Munna's had devoured many dreams. Some not even dwelling in Ponyville. It was chaos inside the Dream World. Munna's searching for a dream to eat like a moth pulling itself towards the light. Darkrai had decided to go out and give nightmares to the ones who had their dreams taken. If they are to ever sleep again, it would be best to bestow nightmares on them. It wasn't pleasant and Darkrai hated doing it, but it was the only way anypony could rest until the morning comes.
On the other side, The Dream World, Luna had to figure out how to stop all these Munna's from taking everpony's dreams. But she had assistance in the form of Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Rufflet, Brock, Celestia and Pinkie Pie to help her.
"We have to find a way to contain these things. All of them!" Rarity said.
"We can all think of something to trap them. After all, aren't we each sharing a dream?" Brock suggested.
"Then we will do just that." Rarity replied. They all pitched in to dream of something to contain these little dream eaters. Hard steel boxes, nets larger than houses, vacuum cleaners, tubes, they all dreamt of a way to stop them all. But there was still a staggering amount of them.
In the meantime, Darkrai had been putting others into nightmare states, granting them their sleep back. Darkrai was the only one who could negate Munna's dream eating at this point in time.
Despite all this chaos, there was one individual who was not minding this in the least. Fluttershy. She was sitting on a cloud peacefully. She didn't mind all the noise, all the ponies running from the Munna. Total peace of mind. Rainbow Dash saw her, trying to warn her.
"Fluttershy! No time to be sitting around! You have to help us!"
"But I'm in my state of mind right now, Rainbow Dash. It's always nice to be like whenever I'm dreaming."
"Yeah. Well if you wanna keep that, you'll help us. These Munna are eating everypony's dreams. That means that they won't be able to sleep ever again! Which means YOU won't be able to dream about this for the rest of your life."
That got Fluttershy's attention. She loved dreaming of this every night and she didn't want it to be eaten and taken away from her forever.
"That is a problem. Alright. I'll help. The most important thing, I'll need to know what they love to eat."
"Dreams obviously."
"No no. Like food. Any fruit that they like?"
"Didn't think of that. We can ask Brock. He'll know." Dash flew over to Brock who was fending off a pack of Munna's with a huge Officer Jenny statue. "Hey, Brock!"
"What is it?!"
"Other than dreams, what do Munna like to eat?!"
"Munna's favorite food is Chesto Berries! They love the subtle dryness that- Wait a minute.. of course!" Thanks to Rainbow Dash asking him, Brock came up with an idea. He began dreaming as he turned his Officer Jenny statue into a pile of Chesto Berries. This had caught the attention of the Munna. They all moved away from their targets and towards the berries.
"SO that's what they love as well," Dash said. "Everypony! Use your imagination to dream of these purple fruits! They kinda look like chestnuts." They all took Rainbow Dash's advice as they began dreaming of the Chesto Berries. Soon, the entire area was filled with Chesto Berries. This was a great distraction as it gave everypony time to move away from them.
They all flocked to Luna who cast a protective barrier around them all. That will make sure that the Munna don't get through.
"Phew. That'll keep them occupied for a long time. But we still don't know how to stop them." Pinkie said.
"Our best option might be to wait it out until morning comes. Then we all wake up." A man said.
"No. There are still others out there and they are vulnerable to the Munna. We must hurry." Luna exclaimed.
"Ash and Dawn are still out there. Their dreams are huge so tons of Munna will be pulled in by them." Brock talked about this friends.
"Twilight and Applejack as well. I just hope that they haven't had their dreams eaten yet." Rarity replied.
Speaking of them, currently, their dreams were untouched. Twilight was dreaming about making Celestia proud while Applejack was simply dreaming of her younger years of when she was a little filly. Ash was dreaming about taking part in a global Pokemon League and winning whilst Dawn was dreaming of being the top Coordinator. All of them were unaware of what was happening in the other shared dreams.
The group had all arrived at Applejack's dream first. But all they could see was just normal every day Sweet Apple Acres.
"Hm. This is Applejack's dream. Bit boring if you ask me." Rarity said.
"Where even is she? I can't see anypony. How about you Rufflet?"
"Ruff!"
"Maybe you should look at that..." Brock pointed at the indoors of the barn. Spotting a young little filly through the windows."
"Oh yeah, that's her." Rainbow replied.
"But why is she young? Is this what Applejack dreams of all of the time?" Fluttershy wondered.
"I don't blame her. Ah, the joys of being young again. Being around for 10,000 years can make you miss the younger years." Celestia was reminiscing her youth. Was a bit too far away considering her being an Alicorn.
" Focus, please. We must gather everypony else and protect them. Those Munna might be returning soon once they finish those berries." Luna said as they floated towards young Applejack. The little element of honesty looked up at the group, raising her little small hooves.
"Aww... look at how small she is." Rarity loved how small and cute Applejack was right now.
"Hello!" She greeted them by standing up on her small feet. "What are ya'll doing here?" She said with the same speech pattern as a baby. All bubbly and sounding like she's talking through her tongue.
"Applejack. You might have to come with us. There are these Pokemon called Munna's eating dreams. For your safety." Luna said.
"Okay!" She hopped on Rainbow Dash's mane, sitting there.
"That's Applejack. All that's left is Ash, Pikachu, Dawn and Twilight. Who first?" As Rainbow Dash was wondering which dream is next, the Munna had returned. They had gobbled through the berries in a few minutes, despite how many there were. "No way! How did they get through so many of them?!"
"We have to hurry! Think of more Chesto Berries! This time a lot!" Brock yelled. They dreamt up more Chesto Berries to keep them busy as they advanced onwards to the next dream. Twilight's dream.
However, for Twilight's case... she wasn't dreaming... she was having a nightmare. A nightmare about what Obsidian brought up. The fake friendship. Her fear of leaving Ash and Pikachu once both worlds return to normal was still in her. And how this was all just an alternate universe with different events that play out with different outcomes.
"Twilight? She's having a nightmare instead. But of what?" Rarity wondered as the answers had flown right beside them all. Everypony could see a projection of Obsidian talking to Twilight on that day. They had finally seen the truth. Celestia already knew since Twilight came to tell her, but the others not really. Now that they were exposed to it, they began to worry for their friend. And also wonder how this is all an alternate reality.
"I don't get it. This has all happened before? Are we sure this is not just some crazy dream like the rest?" Rainbow Dash said.
"No. This is what Twilight is fearing and reminiscing. It has already happened and now it is coming back to haunt her." Luna explained.
"So wait. All of this isn't meant to exist? Our worlds crossing over?"
"I'm afraid so, Fluttershy. This just shows how much power The Rift holds." Celestia replied.
"What do we do? Twilight's hit pretty hard with this and she'll never let it go." Rainbow Dash worried,
"That is a solution that will be solved in the outside world in her own way. Right now. We need to focus on saving her from the Munna."
On the outside world, Darkrai had placed all those who had their dreams eaten into nightmare states. The Munna situation had slowed down as time was advancing forward. The morning was closing in. Darkrai was maintaining everything if he saw another wake-up. He looked up at the moon, waiting it out.
"Hurry Luna. The night will be over soon."
The group had engaged in Twilight's dream as Applejack returned back to her normal self to try and comfort her friend.
"Twilight. Twilight!" She called out her. Twilight's eyes opened as she looked up at AJ. "Twilight. You have to come with us. The Dream World's in a bit of danger right about now."
"Applejack... I don't want to lose this friendship I've made with Ash and Pikachu. I don't want it to be fake. I want it to be real-"
"Your friendship with em is real. Right now if you wanna save your friends you gotta come with us to save them before it's too late." "Applejack said.
"Okay..." Luna placed the upset Twilight in the same bubble as the Munna were returning. They had finished the berries much faster this time.
"Impossible! How did they finish through them much fast this time?!" Rarity yelled. They dreamt of more chesto berries but this time, they avoided it.
"They're adapting! They know that it's just a distraction now!" Brock replied. The group were on a race. Luna had to not only solve the Munna problem but also lower the moon soon. They had arrived in the next and final dream. A shared dream. Ash and Dawn's dream.
Right now the two were facing their own challenge. Ash in a league and Dawn in a contest.
"Ash! Dawn!" Pinkie cried out. They both looked up to see the group escaping from a horde of Munna.
"What the?!"
"Pika?!"
The Munna had grown teleported in front of the barrier, using psychic to break it. They have grown smarter and stronger in these past few minutes.
"M-My barrier!" The Munna held the group up with Psychic, ready to devour their dreams.
"My dreams are precious! Don't eat them!" Rarity yelled.
"How am I supposed to come with new recipes!" Pinkie followed.
"Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" Ash had stopped the Munna from eating with a thunderbolt. Not just a normal thunderbolt, an amped-up thunderbolt due to this being a dream. "What's up with all these Munna?"
"The Rift changed up the nature of them. Not only that but it made so that when they eat dreams, they prevent you from ever dreaming or sleeping again." Brock explained.
"Seriously?! Well, how do we stop it?"
"That's what we were trying to figure out. So far everything we do has been a bust." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Well to be honest. I think we need to think outside the box for this one." As Ash was talking, the Munna had emerged up once more after recovering from the thunderbolt. Then, the dream eater Pokemon had grown to the size of giants, filling up the stadium.
"Woah nelly." Applejack and the others looked up at the gigantified Pokemon. They were massive in size and now they could snatch up their dreams from an easy distance.
"What now?" Celestia said.
"If they wanna dream big. Then we'll dream big too." Ash began dreaming of absurd things. He dreamt his Pikachu to be much bigger than the Munna's. Pikachu towered over them easily. "Pikachu! Iron Tail!" Pikachu whacked its iron tail on them. The impact made a loud noise due to how large they all were. One Munna was hit into the other, causing a domino effect.
"Nice hit Ash!" Dawn yelled.
"Piplup!"
"What have we been doing? We've been so focused on trying to escape from them and trying to find a way to protect everypony else... we forgot that this was a dream. We can go nuts!" Rainbow Dash said.
"But we have been going as nuts as we can." Fluttershy replied.
"Not nuts enough." Rainbow began thinking as she made herself an Alicorn. "Oh yeah. This will do." Rainbow Dash flew up, blasting away at the Munna. The others pitched in. Soon they all begun dreaming even bigger than they have. Things they never thought they would dream of, at least not yet. Celestia dreamt up a cake fortress where she was completely safe. Fluttershy dreamt up a giant-sized Angel Bunny to protect her. Pinkie Pie made a swarm of cupcakes to ride on and overwhelm the Munna. As the others played their part, Twilight was still on the downside.
"How many minutes left until morning comes?" Ash said.
"Not long. We only have about 9 minutes until I have to raise the sun." Celestia said in her fortress of cakes which were firing loaded cakes.
"Only 9 minutes? Then we'd better do our best to keep them busy."
As everyone was doing their best to hold the Munna off, some of them were starting to wake up. Other ponies had different wake-up times compared to others, so some woke up at around 6:00 am. Thankfully, these were the ponies who weren't caught by Munna.
The giant Munna had lifted them all with Psychic as they surrounded them in a prison made of hard steel.
"This won't stop us!" Applejack dreamt for her hooves being as strong as steel. She bucked on the prison bars, breaking them with ease. The Munna then scattered about to catch them all from different sides.
"Oh no, you don't! Piplup! Whirlpool!" Dawn commanded her Piplup as it released a barrage of huge whirlpools which caught the Munna in it.
Unfortunately, somepony had been caught by a sneak attack Munna. A tiny one even. Pinkie Pie was the next to have her dream devoured.
"Pinkie Pie!" They all cried out. Soon all the Munna became smarter and smarter. Some had even turned invisible. One had chomped on Brock's dream next. To stop this, Ash made Pikachu toss a huge electroweb, however, the Munna had adapted so far to the point where Electric Type moves became an immunity to them.
"They're immune now! Then we'll have to use moves we don't know! Pikachu! Dragon Claw!" Using the power of his imagination in his dreams, Ash made it so that Pikachu can now use Dragon Claw, knocking away the Munna with such great range.
"We only have 6 minutes left!" Celestia said.
"Sister. You must wake up now! We can handle the rest."
"Are you sure Luna? This is taking everypony to handle this."
"I am sure. It may all be overwhelming but it is still something that I can handle. You have to raise the sun to wake everypony up!"
"Very well. But how am I going to-" Luna slapped Celestia, which made her wake up. "Ow!" Celestia held her cheek as she flew out of her bed. "Alright everypony. It's time to wake up!" Celestia's horn glowed as she began to raise up the sun, much faster this time.
Time was running short. Other ponies had their dreams eaten as Darkrai kept giving them all nightmares repeatedly.
"Oh no... I think I'm fully charged." Rainbow Dash was next to wake up. "See you on the outside!" She had woken up, vanishing from the dream world.
"It seems that my time up is almost up, darlings. Good luck!" Rarity followed suit.
In order to end this all in one final last-ditch effort. The Munna all charged in from all sides.
"They're gonna crash into us?!" Dawn yelled.
"Oh no, they won't!" As the Munna's closed in, Ash dreamt up him and Pikachu being micro-sized as they avoided the charging Munna's. Everypony came up with their own creative ideas to avoid the Munna's over and over again. Making it like a game of cat and mouse.
And now. Only 7 seconds remain.
"Time's almost up!" Fluttershy exclaimed. The sun was at its highest point now.
"Great! Now we just have t-" From behind, Munna was about to deliver a sneak attack on Ash.
"ASH LOOK OUT!" They all pointed. Twilight dreamt herself of being an alicorn as she zoomed in, rescuing Ash from the Munna.
"Nice save Twilight!" Time was finally up. The sun was up, ponies were waking up one by one along with Pokemon and humans. Ash had woken up along with Pikachu. Then Twilight, then Fluttershy and so on.
"We're up! Finally!" Ash said.
"Pika!"
"It's not over yet. There are still others who haven't woken up yet. And my nightmares are still in play." Darkrai replied.
"What do we do then?" Applejack said.
Luna emerged from the Dream World. Her time was up. "There is only one thing left to do." Luna knew of one way to wake everypony up. She flew into the air as she used her Royal Canterlot Voice.
"AWAKEN, CITIZENS OF PONYVILLE!"
That woke them all up. Some fell out of their beds as others jumped up from the shock of the loud voice. All of Ponyville had woken up.
"Ugh... now of all times?" Lyra said, wanting to go back to bed. Munna had left the Dream World as well. The ponies over at Canterlot woke up earlier than most so it could not get as many as it wanted from that side. Only Ponville was its best option. Munna rose up into the air with its eyes glowing. Unfortunately, one thing that the Rift didn't take into play was Munna's stamina. After all of that chasing and eating, it was tired. Which is why it left the Dream World. It was aiming for the nightmares but it ran out of steam. Then the Dream Eater Pokemon had snapped out of it, fainting. But not before it gave off a pink mist.
"It's over. Oh, thank goodness." Fluttershy sighed with relief.
"Congratulations. You've waited out the Munna and night." The Rift had appeared congratulating them. "To be honest, I was getting bored until the second half. This short little event has been fun and all. But I cannot wait to see the next one." The Rift had gone off once more, back to its own realm where it dwells.
"I can't stand that thing." Rainbow Dash said.
"At least it's all over now. Now we just wait for the nightmares to be over. My, that was weird..." Applejack was still taken aback by how wild that was even for a dream.
This pandemonium that was to befall upon the Dream World was at the end of the day, Munna. It may have been short, but this will be a night that nopony will ever forget.
Chapter 33 End. Man, that was weird...