The blast door slammed shut behind me, as I attempted to ignore the the screams from the rest of my squad. I slumped against the wall, useless laser rifle in my hands as I closed my eyes. Soon the screams died down, and I was alone in a sterile hallway within the fortress-moon of Luna. I was originally a cook for the garrison here, but the professionals troops died out a year ago. Now they called forth non-essential support staff to serve as fodder on the front lines. Our gear couldn't even hurt the damn things, but we fought nonetheless. Command touted that we just had to buy time, that we were working on a weapon to kill the things. A pleasant lie, one that gave hope in possibly the most hopeless situation in the history of mankind.

My thoughts were interrupted by a noise on the other side of the blast door. It sounded like the crackle of static electricity. Fear filled me as I realized how much I didn't want to die. I hadn't had an opportunity to really live yet: to have a wife and kids, to own my own home, to spend my twilight years traveling the galaxy. I shook in terror as the static only grew louder. I wanted to run, but found my legs unable to move. As if they were foreign to my body. Eventually I began to panic, hyperventilating on the ground even as my body screamed at me to run. Eventually, a large oval simply... ceased to be on the blast door. And through it, stepped a creature of nightmare. Its form flickered rapidly in and out of reality, features hidden by a sort of gloom that oozed from it. I felt its gaze lay upon me, and I knew my fate was sealed.

As it reached out a tendril towards me, a shot rang out from the dark behind me. It sounded like no weapon I had ever heard before, but by the way the creature shrieked upon being hit, I knew whatever it was actually hurt it. The foe before me focused all its attention down the hall, and I saw dozens of shadowy appendages shoot towards the source of the shot. Two more reports from down the hall, and the thing before me let out an unholy scream, before crashing to the floor in a heap. As the gloom dissipated around it, I inspected it. The flickering had ceased, and instead an eerily featureless humanoid lay on the floor. It had no face, no eyes, and its appendages, of which there were four, ended in nubs rather than hands or feet. As I got closer, it twitched. I slammed myself back against the wall.

"Calm down there son, it's still unconscious," a figure said in a gravely voice. I turned to my left and saw the lizardlike features of a Dearc before me, clad in the living metal armor of an Imperial Legionnaire. I had thought all of them dead on this damned moon. She, based on the scale coloration, placed a box near the unconscious Abyssal and pressed a button. I saw as it slurped up the monstrosity, presumably storing the thing inside it.

I turned to thank my savior, when an immense heat hit us both. In slow, excruciating agony I felt as my clothes caught fire. Soon my armor melted and fused to my flesh. I felt myself moving, but I was too busy screaming my lungs out to figure out why.

Then, the pain ceased. Suddenly I found myself outside of my body, looking at a horrifically burned human with its flesh beginning to slough off, being carried by the Legionnaire. It was then that I realized that wasn't me.

"Another nightmare. Usually these aren't lucid though..." I thought aloud.

"That would be our doing," a familiar voice said from my side. "We saw thou was having a nightmare, and tis our duty to assist all those in Equestria who suffer from such things."

"How did you manage to get past my mental defenses?" I said without turning to face Luna.

"Twas not easy, if that is your concern. But we have much experience in regards to the mind."

For the first time since arriving on this backwater, I actually felt genuine fear. A creature capable of forcing her way into my mind. I swallowed a lump in my throat. A den of lions indeed.

"Apologies for not seeming thankful, Luna, in regards to you just letting yourself inside my head without asking permission," I finally said sardonically, attempting to conceal my horror at the creature I had dared to find comfort just moments before in the waking world.

"We were simply trying to help thee-"

"And why exactly should I believe that?!" I shouted, panic starting to set in.

"BECAUSE THOU ART OUR ONLY FRIEND ASIDE FROM TIA, AND YOU WERE CONVULSING VIOLENTLY IN THY SLEEP!" she shouted back, I suspected the volume could have ruptured my eardrums were this in the waking world. This was a bit of a revelation.

"I always have nightmares, and the palace staff always said I slept fitfully but... convulsing?" I said calmly, my panic subsiding. I looked at the mare who was on the verge of tears, and continued in a placating tone, "I... apologize Luna. My own head is the one place where I thought I could be certain of safety. While I know you have no intent to do so, I must admit my very first thoughts were of you and Celestia turning me into a sort of puppet."

"We do not have that sort of power over the mind, dear human. We can merely influence the dreams of our ponies," she said with a snort, though her look was one of... sadness? "Apology accepted. However," she continued now in a somber tone, gesturing at the dream around us, "Would you care to discuss this with us?"

"What, are you my psychiatrist now?"

"These nightmares appear for a reason, and talking about them may help thee slumber better in the future. If appointing ourselves as thy psychiatrist is the only way to get you to talk to us about it, then we shall do so."

"Well, I have hired therapists before. None of it seemed particularly helpful, but maybe you'll be able to succeed where they failed. I can manipulate this dream however I wish, correct?"

She gave a nod in response, and focusing intently on my surroundings, I began to shift them.

The heart of palace bunker complex stretched out before me, a hub of near constant activity. While I stood alongside Imperium High Command on a raised section, hundreds of staff swarmed in the various workstations below. The furious clacking of analog keys, the shouting of various officers issuing commands, as well as the soft hum of machinery all fought to overwhelm one another. The scent of coffee and pizza, the typical foods devoured during an operation, permeated the entire room. Luna stood beside me, ignored by the staff around us. My focus, however, was on the map before me.

"The 1st and 5th Fleets report success on the Quenni front, and it appears that the newly engineered weaponry is a success. Traxis Fleetyards have already made significant headway on the refits for the rest of the Imperial Armada, my liege," Fleetmaster Leweniqila finished her report regarding the sudden war we found ourselves in about a decade ago. Some fool had made a bargain with one of the beings that lived beyond the Veil, and now we all paid the price. Field Marshal Merkas stepped forward. It appeared it was finally time to address the situation that had all of us worried.

"Luna's defenses hold strong as of yet. Traditional energy weaponry continues to be practically useless, but using the schematics beamed over from the Nexus, we have managed to craft the new weapons within the moon's own manufacturing plants. The Lunar shield still holds over Terra, preventing enemy bombardment for the time being; although, we have still ordered civilians to retreat into the lowest levels of the arcologies, as a precaution. As per your orders, my lord, we have spread out the Household Guards to protect the civilians. In addition, the 10th, 13th, and 20th Battlegroups under Sector Admiral Kane are merely a few hours out. Their new weapons should be able to deal with this relatively small fleet that slipped through," Merkas reported.

We had mobilized everything against the initial strike into our reality, a mistake I made in overconfidence. Our foe had rather advanced slipspace drives, ones that could instantaneously jump several systems away provided those systems remained connected to the hyperlane network. In addition, something they had done rendered gateways and wormholes unstable, stranding our fleets years away from the capital. They bypassed most of the sector defenses, and while our planet side guns put up a good fight on Luna, it wasn't anywhere near enough. Luckily, Luna maintained a shield that enshrouded Terra, and had some of the most advanced ground defenses in the galaxy. Unfortunately, most conventional weaponry appeared to hardly even scratch our foe. The brave defenders of our moon had practically given up on repelling the foe, simply resolving to buy time. And buy time they did as the moon held for 3 years. Just long enough for us to design weapons that worked against the besieging entities.

I visibly tensed as I looked at the map of Sol. I knew what was about to happen, despite the looks of hope within the room. Finally, the anticipated notification popped up, pointing towards something in orbit of Luna.

"Massive energy spike detected from that flagship. Appears to read like some sort of world cracker, though why they didn't attempt to use it before now is a mystery. Regardless, the shielding system we recovered from that one archeological dig should hold against it," one of the technicians close to the platform we stood upon reported. The brief look of concern amongst my staff was replace by relief.

Until the flared energy signature fired. It should have simply been reflected back at the planet cracker by the shield... instead, the shield merely absorbed it until it finally shattered. All of us watched in utter silence as a laser dug its way towards the core of our beloved moon, before finally the entire thing was destabilized. And it shattered.

The shockwave hit Terra a few moments later, causing many of the tallest starscrapers to collapse in on themselves. The palace was protected by its own shielding system, separate from the one projected around the planet from the moon. Luckily most people had been evacuated to the lower levels, so as casualty reports trickled in they numbered in the mere hundreds of thousands. No reports came from the moon, obviously. The only saving grace was that the dead hand system activated, the resulting explosion seeming to do significant damage to the Abyssal fleet regardless of their reality shifting properties.

I paused the memory there, shifting Luna and I to one of the palace balconies. Even three centuries later, the sight of our shattered moon still broke my heart. I looked expectantly at the blue alicorn beside me, but she merely looked in sadness at the night sky. Eventually, she opened her mouth.

"What did thou do after this? How doth a people recover from such... disaster?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.

"Perhaps one day I'll show you," I replied, my tone equally soft. She then turned to me, and I looked once more into the blue eyes of the one I had learned to call 'friend.'

"We can gift thee sweet dreams, unnatural they may be. Tis preferable for dreams to come from thine own mind, but sometimes an artificial comfort can be used. Especially when this is the alternative," she offered. I recoiled from the idea on instinct, but I forced myself to consider it. Eventually, I simply gave her a nod.

Her horn glowed blue for a moment, before true sleep once again claimed me.

------ Luna ------

I awoke from my trance, once again within the observatory. The human before me slept quietly now, curled up into a ball. I had given him a simple dream, one where he relaxed on a beach. I smiled at how peaceful he now looked, twas a job well done indeed. I had ought to return him to his quarters, however. I floated him up with my magic, carefully arranging him so he balanced on my back. Conveniently, he reached around my neck automatically, and snuggled up against my mane. I chuckled as he held fast, like I was some massive teddy bear. I began to walk to his room, accompanied by a pair of guards who had respectfully stood outside the door until I had exited the observatory.

As I walked, I considered what Lux had told me earlier. At first I wondered how best to broach the idea of expanding the military to Tia, until I saw the early morning train leave Canterlot. I smiled as a devious idea crept its way into my mind. While I couldn't directly improve our armed forces, I could improve our ability to wage war indirectly. Additional rail lines, expanded highways, state-funded blacksmithing apprenticeships. Introducing wrestling or other martial arts to schools as a sport. A million and one ideas, all of which I knew Tia would approve of, as they improved the lives of her little ponies too.

I was giddy as I laid Lux down on his bed, and drew the covers over him. It took some prying to get him to let me go earlier, but luckily it seemed he was sleeping quite heavily. I frowned as I considered his actions and fear during the dream. He hid it well, but I could tell he was filled with fear at my power. I wondered at how terrible a place his home must be, to where his first thought was that I would turn him into a mindless puppet.

Such wanderings of the mind led me back to a shattered moon in the sky, while fires raged from a giant city below.

I turned around to leave, but paused. I then walked back to his bed, and leaned down into his ear.

"We wish thee a wonderful night, our friend. Thou deserves rest after so long," I whispered, the royal 'we' still proving quite the impossible habit to break, even if I now thought in singular pronouns. And despite his deep slumber, I could've sworn he smiled. I left him to his sleep then, cantering towards breakfast with my sister before I lowered the moon.

Author's Note

A rather short chapter, for which I apologize, it was simply difficult to write for some reason. I rewrote the entire thing about three times from its initial rendition. But I think this chapter gives Lux some important characterization, as well as gives some additional tidbits regarding these 'Abyssals' mentioned prior. I also wanted to give Luna some additional agency, which I hope I accomplished.

One thing I would like to note, if it isn't obvious, is that this takes place before Luna Eclipsed. Specifically in the gap between 'Best Night Ever' and 'Return of Harmony' Quite early on in the show timeline, which as you could guess means some excitement will be due for us soon. Any events that have occurred in season 1 thus remain unchanged.

Also I hope it was clear when I referred to Luna the moon and Luna the pony. I believe it was fairly obvious but let me know if it's confusing and I can edit it.