//------------------------------// // Oneironautics // Story: Live Your Dreams // by Ditherer the Fussbudget //------------------------------// Anon You’re moving up in the world! And in your sleep, too. With just a little training, you’ll be surfing the mental waves with your immortal moonbutt waifu. Take that, Mom! The only problem is that you have to wear an itchy magical necklace for Moondancer to link up with you. She’s told you it’s just for introductory work, at least. You’ve also been keeping a dream journal to improve your recall, on the Princess’ request. Moondancer zaps each entry to Luna as soon as it’s written. Unfortunately, Luna hasn’t appeared in any more of them, in person or otherwise. Which really undermines everything nice she said about your abilities; if you were actually so talented, you’d dream about her nonstop. At least you can wait and fine-tune your latest project; rushing those out so often didn’t always work out for you. For instance, trying to grafitti her likeness in whipped cream on the side of the palace got you arrested and made the castle kitchenstaff glare daggers at you. But now, here’s Moondancer, come to aid your sorry ass. You can feel her worm her way inside your psyche - it’s like someone reading over your shoulder from all directions. It took some schedule-rearranging for her to be here. She usually sleeps fifteen minutes every hour as part of her studies, and it took a big ritual to make sure this wouldn’t jeopardize that. Beyond that, this looks a lot like her house and she looks a lot like herself, but you’re getting hella excited. You can hear the Rocky music already. "Knock that off." "Oh, right." You switch off the ambience. "Sorry." Moondancer It’s Anon’s first jaunt on the astral plane, and he’s sailing through the air. “Hahaha!” “Anon, get down here!” He’s like a foal discovering nudie mags for the first time. You’d agree, it can be a beautiful sight, the blue-grey void and its endless spiraling clouds of dream-magic. (Which, as the learned know, is merely a tamed form of astral magic.) But dreams only exist here while ponies are dreaming; it’s noon, and the Solar Court is wide awake. You have to do it now for Anon’s sake, because unfortunately he can’t break his new sleep-schedule. You could fix that, if he’d just let you do some tests on his central biochemical oscillator, but noooo. He’s practically bouncing off the walls, too. ”How do we get into one?” “You just jump in.” He launches himself toward the nearest one. “Wait!” You try to grab him in your telekinesis, but it doesn’t register. In a moment, he’s disappeared. You smack your hoof to your forehead. If you’d approached from the right angle, this would be an endless hallway of doors. Maybe then he could’ve suppressed his sense of wonder for a few minutes. You follow him. Anon This is your first time in someone else’s dream.  It looks a lot like Canterlot at night, redone from memory. Groovy, no nightmares. Moondancer said something about those being dangerous, how dying in someone else’s dreams can kill you in the real world. You wonder if you can change things here like in your own dreams. Like... making it brighter! The moon enlarges. That’s better, but what about...? You wave your hand, and the mistake-buildings warp and correct themselves. ”Anon!” You turn around. “Oh, hey, Moondancer. What’s u-” She looks like she’d been through a windstorm. ”Stop changing things! You can’t alter the narratives of dreams without direct intervention, they are how they are to facilitate the personal growth of the dreamer!” “Oh. Uh...” You turn back and put the buildings right again. You leave the moon how it is, though. “Sorry.” ”Don’t run off any more!” “Yeah. Okay, sorry.” She’s rubbing her face with her hoof. It’s funny, you’ve never seen someone look exhausted while they’re asleep. ”Just come on. I’ll teach you proper protocol in the astral.” She conjures a door. ”...h-help” What was that? Moondancer Anon’s doing the look-everywhere thing again. Is he checking for something...? “Pay attention!” ”No, I... I heard something.” Heard something? You pause and focus your senses on the dream. ”it’s coming to get me” Yes, faint, but there it is. This isn’t a good dream. “This is nightmare territory. We need to get out of here.” He looks down the street. Out of an alleyway, a filly’s peering her head out. She’s a unicorn, lemon-colored. Anonymous moves closer. ”What’s coming to get you?” You try to grab him in your magic, but it fails again. He was right that he was powerful, at least. You have to gallop ahead to stop him, standing between him and the kid. “None of this is real, Anon. The only ones in danger are us.” He grimaces, then looks around you at the filly. She cowers while she talks. ”I’ve been s-s-sick all week. M-my, h-h-h..." ”Your what? What’s the matter?” He’s getting way too into this. She sniffles, and chokes back a sob. ”We’re dream travelers, we can protect you from whatever it is.” The dam breaks, and she starts crying. ”H-h-h-HOMEWOOOORK!” She runs over to Anon and wraps her fetlocks around his leg, shaking with tears. He turns to you, grim-faced. Whatever he sees in your expression, it doesn’t deter him. ”Where’s the homework?” She sniffles and looks up at him. ”Everywhere.” Moonlight sweeps over the streets, fully illuminating them. The buildings are papered with worksheets on thaumic algebra. Textbooks you recall fondly from your own foalhood are floating in the air with bat wings and gnashing teeth. Oh, Filly’s Guide to Computational Harmonics, what have they done to you? Anon You’re in some deep shit. You can still see the doorway Moondancer made from here, but it would be a long run. Papers are falling off of the buildings, piling up like rain, and there’s about to be a flood. Okay, shit, shit, think! You wave your hands and ignite the paper. Except nothing happens. ”There’s no use, Anon! The stronger the nightmare, the more fixed it is in place. We have to get out!” Moondancer cries over the swell. The paper crashes as it flows down toward the three of you. The filly hugging your trouser-leg is still crying. You can’t leave her. “Can we take her out with us?” Moondancer shakes her head. ”We’re not licensed to make extractions.” You wave your hand again and concentrate while she continues, ”I told you it won’t work, there’s-” A ball of candleflame breaks out into the sea. Some of it burns, but not enough. Moondancer looks surprised, but you can’t pay attention to her right now. You bend down to the filly and lower your voice. “What’s your name?” She murmurs without looking up at you. ”K-Kitty. Kitty Corner. Don’t leave, please don’t leave...” A textbook flies for you. You ignite it, and your luck holds again. It takes something out of you, though. “We won’t. Promise. Now, come on!” You scoop her up and sprint doorward. On cue, the waves start chasing you. The filly’s heavier than you expected, but you can bear it. Moondancer’s following at your side, panting and trying to nag you about something. You duck into the nearest alleyway, a dead-end. Outside, the papers floods past. Above, the buildings get taller and taller. You can feel the active lack of something inside you. The more you struggle, the weaker you get. Moondancer Anon has an impressive amount of power, definitely more than you, but it doesn’t matter. Things have gone from fucked to downright corybantic. Your only hope is to wake up the kid and hope you get ejected somewhere better. Getting lost in the astral could be a lot more dangerous, but Anonymous decided all of this for you, so you don’t feel bad about it. You’re not going to die smothered in math problems. At least, not ones you can solve. They’re starting to swarm into the alleyway even now. The three of you have backed up to a brick wall, so your chance is coming. If you can just wrestle her from Anon, you can throw her into the homework and she’ll wake up. You’ll just have to distract him for a moment. “Anonymous, why don’t you give me-” He smiles cockily over his shoulder at you, and speaks with total confidence. ”One second, Dancer. I’m going to get rid of these things.” ...He can’t be serious. The filly’s buried her head against his chest, and he’s holding her with one arm while he gestures with his free hand. All of the paper in the alley shreds itself. Kitty turns and peeks out of one eye as he shouts, ”All of them at once!” He waves, and the alleyway opens up, the buildings parting. ”I’ll show you not to mess with sick fillies!” You can feel his magic, and it’s gone. What he just did took the rest of it. Even if you weren’t able to measure it, you would see his legs shaking. He has to know that he’s fresh out, which means the only pony here who doesn’t already know you’re doomed is the one who’s going to wake up fine! ”Now, here comes the summoning!” Kitty stares up at him, transfixed. In the moonlight, bravado flares up in his face. His palm is up, facing the roiling, oncoming mass which has grown taller than some of the buildings now. You’re about to yell at him to give it up already when the ground starts rumbling. The pavement cracks, and out of it climbs something massive. Anon’s face is twisted in total determination while Kitty stares at the unfolding monster. It’s Cerberus, a beast thrice Anon’s size, and it keeps growing as it paws its way out of the earth. Soon, it’s the size of the buildings. You have no idea how he accomplished that. It rears up and howls to the moon, then snaps its jaw out and scoops up a boatload of the paper. It’s... eating them? In a moment it repeats, plowing into the white ocean. It knocks the textbooks away without noticing them. The rest of the paper scatters, pushing weakly against the monster and failing. In a few moments, the problem’s nothing but tatters and upside-down answer keys. How...? Kitty looks up at Anonymous as he sets her down. ”H-how did you do that?” ”I didn’t! You did!” He boops her nose. ”My magic didn’t work, but I figured yours would. I just needed you to believe in me enough to lend me some.” She looks spellbound. ”I-I did that?” He nods and points. ”Look!” You both follow the trajectory of his finger. In the commotion you must have missed the flash, but you can feel that it isn’t a figment of dream. On her flank, there’s an image of a whip and a chair. Anon You did good today, but you’re wiped out. Moondancer’s cancelled your lesson, and you’ve returned to the big blue nowhere place. ”We’ll continue the next time you sleep. Keep out of trouble until then, alright?” “Sure, but... uh...” ”What?” You point straight up, to the highest point of the dream-clouds. “What’s that?” It’s a cloud like the others, except it’s thicker, red and angry, the size of ten or twenty put together. Black brambles snake in and out of it, covered in needle thorns. It looks like it’s about to rain blood. ”Oh, that. That’s Luna’s dreamscape.” She sees the look on your face. ”It always looks that way. And entering is punishable by death, so if you go in I’m not coming with you.” God, okay. Dancer’s never going to let you live this down, is she? You’re too tired to do anything else today. But still… What would make someone’s dreams look like that? Luna It has been many days since you last had Anonymous’ company. The feeling of impatience is a rare sensation for you. Still, even his dreams must now be closed to you. No Princess of the Night would play voyeur to the comings and goings of her officials. Not that you feel guilty for your previous visits; it is your duty to learn the hearts of all your subjects. If perhaps, at times, it is also a pleasure, what god or mortal should slight you for it? Such discomforts are beneath you. You are due to meet with Anon in your domain soon, to measure his progress. First, though, your rest. Sister needs more than you, at times a full night’s worth. She has done much in the last centuries, and only now is she ceding her gathered influence to you. If she were mortal, you would say she had shaved years off of her life. You have been long overdue. A familiar feeling of guilt washes over you. Yes, it’s time for your rest now. Contrary to popular belief, you did not spend a thousand years on the moon. If you had, the villains you had helped banish would surely have broken out before your return. No, you were sent there by your sister’s power, banished for a time beyond mortal life. But, for much of your banishment, your domain was open to you - your stars lay out for the arranging. You could have escaped, given time. It was merely many centuries before you chose to. Clearly, your sister had kept prepared all of that time. You can’t fathom the number of lives that had to be spent preparing defenses for you, waiting any moment for news of your travel back to the mortal world. To say you were biding your time, or didn’t see the point in it, would be to give you too much credit. The moon simply... altered you. Your stars were a part of Equestria’s atmosphere, distant and warm compared to that endless pockmarked grey. Out that far, there was only darkness, your sister’s Sun, and the world between you. Never close enough to block that sunshine, that one light in the endless black. You spent time immemorial on the dark side, staring out into the nothingness at the furthest, most alien point of the universe. You wondered, if you flew off into it, if perhaps you would eventually find another world, or if you would simply drift, soundlessly, forever. It was fear of being lost that drew you back to the sunlight, and eventually to your sister’s kingdom. Now your kingdom too, again. Maybe one day you’ll earn it again. It’s time for another step in that direction, at least. You sever all means of control and defense as you slip out of consciousness. Sometimes you give yourself some leeway in the dream. Most often not. It is a surrending, after all. Sometimes there are words, but they are only for your benefit, and this time there are no such formalities. You sit on your throne as always - the throne you once held as equal to your sister. And it arrives, in its amorphous squalor, like any well-bred animal. It hangs in the air for long enough to dim the room further, a looming presence of corruption. Your corruption. It taints you, and you feel all over again the sweetness of power, taken from the memories you burned into your mind staring into the emptiness. With it comes the lack of control, the hatred, the disinterest. The Elements come to stop what you’ve become. You disarm them easily, and force them asleep. Tormented by nightmares, they will never wake up, never know the safety of a solid, static realm again. It is your fervent hope that these events never comes to pass. But here, in total privacy, it rehearses them through your body, driving the horror into you. You conquer the world, imprison your sister, and soon the earth grows grey and cold as life itself fades. It kills the dreams, and finally sated, it abandons you. Trapped, again. Forever. ...You wake up, rub your eyes, and get back to your duties. Anon You can access the astral plane without help now, and you have a better idea of your power. In dreams the trick to success against the odds is creative thinking. And you’re a pretty creative guy, if you say so yourself. Luna’s just flown out of her dream-cloud. It clears up into something peaceful as it shrivels, casting little rays of moonlight in random directions. Then, curled in on itself, it winks out of existence. ”Anonymous. We are pleased to see you again. The Court hopes you have made sufficient progress in harnessing your potential.” There’s something especially spellbinding about her up close. It’s in the eyes, maybe. You bow your head. “Yes, Princess, I’ve trained and tested myself every day.” She’s smiling. ”You have done better than even we had expected, Anon. To endow a cutie mark in a dream is a feat of tremendous magic.” Kitty Corner had sent you a letter about that, once she found out Moondancer’s address. It was short, but written better than you would’ve done as a kid. It turned out her talent was beast-taming - she wanted to tame the real Cerberus one day, and make it eat her teacher. That had nearly given Moondancer an aneurysm. ”Now, we have need of you on our rounds. There will be many more dreamers joining us this evening, and they must all be tended to.” Your waifu’s inviting you to spend personal time fighting nightmares together. What’s cooler than being cool? Biting back your excitement, you nod and try to stop smiling. “I’m on it.” ICE COLD! Luna The next hours pass well in the astral. Normally you would just use your magic to occupy all of these dreams and help where needed, but you’re still asleep now. After all, it’s important to treat your advisors respectfully. The work of waking life can wait a while longer. You know that your awakening will be rejuvenating for the first time in ages, and it lends a deep joy to your actions. You find little of threat in the dreamscapes you come across. That which you do discover, though, you grind to paste. Your methods are subtle and effective, old favorites. His are frenzied and ridiculous, never the same twice; he still enjoys the novelty. In transit, you talk about idle things. He is full of the most amusing stories, but apart from that, your work is uneventful. Eventually you come to a final stop, floating around the last of the portals. ”Whose is this?” “This one belongs to Timber Tally. He’s been waiting for a while for us, I’m sure.” You enter, and the cottage is as cozy as ever. “Timber? I’ve come with the news!” No answer. He must be out on a walk. You take a seat at his dining-room table. Then you wave Anon over, and he joins you. Anon ”So, camarilla, tell me: what new scheme do you have planned to capture the affections of your Princess?” Her eyes are dancing. Or twinkling. Both. Your heart starts pounding. You make it knock it off before it gets out of hand. “Trade secret, Princess. I reveal my tricks, but not until after I do them.” She laughs. ”Of course. Don’t fear, your Princess won’t invade your mind to find out. We greatly enjoy surprises. They have such spontaneity!” Her voice is even more wonderful when she’s smiling. She could be reciting Bingo numbers and it would hypnotize you. “Y-you’re always welcome, if you want to visit.” She seems pleased by that. Before she can answer, though, the door opens. ”Princess!” The husky voice belongs to a stallion.  A unicorn with a stone-colored pelt, dulling blue mane, a mark of a stump and a checklist. Old. Old-old. Hella grandfatherly. ”It’s good to see you again, Timber. The Summer Sun Celebration is coming up.” He chuckles and snorts at that. ”Come to offer me another front-row seat?” Luna straightens up a little. ”If you simply allowed a bit of surgery..." ”Agh! I don’t believe in those quacks and you know it!” You feel very lost in this exchange. He picks up on that, somehow, and turns an eye to appraise you. ”Who’s the squirt?” ”Anonymous, of the Humankind. My knight in training.” He squints. ”Finally getting yourself some fetishes, then?” ”Don’t change the subject, Timber. I know how much you love the sun and so do you.” He waves a hoof at the view out the window, a warm spring morning. ”I’ve got all the sun I need right here. Now tell me the news or get gone, I’ve got turnips to water.” Luna Anonymous doesn’t speak until after you’ve both left. It’s the hallway of doors, now; you’re talking the long route back to wakefulness. ”...Why did we go there?” You turn to him. “Timber has been in a coma for the better part of a decade. He can leave any time he wants, but not without cost. He has no wife or children here, and chooses instead life as a hermit.” He ponders that. ”Why were you trying to convince him to wake up, then? And why tell him about current events?” “Because it is my duty to try. And if a pony chooses to live in my domain exclusively, it is my role to keep them from harm.” His expression changes, becoming unreadable. For a time, you walk in silence, wondering what his response will be. ...Or, perhaps, if he has no response after all. ”I love you.” In a shock, something grips your heart and holds it fast. You almost fall over. He, on the other hoof, keeps walking. His nonchalant gaze is directed toward appreciating each passing door in turn. “Anon..." He turns to you. ”Yeah, I kn-” One wing extended, you sweep him closer. Your kiss starts hastily this time, and deepens after a few seconds.Neither of you are very experienced. His hands, at first held up in startled surrender, rest on your withers and gently rub them. After a moment, you break the contact. You’re both equally breathless. There’s no way for you to follow that, so you excuse yourself. “Goodnight, Anonymous.” He nods. ”Y-y, uh, t-...” He nods again, then makes a fist and presents his thumb to you. You fly off, back to your dreamspace. It’s going to be a good morning. ??? A dark half-space, a confluence of possible architectures. The area where dreaming gets folded up and stood in the corner by the waking brain. An occupant, among the potentials. You’re intimately connected with the mind of your victim. New symbols are flashing within it, new meanings which you understand only through her memory. An alien, draped heavy in sentimentality. A two-way connection to immense dream magic. Be the Tantabus. You’ve just found your way out.