Chapter 10: Artistic Aftermath

Luna calmly walked down the corridors of the castle.

The Moon was at its Apex, The stars in the sky glowed and sparkled on the dark canvas of the night, And Princess Luna walked through a wall and stood in front of a sleeping figure.

It has been less than a week since her powers as an Alicorn Princess have returned to her, and she has yet to walk into another pony's dream, so who better to test her power on than her new friend, her Sister's Nephew, the Pony who helped her get her powers back, and the one who just had a very tiresome day.

That is correct, Princess Luna was entering the dream of Prince Blueblood.

And with an ethereal hoof moving invisibly through the air, she touched the sleeping Stallion's forehead.

And entered his dream.

-------------------------------------

An Unnamed Earth Pony stumbled into his small, one-bedroom apartment.

His mane was frazzled and untidy, And his coat smelled of booze.

"Stupid Bottle," He mumbled to himself as he drunkenly stumbled into his home, "Stupid Prince, Stupid Painting," He kept mumbling and grumbling, unable to finish a sentence as the thoughts of the heist he participated in from earlier in the day continued to play in his head.

"It was all going to plan, too," He spoke to himself, nearly tripping over the small coffee table in his living room as he drunkenly walked around the apartment.

"But then Spray Bottle had to keep going!" He cried out loud, holding a leg to cover his eyes as tears threatened to spill from it, "All he had to do was let the Prince look at the painting before continuing!"

"There were no guards! There was no security! Everything was perfect!" He yelled before he looked at the ratty couch he used as a bed, and he remembered something important.

"Shit! They're gonna squeal!" He quickly pushed the couch aside, drunkenly tripping over and over as he moved the heavy furniture, just so he could reveal the dust-covered plank floor underneath it, or where a plank floor should be.

He knew he was taking a big risk by making this hole under his couch, his landlord might actually kill him if he found it, but now he won't have to worry about it.

"Where is it where is it where is- THERE!" He took out a bag, one filled with all the money he saved over the last few years of being a petty thief.

Quickly shoving any spare clothes and canned food that he could fit into his bag, he put it on his back and drunkenly ran towards the door.

Only to crash into a pony waiting outside.

"I'm really sorry," The pony said as he gently lifted him from the ground, his White fur almost giving the thief a heart attack before he spotted the blue hair of his mane.

"I apologize for bothering you this late at night, but we have some things to discuss," A gentle smile graced the handsome Unicorn's face as he looked into the thief's eyes.

"So I thank you for letting us in," The Unicorn walked past him and into his dingy and ratty apartment, dragging the thief in a telekinetic hold. It was then that he noticed that more Ponies were waiting outside his apartment, almost all of whom were wearing Golden armor, with the outlier being one wearing a long coat and holding a notepad.

The Lead Unicorn sat down on his couch and urged him to sit as well.

Seeing the guards outside told him that he was surrounded, listening to the pony who must be in charge should have been the correct choice.

Too bad for him, he was drunk.

And scared.

Drunk, Scared, and surrounded by Royal Guards?

That is a recipe for disaster.

The Thief turned and ran to the window above his sink, He was on the third floor but he should be fine, He was an Earth Pony after all, he was resilient.

Too bad that instead of jumping out the glass pane, he instead crashed into a pink barrier that appeared around him like a bubble.

"Why are you running away?" He heard the Unicorn ask, "Do you have something to hide?"

The thief tried to look for a way out, but everywhere he looked he could see only more of the bubble barrier, slowly closing in on him, trapping him in his own living room.

"Fine, enough theatrics. Dust Blower, You are under arrest, please do not resist," And when the Unicorn said those words, The alcohol and adrenaline must have hit the thief simultaneously, as he collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

Seeing it all, Guard Captain Shining Armor couldn't help but let out a sigh of disappointment. His first active job since the Parasprite incident, and this is how it goes.

All his recent jobs were nothing more than cleanup duty. Arrest The Diamond Dogs who kidnapped Rarity, Clean up the Parasprite infestation, Clean up this, Arrest that.

Finally! He could question, Interrogate, and maybe have a runaway who he'll need to chase after like some sort of action star. He was trained for this!

But now the guy is out cold.

"I need a break," He whispered to himself before ordering two of his guards to carry the unconscious thief to a jail cell, interrogation will begin when he wakes up.

--------------------------------------------------

Celestia was having a busy night.

She was supposed to be sleeping, getting ready for tomorrow.

Instead, she was waiting for the results of what her guards found from the thieves her Nephew took down.

knock knock knock

"Open," She called to the pony who was knocking on her door.

In walked a Paper-White coated Earth Pony with Brown Hair tied in a bun on both her head and tail. A white suit collar around her neck was held with a red tie.

"Your Majesty, More results came in," Raven Inkwell said as she carried a pile of papers to Celestia, the bags under her eyes showing how tired she was.

"Good," Celestia picked up one of the papers and started reading, "Anything noteworthy to report?"

Raven took a moment to think before nodding her head, "Yes Your Majesty, After the investigation into the Museum has shown a clear discrepancy between the amount of money coming in and the money being documented." She told her.

"Money laundering, and so close to the castle... Tell Shining Armor that I want to know every underground connection the thieves had, And tell Note Pad that I want him to put his whole focus on the Museum Owner, where was he laundering money? how long? How much? We need answers." Celestia ordered, and Raven bowed her head and turned to leave.

"One more thing," Raven stopped in her tracks when Celestia called out to her.

"Good Job," Celestia smiled when she saw the energy entering Raven Inkwell when she got the compliment.

"That girl really needs to smile more," Celestia thought to herself before she returned to reading the new documents.

In the following weeks, fourteen different ponies will be arrested and sentenced following leads that popped up in the investigation. And Two works of art that were thought to have been lost for years were found and returned to the Royal Castle for safekeeping.

But that is a story for another time.

------------------------------------------------

Luna didn't know what she expected to see in Blueblood's dream.

Maybe a scene from earlier in the day, It's not every day that a pony gets into a fight that ends in blood.

But no, Instead she found herself sitting at what seemed to be an empty train station in the middle of the desert.

At least she believed it was a train station, seeing as instead of tracks, there was a metal railway lifted horizontally above the ground, held up by pillars.

Luna decided to wait, she was simply visiting the Dream, there was no need for her to start moving around and making a mess when there was no nightmare.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting on the bench at the station, she heard something walk in her direction before they stopped.

Turning her head, she spotted another pony waiting on the bench for the train.

His Coat was white but covered in dust and sand and his cutie mark was hidden under a leather belt and orange pants, not that Luna expected to see a Cutie Mark anyways, this pony wasn't real and the mind usually didn't create the finer details of the dream.

What stood out however in this pony, was that his face was hidden under a mask and his front legs were wrapped with bandages.

The mask covered his entire face, holding onto the back of his head with leather straps, It was white and only had a hole for his Unicorn horn and a left eye, the other eye hole was covered with a patch of brown leather. There seemed to be a rounded orange triangle design on the mask, creating a line of orange going from the bottom of his cheeks, over his eyes, and connected just above where a hole was made for his horn.

The mouth portion of the mask was instead replaced with a gas mask, extending into a small pipe connected to a small tank on the right side of the mask.

Luna spent what felt like another hour silently looking at the surprisingly detailed pony before she realized.

"Oh, That's supposed to be Blueblood,"

That brought another thought to pass through her head.

"Why is this his dream?"

It was then that she heard the sounds of heavy machinery whirring in the distance, growing ever closer.

Looking at the source, The train was coming.

Dreamblood stood up from the bench when he heard it, looking at the train in the distance coming closer.

Luna now understood why the tracks looked how they did, The train wasn't connected to them with wheels, but with powerful magnets instead.

And it wasn't slowing down to pick them up.

Dreamblood started to run towards the track, surprising Luna with what he was doing, before he jumped onto the fast moving train and hung on the side of it before kicking in a window and swinging himself into the carriage.

"Wait!" Luna shouted as she flew after him, now interested in what was going on in his dream. It seemed almost like a scene from a book with how it played out.

Passing through the walls of the train as if they weren't there, Luna started to walk toward the carriage Dreamblood entered.

She heard the sound of metal hitting metal, and passed by what seemed like broken yellow boxes before she once more saw Dreamblood.

Catching up with him, she followed as he opened the door to the next cabin and entered.

Instead of more yellow boxes like in the previous cabins, this one was almost completely empty, save for two things. In the middle of the cabin was a large pile of dynamite sticks, and a chair with a mannequin that also looked like Blueblood, but for some reason, it was wearing a mask that looked exactly like his face. A bomb was strapped to the chest of the mannequin and was ricking down rapidly.

"It's cute that y'all think you're the heroes of this little adventure, but you're not," A voice similar to Blueblood came out of a radio in the mannequin's mouth.

Dreamblood looked around at all the explosives as the timer on MannequinBlood counted down.

"Welcome to Pandora, Kiddos."

And with an Explosion of Dynamite, the Dream ended and switched to another. 

"This is a nice place to stop," Luna thought to herself as she left the dream, Seeing that her friend was simply dreaming about some book or another that he read and wasn't having a nightmare. 

She walked back to her own bed in the castle, ready to return to her physical body and get some rest for herself.