Team Awesome Short Stories: Dream's Reality

by Caustizer

Chapter 2

The mind reality warps around Dream as she channels magical energy through the tip of her ebony horn. Drawing from the depths of the darkness, she molds the shimmering dream plane around her into something coherent – a landscape, very similar to the castle grounds. Trying hard to remember her progress from the previous night, the Princess of Dreams creates the wind, the clouds, and the shimmering pools around the edges. Looking at her work with pride, she notes once more that it is here in her sleep that she feels the most at home.

Unlike all other beings, Dream alone retains full consciousness while asleep even though her physical body is silent and immobile. Within her mind she uses her powers to create a world all her own, adding various bits and pieces like birds and vegetation and interesting things she had discovered while reading books. Occasionally she gets lucky and they have illustrations, but the book she had read today about artificial flight had no such luxury.

Dream smiles and lets out a light laugh as she fully recalls her dream world from previous nights and brings it back into being. This particular place is a perfectly flat set of grass plains the size of a football field, and its outer edges are walled in by her own choice. Rather then simply leave them open into blackness and spoil the reality of the scene, she chooses to block the sides off. Up above, a cloudless blue sky without a sun covers the extent of her false setting.

Eagerly the dreaming princess fashions what she imagines a mechanical flyer must look like. Disappointed with the result, she erases it and tries again. After five attempts and several frustrated growls, Dream finally comes up with an echelon shaped mass of wood that looks passable.

"What a wassste of preciousss dream time," hisses a familiar female voice.

Dream isn't the least bit surprised at the interruption, and she doesn't pay the gibe any attention. There is only one other denizen in her dream world it could be, her opposite and darker side: Nightmare. The Princess of Dreams continues to shape the object, tinting the wood in different colours as she sees fit to and adding pegasus wing shaped fins.

"Ignoring me again? You disssapoint."

"Be quiet Nightmare," demands Dream sternly, for she had long ago learned to control her darker side, "I'm busy."

Sensing the opportunity to get on Dream's nerves, Nightmare materializes at her side with a mocking grin on her face. Compared to the ebony elegance of Dream, Nightmare is a horrific mockery of nature. Her fur is a dull grey cascading with wisps of nether energy from the end of her nose to the tip of her tail. Her tail and mane are disorganized and stranded together as opposed to the flowing purple of Dream's. Most terrifying of all though is Nightmare's face… she is completely eyeless (due to a lack of need for them) and her mouth bears a collection of pointed and deadly looking teeth.

"Playing with shapesss when you ssshould be playing with other poniesss dreamsss. How… disssapointing."

Nightmare's forked tongue extends far enough that it clips the side of Dream's face. It breaks the limits of her tolerance.

"I said I'm BUSY!" challenges Dream with anger, "if you have nothing better to do then torment me then LEAVE."

Nightmare backs up a few steps, and bows mockingly to Dream's supremacy. Hissing, the creature slips away back into the darkness.

When the Mother of Creation made the Princesses, she gifted them with immortality and incredible power over an aspect of nature. This power came with an enormous responsibility however, as each one of them has an equal and opposite persona that resides within them and strives to take over their opposite's body for their own ends.

It is the duty of all five of them to resist the temptations presented by their evil opposites, and on occasion the siblings even help each other beat the demon within.

After shooing Nightmare away Dream comes to the conclusion she is satisfied with the artificial flying machine she has created. Now to test it…

With a twirl of her horn, the princess propels the triangle of pure wood into the air. It flies perfectly, and at first her heart leaps with joy. It's working! The flyer soars through the air, and then starts doing barrel rolls. Dream giggles a bit as it flies over and whirls around her, before continuing on with its course.

It is then that it hits her… it isn't flying of its own accord. It's flying because she wants it to fly. As the pang of disappointment hits her, the mystical machine falls from the sky and crashes into the fake ground, splintering into pieces.

This world of hers… it isn't real. It is simply a string of illusions conceived by her powers. It obeys her limits and her laws… but that's all it will ever be, a dimension limited by her views in the small world of the palace and those of her siblings.

"What'sss the matter?" questions Nightmare mischievously, "not sssatissfied?"

At that moment Dream ends the dream, and opens her eyes.

"Yes," she utters with her real mouth to the decorated roof above her.

…

Dream arises from sleep very quickly, and finishes her grooming fairly soon afterwards. Using her magic, she slips on her chosen royal garments. The ebon barding marked with a reverse crescent moon attaches to her chest with ease, followed by her crystal slippers and obsidian crown. It is an unusually formal dress, but she knows it is important to look her best when she goes to visit Mother. Humming casually, Dream sets about applying the starry streaks and magical twinkles to her hair.

In her mind, the Princess of Dreams is formulating exactly what she wants to say when the time comes. Her and her four siblings have been given tremendous power and are left for hours and sometimes days at a time on their own to practice their arts. The result has been an almost endless array of unusual and funny tales, but to her now it seems so empty and devoid of purpose. What is the point of everything they are doing here? Is mother preparing them for something, or are they simply the refuse from her greater works discarded into the palace? She has to know.

Parting the magic green curtains that separate her room from the cavernous hall outside, Dream stands on the edge of her third floor balcony and peers across the gap into the levels below. Each member of the team has their own personal room, and they are situated at various locations and levels within the Chronus Wing of the palace (the four wings are Tempestous, Chronus, Lexus, and Genesis). Her older sister Celestia has the topmost room, while Cadence and Discord have their quarters in the bottom. Dream's twin Luna is appropriately right across the hall on the same floor, so it is a simple matter for her to leap into the air and glide across to her twin's balcony.

Pressing her way through the elegant light blue curtains, Dream enters the dwelling of her lunar equal in silence. The biggest difference between Luna's room at and that of her closest sister is that she favours the lights of the night and has decorated the walls with mirrors to reflect in the moonlight while she sleeps. A giant glass globe model fills the centre of the room, re-enacting the constellations in the sky above. Luna just loves the night and everything about it, even though they all know it is just as false and manipulable as everything else in the palace. When not with the rest of the team, Dream's twin sister would observe the positions of the stars with her special telescope (a present from mother for her birthday) and watch for meteors and planets. Mother has a habit of placing things up there for her daughter to find, and Luna enjoys it immensely.

The pony herself is resting on a bed of pure water (bound completely by magic) topped by a set of well decorated star pattern sheets. Dream prances slowly up to her sister's side, looking down upon her sleeping form. She has to wake her… since despite her confidence Dream feels there is no way she could face mother alone. Thoughts of how to do it in the most respectful manner cross her mind, but before she can decide on a method Nightmare acts on her behalf.

"A nightmare ssshall rissse her from sssleep."

Dream's horn suddenly begins to glow of its own accord, and a halo of dark green energy appears around Luna. The princess of dreams struggles to halt the intrusive spell – since it is forbidden for her to intrude in the minds of her siblings. Not only that, but she knows Nightmare is subjecting her sister to the greatest of horrors and she cannot allow it to continue.

After a minute she enjoys some success beating back Nightmare's influence, but not before she is exposed to the dream her sister is having. Luna is dreaming she is floating amongst the stars, caressing them with her divine powers of the night. Nightmare perverts the vision, causing the stars to heat up rapidly and ignite Luna's mane. She cries out as she begins to burn alive.

Luna awakes with a gasp, cold sweat running down her face. Breathing hard, she set her eyes upon Dream hanging over her.

"GET AWAY!" she screams, lashing out at her twin with her powers.

A whip of darkness extends from Luna's horn and tosses Dream away before she can react. The princess of dreams is thrown through the air and dissolves into a green mist just in time to avoid impacting and smashing a large lunar mirror. Luna leaps out of bed and lowers herself into a combat stance, her horn pointing forward menacingly.

"Luna, stop! It's me, your sister!" calls out Dream as she reintegrates.

Luna relaxes slightly, and the two sisters stand opposite to one another for almost a minute in silence. As both regain their breath, the reality of the situation sinks in.

"What are you doing here?" asks Luna with surprise, "why are you playing with my dreams?"

"I'm so sorry," apologizes Dream sincerely, "I came to wake you about something, and Nightmare took over my body for a moment."

Luna releases a long wheezing breath.

"Please don't do that again… my mind isn't resistant to such craft."

Dream nods in agreement while her twin sister yawns. Finally processing what her sister had just said, Luna puts on a questioning look.

"Dream, why did you come to wake me up?" she asks.

With her surprise gone and an apology already issued, Dream resumes the aura of intelligence and nobility she possesses with a knowing smile. Unlike her sister, Dream is an alicorn of confidence and high self esteem… so much so that Luna often looks to her twin for guidance and support when the others are around.

"I plan to go see Mother. I have some questions for her that I think it's about time she answered."

Luna immediately adopts a worried expression.

"Are you sure?" the princess of the night questions, "you remember what happened at dinner. If we make her angry again she might have us go a whole week without food…"

"My questions are more important then that Luna," Dream snaps, before adding in a slightly lighter tone, "and besides, it's not like we need it anyway."

Regardless, Luna doesn't look too thrilled at the idea of having an empty stomach for that long. She enjoys food too much to let it go… especially cake.

"Why are you doing this sister, what must you ask that is so important?"

Dream doesn't answer immediately, and prances around in a circle while she thinks about it.

"I want a purpose Luna, something challenging and meaningful that I can devote my life to. I don't want to live in a dream world anymore. I want to know why Mother created us, and what she intends us to do for the rest of our eternal lives."

Luna looks slightly confused, as if it is a train of thought that has never occurred to her before. Dream decides to give her a little push to get things moving.

"Come on," insists Dream with a tilt of her horn, "get prepared and we will pay her a visit before the night is out. I promise it won't take long."

Her twin doesn't look completely convinced, but at Dream's insistence Luna does her hair and dresses in her royal attire as well. Hers is nearly a matching set to what Dream is wearing, and she remembers Cadence frequently commenting on how well she and her sister look side by side.

"Are you sure about this?" asks Luna as the two sisters stood side by side on the balcony, wings stretched and ready for flight.

"Do the stars twinkle at night?" returns Dream sarcastically, before taking off through the hall.

With a sigh, Luna walks off the edge and takes flight to follow her sister. Providence is not her specialty, so why does she have such a bad feeling about this?