Dreamwalker

“Once again we raise the moon and welcome in the night, once again we bathe the earth in glowing silver light.” Luna hummed to herself as she set up the sky for the night. The moon and stars were in place. Anytime now, the ponies of Equestria would begin their slumber. “And then they dream in moonlight’s gleam, and we work hard, their dreams we guard.”

Sure enough, after a couple minutes, the first wisps of dreams floated into the air. They were fine wisps, nearly invisible to the untrained eye, but extremely easy to spot for Luna, the princess of the night. She flew across the land, sailing with the cool breeze, touching each dream that came close and allowing them to feel her presence. Dreams of prosperity, of fame, of wonderful ideas all passed in and out of her body, warming her spirit. And of course, back at the palace, there was her sister’s dream wisp. Celestia had never allowed Luna to look into her dreams, and Luna had always respected that. She gave the bright gold dream wisp a wide berth as she patrolled.

A few small nightmares in Canterlot were dealt with. She snuffed out the fire burning donut joe’s bakery with a flap of her wings, she crushed the giant spider consuming Prince Blueblood’s favorite suit, and helped Fancypants find his fancy pants. It was then that she noticed a dark red wisp, a nightmare of the highest priority, floating up over Fluttershy’s cottage. Given her background knowledge on Fluttershy, this wasn’t very rare, but still warranted investigating.

Luna took a deep breath and flew towards the wisp, twirling around until her sparkly mane had mingled with its essence. She then projected her thoughts towards below, felt herself slip slowly into the dream world and braced herself for impact.

Fluttershy had not been so thoughtful as to include a moon in her dream, and Luna landed on cold, hard, unforgiving ground. She heard a cry for help. Fluttershy was probably the source. Luna zoomed off.

Dreams could get pretty weird. Ponies got themselves in situations so ridiculous that Luna would have no idea how these started out. This was one of those dreams. Fluttershy was hiding under a cliff at the edge of a forest, only this forest was… shrinking? Trees were disappearing at a rapid rate. A quick glance to the left showed a giant hungry bunny as the probably culprit.

Luna rushed off and charged up her horn. It was time to rid this dream of this nightmarish monstrosity once and for all. The bunny stopped and looked at her confusedly. Now would be the perfect moment to strike. Luna blasted the bunny with all of her pent up magic, using a disappearing spell she used for all terrible nightmares that grew out of hand. The anti-nightmare beam flew towards the bunny at alarming speed. All it could do was stare in fear. This dream would be normal soon.

Then it collided. And the dream froze. Luna found herself forcibly ejected from the odd dream, sending a cold shiver down her spine. On the bright side, the nightmare wisp was gone. However, the normalized dream wisp that should have appeared was nowhere to be found. “Odd, this has never happened before,” she thought to herself. “We had better go down and see if everything’s all right.”

She headed down to Fluttershy’s house and peered into the window. Fluttershy was wide awake, hunched over… something. “Excuse our presence Fluttershy, but is everything okay?” Luna called in a booming voice, causing Fluttershy to jump and hug a ceiling rafter, revealing the bunny she had been hunching over.

“Oh… Luna. I’m so glad you’re here.” Fluttershy said after about three seconds of hyperventilation. “Angel over there has been making odd noises in his sleep, like he had nightmares, so I’ve been trying to wake him up.” Tears emerged from her face. “But he just isn’t waking up. Could you please help? I mean, I know you’re supposed to be watching over the ponies, but just this once, please?” Fluttershy brought out the slumped figure of Angel over to Luna. It was definitely asleep, but there was no dream wisp coming out, happy or nightmarish.

Luna stepped back. Could she have just? No, she couldn’t have. She was certain that she could tell a pony’s dream from a bunny’s dream. But what if she did? What would have happened had she deleted the host from their dream?

Fluttershy cleared her throat timidly and nudged Angel closer to Luna. “We will do our best to cure your Angel, Fluttershy.” Luna said, and placed her horn against his forehead. Direct contact would ensure more powerful transmittance of thought. Whatever was left of his dream would surely become accessible. Luna let out a surge of magic, searching for Angel’s dream.

Nothing happened. The bunny remained asleep. She let loose another surge of magic, this one strong enough to lift Angel’s body two inches into the air. No results. Luna looked worried. Nopony was better at dream magic than she was. A growing sense of dread consumed her as she tried again and again to contact Angel’s dream.

“Fluttershy… there is something we must ask you.” Fluttershy was covering her eyes, not wanting to see the magical blasts being fired (albeit harmlessly) into Angel’s cranium. “We... detected a nightmare earlier tonight trailing from your cottage. Were you, perhaps dreaming a nightmare?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh no, I was too busy tending to my animals and making sure they got their rest first. I sleep much later than most ponies.” These words echoed in Luna’s mind. She spread her wings and with shaky knees took off. There was something that needed to be done, and urgently. “We will return, hopefully with a cure for your angel friend.”

Fluttershy looked around worriedly and cradled Angel in her hooves. “Please come back soon.”