My night of candy gathering and the occasional fright continued for a while, with princess Luna joining in the festivities.
We brought our candy to her every so often, as the tradition demanded, and I spotted her having just as much fun with the games set up around town as the rest of us did.
With the princess keeping her voice at a reasonable volume, the only times my ears rang was when Rainbow Dash made a thunderclap happen overhead, scaring me witless once or twice.
As the night progressed, I noticed my fellow foals yawning more and more, and the pace at which we were following after Pinkie Pie was slowing down.
The group slowly but surely disbanded as parents came to take their foals home, leaving Scootaloo and myself as the last pair to sit with Pinkie Pie going over our candy haul together near the town's fountain.
I didn't know where Trixie had gone. All she had said was that she was going to do some grownup things while we were out gathering candy.
I could have wandered on home by myself, but I had an appointment with princess Luna. Staying near the fountain in town kept a lot of eyes on me and Scootaloo as we slowly became the only two fillies remaining out and about.
Even the adult ponies started to clean up after themselves and go home, even as Pinkie showed no sign of getting tired. Considering the amounts of candy she had consumed, I was sure she was riding a monster of a sugar high.
I picked at my own takings with my magic and lifted what passed for a jellybean in this world to my mouth.
Scootaloo folded the wolf head of her costume back as if she was just taking off a hoodie, letting it rest against her back.
"You're not going home yet, Fuu?" she asked.
"No, I made a promise to wait for somepony," I told her. "How about you?"
Scootaloo shrugged and stifled a yawn. "I'm not tired yet."
I knew that was a blatant lie, but chose to let her have it.
"Tired? Who gets tired on a night like this?" Pinkie exclaimed, but the manic expression on her face made her look unhinged.
A gust of wind from my left side made me turn and look in that direction in time to see princess Luna landing a few paces away from us.
Scootaloo, Pinkie, and myself all bowed our heads toward her as she walked on over.
"Ah, young Fuu. I am happy to find you well," she spoke in a kind, soft voice rather than the booming one from my dreams.
Scootaloo gaped. "She knows your name?"
"The princess knows all of our names; she watches over our dreams, silly," Pinkie pointed out.
"Oh, right," Scootaloo remembered.
"The pink one is correct, but right now we would like to talk with Fuu," the princess told the pair of them.
She then addressed me personally. "Walk with me, young Fuu. Let us away to a calmer spot."
"Yes princess," I answered dilligently, getting up from where I was seated near the fountain.
I looked at my candy stash for a moment, then pushed it over toward Pinkie Pie.
"I doubt Trixie would like me to come home with a pile of candy. You can have it, miss Pinkie. Thank you for making my first Nightmare Night a success," I told her in all honesty.
"I'll see you at school or the clubhouse again, Scootaloo?" I wondered of my fellow Cutiemark Crusader.
"You'll betcha," Scootaloo promised.
I walked up to the princess, noting how she was shorter than her alter ego Nightmare Moon even if she was still taller than even the adult ponies here in Ponyville.
While I was even shorter than her, I would surely hit her if I tried to walk under her, if not with my head than at least with my unicorn horn or ears.
She started walking to a darker spot in town, where the lights of the festival area didn't reach, making sure to keep her pace slow by taking smaller steps in an obvious effort to allow me to keep up with her.
"Dost thou remember what I asked in thine dreams, young Fuu?" princess Luna wondered as we walked.
I tried to recall my dreams, but the memory had been fading as time progressed.
All I remembered was how tall she was in it, how imposing as Nightmare Moon, and how loud her voice sounded to me.
The strongest lasting memory from them was that Nightmare Moon, or princess Luna, wanted to meet with me, but that was about it.
I shook my head in reply. "No, princess Luna. I have difficulty remembering what all happened in them."
"Ah, young Fuu, you are far from the only pony who finds the memory of their dreams fleeting. You frolic in my sister's day but pay so much less attention during my night," she lamented.
I could hear the sorrow in her voice.
It obviously meant a lot to her that ponies respected her night as much as they did the day, but sleep was a necessary thing we just couldn't avoid.
"I do like the nights," I spoke in an effort to make her feel better. "I like looking up at the stars in the sky. Especially here in Equestria, where there's barely any air pollution."
Luna smiled and turned her head slightly to look down upon me with a curious look to her eye.
"This is what we mean; thine dreams are full of concepts foreign to Equestria. They are not the dreams I would expect from a filly of your age," Luna explained.
I looked down at the ground I was walking on with my hooves.
"I'm not your usual filly, I guess," I sighed.
"If we may make an observation, you are not a usual pony, filly or not. What transpired, Fuu? What are these images about? What are you?" Luna pushed.
I stopped walking and glanced around myself to make sure Trixie was nowhere near.
"I'm Trixie's ward, or at least I am now," I started, feeling apprehensive. "I'm not sure she'd like me to talk with anypony else about it. She tends to prevent me doing so."
"Let your princess handle Trixie," Luna suggested to me.
I stared up at the taller alicorn mare, considering for a moment that she was the only pony princess I had met since arriving in Equestria. For all intents and purposes, she was indeed 'my' princess.
"To be honest, princess, I used to be human before Trixie changed that," I spouted, then immediately glanced around again to make sure Trixie had not snuck up on us while I wasn't looking.
Luna watched me fidget, a pensive look on her face.
"You mahns... We faintly remember having read about those in our youth," she considered. "Art thou saying that they are real?"
"As real as you and me standing here right now, princess," I agreed. "I used to be one. I can't believe I've managed to say those words; I used to be human. Trixie brought me..."
My voice broke as tears sprang to my eyes.
Was it from relief that I had finally been able to utter those words to somepony other than Trixie?
Was it the weight of all that had happened to me since backing up out of that driveway?
Luna looked around a moment as well, then leaned down and bit down around my collar resting at the nape of my neck so she had a good grip on the bunny costume I was wearing.
I was unceremoniously hoisted up and felt a sudden rush of wind as the princess took flight with me held in her mouth like a sack of potatoes.
I was bewildered by the whole thing; What had just happened? Where was she taking me?
The night's festivities and the idea that Nightmare Moon might gobble us up if we did not bring her enough candy was still fresh in my mind, and I had to fight my instinct to struggle against her hold.
I barely had enough control over my magic to do the basic things, and without a levitation spell or wings I would not survive the drop, so it was in my best interest to let princess Luna do her thing.
The trees of the Everfree Forest passed by under my hooves, and soon we were farther from Ponyville than I had gone so far.
She kept flying until we came to a large ruined building which was half overgrown with plantlife.
I thought for a moment that she would land in front of it, but instead she flew around to a broken window and expertly landed in the room beyond it.
She lowered me to the ground, the stones barely covered by the remnants of what probably used to be a lush carpet.
I was honestly glad to have some solid ground under me, and took a few uneasy steps to get the cold out of my limbs.
The room we were in must have at one point been a very nicely decorated bedroom, judging by the large bed which had deteriorated to the point where I was sure it would crumble to dust if I sneezed at it.
Luna sat down beside me to get closer to my level, but was similarily looking around the room with a mixed expression of grief and guilt on her face.
I was so confused; why was I suddenly taken for a ride by the pony princess of the night? What was going on?
"We know what it feels like to be misplaced, young Fuu," Luna spoke in a deep sigh. "This used to be our room, a thousand years ago. We made a mistake, and lost what we had as a result."
My mind reeled. A thousand years was such a long time I could not fathom anypony having been alive for that time.
Back home I had not thought further than a few years into the past, and maybe a week into the future so I would know which girl to visit.
It had only been since my mate had pointed out the cartoon to me that... wait.
A memory flitted through my mind.
"This is the castle where Twilight... oh," I recalled the events from the first episodes of the show.
"It is as you say; this is the palace where Twilight Sparkle and her friends defeated Nightmare Moon and made me see the error of my ways," Luna agreed. "Formerly known as the Palace of the Two Sisters, where my sister Celestia and I reigned together so long ago."
I looked at her and the sad expression on her face, then just sat down somewhat opposite her.
"I'm so confused right now, princess," I admitted.
"You are not alone in that, young Fuu. This night has gone different from what I had expected of it," princess Luna suggested. "Much different if you are a you mahn."
"Well, I'm pretty much a pony now, not a human," I coughed uneasily.
I reached up with my right forehoof to touch my horn.
"And I'm learning how to use magic. That's not something humans are able to do, I'm sure," I added.
"Pray tell, how did this happen? Leave out no detail," the princess asked, looking at me intently.
Now safe in knowing Trixie was not there to mute me, with princess Luna having shown a part of her past to me which I was sure few ponies alive today had been privvy to, my words spilled from my lips like an unending stream of water.
I talked about how I was not the best human, how I had my flaws, but how I was introduced to the world of ponies by a buddy of mine and had found it to be more entertaining than I had initially considered it to be.
My bad way with women came up and Luna clearly disliked what she heard as I explained how I just went from one girl to another with no care for how I treated them.
The word 'car' gave her some pause, but I explained it to be a self-propelled cart and that sated her curiosity, for now.
I took full responsibility for having hit Trixie with my car, and used it to excuse her treatment of me now I was living here near Ponyville with her.
She had her good sides, even if she was a bit difficult to deal with; she had allowed me to go to school, to make friends, to experience Nightmare Night, and she tried her best to provide food and shelter for me.
Trixie wasn't all bad, she just needed a manual for dealing with her.
Luna's smile broadened as I explained how I was friends with Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle and how we were all part of a group of crusaders making up fantastical plans to get our cutiemarks one day.
I ended my long rant by detailing about the fun night I had being chased around by her, getting scared by Rainbow Dash occasionally dropping a thunderclap over top of my group, and the amount of various candies I had collected for her.
Luna lowered her head down to look in my eyes. "If I hear you correctly, young Fuu, your life has improved since you have come to our world?"
I quickly nodded my head. "I think so, princess Luna."
"And you have come from a place with a similar dark delusion as had taken a hold of me," she considered.
I tried to follow her thoughts here, but didn't make the same connection.
She had tried to usurp the Equestrian throne, had tried to kill her sister or defeat her to the point where it was just about the same end result, and had been locked away in the moon for a thousand years.
It was hardly comparable to my own transgressions.
"And now you are but one pony among many, doing penance for your crimes," Luna continued, and I looked up to see a lone tear make its way down her cheek. "Like I am."
I didn't know what to say to that.
"When I saw your dreams I was worried that you might bring calamity to our world, as I have done myself," the princess spoke of her worry.
"You have done much to alleviate my fears tonight, as have your friends from Ponyville. Young Pip made me see that being scared can be a positive thing," Luna considered.
"It has been an eventful night," the princess sighed.
I gave a nod, and one of the bunny ears of my costume fell down over my right eye.
Luna used her magic to brush the fake bunny ear back on my head.
"From what you told me, it is obvious that Trixie has brought you here to teach you a lesson. The question is what you are want to do with this new life you have been given, young Fuu?" she asked me directly.
"I don't know. Trixie seems to need somepony like me in her life," I muttered. "She wants me to be her assistant while she performs her magic shows, for one. She presses me to get better at magic so we can get on the road again."
"But, and you might know this better than me, princess, Trixie also has horrible nightmares which disturb her rest," I added in a louder voice, even if it was the squeaky voice of the young filly I was.
"I can't be there for her in her dreams when she has those, but I can help her recover from them by doing chores and making tea when she needs me to," I considered. "It's something, you know?"
Luna eyed me with some interest.
"So, even though you have your misgivings about how you are treated by Trixie, you still wish to remain with her and live here among us? Even if it means you can never return to your old life on Earth?" she wondered.
I reached up with my left hoof to touch my chest, roughly where I thought my heart was located.
"It might be because I'm a filly now, but I don't think I could leave Trixie alone right now. It wouldn't feel right to leave her without friends or somepony to support her like that," I decided. "She has major trust issues and treats me like crap sometimes, but I can take it if it means I can be there for her when she needs me to."
Luna leaned in to gently nuzzle against the top of my head, it felt strangely comforting, like a hug from a grandparent or great aunt.
"You're a tough one, young Fuu. I may have something to help you with your task ahead," she spoke enigmatically.
I watched with some confusion as princess Luna rose to her hooves and walked around to the half-destroyed bed.
"It looks like nopony found it in my sister's haste to leave this palace behind," she spoke to herself.
Luna used her magic to move a part of the rubble from the bed aside, then lifted a stone hidden underneath it from its spot to uncover a small storage space.
"There you are, my old friend," the princess cooed.
I watched with rising interest as she lifted an old book from its hiding place, bound in blue leather and adorned with silver swirls and lettering.
This hiding place under the princess' bed must have been sealed airtight, as the book had survived for a thousand years in there and still looked as new.
Princess Luna returned to me with the book and carefully placed it between us on the floor.
"This, young Fuu, is my dream journal. It is a magic tome made by Starswirl the Bearded to aid me in recalling my dreams back when I was as young as yourself," Luna explained.
She opened the book and leafed through a few of the pages until she came to an empty one.
"It has been diligently recording my dreams ever since it was gifted to me, except for during my long imprisonment," the princess spoke calmly.
She focused her magic on the book and suddenly tore it in half without warning!
I gasped as the book split straight down the middle along the spine, leaving the already filled-in front part of it and empty back of it as separate halves.
"Why did you do that?!" I decried, forgetting myself for a moment at the sight of this wanton destruction of something which looked like it was priceless.
"Calm down, young Fuu. If you wish to learn about magic in order to help your Trixie, watch your princess at work," Luna chided me for my outburst.
I stood trembling as I watched her magic increase in intensity and flow into both parts of the book laid out between us.
As I watched, each of the book's separate parts started to grow pages out of their torn spines, each new page layering on top of the existing ones as if it had been part of it all along.
When it was finally time for the leather cover to regrow itself, both books had grown to an identical size and were indistinguishable from one another even if one was resting on its front and the other on its back.
Princess Luna opened the one on her left and leafed through it to find nearly half of it filled with cursive lettering, then closed it up again and placed it beside her before focusing on the other one.
She leafed through it as well, but there were only blank pages in this one.
The princess made sure to open it to the first page and then motioned at it with her left hoof.
"Touch this first page with your horn, young Fuu," she demanded with a clear air of authority to her voice.
I looked between her and the book for a moment, but then carefully approached the old tome and bowed my head forward to do as instructed.
My costume's bunny ears flopped down past my horn and over my eyes, but I paid them no mind for now.
I dipped my head down further until I felt my small horn impact with the soft paper of the book and then held my head at that position.
"Now stand still for a moment whilst I attune it to you," Luna spoke, and I could feel the touch of her magic enveloping myself and the book.
It was a surprisingly warm feeling, but I could sense it flowing from me, past my horn, and into the pages of the book.
I could feel how much more in control of her magic the princess was by the soft silky sensation of it passing through me, far less jagged and erratic as my own.
The buzz of magic surrounding me disappeared after a few breaths, and princess Luna let out a sigh.
"There we are. You may lift your head again, young Fuu," she spoke in a gentle tone. "Behold the gift your princess has for you. I am sure Starswirl would have had his reservations, but if my sister Celestia can have her student, so may I."
I felt a shiver run down my spine at hearing the princess speak those words and lifted my head up.
As the bunny ears still blocked my vision, I used my magic to pull them aside.
Before me, where the copy of princess Luna's dream journal had been a moment ago with its blue cover and silver patterns on the cover, now rested a different book altogether.
This book was bound in brown leather, and there were metallic gold patterns on it in a similar style as on the book Luna had laid to her side.
"Behold your own dream journal," Luna spoke, a smile playing on her lips. "It will record your dreams so you may recall them even while awake, and can only be opened or read by you. It will be safe from prying eyes, even from those of your guardian."
I looked up with confusion clear as day on my face.
"I... I don't get it?" I stammered.
"Few in Equestria remember the legends of the humans who once lived here among us. My sister and I might be the only ones beside Trixie who are even aware of this world you call 'Earth'. I can't very well let you reside here without keeping my eye on you," the princess explained.
"Considering your situation and my own, the only moments where we may meet in peace from now on will be in your dreams. It is in both of our interests that you may recall these dreams, young Fuu," she continued.
"You may have questions only I have answers to, and I would like to hear more about your world, and your dreams are worlds which you can shape to show me with mine own eyes what it is you are talking about, where concepts such as that self-propelled cart may require more explaining otherwise," Luna offered with a wink.
I looked down from the princess' face to the book in front of me.
"I'm not sure Trixie will let me keep this," I mumbled apprehensively.
"Your princess shall take care of this. We should go back to your town of Ponyville so I may deliver you to your guardian and impress upon her that this journal shall remain yours to keep and use as only you see fit," Luna decided with a stern frown.
"You may ride on my back for this return trip; you may find it more pleasant an experience than me holding you, and I must ask you to keep both of our journals safe during the flight," the princess offered.
She drooped her right wing down and levitated both books over to rest on her back.
"Shall we?" she pressed.
I felt so overwhelmed by all of this.
Not only had Luna basically abducted me from the Nightmare Night festivities, brought me to what used to be her bedroom, and now given me a dream journal based off her own, but now she was going to tell Trixie to not interfere with my use of it?
I was sure Trixie would retaliate against me for this, even if I had done nothing to create this situation myself.
Luna was now the third pony who had pushed me into a situation against my will, having given me no chance to say no.
First it was Trixie, who had transported me into this world and transformed me into a filly.
Then it had been the Cutiemark Crusaders. Whichever one of them had come up with the cockamanie plan to have me join them had really forced the issue.
And now it was Luna; gifting me a dream journal and telling me we would have meetings in my dreams from now on so I could keep her updated on how I was doing.
Had this been the feeling my former girlfriends felt when I had pressured them into doing something?
I started to think I truly deserved all the punishment Trixie could dish out for this new development...