"Your Majesty, is it true you once walked the dreams of your subjects to help them face their fears and learn important life lessons?"
"Yes, Lieutenant Captain, we did this in the days before our corruption as one of our duties as ruler of Equestria. It will still be some time before we can take on this duty again, we are still too weak. We are curious, though, as to why you ask such a question? It was only in the records of the Thestrals that this knowledge was preserved, so it is not now common knowledge."
"One of my command has been having greatly troubled sleep. Questions to the Lieutenant in charge of the squad he is part of have produced no effect, and when I approached the member of my command in question he insists that there is no trouble. I was hoping that Your Majesty might be able to help with this problem."
"Sadly, there is nothing we can do. The walking of dreams was one of the powers taken from us by the Elements of Harmony, and we do not know when it will be restored to us..."
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The preceding conversation between Princess Luna and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, as the reader might've already guessed, was in reference to the nightmares which began striking Guard Lower Class Buck Withers after he had secretly joined the Agents of Chaos. These nightmares were not ones born of fear, but rather of a raging conscience - something Buck had long shoved down but now no longer could keep in check.
The tossing and turning in his bunk during Buck's attempts at sleep was reflective of the struggle within him between two different insistent voices. One was the burning fire of anger and revenge, wanting and longing for the high school "injustice" to be repaid on Shining Armor. The other threw the harshest of accusations at him: "selfish", "self-destructive", "traitor", "hypocrite". And the worst part was that Buck didn't know which voice to listen to - he had kept himself going all those years on the prospects of getting Cadance again, but he also knew the accusing conscience was right. Buck knew he couldn't have it both ways, but choosing either way seemed to have an unacceptably high cost.
These nightmares took him back through the years between the high school humiliation and his present condition. The first important scene took place shortly after Cadance's dumping of him - about eight years before the present - between him and his parents...
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For Buck Withers, looking at his Congresspony father was almost like looking at an older version of himself: aggressive, attention-seeking, always needing to be in the spotlight. It served a naturally disadvantaged earth pony well, but that kind of ambition was very much a double-edged sword, and it was at this point that it would start to destroy the future of Buck and his family.
Buck's view of the father he so much resembled in appearance and behavior - Buck inherited his distinctive jawline from his father - and the former "trophy wife" that was Buck's mother, was misted with tears. After all, even the toughest of jocks could crack under the humiliation Buck had experienced.
"Son," the father began to say as a forehoof was gently placed on Buck's shoulder, "you know I would go to the ends of Equestria to get you what you want, and this rejection is hurting me as much as it does you. I promise you that I will do everything I can to get her back. You understand, son?"
Buck gives a nod through a sniffle. At the time, he didn't understand, or even care to try to understand, what those words meant. All he wanted was Cadance back, but he had unwittingly given his father the means of the destruction of the life he knew...
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The next part of the nightmare was set two years after that time, as Buck's world unraveled around him. First Flank Thrasher's arrest, then his father's public humiliation and resignation, and finally the end of the dream of professional polo playing. At the time, he nearly lost Lemony Gems as well, and the charged conversation between them now served as evidence of his selfishness:
"I can't believe this! Is this what you've been doing for the past two years, using me to get back with Cadance?!" Lemony Gems exclaimed in the classic "hell hath no fury" scenario.
"Lemon dear, that's not true! I didn't know what my dad was doing! Honest!" Buck exclaimed in return, the dismay all too obvious in his face.
"Liar, you're continuing to lie to me! What are Diamond Rose and me really? 'Sloppy seconds'? 'Tools'?" Lemony Gems accuses.
"You are the love of my life, Lemony Gems. Nothing will change that. You've gotta believe me!" Buck continues.
"If you will not get over losing Cadance, you bucking selfish prig, then it'll be easy for me to get over you! Shining Armor is a far better stallion than you'll ever be! Always has been, always will be!" Lemony continues, throwing words like flaming darts, and even an echo in the mind's eye is enough to make Buck wince.
"Lemon dear, I don't..." Buck tries, his voice quite apathetic.
"Don't call me that! We are done, Buck! Done! Get out of my sight, you pig!" Lemony Gems spits out, turning away in anger and leaving Buck both speechless and heartbroken, standing alone in a world imploding around him...
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Buck considered himself lucky that evidence came out that his father had indeed kept information from him, because otherwise Lemony Gems would never have reconciled with him if that information had not come out. Buck had no idea of the kind of shadowy connections his father had - he dreaded the thought that his Congresspony father had been one of those "Agents of Chaos" once - and when the younger stallion confronted his father about them, it broke the relationship for good:
"I thought I told you never to come back to the house!" the older stallion stated angrily.
"Dad, I just want to know why you didn't tell me about these things, what you were doing! Please!" Buck all but pleads to his father.
"There are things that never should've seen the light of Princess Celestia's sun. Things that should never gotten into the public eye. And now those things are exposed, all because I tried to help you! Everything I have worked for is gone, all because of you!"
"Dad, please...!"
"Don't call me that!" the older stallion roars out, instantly putting Buck back into silence. "You are not my colt, not anymore! I am writing you out of my will, and I never want to see your face again as long as I live! You have three minutes to get out of this house and out of my life, FOREVER!"
Buck is so stunned by what has just been said that the only thing he can do is turn and walk away in stone silence, the only indication of his grief being the tears he dares to let trickle down his face...
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Buck Withers had never heard from his parents - the Congresspony father Strong Withers and Strong's wife Lilly Withers - since that day, and after joining the E.U.P. Guard he talked about them as little as possible. He guessed they were living in isolation now, possibly under different names, but there was no way of knowing for sure. The talk of the Agents of Chaos had brought up speculation of who might've been in that organization in the past, and Strong Withers was one of the many names tossed about in that speculation.
If this was true, that meant Buck was now involved in the same organization that had destroyed his previous life. That alone ought to have repulsed any decent stallion, but again Buck found himself lured in by the siren song of revenge and resentment against Shining Armor, of the fame he would gain if he could help bring him down in disgrace. Like it seemed to Princess Luna all those centuries ago, evil seemed the easiest way to get what he wanted...