Princess Luna dragged herself from her dark focusing chamber with a dreary slump, her mane drooping uncharacteristically haphazardly over her eyes. She yawned tiredly, the morning’s sun already rising over the horizon as the moon waned, and the excess drain of her energies finally ended.

Luna cared very much for the subjects of Equestria; as equally so as her sister, the guardian of the sun. However, whereas Celestia merely ruled the day, it was also Luna’s personal responsibility to safeguard the innocent ponies from bad dreams. It was a constant effort, all throughout every single night; to swiftly scour each and every dream, silent and swift as the shadows themselves. Even though sometimes, it felt like she couldn’t get to them all in time. There were simply so many…

It was more than her duty to keep nightmares at bay.

Luna feared them.

Not her own nightmares, of course; no, those were both inescapable and regular. Princess Luna feared the nightmares of other ponies, and she hunted them down with a passion time and time again.

She had to.

She had seen firsthoof the horrors of what Nightmare Moon could do to an innocent mare. Luna refused to allow that to happen to another again.

Never, ever again.

It were these sorts of heavy, brooding thoughts that consumed Luna’s attention, so much so that she nearly bumped headfirst into her elder sister on her way to her room.

“Are you well, Luna?”

Luna flinched, and nodded politely to Celestia. Her sister’s shimmering mane seemed to glow with a light all its own in the darkness of the hall, illuminating many a stalwart stone pillar with a cheery radiance.

“I am as I always am, Celestia,” Luna replied curtly, straightening. “And you?”

Celestia snorted and rolled her eyes, pulling her younger sister into a tight hug with one porcelain wing. She grinned, nuzzling kindly against her neck.

“Good morning to you too, Lulu,” Celestia smiled, pulling away. “What seems to be bothering you?”

“I am unbothered,” Luna tried to lie uncomfortably, only to be cut off by Celestia.

“Oh, please,” she patted her younger sister on the head. “Lu, I can tell when you’re upset. You look pooped.”

Princess Luna bitterly surrendered, shaking her head tiredly. She took a moment to rearrange her tiara, which had fallen slightly askew.

“The burdens of the night are heavy, sister,” Luna sighed wearily before giving herself a little shake. Seeing that Celestia was about to speak, Luna quickly inserted “But I shall adjust, and overcome this obstacle. Thou hast no need for worry, sister. No need for worry at all.”

“Oh, my goodness!”

For the sake of avoiding repetition, the reader shall be spared the onslaught of surprised spluttering that Fluttershy found spouting from her mouth upon discovering none other than Princess Luna standing on her doorstep. Suffice to say, the poor mare was quite surprised.

“I wish I would have known you were coming Princess, I mean, I usually like to prepare for these kinds of visits - not that I don’t look forward to any visits, I’m not a complete hermit or anything – I mean, I am so terribly sorry for the mess, I would have worked so much quicker if I knew you were coming – I mean, not that I live like a sloth or anything like that, Angel was-!” Fluttershy somehow managed to fit it all into a single breath, flittering about her cottage in a frenzy to pick up after the wreckage that the cranky Angel had caused.

Luna, for once, seemed to be caught somewhere between a heavy sigh and a pitying smile. Fluttershy scuttled around as swiftly as she could, struggling to keep all of the tossed about carrots in her hooves, even though several continuously fell to the floor.

Within moments, Fluttershy had them all stacked neatly, and she ushered in the slightly amused princess with panic and excitement.

“Calm thyself, Fluttershy,” Luna said quietly, a small smile twitching at her lips. “There shall be time aplenty for nervousness afterwards. Art thou well?”

“O-oh, um,” Fluttershy froze in place upon actually being spoken to by Princess Luna. She shook her head furiously, pink mane falling into her eyes as she struggled to make morning tea for the pair of them and hopefully make herself look a little less like a bumbling fool in front of the princess. Fluttershy flushed, trying to move a little bit faster.

After a couple of moments, Fluttershy collected herself and said “I-I’m fine, Princess Luna. What brings you all the way out here?” she asked breathlessly, seating herself at the wooden kitchen table across from the surprisingly drowsy looking cobalt mare.

Luna paused for a second, her much-rehearsed mental conversation sounding much weaker now that she actually spoke it aloud.

“I need your help, Fluttershy.”

The butter colored pegasus blinked, and stared at the Princess. She wasn’t so much in a state of shock or surprise as she was of incomprehension. It took Fluttershy a full beat for her words to sink in.

Then she was in a state of shock.

“S-sorry, um, what?” she gawked, suddenly realizing that her mouth was hanging open senselessly.

Luna, a little irritated, furrowed her brows and lit a dim cerulean glow atop her horn. She magically pulled the steaming kettle from Fluttershy’s stove that the pegasus had all but forgotten, carefully placing it on the table where it then went completely ignored.

“I require your assistance,” Princess Luna restated.

“O-oh!” Fluttershy nodded so hard that her mane began to resist her. “Of course, of course! Anything you need, Princess, an-”

“Slow down!” Luna replied and allowed herself a miniscule smirk at the mare’s excessive eagerness. “Hardly can I finish before you agree with me,” she shook her head.

“I’m so sorry,” Fluttershy hung her head, cringing. She hated looking so awkward, especially in front of somepony so important. Luna could detect her uneasiness, and tried harder to look nonchalant. Oddly, it only made Fluttershy a tad more uncomfortable.

Luna shook her head for the umpteenth time, and said “Allow me to explain myself. I do not necessarily claim to require support on a regular basis, I shall have you know.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright,” Fluttershy finally managed to say in what she hoped was a comforting tone, feeling a little torn at seeing the princess so… worn out. She began to pour them a couple of cups of hot ginseng tea, careful to keep the steaming pot held between a pair of embroidered cloth holders. “Everypony needs a little help now and then, Princess Luna. I understand.”

Luna gave her what was, quite possibly, the eeriest grin she had ever seen. Her head tilted a tad in time to her slowly growing leer, Luna’s eyes glinting with a bizarre, cold blue light.

Fluttershy nearly dropped the teapot, a freezing chill running up her spine before the look faded.

“This is precisely why I came to you, of all ponies,” Luna explained peacefully as the jittering pegasus tried to pour tea without spilling it all over herself. “None could be better suited for such a delicate position than the bearer of the Element of Kindness.”

“Oh, um… are-are you sure?” Fluttershy asked in confusion, reclaiming her seat restlessly. “I-I still don’t even know what you needed my help with… not-not that I don’t want to help, of course!” she added quickly, starting up again before Luna nodded.

She began to smile softly, but it was slowly replaced with a grim, serious look that overtook her entirely.

“I shall not waste any more time,” Luna stated unobtrusively, bowing her head. “Because this is both a matter of utmost importance and secrecy, I must have your vow of assurance that you shall neither speak of this occurrence, nor anything that takes place between us for the remainder of this conversation, to anypony for any reason.”

Fluttershy balked at her sudden change of attitude, put off. Determined not to let Luna down, Fluttershy bowed her head.

“I won’t tell anypony, if you don’t want me to,” Fluttershy insisted. “I Pinkie Promise.”

Luna stared at her for the longest time, her thoughts as heavy as her heart was.

“… Very well,” Luna said quietly before taking a deep breath. “You shall be held in confidence. Know first that I have not had an apprentice in nigh over a millennia. I am sorry that you cannot be better prepared.”

“F-for what?” Fluttershy winced nervously, the queer look in Luna’s eyes returning.

“I wish you to be my apprentice.”

Luna expected Fluttershy to rebuttal or argue, to resist and shy away from her. She had been prepared for such, and predicted it long before.

“Of course,” Fluttershy nodded enthusiastically. “Anything I can do to help.”

It threw Luna off guard, and she blinked at the mare’s zeal.

“… Perhaps you do not fully understand,” Luna said slowly. “I do not offer a mere trifle. Once you assume the mantle of my apprentice, you can never, ever return to the life you once knew.”

“It’s okay, Princess,” Fluttershy patted her on the hoof kindly. “I know you wouldn’t have spent your time if you didn’t think it was awfully important, and I would never put you in a bind like that.”

Luna was stricken with a sudden sense of guilt, familiar to the one she had felt so long ago. Fluttershy was simply too kind to turn her down, and Luna felt as if she were dragging the poor, oblivious mare to her doom; and Fluttershy would likely smile at her the entire way.

Fluttershy was horrified to see a single tear trailing down Luna’s cheek, and she sympathetically offered her a wing.

Luna cleared her throat and wiped her face, regaining her composure swiftly.

“Very well,” Luna appeared to have made up her mind, and stood regally. The room seemed to darken around her, and Fluttershy stood with her in suspense as the princess’s voice boomed much too loudly for the little cottage. “Fluttershy. You have been chosen to act as an agent and servant of the night, to walk the Dark Path, as a Shadow amongst the everlasting!”

The pegasus quaked with the bellow of the princess before her, and Luna flared her wings as the room was engulfed completely in darkness. Fluttershy’s only sight was Luna, majestically standing in front of her. She bowed before Luna humbly, unable to even see the floor anymore for the seemingly eternal shadow emanating from the princess.

And, ever so softly, Fluttershy heard her whisper “I’m sorry.”

The world went completely dark, and Fluttershy knew no more.