Puzzle stared up at the infinite starry expanse for a long moment, leaning against the railing as he took in the sight. “So ... where do we start? As you’ve noticed, this isn’t exactly normal. I’m not even sure where we are right now.”

I looked toward the wheelhouse and examined the wheel. “I think we're in the Dreamscape. You know, the plane of existence your consciousness goes to when you dream?” Admittedly, most of the time you weren’t conscious when you were in the Dreamscape, in more ways than one. This was way more vivid than your typical dream, and way less pleasant too. Something was definitely off, but what…?

Capital stepped up beside me and watched as I played with the wheel. “When were you last here, Daring?”

“A couple years ago,” I said. “I was helping a buffalo tribe get back some artifacts that'd been stolen by some creeps connected to the black market.” I glanced around, trying to see if there were any landmarks around us. There weren’t. “This certainly looks and feels like the time I went on that dreamquest with Chief Thunderhooves.”

Puzzle rubbed his chin. “And how did you get into the Dreamscape?”

“Drugs,” I told them. “Lots and lots of drugs.”

“Wait,” Kukri said. “It said in your books you used some meditation techniques to get into the Dreamscape.”

Daring scratched her neck, suddenly looking uncomfortable. “Well... yes, I used those too. Just, A.K., uh ... sanitizes the books a bit considering kids tend to read them.”

“Why?” Kukri asked. “They helped, didn’t they?”

“Because that’s not something she wants to encourage kids to be doing,” Daring said, her voice becoming more steady as she got on more familiar ground. “I only did it under very specific circumstances. Just because I do something doesn’t mean it’s the smartest thing in the world to do, and A.K. knows that.”

Puzzle grinned at her. “Pity that she isn’t always there to advise you in those less-than-wise moments.”

Daring’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, ha ha. Back to the story.”

Puzzle tapped his hoof on the desk. “Well how did you get out of the dreamscape that time?”

I shrugged. “Just kinda got to the end of the vision quest and then I woke up. It was pretty weird last time. Things just kinda happened, and then it was over.”

Capital scratched the side of his head. “Well, how do we end this one?”

“Not sure,” I admitted. “I didn't come into this dream with any specific purpose, and I doubt either of you did either. Unless one of you are holding out on me.”

Puzzle shot me a flat glower. “No, I always enjoy reliving past trauma.”

“Yeah, figured as much. Kinda suspicious that that seems to be such a consistent theme with this place.” Reliving the time I got betrayed by Ephemera had been massively unpleasant, and I’d caught bits and pieces of what Puzzle had been through. Whatever Capital had experienced, he hadn’t exactly been eager to talk about, either. The Dreamscape was built on ideas and willpower. If we were all experiencing painful memories then it couldn’t be good. There were some pretty nasty things in the Dreamscape you could run into. It was said that Queen Luna used to protect ponies and had chased off all the bad things that resided here, but that had been a long time ago. Best to get out of this place as quickly as we could.

“I’m not sure how to get out of here, but I’ve got an idea we can try.” I concentrated on the wheel and thought of a specific individual. Turning the wheel, I felt a sudden wind move the sails, and then the whole ship was going forward.

“Well fancy that.” Capital beamed. “It’s actually moving. How did you do that?”

“This place is based on thoughts, conscious and subconscious,” I explained. “I just thought about someplace I wanted to go, and that got the ship moving.”

“Brilliantly good.” Capital patted me on the back. “So where are we going, then?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, we’re still missing one of our companions,” I said. “Seems like the most sensible thing to do is find her if we can.”

Capital nodded. “Too right. No pony—or zebra—left behind.”

“Sounds good to th—me.” Puzzle shook his head, probably still rattled by what the Dreamscape had just done to him. “I’d like to find Alya and get out of here.”

I steered the wheel, thinking about Alya as we went. “Right, so first we need to get everyone together, and then find a way to wake—” I was nearly thrown when the ship came to an abrupt halt, the squeal of breaking and protesting timber resonating. Puzzle grabbed onto the railing to steady himself while Capital fell onto his rump and slid a few feet before coming to a halt.

I groaned as I held onto the wheel. Once I had regained my bearings I flew to the stem to see what we were dealing with. The ship had crashed onto a beach, and beyond that was a big open plain of long, brown grass. Scanning the horizon, my gaze fell upon a port town sitting along the shore further up the coast, its domed buildings of white stone marking the place as Zebrican in design. I’d been to the Zebrican Empire before, and between the architecture of the town and the arid plain that made up much of the Empire, it wasn’t hard to figure out where we were—or where someone thought we were.

“Ugh, land ho, I guess.” I rolled my shoulders to loosen them up from being jolted by the sudden stop. “Though you’d think we could’ve gotten some kind of warning. Or a gentler landing.”

“Let’s just be happy that we’re making progress, or at least I hope we are.” Puzzle went to the railing where he found the port as well. “I’m not an expert on the Dreamscape, but I believe that might be a clue. Given the nature of dreams, going somewhere with direction seems better.”

“Sounds like a plan to me.” I glided down to the beach and waited for the others. “Everything is only as real as you think it is... or as real as someone else thinks it is.”

Capital climbed down the side of the ship. “So if there's something here that none of us are thinking...”

I nodded. “Let's have a look then. It sounds like a better plan than wandering the featureless plain forever, anyways.”

It wasn’t long before we reached the port town. The streets were almost empty except for some faded out, plain-featured zebras that seemed to be wandering around at random. Then came the crash of pottery and yelling from further down the street.

“Well that doesn't exactly sound promising.” I made sure my hat was firmly on my head, as this was probably going to get harder before it got easier.

Puzzle rolled his neck as he limbered up. “On the contrary, if this is Alya's dream, and most likely a very unpleasant one going by past experience...”

“Right, let's go find her.” I ran down the street towards the sound and stopped when we reached one of the shops lining the street. Looking through the window, there was a small group of rough-looking zebras that instantly reminded me of the sorts of goons Ephemera liked to hire. Against the far wall was a family of zebras who had run out of room to back away. Alya was packed in among them, tears running down her cheeks.

One of the thugs was holding the shop owner’s arm painfully behind his back, twisting it both to cause pain and to hold him in place while one of his buddies talked to him with a thick zebrican accent. “So you understand our problem don’t you? You don’t have our money to pay back the loan our boss gave you, and we can’t very well go home empty-hooved. That’s a bit of a problem, isn’t it?”

The other goon twisted the shopkeeper’s arm harder, making him cry out in pain. “G-give me time! I’ll find the money.”

Puzzle peeked through the window, pressing himself up against the wall to remain unseen. “Well well well... Interesting.”

Capital pressed his lips together as he spoke with clear indignation. “I say, are we going to just sit back and watch this, or give these ruffians what-for?”

Puzzle frowned. “Interfering in the dream could cause complications.”

I’d seen this song and dance enough times already to know where this was going. Those thugs thought the shopkeeper owed them some money, and they were going to get it, or cause some serious trouble. I wasn’t about to let that happen, even if this was just a dream. “So let's make it complicated for them for once!”

I could all but hear Puzzle sigh as I leapt through the window and made for the nearest thug, and Capital bellowed a “Bully!” as he charged with me.

“Who're—” was all the thug got to say before I introduced my hoof to his face. He spun in a circle before dropping to the floor.

Capital was at my side as the thugs started to turn to react to us, the one holding the shopkeeper tossing him off to the side as we came to teach them a lesson. “For Princess and country!” Capital cried out, catching the nearest thug with a perfect jab and cross boxing combo that sent him sprawling. These guys looked tough, but it seemed they couldn’t take a real hit. Still, the next minute was a whirlwind of punches and kicks as Capital and I stood back to back and laid into them, and the shop suddenly seemed way fuller with thugs than it had been a second ago. One of them almost got me from behind before Puzzle appeared from behind a shelf and put the thug in a chokehold that quickly knocked him out.

Having no time to thank him, I uppercutted another goon, the force of the hit sending the thug tumbling up and over the register bench. And just like that it was over. The floor was nearly carpeted by groaning bodies, way more than had been in here to start with. Stupid Dreamscape and its weird nonsensical rules...

I took a deep breath to steady my breathing as I wiped the sweat from my brow. “I guess no one else wants any.”

“Jolly good,” Capital said as his gaze swept over the goons. “We gave those ruffians a sound drubbing.”

Before we could come down from the adrenaline high of the fight, Alya’s voice cried out. “What have you done?!”

I was momentarily taken aback. “Saving you from these creeps. They were trying to extort money from your family, right?”

“And you’ve made everything worse!” Alya knelt at her father’s side as he leaned against the wall and not looking in the best shape. He was bruised and his face was pretty badly swollen.

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean? I would’ve thought you’d like seeing us pound these jerks.” Or at least their copies in the Dreamscape. It was way too easy to get drawn into a dream that seemed this real.

Alya looked her father over as she told us. “Don’t you get it? Their boss is going to be mad that you beat his thugs up. He’s going to retaliate against us for this. And then what?” She started sniffing as she saw how bad off her half-comatose father was and then broke into a sob.

I grimaced as Alya bawled her eyes out. It was pretty hard to see, but I had to remind myself that this wasn’t real and not to get drawn into it all. We needed to snap Alya out of this, quick.

So I knelt beside Alya and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Hey, this isn't real. This might have happened in the past, but this isn’t happening now.”

Alya’s face wrinkled with befuddlement. “W-what are you talking about? Of course this is real. If I don’t go to the land of the Dromaed and collect these guys’ seeds then they’ll hurt my family.”

Puzzle scowled. “Is that so? That might need to be addressed later.”

Knowing what snapped Puzzle out of this dream-thing, I tried to point out the irregularities of the reality around her. “Then why are you here and not in the jungle like we were just a little bit ago?”

Alya blinked a few times. “I-I don’t understand.”

“Because none of this right here is real,” I told her. “Something’s making us relive nasty memories like this one.”

Puzzle caught onto what I was doing and piped in. “It may seem real enough, but it's only a dream. We were tricked too. Think about what you were doing before and what you’re doing now.”

Alya’s mouth worked wordlessly as she glanced between us. “This doesn’t make any sense. How can...” She grimaced in pain and held her head. “But this... this happened.”

Puzzle cupped her cheeks in his hooves. “Alya, do you trust me?”

Alya sniffed and nodded. “Y-yeah?”

“Then believe me when I say that this isn't real,” he assured her. “This all happened in the past, and you’re just reliving memories. That’s all. Think about it, you met us all long after this happened. But everything is going to be okay. We’ll make everything work out, I promise. But we need you to work with us here.”

Alya gripped Puzzle in a hug and held him tight. Puzzle stiffened at first but then slowly wrapped his own arms round her. “O-okay. I trust you.”

“You wouldn’t if you knew what he really was,” called out a voice like cracking branches. It echoed throughout the store, and a wind with no visible source whipped through the room. One of the thugs drew himself up like a puppet having its strings pulled, and when he opened his eyes they were black as coals. “He just can’t wait to sink his teeth—”

I picked up a piece of pottery sitting on a shelf and chucked it at the thug. Whatever he was about to say was cut off when the pot smashed against his head and sent him sprawling back to the ground. “Yeah, none of that creepy horseapples. I’ve seen enough of stuff like this to know I want no part of this.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” the voice said, the wind sweeping through the shop with enough strength that I had to hold my hat to my head. The image of Alya’s father stood up in the same unnatural manner as the thug, his eyes black as well. Alya squeaked and backed away from the thing pretending to be her dad and hid behind Puzzle. “I’m going to make you suffer for it.”

“Sorry, but I’m not buying what you’re selling.” I snatched up another pot to throw, but in the brief moment when I’d taken my eyes off him he’d gotten right in my face. Before I could react, his hoof slammed into my chest and sent me flying. I hit a shelf hard enough to knock it over, and the crash of pottery and other objects resounded through the shop.

“Daring!” Capital rushed the thing that wasn’t Alya’s dad, throwing a hook at his face. The thing casually slipped aside the blow and then backhooved Capital hard enough to send him spinning to the ground.

Okay, no way this thing was natural. Was it some sort of dream spirit? Someone playing games in the Dreamscape? I wasn’t nearly well versed enough in dream lore to know exactly how things worked here. All I could say for certain was that this thing was bad news and that it packed one nasty punch. I was struggling to get up as my whole body protested, and he’d only hit me once. At least now I had a pretty good idea who’d been causing us so much trouble.

The thing smiled at Alya, showing far too many teeth in a mouth that spread unnaturally wide. Alya kept backing away until she was cornered, and she whimpered at the sight of the abomination in front of her. The thing let out a throaty chuckle. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want to give your dear old dad a hug? Maybe daddy needs to teach you a—”

Puzzle reappeared as his invisibility dissipated and his dagger sliced right into the thing’s neck. The thing’s eyes widened as Puzzle wrapped his arms around its head and neck. “I quite agree with Daring, that’s enough of that.” With a swift jerk Puzzle broke the thing's neck with a resounding crack and it fell listlessly to the floor.

“I-is it dead?” Alya asked through trembling lips, not being able to bring herself to look at the thing that looked like her dad.

As if in answer, the ground started to shake, sending items tumbling off the shelves and smashing on the ground. That thing’s low chuckle flowed through the room and once again the wind picked up.

Puzzle yanked his dagger out of the thing that had pretended to be Alya’s dad, and cast a wary look around the room. “I think we still have a fight on our hooves.”

I pushed myself to my hooves, holding my chest where it still felt like it’d been hit by a runaway cart. “Keep your eyes open. Who knows what this thing will throw at us.”

The earthquake intensified and cracks started crisscrossing the floor. Capital pulled himself up with a shelf, using it to balance himself, and I took to the air to avoid the shaking. Fissures opened up, revealing a starry night below us, and Puzzle was forced to take to the air as well to avoid being swallowed up.

“Look out!” Puzzle pointed to right above me, and I saw a chunk of the roof break off as the whole building started coming apart. I dodged to the side, and the chunk of stone came so close to hitting me that I felt the wind of its passage.

It got worse from there. A big spidery limb emerged from the hole and planted itself on the floor. The fissure kept growing, and from within its depths climbed out a spider the size of a small home. Only instead of the normal head of a spider there was Ephemera’s face, a pair of giant fangs sticking out of her mouth.

I growled as I flew up to get some space between me and that monster. “Hey! If you wanted to scare us then you shouldn’t have decided to look so punchable!” I dived down, and one of the monster’s legs shot out to hit me, but I barrel rolled to the side to avoid it. My hooves hit it right across the cheek and its head snapped to the side from the impact. Its forelegs tried to smack me aside but I poured on the speed to get outside of its reach.

Capital charged its flank and bucked it right in one of its legs causing it to flinch in pain. Alya was next as she grabbed one of her potions and tossed it towards the creature. An explosion of fire erupted when it broke against the spider’s carapace, and the monster let out an unearthly roar. Hate filling its eyes, it started wildly swinging at Capital and Alya. Alya let out a cry as the tip of a spider leg hit the ground with such force that it made rocks go flying and pelt her multiple times. Capital was too slow in dodging another leg, and a mere clip from one of the appendages sent him flying into and then crashing against a wall.

“Capital!” A flash of anger shot through me at the sight of Capital being hurt, and I dived at the monster. Once again I hit it across the face and, keeping up my speed, turned to hit it in the joint of one of its legs. It swiped at me as I hit it again and again, but I dodged and came in to attack. But while I was on the offensive, it didn’t take me long to figure out that I wasn’t actually doing any visible damage to the monster. Another of its legs came in at my side, but this time I was too slow, and it clipped my wing to send me into an out of control spin. I hit the ground shoulder first and tumbled end over end.

My body was slow to respond to my commands to get back up again, and every part of me hurt from the fall. The monster slowly approached me, and Ephemera’s mouth opened unnaturally wide to reveal far too many venom dripping fangs. But before it could close its fangs over me a dagger flashed through the air and hit the monster right in the eye. The monster shrieked and the very world shook from the unearthly scream. Several more daggers hit the monster’s face as Puzzle flew up and over it, landing on the creature’s back and dive punching a gauntleted hoof into the giant spider. His gauntlet sparked and electricity discharged right into the abomination. The monster spasmed sporadically and it collapsed to the ground.

But it was still moving, if languidly, as it recovered from the attack. Puzzle shot over my way, throwing more daggers into the monster’s face mid-flight before scooping me up and withdrawing to cover behind some ruins that had once been one of the town’s shops.

“I think we’re in trouble.” Puzzle glanced over the broken wall to see the monster slowly standing up. “I just hit that thing with my biggest shot, and it’s still moving.”

“I wasn’t doing much to it either.” I grunted as I shook off the tumble I’d taken. “Thanks for the save by the way.”

“Nothing you wouldn’t do for me.” Puzzle grinned at me. “I’d hope.”

“Well I’ve already pulled your rear out of prison, so I think that counts.” Something struck my curiosity as I watched Puzzle pull out yet another dagger. “How many of those things are you carrying? You’ve tossed at least a dozen of them by now.”

“I’m trying not to think too hard about it,” Puzzle said, keeping his voice low. “No sense complaining as long as this place keeps giving me as many daggers as I want. We might as well use the rules of this place to our advantage.”

A wide grin spread over my face, and I thumped Puzzle on the chest. “Puzzle, I know how we can take that thing down. Distract that thing while I pull this off.”

“Wait, what are you—“ The Do-mare leapt and rolled into the next set of cover, keeping this one from asking what in the world she had planned.

Great, she wanted this one to keep that monster busy when its most powerful attack had only temporarily stunned it. Now the monster had grown an additional six sets of eyes to make up for the ones this one had injured, and it was searching the ruins of the city, stepping over the fissures that had reduced the area to so much rubble. This one had hidden the Idea-stallion and the Alya-mare while the Do-mare had distracted the monster, but it was only a matter of time before it found someone.

Fighting it seemed like a losing proposition. This one couldn’t seriously hurt that thing, but it only had to hit this one once to end the fight. On the off chance it would work, this one tried to imagine a fully loaded ballista, but when this one opened its eyes no such weapon presented itself. It seemed the trick this one had used for its daggers had its limits. It would have been a serious help if this one had a better idea how to use the rules of this place, but this was not the time or place to learn how to manipulate the Dreamscape. So if fighting was off the table, that meant this one needed to try something else.

Not particularly liking the alternative option it’d decided upon, this one stepped out into the open and called out to the monster. “Can we at least get your name before you destroy us?”

The monster froze before slowly turning to face this one. It let out a low hiss and slowly stepped forward, its black eyes bearing down on this one. “I have no name within your understanding.”

“That’s going to make a civil conversation a bit hard,” this one said, standing its ground. “Normally I like to know why someone is torturing me before we get started.”

The monster’s mouth spread in an ugly smile that promised all sorts of unpleasant possibilities. “Can you not guess? You know what it’s like to feed on others and the pleasure it can bring.”

This one tried not to show any discomfort as the monster’s spindly legs stepped closer. “So is that why you’re tormenting us? To feed?”

“And what a feast I’ve had.” The monster chuckled menacingly. “It’s been so long since I’ve truly fed. Those hristak barely give me anything to sink my teeth into. But you? Oh yes, I will enjoy feeding on every last morsel I can get.”

It wasn’t terribly surprising that there might be a creature like this in the Dreamscape. There were plenty of monsters from other planes of existence that fed on the emotions of others. Not that our own world was exactly short on native monsters that did the same thing. Changelings fed on love, after all, and there were dark rumors that the Old Mind had experimented on feeding on other emotions a long, long time ago ... and was still experimenting.

“So you just want to feed on us?” This one tensed as the monster moved into striking range. “Makes sense considering what you put us through. Though it kinda defeats the purpose when you tell us what you’re doing.”

“I’m not too worried.” The thing let out a long hiss of a breath as it drew near. “Once I capture you again, I can befuddle your minds and continue my meal.” The monster’s features warped into a sneer. “Until you perish.”

This one forced a grin onto its face. “Assuming you can capture us again.”

“And where do you think you can run?” it asked. “You are already in my web. There is no escape.”

A shadow fell over the monster as it slowly reached for this one, and this one took a step back. “That’s assuming we need to escape you.”

The monster hissed, its fetid, hot breath nearly causing this one to gag. “And what do you mean by tha—”

A ship came crashing down on the monster bow first with a cataclysmic crash of breaking timber. Wood shattered and splinters flew as the oversized spider-monster was squashed, and this one was splattered with pale green ichor. This one didn’t have any time to complain before the main mast of the ship started coming down on this one’s head. This one dove to the side, barely avoiding getting crushed itself. Trapped under the sail, this one put its dagger to work to cut itself free of the wreckage.

Once this one emerged it checked to see the status of the monster. It was dead, very dead. Most of it was covered by planking, and what little of it could be seen made it very clear it wouldn’t be getting up again, assuming no weird Dreamshape shenanigans allowed it to recover from being splattered. Best not to stick around if possible.

The Do-mare landed next to this one with a proud grin on her face. “Hah! Got it!”

This one cut off a piece of the sail to wipe the ichor off of itself. “I take it this was your doing?”

The Do-mare nodded. “Yep! I took your advice and decided to use that ship we’d come in on as a weapon.” She pointed to the air. “Gravity is only a suggestion here, not a rule of physics. I just imagined the ship flying, and away she went. From there all I had to do was aim the thing and then splat!”

This one shot her a grin. “You nearly crushed me, you know.”

The Do-mare chuckled with a note of embarrassment. “Sorry about that. I’ve never used a ship as a weapon before. It’s not exactly easy to steer something that big by yourself, and time was of the essence.”

“True enough.” This one cleaned off its face and saw that the Alya-mare and the Idea-stallion were making their way towards us. “So now that the monster is gone, how do we get out—”

This one woke up with a start. Its breath came hard and heavy, as though it’d just taken a mile run, and it took effort to try and make its heart beat slower. Around this one, the others were waking up as well. We were back in the garden, consciously anyways. That was probably a good sign, assuming this wasn’t one big trick on the part of the monster, the paranoid part of my mind cautioned. That was always the issue with things like the Dreamscape: you could never be entirely sure about anything.

The second thing that immediately seized this one’s attention was its hunger. Its stomach was in a knot. That damnable, always present hunger that could never truly be satisfied was worse than ever. How long had we been asleep? Too long, certainly. This one felt weak from famine, and its head throbbed.

The Alya-mare yawned and stretched. “Is that it? Are we safe?”

“As safe as we can be for now,” the Do-mare said, hopping up to look around. “It seems we’re awake, anyways.”

Capital pushed himself to his hooves. “Well if it’s all the same, I’d like to get moving after that nap.” He smiled at the Do-mare. “Good job with the ship, by the way.”

The Do-mare puffed out her chest. “Not a problem. I couldn’t find a fly-swatter big enough for the big bug, so I picked up the next best thing.”

“Anything to make that thing stop.” The Alya-mare shivered. “I think that thing was a chaneque. I’ve heard stories about them. They're supposed to be malevolent spirits that lull people to sleep and then torment them to feed off their souls. They live in the jungles along the southern border of the Empire, but it seems they exist here too.”

The Do-mare nodded. “Sounds like what we were dealing with. Best not to wait around if we didn’t take it down, or there are more like it.” The Do-mare frowned at this one as it stood up on shaky legs, and had to brace against the wall just to keep from falling over. “You okay there?”

“I’m fine,” this one said too quickly. Damnit, this one was slipping, losing its concentration and cool. Best to throw out a lie until this one could collect itself. “Just a bit shaken after everything that happened.”

The Do-mare frowned, not entirely convinced by this one’s lie. “Do you need a minute?”

This one shook its head, and immediately regretted it as its headache caused its vision to swim. “No, th—I just need to get moving. Take my mind off it all.” This one flashed her a grin it didn’t feel at all. “We’ve got the rest of this pyramid to explore and to find Ephemera, right?”

That much was true. Pity this one wasn’t sure what shape it was going to be in when we actually found the Ephemera-mare at the rate we were going.

Author's Notes:

Thanks to my editors Chengar Qordath and Comma-Kazie for all their help, and to my pre-readers Brony Writer, wolfstorm56, Trinary, 621Chopsuey, Rodinga, PoisonClaw, and Swiftest for their hard work editing.