More than one thousand years ago, when the Princess of the Night and her sister had faced the dark lord of the Crystal Empire, they had not been prepared for the truly sadistic evil which lay within his mind. The diarchs had nearly lost one another to the lord’s sorcery and skills in manipulation. By turning them against one another, and tormenting them in their own dreams, he had nearly crushed their spirits, but together, they had prevailed. By supporting one another, they had overcome the sway of the dark lord, and had banished him beneath the ice. The Princess of the Night then studied the magic of the dark lord. Learning how he manipulated dreams. Although it had taken many years to master, the alicorn eventually mastered the art of dream making. However, knowing full-well the potentially dangerous nature of the manuscripts left behind by Sombra, she had destroyed them, praying that the knowledge within them never be shared with anypony other than the two royal sisters.
As the Princess of the Night flew towards the small village, she reflected upon these events, playing them through in her mind again and again. Somehow, the dark lord must have hidden away a cache of the manuscripts, and it had now been stumbled upon by somepony. The maker of dreams chastised herself for having been so ignorant as to have not recognized the magic of the king sooner. She only hoped that she would be able to prevent this dark magic from spreading anymore than it already had.
As the alicorn alighted herself outside of the hospital, she could make out the shape of the lavender mare surrounded by her friends. With a small nod from the princess, the friends left the pair alone outside. The young mare’s disheveled mane hung limply at her sides, and her red eyes barely acknowledged the diarch as she approached. Only the occasional sniff came from the young student.
The Princess of the Night kneeled down beside the distraught mare, running a hoof slowly along her back. The pair sat there as the golden sun was beginning to set, casting it’s light down upon the two as they sat in an ever growing field of silence. When the alicorn spoke, she did so softly, keeping her eyes level with the horizon. She informed the unicorn of her plan which might offer a solution, and saw the young hopeful eyes of the pony stare up at she dared not meet her gaze. She knew that the chances of such a task actually working were terribly low, but perhaps, with the young ponies’ resolve, it could be accomplished.
The royal mare did her best to remain positive as they made their way to the drake’s room. But the thoughts continued to plague the back of her mind as she walked with the young mare. For even if the alicorn was able to give the two access to the young drake’s dreams, there were still no chances that the two would be able to establish any form of dialogue with him. It had been centuries since the diarchs had last faced the dark magic of the king; there was no telling what monstrous mutated form the magic may have taken on in all of those years in isolation… But of course, she dared not crush the mare’s hopes, and so her fears went unvoiced.
The Princess of the Night was led into the room where once more the young drake lay unmoving upon the bed, however this time, thick leather restraints bound the limbs of the dragon there. The diarch observed that the lavender unicorn averted her gaze from her friend, a deep look of regret engraved upon her face. She also noted that the aura surrounding the dying drake was weak, barely giving off any light, meaning he did not have much time before he left this world forever.
Focusing her power, the alicorn began searching the mind of the dragon, attempting to find a way to access his unconscious mind. The lavender mare dared not breathe as she looked on hopefully at the older mare. After a minute of searching, the glow of the diarch’s horn slowly faded and she turned her gaze to meet the waiting eyes of the other mare. Her eyes showed clearly enough that the outlook was grim; even though it was clear that the diarch was attempting to not show this upon her face.
Knowing that now was the time for action, the alicorn motioned for the lavender mare to stand next to her as she began casting her spell. As it began to take hold, the lavender unicorn took one final tearful look at her her friend before she felt herself collapse Their minds freed themselves from their bodies as they descended into the mind of the young drake. The waking world’s lights slowly fading to nothing as a new world was revealed to the pair. It was a desolate landscape, full of grays and blacks. The soil beneath their homes was empty and showed no signs of having ever supported life. All around them, a faint breeze blew, sending small clouds of gray just silently blowing across the rolling hills. Even the sun didn’t shine, if there even was one. A rust colored sky was all that was present in the sky which was heavily blanketed with thick dark clouds that only allowed a faint suggestion of light to carry its way through to the empty world below.
As they marched through the valley of the shadow of death, the lavender mare cried out for her friend, but the words were swallowed up by the land of the deepest night of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light was like darkness. The Princess of the Night noted that this light only continued to fade as they marched on through the deserted hills of gray sand. Of more concern, however, was the fact that the gusts of wind seemed to be picking up in speed. For hours they marched through the expansive desert with the weather only continuing to worsen as they moved on.
It came to the the point at which the two ponies couldn’t be more than a few feet from one another as they continued their trek. Even by the light of their glowing horns combined, the Princess of the Night had trouble seeing through the sandstorm which sent grains of sand stinging into her sides and eyes. Although she delayed it for as long as she could the princess finally spoke up and was in the middle of suggesting that it might be a lost cause when they saw something in the distance. An emptiness of clear daylight which shone itself upon a small mound of recently disturbed sand. The pair took off running towards the point of salvation, ignoring the ever more tumultuous gusts of sand and air.
With a final effort, they pushed through and found themselves within the small area of inactivity. Here the air hung and didn’t move at all, and even more curious, was that the sounds of the sandstorm from outside their small haven had gone silent as though nothing was happening at all. The lavender mare had thrown herself upon the pile of earth as soon as they had entered the sanctuary, and had begun digging at the earth. Throwing up piles upon piles of the heavy gray dust. The diarch joined in and in under a minute, they were scraping at the top of a simple wooden box.
The diarch could hear beside her as between thick gasps of air the lavender mare choked out the words: “No, no… Please no, Spike. You can’t be… You can’t…”
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The drake had finally drowned out the noise of that horrible mare that was trying to keep him from his freedom. With a contented sigh, the dragon relaxed within his wooden sanctuary and let the deafening silence surround him. Let every note of no sound permeate and shake his very soul… At last! Sweet, freedom. No more fear… No more pain.
But then the young drake heard something. Something horrible. It was the monster. The monster! It was trying to steal him from his sanctuary! That horrible monster! No! No! The drake would not be returned to the endless nights of torture! He would fight! The enraged dragon readied himself so he could leap upon the sadistic invader. The scraping! The scraping! It had reached him! The lid of the creature’s home was thrown open and the drake saw the horrible eyes of his oppressor. With all the force he could muster the drake threw himself upon the sadistic monster, sinking its claws into the horrible creatures neck...