All I Have To Do Is Dream
“Now who could that be?” Twilight looked up from her experiment over multiple realities and space travel with a huff and trotted over to her door. The old, wooden door creaked gently as it slowly opened to her visitor on her doorstep. She was greeted by a nervously smiling Applejack trying to hide her blushing face with her Stetson hat. And her mane was disheveled, just barely being held by her ponytail and a few strands fell over her eyes with reckless abandon.
“Applejack? What brings you to. . .here?” Twilight was trying to process why the honest earth pony would come to her for anything during the day. The Acres was currently in Applebuck Season , so seeing the mare in town was a rare occurrence.
Applejack glanced around for a couple moments, her eyes shifting slowly back and forth.making sure that nopony could overhear what she wanted to say. “You know what, Twi? Let’s go on inside.”
“Sure.”
The two mares turned around and cantered into the kitchen. Twilight opened a cupboard with her magic, floated over two cups, grabbed some coffee out of her pantry and started the coffee machine that she had just recently got for those late night science sessions.
“So? What’s eating you, Applejack? I haven’t seen you like this since last year’s Applebuck Season. Are you-”
“Oh it’s not that, Twi, its something a bit more personal. . .I don’t know how I feel about somepony.”
The unicorn stared at her. Finally after staring blankly at the wall for a while, the sound of the coffeemaker saying in its own special way that the coffee was ready broke her out of her reverie. “I don’t get it, AJ.”
Applejack smacked a hoof in her face and motioned for Twilight to get the coffee. While the unicorn was prancing about the kitchen, Applejack took it upon herself to explain her emotions.
“Twi, have you ever felt love?”
“Can’t say that I have. Now if you are talking about the scientific aspects of what someponies would call love- then yes I have. Just scientifically and chemically and never all at once. I am perfectly content with just being the Princess’-”
Applejack held up a hoof to silence the rambling unicorn. “No, Twilight. Ah, mean like love at first sight where you just know that you want to be with the pony that you just see and it clouds your judgment and such.” Twilight almost lost the grip on the coffee cups and had to quickly set them down.
“AJ, I don’t. I’ve been so focused on my studies of friendship that love just slipped my mind. I mean Discord did a real number on the town last month and Princess Luna has been working overtime trying to get all the nightmares out of the affected ponies. Not to mention my own slip up with crazy.”
Applejack flinched at the recent memory of her lying spell and winced at what some of the fillies and colts must have been going through. Applebloom had been eerily silent about what had happened during that mean Discord’s takeover. Not to mention that she had caught her brother sleeping with Twilight’s Smarty Pants doll that he stole the week after that.
Well that was because Twilight went insane over procrastinating, but maybe Twilight wanted it back. Nah, Twilight was a grown mare. She could deal with a lost toy. Probably.
“Actually I wanted to talk about Luna. . .”
Twilight really didn’t like that Applejack was being cryptic around whoever she liked. Bringing Luna up just seemed odd. There was no reason for Applejack to care one way or another about Luna. And now she was asking. . . about. . . Luna. Finally it clicked. And then Twilight went into panic mode. Her fight-or flight response triggered heavily. She knew, she just knew that Applejack and Luna just would not work and- Oh Celestia.
“Yoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooou whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?” The entire town of Ponyville shuddered as most of the residents had flashbacks to the Want-It-Need-It Spell.
“Twilight! Calm down! Just calm down!”
“But you. And her.” Said purple unicorn was flinging books everywhere to prepare for the coming Princess visit that this news would cause. And just in case, she was packing a suitcase full of her possessions to live the life of a hobo out near Appleloosa and ride the rails with her dragon minion.
“So what? You can’t freak out every time a Celestial darned Princess is coming to town. Is that word like a trigger or something?”
“Don’t be silly! The word ‘P- is not my trigger. Its just that I don’t want to speak their names in case they decide that their punishment for the Want-It-Need-It spell wasn’t harsh enough. ”
Applejack just laid a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Sugarcube. You only only said Princess in your head. And that’s reasoning is just silly. Ah know that givin’ the responsibility of writin’ those letters to Celestia will suck. Ah never learn anything that isn’t related to apples- apple math and applenese notwithstanding. You just have to worry about some silly friendship lesson while Ah have a love issue. Ah’ll just go while you calm down. Can you send Spike over to the Acres. Ah wanted to write a letter to Luna.”
Twilight looked up with bleary eyes and sniveled her response to Applejack. It sounded like ‘Magic Kindergarten’ and something about Spike being upstairs. And something about learning about apples sounded boring. Chalking that last statement as a reaction to Twilight’s mental power going whackadoodle and not at all putting her purple unicorn friend on her 'miffed at list' Applejack yelled up to Spike and quickly hoofed it on out of there cursing her luck with crying mares. She never had been a mare that could deal well with tears.
***
The Acres was a busy place this time of year. The apples were ripe and shone with the brilliance of a thousand apple harvests. Applebloom was doing her cutie mark hunting with her friends and Big Mac was bucking the trees with extra ferocity this year. His side had healed up nicely after last year’s farming accident and nopony could see the faint discoloration in his coat from when he got stuck in the cow stampede. Granny’s hip was hurting just as much as usual and it hadn’t warned the clan about rain, so the farmers were having a mighty fine time harvesting.
The Apple Barn stood proudly on its hill and told everypony of its history. Recent history since it was still a dark red and gleamed in the sun since its old predecessor was Sonic Rainnuked to oblivion a few weeks prior.
Applejack trotted up and nodded to her family. Spike was following at her heels and was trying to balance a couple of scrolls precariously with his stubby arms. The walk over from Ponyville had tired the baby dragon but he hadn’t asked for Applejack to slow down and let him on her back. And with Applejack thinking more of a blue-maned alicorn princess, she forgot to ask.
“We’re here Spike.” Applejack gently rested her hat on the nearby hat rack and sat down on the couch. Its worn fabric comforted the orange mare in its embrace.
“Right, so what was with Twilight back at the library?”
“Oh, that? She just- uh, something something-” She could tell a lie and feel good about herself. AJ sighed. “I needed to talk to Luna and told her something that freaked her out.. You know how she gets sometimes.”
Spike needed no more explanation because her did know Twilight on her more bad days when wearing an armor made out of pillows and a pith helmet didn't sound like a stupid idea and was safer than talking back to the unicorn.
“Alright so you have to send this letter right to Luna. And say its from Twilight. You got that?”
Spike saluted the farm pony and waited for her to talk.He didn’t get why it had to come from Twilight. Second guessing a letter was not in his number one assistant description.
“Dear Princess Luna. . ."
***
Princess Luna glided silently through her realm of dreams. The moon stared down at her silently watching her progress. The alicorn mare sighed as she felt truly free in here; there weren't any normal ponies that could easily dreamwalk without her permission and Celestia had given her binding word that she wouldn't intrude in matters of the dreamlands. While her lowly demesne had seen better days with Nightmare Moon running the show in the Dreamlands for the last thousand years, the alicorn mare had been trying to patch things up with the other lands: Mnar, Serannian. Lomar, and even the terrifying heights of Kadath.
The bleak landscape of dead and dying trees and gray clouds mirrored Celestia's earthly realm of light. The Dreamlands were nice for that at least, even when she got the worst and bleakest of the lands for sale by the Great Ones.
Luna had tried to adjust back to being a Princess with her own court dealing with the problems of the night but ponies were still distrustful of her. "Guess that is what happens when they see you as a old mare's tale come to life." The aristocratic families that Luna had been coerced into greeting with her sister were not understanding of dark magic corruption and Luna had tried to explain her own shift in behavior. But then the words were thrown: Enchantress, demon, chains, Tartarus. Not in that order, of course, but Luna could tell that Celestia was pained at the sight of her loving subjects piling on the hate like that. That was the day that her sister had shown her the wonders of ice cream and romantic movies.
Setting down on the cracked and parched earth that Luna had grown so accustomed to while asleep on the moon for a millennia, she searched for the colors that told her what a pony was dreaming. Luna had become a master at viewing what those psycho-ana-whatsits would call the 'emotional spectrum'. Celestia, in all her sisterly meddling, had tried to make her go to one to talk about her feelings. That turned out to be a mistake because the stallion was still getting over the emotional scars in a Canterlot mental facility.
She shook her violently to rid herself of that horrible memory. She had a job to perform and it had to do with Twilight Sparkle. Well, the letter she had received via dragonfire was cryptic to say the least, but Luna guessed it had to have been important for the purple unicorn to send with such urgency.
She felt the sky shift pink as her mental alarms went off in her personal kingdom. The wards that she had placed beforehand to tell when a dream was of such importance that it needed her own presence there instead of one of her magic constructs She halted in her tracks; pink was a strange color for a personal visit. The color was tinged with feelings of matrimony and passion- things that she hadn't truly felt in a very long while. Of course she still had love in her heart for her sister, but true passionate love that enveloped her in deep riotous passion? That had been many a year since she had felt that.
The sky in her Dreamlands was normally gray to most ponies. But to her it swirled with the colors that told her what every subject of Celestia was dreaming about. White were babes just born dreaming their first thoughts into the open void. Orange were the dreams of monetary gain and slander. Red was of boundless rage fulfilling the primal side of ponies. Yellow were the nightmares that ponies feared in their hearts. Blue were caregivers generously giving their all to the masses. Green was the color of steadfast belief in oneself even to the point of near foolishness. Pink was of love, a domain that most ponies wanted her to stay out of. Cyan was of the hope of a better future.
Black was another matter altogether. It was a warning that the myriad number of creatures that covered the Dreamlands were trying to invade Celestia’s magic land of rainbows and sunshine. And she couldn’t have that. The bad thing was that without a lucid dreamer- there was no way to control the hordes of horrors without constant wards against Celestia’s ponies waking from slumber. And a lucid dreamer hadn’t been seen since the time of Equestria’s founding.
***
Applejack woke up in the land that haunted her dreams again. The orange earth pony stared down at what her Granny would call ‘a blasted heath’ and sighed. She felt the cold, unwelcome feeling of death and decay in these rolling fields. The hills couldn’t sing their mountain tunes as she went along her applebucking way. Of course, there were no apples here. It wasn’t the first time she dreamt of these rolling hills- not even the thousandth. Every night, she tried to coax the barest hints of life through these sad pieces of ground that were weeping under whatever cruel weather that brought this drought here.
Glancing over to her left, there was a well that taunted her with its presence. She had tried the darned thing once and she could have sworn that something foul laughed up at her and taunted her farming skills. The next night, the well was a run down mess. That was a few years ago and she never touched that well again. She was afraid to. It seemed as if she had toyed with something that ponies just weren’t supposed to know.
“Guess Ah’ll just be doin’ the rounds tonight. . .” Applejack sighed. Seeing such a field every night made her worry more and more when her dreams came true and the Acres would look like a wasteland. She felt something looking over at her, she was worried it was another one of those weird wolven things that spoke with their strange language. “If those ruddy good for nothings are gonna come up in my field and hope that Ah’ll be merciful, they got another thing comin’”
Then the feeling passed. The earth pony sighed and walked into the dilapidated excuse for the Acres to get her tools for building a mare-sized plow. She knew that without Big Mac around in this dream she would have to do everything by hoof.
The silent wind whispered through the dead trees and the old Acres groaned in protest. The boards were so old that they were beginning to rot apart and the rusty nails were the only hoof made things that were still giving up the good fight. The old chicken coop had fallen a few dreams back, and the pig sty was due to fall and die in a blaze of glory as soon as the summer would come.
That was the strangest thing about here. There were no real seasons; it was just the same old gray skies night in and night out. At least she had wrote the letter to summon Luna. She really wanted Luna to know something about her and she couldn’t wait until next Nightmare Night in a month.
***
Luna was running through the possible things that Applejack could be. After all, Celestia had placed a ward upon the race of ponies that she ruled over with a mostly benevolent hoof. That act had made her subjects fully slumber when they entered the Dreamlands. So Applejack most definitely was not a normal pony.
“So that means one of two things: starting with the least probable- she as an Avatar of one of those things that seem to gravitate towards me. Great Old Ones can be very annoying, but if she’s an Avatar for an Elder God. . .” Luna downright paled at the thought since Discord was one of the most recent Avatars of Nyarlathotep and that had turned into a mess.
“Barring the thought that Honesty would have chosen such a Bearer, she could be a lucid dreamer. But I haven’t seen one since the Founders of Equestria. . .”
Luna shot up and squealed in joy. A real lucid dreamer in her domain? That was like hitting the Dreamlands jackpot. The chance to change parts of the fabric of her Demesne Lunae- Nightmare Moon had never been one for catchy names- and maybe not be taken as a complete joke with her surrounding neighbors across the Dawn Sea that separated her Kingdom from the more brutal lands.
“That means I can finally be towards the other side of the Dreamlands where even I dare to tread. Especially after the whole Moon debacle of the year of Nkar. I always forget that dream felines can fly to the moon.”
And after reliving the memory that made her deathly afraid of Equestrian cats for a good reason, she began to briskly trot towards the Bearer of Honesty for a nice little chat about being her knight. A knight was known by a different name in the Dreamlands- a Shield, where it denoted an intelligent creature that would protect the heart of their liege.
***
Applejack was worried about this next part of her nightly chores. Plowing, while not usually her work, was hard on anypony that tried to force the plow into places it didn’t want to go. And the earth pony had looked at this land and saw the rocky outcroppings of precious gems that would make Rarity jealous. Rubies, sapphires, agates, even a diamond the size of that boulder Rarity carried around during Discord’s magic tricks. Somehow the land just knew what she was thinking and shaped itself to her will.
She just shrugged and trudged forwards, the plow cutting into the topsoil and burying all the noxious weeds that were strangling her chances of growing some prime time apple themed products. Sweat began to bead on her brow and every few rows she had to stop and wipe the stinging liquid out of her eyes. Her pounding chest was working double overtime because of the winds that kicked up hot and dusty topsoil into her face.
Suddenly the weight of the plow shifted and it felt as if it was flying away from her. But that seemed impossible. Glancing over to her left made her mind go blank. “Ah can’t believe that Luna is standin’ right next to me and all.” Said Alicorn princess was currently trying to make the plow resize itself into a larger alicorn version with her magic.
“We saw that you might need some assistance. Let us have a walk.” Applejack fell in line with the alicorn.
“So you did get the letter.” Applejack sighed. Luna was just so hard to read with her emotions.
“We have much to discuss about some aspects of all this.” Luna swept a hoof across the horizon while Applejack stopped in her tracks.
“What are you tryin’ to say? Ah know this is all a dream.”
Luna just smiled demurely and continued with the plow. Applejack could swear that she heard Luna laugh at her. The small tittering laughter tried to echo in this place but was sucked into the inky blackness of night. “Oh fair Applejack. you do not grasp the sheer uniqueness that you possess. Our sister placed wards upon the Dreamlands for any equine that was under her domain. And she was thorough, Celestia was never a pony that did anything in half measures. She had planned for Discord to be sealed in stone for thousands of years and only our fascination with the darker magics made me unfit to wield the Elements of Harmony that we discovered.”
The sloping hills made the pair turn back to the decrepit farm and start the next row of furrows.
“Elements? You used more than one of them?”
“Of course! Celestia had the Elements of Kindness, Generosity, and Magic while we had the Elements of Honesty, Laughter, and Loyalty. Hindsight is always painful because we found a black book that had traveled the countless aeons to our side and we dared to use its magics because we wanted recognition while the ponies rested.” Luna looked pained and Applejack put a comforting hoof on her leg.
“So what does this have to do with me?’
“You are what the Dreamlands has come to term a lucid dreamer. Those who have the very rare gift can shape the aether of this realm into useful and much more inviting shapes and can make their liege lord a very happy creature. Would you like to be our Shield and protect our heart?” Luna said this without blinking and almost completely devoid of emotion almost as if she was asking for the eim of day instead of a very important knighthood position.
Luna had been off of Equestria for a thousand years while Nightmare Moon roamed freely in the Dreamlands. So her use of those sentences did not sound like a order of business to the orange mare. It sounded like a confession. So Applejack panicked and did the one thing that was on her mind.
She kissed Luna full on the lips.
***
Darkness. A creature stalked towards the dream that pony princess was in and it broke into a loping run. Its face was devoid of such necessities of eyes, nose, a mouth- they only served to give creatures a useless way to show their incomplete emotions. The screams of the shantak birds gave it nourishment and its master wanted a word with pony princess.
The creature ripped open the dream bubble and walked its way into the presence of the dreamer. Its thin black body shivered as the long barbed tail that its master gave it twitched in anticipation for tickling its victims. It wings lifted it up as it sped off to the farm in the nearby distance.
Pony princess was important- dreamer was not.
***
Luna’s entire world became black. The sky turned a dark shade of black that devoured the light that had clung so desperately to the soil. “Oh Celestia. Not here. Not now.”
Applejack felt Luna’s body stiffen and she pulled away from the kiss “You alright Luna? Ah didn’t mean to-”
“Silence right now is preferable. We have a night-gaunt in our presence and we believe we know who sent it.” Applejack was confused until she saw the creature sitting nearby watching them closely.
The creature had sat itself silently down as it waited for any kind of provocation. Its long spindly legs swayed back and forth and its horned head stared Applejack down with blind indifference. The tail danced playfully on the breeze.
Luna leaned into Applejack and whispered, “Follow our lead. Its master is not one we would cross lightly.”
The night-gaunt waited patiently crossing and uncrossing its arms for the message that it knew was coming.
“Oh night-gaunt! Tell your master Nodens how wonderful his bearded glory is after so many years of him not answering our pleasant summons. We wish to tell the Lord of the Abyss that we have found our Shield and thus have created this mare our first Knight of Dreams. We hope to see your master in the Dreamlands soon because we shall be on a journey soon. The Sun Princess has tasked me to protect the Silver Keys of antiquity from falling into any of her enemies.”
With a bow that made her snout almost touch the soil and her mane shifting from blue to a dark black, her ritual of prostration towards any and all creatures that were much more influential than her was complete. She had to bow a lot in the Dreamlands.
The night-gaunt found the bowt sufficient and flew off to whence it came.
***
Luna breathed a sigh of relief as the night-gaunt disappeared over the horizon. “We are glad that that foul beast is gone.” Luna turned to see Applejack hyperventilating and crouching in terror. “We should have accounted for this happening. Intelligent life doesn’t like what it can’t explain.”
The farm pony looked upon terror with questioning eyes. “How much of that was true?”
“Eh, we would guess about half of it. We presume our sister doesn’t want the Silver Keys opening portals into her plane of light. And we had planned on a journey once we noticed your special abilities, and we haven’t had a Knight of Dreams in, well, ever. So that ‘s about it.”
“But-”
“We joke. All of it was true. See you bright and early for a chariot for Canterlot.”
“Grahhhhh!” Applejack yelled up at the sky in anger. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen with her confession! She was just a simple earth pony! Not any knight of dreams or some hooey!
And in response her dream ended and she was sent back to the waking world.
Luna just pranced off with a whistle and a bounce in her step. Oh she loved when she could joke about. This was almost as good as that zinger that made Celestia question her sanity a thousand years ago. “We may no longer be Laughter, but we still got the delivery. Should we have said how much we enjoyed the kiss? Maybe we should query our sister in the morning and tell her of our exploits? Oh Tartarus! We forgot to tell her of the Changelings that come from here. We hope nothing shall come from that. . .”
Luna flew off towards the waking world as well as giddy as a filly. She finally felt something akin to love stirring in her chest after all these years and she was both excited and terrified.
