Nightmare 1
Princess Luna stood on her balcony, horn aglow as she prepared to enter the dream realm. Her primary duty at night was to watch over it, where ponies' most intimate thoughts took form. Most dreams were harmless, and some ponies didn't dream every night. Each night, however, there were almost always several ponies having serious nightmares.
She closed her eyes and her horn's glow intensified, a deep blue aura surrounding it, and the world melted away as she was transported to the other side; the Overseer's Realm. She opened her eyes again, surrounded by hundreds of bright bubbles, rising around her. Each one showed a different pony's dream. She scanned them for telltale signs of nightmares as she sifted through them. Most had smiling faces of (presumably) family members or neutral-looking locations. When she found one with a pony running, wearing a worried expression, she dove into the bubble, actually a direct portal into the dream.
A stallion was galloping through an endless field, making no progress, chanting "Gonna be late!" over and over. Luna watched for any signs of terror, but it looked to simply be an uncomfortable dream at worst, not a nightmare. She teleported back to the Overseer's Realm and resumed scanning for nightmares, sifting quickly through as many as she could.
She had the occasional false alarm, but continued to make progress until she found one portal that surely looked like a serious nightmare. It was a forest of undulating trees, branches and vines reaching about threateningly in dim twilight. A light gray stallion with sandy yellow mane and tail, gasping and crying desperately, was chasing after the receding form of another pony as he struggled against the vegetation that was actively blocking his path.
Without hesitation, she dove in.
Princess Luna found herself among the trees, now violently thrashing at her. She fired off several powerful beams of focused magic from her horn, cutting a path directly above her. She took flight and flapped her wings hard, pushing herself up and out of danger, hovering in place well above the trees. She looked around and could not see the stallion, a bad sign that he may have moved elsewhere.
Scanning the area for any points of interest, she saw a cluster of tall, leafless white trees that weren't moving. She immediately took off in that direction, watching carefully for any flashes of gray below her. As she reached the unmoving trees, she carefully descended and alighted on grass that writhed as she stepped on it, tickling the frogs of her hooves unsettlingly. Stepping forward tentatively, she weaved her way through the bare trees, their white bark making them look like tall marble pillars, reaching up to an invisible ceiling.
A short distance away, there was a small babbling brook, its water a dull gray that spread its colorlessness to everything it touched. Its trickle sounded like a hundred young fillies softly laughing and crying as it flowed into a small pool that somehow did not overfill from the water running into it. Floating in the middle of the pool were several plastic pony limbs that looked as though they were detached from a doll, bobbing up and down on the rippling surface. Princess Luna stepped to the water's edge and reached a hoof out to pick one up. As it dipped into the liquid, it felt no different than air, as if it was purely illusory. As she picked up a plastic limb, her hoof came away gray up to the fetlock. After a moment, the color seemingly melted back onto her, overtaking the dullness, even spreading to the little doll's leg she held, revealing it to be an ocean blue. A yellow lightning bolt formed a ring at the bottom, just above the hoof. Luna dropped it back into the pool where it made a small splash as it sank below the surface, coming back up gray again.
Looking up the stream, she saw another limb floating along the surface as it slid smoothly into the pool to join the others at the center. She began walking along the brook, hooves softly sucking against the muddy bank. She noticed an abrupt change in the stream, where the color-fading effect simply ended. A large rock protruded from the water there, its top half dry. Perched atop it was a small plastic toy Wonderbolt, dull gray but recognizable by the markings on its uniform. As she approached it to take a closer look, it suddenly fell into the water with a splash much larger than should have come from the tiny object, then it was carried away by the current, taking with it the infectious grayness.
One of its legs had broken off and was presently tangled among some weeds on the shore. As she moved to inspect it, Luna's ear twitched, picking up the soft, lilting sound of a filly crying. She abandoned the stream and ran toward the sound at a gallop. She stopped when she saw its source and approached cautiously. In front of her was a young, dark gray filly, suspended from a tree branch by a rope tied around her neck. Her long red mane covered her eyes, her matching tail hanging limply. Her legs were all missing, replaced by roughly done sutures. While she was the source of the crying, she wasn't moving, the sound simply emanating from her still form.
"Hello there, child. Do not worry. This is only a dream," Luna said softly. She suspected this filly was only a construct of the stallion's dream, but spoke just in case it was the other way around. There was no reply, indicating to her that her suspicion was correct. It seemed the stallion she had seen earlier was the one dreaming, and this filly (likely his daughter) was a manifestation of his fear or grief. The alicorn moved on, past the sad scene, deeper into the forest.
Insects were scurrying about, under leaves and rocks and rotting logs, seeking shelter. The forest floor was alive with them, all seemingly trying to find distance from her. Thousands of little dark forms radiating away from her as she invaded their space. Glimpses of them, however, revealed they were not just insects. Some were tiny fleeing ponies. Others were insect-sized animals. Dogs, cats, turtles, bears, rabbits, mice, and dozens of other animal types, all afraid of her. Though it wasn't her dream, it uncomfortably reminded her of some of her own worries of being feared by her subjects rather than loved and respected. The sound of skittering filled her ears, not accompanied by the expected screams or howls of terror, as the small creatures all seemed to be mute. She cringed as she felt something crunch under her hoof, looking down to see the broken form of a pony, body twisted at unnatural angles and unmoving. It wasn't often Luna had to remind herself it was only a dream, but she did then. She flapped her wings, sending creatures hurtling about from the powerful gust of air, mouths open in silent screams. Flying low, she scanned for any signs of the stallion as she progressed, trying to ignore the chaos her flight was causing below her.
She came upon a cave, and relief washed over her as she dove into it. Caves in dreams were almost always a good sign, as they usually meant progress and had some kind of importance. It also meant no more stepping on little ponies, as that idea was behind her now. She landed on the rocky floor with soft clicks of her hooves on hard surface. The cave was dimly lit, with no obvious light source, as was common in dreams, and she easily made her way deeper inside. Up ahead, she saw a soft orange glow reflecting off the cave wall. Stepping around the corner, she was greeted with a sight that was not surprising.
The familiar gray filly with her fiery red mane was sitting next to a circle of stones around a campfire. She was cut and bruised, her mane was a tangled mess, and she looked utterly defeated, ready to give up.
"Hello," Luna said. While the filly wasn't the dreamer, sometimes constructs would reply to simple greetings, or they could be made to reveal additional information by being spoken to.
"Why did you let me go?" she asked, looking up with tears in her deep purple eyes. They were full of pain and accusation as they stared hard, unblinking, at the princess. "You knew this would happen but you still let me go. I hate you. I hate you, I hate you, I hate you! You're the worst daddy ever!"
As the filly spoke, she grew in size, the cave melting away to an empty void, leaving nothing but the two ponies and the crackling fire that was now twice as big. It roared menacingly and became a sinister red, lighting up the giant filly's face with a fearsome glow. Luna's ears were assaulted by cacophonous of chants of "I hate you", overlapping each other, becoming so loud she could not focus on anything but the noise. It seemed to blend with the roar of the fire, becoming an indiscernible storm of nothing but loudness. Then she blacked out.
When she awoke, Luna was lying on a blanket of wet grass. Thick fog surrounded her on all sides, but she could make out shapes. They were stone slabs rising vertically from the ground, rounded at the top. Headstones. She stood up and walked among them. Dates were written on them, but names were nonsensical scribbles. Her ears perked up as she heard a soft sob. She hurried toward the sound. And there, lying on his belly in front of a grave, head buried in his hooves, was the gray stallion with his blonde mane. The sounds he made were heartbreaking deep sobs, the sound of loss. The headstone in front of him had a legible name; Rosepetal.
"Hello," Princess Luna said softly, making him jump.
He turned his head, eyes red, tears streaking his face, and stared at her for a second. "P... Princess Luna?" he asked.
"Yes, it is I," she replied.
The stallion stood up and tried to compose himself, wiping his face and brushing his mane back. "W-what are you doing here?"
"I am here to help you with your nightmare," she said with a warm, gentle smile.
"This is just a dream?" he asked. Then as he became more lucid, as his conscious mind regrounded itself in reality, he realized the ridiculousness of the situation. "Oh. This is just a dream." He sighed in relief.
She nodded. "May I know your name, young stallion?" she asked.
"O-oh!" he exclaimed and bowed deeply. "Beachcomber, at your service. Uh, your highness."
"There is no need to bow, Beachcomber. And it is I who am at your service. Can you tell me what's been worrying you? I think I have an idea, but I want to hear it from you to be certain," she said.
He rose from his bow and blushed. "W-well, it's kind of silly," he said.
Luna waved a hoof at the headstone. "Clearly it is not silly to you. Trust me, I have seen truly silly dreams, and this was not one. Whatever the problem is, I will not judge, nor will anypony else hear it from me. That, I promise," she said seriously.
Beachcomber sighed, hanging his head. "It's my daughter. I suppose you've figured that much out though, huh?" he said. Luna nodded. "Well, she's on this camping trip in the White Tail Woods with her friends without any adults around. It's just one night, and they aren't going far, but... I can't help but worry, you know? There are so many what-ifs."
Princess Luna nodded, her suspicions not far from the truth. "And you've lost something there before, have you not?" she asked.
"Lost something? Like what?" he asked.
"A Wonderbolts figurine?" she offered.
"Oh! Yeah, that. That was... I was just a colt. It was my favorite toy and I lost it in a creek," he said. "How did you know about that?"
"Your dream has revealed much about your subconscious worries, Beachcomber. And I have been doing this for a very long time. I believe your mind has used the loss of your toy to convince you that your daughter can be lost just as easily. And I think you also worry about the balance between protecting her and being overbearing. You feel as if you should have forbidden her from going, but that if you did, she would have hated you for it. Is that true?" she asked.
He looked away and nodded. "Am I a bad father?" he wondered, not necessarily directing the question at Luna.
She shook her head and kept a reassuring smile. "Not at all. The fact that you worry about these things tells me that you are a very good father. And as long as those worries do not consume you, they can be healthy fears to have. If you'd like, I can peer into her dream to simply make sure she is okay for you. Would that help?" Luna offered.
"Yes," he said a little too quickly. "Ah, I mean... yes, it would."
Princess Luna's horn lit up with a dark blue aura and she was gone. Back in the Overseer's Realm, she easily called up the portal to Rosepetal's dream. The filly was throwing unopened bottles of water into a fountain, laughing uncontrollably. Luna smiled and sent the bubble away, calling up Beachcomber's again. She stepped into it.
"Your daughter is fine, Beachcomber. She was dreaming of you," she lied as she stepped back into the graveyard next to him.
"Oh, thank you, Princess," he said gratefully.
"For what it's worth, I believe letting her go camping was the right choice. And even if you hadn't, I doubt she could ever truly hate you. Now, I will let you return to your dreams, and may they be peaceful and happy," she said, returning to the Overseer's Realm. She could see him waving as she sent his bubble away.
In the time it had taken her to help the stallion, mere seconds had passed in reality. She began sifting through dream bubbles again, her keen eyes searching for another nightmare.
"Alright, on to the next one," she said to herself.