The early morning sun shone brightly through the bedroom windows, the glare on the panes causing Starswirl to squint and blink away the tear inducing pain. He rolled over to shield his eyes from the light, but it was much too late. Morning had come, and his chances of sleep were now lost. It was time to get up and get some food to be able to face today's challenges.

C'mon Starswirl, get yourself up, he thought, half-heartedly trying to raise himself up, but giving up halfway to fall back into the soft mattress. I'm too tired for this, but I can't sleep. Every time he had been about to fall asleep again last night the memories of the dream would set his heart racing, and he would lie there shaking, trying anything to banish the image of his mother's body.

Oh well, maybe I can catch a nap after breakfast. He sat up in the bed, rubbing his tired eyes when he heard a scratching noise coming from the door leading out into the courtyard. What's that? He jumped off the bed and walked over to the door, but when he saw what was there he stopped and took a few steps back. Sitting on the other side of the full-glass door was a familiar looking grey wolf with green eyes, holding a dark blue cloak and saddlebag in her mouth.

"How is he?" Celestia asked Luna. The two sisters stood in front of a large window on the second floor of the tower that overlooked the front courtyard. Luna didn't look well; there were dark circles under her eyes from lack of sleep and her head and ears drooped with exhaustion.

"If he feels anything like I do, probably not too well," Luna replied, then gave a long yawn into her hoof. "I didn't get any more sleep last night, and I'm pretty sure he didn't either." Luna sighed, her head lowering slightly more. "He still wouldn't look me in the eye at breakfast." Celestia glanced at Luna from the corner of her eye before looking back through the window. Starswirl could be seen down in the courtyard; he seemed to be reading something in the small grove of trees in the center of the courtyard.

"What did he say at breakfast?"

"Not much," Luna said, "just that he had a bad dream. I asked him if he had many of those, but he wouldn't answer me."

"Let's assume he does then," Celestia's said turning to face her sister. "You need to talk to him, Luna."

"Me?" Luna looked at her sister in surprise. "I already tried; he doesn't want to talk to me. I actually think he's afraid of me."

"What was that line you used to throw around all the time when you were younger?" Celestia said with a wry smile. " 'Fears are made to be faced.' " Luna gave her sister a nasty look at having her own words turned on her.

"Funny, but I think he's been through enough these past couple of days, we don't really need to scare him further."

"I was actually talking about you Luna." Luna's brow rose, her voice rising in pitch.

"What do you mean?"

"You're scared he doesn't trust you anymore. You're afraid of hurting him, even though you have done nothing to hurt him before; well get over it. He does trust you Luna, I can tell, and he needs you now." The two sisters faced each other, but Celestia could see the mental debate in Luna's mind from the way her eyes flicked back and forth slightly. Finally, Luna turned to look out the window again.

"I'll talk to him," she said quietly, "but I don't know what I can do to help him."

That's one fight down, Celestia thought with relief, then she prepared herself for the second, harder battle. "Well, I have an idea of what to do, actually." Luna looked over again, brow arched and eyes curious. Celestia steeled herself against the coming outburst.

"You could try using the Dream Walking spell on him." Luna's eyes widened, then narrowed to slits. Her entire body slowly tensed, and a burning anger shone in the little of her eyes that Celestia could see. When Luna spoke it wasn't with the ear splitting shout Celestia expected, but with quiet anger.

"How could you ask that of me?" Luna said, her voice quaking with expected anger, but the grief in her voice made Celestia pause for moment. Celestia opened her mouth to reply, but Luna cut her off, her voice slightly raised.

"No! I can't do that, I won't do it. You know what I almost did to you." The pain in her sister's voice tore at Celestia's will but she kept pushing.

"Yes, I do know what happened, and I know what it cost you, but you need to think about Starswirl."

"You have no idea what it cost me!” Luna snarled, making Celestia draw back a bit in alarm. “ And I am thinking of him. Last time I tried that spell—" Luna choked a moment on the memory. "I won't take the same risk with his life, not over a couple of bad dreams." Celestia allowed a little anger to slip into her voice.

"These are not just a 'couple of bad dreams' Luna, his nightmares are beginning to affect him while he's awake as well. He needs help, and you can give it to him. If you can help someone, then it's your duty to do so."

Luna's face went blank and she stared at Celestia in disbelief. "Duty?" she said, as though she couldn't believe the word had come from her sister's mouth. "You're going to lecture me about duty? What about your duties sister, or have you forgotten about your responsibility for Discord?"

Celestia's eyes widened, and the small ache in her chest that never went away became a burning pain. "I-I...I was just—" she tried to explain, but the pain drove both thought and speech from her mind, and all she could do was turn and walk away. She tried to act normal, but she could feel the mask of composure she wore crack under the whirlwind of emotions she was feeling, and she hurried to get away from Luna before her sister could see the pain she was in.

She managed to make it to her room and shut the door before slumping down to the ground. She lay on the floor, her mind racing as thoughts and emotions whirled in her head. Over and over, she thought the same thing. She's right, I did fail.

Luna felt like slamming her face through a wall. Way to go Luna, Celestia's finally acting more like herself again and you had to mess that up. Anger at her sister mixed with the guilt she felt for hurting her left Luna torn, unsure of what to do.

I need to apologize to her, Luna thought with a sigh. Maybe she did need to hear that, but I definitely could have said it better. Besides— Luna turned to look out the window, watching Starswirl. She's right; Starswirl needs help, and the Dream Walking spell would help him. I just need to give him the choice.

Coming to a decision didn't help calm her thoughts, but at least now she had a plan.

Starswirl was trying to study the crude map his mother had sketched in her journal, but it was hard to focus with the wolf, Lumba, just a few feet away. He was grateful of course that Lumba had brought him his things; when he had thrown them away because they were slowing him down, he didn't think he would see them again. Still, every time he would take something out of one of the bags, Lumba would come over to sniff whatever it was. He knew she wouldn't hurt him, but even so, having her that close made him a little nervous.

Closing his mother's journal, he slipped it back into his bag, then pulled out his own journal. He had been writing in it for a couple of years, though not frequently. It was nice to be able to put his thoughts clearly on paper when they were moving too fast for him to think properly. Lumba's attention was fixed on the book, and she started to get up but Starswirl stopped her.

"Ah!" he said holding out a hoof, and Lumba stopped and stared at him. He floated the journal over to her with his magic, and she sniffed it for a moment before growing bored again. Floating the journal back over, he opened it to a blank page, then pulled out his quill and an ink bottle. Dipping the quill in the ink, he started to scratch his thoughts on the page, but nothing appeared. He tried dipping the quill again, but the ink had dried out.

Oh, well, he thought while putting away his journal. Maybe Luna can give me some ink. Thinking of Luna made his spirits fall a little. I need to apologize to her for how I have been acting around her. He didn't know how to explain what was going on to her though. What do I say? Oh, hey Luna, the reason I've been avoiding you is because I'm just a little foal who can't handle a bad dream. That'll go over well. He closed his eyes and buried his face in his hooves, trying to think of a better way to do things.

A slight rustling noise from Lumba drew his attention and he looked up to see the wolf looking towards the tower entrance. Following her gaze, he saw Luna walking towards the two of them, her head bowed as though in deep thought. Well, I guess now's my chance, he thought, preparing himself for—, well for whatever came next.

"Hello, Star," Luna said as she entered the grove. She stopped to scratch Lumba's head before sitting across from him.

"H-hello, Luna," he said, the slight shaking in his voice making his face redden slightly. C'mon Starswirl, colt up! "Luna, I—"

"There's something important that I want to talk to you about Star," Luna interrupted him. "Do you mind?"

"Oh, uh, no go ahead."

"Thank you," Starswirl heard Luna take a deep breath. "It's pretty clear that you’re avoiding me for some reason Star, and it is also clear that it has something to do with your dream last night. Is that correct?"

"Yes it is," he whispered, hanging his head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No!" he yelled then put his hoof over his mouth, his face turning a bright red. "I-I mean, no, thank you, but I really don't want to talk about it. I just want to forget about the whole thing."

"I see," Luna said thoughtfully, "and how is this plan working out for you?"

"Not well," he admitted, "every time I close my eyes, I see... well it just won't go away."

"I might have a way to help you with that," she said. Starswirl felt his heart rise with hope, and he looked Luna straight in her eyes.

"How?"

"There is a magic spell I know," she said. "Using it, I would be able to enter your dream and see what you're dreaming. I would even be able to interact with you, even change some things." Starswirl could hardly believe what he was hearing.

"Is that really possible?" he asked, and Luna nodded back with a smile. "That would be amazing! I have been having nightmares ever since I left home, but last night's dream, it—, well it was pretty bad. I was honestly afraid to try and go to sleep tonight. This spell, how does it work, is it safe?"

A strange look crossed her face and her eyes lost their focus for a moment. She had to clear her throat before answering. "It is mostly safe, the chance that I would mess it up is very small, but—" she stopped talking, afraid to admit the dangers.

"But what?" Starswirl asked, starting to grow worried.

"It will be easier to show you," she said, and with a glow of her horn, a scroll of parchment, a quill, and an inkwell flashed into existence. Starswirl smiled slightly at this casual display of her abilities. Luna opened the scroll, spreading it out flat; the inside was blank. Then, dipping the quill in the ink, she drew two large circles next to each other on the parchment, close, but not touching each other.

"These are the two halves of your mind," she said. "The left side is where your mind processes the world you see around you. You use it to do most of you daily functions as well as where most of your rational thought takes place. The right side is where you think creatively. Whenever you are drawing a picture or writing a story, you use the right side of your brain. For the sake of this discussion, let's call the left side reality, and the right side fantasy. Do you understand so far?" Starswirl nodded, fully absorbed in the lesson."

"Okay, now this," she drew a much smaller circle that bridged the other two circles. "This is how we make the connection between the two. This is what allows you to see what is in front of you, and then imagine what is could be. Your see a blank canvas and both sides of your mind work together to create a painting.

"This is also where your dreams take place. I'm sure you notice how when you dream people and places you recognize can be in them, and other times it could be full of things that you have never seen before. That is because your dreams take from both parts of your mind. We call this middle area The Veil. This is where the danger comes in."

"To enter your dreams I have to pass through The Veil, but if I am not careful, I could damage it. The end result would be—" Luna stopped and her eyes went out of focus for a moment again. "The result would be insanity. Your mind would no longer be able to tell the difference between what is real and what is just a creation of your imagination."

Starswirl stared at her, trying to wrap his mind around the implications that failure would mean, when Luna spoke again. "I also feel that I should tell you; the only time I have tried to use the spell on another person, I was not careful enough, and I damaged The Veil of that pony's mind. I have learned a lot since then, but it is still something you should know."

Starswirl looked down to stare at the ground, his mind a blur of confused thoughts and feelings. The minutes ticked by as he sat there thinking. Eventually Luna stood up, moving to stand next to him. Tilting his head up to look at her, she lowered her head to his level. "I know this is scary, but I promise, if you choose to go through with this I will do whatever it takes to make sure you are yourself at the end." He nodded at her, then turned his head to look away.
"Take as long as you want to think on it. Let me know what you decide."

She turned to leave, levitating the scroll, ink and quill after her. "Wait," he said, and she turned to face him. "Could you leave the ink? I ran out of my own." Luna smiled and floated the ink back to place it in front of him. He thanked her, then pulled out his journal as she walked away, Lumba following close behind her. Dipping the quill, he moved to write on the open page, but stopped when he realized he wasn't even sure what to write first.

He sat motionless amongst the trees for a long time.

Author's Note

Last revised chapter (yay)
It's all new from here out, so of course I want to know what you think so far. Were the revisions worth the time it took? This chapter took so long because I literally rewrote the entire thing. It took me a whole day to write the Luna and Celestia scene because I was worried Celestia was too out of character but this really was the best way to work this scene for the scene I have planned ahead. Just know that after this Celestia is how she is supposed to be.

Hope you enjoyed reading it so far.