What Are Dreams?

“What?! NO! Stop! PLEASE STOP!” the poor young pony screamed as a knife seemingly about to be thrust into her lower abdomen. Screaming until her voice was lost, seeing her bloody reflection on the knives long shiny blade was the last thing she saw before it came rushing down. Before she could do anything, she woke up in a bloodcurdling scream, “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

It seems that Rainbow Dash has been having these same nightmares every night, for weeks, but she never told any pony, these dreams of torture, death, agony, pain, whatever could possibly make a nightmare its worst. It’s always the same, one of her best friends, brutally murdering her, but she always woke up before her death, the pain though it felt so real. She wondered why? Was she losing sanity? No, she just kept telling herself, “It’s all in my mind, it’s all in my mind”, but, she knew it was something more. You don’t just have nightmares every night, right? There was something causing this mental pain. She wanted to find answers to why this happens, and even why nightmares occur. Reaching out to her best friend Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow wanted access to all of the library’s books. See, after their adventures when they were young, Twilight took over the largest library in Equestria, a library that also holds every known record of every known thing to the Ponies.

Rainbow went out to find Twilight, the time was around midnight. She went to Twilight’s house, but she wasn’t there, this was odd. She never misses a good night’s sleep? So she set off to the library. As she arrived, the door was creaked open, she ran inside screaming “Twilight! Are you okay! Where are you?!” hearing nothing, she sat on a bench, until she heard a faint cry, a small breath, the breath was cut off and felt distant, yet was only feet away. Rainbow Dash looked slowly to her right, and the horror of her nightmares was the image she saw. Twilight Sparkle lay there, bloody, with a hoof weakly raised to the air, gasping, coughing, the pain was immense. Rainbow rushed over quickly, with her hoof against Twilight, she felt her pulse. It was weak, and irregular. Beating fast, then slow, then in different patterns, Rainbow looked to Twilights chest, in horror, a single knife gashed full blade through her ribcage, she jumped in shock, then slowly looked back to Twilights face, the last thing she saw, was her bloody grin, she looked her in to the eyes and a twitch of her neck, pulled out the knife, and thrust it into Rainbows heart, the impact of the blade was a flash, and a fade to white.

As Rainbow awoke on the floor with a large gasp for air, she slung her hoof to her heart, felt around, there was nothing, no gash, and it was all just another dream, she had fallen asleep when she sat down on the small bench in the Library. She heard a sound to her right, Scared, she didn’t want to look, for she seemingly knew that her dream would come true. Rainbow slowly looked, with one eye clinched and the other wide open, and there was Twilight, walking to her, “Rainbow? Are you okay?” as she got to her. “Oh! Twilight! Oh!” She yelled as she hugged her tightly. As they caught up with each other, Rainbow explained everything that was going on, they talked for hours.

The Ponies looked out the window, the sun was beginning to rise, Rainbow looked back at Twilight, “Wow, we’ve been talking all night! I can’t believe it! She exclaimed, “Anyway, do you have what I’m looking for?” Twilight ran to her private bookshelf. “Here, it’s from my most secret collection, this book should be all you need for your questions” She said as handing a book to Rainbow Dash. Dash looked down at the book, blowing off the dust, the book was old, and rugged, she read the title aloud, “What are Dreams?”, Twilight looked at her, “Yes, now, get home! Go to bed! I’ve got work to do”. Rainbow ran all the way home holding the book in her snout. When she got home, she unlocked the door and went in, thinking, she needed to get some rest. She put the book into her nightstand, laid down, and closed her eyes.

“This book, this book will not save you, nor will anything, give up now” A grim dark voice called out from the dark, Rainbow could not tell where the sound was coming from, she was scared, she began to tremble forward. Rainbow stumbled into a door, she could see light coming from the bottom, and she was frantic. She did not want to, but she knew that it was the only way out, she creaked the door open, and a blinding light struck her. As her eyes adjusted, she saw the most frightening thing any Pony could ever dream of seeing, she saw the room, filled with flesh, and mutilated body parts, and an orb in the middle, on the orb was the flesh of a face, attached by veins and strings of skin, the eyes were rolled back in the head, and it began to talk. The only thing it said was, “I am the Master, I am your destruction, you will not succeed, give up” in a hush, hollow, dark voice.

She awoke frightened, thinking that this figure could’ve been what’s been causing her nightmares. She immediately pulled the book out from her nightstand and began to read.

This figure in her dream, was known simply as… The Master. He was an entity that controlled dreams, and was once known as the god of sleep. But he wanted all control, this craving drove him insane, so he was cast away into another realm. And now he has come back. In the book, it said there was a way to destroy him, a weapon of a sort, but was lost. The last know location was the bottom of Equestria. Rainbow Dash knew what she needed to do. She packed everything she needed for the journey. Saying one last goodbye to her home, leaving a friend in care for it, she stopped at a gravestone. With a tear in her eye, “I have to go, I have to save Equestria, I’m the only chance, goodbye, I love you Spike” and she set off on another adventure, to find… “The Sunshine”