Chapter 12 – What Dreams May Come

Once again, he tries to get a goodnight’s sleep.

Once again, he has to face that same never-ending nightmare.

Once again, he has to hear those horrifying screams and the infernal beeping sound.

Once again, he has to relive the death of his loved one.

And once again, he wakes abruptly in the middle of the night to escape that traumatizing dream.

Despite his once-again, rude awakening, Ford Mustang has managed to keep his voice down without disturbing his sleeping wife, Rainbow Dash. It’s been two weeks since the first time he had that dream, and he’s never been able to escape from its haunting imagery and almost realistic sounds. Quiet as a mouse, he excuses himself from the bedroom and hovers downstairs to get another cup of tea.

Once he is in the kitchen, Ford gets his bag of tea that Apple Bloom and Zecora offered to him a week ago and prepares his late-night beverage. With no need for a tea kettle since its whistling will most likely wake up Rainbow Dash, he breathes out a steady flicker of golden fire to heat up his cup of water before dunking a filter cup that holds his herbal tea leaves. Of course, No matter how much tea he drinks, before or after his sleep, it didn’t help him overcome that waking nightmare. But at the very least, it will give him some time to reflect on this while savoring the hot beverage’s soothing flavor.

With his tea ready, he takes gradual sips of it while sitting at the kitchen’s table as he contemplates on how he can end this recurring nightmare once and for all. Seeing how he can’t get rid of the nightmares on his own, he figures that he needs to turn to someone else for aid this time. The only question is who should he turn to first? Although one thing’s for certain: he can’t drag Rainbow into this mess since this may startle her just as much as it did to him. And he surely didn’t want make things more complicated for her especially when she’s the one carrying twin foals.

After drinking some more tea, a perfect candidate finally comes to mind. Immediately, he reaches for a sheet of parchment and an enchanted ribbon from a drawer nearby and places them right before him. Once he gives it some careful thought on what he intends to write on there, he sets the tip of the inked quill on top of the paper and begins his hoof-writing by inscribing the letter’s introduction.

Dear Princess Twilight…

The following morning, Rainbow wakes up at her usual time with a big yawn and a nice stretch, but once again, her husband is not beside her in bed. After sighing in disappointment, she notices how Ford’s pillow cloud is way damper than usual. From examining it closely, she takes a quick whiff of the pillow and recognizes it as Ford’s sweat. She starts to wonder if Ford has been having some bad dreams lately, which may be the cause of his restlessness.

Overtime, she’s being piecing it all together since the previous week regarding with her husband’s strange behavior. She’s been trying to be patient with him and not let her hotheadedness get the best of her, but being left out of the loop like this is starting to make her worry, both for herself and for Mustang’s sake.

After getting out of bed, Rainbow flies downstairs to search for her husband once again. This time, she checks the living room first, but to her surprise, she doesn’t find him sleeping on the couch like before. So she seeks to find him in the kitchen next, but as soon as she turns around, she is greeted by a surprise kiss on the lips by Ford Mustang.

“Morning, Rainbow!” he addresses in a chirpy tone.

“Ah! Good morning--!”

But she pauses as she gets a good look at her husband. Through her eyes, Ford looks like a complete mess. His toothy smile is stretched to such uncomfortable limits. His bed hair looks way messier than usual with some of its strains sticking out of place. And his pupil-shrunken eyes look quite large and are slightly bloodshot as well… twitchy even. Truth be told, Rainbow is a little creeped out by how… crazy he looks right now.

“Want some coffee?” he asks in a high-pitched voice.

In response, she answers in slight discomfort, “Uhh… I guess--!”

And in a flash, Ford disappears into the kitchen while leaving his wife utterly speechless once again before he comes back in the same haste and holds two cups of coffee within his fore hooves.

“Here you go!” he says with an unusually broad smile as he hands one of the cups to Rainbow Dash. “Nice and hot!”

“Wow! That was… umm… quick?” she responds both in surprise and bewilderment by how he has prepared the coffee so quickly.

“Yep! With two spoonfuls of sugar and a touch of cream!” he chirps with pride. “Just the way you like it!”

They take a moment sip their individual drinks, but in midst of their drinking, Rainbow notices something is off when she observes her husband taking a huge swig of his own cup of coffee.

From almost doing a spit-take, she stammers out her obvious observation, “Wait a minute... are you… drinking coffee as well?”

With blank look on his face, he blinks just a few times before looking at his coffee. Then, he looks back at Rainbow with an unusually casual smile and confirms with a nod, “Why yes… yes I am!”

“But… you don’t like coffee.” she adds in complete bafflement. “You would always prefer tea instead.”

“Well it’s not that I dislike coffee entirely!” he shrugs nonchalantly in response before he heads toward the kitchen. “I do enjoy the fragrance of various coffee flavors, but it’s such a pain to measure out the right amounts of cream and sugar for myself!”

“Okay then, so why are you drinking coffee right now?” she inquires with an arched eyebrow while following her husband. “What about the tea that you got from Zecora’s place?”

“Well… the tea wasn’t doing much for me, so I figure that if I can’t get enough sleep for each night, then I might as well stay awake for as long as I--!”

But as he sets aside his empty cup, a strange urge is building up between his stomach and his esophagus. It is almost like a belch ready to come up. Once he makes the connection between this strange phenomenon and his Draconian Magic, Ford desperately holds his breath which puffs up his cheeks as he turns away from his concerned wife.

“Uhh… Ford? You okay there?”

“Yeah, I’m fine!” he reassures hastily while leaving the area. “Just… gotta use the bathroom right now! Excuse me, Rainbow!”

Immediately, he darts upstairs and enters the bathroom before locking the door. Once he is all alone, he burps out a small burst of fire, and emerging from that magical flame is a rolled-up letter with a royal seal that displays the Cutie Mark of the princess that Ford has contacted earlier. Without delay, he unwraps the letter and reads it to himself silently.

Dear Ford Mustang,

I am sorry to hear that you are having trouble regarding with your lack of sleep. The dreams that you have described for me are quite disturbing, and I hope to help you out in anyway I can. Please meet me in the Golden Oaks Library at 10 o’clock sharp today so we can sort this out together. If you wish to bring Rainbow Dash along, that’s up to you. I understand if you choose otherwise.

Sincerely,

Twilight Sparkle

Happy to receive such a swift reply from the young Alicorn Princess, he is definitely looking forward to their eventual meeting. But before he intends to exit out of the bathroom, he suddenly releases that he needs to dispose this letter so that Rainbow Dash doesn’t find it later.

With some quick thinking, he brings the letter over a toilet and puffs out some fire to incinerate the paper where its ashes drift into the toilet bowl. With the ashes scatter within the small pool of water, he flushes the toilet to rid out of the evidence and washes his hooves from the sink before exiting out of the bathroom.

With a contented smile, Ford goes back downstairs where Rainbow Dash asks, “Is everything alright up there?”

“Oh yes, just… had too much tea and coffee to drink, I guess!” he lies with a sheepish smile.

Well then, let’s have some breakfast already.”

“Sounds good to me!”

But as Ford follows his mare back into the kitchen, a familiar urge swells in-between his hind legs as he just realizes that he didn’t take the opportunity to “drain his lizard” when he first excused himself to use the restroom. So to his dismay, he has to excuse himself again.

“Uhh… Rainbow, I’ll… right back! Nature calls once again!”

“Wait, I thought you got most of that out of your systems!”

“Like I said: had too much tea and coffee to drink! Sorry!” he explains hastily as he uncomfortably heads up upstairs once again.

With a roll of her eyes, Rainbow remarks with a grin, “Okay, fine… well, while you're taking care of business up there, I’ll go on ahead and start on our breakfast. I’ll be sure to knock on the door once everything’s ready.”

“Thanks, honey! Love ya!”

Later on that day, Ford Mustang makes up his cover to Rainbow Dash by going out of town to pick up some groceries. But before he can take care of his proposed errand, he has important task to fulfill first. On time at 10 o’clock this morning, the light blue Pegasus arrives in front of the famous treehouse, which served as the town’s library and a former home of their local princess, Twilight Sparkle.

After he knocked on the library’s door, Twilight opens it up and welcomes him with a warm hug and a smile, “Oh, Ford! Just in time!”

“Hi, Twilight! Thank you so much for responding to my letter so quickly!”

“Of course! Anything for a friend! Oh! And I hope you don’t mind, but I brought somepony here with me, who may be a great help towards us!”

With Twilight stepping aside, she allows Ford to enter the main floor of the library where he is taken by surprise with the appearance of another pony. Of course, this one is no ordinary pony; to Ford’s amazement, it is none other than the Princess of the Night herself, Luna.

“Princess Luna!” Ford exclaims in immense shock. “Wh-what brings you all the way out here?!”

“Twilight Sparkle has told me about your predicament and has sought my insight on this most peculiar matter.” she explains herself. “As Princess of the Night, it is my duty and privilege to aid those in need when it comes to understanding their own dreams.”

“I am truly honored that you along with Princess Twilight would take the time to aid me like this!” he bows humbly before the presence of the taller Alicorn Princess.

“Arise, Sir Mustang of Ponyville.” she insists respectfully. “For there is no need for such etiquette amongst friends. And besides, it is I who shall have the honor on being at your service, Ford.”

“Well, since we are all here…” Twilight intervenes with a gentle smile. “…why don’t we all sit down and see if we can solve this dilemma together, hmm?”

Once all three ponies take their seats, Ford shares his on-going problem with the princesses to go over more details with his personal dream. After some time of explanation, the dark blue Alicorn shares her opinion over this subject.

“So, this same dream has been going on for two weeks, correct?”

“Yes.” Ford answers simply.

“And… you didn’t have any worries or concerns regarding with Rainbow Dash before this had happened?”

“No.” he confirms with certainty. “Before that, everything was going fine. I had the best birthday bash ever, and this year’s Nightmare Night was pretty great too. So… no, I didn’t have any worries in mind.”

“This is so strange.” Twilight adds to the conversation with a shake of her head. “Nightmares are usually the result of fear or anxiety. Sometimes that can be spontaneous too, but I’ve never heard of adult cases where recurring nightmares that could last more than just a week!”

“Indeed, Twilight.” Luna agrees with a simple nod. “And if we are going to get to the bottom of this, then we’re just going to have to dig a little deeper.”

“And how are we going to do that, Luna?” Mustang asks.

“Oh, it will be quite simple actually. But first, you will need to go sleep before we can get started.” With the use of her magic, she gently levitates Ford from the floor before carefully placing him on a sofa.

As the stallion reclines back on the cushiony furniture, Ford comments in a timid manner, “Well… I can try, but I had so much coffee today that I won’t be able fall asleep right away--!”

“SLEEP.”

And upon her command, Luna lightly taps Ford’s forehead with her glowing horn. From that magic touch, Mustang’s eyelids become very heavy as his increasingly unresponsive body begins to slump backwards. And in an instant, he is out like a light.

Upon opening his eyes, he finds himself in that familiar darkness with the addition of that ugly, red haze as he steadily gets himself up. Trapped within the haunting fog once again, and he quickly looks around as he hopes to find some company this time from either one of the princesses.

“L-Luna…? Luna?! Twilight?! Can anyone hear me?!”

Eventually, he hears something within the dreamy void, but it’s not the sound that he hopes to hear. From pinpointing the source, the nightmarish fog clears away from his viewpoint as it showcases a rerun of his never-ending nightmare all over again.

Unable to turn away, Ford is able to witness not only screaming Rainbow Dash lying on the hospital bed, but also another pony next to the screeching mare that looks exactly like him. This isn’t too much of surprise to him since Ford has witnessed a copy of himself before in previous dreams. And in this dream, not only are Doctor Horse and Nurse Redheart there once again, but they have their faces this time. The only things that are missing from the practitioners’ facial features are the pupils and irises, making their expressionless eyes nothing more than blank, white orbs.

As the pregnant mare’s screams and the irritating noise of the beeping electrocardiogram continue to get louder, Ford covers his ears tightly as he cries out in desperation from enduring all of this once more, “N-no…! No! Not this again! Please Luna! Somepony help me!”

While Mustang whimpers like a child as he is on all fours, he feels a gentle hoof resting on his shoulder, and he hears a sweet, comforting voice from the princess he has been calling out for, “It’s alright, Ford. I’m here for you.”

From looking up at her soft, cyan gaze, Ford inquires in an apprehensive voice, “L-L-Luna? Are you seeing this as well?”

“Yes, Mustang.” she confirms. “I can see and hear everything that is going on right now.”

Then, they turn to the scene at play where it moves to the final act where the dream variation of Rainbow Dash dies right before Ford’s mental counterpart as grieves right beside her deathbed. Trying to ignore the infernal flatlining, Mustang faces Luna and pleads to her softly, “Is there anything you can do to make this stop once and for all?”

“I can’t say for certain, but I will see on what I can do from here.”

At a careful pace, Luna’s horn emits a bright beam towards the ongoing scene but is astounded to see that the dream sequence is being blocked by an unknown, invisible force field as Luna’s magic creates ripples against the psychic shield’s surface. Despite that setback, she pushes forward as she applies more power to her spell. But all it's done is create more ripples as the magical beam maintains the contact with its obstacle.

"Ugh…!”

“Luna, what’s wrong?” Ford asks anxiously.

“Something’s… not right!” she verifies in the midst of her struggle. “I can’t alter this dreamscape to my very will!”

No matter how much power she amplifies in her magic, it only causes her to gradually lose her fatigue as her knees begin to lose balance while the steadfast psychic barrier causes the unnatural ripples to extend throughout the rest of the dreamscape as well as creating white, hot sparks. And just as Luna is about to give up, the mysterious means of protection counters back in a seemingly violent fashion by igniting an explosion of blinding light that engulfs the two ponies and everything else within the hazy dreamworld.

In the midst of this session, Princess Twilight Sparkle has been watching over the unconscious bodies of Princess Luna and Ford Mustang. Shortly after that, the observant, purple Alicorn perceives signs of distress from the two restless ponies based off of their subtle groans and tiny beads of sweat seeping from their heads.

But as the worrisome Twilight remains indecisive on how to help them, Ford and Luna’s abrupt awakening greatly startles the younger princess as the dark blue mare propels herself back at a great distance from encountering such an immense force from that psychic counter-blast. After Ford promptly arouses from his mandatory nap, he and Twilight turn their attention toward Luna as the older pony lies on the wooden floor.

"Princess!” Twilight exclaims in alarm as she and Mustang hurry towards the toppled Luna.

“Princess Luna! Are you hurt?” Ford asks with great concern over her well-being.

“I’m… I’m alright, everypony.” Luna reassures as she shakes off her throbbing head while she steadily gets back up. “I haven’t faced a dream like that in a very long time. But right now… I believe I have found something that I must share with all of you, especially you, Ford Mustang!”

“R-really? Well what is it?”

“Whenever I enter somepony's dream, I usually have control over them, but there a few exceptions which can resist my magic. Ford, what you have been experiencing for the past two weeks straight is definitely no ordinary dream, but a vision!”

From Luna’s incredible discovery, the other two ponies’ eyes bulge widely before Ford takes the time to speak up first as he stammers out loud, “A-a-a vision?!”

“Please forgive me, Luna…” Twilight says in modest disbelief. “…but I thought visions usually occur to those who are Alicorns or ones who possess extraordinary amounts of magic!

“Yes, that is true, Twilight Sparkle.” Princess Luna acknowledges with a nod before carrying on with her explanation, “But remember, Ford Mustang already possesses powerful magic within him; one that even overshadows his Pegasus Magic.”

After a very short time from contemplating this, Twilight then answers with a sharp gasp, “…Draconian Magic!”

“Exactly.”

In the midst of this realization, Ford recalls his time from mastering this extraordinary magic with his friend and mentor, Hindel. Upon recollecting his dragon friend, Ford makes a startling revelation for himself that he seeks to share it with the two mares in the room.

“Wait a minute… Hindel! He was the one who gave me Draconian Magic in the first place, but… I remember something else about him.”

“What exactly are you referring to, Ford?” Luna asks with curiosity.

“Hindel was once known as the ‘All-Seeing Dragon’ because he possessed the ability to see visions within his mind’s eye, including the future! So what if… what if… I inherited that as well?”

From considering that possibility, the three ponies let that sink in for awhile as they contemplate to themselves. Twilight shivers in fear over the grim fate that awaits one of her best friends as she stammers in a quiet voice, “Then… does this mean… that Rainbow Dash... will actually--?”

“NO!!”

But Ford wouldn’t allow Twilight to finish that sentence as his outcry shocks both of the princesses. Staring at the floorboard, he heaves out his breathing before shaking his head and carrying on with his denial over his hypothesized vision.

“No… I refuse to believe that. I won’t believe it! There must be way to save her! There must!” Quickly on all knees, he desperately bawls out to Luna and Twilight, “Please Princesses! I beg you! Help me save Rainbow Dash! Help me save our children! Please… just save her. I don’t think I can bear the thought of losing her.”

Compassionately, Princess Luna assures him in a bold yet gentle tone, “Of course, Ford. We will do everything in our powers to prevent this from happening to her. And I believe the best course of action is to bring this up with my sister so that we can decide from there.”

“Yes, that’s true!” Twilight chimes in. “With the inclusion of Princess Celestia, we can surely find the solution together!”

Then, a strange idea comes to Ford’s mind as he makes this suggestion, “Hey wait… what about Discord? Surely he can help us out as well, right?”

Hesitantly, Luna instinctively looks away from Ford as she isn’t too fond on the idea on turning to Discord, the Master of Chaos and her former enemy, for help, even as a last resort. Instead of sharing her opinion on that subject, she turns to her fellow princess and waits for her answer first. Twilight definitely gives it some careful thought, but after a quiet moment to herself, she looks up to face the two awaiting ponies and answers with an assuring smile.

“Well… he may be a trickster, but I do believe that he has a good heart in all of this. Yes, I am fairly certain that he would be happy to aid us.”

“Sigh… Very well. I will bring this to his attention as well. Hopefully he will be more cooperative once we address this serious matter to him.” the complying Luna mutters as she tries to not hold her breath on this one.

While walking away to give herself some distance from the other two, the Moon Princess says to the stallion with a pleasant smile, “Now then, not that I don’t enjoy this visit, Ford, but I really need to get back to Canterlot so I can take care of this matter right away. And besides… YAWN! It’s late as it is, so I need my beauty sleep.” she kids lightly after making that exhausting noise.

“Oh, of course. Thank you once again for coming all this way just for me, Princess.” he says to her graciously.

With a friendly smile, she nods in return, “You are quite welcome, Ford. Fare thy well, Sir Mustang. Until next time.” And with that said, Princess Luna disappears in a bright, blue flash of light, probably to return to her private chambers back in Canterlot Castle.

With only one princess left in the room, Twilight decides to stay in Ponyville for a little longer as she says to Ford, “Well since I’m already here, maybe I can stop by and see the rest of my friends before returning to the castle.”

But before Twilight can reach for the library’s exit, Ford rushes in front of her and immensely pleads to her, “Wait, Twilight! Before we leave, I need you to promise me that you will never tell any of this to anypony! Not even Rainbow Dash!”

With an understanding smile, she guarantees to keep her word for him, “Don’t worry, Ford. I promise you that I won’t tell this to any one of our friends. I certainly don’t want them to be upset over this until we can rectify the situation ourselves.”

“Right… thanks for doing this for me, Twilight.” he adds sheepishly. “And uhh… thanks again for setting all of it up this morning. I really appreciate it.”

“Of course. I’m glad that I can be of assistance in any way possible. Thank you very much for bring this to my attention. I assure you that I will do whatever I can to see that we can change Rainbow’s fate for the better.”

Feeling more optimistic about the growing situation, they leave Golden Oaks Library with hopeful smiles as Twilight Sparkle informs one last thing to Ford Mustang, “Anyway, I’ll alert you through a private message once the Princesses are ready to meet with us. I’m quite certain that we will solve this important matter in due time.”

“Sigh… For Rainbow’s sake, I sure hope so.”

Author's Notes:

Originally, it would have been just Twilight to aid Ford on this personal dilemma of his. But I figured it would better to include Luna in this, since she is the expert when it comes to dreams. Even from deciding to include her earlier, I almost considered to have Luna visit him through his dreams during his ongoing nightmare. But I ended up with both Twilight and Luna meeting up with him at the same time; mostly, it was just to save time for myself from having to write a separate chapter for each of the princesses.