Deep Breath

“Are you sure that you want to do this alone, sister?” Celestia asked concerningly to you from beside your bed. “The lunar guards told me that you were screaming for several minutes until I was able to get there. Will our combined efforts not do well if you bring me with you?”

“Negative, sister. Should we come under a plight such as that which I suffered earlier, it would be incredibly more difficult and more dangerous to extract us both from the mindscape. Furthermore, the patrols in and around Ponyville are revealing nothing. We shall enter alone and reveal the hiding place of the changelings”

“Very well. I will be directly at your side until you return this time.”

After a nod and a hug to your sister, you close your eyes, vaguely aware as unicorn shields and wards, as well as a series of protective circles activated. Twilight wrote them herself to prepare this room in her castle for your excursion into the dreamscape.

You circle the doorways into the minds of your precious citizens. You have of course returned to the dreamscape to keep protective watch over your precious citizens; however, you have always dreaded the prospect of once again finding one doorway in particular. After several increasingly wider circles, you finally come across the one door that you have ever found yourself dreading. In lieu of a simple knob, there is a metal bar going across the door at shoulder height, with “PUSH” in print above it. Two metal plates sit in slots mounted on the outside of the door. One plate read “STATUS: DEEP/REM SLEEP” while the other read “LUCID: TRUE.”

Now expecting to be assaulted, you ready your magic, for one chaotic mind is still no match for Princess Luna of the night. Upon entering the door, you find yourself at the base of a mountain. Your magic tells you that this entrance is hard to see unless you know what to look for. A dozen paces in revealed something was happening in the dream. You comprehend that the images of this dream are events that have not happened yet, and the first indication of what is transpiring was the blood covering the stones bordering a black chitinous doorway. Screams of pain and agony echo through the many branching tunnelways, making their way to the entrance. You brace yourself to take control of and dispel whatever madness this mind has prepared.

Two figures charge out of the tunnels. Impaled changeling corpses hanging from the horns of a pink coated alicorn and her white coated unicorn counterpart. Upon reaching the entrance, they throw the corpses across and out into the stone entryway.

“Aunt Luna! Come to join in the slaughter? Their one defender has fallen, and all changelings are in hibernation pods!”

None of this makes sense! You are in the mind of a threat to pony kind. Why is he not dreaming of changelings fighting and winning? What is this perception of the prince and princess of love? You must find the human that is composing this nightmare.

There is a knife that 'Shining Armor' is levitating and using to slash open green pods, then sadistically murdering the occupants. You focus not on the murder, but the knife itself. It is significant. Not guard or royal issue. Your magic tells you which tunnel the human is located in. Their state makes no sense. You take the necessary path to reach the being. He has two holes in his torso, and a shield with Shining Armor’s cutie mark has amputated his legs. You are able to understand what is happening, but there is too much turmoil and noise to understand what in this being’s mind led to this.

“ENOUGH!” You command, seizing hold of the dreamscape. 'Shining Armor' and 'Cadence' cease to be. The blood lining the walls, and the mutilated pods and bodies disappeared. “You, human. What is the meaning of this imagery? Why are Shining Armor and MiAmore Cadenza the aggressors here?”

“Princess Luna? Does this mean that I really am dreaming? Will The full moon rise this night?”

“Such a moonrise is not for two more nights. We shall restore thy being in this state, then ye will explain to us this scene within thy dreams.” You reach into the human’s mind and pull an image of a well and healthy iteration of the being. By the glow of your horn, the human was now standing revived before you. The being takes a breath to calm himself and you brace, yet you do not feel the coldness as you did last time.

“Thank you, Princess Luna. My name is Anonymous. It is an honor to meet you, and I thank you sincerely for shaking me from that nightmare. This is what I fear will happen despite my best efforts. In two days, I will walk into Ponyville alone to request amnesty for the changelings and peaceful annexation of the Changeling hive. I will request peace negotiations on a day that sees a full moon rise, for weather the ponies act, or are inactive, without peace, the next new moon will signal the death of all changelings.”

With that, Shining Armor and cadence reappeared in front and behind of Anonymous, making quick work of the newly revived human. Both stab through him with their horns. Shining armor then making a shield around him that quickly constricted, beginning to crushing him. You make haste, for a shock of death this traumatic will wake your ward before they reveal their location.

“Hold, Anonymous, ye have yet to reveal thy location!” You dispel the ponies and revive the human once more.

“My location? The hive?”

“Where is it? What mountain is this?”

“I will tell you what I know, though I have not memorized the position yet.” You grow impatient. Your magic pulling the map of Equestria from his mind. He has recently memorized Equestria's layout. He's gathered information of it’s cities, pony populations, and commerce, yet he actively told the changeling scribes to keep the location of their mountain hidden from him as he did not memorize the path, then he locked himself away in a room for days to study. To study Equestria. To study the princesses. The mind of this human is so easy to distract that you yourself focus elsewhere while taking in this information. Another Shining armor appeared, ripping off limbs with shields then crushing them out of existence. With the destruction of the dream host’s head, you awaken, having hardly learned anything of value from your excursion. Celestia's horn is aglow as she raises the sun.

“Blasted!”

“How are you, sister?”

“We learned his name, Anonymous. The changeling hive is hidden within a mountain, the location of which he has not memorized, but that is of no matter. Tomorrow morning, he will march on Ponyville. Notify the elements of harmony and their provisional guards to be ready. He will either approach Sweet Apple Acres, or Fluttershy’s cottage.”

*****

“ ‘Anonymous’ you say? Strange name for any world.” Discord pondered the name to gleam a useful tidbit from whatever home dimension this human came from.

“So, you can peer into other worlds after all? What can you warn us about what a human from their chaotic world can pose as a threat?” Celestia asked.

“Well that depends; which human world is he from? There are quite a few human worlds on fire and bathed in blood. Was that a literal or a figurative description? Oh, and is it currently overrun by metal golems? That is quite important.”

“Not literally so. It was more of a colloquialism to describe the pain and suffering that is widespread. And no metal golems either. The human world that anonymous comes from has no magic whatsoever.” Luna replied

“No T-1000s then. That’s assuring. And no magic either. That would suggest He is a crafty silver-tongue that manipulates and profiteers. Only nasty things would come from that, and believe you me, you will be absolutely sickened by sweatshops! Though, one must consider that that world in particular has multitudes more manipulated individuals than manipulators. It is entirely possible that he will truly walk alone to Ponyville to request peace as Luna was able to gather. However, if he makes a move that spreads his world’s chaos throughout Equus, then that would threaten my own life as well.”

“Surely not. How can more chaos harm, let alone kill you, discord?”

“That chaos would not be a part of me, therefore, it would be a separate entity from me, and if such a monster would spread worldwide, it would potentially gain the power to usurp me and take over. I need not exaggerate the implications of what such chaos going unchecked would mean for this world, let alone the safety of your ponies. Do you agree, Luna?”

“Indeed, though despite all that we have wrested from his mind, we cannot entirely conclude that such will be the case. Too many details are incongruent. Are you yourself able to sense anything such as the potential chaos of the land?”

“Why yes indeed, and it has been maddening as of late! One moment I’m sipping tea with Fluttershy, and then I’m suddenly panicking like her animals will soon catch fire. It only lasts a few dozen minutes, then it is completely gone, and I regain my senses. I have felt such things before of course, people change their minds all the time, but never have I been so thrown by how dramatically it swings from one to the next. I dare say that I will be quite vexed should I ever meet such a being in person.”

“Should we expect you to not attend the meeting then?” Celestia asked as she poured Discord another cup of tea. He in turn took the cup and drank it down whole.

“Not at all. If this Anonymous thinks that he could just march on kind Fluttershy’s cottage, then They’ve got another thing coming!”