Dream Weaver had a lot of fond memories from her foalhood.

She remembered playing with her two parents. Her father was a quiet yet kind unicorn stallion, frail compared to the athletic pegasi or earth ponies yet strong to his eager young daughter. Her mother was a stern but loving pegasus mare who valued traditional values above all else. While she didn’t realize it at the time, looking back Dream couldn’t help but realize that her mother had always been a bit of a bigot and a xenophobe, being unfairly fearful and judgmental of anyone or anything out of the ordinary. But while her mother had always tried to instill this same fear into her, Dream instead found herself wondering just how true her mother’s stories of monsters and demons were.

Dream was a pegasus like her mother, and spent most of her foalhood thinking she would grow up to be a weather mare just like her. However, she had dreams of becoming more than that. She wanted a life full of danger and adventures, a life full of the things from her mother’s cautionary tales.

She remembered the day her younger sister Wishing Wand was born. She loved the little unicorn from the moment she first laid eyes on her. She couldn’t wait to watch her grow up and swore that she would always be there for her little sister.

She remembered the day she got her cutie mark, the day that changed everything for her.

She was lying awake in bed in the middle of the night when she heard Wishy whimpering in fear from the room next door. She thought about getting her parents, but something deep inside of her told her to go in on her own. She snuck over into her sister’s bedroom. Her sister lay in her crib, fast asleep and obviously in distress. It was obvious she was having a bad dream and would start crying soon. Dream felt obligated to do something to help her.

Then, it happened. By some instinct, Dream shut her eyes and spread her wings. She didn’t know why she did it, but it felt right. Then, she began to feel something channeling through her wings, filling with an energy she’d never felt before. And then, she opened her eyes.

For the first time, she truly saw. All around the room she saw it: magic. Magic in its purest, most natural state, drifting through the air, shimmering. She saw her sister passively absorbing the magic through her horn, flowing into her body, collecting together as a reservoir of energy within her, ready to be used for spells.

Most importantly though, she saw the dark thread of magic connecting from her sister’s head to something beneath her crib. Dream bent down to look, and was greeted by two big, pure white eyes amidst a whirling sea of darkness. The dark creature let out a noise that seemed to be a mix of a ghastly shriek and a whinny as it bolted out from under the bed, severing its tie with her sister. It leapt onto the wall, taking on an equine shape. Its legs were unusually thin and its chest was rakishly bony. Its coat was an inky black, broken only by the two flickering white eyes on its head. It glared down at her with a hiss before dashing away in a blur, losing all shape as it became like a shadow on the wall, darting out through a crack in the window back into the night.

Dream, in a daze from what she had just witnessed, turned to check on her sister. Wishy was sleeping soundly once again. Dream touched her wings against her sister’s forehead and, by sheer instinct, she forged a better dream for her. She took the magic from the air and she wove it into a spell, a spell for sweet dreams to help her precious little Wishy.

Then Dream was tired, and she shut her eyes. When she opened them, the magic was no longer visible, and she no longer felt like she could control it the same way she had. But Wishy was sleeping happily, and that’s all that mattered to her. She went back to bed and finally fell asleep.

It wasn’t until the next day that she found out she’d discovered her special talent that day. Her mother pointed out to her that she had gotten her cutie mark, a sewing needle threading a waving stream of star dust. Dream was ecstatic! She had dreamed of this day for so long. But then, remembering how she had gotten her talent, she became afraid of what her mother would think of it. What she had done reminded her of stories her mother had used to tell her, stories of evil ponies called witches.

Witches looked like normal ponies, but they had a dark power to use magic that they weren’t supposed to be able to. Pegasi and earth pony witches would cast spells with greater ease than a unicorn could, and this power made them strange and dangerous. Her mother had told her that good ponies had gotten rid of all the witches. But what about her? She did something pegasi weren’t supposed to be able to do. Was she a witch?

She wanted to tell her mother, but knowing how she got about strange things and how defensive she was about her youngest daughter, Dream was afraid she would lash out. She would’ve told her father, as he might have been better help, but then the thought occurred to her that HE would then tell her mother.

It was then that she resolved to hide her talent from everypony. And for some time, it worked. But each night, she could feel it. She could feel ponies having bad dreams. First it was just the family members from time to time, but then, as she tried to repress it more, she began to feel the nightmares of the next-door neighbors, and then the neighbors beyond them, up until the point where she could feel a bad dream from across town. It was unbearable to wait for Princess Luna to come and chase away the creatures. She wanted so badly to help.

The worst part though, was every now and then, one of the black equines, those Nightmares, would slip into her room and watch her. She could see them clearly now, with or without her power. They would just sit there in the corners of her room, sit there and dare her to move, to do something to stop them it seemed. Sometimes it was just one. Sometimes they would flood the room in a sea of darkness and blinking white eyes.

Finally, one night, she could take no more. She could feel them. A hoard of them. All of them right next door, tormenting her sister. She could feel her sister’s fear and anguish. She had to do something.

Dream rushed over, spreading her wings and drawing on her power again. As she dashed in, her eyes and wings flashed with a blinding light that chased away the Nightmares in a shrieking hoard of darkness.

But she was too late. At that moment, her sister screamed out in terror from the terrible dream she’d been having. It wasn’t a minute later that their mother rushed in, only to see her eldest daughter standing by her crying sister’s bedside, eyes and wings glowing with an unnatural white light.

Her mother screamed out, a shriek of terror that would haunt Dream for the rest of her days. She began to scream at Dream to get away from Wishy, to get away from her darling daughter. She called Dream names. Witch. Changeling.

Monster.

Dream fled out into the night, her power fading away, the white glow in her eyes replaced by burning tears as she ran away from home, ran away from her family.

She had a lot of fond memories, memories all tainted by the sadness of that one day.

She ran and ran, running right out of town and into the surrounding forest. She didn’t stop until she was far away from it all, in the middle of that dark, dark forest. She sat crying, crying over the loss of her family, of everything she knew. She felt like a freak. A monster. She would never be loved again. She would never know a family again. At least, that’s what she felt like.

Thankfully for her, fate had other plans.

“Are you okay?” a mare’s voice said from out of the woods. She came forward, a pretty young unicorn looking down at her with concern.

“Stay away from me!” Dream cried out, turning away and covering her face with a wing. “I’m a monster!”

The mare chuckled, almost knowingly.

“Darling, trust me. From personal experience, a real monster would never admit to being a monster.” The mare moved closer, placing a comforting hoof on her back. “I’m Stardust. And this,” she gestures behind her, where a stallion’s silhouette could be seen in the shadows, shyly waving, “is Nightshade. And you are?”

She sniffled, pulled her wing back in, and turned to face her.

“I’m… I… I’m Dream Weaver…”

“Nice to meet you, Dream Weaver! Now, why’s a little filly like you all alone out here?”

“Because… I’m different… I scared momma… she hates me now… she doesn’t want me…” Dream looked down sadly, about to break back into tears.

“Hey now, that can’t be true. There’s nothing wrong with being different. Nightshade and I are different from other ponies too.”

Dream turned and looked back up at her with wide eyes.

“Really? How?”

“Well… Nightshade, you want to come over?”

The stallion shifted uncomfortably before stepping out into the light. His coat was a dusky purple, his cutie mark was a sprig of nightshade, his ears were fluffy, his teeth were fanged, and his wings were bat-like rather than feathered.

He was a bat pony.

The sight of him fascinated her. She’d never seen a bat pony before, and though her mother had tried to convince her that they either weren’t real or were dark minions of Nightmare Moon that had been banished along with her, she had always wanted to see one for herself.

“Cool…” Dream whispered out in awe, her sadness momentarily put aside.

“Uh… hi,” he coughed out in a nervous tone. “I’m uh… I’m Nightshade.”

“Hi Nightshade.”

“Um… Listen… Maybe your parents don’t want you gone. I um… I can take you home. I can take you there without anyone seeing. And if you still want to go, you can leave without them ever knowing.”

Dream thought it over for a moment, then nodded.

“Okay. I’ll… I’ll go.”

The stallion nodded, then motioned for her to move to his side. Once she was next to him, pressed up against his side, he closed his eyes in deep focus. Suddenly, the forest around them seemed a lot darker. He began to move, guiding her along with him. Their hoofsteps were silenced, and as they snuck out of the forest and through the dark alleyways, nopony seemed to notice them. Whatever it was doing, it seemed to make them one with the shadows.

Soon enough, she’d led him to her home. Through the window, she could see her parents arguing. She couldn’t make out a lot of what they were yelling about, as their shouts overlapped so often that it made it difficult to distinguish, but a few choice words from her mother slipped through the clamor.

“That was not our daughter! That was some Changeling devil that replaced her! I swear, if I ever see that monster again, I swear I’ll kill it! I’ll kill it!”

Nightshade took a step back, wincing.

“Oh… Well… That’s not good…”

Dream sniffled, only to be swept into a wing hug by the bat stallion next to her.

“Hey, hey… it’s okay. Star and I… we’ll help you out, okay? Listen, this might sound crazy, but… we’re going to a place. A nice place for ponies like us. Ponies that don’t fit in. You’ll get a good home, a good life, and ponies who’ll treat you like you deserve to be treated. What do you say?”

For a moment, she was silent. Could she really leave the only home she’d ever known? Her family? Her sister? She didn’t want to go. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized that she didn’t seem to have a choice. She wasn’t welcome here anymore. She couldn’t think of any other option. She had nowhere else to go. It was clear what she had to do. Looking up to him, fighting back tears, she said the magic words.

“Okay. I’ll come with you.”

Nightshade smiled kindly and stood up, leading her out with his shadow cloak.

The two soon arrived back in the clearing, where Stardust was waiting for them. Nightshade told her everything that had happened, and Stardust gave Dream another hug.

“Well, we’re glad to have you with us.”

“Thank you… by the way, Miss Stardust, you didn’t tell me what’s different about you. Why are you running away?”

The older mare blushed and turned her head.

“Well…”

In that moment, Dream noticed something and got her answer: Stardust’s teeth weren’t flat like a normal pony’s. Instead, on her upper jaw was a pair of sharpened fangs, like Nightshade’s. Dream gasped, realizing what Stardust was.

“You’re a vampony!”

“Well… yes. Although technically I’m a sanguine. Now, don’t be scared, I don’t eat ponies-”

“That is so cool!” Dream exclaimed, cutting off Stardust as she pounced to hug her. Stardust looked down in surprise before returning the hug, smiling down gratefully at the young filly.

“By the way Dream, I don’t think you told us what makes you different either.”

“Oh,” Dream said, slipping back shyly. “Um… well, my thing isn’t all that cool, not like you guys. I can see… stuff. I don’t know what, just… magic-y stuff. In the air. And I can give ponies good dreams.”

The two older ponies looked at each other with wide eyes before turning back to her.

“Do you think you could show us?”

Dream wasn’t sure. After what had happened at home, she never wanted to use her powers again. But then again, she trusted these two. She knew they wouldn’t judge her. So, she steeled herself, focused her mind, and opened her eyes to the magic once again.

She could see Stardust’s unicorn magic, acting just like she’d seen Wishy’s magic, doing what she’d come to recognize as whatever it was unicorn magic did. But there was something else, a dark tainted magic drifting around her, probably from her being a vampony- she meant sanguine.

She looked at Nightshade and that he didn’t have any sort of visible magic around him. Then she noticed them both watching her with wide eyes. At first, she was worried, until she realized that it wasn’t fear in their eyes, but awe.

“Oh my Celestia… You’re a witch!”

“That’s incredible!”

Dream backed up in fear, dispelling her powers as memories of her mother’s stories and fury filled her mind momentarily.

“I’m a… witch? But isn’t that bad?”

“No, no sweetie, that’s amazing! You have a gift, something rare and special! I know ponies like to make witches sound scary and evil, but that’s just because they don’t understand them. It’s the same with thestrals and sanguine.”

“Right! Oh, now we definitely have to get you to Hollow Shades! There are ponies there who can help teach you how to control your powers.”

As the two adults gushed on about how they were going to get to Hollow Shades, Dream couldn’t help but smile. She may have lost one family, and she would always miss them, but it looked like she had found a new one, one who accepted her for who she was.

She was Dream Weaver. She was a witch. And she was okay with that.

Author's Note

The start of my new adventure story! Let's all hope this one lasts. Thankfully, I already have the next three chapters written and just need to get them edited.

Speaking of which, a big thanks to my editor Requiem17, without whom this story would not be possible.

Also, this story is a sort of spin-off of my Tumblr blog, Heroes Of Hollow Shades. It's on a bit of a hiatus right now, but I hope to bring it back up soon.

Anyway, thank you for reading, and I hope to have more to give you soon!