//------------------------------//
// What Dreams May Come 
// Story: Ofolrodi 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

"I didn't want to talk about it until we started moving again," Rainbow Dash murmured in mid-trot.  "Because I didn't want to waste any time standing in one place... also all that crap that we just went through..."  She shivered slightly.

Marching and sweating, Logan looked aside at the team's leader.  "Got something on your mind?  Take a load off."  He stared ahead at the rolling landscape.  "Goddess knows I wish I could..."

"I was visited in my dreams again," Rainbow said.

"Whoah, really?!"  Ariel looked over, blinking wide.  She kept in pace with Kepler stumbling behind her.  "Was it the Bloodwings?"

"It was one of them," Rainbow clarified.  "I... believe it was the same pony who visited my dreams the previous few occasions."

Wildcard freed up his talons so he could gesture:  "Did they attempt to frighten you again?"

"That's just the thing.  Quite the opposite, actually," Rainbow Dash said.  "This time they tried appealing to... uhhhh..."  Her ears burned red at the tips.  "...my softer side."

"You've got a soft side?" Flynn droned.

"Anywho..."  Rainbow rounded a boulder and continued along the rocky terrain towards Curveside.  "I saw right through it.  Their illusion broke, and... I actually had a heart-to-heart."

Logan and Flynn exchanged glances.

"I trust..."  Seraphimus walked a bit closer.  "...you didn't share too much of your heart."  Her headcrest drooped.  "Or your mind."

"I kept it close to the chest.  I promise."  Rainbow's tail flicked.  "The... er... dream chest."

"This is pretty friggin' dangerous, Rainbow," Flynn said.  "You're essentially playing pen pals with bad guys."

"Did they find out where you are located?" Seraphimus asked.

"No.  At least..."  Rainbow's jaw clenched and unclenched.  "I didn't give them anything.  Celestia knows they tried to get information out of me."

"Do your friends know about this?" Ariel asked.  "Twilight and the others?"

Rainbow looked aside.

Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and the rest gazed at her with shocked expressions.

"Whoops."  Rainbow faced forward, smiling goofily.  "Guess this some sort of mutual revelation thingy."

"You were visited in your sleep again?!"  Twilight Sparkle exhaled.  "Why didn't you tell us from the beginning?!"

"Uhhhhhhh... why don't you pick a moment, Twilight?" Pinkie remarked.  "Before Dashie was flying for her life from falling boulders or just before the meanie wyrm thingy ate a Dihmer pony whole?!  CRUNNNCH!!!"

Twilight Sparkle winced... then rolled her eyes.  "Okay... so things have been a bit hectic over the past few hours..."

"Land's sakes..."  Applejack fanned herself with her ghost hat.  "I dunno how we even find the time to say each other's names with all this nonsense!"

"I wouldn't want somepony peeking in on me in my dreams!"  Rarity shivered.  "Ugh!  Just dreadful!"

"Rainbow seems just fine to me, though," Fluttershy said.  "I think she's got the situation handled."

Rainbow nodded with a smile.

"How are they taking it?" Ariel asked.

"Just as ghostily as ever," Rainbow yawned.

"Hey!"  Pinkie frowned.

"So... yeah..."  Rainbow gazed at the Heraldites plus Seraphimus.  "Some... representative of a Dream Council or whatnot appealed to me.  I think they're getting desperate.  I even got a name."

"Is that so?" Logan remarked.

Rainbow nodded.  "'Nat'rdo,'" she proclaimed.

Flynn's muzzle scrunched.

"Well..."  Kepler remarked, blindly following Ariel.  "We can expect nothing frrom the darrk side except forr that which is exotic!  Ha-Hah!

"And... just what kind of an appeal was this Nader Duke trying to make?" Logan asked.

"She and her fellow... uhhhh... Dream Council ponies wanted to know what the deal was with Princess Luna's enchantment."

"So they do sense Princess Luna's influence on you!" Ariel remarked.

Rainbow nodded.  "That's right."  She weathered a nervous breath.  "And just like Xarchellus' flock back at Bleak's Plummet, they have a pretty friggin' messed up view of Equestrian history... if not way worse."

"Well, that is to be expected," Kepler remarked.

"In fact... I-I don't even know if they remember Equestria exists," Rainbow said.  "I got an inkling of their world-view of Penumbra.  It's a nasty, solar-bleached place constantly being burned by Daybreaker."

"Daybreaker?" Flynn repeated.

"Their name for Princess Celestia."  Rainbow smirked slightly.  "Gotta admit... it sounds kinda cool."

"There is nothing 'cool' about this," Seraphimus droned.  "You've confirmed that somepony in the upper echelon of the Bloodwings has a predetermined bias against the Light Side and those who hail from it."

"Not unless I can somehow... shatter that bias."

Seraphimus' charcoal brown eyes narrowed as she marched along.  "What are you proposing?"

"Nat'rdo kept pressing me for information," Rainbow Dash said.  "I told her that I wouldn't spill any information unless it happened by my terms."  She trotted tall and proud.  "And the moment I started digging my fetlocks into the ground, I... got the impression that Nat'rdo and her friends were willing to mull it over."

"I'm certain they would allow you to think whatever it is you desired," Seraphimus commented.  "Provided it gave them a deceitful edge."

"I'm not stupid, Sera," Rainbow said.  "Even if I do stupid things to get by."

"Mrmmmfff... if you insist..."

Rainbow rolled her eyes.  "Look... I told them that nopony's gonna play ball unless Lexxic pulls off his hunt and lets us be."

"Oh yeah?"  Flynn's good eye blinked.  "And how did that go over?"

Rainbow sighed.  "The dumb tatzlwyrm attacked and jostled me out of the vision.  I never got to witness the Dream Council making a decision.  For all I know, they're still debating the matter now."

Serpahimus gazed thoughtfully into the twilight.

"Soooo..."  Ariel shrugged in mid-trot.  "We're right back to where we started."

"Not quite," Kepler said.  "If you ask me, Rrainbow has made prrogrress in grreat leaps and bounds!  We now know that someone in the higherr rranks of the Darrk Vigil is awarre of herr possession of Prrincess Luna's blessing!  That makes herr morre of a rresourrce than a thrreat!"

Wildcard nodded.

"Resources exist solely to be fought over," Seraphimus said.  "If you ask me, this puts us in even greater danger than we would have been in if the Bloodwings only perceived Rainbow Dash as a nuisance."

Wildcard... nodded again.

"There's... one more thing," Rainbow Dash remarked.

"Do tell us, Rainbow," Twilight said.

Rainbow continued:  "I... got the impression that... that the Dream Council ponies aren't entirely in control of Lexxic."

"Huh?"  Ariel blinked.

"What gave you that idea?" Logan asked.

"I straight up asked them to rein Lexxic in, should he happen to try and hunt us down," Rainbow said.  "The way Nat'rdo and her cohorts reacted to that... made me think that such isn't an easy task.  They'd have to take it to the top Matriarchs... or something."

"Bureacracy exist even among mass murderers," Flynn said.

Logan squinted at him.  "This surprises you... how?"

Flynn nodded, exhaling.  "Fair enough."

"I thought... like..."  Pinkie Pie fidgeted.  "...the Lunar Rebellion was all about mares calling the shots!"

Rainbow Dash nodded.  "You're not wrong, Pinkie Pie."  She looked at the Herald.  "As Equestrian history proves, it's always been mares who have held authority among the Lunar Rebellion.  Xarchellus and the elders at Bleak's Plummet only served to prove that's a thing."

"It would have stayed the same here, though, right?" Ariel remarked.  "I figured these Dark Vigil sarosians would be super into keeping tradition and honoring Nightmare Moon.  Seems only fitting they'd have the same hierarchal structure."

"I would think so as well," Rainbow Dash said.  "But... then..."  Her eyes narrowed.  "...how would that explain someone like Lexxic—a stallion—who's gotten to such a place of power?"

"Maybe he's not," Logan said.  "Maybe the bastard's just some lucky stud who won the mares' favor... but still has to lick their horseshoes."

"He's gotten pretty up there for a mere horseshoe-licker," Flynn said.  "His military accomplishments have produced results.  Even the Spindlers are afraid of this motherbucker."  He shivered.  "And you know how creepy the Spindlers can be."

"No, but you do, Baldy."

"Meh."

Wildcard breathed thoughtfully.  He gestured:  "What are the chances that these mares will communicate with you again?"

"I'd say pretty high," Rainbow remarked.  "Although... I honestly don't know how it's going to go."

"I would suggest you do not let it happen at all," Seraphimus said.

Rainbow sighed.  "Dare I ask why?"

"Is it not obvious?"  Seraphimus arched an eyecrest.  "The Bloodwings monitor this piece of the plane.  That means they exercise control over both the physical and the metaphysical.  The fact that they have pierced your mindscape via dreams only means that they wish to consume this unclaimed piece of real estate—along with the equine soul it's attached to."

"And if they actually... seriously want to negotiate over the sharing of information?" Rainbow Dash looked back at the griffin.  "If there's an inkling of hope that I can share with them the truth and win their favor against the other two factions?"  Her eyes narrowed.  "What then?  Should I just throw such an opportunity away?"

"After all that you've been through in the Seven Seas and Rohbredden, can you truly pretend to be that naive?"

"Sera, you and I have both been tricked savagely by the likes of Verlax," Rainbow said.  "I think I'm wise enough at this point to discern what is sincere and what isn't.  And my tried and true instinct is telling me that these moon-gals want to talk and learn more."

Seraphimus gave her a deadpan look.  "I would think that our mutual experience with Verlaxion would have taught us both to disregard any and all words from such a faction as this from the get-go."

"... ... ..."  Rainbow gazed ahead.

Twilight and Rainbow's other friends glanced at one another anxiously.

"Whelp..."  Logan broke the silence with an audible sigh.  "This is going to be a longer trek than I thought ten minutes ago."

"Then we must find a way to bide the time!"  Kepler remarked jubilantly.  "Who is forr a song?!?"

Dull, dead silence.

"Ach..."  He deflated in mid-march.  "That is what I thought."