Exiting the dream, I looked around the space between dreams again. Luna had to go, some kind of nighttime event for the entire ‘Hail to the King, Baby’ thing.

I was annoyed enough with griffons for taking up Luna's time as it was, but now they were interrupting dream time too?

Stupid birdcats.

Laying down on the not-ground, I stretched my wings with a frown.

Luna’s answer to my question about Twilight was ‘Don’t worry about it’.

I… I worried about it.

Sighing, I finally shook my head. Fuck it. I wasn't going to bother trying to figure it out. For now, I had a job to do and then I’d get some actual sleep.

Wonder what Sparky was… actually, she was asleep. I looked to the side, her silvery portal floating up next to me with a faint pink tint to it.

Happy dream which was nice. A really rather happy dream too from the tint of pink on the silver.

Smiling, I sent her portal away to join the rest before I shifted my wings while sitting up with a thoughtful frown.

Dreams gave a window into the inner world of ponies. Starlight Glimmer was still not talking. Maybe if I could understand her better I could help Sparks get through to her.

Was this an intrusion of privacy? Only if I actually told anyone what I saw. Going through dreams was literally my job.

…Well, hobby I suppose. I didn’t get paid for it. My job was writing books. And looking pretty next to Luna.

Smiling briefly at that thought, I tapped my hoof against the not-floor and pushed some will onto the dream world around me, making another portal shift up before me. Silvery with slow dark ripples moving through it.

Starlight Glimmer was having a nightmare.

Reaching out to touch the dream portal with the tip of my horn, I walked through it and out into the bright sunlight.

I paused and looked around. It looked like a peaceful neighbourhood. Nothing really looked out of place either, no rampaging monsters, no…

Nothing out of the ordinary.

Closing my eyes for a second, I felt the dream around me before I opened my eyes again and turned to move to the right towards the source of this world. If you focused, you could feel where it was flowing from, the origin point that built this world around itself.

It brought me across the street and into the open door of a rather nice middle class home and into a living room with two foals in it.

One I recognized as Starlight Glimmer. For an evil cult-leading Overlady, she was rather cute as a little filly. The other one I didn’t recognize. A little colt with a yellow coat and brown-red mane. He was currently building a tower of books on the table with his magic while Starlight was watching, looking impressed.

Clapping her hooves as he finished, she got up with a smile, reaching to take one of the books with her magic. I could feel the darkness of the dream intensifying. We were getting closer to the worst part of it and I could already imagine what would happen.

She would pull the book out and the tower of books would fall on her friend, killing him. That would explain a lot and would certainly scar her for life.

Nobody grew up wanting to be a villain.

With a look of concentration, Starlight Glimmer pulled the book out and as predicted the massive tower of books wobbled and fell… but towards her.

She barely had time to scream in surprise and fear as the books fell, but the stack was stopped just before they crushed her by a golden glow of magic.

I looked to the side, the colt had an intense look of focus on his face as he struggled to keep the… maybe fifty or sixty kilos of books floating.

The books flew away from her and towards him, starting to orbit the colt as he lifted them and himself into the air above the table.

He started to shine a bright gold colour, the books flying back into the empty bookshelf and the colt slowly lowered back down onto the ground as the shine faded away.

A spark appeared on his flank and formed into an cutie mark of a sun and sparkles.

It was kind of amazing to watch really, I had never seen one form before. The dream got darker and darker behind the surface as the fear and anger grew in the dreamer.

Blinking I looked away from the amazed colt to the stunned face of Starlight Glimmer. Her friend getting a cutie mark was her nightmare?

This was why she developed magic to remove cutie marks? Are you fucking serious!?

The colt yelled happily as he spotted his new mark and rushed out the door to what I could only assume was his parents and they left with him, leaving Starlight behind.

Slamming shut, the door locked, leaving her in a slowly darkening room. All alone.

I looked at the door and then back to Starlight Glimmer. Her friend got his cutie mark and she didn’t. The door closed and locked… he left her or pushed her away afterwards? Found new friends?

That would explain the beginning of her hatred of cutie marks. Still, it was a rather stupid reason, but if the trauma was strong enough and she was young enough, it could cause significant mental scars.

Starlight Glimmer didn’t need prison. She needed a therapist.

The dream shifted around me, resetting back to two foals building a tower of books. I watched it play out again the same way as I jumped up and settled down on the couch to watch and think.

Was this a memory or just a bad dream?

Must be a memory. It was too specific and repeated too exactly to be a random dream. Could I help her out of this? She may… no. She was not actually Evil. She was just wrong and alone.

Alone. That was the root of the trouble. He got his cutie mark and he left her alone. She removed the cutie marks of her cult so they wouldn’t leave her.

That’s it. That had to be it.

Right now, she was locked away the castle dungeons. Alone with an anti-magic ring around her horn. I watched the amazed filly that looked onto the tower of books being built. That that would turn out to be her fate?

What if…

The colt started to get his cutie mark and I started to wave my magic and will into the dream, shaping it.

The colt yelled in excitement as he saw his mark form and went to rush towards the door before he stopped and paused as a teal glow surrounded him before he screamed.

Older Starlight Glimmer stepped out of the shadows, a crazed look on her face, her eyes glowing as lightning flashed outside.

The background of the dream felt like confusion and fear as I kept it playing instead of allowing the shock to wake her up.

The colt's cutie mark ripped from his flank to form the Equalmark instead and Older Starlight Glimmer laughed, holding it into the air. “Yes! Now you will never be who you were meant to be! NEVER! You will be NOTHING!”

Collapsing the colt curled up on the floor and cried, whimpering as I shaped the Older Starlight Glimmer to grow more and more demonic, standing over her former friend.

Younger Starlight, the viewpoint of the dreamer, started to scream and I let the dream go and collapse, waking her up.

Last thing I did was to make sure she would remember it after waking up.