Soul Saga: Catching Dreams

"And so we see that it is not one, but all types of ponies that possess magic. Be it earth ponies and their ability to mould the earth beneath them or pegasi who shape our weather patterns...it is not only unicorns who have an innate ability to control forces beyond normal comprehension."

Dream sat at his desk near the middle of the room, staring absently ahead towards what one would think to be a half-drawn silhouette of grey lines against a solid black background. Every now and again, somepony would shift and throw another few hastily drawn scribbles of motion onto his senses, but otherwise it was as dark as it had been since that day two years prior.

He didn't really think himself all that unlucky. The young pegasus could see things no other pony could to his knowledge. In the time after his sight was stolen away from him by that perverse mirror image of himself in the hospital, Dream had developed a sort of second sight, one drawn upon the vast black canvas of his eyes by his other senses. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it did afford him something of what one might call vision.

"Psst. Hey...Dream."

Dream's ear cocked around to find one of his classmates, an earth pony, trying to discreetly pass him a note.

"Send that over to Crystal Onyx, would you?" The filly whispered lightly.

"Sure thing." He nodded, reaching out his hoof. He felt the note drop into it before tucking it away quickly under his desk. Mr. Prosel, the teacher, hadn't seemed to notice as he continued his lesson, his back presumably to the class.

Sure that he was in the clear, Dream hoofed the note over to the next row without incident before settling back into listening to the teacher. For being a Unicorn, Mr. Prosel was well versed in the other two forms of pony magic, and since he'd lost the ability to see, it was a subject Dream had taken a liking to. To have the ability to do things without seeing them directly? He could definitely have use of such talents in his dark and colorless world.

"Hey Catcher...wanna come over to my house after school? We can hang out and stuff." He heard the same note-passing filly beside him ask. Dream knew her by the sound of her voice, and the vague outline she'd cast every now and again when he could spare an ear to sense in her direction.

Kittyhawk, for being an earth pony, was rather fascinated with all things flying and the sky. She had an avid interest in pegasus wings, wanting to know how they worked down to their last detail. It was no small secret that she had a slight thing for the class's only flightless pegasus as well.

"All right. I gotta run home and let father and Mirage know, but I'll see you there, okay?" He replied.

"Mr. Dream Catcher...is my lesson boring you?" Mr. Prosel's solid tone rang out from the front of the room.

Dream shot straight up.

"No sir! Not at all!" He answered diligently.

"Then perhaps you wouldn't mind explaining to me and the rest of the class the difference between Earth Pony Magic and Unicorn Magic?"

Dream didn't even need to see the teacher motion him to the front of the class. He stepped lightly out of his desk, ears swiveling around, head bobbing slightly back and forth as he made his way forward, painting his senses in a wash of grey lines. Taking the only clear path, he stepped up to the front of the room next to the desk and turned around to face the class.

"The difference between Earth Pony Magic and Unicorn Magic is that the earth ponies use theirs to harness the natural forces within the ground and the trees and plants. Unicorn Magic is drawn from the eth...etholo...sorry, sir. I can't remember the word."

"Etheric, Mr. Catcher. Continue."

"Thank you sir. Unicorn magic is drawn from the Etheric Realm to change the natural forces around us, instead of working with it. It is a more refined sort, compared to earth pony magic, which some have called a more simple, brute-force method, according to Dr. Rhindquarter's studies on the subject, sir." Dream spoke, a little broken here and there as he tried to remember the larger words used to describe the subject. "They say that Pegasus magic is some of the trickiest to learn though, because there's never anything solid for us to put our hooves on...and no horn to focus power through. I'm still not quite sure how it works."

"Well...I see somepony's done a bit more than just their homework. Where did you learn that, Dream?" Mr. Prosel's voice had a hint of disbelief to it.

"My brother Mirage has been helping me study, sir. I really love learning about magic."

Dream could sense his teacher give an approving nod.

"Sounds like your brother knows what he's talking about."

"He attends the Unicorn Academy, sir." Dream replied, with not just the slightest bit of pride in his voice. "He even enchanted a few of his books to read themselves out loud so I could listen in while he studies for his classes."

"Very good, Mr. Catcher. You may return to your desk."

Dream nodded and began the slow trek back to his seat. It was no short order of surprising his teacher every now and again when it seemed like the little pegasus wasn't paying attention. Then again, it was hard for anypony to tell when Dream wasn't day dreaming. Without a need to use his eyes, Dream's gaze usually stared straight ahead unmoving. He'd heard a few of his classmates talking behind his back about it on occasion, calling him 'strange' or 'weird'...but he really didn't mind it too much.

And before he knew what happened...Dream was kissing the floor, feeling an outcast hoof thrown in his way. The entire classroom burst out raucously as he rocked backward, rubbing the orange colored spot of fur on his nose where he'd impacted, feeling a little bit of a bump.

"All right, all right." Mr. Prosel began. "Settle down everypony. Now...there's only two of you that could've done that, and I know I saw a limb. So, which one of you did it? Iron Bound or Chesster? Speak up."

Both the unicorn and the pegasus foals sat in their desks, neither one daring to say anything.

"Very well...then you both stay after class. Dream, are you all right?"

Dream turned his head and nodded, gathering himself back together and reseating himself.

"Fine sir." Though he was sure he could hear one of the two culprits mumbling something under their breath about revenge.

"All right then. To continue..." Prosel began as the bell rang out to signal the end of the day. "Or...to end, on that note. Have a good day everypony, and remember! Test in three days on the basic fundamentals of magic!"

The students began to file out of the single room schoolhouse all around him, but Dream waited until the motion lines stopped showing up in his sight before he slowly made his way out of his desk. It was always something of a hassle, trying to move around when he could sense so much other activity. It was like trying to sort out a straight line tangled in a midst of squiggles. There was just no sense to it.

"Dream...a moment, please." Mr. Prosel called after him.

The pegasus halted in his tracks, turning to face the front of the room where he could make out two figures sitting side by side in their desks, along with the teacher pacing back and forth at the blackboard.

"Yes sir?" He asked.

"So you've been studying magic in your spare time, hmm? Why don't you tell me what you've learned so far? It's not often that a pegasus takes interest in magic, aside from learning how to shape clouds and make weather."

Dream nodded and moved towards the teacher's desk, carefully side stepping a few rows of chairs to bypass the two colts who were sitting in detention.

"Well sir, I've been trying to learn how somepony can go into dreams, sir. My brother says it'd be really advanced stuff, if it's even possible. But I know I've done it at least once." Dream replied. "I got a dream catcher from a tribes pony who was in town at the Running of the Leaves festival about two years ago...and it allowed me to actually go into his dream."

Mr. Prosel didn't move, making it all that much harder to pin point in which direction he should be talking, but after a moment, the teacher made to sit down at his desk. Dream walked up to it, sitting down on his haunches beside the wooden construct.

"Dream magic, huh? That's some pretty heavy reading for somepony your age. And actually going into a dream? Now there's something I've never heard of. Sounds like a tall tale if you ask me." Prosel chuckled lightly.

"That's because he's lying. He's always talking about stuff like that." Chesster, the unicorn muttered just barely loud enough to be heard from his desk.

"I am not! My brother's seen me in his dreams too!" Dream spun and spat back.

Mr. Prosel simply nodded, unknown to Dream.

"Well...if you say you've been into a real dream, tell me what it was like then."

Dream proceeded to recount the tale of his trip into Sunscape's nightmare, right down to the last detail up until his awakening in the hospital. Each second of story was retold with the feelings of the moment, sometimes leaving the pegasus shaking slightly. He sat there and told it all though, much to the apparent interest of Prosel, who didn't say a word until Dream had finished.

"And then, when I woke up in the hospital, I saw myself in the mirror...but it was different. He said I broke the rules by telling Mr. Sunscape the truth...and that's when I went blind, sir."

Prosel sat quietly for a moment, pondering what he'd just heard.

"That's some story there, Dream. It sounds to me more like a nightmare than a dream of any kind."

"It was really crazy sir. But I want to go back. Mr. Sunscape said it was a dream catcher's job to make sure ponies could sleep at night without having nightmares...and he said I was one. That my eyes being two different colors was the symbol of all Dream Catchers." Dream nodded. "If I can help other ponies not have bad dreams, then I want to try. Even if it was scary."

===D.W.===

The battered, disheveled willow branch that comprised the circular base for the netting of the dream catcher was wearing thin in a few places, the silk mesh itself becoming frayed around the edges. Dream cast a steady hoof over it, feeling the worn contours of the fragile object before him, unwilling to be rid of it.

"Don't break on me now...please." He silently pleaded with it, knowing it wouldn't last much longer. Time had taken it's toll; the wood was dried and brittle and the strings were mere days from snapping under their own tension. It had to hold though. Just for one more night.

Placing the simple yet proven powerful object beneath his pillow, Dream cast shut his eyes to the world around him and settled in for a long night. His breathing slowed to a minor rhythm, blowing strands of his carelessly strewn mane about his little face.

As soon as he was sure his boys were asleep, Oneiric crept into the room unannounced. He slipped silently towards Dream's bed and watched the rise and fall of his chest closely. It wouldn't do him any good now to wake the boy. He stood there for a few long moments until he was sure that Dream wouldn't wake anytime soon before reaching around with his magic underneath the pillow.

The conversation from earlier played over and over again in his head.

===D.W.===

"Dream insists that he's able to travel to the realm of the subconscious by using the power of a dream catcher he received from a pony at a festival, two years ago. I'm afraid he might be letting this imagination of his get too out of hoof, Mr. Nights." Prosel Wright had said with no small air of concern. He'd asked to speak with Oneiric when he'd picked Dream up from school.

"Mr. Prosel, I can assure you that no such thing has been happening. While my son does possess a unique and interesting plains pony artefact, I doubt he's actually going anywhere using whatever 'mysterious' power it might hold, if any. I'm a pony of science, I can assure you. Whatever he's been saying, we'll work it out in a method that ensures that the boy keeps believing in himself and his ability to help others...but not one that pursues these fantasies." Oneiric had replied.

===D.W.===

With a heavy sigh, Oneiric pulled the strange, circular object from beneath the pillow, cringing as a muffled snap sounded from beneath the canvas. When it arrived in front of his face, Oneiric noted that the ring of willow branch had collapsed, the webbing hanging loose and free. He looked at the strange oddity for a moment before turning his gaze down to Dream. The colt made not so much as a twitch. In fact, he looked to be sleeping more peacefully than Oneiric had seen him sleep in a long time.

The unicorn gripped the dream catcher in his magic tightly, turning to leave the boys room. It was with a sudden start when he spun to face the door that he noticed that it no longer existed.

'All right Nights...figure this out. There was a door here just a second ago. It can't have just disappeared.'

He'd said it before himself. He was a pony of science. Science of the mind no less! A door doesn't just simply disappear! That'd be complete nonsense.

But as he fumbled around, searching for it in the darkness of the room...he couldn't even find the frame, let alone a handle or a door for it to be attached to.

Immediately, he reached out with his magic to find the door's mechanism.

'Well...this is certainly an elaborate joke...and some fairly good magic. I have to admit, this is good. You can sleep now Mirage, but we'll have a talk later when this is over.' He grumbled mentally, resolving to give the boy a stern talking to when he woke up.

After a few minutes of struggling uselessly to find said mechanism...he changed his mind. Mirage would get a talking to immediately. Only...he wasn't there when Oneiric turned back to the beds. And neither was Dream.

"All right boys...jokes over. It was good, but come out now." He muttered aloud.

Nothing. No sounds of movement. No laughter. Not even a creak of the floorboards as he made his way over to the beds to search them more thoroughly.

"Enough is enough! I said the joke's over! Now come out before I tan both of your hides!" Oneiric shouted.

A sudden banging on the wall made him jump away from where the door should have been.

"Dad?! Dad!? Are you in there?!" Dream's small voice barely came through the barrier between them.

"Dream Catcher, you tell your brother to open this door right now!" Oneiric called back, a sudden simple breeze sending a chill up his spine.

"Dad! It's no joke! You've got to get out of there!" The young pegasi's voice sounded beyond insistant.

"Don't toy with me! You think I haven't tried? There's no door here!" Oneiric snapped...when suddenly the idea clicked into his head. Unicorn. Magic. Teleport. He almost slammed his head against the wall, frustration evident on his face. Reaching into the pit of his magic, he pulled enough and pictured the hallway outside of the room. "When I get out there, you boys are in so much trouble." He grumbled. In a flash of white energy, Oneiric prepared to give his oldest the whupping of his life...

And came out of the teleportation spell staring at the exact same wall he's just left behind.

"Dad? Are you still there?" Dream's voice was becoming ever more urgent.

"Boy, I'm trying to! But something's blocked my teleport spell." Oneiric stood back, a cold realization dawning upon him. The blocking of magic in defense was one of the first few lessons they taught after magical control in school. The blocking of magic in offense was something you didn't learn until a much more advanced level.One typically reserved for the Royal Guard. One Mirage was no where near yet.

"Something isn't right here Dream. Go find your brother, and stick with him. Meet me downstairs, I'm going to try the window." He ordered.

"Wait Dad! Don't go..." But Dream's voice was lost to a muffled murmur as Oneiric approached the window of the room. He flicked the latch open with his horn and pressed against the wooden framework. As he did, the picturesque scene of nighttime over Ponyville vanished into a cloudy crimson sky that caressed and endless sea of black, transitioning like somepony was sliding back a curtain. Thick blankets of condensed water vapor clung to the air around him...and if he listened closely, the unicorn was sure he could hear the sound of multiple ponies crying out in the distance.

Oneiric grabbed the panes with his magic and forced them shut along with his eyes, unable or unwilling to believe what he'd just seen. He shook his head to clear the image from his mind as he opened his lids again, only to find that the pitch-darkness of the void hadn't faded, and neither had the red tinge to the air. If anything, the room itself was beginning to become cast in the same bloody hue that the sky had been as he stepped away from the window.

The stallion spun on his hooves, ready to break down the wall if he had to when he noticed, with a rather slack-jawed expression, that the doorway to the room had returned. Tentatively, he approached, gripping the handle in his magic. The slight tinkling of his violet aura, typically only audible if one listened very closely and knew what to listen for in the first place, overpowered the click of the mechanism in the portal while it swung open. For all intents and purposes, he imagined that at its current level of volume, the sound of himself utilizing his spellwork would've roused the entire town from slumber. It chimed loudly enough that he would've mistaken it for high pitched clock tower bells if he hadn't known where it was coming from himself.

There, on the other side of the door, completely against his wishes, stood Dream, staring him down with a more than moderately disturbing glare. Oneiric knew his son couldn't physically see him, but still...the colt's eyes bore a focus and a sharp recognition of his father's presence. The second the door had opened, the colt's gaze had locked upon him like a hawk watching its prey.

"Dream! What are you doing up here? I told you to go downstairs to your brother!" Oneiric bellowed, mostly out of concern for the pony's safety.

Dream never once took his eyes off his father.

"Who are you, who thinks he can command me of all ponies?" The colt replied, a cold indifference seeping venomously into his words.

"I am your father, that's who!" Oneiric grit his teeth, appalled by his own son's defiance. "You'll hear about this later young colt...for now though, we need to get out of here. Something's not right." He made to put a hoof around Dream and take him downstairs. Instead, the stallion found himself wondering if he'd have had better luck moving a concrete wall.

Dream stood rooted to the spot, not even looking at his father now.

"You foals are all the same." Oneiric would've been hard pressed to miss the snide hint of deprecation. "You see one thing and immediately liken it to something you're familiar with. It never changes."

The unicorn stallion turned to Dream in anger, ready to knock some manners into him. Instead he was met with a blank spot on the floor where the colt had been standing.

"You see me, and think I'm your son. Your precious little Dream Catcher."

Oneiric jumped at the sudden voice behind him, spinning around and once again finding an empty space. Dream couldn't have gone anywhere in that intermittent time. There was only two other doorways in the hall plus the staircase. One of which Oneiric was standing in front of, to the bathroom. The other being his own bedroom door. Dream couldn't have gotten into the bathroom without him noticing...and the boy dared not venture into his father's room. That left only the staircase, but upon a quick inspection, he wasn't there either, and Oneiric heard no sound from the ground floor.

"As much as I'd like to say I hate to tell you that you're totally off track on your pitifully short, already single track mind...I have to admit there's much pleasure in that idea. It simply makes you all the more fun to toy with."

Oneiric looked up and saw the black pegasus who wasn't his son standing upside down on the ceiling. The colt had an amused smile plastered upon his muzzle as he stared eye to eye with the stallion below him, wings out stretched, mane and tail staying in place as though he was standing simply on the floor.

"Allow me to derail you even further." The black colt chuckled, before his hoof shot out quicker than lightning.

The stallion stumbled back, spots and shapes erupting in his vision. This apparition of Dream; as it most definitely wasn't his little colt, had struck him with a surprising amount of force. That was for sure. Oneiric struggled to get his bearings back once his sight cleared, but to no avail. He now stood somewhere amidst a sea of velvet blue and black, inked in white dots all over. Immediately, he began sensing patterns to the dots, finally coming to the realization that they were stars and constellations. That revelation only further unseated his nerves when he discovered that he wasn't standing, so much as floating.

Once that epiphany had arrived, he immediately turned his thoughts inward, remembering that there still wasn't too much known of space at that point in time. The stars were the realm of the Princess, as she moved night and day. Out here, where there was nopony around, he felt vulnerable beyond belief, if not even more so like the life was being drained out of him by the second. It took him mere moments after his last burst of knowledge before he realized he felt a crushing weight upon his chest, like some invisible force was pressing him together between two pieces of stone. At last unable to bear it any longer, he released his breath with a heaving gag, only now to find that he couldn't draw more air in, his silent coughing racking his body in pain as a deep cold pervaded him from both inside and out.

Just as Oneiric was about to black out from being oxygen deprived, he hit a solid surface hard on his back. Air rushed back to him, and for the first time in his life, he prayed to Celestia, hoping beyond hope that maybe she could save him and his family from this madness...wherever the boys were. She controlled the very sun, moon and stars! Surely she could tell when one of her loyal subjects was in dire need of her help.

"Well now, isn't this quite laughable. He finds himself in the grip of the stars and space, then cast about to parts unknown, further still in darkness...and he prays to the Princess of Sun and Light? What breed of fool do they raise these days, I swear I'll never know. Doesn't even know which Princess commands the stars and the night by birth right." The voice of the colt resonated from the pervading darkness around him.

Oneiric opened his eyes wide, searching the inky blackness. But he could find no trace of the demon that claimed his son's form.

"And even better yet...when surrounded by darkness complete, he still tries to use his eyes to find his assailant! Oh how rich. You are proving to be quite the entertainment!" A hollow laugh, remniscent of Dream's, yet twisted and distorted, echoed around Oneiric. "I'll tell you what. Since you've so thoroughly amused me, I'll give you a sporting chance. Let's play a little game, shall we?"

The stallion struggled to his hooves, once he realized there was something fully solid beneath him, aside from whatever it was in the darkness he'd struck.

"Tell me who you are, you infernal demon! While you're at it, tell me where my sons are! What did you do with Dream and Mirage!?" He bellowed at the shadow-black pony he still could not see.

"Ah...an interesting request. The first, I will tell you freely, when I so choose. The second, however...you must win the game first. Else, you're breaking the rules." At that, a pair of gold and blue eyes snapped into existence, hovering just beyond the tip of the unicorn's nose. Oneiric startled and jumped back, not entirely sure he'd land on anything. He felt great, inexpressible relief when his hooves still found purchase on a solid surface.

"Breaking the ru...so it's you!" The stallion shouted back at the eyes, yet another realization striking him. "You're the one Dream's always talking about!"

The orbs hovered for a moment before bobbing up and down.

"Yes. I suppose I can claim that bit of fame, though how he gets by the way he does, I'll never understand. It must be horrible to not be able to see where you're going." The eyes cinched shut as the voice chuckled. "Oh! But you know all about that right now, don't you?" They snapped back open, sharp and focused as ever...though if Oneiric had any say in it, those eyes seemed to be grinning at him none the less.

"Quiet! Let me out of here now so I may see my boys! And then, begone from us! This family has suffered enough without things like...YOU...plaguing us as well!" Oneiric roared back.

The eyes seemed to list at that, the light they cast slowly fading.

"Come forward, dear pony, and face your regret. Seek not for comfort, lest pain caused: you forget." The voice began in a sing-song tune. "Nopony's clean here, you've tarnished your flanks...so hurry now lest worry shred marks into blanks." The eyes closed again, the bright blue and golds disappearing in a white hot flash.

The area around Oneiric immediately opened up into light, and he found himself standing right next to Dream's bed where the whole ordeal had begun. Looking down to the destroyed dream catcher lying on the floor, to Dream's form sleeping soundly in his bed, the stallion for a moment thought himself mad. He turned, checking on Mirage and was relieved to see that he too was tucked in tightly against his covers, a soft snore escaping half muffled from his pillow.

The stallion heaved a sigh of relief he hadn't known he was holding in. He slumped to the floor rather unceremoniously and placed a hoof on Dream's shoulder, rubbing it gently so as not to rouse the colt from his sleep.

"Regret huh?" Oneiric muttered to himself. "The only thing I regret is not being here for you two more than what I'm able to." He huffed irritatedly. "That and not being able to help you, dear." He thought inwardly of his wife, her tender smile glancing through his troubled mind.

"It's okay...we forgive you."

Oneiric's ears swiveled around before he could even turn himself, pin pointing the voice that came from the doorway.

"No...it can't be..." His jaw dropped, eyes coming face to face with those of a pony who went out of his life some time past.

"No worries father." Mirage's voice added in...the snoring becoming what sounded more akin to a low growl. The bed to his left shuffled as Mirage moved around...but Oneiric couldn't take his gaze off of the pony in the door.

"Yeah dad! Everything's okay now! We can be a family again!" Dream's voice joined in the chorus...and pain blossomed in his right foreleg.

Shocked into action, Oneiric turned to face his youngest, finding a deformed, grotesque mockery of Dream lying in bed, his head turned all the way around with fangs sunk into his father's arm. The little pegasi's wings had been stripped of all feathers and flesh...only bone showed through. His cheeks had sunken in, parts of his scalp were missing, and from where the blanket covered his body on up, the stallion could see massive oozing sores all over the young colt's body.

"Father...what's wrong?"

His head snapped around to Mirage, whom looked no better than Dream did. His horn had been snapped off, and his eye glasses had fused with his face. His mane was in tatters and hung limply, barely covering up the fact that part of his muzzle had been peeled back, revealing stained, browning and broken teeth. Mirage too was also covered in sores that weeped pus, his frame horribly thin and ravaged by what appeared to be a combination of starvation and sickness.

When at last he returned his gaze to the pony in the door, Oneiric openly wept.

"Why?" He choked through sobs. "What has happened to all of you? And why do you haunt me so?"

The pony stepped forward, her singed mane and burnt pelt glowing as if it had a radiance of its own. Lightning crackled up and down her body as she moved, occasional bright sparks showing her as though through an x-ray.

"What's wrong, dear? Don't you want us to be together again?" She asked, her words sweet...yet filled with the venom of a viper.

"I tried to help you. It hasn't been easy raising the boys without you." He cried. "I've done the best I could! What's happening to them!?"

Both boys crawled forward from their beds, hitting the floor with harsh scraping noises. The shade of his wife crept closer all the while too, sparks of electricity dashing through the air, sometimes between her hooves and the floor as she walked.

"Star...Mirage. Dream! Why?"

All three converged upon him.

Everything went black.

===D.W.===

Dream sat alone amidst a small cluster of objects in the far corner of his room, watching the entire scene play out before him. He feebly attempted to move once more, but as before, his body wouldn't obey him. He saw the shallow spectres of himself, his brother, and his mother, Star Chaser, fell upon his father. Not for the first time he found himself wishing to be robbed of his sight in the dream world as well as the waking. The foul monsters ripped and tore at his father's shaking form, the smell of burnt hide amongst other things wafting over him whenever a bolt of electricity discharged from his mother's form.

"So, having fun yet?" The mirror image of himself asked, standing stone still beside him. "You know, I thought he would've liked this game a bit more. But he's not even trying to play."

"Shut up." Was all Dream could muster. He was openly sobbing, not caring what the other pony thought of him.

"Oh come now, it's not that bad. He's still got another chance. Don't you worry, things will be right as rain when he comes to." Then, the other colt put a hoof to his chin thoughtfully. "At least, I hope he will. I don't want our games to be over so soon." Then he shrugged.

"Just let him go."

His doppelganger's face lit up in delight.

"I can't. It would be against the rules, you know that."

"I'm sick of your rules." Dream shuddered, feeling the colt's head spin to lock onto him with a glare.

"If it weren't for rules, how would you know how to play the game? Besides, they're not my rules. If they were my rules, the game would be more fun than this." He simply shrugged, his attention returning to the carnage before them.

"You're sure he'll wake up tomorrow?" Dream asked.

His counterpart nodded.

"Oh yes. He's not quite done anything wrong enough to merit a full stay here yet. At least, not in his mind. He's safe for now. This is just a little prick of the conscience we're seeing here."

Dream turned his gaze away, unable to bear the scene before him. He was glad he could at least do that much, given how he couldn't do much else. The dream catcher had broken...and now all he could do was observe. Its magic no longer allowed him to interact with the world around him. What was worse...every bad dream that had been locked in its web was now free to escape and torment their owners again.

It was with a heavy sigh of relief that Dream noticed that the sounds had faded away, as had the imagery before him when he looked back upon the room. His father lay on the floor, unmoving...but physically unharmed. He would be all right.

"Oh how depressing. It's over all ready?" The other colt blanched. "How boring."

Dream shook his head slowly, willing himself to fade out of the dream. He didn't want to stick around in that pony's company any longer...not that he ever really enjoyed seeing him.

Soul Weaver, as he'd called himself shortly after their third meeting, was one of the most vile, disgusting ponies Dream had ever had the displeasure of meeting. He seemed to delight in the anguish and pain of others, playing his 'games' with them as he saw fit. Ponies had been maimed, tortured and tormented before Dream's eyes in their sleep because of this peculiar mirror pegasus. When he'd spoken to his teacher about dream magic, Soul Weaver was the exact reason why he'd wanted to know how it worked.

Dream had since been to many dreams like the nightmare that had just played out before him since his incident with Sunscape. And in almost every nightmare, Soul Weaver had been there. Sometimes Dream only felt his presence, a maleficent, baleful shadow that hung over him with every step he took. Other times, the pony had made appearances, laughing at Dream's attempts to help the inhabitants of the nightmare worlds. And then there were times when Soul Weaver took an active role in the disturbing happenings, smiling like the colt he was as if he'd just walked into a toy store or a candy shop. Glee and joy evident upon his face.

Nothing Dream had tried seemed capable of stopping the black pony that looked just like he did...so he merely took to doing what he could to minimize Soul Weaver's influence by providing better assistance himself. But now with the dream catcher destroyed...there was nothing he could do to help anypony.

"Why'd you have to go and break it pop?" Dream shuddered.

He was thrown awake by the sound of his father falling out of bed in the next room, followed by heavy hooffalls leading to the bathroom. A bottle of pills popped open, a deep muttering resonated, and then returned to the room. Dream knew his father would never remember coming into their room that night. He knew that Oneiric wouldn't remember breaking the dream catcher in his attempt to remove it from under the pillow. But he knew that his father was in danger.

Dream sat up in bed, feeling an ominous presence wash over him.

"Remember friend...no telling." The haunting voice echoed in his mind. "Don't wanna break the rules again, do we?"

The young colt grit his teeth and pushed the voice away, content for now that his father was back home in bed, and that he was safe for the time being.