Chapter 2
Into Dreams
To say Luna “woke up” from her ordeal, would have been untrue. The more accurate statement would be she recovered her consciousness from her encounter with Wizeman. As to where she found herself, it seemed a well decorated yet light violet gazebo, yet the strange writing etched into the colored marble like structure, called it an ideya palace. Looking from within this small structure Luna could only see a desolate landscape for as far as her eye could see. What little of life that could be seen looked nightmarish under the sickly blue pale of the moon. While Luna did wonder as to where this palace was, to light blue pedestals siting inside the small palace adjacent to her held her attention. Blue marble like material, similar to what made the very floor she was laying onto of, with a silver placard mounted with an inscribed message. Curiosity overcoming her sense of confusion, Luna made her way to the pedestals. to the one on her right was inscribed…
An unsurpassed source of bravery, as it is the guide to the right actions—
Courage
and to the identical pedestal to her left
With the application of knowledge formed from a lifetime of experiences do we pass on to our successor—
Wisdom
Luna stared at the pedestals, not really seeing them, with only one thought tumbling about growing in it affirmation, and continuing her guilt. I failed them, tears started to flow from her eyes, Here I am, supposed to protect my little ponies from the darkness of the dream scape only to fall once again…how am I to continue? I failed them, quite possibly for the last time… her stare drifted to the desolate landscape surrounding her. Noticing for the first time what really surrounded her, dilapidated houses, half collapsed barns, all but dead farm land. Now several ponies now could be seen, whether they had been there before Luna truly saw them, or had been constructed from this nightmare induced prison Luna could not begin to guess at. Gaunt, downtrodden, starved, broken, and beaten all contributed to what Luna could only imagine what happened here, but what really had wounded her heart was the downcast gazes and their eyes, their dull sad and greyed eyes. They had no hope left in their eyes. Her moon high in the sky, only helped serve the severity of the conditions her ponies lived in. In it’s soft sickly pale light turned her beautiful warm night, cold and deadly. What caused this? she thought before that dark and familiar laugh caught her attention.
“Is this not truly beautiful, dear Luna?” The deepen and sultry voice of her dark counterpart’s voice surrounding her in a mocking tone, “This everlasting night.” Nightmare finished, her dark blue and violet miasma shifting into the shape Wizeman had given her.
“What tis This?” The young foal sized Luna asked, her maturity starting to disappear, for reasons unknown to her.
“Why this is what you wanted. To have your ponies work and play during your night. Of course the transition to night everlasting hasn't bared much fruit. All of Equus marches toward it’s slow and agonizing death. Never again will Celestia’s accursed sun steal the love and affection the ponies owed us. Tis no matter, soon ALL will bow before master Wizeman, and there is nothing you can do to stop him”
Luna, at first tried to deny what Nightmare was trying to convince her of. However, as Luna’s thoughts turned to younger and younger ways, the result of the loss of the ideya of wisdom, she began to believe Nightmare’s words as gospel. It broke Luna entirely. Nightmare only gave a darkly twisted smile at the result. With the knowledge that Luna, broken as she was, would be unable to use the red ideya and mount an effort to stop Wizeman. With her mission realized, Nightmare left Luna, alone, and in despair. As Luna sank into further and further depths of self loathing, the mere fact that all that was laid before her was nothing more than a dreamscape illusion, eroded away. To Luna, what she saw before her was her reality.
Her guilt turned to depression, the filly Luna, now mentally regressed to a foals capacity, wanted nothing more then to curl into a ball and fade away. The red ideya, now resting inside her barrel, where her heart was started to fade.
Bored. Just bored. Just very, very, bored.
Why was it that even after Wizeman was defeated again that he ended up once again in the ideya palace. Why can’t it be, even if it seems my life is set to be locked in this forsaken palace that there can’t be just some form of entertainment. Thought the sealed being. While it was true that the nightopians did often provide some means of entertainment, their usual jovial ways and near constant smiles warming her heart, sometime it wasn’t enough. HE wanted to be apart of their games. SHE wanted the opportunities to flight free in the dreamscape. So the boredom continued. In an effort to at least kill off some of the boredom, his hands up to her mouth, and miming a flute, he played a familiar jingle on the phantom instrument. Then she began playing in earnest, and played his instrument-less tune for quite some time. That was until the faintest sound was heard.
Pausing her joyous music he listen intently for what she might have heard.
Crying in nightopia? That never happened…unless… The purple, pink and white jester looking creature, Nights, began to look around him, outside the ideya palace at first. When the crying was heard again, yet it’s source could not be scoured outside the blue marbled gazebo palace, Nights looked confused. We~ll whatever, or whoever is crying isn’t doing it outside the palace, Night’s shifted her gaze upward, not up there either. just the standard bland and pure white ceiling. Then he shifted her gaze downward. The polished white floor was turned to a lightless black mirror. All that could be seen within the abyss was a dark blue alicorn, curled into the fetal position, crying, and sitting in a puddle of her own tears.
Why is their a little filly crying? Better yet…Why is their a little filly on the Nightmare side of the ideya palace in the first place?
His initial thought at seeing the tragic scene was it really wasn’t her problem. Yet, He didn’t let that thought last long. Nights hated absolutely two things. One and by far the most hated was Wizeman. The dark and twisted ruler of Nightmare, and could be argued Nights’ father, was often the cause of her second hated thing. People, ponies, or anything really, crying. To Nights, smiles were always better, and more often then not, his biggest motivation for involving herself in anything Nightmare related. Otherwise this jester didn’t bother with it. So there was only one course of action left to the dream being, reorienting himself to get a better look at was below her, floated closer to the glass smooth floor and tried knocking on it to get the filly’s attention. He was met with no response.
I’m trapped here on the nightopia side of the palace, and have no ideya to free me and let me interacted with the…horse? No, no…too small…Pony? Yeah, pony. I don’t think I can get the pony to notice me unless I have a little more juice to get through the barrier. Yet with it trapped in Nightmare, and me here with no dreamer to help me out it’s unlikely that my new guest will know I’m here. The filly doesn’t look to be in any shape to recognize she’s not alone Unable to form a course of action to communicate with the pony, Nights once again mimed and played the imaginary flute.
She played for an indeterminate amount of time, keep a weathered eye on the still crying filly, before a glow of red light caught his eye. Slowly lowering her hands, Nights moved and rotated once again closer to the pony to further inquire and study the red glow. A slow rhythmic pulse of red light was emanating from the barrel of filly. It…It couldn’t be… thought the purple jester. Using a power he almost never used, Nights extended her senses, in an effort to confirm the presence of an ideya. It would be even more fortuitous to the dream being if the ideya in question was confirmed to be courage, as no other nightmaren could steal it away from her. A small tingle, and a sensation of a rose petal brushing against his cheeks, was all nights need to confirm the little filly had the red ideya.
Further extending her senses Nights latched onto the magic of the ideya, and started to “borrow” its power. He would need it for what she planed next. Extending his hands she began to press into the black surface. A small indentation formed at the pressure Nights was placing on it. Focusing more and more on the power of the ideya, still pulsing ever so slowly and softly in the pony, drawing from the ideya and using it’s energy to push the boundary between the pony and Nights to it’s breaking point. Growing thinner and thinner, like stretched plastic, it was before too long that a small tearing noise could be hear. His efforts finally paying off, Nights made one more push, tearing enough space for her to get his fingers through, then the rest of her.
Luna’s mind could no longer cope, so she lie, defeated, discouraged, and her whole being disassembled down to almost nothing, in her deepest fears in a nightmare never ending. Getting exactly what she wanted those thousand years ago. Unbeknownst to Luna, when Wizeman had stolen the ideya, he had taken from her the very things they had represented. With her strength, purity of the heart, her hope, and wisdom gone all she could feel was powerless. The last on the list had effected her the most. Gone was her knowledge of the dreamscape and the means to navigate it. Gone was her knowledge of spells to recognize the illusion. Gone was her centuries of experiences and memories, leaving only a foals mind and fears left, matching her reduced physical form. In this shell of a form, so consumed with despair and regret, Luna did not notice the very floor she lay begin to bow. she remained in the fetal position, while all the efforts of her unknown witness were lost to her awareness. Even after the tearing and shattering sounds of the barrier between the Nightmare and Nightopia fell. Luna lay in a pool of her own tears until a voice she never heard before called her attention.
“Why are you crying little one?” A soft voice asked, neither feminine or masculine.
Luna, at first thought it was her imagination, after all why would anypony want anything to deal with her after what she had done. When the question was asked again, Luna began to slowly uncurl and struggle to stand. her fore and aft legs shaking, her once regal wings turned matte and the pristine feathers turned to disarray. Her mane a tangled mess of hair and once had magic. Slowly, but surely, Luna managed to stand, the whole process taking far more of a tole on her energy then the filly sized alicorn had thought, and with surprising dexterity not known to the human horses or ponies, Luna wiped the tears from her eyes before opening them. Much to the confusion of the violet jester creature in front of the little princess, if the features of it’s face could be believed.
“Who awe you?” asked the filly, staring at the draconic sapphire colored eyes of the jester.
“I am Nights little filly, and whom might you be?” Replied Nights, the jester’s voice only confusion the little filly as to whether or not Nights was a filly or colt.
“I AM NOT WITTLE…well I am now…but I wasn’t aw-ways like dis.” snorted Luna, her tears fighting to come back, so to distract from that the foal asked a question in the usual tact of a child, “What’s with your voice? Awe you a filwy or colt?”
“Do you mean am I a boy or girl?” The filly Luna nodded, “I am both and neither. I don’t have a gender.” Replied Nights, “yet…I have to ask, what are you doing in the Nightmare? Someone…er…pony I guess as young as you doesn’t belong here in his kingdom.”
“It was the mean won with lots of hands. He took some glowy stuffs fwom me and made me a foal again. He also took my bad side and made her weal again. They took me here, where I made it night fowever. I’ve been super bad and dis is my punis…punishme…what I deserve.”
“And why would you think that hm?”
“I tuwned the wowld to dis. I’m killwing dem. The ponies I was suppose to powtected.” once again the flood gates opened and salty water began to flow, forming Luna’s tears once again. “I would give anyding to fis dis. But i don’t have da stwength to do so”
Once more a soft red glow pulsed. Nights wondered about what the little filly alicorn said, ‘the mean one with many hands’. admittedly only one being had fit the description very well. It has to be him. I can’t think of any other foul being to do something so tortuous to a filly. It could only be…
“Wizeman.” Whispered Nights
“Wait, how do you know him?”
“We…We have a bit of a history. But if it was Wizeman that took the ideya from you we need to get them back, and soon. He can only want to use them for evil things.”
“But how? We’ew twapped heaw!”
“Nope! Well I guess we are as individuals, but if we dualize…”
“If we wha?”
“Dualize! Allow me to merge with you. Though Wizeman did indeed steal the ideya from you, he missed one.” Luna’s gaze turned questioning, “Try all he wants only one ideya is beyond him, and you little filly posses it. The red ideya of courage, Wizeman can’t steal it, or use its powers, but I can. If we dualize we can tap into the power of the ideya and break out of this place!” Nights smiled warmly at filly Luna, “So? How about it? Lets fight back against Wizeman and his other nightmaren?”
Luna paused for a moment to think, her tears doing the same as some small measure of hope remained, even after the ideya had been taken yet hesitation stayed any choice the mare would have taken. I can’t…I can’t. I’ve failed them… another pulse of red, this time it’s light just a little brighter, Luna shook her head of doubts, NO! I have faced Discord, windingos, and Tirek, all against the odds. I can DO THIS Luna’s eyes went from despair to burning conviction, Luna moved toward nights.
“Yes.” Luna nodded.
“Then hold out your hoof, I’ll do the rest.” Luna obeyed.
Watching as Nights’ detached hand made contact with Luna’s hoof, a strange tingling sensation shot across her body. Then the world spun. Around and around the two went as Nights’ hand slowly began to sink into the foreleg of the night princess. Further and further Nights sank into Luna, her dream body turning numb where the jester had merged. While Nights did seem trust worthy the process of dualizing was much more, dramatic, then the once seasoned dream warrior had thought. And when Luna tried to move which ever body part merged with Nights, it terrified her that she couldn’t move it. I’m a fool. I didn’t even think that this might have been another trap… Spinning faster and faster still, Nights had almost fully merged with Luna. Then the process of Dualizing was completed…
To which Luna promptly saw only black.
Nights always felt guilty about dualizing with a dreamer. The first time Nights duelizes with anyone was always the hardest, both on the dreamer and on the jester. It would, without fail, bring back that terrible purpose Wizeman had created him for and she despised it. If it wasn’t a necessity to stop Wizeman, Nights would rather be torn asunder then dualize. Nights had full control of the body, the dreamer always took a more passive observer kind of role, and would remain so until Wizeman could drain the red ideya’s power from Nights, only to begin the process again. Still, Nights had refused that destiny. He would never make a decision nor act without her passengers permission. Which right now, was not going to happen, Luna had taken the dualizing harder then any previous dreamer Nights had encountered. So Nights did the only decent thing he could think of.
She would wait for Luna to awaken.