Chapter 1: Do Heroes Dream of Brave Sheep?

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We have all dreamt of being heroic. In that way, we all have a small bit of hero in us. Without a doubt, we are all capable of it too. Even a tiny bit of kindness can save someone's life in ways you can't expect. Maybe your one act of heroics caused a butterfly effect that ended up saving an entire nation. Or maybe it was something smaller. Maybe all you said were a few encouraging words that helped some pony feel as if they belong in a world that initially seemed to not want them.

That's the thing about heroes. Most of them don't even know that they are one. They get caught up in the idea of what it means to be a hero, or more accurately to say: The glory in it. Not everyone will be able to wield a mighty legendary sword and fight mythical, impossible beasts. Most won't get to venture into truly surreal lands with perils so dangerous, it will test their mettle to the extreme. And very, very few ponies throughout history can say they've saved the world.

But there will always be those who dream big. Like young Pipsqueak, whose desire to save others has always been far stronger than most ponies. Who never outgrew his deeply heartfelt wish to be bigger and larger than life. And to whom the prospect of being a real hero was more than just a fleeting daydream. It was everything he ever wanted.

And so it should come at no surprise that this was what his dreams were almost always comprised of.

Almost, because right about now, he was having no such dream. In fact, he couldn't have been further from his wish in this one. Even if he wanted to turn his dream around, how would he? Surrounded by an army of changelings, timberwolves, cockatrices, manticores, cragadiles, classmates, and pony-eating Parasprites (entirely a creation of his own mind, I should add. They don't actually eat ponies), Pipsqueak had found himself in truly impossible odds. All he had on hoof was one terribly small and ineffective wooden sword that seemed to bounce off even the thinnest of the hides in that monstrous army. And every time he parried blows with it, he could see another crack having formed along its blade-like surface.

That was if he could even get a parry off at all. His nerves were frayed, and all he could do was sway his sword frantically in the air, his teeth gritting into the hilt itself and the constant tossing of his head back and forth was making him even dizzier now. Worse yet, the closer the army inched towards him, the bigger they became. Or was he getting smaller and smaller?

For all his dreams and heartfelt desires of being a hero, poor Pipsqueak lacked the necessary talents of a great one. Strength, agility, tactical ability, wisdom, experience, and most importantly... Bravery.

Well, that's not entirely true. Pip is big of heart and he has bravery in spades when it counts. Yet, he would be the first to tell you otherwise due to his lack of self-esteem. Maybe it's true that his knees tend to buckle and shake under scary situations. Okay, he does have a tendency to panic at the slightest bit of trouble. And sure, wanting to run away as soon as things get tough is the truest sign of a coward.

Look, you need to put things into perspective. It's easy for a strong and experienced hero to keep calm and collected in the face of danger, as his confidence and knowledge grants him protection. They are no strangers to injury or even their mortality hanging in the balance, so they tend to feel less afraid under such circumstances. That's just plain-old adaptability talking there.

But Pip, in the face of his many flaws, remains in the fight despite his shaky knees, uncoordinated moves, poor posture, terrible stances, godawful equipment, and just a general lack of ability. He wants to run away the first chance he gets, but does he? No. Never. In fact, you could even say he is that much braver for it. Perhaps one of the bravest ponies of them all.

I like this saying and I say it often. Twist it around a bit and it's quite relevant to Pipsqueak as a whole. It goes like this: "What is strength? Is it the ability to move mountains, or to move mountains despite not having the ability to?"

So I'll ask you this once. What is bravery?

Still, if bravery is all you needed to be a great hero, perhaps Pip wouldn't have found himself in such a terrible dream. He isn't a hero like he so often dreams of. Almost no one recognizes him as one. They think him a nuisance, always trying to help others and often running into danger too requiring him to be saved as well. Some of his classmates openly mock him about his small stature, and he hides his hurt in order to keep up the hero act which invites further mockery.

The worst of it? Even Pip himself thinks it's entirely impossible for him to become one. Years of trying and failing since he was but a hoof-sized foal had cemented that idea pretty firmly in his head. Every bitter failure just tacked on more and more locks and chains onto that ever-growing, unimaginably heavy door.

And this dream he was in? This nightmare? Well, just a routine one for the books.

So it would've been had it not been for a great friend that Pip had made a while ago. Back against a rocky wall and being closed in on, before that monster army had the chance to swarm him, every single one of them turned into clouds of purple mist as a magical laser beam swept through the whole lot, with the caster making sure to aim that laser slightly above their center of mass so that she could intentionally miss the short, key pony in this dream.

"Luna!" Pipsqueak flopped his back and shaky limbs onto the dirt beneath him, and he smiled a weak but toothy smile up towards the Princess of Dreams herself who was looking very worried about him indeed. Even as small as he already was, his nightmares had shrunk him in size further which spoke of Pip's lack of confidence in his stature, so he was left to look at an abnormally tall Princess Luna. "I'm always glad to see you."

"Another nightmare, Pip? That's the fourth one this month, and we're not even half way out of it. Are you sure you're okay?" Her tone did not betray her expression all while she brought her horn onto Pip to cast a spell in order to revert him to his normal size.

"Right as rain, Princess." Pip got up once Luna was done with her spell and shook the dirt off of himself.

The Princess sighed a terribly sorry sigh and sat down right beside him, waiting for him to finish dusting himself off. "Please, Pip. Sit with me." Pip went to go join her where she was bumping a hoof off to the side of her and as she used her magic to change the scenery to something more pleasant.

They had gone from the scary, swampy wooded area of the Everfree Forest to a part deep within it. A strangely beautiful part of the Everfree with trees surrounding a large pond, creating a secluded grotto where the night sky was completely unpolluted by outside lights. Which in turn reflected majestically off of the pond's tranquil and glass-like surface creating the mesmerizing image of liquid night. The Princess had not chosen this place at random. She knew this was Pip's favorite place, and it often helped to calm him when things got bad or even inspire him when he needed a push in the right direction.

Yet for some reason or another, Pip was inconsolable even within this haven of his. He only looked down at the ground and drew on the soft soil the picture of a sword, trying to distract his mind. This was a first for him. This place had always managed to cheer him up before. But what little pride he had left, it had been shaken so thoroughly by now that he couldn't even feel an ounce of happiness within it.

Princess Luna couldn't bare to see him this way. She'd come to really appreciate what he did for her so many moons ago, and ever since then, she'd been looking out for him a lot. In fact, almost exclusively nowadays, as he was now being bombarded by nightmare after nightmare, far more frequently than the rest of Equestria. The effects of that were now clearly starting to show.

The Princess sincerely wanted to believe in him. She wanted to trust that Pip could become a hero. But Time was beginning to say otherwise, and this pursuit of his was beginning to hamper his mental health. He only ever had nightmares following bouts of disappointment with himself over it. Now that it was happening more often, the Princess was beginning to feel like she would have to tell Pip the words that he needed to hear, hard as they would be to say them. The harsh truth.

It wouldn't be easy for either of them. She loathed the idea of having to hurt Pip at his lowest. But it was necessary. He would not be able to continue forward in life if this kept up. Or even worse consequences. She took a deep breath, and slowly, inaudibly exhaled to ready herself for this.

"Pip. I know this is going to be hard to hear... And I want you to know that I'm saying this only because I care about you, and I'm worried about you. I want the best for you. So I need you to please consider what I'm about to say..." She was running circles with her words now, trying to keep from saying it.

"You want me to stop trying to be a hero. I'm really not cut out for it." Pip said it for her in a quiet, resigned tone. He dug his hoof into the image he was drawing to erase it, and got up to walk over to the pond to look at his own reflection.

Luna could not have imagined a worse way to break it to him even if she had tried. Pip's own admittance to the truth was heartbreaking. She walked up to the edge of the pond to stare at the reflection so she could see Pip's face better, hoping to see how he was handling it. Poorly. Poorly was the answer. To say he was devasted would have been a huge understatement. But the worst part of it was always that Pip was trying hard, too hard, to cover that up. Which just added to the sting.

"Oh Pip, I'm so sorry about this. I really am." She comforted him by running a hoof over his unruly mane.

"It's okay, Princess Luna. I hear it a lot from all the grown-ups. And I think so too." He quickly dipped his head into the water to refresh himself and came out of it again completely dry. Dream logic, and all that. "But it's not easy. I've tried. And I just... can't help it. Everytime I doze off, I imagine what it would be like."

"Being a hero, Pip?" She asked him just to hear what he would always say. But this time... he shook his head.

"Not being me." Even this answer of his was different. And tragically sorrowful.

"Don't say that, Pip... You're a great pony. I know you are. And I am Equestria's Princess, so you know my say so has to mean something. If it wasn't for you, I don't know if I'd still be here today."

"Huh? How so?"

Princess Luna sighed. She certainly wasn't ready to show her weakness to any pony, but here and now, it was the best thing she could think to say to turn Pip around.

"Weellll... remember our first Nightmare Night together, Pip? When we became friends."

"Of course I do. It was a lot of fun! It's the first time I ever conquered my fears so that I could speak to you, Princess."

"Well, remember what you told me then?" Luna’s question had Pip scrambling to remember that night precisely, and she found it amusing to see him struggle to come up with the exact words since she fully expected him to forget such a small moment in time that was only ever deeply touching to her.

“I’m sorry Princess, I don’t remember anything that could’ve been important to you. All I remember saying was how much fun that night had been, and that I wished you would return for the next one.”

“Well, that’s just it Pip. That’s all you said.” She gave a small chuckle when he became increasingly more confused since he had a funny way of bending his expression a lot whenever he was deep in thought and trying to understand something. “Believe it or not, those few words were all I needed. My return to Equestria hadn’t been... as smooth as I would’ve liked. I was struggling to feel like I had a place here with every pony. No matter how hard I tried, it seemed like time had passed me by, and just like in times past, it still felt like no one cared for their night princess...”

“What?! There’s no way that’s true! You’re like the bestest princess ever. There’s Princess Celestia, Cadence, and Twilight now. But you’re still my favorite!”

“Thank you, Pip. That’s also what you said back during Nightmare Night too. It means a lot truly. Since I don’t get to interact with other ponies often due to my royal status and nightly duties, I don’t get to hear those kinds of words often. So when you said them to me all that time ago, even if you yourself didn’t think much of it, well, for me it meant the world. I spent a millennium thinking I wasn’t wanted anywhere. But there and then, I was saved by you.” Luna let out a pleasant sigh of relief. It wasn’t often she got to air out the feelings inside of her, lest the crown waned. “So you see, Pip. You are a hero. My hero.” She tussled his mane one last time and looked up at the stars to lose herself within the cosmos.

“I didn’t know my words could help some pony that way! I’m glad I was able to help you, Princess Luna.” Pip had cheered up considerably at her words. Being told that he was a hero in some shape or form had really lightened the burden on his heart somewhat, even if he didn’t feel like he quite deserved it. He followed the Princess’ lead and looked up towards the night sky to glimpse at whatever the Princess was looking at. In this case, the constellation of Ursa Minor.

(Illustration by DamayantiArts)

“Princess?”

“Yes, Pip?”

“I know you want me to stop trying to be a hero but... I really can’t help it. I’ve never thought about anything else in life.”

Luna sighed. “I knew you’d say that, Pip. But you should understand how this obsession of yours is affecting you. These nightmares are connected to your feelings of inadequacy. I want to support your endeavors, I truly do. But we all have to face the music at some point. Perhaps it just wasn’t meant to be...” Pip was silent at this, still staring up at the stars and smiling as though he hadn’t heard a single word Luna had told him having ignored all of that. And Luna herself couldn’t help smiling even as he did so. A happy Pip was a happy thing indeed. “Well... maybe you can’t be a conventional hero, Pip. But maybe you could continue to be a hero in the way you helped me. By helping ponies on the inside, rather than on the outside.”

Pip shook his head again. “I don’t know about that, Princess Luna. I’m not even sure how I managed to help you the first time.”

“Just by being you.” She followed up.

“By being me...” Pip thought on it for a while and sighed. “But the me right now isn’t good enough to save anyone... I always thought I’d get my Cutie Mark in hero-ing someday. And ever since I heard of my ancestor from Mr. Rock, I knew that my feelings weren’t misplaced. If he was so like me and became a hero despite that, then I should be able to too!”

“Your ancestor, Pip? This is news to me. Who is that?”

“Only the bravest, most heroic pony EVER! Pint-size the Brave!” He practically jumped in order to exclaim his name with more vigor, which brought out a chuckle from Luna.

“Really?? THE Pint-size was your ancestor Pip? When I was just a filly myself, I grew up learning all about him from my own teacher, Star Swirl the Bearded. Even back then, his heroics were the stuff of myth and legend. But his lineage is shrouded in mystery, and no one knows who his descendants were. Who told you about this again?”

“Mr. Rock! The wise old stone of the Everfree. I go to visit him all the time! We’re in his home right now. Well, not in it for real since this is a dream. But you get what I mean. Look over there, see? That’s him.” Pip pointed over at a rather inconspicuous and perfectly normal-looking stone with a bit of moss at the top of it. Nothing would’ve impressed you as being anything other than just... a rock.

“A... talking rock, Pip?”

“I know! I was confused too. I didn’t know rocks could talk either. But Maud Pie talks to rocks all the time. And Mr. Rock knew all about me and my ancestor. He told me a story of how Pint-size trained to become a hero since he was just a little foal like I was!”

“Reaaalllyy now? A personal account of the life of only the most fabled hero in all of Equestrian history? By a talking rock that knows all about you too, Pip? Hmm... I don’t suppose we could visit this Mr. Rock in person any time soon? _{I want to ask him about how he's filling your head with these ideas.}”

Pip hadn't caught whatever the Princess muttered there at the end in his excitement. “Sure! I don’t think he’d mind. Um but...”

“What’s the matter, Pip? You seem unsure.”

“It’s just that we’d have to travel through the Everfree Forest to get there. I go to visit a lot, but I’ve often been attacked by all sorts of monsters before. And it’s really spooky.”

“Ah, that’s what you mean. Not to fear, Pip. You’ll have me by your side. Besides, I’m quite interested in this Mr. Rock fellow. I’ll go talk to your parents and pick you up first thing in the morning, how does that sound?”

“Sure! This’ll be the first time I introduce a friend to Mr. Rock! See you in the morning Princess!” Pip said as he began to grow increasingly more sleepy, slowly but surely being culled to sleep.

Or I guess, dream logic making it so that he was being culled awake.

Luna slowly regained herself after opening her eyes, ending her incursion into the dream realm. For a while now, she had been thinking that Pip's frequent nightmares were no coincidence. She had seen him have his ups and downs many times, but never like this. Now she was thinking that this talking stone that Pip had mentioned, crazy as it sounded, had some real bearing to his current emotional state. It was possible that someone was manipulating him from the shadows, or even charming him with magic into believing lies. Nothing she wouldn't be able to quickly find out if she personally went to go check on Pip's claims herself. One thing was certain. Pipsqueak would not give up on his aim, no matter what anyone told him and no matter how bad his nightmares became. His strong will was unparalleled since it never broke no matter how shaken it'd become, and his bravery second to none.

Luna walked over to her personal bookcase where she still kept copies of millennia past books. She was intent to find out what kind of magic, if any, was playing a part in Pip's dreams. And whose books were better for studying magic than from her own teacher, Star Swirl the Bearded? But with the night quickly meeting its end, she was finding it difficult to come up with any concrete solutions. Dream magic was incredibly rare after all, since controlling them was a strictly unique and extremely difficult ability that not even a handful of creatures in all of recorded history were able to affect. Luna herself had grown into her powers by instinct, so she could not properly teach her magics to anyone even if she wanted to.

Maybe it really was just the case that Pip was conflicted over his circumstances, and the result of it was him being plagued by so many nightmares? But all their talks together over the last few months had not clued her into anything out of the ordinary changing in his life, nor of anything that had emotionally struck him. All save for that talking stone. But then again... all Pip had mentioned was that the stone told him a story of his ancestor. Pip spoke of that entity well, and he seemed to implicitly trust it too. And Luna knew that the young foal was a good judge of character who wouldn't speak lies if he could help it.

Something was amiss in all of this. She could feel it. And so she continued on with her research even as daybreak began to loom over the horizon, her sister having just roused from her sleep.

And then it happened. She stumbled upon the first clue.

Strangely, in Star Swirl the Bearded's "The Nature of Magic", an insightful study into Magic itself and how it works on a fundamental level. It told of many things, from how it comes to be, to how it exists within Equestria and the very world itself, and even as to how ponies and creatures are able to manifest its powers in their day-to-day life indirectly or even directly in the case of Unicorns and their horns.

The clue she was looking for... well, it ran a chill down her own back. "Chapter seven, emotional response and subconscious reactions. Subsection three, consequences and other phenomena..." Her eyes fixated on one particular entry that Star Swirl had mentioned in those pages. The more she read, the more the beads of a cold sweat could be seen running down her forehead. They were describing something deeply troubling.

Something that, since her return to Equestria and even more as of late, was pointing at her own dreams, let alone Pip's.

Tantabi...

The morning had now run its length and the afternoon was quickly approaching its end soon too. The bustle of Ponyville's streets was in full swing on this school-less weekend day. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary for any pony, except for one smaller-than-average colt who had been patiently waiting at his doorstep for hours on end. Since the early morning at that. His parents had shown their concern, of course, but the colt had diswayed them with a promise that Princess Luna would come to speak to them at some point today.

And yet, she never did. It was far past the Princess' waking hours now, and Pip was beginning to doubt that she would arrive. His parents didn't quite believe him of course, because the Princess had only ever been Pip's dream realm pen pal, but they gave him the benefit of doubt anyway and continued with their normal weekend activities. That meant that Pip was left to pass the time all on his lonesome sitting around at the very front of his house just kicking up dirt or daydreaming that he was a hero like he usually did. A few of his friends had come around to check up on him at the very least.

"Heya Pipsqueak, what are you up to?" Sweetie Belle asked him as she spotted him drawing the image of a sword stuck in a stone on the ground. Trailing behind her was the other three Cutie Mark Crusaders. Apple Boom, Scootaloo, and an honorary new member, Chrys. A small changeling with amber eyes and a bright green mane, who was shorter than most of the other pony foals and slightly taller than Pip himself.

"Being bored, mostly."

"Why? You doing anything? Chrys said she wanted to invite you to come pla- I mean, come to our Cutie Mark Crusader training. We're seeing who is going to get their aviator mark by roleplaying a hot-air balloon pilot." Scootaloo followed, speaking on the changeling's behalf.

"No thank you, I'm good. I'm waiting for someone." His casual response was enough for the original three Cutie Crusaders to give up on him.

"Well alright, if you say so. Catch you around Pip. Don't be a stranger none." Apple Bloom commented as they turned away to walk back to the kiosks on Ponyville's main commercial road to go look at something or other in the stands that caught their fancy.

The only one left remaining was the changeling herself. She was looking over at him worriedly, as if she were seeing more than he was letting on.

"Pip, okay?" She asked.

"Yup, I'm okay." Pip had failed to make her budge. Her worried stare remained. He looked around to confirm that the Cutie Crusaders had left, and then sighed. "Well, maybe just a bit worried, I'll admit."

The small changeling didn't respond and only tilted her head to show her curiosity over this statement. She was often soft-spoken in this way, as she wasn't much for words and would rather convey her responses through expressions.

"Princess Luna was supposed to visit today. She told me so in my dreams, but she hasn't shown up yet. The Princess never goes back on her word, so I'm worried that something must've happened to her."

"Luna? Dream, visitor?" Chrys tilted her head to the other side, still not quite understanding everything Pip was saying. Had he confided with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, they would've known what he meant. But Chrys as a changeling was very much out of the loop.

"You don't know who Princess Luna is, Chrys? Really?!" He was shocked for a moment, then bumped a hoof to his noggin' from a moment of realization. "Oh that's right... I'm sorry, I forgot that Luna can only visit pony dreams... I guess it would make sense you wouldn't know her. Um. But you do know who Princess Celestia is, right?"

A wide smile spread across the changeling's face as she nodded. "Auntie. Twilight, teacher."

"Yup yup, Celestia is Twilight's teacher. But what was that about an aunt?" The changeling only tilted her head again, not fully understanding the question. "Er, uh nevermind. Well, at least you know Princess Celestia. You know that she raises the sun right?" She nodded. "Well, the one who raises the moon is her sister, Princess Luna. She takes care of the dream realm too."

The changeling was slack jawed. This was the first time she was hearing about this.

"You really don't know anything about her, do you?" She shook her head at Pip's question. "You should meet her sometime! She's the best Princess in my opinion. Um. No offense to Twilight." Chrys only gave him a quiet smile. "Hmm. But tell you what. If you want, you can wait here with me if you want to meet her. _{If she ever shows up, that is.}"

She nodded excitedly and almost took off, stopping short of a few steps so she could turn around over to Pip again. "Be back. Will tell Twilight, I'll be here. And friends." And like that, she was gone.

But again, some time had passed and not even Chrys had shown back up to meet him there, much less the Princess. Now poor Pip was thoroughly confused. What was happening today? As time kept ticking, the more anxiety over the Princess grew for him. Until finally, he became tired of waiting. He muttered his apologies to Chrys who had still yet to show up, hoping she wouldn't be disappointed over his disappearance, and he took off into the Everfree Forest by himself to go visit that familiar grotto from his dreams.

Now that Pip had, had so much time to wonder about all the possibilities of why Luna would skip out on her visit, he thought of a few troubling ones that had given him reason to delve into the Everfree by himself. He imagined that maybe the Princess had been met with trouble on the way to Ponyville, as she might've flown over or through the forest itself and had found herself at the end of its many sharp jaws or claws. Maybe she was caught by its dangerous, entangling flora after curiously trying to investigate it on her own last night. She did seem a bit skeptical about Mr. Rock when he told her about him...

Whatever the case, Pip ventured forth. At first, all he could think about was trying to save the Princess in case she was in trouble. But the Everfree has a way of tempering bravery in its many forms. Even with no creatures about, the forest itself had a way of creating the illusion of danger.

Its thick overgrown canopy shrouded the forest floor in a dim lighting, inviting the shadows at almost every turn which a young, impressionable imagination had a way of hiding monsters within. Moisture had less of a chance to dry off within this shroud thus creating a wet and swampy atmosphere that not only made it harder to see but also made it more difficult to traverse, and the increased humidity made it feel both cooler and hotter as they navigated through its jungles. This made the creatures within it accumulate more moisture on their coats and skin as if it were sweat and brought about a chill as they were cooled by it, eliciting fear due to the cold-sweat effect on the mind despite the temperate climate underneath the canopy.

Finally, it was the detritus of the forest that further affected Pip's state of mind. The forest floor's overgrown trees had overgrown roots to match, which seemed to grasp and lurch at his hoofs almost intentionally due to the sheer amount of them and due to their careful concealment from layers and layers of debris like months and months of fallen, withering tree leaves and other low-light flora like wild looking mushrooms and insectivorous plants. This invited the idea that he was never alone within the Everfree. That something could always be lurking and lunging after him.

Worse yet, no matter how many times Pip had visited Mr. Rock in the past, the forest always had a way of tricking his steps. Every time he grew familiar with its twisting passages and subtle landmarks, come the following month it would have changed considerably, leaving him no room to rely on his spatial memory. Getting to the grotto had become an almost instinctual thing that not always paid out for Pip. Often times he found himself escaping the forest as fast as possible due to coming across its less gentle fauna.

And unfortunately for him... it was starting to feel like that would be the case here too. He was beginning to hear a rustling sound from his surroundings, inching closer to him. Due to his size, the grasses and shrubs on the forest floor were chest-high to him and it obfuscated him well, so Pip had often avoided trouble simply by staying still since it was usually hard for any creatures to find him without the aid of noise. Just like before, he quickly crouched further down to be completely invisible by some of the grasses. Yet, the rustling noise was showing no stop and was becoming louder by the second. It was almost like it could see Pip through the shrubbery despite the natural camouflage. And without a shadow of a doubt... it was after him.

After a few more seconds holding in his breath and feeling the dread of that mysterious creature closing in on him, he finally lost his nerve and began to sprint in any direction except towards the unknown creature, yelling out in a panic as he did so. Sure enough, the creature gave chase.

"I'm not tasty at all Mr. Monster!" He yelled out in between pants of breath as he kept running.

Whatever it was, it was relentless in its pursuit. Every time Pip felt he was at an advantage after a certain tight turn in the trees which allowed him to fool it to run past him, it would almost immediately turn around knowing that it had lost him and would start after him again. Even after jumping a nearby stream towards the other side and hiding back into the shrubbery, he could still hear it gunning after him. Finally, Pip abandoned the flora all together so that he could run along the length of the relatively clean and stable stream whose empty, rocky bank would allow him to gallop at full speed. Looking to the side of him where the creature was still lurking within the shrubs, he caught sight of it for a split second. It's coat was dark, so it was hiding even better than he was within them. And the tips of its insect-like wings were sticking out of the top of the grasses, so that completely crossed out his idea to climb a tree right there and then. Before he could see it more clearly, Pip stumbled upon one of the forest's many snagging upturn roots, sending him rolling on the ground as his momentum carried him into a familiar place and into the shallow part of a large pool of water.

He had arrived at the grotto.

Before Pip had the chance to compose himself within the water and turn his hoofs to the ground to kick himself up and out of it, the mud had made him trip even further into the deep part of it due to the slippery ground. Just as quickly as danger had come, it had gone. And now it had arrived yet again. Despite the part of the water where Pip was in being relatively shallow, due to his small size, to Pipsqueak it was threatening to drown him in its steepness. And every time he paddled his way onto the land again, he would inadvertently slip back in.

Imagine if you will being stuck inside a bathtub covered in butter and having almost zero friction. And Pip wasn't a particularly strong swimmer either, so his lack of buoyancy was putting him at further disadvantage. Pip would have been in real trouble if it had not been for the quick help from someone that dove in after him, and began tugging and pushing his body through the mud.

This someone was a large, bulky and built grey Diamond Dog that was digging its claws deep into the muddy ground to get its footing and to help Pip get out of the pool. After a moment of struggle, Pip managed to stumble out of the water, with the Diamond Dog following suit.

"Oh my gosh, thank you mister! I would've been a goner if you hadn't been here! Were you able to lure away the forest monster too?"

The nameless Diamond Dog caught Pip by surprise when it giggled at his questions in a cute, but hiccupy kind of way in the tone of a young girl. Then he stumbled back in surprise when it's entire form quickly changed back into the image of a familiar face.

(Illustration by SherwoodWhisper)

"Chrys! It's you! Oh thank Princess Luna it was just you. Er, wait, were you the one chasing me in the Everfree?" He asked now that the clues were starting to click for him. She nodded at his question.

"Sorry. Saw Pip enter, forest. Followed to see where, going. Everfree is dangerous. No place, for pony. Then Pip become scared. Was trying, to help." She said in her usual broken way of speaking, which was leagues better than when she first arrived in Ponyville for the first time, from what he could remember.

"Ah, I see. Haha." He flushed in his shame, and sighed with relief. "I got spooked by the forest even before I heard you following after me. And since you're almost as short as me, I didn't get to see who you were until now. Sorry for getting scared by you. I hope that didn't hurt your feelings?" He held out a hoof towards her.

She shook her head, knowing that Pip sincerely meant his apology. She implicitly understood that things would not change for her kind overnight, and that she looked inherently scary if the other pony did not know better. She took that hoof and shook it. "It okay. Pip. Just glad, you're okay."

"Same, my heart nearly jumped out of my chest. But hey, sorry again for ditching you earlier. I know I said we were gonna wait, but I got more worried about Princess Luna and you were taking a long time. My bad for not telling you anything."

"I'm, sorry too. Talked to, Twilight. Asked about Luna. She gave me, big lesson. Took while." Pipsqueak laughed since that sounded very much like something Princess Twilight would do. "Twilight also mention. Spoke to, Auntie Celestia. Luna still at castle, sleeping. In Canterlot. Was up for a while. Researching something, important."

"Oh... That's good to hear. I guess I worried over nothing huh? Haha..." He rubbed at his mane feeling the hot shame of his over imagination and his heroic desires causing trouble again. "I just wish she would've said something first..." Chrys' expression softened as Pip became a bit sadder after saying that, but then he cheered up again. "Well, it's too much to expect an important Princess like Luna to have the time to come all the way out here with me! It's okay. I don't blame Luna."

Chrys smiled knowing that Pip really did mean those words. He was a kind soul that way, from what she could see. She'd only interacted with him a few times, but there was always something about Pipsqueak that caught her attention. He seemed very much like her in a way.

After a bit of silent thought, Pip had a sudden realization and looked around. He had completely glossed over the fact that they were in the grotto he spoke of to Luna. "Hmm, maybe today wasn't a total waste after all! I can finally introduce a friend to Mr. Rock." Strangely, unlike most ponies, Chrys did not question this. Not even with her usual head tilts. She only eagerly awaited whatever this introduction meeting was.

Pipsqueak looked at the ground all over the grotto failing to recognize Mr. Rock due to his, admittedly, incredibly inconspicuous nature. Once he was sure he finally found him, Pip took him onto one hoof and held him aloft in front of Chrys.

"This is him, the wise old rock of the Everfree Forest. Mr. Rock!"

"Hello, rock." Chrys said almost immediately, taking it entirely seriously.

Silence. For a good twenty seconds, there was complete silence. Chrys only stared at the rock unflinchingly, not making even a move as though she were listening in on something intently. It was enough for Pip to have second thoughts about this whole thing, and wondered if he had even picked up the right rock. He coughed awkwardly and was about the put down the rock until another familiar voice finally spoke to him.

"It's good to see you too, young Pipsqueak. And thank you for introducing me to your friend. I'm sorry if I didn't respond to you sooner. I was asleep up until the very moment you picked me up, and since I can only converse with one creature at a time, I was introducing myself to Chrys. Or, I suppose I should say, that I was saying hi to her again and offering my apologies for something I did in the past." The deep, elderly voice of the rock spoke to him at last.

"Mr. Rock! It is you. For a second there I thought I got the wrong one. But you've met Chrys before? Huh?" Pip's expression shifted wildly in his confusion, amusing Chrys and the rock as he looked at each of them, hoping one of them would answer.

"Long, story. But its, okay now. Guardian, good stone. Good to see him, too." Chrys responded on their behalf.

"It is as she says. Maybe that's a story for another time. Still, it's great to see you making friends. I appreciate you coming all the way out here just to welcome them to me. Was that all the visit was for, young one? You seem a bit distressed right about now."

Pip huffed with exasperation. "Well, it seems everyone can read me like an open book today!"

"Hoho, well, you are standing in front of two who can do that with ease, you know. I have the experience that comes from countless years, and Chrys has her terribly good eyesight. So tell me Pip, what's wrong?"

"Nothing anymore, at least. I originally came here to look for Princess Luna since she said she wanted to meet you in my dreams after I spoke to her about you. She didn't show up today to do that, and I was afraid she might've gotten stuck in the Everfree Forest somehow and came to save her. In hindsight, I should've just told an adult to come with me... Or verified with Twilight about where Luna was."

"Hmm, yes, that would've been wise. This forest is not for the weak of heart, after all. But you're not anything of the sort, Pipsqueak. You did what you felt you had to do, isn't that right? So don't look so down. A hero's path is not always easy. Your ancestor understood that." The rock gave out a chuckle as he saw the expression on Pip's face. "Now don't look so surprised, young one. Of course I know what ails you deep inside. You've been fretting over it again, haven't you? You're here because you're struggling with your dreams, isn't that right? Luna... I know that little filly. If she visited you in your dreams, then there's only one conclusion as to why you'd want to visit this place again. Visiting me is just a pretense, isn't that right?"

"Right... sorry Mr. Rock. But it is nice to talk to you still. I know I can always look for advice from you."

"So say, what's got you so run down that you felt the need to come here again?"

"I um..." Pip looked over at Chrys who hadn't been part of their conversation due to the stone's one-way communication. She was sitting idly by, waiting to be called upon. Ultimately, her presence was making it hard for him to say it out loud.

"It's okay, Pip. I have a feeling that Chrys will be able to help you if you talk to us about it. So don't be afraid to fall back on her help. A true hero understands when a fight can't be won alone."

"Okay. I'll... just say it then. Um, I've been having a lot of nightmares lately. And even Princess Luna has started asking me to abandon my um, my want to be a hero. But I just can't... you know that, right Mr. Rock?"

"Very much, Pipsqueak. You are the spitting image of Pint-size, even down to your heart. I doubt even I could turn you away from it."

"Well, I want to stop." A silence lingered between the two of them. The stone was giving Pip the opportunity to collect his thoughts, and he did so by taking in a deep breath. "I've never been able to save anyone like I want to. And Luna said my nightmares are being caused because of my regrets. So I think she's right. I should really stop. I want to, anyway."

"Pip, okay?" Chrys asked now noticeably worried.

"No, not really. Sorry." Pip murmured quietly to himself, trying to keep from looking disappointed in himself.

But the changeling hadn't asked Pip that question. And that became more apparent with the lingering silence after he had said it. The occasional nod and tilting of her head had clued him into their one-way conversation. Then, Chrys' expression turned deadly serious. Finally, the stone spoke to him again.

"You know, it sounds to me like you're at odds with what you want, Pipsqueak. On one side of the coin, you want to be a hero above all else. But on the other, it's inviting trouble for you and creating worry for those you care about. Is that right?" Pip nodded. "But do you know what makes a hero, a hero?"

"Huh? It's fighting monsters and saving the day, isn't it?"

"Not exactly, no. What ultimately makes heroes is the desire to help others. So many ponies and creatures would rather prioritize themselves above anyone else, especially when looking into the jaws of danger. But heroes look beyond themselves. They look past their innately selfish nature and sacrifice for the good of others. They overpower their own desires in order to give to others what they need. And they overcome their fear because they know that this world needs its heroes, and a hero must never run from their duty when the cost of their inaction could end up costing someone else everything. A true hero is the kind of empathetic heart that saves others in more ways than just keeping them safe, young Pip. Monsters come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The foes you will have to vanquish will not always appear to you in such fantastical ways like you imagine them to be."

"So then... what should I do? How do I become a hero?"

"I cannot say. The answer would hold no value if I gave it to you now. That is something that you must look for. I know the road has been filled with difficulty for you, as it was with Pint-size long ago. But do not lose heart, Pip. You worry over causing others worry when facing danger. But understand that will never change for those who love you. It is within a hero's nature to take on someone else's trouble in order to save them. As such, they will always be in conflict with something or other. Those who love you will always worry because a hero is destined for trouble. So you mustn't lose heart over a few hang-ups. I know you are far stronger than that, Pipsqueak. And I know you have the makings of a real hero."

"Thank you, Mr. Rock. I just wish Luna thought the same as you."

"I can understand why she would worry about you. Even I was trying to be the voice of reason to Pint-size so many, many years ago and trying to get him to quit his aim. But I've come to realize that you young ones need to follow your heart, even if you get hurt along the way." Mr. Rock's voice had a longing and regret in it the way only someone as old as him could have. "But listen, Pipsqueak. I also know that your dreams are not all your own. As I am magical in nature, you know that I can sense all manner of things. Namely, I can see an ominous magic lingering about you. And I'm sure that is what's affecting your dreams now."

"What?! Where?!" He turned circles trying to see it for himself, like a dog chasing his tail.

"You can't see it, but it's there. It is a mist that's always following you as it exists deep inside. And it's aching to break free. You must take care, Pipsqueak. You will endure all manner of hardships in your dreams thanks to it, but I have faith in you. Now I just need you to have faith in yourself."

"I'll... try. Um, should I tell Princess Luna about this mist? I don't know if she'll believe me."

"Yes, if you see her, be sure to let her know. If she is as brilliant as I remember, she'll soon be finding the real cause of your nightmares and work to rid you of them. The path ahead won't be so easy or kind, young Pip. Do not hesitate to fall back on another's aid. For that reason, I've asked Chrys to help you on this." Pip looked over to the changeling in question to see her nod approvingly, knowing intrinsically that her aid was being requested of her.

"Help with what?"

"She'll be helping you with your dreams. No pony in Ponyville is as familiar with this type of magic than she is. So trust her magic, and trust yourself. Tonight, the two of you will embark into the realm of dreams and hopefully quell the nightmares that surround you, Pip. Brave onwards, little hero."

"Thanks for having me over, Princess Twilight." Pip shifted uncomfortably at the stairs of the castle of friendship, waiting patiently to be let in.

"The pleasure is mine, Pip. It's great to see Chrys making more friends in Ponyville. Especially the kind she can have a sleepover with! I've moved a couple of beds to the library so we can all sleep in the same room together for tonight. It'll be so much fun, trust me. I've got a bunch of board games and activities ready!"

"Looking... forward to it Princess." Pip gave her a half-hearted smile, not knowing how to return her giddy enthusiasm.

The Princess bent over to speak to him more closely, making sure Spike and Starlight couldn't overhear what she was about to say.

"Chrys also clued me into your troubles and why you're here, Pip. Don't worry. If anyone knows how to cast the kind of magic that can give you restful dreams, it's her. She's been doing it for ages now. So have a little faith in us."

"Thank you again, Princess. And Chrys too. She's a real friend when I need her."

"I know, I raised her myself." Twilight caught herself and doubled back. "Well, somewhat. You know what I meant. Come on, let's go. The night is still young."

Yeah... it's going to be a long one... He thought to himself.

Chapter 2: Ogres & Former Villainesses

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“Alright, it’s my turn! It’s a good thing I always keep my Dragon Pit board with me.” Starlight exclaimed with enthusiasm as she redecorated the part of the floor everyone had been playing on, busy as it had been due to someone else’s game night recommendation.

“Aw come on, we’re not even a quarter into our Ogres & Oubliettes campaign...” Spike looked on sadly at the sight of his many pieces being floated away to be organized and cleaned by Twilight’s magic, all while the purple alicorn gave him a small chuckle.

“We’ve already been at it for three hours, Spike. We all agreed. It’s only fair to rotate our selected games out or else we’ll be here all night.” She laid it out for him in a gentle and patient tone.

“Yeah, okay... But everyone took the better part of an hour to create their characters!” He crossed his arm still none too satisfied.

“You’re the only one that has played it before, Spike. It’s only natural that we’d take so long to learn the rules and make our characters when there were so many options to choose from.” Twilight explained while she rolled the die in order to move her piece on Starlight’s game which had already begun.

“Spike, I’m, sorry. Took longest.” The little changeling bowed to him, sad to have slowed everyone’s pace down and for having disappointed him. She didn't have a good frame of reference for many of the options available, and so she had to be lectured on a lot of what any of them were. Her lack of knowledge coupled with her often overly serious nature tended to make for an unimaginative mix, which did not pair well with Spike's game.

“Nah, don’t worry about it, Chrys.” He waved his claws dismissively as a show to say he had, had a change of heart in that instant in order to liven her mood. “Ogres and Ou’ is a game that takes lots of sessions to finish anyway. And it’s better if you took your time to choose the class you wanted to play, rather than choosing at random and being stuck with something you didn’t.”

“Aaannndd, we can always continue it at some point in the future. That is, if everyone present wants to.” Twilight added in order to alleviate Chrys’ remorse a bit, getting a nod from Spike and Starlight. “What do you say, Pip? Think you’d want to come over again?”

“Totally! It’s been really fun, Princess Twilight.” The princess gave him a contended smile at his reply, seeing as how Chrys brightened again at his response from a cascading effect since Spike had also felt better about it too.

“That settles it then. I’m holding you all accountable in order to finish that game. Ogres and Ou’ is serious business.” Everyone gave Spike’s comment a chuckle. “But jeez, talk about 'unexpected' with your character choices. Twilight, a rogue, really? No offense, but you’re not the sneaky type.”

“Hey! You’re the one who said to try and step outside of my comfort zone. ‘You can be whoever you want to be. This is your chance to be someone else entirely if you want.’ Is what you said, remember?”

Spike ignored her and continued. “Never thought you’d want to be a Paladin, Starlight.”

“Oh you know. Just want to be a force of good for once and do the right thing ... Haha.” She laughed nervously.

“Just be careful about upholding your Oaths, is my only advice. As for you, Pipsqueak... Well, yours was pretty expected. Don’t know why you took so long as well since it seemed like you already knew what you wanted from the start.”

“I was just wondering what Pint-size would’ve been. A champion or a gladiator? Wish there had been a class that was just ‘Hero’, you know?”

“Pint who? That historical pony Hero? Nice! You’re already leaning pretty heavily into the roleplaying part of this game, aren’t you?” Spike brought a fist up to him so that they could do a hoof/fist bump, which Pip gladly took. Then he turned to the changeling. “I half expected you to be a druid, Chrys, to be honest. You know, due to their animal shapeshifting and all. They have pretty good offensive capabilities thanks to that, and they also get a good amount of support spells like the class you chose. But don’t mind my words. Cleric is always a solid option.” He gave her a big smile and thumbs up.

“Mmm! Support, sound fun.”

“I hope you’re all well prepared for what I have in store for you as your game master!” He gave them his best sinister laugh, all while rolling his dice for Starlight’s game. “The dangers you will encounter will be so treacherous, your characters will have nightmares for weeks!” His dramatics and cackle immediately fell after having mindlessly moved his piece onto a dragon pit on the board, triggering the trap and sending a marble from inside the volcano in the middle of the board spewing out towards it and sending his piece into oblivion on contact. “Noooooo!” Spike fell to his knees after his spectacular scream.

“Better luck next time, dragon boy! That’s what you get for not paying Dragon Pit better attention.” Starlight added salt to the wound as she took up the die herself. “But enough talk, I have a game to win. You kiddies better watch yourselves, or you’ll end up just like Spike here. That includes you, Twilight.” The two mares went into squinting staring fits as their competitive nature began to flare.

Thankfully, Dragon Pit was a game mostly up to chance at the roll of a die, and so their spirits were tempered by Lady Luck herself. The same could not be said once Twilight’s game was brought up. Trivia. Starlight is a headstrong and intellectual pony even at the worst of times, and this was not the type of character you wanted competing against Twilight at trivia. Their battle was ferocious. Their fight, legendary.

Spike had felt the onslaught approaching from a mile out and had made an excuse to escape with the two kids away from the crossfire by offering them a late-night snack. And although they had stepped away in the middle of that trivia game, it mattered none since they had long since lost the game, standing no chance to win. Unlikely Twilight or Starlight would’ve even noticed their disappearance amidst their literal headbutting as they waited intensely for the electronic prompter to give them their trivia question so that they could buzz their buzzers at dizzying speed. Leaving out into the hall and being trailed by the two kids, Spike acted as their guide since the castle of friendship was relatively new to both of them and because it tended to be quite maze-like.

“Any requests for what you want to eat? I’m sure we’ve got a lot of different snacks in the kitchen, or I can personally whip up something for us.” He asked the two hopeing to hear some preference.

“I’m okay for anything.” Pip remarked nonchalantly, not wanting to impose more than he needed to. “What about you, Chrys? What do you like to eat?” He asked her, genuinely interested.

“Pan, cake!” She exclaimed with involuntary gusto. Whenever her mind filled with something she was interested in, those thoughts had a tendency to glue on pretty tight until they finally erupted from her at the slightest opportunity. In a sense, it was like a mild Tourette syndrome that only manifested itself when she was feeling the desire for something.

“At this hour, Chrys? Well, I guess it’s not a bad idea for a snack since they’re relatively light. Yeah, I’ll go cook us up a batch. You okay with that, Pip?” Spike asked him.

“A little strange, but sure. I’ll never say no to a good flat cake.”

After a short bit of work with Chrys mixing the batter and Spike cooking it on the stovetop, they were able to make enough for everyone and then some. Pip found he very much disliked not being able to help with any of it. Even with something mundane like this, it reminded him of how little he ever contributed to saving anyone. But at the very least, Pip was able to find comfort in watching the two work together in happy harmony. They seemed to be almost in sync, such was the practice that they had put into making pancakes over their time together. And all seemed to be going well up until the point they were finally done and Spike began to look a little confused and a tad bit worried about the amount that they had made.

"Uh oh. I didn't realize how many I cooked. I was too in the zone, you know what I mean?" He rubbed the scales near his head with one claw and counted the cakes with his other. "We're usually pretty good at this Chrys, but it seems we made a few too many this time. We have enough here for all five of us to get two pancakes each, and then some! Overeating before bed is no good..."

With impeccable timing, Chrys shook her head to signal to Spike that it hadn't been a mistake, all while a voice began to permeate the walls of the kitchen. This disembodied voice was muttering to itself, intensely focusing on repeating some words as if reading from a book.

"Whose that, Spike?" Pip's curiosity drove him to ask since the voice sounded frantic and troubled.

"Don't worry about her. That's just Tiara. She's next door in her own room studying."

"Wait, Tiara? Like Diamond Tiara? What is she doing here this late at night? Does Twilight know?"

"Yeah, I get your confusion. And Twilight knows. She's the one that has allowed her to be here. I was entirely against it myself. But it's hard to win when you're outnumbered three to one." Spike sighed and looked over to the changeling so as to pass off the topic to her.

"Tiara, good now. Trust." Is all she said in response while nodding.

"I want to trust her Chrys, but she's burned all of us many times. Even you, don't you remember? Only Starlight hasn't been affected, but because she's still relatively new to Ponyville. We both know that she is more understanding of Tiara due to their similar circumstances. But I don't quite buy that she's turned good all of a sudden. Just looking at her, I can almost feel that meanness still inside of her, you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I'm with Spike on this one, Chrys. Tiara has had a very mean streak at school ever since I moved here to Ponyville. I don't know if allowing her into your home is a good idea..."

The changeling frowned and stomped her hoof, showing her frustration at the two boys. "Tiara good, trust!" She used her magic to take the pancakes that Spike initially thought were extra, and brought them onto a plate. Then she trotted off to go deliver them to her, but not before looking back at the two boys and yelling, "Forgive!" at them.

"Maybe we should go apologize?" Pip looked over to Spike worriedly after she disappeared from view, not feeling well over making her upset.

"Nah, don't worry. I don't think what we said was wrong. Chrys is just quick to forgive. She wants to believe the best in everyone. I mean you heard her right? All she wants is for us to forgive Tiara. They've been better friends ever since Tiara started coming over every day to learn magical lessons from Twilight. Why an earth pony would want to study magic spells is beyond me. And while I still can't get myself to trust Tiara, I trust Chrys. She can see into someone's heart better than most, so if it's her saying so, I have to trust it. And even if she couldn’t, I’d still trust it anyway. For her sake."

"Someone I know said something about that too. Is her eyesight really that good?"

Spike's chuckle almost lost him his concentration on the stack of pancakes as the two carried them over to the library where Twilight and Starlight were still in the middle of their trivia game. "Something like that! If you ever find that she's weirdly attentive, don't worry. That's natural."

"Yeah, I could tell..." Pip thought in silence for a bit. "I think I should go back and apologize after all. Um, to both of them. I'm realizing that maybe it wasn't entirely fair of me to assume stuff about Tiara on my own. She's the one who started teasing and bullying me in school over my height ever since I moved here, but she also hasn't been the one doing it lately either. Maybe what Chrys said really is true... At least, I think I owe it to both of them to find out."

Spike shrugged. "Well, whatever helps you sleep better at night Pip. I got pancakes to deliver, so see you back at the library."

Walking back towards the muttering voice of Tiara's had given Pip pause before his hoof could ever knock on the door to her room. His nerves had been building all day since the moment he had heard about the magical mist and was silently dreading going back to sleep, and now that he was no longer distracting his mind with the sleepover games, that anxiety had seeped in all at once. If his nightmares were partly caused by his own fears, this was him facing one of them. He swallowed hard. Pip was finding that it wasn't easy forgiving someone for the constant misery they had subjected him to. If it had been anyone else, they wouldn't have even entertained the thought. But something inside of him was telling him that he needed to, for the sake of his desire to be a hero.

His mind started racing with questions. Those on what it meant to be a hero. He now wondered who it was that heroes saved. Perhaps they only save those they care about? But no, Mr. Rock said that heroes go beyond their selfish nature. That's what makes them heroes. Do they just save those who are worthy then? But... what is worthiness? Should a hero try to save everyone? Even the villains who might've endangered others through their actions? But maybe they had good reasons to be bad... And what if he incorrectly assumes that they want to be saved? What if they end up betraying a hero's trust in worse ways? Would a hero's actions then cause a greater downfall for others through their kindness? Is acting like a hero even worth it then...?

Pip could've been stuck in those unending questions on the morality of heroism for ages, had it not been for a few words that Mr. Rock had said earlier. “You did what you felt you had to do, isn't that right? So don't look so down. A hero's path is not always easy. Your ancestor understood that.” Pip did as he had always done before when he would stop to question if what he was attempting to do was even the right thing. He imagined that he was Pint-size himself.

He had studied up on his ancestor extensively by this point. He had read the many historical records that existed of him. Took to heart many of the powerful speeches he gave. And he listened intently to all the stories that Mr. Rock had told him of Pint-size’s youth. What would Pint-size do if he were in his horseshoes? He wondered.

Pint-size the Brave was renowned for his strength, courage, and especially wisdom. His greatest feat came during a pivotal moment in the founding of Equestria, where it was that his wisdom was put to the test when quelling the three pony tribes’ hatred for one another. Pint-size had to go beyond even his own prejudices in order to save everyone, and as a result, brought lasting peace to the pony races.

Pip mustered his courage and knocked on that door. Heroes look beyond themselves. Heroes must never run. He thought to himself as he pushed the door open with one hoof after he was allowed to enter by the voice behind that door. Admittedly, he hadn’t been prepared for what awaited him there.

Tiara was certainly... different than how he remembered her. The room was dimly lit save for the desk and chair where she was studying, with mounds upon mounds of books scattered and stacked all about. Her mane was a lot messier and almost as unruly as his by how little it had been kept in the last few days. Her eyes bore dark circles underneath them to show that this intense studying wasn’t a one-off occurrence and that she had been doing this a lot lately. And the expression on her face was even softer and kinder than any Tiara had, had in the past. It was hard to tell since almost everything about her demeanor, from her stance to her small mannerisms, seemed subtly different. But just like Spike had mentioned earlier, just from looking at her once, Pip could sense a tiny bit of the old Tiara inside.

“Oh... hello Pipsqueak. Twilight mentioned that you guys were having a sleepover tonight.” She said quietly as if unsure if she even had the privilege to speak to him.

“Hi to you too, Tiara.” An awkward silence lingered between them since Pip didn’t know how to begin a conversation with her. Chrys had been busy running a comb through her hair while Tiara had paused to eat the pancakes that had been brought to her. By the pronounced look of her cheekbones and the ones near her neck collar, it seemed to Pip that Tiara hadn’t been eating properly lately either. “It’s a surprise to see you here, Tiara. Um... Were you not invited to our game night?” He asked after a bit, finally finding a topic to discuss.

“Yes, Twilight invited me. But I don’t think it would’ve been appropriate for me to join you all. I’m... well... I’m busy studying anyway, so it’s alright.”

“You okay?” He asked, noticing the reluctance in her voice.

“Hmm? Yeah, totally. No need to concern yourself with me.”

Pip frowned. He hadn’t expected this kind of lukewarm reaction from Tiara of all ponies. He expected sneers, jeers, and all sorts of haughty larger-than-life behavior. Not whatever this was. His internal conflict had grown with his worry now that he had abandoned his pride and had opened up to the idea of forgiving her. Was he being lured into a false sense of security? Some kind of mind game? No. Why would Tiara even go that far?

He looked over to the small changeling quietly comforting Tiara, a similar worry plastered on her face as she attended to her. Tiara was obviously lying.

“You’re not okay. Why are you trying to hid-”

“Pip?” Tiara’s voice quickly cut him off, preventing him from addressing the issue directly. “Now that you’re here, I’ve been meaning to say this to you too.” Tiara got up from her study where she’d been seated and walked in front of it so she could properly express what she was about to do. “Nothing I say or do will make up for the years of bullying I’ve made you go through. I don’t think I could ever apologize enough to earn your forgiveness. But at the very least, I do want you to know that I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve done and that I’ll be doing my best from now on to stop being a source of that.” She dropped to her knees to bow her upper body almost all the way to the ground in a deeply sincere expression. Something Pip never imagined he would ever get to see from her.

She’d caught him completely unaware. To say he was stunned would not have done it justice. He was frozen. Petrified. You have to understand that this had been one of Pip’s greatest fears in his life up until now, and it was suddenly crumbling unceremoniously and anticlimactically. He had nurtured quite a rooted resentment for Tiara and all those who had bullied and teased him alongside her for so long. Not just because their words would hurt his feelings, but because he felt like they were true. Calling him weak... Calling him small... calling him useless... calling him a Wannabe hero...

“I see. Thanks for telling me, Tiara.” His voice was soft once he finally decided to respond, unable to make up his mind on whether he should even try to befriend her or not. Tiara had been the main instigator of all his problems at school and in his everyday life. With her out of the picture, no one else quite compared. So once his resentment for her had left at this apology, what remained of that resentment had no other place to go except the last pony whom Pip resented.

Himself.

“Pip, okay?” Chrys looked at him as she shifted her worry almost like she could see the change in his heart.

“I’m okay. Just nervous for tonight is all.” He had successfully convinced her with his words, hiding the pain in his chest with one of his other anxieties.

“Nervous for tonight? Weren't you all just having a game night? What is there to be nervous about?" Tiara's confusion had gotten the better of her before she put a hoof over her mouth to keep from asking anything more. "Sorry, I didn't mean to pry. I'm not trying to dig up dirt of yours to tease you with, I promise!"

"That's not very convincing coming from you," Pip gave her a playful smile, which made Tiara liven up a bit from her moody on-edge state. As he looked over to the small changeling beside her who now wore a happier expression on her face, he was reminded of Mr. Rock's words again. A true hero understands when a fight can't be won alone. "Can I confess something to you, Tiara?"

"Sure. I mean... no. Sorry. Are you sure? I wouldn't trust me."

"It’s you saying things like that, that makes me feel like I can trust you this time around. Well, I'd like to trust you anyway. So what do you say? Think you could keep this secret of mine?" He held a hoof out to her, hoping she'd take it.

"Yes? Yes. I can. I will!" She took it with both of her own and shook his vigorously, beads in the corners of her eyes and smiling the world. "I'll do my best."

Pip felt like he understood what Luna had spoken to him about just a little bit more than before. Helping ponies on the inside rather than on the outside... Watching Tiara wipe away her tears from such a small gesture of forgiveness made him think that there was more to a hero than simply saving others from danger.

"Don't worry too much about it, Tiara. There's no point in hiding it from others for much longer anyway." He said in trying to alleviate her worries. "Truth is... I've been having tons of nightmares lately. So many that even Princess Luna has become concerned for me. And someone I know told me that it's because of a magical mist that is affecting my dreams."

"Lots of nightmares? Magical mist in your dreams?" Tiara thought on it for a bit as if trying to recollect her memories. "That sounds a lot like a Tantabus."

"Ah Tanta what?" Pip was honestly surprised that she seemed to know something about his issues. “Even the Princess seemed clueless about this, Tiara. How can you be sure?"

Tiara slapped a hoof onto her mouth again, a lot more violently this time as she realized she might've said something she shouldn't have. Then she had a sudden realization and looked all over her study to find a particular book within the large piles of them.

"Ah! Here it is." She brought a dusty old tome onto her desk and opened the book up to a certain page. "It sounds like this entry here, from Star Swirl the Bearded's book on the nature of magic. See?" She let him read over that particular entry within Twilight’s copy of Star Swirl’s book, a tinge of nervousness in her face. "I knew about it from this book because I've been studying magic a whole lot lately. Haha. Yeah, that's it."

Pip's face twisted into concern from having read it. "That's quite the grim entry, isn't it? Do you think it might be a Tantabus after all? But I don't have the kind of magic to create it. From what I read in the book, it takes a really powerful individual in order to make one. Why would I have a Tantabus?"

"Oh, it's definitely not yours, Pip. It's-" Tiara stopped herself again. Chrys began to comfort her in order to try and calm her down from whatever stress Tiara must have been feeling at that point. "I meant um, there's a good chance that it's not yours. Only the alicorns are powerful enough to create one. Like Star Swirl mentioned, what Tantabi want more than anything is to fulfill the original user's desires right? So they inherently want to escape into the real world to make it happen. I've heard a bit of what the dream realm is like. Apparently, it seems that everyone's dreams are connected by a planar where everyone's individual dreams reside. It's possible that if someone like the royal sisters, Cadance, or even Twilight have created one, it could have escaped from their dreams and made its way into yours." At the mention of Twilight, Chrys' ears perked up to show she was now fully focused on the conversation, her hooves having stopped the act of brushing Tiara's hair.

"My friend did mention that my nightmares were not all my own... So I'm thinking maybe you're right, Tiara. But whose Tantabus could it be?"

"I have a pretty good guess. There's only one pony amongst the Alicorns who is likely to hold the kind of regrets necessary to create one." Tiara thought about it a bit before speaking of it. "I think there was also mention of how the dream realms can only connect if the individuals have some sort of emotional connection to one another. So, Pip. Which one of the Alicorn princesses are you the closest with?"

"Princess Luna..." His voice trailed off, feeling beads of sweat forming on his forehead. "But no... it couldn't be her, right? She's the Princess of Dreams! That's..."

"It makes the most sense, Pip. Princess Luna is the one that holds the most regret over what she's done in the past as Nightmare Moon. Star Swirl's book also mentions that Tantabi are able to influence their users over time. I think this is something that has been haunting the Princess for longer than any one of us knows. Maybe longer than even she knows."

"So then... does that mean that the Princess has been having these kinds of nightmares way longer than anyone else? Has she been suffering to a Tantabus this whole time?" Tiara's confirming nod had made his heart sink.

Pip's heart began to race with what this meant. He was feeling it strongly again. That desire within him. That necessary need of his.

He has to save the Princess.

“Chrys, we have to rescue the Princess! She might be in big danger! You need to help me sleep now!” He looked over to the changeling frantically, infecting her with his anxiety.

“Wait, wait, hold on! What do you mean Pip?” Tiara asked, not fully understanding the situation.

“Didn’t you read what it said in the book, Tiara?! If the mist manages to escape, it could cause untold disaster! Or worse, it might be trying to overtake the Princess again! We have to do something!”

Tiara quickly dove over to her desk again to rummage for something. Instead of a book, what she pulled out this time was her own personal calendar. A calendar that had been meticulously kept with many different events drawn into some of the squares. Earlier in the same month, one of the panels showed a picture of a purple crescent moon with sparkles around it. Later in it, there was a picture drawn of a clothing boutique with the word “Canterlot” written on top of it. Somewhere in the middle of the month, only 5 days away from the date of today, was the drawn image of a purple unicorn-like silhouette.

“Ah! Good! We still have some time...” She looked over to the wildly confused Pip who was still in the middle of hysterics. “Pip, it’s okay! I’m pretty sure the Princess will be alright for now. I’m sure Twilight and her friends will be able to help the Princess somehow.”

“Are you sure?! How do you know? I don’t understand...” His heart began to slow, feeling his hysterics cool down with it.

“Um...” Tiara seemed to take almost a little too long to respond to his question. “I’ve been... studying Tantabi a whole lot. I can tell by the magical signs that nothing will happen until next week, at the very least.” She waved her forelegs around mysteriously, trying to play up her words to disguise how vague they were.

“Really...?” He asked a little incredulously, rightly so.

“Yeah. Besides, a Tantabus is a big deal. I don't think it’s something you should involve yourself in, Pip. There's probably nothing that we can do to help. I'm sure only Twilight can."

"But... I... I can’t let her continue to suffer like this. Let’s at least go tell Twilight about what’s going on.”

“No!” Tiara scrambled to get between the door and Pip right before he could push it open. “No. Please. Pip, trust me. I know I’m asking for a lot after all I’ve done to you, but I need you to put your faith in me when I say... Do not mention this to Twilight! She can’t know until it’s time. It would deviate Princess Luna’s recovery, and who knows what untold consequences that could do!”

Pip would have ignored Tiara and had gone straight to Twilight had it not been for one worried hoof that placed itself on his shoulders and one pair of anxious yellow eyes pleading him to reconsider. Chrys now too seemed to be standing in the way, her full faith placed into Tiara. Whatever Tiara had done to gain the changeling’s trust to this extent was beyond him, as the two of them had started off with an equally horrible if not worse relationship than Pip had with her. He eventually relented at the pleading nature of those eyes, and let out a remorseful sigh.

“Okay, alright. You seem to know more about this than anyone, Tiara. So I’ll trust in you.” He said quietly, resigned to the two fillies. “I feel like I should be skeptical. I feel like this should be a red flag in and of itself. But... You’ve been right in the past, Tiara. I am no hero. Every time I try, I seem to make matters worse. If swallowing my pride and trusting your judgment will save Princess Luna from this, then that’s just what I’ll do.”

“Pip...” Tiara seemed to recognize that Pip was actively going against his nature now, all for the sake of putting his faith in her. Or perhaps, this decision was finally his admittance to the awful truth. That his heroics would only get in the way, and that he needed to step aside and let more capable ponies do the saving instead. “Wait... You said the Princess doesn’t know about the Tantabus yet?!” A flash of realization struck Tiara like a lightning bolt.

“Hmm? Yeah. At least, she seemed to think my nightmares were entirely my own creation. But Mr. Rock, the friend I told you about, knows that the magical mist is the cause of them.”

“Huh... This Mr. Rock. Can you trust his words? How does he know?”

“He has lived a looooong time so he knows a lot about everything, and I’m positive that we can trust him.” To confirm, Chrys nodded her approval to Pip’s statement, letting Tiara clue into the truth of it.

“I see, okay... This changes things.”

“Huh? How do you mean?” Pip was now thoroughly confused, having been taken for quite the emotional rollercoaster since the start of his interactions with Tiara.

“We have to let Luna know of the Tantabus. She needs to be aware of it, and soon!” She walked over to the nearby window to look over at the sight of Canterlot. “But how do we get a message to her fast? Maybe if we let Spike in on the down-low and keep him from letting Twilight know? Maybe then we could send a message out to the Princess quick.”

“Luna should be taking care of the dream realm right about now. Maybe I can call out to her again and tell her there?”

“Oh that’s an even better idea! Nice thinking, Pip. Spike is too loyal to Twilight and there’s no way he’s trusting me.”

“I can’t take full credit. Mr. Rock gave us a spell that Chrys could use to help me with my dreams tonight since he figured I’d need it. He told me to let Princess Luna know about the mist if we saw her in there, so this is just going back to the original plan. Although... I wonder what the spell is for. Chrys already knows a good one to help me relax and sleep. Do you know, Chrys?”

“Dream, spell. Help, Pip.” Is all she said.

“Did Mr. Rock mention anything else about it?” The little changeling tilted her head and her brows furrowed with her focus, not knowing what else there was to say about it. “Ah, it’s okay. It’s probably something to help me fight off the nightmares in all likelihood.”

“Okay Pip, no time to waste. I know you guys are having a sleepover right now, but I’d like it if you slept in this room for today. That way, I can safeguard you while you sleep. We can’t have anything awaken you while you’re trying to deliver this message. It’s vital that Luna finds out about the Tantabus tonight.” Tiara explained to him while she quickly shoved several large piles of books off of her bed and pulled back the covers to allow him to enter. “I’m used to being awake all night at this point, so you can trust me to keep a watchful eye out.”

“Alright.” He pulled up the covers and cozied up, a firm expression on his face. “I’m ready. Drop me in, Chrys.” The little changeling nodded with equally serious determination, and her horn lit up with her own personal soothing spell she’d been using for ages now.

The golden glow of her magic seemed to envelop him in a warm cocoon of light, easing the troubles in his heart and bringing levity to his soul. Despite his worries over Luna, his fears of the nightmares, and the resentment for himself growing due to his powerlessness being so strong he could hardly think of anything else, this spell that Chrys was using was managing to melt his troubles away with a soothing, nurturing softness that was flawlessly lulling him to sleep. His eyes grew heavy, and his exhaustion from the eventful day finally seeped its way into his chest. He let out one tiny yawn before finally dozing off into dreamland.

Then from the pitch black of his subconscious, a familiar grotto materialized as if from the blue.

“Tiny snores for a tiny pony. Adorable. Equestria is just full of cute things.” Tiara gently poked one of Pip’s cheeks, happily watching him sleep on. “Well, at least this confirms he’s fully asleep. Pip’s a heavy sleeper, though. Ain’t he?” She looked over to the changeling who was smiling along with Tiara.

“Mm.” She nodded, copying Tiara’s gesture by poking him too.

“Thank you again, Chrys. I’m sure Pip wouldn’t have trusted me without you to convince him. And not just with him either. It’s thanks to you that Twilight has allowed me to study under her. I know I don’t say it very often since I always have my nose stuck inside a book or two, but I wanted to say how much I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me.”

“Its, okay. Only doing, what, is right. I feel.” She replied, trying to deflect the praise.

“You’re too humble sometimes, Chrys. If it weren’t for you and the Crusaders, I would’ve probably given myself anorexia by how often I forget to eat. I would've been all alone here in Ponyville if it weren't for you four, since I doubt anyone would've given me a chance without your help. You’re truly the best friends a girl could have.” The small changeling initiated a hug with Tiara, having sensed how emotional she’d gotten then. Tiara fully fell into it and hugged her back. “I hope I can make it up to you one day, Chrys.” Tiara raised a hoof as far as it would go after they separated from the hug, which the small changeling proceeded to imitate. “From here, forever, and after. Through weathering stormy seas or unforgiving blistering deserts. So long as my soul still exists within Equestria, I promise this to you: My greatest of friends.” Her whole foreleg rotated on its axle clockwise until it stopped midway so that it was reaching out onto her side, then she folded it in towards her chest so that her hoof rested on her heart. All of which Chrys imitated. “I will do right by you. My promise is my very soul which I give to you freely should I break it.”

This was Tiara’s own personal version of what any pony could’ve recognized as a Pinkie Promise. A solemn promise decorated by a meaningful ritual unique to the individual.

Tiara had gained Chrys’ trust with that very same promise before, and this was just a repeat of that as a show to say that she had not forgotten about it. There was something about those interlocking words and that small gesture that seemed to grip at the heart stronger than simply promising on a whim. Almost as if it were a magical spell, it seemed to invoke a greater power from within the one who performed it, sealing their pact not just with their whole character in question, but even their very soul.

To Tiara’s immense delight, the little changeling repeated her words, although in the broken and uneven way she knew to say them. This was the sign of their friendship.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Chrys.” The two touched foreheads as they smiled at each other, in what was a personal sign of affection from the changeling.

“Tiara. Would be, lost.” Chrys said with a bit of cheek, which was something she had adopted from her. Tiara tried to keep herself from giggling out loud due to Pip being asleep next to them.

“Too true. Anywho. I need to go let Twilight know that Pip is here. I’ll just tell her that he fell asleep while he waited up for us and that I’m going to let him sleep here so as not to wake him. I’ll be back in a jiff.” She said as she began to trot off.

Before she could exit out into the hall, however, Pip began to toss, turn, and moan from his nightmares acting up again. Strangely, this set of nightmares he was having quickly turned more turbid and intense, with Pip beginning to break out into a cold sweat as he reached out to grab whatever was near him, holding onto the nearest book with a death grip in his forelegs.

“Pip!” Chrys exclaimed worriedly as she tried casting her own spell on him again, trying to alleviate his nightmares as this spell from hers was used to calm and cleanse the mind from such awful thoughts. But to no avail. This Tantabus had now grown too strong even for Chrys to repel. This was quite a cause for concern since the little changeling had studied under Twilight for a long time now and was adeptly attuned to her magic by this point. In fact, when she told Twilight about helping Pip with his nightmares, Twilight deferred to her to be the one to help alleviate Pip’s problems due to how much more practiced she was with the spell. So if Chrys could do nothing to quell his nightmares, this spelled trouble indeed...

Tiara quickly returned to the bedside to check on him herself. “Oh no! Poor Pip... The Tantabus must be wreaking havoc amongst the infected dreamworlds it has spread to. Perhaps the event has already started, and it’s grown too strong even for us to handle... All we can do now is hope that Pip manages to find and talk to Luna in there...”

Suddenly, a thought filled the little changeling’s head. The obvious remedy they had yet to try. “Spell!” She blurted out involuntarily, readying her magic again by weaving it around her horn. “Guardian, spell. Must concentrate. Will cast.” Chrys sat down beside Pip’s bedside and began to murmur a few unintelligible words in a dialect and language Tiara had never heard before.

To Tiara’s surprise, Chrys’ golden magic erupted wildly into the room sending books scattering everywhere. It was unlike the spell she had used before. This one was far, far stronger. So strong, that the very air around the changeling was being forcefully pushed out with such force that the gusts it generated were shredding pages off of the many tomes. Chrys’ twisted horn was pulsating with power, having been completely replaced by a saber of light. Even the ground beneath her was beginning to crack with the sheer magnitude of this incredible magic. This was no simple spell, that much was obvious. The amount of magic that was being used to cast it was enormous.

Chrys herself was equally impressive, as her small body was somehow able to harness this incredible amount of magic. Tiara could only stare in awe at the spectacle and wonder how the little changeling had obtained such powers. But this magic was not without cost. Chrys was struggling to maintain the spell, forcing herself to finish the incantation. She was grunting and powering through the overwhelming forces, clearly pained by the efforts of trying to contain it. Tiara wished she could help her there and then, but without magic as an earth pony, she was powerless to aid her.

The best she could do was make sure that Chrys would go uninterrupted.

And you know, that would’ve been quite easy had anyone other than the one who arrived to witness what was happening, had come instead. Starlight would’ve likely trusted Tiara, and Twilight would’ve trusted that Chrys could handle whatever this magic was. But no, the one who walked into this scene was none other than a mistrusting purple dragon who had, on many occasions, openly proclaimed his distrust of Tiara. No chance she was going to get through to him, despite all her pleading.

And it’s not that Spike didn’t trust Chrys when it came to magic-related issues. But he wasn’t as well-prepared as Twilight was when it came to knowing when to leave it to the small changeling to do her thing. He hadn’t had the same experiences that could’ve tempered his worries. Besides, he’s still only a baby dragon. For as mature as Spike can be, he’s still a kid at heart and he can be so easily shaken up when something he doesn’t fully understand is happening in front of him. You have to imagine that he took one look at Chrys grunting in pain and basically flew up in arms towards trying to save her. Brotherly love can make fools of us all, so don’t blame Spike too much for what happened next.

But here, let me give you a run-down of how it went down:

Spike knocked on the door and said “Chrys, Pip. You guys are taking an awfully long time over here. It’s almost bedtime. We should head back to the library. Trivia is almost up anyway.”

With a ruckus going on inside and getting no answer, he opened the door. Lo and behold, there was that chaotic scene unfolding before him. No clue as to what might be happening, just that he knows that Chrys is in pain and Tiara is the only conscious suspect because Pip is passed out on the bed.

Then he said something along the lines of: “I knew I couldn’t trust you, Tiara! What did you do to Chrys?!”

It gets really messy from here. Tiara says “Spike! Don’t do anything drastic! You don’t understand, she’s-!”

Finally, here is where we get Spike putting his claws onto the little changeling to try to stop her magic from continuing, with Tiara trying to pull Spike away to keep him from disturbing her.

Wham-zam, a blinding light goes off, possibly from a spell mishap or maybe the spell completing. We don’t know at this point because who knows what this spell is even.

And scene.

Quite a lively night for the four kids, all in all. Well, probably still not as exciting as the trivia match between Twilight and Starlight.

“You just don’t know when to quit, do you, Twilight?”

“Now where have I heard those words before?”

“Touche’. Seems like we always end in a tie.”

“I have to hand it to you Starlight. No one has given me quite a run for my money on trivia before.”

“No offense, but your friends all have specific specialties, none of them trivia. And the three children are hardly competition.”

“Speaking of which, it’s unlike Spike to take so long to go fetch Chrys and Pipsqueak. I wonder what’s taking them so long...”

“Well, we’re right here. Why don’t you care to ask them?” Starlight waved her hoof over to Tiara's bedroom door that Twilight had almost walked past.

“Right, haha. I forget my own way around the castle sometimes.” Twilight pushed the door to Tiara’s bedroom open in order to see for herself what had transpired.

“Aww, look at them. So cute.” She walked over to the four sleeping kids, with Tiara, Chrys, and Spike leaning their heads against the soft mattress of the bed. She picked them up with her magic and tucked them into the same bed, as it was big enough to rest the four of them with ample space. “It looks like they fell asleep waiting for us to finish trivia. It’s so nice to see them getting along with Tiara. I was a bit worried that she would miss out on the fun when she refused to join us for game night, but it seems the fun found her anyway.”

“And what fun they had.” Starlight whistled as she looked around the deeply chaotic room with books and pages strewn all over the floor.

“It was bound to happen. Tiara has been letting mountains of books pile up, so they must’ve tossed them over in a game of tag or something. Nothing a few fix-it spells and an afternoon of organizing won’t fix, which I enjoy.”

“Lesson learned then? No more trivia for game night. We’ll alienate our little buddies at this rate.” Starlight made the purple alicorn chuckle.

“Alright, you got me there. No more trivia. _{Because you’re afraid to lose.}”

“What was that?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.” Twilight shut off the lights in the room with her magic, letting the cool night in through the window. “Goodnight kids. Sweet dreams.”

Chapter 3: The Moment of Truth, Lies, and Self-Sacrifice

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Lunge after lunge, the toy wooden sword met and parried each blow that came its way. Each swipe at it arrived with such intensity, that the vibrations from the impact left its wielder shaken up a little more as it trembled between his teeth. Yet, the small colt did not falter, even as a the rocky tail of a Cragadile struck him on his side, sending shockwaves of pain across his body.

Pip had never fought with such ferocity before. His mind had only one track now. He was fighting for the sake of someone he really cared about after all, and that was enough to summon all of his bravery in order to save the Princess which helped to beat out the fear in his heart as he fought back the waves of monsters one by one as much as he could and as desperately as he was able to. While his efforts still did not amount to much, for once, he was finally standing his ground in real combat. Or as real as fighting in a dream can get.

It's in times of dire stress when individuals tend to show their truest nature. And Pip, well, he was undeniably hero material. His mind was sharp and clear despite the terror that griped at it, and he could follow every lightning quick movement tossed his way. While he did not have the strength to fight back in any capacity, he had just enough to protect himself from attacks as they connected with his sword. Just enough agility and reactionary speed to dodge projectiles and other more heavy close combat hits. And barely just enough wit to keep himself from being surrounded and outnumbered. And while "barely" is not the kind of quality anyone would want in their hero, it was barely enough to still be one.

Still, this battle really was the best that Pip had ever fought in his life. The Tantabus' assault had started off lean and normal as far as his usual nightmares were concerned, and he might have performed better had he faced off against the monsters of any night prior to tonight. That was until the Princess herself responded to his calls and appeared to him in his dreams. Something was off about Luna. Nothing in her appearance, but evident by the very Tantabus itself when all of its many forms turned to look at her after she had crossed the boundaries between dreams and into Pip's. Like sunflowers, the gazes of the monster army locked on to her while she flew over the battlefield. Then they shuttered in place as if a cold chill had run down their spines, likely from the new feelings resting inside the Princess.

To Luna and Pip's dismay, this was not a welcome reaction. Not one bit. Suffice it to say, whatever the Tantabus had taken from Luna's heart at that point in time only managed to doom them further. Finding the monsters distracted for a moment with the Princess, Pip used the opportunity to begin his assault and heaved his mightiest blow against the hide of the nearest Timberwolf. His raised wooden sword fell onto the wolf's side, only for his sword to fly backwards from a burst of light that happened upon impact, sending a shockwave powerful enough to toss even Pip's whole body backwards as well and winding him from the force of it. He quickly regained himself and took his trusty sword into his mouth again to face his enemy.

But there the ghastly sight of the monsters had grown ominous and dark, still with their eyes fixated on the Princess who was flying way above the ground preparing some sort of spell. Now the outlines of each of the monsters were exuding a purple mist from every inch of their bodies, like smoke jetting from an engine's blast pipe with violence. The maws of the beasts with horrible jaws in that monster army like the Timberwolves and Cockatrices grew pointier and scarier by the second, their very fangs and claws growing in size and sharpness. The muscles on the monsters with the most profound muscle definition like the Manticores and Cragadiles bulged and rippled in the moonlight, hardening as if readying for a pounce or a chase. And even the eyes on the small parasprites were glowing with a hint of malice.

“Princess Luna!” Pip yelled out to the Princess who was all too focused on her spell, hoping to catch her attention. Upon hearing those words however, she put a pause to it and scanned the ground to find the small colt.

“Pip! Get back! These monsters are not after you! I’m here to lure them away!”

“I know! I came to tell you about it! It’s important that you should know!” At Pip’s words, the Princess flew down to grab him and place him at an even further distance away from the monster army. Their gazes never stopped following her but they did not physically follow. It was as if they were waiting for something...

“Tell me about what?” The Princess finally asked as she set him down.

“This magical mist. Mr. Rock told me about it when I went to go visit him today.”

“Sorry for not showing up, Pip. I’ve had a lot on my hooves, as you can see.”

“It’s okay, Princess. I understand. I also spoke to Diamond Tiara. She told me it was important that you should know what the purple mist is!”

“It’s a Tantabus, Pip. A dream monster created by regrets. My Tantabus... It seems that your nightmares have all been my fault. I’m really sorry about all of this.”

“Wait, you already knew?!”

“I only found out about it this morning. It’s why I didn’t show up. Ever since I acknowledged what it was and actively started to fight against it, it’s been growing more and more powerful. Now it seems to have grown to this extent...”

“What can I do to help you, Princess? There has to be a way to get rid of it!”

“I’m sorry, Pip. But I can’t have you involved with this. That’s why, while I still can, I’m going to lure it away from your dreams. I'm going to cast my spell and create a portal through the pond, so take caution not to step into it after we're gone. Everything will finally be alright for you after today's dreams, Pip.”

Before Luna could take into a flight again and back towards the pond, Pip stopped her by placing a hoof to one of her forelegs. “Wait, Princess! I can help. Take me with you!”

“That's out of the question. It's much too dangerous for you!” Her face had furrowed with a troubled expression as she tried inching away from Pip so she could have enough clearance to fly off.

"You shouldn't have to fight this alone!"

"No, Pip. That's my final answer." Luna's voice had harshened as she was growing increasingly more annoyed. And something else entirely. Without either of them noticing, the silent patient army in the background was now taking small steps towards them. They seemed to be sensing something else in there that was driving them, or "it" since it was all one monster, crazy. It was that something else in Luna's hesitation.

"I can't just let you fight this on your own Princess! You've been suffering longer than anyone. It doesn't have to be this way! Please, Princess Luna. Let me hel-""

"ENOUGH!!" Luna's frustration had boiled all the way to the top and had incurred her royal voice to yell out that word. It came with such suddenty and anger, it had taking Pip entirely by surprise, causing him to flinch and be unable to speak another word. When his heart finally slowed and the ringing in his ears ended, he looked up towards the Princess again only to be met by a terrible expression splattered across her face. A mixture of anger, of sadness, of concern, and of disappointment... “You need to learn when to give up, Pip. For your own good. This isn’t your fight. You’ll never be a true hero.” Her words were soft and gentle now, but she was saying the worst things that Pip could have imagined.

At these words, Pip’s heart seemed to wretch with pain. His eyes grew uncomfortable from a pressure coming from within as tears welled up behind them. What little enthusiasm and bravado he had been desperately holding onto had left him.

The Princess stepped backwards and took flight, her invocation now complete with her spell at the ready. Before she could send it in the direction of the pond however, a horde of parasprites had now descended upon the Princess, forcing her to ground to better protect herself from their tiny, but admittedly painful bites. But the parasprites were the least of her concern now that she had taken to ground, as the rest of the monsters had already begun their assault and were waiting for the opportunity to attack. With their newly increased strength, even Princess Luna was now finding it difficult to fend off the encroaching mass and was being quickly overwhelmed.

Glassy-eyed from the mist of tears that refused to drop from his eyes, Pip regained his heart at the sound of Princess Luna grunting as she desperately fought her way towards the pond. He quickly wiped his eyes with his forelegs to see her being attacked by the cockatrices and timberwolves. And although his limbs failed to respond to him in earnest at first, the sight of a cockatrice sinking its sharp teeth into Luna's hindleg which caused her to yelp in response, spurred him to action once more.

Despite the horde being almost entirely focused on the Princess, Pip's presence had caught the attention of a few monsters which had readied themselves to attack him as soon as he got close. The head of a timberwolf lowered with it's maw agape in order to do just that as Pip ran towards the closest one. Before he could get close to feel its jaws close in on him however, he dug his hindlegs into the ground and leaped over its open mouth and onto its head, propelling him upwards as it tried to shake him off by bring its head back up. One by one, Pip stomped on the monsters who were now swiping at his hooves as he jumped near and on top of them. Quickly adapting since they were all of one mind, the Tantabus calculated one of his jumps after his fifth consecutive one and quickly diverted all of the monsters out of the way to keep him from continuing the chain, inevitably leading him to hitting the floor and kicking up a cloud of dust from the powdery layer of dirt on the ground.

If Pip has one good quality, it was his quick-thinking in such situations. With only seconds to act before the obfuscation from the cloud of dust fell again, he kicked the nearest pebble towards a tightly packed group of monsters in the opposite direction of Luna, making them believe that he was trying to escape through them. The gazes from the monster army all turned to look at where they were fooled into believing that Pip had escaped to. The monsters in that area had gone into a tussle, all of them scrambling over each other to look up, down, and around each other. For all the advantages that the Tantabus had with its army following one mind, its disadvantage came when such tricks were played on it, as an unorganized army might have spotted him slipping between their legs. But with EVERY nearby gaze turned either to Luna or where he had created his diversion, he was practically invisible for those precious short moments before it realized Pip was nowhere near there. By the time it had figured that out, Pip had already squeezed his way to Luna's side and was fending off her assailants.

"Are you okay, Princess?!" He yelled above the noise of battle to better understand the wounds Luna might have incurred.

"I'm fine." Luna grunted while she let out wide-sweeping laser beams left and right. "This the dream realm Pip, we can't be injured here. It's just a bit painful, is all." Her voice was quiet and strained, from more than the physical and magical effort she was exerting. Deep inside, Pip understood that what the Princess had said before had hurt her to say just as much as it hurt him to hear. But now with the fighting underway, there was no time to think any deeper than that. All the two could do was inch towards the pond with Luna clearing the way ahead of them while Pip protected the rear to keep her from being overrun.

If you've never fought a Tantabus before, consider this: Imagine an unfeeling, unstoppable monster. A normal hero may never have to face the level of difficulty that comes from fighting one. Battles, you see, have hundreds of different factors in them that can give an individual an advantage, and most conventional heroes fighting their battles in the waking world use them constantly, subconsciously, and often times purposely without knowing it. One of many such examples is the psychological aspect of it. Instilling fear in an opponent. Whom do you think you'd face better off against, someone brimming with confidence that they'll win, or one cowering in fear? Someone who can be read like an open book or someone who is a complete mystery?

There's also a physical element of pain and emotional feedback to it. In the same way that hitting something terribly hard with a baseball bat can leave your muscles shaken from the recoil, so too are there psychological effects when being assaulted by the feeling of pain. It takes you a while to recover from hitting your head slightly hard upon a low ceiling or stubbing your hoof against a table leg, doesn't it? So imagine recovering your senses after a much harder hit, one entirely intended to incapacitate you. Our bodies do a great job of providing adrenaline to ignore such pain, but we all have our limits.

With all that said, now picture what fighting a Tantabus is like. It cannot feel pain, not one bit. Smacking it does not cause it to flinch or even to reel back in order to take caution after it has become damaged enough, which is usually when battles have their small moments of breathing room in order to give either of the combatants their chance to reassess their approach. For the entire breath-stopping moment of its assault as it tries to maul you, it upkeeps its ferocity with zero downtime even after an exchange of blows.

It cannot feel emotions or psychological changes. Any attacks against it might as well be bug bites, and even strong enough blows that disperse it into its cloudy form only stops it momentarily in order to reconstitute its fallen monster. Pip and Luna were learning of this the hard way, since the horde was equally as endless as it was ferocious.

Worse of all, a Tantabus does not think logically. It does not think at all. It has no mind to speak of, only a goal it must meet at any cost. It does not value its safety one bit, so it was throwing itself at Pip and Luna entirely with a reckless abandon that was incomprehensible to any living being.

Without a doubt, fighting a Tantabus is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges a hero would ever have to face. And Pip, for all his lack of heroic traits and inexperience, was still managing to hold his own while doing a mighty fine job of keeping Luna safe as her rearguard. He'd bat parasprites away with his sword like baseballs, using his body to shield the Princess from the few stragglers who managed to slip his aim. Thankfully, the parasprites did not have teeth, so there were no seriously painful bites amongst their midst. Even with the knowledge that he could not be wounded at all within the dream realm, the pain was very much real and there was only so much of it that he could withstand, so he had purposely not paid them too much attention during the fight which had allowed them to bite him on occasion, all in order to help him focus on the bigger, more dangerous monsters.

Unfortunately, the Tantabus was far too strong for them both, and it knew it. It was only a matter of time. And that time was looking to be fast approaching when things became truly dire after Pip had lost his sword trying to protect the Princess from a Timberwolf that had aimed its jaws against her wings. With barely enough time to act, Pip tossed his wooden sword into it's mouth to stop it from crunching down just as it was about to set its teeth upon her. This bought Luna enough time to react to it properly and blast it away with her magic, which had unfortunately destroyed the sword in the process.

With no weapon left to defend him, Pip was now entirely vulnerable and he would have felt the horrible repercussion of that against a manticore's open claws that swung at him in that moment, but stopped just short of connecting. With how desperately he'd fought to keep Luna safe, he hadn't noticed that they had finally managed to make their way to the pond.

Luna cast her magic directly at the pond in the middle of the grotto, transforming its nightly reflection into a swirling mass of energies that likely led to another dream world for which the Tantabus to haunt. She flew straight up into the air high, high above, and with her magic, she produced a bright light that had called the attention of the Tantabus. They both seemed to understand what came next. Luna turned to face Pip one more time, sadness written all over her face. "This was never your fight, Pip. Please, I beg of you, do not follow. You will only get in the way... I’m sorry. For everything I’ve put you through. One day I hope you can forgive me.” Her voice carried with it a truly somber finality. Pip could do nothing more as she then dove into the pond to disappear from view. All of the monster gazes tracked her descent as she dipped into it, and like moths to a flame, all of them followed. Leagues of them poured into the pond by the handful, all wildly tossing themselves into the pool. Until finally, all that remained was that quiet grotto and that still swirling portal-bound pond.

His heart was still racing a mile a minute from the sheer adrenaline coursing through his body, but more than that, his mind was trying to process all that had happened in those moments. He peered over the edge of the pond in hopes to catch a glimpse of where the Princess had traveled to, with no luck as it showed nothing of note. He was feeling the strongest desire to be a hero that he had ever had in his life at that moment, wishing he could take that leap in. But his mind was now reliving the Princess' words again, which ultimately gave him pause.

You will never be a true hero. You will only get in the way.

His heart seemed to be flushing away into those murky depths, drowning in sadness as he thought more on it. Maybe he could've stomached those words from a stranger or someone he disliked, as it was easier to swallow. But by someone you cared about? It was devastating. The tears that had been held back that entire time had now found their out, streaming freely into the pond.

And he would have likely stayed this way until the end of this particular dream, when at that moment, three figures were thrown about the grotto behind him, landing with resounding thuds as they hit the ground. Spooked at first, Pip's first instinct was to dry his eyes to keep anyone from seeing his weakness.

“Ow, ow, ow. I think I bent my tail.” Spike held on to his tail as he got up from the ground and shook the dirt off of himself, getting his bearings and immediately running over to the small changeling when he noticed what had happened, forgetting his pain entirely. “Chrys?! You okay?”

“Mm.” She said, nodding from where she was still hunched over on the floor, slowly recovering herself. "I'm, fine. Where is, Tiara?”

“You mean the one who got us into this mess?!” Spike crossed his arms, furious as he turned to look over at Tiara who had landed near Pip and was being helped up by him.

“Wait, what are you guy doing here? Am I still in a dream?” Pip looked at them quizzically, not understanding why they had shown up like this. For all he knew, these were just figments of his dream.

“Guardian, Mr. Rock spell, go bang!” Chrys tried explaining.

“No idea what the spell was originally for anymore. It got interrupted midway through and we suddenly found ourselves here with you, Pip. Speaking of which, this place looks familiar...” Tiara trembled as if she had just had a shiver run down her spine. “Um, but yeah, whatever that spell was that friend of yours gave you, it was really something. Like, I’m talking REALLY something. Ancient magic sort of something. You know, the dead kind of magic that no one in Equestria, not even the millennia-old royal sisters remember anymore. The kind of magic that can create eternal apparitions like the Windigos.”

“Oh... That sounds serious. I wonder why Mr. Rock wanted us to have it.”

“If you don't know, then I know less. But this does make me want to visit your friend later to ask. Thankfully the spell seems harmless enough, we should all be fine and back to normal once this dream ends.”

“Wait, wait. What’s going on?” Spike interjected, not fully understanding the circumstances or even as to where he was. They quickly laid it out plainly for him so he could catch up. "We're in a dream right now? Doesn't look like one." Spike looked around the grotto to see what amounted to a battle site, with laser beams having scorched the nearby earth and trees, and where monsters had thread the grasses into oblivion.

“Speaking of which, Pip. I don’t see Princess Luna anywhere. Did you get the message to her?”

“I did.” He said sadly as he went back to looking at the swirling pool.

“Pip, going to be, okay?” Chrys asked him even more worriedly than usual, seeing fully well how distraught he was.

“I don’t know, to be honest. Probably not...”

“Why, what happened Pip? Did you fail?” Tiara asked as she watched the small changeling make her way to his side, placing a hoof on his shoulder to console him.

“No, I was able to tell her directly. But the Princess already knew about the Tantabus. She even knew that it was hers. The Tantabus was too strong. It nearly overpowered us. She decided to run to another dream and lure it away from mine to protect me. That’s why this pond is like this right now.” He pointed to the whirlpool of energies. "She's probably fighting it alone right now... I want everything to save her, but... she told me not to follow." He walked over to its edge again to peer into the waters with longing.

"It's for the best, Pip." Tiara had now joined his side to peer over to the waters. "Tantabi are beyond us. It's not something that we can deal with on our own. But everything will be alright once Twilight steps in. Princess Luna will find her heart."

"How can you be so sure? And how will she last that long? You said that Twilight is meant to know after a few more days right? I can't possibly imagine the Princess lasting out that long after what we went through already..."

"You'll just have to trust me, Pip. Just have fait-"

Spike interrupted at that moment, overhearing their talk and none too happy over what had transpired. "Now that's the biggest load of boloney I've heard so far! Why are we even trusting Tiara of all ponies here?! We should be going to tell Twilight what happened immediately! She deserves to know."

While Spike didn't know just how much of a big deal a Tantabus could be, he understood it was serious. And by now with all that he had gone through with Twilight and her adventures, he knew better than to keep such matters away from her. Nothing Tiara said could change his mind, even when echoed by Chrys who was asking for him to reconsider. Up until now, he was convinced that Tiara was leading the small changeling astray and he'd been secretly upset about having Tiara over in the castle to study with them. Perhaps there was even a hint of jealousy now that Chrys was spending less time with him so that she could attend to Tiara instead. Whatever the case, Spike would not budge on his stance, and as soon as this dream was up, he would likely go to tell Twilight all about it.

All the while Tiara fruitlessly tried persuading the ornery baby dragon, Pip wallowed in his thoughts. He felt entirely alone even when surrounded by friends, since none of them seemed to share or so much as understand just how horrible a gut feeling it was to know that there was something he could yet do, but was denied doing it. The Princess was in trouble at that very moment. He had seen what kind of trouble it was first-hoof! And yet... Every time he felt the call to action, asking for him to jump into the pool, he swatted that feeling down into the corners of his mind, thus stunting his soul just a little bit more in the process.

"Spike, please calm dow-"

"How can I calm down Tiara?! I knew I couldn't trust you!"

"That's on me, I know. I take full blame for everything I've done in the past, and I'm truly sincerely sorry Spike. But this is not the time to argue. Please if you would just listen..."

"I listened once. I listened twice. I tried with you. But every single time, you bit my open hand. So now you have to give me a real good reason to trust in your lies."

"I..." Tiara's heart seemed to falter, not knowing what to say. "I have none... I'm sorry. So, so very sorry Spike. I don't expect for you to ever have a reason to listen to me. And I don't expect for you to ever forgive me. But please, just this one more time, listen and know that this is for the good of Princess Luna. This could have severe consequences for the Princess if we go to tell Twilight about it now. This is going to sound so far-fetched and outlandish, especially coming from me, but the truth of it is... is that I know the future. I know Luna is going to make it out of this alright, and that everything will be fine. But if something, ANYTHING, deviates this event for her, then the future I know might not come to pass. And with a monster like the Tantabus, that could spell certain doom for Equestria as a whole."

Spike only rolled his eyes, growing more annoyed with such a flimsy reasoning. "Okay. Let's say that IS true even for a moment. Maybe you DO know the future and everything that happens in it. So then, why would you care about the fate of Equestria?! Aren't you trying to ruin it too?! Let's not forget the very pony who almost brought ruin to Equestria before by tipping off Nightmare Moon where Twilight and her friends were going for the elements of Harmony the first time around when we first arrived here in Ponyville! From what Twilight told me, they almost lost because of you, since Nightmare Moon tried time and again to split them apart on their way to the castle of the two sisters. Thankfully their friendship pulled them through."

"..." Now Tiara truly was speechless. Her head seem to lower in shame at having her history thrown back at her.

"And that's not the only time you almost doomed us all! You also sided with Discord when he made a mess of everything and tried turning us around by keeping Twilight from reigniting her friendship with the others! Or when you told Trixie about Twilight's plan to trick her out of the Alicorn Amulet which almost jeopardized her plan and all of Ponyville! Thankfully, Twilight was careful to lock that thing away. Especially when you tried to steal it almost immediately after for yourself!"

Chrys had now made her way over to Tiara to comfort her, as she seemed to be shaking with remorse after having heard a mention of that event with Trixie. Something about that whole incident, despite not being nearly as world-shatteringly catastrophic as the previous two, seemed to be the worst of it for her. Tiara seemed strong enough to stomach all and any terrible accusations thrown her way. She was strong enough to accept them, take responsibility for them, and apologize for them. She was strong enough to still keep face even after having to do many hard tasks in order to try and redeem herself of them. Something about this new Tiara was just that much more mature and strong. She was almost entirely unlike how she used to be.

But in hearing about that event, she seemed to shrink a little. Her internal sobs seemed to well from her throat, and the slight tremor of her sadness seemed to revert her to the child she was meant to be. A vulnerable, emotional child who could really use a bit of love and understanding, if nothing else. Thankfully for her, there was one such creature there for her. And that creature was now shooting quite the glare at Spike while using its hooves to comfort the ailing girl beside her.

"What's that look for? I'm only stating the truth..." That look was enough to make Spike reflect on his words, although indignantly since he didn't feel like he was wrong to have said them. He hadn't meant to attack Tiara so harshly but the circumstances had called for him to bring it up to defend his stance. Still, how was he to know that his words would be a landmine for her? It never felt nice to make others feel terrible, even if that someone was an infamous mean-girl like Tiara who entirely deserved it.

At that moment, Chrys tried placing her forehead to Tiara and she closed her eyes in order to focus on her horn, but after a bit, nothing happened. This is the part where her horn would've lit up in the warm golden light of her magic in order to use her soothing spell, but instead, there was no such effect.

"It's okay, Chrys, thank you for thinking of me. I'll be fine. It's understandable that you're confused about your magic. We're in the dream realm right now. You need to be attuned to dream magic in order to use any spells here. So only Princess Luna is able to make anything happen here with magic. Or, I guess, the Tantabus as well." Tiara said to the concerned and befuddled expression on the little changeling as she sniffed back her remorse with a foreleg, quickly composing herself again. "And don't think badly of Spike, Chrys. You weren't here for those events when they happened, but what he says is the truth. I did almost cause everyone's ruin multiple times..." The regret in her voice was palpable.

"Thank you, at least someone gets it." Spike crossed his arms. "But I won't budge in that we NEED to let Twilight know."

This conversation between the two would've gone in circles since Tiara could not afford to let Twilight know just yet and Spike did not trust her even an inch, but at that moment, the pond exploded into the air as if a giant behemoth had just canon-balled into it with force. The water spurt that was kicked up went high, high even above the canopy of trees surrounding the forest, until it eventually rained down the dispersed water onto everything on the ground. Thankfully for dream-realm logic, none of the kids were left wet after being bombarded with that shower.

Pip had gotten quite the scarce since he had spent that entire time looking over the edge of the pond trying to picture anything within that magical swirl. But all he could see was the occasional flashes of magic lighten up in spots across the pond sort of like a lightning storm. It was the signs of a magical battle taking place across the dream plane. Right before the pond burst, Pip saw that the flashes had stopped altogether, and instead, the pool became a dark swirl of oranges, blues and greens. They started off as muted dark colors, but slowly, instead of pockets of light illuminating at random, now it was the entire pool that was becoming brighter and brighter, as if the entire dream plane was being FILLED with incomprehensible amounts of magic. Only inches off the water, Pip's attention was focused entirely on the pool now and was desperately trying to make sense of what these signs meant, wanting to know what had happened to the Princess. He could sense a hot melting heat emanating from the energies in the water, but strangely, he could also feel a freezing, blistering cold.

Then it happened. After the light had grown far too bright to look at, the pond imploded causing it to sink into itself and then rise up high into the air in a sort of explosion of energies. What remained was a thoroughly spooked group of kids who had been too busy arguing to notice what was about to happen, Pip whose heart had nearly left his chest after getting a face-full of water thrown on his face, and the pond who now lay still and silent like shimmering glass.

But that wasn't the only difference in the pond. Now that it had calmed, it was now showing with almost impeccable clarity the sight of the dream realm it was connecting to. And there in that image Pip's heroic desires were now screaming at him to JUMP IN.

The waters were now showing that Princess Luna had been defeated. But it wasn't an army that had done her in. None of the monsters from his dream realm had translated over to this new dream. Instead, it looked to be that Luna had been defeated by a single creature. That creature was a wavy dark purple cloud in the image of the very cosmos, it's silhouette in the shape of a tall unicorn pony. It wasn't clear as to where they were in that dream realm, as everything that could be seen of the scenery was abnormally dark and green from moss having overgrown every part of the walls and ground. The image also had a slight distortion that could not have been from the pond's reflection, as it was deadly still. Instead, the distortion of the image seemed to wave and flow with each movement that Luna or the unicorn figure made, as if they were viewing this scenario happening deep, deep underwater. Into the dark ocean depths. Which would've explained the moss and lack of light being shown.

"Wait, Princess Luna has been defeated?! Oh no! This is not what was supposed to happen at all... What changed? What could've caused this?! I don't know... not enough information, too many blind spots in the story..." Tiara's voice muttered to herself as she viewed the image while peering over Pip's shoulder. The kids had all crowded around the pond with Pip in order to view what had happened and to see the images being shown through it.

"What did you say Tiara? Is this not part of the plan?" Pip had caught her words despite her trying to mutter exclusively to herself. Her blank stare to him as she tried processing this new information seemed to tell him everything he needed to know.

"Mistress!" Chrys' voice yelled out at the sight of that cloudy apparition. Something about this whole image was seeming very familiar to the young changeling, and her own desperation was beginning to grow after seeing that cloudy unicorn figure. Chrys turned to look at Spike to see if he shared the same thoughts as her. In unison, the both of them knew exactly the kind of threat they were facing now.

"Tiara! Get us out of this dream right now! We need to go tell Twilight as soon as possible!" Spike sounded deadly alarmed now, urging her with intensity.

"Even if I wanted to, Spike, I can't! We have to let this dream end naturally. None of us can break this spell without dream magic."

"Oh this is not good, this is not good at all!" Spike was now dancing on his feet, nervous as all can be. "I didn't think that when you said 'Tantabus', you meant THAT of all things."

"Of course I meant that. A Tantabus. Luna's regrets come to life." Tiara reiterated what she'd said about it before. But then, she had a realization as she said it. "Wait wait wait, how do you know of it Spike?"

"Are you making some sort of joke right now, Tiara? It's not funny. ALL of Ponyville should already know about those things. Maybe not by name, since this is the first I'm hearing about it. But this is not the first time we've faced one!"

"What?! I never heard about this. Chrys is this true?" Tiara turned to Chrys to see her nod in response.

"Mom's... monster."

"Your mother's? But that would be... Hold on, so that incident that happened in the past with changelings was Ponyville dealing with a Tantabus?"

"Seriously Tiara, you were there too, don't you remember? It's not something you just forget. What's up with you? Knowing the future and now not even remembering such an important event in Ponyville..." Spike's suspicion was now through the roof, and he had now gotten in front of Chrys to stand between them, putting his arms out to keep her from getting closer. Spike was now partly believing that Tiara was connected to this entire thing, and perhaps even a part of the Tantabus' ploy too. It had happened before, after all.

"No seriously, I don't remember! I... wasn't there for it when it happened." Whatever Tiara had mumbled at the end there had fortunately not been caught by anyone. "But if that is all the case, then I've been turned around from the start!" She laughed defeatedly as she slumped into the ground, having to restart her entire idea of the 'future' she understood. "This should have been the first time Equestria was supposed to be met with a Tantabus in over a millenia. But I failed to realize that wasn't the case... and so the future I thought I knew is no longer the future that is happening now. Oh how could I have been so stupid..." She turned to Spike who was still trying to keep Chrys away from her. Tiara looked terribly defeated, tired from having thought so much and so hard over everything. Now she seemed to be turning herself over to the whims of fate.

"So what are you saying Tiara?" Pip questioned intently, fully focused on the answer.

"It means that I was wrong. And Spike is right. The first thing we should do now is tell Twilight all about what's happening. The sooner we can get aid to the Princess the better. We can't know what will happen from here on out.

There it was. The kink in the metal shackles that bound him. Like a wildebeest hoping to break free, his desires now edged and pushed against the fault. There were many things that had stopped him from jumping into that pool. From Luna's words, his own feelings, and the agreement he had with Tiara about trusting her judgement since she seemed to know the future better than he did. And now, the future was uncertain. The Princess had been defeated, and no one was around to save her.

Luna was in need of nothing less than a hero.

And who had been Luna's hero before?

Pip stepped towards the edge of the pond to peer in. The cloudy Tantabus figure was gone. Now it was just the lonely sight of a defeated Princess Luna, chained to the ground by rusted shackles. He closed his eyes and ran his courage through. Going in there would mean fighting that same creature he had just fought, alone. Luna was probably the only reason why he hadn't just been overwhelmed instantly the first time. And now that Tantabus was likely far stronger than before, and growing in power by the minute.

But again, there is no one braver than Pip. For no amount of fear would keep him from his aim, even as that fear chilled his blood, chattered his teeth, wobbled his knees, and brought out a cold sweat. He slowly reached towards the ground where a wooden stick lay that could substitute his old sword and took it onto his mouth, then he gulped his mightiest gulp.

"I don't think I have to tell you this twice, Pip. You should know better than us already that we cannot fight this monster alone. So whatever you're going to do, please, don't do it." Tiara called out to him, noticing what he was intending to do. "Twilight needs to know, and we can't end this dream if you're not in it. I know you want to save the Princess, I really do. But we can't do it alone."

"We need ta save da Rincess" Pip replied, stick still in mouth. "Not enugh tiem. We haf to act now. Tomorrow might e too late."

"I can't believing I'm agreeing with Tiara on this one, but she's right Pip. Take it from us, that thing is too dangerous to handle on our own, especially without magic." Spike pointed an arm to himself and to Chrys to signify who had been through that ordeal with one before. To his surprise, he found he had been pointing at nothing, as Chrys had disappeared from his side. Instead, she seemed to be standing by Pip's side.

Intrinsically, Pip seemed to know what the small changeling was thinking as well. The two were very similar to one another indeed. It was hard for them to watch someone suffer in front of their eyes without doing anything themselves. Perhaps it is extremely reckless for kids to believe that they can be heroes simply by throwing themselves at a problem. But then again, heroes are not born through inaction. Sometimes, kids are just meant to take those leaps, dangerous as they may be, in order to learn and grow and live the lives they want to live. Because changing oneself for the better takes courage, no matter what we do.

Now there were two parties in opposition to one another. If Pip had been entirely alone in that decision, they could've easily talked him out of it or forced him to concede. But although silent as she tended to be, Chrys was a force to be reckoned with when it came time to argue about anything. Both Spike and Tiara cared about her deeply, and trusted her with impunity. To them, this issue was as black and white as it was going to get, and the obvious decision was to rely on the grown-ups for help. But that issue was now incredibly grey now that Chrys had thrown her hat into the ring.

Oddly enough, Spike was the first to concede to the small changeling after some time, since every time he would open his mouth to try and convince her otherwise with some argument, he would shut it quickly again since he found himself losing that battle almost immediately after any number of imaginary arguments he had against her in his head.

"Spike, seriously?" Tiara said as he watched him walk over to her side, his shoulders slumped defeatedly.

"I mean, I can see where she's coming from. And I care about Princess Luna too. She tends to be my accomplice in a lot of things and is a great friend to hang out with. I don't want to see her suffer either. If I can help, darn it I will!" He crossed his arms and huffed some fire from his nostrils, fanning his own pride a little.

"You can help by calling on the ones who can actually save the Princess!" Tiara scratched her head from frustration and sighed. "Luna has always been a great pony, and she has comforted me in my dreams a lot too... I owe her a lot, so it's not like I don't want to jump in myself. But let's think about this logically for a second! Really. I cannot overstate how important it is to not face a Tantabus alone. If it gets released into the real world, it could spell serious trouble!"

"Then we'll just have to handle it at that point, just like we did with The Mistress. Right Chrys?" Spike got a hearty nod from her.

"We can't let the Tantabus hurt Luna any more." Pip had dug his stick into the ground momentarily to speak clearly. "We can't let it increase the amount of regrets she already has... We have to save her. She deserves a second chance. She deserves to be saved!"

Tiara seemed to be taken aback by those words. They seemed to resonate so strongly with her that she felt her heart clench with happiness. "You're right, Pip. We all deserve second chances, maybe even third, or fourth, as many as needed. We all deserve to be happy." She nodded and stepped forward with the rest of them. They all stood by the edge of the pond, waiting for someone to signal them forward into the unknown.

"Besides, look at this way. We're not alone, are we? We've got each other." Pip took his stick into his mouth again. Building his courage up again, he found, was much easier when he was taking that leap with someone else. "Les saev da Rincess".

Finally, he swiped it forward to signal the group of kids that the time had come.

And into those waters they delved, into its murky dark depths.

Crossing into sleepy worlds.

The Small Hero Within Us

by Darkevony

Chapter 1: Do Heroes Dream of Brave Sheep?

Chapter 2: Ogres & Former Villainesses

Chapter 3: The Moment of Truth, Lies, and Self-Sacrifice