//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Foolish Mortals // Story: Night Terrors // by TikiBat //------------------------------// “Alright, little buddy, ready for bed?” Silver asked as he helped the colt put his dish in the sink. “Yeah!” Orion excitedly squeaked. Getting the young colt to go to bed on time had often been a challenge when he was younger, though much to Silver’s relief it was something that Orion had quickly outgrown. Having spent more of his life as a human, Silver often wondered whether the allure of the dream realm made young night ponies more willing to embrace the warm call of sleep, or whether Orion was just a special case. The lack of other night pony foals in The Oasis certainly didn’t help answer that question. It didn’t matter much, however, as the moment Silver had opened the door to Orion’s room, both Orion and the family dog had bolted inside, practically leaving a dust cloud in their wake. “That never gets old,” Scarlet laughed as she followed Silver into the living room. Once inside, Silver pulled down the heavy velvet curtains that helped keep their home dark while they slept. “You’re telling me,” he laughed. “I’m just glad he mellowed out.” “Me too,” Scarlet joined in the laughter. “Wanna watch anything before bed? Or do you want to just call it quits early?” For a moment Silver considered suggesting a movie, but the moment that thought crossed his mind he let out a long yawn as if his body was replying automatically. “I’ll take that as a no,” Scarlet smirked. “You’ve been pretty stressed lately anyways, so maybe it’s for the best that we just cuddle up now.” “That’d be nice,” Silver smiled. “I have a lot to think about and cuddling up in a dream kind of sounds wonderful.” “Kind of?” Scarlet raised a skeptical brow. “I mean, that absolutely sounds wonderful,” Silver corrected.  “That’s better,” Scarlet smirked. “Now why don’t you hit the hay and I’ll go make sure that Cosmo and Orion are settled.” “Sounds like a plan,” Silver nodded. Letting out another yawn, he lazily meandered to his and Scarlet’s room and unceremoniously flopped onto the bed, letting the weight of the world start to fade away around him. The tranquil silence that followed was interrupted minutes later by the warm embrace of Scarlet settling into bed, and before Silver had even realized it he was fast asleep.  The soft sand of his dream’s beach was the first sensation that he became aware of as his perceptions slowly shifted into the forefront of his mind. The gentle crashing of waves filled his ears, giving him a sense of peace and comfort that was distinctly different than any feeling he felt in the waking world. For all this relaxing peace, however, there was distinctly something else carrying through the soft noise.  As the stallion continued to lay on the beach of Somewhere, an almost imperceptible whisper seemed to echo in the background of the dream, though whatever was being spoken was impossible to discern. Joined with that strange whisper were the faint echoes of something else… something that was decidedly easier to pick up as Silver pivoted his ears toward the sound’s origins.  Morgana, Silver thought to himself.  Letting out a sigh, Silver sat up and brushed himself off. The mare’s presence here was of no surprise to him, but with how stressful his life has been as of late, having the chance to just relax would have been far more welcome. I really need to just close this place off every once in a while, he thought to himself. Rolling his eyes, he flew over to the source of the voices and gasped in surprise as he saw that the mysterious gateway had been opened… against his direct order and wishes. Infuriated, he stormed through, his frustration briefly overpowering the usual rational part of his mind as he flew through the creepy hallway and room that had come to life on him before. In contrast to that time, however, nothing seemed to be awry… well, nothing just yet. “Just what do you think you’re doing!..” He started to chastise, trailing off as he was greeted by the sight of the strange dream whose mastery had eluded his group so far. “Eclipse?!” Morgana replied in surprise, catching sight of Silver’s concerned gaze. “It’s wonderful isn’t it?” “I—” Silver started, though given the sight before him, he was at a complete loss for words. What had only briefly been an untamable dreamscape that seemed to fight back against him and his students’ best attempts to craft a world within it was now a veritable oasis in the dream world that only had a passing resemblance to what they had left. For all intents and purposes, it was as if the strange dream had taken the bones of what they had attempted to build and had latched onto it, molding itself into an Escherian space that defied all laws of normal reality.  If Somewhere was meant to be Silver’s perfect dream world of order and balance, this world was its complete polar opposite. The different realms and creations that his students had started to make were evidently there in their own twisted way, though perhaps the most prominent was the monolithic gothic castle that twisted up into the heavens and loomed over the entire overlook.  Dark storm clouds filled the sky, casting a shadow over the entire realm, despite there not having been a visible sun prior. Lightning echoed in the distance, and the previous uneasy feeling that had been there before was now noticeably stronger. “Did you two do all of this?!” he shouted at them. Morgana shook her head, “that’s what’s wonderful about it, Eclipse!” “This is not my idea of wonderful, especially after our last incident here!” he retorted. “What happened to us agreeing not to go in there?! Did you think about how playing around with an unknown force might be dangerous? Did you even consider the fact that you messed around in my most personal dream-space without my permission? Did you?” “The door was already open, Silver,” Koruk interjected. “Like any reasonable scholars, we took it upon ourselves to carefully analyze and investigate the situation.” “Plus you know we can’t modify things here without you present,” Morgana chimed in. “If anything, we both assumed it was you who opened the door.” “Me?” Silver held a hoof to his chest. “This place gave me a bad feeling from day one, I was more than happy keeping it closed.” “Well, it’s open now, and neither of us did it…” Morgana shrugged. “Don’t you want to know why? Don’t you want to figure out why it took what we built and actually conformed to it?” Silver sighed and looked back out over the horizon. “It’s not that I don’t, I just don’t feel comfortable messing with things that are obviously WAY out of our league. Can you tell me how many times a dream has just taken a life of its own to this degree? And don’t tell me all dreams do that, you know sure as I do that the subconscious usually drives those, and lest we forget, we don’t even know what this place is.” “Would you care for my read?” Koruk asked calmly. Silver shrugged. “Sure, why not.” “Well,” The other stallion started, “Perhaps this is your dream… or rather, another level of your subconscious. That’s what Somewhere was, to begin with right? You were one of the first to figure out how to enter your subconscious mind within a dream and shape it into a living breathing place like any other dream.” “You think this is something like that?” Silver asked. “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a good hypothesis, but let me remind you that the warden who’s a legitimate psychologist didn’t even know what to make of this— which was another reason for me to close it off in the first place, mind you.” “Perhaps he doesn’t know everything, he’s only a pony after all,” Koruk countered. Silver shook his head and sighed, “He’s only a pony whose soul is bound to a magical realm of dreams, who can read minds and knows things that aren’t even comprehensible to us. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but at the same time, I don’t think this is another level of my subconscious. He was one of the first ponies to even know about Somewhere, so I think he’d pick up the telltale signs if this were the case.” “Then let’s explore it safely,” Morgana pleaded to him. “You once said that your imagination worked best when it was set free, right? Well take a look, Eclipse,” the mare gestured to the world before them, “Because that’s what I see happening here.” Silver held a hoof to his head, “I appreciate my first lesson sticking with you after all this time, but you need to look at this from my perspective. It isn’t safe.” “So what if we do it safely then? You’re a scientist, right? Surely you know that if we do this the proper way we won’t be at risk.” “So what is the proper way then?” Silver asked. The mare lept up and a bright flash enveloped her, forcing the two stallions to squint their eyes shut. When the light faded, they were greeted by the sight of Morgana dressed in an over-the-top safety outfit, complete with a hard hat and harness. “We anchor ourselves here and fly out in pairs. No less than three here at any given time, and no more than four, so there’s always two back in the regular old boring dream realm who could call for help if anything goes wrong.” “Okay, that’s not a bad start,” Silver chuckled, “But this world clearly marches to the beat of its own drum and I don’t know how safe safety gear summoned by us would be. What if you get lost out here, or trapped in some building… or… well, something else?” “That’s why we have a spotter and why we fly in pairs. We can do whatever we want in the dream realm, so in the worst case scenario we use our outside voices and the spotter runs back through the gates for help.” “I just don’t know…” Silver started. “Then let’s call a meeting and put it up for a vote,” Koruk calmly suggested. Despite a lingering unease, Silver didn’t want to overrule his students, so he simply nodded. “Okay, we can call a meeting and talk about this together, but we need to fully understand that what we’d be doing is risky, probably dangerous, and could very well get us killed or cut off from the rest of the dream realm.” “Don’t be so dramatic!” Morgana teased him, “We’re not kids anymore, Eclipse. If we all play it safe then we’ll have nothing to worry about!” Silver simply shook his head and sighed. “That’s what I’m worried about…” It hadn’t taken long for Silver to set up a meeting space for the group to assemble in, and once they had all arrived and taken their seats, Morgana and Koruk enthusiastically outlined their proposal to the rest of the group. From a quick glance from his chair at the end of the table, Silver couldn’t exactly get a read on what the consensus was. He knew that Phoenix, Emily, and himself would likely be the voices of reason, but Moonlight could easily side with Koruk and Morgana, which would leave Stardust as the tie-breaker. He had hoped that the blue stallion would side with him, but considering his position as a scholar, it was hard to tell where he’d land. As the two mischievous night ponies continued their excitedly spoken exposition, the other students stared on, hardly making a sound. Finally, though, Phoenix raised a hoof and presented a simple question. “So… you want us to go explore the big scary dream that you told us we were not to set hoof in again?..” Phoenix spoke up. Silver sat up in his chair and looked at his students across the boardroom table. “No, I personally don’t. I’m happy leaving it forever and letting it be one of the great mysteries we don’t try to solve here.” Morgana lazily slouched in her chair and yawned, “But Koruk and I thought it’d be wiser to explore it safely.” “What’s safe in there?” Emily very wisely questioned. “See? Someone else gets it,” Silver agreed. “Nothing as far as we know, but that is why we’ve come up with a few safe plans for exploration,” Koruk pointed back to the chalkboard that he had drawn up. “How do you wanna divide up the jobs?” Stardust asked, raising a hoof. “We could always volunteer,” Moonlight suggested, “Koruk, Morgana, and myself could be the explorers, while you four play spotter?” Phoenix raised an eyebrow. “Are you saying we’re not up to the task?” “I’m not saying you’re not up to the task, but you’re all the boring play-it-safe kind of ponies,” she replied. Phoenix smirked and shook his head. “I know you grew up with the scared timid human I used to be,” He grinned. “But that’s a far cry from who I am now.” Silver’s eyes widened, and for a moment he thought that Phoenix might side with them. Much to his own relief, however, the stallion was clearly not done speaking. “That said, I also know that we need to take things slow and play this as safe as we can.” “Which is a very wise idea,” Emily stated in agreement. “I’m fine leaving this place behind and going back to what we usually do.” “Which is what?” Morgana bluntly asked. “What did we do before? Sit around in Silver’s dream learning about the ways we could meditate and expand our minds? Maybe help solve some poor soul’s nightmare problem by helping them confront their inner demons? I don’t know about you, but playing the dream version of the Scooby Doo gang got real boring real fast. This is our chance to do something new, to discover something cool, and you guys just want to leave it behind?” “Devil’s advocate,” Stardust cut in, “I know that a lot of us want to find out more about this place, but like many of you have brought up, we don’t know what it is. Some of us have families, and one of us even has a kid. What happens if something goes wrong and we’re not prepared?” The room sat quietly for a moment, and Koruk nodded. “I understand that something could happen that could jeopardize our mental health and well-being… but our hope is that by establishing these guidelines, we’ll be able to safely explore this exciting place.” “It’s not a bad plan,” Phoenix nodded. “I guess in my case though, and probably Silver’s, it just seems like the kind of thing that we might start and get in over our heads with.” “Then we take regular votes,” Morgana rolled her eyes. “Every week we meet here again and discuss what we’ve discovered. If things are getting too scary for you and you think you can’t handle it then we vote, and the majority rules. If we decide to continue then we continue, if the heat’s too much, then we stop.” “And you’ll abide by that vote and not argue, complain, or try to get around it?” Silver raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Eclipse, I know I can be brash and bold, but I’m not a foal. I’m a grown mare and if the group decides we’re done then we’re done, I’m not going to be a bitch about it and act like some foal who’s upset over playground drama.” “Okay,” Silver nodded, “I respect your passion for this.” He cleared his throat and stood up, flying above the table, “In that case then? I guess we should vote on this.” As he said that, the table suddenly morphed and revealed two buttons in front of each pony, a red X and a green O. One by one, each member cast their vote, and just as Silver had guessed, Emily, himself, and Phoenix had voted no. Koruk and Morgana had enthusiastically voted yes, and that left Stardust to cast his own vote. “Is there something wrong?” Morgana asked him as she noticed him hesitating over the two choices. “No… it’s just…” “Well, what if you treat this week like a trial run? We don’t need everyone to participate either, so if you get weirded out, you can always play spotter back here in Somewhere while we do the heavy lifting.” The stallion sighed and closed his eyes. “I know I should hit no, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in seeing what lays further beyond…” A small click rang out as he made his choice, breaking the tie. “Well,” Silver nodded. “We have our decision then.…” He sighed and turned towards Morgana, “Despite my thoughts on the matter, the group has decided to explore further, so we’ll do just that. I’m going to object to us exploring it more tonight, however, and instead, I’d like for us to spend this time choosing roles and establishing our chain of command. If you really want to go forward with this then I guess we’ll start exploring tomorrow, and we’ll discuss our findings and thoughts more in a week.” “I know this is going to be frightening at first, but give it a chance, nothing’s more frightening than the unknown after all,” Koruk tried to reassure Silver. In response, Silver simply nodded. As the team stood up, his thoughts drifted to his family and the stress he had been facing in the waking world, knowing that now even his escape was going to be tarnished with stress. I really need to take a vacation with Scarlet, he thought to himself with a smirk.