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Rain fell in sheets atop slanted rooftops, cascading over the sides and into gutters onto the cobbled streets below. The soft sounds of the night filled the air of Canterlot as the pitter-patter of raindrops falling to the ground created a symphony of splashes. It was the dead of night, and moonlight pierced down from the clouds high above the looming tower of the castle. Everypony was sleeping soundly, dreaming pleasant dreams, just like they did most every night.

But not everypony slept during the night. When Celestia finished her duties during the day, Princess Luna assumed hers in the trading of day and night during the hour of twilight. The only other creatures to keep her company were the owls and other nocturnal animals, but Luna longed for somepony more personable. Of course, she had her duties as dream-keeper to ensure nopony would be overtaken by their nightmares, so she spent the vast majority of the night sleeping herself. But when an occasional problem sprung up from a frightened filly, a scared stallion or a miserable mare, Luna would be there to help. She tried, however, to stay out of the dreams of her citizens. Something about intervening with the dreams of other ponies just didn't sit well with her, unless they were in dire need of help. In any other scenario, it felt more like being nosy and intrusive. A pony's dreams ought to be secret, Luna told herself.

"Help! Help!" cried a frightened filly. Two larger ponies loomed over her, their eyes filled with hatred and malice. A dark cloud swirled around in the skies above them.

"It's too late now," they said in perfect unison. "Nopony is here to help you. You're all alone."

"No, don't hurt me! Please!"

"Then why don't you stand up for yourself, wimp?" said one of the ponies. "Instead of cowering in fear like the coward you are."

She whimpered and tucked into herself on the ground.

"Come on, let's get her," said the other pony.

The two larger ponies lifted their hooves to start beating up the smaller pony, but suddenly, a wave of water engulfed them, dragging their bodies along with it. The torrent of water meandered down in a spiral until coming to a singular point as the two bullies were flushed down the drain.

To the filly's surprise, she stood up, only to be face-to-face with an alicorn.

"It is I, young one," she replied regally.

"Um, thanks for saving me," the filly continued. "Is this real?"

"No," Luna smiled in reply. It was quite a common occurrence for ponies to ask that question, "you were having a nightmare and those two ponies were trying to hurt you."

The filly looked confused. "No, they weren't."

Luna cocked her head slightly. "You weren't? Those two ponies looked like they were bullying you."

"Well, yeah, but...they weren't ponies."

"What were they?"

"They were alicorns."

"What?" Luna replied. "What...what do you mean? Who were they?"

The filly was beginning to look frightened now. "They were the princesses. Princess Celestia and Luna."

Luna reared her head backwards. "Wh--Why did I...they...decide to bully you?"

Suddenly, the filly realized who she was talking to. It was as if a memory was suddenly recalled and connected to the present. Dark clouds began to circle around them and rain began to fall with deafening sounds of wind and thunder crackling from every direction. Luna asked the filly again, raising her voice above the roar of the weather. "Why were they bullying you?"

The filly put her hooves over her head as the wind picked up speed and the thunder crashed even louder. The ground began to shake and crumble from beneath them, and the rain was pelting them from the side from the tumultuous winds. Luna recognized a collapsing dream when she saw one. The sounds of the storm outside were beginning to seep into her subconscious and become amplified. She could feel the filly's emotions surging and panicking in the moments that always preceded the ending of a frightful dream, but she had to find out why she was in somepony's nightmare.

Luna focused her strength to keep the nightmare alive. "Tell me why they were bullying you!" She yelled over the increasingly loud roar of the storm.

"Tell me why they were bullying you!" She repeated once more as lightning crackled behind her.

The shadow of a figure appeared briefly for an instant onto the crumbling ground beneath Luna. The poor filly saw it and just shrunk further into herself, her body shivering and trembling beneath the intense surge of emotions creating the nightmare.

"Please! Tell me!" Luna tried once more, but she could hardly even hear her own voice. She looked down at the filly. She was shaking uncontrollably. As soon as Luna saw what she was doing, she ceased her concentration on keeping the dream in tact and left. Immediately, the dream collapsed and the shaking, pink filly lay in shock beneath the covers of her warm blanket as the soft sounds of pitter-pattering raindrops pelted against her window. She lay in stillness as the sounds of concerned parents echoed from the other room.

A familiar voice called out from down the hall, muffled by the closed door to Luna's bedroom. "Sister, what is it?"

It was Celestia. Luna realized she must have woken up with quite a stir to have been heard from afar. This sort of thing happened from time to time in her escapades into the nightmares of other ponies. For those with especially frightening dreams, some of their emotions spilled over into Luna's. It was only natural, as living another's dreams was like being a part of themselves. Over time, of course, she grew somewhat numb to the emotional aspect that came along with her duties as Princess of the Night, but constantly dealing with the nightmares of her subjects took a toll on her from time to time.

She wished she could spend time in the pleasant and happy dreams for more than the few moments it took for her to determine if they were nightmares or not. Any longer than that was too much, as there could easily be somepony else living their worst nightmare at that very moment. It was her duty to protect them, and she wasn't going to let her own desires take precedence over their suffering. But, nonetheless, her loneliness occasionally overtook her desire for modesty. She would visit the dreams of other ponies just to check if things were okay, but sometimes she would stay awhile, just to feel like she belonged.

Luna started to reply to Celestia's call so late that she had already entered her room. She had a worried look on her face. "Luna, is everything alright?"

Luna rolled out from beneath the covers to talk with her. Staying in the bed and chatting made her feel like a child again, being consoled by her parents. Of course, neither of them had had parents for ages, but the feeling remained nonetheless. "Yes, I am fine," she replied dutifully.

"You were moaning," said Celestia. "Was it an especially bad nightmare this time?"

She hated it when Celestia talked to her like that. Of course, she knew she meant well and was only expressing concern for her sister, but it still annoyed her. The thoughts of annoyance clouded her mind briefly until she let them pass and move onto thoughts of kindness and love her for sister. "Yes, it was. A poor filly was having a dream about being beat up by some bullies."

"Sounds rather tame," said Celestia, "at least, compared to the nightmares of some others you've told me about."

It was tame, the way that Luna described it at least. She wasn't sure she wanted to disclose all of the information just yet, especially considering what she'd done to the poor filly by keeping her nightmare alive for much longer than it should have. The guilt of the suffering she surely caused began to seep down into her gut.

"She must have been bullied a lot in school," Luna replied. It wasn't a lie to make presumptions, she told herself.

"Well, I hope things go well for him in the future," said Celestia with a warm smile, "and for you as well, sister."

Luna nodded and acknowledged her. "Thank you. I'll be sure to drop by her dreams again tomorrow night to check on her."

"Good night, Luna."

"Good night, Tia."

Luna decided she would return to the filly's dreams again the next night, but the reason wasn't primarily to console her. Luna may have told herself this, but that wasn't the real reason. Luna was aware of her past, but she thought that it was behind her. She thought that she had buried those memories. She thought that everypony else had as well. The real reason she decided to return was to find out why the silhouette of Nightmare Moon had appeared beneath her in the filly's dreams.