//------------------------------// // The Dreamscape, Part 2 // Story: Canterlot Academy: Knights of the Dark Moon // by LordLycaon //------------------------------// A pair of large doors lit up in two different colored auras of magic, pushing open to allow the two mares entry into the room beyond. Twilight trotted in first, mouth slightly agape at the enormity of the new chamber. At the end of the room was a regal throne, decorated extravagantly and awaiting somepony to sit upon it. The windows were stained glass, depicting images of both Twilight and Trixie’s own pasts as far as they knew. There was two that showed them receiving their cutie marks, one for either mare. One was more recent, showing a depiction of Twilight and Shining Armor approaching what looked like Canterlot Academy. “This must be the throne room,” Trixie pointed out. “Not half bad. I wouldn’t mind having a throne room like this if I were royalty.” “Trixie, if you were royalty, there would be laws against wheels.” Twilight snickered at the miffed look on the other mare’s face. “I don’t trust wheels, okay? They always break when you need them the most!” “I highly doubt your toy train getting a broken wheel when we were eight justifies such an intense hatred for inanimate objects.” Trixie’s tail swished in annoyance. “Whatever.” Twilight laughed once more at an embarrassed Trixie’s expense. Trixie fumed, but said nothing more as they returned to examining the stained-glass windows. Gradually, their relatively jovial attitudes became curiosity once more as the windows began depicting various events that neither of them recognized; one showed Trixie launching a magic blast at a swarm of strange, black, pony-shaped creatures, while another showed Twilight apparently combatting some bizarre, mix-and-match monster that was surrounded by what looked like pink clouds spewing brown rain. One, however, stood out among the rest. It was the simplest in design, but it hit them both harder than all the others. The window showed both Twilight and Trixie facing each other, their eyes locked and their horns glowing. Both looked ready for a fight. Above them, a pair of eyes watched, with sickly green sclera, crimson irises, and an eerie purple smoke oozing out from them, like living shadows. The two friends looked to each other, then back at the window. It hadn’t taken long for either of them to figure out what it meant, but neither of them wanted to say it. In a silent agreement, they turned away from that particular window. “This is bizarre,” Trixie commented. “Most of these windows are showing things from the past, but the others are just…” “Weird? Abnormal? Nothing that either of us recognize or feel that we want to recognize?” “Yeah, that.” “What do you think they mean?” They were approaching the throne now, but kept her eyes on some of the odder windows. “I don’t know. I mean, this is the Dreamscape. Maybe their just figments of our imaginations or something. It’s not like you and I will ever get into a…” She trailed off, her focus drifting to something behind Twilight, who, in curiosity, turned to see what it was. Above the throne was a stained-glass window that wasn’t there earlier, depicting an image of the moon, complete with the craters that made up the Mare in the Moon. Gradually, the light in the room dimmed, shrouding the room in almost total darkness. The shadows created by what little light there was left in the throne room became twisted and unnatural, bending to look like ponies standing along the walls. The two mares stood close together, backing away from the throne, where the highest concentration of shadows was gathered. The darkness rose up from the ground, forming an orb of black. Stillness. When the orb finished forming, it just sat there, looming ominously over them, as if it were waiting for one of them to make the first move. Neither mare could look away from the sphere, the depths of its darkness being almost hypnotic, in a way. “Um…” Trixie stammered to say something. Suddenly, the orb cracked, startling both mares. The cracks on the sphere’s surface spread rapidly, shattering and sending black shards flying into oblivion, and revealing the orb’s contents; in place of the ball of shadows stood an equally dark figure, as tall as Princess Celestia herself, with a long, black horn that ended in a razor point, and large, imposing, wings that had feathers, but almost resembled the wings of a bat, or even a dragon. Before them was a mare with an ebony coat that almost shined, even the dim light of the throne room. She wore regal, dark blue armor upon her hooves, a large, similarly colored amulet bearing a crescent moon emblem upon it around her neck, with a helmet resting upon her head. Her mane was ethereal and nebulous, with occasional, star-like dots of light floating about within. Her cutie mark was a dark, purple cloud with a pure white crescent moon. When she opened her eyes, Twilight and Trixie beheld a pair of draconic, azure eyes. Even the whites of the mare’s eyes were tinted blue. Her pupils were slitted, much like those of dragon, giving her a fiercer appearance than an armored, possibly royal alicorn. The dark mare looked down at the now shuddering pair before her, narrowing her eyes at the two mares. She eyed them both, sizing them up as a griffon butcher would a chunk of meat. She sneered, revealing dagger-like fangs within her mouth. Why a pony would have fangs was beyond either of the young mares, but neither of them dared question it. “Who are you?” the dark alicorn demanded. Her voice nearly shook the entire castle. “Why have you dared to set your hooves within my domain?” “Y-your d-domain?” Twilight reluctantly stuttered, fear gripping her as she looked upon the towering being standing at the throne. The dark alicorn scowled. “Yes, my domain. Now, answer my question. I will not ask again.” “T-Twilight Sparkle.” With a nervous gulp, Trixie answered, “Trixie L-Lulamoon.” The alicorn’s eyes widened for just a split-second when Trixie introduced herself. “Lulamoon, you say? It has been some time since I’ve heard that name.” “Wh-what?” Trixie stammered. The alicorn shook her head. “It’s not that important. You are not important.” Stumbling over the words, Twilight asked, “Wh-who are y-you?” Initially, the alicorn’s only response was a cold, derisive sneer, which became a disappointed sigh and a shake of her head. “I suppose I should not be surprised that you do not recognize me. Celestia—” she spat the princess’s name like it was poison “—simply cannot have someone like myself share in her glory.” The obsidian mare stretched out her wings, making her appear larger than she already was. “I am fear that keeps you awake at night. I am the Mistress of Dreams, the Queen of the Night! I am Nightmare Moon! Equestria is be mine to rule by right of power and birth! And you foals are intruders upon my domain! Be gone, or suffer!” At dark alicorn’s exclamation, the throne room ceiling began to fade out of existence, revealing the immense swarm of Night Terrors, their razor fangs still exposed in manic, starving grins. At a motion from Nightmare Moon, the horde of beasts rained down toward the two mares. -o- Twilight’s eyes snapped open as she screamed, a cold sweat pouring down her neck like a rainstorm. Her breaths were ragged and labored, but slowly settled as she realized that she was in the practice room again. Trixie had fared no better than Twilight had, but was recovering as well. The last hour or two was foggy, though. It was difficult to really remember all she had seen and heard in that time. It felt like a dream she she couldn’t fully recall. Was that an effect of the Dreamscape? She remembered fangs, and that they had cut her in places. Of course, she bore no such injuries. The most prevalent memory, however, was in the last few moments; Nightmare Moon had sent a swarm of monsters to attack them. However, even that memory was hazy at best. She couldn’t quite recall anything else. Except the color pink, for some reason, but that didn’t seem completely relevant. ‘Was any of that even real?’ she silently wondered. She looked to Trixie, whose breathing had returned to normal, and now wore an uncharacteristic, contemplative expression. “Trix?” No response. “Trixie?” “Huh?” The blue unicorn shook her head and faced Twilight. “What? What is it?” She gave her friend a look of concern. “Are you okay? You look a little… shaken up, I guess.” Twilight had to wait a few moments for an answer. Trixie looked as though she was partially lost in thought. Maybe she was trying to remember details of their trip to the Dreamscape? If they had actually managed it, that is. Trixie gave a slight nod. “Yeah… yeah, I’m fine. Just…” She sighed heavily. “It’s nothing, really. I’m good.” “Are you—” “Yes, Twilight, I’m sure. I’m fine.” The lavender mare was somewhat taken aback by her friend’s rather harsh interruption. Trixie loved being the center of attention, but she wasn’t one to interrupt others, regardless of how she felt. Twilight was certain that her friend was most definitely not fine, but Trixie Lulamoon was a hard nut to crack. It’d take weeks of pressuring to get her to tell her what she was thinking. Twilight knew this from experience. “How much do you remember?” Twilight stared at her friend in surprise for a moment. “It… well, it’s mostly just a foggy mess. I can only really recall the last few moments, but even that’s difficult to remember.” Trixie looked away. “Yeah… same here.” -o- Friday evening was a time for study, as Twilight believed. The rigors of class had let out for a two day break for all students to relax and unclench their brains from the trials of school life. For Twilight, however, it was a time to relax and lose herself in a book to keep her mind active. That didn’t keep her from spending time with her friends, of course, but she usually wanted to keep up with her studies. Today was a different matter, though. After her jaunt in the Dreamscape (she still wasn’t entirely sure if that had actually happened), she felt a sudden pang of homesickness, and she felt that visiting her brother would help. As she trotted up to the door, she noticed that the stallion’s home was as well-kept as always. She smiled inwardly; he likely kept it clean because of his relationship with Cadence. When they were younger, their parents had always given Shining grief about keeping his room cleaned, and he had stubbornly refused to learn. With a marefriend, though, it seemed that keeping his place clean was important enough to change his nature. She knocked on the door and waited for him to answer. As she waited she could smell food being prepared, and she felt her stomach grumble. ‘I should’ve eaten when I had the chance,’ she thought to herself, resting a hoof on her grumbling stomach. ‘Maybe I can talk Shining into giving me something to eat.’ She looked up as she heard the door open and heard her brother speak. “Hello?” Her brother looked past the door and he smiled wide. “Twily!” She smiled warmly. “Hi, BBBFF. How are you?” He wrapped her up in a quick hug. “I’m doing all right. What are you doing here? Something happen at the Academy?” He frowned faintly as he asked the last question. She shook her head. “No, nothing happened. I just wanted to come visit you, and—” her stomach grumbled loudly, betraying her hunger. She gave a sheepish chuckle and blushed. “Could I get something to eat?” She could tell he wanted to laugh, but he was polite enough not to. “Come on, I’ll cook something up.” “Thanks, Shining,” she said. ‘Please don’t let it be corn dogs, PLEASE don’t let it be corn dogs.’ -o- Later on, she found herself sitting at the table, glaring at a plate of corn dogs in front of her.  Her brother happily munched down on his plate of corn dogs. ‘By all that is holy, why did it have to be corn dogs?’ She heaved out a sigh and started to eat one, resisting the urge to spit it out into the nearest trash can. ‘And then maybe set fire to it.’ She didn’t necessarily hate corn dogs, but her brother’s near-addiction to the cursed things made her positively sick of them. “Something wrong?” Shining asked after he gulped down his food. “No, no, I’m fine,”she answered automatically. She didn’t want to hurt his feelings with her opinion of his favorite food. “How’s work? Have you been busy?” The white stallion snorted. “You tell me. With all these recent disappearances and foalnappings, the Royal Guard is stretched way thinner than usual. I’m honestly starting think this might turn out to be one of those unsolved mysteries you read about in tabloid newspapers or something.” Twilight groaned. “Pleased don’t say that. You know how I get with stuff like that.” “Sorry.” Shining took another big bite of one of his corn dogs. “So, how’s the Academy treating you?” She hesitated to answer. She briefly considered telling him about her time in the Dreamscape with Trixie (what she remembered, anyway), but what could she tell him? That she had a bad dream? Fractured as that memory was, that’s all he’d ever say it was, and that she was worrying over nothing. Maybe she was. She tended to do that, much to her to own great distaste. “Oh, you know,” she said finally. “School will always be school. But the Academy is… different. There’s so much there to do and learn, and I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface.” ‘On a number of things.’ The two siblings sat in silence for a little while after that, Shining giving his sister an analytical look. “Is something wrong, Twily?” “What?” The stallion set the corn dog he had been eating onto his plate, giving Twilight a serious look. “I know that look you had just now. You’re having a hard time figuring something out, aren’t you?” The violet mare hung her head slightly. He was certainly right. Everything she had been trying to figure out recently - the whole thing with the Knights of the Dark Moon, the jaunt in the Dreamscape with Trixie that ended with a mention of Nightmare Moon - was very nearly driving her nuts. She felt deep down that something was wrong, but she couldn’t for the life of her figure out what. A part of her, though, was telling her to go with her gut, that something was wrong, and she needed to do something. It was also telling her to talk to her brother about these things. “Well…” There was a sudden knock at the door that caused her to start. Shining looked past her and smiled a bit. “That should be Cadence,” he said, pushing his chair back. “She and I were going to go out to watch a play together.” Twilight smiled wide; the thought of seeing her old foalsitter brought about a happy smile to her face. She had always loved it when Cadence would watch her when her parents would go for a night out, or when her brother was too busy to foalsit. She and the young alicorn would laugh and joke at any number of things, including about her brother. Cadence was a pony that Twilight would always call a friend. “I’ll let her in,” she said quickly, pushing her chair back as she got to her hooves. She headed for the door before her brother could protest and opened it to find the pink alicorn standing patiently with a small, purple lizard creature beside her. The lizard was forgotten as Cadence’s eyes widened in joy. “Twilight!” “Cadence!” The two then began reciting an old nursery rhyme together that the two knew from their youth. Prancing first before covering their eyes, they then clapped their hooves together twice before shaking their flanks at each other. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!” They laughed with each other and Twilight wrapped her hooves around her old friend’s shoulders tightly. “Cadence, it’s so good to see you again!” The pink alicorn, gently pushed her friend back. “You too, Twilight. You’ve grown so tall, look at you!” Twilight blushed faintly beside herself. “Thank you, Cadence.” She looked past the alicorn to look curiously at the small creature, who stood quietly watching them with a faint smirk of humor. “Who’s your friend?” “Oh!” Cadence turned and motioned to the small dragon. “This is Spike. He works for Shining with the Royal Guard. He was bringing some paperwork for Shining to sign.” “I’m more like his courier than anything,” the small dragon muttered dryly. Twilight smiled faintly at his wit. “Hello, there, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” “Pleased to meet you.” He bowed elegantly to her. “It’s nice to finally meet you. Shining talks about you all the time.” The unicorn rubbed at the back of her head in embarrassment. “Hopefully not too much.” Spike shrugged. “Not enough to be annoying.” He looked past her into the home. “He’s home, right?” She nodded and stepped aside, letting them both in. She followed them on the way to the kitchen where the stallion was finishing up his meal. Cadence gave him a coy smile. “Had dinner without me?” His eyes widened, and Twilight was sure the blood had drained from his face, though his white coat hid it completely. “Oh, no, if I’d known you were hungry I’d—” Cadence chuckled and raised a hoof for him to calm. “I’ve already eaten, Shiny. I was only teasing.” “Oh, well, I…” he stammered. “Hmph, usually he only gets like that when I bring him paperwork,” Spike muttered dryly. Twilight and Cadence had a good laugh at Shining’s expense, and Twilight found herself liking the small dragon more and more. Shining cleared her throat and moved the conversation along, looking at Spike. “Something come up?” The dragon shook his head and placed a rolled parchment on the table for him to look at. “Only the most recent report. Just needs your signature.” The unicorn looked over the report for a moment before sighing. “Another one gone missing.” “Another foalnapping?” Twilight asked, furrowing her brow with worry. He nodded. “Yeah. We have guards out looking for her now, but… I doubt we’ll find her before she turns up again without any memory of being foalnapped. I know there’s gotta be something more to this, but—” Cadence hushed him, giving him a warm look. “Not tonight. Tonight, we’re going to relax and have a pleasant evening, remember? No work.” He smiled in turn to her. “Right, no work.” He quickly used an offered quill from Spike and jotted on the parchment. “Alright, let me finish getting ready, and we’ll head out.” He looked towards Twilight apologetically. “Sorry to cut your visit so short, Twily, but…” She shook her head. “It’s alright, big brother. I’ll come back when you’re not so busy.” He nodded to her gratefully, and again looked to Spike. “Can I ask you to walk with Twilight back to the Academy, Spike?” Twilight glowered at her brother. “Shining, I don’t need—” “It’s all right. It’s on the way for me,” the dragon said and gave Twilight a sly look. “Besides, who knows what sort of things I can learn about Shining from his own sister!” Again she chuckled, both at Spike’s comment and Shining’s look of horror. “Oh, I could tell you a few stories.” “Twily!” he sputtered. Again she laughed. “Just teasing, BBBFF. Mostly. You two enjoy your date.” “Oh, we will,” Cadence said warmly. With that, they parted ways, Shining and Cadance heading out toward what ponies referred to as the Entertainment District of Canterlot, while Spike took the lead on the road to the Academy. Twilight sometimes gave him an odd look, thinking that there was something strangely familiar about him that she couldn’t quite put her hoof on. “So…” she said. “How did you become my brother’s assistant, anyway? It’s not everyday a pony sees a dragon walking around.” Spike looked back at her, an eyebrow raised, with a somewhat confused look in his bright green eyes. “You really don’t know? You don’t remember?” She blinked and tilted her head at him.“Er… should I?” “You’re the one who hatched me, remember? For your entrance exam?” The unicorn’s eyes widened suddenly. “Oh! That’s right! I had to hatch an egg for my entrance exam into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns! How could I forget? That was the day…” She trailed off, her somewhat jovial attitude quickly replaced with a depressed expression as she stopped walking. “What?” Spike inquired. “It…” she hesitated. “It was the day my parents died,” she said, her voice dropping low. Spike stared at her for a few painfully awkward moments, scratching the back of his head. “Oh. Sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up any bad memories.” “It’s all right, Spike,” Twilight said with a small smile. “I don’t really remember much from that day anyway. I just remember being told to hatch an egg, and then… everything after that is a complete blank.” She neglected to mention the weeks of depression she went through after that, wondering what happened that day, wondering if it was her fault. In fact, she might never have gotten out of that funk if a certain blue unicorn filly hadn’t kept pestering her to let her be her friend. Shaking her head, she smiled at the little dragon. “Let’s just keep walking. Memory lane isn’t always a fun place.” “Sure,” Spike agreed with a wide grin. The two continued along their way down the street, getting more than a few odd looks from fellow Canterlotians. Twilight highly doubted that any of them had ever seen a dragon before. She also doubted any of them would want to meet one. Dragons didn’t exactly have a sterling reputation with ponies. “By the way,” Spike said, “since you’re the one who hatched me, doesn’t that kinda make you my mom?” Twilight fumbled over her own hooves at Spike’s suggestion, and stared at him with wide eyes and a gaping mouth. He only responded with another confused look. “M-m-m-me?” the young mare stammered out. “A m-m-m-m-mom!? B-b-but I’m only fifteen! I’m not ready for that kind of responsibility!” Spike stared at her with both eyebrows raised now. “Uh…” “I’m still in school! Granted, I’m in the Academy, but I can’t study and take classes and raise a child all at the same time! I can’t handle that kind of stress! I don’t know the first thing about raising a baby dragon! Is there a book on it! Where’s the book!?” “Oh, boy…” Spike muttered as he slid a claw down his face in exasperation. What had he just unleashed? -o- After Twilight finished her mild panic attack (Spike once again stared at her when she described it as “mild”), the two continued along their way, soon stopping in front of the vast courtyard of Canterlot Academy. “You’re sure you don’t need somepony to come with you?” Twilight asked. “Nah, it’s fine.” Spike gave a nonchalant shrug. “Nopony in Canterlot messes with a dragon, even one as young as me. Probably afraid that I’ll eat them when I’m older or something. Anyway, I should get going. I’ve got some files to organize back at the department.” Twilight nodded, watching as Spike turned to leave. She furrowed her brow, however, bearing the feeling that she was forgetting something. Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she called, “Hey, hang on a minute!” The dragon stopped and faced her again, curious. “There was something I wanted to tell my brother, but then you and Cadance came by, and… well…” “No problem. I can tell him the next time I see him.” The lavender mare grinned at that. “I was hoping you’d volunteer. Look, I think I might have a lead for his investigation into these recent foalnappings. Tell him to brush up on his history, specifically on tactics used by followers of Nightmare Moon during the Nightmare Wars.” “The Nightmare Wars?” Spike parroted in confusion. “What does that have to do with foalnappings?” “Maybe more than you might think,” Twilight muttered. “Look, just tell him, okay? It’s important that he looks into every possibility.” Spike nodded, though it was clear he was still unsure. They waved to each other as he left, and Twilight turned to head into the Academy. Hopefully, her advice would help Shining solve these disappearances soon. If not, then at least she can say that she tried, right? -o- The sky blue mare lay sprawled out on her bed, her ceiling fan slowly and hypnotically turning above, her thoughts running around in her head like a bunch of headless chickens. Her violet eyes were filled with confusion, curiosity, and just a little bit of self-loathing. All of her thoughts were different, but each one started with the same word. ‘Why?’ Trixie asked herself. Why did she remember her and Twilight’s trip to the Dreamscape so vividly, while Twilight claimed it to be a foggy mess? Why did she lie about remembering the trip? Why had Nightmare Moon said that her surname was familiar? A part of her was desperate to know these answers. She really wanted to know all the ‘whys.’ Another part of her, however, was terrified to know the answers. This latter part of her told her that something was very wrong, that she should just run away and never look back. A third part of her told to do nothing. Whatever was going to happen, she should just let it happen, and not fight it, or run from it. That she should just lie back and accept her fate, whatever it may be. That part scared her the most. She didn’t like it. It chilled her to her bones to think that she would just submit to whatever might be coming. Trixie Lulamoon was a defiant, confident (bordering on arrogant, admittedly) mare with a goal in mind. She was going to be a famous showpony, performing all sorts of grand feats with her incredible magical ability, wowing audiences all over Equestria with wondrous tricks and illusions, maybe even impressing Princess Celestia herself with her skills. She was going to be a household name! Something wasn’t right. Not with her. Not with the Academy. Certainly not with the Dreamscape. It was just impossible for her to point out what, exactly, was wrong. And that scared her. With a frustrated groan, she pulled her blankets over her head and snuggled with her pillow, hoping that tomorrow would bring some answers to the chaos of her thoughts.