//------------------------------// // Midnight Mission Part 1 // Story: The World Is Her Oyster // by DraconequusMaximus //------------------------------// Mad did not even begin to describe what Luna had been feeling the last few weeks. It had been going on for well over a month now, and ponies were beginning to bombard her with questions about missing dreams. A grand total of seventy-nine percent of all Equestrian citizens had experienced the dream loss phenomenon. It seemed to skip the majority of wealthier ponies somehow, but only if they didn't have young children. Scientists and mages all of the country were baffled by the epidemic, and the eldest princesses had never seen this sort of thing occur either. The ponies felt no physical side-effects, but the psychological effects became more devastating the more times it happened to someone. With the loss of their dreams, imagination and creativity slowly waned until it faltered all together. A great deal of musicians and artists had already put a hold on all creative endeavors, including Sapphire Shores and New Lunar Republic. The public was becoming uneasy and in an increasing number of cases, depressed. Their were several ponies in Luna's lab that were being payed to act as controlled test groups. Luna was staring into one of the rooms right now, a room containing a single pony that was deemed most average pony in Equestria by Normalcy Magazine nine years running. He was appropriately named Base Line, and had a cutie mark that looked like a series of check-boxes relating to his survey-taking hobby. Base Line had just gone to sleep ninety minutes prior, and was entering the R.E.M. cycle. This was the right time for Luna to be able to sense if Base Line would enter the Dream-scape or not. She had observed him for an incredibly boring twenty-four hours, having him go about a normal day as to be a perfect subject. Luna kept her magical senses at the ready, but felt nothing. Frustrated, she tried using her magic to influence Base Line to have a dream, but was met with resistance in the form of a foreign magic-signature that wasn't from a pony. Luna wouldn't have it, and she began probing and pushing as much as was safe. Luna's eyes began to fill with the darkness of the Dream-scape as they always did when she went dream-walking. Though she lost the fight, it was not entirely fruitless. In their enhanced state, Luna's eyes could see the stuff of dreams flowing out of Base Line's eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. It was subtle, as Base wasn't the most creative of ponies at the best of times, but it was there all the same. A strange mist that was attempting in vain to escape the sealed lab. "Green mist, invisible to mortal ponies, stealing away creativity. The dreams of my little ponies, and so too their happiness. Whomever is responsible for this injustice will have hell to pay." Luna swore to herself. Unbeknownst to Luna herself, her tired eyes had momentarily become the cold reptile-like slits of her former incarnation. Luna was so distraught she wasn't paying any attention to her own state of mind. Without dreams very many dreams to protect or ponies to aid she had too much time on her hooves, and had started obsessing on finding the culprit behind the nefarious plot being carried out. Luna lit her horn blinking out of existence, going back to her chambers. She had preparations to make, and would take nothing less than perfection from herself. Luna was on the warpath, and anyone that stood in her way was to be pitied. Fifteen hours later, Sweet Apple Acres. Pearl had just arrived home from school with Cinnamint and Pearl in tow. School had started a week ago, with Pearl's birthday having gone by two-weeks ago. She had received a Joy-Boy SP pink pearl edition from her fathers and the latest Pony-Mon game, a signed copy of Daring Do and The Steel Serpent from her Aunty Rainbow, and a genuine blue moon-diamond pendant from Aunty Lulu, who had unfortunately been unable to attend with the ongoing crisis. Despite having just turned thirteen years old, Pearl was decidedly unhappy right now. The issues of her unwanted pseudo-immortality still weighed heavily on her, but now the loss of her dreams was the problem of the week. As soon as she had been relatively light on emotional burdens and high on hopes her inspiration was snatched up, as if the universe had set her up to fail. Or that's how it seemed to the teenage dragoness anyway. Pearl had managed to make progress on her fire, but had yet to show anyone, or even tell any adults of her plans. She wanted to wait until it met her fairly high standards, and until she could properly show it off. As soon as the dream thefts started happening to her more and more she lost her muse, and had even lost interest in practicing. Pearl's drive had been stolen away, and her friends and family were all using all their free time to figure out how to fix the problem. As soon as the trio got in the door of Pearl's family home Pearl made for the couch. She rested her head against the back and let out a dull groan, as if she was looking up to the ceiling for some kind of invisible answer she might have never noticed before. Cinnamint and Screwball exchanged worried glances, both concerned for her. They too were suffering, but Pearl's issues were compounding, and they felt that Pearl would slip into a permanent funk if things stayed this way for much longer. I give my horn to fix this, but I dunno what to do. Cinnamint thought to himself sadly. As if on cue, a bright flash of blue light illuminated the room. Pearl snapped to attention, staring into the sudden magical phenomenon. Due to having a number of incredibly gifted magicians in the family Pearl could instantly tell who and what was happening. The who, being her Great Aunt Luna, and the what being a long-distance, multi-person teleportation field. Sure enough, in a few seconds Luna stood in the middle of the living room surrounded by a small squad of her loyal thestral guards. Since it was daylight, they each wore shaded glass goggles made to fit under their helmets, protecting their sensitive but powerful eyes from the sun. Luna herself seemed to flinch at the brightly-lit room, likely because she had been in her dimly-lit section of the castle for some time. The children would have normally been delighted to see Luna, but they felt only worry as they looked at the alicorn. Luna had enormous bags under her eyes, and her feathers were unkempt and out of place. Even her ethereal mane and tail were rather droopy, and sparkled much less than normal. Pearl, Cinnamint, and Screwball all thought she looked like death warmed-over. "Aunty Lulu? You don't look too good." Pearl asked in concern, thinking Luna's health more important than a proper greeting. Luna nodded her agreement, not bothering to deny it. "I have not slept since I felt the dreams being stolen from all over Equestria. I regret missing your birthday party, but I was preoccupied. Rest assured, this is nothing. I once went three months without sleep or food, using only moonlight and water to sustain myself. It isn't as refreshing as sleep, but I'm still eating too. I can continue this way as long as is necessary." Luna explained, failing to instil confidence in her grand-niece. Luna saw the look of worry on the children's faces and felt her heart ache at having caused it. She joined Pearl on the sofa, wrapping a front leg around her. She motioned for Screwball and Cinnamint to join them on the Spike-sized sofa. Both of them cooperated, easing up just a little. "Captain Crunch, please lead the squad in fulfilling the orders I discussed. I will be taking a short respite until you return with the others. I will be safe in my nephew's home, so please do not worry for me, as you are one to do." Luna commanded a nearby thestral guard. The guard saluted, but frowned somewhat. "Requesting permission to speak freely Ma'am?" Crunch asked. "You know I dislike unnecessary formalities Captain, speak to me as you would a friend." Luna said with a roll of her-eyes and an annoyed tone. "Well it's just that, I'm actually a lieutenant. But, for some reason you always call me a captain, despite the fact you know I'm not. Why is that?" Crunch asked awkwardly. "Because I find it hilarious Crunch. I actually considered changing your rank for that very reason, but I'd already done that with Sergeant Pepper and ponies would talk. Now, if you wouldn't mind, mission, saving Equestria and all that?" Luna replied with a devious smirk. Lieutenant Crunch frowned, but saluted before exiting the house with the other guards. Cinnamint and Screwball were delighted to see that Luna's antics had tickled Pearl's funny-bone, causing her to giggle. Pearl had been far too mopey lately, and it did everyone good to see her smile. "Well then, I suppose I should honor my word and take a short nap. My guards will likely return within the hour with the rest of the family. Until then I'm going to sleep here on the sofa, if you'd please wake me when Crunch and the others return." Luna said before yawning loudly. "Don't worry. We'll wake you as soon as they get here." Pearl assured Luna, comfortably sitting beside Luna with her hands in her hoodie pockets. Within moments Luna was out like a light and snoring softly. Screwball frantically waved a hoof in front of Luna's face, unable to elicit a response from the princess of the night. Pearl removed her claws from her hoodie, showing her comrades her crossed claws. "So obviously we're making her sleep as long as possible. She's a wreck right now. I don't want whatever bad guy getting the drop on her cuz she's too sleepy." Pearl reasoned. "On it." Screwball replied. Screwball took her beanie off her head and pulled out what looked to be an alarm clock. Screwball handed the alarm clock to Pearl who examined it carefully, but couldn't find anything abnormal about it at all. Usually Screwball's possessions were absurd and colorful or resembled other things. The alarm clock was an ordinary analog style clock with bells on either side of the top at angles and the whole thing was finished in a bronze-gold color. "Okay, I give up. What's so special about this thing?" Pearl asked, passing the uninteresting device off to Cinnamint. "Nothing, it's just an alarm clock silly. Just set it for morning, and I'll take care of the rest." Screwball replied. Cinnamint took the liberty of winding the alarm clock, setting it for seven AM. Once that was done, Screwball trotted to the center of the living room and stood there for a moment with her eyes closed. Even though she wasn't doing anything, both Pearl and Cinnamint could begin to feel magic building up. When Screwball opened her eyes, the normal steady spiral sped up, becoming a blur of lavender. The next minute, a blinding flash of light obscured everyone's vision. When the light cleared, Screwball was still standing in the center of the room, though she seemed out of breath. It was quite a rare occurrence when any activity or magic could tire out the spawn of chaos, so whatever had been done must have been big. When Screwball looked back to her friends they were speechless. Screwball's eyes were a that of a normal pony's, a lovely shade of blue like her mother's. "Screws? You alright there? Your eyes are... normal... " Pearl asked, voicing her and Cinnamint's concerns. "Whew, *huff* Yeah, I just used up all my magic. I only have a little bit compared to Daddy, and large-scale chaos takes it outta me. *huff* I'm gonna be a normal pony for a few hours, but we've got plenty of time." Screwball explained. "Whoa, I didn't know you could be normal. I'm so used to crazy that I dunno if I'd like a normal Screwball." Cinnamint thought out loud. "And what do you mean 'large-scale chaos'? What'd you do?" Pearl asked out of worry. Screwball picked up the alarm clock in her mouth and placed it on the end table beside the couch before turning back to her friends. "I garbled up the time-space continuum a little bit. We'll stay in the house with Luna while she sleeps until the alarm clock goes off. While outside, time is going normally. The moment somebody comes back will link up with the moment the alarm goes off. This way, Luna gets to rest all she wants while it's only like, an hour." Screwball explained as she sat down to rest a moment. Cinnamint pulled a pocket-watch from his saddlebag, finding it was spinning in complete disregard of it's normal function. "So if it was three forty-five PM when you did that, and the alarm is set for seven AM are we going to be stuck here for like fifteen hours and change?" Cinnamint asked sounding thoroughly unamused. Screwball's newly altered eyes conveniently expressed emotion much better than the regular spirals. Currently, regret and realization were making a stunning display. "I may not have thought that through all the way, but I literally can't do anything about it now. So we've got some time to kill." Screwball replied guiltily. For what seemed to be the next fifteen hours the trio played card games, watched VHS tapes (because apparently being cut off from the time-space continuum makes your satellite-dish stop receiving), slept, ate, and tried putting costumes on Luna without waking her up. Cinnamint won, as nothing would wake her before time it was decided by the hilarity of the costume. As soon as the door opened, Luna's alarm clock went off loudly, just as Screwball had said. As the adults filed in, the trio stayed to one side of the room. This gave Luna some room to stretch, while everyone else filed in. The guards entered first, habitually securing the perimeter. Though they were trained to be stoic, it was evident they were pleased that Luna looked well rested. Luna looked over to the children who had approached her once she seemed to be coherent. Screwball's eyes were back to normal, as was her magical ability. Likewise, Cinnamint and Pearl had freshened up after waking up hours before. This ensured that they looked just as fresh as they had an hour ago, so none of the adults found out that Screwball could have potentially broken the universe. "I thank thee for allowing me a brief slumber children. Perhaps I might trouble you for some coffee? I must be coherent when I explain my plan to the rest of the family." Luna mused, watching everyone file in after her guards. With a dutiful salute Screwball summoned up a cup of coffee that would have been more accurately described as a bucket with a handle on the side. Luna eagerly excepted the gargantuan beverage and began downing the steaming hot black brew with gusto. In less than a minute, Luna had dispatched the entire cup and set it atop a comically undersized coaster on the coffee table. "Excellent brew, thank you Screwball." Luna said with much gratitude. "Er, not to interrupt your majesty, but everyone is waiting on you." A thestral stallion whispered loudly to Luna. Luna turned to see that her guards had accomplished their mission. Spike, Macintosh, Applejack, Twilight, Trixie, Pinkie, Rarity, Discord, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash in her Wonderbolts flight-suit, and surprisingly enough, Zecora were all waiting to hear Luna speak. They all looked ready to roll, except for Zecora unsure of exactly why she was there. Luna got up from the sofa, a serious look on her face. She stood before the assembled mass of equines and miscellaneous creatures, as a general would before he addressed his troops. "I have gathered you all here to discuss a plan to put an end to the dream thefts. I have spent a great deal of time studying the phenomenon, and I have determined it to indeed be magical in nature. However, it is the product of an unfamiliar magic that has been infused with alchemy to create an almost imperceptible mist that carries away dreams, inspiration, and even nightmares, and connected feelings. "I have set up a specially designed arcane array that managed to capture a small amount of the mist and make it visible. With the aid of Discord, Twilight, and Trixie we will be on our way to my chambers in Canterlot. There, resident alchemy Zecora will examine it and help us devise a way to back-track it to whomever inequine threat is stealing our dreams. Then, it will be up to us to put an end to it. Celestia is handling my shift tonight, and releasing a press conference assuring ponies that things will improve soon. Any questions?" Luna elaborated before leaving the floor open. Zecora raised her hoof, though she seemed more at ease. Luna nodded, allowing her to speak. "I agree with this plan, and will be glad to help out you and your extended clan. Though I only ask the for an apology from the stallion who kicked down my door, I believe that was rather uncalled for." Zecora asked, looking to a bat-stallion who was suddenly quite nervous now that fifteen sets of eyes were on him. "Heh, I'm very sorry Ma'am. I just graduated from the academy and I got a little carried away in the excitement of my first mission." The stallion apologized. "Rest assured, you are forgiven. Just please have more respect for the places others live in." Zecora smiled back at the stallion who blushed and saluted. Next, Rainbow Dash raised her hoof, Luna giving her the clear to speak. "Did you know there's a fake mustache, a monocle, and bowler hat on you? Because I'm trying very hard not to laugh, but I can't take you seriously like that." Rainbow chuckled. Luna blinked, processing Dash's words. She raised her silver-shod hoof to her upper lip, removing the mustache. Luna's expression turned more angry than serious, and she lit her horn. She used her magic to lift the monocle and bowler hat off her head and floated them into the air with the mustache. To everyone's surprise a very small black hole opened up, swallowing the objects which were to never be seen again. It was pretty obvious that Luna was in serious-mode. That was the last anyone said of it. When all was said and done, it was decided the children could come with them to Canterlot. However, much to their disappointment they would stay at the castle while the adults went off to stop whatever it was that needed stopping. Lyra and Bon Bon would pick them up and take them home later in the evening after the five of them ate dinner with Celestia. Once everyone was huddled together they used their combined powers to teleport the group into Canterlot Castle directly. Since Luna was leading the metaphorical charge she was the one deciding their destination. The world became a wild blur of colors that eventually faded into blue, and then white light. Once the world stopped spinning everyone found themselves in a world of dark blue, purple, black, and silver. Luna's sections of the castle were always decorated as such and usually dimly lit to better accommodate her elite squads of thestral guards. The particular room they found themselves in however was covered in symbols and circles full of magical formulas and equations, all of which were glowing a pale blue with Luna's arcane power. Twilight and Trixie immediately rushed to various points of the room to geek-out over the impressive feat of spellcraft. "This is some seriously heavy old-school magic, it'd take a team of S-class magic specialists weeks to make and properly charge. They don't even use this symbol set in modern arrays." Trixie said aloud as she traced the conjoining lines back to the center circle on the room's floor. "Yes well, as you might imagine I prefer the old ways. And it only took me fourteen and a half hours to do it alone, thank-you-very-much." Luna said proudly. "Right well, how about those of us not magically inclined go get ready for whatever. I dunno about the rest of us, but I haven't eaten yet today and my fire could use some fuel." Spike suggested. "Eeyup, Ah could do with some grub. Ah've been out in the orchard all day." Macintosh agreed. "Yes fine, less chance someone will damage the arrays on accident. We will find you when we have something conclusive." Luna told the group as she got to work. Minus the non-magic users, the only ones left in the room were Luna, Twilight, Trixie, Rarity, and Zecora. Discord may have been magically gifted, but he had no taste for long boring science, so he left with Fluttershy, Screwball, and the rest. Luna ushered them over to one corner of the room, where a tall glass tube lined with archaic runes held a sinister neon green gas that swirled about. Each of the mages examined it carefully, save for Luna who had already committed everything of value to memory. "This is the mist, carrying the dreams of a pony. I was unable to extract the dreams, or it would have dissipated. Without the tube, it would only be visible by my dream-vision. The magic signature is decidedly un-equine and I have never come across it before. The accompanying alchemical components were determined as: nightshade, bitter-root, citrum berry extract, edelweiss, fire reed dust, powdered quarray eel tusk, the pollen of poison joke, worm's wart, and an ingredient I am unable to place." Luna listed off from a clipboard. Luna used her magic to pass the clipboard to Zecora, flipping it to a sheet detailing the chemical analysis. Zecora examined it carefully, while keeping the other ingredients in mind. After a time she passed the clipboard back to Luna. "May I trouble you for the marker used on this glass? I remember an array that may help, back from my days in alchemy class." Zecora mused. Luna reached into her mane, pulling out a silver glass-pen. Zecora took it in her mouth and had Luna remove the cap. Once the marker tip was free Zecora began scrawling an array on a blank space. It looked quite different from Luna's arrays, but that was to be expected since Zecora was taught in another land. Once it was finished the effects were almost immediate. The gas quivered and pulsed, and finally turned pink. After a few seconds, the array was alight with white magic, and then just as quickly the array flaked off and dissolved into magical sparkles. The sparkles floated over to Zecora and entered her mind through her eyes. Zecora didn't flinch at all, so if it hurt she was very good at hiding it. Everyone watched Zecora with great interest, barely noticing the gas had returned to it's normal appearance. "The primary ingredient is changeling mucus, though it has been put through much. It is refined with dyes and sugars for whatever reason, and then aged for many a season. It has dozens of uses in it's natural form, but this dream-gas is far from the norm." Zecora informed Luna and the others. Luna smiled an evil little smile, pleased to finally have a name for their enemy. The others were much less pleased with the news, knowing more of changelings than Luna. The changeling's shape-shifting and trickery were far from the easiest of magics to counter. "Changelings... I suppose that makes sense. They must be able to turn the dreams and feelings and stuff into something nourishing." Twilight thought aloud. "How wonderful, I slept through their invasion at my niece's wedding and fate has given me a chance to redeem myself. They've merely added fuel to the fire, treading on my sacred duty. All that remains is to find them." Luna said as she glared at the glass tube, a much darker reflection staring back at her. "I suppose we could let the gas out, and use Luna's dream-vision to track it." Rarity suggested. "No. It doesn't travel well on it's own. after five minutes in the open air it dissipates. They must have a means of collecting it somehow." Luna countered. Everypony was silent for a time, until Twilight spoke up several minutes later. "It's pretty obvious now that I think about it. Since they're stealing dreams it stands to reason that they collect at night. If they use their original forms they'd blend in with the night sky perfectly. They've been doing everything right above our heads." Twilight theorized. "And they have the audacity to use my night as cover. They are digging their own graves, and they don't even know it." Luna practically growled, her voice an octave lower than normal. Luna was ready to begin sending guards to track down anyone at all suspicious, but Trixie and Twilight stopped her with their combined magics. "We still don't know how they're causing this to happen Luna. If we get rid of them now, the dreams might never come back. They could be the only ones that can stop it. And we don't even know where their base is." Trixie reasoned, trying to calm Luna. Luna snorted loudly, but conceded to her point. "If it's loaded with sugars and dyes, it's probably some kind of energy drink that unruly teenagers binge on nowadays. Athletes and celebrities endorse them all the time, which would explain why it occurs in younger ponies and in such great numbers." Rarity suggested. "Actually, it's happened to the twins and we never let them have anything like that. The same goes for Macintosh, Spike, and Pearl. Mac's a nutritionist, he'd never let her have anything like that. I'd say it's something more like soda-pop or sports drinks than energy drinks." Twilight reasoned. Luna nodded her agreement and lit her horn once again. She summoned up a piece of parchment and quill and quickly penned a short missive. Once again, Luna used her power, this time to make the letter vanish. "I've sent a letter to the Department of Nutrition, Secretary Gluten Free is to stop all stores from receiving all beverages other than plain fruit juices and water until further notice and send us a list of the drinks most popular amongst foals and lower-income families. We should go meet the others in the castle's dining hall and inform them of the situation as we await a reply." Luna told the others calmly. Seeing Luna had returned to her normal self the others agreed to the plan and left the room. They made haste in getting to the dining hall, but unbeknownst to them a shimmering mass appeared in one of the room's corners just as they were gone. As soon as the shimmering stopped the mass was revealed to be a trio of small figures under a blanket printed with eyes all over it. Dropping the blanket, Pearl, Screwball, and Cinnamint were revealed. The trio stretched, having been stuck in the corner until the adults left had been cramped between the three of them. Sneaking back into the room without anyone had been relatively easy, as Screwball had nullified the sound of the door and their foot/hoof steps. Cinnamint lifted the cloak into the air with his magic to fold it and put it back into his saddlebags once it was a more convenient size. "Where did you even get that thing?" Pearl asked with a truly impressed expression. "Ordered it from the back of a comic book. It didn't work very well so I made it better with a spell Mrs. Trixie taught me from her show-mare days." Cinnamint answered with a puffed out chest. "Ugh you two can flirt and make kissy faces after we get everyone's dreams back. If we can beat the grown-ups to the punch we'll be heroes!" Screwball reasoned. Pearl and Cinnamint both blushed at that, but ignored it after the awkward silence. "We don't even know which soda the changelings are making, and even if we did we don't know where the factory is. How are we supposed to pull this off?" Cinnamint asked, getting the conversation back on track. "It's Mountain Magic obviously. It's only been out like a month and everypony drinks it like it's gonna give them superpowers. The factory is in the lower part of Canterlot, they did a fundraiser thing there when it first came out. I actually still have a flier for it in my bag, it's got the address. We can be there in like, forty-five minutes if we hurry." Pearl reasoned. Cinnamint weighed his options, as it was obvious Pearl was right. Likewise Pearl and Screwball were already trying to figure out how to convince Cinnamint to go along with the plan. Anytime they even thought about doing anything dangerous Mr.Responsible was always the first to rain on the parade. Granted it had saved all of them a great deal of trouble countless times before. "Okay, let's do this." Cinnamint said with conviction. "But Cinnamint! We... wait what?" Screwball replied confusedly. "Yeah what gives? Normally you'd tell us all the reasons we shouldn't do stuff, which is admirable, but kinda annoying." Pearl added with just as much confusion. Cinnamint's blush returned in spades and Pearl couldn't get him to look her in the eyes. She knew from experience that whatever Cinnamint was about to say was going to be embarrassing. Possibly, or even likely, for both of them. "I-I want you to be able to dream again Pearl. I know you're really sad since you can't work on your fire, and I like it better when you smile." Cinnamint reasoned. Pearl was now as red-faced as was possible for her pale scales. About a thousand thoughts were swimming around her head right now, and she was having trouble separating them from each other. One thought seemed to outshine the others, but she pushed it back, at least for the time being. "O-okay then! Let's uh, lets go destroy an industrial complex full of bug-ponies." Pearl agreed. "You have no idea how prepared I am for this." Screwball announced in an eerily calm voice.