To Save a King

by Blackdrag-rose

II: Dreams and Nightmares

Rocket and his company partied the evening away and slipped into early nighttime, not that they really noticed the time change on them. Tick was more concerned with getting up on the DJ stand with Vinyl and getting the club pumped, which in turn made everypony assembled get pumped up. Wisdom and Peachy made jokes and pulled pranks with the help of Rainbow Dash at their side to do the most hilarious pranks of all. Rocket smiled, it was enough that his friends were having fun and rejoicing that he had returned to their simple town after one long year.

He spent his time hanging with Rose, who was content to watch Peachy and Wisdom make fools of themselves while they danced to Tick's beats. He thought it was more like two skilled dancers trying to see which was the better trick master and best the other one in front of everypony gathered. The wind blowed in from behind him and he noticed that Princess Luna had decided to join the party, much to the displeasure of his guards.

"King Rocket Sky," the Lunar Princess greeted, ignoring the noise around them as she sat down next to them, "Queen Viscarias. I take it you have been having a fun evening after our little war game a few days ago?"

"We have been having a splendid time Princess Luna," Rose responded, though she was slightly annoyed by being called by her real name, "Much better than last year when those dragons tried to take Rocket away by force and he beat the stuffing out of them."

"That was my power at work my dear," Rocket corrected, still ashamed that his power had saved him time and time again, "but at least they got what was coming to them."

"All too true my love," Rose said, kissing him on the cheek before turning back to the Lunar Princess, "To what do we owe your company Luna? I take it this is more then a social visit."

"I have come to party the night away," Luna answered, smiling as she envisioned the chaos she would cause that night, "starting with dancing against your friends to the beat that Tick is playing. If you'll excuse me, I do believe it is time to upstage my student and Tia's adviser at their own game."

And just like that Luna popped onto the dance floor and began busting moves that made Wisdom and Peachy drop their jaws. The two grinned and the next thing Rocket knew it was a three way dance battle between the three. He sighed, some things would never change. He coughed and suddenly realized that he was far more tired then he had lead the others to believe, which was understandable since it was almost midnight already. He and Rose bid whoever would pay attention to them goodbye and left for the small little cottage they had built in the Everfree Forest.

The area they had built the cottage in was the same place that Rocket had battled his darkness, the evil unicorn known as Dark Sky, and had won. The lake was special, it allowed a pony to summon what they were afraid of and at the time Rocket was scared of his darkness. Now he had something even more terrifying than before; the Changeling Monster that he had become thanks to Chrysalis. A monster of uncontrollable power that had one desire, to eradicate the Royal Family and the God of Chaos from the world. If he peered into the lake now, with a new monster to be afraid of, then he would likely doom everypony to destruction.

At least he knew that Rose would not allow him to do that.

They arrived at their little paradise and wandered into the cottage, which had been upgraded into a stable two story building thanks to all the time they had to spend before he had been crowned as a Prince. There was a second cottage, one longer than theirs that contained more than two ponies during the nighttime. It was the cottage of their guards, who would not allow harm to come to them. Rocket coughed again and was beginning to wonder if he was coming down with the cold or something, so he bid his wife goodnight and they turned in together.

-The Dream World-

Rocket found himself staring at the center of a lake, his mind focused on the one event he would rather leave alone and forget about in the years to come. The day when he had become the Changeling monster and was bent on destroying everypony that dared to challenge him, be they friend or foe. The water began to bubble as his mind focused on the monster and he could not tear himself away from it no matter what he tried.

The next thing he knew he was pinned to the ground by the same thing he had been seeing in his dreams and nightmares for the last couple of weeks; the monster version of himself. The black Changeling stood over him, an orb of energy gathering around his horn. A horn that was pointed directly in Rocket's face!

Rocket only needed a second to figure out where in the nightmare he was this time; he was taking the place of Peachy, who had nearly been blasted by the monster. She had been saved thanks to Rose's heroic actions, but as he cast his eyes around he found that me and the monster were alone. So that meant that nopony, save for Princess Luna, would be coming to rescue him. And now that he was staring the monster in the face he realized why Peachy had been terrified at the time and could say that he felt the same way now.

-The Waking World-

Princess Luna, retiring from the dance floor early, sat where she had last seen the Changeling Rulers, drinking some sort of cider that Applejack had brought with her. The farm pony was somewhere in the mess of ponies partying, though she couldn't figure out if the entire town was present or not. She should have been watching ponies dreams at the time, but she wanted a break from all of that so she could teach her fantastic student and take the war game trophy.

But despite the fact that she wanted peace for one night she still couldn't have it, but as she focused on the source of the troubling nightmare she was surprised. It was none other than Rocket Sky. She quickly turned into mist and flew directly into the dream that was troubling the Changeling King. She only hoped that she wasn't too late to help out in anyway.

-The Dream World-

"Do it already you dumb dream monster," Rocket shouted, surprised that the Changeling hadn't blasted him yet, "End the dream and let me return to the waking world."

Suddenly the monster turned its head and was blasted off of Rocket by a beam of Lunar energy, which meant that Luna had come to his rescue. He dragged himself off the ground as the Alicorn landed right next to him, slightly surprised by the fact there were two of him hanging around.

"A nightmare involving Dark?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow, "Seriously? You can't get over that?"

"I've tried to forget about him and failed." Rocket explained, summoning his battle armor as he faced Dark, "Now my nightmare has resurrected him and he could have done me in."

"The only way you'll be rid of him is if you defeat him," Luna explained, fully aware of the situation as the nightmare approached them, "Just best your nightmare and you will be free of it. Works all the time with every other pony that has terrible nightmares."

"Easy for you to say," Rocket shouted, blasting the demon with his own magic, "You don't have to fight a mass powerhouse monster like this."

Luna smiled and kept her mouth shut as Rocket dodged the nightmares slow attacks and continued the barrage of attacks he unleashed. It was as easy as that, Luna thought as she watched, to defeat one's inner demon. And sure enough the nightmare dissipated into nothing as soon as it hit the ground for the last time.

"Told you it was that easy," Luna remarked as the stallion returned to his royal set of jewelry, "Now, if you will excuse me, I must return to the party that you have distracted me from. See you around King Rocket Sky."

-The Waking World-

Rocket awoke slightly and sighed happily, he was glad that the nightmares were over. But he had a feeling that something bigger than his nightmares would be plaguing him in the days to come. He closed his eyes and went back to sleep, glad that Rose was already sound asleep for once.