//------------------------------// // Scroll 27- Sweet Dreams are Not Made of These (Part 1) // Story: Beyond the Skies // by FrostTheWolf //------------------------------// Beyond the Skies- Sweet Dreams are Not Made of These Part 1 To Princess Luna, the ability to walk into the dreams of others was somewhat akin to that of a special trait of hers, one that aligned with her duties of being Princess of the Night. If nightmares were to cloud the minds of anypony she would come across, it was her duty to come into their minds and comfort them so that they could face the fears that haunted them. However, one thing that she learned was that dreamwalking was something she had to be careful with. The incident with the Tantabus in Ponyville several months ago taught her as much. Tonight though, something was different. Three ponies that she had met before, the trio of fillies that were known by their friends and family as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, were having nightmares, which, in her mind, was strange. Not just because she had resolved nightmares with each one of those fillies before, but the nightmares that they were in were unlike what she had seen before. In her mind, the only way that Luna thought that she could help them was to have one of their newest friends assist her. That, of course, was Calvin. In Luna’s mind, she thought that he could make sense of some of the things that were going on in each of their nightmares and see if there was a way to overcome them. Of course, in order to enlist his help, the alicorn would need to find him in his own dream. As the Princess of the Night stepped into his dream, she found herself in a strange place. The ground that she was on was like the walkways that she had seen in pictures of Manehattan, along with paved streets. However, there were cracks in the asphalt, and the houses in the neighborhood reminded her of something like Ponyville, but with less of a friendly atmosphere. When Luna did happen to find Calvin, she found him staring at one of the homes in the neighborhood, before bolting inside. She could hear the sounds of him racing through the home, looking around and going through every floor. “What exactly is he doing-?” The answer to her question soon came to her when she heard the boy call out. “Mom?! Mom, where are you!?!” That made Luna’s eyes widened, realizing what this place was. This must’ve been his home before he came to Equestria, yet Calvin didn’t know that it was only a dream. She felt bad for him, especially with what was going on right now, searching all over for family in a place that he knew, only to find it empty as if it were deserted. “It appears I have come at a bad time,” the Princess of the Night thought to herself, wanting to step away. Yet, she knew that she couldn’t. Her duty was to comfort those who suffered from nightmares, not turn away when someone needed it most. Such an act would go against her duties and responsibilities. She had to… no, needed to say something right now. The princess took in a deep breath, slowly releasing the air as she began to speak, “Good evening, Calvin.” Upon hearing her words, he tensed up, slowly turning around and noticing that she was there. Calvin looked confused, but as he spoke, he sounded scared, looking around the room and having trouble focusing his attention on her, “P-Princess? W-Where am I?” “Welcome to your dreams, young Calvin,” the princess replied, her words brimming with comfort in order to try and assure him that there was no need to be afraid. It seemed to work, but it wasn’t immediate, “I know this seems sudden, but we need to talk.” Calvin, despite what Luna had told him, still seemed tense, “M-My dreams?” he asked, blinking a bit as he looked around the room they were in, “H-How? T-This is my home! I know it is-!!” “I’m not saying that it isn’t, young Calvin,” Luna assured him, trotting closer as she went around the coffee table that was in the living room. She wanted to continue off on that point, but then thought of something, “Tell me… what do you know about me?” The Skyshifter just stood there, trying to calm himself down and answer the question. However, there was a slight problem to this, for he barely knew anything about Luna aside from two things. “Y-You’re Celestia’s sister and Princess of the Night… H-How does that have anything to do with this?” “Princess of the Night is more than just a mere title, young Calvin,” the alicorn assured him as she stood right in front of him, “With my title comes the responsibilities and duties. My duties are to come into the minds of anypony that might be facing a nightmare and help them overcome the fears that they need to face. Whether it be self doubt, personal fears or fears regarding the future, I’m there for them.” In Calvin’s mind, that… sounded convincing. Though, just saying that it’s something doesn’t always mean that it’s the truth. He didn’t see Luna as the kind of pony that was a liar, but the possibility that they were in a dream was a bit hard to believe. “Prove it.” Upon hearing that, the princess blinked, a bit surprised by what he said, “I’m sorry?” “Prove to me that this is a dream,” he explained further, calming down a bit as he placed his hands in his pockets, “Show me something that can only happen inside a dream.”  Of course, what Calvin did not seem to realize was that the Princess of the Night took this as a challenge, before looking out past the kitchen and around the home before thinking of something. He watched as she moved her front hooves along the floor, before taking it and scooping up a section of floor underneath them, holding it in her front hooves like a snowball as she looked back to the Skyshifter. “O… kay, I was honestly not expecting something like that,” he honestly replied, shaking his head to try and refocus before looking back at Luna, “Though, I believe you. There’s no way you can do that back home.” “I’m glad that I was able to help you realize that,” Luna chuckled, before clearing her throat and looking back at Calvin, “But unfortunately, now is not the time for silly little tricks.” At that point, she took the ball that she had crumpled with her hoof and threw it to the side as it bounced on the floor before sinking into the ground, “I sought you out because I need your assistance this evening.” That statement had thrown him for a loop as he looked back at Luna, “Wait, you needed my help?” his question was met by a nod of the head as the Skyshifter was trying to make sense of everything, “What exactly do you need me to help with, if you don’t mind me asking?” “As I had mentioned before, my position as Princess of the Night means that I go into the dreams of ponies who find themselves haunted by nightmares and help them overcome their fears. Tonight though, three of your friends are being tormented by nightmares the likes of which I have not seen before,” she said, using a small amount of magic to conjure what looked to be a photograph as she gave it to the Skyshifter. When Calvin took a closer look, he could see Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo in the picture, “I have assisted them with regards to overcoming their own fears, but this is unlike anything I have come across before. So, I wish to have you assist me in helping your friends overcome what is haunting them.” In the mind of the Skyshifter, he was still trying to process a couple of things, including what Luna had just told him, “Wait. If you have helped them overcome their fears before, then why do you need me to help you? I’m… still having trouble understanding why.” Calmly, the princess nodded, taking a second to think of the best way to describe the current situation before explaining, “While it is true that I have been able to help them previously, the circumstances this time around are much different. All other nights, when I have to help somepony, they only have one nightmare to face. However, for your friends, multiple nightmares are appearing within a single dream, nightmares that aren’t like anything that I have seen or experienced before.” “Okay, but aren’t they just in dreams though?” Calvin asked. “They are, but that’s the problem,” the princess explained, “Nightmares in the dream realm feed upon negative emotions and use those same emotions as a channel to feed upon magic as well. If one such nightmare gathers enough magic, they can escape from the dream realm. Thankfully, nightmares aren’t as suitable towards magic as…” for a moment, Luna paused. Her eyes drifted away as a small expression of guilt could be seen upon her face, “…as other dream manifestations.” “Say what-?” “But, if enough nightmares gather, it is all the more likely that they combine the magic that they gathered to hasten the process,” Princess Luna finished, looking back to Calvin now to see if he understood what she was saying. However, all that the princess got was just a look of confusion on his face as she let out a small breath, realizing that she needed to somehow simplify her explanation, “If they put all of their magic together, then they would break out faster.” “Okay, that definitely doesn’t sound good,” Calvin finally answered, now knowing what Luna was trying to explain to him. “Indeed. We must act now before it’s too late,” the alicorn insisted, before going towards the door and opening it with her magic. Both of them walked out of the house and onto the front lawn as Luna looked back towards Calvin, “Out of all three of them, the first nightmares that we need to eliminate immediately are inside the dreams of Sweetie Belle. After we stop those, then we can tend to the rest of her friends.” The Skyshifter nodded in response, before looking around him as a question surfaced in his mind, “Um… Princess? How exactly are we going to go to Sweetie Belle’s dream?” For a moment, Luna didn’t say anything. Instead, she began to channel magic around her horn as the princess looked back at him, “You might want to shield your eyes, young Calvin,” she advised, before the magic began to transform into a bright light, forcing Calvin to put a hand in front of his face to protect his eyes from the light. When it finally faded away, he found himself in a place that almost resembled the night sky. Balls of light that looked like stars were below his feet as the Skyshifter took in his newfound surroundings. The only other thing that stood out to him in that moment was the doors. They were lined up in a row that was in front of him as well as on either side of him and came in various shapes, colors and sizes. There was even a door behind him, one that was colored navy and had a door lock on the right side. For a moment, he wanted to see what would happen if he were to open one. Yet, the voice of Luna soon caught his attention. “Over here, young Calvin,” the Skyshifter heard the princess of the night call out to him, turning to his left to see her waiting in the middle of the two rows of doors as he backed away from the door behind him and hurried over. “Princess Luna, what are all of these?” he now asked as the two of them began walking. Luna herself, seeing Calvin’s confusion and surprise, took a moment to answer while they were going, “Each one of these doors leads to the dream of a particular creature, a gateway that leads to what they are seeing when they are asleep. All the doors that you see here are of all the residents that live within and around Ponyville. This includes the doors that lead to the dreams of your friends.” “Wow… this is amazing,” he replied, before realizing something as he looked back towards the princess, “Though, wouldn’t it be concerning that the nightmares could just invade anyone else’s dreams if they do happen to break free? That would just make stopping them difficult.” That was a valid concern, especially after the last time that something happened like this. But all that she could really do was let out a small sigh, “Unfortunately, I don’t have any spell that I can use in order to prevent such a thing from happening, which is why we need to act now. As my sister would say, ‘time is of the essence’,” she explained, walking past a few more doors before coming across a white door with a shield emblem that had a musical note just above the handle, “This is the door to Sweetie Belle’s dream. When you are ready, open it and step forth inside. Just be prepared for anything.” The Skyshifter at first was a bit hesitant, but then let out a small breath as he gripped the handle and opened it up, stepping forward as both him and the princess walked in and slowly closed the door behind them. “What the heck is this?” “Ugh… M-My head…” was the only thing that Blackout could say as he slowly began to wake up, shaking his head and trying to come to his senses as he looked at his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was catching his teammate before hitting the deck of Flynn’s ship, which, in his mind, could potentially only mean one thing, “Great… my body must be unconscious. Hopefully, the others can make do without me for a bit…” It was at that point that the Dark Skylander soon noticed something that was right in front of him. Two entire rows of doors that were right in front of him. Out of all the times that he had been in this place, he had not seen anything like this. A closer look showed that each door was different in appearance, whether it was color or size, but he was not sure as to what exactly these doors were for. “Well, it’ll be a long while before I come around anyways,” he said to himself, wrapping his claws on the handle of a light orange door that had a shield emblem with a lightning bolt on it, “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a peek inside... right?” The moment that both Calvin and Luna had stepped into Sweetie Belle’s dream, they were greeted by a bizarre sight. Several different beings, none of them looking like they were native to Equestria, were facing each other in a giant free for all across the entire dream, showing no mercy against each other as they fought tooth and nail. Among them were a bipedal wolf tearing through its opponents with sharp claws and a skeletal warrior that looked to be a pirate, and that was just a few of the nightmares that were fighting each other in this battle torn place. “W-What the heck are we fighting in here?!” the Skyshifter asked, thrown off guard by the sheer chaos that was unfolding with each passing moment, “W-Where’s Sweetie Belle!?” “I-I don’t kno-!” “Oh my WORD!! Just look at them all go!!” the two of them heard the voice of someone speaking, as if they were broadcasting over a radio microphone, “I have not seen mayhem like this since our last ‘take your child to carnage’ extravaganza!! This is entertainment in its purest form!!!” That just had Luna blink for a moment, shocked and appalled at hearing this, before seeing what looked to be a furless pony that was extremely pale on a nearby hill. They were wearing a violet trench coat and a hat over their head, yet she could see their razor sharp teeth as they were speaking into a contraption that he was holding with their right hoof with a giant smile on their face. “Hold it right there!!” the princess shouted, catching the attention of the pale pony as they looked down at them. “Ah, what do we have here? Two latecomers that want to participate in the fun and games?” they asked, coming off as rather creepy because they kept on smiling, even with the sound of explosions and fighting around them, “I’m sure that we can fit you two into the festivities somewhere.” At first, Calvin was silent, but then decided to speak up and ask a question, “Just who are you supposed to be, then?” Followed by Luna adding on a question of her own, “And what makes you think that this is somehow okay?!” “Why does anypony do anything in order to satisfy themselves, eh? Complete and absolute boredom! That’s why!!” the pony answered the alicorn’s question first, before looking to Calvin afterwards to answer his question, “As for who I am, you can call me ‘the announcer’.” “… How ‘creative’.” “Hey, take it up with the crowd! They were the ones that decided to name me that. They wanted less introductions and more incineration,” his response was followed by the sound of flames erupting right behind both the Skyshifter and the princess, with the flames being dangerously close to the latter’s tail. “Speaking of which…” with his grin widened a bit more, the pony brought the contraption they had closer and began to speak into it, “Well, what do you know, folks?! We seem to have a pair of uninvited guests that want to participate! What do you think, audience? Should we let them?” The question was followed by a loud uproar from the ones who were watching the carnage play out, which made the announcer chuckle in amusement, “Well, I guess the audience has spoken! Perhaps these two will put up more of a fight than the pastel swirl girl that was here. All she’s doing is running for her life!” As the pony said that, Calvin looked back towards Luna. He was beginning to think that this girl the announcer was talking about was Sweetie Belle, “Hey, uh… you mentioned a girl, right? Do you know where she went?” “Oooh, sorry kiddo, but I can’t pick favorites. All I’m supposed to do is provide the play by slay commentary,” the pony blew him off rather rudely, “If you want to find her so badly, then you’re going to have to find her on your own.” “Well, there goes any help from the locals,” he thought to himself, briefly looking to Luna and letting out a deep breath as he looked at the battlefield in front of them, “I guess we’re just going to have to do this the hard way.” “Indeed, though we must be cautious, young Calvin,” Luna reminded him as she stood next to the Skyshifter, “Many of these foes are monsters unlike what any of us have seen before. It would be foolish to-” “What’s this!? In a shocking turn of events, the pastel swirl girl is on the run once again! Oh, and just when you thought that she was safe!!” they heard the announcer exclaim to his audience, “You see, this is exactly why I enjoy moments like these! Watching many poor souls try to climb their way to the top, only to fail and fall deep into the fiery pit of failure!!” Luna stopped what she was trying to say after hearing that, before letting out a small breath. “Ignore what I said previously, Calvin. We need to get to Sweetie Belle immediately.” “No need to tell me twice,” he said, before grabbing hold of his pendant as it began to glow around his neck, “Brace for Glory!!” In mere seconds, Calvin shifted into his Imaginator as the two of them pushed forth. Several of the nightmares that were once fighting each other were now setting their sights on them as they began to charge at the two of them, prompting both the Skyshifter and the Alicorn to defend themselves. “Out of the way, you fools! Their souls are mine-!!” One of the nightmares declared, before getting blasted by a bolt of magic that Luna channeled. “Not today, you fiend!!” “That horsey just blasted Fang Doom!! Get her!!” Another one shouted. The creature then attempted to pounce towards Luna, only to be intercepted by Calvin as he gave them a fiery fist to their jaw as he sent them flying. As they hit the ground, both Calvin and Luna continued to move forward, keeping their eyes peeled for any signs of Sweetie Belle while also keeping their eyes open for any additional nightmares that were attacking or chasing them. As the battle against the nightmares continued to rage on, they had to face numerous nightmarish creatures from vampires, creatures that used the bones that grew out of their bodies as weapons and even giant foes that had more than one head. Yet, in Calvin’s mind, he did his best to keep himself calm and focused, despite what they were facing.  Staying calm did not help though when he felt a giant hand grabbed him out of nowhere and held him up in the air, “Looka here, boyz! I got da pointy-eared one!!” “Calvin!!” Luna cried out, realizing that the Skyshifter was in trouble as she cast a spell to shield herself from another incoming attack, “Calvin, Get out of there!” “I-I don’t think I can,” he weakly told the alicorn, feeling the grip of the nightmare making it harder to breathe, “M-my p-power’s going to run out of t-time soon-!” That only prompted the princess to fire back at her attackers first, before swiftly turning to him, “That can’t happen here. Limitations that you might have in the real world do not exist inside a dream. In a dream, anything can happen.” Upon hearing that, Calvin stopped what he was doing as he began to process what Luna told him, “Anything… can happen? Could that mean…?” Thinking of a plan, he began to close his eyes, before focusing as he began to channel fire around him, the flames burning the nightmare as it immediately dropped him. “Holy cow, that actually worked!!” “AGH! DAT BURNS!!” it screamed as the Skyshifter got back up and sprinted back towards Luna so they could regroup, “It’z gettin’ away!!” Once he had regrouped with Luna, Calvin thought of an idea in order to keep these foes away. Taking a moment to focus, he began to conjure an orb of flames in his hand before throwing it towards the nightmares that were pursuing them. Once it touched the ground, the orb exploded into a wall of flames as the blaze separated the Skyshifter and the princess from the nightmares, providing them a chance to keep moving while some of them were burning in pain. “Have you found Sweetie yet?!” he asked, taking a moment to catch his breath before taking a chance to look around. “Unfortunately, no,” the alicorn shook her head, “Even though we have made progress against these nightmares, I have not seen any signs of her.” Of course, hearing that led to the Skyshifter thinking of something, before looking back to Luna with another question, “Is there any kind of spell or something that we could use to locate her? If we keep on running through here like this, then we won’t have time to help either Apple Bloom or Scootaloo.” Luna thought it over for a moment, before nodding her head as she began to close her eyes and channel her magic, focusing her efforts to find who they were looking for. Yet, it was as she was doing this that Calvin turned around and realized that the flames that were burning earlier had faded out. Some of the nightmares were gone, but many remained, with one in particular standing out. “Dey’re dey ar, boyz!! Dey’ze gonna regret runnin from a bash!!” “Uh… Luna?” Calvin asked, seeing the nightmares charge towards the two of them, “We might need to hurry on that spell… Luna? Luna?!” he turned around, seeing that the princess was still channeling her magic, unaware of what was coming for them as he took up a stance. “Luna, I’m being serious here!” “Let’z do dis!!” the nightmare that was leading the charge shouted, now holding what was a giant blade as they were getting closer and closer with each passing second.  “Luna, we’re going to get trampled if we-” Before he could even finish that sentence, Luna’s eyes opened and focused her magic again. In a bright flash of light, the two of them were gone, leaving all the nightmares that were charging at them stunned and confused as they found nothing but just an empty spot. For Sweetie Belle, ever since waking up in this fiendish place, she was running like her life depended on it. Horrifying monstrosities had been chasing after her for what felt like hours, and any attempts in order to hide from one nightmarish fiend only led to another one finding her. To make matters worse, she would hear the booming voice of somepony announcing her struggles for everypony to hear, as if they enjoyed watching her fail at every turn. She was already beginning to feel weak and sore all over by this point. Her eyes looked everywhere in case a monster was trying to surprise her. She had one close call earlier when a figure that had a mask of a ghost over its face tried to grab her from behind, and Sweetie was lucky enough to get away from them. But the encounter was enough to drive her paranoid and have her continuously be aware of her surroundings. So, when a bright flash of light went off behind her, Sweetie immediately began to back away, not knowing who or what it was as she picked up a rock off the ground, “S-Stay away from me!! I-I don’t know w-who you are, but-” “Calm yourself, child,” the girl heard an all too familiar voice speak to her as two figures approached her, “We mean no harm.” She could tell who the first figure was immediately when she saw the flowing spectral mane that belonged to Princess Luna, but it took some time for her to figure out who Luna’s companion was. Only when she saw their form change did the girl recognize that it was her friend, Calvin. “P-Princess!? C-Calvin?! W-What are y-you doing here!?” she asked them, “H-Have you not seen h-how dangerous this place is?!” “This place isn’t real, young one,” Luna assured her, trying her best to comfort the frightened child, “These monstrosities aren’t real either. They are nightmares in this dream of yours, Sweetie Belle. They don’t exist.” Even though what the princess told her was meant to comfort her, Sweetie did not seem to take what she said rather well, “T-That’s not…” she stopped, taking a moment to catch her breath before picking up where she left off with her sentence, “T-That’s not what Faith told us at all.” When Sweetie told them that, both Luna and Calvin had different reactions. To Luna, she did not know who this ‘Faith’ was, and if they were a living being or just an illusion that was in this dream. To Calvin though, what he did was something different. Sweetie and her friends had told him about Faith before and about how she was helping them get home after an accidental summoning, but they never mentioned them talking of anything outside of that. “What did Faith tell you?” he asked, only to have Luna speak up before Sweetie could answer. “You know who she is?” the princess asked. “She’s someone like me. Someone who’s in another Equestria that used to be where I’m from,” he briefly explained, “Faith accidentally summoned the Crusaders when she meant to summon me, but… what exactly did she tell you that would cause all this?” “She told us about the Displaced… and how not all of them were friendly,” the girl shivered as she was speaking, “S-She told us that anything could be possible. T-That people like you could end up as m-monsters in their own worlds. A-Anything was fair game. E-Even listed off a lot of examples that… I’d rather not remember right now...” Luna’s eyes narrowed for a moment as she looked towards Sweetie, “This ‘Faith’ told all three of you about this?” “Y-Yeah, she did,” Sweetie Belle responded back, “W-Why? Is something wrong?” At first, Luna said nothing, before letting out a small breath as she turned around and spread out her wings, “Pardon me one moment…” without warning, she took off, flying into the sky before diving downward in the distance. At first, Calvin and Sweetie Belle were unsure about what she was doing, that was... until they witnessed a giant pillar of light blue magic erupt, incinerating everything that was nearby before Luna gracefully landed back on the ground in front of them. “…Well, that feels somewhat better.” Calvin could only tilt his head towards Sweetie as both of them stared at the princess, stunned by what they had just witnessed, “Remind me to never get on her bad side.” As Luna herself let out a breath, she now began to recompose herself as the princess looked to the young girl, “Sweetie Belle… while such monstrosities that you were told about may be frightening, such fiends that we’ve seen tonight don’t exist in our world.” Hearing that soon prompted the Skyshifter to add on to that, “Luna’s right, Sweetie,” he said, “Plus, you and the girls will soon have the same powers that I have. So, if any monsters did come, you would be able to fight them off… and even without that, you can always count on your friends to help you when you need it, right?” It took a couple of moments for their words to sink in, but after some time, the girl began to understand what they were telling her as she slowly nodded her head. “Y-You’re right,” Sweetie said, before catching Calvin off guard as she hugged him once again, “Thank you, Calvin.” “Y-You’re welcome,” he said, a bit thrown off guard by the sudden hug as he tried to maintain his composure, “S-So… how are you feeling?” She took a moment to lower her arms first, before looking back at both him and the Princess, “Better now that I realize that what I was worrying about was just plain silly,” she chuckled, brushing some of the dust off of the clothes that she was wearing, “Man, I must have been the only one worrying about these things.” Luna though, could only let out a heavy sigh and look away for a moment before speaking, “I… wouldn’t be so sure about that.” End Part 1