Astral Reality

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...