The Canterlot palace gardens; she was no stranger to them, by day or by night. Lush green grass trimmed to perfection, hedges both natural and artistically sculpted, perfectly aligned brick pathways winding around the various sculptures and statues made of a menagerie of materials… she knew them quite well and often loved to visit them in her dreams. The sights and sounds and smells around her in her dreamscape were a mismatch of her favorite aspects of the garden from each season. The wind was blowing with a chill that made her feel alive, the flowers were in full bloom and their fragrances permeated the air, the trees were decorated in the reds and oranges and yellows of autumn, and the sun bore down on it all with a soothing warmth. One didn’t get to be thousands of years old without learning to lucid dream with fantastic accuracy.

And yet things felt off as Celestia took her customary dreamtime stroll through her perfect garden. She couldn’t place it. Her steps were cautious and her brow furrowed as her eyes swept warily across the garden. Everything was exactly where it was supposed to be. The hedge maze, the Griffon-Equine War memorial, Discord’s statue-

Wait.

Celestia cantered over to the aberrant statue. It wasn’t even in the pose of fear and terror it was when the current Element Bearers sealed him away. It was once again in its defiant, smiling, singing pose that he struck before she and Luna had put him away the first time.

“What is this doing here?” she wondered. She concentrated, leering at the statue and willing it to vanish like it had done in the real world.

Despite her best efforts, it remained. She had no control over it.

She swiveled her head around, looking across her dreamscape. “Reveal yourself! Dream tampering by anyone aside from Princess Luna is a felony,” she ordered, her voice ringing out across her mind. No answer.

She turned her head to scour her dreamscape when she let out a gasp. Directly behind her was a new statue, and behind it was a landscape of dead grass, withered trees and overcast skies. The statue was of King Sombra, leering down at her from his perch, his stone eyes full of hate. Etched into the base was the epitaph “Your Faithful Student.”

Celestia caught herself when she found her hooves pedaling backward. “I know someone’s here!” She whirled around to find the garden she was looking at just a second ago also withered and dying. “Show yourself!”

“Teacher?”

All warmth drained from Celestia’s body. She didn’t dare look behind her, but she couldn’t help herself. She turned back around; the statue of King Sombra was gone. In its place was Prince Sombra, in the flesh, a colt too young to know the evils of the world. “S…Sombra?”

“Teacher, wasn’t I a good student?” he asked with a sob, trotting toward her with wobbling hooves. “Didn’t I learn everything you taught me?”

“Sombra… I…” She scrambled for what to say, but no words came. Those pleading amethyst eyes held her own, kept her from looking away.

She blinked, and Twilight stood before her instead, a unicorn once more, though those eyes remained unchanged. “I did everything you asked, didn’t I? Then why did you ask me to hurt Spike?”

“This isn’t real.” She shook her head rapidly. “This isn’t real; just a dream. Just need to wake up.” She closed her eyes and concentrated,  tried to return to the waking world, but her efforts were in vain.

When she opened them again, Spike stood before her, back when he was a child. Tears ran down his face and his claws were clenched into shaking fists, his emerald eyes looking up at her with pure anger. “Why did you betray me? What did I ever do to you?!”

Celestia backpedaled, her chest heaving and her mind racing. The landscape became a swirling sea of colors blending together, her control of her dreamscape broken. All that remained, in perfect focus, was Spike as he grew to his current age and body.

“This is all your fault!” Spike roared. No, not Spike. The thing growing in front of her spoke with all three voices in tandem. It grew beyond the real Spike’s size, into a full-blown dragon, and mutated. Twilight’s wings sprouted out of its back and Sombra’s horn out of its forehead with a sickening squelch of shifting flesh. Still, it kept growing.

Celestia continued to back away, her mind frozen from fear. “Luna,” she gasped, her lips suddenly feeling very dry. “Luna, please, help me. Make this nightmare stop…!”

“All I ever wanted to do was to please, and all you ever did was hurt me! Use me!” it screeched. Its irises burned red like a furnace with rage and the whites of its eyes green with envy and greed, violet energy pouring out like smoke with the power of hate. Darkness and shadows seethed from its form like steam and clung to it like a cloak as it dwarfed both the princess and her castle.

She closed her eyes once more and stopped her scrambling hooves. She stood up tall and straight as she looked up into its eyes, deep pits of malice and hate and pain that they were.  “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean for things to end the way they did. I just wanted what was best for you and Equestria! I wanted you to be happy!”

Its lips parted, and past its glistening fangs she could see an emerald light brewing deep within its throat.

“I. Hate. You!”

Celestia stood her ground as the green flames rushed to meet her, washing over her in a tide of searing heat and pain.

She wasn’t in pain for long. Next Chapter: Dear Dreamweaver Estimated time remaining: 37 Minutes