One night, as Cumulo Nimbus lay in her bed sleeping, her forehead frowned, with her nervous sweating soaking her bed sheet — it’s the dream, coming to get her again.
In her dreamscape, she was still home — only with everything around her looking all too enormous: enormous chairs, enormous table, enormous dresser, enormous kitchen… and lastly, enormous parents.
“THAT’S IT! I’VE HAD ENOUGH!” Her father roared, his booming voice was loud enough to shake the sky above. She felt her eardrums would break at any time.
“ME TOO!! I’VE LONG HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR SELF-RIGHTEOUS ATTITUDE!” Her mother snapped shrilly, her high-pitched voice was so powerful that everything made from glass and porcelain, including windows and teacups, shattered into pieces, and rained down below to the poor little filly. Cumulo Nimbus had no choice but put all her effort into escaping from those giant debris. She wanted to fly and evade, but only discovered her wings somehow turned into stone — which broke into smithereens right before her eyes at the next second.
“Mom! Dad! Please stop this madness now! I’m over here! Help me! My wings are broken!” Cumulo started to cry, but to her gigantic parents, her cry for help was no louder than that of a tiny ladybug. Neither of them noticed her.
“I’LL GET MY DIVORCE! I’M NOT GONNA STAY AT THIS FORSAKEN PLACE!” A giant leather trunk suddenly landed from above Cumulo Nimbus. She was caught under it, pinned to the ground, making her hard to breathe.
“OH YEAH?? SUIT YOURSELF! I DON’T CARE IF YOU’RE MOVING TO YOUR MOTHER’S OR YOUR SISTER’S — I’M NOT STAYING AT THIS CRAPPY DUMP EITHER!” Her father bellowed, and his nostrils breathed out burning flames and black smoke like a dragon.
“No… Dad!!”
“GAHH!! … GAWWWWK!! …” Her mother cursed and swore furiously, but Cumulo could not understand a word she said. All she saw was that her mom’s face began morphing, the feathers on her wing falling down in clusters. Before long, mother had turned into an ugly Pterosaur, just like the ones seen in books. She spat out rumbling lightning out of her mouth, then grabbed her heavy trunk, crashed through the glass-less windows frames and flew away.
“GROWLLLL!” Cumulo’s father snarled at the sky, and turned into a flame-breathing dragon too. He rushed out of the broken window to fly after her, and the two of them started a gruesome battle of fire and lightning in midair.
“Wait… Where are you going?! Don’t leave me! I don’t wanna stay here! They are here, they are coming for me!!” Cumulo Nimbus was in a total panic. She had had such a dream countless times, and she knew what was about to happen.
Squeak! Squeak! CREAAAAAARGHHHK!
Out of the dark corners of the house came an unnatural and horrifying scream. It was coming from everywhere, from the seams under the dresser, from the ceiling, from the grooves on the floor, and from inside every single piece of shadow.
Cumulo had no idea what those were — her heart was pounding fast, and the only thought in her head was to escape as fast as she could. She dashed toward the door for all was worth, but on the halfway, her hooves suddenly turned to stone. She lost her balance and fell down, then noticed her stony hooves broke into pieces. Before she could start panicking, darkness came out of nowhere and dominated everything in her view — then she felt something fell out of her eye sockets: her eyeballs! They turned to stone just like everything else, and broke into two piles of dust.
“No!! Don’t come any closer!! Stay away!! Help!! Mom!! Dad!!” Cumulo Nimbus screamed helplessly. She could hear it so clear — those squeaking monsters were jumping out from the shadows, dancing and cackling around her, ready to feast on their lone victim.
She knew the inevitable end was drawing near — the moment they started feasting on her, she would suddenly wake up from her bed, horrified, heart pounding, gasping for breath.
But this time, it was different.
CREAAAAARGHK!! CREAAAAARGHK!!
Abruptly, the monsters let out a painful cry. Everything then quieted down, without a sound in the air. The sudden turn of events confused her, but soon, she heard a familiar voice which made her heart skip a beat.
“Worry not, my child. I have vanquished the monster that kept haunting you.”
“Prin… Princess Luna, is that you?” without her sight, Cumulo groped in the darkness.
“I came here on Snowdrop’s request, to put an end to your nightmares.”
“Really?! So what she told me was true…”
CREAAAAAARGHHHK!!
Another one of those sharp screams suddenly interrupted her. The terrified little filly crept behind Princess Luna’s body for shelter.
“Oh no! There they are again! Help!! There are still too many of them, Princess!” she whined, her voice shuddering.
Luna saw countless shadowy figures darting out of all the gloomy corners, and they gathered before the two of them, forming a massive, seething lump of darkness — it had no eye, no ears, no mouth nor nose, and it had no limbs, wings or horn either. It was a chaotic, disturbing mass, oozing and moving towards them, making all kinds of horrifying sounds.
“Please, Princess Luna! Kill that monster!” Cumulo pleaded.
“It’s not a monster; it’s the representation of your fear inside.” With that, Luna walked towards that giant mass — with every step she took forward, that thing would retreat a little and wiggle about, as if being intimidated.
“Tell me: what is it that you truly fear? What is the thing that took away your composure, and put you to such restlessness… Cumulo Nimbus?”
As Luna finished speaking, Cumulo Nimbus disappeared — along with that eerie mass and her dragon-like parents; all was gone. Then before the night princess, the real Cumulo Nimbus appeared at where that monster was just now. Though she was weeping, her body was intact.
“I’m so scared, Princess…” she sobbed, “My mom and dad were quarreling, it was too intense… I don’t want them to break up, and I fear that I’ll lose them… I fear that they’ll desert me someday, just like how it happened in this dream.”
The moon princess gently held the young filly in her embrace, and stroked her head. She whispered, “There, there, it’s okay. Now you’ve seen where your fear truly lies, this nightmare could not hurt you anymore.”
“But it’s still possible, right? My parents could get divorced at any time in reality, and leave me behind… What should I do?” Cumulo sobbed in Luna’s embrace.
“The way I see it is that you shall speak your fears to your parents, like what you did to me just now. You must let them hear your thoughts.”
“But… that won’t work. They won’t listen to me, and they may break into another quarrel at any time,” answered Cumulo dispiritedly.
“Rest assured; I’ll handle it.”
***
“Cumulo Nimbus!!!”
Both her parents awoke wide-eyed in the middle of the night, and sat up from their bed. Then they exchanged a horrified gaze.
“You… you couldn’t be dreaming of that… that…” father spoke first.
“So you dreamed of it too?” mother nodded and answered.
“This is too strange for a dream — I’ll go check…” before father could finish, someone pushed their room’s door open. Then they saw their Cumulo’s head peeking sheepishly inside, with a weary look on her face.
“Hey, mom… Hey, dad…”
Hearing their daughter’s voice, the parents’ tensed up hearts could finally feel relieved.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?” her mother asked.
“Uh… I had a bad dream. Can I sleep with you?”
Her parents shuddered a little at the very mentioning of “bad dream” — they hadn’t gotten over the dream they had just had.
“You… you did? Sure… come over,” answered her father in a wavering tone.
Cumulo walked to their bed, and crept to the room between her parents. Her mother reached out her hoof at once, to give her daughter a warm hug, as if making sure that she was alive after some grave disaster.
“My poor child… You look terrified. What kind of … dream… did you have?” Asked her mother, intentionally avoiding the word “bad”. Her father drew close as well, and his ears perked up.
Cumulo started to describe the dream she had — without a doubt, what her parents just saw in their dreams was exactly what had happened in their daughter’s dream.
It was Luna who wrapped her dream up and secretly implanted it to her parents’ minds — they found themselves blocked behind an invisible wall, and saw the other two giant selves of them arguing bitterly in that enormous house. They were puzzled at first, but then they heard Cumulo Nimbus crying on the other side. They wanted to come to her to give her comfort, only to be stopped by that invisible barrier — all they could do was watch as the other “they” turned into dragons and flew up, and left their most beloved, now injured daughter behind. Then out of the darkness, thousands of pieces of black shadow whipped out, and took the form of a giant monster, which then ferociously pounced towards Cumulo Nimbus — and then they awoke, in sweat and in panic.
Knowing that their arguments had become their daughter’s worst nightmares, her parents felt very ashamed and guilty.
“Then… my eyes became blind… and then you deserted me, just like what Snowdrop’s father did. It’s dreadful… I don’t want to end up like her! Every time I saw her, I couldn’t help but think of it, so I could never speak to her without an attitude…” Speaking of Snowdrop, Cumulo couldn’t hold back her tears any more. She curled up in her mother’s embrace, and wept as if she were a baby foal.
“No, darling… We’ll never desert you even if you were blind. We never will.”
“But Snowdrop has told me, that before her father left them, he had quarreled with her mother bitterly just like what you did. Then one day he left, and never came home again...” said Cumulo worriedly. Hearing this, her parents stared at each other silently for a while.
“I’m sorry,” her father suddenly broke the silence, “It was all because of my temper, and not being thoughtful. I really shouldn’t have yelled at you.”
“No, I should be regretful for having said such harsh words and piercing your heart. I should have known that you cared about that matter all the time… and I’m truly sorry,” answered her mother.
“I love you — you’re the most beautiful, most special pony I’ve ever met in my life,” a smile appeared on her father’s face.
“I love you too,” her mother returned him a smile like a blooming flower.
“And we apologize to you too, Cumulo Nimbus, for having made you feel so awful with our quarreling,” her father said as he turned to his daughter.
“We’ll be watching our behavior and temper from now on. But we want you to know, that you are our dearest child no matter what, and we’ll never leave you behind in any case.” Her mother said and kissed her forehead.
After a little more of the small talks, Cumulo’s parents held her close to their hearts and lay down. It was a little hot, but for her, it was a warm and safe spot that made her feel so happy. Soon, without knowing, the three of them fell sound asleep.
Cumulo found herself in the dreamscape again. This time, it was foggy, and everything in view was a little blurry. Out there in the center of the land lay Princess Luna, who turned up a big smile when she saw Cumulo’s excited expression.
“It worked well, I guess?”
“Oh thank you Princess Luna! Thank you, thank you! My parents just promised me they won’t argue so ferociously again! Although they said there could be little quarrels at times, I believe they’re going to get better and better!”
“Excellent. My work here is done, and may you be free from nightmares again.” Luna said and stood up, and was ready to turn around and leave, when Cumulo called to her again.
“Well um… Princess Luna… If you ever come across Snowdrop, please help me deliver my message to her, that I’m sorry for being so cold to her, and… I thank her very much.
“But you should be apologizing to her on your own, not asking me to do that.”
“Yes, I know… but I don’t know when I’ll be allowed to see her. Please, princess, please tell her to have enough rest and get well soon, and that I will be visiting her when I’m free.”
Luna froze for a moment and turned her head. “What do you mean by that? Did something happen to Snowdrop?”
“Oh, you don’t know yet, Princess? Snowdrop was sent to the hospital last week for some serious illness. They placed her in the Isolation ward where nopony may see her. I don’t know the details of it; when I asked her mother, she wouldn’t answer, but she looked quite concerned.”
“Last week…” Luna’s eyes grew wide, then she turned and said hurriedly, “I must be going, thank you for informing me of it.”
“Oh, okay. Please take care…” Before Cumulo Nimbus could finish, she saw Luna’s figure disappeared from the dreamscape.