To Dream in Red

It wasn’t for another week that Luna was able to return to the crimson door. Each night when she did her rounds of the dream world, she would try her best to ignore the ever so subtle pull that she felt towards that place. She didn’t want to think about it, she wasn’t ready to face it. But it was as she helped several dozen more ponies face their fears, Luna became more confident. She was, after all, the Princess of the Night. All things frightening and terrible lurked in the darkness, and the dark was her domain.

So, after nearly an hour of pacing and deliberation, Luna returned to that place. She found herself standing before the door again, with that vile stench wafting out from through the darkened wood. The Princess reached out slowly, doing her best to steel her nerves. Hopefully this time she wouldn’t vomit. She woke up in a puddle of her own puke that morning, which wasn’t pleasant.

Opening the door this time wasn’t nearly as difficult this time as it was the first. Luna figured that whatever was blocking the entrance last time was dispelled by her, but a small part of her feared the implications of that. Pushing that thought aside, she moved forward into the valley of gore that awaited her.

Her eyes watered at the strangling odour of the place, and she shivered at the feeling of soft, putrid flesh squelching underhoof. Not wanting to stand there any longer than she needed to, Luna unfurled her wings and kicked the door shut behind her before taking to the skies. While in the dream of another, she could sense their presence no matter where they were within that dream. Thus, the Princess of the Night flew straight for the owner of this disgusting fantasy.

No matter how high she flew, she couldn’t escape the scent that seemed to reek to the heavens, but from a birds-eye view, it was easy to see why that was. The valley of gore was more like a continent; a mass of blood-red viscera that stretched to the horizon and beyond, with red oceans filling the space between. She didn’t even believe that there were enough bodies in the world to fulfill this dream, which only made her stomach churn. Every time she was reminded of the fact that this was in fact not a nightmare sent a shiver down her spine.

By the time Luna approached the ground again, her nose had completely gone blind to the overwhelming stench. She assumed that even long after waking up, her nostrils would still burn with the stink of carcasses and blood. She hoped that she wouldn’t need to be here much longer as she spotted the object of her search.

In a clearing, there was a sprawled body of an enormous dragon, and in its open chest cavity she could see a young colt writhing amongst the wet innards. He seemed to spot her too, and he waved at her as she approached.

Landing on the dragon’s belly, Luna couldn’t help but grimace at the sight. A scrawny, blood-soaked colt was looking up at her with deep crimson eyes that matched the viscera that he sat in. There was a curious yet excited glimmer in his gaze as he regarded her presence. It told her that he didn’t recognize who she was, but was interested all the same.

“No one has ever visited before,” he said, with a hushed voice that almost sounded parched. “Who are you?”

Luna clenched her jaw, unsure what to make of the situation. She wasn’t used to this feeling. Every single other pony she had met in the past month had recognized her, and reacted with fear. How this foal did not was beyond her, as she had been certain that everypony knew the stories of Nightmare Moon. At the very least, he should have recognized her as Alicorn Royalty. Instead, he simply spoke with the same casualness of greeting a stranger.

After several long seconds, she finally spoke. “We are Princess Luna.” She paused, the dozens of questions straining to push their way to the front of her mind. She decided to ask the simplest one first. “What is your name, little one?”

He blinked twice at her, cocking his head slightly. Finally a small smile crept across his lips. “My name is Poppy Blanch. Are you really a princess?”

Luna nodded slowly, mildly off-put by the sight of the colt smiling at her while red dripped from his scraggy form. “Yes, we are.” She looked around at their surroundings again, still trying to make sense of things. “Why are thou here? Surely this is no place for a foal such as yourself.”

He quickly averted his eyes shamefully. “Oh… Well, I like it here. It’s nice. It makes me happy.”

Luna’s snout scrunched in disgust at that. “Happy? What about this place could possibly make you feel happy?”

Poppy Blanch’s ears flattened against his head. “I don’t know. It just does.” He seemed to cower from her, retreating slowly back into the dragon’s innards. “I’m sorry if I did something wrong. I can stop if you want.”

The Princess opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it. This place was no nightmare, but it was still wrong. But it was unlikely to be because of the colt himself, and chastising him was unlikely to help the situation. Taking a tenuous breath, Luna bowed her head slightly.

“We are sorry, little one. Your dream… It confuses us. We have walked amongst the dreams of countless ponies over many years, and never seen anything like this place. We… Struggle to understand the appeal.”

He looked up at her again, finally. He remained cautious, tapping his forehooves together nervously. “I don’t really know, Princess. I’ve always had these dreams. Though, my parents always told me never to talk to anypony about them. They said it’s bad that I dream of this stuff. Is it really bad? Should I stop?”

Luna considered the door outside, and how it was completely disconnected from the rest of the Equestrian dreamscape. This entire circumstance was so completely unique, she wasn’t sure if this colt was even capable of dreaming about anything else.

She furrowed her brow with concern as she spoke slowly. “Do you ever try to… do this in the waking world? Hurt other creatures?”

“No!” he said quickly, with the heavy tone of guilt obvious in his hoarse voice. “Not anymore, I mean. I… I hurt a bunny once. But I haven’t done it since, I promise!”

Luna’s eyes widened as her worry grew. “What did thou do to the bunny, Poppy Blanch?”

The colt began to retreat away from Luna’s gaze again as he recalled the memory. “I… I hurt the bunny, but I didn’t mean to! He was just so soft and cute… And so I hugged him. I kept hugging him tighter and tighter until he stopped moving and-” Poppy Blanch couldn’t get anymore words out as tears began to stream down his face. The dream around them began to ripple and distort as the colt’s panic began to wake him up.

Luna knew that she was too far from the exit, and if the dream collapsed while she was in it, it would be unpleasant for both of them. A light emanated from her horn as she cast a spell to hold the dream together a little while longer. Steeling herself once again, she stepped down into the bloody viscera of the dragon until she was submerged to her knees. Princess Luna trudged through gore until she was close enough to take the colt in her forelegs.

At first, he resisted, but as she wrapped him in her wings and pulled him close, he began to calm, and the dream began to stabilize again.

“We are sorry, little one. Thine heart is heavy with grief for something beyond thine own understanding. We do not hold it against you. It is clear that you mean no harm, and neither do we. Breathe easy, and be calm. We are here for thou now. No judgement, no anger, no fear.”

Poppy Blanch’s crying subsided as the Princess spoke slowly and gently to him. Even as this soaked fur stained her own a deep scarlet, she held him tight. She knew better than anyone else what it was like to carry the guilt of a crime that you didn’t mean to commit.

They stayed like that for several more minutes, until his breathing slowed. He pulled away from her, and she let him go after a second of hesitation. “You talk funny,” he finally said with a small smile. Luna was about to correct him to say that she only speaks in traditional tongue, but relented, instead nodding in agreement.

Turning from her, he climbed out of the dragon’s chest, and she followed after him. He stood there, looking up at the darkened sky as the red began to drip off of his body. Climbing down after him, Luna realized that the blood left no stain on his coat as it drained away. She watched with curiosity as the red turned to the purest of white. The lanky colt looked almost skeletal with his white coat and short grey mane.

Catching her gaze, Poppy Blanch turned back towards Princess Luna, a small smile on his cracked lips. “Will you come back to visit me again, Princess? It was nice to see someone new… And I’d like to talk to you again. You’re really nice.”

Luna looked down at her blood-slicked hooves, where she could see the crushed bones of numerous creatures beneath them. Some part of her deep down found the crunch to be almost satisfying, but she pushed that part deeper down. After a moment, she looked back at him. “Time permitting, we shall, little one. There is still much about your dreams that we do not understand. We hope to, someday.”

“Ok, Princess. I can’t wait.”

With nothing more to say, Luna took off, flying back towards the entrance before the colt could wake up. She still was no closer to understanding why this dreamscape was so different from any other, or why Poppy Blanch was seemingly possessed with a love for the macabre, but at the very least she knew that there was no monster behind the door, just a confused foal.