Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Hungry Again

Luna stepped in front of Fluttershy's dream, and cast her gaze back to make sure she wasn't being followed. Rainbow was a good mare, and she meant well, and it would have been entirely fitting for her to try to sneak up on the alicorn and spy on what she was doing. But there didn't seem to be any trace of the pegasus, nor of anything else that might have been stalking Luna in the world of dreams. It was always good to check, there was always a chance something slipped out with her while she left a nightmare.

Satisfied, Luna looked back to Fluttershy's dream, and to the red vines surrounding it. She knew a dream when she saw one, even one that wasn't a pony's. But she'd never seen one do that. And she'd seen her fair share of weird oneiric phenomena over the centuries. Dreams merging, intersecting, dreams inside other dreams or outside them. Visions, nightmares, lucid dreams, ponies falling in other creatures' dreams and vice versa. But a dream clinging to another like a parasite? Never.

Or perhaps not a single dream. She stepped closer, and peered at the vines. No. A collection of dreams. Like grains of sand making up the same dune. Individual, similar pieces coming together to form a greater shape. That, she could wrap her head around. She'd seen something similar, in the past, if not as complex. Dream sculpting would have made an entertaining pastime were it not for the fact that it involved toying with and shaping the unconscious thoughts of sapient creatures. She couldn't quite tell, though, how many dreams exactly made up the vines. Anywhere from dozens to millions. She dared not enter them.

But she did need to enter Fluttershy's dream, if she wanted to understand what was going on. It would be dangerous, more so for the pegasus than for herself. That was why she was hesitant. She was confident nothing the parasite dreams could do would be able to keep her there. She was far less confident that they wouldn't be able to force her to hurt Fluttershy on her way out of the dream. Such fragile things, the minds of ponies, once given a shape one could interact with. She'd never actually experimented with just how much harm could be done to a pony with that particular branch of her power, but she had her suspicions and her reasonings for them. She didn't plan to verify them.

And yet. She couldn't just stand there and wait. She couldn't just hope Fluttershy's problems would be resolved in the waking world. Perhaps it had been unfair to treat Rainbow Dash the way she had, when they shared much of the same concerns. But Rainbow was young, inexperienced, keeping her out of the dream was the right and obvious choice. Luna was neither of those things, at the least not to the same measure. What was the right thing to do? If anyone knew what to do with Fluttershy's situation, it should have been her.

Luna looked over the dream once more. Maybe, after all, waiting was the right choice for the moment. Waiting and watching. And if nothing changed, at least she'd know she hadn't wasted time. She sighed, and hoped for the best.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Most curious. Going to have to keep a close eye on this phenomenon. It definitely can't be good.

[Venerable Ro]

Fluttershy's up to something, incidental apotheosis while dreaming of strange eons?