//------------------------------// // welcome to your nightmare // Story: Journey of the Noble Dragons // by closet brony 77 //------------------------------// The dream realm. A place between space and time where the impossible becomes possible; where a creature can live out their greatest fantasies or be confronted by their worst fear, where their entire subconscious mind is laid bare and yet be incredibly vague in the description of such thoughts. Made up off the collective minds of all living beings who lay down to rest. Luna, the princess of the moon and by extension the night, had full dominion over this realm as its guardian. It was her duty to ensure that all of her subjects were protected from the darkness that grew within the dreamscape: nightmares, a darkness that digs deep into the subconscious mind and pulls out each creatures’ very worst fear and brings it to life. Luna was to combat this menace by teaching her subjects how to fight back against their phobias or if the need arose, as with the tantabus, deal with it herself. But tonight all was calm in the dream realm, all of her subjects were blissfully asleep and in beautiful fantasies. But that didn’t matter to Luna, she was concerned with finding one individual in particular: her nephew. Every night since his disappearance she has been searching the dreamscape for his door, a small wooden one with a smaller wooden green flame marking it. But night after night the search yielded nothing, as if some unseen force was hiding it from her. Recently she had found that there was indeed an interference in the dream realm, luckily she had figured out a way to sneak past it and continue forth on her quest. After passing numerous doors she paused and let out a gasp at the one floating away from all the others: it was his door, the one she had been looking for. But the strangest thing happened when she reached for it, the door suddenly darted away from her like a wounded animal. As she approached it further, it only continued it’s retreat as if it had a mind of its own. “What is this?!” said Luna as she flew after the door to her nephew’s mind. Suddenly, after a long winded chase, the door vanished in a black smoke; that was the moment Luna realized something was very wrong. Almost instantly the temperature around Luna dropped to a deep chill, an eerie feeling running up her spine, as if she was being watched. She turned around to try and retrace her steps back to the other doors only to find that a deep darkness now surrounded her. Any and all attempts to magically light her way proved fruitless as the shadow seemed to go on for eternity. “My my, so you’ve finally arrived!” said a voice “I’m rather impressed you managed to get past my cloak of the fog.” Turning around Luna saw that a dragon roughly the size of a teenage welp stood before her, dressed in black robes and surrounded by some sort of strange mist. For some reason this dragon made her feel incredibly uneasy. “Halt! Stand and unfold thyself dragon!” shouted Luna. “Straight to the point eh? Well I suppose it is rather rude of me to not give a proper introduction, I am Cobalt. Hailing from the Vlemm enclave, I am the advisor to king Frinad and queen Layla, as well as a master of the dream realm like yourself.” replied the dragon with a smile that was just a bit too wide. “And what is your business here?” asked Luna “Isn’t it obvious? I’m acting as a standing guard to prince Artair’s subconscious mind, keeping troublesome ponies such as yourself from sticking their noses where they don’t belong. Which brings me to my next point: abandon your search for your so-called nephew’s mind or there will be dire consequences not only for you but for your subjects as well.” said Cobalt with a rather off putting politeness in his tone Luna blinked her eyes in bewilderment, she had never come across a whelp so bold and yet so arrogant; how dare he threaten her! She was princess Luna, an immortal alicorn over one-thousand years old! She controlled the night and everything in it and yet this lizard believes he can delegate her orders?! “Who are you to command me you snide whelp?!” said Luna, her rage building. “First of all, calling me a snide whelp is rather impolite; there is no need for that Luna, I am attempting to be the bigger creature and discuss this matter in a civil manner. Secondly, to answer your question, a creature whose power can match your own; so if you decide to press forward don’t think even for a moment that I will not make good on my threat.” answered Cobalt, still maintaining his well-mannered air. That was the tipping point, Luna wasn’t going to be talked down to by a creature such as this; one who thinks that they are just as powerful if not more so that her. Not to mention he was actively keeping her from finding her nephew. Luna began to charge up her horn, preparing to blast this arrogant dragon to oblivion. “I shall enjoy showing you your place in this world dragon.” Cobalt merely shrugged at the princess of the night and stood his ground. “Very well then, have at thee princess.” A beam of light shot out towards Cobalt, but to Luna’s utter shock the dragon vanished just before the spell could hit him. “Coward. Using the shroud of darkness to hide yourself, come forth and face me!” Luna shouted in the royal canterlot voice. She was swiftly met with a loud rumbling sound in response. It was if the entire realm was shaking all at once, threatening to tear itself apart. With a loud boom the darkness finally cleared up, only to give way to a whole new nightmare. Nothing but fire surrounded her on all sides, an inferno that could match even Tatarus in terms of strength; her realm was burning and there was nothing she could do to stop it. But what really caught her attention was Cobalt as it was rather hard to ignore him now. The dragon now stood at nearly two-hundred hooves tall, his calm face replace by one much more demonic; his eyes burned pure white, his mouth lined with hundreds of razor sharp teeth, the spines on his head elongated to the point where they resembled the horns of a devil, and his claws were more akin to jagged knives. “You may be the queen of dreams Luna!” boomed Cobalt “but I am the lord of all nightmares! And you have just entered your best one!” Before Luna could get out another word, Cobalt clapped his hands together atop the princess of the night as if he was swatting a fly. Thankfully one of the benefits of being a one-thousand year old alicorn was increased durability, which was the only reason that she wasn’t reduced to a fine paste. Forcing his hands apart with a shield spell she began to engage the goliath. But it was fairly clear that he was controlling the fight, he even began to sing as he battled her. “I will destroy you, shatter your worldview, crush your pathetic dreams! Because I am smarter, you’re just a martyr, now let me hear you scream!” belted out Cobalt as he summoned up several large crystals black as night and began to fire them at the princess. Luna was soon forced on the defensive as she flew around, trying to avoid the flurry of projectiles. Despite her best efforts the dragon managed to clip her a few times but she was far from seriously injured; seeing a window of opportunity she fired at Cobalt’s face…..only for the projectiles to bound off. The psychotic laughter that soon followed would haunt her for the rest of her days. “Oh you’ll die for nothing” sang Cobalt as he swung his massive fists at the lunar princess, trying to swat her again. “Tearing you apart, what fun that’ll be! Cry all you want miss, I’ll just enjoy it, making you twist and squirm! You live in denial, I’ll make you watch while, everything you love BURNS!” This time Luna managed to avoid his assault due to there being only two obstacles to avoid and she fired several, more powerful, blasts at the dragon during his assault; that time he flinched slightly. “You know I fought several magic users like you in the dream realm in a situation just like this, they screamed in fear as I took their powers, just as you will. Wanna hear them, WANNA HEAR!?” screamed Cobalt. Out of nowhere Luna felt an unseen force drag her down to what was left of the ground, she regained her bearings just in time to see a large shadow loom over her. Looking up Luna saw that Cobalt was now trying to step on her, she barely managed to dodge out of the way of his massive foot. Then the yells of agony began to echo around her. “Listen they’re shrieking, what little weaklings, dance to my puppet strings! I’ll use their power, this final hour, service to their new king!” sang Cobalt as he continued to chase Luna. Right then the force released her and Luna quickly flew back up into the air to avoid being squashed, unfortunately what awaited her above wasn’t much better: zombified pegasi, they quickly darted at her with supernatural speed, teeth gnashing, wanting to take a bite of her flesh. Luna began desperately blasting them away, trying her best to suppress the fear that was rapidly clawing at her back. “Am I too vicious? Oh how delicious! Let’s try another game! The rules are simple, it’s kill or be killed, fight back or you’ll be maimed!” chanted Cobalt as he kept throwing zombies at princess Luna. Letting out a war cry, Luna powered up her horn and unleashed a large shockwave blast that not only vaporized all of the undead but also landed a decisive strike against Cobalt who visibly grunted in pain. But his crazed smile soon returned and black fire spewed out of his mouth, aimed directly at Luna who quickly dodged the bombardment but she could feel the heat quickly gaining on her. “Clipping at the seams, of your hopes and dreams, unstitch the tapestry. There’s no bigger story, only the glory, of my calamity!” crooned Cobalt through his firebreath. Right as the fire began to lick away at Luna’s tail, she fired a counter spell into Cobalts mouth that abruptly cut off the fiery assault and made the overgrown lizard start hacking. Luna then began to lob several magical bombs and the stunned dragon all of which made notable impacts against him. Quickly shaking off the blows, Cobalt began to fire back at Luna; plumes of black smoke erupting from his hands that began to converge on the princess, encapsulating her completely and suffocating her. “I’ve got the power, the world I’ll devour, then make it all anew! Endless destruction, that is my function and it’s all thanks to you” echoed Cobalt’s voice through the fog. Gaining her strength, Luna drew on the power of her subjects dreams and dispelled the cloud of smoke. Only to immediately wish she had let it smother her when she saw what Cobalt was throwing at her now. Nightmare Moon, with a hungry look in her eye. Luna had never fully forgiven herself for what she did all those years ago, even though her sister and her subjects have. The one thing she always feared was a relapse into that old persona, one that she couldn’t break out of. Seeing the personification of her past failure as a sister, standing in front of her in such a way left her completely paralyzed with fear. The demon pony took full advantage of her good half’s stupor and charged with an intent to kill; Luna quickly regained her senses and flew away from her dark side only for Nightmare Moon to begin chasing her. Soon enough the two were locked in an all out magic duel, casting dozens of spells in hopes of getting an edge over their opponent but being the same pony the two ended up locked in a stalemate while Cobalt’s voice kept traveling on the wind. “This game is ending, timelines I am rending! Everything that I’ve done culminates in this run! But when everything’s through, I could not predict you! Time for celebration of my determination! Ending this oration with your extermination! I’ll be filled with such joy when everything’s destroyed!” It was at that moment Luna realized what Cobalt had been doing this entire time, he said he was a master of nightmares at the start of the fight. If that was true then he had been drawing power from the darkness that spawned nightmares themselves which feed off fear, as her panic grew so did Cobalt’s power and this summated in the manifestation in front of her; her worst fear, Nightmare Moon. But that’s all it was, manifestations and illusions, none of it was real. She’d just have to find the real Cobalt….. “THERE!” shouted Luna, seeing a glint in the shadows, firing a powerful bolt out. The blast caught Cobalt completely off guard and struck him right in the chest, breaking his concentration along with the illusions he had formed. The fires were quickly snuffed out and Nightmare Moon vanished along with Cobalt’s demonic form, leaving his original form in its place. “Heh heh heh, clever girl” Cobalt said through coughs as he slumped to his knees “finally caught onto my little tricks?” “I must admit, drawing on the power of fear to was quite clever not to mention effective. But it was not enough to defeat me.” said Luna. “Now tell me where you’ve hidden my dear nephew’s dream door.” “Oh please. Do you really think I’d be foolish enough to risk everything on a duel with you? I still have one final trick up my sleeve.” Cobalt replied. Cobalt snapped his fingers, but nothing seemed to occur. “What did thou-” Then the screaming started. This wasn’t like the fake illusionary scream he had created earlier, these were real screams and Luna recognized them all too well: they were from her subjects. “See Luna, while you were busy getting past the barrier I had set up. I was worming my way into the dreams of every single pony in equestria setting up roots everywhere I went, now with the snap of my fingers I can cause every single one of your subjects to enter their very worst nightmares that digs deep into their darkest fears. The best part is that I’ve hidden said roots deep within each of their minds which makes finding them next to impossible.” said Cobalt. Luna couldn’t stand it, thousands of screams coming from all over equestria, from the youngest foal to the oldest pony, their screams were like nails on a chalkboard to the princess and she was utterly helpless to do anything about it. This was a whole new level of torture for her “STOP IT! FOR FAUST’S SAKE STOP! THEY DON’T DESERVE THIS!” screamed Luna. “Oh I’ll stop, on one condition; you stay away from Artair’s mind until I say otherwise, no more searching for it and no more attempts to use his mind to locate him. In return I will not only turn off the nightmares that now plague your subjects but I will also refrain from entering your realm until you say otherwise or you fail to uphold your end of the deal. Should you go back on your end of the bargain, I will ensure that not a single pony will ever sleep well ever again. Do we have an agreement?” said Cobalt. Luna grit her teeth. She had been locked into an impossible choice: save her nephew or spare thousands of innocent ponies from endless nightmares, her duty as an aunt or her duty as a princess? The screams around her, growing louder, quickly helped her make a decision. Letting out a sigh of defeat Luna glared up at Cobalt and muttered “you have a deal.” “Good mare.” replied Cobalt, snapping his fingers which silenced all the screams at once. “I know it must have been a tough decision but you’ve made the right decision.” “Buck you.” spat Luna. “No need for profanity, I tried to be civil luna but you refused; you have no one else to blame but yourself for this” said Cobalt, getting back to his feet. “Now before you go, remember that I will always be watching you.” Luna’s eyes suddenly snapped open, she was back on her private balcony of the canterlot castle. It took about ten seconds for the weight of what had just happened to sink in: she had been defeated by a single dragon, one who was able to match her dream powers blow for blow, and who had essentially banished her from seeing her sweet little nephew ever again. Luna sank down to a sitting position. And started to cry for Spike. *********************************** “Next stop ponyville!” Shouted the conductor. The mane six hadn’t had a good night, if the bags under their eyes and the exhausted looks on their faces weren’t enough to make that clear. The first two days in the hospital had been normal enough, Rainbow Dash and Rarity’s vision had returned on the second day and they were all set to head out after the third day once they complete a few final check ups. But that night the entire hospital woke up screaming, the elements of harmony included. It was so strange; one minute they’re in a normal dream and the next minute they were plunged head first into their very worst nightmares. Applejack was yelling that sweet apple acres was burning, Rainbow Dash went on and on about a cannibalistic Pinkie Pie, and Rarity screamed when she though that she was naked and covered in mud on a fashion show runway. The entire hospital staff ran themselves ragged trying to calm everypony down but most were too scared to fall back asleep. Meaning that none of the elements got any sleep and were completely exhausted come the next morning, even the energetic pinkie pie lacked any pep in her step. And they weren’t the only ones, everywhere they looked their were ponies who all looked dead tired; some were even acting a tad paranoid, constantly looking over their shoulders as if something was going to jump out at them. “Man, Spike is gonna have to wait” Said Rainbow Dash. “Right now all I want to do is find a nice soft cloud and sleep the day away.” “Fer once ah agree” added Applejack “Ah’ve never felt this tired since ah tried to get through applebucking season all by mahself” “Thankfully nothing’s happening in ponyville today. So we all should be able to get a nice long rest” Said Twilight, following up with a yawn. “I still don’t understand how an entire building of ponies could be struck by their worst nightmares all at once. Luna should have been watching over them.” “We can ponder that later darling. Right now I need my beauty sleep.” Said Rarity. As soon as the train pulled back into the station, the mane six hopped off and split up toward their respective residences, all with the intent on catching as many z’s as they could. Twilight smiled as she came up to the castle of friendship. But when she tried to open the door, it abruptly slammed open to reveal a very disappointed looking Starlight. “Don’t you dare say it Starlight. I am way to tired for an ‘I told you so’” Said the princess of friendship “Oh that’s not what this is about Twilight” Starlight hissed out “there are some creatures waiting upstairs who want to have a few choice words with you.” Twilight groaned as Starlight took ahold of one of her hooves and dragged her towards the dining room, of course some delegate had to come by today to whine about their problems; she may have been the princess of friendship but she was still a pony with worldly needs. Maybe she could try to rush through this so she could go to bed. Her train of thought came to a sudden halt when Starlight pushed open the doors to the dining room. What Twilight saw waiting for her there was enough to bring her blood to an ice cold chill. “Well it’s about time you showed up princess” Said Ember “Yeah! Care to explain yourself?!” Said Thorax. “W-what are you talking about!” said Twilight. “Oh don’t play dumb.” said Ember, leaping out of her chair “we heard all about what’s been going on with Spike and we want answers!” “Why would I know anything?!” sputtered Twilight, desperately trying to diffuse the situation “Because you’re Spike’s oldest friend, because you spend most of your time with him, because he’s YOUR assistant. Should I go on?” said Thorax. “I-I-I-” “Why did spike run away?!” shouted Ember “Who are those dragons?!” yelled Thorax “Where are they taking him?!” “Why did they cause a brawl?!” “What in the name of tartarus is going on?!” Eventually the two leaders began to drown each other out, firing out question after accusation; all at the princess of friendship who felt the pressure of every single one until….she snapped. “ENOUGH!!!!” shouted the princess in the royal canterlot voice. Both Ember and Thorax fell back into their seats, their intimidating statues completely and utterly lost before the steaming mad Twilight Sparkle. The pony in question was completely red faced, desperately trying to catch the wind that had seemingly left her body. “Enough, please….enough…” said Twilight, slowly beginning to sob as she made her descent back into her chair. “Twilight?” said Thorax reaching out a hoof to comfort her only to have it rudely swatted away. “Why….WHY AM I BEING TORMENTED!” shouted Twilight to the sky “WHAT DID I DO TO DESERVE THIS?!” ***************** Right as she said that, in some faraway location, Trixie Lulamoon let out a loud sneeze. “Huh, somepony must be cursing the great and powerful Trixie again. Oh well, not as if it doesn’t happen often” The illusionist merely shrugged and got back to work on her romantic confession letter. “Soon Starlight will know how much the great and powerful Trixie cares for her!….I hope” ****************** Back inside of the castle, Twilight could do nothing else besides curl up into a ball and cry, there was simply too much pressure put on her at once and her legs just gave out. Starlight took hold of the dragon and the changeling. “Give her time guys, she’s had a pretty rough week” The pair merely nodded in reply as they were led out of the dining room and twilight was left alone to regain her sanity. ‘Why. why me. Why now. Why Spike?’ thought Twilight as she rocked back and forth. **************************** “You think we came on a bit harsh?” asked Thorax, suddenly taking a great interest in his hooves. “Maybe a little….but it was justified!” proclaimed Ember “Twilight should have told us about this!” Starlight had taken her friends down into one of the castle’s many common rooms to give Twilight some space, Thorax and Ember sat next to each other on a wide couch while Starlight sat directly across from them; harboring a stone faced expression. “She was just worried that you to would overreact.” replied Starlight “kinda like you are right now.” Ember recoiled at that accusation “we are not overreacting! Spike is Bahumut knows where right now! with some dragons no creature has ever seen before!” “And your first course of action is to start interrogating Twilight like she’s a criminal. Do you have any idea how hard this has been on her?” said Starlight. “W-well….” “I’ve had to act like a stay at home-mare for the past week because Twilight is so obsessed over finding Spike that she’s completely forgotten to take care of herself! I have to clean up after her, make sure she eats, make sure she doesn’t stay up all night, and to top it all off I have to see one of my best friends reduce themselves to a shell of their former selves!” Ember soon imitated Thorax as she took a sudden interest in her feet. “Spike was her very first friend she ever made, he was like a little brother to her. Can you imagine what losing a younger brother, one you loved and cared about with all your hearts, does to a pony?!” Starlight paused to take in a breath “But I can’t say that you weren’t justified in coming over. This whole affair has been one disaster after another, I figured that you guys would come over here eventually.” “Look, we’re sorry about what we did to Twilight. We just wanted to make sure Spike was safe, just like she does.” said thorax Starlight just started at the changeling, after a moment she let out a sigh and walked out of the room, leaving behind two confused leaders. A few minutes later Starlight returned with a scroll held up by her magic. “You want answers? Here they are. But I’m only showing you these to give you a piece of mind, I really hope you don’t act stubborn and hard headed like Twilight did when she read this.” She unrolled it onto the table and Spike’s two favorite creatures began to scan their eyes over the well written penmanship. Each reacting in their own ways Thorax was completely shocked, Spike really felt this way? Why didn’t he say anything? He was his best friend after all! Shock quickly turned into worry, sure Spike was tough but what if those dragons were lying to him? For all he knew they could be plotting to kill him or worse...turn him evil! Based on the letter it was clear Spike wouldn’t believe him at first but Thorax had to convince him, he had to save his best friend from himself. Ember on the other hand had a completely neutral expression but her inner thoughts were anything but; this note that her crush wrote out….it was the final piece of the puzzle. Sure she had suspicious before but she merely brushed it off as paranoia, but this proved it plain and simple. She had heard stories about them but she never could have imagined that they even existed, much less still be an active entity. Her worry only grew when a second thought came to mind, if they were real then could Spike be….the lost prince? Ember shook away those thoughts, she could ponder them later, right now she had to find Spike and get him away from those dragons and make sure none of her subjects found out the truth; the truth that…. THEY had returned.