They're EVERYWHERE!

65536: 6

"Once again, what have we learned?" asks Sharp with a smug smirk.

The red-eyed alicorn gives him a bloodshot look.

"That bad batponies get sent to the moon along with their changeling friends?" she grumbles.

"Aww, come on," Sharp turns his head to 65536 unsuccessfully attempting to blow bubbles out of his now clean and soap-less leg holes, "You win some, you lose some. Now you're both squeaky clean, everything has calmed down, and other than that wet plush likeness of Celestia everything is fine."

"It's not fine, Sharp, that's the problem," Luna sighs, "From what you told me, it's clear that the trauma ponies suffered from the invasion was so powerful that certain inhabitants of the dreamscape were able to get out into the real world. From my experience, it's going to get worse before it gets better."

"Oh," Sharp hesitates,"So, for the record, you're not all grumpy because we bubbled the everliving moonlight out of you until you cried?"

"Having a sentient bubble blower is an advantage that not even alicorn magic can overcome," she shrugs, "No, you won fair and square, but you being a sore winner and not shutting up is a one-way ticket to the Badlands."

"Why the Badlands?"

"Didn't you hear the theory that Celestia faked sending me to the moon there?"

"I did, actually. From the same kind of ponies who think Equus is donut-shaped and rides on the backs of four giant llamas standing on an even bigger blobfish floating in space," Sharp shakes his head, "So what's the big deal with the dreamscape creatures? My experience with Krumare was less than impressive and little buggo here punched off that weird bladed leg poking from the rift as if it was nothing."

"That's what worries me the most..." Luna looks at the changeling currently amusing itself by shoving Sharp's short mane through its leg holes and quietly buzzing and chittering to itself, "If I'm not making a complete miscalculation, the thing attempting to hurt me was a dreamweaver. They are among the most dangerous dreamscape beings who, when they get out, are invulnerable to most mundane means. I have zero idea why a common changeling would be able to harm it without a problem. Normally, you would need weapons enchanted with complex magic, something on the level of paladin grandmaster relics or the items locked in the castle's main vault."

"And Krumare? In the movies he's pretty much invincible to anything other than plot holes."

Luna shrugs.

"It really depends on the dreamer who brought it up but inside the dreamscape they are possible to banish or hurt. It's the real world that's the problem. The natural divine power of my aspect usually makes an incursion like this impossible but in the light of recent events..." she lowers her head, "I've allowed myself to become weak, unfocused. If I was in my prime, I'd be able to hold the horrors inside on my own."

"Or you might attempt to usher eternal night again, Luna," Sharp pulls her into a hug, "It doesn't matter whether this happened because you are too weak now, because the ponies are softer than before your banishment, or because the threat of the changelings being able to replace anyone is just too much. We are here, your guards are here, and Equestria is still here," he lets go and boops her as she leans back, "So, Moonpie, what do we do now?"

Luna looks firmly at the changeling who, seeing attention focusing on it again, gives her a happy smile.

"The changeling was able to talk in the dreamscape, yet it's unable to do so now. It's either playing the long game and pretending it doesn't even understand us at all or it can't do that either. The answers are in the dreamscape, and I have to find them before tomorrow night when all this is going to happen again, likely to a worse degree."