The world flashed black as Princess Chrysalis entered one of her subject’s dreamscapes to cleanse it of its nightmare, the void quickly parting to reveal a nearly pitch-black cityscape that seemed to resemble Manehatten, though the buildings were far taller.
‘Vertigo or size-wise insignificance, then,’ The changeling reasoned for the dissonance as she fluttered her wings and flew off into the middle of the city, ears perked for any sign of the dreamer.
Soon enough, a loud shriek echoed through the buildings, alerting the Defender of the Dreamscape and making her turn and fly towards its source, weaving through streetways and tunnels with a deftness most would not think her wings capable of.
Eventually a dark streak off in the distance caught her eye, seeming to have found the tormentor and flying faster towards it. She turned many corners, the streak always seeming just out of clear sight, but the numerous glimpses of it seemed to have it in the shape of a pony, a rather large one at that, with cobalt armour and a mystical mane and tail.
‘Queen Luna of the thestrals,’ Chrysalis identified, recalling her encounters with the diabolical mare and her schemes to plunge the world into an eternal night. It was hard to imagine the dark monster as the sister of the peppy punk pony she met with just this evening...
Another shriek flooded the city, forcing the Princess to up her speed yet further, a rather uncomfortable proposition given the fragility of her wings, but the dreamscape held no internal logic, so the wind blasting across her did no real harm. Of course, the psychosomatic aspect of it still prevented her from going fast enough to catch up with the stronger-winged alicorn, despite their owner’s experience in this realm.
“You cannot escape me, little filly...” The evil pony’s voice echoed around, her tone while perhaps not visceral, definitely held a dark intent.
‘A foal; that would explain the size, though there’s no way a foal would be able to outrun or outfly Queen Luna, even though she is moving very fast...’ Chrysalis thought as she rounded a few more corners, getting closer now and holding the black alicorn in near constant view. ‘Teasing. A fear only natural for foals, whereas older creatures fear things more sudden and intense.’
A dark chuckle sounded through the streetways before a sudden shout told of the alicorn dashing at the victim, loud and high-pitched wails and cries erupting from the no doubt suffering filly. The Princess followed the sound to its origin, soon finding the armoured thestral on top of a small, lightly coloured pony, who was writhing and flailing with her cries.
Something quickly struck the changeling as off however, noting the tone of the wails to be slightly more upbeat than she expected while she flew closer to the scene of the crime, where the position and movements of the mare and filly reminded her of something.
“Is that... tickling?”
Chrysalis stopped to clear her buzzing wings and the whipping air from the cacophony of noises, and finding that, yes, the diabolical Queen Luna was tickling somepony.
For a few moments, the Princess remained still in bewilderment. ‘This is a nightmare, I saw the darkness on the outside...’ She shook her head. ‘No matter,’ She thought before shooting a purple bolt from her horn at the ebony alicorn, soon hitting her and making her shatter like glass, freeing the oddly terrified foal.
The changeling then flew up to said foal, who was resting on the ground and panting in fear, not even mustering the energy to look around. “Are you alright?” She then asked concernedly, making the pony startle and jerk up to see her approaching savior.
The filly didn’t reply, however, instead gasping as her eyes widened, no doubt in wonder at the royal in her presence. The royal in question merely adopted and warm smile and rolled her eyes at the response, happy that the dreamer wasn’t hurt.
“Hello my little pony, I trust you are now alright?” Chrysalis asked in that same warm tone as an icebreaker of sorts.
The pony then blinked a few times before she seemed to come back to the ‘real’ world, nodding in slight embarrassment.
The Princess then took in the filly pony, a white coat with no visible cutie mark on her flank, a white ruffled mane with black ends that somehow made it look like a drawing, along with a delightfully adorable paper hat atop her head.
“Well,” The royal then started, “Now that you are safe, I do believe it is time I take my leave from this dream.”
“Dream?” The pony asked in bewilderment.
“More of a nightmare,” Chrysalis replied. “It is my sacred duty to help my subjects out of their nightmares, though,” She adopted a pensive expression while holding back a snicker, “I wasn’t expecting tickling to be something to be truly afraid of.”
The foal shuddered a bit at the mere mention of it. “I don’t like it,” She said with a slight pout, “Being trapped and... forced to laugh until it hurts... laughing is supposed to be fun...”
“Mm,” The Princess grunted in assent, trying her best not to pounce on the poor pony from her sheer cuteness. “Yes, such a juxtaposition can often be frightening; something safe being turned on its head like that...” She mumbled in thought.
“What?”
“Pay it no mind,” Chrysalis replied offhoofedly. “Regardless, I have other subjects to attend to.” She flared her horn in its signature purple in preparation to leave this dreamscape and added, “Farewell.”
The filly quickly got up and waved to the changeling. “Bye, Princy!”
“‘Princy’?” Said changeling responded, slightly baffled. “...Is that supposed to be a nickname?”
“Yes!” The foal replied ecstatically, “Princess Chrysalis, so Princy!”
Chrysalis laughed heartily at the adorable statement before clarifying, “‘Princess’ is not my name, it is merely my title.”
“Oh,” The pony responded in slight embarrassment, though paused in thought and then called, “Um, bye-bye Princess Chryssi!”
The Princess merely giggled and rolled her eyes while finished her spell, then flying back out of the filly’s dream. ‘I’ll let that one slide...’