Dreamwalker's Tale: Project Greenwood

I was so, so tired.

I could not explain how or why, given I had done little to cause such consequences, but every bone in my body seemed to ache, despite seemingly consisting of nothing but lead. But I put on a brave face and trudged on, dragging my heavy hooves over the crumbled stone floor of the castle hallway. I made my way to our usual spot, the first floor balcony overlooking the castle courtyard, and of course Dawn was already there and had been waiting for me for Celestia knew how long.

I flopped down on my prepared sitting cushion beside him. He had his eyes closed, his chin raised proudly and his mane occasionally fluttered a little when another breeze whisked by. He looked majestic. It made me chuckle. And the noise inevitably notified him of my presence, though I assumed it to be impossible that he did not hear me shuffle down the hallway.

There was a neutral curiosity in his eyes as our gazes met. It was strange. Even when I was late — and I was… again — he never really seemed to care much. He never judged. He just silently waited for me to explain it or not. And if I chose not to, he would not push for an answer either. I sometimes wondered if this was a sign of disinterest, or of him respecting my wishes to be left alone. I liked to think it was the latter, but his admitted lack of social graces made the former seem more likely.

I could not tell for sure.

“Sorry for being late,” I croaked with a voice so raspy that it surprised me as well. “Oh boy, gosh, sorry about that, too.” I looked around for some respite and noticed how a waterskin floated towards me, carried by a slightly orange glow. I shot him a wry smile. “Thanks.” And took a couple of sips. I had not realized how parched I felt. A few sips turned into me emptying the entire thing, my lips greedily clinging to the opening. I had simply forgotten to drink anything all day. Whoops.

“You have no need to worry, I assure you,” he replied.

“You’re probably wondering why I’m late though,” I implied and looked over. It was funny to realize. He studied my face for a moment. My expression. My probably apparent eagerness to tell him. So he concluded that no harm could come from allowing me, and he nodded. It almost felt like a dance. Careful, considerate steps, a choreography. “Things have been crazy the entire last week,” I announced. Even though he obviously knew about that.

Obviously.

Well, maybe. Despite how close to Greenwood he lived, he usually preferred to keep to himself here in the ruins. So maybe he did not notice. And I could not remember if I had told him about any of this the last few times I visited.

“We’re cursed,” I opened my explanation. “Or at least that’s what some of the others think. With a bunch of ponies huddled together, it takes surprisingly little for all kinds of spooky stories to spring up. The Everfree Forest finally strikes back, hoooo!” I waved my front hooves in his direction to underline the supposed spookiness. “I’m not sure what’s going on either, to be fair. But I don’t think it’s a curse.”

“What happened?” he finally asked.

I grinned. Almost proud of myself for making him show some interest. “Well, lots of little stuff, actually. Tools get misplaced constantly. And remember those dolls Periwinkle brought along?”

Dawn nodded. “Yes. She tried desperately to make me take one. I refused.”

I chuckled and nodded. “I remember that one, yeah. Well, those dolls go missing all the time now. We still haven’t found Mister Cuddles, which was Derpy's stuffed griffon. She’s heartbroken.” I sighed. Seeing Derpy sad really got me. It was something that got under everypony’s skin. “Oh and things to bump in the night. Quite literally. Periwinkle swore she heard a door creak in her house when nopony else was around, in the middle of the night. She went to investigate and found nothing, except for a slightly ajar door. She searched the entire building by candlelight to make sure that no snakes or raccoons or whatever had snuck in, but no, nothing. Hefty and Honey had issues with unexplained noises. They were busy working on furniture in bright daylight when they heard a sudden bump from upstairs. Nopony was supposed to be there, it’s their house after all. They investigated aaand… found nothing. No source whatsoever. They suspected something had fallen off a shelf, issue being: They don’t have shelves yet.”

Dawn's lips creased ever so slightly. They seemed to quiver a little, too. And by now, I knew him well enough to suspect that he struggled to keep his amusement contained. So I shrugged and nodded. “You may laugh if you want.”

He did not. But he did allow himself a very wide grin. “It does sound like… like a spooky story one would tell their foals to make them behave. Work hard, brush your teeth, do your homework or the souls of the damned will haunt you!”

I grimaced and smiled at the same time as two separate impulses pulled at me. On one hoof: It was nice that he loosened up a bit. He even joked around. That was a good sign, right? However, on the other hoof:

“I never liked the idea of that particular education method,” I answered. It was a joke. I knew that. But I still could not stop myself from imagining how I would tell such stories to my foals. Arcana would have just destroyed them. She would bore into those spooky happenings with logic and reason and would dismantle them for their inconsistencies until the entire story fell apart and lost both appeal and emotional impact. Stardust would have disregarded them. Ghosts were not real, this story was dumb, and why could we not return to me telling pirate stories or other adventures, his by far preferred genre.

But Aurora? My little sunshine was susceptible to such manipulation, especially if it came from me. And my imagination was once again cruel enough to show me, in great detail, how that would have panned out. How her eyes went wide in fear. How she clutched her blanket. A silent plea in her eyes to ask me to stop. To ask me to tell her that this was not real. It sent a pang of guilt and regret through my mind, despite me never even doing such a thing.

So I grimaced. And shook my head. “Nope. Not a fan.”

Dawn regarded me once more, traces of wonder and surprise in his expression. “So you intend to tell me you never had to lie to your foals to make them behave?”

The question made me think for a moment. “I don’t… I wouldn’t say ‘never’. I can’t say that for sure. But no, I can’t remember any particular instance where I had to lie to them. Arcana is my youngest and she was always easy to reason with. Show her the consequences of her actions and she would consider them. Maybe she deemed it worth it and did it anyway, but she was always easy to deal with in that regard. Stardust was well-behaved because he adored his mom and wanted to make her proud, and she used that to drag me under that protective umbrella as well. He misbehaved occasionally, sure, but never in a way that made me think: Oh, yeah, scaring the crap out of him will surely help. And Aurora was more fixated on me than her mother. She had her tantrums, sure. She sometimes made me despair with her stubbornness when she was still little. But we found ways to set things right. Ways other than… I don’t know, I consider this to be cruel. Maybe I’m too much of a softie, but I don’t like the idea of intentionally scaring my children. There is a vast world out there, full of bugbears and manticores and eldritch magic and power-hungry unicorns and deranged griffons and whatnot. The world itself can be a scary place without even trying. Why cause even more fear?”

Typical.

Well, thank you.

Spare me the snark. That was a compliment, believe it or not. You’ve been afraid of so many things for all your life. You know fear. Its many faces and facets. What it can do to your reason, to your mind, how it affects your oh-so-rational decision making. This? It’s a healthy attitude.

I blinked a couple of times. I was so unused to this voice in the back of my head actually complimenting me that I had no idea what to do with it.

“I assume you were busy searching for Mister Cuddles, then?” Dawn suddenly intruded upon my bafflement.

I was grateful. It was an easy out. Something to cling to, to turn my attention to. “No. I don’t like admitting that, but Mister Cuddles has not been spotted for almost a week. Most of us have given up on finding him again. Periwinkle actually started a secret project, she’s trying to replace him with an identical stuffed toy, but it’s difficult to finish that when her needles and cloth and whatnot go missing all the time as well. No, I spent most of today on a ridiculous search for Hefty's axe. We did find it. In a haystack in the barn. We searched that barn thrice over and found no traces earlier. But all of a sudden, there it was, laying out in the open.”

Another breeze. I closed my eyes for a brief moment, took a deep breath in to calm myself down. These irregularities were vexing.

“Hm,” Dawn mumbled. “I did notice some of my alchemical equipment getting displaced. I wondered if somepony from the village might be sneaking around my place.”

“And if they played pranks on you?” I asked and shook my head. “I had the same idea, but despite how tame these incidents are, they do throw a spanner in the works. At this point with this consistency, I think it’s fair to call it sabotage. However, neither do we have any dedicated, notorious pranksters among us as far as I know, nor do I think any current resident of Greenwood has anything to gain from stalling our progress. Also, the timing of some of these incidents don’t match up with anypony and I don’t think we’re dealing with a secret duo, trio or whatever else.”

He did not have to say it. I could read it plainly on his face and I had the same thought: There were a lot of assumptions involved. We knew next to nothing for sure.

The issue was: I had no idea how to fix that.

“What do you intend to do?” Dawn asked the inevitable question. Something I had been asking myself for the past few days.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “So far we’ve been busy fixing things. Busy enough that I barely made any progress with anything else. I’m behind on my smithing work, I wanted to continue mapping out these ruins for ages now, Spike asked me to take a gander in the surrounding area of Greenwood for security and safety reasons and it feels like we’re treading water. The project is losing momentum and I don’t have any good ideas yet on how to fix that.”

I sighed. It was frustrating. And yet despite these issues, I had to laugh when our current book suddenly floated in front of my muzzle, as if preparing to feed me bite by bite. “Maybe some light reading will put your mind off of things,” Dawn suggested. “A bit of diversion can work wonders to get the creative juices flowing again.”

I knew that he was right. I knew it because in different lives, I had been a writer of various kinds. One time, I wrote little poems for event cards. It had been my whole shtick. My business. And at some point, I inevitably merged my business with Pinkie’s party-planning service. We had been a power couple in Ponyville. Even though we were not even a couple.

But back then, I did the same thing. Whenever my creativity ran head-first into a wall and lay flat on its back, dazed and confused and slightly in pain, I distracted myself. I read a good book alongside Twilight or took a couple of losses against Rainbow in any sport of her choosing, because it never mattered what we did, she always won anyway. Or I would go to Sweet Apple Acres and help my sister-in-spirit out with her chores around the farm. Meditation with Fluttershy. Stargazing with Twilight. Or just a plain old stroll through the grassy plains outside town with Derpy.

Can’t go wrong with the classics.

My wry smile slowly morphed into a genuine one as I regarded the book and the silvery magic holding it aloft. I had half a mind to ask Dawn about his changing aura, but disregarded the thought yet again, as I always did. He would tell me, maybe. Someday.

“Alright, let’s do this,” I replied and picked up the book.

A bit of light reading. However, even as my eyes trailed along the lines and I read aloud for both of our entertainment, I could not help but notice that something he said stuck with me.

A diversion could do wonders to get the creative juices flowing…

Thanks, Dawn. An idea was slowly forming in my head. And considering the whole barrage of other assumptions in my head, I deemed it more promising to not let him in on any of that. So I kept quiet and continued with our book into the late afternoon, when the sun slowly sank towards the horizon in the west.

I closed the book and sighed again and my gaze traveled upwards. Looking at the blues changing into oranges and reds usually put my mind at ease. It made me think of my love. It made me wonder how her day had been so far. If Day Court had been bearable. If yet another noble annoyed her with some outrageous request. And I suddenly felt a little stuck here in Greenwood. I yearned to see her smile again. To hug her and press my muzzle into that fluffy chest of hers.

I missed her.

Despite this, I found no solace in looking upwards today. It only served to remind me that there would be a tomorrow. Yet another day of mischief. Anything that could go wrong probably would, because somepony made it happen. It seemed… inevitable.

We’ll see about that, I promised myself and rose to my hooves. “Alright, that was fun, as always. But while I greatly enjoyed your company, I. Am. Beat. And considering how tomorrow will likely pan out, I think I’m going to hit the hay early.”

Dawn rose as well and dusted himself off. “Of course. I had fun as well, so thank you for the break. I will most likely continue my work into the late-night hours, but that does not have to concern you.”

I grinned. “A wise old pony once told me: Don’t overdo it. Remember that exhaustion can be cured with a good night’s rest, but an injury takes weeks to heal.”

He grimaced slightly. “I am not that old. Or wise.”

We both held each other’s gaze for a moment and then chuckled quietly. A last farewell and we each went our separate ways. We would meet up on this nice balcony again tomorrow afternoon. And if Lady Luck was by my side, I would have to tell him something different then…

“Have I ever told you how gorgeous you look?” I asked Luna.

She laughed merrily and even struck a pose, just so I could better marvel at her alluring physique. Despite how she sometimes chided me for gawking at her, she reveled in the attention. A part of this was probably due to the fact that I was a lot more forthcoming with my attraction, my appreciation of her body, than Twilight was. And goodness me, she looked fierce tonight.

Luna snickered in amusement. “Somepony is happy to see me,” she murmured.

I had not even noticed until she pointed it out, but now I could feel the distinct throbbing downstairs. And just because she was a relentless, lecherous old tease, Luna turned around, took a couple steps back to bring her rump right close to my muzzle and lifted her tail.

For just a second, I felt an almost painful pinch in my nethers as I stood ramrod straight at attention in more ways than one. I felt my tongue slither out between my lips on its own accord and I wanted to lean forward so badly.

It took all of my willpower to resist her temptations. I shook my head, forced my tongue back in its cage and focused my attention to dematerialize my throbbing erection. And I laughed hard when I saw Luna pout. “You are impossible,” I unsuccessfully chided her. I could still feel my cheeks and ears burn.

My kitten let the façade fall away and revealed that intimidating, predatory grin of hers. “Playing with you is so much fun though.”

I sighed and smiled wryly. “I know, I know. However, my Princess, I’m at work, you see. And there is work to be done.” I looked around. The dreamscape seemed to be quiet for now, with a couple dozen dream bubbles lazily swirling around in the star-speckled void. None of them displayed any signs of a dreamer's distress, of nightmares or dreamscape creature infestations. But that could change at the drop of a bit.

Luna quickly shifted gears despite her playful mood tonight. She had noticed something I did not, it seemed. “You are tired,” she noted matter-of-factly.

I chuckled dryly and shrugged. “Yeah. Guilty as charged.”

“Another incident?” she asked.

“Isn’t there always?” I replied with a sigh. “Hefty's axe got stolen. We found it in a spot that we searched previously. More than once. These entire last few days have just been cursed.” Yet despite my grievances with these last few days, I found myself smiling. And I felt oddly exhilarated.

“And yet you seem calmer than in these past nights,” Luna noticed.

I gestured for us to begin our work and she acquiesced with a silent nod. A few quick steps and we walked side by side, keeping an eye on our surroundings in case any feisty nightmares or other creatures thought they had an easy time ambushing us. But I was willing to use these calmer early-night-hours and make the best of it. “If I’m being honest, I still suspect Dawn is behind all of this. However, he might have involuntarily contributed something to remedy the situation as well. He said something earlier that made me think.” I relayed his statement to Luna, and it was satisfying to see her eyebrows slowly creep higher. “I have a proposal for you.”

“Yes!” she suddenly squealed, surprising me. She grabbed me and almost crushed me with the power of her hug. “I bethought thee wouldst never asketh!”

I laughed and squirmed a little, but quickly gave up on that and just cherished the moment. “You know, I wouldn’t mind marrying you again, it was a lot of fun the first time around…” I did notice how something in her posture changed, a subtle shift in her demeanor.

“You mean that?”

I snorted and hugged her back as fiercely as I could manage. “Don’t you dare think about divorcing me!”

“But it would be funny! Just imagine all the publicity! The tabloid headlines!”

“Luna!” I tried to impose a warning tone, but could not help but laugh at the same time. Because she was right, of course. That was funny. In theory. In practice, it would be a bureaucratic nightmare.

My kitten snickered for a while until she finally let go of me again. “I wonder if you can just… marry twice.”

I grinned. “Well, we kind of already know that, don’t we? You did, after all. I do you one better, I married thrice.”

She gave me a playful shove with her armored hoof. “The same pony, you nutcase!”

I chuckled and tried to shove her back. I failed. Of course. Because I had nowhere near enough strength to make her move if she did not allow for it. “Yeah, sure, I’m the nutcase here.” We both grinned like idiots for a while longer before I managed to backtrack mentally. “Right. Back on track. I request your aid, oh fair princess of mine, in a devious plot to bedazzle, befuddle, bamboozle, baffle and… other words that start with ‘B’, probably.”

Luna laughed. However, she quickly regained control, put on a dead-serious expression, took my hoof in hers and nodded solemnly. “You had me at ‘devious’, firecracker!” We both snickered again. “I love the sound of that! Tell me more!” she eagerly requested with a fire in her eyes that was usually reserved for the worst kinds of pranks she would play on her sister. It was the instance when I knew I had done the right thing to ask for her help. They had no idea what was coming.

“See, I want to employ a ruse,” I explained. “I need you to come to Greenwood. Stealthily. Nopony can know you were there. I need you to help me set something up. We’re going to fake my death.”

She furrowed her brow, probably already busy figuring out how she would escape the palace and her own guards, how she could avoid the notice of the castle staff, how she could come over and be back home in time without raising suspicion. But as soon as I mentioned my death, she stopped and looked at me puzzled. “Are you sure about this? How is this supposed to help?”

I invited her with a gesture to continue our patrol once more. “Dawn doesn’t strike me as the kind of stallion that shies away from getting his hooves dirty if he needs to. He doesn’t avoid it at all cost like some ponies would.”

“Other villains,” Luna suggested.

I sighed and shook my head. “I know how things sound and seem and… I just… maybe I’m too sympathetic. I don’t think he is a villain. He doesn’t strive for power for power’s sake. He doesn’t want to rule or conquer or subjugate. Luna, he just wants to be reunited with his love. That… that’s something I can understand quite well. Every cycle means I lose another family. Another circle of friends. Another life I had built for myself. With others. I have been lucky enough to have spent fifty years here. They were good years, each and every one, and I am eternally grateful. Not just for this life. For all of them. But I can understand the desire, no, the need to recapture something, to find a way to go back and have that again, to…” I cut myself off and sighed. It was hard to put into words. They seemed so… inadequate.

I looked up when Luna put a hoof to my shoulder, her armored horseshoe dismissed for the moment. And in her eyes was nothing but warmth. Maybe she understood, maybe she did not. It did not matter. Important was that I saw a friend, struggling and trying his best and I could not see him as an enemy. He was misguided, not malicious.

And I had to explain none of that. I had no need to defend him, or myself, or any of what I thought and felt. And I was grateful for that. I briefly leaned in, leaned against her and just relished her warmth and closeness. “Thank you,” I mumbled quietly.

“Always.”

As we continued our patrol of the dreamscape, so did my train of thought. “With that said, he’s smart. If he sees the option to avoid drawing attention to himself without the need to accept massive strain on his resources, he would go for it, I think.”

Luna quickly put one and one together. “You suspect he has minions of some kind.”

I nodded. “I do. Tirek did not release himself, did he?”

“No. My guards found remnants of powerful magic,” she replied. “He was bailed out by someone else. Someone with an intricate understanding of Tartarus’ magical structure and a power level comparable to that of an alicorn.”

I had no idea how strong Dawn was. He had some impressive tricks up his sleeve, but he did a great job of hiding his true power. He always referred to things in hypotheticals and theories. “Also, when Peter showed up—“

“Who?” Luna cut in.

I stopped and tried to remember if I ever told her, only to come to the realization that no, I did not. “Oh. Right, sorry. After the attack, Whisper told us that that’s the name of the tatzlwurm.” Luna nodded in understanding. “Apparently somepony annoyed him enough to wake him up. That’s why he showed up at our doorstep. I talked to Whisper, at length, after this whole ordeal was over. And she told me that it would require somepony as strong as Applejack, who would need to kick him with her full strength, to make this beast feel something beneath his thick layer of scale plating, fat and muscle. Adding to that, this intruder seemed to be quick despite his tremendous strength, but he moved on the ground. And led Peter straight to our village. And now we have these recent oddities happening.”

“You suspect three henchponies then?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I’m not sure about the exact number, to be honest. Tirek was freed with magic. Could be a unicorn, could be a changeling, a kirin, maybe Dawn himself, who knows. We have somepony with tremendous strength. And whatever in Tartarus’ this current thing is. And that’s just it, that’s what struck me as odd: These recent events, they seem to be a lot less dangerous. Less harmful, less… malicious. I’d go as far as to say: They are not inherently dangerous, period. All they do is annoy the crap out of everypony. But while the mounting frustration could maybe lead to some heated debates, misunderstandings, maybe even false accusations and reach a boiling point eventually, they are tame compared to the other two instances. Right? That’s not just me seeing that, right?”

Luna smiled and shook her head. “It does seem to be an attack of a different quality. However! You told me about Dawn's reactions to everything that happened in reply to these events. Your quick and decisive reaction to Tireks appearance surprised him. He underestimated you. The appearance of the tatzlwurm seemed to surprise him as well. You told me he came running, yelling about the oncoming attack. He was willing to demonstrate his power in a rare display by enveloping the entire village in a protective shield.”

I sighed and nodded. “You think that after all these extremes he finally figured out a decent mediocrity. Not too much drama and danger, but just enough to stall us.”

She nodded. “It would be an explanation.”

“I can’t dismiss that, I know. There are many possibilities, but we are dealing with uncertain circumstances. We have to take a couple of risks and I think this one is the least dangerous of them.” I pointed a hoof towards a dream bubble off in the distance. Its display of swirling colors was hectic, overbearing reds and blacks devouring almost all friendlier colors. Luna stomped her hoof onto the dreamscape and the dream acquiesced. It floated towards us and she inspected the sphere.

“I will have to help this dreamer. Are you coming along?” she asked.

I looked at the bubble and shook my head. “Nah, thanks. I’ll keep watch for others, you’ll be fine.”

Luna snickered and dove into the dream head first. I could see the battle progress as the display of colors got even more hectic, then the lighter tones shone brighter and eventually, the aggressive glow of red dimmed down and everything returned to a slower balance. And my kitten returned to my side.

“And? What was it?” I asked out of idle curiosity.

She stuck her tongue out at me. “You would know if you had come with me.”

I chuckled and shrugged. “Fine. Next one, we’ll both go.” We had agreed a long, long time ago that our patrols were highly inefficient. I served her well for five decades now. She had been back in business for over six decades. Both of us were experienced enough to master any challenges the dreamscape might throw at us by our lonesome. But these patrols were just a lot more fun if we stuck together. We got each other’s backs, we could take turns, we could talk and spent quality time together whenever the night was calm — and therefore boring.

I did not mind ‘boring’ nights. Even after all these years, the dreamscape was a marvel to gaze at. However, Luna got mischievous when bored. Keeping her entertained, keeping her company, that was a simple matter of survival — for the nerves of her sister and the castle staff alike.

Eventually, our surroundings quieted down again. “My theory is this: I don’t think whoever is causing our current predicament is the same pony as the one who willingly led a tatzlwurm to our doorstep. He or she seems to have a friendlier nature, and it irks me to say that, but… I totally want to use that against them. I suspect whoever is causing this watches Greenwood closely, albeit from a distance. I want to use one of these spooky happenings to fake my death, say… in the early morning hours. So that there’s time to retrieve my lifeless body. Time to comprehend what happened. If I’m right with my assumptions, that pony will have nightmares about what they caused. If I’m wrong and it doesn’t work out, I can admit to a prank in very poor taste the next day.”

As expected, Luna quickly picked up on what I was aiming for. “And nightmares would create a trail here in the dreamscape. A trail you could follow, given that I help you sort dreamers by proximity to your location.”

I grinned and nodded eagerly. “Exactly! And once we found him, you keep him locked in here, you keep him asleep while I go in and interrogate our saboteur.”

“Interrogate? You?” she asked in surprise. “Why would you do that part yourself when I have considerably more experience with such matters? You never scramble to get the spotlight.”

I grimaced. “Well, yes. And believe me, I wish we could switch. However, I can’t keep dreams stable from the outside when the dreamer starts to panic. And if Dawn tries to interfere with the plan in any way, shape or form, I can’t hold a candle to whatever power he could unleash. And on top of all that… I have Voidwalker. He can distract the saboteur while I scour his subconscious for information.”

… I what?

Luna mulled the plan over and nodded, satisfied with whatever clicked in her mind. “It is clever, I like it. It requires a lot of aid, however. You owe me help for a couple of pranks of my own.”

Her cheeky smile told me all I needed to know and I had no qualms about giving in. “With pleasure, kitten.”

Her smile grew to an almost shark-like proportion. “Good, good. Because I already have an idea how we can kill you…” I ignored the giddiness in her tone as best as I could. But it still felt weird. The jovial moment passed and a serious expression returned to Luna's face. “There is one more thing, however.”

“What is it?” I asked. Apparently it was not an amusing matter this time and I was more than willing to consider whatever issue she might bring up.

“Think about what you are about to do, Dreamwalker,” she said in such a quiet, soft tone that it caught me off-guard. “My initial concerns were not just for your safety. You wish to make others believe you died. Amongst those are your daughter and your best friend.”

Aurora and Spike. Shoot.

It would be unlikely that Aurora would ‘find’ me. However, it was true that she would learn of the incident eventually. That was how it was supposed to go, after all. Everypony learns of the tragedy so that the hidden observer has a good chance of being affected by it and its consequences.

The last time my ray of sunshine thought I was about to die, she joined forces with her half-siblings, went on an epic adventure around the globe, braved trials and challenges and at the end of that massive fetch quest, she assembled what basically amounted to a cure-all that might have granted immortality. While staving off their disgruntled pursuers. None other than Twilight and Luna, two out of three very annoyed and very worried moms.

This time though, I would not lie dying in a hospital bed. I would already be dead. Would that make a difference? Would that make it any better? What if she just turned around, said to herself: Yepp, I can fix this! And then she turned to necromancy?

This was not my daughter, of course. She never would, I told myself. Yet I knew that desperate times made desperate measures possible. Even made them seem reasonable. Justifiable.

And Spike? My buddy did not deserve this sort of kicking. He would live for thousands and thousands of years. He would already outlive many of our mutual friends. He would be there when we bury Pinkie, Fluttershy, Applejack, all of them. He would be there and he would find solace only in that Twilight, Luna, Celestia and I shared in his fate. Well, and Cadance and Ember, but that was beside the point. Every loss hurts. And an eternal being could be in pain, eternally.

They deserved better.

I grimaced as the severity of what I was about to do sank in. “You’re right. But… I’m not sure what to do about that. Uhm… help? Please? You had an idea when you brought that up, right?”

Luna smiled and stomped her hoof onto the dreamscape. Two dream bubbles floated from the nirvana of the void over to us. “Why not tell them? It would be the simplest solution.”

“Yeah, but… don’t we risk blowing our cover if we do?” I noted.

Luna quickly gave it some thought and then merely shrugged. “Maybe. However, from what you told me everypony in Greenwood is currently sleep deprived to some extent. Playing the role of a grieving zombie should be less demanding. She could avoid you that day, or lock herself into her house and bury herself in her bed. After all, she would only need to play along for one day. And you never grow tired of telling me how much Spike gets into his different roles when you two play Ogres and Oubliettes together. Surely his dramatic prowess can be put to good use here, yes? And there is a simpler reason to involve him as well. They will want to send a message to Ponyville.”

I nodded. “And I treated Spike as my right hoof so far. They will look to him for guidance and leadership. He could stave off the message for a day, so the ripples of this ‘ruse’ don’t spread farther than we intended.” I was unconvinced that Spike had the required acting chops to fake this. Even more so that Aurora had them, seeing as Sunny and I had always emphasized the importance of honesty. But Luna made good points. She only had to keep the spiel up for one day and she could do so by locking herself away. And while I had little faith in Spike’s acting — it only had to be good enough to convince this unknown saboteur. “If you can make the accident look convincing enough, that would give us a decent head start on convincing any onlookers. Which might take some pressure off of Spike's acting.” I felt uneasy as I looked towards the two bubbles. But she was right. She usually was. The benefit of a long and storied life: Experience. “Can you do that?”

Luna laughed, somewhere between mirth and outrage. “Tell me again, firecracker, who did they call the Matron of the Arts again?” Her laughter died down to a darkening, chilling grin…

The next day was a mess.

As was the day after that, and the day after that. I tried to follow my established routines as best as I could, and it just never worked out. Missing tools were the new norm, it seemed. Windows left open that the owner swore he left closed. Doors creaking despite being new. Greenwood remained haunted.

At night, I plotted with Luna. I shared all the information I had about every incident. We tried to find a pattern and after three days of brainstorming, we finally came up with something we both deemed viable. It was time to go on the offense and hunt for our saboteur.

I woke up that morning and felt groggy, yet still excited. I had a plan. Well, two, actually. One I was more than willing to share with Aurora when I ran into her as soon as I left the house. “You’re returning home?” I asked, seeing as she came in my direction. She looked frazzled, with bags under her eyes.

“To quote uncle Big Mac: Eyupp,” she replied and stifled a yawn.

I furrowed my brow. “Are you alright, sunshine? Had a rough night?”

We met in the middle and hugged each other. She sighed wistfully. “Plural. And yes. I do not understand how you can just sleep through such a ruckus, as if somepony was running around outside, tapping against the wall. It was almost rhythmic. Almost. And I swear I heard somepony snicker.”

I squeezed her for extra comfort. “I’m sorry to hear that. It’s… easier to stay asleep when I dreamwalk. I don’t notice anything except direct physical interaction. Like… if somepony were to haul me around, that I would notice. I hope.” My little addendum made her snort in amusement and she retreated with a smile. And seeing that I managed to lift her spirit, at least a little bit, made me smile in turn.

“Thanks, dad,” she mumbled. “I am going to head home now. Maybe I can get an afternoon nap.”

I furrowed my brow and looked up at the sky, just to confirm that it was early morning. “Ehrm… not to be a spoilsport or anything, but it’s still early?”

Aurora nodded. “I know. I have plenty of work to keep me occupied and drowsy until I can lay down.”

I grimaced and shook my head. “Don’t. If you’re tired, just lie down. We can’t afford for you of all ponies to work while exhausted. If you make mistakes with your numbers, we have structural instabilities. I’d rather not have to pull injured ponies from piles of rubble that were supposed to be houses.”

She wanted to argue, I could see that in her eyes. And all I had to do to cut her off was to slightly raise my eyebrow in defiance. She hesitated and mulled things over, only to come to the same rational conclusion I did: It was not a risk worth taking. Nothing would be won if she kept herself half-awake. Her thoughts were sluggish at best, her work speed was therefore halved anyway.

“Fine,” she replied with a sigh. “I’ll lie down.”

I smiled and hugged her once more, albeit briefly. “You do that. I will fetch my tools and map out another part of the castle and then I’ll return and make you some tea, how does that sound? We can take a breather today, take it slow, recuperate.”

“Sounds delightful,” she replied in a manner that made me think of Rarity or Pristine.

As she trotted off towards our house, my gaze lingered on her for a while longer. I felt bad for misleading her like that. But I needed my cover story to be solid. That said, nothing stopped me from making a slight adjustment. I walked across the village in search of Spike, who I quickly found next to the entrance gate. “Hey buddy! Can I ask you for something?”

He scratched over the scales on his neck in thought and nodded. “Yeah, sure, I don’t have anything to do right now.”

“Great. Could you go over to my house and make sure that Aurora takes a break? She’s had a couple of rough nights. Oh and could you make her a pot of tea? Pretty please?” I tried my puppy dog eyes out, despite the situation not requiring them and it made Spike laugh. So that was a win in my book. Another one already — the day was off to a good start.

“Tea and break, sure, got it,” he replied.

“Thanks, you’re the best!” I hugged him and chuckled as his “You know it!” followed me.

Scraping together my mapping supplies was a horrific task. With everypony’s tools going missing all the time, we had been busy. I had been busy. And only now did I find out that half of my own tools were strewn across various places in Greenwood. I found my compass under Roselucks bed, for goodness’ sake! And my ruler was on the roof of Graphite’s house. I would never have found that one, were it not for Derpy flying by and notifying me of its presence.

It was still missing minor bits and bobs when I decided: Screw it, this will get done. Now.

So I made my way over to the castle ruins, through the courtyard and into the entrance hall. I quickly checked my maps, what little I had managed to do so far, and decided to start with the west wing of the first floor. I worked for more than two hours with almost consistent interference, much to my chagrin. I wanted to take a sip of water? My waterskin was not where I left it, but a few feet away on the ground. I put my pencil down? Of course it immediately rolled off my clipboard and away from me. I growled and grumbled and muttered curses under my breath, but I stubbornly persisted in my task.

That was until I decided I needed a change of scenery or I would start yelling at the wall. Literally. And the wall, being a wall, would most likely not answer. Which would only serve to infuriate me further. Which might lead to me punching a wall. I could not see that end well for my poor hooves.

So instead, I packed up my things and went towards the staircase. Back down to the ground floor, at least that was the intention. However, there was a broom. It stood on the top third of the staircase, casually leaned against the wall. I could not remember ever bringing a broom into the ruins, but maybe it was a part of Dawn's equipment. Either way, I did not bat an eye. A mistake, as it turned out.

The broom came to life as I walked past it.

It levitated upwards without any magical aura manipulating it, and it slapped me on my rump. I yelped and retreated startled, but the broom did not let up. It followed me despite me flailing with my front hooves in an effort to keep it away from me. Then I felt the brittle stone banister as I pressed my back against it. Keeping my balance on my rear legs alone was difficult enough, but with the sudden barrier stopping me and my front limbs still flailing…

I lost balance.

“Ahhh!”

With a scream, I toppled backwards. I heard the stone crack and crumble. I fell and much to my horror, the entire staircase fell after me, in pieces. Some of these chunks were as big as I was. And before I even hit the ground, I realized: It was not just the staircase. An entire part of the upper floor caved in.

I landed with a dull but painful thud and was buried beneath tons of stone and debris.

Lucky for me, Luna was competent. Especially when playing tricks and pulling pranks. It always struck me as odd how she had been the Element of Honesty, yet illusion spells were one of her fortes.

The moment a massive dust cloud shielded me from prying eyes for even a fraction of a second, she teleported me out and an illusory double in. Luckily before the main bulk of debris landed on top of me. I still got away with quite a few scrapes and bruises, not to mention the queasiness of almost being smashed and buried and teleported, but all things considered — this was fine. All according to plan.

She stood a good distance away behind a row of support columns, within sight of the collapse. And with our plan executed, I stood right beside her, cowering a little as I leaned against her. She put her wing over my back in a silent effort to calm me down. Her invisibility spell kept us safe and allowed us to remain in our observation position, to follow what happened next.

The broom stood still in the air, right where its last advance had pushed me over the edge — quite literally. Now it simply floated above nothing, as most of the staircase was simply gone. It seemed to shake and tremble, and a few seconds later it fell to the ground below, almost as if someone had simply dropped it.

Spike was the first to arrive. Even though Dawn was living in this ruin, my buddy was the first to investigate the ruckus. After all, Greenwood’s safety was his top priority. And I still felt horrible, despite knowing that what was to follow was fake. He had to drag the crushed, lifeless body of his friend out of the debris.

I knew that an invisibility spell only blocked sight. I could not afford to utter a single word. But seeing him dig through the rubble in a rapidly growing panic, hearing him scream… It still hurt. It hurt so much.

I wanted to retreat, but Luna stayed still and forced me to witness how Spike yelled for help, how he wailed my name as he retrieved my corpse with such care as if I was made out of glass.

I tried to shy away from this scene. Especially as others started to arrive. Honey and Graphite first, as they had been closest, it seemed. Spike had laid me down onto the ground. And curled himself around me, as if to protect me.

This did not look — or feel — like a prank. Or a trick or a ruse.

It felt cruel.

My attempts to retreat were thwarted. The wing that gave me comfort kept me locked in place. A grip as hard as steel from feathers I knew to be so soft and warm and inviting. She eventually led me away once enough ponies were around that the potential noise of any misplaced hoofsteps were lost in the chaos. We turned around and slowly, silently snuck out of the old castle ruin. They were in shock and disarray. At some point, once they dealt with Spike, they would carry my body back to the village. My body. My corpse.

This felt eerie.

As soon as we stepped into the forest and vanished in between undergrowth and bushes, I hugged Luna fiercely. “I know it worked just fine and everything, but gosh darn, that was awful… I don’t know how you can constantly prank others without drowning in guilt…”

She sighed and hugged me. “Well, to be fair, my pranks are usually a lot tamer than this. I prank with whoopie cushions and flying cakes. Throw in the occasional spear launcher, with sufficient care taken that my sister is the only one who could be hit under any circumstances… the point is: I faked my own death. Once. And I saw the devastation it caused. What it inflicted upon my sister. I revealed myself within minutes as I heard her sobs and cries. This had not been what I aimed for at all. Yet while I managed to calm her down and she smothered me with her love, I never forgot how I had hurt her. I did not wish for you to repeat my mistakes.”

“I’m… I-I… thank you. I’m sorry that you had to learn this lesson, but I am grateful that you share it with me.”

She shot me a wry smile as we made our way through the thick and thorny undergrowth. I did not mind the occasional branch whacking me in the face — right now, that felt deserved. “I would like to share something else with you, if you do not mind.”

I nodded. “Okay? Sure. What is it?”

Luna looked forward. She navigated the forest in a strange, almost clumsy way. As if she was walking a path she knew by heart, only that the path was not there anymore and some trees had stubbornly decided to grow in its stead. “There is a stream running through a clearing nearby where you can wash the dust off of your coat. And I quite like the tranquility the area exudes. It might be a good spot for us to spend the day.”

When we arrived at our destination, I had to admit that it really was a lovely area. The trees here stood tall and regal, less like the crooked, twisted and gnarled things outside this perimeter. The stream made a calming pitter-patter noise and a bunch of butterflies showed great interest in the various blooming flowers in between the wild grass. “It’s beautiful…” I murmured as I cautiously explored. “How is this here?”

As I turned around, I stumbled and chuckled. A picnic blanket, red and white karos. A classic. And a basket, of course. It looked like the perfect date setup. It was so strange, so silly, so… perfect. And perfectly Luna. She stood there with a hopeful smile on her lips and a strange vulnerability in her body language.

“Give me one second,” I asked and only moved once she nodded. I quickly cantered over to the stream, dunked my head in to get rid of most of the grime and levitated globs of water out to splash myself. It was a poor stallion’s shower replacement, but it worked well enough.

With the sun out and about, it would take a few minutes at most for my coat to dry off. Not that I intended to stand around waiting for that to happen. No, I trotted over to the blanket, stopped opposite of her and grinned like an idiot. “I just died and you’re taking me out on a date…?”

Luna's smile remained delicate. “I saw an opportunity. You do not mind, do you?”

I glanced around us once more. The trees at the edge of the clearing stood almost dense enough to block out curious glances. Many of the flowers looked delicious. And pretty. And the grass itself gave off a nice scent. This place was made to relax. And we did need to kill some time, after all.

Of course, that was not what she meant. Right now, my illusory body was carried into the village. Ponies were informed of my accident and subsequent passing. Ponies would grieve. Some of them I had more personal connections with. Graphite, Pristine, Derpy, Whisper — they would mourn. Friends and the children of friends. I had seen them grow up. I had been part of their foalhoods. Was I really allowed to have a nice picnic date with Luna while I caused this pain?

I sighed. One day. It was for one day. I denied myself the nicer things in life on so many occasions that my loved ones basically had to force them on me every so often. As a system, it worked. It was not good. But it worked.

And now, I forced myself. “I’d like to try,” I answered. Her smile lit up, gained strength and she seemed almost relieved as she stepped onto the blanket and settled down. I quickly followed and settled right against her side. A deep sigh emanated from my throat as she draped her wing over my barrel. “This place is lovely. Where are we?”

Luna took a moment to look around as well. “I am glad that the clearing remains untouched to this day. We used to play here, sister and I. Later on, when our relationship cooled, I used to retreat to this place to have some alone-time. Not that I lacked in that department, but sitting here was different. It reminded me of more joyful times.”

It was a part of her history. Something she wanted to share. And it baffled me — in a good way — that we still found these little tidbits to show each other, even after so many years. “Thank you for sharing this, kitten. It is beautiful.” She smiled and looked at me out of the corner of her eyes. “And so are you,” I added with a grin.

Her giggle was unusually dainty. It was downright adorable. I sighed in content and laid my head down. Luna followed suit and we decided to take a sunbath.

A sunbath.

Me.

That mare really did numbers on me.

Given the circumstances, it turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant day. We spent several hours in that clearing, lolling around and enjoying the sun's warmth and each other's company. And sunset eventually marked the end of our efforts to kill time. Luna cast some sort of protective spell over the clearing to ensure that predators of the Everfree Forest would ignore us and we settled in for the night. I would have preferred a bed of course, but at least the grass was soft and plentiful and Luna's wing kept me warm and cozy.

I sighed in relief once I opened my eyes on the dreamscape. It only took a few moments for Luna to follow me. “Alright. Ready to enact plan ‘stake-out’?”

She snorted in bemusement. “When did this plan of yours get a name?”

I shrugged. “I had a lot of time recently. I was torn between several variants. Stake-out, ruse, trap, ploy… a plan needs a good, short name. I learned that from Pinkie.”

Her amusement only seemed to grow and she nodded in fake-solemnity. “I see. Of course. Pinkie would—… how do you say that? Pinkie would know her stuff.”

I chuckled and agreed vigorously. “Exactly! Despite Pinkie being, well, you know… Pinkie. Her plans usually work out! So there’s gotta be something about her plans that makes them work. And if you can’t tell which detail that is, just use them all.”

Luna downright snorted this time. “Right, right. Of course.” We grinned at each other for a moment longer, but eventually the reality of the situation caught up to us again. “Shall we begin, then? There is one more thing I need to do in preparation, however.”

“Yeah, sure, go ahead. I’ll wait here?” She nodded and walked away. And it was always strange to witness that. Because the dreamscape was somewhat inconsistent when it came to ‘walking anywhere’. Sometimes she just vanished. Plopped out of existence, it seemed. Other times, she faded away like a ghost and became more and more translucent. Or she zoomed off at ridiculous speeds. And I never quite managed to figure out how that worked or what happened when and why. This time, she simply vanished in an instant.

Considering both time and space were relative in the dreamscape, her absence could be a matter of seconds or hours and I would not be able to tell the difference. That said, she was Luna, Princess of the Night, Steward of Dreams, Matron of the Arts, Protector of the Little Ones, Gobbler of Backsides and whatever else we made up on the spot. She had a decent control over many of the mechanics at work in this place. As such, it was little surprise that she returned rather quickly. But I could hear her before I saw her.

“Prithee accepteth mine own sincerest apologies for intruding upon thy peaceful slumber. Especially given recent events and circumstances. But we couldst useth thy assistance.”

While her lapse back into old habits amused me, it was the fact that she was talking to somepony that gave me pause. More so considering that she apologized ‘given recent events’.

“It’s fine, Princess Luna. I’m glad I can help. It must be really hard for you right now and I’m so, so sorry for your loss…!”

That second voice sent a chill down my spine. Luna, what did you do?! I frantically looked around in a sudden bout of panic, but of course there was no time to dodge this confrontation by jumping into a bush. I could have manifested anything and everything. With my imagination alone, I could have created labyrinthine castles, endless mazes of cave tunnels, I could have recreated the Canterlot Garden hedge maze — but of what use would that be? Luna was considerably stronger than me. If I created something to hide in and she did not wish for me to hide, she would simply dismiss my creations. And I would end up right where I was, except for the fact that they had seen my failed attempts to escape.

And she brought Derpy. And Derpy was a friend. A dear, loved friend. I was not exactly pleased by Luna springing this ‘surprise’ on me out of nowhere without a warning first, but I could even understand why she did it. Letting Derpy suffer longer than was strictly necessary was cruel. Something I would have thought about later on. Yet another reason for regret.

Adding to that, Derpy's unique talent would be a great help here. I just had not thought about that. It never crossed my mind. I did not want to involve her at first, because Derpy was baaad at lying. Which included acting. She frequently overacted at our Ogres and Oubliettes-table. So seeing me dead, her reaction would have given the ruse away immediately. But involving her now actually made sense. Dreams sang to her. Told her of their woes. She could help us find our saboteur so much quicker.

That was still assuming that he had observed Greenwood as expected. That he even had nightmares about the whole ordeal. Goodness, it assumed that there even was a saboteur. All of this was based on a rather flimsy chain of assumptions on my part. But in my head, it just made sense. And my gut feeling told me I was right.

I managed to distract myself with these doubts until they both suddenly appeared in front of me.

The awkward silence stretched far too long as Derpy stood frozen, rooted to the spot and I failed to articulate any of my chaotic thoughts. Until I could bear it not longer and just resigned myself to whatever would fall out of my mouth as I opened the floodgates.

“H-Hi Derpy,” I started awkwardly. “I know this must be strange, but there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this! See, I’m not really, uhm, dead. We faked that and Luna teleported me away in time and replaced me with an illusion so that we could hunt down whoever is responsible for all these spooky events in recent days and maybe we find Mister Cuddles and I feel really bad about letting you think I actually died but we couldn’t afford to risk the success of this plan and—“

I cut myself off when Derpy suddenly lunged for me. A second later, she clung to my neck and sniffled as she hugged me. “I’m so, so, so glad you’re okay!”

“I-I—…” I stuttered and nothing else came. No thoughts. No words. I drew blank cards, lots of them. “I’m sorry,” I finally finished in the lamest way possible and hugged her back.

And then… magic happened. Derpy leaned back, and she smiled. Somehow. She raised her hoof and booped my nose. She even told me as much. “Boop!” She giggled and shook her head and everything seemed to be fine again.

I could never, would never understand how she did that. She was not the only one capable of such feats, but she was the best at it. Just… water under the bridge. Meanwhile I got stuck on the tiniest details sometimes. An off-hoof remark in a side sentence, not given much thought at all, and it would gnaw at me for days, maybe even weeks, living rent-free in my head, decorating the walls with doubt and over-analyzation until I went a little bit mad.

Twilight had been prone to similar routines once upon a time, but she had gotten a lot better to deal with those over the years. She — and all my other loved ones — tried hard to help me reach that same point. Walk that same path. So that I, too, would someday be able to just dismiss such worries. To let such remarks just be water under the bridge.

I envied Derpy for this ability. It was a kind of imprudence, levity, that I sincerely lacked.

“You think too much. Again.”

I blinked as she spoke to me and returned to our current situation. And once her words registered in my head, they made me smile. “Guilty as charged,” I admitted. I knew my Derpy well enough. Actually, come to think of it: It was nice seeing her here. Since the dreamscape was a reflection of willpower and thought, she always appeared as her much younger, less wrinkly self. Because she was still young in her own mind. And seeing her like this made me think about ‘the good old days’.

“We could really use your help,” I attempted to redirect myself towards a more productive topic.

“Luna already asked me for help and I will gladly help you two, but she did not tell me what I can do,” my friend replied.

We both looked over to our beloved princess and she merely stood there, with a ‘d'aww’ written all over her face. I blushed as she stared, and only after I averted my eyes did she briefly giggle and turned her attention elsewhere. She stomped her hoof onto the ground and the dreamscape heeded her call. Dozens of dream spheres drew closer to us, appearing from the endless, star-strutted void of this realm. Their colorful exteriors marked them as active dreams and as expected, quite a few of them displayed the telltale signs of nightmare infection. I felt a pang of guilt again, but this had been inevitable. The price I had been willing to pay to catch our saboteur off-guard.

A price paid by others. This was all kinds of wrong.

“These are all the dreamers within the Everfree Forest,” Luna muttered under her breath as more and more spheres appeared around us. It clearly put a strain on her concentration to call them all. “And these are the ones in proximity to Greenwood.” Some spheres left our immediate area again to dance around outside of the bubble we surrounded ourselves with. Luna looked over her shoulder, towards Derpy. “We could search each and every one of those nightmares in hopes of finding our perpetrator. We would need to search all of them if we were to assume that he is less bothered by the events of this day than Dreamwalker hopes. Entering and exiting a dream takes precious time, and dealing with whatever a dream contains can be exhausting. You should be able to cut this process short by a considerable margin.”

Derpy seemed a little overwhelmed with the sheer amount of dream spheres surrounding us. It was not much of a surprise, given that she was decidedly not a night guard and despite her generous offer, we rarely asked her for help.

“Oh boy, that’s a lot…” she muttered and looked around.

I sat down beside her and laid my hoof on her shoulder, giving her an encouraging smile. “It’s alright if you can’t help. We know you want to. Just tell us if it’s possible.”

Luna continued to sort the dreamers. By proximity. By dream status. Nightmares to the left, non-nightmares to the right. Eventually, everything was as ‘in order’ as it could get. It made things neat and clear. And it also served to give Derpy some confidence, it seemed. She nodded with a resolute expression. “I can do this!”

Both Luna and I smiled and kept our silence as she closed her eyes. She slowly spread her magnificent gray wings until they were fully extended, braced her hooves and simply… listened.

Soon enough, she started to hum a little melody. She dove into their song, submerged herself in it. Derpy had tried on many occasions to describe to me how her interactions with dreams felt. And while I never quite got a decent grasp on it, her comparison to a lake stuck with me. A lake of song. Different tunes interwoven with each other like layers of waves forming a current. It was harmonious. Even the nightmares did not disrupt the harmony as such, they merely added more aggressive passages.

She swayed. Like a young tree in a summer breeze. Her wings angled and aligned themselves with ethereal, unseen forces. At one point, she even giggled quietly. A joke only she could hear or understand.

I could read it plain as day on Luna's face. She envied Derpy. As much as I did, if not more. The dreamscape was her domain. Yet Derpy possessed an ability to interact with dreams in a manner that eluded Luna, and continued to do so to this very day. We both desperately wanted to know how that felt for her, what she did, how. But it was not meant for us. It was her cutie mark. Her special talent. And she looked so incredibly at peace when she just listened.

Despite the contradiction: It was a very humble spectacle. And I almost felt like I should applaud when Derpy finally opened her eyes again, when she refolded her wings onto her back and stopped swaying like kelp in the sea. “I think I found something?” she offered and pointed a hoof towards one of the nightmare-ridden dream bubbles.

“I might be the princess of this realm,” Luna replied as she stepped closer to Derpy and laid a hoof on her shoulder, similar to what I had done earlier. “But you, my friend, truly are the queen of dreams.”

Derpy blushed furiously. She giggled and after a brief moment of hesitation, hugged Luna. Who reciprocated the gesture immediately. “You know, that’s really funny considering I thought I’m the queen of bubble baths for aaages,” she answered.

Once they pulled apart again, we collectively walked over to the dream she indicated. “What made this one stand out?” I asked.

“The other nightmares are full of fear and regret, which… is normal for nightmares, I think? But this one is full of guilt,” she explained. “It’s the only one, too. And it has a strange melody. Hefty’s dream is humming the same melody he actually hums when he works in the woods. Or Honey's dream, it hums the same melody she hums when she works in their carpentry. But I don’t recognize the melody of this dream.”

I loved music. I could not imagine a life without music in it. Even though I needed my quiet alone-time every so often, and I needed it more than many other ponies did — I dreaded actual silence. However, I never understood music. Not on a technical level. I remembered that I tried my hoof at learning instruments a couple of times, and I failed spectacularly every single time. I loved music. But I did not understand it. It was therefore a mystery to me how Derpy saw the world. I never noticed Hefty humming the same melody over and over. But apparently that was a thing. Something remarkable enough to somepony like Derpy that it defined him to a certain extent, that it helped her recognize him. I was a little in awe.

“I will risk a look,” Luna stated and stepped up to the sphere. She put one hoof against it and a small ripple of her magic extended from the point of contact. She stabilized the dream so that the nightmare would not suddenly wake up the dreamer. Then she slowly, carefully pushed her muzzle against the sphere until it reluctantly accepted her in. Her head vanished in the bubble, along with half her neck.

I used the opportunity to turn my attention to Derpy again. “I wanted to apologize for misleading you like that. It was a cruel thing to do and I am so, so sorry about how I made you feel.”

She did not want my apology the first time. She did not want it now. She merely giggled again and booped my nose once more, for good measure. “You’re silly, you know.”

I sighed. “Yes. Pinkie told me as much. On more occasions than I care to admit.”

“Well you should listen to her more then,” Derpy emphasized with a nod. “She’s a very wise mare. And fun.”

I snorted, but nodded anyway. I knew Pinkie was wise far beyond her years — of which she had a lot under her belt by now —, but rare was the occasion when somepony other than me acknowledged that. “Alright, fine. I’ll stop apologizing. You helped us out a lot here, do you want me to bring you back to your dream?”

Derpy fidgeted around with her hooves. “Can you put me in charge?”

It made sense. Luna had probably retrieved her from a nightmare and it was more than understandable that she did not wish to return there. “Of course.” I summoned her dream and conjured my armor on my back and my sword to my side. It took two attempts to pull the nightmare out of her dream, and the little critter was an ill-behaved weasel with a foul mood, but I nevertheless gave it one single chance as I held it at bay with my sword. “Flee now and you get away, stay and this will only end badly for you!”

It hissed and snapped and finally made up its mind. I saw that lunge coming from a mile away. It had made its decision and therefore sealed its fate. Derpy firmly pressed her eyes shut as I decapitated the creature mid-air. Its body dissolved into nothing and I quickly dismissed armor and weapon again. “It’s gone,” I told Derpy.

She looked around, probably in search of any traces. But this was the dreamscape. Bodies were vessels created by willpower. There was no actual blood, no actual corpse. Her expectations alone could have manifested a slain creature on the ground, but she was experienced enough in these matters to avoid that. And maybe her imagination was not capable of depicting such gruesome scenes.

“I don’t like this part,” Derpy quietly remarked.

I had little to say to that. I knew what she meant. I did not feel great slaying these creatures either. They were at home here, while we were the intruders. However, it was Luna's designated duty to guard and guide the dreamers. And many of these creatures were threats, both active and passive. There simply was no clear-cut ‘good’ solution to this issue.

But I understood that it was one out of two reasons why she never even considered joining our ranks as defenders of the dreamers. The other being that she already had a fulfilling job that she cherished. She had already found a different calling. “Alright, your dream is ready and prepared, milady!” I bowed deep as I gestured towards her sphere.

She giggled. She quickly found her humor again, her light-hearted demeanor. It was a marvel. She took my offered hoof, unnecessary as it was, and let me usher her towards her bubble. “Sweet dreams, Derpy.” She quickly darted forward and placed a smooch on my cheek before she pressed her hooves into her dream sphere and slowly sank into it.

Once she was gone again, I sighed in relief.

Until I turned around and saw a smugly grinning Luna watching me. “You… are evil,” I said.

“Yet you married me anyway,” she shot straight back.

I chuckled as I walked over to her. “Would I have married you had I known just how bottomless this well of evil is? Yes. Yes I would. Absolutely. Would I have complained about it? You bet!” She snickered and we shared a brief kiss. “Thank you, kitten. You are my guiding light.”

She snorted and guffawed. “Take that, Celestia! Your sun might be many times the size of my stars, but I am the guiding light!”

I chimed in and laughed alongside her silliness. It was hard to stay gloomy with her for company. “And you’re constantly guiding me towards danger and ill-advised life choices, so there’s that. My dear Sunny at least guides me towards… I don’t know… inner peace or something.”

Her laughter increased in strength and volume as she shook her head. “You need me to counterbalance how awfully calm and serene and orderly your life would be with her alone!”

I chuckled, lit up my horn with mischief in my mind and grabbed her mane. I pulled her down and used her sudden gasp and outraged surprise to entangle her in a more passionate kiss. And I was soaring high on happiness when I noticed how she melted into the kiss immediately. Our tongues intertwined, a quick and fiery dance, before I pulled back again. “I never claimed otherwise, kitten. I really do need you. Always and forever.”

Dazed for merely a second, a fond smile quickly replaced her devious grin as I alluded to our wedding vows. “Always and forever, firecracker.”

We turned our attention towards the dream in question. “What did you see?”

“A pegasus stallion,” she replied. “I do not recognize him from any description of the ponies you told me about. And he does seem to have a campsite nearby Greenwood from where he occasionally ventures closer to the village without ever announcing his presence or entering the village proper. He is still quite young, and… thin.”

I furrowed my brow given that description. “Thin?”

She nodded. And her face spoke volumes. Thin as in: Starving. Maybe this was not so much one of Dawns henchponies out to harass us and more a case of just a poor sod trying to get by somehow. Maybe he stole food in all the chaos he somehow caused. We never checked our food supplies, since only tools and dolls and such things seemed to go missing. If he was smart about this, he could have shaved off some pieces here and there without anypony noticing. Even though this still failed to explain how he did this.

“Alright, if you don’t have any further surprises up your sleeve, I think we proceed as planned. I go in, you play lookout.” I looked to her for confirmation and saw her grin again.

“I do have some surprises up somewhere,” she teased, but quickly returned to the topic. “But yes, I will have your back. And please, Dreamwalker. Be careful.”

Her sudden shift in tone gave me pause. “Aw, are you worried about me?”

But there was no cocky remark this time as she nodded. “I am. As much about you as I am about him. Innocent until proven guilty. Keep that in mind. And keep Voidwalker on a short leash.”

I grimaced. Right. That. “I will,” I promised. And with that, I put my front hooves against the sphere and slowly sank into the dream. It tried to push me out, it resisted my attempts of entering to the very last moment, but ultimately — an unconscious dreamer was easy prey. That was the sole reason why our frequent dreamscape patrols were so important.

It took a moment until I got my bearings again. My blurry vision was a mismatched mix of colors until everything sorted itself out, screeches and painful, otherworldly noises realigned themselves into bird songs, chirping crickets and running water and eventually, I even felt the soil under my hooves and a soft breeze in my mane.

I stood in the middle of the woods.

“Oh. Great,” I commented with slight annoyance. We were in the Everfree Forest. I could tell just by looking at the trees. Gnarled and twisted. Each and every one of them gave off this aura of hostility and malice.

What frustrated me was the need to actually find the dreamer. Depending on how vivid his imagination was, this section of the forest could literally stretch forever.

I looked down at my hooves. I was a pony, currently. But even with my brown coat, I stuck out like a crooked nail. Changing details within a dream took time and effort and energy. It was taxing, because any attempt to change major details meant fighting the dreamer’s subconscious for control. However, maybe this was worth a shot. So I strained against his will. The dream once again tried everything in its power to keep me from manipulating anything, but ultimately, I had years and years of experience under my belt and this dreamer was both young and asleep and therefore disadvantaged twice over.

I changed into a bird. I could not tell what kind of bird this was, I never bothered to learn their name. The same kind of annoying little critter that chirped and chirped and chirped at the edge of the forest every single time a new cycle started. They were the most abundant birds in the entire Everfree. One could not throw a stone without accidentally hitting one. And Fluttershy would be appalled by this thoughtless and cruel idiom.

I sighed… and quickly shut my mouth. Beak. Whatever. Because a sighing bird would be strange and I only imitated its appearance, not how it sounded. I gave my wings a few flaps for testing purposes and everything seemed fine so far. So I flapped harder, gained lift-off and flew through the forest on my hopefully brief search for the elusive pegasus stallion.

This hunt was thankfully cut considerably shorter once I dared to fly above the treetops. It allowed me to spot Greenwood. An actually pretty faithful representation of the village. I flew close to some of the windows of Honeys and Hefty's carpentry, I peered through the upper story windows of my own house, and I was shocked to see the level of detail inside. Whoever this stallion was, he knew way too much about our village. Had he been sneaking around inside houses? Unbeknownst to anypony? It was a creepy thought.

But flying around in the village allowed me to witness another peculiarity. Something that certainly did not have its roots in reality. There were eerie whispers. They grew louder in one direction, so I decided to follow them. It was a mishmash of voices, maybe even several different languages. Tracking their origin allowed me to find my target.

Just as Luna said: A thin, young pegasus stallion. In his early twenties, was my guess. He looked malnourished, despite a wide, undyed cloak covering most of his body and hiding the true extent of his sorry state. His pale, mint-green coat made him look like a zombie, as if all blood and life had already been drained from him. His eyes were a similar color to Twilight's coat, but again: Pale and faded. He wore a necklace around his neck, a simple string with small clumps of pyrite threaded on it. And much to my dismay, several small skulls hung from this necklace, connected to it by their own strings. Skulls. Polished bone, white as chalk. Two I could identify as birds, one seemed to be from a squirrel or something like that. Small critters, all of them. But others were unidentifiable to me. Then again, I rarely got to see skulls.

Why he carried those around with himself was a mystery to me. On one hoof, there was the simple option that this was merely a detail of his current dream. But why this? What purpose did it serve? Because dreamers rarely manifested details that were not required for the narrative of their dream. And this one was pretty upfront with its goal. These voices were yelling at him, screaming. A cacophony of guilt and accusations. Why did you kill me?!, they screeched in various voices and languages. Young ones, old ones, male ones, female ones. Some raspy like Rainbow’s voice, others smooth and silky like Rarity’s voice, but all of them accused him of the same thing.

Murder.

On the other hoof — these skulls reminded me of conversations I had with my love. Once upon a time in ages past, she and her sister traveled the world. They had seen the homeland of the zebras with their own eyes. And those had some really eerie traditions. Eerie to us ponies, but not so much to them. Bonecraft and such things were part of their daily lives. Maybe this stallion did not exactly originate from around these parts? It was possible after all. Or maybe he learned some Zebrican magic that required him to carry around a bunch of skulls?

Too many possibilities, too little information.

Being a bird and all, I flew up to a higher branch in the tree he currently stayed beneath and I observed for a moment. His position in these bushes was ideal for spying on Greenwood. Sure, the palisade around the village would block the view of certain parts, but he could see into some of them through the wide open entrance gate. He could hear the hammer strike metal on an anvil. Which was… probably me? Doing my smithing work over there? He could hear the chop-chop of an axe as Hefty retrieved more wood for our carpentry to process.

It was a good spying-spot. And I managed to get a grip on my position to realize where exactly I would have to search for his hiding place as soon as I woke up.

Yet he did not spy. Not currently. He lay on the ground, clutching his cloak, in a fetal position. He shivered and trembled and every time the chorus swelled to a new level of volume, he winced and flinched and tried to make himself even smaller. And he mumbled and muttered the same thing, over and over again, much in the same vein as the accusations were always the same.

He was stuck in one of the worst kinds of nightmares. Not just a loop, but a short loop. They accused him of bloody murder, and he begged forgiveness and implored them that he never meant any harm. It was such a pitiful sight that it actually threatened to make me emphasize with him. And after the grinder of those last few days that he put us through, I was unwilling to let that happen.

“Void?” I chirped as quietly as I could. The other voices drowned me out completely, which was a good cover.

Yes?

“Could you help me? We need to take over his dream. He’s of no use to us in his current state.” I was certainly not looking forward to working with Void of all ponies, but I tried to tell myself that it could be worse still. I could be forced to work with… Chrysalis, or something like that.

Charming. But alright, I’ll bite. Sounds like fun.

I grimaced. Yes. ‘Fun’. Exactly how I would describe the necessity of interrogation.

We focused our efforts on the dream itself. The woods, the ground, the air, the sun and sky and every bird and butterfly and squirrel. We managed to overpower the dreamer’s will and wrangled control from him. Void already knew what I wanted him to do, so I let him choose the scene for his distraction.

And of course he chose the void.

The current dream scene was replaced by an empty, inky blackness. No walls, no ceiling, no floors, no features that would allow for orientation or to gauge distances. I hid myself from sight by dismissing my body entirely and held still while Void stepped out of the darkness and up to our dreamer. I hated how he looked almost like me. Like the image I saw in every mirror. The only thing that made the difference obvious was his demeanor.

The pegasus remained on the non-existent floor for a brief moment longer until he realized that the voices had stopped. He then slowly uncurled himself and rose to his jittery legs — and immediately took a precautionary step back when he found himself face to face with my less than pleasant alter ego. “Wh-Who are you? What is this? W-Where am I?”

Sweet Celestia. He even sounded young. My own children were probably twice his age.

“We are in your subconscious, little pony,” Voidwalker replied. “I… am the reaper.” The pegasus could not see me. Or how I rolled my eyes. Void might have known, but he completely ignored me.

“But… b-but you’re a pony!” our dreamer objected and pointed at him.

Voidwalker looked down on himself and acknowledged the statement with a nod. “I may appear as such to you, I suppose. In the same manner a griffon might see one of his own kind. This makes it easier to interact with mere mortals. Believe me, you do not wish to see me otherwise.”

Icy looked around for the first time. He did a full turn, only to see the gaping nothingness in all directions. “W-Why are you here?” he bravely dared to ask.

Voidwalkers expression stayed completely neutral, disinterested. I suspected that he got a kick out of this, but he seemed professional enough for now.

“Do not worry,” he replied. “Your time has not come yet. I am here because you veered onto a dangerous path, young one. Taking a life brings you closer to your own demise, such is the balance of this world. I am here as an obligatory warning, if you will.”

The pegasus violently shook his head. “No! No, no, I did not mean him any harm! I swear! I-It was an accident!”

Voidwalker nodded solemnly. “And yet, here we are.”

I had to force myself. I had to tear my eyes and ears away from this farce, lest I grow furious with my alter ego. He was a bastard. And I despised how good he was at gaslighting this poor sod. Because if he could do it, so could I. What made the difference between us was that he was willing to use just about anything to his advantage, without remorse. And it sometimes felt like a very, very thin rope to balance on. To not let loose and join him.

I sighed, felt my ears snap to my head and turned around. He had this under control. For better or worse, I had to trust Voidwalker. I focused my attention on this dreamer's subconscious instead. On his being, his thought patterns, his traits and quirks and especially: his memories.

I closed my eyes and imagined a subsection of this dream, creating an invisible, winding path, a star-strutted road not unlike our usual patrol path on the dreamscape. I imagined myself walking on it, along its gentle curves. And to each side, little windows popped up, each one of them displaying another memory of this dreamer's life.

The glimpses I caught told a devastating story.

A toxic marriage leading to an abusive father and a neglectful mother, until a repressed event took the father out of the picture. A burial, but no tears shed by the freshly minted widow. And in the years following, a change in character. Overwhelmed with having to live alone again, neglect slowly morphed into the same abusive behavior his father once demonstrated. A weird special talent, bullies at school, no friends, shy, alone, reclusive.

Eventually a chase. And he had been on the run ever since.

Chased out for stealing food. Chased away from town because he told spooky stories to their foals. I stopped and listened to one of them partially and realized that it was not even what they accused him of. He never told ‘spooky stories’. He told stuff that would reasonably be considered spooky by many, sure. Stuff like: Your grandpa really loves you and he wants you to know that he is proud of your achievements, proud of the pony you became and that he cheered you on every step of the way.

A dead grandpa. Obviously.

For me, it was not even that hard to grasp as a concept. I had no idea ghosts were a real thing. But I found it surprisingly easy to accept. Ghosts were real and this stallion could see and talk to them. That explained the skull on his flank. It just fit.

I sighed and moved on. There was no point in arguing with ponies, not here, not now. These were merely memories. What I witnessed had long since transpired and left their marks on his soul and mind. I moved further down the road until I found more recent memories. These windows were dominated by dark greens and traces of orange. The Everfree Forest. I slowed down considerably and basically started window-shopping.

It was harder to get a good grip on his recent memories. Something clearly worked against me. And it all came to a head when I learned a couple of names. Iron Hoof. Rock Solid. Icy Whisper. And Wildfire.

The very moment I learned that last name, a bright, yet dark red light encompassed the dreamer behind me.

“What?” I gasped as I felt foreign magic overpower my mind in a rushed attempt to exert control over the dreamer himself. A second later, the stallion just vanished. Ripped out of his own dream, which immediately fell apart and spat me out back onto the dreamscape, right in front of Luna’s hooves.

“What happened?!” she asked in alarm and helped me up.

I could not help but notice that she was in her full gear, her enormous scythe floating beside her, ready for any trouble. “I was about to ask the same thing!” I replied. I cautiously moved around and took note how mangled I felt. As if the sudden disruption of the dream had left me exhausted. I shook my head. “I think I might have triggered some kind of defensive spell or something. Hooowever, the mission was still a success. I did not return empty-hooved.”

Luna still kept a wary eye on our surroundings, but seeing as no ambush took place, she slowly lowered her weapon and turned her attention to me. “Oh? What did you learn?”

“Names. Four of them, to be precise.” And not knowing what I had uncovered, I proudly presented them all. I got a little worried however as soon as color drained from Luna's face. “You recognize one?”

She took a moment to recompose herself and shook her head. “No. I recognize them all.”

I blinked. Once. Twice. “What.”

“Iron Hoof was a name I never expected to hear again,” she explained. “He was a sergeant of the Day Guard back in the days before my fall to the Nightmare. He could easily have been two ranks higher, given his prestige and success, but he refused to be promoted. He was a noble warrior I had much respect for. Last we heard, he fought alongside us in the battle to free the Crystal Empire from King Sombra’s subjugation. He was pronounced dead after we could not find him anywhere after the empire vanished.”

The implications were mind-boggling. He was a living relic. A blast from the past. He was a true warrior, a thousand years old, who returned from a different age. What the heck. “I-Is it possible that he vanished with the Empire due to Sombra’s curse?” I asked. Even though we both knew the answer. Probably.

“It is… unlikely, but… maybe not impossible,” Luna hesitated to reply. She did not like the implications either, then. Good. Made me feel less alone and overwhelmed. “I will need to speak to my sister about this.”

“What about the others?” I dared to ask. And really, I hoped they would be less… astounding.

“Rock Solid is another former member of the Day Guard, albeit its current iteration,” Luna answered. “He is an earth pony. He was dishonorably discharged a few years ago after a string of violent outbreaks in which he caused serious injuries to civilians and superiors alike.”

Oh boy. Sweet Luna. Great. “This guy sounds like a lot of fun.” I grimaced. Someone with anger issues. Well, that could fit the bill for the incident with Peter.

“My sister mourns greatly to this very day that he managed to make it into her guard to begin with. She faults herself for not being involved enough with the recruitment process to spot bad apples like him as it soils the good name of her guard.”

The ‘good name of the guard’ had suffered over the years, but they were in recovery mode. It was an arduous, slow process. It had been a long time since Equestria had last seen any major, significant military conflict and these peaceful times made it hard for any guard to prove his mettle.

What bothered me more was my love's apparent impulse to punish herself. Again. “While I can see and understand that, she can’t—“ I cut myself off and sighed again. There was no point in arguing this with Luna. She understood. She was on my side. We collaborated frequently in attempts to make Sunny see the bright side of life. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter, I will talk to her about this at some point. We need to sort out our priorities first — what about Icy?”

“I only ever heard the name from my guards, who reported of an elusive young colt visiting smaller villages,” Luna answered. “He was rumored to have a deep connection to the Realm Beyond. A talent nopony ever displayed before. It intrigued me, but any investigations ran into dead ends. Come to think of it, my guards reported strange occurrences and sabotage as well.”

I nodded. “That aligns well with what I saw in his mind. I didn’t see any ghosts, but he seems to see something, and he speaks with someone.”

“Those were rumors, Dreamwalker — we do not know what he does or how he does it,” she argued. And while I was all for reason and caution and such, at this point our base of information had improved considerably.

Still — no point in arguing yet. “And Wildfire?”

And this was the point where she grew quiet for a while. As far as I could tell from reading her changing expression, it was less so because she had to remind herself first where she heard that name before and more because she struggled to sort the amount of information and how to sort it and what to start with and maybe even what she would rather not tell me.

“He was supposedly a monster of legend,” Luna recounted. “A horror throughout many histories of many civilizations, an eater of powerful casters, devourer of foals. It was deemed horrendously dangerous to make deals with him, but he supposedly offered them. He demanded sacrifice and in return spared tribes. His devastating name and power were known to zebras and elephants, yaks and kirin. Even the deer and changelings feared him.”

The long and short of it: He was a legend.

The bad kind of legend.

I grimaced and dared to poke into that bee nest. “Let me guess — until he suddenly stopped and vanished?”

Luna nodded. “Something like that. Many assumed he just died of old age as many monsters eventually do, or he finally met his match.”

A powerful creature capable of vast devastation. A creature of great cunning, as he offered deals that rarely turned out well for the other party. Someone who carved his path through history with blood, if need be. It struck me as odd that he demanded sacrifice. One could sacrifice a lot. A day’s worth of time. A mane. Food. A foal. Knowledge. Magical items. I grimaced the more my own thoughts bullied me in that particular direction. Eventually, I looked up and searched for Luna's eyes. When our gazes met, I dared to ask, albeit quietly. “Is it possible…?”

She sighed. “That Dawn uses this moniker to disguise his identity towards his henchponies? Yes, absolutely.”

I shook my head. “Not what I meant.”

But she already knew that, of course. She even said as much. “I know. And I dread the other answer more than I care to admit.”

Wildfire. The almost mythical monster.

Dawn. My awkward new friend.

I sighed.