Dreamwalker

Luna flew towards the Royal Canterlot Library at her top speed. She noticed several nightmare wisps in the distance, but they could manage without her for a night. This was far more important. After ten long minutes, she finally arrived in the courtyard, landing gently on her hooves. The royal guards stood aside and allowed her to pass.

“Princess Luna! You’re back? But what happened to dream patrol?” A guard asked nervously. Luna shot him a look. “We will decide what we do in the night. And we require use of the library.”

“Of-Of course. Let me just unlock the door, and we’ll-“ Luna ran past him as soon as the door was unlocked, galloping towards the Dream Magicka section. “Starswirl the Bearded dabbled in dreams, perhaps he knew something.” She mumbled. But these scrolls were all of basic magic that she had memorized long ago. She dug deeper, into the rarely used magics. There were sleeping spells for the jumpy, restorative sleep for headaches, even a spell to wake oneself up from a nightmare, all of them useless. This section of the Library was rather bare, as dream magic was not very popular in the past, as they had been more interested about magic affecting the physical world.

Luna grunted in frustration. “They’re all useless!” She scattered the scrolls and turned around, finding a large mirror. “What could this be doing in the library?” She wondered and approached it. She looked a mess. In her hurry to return to Canterlot, her mane had accumulated several leaves and bugs. She shook it clean and stared at the mirror. “What can we do to cure this? What happens when the host is deleted from the dream?” She called, hoping for a response, answered only by the hollow moaning of the wind.

The window was open. She walked over and peered outside, staring at the statues in the garden. Starswirl the bearded loomed back at her, with a look of… disapproval? Then there was Discord, a master of reality, but one who knew absolutely nothing about the complications of dreams. She let her gaze wander until she saw one statue that the moon just happened to shine the brightest on. It was a statue of the one pony who knew more about dream magic than she did. The moonlight had fallen upon a statue of Nightmare Moon.

Luna thought for a while, allowing the night air to cool her mane. How long had it been since she raised the moon? She had forgotten. What if Celestia woke up and found her? That would be terrible. An image of Fluttershy cradling the unwaking body of Angel crossed her mind and she made up her mind. She wasn’t stupid, of course, there would be safeguards. But even contacting her darker self could have disastrous consequences.

Luna steeled herself and stared into the mirror beside her, imagining herself larger, stronger, more powerful. She felt the rage begin to consume her, but this time, she held it at bay, focusing hard on the mirror until her reflection warped. Her blue skin became black and her horn grew, her teeth became sharp, her wings spread out, and tail flared. Her reflection blinked and stared out from the mirror.

“Why have you summoned me here, if you have no use for me?” Nightmare Moon hissed through the mirror. Luna glared back. “You are a manifestation of our desire for an eternal night. We now realize that this concept is wrong. But you still have more power than we. Allow us to explain.” Luna summarized the events that had happened thus far.

“And you expect me to help you?” Nightmare Moon laughed. “What reason would I have to do that?” Luna pulled out a book she had taken earlier from a shelf in the Royal Canterlot Library. “Because we have the elements. And we know how to use them.” True, she had only used them once, but Luna was confident she could use them again.

“How unladylike of you, Princess Luna, to threaten an imaginary friend with torture. You must really need my help badly. Very well then, I will help you with this simple task. All you need to do is think back to when you ended the dream of that pathetic rabbit. What happened?”

“We were forcibly ejected from the dream.” Luna responded. She still remembered that feeling of being shut out.  Nightmare moon smirked at her. This couldn’t be good. “Then what do you suppose happened to the giant monster bunny?” Another scream could be heard from Ponyville. Luna was about to fly out the window to investigate when the mirror spoke again. “One last thing… If you cannot wake the rabbit, there is… another way to stop it.”

Luna glared at the mirror, focusing hard until her reflection returned to normal. “We will never resort to that.” She flew off in the direction of the scream.