• Published 1st Jan 2020
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Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 4 - TDR



New gods, spiky vines, singing fish, ghost dogs, theatrical mishaps, and a new enemy seeking to destroy everything, The Sparkle siblings will have their hooves, paws, and claws full this season.

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Do Piranha Dream of Magic Squid? Part 2

Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 4
By TDR

Do Piranha Dream of Magic Squid?
Part 2

[ The exposition chapter]

[Bayston]


“A dark and moonless night
Has never felt so right
An empty mirror only shows what's left inside
Lost in the city street
Electric tapestry
The neon beckons me beyond its ghostly light “

Adagio shuddered feeling the draw of power from the rioting ponies in the stadium before her. Aria and Sonata stood on either side of her their forms floating slightly and flickering between their natural form and the ones they had taken to hide as they sang. She expected she was doing much the same though her focus was simply on the stadium.

“No longer I pretend
The staircase I descend
Will lead me anywhere but my unscripted end
My heart and hands collide
The gun lays at my side
Too late to turn back,
only fate’s left to decide “

She wasn't sure how Sonata had gotten the gig to perform as an opening concert for the hoof ball game, though it hardly mattered . What did matter was that Green monster stadium was already packed with anger and strife from the fans of the Soxs and Yanks or whatever. They barely had to do anything to devolve this into a full blown riot.

“Magnum bullets
Settling a score
Magnum bullets
Kicking down the door “

This was a bigger venue than she expected. Aria was trying to play it safe, though Adagio wanted bigger, to gather power quickly and they couldn't do that in smaller venues.

“Back up the stairs again
I am a different mare
A broken mirror only shows as best it can
Running in shoes that shine
With blood that isn't mine
A staining trophy of the battles I've survived “

As much as Aria complained and wanted caution she was easily swept up in the rush of energy from something like this. That they were singing a song she liked from the human world likely helped too, even if the ponies had no clue what it was about.

“No longer I defend
The choices I pretend
Could make amends
that heal the loss of precious time
My conscience paralyzed
Against the rising tide
Of haunting memories
that drown a wasted life “

It shouldn't be too hard to convince her that they should seek prey inland. And once they had enough, a stop in Canterlot would be delightful. The history book she had found told of a war between Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, that sort of strife would have been exquisite.

“Magnum bullets
Always wanting more
Magnum bullets
Closing every door “

Well perhaps if they managed a concert in Canterlot, Adagio might just get a taste of something like that again if the two Princesses heard their concert anyway.

[Oneiroi]

Rahs was overwhelmed.

The Moon Dog who hugged him was his father Cosma, His mother was the older bitch in the apron named Blink.

The others behind them were his siblings. His older sister Bri, his two younger brothers Shin and Ko, and his three younger sisters, Terri, Sherri, and Mairi. While the primary coloration of his family seemed to be navy blue, it seemed that if a color existed, a moon dogs fur could match it.

Even octarine.

This was very noticeable in the ones behind his family, as of course, behind them, scattered about the city were a good several thousand other moon dogs poking their heads out of buildings or from atop clouds or even from the streets themselves, some of them having eaten through the dreamscape to come and see the new god.

Of course this did little to the stability of the dream crafted city, though a few of the younger pups seemed intent to keep eating leaving at least one building floating in place as it's bottom floor was devoured.

After quite a number of hugs, a great many questions and a round or two of introductions done by Luna, the group was lead through the streets towards the council chambers.

Like a number of other gods, Luna had placed some elder alphas in position as leaders and then stepped back to let them rule as a council, only popping in when they needed help or advice. While Luna was quite certain Rahs was going to do the same thing, the alphas were worried that wouldn't be the case and wanted to meet Rahs in person.

The trip was interesting to say the least. Cosma and Blink both got into rather elaborate conversations about Rahs growing up, though Cosma never left more than a pace or two from Rahs as if afraid he would vanish again, Blink was a little more standoffish and kept looking at Rahs like she wanted to apologize for something.

That Rahs was clearly speaking Equish was made more confusing by Bri telling the ponies that they were speaking moon dog, and Luna explaining language barriers hardly existed here.

And of course, as was typical, Rahs was getting a number of looks and a good bit of purring from a large number of females and a few males as they passed who were trying to gain his attention.

Twilight was ready to interfere, but it seemed Bri was a bit over protective of her little brother as well and those that got too close learned very quickly that they should back away, without Twilight having to do anything.

Twilight liked her already.

It seemed Bri was a rather big deal in the moon dog culture and was next in line to become one of the council alphas.

The same thing could not be said of the multitude of posing males and a few females trying to gain Witch-Jack's attention. Unlike Rahs she didn't have any siblings backing her up. Though she didn't need it, she had a Luna shooting glares at the ones who got too close.

That sort of reaction made Twilight wonder if Luna was really in favor of Trixie, or was just trying to play fair. Applejack herself hardly seemed to notice as she was focused on not beating down all the ones flirting with Rahs.

The council building gained a number of reactions.

“Well that's odd.” Twilight Velvet offered.

“It's like a neo classical yard sale aesthetic.” Nightlight nodded.

“Wow, that things a mess.” Spike offered looking at the building that didn't fit the grandeur of the city at all and seemed to be built from whatever happen to be laying around. Crates, pallets, old barrels, and other assorted bricabrac was put together some how to shape a building.

“This is the only solid structure in the Oneiroi, it's built from all the supply crates and the like we brought with us when we first brought the Bunyip here.” Luna explained.

“Is that parta my barn?” Witch-Jack asked.

The others looked and took note that one full wall of it did bare a striking resemblance to one of the Apple family barns.

“What?” Rahs asked.

Cosma shrugged. “Years before you were born, a building dropped out of the sky and landed here. Crashed into some poor fillies nightmare and crushed a witch that was after her shoes.”

“What?” Rarity asked.

Blink shrugged.”Dunno, but it gave us a lot of building material.”

“Granny did say one barn vanished in a twister when she was younger. They never did find out what happened to it.” Witch-jack shrugged.

The rest of the group looked at her before Luna shook her head, and gestured for Rahs and Bri to follow her as she headed into the chamber.

The others moved around as Cosma and Blink formed some seats for everyone from the dream stuff and started discussing Rahs with Twilight Velvet pulling out the photo album, much to the remaining Sparkle siblings horror.

“So why are you coming in?” Rahs asked as Luna went ahead into the chamber to speak with the alphas.

“I'm allowed due to my job as assistant to Alpha Typhon. When he finally retires I will be taking his place. Echidna is looking for a replacement, but she isn't in any real hurry and the other five alphas are still relatively young.” Bri explained though she smirked. “You've been gone a long time little brother, I don't expect you know how anything works here any more.”

“I remember octarine...” Rahs grumbled.

“Puppy's first book of colors lists that one.” Bri laughed.

“Yeah well that's about all I remember. I'm supposed to be a god of moon dogs and I don't even know what a moon dog is supposed to be or do.” Rahs grumbled.

“Hmm, crash course I suppose. At least you asked the right bitch, with what the alpha's are teaching me I know more than the average dog. Alright no idea what Princess Luna told you so I'll start from the basics. Moon Dogs eat dreams, nightmares and that sort of thing. Dreams are leftover or excess magic from the other side, ever creature on Equss produces some level of magic and when they sleep at night they keep producing it. That magic winds up here in the Oneiroi and is shaped by the dreamer. Most of the time that's nothing more than snippets of how the day went, or forgotten experiences, sometimes it's some complex shaped dream, and occasionally a nightmare of the fears and stress the dreamer might be going through. When Princess Luna created us she specifically adjusted us to hunt nightmares.”

“I've heard she raised us from Bunyip to moon dogs, though the bit about nightmares is kinda new.” Rahs grumbled.

“Well seems you know more than most moon dogs then. But as for the nightmares, they have the best flavor. Not sure why but nightmares are a delicacy.” Bri pointed.

“Alright I understood that. So what was the deal with the bonding thing I was supposed to have done to the Sparkles?” Rahs asked.

“Ahh that. It's not to a family it's more to a individual, usually when a new pup is born it is to a mated pair that is already bonded. This pup tends to be bonded to any child produced by the mated pairs bonded.”

Rahs slowly blinked as he processed this.

“Ugh. When two dogs have a pup the pup usually bonds to the kid of who ever the pup's parents are bonded to.”

“Sounds rather crappy if that means you mate with whoever is bonded to who ever your bond hooks up with.” Rahs grumbled.

“You would think that, but no, our parents are just the rare exception of bonded to ones who chose each other. It is considered good luck which was when I was born and there were no foals yet on the other side i was scouted to be trained by an alpha. I'm not bonded to anyone in Equss, yet anyway. Then Shining was born a few years later. Our parents dealt with his dreams as discussion on whether I was to go back to bond with him or remain to be trained as the next elder. Then Twilight was born.”

“It took ten years of discussion?”

“And was still never resolved. Politics is politics.”

“Point.”

“At any rate you were born soon after and that was considered another sign of luck that you and Twilight were born so close together. Hence why you were quickly bonded to her before the alphas decided to take you too. Then at six you simply vanished. Twilight was known to be having a great deal of nightmares which kept you close to her dreams and then one day you were just gone.” Bri explained.

“And I wound up in Equss, Then Twilight and Shining stopped dreaming and Spike never started.” Rahs summarized. “So what should I be expecting out of all this any way?”

“You're the god of us now, or so I've heard, shouldn't you already know that?” Bri perked her ears.

“I've been a god for maybe a month or two now, I've got four powers, two of them I have no clue about and the other two I've barely figured out yet.” Rahs grumbled. ”I was six when I got pulled to Twilight. The spell screwed up my memory and all I really recalled was I was supposed to guard her. Not her dreams, just her, and evidently that imprinted on Spike and sorta on Shining too. Now here I am back in the Oneiroi and I have no idea about any of this.”

“That bad huh?”

“I've also been having a bad feeling about this trip the whole time. There's nothing wrong it's just... “ Rahs trailed off.

“You're not really comfortable here any more. You've been to the other side and lived there. Coming back to the Oneiroi is clearly distracting. It's nothing like what we see in dreams and you're unsure how to deal with that. You never got used to life here.” Bri explained. “We get a few like that from time to time. Hunters who see the world outside through the dreams of their charges and get caught up in them too deeply. It takes time to get acclimated. But it's a safe bet you're not going to stay here any way.”

“No... and I rather wonder how that is going to effect everyone after they just met me again.”

“It'll be fine. Dad's happy you're alive, and Mom's still freaked out over it and upset she wrote you off so quickly.”

“And you?”

“I stayed out of it, kept the peace in some arguments, but I was already training as an alpha when you vanished.” Bri explained.

“Right the alpha's what even are they?”

“Oh. They are the ones bonded to gods or demi gods. They are for the most part immortal as long as their charges live. Moon Dogs tend to die at or around the same time their charges do. So the ones bonded to the immortals tend to be alphas, the unbonded ones tend to die at around fifty or sixty years.” Bri explained. “There are nine immortals in Equss or ordered by Princess Luna that we protect. Princess Luna herself. Celestia, Cadence, Iinii, Maohk, Sombra, Sunset, Chrysalis, Saturnia, and Bleu. Most of those are new pairings. Luna, Sombra, Saturnia, Maohk, Sunset, and Bleu are the newest , with Bleu and Sombra being the newest over all. The Apple family was on Nightmare duty until Princess Luna returned as well they lost two of their charges, but their bonded didn't fade out as expected and so they have extra claws in their pack.”

“Applejack's parents. They died a while ago. I thought you said Moon Dogs don't live much longer than their charges.” Rahs questioned.

“They don't usually, but there are exceptions. Usually with the very young,The ones bonded to the Apples are an odd case, but not unheard of. Speaking of which, Applejack is that pretty orange bitch you brought with you? “

“What? Oh yeah that's Applejack, though she's a pony...”

“Doesn't look it, soooo, you two an item? Because if Sheeba is to be believed, she's got quite a thing for you, so do a lot of others too it seems.” Bri chuckled.

“Oh stars...” Rahs growled slapping his paws to his face.

“So how much of a stud are you over there? Since Princess Luna told us you were alive we've seen hundreds of dreams with some very interesting thoughts about you. The majority of them seem to think you're a pony though.”

“Ugh, look there's only five that I know of. And I just found out about two today. Applejack and Sunset, and I was already messed up in regards of what to do about Jynx, Trixie and Saturnia.”

“Celestia's daughter? Yeah.. I've watched her dreams a few times.... She has got some VERY interesting dreams about you.” Bri grinned. “Mom likes Applejack, and Dad has a thing for the bug, something about a female that can be anything you want. Personally after seeing Sunset's dreams I'd say go for her. She will keep you entertained. Plus she'll be around the longest, which if you are a god, should be important.”

Rahs grumbled.” You're not training to bond with Sunset are you, as if the idea wasn't awkward enough.”

“Nope, Celestia.”Bri grinned wider, her tail wagging. “Though failing those pairings, I've got a few friends who could use a mate, I bet I could convince them to share too....”

“NO” Rahs snapped. “ It was bad enough I had Twilight, Spike and Shining, now I've got more siblings to torment me.”

“Torment you? Perish the thought little brother.....”Bri chuckled. “It's not like I don't have fifteen years of sibling 'love' to catch up on.”

“Rahs.” Luna stated as she poked her head out of the door that looked like it came off an old cargo container. “The council will see you.”

Rahs grumbled glaring at his sister who simply grinned and stepped in after Luna.

Spike was bored.

He wasn't exactly sure how with everything going on, but some how he managed it. Mom and Dad were chatting it up with Rahs' real mom and dad, and going through the dreaded photo albums. Spike was certain he had 'accidentally' burned them twice in the past.

Pinkie Pie was setting up a party for when Rahs came back, evidently she brought a ton of food thinking that they wouldn't be able to eat moon dog food. She was also running around like normal trying to make friends with every moon dog in sight. It said something about Pinkie Pie , that creatures that regularly saw weird ass dreams and nightmares had no clue how to deal with the mare.

Fluttershy was trying to make friends with the few pups running around with mixed results.

Witch-jack was talking with some moon dog named Sheeba who had shown up, evidently she was bonded to Applejack and Witch-jack was trying to get her to come to one of the family reunions to be inducted to the family properly.

Rarity was talking to a few of the other siblings of Rahs about something though she had asked the question about being able to understand Rahs only to have the other moon dogs point out that she was the one speaking weird.

Rainbow Dash was being shown how to shape dream stuff and she was having a blast building things with some of the younger ones.

Shining was speaking with some of the older dogs about the feasibility of using dreams of certain people to see if they might be a threat to Equestria.

And Twilight was writing down everything.

Spike didn't feel like doing anything. He was bored and starting to develop a headache. Maybe he needed a nap or something. The dream stuff was fairly comfortable and he could think of a lot of uses for this sort of stuff in his games, but for right now he just felt off. Everyone else was right there so they would wake him up when Rahs came back.

As Spike closed his eyes he didn't notice both Shining and Twilight occasionally rubbing their heads or wincing as if they had headaches too.

[ About an hour later ]

“So you have no plans to change anything...?” an alpha who Rahs had mental started to refer to as 'Sourpuss', though he expected the bitch's name was Kepler, maybe, he hadn't been paying any attention when introductions were finally made after the first round of complaining and accusations.

“You're just now figuring that out? Wow, it's like I haven't been saying the same thing for the last hour.” Rahs snapped having had enough of this after ten minutes, and here it was an hour later.

“Watch your tone pup, do you have any idea who you're speaking to!?” Another one that Rahs had dubbed 'Hag' snapped, she was younger than the others, but even more stuck up.

“No, because I gave up on trying to remember your names when you started accusing me of trying to usurp your positions. I really don't care who you are or what you do. You've kept things running for this long, as far as I care you can keep things running until the stars die out or some one overthrows you for being a bunch of ponces.” Rahs growled.”I didn't even really want to talk to you. I wanted to come here, meet family I didn't even remember I had, check things out and leave. I certainly didn't want to be dragged into a meeting where I get yelled at by a group of dogs who take ten years or more to decide anything.” Rahs digs into his pocket and pulled out a bit coin to toss to the one he called 'Hag'. “ Here next time just flip this. By the stars I should fire you all and replace you with the coin. Same chances of a good choice, a fraction of the time. I'm done here.”

Rahs turned to leave in a huff only to have 'Sourpuss' yell at him.

“Where do you think you're going, we're not done with this meeting yet!?”

“Okay first off, I'm the god here, so while I don't care if you listen to me, I sure as Tartarus don't have to listen to you. I have neither the knowledge nor the interest to make any changes. Go on and talk amongst yourselves about what that means maybe it will finally sink in that I don't care.” Rahs snapped.

“Who even made such a rude mutt a god?” 'Hag' shouted.” Why would anything intelligent make some mutt as far removed from a proper Moon Dog as you, a god?!”

“Beats me, but...” Rahs held out a paw snapping his fingers to make a glowing folder appear in his claw.”... here's the proof, deal with it.”

Shifting his purple coat up over his shoulders more Rahs stomped out as the pair started yelling again.

Luna sighed as she followed him back out into the lobby.

“That could have gone better.” Luna sighed.

“Maybe, but I don't care enough. It took an hour, an HOUR, just to get them to even acknowledge that I didn't care what they did and I still don't think they got it. Out of nine of them I think three might have caught on after I flat out told them I wasn't going to do anything.” Rahs growled. “This could have been an hour I was actually learning about this place or talking to family I didn't know I had, but no, I'm stuck in political bullshit.”

“Welcome to our world.” Luna muttered getting a snort from Rahs.

“Anyway you keep doing what you're doing here and I'll keep ignoring this part of my portfolio for a few decades anyway. I still need to figure out what 'dreams' means.” Rahs sighed. “This meeting has got to be the worst thing that can happen today.”

Before Luna could respond a roar cut through the air, the sound of it like claws over a chalk board combined with the endless scream of a hundred toddlers being told they couldn't do something, with just a dash of a rooster crow, and a bored goat's scream at 2am. The sound shook the cobbled together building causing parts of it to start to collapse.

“I need to learn to shut up when everything can understand me.” Rahs whined.

Author's Note:

The song the Dazzlings were singing. Shows a bit of Aria's taste too

Been listing to this song nonstop since i first heard it.

Also .. Now we get to the meat of the episode.

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