Dreamwalker's Tale: Last (!) Adventure

Equestria’s future is at stake, I tried to tell myself. War might be coming. Who knows how many could get hurt… or worse. I really tried. I did that a lot. But this time, it was to no avail. I could not stop grinning like a madpony as I heard yet another wave of unbridled laughter from her. She chased ahead of me and I was hot on her heels despite my better knowledge. She giggled whenever I missed to tap her on her lovely rump and snorted in unrestrained amusement when I tapped yet another illusion of hers.

Luna pranced along the streets of Canterlot in one of her disguises and had the gall to occasionally nibble at her donut while I was thoroughly occupied with trying to catch up to her, pulling my poor breakfast substitute with me. A few of the higher-class ponies grumbled and complained about almost being hit by the levitating sweet treat, but even they were surprisingly restrained in how vocal they got. Maybe they recognized Luna’s disguise. Or maybe her good mood was just infectious enough to keep them quiet.

Our morning had been a bit of a mess. The dreamscape had been unusually busy and even with our plans, there were certain duties that would not be set on pause. Luna would not just stop raising and lowering the moon of course. And neither would we stop patrolling the dreamscape together. Last night however, we had all our hooves full. So many creatures tried to be sneaky or crafty or cunning. So many of them had been surprisingly hostile as well. It was as if they had caught wind of our plans somehow and invited themselves to our farewell party.

It took quite some time until the wave of additional work finally relented. Until the late morning hours, to be precise. Which also meant: We already ran late when we woke up.

We hastily stumbled through our morning routines, skipped breakfast and reduced my preferred triple check of supplies to only a single surface glance before we slung the backpacks onto our backs and ran for the hills. Luna teleported a little bit ahead to catch us some donuts from Joe’s, just so that we could have something in our stomach. Too bad we were too busy playing catch to actually eat them. Well, I was.

I actually looked forward to the train. Since I had never visited places like Las Pegasus, Baltimare or other far-off cities, I had never needed to board one of these long-distance trains. From what I vaguely knew through passive absorption, they sported two to three additional wagons. A dining car, a water tank and I assumed something to deal with personal hygiene. Toilets, sinks and whatnot. Hopefully some showers. And each compartment was designed with bunk beds. I had never slept in one, so that would be quite interesting as well.

We made it to the train station just in time and I could already see our train waiting. It appeared that very few passengers were left to exit or board, the sidewalk was almost empty and we ran side by side. I would have loved to say ‘at top speed’, but the fact of the matter was that I had less strength, stamina and overall speed than her, so she was clearly holding back for my sake. That was until we heard the whistle of the conductor. “Wait!” she yelled with surprising force and volume and indeed, the nice stallion gave some sort of signal to the driver.

“Runnin’ a lil’ late, missus?” he greeted us with a chuckle and stepped to the side to allow us entrance.

“Thank you!” Luna replied a little out of breath. I gasped even more for air and did not manage to say or do much aside from briefly and gratefully smiling in his direction.

We boarded the train and for a few precious seconds did little but stand there in the middle of the hallway and just take a moment to catch our breaths. As soon as her breathing became less erratic, Luna started to giggle again. “W-What…?” I panted. I tried hard to resist the urge to laugh alongside her, but I failed miserably. I didn't even know what was so funny. But her mirth was just so infectious.

It took her a while to answer me. “You are the worst,” she claimed with a wide grin.

“What? I am? What did I do?” I looked around in bewilderment for whatever she might be addressing but found no clues.

“Missing something?” she continued to tease me.

And only then did I notice. “Oh shoot. Where is it?!” I stumbled back to the door while she broke out into uproarious laughter once more. I looked out the small little window in the door, but saw nothing while the train made a little yank and slowly started to move.

She eventually pulled me away from the window and just hugged me to herself. “Even when you are panicking, you are very orderly. I have not seen such a demonstration, ever. It is quite adorable.”

“What did I do?” I whined while my belly grumbled, finally mourning the loss of my breakfast.

She tried to tell me. Thrice. And each time, she had to stop because she was about to laugh again. When she finally managed to restrain herself enough, I could still see her mirth bubbling right beneath the surface. “You placed it on the horn of a unicorn as we were running by.”

Her composure broke immediately after she managed to say so. And honestly, the mere image floating around in my head made me join her rather quickly. “I did?” I asked once more out of breath.

Luna nodded. “Do not worry, however — he did not seem all that perturbed. I think he might have understood it as a prank or a gift.”

“Well… that’s something, I guess,” I replied with a sigh and dragged my hooves across my face to get rid of the ache in my cheeks. “However, now I’m all out of breakfast.”

“Worry not, I said,” she insisted with a grin and we both stood back up, “the dining car should be further down that way. You gave me something to laugh at, so I shall give you something to eat.”

I chuckled and shook my head. “So is that how that works? I ought to remember that for later.”

“It is now,” she claimed and with a wing firmly hugging me to her side, we started to make our way to a new breakfast attempt.

We had not booked tickets, per se. Luna was of the opinion that she knew exactly what to do and how to do it and that she knew a couple of tricks. She claimed that the last train compartments usually were less popular. Simply because when exiting the train, one would have to walk — gasp — a few dozen steps more. In my mind, that was such a stupid thing. But I could not argue with the results — the further down the train we walked, the less passengers we encountered. We eventually reached the last wagon and made ourselves comfortable within the last compartment. We placed our still bulging saddlebags on the top beds and sat down on the lower ones. As far as I could tell, the entire wagon was empty, aside from us. The dining car was somewhat in the middle of the train and the showers — thank Celestia they had showers! — were only one or two wagons behind that. The water tank was actually the last wagon of the train. I had no idea how that worked. Pipes, probably? Magic?

For the moment, I was just glad I had something in my stomach.

“Feeling better?” Luna asked with an amused twinkle in her eyes.

“A lot, yes. Thank you.” I smacked my lips for good measure. I could still taste the powdered sugar.

“Good. I was worried you might starve to death while we were waiting in line,” she teased.

My belly had admittedly grumbled around a lot. I felt my face flush a little, but decided not to engage her in ‘combat’. I instead looked out the window and watched as Canterlot shrunk down further and further. The view was impressive — aside from the city, I could see far and wide. The valleys at the foot of Mount Canterhorn, rolling hills all around and that speck in the distance might have been Ponyville. Maybe. It would take us half a day or something like that to find out — long-distance trains were slower for some reason. After Ponyville was a long, long stretch of seemingly empty land. The tracks followed the curve of the tree line of the Everfree Forest. A few small villages were along the way, as far as I was aware. We would cross the bridge spanning over Ghastly Gorge and in five or six days, we would reach Appleloosa. Almost an entire week. Cooped up in a train compartment.

I looked behind me and saw Luna rummage around in her saddlebags. Her hips swayed softly from side to side in excitement. Her wings occasionally rustled a little.

A week cooped up in a train sounded boring as heck. But a week cooped up in a train with her?

My mind involuntarily wandered to last night. Breed me, she had said. Somewhere between a beg and a command. I felt a little tingle just thinking about it. Maybe there was a reason why she had chosen this somewhat secluded compartment for us. I was admittedly looking forward to finding out.

Luna did not seem to find what she was searching for. She gave a little huff, levitated the one saddlebag up again and brought the other one down, only to immediately bury her muzzle in it. Her impatience could be quite endearing at times. And due to her agitation, her tail swished from side to side, never revealing anything, but still teasing just enough.

I tore myself away from the window with a mischievous grin and sneakily walked over to her. That was easy enough with her being this distracted. I leaned down and gave her flank a kiss, followed by a long lick at her dock and another kiss just above her tail. I chuckled a little as I saw her go rigid and her muzzle emerged from her saddlebag just a moment later. She was still in heat — I could see as much. That fire in her eyes had been sparked within mere seconds. And already I could smell her arousal. Maybe it was cruel to tease her like that?

“Careful,” she whispered in a husky voice, “you would not want me to pounce on you immediately, would you?”

I wouldn’t mind. It was on the tip of my tongue. And she knew. There was a dangerous spark in her eyes, a threat, a promise. A dare. But while I loved the idea of us having sex for six days straight, I backed away from the reality of it and smiled. I stepped closer and nuzzled her cheek. She welcomed the contact with a happy sigh. Truth was, I was still a little winded from our run through Canterlot. And I was a little sore after yesterday. The mind was willing, but the flesh was weak. Luckily, she had already informed me with a hungry smirk that she packed some sort of ointment to treat that.

Luna eventually returned to searching around in her saddlebag and this time, after mere seconds, she drew a stack of sheets from it. With some strange markings and numbers and whatnot. “Aha!” she announced her find.

“What is it?” I asked and tried to get a better glimpse of it.

To my surprise, Luna's expression was caught between a grimace and a smile. “Diversion,” she answered. “And homework, I suppose.”

I could not help but laugh. A Princess of Equestria did not get homework. Not unless she was willing to accept it as such. Which already told me a great deal of what this was. Twilight had prepared something for her and probably promised something in return if she would do it. “So, what are we dealing with? Or is this a ‘Luna only’-thing?”

She turned around just enough to show me her devious grin. “Well technically she never forbade me from asking for help. Which is why I took this with us.”

Cheeky mare. I grinned and nodded. Luna levitated the saddlebag up to its counterpart again and scooched a little over to make room for me. I sat down next to her and finally got a proper look at what we were dealing with. And it was honestly a delight to see. “Ohhh… I see.” The first few pages were filled with empty grids, with a few numbers in a certain arrangement on the left column and the upper row. A nonogram. “Heh. I love these. Please tell me she’s got some Sudoku prepared as well.”

Luna swiftly pulled a few of the sheets out that were further down in the stack. “She did,” she replied and showed them to me. A three by three grid, with each section further divided into three by three. A few numbers here and there. Sudoku was simple enough. Each section had to contain each number, from one through nine. But at the same time, each row and each column had to contain the same. The emptier the grid was the harder the game usually became.

And I could see Twilight's hoofprint all over this. They started hard — and got harder from there. “Wow. She’s not fooling around, is she?” I noted as I sifted through the sheets. A waft hit my nostrils and they flared as I inhaled deeply. It was such a deeply satisfactory scent.

“What is it?” Luna asked and briefly levitated the sheets up to smell them herself.

“Twilight made them,” I noted the obvious. “Smells like home.”

Luna smiled lopsided. “Wait, you can… smell that?”

I grinned and shrugged. “My sense of smell is usually pretty terrible, but yes. Paper, ink and… something else. Something unique to her. I sometimes associate it with her magic as well.”

“You can differentiate ponies by the smell of their magic? Huh. How curious. Maybe we should look into that at some point.” I just shrugged again and indulged a little, taking another deep breath with the sheets held to my nose. I eventually put them down as I became self-aware. I was not certain if this sense of smell was anything tangible or just my imagination running wild. And I honestly did not care either. It just felt great to be reminded of home. And her.

Luna had meanwhile sorted her homework — the mere thought still made me snicker — into a couple of piles, sorted by the nature of their games. Four piles, to be precise. Nonograms on the left, followed by Sudoku. Those were the larger piles. Followed by crossword puzzles. “So you are good with math?” she asked and I did notice that hopeful undertone.

I snorted and grinned. “Well, I’m not Twilight, if that’s what you’re asking. But I dabble. I actually like those,” I pointed towards the piles on the left and grimaced a little as my gaze fell onto the crossword puzzles. “Those, however… eh. For some reason, I get easily frustrated by them. Or bored. Or both. But I like to attempt them from time to time.” And finally, there was that fourth pile. Without the usual grid, the arrangement of numbered circles had me stumped for a moment. “Not sure what those are…?”

“She called them ‘hashi’,” Luna explained.

“Oh! I know those!” I rejoiced.

“You do?”

A laugh bubbled in my throat as I nodded. “I live with Twilight. I can’t not know these. Exercise is important for both body and mind,” I quoted Twilight in my best impression of her lecture-tone. “She’s constantly searching for new puzzle types and challenges like these. And to be honest, I like a lot of them. She has to dial the difficulty down a bit for me, but I like them.” I chuckled a little as I remembered Spikes frequent reactions to her attempts to get him into this pastime. “So, mind telling me why you got homework?” And I still snickered using that word.

Luna rolled with her eyes and poked my side with her wing. “Cut it out,” she pleaded before she looked back down at the several sheets of puzzles. “Well, I do like puzzles. I prefer riddles, to be honest, but I might have brought this onto myself by unintentionally misleading her a little bit? We were stargazing the other night and I told her about a few constellations that are not visible anymore. She started attributing numbers to stars at some point, according to size categories, brightness levels and so on. I think she was just showing off. And it was quite adorable, to be honest. But then she made one of these out of it,” she explained as she tapped the fourth pile, “and I was a little bit stumped.”

I chuckled and nodded. “I assume she was elated to show you a new kind of puzzle?”

Luna's eyes glazed over with love and admiration. “Very much so. She was so passionate about it, I could not help but be swept up by her enthusiasm. But I must admit, I might have… focused my attention more on her than on her explanations.”

I snorted again. “Don’t worry, that won’t be a problem,” I quickly assured her and scooched a little closer. I softly leaned against her as I levitated the sheets into the air and grabbed her pencil. “Usually these things have a grid as well that helps visualize the arrangement. I suppose she left that out to make it harder, because Twi’s gotta Twi. So, you have these circles, each one bearing a number. That’s the amount of lines connecting to that circle. You can make connections to any other bubble, but it must be up, down, left or right. Ninety-degree angles only. And connections can’t cross or overlap. Oh and you can have no more than two connections in one direction. So, see this one? Three connections. You could draw two down to this bubble, but that one says it only has one. So you can only draw one down there. The other two… hm, let’s see. One left, one right would work. The one on the left has two more connections, the one on the right one more.”

Maybe I just got lucky. Or maybe Twilight had realized that Luna had maybe been a little bit preoccupied. Either way, the first of these puzzles ended up being relatively easy. A few minutes and only one or two mistakes and we had it down. It was a good demonstration. And after solving one as an example, Luna quickly concluded her fondness for this kind of puzzle. So we made a deal. I took the first two piles. She would start to solve them and at any point, whenever she ran into trouble or started to get frustrated, she could ask for my help and I would try to get her out of that ditch. In turn, I started solving the crossword puzzles and could ask for her help whenever I got stuck. The fourth pile we kept separate for now and decided to solve last. She had the most fun with those, so we wanted to solve them together. And I silently vowed to take a little bit of a backseat, just so that she could enjoy them more. After all, while she had planned to secure my help with these, they were still meant for her. I would not lie to Twilight if this were to ever come up and I suspected Luna knew as much.

“You know,” I started after puzzling over another part of the crossword. “You still haven’t told me what you get out of this.”

Luna smiled again with a great deal of fondness in her eyes and shrugged. “I do not know yet.”

A surprise then. Clever Twilight. She knew how to push Luna’s buttons.

It was not that we consciously tried to prolong the inevitable. There was just a certain restlessness when cooped up on a train for prolonged periods of time. We wandered around. Got some snacks from the dining car. Fooled around in our compartment. Had a shower. Had a nap. But eventually, a day later, Luna’s homework was done. All solutions had been marked down, all sheets had been rearranged, neatly stacked and put back into her saddlebag. Our new pastime emerged in its stead. With what we had ahead of us, I assumed most of the weight was attributed to the tent and food. And I had a suspicion about the latter which only elicited a tired and defeated sigh from me at this point. I had really hoped to not have to see or taste that again for quite some time, but oh well.

However, Luna had reserved a bit of space for a single book. A fantasy novel about a young farmer’s son living in a village so small that barely anypony had ever heard of it. His father was a highly respected stallion and shrouded in an aura of mystery. The village was eventually attacked by strange creatures made from black goo and purple mist. And the village's old coot quickly turned out to be a powerful wizard tasked to protect the prophesied savior who, as a little foal, was given to a caretaker. A once famous war veteran in retirement who settled down as a farmer.

We read in just the same manner than I would have done with Twilight by my side. Each of us followed the story at their own pace until a single tap eventually signified that the page could be turned.

However, I noticed Luna’s growing resentment.

Holding a book up in levitation was not a big deal. Doing so as still as possible while being on a moving train and doing so for hours got a little tiresome however. So we switched every now and then. As I was currently holding the book, it made my decision a lot easier. I closed it and put it down in front of us.

“I was not done yet,” she grumbled.

“I know. And I’m sorry,” I apologized and guided her muzzle down to me with a tendril of magic. I felt a little of her unease and discontent drain away as I continued to kiss her. I still had to be careful not to tempt her desires too much or she really would pounce on me. Not the worst fate of course, but I had something else in mind.

I eventually pulled away. And I was polite — or cruel — enough to ignore her little, dismayed whinny. “So. Tell me what irks you.”

She huffed with a deep breath and eyed the novel with a side glance. “Is it that obvious?”

“Pretty much, yes,” I admitted with a smile.

“I seem to develop a distaste for this… this drivel. It is just too… too predictable,” she explained.

Too predictable. Well. I fancied myself as a storyteller as well sometimes. Not a writer, nor an author. And there were differences between each. In my mind, at least. But a story being predictable might have been a fair criticism. I could foresee certain developments as well. The grumpy old soldier who had taken in an orphaned colt had last been seen tumbling from a high bridge as he took the enemy’s general with him. But there was a river at the bottom of that chasm. He would obviously return at some point.

The old wizard had done his part in defending the village. But his speeches had already alluded to a deeper conflict within him. And he had not used his strongest spells against the invaders, which could have saved lives. He was the remorseful traitor. His betrayal would be uncovered at some point soon and he would get a little side arc, a redemption story. And the young colt was a prime example of the ‘chosen one’-trope if I had ever seen one. That general the old hero had taken down to the river would probably turn out to be some sort of long-lost family member who tried to convince the hero to join their side at some point before being redeemed themselves. And the overarching puppet master had yet to be revealed.

It was very predictable. Familiar story beats, wrapped in familiar descriptions. But this was not a mystery novel. It was not supposed to shock its readers. It was about the journey. And the characters. And so far, I thought the author had done a decent job. I liked our young stallion protagonist. I liked his gruff and grumpy father that had such a hard time showing affection. I even liked the old coot, despite his implied betrayal. I knew what was coming, but I still wanted to read it. I wanted to witness them trot down that familiar road.

“I like it,” I simply stated. And to nopony’s surprise, Luna gawked at me for a moment.

“You cannot be serious,” she claimed.

I chuckled a little. “I am, though. And I’m honestly not sure if you… don’t get me wrong, but I think you might be pinning your frustration on the wrong spot. I don’t think predictability is what irks you. The story works with tropes, sure. But then again, so does every story. The redeemable villain. The inexperienced hero. The wise old scholar. The teacher, the father, the protector. You’ve read about them thousands of times. Heck, you being you, you’ve probably seen these tropes thousands of times. Like every story ever, each trope has a small grain of truth to it. I say small, but it’s actually varying in size. And yet you still love to read. In this day and age, with so many ponies around, so many books around, such ease to print and distribute your own ideas all around Equestria, it’s getting harder and harder to find something you could consider ‘truly original’ — and at that point, you probably involuntarily wrong somepony who had died hundreds, if not thousands of years before you, because he had the very same idea and it just never caught on like our iteration of it might. I’m not going to tell you ‘you’ve seen it all’. I don’t think you have. But you have already experienced so, so much. I don’t think you get bored by recurring patterns. It’s a new spin every time. A story evolves, depending on who tells it, who is listening, when and how and where and why it is told. I think that’s ‘new enough’ for you.”

I smiled and kissed her neck a couple of times here and there. I had seen her grimace a little, but her actual frustration levels were slowly sinking. “Make your point then,” she whispered with a sigh and leaned more into my little ministrations.

I grinned. “I think you’re dissatisfied because there’s not enough drama for your tastes.” I chuckled a little as I felt her tense up.

“You think I'm a drama queen?” she demanded to know and withdrew from me.

I pouted a little about the latter, but it could not be helped. “I mean… you’re not on the same level as Rarity is. Not by a long-shot. But you do prefer things going a little over the top. And despite its high fantasy premise, this novel just… doesn’t. There’s spells and battles and whatnot, but most of it is character-driven, dialogue-heavy and most importantly, they all act somewhat reasonable. No villain speeches. No extensive, unnecessary drama. No over-the-top plans. When they don’t see eye to eye, they talk it out. I like it. It feels more… hm… realistic, I think. But you need that fire. You need conflict.” A part of you craves violence. “For you, most of these conflicts get resolved too quickly, too easily.”

Luna did not answer. She simply stared at me with an expression I found difficult to read. I expected her to argue with me at some point, but she did not. And I eventually became nervous and fidgety. “Okay, what’s up with the long stare?”

“I cannot decide if you are really, truly this old, or if you are just plain boring,” she whispered.

I just sat there for a moment and was utterly dumbstruck. It took me a moment to notice that devious spark in her eyes. How she kept her expression neutral. I quickly became certain that she was playing a game. Maybe this was a test, just to see what I would do. I started to grin despite myself. “Is that so?” I asked in defiance. “I’ll show you ‘boring’!” I threatened and nipped the skin on her neck a little.

I heard her inhale sharply, but she remained stoic. “Please do,” she challenged me.

I grinned and lit my horn. I formed a small wave of my magic into a sheet and let it ripple across her back. It was a poor substitute for a real massage, but in her current state, it was enough to elicit a reaction. A quiet, stifled gasp and a single swish of her tail. Just enough that her arousal became apparent. I had been reading — and what had she been thinking about meanwhile?

I made my wish clear with little effort required. She rolled onto her back and I climbed on top of her. Without any need for a single gesture on my part, her hindlegs spread and I was not about to let myself be asked twice. A soft moan escaped her and I grinned even wider. I wondered at which point she had decided on this outcome. Because I had no doubt that she had been aiming for this. Luna did not plan like Celestia did. She worked with what she got. Maybe I had underestimated her. That would not have been the first time…

Despite the bunk beds being rather small and narrow, especially for two ponies, especially for one with a larger frame, the novel was quickly forgotten on the sideline.

Luna hummed appreciatively as we slowly walked back towards our compartment. “That hit the spot,” she quietly noted.

I grinned and tore my gaze off the windows we passed by to look at her. She seemed quite satisfied. “It was decent, yes. Better than I ever expected from food that was prepared on a moving train. Still, it’s no comparison to Spike’s cooking. He spoils us so badly one might think he has abandonment issues. If he makes himself irreplaceable, we wouldn’t dare leave him, right?” I chuckled and shook my head. “But in all seriousness, he’s so incredibly talented.”

“I know. We actually offered him a place in the palace kitchens once,” Luna replied with a smile.

“Wait, really?”

“Yes. He refused, however. He would have made for a fine addition.”

I failed to imagine him there. Busy as a bee, listening for other chefs and their underlings calling his name or orders or questions or whatnot. He did not belong there. “I don’t think that would’ve worked,” I concluded with a shrug. “He lived under Twilight’s care for so long, he’s developed some of his own peculiarities. How things in his kitchen have to be sorted and stowed, for example. And he works at his own pace. He hates it when we tell him to hurry up or to slow down. I mean, Twilight is still banned from the kitchen anyway, as far as I know, but the point still stands.”

Luna giggled. “Has she set the castle on fire again?”

Despite how awful things could have gone, I could not help but chuckle along. “Well, not since the last incident… what was it… three months ago? Four, maybe? I still don’t understand how she managed to set crystal on fire.”

“She is a mare of tremendous capabilities,” Luna replied in a grave voice.

We looked at each other and shared a giggle. “That, she is.”

We eventually returned to our compartment. The book still laid in the windowsill, a bookmark stuck out from between its pages. The solved puzzles lay to its left as Luna had not put them back in after rearranging the contents of her saddlebag at one point. And to its right was a small can with the same balm Celestia had brought to our previous adventure. According to Luna, it was meant for treating burns primarily but could also be used to help recuperation from cramps, muscle soreness and napped skin. We had barely half of our train ride behind us and I had already used a good amount of it. Mostly due to Luna’s insistence. Quite honestly, I really did not mind all that much. It was easier not to think about the supposedly impressive price tag when being distracted in such a fashion.

And truth be told, even seeing the can made me smirk. Something Luna took note of as she grinned herself. “Something on your mind?” she asked with that alluring tone of hers.

I chuckled and shrugged. She knew exactly what was on my mind, so I saw no reason to answer her. And we had just eaten dinner. I felt a little R&R was in order. She sat down on her bed and I made to follow her. “So, what do you want to do?” I asked. We had options, of course. While the puzzles were gone, we could try the book again. Maybe make a couple of pages progress before she would inevitably be annoyed by it again. We could talk for hours, too. The sun was already sinking and soon enough, her beautiful night sky would be overhead, which was always worth admiring. We could walk around the train and see if we found something else to distract ourselves with or we—

“You?” she answered with a smirk. And yet despite her mirth, her gaze quickly turned hungry.

It took me a couple of seconds before I caught up and connected the dots. Which resulted in me snorting. “You know, Applejack called me obsessed with romance. You, on the other hoof, you are just lewd!” I reprimanded her without any real bite. And how could I when I grinned like the idiot that I was. How did she always get away scot-free calling me an insatiable menace when she was like this?

“Well excuse me,” she shot straight back in faked indignation, “I was stuck on the moon for a thousand years! It gets quite lonely up there!”

It was banter, I had to tell myself. I still occasionally needed to remind myself of that. It could be jarring to hear her speak of it so casually sometimes. But it was her history, her past. And it was decidedly a good sign that she was able to joke about it.

“Well as far as I’m aware, you weren’t really conscious up there! Or do you wish to change your story now?” I shot back.

“No,” she replied with a hint of hesitance. And I could not tell if that had been genuine or part of the act. “But while I was stuck up there, all by my lovely little lonesome, things down here have changed so much… I have missed out on so many things!” Lovely little lonesome, hm? She had purred those words into my ear and she knew exactly what that did to me. I already struggled thinking straight.

“Things?” I echoed. “Things like what? I’m pretty sure sex is still sex. I’m pretty sure it’s done these days roughly the same way it was done back in your days.” Despite the amusing banter, I could feel my face heat up. I was not used to speaking this plainly and openly about the topic. Her tail teasingly swished from side to side again. I stood close by and I could already tell the effect it had on me. Her hungry eyes trailed down my neck, my shoulders, my barrel and her gaze intensified in sheer lust even further once she spotted what she was working towards. She did not have to lay a single hoof on me and I pleasantly shuddered anyway.

I realized too late that I had fallen for her tricks again. She had effortlessly maneuvered me to exactly the point in the conversation where she wanted me to be. “Well,” she started in a husky voice while her tongue traced along her lips. “Back in my days, it was still rather frowned upon to take it up the ass.”

I swallowed hard. And despite my efforts to not grant her the satisfaction, my gaze was drawn to her rear. I was pretty sure that my entire face was glowing red like the evening sun at this point. And I felt a certain, needy twitch downstairs that already betrayed any and all possible attempts to deny my willingness. I had never quite managed to figure out just how she did it. How she was so irresistible.

“Do not think that I did not notice your fascination,” Luna purred in my direction and gave her posterior a little wiggle for good measure.

I gulped once more. “W-Well… it’s a fine rump… a very fine one,” I half-stuttered, half-mumbled.

My heart was racing. Any post-meal tiredness was long forgotten. She almost growled at me with half-lidded eyes. “Say it and you may have it.”

Her tail swished enough that I could see her eagerness. Her folds were dripping, the sheets beneath already stained. And her scent was intoxicating and heady and strong. Despite everything she threw against me, I still had to weigh in on her behalf, battle against my own inhibitions to utter a single word to her liking. “It’s such a fine ass,” I mumbled. I had not deemed it possible, but the heat I felt radiating from my face somehow increased even further.

“Claim me,” she simply commanded. And with a flick of her horn, a spell washed over her.

I was probably looking like an idiot again. With such a joyful grin, I managed to ignore that almost painful throb in my nether region, stepped closer to her and put her tail to the side with a flick of my magic. “Let me just care for my kitten first,” I mumbled excitedly. I felt stupid saying it, but I could not help but grin. I was not into dirty talk and any attempts on my part had been disastrous, albeit quite hilarious. For her. This, much to my dismay, was the best I could do. All I managed. And she giggled as she always did. For me, the important part was this: She enjoyed it. I tried hard, for her sake, and she enjoyed it. She was laughing because of me, not at me. And the first time I had managed to even remotely play along, she had called it adorable. Which had admittedly not been what I was going for, but in retrospect… I could live with that. I could very much live with being deemed adorable. And by now, we both came to appreciate my pet name for her quite a lot. I oh so loved hearing her purr for me.

I lapped at her folds with renewed vigor and unrestrained greed. Her moans only drove me further as I pressed my muzzle deeper in. My tongue darted across her sensitive flesh, drew small circles around her clit and occasionally plunged into her depths. And I was delighted by her moans. Only at one point did I withdraw enough to utter a couple of words, much to her dismay. “Silence spell?” I asked to mollify the nagging voice in the back of my head.

And Luna laughed despite being in a daze. “You think about that now? If anypony can hear us now, they heard us yesterday! I say let them,” she concluded with a growl. She did not mind the risk. It thrilled her. Heck, she might not have minded an audience. But while I could agree that the risk of being caught was exciting to a certain extent, I drew a sharp line for the latter.

Right now, her reply was enough. More than enough. My politeness had demanded that I ask, at least. The thought had simply not occurred to me any sooner. But my impatience quickly overpowered any other impulse and I resumed my play. I sat down on my haunches, straight before her bed, and pulled her rump into a more comfortable position with my hooves. Holding her like this also allowed me to spread her open a little and in turn to drive further in. Her moans eventually became louder, her breathing hitched and with a final outcry, she came for me. I did not stop lapping up whatever she spared for me, nor did I stop teasing her clit as she shuddered and twitched, riding each wave to its fullest.

She eventually collapsed. She panted and fruitlessly tried to catch her breath. I pulled her a little further off the bed. Her legs barely supported her and occasionally buckled a little. I stood up and aligned myself. “Ready?”

“I—… wh—…” She looked back, her mind foggy, her eyes clouded. And a happy, dazed smile on her lips. “Do it.” She once more cried out as I plunged into her. I was too riled up myself to exert much restraint or finesse. I pumped into her a couple of times, just enough to get myself started. As if that had actually been necessary. And just as quickly, I withdrew and realigned. She mewled as I left her empty. I felt like my heart would simply explode any second now as I carefully, slowly tried to push past her sphincter. I slipped twice. The third attempt was guided by my magic. And to my surprise, hers as well. I looked up and saw her grin from ear to ear. And it only made me want her even more. “Come on, stud — rut me,” she whispered hoarsely.

This time, I did not slip. With both guiding tendrils in place, I was simply not allowed any other way as I slowly pressed forward and she finally yielded. A deep, throaty moan escaped me as I suddenly sank into her ass. “Oh goddess you’re tight!” I placed both hooves on either side of her and dared to push even deeper, eliciting a cry from her. My ears were trained on her throat. With my eyes shut, I focused on the mere sensation of her body, of the immense pleasure it held in store for me, but I was not about to forget myself. Even the slightest hint that I was going too far or too fast or that she was in pain and I would snap out of it. I hoped.

But sweet Luna, did she feel heavenly. Her warmth gripped me with such tightness that the friction alone threatened to overwhelm me. I even stopped moving at one point to give both of us a breather. She was such a snug fit. The smallest movement made both of us gasp. And to my surprise, she pushed her hips back against me, marking the end of said breather, before I had a chance to do so. I resumed with a deep breath and we quickly found a rhythm that worked for us. It did not take long until I went about things faster until I was eventually doing just what she had asked of me — I was rutting her senseless.

I was retreating as much as my stance allowed me and reveled in the feeling of her body clenching around me before I drove back in with force and was welcomed back. I quickly lost any sense of time. Or space, for that matter. There was no train. No compartment. No bed. No potential witnesses. Just her. Her scent filled my nose. Her taste still lingered in my mouth. Her lustful gaze occasionally turned towards me, her eyes still smoldering. Her body presented me with such pleasure. And with a deep moan, I pushed into her one final time as my climax swept me away. My back legs went rigid as tremors hit my very core and pulse after pulse, I could feel myself twitch inside her, as much as I felt her insides twitch around me. Our intermingled moans slowly died down and I collapsed on her back with an exhausted but ultimately blissful sigh. I was not thinking about the added weight. If it might bother her. If it inconvenienced her.

We both gasped for air for a moment. “I can feel you inside,” she noted, followed by a faint giggle. “You are so deep... hm... I love it.“ I delighted as she purred again and lazily trailed her hoof along her barrel.

As she wiggled her rump a little, I gave a grunt in response. “That was incredible,” I remarked groggily. We returned to our companionable silence. I could feel my member shrink, still buried within her rump. However, despite the refractory period, just thinking about these circumstances made me twitch and bulge a little again, as if to prolong what was, or to restart what had yet no chance. I sighed deeply. “I love you sooo much.” And with that, I lazily kissed her back. As high up as I could reach.

“Especially right now?” she asked and once again wiggled her rump a little.

I was unwilling to let her get away with it scot-free again, so I scraped together what I had regained in strength, lifted myself off her back and pushed deep into her. We both moaned once more, though she had clearly not expected it. I used the opportunity to withdraw from her completely and levitated her up to place her down on the bed properly. Once done, I climbed in beside her and finally deigned her question with an answer. “Yes, right now especially, you unscrupulous tease!”

“Unscrupulous tease?” she echoed with a smirk. Before I got a chance to retort, she pulled me in for extensive cuddling. “Funny you should say that,” she continued while I happily sighed against her chest.

“Hm?” was my eloquent, totally attentive response.

“Twilight called me an ‘unrelenting, ruthless temptress’ last week.” She smiled while she furrowed her brow at the same time.

“Did she now… I wonder why,” I replied with a quiet chuckle and nestled against her. It took a moment to realize that something in her story did not quite add up. “Wait. When did she call you that?”

After Celestia's and my return to Canterlot, I had tried to go home. That had worked for less than twenty-four hours before Twilight basically ‘exiled’ me back to Canterlot for the time being. To be fair to her, she had done so with a heavy heart and it brought her no joy whatsoever. But a part of me was petty enough to wish, despite better knowledge and judgment, that she had thrown the Tantabus out instead.

“We write letters,” Luna explained. “Did she not tell you? Maybe she does not want you to know because you could get curious about their contents? I do love to use them to rile her up just as much as she loves to be riled up by them.”

Depending on the day or her dreams the prior night or which hoof she climbed out of bed with first, Twilight's love for books could border on obsession. And I would never have put it past her to reach climax just from reading a spicy letter. Or thinking about something she had read. The same way I instantly accepted that Luna could write a letter capable of instilling such burning desire. At the end of the day, I usually thought of that as a very good example of the power the mind had over the body. A vivid imagination was capable of quite impressive feats.

But then my mind wandered a little and tried to find out where this newly revealed knowledge could be applied to as well. And curiously enough, the longer I thought about it, the more instances I found that looked suspiciously fitting. I found Twilight taking a bath maybe two months ago. I had not known and merely stumbled into the bathroom without realizing. And judging by her quiet moans, neither had she realized the intrusion, up to the point where I tried to retreat and she finally noticed my presence. Things quickly escalated from there. And she had taken a scroll with her on her way out once we were done.

“Oh,” I voiced my realization, “so that’s—…” … what these moments were about. Well, maybe not all of them, obviously. It was hard to tell when exactly she was riling herself up, when it was my achievement and when it was Luna’s.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I hastily replied. Probably a little bit too quickly. The refusal had been born from a simple wish. It was Twilight’s business. Either Luna knew, or Luna was not supposed to know. And I did not wish to spill the beans on something that Twilight might have considered embarrassing.

There was a long stretch of silence. I continued to nestle up to Luna and enjoyed every second of it and eventually even allowed myself a happy and relieved sigh. And in that moment, she broke the silence. “She masturbates to them, does she not?”

I forgot how to breathe for a moment. I choked and coughed. The situation was not helped by the fact that Luna had sounded… well, curious. Maybe even surprised? “I-I didn’t say anything!” I replied.

“Oh my moon and stars, she does!” Luna exclaimed in a sudden turn of mood. Because now, she sounded so incredibly joyful. She was figuratively speaking over the moon.

Bad Dreamwalker. Bad joke. Not now.

In a futile effort to preserve some of Twilight's modesty, I foolishly repeated myself. “I didn’t say anything!” Being more insistent with it would not help my cause, I knew that. Even worse, apparently it helped her draw a couple of other connections in this narrative.

“… and you use that!”

There had been no accusation in her tone and yet I felt the incessant need to defend myself. “No! I don’t—… I’m not—… I don’t ‘use’ that! I don’t!” I felt her body shake a little as she giggled. And goodness gracious me, she did not stop for a while. I could already feel my face heat up again, just out of sheer embarrassment.

“And what, pray tell, would you like to call it then?” she eventually asked me.

I had not thought about that and much to my dismay, in a fit of panic, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I’m, uh, helping her out?”

It only made her giggle harder while I wished I could crawl into this bed and just vanish. “You are such a chivalrous stallion, my fair Dreamwalker! Helping that poor maiden in need!”

There was a line. Always. When crossed, simple banter and joyful teasing turned into something that had the potential to actually hurt in some way. My cheeks were flush, my ears were glowing and I had shut my eyes as hard as I could. I had basically crawled against her, half into her, to the best of my ability and I wanted to sink into the ground. We were close to that line. Uncomfortably close. So I gave a desperate little whine, as I doubted my ability to string words together right now. And she understood. Just like that.

She pushed me away just enough to make me look her in the eyes. And while I saw a lot of mirth dancing around in them, there was genuine care and a tinge of worry. “You know I am only teasing you, right? Both of you.” I nodded. And so did she. “Good.” A moment later, she turned me around and pulled me back in. With my back against her chest, I was the little spoon. And I felt safe. More so once her wing extended and came down like a blanket. “I love you.”

I sighed. That was one way of communication. “I love you too,” I replied and kissed her wing. The only part of her that I could feasibly reach right now. A few minutes later, I had calmed down considerably. “Luna?” I asked, unsure if she was even still awake.

“Hm?” she replied drowsily.

“You will tease her about this, won’t you?” I asked. In theory, it should have been a purely rhetorical question. But despite better knowledge, a part of me hoped that maybe, just maybe, teasing me half to death had been enough? And that she would spare Twilight. Those hopes were swiftly crushed of course.

“Until the end of her days,” she whispered and kissed my ear.

We had maybe one more day on the train until we reached Appleloosa. The puzzles were gone. The novel was abandoned. Luna’s heat had receded. And we were kind of bored. I had proposed mingling a little with the other passengers, but she was less than thrilled with the idea. Her illusion was decent enough at first glance, but on closer inspection, there was a good chance somepony would see through it. I did not understand why that was a problem until she explained that, officially, she had retreated to her chambers to sort out some paperwork or something. So ponies noticing her this far south would prompt some questions she was unwilling to face.

“However, there is one thing we could do. Something we probably should do,” she said and reclined against the wall of the cabin.

We sat on my bed for once as the sheets from hers were still in the laundry. I looked over to her. The landscape had changed considerably and I was glad that we had windows on this side of the train and not the other one. Because over there, through the windows in the hallway, we would have seen the Everfree Forest. For days and days and days.

“And what’s that?” I asked.

“Training,” she simply replied with a shrug. And she had fully expected me to grimace. And really, who was I to disappoint her?

Her idea did not exactly find my approval. “You said you don’t need a soldier by your side.”

She nodded firmly. “I did. And I stand by that. If it comes to any sort of combat, I am quite confident that I will be able to defend the both of us. And while you are not exactly a soldier as such, I feel you have benefited greatly from training. You learned a good deal and you know how to handle yourself in a fight.”

I sighed. “If I have to, yes. I’d rather prefer it wouldn’t come to that, though.”

“As would I, obviously.” Would you, though? I stifled another sigh. Luna was not bloodthirsty. She was not some random barbarian charging into battle at the drop of a hat. That was the job of Derpy's and Rainbow's Ogres & Oubliettes-characters.

That being said, it was easy to provoke her into action at times and she did relish the opportunity to face off against worthy foes. Something she rarely got the opportunity to do. “What kind of training do you have in mind then?” I sort-of-relented. Because at the end of the day, I would not refuse her. The same way I had not refused this entire adventure. And this was not about a missing spine. Arguing with her could get nasty at times and I was glad we rarely ever needed to do that. It was more about her reasons probably being legitimate.

“I would like to get some exercise in coordination and improvisation,” she explained. “I have little concerns about the former. We have a few years of experience with that by now and so far, we have been an excellent team on the field. But a little refresher does not hurt. And I do know that you struggle with the latter.”

I grimaced. It was hard to deny, as I knew that all to well myself. That obviously did not change how utterly unappealing that whole affair sounded. But just as I had suspected, she had sound reasoning behind her proposal. I finally sighed after I struggled a little against myself. “Fine. And how do you propose we do this?” It would involve the dreamscape, that much was certain.

“I would like to take you through some of my memories of previous battles. The memory will only serve as the scenario and will develop independently from there, of course. That way, our exercise should be undisturbed and safe.”

I sometimes hated myself a little bit. Juuust a little bit.

I was not Twilight. She would have gushed over this opportunity in an instant. Actually seeing, experiencing Luna’s memories? Even if it were those of battlefields she had crossed at some point. Being part of history, even if it was ‘just’ in a make-believe world of dreams and willpower. She would have loved this to bits. And I honestly could not deny its allure myself. No, I was not Twilight. But even for me, this presented a decently delectable looking carrot on a stick. Adding to that, I not so secretly loved to admire Luna in her full battle garb. She looked stunningly beautiful. Powerful and impressive and invincible. Of course that could be a little bit of a detriment to our planned training, but it was just a dream after all. What was the worst that could happen?

“Alright, I’m in. Let’s do this.” I sat up straight and nodded.

Luna giggled a little before she pushed me with a hoof. For some reason, it took her two attempts before I realized my mistake and laid down on my side. Only then did she lower her glowing horn, swirling with that familiar cobalt blue of her magic, and touched my forehead with it.

I did not have to wait long in the dreamscape for her arrival and we soon after switched into her dream. The initial void quickly gave way to a landscape I felt strangely familiar with. Softly rolling hills, knee-high grass, mixed with occasional flowers and herbs. We stood on the crest of a hill, side by side. A playful breeze carried the scent of spring. Her ethereal mane was flow—… not anymore. Her mane was bound into a rigid pigtail. As was her tail. And she wore her armor. Her scythe and a couple of spears levitated right beside her.

“You might want to duck,” she said with a wink in my direction.

“Goddesses, you’re pretty,” I mumbled and admired her in all her glory. Right before her words registered. “I what?” A second later, I noticed figures all around us materializing out of thin air. Right. Battlefield. And a massive centaur stood right beside me and swung an impressive looking hammer.

Horseapples…

I managed to conjure my own armor just in time before the hit sent me flying. Literally. Down the hill. Straight into the syncline where a bunch of ponies and several other centaurs were already fighting. I even bowled some over. “Alright, fine, I get it, concentrate,” I snapped as I stood back up and conjured my sword. Funny enough, her dream refused to yield as I tried to conjure more than one. I usually used them as projectiles in the dreamscape. Something that would never work on a real battlefield. Which was probably why she refused to allow me such tactics here. It only made me grumble some more as I dodged the first strike.

Knowing all this was a dream helped. My heart was still racing. A brain was easily tricked by what it saw, especially if the other senses lined up as well. And Luna gave this exercise her all, I could tell. I could feel the grass brushing against my legs, the soft dirt yielding under my hooves. I felt the breeze on my face and heard the cries of battle and pain.

But another part of me knew: All this was fake.

Being hit would hurt. Because she would make it hurt. To teach me to take things seriously. But she would not truly hurt me. And in a way, this safety net allowed me to be a bit more bold.

That would eventually turn out as a mistake. And I probably should have known better. The entire idea had been to simulate a real battle. And in a real battle… I would not have been any bolder than was strictly necessary.

I charged one of the centaurs, veered to the side and rounded behind him, just in time to provide a distraction as one of the pegasi came down and sliced his wing blades across the centaur’s entire back, dock to neck. The creature howled in pain and whipped around with his hammer, but the pegasus was already gone, back high up in the air. And the centaur’s distraction was enough for me to move in and bring him to his knees with a couple of swift slices against his legs. Close enough to the ground that one of the earth ponies could charge him and with a full-frontal assault like that… the powerful kick of his hooves sent the centaur onto his back and with his unarmored underside on open display, he was done for.

Next.

I spotted Luna fighting what appeared to be a centaur, but bigger. Maybe their chieftain or something. King? Leader? Whatever they had. I ducked under another hammer swing and sliced the hands holding the weapon. This time, I did not bother to bring the foe down completely. May others have the honors. I was just concerned with reaching Luna. And after I dodged another attack, I managed just that.

“Hey, missed me?” I yelled with a grin and charged the chieftain head-on.

He was probably surprised. I was quite obviously a unicorn after all. Unicorns could charge with their horns, sure. It was stupid as heck, but possible. However, I had levitated my sword in a wide, high arc behind his back and just as he readied to strike me down, I propelled it downwards, to me. With his back in the way. Oops.

Of course his back was armored. But that attack was enough to disrupt his own. Which in turn meant that I successfully got under him. While my sword flew heck-knew-where to, I blasted his unprotected belly with two bolts of energy. He reared up in pain. And thereby exposed more of himself. For a Luna who was ready to strike.

“That was… both impressive,” she praised as her enemy fell to the ground, “and reckless,” she condemned.

I was a little bit unreasonable at this point. I nodded and accepted her judgment, but despite that, I saw no reason to change anything. And why would I?

She conjured a new scenario. We fought griffons, this time. They were fearsome foes. Just from what I saw and heard, they were truly worth every word that had been said about their battle prowess. And in a way, I suspected that Luna was punishing me. She showed me just how awful large-scale fights could get. Maybe. Or maybe I was wrongly accusing her.

I stuck close to her side this time. I went where she went. I fought who she fought. And with short, precise commands, we aligned our attacks, managed our tactics on the fly and changed approaches as needed. It worked. A lot better than the first time around, admittedly. And a part of this was my intense focus on her and our immediate area. Because the less I focused on the rest of the field, the less would later weigh on my conscience and dreams, I suspected.

It was a horrible thought, after all. That she truly had been there. Had seen this, heard this. And that after all this time, the memory of this battle was clear enough in her head to be conjured back to life like this.

We wandered from battle to battle for what felt like hours. It started to wear me down. No regular combat ever took this long, I was pretty sure. No fighter, no matter how skilled or experienced, could have that much stamina. But here, in her dream, my stamina was only limited by my mental fortitude. And I slowly grew tired. To the point that the screams had dulled and the blood was little more than red on green or red on brown or red on gray.

We currently fought changelings. And that really should have elicited more of a reaction than it ultimately did. I had problems with changelings. I had a history with changelings. Or rather some of my past lives had and I could not stop that from bleeding into my thoughts. But in my current state, they were just another obstacle to be overcome. They were not using their morphing ability properly. They could have caused so much chaos and confusion with that. But they instead resorted to magic, flight, weapons and armor. Like every other regular army.

Luna and I had made our way across the field. We tried to engage the queen. If she were to fall, so would her hive. We got separated at some point, but it was not all that bad. I could still see Luna. She was doing fine and effortlessly held her own. Just another minor inconvenience. A minor setback.

And then she died.

A few drones charged her from the back. Luna managed to fight them off, but as soon as she turned back around, the queen charged her. And drove a lance straight through her chest. To the point that the bloodied blade emerged on her back.

No.

It was all I could think.

I knew this was not real. But my legs quivered, trembled, until my knees threatened to buckle. My entire body shook, as a flash rolled over my consciousness. They were getting rare these days. I did not miss them one iota. And there it was. Luna dying.

I had never considered the possibility. Even though I knew that it was possible. On a technicality. Her body could die. And I saw it. Time and time again. How many? Two? Three. Four. Five?

Lines blurred.

My heart felt like it was both racing and stopping. I did not breathe. I felt dizzy. Everything felt surreal. And I just lost it.

The very moment I lost control, I felt something pull. It took me a second to realize that I was the one pulling. And whatever I pulled towards me arrived quickly. I felt ice creep up to my heart. It quickly formed a hardened casing around it. I saw Luna sag on that spear. The queen laughed in her disgusting, disturbing weird despicable bug voice that needed to be crushed, ripped out of her throat…

The grass around us died. Frozen solid in mere seconds. A field that continuously expanded as the effect picked up speed as it grew while we reared up on our hindlegs. We saw that monster and we felt such intense hatred and grief and denial. “No!” we yelled with two voices, both mine and yet not. The echo sounded far and wide and with all our might, we brought our hooves crashing down onto the ground. A shockwave ran through the dirt. The brittle ice, grass and changelings and ponies and the dirt itself broke to pieces. And finally, the dream itself shattered.

I came to my senses with a panicked gasp.

And I immediately tried to get away from… whatever that was or had been. I flailed with my limbs and tried to stand, immediately crashing my head into the bottom of the upper bunk bed. Luna snapped out of her sleep fractions of a second after me. The entire cabin, every single surface in it, had a thin sheen of rime. It already melted. I tried to tumble out of the bed, still completely out of my mind, but Luna would not let me.

Without a single word, she grabbed me in her telekinesis. It only served to unsettle me further. I was under attack!

She swiftly sat up, pulled me to her and embraced me forcefully. She held me tightly in a way that simply did not allow for me to struggle as much. I was certain that I had kicked and punched her a couple of times before she managed to properly secure me. She cared little as she closed her wings around me like a cocoon and all light faded.

“Breathe,” she commanded into the void.

Yes, breathe. Listen to her, I tried to tell myself. I panicked again. Did I try to tell that myself? Did I try? Was that my voice? Had it been?

“Breathe,” she repeated. Calm. Commanding. My head spun. I realized that my erratic breathing would soon make me lose consciousness. And that thought frightened me even more. I did not want to sleep, I did not want to sink into the void again, I did not—

“Breathe,” her voice cut through my tangled mess.

She repeated herself. I quickly lost count of how many times. And I tried to free myself, I believed. Twice, maybe? But I was no match for her sheer physical strength. If she wanted to restrain my movement, she simply did so.

At some point, I just stopped. I had struggled to the point of exhaustion. My muscles ached. I had a nasty cramp in my shoulder. My head was light and spun. My skin prickled. But I felt her. I felt her coat on my back. Her feathers on my muzzle. Her powerful hooves gripped my body. With the panic slowly receding, I managed to get away from the thought that she would crush me any second now. That she would snap my neck or break my bones or squeeze the air and life out of me.

She is not the enemy. Was it my voice? I felt too tired to ask. Too tired to care. I fell into some kind of lull. My breathing eventually evened out. My head started to hurt terribly. But the pain displaced the tangled mess responsible for all the panic. And I changed my tune. I tried to crawl into her instead of trying desperately to get away from her. I was a mess. I still shivered occasionally. Her coat was damp, so I supposed that I must have cried at some point. Please tell me that’s not snot.

And she still held me. Firmly.

Do you trust me?, her question randomly came up from my recent memories.

After even more minutes, I eventually gave her a gentle push. Just enough to let her know that I was trying to… I did not even know what I was trying to do here. But she let go of me this time. I could feel her tension. She was ready to pick me up as soon as something would go awry. But she gave me some wiggle room.

I looked up at her and… goodness me, she was a blurry mess. I wiggled my hoof free and rubbed at my eyes until I could see her somewhat clearly. “S-Sorry,” I mustered with a hiccup.

Her expression was dead serious. She did not even try to smile. She raised a hoof and carefully stroked my mane and down my neck and back. It made me shiver and I wished to just bury my face on her chest again. But I resisted the urge. “What was that?” she finally asked.

What was that. What was what, precisely? Her stupid exercise? My recklessness? Her dy— Her d—… H—…

I choked and barely held back a fresh batch of tears. “Do. Not. Ever. Do that again!” I demanded with a strength in my voice that surprised her — and frankly, even me. It only took me a second or two to meekly add “Please!”

And for some stupid reason, I wanted to apologize. Because she looked so incredibly guilty in an instant. “I am deeply sorry,” she apologized. “I… it was a grave mistake on my part.” Sunny would have called it a miscalculation, a part of me mused. “I promise you I will not do anything like this again.”

Improvisation my ass! What had that even been? Was that supposed to teach me something about improvisation? Or had it just been one of her pranks gone horribly wrong? Would it change anything either way? I swallowed and nodded. “You’re not allowed to d—…die either,” I meekly whispered and looked at her chest instead of her eyes. She sighed. And I looked back up with as much determination as I could muster. She did not promise this time. She could not. I knew that. But she nodded. She at least acknowledged my plea.

I released what I hoped was the last shuddering breath of this evening a few minutes later. “You still have not answered me,” Luna quietly reminded me.

I sighed. “Sunny didn’t tell you?” I inquired, but I did not wait for her answer. “Guess not. Makes sense, I suppose.” My voice felt strangely hoarse. And I shuddered at the thought that I might have screeched like a banshee at some point. But at least nopony had come to visit, as far as I was aware. Then again, these last few… what? Minutes? Hours? They were kind of a blur. A vague, surreal blur.

“It’s less ‘what was that’,” I started again, “and more ‘who was that’, I think.” I kept quiet for a moment, but no further prodding from her came. She was patiently waiting though. I knew that much. “You said you harbor a darkness within you. I like to believe we all do.”

I felt her shift slightly. I could not imagine this specific topic being all that comfortable for her. And I would not insist on continuing this conversation, but… I could understand why she did it. And I was even grateful for that. “Does he talk to you?”

Why does she assume his gender?, I wondered for a moment. Maybe she had seen something. Back in the dreamscape, in her dream. When crap figuratively hit the fan. “You mean like… ‘let me take control and I will fulfill your wishes of world domination!’ or something like that?” My poor attempt at gallows humor fell on deaf ears. Unsurprisingly. “No. I have never seen him or heard from him or met him. He might not even be real.”

I could once again feel her shift. She tilted her head and just this once, I craned my neck to follow her gaze. To the window, where a small patch of rime remained. I was not experiencing any cold because she still held me in her wings and shielded me. But the room temperature seemed to have dropped considerably and was only slowly rising again. “Looks pretty real to me,” she simply stated. “So he never interfered with anything?”

“Not that I know of,” I replied. “When… when we were in the jungle, Celestia and I, we were at one of these temple ruins. The trial of kindness. Or benevolence or whatever. There was this hallway with long mirrors. It showed us distorted versions of each other. I had to deal with Daybreaker. A Celestia driven mad. A vengeful being, lonely and angry and desperate. She lost you again and that broke her. But on the other side, Celestia encountered something made from me. He fought her. I don’t know why. Maybe the hallway made him do it. Or, well, as I said. Maybe it was just an illusion. They had really powerful magic in these places.”

Luna sighed. “I will have to talk to my sister upon our return.”

“Am I in trouble?” I half-heartedly asked.

She shook her head and cuddled me again. “No. But she usually knows more than she lets on. And I will not tolerate her secret-mongering in this regard.”

I wanted to defend Celestia. But I simply found myself too tired to properly think of something to say. “Luna? Do you mind if we just sleep tonight?”

“No,” she replied after a moment of hesitation. “I think I would like that as well.” And with that, she slowly laid down again and pulled me with her. I put up no resistance and we managed to free the blanket from beneath us and put it over us with a little wiggling around.

We all have our demons. Some snarl, some smile, some never utter a word. Some are vague, and some fully formed. Some are mere concepts, and some have names.

Hello darkness, my old friend…