Dawn was bored, one of her professors, this one called Chalkboard was officially one of the most boring ponies in Equestria and Dawn would have him shot. He would then be taught how to properly teach her students the fundamental shapes that the students are required to know if she was going to continue her studies into mecha-archanum structures.
Dawn already knew all the shapes and was bored, doodling some of the more complex ones in the margin of her notepad, then starting some of the work she had been given that morning. She had the long essay done to top notch standards before yawning and lying her head down on her folded hooves and staring blankly at her droning professor.
He continued boring Dawn senseless till her eyes began to feel heavy, and well she hadn’t exactly slept the best the night before, she had sorta been awake in the early hours and messed up her wing. She already knew everything she was gonna learn in this lesson, what’s wrong with five minutes of shuteye to try and catch up on what precious sleep she missed last night.

“NO!” She mentally kicked herself for thinking she could just sleep through classes. But she was tired and would feel great afterwards, maybe her headache would go away.

“No Dawn, no sleeping, you know it’d be unacceptable and your mother would wring your neck.” She whispered to herself, but the mention of the word ‘sleeping’ only made her eyes sag lower, like a set of weights were being tied to her eyelashes. “But sleep would be great and you could feel great and catch up on last night.” the little devil on her shoulder chittered into Dawn’s ear.

And with that, she was gone, her eyes sliding shut like a set of bars on a cell. The key was turned and tossed away, Dawn was left in her drab, perfectly white dreamscape, with the little white door way off in the distance. She eyed the door for a few moments, being that she didn’t sleep much during the day, she didn’t much visit the dream world during the waking hours either.

Dawn wondered if there’d be any interesting ponies sleeping right now, and there were always ponies asleep, and that curiosity started drawing that little door ever closer to where Dawn was sitting. Before she knew it, and definitely before she could stop herself, Dawn had her hoof on the handle and was pushing the door open.

The dreamscape on the other side was smaller, understandably, there were less ponies asleep during the day than at night. The vast starry place looked the same as it had the night before, still full of bubbles showing small clips of what was going on in the heads of the dreaming ponies. Dawn started looking through the snippets of events, occasionally willing one nearer to her so she could get a better look inside the dream. It wasn’t long before she found one she was interested in, she had found somepony having a nightmare. Dawn sat there for a few moments, watching the frightened mare struggle down a dark hallway, something chasing her relentlessly.

Dawn saw her panic stricken face and could feel her sheer terror emanating from the gently pulsing bubble. She didn’t want to do nothing about her nightmare, but at the same time it could be caused by something that wasn’t her own mind? Dawn started to panic, then the mare shrieked and stumbled over inside the disconcerting maze, so Dawn jumped and pressed her hoof to the orb and the whole world went white.

The next second, Dawn found herself opening a door into the pitch black maze. The terrified mare ran straight into her and screamed. Dawn just grabbed the squirming mare by the hoof and yanked her into the room where a drippy candle in the corner provided the faintest speck of light. The mare battled Dawn, hard, landing a few hard blows to her chest. Dawn was used to such reactions when she entered someponies nightmare, but not with such ferocity.

Coughing from the flurry of kicks she had received, Dawn managed to choke out a short sentence, “I’m trying to… help.” She shook her head and rubbed gently where the mare had landed a particularly strong blow. You couldn’t be easily injured in the dreamscape... Unless what hurt you wasn't meant to be there.

The mare didn’t look like she was prepared to listen as her rapid backing away from Dawn pressed her against the shadowed wall like a terrified filly. Eventually, after some coaxing, Dawn had managed to make the mare pull her terrified self together. Dawn learned that her name was Roses, she was the mother of a colt named Thorns and her husband had left her, she was a florist that had just spent nearly twenty four hours diligently working on the bouquets and flower arrangements for a wedding. Dawn had managed to convince her that she was a part of her subconscious, as she did with most ponies who’s dreams she invaded, and was here to help her in the nightmare.

“S-so… do you know why this is happening?” Roses stammered, her fearful eyes like pinpricks in the faint candlelight. “Or is it just my brain trying to scare me again?”

Dawn shook her head mechanically. “We don’t know why you are having a nightmare. It could be due to a lack of sleep or stress.” She answered the shaking mare. “It is also possible considering the nature of the nightmare that you are subject to a mental attack of some description, unfortunately, your subconscious is too busy dealing with your terror to try and find out the nature.”

Dawn had been in the company of ponies having nightmares before, and she had been in a dream infested with a dream-monster before, Dawn had quickly left and escaped just as some of her heroes lept into the dream, swords drawn and jaws set. She watched as Princess Luna’s Dreamguard took back the dream from the unwelcome invader. Dawn just hoped that she wouldn’t have to witness that sort of event again, it was most violent.

Then there was a bang on the door and Roses squealed and hid behind Dawn, hoping beyond hope that she would offer some sort of protection, even though the pink unicorn could probably do more damage than Dawn and her pegasus...ness. The door was hit again, harder and it quivered like a shaken branch in the rusted frame. Dawn smiled back at Roses and gulped, not knowing at all what you would would eventually peel that door away from its frame like one would peel an orange.

Within seconds, the door was reverberating with whatever it was on the other side pounding hard on the straining metal. ‘BANG’ the door was hit again and buckled a tiny bit, a dent forming in the middle from the monster’s ferocious blows. Roses tucked herself into a tiny ball, quivering about as much as the door. Dawn spread her wings out a little, doing her best to seem big and not show how scared she was.

The door shook harder again and the corner was pushed forward to reveal the darkness outside. Roses squeaked and shook harder, she was moments away from breaking out into a fit of hysteria. Dawn stood her failing ground, trying her hardest not to give up on what little mental strength she had left. The door wasn’t going to last much longer before it gave in. It was pounded again and buckled in, revealing more darkness behind the door. Dawn instinctively flinched and stepped back, almost standing on Roses’ trembling tail. There didn’t seem to be anything behind the door that could cause so much devastation. Then the door stopped shaking for a few moments and deathly silence reigned over the room.

The quiet was harshly broken for a few moments by the sound of teeth grinding together and gnashing. The door was suddenly assaulted by a barrage of bangs and smashing sounds before it finally gave way to reveal nothing but darkness on the other side. Roses shrieked with terror and backed up against the wall furthest away from the now door-less frame. Dawn wasn’t faring much better herself, the door nearly struck her when it was smashed out of its frame. Shaken to her hooves, Dawn tried her best to stand her ground as the darkness crept into the room, the candle flickering as if it was going to go out.

Then it smiled. The darkness actually smiled! Dawn shook as her pupils constricted in terror. The dark gnashed its teeth and ground them together as if it had something trapped between its massive molars. Dawn was shaking in fear, still trying to do her best to stand up to the sweeping darkness before it hesitated. Leaving it’s terrifying maw agape it started backing out of the room, grinning deviously.

Dawn had no clue what to expect as the darkness seeped from the room and was replaced by a small warm light, the candle burning suddenly brighter, Roses stopped crying so much and came back down off the ceiling. Dawn peeked round the corner to see the darkness monster being surrounded by a group of stoic looking, sword wielding ponies. The Dreamguard! Dawn nearly fainted then and there.

After they had encircled the… thing, they sprang into action and leapt at the beast, slashing down with their identical short swords. The monster reeling and backing away from them, it’s mocking grin never once slipping from its invisible face. It didn’t attempt to fight back as the group of pony soldiers slew the beast and it dissipated into the abyss.

Some of the ponies sheathed their swords and started scouring the dream for the dreamer, Roses. Then two of them spotted Dawn and scowled. Knowing her hiding spot was done for, Dawn did the responsible thing and hung her head, coming out of the desiccated door frame. “The Dreamer is in there.” Dawn said to the two older ponies, who continued to look displeased with her. One of them motioned for her to follow her before the other walked into the room and tried to coax the terrified pony in there out.

Dawn walked sheepishly after the Dreamguard, holding her head low in shame at being caught by them. “Tell me Missy, why you thought that dealing with this mess was your business?” He growled at her, shaking his mane in annoyance.

“I-I thought it was just a bad dream, not something caused by a dream monster.” Dawn stammered, unable to meet his eye.

“Well it wasn’t ‘just a bad dream’ it never is. Especially in this case. Dreamwalker.” He growled and took off his helmet, showing a rather handsome dark green stallion with a dark red mane. “Bruxi are dangerous, if you knew anything before
flinging yourself into this sort of situation, you wouldn’t end up in such a mess!” He rubbed his forehead with a hoof.

He slotted his helmet back over his horn and shook his head disapprovingly at Dawn before he lit his horn up with a white light and the door back to the dreamscape appeared suddenly in the wall of Roses’ dream. “Scarper before I report you to the commander.” He gave her a small knowing smile and pushed the door open.

“Um… thank you sir!” Dawn stammered and trotted through the door, surprised by the guard’s display of compassion. Dawn was tossed forcefully from the dream and quickly scampered back to her own dream, waking up with a start as the teacher was still raving about circles and the shapes one could include inside them. Dawn glanced at the clock and groaned, hiding her head under her hooves. She had managed to snatch about fifteen minutes of shut eye that overall had just amplified her pounding headache.

--==========================--
After a bit of hunting, Dawn managed to find Legacy sitting in a cafe, sipping from one of their steaming cups of coffee.

“What are you doing?” Dawn groaned into her plate, she was sitting across from Legacy who was painting an intricate design on her forehoof. She was still sleep deprived and scared that the dreamguard might do something after they caught her in somepony’s nightmare infested dream. This had been her second run in with the guardsponies ever, she was terrified when she first ran into them. She was about nine years old when she found out that she could dreamwalk and earned her cutiemark. She was nine when she had learned how to do it properly and it wasn’t long before she found out she could walk between dreams. She had found one that seemed interesting and unknowingly walked in on a nightmare. The guards had shown up soon afterwards to make sure it wasn’t any dream monster causing the terror. Instead it had just been a terrifying dream that the poor pony was locked in.

The guards had helped her out of the dream and after a scolding about respecting privacy and staying away from nightmares, sent her on her way and kicked her back into her own dream. Of course nine year old Dawn ignored the commands and kept on exploring the minds of others, her natural curiosity driving her to new levels of understanding.
Legacy showed Dawn her intricately painted hoof and smiled, “You like it?” She asked, beaming. “It’s a new trend that we were talking about in fashion and textiles.”

“It’s great!” Dawn cooed at her friend’s artistic talent, trying to gloss over the fact she looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards.

“Want me to do one on your hoof?” Legacy offered, floating the paintbrush closer, Dawn nodded and placed her hoof on the table, in view of Legacy and her paintbrush.

A few minutes and intricate brushstrokes later, Dawn had a brilliantly detailed floral pattern painted across her forehoof. Dawn had giggled while Legacy was working, discovering that her hooves were actually rather ticklish and making it rather hard to keep still. Legacy had had to pin her hoof down with her foreleg so she wouldn’t wreck the delicate paint before it was given opportunity to dry.

“It’s so pretty!” Dawn cooed happily after she had stifled her tickle induced giggles. Legacy had painted a canopy of flowers and grass stems on Dawn’s hoof with a dark green paint.

“The unicorns are being taught a waterproofing spell for paints like that next lesson… which is tomorrow, so try not to wreck it tonight.” Legacy ordered her, washing the paint brush in a small pot of greyish water and putting the lids back on her paints. The art utensils were floated in an orderly line into Legacy’s saddlebags before she took a long sip from her trendy coffee.

“I will try my hardest not to spoil it Legacy.” Dawn said, studying the intricate lines her friend had painted on her hoof.
“Just… Make sure not to get it wet Dawn, because I am not going to do another one having seen you wriggling.” Legacy groaned sarcastically and Dawn nodded enthusiastically in reply, still admiring her friend's talent.

The pair chattered for a while before Legacy had to take her leave to go to her lecture. On the other hoof, Dawn sat around in the café a while longer, ruminating on her encounter with the Dreamguard and hoping she hadn’t missed anything she would need in those fleeting minutes she had been asleep. After a while of deliberating with herself, she came to the decision that she would go and find another one of her classmates just to make sure she hadn’t missed anything.
Making sure she hadn’t left anything, Dawn slung her saddlebags over her back and wriggled so they settled on her haunches before beginning her hunt for another of her… hopefully not racist classmates.

As she began walking, she came to the realisation that she didn’t know any of the other students in her class besides the unicorn who had made fun of her the day before and that admittedly rather cute stallion Cobalt that had been unexpectedly hitting on her. “No. Not him, ugh, only if I am desperate.” She told herself, rubbing her still aching temple with a forehoof and continuing on her way.

Author's Note

Still, a massive thank you to my editor and co-writer Ratchet for stopping me from publishing this till it was readable. I wouldn't be able to put this out without his input.

Again, Happy reading!