Alright, I'm prepared this time. And sure enough, just as I expected, the next thing I know is that I'm standing in my room in my misty, blue form. Looking out the window, I see the dream streams arching through the sky. However, tonight there seems to be many more.
On the previous two nights, while I could see them, the streams only stayed within Muscatine. Tonight, however, they stretched far beyond my field of vision and across the horizon. There were also quite a few more gold and blue ones as well.
I phase through the wall of my bedroom and into the living room where Alex is sleeping. Huh, weird. There's a blue and gold stream of sand worming its way into his forehead. I reach out with a by-now practiced hand to lightly touch the flowing sand. As per usual, I am immediately sucked into his fore head and dream.
The first impression I have of his dream is, well, everything seems huge! I'm walking along a beach, but the ground seems to be much closer than is normal. Looking down at my hands, I don't see the rough, callused hands of a man who grew up in the country, but instead the soft, angelic hands of a young girl. Further examining my new dream body, I find myself wearing a navy blue dress that goes down to my knees and light blue hair that goes all the way down to my waist.
Okay, I'm a little uncomfortable to be a five year old girl, but I'll deal with it. I walk along the beach, dancing further up every time the waves get close to my bare feet. After about ten minutes of walking, I notice a figure in the distance.
As I get closer, I realize that the figure in the sand is a very young version of Alex, approximately the same age as my current dream form. He has shortish, chestnut brown hair, and eyes as brown as fresh-baked brownies. That sounds really good right now all of a sudden. Upon closer inspection, I realize he's making a sand castle! My child-like behavior welling up inside me, I rush over and start building alongside him, barely noticing that the sand castle looks a little like Canterlot.
Young Alex looks up at me in surprise. "Who are you?" I guess that would make sense that he doesn't currently recognize me. You know, I wonder why his subconscious isn't attacking me since he realizes that I don't belong in his dreams? Perhaps it has something to do with my Princess of Night title or whatever.
No, that is Luna's title, not mine. Anyways, back to the matter at hand. "Well, Alex, I could be many things, but right now, it would appear that I am a human version of young Luna." Well, I guess a new voice comes with this body; I now sound like a young five year old girl as well.
I'm expecting many reactions, all ranging from disbelief, shock, and downright anger, but I am not expecting his look of excitement. "Oh! That explains why you look so weird little sister."
Alright, that's weird. I know in the waking world Alex called me his sister, but to have his sub consciousness do it too? That's almost too much. Oh well, it can't be helped if he truly thinks I'm his sister for some odd reason. "Um, yeah. So, you know this is a dream right?" It doesn't truly matter if somepony actually figures out they're in a dream. It's not like they'll have some type of super scary psychological break down that'll leave them in a straightjacket, right?
Yet again, I am caught off guard by his response. "Eh, this is a beach Lulu, not a dream. They don't look the same, and you should know that!" Okay, this is sincerely getting kind of weird.
"Alright, who am I talking to? Are you Alex or Celestia?" I am now incredibly suspicious of who this truly is, not sure if I believe that it truly is Alex anymore, and that the mental changes have gotten to his subconscious.
He looks at me curiously, frowning and pausing construction on his sand castle. "This is Alex...Luna, you are making even less sense than before. Who is this Celestia?" Gah! This is getting really frustrating now!
"If, you're not Celestia, then why do you keep calling me Luna?" This should get him to see that this isn't a dream. I really need to talk to him, but I can't do that if he won't take me seriously.
Anger is quick to invade his normally innocent face as he shouts at me, seemingly out of nowhere. "What?" What is he saying what about? My question was clear wasn't it? Unless it didn't sound as demanding with this young girl's voice. "If you aren't Luna, then GO AWAY!"
As if by magic, an average height woman seems to materialize next to him as he shakes in anger. When she looks up, I can see the accusatory stare within her eyes. Without any warning, she starts stalking towards me as though she is going to attack me (most likely). Slowly, other people begin to trickle in from nowhere and start to surround me, cutting off any chance of escape.
I crouch down into the fetal position, my smaller form giving me a chance to feel as though I'm now actually sinking into the ground and hiding there. The crowd presses in, beginning to suffocate me, when a voice, whispery and sinister, is heard by all.
"Heh heh heh, just what I needed, a little dash of fear!"
The figures of Alex's subconscious look around in confusion, but then suddenly freeze. I stumble back to the young boy's side, ignoring the glare he gives me. A horn echoes out from across the water, and he begins to tremble in fear.
Feeling what seems to be a wisp of mist catch on my wrist, I look down, and gasp in horror. The ground seems to be flaking apart, not unlike the dead skin after a sunburn, revealing a new surface underneath. All I can say about the new surface is...pink. Lots and lots of pink.
Looking back along the sandy beach, I see a thick, pink fog begin to roll in. Seriously, what is with all of the pink?! Alex crouches down into the fetal position, trying to make himself as small as possible. I'll admit, this fog is scaring me too, but I continue to be strong and try to protect Alex as best I can. And then, the whispers start.
I can't even understand them at first, but it appears Alex does, and he begins to whimper as the pink fog gets even thicker. As the voices get louder, I can understand them much more easily.
I spin around, trying to pinpoint the location of these whispers, but they seem to come from everywhere at once. I hear the laugh of the whispery voice as it feeds off of Alex's fear. What is wrong? I listen more closely to the whispers now.
"Why do you wear pink? It's a girl color!"
"What are you, gay?"
"I can't believe you dressed up as a girl!"
Each insult begins to wear my patience thin. I feel a source of energy and look behind me, now easily spotting the teal, cat-like eyes. In my ever-growing frustration, I finally scream out, "Enough!"
The fog is easily pushed back from my burst of power and the whispers fade, along with all the pink. Alex and I are then left in a familiar black void. Looking down, I realize that I'm still within my young girl form and am unable to change it.
"That's a nice dress." I look up quickly, to see Alex (still a young boy) smirking at me. He's still in his same set of clothes from the beach, just without all the dirt and grime from before.
I sigh as I walk in front of him. "So, do you know this is a dream now?" Sometimes, ponies can be so dense in a dream, believing it to be reality.
His smirk only seems to widen as he takes in my discomfort of being a young girl. "That would explain your lack of any pony features." He gets a more confused look on his face now. "So...What just happened? Or, more importantly, is it really you John?"
So, he's finally beginning to believe that this is actually a dream! Well, it sure did take him long enough to figure that one out. "Well, first off, yeah, it's really me. Secondly, just because I'm a young girl right now doesn't mean I can't kick your ass into next week if I needed. And lastly, I believe I just dispelled a nightmare forced upon you by the Nightmare." I had decided to tell him about him into next week, because, well, I'm a little girl and he's a little boy, and we all know what little boys do to little girls.
He sticks his tongue out at me in response. "You know, I can probably summon that frying pan to me in this dream." But then apparently playtime is over, for a look that belongs on an adult's face takes over. "But more seriously, the Nightmare? I don't think you're talking about Soul Edge here."
Ah, a Soul Caliber reference. Finally, something we've both played! "Yeah, you got that right. It may be a little like Soul Edge, but this one seems to me to be more like a second personality than the real thing."
Closing my eyes, the first indication I had that the dream had changed yet again was the sound of the waves and the feel of them lapping at my feet. Behind me, I hear Alex's worried voice speak out above the calming waves. "Will you be fine?"
Ha! Question of my life. I just now learned that I have a second personality inside my mind that's trying to convince me to commit murder or something, and he's asking me if I'm fine? "Yeah, I will be. Anyways, what was with all the pink earlier?"
For some odd reason, he becomes incredibly nervous again. Oh no, please tell me he's not going to say he's gay! "The Otherworld...I guess that I no longer have any to keep this secret." Whew, he's not gay. But what is this new possible meaning? Is he from another world? Unlikely. "It all started with the costume I chose to wear while I was still in first grade." Oh boy, dis gun be good.
I'm lost in my deep thoughts, so I barely catch the end of his next sentence. " I decided to disguise as a certain Mario character that I'll let you guess."
I am, unfortunately, lost in my thoughts as he states the game. Just to make sure, I repeat the name back to him. "Mario?"
He gives me an odd look, almost as if I'm an alien. "You know, the plumber who keeps saving the same princess from the scaly guy?"
Oh whoops. He thought that I was asking what the game was. Oh well, I might as well be nice to him since he did just go through a nightmare (with quite a bit of help from moi). "Oh yeah, sorry. Please continue."
However, why not mess with him a little? It'll be fun! "Oh! I know who it is! Toad!"
He looks a little unsure about something, but since I'm not a mind reader, I just dismiss it. "So, like I was saying, I decided to dress a certain PINK PRINCESS. I think I don't need to explain what happened during the next day." Oh my, now I actually feel sorry for him. As I am assuming, those arrogant jerks bullied him the next day for dressing up as he wanted to.
He continues his monologue after sitting down onto the sand with a look of irritation upon his face. "As you probably suspect, they didn't stop with their fun afterward. At first it was about the disguise, but it quickly evolved around the color pink." He's right, I really was kind of suspecting that to be the case, and now I know more about this stranger I invited into my house.
I'm not given any chance to reply as he continues with the story after a small pause. "To be honest, it lasted until I graduated from High School." Suddenly, a flash of guilt flits across his face and he looks down at the ground. "But it wasn't the worst that happened. I eventually had enough of the whole thing, so I got into a fight with a boy a year older than me." Ah, so he did the same thing that voice keeps telling me to.
He slightly lowers his voice, so I'm lucky that I have lots of power in a dream, or else I wouldn't have been able to understand him. "The poor guy was lucky that others managed to stop me."
Wow, talk about a tough childhood. Oh well, that bully had it coming, you know, natural selection and all. Wait a minute, what is this feeling? Oh, I know what it is. "Alex, the dream is collapsing, so I'll be pulled out soon. I'll talk to you in the waking world."
He raises his head and looks around at the collapsing dream with a sad, distant look in his eyes. "Oh shoot. I didn't get to finish my sand castle." Oh, the feels. I am with you there brother…or sister…or whatever.
I'm pulled out of the dream and back into my regular ethereal form from before. Looking down at the couch, I see Alex beginning to stir. Oh well, I might as well wake up now too. I let the black cord pull me back into my own body so I could wake up. I slowly open my eyes, just in time to hear the crash and bang emanate from the kitchen.