“So yer tellin’ me that Princess Luna herself, the co-ruler of all of Equestria, actually took some of her own unimaginably valuable time ta come and visit you while you were sleepin’?” Apple Bloom questioned her friend.
“She did!” affirmed Sweetie Belle happily, apparently not noticing her friend’s incredulity.
“How kin yew be sure it wasn’t, like, an ordinary dream and you just happened to be dreamin’ about the princess?”
“I don’t know. It was kinda weird,” the unicorn tried to explain. “It was like I realized I was dreaming once Princess Luna showed up. From then on it was more like I was just talking to her instead of actually dreaming on my own.”
Apple Bloom remained unconvinced.
“It was just… different from anything I’ve ever dreamt before. It was real! I know it!” pouted Sweetie Belle. Suddenly a look of realization and triumph burst onto her face. “Oh! And I actually met Luna in person when I was awake and at first I thought I was still just dreaming but she turned out to be totally real! Even better, she totally knew what was going on, so she must have been there in my dream!”
“Are ya sure ya didn’t just bump your head or somethin’ while we were all runnin’ around? You did hit that window pretty hard, now that Ah think about it.”
Sweetie Belle groaned with exasperation, unsure if she was more annoyed with Apple Bloom refusing to believe her or the wind messing up her mane. Before she thought of what to say next Scootaloo turned her head a little so her two friends would be able to hear her while she was carting them along in her wagon.
“You know, Luna visited me in my dreams once, too!” she declared, just a little bit proud of being able to say so.
“Really?” both of her friends exclaimed in unison.
“Yeah, really! Back when we went to Winsome Falls I was having some really freaky dreams but Luna showed up and helped me get rid of them. I always thought that I had dreamt all of it up but if the same thing happened to Sweetie Belle then maybe it was real after all.”
“Ha!” Sweetie Belle cheered, “I told you I wasn’t imagining things!”
“Hmm,” Applebloom gazed pensively at the trees whizzing past on the side of the road. “Maybe you’re right...”
* * *
During their next Twilight Time Apple Bloom suddenly broke Twilight’s chain of thought and asked, “Twilight, does Princess Luna really visit ponies in their dreams? We were thinkin’ you’d know, since you’re a princess and all.”
“Oh, um...” the surprised Alicorn paused for a second. It usually took her a little bit to switch her mind from one topic to another. Once she quickly finished recalling what she knew of Luna’s duties she smiled and replied, “Yes, in fact she does! For the thousand years while she was gone it was merely a legend passed down through generations that there was once a pony who watched over the realm of our dreams, but now that Luna has returned there have been reports of her highness visiting dreamers all across the land. I think the only reasonable conclusion is that Luna has the power to watch over our dreams and intervene if she has to.”
“Interwhat?” Scootaloo piped up, her face a squinted visage of confusion.
“Intervene,” Twilight explained good-naturedly. “It means to step in and change what’s happening. Like if somepony is having a nightmare then Luna might come and stop it so that pony can have good dreams again. That would mean she’s intervening.”
“Oh,” grinned Scootaloo, “I get it!”
“So Princess Luna watches everypony’s dreams and takes care of them if something goes wrong?” Sweetie Belle squeaked.
“That’s right,” chirped Twilight. “It’s really impressive, actually. Ponies have had the technology to enter other ponies’ dreams for a few centuries but we’re still nowhere close to achieving the scale of Luna’s powers. Her magic makes our methods look crude and dull when compared to her elegance and grace.”
“Wait a minute,” Apple Bloom abruptly interrupted the princess. “Yer sayin’ ponies have been able to do this dream-intervening stuff fer years and all the sudden Luna shows up and is instantly famous for it?”
“Well, no, not exactly,” Twilight looked a little hurt. “She’s unbelievably talented and takes our current abilities to a whole new level. Plus the fact that she’s Celestia’s sister and a princess would probably make her famous whether or not she had the power to visit our dreams.”
“Psh,” declared Apple Bloom dismissively. “That’s no big deal. I bet we could be even better at fixing ponies’ dreams,” she continued testily. For some reason Apple Bloom seemed a little grumpy today. “What sort of stuff do we need to see what ponies are dreamin’ about?”
Twilight was slightly taken aback by the filly’s attitude. It had been a long time since she’d heard anything but praise spoken about Luna’s powers. She had certainly not expected their conversation to take this turn.
“Uh, if you’d like to try it I’ve got a few dream helmets in the basement. You’re welcome to use them for learning purposes,” she said, her voice tinged with a hint of sour. “I should warn you, though, that we never entirely perfected the technology. For ponies who aren’t used to it, the helmets can do some pretty bizarre things. It’s perfectly safe, and it can’t hurt you, it’s just… sometimes your dreams can get a little mixed up.”
“Oh, don’t yew worry ‘bout a thing, Twilight!” Apple Bloom waved her hoof smugly. “I’m sure we can handle it. I bet by the end of the day we’ll all have our cutie marks in dream fixing.”
* * *
After about half an hour of set-up and instructions, which the fillies silently agreed through shared looks and eye-rolling were entirely tedious and unnecessary, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were ready to embark on their journey into the world of a dreamer. Their helmets were securely fastened, they had jumbles of tangled wires and batteries piling up around their hooves, and now all they needed was, well, a dreamer.
“Spike should do nicely,” Twilight declared. Her mood had improved significantly over the past thirty minutes. Teaching other ponies about science never failed to cheer her up.
“He should be about a third of the way through his mid-morning nap right now,” she continued. “His sleep schedule is like a clock. It’s almost a little scary how accurately he falls asleep at the exact same times every single day.”
She kept talking as she led the newly helmeted fillies upstairs to her bedroom where Spike was snoring away in his bed/basket/crib. On their way up the stairs the fillies tripped and stumbled over the wires dangling from their helmets with nearly every step. Eventually they caught up to the princess.
“Normally I’d lecture you about how you shouldn’t use this sort of technology to invade ponies’ privacy and that you should only enter someone’s dreams if you have their explicit consent, but what’s the point of having a lab assistant if you can’t use him for experiments?”
“Are you sure it’s alright?” Sweetie Belle asked the princess, eyeing the sleeping dragon warily.
“Ye--”
“Of course she’s sure!” Apple Bloom interrupted again, huffing at her friend. Next she turned to Twilight. “Now how do we get into his dreams?”
“Don’t you remember? I already explained it,” the mare asked innocently. “You three just go take a seat next to him and I’ll send you in with my remote control.”
The young ponies did as they were instructed and sat down in a triangle around Spike. They looked at Twilight expectantly as she fiddled around with a some knobs and switches on her remote.
“Alright, looks like you’re ready to go,” she said, examining the displays on her controller with a keen eye. “Now just remember that no matter what happens, it’s all a dream and you’ll wake up safe and sound when it’s over.”
“Cutie Mark Crusaders dream fixers yay!” Apple Bloom whisper-cheered so as not to wake the snoring dragon. The three of them put their hooves together in a silent three-way hoof bump, then Twilight pressed a big green button. Instantly the three fillies’ eyes went wide and their pupils dilated as they experienced the indescribable sensation of entering another’s thoughts. They were vaguely aware of the world shifting and blurring around them as space and time itself warped to the whims of a sleeping baby dragon.
* * *
“Wow! That was… weird,” Scootaloo groaned, scratching her head and squinting. She noticed that her helmet was gone and her friends’ heads were bare too.
“Where are we?” Sweetie Belle wondered aloud, taking in their dark surroundings. They seemed to be in a long corridor with walls made of rectangular stones stacked on top of each other like a lot of buildings were in medieval times. a couple hundred feet down the corridor there was another wall and the path made a sort of T shape, going left and right. In the opposite direction there was a door not too far from where the girls were standing. It was large and wooden with bands of iron crossing it horizontally. One of the walls that made up the long side of the corridor was bare and the other was lined with windows every twenty feet or so.
Apple Bloom trotted over to a window and peered outside. Dark red clouds swirled overhead and an uncomfortably warm wind billowed upwards, ruffling her bow. From her vantage point she saw that they were near the bottom of a large stone castle built over an active volcano.
Her attention was drawn away by the door thudding and then suddenly bursting open. A large stallion clad in metal armor stood in the doorway. The fillies could see nothing of his face except that a large moustache burst forth from his otherwise unrevealing faceplate. In his right hoof he brandished a mighty sword which glinted in the red light of the lava pit.
“Lo! Innocent children!” he exclaimed in a voice both gallant and caring, “You have no place here. I beg you leave at once!”
“But, sir,” Sweetie Belle protested, “we don’t even know where we are. Or how to leave, for that matter.”
“Alas, sweet children,” he answered, lifting his faceplate to reveal handsome young blue eyes that reminded the fillies of a summer sky. “My time here is short and I must make haste. I fear I have not the means to guide you out, but I may still set you on the right path. The exit is beyond this door and down many stories. Go nowhere but down and you may yet escape this place alive. Pray, fly from here as swiftly as you can.”
A deep concern shone from his eyes and it was clear he would give almost anything to ensure the fillies’ safety.
“Gee, thanks mister,” Apple Bloom answered hesitantly. “We’ll, um, get right on that.”
“Oh, thank Celestia,” the stallion sighed. “Then this is where we part ways,” he declared, graciously stepping aside to allow the fillies passage. They filed past him with confused glances all around.
“I beseech you to hurry,” he urged once more.
“Uh, okay,” Apple Bloom responded with a fake smile as the three of them trotted away from the stallion.
“Fare thee well!” he shouted and then galloped down the corridor, taking a left turn at the end. As soon as he was out of sight Apple Bloom turned towards her friends and stopped them.
“Girls, we can’t just leave! Whatever’s happening in this dream isn’t going to happen outside the castle. It’s going to be wherever that knight was headed,” she reasoned.
“Yeah, we’ve gotta follow him and find some action!” Scootaloo agreed.
“Not to mention we haven’t found Spike yet,” Sweetie Belle nodded. “He has to be in here somewhere, right?”
“Right,” said Scootaloo.
“Then let’s go find him!” shouted Apple Bloom as she took off in the direction the stallion had gone. Her friends followed closely behind her as they barrelled through warm, dimly lit passageways, following a trail of opened doors to try to find the stallion. They occasionally whisked past a skeleton or abandoned armor with no trace of where its owner had gone. Sometimes the walls grew darker in places with the outline of a knight traced in soot.
Soon enough they whipped around a corner and came to a screeching halt. Apple Bloom found herself teetering on the edge of a destroyed bridge above the sea of lava. Her friends grabbed her and pulled her away from the ledge and the three of them fell back panting.
“Whew, that was close,” the earth pony sighed.
“Mmhmm,” agreed Scootaloo. Then she paused for a second and asked, “What do you think would happen if we fell? Like, can we die here?”
“Nah, Twilight said it was safe,” assured Apple Bloom. “We’d probably just wake up back in the library.”
“Either way,” Sweetie Belle said with a worried expression, “I’d rather not fall into a pool of molten lava.”
“That’s for sure,” Scootaloo consented, venturing to peer over the ledge into the lava. Looking up she burst out, “Hey! There’s the stallion from earlier!”
The three ponies looked over to the other side of the destroyed bridge to see the knight with his back turned to them. He was untying himself from a rope that spanned the gap between them.
“Oh, so that’s how we get across,” gasped Sweetie Belle, noticing the rope.
“Here, I’ll boost you up.” Scootaloo stood below the rope, lowering her head so her friends could stand on her back and reach it. They climbed on and were dangling from the rope in just a few moments, then Scootaloo buzzed her wings, just barely jumping high enough to grab the rope and hold on.
Each pony wrapped their four legs around the rope and began climbing across, hoof over hoof. The rope sagged a little when all three of them were near the center but it held strong and the fillies made it across without a problem.
“That was surprisingly easy,” Sweetie Belle smiled proudly as she joined Apple Bloom on the ground.
“Well this is a dream after all,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “I’m not sure physics works exactly the same way.”
A second later Scootaloo reached the end and hopped off the rope. “Did either of you see where that knight went?” she asked. Her two friends looked at each other as it dawned on them that they hadn’t been paying attention.
“Well,” Apple Bloom thought aloud as she turned to see where he could have gone. “I think I’ve got a pretty good guess.”
The fillies were on a naturally occurring stone platform that formed a sort of hill in the center of the lava. An important looking archway awaited them at the peak of the hill several hundred feet away. The form of the land made it appear as if the platform ended directly on the other side of the arch, but the humongous tower that rose over the false horizon proved that the arch would not be the end of their journey.
They hurried over the cracked, rough stone, approaching the archway. As they got nearer they began hearing far-off roaring sounds coming from the other side of the hill. Soon they stood in the archway and discovered that the tower did, in fact, stand on the far side of the massive platform. As the rest of the land mass rose into view the fillies instantly identified the source of the now-louder roaring.
“Is that...” Scootaloo began, awestruck.
“Spike?” Apple Bloom concluded with her jaw dropped.
A massive purple and green dragon blocked their view of the bottom of the tower. It was almost like he was doing some strange dance, like a pony trying to step on a particularly elusive spider. A flicker of movement between the dragon’s feet revealed itself to be the knight, brandishing his sword and swiftly dodging the dragon’s stomps and fire. The battle looked intense, but the knight seemed unable to fight back or do anything other than continually dodge Spike’s attacks.
“Spike!” the crusaders shouted repeatedly as they rushed downhill towards the epic battle. The combatants, however, seemed to be either too focused or just too far away to hear them.
“Spike!” they called again once they got closer.
This time the dragon lifted his head and made a sort of “Mreh?” sound, almost like he was saying “huh?”
The knight immediately took advantage of the short pause in the onslaught and joyously cried “Ah ha!” as he jumped up and stabbed at the dragon’s belly with his sword. To his utter disappointment the blade merely glanced off the dragon’s scales and fell from his grip. The dragon looked down again with an annoyed expression and smooshed the knight into oblivion under his massive foot.
“Oh!” gasped Apple Bloom as the three of them paused, still a couple hundred feet from the dragon. The beast let out a few deep rumbles that somewhat resembled laughter.
“Um, was that our fault?” Scootaloo looked concerned. Before her friends could answer, though, a new voice carried across the heavy air met them.
“Oh, Spikey-Wikey, you’re so strong and brave! How many knights is it you’ve saved me from, now? A hundred and four, I think it was by my last count.”
“Rarity!?!” Sweetie Belle went nearly faint with shock. The fillies looked towards the source of the elegant voice and saw a light grey unicorn leaning out of the highest window on the tower swooning over the proud dragon. The squeak in Sweetie Belle’s voice made it all the way to the dragon and his princess as the dragon noticed them and approached them in a single bound.
The ponies screamed as the grown-up Spike scooped them up in his claw and carried them back to the tower.
“Sweetie Belle, is that you?” the elegant voice called as she recognized her younger sister. “What are you doing here? This is no place for a pony your age,” she scolded.
“What am I doing here?” the younger unicorn squeaked. “Twilight showed us how to visit dreams. The real question is what are you doing here in Spike’s dream?”
“Dream, dearie?” Rarity looked thoroughly confused. “I’m afraid I have no idea what you mean.”
“Don’t you remember how you got here? Did you put on a helmet?” Sweetie Belle questioned.
“Our parents locked me away here when I was just a filly. I wouldn’t expect you to remember since you were just an infant, but didn’t they tell you?” Rarity was baffled.
Suddenly a light bulb lit up in Scootaloo’s mind. “Sweetie Belle,” she explained quickly. “I don’t think that’s the real Rarity! That’s probably just a version Spike made up for his own dream. She’s just a figment of Spike’s imagination!”
Sweetie Belle’s eyes lit up as she instantly understood the situation. A similar expression appeared on the dragon’s face who had been listening to the whole conversation.
“Wait,” he said in his usual baby Spike voice. Soon a look of defeated disappointment spread across his features as he thought.
“So this whole thing is just a dream,” he sighed to himself, looking sadly at Rarity, who wore a shocked expression but said nothing. “I guess I should have known it was too good to be true.”
“Spike!” Apple Bloom cried suddenly, remembering the knight that had been so kind to them. “Are you telling me that you actually dream about killing ponies? That’s sorta m--”
Suddenly the world went silent and Apple Bloom found herself completely unable to move or speak. A wall of blackness approached on all sides, sweeping up everything that made up the dream world and finally closing in around Spike. The three fillies once again felt the head rush that they’d felt when they entered Spike’s dream.
* * *
“Whuh… huh?” Sweetie Belle groaned, still recovering from the strange transition. “This… isn’t the library.”
“Hold on,” Apple Bloom was puzzled. “What just happened?”
Scootaloo took in the new environment with a hint of recognition. They seemed to be standing on a cloud adrift in a blue sky.
“I think when Spike realized he was dreaming, he woke up,” the pegasus explained. “And when that happened we somehow ended up in my--”
She suddenly clamped her mouth shut as her face turned bright red. A look of terror exploded onto her features and out of nowhere she leapt forward and shoved her friends’ faces into the cloud.
“Cover your eyes!” she cried desperately. “You’re not allowed to see this!”
“Hey Scoots,” a friendly voice sounded. Scootaloo’s friends couldn’t see where it was coming from with their faces buried. “You ready for our--”
“Rainbow Dash! Stop!” Scootaloo screamed, completely panicked. “This is a dream! You’re not real! Go away! Now is not the time!”
“Uhh...” the visitor hesitated. “You okay? You’re acting sorta, you know, crazy. Also, how are did you get your friends to stand on a cloud like that?”
Scootaloo ignored her and squeezed her eyes shut, murmuring to herself, “I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming. I’m dreaming. This isn’t real.”
Focusing all of her mental energy, Scootaloo roared, “Wake up!” and the clouds, sky, and visitor disappeared around them.
* * *
“What the hay was that all about?” questioned a disgruntled Apple Bloom after a moment of recovering from the transition.
“I-- I’d rather not say.” Scootaloo looked away sheepishly.
“Well I’d rather not have my face shoved into a cloud,” countered the earth pony, “but that didn’t seem to stop you.”
“Girls!” Sweetie Belle’s voice cracked with excitement, drawing their attention away from the argument. “I know this place! Sometimes I have dreams where I make dresses just like my sister, and this is where I do it!”
All around them mountains of fabric and mannequins and other art supplies stretched as far as the eye could see.
“Um, so now we’re in your dream?” Apple Bloom asked the unicorn.
“I think so.”
“And that last dream, whatever it was, was yours, Scootaloo?”
“Yeah,” the pegasus blushed.
“Well how come we aren’t waking up? Why do we just switching into other ponies’ dreams?” Apple Bloom asked impatiently.
“Twilight did say weird things can happen with these helmets,” Sweetie Belle reminded her. “But while we’re here we might as well make the most of it, right?” she asked hopefully, turning towards the nearest pile of fabric.
“No, I’m getting tired of this dream stuff,” Apple Bloom huffed. “Try waking up again and see if it works this time.”
Sweetie Belle looked crestfallen, but she gave a half-hearted attempt to wake herself. She shut her eyes and stood there silently for a minute as her friends watched.
“Um, Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo prompted.
“Yes?” the unicorn opened her eyes.
“I don’t think it’s working.”
“I’m sorry. I’ve never really done this before.”
“Oh, I’ve got an idea!” Apple Bloom interjected. “Maybe this’ll help.”
She stepped towards Sweetie Belle and grabbed a bit of her coat, pinching it.
“Hehe,” the unicorn giggled, “That feels funny!”
“It doesn’t hurt, does it?” Apple Bloom pinched harder.
“No, not at a--” she stopped as soon as she realized what Apple Bloom was doing. Immediately everything when black.
* * *
The three fillies rubbed their eyes and yawned, finding themselves back in Twilight’s library. Twilight was right where they’d left her, only Spike was standing by her side instead of asleep in his bed.
“Oh good,” Apple Bloom breathed a sigh of relief. “I was starting to think that would never end.”
“Did you have fun on your little… ‘adventure’?” a harsh voice questioned her with an accusing tone. Twilight’s eyes were focused behind Apple Bloom and her lips were not moving. The young filly wheeled around to be confronted by the princess of the night herself.
“Princess Luna!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, unsure of what to make of her.
“Did you think I would not notice or did you think I simply wouldn’t care? Either way, you were wrong,” the princess spat. “The realm of dreams is mine to rule and I will not stand idly by while you little foals try to steal it from me!”
“For a thousand years I’ve waited to once again reclaim my rightful throne in the night and you think you can take it away from me. I’d rather die than let a useless peasant like you tarnish my beautiful creations with your filth! You think you’ve escaped those dreams? Perhaps you have, but the nightmare has just begun!”
As the princess howled she pressed closer and closer to the earth pony, soon towering over her and screaming down at her. The princess’s form seemed to suck the very light from the air and soon everything except the princess’s terrifying face appeared to Apple Bloom as dark and faded. She merely cowered on the floor and put her head in her hooves.
“I’m sorry, princess!” she tried desperately to explain. “I had no idea it wasn’t okay! I just thought since everypony liked you so much because you bring good dreams then maybe I could do the same thing and then I’d be famous too! I’m really sorry for trying to take your place. I thought you wouldn’t mind and--”
She gasped. The princess froze and suddenly her form was not so darkening or overpowering. Apple Bloom continued with smug grin.
“And I just realized I’m not wearing a helmet.”
Everything went black.
* * *
Apple Bloom just groaned.
“This is really getting confusing,” she muttered as she opened her eyes and found herself in a strange dark blue atmosphere. The ground beneath her hooves felt tingly and she was surprised to find it was made of starlight.
“Sweetie Belle? Apple Bloom?” she looked around for her friends once she realized with a start that they were missing.
“They’ve woken up,” answered a calm, soothing voice. “They’re back safe and sound with Twilight.”
Suddenly the shape of a pony materialized in front of the filly and she cringed when she recognized the shape to be Princess Luna.
“Relax, child,” she cooed. “I’m not angry. That was your own dream you just left and it was your own version of myself that you imagined. I brought you here without your friends so that we may speak openly.”
“Oh,” Apple Bloom looked down dejectedly. “That wasn’t really you, huh? I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“It’s quite alright. You cannot control your own dreams, after all. That is my duty as guardian of the night. That means I must do anything in my power to banish nightmares, and for me to help you with that I must know one thing: Why would you imagine me as a tyrant who would not allow a few good-natured fillies to visit a friend’s dream?”
“Well,” the filly began to answer. Something about Luna’s calm, gentle demeanor made Apple Bloom feel like she could be completely honest despite her shame. “When I heard that you’d visited both of my best friends in their dreams I felt a little left out, I guess. I sorta felt like you didn’t want to visit me for some reason, and I got a little bit jealous. Then when I asked Twilight about you and she told me how great and how wonderful you are I felt even worse that my friends had gotten to meet you and I hadn’t.”
“I see,” the princess responded sagely. “Jealousy can be an extraordinarily powerful emotion. Just as love cannot exist without friendship, hate cannot exist without jealousy and it is rare to find one without the other. I want you to know that the only reason I had not appeared to you is because it was not necessary. I only interfere with natural dreams if the pony having them is troubled enough to require my assistance.”
Luna smiled kindly as she continued, “So in a sense, it speaks highly of your independence and your ability to solve problems on your own that you were the last of your friends to meet me in your dreams.”
Apple Bloom stood silently for a few seconds, reflecting on her own behavior. At last she sighed and said, “Thank you, princess. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
“There’s no need to thank me, child. Just remember that I will always be here for you if you need me.”
With a sense of finality Luna’s horn glowed, enveloping Apple Bloom in silvery blue magic. Soon the starry landscape faded to black and Apple Bloom once again felt the now familiar head rush of leaving a dream.
Next thing she knew she was waking up in Twilight’s library with her friends surrounding her and a helmet on her head.
Author's Note
I wrote this for the Equestria Daily Writer's Training Ground #013. This time I took inspiration from both given prompts which were "Fed up of being overshadowed by others, one pony takes matters a little too far." and "Guiding the dreams of the realm is no easy task. Few realize, however, that Princess Luna has friends who help her do just that.".
I'm not really sure how I feel about this one, but at least I finished it.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you like it!
