The Mistress of Dreams

by McPoodle

Chapter 1: It's No Good

Thought Experiments 5:

The Mistress of Dreams

Chapter 1: It’s No Good

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Deep within the heart of an imaginary palace, a tiny room of brick and stone held five ponies and one baby dragon.

These were none other than four members of the legendary Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, plus two guests: Twilight Sparkle the Bearer of Magic, Pinkie Pie the Bearer of Laughter, Rainbow Dash the Bearer of Loyalty, Applejack the Bearer of Honesty, Vinyl Scratch the Musician, and Spike the Dragon. Not to mention the room itself, which was a living entity by the name of Cecil.

All of them had been trapped in each other’s nightmares by the Dragon Emperor, and had only just managed to free themselves from the latest deathtrap.

Twilight looked around herself to be sure of who was present in the room. “We only have one pony more to recover: Fluttershy,” she announced with confidence, naming the missing Element of Kindness.

Behind her, Spike raised two claws in confusion, but put them down when he saw everypony agree with Twilight’s assessment.

“It should be easy-peasy to get through Fluttershy’s dream!” declared Rainbow Dash from her position hovering above the others. “And after that—Wham! Pow! Goodnight, Dragon Emperor!”

“OH, I WOULDN’T BE SO SURE ABOUT THAT...” an immense voice thundered, felt more than heard by the inhabitants of the room.

With a sudden wrenching sound, the roof of the room was suddenly ripped up and away, revealing that the chamber was in fact floating in the middle of interstellar space. Peering in at them with an evil grin was a winged red dragon, easily as tall as the entire Canterhorn mountain.

“Owie!” exclaimed the voice of Cecil.

The sky-blue pegasus wasn’t fazed for a moment by the sight of the monstrosity above her. “Oh, you want me to bring the pain right now?” she boasted. “One dragon curb-stomp, coming right up!”

With an amused smirk, the Emperor raised one scaled hand and opened it, releasing a blinding burst of white light. When the light faded, Rainbow Dash’s ascending flight was instantly converted into a dizzying descent, causing her to slam back down into the floor of the chamber.

“Whabv hawv ooo...” Pinkie Pie started to say, before her eyes bugged out at the sight of the tip of her swollen and blue-spotted tongue. “Poi-on Hoke!”

Each of the Bearers had been affected by the spell: Rainbow Dash’s wings were now mounted upside down, Pinkie Pie’s tongue rendered her unable to speak intelligibly, Applejack was now as small as a normal pony’s hoof, and Twilight Sparkle’s floppy horn rendered her magically useless. Only the musician and the dragon were unaffected.

“Poison Joke?” asked Vinyl Scratch. “I remember that story from the Etheric. Maybe if I...” She charged up her horn, in the vain hope that her magic might be able to shock the Emperor into undoing his spell.

The spell was broken as a loud burst of high-pitched static caused her to slap her hooves over her ears and squeal in pain. The other ponies were merely disoriented, but for the blind mare, the sound the dragon was somehow producing proved doubly painful.

Applejack tried to make a suggestion with hooves cupped in front of her muzzle, but with the noise in the air, her tiny cries went completely unnoticed.

“Twilight!” Spike yelled out, waving his arms. “Twilight! I think we should...” He stopped when he saw that nopony was paying any attention to him.

Pinkie Pie fixed a determined glare at the giant dragon, then started running at a wall. On reaching it, she ran straight up the vertical surface, and then started crossing the gulf separating her from her foe as if she were trotting along an invisible path. Before she had gotten halfway there, the orange dragon incinerated her with his fiery breath.

Everyone watching gasped in horror.

A rain of blackened soot gathered in a neat pile at the center of the floor, and then a pair of lips and a pair of blue eyes pushed themselves out.

“Wellbth!” Ashie Pie exclaimed. “Howth roo!”

Twilight sighed in relief. “It’s a dream, I keep forgetting that. Now what did that one character in that silly cartoon do?”

A little sign raised itself out of the pile. “Instant Pinkie Pie,” the sign read. “Just add water.”

Twilight looked at one particular blue stone in the wall of the room. “Cecil,” she asked, “do you suppose you can whip up a rain spell?”

“I’d like to see you cast a spell like that after having one of your extremities torn off!” Cecil replied in a somewhat hysteric tone of voice.

Twilight looked over at Vinyl, only to see that she was frantically stuffing gravel into each ear.

“Don’t worry,” Rainbow Dash assured her as she took back to the air. “‘Appletini’ and ‘Rainbow Crash’ are on the case!”

Twilight saw that Rainbow Dash was flying upside down, which is to say positioned so that her wings were rightside-up. Standing on her chest and directing her movements with an improvised bridle was the miniature Applejack. The pegasus started flying in a circle, a black storm cloud forming above her around her upraised hooves.

A particular humming sound was suddenly added to the cacophony, as the large green dragon lowered a tube he was holding down towards the ponies. It was easily wide enough to fit three ponies inside of it. As the tip of the tube touched the cloud, it was quickly sucked inside.

“Eep! Not the vacuum!” commented Ashie Pie via another pair of signs.

The tube continued to descend, and began pulling the pile of soot into it.

“Pinkie!” Twilight screamed, running for the pile. But it was too late: in a matter of seconds, Pinkie Pie was no more. The sucking tube then turned towards Twilight, who tried her best to escape, but she too found it impossible to escape.

Vinyl Scratch was next, followed by Rainbow Dash and Applejack as the suction of the tube was somehow increased beyond Rainbow Dash’s ability to evade it. The tube descended towards a terrified Spike, who was backed into a corner with nowhere to flee.

The tiny dragon closed his eyes, but he could not block out the roar of the vacuum, getting closer and closer, and closer... And then, suddenly, the sound stopped. Spike opened one eye, to see the end of the tube pushed right up against the walls of the building on either side of him.

After a minute, the silent tube was withdrawn. Far above him, the gray Dragon Emperor shook the tube a bit, and then brought the end of it up to his eye to look for a blockage. With a sudden look of panic, the chartreuse Emperor reached for the off button on his suction device, before the block could...

But he was too late, as the machine exploded, destroying everything in sight.

Author's Note:

You may be suspecting some technical difficulties in this chapter. That suspicion would be correct.

I would like to sincerely apologize for the incredibly long span between "Accelerando" and this fic. Rest assured, though, that this fic is complete. I’ll post it one chapter per a day until it’s done.

Comments

[Fizzy Orange]

It seems the Dragon Emperor has an impressive sense of fashion, since he can change his colour seemingly at will ...I'm wondering if the Elements even ever SAW the Dragon Emperor in person before?? Would they be able to recognize him if their dream didn't tell them that was him?

It's interesting that Twilight only subconsciously remembers Rarity, I wonder if its something she's doing herself in her own dream? Since the spell seem to work under the concept of nesting dolls I'm guessing all the previous ones were inside Rarity's, which is finally inside Fluttershy's?

It's confusing but FASCINATING!

[McPoodle]

4220596

No pony has seen the dragon Vasilyevich since the events that made him emperor. What little that the Princesses and the Bearers know about him was conveyed to Vinyl by Waking Terror in Chapter V4 of "[Redacted]".

I will not comment about the rest.