Dream Sickness

The lucidity of Warp Runner’s spell didn’t fade, the blurred lines between reality and the dream realm contorted and entwined until they were indistinguishable from one another. The last thing Twilight recalled was falling. The ships were gone, the storm had consumed all. How many had survived that wreckage? Had she survived? Her little mental princess was making countless observations, if she were dead, then she’d surely have to take notes. All the while her dragon self was swift to assure her that it would take far more than a naval catastrophe to take down a dragon. She hardly paid any attention to either of them, blinking weariness from her eyes to find that she was in a long hallway and was definitely not a dragon.

So, either a dream or I’m really dead. Only the day she’d become an alicorn, had she ever felt so unsure about where she found herself. There was no Princess Celestia here to guide her in this void, nor did Luna appear to be present. But if this is a dream, then whose is it?

She was unsure if she could have willed herself into the backstage of the mysterious realm without Luna’s approval. Yet what she saw certainly reminded her of her past few ventures behind the curtain. The gloomy walls appeared to be conjured from prismatic glass, shimmering like obsidian mirrors in the pooling shadows. The only pillars of light that penetrated the prolific shroud, were akin to islands in the abyss. As if to step off them, was to fall forever, Twilight acted upon what Luna had once taught her.

If this is a dream, then I can’t be so literal. Just like with Starlight’s dream, I have to be abstract. That filled her with worry that this was yet another nightmare. Only it was too still. The dread here was looming, not immediate. It would help if I knew whose dream this was!

She considered that it may be her own, aside from her deep-rooted anxiety regarding her transformation, however, this didn’t feel like a product of her subconscious. Nor did it appear to represent her conflicted feelings about Luna, she was pretty sure of herself in that regard now. She loved the dark mare, enough to cross the world with her. Yet not knowing where the radiant diarch was now, was eating up at her. Therefore, utilizing her limited knowledge of the dream realm, she willed the pool of light under her to follow her steps, and like some obedient hound, it did just as she ordered.

Her hooves clopped on invisible marble, the wispy blue and purple veins that trailed through the umbral mass dotted with stars similar to how the Tantabus had looked. The sight had the little princess in Twilight’s head collecting her notes into a neat stack, siphoning off any observations that felt irrelevant, and offering a good idea as to whose dream this was. Only such things felt impossible. Of course, Luna dreamed, she’d tortured herself that way for years, but to stagger into the dream of the dream master herself felt insane.

How did I get here? The question echoed through the soupy oblivion around her in a reverberating hum, while she wondered if the Princess of the Night could have nightmares, as well as dreams. Of course, she can, but why would she let herself?

It had been years since they’d convinced Luna she didn’t need to mentally torment herself every night. Yet to detach herself from the struggles all others faced also felt unusually out of character. At the conclusion, however, Twilight only assured herself of one thing. If this was her lover’s nightmare, she was going to fix it. All she could hope then, was that her night princess was still as intact in the waking world.

At the assertion, the dream once again quivered, feeding on her intent just as Luna indicated it would. Sensing her ambition, doors appeared on either side of her, each a regal arch of gothic architecture similar to the castle Luna and her sister had once inhabited long ago.

Old school, sure seems like Luna. She observed, creeping up to one of the doors and inspecting the pair of draconic gargoyles that flanked it. Hardly captures the draconic look all that well.

It was easier to ignore her reptilian side’s disgruntled comments in here as she passed between the two stone sentinels, and pressed a forehoof to the smooth wood of the door. For as firm as it felt, however, the boundary offered no resistance as it slowly slipped open, creaking as if it needed a good oiling. Beyond, was another hallway, bearing similar décor to the door itself, the place appeared to be equally as old.

The smooth stone walls were a mottled gray, forming curved arches above, while a plush, red carpet covered the floor between flanking stands of dark armor. Tapestries drooped between the petrified attire, while moonlight beamed in from several windows, pooling in silver mats upon the crimson floor. Twilight recognized the hall, even if the majority of her recollection was a thousand years out of date. One glance out of the window, to the castle gardens bathed in radiant moonlight, and she knew what she was looking at.

“The castle of the two sisters…” she muttered to herself, voice echoing through the lucid dream as if the air were made of thick soup. “It’s just like the time I saw her become Nightmare Moon, only…”

“Tia, no fair!” The shrill sound of a young voice caused Twilight’s ears to perk, her head shooting tall just as swiftly as she glanced left down the hall. “That’s mine!”

She saw the two fillies just in time to avoid being blundered into by the rambunctious pair as they dashed along the corridor. Never in her life would she have imagined she’d call her mentor cute. As a filly, however, Celestia still had an aura of gravitas around her, even if it was more of an adorable one. Her mane was loose and pink, not flowing like the Princess Twilight knew, while her wings and horn were still rather small. Luna was smaller still, no more than a few years old, by the looks of it– even her niece was older these days.

This must be her past, she keeps it locked away in her dreams. Twilight supposed it was easy for Luna to do, dreams had to be based on some form of memory, after all. Meanwhile, as the two fillies dashed by without so much of a glance her way, the world shifted. She blinked once, and the hall changed to a balcony, just as beautiful, and moonlit as it overlooked the vast Everfree forest. Am I supposed to be seeing this? It’s surely private.

No matter what she thought, there was no way she could escape, no way she could turn the dream off. As if it were a recording forced to play out in front of her, Twilight saw Luna once more, notably older, her mane flowing with a canvas of twinkling stars that mirrored those above the forest.

“You should tell them, you know?” cooed another voice Twilight knew, albeit a far more recent addition to her memory. In addition to not matching the pony she was familiar with as the purple pegasus drifted down to Luna’s balcony. “They could kick me out of the Sky Guard, and what would I care? I’d still have you.”

Warp Runner still bore the same cutie mark and colors of her bat pony self, even if she was notably shorter as a pegasus. Twilight supposed that was why she didn’t seem too keen to land, she was more than used to the same attitude from Rainbow.

“We are a princess, we care not for what they think of us,” Luna responded, peering up at the pegasus with a smitten smile, the same smile Twilight had elicited from the dark mare several times now. “But the trouble it may cause thou do concern us greatly. We do not wish to sully thou’s life with our shadow, as we are saddled with that of thy sister.”

“Her shadow just makes you shine all the brighter, Luna,” assured the pegasus, swooping in for a kiss that shattered the world around them like glass. Twilight took a step back, feeling as if Luna’s balcony and bed chamber were going to fall out from under her, only to be snapped back as Luna shouted.

“Thy repugnant attitude, she cares not for thy plight. Thy sister would condemn us for this, on what grounds? Tis’ our love that conjured such a kind, and she doth not deem our children of the night as worthy as her other little ponies?” Marching back and forth, the only time Twilight had seen Luna look more scary was when she was on the brink of becoming Nightmare Moon.

Part of her wondered if that was what she was witnessing right now, only to see that Luna wasn’t the only alicorn in the room. With a horn, and mane flowing like her lover’s, Warp Runner looked even more like a night princess than Luna. Her leathery bat wings and sharp fangs really added to the nocturnal aesthetic. Celestia had once told her that she and her sisters’ manes flowed as they did due to the sheer amount of magic the two contained. One day, her own mane, and that of her sister-in-law, would flow just the same. Warp Runner, on the other hoof, appeared to brim with arcane might, her eyes shimmered, her coat shone, and her horn was a towering spire to rival the night princess’s own.

She must be full of Luna’s magic, the dream personified her desire for power the same as it did to me. Thestrals were certainly the most draconic of any tribe, so it made sense. While Warp Runner’s comments about Luna’s tastes once being sharper rang true. Only, where she knew a confident bat pony, and guessed a formally boastful pegasus, right now Luna’s past lover only appeared saddened.

She became the first new alicorn, and queen of a whole race overnight, can I blame her? She noted, while finding it hard to blame Luna for her discontent with her sister’s reaction. This has to be one of the things Celestia regrets, all those times she told me she never really saw what was bothering her sister.

She knew Celestia had never actually gone through with any discrimination against thestrals. Even after Nightmare Moon used them against her, the night guard had been employed as a small, specialized force until Luna’s return. But to have it all happen so fast, and by accident!

“Luna, I don’t care about any of that, or what she says,” Warp Runner insisted, and hearing the witty voice come out of a mare so divine felt incredibly strange. “You said it yourself, I’m like this because of love. I’m not going to pretend I understand it, but if it comes with loving you, then it’s all I want.”

Those words stuck as the two embraced, leaving her to think just about what she would do for love. Would she allow herself to remain a dragon, if the purity of true love had deemed that to be right? Part of her was sure she would. Only, Luna herself had assured her it wasn’t what she wished, simply a byproduct of her specific talents. Relationships went both ways, after all. As she thought about that, voices were cast about in the dream, she was sure she heard Celestia talking about how thestrals would have to be dealt with– going on about the night guard.

Then came flashes of Warp Runner and Luna, both wore dark dresses as they pirouetted around a ballroom floor, horns locked as a crowd of bat ponies watched on in nocturnal awe. It was a monument to the night, an idol to the natural darkness that mirrored the day. Until the balance was shattered by a vision of Luna stomping her forehoof against a mirror, scattering glistening shards of glass across her bed chamber.

“We will not allow thy sister to smother us any longer. Allow her ponies to shun thou for what thou are. Our children, our love, we treasure it more than thy sister could ever value her precious, little ponies!” yelled the dark mare, tossing the broken glass away with her magic.

“And that is something you would go to war over…? Over me!” retorted a far less ethereal Warp Runner, her modest, drooping mane parted only by her horn. “I am not going to let you do that Luna. I saw what the last war did!”

“Thou has no means to stop us! Thou has no faith in us!” accused Luna, flaring her horn to summon up shards of broken glass. “Thou are the keeper of our dreams, our most trusted confidant… Our Queen, and thou would abandon us in our hour of need!?”

“I thought I was always what you needed, Luna? You were perfect to me, but this…” Warp Runner swatted the offending glass away with a flare of her magic. “This is greed, this is insecurity… You don’t trust me when I say you’re enough!?”

“Thou lie only to assure we do not endure shame!” Luna lashed out with the glass, striking her lover across the horn with the sharp shards of silver, and in a flash, Warp Runner’s mane was drenched red, her horn falling to the carpet.

She screamed, Luna back peddled, eyes wide as the full moon as sparks spluttered from the thestral’s bloody horn.

“Thou… We…” The glass dropped around Luna in a silver cascade, cutting her cheek, while Warp Runner panted hard, one forehoof pressed to the severed tip of her horn. “Oh no…”

“Stay away from me!” the thestral hissed, fangs flared like a venomous viper, face marred by crimson as her bat wings spread wide. “You’re not my Luna, you’re not worthy of her!”

“Love… Warp…” Luna reached out, voice barely above a whisper, but like a liquid shadow the bat pony slipped off into the night.

The vision left Twilight stunned, every moment she watched Luna wilt away alone in her bed chambers, she gained a new perspective on just what had led to her fall. Days appeared to go by, and more, and more, the darkness grew. The self-loathing was more a shadow than those that swarmed in every corner of the chamber. No pony came to her, she sought out nopony in turn, until the day Twilight knew had come to pass dawned. Nightmare Moon rose, and as she had seen, Luna was banished until the day she and her friends had set her free.

How do I know that won’t happen again? She hated herself for the thought, the mere idea she could think so little of the mare she loved disgusted her. Can I risk Equestria if she ever lets herself slip like that again?

She had to be sure of herself, make certain that she wouldn’t allow that to come to pass. Luna wasn’t the same mare she was all those centuries ago, Celestia would never allow her to feel so alone again, nor would she. Luna had friends who cared for her, ponies who loved and adored her.

She has me. Twilight peered at the void, flickers of Luna and her former lover’s past flashing by. Warp Runner even forgave her, why else would she have helped us?

“She helped for your sake, not mine,” croaked a weary voice, while like schooling fish in the wake of a hungry predator, the flickering images scattered into the gloom. “Now you see the real me, who I am at my core.”

Luna appeared from the shadows, her voice low and as withered as her body. All the millennia appeared to have caught up with her all at once, her once radiant coat was dulled by an aged silver, as was her mane, while her eyes were faded, her face pitted by wrinkles.

“You mean who you were?” Twilight corrected, turning to face the warped personification of her lover. “I know you’re not that mare anymore, Luna. I understand how it must have felt, and if there was ever one criticism I’d say to Celestia’s face it would be how she once neglected you. If I didn’t know she already regrets it every day.”

“I do not require another pony to remind me of such things,” Luna chuckled, then sighed. “But that is not all of it. I’m old, Twilight, I have made so many mistakes, those that the kingdom is aware of, and those only I, and scant others, know came to pass.”

Her tired eyes were fixed on the carpet, and as if all around them had ceased to exist, the only break in the void was a pillar of light that perfectly illuminated what lay there. Warp Runner’s severed horn lingered in a dry patch of crimson.

“I always assumed she’d cut it off herself,” Twilight muttered, but Luna shook her head.

“I giveth with love, I steal with rage… True, she never wished to be an alicorn, she may have removed it herself in time, but I never gave her a choice in either matter,” the weary night princess admitted.

“But you are offering me a choice.” Twilight swallowed her apprehension, daring to look at the aged mare. “You’ve taken me so far off the edge of the map just to give me that option. That is the mare you’ve become. Even if she doesn’t love you, Warp Runner sees that too, she didn’t have to give you the map.” She took a deep breath. “And it’s the mare you are now that I love.”

“You just make sure I know that, Twilight,” insisted the old mare, and the lavender princess blinked, cocking her head and earning a chuckle. “I know it here, in the deepest parts of myself. I feel I have since the day we met, the part of me that changed you. But awake, I will need you more than you need me.”

“And when I wake up, you’ll be safe?” Twilight glanced about, recalling the last thing she remembered. “The crash, we could be dead?”

“The dead do not dream, dear Twilight,” insisted the old mare, before she smirked. “And I doubt the dragon inside would allow you to be bested by such things.”

“How do you know about that?” The idea anypony could see what that infuriating part of her said was terrifying, however, the aged Luna merely winked.

“I can sense who you are at your core just as much as you see me.” She tapped a willowy forehoof to Twilight’s chest, causing the princess to shudder in alarm as she pushed her awake. “Now go, and see I do not repeat my mistakes.”

The distinction between what was real and what was a dream had become so warped that Twilight still had no idea whether she was awake or dead. One eye flashed open to find her face pressed into a cold sea of grey sand, only to slam closed again as the tiny granules stung. The air around her was cold as ice, while flashes illuminated the darkness behind her closed eyes before she finally lifted her head to open them properly.

As the blurred images finally settled into place, she realized that the sky was just as dull as the ground. The vast expanse of grey sand was matched by a thick mist that turned the air into a swirling soup. The shadows of rough rocks loomed from the expanse, as if they were the grasping claws of a great beast petrified while attempting to rise from Tartarus itself. Odd creatures flitted about them, levitating snakes that appeared to project their own telekinesis from the bioluminescent bulbs dotting their flanks. It was oddly how she envisioned the bottom of the great oceans to look, more so as strange jelly-like forms bobbed by.

The light of the fauna was overshone by that raining down from above, however. Like a shower of falling stars, flaming wreckage lit up the cloud layers as it plummeted to the sand below. While in the mist ahead, the great burning form of a sky ship’s shattered corpse lay broken. The reality of what had transpired above finally caught up with the dragoness as something within the wreck exploded, while several more chunks of blazing debris rained down around her.

We fell, but… Where are the others? Shaking sand from her wings, Twilight glanced about, finally staggering to all fours as the grey granules slipped from her back. She was in my claws, where is she?

Jumping in alarm as a section of ship impacted the ground behind her in a flaming spray of dust, Twilight rolled down the flank of the great grey dune, sliding to a halt as she impacted the ground muzzle first. Above, something else erupted in a burst of flame, and she leaped forward just in time to avoid what she was pretty sure had been part of a ship’s engine falling on top of her.

“Luna!” she called out, voice echoing in the misty abyss, before she coughed. “Warp Runner… Anypony!”

No response beyond the rumble of devastation emitted from the gloom as the dragoness limped away from the raining devastation. Passing under the shattered remains of the great dragon skull that had once adorned the Prime Immortal’s bow, Twilight finally slumped.

Am I just stuck down here… Where even is here? Never before had she felt so utterly lost, no friends, nopony to rely on. She barely even had any visual reference in the pale grey depths, and no books that even hinted at what to expect. This is what you get for following stupid ponies. You should have just stayed in the forest like a real dragon!

The little princess in her head was seemingly struggling to not agree with the dragon side of her brain. If only to avoid admitting she was totally and utterly lost. Part of her almost wished this were still a dream, yet the bite of the freezing air, the sting of her wounds, and the fact she was still very much a dragoness disproved otherwise. Right until a sound broke the eerie atmosphere.

The weak sniff was as far from the distant booming of devastation as Twilight felt from her home. Her scaly ears perked, her attention shifting in the direction of the sound, while her eyes finally came to rest on a lone figure in the foggy gloom. Appearing like little more than one of the many lonely boulders that permeated the abyss, the dark alicorn drooped, wings loose at her side as her head bowed.

“Luna!” Twilight took no heed of the night princess’s dreary demeanor as she took off running toward her, sand scattering in the wake of her eager claws.

Luna hardly budged, lifting her head in surprise, ears perking, only to sag as Twilight reached her.

“Are you alright!?” asked the dragoness, skidding to a halt behind the dark mare. “Where’s Warp Runner!?”

“I… I know not.” The words seemed to catch harshly in Luna’s throat as the night princess appeared unable to meet her lover’s eyes. “I fear the worst… And worst still, how I have come to fail you both.”

Pulling up short, Twilight paused, any joyous relief that had blossomed upon finding her lover sapping away to see her so defeated. True to Luna’s word, there was no sign of their bat pony companion, while the wreckage raining down around them certainly did go a long way to suggest the worst may have come to pass.

No, I don’t give up on friends. Twilight’s resolve hardened, there was no way she would leave Warp Runner to the abyss, nor would she stand for Luna’s blame any longer. By Celestia, if I love her, I need to act like it!

“No, Luna. You’ve not failed,” declared the dragoness, eyes locked firmly on the downtrodden princess. “You got us this far, took me halfway around the world to try and help. That’s not failure.”

“And now those efforts result only in ruin.” She gestured to the devastation around them as she went on. “I thought I could relive old times, show you how I used to be, when I felt like I could love. I avoided my sister, your friends… All because I wanted you to see me, and look what that has come to!”

All that about this being too dangerous for them, about Celestia not understanding? The slight stab of betrayal at that confession stung, the idea she could have every pony she cared about here to help her, only to have it robbed from her by Luna’s ego. She’d go that far to prove herself to me… Does she even know me!?

Part of her wanted to scream, notably not the draconic half as the reality hit her. Yet she couldn’t find the angry words, couldn’t look past the defeated look on Luna’s face. Debating whether it was pity or genuine care, she finally let out a soft sigh, smoke sizzling from her nostrils.

“Luna, I’m nothing without my friends. Together we’re stronger, both of us would be stronger,” she began, taking a seat next to her lover as the sand shifted under them. “You never needed to prove yourself to me, I know who you are.”

“The villain you bested, the noble second sister you respect. Just as most ponies do,” Luna responded, eyes fixed on the sand at her forehooves. “I wanted you to see me as Warp Runner once did. Not the alicorn to call princess, but the mare to call love.”

I can see what Runner was talking about. Twilight noted, doing her best to set aside Luna’s deception, most of all now she knew what lay at the princess’s core. While she was sure there was no malice in it, it was also something she wouldn’t allow to happen again. She needs somepony, I can see that. I feel like I’m right but…

“You were doing that before you started blowing up ships,” Twilight admitted, gently wrapping a leathery wing over her fellow princess’s back. “Maybe for a while, I hardly thought of you differently from Celestia. But your sister’s my idol… You… You are different, Luna.”

“Forgive me if I cannot forgo considering that a negative juxtaposition,” Luna sighed, even as she stiffened at the touch of the dragoness’s wings. “I should have never deceived you. The moment we found her, we should have petitioned Runner to return to Canterlot with us. Constructed a far better plan.”

Yeah, you don’t say. Huffed Twilight’s dragon side, the little alicorn in her head once again in agreement as she folded her forelegs and nodded. Guys, do you really think she’d have come back with us?

“Maybe, but that hardly matters now,” Twilight reasoned, standing up to position herself before Luna. “We’ve been down like this before, though. All we need is each other, and we’ll always pull through.”

“You need your friends, not me,” Luna sighed, and with a huff, Twilight rolled her eyes. The dragon side of her begging to thwack some sense into the dark mare.

“You are my friend, Luna. We’ve always been friends,” she insisted, tenderly taking the nightly mare’s forehoof in a foreclaw. “More than friends… You’re special to me.”

“I–I… You… But after all I did…” Twilight pressed a wing to Luna’s lips, cutting her off as she interrupted.

“Yes, no matter what you did. I care about you, Luna, I want to make this work. Just know that you don’t need to dwell on the past any longer.” The blush that seeped into Luna’s dark cheeks put the blazing fireballs littering the gloom around them to shame as she shied away. “Now, let’s find Warp Runner and fix this. Once I’m a mare again, maybe I can show you a thing or two.”

“Well, isn’t this touching?” The grizzled voice stole the tender moment, and both Twilight and Luna’s attention snapped around to the very battered-looking centaur.

Armor dented, charred skin bruised, and hair singed, Eris marched out of the gloom, red eyes blazing with fury. Twilight sneered flames, Luna’s horn ignited, but the villain smirked as she stretched out one claw.

“Ah, ah, I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she warned, as in her talons, bound by some strange, arcane collar, Warp Runner kicked and thrashed helplessly. “Not if you want to keep this one in one piece.”

“Let go of me, or so help me I’ll ghost you into a wall!” the bat pony hissed, squirming like a helpless fish caught on a line as the collar glowed in an effort to restrain her magic.

“You know what this is, don’t you?” taunted the centaur, as a flash lit up the sky behind her. “A null collar, so don’t even think about using any magic.”

“Shame, I’m starting to get pretty good at getting by without it,” Twilight snapped, only for Eris to waggle a finger.

“Then I’m sure you’re also willing to test how fireproof this little pest is,” she taunted, forcing the dragoness to swallow her swelling breath. “That’s a good, little drake.”

“What do you want!?” Luna thrust a dark wing before Twilight, rising from her stooper as she stepped towards the monster. “Your ship is in ruin, your crew scattered. Those who still live will never follow you again.”

“I’d not be so sure,” Eris countered, reaching back to pull the dream scroll from under one of her armored plates. “You came so far to get this. It has to be worth more than one ship and her crew.”

“I’d hardly call that raggedy-flank thing a ship!” Warp Runner jeered, earning a tight squeeze from the centaur that caused Luna to lurch.

“One more word out of you and I’ll rip off those wings to match that horn of yours!” Eris threatened, before jabbing the map toward Luna. “You take me to wherever this leads, I know you still need to.”

She glanced up, and sure enough, far above the beam of blue light cutting through the distant storm still pulsated.

“Don’t, Luna!” Warp Runner gasped, while the princess of the night maintained her standoff with the syndicate leader.

“I’m not a patient soul,” Eris cooed, while the brooding dragon in Twilight’s head was edging her ever closer to attacking the hybrid.

“If that is your wish, then so be it.” The shocked exclamation of the little princess in Twilight’s head was matched only by Warp Runner’s gasp. “But I warn you, you will fail to find what you seek.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” hissed the centaur, nodding for the mare to lead the way. “Get a move on, I’m sure you don’t fancy becoming dinner for the void sharks.”

“Luna, you’re sure…?” Twilight caught the dark mare’s knowing look, knowing that now, at least, she had to trust her lover’s judgment.

“I am certain. Come, the way of dreams is not far now,” she called, taking the lead as Twilight fell in behind her.

I have to trust her. There was still a part of her tentative to do so. Luna had lied, deceived her away from the others. Something she knows she can’t do again, I won’t let her.

The conflict raged inside her head as Eris brought up the rear, obviously inspecting the pair for any signs of deception as Warp Runner snarled in her claws. We have bigger problems right now, anyway.