The Dream of Many

by WiseFireCracker

Chapter 2

The lump of flesh and fur stayed obstinately black.

Come on, be the color of ash, of silver, of iron, or heck, pink. Pink, you can even go pink, if you just decide to freaking CHANGE!

Still black.

Okay, what is the deal here? I should be able to do this easily. It’s one of the first things I learned. Also the coolest, but not the point here.

My eyebrows furrowed together, I twisted my hoof around, hoping to see a difference in the colors. As far as I could tell, there were none. But why? I wanted it to change, I was aware I was in my dreams, and there weren’t any typical distractions that would make my mind go wild.

Until the moment there was one, that is.

“Please accept this humble token of our gratitude,” said a soft grandmotherly voice.

Hiding the still black hoof behind my back, I grinned so widely it hurt at the wrinkled old blue mare before me. And I was unsure of what to make of her. She seemed somewhat tired, what’s with the half-drooped eyelids and her slumped posture, yet the fridge she was carrying couldn’t be light.

A second later, while I was busy picking up my slacked jaw, she proved her elderly vigor by kneeling. The large grey contraption on her back slid much too fast to be natural, and it smacked into me straight in the face.

Hard.

“Holy… cow…” I gasped, crawling over the sand. The lack of sensations in my hind legs was worrying, to say the least. Typical, really. The little old mare proved more trouble to me than a giant timberwolf or a giant crab. “D-do you work out…?”

The grandma placed a hoof in front of her mouth, a quiet chuckle reaching my hyper sensitive ears. “Oh my, what a flatterer…”

…There was red on her face. There were two very visible patches of red on her cheeks.

“Well,” she said, her voice croaking raspily, “I could show you a good work out…”

She… proceeded… to… wink.

My eye twitched, the only part of me that was moving at all. On the inside, a strangled scream rumble throughout my mind. It carried in spirit a message not unlike ‘Nope, nope, nope, eeeeeeenope! Nope, pass, nope. Oh GOD no! NOOOOOO!’

I nearly collapsed when she left.

Looking at the large queue of ponies all waiting to congratulate me, I felt ants ran up my legs. Little steps carried me in a quick back and forth pace near the podium, all the while I was frantically trying to see Small Pond somewhere in the crowd. I might have spontaneously decided to accept a simple ‘thank you’ as payment of my services. Really, no need, I was ready to say, a hero doesn’t brag or something!

Except, Small Pond wasn’t anywhere, and the next petitioner in line came to give me his gift with a long bow. Then, he dropped a cardboard box on the ground and left without a word. Staring, I couldn’t help but follow his form as it faded into thin air. All that was left of that stallion was the gift box at my hooves.

It was a nice one too, I decided. All nicely wrapped in the seconds it had taken to hear the news of my heroism. With an apparently exclusive Power Ponies Sixth Edition Cover. Yada yada. Collector’s edition didn’t mean much when waking up destroys the item.

Just another waste of a perfectly good run.

Can’t it go any faster? I wondered. I don’t have all day.

Some distant part of my brain screeched a word of warning, as the laws of Murphy were unaffected by non-verbalization in dreams. I was, for lack of better words, already inside my brain.

Unfortunately, I realized my mistake too late, for the ponies in line suddenly moved as one and proceeded with the fastest possible method of fulfilling my wish. My ears flattening on my skull, I watched as the sky darkened with thousands of objects in all shapes and form. Giant shadows spread over the entire town, eclipsing the sun and the clouds and the stars altogether. Blue was no more the color of the vault of heaven. Polka dots gift paper, rose red and dull grey replaced it for a grand total of fifteen seconds.

And during half of those precious seconds, I could only stare hard at the stupidity unfolding and bite back a curse. Seriously? No, seriously?! Was that how my dream would end? In such a stupid way?!

Something burned under my skin. Something hot, boiling, angry. I felt it flow through me, fast, relentless, and I pushed it all toward my horn. Blinding light shone then, crimson red, pulsing as a heartbeat.

“I. Am. Flawless!” I shouted to those would-be killer gifts.

At least for tonight.

I delayed the apocalypse, with a spark that flew off my horn, and fizzled throughout the air. It rose and rose fast, the speed of sound or faster. Booms shattered the air thrice, before the twitch of red magic reached the first gift and expanded into a net large enough to cover the town four times over. Afterward, it was only the matter of closing the tendrils of magic over the mass of presents and lowering them to the ground without sacrificing any innocent under their weight.

I managed.

Next to me, a pile of trinkets of all sizes and usefulness shadowed the plaza with its monstrous height and width. They ranged from the typical and traditional to the bizarre. What was I even supposed to do with a picture of a seashell grinder?

I threw it back in the pile with the rest.

Wondering if I should not just give it a rest and find another setting for my dreams, I faced the few remaining ponies around with a half-smile.

“W-well,” I said, my tone being slightly shakier than it ought to, “I would like to thank all the inhabitants of Horseshoe Bay for their generosity. I will be sure to sell off whatever gift I cannot take with me at an auction and use the profit for my benefits. None will go to waste, promise.”

“But we already gave you all our money!” pointed out one of the few remaining pony, and as I glanced in that direction, I indeed noticed a giant bag with a dollar sign painted on it.

Isn’t that convenient?

Sighing, I grabbed said bad and stifled a fake yawn. This little ordeal had left me surprisingly drained. I hadn’t really taken into accounts the various absurdities that were sure to show up. Hindsight and what they say about it. I shrugged, then cast a look over the streets.

With a small stomp, I straightened my posture. “Show me… all your hotels!”

The ponies didn’t answer, but the town did. Before my very eyes, the scenery changed. Houses passed me by in blurs of beige and yellow, swirling around me, turning into a sandy maelstrom. I was but the unfortunate passenger, up to the point it ended abruptly.

I hadn’t moved – not like that –, though I was now facing inlands rather than the sea. A more accurate way to describe it would be to say that the world had shifted around to push all of the desired hotels into the same area. The strains mark in the sand probably meant it was all ready to slingshot back into position as soon as I was done. If I focused, I could almost see the proverbial elastics holding the whole thing together.

‘The whole thing’ being three hotels, of similar height and width, albeit the one in the middle had cleaner walls. At a first glance, of course. Otherwise, only the insignias could differentiate them from each other.

“Huh.” I blinked. “Wasn’t actually expecting there to be more than one here. Small town, you know?”

For the shortest instant, I got the strange impression that the hotels were judging me. They weren’t doing anything, they just stayed standing very still.

Musing it over, I tried for a hopeful inquiry, “The best one then?”

This time, I felt an outright resistance.

A tangible shift in the air, a slight distortion, like the intense heat of a flame, curved the straight lines of the three buildings and made them all seem to be leaning toward me.

“Come on,” I coaxed the buildings. “Be honest here, I’m not judging anyone.”

There was a shiver in the air. Then, the two hotels on each side disappeared, leaving only the biggest to stand in front of me. It seemed to inflate ever so slightly, puffing with pride and shining down beaming rays of happiness. The setting sun reflected well in its dusty windows, giving it a warm orange shade.

Smiling, I trotted inside, levitating the bountiful bag of bits behind me. From the first step in however, the smile was a little harder to maintain.

Clearly, whoever was cleaning outside was not paid to do inside. A thin layer of dust covered most items in the entry hall, reception desk included. A small cuckoo clock ticked on the wall and provided the only source of noise in the room. Thankfully, no spider web completed the picture. That would be the last straw.

“Huh, hello? Is there anyone here? A pony, a griffon, a dragon, whatever? No?”

No answer.

Talk about customer service.

Aiming with my horn, I grasped a bell on the counter and shook it. Its chime was both clear and strangely off. Just a pitch wrong. It was hard to pinpoint how, exactly.

What wasn’t hard however was to see just how little the owners of this place cared for customers! I pursed my lips together, tail flicking on one side and the other. Nopony. Just the tick-tock of the clock, again and again. I shook the bell harder, making sure the ringing came loud and clear and unmistakably fast.

The reception remained annoyingly empty and I was growing self-conscious of this stupid game.

Scoffing, I glanced to the blackboard on the wall, searching for a price of sort. Unfortunately, the only thing there was just a mess of chalk and dust. Either someone had terrible hoofwriting or there was a child on the loose. My jaw clenched, I emptied half my purse over the counter. A random number of bits rolled over the wood, clinking together in a scatter of metal. I didn’t bother counting.

If they wanted the right amount, they should be there to tell me what it was.

With a scowl, I made my way to the back of the room, where I noticed the hallway leading into the rooms. Conveniently, all the doors were opened and I got to choose.

The royal suite was mine.

Smirking, I trotted inside, taking in the scenery of luxurious furniture and opulent décor. I loved it, it was just right for someone of my stature.
I froze halfway to the bed, my ears twitching.

There were… sounds… coming from the bathroom. The first, foremost and least worrying was that of running water. Droplets falling by the thousands onto porcelain or flesh. A stream hot enough to send off steam over the door, as I could see it now. The part that bothered me was the… the grumbles, the growls and something disturbingly similar to children’s giggles.

The door opened on its own, creaking on its rusty knobs. Shadows started to creep out of the frame, slithering across the floor in my direction…

Oh God, oh GOD! Not a lucid nightmare. I do not want a freaking lucid nightmare! Go away, go away, go away, for the love of Luna’s plot and Freddy Krueger’s face, GO AWAY!

“S-s-stand back!” I stuttered as the door fully opened on the occupant of my bathroom. With so much light flooding out, only the crudest of its shape could be seen so far. Along with another thing.

It waited.

It remained where it was, standing, dripping wet, as if waiting for my eyes to adjust. When they did, I scattered backward, wings fully extended, and a strangled cry got caught up in my throat… all at the sight of the mass of black strings, ink and fabric in the shape of man.

It was tall, taller than the doorframe itself and could only pass through it by folding itself in two. And it did so, stiffly, like a badly articulated puppet, like a doll. Its face was not one, just a burlap sack that crawled with centipedes. I saw it looking at me, with its eyeless face and a strange moan echoed in the room.

A question. It had asked a question.

“A-a-a-ah, see, n-needed… r-r-r-r-room…”

A putrid corpse-like breath washed over my face, and I felt my head spin. Oh, fuck, I was going to be sick, and get eaten, and be sick while being eaten. Teleport. Teleport, damn it!

Magic fizzled out at the top of my horn. I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t ignore the giant thing slowly stretching one of its thin legs to come closer. With every inch it moved, shreds of black fabric fell to the floor, and twitched and slithered like snakes.

Frozen, I stood still, a whimper rising out of my throat, as the thing moved closer… closer…

And passed me by without even a hint of interest toward me. It walked its own puppet-like way, next to me, with a nauseating smell following it, but no attempt on me.

On its way, it moved a stringy hand-like appendage as if waving at me. Twitches ran under its face, bulges that converged to a little over its chin, and I saw mandibles dig a hole that became its mouth. On a perfectly neighborly tone, it spoke with a voice that was screeches and gurgles, “It’s fine, William. I was just going to haunt the staircase anyway.”

I plastered a wooden not-smile on my face, the stiffest and fakest thing that I had ever done, as I looked at the thing leaving the room. I did not move until the floor stopped shaking with its progress. When it did, I made my way to the bed and slumped on the mattress.

As of right now, stairs were officially non-existent in this dream of mine. Not one of them was allowed to subsist. In fact, there was no such thing as ‘under-the-bed’ or ‘inside-the-closet’ either.

I flinched at the thought of a hand of strings grasping at my ankles. My wings might have folded over me, as if I were to be hugging myself in fear. Lies.

A few minutes, by my perception, went by while I listened to the monotone rhythm of the reception’s clock. It seemed as if, with that faint noise, my heartbeat slowed equally to match it.

My back firmly on the mattress, I gazed on the ceiling with a curious feeling pulling at my gut. It wasn’t… fear or anything – not like my encounter with that String-man –, just a puzzling churn at the bottom of my stomach. Discomfort. Itches.

I lifted a hoof over my face and frowned. If I pushed, they were almost phantom fingers coming out. Yet, far from quenching that nagging feeling, it only amplified it. Tingles were running up my legs, trying and failing to reconfigure them into something more… human. Urgh, why was I thinking about that? I should have been resting for the coming adventures or whatevers.

Small problem: I was not tired. I’d been doing lots of stuff, yes, including a few that could deserve the word ‘epic’, at least in my own humble opinion. I had only been going through the motions when I had decided to get some rest.

Dreamers don’t need rest.

I don’t feel tired.

But I went to bed anyway, didn’t I?

I tossed, rolling in bed to find a comfortable position, head on the pillow, careful with the horn and the head of the bed, lying on one side without squeezing a wing, tail curled or uncurled and so and so. By the end of it, I was just about ready to disintegrate the bed.

Growling, I finally rolled onto my side and my gaze fell onto the window. The sight made me still. I blinked slowly, taking in the pitch black darkness outside. It hadn’t taken that long! But it was still dark, with no star in the sky, just obscurity across the land… washing over the town… covering everything under its black blanket…

I wasn’t in bed anymore. My flanks were sliding on a sand hill.

What?! I jumped to my hooves, twisting around and nearly tumbling from lack of balance. Where w-? What had I just-?

Still in the village. Unless there was another town that looked extraordinarily like Horseshoe Bay and I had spontaneously teleported there.

Maybe it wasn’t so bad. I was merely half-lost in the middle of the night. In a dream where I had previously encountered at least two monsters. I could still hear the gurgles and the screeches…

No! I shook my head. Control, I had to keep control. Inside of me, my resolve hardened. I wouldn’t be pushed around, not in this place.

It was the town’s square, with its incredibly useful fountain and what I knew was the mayor’s house at the edge farthest away from me. There wasn’t a pony to be found here though, not at this hour, and most amazingly, one thing I noticed about the town at this hour was the silence. That absolute stillness in the air that surrounded me, stuck to me, clung to my skin till I made a sound. Then it was a detonation that carried for miles, but even that did not chase away the stillness for long. Everything always returned to being absolutely silent.

My eyes swept over my surroundings, jumping at shadows, and a hint of red glow surrounded my horn. The image of String-man remained at the back of my mind. I knew something was going to happen. Silence was a terrible thing in dreams.

I stilled as I heard sobs, and very slowly looked around.

There was a mare with a frazzled mane and an unsteady nurse cap staring at the water.

“What am I doing here?” she growled at her reflection. “I have a purpose. I’m not here for no reason!”

She struck the water, splashing some on me. However, as the reflection broke apart in ripples, she started to grasp at its image, digging her hooves into the water, in and out, again and again.

“I had a purpose,” the mare repeated frantically. “I’m telling you! I was meant to do something!”

I felt a pang of sadness at her words, and I attempted to give her my best smile.

“Well, huh, just relax a bit,” I said, stroking her back with my wing, “I’m sure it’ll come back to you. Relax. You’re on the seaside, it’s a nice quiet little place. Just listen to the waves or some other New Age crap like that.”

She threw my wing off her, batting it away with a hoof and jumping aside. Her breathing was growing faster, shallow, and her frown was digging deeper into her forehead.

“No, no, I can’t relax! It’s a matter of life or death! I know it is. I cannot lose time. Do you hear me?!” She suddenly reached forward, grabbing me by the shoulders while her tone grew increasingly high pitch. “What do I need to do?! TELL ME! YOU HAVE TO TELL ME!”

She shook me, hard. Her demands came again. Disorientation settled in, my sight reduced to her furious foaming face with her screeches reaching new levels of loud.

Ears rolled back, I snarled and almost sent her flying.

“What the hell, mare?! I was just trying to help.” I stomped, prompting her to yell again her inane mantra. That broke the dam. “I don’t know! I don’t freaking know and I don’t really care! That’s not my job, it’s YOURS! And, well, even if you did remember now, you’d be too frazzled to be of any use, so get some rest and give me a break! Now!”

She dropped to the ground like a stone, asleep.

~~

The light of high noon filtered through the opening of the door, brightening up the dark room enough for the newcomer to see ahead of him. The unicorn stallion glanced around, his nose scrunched up at the enclosed air, and took another step inside.

Letting out a sigh, he rolled his eyes as he walked the distance from the door to the single bed in the room.

“Sis?” the stallion called, gently poking the unmoving mare. “Come on, little sister, you haven’t shown up at work this morning. You have to get moving now.”

The mare remained unmoving.

“Seriously?” her brother grunted. “What did you even do last night?”

Smirking, he glanced to the window and the large curtains blocking out the light. Bubbles of magic popped at the tip of his horn, a combination of cyan and teal, then gathered around the sheets of cloth.

“You asked for it,” he said as he pulled them wide open.

There! That should do it, he thought, shielding his eyes from the sudden flow of light flooding the bedchambers. She’d always been woken up like that before, and the change intense even for him. He only had to await the explosion that was sure to come.

It didn’t.

The grin he had been wearing slipped off, and he started shaking his sister’s body more strongly.

“Come on, wake up! Small Pond, get your lazy rump in gears!” A note of worry appeared in his voice. “Small Pond! Wake up! Small Pond!”

~~

The rooster had cried some time ago, summoning the sun with it. The horizon had lit up in artistic shades of green and purple for some reason. Even Celestia’s toy celestial body seemed the wrong color. Last I checked, emerald was not the right color for dawn.

It changed nothing. I had still erred for hours just trotting around town. Whatever I had tried to make time move forward had failed, remaining obstinately night and snoozing time. Then, everyone had started acting like computer programs, glitching in and out of existence at the worst times.

I kicked at the sand, sending a bit of dust in direction of the village behind me. “Is it just me or is this dream starting to get a bit long?”

So far, the whole experience had only been confusing. When I decided to dream of Equestria, I meant for it to be fun, not… whatever this is.

Seriously, things were like a regular dream, except with me aware and unwilling to eat the pony-flavored mushroom samba.

I sighed, stretching my wings slowly. This had only been a waste of a dream. Still, before I awoke, I could still try to test my god-like ability to fly. Pulling off a Sonic Rainboom should be enough to cheer me up. So, cracking the joints in my shoulders and knees, I gave my wings a first testing flap.

A ridiculous amount of dust flooded my sight, causing me to cough loudly as I inhaled too much of it. Okay, less awesome next time…

But there was no next time. I was interrupted.

“Do not even think of fleeing! I will not let you!” boomed a familiar voice. “Release my subjects at once, Dreamon, and I might be merciful!”

My eyes widened. That… that had sounded like…

“Huh, w-what?” I asked, gazing at the dark blue alicorn staring me down. “Luna?”

Her body stiffened, and her tone came out dry, “Princess Luna, Dreamon. You would do well to remember my title.”

I grinned. “Niiiiiiiiiiiice, I think my subconscious needs a reward.”

Luna’s beautiful blue eyes slowly closed and opened, a little wider than the norm, and both her pupils were aimed right at me. She seemed fascinated, as she should be. I hadn’t imagined a puff pastry. I was the stallion at the moment, and if things turned out right, I’d also be the man that nailed the princess.

Unable to resist, I waggled my eyebrows at her. She was a horse now, sure, but she could shapeshift and I had seen the fanarts. “So, what are you here for?”

Tempestuous, impatient, she stomped a hoof on the grass. “You know full well the reason of my presence here!”

Staring at the spot she stomped, I felt some heat go straight to my face. She doesn’t lose time, does she? “Well, I hadn't dreamed of it yet, but...”

Oh come on, William, you can be more seductive than that. You got the grandma in one line.

Forgetting my shyness, I posed and flexed a wing. Cocking a smile, I tried for a sultry look. “Do you like what you see? I mean, clichés are stupid, but there can be a little drop of good in them, right? Is this to your taste? I could change for you, babe.”

Luna’s eyes slowly widened as her jaw proceeded to open wider and wider.

Yup, she was under the charm.

Or so I figured, until I saw a flash of light and heard a thunderclap.

I was on the ground then, a strange stinging sensation in my chin and a booming womanly shout in my ears. “Enough!” Luna stomped.

Ouch. No, actually, that hadn’t hurt, but still. Had she shot a bolt of lightning at my face?! What the hell?! I could not shake off the confusion. She should have been under the charm easily.

“Did you honestly believe you could get favors from me in exchange for the freedom of mine subjects?!” She spat on the ground, which actually hurt more than the bolt to the face. “You foul beast!”

Dejected, I looked down and kicked at the ground. Why was she even here? There was just no way. I had completely lost control. “Damn it! I knew nobody liked red and black alicorns!” I took a long breath. “Huuuh… do you… happen to work out?”

Luna’s horn lit up again, and her eyes flashed white. “Stop stalling! Release them!”

I tried to step up, to reach for her with one stretched hoof. I really did try. She thought I was doing something wrong, which was bull, and she wanted to help her subjects, which was good. Of course I’d try helping Luna. “Who are you tal-?”

It just never occurred to me that she’d swing a sword at me.

I heard the sound of sharp metal drawn from the scabbard, the sound of it cutting through the air, and the sound of slashing. I heard it all in a split second, where nothing made sense and only my body knew how to move. My chin touched the grass. Little strands of red hair floated down from my head, cut off. “Okay, no, too much!” I shouted, jumping back. “Get away from me!”

“You will not escape!” Her wings spread wide. She was in the air, blinding blue light swirling around her head. It lashed out in quick burst of lightning to the side, yet always returned to the gathering point. Her powers focused in one place, crackling like thunder and the storm. Even the air around me felt charged with static. Luna was not kidding anymore. “You’ve sealed your fate, Dreamon!”

The confusion turned to something else. I didn’t want this to happen. My dream. My rules. But I had only spent my time getting tossed around ever since I chose Equestria. It plain sucked. She should have been kind, she should have been awesome, but some masochistic part of my brain apparently liked to berate me better. Every hit to the ego was just a slap to the face, and I was plain sick of it.

No.

More.

Wings flared, my voice rumbling with anger, I bellowed, “GET LOST!”

Luna’s eyes widened, apparently aware of what was happening. She dove, charged in a desperate attempt, but she was too slow. The air bent around her and swallowed her away.

I was alone again, standing in a dumb empty field with just a slightly faster than normal pulse. It truly started to sink in. Had that really happened? Did I fail to impress a character I had dreamed of? In my own lucid dream?! How had I even managed to do that?!

I had to be more self-loathing than I thought… Nobody was that pathetic!

“Yeah, great job, subconscious,” I grumbled.

~~

In the darkest of night, a cry of rage pierced the tranquility of Canterlot Castle.

Comments

[Mix-up]

This is the first HiE that I see where the story happen in the dream world, I see a lot of potential in such a story and it allows us to truly see Luna in her element. I wonder how this human/alicorne constitute a threat to Equestrians dream and what is a dreamon? obviously the guy has no clue how he got there, I also wonder if he can materialize in Equestria.
Ceci est extraordinaire comme histoire j'ai hâte de voire le prochains chapiter

[ThunderWonder]

William's screwed now, considering how pissed Luna is.

In the darkest of night, a cry of rage pierced the tranquility of Canterlot Castle.

Very pissed. And of course, there's always the fact that he's stuck in a fantasy world as a red and black alicorn. That's pretty bad too.

This is pretty interesting so far, so I can't wait for the next chapter!

[anon12]

5747116 Cant really blame her she did get beat at her own game.
This is getting good cant wait for the next chapter

[Spider]

He's the equestrian equivalent of Freddy Krueger

[Dravkwn]

What I've read so far I've liked. Please sir, might I have more?

[WiseFireCracker]

5746856 Thank you. The dream world was just something that struck me as a good place to go and I hadn't read any story on the site that used this premise, so I figured...

Of course, I'm not going to spoil too much so early, but if you really want to know... A dreamon is a oneiric creature that invades people's dreams and feed off their energy and ambitions. They're also usually nightmare inducers. William is not one of those.

Ça fait peur, non?

5747116 As 5750742 judiciously noted, this is supposed to be one of Luna's specialty and most sacred duty. She is not pleased, indeed. Not that you're not right, regardless of semi-divine hostility, being stuck like he is sucks.

5750848 Well, he hasn't gone after the foals yet.

5756498 Thank you. I will do my best, in hopes of real life obligations not bringing me down.

[Mix-up]

5756692 Out of all the HiE and BiE fic's that I have seen you are probably the one how has explored the concept in so many different and original ways, especially with «Ten Trips to Equestria» were you presented a character how possesses so many different ponies in so many different back story to them and starting point, from young and old to Heaven and Hell, grom epic to ordinary. you rely go out of the norm for that.

J'espère que tu continuera de faire preuve d'autant d'originalité dans tes œuvres.

[Zanec]

Oh come on, William, you can be more seductive than that. You got the grandma in one line.

That was funny.

[wlam]

Ok, this was already starting out pretty funny. There's a few stories like this here, but this one is putting an interesting twist on the whole "dude gets sent to ponyland as a cheesy OC" parody concept. I think this chapter was stretching it out a bit too much, though. I skipped over half of it, because it was just starting to harp on the whole "the dream isn't going like it's supposed to" part to the point it got tedious.

[GordonFreebrony]

I had the worst of expectations when I saw the cover art, but now I'm hooked! So glad I give a story a chance before outright dismissing it.

[Amethyst Blade]

You know...There is an idiot ball in here somewhere.
This could have all been solved with a proper talking session...

[Emperor]

William needs to stop being so dense and get a clue as to what's going on.

Alternatively, "Am I that bad-looking that I even get turned down by a horse-lady?!"

[kotor511]

Dreaming can be peculiar sometimes. I know that his "this dream isn't supposed to bla bla" attitude can be a bit annyoing.

But to be honest, if you dream and sometimes get that you dream, the dream doesn't flex to your pleasure on command.

Just yesterday I was dreaming laying in my bed and waking up, I tried to get up and sit on my bed, but it didn't really happen.

I was seeing myself sitting up, but immediately afterwards I was again "nailed" to my bed.

That scene, somewhat different each time, happened a few times afterwards again, until I finally realized "this is BS, this must be a dream".

Yet still, even with that knowledge and trying to force me awake, I couldn't.

[DerpTape]

5750848
Nah, Freddy does his thing on purpose, Mr. OC here is just a buck-up who didn't read the instruction manual.