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edit: haha i finally wrote a dialogue to this scene, and it only took me almost two goddamn years. Buckle up buttercups!

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Pandora had been sleeping peacefully. Or at the very least, her physical body was sleeping undisturbed. It still lay sprawled out in her canopy bed, eye mask askew, soft snores falling from her open mouth. How very tranquil.

Pandora's consciousness, on the other hand, was tumbling without direction through the dream realm, like a sneaker in a dryer. It seemed that she'd been astral projecting in her sleep again. A part of her wanted to use the opportunity to spy on her cousin Skyla's undoubtedly juicy, lewd dreams, but unlike the great dream guardian, Princess Luna, Pan lacked even the most rudimentary control over her dream-walking. So she was stuck, arms crossed and grumpy, hurtling helplessly through magic and space-time.

Quite suddenly, however, a bright, glowing portal appeared before her, and with a squawk, she was rudely sucked into someone's dream.

She tumbled into the new realm, landing flat on her face, but by Celestia's sweet mercy, the ground was soft and grassy. After a few dazed moments, she felt the light, warm touch of a hand- someone gently brushing her hair out of her face. Despite everything, it felt rather nice.

"...Miss Sugarplum Fairy? Are you alright?"

"Who in the shit-" Pandora startled at the familiar voice, shooting up. Moondancer blinked back at her, his eyes full of concern. He reached his hand out again, but Pan scrambled backwards. "Moondancer? I'm in your dream?"

Moony tilted his head in confusion, before glancing around, examining the glittering, enchanted forest that surrounded the pair, as well as the tiny candy creatures that frolicked in the moonlight. "...This is a dream?"

"Perceptive as always, Moon Moon." Pandora drawled. "Of course this a dream. Everything is this whole sugary wonderland is your creation."

Her words slowly sunk in, and Moondancer's face broke into a scowl. "....If that's true, then why are you here, witch? I've had this dream before. You are not the sugarplum fairy of my dreams." He scoffed, glancing her over. ".....No matter how you've trussed yourself up to play the part."

"Trussed myself up....?" Pan glanced down at her body, then let out a screech. She'd gone to bed in her favorite faded set of jammies- the pair with the cartoon chickens on them- but here and now, she was decked out in a ballerina leotard, complete with an an enormous, frilly tutu. Twisting round and swearing, she tried to rip the wretched, cutesy thing off, but only succeeded in giving herself a wedgie.

"Definitely not my sugarplum fairy." Moondancer deadpanned. "You are intruding in my favorite dream, she-demon."

"Oh, well excuse me for ruining your dumb fairy fantasy!" Pandora scoffed, folding her arms. "But sometimes, just sometimes, when I eat too many sushi cupcakes before bed, my consciousness leaves my body and I astral wander into other people's dreams. It's a tragic condition, Moony. You ought to have more sympathy......" She suddenly gave a sly smile that Moondancer didn't like. "...Or at least you could feel relieved that I didn't accidentally wander into a....naughtier dream of yours."

"I don't have 'naughty' dreams."

"Suuure you don't, darling." Pandora began to float over to him, circling him like a cat. "I'm just saying, you seem awfully pissy over me wrecking your midnight rendezvous with your sexy little sugarplum fairy."

Moondancer bristled. "Don't taint my fantasy with your filthy perversions, witch. Everything here is perfectly innocent. The fairy appears, and she dances with me. It's based of a memory from when I was a child- the very first time I saw the Nutcracker Ballet."

Pandora paused. "...I remember that. We saw it together, didn't we?"

"...Yes." Moondancer sighed. "It was...mesmerizing, watching the ballet dancers leap and dance against the story and orchestra. Not that you'd know, of course. You fell asleep on my shoulder before the second act."

"Naturally. Goodness, we couldn't have been any older than twelve..." Pan's voice took on a wistful note. "...I remember I drooled on your fancy dress shirt too. And you laughed it off and wouldn't let me magic it clean..."

"You might've blown my arm off on accident. I didn't want to take the risk." The corner of Moondancer's mouth quirked up.

"Aw, I wouldn't have blown you up." Pan insisted. "If your arm got exploded, you wouldn't have been able to do your math homework, and ergo, I wouldn't have been able to copy your answers every day. Ergo ergo, I would've focused very intently on keeping you in one piece."

"Stop saying ergo. It doesn't make you sound smart." Moondancer folded his arms. "And it's reassuring to know my greatest value to you was my willingness to let you cheat off my geometry."

"I mean, yeah, but I liked other stuff about you too, I guess." Pan shrugged. "Don't you remember, Moon Moon? We used to be friends."

Moondancer set his jaw, and his expression became carefully guarded. "...No."

"Oh-ho, yes we did, Buster Brown." Pandora propped her hands up on her hips, glaring hard. "Friends that saw stupid mushy ballet suites together, and swapped notes in class, and used to play and joke around and laugh and just be..........before everything went to hell, because somebody turned into a total butthead."

"You're an intruder here." Moondancer hissed. "Here, and in every facet of my life. You have the nerve to invade my own dream and demand an explanation from me? This is neither the place nor the time, you spoiled sow."

"Actually, it's the perfect place and time, moron." Pan snapped, indignant. "It's a dream. You can't blast me through a wall here, or storm off with your stupid snobby nose in the air- so I'm gonna make the most of my involuntary little vacation in your tortured little noggin." She strode forward angrily, jabbing a clawed finger into his chest. "We used to be friends, Moondancer, don't you dare pretend we weren't. Why do you hate me now? What happened?"

"What happened?" Moondancer's eyebrows shot up, enraged. "What happened is you just couldn't stop rubbing your stupid powers in my face! In every quadrant of life, you insisted on being better than me! No matter how hard I practiced my magic, or poured over my books, I knew I'd be beaten out by you." The last word was said with such white-hot venom that Moondancer's voice threatened to give out- "You, a narcissistic brat handed unfathomable cosmic power at birth!"

Pandora flinched, hurt- but quickly masked it, drawing her fury tight around her like a cloak. "So it was jealousy, then."

"More than petty jealousy." Moondancer glared back her, refusing to be intimidated. "It was righteousness." He spat. "I have worked myself down to the bone, and I am still a disappointment to my family name, to the legacy of Starswirl the Bearded. I'm a talented spell-caster, yes, but what hope could I have had, next to a literal demi-god? I have nothing, and you have everything. You were born with a golden ticket into Canterlot royalty, limitless magic at your fingertips-"

"You’re wrong, Moondancer." Pan sliced her hand through the air, silencing him in a flash of magic. "I was born with the power to distort reality. To do fun, chaotic things, like make the sky rain bubblegum and sprinkles....as well as the power to do less fun things, like create an atomic explosion with a snap of my fingers. Or swap a baby's organs with a bunny rabbit's. Or turn a living creature into a rutabaga. Do you see hordes of royal attendants around me, Moondancer? Feeding me bonbons, worshiping me as a goddess?" Her words dripped with ice-cold contempt. She grasped him tight within the coils of her magic, and drew him close, watching the way his eyes widened.

"....People are afraid of me, Moondancer. Is this what you want? To be powerful? To be feared?"

She released him, and Moondancer resentfully shook off the last traces of her magic. He drew in a quick breath of air, trying to steady himself- before he turned to her, raising his chin in defiance. "I want to be great and powerful."

"And then what?" Pan threw up her arms, exasperated. "What's to be accomplished at the end of this stupid, self-righteous little journey of yours? After you've thrown away every last friend in the world, sacrificed every last iota of happiness? What if you do become the most powerful being in the world? What would it accomplish?" She floated forward, breaching his personal space- and sneered down at him. "Do tell, dearie, I'm dying to know."

Moondancer was quiet for a long moment, trembling with anger. When he spoke, there was a raw, splintered note in his voice.

"....You wouldn't understand. It'd accomplish....I'd finally feel like somebody important." He said, through clenched teeth. "Somebody that isn't a disappointment. Someone that people could be proud of. Admire." He swallowed, finally looking to her. ".....Love."

Pandora pinched the bridge of her nose. "You don't need to prove anything, Moon Moon. You're already all of those things."

Moondancer said nothing, choosing instead to look away.

"I mean that, mister." Pandora pressed. "You're so fixated on my talents, you've forgotten your own. There's a million and one things you can do that I can't! I can't pour over six different research papers at once, like you can." She insisted. "I can't dissect the inner workings of ancient spells. I can't even dance- and I certainly can't do a grand pirou-eck!"

"It's pirouette. And you could." Moondancer said tiredly. "....If you worked hard at it."

"If it took hard work to learn, isn't it all the more commendable that you can do it, then? You practiced long and hard to become a dancer, Moony- I watched you! And that's far more impressive than simply being born a demi-god. I would know- the power to just blow stuff up came easy, but actual control and precision? That took years of practice." Pan bit her lip, trying not to fumble her words. "....And whenever I felt like I couldn't do it, I always looked to you for strength. Because you never give up." She pushed a hopeful smile onto her face, and reached out to touch her rival's arm.

“You already have greatness in you, Moony. And someday you’re gonna shine so bright, you’ll leave us all in the dark.”

Moondancer gazed at her for a long moment, then his eyes dropped downward. He drew his arms up and hugged himself, just a little.

Pan had expected a bigger reaction, and now seemed to struggle in the silence, wringing her hands.

"....Maybe I did show off my powers too much." She said quietly. "Maybe you don't feel like I was your friend. But....you were mine, Moony." Pan tried. "And it hurt when you threw me away. Threw Cupcake away. As though we hadn't grown up together, spent nearly every moment of our childhoods together....As though we didn't matter." Her voice began to waver, and she brought a hand up to scrub at her eyes. "Oh, damn it...." She sniffled angrily, wiping at her flushed face. "I missed you, you stupid little twerp! Did I really mean nothing to you? You didn't miss me at all? Or Cuppy, your own cousin? You-" She turned away abruptly, balling her hands into fists. "....Oh, this is stupid. I don't know why I even bothered."

Moondancer felt a lump in his throat. "....I did miss you." He said softly. Almost to himself.

Pandora whirled around, and in an instant, she was in his face. "Then why-?"

"Don't be so dramatic." Moondancer raised his hands, trying to placate. "It was simply.....time to grow up. You knew that. To put away childish things and set aside childish playmates. Fairy tale books, toys, ribbons, dancing-"

Pan's face fell. "Is that why you stopped dancing?"

Moondancer scowled. "Starswirl would roll in his grave if he knew his mighty magical bloodline had died in a boy who'd rather do ballet than learn rudimentary spell-work." He frowned, seemingly unsatisfied with his own explanation. "....It was a distraction to my studies."

"It made you happy."

Moondancer had no answer, and Pandora heaved a frustrated sigh. "....Don't you think it's important? The things that make us happy? Mom says we have to hold those things close in our hearts, because they're few and far between, and that makes them precious." Pan quoted her mother well, if a bit clumsily. "Can you really toss it all out the window? Wouldn't you rather treasure what makes you happy?"

Moondancer hesitated, drinking her in. ".....I'd like to, yes."

Pan pushed a grin onto her face, then hitched up her tutu. "Well then.....this is a dream, Moon Moon. Nothing we do here is real, nobody can see us or judge us in here. So, for once in your life, why don't you shut up, quit bein' such a snob-kebob, and dance with me?" And she held out her hand.

Moondancer glanced at her proffered hand, to her ridiculous, grinning face, and back again. Every cell in his rational mind was screaming in protest, and yet....

Well. It couldn't hurt, could it?

After a moment of wavering uncertainty, he took her hand. Pan's cat-like grin ignited and burst into a genuine beam, one he hadn't seen in many years. "You saw it here first, folks! The great and powerful Moondancer finally manages to extract the branch from his ass! The crowd goes wild!"

"Shut up, witch." Moondancer rolled his eyes, flushing pink. "....I'm assuming I'll have to show you the steps again?"

"Of course." Pan nodded. "I'm a being of chaos, and for all the 'unfathomable cosmic power' I was born with, it also means I was robbed of a sense of rhythm."

"Tragic, but true." Moony snarked. "Then we'll do a simple pas de deux. We'll begin with the entrée, where we acknowledge each other-" He bowed, and Pan tripped over herself to do a ridiculous formal curtsy. "Then the adagio, where the ballerina performs slow, elegant, sustained movements......my god, you're terrible at this."

Pan paused her rhythmic floundering. "Really? I though I was doing fantastic. You're the one sticking to boring, traditional ballet."

"Boring?" Moondancer sputtered, "I'll have you know, philistine, that the grand pas de deux is a classic suite that goes back centuries-"

"Yeah, yeah, Marshmallow, but I meant we're in a dream. You can do anything you want in a dream." She gripped him suddenly around the waist, and with a single jump, they rocketed into the air, miles above the ground. Moondancer clung to her with a white-knuckled death grip, squealing like a schoolgirl.

"Put me down put me down put me down-"

"So you wish it, so shall it be!" Pan grinned, and Moondancer realized what she was about to do. "Wait no, don't-"

She released him, but he didn't fall. He hung in the hair, as though suspended by an invisible wire, and turned to gaze back at her, stunned. "I'm....I'm flying."

"Well, not really flying so much as floating there like a dumb-struck balloon, but yes, Moony. Good job." Pan clapped, a little sarcastically. "I told you, we're in a dream. The laws of physics need not apply, dearie."

Moondancer hopped around, hardly daring to believe how his body so boldly defied gravity. "....So we are." He breathed, breaking into a thin, disbelieving smile. "Well, come on then." He extended his hand, and she took it.

"Let's dance."

It was more like soaring than dancing. Their bodies sailed effortlessly through the air, their hair blowing in the warm, gentle wind, their forms haloed with silver moonlight. There was nothing, save for the ringing of their laughter, the limitlessness of their motions, the glide of one movement to another. It felt like freedom, Moony thought. It felt like wonder.

Pan gripped both his hands and spun him around, then gently dipped him. Any other time, he'd have been afraid to plummet to his death, but here he knew he was safe, and her boldness surprised him. A laugh burst free of him before he could stifle it.

"I knew your sense of fun was buried in there somewhere!" Pan grinned at him, so broadly it threatened to split her face. "Beats studying musty old books, don't it?"

Moony floated down a bit to catch his breath, brushing windswept hair out of his face. His face was flushed, his eyes bright, and he chuckled. "Perhaps a little."

Pan floated toward him upside down, cutting a lazy back-stroke through the air. "Good to know you're still a complete and total snob-kebob."

Moondancer didn't shy from the proximity, allowing her to float closer. "And you're still a relentlessly annoying piece of linguini."

"Relentless?" Pan smiled. "I'm gonna take that as a compliment." She folded her arms behind her head. "Just you wait, marshmallow boy. This linguini noodle's gonna make a fun-lover out of you yet."

The starlight was catching in her hair, and she shot him a merry wink. Moondancer felt something flutter back to life inside his chest, a feeling he thought he'd buried long ago. It filled him with an odd sense of warmth, and he began to feel bold, reckless.

"...Panny." He swallowed, searching for the right words, ".....If this is a dream, and nothing we do here matters, then could I tell you something foolish?"

"You know I love foolish." Pan offered him nothing but a smile, small, but genuine.

"....It's you." He said, and then the words found him at last, tumbling free from where he'd locked them away, so very long ago. He lifted a hand to her cheek, cupping her face. "It's been you all along. You make me happy."

Pan knitted her eyebrows, looking hopelessly pensive and infinitely relieved, all at once. "I knew it."

Moondancer paused, surprised. "You did?"

"Nah. I thought you hated me." Pan chuckled, a little sadly. ".....But, ah, you know. I still hoped."

Moony felt his chest swell with sudden, golden, honey-warm fondness for this stupid, stupid woman, his oldest, dearest friend, his most frequent source of irritation. In a heartbeat, he pulled her to him, and crashed his mouth to hers in a kiss.

Pandora jolted, caught off guard- but then he felt her laugh against his lips, and she kissed him back, soft, and sweet, placing her hands along his jaw with a tenderness so intense it made Moondancer want to cry. She was real, and she was here, and it was everything Moondancer ever imagined, like sailing through sunny weather and electrified cotton candy clouds all at once.

They broke apart, both breathing a little heavy. Neither seemed eager to let go, however, and Pan rested her forehead against his, grinning her cat-like grin.

"Prickly and burned on the outside, soft and marshmallowy on the inside. I knew it." She laughed, her eyes still shut, breathless. "I knew, I knew, I knew."

Moondancer opened his mouth to say something even more reckless and idiotically sappy (gods, he was on a roll tonight), because he found he never wanted her to stop smiling the way she was now. Not ever.

"Panny-"

The moon behind them flickered.

There came a low groan, from deep within the bowels of the earth, and the grassy meadow below them began to crumble into dust. The colors in the air, so vivid and bright before, now began to bleed like running paint. The very world around them seemed to be buckling.

"What's happening?"

"One of us is waking up, I imagine." Pan said softly, watching the dream realm around them fade. "Even the best dreams have to end eventually, Moony."

"We won't remember." Moondancer breathed, the realization sending a bolt of fear down his spine. He gripped her hands in alarm, and Pan squeezed them, trying to steady him. "Won't we?"

"...Probably not." She admitted, looking a little afraid herself. "But that doesn't mean it's not real."

The moon gave a final flicker, then went out. "It might as well not be!" He cried out. The light was gone- he couldn't see. Was she still here? "Panny!" He turned around, his arms clawing through empty air. "Pandora!"

A voice floated to him from the darkness. "Calm down, twinkle-toes. It'll be okay. Even if you don't remember, know this- no matter what, I want you to know you're my friend, Moony. You're one of my precious things. And there will always be room for you in my heart....whenever you're ready to stop being an idiot."

A hand, warm and gentle, came to rest on his shoulder, and he felt her press a kiss to his forehead.

"Pandora, I-"

And the world went black.

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Moondancer awoke slowly, still groggy from his late night at the library. He brushed fumbling fingers to his face- there was a strange, lingering feeling of warmth against his forehead, and even more puzzling, a familiar, dull ache in his chest.

Stop being an idiot, Moony.

....Pandora.

Had he dreamed of her again? Those words....had she been mocking him?

Wretched woman. Even in his dreams, it seemed he couldn't escape her.

He shook his head with a scowl, ridding his mind of all traces of his bothersome rival. With effort, he sat up, finding the ancient, worn spell book on his nightstand, its cover decorated in a cryptic red seal. He peeled open the dusty, yellowed pages, and with a sigh, began to read.

~~~~~~~~~~~

this is mostly canon

idiot friends love each other but aren't very good at expressing that (seriously moony, quit bein an evil dingus)

related:

View the Pandoraverse Main Story Arc in chronological order here

Bonus doodle!

only tangentially related to the story at hand, but i'm most fond of Moony when he's being a huge repressed dumbass

Description

edit: haha i finally wrote a dialogue to this scene, and it only took me almost two goddamn years. Buckle up buttercups!

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Pandora had been sleeping peacefully. Or at the very least, her physical body was sleeping undisturbed. It still lay sprawled out in her canopy bed, eye mask askew, soft snores falling from her open mouth. How very tranquil.

Pandora's consciousness, on the other hand, was tumbling without direction through the dream realm, like a sneaker in a dryer. It seemed that she'd been astral projecting in her sleep again. A part of her wanted to use the opportunity to spy on her cousin Skyla's undoubtedly juicy, lewd dreams, but unlike the great dream guardian, Princess Luna, Pan lacked even the most rudimentary control over her dream-walking. So she was stuck, arms crossed and grumpy, hurtling helplessly through magic and space-time.

Quite suddenly, however, a bright, glowing portal appeared before her, and with a squawk, she was rudely sucked into someone's dream.

She tumbled into the new realm, landing flat on her face, but by Celestia's sweet mercy, the ground was soft and grassy. After a few dazed moments, she felt the light, warm touch of a hand- someone gently brushing her hair out of her face. Despite everything, it felt rather nice.

"...Miss Sugarplum Fairy? Are you alright?"

"Who in the shit-" Pandora startled at the familiar voice, shooting up. Moondancer blinked back at her, his eyes full of concern. He reached his hand out again, but Pan scrambled backwards. "Moondancer? I'm in your dream?"

Moony tilted his head in confusion, before glancing around, examining the glittering, enchanted forest that surrounded the pair, as well as the tiny candy creatures that frolicked in the moonlight. "...This is a dream?"

"Perceptive as always, Moon Moon." Pandora drawled. "Of course this a dream. Everything is this whole sugary wonderland is your creation."

Her words slowly sunk in, and Moondancer's face broke into a scowl. "....If that's true, then why are you here, witch? I've had this dream before. You are not the sugarplum fairy of my dreams." He scoffed, glancing her over. ".....No matter how you've trussed yourself up to play the part."

"Trussed myself up....?" Pan glanced down at her body, then let out a screech. She'd gone to bed in her favorite faded set of jammies- the pair with the cartoon chickens on them- but here and now, she was decked out in a ballerina leotard, complete with an an enormous, frilly tutu. Twisting round and swearing, she tried to rip the wretched, cutesy thing off, but only succeeded in giving herself a wedgie.

"Definitely not my sugarplum fairy." Moondancer deadpanned. "You are intruding in my favorite dream, she-demon."

"Oh, well excuse me for ruining your dumb fairy fantasy!" Pandora scoffed, folding her arms. "But sometimes, just sometimes, when I eat too many sushi cupcakes before bed, my consciousness leaves my body and I astral wander into other people's dreams. It's a tragic condition, Moony. You ought to have more sympathy......" She suddenly gave a sly smile that Moondancer didn't like. "...Or at least you could feel relieved that I didn't accidentally wander into a....naughtier dream of yours."

"I don't have 'naughty' dreams."

"Suuure you don't, darling." Pandora began to float over to him, circling him like a cat. "I'm just saying, you seem awfully pissy over me wrecking your midnight rendezvous with your sexy little sugarplum fairy."

Moondancer bristled. "Don't taint my fantasy with your filthy perversions, witch. Everything here is perfectly innocent. The fairy appears, and she dances with me. It's based of a memory from when I was a child- the very first time I saw the Nutcracker Ballet."

Pandora paused. "...I remember that. We saw it together, didn't we?"

"...Yes." Moondancer sighed. "It was...mesmerizing, watching the ballet dancers leap and dance against the story and orchestra. Not that you'd know, of course. You fell asleep on my shoulder before the second act."

"Naturally. Goodness, we couldn't have been any older than twelve..." Pan's voice took on a wistful note. "...I remember I drooled on your fancy dress shirt too. And you laughed it off and wouldn't let me magic it clean..."

"You might've blown my arm off on accident. I didn't want to take the risk." The corner of Moondancer's mouth quirked up.

"Aw, I wouldn't have blown you up." Pan insisted. "If your arm got exploded, you wouldn't have been able to do your math homework, and ergo, I wouldn't have been able to copy your answers every day. Ergo ergo, I would've focused very intently on keeping you in one piece."

"Stop saying ergo. It doesn't make you sound smart." Moondancer folded his arms. "And it's reassuring to know my greatest value to you was my willingness to let you cheat off my geometry."

"I mean, yeah, but I liked other stuff about you too, I guess." Pan shrugged. "Don't you remember, Moon Moon? We used to be friends."

Moondancer set his jaw, and his expression became carefully guarded. "...No."

"Oh-ho, yes we did, Buster Brown." Pandora propped her hands up on her hips, glaring hard. "Friends that saw stupid mushy ballet suites together, and swapped notes in class, and used to play and joke around and laugh and just be..........before everything went to hell, because somebody turned into a total butthead."

"You're an intruder here." Moondancer hissed. "Here, and in every facet of my life. You have the nerve to invade my own dream and demand an explanation from me? This is neither the place nor the time, you spoiled sow."

"Actually, it's the perfect place and time, moron." Pan snapped, indignant. "It's a dream. You can't blast me through a wall here, or storm off with your stupid snobby nose in the air- so I'm gonna make the most of my involuntary little vacation in your tortured little noggin." She strode forward angrily, jabbing a clawed finger into his chest. "We used to be friends, Moondancer, don't you dare pretend we weren't. Why do you hate me now? What happened?"

"What happened?" Moondancer's eyebrows shot up, enraged. "What happened is you just couldn't stop rubbing your stupid powers in my face! In every quadrant of life, you insisted on being better than me! No matter how hard I practiced my magic, or poured over my books, I knew I'd be beaten out by you." The last word was said with such white-hot venom that Moondancer's voice threatened to give out- "You, a narcissistic brat handed unfathomable cosmic power at birth!"

Pandora flinched, hurt- but quickly masked it, drawing her fury tight around her like a cloak. "So it was jealousy, then."

"More than petty jealousy." Moondancer glared back her, refusing to be intimidated. "It was righteousness." He spat. "I have worked myself down to the bone, and I am still a disappointment to my family name, to the legacy of Starswirl the Bearded. I'm a talented spell-caster, yes, but what hope could I have had, next to a literal demi-god? I have nothing, and you have everything. You were born with a golden ticket into Canterlot royalty, limitless magic at your fingertips-"

"You’re wrong, Moondancer." Pan sliced her hand through the air, silencing him in a flash of magic. "I was born with the power to distort reality. To do fun, chaotic things, like make the sky rain bubblegum and sprinkles....as well as the power to do less fun things, like create an atomic explosion with a snap of my fingers. Or swap a baby's organs with a bunny rabbit's. Or turn a living creature into a rutabaga. Do you see hordes of royal attendants around me, Moondancer? Feeding me bonbons, worshiping me as a goddess?" Her words dripped with ice-cold contempt. She grasped him tight within the coils of her magic, and drew him close, watching the way his eyes widened.

"....People are afraid of me, Moondancer. Is this what you want? To be powerful? To be feared?"

She released him, and Moondancer resentfully shook off the last traces of her magic. He drew in a quick breath of air, trying to steady himself- before he turned to her, raising his chin in defiance. "I want to be great and powerful."

"And then what?" Pan threw up her arms, exasperated. "What's to be accomplished at the end of this stupid, self-righteous little journey of yours? After you've thrown away every last friend in the world, sacrificed every last iota of happiness? What if you do become the most powerful being in the world? What would it accomplish?" She floated forward, breaching his personal space- and sneered down at him. "Do tell, dearie, I'm dying to know."

Moondancer was quiet for a long moment, trembling with anger. When he spoke, there was a raw, splintered note in his voice.

"....You wouldn't understand. It'd accomplish....I'd finally feel like somebody important." He said, through clenched teeth. "Somebody that isn't a disappointment. Someone that people could be proud of. Admire." He swallowed, finally looking to her. ".....Love."

Pandora pinched the bridge of her nose. "You don't need to prove anything, Moon Moon. You're already all of those things."

Moondancer said nothing, choosing instead to look away.

"I mean that, mister." Pandora pressed. "You're so fixated on my talents, you've forgotten your own. There's a million and one things you can do that I can't! I can't pour over six different research papers at once, like you can." She insisted. "I can't dissect the inner workings of ancient spells. I can't even dance- and I certainly can't do a grand pirou-eck!"

"It's pirouette. And you could." Moondancer said tiredly. "....If you worked hard at it."

"If it took hard work to learn, isn't it all the more commendable that you can do it, then? You practiced long and hard to become a dancer, Moony- I watched you! And that's far more impressive than simply being born a demi-god. I would know- the power to just blow stuff up came easy, but actual control and precision? That took years of practice." Pan bit her lip, trying not to fumble her words. "....And whenever I felt like I couldn't do it, I always looked to you for strength. Because you never give up." She pushed a hopeful smile onto her face, and reached out to touch her rival's arm.

“You already have greatness in you, Moony. And someday you’re gonna shine so bright, you’ll leave us all in the dark.”

Moondancer gazed at her for a long moment, then his eyes dropped downward. He drew his arms up and hugged himself, just a little.

Pan had expected a bigger reaction, and now seemed to struggle in the silence, wringing her hands.

"....Maybe I did show off my powers too much." She said quietly. "Maybe you don't feel like I was your friend. But....you were mine, Moony." Pan tried. "And it hurt when you threw me away. Threw Cupcake away. As though we hadn't grown up together, spent nearly every moment of our childhoods together....As though we didn't matter." Her voice began to waver, and she brought a hand up to scrub at her eyes. "Oh, damn it...." She sniffled angrily, wiping at her flushed face. "I missed you, you stupid little twerp! Did I really mean nothing to you? You didn't miss me at all? Or Cuppy, your own cousin? You-" She turned away abruptly, balling her hands into fists. "....Oh, this is stupid. I don't know why I even bothered."

Moondancer felt a lump in his throat. "....I did miss you." He said softly. Almost to himself.

Pandora whirled around, and in an instant, she was in his face. "Then why-?"

"Don't be so dramatic." Moondancer raised his hands, trying to placate. "It was simply.....time to grow up. You knew that. To put away childish things and set aside childish playmates. Fairy tale books, toys, ribbons, dancing-"

Pan's face fell. "Is that why you stopped dancing?"

Moondancer scowled. "Starswirl would roll in his grave if he knew his mighty magical bloodline had died in a boy who'd rather do ballet than learn rudimentary spell-work." He frowned, seemingly unsatisfied with his own explanation. "....It was a distraction to my studies."

"It made you happy."

Moondancer had no answer, and Pandora heaved a frustrated sigh. "....Don't you think it's important? The things that make us happy? Mom says we have to hold those things close in our hearts, because they're few and far between, and that makes them precious." Pan quoted her mother well, if a bit clumsily. "Can you really toss it all out the window? Wouldn't you rather treasure what makes you happy?"

Moondancer hesitated, drinking her in. ".....I'd like to, yes."

Pan pushed a grin onto her face, then hitched up her tutu. "Well then.....this is a dream, Moon Moon. Nothing we do here is real, nobody can see us or judge us in here. So, for once in your life, why don't you shut up, quit bein' such a snob-kebob, and dance with me?" And she held out her hand.

Moondancer glanced at her proffered hand, to her ridiculous, grinning face, and back again. Every cell in his rational mind was screaming in protest, and yet....

Well. It couldn't hurt, could it?

After a moment of wavering uncertainty, he took her hand. Pan's cat-like grin ignited and burst into a genuine beam, one he hadn't seen in many years. "You saw it here first, folks! The great and powerful Moondancer finally manages to extract the branch from his ass! The crowd goes wild!"

"Shut up, witch." Moondancer rolled his eyes, flushing pink. "....I'm assuming I'll have to show you the steps again?"

"Of course." Pan nodded. "I'm a being of chaos, and for all the 'unfathomable cosmic power' I was born with, it also means I was robbed of a sense of rhythm."

"Tragic, but true." Moony snarked. "Then we'll do a simple pas de deux. We'll begin with the entrée, where we acknowledge each other-" He bowed, and Pan tripped over herself to do a ridiculous formal curtsy. "Then the adagio, where the ballerina performs slow, elegant, sustained movements......my god, you're terrible at this."

Pan paused her rhythmic floundering. "Really? I though I was doing fantastic. You're the one sticking to boring, traditional ballet."

"Boring?" Moondancer sputtered, "I'll have you know, philistine, that the grand pas de deux is a classic suite that goes back centuries-"

"Yeah, yeah, Marshmallow, but I meant we're in a dream. You can do anything you want in a dream." She gripped him suddenly around the waist, and with a single jump, they rocketed into the air, miles above the ground. Moondancer clung to her with a white-knuckled death grip, squealing like a schoolgirl.

"Put me down put me down put me down-"

"So you wish it, so shall it be!" Pan grinned, and Moondancer realized what she was about to do. "Wait no, don't-"

She released him, but he didn't fall. He hung in the hair, as though suspended by an invisible wire, and turned to gaze back at her, stunned. "I'm....I'm flying."

"Well, not really flying so much as floating there like a dumb-struck balloon, but yes, Moony. Good job." Pan clapped, a little sarcastically. "I told you, we're in a dream. The laws of physics need not apply, dearie."

Moondancer hopped around, hardly daring to believe how his body so boldly defied gravity. "....So we are." He breathed, breaking into a thin, disbelieving smile. "Well, come on then." He extended his hand, and she took it.

"Let's dance."

It was more like soaring than dancing. Their bodies sailed effortlessly through the air, their hair blowing in the warm, gentle wind, their forms haloed with silver moonlight. There was nothing, save for the ringing of their laughter, the limitlessness of their motions, the glide of one movement to another. It felt like freedom, Moony thought. It felt like wonder.

Pan gripped both his hands and spun him around, then gently dipped him. Any other time, he'd have been afraid to plummet to his death, but here he knew he was safe, and her boldness surprised him. A laugh burst free of him before he could stifle it.

"I knew your sense of fun was buried in there somewhere!" Pan grinned at him, so broadly it threatened to split her face. "Beats studying musty old books, don't it?"

Moony floated down a bit to catch his breath, brushing windswept hair out of his face. His face was flushed, his eyes bright, and he chuckled. "Perhaps a little."

Pan floated toward him upside down, cutting a lazy back-stroke through the air. "Good to know you're still a complete and total snob-kebob."

Moondancer didn't shy from the proximity, allowing her to float closer. "And you're still a relentlessly annoying piece of linguini."

"Relentless?" Pan smiled. "I'm gonna take that as a compliment." She folded her arms behind her head. "Just you wait, marshmallow boy. This linguini noodle's gonna make a fun-lover out of you yet."

The starlight was catching in her hair, and she shot him a merry wink. Moondancer felt something flutter back to life inside his chest, a feeling he thought he'd buried long ago. It filled him with an odd sense of warmth, and he began to feel bold, reckless.

"...Panny." He swallowed, searching for the right words, ".....If this is a dream, and nothing we do here matters, then could I tell you something foolish?"

"You know I love foolish." Pan offered him nothing but a smile, small, but genuine.

"....It's you." He said, and then the words found him at last, tumbling free from where he'd locked them away, so very long ago. He lifted a hand to her cheek, cupping her face. "It's been you all along. You make me happy."

Pan knitted her eyebrows, looking hopelessly pensive and infinitely relieved, all at once. "I knew it."

Moondancer paused, surprised. "You did?"

"Nah. I thought you hated me." Pan chuckled, a little sadly. ".....But, ah, you know. I still hoped."

Moony felt his chest swell with sudden, golden, honey-warm fondness for this stupid, stupid woman, his oldest, dearest friend, his most frequent source of irritation. In a heartbeat, he pulled her to him, and crashed his mouth to hers in a kiss.

Pandora jolted, caught off guard- but then he felt her laugh against his lips, and she kissed him back, soft, and sweet, placing her hands along his jaw with a tenderness so intense it made Moondancer want to cry. She was real, and she was here, and it was everything Moondancer ever imagined, like sailing through sunny weather and electrified cotton candy clouds all at once.

They broke apart, both breathing a little heavy. Neither seemed eager to let go, however, and Pan rested her forehead against his, grinning her cat-like grin.

"Prickly and burned on the outside, soft and marshmallowy on the inside. I knew it." She laughed, her eyes still shut, breathless. "I knew, I knew, I knew."

Moondancer opened his mouth to say something even more reckless and idiotically sappy (gods, he was on a roll tonight), because he found he never wanted her to stop smiling the way she was now. Not ever.

"Panny-"

The moon behind them flickered.

There came a low groan, from deep within the bowels of the earth, and the grassy meadow below them began to crumble into dust. The colors in the air, so vivid and bright before, now began to bleed like running paint. The very world around them seemed to be buckling.

"What's happening?"

"One of us is waking up, I imagine." Pan said softly, watching the dream realm around them fade. "Even the best dreams have to end eventually, Moony."

"We won't remember." Moondancer breathed, the realization sending a bolt of fear down his spine. He gripped her hands in alarm, and Pan squeezed them, trying to steady him. "Won't we?"

"...Probably not." She admitted, looking a little afraid herself. "But that doesn't mean it's not real."

The moon gave a final flicker, then went out. "It might as well not be!" He cried out. The light was gone- he couldn't see. Was she still here? "Panny!" He turned around, his arms clawing through empty air. "Pandora!"

A voice floated to him from the darkness. "Calm down, twinkle-toes. It'll be okay. Even if you don't remember, know this- no matter what, I want you to know you're my friend, Moony. You're one of my precious things. And there will always be room for you in my heart....whenever you're ready to stop being an idiot."

A hand, warm and gentle, came to rest on his shoulder, and he felt her press a kiss to his forehead.

"Pandora, I-"

And the world went black.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Moondancer awoke slowly, still groggy from his late night at the library. He brushed fumbling fingers to his face- there was a strange, lingering feeling of warmth against his forehead, and even more puzzling, a familiar, dull ache in his chest.

Stop being an idiot, Moony.

....Pandora.

Had he dreamed of her again? Those words....had she been mocking him?

Wretched woman. Even in his dreams, it seemed he couldn't escape her.

He shook his head with a scowl, ridding his mind of all traces of his bothersome rival. With effort, he sat up, finding the ancient, worn spell book on his nightstand, its cover decorated in a cryptic red seal. He peeled open the dusty, yellowed pages, and with a sigh, began to read.

~~~~~~~~~~~

this is mostly canon

idiot friends love each other but aren't very good at expressing that (seriously moony, quit bein an evil dingus)

related:

View the Pandoraverse Main Story Arc in chronological order here

Bonus doodle!

only tangentially related to the story at hand, but i'm most fond of Moony when he's being a huge repressed dumbass