Dream Sickness

“Oh, don’t be such a big foal about it!” chastised Warp Runner as Twilight let out another smoky yelp. “Really, are you a dragon or a…? Okay, forget I said anything.”

With a tug, the last shreds of metal that had bore into Twilight’s scales were yanked free, along with a good few of the gleaming lavender plates. It had been a long time since she’d been medicated so thoroughly, often a few healing tomes and spells were enough to deal with most cuts and bruises.

I become a dragon and in the first week, I’m attacked by plants, shot at, and harpooned! A long breath escaped the dragoness as she slumped, almost taking up the whole deck as her reptilian body uncoiled. Is Luna sure this is a personification of power? I was more powerful with my magic!

“That should be the last of it,” her nurse confirmed, hovering up to take another glance at the wound. “Pierced your scales, caught in the underlayer. Painful, but not too dangerous.”

“You got the pain part right, that’s for sure,” Twilight grumbled, craning her neck to get a better look at the crimson gash marring her scales. “I really should have asked Spike and Ember more about being a dragon before I left.”

“And here I heard you were the most studious of all Equestria’s princesses,” the bat pony quipped, washing the dry blood from her hooves, before scooping up the metal she’d pulled from Twilight’s scales and dumping it over the edge. “Granted, I’m a little out of date.”

The late afternoon sun grazed the sky, the thick clouds still a blaze with Celestia’s golden light. Never before had Twilight seen a sky so vast, it was as if they were soaring high above the clouds, yet both Luna and Warp Runner had assured that their altitude had increased very little. The expanse was truly that, a great nothingness. Whatever lurked below the clouds seemed as mysterious as the depths of Equus’s great oceans. While above, barren peaks broke through the misty shroud in sparse clusters. Odd creatures, wings lean and leathery, flitted about, while beasts like winged sharks wove hungrily among them.

I doubt even Fluttershy would know that these things are. The sensation of being so far beyond the edge of the map made her just as uneasy as the spear that had been lodged in her back. It’s literally like the world just fell away.

It left just the three of them, the Night Shine was a speck of reality amid a void that didn’t feel too dissimilar to how it felt to be within the dreamscape. While Warp Runner appeared to be letting her guard down, just a little– after her initial grumbles regarding being dragged along. It was to the bow of the ship that Twilight’s eyes were drawn, however. Still disguised as her silvery persona, Luna bore a ruffled black cape around her neck, as she levitated a looking glass to her eye.

“You sound like you know a lot more about me than I know about you?” Twilight countered, attempting to stagger to her paws, only to falter.

“I’d still take it easy if I were you. Give your scales a few moments to seal, then Luna can cast the healing spell again,” Warp Runner suggested, trotting about the ship with such purpose, that it was as if she were attempting to crew it all by herself.

“Great, so I can feel useless again.” Twilight huffed as she flopped down once more, causing the whole deck to creek and shudder. “Urg, I messed up Starlight’s dreams, lost the scroll, and I can’t even ride a boat right anymore!”

“Night Shine’s got enough in her to take a hundred dragons, don’t get your tail in a twist.” The thestral waved the notion away with a forehoof as she set about tending to the sails. “As for the scroll, if we can close the passage marked on the map on the way out, it’s useless to them…” She trailed off, running a forehoof through her mane. “And I’ll admit, if not for you, I may have taken that harpoon.”

Twilight didn’t really want to think about that. The mere graze to her back had been bloody enough. While the bat pony could have easily been impaled by Gracie’s weapon.

“So that’s a thank you?” the dragoness asked with a slight smile, and the eye roll from the mysterious mare was almost as audible as the creaking mast. “Don’t suppose it encourages you to que me in on the two of you?”

She nodded to Luna, drawing Warp Runner’s eyes to the dark mare as her black mane billowed in the cool air. For a moment, the dragoness expected another death glare, yet ultimately, the peculiar mare simply sighed.

“You’re smart, probably have it figured out,” she stated bluntly, before grumbling to herself about stupid alicorns as she lifted a rope with a forehoof. “Yes, I have a horn. Those don’t just grow overnight, the same way ponies don’t just become dragons.”

So she wasn’t always this way, I knew it! The little princess in her head cheered, retrieving a mental notebook and quill while her dragon side scoffed.

“You see, a long, long time ago… Luna and I…” She bit her bottom lip, fangs poking free as she grumbled to herself. “We were an item.”

She stomped a forehoof on the deck, as if forcing those words out was physically painful. For a second, Twilight wondered if the thestral was about to toss herself overboard and fly away. The air between them was so tense she felt as if she could cut it with her claws, even if she was sure the mare was ready to open up. After a pregnant pause, however, she asked.

“You were just a regular thestral before?” Warp Runner snorted a laugh, her leathery wings ruffling as she glanced over them.

“No, I was a pegasus. Second of the new Equestrian Sky Fleet. Right below Commander Hurricane, icy old feather duster,” she began to explain, while Twilight blinked.

Wait, that would make her as old as Equestria itself! The look of stunned bafflement on the dragoness’s face must have been obvious, while Warp Runner smirked.

“Tell me, Princess Twilight. In all your books, all the tales of my kind. Do you know where thestrals come from?” she pressed, and presented with a question, Twilight’s brain sprang into action.

“Well, there’s the tales of Umbra’s Cavern, they say thestrals come from a land far, far to the south. There’s also the Nocturnalus account of Star Swirl that says they descended from Pegasi who became isolated in caves.” She counted out each theory on a talon, taking a breath before adding. “There’s also the legend that they were the guard of Nightmare Moon, Pegasi corrupted when she rose to power, but you obviously disprove that.”

“Really, they say it took Nightmare-coo-coo? Give me a break.” Warp Runner shrugged that idea off as she trotted over to fasten down more lines. “No, no, we created them, and I was the first.”

“Wait what!?” Twilight blurted, smoke unintentionally hissing from her muzzle, before she pressed a forepaw to her snout. “But what… How?”

“What, she turned you into a dragon by accident.” Warp Runner flared a wing, admiring the dark limb as she added. “Let’s just say her tastes back then were a little more… Sharp.”

Is it really that hard to believe, she did change me? She wondered, falling back deeper into what she knew of the royal sisters’ past. Celestia made me an alicorn too, is there any reason Luna couldn’t have done the same back then? Even if it was by accident?

“But wait, thestrals are a race. There’s more than just you,” Twilight pressed, only for the bat pony to nod as if she’d expected just the follow-up question.

“Yes, and I’ll admit that I… Wasn’t as opposed to the changes as you are,” she confessed, nodding to Twilight’s wings. “It was the last time we delved into the dream realm, those that came with us were called the Children of the Night, ponies Luna had tended to in their dreams for decades.”

She let the loose lines of rope slip from her hooves, appearing utterly lost in the past as she trotted over to the edge of the ship.

“They became the first of my kind, for the dreamscape is where we come from.” Twilight’s miniature mental princess was scribbling away frantic notes so rapidly, that it was a wonder the smoke that simmered from her draconic snout wasn’t the result of such baffling revelations. “Of course, this is leaving out the politics of it all. Celestia wasn’t pleased, but we are what we are, and so thestrals were born, becoming the night guard.”

“And then they sided with Nightmare Moon, of course,” Twilight rambled as the pieces finally fell into place, while Warp Runner didn’t look back at her.

“Some, most. But not all of us, not me,” she stated, peering out at the late afternoon sun. “Luna was always so scared of being alone… The two of us were happy when I… Well, became immortal, we’d always have one another. But then she started to care what others thought, not just of her, but my kind too.”

Twilight cocked her head, some of the distant words from the dreamscape flitting about her mind as she wondered.

“So you’re saying she did that all to protect you?” she asked, catching the sad look on the bat pony’s face.

“I ask myself that every night. Sometimes I wonder if it was to impress me, give me the perfect world. But I’d seen the great winter, I knew what disharmony could do, and… I left her.” She sighed, tufted ears drooping. “Without me or the map, Nightmare Moon had no access to dreams as Luna does.”

What if she had? Twilight dread to think, wondering just what kind of chaos the dark mare could have wrought if she’d had her thestral queen by her side. This mare saved Equestria… Maybe saved Luna in the end?

She said as much, but Warp Runner shook her head. “I only saved myself, it’s all I ever do. I hate that a part of me regrets it, thinks I should have let the night last forever… Because you don’t betray those you love.”

“You do when they act the fool. Fool enough to endanger all.” Warp Runner froze, both her and Twilight’s attention snapping back to see Luna had materialized beside them without either of them noticing.

The setting hue of dusk only just starting to set in beyond the bow behind her, the dark mare flicked her horn, dropping her disguise.

“I don’t blame you for…” Seeing the real Luna, beyond some dream or the mask of Eclipse, looking as vulnerable as the day Twilight had first met her, swelled a yawning pit of sorrow in the dragoness’s chest.

Warp Runner on the other hoof, didn’t respond, offering barely more than a glance back as she stiffened. Even as Luna reached out a slipper-clad forehoof, she received no more than the cold shoulder, drooping as she huffed.

“I will see to the engines, and resupply the talismans.” She turned away. “We must make good time if we are to be done with this before the syndicate makes sense of the map.”

“Luna, wait!” Twilight called, body aching as she reached out a foreclaw, yet as if carried on a mist of shadow, Luna vanished into the ship’s cabin.

“Let her be,” Warp Runner suggested as she finally turned around. “Besides, you need rest, and she’s right. We’re pressed for time here.”

The mare offered Twilight little in the way of options as she hovered up to the top of the mast, adopting a lonely position amidst the sails as the sun finally started to set.

As far as rest went on the shifting vessel, Twilight wasn’t getting any. The constant rocking as the cool wind blew did little to aid her aching back as she lounged across the smooth deck. The Night Shine’s sleek surface was almost invisible in the pale light of the moon, as if the ship had adopted a whole new personality upon Luna’s rising of the great celestial orb. It creaked and groaned as if alive, thirsting to push forward faster than the light breeze would allow. For a night out in the literal middle of nowhere, it was impossibly calm, however, if not for the light spilling up from the galley below, accompanied by Warp Runner and Luna’s voices.

“We’ll need to make a stop, gather more food, and water. The way stone at the maelstrom’s edge should be a good bet,” suggested the bat pony, barely visible as Twilight awkwardly peered down through the grated deck. “Gems too, the engine is running dry, and I imagine you don’t fancy sitting with your horn hooked up to it for days.”

“I thought you prepared for a voyage with a crew of half a dozen?” Luna asked, pacing opposite the galley table from the fanged mare, as Warp Runner shifted what dwindling supplies they had from one end of the room to the other.

“A crew of ponies, not a dragon. You’re new marefriend eats a lot.” That had Twilight biting her lip in awkward embarrassment, more so as her stomach still grumbled for more.

“M–my marefriend… I assure you, she has not allowed me the right to call her such things,” Luna blustered, dark wings ruffling as she stopped mid-step. “Nor do I believe I have attained such a privilege. I have done little but ruin her life these past few days.”

The right? It was an odd notion, while Twilight couldn’t help but feel she’d given Luna the same negative impression as she’d left upon Starlight. Maybe I blame her a little, but after seeing how far she’s gone for me.

You’re soft. How do you know she won’t just toss you aside like she did Warp Runner? Her more blunt side snapped. But she’s not like that, I know she’s not.

No matter how much she was sure that Luna was no longer Nightmare Moon, the fact that her feelings had still transformed Twilight left her wondering just how different she really was. The desire for power, her ambition, it was all still there. If Warp Runner was right, and part of her fall over a millennia ago was due to her love for the bat pony, then how could she be sure such a thing wouldn’t come to pass again in another few centuries?

“Sure, Luna, I totally believe that,” the thestral responded, stashing away the last of the food and turning to the dark alicorn as she wiped her forehooves clean. “So all this coming back, taking on thugs like the old days, that’s not just for her?”

“To fix her, correct my mistake,” Luna countered, jabbing a forehoof at the bat pony. “I have to save her, the way she saved me.”

“Saved you from a prison of your own making!” The fanged mare stomped a forehoof, her collected demeanor slipping as she pressed. “And she needs fixing, does she? By all accounts, she should be perfect for you, your dreams seem to think so.”

“Blasphemous lies, I…” Luna caught herself, shrinking back with a huff. “Fine, maybe part of me does seek some approval. Would you call me a fool for not wishing her to see the old me, as you once did?”

“So long as it doesn’t turn out like the last time.” Warp Runner shrugged her wings. “I think I’ve made it pretty clear how I felt when you left me, Luna. I’ve moved on, I got over it, but you…” She marched over and jabbed a forehoof at the alicorn with little care for Luna’s celestial aura. “You need to understand that you don’t need to be better to be good enough. I think Twilight knows that.”

Do I? Do I want her to be better? If she’d asked herself that question years ago, the answer would have been obvious, Celestia and Luna were everything to her, perfection given form. But to consider one of them her special somepony, viable given their shared immortality. She could be a dragoness, that would be an improvement.

She needed to remind her draconic self that the only reason she wasn’t down in the galley with her lover right now, was because her scaly butt was far too big. Even so, the desire to be with the night princess, embrace her, and assure her that she was already perfect was so strong she had to fight not to claw her way through Night Shine’s extravagant deck.

“I do understand, but you would not have me fix my mistake? See she is returned to her true form?” Luna asked, and the bat pony withdrew.

“I say we close it off for good this time. Make sure crazy dream magic stays in your sleep where it belongs,” insisted the leathery-winged mare. “Most of all now the syndicate has the map.”

“In that, we are in agreement. Perhaps if we had taken more care last time…” Warp Runner rounded on Luna before she could finish.

“There it is again, the blame!” she pressed, flaring her wings. “Just forget about that, Luna. Focus on the here and now, on the good things you can have… And if Twilight is right, you deserve.”

The strain in her voice was evident, and despite being barely able to see her, Twilight could detect the sorrow in her tone. She suspected a good life like that was all Warp Runner had ever wished for, before dreams, and Nightmare Moon. The words left Luna stunned for a second, long enough for the thestral to slip out. All the while, Twilight peered at her through the grate, only to steal her eyes away the second Luna glanced upwards.

I do want to give that to her, don’t I? Robbed of the sight below, Twilight’s eyes fixed on the stars sailing by above. A whole canvas crafted by the mare she really believed she was coming to love.

Part of her didn’t even care if Luna deserved it, she desired to be with the regal mare no matter what. After all the years of seeing her friends settle down, and find their special somepony while she lingered in fear of her immortal responsibilities. Her wounded spines ached as she lay there, eyes fixed on the stars, catching a lone comet shoot across the umbral sea, a starry expanse she was really beginning to see in a whole new light.

It's true, isn’t it? I love her. She felt rather odd that she had to quantify something as elusive as love– she’d have to ask Cadance about it sometime. If not for the more open side of her draconic mind she may never have even been able, even if that reptilian part of her brain just wanted to picture Luna with a scaly tail and flaming teeth. Is that so bad, no matter how she looks, she’s still the same mare… I look totally different, I feel different, but I am still me.

She dared not accept the dragon too much, still living in hope that in a day or two she’d be her old self again. Then she could really work things out, maybe take many more trips to Canterlot, and allocate more time to spend with Luna. Most of all, make sure that the night princess knew that regardless of her past flaws, there was one mare who really was starting to care for her.

“Careful on here, this far off the map, you never know what you’re gonna find!” Warp Runner called as she finished mooring the Night Shine to the mountain island’s shore, gliding down to the rough, rocky surface.

Much like an ocean peak, the lone bastion of solid ground in the vast expanse was covered in many unique features. From the manner in which rocks twisted and curved as if plucked from the depths below by divine hooves, to the prismatic array of flora that glowed in the sun’s radiant light. Flowers easily the size of a full-grown pony bloomed beside the winding roots of purple trees. Strange insects fluttered about them, from dragonflies with wings that rotated about their whole body, to skittering beetles the dragoness did her best to avoid.

“Is everything out here so strange?” she asked, lifting her paws to allow some feathery mix of bird and lizard to scamper by, only for it to be suddenly snatched up by the tong of a bulbous, pink frog and devoured. “Gah! I should be taking notes, but I wouldn’t know where to start!”

Is that me or my dragon side losing track? She wondered, not that she had never been exposed to something this alien so rapidly before. Fluttershy would curse me for not at least giving these creatures names.

“Every soul out here is unique, only having evolved on such isolated peaks,” Luna informed as she began to lead the way up a winding trail of what Twilight discovered were overgrown steps. “I often see something new every time.”

“Helps that you left it to grow for a few centuries,” Warp Runner reasoned, scooping up every fruit and berry she could as ahead, Luna’s magic bore a path through the winding vegetation. “Bless my fangs, never seen this one!”

Twilight had no idea whether the deep blue berry the bat pony salvaged looked safe to eat, most of all as sparks like storm clouds swirled within its umbral depths. It was tossed into the thestral’s saddlebags regardless. Peering ahead, on the other hoof, it was becoming increasingly clear where the pathway led. The higher they trekked, the steeper the passage became, vegetation thinning until the three of them were trapped with a steep incline on either side, a cliff wall on one, and a sheer drop on the other.

Note to self, try to avoid wing injuries when in a place where there’s hardly any ground to stand on! The dragoness’s wings ruffled uneasily as loose rocks fled from under the weight of her paws. Afraid of heights… Scales help me!

Lucky for the precarious princess, the passageway swiftly wound its way around the peak of the island, opening out onto a small plateau at the very top. Bathed in the radiant light of Celestia’s mid-day sun, the view was nothing short of spectacular. From the steep sides of the mountain slipping away below them– its crinkled green surface like that of an old rug. To the Night Shine, an indigo speck far below. Beyond, the endless expanse of pale clouds reached on as far as the eye could see.

Several other islands lingered on the horizon, growing in density past the far side of the island, where the glow of day became swamped by a gathering wall of dark clouds. Like the wicked coast of some cursed land in a Daring Do book, the sense of adventure wasn’t lost on Twilight as she observed the swirling storm beyond the rugged cliffs and shattered rocks.

An uneasy wind was conjured in its wake, as purple lightning sparked and flashed across the sheer wall of swirling grey. Thunder followed, barely audible at such a great distance, yet rumbling in her perked draconic ears, nonetheless.

“Just as charming as the last time,” Warp Runner observed as she peered out over the stormy devastation.

Luna, meanwhile, paid the tempest little heed as she trotted down into a squat pit at the center of the hilltop. Much like with the strange fauna of the isolated island, Twilight had to fight the urge to note down every detail of the pale ruins scattered about the lonely summit. The circular impression in which Luna stood was lined with pale stone, its weathered circumference gnawed at by countless shrubs and vines, yet easily large enough for all three of them to stand in.

Around the squat steps at its curved edge, what remained of several arches stood proud against the buffeting wind. While curling roots and budding pink flowers fought to undermine their structural integrity. A tree bloomed from one, casting the only shade over the small grotto. The shadow highlighted another oddity, however, the sparkling cyan glow of a rune, bearing the outline of a crescent moon. Shifting her eyes to each of the remaining arches, she made out the same glyphs, their glow drowned out by sunlight.

The whole place was like a shrine to Luna herself, only reinforced by the sprawling series of markings on the floor under the trio. Full moon at its core, a neat, eight-pointed starburst stretched out in all directions, constellations woven around it like winding paths in a very similar manner to the dream map spell. At the tip of each point were yet more intricate siglas, above, the sun. Below, a crescent moon. To the left, was an icon that looked suspiciously like Warp Runner’s cutie mark, and to the left…

“Hey, is that my cutie mark?” Twilight asked, jabbing a claw at the etched marking, so impossibly old that nopony who crafted it could have known about it.

“Yes, dear Twilight,” Luna admitted simply, glancing at the mark. “Everypony to ever dreamwalk with me is noted here. For time has no place in the dreamscape, for those who study it well enough, such information has always been.”

If the lack of relativity and physics in the dreamscape had made her head spin before, the idea it could also leak into the physical world to such a degree just simply gave her a headache. After becoming a dragon– just because Luna felt that way about her, however, she was sure she could accept anything the dark mare said at this point.

“And mine’s still here, neat!” Warp Runner mused, trotting over to her mark in the stone, flicking her tail at her rump. “Just be glad there’s no more.”

Luna drooped a little at that, while Twilight was pretty sure knowing she had only ruined two ponies' lives was hardly a comfort.

“Just proves we’re meant for each other, right?” Twilight awkwardly suggested, offering Luna a toothy smile. “No surprise future marefriends, or whatever.”

Warp Runner grinned tufted ear to tufted ear, while Luna blushed, babbling incoherently as she hid her face with a wing. It was impossibly cute, driving the nightly mare to fluster like that was certainly becoming an increasingly rewarding pass time as Twilight stashed away her own awkwardness.

Oh, you bet I’m going to tease you, if we’re going to be an item! Never before had she actually felt so warmly about wanting to make somepony blush. The desire to see Luna smile was alien to her, but it was hardly a bad thing. Payback for all that teasing you and your sister do, at least.

“My loyalty is assured I…” The night princess’s sudden retort was cut off by a snort from Warp Runner as Twilight glanced between the two.

“It was a joke, Luna. Couples do that, remember?” The manner in which the princess blushed more at the confirmation, only made Twilight desire to press deeper, while the bat pony ushered. “But what did we say about time?”

“Right, right, you are correct.” Shifting back to attention, Luna took up a position in the center of the ring, igniting her horn as every rune motif around the ruins began to glow.

“First layer of protection around the dream well is that storm,” Warp Runner informed Twilight, leaning close to the dragoness as she nodded ahead. “My best work, back when I was still a pegasus, at least.”

“You created a storm like that!?” Twilight gasped, pretty sure she knew a certain rainbow-maned mare who’d like to ask her a few questions.

“Eh, when you’re bedding the second most powerful pony in all the land, it kinda becomes easy to leave your mark.” The bat pony shrugged, while Twilight blushed so hard it felt as if her scales would melt off.

“She is correct. Though, I fear we may have allowed it to grow a little out of hoof,” Luna called, levitating upwards with one slow beat of her wings as from the runes surrounding her, extended a pillar of dark blue magic.

“It’s at the tail-end of nowhere, who cares?” Warp Runner waved a forehoof dismissively, as the pillar of magic bloomed upward, like a ghostly section of the ruins no longer standing.

It ceased growing at equal height with Luna, warping into a perfectly rectangular obelisk, while at its center blossomed a smooth hole. Markings lit up upon the opening’s circumference, similar to the directions of a compass as Luna retrieved her looking glass to peer through the breach. Eye fixed on the storm, the wall of gray almost appeared to shudder and shift, curving inward under her scrutiny. The frantic little alicorn in her head added it to the increasingly large list of magic and creatures she was going to have to follow up on once home, at least in the moments she didn’t plan to commit to Luna.

As if to cement her radiant beauty further, the night princess flicked her horn, and from the eye of the obelisk beamed a new lance of blue magic. Swirling inward on itself, the pulsating line of cyan flame shot off toward the storm, illuminating the dark clouds from within as it cut a neat path through the devastation.

“I knew it would still work,” Warp Runner mused confidently, smirking at Twilight’s wide-eyed awe as she leaned back.

“The way through the storm is clear. Providing my memory of the map serves true, our path is set,” Luna declared, while the idea that she was going to be her old self again filled Twilight with relief, even as she clapped her foreclaws for the night princess.

She opened her muzzle to express such gratitude, before something caught her eye. In the vast emptiness of the expanse, most things stood out on the hazy horizon. Safe to say, regardless of the smoke that loomed up in its wake, the ship steadily cutting its way toward the island was rather obvious.

“Errm, what’s that?” Doing her best to mask the unease in her voice, Twilight jabbed a foreclaw at the thing, leaving Luna to redirect her looking glass.

From the way the nightly mare’s eyes popped wide, Twilight dreaded that her fears were true. Most of all as Luna readopted her Eclipse disguise, and dropped to the floor, the passageway spell still beaming the way ahead as she declared.

“Nothing good, I fear!”