Imaginary Nightmare

by LuluRainbow

Rating: everyone
Tags: Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Slice of Life, Alternate Universe, Sad
Length: 1061

A little filly named Luna has an imaginary friend named Nightmare Moon who helps her sleep and with her nightmares.

Luna is a filly who experiences nightmares and insomnia. One night, she gets an imaginary friend named Nightmare Moon. However, Nightmare Moon is a bit different from other imaginary friends.

(Inspired by a Derpibooru comment I saw once)

(Temporary cover art until the artist I contacted gets back to me)

Published 2020-12-21 01:50:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-12-21 01:50:01 UTC

Insomnia

Luna tossed and turned in her bed, snuggling her stuffed teddy bear warmly under her blanket, which had a crescent moon design on it. Eventually, she groaned and sat up in her bed. She had once again experienced a terrible nightmare, and her insomnia was in full force again tonight. She debated disturbing her big sister, Celestia, to comfort and snuggle her back to sleep like many nights before.

"N-no, Luna, you're a big filly now, you gotta act like it. You gotta grow up and be brave," she said to herself, sniffling from tears. She realized she was still slightly crying and shaking from her terrible nightmare she had experienced.

She looked around her bed for something to help her calm down and fall back asleep, and she quickly noticed the book she had been reading that she hadn't properly put away before she went to sleep. She picked it up using her magic and opened it. It was a fairy tale about a pony princess who was tasked with watching over the night. Luna knew one day she would have to take up that role, and as such was fascinated by books like this. At the same time, however, she was slightly jealous of the role her sister Celestia would one day have. Celestia would one day be princess of the day, and maybe even ruler of all Equestria.

Never the less, she flipped through the pages of the book with her magic to the page she had left off on.

"A few pages wouldn't be too bad," she said as she began reading. A few minutes had passed when she suddenly heard her bedroom door beginning to creak open. She knew was gonna be in serious trouble if she was caught up reading this late. Hopefully her parents or sister would understand. She nervously looked towards her bedroom door.

However, instead of her parents or sister standing there, her eyes were met with a dark-furred alicorn who looked slightly older than her, as the pony appeared more like a young teenager, and had a dark blue misty mane. The pony in many ways resembled Luna herself, which Luna found intriguing and slightly weird.

Luna opened her mouth and was about yell out for her sister or her parents, obviously quite freaked out by the pony now in her room.

"No, no, please don't scream!" the pony ordered, slightly panicked.

Luna obeyed the order, but that didn't stop the fact that she was now shaking once again, as to her this was a scary situation to be in.

"W-who are you? W-what do you want?" Luna asked, beginning to cry again.

Nightmare Moon now felt bad for her slightly disturbing entrance. Was Luna about to cry?

"Look, look, calm down. I'm Nightmare Moon. Think of me as your...imaginary friend of sorts," Nightmare Moon said, putting on a warm smile.

"I-imaginary friend?" Luna asked, already starting to feel a bit better.

"Yeah, you could kinda say that I am. Except I can technically interact with the world and stuff. You, however, are the only pony who can see me," Nightmare Moon responded.

Luna looked nervously at her new friend, who of course suspiciously looked like her. Nightmare Moon offered back a warm and gentle smile. Nightmare Moon seemed pretty nice...for her name being Nightmare Moon. In fact, Luna had a question to ask about that now.

"If you don't mind me asking, why is your name Nightmare Moon?" Luna asked.

"Oh, well, it's more so a pun. Like Nightmare is kinda like a title, like Night Mare, or a mare of the night. And Moon is just...kinda the name. So Night Mare Moon; or Moon, the mare of the night, I guess, never really thought about it too much," Nightmare Moon replied with a smile.

Luna smiled and giggled a bit. Nightmare Moon was pretty cool.

"My name's Luna, and I think it means moon in some ancient language or something. I'm gonna be princess of the night someday!" Luna said proudly.

Nightmare Moon raised her eyebrows.

"Really?" she asked curiously.

"Yep, and my sister is gonna be princess of the day, and maybe even ruler of all Equestria! I'm...a little jealous, to be honest," Luna muttered.

"You shouldn't feel like that, you know," Nightmare Moon responded.

"Yeah, but," Luna whimpered out.

Luna perked up and smiled.

"Anyway, can I just call you Moony? My imaginary friend Moony!"

Nightmare Moon had no choice but to smile and nod.

"But, I'm not imaginary, remember?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"Well then; Moony, my best friend forever!" Luna exclaimed with a smile.

"R-really?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"Well, I don't really have any friends besides my big sister, so yeah," Luna said, a wider smile than ever before.

"W-well, thank you Luna," Nightmare Moon said with a smile.

"I've never really had a friend either, so this is a first for me," Nightmare Moon said.

Luna used her magic to place her book back on her crescent moon shaped bookshelf nearby.

"Oh yeah, you should be getting to sleep, shouldn't you?" questioned Nightmare Moon.

"Well, I was asleep until my nightmare woke me up, again," replied Luna sadly.

"Oh, you have troubles with nightmares?" questioned Nightmare Moon.

"Yes, every single night," Luna replied, drooping her head.

"Oh, I see," Nightmare Moon replied sadly, upset for her new friend.

"And insomnia too, so I have trouble even getting to sleep, especially after nightmares," Luna added.

"Doesn't your sister or somepony comfort you at least?" Nightmare Moon questioned.

"Yeah, she did, but I decided I needed to grow up and try to deal with those problems myself," replied Luna.

Nightmare Moon thought for a few seconds before coming to a conclusion.

"How about I help you?" Nightmare Moon asked.

"You'd really do that?" asked Luna.

"Of course, we are best friends after all! And that blanket of yours is pretty big, should fit two ponies," Nightmare Moon stated happily.

"Thank you," Luna said happily.

"No problem," Nightmare Moon replied back happily as she crawled into Luna's bed and got snug under her blanket.

"C-could you hug me with your wing?" Luna asked nervously.

"Of course," Nightmare Moon replied as she snuggled Luna with her wing.

Luna and Nightmare Moon were both happy.

Author's Note

My Luna Day submission. Might make a sequel someday.