Learning To Live

by Nekron Smauzog

A sensitive man was always trying his best to deal with life, whether his struggles with friendships or maintaining the best motives. Everything changes when he is supposedly killed in a deadly chase dealing with a dangerous criminal gang, and he appears in Equestria. What is his purpose there? But most to notice, why is he even there?

48. Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?

A/N: Alright, here's another chapter. Kind of had mixed feelings when writing this chapter, but it'll do.

Two days from now! Fallout 4 is going to be released, and I'll be getting my pre-ordered copy then from now. I'm pretty excited to step back into the post-apocalyptic world RPG, so I would expect a bit of a delay if I haven't updated for a while. (Well considering that I am a fan of Bethesda's games.)

Also, you might have noticed the new cover image for Learning To Live. Guess who will appear eventually in the story? That's right.

Review Responses:

sonic3461: Thanks bro. I will. You keep up the good work on your story too, it's going really good. :)

Steve03: Oh yeah, that episode was fantastic just like very other episode. Glad you enjoyed the chapter.

Wade9090: Don't worry, I accept your criticism. This chapter is one of those chapters that won't really call out for action for a while as I have other plans. Personally, it's your opinion if the chapter was meh, so I won't force you to like it. It's not in my blood to do that. As for Nightmare, Luna and the others not coming to help immediately then: both Luna and Nightmare were still in the Town Hall during the fight and wondered where Brayden had gone. For Twilight and her friends, they did hear roaring in the distance and needed to see inside Town Hall if everypony was alright. Kind of a deleted scene.

billykilly: Plans for the future? Well, I am writing away on a one-shot due to be released around Christmas time, so keep an eye out. For the story, I will finally reveal the purpose behind the vial of golden blood where Luna made the discovery back in Chapter 20 and the meaning of it. There are a few mentions about what'll happen in later chapters, so expect those too. Coco Pommel will return, and of course judging by the cover image... guess who? Other than that, I plan something big for the end of the story which isn't at least for a while now. It'll be big when it comes.

raven 2012: Thank you, and I am! :)

Joe45: Interesting. Thank you by the way.

jvs12: Thanks.

4theworldman: Yep, made a Troll In The Dungeon reference there, cause I wanted to parody that part in that chapter.

guest: Thank you.

rd24: He is.

Anon: Read where I responded to billykilly, that'll be your answer. ;)

---

Princess Luna's POV

I can hear the sound of galloping in the distance. It sounds like there are six figures trying their best to get into the castle hall as fast as they could to find me right where I standing above the tall walkway bridging between two thrones. One that showed for the Princess of the Sun, my sister Celestia and the other throne encarved with the symbol of the moon and that of the color of night for me Princess Luna.

I stand before all of the throne room by myself while the cackling of torches sparked and the hooves ran. I unleash a glare upon my face. I was about to re-live the same nightmare that I have always been having since Nightmare Moon was relieved out of my body. I knew what to expect when having to use the Tantabus in this dream every night. Though Nightmare Moon still existed in this life, she has been separated from the darkness she once resided in. She still held onto the Tantabus that had long been taken from me during the return, but with her redemption, the Tantabus is under my control now.

"Greetings Tantabus," I said out loud in the empty area, still almost awaiting for the Princess of Friendship and her friends to come storming the throne room hall. I can feel the powers of this darkness stirring through me as it holds the power of nightmares within this dreamscape I conjured up. "I am ready. Do your worst." The darkness grabs a hold of me and I grunt for only a moment until I was consumed, knowing the dark side of me started changing me into what was once, and would be again.

Twilight and her friends came running in on time to see my transformation with audible gasps heard. There was the swirling of dark magic containing me inside the bubble to unleash my form of Nightmare Moon, the mare in the moon I used to be thousands of years ago.

"Princess Luna's turning into Nightmare Moon again!" Twilight calls out to me, pointing her mulberry colored hoof at me.

I had broken free from the bubble of transformation. I flap my 'black' wings and look down upon them while unleashing laughter of evil for I knew I needed to stay in-character for my dream. The night was already outside, but I knew how the moonlight I was under, my instincts in the dream world informed me it will last forever.

"Yeah?" Rainbow Dash says, looking at each and every one of her friends. "Well, we've got the cure for that!"

Each of them begin to power up their magic, unveiling the Rainbow powers that they have recieved during the attack from Lord Tirek. I just fly above their own heads while they faced me. I can tell by the magic they possessed, they were going to unleash another rainbow beam to revert me back and defeat me, but not this time while I possess the power of the night!

"You fools!" I shouted to them with laughter, beginning to channel my magic to my black horn. "You can never stop the night from lasting forever!"

At the same time, both I and the once-Element possessors locked beams together, pushing to make either one of us succeed in the battle. It would be the same like every night as in this dream: me as Nightmare Moon just defeating them and proclaiming that the night shall be eternal forever. Just the same thing over and over, but this time the rainbow beam they fire is really pushing itself this time.

I pushed right back with the beam of night, doing my best to ensure that I am not defeated by Twilight and her friends in this dream like usual. It's kind of a tragic dream I know, but it is the burden to make sure I don't make mistakes like that again with my jealousy. The beams push against one another, trying to claim a victor from either me or them. If it's going to be me, I better push harder.

I did my best to push more magic into the beam as it drives itself closer towards them. A wicked smile curled onto my mouth, showing those baring white teeth. They only return at me with glares on their faces when the magic bubble of the rainbow formed around the six of them. When the power of the rainbow shadowed them from my sight, the hard push came driving harder at me.

I can feel the darkness start to stray out of me at that moment, with the dark cloud that resembles both the night and the horrors it creates in a night, breaking free from my body and visible to my own eyes while in the disguise of Nightmare Moon. "Wait! What is it doing?!" The dark cloud creates a tear into the dream realm where all other dreamer's doors remain shut. Seeping right through the tear, it seals right behind it so I could go after it. I tried to react then, but it was far too late by now. "No! It's gone!"

The dark beam that i had been firing has been dispersed. The rainbow beam impacted my entire body, covering me in the swirling rainbow that hurt the disguise I held myself in. I release another grunt, as I can feel myself being released from the influence that was once the dark side of me, and my black alicorn coat returning back into its normal state of being the recognizable midnight blue. Then there is the happy cheering from Twilight and her friends gathering around me.

I opened my eyes once again, my eyes having been returned to normal from the cat-like state and the curse of Nightmare Moon no longer upon me in this dream. Twilight and her friends surround me, cheerful and happy that they have saved me and all of Equestria from being swallowed into eternal darkness under the moon's light. But me, I looked really panicked and I knew I had to seen the flash rushing past me from behind.

I open my eyes, grasping onto the bed sheets when I woke up gasping in horror at the revelation of my dream. All I could do was look this frightened by what has happened to reflect on... the Tantabus departing from me and escaping... the outcome of my dream...

"My dream ended... happily? That. Cannot. Happen." I said to myself, keeping that scared look on my face. Without the Tantabus and with it on the loose, I knew very well what it could do by its unknown supernatural powers should it be uncontrolled like that.

The door to my private quarters opens up with a budge. The black alicorn, Nightmare Moon... that who I took form of in my dream stares right back at me from the door. She had a rather alarmed look on her face and her ears were perking up and listening. "Princess Luna, is something wrong?" She asked with worry in her voice. "I was reading away at a book when I couldn't sleep, and then I heard you gasp and I needed to see if everything was alright."

"Nightmare..." I said to her, my eyes having bags under them. "What had just happened in the dream realm... is REALLY REALLY bad."

She paused for a moment. "Was it a vision that you had? I can swear you and Sunset have been getting too much into that Dragon Queen's book."

"No, it's worse than that matter!" I said to her, slipping right out of bed and looking at her, not sure how to say it without causing a major uproar from her. "The Tantabus has escaped and is roaming the dream world!"

She places her black hoof onto her face, then drops it back onto the tiles after those few seconds have passed. "I have warned you repeatedly every night to keep the Tantabus secure. You haven't kept your eye on it, and now it's loose! Whoever finds it in their dreams, it could get even worse from all there."

"How worse?" I just had to ask.

"Oh, much worse." She replies, now holding a worried look on her face. "In the morning you need to find out who had a crazy nightmare from that dark magic loose in their dream, and it's only a matter of time until it regains complete power. I will join you, but it will be hard to track down which dream it got into."

I turn to my quarter's window in the tower, taking a gaze out towards the full moon shining brightly above all of Equestria. "Then our search begins in the morn. If we do not hurry, I fear that I may have doomed all of Equestria by now..."

---

Brayden's POV

Fluttershy's Cottage, 7:30am

My alarm clock began to buzz out once again, cutting off a really cool dream that I was having. I can't really describe it, but from what I know: I was out with Twilight over by the lake once again on a different bench, for it wasn't the same one that I confessed my love to her there. Besides that, I can also recall taking out a golden ring with a sapphire on it, and the big question almost about to have slipped from my mouth. Too bad it was just a dream and not only that, the alarm clock ruining the moment.

I groaned in mild annoyance and moved my hand onto the buzzing electronic and pressing down on a button to turn off the alarm. The sun was shining right into my eyes from the open windows anyway, so I can tell that I can't stay in bed forever. I slip the bed sheets off from around the top of my body that covered my arms and legs, keeping them warm during the chilly Autumn night.

My broken leg had gotten better over the course of the week, so I no longer had the cast on my leg or could feel any excruciating pain when I place my right leg down onto the hard wooden floor. All thanks to the help of my friends who were there support me in those times of pain, they might have helped with the healing process faster with my distractions of chilling with them, reading a book with Twilight while in her bed for those two days, lying on Fluttershy's couch and sleeping there for the next three days after. My other friends came to visit, and most of have brought gifts to make me feel better. But seeing as I know Pinkie Pie though, she gave me a chocolate cake. I only had one slice, but the rest of it is stored in Fluttershy's basement in the secondary fridge down there, just in case I need more to dig into.

I lift myself forward with my back coming off from the bedside to sit. I use the next few moments to yawn and stretch my arms and legs. Then I got up off of the bed, my eyes set right onto my wardrobe. I open up the wardrobe, take off my pyjamas to put into the laundry for later and changed into my denim jeans and slip on a random shirt with long sleeves that I took from the wardrobe. I made sure to put on some fresh socks on my bare feet so that they didn't feel cold.

The rooster outside where the chicken pen usually was, began to 'cockle-doodle-doo' as if the alarm clock wasn't enough to wake up anypony. Hearing it usually is the call that it was that time to get up for the animals at the cottage anyway, so I'm pretty sure Fluttershy would also hear it as well, as her windows are usually slightly opened to hear the sounding call of the rooster.

My legs move forward towards the bedroom door, with my right hand reaching out for the doorknob. Taking hold of it and giving it a twist, I open up the door. Light shone into the rest of the room from the upstair floor's open window.

A warm smile is brought upon my own face when I step outside of my bedroom, closing the door right behind me. It was going to be another beautiful day with all six of my friends, and I would be spending time with them helping out to groom their pets. I don't really have a pet myself as of now, but again I live with Fluttershy, so she has loads of animals around her cottage.

I make my way down the stairs and into the kitchen and nopony at the moment is occupying it at the moment in regards to making breakfast, so it looks like I'll be the one making it this time. By Celestia, I should cook more often when I wake up this early.

I open up the fridge, and browse around from top to bottom quickly, just grabbing onto at least four eggs and a few pieces of bread, also getting out the butter as well. I place each of those I got out from the fridge right onto the counter next to the fridge. I close the fridge door and from the cabinets above the counter, I take out two dishes to use for both me and Fluttershy and also got out two forks and two knives made of silver each.

I get out the frying pan from under the counter, placing it on top of the stove and turning it on by the right-bottom switch. The cooker ignites and the pan began to warm up a bit.

For the toast, I began to place all four of them into the toaster, and setting them inside already turns on the toaster, allowing them to be cooked. I take an extra silver knife and use it to scrape some butter into the frying pan, so when the butter melts around, the eggs being cooked won't stick to the surface by the one side that's touching the pan. The butter is placed in and I dab it a little in the pan, swirling it around until there was no butter left to be seen. Already the pan had been boiling and sizzling as soon as I put in the butter, so it can be quite a wonder why some things spit by reaction in the heat it processes.

I placed in the first two eggs, cracking them open over the side of the pan, and released the egg yolk and liquids of white onto the center of it. I made sure to check each side of the two eggs that I've cracked open to ensure they are cooked well. When they were good and ready after at least three and a half minutes later, I take the spatula close by the stove in a small bucket of other kitchen tools and proceed to flip those two eggs. The two land on their opposite sides, and began to cook out on the other sides.

Once those two were done, I take those two now over-easy eggs out of the pan and place them onto the first plate next to the stove top. The toaster takes out the toast and after putting in the other two eggs for me, I go over to take some toast. I used the plate that I put the eggs on for the toast to put them on. I spread some butter over the toast's top side showing and place the plate over at the kitchen table next to the window. I go back to the stove to deal with my eggs.

After those two were fried by each side well, I place my eggs onto my plate with the spatula, butter the two bread I got out from the toaster that I didn't get out yet. Even when getting turned off, the toaster would still keep the pieces warm. I used the same extra silver knife to butter my two pieces. After a few seconds of wiping on the butter, I place the extra knife into the sink to be washed later and put my plate over at the table next to Fluttershy's plate.

Drinks would be needed I suppose, so I open the upper cabinet, getting out two empty glasses. Then I open the fridge, taking out one of the jugs of milk that the milkpony brings each Saturday. Well, she does bring three or four each time, so it's all fine. I pour the 2% milk into each of the glasses and put it back into the fridge, closing it.

By that time, I thought I heard the door close from upstairs. I guess Fluttershy had taken the extra time needed to sleep, so it's fine to me if she did that. I can hear her hooves trotting up there and to the steps to the main floor. I move both of the glasses of milk over towards the kitchen table, placing the two there, readying breakfast there now. I take a look back at the stairs from near the kitchen window I had been positioned at, each hoof step getting closer.

She eventually trots past the corner of the arch and into my sight. She held a smile on her face and those cyan eyes of hers are open, staring right back at me. Something was a bit off about her though, which did get me a little bit of a concern inside while still holding onto that smile and it did catch my attention rather quickly. The bottom of the both of her eyes had bags under them, and I could tell she looked tired.

"Morning Brayden..." She says, raising her left front hoof up to her mouth, while she lets out a bit of a tired yawn. "I see you made breakfast... for the both of us..."

Taking my seat at the table, she trots a little closer, taking her seat at the table right next to me. "Uh, morning to you too Fluttershy?" I asked at first but clear my throat for a second. "You look a little more tired than usual."

"Oh... I didn't really sleep well last night." She explained to me rather quickly when she takes a bite out of one of the two buttered bread pieces on her plate. "How about you? Did you sleep okay?"

"I slept well last night, but I didn't really suspect that you'd look tired," I said to her. "I understand you didn't sleep well, but are you sure you're okay?"

"Brayden, I- I'm fine, just a little bit out of it but I am okay." She used her fork and knife to cut off a piece of cooked egg white, eating it and swallowing it down. For me, I showed a bit of worry inside because staying up isn't really too good for her health inside. I take a bite of my bread while thinking of what to say next.

I finished chewing down that one piece of bread after two minutes have passed. I'm still in thought about what I should even think of saying next to her, but again she looks really tired. She lets out another yawn, taking a bite from the egg whites on one of her two eggs on the plate of white ceramic afterwards. I take another bite of egg whites and scoop up that one egg with my fork, gulping the rest of it down along with the cooked yolk.

I can hear her take a sip from her glass cup of milk. Still nothing to say to her, damn. She takes another bite from the second last slice of buttered bread. She opens her mouth, sounding off yet another soft yawn, but this time... it finally came to me.

"Fluttershy," She turns her head to the sound of my voice. I turn myself around while still aseated, scooting myself in the chair forward towards her. "I'm starting to worry about you now, you look really tired. Trust me, I have been on that before."

"I- umm, I'm not tired." She tried to lie to me, but even then with those baggy eyes; I can see right past her lie.

"Fluttershy, please." I said to her, my voice becoming gentle and sympathetic. "I don't really know what happened last night with you, but don't you think you should get some rest? I don't want you feeling cranky for the rest of the day."

She looked only a little saddened by my sympathetic words and what they truely meant, especially since she usually is the one with a bit of common traits that I have displayed. Her ears flop down and her head hangs for a bit, closing her eyes right there. I move my right hand slowly towards her left front hoof. She lifted her head, opening those beautiful cyan eyes to stare right back at me, taking my hand and holding it with her hoof.

"I guess that nightmare I had did keep me up..."

She had a nightmare? Well, I recall the last time she ever had a nightmare was when Nightmare was seeking to return, but there's no way she could have been involved with this one. Nightmare Moon was at complete peace when entering my dreams and I know deep down that she's never done any dark magic necessary to scare my dreams into nightmares.

I move my other hand towards her mane, stroking it back and placing my hand onto her soft right cheek. "Surely Nightmare or Princess Luna came along to help you out with it, right?" I had asked her.

All she could really do was frown a little and shake her head. "No, and no matter how many times I tried to get back to sleep, I- I just couldn't. So for the next few hours, I stayed up... and..." She told me, but stays in a bit of a pause. She isn't really able to finish those words.

The both of us were silent in those moments. Besides the quiet sounds of the animals outside, it was the sound of peace between the both of us. Those graceful eyes in the color of cyan staring right back at my brown eyes. I never did smile, but only never do realize that the both of us are gazing at each other. Birds chirp and fly outside the closed kitchen window, so my eyes never do take themselves off from the sight.

Still not realizing anything, I can feel my head begin to move forward slowly. The both of my hands by one still holding her soft, gentle hoof and my other gently touching her cheek. I think her head was also moving forward towards mine as well. We can hear Angel hopping around, but I think he's in the living room. The closer our heads were coming to one another, I cannot see the fact of my eyes starting to just slowly close. Her eyes have almost closed as well, but mine are almost closed on close approach to her.

Thump thump thump!

The sound of Angel the Bunny's feet tapping onto the kitchen floor caught our attention by the close proximity of the tapping close to the both of us. The both of my hands let go of her cheek and hoof, and I turn my head to look at the small bunny. Fluttershy turns to look at her best pet as well, curious as to what he might be wanting.

As usual, he has the both of his bunny paws crossed together and giving the both of us a really stern-looking stare like somepony had caught the both of us trying to steal some cookies from the cookie jar. "What is it Angel?" My close friend asked, opening her mouth and letting out another yawn.

The little bunny began to make all kinds of signs like bringing out a stop-watch and motioning one of his little paws in a way of brushing his tail. As usual, they could only take a couple of guesses at what the bunny was trying to tell them. Having watched the show for such a time, I knew what he meant to say in that bunny language. "I guess, he's trying to tell us that it won't be long until we have to meet up with our friends at Rarity's." I told her.

"Oh... my." She says, letting out another tired yawn. "I guess we should... finish breakfast..."

I nod in agreement with her, scooting back to that spot at the table where my plate of food was sitting. It was almost practically done: just one slice of buttered bread and the remaining egg also arest on the plate. It should be easy from there on afterwards.

We finished up on our food in the next ten minutes and made sure that there was no leftover drips of milk left in our glass cups. Fluttershy and I do the honor afterwards of putting our plates and cups, plus the silverware into the sink to wash later. Not too long did the clock go by, so we should both have enough time to get to the Carousel Boutique as soon as we could.

"I'll go and get my vest on." Fluttershy says, trotting next to me on our way out of the kitchen. "Why don't you go and brush your teeth and get your boots from upstairs? I'll be down here waiting."

I nod in understanding and make the sharp turn from the open door arch and up the wooden steps to the second floor. I can hear Fluttershy's hooves trotting behind with the sound of the nearby wardrobe of coats and vests hanging up opens. My two feet tread over the smooth wooden planking towards the bathroom door on the right side of the hallway. Opening the door, I knew what to do from there.

I made sure to brush up on my teeth to ensure that they were clean, plus even using mouthwash helped a lot in keeping them white. Afterwards, I slipped out back into the hallway, opening my bedroom door slightly to grab my leather boots, heading right back down the steps after having slipped them on my sock-covered feet.

"Fluttershy, I'm ready to-" I had just said, but stop right there when I caught her standing right with her eyes closed. She snores softly to herself, so I can really just say that she is pretty tired; so she must've gone back to sleep no doubt. But now isn't really the time to waste, can't keep Twilight and the others waiting for us.

I go down off the last two steps, approaching her slowly. The wardrobe itself was left open while I was busy upstairs brushing my teeth. I can see that she did take off both her vest and the jacket that Rarity made for me when the season was coming up by the end of the summer. I gently place my hand onto her right shoulder, giving her a little bit of a shake. I didn't shake too hard, but it was more light so I could stir her awake this easily.

Her soft snoring began to slowly stop whilst giving her a little bit of a shake. She slowly opens those cyan eyes, looking at me once again. She is tired at first, but then gets a little bit surprised. Then, there comes another yawn from out of her mouth.

"Oh..." She says, sounding a bit exhausted. "Did I fall... asleep?"

"Yeah, and it concerns me most. I don't see you usually this tired," I comment. "I'll help you with your vest."

I move my right hand past her, grabbing onto her vest and taking hold of it. I proceed to help her get it on, zipping up the zipper on it. Her eyes seemed more tired than ever, like she was practically trying her best not to fall asleep. After having helped put on her vest, I grab my jacket, slipping my arms in and afterwards zipping it up when I was finished putting it on.

"Thanks Brayden..." Fluttershy says, forming a small, worn smile on her mouth.

I smile and nod at her. But something else crosses my mind in regards to that, like when I had caught Fluttershy sleeping there. I was only a bit worried that she'd fall asleep again on our way to Rarity's, so I guess I should do something about it and fast.

I look to Fluttershy once again. "Fluttershy?" I can see her turn around to look back at me, her ears sort of raised with attention at me. "I know I'm usually not one to ask this, but would you like me to carry you on our way there?"

"Carry me?" Fluttershy asked. Only a small blush appeared on the both of her cheeks. "I- I'm not sure if Twilight would approve though."

I smile and shake my head for a moment. "Twilight understands we're close friends, I can asssure you that she will be okay with it. You can even give yourself a bit of rest while we're on our way."

I bend a little down on my knees, opening up my arms a bit as the offer to Fluttershy. She stays there for a few moments, but eventually trots forward towards me. She lifts herself up on her two back legs, her head falling gently into my left arm. My right arm lifts up the part where her flank would be, so I was carrying her then and there. Fluttershy's little bunny Angel hops up onto her and rests there.

On our way into the outside, I made sure to close the front door of the cottage behind me and move forward, holding onto Fluttershy, who is also holding her bunny rabbit close to her. After all, he is her favorite pet. She does fall asleep on the way out once again, so it looks like it will be a peaceful walk to Rarity's from here, and it'll be good to see my friends again like usual.

---

"Ooh, this is amazing!" Pinkie Pie's voice could only sound out, even though she sounded very tired as well.

We had arrived at the Carousel Boutique not too long ago, and by the time I had stepped into the door via the open invitation to come in. I too was surprised at the sight I could very well see. All my friends being there were in the same situation as Fluttershy was. All of them were tired, but of course it looks like me and Spike are the only ones who don't look as tired as our other friends or my special somepony who brought along Owlowiscious who had survived after the entire 'Lord Tirek' incident. I don't really get how Spike and I are the only ones 'not' tired.

Besides Owlowiscious and Angel, each pet that our friends had were there. Applejack had brought along her dog Winona, Pinkie brought along her toothless pet alligator Gummy who was probably chewing on something, Rainbow Dash had her pet tortoise Tank there, looking as lazy when he wasn't flying, and Rarity's cat Opalescence was there too. Everypony became busy grooming their pets, and I had started helping them out to do some grooming.

Rainbow Dash emitted a yawn from out of her mouth. She spoke, but sounded exhausted throughout. "Yeah, Rarity... Thanks for setting all this up..."

"A grooming day for our pets really was a great idea..." Fluttershy says, grooming the tail of her bunny. She sounds just as tired as Rainbow, and I can almost think that even my friends are too.

I stood up from helping out Twilight with her pet owl. "If you don't mind, I'll go and get you girls some tea." I state to her, sounding only a little concerned about her and everypony else's condition.

Twilight understood and nods with a worn smile on her mouth. Rarity didn't mind that I could use the kitchen to brew up some coffee for all of them, so she was fine with it as well by her accompanied silent nod. I would keep an ear open to listen in on their conversation just in case one of them fell asleep or not, or if the conversation was still going.

Firing up on the tea machine located on one of the kitchen counters, I could hear Opalescence yowl in the other room and of course Rarity a few seconds afterwards. She sounds tired by the sound of it. "Oh my! I'm sorry... I didn't get my normal beauty sleep last night..."

I can hear her cat hiss. I grab some tea bags from the plastic sack in the pantry. I take out a couple that would best fit six cups of tea, inserting them into the machine. I press another button in the pre-early device, crunching the bits of tea into what looks almost like dust, ready to be poured into one cup/mug when ready. I got into the upper cabinet taking out six mugs by each color. One for Twi by the color of mulberry, the others in the representation of their natural coat color.

"You know..." I can hear Twilight say, then emitting a yawn before continuing. "I didn't sleep well either."

I turn on the heater for the machine to allow the tea to boil up inside. I can hear Applejack agreeing with her friend with a 'Mm-hmm' coming from her without speaking once, but my ears haven't gone that deaf from listening to music that loudly, if I did back on Earth; I wouldn't have probably heard that. Rainbow follows after that in agreement.

I can hear Pinkie in that kind of sleepy tone as well, even though she did sound a bit excited. "I'm totally beat too!"

Winona barks for that moment and then I can hear Applejack speak. "Alright Winona. Time fer yer brushin'."

There is the sound of a squeak and then a splash in the other room. I don't really turn around as I don't want to leave the water inside of the tea machine boiling for too long. It'd get too hot and the last thing I want is to see any of my friends burn their tongues. "Oops, Ah guess Ah'm too plumb tuckered out ta do this right."

There is the sound of a quiet, yet alarmful tone from the coffee machine, and I turn off the heater with all of the tea having been dispensed and mixed into the water. I put Rarity's cup under first, pouring in some hot fresh tea for her. Then I unloaded for all of the others one at a time, until all of them were filled by the color of the tea bags mixed together, almost like a fruit punch.

I put all of the cups onto a small round tray of gray located on the end counter, with only a little steam emerging from the hot liquids of tea-colored water. I take the tray and start carrying it with both my two hands into the main room of the Boutique where all of my other friends were. Rainbow Dash is the closest by, so I head over to her first, offering her the cup of tea.

She takes it in her own hooves. "Thanks Brayden..." She says, sounding a little tired, before taking a sip of it.

I continue to go around and handing over some tea to my tired friends, whilst still tired but yet happy to see tea offered to them. I can hear Fluttershy yawn again. "I even went to bed early last night," That is true and I remember after she got her animals to calm down, she went to her bed early that night, even making sure to tell me not to stay up too late. "But then I had a really scary nightmare."

"Me too!" Everypony in the room just about said at the same time. Me and Spike are the only ones who haven't spoken yet in regards to that.

"Uh, only you know..." Rainbow Dash says, trying to sound brave. "I didn't think mine was 'that' scary!"

"Well, mine sure was," Twilight says, accepting the cup of tea being brought over to her by me and she channels magic to her horn to take it and have a sip. "There was this blue smoke monster and..." Everypony stares at her as if she finally had an answer to all things. "What?"

"I dreamt about a blue smoke thingy too!" Fluttershy says.

"Me too!" Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie confesses at the same time.

"So what?" Rainbow Dash asked, shrugging a bit. "Probably just a coincidence."

"That's an awfully big coincidence." Twilight claims once again, probably figuring out something possibly on all on what could have made them have the same dream.

"I wonder why I didn't have that nightmare," Spike spoke out for the first time here. "I slept great!"

I turn to look at my friend. "Same here Spike, I slept quite well too, even having some pretty good dreams; so I am not really sure how they'd all dream of this smoke monster at the same time." I said to him. Wait a moment, if it's the smoke monster from that one show I remember on Earth; I better warn them about it immediately.

Rarity thought for that moment before speaking out with question in that tone. "So then, what could've given us all the same nightmare?"

"I don't know..." Twilight says, getting a little bit into deep thought. It only lasts a few moments, but a small smile came upon her face after that and turning to her dragon assistant. "But I do know who might. Spike, could you send a scroll to Princess Luna?"

"Sure!" Spike says, pulling out a quill of ink and a blank piece of parchment paper to be used for the written letter. "All set!"

The little dragon assistant began writing away when Twilight began speaking out what to say to Princess Luna in the letter. "Dear Princess Luna, last night my friends and I dreamt of a creature made of blue smoke. We don't know too much about this creature, but it had given us all nightmares that made us feel weak or frightened in our own dreams or when awakening. Surprisingly, nopony else has seen the phenomonom in their sleep, which is strange. I'm sure you're very busy, but..." She pauses to yawn. "...when you have the chance, please let me know if you have any idea what it could mean. Yours..." She yawns yet again. "Princess Twilight Sparkle." She turns to look at Spike when he was all done with writing. "You can leave out the yawns."

Spike immediately rolls the scroll up and places the red urgent ribbon into the middle of the letter, blowing his green flames onto the letter. The letter was covered up and I watched the green non-flammable burst of energy send itself on its way to most likely Canterlot. And if I know, Princess Luna was probably rarely awake during the daylight except on special occasions. So I'm sure she'll be able to recieve it immediately and get into action.

Or she could be here right about now, with the front door to the Boutique opening up by a forceful push from a hoof. Poor Spike who had been standing near the door, is hit by the oncoming force of the door opening up and is behind it. She looks rather both alarmed and with worry. She doesn't seem to be alone either... Nightmare Moon is with her.

"Which of you saw the creature of blue smoke in your nightmare?!" The princess of the night proclaims with question.

"Wow, that was fast." Fluttershy comments.

Twilight trots forward towards both of them. "We all did."

"Not me!" Spike said in a way that sounded like he was bragging with that kind of smile on his face as well. "Brayden and I slept great!"

AJ, Rainbow and Rarity groan with annoyance in their tone, simultaneously speaking out. "We know!"

"So you've encountered the smoke monster too?" Twilight asked Princess Luna.

Luna lowered her head for a moment, then looks right back up at Twilight. "The Tantabus is a creature of my nightmares. It escaped from my slumbers yesterday."

"But how did it get into ours?" Fluttershy asked. She didn't sound as tired thanks to the tea she was drinking. It wasn't much, but it will help a little.

Nightmare Moon trots forward, joining next to Princess Luna. "The Tantabus is like a parasite. Her dreams must no longer be powerful for it. Now it seeks others to infect and corrupt. It must have learned of you six from seeing you in her dream." She had to explain.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa..." Spike says, raising the both of his small baby dragon claws. "So what you're saying is... you dreamt about all of them, and not me?" He puts on a puppy-dog like face with a bit of a whimper.

"So Smokey gave us bad dreams, no biggie." Rainbow comments, sounding like it would be something to pass over. Due to how serious the princess of the night can be, and knowing her; I stuck with how this could be bad and had to listen more.

"I saw that the Tantabus had grown more powerful, but I did not realize that power was enough to enable it to escape my dreams," Princess Luna says, her ears lowering a bit and even her voice drops a bit sounding like something was wrong. "If its power grows, it could very well find a way to escape into the real world." She pauses for a moment, but I knew those words of fear she spewed out when she spoke once again. "It could turn all of Equestria into a living nightmare!"

Rainbow's face went pale and all went fearful for all of us. "Okay okay okay," She says sounding a bit panicked there. "I take it back! That does sound bad! Really bad!"

"Do not fear though Rainbow, Princess Luna I believe has a plan." Nightmare Moon says to her, getting her to keep calm a little bit.

"Yes, there is a way that both I and Nightmare can capture the Tantabus and place it back where it belongs in the possession of either myself or her." Princess Luna says.

"What kind of preparations do you need, Luna?" I asked her, sounding ready and willing to help out in not having my friends be haunted by the Tantabus or whatever it could really be. The question I ask myself now: where did the Tantabus even come from?

"I need about seven beds, and we'll be doing it tonight sharp in the moonlight. We could use a little bit of your assistance in helping to catch the Tantabus." Princess Luna claims, knowing what had to be done.

Princess Luna is right. Now is the time to act, and I knew too well for her that it probably won't be easy for let alone her or Nightmare to find the Tantabus immediately in the dreams of the six friends. Whether I am involved or not in their dreams is something we will see about.

---

The night came into motion after those few hours and we were at Twilight's castle. The room all of us were in seemed to be ready, like there would be a sleepover party for all of us. Spike also set up his little bed to make it look like there was seven in the room for all of us. Both Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon were there in the center of the circular room, ready for us to head to sleep.

"We've prepared everything exactly as you requested." Twilight says to Princess Luna, eager to see if this Tantabus gets caught in no time.

"Good," Nightmare Moon says, not smiling at all, as her face's expression was more serious than usual. It's strange because when Nightmare sees me in her presence or joins me, she is more happier than usual. "As you six slumber here, we shall pursue the creature into whichever of your dreams it infests."

"Ooh! It'll be like a princess sleepover!" Pinkie comments out loud. She starts to slip into the bed provided in the room. Considering that Twilight has the double bed, I might as well slip into bed next to her to keep her comfortable if she should waken from the nightmare being influenced by the cloud.

Twilight slips into her bed, smiling for a brief moment when I was joining her. "Speaking of princesses, aren't you gonna ask Celestia for her help as well?"

"There is nothing my sister can do," Princess Luna says, lowering her head in thought for a moment to prepare her sleeping spell on them, and probably myself too, which I didn't encounter the Tantabus in my dreams... or at least not yet. "She has no power in the realm of sleep. Only I can move from dream to dream... with the exception of Nightmare Moon, I am afraid nopony can help me tonight."

"Even us?" Applejack asks.

"Especially you," Nightmare continues where Princess Luna had started. "You all have suffered so much because of us, and the irresponsibility of not checking on its power. You only need slumber while we hunt the Tantabus in your dreams."

Spike crawls into his little bed, covering the majority of his dragon body with the blanket. "I know you said nopony can help, but I'm no pony! I'm gonna stay up and watch over you guys just in case!"

Twilight felt relieved that her assistant would be there to help just in case. "Aw, thank you Spike," She turns to look at me. "Well, Spike's not the only one to look over us."

Nightmare Moon trots from the center of the room over to my bedside. "My dear friend, are you sure that you will be alright in your sleep? The Tantabus hasn't been in your dreams by the look of how well you slept, but I fear that the Tantabus might have found out your appearance in any of your friend's dreams if they weren't careful."

I slip my hand out from under the bed sheet, using it to take her right front hoof. "I am pretty sure that my dream will not turn out bad in the end. No way can the dark influence of the Tantabus try to latch onto me like an illness." I told her, the tone of my voice tuned to sounding gentle.

She still held a little bit of worry on her face, and she channels magic to her black horn. "Rest then Brayden... I will be with you in your dream should something go wrong."

Her spell being cast over me, made me feel a little bit tired from having been awake all this time. Her magic aura fades from the horn and she stops casting the spell, and already knowing I am getting this tired.

I turn over to look at Applejack in her bed, having let out another yawn. "One good thing 'bout not sleepin' well last night - shouldn't be too hard to fall asleep now." She tells us.

"Are you kidding?!" Pinkie Pie says, still sounding very excited like this was just like another sleepover with the girls on any other day. "This is so exciting, I don't know how I'm ever going to-" She would have continued, but she immediately like that, drops right to sleep with her head on the white pillow and snoring loudly, but not loud enough to annoy any of us.

Princess Luna channels magic to her horn as well, giving an influence of sleep onto all of my other friends. Twilight places her head next to mine while we lie in bed. Everypony else had closed their eyes, going right into sleep immediately. It only takes me a bit of time, but I manage to close my eyes, getting ready to rest as well.

The last thing I can really hear before the dreaming starts is the tone of her magic, then fading into silence.

---

Waves crashed softly onto the shore, my eyes open up to look at the orange colored sky above me. My arms... I can feel them lying in the sands of grain behind where I lay. Besides the crashing of the waves, there is the distant sound of seagulls, which is strange because I never saw any in my dreams, and not a single one was catching my eye.

I get up a bit, still lying down and taking a look around the environment. I find myself on a beach with those rocks of brown by the ends of it, and the other side being nothing but sand and green grass where the last of the grains would meet before open land with those apple trees and berry bushes spread all over. I seem to be the only one occupied in this dream all by myself, with the lonesome feeling to come across by the look of it.

The waves would gently crash and roll for a bit on the shore before descending back into the infinite ocean once again repeatedly many times. This felt a little more different as it wasn't night time here in my dream, but more of a sunset in the distance. But again, even when I felt alone in this one, it was nice to kick back and relax to watch the waves.

I haven't encountered my friend in this dream yet, so I can assume she's probably helping out with the others in regards to that... smoke-monster. I better not mention or think about it here in my dream, I am pretty sure that it could spread onto my own dream should I even mention its name.

A few dolphin tops surface out from under the water, breathing out and in some oxygen for them. Not even a single one of them even jumps out of the water, just rising out to breathe only. I can remember a bit now... dolphins were one of my favorite sea mammals from the planet Earth as a kid...

I rose up from the sand onto my two feet. Surprisingly, I feel no burden on any part of my body, and they feel relaxed without any stress to remain. The sands felt like the room temperature from where I was resting and were gradually warm themselves. The air blows onto my dry, yet gentle skin to make me feel more comfortable.

No feelings that I can't contain inside... it was just a beautiful sight beyond words to speak. It's the miracle of dreams themselves.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" I can hear that familiar voice behind me. Even hearing that voice made everything more welcoming about this calm environment. I turn around to see that mare in black standing there, smiling right before me.

I was speechless for those few moments. "Y-Yes... it is." I finally manage to get out, my brown eyes gazing right at the cyan cat eyes of this alicorn.

Nightmare trotted forward slowly towards me while I remain standing there. I can hear calm piano music playing softly in the ambient background accompanied with the plucking strings of a harp, not distracting me or turning my eyes away from the sight of her. She approached me, not letting that smile go away. She moves her head, her right front hoof lifting slowly a bit, moving and spreading some more sand onto the side with a gentle push.

My right hand lifts up, taking her right front hoof and gently holding onto it while my fingers give little strokes on the fur coat. No armor accompanies her like usual from when I first saw her without that armor was back in the Crystal Empire, but here by that flowing mane of hers... she was absolutely stunning and no doubt, her beauty shone before me.

"Brayden... I..." She sounded a little shy when she first spoke to me. "This is one of those dream environments that really catch onto me the most... if- if I invaded the privacy of your dreams I'm sorry."

The tone of my voice sounded gentle still when I spoke to her. "Don't worry, if this is one of those you want to visit with me I'm happy to see you either way in dream realm or reality. But this sight I see before you... I can't speak it."

"It's the one side of me that I always kept hidden away when I was in that dark part of my life, I wanted others to see that part... but all of it backfired. Everypony only saw me as a monster... a tyrant... nopony showed any love to me."

I shook my head, feeling emotions cross into me. "I have never seen you as the monster, only misunderstood among others..." I said to her, sounding like it was almost a whisper.

She sniffs only for a moment, as if she is trying her absolute best to hold back the tears hidden behind her eyes. "For that, I appreciate that you're on my side... you... your friends... Celestia... even Luna..."

"Everypony here by your side love you..." I move my other hand over around her neck, gently wrapping my arm around. I let go of her hoof, using that right hand to put my other arm around her neck. A smile crosses onto my face. "You are the reason why I now appreciate the pony race, and why I got into the show in the first place. You were the first one that I knew about besides seeing the characters in pictures."

Nightmare couldn't even drop the smile on her face. In those eyes, the visible sight of tears were streaming onto the bottom of her eyes, like at any moment they would start crawling down from there onto her cheek and downward from there.

"I was in the same situation you have been in before." I admit to her, moving myself a little closer towards her.

A sigh emerges from her mouth, audibly heard by me. "I know..." She whispered right back to me, sounding a little more comfortable.

I knew that those feelings inside her of the past was still tormenting her to this day, and I knew all too well that this moment between both me and her could help her out in the healing process that had been going on for a while to say the least. While I know she could be holding something back, I knew the best thing to do right now for her to help her feel better inside.

I approach the closest that I can to her, gently putting one hand onto the back of her head gently. My head moves closer towards her, but sways a bit to the side. My left cheek is almost brushing against her left cheek kind of like a nuzzle. Then my lips are gently planted onto her cheek, giving a small kiss. I release the kiss from her cheek and move my head to look back at her.

I thought I could see her cheeks unveiling in the color of pink blush. I guess that is just my imagination, but she is smiling at me, and she's never felt this happier before. Her hoof I have been rubbed on the front of her other hoof, seeming to look nervous at the same time as well. I think she wanted to tell me something, but didn't know what to say.

"Something on your mind Nightmare?" I asked.

"It's... it-" She is trying to get it out, but she takes in a bit of a breath and finally begins to speak right there. "It's something that I have always wanted to tell you."

"I'm listening." I had to respond, putting a bright, eager smile on my face.

Nightmare thinks about it for a few more moments. "What's on my mind is... is that... I have a-"

I let out a bit of a shout when I felt a bit of sharp pain coming onto my leg. Nightmare's face is no longer calm and poses worry onto her. When I turn to look down at the cause of my pain, it was only then when I finally saw those numberous claws reaching out to grab and bite at me.

Crabs. Except these ones weren't friendly as they seemed. Those eyes staring right back at me... they were more in the dark, twisted kind of colors and that is when I could tell that something was wrong.

I cannot seem to stand up and fall onto the sand while Nightmare is doing her best to get the crabs off of me, but some were start targeting her as well trying to stop her from defending me. I form my right hand into a fist, slamming the top of a crab pinching close to the bridge of my body and right arm. It doesn't break open to pieces, but more rather shows a part of a darkening smoke.

The Tantabus... and it's in my dreams...

"Don't worry Brayden, I'll get it!" Nightmare Moon calls out to me, while I squirmed to crush as many crabs as I could that were beginning now to carry me into who knows where, but I can assume its the ocean. However, it's not really of any use at all no matter how many crabs I've crushed by both hands or elbows. One is crushed, the Tantabus there is just waiting to create two more to take that crab's place.

I can hear a bit of a magic flash, and I look up distracting myself momentarily from the crabs below, pinching and carrying me off from the sandy floor. It's Princess Luna, rushing in to seek out the Tantabus which seems to have connected into this dream from another who thought of me during that time. She is in flight, her wings flapping forward to help out while

One crab is launched towards the Princess of the Night. Her horn channels a beam of magic to hit the oncoming crab, exposing a part of its cloud form which reminds me of Nightmare Moon whenever she does that. I can feel myself drop onto the floor of sand, but I am quick to get up while every other bit of the smoke gathers together.

The Tantabus looked powerful, and dangerous to be set out should it enter the waking world. Princess Luna takes a shot to fire at it, but when it made a direct hit, it was only able to create a hole through the smoke creature, which forms back together without any trouble at all. Nightmare channels magic to her horn, taking another shot at it.

"Go on! Capture that cloud of smoke!" I cheered them on.

Princess Luna takes another shot at firing another beam at the Tantabus, locking spells with Nightmare Moon to create chains to keep the creature still by each wrapping around to form the iron and magic bolts to keep it stable and unable to move. None of us even notice what else the Tantabus has up its 'cloudy' sleeves.

My eyes focused on the cloud, there is a bit of rippling on the skin of the Tantabus while a bit of an aquatic sound following after that is heard. Then it starts to stretch itself from out of the chain's open holes that haven't been secured too carefully. It became free once again, but it was the fear that came to any of us that it couldn't be controlled. A hole opens up, revealing the dream realm itself from out of the dreamer's door. It seeps right through the hole, making its leave.

"No!" Princess Luna shouts, opening a bigger hole and flying forward through to close the door into the dreaming realm behind her.

By the sound of the rippling that the cloud created, it must have done something for the waves crashing onto the beach, because all I can really hear now is just dead silence. From there, just nothing.

Well that is when I turn around...

Out there on the water having shrunken down, is a gigantic wall of water starting to crawl its way towards us. By the height of this wave, it must have been right up to the clouds, nearly headed into space. By the look of its speed, I'm guess I would have a few seconds to react before it come crashing down on me.

I can feel a magic aura around me. It takes me off of the sands and onto the back of Nightmare Moon. Her wings flap and she begins her flight upward to the skies, trying to have the both of us avoid the waves from consuming either of us. They began to grow closer and seemed to look more bigger than when I first saw it. There is the sound of what seems like wind, but it's only the giant wave.

We were only able to hit the peak of the top clouds, when the top of the wave ends up hitting Nightmare's right back hoof rather violently as I had predicted for the waves the Tantabus created. When the waves come crashing down, there was the whirlpool sucking in the clouds or anything that happened to be flying aerial.

Nightmare seems to be unaffected by the power of the whirlpool sucking in everything on the outside, but for me, it's hard to control. The more I held onto Nightmare Moon, the stronger its pull. So eventually after having held onto her for as long as I could, I started to slip and fall off from Nightmare Moon's back. She wasn't going to let me fall though. She caught me and held onto my left hand tight.

"Don't let go Brayden!" She calls out to me, the look of fear on her face that she might lose me if I let go or the wind grows stronger.

Unfortunately, the whirlpool's grip on me became stronger and I eventually slip from Nightmare's hoof, spinning around to see that I was headed right into the water's hole being poured in with water. I can hear her scream as I find myself plunging right into the verges of the whirlpool.

This is really frightening inside the whirlpool, seeing how I was falling without an end to it. It seems to go on infinitely. Through the water, I can see various fish swirling in random directions, trying their best to maintain themselves in swimming with their herds, but getting mixed with other schools of fish. The hole I came through grew pitch black and it felt like I'm crawling into darkness.

But even then, nightmare or not. I know what kind of emergency in regards to these things when I need to wake up.

---

I moved my head up forward and off of the pillow, opening my eyes. Simultaneously, I must have gasped awake with all of the other friends of mine, having had woken from their nightmares as well. Princess Luna and Nightmare were still in the center of the room, having stopped the dream spell to check up on us most likely.

Nightmare opens her eyes. I can see only a bit of tears crawling down her face, and that look on her face that could tell that she thought she lost me in the whirlpool, claimed victim to the Tantabus and its dark antics to consume my energy. I knew too well, because I had panicked and thought of those scared, frightened ways that have stolen my energy to power itself more.

Spike had awoken when all of us had stirred awake. "What happened? Are you guys okay?" He asked, sounding really concerned.

"That... that was terrible!" Fluttershy said to us, sounding very frightened and panicked. "I-I never want to have that nightmare again!"

"Me either!" Rainbow says, giving only a bit of a shiver. "Singing flowers and that creepy flute solo... that was too much for me!"

Spike still looks very questioned. "But both Luna and Nightmare caught it, didn't they?"

"I am sorry my friends..." Princess Luna had announced, catching our attention once again. Her head had lowered and her ears were flopped down into a sad position. Even her eyes along with Nightmare Moon's are tired. "We failed... It will be back to infect your dreams the next time you sleep."

"Oh no!" Fluttershy says, sounding more panicked.

"Yeah... Ah reckon Ah could live without seein' that thing ever again." Applejack says, her eyes still looking tired.

"But you will." Nightmare says, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Again and again, each night, until it grows powerful enough to infect the waking world!"

"After what I did when Nightmare was a part of me, the fact that I am once again responsible for harming others is more than I can bear." Luna finished.

Pinkie wasn't going to let Luna's sadness flow more though. "It'll be okay! Everypony makes mistakes!" She had to assure her, and she does prove a point after all.

"As long as none of you dreamt about another pony, the Tantabus remains confined to your dreams," Luna says, still having a bit of confidence. "We still have a chance to catch it before it's too late."

Pinkie looked relieved. "That's good to hear! Although after you left, I did happen to dream that I was eating a giant ice-cream cone with all of Ponyville while taking a test we hadn't studied for." She doesn't even notice the looks of shock on our faces when she continued, still looking relieved. "See, what'd I tell you? Everypony makes mistakes!"

"Pinkie Pie!" Twilight says, sounding only a little outraged. "What were you thinking?!"

"Sheesh, all I wanted was for everypony in town to join me." Pinkie says, raising one hoof to show her innocence.

"Ummm..." Fluttershy rose her hoof after Pinkie was done and when Twilight had let out an annoyed groan. "I really hate to admit it, but while Brayden had been carrying me to the Boutique later that morning, I might have 'dreamt' him into my dream."

"It does explain why the Tantabus appeared in my dream and tried to absorb energy, which it must have done nevertheless." I said.

"That means the Tantabus could be turning every dream in Ponyville into a nightmare!" Twilight says.

"It is far worse from that," Nightmare said. "Infecting all those dreams gives it more and more power. Soon it will be able to escape into the real world and infect Equestria with its nightmare plague!"

"Then you both must let us help you stop it before that happens!" Rarity says, sounding more worried than ever.

"But how?" Fluttershy has to ask. "The Tantabus was able to escape Luna when it only had six... now seven dreams it could get to!"

"It is true." Princess Luna has to agree. "With so many dreams to hide in, I do not know how we can catch it."

Twilight put a hoof onto her chin, beginning to think right away on a solution that could help them capture the Tantabus. The moments pass while I waited for an answer and she spoke oout in question. "What if everypony in Ponyville were having one dream?"

I can tell that Luna had a look on that face that it seems like a reasonable idea Twilight had come up with. "I... can create shared dreams, yes. But for so many ponies at once? I have never done anything like that. The amount of power it would take..."

"Well it is worth a try, isn't it?" Fluttershy asks again.

"Of course." She responds. "I will do anything to end this, including accept your help. I cannot allow the Tantabus to escape into the real world. Now all of you must go back to sleep and hope that I can create such a dream."

Nightmare trots over to my bedside once again, that face of worry crossing onto her face again. I turn to look back at her while everypony else heads back to sleep. I thought that she was going to tear up again, but she didn't. She was thankful that I woke up from that nightmare on time before the Tantabus had consumed the majority of my energy to convert into power.

"I thought I lost you..." Nightmare said, trying not to even think of releasing tears. Her horn channels magic, gently touching onto my forehead. "I don't want to risk losing you ever again to the dark influence of the Tantabus."

After she had finished casting her spell on me, I wondered what she had done. "What was that?" I needed to ask, sounding a little confused.

She could only place a hoof onto my shoulder. "I cast a spell that could work in the dream realm. I don't want you to be out there fighting the Tantabus with the others when its power might be too great. It'll protect you from its influence, and I'm sorry to say this... you can't join in the fight."

"But Nightmare-"

"It's time for you to close your eyes now." She sounded like she didn't want to do this, but had no other choice. Her horn channels magic and I can feel my eyes slowly coming to a close. "I'll see you again in the dream realm..."

I can only feel myself collapsing back onto the pillow and my head positioned right next to Twilight's when the sounds of Spike snoring faded for a while... then silence.

---

I could sense that this was a change in the environment. When I had opened my eyes, I could see myself on the grounds of Ponyville, lying there on the wooden bench Lyra would be sitting at in the rather human-like position she always sat at. The skies above Ponyville are that of night-time, and of the best time hopefully to find the Tantabus around here.

I lift myself up on the bench ever so slowly, trying my best to gain back some sense. In the oncoming sight, everypony was lying there on the ground starting to stir awake into the dream dimension. Derpy is awake, but she looks much bigger than anypony else. She lets out a bit of a cat meow while those derped eyes of hers stare down with a bit of curiosity at Mayor Mare, who had got up onto her four hooves on the ground. The mayor looks only a little shocked at first.

When I saw both Lyra and Bon Bon, I swear that I must have almost laughed at the sight of them. The both of them had merged together kind of like in a Cat-Dog sort of way, and even then, both of them look happy to see each other and together, but not in 'that' way.

I can hear a gasp, and I immediately knew that it was Twilight's by the the sound of it. "Princess Luna did it!" She cries out in what sounds like it was almost a bit of a cheer in that.

Moving off from the bench, I began making my way towards the girls. On my way, I could hear squawks that sound like birds, but when I turn to the skies to look. Most of them were the figments of Derpy's dreams, flying muffins with wings in the air soaring about. Few ponies point their hooves to the sky right at the airbourne muffins made of most likely banana.

A few other ponies had shown up in the dream from town, like Roseluck or even Twinkleshine when I last saw her in Canterlot weeks before. I can see Time Turner there, waking by the fountain, and the rest of AJ's family coming into the realm. The sound of hooves is heard and I could tell that because of the galloping, it was Applejack herself which means the others must be close.

"Big Mac!" She calls out, after having given off a bit of a shiver by the chill of the realm. "Boy, Ah'm glad to see somethin' familiar!"

"Eeyup." That is the recognizable line that I always like hearing when it comes to meeting up with Applejack and the family at Sweet Apple Acres.

I come forward and join up with Applejack and her brother. They look happy to see that I was in the dream as well among them and everypony else. "Brayden! There ya are!" She says when I made a complete stop, standing before them. "Glad ya arrived, and everypony in Ponyville no doubt!"

"All you'd have to do now is find the Tantabus and then Luna and Nightmare can put a stop to it," I said to her. "It's one of those things where I wish that the Psijic Order was here to seal it away."

"The Psiji-what now?" Applejack sounded curious after the few moments of silence.

I just shake my head with a smile. "Never mind. When you come visit Earth with me and the other girls, I'll make sure to show it to you."

"Brayden! You're here too!" I can hear Twilight shout behind me. I turn around to see her galloping towards me, a happy expression crossed onto her face. I open my arms a bit, and when she approached closer to me within reach, I put my arms around her neck gently. Her hooves move around my back, and the both of us shared a quick hug full of passion. The moments have passed when we let go of one another.

"You're all here, and ready to stop the Tantabus. And we all must do what we can to stop it," I began to speak out among my friends who have now gathered around to listen. My goodness, it's not like I'm going to do an award winning speech, but I continued. "Many of us will try to run away, or claim that we will lose Equestria to the Tantabus when it slips into the reality. But not tonight! This night, the Tantabus is stopped! If you don't stop it, then Equestria becomes a land of nightmare and terror! While Princess Luna is holding the dream together, you must fight and prevent it by all means to keep it from leaving!"

"What about you Brayden?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Will you join us for this fight?"

"I cannot help in this fight," I confessed when turning to my pegasi friend. "Nightmare has cast a protection spell on me to keep the influence of the darkness off of me. As much as I want to fight, she doesn't want me to be lost in the realm of dark sleep forever by most."

The sound of the night princess called out to all of the town. "Ponies!"

Each earth pony, pegasi and unicorn living in Ponyville could see the descent of the night princess from the star-lit skies above, encased in a strong looking shield of magic. All had a look of wonder on their faces when she floats above ground in the bubble shield. Nightmare Moon accompanies her in another bubble descending down from the skies next to her. I approach the both of them, bowing along with all of the others who said the night princess' name in nearly silent acknowledgment.

"There is no time for bowing, my friends!" Luna calls out among us all, sounding only a little desperate. "There is something coming, something terrible!" All of Ponyville's civilians were in silence unsure of what she might have been talking about that brought them all here into this mega-shared dream.

Luna looks up across one of Ponyville's town buildings, giving off almost a look of fear on her face. When I turn my head to look and see, I could see what almost looks like rippling in the sky, but much larger than the rip into the dream realm I've seen when the Tantabus had attacked in my dream. "No... it is already here!"

The Tantabus had begun making its drastic appearance from out of the ripple, slipping right into the dream as there was no other dreams that it could infest. It seems that it has grown a bit in it's size, looking slightly like in the length of a normal school bus back on earth, but clobbed together in what looks like a blob. A low growl is heard, emitting out of the dark creature itself when its invisible eyes lock onto all of Ponyville.

Some ponies began to look frightened when they saw the smoke before them, and were beginning to scream at the sight of this horrid thing, once it had begun terrorizing them afloat in the skies above the town.

"I am so sorry!" Princess Luna shouts out to all of them, but I don't seem to notice that she sounded like she was in a bit of pain. "I brought this upon you! But now I will end it!"

The Tantabus started to create more supernatural-like sounds from within, unveiling more darkness for it to consume more energy from everypony else. The screaming and sheer panic of everypony in town continues to evolve while everypony tries to retreat into their homes but are unable to open their doors to go inside.

I began taking my steps forward, but after a few of them, there is the rippling shield in front of me like when a finger touches water, creating more that went around the shield that seems invisible to me but by the rippling is much seen before my own eyes. I knew too well that it was Nightmare Moon who had created the shield and that her spell was complete as soon as I had locked eyes on the Tantabus now there in the dream.

I can hear Luna once again, in more pain by the sound of it and more sparks emitting from her horn the more she was struggling with the spell. "Princess Luna, what's wrong?" I could hear Twilight asking loudly among the rage of the darkness.

She lets out a bit of a grunt to hold in the spell. "It... is taking all my strength just to hold this massive dream together! You will have to stop it! I truly wish I did not have to ask this of you!

"Then you're in luck." Twilight says, with her other friends joining alongside her.

"Yeah, we're already on it!" Rainbow Dash says with a bit of a bold tone in that voice of hers. She spreads open her cyan wings and takes off into the sky, towards the Tantabus.

The Tantabus was already having planned to align its pieces together to make the big move, so there is another magic power dispensed out into it, firing out onto the grounds and a few homes in Equestria. The dark magic had done worse, and had created various monsters out of the spells by various objects and things in Ponyville, and some even appearing out of the dreams that everypony once had nightmares of.

The Headless Horse' shadow... flying dresses and books with dagger-like teeth flying at all of them. A few of them on ground, the flowers that Rainbow Dash had mentioned, a giant rabid bunny that looked like Angel, and many others. Any others that the Tantabus created were out of the various objects inside everypony's homes and sometimes out of the other buildings in the community like the knives that have begun flying on bat-like wings.

One house infected by the Tantabus had sprung itself out of the ground by force, using two nearby tree trunks as hands to lift itself and support in going after ponies in an attempt to try and eat them by most chance. It sets eyes on the father of young filly and bully Diamond Tiara by the name of Filthy Rich, who just about saw it rising from the dirt ground, and only leaving the wooden floor behind now in pursue.

He gallops only for some time with the house following right behind him on his trail, trying to snatch a bite out of his flank. He is eventually cornered against another building. He looks absolutely petrified with the house now coming up before him and I could only watch from behind the shield with all ears open to him when the house roared in his face.

The roar was enough to make the rich stallion yelp. "Please! I'll pay you anything!" It is all he could really beg for his life to be saved, unaware this was even a dream he was in.

The house roars once again in his face, now eager to descend down upon him, baring sharp wooden spikes of teeth in the door and window archs left open. Then I could see Rainbow Dash charging towards the house with the shout of a "Kiai!", kicking the house and breaking off a piece of it.

The house looks around distracted to try and find whoever broke off its wooden piece. Rainbow makes another cycle around the house not infected by the nightmarish plague in the sky, sweeping Filthy Rich from the ground which left the house curious as to where its prey might have gone.

"I got you!" Rainbow says to him, dropping him off nearby, as far as she could from the living house.

Ponies were still screaming and running away from the nightmare figures chasing after them while there was nothing I could do by the protection spell Nightmare put upon me. I want to turn around and tell her to take off the shield, but I don't want to disappoint her like that.

I can hear the zapping of magic spells against the figures by both Twilight and Rarity. Their horns channel magic to fire many spells at the darkness and even firing some at the Tantabus itself, but to no avail as it would reform back together. That only set off the flames more to create even more nightmare figures to seek them out. One piece of its magic sets out into a garden shop, and out come many gnomes wielding sharp part-cement pickaxes, and each of them had glares on their faces, trying to attack by striking at their hooves.

The magic even went as far to enter a shop for the young fillies and colts. There is a flash of light in there and then the door bursts open. Out of the shop came a bunch of toys baring teeth where their mouths would be, planning to bite when approached. The giant ones... were those of pony animatronics that I've seen at the front of the shop, breaking through the glass and going through.

"Look out! The animatronics I made for the store have come to life!" Pinkie warns us when their heads turn to look at the pink pony before them. One of them from behind pulls out an empty shell of animatronic parts that would crush her from the inside if she was put in. "And now they want to stuff me into a suit!" And of course, a small fly crawls on her forehead without her even knowing it was even there to begin with. "OH MY CELESTIA!"

The animatronics began to chase after her while the plushies and toys infected began chasing after the young fillies and colts in the dream. Still, I am unable to do anything from beyond the shield.

My eyes turn towards Big Macintosh. The flying muffins that have now been infected by the Tantabus, now are starting to surround him one by one, hoping to bite some of that flesh off of him. He looks a little afraid, even though they're not real.

"Big Mac!" I can hear Applejack call out again. He turns to look at his sister, who was busy fighting some of the nightmare toys. "Ya can do anything in a dream, remember?"

Big Macintosh nods to his sister, now holding a confident smile on his face. The vampiric muffins open their mouths with the fangs set out and ready, but the closer they got... a glow of magic starts to surround the stallion himself until it was bright for them. They continue going forward towards him.

The light lifts and a shockwave unleashed onto the swam of muffins, flying backwards and away from Big Macintosh who now held a dream version of himself. He had both wings and a unicorn horn. Well, I should have seen it coming along with the accessories he was wearing. It was not your usual Big Macintosh... it was Princess Big Macintosh!

He flaps those wings of his, taking to the skies of Equestria. "Wheeeeee!" I could hear him with those giggles when he was flying about and firing more magic beams at the vampire muffins.

"Come on!" I can hear Rainbow Dash say once again, joining up with the rest of her friends. She had just finished saving Crescent Moon from a bunch of bees that have grown only a bit in size, now being almost the size of oranges. "If that Tantabus thing turns any more of this dream against us, we'll be too busy saving ponies to catch it! And it'll grow powerful enough to escape into the real world!"

Applejack finishes using her back hooves from bucking a vampire muffin to pieces of darkness, belonging to the Tantabus. "How are we gonna know when it's able to escape?" She had to ask.

Rainbow turns to look at the slow-yet growing cloud above Ponyville. "Oh, I think we'll know." She speeds off once again to help out with the others.

In the skies, I can hear a rip in the dream realm. The Tantabus was slowly ripping a part of the sky open to reveal all white past the crack of it all. I knew it from there by the look if it, that it was reality it would slip into. It was already big enough to slip by when none are paying attention. The smoke began to peek right into the tear, slowly crawling in.

That violet beam of magic hits it by the side though, from Twilight herself. The creature roars and retracts itself from out of the crack, while Twilight uses the same beam to seal up the tear in the attempt that it won't try to use that one again. The Tantabus could only emit another low growl, and it's size grows a bit larger.

I can hear more sparks from Luna's horn, trying her best to contain the dream together. She is straining the best she can. "Hurry my friends!" Nightmare calls out to them.

"Please, We need your help too!" Fluttershy's soft voice called out to all of everypony from town who were too busy trying to panic and run from the nightmare figures.

Twilight fires another bolt of magic from her horn at the book bats. "Fluttershy's right!" Everypony stops when the nightmares aren't chasing them and they listen to the airbourne Princess of Friendship. "We've all got to work together to prevent it from escaping!"

"But how can we help?" Mr. Cake asked, trotting forward. "Nopony in Ponyville has your magic or your speed!"

"That's true... in Ponyville!" Rainbow Dash spoke out, sounding brave and eager.

"But this here ain't Ponyville!" Applejack trots forward. "It's a dream!"

The vampire muffins were flying after the 'princess' Big Macintosh who was firing magic at them. "Eeyup!" He has to agree.

"And not just any!" Twilight continues. "This is your dream! Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now!"

Spike clicks his fingers together. "Well if you're gonna dream..." There is a flash on him, and he evolves into what his vision once was when Rarity was captured by Diamond Dogs as a dragonknight in shining armor. "Might as well dream big right?" He hops right onto Derpy, aiming the big blade-stick of his towards the Tantabus. "Hi-yah!"

Derpy took to the skies with a "Whoo!" charging towards the Tantabus.

No other thoughts come to my mind, but only with the ambition that I should help out with my friends in the fight. I turn to Nightmare, who is surrounded in her shield to keep her protected. I turn the direction to face her, stopping where the ripple meets.

"Nightmare, please drop the shield! My friends need my help!" I said to her. Another tear is made into the dream by the darkness, trying to seep into reality once again.

All the black mare could do is shake her head. "I'm sorry Brayden, I wish I could. There is no other choice for you though in dealing with dream significances like the Tantabus. Such a creature is hard to contain without the knowledge of dealing with its nightmare influences. I can't let you be absorbed into the fright."

"Nightmare, please!" I had to beg. "My friends need me out there! I want to help in the fight!"

"What I have said to you is said Brayden. I don't want you out there being the next one to get infected like before." Nightmare says to me, but her tone had grown a little more sterner towards me, as I was a little ambitious to do it.

"Nightmare Moon, let him help!" Princess Luna says, still trying her best to hold together the dream.

She softly gasps audibly, turning to the Princess of the Night at her statement. "But Princess Luna, you can't be serious about-"

"I said... let him help!" Luna warns her. I knew by that tone that she still was desperate in trying to contain the Tantabus away from Equestria's reality and dreams of anypony for the safety of it all.

Nightmare pauses for those few moments, thinking hard whether to let me go, or to keep the shield around me to keep me protected. Her horn ignites momentarily and I can hear a magic sound that was like the shield had powered down, allowing me free roam in the dream. I turn back to Nightmare Moon once it was gone, nodding to her. She looks really worried but with hidden disappointment at the same time.

I don't turn back even once when I ran forward towards the scene of action. From what I could see, Filthy now has dream powers and is sending out sharp golden bits towards the Tantabus and its nightmare armies. Spike rides on top of the large Derpy and breathes his green flames as well in offense to the cloud. Everypony else is balancing between fighting both the Tantabus and the influences that it had set out.

My focus is not to fight on its armies, but more rather the Tantabus itself. I ignite the imagination inside me, letting the dream version of me start to form inside. I can feel the soft grip in my hand once it has appeared. It's the Song of Order itself. Not the real one, but more solely a dream version of the claymore. The armor isn't ethereal in this dream, but it is more realistic with the armor's color being white with gold linings on it by each piece. The helmet also appears, covering my head with a slit so I can see what is ahead of me.

Powering up the dream version of the Song of Order, I can feel the ethereal wings sprout behind my back and the blade unveils more power with the golden words encrypted on the blade covered up with the rainbow that surrounds the entire blade piece. The pommel, grip and crossguard never changes at least once. I spread open the ethereal wings, taking to the skies and starting to clash at the cloud beast.

I never could tell if the Tantabus turned to see me coming like everypony else that had been clashing at it. Another tear is created by it, beginning to seep through again. My blade strikes right into the dark cloud, retracting it from the hole to distract it for some time while Twilight in flight seals the tear with her magic.

"You're here!" Rainbow Dash says, stopping mid-flight while I clashed at the Tantabus to inflict more harm to it. "What made you convince Nightmare to drop the protection shield on you?"

"I couldn't leave any of you behind to fight it off on your own," I said, throwing another clash at the cloud. "That is why I decided to join you, and after all a Tantabus infected Equestria would never be good."

"Alright, keep throwing all you can at it!" Rainbow says, taking off once again to deal with more of its airbourne armies protecting the Tantabus.

The Tantabus was starting to weaken a bit by each hit that it took to any part of it at any rate whether it's the dream claymore, Spike's flames or anything that was thrown at it, even the diamonds that Rarity throws at it, caused a majority of damage to the dark cloud. Applejack in her Power Pony form uses the rope to tie up the cloud a bit, though it'll most likely be a temporary time to hold it down.

"It's working!" Rainbow could be heard by my ears, sounding really confident that this was going to turn out good in the end.

Twilight could only shout back "But it's not enough!"

"What do you mean it's not enough?" I shout back at Twilight, stopping myself from slashing the cloud for only those few moments.

The Tantabus emits another low growl and then a roar, tossing the magic rope that Applejack was using off of it. It begins to fly its way over to another part in the central part of Ponyville above the square and by coincidence, where both Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon were, trying to hold the dream.

"Then do more!" Pinkie shouts, throwing some cakes at the book bats below. "This is a dream, remember?"

My ethereal wings are still in flight, ramming my blade many more times into the Tantabus, trying to swat the book bats or any other flying nightmare that it had summoned before me or any of my friends. The dark cloud attempts to swipe at me, but it's only able to push me back temporarily when I used the Song of Order to block the attack. I throw my hand forward, firing a blue beam of light to the Tantabus, creating a temporary hole in the cloud, quickly reforming back together.

"Brayden, catch!" I can hear Pipsqueak from the surface below, throwing me a baseball bat from there that I caught with one hand. I use my other hand to sheathe the Song of Order for a temporary moment as I knew what was coming up.

I grip the bat by its handle, watching as Pipsqueak tossed a baseball upward to the skies with the best rate of speed. When it came close enough, I threw my best shot at the baseball, striking it and sending the baseball into the Tantabus itself. All that really came out of it though was a nightmare-like version of the baseball, trying to bite at me. I just use one hand to toss the bat away and sheathe the claymore back into my hands, slicing the nightmare ball in half.

Each piece of the ball disappears into nothing but the dark cloud's part, combining it back with the Tantabus, not affecting it at all in its size. But from each side, everypony was throwing all they got left into keeping it out of reality each time it created a tear in the dream realm.

I could hear Princess Luna yelp out in pain, like the spell was starting to hurt her. It distracts me from even looking at the still Tantabus or its armies attacking the civilians of Ponyville. Se still strains and it's starting to worry me now by the condition she's in. "I cannot hold this dream together much longer!" Then I heard those words I feared that she would say. "Equestria will fall because of me!"

Each nightmare figure froze in their tracks, after having heard those words. Each figure like the animatronics that were after Pinkie, the rabid toys, the flowers with their flute solo, the book bats, the lawn gnomes, the house, any other creature it created... stopped dead. The figures fade into the dark magic essence that was all part of the Tantabus and their spell. Each cloud particle came swirling right into the Tantabus itself.

To my shock, the Tantabus was starting to grow in enormous size to the point where even it was going to overtake the town. I could not even try to fathom at trying to slice at it while watching. Eventually, it roars one again and takes the shape of a large alicorn-sized mare standing before all of us... looking more powerful than ever.

"Am I crazy, or did it just get even bigger after Luna said that?" Spike asks, only watching the Tantabus finish growing.

The Tantabus makes another move, creating a larger tear of white into the dream that it could fit through in order to escape into reality. It began to slowly move forward, as in a trot by the form it took towards the tear of glowing white, while everypony else takes flight in any way they could, even by the ground they were throwing everything they got.

I couldn't find it in myself to go after to try and stop the Tantabus from entering. It was those very words that Luna had said that had caught my attention. I descend down to the ground, sheathing the Song of Order and joining up with my friends who are with both Luna and Nightmare Moon. All of them are shocked, but Twilight seemed to have that answer as to why she would say such a thing.

"I think it's feeding off your guilt Princess Luna!" Twilight says, looking equally as worried about Luna as I was.

Luna strained more to keep the dream spell under control, as it was starting to slip from her grasp. "If that is so, then perhaps that is how it grew strong enough to escape in the first place!"

"Say what now?!" Applejack looked shocked, knowing that was leading to something.

Luna strains a little more to reveal the truth to all of us. "I created the Tantabus to give myself the same nightmare every night!" She pants a bit, getting tired and was starting to loosen from her dream spell. "...to punish myself for the evil I caused as Nightmare Moon!"

"But why would you do that?!" Fluttershy asks.

"To make sure I never forgave myself for how much Equestria suffered because of me!" The words I was hearing from out of Princess Luna, they were words of guilt and hurt. I could feel it in my heart that once this was done, I needed to go and comfort her. "While I had come back to Equestria, the Tantabus was back with Nightmare Moon's remaining fragment when we separated into different forms. When Nightmare was redeemed, I took it from her back into my gain, but look what it has done!" She pants a bit again, and the horn's magic she was channel is starting to fade. Not to mention the tears in her eyes starting to flow. "But it seems I have not learned my lesson, for now I have only made you suffer more!"

Twilight must have figured it all out by now. "But that means you might just be the key to stopping all this!"

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash agreed. "If it gets strong because you feel bad about what you did when Nightmare Moon was a part of you, then you just gotta stop feeling bad for what you did!"

"How can I forgive myself?" Princess Luna shouts, struggling even more to keep the spell aligned. My head turns briefly to the Tantabus, beginning to seep right towards the light into reality. "I am no better now than I was then. My creation is about to turn the world into a living nightmare!"

"But look at what you're doing!" Twilight begins to speak out while Luna continued to struggle. Nightmare's magic was weak to try and maintain the dream together, so there wouldn't be of use for that. "Nightmare Moon when she was still bad, would've wanted the Tantabus to turn Equestria into a nightmare! You're doing everything you can to stop it! Don't you see?" Luna could only leak more tears from her eyes. "That proves you're not the same pony you were then! Everypony who knows you knows that Nightmare's mistakes are in the past! We all trust you Luna!"

"I trust you too." Nightmare speaks out in the roaring wind with the dream starting to collapse slowly on itself.

"You're the one princess who helped save me and brought me into this world," I said to her, gradually touching the shield in the process. "I trust you more than ever alongside everypony in Equestria. Don't let the guilt swallow you up."

After that, there is silence until Twilight spoke up again in question. "Do you trust us enough to believe we're right?"

Princess Luna is still trying her hardest to maintain the collapsing dream and stop the Tantabus. I can hear the Tantabus growl as it is more closer than ever to seeping right into the event horizon of the tear into reality. Luna's tears continue to flow, but a smile crosses onto her face when her eyes look at all of us. Then from there were the words that have made me feel the happiest for one of my favorite ponies.

"...I do!"

The Tantabus stopped right in its tracks when it heard those words from Luna, with the sound of a ding and bit of noises that came out of it before. It turns towards Luna and begins to shrink down in size. The smoke creature, still shaped like a mare revealing its eyeless and mouthless face before it comes forward to the Princess of the Night.

The Tantabus eventually is absorbed back into Luna whom now holds more control over the dream once again, no longer struggling to maintain control over the dream as the shared dream is back to its normal stance. Once it is all gone, I knew from there forward that the Tantabus has been sealed away into Princess Luna, but this time for good as she shouldn't be able to relive the same nightmare again after all this had passed.

Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon discontinue the spells for their bubble shields, placing their hooves onto the grounds of Ponyville's dream version. Each of them look happy while Luna still has the tears flowing from her eyes by that happy smile on her face.

"Thank you... thank you all." She had to say.

Everypony was happy to hear the good news, and some kept their dream powers on for now while the dream would last until morning. For me, Luna was on my mind, and I knew that even after she released the guilt; I had to comfort a dear friend to me just to make sure that she was alright. I deactivate my dream powers and come forward.

"Luna?" Her head poked up slowly and her eyes turn to look at my own. "Is everything alright for you now?"

There were no words from out of Luna, well at least not yet. She threw herself forward towards me, putting the both of her front hooves around my back and her head past beside me. I can tell that she was giving me a comforting hug or at least... wanted to have one herself. I put the both of my arms around her midnight blue neck gently, joining together in this friendly, gentle moment together. I can feel her tears starting to fall down onto my right shoulder.

"Don't worry now Princess Luna, you are forgiven. You are always going to be forgiven no matter what mistake you made now or in the past." I said to her, my voice turned into a calm, gentle whisper.

"I'm so sorry..." She says to me. "I never meant to create it... I was a fool for doing that..."

"You're not a fool Luna..." I said to her, gently moving my hand to give her back a calm, comforting rub. "You're one of those who helped save my life... for it, I am always grateful for your help. Don't let the thought burden you. I may have thoughts that burden me all the time, but I don't let it get in the way how I live."

Luna lets out only the last of her tears, but calms down eventually the longer I have hugged her. After those few moments, we released each other from the hug. I place my right hand onto her left shoulder. "You are forgiven by everypony in Equestria for your mistakes. There is always going to be forgiveness no matter what you did."

"Thank you Brayden..." Luna managed to get out, pulling another smile on her face. "I guess... I guess I only need to live more on the peaceful side of life."

"You should." I recommended that to her. "If you and Nightmare are ever in Ponyville, I'm sure Aloe and Lotus at the spa will be happy to help you out when you're feeling down or stress is on your mind. If they aren't there that day, I will always have the door open to see you and talk to one another."

Luna just smiles at me, and eventually I take my hand off of her shoulder. Nightmare trots forward to join the both of us. "Oh, there you are Nightmare Moon. Is everything alright for you?"

Her head lowered with disappointment for a moment, with her ears flopping sadly. "You risked yourself out there to prevent the Tantabus from entering the waking world," She says sadly at first. Then a smile grew up onto her mouth and her ears rose again. "And you assisted to help many stop it, but it was really Luna who was the answer to stopping it. You helped her stop it."

"I know," I said to her, aware of the accomplishment. "But I help everypony as much as I can in any way."

"You were also very brave to do it. I was wrong to think you wouldn't last in the dream world's attack from the Tantabus. I never shall doubt it again."

"Oh by the way... in the last dream before the Tantabus attack..." I said, finally with a thought coming to mind. "You wanted to tell me something. What was it?"

Nightmare paused for a moment, though it looked like she was hiding something inside. Her face puts on a more happier look on her face, only saying "Oh, I must have forgotten. Never mind."

If she had forgotten, then I guess it doesn't really matter unless she decides to tell me what it is which I know she can't really hold in forever. Best to spend the rest of my time with her and Luna while I can before it's wakening time.

---

The rooster crows loudly, almost like an alarm but more in the farm side of life. It's enough for me to start stirring awake along with the other girls in their beds. I lift my upper body from the bed sheet and my head off of the pillow.

Twilight of course, springs her head up out of bed with the happiest gasp I've ever heard out of her. "Luna did it!" She said, even though we already knew that.

Rainbow Dash stirred awake, giving a bit of a yawn with a stretch out of her. Everypony else starts to make the stretch out of their beds, ready for the new day that awaited them. They no longer looked like they were tired with bags under their eyes.

"She sure did!" Applejack said, looking bright and eager, standing on her four hooves once out of her bed she slept in for the night, but only sounded a little confused after. "Only... Ah'm not exactly sure what she did."

"Luna created the Tantabus to punish herself!" Twilight began to explain to us. "The worst she felt, the more power it had! But once she finally forgave herself for what she did when Nightmare Moon was a part of her..."

Spike decided to finish what Twilight was explained by a shout "Poof!" But it was almost too loud from there.

"Shh!" Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth, and uses another hoof to point at the sight of what would soon be witnessing when they look at the floor. I slip myself out of bed, taking a look at the 'kinda' cute sight right there.

Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon had fallen asleep from the exhaustion of last night, and both of them had a smile on each of their mouths. Quite a sight, though I didn't really have anything to say about it. It does explain why Fluttershy shushed Spike there to be a little more quiet. We don't want to wake up the both of them after all.

"Huh," Spike said, sounding curious after that. "Wonder what they're dreaming about now."

Twilight got out of bed. "Come on, we'll go and make some breakfast while they sleep." She says to all of us, trotting past to make sure she doesn't trip over them. "They'll wake up when they're ready."

I join up alongside Twilight, placing my hand gently onto her soft mane. She turns to look at me, a beautiful smile on her mouth when she looked at me. She looked proud of me while at the same time, I am proud of her as well for being one to help Princess Luna last night.

On our way out the door, I stop and let my hand off of Twilight's mane, letting the girls and Spike out of the spiral room and looking back into it for the last time, seeing both of them asleep without a sound. "See you when you get up, both of you." I thought to myself, letting a smile come across my face.

"Brayden." I can hear Twilight behind with the rest of her friends going forward. "You coming?"

I quietly close the door shut. "I'm coming Twi!" I go off to join alongside my special somepony and the rest of her friends for a more better day without the burden of bad dreams upon us thanks to Luna. A smile was always upon my face the whole time.

I wonder what's cooking for breakfast. I would definitely get some nuts and fruit, alongside with strawberries. Love that stuff.

---

Earth

10:34pm

The closet door began to open up, bringing light from the ceiling lamp into the darkness. The girl with red hair, was pushing open the closet door, looking on ahead with a look of arrogance on her face, and those hazel green eyes shining in the reflection of the mirror.

Before her, sitting on the hook inside of the closet with an amulet. This amulet was gold and by the carving engraved in the platinum color, were that of the dragon language, including a clean cut of fire ruby on it, a rare kind of jewel on Earth nowadays no longer found. Her right hand reaches forward, taking the amulet off of the hook and holding it in her hand.

"My ancestors... you bestowed this upon me when you were banished from that Equestria a millennium. Even after it passed, you never could find that portal back. As soon as the episodes aired though with that 'friend' that used to be my own... I might have figured where the magic anomalities are coming from."

The girl turns around, revealing herself to be Rebecca, who had been Brayden's friend before. But even then, she now had a new plan coming to her of the ancestor ways as soon as she found out her friend was in the show by strange coincidence. Visiting a knowledgable friend, she theorized there would be a magic anomaly emitting from one part of the world that caused this.

It hasn't happened, not twice... but three times now that Brayden appeared in the show! So it seems like this is a coincidence that such an anomaly will happen during that time.

"Well then, the anomaly tracking thanks to my one friend Justin is enough to know that the portal could be somewhere in the mountains of Switzerland, buried in the snow." Rebecca says to herself, slipping on the amulet, which began to glow a bit of red.

She grabs the pendant, fiddling with the ruby for a moment with her right hand's index finger. A smile creeps onto her face and she begins to make her way out of the room, and most likely out of her own home.

"If that bitch Andrea won't help me out with this, it looks like I will have to deal with it all by myself. So I guess it's time to buy a one-way ticket to Europe..."