A Lifetime of Dreams

Fillies and gentlecolts! The end of the first episode of A Lifetime of Dreams is here, hopefully this is not the end, but simply the beginning of the end, and as we go along with all this insanity, let's go ahead on the show, and I also have something important to say at the end of the chapter, allons-y!

Looking at the source of the sound they quickly saw lights from the road that led further away from the Everfree Forest and in matter of seconds they watched a group of earth ponies trotting in their directions.

Just when the ponies where close enough to watch the bizarre (form their perspective) creatures that walked on two feet one of them threw the flashlight it had in on its mouth due to the shock.

“Ah… we come in peace?” Iván would have probably used the classic Vulcan salute if he wanted to scare them more and because he wanted an excuse to finally use it, in answer to his words, instead, he got a wail of screams.

"They are MONSTERS!" One of them, obviously a female due to the cherry colored mane and blue ribbon on the right side of her head, screamed while three more started to run in circles while another one simply fainted.

“Okay… I think they are talking about Joseph” Ben said pointing at his friends.

“Yes… HEY!”

/////

Besides the sound of screaming ponyfolk and the obvious madness of rampaging ponies running in circles it was definitely a nice night for everyone on Equestria.

The moon was up and completely full, very few clouds were traveling lazy on the sky obviously due to the hard work of pegasi and a soft breeze made the grass move slowly and cooled the night, all in all, it was perfect, of course if one doesn’t count that there were two different races in what could be called their first interaction ever.

“Okay, this wasn’t the way I imagined first contact ever happening” it was obvious that both races were stunned by the current situation but the human quartet was more surprised than scared unlike their counterparts from Equestria.

Obviously they were going nowhere since the five earth ponies were still running in circles completely terrified, stunned or they simply fainted and the human group was still really surprised about the turn of events to do anything besides watching.

“So now what? What are we going to do?” Ross said turning into the un-official leader for the moment considering how calm he was about everything.

“Dude, we just arrived a couple of hours ago, max, we are a race that they probably never saw before, I think we all saw this one coming” Iván waved a hand obviously referring to the group of ponies that were all on their own panic.

“They are ponies, harmony is a part of their lives, is not like if they will hurt us or something like that”

“Remember Zecora? How do you think they will react to us?” Obviously Iván was the one who obviously represented the Devil’s Advocate role in the group right now.

“We are alone on this land, the TARDIS obviously doesn’t work and we need to need to know where exactly in Equestria we are”

“Okay, go ahead” while both were obviously were discussing their points of view both Ben and Joseph were on the sidelines obviously not wanting to bet involved.

“Why are they wasting so much time on this? I mean, we are already on Equestria? Who cares about the rest?”

“And I guess that’s why you are not the leader” Ben said obviously being a little mysterious with the answer. Joseph simply shrugged his shoulders obviously not interested in the fighting and arguing.

With the decision made about the next step in Equestria Ross got close to the only Earth Pony that was neither running in circles or in the ground unconscious.

“Good night, my friends and I were…” anything else he wanted to say was quickly forgotten when a pitchfork was put in front of him with the earth pony ready to fight for her life.

“Don’t you dare to move monster! You won’t eat us!”

“Told ya so!”

“Shut up Iván!”

(Cue opening theme)

BBC

Hasbro

In Cooperation with Meteor Beat Entertainment

With:

Iván González

Ross Money

Ben Betteridge

Joseph Jafari

Twilight Sparkle

Applejack

Rarity

Rainbow Dash

Fluttershy

And Pinkie Pie

A Lifetime of Dreams

Episode 1: Arrival

Chapter 4: Into the Unknown

“Okay, it is pretty obvious that we started on the wrong foot… uh, hoof, thing, whatever, it comes to my mind, besides the extremely pointy thing that you are right now pointing to one of my friends, is that we haven’t even introduced ourselves, where are my manners?” The member of the team, who by now was still wearing his now typical sunglasses, was more than relaxed apparently about their situation considering their current problem.

It was obvious that the mare was not prepared for that bombardment of words and it reflected on her facial expression.

“Do you have to be this calm?”

“I’m not the one who has a pitchfork right on their face Ross”

“Touché, but I’m pretty sure you are enjoying this” Iván simply shrugged as an answer.

“Alright both of you, shut up!” the mare was right now losing her patience, this strange creatures appeared out of nowhere and she was not going to stay quiet while their comrades were still on danger from this… this… things! “I don’t know why you are here, I don’t know who or what you are, but you will. NOT. HURT. ANY. PONY!”

“Will it help if we say that we came in peace?” Joseph added his two cents joining the conversation; he was giddy, what could be greater? He was finally talking to a true pony! How cool could that be? Well, it would be greater if it were Rainbow Dash but he wasn’t complaining.

“Don’t you learn from sci-fi movies? You do not start a conversation with those words”

“Indeed” Iván rolled his eyes at the bantering around him, if something was true about their so far short travel it was that it wasn’t boring “continuing with our current topic, ah, do you mind letting our buddy here free? I swear we won’t attack you or anything like that, please?”

“Yeah, what he said!” the mare slowly lowered the pitchfork on her hoof while warily looking at both humans in front of her, they didn’t act like monsters, but who can say while being so close to the Everfree Forest, one could never lower their guard, just a couple of weeks ago she found herself way too close to a bear to be comfortable.

“Okay, but you better start talking”

“That’s easy”

“I think she doesn’t refer to that kind of talking” Ross said now more used to the motor mouth that was the sunglasses wearing human.

“Oh, right… well, my name is Iván, the one you were about to skewer is Ross and the two behind us are Ben and Joseph”

“Why am I the last one?”

“Be grateful you are still mentioned” Ben couldn’t resist a last jab and the mare was also enjoying their impromptu comedic sketch but something was very wrong.

“What kind of names are those? They don’t even make sense!”

“For us it does since we are human”

“Uh… what? Human? What are those?” For the look on her face they were pretty sure the word was as alien as they were to this world.

“You have never heard the word? Rumor? Stories? Fables? Myths?.. Gossip? Anything?”

“That word doesn’t even make an iota of sense for me, hay, I even remember every single story my grand used to tell me but no idea of what human means, did you just came out of the Everfree Forest?”

“Uh, well, I’m sure the explanation of that question will be a lot harder” Iván unconsciously turned to the direction of the immobile TARDIS still leaning against the rock wall, Ross was making a good role as their diplomatic it seemed and both Ben and Joseph were obviously enjoying the interaction with the local ponies, that was exactly the thing he needed, now he had to wait long enough and everything would start.

“I’m sure you’ll have enough time to explain us why you are here, my name is Autumn Crisp, and this… ragtag of misfits are my friends, Parasol is the one who fainted, poor dear, never can withstand surprises” Autumn was a mare of butterscotch coat while she had her hair in brown pigtails and three brown leaves as a cutiemark while Parasol was purple with her red and white stripped mane in a ponytail, her cutiemark, obviously was an open parasol “Oh for the love of Celestia! Flare Twister! Stop playing around!” The aforementioned orange coated stallion stopped running in circles, around him another two ponies were catching their breath.

“I thought it was a race” Flare said with a toothy grin.

“What am I supposed to do with him?” her voice was not as soft as she wanted because the four human could hear it clear “just get Silver Lining and Steam Power, we have… visitors!” one of the stallions had blue short mane but it probably was lighter due to the time of the day and also a white coat with a pickaxe as a cutiemark while the other had black mane and earth colored coat with a steam engine on his flank.

“Great! You got it boss! So… they’re not gonna eat us?”

“I don’t like horse meat, too stringy” Iván said to the astonished looks of everyone present “I swear I cannot even make a single joke now”

/////

A clear advantage that the princess of the Sun found from the construction of the city of Canterlot was the climate advantages, from these warm nights she only had to open a window and a cool breeze could travel through her chambers and made it easier for her to rest at night. For Celestia, this last year has been a blessing, no more having to raise the moon, no more having quiet nights were the constant nightmares about her mistakes and the shadow of her eternal enemies could reach her, no more was she the sole ruler of ponykind. Thanks to the action of six intrepid ponies she had the Mistress of the Night once again at her side.

The loneliness of a whole millennium would not be vanquished in such short time, but Celestia was living better and definitely sleeping better these months now that she hadn’t had to do the work of two, but most importantly, she wasn’t alone.

Oh, is not like if she was ever truly alone, she was the Princess of Equestria and that made her responsible of hundreds of ponies, she saw for their wellbeing, their future and their safety, it was her mission and her pleasure to see everypony happy and secure.

For hundreds of years she even had ponies that were closer to her than others, ponies that not only looked up at her as if she were some kind of goddess (which technically it was right) but ponies that could talk freely with her , just like her personal students.

It was true that Twilight Sparkle was only the last one of a long list of ponies that studied with her but that didn’t meant that she wasn’t important besides the obvious.

That said obvious was the restoration of Princess Luna and the pony that, alongside her best friends, returned Discord back to stone, this time apparently for all eternity much to the delight of the princesses after the nightmare that the century of battle of their first battle was.

Twilight Sparkle was amazing, now only she did so much for ponies and all the different races out there, she simply brought life and light once again into Celestia’s life. She never really said it aloud, and will probably maintain the information to herself for all of eternity, but when she saw Twilight jumping around in happiness and the enthusiasm that she showed for knowledge and magic was something that stole her heart, but most importantly, it was her personality.

Reclusive, introvert, much more interested into the mysteries of science and magic than in going outside to meet new friends, always having a book instead of playing like a normal filly, always more at home in a library than in a party, Celestia saw so much of her then lost sister that made the Princess of the Sun guilty for even comparing them, guilt for thinking even a second that twilight could be a replacement, but Celestia saw quickly that it was no replacement but companionship, besides, it was definitely destiny.

Shaking her head a little bit Celestia got rid of those conflicting emotions and continued her journey inside the castle in search of her own sister. The last storm had come as a surprise even for her and she didn’t want to alert anypony about it, how could any normal pony react when a storm can make a princess nervous? That’s what the storm caused her, nervousness and even a little fear.

No storm since the coming of Celestia and Luna into the mortal realm have been created by themselves, the natural abilities of the pegasi made that happen, with notable exceptions like the Everfree Forest and the Sky Column Mountains hundreds of kilometers from Equestria.

This storm was not created by any pegasi factory, it was not created by any hoof at all, including the princesses, so that was good enough for Celestia to know something was going to happen. The storm had stopped but a bigger one was on route it seemed.

With this in mind Celestia decided to consult with her sister. It was true that Princess Luna had returned at full power since her return at the hooves of the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, but she haven’t felt ready for the royal duties like court and public appearances. Besides Nightmare Night, Luna wasn’t exactly a very social pony and the last thousand years had left many ponies that didn’t exactly trust in her.

Luna’s bedroom doors were as majestic and enigmatic as the pony that lived behind them, dark solid metal doors with a full moon and ancient equestrian engraved on it. The meaning of the words lost for all besides erudite.

With a magic push Celestia entered the home of her sister quickly finding her figure in the balcony.

“Luna?”

“Yes sister?” the nocturnal mane of Luna was in full power, billowing with a nonexistent wind while stars twinkled inside the translucent mane.

“What are you doing?”

“Listening” the younger pony said while Celestia fought the urge to roll her eyes at the mysterious words that her sister was so in favor of.

“Can you elaborate a little bit more Luns?” She said using the filly-days nickname for her sister.

“I’m listening to the night Celly, it is scared” Luna said quickly, her eyes never leaving the moon hovering in the starry night. Celestia was fully aware of how in tune Luna was with her powers, how she could sense fluctuations in the air that Celestia could not recognize, maybe that’s one of the reasons she couldn’t detect the hint of dark energy on the days before the corruption of Nightmare Moon.

“Is the storm, right?” The taller alicorn asked trotted to the side of her sister.

“Is more than that, something is coming, something is starting, is a sound, a sound I can’t get off of my head” Luna said strangely calm for what she was saying. It was because of that that Celestia knew it was extremely important.

“What sound?” It was at this moment that Luna turned to the side to look directly at her older sister.

“The sound of drums”

/////

“So let me get this straight, you are humans that come from another world?”

“Well, more like another universe if I got it right” Ross tried to explain the situation to their current mare companion while the rest of the team of both human and pony mingled together in route to the town.

“And all that in that small box? Because, this is way harder to believe that the time Flare got his cutiemark” Autumn said while pointing with a hoof to the stick of dynamite in the flank of the aforementioned stallion.

“How he got it?”

“It’s… a long story but it involves a blue dragon, 5 tons of explosives, a pirate ship and a carrot cake, let’s leave it at that” Autumn said getting a headache just by remembering the odyssey, maybe that’s why she had believed them when they told her they came from another dimension “We’ll arrive to our town shortly, then you can rest and get on your way to Canterlot, I’m pretty sure Princess Celestia will love to know your story, and now that we are close to the topic, how did you exactly arrived to Equestria?”

“Oh, is simple really, Iván here, he… he… where’s Iván?” Ross turned around to the rest of the team but he couldn’t find him “Ben, where is Iván?”

“I don’t know, Joseph?”

“He was right behind me… you don’t think he got lost, do you?”

/////

Of course he wasn’t lost, he knew the way, it was such a simple road, the only thing he had to wait for was the right moment where everyone was focused on something else, it was almost like magic, not the one of a unicorn but the one of a street magician, make your audience focus on something else and presto! Magic trick complete.

It wasn’t easy, not because he had to trick them, but because it was imperative he left them behind.

“They wanted to come to Equestria… they wanted to see their personal heaven… as if it was that simple” Iván said opening the doors of the blue box and stepping inside, it had come to this after all.

The interior was exactly as he had left it, with the walls ripped, the floor having tiles loose and the console still showing sparks.

With a heavy sigh Iván put hands to work. For 10 years he had read every single paragraph of the TARDIS guide, whoever put it there had saved his life and cost him a lot of free time, but in the end it had worked, he knew the point for every single button, switch and lever, what he had to do to make the lights go back, how to create a super nova, how to open the time space tunnel… and how to tap into emergency energy.

With a flick of a switch and the adjustment of a dial all the lights in the TARDIS repaired themselves, the walls were fixing, the tiles and cables were moving to their respective places, all that in less than a minute. Just as he was preparing for the time and space jump he focused on his own hand, his real hand, not the cartoonish one, he was human again.

“Okay, this is weird, I don’t know what it means but it probably has something to do with the storm, or anything at all and it is maybe a coincidence… but if I leave the TARDIS I become a cartoon, that is something to think about” once again his thoughts were interrupted by a light on the console flashing “I have… a message?” he asked to himself due to the complete absurdity of it all, “who can be calling me?” he HAD to answer the call, it was practically imperative now and there it was, in one of the screens he saw someone he didn’t envision seeing now. He knew many people on the internet, heck, Ross and the rest were part of the internet group, few of them had ever met in person this past few months but they had grown up to be a close group, a source of friendship, strength and unity against the dark times of their respective lives, and the person in the screen was one of the firsts to welcome him into the group “Garrett?” the redhead was impossible to confuse with someone else, specially with his blue wonderbolt t-shirt “how did you… how are you contacting me? That should be impossible!” for his part, the redhead arched an eyebrow at it.

“What do you mean? I saw you being online in the chat room, where are you?” Iván had to simply put his hand over his face at the pure randomness of this all. If someone could break the barrier between dimensions like that it had to be Garrett Stone itself.

“Of everyone in the universe it had to be you, why not? Look dude, I’m not in my home, damn, I’m not even in the same universe, right now I’m in Equestria!”

“Equestria? You’re joking, you’re joking right?”

“Afraid not, look, for whatever reason, this… channel is open, right now Ben, Ross and Joseph are in this world, we came here on a TARDIS and…”

“YOU WENT TO EQUESTRIA WITH EVERYONE ELSE BUT DIDN’T INVITE ME?”

“Garrett, chill! Look, it wasn’t my choice, the TARDIS had preregistered their locations, unless I went for them I couldn’t come to this world, and how do you believe me so easy?”

“Well, duh, why shouldn’t I? This is amazing! I’m going there in a pinch, just let me pack!”

“Garrett, no! I need you to be… my contact” Iván finished seeing that the communication was off “great, from every single person that the TARDIS could choose from to create a communication link between worlds it had to be THE HUMANIZED VERISON OF PINKI PIE! Just great… but I still have things to do, a whole world to save and finally find the reason of why exactly that hurricane appeared, no big deal… right, oh lord, I’m so screwed up” Iván said placing his head on the console, it was indeed the beginning of a long journey.

And that, my friends, is the end of episode 1, be prepared for the next episode, and also, if you can, take a look at the Tumblr page of the story, were all the plot holes and questions that you have will be answered by the characters, you are free to do it and more than welcome: A Lifetime of Dreams Tumblr