"Look, I'm sorry. Really. Last night was crazy." I was apologizing to a pissed Swaddle-Dee. He came back to the cave not long after I sent Carina to the library. "I thought you would've stayed at Twilight's, which is where I sent Rina not too long ago." At the realization that she wasn't here, he slumped over, exasperated. "I know, but she's a big girl. She can take care of herself. Now come here, I'm tired, you're tired, I'm going to hold you like a plushie and we are going to sleep." Swaddle-Dee just rolled his eyes at me before jumping into bed and snuggling into my wing. It was only minutes later I found myself in my Dream.

"Ah, Elfilis! I, uh, didn't expect to see you here so early..." Looks like I caught Princess Luna doing something.

"Yeah, my body needs some rest. Have you been practicing with Dream Matter?" She shuffled on her hooves a bit before answering.

"Only recently. I am uncomfortable with using your dreams without you present in some capacity. However, I, uh, accidentally destroyed something recently and I was hoping to recreate it. I have had no luck." That didn't sound right.

"None? You were able to make a metric ton of portraits that one time, what's the hold up?" She growled under her breath at that.

"The hold up, as you call it, is that your Dream Matter refuses to shape itself as I ask. If I try to ask anything specific, it chooses to ignore most of my wishes and create something only somewhat related. Watch." She stood straight and puffed her chest out.
"Royal Regalia with bronze embossing."

ROYAL/BRONZE/BOSS

I watched as a nearby cloud condensed itself into a solid sphere, before growing into a large bronze statue of... King Dedede?

"See! What even is that! A penguin?"

"Yes actually. That is a good likeness of the king of Dreamland." I think I might know the issue.

"Oh. So I suppose it is a 'Royal Bronze Boss.' It is still strange. It is still very far from what I requested of it."

"I think-" I paused to make sure she was paying attention, "-that the main issue here may be that we are in my Dream. The Matter is only half paying attention to you, and then interpreting what little it does hear into something that I know about, or know of." She stared at me for a moment before smacking her shoed hoof into her face.

"I'm an idiot. Of course. I've never been able to influence dreams however I wished. If I wanted to stop a nightmare I've always had to nudge the dreamer to come up with their own solutions." She sighed as she brought her leg down, and I brought my own hand up to mouth to suppress a laugh at the imprint she left between her eyes. "I got too caught up in the excitement I forgot one of the first rules I learned about dreams"

"Happens to the best of us." I got the feeling that she was beating herself up a little too much. "Why don't we try to move this into your dream? Maybe I could bring some Dream Matter with us." Her ears perked up at this.

"That's a great idea! Here, follow me." And then she popped like a bubble. I was left staring at my empty space in confusion.

"Uh. Open Sesame." A star shaped portal opened up in front of me. "You in there Luna?"

"Yes? Why didn't you follow me?" I stepped through the portal and took a look around at the princess's dream. It looked like a rather cozy room, with a pair of smaller beds and wooden toys arrayed alongside books on a set of shelves. There was a single window, but outside was just the void of the mind.

"It didn't look like you went anywhere. You just vanished. Is this a childhood room?" She looked around before blushing a little and clearing her throat.

"Yes. This is where me and Celestia grew up when we were but foals. It has admittedly been a long time since I have been in my own dream. I forget it took this form." She gave it one last look before dismissing it with a wave of her hoof, leaving us in a world of black. It wasn't dark, we could see each other just fine, but there wasn't anything else to see anymore. "Now, could you please bring some Dream Matter here?"

"... Just a second. I want you try something." Something about what she just did gave me an idea. She just tilted her head at me before conceding.

"Alright. What do you want me to do?"

"Just, try to make something. Anything." Her horn lit up. "No, no magic." She turned it off as she looked at me unamused.

"I see what you are trying to do, but I don't have Dream Matter to make anything out of."

"You say that, but that bedroom you just got rid of? You didn't make that, did you? It was a natural occurrence. And you didn't get rid of it using magic." Luna looked down in thought, but I could tell she wasn't really convinced. I wasn't sure I knew what I was talking about either, but if I admitted to that then this really wasn't going to work.

"That is a good point, but my dream has always either been in that room, or without anything at all."

"... Even before you began dream walking?" Her mouth opened, but she just closed it with a click a second later. "You used to dream the same as everyone else right? But now it only ever changes when you want it too, even if it's just between one setting and the next."

"... You are correct. My dream is now static, unchanging without my input, but I used to have dreams like anypony else. Nightmares and wishes both. But it has never answered to me the same way as others dreams would, or even as your own unruly Dream Matter does."

"... What if you already have Dream Matter?"

"Elfilis-" I cut Luna off, I think I was onto something.

"Hear me out. Bring your room back for a minute." She rolled her eyes as she brought her room back. "Okay, does your room always look like this?"

"Yes, always."

"Well, then try to change it. No magic." Luna looked around introspectively before waving her hoof around a few times, but nothing happened, even when she began swinging her leg around like like a mad-woman.

"Nothing. It doesn't listen." That wasn't right. This didn't make any sense.

"This is your dream, it has too." She just shook her head at me.

"No Elfilis. This room never changes. It never has, and it never will." That look she gave me was... Defiant? What was going on...? I stayed silent for a while as I looked around the room again. I floated a little to my left towards one of the shelves of toys. I reached out to pick one up, but it acted as if it was glued to the wood. I looked over at Luna for a second, but she was ignoring me in favor of wiping some imaginary dust off of what I assumed was her old bed. My eyes narrowed, but I could feel something in my mind widen. I never even looked away from her as the wooden pony in my hand splintered, loudly. The only other occupant of the room couldn't have missed it if she tried, and she whirled around in shock. "Elfilis! What, why would you-!"

"This dream is doing exactly what you want it too, even if you don't realize." She was glaring at me now. "I remember coming back to my room that night you fell out of my dream. I heard what you told Celestia, you were practically yelling at that point, about how no pony would ever have to grow up as quickly as you two did if someone with my power was around back then." Her glare had lessened a little, but it was no less intense as tears began to form in her eyes. "I have nothing to hold onto, only vague ideas and thoughts of what my life might've been, you aren't so lucky. Let it go."

"... I can't. I-"

"Well, next time a monster like Nightmare Moon invades, I hope you'll be able to defend yourself with childhood memories."

"GET OUT." She was squaring up, and I felt something push me away, but I held myself in place with my flight and glared down at her.

"Make me."

...

Nothing. We just stared at each other, neither willing to give. But I knew there were many somethings that were willing to give around me. Luna screamed as a barrage of spear heads tore through the shelves. What guilt I felt upon hearing her shrunk as she burst towards me and knocked us both out the door. I flipped through the air backwards, and as I used my wings to hold myself upright, I saw as the angry child in front of me lit up her horn. I opened a tiny portal right at the tip of it, and shoved it over until it looked like she had a star shaped hole into the void on her forehead.

"I said, no magic." Her eyes were crossed trying to see what had stopped her magic as I shot forward and past her, catching her in the neck with a haymaker on my way through. As she began to flip and cough, I realized that any semblance of a floor had vanished. We were fighting in the 'air,' as it were. Her room was keeping its place in the air, but from outside it just looked like a broken door unattached from any walls.

My observation was interrupted as Luna tried to dive-bomb me, with her wings tucked in close and her front hooves extended all the way out. I was able to avoid it, though only barely, because she let out a guttural battle cry on her way down. I lashed out with a kick as she went by, but I barely nicked her legs as she quickly came back around to throw a double kick at my face. She squawked in shock as her legs sunk into a portal that quickly shrunk, leaving her front legs bound together in a different dimension.

"What am I looking at here Batman?" Clark wasn't sure there was really a point in asking.

"A pair of dark blue horse legs from another universe kicking out of a portal that opened in the middle of a fight between me and the Joker." Because what the hell else was he expecting.

"Do you think he hired help, got some new device from someone like Lex?"

"As Joker is currently the one in critical condition with a pair of horse-shoe shaped bruises over each eye, I'm going to assume this wasn't a part of his plan."

"Oh."

"Stop using your body Luna! Use your mind! Fucking smite me!" She growled at me, and spun around as best she could to kick me with her back legs. Her entire back half found itself stuck somewhere else as I flew around to face her.

The Dragonborn had just gotten back to the College of Winterhold with the Arch-Mage in time to witness the Thalmor agent Ancano take control of the unknown, dangerous, potentially-world-ending artifact known as the Eye of Magnus.

"YOU CANNOT STOP ME! I am connected to the power of-" Thawk! And then the elf fell over, knocked out cold as a horse's ass appeared just inside of his wards and snapped his head forwards, smacking his forehead against the magic bomb. He and the Arch-Mage just stared in shock as the blue legs kicked and flailed as if in slow-motion above the unconscious would-be god.

"... Are there any Aedra or Daedra associated with horses? I can't remember."

Luna was practically foaming at the mouth at me. I just kept taunting her. What the hell was I doing?

"Come on! Hit me!" She snarled from her place in front of me. "I said-!" And with a flash of light, a warhammer appeared and smashed my head in.

I blearily opened my eyes as I woke up from bed. I actually felt better than I had that morning, so I figured some time had to have passed while I was knocked out with Swaddle-Dee with me. It was a little weird though, because I usually spent my time asleep in my dream, and I couldn't recall-

"Ahem." Oh shit that was Luna at the table and I totally just had a meta-physical fight with her

"... I don't know what came over me. I'm sorry." I didn't dare look at her as she let out a sigh before speaking

"... I won't pretend that I'm very happy at the moment. But... I also won't pretend that what you did wasn't probably for the best." I finally looked at her, seeing that she had made herself a cup of tea while I was out.

"We don't know that. What if I-" A familiar silver and blue warhammer embedded itself in the wall above my head. It was surprising enough to give Luna the time to speak that she clearly wanted.

"You were right. I was holding on to an impossible wish. A dream that no amount of Dream Matter could make true. I can't give myself a childhood. It's gone, and I had been unwilling to realize it. It was the weakness the Nightmare used against me, locking me in like I was a filly in time out. Had I just been willing..." It was an uncomfortable silence that followed.

"... Are you okay Luna?" She huffed out a breath as she closed her eyes.

"I will be. In time."

"... Are we okay?" She surprised me by shooting me a small smile.

"Of course. Always..." I wasn't so sure I deserved that. "Besides, we became even when I 'smited' you."

Author's Note

Ears are ringing, eyes weak. There's pressure in my sinuses building steady, meds gone already.
I'm nervous, but on the internet I appear fine and dandy, ready to drop bombs, but I keep on forgetting-
And that was as far as I got before I hit a wall I'm not willing to climb over. Hope you enjoy. Action isn't something I've done before, let me know how I did.