A Tale of Dreams and Nightmares

Chapters

Prelude - A Nightmare and a Bedtime Story
Chapter 1 - Introductions
Chapter 2 - A City, A Veil and A World Beyond Imagination
Chapter 3 - Welcome to Oneirica!
Chapter 4 - Two Dreamers and a Nightmare

Prelude - A Nightmare and a Bedtime Story

Prelude - A Nightmare and a Bedtime Story

The curtains were closed and the darkness complete.

Outside, it was a sound and peaceful night. The bright moon was high in the sky, nightingales sang their songs and everywhere resounded deep breathes and slight snores from the ponies´ cottages. The streetlights afforded a soft warm guiding light to the odd wandering souls on their way home. A fresh midnight breeze stroke through the city´s trees and created a low song with the susurration of their leaves.
Everything was quiet and peaceful in the city of Canterlot…

…or nearly everything…

“N-no…P-please…N-n-no…” somepony mumbled in its dreams, tossing and turning in its bed and kicking its hooves at invisible enemies.
“No! Please! Leave me alone!”
The speaker was a young filly, not older than four years. And it was more than obvious that it had a horrible nightmare right now. Her young soft voice grew louder with every second her dream lasted, ending with a loud scream, sounding throughout the cottage.
“Noooo! Mommy! Daddy! NOOO! MOOOOMMYYYY!”

Finally, the young filly awoke, shocked, panting, crying and sweating heavily. Instantly, she turned her bedside lamp on to banish the darkness in her room. She trembled, tears streamed down her cheeks. She only slowly realized that everything had been just a dream. But still, the horrible impressions of her dream forced her to cry and cover her face with her hooves.
Only seconds later, the door to her room swung open and a concerned mare, the filly´s mother, entered the room.
“Oh dear!” it slipped out of her when she saw her daughter. “Did you have a bad dream?” she asked superfluously with a soft calming voice. Her daughter nodded, still crying. The mare came closer to the bed, nuzzled and hugged her.
“Hey…It was just a dream…” she whispered in her calming voice. “Nothing more…”
“But…But that monster…it said it would come back and…and it would eat me up and…take you and daddy away and…and I won´t see you again forevermore and…and…” the filly sobbed and began crying again, burying her face in her mother´s shoulders. “I don´t want you to leave me! I love you and daddy!”

“Shhh, don´t cry!” her mother tried to soothe her, rocking back and forth and stroking gently through her daughter´s mane. “We never would leave you, my sweetie. Never, do you hear? We love you too!”
“R-R-Really” the young filly asked sniffing.
“Of course! You are our little angel! We never would leave you! Don´t believe that stupid monster! You know what? I and your daddy will head and tell it off for scaring our sweet angel like that, okay?” her mother suggested, looking the filly deep into her big watery eyes.
“You…really would do that for me?” the filly questioned, stopping her crying with a final sniff.
“Everything for our angel!” she replied wide-smiling. The filly smiled faintly too.
“Thank you mommy!” she said and pecked a kiss on her mother´s cheek.

“No need to thank me! Now, lay back down and sleep.”
“I don´t think I can sleep anymore…” the filly replied.
“Hmmm…you know what: Your daddy got night shift this week and there´s an empty place in my bed…Do you want to fill it?”
“Can I? Really?” the young filly asked excited with sparkling eyes. It was like a great honor for her to sleep in her parents’ bed! No nightmare would dare to hunt her there!
“Of course my little angel!” her mother assured the young filly with a peck on her forehead.

With a quick sound of joy, the filly hopped out of her bed and followed her mother. In her parents´ bedroom, the bedside lamp of her mother was shining in a dimmed light and on the blankets laid a book facedown. A low melody sounded from the radio and the soft voice of the stallion in it made her sleepy instantly and she yawned.
The soothing purple of the walls, the black of the pillows and blankets against the white bed sheet and the dark brown of the wooden wardrobes and cabinets helped setting her totally at ease, too.
She climbed into the big marital bed and snuggled up in the warm blankets of her father´s side of the bed. Everything was just perfect, though, she still felt a little bit uneasy.
What if the dream and the monster came back though she was protected in the bed of her mommy and her daddy? What if it could break through this protective shield of love and caring?

“Well, do you think you could sleep now?” her mother then asked whilst turning off the lights and the radio and cuddling next to her daughter, pecking a goodnight-kiss on her nose.
“I…don´t know…”
“Listen, sweetie…” the mare caught her daughter´s attention, focusing her with her eyes “…it was only a dream! Nothing of that was real! Nothing can hurt you in your dream, not even the most horrible monster! Everypony has a nightmare every now and then. It is only natural. And it is also natural to fear about it. But always remember: Everypony needs nightmares! It is some kind…of balance, do you understand?”
“You mean…like walking on a balance beam?”
The mother smiled and nodded. “Yes, that is a good example!”

“…Okay, I´ll try to sleep, but…”
“Yes, my sweetie?”
“Could you…tell me a bedtime story?…If you don´t mind…”
“Of course. Which story do you want to hear?”
“I don´t know…maybe something with dreams?…”
“Oh, I think I know a good story with dreams!”
“Really?” Sparks lit up in her eyes again.
“Yep!”
“And is it…a real story? Like…something that really had happened?”
“Oh yes, my little angel! This story is as true as the blue of the sky! But it is a long story. We may need more nights to tell you everything…”
“Please tell it to me!” her daughter begged. The mare only chuckled.

“Okay, my sweetie. Here we go…

Once upon a time, in our magical land of Equestria…

Chapter 1 - Introductions

A Tale of Dreams and Nightmares

Chapter 1 - Introductions

”…there was a town called ‘Ponyville’.
It was a small, though, a very vibrant city in the south of Canterlot. It was located next to the wide hills of the Hackney Plains with its wide fields, clear blue lakes and rivers and peaceful forests, which are lying next to the foothills of the Canterlot Mountains. On the other side of the town, the dark and mysterious Everfree Forest with its high, close together standing trees and countless dangerous denizens, abutted. Only a few ponies ever dared to walk into these woods.

But though, the citizens of Ponyville never complained about living near such a spooky place. There even was a small cottage on the very edge of the forest´s foothills where a very kind pegasus-mare lived and worked as a veterinarian.”

“What is a vetenaran, mommy?” the young filly asked and broke her mother.
“A veterinarian is a doctor for animals. He looks at them when they are hurt and does everything to help them to get well again.”
“Aha.”
“So where were we…

The ponies of Ponyville always are very proud of their town. Though it was a small city, there were a lot of things to see.
The beautiful scents of the market in front of the big City Hall you could always smell from afar. And if you got closer, you could notice the lots of ponies, buying some apples or baked goods or resting on benches or the wide meadows at the nearby park, a small sky-blue river purling through it.
If you would go farther outside the town with its colorful uptowns, on a nearby hill you would pass by some orchards with lots of apples. Soon, you would see a big farm that produces lots of apples every year which were sold all over the world. It was called ‘Sweet Apple Acres’ and was very famous for its tasty apple cider and its Zap Apples, very delicious apples, which are colored in all colors of the rainbow.
But let´s go back to the town.
There also was a very famous bakery, called ‘Sugar Cube Corner’, a very colorful building in the city´s central, looking like a huge gingerbread house. The ponies working there made the best cakes and treats in all Equestria. Cupcakes, bonbons, jellybabies, pies, chocolate…there was nothing missing! Whoever would try one of these treats always will smile in the end and…”

“I´m getting hungry, mommy…” the young filly said smiling with closed eyes.
“Oh, I´m sorry.” her mother chuckled.

”Near the bakery, there was also a very famous boutique - the Carousel Boutique.
Its owner was one of the most talented fashion designers in all Equestria. The finest and prettiest clothes were made by this very special pony and sold all over the world. She even made the bridal dress for Princess Cadence and the dresses for her bridesmaids at the big wedding.”

“You mean the big wedding between Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor?” the filly questioned. “I remember that story. Wasn´t that the story with the creepy Changelings and their queen?”
“Yes, exactly.”
“But…mommy?”
“Yes, sweetie?”
“You said the story is about dreams, but you only describe this town…” her daughter complained disappointed. Her mother only giggled.
“It is the game of the storyteller, my sweetie. Every story has its introduction. And this is mine. I create a world you can imagine and form in your head to slowly let you dream away and intoxicate you with my words.”
“Intixcate?” she asked confused.
“Intoxicate.” her mother corrected. “It means, I will catch your attention, make you beg for more and let you get caught up in the story to let you fall asleep into my fantasy world.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, so let´s continue...

And finally, there was the city library. The special thing about this library, next to its treasures and wells of knowledge, written down in countless books along the rows of the wooden bookcases, was that it was built inside a big old tree. The fragrance of the old wood, mixed with the scents of the old and new books, greeted every visitor and was irresistible for every book-loving visitor.
And so was the hero of this story. Though, she not only was a book-loving visitor but the book-loving owner of the city library. Books and studying always were her passion. She was reading nearly all the day, even if she wasn´t at the library. Every day, she crashed into another pony because she was lost again in one of her books while walking through the streets of Ponyville.

But books hadn´t had been everything for Twilight Sparkle, the prized student of Princess Celestia.
Yes, the purple unicorn-mare with the violet mane and tail, one single pink streak in them, was the student of our princess. When she once was enrolled at Princess Celestia´s School for Gifted Unicorns to study magic, she had to pass a test, but nearly failed. She already had given up when her magic suddenly had turned inside-out and revealed its true power. Celestia saw this and asked her to become her personal student. And always since this day, she studied and practiced her magical spells every day. But that is another story.

One day, Twilight wanted to visit her friends. She hadn´t slept well the last night and was sitting at her kitchen table with a cup of black tea to wake her body up. It was early in the morning and she had a bad nightmare the last night. She had dreamed that her whole library had burned down with herself inside. Just when a burning plank would have buried her under it, she had woken up with a shock.
After she had made herself a daisy sandwich, her personal assistant Spike entered the kitchen, his eyes half-closed. Spike was a small baby-dragon and helped Twilight always with the library and the customers. He also sent her letters to Princess Celestia with his fire.
He opened one of the kitchen cupboards and took some turquoises for breakfast. You have to know, dragons sure also eat our food, but their favorites are always minerals, the rarer, the better.

“You also couldn´t sleep?” Twilight asked curious when she saw her friend.
“No.” Spike answered drowsy and let out a long loud yawn. “Some big mean other dragons stole my rubies and attacked me with their fire. You also had a nightmare? You don´t look very good, too.”
Twilight could only nod. “Yes. I´ll close the library for today and visit my friends…and better check the fire drenchers before…”
“And I´ll go back to bed…” the baby-dragon mumbled in response.

A few minutes later, Twilight was on her way out and the small dragon was asleep again, slightly snoring in his basket. When she opened the door, she noticed that there weren´t many other ponies around. Granted, it was still very early and many ponies still were sleeping in their beds.
But Apple Jack, one of her friends, surely would be up. So, she walked along the roads of Ponyville, a clear blue sky and a steadily rising sun over her head. Spring was almost over and the fresh morning breeze sent pleasant and vitalizing chills up her spine and cleared her head.

Just when she reached her destination, the orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, she was in a way better mood than before. Between the countless trees, heavy with lots of delicious apples, she saw her friend Apple Jack at work.
Apple Jack was an orange mare with a blond mane and tail and, as always, wore a Stetson on her head. She was the owner of the farm, together with her brother Big Macintosh and her grandmother Granny Smith. She also has had a little sister, Apple Bloom, but she and the others haven´t a role in this story.

“Good Morning, Apple Jack!” Twilight greeted her friend.
“Mornin´ Twi!” Apple Jack greeted her with her usual accent, reared to her front legs and bucked the tree next to her. Shortly after that, two wooden tubs were filled with the apples falling from tree. “Why y´are all here?” she asked.
“Oh, I just wanted to visit you. I had a nightmare and just needed to see one of my friends to cheer me up. And since it is still that early, I thought you would be the only one who would be already up.” Twilight explained.
Apple Jack frowned. “A nightmare ya say? Ah´d one, too. Damn´ termites ate up all the farm´s trees an´ our barn. T´was a real disast´r!”
Twilight frowned too. “That´s strange.” she said. “But misery loves company, right?”
“Yeah, y´are right there, Ah guess. But´s still annoyin´. Ah´ve ta be in top form ta buck all the trees before the apples get worm-eaten.” Apple Jack replied and bucked another tree.
“Oh, then I won´t keep you away from work anymore.” Twilight meant and Apple Jack said Good Bye with a “See ya lat´r, Twi!”

And so, Twilight went off to her next friend - Fluttershy.
Fluttershy was the veterinarian I mentioned before and lived in the small cottage near the Everfree Forest. She was a yellow-coated pegasus-mare with a waving long pink mane and always very, very shy. She really lived up to her name! But nopony should judge her for that. She had a big talent in talking with animals and she even once had made a full-grown dragon cry. But this is another story.

When Twilight reached the small cottage near a calm streamlet, she knocked friendly against the door, knowing her friend was very easy to frighten with loud voices. After nobody answered, she knocked again. Still no answer. Was she out? No, Twilight thought. At this time, she always fed her animals. Twilight knocked a third time, more firmly this time.
“P-p-please, go away…uhm…if you don´t mind…” a timid voice could be heard behind the door.
“Fluttershy? It´s me, Twilight!” Twilight tried to calm her friend.
But the shy mare just answered: “N-n-no, uhm…p-please go away…”
“But it´s just me, Fluttershy! There is no danger outside!”
“T-t-the d-dragon said the same thing before…h-h-he ate me up…” she squeaked.
Twilight was irritated. “A dragon? Did you have a nightmare, too?”
“J-j-j-just g-go away…if you don´t mind…”
Twilight could only sigh. She knew Fluttershy well enough to know, that she wouldn´t leave the house until the next day.

Who should she visit now? Rarity? No, she sure was still having her beauty sleep.
And Rainbow Dash would still sleep, too.
So, she decided for Pinkie Pie and began to trot over to Sugar Cube Corner.

Pinkie Pie was the most vigorous and funniest earth pony of all Ponyville, if not of all Equestria, and the best mare to call if you want to party! Her parties always were the best!
She was the Ponyville´s very own party-pony!

When Twilight reached the bakery, she entered it with a ring of the store doorbell. Instantly, the fragrance of all the baked goods greeted her nostrils and she took an appreciative deep breath. She trotted over to the counter and heard somepony working in the adjacent room. She pecked through the opened door and saw her bright pink friend with the puffy dark pink mane kneading some batter in a bowl.

“Hello Pinkie!” she greeted Pinkie smiling.
She looked to the door and beamed when she saw the purple mare. “Oh, hello Twilight! What are you doing here that early?” she asked with her high-pitched voice.
“Oh, nothing. I just wanted to visit you. What are you doing there?”
“Oh, silly Twilight!” Pinkie giggled. “I´m baking! After all, this is a bakery! What else should I do? Of course, I could do other things. Like sleeping. Or dancing to the radio music. But Mr. and Mrs. Cake…” - they were the owners of the bakery, you know - “…are out today and I promised to run the bakery on my own. Or did you forget that this is a bakery? Oh no, do you have an amnesia? Did a book from your shelf hit you? But if you have amnesia, how could you remember me? Or where I´m working? Maybe-“
“Pinkie, stop!” giggled Twilight. Pinkie often ran off the mouth like this and you sometimes didn´t know, what the topic was at the beginning. That´s why Twilight stopped her.

“Pinkie, I don´t have amnesia! I just meant: What are you baking there?”
“Oooooooooh! Why didn´t you say so in the first place, silly?”
Twilight only rolled her eyes to this.
“I´m baking cupcakes. A very special, super duper delicious new sort of cupcakes!” she announced with an untwisted jump.
“Oh, that sounds great! Which sort of cupcakes?” Twilight questioned, hoping to be allowed to taste one of the new delicious cakes.
“Well, I had this idea during sleeping. I dreamed I was baking cupcakes, like now, but then there was that biiig elephant asking me to bake a huuuuuuge cake for him and his friend and that took thaaaaat looooong, that my cupcakes had been green when I came back. But I sold them anyhow and then, everypony was getting sick and bad with me and then, they chased me here and there and everywhere and when I woke up, I said ‘Pinkie, wouldn´t it be great if there were colored cupcakes ponies could eat?’ and so, I made…” she grabbed next to her with her mouth, out of Twilight´s view and returned with a big plate of cupcakes of all colors of the rainbow in her muzzle “…these! Aren´t they great? Huh? Huh? Huh?”

Twilight anyhow was having a hard time to follow her words and looked at the cupcakes in amazement and slight suspicion. Red, orange, yellow, green, sky-blue, indigo and purple...and pink, of course, since this was Pinkie´s favorite color.
“Come on! Taste one!” she urged Twilight. “The green one´s are the best!”
“Really?” the purple unicorn asked skeptically and took the green one, sniffing at it and tasting a small bite, preparing for a bad moldy taste. But, in reality, the cupcake tasted very…minty. Minty and sweet! And with a happy smile and one big bite, Twilight took the rest of the cupcake into her mouth.
“Mmmmm! Pinkie, they´re marvelous!”
“Yeah, I know. Thanks! I used clover and spear mint, mixed with some juice of freshly squeezed grass.”
“But…let me get this straight: You had a nightmare, too?” Twilight finally frowned.
“Yeah, but that´s not so bad. Just laugh at it, you know, like in my song:
‘When I was a little filly and the su-‘“
A purple hoof in her muzzle instantly stopped her singing. “Yeah, I remember…”

Some chatty minutes with Pinkie Pie later, Twilight finally left the famous bakery, a box with colored cupcakes on a string in her muzzle and her mood way better than before. Next, she wanted to head for Rarity, who should already be up.
On her way to the Carousel Boutique, she thought about nightmares. How could it be, that she, Spike, Apple Jack, Fluttershy AND Pinkie Pie had had nightmares at the same time? But, on the other side, she thought, there were millions of ponies on this world. It was just normal, that a few of them had nightmares in the same night. Maybe, it was just a funny coincidence!

Thinking about that, our hero walked her way through the streets of Ponyville…and suddenly heard a shout above her.
“WATCH OUT!” somepony cried. “OUT OF THE WAY!”
Twilight frantically searched for the voice´s source…and found a cyan pegasus-mare flying in her direction at high-speed! “WAAAAAAH!” she cried and wanted to jump to the side and to avoid her…and in this moment, the pegesus crashed into her with a loud smash!

They landed both hard on the ground and rose back to their hooves slowly.
“He…Sorry Twi!” Rainbow Dash apologized sheepish. “Tried a new trick. Doesn´t work yet…”
Twilight only-“

“Wait, do you mean THE Rainbow Dash? The captain of the Wonderbolts?” the young filly interrupted her mother with sparkling eyes.
Her mother only chuckled. “Yes, indeed. Back then, she hadn´t been a part of the Wonderbolts yet and was always dreaming about becoming one of them one day. She always practiced very hard for it.”
“Cool!”
“Well, let´s go on…

Twilight only shook her head and looked at Rainbow with a friendly smile. “It´s alright. I´m fine…and my cupcakes too.” she said and took her box of cupcakes back into her mouth. In that moment, she noticed the bags under Rainbow´s eyes and frowned. “Don´t tell me, you had a nightmare, too!”
“Well…yes.” Rainbow said with a blush. “But don´t tell somepony about it. It´s just embarrassing, me being terrified by a stupid nightmare! Only because my wings suddenly fell off and I dropped into a huge dark cleft.”
“I´ll keep it for me. Pinkie-promised.” Twilight assured her friend and gestured the Pinkie-promise.
“Thank you, Twi.” Rainbow smiled and spread her wings, ready to take off. “Well, I have to go now. I have to practice this trick for the Wonderbolt-tryouts next month! See ya later!”
And off she was, diving into the deep blue sky.

Twilight continued walking along the road, the warm sun shining on her back. Soon, she arrived at Rarity´s boutique and entered it. Rarity was the owner of the Carousel Boutique and the famous fashion designer I told you before. She was a white unicorn-mare with a curled elegant purple mane and always perfectly styled! She was a very generous mare. Once, she even made every one of her friend her very own dress for a very big gala.
But though, who enters her boutique and wants to buy some of her designs should have a very heavy moneybag.

Anyhow, when Twilight entered the boutique, she heard the fashionista working on her sewing machine. Silently, she entered the designer´s atelier and watched her working for a minute or two.
“Hello Rarity!” she finally greeted her.
Rarity jolted with a sound of surprise and turned around. “What?” she snapped at her.
Twilight only gasped when she saw her friend, her eyes blood-shoot and big bags beneath them. “You too?” she asked worried.
“Twilight, darling…” Rarity began, taking a deep breath. “I don´t know, what you´re meaning, but I really have to get this dress finished. And the fact, that I couldn´t sleep because of this stupid Prince Blueblood chasing after me in my dreams, doesn´t help me either! So if you just want to talk: please come back later!”
And with that, she was back on her sewing machine and Twilight left the boutique, more curious than before.

She walked a while around Ponyville, before she finally headed back for the library. She had noticed, that not only her friends, but all inhabitants of Ponyville seemed to have had nightmares the night before! But why? One thing was for sure: This wasn´t just a coincidence! There was more behind it!
And Twilight was determined to figure out, what it was!

The rest of the afternoon, she spent with searching her books for illnesses that caused nightmares and could explain this wave of them. But she didn´t find anything. Though, she didn´t give up.
She researched about dreams and nightmares all the day, until it was finally late at night. Twilight´s yawns got more and more and longer and longer. She tried to stay up, but her body cried for sleep, longed for it! She took another looong long yawn and took the next book. Her eyes got heavier and heavier and her breathes got deeper and calmer. Her eyelids slowly closed and she finally fell into a deep, sound sleep…”

She recognized a soft chugging next to her and looked at her daughter. Snuggled up in her blanket, she cuddled against her mother and the blanket rose and lowered in a calm, steady rhythm. Her breath was deep and peaceful and her eyes tightly closed.

She was asleep.

Her mother chuckled. “Works just as always.” she mumbled and kissed the forehead of the small filly with a ‘Good night, my sweet angel.’ and snuggled herself up next to her.

“…and that´s, where the real story begins…” she finished her last sentence of the story, closing her eyes and slowly falling asleep next to her daughter…

______________________________________________________________________

The head was wandering across the purple-blue sky. His mind was focusing, leading the bow levitating in front of him. Two degrees lower, one degree right…perfect!

He stood on his rear legs, a black trilby on his head and the black cloak around his shoulders waving lightly in the fresh breeze that stroke through the alleys of the city. Finally, the tip of the arrow came to a rest, aiming at a big green creature, which suddenly had appeared out of one of the houses around. Why was it here?
But that was a question he could search the answer for later. Now, he had to act!

And with one last thought, he let the bowstring go.
Only one moment later, it hit its destination.

With a loud roar that made the earth quake, the green thousand-eyed monster reared to its hind legs when the arrow buried itself deep inside it, destroying one of its eyes. It turned around to face its enemy. Nine hundred ninety nine pop eyes stared with hatred at the stallion, waving one of its long green tentacles at him.
He rapidly jumped to the side, avoiding the long limb which hit the ground right next to him. His bow began to glow in a bright light, changing its form. He snapped at the light with his mouth, revealing an elegant long sword when it dimmed. He brandished it and cut the tentacle next to him, making it vanish in a cloud of white dust.

The monster cried again, darting more tentacles at him. The stallion took his sword and avoided them with trained movements, waving his sword and cutting more of them. He fought his way near the monster, which took note of that and reared on its hind legs, ready to bury the stallion under its giant torso.
But he only had waited for that!

His sword began to glow in his mouth, transforming back into a bow. He rapidly took aim, leveling the bow at the monster´s heart. With another thought, he materialized three shining white arrows, drew the bow with them on the string and let it go.
An earsplitting cry of pain announced the succeeded attack. But the massive green body was still right above him and would bury and destroy him if he wouldn´t react.
With on last glow of his horn, the three energy-arrows exploded inside the monster´s chest and made it vanish in white dust just when it would have squashed him underneath.
The eternal wind waving through the empty streets took the remains of the beast away.

He watched them vanish and took a deep breath. His bow glowed one last time and the light attached to his chest, dimming and revealing a small silver necklace with a small pendant, looking like a crescent moon, a round dark-blue crystal bordered between the tips of the lunar orb.
The unicorn-stallion, a coat black as charcoal and a mane and tail bright yellow as the stars, looked around. His golden eyes noticed some damaged houses because of the monster. There was a big fissure in the brown path beneath his hooves, too.
He closed his eyes and concentrated, imagined how the buildings looked like without their damaged walls and broken windows. He also imagined the alley, clean and without any sign of usage. His horn began to glow and then, with a sudden pulse of his magic, everything was just as it should be. The windows were repaired, the walls without one single hole and the fissure was gone.

Suddenly, the lights of the house next to him, the cottage the monster came from, lit up. Phew! The soul´s unharmed… he thought.
He smiled. The souls were his only friends. He protected them, cared for them, repaired their houses if they got damaged.

And he played with them, when they allowed him to do so. He comforted them, when they needed shelter. He guided them, if they consulted.
Every night.
Every day.
Watching. Waiting. Comforting. Consulting. Playing…

The stallion walked over to the cottage and laid his hoof on the doorknob, opening the door and entering the house. He wanted to look after her, the soul that rested inside. The first thing he noticed inside was the darkness. It was absolute.

The only fleck was where the soul rested, her head lowered to the ground. Small tears dripped down the cheeks of the small foal.
That thing attacked a small filly? How could it dare!
A sobbing came from the small filly, her gaze wandering through the darkness to find anything. But she didn´t find what she searched and sobbed again.
“Mommy... Daddy… Where are you?...” she asked, starting to cry.
Poor little pony… the unicorn thought and came to a point.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, his horn glowing weakly. With a final pulse of magic, he changed his shape. Now, there was standing a young colt at the same age like the filly, his cloak and trilby gone but his coat and mane still of the same color. Just a very young version of himself.
Slowly he approached her and laid one of his hooves comforting on her shoulder.

She didn´t notice him approaching and turned around with a start when he laid his hoof on her shoulder.
“Hello.” he simply greeted her with a friendly smile.
She only looked at him in confusion with her big blue eyes and sniffed, drying her tears with her hoof.
“Hey, please stop crying.” he said.
“But…but I can´t find my mommy and my daddy! I want back to them!” she sobbed.
“Well, only sitting here and crying isn´t going to help you. I will help you to find them, okay?” he suggested.
“Okay…” the filly sobbed and rose to her hooves. “Who are you? I don´t know you. Why do you want to help me?”
“Well…” he said and manipulated the surrounding with his magic. The darkness vanished in a blur of colors and revealed a huge harbor. Lots of ships anchored around and the biggest of them, a great wooden bark, was right behind him. He also imagined an old but impressive captain´s hat on his head and a black eye patch above his left eye and spoke to her: “…I am Captain Black Eye. And this is my ship. And I may know where your parents are. It will be a dangerous journey; there are sea monsters and pirates waiting for us! So do you have the guts to come with me and find your parents?”

With big eyes she looked around when the darkness vanished. She saw old white warehouses along the quay and lots of ponies busily walking around. She saw seagulls, flying above her head and hundreds of colorful flags waving in the wind. The stallion was amazed when a red parrot suddenly appeared on his shoulder, when the young filly entered the staggering ship with a loud cheery 'Yay'.
He cocked an eyebrow for himself. She had a good, powerful and vivid fantasy. And she was keen to play with him.

He smiled. These were the best! This night would be fun!

And so, they sailed through storms, fought against pirates and serpents, fought side by side as prince and princess to save a queen and rescued as fireponies a baby from a burning house until they finally found the filly´s parents.

The stallion only smiled, when he watched the foal pressing against her parent´s chests, tears of joy in her eyes. He turned around and left the scene.

And there, he was again.
Watcher. Waiter. Comforter. Shelter. Consulter. Player.

Dreamer…

Chapter 2 - A City, A Veil and A World Beyond Imagination

A Tale of Dreams and Nightmares

Chapter 2 - A City, A Veil and A World Beyond Imagination

It was the next morning.
Birds sang their songs outside and Celestia´s sun greeted the ponies of Equestria with its golden rays. Slowly, the citizen went to their work, some still drowsy and their eyes half-closed, others filled with pure energy and a wide smile on their lips.

The little filly was something between these two groups. She greeted the morning stretching with a long mouth-open-wide yawn. Sleepy, she rubbed her eyes and tried to open them, just to realize that it felt way better to let them stay closed.
But for her soul, there was no way back to the world of dreams so fast. It was rested and ready for the wonders of the new day and the new experiences within them!

Finally, the young filly managed to open her eyelids a tiny weenie bit and faced two tightly closed eyes. It weren´t her mother´s ones, neither it was her mother at all who was lying next to her. Deep chugging warm breaths brushed across her face and tickled the filly, making her smile.
What mommy said yesterday? Daddy has nightshift. And now he´s back and sleeps because he is tired. she thought and her gaze wandered away from her sleeping father to the door. The scent of pancakes found its way to her nostrils. Her conclusion: And mommy makes breakfast.

Quietly, she sneaked out of the bed and the bedroom to head for the kitchen, closing the door behind her to let her daddy have a peaceful and uninterrupted sleep.
At the kitchen, her mother greeted the young filly with a warm smile while she took place on a big round wooden table.

“Good morning, my little lambkin!”
“Good morning, mommy!”
The elder mare placed a plate of seductive-scenting pancakes and a glass of cocoa in front of her daughter. “And? Did you sleep well?” she questioned.
The filly nodded vigorously and wide-smiling, her mouth filled with bits of the delicious pancakes. “Uhmmm huhmmmmpf” she munched. After a big swallow, she continued: “I had a great dream!”
“So?” the mare asked smiling with a cocked eyebrow and curiousness. “What was it about?”

After taking another big bite from her breakfast, her daughter answered: “Well, first it was only dark and black around me and couldn´t find one of you and that made me really sad. But then, there was a strange colt who said he wants to help me finding you. He was a pirate and took me with him on his ship and fought with me against sea monsters and other pirates. And then, he told me he was a long lost prince and had to free his queen and told me, I was a princess too! And after defeating a dragon and saving the queen, we had to rescue a baby from a fire the dragon had set and then, I suddenly found you and I was so happy that I didn´t realize how the colt went. And then, I woke up.” She frowned and looked at her mother. “Do you think he would forgive me? He helped me and I even didn´t say ‘thank you’. But you told me to do so when somepony helps me. Is he now bad with me?”
Her mother listened interested to the little filly´s dream-report, sipping on a small cup of black tea and eating some pancakes for herself. About her daughter´s worries in the end, she had to chuckle. What a nice and sweet daughter she had!
“Oh, I think he´ll forgive you, don´t worry! He surely knows that you´ve wanted to thank him. You just had been distracted at that moment. Don´t worry, you can still say ‘thank you’ to him if you meet him in your dreams again.”
Calmed to may not have lost a friend, even if he was only a phantom, she smiled. “Thank you, mommy!”

A wooden cuckoo clock suddenly announced seven o´clock with just as much loud ‘cuckoo’s. The two mares knew what that meant and finished their breakfast.

The elder mare rose from her seat. “Okay, I´ll wash the dishes and you go to the bathroom and brush your teeth. And after that, I´ll bring you to the kindergarten!”
“YAY!” the filly cheered loudly just to be shushed by her mother because of her sleeping father.

“Ops…Sorry!” she whispered, smiling ashamed…

______________________________________________________________________

“ROOOAAARR! I am a big and scary dragon and I am I will eat you up with one bite!”
“Oh no! A terrible dragon!”
“Don´t worry, princess! I will defeat him!”
“But…he´s so strong and big!”
“ROAR, you forgot hungry!”
“Let me fight at your side!”
“WHAT?”
“Together we´ll defeat him!”
“Noooooo nonononono!”

The young ‘prince’ shook his head furiously and looked direct into his ‘princess´’ dark blue eyes. “YOU are the princess and I am the prince! I have to save you! You are not supposed to fight! You are playing it totally wrong!”
“I am NOT playing it wrong!” the filly argued. “Who says a princess always has to scream and wait for her savior? I don´t want to wait! That´s boring!”
“Your loss! You are the princess because you are a filly! And princesses don´t fight! If you want to be a knight, you have to be a colt like me!” her contradictor meant stubborn.
“And how should I do that, you dimwit?”
“How should I know? Am I looking like a doctor for you? Why you decided to want to be a filly anyway when you were born if you don´t want to be a princess? And you are also a dimwit!”

She wanted already to fire off her next arguments against the brown colt with the white mane, when suddenly with another loud roar the second colt swooped down on them and buried them both underneath.
“I ate you up! You lost! The dragon wins today!” he cheered wide-grinning.
“Morning Dew! Get off of me!” the filly commanded annoyed the young white colt with the two-colored pale pink and violet mane.
“No!” he said cheeky and grinned. “You are in my tummy now!”
“Morning, you dope! Get off of us!” the brown colt shouted, trying to get free.
“Nopey…” he sang cheeky. “You first have to be digested…”
“MORNING DEW!”

They scuffled together on the meadow of the kindergarten for a few other minutes, until one of the care workers, a mare with a waving green mane and blue coat, trotted over to them and stopped their arguing.
“Slow down, little ponies! Why are you squabbling?”
The three got off of each other and faced the mare.
“Temblor is dumb!” the filly meant.
“I am not! YOU are dumb!” the brown colt argued.
The mare rolled her eyes in her thoughts. “And can you tell me why he´s dumb?” she asked.
“We wanted to play ‘Knights and Dragons’ and I was the princess and wanted to fight against the dragon, too, but Temblor said that fillies don´t fight and princesses too! But in my last dream, I was a princess and fought against a dragon!”
“Yeah, in your dream!” the colt mentioned and earned her outstretched tongue.
“The prince there had been much nicer than you!”

“Well, there had been many mares in history which fought against dragons and dark powers, just as much as colts.” the care worker explained diplomatically. “You remember the Elements of Harmony and how they defeated Discord and Nightmare Moon?”
“Yeah, I know…but that´s not the same!” Temblor commented still stubborn.
“No? And what is about the story where Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness, made a full-grown dragon crying?”
“She only had told him off. That dragon was a complete wussy!”
“That´s not very nice, Temblor!” the mare scolded the colt.
“Sorry, Teacher Waterlily…”

She only smiled and nuzzled him. “Why don´t you play something other? Something you all can have fun with?”
“Okay, Teacher Waterlily.” Morning Dew, who didn´t intervene all the time, replied and indicated to the two other foals to follow him to the sand box. “Come on! Let´s build a sandcastle!”

The two other foals only looked at each other and shrugged.
“I´m sorry.” Temblor said. “You may were right.”
The filly smiled. “It´s okay. I´m not bad with you.”
He also smiled and together, they joined their friend at the sand box…

______________________________________________________________________

I hate this place!

This was the thought that crossed his mind when he first entered his most despised part of all spheres of the Dream Universe. He was walking on a huge black quagmire; dark bubbles filled with obnoxious smelling gas rose from the bog and burst on the surface.
It was always hard to get used to the impertinent stench and to not vomit instantly!
His hooves were protected by two pairs of black horse shoes he always added his appearance when he ‘visited’ this dark realm.

He looked around.
There was nothing. The bog was calm and peaceful, though black and spooky, and so also the dark bilious green sky. Adjusting his black trilby and cloak one last time he prepared for what was coming. There was no fear inside of him since there was no need for fear. Nothing would harm him. Just playing, like the ruler of this bog used to say. But there still was one problem:
He wasn´t here for playing! This was a serious matter and he had no time for stupid spooky little games!

“Show yourself, Macabra! I know you´re watching me! I have to talk to you!”

There was a short silence until finally from the depths of the bog a mocking female voice answered: “Oh, look who wants to visit Macabra! The Dreamwalker! What an honor! Finally, the great Macabra has the chance to kill you in person!”
He rolled his eyes to that. “Oh, come on, Macabra! I have no time for this!”
“You´ll have no other choice!” the voice from the ground giggled. “Visiting the great Macabra was your biggest mistake. And now, you´ll pay for it!”
And with these words, a rumbling set in, its source deep inside the bog and quickly coming closer.

The unicorn-stallion shook his head.
The same thing time and time again! he sighed.
And then, in a giant fountain, Macabra´s newest creation appeared in front of him. With a piercing scream, a huge grub emerged from the bog, it´s long, wormlike blue and muddy-yellow body half-decayed and maggot-eaten. A breath-taking putrid smell, thousand times worse than the usual scent of the bog, found its way to his nostrils and turned his stomach. He thought he had to vomit at once, but kept it back.
Big black holes, where once had been the eyes of the monster, focused at him, maggots crawling in them. The face of the monster, looking like the one of a pony with white coat and a blue-yellow mane, was screwed up with pain and also half-decayed, revealing sharp teeth in its muzzle. Everywhere, he could see pale bones through the rotten flesh.
One moment of silent watching followed and then, with another loud scream, the monster attacked, its head hurtling towards him, mouth wide opened.

The stallion only sighed and closed his eyes, starting to concentrate and let his fantasy flood his mind. Working his magic was easy. He just had to imagine how things should be and they followed his will - mostly. Dream-magic was different from the common magic the unicorns and alicorns on earth used. More spiritual.
It worked only if his soul believed that his imagination could come true.
His horn glowed.

He imagined the monster getting slower. As soon as he thought it, a yellow glow enveloped the big caterpillar-monstrosity. And it got slower and slower, moving in slow motion - and finally stopped in front of his face.
He drew the picture in his head further, his horn glowing more intense and the glow around the beast getting brighter.
And with a golden pulse of magic, the monster dissolved into thousands of small blue bubbles and butterflies, starting from the head to its tail and escaping into the depths of the extensive bog.

He opened his eyes and smiled satisfied when two of the brimstones danced around him and he felt the grass from a small meadow-fleck beneath his hooves tickling them.
“You are such a killjoy!” the female voice from before meant annoyed right next to his ear.
He jolted around, watching out to keep his hooves on the meadow, and stared directly into the big dark gray eyes of Macabra.
The phantasm in front of him appeared as a chocolate brown mare, her shape slightly older than his one, with a light green straggly mane and tail. In his younger days, he always had thought his aunt would be some kind of crazy witch and had found her creepy. That may was the reason, why Macabra had, of all ponies he knew, her shape.

She sighed.
“There is one, only one single Dreamwalker out there, the only one to have fun with and he is a total buzzkill! Couldn´t you have at least showed Macabra some of your impressive combat skills? Or destroy Macabra´s sweet Wormy in a giant firework instead of these boring butterflies?”
The stallion only chuckled.
“Next time, I promise you.”
“Hmpf, Macabra hopes she´ll live long enough to see that!” the mare meant and wrinkled her nose.
“Uhm…You know you´re immortal?...”
“Sure Macabra knows, but is an immortal live enough to witness your next visit?” she asked jokily.
He giggled. “You got a point there.”

The phantasm just snorted and created a small armchair, consisting of pale bones, behind her and sat down on it. “Anyhow…What brings you to Macabra´s realm?”
The stallion frowned. “You don´t know it yet?”
The brown mare frowned, too, watching the black stallion in front of her with curiousness. “What should Macabra know?”
“Well…Aren´t you missing one of your monsters?”
“You mean except Macabra´s Wormy?”
“Uh-huh.” he nodded. “I found one of them last night walking through the streets of the City and eliminated it before it could wreak more damage. It also attacked a soul.”
“IMPOSSIBLE!” the creepy mare shouted with disbelief and pointed arraigning at him. “You are lying!”
“I wish I was, but I am not lying. Otherwise, I wouldn´t be here now.”

Macabra now looked a little bit tensed up. “But…how…The great Macabra has to check this! Immediately!” She turned around and shouted: “HEY! SOMEONE BRING MACABRA THE LIST!”
As soon as she had cried for it, the bog next to her began to bubble and revealed a zombie-pony, holding its emotionless-looking head in its right fore hoof. Out of the throat of his headless body levitated a small pell and unfurled in front of Macabra.
“Thanks.” she said and the zombie-pony dove back into the bog.
The unicorn shuddered. “I´ll never get used to your realm…” he meant.
“That´s the plan, sweetie.” the Realmkeeper grinned and inspected the list.

After a while, the mare frowned and rolled the pell up. “You´re right.” she announced, now concerned. “Macabra is really missing a monster. A Thousand-Eye, to be more exact.”
“That must be the monster I destroyed.” the stallion confirmed. “I am just wondering how it got there.”
“A hole.” Macabra meant. “That´s the only explanation!”
“A hole?” he asked confused. “Could you explain that a little bit more?”
“You know, our sphere and the City are connected, right? Otherwise, it would be impossible to send Dreamessence there. But there is something to protect the souls there from the things of our world. We call it ‘the Veil’. And if it has a hole, we have to repair it quickly!”
“Is it very dangerous?” he questioned.
“No, of course not! How could it be dangerous, dozens of dreams made of Dreamdust wandering through the City of Souls! They just would say ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’ to the souls! Or shake their hooves, maybe! Of course, they would never get the idea to gobble them up and destroy them since this of course isn´t their natural endeavor!” her voice was gushing with sarcasm.

“But how can there be a hole?” the Dreamwalker asked confused, ignoring her sarcastic answer.
“Sadly, Macabra doesn´t know.” she stood up from her chair and the bones of it dissolved to dust. “But Macabra will inform Mistress Deathdream at once! We have to act quickly or there soon will be more monsters in the City!” the phantasm elucidated.
He nodded “Alright! And I´ll inform Lady Stardream immediately!”

“Good. Macabra hopes that we will fix this problem before it´s too late! Till then: Farewell, Dreamwalker!” And with these words the phantasm deliquesced to brown mire, melted with the bog and was gone.

The left unicorn just sighed. “Looks like this is more complicated than I thought.” he mumbled and closed his eyes to concentrate, his horn beginning to glow again.
Okay…Let´s go!

And in a white flash, he was gone too…

______________________________________________________________________

The day passed by and transitioned into night. The sun sank lower and lower, until she finally vanished behind the horizon. The streets of Canterlot got less busy and the lanterns enlightened, guiding the last ponies home safe. The moon rose, a silver shining crescent on a dark blue sky, accompanied by the gleaming stars.

And at a certain cottage, a certain little filly was preparing herself for bed, brushing her teeth at the bath and trotting into her chamber after that. The familiar light red walls greeted her and she snuggled up in the dark blue covers of her bed. Cuddling with her favorite plushie, a small dragon her father once had cuddled with when he was a colt, so he at least had told her, she waited for her mother. The filly´s daddy was already at work and she still carried his goodnight kiss on her forehead.

After five minutes of silent waiting and occasional yawns, her mommy entered the room, closing the door behind herself and trotting at the filly´s side. She kissed her daughter goodnight and earned a wide smile, the young sparkling eyes big and expectant.
“Do you tell me the next part of the story now?” the filly in the bed asked hopeful.
Her mother smiled and nodded. “Yes, I will. You won´t sleep anyway until I told you the next part, won´t you?”
The young pony grinned and nodded.

“Well, let me think…Where we were…” the mare mused while her daughter lay back in her bed and waited for her to begin.
“Okay, here we go…

Twilight was very very tired after reading her books the whole night to find a cure for her friends´ nightmares. But finally, she felled asleep over her book, the candle next to her still burning until she went out on her own.

And like everypony else, she was dreaming.

She found herself in a big library, bigger than every other library she had ever seen! A huge stairway led to at least five floors, every one of them filled with hundreds of bookshelves. The ceiling, she could only guess how high it was. Everywhere, small lamps lightened the ancient hall with its wooden shelves, stairs and handrails.
She looked around beaming, asking herself where she should start her round tour through the large building.
Finally, our hero decided to start at the highest floor and walked to the big stairway in front of her.

But suddenly and without warning, a bright light appeared at the top of the stairs, looking like a huge door. The purple mare frowned and asked herself what this light was. Was it a strange natural phenomenon? Or a door to another dimension?
Unsure, she turned away and wanted to go back. She still could explore the first floor of the library. But instead of bookshelves with waiting tombs inside, she only saw a black nothingness. The library was gone and the only way left she had, was the way straight to the light.
Curious, Twilight took two steps towards the light until she stopped again. Was it safe? Would it hurt her? What lies beyond the light? Shaking her head and waking the investigator inside her, she took the last steps and finally walked through the light.

It was so bright, Twilight had to squint and protect her eyes with her hoof! Only slowly, the light dimmed and she took her hoof down from her eyes and opened them. And what she saw, was simply stunning!
Our hero found herself on a huge round metal platform! No, when she looked closer, she recognized it wasn´t a platform, it was a very very big cog wheel! She looked behind her, but the bright light-door she came through had vanished.

Confused, she looked around. The mare thought, she would be in some kind of giant clockwork! Everywhere, she saw gears and wheels of all sizes and alignments, turning in a slow steady rhythm. Her mouth agape, she took in the sight and wondered why the gear beneath her hooves wasn´t turning like the other ones.
She walked to the edge of her gear and looked down. But there was only a big black gaping chasm, the bottom she couldn´t see, also like the ceiling.
Twilight frowned. What was this place?

“Ah, arrived you finally have! But this is not the end of your path!”
A jolt went through the purple mare when she heard the sudden voice and her gaze wandered instantly to its owner. And there, between two gears on the other side of the abyss a little bit higher than her, she saw a pony standing and watching her!
She looked closer and frowned.

“Zecora?” the mare asked confused.
Zecora was a zebra - a pony with white and black stripes - she knew, living in the Everfree Forest. She always got her tea and sundry other herbs and elixirs from her.
“What are you doing here?”
The zebra only chuckled and answered smirking: “Don´t believe your eye, this shape is a lie. Our true faces are bizarre, we aren´t what for you we are. Destroy your mind it would, if seeing our real guise you could.”
“So who are you? And what is this place?” Twilight wanted to know.
“The master of this realm and Somnala is my name. The bridge between the City of Souls and Oneirica, this is where we are. ‘The Veil’ some may it call, like an invisible wall, but it´s still here, between the two spheres.”
“Oneirica? City of Souls? Veil? What are you talking about?”

But the fake-Zecora just chuckled again.
“Soon, you will understand, but explain it all I can´t. Ask Stardream, the shining light, she will tell her scheme with all her might.”
“Stardream? Wait…DREAM? I am dreaming?”
“No longer anymore, but you will soon explore…” the false Zecora just replied and closed her eyes, concentrating. As soon as she did, a small bridge of gears and on its end, another shining light-door appeared in front of the confused purple mare.

Twilight looked at it for a brief moment and then back to Zecora, her gaze filled with questions the zebra denied her to answer. Should she really go through that door? Where would she end up next? And if this was a dream, why she couldn´t just wake up?
Our hero was really confused.

The fake pony just smiled warm at her.
“Don´t be afraid, just walk on. Confusing it´s may, but your journey has just begun…”
And with that, the false mare simply vanished.

Our hero was left alone, confused and irritated. What should she do? Wait here and hope to awake soon? Or go on and figure out what was going on?

Her curiosity finally got the better of her and with unsure steps, Twilight crossed the bridge and walked into the shining light, hoping to find the answers for her questions…”

And with these words, the filly was fallen asleep, snuggled up in her warm blanket and her plushie-dragon pressed against her steady raising and lowering chest, which created the low chugging of a deep sound sleep.

Her mother smiled and pecked a last goodnight kiss on her cute daughters forehead until she turned around and left the chamber silently…

Chapter 3 - Welcome to Oneirica!

A Tale of Dreams and Nightmares

Chapter 3 - Welcome to Oneirica!

“Okay, Sweetie! Pack your bags! We´re going to visit grandma and grandpa this weekend!” the mother of the small filly announced and got a high-pitched ‘YAY!’ in response.

It was a peaceful Friday morning and the parents of the small Canterlot-family had decided to visit their parental part which was living back in Ponyville, well, at least for her, it was the parental part. For her husband, they were only his parents-in-law, but they always had accepted him since she had met him first back in school.
Anyway, when both of the mare´s parents had reached their retirement a few months ago, they´d decided to move to the peaceful town and to spend their remaining years there instead of Canterlot.

Her daughter galloped into her chamber in an instant, grabbed her bag and packed the things she would need for the imminent visit. There was her favorite cuddle pillow, her favorite game chess, several other toys like a small toy train, a purple-white-striped ball, a few dolls and a small CD player with her favorite CD inside, both presents from her last birthday.
The last thing missing was her favorite dragon-plushie, but it didn´t fit in her now twice as big saddlebags, so she simply took it into her muzzle and went back downstairs.

“I´m readyyyy!” she muffled excited.
Her parents, actually packing their things for the weekend off, looked up and had to giggle when they saw her daughter, her saddlebags round as balls, bigger than the filly for herself, and nearly bursting with the large amount of playthings. The ridiculous look was perfected by the blue dragon in her muzzle.
“Wow! Do you have your whole chamber inside them? We aren´t moving, you know?” her father smiled warm.
“Well…”
“And…” her mother added with a mischievous grin, putting her hoof to her chin and scrutinizing her daughter “…did you remember to pack your toothbrush and toothpaste?”
“Uhm…well…”
“And your mane-and-tail-shampoo? Not to mention your coat-shower gel?” she cooked an eyebrow.
“But…but then there is no place left for my toys!” the filly complained, her head sinking and her eyes big and pleading.

“Let´s see…” her mother trotted over to her and inspected her saddlebags.
“Well, the chess game you don´t need to take with you. Your grandma has one of them as well. And do you really need that much dolls? What about leaving a few of them here?” her mother suggested.
“But they´ll be lonely and get bored!” the daughter argued.
“Oh, I think they´ll be okay with it. After all, even your dolls maybe need a rest from our little blighter.” she teased.
“Hey! I am no blighter!” the young foal meant miffy.
The elder mare giggled. “Oh, don´t be bad with me! I´m just messing around.”
The filly snorted.
“Anyway, I think the ball you can also leave at home. Grandma also has one, even bigger than yours!”

“Okay…” the young filly sighed and went back into her chamber to sort out the things her mother mentioned. Just when she wanted to climb the stairs, she turned around and faced her mother again with pleading eyes. “But can at least Spike come with me?”
Confused, the mare cooked an eyebrow. “Spike?”
It was when she noticed her daughter pointing with the plushie in her muzzle into her direction. Seems she decided to call the stuffed dragon ‘Spike’. Regarding the amount of stories I told her about him, it´s hardly surprising…
“Oh, you mean…Of course he can come with you.”

Smiling satisfied with the answer; the filly climbed the stairs and went into her chamber…

______________________________________________________________________

A few hours later, the small family was on its way to Ponyville. By train, of course. Their young daughter after all loved travelling by train! Only flying in a carriage pulled by pegasi was even cooler for her since she wasn´t able to fly as a unicorn.
Peaceful, the train chugged along the cliffs of the Canterlot Mountains, giving them a good view over the green canopy of Whitetail Wood and the Hackney Plains in the south.

In their compartment, the young filly snickered and, along with the steam whistle of the train´s locomotive, she let out a loud ‘Choo-choo!’ and continued giggling and playing with her toy train on the ground. Her parents, sitting on one of the three beds of the cabin, only smiled at their daughter and looked back through the window.
It was until something poked one hoof of the family´s father.

Turning around, he faced his toothy grinning daughter who was poking her wooden toy train repeatedly against her father´s hoof. Giggling, she announced:
“Choo-choo! Next station: Daddy! You wanna get on?”
“Well, where is your train going to?” he asked beaming, playing along.
“Far far away!” the filly answered. “To the world´s other end!”
“Oh, that´s really very far away! Won´t it be a very dangerous journey? I heard there are terrible monsters waiting for small fillies like you to eat them up! Isn´t that very risky?”
“Ha! Risky is my second name!” she meant proudly. “Stardust Risky, at your service!”
Her father giggled. “And how much is the ticket?”
Grinning prankish, she stretched out her hoof. “Five hundred thousand bits!” she announced.
“Without breakfast, of course! That would make hundred thousand bits extra!”

“Oh…that´s an…interesting quotation.” her father chuckled.
“So?”
“I think it´s a teeny-weeny bit too expensive for me…”
The young Stardust only shrugged. “Well, then you have to walk.” she said and turned back playing with her train. “The train to the world´s other end is leaving now! Choo-choo!”
And so, she continued driving her small wooden loc through their compartment

“Seems like there lays a long way ahead of you!” the stallion´s wife giggled.
He smiled and turned around to face the mare of his dreams and placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “Sassy, today, aren´t we?” he asked her whispering and placed his fore hoofs on her chest.
“And what are you going to do against it?” she whispered back suggestively.
“Well, I thought about some…” he instantly pressed his hoofs against her chest and shoved her with her back on the bed´s mattress “…tickling!” he announced and did so, provoking loud laughter from her and making her squirm on the bed with his permanent belly-assaulting hoofs.
“H-h-h-h-he-he-hey! S-s-s-stop i-hi-hi-hit!”

Their daughter only raised an eyebrow about her parent´s behavior.
Sometimes, parents are just totally crazy…

______________________________________________________________________

After another hour, the young filly´s parents had calmed down and acted normal again, occasionally looking out of the window or watching their daughter playing with her train.

And with time, her yawns grew longer and longer. Finally, she stopped playing and put the train back in her saddlebag, lying down on her bed.
“Mommy? Daddy?” she asked for her parents´ attention and continued after she noticed them turning around and looking at her. “Why are Morning Dew and his parents not coming with us? Didn´t you say grandma and grandpa are also his grandparents?”
“They are joining us tomorrow. Morning´s parents have some important appointments today, so they can´t come with us. But it´s still right, it were also his grandma and grandpa.”
“But why?” Stardust wanted to know.
“Because he is your cousin, the son of your aunt and your uncle. And because your grandparents are also the parents of your uncle, Morning is their grandchild as well as you are. Do you follow me?”
“I…think so.” she meant and took another yawn.

“Oh my, seems somepony needs its midday nap!” her mother meant.
“I´m not tired, just bored because Morning isn´t here to play with me!” Stardust replied stubborn and, just to prove otherwise, she yawned again. Her mother chuckled.
“Of course! But let me suggest you something: If you take your siesta, I will tell you the next part of my story. What do you think of that?”
“Okay…” she just said with another yawn, took Spike out of her saddlebags to cuddle with him and covered up in the blankets of one of the beds, waiting for her mother to begin. Her father also rested his head on his forelegs and closed his eyes a little bit. It still was a long journey to Ponyville and they would need the rest of the afternoon to get there…

Clearing her throat, the young Stardust´s mother began to continue the bedtime-story…

”Squinting, our hero walked through the door of light, curiousness and excitement, but also confusion filling her heart. What was this all about? What did the disguised mare Somnala mean when she said she wasn´t dreaming anymore?

With time, the light dimmed and reluctant Twilight removed the hoof that protected her eyes, slowly opening them. The first she felt was the slight breeze that stroke through her mane and tail, wafting a strange but pleasant aroma to her nostrils that she couldn´t classify.
When finally her eyes were open, she took in the sight in front of her.
She was standing on a high hill, descending in a consistent curve into a wide valley, surrounded by high cliffs. The wide meadows were cluttered with thousands of unknown flowers in every color of the rainbow. The sky above her head was hued in a slight pinkish touch and studded with shining white stars, a bright crescent moon in its center. Though it seemed to be nighttime, it was as bright as the brightest summer day.

But the most stunning was the city in the valley´s middle. Hundreds of small neat houses with white walls and baby-blue roofs clustered around a huge white palace, looking like a citadel with a shining white defensive wall and slender high white watchtowers. Behind the palace along the whole backside of the valley, there was a big lake, shimmering in rainbow colors and fed by a gigantic waterfall which also had every one of the seven colors of the rainbow, starting left with red and ending on the right side with violet.
From the town, where a long yellow path winded itself along the hill to her stand, a colorful river wiggled along the valley between the hills deeper into the mysterious land.

Mouth agape, Twilight stood there, unable to form any words. There was no word to describe this land. None of the words her books had told her would fit this sight. Beautiful, nice, wonderful, gorgeous, pretty, stunning, magnificent, overwhelming…none of these words would do justice to what she saw.
But one thing was for sure: This was the most wonderfully beautiful place our hero had seen in her entire lifetime!

“Oh brother! I was already worrying you went lost on your way here...Why do you Dreamers always take up that much time?”
Twilight startled when she suddenly heard the foreign voice behind her and yelped, turning around to face the stranger.
“Hi there, Dreamer!” he greeted her with a friendly smile.
Twilight went wide-eyed and rubbed her eyes in disbelief. But there was no mistake: purple scales, green eyes and spikes, the small claws and tail - undoubtedly, in front of her stood…
“…Spike? Wha…What are you doing here? How do you come here? And whe-“
“Stop, stop, stop!” the small dragon interrupted her, but was caught in a tight breathtaking hug in the next second.
“Oh, I´m so glad to see you, Spike! There was this strange light and then that strange place with these uncountable gears and-“
“I really dislike to interrupt you one more time and even more to disappoint you, Dreamer, but I am not that ‘Spike’ you mention all the time!” he meant and pulled out of her embrace, leaving a very confused look on her face.

“But…how can´t you be Spike? You look exactly like him!”
He sighed slightly annoyed. “Jeez, didn´t Somnala explain it to you?”
“Don´t believe your eye, this shape is a lie. Our true faces are bizarre, we aren´t what for you we are. Destroy your mind it would, if seeing our real guise you could…” she mumbled, repeating the words of the mare.
“So she did explain it to you!”
“Yeah, but…I don´t understand…where am I? And, if you aren´t Spike, who are you instead.” Twilight wanted to know.
In response, he cleared his throat and announced proudly: “I am Nambul, counselor and the most faithful and responsible servant of Lady Stardream! And, at her discretion, your personal escort!”

The scholar could only chuckle about this. “Yeah, sure! You are only missing your plume hat and counselor garment! That would be hil-lil-lil-lil…”
And one more time, Twilight´s mouth went agape in disbelief when suddenly the small dragon in front of her got a black-red-striped plume hat with a long eagle´s feather, an elegant black robe and a crimson embroidered bespoke shirt.
Cooking an eyebrow, he looked himself over and whistled appreciative. “Wow! That´s great! You have a good taste, Dreamer! Thank you! I never had a better shape!”
“You mean…I did that?”
“Of course! You are a Dreamer after all.”
“Why do you call me ‘Dreamer’ anyway? Because I´m still dreaming?” Twilight thought, her head would explode, so many questions she had. Everything she saw and experienced was absolutely ridiculous and against every natural and physical law!

Luckily, Nambul answered:
“Well, seems like you need someone to explain the things you see to you…”
“Pleeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaase!” the mare begged desperately and the phantasm giggled.
“Okay, I´ll explain as much as I can to you on our way. If you´d like to follow me, Miss…”
“Twilight Sparkle.”
“Alright, Miss Sparkle, let´s go!”
And off they went, walking along the yellow path that led to the city in the distance.

“So…what do you want to know first?” the dragon then asked, ready to answer every of her questions with the best of his knowledge.
Our hero took a deep breath, choosing her first question: “Where am I?”
Instantly, Nambul answered with an expansive gesture: “This is Lady Stardream´s realm, the first and brightest part of the dream world Oneirica. Oneirica is the third and pivotal sphere of the Dreamuniverse. You are originally coming from the City of Souls, the first sphere and the only connection to your ‘real’ world. It is the place where, during you´re sleeping, your souls travel to their very own cottages to rest and dream. We opened you the door to the second sphere, the Veil, Somnala´s realm. It is the connection between our two spheres. And it´s a protection wall to keep the souls save from the monsters and threats of our world.”
“So that´s what Somnala meant when she said I´m no longer dreaming!” the mare concluded. “Since I left my ‘Soulcottage’, to say so, my soul is no longer dreaming but travelling! So this…” she pointed at her own body “…is just my soul. My body is still in Equestria. That´s why I feel not hungry nor have any other biological needs like pass water or else. It also explains why I´m feeling a little bit…light, to coin a phrase.”
Nambul nodded, smiling satisfied. “You are learning quickly! Affirmative! Now I understand why Lady Stardream had chosen you.”

“Chosen? For what?”
“That, she should explain to you for herself.” the dragon meant.
“Has it something to do with the nightmares my friends and I had?”
He only nodded. “It´s closely linked with it, yes.” And for a short moment, there was a black look on his face. But in the next second, he shook his head and it was gone. “Anyway, do you want to know something else?”
She nodded. “You called me a ‘Dreamer’. Considering what you just told me I understand, why. But what are you?”
“I´m a phantasm.” he began to explain. “A creature consisting of Dreamdust, born in Oneirica with its very special task. Every phantasm has its task here. There are common tasks like producing or conveying Dreamessence or organizational tasks like mine, a few keeper tasks like Lady Stardream´s or producing new phantasms with Dreamdust.”
“What are this Dreamdust and Dreamessence you are talking about? And what are their differences?”

This time, the dragon had to think a short while before he answered.
“Well, let´s start with Dreamessence. It is what is needed for you to dream. We produce it here in Oneirica and send it through the Veil to the City of Souls. Next time you dream and are able to realize that you´re dreaming, you may notice a strange liquid on the floor of your cottage if you empty your dream. According to where the Dreamessence was formed it decides the kind of dream you have. You see that giant waterfall?” he pointed at the colorful cascade.
Twilight only nodded, begging him to continue.
“This is pure Dreamessence.” Nambul declared. “It is the only essence that can be used for every sort of dream. But it isn´t very strong and the created dreams are blurry and not very explicit. That´s why we here in Lady Stardream´s realm only condition the basic-Dreamessence from the waterfall and lead it to the other realms where it gets refined.”
“Aha…” Twilight only commented interested, the scholar inside her now fully awoken and looked around.

They finally had reached the first district of the city. Everywhere, Twilight noticed ponies she had already seen in her life. They were pulling carriages with pots, filled with the colorful liquid, from the lake to open cottages which looked like big soup kitchens. Fires underneath the big pots let the essence boil and other pony-guised phantasms pulled the conditioned liquid to the colorful river in the town´s center. Everything and everypony looked very busy.
Twilight noticed a wall-eyed pegasus who accidentally crashed into one of the carriages and spilled the Dreamessence all over the street. The ponies that had pulled the wagon only looked angrily at the mare which just smiled awkwardly and flew shortly after.

The Spike-guised phantasm chuckled.
“Every Dreamer who comes here has the same look on his face!”
“Well, it is very fascinating. I wish I could learn more about your world…”
“Anyway…where we were? Ah, yes: Dreamdust!”
And within one second, her small companion had her full attention again.
“Dreamdust you can imagine like your atoms. It is what everything you see is made of. Every phantasm, every house, every culm, all Dreamdust. Even your soul is made of Dreamdust.
The difference between Dreamdust and Dreamessence is: The dreams and phantasms made of Dreamessence are less material than things made of Dreamdust. That is why you can survive nightmares, even if you dream about your own death. Because we are only sending Dreamessence to your cottages to let your souls dream. So, the things you dream aren´t material enough to hurt your souls. Another protective mechanism is your awakening.”
“And what is if one of your phantasms would break through the Veil and attack a soul? Or what if you would ram a dagger into my heart?” she asked out of curiosity.
“Your soul would die.” he answered straightforward. “And your body would stay without a soul forever…or at least until it dies too because it can´t wake up from its sleep anymore and starves. Dreamdust is our blood, flesh and steel, can you follow me?”
And Twilight nodded one more time.

And with that, all her questions were answered for the moment. She now knew how this world basically worked, knew where she was and what was going on. Only the ‘why’ had to be cleared now…

After a few minutes of walking, at least Twilight guessed it were only a few minutes, she and her small companion reached the white protection wall she had seen in the distance. And it was huge, nearly ten times Twilight´s own height.
They approached the front gate, guarded by two soldiers which looked like the two stallions that once had pulled her carriage to Ponyville shortly before the Nightmare Moon-incident.
When the duo passed by the two guards only smiled, recognizing Nambul and bowed their heads respectful. He did the same in response and led her through the gate into a wonderful castle garden that left the unicorn speechless.

A colorful tessellated way led to a beautiful marbled fountain, which of course didn´t spout water but pure Dreamessence. Between the jets, Twilight thought she could see small pictures of what seemed to be parts of her life!
From the fountain, the way led in every direction to different smaller or bigger buildings, richly ornamented with symbols and signs of a foreign language our hero didn´t know but would love to learn.
Between the paths were wonderful wide meadows with exotic and unique flowers Twilight had never seen before!

The young dragon chose a way that led directly to the big palatial main building and a cloister which led all around the building. Soon, the purple dragon stopped in front of a big wooden door and faced Twilight.

“Well, here we have to separate.” he announced. “It was really a big pleasure to meet you, but there are several…things…I have to do before we meet again at your audience with Lady Stardream.”
Twilight frowned unsure. But Nambul recognized this and added quickly: “Don´t worry. You can wait over there…” he pointed at a small pavilion a few meters away on the meadow, surrounded by a small pond of Dreamessence, a white bridge leading to it. “…and I will inform Captain Moonlight to pick you up when the Lady is ready for your audience.”
Twilight only nodded and smiled. “May I ask what these important things are you have to do?”
“Well, informing the Lady about you, some errands and, most important, lunch.” he grinned and got a chuckle in response.

Saying their goodbyes, the duo finally parted and Twilight was left alone.

Twilight soon found herself sitting at the pavilion and watching the pond. This place was so strange but also so fascinating! She could learn so much about this place! Maybe it also had a library! Maybe she could learn some new spells there! Only imagining the possibilities sent jolts of joy and anticipation through her body. She could see it all straight in front of her!

And then, she really saw it in front of her!
All the small pictures in her head, every detail she could see in the Dreamessence below! Fascinated, she studied the changing pictures of her own in the pond.

“Twilight Sparkle?”
Startling about the sudden male voice, she turned around to face the newcomer.
“Oh, I´m sorry if I made you jump. I am Captain Moonlight and here to tell you that Lady Stardream is now ready for your audience. And to escort you there, of course.”
Twilight´s expression turned into a wide beam when she noticed the shape of the phantasm in front of her.
“Okay Shining…uhm…I mean…Captain Moonlight. Sorry.”
The phantasm, guised as Twilight´s white-coated and blue-maned brother Shining Armor, only shook its head and smiled warm. “It´s okay. Every Dreamer has these problems the first time they see us. We are used to it, though, there aren´t many Dreamers visiting us. Even if I think ‘visit’ isn´t quite the right word for your case…” he cleared his throat. “Anyhow, better to not let the Lady wait…If you want to follow me…” he grinned with a bow.

And so, side by side, Twilight trotted together with Shini…uhm…the brother-shaped phantasm along the wide halls and long aisles of the palace, stunning about every ornament, every marbled statue. Everything she saw was just…unique!”

Finally, they reached the last door.

“Alright…” the Captain spoke up “…please behave you inside there. Please try to neither imagine anything nor dream of anything! You are a Dreamer! You saw the effect you had on the Dreamessence in the pond! The Essence inside there is even more powerful! It won´t be very pleasant for us to witness your private thoughts! Also you should realize Lady Stardream is a phantasm to be respected! An authority! Treat her as one, okay?”
Twilight´s gaze fixated on the closed door in front of her and she nodded, ready to face that strange powerful Lady everypony was talking about.

And then, the big double door opened…

…and the sight it revealed was simply breathtaking!

Twilight found herself on a big half-moon-shaped flower field. On the edges of the meadow, there was the huge lake of Dreamessence she had seen from afar. And in the background, on the other side of the meadow, she could see the giant rainbow-colored cascade. Near the edge of the meadow´s backside, right in front of the waterfall, there was a marbled dais. And on the dais, beneath a bright archway, there was the ruler of the realm, regal and in all her glory!

Lady Stardream!

And of course, it came as no surprise that she appeared in the shape of no other pony than Princess Celestia to Twilight. Slowly and graceful, she looked up and straight into the Dreamer´s eyes.

“Welcome, Twilight Sparkle, to the world of dreams!
Welcome to Oneirica!”

Two loud snores finally ended her storytelling. Her mouth felt dry, but the sight made that up to her. Tightly hugging the small blue dragon, her daughter had fallen asleep and now was on her way to her very own Soulcottage.
And also her husband next to her was sleeping deep and sound.

Deciding that she also could need some sleep, the family´s mother also rested her head on her forehoofs and joined her loved ones in their peaceful midday sleep…

______________________________________________________________________

With a short white flash, he appeared suddenly on the flower field Lady Stardream called her throne room. He didn´t pay very much attention for the beautiful surrounding, the colorful flowers or the lake with the rainbow-cataract. Sure, the stallion always had been a dreamer; a pony which´s head was always musing and fantasizing.
But this was serious matter!
And if he wouldn´t act and do something, there may was no way for the ponies on earth to dream anymore!

He looked up to Lady Stardream, standing like always beneath the huge white archway.
“You know I hold you in high regard, Dreamwalker! But I also always hate your way to simply appear in the middle of my throne room without having an audience! I hope your rude behavior has good reasons!” the familiar voice of the Realmkeeper spoke up annoyed.
With an impish grin, the unicorn faced the light grayish magenta eyes of the phantasm, guised for his mind as no other pony than the princess of the sun - Celestia.
“I am sorry. But I assure you, I have very good reasons for my behavior.” he excused himself with a bow.
She snorted. “Well then: Speak! There are more phantasms waiting to talk to me, which in addition have an audience!”

He nodded and his expression became serious.
“Lady Stardream…” he began “…I unfortunately have to report a very big danger I discovered last night! I was walking through the City´s streets like always when I suddenly saw a nightmare walking out of one of the Soulcottages.”
“That´s it?” she questioned, cooking an eyebrow. “Escaping dreams are rare, sure, but no dangers. They vanish with time and can´t wreak pain. They are only made of Dreamessence.”
“And there´s the problem: This nightmare was made of Dreamdust! It was a phantasm from Oneirica! I luckily destroyed it before it could wreak more damage. It attacked a soul, but also luckily, she remained unharmed.”

Hearing this report, Stardream narrowed her eyes.
“The soul escaped? I know I should be happy about that, but out of curiousness: How did she manage that? It´s impossible to escape a phantasm from Oneirica, even in a Soulcottage!”
“I guess she somehow managed to wake up in the last second. Anyway, I managed to heal the damage the nightmare wreaked. I immediately reported this incident to the nightmare´s respective Realmkeeper Mistress Macabra and she confirmed that she was missing one of her nightmares - the nightmare I destroyed. She meant there would be a hole in the Veil, the bridge between our worlds.”

There was a short silence between the two. Lady Stardream finally broke it.
“I thank you for this report, Dreamwalker. Though, I am fully aware that there is a weakness in the Veil since a while. But I trust its Realmkeeper Lady Somnala. I´m sure she already repaired the hole.”
“But if there really is a weakness in the Veil, why don´t you send someone to inspect and analyze the situation?” the stallion asked.
“Because no phantasm is allowed to intervene in the affairs of Somnala and the Veil. The Veil is a very sensitive part of our universe and no one is allowed to touch it, except Somnala.”

“But don´t you know what happens when the Veil´s fading away?” the Dreamwalker argued and his horn enlightened, forming the Dreamessence all around them.
“The nightmares and every other phantasm will break through the Veil and invade the City of dreams!”
Similar with his explanations, he created the scenario with the Dreamessence in front of him, using the place between him and the lady as his stage. He executed a city with little houses on the right side and some dragons and spiders on the other side, shimmering semitransparent in the air. He also created a huge brick wall between them, symbolizing the Veil.
With his words, the wall formed cracks and finally broke down under the pressure of the nightmares, which now invaded the small houses.
“The nightmares, now completely out of control, will attack and destroy the souls! And of course, because the souls can´t get back to their bodies, they´ll die to!”
He now created a picture where the dragons and spiders attacked panicked and hysterical crying ponies, burning them with their fire breath or catching them in their nets. Similar to this, he executed an earth next to this scenario, which showed sleeping ponies, slowly turning to bones.
“Soon, there are no souls anymore and the nightmares will begin to destroy the City of Souls!”
With that, he zoomed out of the scene and showed a planet with many little cottages and shattered it into small pieces.
“And in the end, there is no world anymore where you can lead the Dreamessence to and it will deluge all Oneirica and drown every of its phantasms, including you, Stardream!”
His show ended with a picture of Stardream´s drowned palace, only the high towers are above the water surface.
Finally, he finished his scenario and led the Dreamessence he had used back into the lake. Firm he looked into the phantasm´s eyes.

“That´s a very nice scenario for a soul which doesn´t know very much about the Veil and its acting. Though, I can´t deny your words.”
To that, he could only smile satisfied.
Stardream cleared her throat and then announced:
“So be it! Dreamwalker, I assure you that I´ll initiate an investigation of the Veil at once! A scene like you showed us must not happen! I thank you very much for opening my eyes…”

The stallion only nodded and bowed. “I just did what I had to do, Milady.”

The phantasm also nodded and narrowed her eyes. “Though, I am still expecting some more phantasms for an audience, so please believe my words and leave now. Captain Moonlight?”
A stallion with a white coat and a long black mane and tail near the big double door behind him nodded.
“Would you please walk our guest out?”
“Of course, Milady!” the stallion saluted and walked over to the Dreamwalker, but he only waved his hoof.

“It´s alright. I´m leaving at once…”
And so, in a bright flash he teleported himself out of the throne room.

Lady Stardream frowned and thought for a while, unsure what to do next. Finally, she came to a point.
“Nambul?”
“Yes, Milady?” her counselor answered and bowed.

“Bring me Twilight Sparkle…”

Chapter 4 - Two Dreamers and a Nightmare

A Tale of Dreams and Nightmares

Chapter 4 - Two Dreamers and a Nightmare

In a short white flash he reappeared at his next destination.
The unicorn stallion took in the common sight around him. It was always relieving for him to leave Oneirica, as amazing and stunning it might was, but the City of Souls with its thousands of colorful cottages was his real home. And it was at least just as wondrous and enchanting as the land of phantasms. Every single one of the houses around him was unique, designed appropriate for the soul that lived inside them.

Most of them had very common features of normal houses like the ones back in Equestria, cottages made of wood, stone and mud. But sometimes there were some flamboyant and remarkable buildings.
One of these outstanding cottages for example was of course the giant book fortress of Twilight Sparkle´s soul with the big astronomical telescope peeking out of its roof. He could see it, the encyclopedia-walls peeping out between the cottages of a nearby hill.
Or the diamond mansion of her friend Rarity, the walls of her cottage consisting of pure gold, specked with thousands of gems, and behind the platinic windows were curtains made of a soft fabric finer than the finest silk in all Equestria.
She was the most loyal long-term user of Lady Thousand Bits´ Dreamessence.
It was a smidge too shiny in his opinion. Really, he even had to add a pair of sunglasses to his appearance whenever he was passing that house!

But there were also cottages that just looked…strange? Disturbing? Creepy?
The Dreamwalker instantly thought at the haunted castle that was the property of Prince Blueblood. His whole house consisted of, well, HIM! Thousands of statues of him created the walls and roof; the golden door had a stylization of him engraved in it and even the stained-glass windows showed mosaics of him!
Seriously, that was just intimidating!
A palace for an egomaniac!
And don´t even mention the Soulcottage of Pinkie Pie!
It was the most colorful gallimaufry of confectionary, party- and playthings he had ever seen! It was just…indescribable! A most colorful mix of a gingerbread-cupcake-gateau house paired with balloons, rubber duckies, joke devices and thousands of other things.
To describe it with as less words as possible:
It was a large fun house mutated to hyper-level.

Today, his destination was a rather normal-looking small house, formed like a big locomotive at the moment. Last time he visited the cottage it had looked like a princess´ palace.
It was nothing uncommon for the Soulcottages to change their appearance like that. Shape-changing houses were always a sign of souls that hadn´t found their destiny and special talents in life yet.
And hay, no cottage has ever changed so much like the ones of the famous Ex-Cutie Mark Crusaders Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo! Back then, their cottages´ shape had changed hourly!

But thinking of princesses´ palaces: He was still wondering how the Soulcottages of the two Equestrian princesses Celestia and Luna would look like. It was rather surprising to him that he never had found them.
And, speaking of the latter, he hadn´t seen the Princess of Night for some time now.
Of course, she had to attend royal business, but even she had to sleep betweenwhiles and really could visit him more often, especially now when he had to report the recent news to her. Things mustn´t get out of hoof like back at the incident with the nightmares, and Luna, being the Princess of Night, was after all a Dreamwalker as well, the only other pony he could talk to in this universe except to the souls and the phantasms of Oneirica.
It had come as a big surprise when, a few years ago, he all of a sudden had spotted her simply trotting through the City´s streets as it would be the most normal thing in the world.

Since then the two had become accustomed and now were some kind of friends.
Though, he did not see her very often. He even never had seen her using her dream magic, which, so he thought, had to be even more powerful than his one.
He took a mental remark to ask her for a demonstration next time he saw her.

But back to business!
There after all was a reason why he was there!

If he recalculated right, it had to be about mid-afternoon in Equestria right now. The more it surprised him that the Soulcottage he wanted to inspect - the very same the nightmare of Oneirica had shown up - was in use at the moment. Normally, the cottages were all empty at a time like this, maybe except the ones of a few students that had fallen asleep during their lessons or a bunch of young babies.
“Or a young filly that is taking its siesta…” he mumbled and shrugged.
It seemed like his inspection had to wait a little bit.
Well, no use in crying over spilled milk… the stallion thought with a sigh.
He just would seize the moment and play a little bit with her until she would awake.

He put his hoof on the doorknob…

…and suddenly flinched.

He had felt something.
Something inside his head.
It had been only a very subtle feeling.
A very decent throbbing in his brain.
The preadvice of the preannouncement of an incoming headache.

He sighed and his left hoof wandered to his temples, rubbing them.
Soon, he had to rest. It was the damnation of still being a soul and being subjected to the very same rules of every other soul.
Nearly three weeks had passed since the last time he rested. Normally, he could stay without rest for a little bit more than a month, but maybe he had put a little bit too much effort into the small show he had given to Lady Stardream. Forming such a mass of Dreamessence, especially the raw one of the cascade, cost rather huge amounts of magic and imagination. The former was what lacked him more than imagination.
Sadly, it was also what specified the duration until he had to rest.
And resting was hell for him!
It sounded funny, but it was just that.

He shook his head and shoved the unpleasant thought aside, promising himself to rest the next night, despite the fact that he hated it.
Maybe some distraction before would be good for him.

With this thought the black unicorn entered the Soulcottage…

______________________________________________________________________

…and found himself standing on the edge of a precipice.

Deep down he spotted a wide valley, surrounded on both sides by the towering grey cliffs. Dark trees of a coniferous forest threw wide shadows in the evening sun that hued the bright sky in a soft red and purple. A clear blue river wiggled itself along the dell, peaceful fitting into the beautiful landscape.
Next to the stream he eyed rail tracks, winding through the vale and following the river´s course, occasionally crossing its way over small wooden bridges.
It took him not very long until he found a small trail of white-grey smoke, leading the way to a quinquepartite train, consisting of the leading loc, a small coal wagon and three coaches.

Loudly the steam whistle made itself felt twice, three times, accompanied by the decent ‘Choo-choo!’ of an all too familiar voice.
So ‘train driver’ was the today´s game´s name!

The Dreamwalker smiled and stretched himself before he worked his magic to shift into his young-colt-shape. A small golden pulse was all needed and the younger version of him now overlooked the valley beneath.
All he had to do now was to somehow get to the train far beneath. It was always marvelous and still a mystery to him how the Soulcottages could be so much bigger inside than they looked outside. But, on the other hoof, this was the Dreamuniverse! Things hadn´t to make sense here.
He chuckled.
It would be pure hell to a stubborn scientist like Twilight! Thousands of mysteries that didn´t make sense and no way to ever solve them!

Anyhow, a pair of wings would be very useful at the moment…

Unfortunately even the power to control Dreamdust wasn´t enough to transform a unicorn-soul into an alicorn.
But luckily he had his cloak, a very special gift of Lady Thousand Bits!
He jumped.
Instantly he felt the joy one could only feel when flying in free fall. The cold wind stroking and playing with his yellow mane and streaming through his black coat, tickling him. And the great feeling of speed, his body becoming faster and faster as he approached the ground beneath. Oh how he had missed this! His front hooves were holding his trilby, watching out to not let the wind carry it away.
Soon he enlightened his horn again, the gap between him and the ground closing rapidly. A golden glow enveloped his black cloak. It began to shift, ripping slowly into two parts, starting at the bottom and going up to the shoulder blades. The top section shrank a little bit and clutched closer to his fur, intertwining with it. The two loosen ends continued shifting, fabric transforming into feathers; slowly creating a pair of expansive black wings that instantly caught his fall only a few meters before he reached the treetops. With three, four strong wing beats he flew a short bow and rose in the air again.

He was so jealous of every pegasus out there! Experiencing that wonderful feeling of weightlessness every day, soaring through the air and letting go every concern…Not to mention the stunning view of the world below! Oh he would give up all his magical skills to be one of them!
He even secretly crept into the cloud fortress that was Rainbow Dash´s Soulcottage to watch her flying and pulling out incredible tricks together with a bunch of Wonderbolt-phantoms, though never had the guts to ask if he could join up with them…

The steam whistle called him back to ‘reality’.
The colt now was hovering directly above the train and headed for its driving cab, where he spotted the cottage´s soul playing with some levers and small wheels and occasionally pulling on a rope for the whistle. She was enjoying her dream very much. It made the Dreamwalker happy.
Happy souls always made him happy.

He silently landed behind her and transformed his wings back into a coat, suppressing a small wistful whine. He definitely had to use his wings more often!
Quietly he watched the soul dreaming for a few moments more. She was mumbling a happy tune to herself, a faster version of his favorite foalhood song.
Mentally he sang along.

Hush now! Quiet now!
It's time to lay your sleepy head!
Said hush now! Quiet now!
It's time to go to bed!

Driftin' off to sleep!
The exciting day behind you!...
…”Driftin' off to sleep!
Let the joy of dreamland find you!

Hush now! Quiet now!
Lay your sleepy head!
Said hush now! Quiet now!
This's time to go to bed!”

He smiled.
Yeah, the good old days where everything had been palmy…

In the next moment the nostalgic feelings were choked by a vise-like hug, pressing all air out off his lungs. Unwittingly he had sung along half of the song and disclosed his presence to the soul.
“SHADY!” the small filly squealed with joy. “I thought I would never ever see you again!”
“Can´t breathe…Need air…” he pressed out with the last bit of air he had.
Okay, granted, this statement was a lie.
After all, he was just a soul with no bodily needs. There was no lung, no blood inside him that demanded for oxygen. Breathing was just…an adopted habit and felt rather pleasant. The best proof for that statement was the fact that the last time he ate and drank something was about three years ago when he visited a pony that was reliving its birthday party in its dreams.
The chocolate cake had been excellent!
And that strawberry punch… - exquisite!
Not to mention, thinking about ingestion and the inevitable digestion afterwards, the last time he had needed the little colt´s room he couldn´t even remember. Had to be something about fifteen to twenty years ago, back when he indeed had been just a colt…

…back when he had a body…

“Oh!” the filly released her grip from him and took a step back, letting him rise back to his hooves. “I am sorry Shady…Uhm, I mean…Prince Shadow!” she took a quick bow.
Shady…
The name resounded in his head.
His mother always had called him like that…
Enough old memories for one day, Shadow! he exhorted himself.
The Dreamwalker held up a hoof. “Please, Shady is perfectly fine.”
Taking up the role of the gallant prince like in her last dream, he took her left front hoof and fluttered a kiss on it in perfect gentlecolt-style. “Especially for a princess as charming as you!”
The filly just snickered girlishly, a faint blush creeping to her cheeks which she tried to hide behind her long black mane.
“Sooo…I was wondering, uhm…What are you here for?” the young soul then asked inquisitive. “Did that dragon we defeated came back?”
“Oh, no, it´s nothing like that!” he placated her. “I just wanted to see if you´re alright and what you are doing.”
“Well…” came her response “…I have to drive this train to the other world´s end and search an antic shrine where a precious sapphire statue should be. Mommy and daddy didn´t want to come along, though. They said it would be ‘too expensive’!”
“Looks like very much fun.”
“Oh, it is!” the filly beamed and turned back to the levers, continuing her dream-game with a loud choo-choo of the steam whistle.
Shadow in the meantime looked out the window and watched the surrounding while they were crossing a bridge. He marveled about the many details of the dream. Since most souls weren´t even able to create a tree that looked less like a big lollipop with a thin brown stem and green top Stardust´s dream showed how much more phantasy she had. Her conifers even had single needles and her water wasn´t just a steady blue mass but even creating little waves and was really streaming and glistening in the sun. The sun itself was more than only a sole yellow fleck on a blue sky. It was indeed gleaming. He even thought he could feel warmth coming from it.
Occasionally he spied a few birds against the sky´s blue, soaring without worry completely free. He wished he could join them, fly along with them, to enjoy the sight and the wind caressing his coat…

A sudden wet sensation at his right cheek stopped his train of thoughts. It vanished as sudden as it had appeared and he turned to face the smiling Stardust who had just kissed him and rubbed his cheek somehow embarrassed.
“Uhm…What was that for?”
Her gaze lowered, her hoof pawing sheepish the ground.
“I wanted to say ‘thank you’. For the last time you helped me, you know?”
“Oh…” he waved his hoof dismissively “…That was nothing, really. I couldn´t stand there watching you cry. It made me feel so sad...”
“But you helped me finding my parents! And I totally forgot to say ‘thank you’! Weren´t you very angry? My mommy always tells me to say ‘thank you’ when somepony helps me. And when I did not, I was so worried about to lose you as a friend and-“
“It´s okay!” he cut in and calmed her, laying a hoof comfortingly on her shoulder. “I am not angry with you. You had been distracted and I had left before you even had the chance to thank me. No need to worry young princess!”
She couldn´t stifle a chuckle.
“Thank you, young prince!” she snickered “You sound like an old stallion the way you said that.”
I am aged thirty-two! That´s not THAT old!
“Anyway…” the soul then said, locking her blue eyes firmly with his golden ones “…it was still very noble of you to help me, despite that you aren´t even a part of my dream…”
He took a short bow, taking his right hoof to his chest where his heart was meant to be. “Being quixotic is just what princes are there for, Milady!” he meant but then stopped short.
Wait! Did she just notice that I am not part of her dream? She knows this is a dream?
Unaware of his thoughts the filly snickered again. “’Quixotic’, that sounds funny!”
“It´s some kind of being chivalrous, romantic and adventurous at the same time.” he explained.
Inwardly he shrugged.
Maybe she´s just a permanent lucid dreamer. Souls after all are able to notice the absence of their body. I mean, I had been a permanent lucid dreamer as well! That´s just coincidence…Though, I wonder-
His internal monologue was one more time cut short, this time by a sudden trembling beneath his hooves…

______________________________________________________________________

The small earthquake lasted only about five to ten seconds, and then it was gone, leaving an absolute silence.

What the hay was THAT?
The Dreamwalker looked at the young soul and her face showed the same nervous surprise.
Strange. If she´s aware of the fact that this is her dream there shouldn´t be anything that could surprise her. Except…

The soul suddenly gasped loud and pointed out the window at something ahead of them.
“Shady! Look!”
I so absolutely don´t like the sound of that…
Shadow followed her hoof pointing at the horizon.
There, where the tracks meet the sky, he noticed something what appeared to be a small black slapping. And it was extending very fast, reaching out for the sun and the blue sky, which were slightly flickering.
Is that…
He felt how the soul next to him suddenly clutched tight onto him.
“That´s it! It´s coming back! Just like the last time!” she began to panic, trembling furiously.
Guess that´s a ‘yes’… he furrowed, lying his hooves around the soul to keep her calm.
“It´s coming for my mommy and daddy! It promised it would come back!”
Shadow braced himself for what was to come, stroking her gently and pressing her protectively to him.
“It´s all right…I won´t let anything hurt you…” he tried to calm her.

The rift meanwhile grew steadily, consuming the whole horizon, the train bearing down inevitable on it. The black fog behind the hole slowly began to dissipate, revealing the details of the land behind.
But instead of the obnoxious bog that would be Macabra´s realm it revealed a large dark level country, black charred trees stretched their long thin forked branches towards the gloomy dark gray sky. The bald dry ground, appearing in an even darker shade of gray than the sky, was waste and riddled with dry old skulls and bones.
On the top of a far hill, there he spotted an ancient black castle.
The Dreamwalker´s eyes widened in shock. He had visited this realm only once and that had been enough to make the decision of never going back there again! It was a place of ever-present fear and death! The cemetery of the worn-out phantasm´s and factory of the worst nightmares there are!

Deathdream´s realm!

The next thing the duo on the loc heard was a painful strident penetrating screech, frightening the young Stardust to her very core, filling it with fear and dread. He felt the wetness of her tears against his coat, felt her shuddering and squeaking.
And Shadow himself was greatly perturbed as well.
Because the black silhouette he spotted against the dark sky and moved quickly into their direction announced the upcoming arrival of another oneirican nightmare.
“So much for Somnala´s reparation of the Veil! Don´t make me laugh, Stardream!” he grumbled.
Another screech coursed throughout the two souls, even louder this time and more terrifying. And the flying phantasm came closer by the second!

Time to act!

“We have to get off this train!” the black colt shouted. “You have to stop it!”
The young soul looked up at him with tearful eyes. “I…I can´t!” she sobbed. “I can´t do anything! Why can´t I do anything in my own dream?”
Damn!
Of course he could simply fly. But with the additional weight and the fact that he wasn´t a professional flyer made them stand without any chance against a flying phantasm. Imagination was all well and good, but one couldn´t ignore some logics.
It also would have been helpful to wake the young soul up and face the nightmare all by himself, but he didn´t know how to do so. Sure, every soul had a reflex that sent it back to its respective body immediately, induced by a threat caused by Dreamessence. He simply had to shove her off the loc so she would be threatened to crash against one of the conifers of her dream. The reflex should send her back before she´d even hit it.
But he couldn´t take the risk that it would not work and hurt her.

Then he noticed a bridge across the river in the distance and he made his decision.

Three.
Two.
One…

“Go!”
The Dreamwalker tightened his grip at the filly and jumped.
After a short fall down the bridge and a short surprised scream by Stardust the duo plunged into the streaming water with a plop.
For some moments their vision was filled with bubbles and blue streaming water, entraining them. Shadow closed his eyes and enlightened his horn. In a matter of seconds the drift decelerated and finally stopped. Another image he worked in his head let the riverbanks move farther apart, until they were out of sight and everything remained was a blue wide ocean, the sun´s light breaking through the surface and a few fishes swimming peaceful through the water. Enough place to face the nightmare.

He took a breath of relief, until he noticed the soul he still hold tight to him struggling in his grip, reaching desperate out for surface above with ballooned cheeks. But he couldn´t let her go or the nightmare would find them faster than he wanted it to.
Her struggling grew stronger, she kicked against him, broke his grasp, but he reacted fast enough and pulled her down before she could swim too far away. He turned her to lock his eyes with hers, who were pleading him with panic for her dear life to let her go.
“Just breathe.”
She shook her head furiously, knowing that breathing under water was impossible. That the Dreamwalker already did so she didn´t notice in her panicked state.
“Yes, you can. Believe me. This is your dream; you just have to believe you can breathe underwater.”
Reluctant and desperately in need for the feeling of air flooding her body the filly took an experimental breath. Only a second after that she took another deep, greedy breath, inhaling the water which surprisingly felt just like normal air.
Two more times she inhaled and exhaled deeply until she faced Shadows eyes again.
“Thank you.” she meant.
“No problem.”

“What was that scary thing at the sky?” she then asked. The jump out the train and the cold water had broken her state of shock and left an anxious state of nervousness. Everything seemed so much out of control for her, so confusing and frightening. What was that land she had seen? Where did it come from?
“It is a nightmare.” the Dreamwalker explained while they hovered in the water. “A very dangerous one.”
“It is like the last time. That strange hole, the strange land. And the scary nightmare. It took my mommy and daddy away and said I would never see them again! I was so scared I even forgot that I was just dreaming. And this time I know I am only dreaming but I can´t do anything, not even wake up!”
He nodded and laid one hoof soothing at her shoulder.
“I´ll protect you, Princess Stardust. I promise."
A shy smile was her answer.
“Pinkie Promise?"
Without hesitation he crossed his chest with one hoof and stuck the other into his eye, motioning Pinkie Pie´s special promise he once had seen in her dreams.
This time making sure to close his eye, unlike the first time.
“Pinkie Promise.”

And then, a giant shadow from above the surface fell on them…

______________________________________________________________________

“Wow, that´s a cool bow you created with your necklace!”
Aforesaid bow rested in his hooves, drawn, ready to fire the shining white arrow resting on its string at the phantasm above. Drifting on his back and facing the water surface above, the black colt waited eagerly for the shadow to move on and line its heart up with his arrow´s tip. It passed the nightmare´s head, chin, neck…jeez, that thing was huge! The Dreamwalker anticipated the perfect moment, let a few seconds more pass by, his eyes glued on the colossal target above.
Only one moment more…

This was it, the perfect moment! The bowstring left his hoof and shoot out, searching for its home, its peaceful resting position between the bow´s tips, translating all its power and joy about returning to its home place into the arrow, which was very happy to oblige and shoot out as well, rapidly ascending to breach the water surface and search for its destination, leaving small bubbles in its wake.
It reached the sky and a pained loud screech and flinch of the shadow above announced the successful search for the arrow´s new home.
Shadow smirked satisfied, enlightening his horn and sending out a magical wave after the arrow. It hit and the arrow exploded inside the nightmare´s chest, covering the sight above in a shining white cloud of Dreamdust.
“That´s it!” he cheered, punching the water with his hoof triumphantly.

“Wohoo! You did it, Shady! You-“
Her sentence drowned and turned into a scream when suddenly a claw with four fingers, sharp as razorblades, and obviously consisting of the same material, broke through the surface above and shot at them.
DAMNIT!
He worked his magic again, this time using it on his cloak. Instantly it loosened and wandered to his hindquarters, clutching tightly around them. At the same time it became peppered with fish scales and the coat hems created a powerful tail fin.
He grabbed his ‘princess’ and one strong flap of his new-grown fin gathered enough distance to avoid the claw just in time.
“Wow, how did you do that?” she asked astounded.
“I´ll explain it later!” he meant, enlarging the distance between them and the phantasm.

With a big splosh and thousands of bubbles the nightmare´s body joined the talon and shot straight to the seabed. A loud thump confirmed its arrival. A big fissure showed how much force the nightmare had tied into the attack. As soon as the fissure had opened both felt a sucking from it and the water surface was coming closer to them.
“It wants to suck us in!” the filly cried.
“No! It wants to draw us close enough to strike!” he corrected.
“Isn´t both lethal?” she meant stubborn.
The colt rolled his eyes, thinking about a way to escape.

His gaze fixed the surface above.
“Cling on tight!” he commanded and flapped his fin as powerful as possible, gaining speed while he headed for the surface. Meanwhile he prepared for his next spell. They finally broke through the water surface with an impressive jump into the air. In this moment Shadow casted his spell and transformed his cloak again. In a moment it loosened around his hindquarters and gripped his torso, creating his black wings again which caught them in the air and protected them from the mortal suction of the fissure beneath.

The valley around them was gone a long time ago. Only the wide ocean and the hole to Deathdream´s realm in the distance they saw.
Slowly the water was sucked away, lowering by the second.
Tensed the Dreamwalker and the soul on his back waited for the moment the sea would reveal their assailant.

It began with a pair of large ivory horns, long and meandering, ending in two acute tips, enough to easily break through any sort of flesh. Next was the head, an ugly skull with two black holes for its eyes, a tiny red glow inside them, staring baneful at the duo and kindling the fear in the young soul anew. A long acuminated snout, not unlike a draconic one, pointed at them. Hidden behind, two rows of trenchant teeth.
The bony spine at the back of its head announced where its neck began, and pale ribs showed the beginning of its chest, one of them crushed where Shadow´s arrow had hit. A little bit above where the scapulas were sprawled long wings, consisting of pure sharp steel and looking like double-edged blades. It was a wonder it was able to fly with them.
And its arms looked the same, long slender swords designed to cut souls into functional small pieces. They ended in two osseous claws, each of them equipped with four dagger-like fingers.
The long legs and feet were designed the same way like it´s arms and claws, connected to its spine with a simple bony pelvis.

Dead silence was ruling while the two parties eyed each other up.

The filly on his back began to tremble again, now viewing the phantasm in all its glory - its ten-times-bigger-than-Celestia-raised-on-her-hind-hooves-glory.
“Just keep calm and focus.” he whispered to the young soul.
One second later the giant nightmare´s maw opened for another loud screech, ringing in their ears and shaking the earth around them.

The battle was opened.

And the dragon made the first move, raising one of his colossal claws and brandished it. The Dreamwalker instantly folded his wings, going into a free fall, drew his bow and fired three new arrows at the phantasm; which´s claw had missed their heads by an inch or two.
Exploding in a white cloud of Dreamdust when they hit its chest the arrows crushed three other ribs of the monster, but otherwise it stayed unharmed.
Shadow unfurled his wings again shortly before they reached the ground and caught their fall, landing softly. A movement above him let him roll to the side, avoiding the razor-sharp toes of the foot that had tried to squash them with a heavy thump.

Only a moment later he rose back to his hooves and took a quick series of sidesteps which reminded at dance-steps, avoiding the series of claw-strokes drawing bizarre lines into the ground with its sharp fingers.
“It is too strong!” the filly winced when another claw drew by only an inch behind them, accompanied by another disappointed scream of the dragon-nightmare.
“No, we can defeat him! We-“

*Plong*

One of the osseous talons hit them backhanded; sending both with pained screams several meters through the air and separating them.

Stardust groaned when she landed hard on the brown ground. Slowly she rose back to her hooves. Her right shoulder where the nightmare had hit her was aching, but luckily Shady had protected her mostly from the impact.
Shady!
Frantically she searched for him and found him in the distance, simply lying there limp, his eyes closed in unconsciousness.
“SHADY!”

The giant dragon raised his head to utter a triumphant screech towards the blue sky and then focused its red gleaming eyes back on the Dreamwalker.
It took one step towards him.
And then another.
“No! Shady, wake up! Please!” the filly screamed and begged desperately.
But he didn´t move. And the phantasm got ever closer.
“No! Go away! Leave him alone you big mean monster!”
It was of no use.
Finally the dragon was standing right in front of the knocked out colt and looking down on him. With an eager glow in its eyes it raised its claw, the razor tips of its finger pointing at him.
“NO! SHADY!” she cried, little tears of helplessness and anger appearing in the corners of her eyes. She had to do something to help her friend! He had rescued her so often this last few minutes, and now it was her turn and she wasn´t able to do ANYTHING! She couldn´t just stand there and watch the nightmare destroy her friend!
But what should she do?
It was so frustrating; she closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, emitting an angry growl.
The nightmare´s claw brandished.
“I. Said. STOP IT!”

Something unexpected happened.

The earth began to tremble, announcing another earthquake. Irritated the phantasm stopped the deadly punch and looked around confused. The tremor got worse; the fissure from before beneath the nightmare´s feet began to expand. It grew wider and wider, creating a huge black hole.
The dragon fought a moment for his balance, but another seismic shock made him loose balance and topple over into the hole with a desperate scream.
Though, the fissure was not bottomless. A loud thump announced that the phantasm had reached the ground with its feet when only his shoulders and skull were left visible. Before it got the chance to crawl out of the hole another earthquake closed the gap rapidly, trapping the monster which now was struggling heavily to get free.
When it recognized that it was useless, its frustrated eyes fixed on the little filly.

There she was standing in front of the scary nightmare, a furious gaze in her eyes and her horn brightly alight.
“I told you to stop you big bad meanie!” she shouted angry. “You were a very very bad dragon! And now I will make sure that you can´t hurt anypony ever again!”
Confused the nightmare looked up when it noticed a shadow from above. It screamed one last time when it noticed the object levitating over it - a giant wooden hammer, ready to slam down and bury it underneath.
And exactly that did it in the next second.

One loud last thump could be heard, and then there was just silence again…

______________________________________________________________________

With narrowed eyes she took in the sight in front of her.

The compilation of unusual loud noises was what drew her here. It was simply unbelievable! A hole in the Veil, here, in her realm! So Macabra had been serious when she had reported about it to her. She never thought this could be even possible, not to mention happening in her own realm!

But the fact was that she couldn´t deny her eyes seeing the battlefield in front of her. Huge furrows showed where the claws of her beloved pet had hit the brown ground. The white shimmering Dreamdust floating in the air was the remaining thing of her lapdog, eliminated by a small helpless filly.
Her brain couldn´t take it. How had been a small filly like her defeating her most powerful and sweetest pet so easily? No phantasm of Oneirica could cope with her cute Soulcrusher!
And now he was gone.
She shook her head. There was no sense to have strong feelings about such petty nothings. There were enough phantasms to take his place as Oneirica´s Grim Reaper.
Her eyes fixated the foal. She lay there, leaned over a small black colt with yellow mane, the very one she knew was the only existing Dreamwalker, gently nudging and grooming him, trying to wake him up from his unconscious state.
How sweet…and totally useless!

“This won´t wake him up.” she simply stated, approaching her.
The filly startled surprised, turning around to face the newcomer…
…and get into fighting position one more time.
“Nightmare Moon! You sent that dragon, didn´t you?”
She chuckled amused.
This foal was tough, there was no doubt.
Nightmare Moon, the black slender horse with the stardust mane, iron helmet, necklace and horseshoes was a common form Dreamers gave her. But she bet that her true being was even worse than the one of Nightmare Moon, way more intimidating.

Because she was the ruler of all nightmares, the dark mistress of Oneirica.
She was Deathdream!

“I am not here to do you any harm. I am just investigating.” she stated honestly. It had been indeed her curiousness which had brought her here in the first place.
But the little filly only snorted in disbelief.
“Don´t try to lie at me! You sent that nightmare and now want to end things and-“
She was cut short by Deathdream´s horn touching her brow.
“You have had enough adventures for today. Your dreams are over.” she explained calm and worked her magic. “It´s time to wake up for you…”
And in the very same moment a small magical pulse of her horn made the soul vanish in front of her, sending it back to her body in Equestria.

Then she fixated the Dreamwalker. He was lying on his side, his trilby off his head a few meters away. The cloak around his shoulders had back its normal form, just as the Dreamwalker for himself. His younger form was gone and replaced by his natural stallion-form. Around his neck rested his weapon, transferred back into his usual necklace.
He was dying, she sensed it.
Rest was what he needed, but she wasn´t able to give it to him. She had to get back to her realm before Somnala would close the rift.
She sighed.
It was the simple rule of the souls. They had to rest; otherwise they would simply vanish with time and stop to exist. It began with headaches, which after a while transformed into a slight light-headedness. The soul would begin to start acting like it was drunk. Next would be a strong feebleness, ending in unconsciousness, were the soul started to slowly dissolve back into Dreamdust.
The hit he had gotten from Soulcrusher must have jumped all these steps.

She materialized a shining sword next to her.
She would put him out of his misery; his end was inevitable nonetheless without any help.
The sword rose.

“Don´t you dare do him any harm!” a sudden voice commanded behind her.
She knew it, though it had been a long time since she had heard it the last time.
“Why should I listen to the words of a traitor to Oneirica?” Deathdream stated nearly emotionless, turning around to face the newcomer.
“I am NO traitor!” the mare in front of her growled, a reaction to which she only could cock an eyebrow.
“No? Then look into my eyes and tell me you didn´t try to destroy Oneirica in the past.”
Silence.
“That wasn´t truly me…” the mare then muttered low.
“Or tell me that you didn´t leave Oneirica so selfishly!"
The mare gave no answer. She didn´t know how to respond to the accusation since it was partially true.
“Didn´t you just leave us because you were bored of your task and tried to escape it until you finally recognized it´s necessity?”
“That´s a lie!” the mare protested and snorted with anger. “I would never deny the necessity of my task! But learning more about the Dreamers´ lives and associate with them is as important as well!”
“And at which point you decided it would be necessary to rule over them, huh?" Deathdream continued merciless. "Tell me, Lunatisma! Tell me about the necessity to rule their land when all you wanted was to learn?”
The mare´s gaze sank defeated to the ground, accompanied by a heavy exhalation.
“They simply decided it. They saw our strength, our power and simply chose us to lead them. There had been many dangers, other phantasms that had followed us and they wanted us to protect them.”

Deathdream watched her, wanted to see her face, to see the remorse the mare felt.
“And after all that, after things had settled down, you didn´t even bother to visit your home, that is what hurts me most, dearest daughter. You even shed your original shape, trashed your connection to Oneirica. I am sure you can´t even remember it, do you?” she continued bitter, showing all the built up disappointment gathered in uncounted centuries.
The mare in front of her only closed her eyes and shook her head.
Silence was what followed for a long time, until Deathdream again spoke up.
“Take him to his Soulcottage. He needs rest most urgently. Oneirica needs its Dreamwalker at a time like this! Go now! I´ll make sure no other of my nightmares pass this rift!”

The mare nodded and levitated the stallion onto her back, trotting through the now empty Soulcottage towards its door and stopping there, turning around to face her mother one last time.
There was one thing she wanted to know, needed to know.
“Will you ever forgive me?” she asked reluctantly.
The Realmkeeper´s gaze fixated her daughter´s shining regretful eyes.
“I already forgave you many centuries ago…now hurry!”

Her daughter nodded and finally opened the door, leaving the Soulcottage with a faint and hopeful smile on her lips…