For the nocturne of the Royal Dream Service, the night is the time when their purpose as ponies is fulfilled. By traveling through the Dreamscape, they are capable of delivering dreams to sleeping ponies across the world.
Once each year, one deliverymare is chosen to carry a most important dream--tonight, that mare is Night Whisper. By all rights, it should be a delivery like any other.
A routine delivery. A dream identical to that of each past year, delivered to a mare who lived each day identically to the last.
But nothing can be called "normal" when flying to the Moon.
Written with Miss Spectrum for the Write my fic for me group's first contest, which it won.
Pic used with permission from enigmaticelocution.
Now featured on Equestria Daily!
Chapters (1)
"Hey Foxy Mama, not to be rude here but you should add a period in the end here. To complete a well-crafted story."
So... huh.
This story was somewhat difficult for me to get through, probably due to the abstractness of the Nightmares. If I am understand this correctly, then the dream that Night was delivering could be interpreted as Celestia's Lullaby. Would that mean that the lyrics in between the paragraphs were, in fact, breaking out of the Dreamscape, as well as the actual flight? In that, Celestia's love for her sister was powerful enough to break through the barriers?
Then again, I could be reading into this too in depth. To my shame, there were parts that were hard to get through and made it hard to understand. It's hard to pinpoint examples; because it was more of an abstract feeling not centered around the piece as much as one would think.
Regardless... this was a nice read. It has my upvote.
6445024
Johnny Bravo?! We've already started attracting big names. If we keep this up, do you think Mickey Mouse will make an appearance?
6445057
I showed early on in the story how bits of the contents can seep out of a dream in-transit (well, not exactly... the dream doesn't get any emptier, those nearby just become aware of it). But as we went on, there was that dream-like feel that we needed to keep in the story--however, it seems I might have gone overboard with that part.
The dream was supposed to just be "leaking" music (there technically wasn't any sound, just fragments of feeling as though she had heard it in a dream) out of the sphere and into the rest of the Dreamscape. Until it freed Luna, it didn't really have anything to do with Night Whisper's escape from the Nightmare. There weren't any barriers for it to break through, unless you consider Luna's bonds to be such.
Nightmare Moon was born of/is the Nightmare, as far beyond other Nightmares as alicorns are above unicorns. Ponies can have ordinary nightmares, too... which are problem enough of their own accord, but at least they don't actively hate you.
6445164 Ah, I see.
...
I actually don't, sorry.
The dream aspect of these kinds of stories never made much sense to me. While they are intriguing, I just find it hard to wrap my head around them for some reason.
Added the Dark tag--on review, I really should have put that there. The Moon isn't a very happy place.
6445176 In that case, Composure would drive you insane. The author perfectly captures the feeling of dreams, but damn if it doesn't make my head spin to read those segments.
6445164
"Whoa Mama I could ask him if you like. If you go on a date with me that is."
-Johnny Bravo
Very nicely done
6445379 Thank you!
Another great work! Thanks for making I a bit longer for us here who like that!
LateBronyWriter
6445779 There was a lot to do in this one, and another author to work with--it's interesting how new ideas can spring up from watching someone else write in the same fic as you.
I'm glad the extra words haven't scared anyone away.
6445882 Pease, as a writer of Suer long Fics I've learned embrace the long tedious stories of my youth. I've been molded by them, by the time I read my first short story I was already a man. See you merely adopted the long stories, I was born into them.
LateBronyWriter
6445882 I haven't read this story yet, but I'm looking forward to reading it (About 140 stories in my "Read it Later", so might take a while), though I still gotta say something: A little over 9000 (Insert overused meme here) words isn't that long, it's a pretty decent word count. Not too short, not too long, enough to tell a story.
That is, however, my opinion. Other people may differ, but after reading Sunset of Time, there's no such thing as "too long to read" for me.
6447307 I was thinking "long for a one-shot" rather than long for a story in general--most one-shots are between 2,000-7,000 words, from what I've seen.
But yeah, I understand long To-Read Lists.
6447307 Haha, after reading something like Diaries of a Madman there truly is no longer no such thing as "too long to read" for anyone.
6454789 Biggest fanfic I've read through was 3,000,000 words. It wasn't mlp, though.
(well, the total story. It was eight fics in the series)
6454789 Two words for you: Austraeoh Series. Haven't read it yet, mostly due to its massive word count of 2 million and something.
6454966 And Imploding Colon is an alternate account for ShortSkirtsAndExplosions, too
So the same author is writing the Austraeoh series (which updates about daily, sometimes multiple times a day), The Things Tavi Says (which also updates about daily, sometimes multiple times a day), and still comes out with a near-constant stream of short stories.
Goddamn, that's a lot of horse words.
6445198
To be fair, I think at this point Composure is driving everypony insane.
6461549 Because it hasn't updated, or because of its content?
I don't mean to be rude, but this is kind of basically the same sentence twice in a row
Anyway, I did enjoy the fic c:
6464528
...
Shit.
Someone pointed that out to me (along with some other issues), and I corrected it on Google Docs, but completely forgot that I had to import the story again. Thank you so much for pointing that out.
That was actually in there because of me re-writing the paragraph (well, merging it with a different one). I keep the original below the new one so I can keep it for reference as I rearrange, add, or remove sentences/words.
Beautiful world building, believable emotions and reactions, great story about my favorite princess~
6476789
Your comment... it's so beautiful
6461803
But of course, an author must go at their own pace and should never try to force their creativity.
I confess, it was a gentle little swipe at Composure's update schedule.
Such magnificent world-building! I love the description of Reverie and its many inhabitants. And such a vivid, visceral description of the Nightmare on The Moon!
Beautifully written, vividly described, it sucked me in and didn't ever let go.
Thank you!
6736929
Thank you! It was a joy to write, and I'm glad that carried over.
Approved for The Goodfic Bin
s13.postimg.org/5a2dthj87/Giz_Vyc0.png
Great story, but how the hell are Celestia and Luna sisters if their mothers are different? They'd be half-sisters at most.
I love that sense of rapture she experiences upon seeing Luna. :) I'd like to think that the reason they lose nocturne on this delivery isn't just that the Nightmare is there to stop them, but that some of them just refuse to return. (Also a certain amount of "oh no, she's hot". XD)
The Royal Dream Service have it rough sometimes. Love the story. I read the physical version in "Tales of the Moon"
10172949
Dreams aren't all fun and games...
Thank you, and thanks for getting the physical version! I was stunned when they asked if they could print it...
Awesome story. It deserve a like and a place in my collection of favorite.
As a lot of people I read your story in the physical book Tales of the Moon, which so far, I definitly enjoy more than Tales of the Sun. But that just might be my love for Princess Luna and her lovely nights talking.
Anyway, good job with that story. This little gem deserves more views.
10285098
Thank you!