Princess of His Dreams

After he stepped through the doorway, Sky saw that everything had been whited out by a bright light, yet he still felt the ground beneath him. Taking a couple more steps forward, the light began to fade, into a setting he had been familiar with for years; the townscape of Ponyville.

It was pitch black, not a cloud in the sky, but also no stars or moon to be seen either. The lights emanating from the windows of the various dwellings were somewhat dim, and barely reached down to the streets below. After a couple glances left and right, he recognized where he was... But something was off. Almost as if... A building was missing.

The pegasus began to trot forward, and once he came to the next street junction, he realized that a structure was indeed missing; the town pavilion. In its place, was a small campfire. Sky felt the inviting warmth, yet saw his surroundings inexplicably darken as he approached the ring of stones that the burning sticks sat in.

Sky saw silhouettes of other ponies as he came to a stop in front of the crackling flames. He couldn't tell if they were also attempting to get warmth from the fire on this chilly night. He began to step around the fire, attempting to move closer to the shadowy figures. But as he did so, the shadows that the fire cast shifted, and the other ponies faded away.

He took a deep breath, and decided to sit down where he was in front of the flames, the rest of the shadows staying where they were. He recalled what Luminescence told him before he departed the castle...

'You will be tested, both mentally and physically. You will have to face yourself; your doubts, your fears.'

He wondered about the physical part; mainly because what he was physically in the dream realm had a great deal to do with his mentality.

"What is your greatest fear?" He heard Luminescence whisper to him.

He took another breath as he watched the flames crackle in front of him.

"Being alone," he answered, plainly and truthfully.

"Then take solace in the fact that here, nopony is ever truly alone. All of our hopes, fantasies, and fears can be made manifest."

"So what about what Princess Luna said? Am I to undertake this alone?" Sky asked.

"Like I just said; nopony is truly alone here. Take all the pieces of yourself, and use them. And know this, I was always loose with the rules. You can get away with that here."

Sky gave the slightest of smirks that Lumi would be here with him, in some way or another, and that she was showing more hints of her playful nature.

Still, he would have to take this seriously. He took another breath, and got to his hooves.

Suddenly, the dark, shadowy figures all around the fire took on a crimson glow. The figures warped as they dissolved into red smoke, and they all converged into the fire, snuffing it out in an instant, and began to snake down the streets, and Sky had a feeling he had to follow it. He began to trot down the street, following the line of smoke. He kept his pace steady, and stayed as on guard as he could, remembering all the ways that Luna's tantabus had fought against Ponyville's populace in the shared dream. Overcoming his own would be a part of this.

Following the trail through the streets he had long become familiar with, his gait paused when he saw where the smoke had gone. The pegasus stared at the one-story dwelling that he had shared with Cobalt, the windows glowing an ominous red.

Sky was about to take his first step up the front walk when the left front window shattered, a table lamp flying out right towards him. He raised his left hoof immediately, and the flaming blade erupted out of the jewel on the silver fetlock guard, cutting the lamp in two, the halves tumbling end over end out to the streets. The end table it had been sitting on came barely a second later, and he took to the air with a flap of his wings. The table passed harmlessly underneath him, rolling onto the street. Before his hooves fell back down to the ground, he angled his body towards the house, and gave his wings another strong flap, and this time, it sent a gust of wind so strong right at the house, it might as well have been a hurricane. As his hooves skidded backwards on the front walk, other objects flying out of the windows towards him fell into the grass long before they reached the front walk, curtains billowing inwards from the wind.

Taking another breath, he galloped up the front walk, turned the knob of the front door, opened it, and stepped inside, just as the gusts of wind outside stopped.

This... Was a rather familiar setting to him. He looked around, and saw the thick red smoke that rested on the floor, slowly flowing out from the back hallway. Keeping the front blade up to stay on guard, as well as light the way in the darkened interior, he continued forward... Past the living room, past the kitchen, towards the back bedroom. When he was halfway down the hallway, an ethereal equine form stepped menacingly out from the bedroom.

His coat was black as the night sky, and the crimson stars dotting it were dwarfed only by the intense, glowing white eyes. It had no mane or tail, but it was undoubtedly the source of the red smoke that obscured the floor.

"You think those fantastical weapons will be of any use against me?" The creature asked, more of the red smoke billowing from its lips with every word it spoke. "Do you even have any comprehension of what I am?"

The voice was distorted, inequine, void of any soul or emotion, and it pierced the pegasus' veil of determination.

Sky took another deep breath, and thought back to what Luna had to do to emerge victorious against her tantabus. Steeling himself, he willed the flaming blue blade back into the jewel, and lowered his hoof back to the floor, obscured by the smoke.

"No," he began, standing his ground and staring down the ethereal creature. "I don't think it would do any good; I imagine that it would be like fighting myself. I think I've been doing quite enough of that these past two years, and it hasn't done a whole lot of good."

"Don't think I cannot see right through you, Sky. I see all of what you are, all your layers. I see through the formidable exterior you wear now, to the small, vulnerable foal underneath. I will always be a part of you," the tantabus replied.

Sky shifted slightly, feeling the diaper underneath his night- and ninja-inspired uniform.

"Yes. You will. Just as my years with him will always be a part of me. To act like they never happened would be denying a part of myself. So... The weight of my past can either hold me back... Or I can carry it with me, and let it make me stronger."

The creature stepped towards him, an otherworldly, guttural growl emanating from its throat. It stopped right in front of Sky, their heights equal.

"You cannot deny the darkness inside you. Every night you help the Princess in this realm will be the greatest vengeance you will get for what he did to you."

Sky was unnerved, but brought himself to merely smile confidently at his grief personified.

"I'm counting on it."

The glowing white eyes narrowed as it leered at him.

"We shall see."

In the next moment, the creature melted away, falling indiscernibly into the crimson fog that covered the entire floor.

Sky's ears twitched as he heard the sound of rushing water from outside the house, and he turned around just moments before seeing the waves flow through the open door and broken windows on the front of the house. The water quickly reached the hallway and swept the pegasus off of his hooves. He instantly became waterlogged and was unable to use his wings to pull himself up out of the water.

The pegasus was carried through the hall, and was thrust out the back door as it nearly came off of its hinges. He rolled end over end as he felt the saturated ground underneath him, as he, the house, and all of Ponyville quickly got washed away in the current...