A soft whimper filled the seemingly endless dreamscape.
The dark-blue alicorn frowned at the familiar sound as she moved between the colorful sparkling minds of her subjects.
As it had unfortunately happened many nights in succession, she knew all too well to whom the depressing sound belonged.
The Element of Laughter, one would assume, should not be plagued by that sort of nightmare so often.
Nopony should be.
Luna had been watching over her for many nights. Had altered or ended her dream each time it became too much to bear, granting the needed rest for her soul.
But to no avail.
The nightmare was relentless and would always come back in a similar form, sometimes stronger than before.
These weren't regular dreams. The pink one was suffering from an unresolved issue rooted deep inside.
She was feeding them.
Luna realized that the darkness had taken a growing interest in Pinkie Pie. It needed to be ousted soon.
For she knew, out of her own experience, what would happen if the unwelcomed shadows were to be left unchecked.
The Princess of the Night stood in eerie silence before said plagued dream, unsure of how she should proceed.
It had only been a few weeks since her return, and she had deliberately avoided any direct contact with her subjects whenever possible, even in their dreams.
For good reasons.
Her former self, Nightmare Moon, was the cause of many terrifying dreams she had to fight down repeatedly.
Furthermore, there was still much Luna had to learn about this changed Equestria, with its new rules and social etiquette.
A kingdom she felt alien to now.
The hue around the dream slowly but steadily changed into an unpleasant dark crimson as time passed.
Negative emotions could be felt all around.
A white light flashed as the alicorn made contact with the troubled pink mind as she walked through.
She would not let it happen again.
A single teardrop fell to the ground, causing a dance of faint and quickly vanishing circles around the pink earth pony as if she were sitting on a liquid surface.
Pinkie Pie sat in the middle of what could only be described as an unfulfilling emptiness in noticeably darker shades of her own fur color.
Alone and sad.
The deflated mane brushed her neck every time she looked up at the nothingness above. In search of an answer, a solution, to an unspoken question.
Completely unexpected to her, a beautiful shooting star crossed the sky and lit up the darkness around.
Pinkie gasped, a spark of hope in her eyes for a brief moment before she hung her head again in realization.
"I can't... they need me."
The Element of Laughter broke out in tears, lying on the ground with her head enclosed in her front hooves.
Heartbreaking crying echoed through the void, forming a symphony of unrivaled sadness and sorrow as it did.
A loud squeaky noise interrupted the woeful concert.
Bewildered, Pinkie looked in front of her. "Huh?!"
A tiny plushie of her cheery self looked back at her.
"No..." Pinkie shook her head in disbelief. "You can't be here!"
The plushie said nothing. It smiled undeterred.
In tears but with newfound energy as sadness was replaced with frustration, Pinkie stood on her hooves.
"Why do you always have to be this way?" Pinkie said with anger in her voice. "You can't help me here!"
There was no answer, only smiles.
"GO AWAY!" Pinkie yelled at the plushie with tears accumulating in her eyes. "Please... I can't..."
The plushie smiled brightly at her.
Pinkie trembled and with half-closed eyes, she yelled, "Fine! HAVE IT YOUR WAY!"
With a well-placed kick of her right front hoof, she smacked the cotton-filled pony away in a high arc.
It landed with a squeaky noise followed by a familiar voice exclaiming, "Ouch!"
Pinkie swung her head over with open mouth as the plushie turned into the princess she had recently freed with the other elements.
"OH, GOD!" Pinkie exclaimed, standing on her hind hooves in shock for a moment before she ran over to help her up. "I'm SO sorry, I thought you were a plushie!"
"Fret not, dear subject, for we are fine!" Luna claimed while still finding her balance as Pinkie helped her up to her hooves. "It was our fault, to begin with."
Pinkie sat down on her hind hooves and looked up at the princess questionably. "What are you doing here, in my dream?"
"It's our sworn duty to calm the minds of-" Luna stopped and looked down at her. "Wait, thou were aware of the dream?"
Pinkie smiled at her with a tilted head. "Sure, silly! It's my sad place. But I didn't know you could talk to other ponies here, that's new to me!"
"Interesting, normally my subjects are unaware..." Luna said, visibly unhappy with the prior statement of the pink pony. "What thou mean, sad place?"
Pinkie frowned and turned her head to the side. "I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that..."
Luna gently placed her right wing on the side of Pinkie's head to bring it back. "Please, tell us. We must know!"
"It might be better if you left," Pinkie said with tears forming in her eyes. "It has to be this way!"
Irritated by the refusal, Luna stepped back and spoke in the Royal Canterlot Voice. "You shall speak to us, subject!"
Pinkie lay down and dug her head into her front hooves again, shivering all over. "Don't hurt me!" she whimpered.
Luna sighed and lay down in front of the sad pile of pink.
"We are not here to hurt, we are here to help," Luna clarified. "Please, speak to us, Element of Laughter!"
"I really don't want to." Pinkie said while looking at her with one eye through her crossed front hooves.
"As your princess, I command thee!" Luna exclaimed.
Pinkie frowned. "You can do that?"
"Yes!"
"Oh..."
Pinkie looked down at the shimmering ground, thinking about the dilemma before she looked up again.
"Alright, but you have to Pinkie Promise to tell nopony!"
Luna smiled at her positive reaction. "Of course! So how does one do the Pinkie Promise?"
Pinkie sat up and gestured with her hooves. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"
The princess couldn't help but snicker at the performance.
"We promise not to tell anypony! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Luna vowed with a bright smile on her face.
Pinkie giggled. "I think you're the first princess ever doing that!"
Luna's face became serious again as she sat up. "Now, Pinkie Pie, why do we see this sadness in your dream every night?"
Tired, she answered, "My wish is for everypony to be happy and smiling. To provide comfort whenever needed. And so I ask my friends to share all their concerns and sorrows with me."
Pinkie paused for a moment, looking up into the now star-riddled sky.
"And they do, every day... just as I asked them to."
Pinkie looked back at Luna with tears in her eyes.
"They share every problem with me. May they be big or small, no matter what. I'll make them smile. I promised."
A burst of sad laughter left her. "Sometimes, I feel like a sponge that takes in all the bad, to make life a little easier for everypony else. I think this is my true talent."
Luna looked at her with concern.
It explained the darkness accumulating around her dreams. It's drawn by the shared negative emotions she took in to make others happier.
"That is the reason why you cry every night in your dreams? So you can live through the day taking in the sadness of others?" Luna asked carefully.
Pinkie nodded with a tear flowing down her cheeks. "I can't make other ponies smile when I'm sad so I have to wait until I sleep."
She cried again with her head held in her hooves as she sat there. "Please forgive me for abusing your night, Princess Luna!"
Luna stood up on all four hooves before she declared, "This ends tonight! Thou shall no longer burden the suffering of so many alone!"
"NOO! You Pinkie Promised me! Please, don't tell my friends!" Pinkie begged as she sprang up, coming close to the princess. "Please!"
"We will not break our promise. You will share your sorrow with us from this night onwards, thou understand?"
Pinkie sat back down, trying to make sense of what she had heard.
"Share everything with us, so it might lessen your burden. May you continue your honorable quest."
"But... but..." Pinkie tried to say.
"There shall be no buts!" Luna exclaimed while using her wings to bring Pinkie into a tight hug.
Another loud squeaky noise filled the air.
"Now tell thy sad stories, Element of Laughter..."
Many night sessions followed. And while Luna learned a lot about how Equestria had changed during her absence, Pinkie found great relief in being able to share her daily stories with another pony.
As Luna listened to what had been shared with Pinkie, she noticed how the hue around her dream changed to clear pink.
The darkness had left her. And Luna would make sure it stayed that way.
Needless to say, Luna and Pinkie became the very best of friends.
Author's Note
The session that followed:
https://www.deviantart.com/underpable/art/Let-s-Go-Insane-Again-520156319
