Luna was sitting upon the throne of Canterlot, the night having taken its shift on the world and drenching it in the soothing moonlight of the princess' moon. However, despite the night having come, Celestia was still up. Her sister had awoken in a cold sweat, and this worried the sun princess. The dream?

Luna was in her room, repositioning some stars like an artist painting a canvas. Everypony was in the Canterlot castle grounds to watch how the princess did such a splendid thing, and, once she was done, cheering echoed wildly throughout the land. Smiling as she took the approval of her subjects, she closed the door to her balcony and turned around to go see her sister. Problem is, she didn't notice everything being engulfed in an astral cloud of darkness and dead stars. As she called out to her sister, she heard some sort of whispering echoing around her room, and everything started to dissappear into darkness. Panicking, and calling for her sister, Luna started to back up while her eyes darted around the room as the whispers became louder and louder. She was stopped after hearing a bump, and turned to face a mirror.

Leaning closer to it in curiosity, Luna saw her reflection starting to change. Her eyes became turquoise and draconic, giving her curiosity away for panic and stress. She started to sweat and her heart began to race as she saw an angry image of Nightmare Moon in the mirror. The astral mane and tail of the mare in the moon started to seep out of the edges of the mirror and began to attach themselves to the moon princess. It felt like a parasite crawling underneath her skin and trying to feed onto her mind.

"You separated us, Luna. I won't let that happen again. This time, I'm staying with you, and you will not cast me off like some insect's molted skin. I WILL take my old body back."

Luna tried to speak, but nothing except black fumes left her mouth. She turned tail and ran towards the darkness, trying to yell out for her sister, but nothing came out. The blackness around converged onto her all at once. Feeling herself becoming Nightmare Moon once again, Luna began to tear the blackness off of her coat. Fury began to well inside of her as she saw Celestia at a distance. She smiled happily as she was reaching her sister. Unfortunately, an evil laugh echoed throughout the room, and Luna tripped and fell over. She reached for her sister, only to see this one turn around and gasp in horror.

"Oh no! Nightmare Moon! I'm sorry Luna, but this time the elements will not be able to save you. I must banish you back into the moon forever."

Celestia closed her eyes as her horn started to glow. Luna was crying out that she wasn't her evil counter-part, yet, something wierd happened. Celestia herself began to transform into some flaming version of herself.

"Too bad Luna. With you gone, I can corrupt your sister and I won't have any issues with destroying everything. See you never."

Luna felt several spears piering her body as she was once again cast into the moon. She tried to scream, but ther was nothing but void around her. This time, her sister would not be there.

Just thinking about that dream caused the princess to shudder. She still didn't tell her sister about it either. However, Celestia did notice something wrong happening earlier with lifting the moon. Despite Luna using the same amount of magic as she has always done, the moon just didn't seem to want to climb. Something was terribly wrong, and the sun princess did not like that.

Walking closer to her sister, Celestia asked:

"What's wrong Luna? Surely, you could tell me."

"It...it's nothing. I do not wish to bother you with my insignificant bad dreams."

"Tell me Luna. I know that it will only eat you up from the inside if you don't tell me."

The moon princess sighed and told the dream to Celestia, who seemed shocked and disgusted and terrified by such a thought. What kind of madness was transpiring? Surely, Nightmare Moon could not "infect" her, nor could it still live as it was simply Luna's jealousy.

"Luna, that was only a dream. You don't need to worry about it. "

"I know, but I can feel the nightmare out there. It is still very much alive."

"But it has been so long! The elements of harmony detroyed it."

"Sister!" Luna yelled with a face of firm conviction "It was once a part of me, and I created it. I can feel her out there. Yet..."

"Yet what?"

"She is tremendously weakened, even if her power is steadily rising. There is another entity in her way. I...I can't figure out what it is." Luna moaned as she put a hoof to her head and closed her eyes for a better concentration.

"Do you feel evil coming from it?"

"No. It feels more like naive good."

"Naive good?"

"Yes. The creature aiding does not know the nightmare's true form, but is still aiding it out of a good will."

"That is strange. Perhaps I should inform the elements of harmony?"

"No. Just in-case this is all just a trick from my senses. We shouldn't alert anypony."

"Fine. But I will keep a high alert on the whereabouts of the nightmare."

"Thank you, Celestia."

"Goodnight Luna."

The moon princess nodded to her sister, who went down the steps of the throne and towards the giant doors that granted one entry or sortie of the gigantic room.

Layda was standing in a rather small room with two beds slid against eachother. It wasn't anything special, and the beds pretty much filled the room in its entirety. The new Cosmos had removed her armor, allowing Lyra to clean it, despite the turquoise mare's protests and fears. Bon-Bon was the one to get Cosmos to her new room.

"Here you go Cosmos. This should fit you just right."

Layda looked around, then hopped on her bed. She chuckled a bit as the things started to bounce somewhat.

"I don't know what to say. You're housing me and I don't have anything to pay you off with."

"Well, I don't know what you really are capable of, but I'm sure it'll come in handy later on. And you look much prettier without that metal all over you."

"Really?" Cosmos said as she looked over herself.

"Yup. Well, it's pretty late, why not go to sleep?"

"Sure. Whatever. It feels like I haven't slept for two days."

"Oooo. Goodnight then."

"Have a nice sleep."

Bon-Bon closed the door, leaving the small window to send in barely enough moonlight to brighten the place up. The light was reaching the end of the second bed, so Layda flipped the covers and the pillows to the other side in order to recieve all the moonlight.

"There we go. Now to...wait...how am I supposed to sleep? Um...err...like this? No. Like this...not that either. What the f..."

It took about fifteen minutes before Layda gave up and just fell to her side.

"This should work. Time to go see Cosmos."

Layda was herself again within the autumn world of her soul. Cosmos Lune was standing right in front of her.

"Hi Cosmos." she said after giving the mare a hug.

"Yes, yes. Now then, where are we?"

"Inthe house of Bon-Bon and Lyra."

"That's good. We won't-what did you just say?"

"You heard me."

"GRGH."

"You okay?" Layda asked after seeing Cosmos twitch.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'M NOT!"

"What's wrong with this situation?"

"I suppose you also met Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes."

Cosmos looked like her head was about to pop.

"Great. GREAT! She's going to send a message to the princesses and get us both killed."

"What do you mean?"

"Who do you THINK destroyed my body?"

"...oh."

"Exactly!"

"That Twilight Sparkle and her friends were the main reason. Hopefully, they haven't tried to kill you yet."

"No. They actually seem kinda friendly, although they were confusing me with a 'Nightmare Moon'. Do you know who that is?"

"Not the slightest. You should start learning how to control the magic in your body as well as learn how to fly."

"*GASP* Magic? When do we start?"

"Tomorrow morning."

"What?" Layda said as her excitement gave way to annoyance.

"This can only be done while awake, just like with your wings. Now go into your dream world while I absorb the moonlight that you placed yourself in."

"Okay. See you in the morning."

As Layda slowly faded away, Nightmare Moon became extremely irritated.

"I left for five monutes and now we're already in this situation. Idiot."