//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: What Are Dreams? 
// by AMachineForRainbows 
//------------------------------//

Rainbow Dash ran all the way to the boating docks, waiting there was a young female pony by the name of Scootaloo, who agreed to take Rainbow Dash on the beginning part of her journey, who was now grown up and strong, Rainbow needed to take a boat because she has been having fainting spells recently, and was afraid of falling out of the sky. “Hey, Scootaloo, you ready? I got all of my things” said Rainbow calmly. “Alright Miss Dash, just say the word, and we’re off” responded Scootaloo. And so the two ponies set off into the sunset. 
Rainbow Dash was lying on her cot, thinking of her adventures when she was young, smiling, thought to herself, “Oh, such great times, I miss those girls”. Suddenly she started to become dizzy, and her eyesight was going black, and in a moment, she fainted. 
The voice came back, “Go back, there is no salvation”. Rainbow awoke on the floor, still slightly dizzy, and noticed a small bump on her head, she must have fallen and hit her head. She got up, and took out the book, and read on from where she stopped, the book had stated that the Master doesn’t just control your dreams, but he can control your physical form as well, causing you to sleep or faint at his command. So this must be the reason why she is fainting, and it says that the Master can only communicate with a mortal being through dreams. When he makes Rainbow faint, he is trying to give her a message. Rainbow ran up the boats staircase to see what was going on up top, Scootaloo was calmly piloting the vessel whistling with the sounds of the ocean in the background. She knew that it would be weeks before they reached her destination, so she went back to the lower deck and calmly waited.
Several months have passed, Rainbow Dash was feeling okay, she had no sickness, and had very little nightmares, and she thought that maybe they were close to “the Sunshine” and it was blocking the Master from infiltrating her mind, she heard a yell above, it was Scootaloo, who was yelling “Rainbow!, we’re here!”, Rainbow Dash galloped up to the top deck, and all she could see was a dense cloud of fog, and the boat was sitting next to a small piece of land, “Alright, this is where you go off, I need to leave, I have a bad feeli-“ Scootaloo said being cut off, “What?! No! You have to come back! You can’t leave me here?!” “I’m sorry Rainbow Dash, I just can’t stay here, I am not welcome, good luck” Scootaloo began to sail off, and disappeared through the mist. 
Rainbow Dash turned around, with a concentrated look on her face, “Well, here I go” she said as she began to walk ahead. Within an hour, she arrived upon a cave, the cave had a large door on it, and a seal on it in the shape of a hoof, Rainbow Dash put her hoof against it, and the whole door began to light up, she backed away as it began to open. The first thing she saw was a staircase leading down; she could not see the bottom, but she knew this was the way. She headed down, as lights flickered on as she passed under them, she came upon a long hallway, a hallway full of pictures and monuments, these pictures and monuments told the stories of the first Ponies, and how they worshipped the Master as the God of sleep, showing images and paintings of the ponies bending down in his honor, he was a normal looking stallion back then, and not in his repulsing look now, Rainbow Dash wondered, what happened to him, why did he turn evil? She didn’t want to fall behind, so she went on, only hearing her own hoof steps, casually reading and looking at the history of her race, it was amazing to her, until she came upon a distinguishing image, she stopped and looked, it was the image of a dark room, a dark room with a single Pony in it, but this Pony wasn’t just a normal Pony, it was Rainbow Dash, and the Pony appeared dead. She quickly looked away, and began to shed tears.
She had stopped crying, and gotten to a large room, with a large door on the other end, the room was completely empty, but had glowing spots all over it; it was overwhelming to her, she wondered, “What if the Master is right? What if there isn’t a way to stop him?” she dreaded, but just thought that he was getting into her mind, no, she had to continue, she could not quit this far in. she arrived at the door, on it was a small circular hole, it seemed some sort of key was need, she searched the room, and there it was laying on the floor, she quickly picked it up and slid it into the keyhole. 
The door had lit up like the one on the outside, and opened, behind the door was a blinding light, but her eyes adjusted, in the middle of the room was a short stand, on the stand was an orb, she knew, that this brightly glowing orb was the Sunshine that could stop it all, she was scared to grab it, for , she did not know what was going to happen to her. But she walked forward, and placed one hoof on it, and the orb emitted beams of light all over the room, and she fainted. 
“You should have listened, you should have gone back” Rainbow awoke, but in a different place, it was a long white hall, she could not see the walls, the floor, or the ceiling, and she saw the orb lying next to her, she knew that she had somehow teleported to the Masters location, she looked down the large bright hallway, and there was yet another large door, she arose and put the orb in her mouth and galloped as fast as she could towards the door, she heard a sound behind her, the hallway began to give away, falling apart behind her, she galloped faster, and came upon the door, it had a ball like key hole, and she knew the Sunshine was the key, she placed it in, and all of a sudden, the room stopped falling apart, but it was strange, it was like everything had stopped in time, the pieces of the room that were falling were now stuck in air.
The door opened, and inside, was her goal; there was the Master, in his disgusting form. He began to speak to her, “You should have returned… you will now witness your own failure” he said. In a moment, Rainbow Dash collapsed on the ground and was paralyzed. The Master began to explain everything, all of why she would fail. “You see, I am not just in this form, not just in myself, I am in everypony, they all hold me inside them, there is no way to destroy me, besides killing every pony in Equestria, but that would be my mission, See? You have failed, and now you will witness every one of your best friends murdered, by me” he told her. Her vision became dark, and she started seeing all of Equestria crack open and spit fire into the air, she saw images of Ponies being murdered all over, she began to cry, for she knew she had failed. Then an image came across, it was Twilight sparkle, she was laying on the ground, bloodied, and weak, she raised a hoof, and it quickly fell, her lifeless body now lay there, and same with Rainbow’s other friends, she witnessed them all killed. She was hoping it was all another dream, but it wasn’t, it was for real. As the Master killed off the last of the Pony race, he said one last thing to Rainbow before he ended her life, “This… This is what dreams are”