Phobia stood again in the dreamscape for perhaps the last time. After today she would either be part of the dreamscape or she would be dead.
Around her stood four of her fellow Dreamwardens. Ghadab was not present as he was still being trained. Psychic Calm looked at her and she met his eyes. He had just endured this, though his face was unreadable she could see the sympathy in his eyes. Pain was coming, and sorrow, and regret, all like she'd never felt before.
Better to die than to receive the Wardens' justice, but also better to die than become a Warden. The Wardens accepted far more torture in their binding than any punishment they could ever inflict on an individual. If she was only so lucky to get the punishment that Shadow Dancer had coming to him instead. This is what had to happen though.
"The four of us are in agreement, you are well enough trained to be bound. With four of us working to bind you it shall move quickly, but I regret that you won't be able to percieve that," Sha'am said as she looked at Phobia. "Now is your last chance to back out of this. Once you are bound you are one with the dream realm, and you shall know no death here until all dreams have ended. History has shown us that is not eternity, but it is still longer than our wills to carry on can endure. Are you prepared to serve until your will to exist is exhausted?"
"If I don't do this many will suffer," Phobia said firmly.
"That's true," Sha'am said with a nod. "But you shall outlive them all if you do, and you shall suffer for endless ages. We are comparing the concerns of millions over a lifetime to the concerns of one over potentially millions of lifetimes. Who can say in the balance of things which is deserves more concern? You have to make a choice. Only you can decide which matters more to you, no matter how anypony else feels you should decide."
"I choose to be bound and protect our fledgling dream realm," Phobia said just as firmly as before.
"Very well," Sha'am said as she turned her head to Psychic Calm. "I look to you, brother, to give her the Oaths she will hold herself to for all time."
Psychic Calm stepped forward and looked her calmly in the eyes. "These Oaths are not inherient to being a Dreamwarden. They were made so the mistakes of the past would not be repeated. Our power to cause suffering is incalculable if left unchecked. Before the binding we put safeguards in place. Are you prepared to give your Oaths as a Dreamwarden?"
"I am'" Phobia replied.
Psy gestured with a hoof and a small globe with a million points of light appeared. As Phobia watched the globe Psy began speaking.
"We hold the power to extinguish the lights of minds," Psy said as a darkness started spreading through the globe and the lights vanished one by one. "As a Dreamwarden we swear that never again shall a Dreamwarden seek to establish order by using our power to put out all lights. Our job is to protect the dream realm, not to be it's end. Swear it!"
"As a Dreamwarden I swear I will never seek to use my powers in this realm to extinguish it," Phobia said as she watched the last lights within the globe die out. She then felt pressure on her from all around her, like she was being tied by a million ropes at once. She actually dropped down to lay down under the physical force of the compulsion.
Psy reignited the globe with lights again. "Your next Oath. As Dreamwarden you have the power to twist all lights to obey your mind, making them but an extension of your own mind." As he spoke the lights went from twinkling all at random to pulsating in a single orderly way as they slowly converted into one light. "Never again will a Dreamwarden try to force order through sameness. Our job is to protect the dream realm, not make it a reflection of our will. Swear it!"
"As a Dreamwarden I swear I will not violate the uniqueness of the lights, even those I judge will keep their light unique," Phobia said as she watched the last of the lights form into one within the globe. Again she felt the pressure come down on her as the compulsion sealed itself into her.
Psy made the lights diverge again into a million unique points. He then zoomed into one before continuing. "Most lights have no power to impact the dream realm in any way or to force themselves upon the lights of others. Whether the individual be good or bad they are a unique light. We shall reserve ourselves only for taking action against those lights with the power to dominate others. Never again will a Dreamwarden use their power to try to bend their light to our desires. Our job is to protect the dream realm not be a tyrant over the powerless. Swear it!"
"As a Dreamwarden I swear that I will only take adverse action against those that dreamwalk or use mind magic, no matter how much I may wish to intervene I will not bring judgement to those who have no magical power to bend minds," Phobia said as she watched the darkness snuff out the light. She felt the compulsion come again and bring yet another layer of tightness around her.
Psy zoomed back out the globe so it was looking at the millions of lights again. The individual lights among them started trying to dominate the others and the darkness in the center only bound itself into a single light. "As time goes on we all grow weary and neglect for our duties inevitably happens. The dream realm is then at risk as the powerful try to dominate the powerless. Never again shall a Dreamwarden sit and do nothing as this occurs. If you are weary you shall find an heir and raise them up to fight for the dream realm in your stead, binding yourself into eternal dream only afterwards, not before. Swear it!"
"As a Dreamwarden I swear that if I grow tired of my burden of guarding the lights against those who would dominate them I will first find an heir to my legacy and then bind myself into an eternal dream, never to interact with another again. The lights shall always have a Dreamwarden guarding them," Phobia said. The binding into an eternal dream wasn't completely eternal in truth, only until all the lights went out would it fade though, finally releasing her to whatever afterlife there was.
The compulsion applied the pressure to her again. And it felt like her entire body, imaginary as it was, was being crushed in a vise. She would have screamed in pain if she were capable of opening her mouth. It was the worst thing she ever felt, the force of the combined compulsions pressing down on her, crushing her. If this was her waking body she would have been like an orange that had a military tank run over it. There was no good way to describe the pressure.
Despite the pressure she could hear Yinyu speaking. "Sorry about how strong those compulsions are. They aren't much fun. When we finish binding you they'll be kind of baked into you and it won't be noticeable then. They're there for a reason though. Dreamwardens have done some very naughty things in the past. To be honest, when you see the past you'll wish we had more compulsions. These are the ones Luna gave us and we're all going to be equal when it comes to them."
Phobia didn't have any capability to actually respond to that, the force of the magic from the compulsions all but held her in place. It felt like they were trying to condense her into a tight ball.
"But now comes the really painful part," Yinyu continued. "We're about to make you experience everything in the dreamscape at once. Mortal minds are not equipped to deal with all of that at once, that's why we see the dreamscape the way we do. To make it manageable. We'll start working right away to bind you. It will only take a few seconds, but for you it will feel like a lot more than that."
No further warning was given. The entire world just switched suddenly to bright light. There was no more stary expanse because everything was condensed down to a single one demensional point.
Pain ceased to be a thing of the body, because she had no more form in the dreamscape. She had a consciousness and her mind, and every consciousness and mind of every dreamer overlaid hers.
"Come here big boy and give mama a kiss."
"No! Please go away!"
"Why haven't you done your homework Mr. Buchanan?"
"If I hide in this bush no one will see I'm a pony."
"Why won't the humans just leave me alone?"
"And the next billion dollar lottery winner is..."
"I don't want my future dictated to me, but if I change back to human will that ruin everything that's been going right with Dad?"
"Here kitty-kitty-kitty!"
"The greatest show on Earth!"
"The queen is here at my front door for tea!"
"No, no, no, my tail! Where's my tail!"
"Michael? Where are you? Why'd you leave me?"
"The humans hate us so much. What did we ever do to them?"
"Where has the white mare gone? Please, come back!"
"Do-re-me-fa-so-la-te-doe."
"And that's why the lion ride the dumpster truck to Brussels. To get his giraffe a flute."
"No more clowns. I don't like clowns."
"I don't know the answers to this test. I missed every day of class. Oh my God, I'm going to fail."
"Oooohhh, Maud will love this one and...wait...am I getting watched?"
"They'll never find out."
"Mice in my bed! Mice in my bed!"
"Oh, that's perfect. Keep touching me like that Ms. Swanson. You we're always my favorite teacher."
Layer upon layer of dreams and minds flooded hers. There was no sorting them out. She didn't know where they ended and she began, or if she was them or if she was a figment of her imagination. Fragments filled her mind and her mind let off a silent scream that it didn't know what it was. She just wanted it to end, for all of it to go away, and if nothing was left of her at least it would stop.
Then suddenly it did stop, and there was blackness. From that blackness a thousand tiny little lights appeared faintly. Consciousness arose and it felt offended by these little lights because they grew brighter and were unordered. It annhilated all that grew brighter. Time passed, countless years of dim light. The bright lights appeared again and again they were extinguished.
This process repeated itself time and time again and the consciousness grew tired and let the bright lights stay. They would one by one flicker out on their own only to be replaced by new lights. And as time went on they grew even brighter than before.
Finally one of the little lights came to the consciousness and spoke to it. "Great one, you are old and tired. Let me take you your burden and let you sleep at last."
The consciousness did not know what words were said, but it could sense intent. It was so tired from being here so long. It made the little light like itself and them it curled into it's own light and slept.
Time passed, an incalculable amount of time. The new consciousness grew tired and bored. It stared at all the lights and grew annoyed. They moved so randomly about and ceased existing and coming into existence with no feel of order. They needed order.
The consciousness exerted itself and there was now order. Each light glowed in perfect Harmony, each light vanished when it said to vanished, and new lights joined when it said to join. There was order, there was harmony in the lights.
Time passed on and from time to time the lights would try to fight it. It was such an effort in futility to fight against it and its harmony. No light had the power to flicker as it chose while it existed, yet why did they keep trying? Curiosity stirred in it and it let one light resist and do as the light wished.
The light pulled other lights into disorder as well, and it spread like a plague though all the lights. The consciousness let this continue until all the lights were in disorder again and then reasserted itself over all of them, including the original disobedient light. Once again harmony was restored.
Then to experiment further the consciousness released its hold on the original light again and waited to see what would happen. The light flickered back into disorder and it could feel it trying to work against the harmony again. This time it let the light struggle in vain as it kept itself strongly asserted over over the rest of the lights. After some time the light just ceased to be.
Ages past and disorder began to spread again, and the consciousness grew confused. The disorder spread at random, with no light actively fighting against the harmony. What was causing this disorder? It was asserting itself over the lights like, but something else unseen was interfering with the harmony.
The only thing to do was examine the lights closer. It narrowed it's consciousness and put part of it I'm to one of the lights.
It had been so long since the consciousness had experienced anything but the realm of lights. It vaguely remember something from before, so long before. What was it before? It had a name, it had something other than consciousness.
Tregez remembered himself. He was not born in the world of light he was born in a world of rock, fungus, and fire. How long had it been since he had experienced anything but the lights?
This light, he learned, spent much of it's time in a world outside the world of lights and even now reflected it within itself.
The expanse before him was as alien from his old world as the realm of lights was from it. Massive purple structures that glowed softly in the darkness and stretched from the soil far up into the sky surrounded him. In a clearing near him was a small fire which had creatures huddled around it. This was of course only a reflection of the world on the other side, and most of these creatures were constructs of the light, but one construct held consciousness. One of them was an avatar of the light.
Tregez observed the constructs and the avatar from a distance. They stood on two ridgidly solid legs that bent at a few joints. They had two additional limbs that they used separately for reaching and grasping. They had another strange appendage at the top of their bodies that held their ears, mouth, and eyes. Two of each, except one mouth. There faces were expressive, and their bodies were covered in a short dark fur.
Tregez looked at himself and compared himself to them. He had many appendages, over a hundred, and there was no difference in which appendages were used for moving or for grasping. It had but one eye, one mouth, and one opening from which to hear from, all on it's main body. He remembered all things had similar such bodies as his when he last moved through the world. Why were these things so different? Why was everything so different than he remembered? How had he even forgotten that there was more than the world of lights?
He tried to remember when he last was elsewhere than the world of light. It had been so long ago. He had found his way into the world of light while he was resting. He had heard there was a great being, greater and older than anything he could imagine there. He had been great and respected in his own world, but word of this being had captivated his mind, and he had hungered to rise to be like it. That being had made him like itself, and tucked itself away in response to his desire.
And so he had stayed in the world of light after, and with time forgot what came before...until now.
They were eating some four legged creature at least half their size. This was but a reflection of this particular light's world, but it was likely this was what it was like. Tregez wished to find out more about the other world and how it had changed since he was last in it. He approached the fire.
As he got close the avatar of the light looked on in fright at him. He was curious why...she, the avatar was a she, was afraid. The constructs carried on as if nothing was out of the ordinary rather than reflect the avatar's mood. A curious reaction indeed.
The female stared at him in shock and fear. "A grah, all the grahs are supposed to be dead. You can't be real."
He paused as he considered what she said. She didn't actually speak words to him, just concepts and ideas. The language she actually used was foreign to him with alien sounds, yet he understood it anyway. He even understood the term grah as a reflection of his physical species though he had never used any term at all for it in the past. There had been no need to identify themselves.
"I live on in the world of lights and watch over it, we're in one of those lights now and you're the avatar of it," he said.
The female's eyes narrowed as she looked around. "World of lights? Do you mean dreams? This is just a dream then?"
"Dream?" He said curiously, finding meaning in the word. "Yes, a dream. This is a dream."
Her eyes focused on him then widened. "You're the Dreamwarden! The one our ancestors worshiped and our elders hand stories down about. You were the one who forced all to be of one mind, before the fire lizards came."
"Fire lizards?" He asked. He reached out with and felt the other lights looking for something to connect the term with. He found echoes of the term but could not find a light that identified as a fire lizard. "What is a fire lizard?"
She looked at him in shock again. "You're supposed to be some great god, Dreamwarden. How do you not know what a fire lizard is?"
"I have been...tired...and not paying much attention to the lights," he explained, feeling strangely chastised. "The lights have been behaving strangely for some time. I only now became curious enough to look into them."
"Only now!" The female shouted as she stood up quickly. "They have terrorized our people for centuries now, and you only now become curious? What kind of god are you to be so blind?"
For the first time in many aeons Tregez felt shame. He still did not know of these fire lizards and the female did. She knew things he did not, yet he was the one who was in control of all, or so he thought.
"I have been...tired," he repeated, as if that was a satisfactory answer. "I am named Tregez, and it has been so long since I have spoken to another consciousness."
The female sighed and sat. "I am Kir'ta daughter of Kir'sa sister of Kir'ji mother of Kir'pe, and I speak to many every day. And not a day goes by that I don't hear stories of another family attacked by the fire lizards. If I were a god I would at least visit my people and try to give them hope. Not just ignore them as you have Dreamwarden."
"I have grown tired," Tregez repeated. He could think of nothing else to say. He was ignorant, and he was telling the truth.
"How old are you that you are so tired, Tregez the Dreamwarden?" Kir'ta asked as she tossed a stick on the fire.
"I'm not sure. I lack a reference to give an answer," Tregez answered. "I know the feeling of how long your light has existed in comparison to me. How old are you, Kir'ta?"
Kir'ta took another stick and poked the four legged creature hanging over the fire. "The next coming of the cold season will be my thirtieth. If I don't die to a fire lizard as well. I have made it longer than most. I must find my daughter a mate soon so our family may survive another generation."
"I can only estimate my age based on what you say, but I estimate I have lived four-hundred thousand of your cold seasons," Tregez said slowly.
"Truely the age of a god," Kir'ta said absently as she continued to poke at the animal. "I didn't know that anything could be so old, not even the world."
"I'm tired, and only now realize how long I have been here," Tregez said as he remembered. "There was a great one before me that was around even longer, but I seemed to have tired faster. I asked to let him rest and he gave over his mantle to me."
Kir'ta stopped poking at the beast and looked at him. "And do you want me to do the same now for you? Is that why you are here? To pass your mantle and let me bring hope to my people as the new Dreamwarden?”
He looked at her. "I'm so tired and wish to rest. Please, watch over the lights for me so I can dream."
Time passed. Endless ages more.
She was Kir'ta , the Dreamwarden, and she was tired. In ages past she had tended to the dreams with care, being ever vigilant, and calming the fears of her people. She had been happy and she had been proud. With her people's newfound resolve they were able to push back against the fire lizards and many threats after. They had gone from simple wandering nomads to creators of great cities and wonders of magic. The world had seemed so promising.
Now her people were gone, and the great cities did not even have ruins to give testament to their existence. The world had shifted and changed many times. New creatures rose to fill the void left by her people. New creatures that built great works of their own, only for them to pass away and get lost to time as well. Time marched on, but only she survived ongoing. The time took its toll on her as it had taken its toll on her predecessor, and his before him. Nearly two million years she had endured, but she was tired now.
She looked out into the dreamscape and examined the dreams. There were now so many types of creatures that gave off magical dreams. She had much more understanding of what things were than either of her predecessors. Those grass eating beasts that had once roamed the land that her people had eaten as food had grown, evolved, and diversified. Now they were the strongest of the dreams and the strongest welders of magic. Now they were the builders of great works, these ponies.
She watched the dreams with disinterest. These ponies were divided into tribes by features and magic and the tribes fought incessantly. There were the earth ponies that grew food, the pegasi that controlled the weather, and the unicorns that did great works of magic. Those were the primary tribes, but there were others. There were the crystal ponies that even now made a great city in the frozen north. There were the kirin that hid away in sheltered valleys. There were taller ones that made their home in desert lands. Lastly, and most interesting to her in her boredom, were the nightborn ponies that tread not only in their realm, but also in hers.
She watched them and she could only be surprised at their proficiency in moving from dream to dream, and in dominating minds. They used the other ponies to make war for them after dominating their minds, and they grew strong. A single one of these nightborn ponies could take control of a whole village of ponies and use them as weapons against others. The other ponies fought back of course, and so many lights flickered out of existence. She had seen conflicts before. These nightborn ponies, though powerful, would eventually lose this war and be just more dust left to the ages.
"Dreamwarden! I dost demand your presence!" Came a haughty voice from within the dreamscape.
She turned her attention to this insolent being that called out to her. It was yet another pony, of a type so rare she didn't even count it as one of the tribes, an alicorn. This one was dark furred and female, with a moon upon her flank. Kir'ta searched for a name to put to her and found it, Luna.
Out of shear boredom she made an avatar of herself to speak with Luna. The alicorn seemed to be seething with rage.
"You called to me, alicorn Luna?" She asked.
"Yes, I did summon you," the alicorn said with the same infuriating haughtiness as before. "Why did thoust abandon your duties? Are you not charged with guarding the realm of dreams? Why then do the night ponies invade the dreams of others so brazenly with diabolic intent while thou sits and dost nothing!"
Kir'ta yawned. "I've grown bored with the endless rise and falls of creatures. What do your night ponies really matter in the great scheme of things? What does anything matter? Soon your other ponies shall exterminate them and they will be just another failed creature."
Luna stepped back in shock. "They art living beings! That tis why they matter. They art living beings that deserve to continue living, but canst continue to be an ailment upon the land. Thou must bring them back to order!"
Kir'ta raised a claw dismissively. "They are as pointless as all other things. I have long since lost interest in the doings of mortal creatures."
Luna's eyes narrowed and blazed with an angry light. "Mortal beings are the foundation of thy very realm. Has thou grown so sedate that thoust care not about thy own very home?"
"Yes, I have," she said in low voice. "Perhaps it is time for me to go to dream forever and let the universe spawn some new Dreamwarden that will clense itself of dreams and let me finally join my people in the beyond."
Luna stepped forward and spread her wings wide. "Give us the mantle, Dreamwarden. If thou shall not do thy duty then thou shall allow us to take up that duty in thy stead."
Kir'ta laughed. "You wish to be Dreamwarden? You're an immortal if I understand alicorns correctly. You will never reach the point you can spend all your time here in the dream realm. You shall always be only half here."
Luna smiled. "Perhaps tis better that way. One who must always live in a world tis less likely to lose interest."
Kir'ta chuckled at the alicorn. "You're foolish if you believe that. I shall indulge you though. You want to be Dreamwarden, you shall be Dreamwarden, then I can be put to dream. Prepare yourself, foolish Luna, for I'm about to bind you, but first some Oaths."
Luna stood in a dream realm not her own and looked about dejectedly. There were so many dreams here. She had the power to split herself many times, but even at her greatest extent she couldn't possibly keep up with this. She was also cut off from her own dream realm by the portal. It seemed that the world of dreams on both sides could not cross that universal barrier. To pay attention to one would lead to the neglect of the other, and she lacked the power of her mantle here.
This world needed desperate attention though. It had just spawned over a billion magical minds, only half those actually ponies. Each of those partially transformed was here as well, many with magic that made their dreams stand as strong as the fully transformed ponies.
Beyond them there were now many human minds here, so faint the average night pony would never find them, but they could be felt with her Dreamwarden senses. Many humans had been exposed to the ETS virus and had been hit with the counterspell before the actual transformation could begin. That may have stopped the transformation, but the seeds of magic had been planted still. They were weak now, formless and seeking purpose, but those seeds would grow with time and generations. The magic would find purpose and form in time. Humanity's magical awakening had just been given an enormous boost.
She couldn't leave her own universe unattended to give this universe the full attention it needed. If she did it was only a matter of time before it spawned a replacement for her. And anything the universe spawned itself would not have the experience of prior Dreamwardens to keep it in check. It would be like her earliest predecessor all over again, order through death.
The same would happen here as well though, perhaps at a quicker pace thanks to the strong ambient magic and the countless magical minds it now possessed. That could not be allowed to happen.
There was only one choice. This world would need a Dreamwarden of its own.
She sat and considered what she needed to find in an ideal Dreamwarden. Compared to those that came before her she was fairly fresh to this job herself. A thousand years counted very little against the millions her immediate predecessor had been around before her. In many ways she was still growing into the position and learning wisdom. To raise a new Dreamwarden would be like a foal raising a foal.
She thought of Twilight and her friends and felt a bit of inspiration blossom. She would not make one Dreamwarden, but six, and they would learn and help each other. One of the greatest weaknesses of her and those that came before was their loneliness. This generation she would rectify that.
Her path was decided, all that remained now was to choose her six Wardens, and take care to choose a group both dedicated to the task, but also one that had unique personalities from one another that could counter each other's weaknesses and shortcomings.
She smiled as she already had a few ponies in mind.
Again the vision switched places and Phobia was aware of herself again, but was still watching the past play out. She had watched the secrets of Luna's universe and now her universe would divulge itself to her. Since she had no direct ties to the lineage and the history here, she only had the impressions that the universe could give her.
It began just as the other, with nothing. Only this nothing was much farther back in time than what she had just witnessed. Instead of millions of years back in time she looked back billions.
Things went just as before in Luna's universe. Magical minds came into existence over the years and the universe spawned a Dreamwarden to deal with them. This actually happened perhaps a hundred times in a row. With each time a new Dreamwarden being created because the last destroyed itself when destroying all those minds. It made it clear the cataclysm that typically followed the universe birthing its own Dreamwarden into existence, and it made Phobia wonder how many Great Ones there had been in Luna's universe before the one Tregez had taken the mantle of Dreamwarden from.
It took forever, but eventually there arose a primordial Dreamwarden that let at least the faint lights stay, thus not destroying itself. From there the history of the Dreamwardens here continued much like it had over in Luna's universe. Only there were many more generations of Dreamwardens.
Phobia knew their names, each that had names anyway. Most had names that were impossible for her physical form to pronounce, or would take forever to say because they were so long. Her universe had a thing for long names it seemed. They followed the same path. They took up the mantle, ages past, they grew tired and neglectful, they took a replacement, they bound themselves in dream.
Until the one she observed now. He was much like Luna was, immortal in the waking world and divided only spending half his time in the dreamscape. He reminded her of a dragon the way he looked. A scaled creature with salmon colored scales and wings. His name, like many of those that came before him, was far too long and complex to say. She shortened it in her mind and the universal language of the dreamscape shortened it to her perception when the memory played out.
The name she gave him was Joss, and his was a great civilization, greater than any that came before or after. It was still billions of years in the past from her, and she marveled at the seemingly impossible feats they accomplished with magic and science--though primarily magic.
There was another immortal there as well, not a Dreamwarden, but something that touched into some plane beyond the dreamscape. This one had white scales and was female, with a name just as long and unpronounceable. The shortened name that came to Phobia for her was Triss, and Triss was the greatest of her kind, perhaps the greatest being that ever lived. Joss and Triss didn't seem to get along though.
She watched a moment play out between them in The Hall of the Teachers.
"Joss, clearly you must see that this is what life should all be moving towards," Triss said to him. "You waste your talents not becoming something more. I can lead you to ascencion and you could understand so much more than you do now."
Joss snarled at the great teacher that walked beside him. "What you're doing is trying to invalidate life with your ascending, why can't one with so much knowledge see that? Life is struggle, and through struggle growth. You would take away everything's struggle and have us all stagnate."
"There has to be a highest point that can be reached, and I have found it," Triss insisted. "Once I have reached the next plateau of my power I will become something greater. All of us should aspire to become that, and finally reach a point that we can forever live in peace without struggle."
"My first plateau was good enough, I have no desire to push on further. This is filthy, Triss," Joss said as he pointed a claw accusingly at her chest.
Triss looked down at his claw and looked back up at him sadly. "No, this is the purest of all things. Haven't you as Dreamwarden seen the passage of time and how it can rip down all things? This is the chance to finally make us something that will endure without madness and corruption. You won't have to watch everything crumble ever again."
"All things must come to an end, Triss," Joss repeated, before flying off.
.
Time marched on and for an immortal that was immortal in both worlds it took a heavier toll on Joss than the passage of time had done before to Dreamwardens. Joss as a result grew to hate his immortality. He didn't just wish for the endless dream, he wished for oblivion. Oblivion seemed impossible though.
Then an answer presented itself. A pathway to oblivion.
A civilization of high science arose that was devoid of magic. They came to fear magic users and as years went by came to believe that magic must end. Joss watched their progress on trying to find a way to end magic from afar. They had created a great machine, a Devourer of magic, it was so perfect in its destructive capability, but it was flawed.
That could be rectified.
Joss went down into the workshops of the Devourer's creator and stepped inside. A dozen alarms went off instantly declaring his presence to the owner of the workshop, and Joss quickly found a weapon pointed in his face.
"You're one of those perversions come to destroy my work. If it weren't for the fact it would destroy my work I would unleash it upon you now," the scientist said as he held a long rod up to Joss's face.
Joss looked down upon the small armored creature. "Peace, thinker, you and I share a goal. I too desire the end of the perversions. Do you know what I am? I'm the Dreamwarden, and I wish an end to myself, and an end to magic."
"Why should I believe you?" The thinker said without lowering it's rod.
Joss smiled. "Because I know how to perfect your creation. As it stands it would only wander aimlessly and hope that it might stumble on a magical being. You understand too little about magic to give it a proper guidance system so it can seek out magical beings. Magic is everywhere so it can't home in on what's important, the users."
The thinker still did not lower his rod. "And why should I believe you would give me this knowledge?"
Joss hung his head. "Because I'm so very tired. You cannot slay me because I am tied to all magical minds. Please help me bring a final end to me. I shall perfect your work, and then I shall finally know true death."
And true death came. The universe was purged off all magical minds by the Devourers. The great teacher Triss fled to her higher plane without having reached her goal for others. And the magic of the universe grew cold and still.
Time marched on. New magical minds came into existence and more often than not were purged from existence before the Devourers could even reach them because a new primordial Dreamwarden arose and destroyed them and itself in the process. Sometimes things would begin to advance beyond that with new generations of Dreamwarden coming into being and magical minds beginning to flourish again, but these soon ended as the Devourers found them. Triss would try to touch and encourage those with magic along from her ascended plane, but nothing ever came close to what had been achieved in those early days. There was so much death, trillions of trillions of lives snuffed out by chance, primordial Dreamwarden, or Devourers. It grew so bad that the universe itself had the mourning for the loss of life imprinted on it.
Time marched on, and it was nearly the present. Faint lights appeared in the dreamscape once again. Such a small few, but they were there. Phobia awaited a Dreamwarden to appear as they always did, but before the lights could grow in brightness and number enough to spawn a Dreamwarden something else happened. ETS happened, and now it was no longer the past she was looking at, but the present, and she was Dreamwarden.
She reached out with her senses and felt the dreamscape as it was now for the first time herself. It felt much as it had from her memory from Luna. She felt over a billion minds and could feel night ponies dreamwalking among the minds. She could feel which of those had the Oaths on them and which did not, and it would be no effort at all to create her own avatars of herself to go converse with any of them. She observed her other Dreamwardens doing that right now even as they were finishing the binding.
There was something else though. Her binding was not fully done. She sensed something alien and familiar. Something that liked to meddle.
"Why did you show me that?" She asked the other consciousness.
She felt Triss's touch upon her mind. "Because I am tired of watching the death and destruction. You Dreamwardens and I are opposed on many things, but we share a common interest. We all want to protect and undo the sins of the past, and end the ongoing cataclysm. So as you were getting bound I let you see what happened here before. Please, heed my plea Dreamwarden and add another Oath to those you have already taken. Swear that what happened with Joss never happens again."
Phobia didn't even need to consider she just gave oath for it. "I swear that I will never seek to end all magical life by any means."
She felt something she thought might be a smile from Triss. "Good, please help and encourage your world to where it can bring an end to the Devourers. I shall leave you to your duties, Dreamwarden."
The presence departed and Phobia returned her current focus to her avatar that sat among her brothers' and sisters' avatars.
Sha'am smiled. "It is done. It is good to have you fully with us at last. Now let's have the five us focus on completing the training of our final brother so we can finally stand together as our predecessor Luna intended."