Falling Into Shadow

Twilight shot back up straight from her position; face down in the middle of the book that she'd been reading. The library was dimly lit now, no sunlight coming in through the windows and likely sometime late in the evening. She felt remarkably...stiff, hardly felt like moving from her seat at all.

"Great...I slept all afternoon," she groused to the empty air, rubbing at her eyes.

"Don't you know that you're not suppose to make noise in a library?" A deep, familiar male voice said immediately to her right.

Twilight jumped, completely startled and felt heat rising to her cheeks in a blush. She'd just committed the cardinal sin of libraries. Turning, intending to apologize profusely, she was stunned in recognition of exactly who it was sitting next to her.

It was the stallion of her dream last night, she was certain of it. Ash gray coat, long dark black mane and impressively large. The unicorn was paying her absolutely no attention, looking over his own book before flipping a page with a flash of green hued magic.

Her mouth hung open, unable to formulate something to say. Strangely a large part of her was entirely unconcerned by the recognition and urged her to say an apology. It was just on the tip of her tongue and, even more strangely, she had a feeling that she knew what the stallion was going to say in reply in broad terms. It would be something charming, witty and also flirty...

Before she could follow along the 'script' laid out in front of her she saw the pages of the Psychology text that she'd been reading. Immediately she focused on them, not that it helped her read anything. The printed letters were smudged and altogether impossible to make out in any meaningful way. The puzzle pieces fit together and, quickly, she arrived at the only possible conclusion.

"I'm dreaming," she wondered aloud, now examining her hooves at the self realization. Everything seemed far more 'free' compared to the murky predestination that the dreamworld had seemed moments ago.

That statement also succeeding in completely catching the ash gray unicorn's attention. He was staring at her now, his eyes an intense green that were very familiar to her, where had she seen them before?

Before she could dwell much on his looks he snorted for a second and then chuckled. "Very observant of you."

Twilight shot him a look of annoyance at the tease, her dreams shouldn't be allowed to make fun of her. Still, a question gnawed at her. "Who are you?"

The male paused for a moment, considering the answer. "I am...Dream Walker."

Twilight stared for a moment, "That is an incredibly lame name," she deadpanned.

'Dream Walker' shrugged. "I am your idealized stallion. Technically you named me, or at least your subconscious did."

This was a strange conversation to be having essentially with herself but still very interesting. Though, something he'd just said stuck out to her. Her thoughts shot back to the first time she'd actually 'met' Dream Walker and blushed at the memory of it.

Dream Walker seemed to know exactly what she was thinking and smirked at her. Even more annoyed now at him, she raised a hoof and smacked his arm, surprised at how solid he felt for a dream projection. "My idealized stallion and I would not do that. At least not before I even knew his name."

Dream Walker didn't flinch at the smack, only raised an eyebrow. "You do not need to keep up false modesty with your own psyche, Twilight. Here at least you can relax, free from the expectations of your friends and mentor."

Not at all pleased with the slight against Celestia, she turned her nose up and folded her arms petulantly. "I am completely relaxed already. I'll show you." Twilight was capable of being stubborn if she so chose and some of her denials were very well established. It would take more than one (admittedly very attractive) stallion who she'd had a dirty dream about to get her to admit he might have a point.

Dream Walker cocked his head to the side, looking off put and searching for a way to reply.

Before he could say something she found annoying Twilight looked around. "If I'm aware I'm dreaming doesn't that mean I can do whatever I want?" she asked out loud, extending a hoof out experimentally.

"Of course. Its called lucid dreaming. You can do anything you set your mind to. But am I really boring you that much?" Dream Walker answered dryly.

"Yes you are, very much so," Twilight quipped and aimed her hoof at the male. A sudden idea occurred to her and she focused intently.

Her focus was rewarded by the dignified looking stallion's jet black hair turning a Pinkie Pie shade of pink, which of course made him look ridiculous. Dream Walker was clearly horrified by his transformation and reached up to grasp at his mane, tugging on it. "That was not funny."

She'd laughed, because she certainly thought it was. But then she decided to ignore him, and instead turned to look at the rest of the dream library. Like a loaded weapon she aimed her hoof at bookshelves and thought of different things for them to become. The room began to physically warp to her will; flowers sprouted up from the stone floor, books jumped from the shelves and began to dance on newly sprouted legs, and, on a whim an enormous ice cream sundae appeared in the center of the room..

It was all a touch childish but she'd been unable to think of much else. Whatever she thought of became so, felt so. Twilight had been just about to jump into the sundae to see what it tasted like when she was grabbed at the shoulder. Whirling around, she was confronted by the pink-maned Dream Walker, looking less than pleased.

"Twilight while you have taken to lucid dreaming very quickly I can think of something far more interesting. I can show you something that would take your breath away...if you turn my mane back to the right color."

She strongly considered blowing him off, or perhaps blowing him up. A part of her wanted to accuse this particular dream entity of being the cause of her bad day. If he hadn't done...what he'd done, with her, she'd have woken up normally. If she woke up normally she wouldn't have taken so long in the shower. Then she would have made it to breakfast on time and had a non-awkward conversation with her mentor. Then Court (or maybe they'd have skipped it even) would have gone well. Then she'd have gone out to lunch with Flas-.

"You can't possibly think that's my fault. You didn't go to lunch with him because he's just like your brother, which certainly bothers you. And here you thought you'd squashed that whole complex after the wedding..." Dream Walker cut her off, still sounding very smooth and detached.

"Stop reading my thoughts!" Twilight wanted to blast him now, 'cool' guy act or not. Of course telling him not to read her thoughts was futile, he knew everything she knew it seemed. But, curiously enough, she couldn't do the same to him when she tried. It seemed as if Twilight was unable to probe the depths of her own subconscious, or at least the part of her subconscious that secretly wanted smug, condescending perverts.

Dream Walker rolled his eyes and then focused directly on her. "We'll drop the subject if you let me show you the full extent of what these dreams are capable of...and turn my hair back to normal." As casual as he tried to make the request sound, Twilight grinned at the small victory that she'd gotten under the stallions skin.

After a few moments of trying to look like she was considering his offer Twilight relented, mostly because she'd grown just a little curious about what he had in mind. Though she had to remind herself that 'he' was really just an imaginary creation and wasn't real. With a wave of her hoof Dream Walker's mane returned to its original black color.

'Its way better looking that way anyway,' Twilight thought to herself, 'I certainly know how to create good looking Stallions...'

"I am pretty handsome aren't I?" He sounded smug, answering what she thought had been kept to herself.

Instead of yelling at him, which didn't seem to get her anywhere, she just grumbled and marveled at the complete malleability of this dream world. She'd never known that such a thing was really even possible. Sleep, with the occasional dream she might recall for a hour or two on waking, had previously been only a necessity. But this was something new, exciting even.

What wasn't currently exciting was Dream Walker, the unicorn standing still now with his eyes closed. He'd promised to show her something. She began to impatiently tap her hoof on the stone, thinking that she might wake up any moment and be torn away from this fascinating place.

Then, in a single blink, she was a million light years away from Canterlot. Both of them were suspended in a void of absolute nothingness, empty space. But there was nothing empty about where they were.

"This...this is...." Twilight refused to close her eyes for even a second, thankful she didn't have to blink if she didn't want to.

Dream Walker nodded, a tiny smile on his lips. "A bit more impressive compared to a telescope or a scrying spell don't you think?"

She could only nod, awestruck. They were floating in space, the warped physics of the dream had made it possible for the wonders of the universe to be seen with the naked eye, yet retain all of their incredible vastness. Twilight saw binary stars circling one another in an endless dance, impossibly massive nebula of cascading multicolored hues and all the billions of galaxies in the universe, which might as well have each been snowflakes of light; not one was like the other.

There was more than that as well, an infinite amount, and Twilight wanted to witness it all. Dream Walker had fallen silent after his little quip, gazing with her over the entirety of the cosmos without a word needing to be said. Twilight had always had an interest in stargazing but the field itself was underdeveloped in Equestria. Few enough ponies had special talents related to astronomy and even fewer in making telescopes.

Telescopes could only see so much, contending with interference from the atmosphere as well as light from the ground. Twilight had, on occasion, attempted to use magic to see the stars. But the scrying bowl and water presented a murky at best image, nothing like what she was witnessing now.

"How is this possible?" Twilight felt compelled to ask, her voice was barely above a whisper at this point.

Dream Walker looked her way and appeared amused at the question. "Are you doubting the power of your own mind? In this place things are limitless."

It sounded good, sounded wonderful, but Twilight was finding difficulty in believing it. "I've never even seen...could never imagine anything like this. Is this really what the universe looks like?"

The unicorn gave a wry smile for a moment. "With some embellishment, where appropriate," he answered, gazing out over the spiral arm of a massive galaxy. "I have always loved the stars ever since I was young. The great unknown of it all, each star could be like our sun. For all the beauty of Equestria, we truly are just a tiny cosmic speck floating in a sunbeam. There's no teleportation spell that could allow one to visit, but it is something to atleast gaze upon a million, billion worlds...and wonder."

Twilight was now looking at Dream Walker, staring. What he'd said was terribly romantic in a way, enough to make her blush at the sentiment. But what had really caught her attention was the allusion to a past. It was separate from her, though she'd had similar thoughts while growing up. Dream Walker really did seem to be the 'stallion of her dreams' but...it was just a dream, wasn't it?

The two remained floating in the endless void of space, enjoying the view, for what like hours to Twilight. Then the stars began to dim and all faded into black. Alarmed, she looked around for her companion and was surprised to find herself relieved that he hadn't faded out as well. In a few moments they were back in the dusty library, like nothing had changed.

"You're nearly about to wake up, Twilight." Dream Walker informed her, sounding disappointed.

"But..." Saying 'I don't want to wake up' was a bit morbid if taken out of context but Twilight really had been having a wonderful time. "Will I see y...have another dream like this again?"

She'd nearly asked if she'd ever see him again, which was alarming to her internal reservations. Liking Dream Walker was basically narcissism wasn't it? It was silly, the more important question was whether she might enjoy another Lucid Dream experience again; with or without ash gray unicorns.

Dream Walker obviously knew what she was thinking, his mouth pursed in a thin line pushing on a frown. "It is likely you may, in time. There are ways to make it a guarantee though. Simple magical spells."

Of course! Magic was the solution to almost all the problems of the world and assisted in all the others anyway. Summoning her magic took next to no effort for her, she could quite literally do magic in her sleep and proved it now. It was only as Twilight activated her magic, a faint tingling in the back of her head now, that she realized that she didn't think she knew the appropriate spell.

"I know the spell...", There was a slight pause, but as she felt a pang of confusion he continued. "As a part of your subconscious. You saw the spell in a book, years ago, for only a few seconds. But there are very few things you truly forget, no matter how long since you read the text." Dream Walker spoke up, answering the question that hadn't been asked yet. "I am surprised you are thinking of essentially getting rid of me, Twilight. Did you not enjoy my present?"

That had, amazingly enough, managed to make Twilight feel guilty just a little. "I did...it was wonderful. But..." She shouldn't have to explain this, surely he knew the reasons and agreed? Unless it was something her subconscious actually wanted her to do in the first place.

"But I am a figment of your imagination? Twilight..." Dream Walker chided her gently with a wave of his hoof. "I told you before. Here, in the deep recesses of your mind, you should have no need to keep up a false front. Why shouldn't you enjoy the company of the perfect stallion for you?"

'Because you're not real?' Twilight answered without speaking. Already the dream was fading away, now only on the surface of her mind as control of her real limbs was returning to her.

Dream Walker had disappeared, Twilight's eyes were shut now. But she could still hear his answer.

"All the better to not worry, or feel embarrassed. Your mind is a powerful thing, Twilight, and within it...it's only you that you have to worry about. " Things were so fuzzy and unclear that Twilight couldn't reply even if she wanted to. "But before you wake, the spell you cast is a special one, a granting you acuity of mind while dreaming. It won't take you much effort at all to become lucid at will. Of course, as you're such a novice at it, I thought it appropriate to modify it just enough to include a humble guide...on a more permanent basis."

Twilight had slipped back into consciousness very slowly. Her face was pressed down into her book and her whole body felt stiff in the uncomfortable position. That was the first hint that she was very much not dreaming now. Yawning off remaining drowsiness, she straightened up and began to stretch. Rewinding the last parting words of Dream Walker took longer than it would if she hadn't just woken up.

When she did digest the information she scowled in annoyance. " I didn't say you could do that!"

Was it really entirely sane to yell at herself for casting a spell that she apparently wanted to cast on a deep, subconscious level? It most certainly wasn't sane to refer to an imaginary fantasy created for a dirty dream as if he was really alive either. An imaginary fantasy created for a dirty dream that was apparently going to feature in all of her dreams from now on.

"At least you're not hearing voices in your head" she said, though reflected that talking to yourself was certainly not much better. Her throat felt remarkably dry. It took only a glance to the window to realize why. It was dark, very dark, outside. She'd slept the entire afternoon away and now was going to have a miserable time getting back to sleep...if she even wanted to.

She didn't want to, not just yet anyway. Twilight knew sleeping spells certainly, though unicorns were warned against abusing them because of the unpleasant side effects and the risk of dependency. She'd come into the library to get away and to perhaps think, but now had a whole host of new questions to consider.

But first she should get out of the library and get something to eat. Princess Celestia was probably wondering where she was, if she hadn't already gone to bed. Princess Luna would almost certainly be awake, perhaps Twilight could spend time with her. Before leaving she placed the book she'd taken from the shelf back where it belonged.

She was disappointed in herself when she sighed on facing the exit. Already a tight knot of tension was forming in her stomach at the return to the awkwardness and uneasy feeling of her place in the palace. 'I don't want to be here.' Twilight realized finally and this time did not shut down at the revelation.

Dream Walker had shown her that much...or she had shown herself the truth. The long dream still stood out in vivid detail and Twilight was having a great deal of difficulty reminding herself that none of it had been real. An enjoyable retreat from her problems for awhile but still not real. If she was going to see Dream Walker again it wouldn't hurt to just treat him as though he were real, constantly reminding herself that he wasn't would just give her a headache.

'Besides, he wasn't bad for a fantasy.' was her final thought on the subject as she emerged into the hallway and returned to her life as a Princess of Canterlot.