//------------------------------// // Chapter One: Furthest From Home // Story: Dream Sickness // by XenoPony //------------------------------// The dark sky, bloated with thick clouds, allowed only a few pillars of pale sunlight to beam down upon the vast emptiness of the flat plain. Dust danced on the wind, forming dry waves across the dull expanse, its path broken only by patches of thick shrubs or the odd withered tree. No life aside from the occasional tumbleweed floundered its way across the wasteland, and no sound aside from the howl of the wind or the rustling of loose branches filled the dry air. It was an oddly morbid tranquillity, a desert robbed of its harsh sun and left to wallow in overcast gloom as small bolts of rain plummeted to fill the puddles pooling between the weblike roots of the scarce trees.    Then came the lightning, lancing to the peak of a squat hill, the only bastion of land bold enough to rise above the endlessly flat expanse beyond the distant mountains far off on the horizon. Yet the spear of celestial fire that blasted down from the clouds was not the kind the desert was used to, nor was the swelling dust shroud that was conjured across its striking point, scorching a crescent moon of enchanted runes and glyphs into the earth. The flash was a ‘blink and miss it’ event, leaving in its wake a benevolent blue alicorn, coat as dark as midnight and mane a canvas of cosmic radiance, to gently drift down to the dust. Her arrival was so smooth it was almost perfectly entwined to the stillness of the dark desert. That was, at least until the large mass of lavender scales, ruffled, leathery wings and overpacked saddle bags thudded into the dust next to her.        "Luna, you could have warned me!" Twilight Sparkle, the once-beloved princess of friendship, at least before the mysterious affliction that had transformed her had run its course, groaned as she rubbed her draconic snout.    "Teleporting with a body this big is completely different, I'm still used to being a mare!" the dragoness declared as she sat up and blasted sand from her nostrils.   "My apologies, dear Twilight. I was simply concerned that your affinity to enact every last precaution would hinder any progress," Luna responded, waving a forehoof dismissively.  "We really did not need to bring three telescopes, all those books, quills or half of your castle's supply of ladybug repellent."   "What? Have you never heard of the great Pranceivan orbit beetle?" The dragoness shuddered. "They literally do have eyes on their carapace!"   For a moment Luna looked unsure what to make of that. A creature so big and fearsome terrified by the mere prospect of an exotic insect was not something she'd expected to see even her long lifetime. Even so, it was hard for Twilight not to think that her concerns wouldn't even be an issue if Luna was able to keep her own desires and emotions in check. Regardless of the minor animosity, however, the way the princess of the night straightened herself seconds later, lean and muscular form taut muscles under her smooth, glistening coat, made Twilight's heart seem to skip a beat.   Urg, why does heroism have to look so attractive? She looks like the warrior that should slay the dragon, not fall in love with it!   "Fear not, I swore to ensure that no harm would come to you like this, did I not?" Luna declared, then winced as Twilight's face drooped. "At least until I have returned you to a body in which you are more capable."     "I can still handle myself, Luna... I just... I want to get this over with as fast as we can," the dragoness grumbled as she dusted herself off.   Luna nodded, trying not to appear too downcast as Twilight sighed and added. "And don't blame yourself, I know that look." There was a leathery wing on the alicorn's back sounds later as Luna murmured. "I... I don't, we can fix this."   Caught between awkwardly looking away and daring to try and see Luna's reaction to her words, Twilight leaned in to nuzzle the mare's neck as she would sometimes do her friends. Luna stiffened, seemingly trying very hard to discern whether Twilight's affections were platonic or romantic, just as much as the dragoness herself.   "No doubt I do find your antics quite endearing, dear Twilight. Though you must forgive me... My ability to show affection has been... Well, let's just say it's been some time," Luna assured, glancing away slightly.   She thinks I'm endearing? I-l mean, she's kinda cute too. Look at how small she seems now... Heh, she really is kinda adorable! A thought of Twilight's, taking the mental image of her old alicorn self, beamed as she pranced around the dragoness's mind. Meanwhile, the side of her still content with thinking like a grumpy dragoness huffed imaginary smoke. Sure, she's strong, powerful... She'd make a good dragoness, you sure you can't find a way to transform her too in this realm of dreams instead?     Twilight shook her head, flexing a claw. "Yeah, I guess your track record is pretty... rough. I imagine usually turning a mare into a dragon comes after you ask her out."   Luna's expression turned awkward, her feathers ruffling. But Twilight smiled and brushed her new leathery wings against Luna's.   "I'm joking... If somepony loves me enough that it literally turns me into something else, then there must be some weight to it, right?" she assured and Luna cocked her head.   "You say that as if you approve of my feelings?" the princess of the night asked, and Twilight bit her bottom lip as she once again truly contemplated how she felt in return.     "I don't disapprove... I mean, I kinda like you... Ugh, okay, cure for this first, romance talk later, please?" she improvised, motioning back to her transfigured body.   Oh, why could we have not just asked somepony else for help? Starlight, Celestia, was this realm of dreams really so dangerous that two of the most powerful mares I know can't handle it?   Luna, seemingly knocked into full awareness by the revelation, shuddered up straight again and nodded. "Right, of course, forgive me... It is hard to maintain royal formality knowing there's nothing left to hide from you."   Oh, wouldn't you like to believe she's got nothing left to hide? Look at that body, slender, refined. She was a warrior, Equestria's sword... You really would like to uncover... Twilight pressed a claw to her face. Okay, I really hope that's dragon instinct talking!    "Haha, don't worry about it... Kinda hard for me to be all formal-looking like this," Twilight stammered awkwardly, before marching over to the edge of the sandy hill to peer out at the vast wasteland. "Where are we anyway? I've never seen a place like this."   The sound of Luna's soft hoofsteps as her crystal slippers hit the sand heralded her appearance beside Twilight, the wind blowing at her mane and feathers making them dance in a way the dragoness was starting to find hard to ignore.     "The far west, beyond the Luna ocean. Most ponies just call it the expanse, it's about as far as I can teleport using the old rune ways," the alicorn elaborated as Twilight's more studious side drank in the new information.   A whole new land across the ocean, lost to rumors and tales from old scholars and ather sailors! Never before had she been so far, not even when driven to find Mount Eris or Tartarus. Yet for every part of her old self that would have been fascinated by the new world to explore and catalog, her new dragon self only huffed impatiently.      Agh, let me have this moment! Her little mental princess demanded, even as the sleeping drake growled. Unless you plan to make this into your new dragon empire, I don't care.    "And we're here because? I thought you had no idea where the passageway we need to find is?" Twilight asked skeptically, doing her best to ignore her inner conflict.   Luna smirked. "No, I know not where to find it. We'll need a guide, a map," Luna responded.     "And I have a feeling that one who may be just that will be right down there." She nodded to the west where the wasteland gave way to a monstrous chasm.   As if the land itself just disappeared into the clouds, the cliff beyond must have been impossibly large. Even so, it was almost as featureless as the dreary desert around it, save for one break in the dull canvas. The spires of the distant sky port rose high upon a peninsula jutting out from the edge, the flying ships that came in to dock there like flies buzzing around the picked clean skeleton of a long-dead corpse. If not for the distant lights and smoke-belching chimneys, the lower layers of framework and structure sprawling out from the port's central tower, it would have looked abandoned by comparison. Yet the trails and caravans of creatures heading into the city through its many gates, looking no bigger than ants from this distance, proved otherwise.       One look at it and Twilight was filled with both intrigue and apprehension. There was that will to learn, find out everything she could about the port and any creature that may live there. Then there were the new blunt dragon feelings, wondering just how much of it was flammable.    "Ironstall, that's what traders call it. The last stop before ships head off into the cloud-spire," Luna explained, nodding to the port then the thick wall of clouds beyond the cliff.   Twilight cocked her head as she regarded the princess. To Luna, it looked like nothing new, like she'd seen it all before, leaving Twilight to wonder just how many things in the world the night princess had seen in her impossibly long lifetime.     "And you want to go in there...? You're a princess, they'd recognize you?" the dragoness exclaimed, then looked herself over too. "What about me, how are they going to react to a dragoness!?"   Luna rolled her eyes. "I thought you'd been to a place like this once before, have you not?" she asked. "All kinds of creatures dwell here, your appearance will not be out of the ordinary." Twilight snorted.  "Yeah and last time I was almost sold," she huffed, only for Luna to reassuringly nudge her side with a wing.   "Well, I'm sure nopony will try to sell a dragoness like you now... They're used to... Well, let's just say the hierarchy is based on size and whether or not you can breathe fire," she assured.   Great, so now I fit in because I'm a freak! the dragoness mentally grumbled, looking at one of her claws as it flexed in the dust. I guess I don't have to worry about hurting anypony here though.   "Okay fine, but what about you?" she finally relented, and the way Luna's smirk had failed to disappear over the course of the conversation made Twilight’s new scales crawl.   ******* "Oh, I assure you, my dear Twilight, I was a master of shape-shifting magic long before we even knew changelings existed," Luna explained proudly as the two of them, hidden under dark hoods Luna had conjured from darkness, made their way through the busy streets of Ironstall. "The spell even masks our names, scream my title from the rooftops and onlookers will only hear what I desire."   To think that the night princess would have come in here looking like her regular self seemed silly now, especially every time Twilight looked at the face of the tall, prim looking silver unicorn with a dark blue mane and tail. She had a cutie mark of a dark moon covering the sun, it was a persona that Luna called Eclipse... One that she teased Twilight had seen far more often then she knew.   And you still like the way she looks, don't you? Her mind mused as she tried her best to keep her eyes turned upwards, away from Eclipse's flanks swinging under the cloak. Well, it's better than wanting to buck a dragon right... Okay, yeah, she's hot, now's not the time! "And you and Celestia use this magic how often?" Twilight pressed, genuinely curious, despite the implications her idols' shapeshifting abilities summoned in her overly analytic brain.    "From time to time, like I said, it comes in very useful in places like this," Luna responded as she ducked under a board that two gargoyle looking creatures were carrying by.    Twilight was forced to weave around and duck under another set of hanging orange tarps, but failed to notice her tail brushing through a stall of dead bird-like creatures hanging by their necks. The dragoness winced, muttering a brief apology to the strange fanged-fish creature running the stall as he scowled at her. She looked back into the busy street as fast as she could, the smell of spices and exotic cooking thick in the hot air.   Yet as she was once again faced with the bustling crowd and the dust they kicked up in the narrow ramshackle street, her heart sank. The disguised Luna was nowhere to be seen. There were griffins, hippogriffs, minotaurs, centaurs, zebras and changelings that looked suspiciously like those under Chrysalis' rule, only with orange eyes wings and carapace, walking around openly.   Then there were those creatures like she'd never seen. Griffons with zebra stripes, ponies with talons, even snake-like creatures with scorpion stingers. Kirin, like the images from her books, Saddle Arabian horses offering exotic remedies, a pair of timber wolves tethered to a wooden post, and even a stall selling seafood tended by a water-filled-barrel-bound hippocampus. Birds with four wings buzzed amid large blue beetles, while glowing dragonflies and crab-like spiders scurried in the shadows. Foals and fledglings scurried around her claws, the game to not step on them not aiding in her efforts to avoid thrashing every store and stall she staggered into.             And here I thought the last time I left Equestria was hectic! She thought to herself as a pony that looked about half as draconic as she was snorted fire and glared at her.   "Sorry, sorry, sorry!" she repeated over and over as she bumbled her way in the direction she'd swore Luna had gone. "By Celestia, I take my eyes off of her for a second and she's..."   The dragoness's words were cut off by a grunt as she slammed face-first into what felt like a brick wall, the force knocking her on her tail and almost sending the contents of her bags scattering in the street. Rubbing her muzzle, she muttered another apology, looking up to see the large, red-scaled dragon peering down his muzzle at her.   His scarred hide seemed to be missing a good few scales and his orange wings were like old, tattered parchment. One eye was cover be an eyepatch, ragged clothes were draped saddle upon his back and a neckless composed of what looked like plucked fangs and scales adorned his thick neck The rattling spines on his back were like that of a rattlesnake's tail, and in any other situation, Twilight would have immediately been on the magical defensive. At his toothy grin, however, her draconic mind melted like hot butter. She blushed hard, pony fear and the dragon attraction that had been so infuriating when Spike had been around going at each other like rabid wolves in her mind.    "Well, well, ain't you just a pretty little thing?" the dragon growled, snaking his head down to Twilight's level. "Scales like those could get dirty in a place like this."   Okay, Twilight, we've been in awkward positions before, do I really need to go through it again? her little mental avatar asked, as her dragon side swooned at the large drake.     "Little, right... hehe, believe me, I've not felt little in days," she improvised, backing away as onlookers began to stop and stare.   "Hmmm, you don't say? Still big enough to have plenty of scales though." The way he licked his lips made Twilight wish for nothing more than to have her magic back.   A good shield spell would come in very useful right now! She noted. Diplomacy with dragons is always so risky.   "Not as many as you, it seems. Now I really must be going, sorry for any interruption," she responded quickly, before swiftly darting for an opening in the crowd.   The dull pain in her tail as a weight came down upon it and it went taut caused her to stumble mid-stride, full bags rattling as she almost fell flat on her face.   "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" For a brief moment, the dragoness side of her mind was in control again, and she spun, snorting smoke in the larger dragons face. "Because if you're trying to intimidate me then I've seen way worse."   "Oh, some fight in you, I like that." He pressed a claw to her muzzle. "You seem new here, so I'll go easy on you. The price for any dragon to come into my city is a claw full of gems... No gems, then it's three scales from your back and you have such pretty..."   The dragon trailed off as the crowd went quiet, so much so that the hoof steps in the dust were audible. He lifted his claw from her tail and edged back like an oversized puppy, leaving Twilight dumbstruck for a brief second before she looked to where everycreature else was looking.       "Razorback, how good to see you're still in business around here," Eclipse mused as she trotted up beside the perplexed Twilight, hood down to show off her disguised self.   "S–Silver mask... You... You were supposed to be dead," the dragon stammered as a collective sense of awe and unease came over the crowd.      Eclipse chuckled, forehoof to her chest as Twilight looked at her in confusion. Eclipse, Silver Mask, what in Equestria is all this supposed to be? And are they all looking at her like she's the one to be afraid of?       "Legends don't die, Razor." She narrowed her eyes as she smirked, flashing a glare that would cut through steel as she added, "This dragoness is with me, you have issues with your territory toll, you take it up with me."   He snorted, looming over her as he lifted to his full height and growled. "A lot has changed in the past millennium, I'm not some dumb little drake no more."   "Then, by all means, do what you will," she offered, standing before him and gazing right up into his fiery orange eyes.    The dragon glanced around, from confused faces to fanged scowls. Then he swept a wing through the dust and turned.   "Mark my words, one day some creature will get you," he hissed as he stomped off into the crowd, the dust he kicked up causing the onlookers to cough as he barrelled through.   "Pity, it seems, that it will not be you to do so," Eclipse called after him before pivoting to address the crowd. "Anycreature else have anything to add?"   They all went back to their business with a murmuring series of grunts, groans and mutters as the disguised princess finally turned to Twilight.   "Are you alright, Twilight?" she asked as the dragoness inspected her tail, groaning before she nodded.   "Yes, I think..." she admitted then reluctantly looked at her claws. "Thanks, I almost lost it there, really, really have to keep the urge to lash out under control."   Luna placed a hoof on Twilight's side. "I understand, keeping my feelings in check was never my strongest attribute either." Despite her smile Twilight couldn't help but guess that something along the lines of the night will last forever would come about if Luna lost it.   And this is the mare who loves you? Her thoughts commented as she followed Luna more closely the deeper they progressed into the city. Those feelings only came about because I saved her from the nightmare? So how genuine are they... How much gratitude does somepony need to mistake it for love?        Twilight silenced her mental debate for the time being, as the effort she had to put into walking straight down the cramped alleys with their high walls and low looming bridges took up most of her focus.   "So what was that all about?" she finally asked Luna as she lifted her leg to let a little colt with foreclaws and a lion’s tail scamper by. "It sounded like you knew that dragon."   Luna sighed. "Razorback, he's an infamous scale trader, among other foul things. Dragon parts are very useful in the making of fire salts out here, and he does not seem to care for his own kind," she elaborated, looking rather downtrodden.   "I'd have thought after all this time he'd be gone. Though a millennium is but a decade in the life of a dragon," she added, taking out her frustration on parts of a shattered clay pot littering the alley.        Put's other dragon's scales on the table before his own, more like. Twilight suspected as she looked at the layer of shimmering lavender where her fur had once been. If they knew who I really was, would that make it worth even more? "And yet he seemed surprised that you'd lasted just as long?" Twilight inquired, even if she knew Luna had spent most of that time on the moon.   "The Silver Mask, it's the title they bestowed me around here. Solar Flare is my sister, one does not live as long as we have and gain reputations solely as princesses," Luna added, glancing back.   "So you're what? Like a vigilante on the side?" Twilight pressed, not sure how she felt about that.   Spike would love it, she's just like some of the characters from his comic books. She supposed, but Luna shrugged.   "I prefer the term ‘hooves on ambassador’... But the description fits."   So, how are we feeling about all those secrets Twilight? Her mind asked as she ducked under a set of hanging carpets and rugs. Just think, how many centuries will you live before you are doing the same? "Still, it would be preferable if you were to avoid fiends such as Razorback. I fear his employers may see opportunity in my return." Luna looked back, sincerity in her newly green eyes. "I could not live should any foul fate befall..."   "Luna, I know... I... I'll be careful, it would just be a lot simpler if I was my old self," Twilight admitted, almost tripping over a claw as a pair of zebra fillies with what looked like a small, two-headed rat scurried by. "Though your care is appreciated."   What is that, is that my heart fluttering? Oh Celestia, really? There had been very few ponies to make her feel like that, maybe Rainbow Dash once or twice. What so I'm a sucker for protective mares, I like a filly-flank in shining armor!   She pressed a claw to her face, wondering if she and Luna had switched roles, what her own desire may have turned the midnight alicorn into. A shield? Turtle, literal suit of royal armor? She was so lost in thought that she failed to notice that Luna had stopped right in front of her, pink blush clear on her silver cheeks as she pulled up her hood. Okay, that love is starting to feel more genuine again! "Thank you, Twilight Sparkle, your appreciation holds great value to me," Luna admitted, before clearing her throat, straightening herself out, and marching up to a large wooden gate behind a raised iron portcullis.     "Don't mention it, Luna... What are good friends for, right?" the dragoness added awkwardly as she caught up.    Friends, hm... How sure about that are you, princess? She wanted to bury her face in the dirt. Shut up, brain! It's not the time! Luna simply nodded to her once before proceeding to knock on the large wooden gate with one forehoof.   "You may want to act a little more composed... Creatures down here maybe after you for more than just scales," the disguised mare warned, and Twilight dreaded to think about that as clunking locks sounded and a small window in the gate slid open to reveal a beady-eyed griffin.    "Yeah, who goes there... Coin or business?" squawked the gruff avian-hybrid, raspy voice broken by coughing fits.     Luna pulled down her hood for a brief moment and the cloudy yellow eyes peeking through the hatch went wide.   "Talons and tail feathers, you're supposed to be dead!" She rolled her eyes as she once again pulled up her hood.   "Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Now, I'm here to see somepony. Would you mind allowing me and my friend here passage?" She motioned back at Twilight and the dragoness awkwardly waved a foreclaw.   "You come back with dragons..." With another series of clunks and rattles, the door was unlocked and swung inward. "Legends walk the sands again... Bless my tail feathers!"   "Thank you," Luna said with a bow, levitating a jingling blue pouch from a pocket inside her robe and offering it to the scruffy griffin.   He regarded it like a precious diamond as Luna trotted by and down a set of winding steps, while Twilight offered the crazy looking feather-winged creature her thanks too. When all he did in response was shove the bag of bits into his mouth and proceed to awkwardly swallow it, however, she winced and swiftly dashed by.   "Gizzard hoarding, featherwing. Woe whomever he pays with that gold," Luna chimed as Twilight followed her down the winding steps, the sensation of odd slimy things under her paws something she tried to ignore.     "I dread to think. Seriously, Luna, where are we going?" she asked, but just as she did so the stairs looped round and the cave opened out into a vast chamber.   Seemingly a cavern below the cliff’s edge that had been invisible from above, the dank hole was illuminated by dreary sunlight streaming in from an opening on the far side. Large enough to house a small town, the odd, step like walls looked like they were formed volcanically. A series of many hexagonal granite pillars, like geological features she'd read about in her many books. The Centaur's Steps, The Longma Causeway, she recalled as she placed a claw down on one of the odd hexagonal pedestals.   Beyond the bottom of the steps, a wooden walkway led out to a small sprawl of ramshackle wooden structures, built into the walls of the cave, like flies caught in a spider’s web. Some larger ones boasted metal chimneys and other small docks at which smaller sky boats sat moored. Luna, like a mare on a mission, seemed to know exactly where she was going as she marched by a pair of bipedal felines Twilight did her best not to get involved with.   "Really feels like the place for a first date," she joked as she caught up with Luna, trying not to think about an odd, pony-griffin creature regarding her from a pillar across the dock.        'The Lusty Hippogriff.' Silently reading the title of the backwater establishment Luna had brought her to from the decrepit sign sawing above served as a poor distraction. The chipped image of the skimpily dressed pony-avian hybrid on the rotting wood was even less endearing.   Can't imagine what Queen Novo would have to say about this place. She thought as she looked down at Luna.   "Well, isn't this place charming?" she offered, yet the disguised princess was not looking at her, but out across the docks as if searching for something that should not be there. "Everything okay?"   Looking for herself, Twilight was swiftly reminded that nothing here was the 'normal' she was accustomed to. Yeah, just like you, starting to feel like you fit in yet? "Fine, Twilight, I assure you," Luna told her as she moved to the door of the tavern. "It just doesn't do well to linger in such places. Come, there's somepony we should meet."   One last glance over her shoulder turning up nothing but a few rowdy gnolls having a brawl on an upper walkway, Twilight followed Luna into the tavern. The reek of smoke, alcohol and a whole room full of rowdy, heated creatures struck her like a wall. There were just as many, if not more, creatures in here as there were in the streets above. Only, crammed into such a small space, between wooden card tables, the bar, and rotting seating booths, the craziness was amplified tenfold. It was like the underworld counterpart to Sugarcube Corner, though after her last experience at the Ponyville bakery she could forgo the comparison.         I did not trash it nearly enough to make it look like this! She inwardly exclaimed as she tried to keep pace with Luna.   "Mind telling me who we’re looking for?" she called, ducking her head under a crooked banister before a pair of drunken ponies fell in front of her, forcing her to swiftly sidestep.   "You speak as if it will be easy?" Luna called over the shouting as one of the ponies knocked to the floor was pounced upon by a foreclawed mare that proceeded to try and kiss his face off with a fanged muzzle.   Luna lifted a hoof away from the show, muzzle wrinkling in disgust. "I have a feeling that, in a place like this, she will be the one to find us."   "Well, that's helpful," Twilight grumbled with a roll of her eyes as the pair continued to sail through the turbulent crowd towards a more isolated back area.   If the smell near the door had been bad, then back here it was put to shame, so much so that Twilight’s muzzle scrunched at the stench and she covered her nostrils with a foreclaw. The wood the furniture was made from, and even the rotting walls, were almost green with mold and only the light of a few candles chased away the still gloom. It was enough even to make Luna's disguised form look as radiant as her natural beauty by comparison, and she guessed even she must look more princess-like being so clean in a place like this.   She's literally brought me to the rear end of the world, tell me this is not where the gateway to the dream realm actually is? The little princess in her head asked as Twilight finally spoke up.   "You know this friend of yours really has great taste in living space." She'd even take the cave she'd slept in the Everfree forest over this squalor, that was at least until Luna's ears perked under her hood.     Twilight paused, about to ask again, before from nowhere a dark blur slammed into Luna's side. The silver mare jumped back with the grace of a darting dragonfly, her cloak knocked free. Yet before either of the princesses could even make another move, their mysterious assailant tackled Luna, pinning her under a pair of dark purple hooves.    "Princess Luna, I know that's you! You have a lot of nerve coming back here!" declared the cloaked stranger, leathery bat wings exploding from her sides as Twilight lowered herself, baring her fangs and snorting.       "Get off her, now!" The force of her breath as she bellowed blew back the stranger’s hood, revealing the tufted ears and scarred face of a fanged mare, one eye blue, and one eye red.    A bat pony, she's a thestral? Twilight's analytic mind noted swiftly, yet then came grinding to a halt. I never remembered thestrals having horn stubs on their foreheads like that!