Aether, Heir of Chaos

by Arcane Anonymity


The Essence of dreams... and how to guard it

I opened my eyes to find myself in a sterile room, a brown unicorn stallion in a doctor's coat on the other side of a metal table. I was sitting, cuffed, to a metal chair; crossing my eyes allowed me to see that there was... something in my horn, as in, not only it was on it, but something was done to it and had something inside of it.

"We have changed the treatment; feeling better?" He said, while I mumbled a question. "These hallucinations about humans-"

"Stop." I said, and the doctor gave a start. "Couldn't you find anything else? I mean, 'you are in a mental hospital and everything you've ever done until now is a lie'? Seriously?"

I sighed near-explosively.

"These things really should not work as well as in fiction." I rolled my eyes. "Even a cursory review and comparison would reveal that the 'hallucinations' and 'delusions' are way too internally-consistent to be the product of an irrational mind - even if there are some rather abnormal situations involved. How come there is such a sudden break? Self-fabricated memories for an event or two are one thing, but the whole life? No, besides, my memory is fluid and neat. Even if a few past events were all in my head, the protagonist is most often rational and lucid enough to not really need to be here once the 'veil' has been lifted..."

I glanced at my hoof, more specifically, at the cuff holding it.

The one they pulled on Smallville: Superman was effective because it was much better thought up than most. After all, they only tried to convince him that he didn't have superpowers and he was a normal human (and it was believable to a scary degree), not... something this extreme. Oh, and the emotional link to the romantic interest was exploited for all it was worth.

"This kind of ploy relies too heavily in your capacity to break the other guy, but smart ones can either fake it or escape! Besides, if you aren't careful, you succeed too well, convincing the victim that he or she is insane... and then cause them to try things because only an insane person would attempt them... like this!"

Instead of routing things through my horn (might not be a good idea), I felt for the base of my spine. Earth... related to survival, blocked by fear. I then fed it to my anger. Anger at being stuck in an obvious ploy to do me harm, to prevent me from helping the ponies, at this Nightmare.

I pulled my hoof, and the chain snapped instantaneously. The righteous anger activated both light and dark magic, elevating my strength to great levels and making my eyes glow blue again. The other cuff followed, and soon, the entire dream fell apart.

I was floating in a blank whiteness, with a Windigo-like creature in front of me. Its coat was Dark - there was no other way to describe the color, it was whatever color you thought of as Dark at that moment... its mane was a billowing white fog made of fear and insecurities, while its eyes only held pain inside of them. A Nightmare creature, not entirely dissimilar to Nightmare Moon, only that she... well, tell you later.

Before it could escape or attack, I made a grasping motion with the hand enveloped in a black haze, forcing the creature to remain in the same place no matter how much it trashed and whinnied. I was much more powerful than it, and I was not about to let some Nightmare with fake sentience use my own darkness against me.

With the other hand... well, I didn't know what I was doing with either one, but I just shone as much light as I could on it. I countered fear with determination like that of Shining Armor, insecurities with support like Pinkie gave me, pain with kindness and laughter, loneliness with warmth, and so I stripped the thing from everything that made it what it was.

Nightmares (not nightmare ponies, don't get confused) are only rarely truly sentient; they are more like a collection of delusions and fears that take 'templates' from the Collective... think of it as the 'creatures' being 'programmed' to act in a certain way, with the only thing truly their own being the desire to feed on and propagate the dark feelings they are made of. Each individual Nightmare can be wildly different, even if the base feelings that make them are the same - after all, one Nightmare can take advantage of Loneliness via unfamiliar surroundings, while another can do so from abandonment, and a third from turning a familiar place into a ghost town.

What remained... well, it was a tiny piece of Something. Sorry, but dream logic didn't quite let me know what it was or even what it looked like until I had a few more. Oh, it also left a little core of light - the very core of the feelings that the creature was born of.

The fear of waking up, alone and damaged, and finding out that the love and happiness experienced was not real.

You see, that pony was in a minor accident and ended up passing out, but, thanks to that accident, something wonderful, almost unreal, followed. I would also worry about being in a coma or something in those circumstances.

I found out later that the pony that birthed said fear (it was quite intense, to have given rise to a Nightmare) was not even from my Equestria! I learned quite a few things merely by observing that pony's teacher, actually.

One of them being relevant to this situation; coincidences don't happen very often in a place as connected to the Collective as so many versions of Equestria are.

I was meant to find that piece of Something.

It was linked to my Equestria, somehow.

I pocketed it, while I touched - more like caressed - the little light left behind. I felt a little better, more peaceful... brighter, in a 'light' sense, not of wits.

Luna appeared shortly thereafter, having sensed my nightmare.

"Thanks Luna, but I pulled enough magic into myself to allow me to, at the least, be more aware of myself and prevent the dream from sweeping me up." Not quite lucid dreaming, or getting Luna to tell me it was a dream, but my mind would have worked the same way as if I was awake.

Yes, it took me until the place fell apart to find out it was a dream, instead of... I dunno, some mind magic ploy to take me out.

The little core dissipated, having been laid to rest, and she pulled me out of my dream.

Describing the dreamscape is useless, mostly because it keeps changing. One moment, it's like we are swimming or flying around bubbles that hint at their contents through their state, another moment, and we are walking among doors... or even floating about in the waking world, interacting directly with the dreamers as they lay in bed!

We found a bubble that had black shadows running through its surface... shadows in the distinctive shape of a certain draconeequs. I didn't have to think about it, I just walked right in.

We found ourselves atop a cliff in a forest resembling the Everfree - complete with dark shadows and twisted trees. I could hear a mare crying and screaming down below, and focused on that.

Topsy Turvy, also known as Screwball, was running away from a silhouette of Discord against the moon, sending countless shadow things in her direction. They didn't need a set shape, just Discord's laughter and hearing him say 'you can't escape, my little 'daughter'!' made her tear through the forest... and get trapped against our cliff.

She might be a creature of chaos, but after learning of what Discord thought of as 'fun', she came to fear him really badly. She is a little bit like Pinkie in certain ways, so much like any pony that the Elements didn't do anything to her at all other than give her the ability to make her eyes normal whenever she wanted.

"Fear of shadows? A paladin will be just perfect." I said, jumping down between Topsy and the horde. Ponies do have religions (fewer than ours), but they are just like their society - kinder and softer than ours. They have the definition of Paladin - think Shining Armor, only a more spiritual pony.

I'm not Luna, but I can handle imagination quite well - dream logic included. I could work with expectations to make it so that I don't waste energy, letting the dreamer supply me with the tools required to turn the tables with ease.

As such, I landed while channeling light magic (unlike the mixture, it makes eyes iridescent) and conjured some armor around myself. Silver-white plate covered my body, gold-trimmed and adorned with simple crosses here and there; a red cape adorned with gold borders and a winged shield embroided right in the middle hung from my back.

I know... I know... but being a dream meant that I have to be over-the-top, lest the dreamer panic more and make the job harder. Dreams can hurt me, after all; I'm not Luna! Give me a break!

At least the chaotic instincts are dormant and quickly satisfied by doing that kind of things, even if I can't feed from it.

A sword of white steel with a golden hilt appeared in my hand, while an enormous kite shield took the other. I used the shield to enhance a hook to the stomach of the nearest, wolf-like shadow, hitting with the comparative force of a small truck going sixty miles an hour.

Topsy turned to me, still unaware that she was dreaming, but saw how I was cutting through a tree-like shade.

She felt a little bit of hope, and the next strike dug further into the thick wood than any of the previous ones.

For greater effect, and because I'm a sentimental fool at times, I recited something to give me a little more courage. I might not be a model citizen, or even a very good one, but I had the power to help, and Topsy really needed help - she willingly asked for herself to be locked in solitary at the mental ward each night! Her magic goes crazy with her nightmares! Luna and a friend kept trying, but Topsy feared herself and Discord too much to let them get through, and facing her fears was not a good idea at that point in time (and trying laughter was even worse, since she kept hearing Discord's at random times of the day)... she needed a different chaotic source to calm her down and teach her to use her powers properly, instead of letting them go crazy like Discord had made her to do.

Seeing me in the moonlight, standing up for her... well, as Discord's 'daughter', she knew of humans; she knew that the 'prince' was a human in disguise, and it scared her.

But not any more.

The sword fell one last time, and Luna's shadow shoved Discord's away from the moon.

"P-princess Luna? How is this?" She was still shivering, however, and I just pulled my cape and wrapped it around her. She has a thing for clothes, actually.

"Don't worry; I'm not going to hurt you." I said as I picked her up, while Luna walked beside us.

"He is Aether, and is Discord's replacement." She said, stroking the little pony's mane with a sad smile; Luna was tired of seeing her suffer that kind of nightmare time and time again.

She looked at me fearfully, not convinced that she was safe in her dream.

"If you are worried that I'm fake, or that I I am a liar, let me present you with proof." I turned to the princess. "Could somepony make a cape like this one? I would like it for her to have a real one."

"It shall be done." She said.

I talked to her, trying to get to know her, but the most I could get from her was that Discord made her out of pony hair and poison joke...

Between the three of us, we changed the location to Fluttershy's cottage, where we left her snuggling bunnies -even though it was 'nighttime'.

"There is nothing to be scared of; come to meet me when you have the chance!" I told her, and she at least wasn't against the idea.

She became rather important to me... after all, she was proof that coming from Discord didn't mean it was automatically bad.

Then, we left. We had many more dreams to visit, after all... I'll tell you about the other memorable ones...