//------------------------------// // Episode 2: Dreams (I) // Story: Born to Chaos and Nightmares // by Thorax //------------------------------// (This chapter might seem weird, I'm still recovering from illness and I'm running under 2 extreme doctor grade doses of Tylenol. Everything seems good at the moment, but I don't know how it'll look in a few hours, as usual No Regrets.) (Once again the edited version will be up sometime tomorrow as my editor is away on personal business) Lucid lay in her bed, staring at the small photo taped to her wall. On it were the faces of herself and her two new friends, as they sat in the giant thrones of her family. Inviting friends over was nice, when you had so many places to explore and that's what they had done that day, explored many of the places they had been told not to. She couldn't help but fight sleep for a little longer as she went over the events of that week, One week had passed since her first day of school. Though it had begun with a rocky start, everything had eventually fallen into place quite nicely. She had already made two new friends a Griffin and a Colt, Finn and Quartz if that wasn't good enough. Her first real school teacher, happened to be one of the most famous Unicorns in Equestria, Twilight Sparkle. She had expected school to be fun, but she had never anticipated everything to go so perfectly, make friends. Check. Fit in with the rest of the class, check. She'd even learned how to make Check lists from Miss Sparkle; though part of her had a feeling her teacher had an unhealthy obsession with this type of organization tool. The filly gave a soft yawn as she pulled her hoof sown Draconequus doll closer and slowly drifted off into sleep. Once again she found herself in the realms of dreams, her mother’s domain. The realm of dreams, a world very few could see it for what it truly was, a nexus of minds, that connects each and every creature, whether they knew it or not. A world, where every creature was an equal and in their own rights a ruler of this land. However, the threads of this world were sown by her mother, a responsibility that would eventually be passed on to herself. Lucid slowly floated in the vast void of a realm that had no true form. An infinite number of stars sparkled throughout the void, each a dream, one for every creature that had lived or would ever live a world. Though most of these stars were unfamiliar to the filly she was able to make out those of her family and some of the ones her mother had taken a keen interest in. Her mother had taught her about certain types of ponies, the more creative ones, the artists, the singers and the writers were the best at shaping their dreams, whether they knew it or not and sometime they would take a little peek at some of the more interesting ones. Lucid's thoughts were interrupted as a sudden shift occurred in one of the more familiar dreams as she scanned through the vast amount of stars she was eventually able to find the source of the shift in an instance she no longer sat in the star filled void. Instead, she found herself in the room of a scared Griffin boy. "What's wrong Finn?" she asked her friend, who currently sat huddled in the corner "Gigg...gig..Giant spider." stuttered the terrified child as he pointed at the closed door. "Really? You’re not afraid of a little spider?" Casually Lucid made her way to the bedroom door and swung the door open. What she found wasn't some "little spider" instead sat a giant eight legged behemoth, a creature that could easily strike fear into the heart of almost any creature. Without hesitation she slammed the door shut and with a clap of her hands it vanished. "You watched "Attack of the Giant Moon Spiders" didn't you?" she nervously asked as she scratched at the invisible arachnids that scurried through her fur. Finn didn't say a word, instead he only nodded "Well you should know better than to watch something that will give you nightmares. Even my aunt had nightmares, and she was on the moon before." "What d.. Do you mean? A nightmare, why are you acting so calm?" "Oh you didn't know, you were dreaming? Didn't you tell me your bedroom had a bunch of Rainbolt poster in it?" the filly pointed out as she examined the almost bare walls. This was the first time Finn actually noticed the missing pieces of his room. "I must have taken them down." he answered nervously as he glanced to the empty walls it made more sense than saying he was dreaming, everything seemed to real to be a dream. "What about the colors?" she once again pointed out as she stared at the grey walls. "You told me and Quartz they were Blue." The more the young Griffin thought about his friends words, the more confused he found himself, she was right nothing in this room was correct. Sure it felt normal, and he hadn't second guessed anything before, but now that he took the time to think the room didn't match his memories. A window sat above his bed, there had never been a window there before, his posters were nowhere to be seen and the walls weren't the same cheerful cyan he had remembered. "I'm dreaming?" he asked as he slowly rose from his corner. "Ya and it was apparently a pretty bad one. Why don't you go open and tell that spider it isn't nice to ruin someone’s sleep?" she finished with a clap of her hands and once again the door returned. At the thought of the beast that waited on the other side, Finn once again retreated to his corner. Even if it was all in his head, it was real enough and it wasn't going to get him. He didn't care what his friend thought of him, it was better than that nasty spider getting him. "It’s okay" came the voice of Lucid as she placed her soft lion paw on his shoulder. "I'll go with you; we can make that big meanie go away together." Her smile clearly showing her confidence in both her friend and herself. Finn wasn't sure why he had gotten up and waked towards the door, he knew what waited on the other side, one of his worst fears. It had chased him through the empty house earlier and he had finally found a safe haven in his room, and for some strange reason, he was about to go back out and yet, with Lucid at his side he wasn't afraid. "Just remember, this is your dream. You're the boss here." Without hesitation Finn grasped the handle and flung the door open. Nothing, the hall was empty or at least it appeared that way. Had the two children bothered to examine the floor more closely, they would have noticed the small terrified spider scuttle away. "See, I told you there was nothing to worry about." "Who was worried?" answered the Griffin with an awkward chuckle "I was completely calm, in fact I knew I was dreaming the whole time." "Sure you were" retorted the Draconequus filly, Lucid was about to point out that she had found him in the fetal position. However, her thought was cut off as a small flash of light filled the room, quickly dissipating revealing none other than the ruler of the Dream Realm "Hi Mom!" shouted the enthusiastic filly as she dived at Midnight Alicorn Without hesitation Finn quickly dropped to his knees, and bowed as he had been taught. After several seconds of awkward silence the Griffin was unsure as to what he should do next. Normal the Princesses would announce when they were to rise. "Finn" hissed Lucid "Stop being a weirdo!" Slowly Finn raised his gaze, slowly following the towering size of the Princess that stood before him, eventually coming to a stop at her head, his friend happily sitting atop her head. "There is no need for such formalities here, child." came the soothing voice of the Dream Princess. Finn slowly nodded "Yes you’re Majesty." "Call me Dream, please, as before there are no need for titles here." "What are you doing here Mom?" asked the filly as she leaned off her mother’s white helmet and blotting out her field of view. Dream gave a sigh as she pulled her daughter off her head and readjusted her helmet. "Two reasons actually, one I haven't seen you since Tuesday and I wanted to make sure you where okay. By the way, we'll be back from the diplomatic meeting tomorrow." "Okie Dokie" answered the filly "What's the other reason?" The large Alicorn did her best to hide her frustration "I came to ask you if you've seen our keys." The filly was confused "Why would your keys be here?" Once again Dream did her best to hide her frustration. However the thought of her husband’s earlier antics began to slowly breakdown her little dam and small trickles of angry were beginning to seep through. "Apparently your father thought we didn't lose things enough, so he took everything that was in our luggage bags and chucked them into a black hole." Lucid tried not to laugh as she saw the serious look on her mother’s face. Though, it sounded exactly like something her Dad would do, especially after being sent on a diplomatic meeting with Changeling Nation. Sure they were reasonably fun and good party guests, but her father could never get over how bland they all looked. "Why don't you just ask Dad where he sent them?" "I can't" Dream answered flatly "Why not?" "Because the fool threw himself in as well." she answered anger thick in her tone "so now I have to find our keys and your father and honestly, I think once I find the keys I'm going to throw him back in." After she had finished her little rant about her husband she finally noticed the tone she had taken on, and was using to question the children. "What are you two up to?" she asked curiously A look of glee spread across the fillies lips as she prepared the story to tell her mother. After a couple of minutes she had finished explaining the events of the evening and how Finn was able to conquer his fear in record time. "Well that's very good my little pon-" Dream was cut off as a small black vortex opened up on each side of the room. The three sat in silence as pieces of the room were sucked into the void and disappeared, after several seconds items began to exit through the vortex near the door. It only took Dream a matter of seconds to realize what was going on as first her reading glasses came hurling through, followed by one of her favorite pairs of socks and finally the keys she had been searching for. "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" came the hollow cries from the void "What was that?" asked the confused Griffin as he clenched the sheets of his bed doing his best not to be sucked in himself. However, before anyone could speak up and answer his question, they answered themselves. "Weeeeeeeeeeee" came the repeated cries of the large Draconequus as he quickly shot out one vortex and into another. Surprisingly he wasn't the only one in there, after several more seconds he was followed by a much smaller Pink Mare. With another blinding flash the portals were gone, leaving the three stunned creatures in silence. "That's great." muttered Dream "What's wrong mom?" "Not only is your father hurling through space, he's also hurling through time as well." Answered the rather angry looking black mare. "I'll see you tomorrow sweetie." Her tone quickly switching back to a more soothing one as she gave her daughter a quick hug and the young Griffin a pat on the head "You take care of her while I'm gone, okay?" Finn gave a quick nod and a salute "Where are you going mom?" asked the filly as she sat back down beside her friend. Dream let a wicked grin slip across her face, one she hadn't shown in almost two hundred years. "I'm going to track down your father and give him a nice little timeout and since he was kind enough to throw himself into the streams of time, I have quite literally all the time in the world to help him see the errors of his ways. Trust me, when I'm done with him, he'll remember the name Nightmare Moon." with a slightly evil cackle and a flash of Purple light the Mare of Dreams was gone. "Not to sound mean or anything." spoke the nervous Griffin "But your parents are weird." "Try living with them." Lucid answered flatly. The rest of the evening went surprisingly well, no more giant insects or embarrassing outburst by her parents to make anything more awkward, after a few more minutes of searching she was able to locate Quartz's dream world and with a bit of weaving that would have made her mother proud, she had created a bridge between the worlds. They spent most of the night exploring the memories of the ponies that had long ago passed away.