Crescent was walking through the dream world, going from dreamer to dreamer. It was her job to help those who were caught in nightmares, but there were others with dreams too beautiful. That some of them were familiar didn't help either. Not the ones her mother had seen, but the ponies Crescent had met personally proved to be quite distracting.

Take that one, filled with hourglasses, cheerful talking, and one chipper pony that took time as a suggestion even when she was awake. "Little dreamer." Minuette hugged Crescent with a laugh. "What are you doing here?"

"Um, hello. Checking up on you. I'm the dreamwalker, after all. Here to see how things are going." She leaned into Minuette's embrace and let out a soft breath, not willing to resist just for that moment. "Helping my mom. There are so many dreams for one pony to watch." Nuzzling into the hold, she almost purred. "Nice to see you."

The blue pony grinned down at her. "Nice to see you too. You know, this is my dream." She booped Crescent. "Which means we can both me all time loose in here. Dreams are pretty loose like that for everypony, really, but most don't think about it."

She greeted Crescent when she first arrived, waved when she left, then sat down at a table for some tea. The order of that didn't seem too odd, not in a dream. "You get to set the rules of time."

"Me? I don't know how it works!" She bounced on her hooves, almost begging. "Show me how to do that."

Minuette blinked at that. "You are a dream. How can you not know that?" She tapped at her own head. "Oh! You got too used to dealing with waken up ponies, didn't you?" She grinned. "That's just adorable. Well, I suppose I could." She glanced back, just to be across the room, which she had walked? But it seemed like an instant. "Time is a suggestion on the best of days."

She put a hoof to her mouth. "But, in a dream, it's hardly even that."

Crescent gasped. "Wow! How do I do that? It sounds great. I want to try!"

Minuette pointed back, but backwards in time, to a Crescent from the past. She casually plucked up the Crescent that was still wandering towards Minuette's dream and put her down next to the 'now' Crescent. "First, remember that, in a dream, you can be in more than one 'now' at the same time and that's not a big deal."

The Crescent from before gaped at her. "You're me!" She waved down at the present Crescent. "Visiting Minuette is going to be confusing, isn't it? I bet we're gonna have a lot to think about."

Minuette grinned and booped the now-Crescent on the snout. "Look, you can even talk to yourself. Go ahead."

Now-Crescent considered Then-Crescent. "We're going to have a lot to think about. But I think it will be, and is, worth it. Also." She punched her past self suddenly in the chest.

"Ow! What'd you do that for?" Then-Crescent rubbed the sore spot.

Now-Crescent copied the gesture. "I was wondering why I was sore there, and now I know why."

"Oh." Her eyes went wide with understanding. "That's actually kinda neat. I should do that more often."

Minuette clapped her hooves. "Now you're getting it!" She high-hooved each of them. "Oh, you're here now. I should get the door."

She threw open the door to green Then-Crescent, who wasn't beside Now-Crescent anymore, too busy being at the door and chatting with Minuette. The door slammed shut on them and Now-Crescent let out a confused snort.

"That can't be right." Minuette opened the door again to reveal the Crescent that was later in time. "There you are." She grabbed the current Crescent across the threshold with a laugh. "And there's your first lesson in dream time! How'd you like it?"

"I feel like there's a lot to think about." She considered that for a moment. "But I also feel like I've had all the time I need."

Minuette nodded approvingly at that. "You're getting it. Being a time magic wizard, this is my life, sleeping or awake. It was a little kooky at first, but I'm pretty used to it now. Means I can always give a minute to a friend." She touched noses with Crescent. "Like you."

"Thank you." Crescent nuzzled into Minuette's chest. "You're so warm, and nice."

"And you are too dang cute!" She rolled over with Crescent in her grasp, snuggling. "Do you cuddle with each pony you visit? Is that what your mom does?" She giggled at the thought of Luna going from dreamer to dreamer for hug time.

Crescent let out a soft chuckle. "No, not always." She wiggled closer into Minuette's hold. "Just the ones I really like!" She popped free just as quickly. "I should keep looking though." She rubbed at her mane where it was tussled by Minuette's affections. "I have other places I have to be."

Minuette mussed Crescent's mane as she had already found it, doing things out of order. "Then go on. I don't want to distract you from your dream job. See you on the other side, Crescent."

Crescent waved gently. "See you then." And walked away, back into that dark space. Pressing through an unseen and unfelt barrier, it become a dazzling collection of lights like a night sky. Every little speck was another pony having a different dream, and she could find anypony she wanted. At first glance it seemed almost impossible to tell one from the other, but with her years of experience and what she had learned from her mother.

Well, and she was a dream herself. That certainly helped. She saw a dark cloud, where naughty dreams resided. Not dreams of naughty things a pony may not want to be public, but things that simply shouldn't be. It was a dark nebula of what some ponies would call monsters.

But didn't they deserve good dreams too? She was pretty sure that was a thing that she thought they should have, and so she trotted in. Getting lost in the fog, she emerged onto cold stone that clopped beneath her small hooves. She could hear a droning buzz around her.

Peeking into the next room, she could see a throne, with a large figure reclined on it. "Capture them, and bring them to me." The figure laughed with her orders. "We will eat well tonight!"

Crescent was suddenly in front of the creature, tied up and tossed before her. "And what have we here?" Queen Chrysalis leaned forward, hooves pressed together. "A tasty little morsel! It's not often little foals wander away from their doting parents, but so lovely when it does happen."

Crescent laughed. "You don't scare me. This is just a bad dream."

Chrysalis leaned in closer and closer until she was looming right over Crescent, the little filly shaking a little as she tried to stand resolute. "So it is." With the words of a dream guardian, Chrysalis realized she was dreaming. "Why are you in it?" She prodded the still tied-up filly. "Are you spying on me?"

"No." Crescent flopped over onto the floor, her restraints disappearing entirely. "I felt something bad going on, and I wanted to see if you were having a bad dream."

Chrysalis laughed at that. "No, it was a wonderful dream about bad things." She tapped her hooves together. "I am a bad creature, you know. Our good dreams can be pretty bad. Still, the price I must pay to keep my hive well fed and happy."

"Where's your hive?" asked Crescent, looking around. "There's no changelings here." She put a hoof by her ear, still able to hear the droning, but spotting not a single changeling to actually look at aside of the queen herself.

Chrysalis scowled. "They're busy. Ugh, they're always busy these days." She shoved Crescent away. "I swear. You do anything nice for anypony and suddenly you have to keep it up. Forever!" A hoof stomp punctuated the last word. "And they all took that bait like a bunch of morons and they don't even realize it."

Crescent rubbed her nose where she had been stomped. "What happened? What did you do?"

Chrysalis leaned in. "What do you care? Just here to mock me?"

"I'm here to help. That's what I do." Crescent spread her hooves wide. "Help ponies with their dreams."

Chrysalis muttered something quietly a moment. "Look. Fine. Here." She reached out and plucked out a reformed changeling, all brightly-colored. "Gag me, but they did it to themselves. They went from apex predators to simpering, emotional fools who let themselves starve rather than hurt another pony's feelings!"

She tossed the changeling back where it had been found. "Being the soft, weak, mewling things they now are, they want a ruler that's just as squishy as the rest of them. But I'm not. I'm not weak. I'm strong, and I'm always hungry!" She flashed her dangerous teeth, magnified in that dream to be the stuff of pony nightmares. "I won't be turning in that power for a chance to grovel at pony hooves."

Crescent shrank back from the teeth, but not Chrysalis. She had faced true monsters and the dark of nightmares more than enough times for a single pony with bad dreams to not send her fleeing. "You seem like an interesting mare."

"I'm not a mare." Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "But I could be." With a rush of green flames, she took Crescent's form, becoming an identical little filly. "I could look all soft an' innocent! Won't you hug me?"

Crescent reached out and wrapped her arms around Chrysalis, nuzzling against her.

Chrysalis returned the gentle hugs a moment before she bit at Crescent's throat and grew to full size, trapping crescent in her jaws. "And that's just one way to capture a tasty little pony."

Crescent was suddenly standing next to Chrysalis. "You didn't bite me."

Chrysalis waved that away. "You're a dream. I'm a dream. What's the point of biting you, except maybe feeling better." She smirked. "That did feel pretty good."

Crescent smiled softly at that. "If I can do something to help you feel better, I did my job right."

"Aren't you a sweet thing?" Chrysalis put a hoof on Crescent's little head. "I hate it. You're either an easy target, or something far more clever with a plan you're hiding. Which one is it?"

Crescent beamed at the question. "I'm just here to help ponies have good dreams, and you had a bad one, so now we're working on making it better." She hopped away, easily slipping from Chrysalis' grip. "Just because you're a monster doesn't mean you should have bad dreams."

Chrysalis rubbed at her hoof. Where Crescent had been touching her, she felt an odd sensation. "You're a pony, pony. Shouldn't you be wasting your time with other ponies?" She pointed to the door of her throne room where a few ponies stood, each of them terrified and waiting to be drained of love. "Like those? Why aren't you helping them?"

"Because those are fake." She pointed at one of them. "Except that one, but she wants to be here." The mare blushed brightly on being called out. "Ponies are funny sometimes."

Chrysalis snickered. "So they are." She considered the dream filly. "As if you aren't, little pony." She changed into a colt with a beanie with a twirling propeller. "Maybe what you want is more like this?"

Crescent giggled as she saw the colt. "You can change into anything you want, huh?"

"Anything," called the colt with the boyish edge to his little voice. "You want a big hug from a boy pony, or do you think they have 'cooties'?"

Crescent stuck out her tongue. "Nuh uh. I know all about how you get older." She brought two hooves together. "And all 'bout the birds and bees. Are you a bird, or a bee?"

Chrysalis paused at that, confused a moment. "Of the two, I suppose I'm closer to a bee." She spread her wings behind her. "But I'm more me. And you can't be anything else."

Crescent was suddenly Luna, smiling knowingly. "I may not be a changeling, but I am not stuck in one form." At least in a dream, but she didn't add that part. "Your dream is better now. I'll leave you alone. If you need me, just call me." She was back to her usual small self. "I'm Crescent."

Chrysalis patted her on the head with her hooves, now back to her own shape. "What a curious little creature you are, Crescent. I can't say I'll be looking forward to meeting you again."

Author's Note

Curious dreams by curious dreamers.

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