Episode Nine: Dream Factory

By TheCrimsonDM

Pascale could be thankful that it was her day off. Or at least she would be if she had the time to organize her bookshelves or study magic, or even work on a new arcane invention like she'd planned. Instead she was busy cleaning a mess of oil, tar, and feathers that had appeared in the first floor backroom. Near the broken window and glass, there was a knocked over oil lamp, a jar of tar and a pillow that had basically exploded on the floor. The black stained hand and foot prints showed someone going from the main puddle on the floor back toward the window. Strange symbols had been drawn into the floor with the tar.

Oh, she was going to get Gray back for this later. The very least Gray could have done was tell her that she'd crashed through the window again. This happened so often now this bordered on the fetishistic, and Pascale was just getting sick of it. A stern talking too just wouldn't cover it this time. No, she'd have to go a step above and beyond to teach Gray to stop breaking her windows. Imagine if there had been any precious books in there? Or worse yet, relics of Princess Twinkle? Pascale would have killed Gray for that.

Well at least she was getting the chance to clean something. She could enjoy that. More over her mind was filtering back to an old memory from her childhood. Staring at the puddle of tar on the floor. The way it oozed and seeped out was starting to send chills down her spine.

***

The last day of her training had arrived. Pascale stood amongst the group of other children, at least five others. For the last trial they were about to perform they were all put into gray robes and paired off. The instructor was a tall kobold with gray scales, red spines and a pair of frightening red wings. They wore a suit of green armor with the gold symbol of a dragon holding a shield, this was one of the Dragon Guard.

The instructor had a spear on their back as they paced in front of Blue and the other scrapling she was paired with. Only seven years old but she knew the gravity of the situation more so than most. The instructor could, and would kill them for any insubordination. It had happened before.

The Dragon Guard spoke carefully. "The two of you have been paired off for this final trial before you are presented before the Dragon Lords for final approval and selection. I am Lance Silverwing, and I am going to be watching this final trial carefully. The two of you are to fight each other until one of you are unable to fight or gives up. Killing is permitted. The one who fails will still have a purpose for Draconia so don't die uselessly."

They both had their medallions on their necks already, but as Pascale looked at her opponent, Sapphire Spark, she felt a rotten feeling in her stomach for what was about to happen. Of course she wouldn't lose. She'd already been put into a dark place once, she wouldn't let that happen again, no matter who or what she had to kill to do so.

Pascale faced Sapphire, while Pascale had a glare of determination and snarled, Sapphire looked less determined, weak even. The one thing that really stood out to Pascale about Sapphire was the fact that there were patches of her blue scales on her cheeks, neck and forehead near the amethyst in her forehead, that actually sparkled. It was beautiful sparkling effect from the glimmering scales she had. Unfortunately it wouldn't matter.

Upon the Instructor's orders they started their fight. Pascale was brutal and efficient. She had to be, Sapphire was far more powerful than she ever would be, so she would have to use her instincts and brain to win. Yet the moment the fight started she just saw a look in Sapphire’s eyes, sorrow. She spoke in a demanding tone. "Hit me, with everything you have."

Pascale was planning to do that anyway. It took just one blast of energy to shoot a hole through Sapphire’s gut. Sapphire had fallen, as her body twitched, dark crimson blood pooled out around her fallen body seeping into the cracks of the wooden floor.

The instructor checked Sapphire’s wrist, nodded and force fed her a bottle of healacola keeping the fellow scrapling alive. He spoke into an earpiece. "Sapphire failed, yeah she'll be signed up for dream duty. Yes, I am surprised but she didn’t look like she really tried to fight Pascale, otherwise this would have been a very different outcome."

The instructor nodded and stood up. "Okay, you both get to keep your medallions as you will both go to serve our great nation. Now you’re going to get dressed in the clothing your parents left you and be presented to the Dragon Lords for selection. Not all of you will be selected, but maybe one of them will pity you."

The only clothing her parents had left her were the rags she came in with. She didn't care though, she wasn't going back to that dark pit, even if she had to wear those torn up rags for the rest of her life she wouldn't go back. Sapphire had learned that the hard way.

***

Pascale swallowed hard as she looked at the mess on the floor. She, she couldn't keep looking at it. She turned, left the room and walked out the door. She couldn't clean it. She would just, leave it. No one would notice right? It was better this way, leave it behind, don't think about it, ignore it and it can't hurt her. That always worked.

She walked to the front door intent on leaving the library for awhile. Perhaps she could find someone to help her with the mess. In particular she could find out where the hell Gray went because she made the mess in the first places. She grabbed her side bag on the way out, never know when a girl might need some accessories, or a gun.

Just outside she froze. Princess Twinkle stood there, towering over Pascale with a wide grin on her face. She reached out and pat the top of Pascale's head. "So, tell me, what are you doing today?"

"Trying to find something to do, my princess."

"Mmm, I could think of someone."

Pascale raised an eyebrow. "Do you mean find something? You can't do 'someone' that's impossible."

Princess Twinkle giggled musically. "Oh my, I do oh so adore your innocence. Anyway my Brighty I have something we can do together. A mission of sorts. I may have found the location of the Dream Factory."

Pascale took a step back. "You found it? Are you sure?"

"No, I’m not sure. But I think I found it. Tell me have you fixed your broom yet?"

Pascale nodded. "I have, I had no plans to use it today but I will if we're going far."

"It's a fair bit of distance out from here, so yes, you will want it."

Pascale hurried back inside, grabbed her magic broom. Its saddle and purple glowing runes so familiar to her. Once back outside she hopped onto the broom and levitated off the ground a few feet. Princess Twinkle spread her yellow wings, the pink membrane looking as cute as ever. With one powerful flap of those wings Princess twinkle was up into the sky and flying off to the south. Pascale took off after her princess.

They flew side by side with Princess Twinkle taking the lead. "So, Pascale, tell me what you know about the Dream Factory?"

Pascale grinned. "Oh, easy. I know it was a place where gifted scraplings were sent to become a terrifying weapon. Somehow to utilize the powers of dreams and nightmares to fight against the evil humans and those beastkin. The project was shut down a few years ago from my understanding they just couldn't find a way to utilize dreams or nightmares efficiently."

Princess Twilight's smile vanished in an instant. "Do you know how they were trying to accomplish this?"

Pascale shook her head. "No, I don’t. I imagine probably using sedatives to help the gifted Dreamers go to sleep."

"That’s part of it, yes. Let me ask you this though, if you were trying to channel the power of a child's nightmares, how would you go about making them have nightmares in the first place?'

That was an odd question. Pascale stared down beneath them as the green rolling hills slowly evolved into forested terrain. "I wouldn't know. I don't really know much about kids."

"Okay, let me rephrase it. You used to have a lot of nightmares, right?"

Pascale nodded. The forest below them was slowly changing shape. The leaves into a darker green, the wood a darker gray. A dense mist could be seen between the trees, and if she stared really hard, occasionally something moved down there. "I did, but you helped me fix that."

"What caused those nightmares?"

"You already know that."

"Humor me for a moment please."

"The... bad experiences in my life. Once I discovered my powers, once my parents rightfully hated me, once I was thrown away. Those events all led to me having horrible nightmares."

Princess Twinkle nodded. "So, if you were to give someone nightmares as bad, or even worse than yours, what would you do to accomplish it?"

Pascale swallowed. "I'd... I'd have to hurt them. Bad. And often."

"Now, you are starting to see why the project was really shut down. It's not that the Dreamers didn't work, it’s that the method to create them ended up making monsters that their 'masters' could not control. Horror terrors that we can't understand. Basically on the same level as Outsiders."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

That one sentence was more than enough to make Pascale's blood run cold. She looked forward once more, this was going to be a dangerous mission no matter what way they did this. The horrors of what could have happened even worse. That memory of when she'd won her final trial, she put that one back into the depths of her mind's murky waters. Some things didn't need to be thought about., ever.

The further onward they traveled the more she saw the mist covering the woods until only the briefest tips of the pine trees were left uncovered. Up ahead Pascale saw the earth sink down into a massive sinkhole that seemed to stretch on for miles in a rough circle. The mist fell over the edge of the circle and down into the pit like a water fall. In the center of the pit a lone tower made from rusted metal stood out of the mist like a landing pad, there was even a hatch in the top of the tower going down. All around the tower there was the dark outline of a much, much larger structure beneath.

The two of them landed on the top of the old tower. It must have been painted orange at some point but the paint was chipping off and the rust replacing the orange with a muddy red. The metal ting that sounded when Princess Twinkle landed sounded hauntingly empty.

Pascale gently got off the broom but holstered the broom on her back with its strap just in case she needed it again. "Is this the Dream Factory?"

Princess Twinkle nodded. "I believe it is." She put her hand, palm face down against the metal beneath them as she knelt down. "I can feel the dark energy here. The kind of magic that feels bitter and sour to my own."

Pascale could feel it herself. This place felt wrong. It almost tasted wrong. The air was stagnant here, like it hadn't changed in years. The medallion she wore around her neck grew a little cool against her flesh. She wasn’t sure why it would do that, was it reacting to the strange magic in the area? It was supposed to have some small magical enchantment but she always believed that it was used as a way to help 'encourage' loyalty to her princess. Not that she ever needed to be encouraged.

Princess Twinkle stood up and walked over to the hatch. "We may discover some, off putting things in here. So I need to make sure you understand. I would not ask you to come here, to help, if I didn't need your assistance. So stay close to me, and if you sense anything weird, for example if that medallion you always wear gets very cold, tell me immediately."

Pascale blinked. "You knew my medallion was getting cold?"

"Is it freezing cold now?"

“Just a little cool."

There was a serious tone in Princess Twinkle's voice that Pascale had very rarely heard before. "Then we're fine. Keep me in the loop though as your life may depend on it."

It was clear now that Princess Twinkle wasn't giving her an option to back out. She was stuck doing this whether she wanted to or not. Whatever Princess Twinkle's true purpose here was, it must have been incredibly important for her to grow serious. She was never serious. About anything, not even cute things.

Pascale nodded. "I will succeed at this task my princess."

Princess Twinkle opened the hatch with a screeching wine as the rusted metal was forced open for the first time in years. Inside there was nothing but darkness and a ladder going down. Princess Twinkle snapped her fingers and summoned forth two pocket clip on flashlights. She slid one into the middle of her dress and handed the other to Pascale. Pascale slid it into the pocket on her left chest.

Princess Twinkle shivered as she stared down into there. "I wish we had a radio that could tell us when things were close by, but things don't work like they do in video games. All we have is your medallion and our lights. By the way, anything you see in here that isn't you, or me, you will need to attack with full prejudice if it comes after you. Otherwise the name of the game is stealth. We can't risk being seen, but if we are, kill first ask questions later."

"There are living things here?"

"Not... quite. Things yes, things that will come after us and try to do far worse than simply kill us, yes. Living, I'm not so sure about that."

Princess Twinkle set her foot onto the metal ladder and began climbing down. Pascale followed after her. The ladder went down quite a ways. She lost track of how many rungs the ladder went down but the further into the darkness she climbed the more she regretted being here. There was an oppressive atmosphere here, and she felt sad for some reason.

Princess Twinkle was looking upward at Pascale as they climbed down. Eventually she spoke. "Pink with yellow dragons. I'm actually surprised."

It took Pascale a moment to respond. "What?"

"Their pink, with little yellow dragons on them."

Pascale looked down at her princess. Only to then realize that With Pascale wearing robes, and with how gravity worked, Princess Twinkle was getting a very good view of what was underneath those robes of Pascale's. Pascale almost stopped moving entirely for a moment. "P-P-Princess! No! Don't look there."

"Why not?" Twinkle replied with a smirk.

"Because that's inappropriate."

"I'll show you mine if you show me yours."

Pascale moved her tail down to cover up her bottom and to close her robes closer to her body. "You already saw mine."

"Good point, I'll have to show you mine then."

Pascale was very uncomfortable now, not to mention embarrassed. Her panties were supposed to be secret. At least that oppressive sadness was pushed back now that she had something much more pressing to worry about. It took another minute or two before they finally reached the bottom of the stairs and once Pascale got off them and stood up next to Princess twinkle she looked around to find them in a small square room with a metal door behind them. Pascale looked over to Princess Twinkle. "So where do we go from-"

Princess Twinkle had grabbed the bottom of her dress and lifted it up almost over her head to reveal the pinkest pair of silk she'd ever laid eyes on. It was made worse when Princess Twinkle did a little spin letting Pascale see everything she never knew she wanted to, but now knew she had needed too. After that she let down the dress and her cheeks were a little pink and it wasn't just her freckles. "There, we're even now."

Pascale felt something hot and liquid running down her nose. She ran a hand over it. Yep, nose bleed. Well it was very much worth it. Now she could just decide to remember that for later, when she was alone, and no one was eavesdropping. "Ahem, that was, I mean, um, amazing?"

Princess Twinkle smiled. "Thank you, I thought yours were amazing as well. Now let's get going shall we?"

Princess Twinkle opened the door and walked in. Pascale was frozen for a moment staring at a rear end she had no right to ever look at that way, but now she couldn't look away.

At least not until the medallion pulsed with cold energy and her racing heart began to calm down as she looked into the next room. Darkness, that was the only way to describe it at first. Chasing after Princess Twinkle she came to realize it was darkness but there were some familiar shapes in here. Couches, tables, pots filled with plastic fake plants, and an old control panel with hundreds of keys, buttons and switches. Dozens of monitors were sitting on the wall but everything was dead silent, turned off. No power went to any of it.

Nearby there was a door that was sealed shut, a metal sliding door with orange paint on it. Blue stripes ran down the side. It wasn't perfectly shut though, it was actually opened a crack where a metal crowbar was shoved into it. Princess Twinkle nodded toward the control panel. "See if you can get the power on from here."

Pascale went over to it and pressed some buttons on the keyboard. She pushed a few buttons and flicked a few switches. Nothing but dust. She turned back to the princess. "I'm sorry, I think the power's completely shut down. Perhaps the generator will help?"

Princess Twinkle nodded. "I really just wanted to avoid going into this place any further. I see we will need too. Hopefully the containment procedures held up."

Pascale walked up to her. "Containment procedures? Princess, have you been here before?"

Princess Twinkle put her fingers into the door. "Don't ask silly questions. Keep your guard up you may need to use your energy blast any moment."

The Princess gave a small grunt as she pulled the door to the side. It whined and hissed as it slid to the side. Once it was open a few feet she stopped and let out a sigh. If the door was actually hard for someone as strong as the princess to open, this place must have been built with the kind of security in mind that was insane to think about. Princess Twinkle poked her head inside and looked both ways. It was clear and she motioned for Pascale to follow. Pascale did so.

"Pascale, that control room behind us will be a meet up point if we get separated. You can close the door. Or should I say, you will need to close the door if we get separated. Only I can open it so you'll be safe if you do that and hide."

Pascale really didn't like the idea of being separated for an instant. It was a sound plan, but not one she wanted to have to rely on. Going into the hall behind she found that the hall went left and right from the door. White tiled floors, with orange walls. The ceiling had many light fixtures but all of which were turned off. There were numerous doors lining the hall. Together the two of them went down the hall looking for whatever might be in here. It was sterile in here, clean, but dust covered most of it.

The hall turned out to be a single square shape so after taking enough turns they ended up back at where they began. Metal shutters covered the windows and the staircase going down had a metal grate on it and a place where some kind of special coin or emblem could be placed to open it. The place was dead and locked down. Princess Twinkle frowned. "I don't want to destroy any of the security measures here, just in case.

"Princess, there were workers here at one point, right?"

"Yes, dozens of them. Scientists, guards, you name it."

"You don't think any are still here do you?"

Princess Twinkle frowned. "I, know that there must be a few, but I would want to believe they are fully dead. Skeletons of a forgotten era. I don’t fully believe that, but I want to."

"How would they have lived if they were stuck here?"

"I didn't say they were alive. Just that I hope their fully dead."

"Princess, that doesn't make any sense."

"And I hope for your sake it never does."

That was the hope when they found the bathrooms. Large open entrances that went left or right depending on if you were male or female. Black stains lined the floor of the marble there going into the bathrooms. Princess Twinkle stared at the dark hall going into the female restroom in complete silence for a long moment. She glanced back at Pascale. "Stay close."

Pascale did and they ventured forth. The black stains were dried out, but that didn't help. Princess Twinkle rounded the corner and cursed. The bathroom had six stalls, each one closed, but the floor was covered in those black stains. Bones, kobold bones, littered the floor scattered about. The ventilation shaft in the corner was broken open as if something had crawled out of it. Princess Twinkle almost bumped her head into the ceiling as she stepped into the bathroom looking around.

"W-what happened here?" Pascale asked. She didn't need an answer she knew what must have occurred, but she didn't want to think about it. Looking at the mirror it got worse. In black paint she saw words written on the mirror. She read it aloud as Princess Twinkle began checking the stalls. "Mirror Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all. Between the pain and the hurt, I have found peace and mirth. To those that read and those that write, I shall crawl out into the night."

Princess Twinkle cleared her throat. "Pascale, please don't read creepy messages written on the walls by ghost kids. Thank you."

"Ghost kids?"

There was a metallic rattle from inside the vents. Princess Twinkle stood upright and stared at it. "Oh, well by the Dragon's seven magical balls."

Pascale was staring at the vent too. It was quiet now. "If, if something was up here to kill all these people during the lock down, would the vents have locked it up here still?"

"Yes, Pascale. That is the observation that I am making."

Another rattle from the vent. A wet, gasping sound came from the vent. Princess Twinkle was back at Pascale's side in a moment and hissed. "We leave, now."

Just as they began to backtrack the medallion grew freezing ice cold against her skin. Pascale saw something in the vent. A dark, red and meaty appendage. It was like a kobold hand, but it was distorted, the bones looked broken and crooked, elongated with claws that were crooked as they were sharp. It clawed into the metal cutting into it as if it were wet paper. Pascale couldn't move, she couldn't breathe. Princess Twinkle grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her out of the bathroom and they made their way back into the hall. Quickly but quietly they made their way to the control room where Pascale was shoved in first and the princess followed. Princess Twinkle quickly turned and using her brute strength shoved the door closed once more.

For a moment they stood there, breathing quietly. With the door fully shut they were probably not getting back in there, but whatever was in there was probably not coming out after them. Pascale suddenly realized they might still be in danger. "Vents. Princess it's in the vents."

Princess Twinkle smiled softly at her. "This is the control room. There are no vents in here except for ones that go directly outside, but even those have grates as strong as this door. She will not come here."

Princess Twinkle took a few steps back. "We need power, and probably a set of keys. I know the keys were pretty unique, they had a keychain much like your medallion on it. The keys themselves all had the symbol of a dream cloud, but for the life of me, I wouldn't know where to find them."

"W-what about power?"

Princess Twinkle looked back at Pascale. "Weird question, but do you know much about electronics or machines? Like, maybe we can power up that control station without having to find the main generator?"

Pascale shook her head. "I don’t know how to do that. I mean, I'm sure it's possible but the only one who would know how is Blue. I really don't think Blue should come here though."

"I agree." Princess Twinkle looked back to the door. “This place takes the emotions in your heart and twists them into corrupting powers to harm you. Blue wouldn’t survive given her past…”

Twinkle let out a sigh. "Tell you what, ask her to teach you about that kind of thing later. If you can learn it perhaps we can turn on the power and this will be a lot safer. I might not even have to go back inside so long as the information I need is here."

"Information? What kind of information?"

"There are some documents that need to be destroyed. I mean this whole place does, but I can't risk destroying the building until after the threats are neutralized and the information is too... there's also some information I need to learn about, some truths that are hidden even from me."

Pascale lowered her head. The sorrow she felt earlier was still here, mixed in with the absolute terror she felt. She could feel it as her body began shaking too. Flashes of old memories haunted her mind. The darkness, the loneliness. Small kobold children sleeping on uncomfortable cots, all enemies of each other, but having no one else to bond with.

Princess Twinkle walked up to her. "Hey, Pascale. Look up."

Pascale looked up and her eyes widened as Princess Twinkle shoved a finger up her own nose and began picking it. Once she was done she pulled out a green disgusting thing and balled it up with her thumb. She then flicked the booger, right onto Pascale's chest.

Pascale let out a scream, not of terror but disgust as she swiped a hand at the nasty thing trying to get it off of her chest. Whatever fear or sorrow she felt was pushed away by the sheer disgust she was now feeling. What was wrong with her?

Princess Twinkle smiled. "You can't allow your feelings to be consumed here. Now let's go before you forget about how gross that was. I'll even go up first so you can see my panties if you want."

Pascale blinked. This was too many things to feel at once and all she felt now was confusion. If she was honest though, her priority was just getting out of here as soon as possible. Though, perhaps Princess Twinkle could climb the ladder first. It didn't sound like a bad idea at all. Though, even with an interesting exit, she realized that they were going to have to come back here, and that was perhaps the worst part of it all.

The return trip home left Pascale focused on the horrors of a past best left forgotten.