This story is a sequel to The Mistress of Dreams
Vinyl Scratch has been caught by the Dream Trap spell and stuck in the shared dreams of Twilight Sparkle and her friends, a spell cast by the Dragon Emperor, who is manipulating those dreams in order to destroy them.
Because what happens to you in a Dream Trap spell happens to you in real life.
When she was first starting to travel through her friends’ dreams, Vinyl thought that Pinkie Pie’s would be the easiest to get through.
When the Dragon Emperor planned on how to shape each Bearer’s dream, he thought that Fluttershy’s would be the easiest to get what he wanted.
Both of them were wrong.
This is the final part of the series that began with “Javelin” and really got going with “The Perfect Little Village of Ponyville”. Created using a revolutionary new technique that allowed me to write this story in my dreams!
Co-written by Fluttershy (aka Hope) when McPoodle wasn’t looking. Shh…don’t tell him!
Look, this is the sequel to ten stories, six of which I don't think are very good, and which you probably didn't read. If you started with "Perfect Little Village" instead of "Javelin", maybe you shouldn't waste your time on this.
Fluttershy: Isn't it just terrible that the Dragon Meanie made such an amazing tool for examining our dreams and subconsciousness, just to turn it into a torture rack? He's really a piece of work.
On another note, good to see this story reaching it's final lap!
Thanks!
("Another note"? What was the first one?)
Oh, this will be fun. And I apparently have more catching up to do than I realized.
And for those who want to see more on Equestria as a tabletop RPG, see At the Inn of the Prancing Pony.
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I was always surprised that didn't get more attention, but it was a blast to assist Poodly with
You know, I'm sure there's a very good reason why this chapter looks completely blank to me.
...Something to set up the dramatic tension before the story really starts?
Yes, that must have been it.
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Oh, I'm sure it's fine! Sometimes you have to space things out!
Fluttershy: Shhhhh, I had to set the sceeeeeene and Poodly was just going to launch into the dream without context!
Oh, that always bodes well...
Fascinating interplay between the dreamers and Fluttershy. As Vinyl noted, definitely the gentlest touch on characters and setting, though that's a cold comfort to Rainbow Dash indeed. I have to wonder how much of the torture session is the subconscious struggle for control of the narrative and how much... well, we'll see in time.
Looking forward to more.
And then some money-grubbing hack of a dream designer uses them for a terrible first-person cat simulator that Jim Sterling blames on Steam Greenlight.
...This chapter is definitely empty. That's what I'm seeing, anyway.
And I can't seem to delete it. As in "my finger doesn't want to push the button" can't seem to delete it.
...This is worrisome.
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Nooo, no, it's fine! This is ok!
Fluttershy: Is my interference going to cause a mental breakdown?
Ah, that archive.
Aw, not the Spatula of the Ages?
Well, ever since Daring became convinced that Tabula's name was actually profanity...
NOTE: To fix a plothole I just discovered in Chapter 7, I went back and changed this chapter so that when Rarity used her plastic gem, she ended up destroying it.(And then a day later I remembered the plan I came up with eight years ago, and how that wasn't a plot hole after all. Change reverted.)
I hereby include an omake of the last scene of this chapter. It makes Pinkamena utterly OP, which is probably why I like it too much to just scrap it:
Mauve entered the Archive, a tall building with no windows and labyrinthine passages. She first went to a cramped space behind the stairway to the second floor, opening a secret door and confirming that the Cruciform had not yet been found.
Returning to the entrance, Mauve began to stroll towards the spot where she knew Pinkamena to be hiding, loudly whistling an unnerving tune.
After a few minutes, she turned a corner and saw the earth pony cowering in a corner. She stopped her whistling and looked at her. Why, this is no hero at all, she thought to herself. Who does she think she is, trying to save the world?
“You…you’re right,” Pinkamena said quietly. “I’m no hero.”
Mauve took a step back in shock.
“I never wanted any of this. I…I just saw a pony that was hurting…and for that, I lost everything.”
“You’re not rhyming,” Mauve said, her eyes wide.
“Well maybe I’m done playing your boss’ little games,” Pinkamena said wearily, wiping off her snout with a hoof. She stood up on uncertain legs and turned to face the unicorn.
“How…how do you know?”
“Maybe I’ve been paying attention when a certain pony keeps breaking the laws of reality,” Pinkamena said, slowly advancing on her would-be predator. “Maybe I figured out how to see past the fourth wall, too.”
“S…stay back!” Mauve exclaimed, firing a magical blast straight at Pinkamena. She blinked…and the earth pony was gone. She blinked again in astonishment, and Pinkamena was exactly where she had been a moment ago, the blast burning a hole in the wall behind her.
“This is ridiculous!” Angel exclaimed, trying in vain to push Fluttershy aside so he could take over the story. “I know the pink one is weird, but remember that this one is fictional. She shouldn’t be allowed to do this!”
Fluttershy shook her head once again to break the spell the story immersion was pulling her into. She picked up the correction fluid…
“Don’t you dare!” Pinkamena yelled, her hoof pointed right at me.
Fluttershy found herself unable to move. And so, the typewriter continued the story without her.
Pinkamena turned her attention back to Mauve. “Do you really want to be doing this?” she said. “Torturing ponies to overthrow the natural order?” She swept a hoof around her. “You wouldn’t be taking over the world, you’d just turn ponykind into your eternal fillies, and then you’d be stuck taking care of them, for the rest of your lives.” She gave yet another unnerving glance. “…And you wouldn’t bring her back…your mother.”
Mauve Shadow sat down numbly.
“I know that she left you, and after you were done blaming yourself, you decided that no pony should ever be subjected to what you went through…by removing the will to decide from everypony. Believe me, I know what it’s like to lose your parents. In my case, they came right out and said outright that it was all my fault.” She took a moment to sniff past her clogged nostrils, and wipe away some of her tears. “But I got through it, with the family I chose to replace them. It’s not too late for you, Mauve. You can find a new family…with us.”
Mauve sat there, gasping as she tried to keep her own tears in. Finally, she took off a locket and passed it to Pinkamena. “Open it,” she said.
Inside the locket, Pinkamena found a verse by Evening Frost: “I shall be telling this with a sigh / Somewhere ages and ages hence / Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—” Pinkamena closed the locket before she finished it.
“Read it!” Mauve pleaded. “Read it out loud, so you can have the good Mauve back.”
Pinkamena shook her head. “That would be too easy.” She gave the unicorn back her locket and walked past her into the darkness.
“Where are you going?” Mauve asked.
“To get the Cruciform, of course,” Pinkamena said over her shoulder. “You really shouldn’t have checked on it first.”
The thing about test of character is that sometimes, people actually pass them.
The thing about taking the camera off the heroes as they plan is that the chances of that plan's success skyrockets as a result.
... Ah. I see. Darn subliminal overrides.
And that last bit... Well, this will be interesting.
But yeah, there's going to have to be quite a few discussions about all of this when all's said and done. But first, there's the whole "We're awake, now what?" issue to deal with. Also the Agent's fate. This isn't quite over yet...
Ah, the ol' risus ex machina. Hopefully this doesn't have too many wide-spanning theological implications. For now, time to wake up and break some Oars.
I'm so so happy that I got to write this with you. Thank you, some day soon we will have to write something new together!
In the real world, it is also suggested that it is primarily or solely created by "therapists" who use discredited "recovered-memory therapy" techniques; or by exposure to others with the condition (or depictions thereof) in individuals who already suffer from psychiatric morbidity such as psychosis, PTSD, or borderline personality disorder*.
Not that that would reflect any more favourably on the "Home".
* More neutrally, albeit as a layperson with access to the scientific literature, I could argue that it looks like MPD/DID is one of the ways in which a more clearly valid disorder such as BPD manifests (or that it is caused by the underlying condition causing BPD, which would make it an epiphenomenon), and that this manifestation is somehow related to western culture and/or psychiatric treatment (see, eg https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254081757_Dissociation_and_Dissociative_Disorders_Challenging_Conventional_Wisdom).
Isn't that also the civilian identity of Darkwing Duck?
Yup. The show never said where those unexpected guests came from.
Congratulations on seeing this through to a wonderful conclusion. Thank you for one heck of a saga, tongue-in-cheek or otherwise.
You can has review!
This was a well-written sorry for the most part, though the FlutterDash ship does seem to have come out of nowhere for me. Nonetheless, belated congratulations on finishing the series.