{3rd Person POV}

Luna found herself in a padded cell, a single light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a plain, metal-framed bed pushed against the wall. Opposite to the bed was a large metal door, clearly used to keep a pony from leaving the room. This should not be a problem. Luna thought, walking directly towards the door...

Before smacking her muzzle into the cold, hard metal.

Stumbling back, Luna glared at the door before flaring her magic. The azure glow surrounded the door, and Luna smirked as she attempted to rip the offending barrier off of it's hinges. The smirk fell from her lips when her magic flickered out. Luna kicked the door in frustration, causing it to swing open.

"Oh, come on!" Luna cried, storming into the dark corridors. All of the lights along the ceiling were dark, some destroyed. A single functioning light flickered erratically at the end of the corridor, casting shadows everywhere. Luna moved towards the light, grimacing at the surroundings. The whole building was in a state of disarray - trolleys upturned, medical supplies strewn across the floor. Passing by what she assumed to be the common room, Luna noticed the torn couches and smashed television. Art supplies were scattered over the ground, with some of the sharper objects embedded into the walls and floors.

"What is going on here?" Luna asked herself, walking around a corner. The princess froze, eyes wide as she saw the large claw marks that raked through the walls. Emerald-green scales were scattered throughout the new corridor, with more claw marks all over the walls and floor. More of the metallic doors had been smashed inwards, some having an arm or a leg trapped between the warped metal and the frame. Screams of agony reached Luna's ears from those trapped, causing her to press her hands hard against her skull in an attempt to block them out. She knew they weren't real, but that didn't make it any easier to listen to.

Just as the princess of the night made to move down the hall, a familiar - yet drastically different, to the princess's eyes - face rounded a corner at the other end of the corridor. Zinnia sprinted forwards, her long, unkempt hair flowing behind her and her arms strapped to her body by the straitjacket she wore. Luna's eyes were drawn towards what followed her, however. A massive, serpentine dragon with emerald-green scales and four antennae-like protrusions a the back of it's narrowing head. Glowing yellow markings ran the length of it's segmented body, the segments separated by a total of four bands - the first of which held the beast's thin, clawed arms and the rest holding four red-banded fins each.

Luna stood frozen once more, barely registering Zinnia as she sprinted past. The dragon paused, rearing as far back as it could in the cramped room. The shadows cast by the behemoth seemed to morph, condensing into a smaller, more humanoid shape. From the shadows rose a figure in a pitch-black cloak with a blood red collar of jagged teeth and a stark white, flowing hood. The single blue eye stood out from the creature's body, the single comforting colour causing the rest of the nightmare to seem that much scarier. Luna's breathing became ragged as she stared down the creature that was all too familiar to her. The thing that fed her jealousy until it consumed her, transforming her into the horror that was Nightmare Moon. The one true fear that the princess still held.

"Sh-Sh-Shadowed One..." Luna stuttered, the word itself causing bile to rise in her throat.

"Ah, my dear little Luna." The shadow spoke, though there was no visible sign of a mouth of any kind. "I see you no longer bear my gift."

"T'was no gift, monster!" the princess screeched, anger overpowering her fear if only for a moment.

"Oh, you were always so ungrateful. My greatest failure." The white wisp that was it's head turned to look at the emerald dragon towering over the two of them. "If you would?"

At those words, the dragon lunged, and Luna noticed the cyan, slit-pupiled eyes that signified the Shadowed One's influence over a creature's mind. As the beast's jaws opened in preparation to crunch down on her, Luna felt herself being pushed to the ground. She looked back the see Zinnia, stood panting and missing an arm. The woman's blood flowed from the wound, pooling on the floor around her feet. A white sleeve hung from the beast's teeth as it pulled back, and Zinnia's remaining arm came free from the straitjacket's hold.

"Princess Luna, run!" Zinnia cried, grabbing the princess's arm and throwing her back, out of the path of the dragon's next lunge. Time seemed to slow as it's jaws closed around Zinnia, swallowing her whole. The world seemed to shudder with the death of the dreamer, and Luna found herself forcibly ejected not just from the dream, but from the Dream Realm entirely.

Luna woke with a start, sweat beading on her forehead. Her breathing was ragged, her wings flapping wildly. When she managed to get herself under control, Luna could only say one thing. And when she said it, her voice shattered every piece of glass in her tower.

"CELESTIAAAAAA!!!!! " Next Chapter: A Delta Edda Estimated time remaining: 14 Hours, 42 Minutes