Cadance was incredibly busy building a plane.

Which was odd, since she had no idea what that was, or how to do it.

"Wait a minute." She glanced around, and realized she was dreaming.

Cadance hadn't ever been able to lucid dream before. Generally the act of being conscious while asleep led to her waking unless Luna was present. "Luna?!" She yelled out into the void. The things all around her that weren't real began to darken and fall away as her mind deemed them unimportant.

There was no Luna.

Cadance thought, and slowly, a mischievous grin filled the length of her muzzle. The dark resolved into a scene of the palace in Canterlot, the marble floors, the golden trim, the pillars and the snobbish nobles trotting to and fro with their noses up. The dream apparently knew from memory exactly where she wanted to go, and resolved in the exact hallway she was expecting to see.

It was tilted slightly to the left, for some reason, but it was easy to ignore, dreams right?

"Excuse me." She said, trotting up to a pair of nobles that had walked passed her. Both of them turned to look up at her, and her body shrunk down, her mane became less lustrous, her legs shortened along with her muzzle. She was back to being a young mare again, still with her horn and wings, but nonetheless, back in her twenties. Twilight's age.

She waited for them to do the side speaking insult to her like they did when this happened in real life, they didn't. Instead, both ponies turned towards her in a strange spastic haze that left her stepping back in mild concern.

"Oh! Princess Cadance!" The first mare said, her pink muzzle and yellow mane coming into focus as she stepped forwards towards Cadance.

The other mare with her just tilted her head in mild confusion.

"How can I help you?" She said, trailing off in the Canterlotian accent that the nobles were known for.

Cadance shifted on her hooves a little, "Oh, uhm... Sorry... This-I remember this differently."

"You remember what?" Came a recognizable voice, the other mare resolved through the mist as Quick Silver, or at least as close to the annoying silver pony as one could get. Cadance could tell the difference by the eyes.

"Yes, dear me, what do you mean?"

Both ponies advanced another few steps forwards

Cadance ruffled her wings and stood her ground, "Well... this was the day I met Flash Cannon..." Cadance turned, keeping her eyes on the fabrications of her dream, only darting as she pointed off to the side, "He was over there when..." Cadance did another double take, seeing Shining Armor standing over by the door. He was as he was supposed to be, rather than looking like anything else.

Cadance shifted, "I... clearly don't know how to do this properly."

"Wouldn't be the first time." The dream Silver monotoned.

"Like you know any better." She retorted.

There was a shocked gasp from the pink and yellow noble mare, and Silver smirked, though the expression was off a little. "I'm sure I do, it'd be nice if I was actually sure. I don't exactly have any memories."

"Dear Celestia, what is going on?"

Silver turned around to look past Cadance. "Uh-oh"

Cadance followed her gaze, only to be blindsided by flashing cameras and reporter screams. Things like: 'oh the scandal' 'princess princess!' 'over there!' 'What is she doing with that mare!'

She shook her head to get rid of the flashing haze in her vision. The sudden sensory input tricked her into forgetting that she was dreaming. The magic around her slipped from her control, and she spun away from the crowd only to slam muzzle first into a white furred chest. Celestia, towering unnaturally over Cadance with a completely unreadable expression.

"Celestia! I-uh, I mean-" She stammered over herself, until a hoof was placed on her shoulder, Silver's hoof.

"Relax, Little Princess." Was barely audible over the noise of walls crashing down and eyes peeking through the holes that led out into the starry night sky despite the windows showing nothing but a bright sunny day. Celestia started to melt into goop, as did Silver, and the environment, the walls, the floor. Cadance's breathing hitched despite her own lack of presence in the dream. Her eyes went wide as her mind hit its maximum processing capacity; she locked up as everything meshed into nothing but colours and spirals around her.

Her eyes focused on another set, another large set of eyes emerging in a pattern within the mixing dust of what was left of her dream.

Something was bearing down on her.

And then it all stopped. Everything froze, not in time, but as if there was nothing left in the script, and all the actors were left on the stage with no instructions. The whole dream turned into a lava lamp, and Cadance felt herself sag into her hooves as she stopped hyperventilating.

"Get a hold of yourself Cadance."

Cadance's eyes went a little wider

"You're an immortal alicorn Princess."

Her own voice, sharper, and full of iron. She spun around to see herself strutting through the goop and dust, she had a flowing mane, and an angry glare.

"You're better than some stupid ponies."

Cadance stepped back on instinct as the taller version of herself continued to approach. "What- No, I'm not better than anyone."

"Anyone" The mare mocked, "You're already letting them bring you down to their level." She snarled, and just as Cadance thought the bigger alicorn was going to bowl into her, she turned, and began stalking around Cadance with predatory intent. Sharp teeth glinted as she kept talking, "You don't need them. You don't need him. You won't get to keep them anyways." She giggled to herself, "Just a joke, between just the two of us."

Cadance wasn't willing to respond. The comments were just as sharp as the tone the other her spoke them with. Her mind raced, trying to rationalize what she was seeing, what she was hearing.

"Look at you." She spat, "Shivering in the dust like a-"

"Who the buck do you think you are?"

The facsimile of herself stutter stepped and stopped before tossing her mane and giving a sick smile, all teeth. "Why, I'm just you, but be-"

Cadance's wings spread, and she laughed. There was an ache that manifested in the back of her head that stung all the way down into her neck. "No you're not."

The other version of her snarled, "I'm who you'll become."

Cadance lit her horn, and the pain intensified. "No you're not." She said with more finality. Her mocking facial expression dropped into exertion, as she focused on resisting whatever was happening to her.

The fake stepped forwards with her own horn lit, "If you won't accept wha-"

"Lemme stop you right there." Cadance waved a hoof, "I don't care."

Cadance eye's clenched shut. "Get. Out!"

The pain blossomed and Cadance threw her horn forwards as she cried out, a wave of white force exploded from where she was standing and ripped apart the scenery and the monster hiding just behind the fake version of herself. There was some kind of border that it smashed against, billowing up and pressing against the black with arcing white strips of electricity that burned away the remaining dust and ooze.

Cadance huffed from her spot on the ground, she had fallen back onto her flanks, her wings hung low enough that most of their considerable size was resting on the ground. A hoof went to the back of her neck, trying to massage the tingling sensation left there out.

"Cadance!"

Cadance jumped up onto her hooves, almost falling over as her hoof hit the invisible ground weird. She spun around on nothing but adrenaline and prepared to blast the next something that appeared. Luna touched down just off to the side of the invisible border. Behind Luna, a shimmering image of the crescent moon shifted like it was a reflection on a pond.

"Cadance. Excuse me for-"

"Luna!" Cadance cut her off. "Is that really you?"

Luna stopped short, "Yes Cadance, this is really me." She lifted a hoof to her chest as the urgency flowed out of her, in its stead, concern filled Luna's body language. "Are you okay?"

Cadance drooped again. She exhaled a heavy breath. "Why does my life have to be so crazy?" A measure of the fight or flight energy that filled her moments before came out in that shout. She took another breath, and switched to a softer tone. "Is this how Twilight feels all the time? Constantly bombarded with crazy thing after crazy thing?"

Luna continued her approach. "I won't share details, but Twilight does struggle with nightmares like this."

Cadance leaned into the hug as it came. She was glad that Luna had finally gone past the point of asking for physical contact. It was needed at the moment. "That's okay. I don't want to know, her dreams are her own."

Luna looked around after drawing herself out slightly. "Your nightmare was so intense that I could not enter until it was over. How did you banish the monster?" She asked with sincere interest.

"Monster?" Was Cadance's confused reverse ask, "You mean... the... thing?" She asked weakly.

"Were you not lucid dreaming?"

Cadance shut her eyes slowly. "I don't know, I think I was, a little, for a bit. It's all fading away, it hurt." She joked, "I can tell you that much."

Luna's brow furrowed, "Hurt? Hurt where?" Her question was lathered in curiosity.

"Uh..." Cadance raised her wing to the back of her neck, "Really just, my head, my neck."

"Fascinating." Luna looked passed Cadance at the scenery again.

Cadance rolled her eyes and leaned forwards again into Luna, the familiar sensation of her fur was all the comfort she needed at the moment.

"Cadance?"

"No." Came her muffled snark, "Peace. For... twenty seconds."

Luna's wings came around Cadance's back

Twenty seconds passed silently.

"Okay." Cadance pushed outwards softly, letting Luna know she was ready to engage in social interaction. Luna lifted her wings and stepped away to reveal a familiar glade. "I'm okay now."

"That is good to hear Cadance." Luna said, clipped. Clearly she had more to say.

"What is this place?" Cadance asked, sweeping a wing out in the general direction of everything.

Luna answered without missing a beat, "This is the glade I was born in."

Cadance blinked her eyes, "Really? How do you know what it looks like?"

"Chronomancy." She said simply, tilting her head to the side and sweeping her own gaze up the stream, towards the rocks near the edge of the clearing. "Immortals, we eventually will see it all."

"I... didn't know that was possible." Cadance said tentatively.

Luna made a face. Something in between the face you make when laughing at your own joke in a crowd of people who didn't find it as funny as you did and the expression that follows biting into a lemon. The strange look disappeared in a flash, and Luna shook her head. "It is neither here nor there. It is a calming space for me, it is simple to call upon."

Cadance's ears pulled back. "How do you shape dreams like that? And so fast... I tried it, and it... broke down really fast."

"Oneiromancy is an esoteric and touchy magic." She lit her horn, and suddenly the glade lit up with fireflies, bugs, frogs, and life that filled every leaf, and under every rock. "There is no math for it. No runes, no equations. It all comes from the inside." Her horn stopped glowing, and her curious smile returned, "That is why I am curious as to, how exactly, you banished the nightmare that attacked you?"

"Wait... Is that, nightmare? or, Nightmare? With a capital 'en'?"

"The latter." Luna found a comfortable spot in the grass and sat down. "It fought to keep me out until you dispelled it."

"Something like that can keep you out of dreams?" Cadance asked, growing mildly concerned for her safety.

"No." Luna chuckled, something Cadance had never seen her do before. "Not in the slightest, I could have barreled into your dream with ease and slayed it, but it would have undoubtedly woken you."

"I... wouldn't have minded that too much."

"It was the energy pouring out of your dream that stopped me from doing so." Luna lifted a hoof, "All magic has certain indicators of their presence when imprinted on the dream realm. Casting a spell here isn't quite the same as in the real world, but some things do carry over."

"And?" Cadance sat down next to Luna, watching the tiny light show going on the dark alicorn's hoof.

"I have only ever sensed energy like that from Griffon kind." A little griffon appeared in her hoof, lifting things around it with lightless telekinesis.

"Griffons? I thought they couldn't do magic."

Luna shook her head, "They absolutely can, the ability was prevalent in..." The illusion on her hoof disappeared as her limb dropped back to the grass, "Before." Was all she had to say. "I do not know why the practice has been forgotten."

"Oh!" Cadance perked up, seeing the moment as a good time to change the subject. "Luna, I had a huge request for you."

"Anything that is within my power shall be done for you." Luna nodded, turning over to Cadance to give her the 'undivided stare of the Princess of The Night.'

Cadance wilted slightly under the gaze, laughing to herself, "Nothing so serious. You remember the Crystal Faire? Right?"

Luna nodded.

"Well, we're doing it early, instead of waiting another six and a half months." She spun a hoof, "I was wondering... Since we're hosting it on the Winter Solstice, if you would lend your resources, and maybe let me have you be the guest of honor?"

Luna's serious expression melted away into shock as Cadance gave the explanation.

"We need able bodied ponies knowledgeable in construction, and..." Cadance gestured out to the dream again with her wing, "From before, it was the first thing I thought of, would the night guard be up for the task?"

Luna spoke in a quiet tone. "Are... Did Quick Silver put you up to this?"

"No." Cadance responded simply.

"You... You want me as the guest of honor."

"Yes."

A series of things happened, but the most attention grabbing was waking up.

Cadance jerked forwards, surrounded by bedsheets. There was a quiet snorting sound as Shining Armor woke up and stood. In less than a second, there was a pink shield surrounding their bed. Shining stuttered something questioning and unintelligible, and Cadance had her wing pulled under the comforter, causing her to make a pain filled 'you're crushing my wing' sound, which only served to escalate the situation. The only thing Shining knew was that his wife had jerked awake, and made a pain filled sound.

Light filled the room like a flash bang as Shining's shield split outwards in a wave of energy. There was a crash as several things were struck back by the force and the wooden attempts to make the room covered in glittering crystal a little more homely split and cracked as the spell spilt over the surfaces.

"Shining stop! I'm okay!"

The magic cut out. "Wah-What happen?" He said, or rather, tried to say.

Cadance started giggling. All it took was one glance to see that their room had been mostly destroyed, besides the epicenter of their bed, which was mostly untouched. Already, guards were pouring into the room, looking for a target or some kind of instruction. All eyes rested on Cadance, who continued to laugh at the absurdity of her night, and only began laughing harder as she met the eyes of the confused and worried guards rushing into the room after the initial blast.

Cadance wiped a tear and some of the sleep from her eyes as she lifted herself up. "It's okay everyone. False alarm."

Guess, I have started saying that... I wonder when that started?

"Cadance?"

Cadance giggled again, making a valiant attempt to not burst out again as she got a good view of her husband's bedhead and exaggerated stance. "Yes honey?"

Shining just shook his head. "Sorry," He said. "Sorry!" He said a little louder to the ponies that had gathered inside, Cadance even spotted Amber at the door. "I overreacted, everyone head back to your posts."

Shining is saying it too

Cadance continued observing the events, now getting the privilege to watch all the ponies filter away from the door and disappear into the hallway. A yellow coated crystal stallion shut the door slowly, and plunged the room back into darkness as Shining sat back and rubbed his face.

"Welp. That just happened."

"Is there a reason you're so jumpy?"

"Er-no."

Cadance raised an eyebrow and Shining's eyes darted towards her as they both silently communicated how poorly he hid that. Shining didn't go to explain himself and Cadance shrugged and rolled onto her side to pull her wing out from the bed sheets.

"I won't pry. I trust you." She said, quietly scooting over to him once she had extricated herself.

"Thanks." He flopped down on top of her, over her back. "Why'd you jerk awake like that?"

"I think I made Luna's night." She said, half asking herself, half explaining.

Cadance felt the shifting of emotions and the shifting of his body language through her senses. She didn't have to see his face in order to know what he was thinking. Non-verbal communication was Cadance's favorite kind of communication.

"I invited her to be the guest of honor, and asked for her help."

"Wasn't it meant to be a surprise?"

Cadance shrugged, as much as she could with Shining on her back. "It was, but I had the idea to invite her honor guard."

"The Thestrals?"

"As, hopefully, an extra pair of hooves."

"You think she'll accept?"

"I was going to go back to sleep, but now that I'm fully awake, I get the feeling she's already on her way here."

"How's that?"

"Just a gut feeling." Cadance snorted, "Hey wait, no, I can say mother's intuition now!" She smiled, "Yeah!" She reset her tone to five seconds ago. "I can just tell, it's my mother's intuition." She restated.

She felt Shining roll his eyes in appreciation of her humour.

There was a crack of teleportation, and Luna was standing in their bedroom.

Cadance smirked, "Told you."

Shining sighed, "I'm not going back to bed am I?"

Luna huffed once, flapping her wings as she settled down. A thestral stallion that looked like he'd just flown through a tornado stumbled away from her, getting his bearings.

Wait a second, why does everyone have the location of my bedroom memorized?

"Cadance, my apologies for shattering your dream." Luna took a few steps forwards, she was swirling with emotion, mostly barely contained excitement, though there was also a hefty yet silent doubt hanging over her.

Luna made to continue, but Cadance lifted her hoof, "Just a second Luna, how did you manage to teleport directly into my bedroom?"

Shining shifted off of her back, giving her the opportunity to get up and get out of the bed, he did so as well, just on the other side. Luna blinked twice, "I have the location of your bedroom memorized, in case I need to reach you quickly, in situations exactly like this one."

"Okay. Stop teleporting into my bedroom."

"Hey, I know you." Shining had walked up to the thestral, "Corporal Wake right?"

"Yes sir." The stallion snapped out a very clean salute. Cadance was married to a guard captain, so she knew the difference between a good and bad salute.

"No need to call me sir, I'm not your boss anymore." He turned to look at the two alicorn mares watching the interaction with interest. "I can guess what he's here for?" He asked Luna.

She nodded, "Yes. He is here to assist as Cadance requested."

"The legions are at my disposal Princess, and now at yours." He gave a slight incline of his head. His tone was professional, rather than differential, something Cadance appreciated. "I am told that the Empire is hosting the next Fire Light Festival?"

Cadance tilted her head, "I thought it was called the Fire Sky Festival?"

Luna smiled, "Thestral traditions have shifted over the course of my banishment. Though it is indeed titled the Fire Sky Festival."

"Does it have to do with the winter solstice?" Shining asked.

"It does." Luna took a deep breath, and Cadance saw the reminiscence in her eyes as she spoke. "The Fire Sky Festival stems from a time before the moon, back when the sky was fluid. Magic, danger, visions, nightmares, dreams flowed from the endless dark, and ponies lit lanterns and bonfires and forests on fire to cast it away." She shifted in place as she drew in another breath, "In my day, it was a celebration of unity, of civilization triumphing over the dangers of the natural world. Until I ascended..."

"Then it became a celebration of the Goddess who took the meaning of the festival and made it real." The thestral said, in complete seriousness.

"I am no goddess Wind Wake." Luna admonished, "We talked about this."

He nodded, "We did. I explicitly remember ignoring your opinion."

Shining snorted.

"I like him." Cadance said, "He'll be perfect, thank you Luna."

Luna slowly took her annoyed frown away from the stallion's shit eating grin and continued explaining. "When I ascended, the Fire Sky Festival became something of an arts faire, a celebration of the stars, and the creativity and minds of the ponies that built up civilization. The competitions were... for a lack of better term, artsy. Ponies raced during the festival to craft masterpieces, argue about what they believed in, make memories, and bask in the world they had created."

"That's beautiful Luna."

"It was."

"Is." Cadance said, bunting Luna in the shoulder with a wing. "We're bringing it back, remember?"

Luna's wings flared, "Of course! I cannot- I had forgotten in my haste, how long do I have to prepare?"

Shining answered for her, as Cadance was too busy being surprised by Luna somehow matching Twilight's ambient anxiety levels. "The Winter Solstice, remember?"

Luna thought for a second before hoisting herself up to her full height. "Then I must go begin preparations, thank you both, I leave Wake in your capable hooves." Her horn lit, and there was another, far more intense, flash and crack of teleportation as she made her exit.

Cadance, Shining Armor, and Wind Wake stood in awkward silence for a moment before the latter gestured around him with a leather wing. "What happened to your room?"

Shining dropped his head and spun around. "I'm going back to bed."

Cadance laughed.

Author's Note

This is getting more and more comical as time goes on.