Flying back to the door that led to Bryan’s dream, I reflected on what had happened. “I had finally made a real friend. No, he was more than a friend. I loved him,” I thought. “Hopefully Celestia doesn’t object to anything.”
Stepping through the door, I found myself back in the main Dreamscape. Moments later, it faded to black, and I opened my eyes. I was back in my bed, in my room in the castle.
Shortly thereafter, a sharp knock was heard at the door. Getting up, I quickly put on my armor, before opening the door. At the door stood a member of the Night Guard. I watched as he bowed low.
“Good morning, your highness,” he said authoritatively, straightening up. “Celestia and Luna both want to talk to you.”
I looked at the guard with tired eyes, not saying a word.
“Ahh…I could always ask them to reschedule the meeting…” he stammered, noticing my tiredness.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said tiredly. “Why do they want to meet with me?”
The guard looked around frantically. “They…didn’t tell me, your highness.”
“Wonderful,” I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. “Well, take me to them. Let’s get this over with.”
“As you wish. Follow me,” the guard said.
The guard led me down several hallways. As I walked, I couldn’t help but notice that glass panes depicting my defeat had already been put up. Resisting the urge to blast them with my magic, I continued with the guard.
Finally, we reached the doors to the throne room. My expression changed from one of tiredness to one of surprise. “What were they going to talk to me about that required the throne room of all places?” I thought.
The guard, noticing my reaction, awkwardly smiled and opened the door, and I stepped through.
I could see Celestia and Luna sitting on their respective thrones. Celestia looked marginally happy to see me, while Luna was furious. I winced at her piercing eyes, evidentially some of my anger hadn’t worn off of her.
“Good morning, Nightmare Moon, I take it you slept well?” Celestia asked.
“Yes, dreamwalking went fine,” I said flatly.
“Well as of today, you’re no longer required to dreamwalk. Luna is perfectly fit to do so now, so she will be taking over your duties,” Celestia said apprehensively, noticing my furious expression form as she said those words.
Apparently, Luna did too, because she looked directly at me. “And do not THINK about trying to take back my job. You will be dealt with,” she said.
“I hadn’t planned on doing that anyway,” I snapped back. “Celestia, may we talk privately?” I asked her. She nodded, and we stepped out of the throne room.
“Celestia, you must allow me to continue to dreamwalk,” I said as we walked down the hallway.
“Nightmare Moon, you aren’t even supposed to be here. You were supposed to have been destroyed by the elements,” Celestia said authoritatively. “What makes you think you can come to me and ask for a favor, especially one of this magnitude, after all you subjected Equestria to?”
I sighed. “Celestia, you don’t understand, you never have. All I wanted was love and admiration, and I got that through dreamwalking.”
Celestia looked at me quizzically. “How so?”
“I-I met someone. Someone who understood me, someone who I could sit down and talk with, laugh with, enjoy my time with. I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again…” I said softly. Tears formed in my eyes as I realized the full implication of what was happening. “I may never see him again…” I repeated in my head.
The weight of my emotions was too much to bear, and I collapsed on the floor, sobbing. Celestia looked down at me with an expression of empathy.
“Couldn’t we just arrange for you to meet him?” Celestia asked me.
“H-he lives in a d-different dimension…” I said through the tears.
Celestia thought for a moment. “I don’t know if I can trust you to use the dreamscape, but even if I did, your power has been revoked anyway. I’m sorry, but there’s no way you can see him anymore. It’s just impossible,” she said to me.
I stood up, tears still in my eyes. “Then I will find a way,” I snapped. Turning, I spread my wings and flew out of an open window. I could hear Celestia calling my name, but I didn’t look back.
I had been holed up in my old castle for a few days now, flipping through old spell books. It was somewhere I could go without fear of being shunned or running into Luna and Celestia. I missed my room in Canterlot, but I had fixed up my old room here to be somewhat usable.
When one book didn’t have what I needed, I moved to the next, before I had exhausted all books in the entire castle. Evidently, my library, once the best in the nation, was now extremely outdated. I had to find other sources of information.
It was nighttime when I took flight from the castle. One advantage of having a black coat is stealth at night, so I took full advantage of it whenever I could. My first stop was, regrettably, Twilight Sparkle’s house. I really didn’t want to go there, but she was likely to have the most up-to-date literature available.
I swooped down onto the road nearest to Twilight’s house. Walking along it, I wasn’t surprised to see nopony out, but I didn’t care. I had a goal in mind, and I needed to focus on that instead of other matters.
Knocking on Twilight’s door, I watched as lights turned on in the house. I could hear Twilight say something about people knocking on her door at this late hour.
Soon I found Twilight standing in front of me. “What do you want at this hour?” she said flatly.
I sighed. “I need a favor, Twilight Sparkle.”
“And that would be?” Twilight said, rolling her eyes.
“Can we first go inside? It’s freezing out here,” I said to her.
She nodded, and I stepped inside, shutting the door behind me.
“Okay, what do you want, Nightmare Moon?” Twilight asked again.
“I need you to show me any and all books on magic. I’m looking for a specific spell allowing for interdimensional travel,” I said to her.
“Why? That’s an awfully strange request…” Twilight asked, cocking her eyebrow.
Using my magic, I grabbed a chair, and sat down. Grabbing a second for Twilight, I motioned for her to sit. “It’s a bit of a long story, but I hope this will explain why I came to you at this hour,” I said to her.
After I had told my story, Twilight finally understood my request, and began to search for a book that would suit it. Finally, she emerged from another room, and presented to me a book that looked like it had been sitting for a millenia.
“It’s in Old Ponish, but I have a feeling you’ll be able to read it just fine,” Twilight said to me.
Skimming over the book, I closed it and smiled. “Thank you Twilight Sparkle, you have earned my respect,” I said to her. I stood up and made my way to the door, opening it and stepping out into the night.
Before I made my way to my next destination, I decided to take a walk through Ponyville. “Nopony is out, why not explore?” I thought to myself. Walking through the silent town, I found very few homes with lights on.
As I walked, I couldn’t help but notice the smell of something being baked. Following the scent, I came across a strange building, shaped almost like a cake. A light was on inside, so I decided to have a look around.
Stepping through the doorway, I was surprised when a bell rang, signifying my entrance into the building. I froze immediately, and watched to my horror as one of the Element Wielders walked out of the kitchen area.
“Hi Black Snooty!” Pinkie Pie called out, a wide grin on her face.
“That’s not my name-” I said to her, as I tried to back out of the store.
“Whatever, what can I do for you?” she said to me. “Do you want cakes? Cupcakes? Cookies? Ice cream? Pies? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
“A-actually I was thinking about going…I have somewhere to be…” I said back, looking around frantically.
“Oh come on, you’re no fun!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly. “I’ve got just the thing that’ll make you stay.”
I watched as she ran back into the kitchen, and brought back a pie. On it was a depiction of a crescent moon. She set it down on a table nearby. “I was waiting for you to show up so I could give this to you!” she said to me.
“Thank you, but why?”
“I don’t know, it just felt right! I’d imagine it hurt getting blasted by that rainbow, so here’s my apology!” Pinkie Pie said, thrusting the pie in my face.
I took the pie with my magic. “It didn’t really hurt all that much. It was just…tingly,” I said. Grabbing a fork and a knife, I cut a piece of the pie out, and took a bite. The taste was…amazing, and it reminded me of that apple I had eaten in Big Mac’s dream. My eyes lit up as I savored each bite, and when I was finished I had to stop myself from taking a second piece.
Magicking the pie away for later, I thanked Pinkie and walked outside. Taking flight, I started towards my home, disregarding my other destinations that night. I had a lot of research to do, and no time to waste.
It’s been three months now. All I’ve been doing is constant research. I had to get the spell right, or I risked killing myself. I had no idea how to get to Bryan’s dimension, but I had a faint clue. I was able to analyze his dreams to get a dimension signature. From there, I could rewrite the spell to send me to his dimension by including the dimension signature.
I knew that the spell would drain me of most of my thaumic energy, but I didn’t care. I would be able to see Bryan, and that was all that mattered.
What I didn’t know is that I was in grave danger.
I heard a noise behind me. It sounded like a door closing, so I walked out of my room and onto a balcony above the main hall. There stood Luna, an obsidian scythe held within her magic, and a tainted expression on her face. Thankfully, she had not noticed me, so I made myself hidden.
I heard Luna walking along the floor of the castle, and I watched as she looked around for any signs of me. I then observed Celestia entering the castle.
“Luna, you cannot hurt Nightmare Moon!” Celestia said, trying to prevent Luna from taking further action.
“Why not? She is the scum of Equestria, not fit to exist on the same ground as us,” Luna snapped back. “I will take great enjoyment in watching her suffer, as she did with me.”
“But can’t you see that she’s changed? There have been zero reports of her doing anything wrong since she was defeated, and according to Twilight, she’s been nicer than ever,” Celestia countered.
I smiled when Celestia said that. It was true that I had not caused any trouble, and had been a law-abiding pony since my arrival. “Please stop her, Celestia. Stop Luna from harming me,” I thought to myself.
Suddenly a wave of magic pulsated through my body, dissipating my invisibility spell. I froze up, as I heard Luna run towards my location.
“LUNA! Do NOT harm her!” Celestia yelled.
“IT IS FOR THE GOOD OF EQUESTRIA!” Luna snapped back in her Royal Canterlot voice.
I watched as Luna came around the corner, eyes blazing with hatred. I decided that was it, and I lit my horn and teleported away, causing Luna to slam into a wall.
“COWARD!” I heard her yell. I looked at Celestia, and I could tell she was afraid. Afraid of her own sister. “Shouldn’t she be afraid of me?” I thought. “That’s not the point, I’ve got to get out of here!” Grabbing my interdimensional spell scroll, I hurriedly modified it to send me to Bryan’s dimension, threw it into the air, and casted it. A rift opened in the room, and with a quick nod at Celestia, I went through, taking the spell with me.
Luna, having recovered, noticed my departure, and flew towards the rift, but it closed just before she was able to go through. She hit the floor and tumbled, landing nearby, her scythe clattering on the floor. Celestia grabbed it with her magic and with but a glance, broke it in half.
“Sister! Why did you break my scythe?” Luna said angrily.
“Because you do not need it. That weapon was to be used on the worst of the worst, not on ponies who have clearly improved,” Celestia spat. “You failed to see what I saw, and you will pay the price.”
As the rift closed behind me, I was sucked into an invisible current. Tumbling through the void, I watched as doors flew by, likely leading to dreams. That didn’t matter though. As I straightened out, the spell seemed to pull me towards the correct location.
Letting the spell drag me along, I relaxed, knowing I had finally escaped Luna’s wrath, and Equus altogether. I couldn’t wait to see Bryan’s face again, and kiss him. It would be amazing.
As I continued along, a bright light appeared, and the spell directed me towards it. It got closer and closer, before I was enveloped.
Suddenly the world changed from bright white to a pitch-black night. Extending my wings, I flew above the ground. It was a peaceful meadow, with cows dotted around it. Flying along, I found a small house and a road. Following the road, it led to a wider one, made of some sort of stone. Small metal boxes dotted the road, moving under their own power somehow.
Following the road, I came across another road, made of gravel and two metal sticks. It reminded me of the railroad tracks of Equestria, and my suspicions were confirmed as I passed over a train. I scrunched up my nose at the horrible smell the locomotives made, it was nothing like the smell of burning coal.
As I flew, homes began to dot the landscape, and more metal objects appeared on the roads. Soon, the homes grew in size, before doubling, tripling and quadrupling in height. I realized I was in a massive city, home to possibly hundreds of thousands of humans. It reminded me a lot of Manehattan, with the tall skyscrapers off in the distance.
The road I was following had grown even wider at this point, and looking up most stars were blotted out by the intense light of the city. Looking at my spell scroll, I noticed it had changed from a dimensional signature to measurements of latitude and longitude. “Coordinates, maybe this will tell me where Bryan is!” I thought to myself.
As I navigated myself to the coordinates, a small house came into view next to some railroad tracks, likely the same ones Bryan had mentioned in a past dream. They seemed to have strange wires above them, but I disregarded this.
The house was of decent size, and I landed in the front yard. Nearby was a small extension of the house with a large door on it. Finding the front door, I noticed a sign with Bryan’s last name on it. “Good, I’ve got the right house.” I thought.
Using my magic, I attempted to open the door. The door didn’t budge, so I again used magic to turn the lock and open the door. Stepping inside, I discovered quite the assortment of items I had never seen before. Moving past, I found several doors. Two of them were open and led to other rooms, which I did not care about.
One door, however, had a stream of light coming from it. Using my magic, I turned the handle, and opened the door.