Astral Reality

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Login
Chapter 2: Connected

Prologue

Canterlot’s Academy of Magic: a prestigious institute which had schooled Equestria’s most gifted unicorns for countless generations, giving rise to some of the greatest magical minds the kingdom had ever known.

Immensely busy by day, deserted by night. Or, one should say, deserted most nights.

***

Moonlight shone down into the room through countless windows, illuminating row upon row of desks and tables which groaned under the weight of various gems, tomes and scrolls seemingly stacked onto them haphazardly.

At the center of the room stood one table - tidier than the rest - that held only a single, faceted piece of amethyst, roughly the size of a grown stallion’s head. Two male unicorns - one with a grey coat and a black mane, the other with a yellow coat and a brown mane - flanked the table, staring at the gem in complete silence.

Minutes passed and still not a word was spoken. Suddenly, the grey-coated one shifted his gaze to the other pony.

He hesitated for a few moments, a glimmer of doubt in his blue eyes. When he finally spoke his voice sounded calm and dignified, but the shaking of his legs betrayed him.

“You sure you want to go through with this, Tomar?”

His yellow companion didn't react at first, as if he had trouble tearing his attention away from the gem, but eventually he looked at his friend, his green eyes filled with all the determination the other’s lacked.

“We’ve come too far to stop, Arcus. Could you really take a step back now and pretend you’re not running away from the greatest breakthrough in the history of thought projection?”

He paused for a moment as he shifted his gaze back to the amethyst in front of him. “You knew the risks, I knew the risks... But we agreed it was worth it. We agreed to try. And I intend to, with or without you.”

Arcus sighed deeply and shook his head, trying his best to keep his nerves in check. “You know I’d never leave you hanging... Together then?”

“Together,” Tomar agreed, “on three?”

Arcus nodded his approval. “One.”

“Two.”

“Three!” they both yelled as their horns lit up and discharged a carefully balanced amount of magic into the gem between them. The amethyst seemed to absorb both spells effortlessly, lighting up with a faint inner glow.

For all the fuss the two stallions had been making, not much seemed to be happening at all, apart from the gem’s glow slowly intensifying. Arcus raised an eyebrow. “Did it work? Perhaps we made a mistake...”

“No mistake,” Arcus reassured him. “The enchantments on the gem were flawless: I checked them thrice. But perhaps this is the wro-”

A bright flash burst forth from the gem, bathing the entire room in unnatural, purple light. Arcus fell silent as his body collapsed onto the floor, in perfect synchronisation with Tomar’s.

The two stallions found themselves floating in a vast expanse of nothingness; a greyness that stretched out as far as the eye could see in every direction.

As far as they could tell, there was no source of light for them to even see anything by, but it didn’t seem to matter. They both opened their mouths several times, as if to speak, but neither one of them seemed able to put his thoughts into words as their minds reeled to overcome the shock.

Surprisingly enough, it was Arcus, normally always the least collected of the two, who first regained his bearings.

“Wh... where are we?” he muttered.

Those few short words seemed sufficient to pull Tomar out of his stupor as well, and he shook his head to dispel the last mists of surprise from his mind.

“It... it worked? We did it! A mental connection to a plane of pure thoughts - the discovery of the century! Think what wonders we could create here,” he said excitedly, looking left and right as if to drink in all the details of the grey, featureless world.

Arcus started looking around as well, his mouth wide open in awe. “It’s different from what I imagined, but does this mean we can...” he mused as he closed his eyes, focusing intently on the image of a single tree on a grassy hill. He banished all other thoughts and pictured not only what the scene would look like, but also what it would smell like. What it would feel like. What someone would hear when the leaves rustled in the wind.

And suddenly, his thoughts became reality. Tomar let out a little yelp of surprise as the greyness around him warped and shifted, a grassy hill forming right under his feet. And on top of that hill a single, marvelous tree - just where Arcus had wanted it to be.

He opened his eyes, only to see Tomar grinning at him as if they were both little schoolcolts again, planning their next act of mischief. He laughed heartily as he observed the wonder that had transpired, and his friend soon joined in.

Once they got over their initial elation they nodded at each other, both certain that they were thinking exactly the same thing. With joined effort and renewed determination, they turned their minds to the task at hand.

And so a new world was born.

Chapter 1: Login

Dreamspark Ink sighed once more, pushing the vegetables on her plate around joylessly as she lay her head down to rest beside her plate.

Across from the mare her friend, Jack Hammer, threw her some worried looks. His own plate was empty, and he noted with some dissatisfaction that he had finally succeeded in removing every last crumb from it. He wouldn’t be able to pretend he was still eating much longer, and he knew Ink would feel even worse than she already did were she to realise she was making him wait.

Several other ponies eating nearby looked at her quizzically. A beautiful mare moping outside on such a bright and sunny day was a rather odd sight, after all.

And she was beautiful, Jack mused. Her long, fuchsia-coloured mane somehow fit her emerald green eyes perfectly, and her white coat was a sight to behold, with the way it sometimes seemed to change colour if you held your head just right and the sun reflected off of it in exactly the right way.

While those were the things that attracted him personally, he knew that a great many other ponies mostly noticed her cutie mark. It looked like a random collection of ink blots and to Jack it had never made much sense. Still, everypony else always seemed convinced they recognized some creature or object in it, and so far Jack had never heard two ponies agree with each other on the subject.

He preferred his own cutie mark, a simple hammer over a piece of wood. It got the message across: he was there to build and fix things. But artsy types just didn’t ‘do’ to the point, he supposed.

Still, when he looked at the vibrant collection of colours on her, he wished his were a little less dull. A dark brown mane, brown eyes and a light brown coat got the job done, but he was far from smashing.

He stopped to think about that for a moment. Why did these thoughts only come to him when he was around Dreamspark? She was colourful, sure, but so were many other ponies...

“Come on Spark, you have got to eat something,” Jack pleaded with her. The mare shoved some of her carrots around in response, before looking at him from the corner of her eyes.

“Oh Jack, what should I do?” she asked with a desperate tone in her voice, before sighing yet again.

“Empty your plate, for one...” Jack replied, earning an angry look from Dreamspark as she lifted her head up off of the table. Well, at least she wasn’t moping around anymore.

“Very funny, Jack. You know perfectly well what I mean. I haven’t sold a single painting in months - not one! And I can’t even blame anypony for not wanting any of my recent work; I’ve never felt so bad about even trying to sell a piece in my life,” she said sadly. “What I wouldn’t do for some inspiration right about now...”

“Awww, it’s not that bad,” Jack protested. “You just need to take your mind off of it for a bit, that’s all.” He looked pensive for a moment. “And I think I know just the thing... Ever heard about Astral Reality?”

The quizzical look she gave him provided all the answers he needed. “Ok, look... euh, it’s like... It’s a game, basically, but it feels like you are right in the game. Like you’re in the, erm... ‘world’ of the game,’ he concluded somewhat incoherently.

Spark raised an eyebrow at him and the stallion sighed. “Look, it’s got something to do with magic, alright? I’m terrible at explaining things.”

The mare nodded, this at least she knew to be true. She kept silent and allowed her friend to finish speaking, her frown conveying her skepticism. “It came out of Canterlot; they set up an AR store by the northern river just last week. I checked it out. It was a lot of fun. I went back a few times, even. Let’s go play it out together, huh? Come on, what do you say?”

Dreamspark considered it for a few moments, tapping a hoof against her chin. “Well, I don’t know...” she started, but then she noticed Jack staring at her pleadingly with that innocent face of his. She sighed as she realised she lost the exchange; turning down Jack felt like keeping food from a baby kitten at times. “Pah, fine...”

Not even fifteen minutes later the two of them were standing outside the shop in question. Dreamspark couldn’t recall ever having seen a building there before, so the entire thing was probably brand new, something the fresh paint job attested to. That explained why Jack, of all ponies, knew of something like this before she did: if a new building was to be erected in Ponyville, he’d be amongst the first to hear about it.

A sign by the door proudly announced the shop’s name for all to see, ‘Lucid Dreams’. Ink didn’t see what was so dreamy about the place. It looked just like the many buildings around it - except bigger. Much bigger than a simple store had any right to be, in fact. They only needed a counter and some storage, right? This place reminded her more of an inn.

Jack stepped forward and pushed open the door with a hoof, holding it open as he bowed and stepped aside, allowing Dream to pass. “After you, milady.”

She smiled despite her foul mood; the effort Jack put into making her feel better was quite endearing. She was lucky to have a friend like him here in Ponyville, who made her think less of the ones she’d left behind back in Trottingham.

Dreamspark’s mouth fell open in awe as she walked into the store. As mundane as the exterior had been, so extraordinary was the interior. The walls were lined with shelves - even behind the counter - which were stacked full with gems of various sizes and descriptions. Some were mounted on some manner of pedestal, while others seemed to be part of crown- or tiara-like jewelry. It only took Dream a few moments to realise every pedestal matched one or more crowns or tiaras in material and design, which was the only reason she didn’t assume they had wandered into some kind of jewellery shop by mistake.

As Jack stepped into room behind her, the sound of a door opening to their left announced the arrival of one of the shop assistants, a filly with a cyan mane and a vaguely green coat who looked just old enough for Dream to suspect that this was her first real job. She smiled at the two of them from behind the counter.
“Good afternoon, how may I be of service to you today?” she said with a surprisingly soft and soothing voice.

“Ah, hello,” Jack replied as he walked up to the counter, with a confused Dreamspark in tow. “We’ll have a room, please... I think two hours will do,” he said with a little nod to the clerk.

“But of course, sir,” the filly said cheerily. “That’ll be two bits and two spurs each, please.”

Jack quickly produced five golden coins and put them on the counter. “I’ll cover for both of us,” he told the clerk as he looked Dreamspark - who was already opening her mouth - in the eyes, dissuading her from speaking out against his generosity.

The store filly quickly swept the coins off the counter and into the register before disappearing into the backroom, returning moments later with a crown and a tiara, both fashioned out of copper with a purple gem set at the fronts. She stepped out from behind the counter and put them on Jack and Dream’s heads, respectively.

Spark still didn’t understand any of it, but she shrugged and decided to just play along for now. And, she had to admit, wondering about all of this was taking her mind off of her monetary problems.

“This way please,” the shop pony said as she pushed open a door in the wall opposite to the entrance, leading Jack and Dreamspark through the hallway that lay beyond. They passed several doors both on their right and left, but eventually the store filly stopped in front of a door that looked identical to all the others.

She held it open for the pair and motioned for them to head inside. “Here we are. I hope you’ll have lots of fun, and I’ll see you again in two hours!” she exclaimed cheerfully.

Jack stepped into the room without hesitation, and Spark shuffled in behind him, turning her head to mutter some words of thanks to the clerk before letting the door fall shut. When she finally directed her attention towards the room in front of her, she was dumbfounded for a moment. The only things in the room were two beds against the walls and a large amethyst suspended from the ceiling like some sort of chandelier, that was it. Apart from those, the room was completely bare.

She glared at Jack angrily. He must’ve felt the her daggerlike gaze dig into his back, since he turned around to look at her. “What’s up?” he asked nervously.

“What’s UP?” she yelled at him. “I’m not exactly sure what passes for distracting a mare from her troubles here, Jack Hammer, but I’m sure I don’t like the look of this!”

The stallion let out another confused “Wha-?” as he looked around the room. Suddenly he broke into laughter as he realised exactly what Dreamspark was going on about. “Oh, I see! Ahahaha, you thought... that that I, hehe... and we... ohohoho!”

The stallion supported himself against the wall for a few seconds, gaining him more angry looks from the mare as he tried to steady his breathing and get himself under control. “Heh, seriously Spark, you know me better than that! The beds are there so you won’t feel like you’ve been lying on the floor for two hours when the session is over. That’s all. Now come on! It’ll start in a minute or so, and you don’t want to be caught standing there when it does,” he said as he hopped onto one of the beds and made himself at home.

She was more confused than ever now, albeit admittedly relieved that her suspicions had been unfounded. She cautiously stepped onto one of the beds and lay down on her stomach, facing Jack.

“So what is the tiara for?” she asked.

“To establish the link,” Jack said matter-of-factly.

Spark looked at him quizzically for a moment before she opened her mouth, clearly intent on demanding he elaborate. Yet before she could speak more than a single syllable, the amethyst in the center of the room began to glow, and the question died on her lips. Surges of energy arced from the gem to the jewelry upon the two ponies’ brows, and the room spun before Dreamspark’s eyes.

The room’s colours swirled around her, like a vortex carrying her towards her destination. When everything finally stopped spinning she found herself floating in a vast expanse of greyness, all alone. She tried shouting for Jack a few times, but no answer came. Despite all this she felt oddly at peace, as if something there was telling her to stay calm and rest easy.

“Welcome.” a strangely hollow, personality-less voice rang out behind her. She turned around to face what she thought to be a pony, but it was hard to tell. It was as if someone had started on the line work for a full-body sketch and then simply left it at that, never bothering to really give the drawing any colour or essence.

She tried to study the thing more closely, but found it incredibly hard to keep her gaze focused on it. The more she tried the more she seemed to simply look through it, not unlike the way in which water eludes those who try to grab hold.

“Who are you?” she asked. “No, wait, scratch that. What are you? And where are we?”

“I am your avatar, here to assist you. We are in character creation,” the creature said with its unnatural voice, although Spark couldn’t distinguish any mouth the words could’ve originated from.

None of what it said made any sense to her, and further questions kept giving her the same answers, as if that was all the thing knew to say.

But she was smart enough to realise this all had to be part of that strange game somehow, and Jack would never have brought her here if there was any danger whatsoever. She was certain of that, so it couldn’t hurt to simply play along for the time being. She sighed.

“Alright, alright. Just, euh... Tell me what to do, I guess...” she mumbled.

The creature bowed its head and waved a hoof, and the greyness between Dreamspark and the avatar twisted and turned until the mare stood face-to-face with three more silhouettes not unlike the avatar, but more clearly outlined.

They still looked like unfinished sketches, but it didn’t take her any effort to continue looking at them, and she could make out a lot more details.

The wings on one of them clearly marked it as a pegasus, and the horn on the middle one was unmistakably a unicorn’s. The third one lacked both of these features; an earth pony. Somehow simply looking at them filled her head with facts and figures, as if she was looking at a list detailing the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three races.

A lot of the information made sense to her; it was, after all, well known that an earth pony’s endurance outshone that of the other two, or that pegasi were, by and large, the most agile. But why did she keep thinking ‘Pegasi have the least affinity for magic.’ whenever she looked at that one? That didn’t make any sense, pegasi couldn’t use magic at all! Right?

“Choose a race,” the avatar said with the emotional charge of a damp pancake.

“Euh, earth pony?” she stammered as she blinked in confusion.

The avatar simply nodded and walked straight into the earth pony still standing there. The shape seemed to cling to its own, and soon there was no telling them apart. The avatar had effectively taken on a new appearance, and Dreamspark breathed a breath of relief; she felt she’d have gotten a huge headache sooner or later if she had had to look at its original form much longer.

The unicorn and the pegasus faded into the greyness, and Dreamspark finally caught on to what was going on: She was creating a character, just like the avatar had said. She wasn’t exactly sure how this character would tie into the game yet, but at least she had some idea as to what was happening.

Two shadowy figures rose up out of the greyness again, replacing the pegasus and unicorn that had vanished just a moment before. This time the shapes were both unmistakably earth ponies, one clearly male, the other undoubtedly female. She hadn’t realised how androgynous the avatar had looked before, but compared to the two standing there it was hard to miss.

The avatar started to speak again, but she already knew what he was going to ask.

“Choose a sex,” it simply said.

“Female,” Dreamspark immediately replied.

The avatar nodded and repeated the process of walking into the shape representing her choice, slimming down slightly and acquiring a more feminine head in the process. Dreamspark was pleased to see that this latest transformation had finally given the avatar a mouth - the disembodied voice had been creeping her out ever so slightly.

The avatar waved a hoof again and the greyness changed and shifted at her unspoken command. When the metaphorical dust settled Dreamspark spotted eight colourful circles on the “floor” - for want of a better word - each containing an illustration depicting a pony carrying out some sort of activity, and ten round holes surrounded each of the circles.

Out of the first three pictures one showed a pony lifting a heavy object, while another showed a pegasus running at top-speed and the last one displayed a somepony taking hits. Just like before with the three races, simply looking at one of the pictures flooded Dreamspark’s mind with a list of information. She was able to tell at a glance that the first picture represented strength, and exactly what having a lot of strength was good for. Then again, she mused, so could a schoolfilly without any help at all.

Some of the other pictures were less straightforward though, to the point where they raised more questions than they answered. Exactly what was “divine magic” and how did it tie into wisdom? What exactly did they mean when they said stamina increased your “health”? What kind of game was this anyway?

“Determine attributes,” the avatar said, and Dreamspark was pleased to note the voice didn’t sound completely hollow anymore. Instead, it had a vaguely feminine quality which gave it a certain warmth which it had lacked up until then.

As soon as attributes were mentioned Dream’s attention was drawn towards a stack of small discs lying at the avatar’s hooves, something she had managed to overlook up until now.

“Erm, what?” she asked.

“Put the discs into the holes. The amount you put into an attribute will be added to the base value for your chosen race, determining your starting value. Attributes affect how effective you are at a given task, together with your skill in that task, which you’ll have to build up over time,” the avatar explained.

Spark nodded slowly, trying to take all of that in. With eighty holes and only thirty discs she knew she’d have to make some sacrifices here or there, but she had a pretty good idea what she wanted to do already. She put only two discs into each of the physical attributes; she’d never liked sports much and hardly considered herself an athlete.

She put four each into wisdom, luck and intelligence, since four corresponded most closely to an average score if you took into account the amount of discs compared to the amount of circles, and she didn’t consider herself to be either wise, intelligent or lucky, but not ignorant, stupid or unlucky either.

That left her with ten discs to put into charisma, which she promptly did. With charisma governing the arts as well as “force of personality” - something Dreamspark equated with imagination, originality and creativity in her mind - how could she not have?

The avatar looked at her expectantly as she put the last disc in place and checked her work to see if she hadn’t messed up somewhere. That didn’t appear to be the case.

“Alright, that should be it,” she told the avatar, who promptly nodded and walked over to the first circle, so that all of the circles were in a line in front of her on the floor.

The shadowy mare stepped forward onto the first one and suddenly a red light flared up all around her, as two orbs of the same colour detached themselves from the two discs Dreamspark had put in that circle. They flew around the avatar’s head for a few seconds before floating to her chest, sinking into it as they were absorbed completely.

The process repeated itself as the avatar continued onwards, each time with a new circle and new colours. Every time the avatar absorbed a new set of orbs, her form seemed to change to match.

After walking over the physical attributes her muscles were more clearly visible, her gait more refined and ever-so-slightly more elegant, compared to what it had been before. The mental attributes of course didn’t do much in terms of outward appearance, but they affected how the avatar carried herself. She seemed to become more self-aware, prouder and tangible in a way that Ink couldn’t really describe.

The silver-coloured charisma circle brought about the biggest change, and from one moment to the next Dreamspark felt her heart fill with admiration for the avatar, and a little voice at the back of her head whispered she’d probably be fun to talk to.

Spark was convinced the intensity of the reaction was mostly thanks to seeing the avatar go from nothing to this in a single flash. Without that contrast the effect on her would probably not have been this big, or at the least somewhat more subtle.
Still, she was pleased with what she was seeing.

“So what’s next?” she asked excitedly. She was still none the wiser about the purpose of this entire process, but she had to admit she was having fun. Putting together a pony in her own image step-by-step was a blast!

The avatar waved a hoof and the circles disappeared, but this time nothing appeared in their stead. Dream was about to ask what was going on when the avatar said “Choose an appearance,” and Spark was pleased to hear her voice had changed once more. On top of being female in nature, it was now also soft, soothing and generally pleasing to listen to.

Dreamspark looked around for some kind of tool or device to set the appearance with, like the attribute circles before, but nothing appeared.

“Erm, so how do I do that?” she finally asked the avatar.

“Simply imagine or command it, and so it shall be,” the creature immediately replied.

For a moment Ink was tempted to command her to “Copy me”, but the imagination option intrigued her. Surely that thing wouldn’t be able to see into her mind? She closed her eyes and pictured herself as she recalled from photographs and mirrors, going by several things her friends had told her as well.

She’d heard a lot of those friends comment on the way in which the colour of her coat sometimes shifted slightly in the light, but she had sadly never been in a position to witness it herself. She just couldn’t seem to get quite the right angle. Nevertheless, she was determined to include it in her design, so she incorporated it as best she could imagine.

She opened her eyes and immediately drew in a sharp breath of air as she stood eye to eye with herself. The similarity was so uncanny, it was like looking into a mirror. Well, not exactly like a mirror, Dreamspark mused as she noted one dissimilarity; she had way overdone the shifting colours on the avatar’s coat.

It had gained an almost iridescent quality, the colours shifting in the corners of Dream’s eyes whenever she turned her head. Only when she held her head still and looked directly at the avatar did she appear fully white, but as soon as either one of them moved even the teeniest tiniest bit a pearlescent sheen appeared.

The effect was quite captivating, and she wouldn’t have minded just staring at it for a bit longer.

“Is this satisfactory?” the avatar asked, breaking her out of her fascination.

“Your voice, can you make it mimic mine?” Dreamspark requested.

“But of course,” the avatar replied, and Spark was pleased to hear that her request had already been granted, although it retained that soothing, pleasing quality.

“Choose a name.”

“Dreamspark will do, right?” she said uncertainly, but the avatar only nodded. “So are we done?”

“One last thing,” the avatar said as she looked her creator in the eye. “You are allowed to barter for one wish or special request.”

“Erm, a wish?” Dreamspark said ponderously. “Hmmm, how about... Unbridled imagination!” she giggled before breaking into a dorky grin. It was more than a little cheesy and she was convinced the avatar would refuse it out-of-hoof.

She was all the more surprised when the avatar nodded again. “In return you will be unable to make another’s style your own, do you accept?”

Spark frowned. As an artist she took great pride in her own style anyway, so what the avatar was suggesting wasn’t exactly a problem for her. Then again her request had been nonsensical as well, so in effect she stood to gain and lose nothing from the entire deal. She was fine with that.

“Alright, I accept,” she said.

The avatar smiled and bowed her head. “Then it is done. Goodbye.”

“Wait!” she yelled. “What do you mean goo-”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence as the avatar came running straight towards her at full speed, already too close for Dreamspark to react.

She braced for an impact that never came, as the avatar’s form simply fused with her own, not unlike what had happened when she chose a race earlier. For a dizzying moment, she felt like she was not one, but two ponies, before everything finally fell into place.

Without giving her even a moment to relax a grey vortex sprung up around her and carried her away. When she could see again she was no longer in the wasteland. Instead, she had somehow been transported to the middle of a grassy clearing amidst tall trees, on what appeared to be a bright and sunny day. The middle of the clearing - where she was standing - had been marked by a series of poles and ropes, and a wooden sign reading “Bronzewood Forest: Spawn Area”, whatever that meant.

“Ah, Dreamspark, you’re here!” a familiar voice rang out from behind her, and she turned around to face its owner.

“Jack!” she said as she started walking over to him. He looked exactly like he always had, albeit slightly more muscular. She was about to ask him about that when she noticed an assortment of colours playing around in the corner of her eyes. As she looked down she realised it was the iridescent sheen of her own coat, the sun reflecting on her as she walked. “Oh! So I... and the avatar... ?” she managed to stutter. Jack simply laughed and broke into a smile.

“Welcome,” he said as he lifted a hoof and motioned at everything around them, “to Eternia!”

Chapter 2: Connected

Dreamspark took a few moments to observe her surroundings, relishing in the warmth of the sun. She could hear the wind rustling through the trees at the edge of the clearing, and the heady smell of blooming flowers came wafting towards her from every direction.

Her senses told her everything there was real, but her mind knew that wasn’t true. The last pieces of the mental puzzle had finally slid into place, and she now realised what the ‘game’ entailed, and that the world around her was just a part of it.

Still, that knowledge didn’t make the scent of flowers less alluring, or the distant songs of birds less captivating. She found herself grinning up at the sky, and quickly adopted a more dignified expression and pose when she caught Jack looking at her, his lips curling up slightly in the corners of his mouth.

“You look a lot more like yourself than I figured you would,” he said, one of his eyebrows raised mockingly, “Knowing you artists, I thought you’d come out looking more like a painting than a pony.”

“Pah! You’re not exactly incognito either, Mister Jack Hammer,” she scoffed in return. She noted again that the only real changes to his appearance seemed to be the increased amount of muscles on him and the hammer in his cutie mark being replaced by a sword.

“You know me, Dream... I’m not the creative type,” he said. “You do look simply stunning with that coat, though,” he added with a wink.

“Why, thank you!” she said, suddenly cheerful. She smiled at him warmly; he always did know how to defuse an argument before it even began. She turned her attention back towards her coat, admiring herself some more and wishing she had some kind of mirror, but after a while she noticed he was observing her from the corners of his eyes. Had she really gotten such a short fuse that he felt the need to remain on guard like this? Her financial problems and recent lack of inspiration had her on edge, that was true... At least his continued understanding meant a lot to her.

“Let’s get going then, shall we? We’ve lost enough time already, what with you having to wait for me here and all...” she said, as she started towards what seemed to be the only opening in the tall wooden fence surrounding the clearing. Jack came to walk beside her, and it wasn’t long before she noticed the huge gin on his face. She threw him a questioning look.

“Heh, how long do you think you made me wait?” he said in response, still grinning from ear to ear.

“I don’t know, like half an hour?” she said with a shrug.

Jack shook his head. “Only a couple of minutes. I had to suicide on a forest bear just to get here fast enough, even. Time flows differently in some places in this world, and character creation is one of those places,” he explained. “That’s what a passing wanderer told me last time, anyway. I don’t claim to understand stuff like that.”

Dreamspark nodded and remained silent for a moment, as she took the new information in. Eternia was getting stranger by the second, but she didn’t mind. In a way it was all very exciting, as if she had tumbled headfirst into one of the childhood games in which she and her friends would go exploring some abandoned house, and pretended it was a gateway into a strange and mysterious new land. Only now she didn’t have to pretend, and the land she had ended up in was stranger and more mysterious than ever.

She shook her head to dispel the memories; they reminded her of the people she knew back in Trottingham, which was the last thing she wanted right now. She was there to have fun, after all, not to worry about her problems some more.

“Wait, did you say ‘suicide’?”

He smiled at her sheepishly. “Euh, yeah. But let’s not get into that now, I can explain that some other time,” he said quickly, and Dream shrugged. Might as well let him explain everything at his own pace, she supposed.

They finally walked out of the clearing, and into the shadows of the trees whose bronze-coloured trunks the entire forest had been named after. A path ran from the clearing into the woods, and another branched off along the way, leading up to a large, wooden building in the distance. An older-looking stallion stood watch by the fork in the road, and he hailed them as they approached.

His green coat blended in with his surroundings, but the effect was ruined by his dazzlingly bright mane, which was coloured yellow and orange intermittently. Dreamspark thought it was a pretty weird combination. He began to speak once they drew near, and to her surprise his voice was quite deep.

“Hello there! First time in Eternia, I take it? I’m Gromar, a Guide, and if you follow me I ca-”

“No thanks,” Jack suddenly interjected. “I’ve been here before, I got it.” He tried to step onto the path leading up to the building in the distance, but the so-called Guide put a hoof on his shoulder to stop him, and raised an eyebrow. “But the lady hasn’t, right? Out of the two of us, I’m certain the one more qualified to show the lady the ropes would be-”

“I. Got. It,” Jack said threateningly, as he shoved him out of the way.

Gromar swallowed and moved aside, his will to argue evaporating like snow under the sun when he realised exactly how strong Jack was. Dreamspark offered him an apologetically smile as she slipped by, following in Jack’s footsteps,

“What was that all about?” she asked upon catching up to him.

“Oh, that pony was a Guide. They help newcomers understand the rules of the world, and assist them in choosing a combat style,” he said, his calm and gentle tone contrasting with the outburst from mere moments ago. “First time I was here the Guide was somepony else, so I guess they work in teams or something.”

She nodded slowly. “Erm... I meant the, euh... attitude.”

“Oh, that!” he said with sudden understanding in his eyes. “That’s all just an act. In Equestria I may be Jack Hammer, a simple workpony, but in Eternia I am... Jack the Barbarian! Feared by the stallions, loved by the fillies, and I let nopony tell me what to do,” he explained as he struck what he thought was a heroic pose. Dreamspark thought it was hilarious.

“And then you claim you don’t have any kind of imagination,” she said while trying to fight back a fit of giggles.

“Well, hey, this isn’t artsy stuff, it’s roleplaying! Big difference,” he said in his own defense. “Lots of ponies do it. So if somepony is being rude to you, don’t take it too personally. They may just be playing a role, like me.”

“Sounds like an excuse to be an ass to me...” she mumbled, but Jack didn’t seem to hear her.

They arrived at the end of the path, where a few wooden steps lead up to the big building’s entrance. There was no door in the frame, so they simply walked in. There didn’t appear to be any glass in the windows either.

Once inside, they found the entire building was made up of one huge room, divided into several training areas. In one area, somepony had set up several bulls-eye targets - not unlike those Spark had seen at Sweet Apple Acre’s apple-kicking contest two weeks before - while another had wooden poles with wooden weapons strapped to them, and yet another was simply an empty sparring area that somepony had put a rope-and-post fence around.

“Pretty deserted. Must be because it’s still the middle of the day,” Jack mused as he looked around.

“So we’re here to teach me how to fight?” Dream asked. “I’m not sure I want to fight anypony, Jack...”

He smiled reassuringly at her. “Hey, I know what you mean. Not a lot of ponies like fighting, I know. But think about it... what is it about fighting that you dislike the most?”

She stopped to think about that for a moment. It wasn’t often that violence entered into a pony’s life; one heard about the occasional madman or criminal or a drunken brawl or sometimes a falling out between close friends, but that was about it. For most ponies, it just wasn’t something they had to think about.

“I suppose it’s the idea that I may end up hurting somepony,” she said slowly, as if she was still contemplating every word, “and that they may end up hating me for that.”

“Exactly!” he exclaimed as he clopped a hoof down against the floor. “You’re not worried about fighting, you’re worried about the consequences of fighting. Soured relationships, ponies getting hurt, or worse: dying. But that’s just it, you don’t have to worry about any of that here,” he explained. “Injuries are fleeting, death is a minor inconvenience and everypony comes here expecting to get into a scrap sooner or later, so they’re not likely to be angrier at you for winning the fight than they’d be if you were to, oh I don’t know, beat them at chess or something.”

Dreamspark nodded, but her furled brow told him she wasn’t completely convinced yet.

“You know I’m not a violent pony, Dreamspark”, he said, to which she nodded, “and you know I wouldn’t bring you here if I didn’t think you’d have fun. So what does that tell you?”

“Fighting... is fun?” she answered tentatively.

“Yup! And I’ll teach you the basics,” he said as he walked towards the center of the room, where ropes marked a square sparring area. He stepped over the ropes and took a few more steps, before turning around to face Spark, who was climbing over the rope as well.

She let her gaze wander around the room and said: “I don’t see any weapons lying around.”

Jack smiled at her mischievously, a boyish glint in his brown eyes as a large sword suddenly materialised in front of him, accompanied by a puff of grey smoke. The sword remained perfectly still in the air, not supported by anything Dream could see.

“Where did you... and why is it... ?” she spluttered, her eyes flying wide open.

Jack threw his head back and let out a hearty chuckle. “Priceless expression, priceless!”
Spark threw him another dirty look, at which he lifted a hoof in a conciliatory gesture. “Oh come on Dream, it’s not often I get to catch you off-guard. Let me have my fun,” he said.

Spark sighed, then nodded. “At least tell me how you’re doing that,” she demanded.

“You have got to realise: Eternia isn’t Equestria. Thoughts have power here, real power. You can do certain things simply by wanting to,” he explained.

“So you wanted a sword, and thus you got one?” she ventured a guess.

He shook his head. “You can’t change the world or make new things appear. I was already carrying this sword with me, I simply brought it out. Everypony has something called an ‘inventory’: it’s an invisible storage area you carry with you everywhere. You put things in or take things out by concentrating on doing so, and you can view your inventory in the same way,” he explained, looking for any cues indicating he’d lost her with his explanation.

Dreamspark concentrated for a moment, and suddenly an image popped up in her head. It was as if she was looking into some kind of huge chest - her inventory. There were several useful items there already, such as a map, a few books and what appeared to be an assortment of rusted weapons. She concentrated on a dagger, and suddenly a puff of smoke appeared in front of her. The dagger fell down from it, and clattered noisily onto the floor. She raised an eyebrow and prodded it with a hoof, expecting it to fly off at any moment.

Jack grinned at her boyishly again, his amusement clear on his face. “You know how unicorns can move things with their magic? Anypony can do that here. However, we earth ponies can only pick up two objects and need to keep them close - same with pegasi, except they need to keep them even closer. Unicorns can pick up as many as they can handle, in a wide radius,” he explained. “It’s not that easy; just holding something is ok, but moving things around... comes quite naturally to real-life unicorns, though.”

Dream imagined picking up the dagger with an invisible hoof. It shook for a few moments, but was then lifted into the air. It swayed around erratically before finally coming to a stop in front of her face. “I can see what you mean...”

“Let’s begin then. I can show you some fighting styles I’ve seen, as well as the basics of magic. I'm not very good with spells, though. You don't have to be a unicorn to use them, but it sure helps!" he explained.

Dreamspark remembered what she had learned about pegasi’s low affinity for magic during character creation; at least that finally made sense. She’d known about unicorn’s high affinity for it, of course, but there had been no info on where earth ponies stood in regards to that. She took that to mean they were somewhere in-between the other two.

For the next hour, Jack had her try out all sorts of weapons, combat styles and magical disciplines. Sometimes she sparred against him; other times they used one of the many shooting ranges spread across the room.

First up were melee weapons, which came in all sorts of forms and shapes. Most of the bigger ones - like the sword Jack used - were wielded by holding the hilt between your teeth, while the smaller ones consisted mostly of retractable blades, usually in conjunction with a bracer, which could be extended or retracted with just a thought; keeping the wielder light on his feet.

Dreamspark, however, failed to connect even a single time during all of their mock battles, and they quickly abandoned all hope when it came to melee weapons. Jack had an easy time just side-stepping her slow and ponderous swings when she wielded a larger blade, and he had the feeling even a stranded whale would have more luck getting in close with the smaller ones than she did. They entertained the notion of having her wield the weapons telekinetically for a few moments, but when she nearly chopped off her own head on the first swing they immediately abandoned it.

After that they moved on to ranged weapons, like bows, under the assumption that her lack of athleticism wouldn’t factor into these too much, since she’d use telekinesis to hold the bow and draw back the string, and if she got good enough at it, she’d never have to get up close and personal either. Predictably, the lack of telekinetic precision she had exhibited earlier took its toll here as well, and soon the wall behind the target was littered with arrows, yet the target itself remained remarkably unscathed.

From there they moved on to magic. Jack wasn’t capable of casting anything himself, but he knew enough to tell Dream how it worked. Surprisingly, she didn’t appear to be any good at that, either. Every time she started casting a spell, something deep inside of her seemed to resist it, until the spell ultimately died out and fizzled. Even the schools of magic governed by charisma were a no-go, and she should’ve been able to breeze through those.

“This is impossible, you should’ve at least... let me see your character sheet,” Jack demanded.

She quickly looked through her inventory and found the item she was looking for: a piece of parchment, which she promptly handed over to Jack. He looked over the numbers on the sheet, muttering under his breath. “Five strength, four dexterity, four agility, six constitution, seven wisdom, six intelligence, twelve charisma and six intelligence... Just like you said. So why the hay?”

“You’re just explaining it wrong, I bet,” Dreamspark jeered, “we should’ve just asked one of the guides.”

“What? No, I showed you every style discovered so far - at least the ones I know of. There has to be something else...”

Dreamspark felt a chill run up her spine as his words gave her an eerie suspicion. “Say that again?”

“Erm, I showed you every style discovered?” he repeated in confusion.

“So, in essence... I’ve been trying to learn somepony else’s style?” she said, biting down on her bottom lip as she waited for an answer.

“That’s right.”

She groaned as she pushed a hoof up against her forehead. “I... euh... I might’ve, erm... given up on the ability to use anypony else’s style in exchange for... unbridled imagination,” she said weakly.

Jack blinked at her a few times, but then a grin spread across his face. “Hah, so you asked... hehe... and then the avatar...” he managed to squeeze out before he burst into laughter.

“Hey! It’s not funny!” she yelled at him angrily as she stamped a hoof down on the floor. “I got scammed! Cheated!”

“Oh, lighten up, Spark, it’s not that bad,” he said as he wiped the tears from his eyes. “The price is usually balanced by the benefit you receive, so I’m sure your ‘unbridled imagination’ will reveal itself sooner or later... maybe you’ll found your own fighting style? Besides, these things don’t always work right off the bat. It’s possible you need to figure it out first.”

She sighed. “Sure, ok, but that doesn’t help us right now.”

He considered that for a moment. “Well, we probably don’t have more than forty minutes left, anyway... oh, I know! Why don’t we go check out Bronzewood Village? It’s a mere five minutes from here, and I found some gardens there that are quite something.”

She agreed, and they went on their way, walking back to the fork in the road. The Guide was notably absent, and Jack remained convinced throughout the trip that he had simply hid when he heard them approach, but Dreamspark remained skeptical. They didn’t speak much apart from that, mainly taking in the scenery. She’d never seen trees quite as large as these, and even the toadstools and patches of fungus they saw in several places were bigger and more colourful than the ones back home.

Despite the disappointing conclusion to her combat practice, she felt genuinely happy that Jack had brought her there. The world just seemed to breathe an air of adventure and wonder that made her want to see what lay past the next hill, or the next fork in the road. She was certain she’d be returning at some point, and probably sooner rather than later. After all, she still had to find out what the deal was with her ‘unbridled imagination’, else it’d be like she let the avatar win, right?

They emerged from the forest into another clearing, and saw Bronzewood Village sitting there in all its glory, surrounded by a wooden palisade. Truth be told, it was rather small and insignificant compared to the likes of Trottingham and Canterlot, but something about it captivated Dreamspark all the same. The houses had been build using nothing but logs from the surrounding forests, and the colourful paint jobs you saw in every Equestrian settlement were notably absent here. It gave the village a less refined feel, which reinforced the idea that Eternia was a land of many dangers, where luxury still had to make way for survival on many occasions.
But that was part of the appeal, for this sense of foreboding and danger spoke also of wonders to be found, if only you were brave enough to go out and look for them.

The path lead them right up to a gate in the palisade, and two alert guards nodded as Dream and Jack walked past. Their leather armour covered their cutie marks and gave them more of a uniform look, although Spark thought their helmets were a bit goofy. It was as if they each had half of a chestnut on their head. Neither one carried any kind of weaponry that she could see, but with the inventory system still fresh in mind she didn’t believe for even a second that they were actually unarmed.

The buildings in the settlement seemed to have been placed down rather haphazardly, which made getting anywhere in a straight line quite difficult. Jack seemed to have a destination in mind, so Dreamspark just followed him and looked around, her mouth wide open in amazement. They passed several shops, some of them selling food and other mundane things, others advertising swords, staves, potions and even tomes of magic.

The streets weren’t crowded, but there were plenty of ponies around, talking amongst themselves. This wasn’t that different from what happened back home in Ponyville, but what caught her interest was the great variety of clothing and armour around, and how different everypony looked. There were unicorns prancing around with cloaks and pointy hats; warriors with clanking chainmail, helmets and reinforced hooves; stallions and mares dressed in unfamiliar articles of clothing, and so much more. Some ponies had gotten rather creative with their coat and mane colours, and what Jack had said about ‘living paintings’ earlier was certainly applicable to them. It was, all in all, quite a sight to behold.

Dreamspark herself didn’t go unnoticed either. She wasn’t sure whether her high charisma score subtly affected the ponies she passed by, or if it was mostly her gorgeous coat, but several ponies stopped to stare at her, and she noted a lot of them were mares. She even heard the occasional whistle here and there. They passed several other mares who were receiving the same kind of treatment, so perhaps it wasn’t all that unusual. She stared at a stallion herself here and there, and it seemed like some of them actually had it far worse than she did when it came to attracting unwanted attention.

Jack threw everypony he caught looking at her a mean look, which persuaded most ponies to get back to their own business. Eventually they ended up on the other side of the village, where the streets were almost deserted. To Dreamspark’s great surprise there was indeed a garden there, within the palisade walls. As they stepped off of the road and onto the grass, she marvelled at the many different kinds of flowers blooming there, each just as wonderfully colourful as the next. She darted from one to the other and took in their exotic fragrance, which was unlike anything she had ever smelled before. That isn’t to say they smelled better than the flowers back in reality, it was just a different kind of smell altogether.

Jack just watched her dart around with a smile, as he followed at a slower pace. He wasn’t really a flower pony himself, but it looked like this little incursion into astral reality had turned out just the way he had hoped. Nopony looking at Dreamspark then and there would’ve guessed she was going through a period of financial problems and depression, and it warmed his heart to be able to ease her burden even a little, even for just two hours.

He walked across the flowery field, towards a section of the garden that was shielded from the noise of the village by several trees and bushes, craning his neck around to look at Spark once he reached them.

“Hey Dream, there’s something here I’d like to show you”, he said, before he disappeared behind the bushes and trees.

“Oh?” she replied, tearing herself away from the flowers reluctantly and chasing after him. She made her way through the foliage, wondering what surprise could be waiting for her on the other side. When she finally found out, she was rendered speechless for a few moments. A small pond lay before her, containing some of the clearest water she had ever seen. It was of a peculiar, azure colour, and seemed to posses a faint inner glow. Several fish caused the water to ripple, and these ripples were mirrored on every surface nearby. There were several water-loving plants there as well, and they, combined with the pond and the secluded nature of the grove to give it a magical feeling.

“I can tell you like it, I’m glad,” said Jack, who was standing by the edge of the water. “We got here just in time too, I doubt we have more than five minutes left...”

Dreamspark joined him and simply stared out over the water, feeling completely at ease. She didn’t say a word, and Jack, likewise, didn’t speak. He had never been a very talkative pony when left to his own devices, and he knew that his words would only serve to break the spell. Flowers and nature had never been his ‘thing’, he found this place rather by accident, but seeing a smile on Dream’s face easily made it all worth it.

Dreamspark herself meanwhile felt flooded by impressions and ideas, as she looked around the grove. The sights, the smells, the sound of insects buzzing over the water... It all spoke to her in some way, and added little pieces to a puzzle she hadn’t realised even existed. She felt she was so close to finally finding the answers she was looking for, so close to the breakthrough she’d been waiting for, but one final piece of the puzzle eluded her grasp, and she couldn’t quite put her hoof on it.

Suddenly some bushes on the other side of the pond started rustling, and they both stared at them: Jack with suspicion and open hostility, Dreamspark with curiosity. Finally the source of the disturbance emerged from between the trees, and Spark felt a tingle run up her spine.

The creature was perfectly pony shaped, and would perhaps have passed for a normal pony in the dark, if seen from a distance. But in the light of day its coat and mane - if they could even be called that - were unmistakably alien. It was as if someone had formed the figure of a pony out of rough wood, had given it woven grass and leaves for a mane and tail, and then breathed life into it. Or, Dreamspark mused, as if a tree had taken on a pony’s form, so that it could walk the lands and make new friends.

The creature spotted them with its cyan eyes, and took a few startled steps backwards. Dreamspark couldn’t help but feel it was female, and when she met its eyes, she suddenly felt a connection. The last piece of the puzzle got slammed into place. Her mental floodgates were opened, and she was overwhelmed by inspiration. She saw the scene clearly before her mind’s eye: The pond, the flowers, the trees... and that creature over there, right at the center of attention, its plantlike appearance fitting right in with its surroundings, but with eyes that were undoubtedly those of a pony, drawing the viewer into the scene depicted.

In the instant it took Dreamspark to process all of these impressions, Jack had brought out his sword. He stepped in front of her defensively, even though the pond still separated them from the creature.

“No, wait!” Dreamspark yelled at him, but the damage was already done. The being on the other side turned around and ran off as soon as Jack drew his weapon, and she knew that by the time she’d run all the way around the pond, it’d be nowhere to be found.

“A dryad,” Jack mused, without noticing that Dreamspark was gritting her teeth and throwing him foul looks. “But why would it be inside the walls?”

Dream opened her mouth, intent on having a word or two with him on the topic of stallions who waved their swords around at every occasion. Before she could say anything, however, colours started to swirl all around her. She opened her eyes - although she couldn’t recall having closed them - and found herself lying in bed, looking up at a bare ceiling. It took her a few moments to remember where she was, and how she had gotten there, but once she heard Jack getting up in the bed next to hers, it all came back to her.

“Guess that was two hours,” Jack said. “Had fun?”

“I had lots of fun, thank you,” she answered without hesitation. “Wish I could’ve talked to that dryad, though...”

Any further conversation was cut short as a store assistant - the same filly from before - entered the room. “Wakey, wakey!” she said cheerfully. “Oh, I see you’re already up and about. Good! I trust you had a pleasant experience?”

Both Dreamspark and Jack nodded and mumbled a few words by way of confirmation, and then followed her back to the front of the store. The clerk tried to persuade them to buy an astral reality device they could set up at home, but Jack already had one, and even their cheapest model would’ve been a bitter pill for Ink’s budget to swallow. A few moments later, they were out on the street again.

“Thanks again, Jack. I really needed that. In fact,” she said as she tried to picture the painting she had constructed in her mind earlier, “I may even have gotten the inspiration I needed.”

“Hey, that’s great!” Jack said earnestly. “I knew you’d like it there.”

They talked in front of the store for a while longer, until Jack finally had to excuse himself. He still had some work to take care of outside of town, and likely wouldn’t be back for a few days. They took their leave of each other and went their separate ways. Dream headed for her house, just outside of town. At first she walked slowly, but as memories of the magical scene by the pond entered her mind again, she began to walk faster and faster, until finally she was galloping at full speed. Ponies stared at her in bewilderment as she dashed by, but she didn’t care. She finally felt like an artist again, and couldn’t wait to get started.

Her house came into view soon enough. It was quite big, bigger perhaps than a single mare’s house needed to be, and she doubted she’d have bought it if she’d known how bad business would be when she first arrived, six months ago. Still, it was a comfortable place to live in now that she had it anyway, and at least her workplace left nothing to be desired.

She burst in through the front door and headed for said workplace immediately. She pulled an unfinished painting off of her easel and tossed it aside, replacing it with an empty canvas as she grabbed a paintbrush and prepared a few colours she was sure to need. She took up position in front of her easel, paintbrush at the ready, waiting for the inspiration to once again grab hold of her, as it had before.

And so she waited.

And waited.

And waited...