Juniper Montage tapped her hooves on the desk by her typewriter, frowning as she looked over the pages she had produced. It was wonderful- maybe even perfect, but something was missing. She was certain her uncle would love her new idea, and she could already imagine The Curse of the Rose-Colored Mirror presented in theatres across Equestria. Juniper yawned and leaned her head into her hooves, looking at the clock across the room, lit only by the moon. It was already that late...?
She grumbled, sat up, and continued to type on her typewriter, before quickly falling short once more. No, it still felt wrong. She looked over her script once more. Was it the romance subplot? No, she was pretty confident in Rozy and Dusty Dunes' romance. Perfect opposites attract story, the ponies would eat it up. Rozy's character arc was solid, and one Juniper found herself personally proud of. The titular mirror was a McGusten, sure, but that was true of almost every magic item in a one-shot movie like this, and she was sure it had been used to the full extent. So what was missing? What was blocking her brain from continuing?
Her eyelids felt heavy, and she blinked slowly, before shaking her head. She could do this. Maybe she just needed some coffee. With another yawn, she stood up and began to move towards the kitchen of her home. She had gotten a special brew from Donut Joe and was anxious to try it out. If she had wings, she was sure they'd be fluttering with excitement.
That excitement was cut off, however, by the sight of a strange door in the middle of her hallway. Juniper gave it an odd look and circled it. She did not remember putting a door here, and would especially remember putting a door in the middle of the hall. She gave it another askance look and knocked on it. It did not fall over. Juniper snorted, the pieces coming together in her mind. "I'm dreaming, aren't I?" There was no response, but she felt confident. Lucid dreaming was nothing strange to her, but she had never started lucid dreaming right where she had fallen asleep. She could work with this, though. Juniper Montage hoofed open the door and closed it against the bright flash of white that drowned her out as she stepped through.
When her eyes felt less bombarded by light, she opened them to find herself in Ponyville. It was a beautiful sunny day, and she smiled at the sun on her face. She trotted around and noticed how lively the town was. Ponies walked through the marketplace, chatting and laughing, and she felt warmed by their presence. Maybe she was struggling with characters interacting naturally? She walked up to two ponies interacting. They didn't seem to notice her approach, and she was content with that. One, a cream-colored mare, was speaking with a roll of her eyes. "Trust me, Cloudkicker, it's not gonna happen."
The pegasus mare scoffed. "C'mon Bon-Bon, you're kidding me, right? You two are obviously head over hooves for each other." Juniper raised her brow, putting a hoof to her chin. Was something wrong with the romance subplot? She had been so sure! Was she missing some obvious trapping? She realized she had tuned out of the conversation, and quickly flicked her ears forward back to the two mares. The pegasus was speaking again. "...meeting at a wedding? Who wouldn't consider that romantic!"
"Said wedding was attacked by a swarm of changelings looking to feed off the love of the happy couple for the rest of time," Bon-Bon answered dryly.
"The perfect romantic start!" Cloudkicker winked, "who doesn't love a mare who can kick some flank?"
The invasion of Canterlot, Juniper recalled, had been a frightening invasion that had been stopped only by the efforts of the Elements of Harmony, Princess Cadence, and her husband. She thought back to her writing. She thought she had Rozy confront the curse and her relationship with appropriate levels of comedy and seriousness, but had she been wrong? With a tut, Juniper left the mares to the conversation and walked back towards the door. Prying it open, she stepped through the bright white light once more.
She opened her eyes to the sound of arguing. The Elements of Harmony were yelling at each other, even Fluttershy showing a surprising amount of confidence as she postured, but Juniper could not hear what she was arguing about over the din. They sat around a crystal table, with a chair per Element. Standing near the mess of mares, a stallion was trying to raise his hooves in a calming motion. "Girls, girls," he said, his voice suspiciously (impossibly) smooth and somehow heard over the din like he had been shouting. "There's no need to fight over me! You can all have me!"
"You're so wise," Princess Twilight Sparkle said, and Juniper threw up in her mouth. Gross. She did NOT want to know why her brain had offered this up. With another bit of hurking, she got up and pushed her way back through the door as all the mindless mares nodded their assent to his wise words. What in the world was her brain trying to tell her? That- that Rozy and Dusty Dunes' romance didn't make sense? Cause that was definitely not true! Rozy had fought hard to break her friend from the curse! It was romantic.
Through the white light, and she had found herself somewhere entirely new. The place looked old, made of stone, and crumbling to bits. She turned her gaze to the sound of maniacal laughter and saw her. The Queen of Darkness, Nightmare Moon. Juniper stepped back, gasping in awe, and thanked Celestia (and Luna too, hastily) that she had no presence in the dreams she passed through. "The Element of Magic is broken," she roared, "you ponies shall see my night forever!"
Juniper began to fret. So far she had experienced some sort of slice-of-life romance scene and then pulled into the shoddy climax of some self-insert lusty narcissist. What would she find here?
Her question was quickly answered, however, by the response from the pony on the floor. "You're wrong," they said, and that's not Twilight Sparkle. The pony on the floor was a mint colored unicorn mare, who was definitely not an Element of Harmony. Juniper was a movie writer, she knew stars when she saw them. And this pony was not one of those stars. She thought she looked vaguely familiar, but couldn't place her face or name. "I may not have the Element of Magic, but I have my friends, and together I know we can do anything!" Charging up behind her came... five more unfamiliar ponies who were certainly not the Elements of Harmony.
Juniper Montage turned her thoughts inward as the unicorn began monologuing and glowing. What was this dream trying to show her? What she saw were a bunch of ponies taking the place of the Elements of Harmony. Were her characters better suited in different positions? Where had she gone wrong?
As the rainbow laser fired, she stalked through the doorway, lost in thought and bright white light. She opened her eyes and found everything to be gray. While Juniper first assumed she was simply in a gray room, she looked down and saw her own form had been shifted to a light gray. She took off her glasses, but nothing changed, and she huffed and returned her attention to the details of her new environment. A mare was sitting at her desk, smoking a pipe, the chair turned away from the desk, facing a small window overlooking a gray sunset. While the gray made it more difficult for Juniper to discern the pony's identity, she quickly gasped at the sight of the Element of Generosity and queen of the fashion industry, Rarity.
The door creaked open and in trotted the Element of Loyalty, Rainbow Dash. They both were professional clothing, and glasses decorated Rainbow's face. Tucked in her wing was a folder, which she slapped onto the desk with a quick flash of the appendage. "Got everythin' you asked, boss." Juniper flinched. Rainbow's voice was not made for that accent.
Rarity turned her chair and picked up the folder in her magic. It opened, and a series of photographs drifted out. Juniper trotted forward, trying to get a peak, but Rarity had closed the folder and set it down before she could see. Juniper was even more confused. How did this relate to her writing? Was something she had written too obtuse for the audience? Were the twists too subtle, too obvious, too out of nowhere? She bit her lip, then shook her head as Rarity spoke.
"Thank you, Dash. You can go... and shut the door on your way out." With a salute of her wing, Rainbow Dash complied, and Juniper was left alone with the gray-slated mare in her office. "To think you almost got away with it," Rarity muttered, and Juniper turned her attention.
Despite knowing Rarity wouldn't reply, she asked, "who almost got away with it?" Her hooves tapped with confusion and questions, and she was shocked as Rarity suddenly turned and pointed at her.
"Why I'm talking about you, darling!" Juniper stepped back, and Rarity stepped forward. "Did you really think you could get away with it? I had you in my sights the moments your first movie dropped."
"Wh-what are you talking about!?" Juniper gasped, backing up to the door. She felt her flank bump into it and almost cried out in relief. She could escape! She turned and wrenched it open.
She jumped into the white, and Rarity's voice called out, scolding and harsh. "You'll never be a star, Juniper! Not in this town!"
The white faded and she found herself in Manehatten. It was quiet, disturbingly so after Rarity had confronted her. She turned and started walking down the street, her head pounding. Why had Rarity been able to see her? Why had she been able to talk to her? What was her brain trying to say? Juniper would be a star director, she knew it! She would never fade from ponies' memories!
But what if she never finished her script? What if she made a product so bad, her uncle refused to produce it? The wind blew through quiet Manehatten, and it sounded like moaning. No, wait, that was moaning! She looked up and saw a crowd of ponies rushing straight towards her- but they looked wrong. She saw Joe at the front, his face slack and eyes empty, and she screamed. They moaned in response and chased after her.
Why was her brain doing this!? What was this supposed to teach her!? She ran up to garbage cans and kicked them with her hindlegs, watching them bowl over the ponies chasing after her. They were going to destroy her, she knew, without a doubt. They had to be zombies, and they would devour her alive if she made one wrong move. She winced as she saw Joe fall to the ground and be stampeded by the crowd, but she pushed on. When she came to the door again, she shoved it open and jumped into the white, the moaning growing louder with the sound of hoofbeats.
She found herself in utter quiet on the bridge to Manehatten. No cabs or ponies were beside her. She was entirely alone. She looked at Manehatten, her mind swamped with terror and confusion. What was her brain trying to tell her? What was she trying to tell herself? She looked at the city once more. She could see her uncle's studio from here, though only the back of it. If she looked a little harder, she might be able to see her home, but she doubted it.
She looked up at a strange sound and saw something that made her eyes hurt falling towards Manehatten. She felt her heart stop. No, no, it couldn't mean- It couldn't be-
Manehatten was incinerated in a plume of green fire, and she watched as the wave of fire rushed towards her. She ran as fast as she could, but she knew she could not escape the fire. It would devour her. It had already destroyed everything she had ever hoped to achieve, and it would make sure she could never achieve her dreams again.
Suddenly, she bumped into a midnight blue-tinted wall. She fell to her haunches as the green fire pushed past her, and everything around the bubble faded into a sea of teal and small white circles. A voice spoke. "Juniper Montage, please calm yourself."
She gasped and bowed at the voice. It was her. It was Princess Luna. Flying down from above, she landed next to the bubble, which dropped. Juniper's hooves found sure footing in this field of stars and teal light. "Princess Luna! I... I'm having a nightmare, right? I don't understand why-"
Luna raised a hoof, and Juniper's voice fell quiet. "Juniper, you have been looking at this dream as if your brain is trying to help you figure out what is wrong with your writing, correct?" She gave a nod but still found her voice falling short with the princess's presence. "The problem with your writing is not something I, or your dreams, can say, Juniper, if there even if one. Your nightmares are not trying to teach you a lesson. They are simply nightmares."
"But I thought that... That I was trying to help myself figure out what was wrong with my writing! Why I couldn't write anything!"
"Are you aware of how late you fell asleep, my little pony?" Juniper turned her head away, guilty. She certainly did. She had checked the clock herself. Luna raised her head with a gentle hoof and gave her a gentler smile. A small voice in the back of her mind commented on how truly different Nightmare Moon and Luna were. There had been no sense of this gentleness in the queen's gaze. "You did not struggle because you had no ideas, or because something was wrong. You struggled because you were tired. Creativity cannot flow from an empty source."
Juniper rubbed the back of her neck with a soft blush. "I... should have realized that earlier."
Luna chuckled softly. "Maybe so. But even when you dream so clearly, it can be difficult to think clearly." She closed her eyes, horn lighting, and the door reappeared. "You let yourself go blindly into every new set of your dream, and so you had no control as you thought you did." She smiled warmly. "But you may rest well now, and know you will not struggle as much whence you are rested."
"Actually..." Juniper turned towards the door. "Can I ask you a favor, Princess Luna?" With Luna's questioning gaze, Juniper gestured at the door. "No matter how terrifying those last three parts of the dream were, I think I got some good ideas and advice from them anyway. Even if Dusty Dunes' and Rozy's romance is great, maybe I can make it better. So... can you let me go back in?"
"If you are sure, Juniper, then you may return to your dream."
"I'm sure, Princess Luna," Juniper nodded. With a smile and a nod, Luna lit her horn, and the door creaked open with soft blue brilliance. With a grin of excitement, Juniper continued her montage. Who knows what she might discover next?