Dreams, Nightmares, and Friendships

"Damn...How could I have not seen it sooner! He was right under our muzzles!!" Celestia folded a wing over her sister's back worriedly, berating herself internally but outwardly trying her hardest to remain calm.

"Luna, you had much on your plate other than finding the source of the nightmares. You had the Royal Night Court to attend to, and the moon and stars. You mustn't blame yourself." She soothed. Luna shook her head angrily.

"My duties do not excuse my foolishness! It is our duty to protect our subjects, and we hath failed to do so!" Luna shouted, slipping into the old Equestrian speak. Celestia patted her sister's shoulder gently.

"You haven't failed Luna; you kept him from getting any stronger." The solar elder calmed, smiling comfortingly at her lunar sister. Luna sighed unhappily then hugged Celestia, thankful for the support, then backed away slightly and splayed her ears, and with a grind of anger and bitterness in her voice, she spoke. "We need to find him. Perhaps we could search his room?" She tried quietly. Celestia nodded and smiled at Luna before spreading her wings.

"Let's not trouble the guards; if their gossip of trouble reaches Canterlot's socialites, it could throw the entire city into panic." She reasoned. Luna nodded and took flight, followed quickly by Celestia, and the two Alicorns quickly found themselves standing in front of what had been Darkrai's room. True to what his name seemed to be, darkness and shadows seemed to seep and loom around his room, darkening the whole tower. Luna's magic slowly eased the door open and the two stepped inside, igniting the lanterns meant to keep such stifling darkness away, and looked around. The room was in heavy disarray, the bed sheets strewn across the floor as if tossed in frustration or anger, the writing desk's drawers having been snapped off of their rollers and throws across the floor to put several holes in the walls.

"He was certainly angry at something..." Celestia murmured softly. Luna nodded in agreement, running her hoof against the damaged wall, frowning.

"I wonder what it was. Maybe there was a fight?" She pressed. Celestia tilted her head.

"Not sure; it doesn't seem so after all. Nothing intensely roughed enough to confirm there was a fight or anything. And no shed blood or other bodily extremities that might've come off in a fight, like feathers. Or that ruby collar thing on his neck." The solar princess reasoned quietly. Without waiting for a response, she swept on in her mini-rant, now mostly talking to herself. "Now how exactly did you get a hold of Nightmare Magic if you're a pegasus? Certainly you aren't in disguise, no unicorn could hold an illusion spell for that long, and the guards were sent to check on you regularly. And what....did you do to the guard in the throne room? He would not willingly protect you....unless..." Celestia's ears splayed backwards and she frowned worriedly.

"Unless his abilities are far greater than should be possible for any remotely normal pony..." She mumbled to herself. Finally her investigation yeilded results and she spotted a dark red journal on the nightstand next to the bed, and she quickly swept across the room and picked it up in her magic, igniting a candle wick, and began sifting through the pages. At first she thought she was just looking at really weird doodles of random creatures' feet. Page after page was filled with steady lines of footprints of different animals, and eventually it began to be rather unsettling. By the time she reached the end of the little journal, she was thoroughly confused and worried. What exactly WAS this 'stallion'? Slowly she tucked the journal into a saddlebag and checked once under the bed for anything else before standing straight.

"Luna, have you found anythi-" Celestia's unfinished question fell on an empty room.

"Luna?" Celestia called, looking around uneasily. Only now did she notice the shadows seeming to twist and arch in unnatural ways to get away from the light of the candle. Almost like they were-

"Alive!..." Instantly Celestia lit every light source in the room she could find, further driving back the shadows and they parted to reveal her Luna, who instantly darted for Celestia, shaking the clinging darkness from her pelt, before suddenly everything went out at once, plunging her into a stifling darkness. Celestia fumbled to open the door with her magic and leapt into the hallway, instantly speeding for the well lit guard barracks nearby with Luna close behind. The shadows seemed to roar as they grabbed at the two sisters, catching at their tails and manes as their hooves seemed to sink several inches into any shadows that they stepped in, slowing them down.

"You cannot run forever, "Princesses"." A blaze of solar magic lashed out at the shadows, making them scream and hiss in pain before suddenly losing all life and turning back to normal, leaving Celestia to herself as she tried to gather herself and calm her shaking limbs. Luna huddled against her, just as shaken.

"What is wrong with me? I shouldn't be this scared..." Celestia flattened her ears against the back of her skull, trembling. Luna nodded fearfully in agreement.

"What ARE you?"

Buck this headache. Buck this bucking headache.

Darkrai growled as he gripped his head in pain, wishing to hell and back he had some form of relief but finding none. The center of the pain was right in the middle of his forehead, the worst place as it meant he could focus on nothing else, and he growled angrily, trying to massage his temples with his hooves to alleviate some of the distracting pounding on his cranium.

"Damned to this headache. This form is frail, and terrible. I don't even have claws anymore." He growled darkly. With a huff he shook his head, and he stood up then slipped into a shadow to the surface. The moon was up by now, and it'd be much easier to escape Celestia's eyes at night. He just needed to stay careful, and Luna would not notice him either. He spread his wings carefully under the new moon and sighed at the slight relief of no longer having to keep them clamped to his side. A few feathers fluttered to the ground as a dark mist overtook the tips of his wings and he lifted a brow in interest before folding them back away, dispelling the mist, then began walking. His eyes swept across the forest grounds he'd found himself in, occasionally stopping to transmute something into a shadow and send it to his castle to be reorganized when he returned.

"However frail this body seems to be, I would hope there's some way to get my old one back. However nice it is to have reality-stable legs, they are useless to me as they are. The bones are like tooth picks. The neck is surprisingly strong. Probably a gender trait of this pathetic species." His quiet rambling stayed with him right until he reached the edge of the forest. From here he'd have to walk the shadows until he reached his destination. He had time though. With the new moon in the sky, he had all the time he could possibly wish for or need.

Hours or minutes later, he cared not to count or keep track, his hooves fell upon the familiar tile of a certain boutique. Darkrai's shadow slid across the walls and around him as if an extension of his conscious, each time it passed over a door the handle twisting on its own and the door slowly opening. Finally a door caught the dark stallion's attention, and he stopped.

"Good. She isn't with her ridiculously loud or obnoxious friends." He mused to himself quietly, looming over Sweetie Belle. His mane billowed around him as he leaned down carefully, pulling her blanket off. The glow of his eyes increased and a soft pulsing haze of sky blue surrounded Sweetie Belle, lifting her off the bed and placing her in the overly large saddlebag he had on his back. Nodding to himself, he carefully slid the window open and launched himself out, his wings snapping open and catching him.

Weak. Pathetic. There is very obviously no logic to this endeavor. So why go through with it? He cared not for this filly, she was no means he could use to his end. Neither was the mare he planned on coming back for. While within his walls they'd be safe from his nightmares while the town was plagued by them, why was he sparing them?

Darkrai shook his head as he dove headfirst into a shadow, disappearing through the ever distorted shadowy world he used most often to move about. Soon enough his castle walls surrounded him and he solidified in the throne room. The saddlebag lifted off of his back and he calmly unfolded the precious cargo inside.

"Darkrai is that you....?" Darkrai flicked an ear and looked up.

"Yes Fares." The soft clicking of hooves against cold stone brought Darkrai's attention towards the entrance of the room and soon Fares' shivering form pressed against his front left leg.

"Whazzup with this thing?" The practically blind foal asked, prodding at the source of the new smell. Darkrai sighed softly and stepped over Fares and Sweetie Belle.

"It is a companion for you. Though if you don't want it, I suppose I can replace it with something else." Fares tilted his head slightly and blinked before prodding at Sweetie Belle's side again carefully. Eventually he got bored then sighed and yawned. She was fuzzy, and she still had warmth in her. Good enough. Fares carefully laid down next to the filly and shifted before closing his eyes. His ears flattened against the back of his skull as he shivered and he heaved a quiet sigh.

"Whenever you're scared or upset, just remember to breathe. Idiots who lose their cool lose their battles. Cold or lonely or you think you're trapped in the dark, just remember to breathe and think." Fares nodded slightly to himself, a smile turning on his muzzle as he thought of his Mum. Yes, always listen to her. She knows.

Good Explorer, best Mum.

The colt wasted no more time before beginning to descend into sleep. Seconds before he lost himself to the vivid dream world, he paused then pulled Sweetie Belle's sleeping form closer.