---

Once upon a time, there was the magical land of Equestria.

In this land, two regal sisters ruled together, creating harmony for all the different types of ponies. To do this, the eldest used her magic to raise the sun at dawn and begin the day, while the younger brought out the moon at dusk to start the night.

Thus, the two sisters maintained a balance between their kingdom and their subjects, and all who lived in Equestria lived under their protective wings.

But as time passed, ponies frolicked and prospered during the day, only to retreat into their homes and slumber during the night. Many did so out of fear for the darkness that followed the younger sister’s night.

Superstition reigned supreme in Equestria’s youth, thinking the night wicked while cursing those who dared to leave their protective homes.

As the younger sister watched her subjects shun her night sky—her constellations and beautiful moon—she wept.

Consulting with her sister about her woes, she detested the hypocrisy and ignorance that her pony subjects had shown.

The eldest heard her cry, her plea for things to change, and she listened.

Thus, as the legend goes, the first thestrals were created by the two alicorn sisters.

Whether thestrals were created with the alicorns’ combined magic or born from natural selection is still debated. But it is agreed upon that the thestrals first appeared in Equestria nearly a century before Luna’s banishment to the moon.

The younger sister found herself happy for a time as the thestrals continued to thrive beneath the pale moonlight of her moon, unafraid against the darkness of the night. She was content with her role as the moon's custodian beforehoof, but now? She was ecstatic.

The thestrals recognized Luna as if she were their mother. They knew nothing to fear from the night so long as they lived close to their princess. They knew their existence meant the world to the princess of the night and would live happily in her name.

But not all was well for Equestria.

As the thestral population grew, so too did their woes. Many tribes harbored mistrust against the ‘Batponies,’ as they had taken to calling them. Neither Pegasi, Unicorn, nor Earth Pony had any inclination to live with the thestrals. The latter’s nocturnal nature only solidified the tribes’ belief that the night was cursed and wicked.

Many foal tales during this early period revolved around curses of darkness and the moon; One detailed how a pony would become a thestral should they wander out at night. The tribes became isolated from the thestrals, always conflicting as water does to oil. The animosity only grew with time.

And the princess of the moon wept once more for the injustice she had witnessed; she grew resentful, hateful even, of the ponies who shunned her children. Her ire for Ponykind's ugliness festered like a tumor in her heart. How her children could be victims of such baseless prejudice was lost on her.

Embittered as she was, however, the princess of the moon did not wish to see her people become vengeful against Equestria. More than anything, she wanted ponies to be treated fairly and with cause. She hoped thestrals and ponies would live together—not as enemies but as brothers and sisters, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, friends and lovers.

And so, once again, the youngest pleaded to her sister. And the eldest listened.

The legend continues with the princess of the sun praying to the aethers surrounding her powerful beneficiary in the sky—gracing the land with its warmth and light. She inquires for guidance on improving the situation and illuminating a better path for Equestria. Or, at the very least, to relieve her sister's burdens and aid her in ruling Equestria.

Many are dubious about what happens next, and the legend has aged poorly over the millennia; no creature on the planet, save for the princesses themselves, knew what happened that day. Did the universe really answer the demigod alicorns of Equestria to their plea, as the legend suggests? Or did some inexplicable miracle happen?

Whatever the case, the legend of the ‘Mare of the Moon’ continues after Celestia’s prayer. When the youngest sister retreated from Night Court to retire for the day, she was greeted with a dream.

It was no ordinary dream, nor was it a nightmare. It was something new. When the princess opened her eyes, she was surrounded by a dark and quiet expanse that stretched to an endless horizon. It was as if she was nowhere and everywhere simultaneously, trapped in limbo.

Then, she saw a tiny prick of pale light glinting on the horizon.

She could hear a hum reverberating in her ears, and she felt a gentle tug in her heart. Following the light, she hears the hum grow louder, her heart beating faster. The tone is transparent yet defined. It didn’t sound like a hum but a single musical note pulsing with the light. As she gets closer, the light blinks with another hum. As if it acknowledges her presence.

And then another pulse was heard. This pitch sounded higher, emitting somewhere above Luna. She looks up to see a second light blinking around her head. This one was tinted lavender.

And then a third hum from behind her. She turns and spots a cheery pink light blinking into existence.

And then another, a brilliant teal.

And then a majestic purple.

Then a lovely Cerise.

A graceful duet pair of Amber and Gold.

A pair of violet motes pranced and tumbled around one another like children dancing around, laughing, while a teal and green pair hovered attentively nearby.

More lights appeared, each with its own note. Its own music. Its own symphony. Its own laughter. Its own life.

They were like stars in the night sky.

Hundreds. Thousands… Millions.

She wept. For she knew with quiet certainty that these were the souls of the dead.

The aethers gave Luna access to the plane of dreams and nightmares. And with it, the ability to guide them to their final resting place: Elysium.

The Princess began to interact with each star with mirthful grace. She would guide wayward children back to their parents. She would reunite loved ones separated from tragedy. She would kiss the old and feeble goodnight for one last dream. She would guide lost souls to their homes. She would save those who suffered from nightmares and grant reprieve. She would protect those who would dream about the terrors their minds could conjure.

Following Luna’s dream that morning, the younger princess awakens with a new sense of purpose, feeling rejuvenated and at peace with herself. Though it did little to ease her heart about her people’s plight.

As time passed, Luna had another alias for her title: ‘The Princess of Dreams.’ She would guide the ponies who slumbered away from their dark thoughts in the night. And for centuries, this harmony between day and night would ensure Equestria’s prosperity in its early history.

As Equestria grew, so did her troubles. The ponies’ territories expanded alongside their expectations. The promises of a utopia drove them to the edges of their known world, expanding the borders to encompass more than a third of the continent of Equus.

Unfortunately for them, this path to utopia was not free from strife; Deer raiders from Olenia pillaged their coastlines for months, changeling raiding parties abducted ponies into their hives, and ponies still grew more distrustful of the thestrals despite the princess’s best efforts.

Many thestrals began to flee away from the isolation and deprivation they faced. No towns that weren’t thestral were willing to cooperate with them and started to migrate them further south. The three tribes drove them away, some of them managing to flee Equestria entirely to go south to another continent hitherto unknown to the ponies at the time.

The nightmares Luna would face in their dreams proved more potent than she had previously encountered. What’s more, Luna began to feel the prosecution personally. Many ponies, except for a vocal minority of her people, still deemed the night cursed and wicked, even after many years of attempting to persuade them otherwise.

Thus, they saw thestrals as spawns of the night, deeming them ‘less than ponies.’ Some of them would direct their ire onto the younger princess herself.

Nearly one month before Luna’s banishment to the moon, the first thestral death from Equestrian hooves was recorded.

Luna wept once more. But these were not tears of sorrow. She had been hurt far too many times in her heart from the stubborn ugliness she had witnessed. Equestria, she thought, was tainted to its core.

The legend continues with Luna pleading to her sister one last time.

She cried out for her people's injustices, cursing the lack of effort to change it. She weeps and screams until her throat is parched and hoarse, lamenting to Celestia at her apparent indifference to her people’s plight.

And Celestia did not heed her sister’s plight.

She states that changing the ponies’ hearts and minds after decades of failure is too much of a herculean undertaking. She states that it was not up to them to change the ponies and that the latter must change themselves before real progress can be made.

She urges patience, but Luna detests against inaction. Resentment coursed through the nation's veins and festered into Luna’s soul.

Many tales and legends focus on the aftermath of this decision, yet they fail to indeed regard the severity and weight of Celestia’s words at this particular moment.

Those who did, however, stated with no uncertain terms that the echoes of Celestia’s decision would continue reverberating throughout the millennia following Luna’s banishment.

They gave this moment in time a name.

‘Celestia’s Folly.’

The day she lost her sister before banishment.

Digressing from that, many accounts describe what happened afterward with conflicting accuracy. Following the news, Luna would not leave her room for days. She only moves when driven by her innate desire to bring in the night and protect ponies' dreams.

However, one fact remains certain across all the stories and folklore surrounding this tumultuous time: On the seventh day after ‘Celestia’s Folly,’ the sun would rise into the sky.

But the moon would not leave.

The princess of the sun tried to lower the moon herself, yet it remained mute as it drifted into the sky, overlapping the sun to create an eclipse. The land below tinted into a dark, crimson hellscape. The moon had eclipsed the sun for hours, robbing equestria of its light and warmth. The sky was cold, as well as the land along with it.

The sun pleaded for it to move… but the moon said no.

What happens next is well known: Luna proclaims that only one princess can rule Equestria and that she will take the mantle. Celestia pleads with her to stop the madness, that they were meant to rule together and not as enemies. Luna dismisses these pleas with a channeled surge of magic, transforming her physical form into what many refer to now as ‘Nightmare Moon.’

The legend regards the mythical encounter afterward as ‘The War of Heaven.’

The battle starts as the two alicorns of light and dark ascend to the blood-hued sky, the latter pressing the offensive against her former sister with newfound power. The fight was a stalemate for a time as both alicorns fought on an equal footing.

As cunning as Celestia was, Nightmare Moon fought without restraint and with brute force. She kicked in hindquarters, chopped necks, shot bolts of magic at blind spots, bitten skin, and struck against wings in repeated duels of magic and might.

After almost an hour of jousting, Nightmare Moon scores a decisive blow against her sister, the latter tumbling out of the sky and crashing into the now-ruined castle of the two sisters below.

There and then, as she realizes she cannot persuade nor win against her sister, Celestia employs her last, desperate measure: The Elements of Harmony.

Created by the Pillars of Equestria during the age of heroes, The Elements were a robust collection of magical artifacts that came to represent the virtues of their predecessors. Loyalty, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, and finally—the catalyst to them all—Magic.

Celestia prayed that this day would never come. But sitting beneath the red glow of an eclipsed sun, she found herself out of time and options. Nightmare Moon was basking in her supposed victory against her sister when she spotted a silver alicorn emerge from the ruins below, orbited by six shiny colored gems.

The two hovered about apart, staring at each other with hesitation. Nightmare Moon was in disbelief at how her sister survived, and Celestia was dreadfully quiet in her deliberate motions. For one last time, Celestia pleads with her sister to stop. To lower the moon and allow the sun to dawn.

And once again, Nightmare Moon refused.

With tears in her eyes, Celestia channels her magic into the artifacts. They pulsed with newfound energy as both alicorns readied their attacks. Two beams of arcane light surged forward and clashed against each other, rupturing the air at the seams of atoms. One tinted dark like the night, and the other shone like the sun.

As quickly as it began, the duel ended as Nightmare Moon was encompassed in a blinding aura.

“I’m sorry,” Celestia whispers with a heavy heart.

The beam pushes beyond her sister's space, and she releases her focus on the spell. The Elements finished their duty and had lost their power in the process, now transmuted into dull rocks.

But Celestia was hardly focused on that. Her eyes drifted to the space where her sister was. And then to the eclipse above her. The moon had an imprint of a dark alicorn’s head, peering back at the world below as the moon began to descend.

The legend concludes with Equestria waking to find a strange night sky, with distant but powerful sobbing heard across the remains of a ruined castle.

---

Luna always hated that story.

It wasn’t necessarily the ending that she loathed, but rather the insinuation it gave to ponykind. That they were nothing more but skeptical xenophobes with no love in their hearts for anyone.

The prospect of her origins being weathered with age and misremembered under oral prejudice only fueled her ire against the tale. She had been trying to convince Celestia to update the legend since she returned nearly two decades prior. Progress on that endeavor had been, unfortunately, slow.

She shakes her head clear of tiresome thoughts, finding herself sitting on her haunches on a soft, wooly rug in the middle of her bedroom. She cast her eyes out across the landscape of Equestria through the eastern window, with the moon casting shadows over colorful deciduous trees.

It was the first month of autumn, creating a beautiful atmosphere across the land. Luna gives a shadow of a smile as she watches her magic at work. She knew her work had only just begun, however.

She would still have Night Court to attend to all the boredom and troubles that came with it. The prospect of ruling the nation never ceased to tire her nor make her feel decades older than she did.

She gives a weary sigh. Luna had risen earlier than usual due to Celestia setting the sun one hour ahead of schedule. That meant she had one extra hour to work with and had more time to herself before her duties could begin.

Stretching her limbs with a groan, a blue glow from her horn twists the doorknob open. She turns to her pair of lunar guards waiting outside her bed chambers.

“Whirlwind?” She called one out by name, prompting a salute from him.

“Your grace, weren’t you supposed to get up in one hour?”

“I was. Now I require breakfast. Would you kindly inform the kitchen I requested the usual order?” She speaks casually, earning a nod from her protector.

“Yes, ma’am.” He moves swiftly down the hall, the plates on his armor clanking together with each step.

“How goes it, Nova? Quiet?” She asks the second guard at her door.

“Not quiet enough,” he mumbles with apprehension, “apparently, there’s been an emergency in S.M.I.L.E. Something’s got the whole agency in a tizzy.”

Luna gave a slight frown. She rarely engaged with the ponies of S.M.I.L.E. and often criticized their methods and tactics, but whatever was happening over there wasn’t something to ignore. “Do you know what happened?” She asks Nova.

“I heard some ponies got hurt, but I don’t know if it's true. Could be hearsay.”

Luna nodded to herself as she made a note in her mental checklist to investigate S.M.I.L.E. first chance she got. Her thoughts were interrupted when Whirlwind returned, echoes of his plate armor carrying across the halls. “The maids should arrive with your order soon, princess.”

“Thank you kindly,” she nods, “Knock on my door when it arrives.”

“As you say,” Whirlwind gives a bow as he returns to his position beside the door.

As Luna was about to retreat inside to prepare for the night, soft hoofsteps on velvet carpet reverberated across the marble walls. A pony donned in the maid’s uniform pushes a cart to the bedroom, faster than anypony expected. An aroma of espresso and toasted blueberry bagels pervaded the nostrils with its sweet scent.

“Your breakfast.” the maid announces with a bow. “The kitchen regrets to inform you that we have been out of cream for coffee since yesterday morning. An order from Mareland has been made, but it won’t arrive until morning.”

The sour news quickly dissipated into a smile. “It is alright, thank you.” The princess accepts the loss gracefully, earning a bow from the maid as the former levitates various plates and mugs with a blue hue into her room. “I shall emerge for Night court in an hour from now. Do not have me be disturbed until then.”

“Understood.” Whirlwind answered with a nod, brandishing his SMG closer to his chest as the door shut behind him.

Luna smiled when she finally locked the door, a gentle sigh escaping her throat. The steam from her mug wafted in her nostrils once more as she brought it closer to her snout. A quick cooling spell brought it down to bearable levels as she gave it a testing sip before indulging in a bigger gulp.

Her bagel was eaten in less than a minute, and she found her stomach content with over fifty minutes to spare before she would have to go. Less than an hour to do dream guarding.

She usually wouldn’t bother with such a tight time window, but what else could she do besides star gaze and listen to boring reports from army bases? That said, she couldn’t allow herself to get distracted. She set a timer for fifty minutes on a clock beside her window, sitting it on the rug near her haunches as she channels her magic inward.

The grooves of her horn glowed a pale light, clashing with the dancing hues of candles flickering in her bedroom. As the grooves complete their spiral, a sphere manifests from the horn’s tip. Shadows overtake her vision before she closes her eyes. Her world hummed with magic and darkness, the two elements meshing into a ritual that aged older than the caster, older than time immemorial.

The chill in her coat is gone. The sensation of soft carpet on her haunches disappears. As the world melts away, she opens her eyes…

… Into a miasma of colors.

Her eyes grazed from one colorful light to another as if peering through a kaleidoscope. Thousands of stars glimmer and dance in an endless symphony of lingering notes humming across soprose dreams—lively lavender, ostentatious orange; each light marinating in their memories as if preserved in amber.

She smiled at the supernatural beauty. Each star floated like a feather on a breeze, wafting through the atmosphere without direction or control. The lights go wherever the winds of fate will take them, and most souls have no inclination to fight against the flow of time.

There were exceptions to that, of course. Some attempted to live their lives away from the currents of change. A coat of melancholy lathers these souls as they usually have nobody to rely on other than themselves.

Luna finds one such light struggling to lift itself off the water-like surface on the floor. A gentle tug upward sent it flying on its way to wherever it wished to go. She watches the light ascend to the nebula of ever-growing proportions, integrating with other souls as they float about like embers from a fire.

Tonight was brighter than usual. Most nights were rewarded with a quiet expanse that only hosted a few souls worth considering. Beyond those few souls, however, she mainly found darkness that she was intimately familiar with.

Celestia said it aptly to Twilight Sparkle in a letter, one that Luna read in her own time:

“Luna rarely visits the realm of dreams nowadays. What can she hope to achieve now that the nightmares are real?”

She dispels the thoughts with a head shake, focusing on what's in front of her. Many souls tonight were livelier, and for good reason. Celebration was overtaking all of Equestria everywhere she saw.

The second anniversary of “Victory Day” was around the corner, just a few more weeks away.

Ponies took it upon themselves to begin festivities early. Many villages and towns—as well as sprawling metropolises—began hanging banners of the royal colors, hosting parties in public places, gathered in squares to sing carols and celebrate their lives.

Another smile creased her lips. It was a rarity to see all of Equestria come together for occasions like this. Only on holidays like Hearths Warming would ponies come together to enjoy each other’s company like this.

The smile darkens when she remembers why they were celebrating. It was not just an appreciation of life itself but also a commendation to those who were lost to the currents of change. To those who had fought, bled, and died for Equestria during their finest hour.

How many millions of ponies did Equestria lose? How much did her people sacrifice to ensure this peace? How long would this peace last? Would it be another millennium or a decade? Would they learn from past mistakes and try to forge a better world?

Perhaps Equestria was ready, but what of the rest of the world?

Luna frowned as her mind wandered toward unpleasant thoughts. Now was not the time nor place to worry about the future.

Her wings propel her upward in a graceful leap into the aethers. As Luna began to move, her sense of direction was discombobulated. She made no effort to change her course and allowed her momentum to carry her wherever it would. She scans each light that passes by with a smile, finding each of them at peace with themselves and the life they live.

Only a few souls demanded her attention as she gently tugged them off the floor they wallowed in. She would kiss them, they would fly away to join the others, and she would smile at a job well done. But for the most part, every creature seemed satisfied.

Luna’s momentum eventually slows to a halt. She found herself motionless, floating above the water-like floor with serenity. The stars in the sky billow aimlessly. Some dance with mirth, others float without weight.

Luna almost smiled until a dreadfully familiar chill traveled up her spine.

It plagues her skin with goosebumps, seemingly out of nowhere. She scans the horizon ahead of her for any lingering souls she may have missed but finds none. She closes her eyes and reaches out into the cosmos with her magic for any lingering dreams she overlooks, but still finds nothing.

The chill turned ice cold.

Twisting her body around, she finds another expanse of the horizon dimming with darkness. No stars in sight; only a dark expanse awaited her. But deep within that endless desert of nothing, she felt a tug towards it.

Somepony was calling for help.

She leaps forward with a flap of her wings, flying away from the nebula behind her and into the quiet dark that awaited her.

First, she felt the chills invade her limbs and neck, seeping into her blood as she begins to tremble. With several deep breaths, she tries to calm her body with reassuring thoughts.

Then she felt apprehension. The dread was now palpable, the atmosphere growing thicker and heavier. She does not know where this feeling originated, only that it wasn’t hers. This pony’s fear of death was starting to become her own, festering like a tumor on her psyche.

Then she felt desperation. Fear of the unknown amalgamated with a burning desire to return to life. Luna recognizes this determination, but this pony fought harder than anypony she had witnessed before sending them into Elysium. Almost as if to spite death itself.

As Luna flew onward, her surroundings grew darker and darker. She twists her head behind to see the nebula fade out of view, suffocated by the darkness she was trapped in. At this point, Luna was getting a little anxious. As she turned to face forward, she saw a glint on the water’s surface ahead of her.

She stops dead in her tracks.

Amidst the ever-dimming and suffocating abyss surrounding her everywhere she looked. A single pony sat on her haunches.

Sobbing.

Her cries echoed across the empty plane, choking her salty tears in between shuddering breaths. An aura of despair taints the air around her as her cries darken the night sky. Tears drip onto the water she sat on, creating ripples that send waves across the infinite pond. No light was found anywhere except where she sat, and she grew darker by the second.

Luna stared at the sight of this helpless pony for a short while until it clicked to her with sudden clarity.

She was dying.

As Luna watches the light around this pony degrade into a shadow, melancholy pieces her heart. She knew it was a lofty wish to hope there would be no guests for Elysium tonight, but she held out hope for it anyway. And it ached her with a great sadness to be wrong in that regard.

Luna begins to descend quietly onto the floor, sitting just behind the pony. As she trotted closer, she got a good look at her phenotype: A grey pegasus with a golden mane.

A tired and dejected voice whimpers from the pegasus as Luna contemplates what to do.

“Who’s there?” she asks, facing away from the princess as she stills her sobbing.

Luna was at a loss for words for a few seconds until she steeled her resolve with a deep breath.

“A friend,” she answers simply. “Who are you?”

The pegasus does not answer. Luna waited patiently, hearing the pegasus steady her breaths with each second passed. A weary sigh was heard.

“I’m nopony now.”

“But you had a name, did you not?” Luna asked politely.

“I did.” The mare contemplates before twisting her body to face whoever she is talking to. Her eyes locked onto Luna’s.

A tense silence followed afterward. The two stared into each other’s gaze for a few long seconds. Until the mare’s gaze hardened with a contemptuous frown.

“... But you are not my friend.”

The words hurt Luna, but she tried not to show it. Her face remained stoic as she spoke.

“I would like to be.”

The pegasus’ gaze faltered at those words, her shoulders slumped in defeat. There was no animosity in her voice.

“Sunshine.” She whimpers. “My name was Sunshine Tempest.”

Luna gave a smile. “It is nice to meet you, Sunshine Tempest.”

“Actually,” she looks up at the princess, her eyes level to her chest but daring not to peek at the features on her face. “We’ve met before.”

“Oh? I’m afraid I do not recognize you.”

“You wouldn’t; we didn’t really get acquainted. But I met you before. Several times, actually.”

“How so?” Luna tilts her head in curiosity.

“I…” The pegasus cringes inward with her limbs, hugging together as if reminiscing bad memories.

“... You do not have to say it if you are uncomfortable.” Luna offers with a gentle smile.

The pegasus looks relieved if only a little. She gives a sigh.

“I was drafted into the war since the beginning.”

Luna’s smile disappeared.

“I was among the first ponies to be selected… me and…” she trails off, shutting her eyes for a few seconds before inhaling a shuddering breath. “I was deployed to the Ruby Mountains. That was when I first saw you, inspecting the troops. I last saw you on the ships before we went to Vanhoover.” The pegasus finishes with a sigh.

Luna’s heart ached all while she listened. This pony—Sunshine Tempest—had seen the worst the world had to offer, yet she sat at Luna’s mercy despite all she had witnessed. She survived the worst that Tartarus threw at her, only to die after it was over. A cruel irony that no creature deserves.

“I am sorry,” Luna said, maintaining her composure. She wasn’t sure what else to say.

“I don’t blame you.” The pegasus sighs.

Silence. The light around the pegasus persists.

“Am… am I dead?” Sunshine suddenly asks.

Luna hesitated but eventually caved into her question. “Not yet… but you are on the cusp of death.”

“Dying, then.” Sunshine corrects.

“It would seem that way.” Luna acquiesces.

There was no fear in the pegasus, nor was there curiosity. Bitter sorrow pervades the air, overwhelming it to ruin, inconsolable and intangible.

Fear, dread, and empty rage swell and flare within a hollow spark, soon to be whisked away by the air that bites at her continuously.

The cold renders all hope lost. A suffocating sadness, a sense of bitter resignation. All that remains is a deceivingly luminous darkness, awaiting its descent…

A Radiance Forlorn.

The pegasus trails her eyes to the floor, ashamed to look at the princess.

“What happens now?” Sunshine asks.

“Well,” Luna felt uneasy but decided to play it honest, “the fact you are here now means you are experiencing your final dream. And after that, your soul is taken to Elysium.”

“... What will my dream be about?” Sunshine asks with sudden interest.

“Whatever you wish it to be.”

She looks scared. As if dreading to dream. Or perhaps dreading death itself. Luna wasn’t sure which.

“... I can’t dream again.”

“I am afraid you do not have a choice, little pony.” Luna sadly informs her.

“No, you don’t understand,” Sunshine sits up, staring into Luna’s eyes with desperation. “I cannot dream. I can only have nightmares. I’ve only had nightmares for a long, long time.” She emphasizes with a nod of her head in each word.

“Nightmares?” Luna asks with a touch of worry.

“... I can’t remember the last time I dreamt a real dream,” Sunshine answers with a quiver in her throat.

Luna understands the severity of her situation immediately and stands upright. “Sunshine, look at me,” she asks tersely but with maternal care. The latter looks up into the former’s eyes.

Luna peers beyond the superficial features on her face, gazing past the cerulean irises and dark pupils as she peers deep into her.

Her memories flash in her eyes as Sunshine is momentarily entranced by Luna’s stare.

Memories of agony.

Memories of loss.

Memories of kindness.

Memories of wrath.

Memories of victories.

Memories of defeats.

Memories of death.

Memories of life.

Memories of hate.

Memories of love.

Memories of viscera.

Memories of steel.

Memories of water.

Memories of fire.

Memories of light.

Memories of dark.

Luna recoiled away from the after-images of the slideshow flashing before her eyes. Nausea wracked her stomach briefly as she inhaled deeply through her nostrils for a calming breath. With a forced exhale, she dispels the horrid thoughts away from her cortex and focuses on the pony before her.

Luna sees this pony sitting before her, her eyes half-lidded in an exhausted manner as bags formed beneath them. Her brow is prefixed into a frown as she stares through them and into Luna’s worried eyes.

Luna felt inclined to say something but clammed her throat silent as a sudden clairvoyance took hold.

“... There is something wrong with you.” She speaks with sudden worry.

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Sunshine gives a bitter sigh.

“No, I mean-” Luna stops herself and locks eyes with Sunshine again.

The latter is again hypnotized by Luna’s stare, and her life flashes before her eyes.

Luna sees more memories firing at her like bullets. As they go by in a flash, her initial suspicions are confirmed as gaps in the slideshow begin to form.

There were memories of every emotion that could be conceived associated with her life during the Great War; fighting in said war and trying to live a regular life after the fact was no small feat that the mind could pull off easily.

Even if the trauma she experienced would leave its mark on her damaged psyche like a brand, the mind would usually be adept at combating these hardships on its own. Locking traumatic memories away in a metaphorical safe and throwing away the key.

And yet, as the puzzle pieces in Sunshine’s mind began to click together for Luna, one big piece was missing altogether; One emotion—possibly the most essential of them all.

Fear.

It was an extraordinary feat already to live a life of soldiery during the Great War, survive all of its horrors, live to tell the tale and return to an ordinary life after the fact.

But to live that whole life without fear?

That was impossible.

And so Luna began to peer past the blank spaces between Sunshine’s thoughts, searching for vestiges of a memory that could be found. She found only the tattered edges of half-baked thoughts that were missing context and thus were made impossible to interpret.

But as Luna peered deeper into this blank memory, a chilly presence overtook her. Magic courses through her being, and she recoils slightly without breaking concentration. A dark but familiar energy freezes the air around her.

She peers deeper once more, trying to brave the storm. The chill turns colder by the second, and the magic becomes stronger. Screams echo in the distance, sounding like cries for help. Luna peers around to see where the source is coming from. She finds only darkness surrounding her.

Something wet touches her hoof.

Dread suddenly encompasses Luna as she slowly tilts her head to the floor. She sees the pool turning crimson on her hooves, the liquid caking instantly as she recoiled. Blood stains her coat, and panic seeps into her. She looks up and sees a mound stretching several pony lengths above her, haphazardly piled with rotting, decaying corpses of equine and insectoid nature.

Black, abysmal pits of eyeless sockets peer up from the mound as the bodies open their hideous, toothless maws. Swimming with maggots and ruptured flesh, they scream like a choir, piercing the eardrums until they begin to ring.

Inside those maws—beneath the deafening screams of the damned—she could see it.

Eternity.

Luna gasped as her spell suddenly broke, clutching her temples as she sat down on her haunches hard. Her vision swam as she could hear ringing in her ears, her throat quaking with each sharp breath.

“Faust preserve you,” Luna whispers in horror.

“W-what? What is it?” Sunshine stammered with confusion, “What did you see?”

Luna did not answer, her mind’s eye replaying the events. Sunshine was far more damaged than she could ever estimate.

But beyond the brands of trauma that were left behind, she was a husk of what she used to be. Her days of youth and her time before the war had long since gone away. Any attempts that were made to recall those days yielded warped static. Only a few snippets remain.

One such memory replays in Luna’s mind with clarity.

Sunshine sat in a restaurant in Canterlot. She enjoyed a meal of Hayburger Casserole as her meal was interrupted by a squelch of static from a radio, capturing the attention of everyone inside. What used to be playing jazz now played metallic chimes of the civil alert broadcast.

"We are just now receiving reports of heavy fighting in the City of Acronage.”

The words burned into Luna’s cortex as that horrible day replayed in Sunshine’s mind, her racing home to find… something. Luna wasn’t sure what she was searching for, but it was something of grave importance, whatever it was.

She peers deeper once again, moving forward in time from that day into the Present. Memories of Sunshine’s emotions flash again, and the lack of fear throughout the ordeal sets off warning bells in Luna’s head.

Something was wrong, horribly wrong, with Sunshine’s mind.

Sure, the brain can block out memories that are too traumatic to remember, and it can do an outstanding job of doing so for a long time. But, eventually, these past traumas will rear their ugly heads, no matter how deep they hide in their holes.

Here, Luna found such holes in Sunshine’s mental palace… but as deep as they were, they were empty. As if the memories were plucked out.

Luna thought on this for a few more seconds, contemplating the odds of something like this happening naturally. Tens of millions to one, borderline impossible. The mind alone could not outright erase memories altogether.

“What is happening to me?” Sunshine asks again, finally breaking Luna’s spell, more confused than anything.

Luna’s mind was moving fast. She ruled out many possibilities simultaneously and scaled them down to the probable few; either her mind was exceptional at faking amnesia… Or something else caused it.

“... There is the taint of dark magic within you,” Luna voices her theories aloud. “Something, or someone, has either taken your memories or erased them altogether.”

Sunshine was motionless for a few seconds, flabbergasted at what she just heard.

“What do you mean ‘taken?’ Who would do that to me?!” She asks with indignance.

“I wish I knew. I only see the extent of the damage and that you are not whole.”

Sunshine’s ears wilted to her temples, her scowl reflecting on the water-like surface beneath her. “So I am an amnesiac,” she muttered in bitter defeat. “Do you at least know what they have taken?”

Luna thought on this for a few seconds, trying to find the right way to word it.

“... Imagine your wings had fallen off.” Luna began by sitting on her haunches before the troubled pegasus, gesturing her to do the same. Both sat face to face, with the princess several neck lengths taller than the pegasus.

“Imagine all the hours you put into practicing every maneuver you could do and every trick you can think of. All the experience and muscle memory you gained from putting flight hours into it until the act becomes second nature to you. You remember how hard it was to do your first few tricks; now they are trivial.

“But when they fell off, everything changed. As they grew back, you realized you had suddenly forgotten how to fly. You’ve already put in the flight hours to retain muscle memory, but what good is muscle memory if you are creating new muscles from scratch?

“That is your mind.” Luna extends a hoof to Sunshine’s forehead. “Your mind is damaged. It is trying to repair itself, but it does not know how. And you are, for lack of a better term, missing a portion of yourself.”

Sunshine’s eyes were enraptured with Luna’s analogy, blinking only a few times. When the latter had finished, the former stared at her reflection in the liquid below. The colorful pair of cerulean eyes, her mane, and tail had lost their vibrancy.

“You mean I’m… missing my memories?”

“For lack of a better term, yes.”

“Why?”

Luna pondered on this for a while, but sighed as her mind came up with blanks. “I wish I knew.”

Silence overtook them again, with Sunshine parsing the new information with a scowl. The frown lasted for nearly a minute until she sighed, dissipating the features with a defeated expression.

“But it shouldn’t matter, should it? I’m dying, aren’t I?” Sunshine remembers, her tone lathered in sadness.

Luna was about to answer, but the words died on her tongue.

She peers at the pegasus sitting before her. Usually, a dying soul would lose its music and its light, waiting to be taken into Elysium for its final dream. But here, Luna found her vibrancy, while dull, still intact. And though no symphony was heard, it was far from silent.

She was surrounded by darkness and trapped in their own nightmares. But even so, this soul still clung to life despite all the damage it had suffered. It still burned with its own fire and raved at close of day, seething against the inexorable tide of fate.

“You should be,” Luna explains, “yet… here you are.”

“What was supposed to happen?” Sunshine asks before violently shaking her head. “Wait, actually, no, don’t tell me. I’d rather not know. But… I’m supposed to be dead, right?”

“Dying,” Luna corrected using Sunshine’s words, “and yes, you are supposed to be dead soon, but you are not.”

Remembrance suddenly flashes across Sunshine’s features as her eyes widen. “Bleeding Heart.” She mumbles to herself.

“A friend that you know?” Luna asks.

“I… I don’t know, maybe. But I think he is saving my life.” Sunshine relays the news calmly as if coming to terms with her predicament.

A hum was heard from within Sunshine. The note sang atonally and without a pitch, but it grew in volume as the seconds passed. Whatever iota of light that Sunshine possessed was now glowing brighter and brighter. The hum chimed into a note, with Sunshine’s aura blinking a few times before growing in luminance.

“It would seem that way,” Luna observes quietly, watching the radiance surrounding Sunshine push past the dark abyss surrounding them. Colorful nebulae of dancing stars started to manifest in the distance, illuminating the space with their light as Sunshine found herself more and more radiant.

The features on Sunshine’s face were now livelier and more energetic than before. Recollection flashes in her eyes again.

“Wait, am I… Am I being saved?” Sunshine asks with worry.

“It would seem so, yes.” Luna answers, the former standing on all fours with renewed purpose. In those blue eyes burned a fire that Luna had not seen before.

“This… if I am being saved, then… then I have to tell you of something. There is something that you need to know.”

This got Luna to tilt her head in curiosity. “Such as?”

“I…” She paused, staring down for a fleeting moment as if deciding what to say. She locks eyes onto Luna with a firm frown. “I think Equestria is in danger,”

Luna said nothing, instead communicating her confusion with a raised eyebrow.

“Or, at least, a part of Equestria is in danger.”

“What kind of danger?” Luna asks tactfully.

The question left Sunshine speechless for a few long seconds until she steadied herself with a deep breath.

“You know how I said I cannot dream anything but nightmares?” Luna nods. “I… I think they are trying to warn me of something. Something terrible is about to happen.”

Luna tilts her head. “Such as?” Sunshine’s bravado disappeared, replaced with dread at what was to come.

“... There is a rogue nuclear bomb somewhere in Equestria.”

Sunshine lets the news sink in for a few seconds. Luna’s eyes widened just a tad, but she tried to mask her shock with an even expression.

“And I think it is going to strike very soon.”

Luna peers into Sunshine’s thoughts again, searching for deception or exaggeration. She found a memory burned into Sunshine’s cortex, waiting to be viewed. Her eyes were Sunshine’s as the former watched the latter’s memory playback.

She was in a dull, tightly packed room of filing cabinets and cargo crates. A squad of ponies Luna didn’t recognize huddled around one crate. This crate was roughly the same size as an overgrown stallion, with warning labels written in Changeling's tongue plastered all over it. Among the warning labels were symbols of the radioactive trefoil. As the squad gingerly opened the crate, padded spaces built to contain three large capsules were found inside.

Only two were full, with an empty space in the middle.

“Those are Nuclear Weapons,” Somepony mutters in dejected horror.

Luna blinked, and she was found standing in front of Sunshine. The words replayed in her mind again and again.

Those are Nuclear Weapons.

Luna’s eyes widened in horror, her heart beating faster as her throat tightened to the diameter of a straw.

“Where?” Luna simply asks with urgency.

“Where what?” Sunshine asks.

“Where and when did you find them?”

Sunshine’s eyes dart left and right, trying to dig into memory lane before answering with hesitance, “Uh… Vanhoover, 1014.”

“And one of them was just missing?”

“Missing and at large. I… I’ve been trying to find it.” Sunshine’s ears wilted. “And I don’t think I am anywhere close to it.”

“You’ve been trying to… find it?” Luna asks with confusion. “This seems like something you should report rather than attempt to find yourself.”

“And look where that got me,” Sunshine mutters with sudden bitterness etched into her tone, “It only got me killed.”

Luna blinked in surprise. “... Killed you?”

“Well… technically it was a window. They just kept me locked up against my will. And I lashed out, hard enough that I had to escape.” Sunshine openly admits without guilt, piquing the curiosity of the princess standing over her.

“Who locked you up? Why?”

Sunshine sighs. “S.M.I.L.E. Agency. They were trying to find the bomb as well, and I was their best bet in doing so. And…” Sunshine veers off topic with a mumble under her breath.

Luna didn’t pry. Instead, she was focusing her attention and ire on the architects of Sunshine’s misery.

S.M.I.L.E.

Recollection flashes in Luna’s frontal lobe. She recalls her conversation with the guard Nova at her door.

Her eyelids opened wider.

“It was you.” Luna suddenly speaks.

“What?”

“I heard that something happened inside of S.M.I.L.E. Agency—some kind of emergency—but I didn’t know what happened. All I knew was that it got them buzzing louder than an angry hornet's nest.

“It was you, wasn’t it?”

The accusation left Sunshine at a loss of words for a moment. She blinked hard a couple of times before exhaling a groan.

“I didn’t have a choice.”

There was no denial, but no confirmation either. “Why do you say that?” Luna asks.

“... They were going to take me away. To be locked up while they were too busy banging their heads against the wall trying to find a solution.”

“The solution to finding the bomb?”

“Yes,” Sunshine answers, “Out of all the ponies in my squad who had found the bombs in the first place… I was the last survivor they had. Their last lead.”

“But why would they lock you away if they needed you?”

Sunshine’s sigh was a remorseful one. “I don’t know. Maybe I made them angry, maybe they found a better lead. I don’t know.” Sunshine answered honestly. “All I know was that it was a mistake I couldn’t let them make.”

Luna felt the climax to this story rapidly approaching. “And then…?”

“... They tried to take me away. And I lashed out. I fought back against them, but they eventually subdued me. And…” her voice trails off. “Oh goddesses…” she mumbles to herself, sounding woozy.

Luna didn’t wait for her to finish and peered one last time into Sunshine’s memories. Sterile walls of dull and monotone gray greeted her as she trotted back to an express elevator. A quick altercation ensued inside, with Sunshine losing quickly.

Then she lunged.

Then she bit.

Then she screamed as a pony’s throat was ruptured in her jaws.

Blood stained her vision, and the motions were so quick it came in a literal blur. But when it was over, crimson was pooling at her hooves as two ponies lay on the floor writhing and bleeding.

Instinct told her this was okay. That they were the enemy.

Luna steps back once to break her concentration, blinking several times to purge the foreign memories.

“... Why?” Luna simply asks, somewhat afraid of what the answer would be.

“Because of Night Light,” Sunshine simply states.

Sunshine speaks the name with conviction as if they were hallowed words.

“Somepony you hold dear?” Luna understood immediately.

“My marefriend. She was locked up with me before they took me away. And… I couldn’t leave her.”

“... So you went back?”

Sunshine nodded. “We both escaped together… I got injured jumping out of a window, bleeding out as I got out of Canterlot… that’s why I’m here, I think.”

The radiance surrounding Sunshine began to blind Luna enough to squint her eyes. Sunshine looks down at herself and sees her soul teeming with life.

“It seems you are not ready to die yet.” Luna acknowledges with a nod.

Sunshine looks up, probably for the last time, into Luna’s eyes.

“Can you help me?” She simply asks.

Luna was caught off guard by this sudden request but quickly recovered with a question of her own, “Help you how?”

“I… I know they will come looking for me,” Sunshine remarks with a hint of guilt, “And I know they won’t stop until they found me. They will likely brand me a terrorist, or something like that. I need more time.”

“... From what you warned me earlier,” Luna pivots, “It doesn’t sound like you have very much time left.”

“I know! But I don’t have any other options left! My back is against the wall, and I only have one way to move forward. But I can’t move forward with S.M.I.L.E. hot on my tail. So… please! If you can find a way to distract them or get them off my trail for even a few days, I will make it count! I promise!”

Luna could see it in her eyes again—that impassioned zeal, that stubbornness that she hadn’t quite seen in other ponies before. In those burning eyes that shone like the sky, she could see a raging fire, a drive to keep going, looking for a reason not to give up.

And it fell onto Luna to give her that reason.

Luna would likely be aiding an enemy of the state, and breaking several laws of her own in doing so. But the alternative would be to do nothing and let fate decide if Equestria shall live beneath the shadow of an atomic cloud.

“What are you planning on doing exactly?” Luna asks Sunshine.

“Fight,” Sunshine answers tersely. “It’s the only thing I’ve ever known.”

“Fighting alone will not help.” Luna shakes her head.

“Maybe not. But it's a start.”

Another pause. Logic dictates this to be an utterly insane request and one she should not follow through.

And yet, she cannot help but admire the endurance of this pegasus, and her desire to keep pushing.

“... I won’t be able to stop them,” Luna answers honestly, “But I can delay them for as long as I can. You will have at least a couple of days to help you get a head start. Beyond that, you are on your own.”

Sunshine lets go of a breath in relief. “Thank you!”

“I want you to understand the consequences of this, Sunshine Tempest,” Luna’s voice turned colder out of nowhere. “If what you are saying is a lie, and you are trying to trick me, I will find you and bring you to justice.”

Her cold remark left Sunshine stock still, wondering where this was coming from.

“You are about to embark on a dangerous journey, little pony. And I cannot help you every step of the way.

“But,” Luna’s voice shifted, into something more maternal, “If what you say is true… I will do what I can to help you succeed. I will do what I can to help you find this rogue weapon.”

“... What about S.M.I.L.E.? I doubt they are going to let me go so easily.”

“You let me worry about them. You focus on preserving your life, and finding that bomb.”

“How? I don’t know where to start! It sounds impossible!”

Luna frowned. Indeed, it would be like finding a needle in a field of bales.

There was another spark inside of Sunshine’s eyes. One that begged to be peered into.

Luna blinked once and found herself inside Sunshine’s tattered mind. Before, she tried to find logic in a memory that was missing context, and thus impossible to interpret on its own. Without logic, dictating said context, what the memory could be was anyone’s guess.

But what happens to fabric, when they tear at the seams? It creates a hole. What happens to holes when they wish to integrate the ruptured threads into the whole fabric? They become sewn back together.

And like fabric, memories leave behind threads for the mind to tug on its own. Threads that can be pulled in such a way by the subconscious that they create dreams. But if those very same threads are incomplete (or missing from the bigger picture altogether, in Sunshine’s case) then they can only create incomplete dreams—in most cases, nightmares.

But threads can be sewn back together… the question to ask at that point was ‘How?’

Blinking again, Luna finds Sunshine still waiting for her to come up with a plan.

“Your dreams,” Luna finally answers.

“W-what? What about them?”

“You mentioned you only had nightmares before, correct?” Sunshine nods. “And that these nightmares have lasted for a long time?” Another nod.

This confirms Luna's hunch that something is tainting Sunshine's memories, creating nightmares for her to suffer through. As to where the source of this vile interference had originated, that is another mystery. But inside these dreams of half-baked memories, she can see remnants of a tapestry begging to be created.

"Inside your tainted dreams are your memories, memories you have forgotten in the sands of time. These memories hold the key to finding what you seek. But only until you conquer your fears and face your demons can you find the truth you seek."

This explanation confused Sunshine. “So… the answer is in my dreams? How does that work?”

“It is a theory,” Luna sat down on her haunches, “But if something has forcefully taken your memories away, then they will leave behind traces. Whether it was an artifact or dark magic, I cannot say with certainty. But what I can do is sew them back together using these traces.”

“Like... rebuilding? You can do that?”

“To an extent,” Luna said unassertively, “I cannot recreate everything with perfect accuracy, but I can do it well enough to help you remember the bigger picture.”

“How can you do that?”

“In your dreams. If the situation calls for it, I can intervene in a pony’s dreams and change them into something else.”

Sunshine blinked hard, and her gaze suddenly dropped to the floor with her reflection.

“... Why couldn’t you do that sooner when I needed you?”

The words sounded like a dagger pierced Luna’s heart, guilt flooding the wound it had created. For a moment in time, Sunshine sounded pitiful. As if she had spent her life in pain.

“I am sorry I did not.” Luna apologized.

Sunshine scowled, but it only lasted a moment before it was gone in a blink. “Never mind.” She inspects herself, gazing at her ethereal body growing more corporeal by the second. “So… you can alter my dreams?”

“If your memories left behind traces of the past, I can help bring them back to the present. But you will have to be dreaming for this to happen.”

“And… you think the answer is in my hidden memories?”

“It must be; why else would something or someone make the effort to force you to forget?

No rebuttal to that line of inquiry, but rather another question. “What if it's another nightmare?” Sunshine asks with a hint of dread.

“Then I will help you fight it. But it is you who must conquer your mind.”

“I don’t know how.” Sunshine pitifully said.

“I know. And I will help you.”

The aura of light surrounding Sunshine blinded Luna’s eyes, preventing her from seeing the former’s features. The atonal hum evolved into a sharp note reverberating across the dreamscape.

“I’m waking up, aren’t I?” Sunshine asks. The alicorn nods. “Princess Luna?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you. For believing me, I guess. And in me… and I’m sorry for everything that has happened to you.”

The pegasus’ form was reduced to pure light, and the aura began to vanish into atoms. Despite the lack of physical features, a smile could be seen plastered on where the face used to be as her voice ripples through the air.

“I hope everything will be okay.”

The light dissipates, and the hum silences itself abruptly. When everything settles, Luna finds herself standing alone in the dreamscape, replaying the strange conversation repeatedly in her mind.

I hope everything will be okay.

“... I hope so too.”

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