Author's Notes:

This chapter crosses over with another story of mine, My Life As A changeling. I'm working on the other side of this, but its coming along slowly, and I dont want to keep ya'll waiting.

Once we had both gotten into the bed, I felt Ribbon wrap her forelegs around me, making a slight giggle as she did so. “You know, it's adorable when you do this. You try to retain a portion of your masculinity, yet you just love having me hug you.” I blushed as Ribbon leaned in to whisper in my ear. “And you like it even more when I tie you up just to show you my affection.” She then moved on to gently petting my mane with one hoof, while keeping a rather tight grip around my chest with the other. She sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m going to need to be in top shape for tomorrow, so I can’t go and exhaust myself having ‘fun’ with you.” I could feel my blush grow more intense, before Ribbon giggled again. “Awww, do I have you flustered? You look so cute with your cheeks all rosy like that.~” I struggled a little in her grip, chuckling in embarrassment.

“Why are you trying to embarrass me like this?”

“Because, I found I like the taste, its kinda like lemon, its got a slight kick to it, but not overpowering like when I get you all rearing to go. Now stop fidgeting.”

“Then stop trying to embarrass me! ...Please?”

“Hmmmm…” She scrunched up her face in mock deep though. “Oh fine, but only because you said please.” Her horn lit up, and I found myself being levitated into the air, where Ribbon took the opportunity to stick me in a straightjacket, and wrap me up tight, before setting me back down beside her. “I bet you missed this a lot.” Ribbon pulled me into a hug, nuzzling me.

“I did.” My leg started to twitch a bit as Ribbon begun giving me a belly rub. “Ohhh, that feels good.”

She noticed that twitch, and smiled. “You must really like that, you’re acting like a puppy.” I was too busy experiencing bliss to respond. After a while, she slowed down enough for me to actually focus. “Will you be okay while I’m gone?”

“I… I think so.”

“Maybe you should spend some time with Twilight? Distract yourself helping her with research… And see the look on her face as you tell her she can eat meat now.”

“Heh, yeah… You know what?”

“What?”

“I wanna be the cuddle bug for once.”

“Sure.” I smiled, using my magic to release myself from the straightjacket. I wrapped my mane around Ribbon in a soft, yet firm embrace, holding her to my chest.

“Do you like it?” I wrapped my forelegs around her, feeling her forelegs futilely twitch beneath the miasma that composed my mane.

“Yeah…” I smiled, seeing the content grin on her face.

With one hoof, i begun slowly tracing circles across Ribbons stomach through my mane, giggling. “You’re just adorable.” I gave her a sly grin as I leaned in towards her ear. “Especially when I do this.” I began to softly nibble on the tip of her ear, which caused her to make a small moan. “See? cute!” Ribbons cheeks turned the lightest tint of green, which lead me to believe she was enjoying it.

“Chiii, stop it, I can’t go exhausting myself!”

“Aw. But you’re so cute when you're flustered. I know!” To Ribbons surprise, she was suddenly spun around within my manes grip, so she was facing me, before I pulled her into a kiss. After the shock wore off, Ribbon returned it, her tongue worming its way into my mouth. After a few minutes of tongue wrestling, RIbbon broke away.

“Okay, you had for fun Chi, but I need rest.”

“Okay..” I released her from my manes grip, just allowing myself to relax in the bed with her, letting myself drift off into what was probably my first peaceful sleep in a while.

*Dreamscape*

This, This wasn't something that looked remotely like something Ribbon would dream about. The sky was below me, there where floating slabs of brightly colored rock, and as I walked around, several of them seemed to vanish, while others appeared out of thin air. At one point, I passed a waterfall that flowed up, into the...Huh!? Looking back down, there was just the sky below these floating stones, yet when I looked up… Nothing, just a few of those gravity defying waterfalls trailing off into infinity. So then, I pondered, why was I hear?

It was then, that something in one of those waterfalls caught my eye, something was… off, a slight distortion, one that seemed to call to me. I flew, cautiously approaching it, and when nothing happened, I flew through it.

Blackness, darkness as far as the eye could see, permeated by a faint, endless buzz.

“Really, how’d she get in here agai…” I whirled around to face the source of what I assumed was a changelings voice, only to discover I was only partially correct. It was a changeling allright, but not like one I’d seen before. It was as big as me, with neon blue hair and eyes, and a very angry scowl. “You’re not Luna.”

“Of course not!”

“Then who, and what, are you?”

“Ummm… How do you not know that…”

“How about you get the hay out of my dream?”

“Uh, no.” Like hell I was going to let her push me around.

“Well then. I’ll have to fix that. NIGHTMARE!” Wait, did… She just say....

“You called?”

No. Not possible. NIghtmare Moon. But… I thought she had been locked away!? “S-stay back! I-i’m warning you!” I rapidly stepped back, I wasn’t going to let that… that thing try to control me a third time!

All that… monster did in response was raise its eyebrow. My miasma quickly solidified into a familiar form, as the deep purple and midnight blue blade of Akumu was drawn from its sheath.

“I will use this!”

”Leave, and this can end peacfull-”

“I’M NOT FALLING FOR IT!” I gave the Nightmare a glare, my mane starting to shift around as more miasma was pooled into it.

“Heh, perhaps a ‘propor’ battlefield would do for us, no?” It was that changeling, grinning like she had something malicious planned.

”Agreed.” The darkness begun to fade into a forest, the only source of light being the moon in the sky now. I let the miasma I had pooled into my mane envelope me, before solidifying into my armor. ”That wont help you here.” Before I had time to react, she shot a bolt of lightning from her horn. My armor blocked the impact, but not the current, causing me to spasm in pain, before the changeling begun peppering me with blasts of magic, most of them bouncing off my armor, one or two striking my exposed face.

“That hurt you prick!” I growled. I was now thankfull I had spent a good portion of my time when I was apparently going crazy reading magical tomes. I felt a faint tingle in my horn as the spell begun charging up.

The nightmare did not expect me to retaliate so quickly with a thunderbolt spell of my own. Ignoring the changeling, I roared in fury, falling back on the sword training I had had with Courage, and engaging her in close range combat. I didn’t have time to react when I saw something glowing yellow and ethereal slam into my side, knocking me away. Looking at her, I noticed the glowing yellow, ghostly shackles attached to her legs, wings, and neck.

“An… Interesting choice of attire.”

”Shut up and die.” I noticed, that those chains seemed to eventually fade away to nothing, and when not moving, drifting in the direction of the changeling, who was smirking.

“Wish I could, but I can’t.” I smiled grimly. When the nightmare swung another one of those chains at me, I made my mane rush to intercept, and grab it. I pulled, trying to get her off balance, only for the chain to… extend? Oh… Shit.

”Hahaha! how pathetic, you actually though that would work?” More of the chains came at me, striking at my exposed face, while one wrapped around my neck, tightening until I could hear my armor starting to groan under the pressure.

“Oh, you bit-urk!” My armor crumpled, my windpipe getting crushed. luckily, breathing was just a thing I did because it was muscle memory, not something I needed to do to stay alive. She didn’t know that, and I decided to play that to my advantage. I begun gripping at the chain, trying to pull it off, to no avail, slowly letting my struggles became weaker, and widening my eyes in false panic, until I let myself go limp in the chains grasps.

“That was too easy.”

”She's not dead.” I suddenly found myself slammed into the floor, with monstrous force.

“How would you know?”

”Because if she was dead, she wouldn't still be here.” I simply glared at her with all the hatred I could muster, before dissolving into miamsa. The Nightmare actually took a step back in surprise, before I quickly reformed, now thoroughly angered. I took a moment to charge Akumu with a lightning spell, watching as electricity crackled across its form. Unable to really vocalize my anger, courtesy of my now crushed windpipe, I settled for using shadow magic, causing a spike of crystal to erupt from under the Nightmare, gashing its side even as it dodged.

Wait, where was the changeli-

“Suprise.” I felt something pierce me where my wing joined my body, before feeling of numbness spread through me, and I lost control of my body, slumping to the ground.

”Now die.” The Nightmare reared up, intending to crush my head under her hooves. I closed my eyes, bracing for the pain.

“Enough.” With the sudden sound of clinking steel, I opened my eyes, and saw that those ethereal chains now seemed much brighter and more solid, now unmoving as the Nightmare strained against them. “I’d rather not find out if killing someone in a dream would leave them brain dead.” She turned to me, glancing over me. “That armor, its the same material as yours, isn't it Nightmare?”

”...Yes. I have no clue how she obtained it though.”

I saw the changeling pick up my blade, looking it over. “Nightmare, do you have any clue what this is made of? I can tell the cutting edge is made of the same material, but the rest…” It surprised me that the Nightmare was just sitting there and answering that changelings questions, but as I looked harder, I noticed a very slight yellow glow in her eyes as she responded.

”...No.”

“You, for somepony who is completely helpless, you show a rather unusual lack of any fear whatsoever. For me, that is.” The buzzing, which had faded into the background at some point, came back stronger than ever, as I felt a weight pressing down on my mind, until I whited out.

“...not expecting to see you here.” As my vision cleared, I was greeted to the concerned look of Luna. “I thought you were only able to enter a dream though physical contact?” My lack of response, verbally or physically, left her looking rather confused. “Chitsuki, answer me.” She came closer to try and provoke a response from me, before staring at my throat. “Oh… Why am I not surprised you can do that.” I felt her magic wash over my throat, causing me to cough violently.

“Thanks.”

“I see you found a rift.”

“A what?”

“A rift. Ribbon told me about how you explained the idea of the multiverse to her. while that might be true, there is only a single dreamscape across it all, divided into segments specific to each reality. that rift you encountered, is what happens when the barrier between two of those segments thins, allowing dreams to cross over.” I sighed with relief, whatever having affected my body starting to wear off.

“Okay, so the Nightmare is not running loose in our equestria.”

“You encountered an alternate Nightmare?”

“Yeah… and a changeling. I’m still confused as to how the Nightmare was letting it boss her around like that.”

“Boss around?”

“And then there were these weird chains on the Nightmare…”

“Explain.”

“well, they were ethereal and glowing yellow, and the Nightmare was weaponizing them, until that changeling told it to stop, then they actually restrained her.”

“That… is something I had hoped to not see again.”

“Again?”

“After Sombra's defeat, we tracked down and acquired most of his research, and locked it away in the forbidden section of the archives. Obviously, we read through them. What you saw was one of his most heinous works. the Hex Binding. before the discovery of that crime against nature, it was thought impossible to mix blood magic and runes, two of the most powerful forms of magic, without it becoming unstable and failing catastrophically. But he found a way. Its true purpose was to be used with a particular rune that, assuming you had a sample, could collect the latent energies of a powerful deceased being, and bind it to you as a sort of servant.” Finally managing to regain enough mobility to stand up, I looked at her, rather worried.

“I can already see just how despicable that is. Can you imagine if he had got it to work on a living being?” I shuddered, that was just wrong. Trying my best to put that disturbing revelation behind me, I asked the next thing to come to mind. “Um, how do I leave?”

“Simply want to.” Before I could question her, I felt myself beginning to fade…