A Tale of Dreams and Nightmares

by Ivo

Chapter 2 - A City, A Veil and A World Beyond Imagination

It was the next morning.
Birds sang their songs outside and Celestia´s sun greeted the ponies of Equestria with its golden rays. Slowly, the citizen went to their work, some still drowsy and their eyes half-closed, others filled with pure energy and a wide smile on their lips.

The little filly was something between these two groups. She greeted the morning stretching with a long mouth-open-wide yawn. Sleepy, she rubbed her eyes and tried to open them, just to realize that it felt way better to let them stay closed.
But for her soul, there was no way back to the world of dreams so fast. It was rested and ready for the wonders of the new day and the new experiences within them!

Finally, the young filly managed to open her eyelids a tiny weenie bit and faced two tightly closed eyes. It weren´t her mother´s ones, neither it was her mother at all who was lying next to her. Deep chugging warm breaths brushed across her face and tickled the filly, making her smile.
What mommy said yesterday? Daddy has nightshift. And now he´s back and sleeps because he is tired. she thought and her gaze wandered away from her sleeping father to the door. The scent of pancakes found its way to her nostrils. Her conclusion: And mommy makes breakfast.

Quietly, she sneaked out of the bed and the bedroom to head for the kitchen, closing the door behind her to let her daddy have a peaceful and uninterrupted sleep.
At the kitchen, her mother greeted the young filly with a warm smile while she took place on a big round wooden table.

“Good morning, my little lambkin!”
“Good morning, mommy!”
The elder mare placed a plate of seductive-scenting pancakes and a glass of cocoa in front of her daughter. “And? Did you sleep well?” she questioned.
The filly nodded vigorously and wide-smiling, her mouth filled with bits of the delicious pancakes. “Uhmmm huhmmmmpf” she munched. After a big swallow, she continued: “I had a great dream!”
“So?” the mare asked smiling with a cocked eyebrow and curiousness. “What was it about?”

After taking another big bite from her breakfast, her daughter answered: “Well, first it was only dark and black around me and couldn´t find one of you and that made me really sad. But then, there was a strange colt who said he wants to help me finding you. He was a pirate and took me with him on his ship and fought with me against sea monsters and other pirates. And then, he told me he was a long lost prince and had to free his queen and told me, I was a princess too! And after defeating a dragon and saving the queen, we had to rescue a baby from a fire the dragon had set and then, I suddenly found you and I was so happy that I didn´t realize how the colt went. And then, I woke up.” She frowned and looked at her mother. “Do you think he would forgive me? He helped me and I even didn´t say ‘thank you’. But you told me to do so when somepony helps me. Is he now bad with me?”
Her mother listened interested to the little filly´s dream-report, sipping on a small cup of black tea and eating some pancakes for herself. About her daughter´s worries in the end, she had to chuckle. What a nice and sweet daughter she had!
“Oh, I think he´ll forgive you, don´t worry! He surely knows that you´ve wanted to thank him. You just had been distracted at that moment. Don´t worry, you can still say ‘thank you’ to him if you meet him in your dreams again.”
Calmed to may not have lost a friend, even if he was only a phantom, she smiled. “Thank you, mommy!”

A wooden cuckoo clock suddenly announced seven o´clock with just as much loud ‘cuckoo’s. The two mares knew what that meant and finished their breakfast.

The elder mare rose from her seat. “Okay, I´ll wash the dishes and you go to the bathroom and brush your teeth. And after that, I´ll bring you to the kindergarten!”
“YAY!” the filly cheered loudly just to be shushed by her mother because of her sleeping father.

“Ops…Sorry!” she whispered, smiling ashamed…

“ROOOAAARR! I am a big and scary dragon and I am I will eat you up with one bite!”
“Oh no! A terrible dragon!”
“Don´t worry, princess! I will defeat him!”
“But…he´s so strong and big!”
“ROAR, you forgot hungry!”
“Let me fight at your side!”
“WHAT?”
“Together we´ll defeat him!”
“Noooooo nonononono!”

The young ‘prince’ shook his head furiously and looked direct into his ‘princess´’ dark blue eyes. “YOU are the princess and I am the prince! I have to save you! You are not supposed to fight! You are playing it totally wrong!”
“I am NOT playing it wrong!” the filly argued. “Who says a princess always has to scream and wait for her savior? I don´t want to wait! That´s boring!”
“Your loss! You are the princess because you are a filly! And princesses don´t fight! If you want to be a knight, you have to be a colt like me!” her contradictor meant stubborn.
“And how should I do that, you dimwit?”
“How should I know? Am I looking like a doctor for you? Why you decided to want to be a filly anyway when you were born if you don´t want to be a princess? And you are also a dimwit!”

She wanted already to fire off her next arguments against the brown colt with the white mane, when suddenly with another loud roar the second colt swooped down on them and buried them both underneath.
“I ate you up! You lost! The dragon wins today!” he cheered wide-grinning.
“Morning Dew! Get off of me!” the filly commanded annoyed the young white colt with the two-colored pale pink and violet mane.
“No!” he said cheeky and grinned. “You are in my tummy now!”
“Morning, you dope! Get off of us!” the brown colt shouted, trying to get free.
“Nopey…” he sang cheeky. “You first have to be digested…”
“MORNING DEW!”

They scuffled together on the meadow of the kindergarten for a few other minutes, until one of the care workers, a mare with a waving green mane and blue coat, trotted over to them and stopped their arguing.
“Slow down, little ponies! Why are you squabbling?”
The three got off of each other and faced the mare.
“Temblor is dumb!” the filly meant.
“I am not! YOU are dumb!” the brown colt argued.
The mare rolled her eyes in her thoughts. “And can you tell me why he´s dumb?” she asked.
“We wanted to play ‘Knights and Dragons’ and I was the princess and wanted to fight against the dragon, too, but Temblor said that fillies don´t fight and princesses too! But in my last dream, I was a princess and fought against a dragon!”
“Yeah, in your dream!” the colt mentioned and earned her outstretched tongue.
“The prince there had been much nicer than you!”

“Well, there had been many mares in history which fought against dragons and dark powers, just as much as colts.” the care worker explained diplomatically. “You remember the Elements of Harmony and how they defeated Discord and Nightmare Moon?”
“Yeah, I know…but that´s not the same!” Temblor commented still stubborn.
“No? And what is about the story where Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness, made a full-grown dragon crying?”
“She only had told him off. That dragon was a complete wussy!”
“That´s not very nice, Temblor!” the mare scolded the colt.
“Sorry, Teacher Waterlily…”

She only smiled and nuzzled him. “Why don´t you play something other? Something you all can have fun with?”
“Okay, Teacher Waterlily.” Morning Dew, who didn´t intervene all the time, replied and indicated to the two other foals to follow him to the sand box. “Come on! Let´s build a sandcastle!”

The two other foals only looked at each other and shrugged.
“I´m sorry.” Temblor said. “You may were right.”
The filly smiled. “It´s okay. I´m not bad with you.”
He also smiled and together, they joined their friend at the sand box…

I hate this place!

This was the thought that crossed his mind when he first entered his most despised part of all spheres of the Dream Universe. He was walking on a huge black quagmire; dark bubbles filled with obnoxious smelling gas rose from the bog and burst on the surface.
It was always hard to get used to the impertinent stench and to not vomit instantly!
His hooves were protected by two pairs of black horse shoes he always added his appearance when he ‘visited’ this dark realm.

He looked around.
There was nothing. The bog was calm and peaceful, though black and spooky, and so also the dark bilious green sky. Adjusting his black trilby and cloak one last time he prepared for what was coming. There was no fear inside of him since there was no need for fear. Nothing would harm him. Just playing, like the ruler of this bog used to say. But there still was one problem:
He wasn´t here for playing! This was a serious matter and he had no time for stupid spooky little games!

“Show yourself, Macabra! I know you´re watching me! I have to talk to you!”

There was a short silence until finally from the depths of the bog a mocking female voice answered: “Oh, look who wants to visit Macabra! The Dreamwalker! What an honor! Finally, the great Macabra has the chance to kill you in person!”
He rolled his eyes to that. “Oh, come on, Macabra! I have no time for this!”
“You´ll have no other choice!” the voice from the ground giggled. “Visiting the great Macabra was your biggest mistake. And now, you´ll pay for it!”
And with these words, a rumbling set in, its source deep inside the bog and quickly coming closer.

The unicorn-stallion shook his head.
The same thing time and time again! he sighed.
And then, in a giant fountain, Macabra´s newest creation appeared in front of him. With a piercing scream, a huge grub emerged from the bog, it´s long, wormlike blue and muddy-yellow body half-decayed and maggot-eaten. A breath-taking putrid smell, thousand times worse than the usual scent of the bog, found its way to his nostrils and turned his stomach. He thought he had to vomit at once, but kept it back.
Big black holes, where once had been the eyes of the monster, focused at him, maggots crawling in them. The face of the monster, looking like the one of a pony with white coat and a blue-yellow mane, was screwed up with pain and also half-decayed, revealing sharp teeth in its muzzle. Everywhere, he could see pale bones through the rotten flesh.
One moment of silent watching followed and then, with another loud scream, the monster attacked, its head hurtling towards him, mouth wide opened.

The stallion only sighed and closed his eyes, starting to concentrate and let his fantasy flood his mind. Working his magic was easy. He just had to imagine how things should be and they followed his will - mostly. Dream-magic was different from the common magic the unicorns and alicorns on earth used. More spiritual.
It worked only if his soul believed that his imagination could come true.
His horn glowed.

He imagined the monster getting slower. As soon as he thought it, a yellow glow enveloped the big caterpillar-monstrosity. And it got slower and slower, moving in slow motion - and finally stopped in front of his face.
He drew the picture in his head further, his horn glowing more intense and the glow around the beast getting brighter.
And with a golden pulse of magic, the monster dissolved into thousands of small blue bubbles and butterflies, starting from the head to its tail and escaping into the depths of the extensive bog.

He opened his eyes and smiled satisfied when two of the brimstones danced around him and he felt the grass from a small meadow-fleck beneath his hooves tickling them.
“You are such a killjoy!” the female voice from before meant annoyed right next to his ear.
He jolted around, watching out to keep his hooves on the meadow, and stared directly into the big dark gray eyes of Macabra.
The phantasm in front of him appeared as a chocolate brown mare, her shape slightly older than his one, with a light green straggly mane and tail. In his younger days, he always had thought his aunt would be some kind of crazy witch and had found her creepy. That may was the reason, why Macabra had, of all ponies he knew, her shape.

She sighed.
“There is one, only one single Dreamwalker out there, the only one to have fun with and he is a total buzzkill! Couldn´t you have at least showed Macabra some of your impressive combat skills? Or destroy Macabra´s sweet Wormy in a giant firework instead of these boring butterflies?”
The stallion only chuckled.
“Next time, I promise you.”
“Hmpf, Macabra hopes she´ll live long enough to see that!” the mare meant and wrinkled her nose.
“Uhm…You know you´re immortal?...”
“Sure Macabra knows, but is an immortal live enough to witness your next visit?” she asked jokily.
He giggled. “You got a point there.”

The phantasm just snorted and created a small armchair, consisting of pale bones, behind her and sat down on it. “Anyhow…What brings you to Macabra´s realm?”
The stallion frowned. “You don´t know it yet?”
The brown mare frowned, too, watching the black stallion in front of her with curiousness. “What should Macabra know?”
“Well…Aren´t you missing one of your monsters?”
“You mean except Macabra´s Wormy?”
“Uh-huh.” he nodded. “I found one of them last night walking through the streets of the City and eliminated it before it could wreak more damage. It also attacked a soul.”
“IMPOSSIBLE!” the creepy mare shouted with disbelief and pointed arraigning at him. “You are lying!”
“I wish I was, but I am not lying. Otherwise, I wouldn´t be here now.”

Macabra now looked a little bit tensed up. “But…how…The great Macabra has to check this! Immediately!” She turned around and shouted: “HEY! SOMEONE BRING MACABRA THE LIST!”
As soon as she had cried for it, the bog next to her began to bubble and revealed a zombie-pony, holding its emotionless-looking head in its right fore hoof. Out of the throat of his headless body levitated a small pell and unfurled in front of Macabra.
“Thanks.” she said and the zombie-pony dove back into the bog.
The unicorn shuddered. “I´ll never get used to your realm…” he meant.
“That´s the plan, sweetie.” the Realmkeeper grinned and inspected the list.

After a while, the mare frowned and rolled the pell up. “You´re right.” she announced, now concerned. “Macabra is really missing a monster. A Thousand-Eye, to be more exact.”
“That must be the monster I destroyed.” the stallion confirmed. “I am just wondering how it got there.”
“A hole.” Macabra meant. “That´s the only explanation!”
“A hole?” he asked confused. “Could you explain that a little bit more?”
“You know, our sphere and the City are connected, right? Otherwise, it would be impossible to send Dreamessence there. But there is something to protect the souls there from the things of our world. We call it ‘the Veil’. And if it has a hole, we have to repair it quickly!”
“Is it very dangerous?” he questioned.
“No, of course not! How could it be dangerous, dozens of dreams made of Dreamdust wandering through the City of Souls! They just would say ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’ to the souls! Or shake their hooves, maybe! Of course, they would never get the idea to gobble them up and destroy them since this of course isn´t their natural endeavor!” her voice was gushing with sarcasm.

“But how can there be a hole?” the Dreamwalker asked confused, ignoring her sarcastic answer.
“Sadly, Macabra doesn´t know.” she stood up from her chair and the bones of it dissolved to dust. “But Macabra will inform Mistress Deathdream at once! We have to act quickly or there soon will be more monsters in the City!” the phantasm elucidated.
He nodded “Alright! And I´ll inform Lady Stardream immediately!”

“Good. Macabra hopes that we will fix this problem before it´s too late! Till then: Farewell, Dreamwalker!” And with these words the phantasm deliquesced to brown mire, melted with the bog and was gone.

The left unicorn just sighed. “Looks like this is more complicated than I thought.” he mumbled and closed his eyes to concentrate, his horn beginning to glow again.
Okay…Let´s go!

And in a white flash, he was gone too…

The day passed by and transitioned into night. The sun sank lower and lower, until she finally vanished behind the horizon. The streets of Canterlot got less busy and the lanterns enlightened, guiding the last ponies home safe. The moon rose, a silver shining crescent on a dark blue sky, accompanied by the gleaming stars.

And at a certain cottage, a certain little filly was preparing herself for bed, brushing her teeth at the bath and trotting into her chamber after that. The familiar light red walls greeted her and she snuggled up in the dark blue covers of her bed. Cuddling with her favorite plushie, a small dragon her father once had cuddled with when he was a colt, so he at least had told her, she waited for her mother. The filly´s daddy was already at work and she still carried his goodnight kiss on her forehead.

After five minutes of silent waiting and occasional yawns, her mommy entered the room, closing the door behind herself and trotting at the filly´s side. She kissed her daughter goodnight and earned a wide smile, the young sparkling eyes big and expectant.
“Do you tell me the next part of the story now?” the filly in the bed asked hopeful.
Her mother smiled and nodded. “Yes, I will. You won´t sleep anyway until I told you the next part, won´t you?”
The young pony grinned and nodded.

“Well, let me think…Where we were…” the mare mused while her daughter lay back in her bed and waited for her to begin.
“Okay, here we go…

Twilight was very very tired after reading her books the whole night to find a cure for her friends´ nightmares. But finally, she felled asleep over her book, the candle next to her still burning until she went out on her own.

And like everypony else, she was dreaming.

She found herself in a big library, bigger than every other library she had ever seen! A huge stairway led to at least five floors, every one of them filled with hundreds of bookshelves. The ceiling, she could only guess how high it was. Everywhere, small lamps lightened the ancient hall with its wooden shelves, stairs and handrails.
She looked around beaming, asking herself where she should start her round tour through the large building.
Finally, our hero decided to start at the highest floor and walked to the big stairway in front of her.

But suddenly and without warning, a bright light appeared at the top of the stairs, looking like a huge door. The purple mare frowned and asked herself what this light was. Was it a strange natural phenomenon? Or a door to another dimension?
Unsure, she turned away and wanted to go back. She still could explore the first floor of the library. But instead of bookshelves with waiting tombs inside, she only saw a black nothingness. The library was gone and the only way left she had, was the way straight to the light.
Curious, Twilight took two steps towards the light until she stopped again. Was it safe? Would it hurt her? What lies beyond the light? Shaking her head and waking the investigator inside her, she took the last steps and finally walked through the light.

It was so bright, Twilight had to squint and protect her eyes with her hoof! Only slowly, the light dimmed and she took her hoof down from her eyes and opened them. And what she saw, was simply stunning!
Our hero found herself on a huge round metal platform! No, when she looked closer, she recognized it wasn´t a platform, it was a very very big cog wheel! She looked behind her, but the bright light-door she came through had vanished.

Confused, she looked around. The mare thought, she would be in some kind of giant clockwork! Everywhere, she saw gears and wheels of all sizes and alignments, turning in a slow steady rhythm. Her mouth agape, she took in the sight and wondered why the gear beneath her hooves wasn´t turning like the other ones.
She walked to the edge of her gear and looked down. But there was only a big black gaping chasm, the bottom she couldn´t see, also like the ceiling.
Twilight frowned. What was this place?

“Ah, arrived you finally have! But this is not the end of your path!”
A jolt went through the purple mare when she heard the sudden voice and her gaze wandered instantly to its owner. And there, between two gears on the other side of the abyss a little bit higher than her, she saw a pony standing and watching her!
She looked closer and frowned.

“Zecora?” the mare asked confused.
Zecora was a zebra - a pony with white and black stripes - she knew, living in the Everfree Forest. She always got her tea and sundry other herbs and elixirs from her.
“What are you doing here?”
The zebra only chuckled and answered smirking: “Don´t believe your eye, this shape is a lie. Our true faces are bizarre, we aren´t what for you we are. Destroy your mind it would, if seeing our real guise you could.”
“So who are you? And what is this place?” Twilight wanted to know.
“The master of this realm and Somnala is my name. The bridge between the City of Souls and Oneirica, this is where we are. ‘The Veil’ some may it call, like an invisible wall, but it´s still here, between the two spheres.”
“Oneirica? City of Souls? Veil? What are you talking about?”

But the fake-Zecora just chuckled again.
“Soon, you will understand, but explain it all I can´t. Ask Stardream, the shining light, she will tell her scheme with all her might.”
“Stardream? Wait…DREAM? I am dreaming?”
“No longer anymore, but you will soon explore…” the false Zecora just replied and closed her eyes, concentrating. As soon as she did, a small bridge of gears and on its end, another shining light-door appeared in front of the confused purple mare.

Twilight looked at it for a brief moment and then back to Zecora, her gaze filled with questions the zebra denied her to answer. Should she really go through that door? Where would she end up next? And if this was a dream, why she couldn´t just wake up?
Our hero was really confused.

The fake pony just smiled warm at her.
“Don´t be afraid, just walk on. Confusing it´s may, but your journey has just begun…”
And with that, the false mare simply vanished.

Our hero was left alone, confused and irritated. What should she do? Wait here and hope to awake soon? Or go on and figure out what was going on?

Her curiosity finally got the better of her and with unsure steps, Twilight crossed the bridge and walked into the shining light, hoping to find the answers for her questions…”

And with these words, the filly was fallen asleep, snuggled up in her warm blanket and her plushie-dragon pressed against her steady raising and lowering chest, which created the low chugging of a deep sound sleep.

Her mother smiled and pecked a last goodnight kiss on her cute daughters forehead until she turned around and left the chamber silently…