The Dreamrunner

        It’s time to finally get that Dial. It’s almost seven o’ clock and the sun has already set. I have the entire evening planned out. I know what’s going to happen before I enact my plan. I have my bag set behind the mansion’s gardens for when I grab the Dial and run. I just need to replicate exactly what I saw in the dream and execute it. Okay, what was the very first thing I needed to do? Oh right. Knock on the door. I hit the door three times in quick succession just like I had planned in the dream. The door opened and on the other side was Featherweight. He wore a nice suit and tie, cologne rolling over my senses.

        “Hi there, Sweetie Belle! You are gorgeous today! Come on in!” he motioned for me to enter. I walked in as he held the door open. The decoy Dial was sitting in my saddlebag. He shut the door and invited me into the living room.

        “How have you been since yesterday, Sweetie?” he asked as he motioned to the couch.

I sat down and answered him with, “Oh, I’ve been just splendid. How have you been? You’re looking really handsome tonight.”

        “Oh, stop it. We all know that you’re the best looking in the room,” he laughed, looking into a nearby mirror. “Oh, and you too, Sweetie Belle.”

        We laughed and then he finally sat down on the couch opposite from me. His eyes dilated and he suddenly jumped up again.

“Can I get you anything to drink? Hard Cider? Wine?”

        He did a bit of a bow and was gone in an instant. I tried running off in my dream to get the Dial around this time, but it failed miserably. I have to wait until after dinner and… other stuff. Mere seconds later he was back with two tall glasses of ice water.

        “Here you go! A glass of water!” After I took the glass and took a sip I put it down on the glass table in front of us. He did the same and sat down as well.

“Oh! I almost forgot! Happy Hearth’s Warming Day, Sweetie Belle!”

“Oh wow, I had completely forgotten about that! Yeah, Happy Hearth’s Warming Day!”

“Did I show you the tree yesterday?”

“T-tree?” This wasn’t planned out in my dream.

“Yeah! We have a giant tree that my dad bought from the Griffin Kingdom forests! Come on! I’ll show you! I can’t believe I showed you the entire house and didn’t show you the tree. I’m a special kind of ignorant. Come on! Follow me!”

This wasn’t going to be good. Wait… maybe if I convinced him to show me later I could go on, take the dial, and get out. Simple! Yeah, good plan.

“Uh, Featherweight?” I asked, trying to make my voice as Fluttershy-esque as possible. “Do you think it’d be okay if we ate something first? I’m absolutely famished.” I widened my eyes and stuck out my bottom lip as far as it would go. “Please?”

“Oh of course! What was I thinking? Dinner it is,” he said as he did a one-eighty. “Come, I’ll show you to the dinner table. This way,” he said as he led me to yet another room. The dining room was spectacular to look at in the daytime, but now it looked much more beautiful. The various silver items on the wall reflected the light from the skylight around the room so that it looks like it’s been lit from angel dust.

“This room is beautiful, Featherweight.”

“Thank you! I helped design it myself!” He called to his butler, who happened to be the only staff on duty for the week.

“Go and make us two large salads will you?”

“Yes sir,” he replied as he trotted off into the kitchen.

“Hey, do you think that you could show me where the ladies’ room is? While they finish preparing dinner?” I asked him.

“Oh, yes of course. Just go down that hall and take a left.” He pointed with his hoof down a dimly lit hallway. Perfect. It’s the same hallway we took to get to the dial!”

“Okay, I’ll be back in just a minute.”

“Take your time!”

        The second that I realized I was out of sight, I ran for it. So close now.

        I pounced into the dial room and swung off my saddlebag. In my dream, Death had shown me weak spots in the glass cover of the pedestal, so if I broke it, the glass didn’t shatter, but instead just let the side fall off. I pulled my hammer and chisel and put it in the exact same spot where I had practiced in my dream.

        “Okay, on three, two, one!”

        I hit the chisel dead center, and a second later, one of the sides tipped over. I grabbed a rag from my bag and carefully picked up the dial and wrapped it up, sweating profusely all the while. Even slower than before, I put the decoy into its resting spot and glued the glass back on with an insta-seal glass glue that I had “borrowed” from Twilight.

        The few seconds I waited for the glue to harden were torture. My heart beat out of my chest, and my breaths drew short. I poked the glue and…

        “Yes! Time to go!”

        Without a moment’s hesitation, I threw everything back in my bag and went back to the table. Featherweight still sat by himself at the table, but there were silver platters laying on the table.

        “Welcome back! Dinner’s arrived!” He said as he motioned for me to sit down. The butterflies in my stomach raged as I took a seat. The hair on the back of my neck stood up with every word he said to me. Of course, I had no idea what he was saying, but I assumed that we should start eating, so when the butler lifted the silver dome, I dug in. I could hear him laugh, so I calmed down. He doesn’t know.

        “So what do you think of the food? I’m assuming that you’re enjoying it?”

        “Y-yeah! I am!” I spouted. He laughed again, but then the rest of dinner went in silence. Once we finished, I thanked him for the food and after many attempts to leave, he finally gave in.

        “Alright then. I’ll see you later, Sweetie Belle.” He said as he waved from his front door. I waved back, but then exited as fast as I possibly could.

        I finally got back to my apartment to get my other saddlebag and a backpack full of supplies. I didn’t plan to stay long, so I just took another quick shower to let all my stress wash down that drain. After that, I toweled down and took one last look at my apartment. I won’t see this place for a while. I took a minute just looking around, holding things that hold all my memories. Old records, an old scarf, a picture of Scootaloo, Applebloom and I all together in our treehouse. I won’t lie. I had to hold back tears on that one.

        What I meant to be maybe twenty minutes turned into an hour until I was done reminiscing. I took one final look around the place before I left. I shut the door and locked it.

        “Goodbye.”

        I walked down to the train tracks so I could easily get to wherever I needed to go next. I had no idea where that was yet, but my question would be solved pretty soon. I started walking by the side of the train tracks in whatever direction. I don’t know which, but I just kept walking. I had to do it. I heard something behind me, so I turned and… something was running right at me. It hit me hard, right in the side. I fell over and so did whatever hit me, but it got up as quickly as possible and kept running. I groaned and got up, but noticed that my saddlebag was open.

        I looked inside and… the dial was gone.

        “Theif!” I yelled, but cringed on the inside at my irony. I started running behind the pony, who was extremely quick. We ran for a good five minutes, and then the rails on the railroad started shaking. NO. The train was coming from behind us! Speak of the devil, it was there in less than a minute.

        I saw the thief jump onto one of the cars of the train, so I worked even harder to get up to that very car. When I did, I lobbed myself into it. I was extremely tired, but I couldn’t think about that. Not now. My friends are on the line here. Hidden in the shadows of the car sat a pony in a hood. I yelled at it. I don’t know what I yelled. I don’t even think they were words, but I yelled. I jumped forward and ripped the hood off.

        “S-Sly!?”

        “Hi Sweetie Belle! Why are you so mad?”

        “Mad? You STOLE AGAIN! And it was something VERY important to me. I need it back. I need it back NOW!”

        “Jeez, you’re no fun.” Sly pushed her mane out of her face, and pulled the wrapped artifact back to me. I sighed deeply and fell to my side.

        “Oh… This could’ve been really bad.”

        “Bad?”

        “It’s a long story that I’m not willing to tell right now. Speaking of stories, what in the heck do you think you’re doing riding this train?

        “I’m running away from home! I want to do something else with my life!” She yelled confidently.

        “Are you insane? YOU ARE STILL A FILLY!” I yelled back at her. She was clearly getting irritated.

        “WELL, SO. ARE. YOU.” She said. Her voice reverberated around the train car. There was another long silence filled with only the rattling of the train car and both of our heavy breaths.

After I had caught my breath, I just simply said, “I’m not running away. I’m not running.”

        “Well, then what are you doing?” Sly asked.

        “I don’t know, but I can’t just let you go off on your own. I mean, first of all, your reason for running away is complete crap. There is no reason for you to have run away, but I know that if I try to send you back home, you’ll just do it again and again until you get your way. I mean, foals do stupid things. I know that for a fact.”

        “Hey!”

        “No seriously, you’re going to have to stick with me for a while. I can’t let you wander Equestria alone like this. There are really bad ponies on this planet. I don’t know what I’d do if I found out something happened to you. I mean, I care about you, Sly. I really do.”

        “But that destroys the entire point of going and finding myself alone.” She argued.

        “Yeah. Finding yourself dead, maybe. Look, just stick with me for a bit, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt. When you’re a bit more mature, I’ll let you go off on your own.”

        “But I AM mature!” She said, looking me in the eye.

        “Hah, yeah right. You running away from home really shows that.”

        “Hey, you can’t say th-”

        “Sly, shut up already. It’s late, and it’s cold. I really don’t want to be doing this right now. If you want to share a blanket, shut up and get over here. If not, then freeze over there in that corner,” I threatened as I took out a slightly worn woolen blanket out of my backpack. To my liking, she shut her mouth and curled up next to me.

        “Good night, Sweetie Belle. Happy Hearth's Warming Eve.”

        “Good night. Happy Hearth's Warming Eve to you too.”

And so the train traveled on towards the Southern lands of the great Deer. These Deer were known to possess magic so powerful that they could see the future, the past and even stop time. Not many ponies venture to their land because they’re all honestly terrified of such beings, but I had to no matter what. What they also possess is the number plate of the compass. This is where I needed to go. This is where my journey truly begins.