Thus will a millenium and more of peace be shattered;

The return of the dark moon, the rebirth of unpredictability, and the death of magic.

These are but a prelude to the true nightmare from beyond cognition.

Born of fire and fear, not of our world, fueled by the souls it devours.

The power of love will not shield, nor the light of harmony cure.

The Burned One, the butcher of youth, stands supreme.

The rest is black. Not even the stars remain.

-Last prophesy from Candle Keeper of the Crystal City. A score before Sombra.

Rainbow, tree, but by six the harmony accomplished, Sun and Moon be reunited forever: Great disaster near, and nightmares most bitter: No heart will be so hardy as not to tremble.

-Excerpt from the writings of Not Just a Moose.

Prophesy? Balderdash! A pony can predict the future no better than a minotaur dances on a cloud.

• Ignatious Mendicant Dubious

Explaining what had been shown to the other crusaders, inadvertently, had taken a considerable amount of time and red faces. Some were red from embarassment at part of the subject matter, while others were from barely-restrained rage. Some of the questions had been impossible to answer, and, as often happens with children, these were the ones repeated most often.

"But Ah don't unnerstan' how it got here. Princess Luna said that all gates to the uh...ummm..."

"The Abyssal Planes." Luna nods solemnly while inhaling the vapors from a large cup of her special herbal tea; a mix of chamomile and manedarin orange that she is always getting into arguments with a servant about. "All known gates and other avenues to the Abyss and its related planes were sealed after Tirek was initially imprisoned. Tartarus is the only exception, and no demon would willingly travel where Cerberus prowls. I have no clue how it got here myself."

"Could it have happened the same time Tirek escaped?" Twilight's eye twitches a little as she looks to Celestias old journal, and then to Celestia's other journal, used to communicate with Sunset Shimmer. "You said they need souls to feed on, so it could have been feeding discreetly before now, right?"

"Nay, Twilight, this had to be recent. While there are always a small number of natural deaths during sleep every day; it is only recently that they have been happening to foals and other young ponies."

A groan escapes from Rainbow Dash as she stirs, and tries to shift from the position that has both wings stretched out in casts. Her ears twitch and lay flat on her head as this proves to not only be impossible, but also sets off an alarm in the room and at the nurse's station due to her return to consciousness causing a small spike in blood pressure. A nurse enters the room within seconds to confirm the readings and quickly draw the enchanted privacy screen around Rainbow's bed before trotting out to find the doctor. This doesn't stop the fabric from bending outward as an object is thrown against it from the other side; revealed as the bedside lamp as it soundlessly hits the floor and only remains unbroken due to the various spells worked into the material of the curtain.

"How, exactly, does that disprove the hypothesis of the entity passively feeding for months, Luna? You said it yourself, a small number of ponies die every day while asleep. Elderly ponies, sick ponies, infants whose parents can't afford basic anti-crib-death enchantments... While I may not know the exact nature of dream demons; nothing there tells me that there was no way for this thing to keep its feedings low-key until it gained enough power to actively attack and injure its prey to transition from scavenger to full predator mode."

Luna's mouth opened and closed a few times as she mulled over Twilight's statement and question, but her gaze and ears both shift towards Fluttershy as the near-druidic pony opens her mouth. "If I might say so, Princess, I think Twilight may be right. It happens all the time with sick or injured predators in the wild. A maticore would focus on carrion or sick and injured game if it is weak itself, so couldn't a dream demon prey passively on the elderly by entering their dreams and provoking a heart attack? Nopony would notice anything out of the ordinary..."

Fluttershy trails off as the doctor enters the room and slips through the curtain, briefly breaking the soundproofing effect and causing Rainbow's raspy voice to be heard by everyone in the room before the fabric settles back into place. "About time, doc. how lon-"

"I concede the point that I had not considered a possibility of passive feeding by 'scavenging' for the souls of dreamers who were already dying. I have been focusing solely on nightmares for so long that I hadn't even considered the possibility that something could attack a dreamer and benefit without first turning it into a nightmare."

"Well, why not? Ah mean, how long does a nightmare have to last to be dangerous?"

"I'm not sure, Applejack. I loathe to admit it, but there are some significant gaps in mine own...my own knowledge. The treatise that I wrote on the subject was left to languish after my fall from grace, and reading through it now brings no further clarity other than to highlight where my education from my father was cut short. He could patrol six dreams at a time and was still training me when he died after killing the last major dream demon."

All ears, followed by gazes, swivel towards Rainbow's bed as the privacy curtain is drawn aside by the doctor, revealing the disgruntled pegasus. "She's stable, and healing well. There's no sign of any lingering effects preventing healing, and the pain is being managed acceptably. We're going to move Sweetie Belle to the foal's ward to finish her recovery, and please wait until that is finished before using any more experimental magic."

Two nurses walk in, followed by the doctor walking out to go see to his next patient. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo start to follow before looking around while Rarity immediately begins to follow her sister to the other ward with only a slight nod to her friends. Applejack gives a similar nod to Apple Bloom. "G'wan you two, no point in waitin' fer us right now. Follow Rarity and stay safe, okay?"

As the fillies follow their friend, Luna turns to Rainbow Dash and gives the most comforting smile she can manage. "I think that we need to bring you up to speed, and then we can examine your recent dream to find out if it matches a recent pattern. I'm going to start with an explanation of why I safeguard dreams and keep nightmares at bay..."

Author's Note

Yes, I know, it has been quite some time.

Time to get the hell out of the doldrums.