Chapter One: When Dreams Come True
Chapter One: When Dreams Come True
Luna sighed. Another vision. When would they stop? Nightmare Night was months ago, it's Hearth Warming Eve for Faust's sake! This vision seemed... longer. And more real. "Knock it off, brain," she told herself. "It's just a normal one."
She thought about it for a second. The longer she thought, the more she doubted that they were normal visions. They were more frequent lately. And longer. And... more real. One time, she had thought that she had barged in on a military meeting, due to everypony looking at her. And one time, she actually felt the wind. If they were visions, they couldn't possibly acknowledge her as a part of the vision.
What's happening?
~~~~~~
Okay, that was not a normal vision at all. Somepony just talked to her. In her vision. A lavender mare, a pegasus, with a dark green mane, seemingly hiding from something, alone, and one leg with a bandage. It was a very short conversation. Starting with, "Who are you!? How did you get here!? Are you a goddamn spy?!!" from the lavender pony. Now, that was just weird. Didn't everypony know Luna, goddess of the moon? The one who Celestia banished with the Elements of Harmony? After a few seconds, Luna had said, "Uh... I'm Luna. You know... I raise the moon? I was banished to the moon for a thousand years? I had became Nightmare Moon? Don't tell me you don't know me!"
"Er... no, I don't. Last time I checked, the moon raises itself."
At that, the vision had dissipated. "What!?" Luna gasped. "So, in my vision, the moon raises itself? Uhh... how...?"
Shaking her head, she gave a good hard thought or two. Or eighty. She had come up with one conclusion. She was either dreaming, or what she saw was another Equestria. Both of those ideas were baloney. But, she had to go with the first one. Come on, another Equestria? That in and of itself was a really stupid idea.
Okay, maybe it isn't. Luna read up in the Canterlot Library, and there was one book... one... but nevertheless a book... about different Equestrias. Only two are known, this one and the royal Princess's homeland. "Wow," Luna thought for a while. " I thought my homeland was here.... Wait a second...."
She lapsed into a state of deep thought. When she was snapped back into reality, she was thinking about the visions. "How did I get them? Why me? Why on Nightmare Night?" A million questions were running through her brain. She got up and resolved to ask her sister.
She walked through the many palace hallways. Ever other time she opened a door, she thought she heard footsteps. She was almost there when she thought she heard a yell. She began to break into a run for the door to the throne room. She closed her eyes, running as fast as she felt Rainbow Dash could fly....
CRASH. She ran straight into... something. It wasn't fur... it wasn't stone... it wasn't metal... yet it wasn't smooth wood either. She opened her eyes. "A tree?!" she said out loud. She at first began to wonder why a tree was in the middle of the castle hallway, but then, she looked around. She wasn't in the castle. In fact, she wasn't even in Canterlot. It looked like she was in... the Everfree forest? But... it felt different. Usually, it's like something was watching her from beyond that tree... a robber pony was going to jump on her... hostile animals lurked behind every corner... but now, it felt like there was no life at all. No robber pony, no animals, no 'something'.... She began to walk around in the bright sunlight. She heard rustling.
"Who's there?" she heard a vaguely familiar, but hoarse voice say, at about the same time as she.
A familiarly-shaded violet hoof stepped out from behind the tree, and along with it, the unmistakable shape of a unicorn. Luna had already guessed it, but now she knew- despite the bandages, dark green uniform, and blood, it was unmistakable.... It was clearly Twilight Sparkle.
"T-Twilight!" Luna gasped. "What happened?"
Afterwards Luna thought she was quite stupid to greet her that way, as these ponies had no idea who she was or what she did. That being so, this Twilight hesitated before retorting, "I don't know who you are or where you came from or how you know my name, but if you're part of the Empire, you can go to hell, along with all your miserable friends."
Luna felt breathless. The Empire.... She had never heard of any empire before. "What empire?" asked Luna.
Twilight said nothing, instead just looking at Luna in an odd way, as though she thought Luna was not right in the head, at the same time as Twilight felt extremely irate.
"Whoever they are, I can assure you-" Luna started, but passed out mid-sentence.
Prologue
Gasping, Luna woke up. She looked around. She was in her bedroom... nothing had happened. She looked outside at her sister's beautiful sun, soon to set. She wished she didn't sleep so long, now if she was to raise the moon, she'd be a little tired and couldn't attend Fancy Pants's dinner party.
She was thinking about the dream she just had- no, no, it wasn't a dream. She could remember everything about it, during the dream, she could remember the stuff you'd forget during dreams, she didn't seem to had been taking any part in it at all, and nothing was the strange thing you'd see in dreams. But there was something strange about it. It was... really weird. Ponies... they looked as though they were angry, tired, and sad all at the same time. Most were injured. There was a lot of blood....
She found herself walking to the castle doctor. She walked past the door. Embarrassed, she turned around and walked in. After the doctor prodded around, mostly at her eyes, he said, "How late were you up last night?"
"Um... well.... Last night was Nightmare Night... and I had to set the moon down... and I stayed up for a little bit... er... I fell asleep when my sister's sun was almost at the top of the sky... so... uh... just before noon," she stammered, a little worried.
The doctor pondered this for a minute. "I think you had a hallucination."
"What!?!" Luna sat down, hard. "B- but...."
"You were up too late," the doctor said sternly. "You should sleep a bit more, then raise to moon, then go back to sleep. Drink this," he added, giving her a glass of water. She gulped it down, not quite convinced.
~~~~~~
She had done what the doctor had prescribed, but the "hallucination" wasn't going away. Three times it came back, all times with scenes relating to war, blood, crime, and death.
She decided to be her own doctor. That castle doctor would still treat her like a commoner. It wasn't pride, exactly... well, maybe it was. She always was her mother's favorite, and therefore pampered.
"Luna," she told herself, "It's not a hallucination. You are not going crazy."
She decided it was a vision. Maybe of some epic pony war in the distant future or something. Maybe it was like that story... somebody had visions of the future... he used it for money.... But she wouldn't. She was already a princess, why would she want money?
She heard a knock on her door. "Come in," she called.
Princess Celestia walked in. "You're late," she said kindly.
Glancing up at the window, she saw a moonless and starless night. "Oh!" she said. "Sorry, I was a little preoccupied."
Walking with her sister outside, she raised the moon and stars. Celestia noticed something was up with her little sister. "What is wrong, Luna?" she asked gracefully. "You can tell me."
Luna looked up into her sister's kind, wise, knowing eyes. "Nothing, sister," she replied. "Nothing at all."
