//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: The Dreamer and the Phantom // Story: Night Terrors // by TikiBat //------------------------------// What’s the point in using your special talent when no one ultimately cares about it? What’s the point in trying when chaos just ruins your dreams? You could have argued that ultimately in the end no one was ever going to care about some  pony with wild dreams of making the world smaller by bringing people closer together… or the surprising new discovery that he and his students had made… but Silver Eclipse always tried to see the best in everything, even when his dreams started to morph into overwhelming nightmares… but that’s not where this story began.  The real story began when stress and burnout began to settle in, and everything that Silver ever thought he knew about what made him special began to come into question… “Life sucks,” Silver thought to himself.  It might be harsh to say, but it’s true, isn’t it? Just think about it, you wake up every day and work as hard as you can, and in the end it doesn’t even matter because no one cares.  But as much as he felt like it at the moment, it wasn’t fair for him to say that his life sucked— because he was in a genuinely better place than he had ever been in his life before. But the stress of his day to day life made it easy for him to just look at all the negatives instead of appreciating what mattered most.  He had a wife who loved him dearly and who he cherished every day, a son who brought him nothing but happiness, and all the opportunity in the world to do the kind of work he loved doing. And his dream to bring people together? Well even if it was an impossible task, it was something he felt he could meaningfully help with, even if it was just through spreading some small shreds of inspiration.  By all means he had everything he could have ever needed to be happy, so why was he feeling so defeated and drained constantly? Was it work? Was it the dream realm’s learning curve making him frustrated?… or was it something else entirely? None of that mattered in the moment though, because once again Silver was about to find himself dealing with even more frustration, something that had been happening more often nowadays.  “Silver, I need you out here stat!” Came the usual terse voice of the project’s night lead from outside his door.  Silver closed his eyes and let out a small, mostly imperceptible groan, and stood up from his desk, stretching his webbed-wings. Normally he’d take the time to organize it at least a little, but the mountain of paperwork and files wouldn’t be going anywhere anyways so what was the point.  With an annoyed glare, he slid the door open and sighed. “What is it now, Sprocket?” The night pony stallion simply blinked and pointed towards a clipboard on the adjacent wall. “Before you go I need you down in the lab to help calibrate the next few components for Project Foresight.” “Again?” Silver replied with another groan, this time not even bothering to mask his displeasure. “So what did we spend four hours doing last night then?” “Miscalibrating a sensitive piece of machinery that had to be readjusted because we barely understand what we’re working with.” “Of course,” Silver replied. “Because we can’t just get something right on the first try!” “Tenth,” Sprocket replied.  Setbacks and roadblocks had been all the more common with this project, and it was starting to feel like they were putting a whole lot of effort in for such a small pay off that other computers could seemingly already do the job for. From what little he understood from the small explanation he was given by the project’s backers, this was supposed to be a computer component that would be integrated in a much larger system. What that system was, or why they were training the component’s algorithm using different simulations, was a complete mystery to him. If it wasn’t for the extra much needed funding that the partnership with the experiment’s sponsor had brought, Silver would have just voted to cut their losses and move onto one of the other more pressing issues instead.  Silver deeply sighed again. “How long is this going to take then? Because I got shanghaied into another city planning meeting that I’m already going to be late for and I'm not going to sit here for four hours again.” “Probably an hour,” the other stallion bluntly replied. “If it makes you feel better, the work we did last night at least helped make this kind of thing less of a hassle to pull off.” It doesn’t, Silver thought to himself, though he wisely forewent voicing this concern. Instead he sighed and shook his head. “I’m going to have to hear Patrick, Midnight, and Dawn getting on my ass about why I skipped their meeting, and I’d rather not deal with that.” “That’s their problem to deal with,” Sprocket shrugged. “You’re a part of the special projects division, not city management and facilities.” Silver rubbed his temples. “Yeah? Well to them the fact that I helped set up the SPEC partnership, was related to a cost effective architect, and negotiated reconstruction efforts with Sapphire Sky after the Great Storm means that I’m as good as the city’s de facto mayor.” “But you’re not,” Sprocket retorted. “So you have no obligation to skip out on your job to entertain whatever delusions they have.” Silver shook his head again. “It’s not that easy. I know you think it is, but just because I’m not part of that division on paper doesn’t mean I don’t have responsibilities tied to it.” “So what did we bring Dawn into the fold for then? I thought she was supposed to take over that role for you.” “I don’t know, okay?” Silver fired back a little more aggressively than he had intended to. “The truth is, I’m burned out, I’m stretched thin, and I’m getting tired of dealing with other ponies’ problems that I shouldn’t have to deal with. I know that I’m assigned here, but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re still trying to sort the operational side of things out, and if everyone who’s been tied to that doesn’t contribute to an actual solution then we’re just going to drag our hooves on it even more. So I’m going to just bite the bullet and deal with the stupid shit I shouldn’t have to deal with so I can finally get another break and maybe even whittle down my workload.” Sprocket rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Fine. You can explain why we’re running into more delays to SPEC’s team then, and deal with the backlash from that.” “Gladly. Just add it onto the mountain of other crap I have to deal with.” The moment that Silver stepped away, he regretted lashing out like he did. Taking a deep breath, he sighed and turned around to face his friend. “I’m sorry for losing my temper. I’m just getting really tired of being the go to person for whenever there’s a problem to deal with.” Sprocket nodded sympathetically. “Look, I get it. You’re overworked— we all are. I guess I shouldn’t be so uptight about stuff either, it’s just frustrating when our team is being pulled apart to go deal with other departments’ issues.” “It is, and hopefully things will even out a little more sooner rather than later.” “Don’t worry about the calibration, I’ll get one of the interns to help out with it tonight. You just go do what you need to do, we’ll figure the rest out later.” Silver smiled. “Thanks Sprocket.” The dark bedroom was lit only by the flickering candlelight, the heavy drapes pulled tightly closed over the windows to block out the otherwise blinding sun. For as out of date and old fashioned as candles were, most of the night ponies in The Oasis still lit their homes with them, be it old fashioned wax candles or the more modern electric ones that the Eclipses filled their home with. Frankly, Silver didn’t really care one way or another about this. The light was probably unneeded anyways, but it at least helped make his home feel more cozy, especially after a long day of dealing with bullshit.  Letting the frustration melt away, Silver looked down at his son Orion, who was all snuggled up in bed with the family dog Cosmo. “What happened next, daddy?” the colt asked with an eager excitement. Silver smiled and began to continue his story again. “Well, the brave night pony snuck through the moon cave, and he heard lots of scary noises!” he exaggerated with a dramatic swoop of his forelegs. “We need to address the cavern excavation projects following the partial collapse of shaft 13,” Dawn’s words from his earlier meeting echoed back in his mind.  The colt giggled in glee and poked his head out of the blanket, catching Silver’s attention and bringing him back to the present. “And then what happened?!” Silver blinked a couple of times and continued. “Well, he was a little scared because he knew he wasn’t alone. He knew he had to stay brave though. So he held his head up high and marched on, because the Moon Queen was still looking for brave ponies like him.” Orion looked on and quietly nodded his head. Silver smirked, continuing his story. “And then?” He held his pause just long enough to make the colt peek further out of his covers. “The scary space ponies jumped out of the shadows and surrounded him!” He excitedly exclaimed. “Why do we need to bother dealing with abandoned mine shafts again? We’re not even getting material from them anymore so this is just wasting our resources,” he had argued back during the meeting.  “You’re a history buff, right?” Dawn had asked back. “So surely you see the value in preserving our town’s history along with ensuring that its current condition doesn’t jeopardize the land’s stability.” As the meeting replayed in his mind, Silver couldn’t shake the feeling that it had largely been a waste of time. Sure, he valued the land’s history and legends, and absolutely cared about preserving it. But none of that required him to attend the meeting like he had been led to believe it did.  The colt flinched back and laughed, redirecting Silver’s attention again. “Did he beat the bad guys?!” Silver glanced at the clock and looked down at the colt, having not realized how late his story had ran. “You’re gonna have to find out tomorrow, it’s soooo past your bedtime.” “Awwww, but it just got good!” Orion complained. “I know,” Silver consoled him. “But you know what that means?” Orion cocked his head to the side. “What?” “It means that if you go to bed now, you’ll get to hear the rest of the story even quicker.” His eyes lit up. “Really?” “Really!” Silver confirmed. “So why don’t you settle down and get to bed, then I’ll finish the story for you tomorrow.” Orion nodded. “Okay...” he paused for a moment. “Can you make me some dreams again?” Silver raised an eyebrow. “What kind?” “The space dream!” he cheered. Silver settled him down and nodded. “Okay, I’ll make you the space dream, but only if you go to bed soon.” Orion snuggled up under the covers and smiled. “Okay!” Silver brushed his mane and tucked him in. “Alright, you get snuggled in and then I’ll make you the space dream before me and mommy go to bed. Does that sound good?” “Mhmm!” The colt cheerfully replied. “Good, sweet dreams Orion, I love you.” “I love you too dad!” He hugged Silver before snuggling back down under his covers. Silver waited for a moment then stood up and slowly trotted towards the door, flicking off the candle before he stepped out. Gently closing the door, he trotted over to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. “Orion’s all snuggled up?” Scarlet asked. Silver nodded. “Yep, got him all settled in, and I promised him I’d craft him a fun space dream.” Scarlet looked over from the couch and shook her head. “He really takes after both of us, eh?” “How so?” Silver asked as he wandered over to the couch and plopped down next to her. “Well? He can name the big constellations in the night sky and know where they’re at and he’s already getting good at controlling his own dreams.” “Huh,” Silver mused. “I guess you’re right there. Think he’ll get into astronomy when he grows up?” “One-hundred percent,” She nodded. “He’s learning faster than I can teach, and I’m not going to be surprised when he gets his cutie mark in something astronomy related.” She looked over at him. “No offense to you.” Silver shrugged. “Can’t say I’m offended at all. I just want him to be happy with whatever he loves the most, I can still share my dream stuff with him either way.” Scarlet smiled. “He’s going to be a great dreamer too, I like to pop into his dreams every once in a while and he has some of my favorites.” “Right?” Silver excitedly replied. “They’re a lot better than the random chaos they used to be, and Psychic said that he’s showing slightly better control over them than most colts do at his age.” “That doesn’t surprise me at all. He’s really such a smart kid,” Scarlet proudly praised him. “He is, and I’m so proud of him.” “Me too,” Scarlet nodded. “I was talking with some of the teachers down at the school and Moonlight Star said she said she wouldn’t be surprised if he skips a grade down the line.” “She thinks so?” Scarlet shrugged. “She said obviously it’s early to tell, but he’s great in some key subjects like problem solving and reading, and even though he’s just barely reading the beginner books, he’s picking up that stuff fast. Plus he’s already figuring out where the stars are and all that. He still has trouble making friends and gets some numbers confused, but she thinks he’ll get there.” Silver let out a deep yawn. “That’s good to hear. I always mixed up numbers, but at least they’re catching that early with him.” “They’re doing a good job down there. I can’t imagine what we’d do without those two heading the school.” “I don’t know either, but I’m so thankful for it. Moonlight Star and Lightning Glow know what they’re doing, and I know Orion’s going to do great.” Scarlet let out a yawn of her own and glanced over to her gauntlet. “So what do you say, time for bed?” Silver nodded. “Yeah, I was starting to think that too.” Scarlet rolled her head in a circle for a second and let out a content sigh before hopping up off the couch. Together the two walked over to their room and unceremoniously flopped down onto the cushiony mattress. As Scarlet rolled over into the covers she let out a sleepy laugh. “You know, I thought it was the goofiest thing ever when you said we should get a big mattress, but I think you made a good call.” Silver laughed as he snuggled up next to her. “You’re just now realizing that? You’re a few years late to that, don’t you think?” She giggled and wrapped her hooves around him. “Maybe. So, what kind of dreams do you wanna play around in after you make one for Orion?” A few ideas ran through Silver’s mind, but as he laid there curled up next to her, only one came to the surface. “Wanna just lay down and cuddle? It’s been forever since we’ve just done that in a dream.” She opened one eye and chuckled. “Is that all you want to do? It’s a dream, so we could do whatever you want.” Silver blushed a little and replied with a little chuckle of his own. “Why don’t we get settled in and see how the night goes? I could always stretch out the dream if you want.” he replied, thinking about how he could adjust some of the perceptions inside of his dream. Scarlet pulled him close and nodded her head weakly. “That sounds like a great plan to me, see you in just a few.” That was all Scarlet needed to say, and in just a few brief moments the two lovers had slipped into a relaxing sleep, cuddled up in each other’s embrace. The first thing Silver did as the dream realm materialized around him was to find Orion’s dream, which was easy given how their strong familial bond could guide him. Once inside, he quickly dispelled the blurry landscape and pulled Orion out of the narrative, letting him choose the specifics of the dream Silver had promised he would make. A vast inky void full of bright twinkling stars spread out around them, and the bright gray surface of the moon was the next to follow. Taking some artistic liberty that Scarlet would have most definitely pointed out as inaccurate, Silver molded a tall crater that surrounded them which would serve as the dream’s border. Without much effort he began to carve valleys and caves into the surface. Orion might have been young, but he had a bright imagination and loved to explore, and this dream would serve as the perfect playground for him. Silver didn’t normally craft these specific kinds of complicated dreams on a daily basis, but he nonetheless felt a sense of pride and happiness at what he had made for his son. Looking away from the valley, he turned towards Orion. “Alright little buddy, are you ready for your big adventure?” The colt looked up at him and giggled as a spacesuit magically materialized around him. “Yes!” Silver smiled. “Good, the Moon Queen’s treasure should be hidden here somewhere, why don’t you go find it and tell me all about your adventures in a little bit?” “Okay!” He cheered. “Me and mommy will stop by in a little bit to check on you…” He paused, letting a small smirk creep across his face. “Unless you want us to come along and find the treasure with you?” Orion furiously shook his head. “My treasure!” Silver laughed and pulled the young colt into a tight hug. “Alright little buddy, I’ll let you go find it on your own. If you need anything just call out and I’ll come back.” Orion squeezed his forelegs around Silver and nodded. “I love you daddy!” The elder stallion returned the embrace. “I love you too kiddo, I can’t wait to hear all about your adventures later.” Breaking the embrace, Orion hopped off across the landscape in search of the hidden treasure, leaving Silver alone. Chuckling to himself, he conjured up a dream gateway and made his way back to Somewhere where Scarlet was no doubt waiting for him. Sure enough, the moment he set hoof into the dream he was pulled into a warm embrace.  “What took you so long?” Scarlet asked, shifting her tone into one of mock disappointment. “I thought you were gonna stand me up for our dream date or something?” “Wouldn’t dream of it!” Silver smirked. “Got caught up making something for our little space explorer.” Scarlet stifled a laugh and shook her head. “You’re cute. You know that?” Silver trotted up to her and pulled her close with a wing. “Not as cute as you.” She leaned against him. “I guess that’s good for both of us then. So how about we go cuddle up in the lounge and see where today takes us, eh?” Silver smiled. “That sounds wonderful.” The two night ponies trotted along the path that overlooked the calm watery bay that sat at the heart of the island that made up Somewhere. This was Silver’s persistent dreamspace that lived in the heart of his subconscious mind and it was his proving ground for all of the crazy and whimsical ideas that his imagination could conjure up. Be it a towering castle that shifted around with his mood, or a cozy winter retreat, or even an otherworldly meeting room for him and his students— he had all crafted those places and with every new thing he made he had gained a better understanding of his magic and abilities. “You know, out of everything you’ve ever made in the whole wide dream realm…” Scarlet started as she looked at the plush pillows that filled the cozy retreat that Silver had crafted for them when they had first met all those years ago. “This has to be my favorite.” The fireplace in front of them flickered to life and Silver patted the space next to him. “Truth be told? It’s mine too. I could make all of the complicated dream constructs in the world but those wouldn’t be as special to me as this.” Scarlet cuddled up next to him, draping a wing over him once more. “It’s always just been a nice place to clear my head. You know?” Silver nodded. “What’s on your mind?” “You,” She laughed. “And Orion, and just all of my coursework.” “Ahhh, homework stressing you out?” “Not really?” She answered. “It’s all easy stuff, just a lot to do. I feel stupid saying that advanced astronomy and physics classes are easy and the only thing that’s frustrating is how dry and monotonous they are.” Silver laughed. “Then I guess it’s good you’re going to be a teacher someday soon then. You can be the one that makes those advanced classes interesting.” “It’s not like they’re not interesting,” She continued. “But oh my gosh, the professors are just so bland and just phone in all the lectures. And I’m just so over writing essays.” “You’ve got more to write?” Silver raised an eyebrow.  “Mhmm. A lot more,” She responded. “One for each class. That should make it eight total for the semester so far once they’re all written?” “Wow. And I thought my history classes were dry,” Silver laughed.  Scarlet laughed with him and smiled. “You know, I got in touch with Starry Skies again.” “Oh? How’s he doing lately?” “Good,” She continued. “I like to just keep in touch every once in a while, see how he’s doing, how things with the program are…” “And whether you can go back to Equestria?” Silver teased.  Scarlet shrugged. “I know it’s been like four years but can you blame me?” “No, I can’t,” Silver replied. “You got to live out your dream and you only got a small taste of that. If I was in your shoes I’d be chomping at the bit to get back there again and see how things have gone.” “His updates are always nice, but it doesn’t really compare to the real thing. You know?” “Of course. Have you told him that?” Scarlet started to grin again. “I did.” “And what’d he say?” Silver pressed on. “That he was going to see what he could do. Told me that they might have an opportunity for a seasonal research position during the summer when some of the other staffers take their time off to spend with their families.” Silver leapt up and let out a cheer. “Oh my gosh! So what happens next?!” “We wait and see what happens,” She laughed. “He recommended me to the Princess and said that he and some other representative from Equestria are going to be back on earth soon for a meeting and interview.” Silver’s eyes widened even more, giving him this goofy looking expression that just cracked Scarlet up and sent her into a laughing fit that was an otherwise break from her more relaxed mood.  “Scarlet, do you know how big that is?!” She nodded. “Huge. Which is why I’m even more nervous about it. Starry said I shouldn’t pause my education because we can go in the summer if I’m approved, but you know, it’s still a huge thing to think about.” “We?!” He excitedly asked. “Mhmm. Considering it’d be a three month rotation, he saw no reason why the family should be split up for a quarter of earth’s year.” Silver flapped his wings and almost seemed as if he wanted to just leap up again and fly around the room. Instead he turned to her again and flashed a confused expression. “How can you just say that so casually? Like this isn’t the biggest opportunity you’ve ever gotten?” She shrugged. “I don’t like getting super excited about stuff like this until I know I for sure have it locked down. That way if it doesn’t work out I’m not crushed even more and my family and friends don’t constantly ask me about what happened to the big exciting thing I’ve told them about…” a big grin creeped across her face. “But I really really really really really hope this works out because it’s going to be a real dream come true and I can’t wait to show you and Orion around Equestria. I have a good feeling about it and I know I’m probably just being dumb and superstitious but I didn’t want to jinx it.” The initial excitement that Silver expressed had dulled and he was back down snuggled up next to Scarlet again. “I get you. So when do you think Starry will be here? And when do you think you’ll actually know?” “He’ll be here soon, like maybe in the next few days? And I’m not sure. If I for sure get hired there’s still some paperwork to get filed and approved. Lots of boring stuff that I’ve done once but have to do again because it’s been so long.” “What kind of stuff is it?” “Well there’s approval from Equestria which is the easier part, and then approval from the United States Government because we’ll be looking at visas for me, you, and Orion which has to go through it’s own avenues, and that could take another month if they’re busy with others. So unless the princess fast tracks everything we’ve got a bit of a wait, but June’s still a few months out so that’s fine.” “I see.” He smiled. “I know you don’t want to go tell everyone about this yet… but you know who we should tell?” Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “Who?” “Our one friend who lives there part time already and who we haven’t caught up with in a while.” “Sapphire?” Scarlet guessed. “Who else?” He playfully asked.  “Think she’s actually asleep right now?” “Mhmm, maybe,” He offered. “I know time flows weird in here but we also went to bed late, I spent a while making Orion his dream and getting him all settled, and we’ve also just been laying around here. For all we know, with time zones she could be asleep now.” Scarlet sat up. “Ignoring the fact that you could just feel out her dream, maybe you should check with Emily and see how she’s doing. I’d love to go talk with Sapphire again but I’d rather make sure she actually wants to see friends right now. Coming back over from Equestria wore me out a lot more than I thought it would and I don’t want to interrupt her dreams if she wants to just sleep and relax.” Silver nodded and stood up. “Good idea, I guess we’ll start with Emily.” Feeling out a pony in the dream realm usually got you to two places; their dream, or the open dream realm. The latter is where Silver and Scarlet currently found themselves, and given who they were trying to find, it wasn’t all that confusing or surprising to them.  Noticing their presence, Emily turned away from the dream she was about to enter. “Silver, Scarlet? Did you two need something?” Emily asked like they had interrupted something. “Hey Emily!” Silver greeted her. “Long time no see…” He looked over at the dream she had conjured up. “Oh uhh.. Sorry to interrupt.” “It’s okay. Not like I was in a rush or anything,” She shrugged. “So what’s up?” “We were wondering if you knew if Sapphire would have an issue with us jumping to her dream or not,” Scarlet responded. “I know she’s probably tired from her trip and we just wanted to check with one of her waking world friends to see how she was doing before we visited her dreams.” “So you came to her waking friend’s mare friend?” “I thought you were friends with her too?” Silver cocked his head to the side.  Emily smirked. “We are. I just wanted to give you a hard time for interrupting me,” She looked back at Scarlet. “So I heard you were going to Equestria again. That why you want to go see Sapphire?” Scarlet raised an eyebrow and was clearly at a loss for words. “I— what?” “Your job application? The stuff with those astronomy programs and the night Princess? You don’t need to hide it. Crescent told me all about it when he and Sapphire got back, Luna is his boss after all.” Scarlet blinked a few times. “Gee. glad I could be the one to announce it.” She rolled her eyes. “But uhh, yeah, that’s a part of what we wanted to go see Sapphire about. It’s been ages since we’ve all caught up though so I guess that’s what it’s all for now.” “I know we’re not constantly out of contact, but it’s nice to just go see someone and talk with them face to face instead of through letters or over the phone, you know? Since she’s back on Earth again, I figured it'd be nice to just sit down and chat about her trip and Scarlet’s stuff too,” Silver added. “And talk with you too, because it’s been way too long since we’ve just hung out as friends.” Emily nodded towards her with a smile before turning back towards Silver, “Sapphire’s not your average pony, you know that right?” “You don’t have to tell me twice,” The memory of his first encounter with the pony of storms briefly flashed into his head before disappearing, “What's that got to do with anything though?” “Alright, well I don’t know how many powerful ponies’ dreams you’ve visited so be careful. Their dreams are a bit…  more… than anything you’ve probably seen out here.” “It’s just another dream though right?” He asked.  “Have you ever been to Sapphire’s dream?” Emily raised an eyebrow. Silver shook his head. “No, not really. But it can’t be that different from any other pegasi’s can it?” A sly smirk briefly crossed Emily’s face. “Here’s a tip. It’s not going to be easy for you to control, so just keep that in mind. You’ll be okay, but it’s going to be jarring the first time you go in, so maybe you should jump in first and feel things out before we come along.” Silver raised an eyebrow. “Wouldn’t it be easier if all three of us went in?” Emily shook her head. “Oh no, I’m not going in first. This is all you. Just trust me on this, we’re your backup in case you get sucked into the narrative and can’t get out.” Silver was confused, but didn’t press further. Instead he nodded. “Thanks for the heads up, I’ll be careful.” He watched as Emily nodded in return, bringing him to a star that seemed a little larger and brighter than others.  He looked to the star, trying to get a feel for what the dream might be but found that he couldn’t, “Is it really going to be that bad?” “Honestly, I don’t know. I’ve dreamwalked to her a couple times but she wasn’t dreaming at the time and Luna isn’t a good barometer.” “Ah, I see…” Silver paused for a second, turning back towards the pastel night pony, “Wait, did you just say Luna? As in Princess Luna from Equestria?” Emily nodded, “Yes, Princess Luna. Sapphire mentioned that she has visited her to assist with a couple of bad dreams she had in Equestria.” Scarlet perked up at the mention of Luna, and grinned slightly as she was probably imagining how strong Sapphire’s dreams might be.  “Oh dear,” Silver anxiously gulped. “Right, well here’s hoping it’s a nice peaceful dream somewhere relaxing and not something crazily chaotic.” “We’ll be rooting for you!” Emily snickered as she trotted over to Scarlet. Silver hesitantly considered the dream, and finally closed his eyes as he crossed into it. When he opened them he was relieved to see that the dream he had entered was… relatively boring and normal. “This almost looks like a castle”, he thought to himself. He tried to look around but found it was a struggle to even move his head away from the scene of Sapphire pacing back and forth across a closed double doorway high enough for the tallest human to pass through easily. Crescent Shadow stood resolutely watching, clad in the dark royal armor of Luna’s guard but with his helmet held underneath a wing.. He sighed in relief and began to hesitantly walk forward. Or tried to, he struggled in alarm as he found that he couldn’t move at all. He took an unneeded breath, trying to relax for a moment. “Alright, this is just a dream, no need to panic. Nothing can really hurt me here,” Sapphire’s voice echoing through the dark hallway pulled his attention forward again. “What do we do if they say no?” she asked and he felt a wave of despair tinged with hope wash over him, pulling him sharply into the dream’s narrative. “They won’t,” Crescent responded reassuringly. “But if they do…” Silver couldn’t help but feel hopeless, like he was speeding towards a brick wall and about to hit. Crescent stepped forward and embraced Sapphire. “Then we’ll convince them to change their minds. Even if you return to Earth without me, I won’t stop trying until they agree.” “I won’t return without you.” “Then we’ll convince them together.” He fought against the emotions, trying to break free from its hold. Silver took in another breath and focused his magic, trying to push forward through the dream with everything he had in him. After a few long moments of trying, the dream came to a pause and he collapsed onto the floor in front of her, the feelings of doubt and worry fading away along with Crescent Shadow. “Silver?! How’d you get to the palace?” A look of realization spread across her face, “You’re in my dream.” He slowly stood up, “Just trying to pay an old friend a visit…” he paused for a moment, looking around the hallway, “Is there someone else here? I swore I could feel another dreamer…” He rubbed his temple with a hoof. “It’s just us here.” She replied. Silver closed his eyes and shook his head. “Maybe it’s just the emotion running through me still,” He let out a groan. “Sorry if I seem a little out of it, your dream was a lot stronger than anything I’ve ever really dealt with before. Emily warned me about that so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” “Emily told you about my dreams?” Silver nodded. “Not really, just said they were stronger than a regular day pony’s and that I should expect… well, what I got I guess. Scarlet and I were going to stop by, but we wanted to check with Emily first just to see how you were after your trip. They should be here in a few minutes.” Ignoring his comment, she furrowed her brow. “Was it really that strong?” He slowly nodded, “Yeah, worry and doubt are strong emotions and really drown out everything else. I couldn’t move for a while and it was kind of frightening at first. I wanted to ask how everything went over there… but I don’t know if that’s really the answer I need right now given that stress dream. Want to talk about anything?” “I don’t know, my counselor tends to be much taller than you.” “Right, Emily mentioned that. She’s not here right now though, but I’m sure it’s still productive to get it off your chest if something’s bothering you.” Sapphire spent a moment looking around at the palace around them. “I don’t remember many of my dreams, but this seems like it was a conversation I had with Crescent before our audience with the Princesses. It went well so I’m not sure why I would be reliving this.” “Well I’m not a psychologist but I can only assume that it’s something you were stressing over. I used to get stress dreams about work and school and even though something might have turned out okay it’d still creep up in my dreams. Even though this might have gone well, a part of you might still be holding onto some old stress that got brought back during your trip or something.” “Odd, if it was stress I would think I would worry about her.” “Who’s her?” He started to ask before being abruptly cut off by a flash of lightning and a burst of shattered glass from the far end of the hallway. “That would be me!” A voice dramatically cut in, it’s smooth tone sending an eerie chill down his spine. Silver turned to the voice to see a dark blue almost black pony with a strong resemblance to Sapphire lazily walking through the hall towards them, her iridescent green eyes passing over him with cold dismissal, as a pale blue mane and tail floated through the air like they were in water. He thought for a moment she was a pegasus until he saw the dark spiral horn and realized this was an unfamiliar alicorn.  “A friend of yours or a dream?” he frantically asked as he took a defensive stance and readied his magic, hoping desperately for the latter with how this alicorn oozed malice. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this intense need to get away from a pony before.  “She is my nightmare,” Sapphire flatly responded. “Nightmare? I should be so lucky to carry that moniker,” the alicorn chuckled, her voice echoing in the empty hall but instead of falling off it grew louder. “I would like to pick up where we left off,” her laughter in the hall fell away to a dead silence. The black mare’s wing’s spread wide and her horn lit up with a sickly green color.  Sapphire spread her own wings and took a defensive stance. “You want me to hit you with another lightning bolt? I’d be happy to!” “Maybe some other time,” Silver cut in, pure adrenaline and instinct driving his actions. Using every ounce of his strength, he grabbed ahold of Sapphire and pulled her from her dream. Briefly they were out in the open dream realm again, among the endless stars of dreamers before the landscape suddenly shifted, sending a wave of panic through Silver as he felt the familiarity of the open dream realm give way to something… unnatural.  As far as Silver could tell, he was still grasping Sapphire with his magic, but the sudden exit had pulled them into a strange chaotic landscape that seemed to defy reality more than any other dream he had been in before. The heightened perception that came with mastery over his dream magic told him that the two were hurtling through this strange dream at a breakneck pace, but for him it felt like a creeping eternity.  A pit formed in Silver’s stomach as the weird disjointed world flashed past his eyes. All around him sat multi-colored islands that eerily floated in a seemingly endless abyss. The sky shifted from familiar colors he knew to indescribable ones that he knew could never exist outside of a dream. A droning sound of screaming voices, hushed whispers, obnoxious party music, and different animal sounds rang in his hears, and it only served to make the experience even more unnatural. To some, this place might have seemed like a paradise, but to him it was more unnerving than anything else he had ever experienced in his life before. Am I dying? The morbid thought popped into his head, sending a shiver of panic and guilt through his ethereal body as the two continued to zip through the abyss, and the sight of his close friend seemingly unaware of her surroundings didn’t do much to help either. He glanced back at the landscape and before he had a chance to take in any more of it’s detail the two were suddenly hurtling down into Somewhere— the dream that Silver had the strongest connection to. With a surprisingly soft but still nonetheless disorienting crash, the two were thrown to the ground but thankfully hadn’t been harmed— or at least they hadn’t from what Silver could tell. He shook his head and scrambled up to his hooves, extending a hoof out to Sapphire. “Are you alright?” The mare grabbed ahold of him and pulled herself up with a quick flap of her wings, but didn’t immediately answer. Instead she blinked a few times and sat down, clearly still disoriented. Checking to make sure that Sapphire’s nightmare hadn’t followed them somehow, he breathed out a sigh of relief. The realization of what he had done was just barely starting to set in, and given it’s unusual nature, he didn’t want to take any chances that he pulled something else into his subconscious dream space. “What… was that?” Sapphire finally broke the silence as she seemingly got her bearings after the unexpected trip. “Sorry for the sudden shift in location, I’ve never tried to pull a dreamer out of their dream before— I didn’t even think it was possible!” He looked back over to her, his nerves slightly calming at the sight of a familiar dream, and a close friend. “I hope you don’t mind.” “Unexpected, but better than the alternative,” she answered while looking around at the strange location she now found herself in. “And this is?” “Somewhere… it’s… hard to explain. It’s basically a sort of persistent dreamscape that lives in my subconscious mind. It was the easiest place I could pull you to on such short notice.” “I didn’t know you could do that,” Sapphire looked back at Silver and took a few calm steps forward. “Can all night ponies make something like this?” “To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure. It seems to be a rare talent, but not outright impossible. I haven’t met another night pony that can do it like I can but Emily can make even stronger dreams like it,” he paused for a moment, “But that’s not really the topic at hand here is it?” “What do you mean?” Sapphire raised her eyebrow.  Silver blankly stared at her, before he blinked his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know, did you want to talk about THAT?” “Talk about what?” Sapphire asked. “Uhhh… The big scary nightmare alicorn that just chased us back here?” “Oh, her,” She mused. “There isn’t much to talk about.” “Not much to talk about?! I know more about vivid dreams than most other night ponies, and that’s the first time one came to life on it’s own accord and tried to attack me!” “My imagination runs away from me sometimes,” Was her simple explanation. “And she wasn’t going to attack you, she was going to attack me.” “Forgive me then, but that still shouldn’t have happened. Something about it just gives me a weird vibe and maybe it’s just because I’m still a little dazed from being dragged into the dream’s narrative. You know, I could feel every emotion as it was happening, and it really threw me off like nothing has before.” Sapphire shrugged. “Don’t worry, she was just something brought to life briefly and now I hold onto that memory so that if I ever find myself agreeing with her, then I know I’m on the wrong path.” “That’s… well, I can’t say it’s what I would have done, but if it works for you I guess I can’t argue with that. I’ve just never seen anything that strong and… alive in a dream. It didn’t just seem like a memory or construct, it seemed… real— like some kind of impression.” “It’s not literal. I just remember her mentality. Luna has warned me about letting our thoughts gain lives of their own; thankfully, I have no power in the dream realm. I really don’t need my own Tantabus.” “Tanta-what?” he shook his head, realizing she was referencing something she picked up on Equestria that Earth wasn’t yet ready to find out. “Since that dream is done, did you want to find a nice place to sit? I would love to hear about your trip and to catch up. I know Scarlet wanted to chat too… but if you don’t want to then I can put you back into a dreamless sleep.” “How about I tell you about Equestria, while you give me a little tour, then we can catch up when Scarlet gets here.” At that moment both Scarlet and Emily reappeared, both giving Silver a knowing smirk.  “I figured you’d wind up back here,” Emily laughed. “Didn’t expect you’d bring her with you though.” Silver shook his head. “Thanks for the warning.”