Duisternis, realm of nightmares<<<<<<

Sensing his host nodding off, Maxie felt his form solidify in the realm once more, allowing the blonde nightmare to land gracefully on the silvery ichor that coated the ground of his homeland, yards away from only recently opened portal.

"Well well, looks like I hit the jackpot with this kid. It's been centuries since any vessel has shown promise in weilding this worlds power." Maxie chuckled to himself as each step he made his way towards the new exit, sending ripple after ripple through the reflective plain as the sound of each foot hitting the ground sounded off in a cocaphony of 'splish splosh'. "Then again, it might be best to not compare those two, I'd rather not get into a tussle with Harmony so soon."

Stopping right in front of the portal, Maxie found his eyes drawn to what lied on the other side...

..or rather, who.

On the other side of the portal, was what seemed to be a female of the species of his host. The woman had a lighter shade of orange in her hair that bounced across her shoulders with every turn of her head, along with a alluring set of hazel eyes that complimented the womans natural beauty.

"Ah, a lover perhaps...or considering the similar facial features perhaps a sibling?" Maxie whispered as he placed his hands on the portal, only to let out a yelp as he fell face-first through it into the occupied room.

Shaking off the landing with a grunt, Maxie began to take in his surroundings, realizing he had been the nightmare equivalent to a peeping Tom and had been watching the woman standing in an eerily empty bedroom (sparing a single bed with a simple white sheet over it, with nothing but a rather form fitting aquamarine onesie on her person.

"And who are you?" Maxie asked, only to pause at the lack of reaction from the woman, watching as she just stood frozen staring at the empty wall to his right as if waiting for something to come out.

Taking a few steps closer the nightmare waved his hand in front of her eyes several times, yet not a single blink or indication of noticing him took place, allowing Maxie to return his hand to his side with pursed lips.

"Odd, it's almost as if I'm in a dre-" Maxie stopped short, quickly realizing what he had done as he spun around towards the portal, only to find it encased in a dark blue aura. Hearing the sound of hooves land behind him, Maxie smiled wryly.

Looks like things just got interesting. Let's see if the mare still has a temper.

"So, still snooping around creatures dreams, ay Luna?" Maxie remarked, turning on his heels as he pinched his nose. "What, no one wants to hang with you in the real world, so you spend your time watching others be happy?"

Gazing into the alicorns eyes, Maxie knew damn well she was pissed. She had that snarly look that made her nose and left eye scrunch up, and her mane had decided to cosplay as a tsunami this evening.

Called it. Maxie thought was a smirk as the princess let out a deep breath through her nostrils.

"Such sass from a nightmare, has thou forgotten who we are?" The cobalt princess haughtily remarked, making the dream woman dissapear from beside her with a wave of her hoof. "We had decided to visit this creatures dreams after seeing it in the empire, and behold we find a nightmare nestled into his psyche."

Running a hand through his golden hair, Maxie couldn't stop the scowl on his face even if he wanted to.

"You think yourself so special? How long have you been back in control of that body?" Maxie asked as he held up a hand, wiggling its fingers as he held back a scoff. "Five, maybe six years since your return? Give me a break, you were better off when the nightmare had a hold of you."

Princess Lunas eyes narrowed, and with a flash of light she was now inches from Maxies face, a deep growl emanating from the royal alicorn.

"Do not test me, Nightmare. Or you will find your dispersal from this realm far more unpleasent then thou may ever be-"

"Oi, Sister. Mom and Dad wants ya down..." Mitch called out, opening a door that hadn't been present the room until he came through it, though he stopped at the sight of the two bickering beings in front of him. Rubbing his eyes a tad, Mitch seemed to shake off some sort of fog from his eyes before he looked between Maxie and Luna several times before sighing.

"Can't even escape crazy land in my dreams...FUCK!" Mitch yelled as he kicked over a table...that also wasn't there a second ago, much to the confusion of Maxie, though a look at the princess showed that her focus was less on the odd happenstance and more on the human than his nightmary self.

"Would thou happen to be...Mulch?" She asked the human cautiously, earning a slow head turn towards her and a glare.

"Mulch? Did you just call me fertilizer you horned bitch?" Mitch retorted, earning a snort from Maxie as he watched Luna's eyes narrow, the princess far from pleased with the stranger and his attitude.

"Watch thine tongue, creature, less we-"

To Maxie's surprise, and growing enjoyment, his host was unfazed by the alicorns words and marched right up to Luna, putting a finger in her face as he met her glare with his own.

"Oh hell no, you don't get to just hijack one of my best memories of my sister and boss me around." Mitch yelled, putting that same finger into the alicorns black peytral. "In the handful of days I've been in your world I have had to deal with nothing but freezing temperatures, murderous snow wolves, and this freaking crystal arm-" The man motions to his right arm, which was glittering with pure white crystal at the moment. "I lost my arm to a cave demon, for fucks sake!"

The princess, who had been ready to chew out the strange thing that was yelling at her, now found herself hesitating to do so, at a loss from the amount of suffering he had been through in such a short time.

"We...we didn't know." Luna stated softly before sighing, letting body relax a bit as her mane slowly went back to its regular magical flowing rather than the tempest it was moments prior. "Has thou truly been through so much in such a small time?"

Pinching the bridge of his nose with his regular hand, Mitch passed a glance to the slightly faded image of his sister, a mournful expression crossing his face as he felt the fight leave his body.

"Yeah...I made a deal with some god-like entity and now I'm stuck here until I can do everything that he wants."

Her attention now entirely on the newcomer, Luna failed to notice Maxie slowly stepping towards the now unblocked portal as the alicorn hesitated between standing there and trying to comfort the human.

"Pardon our boldness...but why even make such a bargain? Thou seem worse off for it, so what could drive thou to make such a choice?" The princess asked, watching the man like a cat while he made his way over to to the clouded image of the woman, who's empty gaze hadn't yet left the door that had appeared earlier.

"Well...I assume thi is all just a dream, so it probably can't hurt to tell you this..." Mitch reasoned as his eyes crossed the womans vision, yet still no reaction came from her. " ...This is my big sister, Samantha."

Turning to Luna, the man gave her a smile she recognized far to well. It had been the same type of smile the princess gave her sister when asked if she was "ok" or if "everything was alright" that day.

It was a hollow smile, devoid of any actual joy, and it seeing it on another soul that wasn't herself made the alicorn wince at the reminder of her refusal to open up to her sister.

Is my facade as see through as his? was the thought that echoed through the Lunar Diarchs head, flashes of times she had put her own mask while walking the halls of her home. Does Tia know how I feel? Or have I yet again managed to hide this from her?

Pushing those thoughts down, Luna turned her attention back to the man in front of her, noticing he had now placed himself on the foot of the bed nearby, his wriggly appendages placed evenly on his legs as he let out a pained sigh.

"My sister was an amazing person. Growing up, she always had my back, and was even the one who pushed for me to go to college...though she never went herself." Mitch laid back on the bed, looking up into the empty space above the room as memories of his childhood rushed through his mind. "Samantha was quite content living the small life, she worked as a manager for a personal business of hers called 'Thread the Needle', where she and a few of her friends turned workers made or sewed up clothing for people in town."

Walking over to the bed, the princess took a seat on the bed, placing herself to the right of the forlorn man while mulling over where to even begin in talking to him.

This isn't like the Element Bearers or my sister, this is a newcomer who's been effectively stranded by a deal gone wrong...How does one even approach conversation with such a stranger? With a silent charge of her horn, Luna scanned the odd creature in front of her, noticed something that made her blood run cold.

The being, who was currently rambling on about his apparent siblings personal life, had an artifical magic core. Not only this, but it was made of a rather unique dark magic. The same dark magic that-

A small pop nearby caused Luna to quickly turn to where the nightmare had been, only to find him gone and the portal she had blocked earlier missing as well.

Slipped away while I was distracted...Damn it all!

"Uh...are you ok? Your fidgeting a lot there."

Snapped from her internal curses, Luna turned her gaze back to the man in front of her, who had sat up and was watching her warily.

"Tis nothing...but can thou explain why thine magic core is tainted with the Nightmare magic?"

With that question, Mitch was officially confused. Back at Sunbursts house, not a single mention of chaos magic was said, and here was this odd pony in his dreams questioning him about his magic core?

Looking the pony over and seeing the horn and wing combo, it slowly dawned on him that this was one of the ponies that Maxie had warned him of last time they had met up, and how much of an idiot Mitch had been just running his mouth off the pest few minutes was now crystal clear.

I've been chatting away with this horse this whole time, and I didn't stop once to think about how the fuck she was carrying the conversation so well for a dream?! Mitch internally panicked as he slowly began to realize just how wrong all of this was. She's some kind of freaking dreamwalker...if this is the power these alicorn ponies have how the hell am I supposed to keep them off my back?

"Thou seem panicked..." Luna stated, though it was not a question moreso a verbal stab at an increasingly nervous Mitch. "Pray tell, why? Thou was fine moments before when speaking of your sister, what changed?"

Mitch shot off the bed, facing the alicorn as he backed away slowly from the bed, trying to get as much distance from the alicorn as possible.

"How are you here? This is a dream in my head, so how are you standing here right now?"

The alicorn gracefully stood, and began to move towards the human, each step she took sending a small ripple through the bedroom.

"We are Luna, the princess of the night. Each and every dream within this realm is at my mercy." Mitch's backside hits the door as Luna stops, flaring her wings and standing straighter as her form looked downright menacing in the darkened room, now void of whatever light the dream was casting and left with whatever was causing the alicorns body to illuminate itself. "Now, we grow tired of your games, tell us why thou host a nightmare in your soul or we shall rip it out of you and interrogate the fiend instead!"

Staring down the slowly approaching dream alicorn, Mitch felt his heart beating out of his chest as he felt his thoughts running at the speed of sound.

What the heck do I do? The horse has magic power of dreams, so there's no point fighting her... Staring at Luna's shining horn, no doubt prepping to cast some sort of spell, his thoughts trailed off as a lightbulb actually went off above his head (Mitch decided it be best to just roll with it, when in Rome!) allowing a smile to come to Mitch's face as another winner of an idea was born.

Seeing the smile on his face, Lun watched apprehensively as the human knelt down into a sprinting position.

"Are thou mad? You know thou cans't win this fight?"

Looking up at the princess, Mitch grit his teeth and breathed out slowly as he pushed forward quickly. Slighty caught off guard at the quickly approaching humans speed, Luna fired off a beam of energy from her horn and causing Mitch to slam into the door, nearly slamming the wooden object right off its hinges at the impact.

"Bloooooody hell, that stings." Mitch groaned weakly as Luna wasted no time and marched up to the human, pointing her horn near his face as she began to charge it once more.

"We won't ask again, vessel. Where did you get your nightmare?"

Coughing up a bit of dream blood, all Mitch could do was crack a half-assed grin as he stared down the horn in front of him.

"Sorry, princess...but this vessel is in another castle."

Putting what was left of his energy into the motion, Mitch slammed his face down on the horn, and to the absolute horror of the princess attached to it as she felt the creatures head slide down past her horn and connect with her head, the body going limp for a moment before bursting into small dust particles that slowly spread across the ground, leaving an agitated alicorn in their wake.

"We will find thou, tainted creature." Luna swore, swiping some dream dust off her face with a hoof as the dream began to dissapate. "None can hide from the night forever."

Train to Vanhoover, Mitch POV<<<<<<

Shooting up with a start, I wiped my head with a hand only to pull it back in disgust as it was now covered in sweat.

"Gross...hope there's a shower on this train." I whispered as I glanced around the car I was in. Seeing how dark it was outside, it had to have been a few hours since Reks and informed me of his desertion of the winter corps.

Looking over at the sleeping dog, who was currently snuggled up on a seat all to himself, I couldn't stop the frown from appearing as I remembered what he had told me about his people.

So beneath all the technicolored ponies and magic tricks, there's some serious crap going down. hell, even that princess was scary, and that was just in my dreams!

My eyes wandered over to Zephyr, who had somehow made a three-way cuddle pile between lightning Dust and that Gummi Bear Discord had created.

They've definitely earned their rest, especially after everything that's went down recently. I thought with a yawn as sat back down and looked out the window, seeing nothing but snow and mountain range.

Vanhoover, huh? Wonder what kind of chaos is going to unfold there?

Author's Note

AAAAAAND I'M BACK! Again...

I had a huge brain fog for writing come up after the last chapter, and to be quite honest I was worried I wouldn't ever come back, but I did! Managed to have a spark of inspiration recently, and was pushed to make this chapter.

IF I can keep this going, you can probably expect another chapter sometime in the next like 2-3 weels (College + Army = little to no free time)

Either way, I hope you liked the chapter, and please if yall see any grammer mistakes or actually just want to comment then do so! it really helps motivate the writer (me) to write more when I get feedback, even if its small.

(Note: I tried some more 3rd person here, but if yall like first person more Ill stick to that)