Apple Bloom slowly planted one hoof in front of the other, careful to place pressure only on the floor’s light-grey stone tiles while avoiding the black ones. After moving along a few more feet, she paused to wipe the sweat from her forehead, but more instantly replaced it. Her mane was slick and her bow were damp from the mixture of perspiration and humidity. She took a deep breath and continued on with her careful routine until she came to an octogonal room.
In the center of it stood a large pedestal with cracks here and there and bits of it crumbling into a small pile of dust at its base. Atop it rested a small wooden chest about the size of a large rabbit. A faded iron plaque depicting a rearing caped filly stuck out from the ancient chest just below a keyhole.
Upon seeing her goal, Apple Bloom smiled and touched the heavy key dangling from her neck. She carefully took a step forward and advanced toward the pedestal. Her heartbeat pounded louder and louder in her ears until she was inches away from the chest.
“Finally!” She shot her forelegs out, took hold the treasure, and brought it close to her face. “With this, I’ll definitely get my Cutie Ma—”
A rumble shook loose some dust from the ceiling. A silence thicker than the humidity fell upon the room. Apple Bloom froze and watched as the pedestal slowly sank into the ground while the room quaked again. Something moved up above. Her eyes widened when a large round shadow shifted in the ceiling. It moved again and slowly started rolling down towards her. A ray of light from outside caught on it and reflected off its ruby-red rind.
Apple Bloom dropped the chest and broke into a full gallop. Below her, parts of the floor sank underneath her hooves. Then, there was a hiss before a dart zipped by her and embedded itself in the wall. Under the hail of fire, she kept running, occasionally daring to look back at her pursuer.
The giant apple plowed past the traps, the ancient darts no match for its thick skin. The floor cracked under its weight and the walls caved outwards from its massive girth. Every time Apple Bloom glanced at it, it got bigger and bigger, constantly looming over her.
Her hoof caught on an upturned part of the floor and she slammed into the ground. Gasping for breath, she scrambled but couldn’t manage to get up, the ground sucking at her hooves like mud. On the verge of tears, she turned and saw that the apple was only a few feet away and gaining fast. Just as it was about to fall upon her, she closed her eyes and started to scream.
Suddenly, the rumbling stopped. Apple Bloom dared to slowly open her eyes and saw that a shimmering blue barrier now surrounded her. With the floor no long pulling her down, she got up and trotted over to the shield and pressed a hoof to it. It rippled and distorted like a massive bubble, but so did the space inside it as well. Outside too, the world turned wavey, from the weathered stone walls to the large amount of mashed apples that now covered them.
“Well, this is certainly an interesting variation.”
Apple Bloom spun around and was met with a blue alicorn standing in the middle of the barrier with a small grin on her face. Her horn glimmered and the shield faded away, allowing the thick scent of apple pie to enter the air.
“Princess Luna!” Apple Bloom said before rushing over and hugging one of her lanky legs. “Thank you! Thank you! That apple was about to crush me! Usually it’s the other way around.”
“I am only doing my duty.” Luna paused to take a whiff of the air before bringing a hoof to her stomach. “Although, I suppose we shall both be a bit hungry when we awaken.”
“Awaken?” Apple Bloom corked her head. Her eyes widened a second letter and she tapped a hoof to the ground. “Oh! This is a dream.”
Luna gave her a small nod.
“Huh.” Apple Bloom poked the air and it wobbled again. “So is this the part where I confront some great inner turmoil brought on by non-dream stuff?”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “Whatever gave you that idea?”
“Well, that’s what Sweetie and Scootaloo said you did with them.”
“No,” Luna sighed. “I’m afraid this is quite routine dream patrol on my part. You’re actually the sixth pony tonight that’s had to flee a giant rolling object.”
“Awww.” Apple Bloom hefted her shoulders and stared at the ground.
“Now, do not be so dejected.” Luna brought a hoof to Apple Bloom’s chin and lifted her head up. “A dream is meant to be a wondrous place where anything you imagine is possible. Besides, while your dream tonight may be in line with a few other ponies, I’m not just here to keep it from being a nightmare”
“You’re not?”
Luna smiled and her horn grew bright. The ancient walls around her and Apple Bloom fell away, revealing a swirling mass of stars around them. They twinkled in Apple Bloom’s eyes as she walked around to the look at the dazzling display. Curious, she looked down and saw that the constellations danced beneath her hooves as well. Yet, she could still feel something pressing against her hooves despite the lack of a floor. She tapped the “ground” and the space directly below her shimmered for a brief moment.
“Woah.” She turned her head up to Luna. “So is this what you dream about?”
“Something like that.” Luna gestured for Apple Bloom to follow her and began trotting along an invisible path. “This is the hub of all dreams.”
“Even my sister’s?”
Luna stopped and pointed back in the direction they’d come from. There was a collection of three stars with one a light orange hue and bigger than the others.
“There lies your sister’s dream along with your grandmother’s and your brother’s.”
“Wait, where’s mine then?” Apple Bloom asked,
“You are still in it,” Luna chuckled before extending her wings out to the cosmos. “This is the great space that all ponies find themselves in when they sleep. Dreams are usually such complex things that few are able to reach out and enter this part of their dream and prefer to stay in their own fantasies.”
“Wow,” Apple Bloom said gazing up at the stars. “So does that mean you can visit other pony’s dreams here?”
Luna tucked her wings back to her sides and shook her head. “That is a skill only I possess. However, given the vast amount of ponies that now inhabit Equestria, I have found myself in need of some assistance.”
Her horn glowed again and the area around her and Apple Bloom grew brighter. Apple Bloom looked up and saw one of the countless stars twinkle and then gain points that curved backwards and formed a tail. Its round body grew bigger as it zoomed down from the sky before slowing down and coming to a rest at Luna’s side. Up close, the star was a roaring sphere of blue fire, yet Apple Bloom felt no heat coming off it it. Its radiance quickly swelled and forced her to shut her eyes.
When she opened them again, the star was gone and in its place was a copper-toned filly with a silvery mane split apart by a horn. She blinked and turned her head to the left, taking in the vast universe around her. A wide grin spread across her face as she shifted her head to the right and was met with Luna smiling back at her.
“Princess Luna!” said the filly as she wrapped her legs around one the Luna’s, holding it in a deep hug. “Is it story time?”
“Ah, Hazel, always so eager,” Luna mused and gave her a pat on the back before pushing her off her leg and straightening her. “Tonight I have something different planned. You recall the promise I made, correct?”
Hazel’s grin somehow grew even bigger and she eagerly nodded her head.
“Good,” said Luna. She looked over to Apple Bloom. “Then I would like you to meet your dreamer for the night. Apple Bloom, could you please come over here?”
“Um, sure.”
Apple Bloom walked over to the filly. Her eyes locked onto her flank and she came to a stop a few feet away from Hazel and Luna. Her hoof shot out and pointed at the former. “You don’t have a cutie mark either.”
“Oh…” Hazle glanced back and frowned a little. “Yeah.”
“Hey, nothing to get sad over. My friends and I don’t have our marks yet either, but we’re working on it.” Apple Bloom furrowed her brow. “Even if it does mean a few crazy dreams.”
Hazel’s eyes lit up and her smile returned. “Wow, you have friends to help you find your mark? That’s awesome. I wish I could join.”
“Well, maybe you could set up a branch of Cutie Mark Crusaders wherever you live.” Apple Bloom shifted her head to the side. “Where are you from anyway?”
“I—”
Before Hazle could say more, Luna stepped in between the two fillies. “It is quite a long story, Apple Bloom, and I do not wish to waste either of your time in telling it.” She brought her focus to Hazel. “You do have a job to perform after all.”
“Oh, right.” Hazel marched Apple Bloom and saluted. “Hazel Wood, assistant dream guide at your service.”
“Uh…” Apple Bloom slowly brought a hoof into a salute as well. “Apple Bloom, dreamer… I guess?”
“Wonderful,” said Luna. She spread her wings out once more and lifted off the ethereal ground. “I have other duties I must attend to, so I leave it in your hooves, Hazel Wood.”
With that, Luna flew off into space and zoomed over to a cluster of stars in an instant. She disappeared in a small flash, leaving Hazel and Apple Bloom alone in the celestial realm.
“So…” Apple Bloom brushed a leg through the air. “What now?”
“Well, you dream of course,” Hazel said with a smile. She reached behind her back and pulled a list from seemingly out of space. Her eyes scanned over a few line and then she looked back at Apple Bloom. “Okay, Princess Luna told me this part might be a little hard. First, why don’t you think of a place? It doesn’t have to be anything really specific, just something that comes to mind.”
“Hmmm.” Apple Bloom closed her eyes and took a breath.
She opened them when the ground pushed up against her hooves and the smell of apple blossoms filled her nose. In place of the vast array of stars, a pink and blue sky stretched over her with the sun peaking up to her left. It floated over a grove of apple trees that seemed to go on far past the horizon. Turning to her right, Apple Bloom was met with a towering farm made of wood that glistened like rubies. Beyond it were similar buildings, all spotless and glowing in the eternal dawn of the dream.
“Whoa.” Hazel trotted around, taking in the sights around her. “So this is a farm. Princess Luna told me about them.”
“Yep.” Apple trotted over and waved a hoof out over the whole farm. “Guess it makes sense Sweet Apple Acres in the first place I’d think of. I mean, it’s not exactly like this in real life, but I think this is what my family wants it to look like one day. Plus, there’s no animals around.”
The air around Apple Bloom wobbled and rippled outward until it coated the entire landscape. There was a bright flash and then pigs bigger than Apple Bloom were routing around the farm, letting out oinks and squeals. High up on the edge of the farmhouse’s roof stood a rooster with feathers like bronze and emerald. It opened its beak to crow, but only a tiny chirp came out.
Hazle squinted her eyes at the bird. “Aren’t roosters supposed to be super loud?”
“Yeah, but that’d mean it’d be time to get up.” Apple Bloom sighed. “I can’t tell you how many times that dang bird has ruined perfectly good dreams.”
“Alright, so we’ve got a place down.” Hazel looked over her list again. “Now you just have to think of something to do.”
“Something to do…” Apple Bloom scanned over the farm and tapped a hoof to her chin. A smile sprung up on her face and she turned her attention to the great grove of trees. “I want to make a pie.”
“Pie?”
“Yeah. When Luna saved me from the giant apple, it burst and made everything smell like apple pie, so I want to make one.” Her smile turned into a sly grin. “A really big one.”
“Oh.” Hazel stared up at a nearby tree and the juicy fruit hanging off of it. “You’re gonna need a lot of apples then.”
“That’s easy.” Apple Bloom tightened a turquoise mask over her eyes and adjusted a bejeweled stetson that rested on her head. “I’m the best apple bucker in all of Equestria, the Masked Apple!”
She took off in a blur that left Hazel staring at the spot she’d been in with a wide grin. Trees all over the grove rustled and launched their fruit high into the air like catapults. The apples rained down and collected themselves into an enormous bowl that had appeared out of the ground. A second later, Apple Bloom streaked out of the grove and back over to Hazel. She smiled and wiped some sweat from her face, dispersing her costume into the wind.
“Now it’s time to cut them all up.”
“Oh, do you need my help?” asked Hazel.
“Actually, yeah,” said Apple Bloom. “It’d take forever to cut the apples by hoof but I bet a unicorn can do it no time.”
“I’m on it!”
A light bronze aura surrounded Hazel’s horn and an identical glow filled the giant bowl the apples were in. They floated into the air in a giant cube of magic. An invisible blade cleaved the cube in two and all the apples in its path. Then, the cube was cut again and again until it was just a massive collection of very tiny cubes with perfectly sliced apples floating in them. Her task completed, Hazel glanced over at Apple Bloom.
“That good?” she asked.
“Perfect.”
Taking a deep breath, Hazel relinquished her telekinetic hold of the apples and they fell back into their bowl.
“Apples, check.” Apple Bloom trotted over to the bowl and climbed a convenient ladder that led up to a platform that overlooked the mound of sliced apples. A bronze hoof latched onto one of Apple Bloom’s as she cleared the final rung.
“Wait, how’d you get up here before me?” Apple Bloom asked Hazel.
“Princess Luna taught me a few tricks. You’re always supposed to get anywhere your dreamer can go.”
“Make sense.” Apple Bloom looked up to the sky. A few clouds dark with their load now swirled overhead, forming a wide spiral with white tips. “Hope you don’t sneeze easily.”
“Why wou—”
The crack of thunder cut off Hazel. She saw the heavy brown sleet rushing down before it fell upon her and Apple Bloom. Cinnamon, thick and dusty, rained down alongside a sprinkle of sugar that fell over the apples, herself, and Apple Bloom. At the same time, hailstones of butter harmlessly bounced off her and filled the bowl. She giggled, but it was drowned out by the storm of ingredients.
Just as suddenly as the “rain” had started, it stopped and the clouds gave way once more to the dawn. Apple Bloom shook off the coating of ingredients and Hazel did the same. They looked down and smiled at each other, breathing in the heavy scents.
“So, how are we gonna bake this?” Hazel asked.
“Ahahah.” Apple Bloom wagged a leg at Hazel. “We still have one final ingredient to mix it.”
“Which is?”
A great shadow fell over to the farm. Apple Bloom looked up with a grin while Hazel looked up with a gaping mouth. A great bird the size of a fully grown dragon flew over them. Despite its massive size, it too gave a soft chirp like the rooster as it laid an equally titanic egg that came crashing down. It caught on the edge of the bowl and cracked so that the whites and the yolk slid in and mixed with the other ingredients while the shell dissipated into the air. Hazel’s eyes widened upon seeing the mixture transform from the contact with the egg, going from a dry brown to a glistening bronze that smelled even better than before.
“Now it’s time to bake,” said Apple Bloom. She gestured down to a titanic pie pan at the bowl’s side, already lined with a crust. “We’re gonna need some extra muscle to help us get this into the pan though.” She turned her head to the left. “You ready, Big Macintosh?”
Below, an enormous pony rippling with muscles stood at the bowl’s side. He stood half as tall as the bowl itself and snorted at it, sending out a wave of steam that swirled around him. He turned around and lined his hindlegs up to hit the bowl. Each step he took made the ground quiver. He lifted his legs and readied himself to strike.
“Wait!” Hazel called out. Big Macintosh froze, his hindlegs floating in the air while his forelegs remained planted in the ground. “Princess Luna said you can’t bring other ponies into dreams. How’d you do that?”
“Oh.” Apple Bloom glanced down at her brother. He remained motionless but his body wobbled and flickered for a split-second before solidifying again. “He’s not really here. I just thought about who could move something like this and he was the only one I could think of.”
“Gotcha.”
Big Macintosh unfroze and his legs shot and and kicked the bowl so that it flew upwards at the precise degree needed so that it flipped at its apex and sent its contents tumbling down into the pie pan. The bowl itself zoomed over to the farmhouse and fell on top of it, giving it a second roof. Apple Bloom and Hazel chuckled at the sight before jumping down from the observation platform that still hovered in the air despite having no supports other than the slim ladder. The ground cushioned their fall like it was made of rubber and they trotted over to the pan.
Hazel stared at the glistening mixture. “Don’t you need a top crust?”
“Yep.” Apple Bloom reached down and tugged at a part of the ground. It turned grey and stretchy when it touched her hooves. “I think I’m gonna need your help on this too.”
Hazel nodded and took hold of the ground as well. It trailed over her hooves and sent goosebumps up her legs. “Like this?”
“Uh-huh.” Apple furrowed her brow. “Granny Smith says you have to make the top crust lighter than air, so we need to lift it up and get it on the pan in one go. Think you can handle it?”
Hazel looked down at the dough-ground in her hooves and sharpened her eyes. “Let’s do this.”
“On the count of three.” Apple Bloom flexed her forelegs while burying her hind ones in the dirt. “One.”
Hazel shifted around to mimic Apple Bloom’s stance.
“Two.”
She took a deep breath.
“Three!”
Both fillies tugged on the earth, transforming it from brown tilled dirt to grey dough that stretched across the farm until it rounded out into a perfect circle. Then, it rose up like a balloon and wavered in the air for a second before falling down onto the pie pan, perfectly lining up with it and crimping its own crust.
“Yes!” Apple Bloom exclaimed. “Thanks, Hazel!”
“It was no—” Hazel stopped and hacked into a hoof. She let out a few more coughs before taking a deep breath.
Apple Bloom trotted over with a small frown on her face. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Hazel thumped her chest. “I’ve never coughed in my dreams though.”
“Maybe you swallowed a bug.”
“Eww!” Hazel yelped. Her tongue shot out of her mouth and she scraped at it with her hooves. “Geth it ofth!”
Apple Bloom swelled with laughter and had to bring a hoof to side. “Sweetie… Sweetie did the exact same thing when we went camping!”
She then devolved back into laughter but soon managed to calm herself. Hazel too calmed down and brought her hooves back to the ground. She coughed again, smaller this time, but it sent out a little cloud of flour that made Apple Bloom chuckle.
“Okay, okay.” Apple Bloom turned her attention back to the pie. “We still got a pie to make and who knows how much time we have until I wake up.” She lifted her head to sky and a sly grin appeared on her face. “But I think I have the perfect way to bake the pie.” She affixed a pair of thick sunglasses to her face. “You might want to get some on too, it’s about to get bright… oh, and don’t tell Princess Celestia about this.”
Apple Bloom bent her forelegs behind her back, but rather than stopping at their normal length, they stretched like rubber, going all the way back to the apple tree grove. Like a sling, they then blasted off into the air, zooming further and further out until the reached the sun and looped around it. Hazel’s eyes widened when Apple Bloom’s elongated limbs started retracting and the sun grew closer and closer. She reached out and pulled some sunglasses from the ether and quickly put them on.
“Ooh!” Apple gasped. “Hot, hot, hot!”
“I’ll help!” Hazel lit up her horn and encapsulated the sun in her magic. “Got it!”
“Now pull!”
Together, the two of them corralled the sun down until it was directly over the pie. Under the intense rays, the crust flaked and browned. Both Hazel and Apple Bloom salivated at the sweet cinnamon scent wafting off the pie.
“I think we’re good,” said Apple Bloom.
At her words, the sun rushed up and back over to the eastern horizon. With wide grins, Apple Bloom and Hazel walked over to the finished pie and took a deep breath. A bit of drool leaked out the corner of Hazel’s mouth.
“I wish I could bake like this in real life,” said Apple Bloom.
“Well, why not?” asked Hazel. “Couldn’t that be what your special talent is?”
“Uh…” Apple Bloom looked up to the corner of her eyes. “See, we tried making pie, but we kinda… sorta mixed up teaspoons and tablespoons, so we might have blown up Rarity’s kitchen.”
“Who?”
“Sweetie’s sister.” Apple Bloom shook her head back and forth. “We still can’t hang out there.” She perked up and smiled at Hazel. “But I can worry about that later, now, lets di—”
“Cuckooo...”
The entire world shuddered at the noise. Large gaps opened up in the earth and a few cracks appeared on the pie pan. Above, the sky dimmed and grew grey, and a deep rumble like a faroff thunderstorm filled the air.
Apple Bloom’s face paled. “Oh no! We gotta hurry!”
Hazel took a deep breath and shook her head. “Sorry, Apple Bloom, but nopony can stop somepony else from waking up, not even Princess Luna.”
“But…” Apple Bloom trailed off when she couldn’t feel the ground. She saw she was rising up to the sky while the soil crumbled around the farm. As she floated further away from the disintegrating dream, she hefted her shoulders and smiled at Hazel. “Shoot, I didn’t even get to see if it tasted good. Thanks for helping out, Hazel. Maybe you’ll get your cutie mark in dream guiding! Oh! I should ask Princess Luna about that so—
“Cuckoooo!”
~~~
Apple Bloom shot up from her pillow and looked around her room. A bit of light crept in through her window and bathed Sweet Apple Acres in the early morning sun’s glow. Outside, the apple trees stretched on and on, but stopped at the Everfree rather than past the horizon, the pigs looked so small in their pin, and the chickens were the small little birds they always were.
A knock at the door jolted Apple Bloom away from the window.
“Apple Bloom?” Applejack asked before opening the door and peeking inside. “You up?”
“Yeah!” Apple Bloom rushed over and nuzzled her sister. “Applejack, you wouldn’t believe it! Princess Luna visited my dream and she brought this really nice filly that’s also looking for her cutie mark. It was super fun! We made this giant apple pie, even bigger than the one from the… thirty-sixth reunion?”
“Thirty-eighth,” Applejack corrected. She blinked and then snickered. “You didn’t happen to eat some of the pie, did you?”
“No.” Apple Bloom kicked out a hoof. “I woke up right before that.”
“Really?” Applejack chuckled and pointed at her bed. “Then where’s part of your pillow?”
With a blush rushing to her face, Apple Bloom turned around and saw that a corner of her pillow was missing and the fluff inside was covered in saliva. Face now completely red, she reached out and pulled Applejack’s head down.
“You don’t tell anypony else and I clean out the gutters.”
“Deal.”
~~~
“So how did things go?” Luna asked as she walked along the astral plane of dreams.
“Great,” Hazel replied, lightly trotting next to Luna. She sighed and bowed her head. “I just wish I could’ve tried the pie.”
“Dreams are often like that,” Luna explained. “You come so close to something only to awaken. It does provide a good impetus for taking action in real life though.”
“I guess.” Hazel kept her head low. “It’s just been so long since I’ve had pie or other good food.”
Luna’s lips shrank into a thin line. “I know… but you did an excellent job, Hazel Wood.”
Hazel’s eyes grew wide. “Really?”
“Yes, you brought joy to not only another pony but also yourself.”
“Yeah, Apple Bloom was really nice and her friends sounded fun too.” She looked up at Luna. “Can I meet them too?”
Luna came to a stop and wrapped a wing around Hazel. “I’m afraid not.”
“Why?”
Luna raised a hoof and gestured to the stars around them. There weren’t as many before and they were all dim, with many of them flickering. She pulled Hazel a little closer.
“Ponies like you are very special,” Luna explained. “I normally just quickly fix a dream, but for these rare occasions, I let other ponies help in my duties and connect with others in ways they normally can’t.”
A lightness formed in the pit of Hazel’s stomach and she shivered. “Princess Luna, I feel funny.”
“It is okay.” Luna looked at her with eyes as deep and blue as the ocean. She loosened her wing, but still allowed it to brush over Hazel’s body, even as it started to shimmer and grow translucent. “It has been a long journey, but now it is time for you to rest.”
“Will…” Like Apple Bloom in her dream, Hazel started floating away from Luna as her body grew more and more transparent. “Will I see you again?”
“Some day, perhaps,” Luna answered, a small smile crossing her face. “Just remember, Hazel, if you ever have a bad dream, I’ll be there to help you.”
“Okay, thank you Princess Luna!” Hazel grew bright. “Good bye!”
~~~
Luna let out a deep breath and opened her eyes. Her eyes traced over a thin bedsheet that poked up in a few spots where there were hooves underneath. Resting on the bed was a thin filly with a faded copper coat and a silver mane that was missing clumps in a few spots. A wide smile was stretched over her gaunt cheekbones. Luna brushed a hoof over Hazel’s brittle mane.
“Good night, my assistant.”
She retracted her hoof and turned to the room’s door. She trotted over and clasped the handle but looked back as she opened the door.
“I’ll go tell the doctors, but then I must go. There are many other assistants to find.”
