Welcome To The Dreamscape
“Ouch…” I thought to myself as I scanned my surroundings. I was laying on the cold floor of the castle. Near me were the fragments of my once pristine armor.
“My armor! I’m vulnerable!” I thought to myself as I instinctively tried to activate my magic to grab the armor. Nothing happened.
Suddenly a bright light appeared, and Celestia herself appeared from it, descending to the floor of the castle to talk to the ponies who defeated me.
That’s when I noticed her. Luna, she was there, lying closer to where Celestia had appeared a few seconds ago. “If I’m still here, and can think, see and hear, and Luna’s here as well, that means the elements separated us!” I thought to myself, joyous at this prospect.
As Celestia and Luna embraced each other, I could only feel the glares of hatred coming from Twilight and her friends. None from Celestia, thankfully. Or maybe she hadn’t noticed me yet.
I attempted to turn my head. The pain was excruciating, as if I had been almost completely immobilized. Resisting the pain, I slowly turned my head to face Twilight’s friends, a look of shock plastered on my face.
“I thought the elements were supposed to have destroyed me! How can I still be alive?” I thought.
Celestia, having finished talking with Luna and Twilight, finally approached me. From my perspective, she was tall, imposing, and frightening. I did my best to make eye contact, but more pain erupted from my neck as I turned my head up to meet her.
“It appears the Elements have not succeeded in removing Nightmare Moon from Equestria,” Celestia said to Twilight and her friends. “Luckily,” she paused. “I’ve thought of a plan just in case this thing was to come up.”
I glared up at Celestia, but softened my expression as I realized she did not look like she wanted to hurt me. Suddenly a wash of power radiated through my body, seemingly coming from Celestia herself. “She’s healed me? But why?”
“Stand up, Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said sternly.
I got up slowly and stood upright, meeting Celestia’s gaze. We stood for a bit, unmoving and unblinking, before Celestia broke the silence.
“Are you going to say anything to me?” Celestia said to me.
I cocked an eyebrow. “Well, what do you want me to say besides the obvious? You imprisoned me for a millennium.”
“I expected you’d be a bit more angry at me,” Celestia said with a chuckle. “It seems the Elements worked in somewhat subduing your…aggressive tendencies.”
Celestia paused to collect her thoughts before addressing Nightmare Moon, and by extension Luna and the Mane 6.
“Nightmare Moon, while I don’t exactly trust you to maintain your level head, you have a job. Though Luna is our principle Dreamwalker, she’s…currently not fit for the job,” Celestia said authoritatively.
Luna scoffed at the backhanded comment. “I will be PERFECTLY fine in a month.”
Celestia ignored Luna’s rebuttal. “Now, I need you to fill in for Luna’s dreamwalking job, Nightmare Moon.”
I let out a slightly evil chuckle. “Are you sure you want to give me this vast power? Do you know how much my power grows in the Dreamscape?”
“Yes, I do,” Celestia said. “That is why I will be restricting your capabilities via a magic spell. Once Luna is fit to dreamwalk again, you will be rid of your duties, and can live out your life in Equestria as normal.”
“You really did think of everything, Celestia,” I said flatly. “But why must I have to live a normal life afterwards? I will be shunned and disrespected by the peasants!”
“Calm yourself. We don’t use the word peasant anymore. A lot has changed over a thousand years,” Celestia said calmly. “Hopefully through your dreamwalking you will likely be able to forge a new legacy as a noble pony, not one of evil.”
“I…guess that’s better than being locked up on the moon for another thousand years,” I said to Celestia.
“Before we depart for Canterlot, I would like you to personally apologize to Twilight and her friends for the things you did to them. Maybe you’ll be on better terms with everypony if you do,” Celestia said to me.
I sighed loudly. “Whatever.”
I approached the group slowly, to prevent them from getting any ideas.
“We are sorry for our actions. Please forgive us,” I said through gritted teeth. It was uncomfortable, but I hope it satisfied Celestia’s criteria.
“Can we go now?” I said to Celestia.
“You need to do one more thing. At some point when your dreamwalking duties are finished, or during your free time, you must spend time with them, as punishment,” Celestia said. “If you agree, we can go.”
I snorted. “FINE! I agree!” I walked over to where Celestia was, as she lit her horn and teleported Luna, herself and I to Canterlot.
I climbed into my large bed, prepared within hours of my arrival to the castle. The workponies here in Canterlot sure do work fast. They even got the colors of the sheets right!
Celestia had gifted me a room in the castle, close to hers so she could keep an eye on me, to make sure I didn’t do anything dangerous.
Closing my eyes, I drifted into sleep, awakening in the main Dreamscape. It had been so long since I had seen this place. Celestia, unable to walk dreams, had likely never been here, so it had sat abandoned for a millennium. How unfortunate.
I stood in front of the closest door to me. It was lightly colored, which signified it as a filly’s. Something told me the dream was not right, as a thin black fog had formed around it. I cracked the door open a tad and saw a scared pony running away from some timberwolves.
I shut the door immediately. “I can’t just enter that filly’s nightmare! I am the embodiment of nightmares, and would certainly scare her,” I thought.
I entered the dream anyway. The filly was going to be more traumatized by the nightmare if I didn’t intervene. Inside, I spotted the filly hiding behind a tree, as timberwolves sniffed her out, seeking their prey.
I lit my horn and blasted the timberwolves to pieces. Teleporting over, I shielded the filly with my wings, preventing any other creature from attacking her.
Once I was certain the timberwolves were gone, I brought my wings away and inspected my subject. She was small, as fillies are, and colored gray. She had a red mane and tail. No cutie mark.
“Thank you for saving me!” She said, before looking up at my face. Her eyes widened, before she started crying. Evidently she seemed to know who I was.
“No no no! Don’t be afraid! I won’t hurt you,” I said in the most soothing voice I could muster. “Please stop!”
The filly stopped crying, but moved away from me, evidently still scared.
“Why are you afraid of me? I have not done anything to hurt you,” I said softly.
The filly looked at me. “W-well, I recognized you from a story my mom told me about a pony called N-nightmare M-moon…”
I was relatively confused. “What were the contents of this story?”
“Well, she would sneak into ponies' households and scare them, and gobble them up once she was done with scaring them!”
“Good to know I’ve been immortalized in the form of an old mare’s tale,” I thought to myself, rolling my eyes.
“Well, I can assure you, I have no intentions of hurting you. Besides, pony meat is disgusting,” I said, putting on a small grin, careful to hide my fangs.
The filly looked confused at my remark, but smiled anyway. I walked a ways away towards the door, not before changing the dream from a dark forest to a moonlit meadow.
“I best be going, I have other dreams to attend to,” I said. “Sweet dreams.”
“Goodnight, whoever you are,” the filly called back.
I closed the door to her dream, and breathed a sigh of relief.
The next dream was of an adult stallion, who, for some unknown reason, appeared to be bucking apple trees?
Why ponies would dream about working surprised me, however I hadn’t had an apple in a millennia, so I decided to explore the dream further, in hopes of eating one or two.
I approached the stallion. He was definitely very muscular, and colored red. He noticed me and his eyes widened, but did not say a word. He did not appear to be scared, just surprised at the fact another pony was in his dream.
I looked around the orchard. There were apple trees for miles. It was likely infinite.
“Why are you dreaming about doing work?” I asked him, careful to not appear too imposing. “Work is menial and tiring.”
He sighed, seemingly not wanting to talk to me.
“Do you not like talking?” I asked inquisitively.
“Ee-yup,” he replied. He had a faint country accent, like one of Twilight’s friends did. I suspected they were probably related, judging by their cutie marks.
“Well, do you have a name?” I said to him cordially.
“Big Mac,” he said quickly.
“Well, Big Mac, I suppose I’ll leave you to your work, but before I go…may I have an apple?” I said, making sure to accentuate my request. “I have not eaten one in a millennia.”
He tossed an apple in my direction, which I easily grabbed with my magic. As he went back to bucking the trees, I took a bite out of the fruit. It was sweet and juicy, and simply delicious. My eyes widened, and a large smile appeared on my muzzle. It was a strange feeling, but I loved this fruit.
I walked a ways away from Big Mac and used my magic to pick a few, before magicking them away for use as a snack at a later time. I waved goodbye to him, before exiting the dream.
“Thank Faust he didn’t recognize me,” I said with a sigh of relief. The night was not over however, so I set to work.
I came across several other dreams, but none that were too concerning. About 20 dreams in, I discovered a black colored door with a constellation on it.
I opened the door gently, and peered in. A white-colored stallion stood looking up at the sky. He had a dark blue mane, and a telescope on his flank. A large telescope sat nearby.
I was still hidden by the night, so he had thankfully not noticed me. I decided before I revealed myself I’d have a bit of fun, so I lit my horn and rearranged the stars in the sky. Eventually, the stars came together to form a depiction of Celestia, with crossed eyes and her tongue sticking out.
The stallion, who I could only assume was an astronomer, gasped and scrambled to his telescope, but before he got a good look at the new constellation, I brought the sky back to normal.
“What the hay was that?” I heard him call out. I watched as he frantically moved his telescope around, trying to find my new constellation.
After about a minute, I thought it best to reveal myself. Again, I rearranged the stars, but to a depiction of my own face. When the astronomer noticed, he ran over to his telescope. I kept the constellation up, and watched as he gazed out the telescope, in awe.
I had to resist the urge to continue rearranging the stars that made up my face into a seductive look, but I decided that was enough.
I slowly walked over, careful to be quiet. I heard the astronomer talking to himself about how beautiful the constellation was. I took it as a compliment, because after all, it was my face up there.
At this point I was right next to him, chuckling at his remarks about the constellation. “Isn’t it such a beautiful night sky up there?” I said sweetly.
The astronomer froze, slowly turning his head towards me, eyes wide. I mimicked the constellation he had seen not ten seconds ago, and watched as the stallion’s mouth dropped.
“You…you’re her-“ he started, before I put a hoof to his mouth.
“Hush, my subject,” I told him. “Let us enjoy the night sky in silence.” I brought my wing around him, and he drew closer.
After a while, I decided it was time I left his dream, so I leaned down and kissed his cheek. I chuckled to myself as I watched his face turn bright red. “I must be going now, my dear friend,” I said aloud. “Sweet dreams.”
I then leaned towards his ear. “You’ll get the chance to kiss me back another time,” I said softly. I heard him gasp a little, signifying his excitement at the prospect.
I turned around and walked towards the exit of his dream, all the while I could feel the look he was giving me as I walked away. It was a mixture of intense love and sadness. I looked back and smirked, before opening the door back to the Dreamscape.
I exited the dream, and closed the door behind me. I marked the door for later (I was definitely coming back to him), and moved to the next. I was glad to know that astronomers still existed a thousand years after my banishment.
I couldn’t be wasting time thinking, so I kept on going. I had to fill my nightly quota after all.
I had easily explored 100 dreams by the time I approached the last door. Dreams ranging from serene landscapes with beautiful night skies, to bloody battlefields and the nightmares of fillies. Other times, it was the mere musings of ponies I stumbled upon.
The final door at the end of the main Dreamscape was different from the last. It was painted brown, with ornate carvings engraved into it. The frame was wrought iron, a favorite material of mine, and the door itself was made of wood.
“I wonder to which pony this door belongs. Most of the others have been quite boring,” I said to myself. “I would imagine it belongs to an aristocrat or some nobility member, like that terrible Prince Blueblood in Canterlot. Faust, don’t make it be Blueblood’s dreams. I already know he lusts after me, I do NOT need to see his dreams.”
Sucking in a breath, I opened the door and stepped into a large, seemingly infinite room. It was extremely similar to a blank Dreamscape, which meant I was likely in the thoughts of some pony, and not a real dream.
I took flight, exploring the empty room. There was nothing. Nothing at all. Or so I thought.
“HEY! WHO’S OUT THERE?” A voice called in the distance.
I whipped around, and spotted a creature in the distance. Using my magic, I created a projection of what was in front of me, but magnified for easy viewing. It appeared to be a bipedal creature of some sort, with cloth garments and short cropped hair. It appeared to have signs of sleep deprivation, something I could not let stand.
I had seen weirder creatures in my lifetime, so I took a deep breath, readied myself and my formal speaking voice, and spread my wings.
Little did I know that this would become much more than the musings of some creature.