Matt and Natalie both sat up abruptly, their eyes snapping wide open as the artificial shimmers faded from their forms and sweat dotted their brows. They heard a pony clear his throat and turned to the guard that was stationed in the room with them. "Are you… erm, well?" he asked.

"Wish I was," Natalie answered without hesitation. She rose a hoof and wiped her forehead with it as she added, "But it was just a nightmare—I'll live."

"We've been having nightmares for a while, though," Matt murmured, worry tinging his tone. He gave the guard a level look and asked, "You have any ideas how to make them less frequent?"

"Aside from talking about them, no," the guard replied with a shake of his head. He donned a frown as he continued, "And… with the way you two spoke of sin in your sleep, I have a feeling I don't want to know."

Matt and Natalie shared glances, then turned back to the guard. "We'd… have a hard time telling you about our nightmares anyway," Natalie sighed, ears flattening against her head. A few seconds of silence passed, and the three could've sworn they heard someone beating their hoof on the hall outside the room.

The guard cleared his throat and awkwardly mumbled, "I'll take that as 'I don't want to know.'" When he got two nods in response, he let his brow slant slightly and shrugged his shoulders. "Just go back to sleep. You need your rest." The two unicorns in bed just exchanged looks again, going wide-eyed for a moment at the rather bizarre suggestion. Then they obeyed, flopping back down on their pillows with their manes fanned out from under their heads like the wings of pegasi.

The guard watched as two sets of blue eyes closed, and waited for a few minutes until he was certain that Matt and Natalie had fallen asleep. He knelt forward, head bowed low and front legs bent, and he murmured a small prayer just soft enough he couldn't wake the two up. "O Princess Luna, shine your moon's light on these foreign souls. Shine on them with thine radiance, and dispel whatever demons plague them so they rest with trouble no more."

He jolted upon hearing rustling, and stood straight for a minute before relaxing slightly. He noticed Matt turning in the bed, mumbling about waffles. The mattress creaked slightly as he moved, like a swinging door that wasn't closed properly. The room fell silent, save for soft murmurings that came from two ponies who had conked out.

As he turned to the door, he did not notice the moon was setting outside, its light dancing across the room through the window. Nor did the guard notice a faint teal glow embracing Matt and Natalie's forms, accompanied by tiny and silent sparks reminiscent of faraway stars.

To him, it was another night spent playing watchman without rest. To the sleeping ponies he was guarding, it was an entirely different matter as soon as they entered the realm of dreams. Matt trotted along a chilly corridor of stone, his horn glowing softly, Heaven's Gate drawn and at the ready. He moved slowly, eying stalactites and stalagmites that jutted out seemingly at random. Only his hooves and the occasional drip of water filled the mostly-empty hall, echoing ceaselessly into a black void that was both ahead of and behind him.

He walked on, slowly and delicately, as if afraid he'd trip and find himself in a situation he wasn't ready to deal with. His eyes strained to make out the path ahead; his horn could only provide so much light, and that was not accounting for him also juggling his sword simultaneously. The air turned thick and humid, and Matt stopped as soon as he felt a small drop of warm water land on the bridge of his muzzle.

His brow rose, and he plunged the tip of his weapon into the ground. It went in only an inch or so, and he turned to inspect his handiwork. "It'll have to do," Matt mumbled, positioning himself behind the hilt of his blade. He rose his front hooves and channelled more mana into his horn, feeling a bit of exhaustion settling in as cracks formed along the floor and darted up what he could see of the walls.

Heaven's Gate responded, this time taking on an icy cold blue hue that had heavy clouds of chilled air surrounding it. A faint thread of deep blue mana weaved its way around the blade, going down into the cracks that were forming, filling them up in every single nook. The air became colder, and Matt watched as water formed around the cracks before spontaneously freezing solid, turning into little ice crystals that glowed with power.

The temperature continued to drop, and ice crystals kept forming until Matt pulled away from his weapon. He made it vanish in a golden light, and sighed as his horn felt red-hot. The light he provided also vanished, save that provided by the small spikes of frozen water he willed to grow. The now-cold air gave him some relief from the pain that had settled in, just barely making his encroaching headache bearable. Matt rose to stand, eyes following the crystals and where they were placed.

The crystals were spaced far enough apart that there were still patches of sable between them, but not so far away that he'd have to trot a few paces just to discern the placement of the subsequent ones. Matt donned a smile, and started trotting ahead again, glancing at his ice patches and making sure he didn't accidentally step on any of them along the way.

He found the end of the corridor in a few minutes, quirking a brow at a wooden door that stood out thanks to glowing ice formations surrounding it. "The hell?" he asked, cantering over to it with a hoof extending out to grasp at the doorknob.

Before he could touch it, the obstacle swung open on its own accord, and next thing he knew a form with a glowing horn bumbled into him and caused him to fall over backwards. He and the other entity screamed in surprise, and his eyes met with surprised blue ones on a cream-colored face. "Natz?" Matt asked as the door swung closed behind the pony that had tackled and laid on top of him.

"Matt?" Natalie asked, her eyes widening substantially. For a moment the two stayed there, staring at each other in disbelieving silence. Then she scrambled off of him and grabbed one of his front hooves, helping him haul himself up onto his legs. "I-I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed, her response punctuated by something slamming into the door with enough force to make it splinter and crack. The two jumped and backed away from the door, with the mare turning around and backpedaling far enough to keep up with her companion.

A hollow voice rang out from behind the door, "You can't hide forever! You can't just run from your sins, Starcovert!" Then, silence fell as the door transformed into a slab of impenetrable stone, alongside the glowing ice that had marked it. The two ponies shared a glance, but chose to turn around and head deeper into the corridor without commenting on the absurdity of the door suddenly becoming something it wasn't supposed to be.

They walked in silence, with Matt taking point. They followed the ice crystals for a few minutes, stopping when the path ended where they'd first been formed. Natalie made to speak, but all that left her mouth was a hum as she glanced around. Then, her horn ceased glowing, and she flinched before relaxing as a fuzzy hoof wrapped around her barrel in wordless reassurance. Matt broke the embrace and began leading the way again, stopping when he felt teeth clutching some hairs of his tail, but shrugged that off and kept going with Natalie falling in step behind him.

The two went on without uttering one word, feeling their way around in the sable, front hooves outstretched slightly as they touched every nook of the floor and some parts of the walls, almost like blind ponies' canes. No matter how much they strained their eyes, no matter how much miniscule light their pupils could absorb, neither could see jack shit. Both ponies constantly let off annoyed groans as they continued ambling about their surroundings, hooves tapping blindly in the inky darkness.

At least, until Matt stepped on something that had a slimy texture to it after an indeterminate expanse of time had passed. Before he could make another peep, the substance began glowing brightly, revealing itself to be some wad of illuminating goo. Both he and Natalie stared at the seemingly-self-activating substance with dumbfounded looks painting their faces. Matt pulled his hoof away from the slime, noticing that it didn't try to cling to it nor the hairs draping it, and at this his brow furrowed. "Alrighty then," he murmured, backing away from it and watching it carefully.

The goo did nothing, except glow and faintly wobble. "What is that stuff?" Natalie asked, frowning. "It looks like something Armin would make…"

"Dunno," Matt replied, shaking his head. His ears perked when he heard another hoof squelching in slime, and whipped his head to the right to find that another wad just a few paces away had started spontaneously glowing. Standing next to it was a darkened form, the end of one of its limbs caught in the gel, and it had glowing eyes that were zeroed in on both Matt and Natalie.

Before it could speak, though, the goo expanded in size and enveloped its body so fast it could not even let out one syllable of surprise. The two ponies watched, their dumbfounded looks morphing to looks of horror as the slime devoured the shadowy creature and dissolved it like a vat of acid before it shrunk to a simple wad that managed to burp.

Matt and Natalie exchanged looks, then turned back to the gel that had just eaten a creature for breakfast. They gulped and slowly moved on, this time being careful to avoid stepping in as much slime as they could manage. More things with glowing eyes started jumping out at them from every angle after a few minutes that they spent trotting, but each and every single one made the fatal error of stepping in slime that made short work of eating them.

Eventually, they came across another door, its form illuminated by glowing slime. "You first," Matt said, frowning.

"I'm not risking becoming goo gumbo," Natalie replied, shaking her head furiously. She wrapped a leg around Matt's neck and added, "And I won't let you do the same, either."

Matt sighed and turned around to look at the path behind him to make sure nothing else would jump out and possibly attack, half-dragging Natalie along with him, only to stop still and gape. There was a door behind them, only visible because of the slime's light. He turned around again, and found the same thing, and at this he began feeling a little light-headed.

"Okay, what the fuck?" he growled, his brow furrowing as the world began tilting just slightly to the left. Natalie broke her hold on his neck and trotted up to the first door—or second, she felt she wasn't certain anymore—and opened it with a hoof before trotting into whatever was beyond.

"Matt, you gotta see this!" Natalie cried, and hesitantly Matt trailed after her. He stopped next to her side, and his eyes widened.

Both he and Natalie found themselves in some bizarre mix between an entirely lifeless wood, and a cavern interspersed with glowing wads of sickly green, translucent goo. The trees formed a thick wall, reinforced by black stone and gelatinous bundles that gave off light, and the wall circled all around them. The floor was, oddly enough, made of marble instead of stone.

They looked around, finding themselves trapped like lab rats, with the only way out being through that damned door they came in from. Natalie trotted up to, then along the wall, using one hoof to check for cracks and the like. She used the other three to move on, leaning on the odd structure for support from time to time. After she'd inspected half the wall, Matt asked, "Anything?"

"Not yet," Natalie replied, stopping for a moment to glance up. A rocky overhang blocked whatever sky there was from view, and any tree branches that reached high enough to touch it strangely acted like roots, pushing up into the stone ceiling in a furious web of wood. She also took note that some branches started elongating spontaneously, trying to go up like sickly, malformed claws. Deciding that she dallied for long enough, she started trotting along the wall again, this time in more of a three-legged hobble than a proper jog.

Matt watched his companion closely, slowly spinning just to constantly keep her in his sights. He noticed that stone and wood morphed, almost immediately, after Natalie tottered past it. The stallion then stopped and turned directly opposite of where Natalie was going, finding that the two components of the wall became a great big heap of goo that produced so much light he had to shield his eyes with a hoof. "The fuck?" he murmured, watching as the goo then started shrinking, changing from a very bright green to a moderate teal as it compacted.

Natalie halted as well, also taking note of the phenomenon. She parted from the remnants of the wall she hadn't touched and galloped over to Matt. She made to rush past him before she found herself skidding to a halt when he trust the hoof that he shielded his eyes with in front of the barrel of her chest. The mare turned to him and asked with a furrowing brow, "What's the big idea?"

"I don't know what that stuff is doing, or if it'll eat us next. I think we should still stay away from it," Matt replied, using the same hoof to gesture to the color-changing, glowing gel. He watched as the now-teal mass continued to shrink, his brow furrowing as it began sizzling and popping like bacon in a cast iron skillet. The goo wobbled and formed bubbles, transitioning from teal to red, now looking more akin to tranquil magma than anything.

Then the two heard a stallion screaming, and before they could look around to discern where the sound was coming from, a loud crash that rang in their ears echoed into the space. This was followed by a form and some loose debris crashing on top of Natalie. She and the new arrival sprawled out in a heap, the impact causing Matt to jump back with a startled cry of his own. He eyed the new arrival, his pupils dilating as he stared at the tell-tale copper feathers soldered onto steel limbs. "Lance?" he asked disbelievingly.

Lance rose a hoof and let it drop with a groan to signal that he heard Matt. He rolled off of Natalie, who gave nothing more than an indignant grunt of pain. "You two okay?" Matt asked, getting little more than a dual sluggish shaking of heads.

It took a moment for the pegasus to register whose inquiry he'd just answered, and almost immediately he scrambled onto his hooves and looked around before his red eyes fell onto the half-Clydesdale. "How the—" Lance started, eyes widening. Matt rose a hoof and shrugged, and this caused his superior to close his mouth before another word could roll off his tongue.

Natalie hauled herself up, her legs wobbly from being knocked down so suddenly. She turned to Lance and asked, "How'd you get here?"

"I was… on a rock surrounded by lava," Lance started, turning look at the gel that bubbled. "And I was trying to get away from it, but being stranded… well, I couldn't get away. Next thing I know, a door appeared in the floor. So I jumped through it, and then I'm hurtling down through the sky, and crash through stone…"

Natalie looked up, finding that there was goo bubbling on what was once a rock-and-branch roof with a Lance-shaped hole letting in some silver light from beyond. "You fell through that?" she asked, raising a hoof to point at it.

Lance followed her hoof and nodded. "That slime wasn't there before, but yes I did fall through that… and while we're on the subject, how's the goo not dripping down on us as we speak?" he replied, a frown creasing his brow.

"Might as well ask us why we're surrounded on all sides by…" Matt paused, turning his head every which-way to find himself staring at goo that was almost entirely around them at this point. "Whatever the fuck this stuff is," he finished as he turned to the blasted door that the mysterious substance hadn't yet touched. He rose a brow at the one fragment of wall that remained devoid of bubbling semi-solidified slime, and his ears twitched as a set of galloping hooves echoed into the space.

A chilly breeze wafted around the place, briefly caressing the three as the noise became louder, as if its source was getting closer. The zephyr lifted Natalie and Lance's tails, but Matt's was so thick only a few strands broke free and danced in the scant few seconds that the wind had touched them. The gale stopped when a cry of "Get away!" rang out, though the noises of hooves hitting a hard surface still lingered.

Next thing any of them knew, a tan-beige form bumbled in, tripped, and then landed with her face meeting the floor. Her ass stayed in the air for a bit, before she awkwardly pushed herself off the marble and rose to stand on shaky back legs. The door slammed shut behind her before it vanished and left a hole in the wall, causing her to jump and fall again, though she got back up as hastily as she ran into the room.

"Anna? You look like you just got done having a heart attack," Lance commented, watching as the new arrival shook her head and groaned.

Anna lifted a front hoof and tenderly poked at her lower jaw with it, wincing and groaning every time the two entities connected. She opted to ignore Lance's remark for the moment, instead reverting to all fours and summoning her flute with a flash of magic. "I don't think aching jaw and instrument go great together. You should take five," Matt advised, getting a wide-eyed look almost instantly.

Anna's flute vanished as it had appeared, and she rushed to Matt in such a manner that he got the impression she couldn't believe what she'd been seeing. "Is… that really you?" she asked, wincing as each word came out of her mouth. When Matt nodded, she turned around and lifted her back legs, bucking him in the barrel and causing him to stagger a few paces back. "Y-y… I was… you…"

Lance rushed over and wrapped his forelegs around her chest before she could attempt to kick at Matt again. "Calm down. I don't know what happened to you before you came here, but take deep breaths and think rationally for once. We're confused enough as it is—a pinch of panic really wouldn't be good right now," he ordered in a calm tone of voice.

Anna began struggling instead. "C-could you l-let me go, first?" she asked, still wincing. "I-I can't c-calm down with you h-holding me!" Lance sighed and obliged, and watched her as she started taking sharp, lengthy inhales of air for seconds at a time before letting them out quickly. Then she sat on her haunches, still inhaling and exhaling, her jaw shaking almost like it had been detached entirely from her face.

Matt poked at where Anna kicked him with a hoof, and he found that there weren't aches or tender spots anywhere. He sighed and turned to the hole where she'd entered from, finding that goo expanded over it and plugged the damn thing tight—just as something with glowing eyes came up fast enough to solidly connect with the blocking substance. "Fuck!" it exclaimed in a muffled voice that was eerily like his, "She outran me again!"

Natalie and Lance took notice of this, too, and both immediately understood why Anna attacked Matt. Neither chose to comment on it as the creature with glowing orbs scoffed and turned away, letting off muffled curses directed at Anna until it simply went out of sight. The four rolled their eyes after silence settled in, and shared a series of brief looks.

The goo continued to bubble and boil, keeping them trapped on a patch of marble in what the group could only surmise was the middle of nowhere. Lance trotted up to one of the patches of substance and poked it with his hoof, his brows shooting up when it did not scorch him, freeze his leg, or do anything else of the sort. He whirled around to look at the others, meeting equally-perplexed gazes.

"It's safe to touch," he said, using his back hoof to kick at the gel for emphasis. It wobbled, and some bubbles popped as a result, but again it didn't harm him in any way. He proceeded to stand on his back legs and lean into the substance wings-first. Once he was sure it could support him without setting off the bewitchments attached to him, he wasted no time in crossing his rear legs out of simple modesty.

Matt and Natalie shared concerned looks, then they trotted over to experimentally prod at the bubbling gel. It didn't react to their touch, but simply wobbled and popped in places as it had done for Lance. Then Natalie shoved Matt into the gel with her magic, garnering a shout of surprise, only to shriek herself as Anna came over and shoved her into the gel. "Alright, stop inflicting karma on each other," Lance ordered, and the three scrambled away from the goo with horns aglow.

"Now, now, General Boltwing, let them have their fun. It's not like the slime will devour them," a female voice chastised, echoing as if coming from everywhere at once. The quartet looked around, trying to find the source of the remark, yet found that they were the only ones present. "Up here," the voice called again, and the Fantasians glanced up to find a form just above the wad of goo on the ceiling, barely discernable as a silvery light shined on a patch of marble below.

The goo parted with the aid of a teal aura and the hole Lance made widened as chunks were pried out by the aura, until it was big enough an airship's balloon could fit through it. They heard the flapping of wings as from the hole drifted a blue alicorn, her horn glowing softly. "Luna?" Matt asked, his brows shooting up. "What are…"

Luna rose a hoof, signaling for him to stop speaking. "We're in the dream realm… specifically, your dreams after I pulled some strings and meshed them together," she answered. She landed on the floor and closed her wings, donning a worried frown.

The four exchanged glances again, then turned back to Luna with raised brows. "So, you can… get into dreams and basically do as you will with them?" Lance asked, his torn ears twitching.

"Yes, but I don't usually do anything if the dreams are good or neutral. I also visit nightmares…" Luna trailed off, shuddering and closing her eyes for a moment. "And to be honest, you four have… had very disturbing nightmares ever since you came to Canterlot."

Again, the Fantasians exchanged glances. This time, Anna spoke up, "You've been monitoring our dreams ever since we stayed one night in that shit hotel?"

"Celestia talked me into it," Luna answered, sighing heavily. "And yes, ever since you've arrived, I've been monitoring your dreams."

"What was the catalyst for Celestia talking you into contacting us while we're asleep?" Matt inquired.

"A request from…" Luna paused, raising a hoof to rub her temples with it. "Um… oh, yes. A request from Sarah to not send anypony else to Fantasia, especially pegasus ponies," she answered.

"Sounds… reasonable enough, I suppose. If 'reasonable' meant 'invading on our privacy,'" Lance grumbled, crossing his forelegs. "So," he started, disentangling himself from the goo and reverting to all fours awkwardly, "what did you want to talk to us about?"

"The nightmares that are plaguing you—or, rather, the origin thereof," Luna answered, almost immediately getting wide-eyed stares and rapid shaking of heads. "What?" she asked, a brow raising at the sudden shift in behavior her guests were displaying.

"You don't want to know," Anna replied in a quivering voice, her lips pulled into a tight frown.

"Has… seeing our nightmares driven you to ask such a question?" Natalie inquired, her lips also forming a frown.

"Partly, yes," Luna stated with a nod. "I haven't come across such… disturbing dreams in an awfully long time."

"I'm starting to wonder why you go dream-hopping to begin with," Lance murmured, sitting on his haunches to cross his forelegs again. This time, his wings flapped languidly, and Luna took notice of this.

"I usually 'dream-hop,' as you would say, to… provide advice. Act as a sort of royal therapist, if you will," Luna sighed, still eyeing the flapping metal wings when they abruptly stopped and their owner froze. Matt, Natalie, and Anna also stiffened, and at this the alicorn's brow slanted. "But my advice only goes to those who willingly ask for it." She trotted to them and extended a front hoof, watching them intently.

Not one of the Fantasians extended a hoof in return, and Luna gazed into all four sets of eyes to find that she saw sparks of worry and fear accompanying frowns. There was also something else gleaming in the irises of her guests, something that made her frown deepen in concern. She lowered her hoof and asked in a low voice, "Are you… feeling something along the lines of despair?"

None of them answered her inquiry, which only caused her frown to deepen still. Then, they turned to stare at the floor, the whole lot, each one only giving a dejected sigh and little else. Luna's eyes darted to each of them, trying to search for their expressions, but all she got was forelocks and crests and bangs obscuring their visages. "Perhaps it's a bit too much for you to speak to me about?" she asked.

The Fantasians just nodded slowly in unison. "We'll… we'll tell you when we feel ready to do so," Lance managed at last, turning his head up to meet Luna's gaze.

Luna nodded back in understanding. "I see. Very well then," she replied, and her horn started glowing teal. The entire area became enveloped in the soft aura, and before long the four woke up in their beds to start their third day in the Crystal Empire.