Prologue
A Darkness Consuming.
Dreams.
Such wonderful things, they inspire passion, creativity, hope. They help find and make purpose in life for some. Others, seek love for and from their fellow beings. It from these dreams that a wondrous world is born from, Nightopia. Born from dreamers such as you or I. Nightmares on the other hand stem from fear and hate, perpetuating such negative emotions causing further harm. They give doubts about our goals in life, make us scared of rejection, afraid of the dark things of the night. It is from these that the aptly named Nightmare is born. From within Nightmare, lay it’s dark and cruel ruler, Wizeman the Wicked.
Forever seeking to steal away the Ideya from the dreamers linked to Nightopia, in an effort to rule both dream realms, which would lead to the ultimate culmination of taking over the living realm. To serve this end, Wizeman created the Nightmaren. Creatures, genderless, shaped in all manners and sorts, which existed only to steal away and store the powerful Ideya that would be used for Wizeman's plans. Ideya an ancient magic of the dreamer's soul representing, purity of heart, growth of the soul, hope for the future, wisdom of age, and lastly courage to face fear, much to Wizeman's continuous rage.
The incredibly rare and vastly strong force of magic was the only thing that Wizeman's Nightmaren forces could never steal away. It took centuries of careful studies to even attempt to craft the two level one nightmaren that even had a possibility of interacting with the red ideya. These level one nightmaren looked something akin to medieval court jesters, one of royal purple coloring and another of a red and black striped pattern. A unique trait, that of which made them level one nightmaren, was the free will Wizeman had imbued into them, much to his reluctance. A nightmaren with free will could overpower and dualize with the dreamer (the act of which the jester like nightmaren could possess the dreamer) and physically move the red ideya, bringing it before Wizeman, who would then leech it from the dualized jesters.
Of these two level one nightmaren, only one served its purpose dutifully, despite being a failure. Reala, her exposed skin tinted a slate blue, his jester outfit striped black and red, had extreme difficulty in dualizing with a dreamer having only succeeded once, only to loose her control later. No matter how hard he tried she couldn't replicate the effect, a failure Wizeman reminder him of all to often, and constantly, in Wizeman's cold and detached way, threatened to kill off and start again.
Wizeman's more successful level one, was another problem entirely. The royal purple nightmaren could dualize with any dreamer baring the red ideya of courage, yet despite it being capable of its purpose, it too was a failure. It had rebelled against Wizeman. It was a fact the dark lord of Nightmare found quite disruptive. It was his. It was not a living thing, it was a tool, and if it could not serve, it was either to be fixed or destroyed. Strangely despite his efforts to do so the rebellious nightmaren had stopped his plans twice, with it's last push back against it's creator, the purple nightmaren had actually managed to banish Wizeman from his domain. Leading the wicked creature to search for a new source of dreams and Ideya then the human dreamers. His search lead him down multiple versions of Nightopia and Nightmare, none capable of producing useful ideya.
That was until he came across a curious dream bubble and the equine creature that inhabited it. The lavender equine dreaming of two horned pegasi moving the sun and the moon around her world. Her horn glowing slightly, and relatively fresh wings tucked close, receiving looks of pride and love from the older equines. Wizeman began to let his influence filter into the equine’s dream, the looks of admiration and pride turning sour in the young mares dream. As Wizeman's dark powers turn the dream into a nightmare, Wizeman began to plot his rise to power once again.