Author's Notes:

Due to the support of readers like you, I rewrote the prologue.

Now it's in the third person, the perspective I'm more familiar writing in. I added more to where he came from and the life he lived before his adventure started. I'm also working on a more complex and full story. Originally this was just me having fun with a new idea. Now with such support, I'm going to put more effort into this project.

I apologize for spelling and grammar errors, I don't have a dedicated editor.

A lucid dream is a dream during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming. During a lucid dream, the dreamer may gain some amount of control over the dream characters, narrative, and environment; however, this is not necessary for a dream to be described as lucid.

David was worn out from his job cleaning the Bryn Mawr Collage’s Canady library building. Rubbing his shoulder he entered his apartment and looked at the refrigerator. “Do I want to cook, or skip eating today?”

Choosing to wait on eating till later he had a hot shower. Once in the stream of flowing water, he let the liquid flow down his back. His skin was pale working night shift just don’t offer many chances of suntanning. Brown hair hangs down wet with water and he noted it was getting time to have it cut again.

His gut rumbled “Alright, I feed you.” Sighing, he went to his small kitchen and just removed a frozen pizza from the freezer and tossed it into the oven. Grabbing a bottle of beer he settled down on the couch and turned on his T.V. Using his fire tv he accessed Hulu and put on my little pony.

Shortly after the first episode, he had a hot pizza. So his binge-watching of the last season of My Little Pony began. Eventually, the pizza got cold, the beer got warm, and his eyes got droopy.

Tossing the remaining pizza into the fridge he headed to bed. On the wall over his full-size bed was a dream catcher. On the nightstand, an amethyst crystal geo sparkled in the morning light still streaming through the heavy curtains.

Settling down he looked to his echo pod device on his nightstand. “Alexa starts Lucid Dream sounds.” A chime and Alexa respond “Starting lucid dream sounds… pleasant dreams.”

The dream took hold in his mind and he stood near an apple cart in Ponyville. A few moments later his mind catches up with the dream and he realizes he’s dreaming. “Oh… okay so this is interesting.”

“It mine!” “No, it’s mine” Seeing a fight broke out among the Cutie mark Crusaders over a doll. “Lesson Zero?... yup there crazy Twilight.”

He watched as the already freaking out Twilight Sparkle tries to solve a friend problem she caused by magic.

“This is so much better than watching it on T.V.” Pinkie Pie’s voice came from behind David and he turned seeing the very same Pink terror sitting on a recliner eating popcorn.

“Pinkie Pie?”

“Nope, er yes. I’m your subconscious taking the appearance of Pinkie Pie. So sit back and watch the show!” A second recliner appeared.

David chuckled seeing the recliner was pink with a rainbow Polka Dot pattern. Shrugging he sat down and picked up a popcorn bag. “Way better than the T.V. I so love when I can Lucid Dream.”

“I know, I’m you after all.”

About when Celestia showed up the subconscious version of Pinkie Pie disappeared. The show ended leaving David standing in a gray void. He started walking in the fog he heard voices and saw movements but as he walked he became more aware he lost control of his dream. “Crap… okay focus. I need a way out… a door.” Closing his eyes he imagined a door.

Opening his eyes he sees a door. “Huh… that’s not the door I had in mind.” The door was old, wooden with cast iron bolts. A similar door you would see in an old castle in a movie. It even had the curved top and handle that was a leaver instead of a doorknob.

“Well, it is a door.” Reaching out his hand just touches the handle when it swings open. Falling back he loses his balance falling onto the ground as a blue-purple mist of stars came out gripping his legs.

Struggling he tried to kick the mass of stars, the more he struggled the more he was gripped and then he was pulled through the door. A loud slam sound echoed as he fell into darkness.

Coming too he finds himself laying on a hard stone floor. “Odd, that the first time I lost consciousness in a dream. Um, subconscious what’s going on?” Sitting up he saw he was in a grand hall. Large stained glass windows lit the chamber and he saw two thrones on top of a balcony. He recognized it as the thrones in the castle of the two royal sisters.

What he didn’t recall was the details, each stone in the floor and walls were in full display. He could even make out the mortar used to hold the stones together. Looking down he saw the carpet every thread. Standing up he looked at the thrones and saw the most realistic version of Luna he had ever seen.

The royal blue coat was silky as if freshly washed. Her main and tail flowed with a wind he couldn’t feel and he could even see the stars sparkle as the hair waved. The eyes were most shocking; they were smaller than the cartoon version, more realistic, and showed more expression. Her wings flutter showing the variations in the blue of her feathers. Her muzzle was not as long as a horse but was more true to life then the small muzzle the cartoon showed. In truth, it reminded him of a longer version of the face masks used in the original planet of the ape movies, just with the nose more integrated into the muzzle.

That very mouth started speaking in a language he couldn’t understand. It was a language just one not meant for a human mouth. He started to turn as he felt another presence in the chamber to see Celestia approach the thrones.

He then realized he was in the scene where Luna becomes Nightmare Moon. “This is interesting.” Celestia and Luna seem to look around trying to identify a sound. When no clear source of the sound came they looked back at each other and the yelling started.

As Celestia walked by him he saw how realistic this dream world was. There she was Celestia’s flanks and what was under the tail on full display. “Ugh… subconscious I didn’t need to see that.” Both royal sisters’ ears turn to him, but unlike before they ignored what they heard.

Luna started to rise into the air and the window shattered revealing the sun being eclipsed by the moon. A strange sicking red light started emitting from the eclipse and a blast of black magic came down. David saw one blast of the black magic hit a tree, it twisted and deformed growing thorns and its color became dark.

Luna herself started changing her fur growing blue, black her wings losing it’s feathers and twisting deforming into bat-like wings. She screamed in pain as the magic altered her body, her teeth fell out being replaced by sharp predator’s teeth. Her teal eyes shift into cat-like eyes. Soon her metamorphosis into Nightmare Moon was complete.

“That wasn’t in the cartoon…” Perhaps it was his voice that distracted Celestia because the next thing David knew was seeing her being blasted by Nightmare Moon’s magic and being tossed into one of the halls supporting pillars.

The fight was more graphic than any cartoon could be. Celestia called out a pleading tone to her voice even if he couldn’t understand the words he could tell she was pleading for her sister to stop.

Luna, now Nightmare moon sprang forward slamming her front hooves into Celestia causing a gash to open along Celestia’s barrel. With powerful wing beats, Celestia leaped up into the air flying out of the now broken window. Nightmare Moon chasing after her.

“Come on! Why can’t I do anything! This is my dream… isn’t it?” Racing to the now broken window he looked out seeing not a field or even a forest. What he saw was a city, a city burning.

As he watched he could see the ground shake as caves and tunnels under the city collapsed. Buildings toppled over falling into the new sinkholes. Even more, trees warped under the effects of the magic emitting from the eclipse.

A pegasus guard rushes to help fight Nightmare Moon only to be hit by the strange dark magic from the moon. Like Luna, he screamed in pain and fell to the ground. His coat a red tone turned dark, blood-red dark and his mane and tail turned black. His wings lost it’s feathers and became those like a bat. “He’s becoming a thestral…” Everywhere he looked he saw other ponies that were hit by the dark magic transform into the nocturnal ponies.

Whatever the city was it was doomed. He realizes he was watching the birth of the Everfree, and the bat ponies. Smoke from the burning fires hit his lungs and he coughs. “Wait… I’m coughing? How can I cough in a dream? Is this real?” Turning he ran to where he saw the display of the Elements of Harmony.

Debris fell as the bruised, bloodied, and battered form of Celestia fell through the ceiling. She struggled to stand back up as the dark figure of Nightmare Moon came down laughing.

Some of the falling wood fell and David thought it would hit him. Instead, it passed right through him. “Huh… a dream after all.”

Nightmare Moon charged her horn getting ready for the final attack. When the Elements of Harmony sprang into action. The rainbow blast of magic hit David in the chest as it passed through him to Nightmare Moon. The force was strong enough he was lifted off the ground.

Screaming in agony he felt his body being broken down to the purest of his essence. It felt as if every nerve, every muscle, everything was vaporized as he passed through Nightmare Moon. Her screams matched his own… and the world faded to black.

Sore, he was sore all over as he came too once again. This time he wasn’t in a castle, what he saw was a floor of sparkling lights. His eyes look up seeing nothing but stars, more stars than he ever imagined. The closest thing he could compare it to was Nasa photos of the cosmos.

He tried to sit up only to fall face forward into the glowing floor. “FUCK…” his voice was wrong. Reaching to his neck his hand stopped, it wasn’t his hand. He saw a hoof black at the end going to a blue shade where his fur started. His fur was blue so dark it was almost black, he thought there was a slight hint of purple as well.

Turning his head he saw wings on his back, bat-like wings. The membrane of the wings was a purplish-blue shade, his eyes traveling to his mane and tail. They flowed in a wind he couldn’t feel, looking very much like moonlit clouds. Shades of gray and silver rippled in with motion to the ethereal wind.

Reaching up he felt a small horn on his forehead. “I’m an Alicorn?” his voice was still too high pitched. He rose to his hooves this time on all fours and looked down between his legs. “Good still male… but. FUCK”

The proportions were wrong. He was small, not just his manhood, but his very body was small and delicate. “I’M A FOAL?”

Looking around he recognized that he was in the Dreamscape. “Okay, focus. I need something to stand on. All these start making me seasick… solid land. Focus David.”

Grass grew under his hooves and spread out, then bushes and trees grew into a lush garden. There were no plants he could identify in the garden. Flowers shifted, trees morphed, they were all a blend of various plant life from his mind. The only tree that didn’t twist or morphed was a large willow tree. A tree that was similar to the Grandmother Willow from the Disney movie Pocahontas.

“Okay, I need to see what I look like. A mirror pool! Right... There!” He motioned with his hoof and the ground shifted forming a bowl shape with a silvery bottom. Water filled the bowl forming a mirror pool of cool water.

Once the pool was formed he tried to walk, tripping on his hooves he fell face-first into the water. “AGH… I better not wake up having peed myself.” He looks down seeing his reflection.

Teal cat slit eyes look right back at him. His ears were tufted with fluff, and peaking out of the mass of uncombed mane was a small blue-black horn. “I’m a Thestal alicorn?”

Looking more he could see he wasn’t like a foal depicted in the cartoon. Just like the versions of Celestia and Luna, he saw before he was realistic. His head wasn’t larger than his body, his eyes were smaller than the cartoon and front-facing. “How did a herbivore evolve to look forward? Hmm, perhaps magic had a hand in it. Some birds have face forward eyes even if they aren’t predatory. I wonder what evolved first magic or stereoscopic vision.

“No way I stay a foal.” He closed his eyes trying to use his lucid dreaming skills to change his appearance. He felt his form shift, it felt as if someone was rubbing silk on his skin.

When he opened his eyes “AGH!!!!!!!!!” What he saw was Big Mac. He was a big mac just colored black with wings. His appearance was also that of the cartoon, the eyes the size of dinner plates. “This won’t work… I need to see what a stallion looks like in that realistic style.”

He again tried to change his form and he returned to the foal appearance. Turning he looks to the starfield. “Okay! Listen up! I’m in charge here understand! So give me a way to see into other ponies’ dreams! Chop chop!” He clapped his hooves.

Nothing happened so he went to the edge of his garden island. Other islands appeared and rope bridges formed connecting to his island.

Acting much like the foal he appeared as he jumped on the rope bridge as he crossed showing no fear of falling. It was a dream after all right?

Now standing on the small island a stone archway formed. Stone blocks rose overhead and then a glowing shimmer formed in the center. “Well not quite like the stargate, but close enough.”

He looked back at his little island. “This is way too odd to be a dream, but what else could it be…” Turning back to the portal he smiled. “It’s an adventure!” Then he charges into the silvery glow of the archway.