Projected Nightmares

by bearcat

Celestia -- Waking world

The ruler of Equestria had heard this pony in her court before. He wanted to use tax money to build a railroad in the sky, held aloft with pylons every forty meters. Never any good reason other she could discern beyond that as an earth pony, he felt "left out"

"I appreciate the ingenuity, Colton, but the projected speed boost of not having to stop in a town doesn't seem, at this time, to be a worthwhile goal. Not to mention the cost of the stations, supporting that much weight so high up." No, Celestia decided, this needed a different tack, to get this pale brown engineer to concentrate on ways to benefit society. "Tell me this, Colton. If your grandmother wanted to ride the train to Trottingham, would you want to have her climb all those steps?" She looked out a window, and saw the sunshine, and thought for a moment about the distance between here and Trottingham. "Too, it might be raining when she gets there. So she'd be traipsing carefully down slick stairs that would be hard pressed not to accentuate their height. In short any pony with a fear of heights would soon shun your railway."

The earth pony carefully put his charts and white papers back into his saddlebags. "So, it sounds like I'm stuck finding private venture capitol, your highness?"

Well, she thought to herself, That provides a neat way of saying no. "Yes I think so. But at least you will have better margins, if you can make it work, with so little governmental interference at the early stages."

But the ponies parted civilly, regardless of what each thought of the other. But as the ponysuit left she heard a fast shuffle behind her. Turning she met with the gaze of a concerned Shadow Orange, one of her fedaykin and the only one currently trained to fire-write. He had a parchment in his mouth.

Celestia held up a hoof to keep the door guards from calling in the next pony, and turned back to Shadow. "If it please your highness" As a soldier of incredible somberness Shadow could be off-putting, and Celestia wasn't worried yet. The pale orange unicorn levitated his parchment from his mouth, and explained it was a letter from her student, Twilight Sparkle. "This was the most recent. The first was this morning from the dragon Spike," and a letter levitated from his pouch to sit midair just behind the first. "And mid day, there was a message badly scrawled from the biped prince who of late has stepped down from his throne." The humor of a regent of the rocks beneath your feet, stepping down from a throne, was going to be entirely beyond this somber fellow, reflected the princess. "and minutes ago Twilight herself wrote saying much the same as the first two.

Celestia arranged them first in chronological order:

Spike:

Dear Princess(es),

Thank you for reading the letter of your student's assistant, and please

remember that I almost never use this privilege but Twilight has been sleeping

poorly of late, and won't let anypony help but won't tell me what's wrong. This

morning when she set to what is her new schedule of a late morning nap,

Applejack arrived and Twilight convinced her that Applejack's sleep troubles

are due to an external "attacker"

They're both asleep right now, and since no one is really going insane

from lack of sleep (yet) maybe this letter means nothing. But I feel I'm

obligated to keep you informed since Twilight won't until she understands it,

which might never happen until whatever it is, is too late.

Then former-prince Jack, the possessed sergal caster:

Celestia, ruler of Equestrians and strong alicorn:

I write in case no one else needs to. The pegasus Rainbow Dash, who

fought alongside us those many months ago, is asleep with an assistant who

will retrieve me, so forgive me if this letter becomes fragmented.

Bluntly, there is an enemy to your state, who can invade sleeping

minds. I have not found the entity but have been inside R.D. 's dreaming

and helped her drive off the attacker. Said attacker was not expecting this

so it was a short battle but there will be more.

I ask you, Princess Celestia, are you, or your staff, anypony trained

in the art of dream warfare? I suggest also you query those other brave

warriors who fought alongside us in case this is related to those battles, or

more likely to their relationship to you. In any event I shall offer my claws to

bring this miscreant to justice, or to a better adherence to state boundaries, as needed.

And finally, her protege, Twilight who according to Spike would have just gotten up from her "new schedule" of sleeping 10-1 every morning.

Dear Princess Celestia,

This is not precisely a progress report, but my friend Applejack has

reported sleep disturbances that, when taken in light of my own newly formed

disturbances, and in light of Rainbow Dash's disappearance at about the same

time as this all started for me, a week ago, I believe somepony is entering

the dreams of the elements of harmony, and forcing us to view the most damaging

and disturbing images we could endure in an effort to break us.

Having no idea who or how, nor truly why. I ask for your guidance in however

to proceed, and if you know the origin of these invasions. Thank you always

dearest teacher and say hello to Luna as well,

Your Student, Twilight Sparkle.

Well thought Celestia, I guess court can wait a day. Celestia handed the parchments back to Shadow Orange, and told him "Please write a letter to Jack, directing him to bring both himself and Rainbow Dash to the Ponyville library." She called out to the guard on scribe duty. "Sorry something has come up. No more meetings today, thank you." And walked from the throne room to wake Luna.

It was not, of course, needed that an alicorn regent would sleep. But as she passed the guard, and entered the bedchamber of the princess of the moon she recalled how Luna had always wanted to be closer to the ponies, and used sleep to remind herself of their needs. Although few ponies could afford such plush blankets as she was wrapped in now.

Gently shaking her with a hoof, Celestia called to her sister. "Luna. It's the middle of the day, Luna and I need to look into something that might be a threat to the state."

There was a snort, and the blue alicorn's eyes were open. "State? Hmm, sister?" Luna shifted under her heavy blanket and looked into Celestia's eyes to gauge the level of threat. "Does the sergal interloper threaten thee sister?"

Gently Celestia shook her head. "No Luna. He told me of a threat. Someone is making the elements have dreams so bad they dare not sleep. Tell me, do you know anything of dream warfare?" It was a long shot, but it was more Luna's realm than her own. She watched her sister's midnight blue eyes drift shut.

Still shut, the younger alicorn spoke. "I shall look into it this evening at the royal library." She opened her eyes again and looked around the room, to see the door was shut and no other ponies were in the room. "May I open the forbidden library if my studies direct me that way?" She gave the elder alicorn a pleading look.

She's so sweet when she's tired. Celestia didn't verbalize her thought, instead saying "I trust you with that knowledge Luna, of course. But observe the normal precautions." Stepping back from the bed she added "I'll be in Ponyville by a small entourage. Two fedaykin and I'll ask the guards pulling the chariot to unhook themselves. I doubt anything will happen there or here, but keep ponies you trust within shouting distance, sister."

The midnight blue alicorn turned her head to look out at the brilliant sunshine, and breathed deeply and slowly as she sank back down under her blanket. "Of course Celestia." and with that, she released herself again to slumber.