Beyond Those Who Sleep

by tassadarth

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Sad, Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna, Original Character
Length: 4628

The death of somepony is inevitable, but what happens after their death, what about the dreams their families have of them where do those come from?

Luna has the ability to contact those who are dead, but haven't chosen to move on from their death. For ponies that try to make others lives feel great she gives them a choice for if they want to stay and help, or leave and see what is beyond them. Eventually leading to extreme amounts of stress creating the mare know as Nightmare Moon.

Edit:
For those reading/starting to read: I don't update often, because I'm studying to become a software engineer. I don't have much time to write, or even to have "fun" at all. I'd appreciate your patience, and thank you. :D

Published 2014-07-23 16:20:04 UTC
Last updated 2015-11-30 08:17:25 UTC

Prologue

Author's Note

I hope you enjoy, I'll be uploading chapters as much as I can.
:D
Tassadarth

7/23/2014

Prologue

Beyond Those Who Sleep
By: Tassadarth

I’ve been spending most of my days in the hospital everyday I spend trying to keep my family happy they look at me with their sad eyes, on the edge of tears as I had helped them stay happy for their whole lives. Even now when I’m pretty much on my death bed I try to keep their spirits up, and put those smiles on their faces, because nothing means more to me than my family. My younger brother who of which was still a filly would spend most of his time sitting in the hospital talking with me trying to have as much fun with me before I passed away. My heart was going into failure, and nopony around was offering their heart for a transplant, even if somepony was their blood type would have to match my current one. I was type A of blood, most ponies sadly enough were type B. It was weird being an opposite of everypony around me, but you have to accept who you are. If you don’t your life will simply be the worst. In my own life I had spent it trying to be as generous to everypony I loved as possible.

I looked around the room to see my mother and father on the far side trying to keep straight faces as I laid on the hospital bed on the edge of death. My brother next to me talking about his day at school, I acknowledged him to keep up with the smartest ponies in his school because some day he would become smarter than myself. My heart beat slowed just thinking of my family. Time for visiting was almost over, so I decided to sit up “Hey kid you should go home and get some rest, it’s almost time for me to hit the hay to right.” He smiled at my attempt to keep him happy. My parents and my brother left the room. Tonight I wasn’t all that tired all I had done today was talk to my family, but I did that everyday. Today just seem like the shortest day of my life.

The next day I woke up not even realizing I had fallen asleep, I looked around the room noticing that nopony had come to visit let alone nopony seemed to even bother bring me breakfast. I sat up and looked even more to what was happening, I felt strong. Maybe somepony had gotten a heart for him, even for all that he had done to keep his family happy in the hospital he was sad he had gotten the heart. All it meant was somepony somewhere had died and donated their heart to him. He felt as if he should get up and find out who did this for him, and dedicate all that he has earned to their funeral. Because life is the only gift worth everything.

I sat up from the bed, and stepped down off of it, the ground was cold, and the room was silent. I walked out the doors of my current room only to find a big white empty room, I must have been dreaming because the hospital couldn’t have moved everything they had in one night. I heard a noise behind in which I turned around to see that the room I had been staying had disappeared, and I was now at the exit to the hospital. Funny I didn’t remember walking down stairs to the exit. I turned back to what I thought was the waiting room, only to find myself at my house. It was empty nopony in sight the only thing remaining was my bed. There was a knock on the door, funny considering I lived in the middle of nowhere, what pony would travel out here at this time of day, my family would be visiting me at the hospital right now. His dreams were always memories of the past, this must be from a time where his parents left him home alone. I went to answer the door, but my hoof couldn’t grab hold of the handle. It was only a dream, so I simply thought to myself if I can’t grab hold of the handle, why don’t I just move through the door? I pushed my body through the door to find myself wandering on a big grey plain, a few divots on the surface. Although in the distance I can see big craters in the ground off in the distance. As I approached one of the craters I started to notice that I felt a bit winded from my walk. I wanted to rest, but I kept on thinking “I must move one.” I looked down into the crater only to find that it was a portal to another world. My dreams weren’t always this weird, but I thought I might give a try at summoning a pony from my memory. Lucid dreams were always the best. “Hello? Where am I. I would like somepony to explain to me how I got here.” Questioning a dream always was the best way to wake up this one was creepy, I didn’t like it one bit. I heard hoofsteps behind me, so I turned only to see somepony I wasn’t expecting.

“Princess Luna?” I asked straightening up a bit.

“Need not for silly traditions Tassadarth, for this may come as a bit of a shock.” Luna starred deep into my eyes, with sorrow. “I’m very sorry to inform you, but you have died.”

My neck recoiled from the word she just announced to me, but after all the hours I’ve been in this dream world it would make sense. “What am I supposed to do now? My life was there, and now I’m here. I feel as if this is not what is supposed to happen to a pony when it dies.”

“That’s why you’re here, I have a proposal for you. One that I wouldn’t give to many ponies that enter this realm, you see that not many roam around this dimension. I’ve called your soul here to offer you a chance to see your family in their dreams, to help mourn for yourself. If you choose to do so, you will also be helping others, and if you say no you’ll be stuck in this realm for eternity.”

“I choose to help, I wouldn’t believe that wandering aimlessly would even be a choice. So when do I get to visit my family?”

“I’ll contact you later.” As she said she faded into a small dust cloud, and vanished.

I wandered the surface of what I thought would be the moon, it was a peaceful place. Every noise made would be muffled by the lack of air, I guess I didn’t need air all that much since I was just a spirit. It was odd to think that I was a soul wandering around the moon. This seemed like an odd fate for what kind of life I lived. I spent my whole life trying to make people feel joy instead of sorrow. I understand why she offered me such a job, others can be depressing after they die I guess. Especially when their laying on their death bed, come to think of it even while I was laying in the hospital bed I wasn’t thinking of death, all I could think about was the impact I would leave after I was gone. I guess next time Luna contacts me I will be able to see what sort of impact I left on my little brother. I know that the first one will be the worst, it will be fresh. She didn’t mention any terms or conditions I must follow, so I guess I could just tell him I can see him beyond his own dreams I guess. I could inspire him to build a rocket, and come up here to visit me or would that not work? Being dead is very interesting, and weird. Knowing that your dead is even weirder than not knowing, at least not knowing is like you’re just dreaming a very very very weird dream. When you’re dead it just seems all the more random than the dream, because its events that are happening beyond those who sleep. When I was first approached by Luna I was almost certain this was a dream not just plain out death. Maybe this is different for all the pessimists out there who can’t tell the difference between their dreams and the normal world; because their normal lives seem to just fade away as they fall asleep. They wake up the next morning the same way they always do, that’s what I loved about my life, is that I would wake up always excited for a new adventure; come up with some new way to entertain my little brother. It always seem like my life got better and better everyday. I may not have seemed happy on the outside, but on the inside I was always happy, and getting happier by the second. Every second I spent on the moon, I got more and more tired, was there anywhere to sleep here? I eventually thought to myself if Luna is able to contact me in here isn’t this like some sort of dream? I thought about my house back in Equestria and thought about sleep, I eventually found myself in an empty void. This must be like a dream within a dream? All in all it didn’t seem all that bad, so I decide why not just lay down inside of this void, and try to rest. I never knew that the dead would have to rest to.

Concepts of Death

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Death is the Worst Fate

Chapter 2: Death is the Worst Fate

A few weeks have past in which I have visited the dream world only to get not so great results from my brother, every time I enter he cries his eyes out. I guess I have to understand he just lost a family member, and the kids bullying him at school doesn’t make it any better. But I’m here to make sure he can get everything he needs to be stable.

Although the more that I’ve been in this dream realm is the more often I don’t get to see Luna, it’s sad to think that all the real interaction I get with somepony while I’m dead. She apparently has some new work outside of the dream realm she needs to take care of. I understand though she being a princess and all, but I’ve been in this dream realm for quite some time. All of the other dreams I’ve been in where somepony is depressed because of bullies, someone dying, something dying, or losing something overall just seems to be the unhappiness in Equestria.

I sat here thinking for most of the time since the surface of the “Moon” was not much to discover, I couldn't think up anything into existence since I’m not in an actual dream. I was explained to by Luna that this is in fact called the dream realm, but it acts as a hub to access all other dreams from.

The two things I think about are: What if I was still alive, or What is going on in the realm of the living? It’s a tough process to piece together the thoughts of ponies dreaming.

In the middle of making my own autobiography in my head Luna had returned from working, she always seem exhausted after returning from the realm of the living. This time she seemed in a hurry as if something bad had happened, she turned in my direction and started to gallop toward me. She didn’t stop to catch her breath, and started speaking.

“I need you to immediately go to the dream of several ponies consecutively, something really bad happened in the real world and this will require a lot of effort to bring out of the depths it’s already reached.”

I did what she had asked, not making a single comment, and was glad to go into another dream all the sitting around doing nothing was quite boring. When I had gotten into the dream I had noticed something new the pony was not simply crying, but was shackled to the ground, had a dim but glossy coat and had a big grin upon it’s face. I walked in her general direction, and said “what’s wrong? Why are you shackled? Why is your coat so dim?”

She turned to me, and looked into my eyes and started to open her mouth to speak until a distant laugh came from an unknown direction. I turned around to see the contents of what she was overall dreaming, and I saw something I had only heard of the Crystal Empire. The castle rose very high, and in a second a flash of light blinded me. The moment I finally gained my vision back I noticed the frost landscape around which the castle once stood, the Crystal Empire had just vanished.

Now I understand why this situation is so urgent, these ponies have now lost their homes, their families, and their friends. I rose from where I had fell down to my knees. I turned to the pony laying in her arms, and thought for a few seconds. What am I supposed to do in such a situation, it’s not like everyday during this “job” I have to deal with somepony literally losing everything all at once. It must be terrible, I stopped in the train of thought I had. The only other thing I could think about that was just about as same situation that everypony losing the Crystal Empire was that dying you lose everything you were and are, along with everything you have all at once. I don’t know necessarily how I started to deal with death, I think I was just too focused on keeping others happy that I really didn’t think about how sad it was that I had died. Yes I did visit my family every night in their dreams, but it’s basically like being an image of yourself to them, but you know you aren’t. I turned away from the sobbing pony, and left that dream realm only to find sometime for myself. Nothing in the current moment would stop me from thinking about death itself being the worst thing that could happen to anypony. So I went on, and thought.

Author's Note

Here is the real start of the plot, I hope everyone is enjoying so far, and PM me if you want updates on how the next chapter is doing, and its estimated posting time.

Magical Banishment and A Memory of Nothing

Chapter 3 Magical Banishment and A Memory of Nothing

It was the eleventh pony in the set of dream who was actually happy about the Crystal Empire vanishing, King Sombra must have been that terrible to them. I had only heard rumors when I was alive about how he treated all of his prisoners of war. He would chain them up to join his “army” of slaves all just waiting for some outsider to intervene with his plots, nopony wanted to rise, and start a rebellion. All the ponies could do was wait, waiting for just the one happy moment that meant they didn’t have to waste away their lives on a system that didn’t feed their families, left them malnourished, and if anypony were to complain they would be punished. I would understand their situation, if I had to spend my days down beyond any other ponies belief then I would too want to leave that situation. I just don’t understand the ponies who are jealous of those who got banished out of time itself only to be woken up from a dream if the empire were to return.

Now I was to enter another dream of a pony who is saddened by the fact that her family was erased out of existence and was about to visit them after the royal sisters eliminated King Sombra. The first thing I noticed when I had entered the dream realm was how empty the world was. There wasn’t even an existing floor, only thing you could see was an infinite space surrounded with a background that look like the night sky. It was very relaxing to lose yourself in the random sorts of blazing colors mixed with the black emptiness. It was then that it occurred to me that this was the dream of my employer. Luna laid in the “middle” I could say of the background completely blending in with it. I wondering what I’m doing here, aren’t there others that need help? She laid there crying, slowly saying to herself “tis not fair!” eventually rising to a scream, the surroundings turned into Canterlot castle in which Luna and her sister were overlooking a very large crowd that had gathered in the courtyard all cheering for the fact that the war has ended. Only the crowd wasn’t shouting for the both of them, but for Celestia. The shade of Luna laying on the ground cried harder, maybe I had entered the wrong portal. This hadn’t happened yet, but I felt like I should stay and help her out. I knew I had a job to do and cheer up some other pony, but this seemed a lot more important. She is an alicorn, and if her emotions go unchecked by other ponies who knows what could happen to the outside world. I slowly approached Luna, she didn’t even notice me what was I to do, it’s not like I have much experience with jealousy.

“You know it’s a bit foolish to spy on somepony who’s more powerful than you.” Luna said as she lifted her head from what seemed as an ocean of tears. She raised her horn, and got into a magical battle stance only to fire off a spell I didn’t recognize.

I woke up in what seemed to be an endless void, was this some sort of banishment for me? I walked for what seemed to be a life time only to be where I had been before, in the endless void. I decided what was the point to moving if I was only going to get myself nowhere. Then it occurred to me. The simple problem is that I believed that I’d get no-where if I kept on moving. I thought of my old home on the moon in which I would shelter myself from the coldness of the vacuum above. I suddenly realized that I was sitting in the middle of my home in the core of the moon. I ascended to long staircase to the top of the stairs. I found Luna starring waiting next to my door.

“You shouldn't mettle in others affairs, I’m fine, and you should have saved that pony from her nightmare instead, you decided to waste your time and attempt to help somepony who is far out of your reach.” Luna said as I back away from her and her glowing eyes, her eyes were blazing hot. Pure white, starring into them blinded me, then I felt warmth again as I had only dreamed of my home again, but this time it wasn't of the dull home I have on the moon, but the relaxing home back in equestria where I had built memories with my family. It’s hard to realize how much you miss a place until you revisit it. Is my life going in reverse? Everything seemed very odd, I couldn't remember anything, what was I doing in my room? Why was mom uncooking breakfast? Somehow my little brother was erasing his answers with the graphite of the pencil instead of the eraser, the time seemed to speed up at a rate that made everything unrecognizable. Now there was nothing, except my memory of how to read write and… I swear I was about to… What?…

The Past and Present Realign

Chapter 5: The Past and Present Realign

As I wondered outside the shack I found a dirt road that looked like it lead down into some sort of town, it was small had a few buildings, but there weren’t so many ponies. I stumbled into to town, it was a bit hard to walk while on an empty stomach, but I managed. I can’t really remember anything after that, I believe that I fainted. Some family pony had happened to pick me up off of the streets, I was very thankful. As days passed on this family started to guilt me into doing things just for them. I still did what they wanted, I was nice about it to. I didn’t want to hurt anypony’s feelings, I was picked up off the road.

When I was excelling in school, they took me out because they felt I was drowning their daughter in shame. I didn’t think it was that much fair, but it happened to be that I somehow remember my past life so I really didn’t need school. The teacher was very confused of why they pulled me, they lied to him about them sending me off to a better school. It was outrageous, but I didn’t really care. Now I sit here writing in this journal I found randomly. I really just wanted to jot down my thoughts, but more and more things flooded my brain I didn’t know when I would stop, but I hope it would soon.

I woke up the next morning feeling a bit weird, I wasn’t greeted with a chore list, I wasn’t being yelled at. It was so quiet, I took a stroll into the kitchen to notice that nopony was home. I did all of my known chores, then walked outside. It’s kind of funny how things can just go to crap after a few hours…

Things were not quite normal, maybe the fact that city hall of ponyville was upside down and was floating just a bit off the ground. I know this time, when Discord had ruled right before Celestia and Luna turned him to stone. Maybe in this time frame I had to find something relating to Luna’s depression maybe this is when she fell from her high throne. Taking a walk into town square it only seemed that discord the ruler in these parts liked to sit on his throne drinking the “glasses” of chocolate milk and throwing away the chocolate. As time went by, two alicorns approached Discord’s throne like explained in “old”, or I guess current times. The two sisters joined together, although one detail may have been a bit switched around. Luna the younger sister held up only two of the elements: Honesty, and Kindness. While Celestia held the other four.

Time went on after the fight, the two sisters focused on building their kingdom of light, where the sun would light up the day, and the moon would give enough light during the night to see, but not disturb those who were sleeping. Maybe Princess Luna had set this up so the sleepers would be in a deep sleep so her entering their dream realm wouldn’t wake them. Ponies during the day didn’t acknowledge the fact that Luna was preventing nightmares, because they weren’t happening, so during the day the only pony to get praise was her sister, the Princess of the Sun, the light that guides everyone on their path. As the years went on Luna fell into a deep depression that controlled her, jealousy drove her. After the wars with Sombra Luna’s army of the shadow guard grew larger, and with the jealousy and anger built up, Luna eventually declared war on Celestia for not crediting her to her own place in the kingdom and suggesting to take over the day/night cycle overall. During this period ponies around the world would wake up every night from the same nightmare: Nightmare Moon, she abused her power to enter ponies dreams, and never let her sister’s kingdom sleep. Riots began the next week. When all seemed lost Celestia gathered all the last defenses she had to prepare to unleash the elements of Harmony onto her sister to banish what ever creature possessed her. Although they didn’t have enough time, sleep deprived, and exhausted the soldiers couldn’t hold her off long enough to charge the spell. So only partial effects came from its rainbow colored beam. When the fight commenced Luna’s hatred of her sister had almost won her the fight, but in the one moment she was preparing for her sister’s ultimate punishment: Banishment from time itself. Celestia took advantage, and used the almost fully charged spell on her sister, but instead of only banishing the creature that possessed her sister, it took her with it. Now this is where she resides here in the dream realm, also known as the moon.

An Ill Fated Reincarnation

Chapter 4: An Ill Fated Reincarnation

It’s hard to restart from nothing again, I had been reborn as if Luna had intentionally sent me back in time to relive my life, but I could somehow remember being dead. It was odd being alive again, I lived on the moon for who knows how long only to be what Luna would call punished? I found this to be much more of a reward rather than a punishment for whatever had ticked her off so much. I now know that I am only to piss off Luna as much as possible when I die again, unless I could somehow avoid getting that disease again. It took a while, but this wasn’t how my life started out. Did I just reincarnate? This is a very awkward situation. I couldn’t believe this, also these conditions that I’m in currently aren’t very suitable for a pony to be born in. I was in a shed, the mother of well, me looked in very bad condition. In a few minutes she passed out, I was utterly cold I though you were supposed to wrap your child after it was born right? Well this didn’t seem like the case, it is very odd that I still have knowledge of my past life even though I was just born considering this I may actually become a very “gifted” filly. Until I realized, if in fact the mother had passed out during child birth, wouldn’t she be considered dead until she woke up otherwise. Well this was certainly a horrible way to die. I wonder if this is what Luna had meant to show me, or if she had truly intended to just have me reincarnated, and live another life. Maybe in due time I could go ahead and meet my family again. Out of all moments, this was not a fun one in which I had to die again. I didn’t have any sort of time measurement, but it wasn’t long since I had previously died. It felt like that at least, I had oh so many questions that wouldn’t be answered if I was put into a reincarnation cycle. To live and to die at a constant rate would just be torture in general. I soon started to feel as it I was starving. To put it straight I might die again here soon, the mother lay on the ground. I decided why not take a stroll outside, what harm could I do I was gonna die anyway. And so I went to my doom…