Friends With The Night

Starry skies stared at the endless expanse of dreamscape all around him, as far as he could see there were floating spheres of various colors and sizes.

“Wow, are these all ponies dreams,” starry asked looking around and finding Luna floating next to him.

“Yes, each one is a sleeping pony.”

“How do you tell which ones need help,” starry asked staring at the multiplicity of dreams before him.

“It’s the color of the dream,” Luna answered gesturing a hoof to some of the dreams.

“We can ignore most of the colors for right now, what we are looking for is a nightmare.” Luna surveyed the dreamscape before finding dream shrouded in a deep red fog some distance away.

” Ah! Come here starry there is a nightmare.” Luna grabbed Starry’s hoof and pulled him along till they were floating in front of the sphere. Inside the dream bubble was an island surrounded by a churning sea.

”okay we are going to go in, then disguise ourselves so we blend in with the dream, then we find the dreamer and help them beat the nightmare. Sound good,” Luna asked and was answered by a nod from starry, she then braced her hooves against the sphere and began to slide in. starry pressed his hooves against the sphere and closed his eyes as he felt his senses ebb away to nothing.

Starry slowly felt senses return to his body. First starry felt a cool breeze against his coat, followed by the smell of seawater. Starry opened his eyes to look around. He was standing on a rocky cliff face, behind him was the cliff edge a long drop into the churning waters below. A little ways away from the cliff was a beach with several ships sitting in the cove waiving large pirate flags. Luna came up behind starry and eyed the ships.

“looks like a pirate dream,” she said, her form shrinking down to that of a regular pony, her coat becoming a bright red, followed by her hair becoming black and chopped short into a kind of messy look, her cutie mark was soon replaced with two crossing swords. Starry looked at her new look and closed his eyes, focusing in changing his appearance, he dropped the sheen in his coat so it looked dirtier and made his hair black and shorter, then changed his cutie mark to a large cannon on a disproportional boat. When starry looked back to Luna she had donned a pirate hat and had a sword holster attached to a saddle bag, starry quickly copied the ensemble and smiled at Luna.

“So, let’s go find this dreamer!”

A small colt ran through the dense jungle, his tan and brown pinto coat was matted with dirt and sweat. Pipsqueak was being chased by bloodthirsty pirates, after him for finding the location of their treasure.  Suddenly the dreaming pony hit a dead end, that he swore hadn’t been there earlier and whipped around to see five of the nastiest, meanest pirates to ever disgrace the face of equestrian with their presents advancing on him from the thick vegetation. The pirates laughed menacingly as they advanced on their prey, when suddenly a yell broke the air and two ponies landed in front of the colt.

“captain pipsqueak thank goodness we found you! We don’t think we could have handled these pirates on our own,” Luna said throwing a hat and sword holster to pipsqueak, both seeming to magically attach to him.

“what,” pipsqueak asked looking at the two new ponies on the scene.

“I know its dark out here captain, but don’t you recognize us? It’s us your loyal crew,” starry skies said cheerfully and turned back to the nightmare pirates. Pipsqueak stared at the two for a moment before it began to make sense.

“oh yeah! That’s right,” pipsqueak yelled and stood up taller.

“well, crew, lets teach these no-good pirates how we deal with enemies of Equestria!” pipsqueak pulled his sword out of its holster with his mouth, followed by starry and Luna doing the same. Pipsqueak dove forward and used his front hooves to knock the middle pirate down before striking him in the chest with his wooden sword, the pirate let out a wail of agony before exploding into dazzling sparkles of light and glitter.

“amazing captain,” Luna called out through gritted teeth as she and starry feigned difficulty fighting off one pirate. Pipsqueak smiled and dived to the pirate Luna and starry were fighting, executing a masterful roll he brushed the wooden “blade” of his sword against the pirate’s midsection, causing another explosion of lights and glitter. Pipsqueak then stood in front of starry and Luna brandishing his sword in a heroic pose as the three remaining pirates advanced on them.

“for equestrian!” the colt called out before running to the middle pirate and jumping on his back,  and spinning around in a circular motion, hitting the two pirates around the one he was standing on, then jumping into the air and aiming his sword down as he hit the last pirate, causing him to land in the ensuing explosion. Luna and starry sheathed their wooden swords and faced pipsqueak, who had done the same.

“great job captain,” Luna cheered.

“what is our next course of action,” starry asked, looking around the jungle as if he was looking for more pirates.

“simple,” pipsqueak said coolly.

“we just get to the treasure and escape pirate cove and head back to equestrian waters!” pipsqueak jumped then faced the jungle that led back to the beach.

“now, onward to victory,” pipsqueak called out and ran into the dense vegetation, followed by his two loyal crew members

Luna advanced the dream so the three were lying prone behind an overturned palm tree. Pipsqueak had a telescope positioned over the trunk and was surveying the scene. No less than fifty pirates were patrolling the beachfront, torches had been stabbed into the ground and bamboo scaffolding and pathways were all protecting a large hole dug into the sand.

“okay,” pipsqueak said, stowing his telescope in his saddle bag and facing his crew.

“we are massively outnumbered and outgunned, but I think with careful planning and precision we can get the treasure without too much trouble.” Pipsqueak looked at Luna.

“I need you to go start a fire in that shack over there.” Pipsqueak turned to starry.

“you go raid their stash of rubber band guns and get to a high place without being seen.” Starry nodded and pipsqueak turned back to the pirate’s camp.

“I’m going to go secure one of the ships out there once Luna starts the fire, and starry I need you to back me up if any pirate sees me. ready,” pipsqueak asked,  his daring and loyal crew nodded and slowly stood up from their hiding place, pipsqueak immediately ran off  and dived into a rut in the sand he used to crawl over to the beached rowboats without being seen.

“this is going very good,” Luna whispered to starry before running off to the shack she was supposed to set fire, and starry ran over to the munitions storage and grabbed a long-distance rubber band gun and two balls of rubber bands.

Luna kicked over a torch and dashed off into the jungle as pirates came running over to attempt to put out the fire, seeing his signal pipsqueak jumped into a rowboat  and cast off, rowing to one of the ships on the horizon.

Starry looked around and after a second closed his eyes and willed a large tower of bamboo and palm tree leaves into existence near the shore and watched as it shimmered into the dream reality, its floors becoming populated by dream pirates. Starry quickly ran to the tower and pressed himself against the base looking around suspiciously before ascending the ramp to the first level. Staying low to the ground starry slowly came up behind a pirate, whipping around and bucking him in the flank, causing the explosion of light and glitter as he ascended to the next floor.

Luna looked out from the jungle, and then willed herself into the rowboat with pipsqueak as he met the ship and altering the dream flow so pipsqueak would think it made sense for her to be there.

“here captain,” Luna said, pulling a grappling hook from her bag and hoofing it over to pipsqueak.

“thanks mate,” pipsqueak whispered and rotated his head till the hook end was whirling around with considerable speed and loosed it upward, the grappling hook catching the rope net that connected with the crow’s nest.

“let’s go!” pipsqueak said and began shimmying up the rope.

Starry finally reached the top of the tower and was confronted with three dream pirates; quickly he launched himself into the air and hit one in the face with his fore hooves, causing the pirate to tumble over the edge, where he fell to the ground, exploding in a dazzling light show. Starry quickly whipped around and head-butted the nearest pirate so hard he flew back into his comrade, causing them both to explode. Starry then leaned against the wall of the tower, pulling the rubber band gun out and looking through the scope at the dream scene before him.

Pipsqueak finally reached the deck of the ship then gasped and looked up as he saw a pirate holding a sword in his mouth, glaring at the young colt.

“any last words,” it asked as it brought the wooden “blade” close to the rope pipsqueak and Luna were hanging from, it reared its head back and was about to chop the rope when it suddenly exploded into a burst of light and glitter. Pipsqueak pulled himself onto the deck, then helped Luna up and looked around for whatever saved him, then way off in the distance by the beach on a tall tower saw a blue unicorn waving at him with a rubber band rifle slung over his shoulder. Pipsqueak nodded and stalked  to the captain’s quarters of the ship and pushed the door open, seeing nopony in sight. Suddenly there was a loud gasp from outside and pipsqueak ran out of the captain’s room to see Luna being held by a large black coated, red maned earth pony, and his wooden sword against Luna’s neck as she feigned fear.

“Black Heart!” pipsqueak glared at the pirate captain and brandished his sword.

“this has nothing to do with her, this is our fight,” pipsqueak yelled at the pirate, who nodded and threw Luna to the deck.

“so right you are, captain pipsqueak,” Black Heart replied in a  gruff, menacing voice, then reared up on his hind hooves and pulled out two wooden pirate swords, one on each hoof as he striked a menacing pose, his long leather jacket billowing in the night wind.

Pipsqueak dove forward, sword in mouth and landed a strong blow against Black Heart’s  exposed chest, sending the pirate captain stumbling backwards as he worked to hold himself up on two hooves.

“Lucky hit foal” Black Heart sneered at the valiant captain before him.

“now it’s my turn.” Black Heart lunged forward and brought his  swords down, pipsqueak barely managing to roll out of the way as the pirate’s swords impacted with the deck, splintering the wood.

“you’ll have to do better than that,” pipsqueak taunted and rolled past Black Heart, landing a neat blow on one of his hind hooves, making the pirate stumble forward. Then Black Heart brought his hooves out and brought them together in a scissoring motion where pipsqueak was, the colt merely jumped, landing square on  his crossed swords, bringing the pirate back on all fours and pinning his swords down. Black Heart looked at pipsqueak with fear in his eyes.

“you truly are the greatest captain ever,” he said defeatedly. Pipsqueak let out a triumphant smile.

“you bet your flank I am!” the colt brought his sword down on the pirate’s head, causing him to explode in a brilliant flash of light.  Luna got up and trotted over to pipsqueak as he sheathed his sword and both of them looked to the island, which was dotted with little explosions of sparkles and glitter as starry cleaned up the beach with his rubber band gun.

“let’s get that treasure,” pipsqueak called and jumped back down into the rowboat and he and Luna rowed back to shore happily, when they arrived at the sandy beach starry was waiting for them, and together the three of them walked to the hole in the beach and down to the large brown chest.

“oh no! how do we get in,” starry asked gesturing to the large metal lock shaped like a skull on the front of the chest.

“I got this,” pipsqueak said and reared his hoof back, then punched the lock, causing the metal to crack and shatter, the chest lid suddenly tilted back and gold pieces flowed out from it till the three ponies were sitting in a pile of shimmering rare metals.

“we got the treasure!” pipsqueak threw some of the gold into the air, causing it to rain down on the three and suddenly the dream started to shimmer and starry could feel his senses ebbing away again, then looked at Luna.

“he’s waking up,” she stated with a smile on her face as starry suddenly lost all connection with the dream.

Starry opened his eyes to find himself back in the dreamscape, the sphere in front of him slowly shrinking away. Giving a quick look around starry noticed there was a significantly smaller amount of dreams populating the dreamscape.

“Luna? What time is it,” starry asked turning to Luna, who had reverted to her normal alicorn self.

“its almost six am, everypony is waking up, you will probably be waking up soon.” Starry nodded and looked around as the dreams shrank and faded away slowly.

“I don’t usually stay in a dream that long, usually just long enough to turn it away from a nightmare.” Starry nodded and started to become aware of a pressure on his side, he looked and saw that it was pressed as if something invisible was pushing against him.

“see you in a few minutes,” Luna said as starry started to feel absurdly sleepy.

Starry opened his eyes and was in his bed, sitting up and yawning. The unicorn took a hoof and rubbed it on the sheets softly, the fabric feeling alien to wake up to. Slowly starry slipped out of the bed and landed on shaky legs, slumping to the floor before pulling himself up. Starry trotted up to a big mirror next to a dresser and noted a brush sitting on it. Ignoring the magical backlash from his horn starry picked the brush up with his kenesis and pulled it through his mane and tail. Starry put the brush down and walked over to a sink and using his hoof, turned the water on. Starry dipped his hoof into the water then used it to wipe the scorch marks off his coat around his horn.

There was a knock at the door, starry rubbed his hoof on the towel next to his sink and walked over to the door, using his hoof to push the handle down and pulling the door open to see Luna standing there.

“good morning,” the night princess said hapilly.

“goodmorning,” starry replied walking out of his room to stand next to Luna.

“so what are we doing on my first day as your student,” starry asked, the part when he mentioned being a student making him smile.

“well, first off we need to go meet Twilight at the train station.”

“Twilight,” starry asked looking at Luna as he followed her down the hallway.

“yes, my sister’s student and the element of magic.” Luna walked out of the main entrance of the palace and through the garden.

“oh,” starry said simply, keeping up with Luna as the two entered the town proper.

“Several ponies gazed at the princess and the thin unicorn with looks of confusion as the pair made their way to the Canterlot train station.