The journey into the nightmares of others continued. Much of what Remedy saw was common nightmares; showing up to class unprepared for a test, being chased, falling, and things like that. There were some variations on these themes due to the dreamers being ponies as well; being the only pony in a class of humans and getting mocked for that rather than being naked in class, wings suddenly stopped working, fur falling out, those kinds of things.
There were of course also nightmares much like Laura's had been. Things that seemed to be tied to some specific traumatic event. Nightmares where the event replayed or some terrible distortion of the event replayed in the dreamers mind. It quickly became apparent there was a clear line between those dealing with general anxieties and those that had something specific really upset them.
Some of the general anxiety nightmares she honestly considered worthy of simple banishment as they were so laughable. Those that were of the second type were the more concerning ones. These were the dreams she was most in need of helping ponies with, real fears; fears of being separated from family, fears of violence, fears of not being able to provide for their families, wondering what would happen to them. There was a pony that she guessed was like her father that was trying desperately to assert her human form in the dream and struggling, but displaying the struggle in a graphic display of body horror out of a horror movie.
They moved from dream to dream to dream, experiencing countless fears and anxieties. The dream world didn't function on the same concept of time as the real world so there was no telling how long they were at it when they came up to a dream of a pony that Remedy recognized.
"This is Tattered Wing's dream, can we go on to the next, please. If what I think is coming ends up coming I don't want to see this. She had a friend die last night and has been through a lot of physical trauma. I definitely understand what kinds of things she must be feeling, but I really don't want to have to see this, at least not yet," Remedy pleaded.
"You are going to see some horrible things in dreams happening to friends and loved ones from time to time. You need to learn to steel yourself so you can be of aid to them too," Luna said in gentle voice.
"Not sure if I would call Tattered a friend or not at this point, we only met once last night. I'll stay and watch if you insist I should, but I am scared of this dream," Remedy said as she watched things start to occur.
"I admit I am interested in seeing for myself what inspires such dread in you after all that you have seen so far tonight," Luna said as she turned her attention to the dream.
It was in Charleston, which was no surprise. The dream seemed very realistic at the moment; it was night and the scene was from the top of one of the buildings of the city. At this point Remedy could easily sense who the dreamer was as she looked at a blank flanked version of Tattered Wing who was not hurt in any way, looking over the edge of the building along with five other night ponies.
"I'm not so sure about this, Mandy. That group looks a lot meaner than most the other ones we have stopped," a dark purple mare said apprehensively.
"Don't worry so much, Gail, we've got this. It will be a quick swoop down, knock a few over and dash out. Keep it up till they finally just give up and leave," Mandy/Tattered Wing replied as she watched down below.
"But they're got baseball bats, knives, and that one there is setting fire to things," Gail said worriedly.
"You worry too much, Gail," a larger black stallion said.
"Derrick you are like twice my size, you can take more of a hit than if they do something; me, I'll get my bones broken if one of them takes a good crack at me with a bat," Gail said with annoyance.
"Don't be such a scary cat, it will be fine. We've got this," a grey furred mare said.
"Just follow me and it will be okay," Mandy/Tattered Wing said as she spread her wings in preparation for a jump.
The rest spread their wings as well, with Gail hesitantly doing the same at the end.
Mandy/Tattered Wing leaped off the building and did an angled dive down, clipping the vandal that was in front of the group and knocking him down as she pulled back up into the air and landed on the building across the street.
Things rapidly went badly after that though. The next pony in line, Derrick, was caught full on with a strike of a bat across his head, causing him to falter and tumble to the ground instead of curving up and flying to the same building. Most the others pulled up and avoided that fate, but Gail was caught in a blast of fire from an aerosol can and a lighter and also tumbled to the ground hard, with some obvious burns.
The vandals moved quickly and began attacking the downed ponies, bringing down bats on top of them, stabbing, and setting fire to them. The four remaining above quickly rushed down to the aid of their friends trying to knock the humans away from their friend's downed forms. This time the other four were knocked down as well, with Mandy/ Tattered Wing being the only one who managed to somehow right herself into a glide slightly away, despite taking a blow to the side from a bat.
The humans went to work on the other three closely downed night ponies. Shouting insults and laughing as they attempted to beat the life out of what they were calling dumb animals.
Mandy/Tattered Wing pulled herself to her hooves and gave a wordless shout of anger as she charged back towards the humans recklessly, desperate to save her friends. They were all shouting and crying out in pain, with Gail's cries being particularly sharp and high pitched.
The charge was brought to an abrupt end as yet another bat came down on her back, forcing her down to the ground. A pair of the vandals stepped down on each of her wings and her back, pinning her to the ground.
"Aww, widdle pony forgot how to fly. I think her wings might be broken. I think we need to perform some surgery, what do you think guys?" One of the humans mocked as he stood over her and drew a knife. The ones pinning her gave off cruel laughs.
Mandy/Tatter Wing screamed in panic, adding her voice to the chorus of pain and misery.
"Enough!" Luna bellowed.
The scene paused frozen in time and then all the ponies, humans, and scenery blew away like dust in the wind. All that was left was Remedy, Luna and Tattered Wing.
Tattered Wing's sounds of panic turned to cries of anguish as her mind snapped back to the present.
Luna walked over to the crying night pony and Remedy followed close by.
"It's my fault, it was my idea. I said we could do it and I got Gail and Derrick killed. I did this," Tattered Wing sobbed as her form reverted back to her current disheveled one.
"Hush my little pony," Luna said gently as she brushed a wing over the crying night pony. "We all make mistakes, and this one was not yours alone. Most of your compatriots were just as eager as you to try to deal with these humans."
"Gail wasn't," Tattered Wing said as she gazed up with tear filled eyes at Luna. "Gail didn't want to chance it. She knew what would happen, but I pressured her. She was my best friend and I got her killed."
"She chose to follow. That was her call," Luna assured her.
"No, she was driven to it by my prompting and instinct," Tattered said angerly. "It isn't fair, it wasn't supposed to be like this. We shouldn't have to had to deal with those kinds of monsters!"
"Even in Equestria there are dangerous threats. It was naive and shortsighted of Sunset Shimmer to give you a belief it would be safe to defend others. The actions of these particular humans were truly heinous and there isn't anything I can say to you to make it better," Luna said sorrowfully.
"You are Princess Luna? Where are we? Is this another vision? And you over there, you are Phobia Remedy, right?" Tattered said as she took in her surroundings.
"This is the dream realm, my little pony. There are many ways to defend other ponies, and one of the ways you can do that is defending them from their anxieties and nightmares," Luna said as she spread her wings in gesture at the starry expanse.
"Maybe I should learn about that, I won't be doing much other defending anymore," Tattered said mournfully as she looked at her wings.
"They do look painful and severely damaged, but such wounds can be healed," Luna said as she looked at the wings.
"What??" Tattered gaped at the alicorn with wide eyes.
"It requires some magical remedies, and time, but your physical wounds look to be ones that can be healed. It is primarily the webbing of your wings that is damaged, and that can be reknitt with magic. There may be some scarring but it is treatable as the wings are still intact otherwise," Luna explained.
"I can fly again?" Tattered said with in a tone that bordered between disbelief and worship.
"In time, it will require an Equestrian doctor, and time to mend after that, but you will be able to fly again," Luna said in a kind voice.
"What about my friends? They are in far worse shape than me, I think that the rest are going to live. They need care more than me though," Tattered said as she looked around as if trying to find them in the stars.
"I cannot make any promises on that, as I have not seen them to judge their states. I can say that I can see that what can be done for them will be done. I only need know where you are located and I can have doctors ordered to you, or you brought to us, as soon as possible. I know little of your world, but I am sure others will be able to find you if you let me know where," Luna explained.
"Charleston, South Carolina, in the medical university. Phobia there knows exactly where to find me. Where are you?" Tattered said with wonder as she gazed as the princess.
"I am admit full ignorance with your place names, it is a region near a high range of mountains in the west and plains to the east," Luna said.
"You are in the midwest, I am guessing you are near Lazy Pines in Colorado. That makes sense. With how everything has all but shut down it will take a while to get anypony to me or longer for me to get to you. Considering flying is about the same speed as traveling by car that is like a three day trip for a winged pony still. I don't mind, I had no hope for anything before now, and now I do," Tattered said with gratitude.
"If so far away it may take even longer than that, as it will take time just to get the ponies willing to make the extended trip. It isn't a hard task, as many are willing to help, it is just making arrangements to allow them to do so. I will do my best, and will remember the feel of your dreams to let you know when I have an update," Luna said.
"Thank you," Tattered said as she let loose happy tears. "You have no idea how much this means to me."
"Sorry to interrupt, but I was kind of suppose to talk to you tonight and was wondering if I could just get that over with now while I am here," Remedy said, ashamed that she was butting into the conversation.
"Talk to me about what? Were you planning on joining the Enclave?" Tattered asked with a quizzical look.
"No, not intending to do that, I was supposed to talk to you on behalf of the local government relief effort director. He wants to meet with you tomorrow and discuss..um..the Enclave's methods in protecting. It is causing a lot of worry for the government and they're worried about what'll happen when news breaks about it to the rest of the country. They're worried it could cause increased human and pony hostilities. They also were wanting to make arrangements for you to have the night ponies in Charleston added to the census," Remedy explained.
"I'm not concerned with increased hostilities, I'm concerned with keeping those we protect safe and my ponies safe," Tattered said in a much harder tone than she had been using to this point.
"If hostilities get too high you might have an army to contend with, and what you are doing won't work against that. They promise to try to work with you to address your concerns, the director for the area just wants to talk to you and discuss options. They don't want things to go sour. You've got to realize how afraid the humans in Charleston are of you right now, even if you mean them no harm. We don't want that spreading to the rest of the country because scared people will lash out after a while," Remedy explained.
"What is this that is being discussed?" Luna asked in a stern voice.
"Tattered here is a leader of a large group of night ponies named the Enclave of Night that have decided that the most effective ways of dealing with humans that are trying to rob or loot is to attack quickly and break their bones," Remedy explained.
"And to what purpose is this done?" Luna demanded as she leveled her gaze back to Tattered.
"You just watched what happened to me and my friends. We lack an effective means to deal with armed and dangerous humans without completely taking them down on our initial attacks. We also can't anticipate which humans are going to be armed. If one of them is doing robbery or worse we don't hesitate, we break one of their legs or arms," Tattered explained.
"How many of you are engaged in this activity?" Luna asked in a slow tone.
"By my last count there were one-hundred and four helping keep the peace," Tattered answered.
"In one city?" Luna asked with some disbelief in her tone.
Both the night ponies nodded.
"The government is supposed to be asking the help of your world in figuring out what to do with the situation," Remedy said.
"How long ago was this request made?" Luna asked.
"Not long ago, if it was made yet at all. They said they would put in a request not long before I went to sleep," Remedy explained.
"That might explain why I have not heard word of this yet. I will pass word along and find out if we can find more peaceable ways of dealing with your concerns. In Equestria night ponies would not be working by themselves at night bearing the full burden of overnight protection, and often act as scouts for others who will do the subduing in such cases, but I understand sleeping patterns are more heavily ingrained in the ponies on your world. Sunset Shimmer's tampering has led to negative consequences in many unforeseen ways it seems," Luna said gravely.
"As I said, this isn't fair, we weren't made for the situation we are facing and we are doing our best to adapt," Tattered explained.
"I will see what can be done for you all to address the problem in a more amicable way. I urge you to meet with the humans and speak with them to try to find a better resolution as we do not want humans to have any more reason to fear you," Luna said.
"If that is what you order," Tattered said with a bow of her head.
"I order nothing. You have no allegiance or fealty to me. I simply highly recommend. I hope you do heed my advice though," Luna said.
"I will," Tattered said.
"We shall depart you then. My purpose for now was helping Phobia Remedy with learning the feel of nightmares and we have become distracted. Take care, Tattered Wing, I will check up on you in a day's time," Luna said.
"I look forward to it, Luna," Tattered said, a sound of worship still in her tone.