Princess Luna Jolted awake in her bed for what felt like the millionth time in the past few weeks. It had been more than a year since the Elements of Harmony had freed her from the darkness of Nightmare moon, Yet ever since Nightmare Night she had become haunted by new nightmares. Each week the nightmare would be of the same world, but a different scene. The sky was always dark, the ground was covered in blood and debris, and she could always hear the sounds of monsters and screaming. In every dream she saw creatures that looked like the "Humans" that her sister Celestia had described, but they would soon be replaced... slaughtered by monsters that could not feel pain. One island, the only place the monsters seemed to be, was left abandoned by the humans in an attempt to forget their mistake. It wasn't enough though... as whatever military power that ruled that world sent soldiers to the island. Something had changed their ruler's mind about the island quite drastically. Luna rubbed her temples as she tried to clear her mind, it was well past midnight and she knew that she had many royal matters to attend to in the morning, but these nightmares were becoming more and more gruesome. The monsters fed on the flesh of the living and she couldn't possibly think of how anything in the world could possibly exist like that.

"I guess that I will have to speak with Tia about it..." She thought miserably, "... I don't know what else I'm supposed to do, my time alone was only able to help my powers to a certain point... and they weren't even my powers, they were HERS!..." She hated the thought of Nightmare moon still being a part of her, but she learned to deal with her own personal darkness. She couldn't comprehend what these nightmares meant though, she only hoped that her older sister could shed some light on the subject. Despite all the horrors she had been seeing, her little pun had made her chuckle a little.

Unfortunately, with her sleep disturbed by the nightmares, she could only try to keep herself busy until her sister awoke. So she decided to get out of bed and down to the kitchens wo make herself a cup of warm tea, she didn't even care what kind they had down there, she just wanted something to soothe her thoughts.

Luna walked along the palace grounds, just watching her beautiful night pass by before her, and she smiled a little. The beauty of her night had always been a comforting thought, even if nopony else thought so. She walked along in silence, trying to figure out the meaning of the dreams, her hoofsteps clattered almost silently along the stone brick walkways. By the time she had finally reached the kitchen she was showing all of the problems her reduced amount of sleep had been giving her, her wings were ruffled, her mane had even stopped with its magical waving.

She quickly made herself some hot water and looked for any tea that she could. Even though it was regular tea, she shook her head, it would have to do. After pouring the water and adding the tea she sat at one of the chairs in the room and began to drink.

Luna hadn't realized that she was shivering until she drank her first sip, and each successive one reduced the amount of shivering, when she finally stopped she was halfway through her fourth cup. She sighed as she finished and placed the cup in the sink, mentally apologizing to whoever had to wash the dishes in the morning.

After climbing back into bed and covering up with the blankets that she had become so accustomed to now, she began to drift back to sleep, praying that she wouldn't go back to that hellish place once more. Fortunately for her, the fates had decided to be nice to her for the rest of the night, and did not cloud her mind with death and decay.

The next morning, she didn't look too much better, the typical signs of a horrid sleep and exhaustion painted her features. She slowly made her way to her personal bathroom and decided not to call any of her servants, today she wanted to think on her own before talking to her older sister, and she couldn't stand to let anyone see her in such a horrid state. As she ran the hot water she had noticed that once again she was shivering, as if it were cold outside and in the castle, but she knew that the mages of the castle used their magic to keep the temperature at a comfortable level and that they were in the middle of the summer season. She quickly finished her bath and dried herself off. She just wanted to get to the bottom of the problem while trying to organize the question that she wanted to ask her sister. The brush that she began using felt good as she ran it through her mane, as if somepony had hoof-crafted it to be perfect for her, she took a second to look at her image in the mirror and screamed in shock at the thing she saw.

Two hoofmaidens burst through the door, thinking that their charge had been attacked, and one was looking around frantically for an attacker while the other quickly rushed to Luna's side to help her up.

"Your Highness... are you alright? We heard a scream and thought that you had been attacked..." The teal unicorn informed her with concern in her voice.

"I was not attacked Miss Star Snip..." Luna replied, trying to regain her composure, "...It was just my mind playing tricks on me..." She let Star Snip help her up and with a little hope she cast a glance at the mirror once again, and she visibly relaxed at what she saw, only her own scared visage looked back at her. She then turned to her concerned hoofmaidens and dismissed them with a message for her Celestia.

"I want you to tell anyone that tries to stop you that you have a very important message for my sister. Tell her that I wish to speak to her face-to-face, I will be waiting in the gardens." She took off into the sky before either of them could disagree, so they had no choice but to obey.

Ten minutes later a very confused-looking Celestia walked out to the gardens, she had dismissed her guards because she wanted to talk to her sister alone, she had been growing increasingly worried about what was making Luna look as if she hadn't slept for weeks. Celestia couldn't have prepared for the sight of how her sister looked no matter how much she had waited, it took all of her willpower not to run straight to her sister and hold her close, Luna looked like she had been crying the entire time she had waited for her and Celestia's look had changed from confusion to concern as she picked up her pace.

She took a seat on Luna's right side and held her wing out around her sister, Luna quickly accepted the show of kindness by latching onto Celestia in a tight hug, Celestia could feel her sister's sobs as she waited for Luna to begin her story. Celestia held held her sister close as Luna began to speak, at first it came between gasping breaths, after a minute or so Luna finally began to speak coherently.

"Tia... I... I'm scared... When I finally thought I was done with seeing darkness, and evil, and pain... These nightmares have haunted my sleep." Luna spoke with an occasional sob piercing her sentences. Celestia hugged her tighter to try and reassure her that she was safe.

"The nightmares were filled with those creatures you called humans..." Luna started, "...But... But after... After a huge explosion these strange... Monsters appeared, Tia they swarmed an entire island and killed everyone that they could find." The rememberance only served to make Luna break into a new wave of sobs, and Celestia did the only thing she could, Celestia patiently waited for her sister to continue.

"Every week the Island the dream took place on was the same, but the location on the island changed... each nightmare showed the humans being killed by monsters that felt no pain when hit with the human's weapons." Luna had begun to calm down, but Tia knew better than to stop with her embrace, as the eldest she had waited for a thousand years for her sister to accept her again as she now did. "...It was horrible, the monsters would kill the humans, and after killing them they would consume the flesh of the dead."

Nearly a half-hour went by, with luna trying to describe in as much detail to her sister what the nightmares would show her, and Celestia never stopped hugging her. When Luna had finally finished her story she let go of her sister and Celestia did the same. With a muttered 'thank you' Luna told her sister that she could get back to her royal duties. Celestia got up and began to walk away, but turned to her sister after a couple steps, she spoke in a soft and sweet voice.

"Remember dear sister, all a nightmare is... is a dream that you haven't shaped into a dream yet." When Luna had given her a bit of a small smile she added one more thing, "...You certainly look like you need time to clear your head, so I'll handle all of the royal matters today." And with that she left her sister to her own devices.