After coming back to Equestria, Luna struggled with…everything. From looking other ponies in the eye to eating breakfast in the morning. She didn’t know what to do–everything was so different…for a long time, she couldn’t even bring up the moon and her powers were dwindling. Not to mention she looked completely different–she had gasped in shock when she saw a mirror for the first time in a century. She was more or less defeated, pained, and….depressed. What had her sister been doing for 100 years? What was the point in bringing her back? She didn’t belong here…or anywhere, for that matter.

Then during a brooding session, a dumb unicorn accidentally fell through the door, quickly followed by a salute and a “Hi, ma’am! Princess! Luna…ma’am. Uh, did Celestia tell you I’m your personal bodyguard? Does Shining Armor ring a bell?”

She was incredibly pensive and unmoved by him at first, but every night they would go out so she could see what had changed, and so he could tell him about it. He answered any quiet question she had with humor and flare, and eventually she warmed up to him. He was funny, and sensitive to whenever she just wanted to walk in silence and contemplate the new pillars of Canterlot… When she permitted him to talk about whatever he wanted, it was always good things about his family, or silly stories he had from boot camp, ect.

She didn’t hate him, but she did question his motives. He was obviously just here because of Celestia’s orders, because she couldn’t be bothered to deal with her by herself….who would want to after all she did? Shining probably didn’t want to be around her either, and was just pretending to be nice because he was scared of her. Or something, anything….there was no way she could believe he enjoyed her company as much as she did. After all, being alone for 100 years… it had been more than she could handle. But she couldn’t let anyone know that.

Shining, on the other hand, did absolutely enjoy Luna’s company. He picked up on silly little things she did, like frowning at slightly wilted flowers and using magic to perk them up, or how she often whinnied after sentences or used her wings to swat away pesky mosquitoes on their walks. He’s happiest when she starts talking more after a month or two, how she’s showing enthusiasm for even small things like how the stars look different here or how she missed the sound of crickets. He can’t help but grieve for her, unable to imagine what she’s been through, and how much she might blame herself… he knows only partially what it’s like.

And one day, she finds out. She knows after Shining’s night shift, he goes to bed for a couple hours before waking up for his regular guard duties, followed by another sequence of naps before she gets up to deal with her. Maybe, just maybe in between that time, she woke up in the middle of the day and…snuck into his room. She just wanted to know more about her bodyguard, duh, and it’s not like she could ask anyone–who would listen to Nightmare Moon? She had the right to know, purely for her own safety….yeah, that’s why she was checking…

And she found a family picture of him as a kid. Him, his esteemed parents, Twilight of course, and….a blue unicorn? Was there really family that he didn’t tell her about? He loved to talk about how much he loved his sister, how much he missed his parents. She didn’t now why she felt betrayed–she should’ve expected this, of course he would keep secrets from her.

Alas… she couldn’t keep it in. That night on their walk, she confronted him about it, expecting him to finally tell her that yeah, he was hiding things from her because she was a villain, an evil monster. Of course he would just make things up as he went along with her, that he was just doing this for the paycheck, how he was inconvenienced by her every night.

But that didn’t happened. Instead he cried. He cried in a way she had only known herself to cry, a cry of absolute agony, regret, pain and self loathing. To see it in someone else, to see someone else who could feel it…she knew she never wanted to see him do that again. She gently comforted him, and before she could apologize, he just told her everything.

“My sister, Surprise…we lost her. She was kidnapped when she was just a baby, while we were on our way back from Manehatten… I loved her so much, and I couldn’t stop it… If I had just been bigger, older, stronger, anything to have prevented this… I just want to see her again. I just want to know that she’s okay, I just want to find her so that maybe, one day, I can wake up feeling like I’ve accomplished something. I know, I know, I’m a guard and I help a lot of ponies and I make a difference….but I want to make a difference within myself, and finally put my family to rest. I want that more than anything in the world.”

And Luna understood. All the ponies she had lost when she was gone, and the only one remaining being the sister she had missed more than anything else… she understood. And to this day, she still missed her, because she was completely different. But perhaps there was someone new she could confide in…someone new that she could be with.

alright enough mushy stuff, lets talk about daydream
Daydream is their kid, obviously, and she wasn’t born without her problems. she’s always sleepy, always tired, but is relatively well behaved. she’s sweet and kind, often from a place of compliance because she’ll usually fall asleep after doing any tasks. surprisingly, she’s most active when she’s asleep. as in, if she, Shining, and Luna are all asleep at the same time, they have a blast in the dream realm doing whatever they please. Daydream’s powers in the dream realm are absolutely phenomenal, being able to manifest anything she thinks of in great detail and permanence. when she’s awake, however, her powers are about that of an average unicorns, and she usually just uses them to tuck herself into bed. Luna and Shining aren’t too worried about her though, as they still get to spend time with her whether she’s asleep or awake…
but maybe they should be worried.

Art (c) mylittlegami