Chapter 10
Nightmare Moon flapped her wings to get the foals’ attention. When they turned to her, she started pacing back and forth in front of them as she spoke, “The first lesson, what is the difference between a dreamer, a lucid dreamer, and a dream walker?”
Morning Dew tilted her head to the side as she tried to think of the answer. Morpheus bit his lower lip as he recalled an introductory chapter about dreams. “A dreamer is just a being who has fallen asleep and their mind has entered the REM stage of sleep. A lucid dreamer’s consciousness is active enough to affect or control the dream.” His ears fell slightly. “Wait, let me remember… um…” His ears sprang up, and he spoke a little louder than normal, “In shamanism, a dream walker is someone who works with dreams and can travel in the dream realm.”
“Took you long enough, maybe if you bothered reading up on dream walkers instead of moping the last few days, you would have remembered faster.” Nightmare Moon snorted and shook her head. “Dream walking is very powerful, and very dangerous too. We dream walkers can gather information and aid a person or a group, or cause madness. We also are the guardians of the dream realm and seek out threats.” Once more, Nightmare Moon’s eyes looked to Pinkie Pie before she returned her gaze to the two foals before her.
“There is something else dream walkers can do, we can open passageways between minds. We can lead other dreamers through these channels. Like you did, Morpheus, when you brought Morning Dew to this garden. Just like an untrained foal playing with things you don’t understand, you opened yourself to danger.”
Morpheus’ ears sprung up. “Wait, what danger? How could bringing her here be a risk?”
Nightmare Moon looked at the dolmen. “You left the pathway open. It’s how Morning Dew came back after falling asleep again. It’s also an entrance for anything else to enter your mind, and you were unprepared and unprotected when you were awake.” She returned her attention to the foals. “Morpheus, anything could just stroll right in because you left the door open.”
Morpheus and Morning Dew sheepishly followed Nightmare Moon’s gaze to the dolmen once again and saw the shimmering field within the stones. Morpheus’ ears fell flat against his skull. “Oh, but would that send Morning Dew back if I closed it?”
Nightmare Moon tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “Why would you think that? No, you won’t be banishing her from your little dream garden. Though if you want her to return, you will have to get her again next time. For now, close the doorway before I have to clean up an even larger mess.”
Morpheus stood up and focused on the dolmen. The shimmering field vanished, leaving behind just the dark rune-marked stones.
“Now I’ll tell you why it’s important to close those channels. Our ponies are the most magical of the natural beings in our world. With focused thought, we can turn rocks into teacups and cause trees to grow. We can also distort the physical rules of reality to suit our needs, alter the bonds of particles in a cloud so it can support our weight, and we can even make our bodies lighter so we can fly.”
Morning Dew’s head lowered and she let out a sigh. “I can’t fly.” Morpheus saw her head lower in sadness. He scooted closer, then leaned in and nuzzled her. “That’s alright, flying is not that special anyway.”
A loud snort came from Nightmare Moon. “Please spare me the pity. Sometimes a pegasus is indeed born without enough magic to sustain flight. I knew of a colt with that condition. He even learned to fly later in his life… before…” She shook her head. “Nevermind, as I was saying, we ponies have the most magic of all beings in our world.”
She then turned her focus back to the foals. “If we can alter the world when we are awake, what prevents us from doing so during our sleep? Once we believe a dream or a nightmare has a life of its own, there is a possibility we could make it a reality.”
Morpheus sat back up. “Wait, you’re talking about a tantabus.”
“You know about them? I will have to take a closer look at your memories, my little colt. Indeed, I speak of the nightmare-spawned parasites called tantabus. They vary in power, but most feed off of emotional energy and manipulate dreams and nightmares to get the emotions they desire.” She looked at Pinkie Pie once again before moving to the dolmen.
“Weak tantabus hide in a being’s subconscious and create a new nightmare every night. The fiend Sombra used such abominations for torture. Stronger ones may force the dreamer into a coma or waking nightmare.” Nightmare’s attention turned to Morning Dew. “Tell me, Morning Dew, what is happening to your uncle. Is he not waking up, or is he lost in a waking dream, unable to see the real world?” Nightmare lowered her head and brought her muzzle a few inches above Morning Dew.
Morning Dew stood up and faced Nightmare Moon for the first time without fear. “Um.. the few times I saw him awake, he stands and looks around, but no matter how hard I yell, he doesn't seem to hear me. Then he starts telling someone to hurry. All the time, he punches and kicks the air until he passes out.” She nervously rubbed her forelegs together. “A few times he called out, ‘No!’ like something bad only he could see was happening. Once he passes out, the healers hurry and stick a tube down his throat and feed him some broth to keep him alive.” She sniffed as she fought back tears. Her voice grew soft. “They say he will be okay, but I can tell they are lying to me.”
“A powerful tantabus then.” Nightmare’s wings dropped just a few inches before she shook her head clear, then she returned her focus to Morning Dew. “Do you know how many others are in these waking nightmares?”
Morning Dew shook her head. “I don’t know, the fenced area where my uncle is located has two others in it, but I don’t know if there are more in other places.”
“Morpheus, pay attention! Follow my lead” Nightmare’s voice was harsh and commanding as she spread her wings wide. Her focus was on the star-like lights above. Morpheus nervously bit his lip, then stood up and went to Nightmare Moon’s side. He mimicked her pose.
For a moment her eyes moved to look at him, and a slight smirk came to her face as she lit up her horn. Her magic formed a thin cord that moved from her horn to Morpheus’s own. At first, fear gripped him as he felt a tingling sensation on his horn. His magic was responding to hers.
“This is the technique you will use to find a pony’s dream. There are millions of dreamers’ minds in the dreamscape. You have to summon the one you want, or you could take lifetimes searching for Morning Dew’s dream again.” He felt his magic move by her will, it wasn’t like she had full control, more like she guided his touch, her magic moved his.
Soon even Dew noticed the lights move, and a mass of stars in a dark cloud came into view. Nightmare’s voice had a bit of strain to it as she spoke, “These are all the dreamers having nightmares. Their emotions manifest in the dark clouds; the darker the clouds, the darker the nightmares. Just another example of how Celestia ignores a problem till it becomes a hazard. I have no doubt she will find some foolish student to clean up this mess, once she bothers to take notice, that is.” Morpheus felt like he had jogged a mile, but when he looked at Nightmare he saw her muscles twitch.
“Celestia is doing her best,” Morning Dew spoke up, stomping her hoof.
Nightmare Moon turned, baring her predator-like teeth. “Celestia does what’s best for her. She ignores anyone who is not of use to her goals.” The light of her aura flickered. She took a deep breath, regaining her focus. “If you want my help, you show respect.”
Morpheus put his wing on Morning Dew’s back. “She’s right, I can’t help your uncle alone. I don’t know enough to fight a tantabus by myself.”
After a few more calming breaths, Nightmare Moon returned her focus on the dreamers. “These are just normal nightmares. Now…” Her horn lit up, and the sky shifted again, revealing a black oily tar-like mass that bubbled and churned as it floated in space. Orbs of faint glowing lights bubbled up, only to be drawn back into the dark by tendrils of the tar.
“Those orbs you see are the minds suffering from a tantabus infestation. The fainter the light, the less life is left. If it’s not stopped, the pony will die, or worse, become an empty, mindless husk.” She turned to look at Morpheus. “This is the first time you have seen such a mass?”
Morpheus chewed on his lower lip for a moment. “No… I haven’t seen anything like that before in real life.”
Nightmare raised an eyebrow. “So, there were no manifestations?” She then glanced at Pinkie Pie and watched with mild curiosity and a slight tilt of her head as the strange dream filly scooted back behind the willow. “Hmm…Given your lack of experience, I’m truly surprised you managed to escape the fate of a tantabus infection.”
She went to the dolmen and put her hoof on it. “Unfortunately, we don’t know which one of those nightmare-trapped dreamers is her uncle.”
“I don’t have much time! Soon that creepy Astral Beacon is going to…”
“Don’t say that name!” Nightmare Moon’s proportions twisted, one wing too large, her other wing’s color faded into a brown shade. Her motions were a blur as she moved to stand just inches away from the filly. The breath from her nostrils disturbed the fur on Morning Dew’s muzzle. “You need to stay away from that pony!”
Morning Dew’s eyes widened, and she cowered down, her tail subconsciously tucked under her and her ears pressed against her head. She stared up at the twisted form of Nightmare Moon. “I...I ca-can’t! He wants my mother and me to go with him to Baron Silver Bar’s estate. If my uncle wakes up in time, he might be able to get me away from my mother.”
Morpheus slammed his hoof against the ground, his wings extended and fur bristled. He took a deep breath before belting out as loud as he could, “Nightmare Moon, you are scaring her!”
Nightmare turned slowly to look at Morpheus. Her right eye grew larger as her focus bore right into his soul. “There is a good reason to be afraid, Morpheus. It wasn’t I who triggered the spell that doomed Everfree City. It wasn’t I who transformed those ponies into creatures of the night. It even changed me.” She started walking closer to Morpheus, her body shifting with each step till she was back to her black regal and beautiful, yet intimidating appearance.
She leaned down so she was face to face with him. “You don’t yet understand, David. He is the reason you ended up here in the first place.” Morpheus’ eyes widened, and he stared into the slit eyes of Nightmare Moon and saw the rage and loneliness within.
She spoke with a tired voice barely louder than a whisper. To Morpheus, she sounded more like Luna than the dark persona of Nightmare Moon. “That’s when Morning Dew’s mother betrayed me. There was a drug in my drink, and I had finished the glass before I realized it. The last thing I saw was Misty Dawn’s hate-filled grin. When I came to, I found myself in a spare storage room. I was bound and gagged in the center of a magic circle. There was an enchanted ring on my horn, similar to the ones we use for criminals.”
She sat down, now speaking more to herself than to the two foals, “Astral Beacon was there before me. I trusted him, and he tortured me. In his own words, it’s for the good of the kingdom. There needs to be an heir.”
She lifted her head, her eyes meeting Morpheus’ gaze. “Cosmos couldn’t decide who he wanted to be his queen. So he let fate decide and declared that the first to give birth will become the queen. It was a cowardly way to choose, but one that took the stress off of him. We were foalhood friends, later we became lovers. He loved us both equally. In hindsight, things would have been easier if he had favored just one of us.” She let out a sigh before continuing “We became alicorns via a very dangerous spell, one Star Swirl was going to destroy. We don’t know if we can even have foals with normal ponies, the magic in our bodies could harm any foal we might carry.”
“After Discord banished Cosmos, it was just the two of us, the only alicorns in existence. The dread of being the last of our kind, the loneliness, it was almost too much to bear. It must have been driving Celestia crazy. Cosmos is lost to us, however, trapped in Limbo is another male alicorn, Stygian. With him, she could have a family of her own like she always wanted. To retrieve him from Limbo, they needed magic that was attuned with darkness. My magic. ” Morning Dew and Morpheus shared a sad look, neither was sure if what they heard was true or the ramblings of a mare going insane.
A single tear escaped her eye as she continued, “It hurt me so much, having my magic ripped from me through that enchanted ring. He used my magic to open a portal into Limbo itself.” She shook her head. “It was killing me. The dark magic started to flow out of the rupture in reality.” She stopped for a moment and looked at the now purplish splotch on her flanks. “I did the only thing I could; I drew that corrupted magic of limbo into myself and used it. The spell was cleverly made, it would remain open till somepony or something came through, or I died. I couldn’t let the Pony of Shadows escape.” Morpheus’ eyes widened, and he took a step back, his breath came in fast gasps. Morning Dew moved up close to him and placed her wing on his back.
Nightmare Moon sighed. “Unable to close the portal, I searched for somepony else, anypony else. David, I’m so sorry, somehow I opened a rip into your dream. I was desperate and unable to keep my hold on you, so I created a lure, a doorway out.”
Her head lowered to look at the ground, tears flowing freely. “When you opened the door, Stygian was right behind you. I had no choice, David. I used the dark magic and pulled you into Equestria.” She then lifted her head to make eye contact. “Only then did I realize my mistake. You were there in mind, but not in body, a soul still alive but separated from your flesh. That caused the spell to backfire. I absorbed what I could.”
Morpheus tilted his head. “Wait… so, you didn’t want to become Nightmare Moon? I saw the fight between you and Celestia, I saw with my own eyes how you were transformed.”
Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed. “So it was your voice we heard. No, Morpheus, I didn’t want to be this, I didn’t want to fight Celestia. We took up the cause as co-rulers. It was meant to be temporary, till our husband returned.” She shook her head, and her voice grew stronger, more arrogant. “I was barely aware of what was happening when Celestia challenged me in the throne room. Physically and mentally drained, I felt intense rage when she judged me for using dark magic. I realized then that it didn’t matter to her if I used it in self-defense. I was simply corrupted in her eyes.”
She cleared her throat. “If all she saw was a villain, to Tartarus with the consequences. That’s when I freed the dark magic and became Nightmare Moon.” The rage and anger returned to her eyes as she stood back up.
Her voice was once again Nightmare Moon’s with no hint remaining of Luna’s. “I saw that story in your memories, Morpheus. It’s all a lie. That version of Nightmare Moon must have stopped Astral Beacon as well. That Celestia must have come up with the story of me falling into bitter jealousy to cover up the truth.”
Morning Dew gasped. “Wait! Celestia didn’t do anything. If she was working with Astral Beacon, there wouldn’t be a reason for him to leave her side and move to the Silver Mansion.”
Morpheus scratched his head. “Morning Dew’s right, I don’t know who this Astral Beacon is, but if he was working with Celestia, he wouldn’t be leaving.”
Nightmare Moon sighed with frustration. “Are you telling me two foals, one from another universe no less, suddenly see things more clearly than a full-grown adult? There is a logical reason for Astral Beacon to leave the public view. I’ve told you he was marked by the same magical explosion that scarred me. It’s just a matter of time before his nightmare form manifests.”
With an arrogant tone Nightmare Moon loudly spoke up, “Enough of this, time to get back to what we were doing.” Her eyes fell on Morning Dew “You will not come with us, first you are not a dream walker, and second I will not expose two foals to a powerful tantabus. Begone with you child!” Her hoof struck the ground, and, with a flash of white light, Morning Dew vanished.
Morpheus spread his wings, then leaped into a hovering flight in front of Nightmare Moon. “What did you do to her?!”
“Relax, your little filly friend is safe and sound, waking up in her bed. Unlike you, she is as old as she appears. Facing a powerful tantabus is endangering one’s sanity and life. I won’t risk exposing a foal’s mind to a living nightmare. Not even the daughter of Misty Dawn.” Nightmare Moon smirked as she stared at him.
He lowered down to the ground. “I, um, didn’t think about the danger. You are right, but I don’t have to like it.”
“Good, now let's see if we get lucky and find her uncle on the first try. If not, I will search for him when you are awake.”
“How are you going to do that? You woke her up before she could tell us his name.”
“Morpheus, her mother, was my maid. I know who her brother-in-law is. His name is Sure Strike, a royal guard just like his brother Blazing Glory.” She turned and headed to the dolmen. “Take note, Morpheus, I trusted her mother. I called her my friend. Then she drugged me and watched with a smile as Astral Beacon tortured me. There is a saying, daughters follow their mother’s hoofsteps. Be careful around Morning Dew, if she is anything like her mother, she may betray you one day. ”
Morpheus gazed up at the slime-covered lights as he replied, “I’m going to end up in Equestria eventually, so I need friends to rely on. No matter their history.” He turned to look at her. “And I’m including you as one of my friends.”
Nightmare Moon’s eyes had widened in surprise when he called her a friend. With a shake of her head, she said, “You are lost and alone, foolishly and desperately grasping for companionship. Such behavior has led many into trouble.”
Morpheus nodded. “I’m realizing people and ponies aren’t meant to live alone. The fear of being hurt again caused me to push people away. I can’t live like that anymore. I want to have friends.”
He then motioned to one of the slime-covered lights. “That one is rather weak. If we don’t do something soon…” He focused harder on bringing the light to the dolmen. It felt like the muck was fighting him like he was pulling a hoof out of thick mud.
The dream settled on the dolmen’s top, the runes glowed, and the portal into the nightmare shimmered like oil on water. “I only walked into one nightmare, Morning Dew’s. It was such an unpleasant feeling like I was walking into icky water.” With a sigh, he reached out and touched the surface. It jiggled like jello. Closing his eyes, he ran forward into the portal.
With a smirk, Nightmare Moon followed suit.
The black ooze gripped and squeezed him from all sides. An acidic scent stung his eyes and nose, each breath painful as he choked on the fumes. The more he struggled, the worse it became. He felt the slime penetrate his skin, crawling just under the surface. It was a struggle just to breathe. Then reality reformed around him, and the ooze was gone. He screamed as he fell into a vast body of water.
After the shock of impact faded, the cold came. His limbs became numb as he struggled to reach the surface. There was just darkness around him. Endless watery void everywhere he looked. The same dark expanse spread in every direction. He gasped, realizing he was going to die.
Then a blue light surrounded him, and he started to rise. He gasped as his head broke the water surface. He coughed up the water that made it into his lungs.
“Morpheus, you fool, remember your lucid dreaming lessons. You need to focus your mind when you enter a dream, otherwise, you will be caught up in it yourself. ” Nightmare Moon sighed and shook Morpheus in an attempt to rid him of the abundance of water.
Morpheus looked down at his green body, he was a smaller body. He felt the top of his head, noting the horn on his forehead. “Seems I’m a unicorn filly now. I’m glad Pinkie stayed behind, she would have been teasing me about this. So far my body has changed when I entered a dream. How do I stop it from happening?”
“Willpower, Morpheus, just like how I’m standing on water. I refuse to let myself believe the dream; it’s all in the mind of the dreamer,” Nightmare Moon stated as she moved Morpheus to her back. “Until you learn to control the dreams of others as much as your own, it’s better if you ride on my back.”
Morpheus blew his grass-green hair out of his face. “Why are we in the middle of an ocean? Where is everypony?”
Even though the water was dark, and the waves rose all around them, the water under Nightmare Moon was smooth as she walked. “Is dream interpretation not taught in that college of yours?”
“Well, I just started taking general psychology courses. If they were going to teach dream interpretation, we haven’t got to that yet. Plus the idea of dream interpretation has been put aside for a more modern view of psychology. It has been found that too many factors can affect how a person’s dream manifests.”
“Your kind sounds very confused.” As Nightmare Moon walked, the sky overhead filled with storm clouds. Morpheus looked around and saw the waves grow in intensity. “Seems like we have been noticed. Morpheus, focus on your body. The tantabus will try to affect you if you don’t harden your focus and will. You should be able to do that at least.”
“I was taught focusing too hard on your body in a dream could wake you up. It did earlier when I tried to turn myself human.”
“That applies to lucid dreaming, not dream walking. I suspect you had trouble taking a human form simply because humans in this reality don’t exist. When you tried before, your mind returned to your home reality where humans do belong.”
Morpheus looked down again at the body he inhabited and focused his mind on the task of changing it to his alicorn appearance. His eyes crossed as his body slowly built up mass growing in size, then two nubs appeared on his back then stretching out to form bat-like wings. Finally, his coat grew darker till he was his normal near-black shade of gray. “There, I’m a colt again.”
“Good, now keep your focus, Morpheus. The dreamer is just ahead, and so will be the tantabus,” she commented before taking a deep breath.
Morpheus leaned to the left so he could see past Nightmare Moon’s mane. There, on a wood raft was a young green unicorn mare. Judging by her size, she was in her late teens.
Nightmare Moon spoke as she walked “I will change my appearance. I don’t want Celestia to know I’m still able to dream walk.” With each step, hundreds of twinkling stars appeared and danced along her body. Ripples of color flowed over her coat and mane, reminding Morpheus of the northern lights. When the light faded, her coat was the white of freshly fallen snow in the moonlight. Even her cutie mark was changed to a white snowflake on a blue splotch.
When the two got closer to the mare, Morpheus called out, “Um, miss, are you okay?”
“No… stay back! I’ll kill you too!” she yelled as she moved to the edge of the raft.
Nightmare Moon looked around, her eyes scanning for the amorphous form of a tantabus. She then glanced back. “Go on, you wanted to do this. I’m just your backup.”
He nodded, then took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this”. He turned to the young mare and calmly stated, “You look like a good pony to me. Why do you think you killed anypony?”
She tilted her head slowly from side to side. “I… was fighting with my parents. I got mad and stormed out of the house.” Lightning flashed and thunder rolled. Her ears fell back against her head. Her breathing became erratic. “I don’t want to hurt anypony else, stay away!” Her rear hoof slipped off the raft and into the water.
Morpheus’ ears drooped as he watched the mare attempt to flee. After a moment, he asked in a calm and gentle tone, “That doesn’t sound like you intentionally hurt any pony. Can you explain what happened?”
Her knees wobbled, and she sat down after a short moment of hesitation. Her head hung low as she started to cry. “I… I slammed the door and lit my horn… The sky became dark, and then I blasted the house… it… it fell.”
The nightmare started to change. The ocean waves rose high, impossibly high, then they hardened and formed into buildings. Storm clouds parted, giving way to a bright sunny day and lighting up the now colorful city of Everfree. Morpheus leaped off of Nightmare Moon’s back and gaped at the beauty. Tall and thin half-timbered buildings were squeezed together along the cobblestone street.
Her voice was forced out between sobs “See, It’s all my fault. I killed them.” Her watery eyes were focused on the three-story building in front of her. It had a small shop with a window displaying baskets on the first floor. Then the sky grew dark, the ground shook, and cracks formed in the walls. Screams of panicking ponies could be heard from within. A loud rumble followed as the walls collapsed on those inside. Once the earthquake was over, the home was a mere pile of rubble.
Morpheus moved to the mare, then sat down next to her, his wing spread out and laid on her back. “You are having a nightmare; you didn’t do this.”
She shook her head “No! It was me… they said so.”
Then he heard a sound from the rubble. Rocks and debris shifted, then came whispers. Finally, he heard a clear voice of a child, “You never loved us… you hated us. Why did you kill us, Lilly Belle?” A bit of wall fell, revealing an open gap in the mound. A shadow moved and slowly crawled out. Small green legs pulled the filly into the light, the same filly Morpheus became when he entered the dream. There was a gash going from her broken horn down the left side of her face.
Lilly Belle stepped back, eyes wide. “Emerald? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!”
That was when Nightmare Moon’s horn lit up, and the filly was caught in a sphere of blue magic. “Found you.”
Emerald turned to look at her captor. Her eyes widened, and her ears lay down against her skull. She then spun around to face Lilly Belle as her injuries healed up. Bones reset and open gashes closed. The now healthy filly cried out in fear, reaching for her big sister. “Lilly, help me! Don’t let her hurt me!”
Lilly Belle’s mouth hung open, and she rapidly shifted her gaze from Emerald to Nightmare Moon. “Emerald? I don’t understand, what’s happening? And why did you put my sister in that sphere?”
“Morpheus, don’t just sit there, use your magic to blast this parasite,” Nightmare Moon called out as she moved the magical bubble away from the rubble and into the center of the street.
“Don’t hurt my sister!” Lilly Belle screamed as she ran over to stand defensively with her legs wide and nostrils flaring, shielding Emerald with her own body.
Nightmare Moon rolled her eyes. “This isn’t your sister. Think, you said you killed your family.”
Lilly Belle blinked, then shook her head in confusion.
“Um, I don’t know how to create a magical blast. I don’t know any magic,” Morpheus confessed. He turned his attention to the captured filly, only to see her start to melt. Her body bubbled and twisted, her coat became a smooth black surface. Then her shape distorted as her body grew to take up all the space in the sphere. Nightmare Moon’s magic flickered, then burst apart.
The mass continued to grow and alter its appearance. Soon a full-grown alicorn stallion stood behind Lilly Belle. The tantabus now had a tan body with a silver mane. His wings had silver-tipped feathers.
The tantabus-turned-alicorn narrowed his silver eyes. “Luna, I never loved you. I only married you out of pity.”
“No… you loved me!” Nightmare Moon took a step back. Her tail tucked between her legs. Her body shimmered, then ripples of shadows moved over her ice white coat, till there was just the normal form of Nightmare Moon.
Lilly Belle stepped back, her head turning from the now revealed Nightmare. Her gaze returned to the stallion. “King Cosmos? You vanished…”
Morpheus called out, “Lilly Belle, focus on my voice. This is a nightmare, you are dreaming.” She turned to him as he continued to talk, “You started believing you killed your family. It’s not true, accidents happen.” His ears lowered. “It’s easier to blame yourself. It’s easier to believe that you caused it than to feel helpless. It’s sad, I know, but it wasn’t your fault. Nothing you could have done would have changed anything.” He reached out and gently squeezed her shoulder. “Let your guilt go, be free to grieve and heal. I know it’s hard, but your family would want you to be happy again.”
Lilly slowly blinked. Her tail hung low, and she licked her lips before she said, “I don’t know, it’s hard to think. I do remember being told my magic is weak. It had to be a surge, I was so angry, I don’t even remember why I was mad…” She turned her head to look at the rubble of her home. “Did I do this? I remember screaming when the quake happened.” Morpheus just tightened his grip on her shoulder. She lifted her head, then examined the destruction around her. “You must be right, I am barely able to do basic magic, let alone destroy an entire house.” She turned to face the tantabus. Her nostrils flared, and then she yelled as loud as she could, “You are nothing but lies! How dare you pretend to be my sister! You are nothing but an illusion, a trick! The king vanished ten years ago during Discord’s reign. Leave me alone!” She then ran up to the false king spun around and delivered a two-hooved buck right into the stallion’s barrel.
King Cosmos’ form jiggled like jello before he sidestepped and snarled at Lilly. “You pathetic little weakling, you barely can light a candle. Worthless waste of flesh, at least now you won’t be a burden to your family.”
Morpheus backed away from the tantabus, his wings spread wide. He took off, pumping his wings as hard as he could. . His chest heaved, and his lungs burned. Then came the screams. He stopped and turned. Below him, ponies ran in panic. The ground opened up, and many fell into the gaping chasms.
He gasped, tears budding at the corners of his eyes. He shook his head. “No… I can’t let it affect me, it’s just a nightmare... I must be brave.” The rapid beat of his heart thundered against his chest as he looked down and saw Lilly deliver the kick. He took a deep breath, then dove from the sky front hooves first.
With a surge of pegasus flight, Morpheus plunged both hooves into the head of the tantabus as he yelled, “Shut up and die already!”
Cosmos’ form distorted. Black sludge oozed from his body before he burst apart in particles of blue light.
Nightmare Moon’s sight remained on the dissolving form of King Cosmos, tears flowing freely. Then she slowly closed her eyes and shook her head. With a quick brush of her wings, the tears were wiped away. Then she moved with determination to Lilly, and with a note of pride in her voice, she spoke, “You did well, Lilly Belle. It is not easy to face one’s fears.”
She gasped in shock. “You… you are the alicorn that destroyed the city.” Her ears lay flat against her head, then rose back up as her face hardened. With narrow eyes, she yelled, “You killed my family.” Lilly’s horn lit up, and she sent a blast of magic at Nightmare Moon.
Nightmare Moon leaped to the side, letting the small magical blast streak past her. Before Lilly could charge her horn for another spell, Nightmare Moon rushed forward and pushed her horn against Lilly’s. A flash of green and purple light lit up the street as the spell Lilly was channeling imploded. The young unicorn gasped for breath. She dropped to the ground, a faint smoke trail rose from her horn.
Nightmare Moon spoke with a firm and angry tone, “I did not destroy the city!” She took a deep breath to calm down. “I know you are angry, but the magic that ravaged our home wasn’t mine. Even alicorns are limited to just one spell at a time, and I was fighting Celestia.”
Lilly took a few steps back, then lowered her head. “I… I’m sorry. If you didn’t do it, who did?”
Nightmare Moon nodded. “The truth of what happened is far more complex than I can explain. What is important is for you to heal. And to do that, you need to wake up.” She then lifted her hoof and brought it down again, producing a ringing sound. Lilly Belle vanished in a flash of light.
“Is she going to be alright?” Morpheus asked as he walked next to Nightmare Moon. The dream started to fade around them, colors turned to grays, buildings vanished. In front of the two, the dolmen appeared with a clean silvery portal between its stones.
“Only time can tell. She can properly grieve now that she isn’t being manipulated by a parasite,” she said as the alicorns walked through the dolmen. “You did well against the tantabus. If we haven’t interfered, I believe she would have lost her will to live and died after a few days. The tantabus would then move on to a new host.”
She looked to the willow tree as they stepped back into the garden, “Tell me, Morpheus, when was the last time you had a nightmare?”
Morpheus tapped the dolmen and closed the portal, then tilted his head. “Odd, there was a time after the crash I had bad nightmares. Now I can’t recall having any nightmares for... close to two years now.” He looked down, his ears went flat and he whispered to himself, “Has it really been that long since she died?”
She leaned down and softly asked, “Think hard, have you had a nightmare after Pinkie Pie appeared in your dreams?”
He sat down and scratched his head with his hoof. “None comes to mind. I can’t recall a single nightmare of my own once Pinkie showed up in my dreams.”
Nightmare Moon nodded. “I have never met such a being as Pinkie Pie. However, she is still a magic parasite that has been feeding off of your magic.”
From the other side of the garden came Pinkie Pie. She tripped on the way and skidded to a stop at Morpheus’ hooves, With tears in her eyes she gazed up and gasped. “I… don’t know what I am, David. I’m not a nasty parasite, I Pinkie Promise I’m not bad.”
Morpheus hugged her. “It’s alright, Pinkie. I know you are my friend.”
Nightmare Moon looked at the two, then spoke again, “Pinkie appeared in your dreams before you came to Equestria. Somehow she prevented you from being infected by a tantabus.”
Morpheus shook his head. “Humans don’t get tantabus infections.”
Nightmare Moon looked back at him. “Perhaps not the same as we deal with in this reality, but I have been looking into some of your memories. There are conditions your psychology class mentioned that are similar to the symptoms of a tantabus. Humans suffer night terrors, depression, sleep paralyzes, and even extreme conditions like waking nightmares as well as visual and audible hallucinations.”
She turned her head to look at the dreams still caught in the dark mass. “In your case, the memories of Jennifer and your refusal to let her memory fade produced a subconscious manifestation of her favorite character. One that took a life of its own. I don’t know what Pinkie Pie is. She might not be a tantabus, but could very easily become one.”
Pinkie looked at Nightmare Moon “So… this means you won’t kill me?”
Nightmare Moon let out a deep laugh. “You are safe from me, Pinkie Pie. I couldn’t harm you even if I tried. My current condition left me powerless, I was only able to capture the tantabus in that nightmare because I took magic from Morpheus.”
David’s mother’s voice echoed across the garden “David wake up!... please wake up.”
To Morpheus, the dream garden vanished, and he opened his eyes. His mother stood there over him, her hands on his shoulder as she shook him. “Ugh… Mom?” Then he saw her panicked face. “What happened?”
“Finally, I've been trying to wake you for… I think ten minutes or so.” She relaxed and sat down on the bed. “Must have been some dream, you were never such a deep sleeper.”
David rubbed his face with his hands “I'll tell you later when we visit the High Priestess. This visit to Equestria was... interesting.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
968 users online
460,657 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Hey we're republished! Guess that means we're the first comment then?
Pinkie is a doll. True she could become dangerous, but in that regard anything could be.
Much knowledge has been gained, who will be brave enough to take advantage of it?
so does david tecincly count as nightmare moons son now?
11026418
Depending on how you see it. Right now he still physically on Earth. So he not biologically a pony.
Magically his magic is very similar to hers. So much so a pony sensitive to magic would assume that he was her foal.
There more details coming in later chapters.
I don't remember much, but pinkie pie seems to be a tantabus that fell under the elements of Harmony
The first victory with many more to come!
Great chapter overall 👍
11026479
That something I had to change. Pinkie Pie was there and a positive influence even before he came to Equestria. So she couldn’t have been a Tantabus that was purified. In a way she is related.
That was one of the issues my Editor pointed out.
11026704
Oh, okay
I can't wait to find out about Pinkie! Great chapter, keep up the good work, you and your editor!
Looking forward to Chapter 11
Could it be that bad if Celestia learn that Nightmare Moon can still dream travel? Could she really stop her somehow?
11027410
I could say something, but I be spoiling things.
This rewrite is great. I considered skipping it because I thought it was just an edit pass for grammar and typos, but I thought better of it. Great job, I look forward to the next one.
11027444
Yeah it was some major reworking. About 2,600 more words and entire sections changed.
My muse came barging in like Rarity “Idea!” Not to mention my Editor kept saying “I think you could do better here”.
I’m already working on the first draft of Chapter 11, I hope to have that ready for editing next week.
Im definitely liking this chapter more. Can't wait to see more
11027782
Thank you. This whole story is due to positive comments encouraging me to do better. I really enjoy reading the comments and drive to be more creative.
11027614
Awesome. Keep up the great work, and always strive higher.
I think I have a pretty good idea what the deal with pinky is at this point. If I got it right it was very cleverly done. Guess I'll find out next chapter.
Its actually a really neat idea, but at first I was a little put off by the Earth/Equestria transitions. After reading a bit more I find I really like the way it is playing out. Great job so far.
11091835
So I got to know, now that you read to chapter 12. What did you think Pinkie was and did you still think it's cleaver if you guessed wrong?