft, short, darker blue hair fell back into its natural style, sticking up in places to make it look as though her head bore flames. Her armor was freshly repainted, but the scars of battle were still etched into it. Softer bits were sewn together by hasty field-stitches, and the dents and scratches were still there, unattended to after one particular incident she'd been trying to forget.

Awoken. That was what her people were called. A subspecies of human that emerged after the Collapse. Many of those who tried to flee Earth on the colony ships met their ends at the asteroid belt, but those who didn't die were transformed. Something happened out there at the edge of the deep black.

A rustle in the bushes. Luna crouched low and drew her hand cannon from the holster on her thigh. As she levied the weapon upon the source of the sound, a loud howl resounded from the woods just past the treeline. One by one, ten wolf-like predators emerged from the undergrowth, causing Luna to lower her weapon just a little. "Are those things made of wood?"

One of the wooden wolves leapt forth with its jaw wide open for a bite, earning a meal of blazing lead instead. The hand cannon kicked in her grip, a high-caliber bullet ripping through the creature's head and killing it instantly. Upon the creature's corpse hitting the ground, it exploded violently, searing two more of the creatures just enough to send them yipping back into the forest. When another two lunged, Luna put holes in both of them too, their bodies exploding after the bullet pierced their skulls.

The remaining five attacked all at once, making Luna jump up into the air, and then again in the air for just a little extra height. She then took aim, and drew her Void Bow. The arrow of Void Light hit one of the wolves and killed it instantly. Where the arrow made contact, a small purple sphere formed before lashing out with tethers and attaching to the four remaining enemies. The wolves yelped as they had their strength sapped, and the magic keeping their wooden bodies together failed. They crumbled to the ground without Luna having to fire another shot.

That was Luna's go-to weapon of Light: Shadowshot. Her connection with Void Light allowed her to wield the bow. Wherever the arrow hit, anything nearby became snared in draining tethers of Void Light that suppressed the abilities of anything caught in it and weakened their resistance to damage. Hunters who wielded the Void Bow were called Nightstalkers. They were those who made the monsters scared, and lit the way for others. Luna had taken up that role when she first resurrected, all those years ago.

"Well, now we have some firewood," Luna said, picking up the bundles of wood. "Saves me some effort. Keep scanning for anything useful. Radio frequencies, weather data, anything useful. If we're lost, then we should gather as much intel as we can before we accidentally piss off the locals. In the mean time, I'm gonna make a fire and then take a nap."

With that, Luna set to arranging the wood into a small pile surrounded by large stones. Making sure the area was clear, she plucked a small sphere from her belt and bouncing it off of a piece of wood before taking it in her hand again. "Standby for resurrection."

The sphere exploded in a blast of flames, killing Luna outright, but lighting the campfire perfectly well. The Ghost, having seen Luna do far dumber things, merely sighed in exasperation and expanded his shell, tapping into the Light and extending it to Luna's corpse. With a sharp gasp, Luna sat back up, perfectly fine, no worse for wear. With a satisfied smirk, she sat down against a particularly large tree, and let herself drift to sleep.

She stood in the final room with her fireteam at her back. Not her fireteam. Just a team she'd decided to work with this once. The mission was to enter the Dreaming City to kill the last known Ahamkara, Riven of One Thousand Voices. The Ahamkara, also known as the wish-dragons of Venus, had been hunted to near extinction in the early days of the City. Their ability to bend reality to grant wishes made them powerful, and during the founding days, the City needed power. But their ability to feed on the desires of those who sought them out and incite madness made them a threat, and so the City came to a consensus: the Ahamkara must be driven to extinction.

On paper the mission to kill Riven was simple, but unfortunately, it was at least a little more complicated than that. Riven had been Taken. Her will had been removed by some entity and replaced with something else. This complicated matters, as fighting the remnants of the Taken army would be difficult if Riven was acting as a new leader for them.

Her team consisted of six, including herself. Two Titans, with their heavy armor made for becoming a wall if needed. Two Warlocks, with their knowledge of the secrets of the universe in the notes hiding in their robes. And, counting herself, two Hunters, with lean frames for weaving through combat and getting into places no one else could. Each of them had roles to play, and up until now, they'd proven they understood their roles.

They'd fought through the watchtower towards the vaults, taking down several high-level Taken threats. Several times they'd come close to having their Light snuffed out forever and returned to death. But now they stood in the final room. Riven was here, waiting for them. Luna called out into the dark, and the voice of Commander Zavala answered. The Ahamkara stepped out from the dark, revealing itself to those who'd come to kill it.

Luna blinked.

All of the allies she'd come in with were now dead or beyond saving. Even with their Ghosts, with Riven so close, they couldn't resurrect. One of the Warlocks was burning away from black flames, her body no longer moving. A Titan had a hole punched through his armor and body alike, his blood pooling on the floor. Her fellow Hunter was crushed into a massive crater as though he'd been stomped to death. The only thing she could think of that could have killed everything so quickly was Riven.

Luna fell to her knees as tears broke loose and streamed down her face beneath her helm. Riven spoke a few more words, and everything went dark around her, leaving her alone. For a few moments, she just sat there and cried.

Something that sounded like wood on stone echoed in the darkness. Instinct drove her to act, and her hand snapped her hand cannon from its holster. As she turned to aim the revolver at whatever made the sound, she saw a creature she'd never seen before. It looked much like a horse, but smaller and a bit more stout in stature. Its body was coated in midnight-blue fur, and its mane flowed as though it were underwater, and Luna could see the stars through it. On its head was a long horn of the same color, likely made of either bone or keratin. Upon it seeing her, its wings clamped to its side as though startled.

The shot called out.

Luna shot awake, but managed to keep herself quiet. She'd had that dream nearly every night for two years now, but this was the first time that the horse-creature had shown up. She looked up, seeing that the moon had indeed traveled a significant distance through the sky, and was about halfway down to the horizon.

"That dream again?" her Ghost asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, but this time a weird horse-thing showed up at the end," Luna recounted. "Panicked and shot it, and apparently killing it woke me up."

"That's new," the Ghost replied. "Think it means anything?"

Luna shook her head before picking herself up off the ground. "Nah, prolly not. Just a dream. Now, let's see what all survived our crash, shall we?"

Author's Note

A reference image for Guardian Luna's dragonoid form
Artist can be found here.