Cleaning the sweat from his forehead, Daimon put away the tools he was working with and gave a step back to appreciate his work. It was a small, simple repair at a small shop, nothing all that hard. But it also gave him a few bits to invest on whatever he wanted.

After getting his payment with a rather friendly ‘thank you’ from the shopkeeper, Daimon left back to the library. It was lunch time and he couldn’t wait to taste meal again. He only hoped that Spike wouldn’t mess it too much.

Twilight was reading in the lobby with a smile in her face when he entered, “Hi, Daimon. Had a nice working day?”

“A small fix at Carrot Top’s shop,” Daimon answered with a smile. His nose quickly filled with the scent from the kitchen and he smiled. “So long I haven’t felt this smell… Sorry if it disturbs you Twilight…”

“I just ask that this doesn’t become a habit and we’re fine,” she chuckled.

Daimon nodded. He did need a nice amount of meat, but he couldn’t demand of Twilight that. However, on his way home, one visage has called his attention, “Besides you say that ponies are vegetarians, I saw a pegasi couple with a pair of fish bags walking…”

“Well… some pegasi says that eating fish is something good. I never tasted to tell the truth…”

“Fish isn’t vegetable, though. Maybe you ponies had a hint of an omnivore nature somewhere?”

“I guess when it comes to survival instinct…”

Daimon laughed at that, “Well… excuse me… I’m going to take a bath before lunch.”

When it was served, Daimon could savor the meat he so long missed. Not wanting to know what kind of meat it was, he just enjoyed its juicy reward and congratulated Spike for making such a nice meal at the very first try. The purple dragon, of course, wasn’t a pony and decided to try a bit of the meat and seemed to like it as well.

With a full belly and after an hour of nap, Daimon was up to return to his work. Also, he was preparing himself mentally to the following day. The Princess would come to talk to him and answer a few questions.

Yeah… He couldn’t wait till tomorrow…

***

It was a very worn out Daimon that entered the library’s door that night. The human at start thought it was hard for a small town such as Ponyville to have so much little problems, but by now he realized that most ponies were only wandering about how humans made things.

After a nice dinner with Twilight and Spike, with a nice chat and an apple pie dessert straight from Sweet Apple Acres, he had called it a day and all but crashed into his bed. Daimon could sweat that he was sleeping even before he hit the pillow and was thankful just to be able to sleep in peace for a while.

Or so was his plan. After all, again he saw himself in rather big plains the sky darkening slight. Remembering very well what happened last time he saw such scenery, he only wished he had a proper table with some tea to offer…

And suddenly one appeared at his side. Hitting his own forehead for forgetting this was his dream, Daimon quickly decided to conjure a chair for him and a pillow to his future company. Not long later, he saw the gently and rather cute frame of Princess Luna walking out of nowhere, her hair moving due to an inexistent wind. She walked to his table and sat at the pillow he quickly offered.

“What is this sudden visit to this humble human, Princess Luna?” Daimon asked.

“Not cursing and screaming at me anymore? I see improvements being made…” Luna said with a smile, lifting magically her tea cup and taking a sip.

“Ponyville has been showing me that sometimes friendship is useful, I admit.”

“I remember when I decided to play Ponyville a visit,” Luna said in found memory. “It was after my subjects had faced me in a rather… different light. Most of them were afraid of me, but it took me the light of Twilight Sparkle to show me that maybe, being scary is only another way of being fun.”

Daimon nodded and looked at the Princess in the eye, “Not that I really mind your presence in my dreams, after all if you can enter dreams, you must have a reason to do so. But I just wanted to have a nice night to rest from a hard day. And tomorrow your sister is coming to have a chat with me.”

“I know that ‘Tia is going to pay you a visit. I also know the reasons. Mine though are a bit different,” Luna said, turning a bit more serious. “As you said, we have the duty of protecting our dear subjects in more ways than just physically. There are monsters banished from Equestria that tries to use the dreams of innocent ponies to make them cause havoc. As the Ruler of Night, it is my duty to protect my subjects from such, which naturally occurs in nightmares.”

Wondering where this was leading, Daimon just nodded and waited the Princess to continue.

“Early, this same night even, I found a rather interesting nightmare to deal with, two nightmares, in truth. Both were about a bloodthirsty human with rather demoniac eyes summoning evil claws to slash open the body of their daughter and their loved ones before running after the ones dreaming.”

Oh, that’s where this was leading to. Daimon nodded and waited for the Princess to finish.

“May I ask why a rather famous doctor and a very good dressmaker of Canterlot dreamed about a demoniac version of you?”

“Do you want the full story or the short version to explain this?” Daimon asked.

Noticing that Daimon had conjured up a box at his side and pulled out a bottle and two glasses from it, she wondered if he could already guess his answer. Placing a black bubbling liquid into both glasses, Daimon served first the Princess before himself.

“Full tale, please,” Luna asked. “May I ask what is it?”

“Something I rather enjoy when I can,” Daimon chuckled. “It’s called Coke, a drink of my world. I guess you will notice it’s a bit different from other drinks you had. It’s not alcoholic, though.”

Deciding to try a bit, Luna was rather surprised by the sudden different taste of that drink. “Hmmm… it tastes rather interesting…” said the Princess. “You made this in your world?”

“No. We buy it already to drink. It’s better when cold like this,” he said with a smile, drinking a bit from his glass. “And about the story you asked about, well, I guess it started at the day after I set my feet in Ponyville. That day by morning, I had faced a challenge against Applejack to see which one was the toughest. I won by very little, I assume, and that same day at night, Pinkie Pie held a celebration party for me.”

Luna made herself comfortable and drank a bit more of that Coke while listening patiently to the tale.

“At the party I was around the pouch table when Romantic Lily, a writer unicorn mare, asked me to serve her. We traded a few words and she left, said she was going to have some air or the like. The party was being held at Applejack’s barn and not long after she left, there were howls from outside the barn. I heard Twilight calling those things timber wolves. Back at my world, we have a species of wolf called like that, but they are just one kind, and the most common kind of wolves at that.

“Anyway, I knew that Romantic Lily would be in danger if she was outside. I went looking for her inside the barn but nothing. Instead of ruining the whole party, I left by the window and went looking for her. Found her track rather easy and followed. A bit further the trail, she faced a canine-shaped paw and suddenly rushed in another direction. She went into the Everfree Forest.

“Grabbing the first and thickest tree branch I laid my hands on, I soon found a feather that belonged to Romantic Lily’s outfit.  She was there, somewhere, with a hungry wolf behind her. Then I met this Zebra at the forest that pointed me to where Romantic Lily was. Imagine my surprise when I saw that your timber wolves were made of timber, actually… We managed to save each other and keep the timber wolves from reaching us until I saw Rainbow Dash and Twilight diving to our rescue. That zebra had called their help.”

After a rather long pause, Luna wondered what does that have to do with the nightmares and was about to ask when Daimon took a deep sigh.

“The following day, after the whole town had a late start due to Pinkie’s party, Romantic Lily invited me to her house so we could have a small talk. Generally, she wanted to know why I had risked myself to save her. Then I ended up telling her my full history…”

Noticing Daimon’s excitation, Luna nodded, “Twilight has written to us about your true history and asked us to not tell anypony else. We agree that it’s a bit personal, so unless you allow us, it’s your secret we’re keeping.”

“Besides it was basically the same thing I had said to Twilight, I had given a few more details to Romantic Lily. She kinda needed that, I noticed after she had tried to hide from me part of her history. She needed to see that it wasn’t only her to have a sad story on her back. And then, in return, she told me hers fully.

Basically, her parents never supported her choices and always expected more of her. When Romantic Lily decided to be a writer, at the same day her cutie mark appeared she told me, she fought with her parents and ran from home. Working for herself, she bought a passage to Manehattan and started life here, publishing a few books and even two of her main series. Upon receiving a letter from her parents that they were taking her home, she moved before they made it to her, getting to Ponyville. Before you ask, I know. It is strange that someone would send you a letter telling that they’re going to bring you back, you like it or not. But her parents are from Canterlot High Society. Their image makes them do that.”

Luna could only nod at that. She knew pretty well how some ponies thought they were above others.

“Five days ago, Lily received a letter from her parents. They had found her again. She asked my help with the moving, since I decided to work as a general troubleshooter around the town. I convinced her to wait and sort things out with her parents, and offered my support to her then,” Daimon’s face lightened with a chuckle. “What must have given them this nightmare was when Lily’s father, Holy Cross or something alike, decided to play the bully unicorn… I just showed him my muscles and told that I alone helped his daughter against three timber wolves. Even so, I said them that I wasn’t going to harm them… or haven’t I? I don’t quite remember… Maybe it was that then…”

“She should have brought this problem to us earlier,” Luna said. “We or Celestia would have made something about it sooner.”

“Sorry, Princess Luna, but I don’t think you can fully grasp the whole context. Even if her family isn’t what she would like, they are still her family. In her place, I would do pretty much the same thing,” Daimon said. “However, I was really planning to tell Celestia this tomorrow. So, if they decide not to back up gracefully, I can hit them where it hurt the most: in their images.”

“Excuse us?” Luna asked a bit puzzled.

“For now they live in the fake idea that they only get what they got by their very images. Having a daughter that doesn’t work and keeps always inside their house writing isn’t good for their images, as it won’t be if the Princesses themselves give them a lecture in how to be good parents in front of the whole Canterlot.”

Luna nodded as she understood, “Cleaver. Considering how you live up to your image as well, we should know that you were seeing something we were missing.”

“Err… Princess Luna… I remember that Rarity had mentioned something about an evil side of yours… Is it something I should be afraid?” Daimon asked.

Luna took a deep breath with that question before saying anything else, “Daimon, have you learned something about Equestria history?”

“In fact, I’ve been reading a book about Equestria history in my free time.”

“You have learned about how the two sisters ruled together since after Discord was defeated, right?” he nodded. Luna’s smile faded then. “Well… Have you learned about the second time the Elements of Harmony were used in Equestrian history?”

“I don’t quite remember about that…”

“As you might have guessed, yes, I and Celestia ruled together over the years, centuries after Discord’s defeat and we were doing fine. Until one day, I thought it was unfair. All ponies worked and played during the day, but when the night came they only wanted to sleep, recover the energy they had spent during the day.

“I grow angry and sometime back then, I lost control of myself and then I gave place to another, one called Nightmare Moon. As Nightmare Moon, I tried to make the night last forever but, of course, Celestia couldn’t allow that. We had the worse fight we ever had then and, in the end, ‘Tia used the Elements of Harmony to banish me to the moon, where I stood for a thousand years.”

“Wow… that must have sucked really…”

“You have no idea. But then the time came when I could break free. It was during the Summer Sun Celebration of the thousandth year…”

“Rarity also told me about it …” Daimon quickly cut the Princess. “Nightmare Moon kidnapped Celestia and after that, Twilight and her friends braved the Everfree Forest to find the Elements of Harmony to stop her.”

Luna nodded. “However, instead of banishing me again, the Elements of Harmony returned me to Luna form so I could rule alongside with my sister again. Nightmare Moon, though, is a part of every step I give…”

“So that mare with you when I dreamed with ponies for the first time ever…” Daimon formed.

“Yes, that was the Nightmare Moon form I once took. I thought it would be good to play the bad pony and the evil pony…” Luna them chuckled.

Daimon nodded, “And does Celestia has an evil part herself?”

“We are just lucky that Celestia has a lot more self-control than any other pony. She’s too much powerful and with the Elements of Harmony returned to where they belong, we couldn’t protect ourselves if she ever dared to turn on us.”

“Two thoughts surface on my mind, Princess Luna,” Daimon said after her comment. “First, what would be a name for an evil Princess Celestia? I mean, Nightmare Moon for the ruler of the night is nice and all… But what would the day ruler be called in those circumstances?”

Luna actually chuckled with that, “‘Tia and I played that a lot after I returned to my senses. She says that, if she turns evil, she would pick something like Hellmare Sun or the like.”

“Kinda makes sense actually. Now I’m afraid to ask the second question and you having a bad thought about me, however it’s just merely curiosity, I swear,” Luna nodded at Daimon’s nervous question. “How was your battle against Celestia?”

Luna kinda waited for that, but even so her head downed considerable. “We both a very powerful magical beings,” Luna started. “My sister, though, is older than me, so she had more experience, but also she didn’t want to kill me. I, on the other hand, wanted to destroy every fiber of my sister at the time.

“At the time, our castle was in the middle of where is now the Everfree Forest close to Ponyville, the one you visited. The first strike was mine and even before I had actually changed forms. A magical blast from my horn hit my sister squarely in the chest, throwing her across the room and right into the wall behind. As I remember, the wall cracked nicely and Celestia just hasn’t lost consciousness due to her powerful magic allowed her to create a small shield around her after the surprise attack.

“In the time she took to understand what happened, I made my transformation. My sister was adamant about not fighting me though, so she mostly avoided my attacks. She then went flying and I followed, attacking her with all my might. I managed to hit her one time, and she fell back into the castle. When she returned, thought, she had brought the Elements of Harmony with her. For the first time we engaged magic against magic, but it wasn’t exactly a fair battle. Enhanced by the power of the Elements of Harmony, my sister was able to banish me to the moon where I stood for a thousand years.”

“I see… I can’t say I properly understand what happened actually, but I’m kinda sympathetic for yours and your sister’s pain. I had to make a few hard choices myself…”

“Nopony blames you Daimon. Better… nobody does,” Luna said with a chuckle. “I took the liberty to see a bit more into dreams concerning humans since you’ve came. We wanted to see the impact you were having on our precious little ponies. Most just act as normal and don’t even have you in their dreams, and from the ponies which dreams about humans, only two so far had nightmares with it. A few even dreamed in falling in love with humans, I admit.”

“And what that’s supposed to mean?”

“That you’re learning what you came to learn. If you keep that up, you will soon be able to return to your world, Daimon. So… keep up the good work. And before I forget, thank you for the nice chat. But I have to go, I have a few other subjects to protect as well.”

Daimon nodded and saw the Princess slowly get up and walk behind a tree. He quickly followed her only to notice her gone. “I swear that I had seen someone else doing something like this…” Next Chapter: Episode 08: The Talk Estimated time remaining: 39 Minutes