notify(self.getSpellMessages(), sm);
The scroll hit Moondog in the head as he was directing the iron butterflies out the window. He idly picked it up and tossed it over his shoulder, to be reviewed later. By the time he got around to retrieving it, he was already thinking: why a scroll?
This was a dream and Moondog was well-used to getting his information telepathically. But whenever Mom or somepony (or somebuggy) else sent him a dream message in the usual way, it arrived as a scroll. A spell sending pure information through space that didn’t exist manifested itself as a scroll. Was the spell actually designed that way? Or was that just how pony minds parsed it? If the latter, Moondog probably saw it as a scroll because his mind was close enough to a pony’s to read it that way. Although it might be totally different.
“What do you think?” Moondog asked the armored manticore he was lounging on.
The manticore didn’t respond. Of course it didn’t; it was a manticore.
“Thanks for the insight.”
readSpellMessage(sm);
Moondog,
My brother, Shining Armor, said he wanted to talk to you if you had the chance and asked me to contact you for him. Do you think you could swing around and go check on him?
Thanks,
Twilight
“Over a thousand years, and Mom’s still the most notable oneiromancer even though she spends most of that time gone,” Moondog muttered as the scroll caught fire and threw it back. “She comes back and then suddenly you get new dream mages crawling out of the woodwork. Almost literally, if you look at Ocellus and the composition of the usual changeling hive.” He perched on the manticore’s head to look it in the eye, upside-down. “So what gives?”
The manticore eyed Moondog like he was a particularly succulent morsel. Apparently, the banquet in front of it was doing nothing for its appetite. It stayed silent. Manticores gonna manticore.
“I’ve seen literal rocks more talkative than you,” said Moondog, swatting at the manticore with his beard. “Real-world rocks. Maud found them. Oraculiths.” He rolled off the manticore and floated right in front of its face. “Although it’s not just after Mom comes back, it’s after she makes me. A lot of them came to me for help, not her. Unless ponies have been going to her for help and I just haven’t heard about it. Either way, though, that’s more dream mages all of a sudden.”
Still the manticore said nothing. Keeping in touch with their feline side, manticores rarely deigned to speak to anybody who wasn’t a manticore, and this one was no exception.
“But maybe we’re getting new dream mages because Mom’s back,” mused Moondog. “You’d expect good students to come from a good teacher, and she’s the best there is at what she does. Now the would-be oneiromancers’ve actually got somepony worth listening to. It just took a few years for them to get reacclimated to her.” He flared his wings and stretched in the air. “I’ll ask her about it.”
manticore.feedLine(MOOD.Random);
The manticore discarded one form of cattiness for another. “Are you going to leave or what?” it snapped.
“Rude,” said Moondog. He blew open a rift in the dream with a raspberry and rolled on through.
Moondog puffed out of nothing into Shining’s dream. The stallion of the hour was lounging on a watery beach in the bright moonlight as waves of sand broke on the shore, requiring ample repair work. Clouds wheeled through the birdy sky, singing the songs of their people and winning lots of awards for them. It was almost a shame to disrupt such a nice dream like this, really.
Moondog walked up to Shining and nudged. “Hey. Twilight said you wanted to see me?”
“Huh?” Shining opened his eyes. “Oh, hey! That was fast.” He smiled and rolled onto his hooves. He poked at the watery shore, then shook his head. “Um. Anyway, it’s an honor to meet you.” He threw a leg across his chest and bowed.
Moondog bowed in return. “The honor is mine. And don’t even THINK about taking it.”
“Too late. Anyway, do you offer training in dream magic?”
“Some.” Moondog flared a wing and held two of his feathers about an inch apart. “Technically, not really, but I can do it. Why?”
“I want to be able to protect Flurry Heart from nightmares if I can.”
eyebrow.raise();
“You know that’s my job, right?” Moondog asked, putting a hoof on his chest.
“And I have got servants to serve my family food every day, but I still like feeding Flurry myself. It’s a parent thing.” Shining shrugged. “Besides, things get pretty crazy around our family and I just want to reassure myself that she’s sleeping well. No, no-” He raised a hoof when Moondog opened his mouth to speak. “It’s got nothing to do with you. Or Princess Luna, while we’re at it. I trust both of you. I’m just being paranoid.”
“Uh-huh. Yeah.” Moondog nodded in understanding. He got that feeling about Mom sometimes, even though she really, really, really didn’t need his protection. “That and being a prince is boring, right?”
“Oh, Celestia, yeeeessss,” moaned Shining, throwing his head back. “Half of it is sitting on my rump and smiling while Cadance does the talking and most of the rest is me chipping in with the right word once or twice a conversation. Sometimes I just want to do something that involves me walking somewhere. Or hitting something. Or- moving anything besides my mouth! Twily and I had a… little competition last week, and even though most of it involved patrolling, I liked it a lot more than-”
Moondog put a hoof on Shining’s mouth. “Whoa, simmer down, there,” he said. “I get it. I have my own little pet peeves.” He stepped back and ran a hoof through his mane. “I get what you’re asking — I mean, like, I understand it — but without a lot more work, I’d need to stop by every night to pull you into Flurry’s dreams, and after that, it’d probably be simpler for me to just do it myself.”
“So what’s the problem?” asked Shining. “Just show me how to reach Flurry’s dreams and we’re good to go.”
“Yeah, see, that’s kind of the problem in the first place. Being able to leave your own headspace at all ain’t exactly what you’d call ‘easy’. There’s a reason Mom’s the only notable dreamwalking pony in Equestria.” Moondog paced, staring down at the sky. “I guess your emotional connection with Flurry would make it easier for you to enter her mind… More comfortable for her, too… But you’d still need to learn dreamwalking in the first place, which can take… whoof, I don’t know, moons.”
“Can’t you ask Twilight about it?” Shining said. “It doesn’t matter how smart you think she is, she’s smarter than that. She could probably come up with some kind of spell to help connect me to Flurry and only Flurry.”
“I don’t know,” said Moondog. He stroked his beard thoughtfully. “That’s never been made before. It’ll take a lot of work to convince Twilight to work on something that hard.”
“Hey, Twilight? I was wondering if you could help me help Shining by helping me make a dreamwalker amulet. Or charm or spell or whatever. Something to get him into Flurry’s mind more easily.”
“But mind, body, and spirit are all too closely bound to each other to separate the mind from the body artificially. Making something like that is supposed to be impossible.”
“No it won’t,” Shining said flatly.
“So of course I’ll help! If I manage to do one more impossible thing before the week is up, Discord will finally get off my back about being so strait-laced about the laws of physics and magic. Or so he says, anyway.”
“C’mon,” Moondog said with a wannabe-endearing smile, “can’t I have a joke?”
But Shining just rolled his eyes. “It’s a pretty bad joke. And trust me, I know bad jokes; I’m a dad.”
Moondog flared his wings. “Fair enough. I’ll talk with Twilight and let you know how it turns out. Anything else you want tonight?”
“No thanks.” Shining looked out over the sandy sea and the school of fishing flies soaring past. “This place is weird, but it’s nice.”
“Alright. Pleasure meeting you.” Moondog turned to leave, but one last thought ran through his mind. “Oh, and should I see if Cadance wants to join in?”
“Eh…” Shining rubbed his neck. “You can ask her, but I don’t think she’ll go for it. She’d love to do something adventurous like that, but she spends pretty much all day working already, so spending her nights also protecting Flurry on top of that would probably mean she’d feel like she’s just not getting any rest.”
“Alright. Thanks for the heads-up.”
“…so I’ll be asking Twilight if she can help, and I figured I’d see if you’re up for it.” Moondog flared his wings. “Interested?”
“Eh…” Cadance rubbed her neck. “Thanks for asking, but I don’t think I’ll go for it. I’d love to do something adventurous like that, but I spend pretty much all day working already, so spending my nights also protecting Flurry on top of that would probably mean I’d feel like I’m just not getting any rest.”
gob.smack();
“Your husband knows you really well.”
Moondog returned to Shining the next night to find him balancing one-hoofed and meditating on top of a ten-story pole made of taffy. Sitting on thin air next to the top of the pole, Moondog clapped his hooves together. “Hey. Mr. Amore. I’m back.”
Shining opened his eyes and smiled. “Hey! Nice to OH DEAR SWEET MOTHER GOOSE THIS IS HIGH.” He clamped his eyes shut again, wrapped his legs around his body, and rocked back and forth.
“Just put a hoof down, you’ll be fine,” groaned Moondog. “I’m not gonna let you fall.” Seriously, what was it with ponies and falling? A large chunk of bad dreams revolved around falling in some way, and in many, many variations. Mom had once said that in a nightmare, you’re falling, but in a dream, you’re flying. After a while, it got a little tiring.
After a moment, still keeping his eyes shut, Shining carefully reached out and put a hoof on nothing. It held. Another. He opened his eyes, twitched, and stepped off the pole completely. “Um.” He blinked. “Ooooookay then.” He jumped up and down on nothing.
ground.raise(100);
Moondog rolled his eyes, reached down, and pulled the ground up until they were standing on it. “There. Happy?”
“I’m… gonna go with ‘yes’. So did you talk with Twilight? Can she make the amulet?” Shining was definitely Twilight’s brother. You could tell from the dorky glee in his eyes and the way he was almost bouncing on his hooves in spite of looking like he could bench-press two carriages at once.
Moondog nodded. “Yeah. But she says she’ll have to invent new branches of magical theory just to begin the first prototype, so the finished version won’t be in the mail until Saturday. I’ve given her all the help I can.” He looked at a certain area of his leg where the stars were clustered a little more closely together than usual. “Including a blood sample she said she needed. Considering I don’t have blood and she took some anyway, I’m not sure whether to be confused, squicked, or impressed.”
“I just go with every available option. It usually works for her.”
“Confusquipressed. Sounds about right.” Moondog flared his wings and a dais formed beneath him. Armor coalesced from the air and fitted itself onto him. “But until then, we can get started on dream magic itself for a few minutes every night. Nocnice aren’t going to roll over because you asked nicely, as nice as that would be.”
Out of habit, Shining snapped to attention, his hooves together, his spine straight, his eyes forward. “Yessir!”
“Sheesh, we’re not going that far. Like, at ease or whatever.” Old habits died hard, so if you couldn’t avoid them, you might as well exploit them. Moondog jumped from the dais and his armor turned to mist. “Now, your dream is basically an extension of your mind, your self, so in order to sculpt one, you must first learn to sculpt yourself.”
self.setAppearance(sombra);
Ashen gray smothered the stars in Moondog’s coat and darkness overtook the night in his mane. Fangs jutted from his upper jaw and crimson swam across his eyes. His voice a deep rumble, he continued, “Like thi-”
Something smashed in Moondog’s face and he cartwheeled across the dais so gymnastically he would’ve earned at least an 8 from the judges. He landed on his back, straddled by a semi-matronly mare with a white coat and Twilight’s hairstyle.
“Hello,” said the pony, her grin predatory. “What do you think you’re doing to my son?”
“Sorry, sorry!” yelped Shining, his hooves at his mouth. “That was just a reflex! I don’t even know where I got her from!”
twilightVelvet = null; self.setDisbelief(12);
Moondog stood up as the pony dispersed into fog. “Throwing your mom at Sombra is reflexive?”
“Well, um…” Shining clopped his front hooves together and looked away. “It’s more family members in general, really… Yes, that includes Flurry…”
“I don’t know what’s weirder. That being a reflex, or that reflex working.” Pause. “You, uh, wanna hit me or anything? Just so you can. For yourself, you know. You can’t hurt me or anything, it’s just for-”
“Oh, uh, no, no, I’m fine, thanks.”
“Alright.” Moondog popped off his head, turned it inside-out to reveal his usual coloration, and put it back on. As he reversed the rest of his body, he continued, “So, funny thing: pulling your mom from thin air is one of the first steps to learning dream magic. Yes, really, stop looking at me like that. Since dreams are so strongly influenced by your own mind, if you just decide that something’s there-” He ripped away nothing to reveal a wooden chest. “-it’s there. You were able to do that because your reflexes decided, hey, time to chuck Mom at the despot. The fact that she wasn’t actually there is irrelevant.”
“So… if I…” Shining looked to one side and made swiping motions at the air. Nothing happened.
“I know what you’re doing and it’s not quite that easy,” said Moondog. “Dream magic’s like breathing: the second you stop and think about it, it becomes an effort instead of an unconscious action. You can’t go, ‘I’m going to use dream magic to make Mom appear.’ You have to go, ‘Mom’s there’, and dream magic will make it so. Here-”
dreamer.setWings(TRUE);
Moondog pulled a pair of wings from nowhere and stuck them on Shining. “You have wings now. Remember that you don’t have wings and you’ll get rid of them.”
Shining flared his wings. “Uh…” A few experimental flaps, and he was hovering a foot above the ground. “Do I have to?”
“Giving yourself the wings back is part two.”
“Good. Uh…” After a second, Shining’s wings vanished in a cloud of feathers and he dropped back down. “Uh-huh…” Another second, and his wings were back. He stretched them, a huge grin on his face. “Ha ha! Nice!”
“Nice indeed. You’re picking this up fast.” Moondog stroked his chin. What next, what next… “You’d look better with a beard. How about a beard? Give yourself a beard.”
For some reason, though, Shining looked unsure of that. “I don’t know… Beards aren’t really-”
“Dude. It’s just a beard.” Moondog reached up with his own beard and tweaked Shining’s nose. “Try it.”
Shining batted Moondog’s beard away. “Fine.” Along his chin, no more than an inch long, sprouted a beard the same color as his mane. “There. Happy?”
“That’s your idea of- Oh, come on! Live a little! Give yourself a beard like mine.” Moondog held out his long, luxurious, beautiful beard. “It’s way better than that wisp you’ve got now.”
“Eh…” Shining seized Moondog’s beard in his magic and yanked down, hard. Moondog’s legs collapsed and he faceplanted into the ground. “Not really, no.”
“Point taken,” Moondog said through a mouthful of dirt. “You can lose the beard.” He pulled himself up and continued, “You’re doing well so far, but I want to check a few more things…”
Shining took a nervous step off the balcony into thin air. “So, um,” he said, “Twilight’s charm came in the mail today-” Another step. “-but I didn’t put it on yet. I wanted to get your opinion first.”
Moondog shrugged. “Well, we can test it out tonight. No sense in waiting to see if it works right.”
“But I’m not wearing it, and Twilight said I need to be wearing it to-”
“Oh, that’s no problem,” Moondog said, waving a hoof. “Just put it on before you go back to sleep.”
“Huh?”
hammer(dreamer);
When Shining’s dream reformed a few brainstorms later, he was wearing an unassuming brass amulet inscribed with a glowing spiral. His ears back, he said to Moondog, “Please don’t do that again.”
“Sorry, that’s the best way I know to wake somepony up, so no promises. Now, let’s take a look at that…” Moondog held the amulet up to his eyes. It hummed with power (specifically, it hummed the Equestrian national anthem) and imprints of mana channels twisted around each other in the correct ways. “So far, so good. Did Twilight tell you how to work it?”
“Um. Kinda.” Shining took a few steps back and raised his hooves. “I should just…” He vaguely waved his legs around.
Moondog hiccuped as the dream twisted and the wall next to Shining distorted, melted, twirled into a purple vortex. No bad sounds, no nightmarish flashes, just a perfectly ordinary fractaldimensional portal. Moondog probed it with his magic; as stable an intra-dream passage as one could hope for. “Huh,” he said. “Interesting.”
“That’s a good ‘huh, interesting’, right?” asked Shining. He delicately moved his hoof into the vortex. “This kinda looks…”
“Yeah, good ‘huh’. This thing takes a few shortcuts I never would’ve considered — yes, safe shortcuts, your own sister made this! Like, rather than trying to get through the collective unconscious, it uses your own love for Flurry to go directly to her.”
“Which would probably mean something if I knew more about dream magic.” Shining took a deep breath. “Okay. Strange spooky dream portal thing. Here we go.” He raised one hoof, then put it back on the ground. Another. And another. And another. He trotted in place, breathing like he was a steam engine sucking in air. He pawed at the ground. Finally, Moondog picked him up and tossed him on through the portal.
self.setLocation("adwl://dreamer.uncn/surface?hexID=466c75727279204865617274&lucid=n");Rather than following the portal, Moondog blipped into the collective consciousness and then into Flurry’s dream, just to check. Distance not mattering in the dream realm, Shining was still getting to his hooves from being thrown and failing to stick the landing. “Please don’t do that,” muttered Shining.
“Sorry. Duke’s right.”
“You know I rank higher in the peerage than a duke, right?”
“Do know. Don’t care.”
In spite of this definitely being Flurry’s dream, the environment around them was, of all things, a nightclub. Impressions of ponies, more shadow than anything else, jumped around in things that were probably supposed to be dances. Lights in soft pastels flashed off of disco technically-balls and around the room. A drum and bass remix of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star pounded through the speakers. And on a platform above the crowd, wearing a spectacular pair of sunglasses, sitting on a pair of turntables, was DJ Flurry Heart.
“So. Um. What sorts of places do you take Flurry?” Moondog asked as he gawked.
“Not this!” Shining protested as he gawked. “Why would you even think that?”
“Because she’s a baby. She could only dream about something like this if she’s experienced it. Why do you think the crowd’s so shapeless? She’s still not the best at differentiating ponies.”
“But I’ve never taken her anywhere like this, and I know Cadance wouldn’t, either! The only way Flurry would ever go to a nightclub is if- if… Oh.” Shining’s voice came to a halt and he stared up at Flurry’s turntable. All expression slid from his face like rain sliding down a window and his ears slowly went back.
“You alright?” Moondog asked. Ponies could have the weirdest mood swings. Or maybe that was just the Sparkles.
“I’m going to have a few words with Sunburst when I wake up,” Shining said flatly.
Even with lessons on nocnice sprinkled in, Shining Armor progressed a little faster in learning dream magic than Meadow had, except for when it came to making things in the dream, where he went a lot faster thanks to his teacher actually knowing what he was talking about. However, Moondog had never told Meadow how to vanquish nightmares, so it was impossible to say how that would go. Considering Shining’s past experience with smiting evil monsters, though, Moondog wasn’t concerned. Too much.
“Alright,” Moondog said as he climbed from the cocoon, “I think you’re ready to try actually fighting nocnice. So: what have we learned?”
“Nocnice feed on a dreamer’s fears to strengthen themselves, usually by twisting the dream,” recited Shining. He pulled a thick thread of spider silk from his mane. “Control of a dream is often limited when they invade. And since they feed on negative emotions, positive ones can drive them away.”
“Perfect. Normally, I’d go on a long spiel about the dreamer’s self-actualization and confronting their own fears, but I don’t think Flurry’s ready to self-actualize quite yet.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Our family’s pretty weird.”
“Either way, we can’t just sit around and wait for a nightmare to come to Flurry, so I’m going to take you for a trot-along.” Moondog ripped open a hole in a nearby tapestry to the collective unconscious. “First nocnica we find, you do your thing, whatever that may be. I’ll just provide moral support and a safety net.”
“Alright…” Shining stuck his head through the hole and stared out at the vast web of dreams. “And how long’ll it be before we find one?”
“No clue.” Moondog dropped a small psychic shield on Shining, just enough to keep his mind coherent when outside his body, and jumped through the hole. “Just follow me and I’ll let you know.”
Shining climbed through and stared at the starfield around them, jaw agape. What was it with ponies and seeing the dream realm? Did they ever think about how Mom jumped between their minds so freely? Probably not. “This is incredible,” he whispered. “It’s… I know Luna protects ponies’ dreams all across Equestria, but… seeing just how many ponies there are, it’s… And it’s just you two alone?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” Moondog put a hoof on a door.
getMood(door); return: MOOD.Happy
“And before you ask, no, I don’t get lonely.” Next door. “That’s one of the few biological moods I didn’t inherit.”
return: MOOD.Mellow
“I’ve got myself and Mom and my work, and that’s enough.”
“Yeah, Twily’s like that sometimes. Princess Luna, though…”
“Not really my thing to talk about. Kinda personal.” Moondog didn’t add that he suspected that Mom got lonely sometimes and having someone to talk to who didn’t trip over their hooves in awe was nice.
“Right,” muttered Shining. He trotted up to one of the doors and examined it. “But… if it’s just you two for all of Equestria… Haven’t you thought about training other ponies in dream magic? Just to make things a little easier on yourselves?”
“I’m fine. As for Mom, though…” Moondog projected his whispered voice right into Shining’s ear. “I think it’s a little bit of habit, a little bit of pride. Equestria was a lot smaller a thousand years ago, when she could handle things a lot better, and she doesn’t really want to admit she can’t do it alone. But me helping her is okay, because she made me, so I’m still technically part of her work.”
“Hmm. Maybe.” Shining trotted to the next door. “And it’s a bit late for her to make a whole new government department that answers to her if she’s going to abdicate before the year is up. …Maybe you could do it.”
“Oh, sweet Aunt Celly.” Moondog put a hoof to his mouth and snickered. “Can you imagine me making laws?”
Shining stared. “You are going to be one of the diarchs, aren’t you?”
wellBooger();
“Let’sfindabaddreamokaygreat,” said Moondog. He blitzed between doors and, thank Mom and Aunt Celly, a nocnica-infested dream presented itself almost immediately. Moondog yanked Shining into the dream like they were about to be run over by a train.
dreamer.getName(); return: "Thermal Updraft"
Thermal Updraft was caught in a frigid hurricane, beating his wings with all his might as he single-hoofedly tried to stop it before it hit land. Seas churned below him, storms raged above him, sleet battered him from all sides, and icy winds tore at his coat. Above the maelstrom hovered the nocnica responsible for it all, a hazy image of a colossal pony with lightning for eyes, hail for teeth. In every gust of the gale, one could hear deep laughter rumble.
Once Shining adjusted to using the wind as a platform, he turned his attention to the nocnica. “Wow. You weren’t kidding when you said those things aren’t subtle.”
“You have no idea. Hey! Storm dude!” Moondog waved. “It’s your friendly neighborhood dream warrior, now with a friendly neighborhood dream squire, absolutely free!”
“Um. Hi?” Shining jerked his hoof up in almost the direction of the nocnica. “Look, Moondog, this is really inefficient, can’t we just skip straight to beating its face in?”
“Sorry, but no. You might not catch them by surprise, so they’d have a chance to defend themselves. And, like I’ve said before, mental monsters are fought with mental weapons. Facepunching ain’t exactly mental.”
attract(badDude);
“OI! Peabrain!” Moondog ripped a bolt of lightning from its usual course and hurled it at the nocnica. “Get over here! I need to give you a butt so my student can kick it!”
As a plume of ball lightning shredded a cumulonimbus, the storm turned its attention on the two of them, a force of nature deciding two insects were worthy of its notice. At least, that was the impression the nocnica tried to give. Moondog just stared up at it and tried not to be bored. Really, storms were easy. Just strengthen the weather wrangler a bit until they could handle it on their own. Throw in some friends if they couldn’t.
Moondog glanced at Shining. He looked like he was reconsidering his life choices, but not all that heavily. He definitely wouldn’t run or cave, but he might choke. Well, “choke” was a bit strong; cough, maybe, and just once.
“Infant of the night!” yelled the nocnica in a voice like thunder. “Am I supposed to be cowed simply because you were too wretched to face me alone? I was enriching myself on your subjects’ fears before your mother was born! I am every-”
“Shut up, loser,” snapped Moondog. “Nobody likes you.” He snorted, leaned closer to Shining, and muttered, “And they’re all like this, believe it or not. Total hams.”
Shining cringed. “Oh, Celestia. Those guys are the worst.”
“I know, right? But I’ve found-”
“I am the bane of rest, the reaper of fear! My lashes are still felt upon awakening! I am-”
“Shut up, loser! I’m teaching over here! Anyway, their egos-”
“-are like ice cubes, right? One good burn and fwhit! They’re gone.”
“Pretty much, yeah. They get strength from fear, so if you’re not afraid of them-”
“DOMINION OVER PONIES’ HEARTS AND MINDS IS MINE! WHEREVER I GO, DESPAIR FOLLOWS! YOU CANNOT HOPE TO-”
“-but reassuring the dreamer in some way usually works better. You’ll just be working with Flurry, though, so don’t worry about technique. Unless, y’know, you wanna.”
“Okay. Right.” Shining looked up at the nocnica and set his jaw. “And you’ll…?”
“Just be your safety net.” Moondog took a few steps back, shifting into invisibility. “Go ahead. Knock-”
The nocnica roared in impotent anger and chains of lightning gathered along its cloudy wings. With the strength of the storm behind it, it swept its wings downward, hurling every bolt it could muster at the pair and smothering them in electricity. Moondog didn’t even bother with a defense and merely let the storm wash over him. As for Shining, he wouldn’t be physically hurt and everypony needed to fail at least once to deal with failure.
Tonight wasn’t Shining’s night to fail, though. The lightning lanced out and curled around Shining’s form like water running around a boulder. The nocnica poured all it could spare on the attack, hoping to brute-force out a newbie, and yet Shining never wavered.
When the electric gale finally puttered out, Shining was standing within a magenta orb, watching the nocnica with a nonchalant focus, not a hair out of place. He’d conjured a set of purple armor for himself and was leaning on a gleaming spear. “I’m really good at shields, you know,” he said in the same tone of voice one might use to mention they caught a frog. He brushed a droplet of cloud condensate from his armor. “I once kept one up over all of Canterlot for a week. By myself. Or did you think I became Captain of the Guard by collecting bottle caps?” He twirled his spear and grinned rakishly at the nocnica. “That terrible excuse for a lightning barrage was one of the saddest things I’ve seen in my life, and I saw Twilight after she got a B-plus.”
approve(partner.getMethod());
“Veddy nice,” Moondog whispered. Between effortlessly shrugging off the nocnica’s main attack and delivering a solid insult, Shining was already putting a good foot forward and rattling the composure of a creature that depended entirely on its composure. Of course, he’d only passed the easy part. Now, things would get a bit more psychological. Some attacks on Shining’s skill, attempts to break his morale…
The nocnica faltered, and the wind with it. Thermal Updraft (oh, yeah, he was still around) pushed a bit harder and the hurricane slowed. Shining and the nocnica stared at each other, the storm whipping around them. Then thunder rumbled as the nocnica chuckled. “Oh, you insignificant little morsel. Do you really think that one simple spell will be enough to stop me?”
“Dunno.” Shining shrugged. “It’s working so far.”
“The world is humoring you,” the nocnica said. “You were great, once. Captain of all of Equestria’s Royal Guard. Now, everyone around you outclasses you.” It thrust its head forward; Shining took a step back in surprise. “Your wife is an alicorn with her own dominion,” the nocnica continued, pressing against the shield. “Your baby sister shall inherit a nation. Even your own infant child is mightier in magic than you while her caretaker has forgotten more about magic than you will ever learn.”
Shining didn’t say anything, his expression unreadable. At least he wasn’t biting his lip. Moondog cataloged all the problems with the nocnica’s taunt and flexed his wings in case he needed to jump in.
Black clouds flitted around the shield. “And look at us now,” the storm whispered. “Your teacher was designed to attack my kind. And yet you, a rank amateur, are the one here, facing me. Look around. Your teacher is nowhere to be found. You were played like a fiddle and thrown to the wolves by that coward. You will fail. You will collapse. I shall feast upon the corpse of both your spirit and this dreamer’s. And there will be nothing you can do about it.”
Still Shining stayed motionless. Moondog let him be. He needed to fight his own battles and he knew Moondog hadn’t run. The nocnica wasn’t getting to him.
Wasn’t it?
The nocnica drew itself back up into a towering, dark cumulonimbus, lightning flickering from its eyes. “But you can save yourself the trouble. If you run, I will not follow. If, after you run, we meet again, the gravest of tortures shall be a mercy. So run. Hide. And do not dare to show your face near me again. What say you, Prince-Captain?” Venomous contempt flowed from every word the nocnica said.
“Speartotheface!” yelled Shining, hurling the spear right into the nocnica’s head.
self.setFacehoofLevel(9);
“That won’t work!” Moondog yelled, dropping his invisibility in frustration. “You ne-”
The nocnica exploded. Ill intent splattered across the storm, wine staining a white robe. Moondog could feel the nocnica’s control slip like tremors before an earthquake. The small, pathetic thing that remained perhaps wasn’t as weak as when Moondog or Mom vanquished it, but it was still far weaker than a mere spear should have made it. It screamed and fled the dream in a second.
“That’s what I say!” roared Shining. “Ha!”
Moondog blinked. “…Huh.” He wiped some bad vibes off his face with a wing. The way the nocnica’s remains were getting absorbed by the dream made it a little more depressing — clouds graying, air getting colder, all that jazz — but the force of the storm dwindled to nearly nothing and now that the nocnica itself was gone, removing that and making the dream a happy one again with a little bit of sunshine in the right places was downright trivial. It wasn’t an efficient method of dispelling a nocnica, but it worked, and that was what mattered. “How did… you…” Moondog pulled a hoof down his face. “Okay, no offense, but that shouldn’t’ve been possible. A nocnica is a creature of thought and will. Stabbing it should’ve been less effective than thinking angrily at a dragon.”
“If Twily can do the impossible, why can’t I? Anyway, you said you drove them away with positive emotions, right?” asked Shining. He held out his hoof and the spear returned. “Well…” He held the spear up to catch the light. In its reflection, Moondog saw many things: Twilight showing him her cutie mark, his letter of acceptance into the Royal Guard, Cadance hugging him once he finally worked up the nerve to propose, Twilight showing him her new wings, Cadance telling him that she was expecting, and so much more, layered on top of each other like folded metal. It wasn’t just a dream representation of a spear; it was pure will and memory forged and shaped into a weapon.
Moondog touched the spear and, even though it was physically impossible, got goosebumps. The psychic energy that made it up wasn’t nearly as potent as anything Mom could make, but it was still very impressive, especially for a rookie like Shining. It was positive, confident, and well-organized, everything nocnice hated. A nocnica taking this to the face was roughly the same as a pony taking half a shot of pure arsenic: not enough to kill, but enough to make them very, very miserable.
“Very nice,” said Moondog. He absently twirled the spear; even the balance was good. “It might not be quite as effective in the future — I think you caught this one by surprise — but it’s a great starting point.” And for nocnice going against babies, it might even be more effective. Babies were easy sources of nightmares, but they were also very simplistic and lacked flavor. Generally, nocnice that preyed on babies were too weak to get anything better and any stern defense, no matter how weak, would send them running for the hills’ dreams.
“I thought it might be. Positivity is positivity, right?”
“Close enough.” Moondog passed the spear back to Shining. “That nocnica didn’t get to you, did it? You’re not just trying to put on a brave face for me?”
But Shining rolled his eyes. “Pfft. If he was trying to hit me with an inferiority complex over being married to an alicorn, he’s over a decade too late. I’ve already had it once I started dating Cadance, gotten over it, relapsed, gotten over it again, had some imposter syndrome after getting promoted to Captain because I was paranoid about cronyism, gotten over that, and never worried about not being the best of the best again. All before Twilight even went to Ponyville.”
“Neat.”
So. Nocnica dispelled in just a couple of minutes with an easily-replicable method. It was just one time, but it was a very effective one time (quicker than Moondog’s first time, he was loath to admit), and it wasn’t like Flurry was going to be dogpiled by nocnica every night. Part of Moondog wanted to just let Shining loose upon unsuspecting nocnica, but more tests wouldn’t be remiss, just in case. “Do you think you’re up for doing it again?”
Not only did Shining manage to bang his spear dramatically on the lack of ground, it made an impressive clang as it did so. “Definitely. I could do this all night!”
“I’m tired,” gasped Shining. “I’m asleep and I’m dreaming and I’m tired. How does that work?” He staggered out of the eighth nocnica-infested dream of the night and keeled forward.
dream.add(bed);
As Shining faceplanted on an overstuffed mattress, Moondog shrugged. “You’re probably just new to this and being tired is the only way your mind knows how to process it.”
“I’m going to wake up,” Shining said to the mattress, “and I’m going to feel worse than when I went to bed.”
“Nah. You’ll be fine, especially since we’re not doing any more tests tonight. I think you’re ready.”
Shining rolled onto his back. “You think so? But-”
“Hey.” Moondog levitated Shining up by his tail. “That one nightmare where I had to step in was nothing to worry about. You’re not gonna be handling a country’s worth of nocnice, just one filly. Heck, seeing her dad there might cheer Flurry up enough to naturally repel nocnice.”
“Really?” Shining pulled his tail from Moondog’s grasp and reoriented himself.
“Oh, sure. Happens all the time. Look, you start handling Flurry on your own and I’ll check in every night for… how about a week? And if you think you can’t handle it, let me know and we’ll figure out where to go from there. Sound good?”
Shining mulled it over for a few moments, then nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Good.” Moondog lightly clapped Shining on the shoulder. “Get some rest and not just sleep. You’ve earned it.”
“Thanks.” Shining saluted and vanished as he returned to his dream.
Yeah, Shining could handle defending one filly, easy. He was handling nocnice like a champ-to-be, one misstep notwithstanding (and it’d been a cleverer nocnica, to boot). Sure, his technique boiled down to “stick ’em in the face with the happy-pointy end”, but it worked. Did it? It was probably best to ask Mom if positive-emotion weapons could be used against nocnice.
“Well, yes, it is certainly possible,” said Mom, “but it is rather crude, simplistic, and woefully inefficient. I never taught it to you for several reasons. In addition to calling up the positive memories, one must continuously maintain their form for them to have an effect greater than a feather launched from a trebuchet.” She stroked her chin thoughtfully. “A blow to your opponent’s face can be just as cathartic as it is simplistic, admittedly, and one must never undervalue catharsis in dreams…”
“But it’s… okay for him to use it, right?” asked Moondog. “He’s not gonna, I don’t know, destroy his spirit with it or anything?” Mom had never said anything about something like that when teaching Moondog, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen.
“While it will be adequate in protecting young Flurry,” said Mom, “it is ultimately a crutch and prolonged use may induce burnout. If Prince Armor ever wishes to expand his borders, he should not rely on it.”
“‘Expand his borders’?” Moondog snorted. “You really think he’d want to do that?”
Mom’s face was blank. “You don’t know him very well, do you?”
One week later, Moondog blipped into Flurry’s dream to check up on Shining. He was still decked out in his armor as he lounged on the floating pool chair, although he’d added some sparkles to make it look a little more night-y. On the other side of the pool, Flurry was playing with a jello dragon and utterly content. No problems here. Not right now, anyway.
Moondog flapped over to Shining. “So. You still doing alright?”
“Absolutely,” said Shining. “Just drove off a notchneetcha-”
“Nocnica.”
“-a few minutes ago with no problems. Flurry’s dreams have been pretty safe, otherwise, and I haven’t felt tired since last week — dream realm or physical realm. Maybe I won’t check in every night.” Shining nudged his sunglasses down to look Moondog in the eye. “No, I’m not stressing out and looking for an excuse to not do it.”
Moondog nodded. “Right. I’ll leave you to it, then, an-”
“What’ll you do when Luna retires?”
--Error; InterruptedThoughtException eMoondog stopped flapping in surprise. He didn’t fall, though. “Huh?”
Shining pushed himself into more of a sitting-up-straight position. “When Luna abdicates, your workload’s going to double, right? So, what, are you going to just shoulder it?”
“Dunno.” Moondog shrugged. “Maybe.” He hadn’t given the slightest thought to it. Mom was (supposed to be) a constant and better at this than he was. What would he do?
“Because if you need any help,” Shining said, “I could join a… dreamguard or whatever. I’ve already got the gear.” He waved his spear around. “And some of the training.”
Moondog played with his beard. It wasn’t a bad idea, really, even if it was just a stopgap until he honed his skills a bit more and/or figured out how to duplicate himself. And Shining not only had the oneiromantic skills to work, but also the leadership skills to be a second-in-command. Whether or not he’d get overstressed managing the dream realm at night and the Crystal Empire at day was another matter, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it. “No guarantees, but I’ll think about it.”
“Cool. Call me when you need me. Or if you know you won’t.” Shining pushed his glasses back up and lay down again. “You should probably see if anypony else wants to help too, though. There’s no way I could replace Princess Luna by myself.”
“Hey! Templepop Shadowtwist, was it? You wanna beat up nightmares?”
“Never call me that ever again and there may be a chance that I might possibly consider it. Also, who the heck are you? Also also, what?”