Dreamers

"Now! The first thing you must learn is the dream world itself,"Luna started.

"Humanity has used what they see in daily life in dreams. Those get saved in the great dreamscape, along with others who dreamed of the same experiences, locations, and people. Those people have also dreamed of other things, which connects it all together. Since our species have been in nearly every corner of time and place, you as a dreamer with full consciousness of what you are doing can transverse nearly anywhere in time and space. The caveat is not anywhere where humans have not been so you can't go back to the time of dinosaurs."

"That's wicked," Summer said.

"Yes, it is 'wicked', child. Even I am still learning about dreams and dream magic every day for as long as I have been around. It is the next great frontier of human discovery."

"what else can you tell us?" Star asked.

"When you go to these worlds, you will encounter many like yourself, those who transverse the dream world. You cannot tell what they look like, but you will feel it. Previous members of the academy will be your mentors and will assist you at certain scenarios, in exchange, you must do the same for the future generations as long as you are still alive."

"When you are traversing the dream world, always have someone with you. You do not want to get in a fight alone with a dream eater since they hunt in packs."

"Luna? What's a dream eater?" Star asked.

Luna had a wry smile on her as she looked at the young couple.

"Right, I assume you have not run into one?"

"Don't think so," They both answered.

* * *

It was a mere instant, the bright, white, room disappeared and they found themselves in the middle of a dark alley. The smoke in the air and the brick walls reminded the couple of the Victorian times of Canterlot.

"Oh man, the proverbial dark alley, this will be fun!" Summer joked. Her classmates were standing on the rooftops overlooking them, their stoic gaze not changing.

"This is not a fun lesson, children. This part will save your life," Luna answered.

"What do you mean?" Star asked.

It was then they felt a presence of dread arriving, which made the young couple hold hands, darting their eyes around trying to find the source of the dread.

"You see children, we are not alone. Every time you venture into the dream world, you must be on the look out for the dream eaters."

"Dream eaters?" The young couple asked at the same time.

It was then that a black humanoid creature jumped out of the shadows, scaring Summer and Star nearly out of their clothes.

The creature lunged at them, causing them to hold on to each other and close their eyes, anticipating in horror what was about to happen.

"Open your eyes, children," Luna commanded.

When they did they were still holding on to each other, but back in the white room. The creature was mid-air and had stopped a few feet from the couple.

"This is a dream eater," Luna said with a slight tinge of disgust.

"Look at it, this abomination will be your biggest problem when transversing the dreamscape."

Star and Summer split and started to walk around the still creature. It was black, no eyes, large, sharp fangs, white boils all over its body, and its hands and feet had claws and webbed feet. They both looked at each other and nodded

"We have run into these before." Summer said.

"You have?" Luna asked. "usually dream eaters tend to leave a blank spot in people's dreams."

"I-it was a long story, and I'm sure you don't want to be bothered with the details. But we have dealt with these before," Summer said, while she went up and held Stars hand, giving him a loving smile.

"This creature is male, but there are female variants with busts. These things are the root cause of people dying in their sleep, a secret that must not leave this class."

That revelation made Star and Summer's eyes perk up.

"wait, that's why? these things?" they asked

"Yes, unfortunately. You see why the elderly and the young sometimes die in their sleep? It's because they can't run far."

"I see," Summer said as she continued to study the dream eater, her lover still holding her hand tightly. "So, why do they do it?"

"They feed off of people's nightmares, which is harmless enough. But, if desperate, they will start chasing down people in their dreams to juice it out of them. But, they also know that simply killing that person and eating them in the dream will also suffice. Needless to say, humans will die in the physical world since the consciousness is destroyed in the process. "

"Fuck," Star said under his breath. "we dodged one hell of a bullet then."

"Which is why we have dream academy students, to keep them at bay, right?" Summer asked.

"Correct. By secretly training generations of our species' best and brightest, we can keep the dream eaters numbers down to a minimum. We can't overly destroy them as a group."

Luna closed her eyes as if she was receiving a message. She opened them up and smiled.

It looks like that's all we have for tonight, children. "Before you all go: remember to keep your training only to yourselves. Do not tell friends, family, not even my sister. "

"Why?" Star asked.

"I just told you that dreams are real and the idea of dream eaters eating and what they are capable of. I cannot allow my people to go into a mass panic and refuse to sleep. That will upset the balance of both here and the physical world. Until then, you have a few hours to go wherever you like!"

Star and Summer looked at each other and held each other's hand "Our spot?" Summer asked.

"Of course!" Star said as they both disappeared.

Luna had also disappeared, leaving the rest of the class to themselves.

"They got scared of the dream eater back in Victoria, should we be worried?" Pip asked as the seats started falling down.

"Everyone has been scared of their first dream eater encounter. There's no worry needed," Faith replied.

"Sure hope so, we can't fail because of these two." Enigma snarled.

"Give these kids a chance, brother. You were like them too, remember?" Might added.

"Whatever. Where do all want to go?"

"Undisclosed car hop in the fifties?!" Pip asked.

"You just want to rumble with the greasers, don't ya?" Enigma smiled.

"You know it!" Pip replied.