Nothing's More Important

Justin was a pony again, which was probably the first clue to being back in the dream world. It was different this time, though. His wolf half was nowhere to be seen. Instead, the human woman, Amelia, sat a few yards away, sitting with her back against a wall that seemed to stretch on forever in all directions. She was sitting next to a telephone built into the wall, hugging her knees to her chest, her hair covering her face. She had been crying; it was obvious from the pool of tears that surrounded her, dream logic growing it to comical proportions. But she wasn’t crying now.

Justin took a step towards her, reassured by the soft clop he hadn't even noticed he missed. "Amelia? What's wrong?" Was that a dream? He tried to get up to speed even as he moved for his wife. "I'm here, promise!"

“Justin? What? How?” Amelia asked, wiping her face with an arm before looking around. Hope made it to her face, before she caught sight of the phone and it dimmed noticeably. “You’re not really here are you?... it’s okay, even some dream company is more than welcome right now,” she said as she reached out to stroke his mane.

Justin leaned up against her hand. "Well, uh, yes and no I think. I'm laying on top of you, and we're kissing." He perked his ears up. "But I'm also in here, talking to you. My life got a lot more interesting with my wives, but--" He moved in to bump noses. "I wouldn't trade them for anything."

“Kissing?” she asked, blushing a moment before the blush turned to anger, her grip on his mane turning painfully tight before she realized it and loosened up. “That wasn’t me. Well, not me-me… My pony spirit ambushed me when I got in here. And when we were fighting, Luna stepped in and broke it up, and put up this wall. And then… I couldn’t wake up. I guess she was able to… and tried to steal my man.”

Justin tilted his head. "That was…" He looked to the side slowly, turning to face the wall. "She was hoping you could just stay a pony, but we saw through that. You're not sad being a human, are you?" He twitched an ear at her. "You two need to finish your argument properly."

Amelia pointed at the phone. “Luna put that in there, so we could talk, but she won’t answer. She tried to just leave me here… I’m guessing when dawn comes I would wake up and she’d be the one trapped in here all alone.” She looked at Justin a moment thoughtfully. “I was kind of liking being a pony, but I am human. Somewhere, deep down, Alice is too, even if she doesn’t want to admit it. But she was a wolf too, since she was born, and her parents were as well. I’m new to, uh… being two things, but I can at least appreciate both for what they are. Or at least, I’d like to,” she said, looking up at the phone again sadly.

He leaned up to rub his nose to hers. "You're adorable in either shape." He dropped down and clopped on the wall softly. "Hello? Are you ready to talk this out? You're both lovely mares, and I want you two getting along now. No more tricks."

The phone began ringing after a bit, and Amelia was quick to pick it up, angling it from her ear a bit so Justin could hear. “Hello?” she asked.

“I am ready to talk now,” the pony spirit said. Her voice sounded weird, like her face was being squished or something. She made a bit of a pained noise before adding “I would like to start by offering my most sincere apology.” Though, beyond sounding squished, she also didn’t sound especially sincere.

Justin smiled a little. "Hello there." He reached a hoof towards the phone but didn't try to take it. "We're all family, even you. Wouldn't it be nice to be a part of that? You've done a very naughty thing, but it's done. We caught you, but we can move past that, right?"

“H-hi, Justin. Can you ask your wolf spirit to stop squishing my face against the wall?” the voice came back over the receiver. “It’s making it very hard to speak.”

Justin flashed a bright smile. "He just wants us to get along, just like I do. Now you have to be nice, for real." He leaned towards the phone. "I'll be sure to play with you too, you know that right? Amelia has to be the one in charge though. I agreed to marry her, not you."

There was silence for a few moments before the pony spirit continued. “I’m not sure if I could even if I wanted to. This wall that Luna put up… I don’t think we can just knock it down. We’ll have to ask her about it,” she said, before sighing. “Look, I’m sorry I made a mess of everything. I just wanted to be… free, you know?”

“I know… I’m not your enemy,” Amelia said. “I’m your… well… your self. We’ve got to work together or we’ll just go crazy. Truce, pony-Amy?”

“The name’s Hidden Treasure,” the pony replied. “And yes. Truce.”

Justin tilted his head. He quietly decided he liked that name, then turned to the wall. "Maybe two ponies weren't enough to bring it down, but four? Let's give it a try together." He spun around, lining up his back hooves with the wall. "On the count of three?"

“Wouldn’t we just end up…?” Amelia said, her brain insisting that the physics of it wasn’t going to work right, before she shook her head. “Screw it. It’s a dream! Hulk, smash!” She balled up her fists and pulled back, waiting for Justin’s count.

An affirmative bark made it through the now dangling phone receiver, along with a mumbled “why not?” Justin counted down, and on his cue fists, hooves, and paws slammed into the barrier. It wobbled and shook like jello when struck, before cracks started to appear in it, and it started to fall apart, the pieces disappearing entirely as they hit ground.

Wolf and pony looked through the gap that was made, blinking at their other selves. The wolf moved first, tackling Justin and licking his face while talking quite rapidly about how great he was. Hidden Treasure, however, turned away, unable to meet Amelia’s gaze. As a result, she didn’t see the human coming until she had been dragged into a firm hug.

Justin hugged his other half, new as he was. "You smacked that down good. See what cooperation can do?" He turned an ear towards his wife, or was that wives? "Let's let them have a moment." He sat up with his newest friend. "They have a few things to work out."

The wolf spirit nodded. “Like, if the human one is your wife, does that make the pony my wife? I’m so confused,” he questioned. “Anyways… maybe we can sort all that after we wake up.” The very mention of waking up was enough to summon the dandelion spores back into view, floating like an airborne minefield all about them.

Pony and human looked over at Justin and his wolf spirit, whispering conspiratorially between them. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” the human asked. “Yes, but I’m fairly certain they’re not thinking anything even remotely like that,” the pony answered.

Justin's eyes followed one of the bits of dander in the air, though his ears were trained on his wives. "They're both our wives, just like you're, um, me." He hoped he got that right, but had nothing to prove it. "Are you two feeling, uh, better?"

“Much better,” Amelia answered. “But I do think we should stay asleep a bit longer. We do have some things to work out before we go. Thanks for rescuing me from, uh, myself. And Luna’s meddling.”

“Nah,” Hidden Treasure disagreed. “We’ll sort it out as we go. Pop!” She said the last bit aloud even as she tapped a dandelion spore with a hoof, causing the whole dream to vanish instantly.

“Haha! Awake again!” Hidden Treasure declared triumphantly, pulling herself up from Justin’s embrace. She turned and backed away from Alice a bit, raising a hoof in defense. “It’s okay, Alice. Amy and I are cool now.”

Justin slid back, confused a moment with being a canine again, but quickly composing himself. "Hidden! Why'd you do that?" He shook himself out, the subtle differences in musculature making him wobble but also amaze at it all. "I thought we had a deal."

The lunar pony shook her head, rubbing it with a hoof for a moment and blinking in momentary confusion before looking at the others. “Justin, Alice… it’s okay, really.” Her tone was much more reminiscent of Amelia than Hidden Treasure, though it was hard to be sure. “We’re… still coming to terms, a bit, but we don’t have to sleep to do that. I can hear her just fine like this, now. Getting her to shut up, on the other hand… Ow!” The mare winced, as if struck, but shook it off.

“Amy? Is that really you? Say something only you would know, so we can be sure,” Alice challenged.

“The largest flowers on Earth belong to Rafflesia arnoldi, a parasitic plant that lives on the roots of other plants,” Amelia recited. She opened her mouth to say more, but Alice shook her head.

“Okay, it’s really you,” the wolfess confirmed. “What happened in there? Justin? Were you able to get into her dream? I never… actually tried that trick before.”

Justin was no expert on dream mechanics and lifted his shoulders. "It worked fine, and we took care of things." He puffed out his chest a little. "I protected my mare," he stated with blooming confidence and satisfaction.

“That you did,” Amelia said, and leaned in to nuzzle her stallion. “And you should be rewarded for your bravery,~” she added in a more sultry tone.

Alice nodded, ignoring the innuendo for the moment. “You did great, Justin. I’m just glad to have my best friend back.” She glanced around a moment. “Maybe we should head back to the house? The woods are nice and all, but I feel like you two should have a bit more time to get your paws under you before I start teaching you out here.”

Justin glanced around in the darkness even as his fur rose from the closeness of Amelia. Both females had his interest. "We should head home. We've had nothing if not a full night today." He smiled, tongue wagging a little. "I'm not ugly as a wolf, am I?"

Amelia decided to answer by pouncing him, and wrestling him to the ground, where she kissed him passionately, squirming her hips atop his belly.

“You’re quite a handsome wolf, in my opinion,” Alice began before noticing the scuffle and sighing. “Can you really not wait until we get home for that?” She glanced about, making sure they at least had their privacy for the moment.

The urge to accept the invitation, nay, demand that his partner was extending was overwhelming, but he turned it around, and turned her around with a sudden twist, seeking out her throat with new instinct. He held her firmly even as his tongue rasped at her. "Let's go home."

“Eep,” Amelia began before the shock faded a bit. “Sir, yes, sir!” she conceded, even as she licked her lips lustfully. With Amelia brought to heel, for the moment, they were able to make the trek fairly quickly and uneventfully. Though it was still a bit unnerving the way she faded from perception as they traveled, only to occasionally reappear as she rubbed her side up against one or the other of her herdmates.