Now the mare’s name was Mare Luna, after the sea of dreams on the moon. All Night Mares are named after the parts of the moon. For just as the moon gets it’s light from the sun, so do Night Mares come to us, when we’re already dreaming, because the bad seeds can only grow in dream clouds. For all dreams start out as good dreams.

Mare Luna was sad because she had to keep bringing bad seeds to this little girl’s dreams. The little girl had a somewhat bad life as it was, and didn’t really deserve the seeds of pain, blood and bad things that invaded her sweet dreams.

Little did Mare Luna know that the little girl wept during the day, no matter how bright and happy it was, for the Night Mare did her job too well.

One night the little girl came up with a plan, she would jump on the Night Mare’s back and ride her until she made her stop bringing her those bad seeds. Such a thing had never been done before, for a Night Mare only comes when the person is asleep, and they fly by so fast that a person would miss. For three days she stayed up, practicing jumping onto the headboard of her bed. So that when the moment came she could do it in her sleep, as Night Mares are never to be seen by anyone awake, for to do so is to be banished. She forced herself to stay awake one more day, then when she at last went to bed she fell into a deep, deep sleep.

Mare Luna came almost at one as she had several days of bad seeds stored up. Even though she didn’t like bringing the bad seeds around, she was a good mare and tried to do her job as well as she could. With her special powers she know the moment that the little girl was asleep. She started to run past the little girl’s bed, but since she had so many bad seeds stored up she had to slow down. That was just the little bit of help that the little girl needed. She jumped out of bed and right onto Mare Luna’s back. Mare Luna was of course shocked, and stood stock-still for a moment. No one had ever touched a Night Mare before, much less ridden one. Then like a bolt of black lighting, Mare Luna took off thorough the wall!

The little girl was amazed, she had hoped that her plan would work and now she found herself on the back of the Night Mare. Mare Luna bucked and jumped and shook, during her best to get the little girl off her back. At first the little girl was too started to be scared. For like all of her kind throughout the ages, she loved horses. Then as Mare Luna started to buck the little girl started to cry. For even though she was in a dream, she had always been taught that if you’re falling in a dream and you hit the ground, you would die. Now we know that that’s not true, if you’re falling in a dream you don’t hit the ground you hit the bottom of the dream cloud and fall back into your body.

Mare Luna ran faster and faster trying to get the little girl off her. The little girl was hanging onto Mare Luna neck and crying very hard. Faster, faster and faster yet Mare Luna ran. The little girl was crying into Mare Luna’s ear in between sobs. “Please, all I want is for you to stop bring me bad dreams. Why can’t you bring me good dreams?” You see, the little girl didn’t know that all dreams started out good and that the Night Mares only brought the bad seeds to make people realize the different between good and bad. If the Night Mares didn’t remind people to be good, the world would be a very bad place indeed.

Mare Luna realized that while no one person could be all good or all bad, the little girl was as good as a person can be and that the bad seeds that she had been bringing her had been a mistake and meant for someone else. A glitch must have gotten the labels mixed up. ( A glitch is a small animal that lives is inside of computers moving messages around. They eat the oil off of people’s fingers as they type and this makes the glitchs very slippery and sometimes they get the messages in the wrong places.) When Mare Luna told this to the little girl she hugged Mare Luna all the harder.

Now the little girl’s tears were tears of happiness. Mare Luna started to run even faster, just for the pure joy that she felt. As the little girl’s tears fall, they rolled down Mare Luna’s head onto her star. As soon as the first tear drop touched the star, it started to glow. As they run the glow of the star began to grow brighter and brighter, becoming so bright they looked like a wishing star travailing across the star. Faster, faster and faster yet till all three, Mare Luna, the little girl and the glow became one.

Then they were gone.

The little girl awoke to find herself back in her bed. At first she was afraid that her plan hadn’t worked, that she had never gotten on the Night Mare at all and that the whole thing had been another bad dream. But when she was washing behind her ears she found that she now had a black start on her left palm. And she was never brother by Night Mares again. They were too afraid that they too, would get caught and rode.

Mare Luna found herself in a field of black grass. Far, far above her the stars shown dimly. She stood near the shore of a lake. She realized that she was in the plains of the night, where all the Night Mares would rest during the day. She heard the clop, clop, clop of hooves coming behind her and turning she saw the Night Stallion walking towards her. For it was the Night Stallion who grow the bad seeds that the Night Mares delivered.

The Night Stallion looked at Mare Luna sadly and said, “Being seen by a human is clause for banishment. But for having not only been seen by a human, but caught and ridden by one, I’m afraid that you are no longer fit to be a Night Mare.” He walked up to stand beside her. “However,” the Night Stallion went on, “it was not your fault that bad seeds were sent to the little girl because of a glitch in the computer. Since you are no longer a Night Mare you can not roam the night. A new office has been created for you. From this time forward, you will be a Day Mare, bringing pleasant seeds to people’s day dreams across the world. Go look at yourself.”

Mare Luna walked over the lake and looked at her reflection. She was now pure white! Mare Luna pranced and laughed. She was looking forward to her first day on her new job.

And she knew who her very first customer would be.

-fin-