The Queen of Dead Dreams

Editor's Note: Greetings! This is a short trilogy/quadrology of stories which were my way of giving a fitting end to a roleplay saga a friend and I created over the course of Summer 2012-Winter 2014. These finales center around Katline Storm and Luna, and deal with the end to their universe as they know it. When I rebooted that universe in 2018, it gave me the chance to be creative again- and I wanted to make sure two of the most prominent characters received a fitting end to their stories. It's the least I could do. The order they should be read is: Echo, Queen, Happy, and Hope.

Editor's Note II: You may notice many references to My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. That's intentional, as the show was at its peak when we started our roleplay adventures and was primarily set in an alternate universe version of that world which, in all our twelve-year old bravado, combined both the canon and the R63 (Gender-swapped) versions of the show, heavily altered histories for Equestria (Tbf, there wasn't really any history to go on at that time, Season 2 had just entered its final episodes), Fallout: Equestria and many original characters.

Editor's Note III: For reference, Katline Storm was a pegasus enjoying adventures alongside the Mane Six (The gender-swapped versions, anyways), and she fell in love with a member of the team that was brought in to save Equestria from being overrun by shadow demons. That member also happened to be Death himself. When the team moved on from Equestria and into a new dimension, Katline chose to leave to be with him and became Queen of the Underworld. Princess Luna fell in love with the leader of the Shadow Demons, simply named King, and turned him good. Long after her death, King revived her and they helped lead a post-fallout Equestria into a new age. Yes, I know, twelve year olds are weird, alright?

As she raised the sun to its peak, its blindingly bright rays brought light to all corners of the kingdom- calling for roosters to crow and birds to tweet. The beauty of it all betrayed the history of the land, one wracked by war, pain, heartbreak, and violence on unimaginable scales. However, that was in the past, and it would stay there. Unfortunately, the past had a devious way of working its way back to the present at the most unexpected moments.

Burying the feelings of loss and regret, Queen Luna closed the curtains to her room and once again felt safety in the darkness. Many eons ago, she had been the princess of the night and of dreams. Now, she was simply Queen Luna. The last time she had used her power over dreams had been before the war, before she was killed. The strength, or even the will, to re-embrace those powers had long since left her.

If the world, in the throes of reconstruction, hadn't required someone to move the sun and the moon, if it had not required strong leadership, she would have simply stayed out of the whole affair. But the world needed a leader, and the world needed someone to move the sun and moon, and so she stepped in to fill the void left by her sister's death and the war.

If it wasn't for the lump that was still asleep in bed, Luna truly believed that she wouldn't have been able to accomplish all she had. The snoozing snore-machine was both her husband and her closest friend and, at a point far beyond living memory, was once a mortal enemy. Nobody before or since had matched her strength, her pride, and her sense of duty as well as he had. His name was King, and he ruled the relentless, infinite Shadow Demons. Normally working and living in the shadows, when Luna had stepped up to meet the demands of being queen, King had chosen to follow her out and supply whatever she required or desired.

Luna placed a hand on the demon's shoulder and smiled. He could sleep a little longer, she decided. They'd been working without end towards today, and the recent weeks had become increasingly challenging. Today, however, would be the last one they'd spend toiling away at this project. It was to be a red letter day.

Making her way to her wardrobe, she examined her options of what she could wear. Years of being the princess of the night and living in the shadow dimension had acclimated her eyes to see in the darkness and, at this point, there was virtually no difference for her between this and the daylight, which made it much easier for the early mornings like this one when she wanted to avoid the sun.

She could go militarily regal, with her cloak draped over a purple dress and her neck adorned with the same silver crescent moon and stars which adorned the flag of her nation, or she could wear her admiral's attire- a simple, midnight blue bodysuit with a silver-trim lining the top cloak, fashioned with a black cape and collar around her neck, with her dress boots below, and finishing up with long black gloves that reached back to her elbows.

Knowing there'd likely be more riots today, she chose the latter.

It fit her perfectly, as only magically stitched clothing could. In days far gone, she would've garnered adoration and a clamour of compliments from royal guards and citizens alike. She would've smiled and waved and thanked them. The person staring back at her in the mirror, though, was no longer that kind, outgoing princess. She was imposing, tall, and her eyes showed all the distress and torment she'd experienced, now buried under a steel exterior that exuded domination and order. The magic of life had left Luna when her sister died, and it had left her when she discovered she was going to lose her entire world to an event she could only prolong, but never stop. If it wasn't for her king, the Queen would've lost her sanity trying to save everything. Instead, she had sharpened her mind and stayed focus on their primary goal.

Her king was beginning to arise from his slumber. It was time for them to go to work.

Rioters and rebels had taken hold of a northern city, but the Shadow Demons overwhelmed them and gave the Queen enough time to push the rebels into a dream-state. The destruction they left in their wake was impressive, but inconsequential at this point. Luna couldn't blame them for fighting the inevitable, that type of hope had always been a key point for the denizens of her world. She just wished they'd come to accept their fates, instead of raging against the world and achieving nothing.

After the last one had succumbed to her magic, she released a long sigh and fell back into King's open arms. It had been an exhausting day, and it was so close to being over. She'd harnessed the energies of the harmonic elements, relics from the earliest days of existence, and channeled their magic into her own. With them she had regained her dream abilities, and had pushed herself to the limit in order to spread her powers to every last corner of the world. They'd all perish in the end, but she wanted it to be peaceful for them, asleep and lost in dreams of a better tomorrow.

The ground beneath her boots shook violently. In the distance, a beam of light erupted into the heavens for only a few moments before vanishing. Her king caressed her now flat hair and whispered to her.

"It's time. We must contact Shard and let him know."

Luna nodded weakly and touched her palm to his cheek, caressing it.

"Just a few more minutes, King. Let me take it all in one more time."

She closed her eyes, and breathed in.

In this memory, she'd made a promise.

Her citizens run and frolic, no worries, no wars.

The kingdom is in harmony, thanks to six young heroes.

She is home after years away in exile, and her sister stands beside her.

They watch the day unfold at a distance.

Magic and friendship fill the air.

She'd promise herself she'd never let the harmony or the magic leave.

Things would never be better than this moment.

In the next, an insectoid being would attack their city, and the harmony would be lost.

Shard and the others would arrive, and bring their war with them.

Things would continue, under the lie of harmony still existing, but she knew it died that day.

She'd meet King in the next year.

The wars would end, and then resume.

Her sister and the heroes would perish, as would she.

The world would become chaotic among the fallout.

Until then, the magic survived in this one moment.

In this memory, Luna kept the promise she'd never been able to keep.

Queen Luna and King stood on the edge of the portal, watching the world die before their eyes. Its destruction was as beautiful as it was horrifying. One by one, she felt her dreamers vanish. Soon, their dimensional connection to the world would have to be closed, and she'd lose them all.

King's claws rested on her shoulders, there to hold her in place as much as they were to comfort her.

The beams of light were intensely bright, and each one's appearance was met with an earth shattering quake. Even here, in the shadow dimension, it felt as though each one rattled her bones.

She stood as solid as stone, tears pouring from her eyes as she watched her home for all of her eternities fall into chaos before her. She could not drop to her knees, she could not cry out vengeance against the multi-verse, and she could not find the strength to terminate her connection to the last of the dreamers.

Instead, as so many things in her life had been, they were ripped from her grasp without so much as a warning.

When it was over, and the portal had closed, Luna was still standing there. Some vain hope inside waited for the portal to re-open and her world to re-appear. She knew better, but her soul couldn't accept that fact.

Over her communicator, she could hear Shard and his technical officer, Echo, discussing the birth of the new universe that was taking the place of her old one. Most of it simply sounded like the mindless babble of scientists, but she caught a snippet about bleed-overs from her world that were present in the new. Then, suddenly, she heard the cry of a soul in the throes of agony and sorrow.

It echoed throughout her mind, and she felt it rock her very core.

It echoed with all the pain she now felt, but also with all the hope she had once believed in. All the belief in a better future, and dreams of a brighter tomorrow. It echoed in agony at the loss of that hope.

It was in that moment that she found herself recognizing a terrible, horrible truth.

She was no longer the Queen of the Night, or the Queen of Dreams.

She was the last vestige of a dead dimension, one that would never return.

She was Luna, the Queen of Dead Dreams.