"Are you sure this is a good idea Rainbow Dash?" After a day of bumps, bruises, flips, flops, tips, and turns. Twilight found herself at the top of a cliff overlooking the local swimming hole. "I mean, this is awfully high."

"Well we've tried everything else to get you off the ground. So I figure we could try going down instead of up. You're gonna glide to the other side of the lake!" Rainbow announced proudly while she hovered in the air. "No flapping needed. And if anything goes wrong, the water will break your fall."

"That doesn't make me feel better!" Exclaimed the rookie flyer as she made the mistake of looking down.

"It'll be a cinch, just do like I do." Dash landed next to her and extended her wings to their full length.

Twilight nervously did the same, noticing how much bigger her wingspan was than Rainbow's.

"You're just gonna float to the other side. No flapping. If you start to drift one way or the other, I just want you to fan out your wingtips on one side like I showed ya earlier." Rainbow carefully instructed her while she leaned to one side and showed her how she fanned out her feathers. "You got this girl. Now get out there and show them how it's done."

Twilight made her way closer to the edge, doing her best not to look down while keeping her wings steady. She must have hesitated a bit too long for the prismatic mare's liking because she suddenly felt a painful smack on her hindquarters when one of Rainbow's wings gave it a good smack. Thousands of years of equine instinct took hold and she leapt forward, screaming as she fell off the cliff.

She started to tuck her wings back in when Rainbow shouted down, "keep those wings out!" The drilling they had done over the last couple hours made her obey without hesitation as she snapped her wings straight. Muscles strained and pulled as the wind caught and pulled at her feathers. But she did start to level out. She felt the air billow under her like a soft pillow as it carried her to the opposite shore. She was doing it! She was doing it! The other side of the shore grew ever closer when something occurred to her. How was she supposed to land again?

The ground was only a dozen feet below her when she started panicked flapping away from the approaching ground. The air betrayed her as it threw her backwards into a uncontrolled spin, spiraling downward until...*SPLASH*.

Rainbow landed on the nearby shore while looking all kinds of giddy, "you almost had it Twilight. You just panicked at the last second. Good thing the water was there to break your fall."

Twilight was pouting and pounding her hooves into the water, "why does this have to be so hard? I'm never going to get this! And what's so funny?!"

Rainbow was rolling on the ground laughing while she Twilight glared at her from the water.

"Having a good laugh?" She deadpanned at her.

"It's not that Twilight, look!" She stopped bouncing and pointed to the cliff she started at. "You got all this way by yourself! Through the air!"

Twilight glared at her one last time before turning around in the water. When she did, her jaw hung open. She had sailed no less than two hundred feet! "I did all that? But how?"

"Because you have such an awesome teacher!" Boasted Rainbow. "That right there," she said pointing at the cliff, "is a start. We're gonna start doing that more often."

"Right now?!" Said Twilight. While she was excited to have made that glide, she wasn't anxious to repeat it right away.

"No, not right now." Said Rainbow.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief a bit too soon.

"Lunch first, then we do that some more."

Twilight groaned.

It was early evening in Canterlot when Princess Luna dragged herself from bed, unable to sleep any longer. She had been unable to rest easily after how her previous night went. What had shaken her so much? Was it being attacked by a nightmare? No, that was a pretty common thing. Was it cause the dream had King Sombra running around? Plenty of crystal ponies still had nightmares about him. Although this one had cast him in a cheery light. That was a bit unsettling but not too out of the ordinary as pony's dreams tend to mix a bunch of things up.

She thought and she thought, but she could only narrow it down to three things. The nightmare had dragged her in from the dreamscape, the space between dreams, which just didn't happen. That she had been unable to silence and steady a dream when she wanted to. Far from helping, that had just made it worse. All aspects of the dream went on full defensive mode when she attempted that. And then there was the dreamer himself. When everything started going downhill, the dreamer had reached out and guided her to safety. Other ponies didn't know the ways of dreams like she did. On top of that, after she had made it back out to the dreamscape, the beast that had pulled her in the first time came back for a second attempt. Only for the dreamer to attack it, bind it, and pull it back into his subconscious kicking and screaming.

Luna thought over everything that transpired and came to only one conclusion. The only thing that could have shaken her so bad. Had left her crying in her elder sister's embrace. Had shaken her so bad that she neglected her duty of lowering the moon that morning.

Helplessness.

Complete helplessness.

She had not been in control, that realm was her domain and she had lost control. She pulled the blanket from her bed and wrapped it tightly around herself, shivering. She hadn't felt this powerless since she was a filly many, many moons ago.

But she was not a child anymore. She would not let fear rule her. She would take this experience and learn from it. Steeling herself, she stood to her full height, wings flared back, and threw the blanket away. "I AM PRINCESS LUNA! STEWARD OF THE MOON! GUARDIAN OF DREAMS! VANQUISHER OF NIGHTMARES! AND WE WILL NOT LET FEAR RULE US!"

Feeling much better but definitely not getting back to sleep after openly challenging the world, she donned her royal regalia and left her chambers to see what her sister was up to.

She found Celestia in her office going over mountains of paperwork. Usually day to day affairs with the governing of the realm were handled by some other pony, but as is want with government, the highest authority usually ends up being a glorified clerk by the end of the day.

"Good evening dear sister." Luna announced herself. "We hath arisen early."

Celestia jumped a bit as her name was called out. She looked up from what she was working on and saw her sister standing there. "Luna! What are you doing up so early?"

"We...I had trouble sleeping, last night still weighs heavily on my mind." She relayed to her sister while trying her best to adapt to the current dialect.

"It worries me too Luna" her sister sighed. "Do we still have no idea whose dream it was?"

"I'm afraid not, the dreamer only appeared twice. Once in the form of a child and the other time wearing a full cloak that easily covered his cutie mark. All I can say is the voice was male, but that's not really much to go on. It's not uncommon for ponies to dream of themselves as the opposite gender." Luna made her way over to the nearby refreshment cart that was usually in here and poured herself a hot cup of coffee. "All I know is the dreamer has an unusually strong mind."

"It still worries me that he succeeded in containing a nightmare of that scale through willpower alone," inflected Celestia. "Do you plan to visit there again? It sort of feels like we're kicking a hornet's nest."

"I fully intend to investigate that dreamer as soon as possible. I won't let the events of last night stop my pursuit of any unseen dangers that we may yet face." Luna took a sip of her coffee and closed her eyes, feeling out the dreamscape for the scent of that particular dream. "Alas I cannot find him as of yet, the dreamer is currently awake, and while he is, he is beyond my reach."

"You plan to save your strength for him then?" Celestia asked as she continued to go through the papers she had to finish tonight.

"Indeed I do, but I am restless. I feel I need something to distract me for a few hours until he sleeps." Luna voiced her thoughts as she found a cookie to go with her coffee. "I'm still a bit uneasy and I fear I will drive myself mad if I just sit and wait."

"You should head out into the city then," excitedly suggested her sister as she jumped away from her desk. "I always feel better after a night on the town. The lights of the city against the fading day, everypony running this way and that trying to get some last minute shopping in, and..." Celestia waggled her eyebrows at Luna. "You never know when you might have that chance encounter that could turn into something...more."

"Surely thou jest?" Affronted Luna. "The scandal if anypony were to see us cavorting about. Think of thy reputation?!"

"Nothing will happen if nopony knows it's you." She nudged her sister with her elbow in jest.

"Oh." Her eyes going wide, realizing what she meant. "I guess I could do that." She let her mane and tail flow out from her, cascading down her body and wrapping around her like a fog. When the fog cleared, it revealed a unicorn mare of a shorter stature than was normal for her. She still had the same dark blue fur but her mane didn't have the flowing stars running though it and instead took on a shorter cut and a lighter blue. Around her body she wore a simple dress of midnight blue with ivory lace.

"Show off," teased Celestia. "You know I have a lot of trouble doing that and you make it look so easy."

"We both have our own strengths dear sister." Smirked Luna. "I still don't know how you deal with all the nobles day in and day out."

"I like to defer to the ancient wisdom of Rose Bear when it comes to that. Speak softly and carry a big stick." Said Celestia, while moving back and settling back behind her desk. "Well I still have a lot of work to get done. You go have fun and let me know if anything interesting happens."

"Indeed we shall. We should be back in time for moonrise." And with that, she left her sister to her work and took off through the castle.

Luna slipped out through a side entrance and made her way to the main road. She checked out the various shops and galleries she found there, mostly just going through the motions of enjoying herself. The events of the previous night still weighed heavily on her mind and nothing she did helped ease it.

"Good evening M'lady," came a soft sultry voice from her right. "What troubles a beauty such as yourself?"

Luna turned to the owner of the voice. Before her stood a tall majestic pegasus stallion with a white coat and black mane giving her the smallest of bows. He stood back up straight, looking down at her with soft blue eyes and a winning smile. She felt her heart skip a beat as she looked back at him. "Tis...I mean...It's nothing, I've just got a lot on my mind is all." What was going on with her. Was she really swooning like some adolescent and their first crush.

The pegasus took a step closer, she could make out the scent of mint as he stood right in front of her. "It clearly is not nothing if it is stopping you from enjoying such a lovely evening. You don't need to tell me what troubles you, but I would be remiss if I were to let such a lovely young mare such as yourself wander the streets alone." He held out a hoof to her, "My name is Storm Chaser. Might I have yours?"

She felt some warmth rise to her cheeks as she placed her hoof in his. "Lu..." she coughed, catching herself. "I am Moon Drops and I guess I would like some company."

"Such a lovely name," said Storm Chaser, falling into step next to her. She caught a view of the vortex adorning his flank as he did so. "I know just the thing that will cheer you up, Moon Drops."

They made their way through the streets, stopping to look at several of the shop along the way. One of them was a boutique where she got to try on several dresses and show them off to him. He smiled and nodded at a couple of them, but when she tried on a dress of deep crimson and stepped out of the changing room he just went stark still. She could see some blush rising up his face and his wings were starting to flare back a bit. She sauntered over to him, slowly making her way around him and passing just close enough for her tail to brush against the sensitive down he left exposed. "You like this one?" She asked, slowly stepping away from him to stand before him, pleased to see him looking a bit flustered. If anypony asked, she wouldn't deny she was having fun.

Storm swallowed hard and pinned his wings back to his sides as he stood before her. His breath caught in his throat as he stepped forward to stand over her. "You look even more lovely than when I first saw you." He said, stepping back and making an elegant bow before her. "Would the lady Moon Drops grace my humble presence for dinner and a show?"

"Why I would be delighted sir Storm Chaser." She offered a hoof to him which he took from her and kissed it in a show of curtesy.

After purchasing her new dress, he led her down the street to a fancy restaurant that had balconies overlooking the edge of the mountain and the cloud stadium below them. Even though places like this were usually booked, they got lucky and there was still one table left. She looked down over the balcony and saw pegasi arranging the clouds for the Wonderbolt derby they were holding tonight. Curiously she looked back at him and inquired, "so what made you pick this place?"

"Well aside from serving an amazing carbonara," he pointed a hoof at the horizon. "In about an hour the moon will peek up over that horizon. I always liked watching the moon rise to join the starry sky. It's even better with somepony to share it with."

Luna just felt herself melt at these words. If somepony had said that to her all those years ago, then maybe her loneliness wouldn't have driven her down such a dark path. "I too, enjoy watching the moon. Every night if I can." It's a shame she only had a hour left before she needed to raise the moon. Crestfallen that she would have to leave soon, her gaze fell to the table between them. The night was going so well too.

Maybe she could invite him back to the castle? But that would also require revealing who she is. How does one broach the topic? Maybe she could sneak into the castle gardens with him, slip out for a bit to raise the moon and they could just continue with their night. Her train of thought was interrupted as he stood before her, having made his around the table when she wasn't looking. He slowly wrapped one of his white wings around her and pulled her close. "Your troubles are still weighing you down. Maybe I need to try a little harder."

She gazed up into his blue eyes and breathed in his minty scent. The warm feathers around her shoulders protecting her against the cool evening air. She could feel the rhythmic beating of his heart against her chest or was it her own heart she felt, she couldn't tell. His face leaned in towards her as the moon lit the sky behind his head. The moon? Had she lifted it without meaning to? Was it later than she thought and her sister was covering for her? Did it matter? The warmth from her chest rose up to fill the rest of her being as he drew closer. She closed her eyes as she lifted her face towards his, eager for the sweet taste of his lips upon hers. The kiss never came. She felt his breath tickle the inside of her ear as he leaned in and whispered. "You used to be much more perceptive, Luna."

Her eyes shot open as he pulled away from her, a mischievous grin on his face. "You never would've been this careless before."

Her shocked mind just now registering that he used her real name, she sat there dumbfounded. "But you...but how...what?!" Was all she got out before he unwrapped his wing from around her shoulders and leapt off the balcony into the open air above the stadium.

His wings snapped open, leaving himself hovering in the air as he turned and gave the confused Luna a mock salute. "See you around, Moon Drops." Was the last thing he said before he dove towards the center of the stadium.

A waiter came over to her, having witness the whole scene play out. "Are you OK Miss?"

Luna felt a new heat wash over her as her anger rose. "No. No we are not..." Her eyes squinting and her teeth grinding as she watched Storm's rapidly descending form.

"WE ARE FURIOUS!!!" She shouted as she let the magic disguising herself unwrap itself from her body. The dress she wore tore to pieces and fell into a heap on the ground as she rose to her full height in her regal form.

"Prin...Princess Luna?!" Yelped the waiter as he quickly backed away, all the other patrons snapping their attention away from what they were doing to witness the scene as the angry princess spread her wings out to their full length. She leapt off the balcony and dove after the troublesome pegasus.

She quickly started closing the distance between them as her larger wings allowed her to fly much faster than an equestrian flyer normally would. Committed to his dive, he didn't look back as she was only a few dozen behind him and closing. The ponies filling the stadium bleachers gave a collective gasp as somepony pointed to the diving duo. None of this mattered to her as she was set on acquiring her target.

The center of the stadium where the pegasi raced around the track was only about a hundred feet away from them as Storm Chaser began to spin.

As he spun, Luna felt the distance between them widening and the air began to ripple as he corkscrewed towards the racers. In an attempt to end this, she fired a weak blast of magic at him from her horn, hoping that she could stun him and end this chase. However as the shot reached the air around the now living twister, it ricocheted off him and gained speed as it flew into the crowd of spectators. Ponies dived out of the way of the incoming projectile and while it did blow a hole through some of the seats, fortunately nopony was struck by the wild shot.

Luna focused her attention back on her quarry as the living missile steered to aim at the racers flying the track. A dark cloud started to pour off him as he closed in on his target. The moment before impact felt like it hung in the air much longer than it normally would as the pegasus's body was fully enshrouded by black mist. Suddenly, time felt like it accelerated to make up for the abnormal pause as the missile connected and passed through one of the racers, causing him to go limp and start to slowly fall through the layer of clouds.

The other pegasi quickly abandoned the race to save their unconscious comrade from falling to his death. Seeing that he was taken care of, Luna scanned the surrounding sky for the assailant. She spotted the white blur shooting straight for the south gate, moving much faster than he did before. The angry alicorn immediately chased after her now very dead date. Though try as she might, she couldn't close any of the distance as he seemed to be much faster than her now. The air around him crackled and bent as he broke through the sound barrier. A deafening boom rocked the air around the city as he flew far out of reach of the princess of the night.

Random Fact was up on a clifftop with a telescope doing some stargazing when a gust of wind blew him and the apparatus over. Fortunately he didn't stumble far enough to actually fall off the cliff. Picking himself off and brushing the dirt off, he picked his telescope back up and tried to get back to what he was doing.

A tap on the shoulder made him jump as he spun around to see who snuck up on him. Floating over the edge of the cliff was a very tired looking pegasus. His black hair was slowly turning white and his limbs were gradually turning more and more transparent.

"Dear sweet Celestia!" He swore, remembering to use the proper curses this time. "What happened to you?!"

"No time," the bedraggled pegasus barely breathed as he spoke with a raspy voice. "Luna's right behind me and I need to sleep, badly." He held one hoof forward.

Random's eyes widened in panic when he heard that Luna was in close pursuit. "Right." He quickly reached a hoof forward to connect with the fading flyer. As their hooves touched, all life seemed to leave the pegsus as he went limp. His body quickly fading into motes of light that flowed up and through his now completely glass shell to connect with the unicorn's hoof.

Not even half a minute after he had safely stored away Storm Chaser's body and memories, wow he picked a cheesy name, then another gust of wind blew him and his telescope back over. "Twice in one day?!" He exclaimed.

He looked up to see the lunar princess hovering several feet in the air. "Princess Luna?!" He quickly bowed, she looked like she was still just as angry as when he, I mean, Storm left her in his dust. The remnants of the evening's events flooded through him at that moment. Oh you cocky pegasus, you did not just do that to Luna.

"Spare us the formalities, we needs make haste!" Shouted Luna in her regal voice. "Prithee, hath thou seen a white pegasus flying like the wrath of Tartarus chases him?!"

"Yeah! He knocked over my telescope!" He continued to bow before Luna, sweating profusely. He was really hoping to avoid running into one of the royal sisters this soon. "He went that way!" He pointed off in a direction south of Ponyville. More or less the direction he would've been flying.

"We thank thee, good sir. Enjoy the rest of your night." Concluded the vengeful mare as she flew off in the direction he pointed. Leaving him to go through the remainder of his thoughts.

"That," he caught his breath, blood rushing back to his face. "Was too close." He glanced in the direction the night princess flew off to. Was it really that necessary for Storm to make a scene like that?

He looked down at the clear gem in his grasp, it was completely transparent except for a small picture floating inside of a lightning bolt splitting a cloud. A cutie mark.

Luna flew around searching for a couple more hours without success. She spotted a few more late night stargazers but nopony else had seen anything unusual that night. Giving up the night's search for lost, she made her way back to the royal palace of Canterlot.

She found her sister madly pacing the balcony outside the dining room as she touched down. Celestia spun around as she heard hooves connect with the stone. Tears in her eyes as she rushed Luna, collapsing into a hug as she reached her.

"You're all right." She sobbed as she held her sister tightly. "I was so worried when the guards woke me up saying there was an attack." The solar princess looked into her sister's annoyed expression. "You are all right? Aren't you?"

"We are whole, sister. A bit tired, but whole. We've never seen a pegasus move that fast."

"Not even Rainbow Dash?" Asked a wide-eyed Celestia.

"Well, she's the exception. Her speed also isn't normal for her tribe. So what of the attacked? We were in heavy pursuit of the assailant but their comrades seems to have the victim under taken care of." Luna inquired.

"Soarin of the Wonderbolts." Sighed the solar diarch. "I got the report a few hours ago, he's unconscious in the hospital. The doctor's don't know what's wrong with him. Physically he's in perfect health but...his magic, his pegasus magic, is completely gone! No trace of it remains, not even his cutie mark."

Luna's eyes went wide at the news. "That is most troubling indeed dear sister. We saw the attack happen but didn't grasp the gravity of it...except..." She rubbed her hoof under her chin thinking.

"Do you know something Luna? Please tell me if you do. The Wonderbolts are a branch of our military and I'm already expecting to have to deal with at least one angry general asking questions in the morning. Asking questions that I don't have answers to."

"I suppose I should tell you everything that happened to us tonight." Luna was not looking forward to recounting events. "It all started when we left the castle..."

"So your 'date', after being the perfect gentlecolt all evening, and quite the charmer from the sounds of it." Celestia reflected while Luna blushed furiously, having recounted all events for her sister. "Dove into the stadium, deflected a blast of magic, turned into a cloud or a shadow or whatever and shot straight through Soarin. Then when you tried to catch him afterwards, he was absurdly faster than before."

"We believe that about covers it." Luna got up from the pillows that they had settled into while she told her tale. The whole story, Including, at her sister's insistence, all the juicy details about how he almost kissed her. "Now if you excuse us. As exciting as the night has been, we still have other duties to perform."

Celestia watched her sister as she headed in the opposite direction of where she usually settled in for her night watch. "And where are you going?" She lifted an eyebrow at her.

Luna harrumphed. "The evening's events have left us frustrated in more ways than one." She continued walking.

Her sister smiled the first real smile she had in hours. "So...you're going where?"

"WE ARE GOING TO TAKE A COLD SHOWER!" Luna shouted as she stormed out of room and towards the castle baths.

Author's Note

This was a lot of fun to write and I'm glad I decided to split the chapter.
also, Poor Luna.