A Sunlit Nightmare

by ulquiorra1

Rating: everyone
Tags: Sunset Shimmer, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Alternate Universe, Nightmare Moon, Comedy, Random
Length: 7567

Sequel to A Sunlit Night: Young Sunset Shimmer has just learned of Celestia's sister after being accepted as her pupil, but has she already met the Princess of the Night without knowing it or is it somepony else who calls Celestia "dear sister?"

Young Sunset Shimmer has just learned of Celestia's sister after being accepted as her personal understudy for her great magical prowess. However, has Sunset already met the Princess of the Night without knowing it or is it somepony else who calls Celestia her "dear sister?"

It is not necessary to read A Sunlit Night before this one as this is its prequel, but you will most likely find it far more enjoyable. :raritywink:

Takes place before A Sunlit Night and focuses around the flashback of when Sunset was still rather young and had received her cutie mark. I know some of you wanted to know more about how Sunset knew of Luna even though she would still be banished to the moon during this time period. It will cover Sunset's life from when she was in grade school up to when she becomes Celestia's pupil.

FYI: The artwork belongs to me so don't worry about the source.

Published 2015-10-31 23:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-31 23:30:02 UTC

When I Dream...

A Sunlit Nightmare

"The moon is a friend for the lonesome to talk to." ~Carl Sandburg

Young Sunset

When I dream, it is always the same. Every dream I have will, from start to finish, be the exact same scenario. Sounds that fly through the air, are replayed note for note. It is just like when you get that annoying tune you heard from a place you can't remember stuck inside of your head and are doomed to listen as it rolls over the only notes you can recall. The feeling of the ground and the grass that covers it, they are like a sick numbness to my hooves as I drag my body through the same path I shall always take.

I cannot recall when the dreams began to repeat in this fashion. No, actually I can, in a way. This dream is my oldest memory. I don't mean I can picture my early foalhood walking through this field. My oldest memory is not of my actual life, but of this dream. I can not stand knowing that. In truth, I hate this memory and I will never be rid of it as I am reminded every night.

A field is what I dream of. Again, it is not a place I have ever been to before. Whether this place actually exists in Equestria or if it is truly a plain I simply dream up when I sleep, I do not know. Hopefully, it is not a premonition of a place I am to one day come across. This field is not one filled with life besides the grass which sprouts from all over its surface. However, the grass does not look any more lively than the dry, cracked soil from which it grows. The grass in the field, though reaching high enough to only leave my neck and head to gaze over it, is even more colorless than sand. These tan leaves appear to thrive amongst a desert void of rain or even clouds for that matter. As with the consistency of the dusty land and the gentle breeze that barely keeps the dry blades swaying to and fro, the sun always sits in the sky, never moving. It holds its position in the surprisingly bright cerulean sky, just above where it would transform that same cerulean into the lavender of a twilight sunset.

I am here, now. Among the very field of dying ground and near silent atmosphere that surrounds me every night when I am tucked into my warm bed. Though I can see the breeze shifting the grass around, I am never permitted by this space to feel that same wind. After visiting this place so many times, I have come to notice that the grass blades are the only things touched by the gentle winds that grace this place. The sun, my mane, not even the fine dust that covers the broken soil notice the moving air. I wouldn't even believe that it was there in the first place if not for the fact that I could, and still can, hear it. Then again, this all still remains a dream in my own mind, there does not have to be any explanation for anything that may happen, as none of it is real.

It is very easy to forget that I am in a dream sometimes, surprising as that may be, seeing as I travel through the same plain every night. I even traverse the same path every time I visit. Even as I look about in this odd grass covered world, I know that the identical blades I pass through now are one in the same as each dream before this one. An unknown, yet familiar tingling covers my hooves and legs as I push onwards. I've learned that no matter how I may mangle any individual leaf under my hoof, it always remains unaffected, untouched even. I couldn't leave a distinguishable passage if I would ever want to. I suppose it would be pointless since I seem to start my journey from the very point I started from for every dream I enter.

All that seems to differ in this place is that I can't notice I am in a dream every single time. In one instance, I simply assumed I had gone for a walk through the wilderness, despite never having seen it before. In another scenario, I could not remember my own name. Another, I knew my name but thought I was in a different body. Since this has been going on for many years, I could account for differing situations for literal weeks and never come across the same differentiation twice, besides these ones where I simply walk on. The one astounding truth I can pull from all these recurrences is this: I never forget my dreams.

One certain occasion that leaves me dumbfounded is the one where I know where I am, but cannot recall the name. My dreams leave me with a photo graphic memory of every sway in the grasses, the shine of the sun, the numbness of my legs, and, of course, the path I take. When I wake up, I instantly know I was in a dream, even if the thoughts of my dream self conflict with that knowledge. Lost information is recovered and doubts are reaffirmed. However, no matter how many times I replay that dream in my head or attempt to recreate it with words or illustrations, I can never name the field. Lost information is recovered, doubts reaffirmed, and knowledge gained is returned to the plain.

I am still moving forward. I could stop and rest, but there is no point. Exhaustion does not exist in this dream. Having been left to wander this place for this many nights, I have tried to run farther ahead of where the dream always ends. Unfortunately I still travel the same path, no longer, no shorter. No matter how many turns I take, I only move forward. When I first gain consciousness in my dream on more than one occasion, I have turned to take a different path before ever moving forward, only to find the same tingling on my legs and the same waving blades of grass in my way. Holding still just makes the boredom of these regular instances sink in faster. Moving will, for a short while at least, keep it at bay. The near silence is almost enough to drive anypony crazy. All you can hear is the wind and the clop of your own hooves against the ground. At least it isn't totally silent. Total quiet seems like a cruel punishment to endure for the many years I've spent here alone. The isolation amongst a lonely plain comforted only by the sound of emptiness is a fate almost too painful for any a soul to suffer, and certainly too vile for one to sentence even a criminal. Oh, I should write that down somewhere! Miss Inkwell would probably enjoy that during class tomorrow. I stopped walking for a moment, only to sit and roll my eyes at myself. Not only can I not write that down at the moment, I am simply going to remember it when I wake up in the morning.

"Duh."

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard my own voice as I spoke. I've never said a single word in any of my dreams, but then again I've never tried to say anything. Why would I? There is nopony here to talk to and nothing to listen. There is only the grass, the sun, and the wind. There has never been anything else. What if the only reason for that was because anypony else here also believes there is nothing. I suppose it couldn't hurt to call out. It is just a dream after all...

Then again, I've never really known a normal dream have I? This has been my entire subconscious life during the night hasn't it? Well here goes nothing, I guess.

"H-hello? Is anypony out there?" Perhaps if I didn't ask as quietly as if I were at a funeral. "Hello? Is there somepony else here?" I waited for about a minute with my only reply being the phantom winds' whispering.

I can feel the end of the dream coming up. Might as well try a third time, who knows. Maybe third time really is the charm. I stood up and took a deep breath.

"If you're out there, anypony, say something!" I wait a few moments in complete silence, straining to hear anything but the settling wind wisp by. Oh well, I suppose I really am alone in here after all. Figures as much, but at least the dream is ending no-

Just as things were starting to feel lighter the sound of the wind faded, the grass came to a stand still, and the evening rays from the sun dimmed and vanished, almost all in a single moment. This wasn't right. The dream has always ended in an instant without fail. Why is it pitch black now?

"What is going on?" I started to worry severely. Then I could hear it again. The same sound I hear when I walk through the field... When the wind blows the grass around, but this time I can only hear it behind me. I turned despite being unable to see in the absolute darkness. A new feeling was made present at the same time, a freezing chill sent shivers up my back and made my tail flick. If it wasn't so dark, I'm positive I would be able to see my breath. The sound of the waving grass was actually getting closer behind me so I turned to face the darkness again. Behind me again. I spun around a third time to be greeted with silence. My ears shot up as I heard an extremely faint noise behind my head, like the light click of a tongue when a mouth opens.

"Who... Who's there?" I was absolutely terrified, the dream should have ended, what seemed like, forever ago. I felt a presence surround me like a cloud of smoke and a barely audible chuckle could be picked up behind me. Turning my head slightly to the left, I positioned my ear to try and pick up anything to help identify what could possibly be behind me. Whatever it was put it's muzzle immediately up to my left ear and spoke quietly and clearly with a malicious and almost giddy tone underneath the sound of the breeze.

"I found you at last."

My eyes went wide with horror and realization. Something has been looking for me...

"Sunset."

...and I called out to it.

"Princess, wake-"

"-up."

I shot up in my bed with a start, breathing hard and sweating a little under the covers that had once laid nearly undisturbed across both my bed and I.

"Whoa, whoa! What's wrong, princess?"

I tore the covers off my head, still trying to grasp what happened in my dream. I looked up as my eyes started to dart around and take in the environment. I was indeed back in my home in Canterlot, and it was my room as well. The walls were a simple beige color, and had a few picture frames hanging from them containing photos of my father and I. Opposite the end of my bed sat my hoof crafted bookshelf that my father made for me for graduating top of the class in magic kindergarten. It was littered with an assortment of as many books as I could cram onto it without fear of the wood splitting under the weight. A crooked shelf in the corner next to the small bookcase held a few trinkets that used to belong to my mother before she passed. Finally, turning my gaze in the direction of the door leading into my quaint room, I saw my father coming over to where I was now sitting. He was most likely getting me up for school before heading off to work in one of the weather factories of Cloudsdale.

"Were you having the dream again? I thought they weren't that bad." He looked at me with a little bit of worry in his eyes. I nodded at him and went back to laying down.

"Y-yeah, it was just, I'm not sure about-"

"Hey, look at the time! You're going to be late if you don't get ready." He had just glanced out of the door at the clock in the other room and started to head out before doubling back to where I had sat up once again, still a little dazed and my mane disheveled. He leaned across the bed to me and hugged me before heading back into his room to get his scarf on.

Realizing that I had slept a few minutes longer than I usually did, I put the dream dilemma on hold and climbed out of bed. Passing by the kitchen on the way to the bathroom to grab my brush, I noticed dad already went ahead and made a packed lunch for me.

"Thanks, daddy!" I called to him as I levitated the brush from the bathroom and began to comb my slightly tangled mane.

"No problem, princess, I'm workin' late tonight so please get to bed-"

"At a reasonable time and no parties, I know already." I couldn't help but give a small laugh while interrupting him. He told me the same thing every time he was leaving for work. Even when he would get called in at really early hours, he would always leave a note that said the same thing. He laughed too as he pulled the door open.

"Just making sure you don't forget. Love you, princess. See you tomorrow."

"Bye!" I barely got my head around the corner in time to see him as he closed the door behind him and took off into the sky. I headed back for the bathroom to get a better look at myself in the mirror. "Like I would have any parties." I gave a small chuckle to my reflection. "The house isn't very big and who would I even invite?"

After finally making myself a little more presentable, I took my brown lunch sack in my magic and walked out the door. School was a few blocks away but luckily Canterlot's streets are not that crowded in the early mornings. All that crowded the streets at this early hour are rather heavy layers of fog and morning dew. I can see why dad wore his scarf this morning. I should try looking for a jacket or something one of these days.

I began my walk to school but couldn't help looking over my shoulder every so often the entire way there. I'm just really glad that Princess Celestia is in charge of the sun here. I don't think I would fair well if it went out in the waking world as well.

Trying to focus on schoolwork and the teachers in class was proving difficult. My mind was far too busy replaying the scene from last night over and over again in my head most of the day. Miss Inkwell even stopped me before I left her writing class to ask if I was alright. That's when I realized I must have really zoned out, as I am usually rather productive and involved in that class. Not involved with the other students of course, but with Miss Inkwell. She often remarks on how well my individual writings are compared to others she has seen. By time I had reassured her worries about my wellbeing and walked on to my next class I had forgotten to show her what I had come up with in my sleep. I had actually not written it down as of yet due to the hurry caused by oversleeping.

As I sat down in my next class I had slipped a thin strip of parchment out of my saddle bag to write the sentences out on. I could at least run it by her after this class ended. I readied my quill and though about the dream, scanning through it in my head like skipping through pages in a book I've read twenty times before. I was completely familiar with every sensation and visualization followed by every sound and thought.

I had started remembering the phrase and looked back to my parchment, now able to write it down.

Total quiet seems like a ...

Wait, I can remember it...

Total quiet seems like a ... something ... many years I've spent here alone. The ... hold on ... lonely plain comforted only by the sound of ... is a fate ... um ... and certainly too ... for one to sentence even...

I looked at the words written before me, or should I say scrawled before me. They were so strange to look at. Incomplete and empty is all I could think about them. Something wasn't right about this situation. I can always remember my dreams and everything in them. Especially simple things like words I create. Albeit this is the first time words have come out of my dream self's mouth, they were still my words, my thoughts, just spoken, sort of.

Why can't I recall them properly now like I've done so many times before? First I speak and then the darkness came. After that I heard a voice...

Then I woke up, unable to recall what was said. I can remember fragments here and there of what I said, but I can't remember a single word of what the other voice in the darkness was saying. Maybe it didn't say anything after all, it could have been the wind. No, I heard the wind, or at least whatever was responsible for moving the grass around, and then somepony or something spoke to me in my left ear, clear as day.

Despite the clarity of the voice, I still can't remember anything. In my head it just sounds like white noise, an absence of sound. Maybe it's like when I learned the name of the field, I woke up unable to name it even though I knew the place I was dreaming of. New information can't be learned from the dream space. But that still doesn't explain the fact that I can't understand my own words. I would have needed to say something that I was currently unaware of at the time in the waking world. However, looking at the bits of text I was able to retain it doesn't seem like I was saying anything new besides a couple of sentences I had strung together. I just know it sounded neat and wanted to remember it when I woke up.

I looked up from my parchment to make it seem like I was at least paying some attention to the current lessons in front of me. I wouldn't enjoy being called on for a question that I hadn't heard. Luckily it doesn't seem like too much progress is being made by the teacher attempting to drill the math lesson into anypony's head.

I slumped forward onto my desk and let my head rest on my thankfully dry parchment I had been trying to record my thoughts on, keeping my face pointed in the direction of the chalkboard filled with some rather simple formulas. Perhaps it is because I wanted to remember my words that they didn't come now. No, that sounds too easy of an explanation seeing as how I can always recollect my actions and surroundings in dreams whether I want to or not.

I let out a frustrated sigh and repositioned my head to now be face down. It did not accomplish anything memory wise but at least some pressure is now being presented to my forehead. It feels rather nice to let my eyes relax as the pressure applied via desktop is helping to combat what I can only assume to be an oncoming headache from all of this strained thinking. In all honesty I don't really think it matters why my dream was acting up last night.

I turned my head to the right as to direct my now closed eyes away from the windows with their open shudders flooding the room with the afternoon's waves of light.

Maybe it was just some random thing like some of my sleeping adventures turn out to be. It just doesn't explain why this one happened to escalate so quickly compared to all the others I have experienced. The sun simply dimmed and went out as if night had put it out like smothering the flame of a candle before assuming control of the world I was inhabiting. It was as dark as my closed eyelids are to me at this moment with my head against the des-

A faint yet overwhelming sensation took over my body without any warning. It was the unmistakably familiar sensation I felt every other time I walked through my dream field. Now in abundance, the very numbness tingled as I felt it had practically consumed myself in an instant. Everything from the tips of my hooves to the end of my nose was fueled with the immense yet subtle stinging of sleep I had come to know since years ago. Why though, is it spread across my whole body this time? Why in the middle of class, of all places, does it strike me when awake?

My eyelids flutter open with an unexpected heaviness to their half-lidded state. Once focused however, I quickly open them fully without minding their weight. My ears as well as every hair in my mane and tail stand to attention. All I can see is a black sky filled with stars above my head. I hurriedly attempted to stand only to trip over something halfway through the simple motions. Still looking towards the sky, I stumble slightly but manage to balance myself enough to stand.

I was just in math class at school only an hour or so after noon and now... I spin around, all the while never breaking eye contact with the night above me. It's impossible to now be under the stars of night when I was just the middle of the day only a mere ten seconds ago. Not only was it daylight a moment ago, but I was also inside the school. How did I end up outside on the ground in the middle of the night? At least, I assume it to be the middle of the night but I do not see the moon or any clouds that may have been covering it. Almost forgetting that I had caught my hoof on something a moment before, I spun back to see what exactly it was.

A pretty good sized rock lay no more than a hoofstep away. Rocks are common enough to trip over but this one seemed to be odd. It's interesting white coloration put me off. It didn't look like it could be polished marble or howlite, though some characteristics seemed to match up. I sat down on the ground and started to lift the rock in my hooves only to have it begin to drift slowly upward out of and away from my grasp. I stood back up and backed away a few steps. The rock simply continued to float away in an ascending fashion. I followed it with my eyes until the rock was no more than an indistinguishable speck from among the millions of white shining stars that still hung in the air.

Directing my attention back to the ground I was absolutely taken aback by what I now realized what I had been looking at and standing on this whole time. The ground which I am standing on is all just as pale and lifeless as the stone from before. I spun around to stare at a crater that lay nearby. Glancing in all directions around myself, I notice that all I could see were varying sizes of rocks and craters illuminated by a white gleam covering all of my surroundings despite the lack of a light source amongst the darkness. I would have doubted my current whereabouts if not for one unmistakable indication. Upon staring into the night sky I noticed that rather than a shining moon sitting amongst the stars, I could see planet Equus.

I could see the entire land of Equestria without moving my head in the slightest. I could see the massive oceans and expansive mountain ranges as well as the wide deserts and abundant forests. The sight is truly awe inspiring, however, it only confirms that I am indeed no longer on the planet that I call my home but rather on what I now believe to be the moon that watches over it during the night.

Unsure of what to feel in a situation like this, I simply continue to stick with bewilderment that I can see the planet from space. Fear seems like an equally logical response to being transported into the freezing, vacuum of space, but I have reason to believe that this isn't real. I base that deduction on the fact that I haven't, quite thankfully, died yet. However, even though I know this can't be real, I still don't understand why I'm seeing something like Equus and the stars from outer space while sitting, here, on the face on the moon. It can't be a spell or anything like that. Literally there is only one unicorn, or alicorn in this case, that has the overabundant power to pull off a feat like that, and she is the princess of the land floating above me at this very moment. Even if Princess Celestia could do something like send a pony to the moon, that doesn't explain why she would, or why she would send me in particular.

I furrowed my brow as I thought. Nor does it explain why she would send me without asking or even so much as addressing me first. 'Hey, I'm the Princess! I hope you like the moon, because that's where you're going now. Poof!' I started to laugh to myself as I imagined a crudely animated version of Princess Celestia waving her hooves about as she spouted her rude farewell in my head.

I brought myself back to reality, or at least whatever this place happens to be, and continued trying to deduce how I may have ended up in a predicament such as this. I couldn't have been sent here with a spell, I know that. Sending a pony would take too much magical energy for anyone but the Princess to conjure up. Not to mention the fact that I'm still alive. The one who would have sent me here would have also needed to have provided the oxygen I'm breathing. I inhaled deeply for added measure that I was still breathing without any struggle. Also, if there is oxygen, then that means there is an atmosphere that can hold it without it drifting off into the emptiness that surrounds this great boulder hovering over Equus.

This can't be the results of a teleportation spell, a dream, or freak anomaly as far as I'm aware. If it were a dream, I wouldn't be on the moon, but rather, I would be in my dull field walking a path that I've traversed a thousand times. As for the event of something supernatural, odd things do seem to happen every so often in the land of Equestria. I have certainly spent my fair share of time in libraries and looking through my history textbooks in school. Reading about the unknown, the unexplainable, and the freak occurrences of the land now above me, are certainly nothing new to me or my various studies. However, I am quite positive that my sudden voyage to the moon is not due to an event such as a wormhole or the likes of an alien life form of some kind. Most certainly, I would have been able to recall something so bizarre and new happening to me. I also would have probably felt something wake me up in class.

Wait, did I fall asleep in class? No, I was awake. I am still awake. Just like I thought before, if I had indeed fallen asleep in math class, then I would currently be walking among the thousands of tan, grass blades this very moment. I would be going through my nightly routine up until I would reach the end of my path and wake up. I wouldn't be sitting on the moon in a stupor as I am at this time. The number one thing I should be feeling that would be the largest factor backing up the dream theory, would be the tingling, numbing sensation that comes with walking around in the field.

As I look at my surroundings, however, I notice that there is no grass to brush against my hooves and sides. Noticing the static of my dream scape here, would actually prove most difficult. The only thing to touch here would be the rocks and the ground upon which they sat. The stone I lifted earlier didn't provide a vibration of any sort, though. It did only come into contact with my hooves for a second or two, rather than my entire lower body, so I doubt it would really be anywhere as recognizable.

I looked back to the ground in front of me and underneath where I was sitting. Maybe if I concentrated on it harder and tried to recall the feeling of the grass but only where I was making contact with the surface of the moon. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly after holding it in my lungs for a moment, attempting to focus on my hooves the best I could. I tried to imagine the field and its trademark numbness I've come to know after all of the years spent moving across and through it all. I was starting to pick up the feeling in my hooves as I continued trying to force a replication in my nerves. Whether it was working or I was simple feeling a phantom pain of sorts, I don't really know. I may be feeling it due to the memory in my nerves. I leaned backwards a bit more while trying to ease up on focusing too hard when I began to sense a different tingling. It was like the grass in my dream field, but a bit more pleasant, or at least, less sharp? The feeling wasn't strong enough to pinpoint what it was exactly, but I could just feel it under my steady hooves. Letting my head raise up in a motion similar to as if I were searching for it in the sky, I leaned back into the feeling a bit more as I started to notice it growing stronger near my-

"Gyah!"

I let out a rather embarrassingly, girlish yelp one would expect from an immature teenage filly in a horror story as I shot upright onto all four of my hooves before laying my tail flat against my flank in unison with my ears back against my mane. Turning a speedy one hundred and eighty degrees in the direction toward where I had been sitting, I looked accusingly at the cold ground as if it had actually been capable of doing anything to me other than being as chilly as it was. I was focusing on the tingling from my previous dreams on the bottoms of my hooves. Why did I suddenly feel it on the backs of my legs and my...

I looked back at my flank and hind legs questioningly. A thought then dawned upon me. It could simply be that the sensation in my dreams reacts more actively to the softness of flesh and fur, rather than the keratin of my more firm hooves. That actually makes a great deal of sense. At least, it makes a lot more sense than the surface of the moon being a pervert.

Even though I knew that was a joke, I was now much more uncomfortable being here, alone in space, with the moon. Deciding that I would keep continuing with my selenography research, I lowered my head until it gently came into contact with the pale, lunar dust blanketing the great rock I had mysteriously found myself placed on, keeping my rear firmly in place in its standing position. Sure enough I felt a slight vibrating sting spread across the area of my cheek touching the supposed moon. It wasn't the same as the field however. It actually was a more gentle sensation, turning from its initial vibration to that of a more pulsating wave, carefully gliding across my skin. It almost felt warm in a way. In the field, the numbness held a more neutral feel than anything else, I think.

I picked my face back up off the ground and felt it gingerly with a hoof. Sure enough, the feeling vanished once it lost contact with the moon. I looked down to my hoof and noticed it was covered in the same lunar dust. Sighing, I rubbed the, much more clean, side of my leg against my cheek to remove the dust that surely resided there. Assuming the same situation with my hind legs and flank, I waved my tail side to side across them as if it were a broom sweeping a floor.

Well, now I'm even more confused than when I started. It could be a dream due to the odd feeling I get when in contact with an object, however, this place does not hold the same sensation or atmosphere, literally and metaphorically, as the field. As I went back over all of my mental notes, I began to dread the worst of my theories I had drawn up in this situation, despite having waved the notion a few minutes ago.

"What if I really am dead? I wouldn't really know for a fact if this is or is not what actually happens when you pass away..." As I spoke, my voice gradually drifted into a whisper and then nothing as my thoughts came to a close. Looking down at my left foreleg, I raised my right hoof and struck it hard enough to warrant my ears to lay flat once again as well as another, less girlish, yelp from my mouth. "Ah! Okay, well I don't know if you can still feel pain or not so that didn't help."

"You aren't dead, small one!"

A voice thundered through the air despite it sounding no louder than the voice of reading my own thoughts to me. My ears shot into their once again upright position as I froze in place, my eyes widening. Nothing had changed this time, no sudden stillness from the grass or appearance of wind behind me. The sun even remained lit here. Glancing into the sky as to reassure that the sun had, in fact, not gone out, I could only look on in horror. The sun wasn't even present amongst the stars. That would be impossible though, the light of the moon and the clarity of Equus means that there is an abundant source of light filling the darkness of space, but...

"Where is the sun?"

"The sun need not be in attendance for this world."

"What about all of this li-" I spun my head around to talk back to the voice, only to be greeted with more empty space, as well as an interruption.

"Forty six."

My mouth remained in its mid-speech position as I processed what the voice had just told me. "Forty... What?"

"Forty. Six. There isn't time for you to be sitting on my moon with your slack jawed expression in the middle of class! Now wake up and return to me when you won't be wasting my time!"

"Wake u- So this is a dream?" I turned my head in the opposite direction to look over my other shoulder, once again greeted with no more than darkness and moon rocks.

"You are quite astute aren't you, Sunset? Now leave, and come back during the night like you are supposed to, rather than distracting me when I am busy trying to think!"

"Wait I -"

"Now! I will summon you once I am ready! Until then..."

I looked around in confusion as space literally began to collapse around me. The moon had begun to melt away as the stars either imploded upon themselves or faded without a sound. I began to sink into the now nearly liquefied lunar rock. I began attempting to climb, or swim, up to higher ground, only to find that I was merely sinking faster. My upper and lower body were quickly submerged. Next, and more slowly now, my neck and soon after my mouth were under the lunar surface as well. Everything started to grow darker and darker around me, my vision had started to fade and become blurred as my mouth and nose were being filled with the now water like substance that had once been the moon I had been standing upon. Choking and gagging on what can only be described as 'dry water,' I could but only stare up with my one still uncovered eye.

A silhouette stood above me, looking down into the pit I was currently drowning in, still sinking into. The 'sea' around me, having almost swallowed my body whole, had begun to harden, slowly. I was going to drown in solid ground. Buried underneath in an ocean of white, fully aware...

I don't want to die like this. I wanted to call out for help but my throat was already filled with the dusty rock and could not move a muscle, despite how much I desperately wanted it to.

The shade that loomed over the ever closing, ever solidifying hole that connected me to my fleeting life, simply continued to stare onward, unfazed, at my unblinking gaze, or rather, into it. Trying to make out the shape or size of the one who watched me was impossible at this point. All I knew is that they had large, glistening eyes that mirrored the green tint of cerulean seas as they met with the bright shimmering sky. They seemed to be filled with a passion, almost. Something within them that almost translated into fear? No, those are the eyes of somepony who is so terribly anxious of something that is yet to come. Somepony whose hunger will never be sated until their goal is achieved...

or...

As I looked past the blurring sight of the looming silhouette, my vision was filled with an orange, flickering light.

...Or until the world burns. My vision finally gave way as the last of my oxygen was depleted and the moon took back its previously solidified state around me, burying my body in its hard casing. All that I could feel anymore as I drifted further away was the ever present numbness that I felt against my cheek only a mere moment ago.

The wavering sensation of numbness from the moon began to fade as the pressure around my body started to ease up. I didn't dare move or even think of breathing in fear of suffocating furthermore, only now in a total panic.

"...vermind I suppose my class is simply too boring and unimportant to pay attention to for more than twenty minutes. Alright, does anypony else know wha-"

Something in my mind, seemingly from out of nowhere, began screaming at the rest of my body to respond to whatever was happening around me. Every muscle within my body seized and forced me into an upright, seated position. As I very audibly gasped for air in one, deep inhale, my eyes shot open to the widest state I've ever felt. Without directing my vision or voice, I simply blurted out a single number that had appeared in the darkness right before opening my eyes.

"Forty-six!"

My eyes started to focus on my surroundings as I attempted to gain control over my erratic and unstable breathing patterns. I was in the middle of a room, sitting, there were ponies to my left and right as well as behind. There were windows to the far left side of said room letting an awful, blinding torrent of light pour in, and cabinets to the far right. A blank chalkboard in the very front of the room overlooked the many desks that surrounded me. Looking back to the desk placed before myself, I noticed it had an inkwell and nearly splintered quill along with few pieces of parchment as well as some writings scribbled across their faces. One of them had incomplete sentences with large blank spaces spread throughout. The other had...

ForTY SiX 46 fIRE 40 6 DrOWNIng FORTY BurniNG sIx DROWNing HE46R gLISTENing eyEs 46 BUrNING SuffOCaTING 4 64646 heLP Me46 46 4646 EqUUs is foRTy sIX DRowNINg In heR FIre

As I continued to stare in sheer horror at the writings on my parchment, I knew that I had been the one to transcribe them. The teacher said something but I payed him no attention as I began to severely panic about what was happening to me and my dreams. As I looked on at the note, images began flashing in my head. A tall, shadowy figure residing on the moon, the black void that was the sky, myself drowning in solid ground, and the horrid flames above it all, the worst light to ever greet me. They were all so clear but they disappeared as blindingly quick as they had flashed before my mind. Something is living in my dreams and is manipulating me through them. I couldn't tear my eyes away from what I had put on display before myself. Whether the room had grown quiet or if it were just my ears closing out all sounds around me, I don't know. All that I am now aware of currently is the sense of absolute fear I have been overcome with, and the tears that now cloud my vision.

I could just barely make out the figure of the teacher in my peripheral vision as he hurriedly made his way to my side. Turning me in his grasp so my body faced him, he started to lightly shake me, feebly attempting to get my attention or at least get me to stop looking at the papers on my desk. Neither of the two possible goals were achieved. He took both sides of my face in his hooves as he slowly turned my face towards his. The look on his face was of total shock and concern. He said something, but I couldn't hear anything other than the slight mumbling of the question. He spoke again a bit more clearly, then a third time.

"Sunset? Come on, Sunset, focus! Are you alright? Can you tell me what's wrong?"

"I... died, I..."

An inaudible whisper was all I needed to hear from myself to put the ironic, and disturbing, nail in the coffin for me. I simply looked at him, my eyes remaining as wide as ever, now preparing for an overflow of tears. He repeated himself once again.

"Come on, Sunset, tell me what's wrong. Are you alright?"

"I... I don't... kn-"

Collapsing into my hooves and letting a great deal of tears begin to flow from my clenched eyelides, I fell silent at my own answer. The worst part about everything currently happening in this one, terrible moment is that I have absolutely no idea what I am so afraid of...

Warning: What you have just read is the pre-release of A Sunlit Nightmare. Anything that you may read past this point is unfinished, unrevised, and being updated an an unbearably slow pace. Please continue at your own risk.

I can hear them, talking about me. What had happened to me to be more precise. It was a few days ago now. My father was advised to keep me at home for a day or two, at least until it appeared I was better. Nobody really knew what was wrong with me, but they agreed that bed rest would be a good thing for me nonetheless. So I've been practically imprisoned in my room for the past two days. Luckily I was able to convince my father that I was well enough to go back to school the following day. He was hesitant at first to let me go back, but he trusted my judgment well enough to believe I would be able to handle it.

As I settled back into my bed, further now under the covers, I kept thinking about what happened. It was all very fuzzy at the time but the past couple of days, I was able to regain enough composure to think of the events more clearly.

Author's Note

This is the teaser that I've been promising to my wonderfully patient followers. Remember, as I continue to update this chapter, it will instantly be available for you to read!