Chapters I walked along the side of the road as I drifted to my next town, Canterlot. I was passed by many caravaneers, none offering me a ride. My hooves ached from the long walk from Manehattan, where I never settled down and kept moving. I just started reminiscing when I heard walking from behind me. I ignored the hoof falls, and acted to be in a day dream.
"Sir, can you hear me," a older stallion asked me. I acted to come back to the real world and apologized. I watched the old stallion look me over hoof to head, head to flank, determining if I was dangerous or not. "Would you like sir, me and my family are headed to Ponyville to meet up with family for a family reunion."
"Yes please, and thank you, you were the first to stop and ask," he smiled and walled with me to the back of the carriage. I climbed in and sat across from a mare with stunning emerald green eyes. I got comfy and finally happy to be off my feet. Determining where this family where headed I changed my next destination to Ponyville. I haven't ever messed up a family reunion. "Hello, it's nice to meet you miss."
"Nice to meet you too, my name is Apple Fritter, and your's is," she exclaimed while reaching her hoof out towards me. I grabbed it and we shook.
"My name is... just call me Somnium," she looked at me with a crossed look. Her brain turned trying to figure out my name.
"Well, it's nice to meet you Somnium," she told me, I nodded and moved to stretch my legs out and rest my eyes. My legs popped, and I let out a small moan of pleasure. I closed my eyes and forced myself into sleep.
I opened my eyes to find myself in an empty carriage. I stepped out into a black void that I filled with all of the faces I recorded on the road, ending with Fritter's. I vaporized the ponies, besides the old stallion and Fritter. I touched the image of the old man and all of his fears and wants rushed into my mind. His greatest fear was that of heights, and his deepest desire was that of his long deceased wife. Apple Fritter was afraid of many things, but her greatest flowing fear was that of ponies finding out she was in love with a pegasus, and her greatest want was that very same pegasus, a pegasus by the name of Blurry Night. I vaporized the images and shoved the information into the deepest recesses of my mind.
I was shook awake by Apple Fritter. I opened my eyes and sat up. She walked over to the back of the carriage and hoped out. I walked over to the back of the carriage and hoped out myself, and saw rows and rows, and yet more rows of apple trees. The scent of a properly running farm filled my nose, the same old familiar scent as the ones on the outskirts of Baltimare. I twisted my head and arched my backing, receiving spine tingling pops.
"Well, hello there partner, you must be Somnium," I looked over and saw an orange mare with a big Stetson hat adorning her head. I nodded, which she took as a go ahead to give my back a pat, which crushed my ribs. I wheezed for a second, but eventually caught my breath. She apologized for it. "Sorry, I'm Applejack, proud owner of Sweet Apple Acres, the largest apple farm in all of Equestria!"
"That's nice, but do you know where the closest inn, bar, and restaurant are," I asked. Her expression soured immediately as I said 'bar'. "I'm not looking to get drunk, I just need to clear my nerves."
"Yeah, the closest restaurant would be Sugarcube Corner, the closest bar would be the Drunken Three, and Ponyville doesn't have an inn, at least not that I know off," she spouted that all off as I burned holes into her eyes with my own. Her body language became uneasy with my unnerving stare. "Golly, you and Fluttershy put each other to shame with your stares. I'll show you a place that you can stay."
"Sure," I responded, although I doubt I had a choice. We walked down the dirt road separating the farmhouse from the orchard. The dirt was wet and muddy, most likely from a scheduled rainstorm, the sun was high in the sky, showing I was asleep for little more than a few hours. I looked back at the farm mare and noticed her staring back at me from the corner of her eye. I pretended not to know, and she continued staring. "Where are we headed?"
"Sugarcube Corner, my friend might have a spare room for you," she told me. I was starting to get antsy following somepony else around, instead of them following me. "Where you from,Somnuim?"
"I don't have a home," my answer made her more curious.
"Oh, yes you do, everypony has a home," her attitude pissed me off. "So, I'll ask again, where are you from?"
"No where," I told her, gritting my teeth and growling at the back of my throat. "Don't ask again."
"Fine, be that way," she groaned. Her smile vanished. We made our way into town and made our way to the center of it. We approached a building made of enough sweets to make my ancestors to have a tooth ache. We walked in and at a table were several mares sitting and playing a game of Go-Fish. A mare with pink hair was winning by a landslide. "Hey, ya'll, I have a visitor, I guess."
"Visitor," a violet unicorn whispered. She looked up and her face twitched slightly when she saw me. "Who are you?"
"My name is Somnium," I told them all. I watched the violet unicorn scan me with her eyes.
"Somnium, Somnium, where have I heard that before," she tapped her hoof to her chin, while still scanning me. "Wait, isn't that old English for Dream?"
"Yes, it is," I told them. I felt a tugging at my side and looked over to see the pink mare from early pulling an imaginary rope. The rope was pulling, and annoying me. I removed myself from the rope and threw it to the ground. The pink mare was saddened by my attitude. "I need a place to stay and the directions to the closest bar."
"The bar is down to the left and you can stay at my library for the mean time," she told me, as I left the bakery. I walked down the street and to the left and eventually found the bar. The Drunken Three, how fitting. I walked in and found a seat closest the jukebox. I sat down and watched as three stallions harrase one of the female waiters. I stood up and walked over to the three and exhaled loudly so they knew I was there.
"Oi, what do you want, can't you see we're having fun with our lady friend here, so book it bastard," I stood my ground as I memerized their faces. "You deaf, I told you to fuck off, and it wasn't a fucking question!"
"No," I replied. He was stunned, by both my bravery and that his taunts didn't work. His buddies started egging him on to stab me, the waitress screaming. I took one last glimpse around the bar, at the bartender who was watching the event unfold, two other bar patrons who were having a fun time drinking away their pains, and the waitress. I heard the door to the bar and watched the door open to reveal the violet unicorn from early. I felt a stab on the side of my neck, from the drunk pony. I grabbed the knife and fell to my side.
In my void, the faces of the bar goers popped up, the two drunk friends who were now trying to keep the violet unicorn from leaving and pulling her into the back room, the bartender had a sword drawn on the violet unicorn, making sure she didn't move or use her magic. The three drunk ponies were now mercilessly stabbing me and the waitress. I quickly found out what the waitress loved and saw that of her three foals growing up into proper ponies and continuing the family legacy. I played her last good thought of her kids in her head and her mind faded. I scanned the the rest of the ponies in the bar. Starting with the three murders, the leader was afraid of spiders, the other two were scared of death, rather their own death. The bartender was scared of his mind turning against him, and the two drunk friends were afraid of who they truly were. I closed my eyes shut and forced myself awake. When I awoke, the waitress was dead on top of me, the three drunkards were elsewhere. My skin grew hot, and I watched the black fire roll over my coat turning my once, navy blue coat into a mixture of red and black. I pushed the waitress off of me and stood up.
"How are you still alive, and the hell happened to your coat," one of the cronies asked me. I reached into his mind showing him being mangled into bloody and dead corpse, I changed the image and showed him getting his throat ripped out by Timberwolves, and finally I showed him getting murdered by his own friends. I removed myself from his mind, as his eyes dilated and he started laughing, he brought his pocket knife to his neck, digging it in and slitting his own throat. As he laughed he also cried, blood pouring from his wound. The laughing brought out the rest of the drunkards. The leader stared at the dead pony on the floor, and then at me.
"What did you do," the leader asked. The other killer tried to flee but I caught him time. Reaching into his mind, I gave him the same images as the first killer, and once I removed myself he went over to a table and repeatedly slammed his head into it, until he fell to the floor, his skull caved in. "What the actual fuck, leave me alone!"
He threw his knife at me, piercng me in the leg. I pulled the knife out of my leg and dropped it to the floor. He ran back into the back of the store, only to come scrambling out. To him, he saw millions upon millions of small spiders charging him, to me he looked like a foal crawling from a... spider. I kicked the knife over to him, just in his reach. He grabbed it and started stabbing himself, trying to kill the spiders. Eventually, he had a heart attack from the sheer panic of the fake spiders. I walked into the back of the bar. To find the bartender holding the unicorn hostage. The unicorn was unconscious and he had his sword against her throat.
"Come any closer and I'll kill her, you killed my best god damn customers, and I sure as hell ain't dying myself," I stopped and reached into his mind, leaving him in control of his thoughts, but not his body control. I made him drop the unicorn and into the back of the bar. He entered the storage and I found the two drunk friends and I cut them down where the stood. I released control of the bartender, but I stayed to watch the show as the bartender turned the sword against himself and seared himself in the heart, crying while doing so.
I woke the violet unicorn, and she was scared and dazed. She asked me questions, but I collapsed to return to my domain. My safehaven.
I wandered my domain watching the horrible things have done played out before me. The rich, greedy couple in Manehattan who I made jump to their deaths from their apartment complex, the father of two who had cheated on his wife and abused his children, who I strung up with chains, and the group of foals who thought that they could burn my house to the ground. I materialized my current surroundings and saw that I no longer was on the floor of the bar, but instead on a couch in the middle of a library. I spotted the violet unicorn from before, along with a small green dragon pacing back and forth, scolding her for something I couldn't make out. I dematerialized the image and pulled up both characters and I saw a picture of both the unicorn and the dragon. I reached out and touched the dragon and I saw his future and his past, his name, memories, fears and loves, and his true feelings.
Spike was the unicorn's, Twilight Sparkle, personal library assistant and all around slave, but she didn't mean to treat him like that, but it ended up happening that way since she magically hatched his egg. Spike lawfully followed her like a dog to their owner. Spike was most afraid of zombie ponies and his greatest burning love was a white unicorn who I had seen earlier in the day, in the bakery. His crush on this pony was so great that he locked away most memories of that pony, so tight in fact that it was impossible for me to pass.
The unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, was a little less complex. She was birthed by Night Light and Twilight Velvet, became the personal student of princess Celestia, and now she lives in this treehouse library, the Golden Oaks Library. She would receive alicornhood, she would lose her treehouse in a battle with a demon, and she would get a castle in return. She would eventually outlive her friends, followed by the princesses, and her dragon, only to die sad and alone. I knew how that felt.
After my little trip through their memories, I slammed my eyes shut and forced myself awake.
I sat up on the couch, only to hear a gasp from Twilight. I looked at them, as they both started freaking out.
"How are you awake," Twilight and Spike asked at the same time.
"The doctor said you'd be out for another few days," Twilight asked me. Her voice had a trace of panic in it, after what she saw back at the bar. "How are you still alive, I watched you get stabbed in the neck."
"Twilight, or should I say princess, I'm more than you could imagine," I told her, my voice the same monotonous tone. I stared at her and continued. "I have abilities your Princess Luna could only dream of having."
"What, are you saying you can dreamwalk, wait how do you know my name and what do you mean princess?" she asked. I smiled and tapped my head. "Well if you claim to be this high and mighty dreamwalker, what can you do that Luna can't?"
"I can see your past and future," I told her. She gave me a look of disbelief as I told her this. "Spike will become the hero of the Crystal Empire, make a changling friend, you Princess Twilight Sparkle, will become, as I said, a princess, you fight many demons, such as Tirek and Sombra, also, you will get a crystal castle and your treehouse will be burnt to the ground."
She looked at me with a long face, and was stunned. She shook her head and looked at Spike who had sat back down to finish his meal.
"May we talk over dinner," I asked. Staring at the bowl of soup in front of Spike. She walked along the wall into the kitchen and came back out with two bowls of soup. She gave me one, and sat next to Spike. "This smells good, it'll be fun to eat again."
"Wait, when was the last time you actually ate anything," Spike asked. It was the first time he had said anything since he had spoken with Twilight in tandom.
"I haven't eaten anything for about 2 weeks now," I answered in the middle of inhaling the soup. The taste was bitter, a pinch of salt would do it some good. "Okay, so where were we, ah right, Twilight I know your greatest fears and your strongest wants and desires. I know Spike has a deadly fear of zombie ponies."
At the mention of zombie ponies, Spike visibly tensed up. "I will leave you two alone."
"Spike has a crush on a white unicorn, it's super strong and debilitating, and only a few ponies know about it," I said aloud, Spike threw a glance at me and I returned the death stare. He left the room and I returned my attention to Twilight. "I know you have a fear of you not completing your task, like you did in magic kindergarten, and your greatest love is your friends, you don't love anypony more than your friends."
"How do you know so much of me and Spike," I tapped my head for a second time, I spun the bowl in a circle on the table. "Fine, how did you manager to survive a knife to the neck?"
"That's for me to know and for you to never find out," I told her. She scowled at me.
"Why are you being more sociable," she asked. My answer know already
"Mood swings," I told her. My answer made her shake. Her head and growl. Before I could elaborate further the door to the library was busted down and a cyan colored pegasus flew straight at me. "Hi."
"Who do you think you are, you left us all at the bakery with a lot of questions," she yelled in my face. She tried to be intimidating.
"Rainbow, calm down pony girl," the orange farm pony told her while pulling on her tail. The pegasus slammed to the floor and she groaned in pain. "Twilight, after you followed after Somnium, we couldn't find you, so we came ere to find you. "
"I'm glad, but right now Twilight was asking me some questions, please continue asking," I told her.
"Where did you come from," the farm pony asked. I stared at her and I felt my coat burn away. The other ponies sat horrified at my change. I reached into her mind and saw a scared pony. I left her mind and forced her to sleep. She slammed against the floor, unconscious.
"Get him!" the cyan pegasus flew at me, but she fell unconscious and fell to the floor. I waited tor anyone else to attack, but after a minute of nothing I fell over and returned to my domain.
Author's Note
This doesn't feel like a good chapter... I don't like it...
I shook my head as I watch my limp body get set back on the couch by an uneasy Twilight. I spent the past few minutes scolding myself for snapping at the farm pony. After my brief hatred I pulled up all the ponies that were in the treehouse currently. I saw Spike and Twilight, followed by the five other mares who I knew little to nothing about. In the waking the world the two sleeping mares were put in a bed and the others tried to bring them back to consciousness. I entered the yellow mares mind, seeing her greatest fears and most deepest wants. She feared attention, almost to a laughable state, but what she wanted most was for ponies to enjoy her singing talent. Fluttershy had hidden talent and let no pony know about. Except the cyan mare.
The cyan mare, Rainbow Dash, was a brash little thing. She fought changelings in her dreams, and hid away her darkest fears. I squirmed through her mind's locks and chains until I finally found it. Her fear. She was horrified of being a no body, she wanted everypony to know who she was and why she was the best, and her deepest desire was to join the Wonderbolts. Her fondest memory was pranking her friends with the pink mare, who's mane gave me a toothache by looking at it.
The pink mare's mind was filled with so much junk food, it rotted her mind, filling it with holes, making it fragile. She was broken, hiding behind a wall of happiness, which if broken leads to a shaky and dysfunctional mare, that fears everypony to a point that she wants to harm others. She wants more than anything else to be corrected, to be a normal functioning mare, that doesn't have to hide behind a false wall of emotions. I felt bad for the mare, she was destroyed, beyond any normal repair. She has reached out to Twilight and the white unicorn.
The white unicorn, Rarity, was one of the two that were reached by Pinkie, she was asked to repair Pinkie's fragile mind, but she did all she could and was turned to Twilight. Rarity hates not being able to help her friends and she fears that they would hate her over not being what she thinks they want, she wants them only to be happy. She and the farm pony have a mutual friendship, they can argue but they are also friends.
The orange farm mare worked on her farm, with her little sister, her big brother, and her grandmother. She was the main pony running the farm, while her sister attempted to retrieve her cutie mark, and her grandmother to old to do a lot of tiring work. She took up the reins of the farm after her parents died. Applejack, while truthful, feels lying to be a greater evil, one she will resort to of it means keeping her friends and family safe. She fears being brainwashed again like she once was with Discord, and never wants to lie to her friends again, and she wants her parents back, as she was young and didn't have a lot of time with them.
I threw myself out of their memories and watched them sleep. I materialized only Applejack's and Rainbow Dash mental states and fused their dreams together, then joined then myself. Inside I saw a white landscape, filled with small apples, from Applejack's subconscious, and changelings, from Dash's subconscious. I vaporized the apples and chamgelings, and brought Dash and Applejack to my own being. They saw me and immediately both were terrified of me. I calmed their minds, changing their emotions from fear to happiness.
"How did you knock us out without even touching us," Rainbow asked, her mind racing with the past events. "How can you do any of this?"
"I am a, what do you call it, a dream walker," I told them, receiving nods from both. "Well I can control your consciousness in the waking world, and I can reach into your deepest fears and greatest wants, I know everything about you and what your future holds, I control your subconsciousness here. I can make both of you fight each other to the death, and spawn millions of you so you have to fight yourselves.
"Bull, you don't know anything about me," Rainbow claimed. 'If you do, what is my greatest fear."
"You fear being considered a nobody, you want to be special. You want everypony to love you and admire you, and hate them when they don't," I told her, her expression turned sheepish when I released her secret. "But don't take my word for it, let them show you."
"What do you mean, them?" As she said this, I manipulated her surroundings and changed it into the treehouse, surrounded by her friends, all stating they hated her and disowned her. "No stop, please I didn't mean it!"
"Rainbow, what's wrong, who are you talking to," Applejack asked her friend, as Rainbow backed up against an imaginary wall, as she screamed at nothing. "What did you do to her?"
"I made her live her worst nightmare, being disowned by her friends," I told Applejack. She ran over to Rainbow and tried shaking her out of the nightmare. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Rainbow come on, waking up or snap out of it," Applejack shook her friend who was crying and screaming at nothing. Applejack resorted to smacking Rainbow, inciting her kick instinct. Rainbow bucked Applejack in the face, sending her across the dream plane. Rainbow leaped in the air and crushed Applejack with all her might, while this was happening, I was peering into the real world. Rainbow was screaming in anger and fear and Applejack was squirming in pain. "Rainbow, it's me stop!"
"No, you'll keep insulting me!" Rainbow screamed at her as she choked the life out of Applejack. After awhile Applejack lied dead on the white floor, her eyes glazed over. Rainbow pulled herself off her, now dead friend, soon after she vanished and woke up in the waking world. 'What did I do?"
"You strangled Applejack,"I told her, she started breaking down crying and sobbing. "Okay, stop crying, now I think it's time for you to wake up."
Rainbow Dash bolted awake, tears streaming from her eyes. She ran over to Applejack and hugging and telling her she was sorry. I watched the scene and felt a sense of shame plunge over me, but I forced it aside. I knew how to make these ponies tick, and that was going to be fun.