“I’ll go first.” Fluttershy offered.

“Alright! Um… did you need anything to help you fall asl-”

“I’ll make all of us some tea that I use to help me fall asleep.” Rarity said.

“No, no. That’s not what I mean… just things to help you sleep more comfortably. I have a spell to put you under.” Twilight shook her head.

Dash started to snicker.

“What’s so funny?” Twilight huffed.

“Nothin. Just expected you to have some magical solution to sleeping… it just makes it all that much funnier that yo-” Dash couldn’t finish as Applejack caught her the moment she passed out.

The glow of Twilight’s horn died down and immediately Dash woke back up.

“Huh…” She mumbled quietly.

“That. Was just the temporary version of it.” Twilight stated. “Any other comments on my private moments and I’ll send a letter directly to Princess Luna and we’ll both see how much fun we can have with your dreams.” She mused, jokingly of course, but it got the point across.

“Fine… Fine.” Dash muttered, crossing her arms.

“And before you even ask… That was a one time thing. I’m not going to just knock you out anymore.” Twilight said, gently taking Fluttershy’s hand. “I’ll be back down with Fluttershy once we’re finished.”

Fluttershy smiled at her close friend as she was lead up to Twilight’s bedroom. “Now… you can do whatever you need to get ready. But once you lay down, we’re going to begin.” Twilight said.

Fluttershy nodded, and it was only another minute before she slipped under the covers. Immediately Twilight’s magic helped lull her to sleep and the eager unicorn could fully begin.

Hours later:

Twilight had finished exploring her friends dreams, some things she’d seen in them were normal… other things, she’d rather never experience again.

The entire endeavour gave her a whole new appreciation for the hard work Luna had to do every night. It also made her glad she didn’t have to do it. But it didn’t turn her away from wanting to help her new friend.

She hopped downstairs with more energy then she expected. Most of her friends still seemed sleepy, she chalked that up to her making their dreams lucid and it skipping their REM sleep. Or in Rarity’s case, Twilight noping the fuck out and forcing her awake by dumping her to the floor.

Twilight however hadn’t ever felt this energetic… well other then a few good nights sleep she had. She assumed expending so much magical energy would’ve drained her, instead it seemed she’d been gathering more energy from what she coined as the ‘dream realm’.

“So… what are yah gonna do now?” Applejack yawned as she stretched out, trying to at least wake up a little more.

“Me? I’m gonna go see what I can do for Arkantos! You girls should go home and get some actual sleep…” Twilight replied, grinning widely at her new found enthusiasm. She knew she’d be able to help him out now. Even if it was just to give him a dreamless sleep.

“You mean like Dashie?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight paused, unlike the others Dash hadn’t woken up right away. Though, Twilight knew exactly why. She’d forcefully knocked Dash back out, not wanting to deal with her snide attitude about what had gone on in her dreams… It was the only time Twilight would let Dash prove her wrong. “No. Not exactly like her… she’s a special case. Just… go home, and get some sleep.”

The other four mares nodded and happily left Twilight’s home.

“Now…” Twilight began to talk to herself as she too left her home, teleporting herself right to the hospital.

It was another few minutes before Spike and Shining returned. Both of them chatting about what they’d learned.

“In all honesty, I don’t really see why Celestia doesn’t want him here.” Shining said.

“Whatcha mean? I thought Celestia was fine with him staying.” Spike inquired.

Shining paused for a moment, “Twilight… right. I get why she wouldn’t…” He sighed. “Look… Spike. Celestia really doesn’t like Arkantos for some reason. She… isn’t really clueing anypony in on as to why… just, that she doesn’t want him interacting with Twilight or anypony else… she wants to send him hom-”

“But, he said he came her because his home didn’t want him!” Spike stated.

Shining forced a smile down at the baby dragon. “Right… that’s why I need to get a letter to Celestia… maybe it’ll change her mind completely.” When Spike had gone to get the three stal- himself, Shining, and Arkantos some lunch, Shining had been truly clued in on as to why Arkantos was here… and how there wasn’t anything for him to return to.

“That’d be great! Twilight’s been so exci-” Spike was cut off as he burped out a letter.

“Hm? What’s this about…” Shining grabbed it and opened the letter up.

Around ten minutes before:

Luna found herself in a tizzy. Celestia had been right, though not completely, about Arkantos. He was a danger, not just to Twilight now, but to himself. She completely missed it during her sweep of Ponyville before Celestia ordered her to stop.

She felt something incredibly familiar to her, but this time it was leeching off the tormented and broken human. It was her fault that Twilight was now going to be in danger.

Luna rushed to Celestia’s room, throwing the doors open and startling Celestia.

“Luna? What’s this intru-”

“Nightmare Moon has latched onto the human! The entirety of Ponyville is in danger if she gets ahold of him!” Luna stated.

“What?” Celestia slowly stood up.

“She HAS to have gotten into him when he was in the old castle! She’s been making his dreams worse, trying to break him down completely! If she succeeds then she’ll have all his magic and power at her control!” Luna continued frantically.

“Then we n-”

“Twilight’s going to dive into his dream! Unless we stop her, she might be Nightmare’s actual victim!” Luna stammered out.

“WHAT?!?! Why in ALL of Hades would Twilight, or HOW would Twilight know how to enter dreams? Did you go against my orders?” Celestia roared. “WE NEED TO STOP HER! AND WE NEE-”

“I can go in and save him! We don’t have to kill him sister! We just need to make sure Twilight doesn’t go into her trap! Please, think about what you’re doing… what you’re saying! You’re going insane over this! Twilight will not leave her friends! You and I both know that! So stop taking your fears out on him! None of us know anything about him!” Luna snapped back. “Just send the godsdamned letter and make sure Twilight doesn’t get harmed!”

Celestia was multitasking, she seemed to go a bit slack as she sent out the already written letter. “We need to go to Ponyville then.” She sighed. “To make sure neither of them ends up under her control.”

“We need to save them both.”

Author's Note

Okay... I had no will to write out the unimportant dreams. College work, and work itself drained my drive completely to write any of those out.

I'm really sorry it took so long to get this out. As for the next chapter, I have no idea when it'll be out, but I hope you'll stick with me!