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Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood
Previous Episode
Children of the Flesh
Current Episode
Ghost in the Dream
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The Other Ben
Ghost in the Dream
Air Date 28/10/2023
Written by Amanda
General Information
Primary Universe "FiM" Universe

Ghost in the Dream is the fifth episode of Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood. It was written by Amanda on the 28th of October 2023.

This is the first mini episode of the series and is a quarter of the length of a typical episode.

Ghost in the Dream[]

Ben looked out once more over the familiar nothingness. The black sky, dotted with innumerable points of colour illuminating the dull grey dust. A place where he should not be able to breathe. And yet...

Equestria hung high above. It was night time there, and he could barely make out the outlines of the continent. There were a few disparate yellow dots where the countryside had been bulldozed and urbanised far beyond the cosy fantasyscape of the Everfree Territories, but even they were almost invisible.

He sat down on the lunar surface, contemplating what he had achieved since the death of his hero and his universe.

He had painted himself as a murderer, a successful improvement over the fact that he had intentionally killed someone, and he had talked down a far wiser hero from a genocide he then participated in anyway. And now he faced the truth of how utterly he had mistreated his girlfriend of four years- how he had pushed her away from him and towards the Flesh.

Was there something wrong with him? He believed intrinsically that doing good was a natural goal of all people, though he never put the thought into words. Was heroism something he was simply incapable of, where to all others it came naturally? He turned to the watch.

This device had saved him, but without it he would never have had to come to terms with the truth of his unworthiness for it. In that sense, perhaps he'd rather it had remained a fantasy. Dreaming of the Omnitrix, never to receive it.

Still, perhaps he had barely scratched the surface of its capabilities. He opened the selection dial, hovering over the hologram of Doodlebug. Perhaps if he could find a way back to the surface of the planet, he could hide among the ponies there with this form. He could live a peaceful life, free of conflict, heroism, or the Flesh.

He pressed the dial down and awaited the sensation of the mane tickling the back of his neck. But it never came, as the gravity here was too weak to pull it down appropriately. Ben felt disappointed, and then confused at his own disappointment. He laid down, slowly lowering himself onto his side and resting his head upon the cold hard ground. His eyes closed...


He dreamt of an opaline village. There were no roads here, simply large open fields of grass separating the thatch-roofed housing. There were rainbow coloured ponies everywhere. Even a few that Ben recognised. There was Fluttershy, and Applejack, and Rarity, and Rarity. Rainbow Dash passed by, chatting with Pinkie Pie as they went to meet up with Pinkie Pie and Applejack.

It had been years since Ben had dreamt. He did not know how to recognise the incongruities between this fantasy and his own reality.

Twilight Sparkle approached him;
"Hi ████████!" she said, but Ben didn't recognise the name. Did she call him Doodlebug? Or Kickback? Or Ben? He looked over himself. He was a Pegasus- he stretched out his wings. He'd never used this form before. But why now? He hadn't even named it?
"Wing… thing?" He thought to himself.
"Wing Thing- that is your name isn't it?" Twilight asked.
Why a Pegasus? The only Pegasi he had seen were some of the guards and Rainbow Dash. No wait, there was Fluttershy too.
"She's dead!" Ben looked up to see a crying Fluttershy staring back at him, she had been the one to take Chrysalis’s death the hardest, "You killed her!"

The floor, as well as Ben's forehooves, were covered in a deep green blood. The body of Queen Chrysalis lay before him. He was surrounded by guards and the royals- he was once again under trial for the murder. He was once again in that castle in Canterlot.

"I'm sorry," he pleaded, his heart dropped out from under him, "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry! I wasn't thinking! I messed up! I'm sorry!" But the cold eyes of the court stared back uncaring. One of the larger figures, its coat a deep blue, stepped forwards. Her eyes shone bright white.
"You come here to seek forgiveness?" She spoke.

Ben hesitated, his voice uneasy; "I come here because I need forgiveness."

The body before him rose up. It stood twenty feet tall, shrouded in deep green starfields.
"Do you think you deserve forgiveness?" It asked.

Ben knew he did not. He turned away, cowering into his own hooves.

"You would not be here if you did not believe you did, deep in your heart," said Princess Luna.

Ben was once again in the white corridors of the Salvation space station. Something long appears at the top of his peripheral vision- a horn. His fur coat had changed to a reddy-purple. Was this his unicorn form? Why?

Three Daleks approached him. Squat, silver machines. He remembered how Upgrade had stopped them by opening their machines- he cast this signal as a spell. He didn't know how he did it, only that he had. He was not lucid.

The three machines creaked open. Clouds of glittering darkness poured out of them.

"They gave themselves to the Flesh." Ben spoke aloud.
"And you fear this Flesh?" Luna's voice came again.
"No. I have to fight it!" Ben announced, roaring as a magic beam erupted from his horn, carving the central Dalek in half. The metal dissolved into flowing, swirling dust.

"All they fear is you." The dust took form. It was humanoid. It stepped towards Ben. It looked like Ben. "Universe after universe. All they have to fear is you- the destroyer of fates. You let the Flesh in. You let the Flesh win."
"Pay it no mind, Ben. The Tantabus speaks only to your anxieties."
"That's not true," Ben argued to the cloud, "That's not true at all."
"Of course it's true. I speak only in truths," the dust approached him, smiling maliciously, "You are the champion of the Flesh."
"Shut up." Ben growled, "SHUT UP!" The magic in his horn grew to a blinding, overwhelming flash.

"Ben," the familiar voice of Princess Luna called out from the darkness, the hallways of the Salvation vanished by the light, "Do not give it power over you. It is not real."

But the pain he felt was very real. As was the pain he had caused.

"You couldn't save her."

Salvia Rosemary stood before him, her face a lifeless blue.

"I chose death over you," said Ester. Her face was likewise blue, but this time coloured by exposed veins.

Ben felt himself change this time- wings and a horn, he was the same species as the pony that had been following him. His horn shone much brighter, and the illusions of Flesh were vanished by the light.

"Who are you?" Ben asked, "Why are you following me?" Ben had reached the height of lucidity- the most awake he had ever been while dreaming. The deep blue and black Alicorn was still following him in spite of the changes of scenery since his trial.
"We had inadequate time to be acquainted in Canterlot," she said, "I am Luna, Princess of the Night and Guardian of all who Dream."
"So you're real? You're not part of this nightmare?"
"It interests me that you know this to be a nightmare, yet you still entertain it."
"I'm not surprised. It's not like what I wake up to is any better."
"Your tortures here began with Canterlot. Why is that?"
"That was my first experience trying to be a hero. It was the first universe I visited after losing my own."

"I see. You have the ability to leave our reality and flaunt your banishment any time you please, and yet you still return to our moon to wait out your exile. Why?"
"It's a peaceful place to think about what I've done wrong. It took me eight hours and a terrible night's sleep to realise what I'd done wrong the first time, and I keep making mistakes. Do you think if I wait here long enough, I'll learn to stop making them?"
"This form you have taken holds power beyond anything else I have seen you wield. If you let your guilt possess you, you will drive yourself only to greater heights of misery."
"So I'm just supposed to forget what I've done?" Ben began to cry. His once-green mane became glittered and dark.
"Never forget. But realise that your guilt and your strive to better yourself makes you better than the version of you that made those mistakes. If you wallow in your own idea of the pain you have caused then nothing will change." Luna's voice boomed and echoed into the back of Ben's mind.

"People are dead because of me," he cried. When he opened his eyes, he saw that he was alone once again. The creaking bowels of the Red Dwarf dripped with blood as the light faded.

Ben wandered through its long corridors, his mane faded back to its green colouration. He could smell the flesh through the iron walls.

"You really think what you’re doing is right?" Asked the visage of Tony Stark. Ben's dream drew no distinction between the man he had met and the fictional character he’d wished had remained as such. He turned away, unwilling to entertain an answer. Behind him was his shadow, staring back at him.

He stood now, alone, on the moon over Equestria. But he wasn't alone. The shadow of himself followed him here.

"How can you know they're evil?" It asked, "When you don't even consider the possibility that they are genuine? That their way is better? That their population joins them willingly?" Ben did not respond, instead he considered the Omnitrix.
"You cannot fight the Tantabus here, Ben," Luna stopped him, "only in the waking world can you destroy it."
"I can try."
"Save yourself the effort. You are not the first to face the Tantabus." Luna cast her own shadow; it smiled mockingly.

The stars overhead formed strange constellations- the image of pipes and sunlight bleeding in from overhead. The darkness around him, the grey stone, formed tunnels and pathways that glistened damp.

"These sewers," said Luna, "they mean a lot to you."
"Do they?"
"They do. I feel your tension."
Ben thought for a moment before realising; "This is where Kev 'Leven died."
"This is where you let me die." The Tantabus had taken Kevin's form now, but this was too much for Ben to believe even in his dreary state.
"Liar. Kev gave his life to save me. You really are just an illusion, aren't you?"
"What did this person mean to you?" Asked Luna.
"Kev saved my life," he gritted his teeth, "There was nothing I could have done to save him- he did everything to save me."
"You could've tried," the illusion taunted.
"I'm still trying!" Ben roared. He had once again, subconsciously, assumed the form of the princess. The whole space shone with the magic from his horn.

a splatter of blood appeared on the floor, distracting Ben's growing anger. Above them the piercing yellow eyes of Flesh stared down into the sewers.

It began to seep down but Ben blasted it away with his magic.
More came from the dark caverns.
Burned by magic.
More Flesh.
Ben screamed.
Red everywhere.
More Flesh.
More Flesh.
More Flesh.

"I think you deserve forgiveness."


His eyes shot open. Much to his surprise he was still Doodlebug in spite of the hours that had passed. The dust was everywhere. It clung to his cheeks and his eyelids and his mane and no amount of rubbing moved it. With a shine of his horn a green glow enveloped his body, growing outwards to force the dirt away. He magicked it to the ground, unwilling to envelop himself in a cloud of his own making.

It still felt like he was covered.

The watch flashed red. Time out. After everything, he was still on the moon. Still a human. Still short-haired.

Why did that bother him so much?


Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood
Previous Episode
Children of the Flesh
Current Episode
Ghost in the Dream
Next Episode
The Other Ben


Characters[]

Nightmares[]

Aliens Used[]

Universes[]

Friendship is Magic Universe[]

A large branch of the My Little Pony multiverse, and one that Ben has visited previously. He was banished to the moon by Princess Celestia after he murdered Queen Chrysalis. However, thanks to a clever use of the Chrononavigator that Professor Paradox left him, he was able to use time travel to take Chrysalis' place using his Doodlebug transformation. Still, he accepts his banishment because he knows what he did and what he tried to do even if he fixed it.

Trivia[]

Ben 10: Beyond Bellwood
Episodes
· Life and Flesh · Death in the Everfree · The Genocide Gene ·
· Children of the Flesh · Ghost in the Dream · The Other Ben ·
· Prodigy · It's Always Sunny In Phillydelphia · Friendship is Irrelevant ·
Characters
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By Universe
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