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Chapter Text

We've all presumably heard the tale of the two brothers of Dreamtale right?
Well, what if we told you a new version of the tale, a more…..magical version of the tale?
This version of the tale is one of friendship
The very “seeds” of friendship to be exact
Let us begin, shall we?
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No POV:
The sun rose high over the horizon shining down at everything below including a somewhat small village and a tree just on the border outskirts. Sat by the tree was a fairly young skeleton about 6 at the most, dawned with a golden crown with a crescent symbol in the middle. His clothing was almost prince-like with a mix of purple and gold coloring, he sat alone by the tree, seemingly entranced by the book he was reading. So entranced he didn't notice a monster and a human heading straight in his direction……..

It was like a blink of an eye, from him simply reading to his soul's content to him suddenly kneeling in pain covering the broken side of his skull. The two who had done this, that human and monster from the village laughed at his pain as they left the poor hurt skeleton alone.

“Brother!, where are you?” A voice called out, approaching the tree. Quickly the little skeleton looked over towards the owner of the voice, another skeleton the same age as him who wore a similar golden crown came over, his outfit being teal and gold with a yellow cape flowing behind him as he walked. “I'm over here Dream!” the little skeleton called out to his brother waving to get his attention who came rushing over as he saw his brother's condition “What happened to you?!” Dream asked worriedly, looking at his brother's broken part of his skull.

“I'm fine Dream I just…..was a little too careless when I was climbing down from the tree.” He spoke lying straight to his brother's face. He couldn't tell the truth, his brother loved the villagers and constantly helped them. He'd feel terrible if he was the reason his brother stopped doing that even through all the pain he felt.

“Alright, if you say so, Nightmare. Now stay still so I can try and see if I can fix it.” Dream spoke, holding his brother's head still as he examined the damage. He gently pressed his gloved hand to it, a soft green magic coming from his hand onto the damage which was slowly being healed leaving only a bit of the socket having some damage, “Okay that should help it somewhat. I'll try and get some bandages from the villagers, do you think you'll be okay if I go?” Dream asked his brother, concern shown in his expression.

“I'll be fine Dream, you go to the village and get whatever you need.” Nightmare spoke, giving his brother a soft smile. “Okay brother I'll try to be quick you just stay here,” he said getting up and heading right back to the village where he came from once again leaving Nightmare alone with his thoughts.

‘Why do they all treat me like this?....did I do something wrong?’ he thought leaning against the tree as he held the book he was originally reading. He then looked up at the tree, it had two different apples, ones that were golden and filled with positivity while the other ones were pitch black and filled with negativity. His brother guarded the positive apples while he guarded the negative ones…..

‘is it because of the apples? are my apples that bad?’ he asked himself as he stared off into nothing only just thinking…”Brother, I'm back!” His brother's voice returned him to reality as he looked over, giving his brother a smile at his return.
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Time-skip to 12 am
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Nightmare's POV:

It was the middle of the night and my brother lay beside the tree. I could hear my brother's snoring, but I couldn't get any sleep because of all my thoughts keeping me up, all of them just repeating the same thing. Show the villagers I can take care of the apples just as my brother can. I got up from my spot, making sure I didn't wake up my brother, as I stood by the tree.

I took one of the positive apples and held it in my hands. ‘mine are just as good…. right?’ I thought as I stared at it before I saw it start to change. “Wait no, no no no please go back, change back!” I pleaded as I tried to fix whatever I did but it just got worse, the once golden positive apple now turning black with negativity. “Brother?” I heard and slowly turned as my brother stared at me in surprise, “I-I didn't mean to…. I-I was just…” I couldn't finish as I began shaking in fear.

The villagers began coming as well, most likely because of the change of energy. It didn't help my fear though it just made it, and my shaking worse. “I-it’s okay brother, I-i’ll try to talk to them and calm them down so you can explain alright?” I heard Dream say as he tried to calm my worries, but I saw how the villagers glared. It wasn't just full of hate, no. They wanted to kill me. I could see it in their eyes! There was no way he could calm them all down and I was defenseless!, what would I even-

“Eat the apple” I heard a voice ring out from what seemed to be everywhere but only I could hear it. “It has magic, remember? It should keep you alive” the voice said and it wasn't wrong, all the apples did have magic in them ... maybe it could protect me. “One bite shouldn't hurt, right?” It said and I agreed “Yeah just one bite, that's all I need…”
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Dream's POV:

I tried to calm down the villagers as I could see all the panic and rage in their expressions. There was so much sound it was hard to tell where each voice came from as I tried to calm it all down, suddenly it all turned to silence except for one single sound. *crunch*. I tried to move to see what happened but I couldn't as all the villagers rushed forward pushing me to the back till I was behind the entire crowd.

“Brother!” I tried to call out and move back to the front but I couldn't get through the crowd. ‘I can't see a thing!’ I thought as I tried to look over the crowd at what was happening only being able to hear what sounded like my brother coughing and that crunching sound repeating again. When everyone stopped moving I finally was able to get through but stopped when I saw exactly why everyone hadn't moved.

There my brother was on his knees holding onto his head, something was clearly wrong… The part of his eye socket that was broken before was practically gone. What looked to be some form of goop coming out of it along with some dripping out from his mouth as well, four tentacles now protruding from his back along with it all. “Brother?...” My voice was barely above a whisper as I spoke.

“Go Away! Leave Me Alone!” My barely even recognizable brother spoke through struggling coughs. “It hurts, Everything hurts….” Tears streamed down his one functioning eye as I felt myself tearing up as well. I tried to move or help or just say anything, but I couldn't. I felt frozen, just watching my brother as he was in pain.

Yet I also couldn't look away, noticing how many black apples he had eaten. “Brother please!” I tried calling out again, but I was afraid to get closer to him with how those tentacles on his back lashed around. He wasn't even talking to me anymore; it was silent as I saw more of that goop begin to cover his body. Until he started…. laughing. Not his normal laugh but more like a crazy laugh instead.

He then began to stand up. His body was now covered completely in that goop, and his eye which had been broken before, was now completely covered. By the time I could finally move, I had to move out of the way as his tentacles attacked the villagers. My attention moved to him by the tree noticing one single golden apple left, as the rest were all completely blackened with negativity. So I reached for it.

By the time I could finally finish it, he seemed to be finished with the villagers and turned to notice me with a cruel sadistic grin on his face. His now one teal eye light staring directly into mine. “I-I’m sorry brother but I have to stop you, this is all too much” I spoke feeling more hopeful despite the situation. “Oh you can certainly try”

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No one's POV:

Only one stood by the once great tree of feelings, now cut to only the base. His tentacles swayed behind him as he stared down at his work, a grin on his expression. He then looked back at everything behind him, the village lay in ruin, and Dream in stone standing just behind him. He had tried getting the last golden apple from Dream but couldn't. So instead he opted to keep him in stone while he figured out a plan.

He didn't feel any need to stay here, it wasn't his home after all. So he left through a portal, but as he left something seemed to pull away. Now through the other side of the portal, he felt a piece of him almost missing but he paid no mind to it, instead deciding to continue forward.
That now missing piece was the original Nightmare, the one who simply wanted someone besides his brother to care for him and treat him normally. He just wanted a friend and now that's exactly just what he'll get…

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Chapter Text

All he could see was black, it was dark and cold. It took a while before he was finally able to open his eyes to take in the surrounding scenery. He was surrounded by trees and greenery, as well as beautiful flowers and a flowing stream. Night felt as though he was half asleep, and his eyes were half-lidded, making it difficult to take in the gorgeous scenery nearby. His head felt faint, he felt like he might pass out. Night could barely remember anything at all after he took a bite of that apple.

Night made a sound in between a sigh and a groan as he tried to remember further. He looked down at his hand to try and focus on pushing himself off the ground. His almost completely closed eyes shot open finally as he looked down and instead saw hooves as opposed to the expected hands. He had to do a double take to make sure it wasn’t some exhaustion-induced hallucination. But yes, somehow, he had hooves. How was that even possible?

He had to have been imagining things, so he shook his head as if to banish the confusion and tried to stand like normal on his back legs. It did not work. He instantly fell, face-planting into the dirt. This must be some powerful hallucination if he’s this disoriented. His back feet appeared to be hooves as well. He decided that instead of attempting to walk, which would definitely not work at the moment, he would crawl. But where too?

He had no idea where he was, well that was a lie, he thought he might be with Mother, but the stream nearby was far too thin and full of rocks. Ah yes, the stream! Since he clearly doesn’t appear human he can see what he looks like currently in the reflection of the stream.

As Night pathetically crawled over to the river that he wasn’t even sure was there considering his limited vision and brain power, he listened very carefully for any sounds that would indicate movement. It might have been a habit he picked up when trying to feed the wildlife in the forest, as a way of not startling them.

However, most likely he picked it up from the villagers who would beat him till he was bruised and bloodied in a way he couldn’t just describe as ‘tripping’ or ‘falling out of the tree’ to Dream. Night would often try to crawl away to safety, to find a place where he could tend to his wounds if only slightly so that he could downplay it more to his brother.

He had to do this often. Every time he was cornered in an alleyway, behind a fence, or even at the tree, he had to pitifully crawl away, sometimes barely making it a couple of inches. And every time his injuries were more severe.

It was as if the villagers were getting bored with the basic verbal bullying, so they slowly escalated to the physical kind, and then the restraint kind, then the threats toward his brother kind [though Night knew they wouldn’t ever follow through on those, considering Dream was their special little ray of sunshine that would always help when he was needed] and then a little bit of everything all at once.

Night developed the habit of listening to his surroundings as intently as he did currently so that nobody could sneak up on him. Most of the time if he did sense someone, he was already far too weak to fight back in any way, so it was more of a warning, so he could just be aware when someone was about to attack him.

His usual crawl was extra pathetic since he had to fumble his movements like a newly born fawn, Night wondered if the humiliation he was feeling was the kind that most felt when they so something embarrassing, rather than that humiliation he mostly feels when interacting with anyone, since they all make him feel like the devil, and an awful person.

Finally, he made it to the river. It probably hadn’t taken terribly long to crawl over, but it had felt like centuries. Night desperately tried to open his eyes to look at his reflection. What he saw was shocking, bringing back that faint feeling from earlier.

He looked like a small horse, with a white coat, purple eyes, and a purple mane. He also had a symbol of a black apple from his side of the tree in his rump. He focused his vision on his forehead specifically, where he found a horn.

Night had read about unicorns in a few books he had gotten from the library. Didn’t they have magic? If this wasn’t a hallucination and was reality, Night took comfort in the thought he could still use magic. Not that he had much practice with his magic before…

Another thing of interest that was on his forehead, was his golden circlet, with the moon engraving. Night reached up and straightened it with his hoove, which was a very awkward movement, to say the least, and smiled, happy that he at least still had this even if he wasn’t sure where Dream was.

Night decided to give walking another shot after staring into the water for a long silent moment. It couldn’t be that hard, it was just hard before because Night was going about it all wrong. Don’t walk like a biped, walk like a horse!

Night thought back to a beautiful Clydesdale horse that lived behind a fence next to the church. He always liked to visit her and give her apples. [not ones from his tree of course] Even if he hated going anywhere near the church, since all his abuse could most likely stem from its walls, he still stopped by her yard every once in a while and would lie on her back as he read his books.

All he had to do was mimic her movements, easy right? Not easy, Night decided approximately 12 minutes of struggling, falling, and fumbling later. However, he still managed to grasp the basics and could finally walk rather than miserably attempt to crawl everywhere he went. He still hobbled and failed to walk in a straight line, the exhaustion still getting to him slightly.

Once he got the hang of it, he decided to start walking toward the vague outline of a town that he saw peeking through the gaps in the dense greenery and flora.

As he clumsily walked through the forest he heard someone shout energetically behind him “Hello!”. He would have jumped if he wasn’t so debilitated. Instead, he slowly turned around, being careful where he stepped. When he stopped his movements, he saw three ponies about his size standing there. He wasn’t sure which one said hello.

After a moment of thinking of possible responses, he settled for the basic choice. “Hello?”

One of the ponies had wings with an orange coat and purple mane.

Another was just a normal pony with a yellow coat and red mane with a large pink statement bow lovingly tied up in the hair.

Finally, the last one had a horn and white coat like Night did but with a purple and pink mane.

“I don't think I've seen you around here before, you must be new around here right?” The pony with a pink bow said. She must have been the one who said hello to him.

Night nervously nodded along, if this wasn’t a hallucination, it would be best to just go along with everything until he could find a way back to Dream.

“Well I'm Sweetie Belle and these are my friends Scootaloo and Apple Bloom,” The one with the horn said as the two waved with their hooves, which they made look very easy much to Night’s dismay and growing frustration with his new body.

“You can call me Night.” He said simply as the one named Scootaloo tilted her head, “Just Night?” She asked and he just nodded in response.

“You know, if you’re looking for new friends maybe some-pony we know can help! They know a lot about friendship. We know a lot about friendship too, but you should hear from an expert!” Sweetie Belle suggested.

“If you wanted to of course if not it's completely fine” Apple Bloom added as Night pondered over the thought, letting it jumble around in his head before making his decision.

“Sure.” He said as the three smiled, if he was gonna be here for a while he might as well know someone in this place.

He followed the three into the town, and out of the woods. The town was much bigger than he was expecting from what he saw in the forest.

“Hey, Fluttershy!” Scootaloo called out. Night turned to where she was looking and saw an older pony with a yellow coat, pink mane and wings as well.

“Hello girls, Who's the new friend?” She asked, her voice quiet and calm.

“This is Night, he just arrived here in Ponyville and we're helping him find new friends!” Sweetie Belle said.

“Oh, how sweet of you girls,” Fluttershy said with a smile as she looked down at Night and the other three.

“We were hoping you'd help us find him some buddies!” Apple Bloom said.

Fluttershy seemed to be thinking about it as Night stood there somewhat awkwardly.

“I think I have an idea if he's okay with it of course,” Fluttershy said. She had a soft smile as well, While Night still didn't trust anyone here yet it did make him feel a little comfortable.

“I…. guess I wouldn't mind,” He said nervously, not looking at anyone. He probably should have asked for more details about the idea, but he was too scared to talk more than a few words at a time.

“Now girls, how about you just give him some space alright?” She said as Night heard the three leave, not before an energetic goodbye, however.

“Are you okay?” She asked Night as he looked up at her.

“Yeah i-i'm fine,” He said back and she simply smiled softly. It was a lie, he was not fine. He was panicking on the inside now that he was awake enough to feel basic emotions.

“If you say so, now come along. I know a pretty good place to help you find some friends.” She said as she began walking. Night followed, only due to the fact he didn't know this place very well of course, and not because the prospect of ‘friends’ was gnawing at the back of his mind a bit. He just hoped this wouldn't end up badly.

They walked to a very large building of sorts. Night couldn’t exactly tell what it was just by looking at it, but it was a gorgeous building; with complicated landscaping including waterfalls and ponds.

“Well, Night I would like to introduce you to one of the schools here in Ponyville,” Fluttershy said as he looked over at her. Night was confused, this was a school? The only school Night had seen was the one in the village, and it looked much smaller than this, most likely only being one room. This however was gigantic.

“Welcome to the School of Friendship,” Fluttershy said.