Author's Notes:

Another strange chapter, if not far more excessively than chapter 8. This is based on lore I've been building within roleplays for awhile. I don't know what you guys will think of it, but I hope you'll like it!

Either way, this chapter is focused primarily around Amelio.

Life had continued on as 'normal' for a few days ever since the trio had left Stable 47, exiting Stalliongrad and attempting to get back on the track of Sim's travel route for his comfort horse duties. After all, there were a lot of ponies who depended on him for his services, and always looked forward to seeing him again. He was a special reprieve from the bleakness of the wasteland for some who didn't have special ponies to call their own.

Or so Sim said.

It was also clear by the way he spoke that he'd settle down eventually if it meant giving Amelio the opportunity to learn and grow. It took many caps to get a place in Tenpony Tower, and Friendship City wasn't very easy to gain influence in either.

The snow was beginning to melt, overall things were looking up. Everything was still rather fresh instead of stagnant, not quite cold not quite warm. A nice, mediocre temperature that was reminiscent of a recently made cookie sundae. Comfortable climate for everypony involved, allowing for a lot of relaxation. Surrounding the trio were mostly a host of dead trees, essentially a forest of sorts that was slowly breaking apart, snapping away and becoming nothing more than dust, brittle wood everywhere.

“So, are you three ready to listen to Freiya's songs with me?” Sim had been waiting for Amelio to be ready to take a break with her educational tome, and Fear to finally be prepared to turn off his radio for a little while in order to listen to something much different.

Amelio looked up, having had her snout planted in the book, finally pony-ear-ing the page she was on before sliding it back into her saddlebags. “Hm. Sure, I suppose. You, Fear?”

Fear was hesitant, his face screwing up and lips forming a frown, teeth exposed ever so slightly. He cocked his head to the side before his horn lit up and the switch on the radio flicked off. “Yeah, shoot.” The anxiety was ever rampant, but not quite as bad. The tingles were only just barely, and the heat not quite as sweltering. The chest tremors felt more like purring.

Sim lifted his left foreleg, staring at the newly-attached terminal and using telekinetic force to press some of the buttons, navigating through to the memory storage and prepping the data files for playback. “Alright, first one's called Wanderer's Lullaby.”

Fear looked forward toward Sim, eyebrows raising. “That... Sounds familiar.”

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBjNmGvyA9mpEBeu8cPwDl-29ZaCdV_sP

The voice that erupted from the pipbuck's speakers, mingling with the background instrument was vibrant and... No other word for it than thorough when it came to how it affected them. Fear especially.

Emotions could be heard in every lyric, as if Freiya believed each word she was singing with her whole heart, stirring enough to empower a unicorn with how pure and firm the performance was. The voice was like a siren. The enunciation perfect and crisp. Bleeding passion. Dribbling with intimacy. The lows enough to calm a storm or encourage a depression; the highs enough to ensure fright or inject elation. If it was acting it could earn the highest award all on its own. As changelings they could almost taste it. Changelings would revel in it. It was intense. Perfect for a pony like Fear, and overwhelming for anypony not familiar with her, easily bringing them to tears. But that crushing nature of it was incredible, infectious, and intoxicating. Manipulative. It seeped into the brain and changed it. Guided it. Made unused neurons overflow with synapses.

The three were impressed as they listened to each lyric, Fear blinking a few times as he started to tear up, which was becoming rather common for him. His face tensed and he sniffed. He recognized this song. Fear's ears flopped against his skull and he looked down at the ground. “This... This song is the one Mom used to sing to me.”

Amelio glanced toward her brother and best friend curiously. “Well I mean it makes sense. Your mother was her daughter.”

Fear nodded and held a hoof against his head. “Y-yeah...” The colt felt like he'd been brutally struck in the gut. Everything felt vague and faraway. The physical symptoms of his anxiety lifted like a shroud or a veil. Everything felt all the more... Clear. It was like a final message from his mother. He wanted to listen to it again and again before bed. Just wrap himself up in it like it was a foal swaddle or a thunder blanket. Fear hoped one day he'd find his own way like the song suggested. The song brought back many memories of hanging out with his mother. Learning by her hoof. Eating with her. Being saved by her. Like a final goodbye.

Sim had been intending to teach Fear how to harness his changeling magic and Amelio had been learning how to lucid dream. Methods to become aware she was dreaming, such as looking at something that had words on it, looking away, then looking back and seeing if it was any different. Noticing whether or not everything was stuttery or sluggish. She was also exercising her subconscious with philosophical questions noted within the book, and using meditation. Both entertaining thoughts and learning to deflect unnecessary feelings. There were moments she became lucid and immediately panicked about how long she'd been asleep for, and was unnerved at the idea she'd fallen into a coma and couldn't wake up, which roused her out of sleep within a few seconds, but she was trying her best to become comfortable with the dreaming state.

Another problem that had been arising, though far less mental, were the pin and needle sensations poking and tickling her extremities and other parts of her body. The occasional nausea made it difficult to eat, despite only having a heart cherry once every couple days.

On a positive note, Fear had been talking to his mother far less. Conversing with his new friends or thinking to himself instead. He still heard her voice, but it wasn't common, only coming when provoked.

Back in the present, Fear was finding himself enamored with the songs. Music about optimism in a place as dark as the wasteland. Believing in the better nature of others. It stole his breath away. It didn't quite feel naive, or innocent. Just... stubborn. Like somepony realized they could make a decision to have faith or they could give in and stop believing in everything, and they'd chosen to remain hopeful despite all the agony. Fear knew the background too. Freiya had seen all she needed in the wasteland, so she must've also seen things that encouraged her. A smile graced Fear's lips. The one about treating those burning wounds, the table being set, and the bed being made, reminded him so much of Stable 47. It made him feel warm and fuzzy, like he'd eaten a good stew and it was sloshing around inside his belly. His anxiety squished down more the more as he listened, and he found himself entranced. Sighing blissfully. Then there was the romantic duet between Freiya and who he assumed was Silver Speech. Silver's voice was smooth, silky, and chocolatey. It seemed to dig into all the folds of the brain, squeezing into every little niche and opening up everything, pulling out every secret within. It had so much elocution. The songs ranged from immensely comforting and cozy, all the way to romantic and full of visual words. Some a combination. Some full of longing to see another again.

Fear was at a loss for words during most of them. A distant, empty gaze in his eyes.

The final one though reminded him of a version of the Enclave. Reminded him of the pegasi, who, aside from Dashites – ponies who were branded as traitors to the ones above the clouds – had decided to forsake Equestria entirely during the war in order to make their own little home away from everypony else, in order to escape the traumas and destruction of war. And there they sat to this day, doing nothing more than holing away when everypony else needed help and assistance. Concealing the wasteland with a permanent quilt of clouds. It was a somber song.

When it was all over, Amelio was the first to speak. “Wow, Miss Freiya really knows what she is doing, huh? And her husband was not half bad either. He must have sung a lot while traveling the wastes.”

Fear gave a singular nod, still at a loss for words. Not sure he had the strength or energy to speak, despite feeling inspired. A strange contradiction of emotions.

Sim thought about it, sighing joyfully. “Yeah. It was really good. This truly was the best gift I could have asked for. We'll have to make a stop by Tenpony sometime so we can get this music on the radio.”

“That'd be cool, yeah.” Fear finally eased out in a subdued voice. He couldn't quite feel the anxiety much anymore. If anything everything felt like... a new start. Still, he'd be damned if he stopped listening to DJ-P0N3 and missed a broadcast. But for now, they could just continue listening to these new songs until they grew tired of them.

Sim spoke up over the music as he started back from the beginning with Wanderer's Lullaby. “Fear, I think now is a good time to teach you a couple things.” Sim fell back a ways, sidling up next to Fear and guiding him. “I'm going to have you focus internally while we walk.”

Fear looked to Sim, all of his muscles loose and lax. “Uh, right, sure.” The colt sounded like he was in a daze.

Sim nodded once and continued. “Alright, just close your eyes and lean against me as we walk. Search deep inside of yourself. I'm sure you already know by now that your regular magic feels akin to rushing water. Well, changeling magic feels more like pressurized steam. Hot on contact, hard to hold. Melts everything it touches and quickly evaporates once it leaves your body.”

Fear thought about it, searching inward.

“Eventually you'll also be able to force transformations on other changelings and hybrids like Ame and me with enough experience. It's like latching onto someling else's latent magic and just jerking it into place.”

Amelio was busy going back to her reading as they continued listening to the songs in order.
Fear hadn't found it yet but he was already curious. “What exactly am I searching for? I know regular magic is more like something generated, but you're telling me I need to find this?”

Sim grinned, flank bumping Fear gently. “Indeed. All your cells are constantly producing it passively. You just need to learn how to grab hold of it and channel collections of it into parts of your body and use it just how you'd use regular magic. You need to learn how to excite the process on a whim, and shove your will into it. Otherwise it'll just keep leaking off of you and going to waste.”

Fear's thoughts dwelled on that for a bit before he gazed inward once more, looking for the feeling of... Steam? It would certainly be interesting once he found it.

==========================================================================================

Time had passed. Likely a month. Fear couldn't keep track. Everything just blurred by.

Well it would have if Sim and his pipbuck weren't keeping track of the days. It had a clock on it after all. Checking it showed it indeed had been about a month, a little more. Fear was progressing swiftly with learning the basics, having been taught how to transform love into a physical substance. It required forming a shell out of magic and filling it with pure, raw transformative powers. Then converting the love he was draining into that shell. It was a process that took quite a bit of thought, and the only reason he'd gotten opportunities to practice it was due to Amelio, Sim, and some of Sim's friends that knew what he was, offering up themselves for practice. Fear got the hang of it rather quickly.

The colt had also recently purchased another canteen with Sim's assistance, the first one having been acquired about a year prior. A year? Fear couldn't tell. Either way, he now had two canteens, one filled with water and another with a horizontal gash on it filled with the love he'd been collecting, slowly becoming a comfort horse like Sim. Sim had been teaching him some tricks with transformation, and Fear had come up with a couple of his own, such as forming tendrils on his hooves to help with more articulate movements. Sure he could hardly put it into effect without arousing suspicion, but he could do it! He'd also at one point tried to scare Amelio by turning himself into a tiny version of Slenderstal.

Suffice to say, it hadn't worked.

Amelio actually beaned him across the head with a hoof for trying, then shoved him over and kicked him while he was down. Fear accepted the abuse like a doormat. After all, he kind of earned the punishment. Or at least that's how he felt.

Speaking of Amelio, her headaches had become more prominent, almost always present. Not too terrible as far as pangs went, but still unwanted. It was leaving her a little crabby and worried which, on those rare occasions her composure cracked, caused her to lash out. She always apologized for it though. She was also experiencing muscle weakness and difficulties with her telekinesis. Now and then, without warning it'd just... cut out. The nausea had worsened, which made it very good she didn't usually eat regular food.

Fear and Sim showed concern, but Amelio would always assuage them with warm words. The colt was usually in denial, and when he wasn't he regretted giving up the Seer's Eye, remembering how Storm found the radaway for him when he was suffering from radiation poisoning. Thinking that, perhaps if he had the pendant he could find out what was wrong with Amelio and discover a way to fix it. Amelio could always discern his thoughts and comforted him, telling him the stable needed the pendant to survive, and they would eventually join the wasteland and bring the pendant with them.

Sim's worry could hardly be abated. There was nothing he could do for his daughter and he wasn't used to having something this far out of his control. Sure he had given up control of his life long ago, but this seemed like insult to injury. An injury he'd taken upon himself.

On the bright side, Amelio was becoming more confident in her dreaming. No longer afraid she was going to be stuck in limbo for eternity due to a coma. She was beginning to revel in them, sometimes even daydreaming, her subconscious having become strong enough to handle just about anything. Amelio was learning to use the magic that made up a dream bubble's shell, the inherent energy laced in it to fuel her magic. Even sometimes pulling on her daydreams for strength. Also teaching herself how to perform the Dreamkiller spell. Something that could penetrate even the most impossible of nightmares, piercing through moments when the subconscious actively worked against itself. It took discipline, but Amelio had fought through it with hard work and brutal effort. Her illusion magic had been assisting with the development of those skills.

For now the three were getting settled down for sleep, Fear cuddling his plush and, like he'd taken to, snuggling close to Amelio, forelegs wrapped around her and holding her close. He never wanted to let her go. Amelio drifted off to sleep rather easily.

Before she knew what was going on she was suddenly in a bright and lively casino. Only it was veritably empty except for two figures aside from her. The liveliness was in the sounds surrounding her. Ranging from slot machines flicking along and dinging, cards being shuffled by unseen hooves and telekinesis, all the way to pachinko machines. All of which were things Amelio had never seen before. The colors on everything were pure and overly saturated, almost giving Amelio a headache within the context of her dream as well. Everything was so loud it was difficult to grasp. Amelio was at a green felt card table with freshly lacquered wooden rimming. She was sitting in one chair and next to her was her brother. Though something seemed strange about him. He didn't seem all there. Quickly and easily, she recognized him as just a construct.

Next, Amelio looked across from her as her tail flicked, sitting on her haunches on a stool. The being across from her was large, way too large to realistically fit in the building she was in. Yet, surreally enough, the creature did. It looked like a giant crimson and violet Ursa Major with stellar constellations scattered about, with multi-hued nebulas for a set of eyes that had deep O-class stars radiating light for the pupils. It was an incredible sight, and the presence was alarmingly weighty. Amelio suddenly felt like she was about to be crushed from sheer miasma. Like she was being pulled into a blackhole and everything was as slow as could be. The enormous bear, a bear that gave off the impression of being even larger than reality, was full of so many connecting stars. Except they weren't actually connected. They just solidified the notion that each and every one of them were somehow linked to another, and some had multiple bridges spanning the points, like webs of... something.

Amelio was in awe. Even as the egregious noises surrounding her battered at her skull. Chinging and chiming bells everywhere. The whole scene was crystal clear to her. She watched the giant bear for awhile as it held a deck of cards between its paws, starting to shuffle them in all sorts of ways, consecutively with an unhindered flow. They just flew through the air into the separate piles, seeping together like grains of sand. The cards were extravagant and ornate, with designs on the backs that insinuated... Things. Impossible things. And the fronts were hazy, unable to be read. Amelio didn't understand them no matter how hard she tried to focus. She knew she was dreaming. Everything felt like a dream except for this bear. It seemed much more... Potent. “Who are you?” She asked as the cards cascaded together.

The bear responded simply. “Neur.”

Amelio nodded once, rather curtly. “Right. Neur. I know I am dreaming. What is this place?” She gestured to the area around her.

Neur just smiled, his lips pulling back into an excited snarl. “You are in Life, my dear Amelio. But you have choices. Just like your brother, every choice you make is incredibly important. But that is the case for every mortal. It just turns out you have less time right now than others.”

Amelio narrowed her eyes, then closed them. Taking a deep breath through her snout. She knew. “Is that so? And what exactly are you?”

Neur grinned a little wider. “You are keen to accept things you have no control over I see.”

Amelio shook her head. “It is not that... It is just... I had a feeling the time for second chances had already passed. There is only so much you can do in the wasteland,” her voice tapered off as she looked to the side, away from Neur.

Neur gave a firm, comprehending nod. “That is true. There is only so much you can do anywhere and everywhere. But that is the beauty of life. How you choose to live with limited power.”

It sounded like there was a whole story laying behind those words, of creatures who had tried to take more power than could be allowed. And who had tried to do dangerous, sinful things to all of creation.

Or was it just a dream?

Amelio pressed a hoof against her head. “That does not answer the question though of what are you? You do not appear to be a construct of my subconscious. You are somehow different. You are more... Solid. You are more like a projection of something far more powerful.”

Neur slammed the deck of cards on the table and started flicking them apart from each other before quickly merging them back into one pile. “I am a manifestation of connection. A consciousness made up of every link in existence, spanning across every reality. I am the physical approximation of it. I am ancient. And I have a deal for you,” Neur said while putting the deck back into place.

Amelio gave a sly smirk. “Sounds impossible, but if you have a deal I am willing to listen.”

Neur continued. “There are many cards in this deck. Resets, second chances, limitless power, timeline divisions, various destinies, meanings, and so many other things. Anything you could possibly comprehend and beyond is in this.”

This had to be a dream. But Neur didn't feel like a construct.

Amelio looked at the deck. “And we are going to play a game together for my life?”

Neur chuckled. A deep, uproarious chuckle that had no beginning and no end. It seemed to span all of time and go far further. “Not even slightly. I don't like playing games of chance. It is the silver tongued Fate who does those.”

Amelio's eyes sharpened. “Yet you are offering me a deck of cards.”

Neur shook his head. “The contents of this deck are a given. I have not rigged the deck, but no matter how much I shuffle things are going to be a certain way.”

Amelio looked over to the construct of her brother who had been entirely silent the whole time, just staring at the cards. “And what is he here for?”

Neur spread the cards out. “He is one you are connected deeply to, aside from your father. The connection between you two is so powerful I do not think there is anything that can truly break it forever. The connection between you both is, without measure, limitlessly close, and it is like that in every reality because of just how powerful it is.”

Mind-boggling. Amelio was at a loss for words at the implications.

“I want you, knowing what you know now, to decide what in life is important to you. Here and now. By drawing a card. I want you to show me your destiny. What you choose to make of your life. If you are truly great or if you are merely weak and incapable of anything.”

Amelio scoffed. “I am perfect. You cannot begin to comprehend my greatness.” It was mostly a bluff, but Amelio was confident in herself. She had come this far.

Neur pushed the cards forward. “Then draw a card, and show me what it is you are going to accomplish with your life.”

Amelio hesitated. All at once memories flashed through her mind. The most prominent of which were Fear giving her the opportunity to be overmare, and the fact that she was dying. What could she possibly achieve in her short timeframe? Would she leave Fear to fend for himself?

The filly looked to her brother's construct. Really looked at him. Stared into what made him who he was. She reached out a hoof to his shoulder and dragged it along. “Brother...” She knew that no matter what her destiny was, there were only so many things you could do in certain situations. There were innumerable things she could do to try and save herself. If she could figure them out in time.

Neur smiled again. “I'd say you're running out of time, but really there is no such thing as time in places like these. The answer will take less than an instant. If anything, the choice was already made long, long ago.”

Amelio hovered a hoof over one of the cards, blinking once. She wanted desperately to choose her own destiny. To choose what her life meant in the grand scheme of things. To decide everything once and for all. To be a leader. But... Her brother. She looked back to him, tracing a hoof over one of the elaborate cards.

Neur read Amelio's thoughts. “His construct is here as no more than a witness to your glory Amelio. He has barely a destiny of his own. You know that as well as I do.”

Amelio laughed out loud. It was like a melodic chortle. “Yes, yes. I know. Ever since Dad revealed... Yes. I know.” She shook her head. “But he is here. He is more than a witness to my glory. He is my brother. And he should have the opportunity to decide something as well.”

Neur leaned forward, his paws clasping the table. “That's a big answer for such a little filly,” the bear teased with a grumble.

Amelio brushed her mane back. “I know, right? Can not get much bigger than that. But you should know he has taught me bravery in the face of what you can not control. He has taught me many things. And I am sure there is much I can teach him. I trust him to move on. To be strong. I trust him to make the choice.”

Fear's construct came to life next to her, staring at her with wonder, before reaching out for one of the cards. The one furthest away from them. Uncertainty crossed his face. He looked to his sister as he flinched back.

Amelio grimaced. “I trust my brother to ameliorate the wasteland.” She was the big sister. She put a hoof on Fear's shoulder. “Do it Fear. You may have many regrets, and you probably always will, but you can rise above them. You are far stronger than me, somepony who has no regrets.”

Neur gestured to the construct. “It is in your hooves, Fear.”

The construct flipped the card over. Something familiar to the three of them was on it. But it was indecipherable.

Everything went black.

All noise ceased.

The dream ended.

==========================================================================================

Amelio woke up early in the morning next to her brother, not that he knew yet. Yawning and stretching out her legs far from her body. Jaw hinging open to intake air and fill her lungs. She smacked her lips a few times as she looked around, still feeling incredibly fatigued. Probably the illness she knew she had. Her time was limited. What card had Fear drawn? It had been a vivid dream, more than most. She remembered it blatantly. Neur had been a kind soul, she could tell that much. Maybe even a little innocent.

The others would wake up soon enough Amelio knew as she watched the dead wasteland remain dead. There was nothing coming to life right now, but maybe someday. Somehow she knew that... in some way, she'd get to see the wasteland recover. Amelio looked forward to it. In the meantime, she decided to use her time left wisely. Maybe if she finished the dream walking tome she'd find a way to cure Fear of his nightmares. He almost always had them. She remembered many times being woken up by his banshee-like screaming and sobbing. So she started reading through the book again.

Fear woke up next, gripping his plushie even tighter, cradling the Breinstorm doll close to his chest and slowly sitting up, blinking away bleariness. Fear and her talked about much of nothing as they waited for Sim to awaken.

Sim eventually did awaken, with a grunt and a snort. And soon enough they were back on their way traveling to the next village.

As they walked, Amelio requested that Fear finish Tormented.

It had been a long journey through the dream manor for Reiki and Caramel, both using a special camera within their dreams that allowed them to fight back spirits that attempted to subsume them into death. At one point it appeared as if Caramel had succumbed to the snake and holly tattoo, to the pain, and followed her brother to the afterlife. Reiki had woken up with a start and looked to her bunkmate (after all, no better way to get over Wartime Stress Disorder than to have a friend close by!) seeing her surrounded by blinded equine ghosts. Not turning to soot though like all the other victims. Finally, after going back to sleep Reiki had come across the start of it all. The mare who had created the curse in the first place due to a ritual gone wrong. Reiki fought off what had essentially become an embodiment of hurt, the spirit of another who had also lost somepony important after choosing to take the hurt of others.

Reiki got to see her fiance one last time in the sea of the dead, a place with a blazing blue sun, black sky, and deep, dark, glossy waters. All as spirits who were finally freed from the curse got to cross to a true afterlife. It was a tearful reunion, bittersweet as could be, because although Distant Sunrise took the manifestation of Reiki's pain, he had to leave her behind with solemn words.

“If you forget me, then I will truly die. As long as you live, I will live.”

It ended with an epilogue of Reiki, Caramel, and a few others who'd managed to survive being discharged from the brainwashing center. The two got their jobs back, and it ended with a beautiful description of a distant sunrise. Normality returning. The war ending. Ponies living happily ever after with a zebra surrender.

The ending only incentivized Amelio to finish her learning before illness finally took her.

==========================================================================================

It was another night of Fear and Amelio sleeping nuzzled together. Amelio was having a strange, incoherent dream about Stable 47, Amor Fati, and a strange filly that was his daughter, when she noticed something off about her dream. She looked up into the corner of the stable corridor and focused. Eventually floating above the ground as her concentration made it feel like her eyes were crossed, everything freezing in place from sheer will alone. She drew closer to the corner and looked at it. On the surface it looked like merely a shimmer, but deeper down, in her subconscious. She could tell it was a crack. She hesitated for a moment, contemplating what it could mean, before the information finally returned to her, eyes widening. She'd been looking for something like this for a long time.

Amelio had been trying to find cracks like these in her dreams whenever she remembered to search, and finally, finally she'd found one. Amelio gathered up the energy from her dream and focused it into her horn as if it was second nature, aiming her Dreamkiller spell at the wall. With a little oomph put into it a solid beam shot out and struck it. The wall worbled and wrinkled, before shattering and crumbling apart.

And with the wall crumbling apart so too did the dream itself entirely erode away. Given enough time at least. Like a bubble popping.

Without warning Amelio was stuck in a large black abyss filled to the brim with a flowing river of bubbles with all sorts of images contained within, reflecting on the surface. Amelio was swept along in the swift current, tumbling away to somewhere and nowhere all at once. She couldn't tell where she was going but she tried to focus once more on that ability of flight, eventually reining control over herself and righting out like a canoe in rushing rapids. She looked around for awhile and began swimming against the flow, drifting along at a lazy pace. Amelio marveled over the sheer number of bubbles within her sight. Still, it clearly ended at some point. Either not everypony was dreaming right now or there just weren't that many ponies still left. Or maybe a combination of the two. Still, it trailed along behind for a ways.

It wasn't until a moment later that Amelio remembered her true purpose. To find Fear's dreambubble and merge with it. Alleviate his nightmares. Her eyes narrowed as she focused on that one goal and tried to find her brother, noticing a number of bubbles flickering red like warning sirens, dimming on the surface to a dangerous rose color. Eventually she found what she was looking for though, a bubble with Fear on the surface. It was him amidst a rainy day next to a skywagon station. It was glaring red too. She zoomed toward it and shoved herself into the shell, covering herself in dreamkiller so that she'd slip right in, burrowing deep and coming out the other side without popping it.

Amelio twisted her gaze this way and that, noticing that the farthest reaches of the dream were currently curtained off by a veil of mist similar to a computer that hadn't yet loaded all the graphics. She was surrounded by towering skyscrapers, many of them chipped away, some fallen to the ground, all of them abandoned. She drew closer to the streets and alighted on the cracked asphalt. She could sense her brother all around her and in one singular place all at the same time. It was a strange sensation, like feeling two of him. It threw her off a bit but still she proceeded along, finding the familiar skywagon station leaking water and a familiar drenched colt who was staring wide-eyed at a lanky unicorn colt with his mane hanging over one of his eyes. He was glaring deathly daggers at Fear, who was leaning backwards and cowering.

The filly got closer and noticed Fear's eyes were bulging out of their sockets, completely bloodshot, and his jaw was hanging open to try and get air, none of which he could. There was a lime green field of magic surrounding Fear's throat – he was being choked to death! His neck compressed until the larynx was flattened inside. The same field covered the colt's horn. Fear's eyes rolled into the back of his head as he tried desperately to collect air, his chest twitching before he began squirming on the ground, rolling from side to side, trying to shake off the telekinetic force. Yet at the same time... He didn't care. He knew he deserved it. He was prepared to die.

Fear's subconscious was giving up.

Amelio didn't hesitate, charging her horn with charcoal magic and lancing out a bolt of dreamkiller magic at the construct murdering her brother. The spear shot through the colt's body, making him fizzle, then surrounded him, causing the construct to glow before dispersing into motes of light with the shattering of glass.

Fear gasped for breath and slammed a hoof on the ground in desperation as he was finally allowed to breathe, both in the dream and in real life. Fear pressed his muzzle against the ground as he heaved for air, his chest rising and falling ceaselessly. He then eventually looked up and around. Finding Amelio he stood up and made his way over to her. He could feel her presence. Her actual being. “Amelio? What are you doing here?”

Parts of the dream began to melt away, becoming more like sludge than vivid constructs.

Amelio just smiled. “You were in trouble so I decided to do something about it. You are dreaming Fear. Nothing more. You do not exist in this time and place anymore.” She stated, looking around at everything. “No more than a nightmare.”

Fear looked around too, watching it all seem to fall apart and switch to something different. “Th... Thank you Meels. You shouldn't have had to see that. My guilt.” His head jolted away from her, unable to look her in the eyes.

Amelio shook her head. “No, Fear. We are in this together. Together, forever. Just like we said.” She moved up to the colt and gave him a nuzzle with her muzzle. “Trust me. I trust you.”

Fear had a solemn, sorrowful look in his eyes as he turned back to her, his eyebrows leaning outward. “O... Okay. I trust you, Meels.”

Amelio nodded, then pressed a hoof on top of Fear's head. “Good boy.” She said before ruffling his mane. “Maybe soon I will be able to rid you of those nightmares once and for all. My book is teaching me about how they operate. It is in part magical, and in part due to chemicals in the brain. Adrenaline or something I think. WTSD pills are supposed to help with stuff like that.”

Fear cocked his head to the side as he and Amelio laid next to each other in the downpour, both of them getting slick and cool. “That's pretty cool. The book must be really well researched!”

Amelio kissed her brother on the cheek. “It really is, Fear. Maybe someday I will let you read it and you can learn too.” She gave him a little wink.

Fear grinned slyly. “Maybe I'll just do it when you least expect it! I can see it now: Fearshatter, destroyer of nightmares!”

Amelio rolled her eyes. “Dream on, buddy.” The two of them giggled together for awhile.

Fear frowned. “Really though, I might give it a shot. But for now... I guess you're my guardian angel.”

Amelio smiled. “I am more of a moon angel, I am certain. There are pictures of Luna, stars, and moons in the book and I find them to be very lovely. As lovely as me.”

Fear shook his head from side to side in disbelief. “You're amazing, you know that?” He huffed. “But sure, you're my guardian moon angel.” Fear gave her a kiss back on the cheek. Then hesitated. “Will you stay with me for the rest of the night, Meels?” He paused. “Please?”

Amelio nodded. “Sure. Maybe you can come up with something new for us to do in here. Got any ideas?”

Fear thought about it. “Well, I could always introduce you to my mother I guess.”

The filly had a melancholic smile on her face. “Sure, Fear, as you wish.”

Fear smiled, his tail whipping back and forth as he summoned his mother's visage. All his memories of her. Amelio could tell it was just a construct based on his memories.

But it would be enough for now.