The Dreamrunner

        I examined the picture closely while sketching it on a sheet of paper.I already drew a top view, and now was working on a side view. I have to be as detailed as possible when working with this. If it’s just the slightest bit off, I’ll be discovered too quickly. Carefully, I carved the strange symbols onto the side of the Dial and added the final touches around the edges.

        “Finally, six hours of work payed off.” I sighed as I put down my small incision tool. I guess it really was worth taking that mason’s class back in school. I pretty much replicated the picture I had taken and it was Identical. The only thing I wasn’t exactly sure of was the weight. I have no idea how much it weighs, so I took a guess and made it about as heavy as a small concrete slab I found outside the house. Since I never got a chance to actually hold it, this seemed like a pretty good estimate. I put the decoy Dial back onto the table and put a preservation spell on it so that it doesn’t get damaged any time soon. In exhaustion, I lay on my couch and read a bit of Sherclop Pones, my favorite book series of all time.

        The hours ticked on, and the sun fell out of the sky, and was replaced by the cool blue and purple colors of the night sky. Stars littered the yonder, sparkling in all its glory. On a clear night like tonight, if you went deep into the woods, where there isn’t much pony-made light around you can look into the sky and see another galaxy! When I took astronomy back in the tenth grade, I learned about it. It’s called the Milky Way or something like that, but it’s still really difficult to see even in a dark place. I heard the best place to see it from is one of the poles, but I don’t think I’ll be going there anytime soon. I always thought the concept of space and time interesting. Maybe one day, we’ll get to explore the Milky Way, but it won’t be anytime soon either. It’s like 2 million light years away.

        “You know what?” I asked myself, throwing down my book. “It seems like a good night for a walk.” Grabbing, a scarf and one of these hats with the sting on the two sides of the ear flaps. I always thought they were cute looking, so I asked Rarity to make me one. Tying on my scarf, I opened the front door and shut it behind me as I walked out.

        It’s Hearth’s Warming eve tonight, so ponies were outside decorating their homes. It’s Friday, and most of the foals have started their Winter Break a few days before, and are running around doing their unique little snow dances. One filly that I liked in particular, whose name was Sly, was sitting watching the other foals running around laughing and screaming in joy. Sly is a lonely filly. She has five other sisters that live with her mother in Las Pegasus, but she didn’t have any friends. She sat on a bench, wearing a scarf and hat much like my own. As I got closer, I realized that she was singing.

        “Light and day is more than you'll say

Because all

My feelings are more

Than I can let by

Or not

More than you've got

Just follow the day

Follow the day and reach for the sun!”

        I sat next to her while she sang, and pulled her into my hooves. Sly was a small, light grey unicorn with a mane as white as snow. Shes a bit of an oddball compared to the other colts and fillies. When she was young, her father didn’t have a job and she and her family of seven went hungry most nights. She, as the oldest child in the family, decided to take charge because her father was too depressed about his wife leaving him to do anything and her youngest sister died of pneumonia. Angered, Sly began stealing food to feed her sisters and father, and eventually started stealing jewelry to sell for money. A year later, her father finally got over his depression and got another job. A pretty well paying one too, but Sly? No. She didn’t stop stealing. She loved it, and one day she got a cutie mark for it. A lockpick. She always wore saddlebags to hide her cutie mark from the public and claimed to be a blank flank. Honestly, a pretty smart choice on her part.

        “Hey there, Sly. Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve!” I seemed to have surprised her because she jumped as soon as I grabbed her.

“Oh hi Miss Sweetie Belle! Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve!” She exclaimed, jumping onto me and giving me a hug.

        “Now, Sly, what did I tell you about calling me Miss? I’m not THAT old. I’m only 18!” I said giggling at her.

        “You’re old! Hehe. I’m fifteen! You’re like a hundred years older than me. That means you’re old!”

        I thought of a way to mess with her, so I said,

        “Okay youngun’ you better brush your teeth and clean your room or else!”

        “Nooo! Not the room!” She faux cried.

        I played around for a few minutes before I decided it was time for me to leave.

        “Okay Sly, I have to go for now. Have a nice Hearth’s Warming Eve! Tell me all about it when you see me again!”

        “Okay Sweetie Belle!”

        As I walked away, she called out.

        “Sweetie Belle, you forgot something!” I turned to look, and sure enough she had my hat and scarf. I hadn’t

noticed they were gone at all.

        “Sly, you have GOT to stop stealing. It’s wrong.” I said as I took my things back.

        “Aww, but… It’s fun!”

        “No, Sly. You can’t take things from others.” I thought about the incredible amount of irony in my words.

        “Oh, I’ll try, but my cutie mark won’t have a meaning anymore!” She protested

        “It will! Maybe one day you can be a locksmith or something!”

        “Aww, but that’s boring!”

        “Maybe it is boring, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Sly huffed, but nodded. “Fine.”

        “That’s a good girl. See you around Sly,” I said as I left.

        The night grew old, as I headed back home after a delicious hayburger and fries dinner at a local diner. Just as I walked in the door, the clock struck eleven. It’d probably be best for me if I fell asleep, so I decided to do just that. The stairs creaked underneath my hooves as I dashed up them into my room.

        I need to write Rarity a note or a letter or something saying that I’ll be gone for a while. She should be back later tonight or early tomorrow, and I don’t want to be here to hear her lecture. I think it’d be best if I went back to my apartment and left the note somewhere she can see it. Turning on the light, I jumbled around my things to find a paper, quill and ink. I ended up flipping over half the room to find a quill, but I found it eventually. I sat at my desk and wrote.

Dear Rarity,

If you’re reading this, that means that I’m gone. I’m long gone, so don’t bother to try and find me. I promise to write you letters on my journey because I don’t know when I’ll be back. I might be gone for a month or a year. maybe a few years. I just don’t know. What I do know is that I need to make this journey because I feel like it’s the right thing to do.

By what I know is that I’ll be all over the world. Remember how we planned to visit Prance this summer? I’ll probably be going there along with Germaneigh and the Griffin Kingdoms. I might even be able to visit Camelu or the Deer Kingdoms in Cervidas. Anyway, I’m straying from the point. My point is that I love you, Rares and I’ll miss you.

Your Dearest Sister,

Sweetie Belle

As I finished the letter, my nose began to bleed, and a drop or two got on the paper, staining the bottom corner in my blood. I decided to ignore it, and pin it onto the fridge. After that, I grabbed my few belongings and the decoy and headed back to my apartment.

        My bed in the apartment isn’t nearly as comfortable as the one at the boutique, but it’ll have to do.

        “Okay,” I thought aloud to myself. “That creepy guy said something about me being able to run around and create dreamscapes from my memory. I guess I just have to think really hard, and it’ll happen.” I turned out the light and closed my eyes. “I hope this works.”

        “What?!” I’m in an infinitely white room. No wall or floor to be seen, just floating in white.

        “Welcome to the Dream Realm Sweetie Belle. This is YOUR realm. You can do anything you like here.”

        I no longer get startled by Death’s sudden appearance. I just sighed and shot back.

        “Just tell me how this works. I tried thinking of the inside of the mansion right before I went to sleep. Why didn’t it work?” He chuckled and shook his head.

        “Oh Sweetie Belle, just think about this. You think of something and try to fall asleep, but you don’t get that thought when you actually are asleep. Why is that?’

        “Uh I don’t know. Why?”

        “Hello! My name is Death, and I will be your dream professor for tonight.” He yelled melodramatically, which was creepy enough. The second time he did it was in Rarity’s voice. My body suddenly felt cold, and the hair on the back of my neck stood up.

        A massive chalkboard appeared out of absolutely nowhere, and Death held an excessively large piece of chalk in his magical grasp.

        “First lesson! The question is, what happens to thoughts you think right before bed?”

        “What happens?” I asked dully. I feel like I’m back in a crappy high school course.

        “Good question Sweetie Belle!” He exclaimed. “I can answer that. Half-baked thoughts that are lost are sent into dream limbo. What ponies usually think of limbo is a comatose sleep session. That’s completely wrong, Right now, where you stand now is your own dream limbo. It’s so infinitely large, that it makes it difficult to find those dead thoughts in your own dreams.”

        “Now, the dream plane is extremely dangerous in every way possible. The more complex the dream, the more of a chance of you being lost in it, and being trapped in limbo. Your body continues normal function when you wake up, but you aren’t you anymore. I remember this one stallion who had built a city in his dreamscape in order to find ways to heist a bank, and yes, this is one of your ancestors Sweetie. He was lost in the city forever, eventually went mad and believed that his dream was reality.”

        We walked up to me and looked me in the eye.

        “You must never ever build more than your brain can handle. Another thing. If you die in your dream, your body will also think it’s dead and shut itself down. There is only one way to exit the dream. There are two ‘portals’ in your dream. One exit and one entrance. Depending on the size of your dreamscape, it may be very visible or extremely remote.”

        “Okay, so what? You expect me to remember all of this?” I asked.

        “Well, if you don’t want to be stuck in limbo forever, yes. I do expect you to remember this. First assignment in the dreamscape. I want you to imagine up a room. A small room with no windows, but with two doors.”

        “Okay. I think I can handle that.” I said, closing my eyes. When I opened them again, there was a door inches away from my face.

        “You can enter now Sweetie Belle.”

        I entered the door, with a twist of a knob. I shut the door, but realized there was no door there.

        “See. You made an entrance, and also an exit. You can’t leave through the entrance, but you definitely can exit using the other door.” he explained, tapping the wall.

        “What happens if there aren’t any exits?”

“Well, welcome to limbo then.”

“Oh.”

“Stop moping around, and maybe I’ll help you design that mansion

“... Fine”