My Little Pony: Love is Everything - Episodes 1-2 (The Beginning)

by robbieierubino

Chapter 1 - The Dream

It was nighttime. The moon sat high in the sky, watching over the empty darkness as it blanketed the land. Underneath the moonlight sat a palace, crystal walls shining and it’s tree-like structure lending it an air of elegance as it stood proudly over the sleepy town of Ponyville.

Upon one of the many balconies stood a little purple pegasus, a small smile on her face as she looked out across the land, paintbrush in hoof as she brought the scene in front of her to life on the canvas that was set up next to her. She made a few more strokes with the brush before stepping back and looking at her work. It was some of her best yet.

As she went back to her task, a light purple unicorn entered the balcony and watched her sister as she painted. It was a peaceful scene, but, alas, it could not last.

“Stardust, what are you still doing up?” the unicorn asked. “It’s almost midnight.”

She got no response; Stardust was too busy concentrating.

“Stardust?”

Silence once more. The unicorn smiled and sighed, rolling her eyes as she did so, and then took a deep breath.

“STARDUST SPECTRUM!” she yelled, causing the pegasus to leap into the air with a yelp of surprise.

Stardust flew down to her sister, red in the face.

“DREAM MIST!” she shouted back. “HOW DARE YOU USE YOUR ROYAL CANTERLOT VOICE WITH ME! I’M TRYING TO FINISH MY PAINTING! WHY WOULD YOU INTERRUPT ME LIKE THAT?”

“Because,” Dream began, rubbing her ears as she did so, hoping no permanent damage had been done from being quite so close to the royal Canterlot voice, “it’s almost midnight; you’ve been out here for hours. Maybe it’s time to take a break?”

Stardust glanced at the clock as her sister was speaking.

“Oh, horse apples!” she exclaimed. “I lost track of time! Thanks for letting me know, Dream.”

“No problem,” replied the unicorn, igniting her horn and using her magic to levitate the canvas and paints into the castle.

Dream wrapped her sister in a hug.

“Sweet dreams, my Big Sister Best Friend Forever.”

Stardust hugged her back, and then trotted inside to her bedroom, Dream on her heels.

Her sister let herself out, and then Stardust set about putting her paints away and washing her brushes save them drying into a crumbly mess overnight. She took one last look at her unfinished painting and smiled at it before tucking herself into bed and switching off her light.

She was asleep almost instantly.

When Stardust opened her eyes, she was no longer in her room. Six ponies stood in front of her, facing off against a dark alicorn with a swirling, nebula-like mane.

Stardust smiled at the sight of the lavender unicorn, who stood with a brilliant orb forming above her, and five ponies - two pegasi, a unicorn and two earth ponies - standing behind her. Her mother and her friends.

She smiled as her mother, as she had been in the past, spoke to the first foe she’d ever faced.

“You see, Nightmare Moon,” said Dream-Twilight, “when these Elements are ignited by the… the spark, that resides in the heart of all of us, it creates the sixth element; the element of... magic!”

The orb above the unicorn then grew in size, engulfing the room in white light. It cleared to show necklaces forming out of the pieces of floating crystal that had surrounded Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, and a crown that housed the element of magic that came to rest upon Twilight’s head as she and her friends were magically lifted into the air. A bright light surrounded them, then a double-helix rainbow beam of magic shot out from them, arching into the air and barrelling straight towards Nightmare Moon.

The dream then changed, flashing from one scene to another, each being of a long past memory. Stardust saw every villain that her mother had ever faced, although she didn’t recognize all of them. She strained her mind, trying to remember all of their names, but put her thoughts on hold as she watched the six mares all trotting happily together. She smiled as her mother grew wings and flew up, up, up, into the air, twisting and turning and diving.

The five mares still left on the ground fell out of sight as Twilight soared through the dreamscape.

“Oh, mother,” Stardust sighed, “I wish I could be a hero like you, but… I don’t know if I’m ready. Maybe you can tell me if I am? Maybe you can tell me how I can be?”

Suddenly, a darkness descended upon the dream, suffocating and all-encompassing. A pair of blood red eyes manifested in front of Stardust and seemed to study her, beady pupils sweeping over her form and taking in everything they saw.

Stardust gasped at the sight, stopping short in front of the entity, but Twilight continued flying, oblivious to the dark presence that had decided to pay them a visit.

“What is that?” Stardust breathed to herself.

For a moment, the two remained stationary, glaring at each other in a silent stand-off. Neither moved, neither blinked.

Suddenly, the eyes moved, swiveling their attention to the dream Twilight, still flying without a care in the world, and, as they did so, a streak of panic shot through Stardust.

“Mom!” she tried to call out, but her fear held tight to her vocal chords, and only a small, strangled croak came out. She felt like a filly again, lying in bed after a nightmare, too scared to even call out for her mothers, as she watched the entity slowly circle Twilight, dark energy swirling around it.

Her attempt to warn her mother seemed to have worked, though, because Twilight stopped, staring down the monster herself. Stardust breathed a sigh of relief; her mother would know what to do. She’d save the day as she had so many times before; she’d vanquish her foe with friendship, and all would be right with the world.

So why was Twilight still stationary? Why was she just hovering, staring at the eyes?

Dread pooled in Stardust’s stomach once more as she became aware of a deep growling, emanating from all around, from the very darkness they were all enveloped within.

“Mom!” Stardust yelled. “What are you doing? You need to get away!”

The growling became louder, and yet Twilight still didn’t move.

“Mom!” There were tears in Stardust’s eyes. “Mom, please! You need to run! You need to -”

Art by Seabluewolf

She was cut off as the growling stopped, replaced with a dark, insidious laughter that chilled her to the bone.

The eyes swiveled back to stare at Stardust, and she felt them pierce deep into her soul.

A voice from nowhere and everywhere all at once sent ice through her veins and a shiver down her spine as it spoke.

“Silly child,” it spat, British accent making it seem all the more cold. “There’s nowhere to run to, missy.”

Then the eyes flashed white, enveloping all in a blinding light and burning up all in its path.

Stardust gasped and sat straight up in bed, suddenly very awake. She rubbed at her eyes and glanced at the clock on her bedside table.

“How is it only half past midnight?” Stardust asked into the darkness, more for her own comfort than anything else, the silence having been empty and terrifying. “That dream felt like forever!”

Her eyes swept the room, the feeling of dread that had formed while she was asleep having followed her into the waking world.

“I can probably still get some sleep, though,” she whispered to herself, flicking on the bedside lamp as she did so. “Hopefully, that horrible nightmare won’t happen again.”

Stardust, once more, tucked herself in, ensuring every part of her was hidden under the blankets, except her eyes and muzzle, and her hooves, which poked over the top of the duvet. She closed her eyes and snuggled back into her pillows and waited for sleep to take her, hoping that, this time, it would be pleasant and peaceful.

---

The night was silent but for the rustle of the leaves in the breeze, shimmering moonbeams dancing over the crystal castle and creeping through the crimson curtains of the windows. It looked, for all the world, like a shining example of Luna’s best work, but all was not as it seemed.

Princess Stardust Spectrum had been lain in her luxurious bed, trembling with fear, unable to sleep, the nightmare she had refusing to leave her mind. She tried many times to fall back into unconsciousness, but, every time she closed her eyes, she saw another pair of eyes staring right back at her, brilliantly red, and unmistakably evil.

Try as she might, she could not escape this vision, this nightmare.

Exhausted and scared, Stardust began to tear up. Her eyes slipped closed, lids heavy with lack of sleep, but, moments later, they snapped open again, the pegasus screaming as she shot bolt upright.

She sat, breathing heavily and glancing around the room; she could still see the image of those horrible eyes imprinted on the back of her mind and, now, they seemed to be staring at her from everywhere she looked.

Eventually, Stardust began to calm down, taking deep breaths to calm her frantically beating heart.

Just as she began to feel normal, someone started knocking on her door, causing her to jump once more and undoing all of her progress in returning to a state of calm.

“Star?” The voice of her sister was muffled, but the sound of it served to relax the pegasus. “It’s me, Dream. Can I come in?”

“Yeah!” she called back shakily. “Yeah, just… yeah, come in.”

Dream opened the door and walked in, letting the door fall shut behind her as she took in the state of her sister; Stardust’s eyes were rimmed red and bloodshot, tear streaks running down her face dampening her fur.

“Star?!” Dream shouted, rushing over to her sister’s side. “What happened?!”

The unicorn had never seen her sister looking like this, Star always being the more collected of the two. It was strange, and a little frightening, to see the pony she’d looked up to for years in such a vulnerable state.

Stardust closed her eyes and took a breath. “I had a nightmare,” she explained. “It started off nicely; I was in space, and I could see all of the stars in the universe.” She smiled. “You should have seen it, Dream, it was beautiful. I also saw memories of Mom, but they weren’t my memories, more like… memories of time, of when she was fighting all the enemies she used to tell us stories about, you know?”

“Yeah,” the unicorn said. “It sounds like a really nice dream.”

“It was,” Stardust agreed. “It was really nice. I looked at our lovely mother, and our aunties, her friends, and I saw them defeat Nightmare Moon with their elements of harmony. I saw Discord get turned to stone, until they freed him for reformation, and I saw when Mom was crowned the Princess of Frie-”

“Okay!” Dream interrupted quickly before her sister went on a tangent. “I understand what you’re trying to say; you saw all the important moments, and it must have been amazing! But where did it all go wrong? When did the nightmare start? What was it about?”

Stardust shuddered at the memory of the nightmare and she teared up slightly.

Art by AmberClarity

“Okay,” she continued. “Space suddenly transformed into darkness, and I was just flying through nothingness. There was a silence in that dream, and it was… everywhere. Everything was blanketed in it,” she shuddered, “and there was a… a presence. Something was there with me, and it was angry. I could feel it glaring at me.”

“Glaring at you?” Dream questioned.

“Yes, and there was something, I think the same entity, growling at me. I didn’t see its face, I’m not sure if it even had one, but I saw its eyes; they were huge and glowing and red. Oh, Dream, it was awful!”

“Red, glowing eyes?” A realisation suddenly struck Dream and she clapped a hoof to her mouth. “Oh, my!” she whispered around it. “It can’t be true.”

“What?” Stardust was confused. “Dream, what are you talking about? What can’t be true?”

“Star, what you’ve just described to me, the darkness, the eyes, everypony else has dreamed of that as well!”

“What!?”

“I know! The ‘red-eyed-creature’ vision is everywhere! Everypony seems to be having the same nightmare; even I’ve had it!”

Stardust could barely believe her ears. Everypony having the same nightmare? How could that even happen?

“What does this mean?” she asked her sister. “Is it a prophecy? A warning?”

“Possibly,” Dream admitted. “There might even be an entity that’s gotten into the dream-realm, infecting everyone’s dreams and turning them into nightmares.”

“I think we should ask Mom about this,” Stardust said. “Although, if what you’re saying about everyone having it, she should already know, and be looking for answers herself.”

“I agree, but, which mom?” Dream asked.

“Both! But mostly our alicorn mother, she’ll know what to do.”

Dream Mist nodded in agreement, and they both rushed out of the room, heading swiftly to their mother’s study.

Little were they to know that a new adventure was just around the corner.

The story itself has begun.

Author's Note:

CHAPTER CREDITS

• ART AND DIALOUGE by Seabluewolf and AmberClarity
• EDIT by robbieierubino, Seabluewolf, & Thr3eGuess3s

Find me and the works, stories, and ideas behind MLP: LiE at mlpnextgenbyri.deviantart.com.

PS - Feel free to send me an edited version of the chapter!