Dreamstrider

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Epilogue
Chapter 1
Chapter 8
Chapter 11
Chapter 18
Chapter 45

Chapter 2

My eyes jolt open, and in a split second, I almost forget I had been sleeping.

But when I sit up and look around me, I’m not in my bed. I’m not even in my room. I’m...I don’t know where I am.

There’s a massive circular thing in the middle of the room which has a huge globe coming out of it. There are some other pieces coming out of it as well, but it looks like whatever was supposed to be on top of them is long gone.

Looking around, I see that it’s a circular room, with a desk at one end that has a massive window behind it. I can see it’s still night. Along the walls of the circular room are doors, which look like they haven’t been opened in years.

“Hello?” I ask to the emptiness. “Is anypony there?”

When nopony answers me, I stand up and start walking around. I go up to the huge globe’s stand and see some really intricate designs which look a lot like the grooves you would put in something powered by magic. While it’s cool, there’s nothing on it saying what it or any of this is.

Guess there’s only one way to find out. I try to power up my horn, and when I finally do, I tilt my head down and shove my horn into the slot. Nothing happens, so I try even harder, but it still doesn’t do anything. I guess it’s something meant for a grownup to power up.

“It hasn’t worked in nearly a thousand years,” a calm voice says behind me. I quickly take my horn out and turn around and see Princess Luna looking down at me.

“Princess Luna?” I ask. “Does this mean I’m dreaming?”

“Indeed it does,” she says, walking up next to me.

“I thought you only visited ponies if they were having a nightmare?”

“Technically, it is you that is the visitor in my dream tonight, child.”

How?

Probably because she’s seeing me really confused, she sits down next to me. “I pulled you into my dream so that I may meet you.”

Me? “Why do you want to meet me?”

“It has something to do with that,” she says as she points to my flank. I realize she’s probably talking about my Cutie Mark.

“What does it have to do with it?” I ask, looking down at it myself.

“Do you know what my ability to enter others’ dreams is called?” she asks, suddenly changing the subject.

I shrug. “What?”

“Dreamstriding,” she says a little proudly. “It is a rare gift only a few are ever born with; the ability to enter others’ dreams and manipulate them.” She turns to me and smiles a little. “And you’re the first one that’s been born in over a thousand years.”

“Me?” I ask. I can’t have heard right. A thousand years?

She nods. “Yes. I felt it when you were born, even though I was all the way on the moon. When I came back, I watched over you every night until I decided you were ready.” She points to my Cutie Mark again. “And then I gave you that.”

“Ready for what?”

She smiles widely. “Becoming a Dreamstrider, of course.”

“Wow,” I whisper to myself. “For real?”

“For real.”

I don’t know what to say. Is this what everypony else feels like when they get their Cutie Marks? Because it’s really weird. Like, I’m excited and really scared all at once. I always thought destiny was a word, not a real thing. But I guess this is my destiny. I’m a Dreamstrider.

“Well?” she asks, lifting one of her wings up and gesturing next to her. “Will you help rejuvenate the sentinels of the night, watching over everypony and keeping them safe? To become my personal student and study the long-forgotten art of dream magic? Aurora Borealis, will you join me to help recreate the Dreamstriders?”

“Yeah,” I say, even though I’m really nervous. I can feel my heart pounding away in my chest and my stomach jumping around. “Where is this, anyway?”

“This is where the Dreamstriders were based.” She points behind us, to the desk in front of the window. “That is where the head Dreamstrider worked. I oversaw them, but I was too busy with my duties as Princess to be able to lead all of them, so I had somepony do it for me.” She smiles and looks down at me. “It’ll be yours one day.”

“Really?” I ask excitedly.

She nods. “You are the oldest Dreamstrider currently alive, besides me of course. I will teach you, and you will help me teach and then oversee the other Dreamstriders who are too young right now.”

“And what’s that thing?” I ask, pointing at the massive globe.

“It’s an orrery,” she says, admiring it. “It was quite impressive when it worked, but sadly, it has fallen into disrepair. I have always meant to fix it, but I had no reason to before now.”

“And all the doors?” I ask as I point at the doors on the walls surrounding the orrery or whatever she called it.

“Individual quarters. Each Dreamstrider was given a place of their own for sleep, study, and relaxation. You’ll notice there are not many; the largest we ever grew was to about twenty Dreamstriders.”

“What happened to them?”

She pauses for a moment. “I transformed into Nightmare Moon, and they lost their direction.”

That’s sad. I guess I can give her some new ponies to know, though. I always hear that deep down, Princess Luna’s really lonely.

“What would I have to do to become a Dreamstrider?” I ask.

“You would have to move in with me,” she says a little sadly. “Which would mean leaving your family behind.”

“Oh.” I’m not really sure. Sure it’d be cool, but leaving everypony behind?

“I’m sure you’ll love it,” she says, becoming happier. “It’s not like you’d never see them again, and you could always write back and forth. Your parents would be upset, but I’m sure they’d understand.”

“I guess,” I shrug.

“And you’d probably go to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, as well. It never hurts to get a thorough education in magic, especially when you’ll be doing something like Dreamstriding.”

“I’m not really gifted,” I admit.

“You’ll do fine,” she says confidently. “I’ll help you if you need it, and you will only need to go for about a year or two. After that, ponies start to focus in on their special talent; yours just happens not to be taught there.”

“When will I need to come here?”

“Soon. I will come to you tomorrow, after you get home from school. I shall explain it to your parents then, and then we can start.”

“Okay,” I say nervously.

Seeing I’m kind of unsure about it, she pulls me into a hug using her wing. “You’ll enjoy it, I promise. Helping ponies when they really need it is satisfying, and you’re doing a service that everypony needs.”

“It does sound exciting,” I tell her.

“It’s fascinating,” she says, probably thinking about some of the stuff she’s done. “Our world pales in comparison to the one of dreams. I only hope that someday, I may be able to show you what I have seen.”

“So...is this place real or fake?”

“It is real,” she confirms. “Well, not where we are sitting right now. There is a place in the real world just like it; I am there now. I fell asleep in it so I may create a mirror of it in my dreams, then bring you here to show it. But of course, as this is a dream: we are only in a copy of it.”

“Cool,” I say with a smile.

“There are definitely a lot of ‘cool’ things you’ll be able to discover as a Dreamstrider,” she says, looking down at me.

“I’m kind of nervous,” I tell her.

“It’s only natural,” she smiles. “Believe it or not, I too was nervous when I began my training. It is not a magic many ponies are familiar with, and it is now one that not many know exists.”

“We know you visit us in our dreams,” I remind her.

“They do not know it is a gift,” she says with a slight shake of her head. “They believe different things, but most believe it is one of my duties as Princess of the Night, and so only I may perform it. The original Dreamstriders have faded from history, a breeze long since passed. Even some of the highest mages in Canterlot doubt their existence, as they have not been able to recreate the tales they have heard.”

“Why me, though? Why us?”

“It is a mystery I have never been able to solve,” she admits. “I have travelled far and wide in the world of dreams and poured meticulously over grimoires and magical field notes from all times and places, yet none have ever discovered the source of our gift.”

“Maybe we’ll find it together!” Wouldn’t that be cool? To find something nopony ever has before?

“I would not doubt it,” she says happily. “Every Dreamstrider brings something new to our organization, and they always discover parts of the dream world previously unseen. Perhaps you will find the part telling us of our origin?”

When the room starts to light up a little bit, she turns back to look at the window. I look back as well and can see the sun starting to poke over the horizon.

“Alas, it is time for us to part ways,” she says while hanging her head. “I will come to your house this evening.” She looks at the sun, then squints at it. “You’ll probably be waking up right...about…”

The world turns pitch black as I can feel my sheets around me again and hear my alarm clock going off.

“Aurora!” Cressie elbows me in the ribs pretty hard, like she normally does. That probably means she’s been trying to catch my attention and just hadn’t yet.

“Hm?” I lift my head off my desk and look around; everypony’s putting their saddlebags on their backs and walking out, so I guess school’s over for today.

“What’s with you today?” she asks. “You’re acting really weird.”

“Sorry, I just…” I’ve got to think of a lie. “I didn’t sleep well last night.”

“Oh. Okay!” She quickly puts her bags on, then nudges me and tries to get me to move faster.

“Cressie, why don’t you go wait outside for Aurora?” Miss Sunbeam says as she walks up to the both of us. “I’d just like to talk with her for a little bit.” Cressie nods, then trots out of the room.

Uh oh. She’s going to get mad at me for not paying attention today, isn’t she?

“Is everything alright?” she asks, actually sounding concerned.

I look up at her, and she’s looking down at me with worry on her face. “Everything’s fine,” I say.

“You just didn’t seem very engaged today,” she says, sitting down in the space between the rows of desks. “I remember your parents telling me you liked school when I met with them before school started. Are we just not learning anything you find interesting?”

“I didn’t sleep well last night, that’s all.” I figure I should keep my story straight.

“Well, hopefully you’ll sleep better tonight,” she says, putting a hoof on my shoulder before getting up, picking up my bags in her teeth, and placing them on my back for me.

I start thinking about the Dreamstriders again, and how Princess Luna said nopony really knew much about them. Miss Sunbeam seems smart; she probably knows something. “Miss Sunbeam?” I ask.

“Yes?” she asks back.

“Have you ever heard of the Dreamstriders?”

“Dreamstriders,” she whispers to herself. “No, I can’t say I have. How come?”

“Oh. I, uhh...read about them in a book last night. It said very few ponies knew they existed, and I was wondering if you ever heard of them.”

“They sound interesting,” she smiles. “We do a research project later in the year, where you choose a topic you like, learn about it, and then present it to the class. You could do yours on them, if you’d like.”

“Okay.” Now I feel kind of bad; I think I like her. And I think she likes me. She seems like she would’ve been a good teacher. I wish I wouldn’t have to leave her.

“I won’t keep you,” she says as she goes back to her desk. “I don’t want you getting home late and having your parents worry about you.”

I turn around and head out of the classroom and then out of the school, where Cressie is pacing back and forth. There are still some ponies waiting, mostly young ones who need their parents to come walk them home. “There you are!” she exclaims when I walk up to her.

“Sorry about that,” I blush as we start walking home.

“What was that all about?” she asks.

“Oh. That? Nothing.”

“As long as I’m not late getting home,” she says. “Remember that time we hid in the bushes to jump out and surprise Grapevine and Snowflake? I got grounded for getting home so late!”

“I remember that,” I laugh. “And we completely missed them and waited for what seemed like forever?”

“That was three years ago,” she laughs. “Can you believe it? Three years ago! That was so long ago!” Wow, she’s right. Can’t believe it was that long ago.

After giggling over the Bush Incident, as we’ve come to call it, we just go back to walking in silence. I look over at her, and she’s just staring up at the sky, a big smile on her face.

Should I ask her? She’s an earth pony, she probably doesn’t know anything about magic. Nopony ever does, it’s hard being a unicorn in a town of earth ponies. And besides, Miss Sunbeam didn’t even know anything.

“Hey, can I ask you a question?” The words seem to have just slipped right out of my mouth, without me telling them to. I guess I am asking her.

“Sure!” She stops looking at the sky and turns to look at me.

“Have you ever heard of Dreamstriders?”

“Nope!” She then goes right back to looking at the sky, without asking me about them or anything. She does that sometimes. Lots of ponies find it annoying, but I don’t. I guess that’s why we’re friends.

We finish walking the rest of the way home in silence. I’ll miss her when I start training with Princess Luna. I wish she didn’t say that I have to move. I don’t know anypony in Canterlot, besides Princess Luna now I guess.

I wonder what ponies in Canterlot are like. I’ll be able to meet some of them at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Mom and dad said sometimes unicorns in other places can be kind of uptight and look down on others, so I’m kind of nervous. I guess there’s nothing I can do but be nervous, though.

I keep looking at my clock every few seconds. It’s hardly changed from the last time I looked at it. I try to read my book again, but when I get only a few sentences in, I lose my concentration and check the clock again. Did I just dream all of that?

I bet I did. The Dreamstriders, being the only pony who can help Princess Luna, it’s too good to be true.

But I can’t get rid of the feeling. It felt real last night, and I’ve never had a real-feeling dream before. I feel like it really was real.

There are a few soft knocks at my door. “Aurora?” mom asks, her voice kind of shaky. “Would you come downstairs for a few moments?”

Princess Luna did say she’d come tonight...could it be? Either way, I guess I’ll find out. I jump off my bed and walk to the door. When I open it, mom’s looking down at me like she’s worrying about something.

Without saying anything, she steps aside and lets me walk down the stairs first. When I get downstairs, Princess Luna is sitting at the table, looking at me. Dad’s across from her, and he turns around and looks at me.

“Good to see you again, Aurora Borealis,” Princess Luna says with a smile.

Mom and dad both look at me, their mouths wide open. “She knows you?” dad asks.

“I visited your daughter in her dreams last night,” she tells them. “Sit down, won’t you?”

They both sit down at the table across from her, and I sit between them. “Why are you here?” dad asks her.

“Your daughter was born with a unique ability,” she says as she looks at me. “She was born a Dreamstrider.”

“‘Dreamstrider’?” he asks back.

“You know that I can enter and manipulate the dreams of other ponies,” she starts to explain. “And your daughter shares that ability with me.”

“How did this happen?” mom asks.

“Nopony knows,” she responds while shaking her head. “But she was born with this ability, one that cannot be learned.”

“Why are you telling us this?” dad asks as he puts a hoof around me. I think he knows why, but he doesn’t want to admit it.

“Dream magic is a long-lost school of magic.” She pauses for a few seconds. “I am the only one that knows the discipline. So, in order to help Aurora reach her full potential and realize her special talent, I will need to take her to Canterlot so she may study magic with me.”

I can feel dad hug me tighter. “Does she have to?” he asks.

Princess Luna nods her head. “She’ll be able to come back during the holidays, and you could up and visit her anytime.” She smiles a little. “I wouldn’t ask you two to give up your daughter forever.”

Mom and dad look at each other, then down at me. “Do you want to?” mom asks.

I really want to, but it sounds like it would really make mom and dad upset. But if this is my special talent, do I even have a choice? I can’t just ignore it. This is tough.

“I’ll do it,” I say after thinking over it for a little bit. I guess it would be fun to learn dream magic, even if it means having to leave everypony behind. And Princess Luna was right; it’s not like I have to leave them forever. Just for a little bit. All my cousins and aunts and uncles live far away, and I still get to see them. It’ll be just like that, yeah.

“We can help you pack,” mom says, looking down at me.

“I will wait.” Princess Luna smiles. “Take as long as you need.”

We get up and walk upstairs, then dad says he’ll get a suitcase and goes to their room while mom follows me into mine. While I pick up my book and clock and place them on the bed, mom goes to my dresser and starts pulling some stuff out, mostly my winter clothes.

“You excited?” she asks as she places my scarves on the bed.

“Yeah,” I say, though I’m kind of unsure.

“Nervous?”

“Yeah.” This time, I’m much less unsure about my answer.

“It’s okay to be,” she says, coming to me and putting a hoof on my shoulder. “I remember when I moved away to college; I was nervous, too. It’s a big step in your life, and you’ll be able to live somewhere completely new, meeting all sorts of ponies and having all sorts of experiences we never will.”

We’re pretty silent for the rest of the time we’re packing, including when dad comes in and help us. I guess they don’t really want to talk about it.

When we’re finished and have about two suitcases full of winter clothes, books, things like my toothbrush and hairbrush, and stuff like pictures to remind me of home, I look around the room, which is now kind of empty. Some of my stuff is still here, but it’s still weird to see my room so empty.

“Looks like that’s it,” mom says as she looks around. “I’ll go tell Snowy and Dew Drop what’s going on. We’ll meet you downstairs.”

When she leaves, dad looks at me, then gets down and hugs me. “I’m going to really miss you,” he says, trying to hide his crying.

I hug him back. “I’ll miss you, too.” Now I have to try to not cry. I’ve never lived without dad before, so it’s going to be weird in Canterlot. And not just him, I guess. Mom, Snowy, and Dew Drop have also always been there for me. And now, none of them will be. I always knew Snowy and Dew Drop would go to college and move away, but it was going to be a really long time before I did. I never really thought about living without mom and dad. It always seemed like that would be something I’d deal with in the future.

We just hug for a little bit, then he stands up and walks to the door. “They’re probably waiting downstairs for us, we shouldn’t keep them waiting.”

I walk next to him, and we go downstairs together. When we get down, mom is waiting for us, and Snowy and Dew Drop can’t seem to stop looking at Princess Luna. As soon as mom sees me, she runs up and gets me in a big hug.

“I’m going to really miss you,” she says, tears starting to roll down her cheek.

“I’ll miss you too.” Now I can feel the tears starting to come. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she says, tightening the hug. She hugs me for a little while longer before releasing me, and Snowy comes up and hugs me next.

“Love you, Aurora,” she says as she squeezes me tight. I can still smell her perfume on her. It always reminds me of her when I smell it.

“I love you, too,” I say back. Her perfume’s in my mouth, now. That part I won’t miss.

When she gets up, Dew Drop walks over to me and hugs me. She smells like her flowery shampoo, which is really nice in her mane but almost overpowers our bathroom every morning. “Be sure to write to us, okay?” she asks, her voice kind of shaky.

“Don’t worry. I will.”

She continues hugging me, and eventually, they all get down and join in for a group hug. I can barely see through all the forelegs, but I think Princess Luna is smiling at us.

After a few minutes, they start peeling off me until it’s just me, sitting on the floor with a few tears in my eyes. I get up and walk over to Princess Luna, who looks at my family warmly.

“Thank you for letting me teach her,” she says. “I know this cannot be easy on you.”

“We always said we’d support her,” mom says, wiping her eyes. “And if this is what she needs to do, then we’ll let her do it.”

Princess Luna smiles at her, then looks back down at me. “We must leave,” she says, walking to the door. “You all may come and see her off, if you wish.”

They all follow us outside, mom and dad each carrying one of my suitcases in my magic. When we see Princess Luna’s chariot the color of the night sky, two dark gray bat ponies attached to it, we all kind of stare at it.

Now in Princess Luna’s magic, my suitcases fly over my head to the chariot. “Are you ready to come to Canterlot with me?” she asks.

“Yeah,” I say weakly. I turn around to my family, who are all also trying to hold back some tears. “I-I’ll miss you. I love you all.”

Mom walks up to me, wiping the tears off my face before kissing me on the forehead. “We love you, too. Now go be the best pony you can be.”

I smile, then get onto Princess Luna’s chariot. The bat ponies raise their wings and start running, preparing to take off. Soon, we’re in the air over Coltlumbus. I look out over the side, seeing all the houses I knew shrink down to the size of ants.

“I know it must be hard leaving your family behind,” Princess Luna says, putting a hoof around me.

“Yeah,” I admit, looking down at my hooves.

“I will be there for you,” she says warmly. “I know I’m not your father or your mother or one of your sisters, but I hope you’ll come to be able to trust and confide in me.” She pauses for a few seconds, then sighs softly. “I understand loneliness better than perhaps anypony in Equestria. So if you ever need me, please remember that I likely know what you must be feeling.”

“Thanks.” I look over the side again, and Coltlumbus is gone, replaced by a huge, dark field with nothing in it. I’m excited, but nervous and scared at the same time.

Chapter 3

I wake up to my alarm clock ringing. It’s just like home, but this time, the sound echoes throughout the room, making it even louder. As quick as I can, I throw the covers off me and slam down on it, silencing it.

For a split second, I forget where I am, but then I look around and remember: I’m in Canterlot now. It feels like a dream, because I don’t think it’s hit me yet. Like, it’s so weird that my mind is ignoring it and telling me that it’s not weird.

“I’m in Canterlot now,” I whisper to myself. “I’m about to start school at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.” It makes me believe it a little more, but not a lot.

When I hop out of bed and onto the floor, a shock goes through my body because the floors are so cold. They’re brightly polished white marble, completely different from the carpet we had at home.

After rushing onto the small circular rug in the center of the room, I look around. It’s a huge room, and my suitcases are in a corner next to the dresser. There’s nothing personal in the room; it’s just big and empty, not welcoming at all. I guess that’ll change when I unpack after school, but I still don’t think it’ll feel quite like home.

I guess I’ll figure that out later. I exit my room into a massive hallway stretching in both directions. Where do I go? While I’m wondering this, a white unicorn Royal Guard walks up to me.

“Good morning, Miss Aurora,” he bows. Fancy. “If you would, follow me please.”

I follow him as he starts walking through the castle, trying to notice some of the things we pass on the way. Suits of armor, sculptures, paintings, all sorts of things. It’s really weird, because I’m used to seeing these things in a museum. Not in what I guess is my house now.

When he gets to a large pair of wooden doors, the two unicorns on either side light up their horns and swing them open to reveal a huge banquet hall with a long table in the middle. The other unicorn steps aside, then points in the room. “Princess Luna is waiting,” he says, bowing again.

When I walk through the doors, they close and Princess Luna looks up. “Come, sit with me,” she says, pointing to a place set across from her.

When I sit down, I look at everything in front of me: all sorts of fruits, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, juices, jams, a teapot, and some things I don’t even recognize. “Overwhelming, isn’t it?” she laughs.

“Yeah,” I say.

“Try the cranberry juice,” she says as she takes a sip of her tea. “It’s very rare, and it’s absolutely divine.”

After I finish loading up my plate with food, I look at the juice pitchers and grab the one she’s pointing at. I pour a little and try it, but it tastes really weird. It’s juice, but somehow it tastes dry. And it’s really sour, too.

“I can tell you don’t like it,” she laughs. “Just by that face. It’s not for everypony. Don’t feel bad; they know we can’t finish everything they put out.”

“Then why do they put it out?” I ask as I pour myself some grape juice, something I know I’ll like.

“Comes with being a Princess,” she laughs to herself. “No matter how hard Princess Celestia and I try, they never listen to us saying we don’t need such lavish treatment. We find our ways to have a little bit of fun with them, though. Maybe one of these days they’ll pick up on the hints.”

“Where is Princess Celestia?” I ask, mouthful of food. Oops. Not very lady-like. Mom would probably be having a fit if she heard I talked with my mouth full to a Princess.

“In her wing of the castle. I offered to have her come eat with us this morning, but she said she was busy today.”

“Her wing?”

She nods. “We each have our own wing of the castle, although it’s not a strict ‘this is my side and this is yours’ system. We both welcome each other in our respective wings, although we each have our separate one for our advisors and work space.”

“Where’s the Dreamstrider office?”

“In my wing, of course. I will show you it later today, after school.” She smiles widely. “Speaking of…”

“What?” I ask, remembering this time to finish my food before asking.

“Excited?” she asks.

“Kind of,” I admit. “I’m really nervous, though. I don’t know anypony there.”

“Nopony will,” she says. “You’re an incoming class to the school. You’re going to be as new as everypony else there.”

“I hear there’s an entrance exam, though,” I say as I put my fork down on my plate. “And I hear it’s really hard. I never did anything like that, and they all had to.”

“It doesn’t mean you won’t be able to keep up with them,” she says while shaking her head. “You may have to work a little harder than them, but you’ll be able to keep up. Anypony can learn anything if they try hard enough at it.”

“I guess. But they might look down on me if I don’t get it.”

“That is a risk everypony takes in everything they do,” she says, bring her teacup close to her mouth. “It was a risk you took going to school back home. The only difference now is that it’s here, not there.”

“I knew a lot of the ponies at school, though. And I knew I was smart there.”

She smiles, then takes a little sip of her tea. “But at one point, you did not know those things. You had to go there and find out you could learn and that they wouldn’t judge you when you were incorrect.”

Huh. That makes sense, I guess. “What will we do there, do you know?” I ask her. I’ve never really been to magic school before. I mean, I went to magic kindergarten, but that was with two other unicorns in an empty classroom at the middle school over the summer. And we just learned basic things, like how to cast simple spells like levitation.

“The first two years are mostly introductory theory and intermediate spells,” she says, now looking through a small wooden box full of different teabags. “You’ll likely do fine, because while they’re rigorous, they’re designed to be able to be done by somepony whose special talent is magic.” She points to my flank. “While it is an atypical type, your special talent definitely is magic. After the two years is when ponies start learning advanced magic regarding their talent, but you won’t be going to the school then.”

I smile a little. That made me feel a little better.

I’m not really sure what I expected of Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but what it really is definitely exceeded that.

While not really flashy, the school still is impressive, with big towers looking out over the city of Canterlot. The whole school is purple, something I didn’t really expect. But it looks nice. I don’t know why, but it looks like it should be focused on magic. It just does.

“This is where I let you go,” Princess Luna says, looking down at me. When I turn to look at her, I can see some ponies pointing at us and whispering. It’s a little embarrassing, and I start blushing. “I shall see you later today.”

“Okay,” I say, eager to break away from her and avoid having everypony look at me. “Thank you for walking me to school.”

She gives me a quick nod, then spreads her wings and takes off. I can see her fly towards the school, then around it and back towards the castle.

While they’re all looking at Princess Luna fly over the city, I quickly dash into the school and look for my classroom, number 34. When I get in, a mare wearing glasses and her mane in a bun looks down at me.

“And what’s your name?” she asks. She doesn’t sound excited to see me, but at the same time, she doesn’t sound angry. She sounds like she’s just asking me because she has to, not because she really wants to know.

“Uh, Aurora Borealis,” I answer, looking around the room. All the desks in the room are separated into groups of four, with all the desks in a group facing each other.

“You’re in that group, right there,” she says, pointing to a cluster of tables where a filly with a light blue coat and frosty white mane is reading a book all by herself.

“Thank you,” I say nervously as I walk away and start going towards the other filly. I hope she’ll be nice. I don’t want to be put in a group with anypony mean.

As I get close, she turns to look at me and smiles broadly. “Hi!” she beams, sticking a hoof out at me. “I’m Glacial Tome!”

“I’m Aurora Borealis,” I say as I shake her hoof. “But you can just call me Aurora.”

“Where are you from, Aurora?” she asks as I take a seat and put my bags down.

“Coltlumbus,” I say. “How about you?”

“Vanhoover!” she says proudly. “I’ve never heard of Coltlumbus. Where is it?”

“It’s east of here, between Fillydelphia and Canterlot. It’s kind of small, and there weren’t many unicorns there.”

“No unicorns?” she asks. “Sounds weird.”

“What about Vanhoover? What’s it like?”

“It’s awesome!” she says, throwing her hooves in the air. “There’s always so much to do!” Bringing her hooves down, she points at my Cutie Mark. “So what’s your special talent?”

“Dream magic,” I say. At least, I think that’s the correct term for it.

“Cool,” she says, staring at my Cutie Mark a little longer.

“What about you?”

“Ice magic!” She quickly turns to the side and points to her flank, where a large white snowflake is present.

“I didn’t even know there was ice magic,” I tell her. Come to think of it, I didn’t even know you could classify magic. I just always thought there was just magic. I guess mom and dad’s special talents aren’t magic and neither are Snowy or Dew Drop’s, so there was never any reason to me to know that.

She nods. “Yeah, my whole family’s special talent is ice magic. Well, my parents and their parents and so on. None of my sisters’ special talents are ice magic. And our family’s always been part of the Ice Magic Institute, which is why we’re in Vanhoover. It’s a very long line of ice magicians.”

Wow. A whole line of ponies, focused on one type of magic? Sounds...interesting. I guess she always knew what her Cutie Mark was going to be.

“What about you?” she asks. “Is your family all dream magicians?”

I shake my head. “None of them even have a special talent in magic.”

“Really?” she asks.

“Is everypony in your family at least some kind of magic?” She nods. “You said something about sisters?” I ask. Maybe being the youngest sister is something we can talk about. I also never really knew too many youngest ponies back home, so maybe she’ll help change that.

“I’ve got four older ones,” she says.

“FOUR older sisters?” I ask, making sure I heard her right.

“Yup! What about you? Any brothers or sisters?”

“I’ve only got two older sisters.” I smile at her. “It’s nice to meet somepony who’s also the youngest, especially the youngest of a lot of sisters.”

“I know! Almost everypony I knew back at home was the oldest foal or an only foal!”

“Hey, me too!”

We keep talking about ourselves for a little while, and when the other two ponies in our group come in, we hardly even notice them because Glacial Tome keeps talking. She seems really nice, though, so it’s good to know I’ll probably be able to make a friend.

When the bell rings, the teacher gets up to the front of the class. “Attention everypony!” she announces. “For the first few minutes, please talk with the other members of your group and get to know them, because you will be working with them for likely the rest of the year. In that time, please come up with a team name which you will use.” She goes and sits down at her desk, and we all turn to look at each other.

Glacial Tome asks the same questions she asked me to the two colts that are now sitting with us. The first one, with a light brown coat and dark brown mane quietly said his name was Dusty Stone, or something like that. His Cutie Mark is a twisted-looking tree rooted on top of a rock, which I wouldn't have guessed was represented magic, but I guess it does.

The other one’s a bright reddish-pink with a light blue mane about the color of my coat, and he says his name’s Arcane Force and he’s from Canterlot. He mentions something about training in magic, and he and Glacial Tome go off talking about some magic stuff I don’t even recognize. I look over at Dusty, who either doesn’t care or is ignoring them. It could be either, from what I’ve seen of him.

“Weren’t you the one that Princess Luna walked in with?” Arcane Force asks me after a little while of me zoning out on their conversation.

“Wait, really?” Glacial Tome asks. “That’s soooo cool!”

“Yeah,” I admit, and they all just stare at me, speechless.

“How do you know her?” Glacial Tome asks. “I thought you said you weren’t from Canterlot?”

“She’s...teaching me dream magic,” I say. Glacial’s mouth just drops in shock.

“I’ve never heard of dream magic,” Arcane Force says, tilting his head.

“Neither had I, until Princess Luna told me about it. Said I was a Dreamstrider, and so was she.”

“That’d be a cool team name!” Glacial says, putting her hooves on her desk. “‘The Dreamstriders’. It just sounds magical!”

“I like it too,” Arcane Force agrees.

“Alright everypony, please listen up!” the teacher says as she walks to the front of the class, grabbing a piece of chalk in her magic and drawing things behind her while she speaks. “My name is Miss Misty Sparks, and I will be your teacher this year.” When the chalk finishes drawing, she puts it down and walks next to the board. “Who can tell me what these are?”

Glacial’s hoof shoots up, and Miss Sparks points to her. “Would you please share your name and your answer?”

“I’m Glacial Tome, and those are charm runes!” she says excitedly.

“Very good,” Miss Sparks says, writing ‘Charm Runes’ above them and underlining it. “As you may be able to guess, these are how you cast charms, by using some combination of these runes. Does anypony recognize any of them?”

A few hooves, Glacial and Arcane Force’s included, go into the air. She calls on them, and they all say their name and point to a specific rune and say a function, like Subtlety or Foresight.

Glacial keeps her hoof raised even after she’s called on, and Miss Sparks looks around the room for any more hooves that are up. “Glacial, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but does anypony else know any of these runes?”

I wish I could say I did, but I don’t. We weren’t taught about charms in magic kindergarten. I’m not sure my teacher even would have known all of them.

When nopony else raises a hoof, Miss Sparks calls on Glacial, who fills in the names of every other unmarked rune. When she’s done listing all them off, all twenty runes on the board have a name below them. She must really know magic, I guess.

“Now for a little exercise,” Miss Sparks says, levitating a small stack of papers off her desk and passing one to each group. I take ours as it comes to us, and I can see all the runes with their names and a blank line near them. On the bottom half of the sheet is a list of effects, ranked A through T. “You will not be graded on this, but the group that gets the most correct will get one point.”

“Do you know any of them?” Glacial asks, looking at the sheet.

“No,” I admit. “I’ve never seen charms before.”

Arcane Force looks at me a little weirdly, but Glacial just takes the paper in her magic and starts filling them out. I try to look at some of the letters she’s writing in, but I can’t see what rune does what.

“There you go!” she says, turning the paper back towards me. If she’s right, then that’s what they all do. Some of them make sense, I guess; Cleansing removes magic, Calm settles things, but I don’t even know what most of the words labeling them mean. I don’t even know what Clairvoyance or Augmentation mean, but I might be able to guess based off what their runes do.

“So you’ve never seen runes before?” Glacial asks.

I nod, not wanting to admit it again. She smiles, then points at the shape at the middle of one of them, the Fortitude rune. “That’s what you’re supposed to with your magic to make it work.” She places her hoof on it and traces the shape. “And you move it in that direction.”

That’s nice of her. I try and practice moving some magic around without actually casting, and I think I’m starting to get the hang of it when Miss Sparks comes around and starts collecting the papers. I go to write my name down, but I see Glacial already has. She really is on top of everything.

Maybe having to go to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns won’t be so bad.

Chapter 4

I look up from my plate and look at Princess Luna, and she does the same as she smiles at me. I try to go back to eating dinner, but it’s really awkward with us just sitting in silence.

“So how was school?” she asks, causing me to look up at her. “I know that I was busy and wasn’t able to ask you earlier.”

“It was good,” I smile a little. “The stuff seems really hard, but the teacher put us into groups. Two of them are really nice, but one of the colts is kind of weird. Didn’t really say anything all day.”

“He might just be nervous,” she guesses. “He has to meet all new ponies, and if he is not from Canterlot, he has to adjust to a new city too. Perhaps if you show him some kindness, he will feel more welcome and open up to you.”

I sigh a little. That could’ve been me, so she’s right. If I wasn’t lucky enough to be with Princess Luna, I wouldn’t know anypony either. And I know the ponies from outside Canterlot live in rooms near the school with somepony else, so he doesn’t even get his own space. That must be hard. I’m sure he’s just nervous.

“Did you learn anything interesting?” she asks.

I nod and start eating again. “Yeah, we learned about runes and charms today. I didn’t know anything about them, but I think I kind of understand them. The teacher gave us a textbook which has all our homework and some practice problems in it, so I can practice if I need it.”

“I can help you if you do,” she says after finishing the food she’s eating. “Charms are not incredibly important in Dreamstriding, though, so don’t feel bad if you don’t fully understand it. I’ll tell you what’s important so you can make sure you’re comfortable with it.”

“What even is Dreamstriding like?”

“What do you mean?” she asks, tilting her head.

“Just...how does it feel?”

She thinks about it for a moment, staring at the wall behind me. “It’s difficult to explain.” She pauses for a few seconds. “You feel...disconnected from your body. When you’re in the dream world, it’s not your real body.”

“Then what is it?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” she admits. “Whether it’s your mind or something else, I’m not sure. But in that world, you feel much more connected with your emotions and your magic, due to the loss of a physical form. And you’re much more aware of the ambient magic around you. Though I do it no justice; it’s truly indescribable.”

“Sounds exciting,” I smile. “Can you teach me?”

“How does tonight sound?” she asks excitedly. “If you feel you’re up for it.”

“I’d love to!” I yell, probably a little too loud. But she doesn’t seem to mind; she just laughs a little. But maybe I should dial it back a little.

“I’ll come to you tonight, around 9:30. You may do whatever it is you like until then.” She points her fork at my plate, just the way mom used to. “But make sure to eat up; Dreamstriding can be tiring early on. If you don’t feed yourself well, you might be a little too overwhelmed.”

“You sound like my mom,” I laugh as I take her advice and start eating some more.

She smiles back at me. “Well, it’s good advice. And good food too, so don’t be shy.” She points at the probably dozens of platters and trays at the table, each one piled up high with really good-looking food. She really wasn’t kidding about the serviceponies going all out for her.

It must be frustrating, telling them all the time but never having anypony listen to you. I wonder what she meant when she said she and Princess Celestia have some fun with the ponies, though. I’ll probably figure out eventually. Sounds like I’m going to be here for a while.

There’s some knocking at my door, completely bringing me out of the super concentration I was in while reading my book. When I look at the clock, it’s almost the time Princess Luna said she’d meet me at. I’ve probably only got a few chapters left in the Daring Do book, too. Something really must not want me to finish it.

“Come on in!” I call to her as I put my book on the nightstand. There’s always tomorrow, I guess. She opens the door and comes in, carrying a large tray with a teapot on it with her.

“What’s that for?” I ask, pointing at the tray.

“It’s to help you,” she says, moving my book to my dresser and placing it down on the nightstand.

“How’s it supposed to help me?”

“Tea can have some very interesting properties,” she tells me as she opens the small glass jar full of tea leaves on it.

“Like what?” I ask as I watch her work.

She opens a small metal wire ball at the end of a small chain and puts some of the leaves in it. “This blend will help you enter the dream world. One day, I will teach you about the properties of different types of tea.”

She puts the ball in a mug, then powers up her horn and starts heating up the tea. “Excited?” she asks.

I squirm a little. “Yeah,” I say nervously.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” she comforts me, pouring the now-boiling water into the mug. “I have confidence in you.” After blowing some steam away from it, she passes the mug to me.

It warms my hooves as I grab it. But when I move it near my mouth, the smell wafts up to my nose. It smells just like mulch. Not a great smell.

“Not yet,” she stops me by putting a hoof out. Her horn glows with magic again, turning on my bedside lamp and turning off the main lights.

“Why’d you do that?” I use the opportunity to move the mulch tea away from my nose.

“It helps you enter the dream world,” she says, pointing both hooves at her head. “Too much light, and your eyes get distracted. Too little light, and your mind gets distracted. By having low light, neither your mind nor your eyes have enough to get distracted.” That makes sense, I guess. My mind always races when I try to fall asleep, and I can’t sleep with a light on.

“Is that it?” I ask, waiting for her to let me know when to start.

She nods. “Drink a little bit.”

When I take a little sip, I find out that it really does taste like it smells; just like mulch. It was like the time dad was mulching his garden, and I tripped and got a mouthful of it. Mom got mad at him for laughing, but I laughed a little too. I was fine.

When I’m about halfway done with the tea, Princess Luna takes the mug in her magic and places it back on the tray. “Now, close your eyes and try to calm down.”

After taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and try to get all the thoughts out of my head. I don’t know if it’s the tea, but my thoughts seem quieter, somehow. And I’m aware of my horn now, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Like, I can feel the magic in my mind, slowly flowing around and in and out of my horn.

“Do you feel the pulling in your mind?” she asks.

“Pulling?” I ask.

She shushes me quietly. “Do you feel it? A weak pull on the outskirts of your mind? Wanting to move your mind, yet your mind resists?”

I really can feel a little pull that feels a lot like it’s magical. That might be it. “I think I feel it.”

“Good,” she says. “Now latch onto it, grasp it.”

When I put my hooves out and try to feel something, I just hit warm fur. I can hear her laugh a little as she takes my hooves and moves them to my own chest. “No, with your mind. There is nothing physical for you to touch.”

“How do I grab it with my mind?”

“It’s...difficult to explain,” she says after thinking for a little bit. “Just try to imagine engulfing your thoughts around that pull.”

I try to do as she says, but it’s more difficult than it sounds. It doesn’t feel like anything is getting done. “Will I know when it works?”

“You will feel it when you have a firm grasp, yes. The pull will intensify, and you will feel the magic already in your body much better than you do now as you go closer to the dream world.”

I try to grab it, but whatever I try and think about, nothing actually happens.

Maybe I should use something with my magic? I power up my horn, but I feel a hoof come down gently on it and stop it. “Not with magic,” she says quietly. “With your mind.”

I still don’t know what that means, so I try everything I can think of. Gently clutching my back legs so Princess Luna won’t see my trying to grab real objects, moving my magic around in my mind, picturing myself grabbing things, and concentrating even harder to the point that my teeth grit together. I can still feel the pull in my mind, but nothing else. Nothing is changing. When I can’t get it to work, I just open my eyes and see Princess Luna looking at me.

“Nothing worked,” I say, defeated.

“It’s fine,” she says while getting off my bed. “It’s not something that you can usually do the first time. I just want you to get accustomed to thinking about starting to Dreamstride.” When she takes the tray with the tea on it and walks near the door, she points towards my dresser. “I had them bring some paper and a few quills for you, by the way. I figured you might want to write back home.”

“Princess Luna?” I speak up.

“Yes?” she asks, turning around and looking at me with a little worry on her face.

“What if I’m not a Dreamstrider?”

“You’re a Dreamstrider,” she says, putting the tray on my dresser and walking back to my bed. She smiles lightly, then puts a hoof on my forehead. “I guarantee it.”

“Are you sure? I couldn’t even enter the dream world.”

“You said you felt the pulling, yes? You weren’t just saying you did because you thought you needed to?”

I shake my head. I definitely felt it. I feel it every night, but I guess I only noticed it tonight because of the tea. Or maybe it caused it to be there. I’m not sure which.

“Then you are. The fact that you even felt the pulling means you are a Dreamstrider; it is your mind aching to enter the dream world, where it knows it belongs. And I’ve seen your dreams at night; the magic that comes out of them is the magic of a Dreamstrider.” Smiling, she messes up my mane a little. “We have all the time in the world, and it will likely be a while before you can successfully Dreamstride. Do not lose hope, Aurora; you have to believe in yourself before you can.” With that, she walks back towards my dresser and takes the tray in her magic again.

I smile as she walks out. Maybe I should write home, that’ll make me feel better. I bet mom’s sitting on the couch downstairs, trying to get her mind off me being gone. It’s what she does when Snowy and Dew Drop go to camp every summer. And they never write, even though dad always tells them to. So she’ll probably be excited to get a letter.

I look out over my bed, but remembering how cold the floors can be, I instead go to the end of the bed and hop onto the rug. I have to walk across the cold floor to get to the dresser, though, so it didn’t really do a whole lot in the long run.

My butt becomes as cold as the floor when I sit down, but I guess it’ll just motivate me to write fast. I take one of the pieces of paper off the top and get a quill ready, then try and start writing.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I look at it, then shove the piece of paper aside and grab another.

Dear Mom, Dad, Snowy, and Dew Drop,

I don’t really get why I feel like I need to include them. They probably wouldn’t care, but I don’t want them to feel left out.

Canterlot is nice. I haven’t been able to go out and explore the city yet, but Princess Luna said we might be able to go out this weekend together. She’s really nice. I don’t see why so many ponies are scared of her.

I have to go to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns for school, which seems like it might be kind of hard. A lot of the ponies there know a lot more about magic than I do, but the teacher put us in small groups and she put me in a group with a couple of really nice and smart ponies, so they’ll be able to help me. And Princess Luna offered to help me whenever I need it.

I look down at the letter and sigh a little.

I miss all of you.

Love, Aurora

I do miss them, I really do. But it’s weird. I miss them, but not as much as I thought I might. I just don’t think it’s really hit me yet.

Without really thinking it through, I grab the quill and put it to the paper again.

P.S. I tried Dreamstriding tonight! It didn’t work, though. Princess Luna gave me some tea that tasted like mulch which she said would help me, but I wasn’t able to. She said nopony gets it on the first try though, and we’ll keep trying until I get it.

I smile. It feels good to end on a happier note, not one where I get sad because I miss them. But I do.

Canterlot’s going to be fun, but it’s going to be hard being away from my family for so long.

Chapter 5

When I wake up and see my room full of warm light, I can’t help but smile. It’s the weekend! It’s really weird to think that just a week ago, I was back home and school hadn’t even started yet. Come to think of it, I think it was exactly a week ago that mom and I went back-to-school shopping. She hated going so close to when school started, but for once, it was her that forgot to go and not me.

When I get out of bed, the marble floor’s a little warmer that it usually is, but still not a lot warmer. But Princess Luna got me a couple more rugs so my hooves wouldn’t be as cold, which is nice.

I go to my dresser and grab my brush, then start working on my mane as I look around the room. It still looks like an empty room nopony lives in, but now that more of my stuff is unpacked, it's looking more and more like my room. It’s weird because it looks like it’s my room, but it also looks like it isn’t my room. Like, my room in somepony else’s house. I don’t really know how it works like that, but it does.

After I’m done with my mane and tail, I put the brush back down on the dresser and exit to the hallway. There’s nopony to lead me this morning, but I follow what I think is the right direction; right, a left at the bat-pony armor, and a left at the really beat-up paper with all sorts of weird drawings that look like chickens scratched them out. Sure enough, I find the doors the Royal Guards are guarding, which they open to let me inside.

When I enter the dining hall, not one, but two ponies look at me. Princess Luna is sitting on the side I usually sit on, and across from her is Princess Celestia! It’s a good thing I did my mane before coming, I guess. Wouldn’t want to meet a Princess with bed head.

“Princess Celestia!” I manage to squeak out when I get up to the table, bowing nervously.

“There’s no need for any of that,” she laughs. “Don’t be nervous, and you don’t need to bow. You’re Princess Luna’s private student after all, and so the relationship we’ll come to have will be much more casual than what I have with most ponies.”

“Okay,” I laugh uneasily as I walk next to Princess Luna and sit down with her. “Why are you here?”

“I decided to meet my sister’s new pupil,” she says while looking me over. “I had heard she was going to be taking you on and I wanted to meet you when you arrived, but this past week has been incredibly busy for me.”

“What was the issue you said you were facing, sister?” Princess Luna asks, looking up from her breakfast.

She sighs, and I swear I can see her roll her eyes a little. Now I can claim Princess Celestia does it if mom ever gets mad at me for it again. “The Minotaurs wanted me to help settle their dispute again. Their Emperor was deposed, and the remaining Kings cannot come to a decision on who should be the next Emperor. It was mostly a week full of the North-King reminding me how much he’s done to help Equestria.”

“Why do they need you to decide?” I ask before putting food in my mouth. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long answer, so I can at least eat during that.

"Their Emperor recently went mad, so they took him out of power," she starts, putting her hoof on the table. "The Kings are then supposed to decide on a new Emperor, but they cannot reach a consensus. They all have a say in important matters, so the other Kings usually deny anyone who is closely allied with any of the other Kings. Since they could not reach an agreement, they have looked outwards for a neutral party to help decide; first me, and I suspect they will contact Princess Cadence next.” She moves her hoof from the table to her chin. “I suppose I should probably warn her...the South-King has been known to cause damages wherever he stays.”

“Enough about politics, sister,” Luna smiles while shaking her head. “Enjoy yourself! You are the Princess; you are allowed to call a Royal Relaxation Day whenever you need to.”

“I suppose you’re right,” she laughs while pouring herself some apple juice. She looks out over the table. “In fact, I think I know how I can have some fun right now,” she says, clearly starting to make a prank in her mind.

Luna laughs. “Perhaps show my student how it is done? Teach her all the important things about living in the castle.”

I think this is it: I’m about to see how Princess Celestia and Princess Luna prank their serviceponies! There are always rumors running around about how they do it, but I’ll be able to see it first hoof!

Princess Celestia raises a hoof, and one of the ponies immediately runs over to her. “Yes, my Princess?” he bows.

“Please go tell the chef I would like today’s lunch entree to be cream of mushroom soup,” she says, pointing towards the kitchen.

“Yes, Princess. Right away, Princess!” He dashes away, and Princess Celestia looks back at Princess Luna. They both smile. If that was a prank, I don’t get it.

Princess Celestia raises another hoof, and one of the other serviceponies runs over and bows down just like the first one. “Yes, my Princess?”

“Please go tell the chef I would like today’s lunch entree to be wild hay soup.”

“Yes, Princess. Right away, Princess!”

When he runs off to the kitchen, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna look at each other and start laughing. If that’s what passes for funny around here, it’s not very good.

“Is that it?” I ask.

“Just wait,” Princess Celestia says, grabbing a forkful of food. “Give it a minute.”

We all eat in silence for another minute, and then I can hear what sounds like a bowl being dropped from the kitchen.

“Are you out of your GOD DAMNED MIND?” a voice yells. “Cream of mushroom soup is a travesty! We might as well be serving cold shit for lunch!”

Wow. What does cream of mushroom soup mean in Canterlot? Back home, it means soup.

“It’s better than the abomination called wild hay soup! How that stuff isn’t used on the front lines as biological warfare is beyond me!”

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can hardly contain themselves now. It’s kind of funny, but all they really did was cause a fight.

There’s more sounds of fighting, and eventually, it sounds like entire shelves are falling down. Another voice comes and yells, but I can’t hear what it’s saying. There’s a really long, awkward silence, and then one of the serviceponies comes out, completely covered in food and stands next to Princess Celestia.

“Princess, I regret to inform you that there has been a slight...complication with today’s lunch menu.”

“Oh no!” she says. “Is there something wrong with the minestrone?”

“Mine…” He just pauses and stands there for a moment. “Yes, with the minestrone. The minestrone has caused a little bit of an issue, but I will go inside and get our minestrone issue solved so the minestrone can be served for today’s lunch, which is minestrone.”

He walks away, and when he enters the kitchen, it’s just silent. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna just look at each other, both barely keeping their laughter in.

“IF YOU TAKE ANOTHER GOD DAMNED STEP, I SWEAR I WILL SMACK YOU WITH THIS CAULIFLOWER SO HARD YOUR GRANDMOTHER’S GOING TO FEEL IT!”

By now, they’re both laughing as hard as they possibly can. I guess it is kind of funny, though I feel bad for the kitchen ponies.

“Which will they end up picking, anyways?” I ask.

“My guess is sandwiches,” she says. “They’ll give up on deciding what I want and just give me something they can throw together when they realize it’s two minutes to lunchtime and they’ve spent the whole morning screaming and throwing food at each other. But I don’t mind; they haven’t given me anything bad yet.”

“Why prank them?” I ask.

“It’s a little bit of fun in our lives,” she says, calming herself down. “They try much too hard to wait on us, and it can be a little smothering sometimes.” She smiles slightly. “And besides, we always liked practical jokes. Still pull them on each other occasionally.”

“She still hasn’t forgiven me for swapping her shampoo for mane dye,” Princess Luna laughs.

“I had a meeting with the Caliph of Saddle Arabia!” she yells back.

Princess Luna laughs even harder. “That was twelve hundred years ago, sister!”

“My mane was changing color, and you spelled ‘Eat at Sloppy Joe’s’ in it! I had to cancel, and he threatened war because he claimed I refused to listen to him!”

“He didn’t, and he got overthrown when he got back anyways, so what’s it matter? No harm done. In fact, that helped; we wanted him gone anyways, and when he couldn’t get an audience with you, the Saddle Arabians finally got fed up with nopony taking him seriously and replaced him. And I would say Empress Haisanh was far better than he ever was.”

“You got lucky,” she says angrily, pointing a hoof at her. “You were completely reckless, and you completely lucked out.”

“What I’m hearing is that I didn’t cause any damage,” she smirks.

Princess Celestia grumbles something to herself, then goes back to eating. It’s nice to know it’s not just my sisters and me that fight. Seems like all sisters are like that.

“Do you have any plans for today?” Princess Luna asks, looking from Princess Celestia to me.

“Not really,” I shrug.

“Would you like some?” she asks with a smile. “Perhaps learn a little more about our history?”

“Of the Dreamstriders?” I ask. At least, I assume that’s what she’s talking about.

She nods back. “I’ve collected a lot of artifacts over my lifetime, including many from before my life. Almost as long as ponies have been recording history, the Dreamstriders have been known.”

“That’s really cool,” I say excitedly. “Is there a museum about it?”

“Not a museum, but one of my collections in the palace. We can go there later today, if you’d like?”

“Sure! Can we go after breakfast?”

“We can go after you finish your homework,” she says with a smirk, bring her teacup up to her mouth.

“It’s only Saturday morning! I can do it later!”

“Responsibilities first,” she says firmly.

“Wonder where I’ve heard that before,” Princess Celestia laughs. Princess Luna just glares at her.

When I get to Princess Luna’s room, I look up at the bat pony guard, who’s staring down at me. Her bright orange eyes are really scary, causing me to take a few steps back.

“Speak your business,” she hisses.

“I’m...here to see Princess Luna.”

“She is busy. Go away, child.”

“Can you...please tell her Aurora’s here?”

“Aurora?” she asks. Growling and mumbling something to herself, she goes into the room. After a little bit, she comes out and keeps the door open while standing beside it. “She has allowed you entrance.”

When I walk through the door, I look around the room, which reminds me a lot like a dungeon. It's welcoming though, even though it’s a big, circular room made of all stone and with a big dome for a ceiling. There are torches all around the walls which are giving off some bright light that’s really good at lighting up the room but isn’t blinding. A fire’s going in the fireplace, and the combined lights show all the furniture in the room: a big couch looking straight at the fireplace, a few cushions next to the couch so other ponies could sit, and a large table on the other side of the room.

Princess Luna walks out of one of the doors around the room and smiles at me. “Good to see you again,” she says, walking up to me. “All done with your homework, I hope.”

“Yes,” I answer. “You’re just like my mom.”

She laughs, then walks past me so I follow her. “I just want to make sure you’re staying on top of things. I know you were a little worried about starting school, so I just want to make sure you can catch any problems that arise before they become too problematic.”

“It was kinda hard, but I solved it. Tested all the charms to make sure they work.”

“That’s good of you,” she says, walking out of the room. The bat pony salutes her, then glares at me when I walk out behind her.

“That bat pony doesn’t seem to like me,” I say to Princess Luna once I know we’re far enough away she won’t hear.

“That’s just Sveta. She’s a good guard, but she is a little...abrasive.”

“Abrasive?”

“She’s just a little tough to handle. Comes off as too aggressive to most ponies, but she’s just protective.”

“Where are the bat ponies even from?”

“Far, far to the southeast, beyond where even the dragons live. They live in the dark, in elaborate cave cities which may be miles underground. I have never been, but some of them used to tell tales of their homelands; I hope that someday I can go there and see them for myself.”

“Do they come here a lot?”

“Sadly, none of the bat ponies in Equestria have ever seen their homeland,” she says, hanging her head. “They are of the Thestral tribe, a tribe whose ancestors came here long ago, before I succumbed to Nightmare Moon. They were refugees, caught on the losing side of a civil war. Many lands turned them down, but we took them in. They had to hide during my time on the moon because they supported Nightmare Moon, but little by little, they have been coming back to me. Celestia was a little skeptical about letting them back in, but they have proven themselves.”

“Are they all that mean?”

“I do not believe she is mean. They’re just like ponies; they all have their own personalities. And Sveta has gone through a lot in her life, as they all have. They’re still a part of the Royal Guard, but when they try and go and meet the other guards, they just turn them away. As such, they tend to stick with each other and are not too fond of others. Even though she may seem like she’s annoyed with you now, treating Sveta with respect will cause her to ease up on you. She won’t admit it, but she’s lonely, like they all are. They were not always welcome before, and they hoped it would be different this time, but it has not gone as they had hoped it would. For thousands of years, her tribe has been outsiders, never feeling they have a place to truly call their home.”

That’s kind of sad. They always told us in school that mean ponies were just lonely or upset, but I never thought it was true. I guess it really is.

We walk in silence throughout the castle, passing all sorts of different wings that look like their own little museums until coming to a large set of old wooden doors, a gold plaque with some weird symbols on it hanging above them.

“What’s it say?” I ask, pointing up at it.

“I’ll let you read it yourself,” she smirks, opening the doors. “It’s the language of the creatures who live in the dream world; you’ll have to learn it as part of your training.”

Learning a whole new language? Sounds really difficult. I don’t really know, I’ve heard it’s really hard.

“It’ll be fine,” she laughs as she walks through the doors. “Your silence tells me you’re worried.”

Wow, she’s really good at reading ponies. I walk in behind her, and once we’re inside, the doors shut behind me.

“Is it dark in here?” she asks, turning around to face me.

I look around, then back to her. “Kind of, but I can still see.”

“Another ability of a Dreamstrider,” she smiles. “There is no light in here; to a non-Dreamstrider, it would be pitch black. Sure their eyes would eventually adjust, but they could still not see as well as we could.”

“So we can see in the dark? But how come I always know when it’s dark?”

“It just means your vision is much better. Your eyes do not create light so you can see.”

I kind of think I get what she’s saying, but it’s hard to imagine the difference between me and somepony else because I’ve never had to live like that. I can’t really think of what it would be like to not be able to see really well in the dark.

“Follow me,” she says as we go through a doorway on the right into a large room. Right in front of us is a large display case, where a mannequin wearing dark blue robes with a belt around the middle of their body and a hat with a crescent moon symbol sewn on is standing. “Have you ever heard of Sipponi?”

I shake my head. “Is that what Dreamstriders used to be called?”

“It is where the Dreamstriders were first documented, long since buried under the sands of Saddle Arabia. There they were called the Salilu Muttalliku, and they were some of the highest-ranking officials in their society. The most powerful magical families often tried to marry their children off into other powerful magical families so they could create a Salilu Muttalliku and launch their family’s prestige even higher, but it rarely worked.”

“What if their foals wanted to marry somepony else, somepony not in the other family?”

“Their opinion did not matter,” she shakes her head. “The family was given importance over anything else, including the individuals that comprised it.”

“That’s terrible! Why wouldn’t anypony just stop it?”

“When it was somepony’s turn to lead a family, they often felt that because they were robbed of their own free will, their family should be, too.” She sighs. “It was truly a dangerous cycle, one many say was too rigid. Sipponi eventually fell when they were invaded, and the peasants and lowly ponies were the first to be targeted. Because they were not at immediate risk, those high up did not do much to stop the invaders. By the time they were threatened, their enemies controlled everything that gave them power: their land, their crops, their laborers.” She smiles a little. “But enough about all that, I say we move on to the next room. I want to show you all the collections, and you may go through and look at all of the other, smaller items in each room when we’re done. I just want this trip to be a brief history, though if you want to revisit some of the rooms, I would be more than happy to accompany you.”

We walk into the next room, where the mannequin is now wearing a metal shirt over a red tunic and a metal helmet, covering their head but exposing their face and neck. “And now, the Senatus Manulusque Romanus: the Romane Senate and Ponies.”

“Cool,” I say, going up and putting a hoof on the glass in front of the armor. I always thought Romane stuff was really neat.

“Unlike in Sipponi, the Romane Dreamstriders, or Indagatores Somniorum, were considered military, not bureaucracy. They were used very rarely, because they were always worried that their enemies would learn about them and learn how to stop them. Using their powers, they would enter the dreams of an opposing general and uncover information about tactics, plant false information, or change their views, such as making them want peace, want to surrender, want to utilize their resources poorly, or give them extreme and radical views that would cause infighting in their army and destroy it from the inside.”

Even though that sounds more unfair than what they did in Sipponi, I still think it sounds cool. Now I can’t stop imagining myself in the armor in front of me, sneaking throughout the dream world. I know that’s not what she plans to use me for and I probably would hate doing that, but that doesn’t mean I can’t pretend.

When we walk into the next room, I look at the case, which this time holds a pony wearing light blue tights, gold and white clothing over it, and a red cape which covers their back, the back of their back legs, and drags on the floor behind it.

“These are from Germaneigh, and I actually knew the pony who wore these very same robes,” she says, pointing at them. “His name was Traumer, the last of the Schlafwandlers. Their religion said that the gods lived in the dream world, and Schlafwandlers were seen as prophets. They would go into the dream world and search for their gods, though it was never very clear what they were looking for. Some claimed they met the gods, though some said they still needed to search. Traumer said he felt he was close, but unfortunately passed on before he was able to confirm or deny his suspicions.”

Now there could be gods involved? What would a god even be like, anyways? Would I even know? I remember reading once that some ponies said the gods were among us, so couldn’t it be that they found them and just didn’t know? How would you even know they existed, then?

Before I can finish my thinking, Princess Luna walks into the next room, where the mannequin’s wearing a triangular purple poncho with a gold diamond pattern over soft blue robes. “These are the robes of a Battlemage,” she says, pointing at them. “In the Unicorn Tribe, they did not believe Dreamstriders to have any special abilities or powers; they were viewed simply as mages in another school of magic. Have you heard of the Battlemages?”

“Not a lot,” I admit. I’ve read about them a little, but don’t really know a ton about them.

“They were elite magicians, usually spending their whole life devoted to magic. They were usually allowed free discretion in their lives, so most of the Dreamstriders from this time did not have a specific purpose, such as the in the other areas we saw. They studied the dream world and dream magic, and most of the information about the magic surrounding Dreamstriders comes from them.” She points to the walls, which have lots of framed pieces of paper or display cases full of books pushed up against them. “I had these translated long ago, though I keep the originals for display here.”

I’d like to go and look at some of them, but she’s already moving onto the next room. There’s no mannequin here, instead just lots of documents like maps and charts on the walls, as well as a drawing of the Dreamstrider office.

“This is the Equestria wing,” she says happily. “It is devoted to what the Dreamstriders used to be in our land. We did not use them for influence, war, religion, or knowledge: we used them to protect. Nightmares have always been a problem for ponies, and we are able to enter the dream world and other ponies’ dreams, so it is only natural we work to protect them. We sought out knowledge about all the previous Dreamstriders, hoping we could understand our magic even more to better protect Equestria. We still explored and studied the dream world, but that was not our sole purpose. Our duty is to Equestria, and one that I hope this time around we will make sure to uphold.”

“Did you not last time?” I ask.

Closing her eyes, she pauses for a few moments. “Yes. We lost our direction, our purpose. We crumbled from the inside out.”

“What exactly happened?”

“That is a story for another time,” she says, dismissing my question. “What happened has happened. I will make sure we do not make the same mistakes this time around.” Shaking her head, she looks down at me and smiles. “But enough of that. Is there another room you wish to revisit, or is there another part of the palace you wish to see?”

I look around the room we’re in. “I’d like to start here,” I tell her. “I’m interested in what some of these are.”

Princess Luna smiles widely, then walks up to a chart with a big circle on it and a lot of lines coming out of it. “Now, I know this won’t make any sense to you right now, but when this was created, it caused quite a stir. One of the Dreamstriders, Night Owl, was tinkering around with his magic and had an idea…”

Chapter 6

When I dash into Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, I pull the scarf off my mouth and start brushing all the snow off myself. I like snow, but I never expected this much. I guess you’d get that living on a mountain.

“Hey, Aurora!” Glacial says, skipping straight past me and not even bothering to brush the snow off herself. She’s been getting really excited the further into winter it gets, which I guess fits her special talent. Last week she started talking about stuff like the deposition of water vapor as it passes over Mount Canter and how that makes the snow here apparently really good for certain spells but not good for others, but I didn’t catch half of what she said. I don’t really know why she’s here, because she probably knows a ton of stuff Miss Sparks doesn’t even know.

When I finish brushing all the snow off me, I walk into the classroom and sit down at my seat. Glacial and Dusty are already there, with Glacial looking at our homework and Dusty reading a book I can’t see. I pull my homework out and try to look at what Glacial wrote for a few of the questions.

“Glacial, what did you say for the question about the mare who want to know what her foals will be?” I ask, turning the paper and pointing at the blank space that’s supposed to have an answer there.

“Probably an earth pony,” she says, pointing at it. “It’s usually the same as the mother because the foals’ magic and the mother’s magic are the same for 11 months. And because she’s full earth pony, it’s less likely the foal would be a unicorn, even though the dad is a full unicorn.”

“Thanks,” I respond, quickly jotting down what she said. I knew the answer, but I didn’t know the reason why. She’s been a real lifesaver whenever I don’t know anything.

“Alright everypony, put your homework in the middle of your groups!” Miss Sparks announces, walking to the front of the classroom as Arcane Force sneaks in.

“Why are you so late?” I whisper to him as I put my homework in the middle.

“I...slept through my alarm,” he admits, brushing some snow out of his mane and onto his desk. Right before Miss Sparks comes by and gets our group’s homework, he slips it into the stack so it isn’t late.

“I know we’re almost to winter break, but we still have something more we need to do,” she announces with a small smile. “Instead of just doing some homework or a test, you will be doing a final project, which you will present to the class. I encourage you to be creative; divination is the study of ambient magic, which is a very vast field. There are many things you could do, from research papers to experiments. It has influence on almost every school of magic, so if you absolutely can’t think of anything, you can always do something on how your talent of magic interacts with the ambient magic surrounding us.”

There’s a soft roar as some of the ponies start talking about what they might do, but she puts up a hoof. “I’m not finished! This will be a group project, with your partner being whoever is currently sitting across from you in your group. Now you may discuss with your partner what you wish to do your project on, and come tell me your topic when you decide on it.”

Glacial quickly gets up and sits next to Arcane Force, and I look at Dusty, who just kind of looks at me. When he doesn’t move, I get up and walk around to his side. Come to think of it, I don’t really know the last time I talked with him. Usually when we do group work, Glacial and Arcane Force dominate the conversation because they both know a ton about magic. I never have anything to add, and I think he just doesn’t want to add anything.

“So do you have any ideas?” I ask to break the awkward silence between us.

“Yeah.” He pulls a book out of his saddlebags, then opens it and points to a picture of a cylinder with glass in the middle, showing a ton of wires and tubes. “I think we should make a siphon.”

“A siphon?” I ask. “Never heard of one of those.”

“They gather magic.” He flips the page and turns to some blueprints, most of which I don’t understand. “Then you can use them for a ton of stuff.”

“Sounds...interesting,” I say. It does actually sound kind of neat, but I’m not good with building things. Even those toy sets with the logs to make a cabin never seem to work out right.

“It doesn’t look hard,” he says, pointing at one of the blueprints. “I’m good with my hooves. And a lot of this stuff looks easy to get.”

“It looks kind of complicated,” I say, kind of uneasily.

“It’s easy,” he says, slamming the book shut. “I’ll go tell her.”

When he gets up and goes to tell Miss Sparks about our project, I sneak a peek at the book he put on his desk: Magical Engineering, Vol. 3. It looks kind of worn, like it’s been read over and over. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever asked what type of magic his special talent is. It probably has something to do with engineering, I’d guess.

When he starts walking back, I quickly put the book back where it was. He sits down, then opens back up to the page on siphons and turns it to me. “Know a lot about mechanics?”

I shake my head. “I know which end of the hammer to use, but after that, not much.”

“Thought you said you were from a place with a lot of earth ponies?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “But I don’t really know tools and building things that well. What does me being from an earth pony town have to do with it?”

“I’m from Dodge Junction, we’re the only non-earth ponies there.” He shrugs. “Everypony there is good with tools. Figured it might be the same in other towns.”

“Nope.”

“Come to think of it, I probably have everything on this list,” he says, bringing his head closer to the page. “What do you say we meet tomorrow after school gets out and work on it? We might be able to get it all done then, even.”

“That would probably work. I’d have to ask permission, but otherwise it would work.”

“Cool,” he says, closing the book. He seems like he knows what he’s doing. I have a good feeling about this grade.

When the bell rings to signal the end of school, I put all my winter clothes on and walk over to Dusty’s desk. He puts his stuff in his bags, then looks up at me. “Ready?” he asks.

I nod and walk next to him. “You said you think you have everything we need, right?”

“Yeah. I like taking things apart, so I have plenty of scrap in my room. Should be able to get everything to work together.”

We walk outside in silence, then around the back of the school to one of the two towers. The one on the left has a big sign that says Star Prism Tower, and the one on the right that we go into has a sign saying Starswirl the Bearded Tower. Based on the names, I guess one’s for fillies and the other’s for colts.

I look around when we get inside, and it’s actually really nice in here. There’s some couches and other seats all around, a door to a cafeteria that’s empty right now, and a fireplace built into one of the walls with a really big fire roaring in it. Really cozy, actually.

“Come on,” he says, going to another door near the fireplace. We go through it and up a flight of stairs until we enter a long hallway with fake torches shining realistic fire brightly over the red carpet. All this stuff is way fancier than back home, even about as fancy as some areas in the castle. I guess if Princess Celestia runs this, it makes sense that it’s super fancy.

When we get to one of the numerous identical doors, he pulls a key out of his bags and unlocks the door and walks in. I feel weird going into a colt’s room, but I follow him in anyways. It sort of looks like any room, really. There’s a window at the back to look out over the snowy city, and one bed on each side of it. Two desks are also in here, one starting at each foot of the bed. The one on the right has papers and books all over it, and the one on the left looks like it hasn’t been used in a long time.

“Nice room,” I say, taking a few steps further in as he looks under the desk on the left. “Who’s your roommate?”

“Thunder Stone,” he replied, pulling a small toolbox out and setting it by my hooves. “He’s fine.”

“I can’t imagine what it would be like living with a roommate,” I nervously giggle as I look at Thunder Stone’s desk. “I never had to share a room with either of my sisters.” I look back down at him. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“None,” he grunts while pulling a big box full of various parts out from under his desk. “We should probably go downstairs, to the lobby. Can work there.” He tries to lift the box with his magic, and when I see him struggling, I power up my own horn and help him carry it. We get a few looks as we walk it through the hallway and the stairs going down are definitely a challenge, but we manage to get everything into the lobby and set up.

“So what’s first?” I ask him eagerly, sitting down at the table. I have to admit, while I’ve never done anything like this, it might be kind of fun.

He rummages around in his box, then pulls out a ton of wires. “Know what nickel wire looks like?”

I shake my head. “Not at all.”

“We need gold and nickel wire for this one,” he says, leaning over and putting a hoof in the pile of wires. “Gold you can tell by looking at it, and nickel’s silver in color.” He grabs a few silver wires, then powers up his horn and holds each one up to it. After trying a few, he passes two to me. “Just try moving some magic through them. The nickel one will be easier to get it through.”

I do as he says, and when I put the first wire against my horn, it seems to kind of resist a little. I remove it and put the other one on my horn, and that one is a lot easier to get the magic in. “The second one’s nickel,” I proclaim.

“Yeah,” he nods. “Just pull out all the gold and nickel ones. I’ll try and find some of the other pieces.”

“Why do you have a box full of spare parts?” I ask as I start pulling every gold wire out of the bunch.

“Like I said, just like taking things apart.”

“Yeah, but how many things did you have to take apart to get that many?”

“You’d be surprised,” he says with a little excitement. Come to think of it, this is the first time I’ve ever heard him be excited about anything. “And this is all since I came here. Ponies sell broken-down stuff really cheap, so I just brought some bits with me and buy all the old stuff they just need to get off their hooves quickly. They’ll sell them dirt cheap because they would have otherwise just thrown it away, so they’re happy for any money.”

Makes sense. When I’m confident that I’ve sorted all the gold wires out, I power up my horn and start testing all the silver ones. “So what type of magic is your special talent in?”

“I don’t really know,” he admits. “Pretty sure it’s magical engineering, though I hardly see how that counts as magic.”

“If it makes a difference, nopony can ever see me perform dream magic,” I laugh. “At least you get to make things ponies can use.”

“What’s dream magic even like? Like, what do you do?”

“I’ve never been able to get it to work,” I say, my face probably turning red. “But when I close my eyes, I feel this pulling in my mind. The idea is I grab onto that, but I haven’t been able to get that down yet. It’s really frustrating because I’ve been at it so long, but Princess Luna says it takes a while to get going.” I sigh a little. “I just wish it could work. It’s really annoying having a Cutie Mark and not being able to do what it says you can do. Most of the stuff we do now isn’t even Dreamstriding, it’s exercises on magic so I can get a feel for what I need to do.”

“Did somepony teach Dreamstriding it to you?”

“Kinda. Like, I have to learn how to do it, but apparently the ability to Dreamstride is something you have to be born with. And nopony knows where it comes from, because no Dreamstrider has ever been documented as having a child who can Dreamstride. So it looks like it’s just completely random.”

“What’s Princess Luna like?”

“She’s really nice,” I smile. “Really patient with me not really making progress on Dreamstriding. And is always open to helping me whenever I need it. It’s nice having somepony here since my family’s all back at home.”

“Yeah,” he replies. It sounds like he’s kind of lonely, too. It must be hard being so far away from home and not having somepony look over you like I have.

“Any plans for Hearth’s Warming break?”

“Just going home.” He opens his toolbox and starts pulling out a few tools, some which I recognize and some which I don’t. “It always snow so much this far north? Hardly ever snows back in Dodge.”

“I wouldn’t really know,” I shrug. “Canterlot’s on a mountain, Coltlumbus isn’t. So I’m seeing more snow than normal, too.”

“Seen your family since coming here?”

I shake my head sadly as I put all the nickel wires into a small pile. “No. How about you?”

“My dad came up once,” he nods. “He works for the Trans-Equestrian Railroad, so he travels a lot.” He looks up at my wires, then grabs a tape measure out of his toolbox. “Start tying them together. We need half a meter of nickel wire, and three five centimeter pieces of gold.”

I fumble with the tape measure a little, but eventually get it to get out to half a meter and start tying wires together. I look over to him as I do it, and he’s already got the brass shell put together. He works really quickly.

Once I’m done with the nickel wires, I move onto the gold ones, but no matter how I work them, they’re never the right length. “Do they have to be exactly five centimeters?” I ask him, hopeful for the answer.

“One of them doesn’t.” He looks at my wires, then pulls some tool that looks like pliers out of his toolbox. “Ever use wire cutters?”

I shake my head. “Probably does exactly what it sounds like?”

He picks up some wire in the pile of ones we don’t need, then puts it between the two sides of the pliers and squeezes the handles to cut it in two. “Just like that. Really easy.”

I take the cutters from him and put line up one of the gold wires, and he watches me as I do so. When I cut it to the right length, I can’t help but smile. It feels kind of good to be getting better with tools.

“Yeah, good,” he says with a tiny smile starting to grow on his face. He’s really starting to open up; I guess he just doesn’t like being in class.

I finish up the others as he passes a couple small metal rods to me. “Alright, now you need to take a piece of gold wire and two posts. Wrap the wire around each post twice, ending up with a post on each end.”

Carefully, I do as he says, trying to make sure the coils are nice and tight. “This good?” I ask while holding up my finish product.

“Yeah,” he confirms. “Then, when you’re done, just connect them with the other piece you haven’t used.”

I start working on an identical piece to the one I just made, then link them together. It isn’t much, but I feel really good that I was able to make something. I’ve come a long way from struggling to make block towers taller than two blocks.

Chapter 7

It’s still snowing heavily outside, so I have to brush all the snow off me once I walk into school. But it’s the last day before break, so I’m excited! Today’s just going to be presentations of our projects, so it’s not like we really have much to do. It’ll be a fun way to wrap up before we all go back home for a while.

I walk into the classroom and sit down next to Dusty, who’s adjusting a few settings on our siphon. “It all ready?”

“Yeah,” he says, taking his hooves off it. “You bring the plant?”

Nodding, I reach into my bags and pull out the yellow, withered plant I hopelessly tried to grow in my room. I’ve never been good with plants. “You sure it’ll work?”

“It’ll work,” he says confidently. “I made sure it worked.”

“When do you want to go? I say we should go first.”

“Let’s go a little later,” he mumbles.

“We should go first, just to get it out of the way. Everypony will just be too worried about their own presentation to pay attention to ours.”

“Okay,” he agrees.

Glacial and Arcane Force walk in and sit down at his desk, then she looks at me. “So what did you guys do?”

“We made a siphon,” I say proudly, pointing to it.

“What are you going to use it for?” she asks, staring it.

“You’ll just have to see,” I slyly smile, trying to hide the plant from view. “What did you guys do?”

“You’ll also have to see,” she replies in the same tone of voice.

Miss Sparks walks into the room and looks around, then sits down at her desk. “Alright, as you all know, today will be a shorter day due to our presentations. I will be grading you as you present, and after everypony has gone, I will hand you your rubric back. Who wishes to go first?”

I quickly raise my hoof, the only one in the class to do so. “Alright Aurora, you and Dusty may go first. Everypony, please give them your undivided attention.”

I pick up the plant, and Dusty takes the siphon up with us. There’s a single desk to the side, which I pull over and place the plant on. We both look at each other, and when he doesn’t say anything, I take over and point at the pieces on the desk. “Okay, so for our project, we made a magical siphon. It, uhh,” I point at the pieces on the front. “This part here captures magic from around us and stores it in the charge pack, then it acts kind of like a battery for magical energy.”

Dusty grabs the siphon and wedges it in the dirt. “A few of the components we put in there alter the magic to become earth magic, mostly the lithium we used for the charge pack casing and the tin for the cathodes. The way the magic moves through those metals makes it act like the magic of the earth.” He presses a few buttons, and the siphon loses the glow of magic it had. After a few seconds, the plant turns from yellow and brown to bright green and perks up going from wilted to perfectly alive. There are a lot of shocked reactions from the class, which just makes me smile a little bit. It is pretty cool.

“Impressive,” Miss Sparks says, taking a few notes down on our sheet. “What parts did each of you work on?”

“I did a lot of the wiring,” I admit. “Not much else.”

“If you’ll just pass those to me, I can double-check the siphon and finish grading.” She points to a open spot on her desk. “Who wants to go next?”

Some other ponies raise their hooves, and they start walking up while we place the siphon and plant on her desk. We quickly walk back to Dusty’s desk and sit down, and Glacial and Arcane Force look back to us.

“That was really cool!” Glacial whispers. “Maybe we should have gone first. Going to be hard to go after that.”

I smile, then turn to Dusty. “How do you think it went?”

“Think it went well,” he replies with a small smile.

It’s nice to get it just done and out of the way. Now I can just sit back and watch everypony else present.

Miss Sparks starts leafing through the rubrics on her desk, then pulls out the one blank one. “Glacial and Arcane Force, it’s only you two that need to go now.”

They look at each other and nervously laugh, then walk up to the front of the class. Arcane Force drags a small humidifier behind them but doesn’t plug it in, just places the cord near the outlet.

“So, my talent is healing magic,” Arcane Force says as Glacial pulls a small pin out of her mane.

“And mine’s ice magic!” Glacial exclaims. “Today, we’re going to be showing how many different things go into the profile of ambient magic, such as humidity.” She points to the humidifier. “So we’re going to be using this.”

She looks at Arcane Force, who nods back at her. She then pricks herself with the pin, causing a tiny bit of blood to come out. Her wound starts glowing the same color as his magic, and the blood quickly retreats into her body.

There’s some excitement from the class, but she turns to our group and powers up her own horn and makes the small cup of water on her desk glow the same color. She winces a little, but nothing really happens.

“So that’s what happens with low humidity,” Arcane Force says, plugging the humidifier in. After waiting a little bit, Glacial pricks herself again. Arcane Force tries to do the same thing as before, but her blood just sits there on her fur.

She wipes the blood off with a tiny piece of tissue, then powers her horn up and looks back to the glass, which almost instantly freezes and causes some ponies to start applauding.

“Humidity is just one of many things that affect the ambient magic around us,” Glacial starts explaining. “And the magic around us can change how effective our spells are. In low humidity, ice magic isn’t very effective because it’s a moisture and water based type of magic, so it can’t move very well or manifest itself.”

“And healing magic gets bogged down by the water in the air, which is why I couldn’t heal her with the higher humidity,” Arcane Force smiles.

“Very good, both of you,” Miss Sparks says, writing a few things down on their rubric. “Okay, you two can come pick up your grade.”

They walk over to her desk and look at the sheet of paper, then hoofbump each other when they see it. They must’ve done well.

One by one, the groups are called over and see their scores, and their reactions range from excited to looking kind of disappointed.

“Just you two left,” she says once everypony else has left. Nervously, we both walk up to her desk and look down at the score: 100%.

“Good job, you two,” she says while Dusty and I smile at each other. “Very creative, and very good craftsmanship on the siphon itself. One of the better projects I’ve seen. Have a happy Hearth’s Warming.”

I grab the paper and walk back with Dusty to our desks and start packing up. “It was a lot of fun working with you,” I say honestly as I place the sheet in my bags.

“You too,” he says quietly. He puts his bags on his back and waits for me, and then we start walking outside together.

When we get out of the school, he looks up at the sky. “The snow’s all really pretty.”

“Yeah,” I smile, looking up at it as well. “So when do you leave?”

“In a few hours.” He turns to look at me. “How about you?”

“Tomorrow.” I look at him. “Princess Luna and I are going to be doing a little more work before I leave.”

His smile grows a little bigger, and we just stand there in silence. “Hey, um, uh…”

“Yeah?”

“Can I...can I kiss you?”

I just look at him with wide eyes for a few moments. Did I hear him right?

“Can I?” he asks again, this time much weaker.

“Yeah,” I blush, taking a few steps closer to him.

He smiles a tiny bit and closes the distance between us, then closes his eyes and leans his head in close. His lips touch mine, and I try to return the kiss as best I can. Am I supposed to close my eyes? I think I am, it feels kind of weird to have them open. It does get better when I close them. Although it only lasts for a few seconds, it really sends a rush of excitement through my body.

He pulls away, so I do the same and open my eyes. He’s weakly smiling at me, and I smile back and try not to giggle. Not because anything’s funny, but because...I don’t know, really.

“I, uh…have to go pack,” he says while blushing and stumbling over his words.

“Have a good break,” I say back to him. Really, Aurora? That’s the best you can think of? It was already really weird anyways, then I probably went and made it weirder.

“You too,” he says quietly before quickly turning and speeding towards his building. I just stand there for a moment, probably with some stupidly dopey smile on my face. I try to bring myself down as I turn back towards the castle and start walking. I don’t even really know what it is about him. Yeah I guess he’s cute, but not super cute. He is nice, though. And pretty smart; he really knew what he was doing when we were making the siphon.

Before I know it, I’m at the castle. The guards just move their spears from the gate, letting me in. It’s nice that they finally recognize me. I’m starting to recognize them a little too, even though they all kind of look alike. The one on the right is a brown unicorn with a really unique chin, one that’s longer on one side than the other. The other unicorn is white, and I haven’t quite gotten him down yet. He’s one of probably three or four, though, I just don’t know exactly which one.

“Aurora!” I hear Princess Luna call from above. I crane my next upwards and see her and Princess Celestia flying in place, and it looks like they were talking to each other. Princess Luna flies down next to me, and Princess Celestia just flies back to the castle.

“What were you talking to her about?” I ask as I watch her fly away.

“She was just discussing this year’s Hearth’s Warming festivities with me,” she says with a wave of her hoof. “She has taken a recent love to it, something acquired while I was on the moon. Perhaps our feud led her to discover a holiday preaching warmth and friendship.” She laughs a little. “I on the other hoof have always adored Hearth’s Warming. It is interesting to see some of the traditions that have been adopted in my absence.”

“What’s your favorite thing about it since coming back?” I ask excitedly. I really like Hearth’s Warming too, so it’s fun to talk about.

“The sweets.” I can almost see the drool coming out of her mouth. “Sugar was rare when I was banished, so sweets were not as common. Candy canes, fudge, cookies, gingerbread, gumdrops…” She licks her lips. “My sister and I always would bake cookies on Hearth’s Warming Eve and serve them the next day to the ponies of Canterlot. They enjoyed it because they could not acquire sweets normally, and we enjoyed it because of the joy it brought everypony.” She looks down at me. “What about you? What is a favored tradition of yours?”

“Decorations,” I say, not able to hold back a smile. “My mom always has a ton of decorations, especially for our tree. We always joke that the house gets smaller once she’s done because all the decorations take up so much space. She’s probably put them all up, so I don’t have to get pulled into all of that.”

“Well, you will be able to go to your smaller house soon,” she jokes. “I feel we should try and get you to Dreamstride again tonight, and then tomorrow, you may go home.” Her face suddenly becomes more serious. “And please, do not attempt Dreamstriding while you are gone; you are untrained, and you could put yourself and your family in great danger if you do something incorrectly.”

My heart almost ties itself in a knot. “Is Dreamstriding really that dangerous?”

“It is...a tool,” she says, clearly searching for the right words. “Imagine a knife. If you are not careful with it or do not know how to use it, you can inflict great harm upon yourself or another. But if you are disciplined and skilled, you can use it for cooking a variety of foods. Dreamstriding is similar to the knife in that it is not inherently dangerous, but it can be if used without care or skill.”

“I see,” I say, lowering my head a little. When am I ever going to be able to Dreamstride? I haven’t been able to yet, and now I’ll be gone for almost a month without being able to.

“I do plan to keep you busy over your break,” she laughs lightly. “Just not with Dreamstriding. There are still plenty of magical training exercises which will help you, and I do plan to send you with a beginner’s tea manual and tea set so you can get accustomed to preparing blends for various tasks.”

“We already own a tea set.”

“This one’s yours,” she winks. “Consider it my Hearth’s Warming present to you. Tell your sisters you were given a gift by a Princess; I’m sure they would be jealous.”

We both laugh a little. She’s right. That would totally drive them crazy.

I start wondering what it’s going to be like back home. I’ve never been away from everypony for so long, will they have changed? Mom always says that everything’s pretty much the same in her letters, but I wonder how true that is. Maybe she’s trying out some new cuisine this time, or Dew Drop’s going through another poetry phase. I’ll admit mom was good with the Saddle Arabian food, but all her changeling food tasted like really sour yogurt. And not the good kind of sour.

Chapter 9

“The train will be stopping in Coltlumbus in five minutes,” the crackly loudspeaker announces, waking me up. I guess I wasn’t really asleep, but just was taking a quick nap. I had to wake up really early to get going today, and I didn’t sleep well last night because I was so excited about Dreamstriding! Everything about it was just so cool, and I’m just so upset I won’t be able to do it until I get back to Canterlot.

I stretch a little as I open my eyes, just now realizing that these seats are not comfortable at all. My back hurts, and my butt is sore from having to sit for such a long time on the hard wooden seat.

The stewardess starts going down the aisle with a drink cart and asking ponies what they want, so not many must be getting off here. I know that they usually don’t serve drinks in the last few minutes before a stop, but I’ve only ever been to big cities before, like Fillydelphia when we’re visiting mom’s family and Applewood for dad’s.

Even though it’s cold, I lean my head against the window and look out. I’m starting to recognize a few things like the corn farm and the path down to the lake, so we’re pretty close. I pull my bags closer to me and smile; I’m almost home! I’ll be able to see everypony again!

Soon, the train comes to a full stop and I can see almost of all of downtown, including the Rich’s arnyard argains. The B’s kept getting stolen for whatever reason, and eventually, the owners just gave up on replacing them. Most of the market stalls have moved inside for the winter, but a couple of them, like Cross Stitch and her winter scarf business, are still outside in the cold.

I put on my bags and try to get off, but almost hit the drink cart in the process. Nopony else has stood up, so I guess I’m the only pony getting off here. I can’t see the platform from the side I’m on, but I can’t imagine many ponies are getting on, either. We’re pretty much the only ponies in town with family that's not in the area, so nopony else would have a reason to travel for the holidays.

The conductor opens the door for me when I get to the door, and a strong blast of cold wind hits me straight in the face. Turning my head a little to the side to try and not take it head-on, I brave the cold and step onto the platform.

“Hey, Aurora,” I can hear mom’s voice say right in front of me. Turning my head back, I can see her looking down at me, smiling. Her nose and cheeks are a soft red, but she doesn't seem to notice.

I just go in for a hug, not even bothering to say anything. Her body’s a little cold, but it’s okay. I’m a little caught off guard when she wraps her cold hooves around me, but it’s all okay. I’m going to be cold anyways, may as well do it while hugging her.

“I missed you a lot,” she says, her voice heavy but still really happy.

“I missed you, too.” I can’t help but break out in a tiny smile.

“Think that’s your bag there?” she laughs, taking one of her hooves off me. A single bag is standing on the platform where she's pointing, and it doesn’t look like the conductor is doing much else. Guess finding my luggage will be easy?

She stops the hug and walks to the bag, taking it in her magic. “You must be tired if you’re getting in this early,” she says while we’re walking to the end of the platform.

We walk onto the ground, and a cold shock goes through my body as my hooves touch the frozen ground. “Yeah, I had to get up early.” Smiling, I look up at her. “And I was able to Dreamstride last night!”

“That’s amazing!” she beams. “Was it a lot of fun? Get to jump around everypony’s dreams?”

“It wasn’t quite like that. Like…” I pause, thinking of how to best explain it to her. “Like, there’s this different world, and that’s what I entered.”

“A whole new world?” she repeats. “You’ll have to tell me all about it!” Suddenly, she points at one of the stalls in the market square. “By the way, let’s get some hot chocolate! It’ll be a special little treat for the walk home to celebrate you coming back.”

We go to Lemon Sorbet’s hot chocolate cart and get some, which is really nice because I always beg mom for some when I’m running errands with her and she almost never says yes. Dad’s a little more willing to buy me some, but even then he rarely says yes.

Once I take a sip of my drink, I can feel my cheeks and nose start to warm up. “How’s everypony been doing since I left?”

“We miss you, but otherwise we’re doing well.” She takes a sip of her own hot chocolate. “Snowy’s starting to hear back from some of the schools she applied to, and of course she’s gotten into all of them. We all knew she would.”

“Is she maybe going to go to school in Canterlot?” I really hope she will, because then I’d have somepony close to me. That would be really nice.

“She got in to Canterlot University and the University of Equestria at Canterlot, but she didn’t seem very interested in either. She sounds the most excited about Manehattan College, though we’re trying to get her to keep her options open. There are a few places and scholarships she’s still yet to hear from, and we don’t want her rushing into something when maybe somewhere else will be the best choice.” She laughs a little. “We’d love for her to go to Canterlot University since that’s where dad and I both went and we loved it, but we understand it’s not for everypony and will support her whichever she chooses.”

I’m a little surprised mom and dad have to try and keep her from deciding, because Snowy was always the most patient of me and my sisters. But I guess that was because she’s the oldest, and it sounds like college is really exciting. I probably won’t go since I can’t learn my special talent there, so I won’t have to go through everything my sisters have to. I can’t help but smile a little at that; over the summer, mom and dad were really bugging Snowy to start thinking about schools, and she really didn’t want to have anything to do with that. Any time mom and dad aren’t constantly bugging me about something is a good time.

The rest of the way home, she asks me all about Canterlot, though seems mostly interested in Dreamstriding. I’m not great at describing things, but she seems to kind of get the idea behind what I’m talking about. I know I shouldn’t, but I laugh a little when she gets all worried once I start talking about demons. Even though I explain to her that they’re not all evil, she still seems a little worried. Which I can understand; I was able to meet one, and that helped me because I could see that they really weren’t all evil.

Before I even know it, we’re turning down our street. It feels so weird, because it wasn’t that long a walk from the train station to here. Maybe five minutes, and that’s about how long it took me to walk to school back in Canterlot. This town seems a lot smaller after living in such a big city.

“Home sweet home,” mom says as she steps onto our porch and unlocks the door. As we walk in, an indescribable smell hits me that just makes me grin as widely as I possibly can. I don’t know what is causing the smell, but it just smells like home.

“Snowy and Dew Drop are at school and dad’s at work,” she says while putting her hot chocolate on the table. “So it’s just us for now.”

I walk in, and it seems I was right; mom has put up all the decorations already. Our tree is up and has all the ornaments and lights on it, and a few presents are starting to collect under it. There’s a fire in the fireplace, so it just feels really cozy.

“Come on, let’s go put your stuff back in your room.” I look back over to mom, and she’s standing next to the stairs with my suitcase. When I go up, she follows me into my room.

“Kind of weird being back here,” I say while taking my saddlebags off my back.

“Hopefully it still feels like home,” she smiles, putting my suitcase on the bed and opening it.

It does, but it’s still weird. It’s always hard whenever I think about being away from home, but Canterlot is feeling more and more like a home now. Which is also a little sad, because that’s not where my parents or sisters live. I never really realized how much I missed everypony until I left.

“So how did the last little bit of school go?” she asks, opening my suitcase up.

I quickly look in my bags so she can’t see me blushing. “It went well.” I don’t know why, but I don’t really want to tell her about Dusty yet. If I tell her, I know she’ll start acting really weird and asking me all sorts of questions about him, and I don’t really want her to be like that over break.

“Aurora?” dad asks while knocking at my door.

The knocking startles me, breaking my concentration and causing the pillows that I was levitating to fall to the ground. I don’t really know what this exercise was supposed to do, but Luna had it in her little book of magical training, so I have to do it anyways.

“Yeah?” I call back.

“Mom and I are just heading out to Mister Geranium and Miss Posy’s house,” he replies. “Your sisters are here if you need anything.”

“Alright, see you later.” As I can hear his hooves moving down the stairs and towards the door, I look around my room, which is a little bit of a mess. I haven’t even been here a day, and already a lot of my stuff isn’t where it should be. Oh well, I guess I can try and clean up tomorrow. And tomorrow, I’ll probably say that exact same thing. At least I know what to expect with me.

Come to think of it, I haven’t really talked with either Snowy or Dew Drop since coming back, and I don’t think they came up after dinner. That would be kind of fun to catch up with them. I have to push one of the pillows to the side to get to my door, but before I know it, I’m downstairs.

“Hey Aurora, come put your hoof here,” Snowy says almost right as my hooves step off the stairs.

When I walk up to the table, I can see she’s wrapping something wide and really flat. “Who’s this for?” I ask while putting my hoof where she’s pointing.

“It’s for mom, we got her The Magic Inside,” she says while tying a bow around my hoof.

“‘The Magic Inside’?”

“Yeah.” She just looks at me. “You know, the new Coloratura album?”

I continue to stare blankly at her. I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“She’s a really famous musician, and she’s really changed her style recently. Everypony’s just been raving about her new album, and mom’s been trying to get it but they can’t stock it fast enough.” Slyly, she picks up the now wrapped album and smiles. “Guess which two mares bought the last copy in town?”

“Us, in case you couldn’t guess,” Dew Drop proclaims from the couch, holding a hoof in the air.

“Yes, because nopony knew who I was talking about.” After slapping a To Mom, From The Kids sticker on it and levitating it under our tree, she looks down at me. “So how’s all the dream magic been going? They paying you to nap yet?”

“Hit me up with that job if they’ve got an opening,” Dew Drop calls again from the couch.

“Dew Drop, if you’re going to be in the conversation, at least come over here.”

I smile a little as she moans and walks slowly over to us. Nice to know not everything changes when I leave.

“It’s going well, was able to do it for the first time last night.” I look back up at Snowy. “Mom was telling me about you looking at schools.”

“Don’t remind me,” she moans, some disgust clear in her voice. “Can hardly get off them my back about it.”

“At least you’re not me, who’s going to have to live with them for two years all alone,” Dew Drops butts in.

“I had to do that, too!”

Dew Drop laughs, and I can’t help but laugh a little too. She always pulls out that excuse. “You were two when I was born,” she points out. “Those two years don’t count when you don’t remember them and your biggest priority was learning to use the potty.”

“I managed to avoid seven years of being alone with them,” I brag.

“Yeah, and consider yourself lucky for that,” Snowy says as she rolls her eyes.

“Maybe your life would be a lot easier if you actually did what they told you to?” Dew Drop suggests.

Shaking her head at our laughing, she mutters something under her breath that sounds a lot like when she calls us childish.

“Hey, can I ask you two about something?” I blurt out, not even realizing I did until the words are done coming out of my mouth.

“Yeah, what?” Snowy responds as they both turn their heads to me.

My heart’s racing now, to the point where it feels it might just jump right out of my chest right here. “What are you supposed to do if you like somepony?”

Snowy starts thinking about it, and Dew Drop’s jaw drops into a big smile. “You like somepony?” she nearly screams.

“Yes, and you don’t have to yell it so everypony can hear,” I hiss back.

“Oh.” She looks at the ceiling for a few seconds, then looks back to me. “Do you know how to play hard to get?”

“Wait, what?” Snowy asks, turning her head to her. “You’re suggesting that she play hard to get?”

“Yeah!” she confirms. “So?”

“Wait, do you play hard to get?”

She nods. “Why?

“...A lot of your breakups make so much more sense now that I know this about you.” She looks at me and shakes her hoof at Dew Drop. “No, don’t play hard to get. Then he won’t think you’re interested and will just give up trying.”

“Only if you do it poorly,” Dew Drop argues, shoving Snowy’s hoof down.

“And how many of your relationships got past two dates?” She just bites her lip as Snowy just smirks at her. “Thought so.”

“Doesn’t mean it can’t be done well!”

“But we’re giving her advice,” she says while pointing at me. “And do you really think somepony who’s never successfully played hard to get should give advice on successfully playing hard to get?”

“Fine,” she groans. “Does he like you back?”

I nod. “Yeah. We’re in a group together and did a project, just the two of us. He kissed me when we finished it.”

“Then he already likes you,” Snowy says, lovingly putting a hoof on my shoulder. “There’s nothing you need to do except be yourself. He clearly already likes you, and so if you act differently, he won’t like you anymore.”

“But like...do I tell him I like him? Do I wait for him to say he likes me?”

“You’ve kissed, so it sounds like you’ve already established that you like each other,” Dew Drop shrugs. “Just tell him you do and talk about what you two want to do from here on out.”

“Okay,” I reply softly, trying to take all their advice in. I just wish I could have told him how I felt before I left; now I have to wait all of break before I get to see him.

Chapter 10

I look around the train car; it’s mostly empty now, so I get up and start walking toward the exit. I didn’t really want to have to fight through the crowd getting off the train in Canterlot, and judging by the actual fight I saw on the platform while looking out the window, it was a smart decision.

The doors have been open for a while now, but I’m still somehow hit with a blast of cold air as I walk out. I quickly find my bag amongst all the others, because it has the blue and silver Canterlot University luggage tag mom gave me. It’s nice not to have to dig through everypony else’s stuff while trying to find my own.

Once I leave the station, I can see Luna on the sidewalk, smiling a little at me. I smile too as I walk up to her, and when I get close, she gives me a quick hug.

“How was your vacation?” she asks.

“It was good,” I reply with a mixture of happiness and sadness. “It was nice to see everypony, but it just reminded me how much I miss them.” I laugh a little. “You were right: my sisters were totally jealous that you gave me a present for Hearth’s Warming. But now I feel bad for not getting you anything.”

“Do not be,” she shakes her head. “Hearth’s Warming means a lot to me; I do not care whether or not I am given gifts.”

“What did you and Princess Celestia do?”

“First was the Hearth’s Warming Eve play.” She licks her lips a little. “Then the Hearth’s Warming Eve banquet; we open the castle to everypony in Canterlot, and everypony comes and enjoys themselves. On Hearth’s Warming Day, Celestia and I spent nearly the entire day cooking and baking goodies to give to everypony in the castle, from the cleaners to the Guards to our advisors. We even made one for you.”

“Really?”

She nods. “Yes, because you are a part of the castle. And one day, you will be running the Dreamstriders, so I figured why not start preparing for the day you’ll be an official castle worker?”

Huh. Guess I never thought about the fact that I’m going to be working in the castle, alongside the most important ponies in Equestria.

“Is that him?” Luna asks after a few minutes of silence, confusing me. Who’s she talking about, and why’s he important?

Once I look where she’s pointing, though, I can see exactly what she means: it’s Dusty, carrying his suitcase in his magic behind him and heading in the direction of the school.

“Yeah, he’s from my school.”

A really sly smile creeps onto her face. “And that’s all he is to you?”

“Yeah,” I try to lie as convincingly as I can.

“There was some love coming from your dreams over the break,” she explains. “And it had the trace of him. You have a crush on him, don’t you?”

“You were in my dreams?” I have to try my hardest not to scream right here. My face is probably deep red; there’s a reason I didn’t tell her.

“I watched them to make sure nothing bad happened to you.” With a soft smile, she points his direction again. “Go talk to him. I’ll wait.”

Turning back around, my heart starts racing when I catch sight of him. Right, guess it’s now or never. And I suppose better here than in school, where everypony’s around us.

“Hey Dusty,” I say nervously as I walk up to him.

“Huh?” He turns to face me, then looks off to the side to avoid looking me in the eyes. “Oh. Hey, Aurora.”

“So I, uhh…” My back right leg’s twitching almost uncontrollably, which it always does when I’m really nervous. I bite my lip to try and regain some control over my body. “I was thinking about our kiss, and I’d like to say that...I like you.” I smile, which just causes my leg to start bouncing again.

“Aurora, I…” He trails off. “I don’t really know how to say this, but I…” He looks up at the sky, clearly looking for the right words. Oh no. Oh no no no, this isn’t good. I should have never told him I liked him.

“You…?” I try to put on my best ‘everything is okay’ smile, because hopefully it is, right? He’s just looking for the right words to say he likes me...right?

“I don’t really know if I like fillies,” he admits. “Like, like like. I mean like, you’re really nice and a good friend.” Sighing, he looks down at the ground. “But I don’t know. I just feel like I like colts the way most colts like fillies, but I don’t know why. I thought kissing you would change that, but it didn’t.”

“Oh.” I try to smile wider, even though it does hurt. “It’s okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.” No, no it’s not. I liked him, and finding out he doesn’t feel the same way is really tying my heart and my stomach in knots. I feel like I might be sick, or maybe cry. Probably both.

“You really sure?” He walks up to me and extends his hoof a little bit, then pulls it back. Very carefully, he inches it onto my shoulder.

I nod quickly, really really hoping he takes his hoof off me because it’s only making things worse. I liked him a lot, so I just need some time to myself to get over him. And feeling his hoof on my shoulder, comforting me when I really do need it but not being able to express my feelings for him is not helping at all. “I just need a little time to myself,” I barely manage to squeak out.

“Okay.” He quickly pulls me into a hug, and I try to squirm out. Please no, I don’t want to keep being reminded of how I feel towards him. “I’m sorry if I hurt you.”

“Well, I have to go,” I announce, pushing him out of the hug and taking a few steps back before I start crying right here. I don’t want to break down in the middle of Canterlot, and definitely not in front of him. He didn’t do anything wrong, and that would just make him feel really bad.

“See you at school,” he says before taking his suitcase in his magic and walking away.

“Okay,” I whimper as he trots away. The walk back to Luna feels like it takes forever, and I have to focus as hard as I can to not start crying. Just take it one step at a time, Aurora. I can cry back at the castle, but not here.

“Are you okay?” Luna asks worriedly when I get back to her. I can feel a few tears slip out and start running down my face, but I manage to hold the rest of them back.

“No.” Gritting my teeth does a little more to stop my emotions from taking me over, but it’s still a closer call than I’d like it.

After being silent for a few moments, she looks down at me. “Let’s get to your room quickly. I have an idea.”

I’m doing a little better when we get back to my room, but that’s not saying much. And even that little bit is replaced by my sadness that I’m now away from home and everypony in my family. Not a good day for me.

“Get on your bed,” Luna says, moving my suitcase to in front of my dresser.

When I do as she says, it becomes even harder to stay strong because the comfortable bed and pillows my back is up against is just inviting me to lay down and bawl into my sheets. Luna never said what her idea was, but my guess is she wants me to be strong for it.

“Close your eyes and enter your dream,” she instructs as she sits down beside my bed and lays her head on it. “I will meet you in there to bring you into the dream world.” With that, she closes her eyes and has dozed off in a matter of seconds.

Right. Now it’s my turn. It’s hard to concentrate my magic around the pulling what with all my emotions going haywire, but I manage to grasp it and start pushing. It’s weird, because this time it feels both easier and harder to do than before. Maybe it’s harder because I’m really upset, but easier because I’ve done this before and am getting used to it. Either way, I open my eyes to see my room exactly the way I left it, except for the fact that Luna isn’t here anymore. Guess I did it.

Without even saying anything, Luna flies down from the gray mist at the top of my dream and grabs me with her hoof, only to fly back up again. When we emerge in the cave, she quickly walks outside without telling me to do anything. Guess I should follow her.

Once I walk outside, I can see her sitting in the grass with one of the demons she said was a playful demon last time I was here. I think it’s the same one, but I guess there’s no way I could tell.

“Please sit down,” she says, pointing her hoof across from her. There’s a little bit of something in her voice that’s quite worry and not quite sadness, but something like those.

Thankfully, the coldness of the grass calms me down a little as I sit where she’s pointing. “What do you want me to do?”

“You’re going to try and talk to a demon.” She points at the demon, which has now climbed up to her head and is peeking over it.

“I’ve never practiced this before,” I admit. “I’m sorry if I was supposed to.”

She shakes her head very gently, careful not to throw the demon off. “No, it is only something that can be taught through experience. You remember how it sounded when I talked to it before, yes?”

I nod. “Yeah, like a gentle shushing.”

“This is not exactly how you speak their language, but make that same sound while letting your magic and your emotions flow through your body freely. Do not try and inhibit it.”

I shush a little, but I don’t really feel anything happen. The demon’s still looking at me, so maybe I need to let my emotions loose a little more? I finally let myself think about how hurt I am, but then I start stuttering and hiccuping when I try and speak to it.

“Reign it in just a little bit more,” she instructs.

After taking a deep breath or two, I try again. I don’t really know what I’m feeling, but I can definitely feel the magic in my body move a little bit. It’s spreading from my heart and moving all throughout my torso, with a little bit going to my mind and up into my horn.

“............hurt…………..rejected……..you…”

Sniffling, I look up at the demon, which no longer has a blank stare on its face. “Did it just talk to me?”

“What did you hear it say?” Luna asks, clearly trying to hold some excitement in.

“I just heard three words: hurt, rejected, and you.”

A smile that she’s clearly trying and failing to hold back grows on her face, stretching from ear to ear. “It said, ‘It must hurt to feel rejected the way you do’.”

Now I can’t help but smile a little bit, which does dull my sadness a little. “Really?”

My response is just her nodding and stretching out her front legs for a hug, which I quickly take. Her fur is soft and her body is warm and welcoming, which just makes me want to cry. I can’t hold it in any longer, so I just bury my face in her chest and start crying. However, now that I’ve taken a big step in Dreamstriding, my tears aren’t as sad as they were before.

After who knows how long has passed, I pull my face away from her chest and look up at her. “So...what did I say to it?”

She giggles a little. “Exact words, or what you meant?”

“Exact words, why?”

“Keep in mind you’re only starting to learn the language,” she says, taking one of her hooves from around my body and putting it up in the air. “But your exact words were, and I quote, ‘Love him, he unlove, hurt’.”

Now I can’t help but laugh a tiny bit, because that just sounds a little silly. “I won’t always talk like a cavepony, right?”

Laughing a little bit, she shakes her head. “No, you will learn to master their language, much as you have mastered Equestrian. When you were young, you spoke very basic Equestrian and did not know what many words meant, and it is simply the same here. But you have all the time in the world to progress and be able to communicate with them.”

“Thanks,” I say weakly, letting her bring her hoof back down into the hug. “So what do I do next for Dreamstriding? Now that I’ve been able to get in here and have started talking to demons.”

“We work on refining your skills. Getting you into your dreams quicker, moving between your dream and the dream world, becoming fluent in the demon language, and studying this world and its inhabitants so you know everything you know to survive in here.”

Once I lay my head on her chest, I quickly notice how light-headed all that crying made me. “Thanks for being there for me when I needed it.”

The hug gets tighter. “I will always try and be there for you.”

Chapter 12

I look down at the puddle of mist in front of me, which has a lot of fear spilling out of it. But it also feels very similar, much like Luna’s dream did.

“Is this the dream you think I was talking about?” Luna asks from behind me, causing me to twist around and look at her walking up to me.

“I think so,” I say while standing up. “Whoever is dreaming this is scared, I can tell that.”

“And this dreamer has much reason to be frightened.” She stands next to the dream and looks at me. “Are you ready?”

“Yeah,” I nod nervously. She places a hoof in the mist and goes face-first into it, soon being swallowed up by it. When she’s gone, I stick my hoof in and follow her. It feels really weird, different than my own dream. But it still does feel pretty similar to my own, probably because the thing where other Dreamstriders feel familiar to me even if I've never met them.

Something crunches a little bit under my hooves when I land, so I look down and see that there’s icy snow covering the whole world here. A cold wind picks up and blows over us, and it’s not the good kind of cold like the dream world is.

“Can you feel the demons here?” Luna asks, seemingly unbothered by the cold.

“I just feel cold,” I say through my shivering.

Luna powers her horn up and touches it to mine, warmth quickly flooding my body before I don't even feel the cold. “Better?” she smiles.

“What did you do?” I ask, shoving my hoof into the snow. Not cold at all anymore.

“You will learn to separate your mind from theirs,” she says, looking around. “His mind has dreamed that this place is cold, and since your mind has not yet learned how to separate reality from dreams.”

“So I felt pain before we came in, does that mean there are are demons here?”

“Yes,” she nods. “Now that you are not focusing on the cold, you should be able to pick up their magic.”

I close my eyes and focus. “I can feel...something. Demons, but I can only feel their presence. Don’t know anything else.”

When Luna doesn’t respond, I open my eyes and see her standing there with her own eyes closed. “Umber demons,” she says softly. “Three, all together.”

“Do you know where they are?”

Opening her eyes, she looks towards what looks like a small town that has a few towers poking above the rest of the buildings. “Let’s go,” she says, walking past me.

“Kinda weird to finally be in somepony else’s dream,” I admit while looking around. “Feels like we’re intruding.”

“In a sense,” she says uneasily. “Luckily for us, the demons that are here cannot dig up anything in dreamers’ minds.”

“I haven’t really heard of umber demons before. What do they do?”

“‘Never heard of them’?” she repeats, shooting a sly look my way. “Last I checked, they were in the Grimoire of Demons I told you to study.”

Oops.

“Umber demons are malevolent demons,” she starts explaining since I didn’t actually do any of the reading she told me to do. “They play on primal fears, taking on twisted and grotesque shapes and frightening their dreamers.”

“Primal fears? Like what?”

“This is a dream similar to ones I have seen before,” she says half to herself and half to me. “The demons that create this dream like to corner the dreamer and instill in them the fear of death and helplessness. Basic fears, but ones that are terrifying nonetheless.”

“Maybe demons that try and kill ponies aren’t the best thing to start me off with,” I laugh kind of nervously.

“They cannot hurt you,” she reassures me. “They are frightening, yes, but umber demons cannot inflict any real harm upon you. Their only aim is to frighten.”

All of a sudden, there’s some screaming away from the path we’re walking on. “What’s that?” I ask her worriedly.

“That must be our dreamer,” she says, going towards the source of the screaming and blowing straight past me. She doesn’t seem to be showing any signs of slowing down, so I have to basically run to keep up with her.

We soon come to a hill that Luna goes down, but I stop at the top and look down; there are four ponies all huddled together, surrounded by three really tall, floating creatures wearing long robes.

“Aurora!” Luna yells when she’s about halfway down the hill, gesturing her head towards the ponies and the things that I can only assume are the demons. I start running down behind her, and she continues on to them.

“Demons!” she calls out when she gets close, causing all of them to turn and look at her.

Now that they’re turning towards us, I can see what the demons really look like: they’re really tall and thin, with a body shaped like a pony standing on its hind legs. Tattered robes of some sort of grimy, dark olive green are covering most of their bodies except for their faces and arms, which are both pretty terrifying. Their faces are sickly gray, and any features they have are flattened: bright orange eyes, two nostrils and nothing else for a nose, and a mouth of crooked teeth sharp as knives.

Their arms don’t look much more friendly. They’re really long and thin, and it looks it’s just their bones covered with skin, no muscle at all. At the end is a long hand with five even longer jagged claws coming out of it that definitely do not look very welcoming.

“Dreamstrider!” the one closest to us proclaims. I don’t understand the rest of what it says, but I can tell that it isn’t scared of us.

“Do not worry,” Luna says to me. At least, I hope that’s what she said. “Just stay back.”

I take a few steps back and just watch her as she powers up her horn.

The demon right in front of her raises its claws menacingly but doesn’t actually do anything with them, which is probably because Luna said they can’t actually hurt us. Instead of being scared, she just powers up her horn and causes chains to rise out of the ground and wrap themselves around the monster’s wrists to trap it.

The other two demons behind it spring into action and start floating towards her, but she does the same thing to them, binding them all.

“Aurora,” Luna calls. “Do you wish to help me banish these demons?”

“Sure,” I say, but I’m not really sure. “What do I have to do?”

“You at least read the spell for banishing malevolent demons in your grimoire, correct?”

“Yeah,” I nod. It’s not like I didn’t do any reading.

She closes her eyes and bows her head, and a blue beam of magic comes out of her horn and touches mine. “There is, of course, the part of the spell that is unique for each demon. I have just given you the knowledge of the part for umber demons.”

I walk next to Princess Luna and power up my horn, aiming it at the demon right in front of us. It’s saying some more stuff I don’t fully understand, distracting me because my mind is trying to make sense of what it’s saying and cast this spell at the same time. But I have to focus; this is what Luna had me do all those focus exercises for.

The spell eventually manages to come to life in my horn, and when I cast the final few parts of it, a burst of magic shoots out from my horn and hits the demon square in the chest. It starts screaming and disintegrating into a shadow, which starts flying up and out of the dream.

Luna casts another spell on the other two demons, which react similarly. When the last little bit of the demons is finally gone, the ponies huddled together all look at us.

“Princess Luna!” a colt with a dark blue coat and soft purple mane yells, running out of the pile and hugging her tight. “Thank you for getting rid of the scary monsters!”

“It is no problem, Moonlight,” she smiles, returning the hug. “You should be thanking Aurora here too, because she helped a lot.”

He smiles as he turns his head to me. “Thanks!”

“You’re welcome,” I reply, trying to figure out how old he is. He seems to be a couple years younger than me, so it’s going to be a while before he joins the Dreamstriders. That is, if he even is the Dreamstrider she was talking about. I guess it could be the other colt with the adult ponies still sitting where they had previously been huddling, but he just seems to be kind of sitting there. If he’s just a part of the other colt’s dream, it would make sense he’s not really doing a whole lot.

“We must go now,” Luna says, exiting the hug. She looks around, and a look of dissatisfaction grows on her face. “Quite depressing here, don’t you think?”

For the first time since we entered the dream, I can get a good look at where we are. And she’s right; it’s depressing. It’s dark and cloudy, the wind is still howling, and all the trees around us are dead and rotting.

“Let’s fix that, shall we?” Luna asks, winking at me. She then powers up her horn and quickly shoots a burst of magic into the sky, making the area brighter, stopping the wind, and turning all the dead trees into pine trees with snow on their branches.

“Make it snow, too,” I smile.

She smiles back, then shoots another beam into the sky and causes the soft gray clouds to start dropping tiny flurries onto us.

“Have fun,” she says to Moonlight.

The colt runs back to his family, and Luna walks up to me. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “Do we just jump out like how I have to jump out of my own dream?”

“Yes,” she confirms. “Meet you outside?”

“Meet you outside,” I agree. She jumps up and out of the dream, and I follow her after getting my mind and magic in the right state to do so.

“Come help me with something,” she says, beckoning me over back to the puddle of mist once we’re outside.

I walk up next to her, and she powers up her horn. “What do you need my help with?”

“I suppose we should wipe some of the memories of his dream, don’t you think?” She looks down at the mist. “He does not need to remember the umber demons or us.”

“Why would you want to make us forget him, though? Wouldn’t you want him to remember that we helped?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “Unless the dreamer learns some sort of lesson that could have kept the demons out, I wipe their memories afterwards. I was never one for drawing attention to myself, so I am content with simply being a benevolent, unseen force. And ponies value their privacy; if they learned the true extent of our involvement, they may feel like we are intruding.”

I look back at Moonlight’s dream real quick, then back to Luna. “So Moonlight was young, but not like baby young. Besides us, how many Dreamstriders are there right now?”

“He wasn’t that young,” she smiles while shaking her head. “Just two years younger than you, as a matter of fact. And as for Dreamstriders, there is him, a filly named Adhara who is three years younger than Moonlight, and another colt named Palus who was just born recently.”

“You said we can feel it when another Dreamstrider is born, right?” I look up at her. “I think I remember that youngest one being born.”

She nods. “He was born last fall, yes.”

“It felt like...I don’t know, really. Weird. Magical. Felt like dream magic now that I know what that feels like. You know what I’m talking about, right?”

She laughs. “Yes, and I couldn’t have described it better myself. There is some sort of magic tying us all together, binding us. It is our destiny.”

“You believe in destiny?” I ask.

She nods. “Yes, yes I do. I used to not to, I have only started believing recently.” Going silent, she looks up and stares at the moon. “The legends of Nightmare Moon claimed I was to escape and make my way back down to Equestria one day, and I held onto those as hope that I could escape my prison and become who I once was. To regain control, to get rid of Nightmare Moon. And the tales came true, against everything I expected. I figured it must have been my destiny to return.”

“You make it sound like you were aware during all that time, but all the legends say Nightmare Moon totally took control of you.”

“I was aware, but not in control.” A very sad sigh escapes from her. “At least, not fully. Which made being controlled so much more painful, because I saw myself doing terrible and awful things yet was not able to stop myself. Every day I fought against Nightmare Moon to try and take myself back, but she was strong. Only once was I able to take any action, and it was during my fight with Celestia. I was not able to stop fighting like I wanted or end my life like I continually threatened Nightmare Moon I would do so I could stop her, but I was able to reign in my strength enough so Celestia was able to defeat me.”

“You threatened Nightmare Moon you’d kill yourself? If you took control and had the ability to do so, would you have gone through with it?”

“In hindsight, no,” she admits. “I do not believe I would have the willpower to do so. It would have benefitted the ponies of Equestria greatly, but I could not have forced my hoof if it came to it.”

“Nightmare Moon was stopped, and you didn’t need to do it. So it all worked out in the end, right?”

“Some days, I wonder how many lives would have been spared from her cruelty should I have been able to take control and do so. And I ponder too if my actions have allowed myself to sufficiently repent for the lives that were ended through letting my jealousy and anger burn so brightly to allow such a vile creature take over.”

“You know nopony really blames you,” I tell her. “At least, most ponies don’t.”

“Guilt is just a feeling I have become used to.” She hangs her head. “I made a pact with a guilt demon upon coming back, though you may know it better as the Tantabus. It sensed my intense guilt and tirelessly attempted to enter my dreams, though I was always able to keep it out. But as I started going through all the notes on demons I have accrued, I noticed many of them mentioned the strength of guilt demons and how territorial they are. I let that one in to feed in exchange for keeping away rare and powerful demons I may not even know exist, though the demon grew too ambitious and began trying to take over other dreams as well.”

“I heard about that,” I speak up, cutting her off mid-speech. “Didn’t I hear that you said it was because you wanted to punish yourself for doing what you did?”

As she ruffles her brow, she thinks it over a minute. “While that is not exactly true, it is also not exactly false. I did tell the ponies of Ponyville that, but that is because I did not wish to bore them with the specifics of demons or frighten them about the creatures that are frequently shaping their dreams. And I will admit, I am still afraid that the ponies of Equestria deep down blame me for what happened long before they were born, and I wished to make myself seem repentant. And of course, letting in a guilt demon did plague me with nightmares about my transformation.”

“But then why would the demon connect you to Ponyville, which isn’t even the closest place in the dream world to Canterlot? I know you said the dream world and the awakened world don’t exactly have the exact same layout, which is how we just came from the dreams in Baltimare even though we’re just a few minutes from Canterlot!”

“There is a lot of magic I do not quite understand going on, though I suspect that it must have seen the Elements of Harmony in my dreams and decided to target them." She giggles a little and looks down at me. "You are asking many questions tonight."

That causes me to pout a little, because it sounds like when ponies look down on me just because I’m a foal. And I’m almost nine, so it’s not even like I’m really young.

Her giggling grows into a soft chuckle. “Do not get upset, little one. It is getting late, and you should rest. Entering another’s dream is tiring the first few times, and you will notice it when you prepare to go to sleep tonight.”

My face scrunches up a little. Why do adults always like to tell me it’s time for bed? “Fine, but tomorrow you’re explaining what you know to me. I’m young, not dumb. And if you don’t think I’ll understand something, you won’t know until you start telling it to me.”

“I never implied you were dumb,” she shakes her head. “But it takes time, and it is growing late.” When the edge of the small grove of trees in front of Canterlot Cave, as Luna calls it, comes into view, she stops and looks at me with a smile. “You did well tonight.”

“Thanks,” I smile back.

“You would do well to leave the dream world and go to sleep,” she says as she gestures her head towards the trees. “Tonight is a night that I look for demons giving dreamers nightmares, so I am not able to accompany you back. You are capable of leaving your dream once inside, correct?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “See you tomorrow?”

“See you tomorrow,” she confirms.

Chapter 13

I can’t help but stare at the dream mist in front of me, even though I don’t want to be. I’ve really been putting this off, and this is the best way I can think to do it. It’s probably breaking some rule or multiple Luna told me, but I’d feel more comfortable doing it in the dream world. My mind feels like it belongs here, and then there’s the fact that there’s nopony else here. I don’t really know where I could do this in private in the real world.

Taking a deep breath, I stick my hoof in and am surrounded by the mist before floating down to the ground. The ground around me is made of bright, polished bronze, with a lot of glass everywhere to show enormous gears moving fluidly. When I take a look around, I can see that the platform I’m on is circular and that there are a lot more of them floating in the sky. The sun is peeking through the clouds and hitting the fog that’s rising from below the platforms, shining and reflecting off all the bronze. It’s pretty, but it really hurts to look at because of how bright it is.

It’s strange that this is his dream, because he’s not here. Since the only other dream I’ve ever been is in Moonlight’s, I guess that’s just what I expected them all to be like. But Moonlight was kind of young, so it makes sense that his dream would be pretty much an empty field of snow since he might not be able to construct something as complex as this.

I have to snap myself back into concentration; there’s a reason I’m here. No time to admire the scenery. There are a lot of platforms, so I go to the side of the one I’m on and look down. It looks like there’s a pony on one of the platforms.

“Hey!” I call down. He turns around and looks up at me. “Dusty?”

“Aurora?” he calls back.

“Yeah! Uh…” I look at the gap between us. “How do I get down?”

“Just put your hoof out, remember?” I don’t know what there is to remember, but I do as he says and a small, hoof-sized platform like the one I’m on assembles itself from seemingly nowhere. I pull it back, and the components of it just fly away into nothingness. Cool.

I test it again, and the platform materializes again. Slowly, I walk out into the gap, and platforms assemble around each of my hooves to keep me from falling. Hoof by hoof, I make my way down to the platform where he is.

“Cool dream,” I tell him, looking around at the world he’s dreamed up. Pretty fitting for somepony with a special talent like his.

“Cool dream? Does that mean-” He cuts himself off. “You’re doing that Dreamstriding thing, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” I admit. “Sorry if I’m intruding, but I just wanted to talk with you.”

“Oh.” He pulls the goggles he’s wearing off his head and hides them behind his back, almost as if he’s embarrassed. “No, you’re not. This isn’t about—”

“I still want to be your friend,” I cut him off before he can finish. “You know, it was fun working on that project with you. I got to learn a whole lot of new stuff, even if I understood almost nothing.”

“At least you listened,” he laughs. “Most other ponies I talk about it with just don’t really seem to get it or really care that much. I was kind of glad I got paired with you, since Glacial and Arcane Force just didn’t seem to get it. I think they know too much about magic, so they’ve just kind of gotten pretty narrow-minded about that kind of stuff.” An awkward smile grows on his face. “Well, uh, not to say you know nothing about magic, though…”

“But my competition is Glacial,” I laugh back. “Yeah, next to her I do know almost nothing. Even next to Arcane Force I don’t know a whole lot.” Now we’re just staring at each other, so I look around his dream. “So, like...what’s all this stuff?”

“Just…” He shrugs. “I don’t know. Stuff. Don’t you think it looks really cool?”

“It kinda does.” I look down at my hooves, which are on a glass panel I didn’t notice earlier. Just like the previous platform, there’s all sorts of gears and other parts whirring away under there effortlessly.

“Something about machinery always gets me excited,” he says, walking past me and to the edge of the platform we’re on. “I see these pictures of these massive machines ponies make and tinker with, and I just want to be right there with them. And the best part is, they’re just toying around with them! I love just building things and seeing what they can do, and I hope that’s where I end up some day.” He pauses for a moment. “Wanna see something cool?”

“Sure, what?”

With that, he jumps off the platform and starts falling. I sprint over to the edge as fast as I can and look down, but he’s not falling anymore. He’s...flying. With wings, too.

“You’re flying?” I yell down. “How can you do that?”

“It’s a dream, duh!” he yells back up. “You can do anything! Just jump off the edge and wait for it to happen!”

“I’m not really sure if that’s how it works,” I say, trying to rack my brain to think if that’s really true.

“You can’t get hurt in your dreams, anyways! Come on, what’s the worst that can happen?”

“I’m not sure that’s how it works, either!” Man, I have some serious questions to ask Luna when I get back.

“Just jump!”

Well, I do know how to exit a dream now, so if I just keep falling, I can always try that, right? And he’s flying anyways, so he could always catch me if I don’t get wings like his.

After taking a deep breath, I put my hoof out over the chasm. And then another...and then all of them.

I want to keep my eyes open, but I’m just so scared that they squeeze shut. All my insides are moving around, and I feel like I’m getting light-headed.

Maybe this wasn’t my best idea after all.

“Aurora!” Dusty calls. “Start gliding!”

What’s he mean by that?

“Aurora, open your eyes!”

I manage to do as he says, and when I look back, there are two enormous bronze wings coming out of my back, currently doing nothing. I don’t know how I know how to move them, but I spread them wide and face downwards, getting some control over my fall. I dip down and back up, then begin flapping them. I can’t believe it: I’m flying.

“Cool, huh?” he asks, slapping a hoof on my shoulder.

I try to say something, but I’ve just got this stupid smile on my face as I’m running my hoof up and down my metal wings.

“Try them out for a bit,” he suggests. “Don’t lie; you’ve always wanted to fly, right?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “You know, I don’t think pegasi realize how cool it is that they can fly.” I fly up a few inches, then do a flip. “Does this mean we’re alicorns now?”

“Guess so,” he smiles. “You know, wouldn’t it be cool if these were real? Let earth ponies and unicorns fly?”

“You should try and make them,” I suggest. “You know, you’re already in Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. I hear that once you get to a certain point in there, you’re basically just given time and some funding and told to do something original.”

“I mean, they would be cool,” he admits. “Lots of ponies have tried to make things like this, though. They still haven’t gotten it down yet.”

“Somepony’s got to make them,” I smile.

He just shrugs. “Maybe, maybe not. I have a lot of ideas I just like to throw around, so I’m just not sure I’d ever get to these.”

“Is there a lot more in this world?” I ask, looking below us to just see clouds and fog. “It really sounds like you dream about here a lot.”

He thinks about it a little bit, flicking his ear a tiny bit. “I think so. I don’t usually remember my dreams very well.” He looks at me and stops fidgeting with his ear. “Why is that, by the way?”

“I, hm…” I cross my front legs and start thinking. There may actually be a reason, because Luna can’t be in everypony’s dreams and making them forget her, right? Regardless, I probably shouldn’t tell him about that. Luna really made it sound like it’s a secret that I should keep.

“It’s fine if you don’t know,” he says with a wave of his hoof. “Just curious.”

“I’m glad I came here tonight,” I smile. “It’s nice talking with you. Kind of why I…” I smile weirdly and blush just a little. “You know. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a little bit of a crush on you.”

“Well, we’ll have to do stuff together.” He looks off in thought for a moment, then looks back at me. “We could probably do homework together or something.”

“That sounds nice.” We look each other in the eyes, and his seem so much warmer and brighter than they do in our world. “I’m sure if we put our heads together, we can probably do it well enough that we won’t have to keep getting all our answers off of Glacial.”

I giggle, then look up and see the gray mist leading to the dream world. “Well, I need to head back soon, it’s getting late.”

Out of the corners of my eyes, I see him fly up next to me and look up as well. “Aren’t you dreaming right now?”

“I mean, technically. Why?”

“So you’re already sleeping, then.”

I shake my head. “Nope, there’s a difference between Dreamstriding and sleeping. Dreamstriding is forcing your body to dream, so your mind’s still active. I can still fall asleep naturally and get some rest, but can’t Dreamstride then. And even though I'm technically asleep when I'm Dreamstriding, it's not resting, so it's like you're still awake.”

“I see,” he nods. “So what are we looking at?”

I look from the mist to him, and he does the same. “What do you mean?”

“You’re just flying there, looking at the sky. Do you see something?”

It takes me a moment while I just process what he said. “What do you see when you look up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Just look up and tell me what you see.”

Shrugging after looking at me strangely for a few seconds, he looks back up. “Just the sky. Am I missing something?”

“No gray mist?”

He shakes his head. “No, just the sky and some steam from the platforms. No mist or anything like that.”

“Guess the steam just looks weird to me,” I lie. I don’t know what Luna’s policy on telling ponies about the dream world, so maybe it’s best I just say nothing. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school, I guess?”After smiling and nodding, he flies back up to the closest platform. The metallic feathers of his wings all retract into the base, which then folds up and just disappears into his back.

“Great seeing you!” he yells down before going back to work on something on the platform. I wonder, will I be able to leave from here? Guess there’s only one way to find out. I prepare myself for jumping up and out of the dream, and I start moving up without my wings flapping. Guess it does work.

When I get through the mist and land on my hooves in the dream world, I feel another hoof on my shoulder. “Aurora,” Luna’s voice says. She’s not angry, but she definitely isn’t very happy to see me.

“Yes?” I ask weakly, hoping it’s not all that bad.

“What did I tell you about the dangers of Dreamstriding?”

I sigh. “That if I don’t know what I’m doing, it could be dangerous.”

Her hoof comes off me as she walks in front of me and looks down. “What did you do in that dream?”

“Just talked to him. Didn’t do anything else.”

She closes her eyes and shakes her head a little bit. “Aurora, I have told you to not enter other ponies’ dreams because I value both the safety of both you and them.”

“I’m sorry,” I mutter.

“And did you really only enter his dream so you may speak with him?”

Instead of using words, I just nod my head. I can tell she’s kind of disappointed, and I don’t really want to admit out loud that I was doing things she told me not to.

Instead of disappointment, her face instead gets a small and warm smile. “Well, you clearly wish to be using your gift to traverse the dream world. Maybe I shall increase the rigor of your training so you may be safe and know what to do with Dreamstriding? Whether this is your punishment or simply an assignment in lieu of it is your choice, though I feel this is the best move for you as of now.” She points towards the mouth of the cave, which is where my dream is. “Although the best move for you at this very moment is to go to bed; it is late, and you have school tomorrow.”

“Fine.” I start going towards my dream, but not because she told me to. I was going to do this anyways. As I stick a hoof in, I look back at Luna, who’s diving into somepony else’s dream. If she’s to be believed about getting me to start taking on the duties of a Dreamstrider, then I guess that’ll be me really soon.

Chapter 14

I take a deep breath and try to focus. All sounds start dying down, and the I stop feeling the wind blowing my mane. I can feel the magic inside of me well up, and before long, I feel connected to the ambient magic all around me.

I can feel some pain coming from a ways away, so I stand up and try and figure out where it’s coming from. After slowly turning around, it seems to be coming from in front of me and to the left. Slowly but surely, the feeling is getting stronger and stronger as I continue walking. The anxiety and nervousness I’m feeling about this is so intense that I don’t even notice the tree that I run face-first into.

Great. That feeling was so hard to lock onto, and now I’ve lost it. After a few minutes of closing my eyes and trying to get back into the right mindset, I finally manage to hone in again on the feeling and continue in the same direction that I was before. Before long, I find myself in a small clearing with a few puddles of mist. The feeling of pain is pretty strong, and I can’t pinpoint the exact location like this, so I close my eyes again.

While I can’t exactly sense where the pain is coming from, I do have a better feeling of where it is now. Moving as slowly as I can as to not break my concentration, I go in the direction of the pain. Eventually, I end up at what I think is the dream, so I open my eyes and look down. This is definitely it.

Deep breath, Aurora. First time Dreamstriding by myself, so no pressure. Not like there are demons in this poor pony’s dream that I need to defeat without Luna’s help. Guess the only thing I can do is go in and try.

I place a hoof in and go inside, gently floating down to the ground. A bit of dust kicks up when my hooves hit the ground, and I look around to see a bunch of houses in two straight rows and one house at the end of the street I’m on, looking out over the rest of the town. It appears this is everything there, without anything else beyond the houses. There’s a cool wind that blows through and nearly gets some dust in my eyes, which reminds me that I need to try and distance myself from the dream. While I do manage to warm up a little bit, I’m not able to do it as well as Luna did it for me when I was in that one colt’s dream.

“Hello?” I call out. My voice just echoes off the rocky walls of the canyon we’re in. “Anypony here?”

The door to the house at the end of the street creaks open, which causes me to snap my head there. My eyes meet with whoever is behind the door, but it just slams shut as soon as they see me looking at them. Could they be the dreamer? They’re probably pretty scared, which would explain why they closed the door so quickly. My best lead, I guess.

I walk up to the house and knock on the door, but I can’t hear any movement from the other side so I knock again. “I know you’re there,” I say to the door. “I saw you when I was in the street.”

There’s a long pause, then some hooves trying to softly trot over to the door. “Who are you?” a mare’s voice asks shakily.

Shoot. How do I introduce myself? Do I tell her I’m a Dreamstrider? Do I tell her there are demons in her dream? Whatever I say, I probably need to be really convincing, because she sounds like an adult. If she’s an adult like she sounds like, she’s probably like most other adults I know and doesn’t think I’m able to help her.

“Who are you?” she demands, louder and more intense this time.

“I’m Aurora,” I blurt out. “I’m here to help.”

“Help?” she repeats. She opens the door quickly, then looks down at me and frowns a little in dissatisfaction. “You’re a kid.”

“So?” I ask back. “You need help, don’t you?”

She cranes her neck and appears to be looking behind me, then opens the door a little more. “I don’t know how you plan to help, but you can come in.”

I walk up the few steps into her house, and the door slams shut almost as soon as I walk in, nearly taking a few hairs off my tail. She moves quickly into the other room, and so I follow her. She’s sitting at a table, fiddling with her hooves. When she hears me walk in, she looks up, her purple mane with a bright blue stripe in it bobbing as her head snaps up.

“So.” She narrows her eyes and studies me. “What exactly is a little filly doing here? And why does she say she plans to help?” She does the look behind me thing again, and now I can tell that she’s looking at my flank. “And why do you still have your Cutie Mark?”

“I, uh…” I’m not sure which of those to answer first. Those first two questions I always ran over in my head when I would pretend to be a Dreamstrider, but that last one is just so odd. Why wouldn’t I have a Cutie Mark?

I’m just standing there for a little bit, so she gets up from the table and stands over me, staring me down. “Answer me, Aurora.”

“You need help, don’t you?” Her glare just hardens a little bit. “There’s something here upsetting you, isn’t there? You’re having a nightmare.”

“A dream?” She smiles, then steps away from me. “Of course, a dream! That explains everything!” With a huge smile, she turns back towards me. “So I just need to wake up, right! So…” She concentrates, but nothing happens. “How is it exactly you’re supposed to do that?”

“I have to help you,” I explain, taking a few steps closer to her. “There’s something here giving you the nightmare. Do you have any idea of what it is?”

Sighing, she sits at the table and places a hoof on her forehead. “Yeah. I think I know exactly what you mean.”

Guess that saves me some trouble of having to figure out what’s going on here. “What’s the nightmare, then?”

After just looking down at the table for a moment, she shakes her head. “Those ponies, the rest of the ones in the town.”

“Why? Why are they giving you a nightmare?”

“This is…” She pauses. “Our Town. I talked some ponies into coming here, lured them with false hope and empty promises. Took advantage of those who were suffering and tried to warp them to my own twisted ideals.”

I sit down across from her. “What did you do?”

“I took their cutie marks.” She looks back at mine. “That’s why I was surprised to see yours. I thought Cutie Marks divided ponies, fostered egotism and narcissism. But Twilight Sparkle showed me the way, showed me that it was only my own egotism and narcissism I was nurturing. She chased me out, and then I looked inside myself and saw only hatred. She took me in, and little by little has helped me chip away at all that anger which was building up inside.”

Wait, she knows Princess Twilight? And lives with her, too? I guess this means that the clearing this dream was in is Ponyville in our world.

“How are you here, by the way?” she asks. “You weren’t one of the fillies in the village, and I’ve never met anypony named Aurora before. And you knew this was a dream, as well.”

“You know how Princess Luna can enter our dreams at night?” She nods. “Well, I can do that too. And I’m here to help you.”

“Send a little filly to help me,” she laughs. “So what is it you need to do? Quick spell and leave me to a restful night’s sleep, is that just it?”

“Just give me a minute,” I tell her while waving a hoof at her. Clearly whatever demon is in her mind is a malevolent demon, I can tell there’s a lot of pain in her mind. She knows this place well, so it’s a specific thing that’s giving her a nightmare, not just a general feeling of dread. Her fear is specific. What was it Luna taught me about P sounds? That’s right: specific, preying. They’re preying demons. Now I remember.

“I know what to do now,” I tell her. “They’re a special type of de...creature that likes to prey on your fears.” She seems pretty upset, so telling her she has a demon in her mind probably isn’t the best move.

“Okay.” She stands up and walks around to my side of the table and extends a hoof down. “My name’s Starlight, by the way.”

Starlight, that name sounds familiar. I think I’ve heard a little bit about her as Princess Twilight’s new student! Wait, so we’re basically in pretty similar positions since I’m Luna’s student and she’s Princess Twilight’s. I wonder if we’ll cross paths again in the future.

I take her hoof, and we walk to the front door together. Nervously, she opens it and steps out into the street and just looks around. It’s still as empty as when I was in the road, so I’m wondering if there really are any ponies in her dream. If it’s a whole town’s worth, I don’t think just one demon would be able to copy all of them so she would recognize them and scare her.

“Come out!” she yells. “I’m not scared of you anymore!”

The doors to all the houses in the town open up, and lost of ponies with identical mane styles, cutie marks, and smiles all step out, every hoofstep in unison with each other.

“Starlight!” a mare with a dark and dull purple coat and a mane done up in a bun yells at us. “Give us our cutie marks back!”

“Go!” Starlight demands, pushing me forward towards them. “Do whatever it is you said you could do!”

Since that mare is the one that yelled at us, she’s probably the demon. I get the spell ready in my head, and when it’s done and I add the part specific to preying demons, a bright blue beam of magic shoots out of my horn and hits her, but it does nothing.

“What was that supposed to be?” She steps down into the street, and the other ponies do the same as her. “Starlight, you’ve gone too far! She’s just a little filly, don’t lie to her like you did to the rest of us!”

“You said you could fix this!” Starlight hisses at me.

“I thought I did!” I did everything Luna told me to do; I figured out the problem, I used that information to figure out what demon was in her dream, and I cast the appropriate spell. A preying demon can only take the form of one thing or pony, and she’s the only one that’s spoken up, which means she has to be it.

“Run!” Starlight yells, grabbing my hoof and practically dragging me out of the town.

“Slow down!” I yell back.

She growls, then lets me go and continues running. I have to give it everything I have, but I’m able to at least not lose sight of her. She ducks behind a big rock, so I run behind it and nearly fall down because of how tired I am.

“Who are they?” I manage to get out between deep pants. I’m really winded from having to run so fast, so I just sit down.

Poking her head out from where we’re hiding, she looks around and then back at me. “They’re the ones I manipulated and lied to,” she says. She’s breathing heavier than normal, but she’s not quite as bad as me.

“What did you tell them?”

She looks at her own flank, and her Cutie Mark looks like it’s the exact same one as the rest of the ponies in the town. I don’t quite think I noticed that until now. It’s just two black bars making an equal sign.

“I told them…” She trails off, then just shakes her head. “Told them that being special and different was bad, and that I could cure everything that was going wrong in their lives by removing their Cutie Marks and the special talent that came with it. And in my hubris, I kept them and proudly displayed every Cutie Mark I had removed. I thought it would remind them of everything they had gone through and all the pain and suffering they brought, but it just made them realize that I was a false prophet and reminded of how much they enjoyed being unique and special.”

“You displayed them?” I ask. “The thing giving you nightmares likes to disguise itself as things, so it could be disguised as their Cutie Marks! And it locates something in your mind that you’re afraid of, so are you scared of those ponies or something?”

Slow, sad nodding is my answer. “Yes, while I did come back here and they did forgive me when I apologized, I’m afraid that they did not truly mean it. I suppose that thing could be masquerading as the Cutie Mark Vault…”

“Let’s go, then!” I try and grab her hooves and pull her up, but I’m not strong enough to be able to pull a full-grown mare up without her putting some effort in as well.

“Whatever gets this over with,” she groans, getting to her hooves. “Why did Princess Luna send you, anyways? Why didn’t she come herself?”

“This is, uh…” I blush and try not to look at her because she’ll probably get mad. “Obviously I have to learn how to do this by myself, so this is my first time doing it without her.”

I can hear her start to groan a little bit, but then I look back and she’s just taking a few deep breaths. I can feel the magic around her is kind of tense, so she’s probably trying to keep herself from blowing up in my face.

“Everything okay?” I ask.

After taking a slow and deep breath, she nods. “Yes, I have some anger management issues, as you have probably figured out by now. And this is as much a test of my patience at having a little filly come protect my dreams as it is a test of your powers.”

Ouch, she’s definitely being kind of rude right now. But I guess I should just keep my mouth shut; she seems really upset by all this, so I probably shouldn’t be fighting her.

“Up here.” She points ahead towards a path up the mountain. “That’s the way to the Vault.”

We walk a little bit up the hill, and a cave entrance comes into view not that far in front of us. She sends me in first, then looks around to make sure none of the townsponies followed us before coming in herself.

A bright blue light nearly blinds me when I turn around to look in the cave, and only once I squint my eyes can I make out the individual little boxes with all sorts of Cutie Marks in them.

“Horrifying, isn’t it?” Starlight asks, going up to the Vault and putting a hoof on it. “And to think there was a time I saw beauty in this.”

The light dies down, so I walk closer to it and start studying it. “I didn’t even know it was possible to remove a Cutie Mark.”

“It was an old spell, one I had to search hard for.” She picks up a stick that’s just lying there on the ground with her magic, then twirls it around a little. “I told them that it was one of Meadowbrook’s enchanted items, and that’s how I was able to remove their marks.” Sticking the staff in the dirt, she walks back up to me and looks at it. “But it’s just a stick. I wouldn’t be able to remove their Cutie Marks if I removed my own, so I had to lie and pretend it was the Staff of Sameness that was doing it.”

I point to her flank, which has the same equals sign the other ponies in town had. “So then why’s your Cutie Mark the same as theirs?”

After quickly licking her hoof, she rubs it on her flank and causes her Cutie Mark to start running. “It’s painted on.” I think I can see a little bit of blue start to appear now that her painted-on Mark is starting to disappear.

“Hey!” the mare from earlier calls from outside the cave. “She’s in here!”

“Go, quick!” Starlight panics, pacing nervously in place. “Do your thing on the Vault!”

Powering up my horn, I quickly face the Vault and try to concentrate through all the noise of the other ponies yelling things at Starlight, a lot of those things being words I would get in a lot of trouble if mom or dad ever heard me use.

When the spell is all done, I fire it off at the Vault and look at it, waiting for something to happen. But nothing does.

“You said you knew what you were you doing!” she yells at me, the veins in her neck starting to pop. “You...you...moron! You came in here and you messed everything up, and now whatever this creature is is probably going to destroy my mind because you aggravated it! Yes, I’ve been having nightmares about what I’ve done, but you decided to come in here without knowing a single damn thing about what you were doing and making all these big promises and not even once making a difference, because all you are is a little—”

“That’s enough,” a stern and familiar voice announces from above us. When Starlight looks up to see who’s talking, I turn around and wipe the tears from my eyes so she can’t see that I’m about to start crying. At least I’m trying to help, she didn’t have to be so mean to me.

“Princess Luna?” she asks in disbelief as I can hear wings flapping down to the ground.

“First things first, I believe you owe my student an apology.” I can feel a hoof on my shoulder which turns me around, and Starlight looks down.

“I’m...sorry,” she mumbles. From the look on her face, she really is sorry she yelled at me.

“Second, Aurora: you are close to the demon here, but you were incorrect that it was either Sugar Belle or the Cutie Mark Vault. Do you have a third guess?”

I look around the cave we’re in, and weirdly enough, all the ponies that were running at us are frozen in time and not moving. She’s right; I can tell that we’re close to the demon, but I can’t figure out exactly which one it is so I shake my head. “No, I don’t have any clue what it could be.”

The Staff of Sameness is engulfed in magic the same color as Luna’s as it’s pulled out of the dirt and levitated in front of my face. “Not even this?”

I point my hoof at it. “The demon’s that thing?” I’d think a demon would like to take the form of something other than a plain old stick. I certainly would if I could transform into anything I wanted.

“Yes,” she nods. “Now, would you like to try to repel this demon one last time?”

Not even saying anything, I start to prepare the spell for a third time. This time, when I cast it on the Staff in front of me, it morphs into what looks like a big lizard with six legs and scurries out of the cave.

“Did it work?” Starlight asks worriedly.

“Yes,” Luna confirms. “That creature was a preying demon, which can enter your mind and look for specific things you are afraid of. It found this, and so it transformed into the Staff of Sameness and created this dreamscape to frighten you.”

“This doesn’t frighten me,” she asserts. “It makes me feel awful about what I’ve done, but it doesn’t scare me.”

“Interesting.” Luna turns to me. “Do you have any idea why the preying demon would choose that form and this location, then?”

“No, I thought preying demons only targeted fear, not regret.”

“Exactly,” she smiles. “Starlight, are you not afraid of yourself?”

“What?” she asks, almost like she didn’t hear Luna right. “Afraid of myself?”

“Yes. It wasn’t Meadowbrooks or some other magical force that removed all their Cutie Marks, it was you. You were the one who deceived them, you were the one who took advantage of them, you were the one to remove the one thing that made them feel any sort of self-worth.”

She sniffles and wipes a tear from her eye. “You’re not making me feel really good about myself, Princess.”

“You’re afraid of all the hatred inside of you,” she continues, seemingly not hearing Starlight. “It took the form of the Staff of Sameness because it symbolized the fact that you, by your own hoof, hurt so many. There was nopony else to share the blame.” She walks up to her and puts a hoof on her comfortingly. “Starlight, I know you returned to Our Town and reconciled for your actions, and I know they forgave you. Twilight Sparkle is teaching you to let go of your hatred, to not let it define who you are as a pony. View this moment not as shameful, but as an opportunity. You realized you were filled with hate, you realized your views were hypocritical because you kept your own Cutie Mark, and you shut it all out. Anything that disagreed with you, whether it was another pony or yourself, you silenced. You’re not like that anymore, Starlight Glimmer. You are not consumed by the hatred that once dictated your every move.”

Starlight looks at where the other ponies were, and it’s now just the empty mouth to the cave. “I’m not exactly sure you’re right about all of that, though,” she admits.

“You admitted you had a problem and you want to change.” A warm smile grows on her face. “Those are the two most important steps in changing who you are.”

She tries to put her head down, but Luna puts a hoof under her chin and brings it up again. “You really think I’m redeemable, even after seeing the Cutie Mark Vault for yourself?”

“There is good inside of you,” she assures her. “Do not forget that. The path to redemption is long and difficult, though rewarding. Believe me, I know.”

“You can’t change what you’ve done, but you can change what you’re going to do,” I add in. “Strong ponies aren’t strong because they never make mistakes, they’re strong because they learn from them and move on.”

“Thanks,” she says, but it still doesn’t quite sound like she believes us.

“You should speak with Twilight Sparkle if you still feel this guilt,” Luna suggests. “You greatly offended her by trying to destroy your friendships, yet she still forgave you and took you in. Perhaps she can enlighten you on the goodness inside of you that you do not seem to be able to see, because she clearly is able to.”

“Yeah, thanks,” she replies quickly, almost as if she doesn’t want to hear us talk about how she really is good on the inside.

“We must go, but we wish you luck on your journeys.” Luna motions her head to the exit and starts walking out, and I follow behind her.

“Well?” I ask meekly, giving her a worried smile. “How’d I do?”

“You did...well.”

“You paused. That means I didn’t do well, does it?”

“Well, as you know, you did not do perfectly. I did follow you, and you did well; you found the dreamer and from the spell you cast were correct in identifying the demon, but were incapable of finding it yourself. Granted, it was hiding in a strange place, but you should have been able to find it yourself by focusing and looking for the magic that demons give off.”

“So does this mean you’ll let me Dreamstride by myself or not?”

“You will not be able to Dreamstride entirely by yourself. I will do as I did now, following you while you try to do so yourself. But unlike this time, I will let you know that I am present. I will simply observe and help you on the things you are lacking in.”

Well, I didn’t completely fail, so I guess it’s not all bad. Still, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped to do.

“You are relieved for the night,” Luna says, looking up at the gray mist that is the sky. “It is getting quite late, so you must be tired.”

Now that she mentions it, I really am. “Thanks for stepping in, by the way.”

“It is no problem,” she replies warmly. With that, she jumps up and before long disappears into the mist and out of this dream. I do the same, and before long, my hooves touch back down on the cold grass of the forest clearing. She’s about to take flight and go monitor all the dreams of Equestria, so I turn back towards Canterlot Cave and just start walking.

Chapter 15

“Aurora!” Luna calls out from behind me, so I turn around to see her at the entrance to the balcony I’m currently standing on.

“Yeah?” She looks like she has something important to tell me.

“I was looking all over for you!” she laughs, coming out onto the balcony and putting her front hooves on the railing. “Watching them set up the carnival for the Summer Sun Celebration?”

I just smile and nod, not even saying anything. The Summer Sun Celebration back home is going to be nothing like the one in Canterlot! In Coltlumbus, most ponies just have their own parties and then watch the sunrise in their yards or on their front porches. Mom and dad don’t even let me stay up all night, so it’s not even like I’ve ever had a proper Celebration before.

A smile of her own grows on Luna’s face, though she starts shaking her head lightly. “Unfortunately for us, however, the Summer Sun Celebration is also a time of great work for the Dreamstriders, especially here in Canterlot. Here, ponies have parties and festivities the entire week leading up to the actual Celebration itself, and many of them last late into the night or even into the next morning.” Her smile fades as she looks to me. “Can you guess what that means?”

I don’t really know where she’s going with this, so I just shrug. “It’s a lot of fun to live in Canterlot?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “Many ponies are very tired the week preceding the grand ceremony, and when that is combined with their bright and cheery moods from all the celebration, it means they are easy targets for demons. There is much more for them to prey on when they enter their dreams, and because they are very tired, their minds’ natural defenses are less capable.”

Upon hearing this, my ears droop and I just rest my chin on the railing. Who would have thought that a week of parties would just mean more work? Not even fun gets to be fun.

“I just figured you should be up to date on our responsibilities,” she says, taking her hooves off the railing and walking back to the doorway back into the castle. “I will not have you Dreamstride every night, though you will be doing so more than you have been recently.” There’s a small twinkle in her eye. “And after the Celebration is over, I was thinking you could go back home for the summer?”

Just the thought of that makes me smile. Hearth’s Warming break was the last time I was able to be home, so it’s been nearly half a year. I get to write letters all the time and Luna is nice to be around, but I still miss everypony back home.

“One more thing,” she says before she gets entirely in the castle. “They let the ponies who work in the castle and their families attend the carnival for one day before it opens to the public, and they don’t have to pay anything to get in, eat, ride any rides, or play the games. I suggest going when they open that up so you do not have to spend any of your bits.” She takes a few more steps, then quickly snaps back to me.

“Oh, and try and win one of the sun necklaces from the ring toss booth. Celestia has always been just terrible at that game, and she wants one of those necklaces oh so badly.” She winks. “Help another little sister annoy her big sister, will you?”

“I’ll try my best,” I laugh.

Man, sentry duty is really, really boring.

I thought something with a name like ‘sentry duty’ would involve me running around and rooting out demons that have nested themselves in ponies’ dreams, but Luna just told me to sit at the mouth of Canterlot Cave and watch for demons. I guess I’ve been able to practice my Demon because a few playful demons have been running around, but they’re really excited so they don’t have a lot of time to sit and chat. I think they were saying that this time of year is one of the best for dreams, but I didn’t understand every word they were saying. I guess it would make sense.

Out of boredom, I decide to pick up a pebble in my hoof and look at it. Feels just like a pebble in the awakened world, which is really weird. I thought everything in this world was supposed to be made up of magic, but it feels dry and smooth like any old pebble.

I look up and chuck it at one of the trees in the small forest, and it bounces off and makes a noise just like I thought it would. Well, I guess that experiment is over. Turns out rocks are rocks, no matter what world they’re in.

“Hello?” a weak voice calls from outside the cave. That’s weird, it doesn’t sound like Luna’s voice.

“Hello?” I call back. “Is somepony there?”

“I don’t know where I am,” the voice whimpers. There’s some sniffling that sounds like they’re about to cry, so I get up and walk to the source of the noise, and there’s a little earth pony filly with a soft red coat and a gold mane sitting down and crying in the grass.

“Who are you?” I ask, walking up to her and looking down.

She grabs one of my forelegs and rests her head on it. “I don’t know where I am, and I’m scared.”

“How did you get here?”

She rubs her nose with her hoof and gets a little bit of snot on it. “I don’t know. I fell asleep, and I woke up here and I can’t find my mommy and daddy.”

I look down at her, and now she’s using my leg to rub her nose on. Gross. “Do you live in Canterlot?”

She nods.

“Well, I can help you get back there.” With a smile, I squat down to her level and hold her hooves in mine. “It’ll be okay, I know how to get you home.”

She stands up, then rubs her eyes again. “Okay.”

When I get up as well, I take her hoof in my own and walk back towards the cave. “My name’s Aurora, by the way. What’s yours?”

“Rosemary,” she says. “Where are we?”

“You’re just having a nightmare,” I lie. That’s not the truth, but I guess you could argue I’m not exactly lying either. She had to have been dreaming to get here, but then the question is how she got into the dream world. I guess Luna once brought me into her dream from mine, so somepony must have done that to her. I don’t think there are any demons that do that, but Luna did once tell me that there are probably demons we don’t even know about so it could have been one of those.

“What’s this?” Rosemary asks once we get to the mouth of the cave.

“You just have to find the one that feels right to you,” I say, leading her by the hoof into the cave with all the puddles of mist leading to dreams. “That’s how you get back home.”

She takes her hoof off mine and walks to some of the dreams, then stops after a few and points at the one in front of her. “I think it’s this one.”

“So it feels familiar?” I clarify, going up next to her.

“Yeah,” she nods.

“Okay, just hold on tight.” I pick her up and go into the dream, going through the mist and gently floating to the ground. When we land, a nice strong smell of spice hits my nose and makes me hungry.

“We’re home now, Rosemary.” I wait for a response, but don’t get one so I look around and can’t see anypony in what looks like the restaurant we’re in.

“Father!” a completely different pony’s voice calls from through the door leading to what looks like the kitchen. “Did you move my mango sharbat? You know I’ve been wanting to introduce it ever since we opened the restaurant!”

A unicorn mare with a dark purple mane and adorned with gold jewelry walks out of the kitchen looking confused, and when she looks at me, her confusion looks like it gets worse. “And who are you?”

“I’m Aurora,” I say. “Are you Rosemary’s mother or something?”

“Rosemary?” she asks. “My name is Saffron Masala. I don’t know any ponies by that name, and I certainly do not have any children.” She walks up to me and looks down. “And why are you even in here? We’re not open this late. Where are your parents?”

“There was a little filly that came in here recently,” I tell her. “Maybe four years old, red coat and a gold mane?”

“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “I don’t know every pony that comes in here. If she was with her parents, she’s gone now; we closed nearly two hours ago.”

All of a sudden the earth shakes, causing some of the rugs hanging from the rafters and other ornaments on the wall to fall to the ground.

“Baap re!” she exclaims. “What in all of Equestria is that?”

“It’s just, uh…” To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what’s going on. I have no idea where Rosemary is, and I have no idea who this pony is if she doesn’t know her. Is it possible I brought her into the wrong dream? I’ve never asked what would happen if one non-Dreamstrider were to go into another pony’s dream, so I guess this could be what’s happening. “I’ll be right back!”

Before the mare can successfully ask me anything, I jump out of her dream and run up to the mouth of the cave to light up my horn.

I hope I can remember exactly how this spell works. “Luna!” I yell in Demon. “I need your help!”

I really hope I did this correctly, but all I can do it wait for her to fly here and see if I was right. I know she said that she usually doesn’t patrol for demons too far away from the Canterlot Cave, especially with me still being kind of new at this.

After maybe a couple minutes, she comes zooming in and lands right in front of me, breathing a little heavily. “I got your message. What is it?”

“I think I brought somepony to the wrong dream,” I tell her.

“You…” She just stands there, clearly thinking something over. “I...fail to understand what it is you did.”

“There was a little filly wandering around here that didn’t know where she was,” I start to explain. “I brought her back to her dream, but I think it was the wrong one because there was another pony there that didn’t know who she was and then everything started shaking, so I left and called for you.”

“You lead her into a dream?” she yells, much angrier than I anticipated.

“Yeah. Why?”

“Which dream was it?” she asks, storming past me. “Which dream did you let her in?”

“It was…” I look out over all the dreams in the cave, but they all look identical so I can’t tell which dream is which. “I don’t know.”

Not even saying anything, she closes her eyes and lights up her horn. A little ball of light comes out of her horn after a few seconds, so she opens her eyes and goes to the dream that the magic light is hovering over. She disappears into it, so I guess I should follow her.

Once I end up on the ground of the dream, I can look around and see that one of the walls of the restaurant is gone and the world is now a bright, harsh red. Luna and that other mare are nowhere to be found, so the only thing I can think of is to go through the hole and try and find something. Some ponies are yelling from the street, so I turn there and look at all the ponies just staring up at the roof of the restaurant.

“You!” the same mare from before calls from the crowd as she marches up to me. “What is going on?”

Before I can think of anything, a beam of magic shoots down from the restaurant’s roof into the crowd, not hitting anypony but getting pretty close to a few of them. When I look to where it came from, I can see Luna on the top of the building, horn all alight and a determined look on her face.

“Luna!” I call up to her. “What’s going on?”

“Not now!” she yells back. She powers up her horn again and shoots it at one of the ponies in the crowd, a shorter and heavier unicorn that looks kind of like the mare that’s next to me. Instead of being hit by it, he turns into a cloud of mist which floats a few inches to the side, but when he comes back he looks like the mare now.

“You’ll have to catch me!” the former mist pony yells in a perfect copy of the mare’s voice. She turns around and starts running, and Luna outstretches her wings to take flight and chase her. I try to follow them, but the real mare grabs me by the shoulder and holds me back.

“I need answers,” she insists. “First off, why did my father just turn into me, and second, why is Princess Luna chasing him?”

“I don’t know, but I have to go help her!” I throw her hoof off me and start running down the street in the direction I think I saw them go.

After a few blocks, I can see Luna flying above the buildings, slowly scanning the area with her eyes. Out of the corner of my eye I can see the mare slowly moving down an alley, her eyes to the sky as she inches forward.

Instinctively, I shoot her with a stunning spell, knocking her over stiff as a board. “Luna!” I yell to her. “She’s down here, quick! I stunned her!”

Without even so much as a second thought, her head snaps to where I am and sees the mare lying on the ground, then shoots her with the same spell as before. She turns into mist, but unlike last time, it floats up out of the dream instead of turning into another pony.

“Meet me outside,” she demands before floating up and out of the dream. Judging by the tone of her voice, she is definitely not happy with me. But I have to face her eventually, so I jump up and start floating out of the room as well.

When my hooves land on the ground of the cave, I look down because I don’t want to look Luna in the eye. “What is it?” I ask.

“What is it?” she repeats. “Do you not know what it is you did? You put that mare in serious jeopardy by doing what you did!”

“What happened to that other filly?” I ask.

“Aurora, think for a moment,” she says, abruptly changing the subject. “How many ponies are there in the world that know how to travel between the awakened world and the dream world?”

“Five, right? You, me, and those other three Dreamstriders.”

“No,” she shakes her head. “They can move between worlds, but only you and I know how to do so. I never mentioned bringing a pony through, and you did not do so.”

“So then who was that little filly I saw earlier?”

“‘She’ was a demon,” she says, the anger in her voice intensifying.

“But how? She looked exactly like a pony!”

“Exactly. It was a silvertongue demon, a habitual liar that can mimic ponies perfectly. You should have known when you saw a pony that was not me walking around the dream world.”

“I’m sorry,” I mumble. All I tried to do was help a little filly who was crying because she couldn't find her parents.

“You were at least right to call me,” she sighs. “Silvertongue demons are very dangerous; not only do they give the dreamer nightmares, but they open the way for many other malevolent demons to enter a pony’s dreams. If that demon were left unchecked, that mare would have been plagued by awful nightmares and who knows what else because of all the demons that would have flocked to her.”

“So...what now?”

“You go back to sentry duty,” she says, pointing back towards the mouth of the cave. “And under no, I repeat, no circumstances, do you let in a pony that is not me.”

“But how will I know it’s you?” I ask. “How will I know if it’s really another demon disguised as you?”

“I will be able to get into dreams very easily,” she answers. “Everypony has natural defenses against malevolent demons in their minds, and they will need to get past that. I assume you and the silvertongue were touching each other when you entered that other mare’s dream?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “Why?”

“That is how it was able to get in without having to remove those barriers. As Dreamstriders, we have the mark of a benevolent demon on us. Ponies’ minds will not try and keep us out, so it used that to its advantage by having you touch it and therefore letting it bypass her dream’s defenses. If you are unsure if it is really me should I show up, let me in and observe me; if I enter a dream easily, it is me. If it seems to be doing something to the dream, it is a demon. Is that clear?”

“It is,” I nod again. “Luna, are you mad at me?”

“Somewhat,” she responds. “We all make mistakes, although the one you made happened to have the potential of being very costly. I am just glad you chose to seek out my help instead of trying to fix it yourself, which could have just made the problem much worse.” Spreading her wings, she walks out of the cave and looks back. “I must return to patrolling the dream world, and you must get back to sentry duty over Canterlot. Remember: no malevolent demons are to get past you, and the only pony allowed inside is me. Are we clear?”

I nod, then go back to the cave’s entrance when she flies away and sit down. Right back to boredom, like nothing just happened.

I really hope Luna isn’t too mad at me.

Chapter 16

I never realized it until I moved to Canterlot, but the night sky in Coltlumbus has so many more stars than anywhere else I’ve been in the awakened world.

A nice, warm breeze blows past me into my room, making me smile. It’s a clear summer night, there’s hundreds of stars in the sky, and I’m back home for a few months before school starts up again. School here hasn’t gotten out yet so I can’t really go and see Cressie or do anything with Dew Drop, but at least Snowy got out early because she’s a senior. We got to go to the lake together today, and I think it was really the first time she and I have ever done much just the two of us. It was nice, especially because she’s going to Manehattan College next year so it’s not like we’ll be able to see each other that often. I guess when your sister’s nine years older than you, you won’t get much time together when you’re growing up.

I used to like looking up at the stars, but after looking at the sky in the dream world, even the most impressive night sky here is nothing compared to just the regular sky there, let alone the plain Luna once brought me to.

I can hear the door to mom and dad’s room close and them start talking, so I should probably go to bed myself. But once I get in bed, I get to thinking; I haven’t done any Dreamstriding from here, so why not start tonight? I wasn’t able to Dreamstride when I was here over Hearth’s Warming break, and I was too tired from traveling from Canterlot yesterday to try it. Luna really only has me work around Canterlot Cave, and she did say she wants me to start doing it at home every now and then to get used to doing it on my own. Tonight might be the perfect night to figure out what’s around Coltlumbus in the dream world.

After getting in bed and pulling the covers over me, I push through to the dream world and find myself on the edge of a large forest. There are a lot of dreams around me, but it’s nowhere near the number of dreams I usually see in Canterlot. It’s even way less than the number I saw during the night of the Summer Sun Celebration, and most of Canterlot was staying up all night then.

Other than the forest, there really isn’t much here, so I decide to turn and go into it. I do remember Luna once telling me what this forest was called, but I forget what it was. She did give me a map of the dream world for reference, but it’s all in Demon, so I can only understand little bits and pieces of it. Reading Demon is way harder than speaking or hearing it, because I have to do some weird thing where I unfocus my mind but focus my eyes on the writing in front of me. It's not really something I can just get, so I'm going to have to spend a lot of time this summer getting used to that.

Once I’m a little bit into the forest, the canopy starts covering the sky pretty well, making it really dark and hard to see. Is this what normal ponies see when the lights are out? Either my dark vision is worse in the dream world or it’s really, really dark here. If my vision’s just normal here, then that means this is what normal ponies see when it’s dark. It’s amazing anypony can get around anywhere at night if they all can hardly see once it gets dark. Maybe that’s why there are so many street lamps in Canterlot?

There’s some Demon coming from close by, so I stop and try to listen to it. I can’t really make it out from here, so I have to go and try to follow the source of the talking. I have to go through some bushes but then find two love demons on a fallen log, talking to each other. I can tell what type of demon they because love demons always travel in pairs of two and...well, they try and look like ponies, but don’t really seem to know what we look like.

The one on the right is bright pink and has the general shape of a pony right, but the lower half of its face is really long and thin, kind of like an anteater’s and its tail looks more like a fish’s tail than a pony’s. Its dark blue companion has the face and tail and most everything else right, but got the number of legs wrong. At least, I don’t think there’s a pony out there with three extra legs, with one of them coming straight out of its barrel.

“Hey!” I say to them, walking up to the log they’re relaxing on. “What are you doing?”

“Us?” the pink one asks, pointing a hoof at itself. It starts saying some more stuff, and although I can’t seem to understand everything it’s saying, it seems to be defending itself.

”Don’t go near the dreams,” I tell it.

The other one says something else, also in defense of itself. I can’t really tell, but they didn’t sound sincere in the little bit I did manage to pick up. I want to let them go, but Luna said that while love demons aren’t malevolent, they aren’t exactly benevolent, either. She said that if left unchecked, they can cause relationships where there shouldn’t be any, and even cause ponies to ignore their responsibilities and only focus on whoever they’re in love with.

Just to be safe, I power up my horn and shoot a quick spell at their hooves. They both jump back and start yelling stuff at me, but they’re going too fast for me to be able to understand any of it. I shoot another spell, and they seem to get the message this time and run further into the forest. Luckily they can’t actually enter dreams, so if they do ignore me and start doing things in Coltlumbus I’ll know about it.

Once they’re far away, I start walking into the forest. I have to go kind of slowly, but it’s actually kind of beautiful. There’s some cool mist starting to build up, dropping the temperature to the point where I can see my breath. If this really is what normal ponies see at night, I’m almost a little jealous. Having to be more careful with where I go means that I have to notice more of what’s around me. The mist is rising slowly, shimmering with the bright silver moonlight. A little bit of dew is collecting on the fallen blue leaves, getting my hooves damp as I walk.

Some weird sound from far away catches my attention, making me stop and listen. It almost sounded like a snapped twig, but what could be here? I know Luna said that there aren’t a lot of demons in this forest, so I’m racking my brain trying to figure out what it could be.

I open my mouth to call out and ask what’s there, but I probably shouldn’t. I don’t really know that much about where I am, so I don’t want to mess something up and alert something to my presence that I shouldn’t. Instead, I decide to turn towards the source of the noise and walk slowly towards it. I’m not sure if there’s more light or what, but my vision is a little bit better than when I first entered the forest. I know normal ponies talk about how their night vision gets better the longer they’re in the dark which makes no sense, but they all say that, so it must be true.

Since I don’t really know what to do in any situation that could happen, I probably should stay back just to be safe. There’s a bush between whenever the noise is and where I am, so I decide to hide in it and look out into another small clearing where I think whatever’s causing the noise is. I move to the edge of the bush and push aside some branches, which only lets me see some of the clearing because I still can’t see whatever it is that is in there.

The sound of splitting wood comes from the right of the clearing where I can’t see, so I try and turn ever so slowly as to not make any noise myself.

Once I can see what the thing that’s causing the noise is, I have to try not to scream in shock at just how...horrifying it looks. Its basic shape looks like a pony-sized version all the drawings of Ahuizotl from the Daring Do books I’ve seen, but a lot scarier. Like, a lot. It’s bright red, and the nails on its hands and paws are long and jagged. Flesh is rotting off its body at various parts, like on one of its arms and over its stomach, so I can see all of its bloody guts which look like they’re one sudden movement from spilling all over the ground. Just looking at it makes me feel like I’m going to be sick.

My heart nearly stops out of terror when it starts speaking, but it relaxes a little bit when I can tell it’s not talking to me. It runs its claws through the log it’s sitting on, cutting through it and sending splinters everywhere.

“Please!” another voice begs. I turn my head slowly to whatever’s speaking to it, and I can see a playful demon with one of its back legs under a fallen tree, pinning it to the ground.

The Ahuizotl creature responds with something I don’t understand, its voice sounding like it has shards of broken glass in its throat. It gets up and starts walking towards the trapped playful demon, licking its lips menacingly while doing so.

The playful demon continues to beg, but a wicked grin is growing on the other one’s face as it gets closer and closer. Its claws sink into the playful demon’s throat as soon as it gets close enough to do so, dark red blood gushing out of the wound. Now with a full-blown smile on its face, the creature shoves its hand down into the demon’s body, and before long, the ends of its claws start poking out of the demon’s chest.

I want to leave and just start running back to the awakened world, but I’m afraid that the tiniest of movements would catch its attention, and I would soon meet the same fate as that poor demon. It takes everything I have in me to not throw up when the creature rips off a huge chunk of flesh that had previously been the demon’s breast. The creature doesn’t do anything with it, even: it just shoves its hand back inside the demon and starts skewering organs on its nails.

When it starts ripping the rest of the demon to shreds, I figure this is as good a time as any to get away because it’s preoccupied at the moment. I must not have made much noise getting out of the bush, because the sounds of flesh ripping are still coming from the clearing I was just observing. Trotting as quickly and quietly as possible, I retrace my steps out of the forest as best I can. Right as I get out of the forest, I find my dream and jump inside, then push back into the real world.

Jumping back into my body as quickly as I did is pretty jarring, because my heart is racing and I’ve got a little bit of a headache. I take a few deep breaths which helps with my heartbeat, but my head still hurts a little. My mind starts racing almost as soon as my heart stops doing so; what was that thing? I don’t recognize it, and I don’t remember reading about it. Guess that means I have to look it up in the grimoire Luna sent me home with, which is currently looking very out of place on my bookshelf next to all my chapter books and my coloring books from when I was little.

As I hop out of bed and start walking to my desk, I use my magic to grab the grimoire off the shelf and bring it over to me. When I open it up, however, the pages are all entirely blank. Great, it’s one of these books. I hate these.

I close my eyes and pull up the memory of the creature sitting on the log, trying to remember every detail I can. Unfortunately, I’m doing a very good job of it: I don't think I'll ever get that image out of my head. I open the book again, and when I open my eyes, the pages are filled with all kinds of stuff. I don’t get why Luna didn’t just give me a grimoire that has everything in it when you first open it instead of this silly method where you have to think about what it is you want to know about. I don’t get why anypony would write something like this, come to think of it. Just because we can do all this cool and crazy stuff with magic doesn’t necessarily mean we should.

It’s still really hard for me to read Demon, but I at least pick up a little bit. What I saw was a blood demon, which is considered malevolent but I could have probably figured that one out by myself. It goes into a lot more detail, but it starts getting much more technical and advanced so I can’t read any of it.

Now I can only think about what that thing could do if it got into the dreams of somepony in Coltlumbus. Could it, even? Our minds are good at keeping out malevolent demons, but they're not that good. And even if it did manage to get into a dream, I’d feel pretty bad if I just sat around and did nothing while it did whatever it would do. The book isn’t much help, either. It’s nice that I have this so I can read up on anything I need to, but my Demon isn’t good enough for it to be any use. I think I can read something about a forest, which just worries me. There’s a forest right by Coltlumbus in the dream world, is it the same one?

Part of me wants to go back inside the dream world and ask Luna, but I’d be worried about bothering her. I don’t even know how far away Coltlumbus is from Canterlot in the dream world, so it could take her a while to get to me. I know she can fly and that’s how she was able to keep watch over all of Equestria for so long, but we are kind of a small town in the middle of nowhere. I wouldn’t be too surprised if it was like that in both worlds.

I can’t risk it, though. Luna said that being a Dreamstrider meant you had an obligation to the ponies of Equestria to protect them, and I need to protect my hometown. I’d rather call her for no reason than not call her and have something bad happen.

Shutting the book again, I get up and go back to my bed before going back into the dream world. My horn powers up, and I prepare the spell to send a message to her across the dream world.

“Luna! I need you!”

Now all I can do is wait. I want to go into some of the dreams here and see what’s going on in them, but I have to remember that these are the dreams of actual ponies and not to get involved unless needed. And besides, I don’t even know how to clear their memory of me yet. They’d just recognize me, and that wouldn’t end well.

“What is it?” Luna’s voice whispers in my ear, as if she was right next to me.

“Blood demons!” I reply, but get no immediate response.

“I will be there,” I hear after a few moments. Guess I’m not just worrying for nothing, after all. The demon must be alarming if she’s coming for me.

I sit down on the cool blue grass, and after what feels like forever but was probably just a few minutes, I can see her shadow in the sky, wings outstretched and gliding down towards me.

“Where are the demons?” she asks much more calmly than I would have expected.

I point towards the forest. “I saw one in there, it trapped and killed a playful demon.”

“You ventured into the woods?” she clarifies.

“Yeah, why?”

“I would not do so again.” Her voice is strong like it usually is, but I can sense a little bit of worry and unease coming off her.

My heart drops; whatever makes her worry is definitely something to worry about. “Why, what’s in there?”

“Those are the Forests of Arianrhod,” she says softly. “Long ago, there was a Dreamstrider who has been lost to time that placed a protective ward around a large area of this world to keep out malevolent demons; nearly all of the awakened world is contained within it. The Forests are at the very edge of this ward, and when you venture into them, you are no longer protected.”

“But there are malevolent demons we have to protect Equestria from,” I point out. “How can they get through, then?”

“The ward is good, though far from perfect,” she admits. “It does a very good job of keeping particularly powerful and malevolent demons out, though it slips every now and then and lets them in. And even then, it seems to work better on some demons than others: umber demons can pass through the ward with relative ease, but it is rare to see a blood demon inside of the safe area.”

“So...how worried should I be that I saw a blood demon inside the forest?”

“If it was just one, not very,” she confirms. “Thankfully, they are one of the kinds of demons that the ward is most effective against in small numbers, and they have rarely been known to be in groups.”

“Is there anything you can do to make sure it won’t be able to get inside the ward and do any damage to the dreamers?”

My optimism starts fading as she shakes her head. “No, not exactly. Now that you know about the ward surrounding parts of the dream world, you should be able to understand the spell to banish them should one break through, as it is based on the magic of the ward itself. But as for preventative measures, there is nothing you can do beyond what has already been done.”

“Can you stay here just a little bit, please? Just to make sure everything is okay?”

Once again, she shakes her head, causing my ears to droop. “No, you are more than capable. I would not have suggested that you Dreamstride on your own if I did not trust you to be safe and be able to solve any problems on your own.”

“I’m nine and only have half a year of Dreamstriding experience,” I point out. “Do you really want me in charge if something goes really wrong?”

“And here I thought you’ve continually asked me to treat you as an adult,” she winks. “I trust you, Aurora.”

“Kind of nervous to be told this is all mine to watch over,” I admit through nervous laughter. “So many ponies relying on me, and they don’t even know it. They’ll only notice once I stop doing my job.” My eyes meet hers. “Any advice?”

“None, unfortunately.” She stares off into the distance for a moment, clearly thinking something over. “Actually, yes. My sole advice for you is the advice that was given to me by Traumer, my own Dreamstriding mentor: step forth with confidence.”

“‘Step forth with confidence’?” I repeat. “That’s it? No offense, but confidence isn’t just something you can decide to have and use.”

A sly smile finds itself on her face. “Isn’t it?”

“No, no it’s not.”

“Of course it is!” she insists. “Have you ever heard the Tale of the Two Swallows?”

“Can’t say I have. Why?”

“It was a story often told in my own foalhood that has faded away over the years. It tells of two young swallows that are preparing to take flight for the first time. One of them is confident in its ability to fly; the other is not. The one that is not confident hobbles out of the nest and jumps, but is so preoccupied with trying to take note of everything around it and how it could all go wrong that it does not focus on staying airborne, thus falling to the earth and dying. But the other one jumps out, spreads its wings, and soars, worrying not about how it could fail.” Her smile now more warm than sly, she walks up to me. “Just as the one swallow was confident in its abilities and trusted in them, so must you. You must step forth into your role as a Dreamstrider with confidence that you are capable of succeeding and not waver from that view. You will stumble at times, but if you keep your course, you shall never fail. Success is not about never falling down: it is about never staying down.”

“But so many ponies depend on me now. There’s more to it than just me needing to be confident in what we do.”

“We all must start somewhere. Coltlumbus is a small town and close enough to the Canterlot Cave that you could call me in an emergency; a perfect place to gain experience.”

I open my mouth to express that I’m still not totally sure about all this, but I know she’ll just say that I need to trust in myself and repeat the story she just told me. Come to think of it, this is really the first time somepony truly has treated me like an adult and trusted me with something that’s not just a tiny little task that’s not important at all; and it’s the protection of my entire hometown. I never guessed my first taste of adulthood would be such a big jump.

“You know what you must do,” she says as she spreads her wings. “Do not hesitate to call me in an emergency, but only call if you feel there is a true disaster.”

“What’s the difference between a ‘true’ disaster and a regular old disaster?”

“If doing it would cause a scandal in the papers, then you’re in a true disaster.” Judging from her smile, that’s happened to her before. After a quick bow of her head, she takes off and starts flying away, leaving me among all these dreams that I’m now responsible for. No pressure or anything.

To start, I should probably read that grimoire and see if I can get anything more about blood demons in case one should get through. I locate my dream and jump into it before pushing through back to the awakened world, the feeling of being wrapped under my warm covers quickly coming back to me.

Instead of reading the book here in my room, I take it in my magic and head downstairs. There’s some soft music coming from Dew Drop’s room and I know Snowy is out with some of her friends, so I’ll be able to read in peace. The couch is looking very comfortable, so I place the grimoire on it and go into the kitchen to start making tea. The kettle’s already on the stove, so I just have to fill it with water. Once that’s done and it’s heating up, I grab my tea box and open it up. Everything that I’ll need is in here: a mug that thankfully cleans itself so I never have to, an infuser, and a few glass jars of blends Luna helped me make that are basically the most common ones I’ll need. Unfortunately for me, I don’t get one of the really good-tasting ones tonight. Instead, I get a blend that makes it easier to read Demon but tastes like grass and old lemon rinds. It’s somehow not a bad taste, but still not something I’d go out of my way to be drinking.

The water boils after a few minutes, so I place the infuser full of the old lemon tea into the mug and fill it with the steaming water. I take it back to the couch and get myself comfortable before taking a sip of it. I close my eyes and take a deep breath; a lot of the magic that’s moving through my body slowly makes its way up towards my head, and when I take another sip, it starts moving towards my eyes and my horn. I think of blood demons and flip open the book, and when I open my eyes, there’s all sorts of information that I can make out better than the last time I tried this. Another sip of the tea causes even more stuff to make sense, and so I place the mug on the coffee table and start reading.

Chapter 17

“Aurora,” mom whispers while nudging me slightly. “It’s time to get up.”

My stomach feels uneasy, and when I open my eyes they feel so dry that they hurt and start to water. “I don’t feel so good,” I moan.

A hoof is placed on my forehead, then taken away after a few seconds. “Well, you don’t have a fever. What feels wrong?”

“My stomach.” There’s now a dull throbbing in my head, causing me to rub my forehead with my hoof. “And I’ve got a headache, too.”

“You might just be groggy from sleep, or maybe you were up late last night.” She laughs a little. “It’s almost eleven, and you’ve never slept this late; were you up Dreamstriding?”

Sitting up in bed, I part my mane so it’s not going into my eyes. “Didn’t even do any last night, and I wasn’t up that late reading. No later than normal.”

“Just becoming like your sisters, then,” she sighs as she gets out of bed. “Well, once you get something to eat and take a nice, warm shower, you’ll probably feel a lot better.”

She gets off my bed and leaves the room, so I just rub my forehead again. I don’t know what it could be; I just slept for over twelve hours and still feel really tired. For some reason I also feel sick, but at the same time I also don’t feel sick. Mom’s right, I probably just need to give it a little time. I’ve always been slow to wake up, that must be it.

Almost as soon as my hooves hit the ground, I find myself downstairs with a bowl of oatmeal in front of me. How did I get here? Nopony else is here with me, did I make this myself? Whatever’s happening is weird, because I’ve never just moved from my room to the kitchen with food before. There has to be a good reason for this.

The oatmeal looks and smells real, so I start eating it. Tastes real, too. Strange, but maybe I’m just getting sick with something that doesn’t give me a fever. Come to think of it, that would explain everything. I probably just zoned out coming downstairs, too.

Nothing strange happens throughout the rest of breakfast or when I go upstairs to take a shower, which is a good sign. There’s no more steam or buildup on the mirror or walls but it still smells strongly of flowery shampoo, so Dew Drop’s up and has been in here already. And there’s about a million things of makeup near the sink, so Snowy is up as well. I love my sisters, but why do they have to do so much in the bathroom? Having my own bathroom in Canterlot was great: no makeup or hair dryers or whatever else around the sink and only a bar of soap and a bottle each of shampoo and conditioner in the shower. Not to mention the lack of hair in the drain, because I don’t shed like two certain older sisters I know.

The water heats up quickly, so I get in and just sit down in the tub because I’m so tired. After getting both my mane and body nice and wet, I just close my eyes and take a few deep breaths.

Now that I’m just trying to relax, I can notice the pulling in my mind more. Or rather, the lack of it. Opening my eyes for a few moments and closing them again doesn’t change anything. I take a few deep breaths and try to latch on it and see if I can maybe enter my dream, but it feels like when I was just starting and couldn’t really get a firm grip on it. It’s probably related to my sickness, since I can’t remember a single time in my life that I didn’t feel the pulling. But what to do about it? I can’t go into the dream world and ask Luna about it, so I’m just stuck here.

There’s really nothing I can do in the shower, so I wash up but take my time to see if I can think of anything. As I’m getting out and drying my mane off, I start wondering if I can still use the grimoire Luna gave me, the one where I have to think of something before the book has any writing in it. She never specifically said that it’s related to Dreamstriding, so I guess it’s possible that I can still use it.

After tying the towel around my mane in a turban like Snowy showed me how to do, I leave the bathroom and go back to my own room. The grimoire is still sitting on my desk, so I just go up and sit down. I think about playful demons just to test it, and sure enough, there’s a lot of information as soon as I open it. But when I try and read it, my heart sinks: I can’t understand any of it. Luna once said that only Dreamstriders can understand Demon in both the spoken and written forms, so I’ve somehow lost my ability to Dreamstride.

Calm down, Aurora. There has to be an explanation for this. There’s only one place that I can think of that might possibly have this information that I could access: the library.

Unfortunately for me, I forgot how bad the Coltlumbus Public Library can be.

The library isn’t very large, and most of it is books that parents donate when their foals grow out of them. On the plus side, that meant the foal's section always had a ton of books, making this the best place to be when I was little. Especially when I would come with dad, because he's stronger and could carry a lot more books home than mom could.

No time to waste, though. As mom peels off to the mystery section because she insisted that I not walk around town alone, I go into the really pathetic reference section of the CPL. There’s just two shelves, and a quick search shows nothing about Dreamstriding or dreams. There has to be something, though. Our presence may not be known to almost anypony, but it’s not like we were kept a secret. They just never bothered to learn about us.

Instead of trying to read through all these books, I take a step back and close my eyes. There’s some old earth pony proverb that says if you need help, you only need to stick your hoof out and what you need will come to you. I stick out my hoof and walk forwards, and when my hoof hits one of the books, I take it out and open up my eyes to see what I got.

Unsheathing The Sword: The Sexual History Of The Equestrian Unification War

This is why I never listen to old proverbs.

I put the book back and decide to try and find a book the regular way. As I’m searching, I do have to admit that the last book at the very least sounds interesting. Mom explained sex to me a few weeks ago and frankly, I don’t get why everypony makes such a big deal about it. Doesn’t sound like it would be very fun or even comfortable. Maybe the book could give me some ideas as to why ponies seem to love it so much.

The best lead I get is Forgotten Magics of Equestria, a good-sized book with all sorts of arcane symbols on the front. I take it to one of the tables and open it up, and to my relief, there is indeed a chapter on Dreamstriders. A picture of a big full moon greets me when I flip to that page, and I start skimming the chapter to see if there’s anything about what I'm going through. My eyes catch a little box on the side of the page with the title “Dreamstriding”, so I look at it and start reading.

When a Dreamstrider closes their eyes for longer than a few seconds, they feel a pulling in their mind that they can manipulate to begin Dreamstriding. The pulling is there throughout their life, and can only disappear temporarily due to dream creatures present in our dreams.

My guess is a ‘dream creature’ is a demon, but I’ve never heard of any demons that can basically make you not a Dreamstrider. I know it’s a bit of a stretch, but I check the rest of the chapter to see if it mentions anything about demons or “dream creatures”. It does, but it’s a little trivia fact in the back. And yes, book, I did know there were creatures in our dreams that only Dreamstriders can communicate with, thanks for asking.

The really short chapter on Dreamstriders has nothing else to offer, so I close the book and put it back on the shelf. If there was an encyclopedia of magic here that might help me more, but unfortunately, there is not. There’s not even a regular encyclopedia here. Not a full one, at least. And the letter D is not one of the volumes here.

I guess knowing that this is based on my abilities as a Dreamstrider is a start, and the fact that it’s only temporary is comforting to know. But still, what could have caused it? I can’t read the grimoire about Dreamstriding, and almost nothing else in this town would give me the information I need.

Well...whatever’s affecting me is just temporary, so theoretically I should still be able to do Dreamstrider stuff, right? Tea can be a powerful tool for Dreamstriders, and thankfully the manual Luna gave me for that is in Equestrian. I guess I could try and use one or many of those to try and change my magic to be more like it normally is. I mean, it’s just tea. Worst case scenario is it does nothing. And I don’t want to just be sitting around for days waiting for this to come back on its own, if it even does that.

Guess there’s only one way to find out.

As I turn on the lamp on my nightstand, I use my magic to close the curtains so my room is at low light, just like Luna had me do when I was first learning. I don’t know if the low light thing just affects Dreamstriding or all magic related to it, but I figure I should be trying everything I have.

I go and sit back down at my desk and pull out the grimoire, moving aside all the mugs I stole from downstairs so I don’t have to keep going to the bathroom sink to dump out my self-cleaning one. When I open the book, I’m greeted with the familiar chicken-scratch writing of Demon that means absolutely nothing to me in its current state. It took me a few tries to get exactly what the book wanted me to think of, but apparently it wanted me to think of the pulling in my mind before it would fill up and let me read it. First attempt at reading this book will come with the mulch-y blend of tea, which focuses your magic and gives you a greater connection to the dream world. Great for beginners, or so I’m told. Luna used to have me drink this all the time during the first few sessions when she tried to teach me how to Dreamstride so I could feel the pulling more. Hopefully, now it’ll help me feel it at all.

I drop the infuser full of tea in mom’s faded blue-and-silver Canterlot University mug, then pour a little bit of boiling water into it from my kettle. After letting it seep, I take a sip and close my eyes. My mind is calming down, and I can feel the pulling a tiny bit. Hopefully, that’s enough to be able to read the grimoire.

There’s no time to waste, so I open my eyes and start skimming the book. The entire section is only about twenty pages long, and there’s only one word I manage to pick up: ‘morbanimae’.

Morbanimae? I have absolutely no idea what that means, but for whatever reason we own a dictionary. A quick trip downstairs to the bookshelf in our living room gets me the dictionary, which I just set down on the floor and start looking through right there. I opened it right up to the M’s, so thankfully I don’t really have to go through a ton of the dictionary to find what I’m looking for. And before long, I get right to what it is I’m looking for.

Morbanimae: archaic word for SOUL SICKNESS.

Soul sickness? I’ve never heard of that before, so I flip through and go looking for that. Before long, I’m on the page where it would be, so I find it and start reading.

Soul sickness: a non-contagious acute illness of uncertain cause characterized by lethargy, weakness, nausea, dreamless sleep, and weak magic.

That definitely sounds like what I have, but there’s nothing I would really be able to do about it right now. The book at the library said this was only temporary, but for how long does it last? Guess the only thing I can do now is just wait for a few days and see if anything changes, then read my grimoire and find out what it knows about this.

Chapter 19

Somepony is knocking on the door to our train compartment, causing Snowy and Dew Drop to look up from their cards. I don’t, because I’m still trying to get the hang of poker so I’m still trying to figure out if what I have is good or not.

“We’re coming up on the station pretty soon,” mom says after barely cracking the door. “Make sure you get your things ready, don’t leave anything behind.”

After losing yet again to my sisters, we put the cards away and start putting all our stuff back into Snowy’s saddlebags. Once we’ve checked the private train compartment we claimed as our own because there’s hardly anypony else on this train, we go back and find mom and dad sitting next to each other in the main car, with dad’s nose buried in a map of Manehattan.

“You made sure you got everything, right?” mom asks us.

“Yes,” Snowy responds, some irritation clear in her voice. She usually doesn’t sound like this, especially not around mom and dad, but they’ve been after her the past couple days to get prepared for college and even Dew Drop and I are getting tired of her because she asks constantly to make sure she hasn’t forgotten anything.

“Now remember, even though they’ll have ponies to help bring your things to campus, we have to stay there to tell them what’s ours.” She looks at dad and puts a hoof over his map to get his attention. “And I told you, they also have a pony to bring us there as well. You don’t need to use that map.”

“I’m looking at things we could do!” he defends himself.

“Orientation is all day today and we’re coming back tomorrow,” she reminds him. “We don’t have time to do anything in Manehattan.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t look at things to do.”

With a playful eye roll, she takes the map in her magic and puts it in Snowy’s bag. “The train’s slowing down, so it’ll be any moment now.” She looks at Snowy and smiles. “You excited?”

“Yeah.” There definitely is some honesty in her answer, but everypony’s asked her that all summer; mom, dad, and all our extended family when we went to go visit them over the summer. She must just be worn out from having to answer the same questions over and over.

The train stops and the doors open, letting in the warm, slightly salty breeze of Manehattan. The other few ponies on the car quickly walk out, leaving just us. Dad walks up to Snowy and messes up her mane with his hoof, much to her dissatisfaction. “Ready, sweetpea?”

“Yes,” she mumbles, clearly hating him treating her like a little filly. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s how he would’ve treated her when she was young. It’s how he used to treat me.

“Let’s go, then.” He turns around and walks out, and we all follow him onto the platform of Manehattan Central Station. Bright light starts pounding down on all of us, and I can already start feeling myself sweat.

“I think they’re over there,” Dew Drop says. I look where she’s pointing, and I can see two stallions wearing purple and blue shirts with a giant fancy M on them. They look like they’re friends, because they’re both talking and laughing with each other.

Mom nudges Snowy towards them. “Go up and ask if they’re the ones who are supposed to help us.”

Slowly, she walks up to them and starts talking, then points back at us and comes back.

“Welcome to Manehattan,” one of them smiles while pulling out a sheet of paper. “You said you’re...Snowy Jade, right?”

“Yeah,” she confirms.

“Malachite Hall,” he says to the other stallion, who nods and stands near the baggage that’s being unloaded.

“Just tell me which ones are yours and we can get going,” he smiles.

Snowy walks over and starts gathering bags in her magic, and before long she has a ton of them collected around her. It doesn’t seem like it on this big platform, but it feels like she’s got hundreds of bags. We could hardly fit them all back on the platform in Coltlumbus.

The unicorn sparks up his horn and opens a portal, then moves it over himself to transport both the bags and himself at once. Snowy walks back to us, then the other stallion starts walking us off the platform and through the station.

“Ever been to Manehattan before?” he asks us, to no one pony in particular.

“No,” Snowy replies, not even taking her eyes off the massive ceiling, which has murals painted all over it.

“You’re going to love it here,” he beams. “It’s a great city, and there’s always something to do, be it on-campus or off.” He shoots a quick glance at his sheet, then puts it back and continues walking. “Says here you’re a geology major?”

“Technically. I’m going to be studying gemology, which is one of the specializations in it.”

“Sounds fun,” he nods. “Any idea what you’ll do take in first in Manehattan?”

“No idea,” she says with a nervous laugh. “Any recommendations?”

“Check out the Midsummer Theater Revival before it’s gone,” he suggests. “It started up again just a few years ago. Free shows put on the community in one of the parks near campus.”

He and Snowy keep talking and dad’s pointing out all sorts of things to mom, so it’s just Dew Drop and I near the back of the group just sort of walking in silence. I shoot a glance up at her, and she looks pretty bored. I can’t really blame her, I guess. Getting up early to travel halfway across Equestria and then move somepony’s stuff in isn’t my idea of a fun day, either.

After enough walking that my hooves start to ache, we come to a big stone sign reading Manehattan College carved into it and two iron arches above us with vines twisting all around and through them. Almost as soon as we pass under the arch, the noise of the city becomes much softer to the point where I can hear the wind in the trees over all the carts and hooves of the city’s ponies.

“Why’s it so quiet here?” I ask the stallion with us.

“MC keeps a protective sound barrier up at all times,” he replies in the same cheery tone he’s been using this entire trip. “As you could tell, a city like Manehattan can get pretty busy and noisy. We wouldn’t want our students to hear that all the time, so they have staff here all hours of the day to keep it up and give everypony a calm place to live and learn.

Makes sense, I guess. It also got a lot greener as soon as we set hoof on campus, so it’s like a little isolated bubble in the city. I’m glad Canterlot isn’t nearly bad as Manehattan because it’s a lot smaller, but I also remember Princess Celestia saying something like the entire city was designed carefully to not let noise travel very far. Seems like that’s something you’d need magic to control and not city planning, but she has been living there since basically the beginning and knows everything that goes on in the city so I believe her.

“We’re coming up on your residence hall here pretty soon,” the stallion says. “See that little courtyard there, with the five buildings surrounding it?”

“Yeah,” Snowy replies.

“You’re in the one with the dark green trimmings,” he says as he points his hoof towards the one right in the center. “Malachite Hall. And then, from left to right: Sugilite House, Pearl Manor, Malachite Hall, Morganite Hall, and Aquamarine Estate. All undergrads have to live in either Sugilite, Pearl, or Malachite their freshman year, and then can live in any of them from there on out. Some ponies decide to live off campus, and if you’re interested in that, you can start your third year here.”

Now that I’m looking at the buildings, they honestly don’t look that big. They’re about as big as the towers at Princess Celestia’s School, which even then aren’t more than a few stories high.

“Snowy Jade,” the stallion with us says to a mare holding a clipboard at the front of the Hall we’re going into.

“Room 118,” she says, moving the pen in her mouth aside to speak before crossing something out.

We walk inside, and the main area reminds me a lot of the living room area of the towers at Princess Celestia’s. There’s a bookcase built into the wall that stretches around the entire room, a currently unlit fireplace, and really ornate chairs and tables scattered throughout.

There’s very little time to admire everything, however, as we’re going up the stairs in front of us. Lots of fancy artwork is hanging along the walls as we go up, making me think of how much all this cost.

The next floor up is a lot like the one below in style, but is just a long hallway with old lamps providing magical light everywhere. We walk down it a little bit, then come to an open door and turn inside the room. Inside is the stallion from before placing the last of her bags on the bed on the right side of the room, which is completely stripped down to the mattress. The bed on the left has a very sleepy-looking pegasus mare in it, rubbing her eyes.

“Everything’s moved in,” the unicorn stallion says before walking outside. “We have to get back to the train station to help others who are coming in, but there are plenty of ponies here to help if you need it.” Before we can even respond, he goes down the hall and I can hear the sound of a portal opening again.

“Hey,” the pegasus waves weakly through a yawn. “My name’s Thundersnow, by the way. Sorry for looking like I just woke up, because...well, I did.”

“I’m Snowy Jade,” she waves back. “These are my parents, and those are my sisters Dew Drop and Aurora Borealis.”

“Nice to meet you all.” She spreads her wings wide to stretch them. “Anyways, I’ll get out of your manes so you can unpack. Also because I really need breakfast.”

“See you later,” Snowy replies as her roommate hops out of bed and starts trotting down the hall.

“She just woke up?” Dew Drop asks. “It’s one in the afternoon…”

“Welcome to college life,” dad smiles as he goes over to Snowy’s bed and starts opening a bag up. “My roommate sophomore year didn’t get up until three some days. It’s what you do.”

Now that’s just excessive. The latest I’ve ever woken up was eleven, and that was with a demon eating part of my mind, so I had an excuse.

“Where are you going to want everything?” mom asks.

“I don’t know just yet,” Snowy shrugs.

“We need to get it somewhere, there’s no room here for it to just be all around,” dad adds.

“I know!” she defends. I shoot a quick glance up at Dew Drop, and I can tell she’s doing the same with me. If none of us does something quick, they will probably get into an argument.

“Snowy, where’s your sheets and clothes and stuff?” Dew Drop asks. “Should probably start with that.”

“They’re in here,” she responds, taking a gray suitcase in her magic and placing it on the floor.

Dew Drop’s plan to distract them worked, because now we’re just going through every suitcase one by one and finding places for everything. Her room is way smaller than back home and she’s sharing it with somepony else, so the fact that we keep managing to find places for everything she brought surprises me. A drawer here, a shelf there, the storage just keeps popping up.

After much less time than I thought we would need to take, we’re putting the last of her stuff away. There are still a few things that she still needs to decide on, but they’re all not really important things like her winter clothes and some of the food mom and dad sent her with.

“So what do we do now?” I ask as Snowy’s storing all the empty bags under her bed.

“We all have different things we have to go to, if I remember correctly,” mom says, putting a hoof on her chin. “I know Snowy has some new student orientation she needs to attend, we have a parents’ orientation, and you two have a siblings’ event they’re putting on.”

“I saw signs for all of those as we were coming up,” dad says. “Looked like we’re all going to go our different ways for them.”

We leave the room and close the door behind us, and like before, Dew Drop and I are at the back while the rest of them are talking amongst themselves. And also like before, Dew Drop looks bored out of her skull. She didn’t seem very excited when mom and dad said we’d be coming here and helping Snowy move in, and that clearly hasn’t changed.

Once we’re outside and in the courtyard, I can see that it’s a lot less busy than it was before. There are some ponies who are leaving their dorms and splitting up like we’re about to do, but none of them are going in like when we came here.

“Guess this is where we split up,” dad says as we get to three signs pointing in different directions for the three events we’re all going to. “In case we don’t see you again before tonight,” he says while going to hug Snowy, “have fun, and don’t forget to stay in touch with us. Love you.”

Mom joins in on the hug without saying anything, and Snowy returns it.

“Love you both, too. And I’ll make sure to write every now and then to tell you how it’s going.”

They hug for a few more seconds, then break up. Mom and dad go off to the side, and Snowy comes up to both of us and gets us both in one hug.

“Bye, little sisters,” she says warmly as she tightens the hug.

“See ya,” Dew Drop replies. “You’ll have to have me over, you hear? All my friends were so impressed you’re going to school in Manehattan, and they were jealous I got to come here with you.”

“I’ll be sure to,” she laughs before looking down at me and giving me a playful wink. “And Aurora, stay cute. Think you can do that?”

I laugh a little. “No promises.”

We hug for a little while longer, then Snowy stops and glances over at the signs. “Guess I’m taking a right here. You guys are going left, and mom and dad are going straight. I saw some other ponies you guys’ ages as we came in, so I don’t think it’s far.”

“Have fun,” mom and dad tell us before going off to their thing. Snowy leaves just after them, leaving just Dew Drop and I alone.

“Ready to go this thing?” I ask her.

“Nah,” she shrugs. “Let’s go do something else.”

“‘Something else’?” I repeat. “The siblings’ event is the only thing we really can do.”

“On campus,” she winks. “Didn’t you notice a ton of stuff on the way here? We’re in Manehattan; I’m sure we can find something.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. This doesn’t sound like a really great idea.

“Aurora, come on,” she laughs. “How long have we been younger sisters? Our entire lives. And how many siblings’ events have been fun?”

I just stare blankly at her. I get where she’s going with this, but I’m still not totally on board.

“Zero,” she answers for me. “When’s the next time we’re going to get to just do stuff in Manehattan all by ourselves?”

“We can come visit Snowy,” I shrug.

“You’re saying you’d rather attend a siblings’ event?” she laughs. “Aurora, you’re a double younger sister, so you know better than I do that it sucks sometimes. Snowy is off doing her stuff and mom and dad are doing their stuff. We’re going to be sent to glorified daycare because we’re just extra baggage at this point. What’s the harm in going to a few shops or seeing a few sights?”

“What if something happens?”

“It’s the middle of broad daylight next to a college campus in a good part of Manehattan,” she dismisses with a wave of her hoof. “Aren’t you the filly that claimed she killed a demon all by herself earlier this summer? If you can do that, you can get away with playing a little hooky. Not like this is your big sister’s first time skipping an event, either.”

“Where would we even go? We don’t have any money on us.”

“Not like we can’t go check out what some places have to offer. Fashion Week is starting soon, so a lot of designers from all around Equestria are already here, and there’s some stores featuring the best dresses and accessories from all around Equestria, maybe even the world!” Her face doesn't look like it's big enough to hold her smile now. “Doesn’t it sound amazing?”

“You just want to go shopping, don’t you?”

“Duh,” she rolls her eyes. “And to teach you why it’s fun. When Snowy and I were your age, we begged mom all the time to let us go shopping for new clothes, but never once have you even asked. What else are older sisters for?”

“Why not,” I shrug. It’s not like I really have any other suggestions on what we do. Hopefully there’s some cool dresses, at least. Living in Canterlot for a year did make me realize clothes can be interesting sometimes.

“Perfect,” she says while waving her hoof towards herself. “We’re just a few blocks from where the shops start, so if we hurry, we should be able to beat some of the rush!” Almost immediately, she turns around and begins trotting quickly, which means I have to basically run to keep up with her. She must be really excited to go shopping.

Before long, we’re outside a three-story building with a sign proudly hanging above the door with the words Carousel Boutique. Where have I heard that name before?

“Come on!” Dew Drop beams before rushing in, not even waiting for a response from me. By the time I walk in, she’s already put on a scarf that’s the same pale green as her coat. “What do you think?” she asks, eyeing herself in the mirror.

“I’m not really good with telling what clothes are good and what ones aren’t,” I admit. “This place is famous, right? Even I recognize the name, and I don’t know anything about fashion.”

“You’re kidding!” she almost yells as she snaps her head to me. “You don’t know who owns Carousel Boutique?”

“Should I?”

“Rarity?” she asks. “You know, only the Rarity, the one and only Element of Generosity.” An enormous smile quickly grows on her face. “Oh my gosh, do you think she’s here? Do you think we could meet her? I’ve been following her since she was just making dresses out of Ponyville, I think I would literally die right here on the spot if she was here!”

“She’s not going to be in Manehattan for another few weeks,” a mare with a light teal mane interrupts, placing a hoof on Snowy’s shoulder to try and calm her down. “But if you come back then, I’m sure she’d love to meet some fans!”

“Oh,” Dew Drop replies, the excitement rushing out of her. “We’re just in town for a little bit, so we won’t be able to make it then.” She thinks something over for a moment, then looks back at the other mare right as she’s about to speak, cutting her off. “Hey, didn’t this place used to be call something else?”

“Miss Rarity changed it from Rarity For You to create a unified brand across Equestria,” she nods with a smile. “And even if you’re not going to be here for Fashion Week, there’s still plenty of fantastic options here right now. If you need anything, my name is Coco Pommel and I can assist with whatever you need.” She looks over her shoulder, then sighs. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Plaid Stripes is trying to make some...well, just come find me if you need me.”

Once the mare leaves, Snowy goes back to admiring the scarf around her neck. “We should’ve brought money,” she proclaims before looking at the price tag. “Scratch that. We most definitely should not have brought money.” She levitates the scarf back onto the rack she got it from and quickly jumps to the next item she can see, this time a giant sun hat.

“So what’s so fun about this?” I ask her as she’s tilting the hat, seemingly trying to find the best look for it.

She waves her hoof towards the other clothes displays, still adjusting the hat with her magic. “Go search the rest of the store, and find something that looks good on you!”

She doesn’t seem to be very invested in helping me, so I guess it’s up to me to find something that looks good. Most of the actual clothes look like they’re for adult mares and not fillies like me, so accessories are the only thing I can look at. There’s a small case with jewelry proudly proclaiming it’s made by some mare I’ve never heard of in Los Pegasus, so I open it up and take a look inside. Not all of it looks bad, to be honest. One of the necklaces catches my eye, a silver symbol in some sort of spiral, question-mark hybrid shape wrapping around a clear blue gemstone.

“That one’s my favorite,” a mare with an orange coat and dull purple mane says. When I look up, I can see that she’s not all that much older than I am. Recently-cleaned braces are filling her smile, making it almost as shiny as the necklace I’m looking at.

“Really?” I ask.

“Yup!” She puts the necklace on and starts modeling it for me.

“Plaid Stripes!” Coco Pommel yells from across the shop. “What did I tell you about wearing the merchandise?”

In the blink of an eye, Plaid Stripes takes the necklace off and puts it on me. “Just showing some jewelry to a customer!” Before I can even respond, she’s run off and is making herself look busy at a rack of dresses.

“So you’re a jewelry filly, then?” Dew Drop asks from behind me.

“What?” I look down at the necklace Plaid Stripes threw on me. “Oh. It is kind of nice, I guess. I was just looking at it and got involved with the mares that work here and ended up with it around my neck.”

“Looks good on you.” She points to it. “I think the color goes great with your coat and mane, and the design’s really nice. What do you think?”

“It actually does look kind of nice,” I admit.

“Brings out your eyes, too.” She points at my eyes, bringing her hoof a little too close them for my comfort. “Too bad we don’t have any money.”

“Guess we didn’t really think this shopping trip through,” I point out as I undo the necklace in my magic and put it back in the display case.

“You don’t need money to go clothes shopping,” she laughs. “Just coming in and looking around at what looks good is fun by itself. Take that necklace, for example. You said you liked it, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Don’t you feel a little happier after trying it on and liking it? Doesn’t it get you thinking about what else is out there, what could go with it and what else you could find that looks just as good as that did?”

“No, I just tried on a necklace and I liked it. And if I had the money I might have bought it so I’d always have it to look good in, so why would shopping without money be fun?”

“It’s the experience!” She scoffs. “I don’t know, maybe I just need to get you out more before you go back to Canterlot. I just pray you’re not like dad, who seems to be allergic to looking at things he hasn’t explicitly stated he wants to buy.”

“Is there anything else we can do?” I ask. “We can shop together in Coltlumbus if you really want to shop with me, but I want to do something we can both enjoy if we’re going to be spending most of the day doing it.”

“I know Manehattan as well as you,” she admits while putting her hat back on the rack she got it from. “Sure I know all the landmarks and everything, but I don’t know where anything is, or even where to start.”

“Dad said the central park’s near here, didn’t he? I hear there’s a lot to do there, and we won’t need any money to do most of it.”

After a few seconds of thinking, she nods. “The park sounds like a good idea. Plus, I have a few friends that would kill to go spend a day there, so I’d be able to make them super jealous.”

That’s an odd reason to want to go do something, but I don’t care because now we’re doing something I find interesting as well. The stallion from the College even said that there’s some sort of theater thing going on, so we might be able to see one of the shows. I don’t really know if I like going to see plays because I’ve never gone, but I suppose this is a good way to find out.

“Come on, let’s go!” she demands, grabbing me by the hoof and bringing me outside. Once we’re on the street, she lets go of my hoof and walks much slower than before, meaning I don’t have to sprint just to keep up with her again.

It takes us a while to get there, but mostly because Dew Drop got lost a few times and got lost despite claiming she knew exactly where she was going. I wanted to ask her how she knew where she was going in a city she’s literally never been to before, but then she’d get all stubborn, so I figured it was best to keep quiet.

The park is really weird, because it’s just so much nature in the middle of a big city. The park itself is a lot like home, which just does not fit in with the city. We walk a little further in, and pretty soon I just forget that we’re in Manehattan. Even the skyscrapers in the distance seem like they belong in this wide open field. There are ponies and even a few non-ponies all throughout the park, having picnics or playing sports or some sort of outdoor activity, which just sets us apart from the city even more. It’s not just ponies in fancy clothes rushing around, always looking like they’re late to something.

There are some big wooden stands near one of the lakes, so I tap Dew Drop and point towards them. “I think that’s where one of the plays is going on.”

“No time to waste, then,” she says before rushing off to go get some seats. She must be really excited to be here, because she never runs around this much when we’re home.

When I get up next to her, she takes a copy of the program that’s just on a small table for anypony to take and goes far up the mostly-empty stands and sits down. I take a program as well and join her, then sit down and start looking this program over.

We’re watching Death of a Salespony, and it claims the entire cast also performs this on Bridleway. I’ve never heard of the play or any of the actors in it, but it must be popular of they’re performing it on Bridleway.

I don’t totally understand what they’re talking about right now, so I decide to go through the program a little and see if it explains what’s going on. It gives a little bit of background on the setting which explains why all the actors are dressed like they lived a hundred years ago, but not much about what’s actually going on. The last few pages are all about interpretations and what the director thinks the play means, which just confuses me. It’s just a story, right? It doesn’t have to really mean anything. And even if it did, why wouldn’t they just go ask the author what it was about?

I’ve pretty much finished reading through this, so I set it aside and just try and watch the play. I’m watching a play in the park in Manehattan performed by actors who are normally on Bridleway, and I’m with my sister who I’ve hardly ever gotten to spend time with. I should enjoy this while it lasts, before I have to back to Canterlot.

Chapter 20

A cool breeze blows through my mane, getting it in my face and messing up the brushing I did this morning. Hopefully it doesn’t look too bad. It’s nice and cool for the first day of school which is good because it’s not hot, but it can get hard to see with my mane in my face and I almost feel like I’m going to get blown away in this wind.

Before long, I get up to the large building for Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, which now looks a bit smaller than it did last year. The doctor back in Coltlumbus did say this age was when most fillies started going through all their growth spurts, but I didn’t think I had gotten that much bigger. It might even be because I’m used to it, now. I’ve already done a year of school here, and this is going to be my last year. After this, just learning from Luna and going out and experiencing everything myself. I’m going to miss it a little, actually. Learning’s fun. I guess I won’t stop learning, but it’ll still be weird.

Once I walk inside, I go past the pony directing all the first-years to their classroom and find room 22, the classroom I’ll have this year. Unlike last year, the desks aren’t all in groups of four, but rather like a normal classroom, in rows with them all facing the front. Most of the seats are full now, and I at least recognize everypony from last year. There’s a seating chart on the blackboard, so I find my seat and sit down. I’m next to two fillies who I sort of recognize but don’t think I ever really talked to and they’re both talking to other ponies, so I guess it’s just me for the time being.

Before long, every seat is filled, so the stallion at the front of the room taps his chalk on the blackboard a few times to get our attention. “Alright everypony, please listen up!”

It takes a few moments, but before long, everypony has gotten quiet and is looking towards the front of the room.

“My name is Mister Cosmic Power,” he says as he points to himself, “and I will be your teacher for this year. But please, call me Mister Cosmic.” He grabs a piece of chalk in his magic again, and then starts writing on the board.

“Anyways, I know you must all be at least familiar with each other, but I want to get you to all get acquainted on a deeper and more personal level.” He steps back, and I can see what he wrote on the board:

Icebreaker: Two Truths and a Lie

“If any of you have ever done this, then you know where I’ll be going with this. If not, listen up. There should be a sheet of paper in all of your desks, and I want you to take it out and write your name on it, as well as two truths about yourself and a lie. Once you do that, please levitate them onto my desk. I will pair you off, and you will have to find the pony whose paper you have, because they will have yours as well. You’ll both guess each other's lies are, and then tell them the answer.” He puts the chalk down. “Start writing!”

I pull out my paper and just stare at it blankly. Come to think of it, I’ve not really had that interesting a life. Well, besides one thing, so I write it as the first thing on my sheet:

1: I’ve killed a demon all by myself

Figure that’ll trip anypony up, since I think I’ve only talked about demons with my family. I should put the next one as a lie, because whenever I’ve done this, I've found a lot of ponies don’t really think that the middle one is a lie for some reason. I can’t really think of much else, so I just put something random down:

2: My dad is in the Royal Guard

Don’t know why I thought of that. May have been all the guards I see on a regular basis in the castle. Now for a final thing. What could I do? I can’t think of anything that would sound like a lie but isn't, so I just put something true that’s not hard to believe:

3: I’m the youngest of three sisters

That works, so I write my name. I’m one of the first ponies to levitate my paper into Mister Cosmic’s pile, so the other ponies in class must also be having trouble thinking of things. Glad I wasn’t the only one that had to just think of things on the spot.

After a few minutes when everypony's put their papers in, he takes the pile in his magic and casts a spell. The sheets all fly out onto different desks, and then everypony starts reading the ones that landed in front of them. I look down, and I can see that I got the paper of somepony called Bloomrose.

Everypony’s getting up and finding their partners, so I’m finding mine. There’s a filly near the front of the class with a red mane and tail and something that looks like a rose on her flank, so I walk up to her. “Are you Bloomrose?” I ask.

“Yeah,” she nods. “Are you Aurora Borealis?”

“You can just call me Aurora,” I say as I sit in an empty desk near where she’s standing. She sits down next to me, and I read through her things:

*I almost teleported the judges for my entrance exam to the frozen north

*My mom is a professor here at Princess Celestia’s for the advanced classes

*I was born in Yakyakistan

Wow, no matter which one of these is a lie, she’s way more interesting than me. They all sound pretty possible, so I’ll just pick the first one.

Soon after I decide on a lie, she looks up from my paper with a smile. “You didn’t kill a demon all by yourself.”

“Is that what you think my lie is?” I ask, trying my hardest to not smile. I knew I’d get her!

“Duh! Demons don’t exist, and even if they did, you’d probably need to be a demon expert to do it.”

“Number two is the lie,” I admit, the smile now breaking out on my face. “My dad’s not in the Guard, he’s a financial planner for poor ponies.”

“How?” she exclaims. “I don’t even know what to ask about that. I need details.”

“I can Dreamstride, which means I can go into the dream world just like Princess Luna,” I start to explain. “Creatures from that world are called demons, but it’s just their name. They’re not all bad.”

“Uh huh,” she nods.

“Well, last summer, I killed one that was eating the dreams of ponies in my hometown.”

“How did you even do that?”

“Magic,” I shrug. “There’s a spell for it.”

“There’s a spell for killing demons?”

“There’s pretty much one for every type of demon, but yeah.”

“Man,” she laughs, “now nothing on my sheet is as interesting as yours.”

“I don’t know,” I tell her. “These are all pretty interesting. I don’t even know which is the lie honestly, so I just said it was the first one about teleporting the judges to the frozen north.”

“Almost teleporting,” she corrects. “And unfortunately, that one’s true. I wasn’t born in Yakyakistan, but I did move there when I was a baby.”

“I’m just from a farm town east of here, so you’ve at least lived in more interesting places than me. Why did you move there?”

“My mom taught magic at one of their universities there. They don’t know that much about magic since they can’t cast it, so she was sent there to give them some more knowledge about fundamentals and theory. Soon after we got there, they closed the borders and so we couldn’t leave. We moved back to Canterlot just two years ago once they reopened, so it still can be kind of weird to walk into a room and see ponies that aren’t just me and my mom.”

I point at her flank. “So what’s your Cutie Mark? I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It’s called a bloomrose.” She laughs. “It’s a magic thing, and so my mom named me after it. It’s used in temporal teleportation spells.”

“Temporal teleportation?” I repeat. “That doesn’t even sound real.”

“It’s the fancy name for time spells. It’s kind of complicated, but the general idea is that you draw from time energy and then teleport it into or around object, which can mess with its age. It’s called a bloomrose because the first pony to do it used it on a rosebud to make it bloom. It’s still pretty new though, and it hasn’t been perfected on any animals or ponies yet. Just plants, but since it’s my special talent, I hope that one day I can become the first pony to master magic that most ponies consider impossible!” She points at my flank. “So what’s your Cutie Mark? Clearly that’s the moon and some stars, but what’s your special talent?”

“Dreamstriding, the thing I mentioned earlier. I can enter the dream world and have a stronger connection to its magic, can go into others’ dreams, and can understand the Demon language.”

“Demons have their own language now?” By this point, her jaw is almost on the floor. “Can you speak it?”

“Not well,” I admit. “And it’s harder in this world since the language is very magic-based, so I probably wouldn’t even be able to say anything right now if I tried.”

Before she can ask another question, Mister Cosmic taps his chalk on the board to get our attention again. “Alright everypony, listen up! Hopefully you’ve had some time to get to know your partners, which is good: not only will you be working each other throughout the year and the for the rest of your education if you stay here at Princess Celestia’s, but when you’re all grown up and doing great things with magic, it will help to know ponies you went to school with. I have a list of all your special talents and done some research into each of them, so I can say that we have a very diverse mix of knowledge here in this room and you’ll never know when you need somepony that’s an expert in a type of magic that one of your classmates specializes in.”

He points a hoof at himself. “And now that you all know a little bit more about your classmates, it’s my turn to share some things about myself: as you know by now, my name is Mister Cosmic Power. I recently graduated with a degree called a Master’s of Education from Canterlot University, and so I'm very excited to have all of you as the first class that is entirely my own. I’m also from Ponyville, and a fun fact about me is that I was friends with Applejack, the Element of Honesty, when we were in elementary school together! And I’m very excited to be teaching you all this year, so I’ll be planning to set up individual meetings with each and every one of you to get to know you all better. Now, if you could all go back to your seats, we will begin our lessons for today.”

I say bye to Bloomrose before returning to my seat and getting looking up at the board. Mister Cosmic is drawing something that looks like a unicorn horn next to some wavy lines, with an arrow pointing from the lines to the horn. “Now, as you all know from last year, divination is the study of ambient magic. This is where we start for this year, but unlike what you learned last year, we won’t be focusing on its study and theoretical applications.” He puts the chalk down, then looks at the classroom. “How many of you have ever meditated, or done something to feel closer to the magic around you?”

I think some of what Luna’s made me done is meditation, but I’m not sure, so I don’t raise my hoof. Glacial’s sitting a few rows in front of me, and for once, she doesn’t raise her hoof either. I’m surprised, because she’s the first pony in this class that I would have guessed besides me would do exercises like what I do for Dreamstriding.

“Well, please take out your textbooks and open up to page 394 to see what I am talking about. While you’re doing that, I encourage each and every one of you to read up a little on meditation and try it out. It is a fantastic way to enhance your magical abilities, and should you ever find yourself in a state of magical overload, it can help speed up the healing process and make it more comfortable.”

While he’s saying all this, I pull the big textbook out of my bag and open it up to the page he’s talking about. There’s an outline of a pony with a map of all the nerves in the body, with a closeup on the horn. It’s kind of interesting, actually. I never really thought about how my horn worked before now. I don’t really understand everything, but I can tell that there’s one big thing in the horn that connects to the nerves of the body.

“Okay everypony, the first unit we will be talking about is magical physiology. If you would look inside your desks, I have given you all a sheet so you may follow along and take a few notes.” I look inside the desk’s little cubby, and there’s a piece of paper in there that I take. Most of the paper is filled out, but there are a few blanks here and there that we’re meant to fill in. He starts drawing something else on the board and speaking, so I get a pencil out and start listening.

The bell signaling the end of the day rings, so Mister Cosmic looks up from his desk and waves his hoof towards the door. “Have a glorious afternoon everypony, and I will see you all tomorrow! We will continue on these worksheets tomorrow, so you do not have any homework tonight!”

I put my supplies into my saddlebags, and just as I’m about to get up, I feel somepony nudge me in my side. When I look at who it is, I see Glacial smiling right at me.

“Hey, Glacial,” I say as I get up and put my bags on my back. “Have a good summer?”

“Yeah!” she beams. “Got to join my parents a little bit in the Ice Magic Institute, and it was just exciting!” She makes a noise that I can only describe as a squee as her smile gets bigger, something I didn’t think was possible. “What about you?”

“Princess Luna put me in charge of keeping my hometown safe in the dream world, and I did get to put my talents to use a few times.”

“She must really trust you a lot, to put you in charge of your hometown.”

“Yeah, she said she did. It was pretty terrifying at first, but it really helped me learn.”

“Let’s walk and talk,” she says, moving past me towards the door. “So I’ve got a question for you.”

“Oh?” I ask as I follow her out. Glacial’s usually not the one to ask me questions; last year, it was almost always the other way around.

“You said Dreamstriding used a lot of divination, right?”

“It used enough of it that I had to learn more than just was taught in class, yeah.”

“And you talked a lot about the magic in your body and how you manipulate it to Dreamstride, right?”

“Sort of, why?”

“I talked with Mister Cosmic during lunch a little bit about what we’re learning right now. He said that if we did a project on magical physiology, he would give us a little bit of extra credit.”

“Glacial, it’s the first day. You’re already talking to him about extra credit?”

“I talked to him about a project,” she corrects. “He mentioned the extra credit.”

“Whatever. So what would this project be, and why me?”

“Measuring magic levels in our bodies. Simple enough thing to do, we’d just have to learn a few spells and draw a little blood. And I decided to ask you because I tried to research Dreamstriders a little bit over the summer because nopony I had asked had ever heard of them, and I found almost nothing beyond the very basics. It sounded like there was a lot of strong magic that surrounded Dreamstriding, and since you said you’re the first one in over a thousand years, I figured we’d do a little experiment to get to better understand you.”

“So I’m a research subject, basically?” I laugh a little, as she looks like she’s ready to defend her point no matter what I say. “It’s just a joke. That sounds fun, I’ll join in it with you. And to be clear, we’re both doing this, right? It’s not just a project about me?”

“Yeah,” she nods. “I think it would be interesting to see my magical levels as well, since it runs really strong in my family.”

“And this ‘drawing blood’ thing, just how much are we walking about?”

“Just a little prick near the hoof. If you remember my presentation with Arcane Force last year, just like that.”

“Sure, why not? That would be something interesting to try out.”

“Awesome!” She gives me a strong pat on the shoulder. “I’ll look around in the library for spellbooks that would give us what we need, and then we can get together and start practicing those spells. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” I agree.

After a quick nod from her, she trots faster than me out of the building and towards the dormitory towers. I aim towards the castle and start walking, now with the first day of my last year of actual school behind me.

Chapter 21

I knock a little on Glacial’s door, and almost immediately, it swings open. Instead of seeing her there to greet me however, she’s sitting at the desk on the right side of the room, studying a book very closely.

“Hey Glacial, it’s Aurora. Can I come in?” I ask her.

“Yeah.” Not even looking up from the book, she gestures next to her. I sit down at her desk with her, and I can see that she’s reading a spellbook with a spell that looks a little too advanced for me.

“You study the spell I gave you?”

As I pull the old spellbook titled Advanced Magic, Volume XII with a sticky note marking one of the pages out of my saddlebags, I nod. Almost as soon as it’s in my hooves, she takes the book in her magic and puts it on her desk, then opens it up to the marked section and flips forward a few pages.

“Why did we both need to learn this?” I ask her as she’s scanning the pages in front of her for something. “You’re way better at magic than I am, probably would have been easier for just you to learn it. I might mess something up.”

“I don’t really understand all the detail they go into,” she says as she turns the page again, “but basically our blood is very choosy when it comes to who it wants to react to. Neither of us are good enough to be able to do this to somepony else’s blood, so we both had to learn this.”

“What now, then?”

Faster than I can take everything in, she places a pin in front of me and grabs a box of bandages and a few glass vials on a rack and places them on the desk in front of her.

I prick my hoof, and Glacial starts taking the little bit of blood that comes out in her magic. It hardly hurts, but it stings a tiny bit when she pinches my skin together to get me to bleed more. Once she’s got a little more out of me, she points to the box of bandages. “We should have enough now,” she says, “so you can put the bandage on.”

I grab one of the bandages in my magic and open it up, then apply it to the the tiny wound. Once that’s done, I take my blood from her and start casting the spell while she’s pricking her own hoof. I catch a quick glance of her poking herself, and she looks like she’s in way more pain than I was. Maybe I’m just used to it. Most of the roads in Coltlumbus are just dirt or short grass, so I’ve been getting thorns and splinters in my hooves since I’ve been walking; a tiny little prick is nothing. Glacial, however, has only lived in big cities with stone roads, so it’s probably a new feeling for her. And judging by her face, not a good one.

Eventually, she draws about as much blood as I did and quickly slaps a bandage on her wound before moving on to casting her spell. We sit in silence for a few minutes while we’re both trying to get this to work, and eventually, my blood glows silver like the color of my magic, meaning that it’s done. Making sure not to break my concentration on the blood and drop it all over Glacial’s desk, I grab a tiny vial and open it up before capturing the blood inside. Not long after, her blood glows a pale, icy blue, and she puts it inside a vial as well.

“Now just to calculate,” she beams, grabbing my vial and bringing it over to her.

“How exactly do we calculate the magic in our blood now?”

“Have to measure it,” she replies as she starts looking under her desk for something. A few quick seconds of searching later, she pulls out what looks like a kitchen scale but has an intricately-carved silver bowl on top instead of a flat surface. She takes her blood and pours it in, then writes something down on the paper next to her and levitates all the blood out before passing my vial to me.

“I’ll let you do the honors,” she smiles.

As I start pouring the blood into the bowl, I smile back. This is kind of fun, honestly. I’ve never really done any magical experiments just for fun before, so it’s nice to be able to. Nopony back home, not even my parents or sisters, is really that good at magic, so I wouldn’t have had the ability to when I was little. Unicorns raised around lots of other unicorns don’t know how lucky they have it to be surrounded by so many ponies who understand magic well. They’ll never be surrounded by all their classmates on the playground, begging them to do some crazy spell that probably isn't real they heard about in some fairy tale.

In all my thinking, I didn’t even notice Glacial staring at the reading on the scale as though something’s wrong. “What’s up?”

“Think the scale’s messed up,” she says. “Take your blood out and I’ll reset it, then we’ll try it again.”

I do as she says, and once she gives me the all clear to go again, I put it back in.

“Weird,” she whispers to herself.

“What’s up?”

“Getting a weird number from this.” She inspects the scale a little closer. “Everything looks right, and the number I got from my blood is pretty normal.”

“What number are you getting from my blood?”

“One.”

“One?” I repeat. “That’s not really a weird number.”

She looks at me like I just said something really stupid. “Yeah, it is.”

“Why? So my blood has one of something. One what, by the way?"

“Hundred percent. It says your blood has a magic concentration of one hundred percent.”

“And that means…?”

“It means every part of your blood is as full of magic as it can get while still staying something that isn’t magic. Your red blood cells, your white blood cells, even your plasma and platelets, which usually have very little magic in them, are pumped full of it.”

“What’s yours, then? You’re pretty magical, so yours is probably near that.”

“Nineteen percent,” she replies. “Anything above ten percent is considered above average, and twenty percent is considered very above average. Thirty percent is almost unheard of, so...imagine what that says about a hundred percent.”

“And you’re sure about this?”

“You may have done something wrong on your end.” She puts my blood back into the vial, and with a flick of her hoof, rolls it towards me. “Go to the bathroom down at the end of the hall and clean it out, then we can try again; I’ll walk through all the steps with you this time. I’m going to look over my scale again to make sure it’s not somehow messed up.”

As I take the vial in my magic, I can see Glacial pop a panel off of the scale and grab a screwdriver. There aren’t any signs about where bathrooms are, so I have to wander up and down the hall until I find something that might give me any clue. Finally, at the end of the hall, there’s a door that has an image of both a toilet and a shower head magically burned into the wood. After pushing it open, I can see it branches off into two separate rooms: one with a long row of stalls on one wall and sinks on the other, and a room with what appear to be individual shower stalls on one side and sinks opposite them. I go into the room with the showers, because those sinks look larger which will make cleaning this a lot easier.

While I’m adjusting the central knob on the faucet to get warm water that doesn’t burn me when I try to use it, I take a little look around. There’s ten shower stalls, one of which is in use, and each has a sink right across from it on the other wall, so if all fifteen of the fillies in our year at Princess Celestia’s were living in here, we wouldn’t all be able to shower and get ready at the same time. I imagine that gets frustrating, unless four other fillies also live in Canterlot and they can somehow magically make sure that there’s enough for everypony that’s living here.

One of the shower doors is cracked, and I can see a detachable shower head, a little hole in the stone wall for I assume whatever you need to shower with, and a little bench. What surprises me the most, though, is the doors themselves. Most of them are just glass, but I can hear the shower going behind one of the doors, and I can't see through it; it looks almost like there's magic swirling around on the door. It's a rainbow of colors all mixing and moving and flowing freely. The only thing I've ever seen similar to it is that lava lamp in my room back home that Snowy gave me when she moved away to college, but even then, it's not quite the same.

The water pouring over my hoof steadies itself at a nice, warm temperature good for cleaning things, so I open the vial up and drop my blood into the sink. Instead of all going down in one piece, the bright red blood mixes with the water and goes down the drain like any other liquid would, but the silver magic that I put into it seems to have a mind of its own and exits the sink before just swirling around towards the ceiling and vanishing like smoke from a blown-out candle. Odd.

After cleaning and drying my vial, I exit the bathroom and walk back to Glacial’s room, the only open door on the floor. She’s just sitting there with her scale all ready, so there must not have been that much she needed to do.

“You ready to try this again?” she asks.

I sit down next to her and put my hoof out before grabbing the pin in my magic. “I guess I’m ready to try again.”

The magic surrounding the pin changes color, and I can feel it get pulled from my grasp. “You grab your blood,” she says. “Me taking it from you and holding it while you put a bandage on might have messed it up.”

Guess that makes sense, so I just shrug. “Whatever you think will work. Ready when you are.”

We go through the same process as before, but this time, I just have to hold my blood in my magic while she puts a bandage on my hoof.

“So I’ll walk you through all the steps this time, okay?”

“Okay,” I echo back.

She walks me through everything I need to do step-by-step, going into too much detail sometimes. Guess she’s just being thorough. After much more time than when I did this before, my blood turns silver and I pour it into the now-clean vial before Glacial inspects it and pours it into her scale’s bowl.

A quick “Gah!” from her after a few seconds startles me, causing me to snap my head towards her.

“What? Is everything okay?”

“Still getting the same number,” she sighs. “I’ll put everything we did in the report. Maybe Mister Cosmic will know what we did wrong and be able to help us correct it.”

“What if my magic levels really are that high? You know, just wondering?”

“You’d be a miracle of magic,” she laughs. “Nopony’s magic levels have ever been measured as being anywhere close to a hundred percent. Princess Celestia herself is only around forty percent or so, even.”

A thought passes through my head quickly. “What about Princess Luna?”

“Don’t know,” she shrugs. “I don’t think she’s ever been measured. Why?”

“It could have something to do with being a Dreamstrider,” I suggest. “I already have a lot of magic most ponies don’t have, so it could just be a part of that.”

“I guess so,” she mutters to herself while putting a hoof on her chin. “I’ll put it in the report that we think that could explain it. If Princess Luna’s never been measured, you’d be the first Dreamstrider to be...we wouldn’t have anything to compare you to, so we can’t tell if you’d be normal or not.”

“Is there anything like Dreamstriders out there that we could compare with? Anypony with that kind of magic?”

“You tell me,” she shrugs. “I don’t really know a lot about dream magic, so I don’t know if there’s something out there like it. Dreamstriders are the only ponies I’ve ever heard of that can do magic that nopony else physically can, though. It might be hard to learn any other kind of magic, sure, but it’s not literally impossible. Dream magic, though? Either you can do it or you can’t.”

“Do you think maybe Dreamstriders having that much magic causes our powers? Ponies have been trying to copy our abilities for a while, but maybe the reason none of them have done it is because you need all that magic inside of you. Unless you can increase the amount of magic in your blood, then I don’t see why they wouldn’t try that."

She puts her hoof on her chin and thinks about it for a little bit. “I don’t know, really. I could always research it and put it in the paper, too.”

“When should we meet and work on it?”

“It’s not that much,” she says with a wave of her hoof. “It won’t take long to write all this up and do the reading I talked about. You helped do the hard part of drawing and measuring your blood, so you don’t need to help out on the easy stuff that I can do.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to make you do everything.”

“It’s fine!” she assures me. “I’ve done more work just for things I wanted to learn, so doing this work for extra credit won’t be bad. And besides, you did have to give blood twice. You had to go through that pain more than I did, so I’ll take the little bit of time to do this.”

It didn’t even hurt that much, but it really does sound like there’s not a lot I could do to help. “I guess I’ll see you in class, then?”

“See you there!” With that, she goes to her book almost immediately, which I take as my cue to leave.

Chapter 22

A huge clap of thunder cracks through the sky, immediately waking me up from my restful sleep. There go any plans I had of sleeping in.

After taking a few minutes to shake off the grogginess of sleep, I get out of bed and start making my way through the castle to the main banquet hall. Once I make it there and open the doors, however, Luna is nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Princess Luna?” I ask the guard by the door. “She’s usually here by now.”

“She is in a meeting,” he replies. That’s odd. A meeting? Usually she tells me about when she has meetings and such, but she never told me about this one. And it’s probably not an incredibly secret one if a guard is talking to me about it. Oh well, guess all I can do is get started on breakfast without her.

I sit down in my normal spot and start grabbing food, with all these guards just staring at me because I’m the only pony in the room besides them. It’s really awkward, and I almost want to not eat anything with all these eyes on me. But I’m hungry, so I just make sure to go slowly and take small bites, two things mom and dad always told me I need to be mindful of when eating because apparently even the way I eat isn’t lady-like.

Every minute seems to crawl by in this massive, empty room where the only sound is my fork scraping along the plate. Where is she? This is what it must have been like for her before I came along. No wonder her and Princess Celestia enjoy pranks so much. I’d go crazy if I had to deal with this awkward silence every single day for thousands of years. Anything to get my mind off it would be welcome.

Still no sign of Luna even as I’m finishing the last bit of food in front of me, which is strange. She’s had times before where she would be late to breakfast, but not this late. And never before did she hold meetings without at least informing me that she wouldn’t be here.

After a few minutes, the large doors to the hallway slide open and Sveta walks in, her nose in the air. She’s walking with a lot more confidence than normal, and is moving a lot slower than I usually see her, as if she’s putting a great amount of thought into every hoofstep. The other guards are looking at her with some confusion, and it’s clear that there’s some history between her and the pony guards. And it’s not good history.

“Princess Luna has requested your presence,” she tells me when she reaches the table, speaking with more of a high-class tone than any of the bat ponies ever use around me and Luna.

“For what?” I ask back as I move my dishes aside.

“Her Majesty explicitly stated that she will inform you personally upon your arrival.” I get up, and she turns around so I follow her out. Wonder why she’s speaking way more fancy than I’ve heard anypony, even Luna herself, speak. Judging from what I saw today and what I’ve heard from Luna in the past, she’s making a point to the other guards.

We keep walking through the castle, but instead of going to her quarters or the Dreamstriders wing, we’re going down some path that I don’t think I’ve ever been down before. Eventually we enter the shared space of the castle that’s neither Luna’s or Princess Celestia’s and go to a room with a plaque reading General Firefly Reception Room. There’s another bat pony outside the door, but I don’t recognize him.

“Enter,” she demands, stepping aside so I can go in. When I do, I walk into a medium-sized room with some expensive-looking chairs and couches scattered around. Luna is sitting on a couch with what I can only describe as royal posture, and there are a few other unicorns sitting on a couch next to her, and an earth pony in a chair next to that. There’s an open spot on the couch next to Luna, so I go sit down and try to match her posture because something tells me this is a very important meeting.

“This is the student I was informing you about,” she says as I sit down. “Aurora Borealis.”

“Hello,” I say softly with a quick wave of my hoof. These ponies all look pretty important, and they’re all kind of studying me.

“I believe you three would be convey your wishes to her the best,” Luna says. Wait, their wishes? Why do they have wishes, and why am I the one that they’re telling them to? I’m just Luna’s student, I’m not that important.

“We were intrigued by the report you turned into your teacher at Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” the earth pony mare speaks up.

“Intrigued by it?” I repeat. “Why?”

“Within it, you reported that you measured an abnormally high concentration of magic in your blood,” she explains. “Is this true?”

“Yeah, though we might have messed it up. The other filly I worked with said it was pretty much impossible to get the number we got for me.”

“We do not believe it is such an impossibility,” the unicorn stallion with glasses adds. “While it is possible that you had made an error, we did read through the report. You two set everything up correctly, and if you followed every step the way it was supposed to be followed, the results you got were legitimate.”

“So what’s that mean?”

“It means we are interested in you,” the earth pony says. “When you two wrote that you thought you being a Dreamstrider could have caused the results you observed, your teacher became intrigued and passed it on to us. There is no scientific research on Dreamstriders, as we hardly know enough about them to even study them and interpret our results in a meaningful way.” For a split second, I swear I can see her shoot a look at Luna. “The Princess has denied our requests to use her in our experiments, though she did mention that she would ask you if you were interested.”

“Do not feel pressured to agree to their requests,” she says. “Besides,” she says to me in Demon while winking, “I am their Princess. If you want, I can tell them to never talk to you again if they bother you, and they have to listen to me.”

“Sure,” I shrug.

“Perfect!” she exclaims. “Now, we’re going to need to contact your parents, because—”

“I give consent to your experiments on her behalf,” Luna interrupts. “I saw to it that I became a legal guardian of hers, and so I am fully capable of giving the same consent that her parents can.”

“I guess we can go right ahead, then,” she says after looking at the other ponies with her to confirm it. “We do not have any of our instruments here in the castle, but CU is not far.”

“We shall wait here for your return,” Luna says as she waves them towards the door. They all get up, bow, and exit the room.

“What will they do for the experiments?” I ask once they’re all gone.

“I imagine they will draw some blood to confirm the results you and your classmate got, and then will keep some for any future experiments they feel they should run. After that, one of the observations they always asked me to take part in was electrode monitoring while Dreamstriding, so I imagine they will do the same with you.”

“What’s electrode monitoring?”

“It is when they put lots of little patches all over your head to measure what your brain is doing. They want to know how our body acts when we are Dreamstriding.”

“Why have you never done any of these tests?”

“Don’t wish to is all,” she giggles. “While I recognize it is much different, the idea of being carefully studied like some rare specimen is a little too close to the extreme caution everypony took with me as a foal due to my status as a Dreamstrider.”

“You could always just give blood like they’re going to do with me. The pony I did my report with even said that we don’t know how much magic is normal for a Dreamstrider, so it could help them figure out what normal even is.”

She shakes her head lightly. “I am a hemophiliac, so it is not so simple. My condition is not so severe that something like that would present any danger to me, but giving blood would cause more frustration and pain for me than it would for anypony else.”

“A hema-what?”

“Hemophiliac,” she repeats. “It means my blood does not clot properly, so when I bleed, it takes much more time and effort on my part to get my body to stop the bleeding.”

“Why does it do that?”

“A simple matter of genetics. My father was a hemophiliac as well and my mother carried the disease, and I was the unlucky one to be stuck with it while Celestia is normal in that regard.” She giggles again. “‘The disease of royalty’, as ponies used to call it. I always told Celestia when we were fillies that having it made me more royal than her. Anything to annoy my sister.”

“She really got annoyed by that?”

“She claims it was just because I was annoying at that age,” she laughs. “I say it is because it is very easy to get under her skin if you know which buttons of hers to press.” After laughing a little again, she gets up off the couch and walks towards the door. “Now, if they are to perform these tests on you, we should prepare your mind; increasing the flow of magic throughout your body will help them get more information.”

The researchers are all setting up all sorts of different sciency-looking things in my room, clearly getting ready for some important tests. They haven't really told me anything about what it is they’ll be doing, though. I just have guesses, based on what Luna told me.

Speaking of Luna, I wonder where she is. She had to tell them it was okay to perform these tests on me, but it would seem like she doesn’t need to actually be here when they're performing them on me.

“We’re almost done,” the earth pony says as she walks towards my bed. “If you could just lay down here, we can get started.”

I do as she says, and she starts pulling out some things from a small box next to her. “Can I ask you a question?” I say while she’s looking through everything.

“Sure.” She pulls out a small bag of cotton balls and starts taking a few out.

“How come you’re an earth pony but seem to know a lot about magic? Not to be mean, but I’m from a town of earth ponies and none of them there know anything about magic.”

“Turn your head that way,” she says, pointing towards the other side of the room. When I look away from her like she says, I can feel a cotton ball with what smells like rubbing alcohol on it going up and down my neck. “And I know a lot about magic because I studied it. Only unicorns can cast magic, but that doesn’t mean other types of ponies can’t learn it.”

Guess that makes sense. She finishes with the cotton ball, and before long, she’s gently poking at my neck with her hoof.

“What are you doing?”

She pokes it a little harder. “Looking for a vein to draw blood from. Have you ever had to have blood drawn before?”

“Not really, no. I had to get a little for the project I did for class, but that was just a tiny bit. Why do you have to get it from my neck?”

“There’s a vein called your jugular in your neck that’s very big, and so we use it because we know we will be able to get enough blood from it without taking too much away from where it needs to be.” The poking stops, and I can feel her hovering over me now. “I’m about to insert the needle. It won’t hurt a lot, but there will be a little bit of pain and you’ll need to remember to stay very still or you could hurt yourself. Are you ready?”

I grab a little wad of my sheets in my hoof. “Ready.” When I can feel the needle go into my neck, I grab the wad tighter. I usually hold mom or dad’s hoof when I’m getting a shot at the doctor’s, so it’s hard doing this without them. But I’m not a little filly anymore, so I shouldn’t need them.

“All done,” she says after much less time that I thought she would need. I can still feel a hoof on my forehead keeping me from moving around, but it moves after somepony puts a cotton ball on my neck and covers it what looks almost like a mix between tape and a bandage.

Once I can turn my head, I see the unicorn with glasses carrying a small test tube of dark red liquid over to my desk, where they have some small box that he puts it in before closing it. The other unicorn, an older stallion with a gray mane and tail, starts pulling out a box that has a ton of wires attached to it.

“What are those?” I ask.

“Electrodes,” he says in a heavy accent that I have no idea where it could be from. “We will put them on you and have you Dreamstride so we may observe what happens to your body.”

The other two ponies are already putting a few all around my head, so I just try and get into a position that I won’t mind being in while I’m Dreamstriding. Once they’re done putting a ton of the tiny little patches attached to wires all over my head, horn, and a few near my heart, they all step back.

“What do you need to do to Dreamstride?” the earth pony asks. “Is there anything we can help you with?”

“You want me to start?” They all nod, so I give them a little nod back. “Okay, I’ll do it.”

It’s pretty easy to get into my dream because Luna did help me prepare for this with tea and what I now know is in fact meditation, and once I’m there I figure I should jump into the dream world and look around. I’ve never actually been inside the dream world during the day, so it’ll be interesting to see if it’s different than it is at night. At the very least, there will be a lot fewer dreams. Most of the dream world will probably belong to babies who are down for naps, because I don’t know who else would be sleeping in the middle of the day on a weekend.

When I get into the Canterlot Cave, I can see that I was right about there not being that many dreams. There are just a few, and they’re not clustered together like it is at night when there are a lot of ponies dreaming.

“Glad to see you decided to come join me,” I can hear Luna’s voice come from the mouth of the cave.

“How’d you know I’d come here?” I ask as I turn towards her.

“I figured they would want to monitor your body while you Dreamstride. After they came and started setting up their equipment, I retired to my room and started waiting here for you.”

“What do they hope to find with this?”

“I do not even know if they have something they wish to find,” she shrugs. “I believe that they are simply excited by the prospect of studying you. The three ponies studying you are seemingly the only ones interested in observing us, and they have hounded me since my return from the moon to work with them.”

“So why did you not?” I ask. “I understand not giving them blood, but why not let them put those things on your body and have you Dreamstride? Is it really that uncomfortable for you?”

“Yes, although now that I have given it a little more thought, I suppose that it is not entirely because I do not like drawing attention to my abilities. It truly is a matter of privacy, and I just do not enjoy the idea of being observed in such a manner. I was overwhelmed and recovering from a millennium on the moon, and so I told them no. I enjoyed having the dream world be my place to escape to, and I felt that if I let them experiment on me, it would somehow taint that.”

“Was it really that hard to come back to Equestria?”

“Of course,” she nods. “Equestria is a much different place from when I was banished, so imagine you waking up tomorrow and being a thousand years in the future. It was very overwhelming, and finding out that my beloved Dreamstriders had devolved into a myth simply added to the suffering I felt. I retreated to the dream world not only to think and process arriving in a world that was foreign to me, but to mourn the memories of those with whom I felt the closest to. I had felt your birth even on the moon, and so I decided to simply wait until you were old enough to join me before bringing any attention to our presence.”

“Why wait for me, though?”

“Less confusion. Then they could see for themselves that it is not just a talent I have, but one that is shared amongst unicorns across Equestria.”

“Will the other Dreamstriders that are younger than me be doing this, too?”

“If they wish. I shall give them the same choice that I gave you, and if they do not want to do it, I shall not make them.”

“How long do they even need me to Dreamstride? They didn’t tell me.”

“As long as you are comfortable.” She pauses for a moment, then her ears prick up a little bit. “Actually, I feel this would be the perfect opportunity to do some learning.”

“About what?”

“You are becoming more and more proficient in dream magic with each passing day, and I feel this will be a good opportunity to do some learning inside the dream world itself.”

“Yeah, I got that. What am I learning about?”

“Come with me,” she says, waving me towards the mouth of the cave. Once I’m there, she leads me outside and into the small forest nearby. After a few minutes of walking, we come to a small clearing where the moon is shining through.

“Sit in the moonlight,” she instructs, moving off to the side. I do as she says, and she then takes a deep breath. “Now, close your eyes.”

I close my eyes like she says. Something’s missing, though: I can’t feel the pulling in my mind. That’s weird. I don’t think I’ve ever closed my eyes for longer than a few seconds in here, so I’ve never noticed it before.

“Stop thinking,” she says softly. Man, she’s good. I don’t even know how she could know that I was thinking, but I guess all I can do is try to stop thinking. Easier said than done.

Before long, I can feel my thoughts die down and the magic in me get stronger. My magic feels...different, too. The moonlight is refreshing, and pain and tiredness I never even knew I had feels almost like it’s being washed off me.

“What do you feel?” she asks.

“I feel clean,” I respond in Demon without even thinking about it. For some reason it’s hard for me to try and remember things now, but it feels like this is the easiest it’s ever been for me to speak Demon.

“For whatever reason, the moon in this world intensifies our magic to levels impossible elsewhere. Therefore, when I felt a Dreamstrider was ready to stop being a student and start being a member of our organization, I would bring them here so they could feel their full potential.” There’s a pause, and I swear I can feel the magic around us get brighter. “Aurora Borealis, although you have only been with me for a little over a year, I feel you are ready for this responsibility. What do you say?”

“I’ll do it,” I say again, but it now feels not like I’m not thinking about it, but more like I can’t control it. Like, I can think about whatever I want, but when I try to say something, it doesn’t work. Almost as if my mind and my body are now two separate things, each working without the other.

“Perfect.” I can hear some hooves moving towards the edge of the clearing we’re in. “Now Aurora, your mind and body are independent of each other right now, are they not?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Come find me in the castle when you reconnect them and return to the awakened world.”

“What do you mean?” my body asks, but it’s pretty clear what she means.

There’s no answer, just the faint rustling of the leaves and the feeling of little blades of grass gently touching my body.

Got to admit, I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do here.

Chapter 23

I have no idea how long I’ve been sitting here, but it feels like it’s been forever.

I’m trying to think about how I got here, but every time I try, I have absolutely no idea how this happened. I was just sitting here meditating, and before I knew it, I had no control over my body. Even when I was speaking with Luna, I wasn’t controlling myself. My brain is trying to tell my body to do all these different things, but my body is being stubborn and not listening. Plus, I’ve never heard of anything like this, so I could have no idea what’s happening to me.

There has to be some way out of this, right? Luna wouldn’t just abandon me...right? Given how rare she said Dreamstriders are, I’m probably too valuable for her to just leave here. After all, if she wanted to put me in something that I couldn’t escape from, I think she would have tried to do it sooner than this.

Then again, if she planned for me to be a Dreamstrider for the rest of my life, a little over a year of training wouldn’t be that much time. And for somepony that’s been alive for thousands of years, just a year spent with me wouldn’t be a big waste.

Mom would probably have a heart attack and then kill me if she heard me say this, but shit. Shit, shit, shit. Based on how she laid-back she was when she told me to escape, it’s probably not a big deal to her. There are plenty of other Dreamstriders alive now, and one of them is going to be coming to the castle pretty soon. She can afford to lose me here.

Relax Aurora, just relax. Luna’s not like that, she wouldn’t just leave me here to die. She’s not cruel. She’s been with me for a year and spent a lot of time not only training me, but opening up to me as well. There’s so much I learned about her that I don’t think anypony else knows, except maybe Princess Celestia. She wouldn’t tell me her deepest thoughts and feelings just to trap me in the dream world.

I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. I’ve tried to get some part of my body, literally any part, to move. Even a tiny hoof twitch or sending just a spark of magic through my horn is impossible. My body is completely paralyzed, and there’s nothing I can do about it.

Maybe it’s a good thing I’m paralyzed. Then nopony could see me crying, because I know that’s definitely what I would be doing right now. I guess there’s nopony else here to actually see me cry, but I’d know. I cried a lot when I was little, and I’m growing out of that. Still though, I’m trapped in the dream world; I feel like it would be okay to cry this one time. It’s not like I have no reason to.

Nothing I’ve done so far has worked, so I have to think about what I haven’t done. Unfortunately, there’s still a lot I haven’t done. The entire time I’ve been here has just been me trying to regain control of my body by trying to move things, so there’s a ton of things I could do. The only question is what I need to do. It’s got to be obvious, right? It’s going to be one of those things that I look back on and wonder how I didn’t get it the first time. So now I just have to think of something that could be like that. Easier said than done.

Maybe Luna said something that might help? Great, now I have to remember what she said. She said something about the magic of the moon in this world and how it makes my magic stronger, maybe it’s something to do with magic? I know I can’t cast any spells because I can’t use my horn, but I guess that doesn’t mean I can’t go through all the steps of moving the magic around in my mind as if I was casting a spell. What spell, though? There are just so many spells I know, and even more that I don’t know.

Probably is one I know, though. Luna might put me in a situation where I could fail and be left here to die, but she wouldn’t put me in a situation that I physically could not get out of. And since she mentioned my Dreamstriding abilities, it’s probably a spell related to that. That narrows it down, but that leaves me with a list of spells that probably wouldn’t have much effect. I do feel a stronger connection to my magic and the magic around me, and I can say for sure that this isn’t caused by a demon, which eliminates most of the Dreamstriding-related spells I know.

What few spells I have left to use wouldn’t be much, really. I know a spell to send my voice across the dream world but only if I speak in Demon, a spell to locate the pain of dreamers nearby, and now that I think of it, those are all the dream-related spells I know that don’t have anything to do with demons.

Guess testing all these spells will be easy, then.

I test the voice spell first and while I can tell it was done right, without being able to control my speaking it doesn’t do anything. The second spell also is cast right, but without my horn, nothing happens. Right back where I started.

Honestly, I wish I could cry. At least then I’d feel better when it was done. I always do.

Just when I start thinking about wanting to cry, I swear I can feel my eye twitch a little. I have to be imagining that, right?

Only one way to find out.

I try and think sad thoughts, and eventually, I can feel my eyes move a little more. It’s working! I have no idea why Luna would put me in a trap where I need to cry to escape, but she did. I’m sure there’s some sort of deeper meaning to this and crying probably isn’t the exact way she meant for me to get out of this, but that’s not important. For now, I just have to cry.

I try to go back to thinking about when I was hopeless, when I thought nothing could get me out of this. It works a little bit and I can feel my body a little more, but it’s not enough. What else do I have to cry about, then?

I guess I do kind of miss my family. I’ve gotten used to being away from them, but I’d be lying if I didn’t want to be back in Coltlumbus every now and then. Being a Dreamstrider has put a lot of pressure on me, way more than I thought. If I had learned last year that I would be having to fight demons every few nights because the safety of innocent ponies was in my hooves, I’d be pretty worried. And I can that thinking about it is working, because I can now feel my mane blowing in my face from the wind. It’s a very, very faint feeling, but I can feel it nonetheless. I still need more, though. But what else could I think about that might make me cry? My life’s pretty good, so it’s not like I have much to cry about. I like my family, I like the friends I have both back home and here, I like Luna, and I like Dreamstriding.

I guess I can try and make myself feel bad about Snowy moving away. I won’t get to see her all the time anymore, and before I know it, I’ll hardly ever see her. Sure it’ll take four years for her to complete college, but it’ll happen eventually. And even before she’s done, Dew Drop will go away as well. Before long, I’ll be the only one going back home to see mom and dad, and who knows how often I’ll get to see my sisters? Even though they were always way older than me, they cared about me. Sure being a younger sister can really stink, but I think I’d hate it a lot more if they weren’t my older sisters. They’ve been there my whole life, and thinking about hardly ever seeing them again gives me a knot in my gut. And one day, we’ll all be in different cities, doing different things, married to different ponies, and having foals of our own. We’ll be so busy, we’ll be lucky if we get to see each other once a year. And even then it’ll just be for a short time, since we’ll all have to get back to our jobs. My own sisters, the two ponies who have always been there for me and will be there with me when I’m old and the world is a much different place than it is now, and I’ll barely be able to visit them.

It’s working. I can open my eyes now if I try really hard, even though they’re just barely cracked and I can hardly see anything through the tears that are building up in my eyes. It’s something, but I can feel that I just need a little more.

I can’t really think of anything else to be sad about, so I just have to focus on what I have. I’m all alone in the dream world, Luna may have just left me here to die, and I may rarely see my family just because of what I am.

I now have full control over my eyes, and I push the tears out. Little by little, feeling comes back to my face. It’s working! Before long, I can hardly control my breathing and I can feel myself getting light-headed. By the time I can take control of my crying and calm down, I’m able to move everything in my body. I feel pretty stiff, but the important part is that I can move. The first thing I do is get out of the moonlight, since I have a feeling that has something to do with the fact that I was just trapped.

“Luna?” I ask, hoping she’s nearby. When I don’t get a response, I decide to go back to Canterlot Cave. Maybe she’s waiting there for me?

A few minutes later, I come to the cave’s mouth, but she’s not there either. There are even fewer dreams inside than when I came here, so I can tell pretty quickly that none of these are hers. She did say she’d be in her room, right? I didn’t really think she’d actually leave me alone in the dream world, but I guess she did. Guess I have to go find her.

I find my dream and enter it before going back into the awakened world, and when I open my eyes, I can see that the three ponies studying me are all doing something else. The mare is grading a stack of papers, the stallion with glasses is reading a book, and the other stallion is just looking out of my window, looking really bored while he does so.

“I’m back,” I say quietly, trying not to disturb them too much. They all look to me, and then come over and start taking the electrodes off. “How long was I gone?”

“A little over an hour,” the mare says. “Do you feel any different than you did before Dreamstriding?”

“No,” I shake my head. Well, I feel a lot sadder, but that’s because of what Luna had me do. Coming out of Dreamstriding doesn’t make me feel any different than going into it does. “Hey, can I go to Princess Luna?”

“Why?” she asks. “Did something happen in there?”

“She just said that I need to go see her when I got out of the dream world.”

She looks at the two other ponies, then looks back to me. “Sure, I suppose. We have a lot of data, so if you wish to end the observations for the time being, you may.”

“I’ll probably help you out later,” I say as I get out of bed once the last electrode is taken off my horn. I could stay and help them some more, but I want to talk to Luna about what she made me do. I don’t really think she would leave me for dead, but unlike everything else she’s ever had me do, she never told me what it was for.

When I come to Luna’s room, the bat pony moves his spear aside to let me open her door. Weird, usually I have to ask for permission to go in. Maybe she told him that she told me to come and to just let me in? Whatever the reason, I open the door and walk into her living room, where she’s laying on the couch and reading a book.

“Given the time it took me to come back and get here, I’d say that took you about…” She picks up a small alarm clock in her magic and looks at it. “An hour and a quarter, maybe a little less. Actually quite good for your first time.”

“My what?” I walk up in front of her, and she doesn’t even close her book, just looks up at me. “What was that?”

“It was an exercise.” She points to the other end of the couch. “Come, sit with me.”

“An exercise in what?”

“What do you think it was an exercise in?”

“You trapped me.”

“Yes, but why do you think I did so?”

“I don’t know,” I shrug. “I had to cry my way out, and I don’t know what that could help me with.”

“You…” She pauses, and I can tell she’s trying really hard to hold back a smile. “You...cried your way out?”

“Yeah.” Great, I just embarrassed myself to one of the most powerful ponies in Equestria. “That wasn’t what I was supposed to do, was it?”

She takes her eyes off me, thinking for a moment. “Technically, it was what you were supposed to do. That was a ritual to disconnect your mind from your body, and the only way to reconnect them was to tap into your magic at a deep level. Many ponies have tapped into their emotional magic before to do so, but…” She stops trying to hold the smile back, now instead trying to hold back some laughter. “I do believe that is the first time somepony has used crying to get out of it. To say the least, you’re inventive.”

“Yeah, and I just cried my way out of a serious test you gave me,” I mumble.

“I did not put you in that situation expecting you to take one way out over another. I knew you would be able to eventually figure out how to regain control of your body, and I was curious to see how you would do so. The exercise is as much a test of a Dreamstrider’s ability to remain calm and think as it is a way for me to see how they react in that sort of situation. You crying your way out showed me a lot about you, and none of it nearly as negative as you seem to think it is.”

“Really?”

She nods. “Yes. Is it a safe assumption that you cried because you felt overwhelmed and were worried?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “I was frustrated that nothing was working, and was worried that you would have just left me there if I didn’t get out by myself.”

“First, I would not have left you there forever,” she says. “Second, the way you got out of that shows me that you hate not being in control.”

“I don’t care about that!” I defend. “I’m not one of those ponies who needs to be in control of everything.”

“No, you are not. You are perfectly happy following orders, but you do them because you want to, correct?”

Now that I think of it, she is kind of right. “Sort of. Why?”

“You were upset that you were not in control of yourself,” she says. “That showed me that you value self-efficacy highly. You wished to take action, and when your body was frozen and you were not able to, you got upset.”

I hadn’t thought of that, actually. I was too busy thinking about the fact that I escaped one of Luna’s deep meditation exercises by crying.

“Congratulations, however,” she smiles. “In the days of the old Dreamstriders, I used that ritual to initiate members into our order, to test them one last time before giving them full status as a Dreamstrider.”

“So I’m not a student of yours anymore?” I ask excitedly.

“Well...I will still have you under my wing and teach you about what I know regarding the dream world. However, we can consider this an official graduation, where you are now an official member of the Dreamstriders. I will be assigning you to patrol the dream world at night and study on your own, although since you are still in school for this year, I will ensure that this does not get in the way of your schoolwork.”

“What sort of study on my own do I have to do? What have other ponies done when you give that to them?”

“All sorts of things,” she shrugs. “Choosing things to study independently is something that you will be doing for the rest of your life, so if you have any ideas about what you wish to do, I would start exploring what you would need to do for that now. If you are unsure about your ambitions, most Dreamstriders decide to start by studying magic or dedicating themselves to becoming fluent in the Demon langage. Both are things that you will need to do eventually, but they can come little by little as you work on your own interests, or you can even devote some time every now and again to it but not make it your top priority.”

“Don’t really have anything that I really want to go and study right now,” I admit.

“If you have absolutely no idea on what to do, I can always still prepare lessons for you, although they will be much more self-guided and you may cease them at any time if you find something you wish to explore further on your own. And as always, you may come to me with any questions; while I may not know the answer, either myself or Celestia likely will have known somepony who did.”

“I think I’ll do that. I’ve only been Dreamstriding and learning magic for a year, so I don’t know enough about it to decide on something to dedicate my life to.”

“A fair point,” she nods slowly. “I will work on preparing some more lessons, and then give them to you. I shall allow you to work at your own pace, but I will check in on occasion to make sure you are not falling behind on your studies.”

“So...not really that much is changing from before.”

“I disagree, for now you have much greater control over what it is you choose to use your gift for. And unlike before, at any point you may choose to forgo my lessons and pursue something of your own interests. Instead of being your teacher, you may now consider me as your guide or your mentor, helping you find your path instead of being the one to lead you down one that I told you to take.”

“So if I find something I want to do, I can stop your lessons and go after it? Just like that?”

“Just like that,” she repeats before pulling out another book from under her desk and opening it up. She doesn’t look like she wants to be disturbed, so I guess it’s time for me to head out.

Chapter 24

“Happy last day of classes!” Glacial beams as she gives me a huge slap on the back, almost sending my face flying into the water fountain I’m drinking from.

“You too,” I reply after wiping some water off my muzzle and forehead, which got wet when my face went flying down.

“So what are you going to be doing over the summer?”

“Going back home and Dreamstriding for my hometown.” I leave the fountain and start walking next to her towards our classroom. “What about you?”

“Going to be accompanying my dad on a trip to Mount Everhoof,” she smiles.

“Mount Everhoof?” I repeat just to make sure I’m hearing her right. “The Mount Everhoof, the tallest mountain in the world?”

“I won’t be climbing up to the top,” she says, answering the question I had before even managing to ask it. “Just to one of the camps, where the real snow starts. He’ll be showing me how to collect samples and make sure they don’t get corrupted, then take them back to the Institute and work with them. Will you be coming back next year?”

“No,” I shake my head. “These two years were just to give me a base education in magic, and from here on out I’ll spend all my time learning and practicing my Dreamstriding. What about you? Are you coming back, or are you doing the two-year thing as well?”

“Not coming back,” she shakes her head. “Doing the two-year program like you. I’ll be enrolling at the Ice Academy, where I’ll start learning specifically about ice magic for about ten years before becoming a full member and starting to perform research on my own, and maybe even teach there eventually.”

“Ten years?” I echo back. “That’s a really long time.”

“If I went through 5th grade, all of middle school, and high school, that would be nine years,” she points out. “And then at least four years of college, not even counting any graduate program. I’d be in school way longer than I will be at the Institute, and most of it wouldn’t be spent learning what I want to learn.”

“How are we getting out of school?” I ask, suddenly realizing that my sisters had to go to school and I don’t have to after this year. “As far as I know, everypony in my family’s gone through high school. And that includes all my extended family, too. I can’t think of a single one of them that did anything like what you and I are doing.”

“You mean you don’t remember applying?” she asks, confusion all over her face.

“I didn’t have to do an entrance application to get in here.”

“Not an entrance application,” she says like I should know what she’s talking about. “The application to get out of going to a regular school.”

“There’s an application to get out of school? I’ve never heard of that.”

“Maybe you didn’t have to do it because Princess Luna could’ve just gotten you past that,” she shrugs. “But for ponies that show a lot of promise in their special talent, if there’s a special school that exists for that talent, they can apply to get out of the regular school requirements and instead go to that school.”

“Even if I’m technically not going to school with Princess Luna, just learning from her?”

“Even that,” she confirms. “It’s what Princess Twilight did, remember? She was Princess Celestia’s student before she became the Princess of Friendship. She didn’t even do two years like we did, just attended magic kindergarten here and then became Princess Celestia’s student.”

We walk into our classroom, and about half our class is in there already. They’re all in small groups, mostly identical to the groups we had last year. Arcane Force is talking to a colt I don’t really recognize but Glacial must, because he waves at her and she waves back before going over to talk to them. I know two of the three ponies in that group, so I decide to go up to them and sit down at one of the desks near them.

“Hey,” Arcane Force smiles at me. Come to think of it, I don’t really think we’ve talked much at all this year. “You’re not doing more school here, right?”

“Right,” I confirm. “What about you?”

“Coming right back here next year and starting my first class in healing magic,” he says with a huge smile. “You’ll still be in Canterlot, though, so we’ll have to get together sometime. Unless you’re really busy with Dreamstriding, but you should have at least a little time, right? Especially since most of your work will probably be done at night.”

“Well, there’s still a lot that needs to be done, even during the day. But sure, I’d love to.”

“Aurora?” I can hear Mister Cosmic behind tap my shoulder. “Would you mind coming to my desk for a moment?”

Uh oh. What did I do? Glacial, Arcane Force, and the other colt all went back to talking to each other, so I can’t make an excuse that I’m talking with them and can’t go with him.

The entire time walking to his desk at the front of the class, I’m trying to think of everything that could cause him to want to talk to me in private. I didn’t do anything wrong, didn’t get any bad grades, and didn’t misbehave at all this year. So what could it be?

“Sit down, please,” he says. His tone is pretty friendly, so it doesn’t sound like he’s about to discipline me. At least, I hope not.

“What did I do?” I mumble.

“Nothing, don’t worry,” he smiles back. “I just want to talk with all of my students from this year and touch base with them one last time. Talk with them about how they liked this year, how they think I did, what activities they did or didn’t like, and their plans for the future.” Using his magic, he pulls out a piece of paper and a pencil. “Is there anything you’d like to start with?”

I shrug. “This year was good, I guess.”

“You guess?” he repeats.

“Well, none of it is really related to my special talent. But in fairness, very few ponies have ever even heard of Dreamstriding, let alone know much about the magic that we have to use.”

“What kinds of magic do you have to use that you think we could touch on in here?” He’s not even looking at the paper, but the pencil is writing quickly.

Now I have to think. Most of the magic I have to deal with is either something only Dreamstriders can do, or would mean almost nothing to somepony studying it without being able to experience it like I can. “Do you know anything about emotional magic?”

He thinks about it for a moment. “A little. Do you mean like the effect emotions can have on our magic, or the effect it can have on ambient magic?”

“Both, really. They’re both really big and important things Dreamstriders have to think about when we’re working. We have to be able to detect little changes in ambient magic to help us stop nightmares, and we work on enhancing our abilities a lot through emotional magic. The way we communicate with the creatures in the dream world is based on our thoughts and feelings, so being able to tap into them and their magic is really important to us.”

“I know that would be easy to incorporate into our magical physiology lessons early in the year,” he thinks out loud. “And no matter what type of magic somepony is trying to cast, being in control of yourself is important, and that includes emotions. And some types of magic do work better if you’re feeling a certain way, so understanding how that affects your ability to cast would be something worth teaching. As for how it affects ambient magic, that would be covered mostly in a divination course, but I suppose if we have time we could put it in here.” He looks at the notes he’s taken, then back to me. “Anything else you would change about the class?”

“Not really, no.”

“Now onto future plans. First, I saw that you’re not enrolled here for next year. Have you ever considered changing that and coming back?”

“Nopony here teaches Dreamstriding. I wouldn't be able to learn anything related to my special talent.”

“Still,” he suggests, “it wouldn’t hurt to come back for a little bit and do some more learning. I can tell you’re definitely a very bright student, so you would be able to pick up a lot. And they hired me to teach some of the introductory-level courses for the next few grades, so I would love having you in class again.”

“Thank you, but this is what I have to do.”

“Fair enough,” he nods. “So you mentioned that nopony here teaches Dreamstriding, so what is it you’ll be doing to work on your special talent? I know you’ve said that Princess Luna is the one who teaches you, but what sort of topics do you go over? What about it do you like, what about it do you dislike?”

“Still kind of covering everything. She said that if there was a specific subject I was interested in I could start to focus on it, but I haven’t decided yet.”

“What kinds of things do you cover? I’ve been able to find very little on Dreamstriders, and what I found didn’t seem to be very credible.”

“Some divination, spells, teablending, and studying demons are the most common stuff.”

“So demons are real and exist in our dreams,” he laughs. “Didn’t expect that one.”

“But not all of them are bad. And there’s this whole world that they live in, and our dreams are all connected to it. Dreamstriders go into the dream world, and then go around to the dreams and enter them through there.”

“Well I probably have a ton of questions for you, but I won’t keep you.” He takes the paper in his magic and looks it over, then starts writing a little bit of extra stuff on it. “Do you have any questions for me?”

“No,” I shake my head.

“Have a nice summer, then,” he smiles. “And if you ever get the time, please do come back and visit me. If you’d like, I could even have you guest teach about Dreamstriding some day. So many ponies don’t even think Dreamstriders exist, and so I think they would enjoy learning about something that they weren’t aware of before.”

“Maybe I could get Princess Luna to come?” I suggest. “I bet she’d enjoy coming and talking about Dreamstriders to the class. She always says it’s disappointing more ponies don’t know about us, so I think she’d love the opportunity to come and teach a class about who we are and what we do.”

“And I’m sure we’d all love to meet a Princess,” he says with a big smile. “Well, I’ll be here at the school for at least next year, and hopefully many years to come. If you or Princess Luna ever want to come do a lesson on Dreamstriders, I’d always be willing to have you in my class. And even if I’m not teaching a class where the material would be appropriate for what I teach, I could point you in the direction of somepony whose class would be a much better fit for it.”

“I’ll definitely think about it.” I stand up and give him a little nod, which he returns. “Thanks for being my teacher this year, by the way. You were great.”

His smile grows even larger. “I’m very glad to hear that, and I wish you luck in your future. “

“You too.” I start walking back to where I was sitting, but pass by Dusty on the way. I can’t even remember the last time I talked to him, so I decide to stop at his desk and sit down next to him.

“Hey,” he says, looking up from the piece of paper that he’s writing on. There’s some diagrams and math equations on his paper, so I can only guess it’s something he wants to build.

“Just thought I’d drop in and say hi.” I point at everything he’s written down. “What are you working on?”

“Drainer,” he says. “Sucks up magic from the surrounding area and disposes of it. Sometimes magic can interfere with making things, because the magical properties of something might be changed. They use these a ton in the weather factory in Cloudsdale, because otherwise the rainbows and snowflakes and everything they make might not work correctly.”

“Why does it do that?”

“I’m not a weather scientist,” he laughs. “I wouldn’t know why they need these, I’d just build them.”

“So is that the kind of stuff you’re going to learn how to build?”

“This and a lot of other things. This kind of thing is pretty basic though, so we’ll probably just cover it in the intro magical engineering classes and then move onto other things.”

“Are you going to be staying here? Or is there a place you could go to learn all about magical engineering?”

“Staying here,” he says. “Princess Celestia’s doesn’t have very many magical engineers, but the ones they do have are pretty good. Maybe when I get older, I’ll be working for the Equestrian Engineering Corps. That’s my dream, at least. How about you? What’re you going to be doing with Princess Luna?”

“Don’t really know, actually,” I admit. “It is kinda fun not knowing, though. She told me I could do pretty much anything I wanted, so I’m just taking my time figuring that out.”

“Good luck with that,” he says before looking back at his paper and scribbling furiously on what little free space he has. He seems really focused and I don’t even understand half of the math he’s doing, so I just get up and start walking back to Glacial. She’s talking to more ponies than I left with her with, so I just squeeze my way into the small circle they’ve made and start listening in to everypony else sharing their plans for the future.

Chapter 25

Aurora Borealis
Head Dreamstrider

Even though it’s probably the millionth time I’ve looked at it today, I place my new name plaque back on my desk that looks out over the Dreamstrider wing’s common area. Luna got the orrery up and running, and the planets and moons in it are slowly moving, imitating what they do in real life. The curtains for the window behind my desk are wide open, giving me an amazing view of the city of Canterlot and the rest of Luna’s wing of the palace. I take a sip of my tea as I look up at the sky, where the moon is starting to rise. Thanks to Luna, I know that it’s a waxing gibbous moon, which means that demons will be at their strongest in a few days when it’s a full moon, but so will the Dreamstriders’ magic. Then they’ll both start getting weaker, making our jobs a tiny bit easier. Compared to the demons we won’t get any stronger or weaker, but the ones that do need to be stopped will be fewer in number and not as quick to get away.

School starts tomorrow, and it’s really weird to think that I won’t be there. Snowy started a few weeks ago and Dew Drop a few days ago, so it feels like when I was really little again when they would go off to school and I would stay at home with mom. But instead, I’m the one who’ll actually have a real job she needs to go to. It’s funny how I was both the last one to go to school and the first one to stop going there. And it only took me ten years to go from being born to being the head of a government agency, too. Bet that’s got to be some kind of record.

I finish up my tea, so I go back into the Head Dreamstrider’s quarters and activate the self-cleaning enchantment on my mug before placing another tea bag in it and pouring some boiling water over it. Another thing I love about this place is my new room. It reminds me a lot of Luna’s quarters, but just the main room she has. There’s a fireplace on the wall on the left when I come in, with a couch and a few chairs facing it and a coffee table in front of them. My bed, almost identical to the one I had in my old room here at the castle, is on the opposite wall. There are a few dressers throughout the room, and off the far wall is a small library that isn’t very wide but goes up a few floors and my super luxurious bathroom. I got all my stuff moved in yesterday and spent the night, and when I decided to try out the shower this morning, I thought I was going to get so relaxed that I would just melt. I’m going to have to try out the bath, which is almost the size of one of those above-ground pools that so many ponies in Coltlumbus have. Why anypony needs that much room for a bath is beyond me, but I’m not going to complain.

I feel a little bad, honestly, because of how nice everything is. I looked through some of the individual quarters for the other Dreamstriders, and while nothing in there is low quality by any means, it’s nowhere near as nice as what I have in here. Their rooms are about as big as the room I had elsewhere in the castle, but it’s split into a bedroom and a study. They have a bathroom of their own as well, but nothing in it is as big or as nice as what I have. Still, it’s way better than anything I’ve ever seen outside the castle, so if I had to live there, I wouldn’t even think of complaining.

It will be a little disappointing that I won’t get breakfast with Luna every day since I’m here, but it could be worse. The new Dreamstrider she’s going and getting will be here soon, though I don’t know if I’ll always be up to see him in the mornings. And Luna did say she’d drop by every now and then to join us, so it’s not like I’ll never see her again. I’m also still working kind of closely with her to learn all about demons, which is the thing I’ve decided to focus on right now. It’s weird not to have to do all those other lessons and instead focus on just one thing. Sure there are a ton of different types of demons and a lot of things to know about each and every one of them, but I’m just learning about demons. Not divination, not spellcasting, not teablending, just demons. It’s fascinating, the first time I’ve really been interested in a subject. Sure I always liked school and Dreamstriding, but something about learning about demons makes me more excited than ever before. I’m even starting to make friends with some of them, too. I’ve got two playful demon friends now I named Pankratz and Lettenhove, after characters in a book I loved when I was little.

I wonder when she’ll be back. She left a few hours ago, but I don’t know how far away Baltimare is by chariot. I’ve never even been there, but I hear it’s about as far away as Fillydelphia is, but south instead of north. Maybe she’ll be back soon? It was dark when I came here in her chariot, but I don’t remember what time we arrived. And even then, Coltlumbus is closer to Canterlot than Baltimare is. Guess she’ll show up when she shows up.

Guess I should practice my Demon in the meantime while I’m waiting, so I walk to the other side and sit down before pulling out a small notebook and a pencil. Writing Demon is definitely the part I’m weakest in, so Luna suggested that I start keeping a journal in Demon to try and practice. It’s definitely helped me and has made me more confident in writing, but I feel like there are mistakes I’m making that don’t get corrected because this is my private journal. There’s not really much in here right now that I wouldn’t want anypony else to read, but the mere thought of keeping a journal makes me want to keep it to myself. There may not be anything private in there now, but I can’t speak for the future.

Writing in Demon is still slow for me, so I’m only about a paragraph into my writing when the door to the Dreamstrider wing opens. I break out of my hyper concentration I was using to write, and can now see that any sunlight that was left in the sky when I started writing is gone, replaced by bright silver moonlight. Luna smiles as she walks in, a colt about two years younger than me following her.

“I knew you couldn’t resist sitting behind that desk and surveying your department,” she winks. “I can tell you’re enjoying your first taste of leadership.”

“Yeah,” I mumble as I start blushing. She walks up to my desk, and I close the notebook so she can’t read what’s inside. She’s made me start writing everything to her in Demon, and she always makes so many corrections that it looks like she just spilled red ink all over the page. I don’t need her doing that to my personal journal.

“This is Moonlight,” she says, gesturing to the colt next to her, who gives me a weak wave. “Moonlight, this is Aurora. She will be your overseer, but as she was just in your position a few years ago, you will be able to approach her with any questions you have and she will answer them to the best of her abilities.”

“Good to meet you, Moonlight. You excited to start Dreamstriding?”

“Kinda nervous,” he replies quietly. “Is it hard?”

“Not super hard, no.” I had to think about it for a moment, because while there were some difficulties, there wasn’t anything extremely hard, and if there was, it wasn’t for very long. Getting trapped by Luna in a ritual was probably the hardest thing, but I figure he can find out about that one by himself. I actually did it once again over the summer with Luna’s help, and it’s really not that bad when you know what to do. And when you don’t try to cry your way out of it.

“You may choose any of the rooms here,” Luna says, pointing all around the room. “The guards shall be bringing up the rest of your things momentarily, and I have duties that I must attend to. Aurora, will you be able to help him settle in?”

“Can do,” I say as I raise my mug. She nods, then leaves the room into the hallway.

“What’s Princess Luna like?” he asks weakly, taking a seat on the other side of the desk from me.

“She’s really nice. And she’ll help you if you ever need it, too. Just make sure to think things through, because then even if you fail, she won’t get mad and will just help you improve.” I laugh nervously. “I failed once because I didn’t really think, and she was pretty mad.”

“What happened?”

“I can tell you later,” I dismiss. I only get one first impression as his boss, so I don’t want to admit the mess I made with the silvertongue demon just yet. “So Moonlight, tell me a little about yourself.”

“I’m from Baltimare. I’ve got a little brother two years younger than me, and then a baby sister who was just born a few months ago.”

Younger siblings, and a sister who’s just a few months old? That’s got to be rough. Being the youngest of my sisters by many years was almost nice for coming here, because in a few years I wasn’t going to be living with them anyways. And I never really grew up alongside either of them like he probably did with his brother, so it’s not like I was missing somepony that was always there with me.

“Have you ever been to Canterlot?”

“No,” he shakes his head. “I don’t even think I’ve ever been outside Baltimare.”

“Not even to visit family?” I ask.

“Why would I have to travel?” he asks. “All my family’s from Baltimare.”

Well, guess it wasn’t just Coltlumbus where I was the only pony I knew whose family lived all across Equestria. I always thought the ponies I knew back home were weird for having all their family so close by, but maybe it’s my family that’s the weird one.

“Well, are you excited to be living here? Lots of ponies dream about living in Canterlot and at the palace, so you’re getting to do something only a hooffull will ever get to. Plus, you get to go to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. You learn some really cool stuff there.”

“I hear it’s really hard there. Is it?”

“I got good grades there, and I learned almost nothing about magic before I came here. It’s not as hard as ponies say it is, and both Princess Luna and I are here to help you. But go to her first, she’s kind of been studying magic longer than I have.”

He laughs a little. That’s a good sign, I suppose. He doesn’t seem quite as nervous as I was when I was starting my lessons about Dreamstriding. Maybe having me, somepony who’s actually gone through what he’s going to go through, helps. Now he just has to follow in my hoofsteps, not follow in the hoofsteps of Princess Luna like I had to.

“What will I need to do to Dreamstride?” he asks. “Princess Luna tried to describe it to me, but I still don’t understand it.”

“You have to…” I stop and think for a moment; while I know exactly what I want to him, I don’t know how to put it into words that somepony who’s never done it would understand. “Basically, every Dreamstrider has a connection to the dream world, and you have to use that to get there. Don’t worry if you don’t know what I’m talking about, because I’d be surprised if you did. Luna and I will help you get started with that, and don’t worry if you don’t make a lot of progress to start. Took me a few months to even be able to get into the dream world, and even longer to be able to do it consistently.”

“I’ve never felt any connection,” he says quietly. “Are you sure I can do it?”

I smile a little bit, because I’m pretty sure I asked the same exact thing when I first came here to Canterlot. “We can be certain of it. We share a lot of similarities in our magic, and so when you’re in the dream world, your dream feels familiar to us. Luna even brought me by your dream once, and it feels like mine and hers. Do you remember feeling something weird that nopony else felt a few months ago, by any chance?”

“No,” he shakes his head.

I take a sip of my tea. “That’s what it feels like. Another Dreamstrider was born not long ago, and we all feel a flush of dream magic when they’re born. That’s what it felt like to be in your dream, and it’s what it feels like to be near Luna’s.”

“You were in my dream?”

Shoot, I didn’t mean to tell him that. Now I gotta think of something to say. “Uh...yeah. Just for a little bit, so Luna could show me what it felt like to be in a Dreamstrider’s dream.”

“Have you ever been in one of her dreams?”

“Come to think of it, no. I’d really like to go in one of her dreams and see, but if she doesn’t need help then you’re not supposed to go into somepony’s dream. And Luna is a very private pony, so I imagine she wouldn’t like us going and poking around there.”

“Would she know?”

“I think? We can wipe ponies’ memories of dreams, but she probably would know how to stop us or reverse it. I don’t want to risk it, I have a good relationship with her and don’t want to throw it away.”

“You can erase ponies’ memories? I always thought that was something only possible in movies.”

“Sometimes even I don’t even believe everything we do. So much of what we do is a lot easier than it sounds though, and you’ll love it.”

The door at the other end of the Dreamstrider wing opens and Sveta walks in, carrying a tray with tea leaves, a kettle, and mugs in her magic. She places it on my desk without a word, then turns around and starts walking out.

“Wait!” I yell before she can get to the door.

“Yes?” she asks while turning around. Her voice doesn’t sound quite as aggressive as it normally is. Wonder what’s caused this change in her.

“This is Moonlight,” I say to her. “Moonlight, this is Sveta. She’s one of Princess Luna’s guards, you’re going to see her around a lot. Sveta, this is our newest Dreamstrider.”

She gives us a quick nod, but then before he can say anything to her, she walks right out. I guess even though she seems to be growing friendlier with me, she’s still her old self.

He picks up the mug and studies it. “Why’d she just give you some tea?”

I can see a little note on the tray, so I pick it up and notice that it’s in demon. “It can alter your magic and make it easier to Dreamstride and do things in the dream world. I recognize this blend, so if you want you can put some tea in the mug and pour some water in it and wait for it to cool down. I just have to read this real quick.”

While he starts doing what I tell him, I look at the note. It looks pretty hastily scribbled, so she probably has a lot that she has to do and just wanted to tell me this really quick.

Aurora, please assist Moonlight with trying to Dreamstride tonight. I know he will not be able to as he is only a beginner, although it will be good for him to start thinking about how to enter the dream world.

“Moonlight?”

He looks up from the tea, which is now half full of boiling water. “Yeah?”

“Choose a room that you want to put your stuff in. I’m going to be helping you a little bit tonight with starting to Dreamstride.”

“Already? But I haven’t learned anything about magic or done anything to prepare!”

“Dreamstriding is something that’s natural to us, you don’t need to do any of that. You’ll need to practice sure, but otherwise it’s just getting in touch with your magic. Going to Princess Celestia’s is mainly so you just understand how magic works, because you’re going to use it a lot in Dreamstriding. And like, we use divination a lot, but some of the other stuff like transmutation is basically useless to us. Luna or I can tell you what’s the important stuff you learn at school and what’s the stuff that you just need to learn to pass the class.”

“Alright,” he says uneasily as he puts the mug on my desk and looks around the office. He points to the one in the absolute middle on my left side, which would be the right as you walk into the office.

I put my tea down on my desk and stand up, taking one of his bags in my magic. “Let’s not waste any time getting started, then.”

Chapter 26

There’s a knock at my door, pulling me out of the restful sleep I was having. Is it morning already? I don’t want to get out of bed, I’m comfortable here.

“Aurora,” Dew Drop calls from the other side of the door, “you in there?”

Instantly, my eyes jolt open. I forgot that she was coming today! Good thing she came, because otherwise I might have completely slept through my train to Manehattan. When I open the door in my magic, she walks in and shakes her head at me still in bed.

“Tell me you’re packed, at least,” she says.

“Packed and showered last night so I can just get out of bed today and go down with the station with you.” After stretching a little, I hop out of bed and onto the floor while taking my suitcase in my magic. “You excited?”

“Yeah,” she smiles. “It’ll be nice to go do this, since I won’t get to at any other time. I don’t know why Snowy was so weird and didn’t want to have us for siblings’ weekend last year, so I’m glad she decided to have us this year.” As we walk out of my room and I close the door, she shoots me a wink. “And I’ll have to have you sometime when I’m off at school.”

We start walking out of the Dreamstrider offices, and she lets me lead since I know how to get out of the castle. “Do you know where you’re going to school yet?”

She nods. “Promise not to tell mom and dad?”

“Why?”

“Because it’s not official.” She groans. “They still want me to hear back from places that have taken months to get back to me and I never really wanted to go to anyways but applied to to get them out of my mane.”

“So where will you be?”

“Right here in Canterlot with you,” she smiles as she pats me on the back. “University of Equestria at Canterlot.”

I can’t help but break out in a huge smile. That’ll be awesome to have her so close to me! I know she’ll be busy with school and I’ll be busy with my work, but just having her nearby will be nice. Maybe mom and dad will come visit a lot more since there’ll be two of us here. If we could get Snowy here as well after she graduates, they’d probably be here all the time to see us.

“So you’re excited, huh?”

“Totally.” I just can’t stop smiling! I was always a bit closer to Dew Drop anyways since she’s closer to my age, so secretly I’m glad that it’s her and not Snowy that’s going to go to school in Canterlot. Seven years apart is a pretty big gap, but it feels like so much less compared to the nine years between Snowy and I.

“Changing subjects,” she proclaims once we’re outside and walking to the train station, “I want to get breakfast at the station before our train, if you’re cool with that. I ate before I left Coltlumbus, but that was a few hours ago. And since mom and dad gave me some money to have for food and the like while traveling, I figure why not use it?”

Almost as soon as she mentions breakfast, my stomach growls. I may have packed and showered last night so I could just get up and go this morning, but I didn’t think to get up earlier to eat. “That sounds good.”

“Perfect! Any good places around here?”

“What?”

“You know. Any good places for breakfast around here?”

“I have absolutely no idea. I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten breakfast outside the castle, to be honest.”

“Ooh!” She points towards a diner down the street, probably completely ignoring what I said. “Horsefeathers. Doesn’t dad say that was his favorite place to go when he was a student?”

I shrug. “He’s never talked much about his time as a student with me, much less the places he liked to eat.”

“Pretty sure this is it. Mom says he always wanted to come here when he was drunk because apparently they have great pancakes. Turns out that’s the only food he ever wants when he drinks too much.”

Thinking of dad drunk is a little weird for me because I’ve never seen him like that, so it’s just not something I can picture. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anypony get drunk. From what I’ve read in my books, ponies either get really mean or really weird when they’re like that. I wonder which he was. Probably weird, since he’s not mean to begin with and mom probably wouldn’t have liked him if he was.

As the train is pulling into Manehattan Central Station, I look out the window onto the platform. I see Snowy real quick, but she’s further down than where we’ll be getting out.

The doors open, and Dew Drop gets up, grabbing her bag in her magic as she does so. I do the same, and after fighting through a crowd of ponies we’re on the same platform we were a little over a year ago to first move Snowy into college.

“Dew Drop!” I can hear Snowy’s voice call from further down. “Aurora!” She starts fighting through another crowd of ponies towards us, and when she gets to where we are, throws her forelegs around us in a big hug. “How are you both?”

“I’m good,” Dew Drop replies, returning the hug. “Did I tell you I’ve made an unofficial, don’t-tell-mom-and-dad-yet school decision?”

“Oh?” Snowy’s ears prick up. I know Dew Drop applied to Manehattan College, and knowing Snowy, she’s been trying to convince her to come here.

“UEC. Sorry, but your dream of us being Manehattanites together is probably never come true.”

“We could always both end up here after graduation. And UEC? Pretty bold move becoming a Clover, given both our parents not only went to, but met at the University of Canterlot.”

“They were excited when I got in,” she shrugs. “And they said they’d send me there if that’s where I wanted to go, but made it very clear they weren’t going to start rooting for my hoofball team.”

“Diehard Windigoes fans the both of them,” she laughs. “And you, Aurora? How are you doing?”

“I’m doing good. Not much new for me, just what I’ve told you about in the couple letters I’ve sent.”

“Well, it’s good that nothing’s going wrong.” She breaks off the hug, then starts leading us through the station. “I hope you two are excited. There’s so much to do here in Manehattan, and even though we only get a weekend together, I know there’s plenty that we’ll be able to do.”

Dew Drop and I just exchange glances, then we both smile a little bit. “Yeah, I’ve always wanted to come here. Especially since we didn’t have any time to go into the city and do anything when we were here last.”

“We’ll go by campus and have you drop your stuff off there, and then I can show you around.”

The rest of the way to campus, Dew Drop is asking all kinds of questions about college and Snowy is answering them, so I just take a few moments to look at the scenery around me. It’s the same route we took to campus last time we were here if I remember correctly, but it’s still neat. Manehattan is a lot more crowded and busy than Canterlot, but the ponies passing by us look a lot more like normal ponies than really rich, upper-class ones.

I wonder what that’ll mean for Dreamstriding tonight. Luna said if I felt up to it to do some here tonight, so at the very least I should do a quick survey to make sure there aren’t any really bad demons I need to be worrying about. Luna does a quick survey of here every night, but it’ll be good to have me here so I can conduct a little more thorough search. Plus, demons can pop up all the time. Just because it’s clear when she comes by doesn’t mean it’ll always be clear during the night.

Before too long, we get to the circle of dorms I do remember from last year. Instead of going to the one in the middle, however, we go to the one on the far right, which is only three stories tall or so. The inside is pretty similar to what I remember of her dorm last year, and we have to go all the way to the top floor to find her room. There room’s a tiny bit smaller than her one last year, but not by much. There’s only one bed, but she does have a small couch.

“Enjoying having a room all to yourself?” Dew Drop asks as she puts her suitcase on top of Snowy’s perfectly clean desk.

“Yeah,” she shrugs. “Neighbors aren’t so great. I was warned that being on a floor of all single rooms would mean nopony ever interacted with each other, but oh well. I’ve still got my friends.”

Dew Drop asks something about living at college, so I place my bag off to the side and decide to try Snowy’s couch. It’s pretty comfortable, actually. It probably isn’t big enough for both Dew Drop and me to sleep on, so I guess we’ll have to figure something out for that.

“Ready to head out?” Snowy asks after a few minutes.

Now that I realize it, I almost dozed off. My eyes were closed, even. Guess I must be a little more tired than I had thought.

“Whenever you guys are,” I respond.

I swear I can see a tiny smile on her face as she goes to her closet and sticks her head inside. “Alright, just give me a sec. And close your eyes, both of you.”

Dew Drop and I look at each other in confusion, and Snowy pops her head out of the closet. “I said eyes closed.” Dew Drop shrugs and closes her eyes, and I do the same. After a few seconds wait, I can feel something warm and soft wrap around my neck and get tied, almost like a scarf. “Alright, you two can open them now!”

I open my eyes and look down, and I was right: it’s a scarf. Mine is purple and Dew Drop’s is a soft blue, both with a block M on them like I see everywhere around campus.

“I know it’s only a little cold,” Snowy explains, “but I decided to get you both Manehattan College scarves. Do you like them? I think they both compliment your manes and coats very nicely.”

“Thanks,” Dew Drop responds, tightening hers a little. “Now I’ll have to get you one from my school, when I go.”

“I don’t have a school,” I laugh. “So all I can do is say thanks.”

“Can get me one from the castle,” she suggests playfully as she walks outside her room and waits for us.

“Does the castle even sell scarves?” Dew Drop, walking out into the hallway with me. “That’s where all the important stuff happens, and where all the important ponies do all the important stuff. They’re not selling scarves.”

“It was a joke,” she sighs while closing the door.

“Then make it funny.”

Just like she always does, Snowy mutters something under her breath while Dew Drop smiles. She always knows just how to annoy her.

“So where are we going to first?” I ask.

“Library.” She tests her door to make sure it locked, then walks down the hall. “It’s really neat, and an awesome place to go study. Really big for a small university, too. And they’ve got this really cool section on magic you’d probably enjoy, Aurora. They have this rare book section I’ve been dying to get in and see, and I heard there’s allegedly even a book in there on Dreamstriders that’s written in some language they’ve been trying to decipher for ages, but haven’t made any progress.”

“A library?” Dew Drop repeats. “You’re bringing us to a library?”

She giggles. “When you enter college, you’ll start to appreciate a good library more than you do now. Plus, the gym nextdoor has a really awesome smoothie place, so I figured we could go check that out after and get some.”

“Let’s just go get smoothies, then,” Dew Drop suggests. “I can go to a library any time, but you know what it’s like trying to buy a smoothie in Coltlumbus. I can either pay a normal amount of bits and get the trots, or I can pay a stupid amount and not.”

“You’ve got a point,” she agrees. “These are also kinda expensive, but at least they’ve got a lot of selection. They’ll make you fat, though.” She laughs a tiny bit. “Let’s just say it’s a good thing they’re in the gym.”

When we walk outside, the cold and gray sky starts dropping a few tiny white snowflakes on us. They all melt when they hit the ground, but it at least looks kind of pretty, even if the snow is very light. Dew Drop looks like she has a bit of disgust on her face at it; she always did hate the winter. If she thinks back home is bad, she’s going to be in for a pretty big surprise in Canterlot.

It’ll be nice to have her there. Now that I’m not a little filly anymore, she and I don’t actually mind spending time with each other. Plus, with two of us in the same city, mom and dad are probably going to be visiting us a lot more.

These coming few years are going to be exciting, I can tell that already.

Chapter 27

“Aurora,” Dew Drop elbows me, bringing me out of the half-sleep state I was dozing off into on Snowy’s couch. It takes me a few seconds to really snap back awake, and even then I’m pretty light-headed. It’s almost one in the morning, and I can’t remember the last time, if ever, I stayed up this late.

“Yeah?” I rub my eyes and stretch a little to try and not feel like I’m about to fall asleep right here and now.

“Turn the music up a little. I can hardly hear it.”

“No,” Snowy yawns from her bed. “Turn it off. I’m pretty tired, I had to be up for my 8 A.M. today and am just exhausted. Probably going to head to bed now.”

“It’s not even that late!” Dew Drop groans.

“Not saying you can’t stay up, but I’m heading to bed. And from the looks of it, Aurora is too.”

“Where will I sleep, by the way?” I ask. We haven’t figured that out yet, and I’d prefer to sleep somewhere that’s not on the floor.

Snowy looks over me a little bit. “You’re still pretty small,” she notes. “You don’t thrash in your sleep or take up a bunch of room, right?”

“Not that I know of. Why?”

“We should both be able to fit in my bed,” she says, scooting to the edge of her bed, up against the wall it touches. “Dew Drop can have the couch, and we all have a comfortable place to sleep. Sound good?”

“I don’t have to share, so I’m happy,” Dew Drop smiles. “I always had to share with Snowy when we were little and traveled anywhere and there weren’t enough beds. And I’ll warn you now, she’s a blanket hog.”

“I’ve gotten better!” she defends.

“Should I ask Beetroot from high school if you’ve changed?” she teases. “Never knew what you saw in him. Looked like a sack of bricks, and about as smart and well-spoken as one, too.”

“Very funny,” she snips back, but I swear I can see her blushing a little. “And he had his qualities. He was very nice.”

“...in bed,” she adds. “Snowy, just admit you were only in it for the sex. We’re all allowed to make mistakes like him at some point in life. You just apparently chose to start early.”

“I’m not commenting on it any further,” she says, closing her eyes and shaking her head. “I’ll remember this when you date somepony like that.”

Dew Drop puts a hoof on her chin. “Didn’t he get arrested last summer for assaulting a firefighter?”

“Just turn the music off,” she sighs. “There’s a lamp on the desk you can turn on if you want, but I’m turning off the overhead light. Aurora, if you want to sleep in my bed, there’s room.”

She reaches out and flicks off the light switch, and I use my magic to turn her lamp on. Dew Drop reaches across me and turns off Snowy’s record player, then goes back to her book. I never really realized before now how little my sisters use their magic.

I’m tired, but I have to practice my demon, so I go and get my journal and a pencil off Snowy’s desk. I flip through to find a blank page, and then record what happened today. I think I see Dew Drop shoot a glance my way a few times, then look away when I look back at her. She looks confused, probably because I don’t think she’s ever seen demon before.

After writing a short paragraph, I decide to wrap it up and get to bed because I really am super tired. I place my notebook and the pencil back on the desk, then get off the couch and climb in bed with Snowy. Given how she’s breathing and the magic coming off of her, she’s already asleep. She always could fall asleep instantly, and because she said she was tired, she probably started dreaming the second her head hit the pillow. Carefully so I don’t wake her, I take some of the blanket from her and put it over myself, then put my own head on the pillow. I want to fall asleep, but I need to go Dreamstride. Duties are duties, after all.

Soon enough, I’m in the dream world, surrounded by almost an ocean of gray mist with just hardly enough room between them to walk around in. I realize I’ve never been to Manehattan in the dream world before, because nothing around me looks familiar. The area I’m in is flat, but behind me and in front of me are the slopes of a mountain. It’s a small mountain and I’m only about halfway up, but I can still see pretty far. The forest that starts near Canterlot Cave isn’t very far away, and I think I can see the clearing Ponyville is in way off in the distance. There’s a small path down to my left, and it doesn’t look like there’s any way up from here. I’ll just go around these dreams a little bit and look for anything bad, then head back to the awakened world and go to sleep.

As I walk further away from my dream, the magic gets more and more tense. Great, that means there’s a malevolent demon here. I can’t tell what type from just feeling its presence, though, so I’m going to have to go into a dream.

I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths. There’s a ton of dreams here, way more than I’ve ever had to deal with before, so there are going to be a lot of benevolent and neutral demons here that create basically background noise for finding malevolent demons.

The feeling of the malevolent demon is slightly stronger on my right, so I walk over there carefully. Sure enough, the feeling is getting stronger. Once it’s really strong, I open my eyes and look down. This dream must be it. I put a hoof in, followed by another, and then my whole head and the rest of my body.

I land in the dream, and it’s clear that the demon has already done its work. There’s a huge blizzard raging, and there are just two stallions yelling at each other. One of them is in a graduation cap and gown, and the other is covered in snow and frost with a wicked smile on his face. As soon as my hooves hit the ground, the frost-covered one snaps his head to me and begins glaring at me.

“Dreamstrider…” he says in a voice that I can only describe as what it would sound like if ice could talk. “You think yourself clever? Congratulations: you have found me.” He laughs. “Let us see if you can do it again.”

As soon as he’s done speaking, there’s huge explosion of ice and snow centered on him that knocks me down. Thankfully I was able to distance myself from this dreamer’s dream so I’m not cold, but the demon was still able to hit me so hard that I couldn’t keep my eyes on him. When I look back where he was before, there’s nothing, not even any more snow.

I ignore the other stallion’s cries for an explanation while I scramble to my feet and jump out of the dream, hoping to catch this demon before it can escape. But once I’m back in the dream world, I can see that it’s too late: the demon has already gone into another dream.

Guess I have to figure out what this thing is, before I go and catch it. I’ve never seen it before, but I definitely have read of demons like it. It was really fast and escaped instead of trying to fight or intimidate me, so I can rule out a lot of malevolent demons. The dreamer was angry, and was arguing with the demon. Given the fact that the form the demon took looked kind of like the dreamer, this is probably a filial demon, one that preys on the disharmony between somepony and their siblings, intensifying it and getting energy from it.

Which means it’s absolutely perfect that there happens to be a filial demon during siblings’ weekend.

While I know the spell I’d need to use to kill a filial demon, they’re extremely fast and very good at escaping from Dreamstriders. I need to trap it, but unfortunately, trapping filial demons isn’t something I’ve learned yet. They’re really rare, so I pushed them down on the list of demons I need to know how to deal with. Why can’t this be a preying demon, or something simple? I’ve gotten really good at those.

Now I have to think about how to deal with this thing. I didn’t bring my grimoire with me because I didn’t think I’d need, which turned out to be a big fat lie. Never leaving Canterlot ever again without that thing.

Snowy did say there was something about Dreamstriders in the library here, and from the sound of it, it was written in demon. But it’s in the restricted section, and I doubt they’d let a ten-year-old into the restricted section, no matter how urgent she says it is. Even if she’s the second-most knowledgeable pony in the world in that field, too.

I’m sure I can think of something, so I go back to my dream and back to the awakened world. Maybe I wrote something about it in my journal. Probably not, but it’s the best lead I have so far.

“You look worried,” Dew Drop says quietly. “Everything alright?”

“Sorta.” I grab my journal in my magic and bring it over to me, then open it and start reading.

“Why are you reading through that journal?”

“Looking for something.”

“Aurora,” she says in a stern tone that makes her sound exactly like mom. “You’re worried. What about?”

“There’s…” I sigh. “There’s something wrong in the dream world.”

“What is it?”

“There’s a creature there that I don’t know how to defeat, and I don’t have any of my notes or books here with me. The only possible lead I’d have is the library here, because Snowy said there’s a book in there that’s about Dreamstriders and I think it’s in the language of dream creatures, which I know enough of to use to get useful information from books. Problem is, it’s in the restricted section, so I don’t know how to get into it.”

“I do,” she says without missing a beat. “Come on, let’s go. And quietly, we don’t want to wake her.”

“How do you know how to get into the restricted section here?” I whisper as I get out of bed.

“Just trust me,” she answers vaguely as she gets up from the couch and walks to the door. “So? You coming or not?”

I don’t really have much of a choice, so I follow her. Once we’re in the hallway, she closes the door behind her and starts moving towards the stairwell.

“Will you tell me now how to get into the restricted section?” I ask once we’re out of the dorm and walking towards the library.

“We’re going to have to sneak in,” she says quietly. “I noticed there was somepony at the desk leading in, so they’re probably checking IDs. I’ll find a way to get them to leave, and then you go in and do what you need to.”

“What if we get caught?”

“Then it gets not so fun,” she replies after a few moments. “How much trouble I get in will probably depend on what I say to get the pony to leave, but you should be able to avoid any trouble. You can pretend to be cute, right?”

“I...what?” I don’t even know how to respond to that question, honestly. “Sure, I guess. Why?”

“When it comes down to it, you’re a ten-year-old filly,” she points out. “They catch you in the restricted section, you just say you’re lost and you’re looking for your big sister or something like that. Ponies like to think foals are incapable of lying or anything like that, so they’ll believe you if you just act all cute about it.”

“And what if I’m reading the book?”

“You were staying put until I found you and you got bored, I don’t know,” she shrugs. “You’re going to have to think of something. Can you do that?”

“Yeah,” I nod.

We walk the rest of the way to the library in silence. There are still a few ponies out, surprisingly. Some of the are dressed really nice and in big groups, and others are alone and look really tired. The temperature has dropped from earlier, moving it from cool to cold. Whenever we pass under a streetlight, I can just barely see my breath escape from my nostrils.

Before long, we come to the Manehattan University main library. The lights are still on and ponies are still coming in and out of it, so it’s clearly open. Who goes to the library at one in the morning, though? Regardless, I’m glad it’s open. If it wasn’t, I’d have to let that demon roam free until tomorrow morning at the very least.

We enter, and Dew Drop puts out a hoof to stop me right as we walk in. “Wait here,” she says. “Probably don’t want to be seen together, even if you don’t choose the ‘I’m lost and looking for my sister’ route.” She looks back down at me. "You ready?"

“Yeah,” I nod. She gives me a quick nod back, then walks into the library itself. I can’t help but peek around the corner and try to see what she’s doing. When she walks up to the pony at the desk in front of the restricted section, she starts talking to him. I’m far away so I can’t hear anything, but she’s doing a lot of pointing around. I hope this works. My stomach is jumping all around my body, as is my heart. It’s nerve-wracking to have so much rely on Dew Drop. I love her to death, but she’s not the most reliable pony I know. She also doesn’t really have a way with words, so lying to somepony to get them to leave their post is a pretty steep job for her.

A few minutes pass, and the pony behind the desk doesn’t look like she’s believing her story at all. That’s not good. And she’s getting nervous, too. After a little more of her clearly stumbling over words trying to think of something to say, her horn lights up and she starts running. The stallion yells at her, and I can see him start running after her, trying to grab a book she has in her magic. I guess that’s my opportunity? I want to go find Dew Drop and get her to stop so nothing happens to her, but this is probably the one chance I’ll get to get into the section and find the book I need.

After making sure the stallion chasing Dew Drop isn’t around, I canter over to the restricted section and push open the huge, heavy wooden door before entering. It’s a lot quieter in here than in the main section of the library, and the main section is quiet enough as it is. There are a few short bookcases lining the walls of the room that’s not that much larger than my room at the castle, and a few display cases in the middle of the room with plaques showing what each book in there is. I have no idea where to start, so I just go to the bookcase closest to me on the left and start looking through it. It’s not in here, but thankfully the bookcases are all pretty small, so it doesn’t take me long to look through them. There’s a book in demon on the back wall with the title Shooting Star’s Codex of Malevolent Demons, so I assume that’s it. In demon about demons, what else could possibly have everything I need?

I take the book off the shelf and go to one of the display cases, sitting down and using it to prop my back up. There’s a table of contents, so I find the entry for filial demons and flip to the page. A lot of the the demon is written too advanced for me, but I can understand the overall message. I keep flipping page after page, until I get to a page with some diagrams. Some of them I recognize as spells commonly used for malevolent demons that are adapted for use against filial demons, but one that's labeled as a trap looks like more like a charm than the others. Charms still aren’t my strong suit, but I might be able to do it all if I can just memorize the runes that go into it. And the one thing Luna taught me about charms that really stuck was repeating it all the time until it’s cemented in your mind. So I start. “Clairvoyance, cleansing, locomotion, life, refinement, steadfastness…”

I repeat the list of charms a few more times to make sure it’s in my head. The door opens, however, so I start whispering to make sure they can’t hear me. The hoofsteps are getting closer, so I get even quieter. At this point I know they’ll hear me, but remembering this trap is more important than staying away from them.

“Hey,” a stallion wearing a police uniform voice says. “What are you doing here?”

I don’t know what to say, so I look down at the book. I don’t really know if I know how to act like a cute filly, so I should probably just say as little as possible. “Reading.”

“This your sister?” he asks, putting a hoof around Dew Drop’s shoulder and pulling her next to him. She looks pretty upset, almost as if she’s holding back tears.

“Yeah,” I nod. “I couldn’t find her, so I just came in here and read.”

“Time to get you two back to where you belong,” he says, grabbing the book from me. He goes to put it back, but double takes when he sees that none of it is in Equestrian. I can tell he wants to say something, but probably can’t. Once he puts the book on the display shelf, he extends a hoof to me and helps me get on my hooves. “Where do you two live?”

“We’re here with our sister, Snowy Jade,” Dew Drop says weakly. “We’re from out of town. She goes to school here, room 331 at Aquamarine Estate.”

“Come on,” he says, putting his hoof around Dew Drop again and leading her out of the room. I follow him, and before we know it, we’re in front of her door. He knocks on it, and a few moments later, she opens it. At first she looks really tired, but as soon as her eyes meet the cop’s, they grow huge.

“Oh my god,” is all she says before putting a hoof on her forehead.

“Miss Snowy Jade?” the cop asks.

“Yes,” she sighs while giving a nod. “Those are my sisters. What did they do?”

“She took somepony’s book in the library,” he says, pointing at Dew Drop. He doesn’t say anything about me, so it looks like he doesn’t believe I was a part of it. “She didn’t seem to be trying to steal it, just trying to make some trouble.”

She groans. “And the younger one?”

“She was just brought along,” he says. “Was sitting and reading when we found her. I don’t even think she knew what was going on.”

“Thank you for bringing them back,” she says through clenched teeth. “Dew Drop, Aurora, would you both please come into my room so I may have a word with you?”

“Consider yourself lucky,” he says as Dew Drop walks into Snowy’s room. “You’re just getting a warning tonight, but if I see you causing trouble again, I won’t be so lenient.”

Almost as soon as I walk in, Snowy engulfs the door in her magic and slams the door shut super hard.

“Both of you on the bed,” she says, anger clearly dripping off her words. “We need to have a talk.”

Chapter 28

“Snowy,” Dew Drop says, holding a hoof up, “it’s not as b—”

“Dew Drop,” she cuts off. “On the bed. Now.”

She pushes her lips closed, clearly understanding exactly what it is Snowy’s saying. She gets on bed and hangs her head, and Snowy looks at me next. She doesn’t have to say anything: I get up next to Dew Drop without a fight.

“Dew Drop, what were you thinking?” Snowy yells. “Sneaking out at night just to go mess around at the library and try to take ponies’ things?”

“I wasn’t going to do anything!” she defends.

“Then why in the fuck did you sneak out of my room, go all the way across campus, take our little sister with you, and just start taking things for no reason?”

“I have my reasons!” she yells.

“Snowy,” I speak up, “it was—”

“Be quiet!” they both yell at me at once.

“Don’t yell at her!” Snowy yells at Dew Drop. “It’s bad enough you dragged her along and got her arrested!”

“Snowy, come on, I think—”

“Celestia’s teats, Dew Drop! She’s ten! Use your fucking head for once in your life and realize not only that going and doing dumb shit at the library couldn’t end well, but dragging your ten year old sister along with you only puts her in trouble, too!”

“Fine, I fucked up!” Dew Drop yells, her voice cracking a little bit. “That what you want me to say? That I’m just a fuckup?”

“Oh my god,” Snowy mutters as she puts a hoof on her forehead. “No, it’s not. Stop being so melodramatic.”

“I’m not being melodramatic, you’re just being really stuck-up and making a bid deal out of nothing.”

“‘Out of nothing’? You got both of you arrested! If that cop hadn’t decided to be nice and just let you off the hook, you could be in a holding cell right now! And trust me, a holding cell near MU on a Friday night is the last place you want to be.”

She scoffs. “Of course you’d know.”

“My roommate last year got really trashed, got caught blowing some random stallion on a park bench, and I needed to go get her,” she corrects. “Stop trying to redirect this conversation. You made a decision that’s stupid even by your standards, and it blew up in your face.”

Dew Drop turns her head, clearly not wanting to look Snowy in the eye. This is unlike anything I’ve ever seen from either of them. I wonder if the filial demon got to Snowy while she was sleeping. Maybe it sensed she’s my sibling and decided to target her.

“And you!” she yells, turning now to me.

“Me?”

“Yes! She may have made the most bone-brained decision I’ve ever seen come out of her, but why in Tartarus did you go with her?”

Just like Dew Drop, I try and look away so I don’t have to look right into her eyes, which are filled with anger. “I don’t know.”

“You, like her, need to think things through before you act. First, you should have realized what she wanted to do was incredibly fucking stupid. Second, why did you leave my room to go dicking around a city you don’t know when you’re not old enough to do so?”

“‘Not old enough’?” Now I’m angry, so I snap my head back so I can stare right into her eyes. “I’m old enough!”

“You’re ten! That is nowhere near old enough to go wander around Manehattan at night. You may be smart and responsible for a ten-year-old, but at the end of the day, you’re still way too young to do anything like this. Mom and dad don’t even let you wander Coltlumbus in broad daylight, why did you think Manehattan was better?”

“Not responsible? I’m the head of an official office of Princess Luna, and better yet, that office’s job is to literally kill demons! Thousands of ponies are under my protection, and you know what? That’s why we went to the library! Because there’s a demon I needed to kill right now in the dream world, and I had one of two options: sit in the dream world and keep trying to contact Princess Luna, or go find out how to do it myself. I have no idea when or even if she’s going to be Dreamstriding tonight, so I had to go sneak into the restricted section and Dew Drop offered to help me do that by distracting the pony at the desk there who checks IDs.”

“Why didn’t you just tell me? You know I’m a student here and have an ID, right? All of this could have been avoided if you took the ten seconds to wake me up and explain what it is you needed!”

Dew Drop and I just look at each other. She does have a point.

“Of course neither of you thought about that,” Snowy sighs, now sounding more disappointed than angry. “At the very least, I hope you two learned something. Next time, think your fucking plans through before acting on them. Now I’m going to bed again, and I think both of you have had enough fun for one night. Aurora, if you’re going to sleep with me still, scoot over so I can get in.”

Without saying anything, Dew Drop gets off Snowy’s bed and onto her couch before laying down, facing the back of the couch away from us. Snowy flips the overhead light off, then climbs into bed and closes her eyes. I lay down next to her and close my eyes, then push into my dream and finally jump into the dream world.

I search for a minute or two, then find a patch of dirt that is big enough for me to write all the charms there with my hoof. I list them all in what I’m almost certain is the correct order, then sit down and close my eyes. Fighting like that really got me worked up, so I’m going to need to meditate for a little while before going after this demon.

I don’t really know how long I’ve been meditating because it’s hard to tell time both while meditating and in the dream world, but there are even more dreams than when I started, so my guess is it’s still night. That’s good. The filial demon will be trying to move between a lot of dreams, so it’ll be easier to catch him in this trap. But first, to find the perfect one to set this trap over. Even if it goes really fast, the demon won’t be able to go after every dreamer in Manehattan with a sibling in one night, so it’s going to have to prioritize. Unfortunately, I can probably guess two of the ones it’s going to want to go by a lot: Snowy’s and Dew Drop’s. They both have two siblings which means there are more relationships for it to sour, and there’s a lot of underlying tension between them, which will just make it that much easier and more fruitful for it. Dream magic also runs strong in them, for some reason. I’m not sure if that’s a result of me being so close to them or if they were really close to being Dreamstriders, but that magic makes them very attractive to demons of all types: benevolent, neutral, and malevolent alike.

I take one last look at the list of runes I wrote into the ground before walking around, trying to find my sisters’ dreams. Even though they’re a lot easier to find because they’re my siblings, I’m still searching Manehattan in the middle of the night; there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dreams scattered all around this mountain. It takes me a few minutes to find them, but I find two dreams side by side that are definitely theirs. But which to set the trap on? If my guess is correct and Snowy did have the demon in her dream while we were at the library, it would be better for me to set the trap on Dew Drop’s dream. The demon might come around again and go into her dream, but I don’t want to have to sit around and hope for it to not decide to go after Snowy again.

If I remember correctly, filial demons like variety, so it’s more likely that it’ll go after Dew Drop than Snowy. Guess I’ve made my decision. After studying them both to figure out whose dream is whose, I go into the one that feels like Dew Drop’s. Not long after my hooves hit the ground, I feel a hoof tap me on the shoulder. When I turn around, I see a pony that looks like Dew Drop, only a lot younger. Like, younger than me even. She doesn’t even have her Cutie Mark yet.

“Who are you?” she asks.

I look around, trying to figure out where she’s dreaming of. “I’m, uh…” I’ve never been to this place, but I recognize it from pictures as the pool at dad’s parents’ old house that they moved out of when I was really little. It looks almost like our entire family is here; grandma, grandpa, our aunts and uncles, and even all our cousins.

“You’re…?”

Mom’s sitting in a lounge chair and looks a little bit pregnant, so this is probably before I was born. Makes sense, since I don’t see me anywhere. “I’m Aurora.”

She studies me, almost as if she doesn’t believe me. “I don’t know anypony named Aurora. Why are you here?”

I try to think of something to tell her, but then I remember that this is a dream; even if I were to not erase her memory of me, she’d probably just wake up and think it was a really weird dream.

“I’m your sister. You don’t recognize me?”

She looks at me again, and it looks almost as if her mind is telling her that I’m familiar but knows that I don’t belong in this memory.

“You’re not Snowy…”

“You don’t even recognize your own sister, Dew Drop? Go ask mom or dad about me, they’ll remind you.”

She walks very slowly towards mom, keeping an eye on me the entire time. Mom asks her what’s wrong, so she turns around and starts telling her something. I always know that dreams aren’t real, but sending my sister to go talk to my mom about me while my mom is pregnant with me has got to be pretty high up on the list of weird stuff that I can do.

While she’s distracted, I run off to the fence and start casting runes on it. They’ll go off whenever the demon enters her mind, which I hope is sometime soon. It’s entirely possible that it won’t even come into her dream and continue to run around in Manehattan all night, but maybe with me inside this dream, it will be too good for it to pass up. It saw me earlier so it knows I’m here; hopefully it’ll love the chance to corner me and defeat me.

Now just to wait. It would be pretty weird to go attend a party where one of the guests is my mom who’s pregnant with me, so I guess I’ll just stay around the fence. I sit down and put my back up to it, then watch everypony going around and doing their own stuff. Dew Drop jumps in the pool and almost splashes Snowy, causing her to walk away from the pool and go sit down next to our cousins. Come to think of it, she’s with all of them. That’s both good and bad, I guess; Dew Drop always complains whenever we get together with our cousins on dad’s side that they only really spend time with Snowy, which means that the demon should be able to sense that and be more likely to come here. But on the other hoof, I can’t help but feel bad for Dew Drop. They never do anything with me either because I’m so much younger than them, which means Dew Drop and I were stuck together. And now that I’m older, I can understand how frustrating it must have been to not be able to get away from somepony who’s seven years younger than you. If I had to always be around a three-year-old, I’d probably go insane.

None of the adults seem to be doing much with her, either. Dad’s sitting with his brothers and grandpa on one end of the yard, and mom’s with grandma and our aunts on the patio, leaving her all alone.

All of a sudden, the clouds move in front of the sun, and the temperature drops a lot more than it should. That might be a good sign. The other dream I was in with a filial demon was one covered in ice and snow, so maybe that’s what this one likes to do?

I get on my hooves and start walking back towards the pool, and by the time I’m off the grass onto the patio, there’s already frost crunching under my hooves. This is definitely it.

“Come on out!” I yell. “You can’t hide any more!”

“That’s what you think,” Snowy says as she turns around, an evil smile on her face. She stomps a hoof on the ground, making the ground erupt in shards of ice and flash-freezing the pool just seconds after Dew Drop is able to scramble out.

Almost immediately, there’s an extremely loud screeching that hurts my ears a little. Snowy looks around with worry on her face and tries to run away, but thousands of tentacles cover her completely. After a few seconds they reposition themselves, and I can see the demon in its true form: a body like an eagle, but three snake-like heads with long necks separating them from the body. They’re flailing around uncontrollably, but before long, the tendrils come back and hold them in place.

“I knew you couldn’t resist my sister’s dream,” I tell it as I power my horn up with the spell to banish it. “You didn’t think I’d know how inviting they are to demons? So much magic like mine, just waiting for you.” Before it can respond, I shoot the spell at it, causing it to start turning into mist and floating out of her dream. Once it’s all gone, the tendrils go back into the ground, taking the ice with them and melting the pool so it’s liquid again.

“What just happened?” I look behind me, and Dew Drop is standing all alone on the patio; our cousins and all the adults are no longer here with us.

“You were having a nightmare,” I tell her. “It was caused by some sort of dislike or hate you have towards your siblings.”

“Yeah,” she mutters. “I remember this summer. Snowy was being annoying as always and hogging all our cousins all for herself, and all the adults were swarming around mom and dad because they found out that they were going to have Aurora. It was when I first realized that I’m just forgettable, because nopony even seemed to notice me the entire trip.”

“I’m sure you’re not forgettable,” I comfort her. “I’m sure your sisters don’t forget you. I bet they both think about you a lot.”

“Sure,” she laughs. “Snowy is excelling at one of the best colleges in the world and is meeting all sorts of important ponies because her special talent involves working with gems, some of the most expensive things money can buy. Aurora is a Dreamstrider, working directly with Princess Luna because she’s one of two ponies in the entire world that can do what she does. I’m a high schooler from a tiny town who can hardly practice her special talent because the majority of the ponies she knows only know what ecology is because of her. I wade through swamps and observe bugs for fun, I have the least interesting Cutie Mark in the world.”

“But you love doing it,” I remind her. “Your sisters probably aren’t thinking about how others see them when they’re performing their special talents, they’re just enjoying doing it. And it’s not like what you do is unimportant; Equestria is a beautiful place, and without ecologists making sure that everything in nature is as it should be, we’d lose all of that.”

“Unnoticed until I stop doing everything I do,” she paraphrases. “Kinda the story of my life.”

“You should be open with your sisters,” I suggest. “They notice and appreciate what you do, and they love you. And they want to see you succeed just as much as you do.”

“They wouldn’t really care that much.” She shrugs. “With all the stuff they have to deal with on a daily basis, they wouldn't want to sit around and listen to their sister complain about how she feels left out. Too...I dunno. Too touchy-feely, too beneath them.”

“You’re here having a nightmare,” I smile. “At the very least, Aurora helps ponies with their nightmares all the time. She’d understand.”

“She’s still a kid, too. So I bet she wouldn’t mind talking about it.”

“The longer you go without talking with them, the worse it’ll be, the more nightmares you’ll start having. Pushing all that negativity aside only makes it stronger.”

“I’ll try to find some time,” she sighs.

I give her a hug, and she returns it. If I were Luna, I’d alter her dream to bring everypony back and give her a good dream, but I don’t know how to do that, so I can only hope her mind can do that itself. Guess my work here is done, then, so I stop the hug and exit her dream.

Once I land back on the mountain in the dream world, I close my eyes. There’s still a lot of tension in the magic here, but it’s gone down since before killing the demon. Unfortunately, filial demons have a little more staying power than some demons; siblings are always a part of our lives, and no matter what, we’re going to have some anger towards them.

I just hope Dew Drop feels better and talks to me about everything she’s going through. I had no idea she felt that way, honestly. She’s never given any signals that anything was wrong. If she was upset, why wouldn’t she mention it to any of us?

I turn around to take another look at my sisters’ dreams, but there’s only one now. Did one of them wake up? The one that’s left feels like Snowy’s, so that means Dew Drop is awake. I should probably get back to my dream then, see if I can find her and talk to her.

It takes me a while to get back to my dream in this ocean of gray mist, but I get there eventually. Once I enter it and push back into the real world, the feeling of Snowy’s heavy sheets surrounds me again. I crack my eyes and look around her room, and I can see a tiny bit of light coming from the door to the hall. Opening them further shows me that the door is open ever so slightly, and when I look at the couch, it’s empty. She must have gone somewhere, then. It might just be to get a drink of water or to go to the bathroom, but I feel like I should go find her.

Carefully as to not wake Snowy, I get out of bed and open the door before looking both directions down the hall. She’s on the right, sitting halfway between us and the stairs at the water fountain. She’s not crying or anything, but just sitting there, staring at the wall. I suppose I should go talk to her.

“Dew Drop?” I speak quietly as I get closer to her. She looks at me with her empty eyes, and I can tell they become even emptier upon seeing me.

“Hey,” she sighs. “What are you doing up?”

“I’m just up.” I sit down next to her. “What are you doing up?”

“Think you know the answer to that,” she says as she puts a hoof around me and pulls me in closer. “I just thought it was a really weird dream, but looking back at it it’s pretty obvious it was you.”

“It was that obvious?”

“I recognize my own sister. It was weird, though. Like, the entire time, I recognized you but at the same time I didn’t because I was dreaming about a time before you were born.”

“Do you remember what we talked about?”

She answers me with a tiny nod of her head. “Yeah. Thanks, I guess. So that, was it just you doing your job, or was it you speaking truthfully?”

“Truthfully. Take dad’s side of the family, for example. Sure, our cousins pretty much only want to do stuff with Snowy. And I get that you probably hated spending time with me because I’m so much younger than you, but it meant a lot to me. When I was really little, I never really understood that you spent time with me because they were leaving you out, I always thought you spent time with me because you wanted to, and I really appreciated that since otherwise I’d have to either be alone or do everything with the adults. Even when we’re not visiting them, you were always the one who spent more time with me, and I feel like we’re close. I really am excited that we’re going to be in the same city for the next few years, and I hope we’ll get to see each other a lot.”

“God damn,” she chuckles as she wipes her eyes. “You’re good. Can tell what Princess Luna sees in you.”

“I’ll be sure to introduce you to her. Mom and dad and Snowy haven’t really ever met her outside the time she came to Coltlumbus to get me, so you’ll have that on them.”

“I’m sure Snowy would go nuts if I got to meet one of the Princesses before her.” Her smile grows even wider. “Sounds like a plan. We should probably get back to bed, though. Had a long day, and I think tomorrow’s also going to be pretty long.”

“What time is it, even?” I ask. “I think it was around 1:30 when we came back, but then I meditated before going after the demon.”

“‘Dark o’clock’, as dad would say.” Silently, she laughs and shakes her head. “I have no idea, didn’t check her clock before I head out. If I were to guess, I’d say maybe around 3? Definitely way past your bedtime, young mare.”

“Okay dad,” I tease before standing up. She shoots me the exact same look I’d expect him to give me if I talked back to him, then giggles and stands up as well. While we’re walking back to Snowy’s room, she puts her hoof around me again.

Chapter 29

Just as I sit down at my desk, fresh cup of tea beside me, ready to look over Moonlight’s report of all the Dreamstriding he did this past summer, somepony starts knocking at my door. Who could it be? Luna’s busy today, Moonlight’s still in Baltimare, and there isn’t a meeting of the castle department heads, so I’m not missing any meetings or anything. Whoever’s there knocks again, so I guess I have to just go get up and answer them. When I open the door, I see an earth pony guard standing there. I don’t think he expected me to be as young as I am, because he was looking up at where an adult’s eyes would be and not down to me.

“Aurora Borealis?” he asks with a lot of confusion after looking down and meeting my eyes.

“Yeah,” I reply. “What is it?”

“Princess Luna requested that I relay a message to you,” he says, clearly taking pride in the fact that Luna asked him specifically to do something. Based on the fact that he didn’t know how old I was and that he still thinks talking to the Princesses is some big occasion, he must be new here.

“What does she need?”

“She said to inform you that your family has arrived, and that they are in the Princess Doçura Reception Room.” He just stands there for a moment, then quickly bows. “Ma’am.”

“You can go back to whatever you were doing before she sent you here,” I tell him, hoping he’ll leave because this is getting a little awkward. “I know where the room is, I can make it there fine on my own.”

“Yes ma’am,” he bows again before quickly leaving the Dreamstrider wing. Don’t think I’ve ever been called ‘ma’am’ before, to be honest. It’s weird, especially coming from a pony much older than me.

I nearly exit the wing, but as I get to the front door and swing it open with my magic, I remember my tea. Shouldn’t go to waste, right? A quick trip back to my room and I’m carrying it with me, taking a few tiny sips along the way because it’s still very hot.

I forgot they were coming today, to be honest. She told me before I came back here from Coltlumbus, but I just got back into the schedule of being here and Dreamstriding that I already forgot.

Once I’m almost to Luna’s private wing, I find the reception room the guard was talking about slightly cracked, so I open the door the rest of the way and look in. Luna’s sitting in a chair and looking more formal than she does just around me, but less than she is when I’ve seen her with most visitors. Mom, dad, and Dew Drop are all sitting together on the couch in the room, all of them stiff as a board. Dew Drop’s levitating a cup of tea in front of her face but not drinking it, instead just staring at Luna like mom and dad are.

“I’m glad you could join us,” Luna announces as she turns her head to me. “I don’t quite think they know what to do when with a Princess,” she says softly as I walk in and settle into the empty chair next to her.

“I forgot you guys were coming,” I laugh to try and ease the tension in here right now. “Have you moved Dew Drop into school yet?”

“We’re moving her in tomorrow,” she nods, turning to look at me without fully taking her eyes off Luna. “We’re staying at a hotel tonight, and we figure we’d come here the day before so we can go do some things around Canterlot with you two.”

“A hotel?” Luna repeats. “You are the family of my personal student and one of my advisors, I shall put you up in the castle. Free of charge.”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about us!” mom nervously giggles. “We already have a reservation, and we’re perfectly fine w—”

Luna holds up a hoof, and she immediately stops. “I insist. It wouldn’t be very hospitable if one of my advisors’ families were in town and I did not welcome them into the castle, would it?”

“Well, I…” Mom starts fidgeting her hooves together, almost as if she thinks it would be rude for her to admit that Luna could be rude. “I guess it would be. But, we already have a reservation…”

“I’m a Princess,” she points out with a smile. “I can cancel it for you. What are they going to do, say no to me?”

All three of them laugh, but it’s a very uneasy and nervous laugh. Man, Luna’s right: they really don’t know what to do around a Princess. I guess in fairness, it did take me a while before I realized she’s just a pony like the rest of us, just happened to be born into a certain family.

“Aurora,” she says, turning her head to me, “perhaps you would like to show them around the Dreamstrider wing? While you are doing that, I can get their things moved to their room and send somepony to cancel their reservation and provide them with a refund.”

“Come on,” I say as I hop out of my chair. I figure the quicker I can get them out of here, the less awkward for everypony it’ll be. They all carefully get up and bow, then walk towards the exit where I am, none of them truly taking their eyes off Luna the whole time. As we leave, Sveta’s eyes light up and she rushes past us into the room. I don’t think she was here when I entered, so she must have just gotten on duty. They all look at her when she walks by, so I guess they weren’t expecting to see a bat pony today, either. They always get really wide-eyed whenever I talk about what it is I do and what my regular days are like, so actually being here and seeing it first-hoof must be such a shock to them.

“You forgot to bow when we left,” mom scolds once we’re far away from the reception room. “She is a Princess, you need to remember that.”

“She tells me not to be formal around her because she hates it,” I laugh. “Besides, if I were to bow every time I saw her, I’d be almost permanently hunched over.”

“That’s no excuse not to be polite to her.”

“Violet,” dad laughs, “she’s fine. Princess Luna didn’t seem the slightest bit offended by it.”

“Just never forget who she is. She is a very important pony, and she meets with a lot of other very important ponies. You wouldn't want her thinking you’re rude, would you?”

“Fine,” I sigh. Luna’s not like mom thinks she is, but I just want her to stop getting mad at me. If only she knew what she was really like, she wouldn’t think that she needs to go the extra mile just to look respectful.

“What would the offices of somepony who works by sleeping look like, anyways?” Dew Drop wonders out loud once we get near the Dreamstrider wing. “Just a ton of beds side by side?”

“We’re almost there,” I tell her while taking a sip of my tea. “Dew Drop, are you moving in tomorrow?”

“Bright and early,” she groans. “We can start moving in at 9, so guess where we’re going to be at 9?”

“You don’t want to be moving into UEC during the big rush,” dad speaks up. “A big school in a big city? It’s going to be a madhouse whenever we go, but early is better. I moved into CU late my first year, and we waited at least a few hours just to get my keys. And it’s half the size of UEC, even.”

I look back at them for a moment, then just get confused. “Where’s all your stuff, Dew Drop?”

“Some Royal Guards just took them all when we got off the train platform, then escorted us here. My guess is Princess Luna heard we were coming and sent them to pick us up.”

That sounds like her. For all the times she says she doesn’t like drawing attention to herself, she sure does like surprises. Especially when it comes to helping ponies.

Before long, we get to the entrance to the Dreamstrider offices. Mom and dad just start staring at everything inside in awe, while Dew Drop is reading the plaque outside, looking confused while doing so.

“I’ve seen this before,” she says as she puts her hoof on it. I walk out to see what she’s talking about, and she looks down at me. “Looks like what you write in your diary.”

Her hoof is on the plaque, pointing at the demon inscription that reads Dreamstrider Wing. “Yeah,” I tell her. “It’s in demon.”

She studies it for a few moments longer, then takes her hoof off it and walks inside with the rest of us. I follow her inside, and dad’s looking at the nameplate on my desk while mom’s just watching the planets in the orrery slowly moving around. “So...is there anything you guys would like to do?” I ask them. Most of the time I’ve been in Canterlot, I’ve either been in school or working as a Dreamstrider. I don’t really know all the things to do in the city.

“We should go walk around campus and see where Dew Drop’s going to be spending a lot of time for the next few years,” mom suggests. “We never got a chance to get up here and do a campus visit while she was applying, and dad and I never did much around the campus besides walking to their stadium for the CU/UEC hoofball games. It’s not that hot out today, so it wouldn’t be very uncomfortable if we decided to do that.”

“Can we?” Dew Drop asks excitedly as she practically gets right up into mom’s face. “I’ve heard the campus is amazing! And I bet there won’t be a ton of ponies there, because it’s tomorrow that they all move in.”

“That sound good to you?” mom asks me after taking a few steps away from Dew Drop so they’re not muzzle to muzzle.

“I don’t get out and do much in Canterlot,” I admit, “so sure, it would be fun to do a little bit of exploring. Hopefully I’m going to be doing a lot with her while she’s here, so knowing how to get to where she is’ll be good.”

“Do you know how to get there?” she looks over at dad, who’s still just looking at my nameplate. “You did a lot more in Canterlot than I did, I mostly just know the area around campus.”

“I should still know,” he says after thinking it over for a few moments. “Even though it was about twelve million years ago we graduated.”

“Maybe when you graduated,” she teases. “I’m younger than you, it wasn’t nearly that long ago for me.”

He laughs. “You’re seven days younger than me.”

With a smile, she walks over to him and kisses him on the cheek. “All I heard was ‘You’re younger than me.’ Now come on, lead the way. And if you get lost, promise you’ll ask for directions this time? Not like Strawberry Seed’s graduation dinner?”

“It was her fault for holding it on the exact opposite side of town,” dad defends himself as he starts walking towards the door out. Mom sighs and starts following him, and Dew Drop and I both follow them out.

“Did you get lost or something?” I ask them.

“He refused to ask for directions to one of our very good friend’s graduation dinners,” mom glares at him. “We must have walked all over Canterlot nearly three times, and I was wearing some very nice shoes I had just bought that weren’t broken in yet. My hooves were still sore at graduation!”

“You’re not wearing any shoes right now,” he points out. “Just hooves.”

“Just get us there, okay?”

“At least now if we get lost, we don’t have to deal with her stepdad’s wrath,” he laughs. “That stallion got set off by anything.”

“I know it sounds terrible, but I’m glad her mom broke up with him.” She groans. “I went to her house over break a few times, and he was like that all the time. I felt so bad for her that night, she was absolutely mortified that he was digging into like us like he was. Said she almost told him not to come to her graduation, but didn’t want to start all that drama.”

Mom and dad keep talking about stuff that happened to them in college the rest of the way out of the castle, and once we’re in the streets of Canterlot, Dew Drop walks up next to them and starts asking about what there is to do in the city, leaving me walking behind them in silence. Oh well. I don’t really know Canterlot that well and I’m not going off to college, so it’s not like I’d have anything to add to the conversation anyways.

I just sort of start following them and looking all around us, not really paying attention to what they’re saying. As such, I just get confused when we come to a store with a big sign reading Clover Corner above the entrance and racks upon racks of green and gold clothes inside.

“Wait, why are we here?” I ask them as they all start walking up the steps into the store.

“I told you,” mom says, stopping halfway up and turning back around to face me. “Dew Drop doesn’t have any UEC clothing, so we’re going to buy her something, have her pick something out for us, and have you pick out something you like.”

“I’ll go look at stuff with her,” dad says, pulling her in very tightly. “Keep her shopping instincts from going into overdrive.”

“I’ll be fine,” she moans while trying to squirm out of his grip.

“You always wanted me to bring you so you could go shopping when you were a filly,” he reminds her. “It just took me a while to actually bring you, but let’s go!”

“Come on,” mom says through giggles at how dad’s acting with Dew Drop. “I know you don’t really like clothes shopping as much as your sisters, but I’m sure we can find something you like.”

We walk up the few steps and open the store door, and we’re immediately surrounded by more UEC clothes than I would think it’s possible to ever own. Dad and Dew Drop are in some back corner section looking at winter clothes.

“Is there anything specific you’d like?” mom asks me.

“I don’t know,” I shrug. “You know I don’t really wear clothes a lot.”

She thinks for a minute, then looks down at me. “You’ve never owned a hoodie, right?”

“A what?”

“Come on,” she beckons as she starts walking to the other half of the store than we’re in. Once we’re there, we go upstairs and to a long rack with rows of what looks like sweaters with hoods sewed on them.

“This is what a hoodie is,” she says, taking one off the rack and holding it in the air with her magic for me to see. It’s dark green, and there’s a big University of Equestria at Canterlot above some fancy gold lettering wrapping around a seal in the center of it.

Established 306 E.Q.
Semper Protinus

“It does look kind of nice.” I go up and feel the hoodie itself, and it feel super soft and warm. It’d be perfect for when it’s too warm for my winter jacket but too cold to not wear anything. “I think I saw the sign for youth sizes down at the end of this rack, so we should go there.”

“Let’s get you a mare’s size,” she says, looking at the tag to see what size the one she’s holding is. “Mare’s small might be a little big on you, but I want it to last. Snowy and Dew Drop were both wearing mare’s sizes by your age, so it’s just a matter of time before you shoot up and grow out of everything you own.” She takes the hoodie off the hanger it’s on, then hands it to me. “It’s a stallion’s small, but I want to see what it looks like on you.”

I sit down and put the clothing over me, and when I stand up, it feels almost like I’m wearing a dress. Almost, because while it doesn’t come down over my butt, it is very close to the base of my tail. The sleeves and neck are also super loose, reminding me of when I was little and would wear dad’s old sweaters to bed in the winter so I could stay warm.

“We definitely do need a mare’s size, then,” she laughs as I sit back down and take it off. “If the mare’s small isn’t much better, I guess we could go to a stallion’s extra small.”

She starts looking down the rack again and inspecting every tag she comes across, and before long, grabs another off its hanger and hands it to me. I put this one on, and while it is a little big, it’s not nearly as bad as the other one was. Especially if mom’s right and I’m going to hit a growth spurt soon, by the time I need it it’ll fit perfectly.

“Looks great,” she smiles. “Give it back and I’ll put it on the hanger, then we’ll go find out where dad and Dew Drop went off to.”

“Isn’t there like, a rivalry between UEC and where you and dad went to school?” I ask as I sit down and start taking it off.

“Canterlot University? A very big one,” she laughs. “Our teams have been playing hoofball against each other every season for over 700 years, and it’s not like our rivalry started there. Since both schools were made not very long after Canterlot was, we’ve both been trying to outdo each other for over two thousand years. Of course, if you ask me or dad, we’d both tell you that CU is better.”

I levitate the hoodie over to her, and she starts putting it back on the hanger. “Why are you sending Dew Drop to your rival school, then?”

“It’s still a very good school. And it’s the one that made her the happiest and most excited to go to, and that’s more important than any rivalry.” When she gets it back on the hanger, she drapes it over her back. “Come on, we should go find them now.”

As we start walking back towards the front of the store, I look up at her. I’ve just realized, I don’t know what she went to school for. “Hey, mom?”

“Hm?”

“What did you study at CU? I know dad was some math thing, but I don’t know what you did.”

“Dad was a family financial services major,” she clarifies. “I got my bachelor’s of social work. Most big cities want you to have a master’s before they let you become a social worker, but I didn’t have the money for a graduate degree, so I went to Coltlumbus because like many other small towns in Equestria, they need social workers so badly that they’re willing to accept ponies with just an undergraduate. Dad works for the government too and managed to convince them to put him there, so that’s how we ended up in Coltlumbus to start our family.”

“But you never got a master’s, right? Didn’t you just work?”

“Correct,” she nods. “After we got married and were both working for a few years, we made enough money for me to be able to go back to school. But as I was looking at programs, I found out I was pregnant with Snowy. Dad and I sat down and decided that our family was going to come first, so we decided to use the money we had saved to buy our house, one we felt we could raise a family in. And after I had Dew Drop, we decided having two foals and two full-time careers was too much for us. We looked at everything, and it was the better choice to have me leave my job instead of dad.”

“Do you ever miss working, or wish you could have gone back to school?”

“Of course,” she admits. “But then I remember that I was able to be there for your sisters and you when you were growing up, and I think that was more worth it to me than any money or promotions or degrees I could have gotten.” Her eyes start watering a little bit, and she reaches down to start stroking my mane. “They always do say nopony dies wishing they had spent more time at the office. We had to make some decisions that were very hard at the time, but we both agree that we made the right choice. I stopped working so I could be there to raise our foals, and even dad’s turned down promotions and transfers and the like because it wouldn’t be the best thing for our family.”

We get to the checkout counter, where dad is waiting in line with two shirts and a light jacket. Dew Drop is standing out of the line, reading a little brochure with the title ‘A New Student’s Guide to Canterlot’. Since Dew Drop looks busy, I walk up to dad with mom and look at what he’s got draped over his own back. “What did you and Dew Drop pick out?” I ask.

“She got a light jacket with the UEC logo on it, and she picked out a University of Equestria at Canterlot Dad shirt for me and a University of Equestria at Canterlot Mom shirt for mom.” His horn powers up, and he levitates the hoodie off mom’s back onto his. “What did you and mom pick out?”

“Hoodie,” mom says. “Don’t think she’s ever owned one, since they’re pretty much only popular for college apparel.”

“If you like it a lot, you get that from mom,” he laughs. “She practically lived in them the entire time we dated. More precisely, she lived in mine. Even though she owned plenty of her own.”

“Yeah,” she giggles, placing her head on his shoulder. “I liked them better. They smelled like you, so whenever I had one on I was reminded of you.”

Smelling like somepony sounds like a weird reason to wear their clothes. Besides that, what does dad even smell like? Dew Drop has a smell, but that’s just from her shampoo. I’d imagine that anypony using it would smell like she does. Dad doesn’t have a smell, but I guess that could just be me getting used to it and not recognizing it, kind of like how I don’t recognize our house’s smell until I come back after being away for a few months. Maybe it’s because I’m related to him and mom isn’t. I think I read somewhere that we’re more used to the way our relatives smell than the way other ponies do.

Before I realize it, the pony behind the counter is putting all our items in a big plastic bag and handing them to dad, who takes them in his magic before walking out of line and next to Dew Drop. “Ready to go?” he asks all of us.

“Yeah,” Dew Drop absent-mindedly responds, still looking at her brochure. Mom and dad both turn around and start walking out of the store, and I decide to stay back and walk with Dew Drop in case she isn’t paying attention and gets lost or something.

“Check it out,” she says, levitating the little booklet in front of my face not long after we exit the store.

I scan over the entire page and don’t find anything that really stands out to me. “I don’t really see anything.”

“It’s a list of all the free stuff that goes on around Canterlot all the time.” She takes the booklet back to her and starts reading. “Ooh, all the art galleries are free the first Friday of every month! We should go to that!”

I’ve never been to an art gallery or museum before, but that sounds like it could be fun. I’m really terrible at any art I try, but I always liked looking at different paintings and things like that.

I see her face light up as she turns the page, but because she doesn’t show or tell me anything, I assume it’s not something she’d find interesting.

Still, having my sister live in the same city as me for the next four years will be a lot of fun. I had pretty much accepted that I probably wouldn’t be living near them ever again, so this is a nice surprise. Even though she’s going to have all her school she’s busy with and I’ll have all my work, I’m sure we can find plenty of time to spend with each other.

Author's Note

Happy New Year('s Eve), everybody!

Chapter 30

I pull the hood of my UEC sweatshirt over my head and turn slightly so I can try and not get all this wind and snow in my face. Just wearing this to go meet Dew Drop was a terrible idea, in all honesty. I didn’t think about that until it was too late to turn around and head back to the castle, but this was what I was wearing and figured it would protect me enough from the cold.

I hope Dew Drop comes out soon. I always knew she wasn’t good at showing up when I tell her to, but I also for some reason keep thinking that this’ll be the time she changes and isn’t late. Joke’s on me for that now, because my shivering is so bad that I’m practically shaking. Sitting on a metal bench doesn’t help, but it somehow was better than standing up. Maybe because now I can make it so only my back is getting shredded by this wind instead of my butt and hind legs.

“Aurora!” I can hear Dew Drop call through the virtual wind tunnel that this small collection of dorm buildings is creating. “Cold out here, isn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I nod as I turn around to look at her. “Where were you? I’ve almost frozen my tail off!”

“Sorry! Was getting all my stuff together.” She opens one of the pouches on her saddlebags. “See? Got all my makeup, accessories, and everything for tonight. I don’t know what you have, but knowing you, you’ve got nothing. Tell me I’m wrong?”

“Well...I kinda can’t.” We both laugh at that. “But don’t tell me you brought all your makeup, right? Because I’ve seen how much you own.”

“Oh no, I brought all of it. Now come on, you look like you’re about to freeze to death. Let’s get back to the castle.”

As I hop off the bench and start walking back towards the castle, I can feel my hood get pulled down and get replaced by the hat. Shooting a quick look behind me confirms that it was the one she was wearing, and she now has nothing covering her head and ears. “Aren’t you going to be cold now?” I ask.

“I at least dressed for the weather,” she winks as she motions her head towards her jacket. “Cold ears will be the worst of it. Besides, you had to have been outside for ages before I got there. Not only did you walk here, but you probably showed up on time. Way more time than I have to spend outside.”

The rest of the way back to the castle, she’s basically just going on and on about how excited she is for tonight. I’m excited too, I’ll admit: I’m not really one for parties, but I’ve heard the Grand Galloping Gala is just so much more than a regular party. What exactly that means I’m not entirely sure, but it has to mean something.

Eventually we get back to the castle and while Dew Drop seems more comfortable being in here than she was the first few times, I can still tell this is an overwhelming experience for her. Moonlight is reading something next to the orrery as we walk in, and he gives us a little wave as we walk into my room and shut the door.

“Who’s he?” she asks quietly so he won’t be able to hear us.

“He’s Moonlight, another Dreamstrider. We both live in this wing, and when more Dreamstriders come, they’ll be here as well. Just makes it easier to have us all in one place.”

“Is he the one you thought was cute a few years ago? He your boyfriend now?”

“No!” I respond much quicker than I should while also turning much redder than I want. “He’s two years younger than me. Besides, I don’t really want to date him.”

“What happened to the cute little colt, then?” she coos. “Is he your boyfriend?”

“He wasn’t interested. You really remember that? It was like, three years ago.”

“Of course I remember it!” She puts her saddlebags by my dresser, then starts taking out all sorts of different things of makeup. “Don’t exactly forget when your little sister comes to you for advice about colts for the first time ever. Why wasn’t he interested, by the way? That’s really weird, since you said you two had already kissed. And like, at that age, that’s super serious relationship territory.”

“He’s not interested in fillies,” I shrug before walking over to my closet. “Sure I was kinda upset at the time, but I got over it. We stayed friends.”

“You two were only eight, give him time and he’ll be interested in fillies. If you still think he’s cute, then you two could try and make something work again.”

“No, he’s not interested in fillies…” I pause, and she just looks at me in confusion. “As in, he’s interested in colts…”

“Oh.” She just kind of stands there, looking a little embarrassed she didn’t pick up on that when I said it. “I guess he won’t be liking fillies anytime soon, then?”

“Guess not,” I laugh. After a few moments of us both staring at each other, not really sure of where to go from here, I decide to speak up and stop this awkwardness. “So, uh, you should go shower first. You’ll need more time to do makeup and jewelry and whatever than I will, so you can get started on all that while I’m in the shower.”

All of a sudden, her eyes grow wide. “You don’t happen to have extra towels, do you? I thought to bring all my product, but completely forgot about a towel.”

“There’s a linen closet in there,” I tell her as I start pulling out both Moonlight and Luna’s Dreamstriding reports. I still don’t know why Luna writes me these, to be honest. I have Moonlight do them because I then report to her, so her writing these for me just seems like a waste of time in my opinion. Still, I do find it a little funny that I have a princess report to me.

After getting almost all of the reports read and filed into unimportant because nothing really big has happened recently, I hear the shower turn off. How long was she in there? I had been letting these reports pile up for a while now, so she had to have been in there for a really long time. Good to know Dew Drop hasn’t changed, I suppose. We’ve got plenty of time anyways, so it’s not like this is really going to make us late or anything.

“Wow,” she giggles as she walks out of my bathroom, an enormous smile on her face. “I don’t think I’ve ever taken a shower that great before in my life! You’ve really got it made here, don’t you?”

“It is pretty nice,” I admit. I don’t really like to think about how nice it is, honestly, because it’s so much better than what anypony else I know has. And I only got it because I just happened to be the oldest Dreamstrider after Luna, not because I really did much above and beyond what everypony else did to earn it. Mom and dad always told us that we need to work hard if we wanted to get nice things, so just being given this is such a weird feeling.

“Come on, go get in the shower,” she says as she walks up to my dresser and starts inspecting all the different makeup she’s brought. “I’ll help you out when you’re done, because I imagine you’ve still never opened the beginner’s makeup kit Snowy and I gave you when you were seven.”

“Well, I did...but it was to empty all the makeup out so I could use it to hold pencils.”

“Just go shower,” she laughs. “By the way, with Snowy and I as your sisters, how did you end up not liking any girly things? You don’t use makeup, you don’t like clothes shopping, and I don’t even know if you really ever had a true slumber party. Sure you and Cressie had sleepovers, but that’s nowhere near the level of the slumber parties Snowy and I used to throw. We always wondered why mom still let us have them, because she always would come downstairs around 2 in the morning and tell us we had to go to sleep. And I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, but mom at 2 in the morning is not a very pleasant mare.”

“Probably told you that she needs her beauty sleep,” I laugh as I take my towel in my magic and put it on my back. “That’s what she always would tell me when I was little and would wake her up at night.”

“After you were born, it was always ‘You’ll wake the baby.’ Even when you were like, three and I was having quieter slumber parties because Snowy outgrew them and her friends didn’t know how to shut up, you were still ‘the baby’ that couldn’t be woken up. We all knew it was a total lie, since you’re the heaviest sleeper I’ve ever met. You once dozed off on dad’s lap in the family room when you were a baby and I dropped a glass in the kitchen, and he was able to move you, help me clean up, and talk to me throughout the whole thing and you didn’t even notice.”

“Or like when Snowy tripped over me at Aunt Misty Meadow’s while I was sleeping on the floor, and I didn’t know about it until she told me the next morning?”

She laughs, then grabs a few bottles of what I think are foundation and starts inspecting their labels, letting me go into the bathroom and turn on the shower. I don’t know why, but it’s always nice to walk into the bathroom and be able to smell her shampoo. It reminds me of home. Unfortunately, picking long strands of hair out of the drain before actually taking the shower also reminds me of home and it’s not something about home I've ever been a big fan about. Seriously, would it kill her to just check the drain after she’s done in the shower?

After getting what I think is all her wet, slimy hair out of the drain, I get to work washing myself off. I hadn’t showered this morning because I knew I would be showering before getting ready for the Gala, so it feels really nice to get nearly two days’ worth of stuff off me. It’s also nice to walk into a bathroom that’s already nice and steamy again, because it’s just so nice and warm in here. As it’s been getting colder, I can tell that the heat in my bathroom isn’t very good. Winter isn’t going to be fun.

After a few minutes of just letting the hot water run all over me, I grab my soap and shampoo and start getting all nice and clean. I even open up the bottle of tail shampoo I have and use it, which I don’t normally do because it’s the same kind of hair as on my head, so why would I need a separate type of shampoo? Still, for a very nice occasion like tonight, I feel like I should use it. There’s probably some reason it exists instead of having mane shampoo be used for both, so I feel like if I’m trying to look nice tonight, I should use the correct types on the correct hair. At least I’m not a pegasus, because then I’d need to add an entirely new type just for my wings in addition to my mane and tail. Horns luckily don’t need anything special to wash them, I just have to be very gentle because it’s a very sensitive part of the body. Thanks to my second year at Princess Celestia’s, I now know that’s because of all the nerve endings in it. I have no idea when I’ll ever need to know that, but I do know it now at the very least.

Once I rinse the last few suds out of my tail, I turn off the water and dry my body off before stepping out and drying off my legs and hooves. Dew Drop said she’ll help me with my mane, so I just dry it off as best I can and put my towel on the rod so it can dry before walking back out into my room.

When I walk back out into my room, Dew Drop is still applying makeup in the mirror but now is wearing her dress. Just her dress, though, not any of the jewelry she brought, and her mane still isn’t done yet.

“Go get your dress on,” she says, not even looking my way. “I should be done with my makeup by then, so I'll be able to help with yours. Then, just jewelry and manes and we’ll be all ready for the Grand Galloping Gala.” With a big smile, she squees like a schoolfilly. “I can’t believe I just said that! We’re really going to the Grand Galloping Gala! You cannot believe how excited I am right now!”

“I think I can guess,” I tell her. She sticks her tongue out a little playfully and then goes back to her makeup, allowing me to go grab my dress from my closet. Mine is in a few pieces unlike hers, and is also unlike hers in the fact that it’s just normal fabric instead of the shimmery, wavy one that Canterlot Carousel Boutique was having a special on.

Very carefully so I don’t rip them or get them dirty by dropping them on the floor, I take my shawl and dress off the hangar before starting to put them on. I’m so used to all my dresses being hand-me-downs from Snowy and Dew Drop who always grew more than I did, so putting on a dress that was measured to fit me perfectly and not be a size too large is really weird.

Once I get it over my head and put my front legs through the sleeves, I take the opportunity to look at the mirror in my closet. The dress I got is pale purple, which even I’ll admit looks really nice with my light blue coat. Ruffles cover the cotton blouse half, which goes around my hips but then goes down in a V shape a little towards my back legs on my underside. The skirt is made of some thicker material I can’t quite put my hoof on but it’s a little bit of a darker purple than the blouse, really giving my pale coat some color. The shawl is the same color as the skirt, and when I put it around my shoulders, you can hardly even see the blouse except for the part right over my stomach that's hard to see when I’m standing up anyways. I’ve never really been one for dresses, but I will say that I look really nice in this. Too bad I’m going to grow out of this eventually, because otherwise I’d use it for all sorts of fancy occasions. Maybe if I ever have a daughter, she could use it. But that would be a really long time in the future, so I’d have to hold onto it until then. And even then, she’d need to be my size, which would take another long time. I’m sure I’ll think of something so this doesn't just go to waste after tonight.

When I walk out of my closet, Dew Drop is just finishing up with her mane. She’s gathered almost all of it on her left side and is making one enormous braid, and when she finishes up and turns around, her dress seems to almost...move with her is the best way I can describe it. Like, the fabric on it is shimmering with a mind of its own, and it feels like the dress I’m looking at now isn’t exactly the same dress she was wearing just a moment ago.

“Looking pretty adorable,” she coos. “Now come on over here, I know exactly what to do with your mane. Trust me, it’ll look amazing!”

“Alright,” I shrug before walking over to my dresser and sitting down, allowing her to get to work on it. After much less time than I would have expected, she picks up my hoof mirror and uses it to show me the back of my head. “How’s it look?”

I look in the dresser’s mirror and see that she’s put only part of my mane into a ponytail in the back, so the tail is resting over the rest of my expertly-brushed mane. She’s also made two small braids between my temples and my ears, leaving them to just hang down. “Well?” she asks.

“It actually looks really nice,” I admit. “Nothing fancy, and still looks really beautiful.”

“You’re not—” She stops in mid-thought, then puts the mirror back on the dresser. “I want to say you’re not really that fancy, but not in a rude kind of way. But like, that’s just not who you are. When you dress yourself nice, you just brush your mane and tail and put on a fairly plain dress. It’s why I steered you towards that dress you have and why your manestyle isn’t very complex tonight, because otherwise it wouldn’t really be who you are. Your beauty comes from your simplicity, not in spite of it. I figured you should demonstrate that, because otherwise your true beauty wouldn’t come out tonight.”

“Thanks,” I manage to say. To be honest, I don’t think anypony’s ever called me beautiful before. Beyond the adults who have to like mom and dad and our grandparents, I guess. And when they say I’m beautiful, they never really point out specific reasons why I am. It’s nice to know that I really have beauty, because everypony’s always just seen me as the cute little filly or sister and not a mare who’s beautiful in her own unique way.

“Now come on,” she says, changing tone, “time for your makeup. Again, nothing too crazy, but enough to make you look really nice. Like with your dress, I’m trying to go for modest and simple, but beautiful all the same. You get what I’m saying?”

“Mhm,” I nod, still unable to get over the fact that somepony called me beautiful. And not just because of how I look, but for who I am, as well. Sure it was just my sister, but I always thought she was beautiful so it’s nice to hear her say that about me.

“Come on, wipe that smile off your face, it’s hard to apply makeup when you don’t have a straight face. What’s so funny, anyways?”

“Oh, funny?” I clear my throat and try to make a straight face. “Nothing. I guess I’m just excited.”

“Excited for the Grand Galloping Gala?” she asks as she starts putting foundation all over my face. “Maybe there’s a little bit of your sisters in you, yet. I would’ve guessed that you’d think tonight will be super boring and would rather stay in your room reading.”

“I think it’ll be fun.” To be honest, though, staying home and getting some reading done would be really nice. Dew Drop’s always wanted to the Gala, though, so when Luna told me she could get me tickets I figured I might as well get a couple so we can spend the night together. And even though it sounds a little mean, it’ll be nice to be able to hold this over Snowy. As Luna tells me, younger sisters need to stick together. Dew Drop may be my older sister, but she still technically is a younger sister as well.

“‘Fun’ is just the start of it! All the most important ponies in Equestria and beyond, and we get to meet them all! The Princesses, all the Elements of Harmony, the Wonderbolts, Sapphire Shores, Photo Finish, Songbird Serenade, I can’t list them all!”

“I don’t know who any of those celebrities are,” I admit while laughing nervously. “Obviously I know the Princesses, the Elements of Harmony, and I know of the Wonderbolts, but don’t know any of the actual pegasi.”

“Rainbow Dash is both an Element of Harmony and a Wonderbolt. There you go, now you know one. Have you ever met her, by the way? Or any of the Elements?”

“Nope. I’ve met Princess Luna obviously, and I’ve met Princess Celestia on a few occasions. I had breakfast with her and Princess Luna not long after I got here, and she comes to our department head meetings sometimes so she can hear everything first-hoof. But other than that, I haven’t met many big or important ponies. Outside of the other department heads, I guess. My job’s generally pretty uninteresting, honestly.”

“Oh, to think breakfast with the Princesses is uninteresting. And meetings with Princess Celestia’s closest advisors, free tickests to the Grand Galloping Gala, a suite all for yourself in the castle...most ponies would kill for your life of glamor and importance.” With a few final strokes of the mascara wand, she puts everything aside and stands up. “How’s it look?”

“Does look kind of nice.” I slowly wink my eyes one after the other to see how the mascara looks.

“Just make sure to have me help you take it off tonight, okay? Last thing you want is it staying in your lashes and then getting in your eyes. Now, come on!” Without so much as a warning, she gets me onto my hooves and starts walking to the door. “We’re going to have to get there early if we want to talk with the Princess and all the other famous ponies, otherwise it’ll just be too crowded.” She puts her foreleg out and smiles. “Now, I believe I’m technically your plus one, so do you need an escort, Miss Aurora Borealis?”

“Why thank you, Miss Dew Drop,” I reply with the fanciest accent I can make. “Shall we have a wonderful evening at the Grand Galloping Gala?”

“It shall be a most splendid night.” We both laugh as I take her hoof in mine and we begin walking out of the castle.

Chapter 31

Thankfully, we don’t have to spend much time outside to get to the Gala’s entrance because it’s just at the castle’s Guest Wing, which unfortunately the Dreamstrider offices do not connect to. The fact that it’s late November really shows, because every time Dew Drop or I breathe, you can see our breath. On the other hoof, if it was in the middle of the summer, everypony would probably be really be hot in all these clothes. Maybe not the Canterlot ponies, though, since they seem to be always wearing them, even when I’m practically dying without them.

“Tickets, please?” a Royal Guard wearing some of the shiniest, best-polished armor I’ve ever seen in my life says as we get to the main gate. As Dew Drop takes them out and passes them to him, I take a moment to look at my reflection in it. I could use this as a mirror if I wanted, honestly.

“You two have a nice evening,” he tells us before waving the next ponies through. There aren’t many ponies as we walk up to the main entrance, but Dew Drop still managed to point out every other pony and say how they’re famous: she’s a pop star, he’s a traveling magazine writer, and so on like that. The other thing I’m noticing is that it’s getting warmer as we approach, as well. Maybe that’s how the Gala is known for its garden despite being late in the year.

Once we actually enter the castle, Dew Drop nudges me and points towards Luna, who’s talking with a mare that has a bright yellow coat and a green mane, and a stallion with a pale coat with a dark brown mane. “It’s Princess Luna, we should go talk with her! I’ve always wanted to have a conversation with one of the Princesses, who better than the one you work so closely with?”

I can’t help but smile, because she’s so excitable about my life. “Alright,” I tell her, then start walking up close to her. When we get close, however, I can hear her speaking very quickly in some language I’ve never heard before in my life. It sure isn’t Equestrian, but on that, it sure isn’t Demon either. I’m trying to put my hoof on it, but I just can’t.

They finish speaking and all bow, and she turns to me as the two other ponies continue speaking with each other and walk away. “It is good to see the two of you tonight,” she smiles. “You are Dew Drop, are you not? I do believe we have met on a few occasions before.”

“Yeah…” is all she manages to get out before an enormous smile grows on her face.

“Who were those ponies you were talking with?” I ask.

“Príncipe Beijinho and Princesa Arvorezinha do Açaí, two of my descendents,” she responds very plainly, almost as if I should know that. “Their father is one of my few descendants who still claims lineage to me, so they wished to come here and meet me tonight.”

“Descendants?” I repeat, making sure I heard her right. “As in, you had foals?”

“Just one,” she clarifies. “It is not a secret that Prince Blueblood claims to be Princess Celestia’s nephew. She is not married and has only one sibling, so how else would he be able to claim that and there be truth to it?”

She’s got a good point. “So then, why doesn’t he say he’s your great-times-a-lot grandson? It seems like being directly related to a Princess would be better than being her nephew.”

“Nightmare Moon. It was, to say the least, political suicide to express any ties to me. The Thestrals fled Equestria because of such, and all but a hoofful of my descendants tried to bury their connections to me. The ancestors of O Príncipe and A Princesa were some of the few not in Equestria at the time, so it was not quite as catastrophic for them to still openly claim lineage from me.”

“Why were they outside Equestria? Did they marry into some other country?”

“Quite the contrary,” she shakes her head, “they actually stayed put.”

“Rio de Maneiro, right?” Dew Drop adds. “I remember once seeing ‘Princess of Rio de Maneiro’ as one of your official titles, and it was the only one that didn’t make any sense.”

“Correct,” she smiles. “Remembering a title few are aware of, you ought to be proud of yourself.”

“Oh, well…” She blushes and smiles again. “Thank you.”

“But yes, they were in Rio de Maneiro,” she continues. “Do you remember how I told you the world was scoured for somepony, anypony who was willing to take my hoof in marriage? It was found in Garanhão, the prince of Rio de Maneiro. He was twelve and I thirteen when we were married, and we were expected to provide the royal family a son rather quickly: he had struggled with illness all his life and was not expected to live long into adulthood. They wished for their line to passed down father to son, and he was the only son. They did not want one of the king’s daughters to rule or for one of their sons to, for it would be going against their rules for succession.”

“So he’s the pony you had your son with, then?”

“He’s the pony I had my daughter with,” she corrects. “He passed away while I was pregnant, so they had only one chance. Unfortunately for them, the last hope for their antiquated, patriarchal society turned out to be female. I stayed with her until she was one, then left her with her family and returned to Equestria.”

“You just left your daughter there, didn’t take her with you?”

Before answering, she looks around and then takes a few steps closer to us. “I cared little for her,” she admits in a whisper. “I only became pregnant when I was seventeen, years after our marriage, because I loathed my husband so much. I resented the entire marriage, as well, for my parents saw me as a burden they needed off their hooves and my in-laws saw me as little more than a uterus that was sold to the highest bidder.” She giggles a bit, then leans in closer. “My husband did not understand Equestrian, so whenever he told me it was my duty as his betrothed to have a foal with him, I would always tell him that if that was all he wanted from a wife, there were mares on street corners that would perform such services for much less than his parents paid for an Equestrian Princess.”

Dew Drop is trying her hardest to not break out laughing, but I must have missed something because I’m not sure what she just said. Sure anypony off the street would want to marry a prince, but what’s so funny about that?

“Exercising your wit again, dear sister?” Princess Celestia asks as she walks up to the two of us. “You are not doing much to dispel my belief that we are but a few years away from you performing your standup routine to everypony in attendance at the Gala.”

“Just banter with my student,” she defends innocently. “And surely you know I would not perform here at the Gala. My comedic prowess is worth more than the cost of a simple ticket to the most exclusive event in Equestria, don’t you agree?”

“For the sake of maintaining our relationship, I shall not answer that question,” Princess Celestia smiles before looking to Dew Drop and I. “How are you, Miss Aurora? I apologize, it has been quite a long time since we have been able to meet. I have been very busy recently with the planning of this year’s Gala, so I am afraid that I have not been able to attend many department head meetings.”

“It’s alright,” I tell her, unsure of how to react when a princess apologizes to you. “I’m sure you will be able to attend more in the future.”

“And who might you be?” she asks, now looking at Dew Drop. “I’m afraid I do not recognize you, so I apologize if we have met before.”

“Dew Drop,” she says, weakly putting her hoof out. “I’m, uh, Aurora’s sister. I go to Canterlot University.”

“What do you study?” she asks with what sounds like legitimate interest.

“I’m an evolution and ecology major,” she says very slowly after a few moments, almost as if she had to think about it. “It’s just my first year, though.”

“Do you wish to perform field work with the Equestrian Department of Environmental Preservation?” she asks right out of nowhere. “I do believe they look for students to assist them over the summer, and I could connect you with the pony in charge of university recruitment if you wish.”

“I…yes, yes I would! I would love to potentially have that opportunity, Your Highness.”

“‘Princess’ will suffice. I shall pass his information onto your sister, and she can subsequently pass it onto you. Now,” she winks, “aren’t you glad you came to the Gala tonight? Obviously I cannot guarantee anything, but if you present yourself well and show you are a hard worker, I believe they would hire you. As you may be aware, that is not a terribly competitive position.”

“I haven’t met many ponies in the major, and most that are don’t seem very interested in field work.” She takes a deep bow, her long braid almost touching the floor. “Thank you very, very much, Princess.”

Instead of responding, however, Princess Celestia is just beckoning her hoof to somepony, hoping to get them to come over here. When I turn and look at who she’s waving to, I see none other than another princess, Princess Twilight Sparkle, coming on over to us!

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” she exclaims once she comes up to us. “How are you two? It’s been so long!”

“We are doing just fine,” Luna responds. “Twilight Sparkle, this is my personal student, Aurora Borealis and her sister, Dew Drop.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Aurora Borealis,” she says as she takes Dew Drop’s hoof and shakes it. “Princess Luna has told me you are a Dreamstrider, correct? I have read so much about your fascinating and unique magic, I can’t wait to discuss it with you!”

“I would love to, Princess, but I am the sister,” Dew Drop admits. “My name is Dew Drop. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Oh!” Princess Twilight’s face turns a slight shade of red. “Well, Dew Drop, I would still very much like to get to know you better later tonight, if we have the time.” They finish shaking hooves, then she turns to me and shakes mine. “So you are Aurora Borealis then, correct?”

“Correct,” I confirm. “I don’t know how much time we will have tonight, but we can definitely talk about magic sometime. Although I’m afraid I don’t know as much about magic as you do.”

“Perhaps I could join you two when you do converse?” Luna adds. “I have not had a thorough discussion of dream magic in millenia, I am eager to do so again.”

“I’ll make plans with you later,” Princess Twilight says as she takes a few steps away from us. “I promised my parents I’d meet them when they got here, and I think they’re about to arrive. It was good meeting both of you!”

“I too have duties I must attend to,” Princess Celestia says. “I shall be greeting everypony as they walk in, and they tend to get very antsy if I leave for too long.”

“You left them waiting?” Luna asks.

“Only for a little while,” she winks back. We all laugh, then she turns around and walks away.

“I do not have any pressing obligations,” Luna tells us, “although I do have some ponies I wish to speak with. Come find me later if you wish to speak further.” With that, she too turns around and walks in another direction.

“Well, I think I need a drink after meeting three princesses at once,” Dew Drop announces. “Come on, let’s find where they’re being served.”

“I’m not even close to eighteen,” I point out as she starts searching the area for a bar. “I won’t be able to get anything.”

“I’m sure you can find something.” She finds a pony at a counter with probably hundreds, if not thousands, of bottles around him, and walks up. “Can I please order a sea breeze?”

“Certainly,” the stallion nods. “And for the young miss?”

“What do you even have that I could drink?”

“We have a fine selection of non-alcoholic mixed drinks, as well as a wide variety of juices and soft drinks.”

“I’ll just have a lime soda,” I decide after thinking it over for a few moments. He nods again, then fills my glass up with the bubbly, pale green drink and puts it on the bar before grabbing a few bottles of brightly-colored liquid and one clear one and mixing them together.

“How much do we owe you?” Dew Drop asks as he pours the final product in a glass and passes the drinks to us.

“Drinks are included in the price of the ticket,” he informs us with a small smile. “The Princesses want guests to enjoy themselves tonight, not worry themselves with much they owe the bartender.”

“Might have to come back here, then,” she laughs. As she takes a sip, her eyes grow wide and she looks back to him. “Actually, I will probably definitely be back later. This is delicious!”

“Thank you,” he bows. “Enjoy the evening, you two.”

“Let’s go find somewhere to sit,” she says before walking away from me, causing me to quickly grab my soda in my magic and follower her.

“Not wanting to go meet every famous pony in Equestria?” I tease. “Just wanting to sit down?”

“All the famous ponies in Equestria can wait. I haven’t been able to see you a ton since I moved here so I just want to spend some time with you, you know? You left home when you were eight, so it’s not like you were really old enough to do a whole lot with me and not have one of us get bored. Sure you’re only eleven, but I guess that’ll work. Especially given you’re surprisingly mature for your age.”

“Thanks?” Is that how I should respond to that? That sounded like a compliment at least, I’m just unsure if it was maybe one of those back-hoofed ones.

“Yes, it’s a compliment.” Wow, freaky. How did she know that’s what I was thinking? I guess I really came off as not knowing what to make of that.

Before long, we find an empty table near the dance floor that nopony is out on, so we sit down and watch the band they have start setting up.

“Aurora Borealis!” an earth pony mare exclaims before sitting down with us. “Very good to see you again!”

“Uh...thanks?” Dew Drop and I just shoot each other looks from the corners of our eyes. “I’m very sorry, but I can’t seem to remember you. Would you mind reminding me, please?”

“Doctor Aspen Grove,” she says with a little bit of pride. “You helped some of my colleagues and me with some research on Dreamstriders a few years ago, do you remember?”

“Oh! Yes, yes I do!”

“We managed to generate a lot of interest in Dreamstriders after we published that paper. Well...comparatively, a lot of interest. A few more ponies in the field contacted us and expressed desires to work with us, but that was much better than it had been before.”

“Oh, well…” This is a pretty awkward situation, but I manage to make what I think is a pretty convincing smile. “You’re welcome.”

“You know where to find us if you ever want to help us with more research,” she smiles while thankfully getting up. “And I’ve heard that there is a new Dreamstrider since we worked with you, correct? If you would not mind presenting that same offer to them, we would be very appreciative.”

“I’ll think it over.” She bows, then turns around and starts walking away.

“You helped her with research?” Dew Drop asks before I get an opportunity to take a sip of my soda.

“Technically, I guess. She took a blood sample, then put these little electrode patches on me to measure my magic while Dreamstriding. Nothing crazy.”

With a smile and a shake of her head, she takes a sip of her drink. “Downplaying having researchers practically beg you to come work with them. When I was eleven, the only pony begging me for anything was Snowy for the Sapphire Shores record dad told me to share with her.”

As she goes back to her drink, I try and focus on the magic around us. I’m not that great at feeling the ambient magic coming off of ponies outside the dream world, but I feel something...sad. It’s not quite sadness, though, and I can’t quite put my hoof on it.

I guess there’s only one way to find out.

“Dew Drop, is there something on your mind?”

“No,” she quickly responds, putting her drink down. “Why?”

“You seem...I don’t know. Kind of upset tonight.”

“I’m fine, really.”

“This is kind of my job,” I remind her. “I’ve told you before how bad demons can get when you bottle emotions up inside. That just attracts them like a magnet.”

“I guess…” She pauses. “I guess I’d be lying if I said tonight wasn’t a little...I don’t know, weird. To me, you’ll always be my little sister who would shove her picture books in my face and excitedly ask me to read them to her. You left for Canterlot when you were eight, so it’s not really like you were that old or anything. This is I guess the first time I’ve been really able to see what you’ve done in the past few years, and that amounts to three of the princesses swarming you when you walk in the room and a researcher telling you how invaluable you were to her.”

“Well, the princesses one was kind of a fluke. And she just thanked me because I’m a Dreamstrider that was willing to help her, because Luna didn’t want to.”

“Is it a fluke, though? You sought out Princess Luna, and she was happy to see you. Princess Celestia apologized to you for not seeing you recently. And Princess Twilight was thrilled by the idea of spending time with you. Sure maybe Princess Luna was a fluke and we just happened to run into her, but Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight seemed to seek you out.”

“It’s just because I’m a Dreamstrider, I’m not really anything special.”

“But that’s why you’re special. Nopony can become a Dreamstrider, they just are one. No matter how hard I try or study, I could physically never do what it is you do.” She takes her drink in her magic and shakes her head slightly. “I guess I just thought it’d be much later in life where I was introduced as Aurora’s sister, not the other way around. In some weird way, I liked the notion of you being my sister and not me being your sister. In Coltlumbus, I was never Dew Drop, I was ‘Snowy’s sister’. You probably understand how it feels to follow in your older sister’s shadow, but imagine there was only two years between you and perfect-at-everything-she-does Snowy Jade and not nine. Within about two minutes of meeting me, my teachers always told me just how wonderful it was to have her in class, how she was so smart and so well-behaved and all that. There are many reasons I decided to go to UEC, but if I’m being honest with you, one of them is that she’s not here. I don’t hate her by any means, in fact I’m really glad it’s you two that are my sisters, but always having to be ‘Snowy’s sister’ for eighteen years takes its toll on you.”

She takes a sip of her drink, and I just sit there and think. How do I even respond to that? I actually don’t know a whole lot about living in their shadows, because I didn’t spend as much time in school in Coltlumbus as they did. And with a seven year difference, it’s not like they were fresh in everypony’s minds.

“Don’t let me bring your evening down,” she says after putting her glass back down on the table. “What do you want to go do?”

“Honestly,” I admit, “I just came here tonight to spend time with you. You know I’m not big into parties.”

“Tonight’s not ‘a party!’” she almost yells. “It’s the Grand Galloping Gala!”

“Which is just a big party. I don’t really see what makes tonight not a party.”

“It just isn’t. I’d know a party when I see one, and this isn’t a party.”

“Well if it isn’t, then why are you so excited to go meet famous ponies?” I tease her. “Because I thought going and talking with ponies and meeting them is something you do at a party.”

She sticks her tongue out playfully. “Very funny. You know, maybe it would be a good thing for me to go around and try to teach you about celebrities, because you never know any of them! Maybe you should go to more movies with Snowy and I instead of just staying at home reading all the time, then you’d recognize them. Too bad I don’t think Silver Screen is going to be here tonight, mom would probably ask me a million questions if I even caught a glimpse of him.”

“Hey, I know him at least!” Smugly, I look at her and smile. “Some Like It Cold is mom’s favorite movie, and he’s in that! And I actually have seen it, because she goes to see it as many times as she can whenever the movie theater plays it, and she started taking me with her over the summer.”

“You got one celebrity whose most famous movies all came out before mom was even born, congratulations.”

“I also know he’s right over there,” I tell her as I point over her shoulder.

“What?” She turns around and while I can’t see her face, I can tell she’s got a huge smile now. “Oh my gosh you’re right, that is him! He’s just standing there alone right now, what do you say we casually walk by him and see if we can get him to say something to us?”

“Whoever he says something to first doesn’t have to endure all of mom’s questions about him?”

With a laugh, she stands up. “You’re on, little filly.”

Chapter 32

“Is he here yet?” Snowy asks excitedly as she runs up to the bench I’m sitting on.

“No,” I groan back. “Coltlumbus station isn’t very big, you’ll be able to see him really easy when he gets off the train. Not like there are many ponies coming into town.”

She sits down on the bench next to me, not taking her eyes off the platform the entire time. “I just don’t want to miss him, you know?”

“Because he’d get back on the train if he didn’t see you, right?” I shake my head ever so slightly so she doesn’t see me doing so.

For the first time since I think we got here, her eyes peel away from the platform only to become glued to me instead. “You don’t think he’d do that, would he?”

“No,” I sigh, “he wouldn’t. Which is why not seeing him the exact second he steps off the train is not the end of the world.”

“Just making sure!” She takes her eyes off me, then smiles broadly when a train whistles in the distance.

While she jumps off the bench and starts squeeing, I begin to wonder what’s gotten into her. Sure she’s gotten maybe a little too into a boyfriend before, but this is a whole new level. It’s basically been all she’s talked about for the past few days, and it seems like she can’t even hold a conversation about something else. No matter what anypony tried to talk about, she always managed to somehow crowbar the fact that her boyfriend was coming to visit into the conversation.

By the time the train actually stops, she looks like she’s going to burst with excitement. The doors open, and a stallion with a pale green coat and a soft blue mane walks out.

“Jure!” Snowy almost screams the second his hooves touch the platform. Before he can do anything, she runs up and hugs him tightly.

“Hey there,” he laughs as he returns the hug. “Good to see you, too.”

They just seem to be hugging, so I guess I have to go introduce myself. As I get close to them, he looks down at me. “You’re Aurora, right?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “You’re De Jure?”

“Can just call me Jure.” He tries to exit the hug, but Snowy’s still holding on tight. “Snowy, you can probably end the hug now. I know you’re excited to see me and everything, but we still have to walk to your house. Can hug me as long as you want there.”

She either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care, because if anything, her hug seems to get tighter. “Snowy!” I yell at her.

“Fine.” She unwraps herself from him, but not before planting a quick kiss on his cheek. “I’m so glad you got to come visit us, I’ve missed you so much!”

“It’ll be nice to meet everypony,” he replies before kissing her as well. “So Aurora, how come it’s just you here with her?”

“Our dad and other sister are both at work, and our mom’s in Fillydelphia at a wedding for some obscure family member,” I tell him. “I was just sitting at home and reading, and she basically ran into my room and told me that today was the day you were finally coming. I don’t think she would have stopped until I agreed to come with her, so here I am.”

“Well, it’s nice to meet you.” He walks over and hugs me, and almost right as I return the hug, Snowy jumps in and starts squeezing us hard. Before long, my face is buried in his chest, and I’m getting a mouthful of hair.

“Isn’t he great?” Snowy asks. “Now do you see why I love him so so much?”

“She’s just met me,” he says, turning my head so I’m not buried in his coat. “I think we should go to your house first, then we can work on getting to know each other a little better. That sound good?”

In response, she puts her head on his shoulder. “They’re going to love you, I promise! Dad’s always said he can’t wait for the day that he meets my future husband, and today’s the day!”

“Future husband is maybe getting ahead of ourselves a little bit,” he laughs nervously.

“What?” She almost immediately breaks off their hug, then looks at him with tears forming in her eyes. “Are you breaking up with me?”

“Breaking up with you?” he repeats. “Of course not! Snowy, you know that I love you very much, but we haven't even been dating a whole year yet. I have absolutely no plans to leave you, I just want to give this time.”

Seeing she still doesn’t seem satisfied with the answer, he walks up to her and brings her back into a hug. “Snowy, I wouldn’t travel halfway across Equestria to spend time with you and your family if I wanted to break up with you. I just want to take this relationship one step at a time, and right now, that step is meeting everypony else who’s close to you. I don’t know if marriage is in our future, but if it is, we’ll cross that bridge together when it comes. Alright?”

“Alright,” she sighs. Seeing that she doesn’t seem totally convinced, he leans in close and kisses her. She doesn’t seem to respond, but when he does it again, she returns the kiss. I have to admit, it is kind of cute to watch them, hooves around each other, kissing in the middle of the train station. It’s like something out of those old romance movies.

“Believe me now?” he asks after pulling his lips away from hers.

Not saying anything, she giggles and starts kissing his cheek. He just pets her mane a little bit, then looks down at me. “Sorry for holding you up. It’s just been a while since we’ve seen each other.”

I simply shrug. Not like I really had much going on today, anyways. And besides, now I can say that I’m the first one of Snowy’s family that he met. If they really do get married someday, I can always tell everypony that it all came down to me to make a good first impression. And judging by the fact that he’s still here and cuddling with Snowy, I’d say I did that job pretty well.

“Do you girls need anything before I go to bed?” dad asks as he walks over to the couch where I’m sitting.

“We’re good,” Dew Drop says, not looking up from the record collection she’s going through. “Mom didn’t happen to take some of her records to Fillydelphia, did she?”

“I don’t know, but keep it down if you do play something. I’m going to go read, and I think Snowy and Jure are already asleep.”

Once he turns around and goes upstairs, Dew Drop turns to face me and smiles. “Yeah, ‘asleep.’”

“What?” Now I’m confused. They went upstairs a while ago, why does she think they’re not asleep or at least trying to be?

“You saw them when they went upstairs together.” After placing a record on the player and turning the volume down low, she walks to the loveseat and sits down. “And you have to have noticed the way she’s been staring at him so dreamily all day.”

“And…?”

“Come on, Aurora,” she laughs. “You’re a big filly now. Two ponies in love, one of them has been giving the other googly eyes all day, and they walked upstairs together to ‘go to bed.’”

“But they’re not in the same room,” I point out. “He’s in hers, and she’s in your room with you.”

“Yeah, because that’ll stop them.”

“So you think that right now, they’re upstairs...you know?”

“I don’t think they’re having sex, I know they are. Or at least, they were.”

“How do you know they are?” I ask as she takes a sip of her tea. “Did you...see them?”

With a shake of her head, she puts her drink back on the coffee table. “Nope, but I could hear them. Snowy’s a moaner, and I heard that. Also heard him shushing her, probably because he doesn’t want to be caught by his girlfriend’s father the night he met him.”

I’m not sure how to really respond to that, so I just start fiddling my hooves together. “How do you, like...know that she moans?”

“Caught her once in high school. You were at some thing at school with mom and dad and I was out with friends, so she thought I would be gone for a really long time. She was practically begging me not to tell mom and dad.” She giggles, which I don’t really think is the right reaction here.

“You didn’t tell them, right?”

“I’m not that evil. Besides, that was when she was dating Fraser Fir, and I didn’t hate him as much as some of her other high school boyfriends.”

“You hated all her boyfriends? I didn’t think they were all that bad.”

“More or less, and in my defense, they did get worse her senior year when you were in Canterlot. I love Snowy to death, don’t get me wrong, but she does have a little bit of thot in her. That tends to attract some less than desirable stallions.”

“Some thot?” I repeat. “I have no idea what that means.”

“Well for starters, it’s something you keep between us, alright? Snowy and Jure especially don’t to know that I said that. And it means a mare who’s a little loose.”

“Loose as in, like...down…?”

“Not quite,” she laughs. “Loose as in they don’t really hesitate to find somepony and start having sex with them. She kind of was a serial dater in high school, and I think sex got introduced earlier than usual for most of them. As such, the stallions she was bringing home weren’t really the cream of the crop, and a lot of them were just looking for somepony to sleep with. Unfortunately, that’s how a lot of stallions in small towns like this are, so she had no shortage of boyfriends. Be glad you’re in Canterlot, because high school is a nightmare if you look nice but want something more than just puppy love and sex. Speaking from experience, of course.”

“Do you not like Jure? I thought he seemed nice.”

“Quite the opposite, I actually like him,” she smiles. “First time I’ve said that about one of her boyfriends. He isn’t a moron, actually seems to have aspirations besides getting near my sister’s tail, seems to legitimately like Snowy for who she is and care about her, and is pleasant to be around. I can see what she likes in him. Plus, she can be kinda high-maintenance at times, and he seems to be pretty chill. She needs somepony like that.”

“She does really seem to like him…”

“She seems a little too invested in him,” she points out. “Yeah she kinda had some of that puppy love when she was in high school, but this is something else. It’s almost like she can’t even separate herself from him. But the weird part is, he isn’t reciprocating it. The times before where she got virtually consumed by whoever she was dating, it was because they were either reinforcing it or it was because they too were clingy. Makes me wonder why she’s gotten just so obsessed with him, especially because I got the vibe from how he’s been acting is that this is worse than normal for her.”

“What if…” I just kind of trail off as thoughts start running through my head.

“What if…?” Dew Drop asks after a few moments.

“I dunno, I’m just thinking.” I kind of blankly stare for a few seconds, then get off the couch. “I might have an idea about what’s going on and how to stop it. I’ll see you in the morning.”

She doesn’t really seem to be trying to get any more information out of me, so I just walk upstairs and go into my bed. I can’t hear anything from Snowy’s room where Jure is sleeping or from Dew Drops room where Snowy is at least supposed to be sleeping, so maybe they really are asleep and not with each other? I hope so, because everything about this is all pointing to a love demon intensifying her feelings for him. It probably wouldn’t come out while she’s awake, so I need her to be asleep if this is going to work.

The door to Dew Drop’s room is cracked slightly, so I walk over and open it ever so slightly so I can see inside. Luckily, Snowy is all curled up in the blankets on the air mattress, and I can hear her breathing very heavily. I don’t know how long she’s been asleep, but with any luck, it was enough time to lure whatever love demon has been after her out.

After closing the door, I go to my room and into bed, where I hop into bed and enter the dream world. It must be a lot later than I thought, because there are more dreams than I think I’ve ever seen here. I blame my sisters, they always manage to make me stay up way later than when we’re not all together.

Thankfully, though, we still live in Coltlumbus, which means I can see all of the dreams here. From a distance it looks like there’s another pony just sitting by one of the dreams, which immediately tells me that I’m right about a love demon. It’s not Luna or Moonlight, I can tell that, which means it has to be some form of demon. As I walk closer, I can see that it’s kind of what you would expect from a mix between a pony and a snake: very long body, no legs, but still looks like a pony sitting down.

It’s staring at a dream and doesn’t seem to notice me, but I still get down low and try my best to sneak up on it. If it sees me and just gets spooked, it’ll run away and I’ll have to try this again. I can’t just scare it off, I have to make sure it doesn’t return. Especially because they almost always travel in pairs, so the other one must have been looking around for Jure’s dream. If I scare just one off, the other will probably come looking for his.

Before long, I’m right behind it and can almost feel the love it’s intensifying. It’s definitely Snowy’s dream it’s messing with, alright. But the weird part is, it doesn’t feel like it’s linked to another dream, which must mean that Jure is still awake. That’s good, because now I just have to undo what this demon’s done to Snowy, not try and undo what’s been done to both of them.

Unfortunately, that still means I have to undo what this demon’s done to her and her feelings towards him. Normally I enjoy helping ponies get rid of demons and undo the damage they’ve caused, but the best way to counteract a love demon is to cause an argument between the two ponies. And it can’t be just any superficial argument, it has to be something that runs to the core of their relationship and makes them really angry at the other pony.

At the very least, it’s easy to feel all the emotions Snowy feels towards Jure because the demon is still here and is actively tampering with her dream. Slowly, I move to a more comfortable position and just stand there, waiting for the demon to find and pass over her feelings of anger and rage towards him.

I’m going to really hate doing this to my own sister.

Chapter 33

I look up from my cereal and see that just like the last few times I’ve looked up, Snowy’s just staring at Jure, love plastered all over her face. She hasn’t even touched her oatmeal, and it looks like it’s getting pretty cold at this point. Even Jure seems to be noticing a little bit, because he looks really uncomfortable right now. My guess is he’s starting to notice that something’s up, as well. I know I feel bad for Snowy, but I’m going to feel even worse for him because he didn’t do anything wrong. Maybe I’ll explain to him later why I had to do what I did, but if he doesn’t think their argument is real, then it won’t be nearly as effective.

I really don’t want to do this, but I just look down at my cereal and take a deep breath. It’s just a few questions, based off what I felt from her dream and the demon last night. Nothing to it. It’ll be easy. Besides, I’m doing this to help her. It’s like when I was little and dad practically had to drag me to the doctor’s office to get my shots: I may not have liked it, but it was good for me.

“So Snowy,” I start, “how long have you two been dating?”

“Since October 9th,” she replies in a heartbeat, almost as if she was expecting the question. “He brought me to downtown Manehattan and we went to The Gilded Lily, one of the fanciest restaurants in town.”

He seems to be trying to hide it, but I can tell he’s blushing a little. “It wasn’t that fancy. Just thought it’d be a nice place for a nice mare.”

I put a spoonful of cereal in my mouth, then chew it enough so I can speak and not get food everywhere. “What do you guys do for dates?”

“Lot of little stuff,” she responds. “Hanging around home, going for walks, those sorts of things.”

“So you don’t really go out and do many big things together, then?”

“We do things! There was this one time the Equestrian national figure skating team was in town and we went, and it was just so romantic!” She giggles and tilts her head a little. “Do you remember that night?”

“It was really nice,” he agrees.

“You remembered that Snowy really loves figure skating,” I wink at him. “She took lessons all the time before I was born. I bet you two go skating all the time, huh?”

“I was the one that found out about it and bought tickets,” she admits. For the first time in a few days, she actually doesn’t sound extremely excited about everything. “And no, I don’t think we’ve ever gone skating.”

“Why not?” I ask further, hoping to start poking at some nerves. “Have you not told him you love doing it?”

“I’ve told him before.” She takes her eyes off him, then looks down at her oatmeal and starts eating it. “Jure, how come we’ve never gone ice skating?”

“I guess we’ve just never gotten around to it,” he shrugs before laughing nervously.

“I’m sure you guys do lots of fun stuff together,” I tell Snowy.

“Yeah!” Jure agrees. “There was the national team, the art galleries, the couples’ cooking class, and those concerts, just to name a few!”

“Those were all things I put together!” she yells. “Every time we get together, it’s just doing all the same boring stuff! I’m the one who has to put together fun, new activities for us, because you never do! I was even the one who had to coordinate you coming here, because you wouldn’t have done it otherwise!”

“Well, I didn’t know how much I love you is measured by the number of new experiences we do per month!” he yells back. “What happens if we run out of stuff to do, do we have to break up?”

“Oh, that is not the point and you know it! I’m just trying to say that it wouldn’t kill you to try and be a little more adventurous, you know?”

He looks at her straight in the eyes. “Name one time I hesitated to do something new.”

If I didn’t know any better, I’d say her eyes were about to start shooting fire right here and now. “Literally all the time! You never take initiative, so that leaves me putting all the work into this relationship and you just sitting back and not even trying!”

I think this got just a little out of hoof.

I don’t want to be near them in the middle of such a big fight, so I just grab my mostly empty cereal bowl and put it in the sink before making my way into the backyard. Dad’s using his magic to pull some weeds in one of his vegetable gardens, so I don’t think he knows what’s going on yet.

“Hey!” he waves as he looks over and sees me just standing there awkwardly. “Wanna come help me pull some weeds?”

The answer’s obviously no, but since dad's asking, the answer has to be yes. I don’t even answer, just walk up towards him.

“You okay?”

The question throws me off, so I look up and see him looking down at me with worry all over his face.

“I’m fine,” I mumble.

“You look like you’re about to cry. Are you sure you’re fine?”

I try to tell him again, but a few heavy tears manage to start rolling down my face before I can get any words out. He gets down and hugs me, then wipes some of the tears off onto his forelegs. “What’s wrong?”

“I made Snowy and Jure fight.” I sniffle, then wipe my nose a tiny bit. “They’re in there yelling at each other.”

“What about?”

“She says he doesn’t do anything and that she has to do all the work in the relationship.” I sigh and shake my head. “And I caused it.”

“Aurora, I’m sure it’s not your fault. If it was, I don’t think they’d have let you leave that argument.”

“I tried to cause it, though! There was a demon messing with her dream, and the only way to undo everything is if she fights with her boyfriend. I was just trying to help, and now what if they break up because of me?”

“They won’t break up,” he says confidently. “They’re just having a fight. Mom and I still fight sometimes, but that doesn’t mean we love each other any less.”

“But mom’s never said that you never do anything and that she has to do everything,” I point out. “I’ve only heard you guys fight about stupid, little stuff.”

“I think they both care about the other enough to have their relationship survive this. It’s not like that’s an uncommon topic to fight about, anyways. Have I told you about the girlfriend I had that argument with?”

I shake my head. “No, what happened?”

“She yelled at me for almost the exact same things it sounds like Snowy is yelling at Jure for,” he laughs. “Said she was putting in so much work and she didn’t feel like I was reciprocating any of it. Dug into me pretty good, as a matter of fact; she really let me have it, didn’t hold back at all. Wanna know what happened to her?”

“What?”

He rubs my back and smiles. “Ended up having three foals with her. I think Snowy and Jure are very compatible, and they both seem to want the relationship to succeed. If they break up, it’ll be at some point down the line and not because you instigated a fight. But the fact that my wife once yelled at me for the exact things our daughter is now yelling at her boyfriend for shows that it’s not an automatic relationship killer.”

“But you can’t hear them out here. They’re really yelling at each other, and they’re both really angry.”

“You don’t need to worry yourself too much about them,” he laughs. “Aurora, when you get a little older and start dating, you’ll realize that fights just happen. No two ponies are absolutely perfect for each other, and we all have things that drive our partners up the wall. Sometimes, the best thing for a relationship is to vent and just get your feelings out. Having my girlfriend scream at me and tell me she hardly thought I cared about our relationship hurt a lot, but it it showed me that if I wanted to make it work, I had to put more effort in. And clearly, that’s exactly what I needed to do if I didn’t want to lose her. It’s obviously always better to try and talk your problems out calmly like adults, but unfortunately, that doesn’t always work. The important thing is to not let one fight or argument cloud your judgment, and to look at your relationship realistically. I still loved mom and she still loved me, and I imagine that once Snowy and Jure’s heads have cooled a bit, they’ll think the same thing about each other.”

Almost as soon as he finishes saying that, the back door opens and then quickly slams shut before I can hear somepony growling loudly. I manage to turn my head while still staying in dad’s hug and see Snowy just pacing back and forth and appearing to be mumbling to herself.

“Everything alright?” dad asks her.

“I’m fine!” she screams at us. “Just need some alone time is all.”

“Aurora was just telling me that you and Jure were having a fight. Want to come talk about it?”

“What’s there to talk about?” she scoffs. “He doesn’t try at this relationship, leaving me to do all the heavy lifting.”

“So you don’t feel like he cares a whole lot about you, then?”

“Well…” She stops, then starts thinking. “I don’t know if I’d say that. I guess he doesn’t put a lot in, but I can tell he does care about me and wants what we have to survive.”

“Well, how can you tell that? What makes you think he wants to continue the relationship?”

“I guess I can just kinda tell that when I’m around him, he’s a lot happier.” She walks over to us and sits down next to dad in the grass. “And he’s always there for me, and always seems to know exactly what it is I need when I’m going through a rough patch. He also puts up with me when I get a little neurotic, which if I’m being honest, is pretty often. Never seems to really be phased by it or get frustrated with me.”

“What don’t you feel like he’s putting into your relationship? It sounds like at least emotionally, he is indeed there for you at least some of the time.”

She just sits there for a few seconds, then sighs and shakes her head. “God, it sounds so stupid now that it’s not in the heat of the moment. I said he never went out and took much initiative on doing new things, while I did.”

“I don’t think that’s stupid,” he comforts her while pulling her into our hug. “Is it? It could be. I don’t know the details of your relationship, though, so that’s something you and him need to decide. Maybe it is a stupid thing to think, maybe it’s not. But the important thing is that you expressed it, even if it wasn’t exactly in the way you probably would have wanted to. Because now that you’ve said it, you can see if it’s truly an unreasonable and stupid expectation or if it’s a need of yours that isn’t being fulfilled. Relationships need to work in both directions, and you told him you didn’t think it was. This sounds like it’s been frustrating you for a while, so if you hadn’t had this fight, it probably just would’ve built inside of you and gotten even worse.”

As she lays her head on dad’s chest, I swear I can see her eyes start to get damp. “I’ve never had a relationship get this far, so I just guess I don’t know what to do. Every other time I had a big fight with a boyfriend, we broke up and I felt better for it. But now, I don’t know if that’s the best choice. I’ve never felt this way about a stallion before, and I just don’t know how much love is the threshold for considering something to potentially be permanent. I don’t want to stick with this if we don’t feel deep enough about each other, but I don’t want to walk away if he could be the one.”

“Snowy,” he laughs, looking her in the eye, “you can't measure love, and there’s no benchmark for when you should stick with a relationship or when you should drop it. You just have to go with what you feel is right, and take it one step at a time. You’ll always be faced with unknowns, and the only thing you can do is sit down with your partner and talk things through before making a decision. I’ve been married to mom for two and a half decades and been in a relationship with her even longer, and even we don’t know what our future has in store. But we’ve learned how to sit down and talk things through, because if you don’t learn that skill, you’ll never find the pony who’s right for you.”

Jure walks outside and seems to be pretty angry, but he seems to calm down when he sees us. “Snowy?” he asks.

“Go talk to him,” dad whispers into Snowy’s ear before kissing her on the forehead and patting her on the back. “Tell him why you’re upset, but listen to him, too. Knowing how to listen is just as important as knowing how to express your frustrations.”

She gets up when he lets her out of the hug, then walks over to him before saying something and following him inside.

“Another day in the life of being a dad,” he winks at me.

“Is it really that hard for you and mom to get along?” I ask. The way he said it, you’d think they were constantly fighting.

“You make it sound difficult,” he laughs. “Again, we’ve been together for...gosh, thirty years or so? And we’ve gone through college, started careers, and raised a family together. All of those can be very stressful, so with as much time as we’ve had together, yeah we’re bound to fight. But we aren’t constantly at each other’s throats, just have had a lot of time together. But with that comes a lot of time to figure out how to live with each other and communicate so we don't fight that much.”

“And you really think that Snowy and Jure will be fine?”

“For now, at least," he confirms. “Them making up doesn’t undo what you did for Dreamstriding, correct?”

“No, I just needed them to fight. Basically, the demon make her think way too highly of him to the point where he was all she could think about. Fighting undoes that and brings her back to reality.”

“Then encouraging her to talk with him is probably even better to undo all of that,” he smiles. “I do hope they can make up after this. Compared to her past boyfriends, he does seem to be the most compatible with her, and as her dad, I obviously want to see her end up with somepony that fits well with who she is.”

“Everypony keeps saying stuff about ‘being compatible,’” I point out. “What’s that mean?”

“It means just…” He stops and thinks about it. “It means being able to understand your partner and being similar to them but also different enough to be able to not get on each other’s nerves all the time. For example, mom yelled at me for not putting much into our relationship because to me, just spending time with her was enough for me. If I found somepony who was exactly like me in that regard, we’d never do anything and I think we’d just get bored with each other. But mom has even told me that if she found somepony like her who likes to go out and do all sorts of new and exciting things, she doesn’t think they’d get any time to spend together and it would always be about what they’re doing, not who they’re doing it with. Since we’re different, we get to spend quality time together but also when we go out and do things, get to enjoy not only what we’re doing but also the fact that we’re doing it together.”

When he finishes speaking, he kisses me on the tip of my horn and then messes up my mane. “Snowy is seeing if her boyfriend is a good fit for her, and I know that she’ll eventually find somepony she can spend the rest of her life with. And I’m confident that someday, both you and Dew Drop will also find ponies that you won’t mind marrying and starting a family with.” The hug gets tighter, and I can really feel his sun-warmed coat now. “You’re all still just my little fillies in my eyes, but I know that at least for Snowy, it’s time for her to go out and start a life of her own. And seeing her seriously thinking about her future shows to me that she’s ready to be her own mare.”

It’s hard to think about it because she’s so much older than me, but I guess she really once was a little filly like I used to be. And I can remember being younger, so it’s really weird to think about the fact that one day, I’ll be in a relationship just like her and trying to think about whether or not my boyfriend is the pony I plan to marry. Even weirder to think that mom and dad were once just boyfriend and girlfriend in college like Snowy and Jure are, because I can’t picture them as anything else besides parents with three foals.

“Now, come on,” dad says as he gets up and then helps me to my hooves. “I really do need help weeding my garden. Didn’t think you’d get off that easy, would you?”

We both laugh, then I light up my horn and look at the garden in front of us. “Alright, what do you need me to do?”

Chapter 34

“Aurora?” Moonlight asks from the other side of my desk, causing me to turn away from the window and towards him.

“Yeah?” I ask. It’s pretty late, I wonder what he’s doing up. But on the other hoof, I guess you could say the same about me.

“What are you still doing up? I thought you weren’t doing late-night Dreamstriding tonight.”

“Could ask you the exact same question,” I laugh. “You must’ve been busy if you’re still up this late. Decided to not just go to bed after your Dreamstriding shift?”

“Came to look at the stars,” he says, coming around next to me and sitting down while facing the giant window behind my desk. “You can see a lot more of them here in Canterlot than you can in Baltimare.”

“Whereas I think you can hardly see any here. Is Baltimare really that much worse for the night sky?”

“I tried to go out and stargaze a few times when I was little.” He smiles, then leans back against my desk. “Learned pretty quickly that I wasn’t going to really get anywhere with that. Not all of us get to be from tiny towns in the middle of nowhere and see thousands of stars every night.”

I smile back, then lean on my desk next to him. “Hey, if I had to choose between being from a tiny town or a big one, I’d probably choose a big city. Coltlumbus is nice, but it can get boring pretty quickly. The library doesn’t have very many books, there’s only one playground and it’s at the elementary school so my mom would have to wait until school got out for the day to bring me, and I guess there’s a small lake we would go swimming at but that gets pretty old after a few times.”

“My mom’s from Ponyville, and she likes being from a small town,” he shrugs.

“Ponyville’s bigger than Coltlumbus is. Besides, now with Princess Twilight and the Elements of Harmony, everypony knows about it. We’re on the route between Fillydelphia and Canterlot, and still nopony has ever heard of us.”

“What’s it like there?”

“It’s a town. What do you mean, ‘what’s it like’?”

“Just like...I dunno. I know what Baltimare’s like and I know what Ponyville’s like, but what’s your hometown like?”

I think about it for a little bit, then shake my head. “Honestly, I can’t really say because I don’t know what other towns are like. I guess the only kind of thing I can say is that we all pretty much know everypony else in town, and if not, know somepony who does. Everypony knows us, though, since we’re one of like, less than ten unicorn families. Funny enough, they think we all know each other, but we’ve hardly ever met any of the other unicorns in town. I did magic kindergarten with a few of them, but they were both in a different grade than me so I never went to school with them. And there’s no pegasi at all, so us not being earth ponies really sticks out.”

“What’s that like? It’s mostly unicorns where I live, but there’s ponies of all kinds there. And when we go to Ponyville, there’s every type of pony there, too. I think it’d be really weird to be one of only a few unicorns.”

“And you’d be right,” I laugh. “A lot of them just don’t really understand anything about us, you know? They don’t understand why coming up and touching my horn without asking permission or asking if I can turn rocks into gold aren’t polite, and even when we tell them, you can’t be sure that they understand then. It’s not that anypony there is mean or rude, just that they usually have only heard of unicorns in fairy tales. And as you probably know, the stuff we do in those isn’t exactly what we can do in real life.”

“We can Dreamstride though. I’d say that’s pretty close to fairy tales. Sometimes, I love just wandering through the dream world, trying to find different places because I just can’t believe only we can go there. Have you found any great places yet?”

I honestly can’t say I have, so I just quietly shake my head. It’s always something I mean to go do, but never get around to it. With my own Dreamstriding duties, having to oversee Moonlight and Luna, needing to file official reports, and all my own studies into demons, exploring just isn’t very high on the list of things I have time for. We know where every town and city in Equestria is in the dream world, so in terms of protecting ponies at night, exploring doesn’t do anything extra for us.

“You must not be looking hard enough!” He gets to his hooves, then looks down at me. “You really haven’t found anything at all?”

“I study demons,” I remind him. “For that, I have to read a lot of books and do a lot of observations in the dream world. You experiment with tea, which can cause your dream to appear somewhere else in the dream world. You get to do a lot more exploration than I do.”

“I’ll show you somewhere. You have time, right?”

“It’s getting late. Do you really want to be going around the dream world at this time of night?”

“Why not? Not like we have anything we have to be up early for tomorrow. Besides, we’re Dreamstriders. We’re going to need to get used to staying up super late anyways, so why not at least have fun doing it? There’s this one place that’s great for stargazing, way better than anything you can see in Canterlot. What do you say, wanna go?”

I stand up, then grab an empty mug out of my desk. “Why not? Sounds like fun.”

He runs into his room, then I can hear sounds of him moving all sorts of stuff around. “Give me a minute!” he yells. “Just have to find where I put my notes, then make the tea itself. Hold tight!”

As he’s looking for whatever it is he needs, I just sit down at my desk and look out over the Dreamstrider office. This’ll be nice, I don’t think I’ve ever really spent much time with him on a personal level before. I won’t have much time in the future, especially since Luna’s told me that she’s going to be going to Manehattan and getting Adhara, the next Dreamstrider, soon and that I’ll be doing even more to help train her. Hard to believe that in the three years it’s just been Moonlight and me, we’ve never really done anything like this. Also hard to believe that it’s been five whole years since I first came here. I can still remember the night I had that dream with Princess Luna, where she took me out of my dream, put me in hers, then wiped my memory of it so she could meet me in this very room. I mean, not this exact room, but she dreamed of it. I know she did that with Moonlight, too, but that was before I moved in this wing. I wonder what she’ll do now that there are two Dreamstriders living here, because I think it might look kind of weird to have a princess sleeping in the middle of the room where two of her subordinates live and work.

After a few minutes, he comes out of his room with two mugs of tea and levitates one over to me. Without saying anything, we both blow on them a little bit to cool them down, then start drinking. It tastes just like all sorts of plants, and the color is a dull green, which reflects that fact.

Once I finish about half of my tea and can start feeling my magic start to change, I levitate the mug onto my desk and stand up. “See you in the dream world, alright?”

“See you there,” he responds, getting up as well and placing his mug next to mine. We both quickly nod at each other, then go into our own rooms and close the doors.

When I push through to my dream, Moonlight is already sitting in the grass at the top of a hill our dreams are near the bottom of. I can’t see much else from here, so I just walk up to him and look over his shoulder.

“What is this place?” I whisper I look over his shoulder and down at the crumbling stone building that you can hardly see through all the plants and vines growing over it.

“Just some building,” he shrugs as he stands up. “Nothing really inside of it. Looks neat though, doesn’t it?”

“Well, let’s go.” I start walking towards it, and he just trots up next to me and looks confused.

“You want to go inside? I thought you said you don’t really explore much in the dream world.”

“Because of time reasons,” I correct. “Besides, demons aren’t really known to build things. So why are there ruins here?”

Instead of responding, he just looks forward and stares off into space. “Huh. Never thought of that.”

The closer we get to the ruins, the warmer it gets. Weird, I don’t think I’ve ever known a single place in the dream world to be warm. Everywhere else has been either cool or not really had any temperature, so this place must be really different. The ruins themselves are on a small island in the center of a little lake, and as we walk on the mossy bridge towards them, it almost starts feeling humid. I’ll have to see if I have any books about this place, or if Luna knows anything.

Upon entering, Moonlight just goes straight in to the back, where it looks like there’s another room that I can’t see what’s inside. I’m moving slowly in part because I want to notice everything around me, and in part because it feels like I’m in a sauna right now. It’s way hotter and way more humid in here than outside, and I swear I can already start feeling all the hair on my body start to frizz up.

Whatever this place is, it’s very old. Not only is the magic here very powerful, but it just feels ancient, like it’s been here a long time. Longer than most magic, and it’s just hanging in the air like an undisturbed swamp. Usually magic likes to be moving and flowing, but everything here is just completely stagnant.

“How did you find this place?” I ask Moonlight as I try and look in the main room for any clues as to what this place might be.

“Just experimented with tea and stumbled upon it,” he yells back. “Once you dig into it a little bit more, you find out how to design tea blends to do what it is you want. Most of the stuff I knew would bring my dream somewhere different than the Canterlot Cave, but where exactly I would end up I didn’t know.”

“And there’s really nothing in here suggesting what it might have been?”

“Well, there’s this.”

“‘This?’” I repeat, snapping my head in his direction. “What’s ‘this’?”

“Flower and a something written in Demon, but I can’t read it. I’ve been meaning to bring you here actually, since you’re way better at it than I am.”

“And this is why you need to focus more on your Demon lessons,” I remind him as I walk into the small back room he’s in. There’s a single, soft blue hydrangea in the center of the room on top of a little pedestal with something carved into it.

“It’s in Old Demon,” he points out. “I can hardly read regular demon, so demon that was written a long time ago is way too hard for me.”

“‘Let this single flower serve as a memory to V, the first elder demon to fall in the war against The Nightmare,’” I read aloud.

“‘The Nightmare?’ ‘Elder demon?’”

“I’ve heard of elder demons before,” I think aloud. “Most Dreamstriders have thought that they were a legend or a myth. All the stories say that they’re extremely powerful demons, ones that hold very deep knowledge about the dream world and our world but live far away from any other demons.”

“And The Nightmare?”

I put a hoof on my chin, then stare at the inscription and try to see if there’s any other hints. “Must have been a very powerful elder demon. If thousands of years of Dreamstriders thought that they were myths, then it would make sense that only another elder demon could find and kill one, right?”

Now my mind is going on a thousand different directions at once. Does this mean that elder demons are real, or is it maybe just the demon equivalent to a folk tale? Why a hydrangea? Why here? On that, why is this place the only warm and humid area I’ve ever been in the dream world? And why would elder demons fight amongst themselves, let alone wage all-out war?

“Hey Aurora, you coming?”

Snapping back into reality, I notice that he’s no longer here with me. Where did he go? “Moonlight?”

“Up here!” he calls from above me. It takes me a while to find him, but I can see his face poking through a small hole in the ceiling in the corner of the room. “You gonna come or what?”

“How did you even get up there? There’s no ladder or stairs or anything.”

“Climbed that bit of rubble,” he says, pointing his hoof to a very unsteady-looking pile of rocks right by the hole. I’m not sure I’ll support me, to be honest. I’m thirteen, not exactly a little filly anymore.

A quick sigh, then I move over to the pile. Here goes nothing, I guess. I put all four of my hooves on the rubble and feel it shift a little, which isn’t a good sign. With more care in every hoofstep than I’ve ever had to put, I start making my way up the pile of rock. Right before I’m about to get up to the top, I can just feel my back left slip a little too much. Probably not the best idea on top of a collapsing pile of stone, but I instinctively jump and grab the ledge right before the entire thing topples, leaving most of my body just dangling above it.

“Little help?” I grunt after trying to hoist myself up onto the roof where Moonlight’s just watching me struggle. Maybe I should’ve listened to dad when he said I should try and get a little stronger.

Moonlight grabs one of my hooves and starts pulling, grunting while doing so. “You’re so heavy!” he cries out.

“Because that’s what a mare wants to hear,” I grunt back as I manage to pull myself up onto the roof. “That she’s heavy.”

“Well, it’s true,” he says as he lays down on his back. “By the way, see? Told you the view here is pretty incredible.”

I get down next to him, and he’s right. It’s just like the one plain Luna showed me years ago, but here the light from the moon and stars seems closer and brighter. Add that into all the magic, and I feel very in touch with my Dreamstriding capabilities. I’m going to have to come back here sometime and do some tests, because I feel like I’d be able to do so much that I’ve never done before.

“What do you think this place is?” he asks after a few minutes of us just sitting in silence.

“Probably a memorial,” I shrug. “I don’t think demons create anything, so it was probably made by ponies. And there was a plaque in there, so somepony must have created that and added it.”

“No, not this specific place.” He stretches his forelegs wide. “The dream world. What do you think it is?”

“It’s just the dream world to me. It might not be the best answer, but that’s just it. The best we can do is just learn how to live with it and interact with it.”

“But that’s a bad answer!” he exclaims. “There has to be some answer, right? It can’t just be the dream world, can it? Everything has to be something, and the dream world has to be something or somewhere. Like, the moon and stars. Do you think they’re the same moon and stars we see back in the awakened world, or are they different ones?”

“I think…” I pause, then just stare at the moon. “I don’t know, honestly. I don’t think I’ve ever really thought of it. It’s probably a different moon though, because if it was the same moon, then wouldn’t this planet have to be right next to ours or something? We only have one planet and one moon, so there’s not something close enough to be able to see the moon in the sky. Especially like this; I feel like if I put my hooves out, I’d get moon dust on them.”

“So then where are we?” Not taking his eyes off the sky, he sits up. “This isn’t our imagination, because we’re definitely here. And I don’t think these are our bodies, because we don’t disappear from the awakened world when we Dreamstride. So if it’s not imaginary but not real, then what is it?”

“It’s real, but…” As I take a few moments to just try and think about what to say next, so many questions are going around in my head that I can’t just focus on one of them. “Just lost my train of thought. All I know is it’s the dream world, and that’s good enough for me.”

“I’m sure I’ll figure it out someday,” he says confidently. “It’s got to be right in front of us, right? It’ll be one of those things where somepony figures it out, then we all sit around and wonder how we didn’t notice that before.”

“If it were that easy,” I laugh, “don’t you think somepony would have it all solved by now? We wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation.”

“They’re just not looking in the right place,” he proclaims, laying back down on his back. “I’ll find out where they looked, then look in different places because the answer obviously isn’t there.”

“Maybe that’s what everypony who came before you said, too. I don’t think it’s a bad goal, but I don’t think it’s an easy one. Dreamstriders are pretty rare, so it’s not like there have been a ton of ponies who were able to study that a ton. My guess is just a hoofful or so.”

“Always got to be somepony who makes the breakthrough,” he points out. “Why not me?”

With a smile, I just go back to looking at the moon and stars. He’s determined, I’ll give him that. And it’s not a bad or unrealistic goal, either.

“So what do you want to figure out about demons?” he asks after a few seconds of silence. “Why did you decide to start studying them?”

“They’re just...I dunno, interesting.” I shrug, not knowing what else to say. “They’re just like, here. And we know almost nothing about them outside the fact that they’re here. Even they don’t know anything about where they came from or what they are or even what the dream world is, and none of them really seem to be interested in finding out. So much powerful magic is in here, and I think if we learn how the demons use it and were created from it, ponies could benefit so much.”

“How would we use that? What would learning about where demons come from do for us?”

“That’s what we need to figure out,” I say as I turn my head and wink at him. “Who knows, maybe there’s a ton of magic going on that we don’t know about. Demons can have some pretty powerful effects on us while we’re dreaming, so maybe there’s something about their magic that we could learn to use for ourselves?”

“Well, I’ll tell you if I find anything.” He points his hoof up towards the moon, and I swear it’s so close that he’s going to touch it. “My goal is to get up there, though. Find out if this moon is our moon. And even if it’s not, it’d be cool to walk on it, wouldn’t it?”

“Just walk on it?” I ask. “That’s all you’d want to do up there?”

“Well, what else would I do? There isn’t really anything up there.”

“So your whole goal is to get somewhere, just to say you’ve walked on it?”

“Hey,” he defends, “why do ponies climb mountains and do all that stuff? To say they were there. And who’s to say there’s not something on the moon that will help us, or something that I’ll find on the way? If finding out that I’m a Dreamstrider and doing all this crazy stuff has taught me anything, it’s that I have no idea what’s going to happen to me in the future. All I can do is just take it as it comes.”

“Fair enough,” I reply as I put my hooves behind my head. It’s weird to think about, but he’s got a point: I wouldn’t have expected any of this either a few years ago. I thought I’d just be in middle school and be home alone with mom and dad at this point in my life, but that’s just so far from what I’ve been doing the past five years. But it’s weird, because now if I try to imagine myself in a normal life, it doesn’t seem normal. This is what my life is: sitting in the dream world, looking at the stars of some unknown area and wondering if I’ll ever figure out where I am.

I guess there’s worse lives to have.

Chapter 35

Grabbing my hot chocolate out from my magic, I wrap my hooves around the warm cup to try and keep them from going numb in this brutal Canterlot cold. When Dew Drop was in college I at least got to spend time with her if we were waiting for mom and dad at the train station, but sadly, she’s graduated and left me here in Canterlot. But she does live in Taillahassee now, so I guess I can go escape to the warmth if I ever want to. Not that I have, but the option’s open I guess.

I look up at the board of arrivals and see that the train from Coltlumbus has now been updated to arriving, to I clench my cup even harder out of excitement. This weekend is going to be so much fun! Even though they’re coming up to go to the hoofball game tomorrow which I admittedly know nothing about, it’ll be nice to spend some time with mom and dad now that I’m older and we can actually do stuff we all enjoy. Or at least, I think I’ll be able to enjoy it. Regardless, they haven’t ever really had much time to come up here and do a whole lot of stuff with me in the time I’ve been in Canterlot, so just doing anything is fine with me.

A few minutes pass, and then I can hear the train’s whistle before seeing it come around the bend and pull onto the platform. Instinctively, I get up and walk a little closer to the train, even though I have no idea what car they’re in and sitting on the bench is probably smarter so they can see me. It won’t matter much anyways, this is the first train of the day, which means it just stopped at all the small towns in Equestria and then went into Canterlot. There’s hardly going to be a hoofful of ponies on this train, everypony from Fillydelphia or Manehattan is going to come in later.

Right as the doors open, I can see mom and dad standing there and talking to each other, seemingly not even noticing me. As soon as they look up, however, mom gets a little startled while dad just smiles.

“Didn’t expect you to be right there!” mom laughs before walking up to me and hugging me. “How’ve you been, sweetheart?”

“Same old,” I respond while putting out a hoof to get dad in the hug. “How are you two?”

“Got some good news,” dad winks before pulling out an envelope in his magic. “We were asked to hoof-deliver this to you.”

“Hoof deliver a letter?” I ask, breaking the hug off and grabbing it in my own magic. “Who from?”

“Think you’ll find out inside,” mom says with her ‘barely concealing a smile’ look. “Go on, open it!”

The front of the envelope just has Miss Aurora Borealis written in very intricate and beautiful cursive, but no address or indication of who it’s from. Only one way to find out, I guess. I open it up and pull the letter out, instantly recognizing it as Snowy’s hoofwriting because she always had the best penmanship of all of us.

Aurora,

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but Jure proposed to me: we’re going to be getting married! We don’t have a date set just yet, but I just wanted you to tell that you and Dew Drop are going to be two of my bridesmaids! I love both of you so much with all of my heart, and I can’t think of two mares I’d rather have by my side on the happiest day of my life than my two little sisters. Again, we don’t have a date set yet, but I’ll be telling you as soon as we know.

Love,

Snowy

P.S. I know I’ve said this hundreds of times before, but we do really hope to get out to Canterlot to visit you sometime!

“Can tell you’re excited,” dad remarks as I finish reading the letter.

“What?” As soon as I speak up, I notice that there’s now a pretty sizeable smile on my face. “Oh. I’m just excited for her, I guess. First one of us to get married, which I guess isn’t surprising since she’s not only the oldest, but was also the only one of us with a boyfriend. Been seeing him for five years too, guess it was just a matter of time. Bet you two are excited, huh?”

“I remember when I first found out I was pregnant with her,” mom coos as she looks over at dad. “Remember how I sent you to the drug store to pick up the test because I felt so sick, I could hardly get off that ratty old couch we had in our apartment?”

“I do remember being sent out for saltines and ginger ale a lot during that pregnancy. Good thing it was the first pregnancy you were the sickest for, was much easier to manage when it was just the two of us.”

“Our little filly, all grown up and getting married,” mom says as she parts a few loose hairs out of my face. “Our other two still have a few more years, I think. You can’t grow up too much more now, you hear? You’re the baby, and even you’re living in Canterlot and have been at the castle for eight years now!”

“I’ll try,” I promise, “but I think getting older is out of my control.”

“Well, let’s get going to our hotel,” dad interrupts in his typical way when he wants us to get moving. “You packed everything you’re going to need, right Aurora?”

“Including some clothes for tomorrow,” I laugh as I look down at my green and gold sweatshirt. “I was always the first pony Dew Drop went to when she went through her closet after a shopping spree. Which, as you can imagine, was pretty often.”

“I hate to admit it, but you look good in it,” mom compliments as she starts walking away from the train. “I suppose if your team’s never going to win, you have to settle for good-looking clothes. But even that they don’t do as well as us.”

“Mom’s a little competitive when it comes to hoofball,” dad whispers as he walks up to me. “You should have seen her at the game our junior year against the Celestial Sea University, almost got us thrown out of the stadium! I was certain I was going to walk out of there with a broken nose because she chose the biggest, meanest stallion to pick a fight with. Mom’s not that big, I thought he was going to snap her in half!”

“You say something?” mom asks, seemingly oblivious to our conversation.

“Just talking with Aurora,” he winks at me before we start following her out. Mom getting in a huge fight and almost getting thrown out of a stadium? That’s hard to imagine, I guess they were both really different ponies when they were in school. Being at a game might have something to do with it, too. I never went to a game, but Dew Drop always told me that hoofball could bring out the worst in ponies.

Because I think we’re all pretty tired given how early it is, we walk through the rest of Canterlot Station in silence. The sun’s just barely poking over the horizon once we step outside, bathing Canterlot in a warm red glow. It would be really pretty outside if it wasn’t so cold. I’ve been here for eight years, and I still don’t think I’ll ever get used to just how cold it gets up here in the mountains during the winter.

“So how was the train ride in?” I ask them once we’re walking towards the hotel, a cloud of fog coming out of my mouth with every breath.

“Slept almost the entire trip,” mom responds. “Good thing dad can never fall asleep on the train, because he in charge of waking me up when we got close. Never been a fan of those early morning train rides, but they’re just so much better than later in the day when everypony from the cities is on those. What about you, are your studies going well?”

“Starting to move into some studies of my own,” I smile. “Pretty much finishing up everything other Dreamstriders have written on demons, so then it’ll be my responsibility to write the next things that future Dreamstriders will look to for knowledge.”

“When I was sixteen,” mom laughs, “I was worrying about getting smoothies with my friends after school got out. You always have been mature beyond your years, Aurora.”

“Thanks,” I mumble through some blushing I’m trying to conceal. How do I even respond to that? I guess it’s kind of true looking back to when I was in school, but I probably owe that to having much older sisters who I always tried to act like because I admittedly used to think they were so cool and mature.

“What kinds of studies are you doing on your own?” dad asks.

“I’d probably just bore you,” I dismiss. It always gets weird talking about Dreamstriding around my family because they get so fascinated by it, and I’ve never really liked being the center of attention the way I am when I talk about my work.

“It’s always interesting to hear what it is you’re doing,” mom adds in. “It’s not something we can really read about elsewhere, so we like to hear about everything it is that the Dreamstriders are doing.”

“Well, I’m starting to think about how I could look into what demons and the dream world are. Only a hoofful of ponies at any given time can go into the dream world, and while it’s been known for thousands of years that we’re special, nopony knows why or how. And not only are we the only ones who can enter the dream world, but we’re the only ones that can physically understand the demon language. Non-Dreamstriders have tried to understand it, both spoken and written, and there’s just something about it that they cannot grasp. I can write something in demon and give it to somepony else, and even if they’re looking right at it, they can never reproduce what I’ve written. And if I tell them what each word in a sentence means, if I show it to them in a different sentence or by itself, they can’t understand it.”

“I have no idea where you got your magical know-how from,” she laughs. “Neither of us were really that great with magic. We both know the basics, but much else and you lose at least me. And it’s not like your sisters are much better than us, so we must’ve had some important wizard somewhere, and all their knowledge just waited to come out in you.”

“It’s not really that hard,” I respond, now really feeling like my face is turning red. “I’ve just spent a lot of time studying it. Snowy and Dew Drop just haven’t studied it a lot, because where would you in Coltlumbus? What few unicorns there are there just know the basics, so it’s not like they had anypony to learn from. I, on the other hoof, had an over-thousand-years-old princess and the best magic academy in Equestria. Just a matter of opportunity.”

“Just being modest,” dad smiles as he puts a hoof around me and rubs my back. “We’re very proud of you and just think you’re doing very well with yourself. I don’t think either of us could have ever expected we’d have such an accomplished Dreamstrider as a daughter, mostly because...well, neither of us had ever heard of them until we found out you were one.”

“And I guess this is one thing I know I’ll be the best of your foals at, since I’m the only one. Will always have that over them.”

“You don’t get that from me,” mom sighs as we walk up to a nice-looking hotel not too far from where I know Canterlot University is. “At least you don’t make everything into a competition like a certain father of yours does.”

“Somepony’s just mad she keeps losing,” he teases her as he uses his magic to open the door for us. Mom groans as she walks inside, then gets in line to check in at the front desk. I take a few steps towards her, but when I realize that dad’s gone to sit on one of the couches in the lobby, I decide to instead go sit with him as opposed to just wait in line.

“We got a room with a queen-sized bed,” dad informs me as I sit down next to him. “I think they said the couch is a pullout, though, so you’ll have somewhere hopefully cozy to sleep. We looked into getting a room with two full beds, but they were all booked pretty much throughout this area of the city because of the game.”

“How big of a deal can one game be?” I ask. “I know Dew Drop and you guys have talked about how the Canterlot University and University of Equestria Canterlot game is a big deal, but not even the Summer Sun Celebration causes that many ponies to come into town.”

“Over a hundred thousand attend every year,” he winks. “And it’s listened to on the radio by ponies all around Equestria, so it’s a bit of a big deal. We’re just excited to go, because we haven’t been back for a game since we graduated. And we hope you’re excited to attend your first-ever hoofball game!”

“As much as I can be without knowing anything about the sport, I suppose. You’re not going to get me one of those cheesy little certificates they give little foals for their first ever games, right?”

“Only if you want one. And if you don’t want to feel silly, I’ll go get one with you.”

“You’ve been to tons of games,” I point out.

“They don’t know that,” he replies slyly. “Could even try and see what other lies I can say to them before they catch on. Perhaps they’d believe we’re superheroes who can be invisible, but only if nopony is looking at where we currently are?”

“I doubt that one,” I giggle.

“Or perhaps we’re a Prince and Princess of Equestria?” he wonders. “Could probably get pretty far with that, actually, since you know Princess Celestia and Princess Luna fairly well. What would they do, go check our pedigree?”

“And what would we get out of it? A pony who thinks they met royalty when they really just met two regular ponies?”

“A good story, maybe some fun,” he shrugs. “Just make things a little more exciting, you know?”

“And what would mom say once you walk back to our seats with one of those certificates and ask why you have one?”

“Think she’d buy it if we said we were royalty?”

“I doubt it,” I shake my head.

“What about just you? You’re close to Princess Luna, who’s to say she hasn’t given you a title yet?”

“I think mom would know if I was a Princess,” I point out.

“Not if you don’t tell her,” he defends.

I sigh and shake my head, and I swear I can almost hear him laughing. When I look over, I can see that he is indeed smiling at me. “What?”

“Mom and Snowy do that to me all the time,” he smiles. “Looks like finding all my dad humor annoying definitely runs in the family.”

“Well, I’m going to need some tea if this dad humor is going to continue. Want me to get you anything while I’m up?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” he says with a wave of his hoof. “I’ll just be here when you get back, it doesn’t look like mom’s going to be done anytime soon.”

With a nod of recognition, I get up off the couch and stretch a little bit before going into the hotel’s breakfast area and browsing their tea selection. I’ll have to admit that I know almost nothing about tea for regular ponies now, especially not anything about drinking tea for caffeine and to stay awake. So, I just grab a packet labeled as ‘breakfast blend’ and start brewing it.

As it’s going, I just look out over the hotel and survey the lobby. Almost everypony in here is wearing some sort of blue and silver for Canterlot University, with the odd pony here and there such as myself wearing green and gold.

To say the least, this game is going to be interesting. Maybe I’ll be able to figure out what it is ponies seem to like so much about rooting for one school over another.

Chapter 36

“Aurora,” dad whispers while nudging me, waking me from the soothing sleep I was having.

My only response is a tired groan as I turning over and crack my eyes open to see him and mom smiling down at me.

“Time to get ready,” he speaks softly. “Mom and I will be in the lobby having breakfast. Just come down when you’re ready.”

They leave, so I have to force myself to get out of my bed before I fall asleep again. After grabbing a nice, hot shower in which I allow myself to just stand there and let the water and steam relax my muscles from sleeping on the less-than-perfect pullout couch, I quickly brush my mane, grab my hat and scarf, and exit the room.

Once downstairs, I place my stuff at the table where mom and dad are sitting and beeline over to the breakfast station, which has all sorts of good-looking stuff to choose from. But I figure I should treat myself, so I decide to not have to make choices and just grab a bit of everything. We did a lot around Canterlot yesterday and I got worn out, so I’m pretty hungry anyways.

“You look much better in blue and silver,” mom points out with a smile as I return to the table, all my food in tow. “We approve.”

“I don’t think so, though,” I shake my head as I sit down. “I think I look better in green and gold. Maybe it was the four years of being around Dew Drop a lot and her always impulse buying clothes in her school’s colors that did it. Always had more UEC stuff, so I just got used to always having something lying around I could put on.”

Mom points at my clothes as she levitates her coffee to her mouth and takes a sip. “We’ll have to take you shopping sometime, then. If I’m not mistaken, those clothes you’re wearing are the ones we bought for you specifically for this game because you didn’t have any Canterlot University ones, correct?”

“Sure,” I shrug before shoving a forkful of fruit in my mouth.

“First daughter of ours that hasn’t jumped at the opportunity to go shopping,” she smiles as she levitates her coffee cup back down to the table. “I think you’ll enjoy it. Hopefully we can get you excited about CU sports, or just college sports in general. Being a part of that is just so much fun, and Dew Drop was the only one of you that went to a school with a culture like that. Especially if you’re going to be potentially living in Canterlot for your work, I think you’d really enjoy rooting for one of the teams. It makes you really feel like a member of the city, and it gives you so many fun things to do!”

“I just don’t have many connections with either school,” I reply after finishing the food in my mouth and preparing another bite of my fruit salad. “Like, everypony I’ve met who’s a big fan of either school went there themselves. There really isn’t any reason for me to do that, so I’ll never have the exact same experience that you do.”

“Then we really have to try our hardest to make this weekend memorable for her,” mom remarks as she looks at dad. “If Dew Drop couldn’t get her into it after four years, we’re going to need to go all out if we want it to work.”

“Maybe I was just too young to really care that much about it,” I concede. “I’m open to it, at least. If Snowy and I are the minority for not loving college sports, there must be something interesting about it that we’re just missing. I guess just try to show me what it is you three love about all of this so much.”

“We’ll try our best,” she winks before picking up her coffee cup again.

“Here you go!” dad proclaims as he shoves an enormous pretzel into my face, startling me and almost causing me to back into the pony behind me.

“Huh?” I take the pretzel in my own magic and look at dad, who’s already started shoving his into his mouth like he hasn’t eaten for days. “I didn’t ask you for a pretzel, did I?”

“He loves the pretzels at the CU stadium,” mom giggles to me. “When we’d go to games as students, he always had me hold his money so he’d only buy one.”

“Go on, try it!” he exclaims between enormous bites.

I take a bite, and it actually is pretty good. Nice and warm, just soft enough, and the right amount of salt. It’s also kind of chilly outside, so having this warm food is really nice to stave off the wind. The enormous blanket of gray clouds over the stadium doesn’t help it get any warmer, either.

While mom and dad start going off about all the hoofball games they attended when they were students here, I decide to just look around the stadium a bit. It’s amazing, really, like nothing I’ve ever seen. Most of the stadium is a solid mass of blue and silver, and there’s basically a solid break where it goes to green and gold for a few sections. I wonder if any of Dew Drop’s friends are over there on the other side, since I know some of them still live in Canterlot or are still in school. I really wanted her to come up for the game so we could all watch it together, but she’s unfortunately too busy.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” the loudspeaker blares, echoing all throughout the stadium. In a few seconds, there’s a huge hush that goes through, making it eerily quiet for a place that over a hundred thousand ponies are waiting for what they say is the biggest moment of the year.

“Today, on this beautiful day for hoofball, we will witness the 713th annual meeting between—”

"—the University of Equestria at Canterlot Clovers!” the green and gold section roars, completely drowning out the loudspeakers despite being on the opposite side of the stadium from us.

“And your Canterlot University Windigos!” everypony else shouts, including mom and dad. I can swear there’s a faint ringing in my ears after they’re done yelling.

“Coming out of the eastern gate, the visiting team: the University of Equestria at Canterlot Clovers!” As soon as the loudspeaker is done, a huge cascade of booing erupts, and I only know their side is cheering because I can see them since the only thing I can hear is just boos.

A crowd of stallions rushes out of the tunnel wearing mostly gold jerseys with green pants and helmets. Following them is a small group of unicorns, who shoot up green bolts of magic into the air which explode like fireworks and take the take the form of one massive four-leaf clover, bright green and sparkling, lighting up the stadium. The unicorns shoot up their magic again, which goes into the clouds and turns those the same bright green as the clover. They both persist for a moment, but eventually the clover fizzes out and the clouds go back to their normal gray.

“And coming from the western gate, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: your one and only Canterlot University Windigos!”

A few pegasi zoom overhead before any hoofball players come out, the trails behind them glinting brightly. When they fly over the stadium itself, the glinting substance falls, which I can now see is ice: the air has grown even colder, and a bit of frost has started to build on the metal benches in the stands. Two ponies wearing old unicorn armor rear up and sprint out of the stadium’s western tunnel, the ground behind them becoming encased in ice and frost as they run into the center of the field. Following them is the CU team, with their sharp blue jerseys and bright silver helmets and pants shining like the ice now on the field. Our side can’t keep its excitement in any longer, and the cheering I hear from them is undoubtedly the loudest thing I’ve ever heard in my life, and frankly is the loudest thing I hope to ever hear.

What looks like a million little lights appear in the other section, about equally distributed between green and gold. Out of the bottom of my eye I can see some on our side, so I look down and notice that all the unicorns in our section are doing the same thing with their own school’s colors. I look off to the side, and even mom and dad are doing it while mom’s stomping her hooves and cheering loudly.

“And now, to honor Equestria, please stand and remove your hats as we welcome Coloratura to the field to sing the Equestrian National Anthem.”

Almost everypony’s standing anyways, so we all take off our hats as the mare on the field does a little bit of waving before taking a deep breath and starting to sing in one of the most beautiful and powerful voices I’ve ever heard.

“Equestria, the land I love,
A land of harmony…”

“Aurora!” mom yells while nudging me, though I can hardly hear her over the roar of the game.

“What?” I scream back while turning my head to her. She doesn’t say anything, just moves her head to the side so I can see Sveta standing in the aisle, looking as tough as she normally does. Something’s worrying her, however. Her eyes aren't as bright and determined as they usually are.

It’s too loud to try and yell questions to her even though she’s just a few feet away, so I squeeze past mom and dad and find myself in the aisle. “What is it?”

She doesn’t say anything, instead just motions her head to the concourse and starts going up the steps. “You’ve been summoned,” she informs me once we’re inside, “by the pony I work for. Please do not say her name, as it would only cause a stir.” She growls. “And more noise. It was bad enough in the stadium. Perhaps your kind should learn to celebrate quietly.”

That’s probably racist, but oh well. Not my top concern right now. “Why does she want me?”

“I’m not sure,” she shakes her head. “She just said she does.”

“I’ll be able to get back in, right?” I worry. “I’m kind of spending the day with my parents.”

“You won’t even need to leave the stadium; she has her own private box.”

“Wait, what? I can’t have heard that right, she’s here? As in, watching the game?”

“Yes,” she growls, louder this time. “And you may ask her any question you wish when you see her, but please, do not ask me things she is capable of answering.”

That’s probably her way of telling me to shut up.

After walking for a few minutes, we enter a roped-off area patrolled by a few Royal Guards from the palace. All sorts of important-looking ponies and even some non-ponies like griffons and crystal ponies are here, enjoying themselves but seemingly caring little for the game. Most of them aren’t even wearing any of the schools’ colors, so they must just be here to look good.

Sveta abruptly stops and looks both ways in the middle of the concourse, then turns and walks through a seemingly featureless wall before disappearing. It must be an illusion, so I walk through and emerge in a small corridor that reminds me of Luna’s suite back at the castle. Two Thestrals are guarding the door, but it’s wide open and they look bored out of their minds. They just shoot a quick glance at me before returning to staring at the walls, so they must recognize me.

Through the door is a set of old, creaking wooden steps that lead up to a large private box overlooking the game. From the view, I can tell we’re about halfway between the 50 yard line and the goalpost, on the same side of the stadium that our seats are on. There’s a little bar set up on the right side that looks like it’s hardly even touched, a lounge area facing a fireplace on the left that has a nice layer of dust on top of it, and in the center is Luna, laying on a couch and looking at the action.

“Come, sit beside me,” she instructs without even moving her head. I go around the side of the couch and find there’s even more room than I thought, so I’m able to comfortably lie down without either of us encroaching on each other’s space.

“Nice box you have,” I comment as I look out the enormous window in front of us to try and find mom and dad. “How come I’ve never noticed it? I was just at the game and couldn’t see a thing.”

“Illusion magic,” she smiles. The teams take a timeout, so she turns to look at me while not missing any of the game. “Just like the wall you had to pass through to get here.”

“But why, though? And on that, why do you even have a private box at the CU stadium?”

I can tell she’s trying to repress a smile. “To answer your second question, I have always had a secret love for the sport of hoofball. It was in its infancy when I was banished, so it is thrilling to see its transformations.” She tilts her head a little, which she always does when she’s having really pleasant memories. “Back then it was a game for the working ponies of Canterlot and not a sport fit for a Princess, I used to sneak out of the palace and hide in the old clock tower to watch it, back when this stadium was no more than a vacant lot of grass. When they built the first ever stadium here, I snuck furniture in so I could watch in comfort. And as for your first question, you know I enjoy my solitude. Were word to get out of my enjoyment, I would be beset day and night with questions from the tabloids and offers from everypony wanting to watch a game with the Princess!” She puts a hoof on her head, which is now shaking. “No, I prefer to do so in private.”

“So since you like watching games in private, why am I here? Clearly not as a hoofball buddy, especially since I hardly understand the sport myself. I’m just here with my parents.”

“Yes, I can see them right there,” she says, pointing to the right of where we are. I try and follow her hoof, but I can’t find anything besides a mass of blue and silver. "I do apologize for not putting them up in the castle, by the way, although every guest room is being used by Princess Celestia to house the various dignitaries you must have seen outside of my box."

“They don't mind staying in a hotel," I respond as I crane my neck and try to look where she's pointing.

Seeing that I can't find them, her horn illuminates, and two ponies in the crowd are lit up the same color as her magic. I think I can even see them kissing from here. Cute.

Sveta brings over a tray carrying a teapot, two cups, and a glass jar of grayish-brown tea in her mouth, then bows after setting it on the small coffee table in front of us and exits the room. A soft click tells me that she's left the two of us alone.

“What’s this?” I ask as I take the cup being offered to me in Luna’s magic.

“I have something I need to show you,” she replies somberly, staring into her empty teacup. This can’t be good.

She places some of the tea in the bottom of my cup and then pours boiling water over it, turning it into the most unappealing steely gray I’ve ever seen. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen tea like this,” I think out loud.

“It’s Scum Blend,” she spits, clearly holding something back. “Named after who we’re supposed to see when we drink it.” After preparing herself a cup, she holds it up in a toast. “I shall see you in the dream world, Aurora.” She throws her head back and quickly downs the tea, then places the cup back on the tray and lays her head on the arm of the couch before closing her eyes.

I take my first sip of the tea, and the only way I can think of describing it is that it tastes like how it looks. It’s metallic, kind of bitter, and leaves a lingering taste in my mouth. But I can feel it’s not enough to make my body’s magic change, so I have to suck it up and swallow the rest of the cup’s contents.

When it’s all empty, I place the cup back on the tray and lay my head on the couch and close my eyes, just like Luna. I push through to my dream, and when I jump through to the dream world, I can feel the weight of the ambient magic start to push me down.

It feels like a million soaking wet towels were thrown on top of me, and the landscape reflects this feeling. We’re in a large swamp that spreads as far as the eye can see, seemingly without end. Cold, tepid water comes up to my knees, and a freezing, wet wind is howling through, making the inside of the stadium seem like a sauna right about now. Dark clouds are looming over us and blot out nearly all light trying to punch its way through, so the whole swamp is dark and dreary. Even the magic here feels the same way, because simply standing here makes me feel depressed. Pure despair hangs very heavily here.

“Come,” Luna instructs from behind me. When I turn around, I can see a small building behind her with no windows and just one door on the right side, which is open. My guess is that place looked old even when it was new, which was clearly a very, very long time ago.

I want desperately to know what’s going on, but I feel as though I’m about to find out.

I follow Luna to the door of the building, and she gestures for me to go in first. When I do, I see that the building is completely empty, not a soul around. There’s a single cell with iron bars surrounding it, so this place must have been a prison. The cell door is open, and there’s a small window at the back with a view of the sky.

Now my heart is racing. Why did she bring me here? There aren’t any ponies or demons here, does this mean the cell is going to be mine? What did I do wrong?

“Relax,” she calmly tells me, the sound of her hooves on the ground signaling her arrival into the building. “I do not know what it is making you worry, but the best thing for you to do is just relax. You are in no danger.”

“Why’d you bring me here?” I ask meekly, walking up to the cell and looking at it through the bars. There’s no bed, no chair, no sink, no toilet even. Just a floor and walls with no features.

When she doesn’t answer, I look back at her, and her head is off to the side. “Luna?”

“This is where…” She closes her eyes. “This is where he was kept.”

“‘He’?” I repeat, slowly walking towards her. “Somepony important to you?”

She nods. “Not in the way you must be imagining, however.”

Now I’m confused. “How, then?”

“He was the pony responsible for the destruction of the original Dreamstriders and my transformation into Nightmare Moon.”

I can tell this is a lot for her, but I feel I have to know more. “How? What did he do?”

She opens her eyes again and glares at the cell. “His name was Shooting Star, although you may have heard him be called The Nightmare. He had some ideas about a Dreamstrider’s place in the world that were...wrong, to say the least. Felt we were chasing the ‘petty fears’ of ponies and squandering our gift, felt we should use it to rule both worlds and bring stability to them. I disagreed, as you can imagine. Unfortunately, I did not anticipate the ambition with which he would pursue his ideals. He lead malevolent demons into the dreams of all the Dreamstriders, hoping they would destroy our minds and wipe us all out so he could create a new order, one in his vision. Fortunately, I was able to catch him and expel the demons from all our dreams.”

She hangs her head. “Or so I thought. He had fled, so I had to chase him and was not able to do a thorough search of everypony he betrayed. A fury demon lodged itself in my mind and intensified my rage towards him, only to leech off it and grow stronger. I did manage to track him down and imprison him here, but it was too late. The demon was too strong, and it took over my body and transformed me into what is now called Nightmare Moon.”

“What about the Dreamstriders?” I ask. “Surely they could’ve gone on without you.”

She takes a long pause before speaking, a few tears welling up in her eyes the entire time. “He...destroyed them. Mutilated them, then banished them. And not just the Dreamstriders; their families, too. I tried to go after them, but the fury demon had other plans. It tapped into everything I felt anger towards, and when it found the jealousy and resentment towards my sister that ran straight to the very core of my being, that was everything it needed to gain control. It tainted my body and mind, warping me into Nightmare Moon. And I’m sure you know the rest from there.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I look at the empty cell; it’s haunting to think that somepony like that is loose. “What should we do?” I barely manage to squeak out.

“You do not need to do anything,” she shakes her head. “He has no special powers beyond his wits, and most of his demon allies I was able to kill back when I was hunting him down. I may call upon you in the future to aid me in tracking him, though as of right now, he does not pose any immediate threat. He has only recently escaped, and it will take some time to get out of this swamp even. You and the other Dreamstriders will need to accept some of the work I do protecting the dreamers of Equestria, though it will not place any undue burden on any of you.”

“Is this something I’m allowed to tell any of them?”

She shakes her head once again. “No, it will only cause panic where none is due. Even if the Dreamstriders were to be made aware of the facts and their severity, I fear what would happen were that information to get out to the public. As soon as whispers of castle proceedings make their way outside the walls, they become magnified and stray further from the truth with each retelling.”

“So you showed me this just so I know everything that’s going on?”

“And in case things do take a turn for the worse,” she mumbles after a few moments’ pause. “While he poses no immediate threat, it is still possible he will pose one in the future. Should that be the case, I want you to know everything I do.”

I look back at the empty cell, and my mind just starts racing. “What do you think the odds of him becoming a threat are?”

“I wish I could know that,” she whispers almost inaudibly, almost as if she herself is dissatisfied with the answer. “I will do everything in my power to stop him, though I know little of his plans or how effective they will be.”

“Anything you need me to do?”

After thinking over it a little, she nods her head. “Actually yes, yes there is. Tonight, I shall have a grimoire sent to you along with a note where you can find a specific spell I am thinking of. It is a shielding spell, one that shall guard you against Shooting Star. I ask that tonight, you go to the rest of Dreamstriders and apply it to their dreams. I have already done it for you and me, so we are safe. And while you are at it, do a little reading in it; hopefully, you will learn something that might help us.”

“Alright,” I respond uneasily.

“Do not worry too much,” she comforts me. “Part of the reason he was successful earlier was because he caught us off guard, but I do not plan to let him have the element of surprise again.”

“What do you plan to do about this? How will you find him?”

“Very luckily,” she moans as her head droops. “He could have gone in any direction, and although it was not that long ago that he escaped, there is still plenty of time for him to have gotten away.”

“What do you think he will do? What did he do the last time?”

“He will attempt to ally with the most malevolent demons in this world, and if this time is like the last, he will find demons that exemplify pure evil and malice. The worst creatures in this world, ones even I do not know exist.”

“Great pep talk,” I laugh nervously, trying to cover up my fear. I’m sixteen; everypony I knew back in Coltlumbus is still in high school and going on their first dates, and here I am being told that somepony is going to try and get the most malicious and hate-filled demons in the universe to come after us and take over the world.

“I do apologize for being less than cheery about this,” she mumbles quietly. “It is a grave matter, and as I have told you, I hold…” She pauses. “Deep, deep hatred towards Shooting Star, and every single day since my transformation, I have regretted not taking his life when I had the chance. I felt I needed to show him mercy, take the morally correct decision, but there are some ponies who simply do not deserve to draw another breath.”

I don’t really know what to say, because I’ve never seen this side of her before. I’ve seen her remorseful, I’ve seen her upset, and I’ve seen her pensive, but I’ve never seen anything like this. And I can feel it: she’s not just angry, she’s furious. At this point, I don’t even think she wants to kill him. She just wants to make him suffer.

“You should probably get back to our world,” she proclaims after a moment.

“Really?” I ask. “After all of that, you want me to just leave?”

“It is okay,” she nods while smiling. “You should not get too worried about this, just go back and enjoy the game. He has lost the element of surprise he had last time, so we will have an advantage with him.”

“Okay,” I manage to shakily squeak out. “I guess I’ll see you later, then?”

She nods. “Yes, and thank you for coming.”

We just look at each other for a little bit, then she steps aside to let me past. The wind hits me in the face again when I walk out of the prison, and I’m chilled to the bone while I run back to my dream. As I start moving my hoof towards the puddle of mist that will lead me back to my own dream, I realize for the first time that my hat and scarf didn’t come through with me. Weird, I guess clothing can’t come through to the dream world.

Within a few seconds, I find myself back in Luna’s private box. As my eyes flutter open, the CU crowd erupts in cheering as a cannon behind the goalpost shoots glimmering frost all over the stadium. The band starts playing the fight song, Cavalcade of the Windigos, but all that just makes my heart sink. All those ponies don’t even know what’s happening, don’t know what could be happening in the dream world. Yet here they all are, watching a hoofball game and acting like nothing’s wrong.

I look over towards where mom and dad are and I can see them singing along, huge smiles on both of their faces. I know Luna told me not to tell anypony, but I really want to tell them. They’re my parents, right? I can tell them anything...right?

I don’t even want to go back out there. It’s just a lot to take in, and everypony down in the stadium is enjoying themselves. I’m sure I’ll get over it, but now’s not the time.

But I have to go, so I get up off the couch and look back at Luna. Her head is resting on the couch arm, and she looks really peaceful. A tiny bit of drool is starting to dribble out of her half-open mouth, so I can’t help but giggle at that. I’ve never really seen her sleep before, and she looks so much less regal and important now than she normally does.

Sveta just nods a little as I walk past her and into the hallway with the staircase, and I just absent-mindedly walk through the concourse in a bit of a trance. Before I even know it, I’m back at the row where mom and dad are, just standing on the concrete steps. I don’t think they’ve noticed I’m back yet, so I walk in and back up to them.

“You’re back!” dad exclaims when I walk up to him, he and mom moving over so I can have a spot for myself. “What was that about?”

“Just, you know...some stuff back at the castle.” I force a tiny smile to grow on my face. “Bureaucratic stuff. Boring stuff. Stuff.”

“You missed a great touchdown!” mom adds, yelling so we can hear her.

“Yeah, uh…” I run my hoof through my mane, trying to think of some lie to get out of here. “Do you mind if I leave? I’m not feeling that great.”

“Sure!” He looks at mom and she nods, then they both look back at me. “Lead the way.”

“Oh, you’re coming with me?”

“Yeah! We can turn on the radio back at the hotel and listen to it there. I’m sure mom brought something that will make you feel better, and if not, one of us can go get it for you.”

“You don’t need to do that,” I quickly say, throwing a hoof up. “I know one ticket to this game is expensive, and you guys got three. Plus, you said this is the first CU game you two have been to since you were students, and since this is the game and all—”

“Aurora,” he cuts me off. “Sure we’d love to be at the game with you, but we didn’t come up to watch hoofball. We came up to see you, and we’d have more fun sitting in the hotel listening to the game with you than watching it in the stadium without you.”

“You sure?” I ask. “I won’t be upset if you two wanted to stay.”

“It’s almost halftime, and we’ve had plenty of fun here already,” mom smiles. “We want to spend the day together, and if you’re not feeling well, then it won’t be any fun for you here.”

“I just…” I want to just be alone, but I can tell they legitimately don’t mind leaving with me. I guess I can always ask if they can leave the room so I can rest, that would let me be alone for a while.

I fake a small smile. “Yeah, sure. Do you mind listening to the game somewhere else, in the hotel lobby maybe? I think I just need to rest a little. I didn’t really sleep well last night, so I think that’s part of it.”

He nods, and then gestures for me to leave the stands. Once we’re in the concourse and walking towards the exits, he uses his magic to take my hat off and replace it with his. “Your hat didn’t look very warm, so you should wear mine on the way back. And sure, you can even sleep in the bed because that couch didn’t look very comfortable. But if you want to go back to the palace so you can be in your own bed, that’s fine as well. I understand wanting to go back to your own room and your own bed when you’re sick.”

That sounds a little tempting, but I don’t want to have to deal with all the Dreamstriders right now. Just thinking of them actually does make me feel a little sick. “No, I’m fine with going back to the hotel.”

Dad nods and goes in front of me, leading us towards the exit. I start following him, and mom comes up real close next to me. “What doesn’t feel good?” she asks softly, almost like I’m a little foal again.

“I have a headache, and my stomach doesn’t feel great,” I lie. Figure those are easy enough things to fake.

“Which end?”

I just look at her, and she’s just looking at me warmly and awaiting my response. “What?”

“Front or back?”

It takes me a little bit, but my eyes go wide as the realization hits me. “Why…?”

“Just want to know what kind of medicine to give you when we get back.”

“Front,” I say after thinking about it for a quick second. I figure that one’s more believable, and I can’t imagine they’ll want to be hanging around the room if they think that’s what’s wrong with me.

When we walk by the long line for the mares’ room, mom looks at it and then to me. “Do you think you need to go into the restroom?”

“I think I’ll be fine on the way back to the hotel,” I assure her. At this point, I just want to get back so I can just be away from everypony else. We walk out of the stadium, and a cold wind picks up as soon as we exit. Mom shivers and runs up to dad to huddle up against him, but I kind of like it. It reminds me a lot of the dream world, even if the cold here is sharper and less inviting than it is there.

I never really noticed it before today, but it’s weirdly beautiful right now: sure it’s cold and gray and there’s no snow, but somehow that just makes it all the more pretty. It’s still kind of bright, and everypony looks so warm and cozy in their hats and scarves and coats. Some steam is thrown over us when we pass under a vent, and the warmth is a nice contrast against the frigid mountain air.

I look up at the sky, and the wind starts blowing around the bits of my mane that are sticking out from under dad’s hat. Hopefully Luna was right and not much will come of this, because there’s just so much happiness in Canterlot today and it’s hard knowing that this could all be destroyed.

I look back down and see mom and dad walking in front of me, but have to look back at the sky instead. Thinking about losing everything around me is bad enough, but the thought of losing all the ponies I love is even worse.

Chapter 37

Somepony’s hoof nudging me in the ribs rips me out of the restful sleep I’m having, causing me to turn over and groan in bed in the hope they’ll go away.

“Aurora,” Luna whispers. “I need you to get up.”

I moan yet again, then try and force my eyes open a little. “What for?”

“It’s about The Nightmare,” she speaks very slowly, almost like she’s making sure there’s nopony else in my room to hear us. “I’m afraid I don’t feel comfortable telling you anything more here.”

I manage to slither my way out of my bed, but by judging by the look on her face, she is eager to get going with whatever this is. “Pack warmly,” she instructs almost as soon as my hooves hit the floor.

“Are we going somewhere?” I ask. I don’t remember her telling me anything about any trips we’d be taking soon. And we’ve never taken trips together, so it’s not like I should have expected that this could happen.

“Yes, and move quickly,” she pleads. “We need to get going.”

Without asking any further questions because it doesn’t sound like I’m going to get much more out of her, I grab my saddlebags and begin filling it with almost all my warm clothes, then put on a green-and-gold UEC sweatshirt and a heavy, waterproof jacket. “Okay, now what?”

A flash of dark purple light is my response, and I start feeling cold raindrops on my mane where just seconds ago was the warmth of my room in the castle. We’re no longer inside, of course; in fact, we’re not even in Canterlot, from the looks of it. We seem to be quite a ways away, judging from how small the city on the mountain looks.

Luna walks up to me, relief now washing over her. “We are at a safe distance. We must walk down this road, and you may now begin to ask me questions.”

“I’ll ask later,” I sigh. I’ve always needed some time to wake up, so I’m not exactly in the mood to be asking a ton of questions in what assume is a very complex situation.

My stomach growls. “Actually,” I speak up, “I do have a question. Do we have any food?”

She opens her own bag with her magic, then levitates a small drawstring pouch over to me. “Choose one of the bottles and drink it, for it will keep you fed and hydrated for the next few hours.”

Once I take it in my magic and open it up, I can see three tiny bottles that combined probably don’t even have a mouthful of liquid between them. I pick the red one and uncork it, leaving the blue and yellow ones for later. It tastes kind of like oranges, which I didn’t really expect from the red bottle. Still, I now feel well-fed and don’t really feel like I need to drink anything, which is good.

“Make sure not to throw that bottle away,” she instructs right as I was about to do pretty much just that. “Re-cork it and place it in the bag. It will refill in about a day’s time.”

“A day’s time?” I repeat. “Just how long will we need to be going towards whatever this thing is?”

“A few days at least. Those will continue to fill themselves indefinitely, so it is in our best interest to keep them.”

Sounds neat. I tuck it in the pouch and close it, trying to make a mental note to use these on days that I just don’t feel like getting out of bed and going to the dining room for food.

After a few minutes of walking, it starts getting brighter and brighter. Even though there's a thick blanket of clouds, I can tell that the right side is brighter, so I guess that means we’re heading north. “Don’t you need to lower the moon?” I ask Luna.

“I already did so last night,” she shakes her head. “That is why, right now, it is raining all over Equestria. The world can survive one night without a moon, although its ponies would create undue panic if they saw the moon set too early. And for the rest of our journey, Celestia will be raising and lowering the moon. I told her we were leaving today, though she does not know we departed this early.”

“Why not just tell her?”

“Safety,” she replies somberly. That’s not a good sign.

“From what?”

“We are going somewhere that might know something about Shooting Star, and potentially his current location or actions.” She pauses for a little bit. “I just want to make sure there is as little a chance as possible that we are followed or that word somehow gets to him.”

Guess that makes sense and it answers any questions I really have right now, so I’m now just content to walk and look around while I try and wake up, I guess. It’s actually kind of pretty out, even though it’s still not super light and kind of gray. There’s a nice steady rain that’s not too heavy, and the lampposts along the road are shining on the combination of rain and snow that’s on the ground, which also looks nice. My hooves are already filthy after not even a minute of walking, however, because the road’s dirt and so I’m getting mud and slush all over them. It’s not that bad, I guess. So are Luna’s, and I always figure that if a Princess is doing it then it’s okay.

“The tent should be ready,” Luna tells me while draping a small towel over my shoulder and sitting down on the flat boulder next to me. “Go in whenever you would like, and use the towel to dry your hooves before going in so we are not tracking mud in with us.”

I take the towel off my shoulder and gently put it on the rock beside me, careful not to have it fall into the mud and be completely ruined. “I’ll make sure to do that.”

“You’ve asked surprisingly few questions today,” she notes while looking into the fire in front of dance in the same cold December rain we’ve been having all day. “Is there truly nothing you wish to know?”

I shrug. “I suppose there are a few things I wanted to know, but they weren’t super pressing at the time.”

“I shall answer any question of yours you have,” she responds while throwing a damp stick into the fire. “You know that I trust you with any information.”

“Where is it exactly we’re going, then?” I start off. “You said it had something to do with Shooting Star, and I’ve been wondering what that means all day.”

“You remember what happened to the original Dreamstriders, correct?” she asks seemingly unprovoked.

“He banished them, yeah. Why?”

“Their descendents still live where he banished them to, and so we are headed there. He is very arrogant, and will likely return to their dreams to torment them in their sleep, just as he did to their ancestors. Hopefully, one of them has seen him and has some idea about where he is or what he is doing.”

I nod a little; that makes sense. “I’ve got another question. You did all this secrecy to make sure we aren’t being followed or in harm’s way in some other form, so what about the rest of the Dreamstriders? How are we keeping them safe from him?”

“By protecting their dreams, as I had you do the night of the hoofball game,” she responds.

“No, I mean like, how are we keeping them safe from him while we’re gone? Surely they’re going to figure out why it is we’re not there, or at least get some details of it. Somepony in the real world who supports him could then tail them and learn everything it is they know.”

“I’ve instructed Celestia to lie to them about why it is we are gone,” she replies quietly. “Even Celestia herself does not know the true reason of our journey. I told them it was a ritual for the head Dreamstrider. No such thing exists, but they do not need to know that.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell Celestia? She could be on heightened alert and looking for any suspicious activity in Canterlot and put the rest of the Dreamstriders under stronger security.”

There’s just silence, so I turn to her and she’s just gazing into the fire longingly. “You wish you had told her, don’t you?”

“Quite the contrary,” she shakes her head. “I have rarely been more sure in an action of mine than to keep Celestia in the dark about this. I am simply wondering how to communicate this to you, to somepony who has not seen what I have seen.”

“Tell me what it is you’ve seen, then.”

“I’ve seen a stallion who would stop at nothing to defeat me,” she replies hollowly. “A stallion who would mutilate stallions, mares, and even foals who have no quarrel with him just to send a message to me. I’ve seen my own two front hooves choke the life out of an innocent pony because I let my hatred and fury towards him control and consume me. And I’ve seen a mare who had nothing in this world but her sister defeat her in battle and banish her to the moon because of all the innocent ponies she killed.”

I don’t even know how to respond to that, so I just let the silence hang there.

“This struggle against Shooting Star must be kept to as few ponies as possible,” she states confidently. “There is too much hatred, division, and suffering in this world already. Should we fail, should Shooting Star kill us and realize his dream of controlling and subjugating both worlds, I do not want him to seek revenge on anypony. I do not want ponies to suffer because they placed their lives in our hooves and we failed them.”

“We really should involve them,” I suggest. “The more ponies that are ignorant to the fight going on around them, the lower the chance that our side will win. He wants to enslave them, and my guess is that none of them would prefer that to the freedom they have now.”

“And what would they do?” she asks. “There are but four other ponies in the entire world who could march into the dream world to face him, and all of them are too young to be putting their lives on the line.”

“Then why involve me, then?” I ask. “I’m not that much older than Moonlight, and he’s about as capable a Dreamstrider as I am.”

“You are the oldest. The burden of responsibility falls to you.”

“So you’re telling me the reason you included me in this instead of anypony else was because my status as a Dreamstrider and my age, right?”

“Correct.”

“Two things I had no say in,” I sigh. “So it was pure chance that I’m now involved with this and have to sneak around, hiding from somepony who wants to kill me?”

“Yes,” she admits while hanging her head. It’s clear she doesn’t like that news any more than I do.

“Kinda wish you had left me out of all of this,” I mumble.

“You do?” she asks in disbelief.

“Of course I do!” I can feel a little anger building up, which I have to take a few seconds to keep down. “You’ve said it yourself: I’m in danger, all because of things about myself I couldn’t influence. Now I’m cold and wet and going to the middle of nowhere, and nopony knows where I’ve gone.”

She just sits there for a little bit, then moves a little bit of her mane that the weight of the rainwater had caused to droop in front of her face. “I will admit, it was not an easy decision to decide to include you in this. I hope that in time you will come to accept my choice, but for the time being, I apologize for putting you in danger.”

We just sit in silence for a few minutes until she she reaches out and covers me with a still-dripping wing. “When I meant that your age was a big decision in deciding to include you, I did mean that I cared for you. You were the one I spent two years with before Moonlight came along, so I grew close to you. I had little contact with anypony since coming back from the moon, and virtually none with foals. You were a filly who had a loving family, and was old enough to spend quality time with me but was still young enough to have a foal’s optimistic outlook on life. I still worry that the ponies of Equestria hold disdain for me, although I feel it is the foals who do not. I visited Ponyville shortly after on Nightmare Night, and it was the young ones who were were the most willing to give me an opportunity. They had not spent their entire adult lives hearing of the tales of Nightmare Moon.”

“That just makes me feel used,” I admit. “I know you actually care about the time we spend together, Luna, but you have to admit this just makes me look like the most convenient option, not the best one. Besides caring about me, why else did you decide to include me?”

“You knowledge of demons is remarkable, possibly in a few years surpassing my own,” she points out. “Most Dreamstriders choose a field of study that generalizes to our world, and so very few wish to learn of the dream world itself. Shooting Star studied demons as well, and I believe that having you assist me would increase our chances of defeating any demon allies he finds. Additionally, you have proven yourself to be able to think well in a crisis situation. You investigated and defeated a devourer demon on your own when you were nine; most Dreamstriders would not be able to think that quickly at that age and would require me to come assist them.”

“I just do what I feel I need to,” I shrug before yawning. “You won’t mind if I go to bed, would you? We’ve been walking almost all day, and I was up late last night.”

She nods, then looks up at the night sky. “I shall join you shortly. Sleep well, Aurora.”

“Have fun,” I reply before walking over to our tent and grabbing the towel she gave me, being careful to clean all the mud and water off my hooves before walking inside.

Chapter 38

I take a deep breath of cold, wet December air, trying to flush out my nostrils from all the B.O. I’ve been smelling the past few days. Luna and I have been traveling for nearly a week now, and we’re both starting to smell pretty ripe at this point. I don’t think I’ll ever take a warm shower for granted after this trip.

“Have you been up long?” Luna asks as she walks up next to me and sits next to the remains of the campfire we made last night.

“Just a few minutes,” I shake my head. “I just needed some fresh air. It doesn’t exactly smell that great inside, as you probably know.”

“Be glad that unlike when I was a filly, daily bathing is the norm,” she giggles. “Although I would be lying if I said it did not elicit some strange sense of nostalgia from me.”

“It makes me nostalgic for soap, honestly. And shampoo, I feel like I could use my mane to grease machinery.”

“Luckily, we are almost there,” she promises as she stands up and starts rummaging through her messenger bag. “Unfortunately, however, this is where we part ways. I am unsure how they will react to me returning, and perhaps the less they know about me, the better. If Shooting Star truly is tormenting them in their dreams, I worry that he may learn that we are onto him if I enter the village.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Simply speak with them,” she instructs as she puts a necklace around my neck and an earring in my ear. “The necklace will allow me to hear what they say, and the earring will let me speak with you. Play along, but do not let it slip that you are a Dreamstrider or that you are looking for Shooting Star.”

“So I just happen to come to a village in the middle of nowhere in northern Equestria during the winter and begin asking about what happened a thousand years ago that caused them to live here. Doesn’t seem suspicious at all.”

“Perhaps tell them you are a traveler, and you wish for a place to stay. And their village is not well known, so perhaps you are curious as to why that is the case. I am sure you can think of a good way to get them to open up to you.”

“Here goes nothing, I guess,” I sigh while standing up. “Where is this place, anyways?”

“Maybe a quarter of a mile that way,” she says with a point of her hoof north. “It should not take you long at all. They do not tend to leave their village, so we were not in danger of being seen last night.”

I turn towards where she told me to go, and pretty soon come to another hill like so many we’ve seen so far this trip. When I get to the top, however, I can see a small cluster of really old-looking buildings not that far away from me. I can’t make it out super well from here, but it definitely does look like there are some ponies in the village. Guess there’s only one thing to do, then.

When I’m about halfway down the hill, however, I slip on the still-wet ground and land face-first in the mud before sliding down even further. Great, now I’m probably going to have to do the rest of this trip completely covered in dried mud.

I don’t have much else I can or even want to do right now, so I just start groaning. I’m not an outdoorsy pony, so of course my first real experience with it is me roughing it for nearly a week and then getting caked in a thick layer of frigid mud. And everypony always wondered why I like staying inside and reading when I was a filly. Maybe it’s because books never made me filthy.

In between spats of groaning, I can feel a small hoof poking my shoulder. When I look up and wipe the goop off my face so I can see better, I find myself face to face with a small unicorn filly with a dark pink coat and a black mane who’s not more than maybe four or five years old. Confusion is clear across her face, and she just seems to be studying me.

“I’m okay,” I reassure her. “What’s your name?”

She doesn’t respond, instead grabbing my hoof and trying to start pulling me towards the buildings.

“What is it?” I ask her as I stand up. She responds only by continuing to pull my hoof towards the town, but I’m not sure she entirely understands how heavy a nearly full-grown mare is. “Is there something you need me to do?”

Her only response is pulling even harder, and once she starts slipping on the muddy earth, it’s clear that she’s only going to try and get me to come with her, so I start walking of my own volition. “You know you can talk to me,” I tell her warmly as she starts leading me by the hoof. “Is something the matter? Do you need me to help you?”

At this point, it doesn’t even seem like she’s paying attention to me. I guess all I can do is let her lead me wherever it is she’s going to.

There are a few ponies out and about when we walk into town, and they all seem to have the same look on their face that the filly had. I saw a little bit of fear in her face but wrote that off as her being really young and maybe afraid of strangers, but I can see it plastered over the faces of all the townsfolk here, too. They’re not just surprised that there’s an outsider here, they’re afraid of me. And I’m a sixteen-year-old mare who’s been a bookworm her whole life, so it’s not like I’m very intimidating. There’s definitely something sketchy going on here.

Before long, we get to a house that looks a lot nicer than the ones around it, mostly because it looks like there’s been upkeep done to it in the past century. By no means is it well-kept, but it’s at least better than everything else surrounding it. That isn’t saying much, but my guess is this place is somewhat important.

The filly walks up and opens the door, pulling me inside as she does so. As we enter, the scent of something very distinct hits me. It smells like something’s burning, and I can see that the air is kind of foggy, probably coming from whatever’s being burnt. It’s not wood, I can tell that.

Suddenly, it dawns on me: nopony is touching my hoof. I look down and confirm that the filly isn’t holding it anymore, but instead is knocking on a door in the back corner.

“I’m coming!” an irritated-sounded stallion shouts, causing her to stop knocking. The door swings open and a stallion with bags under his eyes and a scowl on his face steps out before glaring down at her. “What is it that you felt it necessary to disturb me at such an hour?”

Without saying anything, she turns and points at me. Confusion grows on his face, but unlike everypony else I’ve seen in this village, he doesn’t seem to be afraid of me. If anything, it looks like he’s a little angry.

“And who might you be?” he asks while walking up to me.

“My name is Aurora Borealis,” I tell him. “Who are you?”

“I listen to the dreams,” he proclaims as he throws his chin up high. “They speak to me, sometimes, and they chose me to perform this before I was even born into this world. We have not had a visitor in so long; what brings you here?”

“Just traveling,” I shrug, doing my best to try and be as nonspecific as possible.

“You seem young,” he points out. “What is a mare like you doing in the vast wilderness all alone?”

“I’d prefer not to talk about it,” I respond softly. I figure that hopefully will make him not try and prod.

“Well, I hope in time we will be able to converse on the subject.” He looks at the filly, who looks right back at him. “Go draw our guest a bath. She must be exhausted from her journey.”

She nods very slowly, then runs off to another room. “Not much of a talker, is she?” I note.

“She cannot speak.”

“Is she mute?”

“No.”

“So then how come she can’t? She doesn’t seem to have crippling shyness or anything else.”

“No tongue,” he states very matter-of-factly.

“No tongue?” I repeat. “What happened to it? Or was she born without one?”

“Neither. I cut it out when she was born.”

I want to do something to him because he’s clearly not treating her very well, but I can’t just attack him because then this all would have been for nothing. “Why did you?”

“She was not the next Listener,” he informs me. “Only the one who listens to the dreams may speak. All others may not.”

“Why not?”

“That is how Shooting Star declared it to us.” There’s almost a bit of pride in his voice as he says that.

“Shooting Star?” I ask, trying to feign ignorance as best I can. “Who’s he?”

“He was a hero long ago,” he laments. “All ponies used to be blessed with the power to walk between our world and the world of dreams, and Princess Luna once wished to take advantage of that. She wished to subjugate all ponies under her command, and use them to do her bidding in both worlds. Shooting Star saw this and confronted her, but was defeated. Thankfully, he was able to bring a small group of ponies, our ancestors, here and guarantee we would be far from the hooves of the wicked Princess. We have lived here ever since, awaiting the day he returns and restores our abilities to us for being faithful to him and waiting.”

“Then why does everypony else have to lose their tongues?” I ask after a few seconds of bewilderment.

“When he brought our ancestors here,” he explains, “he cut out the tongues of all of them, except for the leader. Over time, we have come to learn how to identify one who can listen to dreams, and we keep their tongue intact so that they may commune with both the dream world and our world. Unfortunately, the next Listener has not been identified yet, although I feel they will be soon.”

The door where the filly went in opens once again and she pokes her head out very meekly, almost as if she doesn’t want to be seen. We lock eyes for a moment, which I guess means that I’m going to have to be the one to cut this conversation off.

“I think my bath’s ready,” I say with a point of my hoof towards her. “I haven’t really had the opportunity to get clean in a really long time, so you wouldn’t mind if I go right now, would you?”

“Of course not,” he replies before walking to the door and next to the filly. “Stay with Aurora Borealis and attend to her wishes, understand?”

Another slow nod of her head is her only answer.

“You may come find me when you are done,” he tells me before walking past me to the first door I saw him come out of. “Please do not hesitate to use her should you need anything. That is what she is here for, after all.”

A quick thanks is all I can get out before walking to where the filly is and entering the room. What’s that mean? She doesn’t seem to just be any filly from the town, otherwise she’d probably try to bring me to her parents. Or at the least, would have left upon dropping me off.

The room we walk into isn’t very large, with a moderate-sized tub in the middle filled with what looks like actually pretty warm water. I dip my hoof in it and it warms up quickly, making me realize just how cold I’ve been these past few days. Peeling off all my clothes for the first time in over a week feels amazing for about a few seconds, until I realize just how disgusting I am right now. Without hesitation, I get into the tub and sit down, letting the wonderfully warm water come up to my chin. I stick my head under and then bring it back up, and it already feels like I’m becoming a new mare.

I look over at the filly, who’s just looking at me with big and sad eyes. She really doesn’t want to be here, I can tell that.

After a few seconds, an idea pops into my head. “Can you bring me some soap and shampoo?” I ask her.

She nods very quickly, then goes to a small cabinet and pulls out a bar of soap and a clay bottle before coming over and setting them on the ground next to me.

“Don’t go away quite yet,” I instruct right as her hooves lift to go back to the corner. “Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

She’s just kind of paralyzed for a few seconds, unsure of what to do, then shakes her head ever so slightly a few times. Guess that’s as good as I’m going to get from a mute filly.

“Is the Listener your father?” I ask.

She shakes her head.

“Are your parents somewhere else in town?”

She shakes her head again. I think I know where this is going.

“Do you have parents?”

This time, her shaking head knocks loose a few tears.

“Does the Listener treat you well?”

All I get is a few soft sobs from her.

I guess I can’t say I’m surprised. Giving somepony power like that, especially the power to maim others, and he’ll think he’s above everypony else.

As I’m looking at her, I notice that she probably isn’t much cleaner than I am. I can see a thin layer of mud splattered all over her coat, she seems to also be contributing to the smell of sweat in this room, and her mane doesn’t look like it’s ever seen any shampoo. I know it’s not much, but I use my magic to pull her chin up. “Do you take baths very often?”

She doesn’t even have to think about it before shaking her head.

“How about I take mine really quickly, and then let you take one while the water’s still hot?” I suggest with a smile. It’s not much, but it would probably mean a lot to her if for nothing else than a nice gesture.

An enormous smile breaks out on her face as she starts nodding her head extremely quickly. “Alright,” I laugh at her enthusiasm,” just sit tight and I’ll be done as soon as I can.”

While I’m a little disappointed that my first bath in around a week is going to be pretty rushed and I won’t get the opportunity to enjoy it, hopefully she’ll like it. I don’t want the water to get cold by the time I pass it off to her, so I quickly get to work with soaping up and rubbing shampoo deep into my mane and tail. In much less time than I thought, I’m rinsing the last few suds out and looking down at the water I’m sitting it. It’s full of soap and shampoo and no doubt a pretty good amount of dirt and sweat, but I guess it’s better than nothing. Ponies hundreds of years ago used to share bathwater all the time I think, so she’ll be fine.

“I’m all done,” I tell her as I get out and start drying off with the scratchy towel that was provided for me. Tentatively, she walks up to the tub and puts a hoof in the water, then climbs in and sits down.

I finish drying up and start walking to the door, but then I hear a few splashes of water and feel something wet holding my back leg. When I look back, I can see that she’s gotten out of the tub and is now holding onto me tight, her big puppy-dog eyes staring right at mine.

“What is it?”

She looks back at the tub, then motions her head towards it.

“Do you...want me to stay here with you?” I guess, which gets a smile and a nod from her. Once I turn around and face the interior of the room again, she lets go of my leg and runs back up to the tub before sitting down in it. She doesn’t seem to be doing anything, however, instead just staring at me again.

“Do you need something?”

She nods again. Well, this entire day would be made easier if she could only speak. But what is it she could need? She wants more than somepony to keep her company, since otherwise she’d just get right to it. Wait, maybe that’s it.

“Do you need me to give you a bath?”

For the first time since I think I’ve gotten here, I see her smile as she nods. Well, I guess I can certainly try. I’ve never given anypony a bath before and I can’t actually remember the details of being given one myself, so I guess I’m going to have to wing it. Can’t be that hard, right? It’ll be just like giving one to myself.

I don’t really know where to start, so I just grab the soap in my magic before picking her front left leg up and cleaning it. “Did your mommy and daddy used to give you baths?” I ask as I can see her coat becoming a much brighter shade of pink.

For the first time, I get a shrug out of her. She must have lost her parents a long time ago, then. Well, long time for her. She does seem to be only four, after all.

“My mommy and daddy used to give me baths all the time,” I start speaking. “But I always liked it more when my daddy would give me a bath, because he would always let me play with my toys for longer. Do you have any toys that you like to play with?”

With a big smile, she nods her head.

“Let’s see if I can guess what toys you have. Hm, do you have any dolls?” A smile, then some quick head nodding. “I’m going to guess that you have a lot of dolls?”

Her smile quickly fades as she slowly shakes her head. “Do you only have a few dolls?” I ask as I move onto her other foreleg.

Her head slowly and somberly nods, so I try my best to remain cheery. “You don’t need a ton of dolls, anyways. You know, I didn’t have many dolls either when I was a filly, but I still had plenty of fun with them.”

That’s a total lie, but her ears perk up a bit and I can tell she’s trying to look back at me a little bit. “My big sisters didn’t take very good care of their dolls, so I never got the ones that they played with, and my parents didn’t want to buy new ones because they thought I was also going to destroy them.” That last part is true, but unfortunately I did get all of their old dolls. Usually they were in pretty awful shape, and more often than not didn’t even have any manes or tails because mom cut them off so they could play with them in the bath without clogging the drain up with doll hair.

Well, I’m going to need to continue this conversation, since she won’t be able to. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

She shakes her head. I interacted enough with my younger cousins to know how to play with and talk to foals, but not when they can’t talk back. It’s a bit awkward to be bathing a filly when she can’t speak to you, because every other time I’ve interacted with foals, it seemed like they wouldn’t ever shut up.

After I’m all done cleaning her, I take a moment to look at what I’ve done. Her coat is so much nicer-looking now that all the grime is off it, and her mane is apparently a light gray instead of black. Definitely a good thing that I bathed first, because the water she’s currently sitting in is absolutely filthy. I may have had some mud and sweat on me, but she was absolutely caked in grime. Man, I remind myself of how mom would talk about me if I went a single day without a bath or shower when I was younger.

“Let’s get you dry now that you’re all nice and squeaky clean,” I giggle as I pull her out of the disgusting water. Just as I’m doing so, I realize that the only towel in here was the one that I just used to dry myself off, and I don’t really want to be using it on her since using a used towel to dry somepony off would definitely be crossing the line of weird.

I have to know a spell for this, right? I try to rack my brain, but I’ve never really had to do anything like this, so the answer is no. I can’t just leave her here dripping wet, I’ve got to think of something.

I have no idea why, but my clothes suddenly catch my eye. I guess that’s the best option I really have right now. Even if they’re not exactly the cleanest thing, they’re fairly dry.

“Stay right here,” I tell her as I pat her on the head and walk over to my sweatshirt and jacket. The jacket is completely caked in now-dry mud, but my hoodie is in pretty good shape outside of a bit of mud on the hood. I guess it’s better than nothing.

I start levitating it in my magic as I walk over to her and sit behind her. I decide to use the back because I figure that would have the least of my haven’t-showered-in-a-week sweat on it and get to working on her mane. After some pretty vigorous rubbing, I move it out of the way and feel her mane. Pretty dry, honestly. As I’m feeling her mane, I hear a few giggles come out of her, so I try and move my head to where I can see her.

“You like that?” I ask, getting a few more happy laughs out of her. I go back at her mane again before moving onto her back, which I rub as hard as I can and really get her going. By the time I have to move onto her legs, she’s laughing so hard that I can no longer keep her still at this point. She does calm down after a minute or two, so I get to work on her legs and then her barrel. Before I know it, she’s nice and dry after her first bath in most likely ages, and my sweatshirt is now damp. Oh well.

I levitate it back over to the floor where I was, then get up and start walking out of the room for real this time. She runs ahead of me as soon as I open the door and goes up to the Listener, who is packing a censer with what looks like just common weeds. Guess that explains the burning smell, then.

“You look different,” he notes to the filly as she walks up to him.

“I figured I’d give her a bath,” I speak up. “She looked pretty filthy, and the water was still warm.”

“Well, regardless, I believe we have things to discuss.” He walks towards the room he originally came out of, then beckons me with a hoof. “Come, why don’t you?”

“Stay on guard,” Luna tells me in Demon through my earring which I completely forgot I had on. “I doubt he suspects anything, but you never know what he plans to do next.”

“We have things to discuss?” I echo as I walk over and enter the room. “I wasn’t aware of that.”

“Just a few quick questions,” he responds as he closes the door behind him and walks to a small, very old looking circular table in the center of the room. There’s another door at the other end of this room, as well as a small desk against the wall. Two bookcases are on either side of the desk: one is almost overflowing with books and scrolls, and the other curiously only has a small stack of them.

He probably wouldn’t bring it up, so I point my hoof towards them. “Why’s one bookcase overflowing and the other not?”

He shakes his head. “After a few questions. First, what is it you’re doing so far away from anywhere else in Equestria?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it.” Maybe if I just stick to this story, he’ll stop asking.

“Our village was founded by refugees from Princess Luna, an Equestrian Princess. You can understand if I’d like a little more information, yes?”

“I’m running from somepony,” I tell him. At least that part’s not actually a lie.

That seems to catch his attention. “Who? And how come?”

“His name’s Summer Stone,” I respond, saying the first stallion’s name that pops into my head. I’ll have to remember later to apologize to dad for using his name for some imaginary stallion that I want to get away from.

“What did he do to you that made you start running?”

“He just wants to hurt me,” I speak softly, trying to keep it simple. “He’s fixated on me, and I don’t get it. So, I just have to keep moving.”

“We have worked well to keep our village hidden for this long,” he reminds me. “You would be able to find safe haven here, should you wish it.”

“I’ll think about it,” I shrug. “Personally, I just want to know what you mean by all that stuff with dreams and Shooting Star and Luna. I don’t think I’ve heard any of those stories.”

“Not stories,” he corrects me, “but facts. Do they not teach the truth in Equestria anymore?”

“I was kinda homeschooled after 4th grade.” Come to think of it, that’s not really a lie. If you count training to be a Dreamstrider as homeschooling, that is. “And even then, we didn’t do much on history.”

“Are you at least aware of Princess Luna’s crusade against Equestria?”

“We called her Nightmare Moon, and then Princess Celestia imprisoned her on the moon” I inform him. “But I wasn’t aware that she wanted to enslave us, we were always told that it was because she despised us for not loving her night.”

“That sounds in line with the stories passed down to us,” he laughs. “She was a very cruel, evil, vindictive mare. Her lust for power grew beyond what was tolerable, and she saw both our world and the world of dreams and decided that they should both be hers. Through means kept hidden from her so she would not be able to reverse them, he severed all ponies’ ties to the dream world and then took our ancestors, his closest confidantes, here so they would be safe from her reign of terror. And he promised that one day, he would return and restore our powers and reward our loyalty.”

“Blatant lies, all of it,” I can hear Luna spit through my earring.

“And you’re just...waiting here?” I clarify. “Nightmare Moon was sent to the moon a little over a thousand years ago, you could come back to Equestria.”

“We shall wait here and continue to live as he told us to,” he shakes his head.

“And what did he tell you about the Listener and cutting out your foals’ tongues?” I ask, trying to keep my own anger back a little bit. I just don’t see what could justify doing such a thing to all the foals that are born.

“The Listener is the one who can touch the dream world at night, to feel the magic inside of it as all ponykind once did. There is a great deal of knowledge hidden in the dream world, and only we may tap into it and learn from it. It is also the dream world’s magic that tells us when another Listener is born, so we may spare their tongue and lead them upon the path of leading our humble village. When he lead us here, he decreed that everypony but the one who can commune with the dream world cut out their tongues to allow quiet contemplation and meditation to aspire to hear the dream world as the Listeners do.”

Curious about his claims, I take a few slow, deep breaths and try to feel the magic around me. There’s really nothing special about his magic, and he’s definitely not like a Dreamstrider because I would be able to easily tell it. He has no more connection to the dream world than the average pony, so I’m not sure what he believes he’s able to do because he’s some sort of chosen one. Also makes me wonder how they choose the next Listener, of if it’s basically a load of crap.

“And those books?” I ask. “Now that I know why you’re here, will I know what they are?”

“Some of them were brought with our ancestors when they fled,” he laments while levitating one of the very old-looking books over. “They contain knowledge about the dream world, written while ponies still had access to it. This one, for example, details how ponies used the passage between worlds to cultivate food, and details what types of crops were native to the dream world.”

The book is in Demon, I can see that now. And while it takes me a little longer to read because it’s upside down as a result of currently facing him, I do read it as An Advanced Guide to Tea for Dreamstriding. Definitely not what he claims it is.

“And the other books, the ones on the overflowing shelf?”

“Our own studies of the dream world, compiled by all of the Listeners before me. We hope that once ponykind is able to return to the world of dreams, we will not have lost a thousand years of progress.”

“And what is the dream world like? What have you seen there?”

“It is a world filled with magic beyond our wildest dreams. And when our access to it was cut off, there were some ponies still left in the dream world that have developed differently from us and now are hardly even recognizable as ponies. Although I cannot enter their world and speak with them, they whisper to me sometimes in my dreams.”

Well, that’s...kind of right. “And what do they say to you?”

“They tell me all sorts of things about the dream world, and Shooting Star lives on so I should not lose hope.”

“Ask him further questions about The Nightmare,” Luna instructs.

“How is he still alive?” I question. “If he lived a thousand years ago, wouldn’t he be dead by now?”

“We do not know where he currently is,” he laments. “One day, however, he will return. And he will look upon us with happiness, for we will have continued to stay here and wait for his return, just as he asked our ancestors to.”

“And do you know when this will happen, or what he’s doing in the meantime? Did he say anything to you when he left?”

“We do not know when he will return or how, and he said only that he was going to confront Princess Luna once and for all. We have not heard from him since, but we continue to hope.”

“They know nothing, unfortunately,” I can hear Luna sigh. “Please make your way back to me so we may return to Canterlot and continue our efforts.”

I do my best to fake a yawn, which actually isn’t really that difficult since I’m pretty tired anyways and it turns into a real one halfway through. “Well, thank you for enlightening me and taking me in. Do you mind if I just walk around town a bit before coming back and grabbing a nap? You can imagine that having to sleep outside in this cold isn’t very fun at all. Why I didn’t flee somewhere south, I’ll never know.”

“Perhaps my assistant will be able to show you around,” he thinks out loud while standing up. “It would be good for her to have something to do. Idle hooves are never a good thing to have, don’t you agree?”

“You can give her some time off,” I shake my head. “Besides, she’s what? Five? She can have a little bit of time to play.”

“I imagine she already was before you came here, that is why she found you and brought you here. If she wanted to play this morning, then she understands that she will not be able to later in the day.”

“Alright,” I shrug as I stand up next to him. If it weren’t for the fact that it took Luna and I nearly a week to get here as two adults, I’d definitely try to sneak that filly out with me. Seriously, telling a five-year-old she can’t run off and play and always needs to stay busy? Even I usually get some time to myself every day, I can’t imagine always having to do chores when I was her age.

As we walk out into the main room, the filly’s ears prick up and she jumps to her hooves from the sitting position she was in. “Would you please go fetch Miss Borealis’ clothes?” he asks her.

She nods, then walks into the side room before he turns around and walks back into his room. An idea on how to get back to Luna pops into my head, so I walk into the room with the bath after her.

She places my sweatshirt and jacket at my hooves, so I put my jacket on while tying the sweatshirt around my shoulders since I feel like wearing heavy, damp fabric is not exactly the best idea in the cold of December.

“Come here,” I beckon her as I levitate my saddlebags over and start casting a spell in my mind. I’ve only ever cast this on myself before, but it’s easy enough to turn around and cast on somepony else with the same effect.

Curious, she walks over and looks at me rummaging through my bags before pulling out a royal purple scarf with a block M on it. “Nice scarf, isn’t it?”

She nods, and I put it out for her to feel with her hoof. “My big sister gave me this once a long time ago, and I’ve always treasured it since. And I want you to have it.” As soon as I finish saying that, a twinge of regret and sadness starts in my heart. This was such a thoughtful gift from Snowy, but I know that she’ll appreciate it more than I ever will. She may not understand the sentimentality behind it, but with any luck, she’ll come to create new memories for it. I still have not only one sister, but both of mine. She has nothing.

Gently, I wrap it around her neck before touching her horn to mine and sending the spell that’s built up in my mind to hers. And it works like a charm: almost as soon as the spell washes over her, her eyelids seem to grow heavy before she closes them and lays down, peacefully breathing.

Since the sleep itself isn’t actually magical, she could be woken up at any moment, meaning that I have to get out of here quickly. Getting up and putting my saddlebags on as fast and quietly as I can, I turn around and walk out of the building before finding the hill I came down and quickly going up it. Luna is still sitting around the campfire remains when I return, and she looks at me somberly.

“I had wished that this trip would be more fruitful,” she hangs her head.

“Learning about what he put those ponies through just made him feel all that much more real,” I say as I sit down next to her. “You told me he mutilated the Dreamstriders and their families and then banished them, are these ponies their descendants?”

“Yes,” she mumbles. “I wish I would have been able to save them, but I was too late. He must have threatened them before arrogantly returning to Equestria wherein I imprisoned him, but I was consumed by my fury demon before I was able to come here and save them.”

“They seem to have some distorted versions of Dreamstriders and dream magic,” I point out.

“From what I gathered, his story of Listeners is naught but nonsense. Although, the saddest thing is that they continue the barbaric tradition of cutting tongues out.”

“Yeah, the reasons behind that seemed a little weird. What did he do to them?”

“The head Dreamstrider, Starshine, blamed himself for not seeing Shooting Star’s betray before it happened. None of the other Dreamstriders felt that way, however, but he did not want Starshine to live a life free of guilt. So, before they were able to tell him that they were not angry, he cut out all their tongues so they would never be able to express their forgiveness to him. My only guess is the young foals that were there and their foals spun some tale as to why only the leader had a tongue, and the truth became diluted with each passing generation.”

“Well...what do we do now?”

“We return to Canterlot,” she states while standing up. “This was simply the first place I thought to look. I will still be enlisting your help with this matter in the future, and this trip has shown to me that you are indeed a very capable mare who will be able to provide valuable assistance.”

“Guess it’s back home,” I shrug. “You lead the way.”

Chapter 39

My alarm clock starts blaring, pulling me out of the blissful sleep I was having. Why did Princess Celestia have to schedule this meeting so early? She knows Luna and I aren’t morning ponies, none of the Dreamstriders are. I’m still curious as to whether or not that’s something inherent to us or just some weird coincidence. Regardless, this meeting is right at the crack of dawn, which means I have to get up and get ready.

After a few tired moans, I manage to roll out of bed and head over to the Dreamstrider mess hall. There’s nopony here because it’s so early for us, so I just grab some fruit and a bagel with jam before sitting down at the large circular table and eating in silence.

Once I’m done and the Dreamstrider wing still shows no sign of activity, I head back to my room and into the bathroom to fire up the shower. It’s hard to not fall asleep because of all the nice warm water and steam relaxing me, I’ll admit, but I do manage to stay awake throughout the whole thing. I’m shocked awake as I step out of the shower and am hit with a blast of cold anyways, so now I’m at least alert enough for a meeting with the Princesses.

It used to be that I would prepare for a meeting with Princess Celestia by making sure my name and tail were perfect and then psyching myself up in the mirror, but I’ve done it enough now to where I just brush my hair like any other day and just head on out.

After making my way through the maze that is Canterlot Castle, I come to Princess Celestia’s private wing. I very rarely come here, but every time I do, I’m always in awe of just how different her wing is compared to Luna’s. This part of the castle is just so much brighter and more welcoming than Luna’s, who keeps her halls shrouded in darkness and rarely uses the space to entertain guests.

The guards recognized me as I walked into the wing, but now that I’m coming up on the library she told us to meet her in, the two Guards block the already-closed door with their lances and look down at me.

“What business do you have here?” one of them asks.

“I have a meeting with Princess Celestia,” I inform them. “I’m Aurora Borealis.”

“Do you have an invitation?”

“Invitation?” I repeat. “No, she just told me to come here and meet with her. She didn’t give me an invitation.”

“No invitation,” he states, “no entry.”

“She may enter,” Luna declares as she walks up behind me.

Almost as soon as she finishes speaking, the guards retract their weapons and go back to standing at attention. “Good thing you didn’t get here before me,” I tell her as she opens the doors and walks through.

“We would have let you in eventually,” she responds as we walk into...well, exactly what I’d expect from a library owned by Princess Celestia. There’s a glass dome over a circular area with some tables, then shelves stuffed with books extending in every direction. I’d love to just try and find the end of this place honestly, because it doesn’t really seem like there is one. Maybe sometime later I can convince Princess Celestia to let me look around.

“Good morning to you two,” Princess Celestia chirps as we walk in, bowing her head while doing so. “I trust you both slept well?”

“If shorter than I would have liked,” Luna smiles while moving next to her. “You mentioned you had something you wished to tell us?”

“Indeed I do,” she nods. “Luna, what do you remember about the Cervine Confederation?”

“You know I paid little attention to the other nations,” she groans. “You were always the politician of us, sister.”

“I am surprised you show such indifference for them, Luna, for the deer are the only creatures in this world besides ponies who have ever studied the dream world in any real capacity.”

I can see Luna’s ears prick up once she says that. “They what?”

“While I have not found any information suggesting that they have ever produced any Dreamstriders, many old documents on magic report their expertise in the subject and how some of them have contributed greatly to the field.”

“Would they know anything about Shooting Star?” Luna asks, throwing me off guard. I had thought that she was keeping that a secret from Celestia.

“They would know the most of any non-Dreamstrider,” she speaks slowly after a few seconds, clearly looking for the right words. “I wish I would be able to provide you with better information, although do not believe that there are any other creatures who would be of any assistance to you.”

“And what do you think they could offer us?” I ask. “I mean, if they’re not Dreamstriders, they aren’t able to go into the dream world and search about anything relating to him.”

“She does have a point,” Luna agrees.

“I know that they are maybe not the best of leads,” she admits while hanging her head, “but they are a better lead than anything else I have found to date, unfortunately. If the safety of Equestria is at risk, I wish to provide you with every potentially profitable lead I find. I will continue to dedicate what time I am able to this, and I do hope that I am able to find something valuable for you. And Luna, if you would simply allow me to fill Twilight Sparkle in on what is happening, this would be much easier. She is a very intelligent mare, and—”

“Out of the question,” she cuts Princess Celestia off. “I recognize Twilight Sparkle is a very powerful and intelligent wizard, that is not why I wish to keep this from her. I simply do not wish for word of ths to spread outside the castle walls, nor do I wish to invite Shooting Star to torment her dreams. I ruminated greatly on whether or not to include you in this, and the decision was not an easy one.”

“You’re being paranoid,” she replies, her voice now very soft and almost maternal. “You informed me a week ago, and I have not noticed any changes in my sleeping or dreams. Spreading awareness, even amongst those in positions of power, would not be as detrimental as you believe it is.”

“You saw what he did to those who knew last time. Should we fail, I want him to have a vendetta against as few ponies as possible.”

“Allowing other ponies to work with you lowers the risk that we will fail,” she points out. “I have a nation to run, you have many duties as Princess of the Night, and Aurora Borealis has her duties as the Head Dreamstrider. None of us has the time to be launching a full-scale investigation.”

“With all due respect, sister, I do not wish to spread this beyond those who absolutely need to know it. Not only do I not wish to put others in danger, I fear what might happen were word to spread about Shooting Star.”

“The ponies of Equestria are unfortunately accustomed to threats in recent years,” Princess Celestia sighs. “While some might panic, they know how to deal with these sorts of situations.”

“Not that,” Luna shakes her head. “Ponies still know little of the dream world and my role as Princess of the Night, and I do not wish to frighten them with things that they do not understand. I am still attempting to improve my public image, and I fear an incident such as this would be catastrophic.”

“Twilight Sparkle told me of the Nightmare Night you spent in Ponyville,” she comforts her. “The ponies of Equestria hold you in higher esteem than you believe them to. With the advent is electricity and modern technolgy, there are even those who prefer the night to the day! The Equestria of today is not the Equestria of a thousand years ago, Luna.”

“I have made my decision. Aurora, I ask that you go to the Cervine Confederation and meet with them. I shall remain here and assist my sister in her search for further knowledge, as well as oversee the Dreamstriders in your absence. You performed well at the Village of Dreams, and I believe that you will be able to easily learn from them.”

“It is…” Princess Celestia bites her lip as she appears to be searching for the right words. “It shall be difficult to learn much from them. To start, the Cervine Confederation does not actually exist anymore.”

“Then how come you mentioned them?” Luna asks, a slight bit of annoyance in her voice.

“The deer are still around. However, the Confederation itself was destroyed a few centuries ago.” She clears her throat, then seems to look off to the side as to not make eye contact with either of us. “However, the reason it will be difficult is that ponies were the reason for that. As such, they are not very receptive to Equestrians in their lands.”

“You destroyed a nation?” Luna asks in disbelief. “What happened to the Celestia I once knew, the one who wished for the preservation of all ways of life?”

“Ponies destroyed the Confederation, not I,” she corrects. “Settlers entered the area and displaced the deer off the land that is now Manehattan. They warred with the deer and nearly eradicated them, but I had to step in and put a stop to such destruction. While it was not an easy decision, I did not want to destroy the town my subjects had worked so hard to create and allowed them to keep the land. Unfortunately, that act was seen by the deer as one of hostility, and they have refused any formal contact since. They have made it very clear to me that they wish to remain in the areas that they currently inhabit, and they do not want us to approach them. Equestria’s relationship with the few remaining tribes has been one of mutual distance, and they do not seem receptive to changing that.”

“They have to understand a threat to the whole world,” I pipe in. “And maybe they’re willing to give this another go. What happened may have been bad, but that doesn’t mean we can’t try and improve things going forward.”

“While I too wish for an amicable relationship with the deer,” Princess Celestia starts, “it is unfortunately not that easy. Much of the land now covered by Manehattan was once very sacred ground to them, and they view the growing population as an insult for their way of life. I do think it is worth a visit to them and I cannot stress enough that I want for you to show that Equestria wants to find some way to right the wrongs of the past, although I simply wish to warn you that they may still be hostile towards you.”

“From what little I remember of the deer,” Luna adds, “they may be hostile, but not aggressive. My sister makes it sound as though you may be in danger, although you will not be. They will likely attempt turn you away, and unless you do something horrifically offensive or instigate a conflict, you will be in no physical danger. Simply utilize your common sense, and you shall be fine. And please, do try to explain the gravity of the situation to then. Should Shooting Star become as powerful as he wishes, the whole world will be in peril.”

“Consider yourself the official Equestrian Ambassador to the Deer Tribes,” Celestia says with her very regal voice that I’ve usually only heard her use around important guests. “Not only will they hopefully listen to you since you are formally representing Equestria, but you will ensure that you shall not be in any danger. While the deer hold deep resentment for our nation and our kind, they are by no means unintelligent. They understand how putting an ambassador in danger would not endear them to the rest of the world and open up causes for military action against one of the strongest nations in the known world.”

“Wait, I’m…” I just trail off, trying to understand what exactly just happened. “I’m an official ambassador of Equestria now?”

“Should you accept the position, yes. You would still be allowed to reside here in Canterlot, however, as the deer have no centralized government. And even should they in the future, you may continue to reside in Equestria should you wish. If they were to desire an ambassador in their own lands, you would be allowed to step down and have some influence in who the next ambassador would be. Do you wish to undertake this responsibility?”

“Well...what would I have to do? I don’t know anything about them, and I’ve never really been into politics. I can imagine there’s somepony somewhere who’d be better for the job than I would be.”

“I would wish that you simply be a show of goodwill for Equestria and its ponies. Additionally, you know much about the magic of the dream world, and they will appreciate that. For not having the natural, innate ability to channel magic into spells as unicorns do, they place a great emphasis in studying it and take pride in doing so. Sending you specifically, a mare on a quest for knowledge that they may have, shows that we value their contributions to this world and wish for an exchange.”

“You’re also much more interesting than the stuffy nobles my dear sister typically appoints as ambassadors,” Luna jokes. “Ponies may have attempted to kill them through warfare previously, perhaps we should not try to do so with boredom this time.”

“Regardless,” Celestia continues, either not noticing Luna’s remarks or ignoring them, “the position is yours should you want it.”

“I guess I’ll accept,” I shrug.

“Wonderful,” she smiles before walking around the table and standing next to me. “Face me, would you please?”
I just look at Luna, and she motions her head towards Princess Celestia. Not really sure of what’s going on, I just turn and face her like she asked me to.

“Kneel down,” she orders before I can ask anything. I do as I’m told, and before long, I can sense what feels like a horn on my left shoulder.

“As Princess of Equestria,” she begins before moving her horn to my other shoulder, “I dub thee Aurora Borealis, Ambassador of Equestria to the Deer Tribes and All of Deerkind. Go forth and represent Equestria and all of her ponies with pride.”

After a few seconds, I swear I can hear the two of the giggle softly. “You may stand up now, Aurora,” Princess Celestia tells me.

“So I’m an Ambassador now?” I clarify.

“There is a little bit of paperwork, although we will begin that process shortly. What happened here was largely ceremonial, although I have found ponies enjoy it. I believe it is because it makes the situation seem more grand than receiving a letter informing you of your new position.”

“And...you just want me to go to the deer and see what happens?”

“I will ask that you do at least some reading on their history and culture,” she instructs, pointing at a small stack of books on the table. “I would not want to send you to them without knowing about them, nor would I want to get off on the wrong hoof with them by sending an Ambassador who knows nothing of their kind. While the books are unfortunately old and it is possible that they have changed since they were written, it would at least do well to show you are attempting to act in the way they would wish you to.”

“When do you want me to go to the deer?” I ask Luna as I take the stack in my magic and levitate it over to me.

“Go whenever you are ready, although please make haste,” she responds. “If studying the deer and doing your Dreamstriding duties simultaneously would be too much work, please delegate to either me or the other Dreamstriders. While I do not wish to pressure you, I similarly do not wish to delay longer than is necessary.”

“Alright,” I nod as I look at the book on the top, On The Magyck of Cervynes, which looks like it’s at least a few centuries old.

Ugh. Studying for this seems like it’s going to involve some pretty dry reading.

Chapter 40

A cold, wet wind blows over me as I rub my eyes to try and clear them out and make my vision less blurry. It’s always a bit of a hit or miss in the early spring on whether or not it’s actually warm, and unfortunately for me, I got a cold period. I should at least be approaching the deer soon, though, assuming I’ve been reading Princess Celestia’s map correctly. I wish I had gotten time in Manehattan to stay with Snowy and Jure because I don’t think I’ll see them again before the wedding, but I guess that’s just how life is. I basically had to come in and then walk out of the city, so I didn’t even bother telling her because I wouldn’t want her getting all worked up about potentially seeing me and trying to get me to find the time to do so. I’ve got enough on my plate.

After my vision clears up and I wake up at least enough to continue moving, I pack all my stuff into Luna’s bigger-on-the-inside messenger bag and take a sip of one of those food vials. Not to say that these don’t keep me from getting hungry, but man do I miss real food. With any luck, this will be the last real time that I’ll have to be roughing it. Not only is it cold and damp and windy and muddy, but I don’t get a nice hot meal at the end of the day before getting into my soft, comfy bed. An outdoorsy pony I am not.

Before long, I start to notice the magic around me start to feel...different is the best way to describe it. I usually don’t notice ambient magic unless I try and focus in on it, but this just feels much weirder than anything I’ve ever felt before. Both the magic of the dream world and the awakened world are strong here, which is odd because it’s usually an either-or sort of thing; when one’s strong, the other tends to be weak.

I swear I can see some movement in the forest around me out of the corner of my eye, but when I look to where it was, I don’t see anything. It probably just is an animal, but I’m not really sure where the deer would be scouting, so maybe they’re following me? I can’t decide whether that would be a good or a bad thing, honestly. Maybe it’s good because they might relay the message that I’m coming and be prepared, but at the same time, what if there’s something I’m supposed to do or not supposed to do in the forest on my way there? I did read the books Princess Celestia gave me, but they were all written before the deer were pushed away from Manehattan. It’s been a few hundred years, I’d honestly be surprised if they didn’t have some cultural changes that I would now be unaware of. Committing a faux pas out of ignorance is now how I want to represent Equestria.

Man, why did I have to be made an Ambassador? I think I’d be fine if I just came here as Aurora the Dreamstrider looking for knowledge, now I’m Aurora Borealis with some really long title attached to the end of her name that’s supposed to represent millions of ponies. That’s a lot to put on somepony, now I have to think carefully over every word I say and gesture I make as to not reflect poorly on every single pony in the world. No pressure.

I can see that the path in front of me ends with a wall of trees, but when I take a few steps closer to see if I’d be able to find a way through the thick forest, two large trees right at the path’s end almost seem to bend and create a small hole I can make my way through. I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad sign, but it’s a sign nonetheless. I’m still kind of okay at teleporting, so I guess if everything goes south, I could always escape back onto the path and start running.

As I get a little closer, I swear I can almost see some huts in the clearing beyond these trees. I can see more and more as I get closer, so I guess this is the deer village I’m trying to find. Maybe those trees are supposed to open when someone’s getting close, probably serves as a way to keep wild animals out or something. The real question is how they made it do that, or if those were here before. It’s not like any spell I’ve ever heard of, but similarly, it’s not like any magical tree or plant I’m aware of.

As soon as I step through the opening and into the village, however, I hear the hum of magical spells being cast. That’s weird, spells? Everything I read said that deer can’t cast spells, so this must not be the place. Probably a small village of unicorns, but why would they not appear on a map anywhere?

As I look down at my hooves, I can see that I’m not in a circle of magic that looks like it’s set to go off if I try and cross it. But when I look back up, I don’t see any unicorns, or even any ponies. A small group of deer are just glaring at me.

“Identify yourself, Equestrian,” the one standing right in front of me demands. I can recognize that the deer on either side of him are female since they don’t have any antlers, but it looks almost like their front hooves are made of crystal instead of regular hoof material. Additionally, two males are now standing at my own sides, lots of little glowing crystals hanging from their antlers.

“Aurora Borealis, Ambassador of Equestria to the Deer Tribes and All of Deerking,” I proclaim, making sure I remember every single word that’s in my title. “On behalf of Equestria, I wish to speak with whoever it is leads you.”

“That would be I,” the buck without crystals on his antlers responds. “Chieftain Thicket, leader of our humble village. What brings an Ambassador of Equestria to our lands?”

“We wish to open up diplomacy and create a more open relationship,” I explain, looking at them all. “I have been sent to foster goodwill and create a prosperous relationship.”

“Goodwill?” he repeats. “From Equestrians? Surely you jest.”

“Equestria values life in all forms,” I say, reciting one of the speeches Princess Celestia had me read over.

“Except those who you deem inconvenient to your own personal gain,” he scoffs. “Hundreds of years ago, you invaded our lands and declared them yours. When we went to your Princess, who claimed to support life in all forms, she sided with her own kind. We understood that we would never again be so lucky as to escape a disagreement with Equestrians with our kind intact, and so have distanced ourselves out of our own personal safety. I do not anticipate you can bend the truth enough to convince me otherwise.”

“We need you,” I blurt out, now going off script of what Princess Celestia told me to say. “You and your kind are very valuable to this world, and it’s in danger. Without your assistance, everything and everyone could be in serious danger.”

“‘Valuable’?” he echoes, the disdain in his voice growing. “Typically, one tends to value an object, something they can use and then cast off to the side once it has served its purpose. Not an intelligent creature, much less one they hold any respect for.”

“A poor choice of words,” I bow again, “and for that, I am deeply sorry. I simply wish to communicate that the entire world is in danger, and the deer could hold the only knowledge that can stop it.”

“The whole world? Or simply Equestria, your whole world?”

“The whole world,” I clarify. “Equestria, the Crystal Empire, Griffonstone, the Deer Tribes, everywhere and everyone. There is a stallion in the dream world—”

“A stallion?” he repeats. “As in, a pony?”

I nod. “Yes.”

“Exactly what I would have expected from an Equestrian,” he sighs. “Only a pony would shit where they stand, step in it, and demand another cleans it up. No, Equestria will receive no aid from us. Tell your Princess she should have known better than to try and cross a bridge she herself burnt to ash.”

“You could be dooming the whole world to suffer if you turn us away,” I beg. “Please, what the ponies have done to you is wrong, but we are trying to make amends for what happened. If there is some price we could pay, please tell me and we will do our best to pay it.”

He shakes his head, and it’s clear the only emotion he’s currently feeling is disappointment. “First flattery, then begging, then guilt, and finally simply trying to buy our assistance? I would have at least thought that your attempts to coerce us would not be so thinly-veiled, although I appear mistaken.”

“Please, if I would be able to simply get a few minutes to—”

The increasing sound of magic cuts me off. Not only are the crystals in the bucks’ antlers glowing more brightly, but the does both are holding up a crystal hoof that begins glowing the same color.

“We are not an aggressive kind,” the Chieftain begins, “although we understand the importance of self-preservation. Should you turn around and leave now, I promise that none of us will follow you and we will leave you to your own machinations as you have left us for so long. Should you stay, I cannot make the same promises.”

“And there’s...no way we would be able to reach a compromise?”

“None,” he confirms.

“I’ll return to Equestria,” I concede. “All I will say is please do keep us in mind. We truly are willing to reconcile for the past, however you deem it fit.”

They all say nothing, meaning I have to leave here in silence. The trees open up, and almost as soon as I step through the opening, I hear a magical aura envelop them and close them again.

I fucked up. Really, really bad. I knew I shouldn’t have been sent on this, at least not alone. Now we’re back at square one, and maybe there’s nothing we can do about it. For all we know, my inability to make peace with the deer has robbed us of valuable knowledge that could have helped us defeat Shooting Star, knowledge that I won’t be able to get any other way.

After just walking aimlessly and in a bit of a blur for a while, I notice a fallen tree out of the corner of my eye. It looks pretty recent, so it’ll probably hold my weight. Veering off the path to go towards it, I just sit down and stare at the ground. Before long, a few tears begin falling onto the dirt and creating tiny puddles of mud.

“Hey!” a voice whispers from somewhere nearby. Who could it be?

“Who are you?” I respond softly.

There’s some rustling to my left, so I turn my head there and see a deer start coming towards me. She looks smaller and maybe younger than the ones in the village, and her hooves aren’t crystal. Just normal hoof stuff.

“I was told I wouldn’t be followed if I left right now,” I sigh. “Please, I’m going.”

“Don’t go!” she exclaims, running to me and putting her hooves on my shoulders. “I know how to help you.”

“Do you study the dream world?” I ask her. “Or maybe just magic?”

As she puts one of her hooves on her neck, she starts giggling nervously. “Well...no. Not like that.”

“Do you know someone who does and is willing to speak with me?”

“In…” She thinks it over a moment, then gets a nervous smile. “Kind of? In a way. So sure, I guess.”

“So I’m guessing it’s not as simple as you bringing me to then and letting me to talk to them?”

“Yeah,” she admits. “I know how to get my dad to listen to you.”

“And who’s your dad?”

She nervously laughs again, then her face grows red. “My dad’s the one you talked to in the village. You know.”

“The Chieftain?” I clarify. She just nods in response. “So would you be able to get him to talk to me?”

“Not, well, um, not me, technically. But I do know how I can get him to listen to you.”

“I’m all ears,” I shrug.

“You’re...huh?” She looks me over real quick, then just looks at me with confusion in her eyes.

“Equestrian expression. I’m saying that I’m willing to listen to what you have to say.”

“Oh!” she beams. “But we have a trial, and anyone who passes it has to be heard by the Chieftain.”

“A trial?” I repeat. “I don’t know if I can commit to that, but I’m willing to hear about it. I’m willing to try almost anything to get an audience with your tribe. What can you tell me about it?”

“Well, if you passed, it’d prove that you were worthy of an audience.”

“And why would that be?”

After thinking it over for a few seconds and making some weird faces, she stands up and looks at me. “I think it’d be easier to explain when we’re there. Come with me?”

“Well, I don’t have any other option,” I reply while standing up next to her. “Lead the way.”

I swear I can hear a faint squee as she turns around and starts walking. “You said your name’s Aurora Borealis, correct? My name’s Aspen.”

“You can just call me Aurora. And how come you’re doing this for me? Your father made it quite clear that he wanted nothing to do with Equestria, and the other deer I saw seemed to reflect his sentiments.”

A sad sigh escapes her lips. “My dad’s very good at leading, but he holds onto the past too much. Was what Equestria did to us really bad? Yes, it was. Do we have every right to be angry at ponies for it? Yes, we do. But should we? No, we shouldn’t. For a lot of reasons, holding onto our anger only makes things worse.”

“You’d do things differently?” I probe. Maybe I can figure out how to convince the deer otherwise if I can figure out why she’s receptive to me.

“Yeah,” she admits meekly. “Well, to start, I think that while we’d be justified in being mad at Equestria because Princess Celestia sided with the ponies, being mad at ponies themselves is misdirected. I think most ponies aren’t even descendants of the ones that did that to us, and even if they are, they shouldn’t have to be at fault for what ancestors of theirs did. Hating someone for the circumstances of their birth only leads to hatred and division over irreconcilable things. If I were to hate you because you were a pony, how would we get over that? You can’t stop being a pony, so I have to be the one to lose my hatred. If we plan to get anywhere in the world, we need to be willing to work with our neighbors and not fixate on things in the past.”

“Is that idea common amongst the deer, or are you alone in thinking that?”

“I’ve, uh…” She laughs nervously again. “I think I’m alone? As you saw, the Chieftain is pretty set in his ways. I’m his only fawn, so I’m not really in a place to be expressing views so different from his own. I don’t want to bring that upon him, but something needs to be done. If we continue to shun and be hostile to Equestrians, they’re only going to do the same in us. For centuries, the deer have been in a self-deprecating cycle. We push Equestrians away and curse the ground they walk on, then get angry at them when they don’t help us. Unfortunately, if I were to say these things to the other deer in the tribe, they’d probably just say I’m an apologist and think that I’m trying to justify what Equestria did to us. It’s difficult, but we need to be the bigger deer and maybe take a blow to our pride in order to improve our situation.”

“You’ve clearly thought about this,” I point out. “You said you’re an only child, does that mean you’re going to become a Chieftain someday? Or is it not passed down like that?”

“It usually passes down from a Chieftain to his oldest son, but this is the first time in memory that a Chieftain has been left with a fawn but no sons. Sometimes they die without having fawns, in which case the tribe meets and decides who will take over. I keep asking my father about it, but I don’t know if he’s really thinking about it. I’m almost fifteen, too, so he really needs to make a decision soon so we know what we need to do for the future.”

“Is fifteen a special age or something?” I ask.

She just stares at me for a few seconds, then starts nodding slowly. “Yeah. Do Equestrians not?”

“Do we not what?”

“Do you not…” she trails off. “I don’t know how to describe it. Like, when you’re fifteen, do your does not get married?”

“Almost everypony would tell you that fifteen is way too young to get married, or even have a serious relationship. Is fifteen when you can start getting married?”

“Fifteen is when does do get married,” she corrects. “Our fathers choose who we get married to, and we spend the rest of our lives with them.”

“And do you know who the Chieftain wants you to marry?”

“He keeps asking me who I want to marry, but I’m not really sure how much he’s thinking about that. At the end of the day, he needs me to have fawns to pass down his blood, and my guess is if I’m with someone who I like, I’d be more likely to do so and would have more of them.”

“Well, why don’t you think that he’d be asking because he might really care about it? My dad only has three daughters, and I know he wouldn’t want us to marry and have foals just because we feel like it’d make him happy. My sister’s going to be marrying somepony soon, and he’s happy for her because she found somepony she wants to be with. He never tried to set them up or interfere in any way with their relationship.”

“And is your dad the last in a centuries-long line of Chieftains, potentially dealing with having to step down?”

“No, I guess not.” When I look over to her, I just see sadness in her eyes. “And there’s no other way?”

Her sigh is heavy with what almost feels like guilt. “I don’t know. I guess it doesn’t say that a doe can’t be Chieftain, but a lot of the deer here really hold onto tradition. Even if we don’t ban does from the position, they’d want to since none of us can remember a time when it wasn’t a buck. And since our traditions are pretty much everything we have left in this world, they’re not going to be willing to give them up.”

Before I can respond, we exit the forest and are now standing a few feet above a river that’s not exactly crashing downstream, but I wouldn’t really say it’s lazing along either. Rocks are littered throughout it, so it does make it look more treacherous than I think it otherwise would be. A small wooden bridge completely caked in moss is maybe about a hundred feet downriver from us, looking more ancient than any of the trees in this entire forest.

Instead of going to the bridge, however, she walks down to the banks of the river and stops just short of getting her hooves in the water. “We’re here,” she tells me as I walk up next to her.

“You saw the bridge, right?” I confirm.

“You will not need it,” she shakes her head. “This is your trial.”

“What is? This river?”

“The Olenmanegy River,” she specifies. “One of the few rivers left we have access to. This one is particularly tied to the spirits, which is why I brought you here.”

“I can’t say I’m very aware of spirits. I’m not really religious, and none of the ones I’ve heard of talk about spirits and rivers.”

“It’s not really…” She trails off before looking down at whatever reflection of hers she can see in this flowing water. “It’s not quite religion. It just is. There are spirits everywhere: in the trees, in the ground, in you and me. We settled near this river after The Expulsion because there were a lot of spirits in it, and so we would be able to thrive. They also continually bleed into the surrounding forest and the life and objects in it, so when they decide to help us, we’re right there. And with so many spirits, we receive aid a lot.”

The river here doesn’t seem to have any more magic than elsewhere in this region, but it’s possible that by spirits, she means magic. “What do they do to help you?”

“Depends on what we need,” she shrugs. “I’m just hoping they help you.”

“So what do I need to do to potentially get their help, then? Take a drink from the river or something?”

“You’re going to need to cross it,” she says as she points a hoof to the other bank. “While you’re in the water, you’ll draw lots of spirits to you. If they decide to help you, you’ll make it across.”

“And if they don’t help me?”

“Well...then you won’t make it to the other side.”

“As in, I’ll drown?”

“Some are lucky and have the river return them to the shore they left from, but most who don’t make it are swept away, yes.” As she turns to face me, there’s almost some fire in her eyes that I can barely make out. “You’ll make it across, I know it. The spirits will look inside of you and see that the world is in danger, and they’ll bring you to the other side. They make up this world, they don’t want to see it fall.”

As I put a hoof out and prepare to step in, however, her hoof shoots out and blocks me. “What?” I ask.

She points to my Canterlot University sweatshirt which I don’t think I’ve taken off since I set out and have so have subsequently forgotten I’m wearing. “You cannot take in anything artificial.”

I’m glad she told me because it’s still kind of nippy outside, so I can’t imagine the water is much above freezing. Having a soaking wet sweatshirt cling to me for the rest of the day doesn’t sound fun. Still, that seems like an interesting requirement. “How come?”

“Well, the spirits are what make up the natural world around us. They tend to stay away from things that are manufactured, which is why we try to disturb the world as little as we can. As such, you have to go into the river with only what nature has given you and nothing more. No clothing, no jewelry, no whatever else Equestrians might manufacture.”

Well, I guess now’s when never wearing makeup and not having any implants or anything helps me out. After I pass my sweatshirt off to Aspen and she puts it on her back, I stare down at the flowing river.

Guess there’s really only one way to do this, so I put my hoof out over the water and step into the river.

Chapter 41

My first hoofstep into the river sinks, the muddy riverbank making me a few inches shorter. Now I’m just awkwardly standing here with one front and both back hooves on dry land, so I pull my back right closer to me and move my front right into the muck as well before bringing my back left right to the edge of the bank. Not quite as awkward as a position now, I guess.

I try to move my front left again, but the mud is a lot stronger than I thought it would be. It takes all my effort to get it free, and when I do, the force sends me a few feet deeper into the river and narrowly avoiding hitting one of my back legs on a rock. Now I can see why this can be treacherous, but I have to go on.

I reorient myself to just stand here, and the few feet made the water a lot deeper than I thought it would have. Or maybe it’s just the mud that’s deep, I don’t know. The water comes all the way up to the bottom of my neck, but I can’t tell how much of that is mud because it’s all just cold. I’m starting to lose feeling pretty much everywhere that’s underwater, so telling if the cold is because of mud or because of water isn’t exactly very easy right now.

I definitely think that trying to swim this would be the route to go, but that will require me to get my hooves unstuck. I’m not too far from a rock, so I’m thinking that if I can get one of my front hooves out, I can then grab onto it and use it as leverage to pull myself out of the ground and into the water. With any luck, that won’t be so hard.

My front right is closer to a rock than my left is, so I decide to try that. Yanking it doesn’t really seem to do much, so I try and go a lot slower to not meet as much resistance from the mud itself. After what seems like forever in this frigid river, I can feel it come free, and thankfully it’s long enough to grab onto a rock.

The rest of my hooves go a little easier since I’m not relying on what little muscle I have, and before long, I’m clinging onto to a damp, slippery rock for dear life while all this river water is chilling me right to my bones.

While I’m here, I may as well take a moment to plan out what I’m going to do. To be honest, it doesn’t even look like it’s going to be crazy to get to the other side. Maybe fifty to a hundred feet, and while the river is flowing kind of fast, it’s not like being sent into a rock will kill me. It might hurt, sure, but probably not kill me. I could even use this rock to launch off of, I bet.

Now that I’ve got a plan, this will be a lot easier. I position myself to launch off with my back hooves, and when I do, I can feel myself get some good distance. I paddle a little closer, but then something slams into my side and nearly knocks the wind out of me. Thankfully though, I manage to wrap myself around what I can now feel is a rock and keep myself from struggling to stay afloat. While swimming in this won’t be awful, I get the feeling that staying still is not going to be beneficial.

Gingerly, I put a hoof where I hit the rock and start feeling around it. I definitely didn’t break anything, that’s good. It hurts to touch it, which probably means it really hurts since all this could is no doubt dulling my pain a lot. I can still breathe fine though, so it’s probably nothing more than pain.

The plan of trying to swim across is pretty much gone because I’d just get battered by the rocks, but getting roughed up by one gives me an idea. None of the rocks are really that far from each other, so I could probably swim from boulder to boulder and make it across that way. I also then won’t really risk getting tired, since it’ll only be short spats in the water while using the previous rocks as a launching-off point.

Guess there’s only way to find out if this is going to work.

I move carefully around the rock I’m on to get myself in a better position to go to the next one, trying my hardest not to slip and fall back into the water while doing so. Once I’m there, I plant my back hooves on the rock and take off, just barely managing to grab a hold of the next one. Well, that’s good. At the very least, this plan works at least somewhat in practice. Now to see if it continues to work.

Hopping from rock to rock gets me a good ways across the river, but eventually, I get to the edge of the small cluster and just see open water between me and the shore. While there isn’t anything in the way that might hit me and make me drown, I still have to fight the current and might really hurt myself given the impact earlier. Unfortunately, there’s not much I can really do, so I just have to go for it.

Once I push off from the rock, I try to coast as long as I can before beginning my swimming. I know how to swim, but swimming well is another question. My form isn’t exactly that graceful to begin with, and with this water and the pain in my rib, I probably am just thrashing about aimlessly. I try to open my eyes and see where I’m going and if I’m getting closer, but water gets in them and they just get blurry. Well, suppose all I can do is keep going in what I think is the right direction and hope for the best.

After a very worryingly long time, I feel one of my hooves touch mud, so I make one final push and try to get myself grounded. Once I feel like I’m not going to be swept away by the current anymore, I work on pulling one of my front hooves out of the mud before wiping my eyes clear and seeing where I am.

Now that I have vision again, I can see that I did indeed drift a bit downstream. I’m past the moss-covered bridge, so I guess I’m just lucky I didn’t hit it on my way down.

“You’re almost there!” Aspen calls as she starts running up closer to where I now am. “Just a few more feet!”

She’s right, I’m so close now! It takes everything I have to get my hooves out of the mud and walk towards the shore, but with each one I get out of the muck, the better I get at doing it. Unfortunately, I’m also starting to feel a little tired, so that’s counteracting the ease of removal I’m getting.

Before long, one of my front hooves makes its way onto solid ground. The others all soon follow, and I hardly have the energy to stand so I just lay down on the ground. I don’t care that I’m freezing and soaking wet and don’t have a towel or anything like that, I’m just glad for it to be over.

“You did it!” she beams. “I don’t believe it! You made it across okay!”

I groan, then roll over onto my back. “More or less. One of those rocks got me pretty good.”

Instead of a response from her, I can feel a small hoof come down on my ribcage, causing me to buckle up and yell a bit in pain.

“You may have bruised your rib,” she says.

“I didn’t even know I could bruise a bone,” I moan.

“Well, the bone’s fine. You’ll be fine too, it just is going to hurt for a bit.” She lets out a little squeak. “Unfortunately though, we’re going to need to bring you back to the village. It’s not like it’s that far away, but you’re still going to need to walk it.”

“Just give me a few,” I pant. “I got a bit roughed up, and I’m not really athletic to begin with. Kinda took a lot out of me to do that.”

“It never is an easy experience for those who make it across,” she informs me as she sits down next to me. “Having so many spirits moving through you at once is very tiring.”

“So your father will listen to me now, right?”

“Yes,” she confirms. “He would not go against tradition in this way. He may not like the fact that I told you to do it and that you succeeded, but he is obligated to assist you to the best of his abilities.”

I roll my head to the sky, and can swear I can almost see a tiny bit of sunshine poke out of the light gray clouds above the leafless canopy. That’s nice. Maybe now it’ll get a little warmer, and maybe I can dry off quicker. But for now, I just have to sit here and focus on not feeling like a train hit me.

As we walk through the tree gate to the village, I try and look around, which I wasn’t able to do before. Aspen is helping me walk so I can’t stop or slow down as much as I’d like, but I can see that it is indeed a very interesting village. An almost literal wall of trees surrounds the homes here, and even inside this clearing there are a decent amount of them. All the houses look to be made from the same bark as the surrounding trees, and they’re all fairly small except for a larger one in the center. My guess is that’s where the Chieftain and his family live.

A few deer start staring at us as we’re walking through town, and I can’t say I blame them. The Chieftain’s daughter, practically carrying a still-damp outsider through town? They’re going to be talking about this for a while, I bet.

“Father!” Aspen calls out once we get close to the big house in the center.

Chieftain Thicket walks out few seconds later, then grimaces when he sees us. “Aspen, what are you doing with the Equestrian?” Out of the corners of my eyes, I can see some of the bucks with crystals in their antlers walk up to us, their crystals starting to faintly glow.

“You need to speak with her,” she demands.

“I made it very clear that she is not to return to our lands, lest she face the consequences.” He nods to the bucks, and they start walking towards us.

“She crossed the river!” Aspen blurts out. Like they were clockwork, the bucks stop and face the Chieftain, who now has a look on his face I can’t quite place. Some confusion, some frustration, some disappointment, but also what seems almost like a sense of enjoyment. Clearly, a lot’s going through his head right now.

“And you saw her do so?” he asks.

“Yes,” she nods. “I was there the whole time, from when she went in to when she came out.”

“And how did she know to do so?” he questions further.

“I told her,” she states, trying to sound confident but having a voice crack during. “I know you’re mad at me, but she crossed the Olenmanegy and survived. You have to help her.”

For what seems like forever, the only sound is the wind blowing through the area before he sighs and shakes his head. “You are indeed correct. Follow me, Equestrian.”

He walks fully out of the house and closes the door behind him, then starts walking to the edge of the clearing and to what looks like a large circular tent.

“Only she may enter,” he says as we get there, pointing at me. “Additionally, she must leave her things outside. As with the river, she may only enter with what nature has given her. Nothing more.”

Aspen nods, then gently places my sweatshirt and bag on the ground outside the tent before taking her hoof off of me. Seeing that I’m really shaky when trying to stand on my own, Chieftain Thicket puts his own hoof around me and walks inside.

“Sit down by the fire and relax,” he instructs as we walk inside the tent.

I do as he says, and for being a fire inside of a small, enclosed tent, the smoke and heat don’t really seem that bad here. I expected it to be sweltering and nearly be choking on the smoke, but it’s just nice and toasty in here, like being under a few blankets on a cold winter’s day.

“I am going to need to ask you a few questions,” he tells me while pulling out some clay jars and assorted plants. “Answer them honestly, or otherwise this may not work. You have proven yourself once, Equestrian, and I imagine you would not want to prove yourself to me again.”

“What kinds of questions?” I ask.

“Simple ones about who you are so I may get an accurate feeling on your spirit,” he tells me as he starts putting a few herbs inside one of the jars. “I can clearly see that you are a doe and a unicorn. You appear young, is this the case?”

“Yes,” I nod. “Just a few months away from being seventeen.”

He picks up an herb next to the ones he was already working with and adds it. “Tell me about your birth parents. Races, current marital status, relationship with each other, relationship with you.”

“Both unicorns,” I tell him. “Happily married to each other, and I have a good relationship with both of them.”

“Siblings?” he inquires.

“Two older sisters.”

“How much older?”

“Nine and seven years older than me.”

He nods, then grabs a flower further away from where he currently is before adding it to the jar. “Are you currently in a romantic relationship with another?”

“No,” I shake my head.

“Have you ever laid with a buck?”

“Have I ever what?”

“Made love with a male,” he clarifies. “I need know not of any lovemaking with females, it is irrelevant to what I am doing.”

Instinctively, my face grows hot and my hind legs get a little closer together. “Why?”

“A doe’s spirit changes after her first physical encounter with a buck,” he explains. “It recognizes what has occured, and begins shifting itself to be more nurturing and conducive to the creation of life.”

“I can’t say I have,” I admit. I guess I’m only sixteen, but I don’t really know what age is when somepony’s expected to do that for the first time. Come to think of it, I’ve never really dated anypony, either. Pretty sure both Snowy and Dew Drop had by my age, but they were in high school and actually around ponies their age.

“Have you any chronic illnesses, of the mind or of the body?” he continues like we didn’t just have an awkward conversation with each other.

“Neither.”

“Finally, what do you fear most in life?”

“Does what I’m scared of alter my spirit that much?”

He walks over and hangs the jar over the fire, then adds some water to it. “Not necessarily, although you need to open yourself up. Admitting secrets or vulnerabilities are some of the best ways to do so. I could ask a different question should you wish, although do understand that any I ask will touch on very personal matters. I have simply found that inquiring about fears is one of the least invasive ways to open oneself up. Your fear may be an event, an emotion, a person, anything that truly horrifies you and you would go to great lengths to prevent.”

I don’t really know what kinds of things he’s looking for, so I just turn to look at him. “What sorts of things have others said that they fear?”

“I am forbidden to discuss what others have done in here,” he says with a shake of his head. “Simply think of what others fear: death, the future, loss of loved ones, sadness, loneliness, losing status, losing control, harming others. Whatever it is you fear and you do not like talking about.”

That didn’t really help me that much. “Can I have some time to think about it?”

“Of course,” he nods. “It is not an easy question, and one that requires some level of thought. The tea requires some time to brew, anyways.”

As I start deep into the fire, I start going through my brain of what it is I fear the most in this world. The immediate thing that comes to mind is centipedes, but my guess is that’s not what he’s looking for. Not something I find revolting, something I try to block out of my mind at all costs and would be devastated if I ever encountered it. That still includes centipedes, but I’m not going to say that’s my one thing.

I’d say I’m pretty afraid of Shooting Star winning this stalemate. What exactly about it do I dread, though? I wouldn’t be afraid simply because I failed, so I guess failure isn’t the thing I fear. Letting ponies down is kind of upsetting, but that’s not really it either.

For reasons I don’t understand, my mind starts wandering to the Village of Dreams, and the subjugation they had to endure in his name. That little filly I met just stands out, and for whatever reason, I can’t stop thinking about her.

“I guess I fear letting others get hurt,” I admit. “It’s one thing to fail, but it’s another for it to impact others. I’m not exactly a fan of failing as nopony is, but I wouldn’t want other ponies to have to suffer because of me.”

“And do you feel as if the path you are on may lead to failure?”

Well shit, now I do. “May lead to, yes. I don’t really know what to do, and I’m worried that I have to make a lot of decisions in the heat of the moment.”

He inspects the tea over the fire, then takes it off and pours it into a clay mug before giving it to me. “Drink this in one gulp,” he instructs. “If you leave any in there, we will need to start this process over again.”

I take the mug from his hooves, and strangely enough, it doesn’t feel that warm. I put it to my lips and tip my head back, and despite just being over an open flame, the tea is just warm. Not hot or room temperature, but warm. It doesn’t even really taste like anything when it goes down, and I have to tilt my head as far back as I can to make sure I get every bit out of it.

The mug is taken from my hooves. “Now close your eyes, and you will see what it is you need to see.”

As I close my eyes, I can feel the magic around me get more and more intense. But strangely enough, I don’t feel the pulling in my mind. Only once have I not been able to feel it, but that was because a devourer demon severed my connection. I haven’t been feeling weak recently, so that can’t possibly be it.

I open my eyes, but instead of seeing the inside of the tent I’m in, I instead just see fog. Lots and lots of fog.

“Chieftain?” I ask out. My voice dies down soon after leaving my mouth, seemingly absorbed by the fog around me. It’s almost a little unsettling, actually.

Once I stand up, I notice that the fog is giving me very little room; not even an inch away from my body is when it starts. I lift one of my hooves very slowly, and the fog seems to almost move in reaction to my own moving. When I put out said hoof and try to touch it, however, it starts swirling and coalescing, almost as if it knows where to go.

After a few seconds, the fog appears to be in the shape of an enormous spider. Like, really enormous. The thing has to be at least three stories high, and even though it made that shape far away from me, I still have to crane my neck to see the top of it.

Some of the fog is leftover, though, and almost seems to be wrapping itself around the spider. Once it does, the form seems to solidify into chains while large bulges appear all over the spider. They look almost like...they could be eyes.

I’ve heard of this creature before: a massive devourer demon, chained deep within the dream world, put there by the ancient ponies of Neighpan after it ate all their dreams for centuries and grew fat off them.

“Baku,” I say aloud without even thinking to do so. Once I do, every single bulge peels back to reveal an enormous eye. They all turn in my direction, causing my heart to nearly explode, but they don’t really seem actually see me.

“You’re awake,” a stallion’s voice says from behind me. Instinctively I turn around, and can see the fog form of a unicorn stallion walking towards me. Or rather, towards Baku, because he literally walks right through me.

Now all the eyes are pointed at the stallion, and Baku gives out a pained moan.

“Scourge of Neighpan, chained like a common animal,” he sighs. “My apologies, where are my manners? My name is Shooting Star, and I may be able to help you.”

Wait, Shooting Star? I’ve never seen a picture or anything of him before, and it’s just so weird how...normal he is. He’s maybe in his early 30s, and he looks just like any other pony I could pass on the street.

Baku moans again, this time less with pain and more almost curiosity. “I believe you could also help me,” Shooting Star smiles.

Before Baku or Shooting Star can say anything more, all the fog starts blowing away as if in a strong wind. There’s clearly not any wind, though, I can feel that. It all blows away, however, just leaving me in darkness. It’s weird, because while I can see myself just fine, everything else is pitch black.

“Open your eyes,” a voice says from somewhere in the darkness. Where exactly it’s coming from I can’t tell.

“Who are you?” I call out into the blackness.

“Just open your eyes,” it repeats. But that’s impossible, because my eyes already are open.

Actually, now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve blinked the entire time I’ve been here. As I just stand there for a few seconds, I notice that my eyes don’t hurt and start feeling dry like they normally do. But how can I open them if I never closed them?

For some odd reason, however, I do feel like I can open my eyes. I do so and instead of my eyes in here changing at all, the bottom of my field of vision suddenly becomes light. I open them a little bit more, and more light starts flooding my vision. Once they’re open all the way, everything just looks hazy.

Instantly, my chest feels heavy and I instinctively take a deep gasp as I fill my lungs up with air. My head also feels light, and as I sit up, I start feeling dizzy, causing the Chieftain to reach his hooves out and catch me to keep me sitting up.

“Did you see what you needed to?” he asks.

“I think I did,” I say between deep breaths. “Did I stop breathing?”

“Everyone who participates in this ritual does,” he confirms. “As such, visions tend to be short. You can imagine that those with longer ones tend to not wake up.”

“Is that common?” I ask weakly. Scary to think I just did something that could have killed me, but I guess that wouldn’t be the first time today.

“Not very. I have only heard of it, never witnessed someone dying during a vision myself. Even if they did, it would help them achieve their goal in some way. Are you feeling as if you may sit up on your own?”

“Probably,” I nod. He takes his hooves off me, and while I’m a little wobbly, I manage to stay up.

“I know Aspen despises when I help her,” he mentions. “I figure you may be the same way, even if you are still recovering.”

“You were pretty mad at Aspen,” I point out. “What are you going to do with her?”

He takes a deep breath, then shakes his head. “I am unsure. I never know what to do with her.”

“She a troublemaker?” I ask. “She didn’t really seem to be one.”

“Quite the contrary, she has never had any major issues when it comes to discipline. She is simply very strong-headed, even since she was a young fawn. I cannot say I am surprised that she assisted you, for she is rather set in her views towards Equestrians.”

“How do you know she feels that way? She told me she doesn’t express those views, says it would hurt you if your only child was saying things so opposite of what you believe.”

“She does not express them publicly,” he corrects. “Unfortunately for me, she got my mind for politics. I do suppose it is endearing in a sense, although it is one thing I wish she took after her mother in.”

“If you don’t mind me asking,” I speak gingerly, “where is her mother? I don’t think she mentioned her, either. And she explained the position she’s in and the uncertainty surrounding whether or not she’ll be Chieftain, so I would have guessed that you would have tried to have a son.”

“You would be correct in believing that we would try,” he nodded. “Her mother died giving birth to her. I suppose I got attached to Aspen and wished to focus my attention on her as opposed to another doe, which is why I never took another wife.”

“Do you miss her?”

He simply shrugs. “Her death was unfortunate, yes. While we never truly cared for each other in a romantic sense, I respected her and saw her as a good friend, and she felt the same towards me. There are worse marriages to be arranged, I suppose.”

“Even if you didn’t lose a lover, you lost a friend. Must have been difficult.”

“We do not mourn death as heavily as Equestrians do,” he explains, “or perhaps not even at all. Especially not those that occur during birth. Life is not a straight line as your kind believes it to be, but a constantly repeating loop. Her life ended, but the life of another began that day. And although her body was buried and will waste away, it is not to say her life will be gone forever. Her corpse shall feed the worms and the insects, who fill feed the plants and trees, who will in turn feed the deer. And because her life will be feeding us, we shall not starve, and another young buck and doe may have fawns of their own, and the cycle shall continue. Life can never end, Aurora Borealis. It may only reorganize and restructure itself.”

“I don’t know, to me, you still lost someone important to you. Even if their life is still present, everything else about them is gone. Whatever made you enjoy being around her, you’ll never have again.”

“We understand the perils of birth and accept their possibility. When a doe is ready to give birth, she and the fawn’s father enter the forest alone and only come back once it is done. Anyone who does not return is hardly spoken of again, for it is understood that they returned to the forest from whence they came. We are all children of the forest here, and our death is what keeps it moving and allows the forest to survive for our children, and their children. One day I shall succumb to death, and my body shall return to the forest and ensure my daughter’s fawns survive.”

“She mentioned needing a husband soon to start having children,” I nod. “So you really have all the say in who she marries?”

“In theory. In practice, I care for her and do wish for her to find a buck she will hold feelings for. I was lucky in that my wife was a very good friend of mine, although there were times I wished we held romantic feelings for one another. Alas, I feel Aspen does not wish to marry just yet, which puts me in a difficult situation.” He looks at me, and while his outward expression hasn’t changed, I can tell his face is a bit warmer than it was before. “Perhaps I shall marry her into service for the tribe, at least temporarily. If Equestria has created an ambassadorship to the deer, I feel it the polite thing to reciprocate. Perhaps we shall see if my daughter’s beliefs that opening ourselves up to Equestria will improve our status are justified.”

“We would be honored to welcome her and your tribe into Equestrian diplomacy,” I say with a bow of my head. “If you do not mind me asking, what changed your mind?”

“It would be false if I claimed that I have not seriously considered my daughter’s ideals before. I disagree with them and it would cause quite a stir amongst the other deer were I to do so, although a pony crossed the Olenmanegy and lived to return. Perhaps that shall blunt the tribe’s ire should I resume formal relations with your kind.”

“But if you still disagree, why do it?”

For the first time since I’ve been here, I swear I can see a small smile grow on his face. “I do intend to fight for my daughter’s right to claim a position that is hers by birth. I can almost certainly guarantee she is going to resume contact with Equestrians when she becomes chieftain, so I figure I should give her the opportunity now to create a good rapport and learn how to deal with your kind. And should it turn out poorly, I shall be the one to bear that burden on my name.”

“You would really put your own reputation on the line to go through with something you don’t agree with just because Aspen wants it? What if it doesn’t work out?”

“I am a father.” He looks down at me, and even though his smile is now gone, I can tell that there is warmth in his eyes. “Aspen is nearly fifteen, old enough to make informed decisions of her own. If these are the beliefs that she holds true to heart, then so be it. I would rather nurture her own independence and decision-making than impose my own beliefs onto her, even if said opinions clash against my own.”

“Even if said opinions result in the Chieftain’s daughter openly disagreeing with her father?”

“It is a parent’s duty to nurture their children, often at their own expense. When she was young, that expense was time and energy and sleep to make sure she was getting everything she needed. Now that she is older, that expense has changed. When my wife and I lay together, we were consenting to incurring the costs of a fawn, whatever they may manifest themselves as. I like to believe I am a buck of his word, and as such, I have no intention of reneging on such a promise I made to Aspen.”

“And if they disagree with what you’re doing and want you to stop it?”

“I imagine displeasure will be expressed, and perhaps a few tantrums thrown. They are not Chieftain, however, and so they shall have no real power. Functionally, it will amount to little more than noise.”

“I suppose I should thank you,” I say with a bow of my head. “Potentially risking your reputation just to open diplomacy with us, it must not be easy. Know that we are very open to hearing your plea and doing what we can not only to improve your status, but rectify the mistakes of the past.”

“Simply hearing an Equestrian say that does signify change is possible,” he states. “Hundreds of years ago, Princess Celestia attempted to justify expelling us from our own land and allowing her kind to clear it for a city of their own. Now, she is sending an envoy to us and having her say that her Princess is willing to reconcile for her previous actions. I wonder what has caused such a change in your Princess’ views towards us?”

“Perhaps she has had time to consider what it was she did, and realized that your kind was treated unfairly.”

“I feel it more likely you needed something from us, and she decided to send an envoy to accomplish two deeds at once.” He stands up, then extends a hoof to me. “Regardless, our two kinds resuming contact was inevitable. Now come, we must secure you lodgings for your stay here.”

“Stay?” I repeat.

“Of course, we must have some discussion about the specifics of our diplomacy. You seem a busy doe, although you will have some time to converse with us, will you not?”

“I think I have a few days,” I respond as I take his hoof and use it to stand up.

There’s a glint in his eye, and I swear I can see a tiny smile. “Perhaps I shall include Aspen in our talks. I am unsure whether or not I shall make her the ambassador to Equestria, although I suppose it does not hurt to have her sit in with us. And maybe you would not mind teaching her about your country in preparation for her possible visits there?”

“I would love to,” I nod. “I just hope that one day, both the deer and the ponies be able to interact freely, with no ill will between us.”

Chapter 42

“‘Beautiful Salmon,’” dad reads from the neon sign hanging above a place that I can hear even from the outside. “Weird name for a bar, but Snowy said she liked this place. Excited for tonight?”

“I guess,” I shrug. It’s probably just going to end up with Snowy and Dew Drop talking with each other all night, to be honest. I don’t see why we’d need to go to a loud bar to do that.

“You’ll have fun,” he assures me before turning around. “Mom and I are just going to be at the hotel tonight. Make sure your sisters are safe, okay?”

“Okay,” I mumble back before walking up to the door and going inside. As soon as I do, the music intensifies and I’m hit with a very strong and unique smell that I for some reason recognize as alcohol.

“Hey!” a stallion nearly yells, tapping me on the shoulder. “How old are you?”

I look over him, because that’s a really weird question to just throw at somepony. “How come?”

“Cause I’m the bouncer. Now how old are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“Nice try, then,” he laughs. “Eighteen to drink. Come back next year.”

All of a sudden, a jolt of panic is sent through my body as he says that. “No, I have to be here! It’s my sister’s bachelorette party tonight!”

He pulls out a small notepad, then flips a few pages in. “What’s her name, and what’s your name?”

“I’m Aurora Borealis, and her name is Snowy Jade.”

“Alright,” he nods as he puts his notepad back. “I catch you trying to buy anything, and you’re outta here. Other than that, enjoy your evening.”

Slowly as to make sure that he’s no longer just staring at me, I start wandering this place aimlessly. It’s dark and both the music and the ponies in here are loud, leaving me to wonder what it is about bars ponies seem to like so much.

“Aurora!” I can faintly hear somepony call from somewhere in this madness. I scan the room, and eventually, my eyes catch Dew Drop’s waving hoof. She’s sitting in a large booth, while Snowy is just laying her head on the table and very weakly waving at me.

“I’m so glad you could make it!” Snowy beams as I walk up to them. “Look at this, all three of us together, having fun! We’re going to have a great night, aren’t we?”

“Ignore her, she’s drunk,” Dew Drop says while motioning her head towards her. “Come on, sit down! We don’t get enough time together, we totally need to catch up.”

“I’m not drunk!” Snowy protests. “Just a tad tipsy.”

“Well then you need more,” Dew Drop says while getting up out of the booth, “because it’s not a good bachelorette party if you can remember it the next day, right? You two catch up, I’m going to go get us some more.”

“Aurora!” Snowy exclaims as I get into the booth and sit next to her. “Oh my gosh, how are you? You look so grown up now!”

“I’ve been good,” I blush. That’s not exactly true, but I don’t need to drag her fun party down with my own issues. “And you?”

“Over the moon!” she yells as she sits up, her head lazily flopping back and resting against the cushioned back of the booth. “Sweet Celestia, it’s so weird that I’m getting married, isn’t it? Like, I love Jure so much, but it’s still so weird, you know. I’m about to have a husband, Aurora, I’m getting old.”

“Not that old,” I point out.

“I’m almost twenty six. Know what the weird part is? Mom found out she was pregnant with me when she was twenty six!” She shudders. “I’m almost at the age my mom was when she had me, that’s just weird. I’m not ready for foals yet!”

Before I can even open my mouth to respond, she turns her head to me. “Okay, like, I want foals, don’t get me wrong. But not now, you know? Jure’s only been out of law school for like a year, we need time with each other. And even then, the thought is just...so weird, isn’t it? Like, you just have sex with him, and then there’s this pony inside of you for eleven months, making you all fat and stuff.”

“I guess,” I shrug. Come to think of it, I’ve never really thought about that. None of us have ever really been in a position where we’re ready to have foals, so it’s just not that common a topic for me to think about.

“One day,” she states, resting her head back on the table. “Mom and dad are gonna be grandparents and get super weird about that fact, you and Dew Drop will be aunts, and I’m gonna be a mom. Man, even just saying that is weird.”

I don’t even know how to respond to that, even. I’ve been so wrapped up in trying to hunt down Shooting Star for the past few months that I almost forgot my own sister is going to get married. To go from such grave circumstances to now such a momentous and happy moment that’s going to change her future forever is just a really big leap. With any luck, I’ll be able to enjoy this. I’d hate to always remember Snowy’s wedding as a negative because of all the stuff that was going on around me during it.

“You got any colts in your life?” she asks, turning her head to rest the side of it on the table and look at me.

“No,” I admit.

“Any fillies?”

“Also no. Why?”

“Neither you or Dew Drop are seeing anyone,” she moans. “I need to find you two somepony! Like, any stallion would be so lucky to have either of you, and I want both of you to have somepony there for you. You’ve never dated unless I’m mistaken, and Dew Drop hasn’t had a real thing since college. Is there anypony you like? I could help you go after him! Not to sound like I’m bragging or anything, but like, I’m so so happy I found Jure, and I never realized how amazing it was to be in an actual relationship. I want you two to have that, I want us to get married and hold sisters’ weekends and make our husbands take care of the foals while we go off and have fun! Doesn’t that sound amazing?”

“I’ve been seventeen for not even a month,” I remind her. “You aren’t ready for foals yet, and I’m nine years younger than you. Imagine how I feel about having them.”

“I bet you’d love having foals,” she asserts. “You’re gonna make a great mom, Aurora.”

“Not that, the fact that I’m still not even legally an adult. I’m not having foals this early if I can help it.”

“Then make sure he wraps it before he taps it,” she giggles. “Being safe sucks so much, Aurora, but for real, do it.”

Thankfully, before she can continue to what I can only assume is personal experience, Dew Drop comes over with three brightly-colored glasses in her magic. “Y’all ready for the first time we’ve all been old enough to actually have real fun together?” she asks.

“‘Y’all?’” Snowy repeats. “Taillahassee’s changing you, Dew Drop.”

“Just be quiet and drink,” she orders, placing a drink in front of each of us. “Go slow and tell me if you need water, I’m not holding your mane back in the bathroom. Not like the last time I visited you here, you lightweight.”

“I am not a lightweight!” she protests before reaching her hooves out and wrapping them around her glass.

With a laugh and a shake of her head, Dew Drop looks at me. “She’s had three drinks, can you believe it? I’ve been matching her and am still fine.”

“I’m totally fine,” Snowy announces before taking a quick sip of her drink. “Okay, sorta. Physically? Like wow, am I pretty loose. But mentally, I’m fine. Eighty percent. Maybe eighty...three and a half. Yeah, that.”

“It’s when you start trying to cuddle me is when I know you’re bad,” Dew Drop laughs. “You were relentless about that.”

“That was one time!”

“Yeah, no. After I brought you home, Jure said that’s just how you get when you drink too much. And I can confirm, because after we put you to bed, you came out a few times and tried to snuggle with him.”

She scoffs, then brings the drink close to her lips. “Yeah, better than you. You get more annoying than normal when you drink.”

“I just get loud and think everything’s funny,” she corrects. “You haven’t even seen me get drunk, anyways, because I was just kinda buzzed the last time I was here. I wouldn’t even be able to get drunk if I wanted to, you were trying to hug me so much that I wouldn’t have been able to get away from you to take a sip.”

Abruptly, Snowy turns her head to me and looks me right in the eyes. “What about you, Aurora? What does tipsy Aurora like to do?”

“I don’t really drink,” I admit. Almost as soon as I’m done saying that, Snowy reaches out and starts pulling my drink towards her. However, before she can fully get it to her, it’s enveloped in magic and put back in front of me.

“Let her have her drink if she wants it,” Dew Drop commands Snowy. “She’ll give it to you if she wants to. Besides, you’ve still got that whole thing to go, if you’ll even still be conscious by the end of it.”

They both start drinking, so I guess I should try mine, at least. I haven’t had alcohol since I was a really little filly and dad let me try a few sips of wine, and while I don’t remember what it tasted like, all I remember is that I hated it. Now might be different I guess, so I put it to my lips and take a small taste.

The drink is the consistency of slush, and tastes like tropical fruit. I can tell that there’s some ice in it once I let it sit in my mouth a little bit, as well as the taste of something very unique that tastes what rubbing alcohol smells like. Guess that’s whatever alcohol is in this thing, then. Coldness runs down my throat once I swallow it, but when it gets to my stomach, it almost feels like there’s some subtle warmth that spreads through my body. It’s an interesting feeling, to say the least.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” Snowy asks out of the blue. When I look up, I can see that she’s now facing Dew Drop, who’s just finishing up a mouthful of her own drink.

“Nope,” she shakes her head.

“Where’s that one pegasus you dated in college for like, two years? What was his name, again? Started with a T, I know that. Tee...Tleh...Tlah…”

“Tailwind,” Dew Drop adds in. “And I don’t know, didn’t really talk to him after he broke up with me.”

“What’s sex with a pegasus like?” she wonders out loud. “Do they use their wings at all?”

“I am too sober to answer either of those questions at the moment. If you wanted an answer, you should’ve dated one.”

“She was talking about that kind of stuff while you were getting drinks,” I speak up. “I think this is what drunk Snowy likes to talk about.”

Dew Drop laughs, and I can’t help but smile a bit as well. “I knew it!” she roars out in laughter. “Drunk Snowy is a floozy!”

“I am not!”

“I bet she met Jure while drunk,” Dew Drop continues. “Blind drunk, stumbled up to him, told him she thought he was hot before puking on his hooves. Sound about right?”

“We were sober, and it was the cutest thing ever. We were like the only two ponies still at the library late one night, and we were walking out together. It was raining and I didn’t have an umbrella or a jacket, so he gave me his and walked me home in the rain and got soaked. When we got to my room, I gave him a kiss and told him I was free that weekend, and he asked me out. It was sweet and adorable and not at all drunk. So, there!”

“So adorable,” she coos in a half-mocking, half-sincere manner. “Gonna have such a beautiful story to tell the little Snowies and Jures one day, aren’t you?”

“And you claim you’re not annoying,” Snowy moans.

“I just do it to mess with you,” she smiles. “You’ve always been really good at everything you do and I haven’t, so I have to find some way to keep you grounded. You could coast through life on your smarts and good looks if you wanted, so you just need somepony there to poke you every now and again. Being annoying is just me doing my job as a little sister.”

Snowy heaves herself up, then rests her head on Dew Drop’s shoulder. “You’re not bad at everything you do, Dew Drop, stop being so hard on yourself. And you’re good looking too, there’s some stallion out there that’s going to find you. And he’s going to be really damn lucky when he does.”

With a shake of her head, Dew Drop takes Snowy’s drink in her magic and places it in her hooves. “Come on, just drink. We haven’t had enough to turn this into a touchy-feely sisters emotion sharing circle yet.”

“You’re both lightweights,” Dew Drop laughs from the other end of our booth.

“I’ve never drank before in my life,” I reply, trying to talk slowly to make sure I speak correctly. Man, why is speaking so hard now? Like, there have been a few times where I just get to talking, and halfway through, I realize that I’ve been saying something. I can totally understand why Snowy was being such a mess earlier, because being drunk is hard.

“Shame you won’t go to college. Brain and liver, the two organs that become the strongest in school. Isn’t that right, Snowy?”

We both look over to Snowy, who’s resting her head on the table and has her eyes closed. “Snowy!” Dew Drop yells.

All we get out of her is a loud moan.

“We’re going to have to basically carry her back, aren’t we?” Dew Drop sighs as she puts her head on the table and closes her eyes for a moment.

“Snowyyyyyy,” I plead, jostling her shoulder. “Come on, I almost fell down just walking to the bathroom, I won’t be able to carry you home.”

All of a sudden, Dew Drop’s eyes grow really wide as her head shoots off the table. “Oh fuck, you’re drunk aren’t you?”

“You gave me so many drinks,” I inform her as I lay my head on the table. It’s nice and cool, which feels very good on my face which is weirdly hot for some reason.

“You’re seventeen!” she almost yells, then leans in closer to me. “You’re not eighteen yet, you can’t drink! I have no idea what mom and dad would do if they find out we got you drunk, I don’t want that potential drama to come up right before Snowy’s wedding! I thought you’d have like, maybe a drink or two and be fine enough to act cool, but I don’t want to risk it!”

“There’s nowhere we can go,” I whisper. Wow, I am really tired right now. Even with all the music and ponies talking, I feel like I might fall asleep right here in the bar.

After a few minutes where my eyelids seem to be growing heavier by the second, I’m shaken awake. “Snowy and Jure’s place!” Dew Drop exclaims. “It’s not that far from here, and he’s there tonight! Snowy’s not staying there because you know, bride and groom before the wedding and all, but it says nothing about a future sister-in-law! They’ve got a guest bedroom set aside for his parents, but they’re not coming until tomorrow! It’ll be perfect!”

“We’re all staying at the same hotel with mom and dad,” I point out. “They might notice I’m not there.”

“I’ll think of some shit to say,” she dismisses with a wave of her hoof. “I dunno, I was fine and you didn't want to have to deal with your trashed sister, something like that. Details, Aurora! Let me handle those! Now come on, get out of the booth so I can try and get Snowy.”

I slide to the end of the booth, and it takes everything I have to not just fall flat on my side while doing so. My hooves are all pretty wobbly, so I’m just swaying back and forth and trying not to topple over. If standing is this difficult, I’m not looking forward to walking.

Before I know it, Dew Drop’s rested Snowy’s head on her shoulder and has one of her forelegs around her. They start walking towards the exit, so I walk up next to Dew Drop. “Do you need help carrying her?”

“I’ve carried bigger ponies for further distances, I’ll be fine. Just follow me, don’t get lost, act cool, don’t stand out, and for Celestia’s sake, tell me if you have to throw up so you don’t just do it on the sidewalk, okay? I already almost got you arrested once when you were ten, I don’t need to repeat that now that you’re too old to be let off the hook for being a cute little filly.”

I just nod, but I’m not sure she could see that, so I settle for walking behind her. For whatever reason, walking isn’t as difficult as just standing. I guess walking is just falling and catching myself over and over, so now I’m embracing my wooziness instead of trying to correct for it.

My vision kind of fades out for a bit, and when I come back to, we’re walking down the hallway to Snowy and Jure’s apartment. “When’d we get here?” I ask.

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

“Leaving the bar, why?”

“You’re worse than I thought. That was maybe five minutes ago.”

“I’ll be fine,” I reassure her. I’m feeling okay. Ish. I have to admit, my stomach doesn’t really feel great.

“Soon, you’re not gonna be my problem,” she states as she sits Snowy down on the ground against the wall and knocks on the door to their apartment. A few seconds later, Jure opens the door, and Dew Drop basically blocks him from exiting or looking around.

“What’s going on?” he asks, completely lost.

“Okay, first, don’t come out here,” Dew Drop orders. “Your wife-to-be’s here, and you don’t wanna see her before the wedding. Second, we’re varying levels of bad right now. Third, your underage sister-in-law-to-be completely lost the walk from the bar to here, so she needs somepony to take care of her and hide her from her parents until morning.”

Before he can even respond, I walk behind Dew Drop and look Jure in the eye. I don’t really know what to do, so I just give him a big smile and wave at him.

He steps aside, then motions for me to come to him. “Send her in, I’ll watch her tonight.”

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow!” I tell Snowy and Dew Drop before stumbling into the apartment and feeling a hoof put around me.

“You been drinking water tonight?” he asks as he lays me down on the couch.

I try and rack my memories of tonight, but they’re all getting kind of fuzzy. “I don’t know.”

“Just stay there and I’ll get you a glass,” he instructs. I can hear the faucet start running, and before I know it, there’s a cup of water magically being placed into my hooves. Not really sure why he asked about water, but I think Dew Drop mentioned it a few times while we were out, so it must be important. I place the glass to my lips and feel the cold water enter my mouth, and before I can even realize it, it’s completely empty. But before I can say anything, I hear the faucet start running again and the glass is taken away before being returned to me a few seconds later, completely full.

I only finish about half the glass in one go this time, and when I lower it from my face, I can see him sitting at the other end of the couch now. “Just keep drinking as much water as you think you can. It won’t do much now, but it’ll really help you tomorrow.”

I nod, then drink some more and finish it without realizing it. When I do so, his horn lights up and like last time, the cup is taken from me empty and replaced full.

“You three have fun?” he asks with a smile.

“Yeah,” I smile back. “They gave me a lot of alcohol.”

“Could tell from the face,” he points out. “Snowy’s also gets really red when she drinks too much. Doesn’t help that both your coats are light, but at least yours isn’t white like hers.”

I put my water glass to my lips and drink some of it, but unlike the last times, I don’t just finish nearly the whole thing in one gulp and rather just start taking a few sips. I swear I can feel my lightheadedness going down a little bit, and the warmth that was just everywhere in my body starts cooling off. “Why does everypony keep saying to drink water while I’m drinking?” I ask.

“Alcohol dehydrates your body, and a hangover is basically severe dehydration. May have to run to the bathroom a ton tonight, but you’ll be in a lot better shape tomorrow.”

I take a few more sips of water. “You’re not even a doctor, and you know all that stuff. You’re smart, you know? I can see why Snowy likes you.”

He smiles, and I swear I can hear a tiny little chuckle escape him. “Well, I should hope it’s for more than that. She can just buy an encyclopedia if she wants something smart.”

I take a few big gulps of water, then look back at him. “Do you want to marry my sister?”

“Course I do,” he laughs. “You do remember that you're in town for the wedding, correct?”

"I know," I giggle back. "Do you love her?"

"Wouldn't have asked her to spend the rest of her life with me if I didn't."

It’s so nice to hear somepony say that, so I just set my glass down on the coffee table and scoot closer to him with a big smile on my face. “She loves you too, you know. You two are going to be so happy together, I just know it.” I can hardly keep my lips from quivering and eyes from watering as I throw my hooves around him and wrap him in a big hug.

“Definitely her sister,” he laughs as he puts a hoof around me to return the hug. “Yes, I know she loves me.”

I lay my head on his shoulder and close my eyes. “How’d you propose to her?”

“Have we ever told you how we met?”

“In the rain,” I smile broadly. “When you gave her your jacket, were you being nice or did you like her?”

“Little of column A, little of column B. Anyways, I brought her outside the library where we met and arranged for one of my friends who’s a pegasus to bring a cloud over our head and make it rain on us. I asked her once he started making it rain over us.”

“She hates being caught in the rain,” I giggle.

“Yeah,” he laughs, “she was pretty mad until I popped the question. After that, she forgot that her makeup was running and her mane was ruined. She always talked about how she wanted the proposal to be this grand thing where we were both looking our finest and she knew it was coming, but she was gushing to everypony about my meaningful, romantic, unexpected proposal and how much she loved it. Even if she was soaked to the bone in November.”

Closing my eyes made me realize just how tired I was, so I just move my head and rest my cheek on his. “I’m so happy for her, she deserves somepony like you. She’s the best oldest sister I could ever ask for, so make sure you make her super happy, okay? And she wants to have foals, by the way.”

I can feel his head moving back and forth, so he’s probably nodding. “I’m aware, we’ve talked about it. I want them too, but I think we both agree that we want a little time just the two of us before we start a family. We’ll be parents one day for sure.”

“What’re their names going to be?”

“I don’t know,” he laughs. “Knowing Snowy, though, she’s already got a long list for both fillies and colts and is still narrowing them down.”

“She does that,” I agree before letting out a big yawn.

“Want to go to bed?” he asks gently. “You seem pretty tired, and while I don’t know how much alcohol you had, I think two and a half glasses of water is a good amount.”

“I’ll just sleep here,” I whisper as I start relaxing and slowing down my breathing. I wonder what drunk Dreamstriding is like, I should find out. Oh, but I might really screw something up.

“We have a guest room,” he reminds me as he gently shakes me awake. “You’d probably like that better than just falling asleep out here.”

“I probably would,” I agree before letting go of him and sprawling back out on the couch. “You have a really comfy couch, by the way.”

I can hear him laugh a little bit as he helps me up and throws my front hoof around himself. “Come on, bedroom’s not that far away. Can fall asleep once you’re there.”

After what feels like just a few hoofsteps, I open my eyes and see that we’re now in a room with a very clean, well-made bed and some furniture that doesn’t look like it’s ever been used. He walks over to the bed and helps me get in it, and once I pull the covers over myself, my eyes slam shut and I can feel myself drifting off to sleep already.

“I’ll keep the bathroom light on in case you need it,” I can hear Jure say from the door. “I’m probably going to be out here for a little while longer, then go to bed. Come find me if you need anything or you feel like you might be sick, okay?”

I don’t even respond, instead just burying myself further in these super soft sheets. I can hear the door shut, and before I even know it, I’ve completely drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 43

“You got your alarms set? Dew Drop whispers as she walks out of the bathroom and over to me.

I look over at the three alarm clocks on the nightstand next to me, all of them set to a minute after each other. “Yup,” I nod. “If my three and Snowy’s three doesn’t wake us up, it’s got to be some sort of omen.”

“Look at her,” she softly laughs, getting in the bed next to me. “She’s been so antsy and worked up these past few days, I think she just crashed. Her wedding’s early anyways, so good thing. Don’t want her passing out from exhaustion during her big day. Now scoot over, I’m half hanging over the edge here.”

I do so to the best of my ability, but now I’m almost falling off the bed. I look back at Dew Drop, and it doesn’t look like she’s much more in than I am. At the very least, we only have one more night of this. Tomorrow, mom and dad and Jure’s parents got them the honeymoon suite at one of the really nice hotels in the city, meaning Dew Drop and I finally get to have our own beds in this room. There was a few nights ago where we all drank a little too much and I stayed at their apartment, but I hardly remember that anymore, so it hardly counts. Didn’t sleep well, anyways.

“I know you can see in the dark,” she says as her horn lights up and flicks off our lamp, “so you won’t mind if I turn this off. I’m wiped too, and a mare needs her beauty sleep.”

“I’ve told you before, I can’t see in the dark. It’s just that my eyes are much better at using very little light than non-Dreamstriders. Think of it like your eyes adjusting when you turn out the lights, mine just do that much quicker and better.”

She yawns, then turns over. “Explain it to me later, I’m tired. Night.”

“Night,” I sigh as I place my book down on the ground. Nothing about Shooting Star or Baku tonight, not on this trip. Only fun reading. Well, I think the history of non-Equestrian Dreamstriders is fun. I’m apparently in the minority for that opinion, if the other Dreamstriders are any indication.

When I lay down and close my eyes, I can hear a faint snoring coming from Snowy. I can’t help but smile a little bit, because she already snores at her age and gets super defensive when anypony mentions it to her. I’ve almost gotten a little used to it over the past few days, and being such a heavy sleeper means the first few nights didn’t even bother me that much.

It occurs to me as I turn over and try to get comfortable that I haven’t done any Dreamstriding since I’ve gotten here. Suppose it wouldn’t hurt to go and do a quick scan, I know Luna does very brief flybys of the different cities in Equestria, but hooves on the ground would make the investigation a little better.

When I push into the dream world, I come out on one of the higher plateaus on the mountain Manehattan is on. As I walk to the edge and look down, I can see what’s probably hundreds of thousands of dreams all strewn about, nearly blanketing the ground in their gray mist. The moon and stars are nice and bright tonight, so I can see pretty far. There’s even a gentle breeze down below me, because some of the dark blue leaves are gently dancing in it.

“I always did think this mountain was beautiful,” a stallion’s voice says from behind me. I swear I’ve heard that voice before, but I can’t place my hoof on where.

I turn around, and sure enough, there’s a stallion with a pale pink coat and a pure white mane standing in front of me, a sly smile on his face. He’s no Dreamstrider I recognize, which means there’s only one of two possibilities here.

“I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself,” he proclaims as he walks up to the ledge and looks out over it. As I turn around to look out over it all with him, I catch a glimpse of his cutie mark: a few small, white stars in a circle around a bright blue one. “My name is Shooting Star. If the wards you’ve been placing on your dreams are any indication, I assume Princess Luna has informed you who I am?”

Without even saying anything, I just power up my horn with magic. Not anything specific, just magic so I can do whatever it is I might need to. As soon as I do so, though, he just shakes his head.

“I’ve no idea what you’re planning to do, but I promise you it would be a poor idea. We’re not here in the same way.”

“We’re not what?”

“Your body is in the awakened world,” he explains. “This is my body. To spare you details, you are trying to cast a spell through a world with less magic than there is here. It would be quite a feat for you to do anything of significance to me."

“How is your body here?” I ask as I just look him over and look for anything out of the ordinary. Honestly, there's absolutely nothing about him that looks any different than any stallion I'd pass on the street.

“Ask your Princess,” he spits, “for she’s the one that put me here.”

“You tried to kill them! She told me all about the demons you let into the Dreamstriders’ dreams, you should be lucky it was only banishment to the dream world.”

“Not false,” he shrugs, suddenly much calmer than he was before. “But not the full truth. I imagine she did not tell you much beyond such lies?”

“You wanted to rule over both the awakened world and the dream world,” I recall.

“And she likely painted me as a cruel despot, no?” He brings up a hoof and gestures to the landscape in front of us. “Look at all of this. Such a beautiful world, brimming with knowledge, but a dangerous one as well. You have to have been Dreamstriding for a good portion of your life now, so I ask you: how many malevolent demons have you killed? How many more exist beyond Equestria, outside of the barrier we created to keep them out? We have been blessed with one of the greatest gifts in this universe, Aurora, and yet we squander it running around and protecting ponies from sleeplessness and nightmares. How safe could we make them if we had the power to do what it is we need to? Some of the most important pillars of magical knowledge originated with Dreamstriders, imagine what we would be able to do if we were able to devote our full time to that and have nearly limitless resources at our hooves!”

“And we do that by trying to kill the other Dreamstriders and mutilating their families? I saw the village where the descendants of the original Dreamstriders live, they told me about what you did to them.”

“They refused to listen, just as Princess Luna did. At first they all ignored me, then they tried to silence me.”

“So you silenced all of them, innocent ponies included, just because they wouldn’t listen to you?”

“I silenced them to punish the head Dreamstrider for what he did,” he corrects. “I knew that the only thing he would want was forgiveness from the others, so I made them incapable of doing so.”

“You’re just…” I train off, not even knowing where to continue that though. “Evil. You would seriously hurt so many ponies so badly just to do something you want to do, even when they did absolutely nothing to you in return?”

“Stuck in your own beliefs,” he scoffs. “I see the Princess has learned nothing from our disagreements. Closed-mindedness and a refusal to see beyond what you are told are what destroyed the Dreamstriders a thousand years ago, not me.”

“You destroyed them,” I assert. “I know about Baku. Why would you be trying to free such a powerful malevolent demon if you weren’t trying to destroy us and rule with an iron hoof?”

“Do you believe Princess Celestia to be a benevolent ruler?” he asks out of the blue.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Answer the question,” he commands. “Do you believe Princess Celestia to be a benevolent ruler?”

“Yeah,” I nod.

He laughs for a few seconds, then looks me straight in the eyes. “If she is a benevolent ruler, why does she maintain one of the most powerful standing armies in the world? Why is she constantly surrounded by ponies whose entire career revolves ending the lives of others as quickly and efficiently as possible? Why does she train a small number of unicorns in magic powerful enough to obliterate entire cities with a few carefully-crafted spells if she is a benevolent ruler?”

“That’s different!” I assert. “She’s not using it to take over, only in defense of innocent ponies.”

“And is eradicating the world of dangerous demons not defense of innocents? Is using magical knowledge to better our world not defense of innocents? No one climbs to the top of a mountain without using their muscles, and that is why I gather allies for my cause.” The intensity quickly fades from his face, and he is looking at me now not out of determination, but of pensiveness. “We need not fight each other, Aurora. We are both Dreamstriders, members of an organization perfectly positioned to improve the world but instead choosing to waste that opportunity. We could work together to create a better world, one where stopping nightmares and mindless patrols are moot points, unnecessary relics of a lost age. I would welcome you as my equal, should you choose it.”

“I’d never work with you,” I reply without hesitation. “Regardless of what you say you want, you’re willing to make anypony who stands in your way suffer. I can’t support that.”

“I had hoped this generation of Dreamstriders was able to think for themselves,” he sighs. “Unfortunately, it appears you’re just the same as my colleagues. A shame, really.”

“A shame we have empathy and a conscience?” I rephrase for him.

“You dislike me because I would hurt ponies. Would I hurt those who side with me? I am not a perpetrator of senseless violence, despite what you appear to think. I would not kick down an unlocked door, much as I would not harm any of those who agree with me.”

“All I hear is that you see the rest of as obstacles.” Silently, I shake my head. “Not intelligent ponies who have their own ideas and views, but roadblocks to what you want. I can either be with you or against you, in your eyes.”

“And yet you fail to realize your own hypocrisy in saying that,” he speaks, his voice much softer and less worked up than it has been. “I see where you stand. I gave you an opportunity and you rejected it, so do not expect to come back to me later and find a warm welcome.”

Before I can respond, he turns around and starts walking away from me. “I will see you again someday, although I do think it shall be less civil than our meeting today.”

“We know you’re planning to attack this time,” I remind him. “You won because you had the element of surprise, but without that, you don’t have anything.”

“We shall see!” he calls back as he begins walking down the mountain before disappearing in a teleportation spell.

I guess there’s not much else I can do tonight. Not like he told me where he was going or anything.

Suppose I just have to go to sleep and hope I can rest up for my sister’s wedding tomorrow.

Chapter 44

“Aurora!” Dew Drop yells, jolting me alert from the half-sleep I was drifting off into.

I turn my head to her, then feel her hooves grab it and turn it even more towards her. “What are you doing?”

“Getting your earrings in, duh,” she scoffs as I can feel some cold metal start poking through my ears. “You need coffee or something? You seem exhausted. I know it sucks that Snowy’s wedding is a morning one but hey, she’s our sister. We gotta just deal with her crappy decisions.”

“I’m right here!” she yells from the enormous mirror a few feet away where she’s brushing her mane.

“Why I said it,” Dew Drop coos back. “But hey, if it saves you a few thousand bits on such a great venue, guess you can’t complain. I’m not actually doing it, I’m just doing it cause I love you.”

Snowy just shakes her head in silence. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

Dew Drop stops in the middle of putting my jewelry in, leaving my head in this awkward position with her hooves all over them. “Snowy, real talk. You know I don’t actually mean it when I pester you, right?”

“I know,” she nods. “Dew Drop, you know exactly how to get under my skin, you always have. And you’ve decided to use that power only for evil. Again, always have. But I know you’re trying to be annoying, and that you care deep down.” With great effort, she turns to look at us and smiles. “Face it Dew Drop, you love me. And because I know you, I dare you five bits that you can’t say you love me with a straight face.”

Dew Drop looks down at me and starts silently laughing. At least, I think that’s what’s happening, because I can only barely see her out of the corner of my eye.

“I do love you, Snowy,” she admits as she continues putting sharp pins in my ears. “So many of my friends just bitch about their older siblings, and I can say that you’re not like that. I’m glad we actually get along.”

“Turns out all I had to do is get married to get you to admit you love me,” she giggles as she turns back to her mirror and begins brushing her mane. “I’m glad we don’t hate each other, Dew Drop. And you too, Aurora. Not going to be those sisters who just fight all the time and then bitch about each other behind our backs.”

“You told me about the sisters’ weekends,” I call out to her as Dew Drop turns my head to start putting earrings in my left ear. “I don’t really have free time, but you and Dew Drop can go without me.”

“It’s sisterses’ weekend, not sister’s weekend,” Snowy responds. “All of us or none of us. And we all have big filly jobs, right? So we can take time off, not like we have school or anything.”

“Or foals,” Dew Drop adds in. “At least, that you’re telling us.”

As Snowy just starts scoffing, a smile grows on my face and I have to keep myself from laughing. “She told me to use condoms when she was drunk. I think if Drunk Snowy is that safe, Sober Snowy is probably even more so.”

“Because that’s what I want to talk about on the morning of my wedding. Is that what you two did in Canterlot for four years, teach Aurora how to annoy me?”

Before either of us can respond, the door to our dressing room opens and mom pokes her head in. “Do you mind if dad comes in with me?”

“We’re all dressed,” Snowy replies, putting her brush down. “Just manes and makeup going on in here.”

“Aurora and I are almost done with getting ready, anyways,” Dew Drop says as I can see mom and dad walk on. “Jewelry for both of us, and then we’re all finished. Snowy’s the one that has a lot to still do.”

“I should go see how all the preparations are going,” dad says as he starts backing up towards the door and opening it with his magic. It’s hard to swap glances with Dew Drop given my position, but we do because we both know what dad’s just backing out of manes and makeup and jewelry like he did once it got serious and not us just being cute little fillies.

“You go do that,” mom says absentmindedly while going to Snowy and sitting down. They start talking to each other and dad’s no longer in the room, so Dew Drop and I just sit in silence while she pokes my ears full of earrings before moving onto her own. Snowy isn’t even in her dress by the time we get done, so we can either sit here and do nothing or go and check the venue out.

Upon walking outside of the bride’s dressing room, we’re greeted with a surprisingly dinky and pathetic hallway with a few flickering wall lights. Once we walk to the end of the hallway and go up the stairs, however, we’re greeted with a warm ocean breeze as we walk out onto the deck of the Manehattan Boathouse. The chairs are all set up now and the sun is starting to rise behind us, making this just all start feeling real. It’s just so strange: they’ve been engaged for months and dating for years, but it feels almost too real to be happening.

“Hey!” Jure exclaims from behind us, walking between me and Dew Drop and putting a hoof on each of our shoulders. “You two look really nice today, thank you so much for agreeing to be the bridesmaids. How’s Snowy doing?”

“Still got a lot of stuff to do,” she responds, turning her head to him. “You look pretty handsome, yourself. Gonna make our sister a lucky mare.”

“Keep saying it and maybe it’ll be true,” he laughs while bringing his hooves down. “I’m the lucky one today, and I’m going to be honored to be a part of your family. You’ll finally have a brother, and I’ll finally have some siblings. Always wanted some when I was younger.”

“Be careful what you wish for,” she winks, “cause you might end up with us as your little sisters.”

“Snowy told me the exact same thing. You’re not as bad as you two say you are, Dew Drop. Besides, you’ve now got me as a brother, so who’s really getting the short end of the stick?”

“A small price to pay to make our sister happy,” she says with a wave of her hoof. “She seems to like you, and she’s the important one to win over. I’m glad that you’re the one she found, by the way. Most stallions weren’t able to handle all of her.”

“Yeah, she told me about her earlier boyfriends. She knows she can be a bit of a hoofful sometimes, but I wouldn’t trade her for anypony else. Not like I don’t have my own things she gets frustrated at, anyways.”

“There you are!” a mare exclaims before walking up to us, a single flower in her magic. “You still need your lapel. And you two mares are…?”

“Aurora and Dew Drop,” he replies, pointing at us while the mare puts the flower in his suit jacket. “They’re my future sister-in-laws. Sisters-in-law? Whatever, they’re Snowy’s sisters.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” she smiles, turning to us after the flower gets pinned. “Inter Alia, although you may just call me Alia. I’m Jure’s mother. You two must be very excited for your sister today.”

“He’s a suitable catch. You’ve gotta be excited to have your only foal getting married off.”

“I have to enjoy it while I can, it’s hopefully the only wedding I get to go to as the mother.” She looks back at him, a sly smile growing on her face. “Although I will say, I wouldn’t mind working with the mother of the bride to make another photo board where I get to go through both every cute and every embarrassing photo of you two as foals to display at the reception.”

“I’ve got nothing to hide,” he shrugs. “Snowy’s going to be the one who gets embarrassed. Her mom’s probably showed me the vast majority of those already, though, so not like you’re going to be digging up any dirt I’m not already aware of.”

“He must not have seen the ducky hat photo if he still wants to go through with this,” Dew Drop whispers to me, a smile growing on her face.

“I’ve seen all the ducky hat photos,” he corrects. “I don’t care what she says, they’re adorable. I’m told it’s still probably buried in some closet somewhere, but she hates it when I try and convince her to recreate the photos.”

“Your cousins should be arriving soon,” his mother cuts in before taking a few steps away from us. “I’ll go greet them, so you’ll have a few minutes to do whatever it is you need to do before all the guests start arriving.”

Jure waves a quick goodbye to her, then looks back at both of us and gets a small but very warm smile on his face. “I’d like to thank you two again before all the chaos of today starts. The sisters of my only serious ex-girlfriend were...well, honestly kind of bitches. They talked bad about me behind my back a lot, and kept looking for reasons that I wasn’t deserving of her or some stupid stuff like that. I know Snowy’s probably said it to you today, but we really do appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”

“So you appreciate us not trying to break you two up?” she paraphrases. “Bit of a low bar to clear, isn’t it?”

“It may be, but that doesn’t mean we’re not grateful that you cleared it. A lot of ponies just get really defensive of their family whenever a serious partner comes into the picture, get to thinking that they’re not deserving of their sibling or foal or whatever it may be.”

“We’re glad to have you,” she smiles as her voice actually gets a little soft and caring. “Enjoy me being serious while it lasts, Jure, but thank you for everything you’ve done for her. She wasn’t nearly as happy with any of her exes as she is with you. The fact that you actually care about who she is deep down is unprecedented.”

“What can I say? She lured me in with a beautiful face, but kept me with her beautiful heart. And we just...get each other. I hardly have to explain my feelings to her anymore because she just understands me, and I think that’s why I love her so much.”

“Hey, so long as you can understand her. Frankly, I’m not sure even she understands herself at times, so it’s great that at least one of you can keep up.”

“She’s not so hard to understand. Very particular, but you spend enough time with her you start realizing how she thinks and learn what she needs. More often than not it’s just somepony to calmly walk her back once she starts getting worked up, but the most important thing I’ve found is to just listen to her. With a grain of salt, of course. When she does get really worked up, she doesn’t necessarily have a way with words.”

“Does she just say ‘guh’ a lot?” Dew Drop giggles.

“Nearly every other word,” he laughs. “I think it’s a little charming. She gets cute when she’s flustered.” He cranes his neck up, then back down to look at us again. “Guess my mom couldn’t keep my family out forever. Everpony’s gonna be arriving now, I suppose. Bit surreal to actually be here on my wedding day. Woke up by myself this morning, and when I go to sleep tonight, I’ll be next to my wife.”

“Cold hooves?”

“Nah,” he shakes his head. “Haven’t second-guessed the proposal yet. You two will understand once your time comes. Anyways, my cousins are anything but patient, so I’ll probably only get to talk to you guys at or after the reception. Have fun!” Before either of us can respond, he trots over to the entrance and is surrounded by what looks like a small army of ponies.

Dew Drop just starts walking to the head of the venue where they’re going to actually get married, so I just follow her. She walks to the railing and places her front hooves on it, just looking out over the water.

“Don’t go getting married on me,” she jokes. “I get she’s maybe on the earlier end of ages to get married at, but I can hardly believe she’s only two years older than me and already getting married. Doesn’t seem that long ago we would just sit in the shower and not even clean off, just play with our dolls and pretend they were in the rain. Give it another ten years and maybe her daughters will be doing the same thing.”

“We’d be aunts,” I point out. “The day she tells us she’s pregnant is really going to be a weird one.”

“Her foals are going to make her go insane,” she laughs. “She’s going to love them more than anything else in the world, but they are going to drive her up the wall.”

As she’s speaking, I squint my eyes and throw a hoof over them to shield them from the bright morning sun on the Manehattan Harbor. If this was an evening wedding the sun would be setting over the harbor right as they exchanged vows, but it’s a morning wedding, so the sun is behind us. In some way this might be nicer, because I think everypony would just be blinded if they had to stare right into the sunset while the wedding is going on.

This’ll be nice. Today I can be happy and celebrate one of the biggest days of my sister’s life, and then tomorrow I jump right back into all my responsibilities and all my worry.

Right back to the world of reality.

Chapter 46

“Ahem,” somepony clears their throat above me, causing me to look up from my desk and come eye-to-eye with Sveta, who has somehow placed a jar of tea on my desk without me even noticing.

“What’s this for?” I ask as I pull the small glass flask towards me and unscrew it before taking a sniff. It smells almost like an old stone building, undisturbed by time. Kind of like when I’ve gone on tours of some of the old castle ruins around Equestria.

“You are to drink it and meet the Princess promptly,” she states. “She wished that I convey the urgency of this, and that you are to go perform this task now.”

Well, going and Dreamstriding gets me out of filing reports, so she doesn’t have to tell me twice. I get up and give her a quick smile, then grab the jar in my magic and enter my room. As I shoot my kettle with a spell to heat up the water, I just get to wondering: what is so urgent that it came up this quickly and she needed me to do it right this second? Normally I at least get some heads up about things she wants me to do, and not since I was training to be a Dreamstrider has she really sent me tea and told me to use it to meet her somewhere in the dream world. Teaching me about Shooting Star notwithstanding, of course.

Some steam starts coming out of my tea kettle, so I place it and an infuser full of the tea and place it on my nightstand before getting into bed. After giving it a minute or two to cool down so it won’t burn my mouth, I take it in my hooves and start drinking.

As soon as I swallow, the magic inside of me just starts feeling...plentiful is the best way to describe it. Almost like it’s overflowing, as if it’s just going to start seeping out of me at any second. It thankfully doesn’t as I close my eyes and push through into the dream world.

My hooves clack as they hit the ground, which is odd; most times I come out onto grass or dirt, not stone. As I look down, however, I see that it isn’t just stone I’m on; it’s a floor. As in, a very intricate stone floor that somepony or something had to have created in order for it to be here.

“I am glad to see that you have made it,” Luna’s cheery voice echoes from somewhere deeper inside of whatever this structure is. I have to slowly turn around and very thoroughly scan everywhere to find her because of how big this place is, but she’s standing all the way down at the other end of this long room next to some sort of pedestal. “Come join me, will you?”

I can’t help but look all around me as I walk towards her, because this place is just surreal. It reminds me of Princess Celestia’s throne room, and strangely enough, the windows lining these walls appear to be stained-glass depictions of different cities in Equestria. As I pass by the Manehattan one, something catches my eye. Once I stand there for a few seconds and stare at it, I can see that there are tiny ripples in the water and a boat is starting to come into view. Whether or not this is a real-time depiction of Manehattan, some really crazy magic is going on here.

“We are in the dream world, right?” I absentmindedly ask as I start walking up the stairs towards Luna.

“Indeed we are,” she nods. “Welcome to the Elder Halls, Aurora. One of the oldest points in all of time.”

When I get up the stairs and stand next to Luna, I can see that she’s standing next to what looks almost like a bird bath filled with some blue-silver liquid. This isn’t even the end of this room, because I can see that there are stairs that go beyond from us and down into pitch blackness. A single metal rod goes from side wall to side wall between us and the back of this building, where an enormous wall of stained glass depicts the night sky.

“I just…” I trail off. “I don’t even know where to start. What even is this place?”

“You are in my sanctuary,” a voice that’s simultaneously very deep and very soft says. Some fog starts coming out of the bottomless pit and coalesces itself on the metal rod, and it eventually takes the form of an enormous butterfly just perched there, watching us.

“You speak Demon,” I point out, “but you don’t look like any demon I’ve studied. What are you?”

“This is Borboleta,” Luna says. “An elder demon.”

“Elder demon?” I repeat. “Nopony’s ever met an elder demon before, how did you find this one?”

“Not easily,” she laughs. “Borboleta has agreed to fight Shooting Star with us.”

“The Nightmare is a threat to every demon,” it adds in. “If he is allowed free reign over our world, he would subjugate any demon who opposes him. We must not allow an awakened to deprive us of our liberty, for it goes against the natural order of both our world and yours.”

“And what’s this?” I ask, looking back at the bird bath and see my reflection in it almost like a mirror.

“Those are the Avenues,” it explains. “The connections between this world and the awakened world.”

“Our dreams are our own Avenue,” Luna adds. “A small area not within the awakened world or the dream world, where both we and demons may freely interact. Outside of Dreamstriders, it is the only place where those of the awakened world and demons may be side-by-side.”

“And I oversee them. Although we are few, us elder demons play important roles in the dream world.”

“Do you know where The Nightmare or Baku are?” I ask.

“Baku is not a name I have heard in a long time,” it reminisces. “A demon who grew fat by devouring the dreams of Neighpan, and now has insatiable hunger. It truly still lives?”

“The Nightmare has made some sort of deal with it, and I believe he has freed it. Or at least, he is trying to.”

“The first one,” a voice I instantly recognize as Shooting Star’s says in Equestrian. Both Luna and I shoot our heads back to see him walking up to us, a small smile on his face. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it Princess?”

Without even saying anything, Luna shoots a beam of magic from her horn, only for him to teleport off to the side and avoid it. “We don’t have to fight, you know. I’d accept your surrender right here and now.”

“I would sooner die,” she spits back.

“You may end up regretting saying that, by the way. But if you want to fight, go through all the headache like we did a thousand years ago, then have it.”

“You lost last time,” I yell at him. “Why would this time be any different?”

“You’re spunky for...what are you now, eighteen? I was alive before your great-great-grandparents’ great-great-grandparents’ great-great-grandparents were even shitting in their diapers, what makes you think you can intimidate me?”

“Resorting to petty insults when confronted with the truth, Shooting Star? I thought you always believed yourself above such pettiness.”

“I won’t lose this time,” he shakes his head confidently. “Xibalba, the Ankou, that wonderful little fury demon...they weren’t my best recruiting efforts.”

“You lost because without the element of surprise, you are nothing,” she scoffs. “I suppose I give you the same proposition: surrender now, and I promise your death will be swift.”

“My death?” he echoes. “My, you have changed.”

Just as Luna charges up her horn again, he teleports away. Almost as soon as he’s gone, however, the ground starts shaking. I’ve never felt an earthquake, but I imagine this is what one feels like.

“Does the dream world get earthquakes?” I ask.

“No,” Borboleta replies, causing my heart to sink.

A few seconds later, the back wall explodes, sending stone and dust everywhere. Instinctively I put a hoof up to my eyes to shield them, and then I bring it down and see the biggest devourer demon I’ve ever laid eyes on. The ceilings in here have to be at least a hundred feet tall, and this thing is almost touching them.

“That’s Baku?” I barely manage to squeak out.

Before either Luna or I can do anything, a giant cloud flies over us towards Baku. Actually, not a cloud, but Borboleta. It slams into Baku and plants a few of its feet in various eyes, causing it to cry out in pain.

Because Borboleta is right on top of Baku, however, it manages to sink its fangs into its foggy body, sending a very deep reverberation throughout this area. Its mouth then opens, and it seems to almost suck all of Borboleta’s fog inside as effortlessly as breathing in smoke from a fire.

“Did that thing just kill an elder demon in seconds?” I panic, feeling a few tears start to build up in my eyes as it charges towards us.

The only response I get is Luna’s horn powering up and shooting at Baku. Halfway there it turns from just a bolt of magic into a glowing chain, and when it hits one of its back legs, they instantly bolt to the ground. Given that this thing was running full speed ahead, however, the sudden stop causes it to lurch forward and almost have its front legs completely crush us. But before they can come down on us, I feel Luna’s hoof around me and see a flash of light. We’re now next to our dreams at the destroyed end of the Halls, so she teleported us out of safety.

One of Baku’s front legs reaches out and goes towards the bird bath, and the second it touches it, the entirety of the demon just seems to melt into the same reflective liquid as was in the bowl and seeps into the ground.

“What just happened?” I scream, hardly able to see now through the tears in my eyes. When I don’t get a response, I turn to Luna, who is just staring ahead with what I can only guess is shock on her face. “Luna?”

“Baku got to the Avenues,” she speaks after a few moments.

“And?”

“That means Baku got to our world.”

“It what?” I scream even louder.

“We can fix this,” she proclaims before putting a hoof on me and teleporting us back up to the bowl of water. “Aurora, I need you to listen very carefully. Can you do that?”

“Okay,” I nod quickly.

“Place your hoof in the water,” she instructs. When I do as she tells me, she places a hoof in as well and uses her free front hoot to turn my chin to her. “I don’t know what other demons Shooting Star has in store for us, and he knows where the Avenues are. While they’re far away from anywhere else in the dream world and require great difficulty to get to, he could still get here with enough determination. So, I am doing what we need to: I am closing the Avenues.”

“You’re going to sever everypony’s connection to the dream world?”

“They can be reopened later,” she reassures me. “But I need you to keep your hoof in here until I teleport us back to our dreams. I then need you to get back to the awakened world as quickly as possible and find me. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I nod. “I think.”

“Do you or do you not?” she yells, the first time I’ve actually experienced her yell at me.

“I do,” I nod.

“Please forgive me if I fail,” she whispers. After taking a deep breath, she bows her head down to the bowl and takes a mouthful of the water, but doesn’t swallow. Her horn then lights up, and the liquid still remaining is enveloped in her magical aura. Within seconds, the water changes from the perfectly reflective surface to just regular clear water, allowing me to see the bottom.

I feel her hoof be placed on me again, and before I can process it, we’re back at our dreams and she’s jumping into her own. It soon disappears, shocking me back into reality and making me process what’s happening all around me. With no time to lose, I jump into my dream and push back into the awakened world.

Even before the feeling of my blankets returns to me, I hear the sound of sirens blaring.

Chapter 47

“Aurora!” I hear Moonlight franticly banging on my door. “If you’re in there, we have to evacuate!”

My eyes jolt open, and just as I try to scramble out of my bed but instead get twisted in my sheets and fall on the floor, my door swings open. “They’re ordering the entire city to get underground!” he blurts out as he rushes into my room. “We have to go.”

“You go!” I order as I untangle myself. “Get everypony out of here, but Luna told me I have to go find her. Stay safe.”

He just fidgets there for a few seconds, then turns around. “I’m getting an explanation after all this!” he yells to me as he runs back into the Dreamstrider wing and starts banging on other doors.

I run out into the main wing myself and to the window overlooking the city of Canterlot, and I can see Baku right outside the palace, multiple city blocks just leveled in its carnage. And the worst part is, it just got here. Multiple armored pegasi and bat ponies are swarming around it in formation, and I can see lots of similarly-armored unicorns on the ground trying to shoot spells at it to no avail. One flyer catches my eye, however, and I can see that it’s Luna. She’s not fighting, though. She appears to almost be looking for something.

I try to go and open one of the panes on my window, and for some reason, I’m losing all memory of how to do this despite having done this a million times when it gets hot in the summer. Instead of trying to fight this, I power up my horn and blast a hole in the glass, then poke my head out. “Luna!” I yell as loud as I can.

She hears that, then flies over to me quicker than I’ve ever seen her move. “Go to my quarters,” she instructs. “There shall be a jar there, filled with the liquid from the Avenues. I am going to need to chain all of Baku’s legs, then you will need to get that liquid onto it and cast a devourer demon banishing spell on the water. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I frantically nod.

“That jar is the only opportunity we have,” she states. “I cannot stress how important it is that you get that onto Baku. Now go, my faithful student. Go!”

I turn around and start running only to forget that my desk exists and topple over it, sending paperwork and quills flying everywhere. A bottle of ink whacks me on the forehead and starts spilling down my face, but thankfully it didn’t get in my eyes so I can still see. As quickly as possible, I jump back onto my hooves and start running as fast as I can towards the door.

Once I get out into the hallway, an earth pony Royal Guard grabs me and pulls me back to him. “We have to get you underground!” he yells as I start trying to squirm out of his grasp. “This is for your own safety!”

“Luna needs me!” I yell back. “I have to get to her quarters!”

“All civilians are required to evacuate,” he grunts, beginning to pull me towards the stairs. “You could die if you stay up here!”

Without even thinking, I shoot a paralyzing curse at him, and as his stiff body starts falling to the ground, I manage to wriggle out of his hooves and start running. Maybe I could’ve talked to him and maybe I’ll be facing some serious repercussions for attacking a member of the military, but all those thoughts get shoved out of my head as I’m just giving my all into sprinting towards Luna’s personal wing.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of stairs leading up to where Luna lives, and before I can even get there, I collapse. I try to move my legs up, but they just feel so heavy now. But I have to keep going, so I force myself to move through the pain. It’s slow, but I’m getting there.

Before long, a group of bat ponies starts coming down and passing me, with some flying and some just walking down the stairs and stepping over or around me. When Sveta comes down and sees me, she meets my eyes and then looks up.

“Aparator!” she calls, causing one of the stallions to stop and look at her. “We need to get her to the Princess’ room!”

He nods, then flies down and puts me on his back like I weigh nothing. I can feel a pair of hooves placed around my stomach, and I can see that Sveta is flying over me and making sure I don’t fall off of him.

As soon as we get to the door to Luna’s private quarters, the stallion I’m on drops me off before turning around and flying downstairs. Sveta helps me up, then looks me in the eye. “You need anything else?” she asks.

“I think I’m good,” I pant. “Just gotta keep going.”

“Niciodată nu vei trece oceanul până când nu vei avea curajul să pierzi din vedere malul,” she says with a pat on my shoulder. “Whatever it is you need to do, just go and do it!”

I’m not even sure what she just told me, but she too turns around and starts flying down the stairs. The door to her chambers is still open, so I run through it and start scanning but don’t find anything that looks like the water from the Avenues. The door to her room is open and while I feel like that might be an invasion of her privacy to go in there, but it’s a desperate time. She’ll understand.

As soon as I walk inside, I see the small jar resting on her bed in the shape of a half moon. I almost feel bad with every passing second I’m in here, so I just grab the jar in my magic and bring it over to me, cradling it close so it doesn’t break. Carefully as to not jostle this too much and potentially have it fall out of my hooves, I trot over to the door and exit her room, then very carefully watch my three free hooves as I begin descending the stairs.

Before I can even process what’s happening, the tower around me erupts in a shower of dust and pebbles, and my stomach starts lurching up further in my chest as I begin a straight freefall towards the palace courtyard.

My mind starts going a million miles an hour trying to figure out what I can do, but there’s so much going on that I can’t stick with any one thought for longer than just a quick passing second. Should I teleport? Try to envelop myself in magic and guide myself to the ground softer? Start crying?

Well, regardless, I’m doing that last one.

I don’t want to die. Not yet, not ever. But especially not yet.

I’m not sure how long the next events last for, but I think my body is being pumped with so much adrenaline that the very essence of time itself begins slowing down.

I can’t exactly see much through my tear-stained eyes, but I can feel a body whose coat I can only describe as having the warmth of the sun itself wrap itself around me and put its hooves in my chest. There’s a flash of bright yellow light, and then all I can see if water rapidly approaching me. I hang onto the jar for dear life as I go under, and as soon as I do, I feel the other body let go of me. Swimming is difficult with only three free hooves, but I manage to surface and tread water well enough to keep my head above the surface.

“Aurora!” Princess Celestia calls from nearby. Looking around to find her is difficult while treading water, but I find her along with me in what I can now see is the palace moat. “Are you alright?”

“Freaked out but yes,” I call back as I begin swimming towards the shore. “Did you just save my life?”

“You need to evacuate,” she states while swimming up next to me. “We don’t even know what this thing is or where it came from, much less how to defeat it.”

“Long story short, it’s a demon,” I tell her as I walk out of the water and onto the banks of the moat. “Luna needs to chain its legs, then I need to get the contents of this jar onto it and banish it back to the dream world.”

“I shall never understand anything my sister does,” she sighs. “I will order the Royal Guard to keep you and Princess Luna safe. Hopefully when all of this is over, you two can fill me in on everything.” With that, she disappears in another flash of bright yellow light as she teleports somewhere else.

By the time I get onto the road, I look over to Baku and see that three of its legs are already chained to the ground. It appears to be struggling to try and rip them up, but the combination of the thick Canterlot streets along with the fact that it no longer has momentum from running means that it’s staying right where it is. The Royal Guard seem to almost know what Luna’s doing, since unlike when we started, they don’t seem to be attacking it but rather trying to distract it. It seems to be working because Luna very quickly gets another two of its legs chained to the ground seemingly without it noticing. It is learning, however, because now it is doing everything it can to try and focus on Luna. While having now over half of its legs chained to the ground is definitely restricting its movement, it is still managing to get a few good swipes in at her.

I’m definitely too far away from Baku to get this jar on it, so I’m going to have to get closer to this monstrosity if I want to be effective. Ponies and Guards are running in all different directions, and it’s hard to really tell which way is forward because of all the commotion. It’s not very far away from the castle thankfully, and I think that if I make it to Princess Celestia’s School, I should be able to hide and then levitate the water onto it once the time comes.

The closer I get to the school, the less hectic it gets since everypony is running away from the enormous demon in the middle of Canterlot instead of towards it like me. Luna even gets one of its legs chained before I can get there, meaning there are only two to go before we can send it back to wherever in the dream world it came from.

It’s pretty much just Royal Guards by the time I get to hide behind the fillies’ dormitories, and either they’ve stopped trying to get me to evacuate or they realize I must belong if I’m crazy enough to start running right towards a demon.

I peek out around the corner, and can see Luna flying on the side further from me, dodging Baku’s swipes as she tries to get close enough to chain its leg. In some weird way, it looks even harder now that it’s almost completely tethered since it only has two legs it needs to watch out for. They also appear to need to be on the ground for the spell to work, so now she’s needing to trick it to put its leg down as opposed to just going for the ones that are already there.

As she dives down mere inches from the ground, Baku attempts to pin her, but a teleport at the last second moves her out of the way of its massive leg. Before it can reach by pulling it back up, she launches the spell at it and brings it down to just one free leg.

At this point, though, it seems to know that she’s just trying to completely ground all of its legs, so it brings up its one free leg and very carefully avoids touching the ground with it. Even when she tempts it like she was earlier by flying close and then going into nosedives, it’s not going for what it knows is an obvious trap. It’s even now completely ignoring the Royal Guards, and their spells and attacks seem to be doing absolutely nothing. After a few minutes, Luna just flies below its free leg and powers up its horn before just flying in place.

“Art thou such a coward?” she speaks in her Royal Canterlot Voice, which is very strange because I’ve never even heard Demon spoken at a loud volume before. “Attack me right here, right now! Thine cowardice would not allow it!”

Baku screeches, then thrusts its leg down right on top of Luna. She tries to fly out of the way, but it comes down too quickly and I can see her get knocked off to the side. Somehow, however, a beam of magic comes from her horn as its leg lands on the ground, the final chain needed before I can go and do what it is I need to do.

My heart now pounding through my chest and banging like a drum in my head, I grab the jar in my magic and start just booking it towards Baku. I don’t know if it even can break out of those chains, but I don’t want to hesitate nonetheless. As I get closer and closer, I move the jar towards it and as soon as I get close enough to where I could confidently pour all of the water on it, I open the jar and just turn it over so it all spills out onto it. I charge up my horn with a devourer demon banishing spell which I never thought I’d ever need to use in the awakened world and let it loose. As soon as it hits where I poured the Avenues all over it, what looks like a massive pool of gray mist opens below it. It shrieks just like it did in the dream world, then gets sucked into the pool. Once it’s completely developed by it, the pool just dissipates, as if there was just nothing there to begin with.

Now that the entire city is no longer in mortal peril, my heart stops toying with the idea of exploding and my muscles relax, to the point where my back legs just turn to jelly and I just fall down and sit there. I know what just happened because I saw it with my own two eyes, but I can hardly even believe it. An hour ago I was up to my neck in paperwork, and now a significant portion of the city is in ruins, including Luna’s personal tower.

Wait.

I never saw Luna get back up.

Almost as if I’m not even controlling my body, I get up and just start walking towards where I saw her get knocked to. I’m so lightheaded though, so I can hardly even focus on what I’m doing.

“Ma’am!” an earth pony Royal Guard yells as he runs up to me and puts his hooves on my shoulders. “You need to get back home, for your own safety.”

“She got hurt,” is all I can say.

“You need to go home,” he orders again. “It might still be dangerous out here.”

“But she’s hurt.”

“Who’s hurt?” he asks.

“Luna. I need to check on her.”

“Who’s Luna? A friend, a sister, a daughter?”

“Princess Luna,” I clarify. “Baku attacked her, and she hasn’t gotten up. I need to make sure she’s safe.”

“We’ll be checking on her and making sure she gets any medical attention she needs,” he reassures me. “Do you need me to bring you home?”

“No, I can get home.” He takes his hooves off of me, but just stands there and looks at me for a few moments. Eventually, he just takes my hoof in his.

“Where do you live?” he asks.

“The castle.”

I swear I can hear him sigh a little bit. “What’s your address?”

“I’m in the castle,” I repeat. “Dreamstrider wing.”

“Well, come on.” He starts leading me back to the castle, and the entire walk back and even when he makes sure I get into my room and onto my couch before leaving, I’m just staring blankly ahead with one question:

Is Luna okay?

Chapter 48

Even though it’s been hours since Baku was sent back to the dream world, I’m still just staring blankly ahead, looking at nowhere in particular. I’ve tried to read some of the magazines they have in this waiting room, but haven’t been able to focus on anything. Even the water bottle I asked for a few hours ago is only a few sips less full, because nothing in my body even seems to be working today. I don’t think I’ve even eaten since breakfast, but don’t feel hungry. Hardly even thirsty, either.

My eyes drift up to the clock because of how few ponies are here, and I can see that it’s one in the morning already. I don’t even feel tired, even though I woke up at a pretty reasonable hour today. Maybe that’s another part of me shutting down while I’m trying to process everything that went on today. I bet I’m going to be hungry and thirsty and exhausted tomorrow.

A few minutes later, I hear some hoofsteps coming from down the hall. When they turn the corner, I see Princess Celestia, but she looks so different than every other time I’ve ever seen her, in pictures or otherwise. Her mane doesn't have quite the literal flow it usually does, just kind of limply hanging and swaying. Her face is heavy, and that’s to say nothing of the puffy red eyes and tear-stained coat. To put it simply, she looks like a mare. Not a Princess, not a ruler, not an alicorn, just a regular mare.

“She said she wants to speak with you,” she mutters, her voice weak and cracked no doubt from crying. “Just you, alone.”

“Are you sure?” I ask as I stand up and walk a little closer to her. “You can go back in if you want.”

“Perhaps it is good I take a break,” she sighs. “I need a few minutes to myself, to gather my thoughts.”

“Thanks for saving my life, by the way,” I tell her as I start walking towards Luna’s room. “Not only would we not have been able to stop Baku without it, but you know...personally, I’m not really ready to die just yet.”

“I am glad I was able to save at least one pony, today. When I look out on such beautiful city and see the awe-inspiring buildings stained red with my former citizens…” She just trails off, then closes her eyes. “In times like these, one’s mind cannot help itself but to wonder what she could have done differently.”

I don't even know what to say to a Princess going through all of this, so I just lick my lips a little bit to moisten them and continue walking towards the room Luna is in. Two unicorn Royal Guards are standing in front of the door, and the one on the right opens the door as I approach.

As soon as I walk into her hospital room, I’m hit with by far the most unpleasant scent that’s ever entered my nose. Most prevalent is just the smell of iron, which I can guess is coming from the deep red bandage wrapped around where her back right leg used to be. It’s probably a good thing I haven’t eaten since the morning, because I feel like anything in my stomach would probably be on the floor right now.

“Come here,” she groans softly, so much to where I have to almost guess what she’s saying. The smell only gets stronger as I walk closer, and it feels almost as if my body’s trying to find something to throw up just for the sake of doing so. Thankfully, though, whatever is still inside of me manages to keep itself down as I walk up next to her bed.

“Sweet fucking Celestia…” is all I can find the words to say.

“And I’m less optimistic,” she barely croaks out. “Thank you for being here, Aurora.”

“Are you…” I try to swallow, but there’s nothing but an enormous lump in my throat. “Are you going to survive?”

The only response I get from her is an extremely slight shake of her head.

“Do you know how much time you have?”

“I think I have seen my last sunrise.” She winces, then very forcefully puts a hoof on a bandage wrapped around her stomach. “Yet when I saw it, I thought nothing of it.”

“You’re a Princess,” I point out. “They’ll give you the best doctors, and every single treatment money can buy. You’ll make it.”

“I am mortal,” she states. “Long-lived, but mortal. Medicine is extremely powerful, but it cannot stop nature.”

I don’t know what to say, so I just gently place my hoof on her shoulder. With great effort, she moves the hoof from the wound to my own hoof. It’s strange, because even when she’s maybe hours from death, feeling her hoof on my own is comforting. It’s like I’m a little filly again, when she would encourage me to just go for whatever Dreamstriding thing she was teaching me that night. Funny how I’m still the one who feels the need to be comforted in this situation.

“What do I even do next?” I ask.

“You will figure it out. You are smart, you will find something. I told Celestia to give you complete and full access to any potentially useful information, no questions asked. She understands the gravity of this and will give you anything you need.”

“But what would you have done next, where would you have gone?”

I swear I can almost see a tiny smile grow on her face. “Same as you: investigated until I found something useful. Even Princesses do not have all the answers readily available all the time.”

“Where would you have started? What even should I be looking for?”

That’s definitely a smile on her face. “You are one of the brightest young mares I have ever met, Aurora. Be confident in yourself, and you shall make me proud.”

I start choking up, and I have to use my free hoof to wipe my eyes. “Thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

“And I say the same for you.” A single tear forces its way out of her eye, and it looks almost like it’s causing her pain. “I have lived for over a thousand years, and yet I am still horrified of what comes next. Perhaps it is because of my long life, for I never lived thinking that it would one day end. Death was always something other ponies suffered from, not me. Ironic that it should come to me in order to protect everypony else from it, then.”

“I’m sure nopony will ever forget what you did for them,” I comfort her. “I know I’ll never forget your sacrifice.”

“For a thousand years, I worried I would die a villain in the eyes of my own ponies. To hear from one of them that my death was one of selfless sacrifice is truly comforting.” She squeezes my hoof a little harder. “As much as I have enjoyed our time, Aurora, I ask that you let Celestia and myself be alone for my final moments.”

“I understand,” I whisper back to her. “I don’t even know how to give final words to a dying pony, but...I’ll miss you, Luna.”

“And I you. You are a strong mare, Aurora Borealis. I cannot think of anypony I would rather pass the Dreamstriders to.”

Gently, I squeeze her hoof before taking it off her body and walking towards the door. Once I open it and walk out, I see Princess Celestia just pacing up and down the hallway nervously.

“She wants to see you again,” I tell her once she walks by me again. “Wants to make sure you have the final goodbye.”

She nods understandingly, then walks into the room and closes the door. I’m not even sure what to do now, so I walk up to the wall and just sit down with my back to it. What am I even supposed to do, where am I supposed to go from here? I, an eighteen year old mare, am now responsible for defeating a stallion whose demon ally just killed one of the oldest and most powerful ponies in history.

After what seems like an eternity, the door to Luna’s room slowly opens, and Princess Celestia walks out. Now she’s not even trying to hide her crying, because there are still some more tears rolling down her face.

“Are you alright?” I ask her. I try to get up, but all my exhaustion is just hitting me at once and makes me just fall back down to my sitting position.

“Today is truly a dark day for Equestria,” she mutters. “Unfortunately, there are things that must be accomplished. A city to rebuild, a populace to protect, royal duties to reallocate…”

Her face tightens, sending a river of water out from her eyes.

“But above all, I have a sister to mourn.”

Epilogue

I take a sip of my tea as I lean back against my desk, looking out the window over Canterlot. I can do that, since Luna’s tower is nothing more than a pile of rubble now. So is a lot of the city.

“Hey, Aurora?” I hear Moonlight’s voice behind me ask worriedly. I know where this is going.

“Yes?” I ask, turning to face him.

“So I’ve talked to the rest of the Dreamstriders, and…” He just pauses for a few moments. “What happened in the dream world?”

“You’re going to be a little more specific,” I reply weakly, remembering every crazy thing that happened in there.

“None of us can Dreamstride anymore,” he says, the worry clearly rising in his voice. “None of us feel the pulling. What’s wrong?”

“She...closed down the Avenues.”

“The what?” he asks with a slight tilt of his head.

“It’s…” Shit, how did she describe it? “It’s like...the link between our world and the dream world. Or links, I guess. We all have one, non-Dreamstriders included, but only we can travel down them.”

“So nopony can dream anymore?” he asks to confirm my story. Even I have to admit it sounds weird. Still not sure what kind of weird stuff she did, or even what makes an elder demon an elder demon beyond just the name.

I stare into my tea mug. How do I tell him? How do I tell myself? “Not necessarily. Luna left hers and mine open.”

“So you’re...the pony in the entire world who can dream?”

I nod a little, not bothering to look up from my tea. The steam rising off it into my face is soothing me, somehow. Or maybe it’s just that I don’t want to look him in the eyes.

“Can you fix it?”

“Not sure,” I shrug, trying to keep some tears from pooling up in my eyes. I sigh and turn around, then wipe my wet eyes onto my hoof. “I need some time alone.”

“You sure?” he asks, some sorrow clear in his voice.

I put the tea mug on the ground and stand up. “Go tell everypony they can go home. Tell them they have to, on my orders.”

“Are you sure?”

I think it over for a few seconds. “No. Not about anything. But please, just go.” I don’t hear any hooves moving away from me. “Tell them I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For…” I stop myself. “I don’t know. I just am. I’m sure they’ll need an apology sooner or later.”

His hooves start moving away from my desk, and I take my opportunity to quickly grab my tea and slip away into my room. I can’t have them coming to my desk and asking what’s wrong. Especially not Astraea, she’s too young to hear that everything’s hopeless. She might not even pick up on the fact that something’s wrong, if I’m lucky. Moonlight could probably spin something for her. Or he’d just tell her outright. But a giant demonic spider being led by a thousand-year-old stallion trapped in another plane of existence probably trumps breaking her innocence. She seemed sheltered anyways, so her parents will probably feed her some lies and she’s naive enough to eat them.

I’m so cynical now, I hate it. I get up on my bed and start thinking about all the Dreamstriders. I really should have apologized to them in person. But maybe it’s better this way. Maybe when I fail, they’ll believe I was fighting for them and still believe in me. If I told them I was clueless, they’d just be scared. They look up to me now, and a leader needs to inspire hope, even if she herself has none. Because if you have to die, better to do it with a smile on your face than a knot in your gut.

I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths as I pull the covers over myself. At least I still feel the pulling; if I didn’t, then I couldn’t convincingly lie and say I tried.

I push through to my dream and hop through to the dream world, in the same cave I’ve become so familiar with. It feels like a second home, even though it’s really dark and dingy, and the only thing above me is a massive rock face.

“Aurora?” a masculine voice asks from behind me. I know it’s not Shooting Star’s, but that doesn’t stop me from whipping around and powering up my horn with a torture curse, even though he deserves far worse. It's a demon with the top half of a minotaur, but then it just turns into a floating cloud at the waist. I don't even remember the last time I saw a wisdom demon, and this one seems to be almost waiting for me.

“Please, I am not your enemy,” it says in perfect Equestrian as it puts it hands up.

“You speak Equestrian?” I ask it. I don’t think I’ve ever met a non-silvertongue demon who could speak Equestrian.

It nods and then inches closer to me, but I don’t power my horn down. “My name is Starry. I am a close friend of Luna’s.”

“Really?” I study it a little bit. “How can I trust you?”

“You cannot,” it says, defeated. “I am not able to provide any proof of my friendship beyond my word. But were I to give you a reason to trust me, it would not be trust then, would it? Trust requires you to be confident that I am not lying.”

I change the spell in my horn to a paralyzing curse, and it comes closer to me more comfortably. “I can sense your anger has receded, but not gone away; this is acceptable. I only wish to help you.”

“You’re a wisdom demon, right?” It nods. “So how do I reopen the Avenues?”

“I do not know how,” it admits. “However, given that it was an elder demon that controlled them, another elder demon would be the best one to ask. I do know of one, although it is not exactly in a safe place.”

“How ‘not exactly’?”

“In the ruins of Lakos, near the forest of Arianrhod. Luna told me you were familiar with the forest?”

I nod. “Yeah. My hometown enters near it.”

“The forest is treacherous, though you should be able to pass through it. I have friends who have lived there for thousands of years; seek them out, tell them you are a friend of mine, and they will show you the way. Normally I would warn about the silvertongues, but every Avenue but yours is closed, so their web of lies becomes much easier to unravel.”

“That it?”

“The ruins may or may not be within blood demon territory. They have been known to frequent the area, but they have also been known to leave it deserted. I am not sure which is true now, so you will need to stay on your guard.”

“Okay.” I look at it, and I can sense that its smile is genuine. “Thank you.”

“One more thing, this one much harder for me to tell you.” It purses his lips a little, and I just get worried.

“What is it?” I ask weakly, fearing the response.

“The Avenues, by nature, remain open. As you have observed, our worlds are codependent; if one of our worlds were to simply vanish, the other would crumble.”

“Yeah?”

It fidgets its hands together. “Although both our worlds remain in existence, they are separated from each other. If you do not open the Avenues within fourteen days, both our worlds will be damaged beyond any repair.”

I can feel my heart sink as it says that. “Why?”

Instead of an answer, it moves to the entrance of the cave and beckons me over. It seems nice enough, so I power down my horn completely. We walk outside and it points over the area, which has a few playful demons just lying on the ground looking extremely bored.

“Those playful demons will likely be the first to die,” it says somberly. “They are not very powerful, and they require almost constant energy. Without young foals to dream with, they will lose all their energy, and eventually, their will to live. They will continue to sit there until Baku comes by and eats them, or the Nightmare will warp their minds and souls so he can use them as cannon fodder when he invades your world.” It looks down at the ground. “Even I will succumb to it, eventually. I am more powerful than a playful demon, but I am a demon nonetheless. I feel disconnected, and can feel a few facts already beginning to slip from me. Eventually I too will be warped beyond recognition and forced to fight for a stallion who is not even of my world.”

“They still have me!” I point out.

“A few demons will survive thanks to you, but it will not be an existence worth living,” it shakes his head. “They will be on the verge of death, and they will wish for it to come. Demons thrive on variance, and you are but one dreamer; you will not be able to provide enough variety for us to be strong and content.”

“But what about the dreamers? Sure we might be damaged by no more demons, but we’d still be pretty much fine, right?”

“The magic in this world is strong, and it continually bleeds through to yours. You would lose much of the ambient magic present in your world, and without demons helping you and shaping you, your kind will slowly lose the things that make their lives worth living. They will become mindless drones, pushed only by survival. No happiness, no friendship, no love. Perhaps they will not even try to survive. Perhaps like us, you will simply lie down, never to get up again.”

“I could just open and then close the Avenues, right? Fast enough for Shooting Star not to slip through?”

“I wish it were that simple. No, for every day they remain closed, they will need to be opened for one. I would not suggest opening them as soon as you can, however. Though we will both be damaged, we will be able to recover. Even those twisted and warped by the Nightmare will feel their true self, which will triumph over anything another thrusts upon us. And once we feel ourselves again, we will return to interacting with your kind.”

“Do you have any other advice?” I ask, hoping he tells me the secret to killing Shooting Star, or maybe Baku. I’d even take a blood demon.

It shakes his head. “Sadly, I do not. I have told you everything relevant to your quest; I will go and seek out my fellow wisdom demons and see if they know anything that could be of use. Though I fear I know the most of any of them.” It pats me on the shoulder. “I wish you luck.”

As it leaves, I take a few steps forward and feel the dream grass on my hooves. It’s cold, and not the good kind of cold like it usually is. It’s like running in the snow with bare hooves, like a high fever whose chills can’t be cured by all the blankets in the world. A few of the playful demons look up at me, but then just put their heads back down. Normally I’d ask if they’ve seen anything fun, but I know they haven’t. No need to remind them, they already know.

When I get to a small clearing in the trees where a few rays of moonlight are shining down, I look up. I can’t see the moon, but I can see a star. Only one star, hardly visible in the pitch black sky.

Just looking at the star causes a weight in my chest unlike anything else I’ve ever felt. That star is trying to hold on in a dark sky, the only one of its kind, with no aid from the moon or other stars to light up the sky.

All alone, a single dying light surrounded by an ocean of darkness.

Just like me.

Author's Note

Interested in the sequel? Click here for more information...

Chapter 1

My alarm goes off, shrill and loud. Moaning quietly, I turn over and slam a hoof down on it to stop; I wish I could sleep longer, but then mom would come up and be all ‘It’s the first day of school! Get up!’ and stuff like that. And she’s never fun like that.

Forcing my eyes open, I can see my room pretty clearly, even though it’s dark; my saddlebags are next to the dresser, all ready to go. I walk over to my dresser and look in the mirror on top of it to see my mane’s kind of a mess, so I grab the brush in my magic and start fixing it. Once it looks better, I put it down, levitate the bags on my back, and head out of my room.

“There you are!” mom beams from the table as I get downstairs. “All ready for your first day of school?”

“Yeah,” I lie. Why did summer have to be so short?

“Your sisters already left for high school,” mom says as she gets up to walk into the kitchen. “And dad’s at work, but you’ll be able to see them all later today.”

Exciting, because it’s not like I see them every single day of my life! I sit down at the table, where mom’s put a plate featuring a nice stack of pancakes at my place. I can’t help but drool over them.

“What are you most excited about?” she asks as she starts pouring some juice for us.

“I don’t know,” I shrug, picking up the fork and focusing instead on my breakfast.

“Come on!” she pleads. “I bet you’re excited to show everypony your Cutie Mark!”

Quickly, I shoot a glance down to my flank, where a white crescent moon is surrounded by a few shining stars. “It doesn’t do anything.”

“The Cutie Mark itself doesn’t do anything, sweetie,” she giggles as though I don’t know that. “It represents what you can do; your special talent.”

“But I don’t have one!” Man, I must’ve told her this like a million times. “I told you, I just woke up with it.”

“Well, then there really is something you can do,” she says sweetly, sitting down across from me and levitating one of the juice glasses to me. “Everypony has a special talent.”

Not me, though. Nothing’s changed since getting it. Just the same old me. Which made my cute-ceñera really awkward when everypony kept asking me what my special talent was. I told mom and dad I didn’t want one.

“I guess,” I say just to get her off my back.

We finish eating in relative silence, with mom asking every now and then what I’m excited about for school this year or what I think I’ll learn. I don’t mind school, to be honest. It’s fun, though having to answer all of mom’s questions isn’t fun at all. Hopefully after the first week, she’ll stop asking. Like she always does.

When breakfast is over, mom goes through a double- and triple-check to make sure I have everything my teacher told me to bring, then she smiles and kisses me on the forehead before letting me go to walk to school.

When I get outside, the sun shines on me, warming my coat. It's really bright and a little hot, but it's better than the winter when it'll feel like my hooves are about to fall off.

“Aurora!” I hear somepony call from behind me. I recognize the voice; it’s Cressie’s, and sure enough, when I turn around, she’s running to catch up to me.

“Hey Cressie,” I smile at her as she slows down and starts panting. “Running late again?”

“Yeah,” she admits.

We laugh, then start walking down the path to school together. “You excited for this year?” she asks me.

“Kinda. I’m going to hate having to explain to everypony what my Cutie Mark is, though. I didn’t tell any of them at my cute-ceñera.”

“Why’s it such a secret?” she asks, looking down at my flank. “You haven’t even told me yet.”

“Because I don’t know!” Does nopony listen to me?

“Right,” she laughs. “I don’t believe you really just woke up with it one morning. You had to do something, right? You always have to do something.” She quickly turns around and walks backward, her dull green flank right in my face. “See? I got mine after I grew that strawberry bush all by myself!”

“I know, you told me. Lots of times.”

She turns back around and continues walking normally. “But yeah, you have to do something. They don’t just appear.”

“Well, mine did.”

The rest of the way to school, she keeps insisting I had to do something to get my Cutie Mark while I keep telling her that no, I didn’t. But as always, when she gets an idea, she sticks to it and never changes.

“We’ll talk about it after school,” I tell her as we get to the old, worn-out Coltlumbus Elementary School sign outside of school.

“Hello there!” a happy mare with a bright yellow coat says as she walks up to us. “You must be Watercress and Aurora Borealis, correct?”

“You can call me Cressie!” she says enthusiastically.

“And you can just call me Aurora,” I say, much less excited than Cressie did.

“Well I’m Miss Sunbeam, and I’ll be your teacher for this year!” she says, pointing a hoof at herself. “I'll really be looking forward to having you two this year. Do you want me to show you the way to the classroom?”

“Sure!” Cressie says before I can respond.

“I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun together,” Miss Sunbeam says as she walks next to us. “You both excited?”

“Yeah,” we both respond, somewhat excited. I really am excited, but I always hate the first few days of school because we don’t actually learn anything. Snowy Jade and Dew Drop always tell me I’ll regret saying that once I get to high school, but I don’t think so. Dad says they complained a lot in elementary school too, and to not let them get to me.

“Here we are!” Miss Sunbeam says as we walk into a classroom. I lost my train of thought, I guess; I didn’t even realize I was still with her and Cressie. “I put name tags on all the desks; you can go around and talk with anypony for now, but when class starts, I’ll have to ask you to sit at the desk with your name on it. Okay?”

“Okay,” we both say. She smiles, then walks out of the room. I look for my desk to put my bags down at, and I’m relieved to see it’s next to Cressie’s. If this year is anything like any of the last, that’ll change really soon. Oh well. We always have lunch and recess.

Instead of going and talking with the other ponies, we just sit at our desks and talk. Cressie’s already found her crush: a gray-coated, blue-maned earth pony with a calculator on his flank. She decides to spend the rest of the time before class starts repeating the cycle of looking at him, blushing, then giggling to me and telling me how cute he is. I don't really see it, though.

Miss Sunbeam keeps walking in with other ponies, and she eventually goes to her desk and starts looking through some papers. When the bell rings, she walks up to the front of the class and looks over us.

“Everypony to your seats, please!” she calls, and all the ponies scattered around the room find the desk featuring their nametag.

“Now, as many of you already know, I am Miss Sunbeam, and I’ll be your teacher this year.” She turns to her side. “I noticed you all have your Cutie Marks now, and since this is probably the first time you’ve been in a class where that’s the case, I’d like everypony to come up here, tell us your name, show us your Cutie Mark, tell us what it means, and how you got it.” She points to hers, a big smiley face on top of an open book. “I’ll start: I’m Miss Sunbeam, and my Cutie Mark shows that I love helping ponies learn and succeed. I got it when I was about your age, helping a friend of mine who didn’t know how to do the math that we were learning. I managed to teach it to her, and I got this as a result!” She points at one of the ponies at the end of the front row, then goes back to her desk to sit and watch all of us present.

I recognize a lot of the ponies in my class; some of them I was in the same class before, some of them I know from around town, and some of them have older brothers or sisters that my older sisters know.

When it’s time for the colt Cressie finds cute to present, she puts her hooves on her desk and uses them to prop her head up.

“I-I’m Curved Slope,” he says pretty nervously, pointing at his Cutie Mark. “This is my Cutie Mark. I got it because I’m good at math and got it when I did good on a math test last year.” He quickly walks back to his desk, Cressie eying him all the way.

When it comes time for her to present, she walks up confidently, like she’s used to speaking in front of so many ponies. “My name’s Watercress, but you can call me Cressie!” she says excitedly while pointing to her Cutie Mark, a bright green bush with little bright red berries hanging off it. “My special talent is gardening, and I got it this last summer when I grew a strawberry bush in our garden!” She happily trots back to her desk, which means it’s my turn to go up. When I get up there, I look out at all the eyes just staring at me.

“Hi,” I say, my body shaking. “I’m Aurora Borealis, but you can call me Aurora.” I point to my Cutie Mark. “This is my Cutie Mark. It means my special talent is, uh…” Shoot, I should’ve thought of something before getting up here! Moon, stars...what could those be?

“...my special talent is astronomy. I, uh...got it looking at the stars over the summer.” Miss Sunbeam smiles at me as I quickly rush back to my desk.

“Astronomy?” Cressie whispers to me. “That’s what you kept secret from us for so long?”

“I made it up,” I whisper back.

“Why?” she asks.

“I told you I don’t know why I have it!” I whisper louder, getting a few looks from the other ponies.

“Ssh!” one of the ponies behind us shushes, probably even louder than we were whispering. Somehow, Miss Sunbeam doesn’t notice, but Cressie and I look back to the front anyways.

I look at the clock right next to my bed, and I can see that it's almost 6:30 PM. After checking it, I put my book down and pick the clock up to get a better look; yup, definitely that late. I knew the newest Daring Do book was long when I saw got it at the bookstore yesterday, but I had no idea it was this long. I started reading when I came home, and that was almost 3 hours ago! I met another filly in class that also liked the books, so I’ll have to see tomorrow how far she is.

“Hey, Aurora,” Dew Drop says as she opens my bedroom door. “Mom says to come for dinner.”

Grumbling, I remember what page I’m on and put the book on my bed. I bet I was almost done with the chapter, too!

By the time I get to the door, Dew Drop’s gone, probably back downstairs. Sure enough, she's sitting at the table with Snowy and mom and dad when I walk downstairs, and they're all talking with each other.

Once I sit down, mom starts passing the dishes. I take what I want and start eating, not joining in the conversation because it’s just Snowy and Dew Drop spreading the high school rumors: who broke up, who got back together (and how it’s not going to last), and who got caught sneaking from their parents’ liquor cabinets. To say the least, high school sounds interesting.

“So how was your day, Aurora?” dad asks after a while.

I have to look up from my plate to make sure he’s talking to me, and sure enough, everypony’s staring at me, waiting to answer. “It was good,” I say before putting another forkful of green beans in my mouth.

“Do anything fun?” he asks.

“Kinda,” I shrug. “It’s the first day and everything, so it’s not like we did a lot.”

“Meet anypony new?”

“Some, yeah.”

“New friends, maybe?” he asks excitedly.

“Maybe. One of them also likes Daring Do, so I’m going to be talking to her tomorrow about the new book.”

“What’s her name?”

“Midnight Rain, I think.” I think it’s her name, at least. I’m not good with names, so I usually end up doing that stuff where somepony knows your name but you don’t remember theirs and have to really try and avoid having to say their name.

“Midnight Rain?” Dew Drop repeats, turning to Snowy. “She’s Sunshower’s little sister, right?”

“Who’s Sunshower?” Snowy asks back.

“She was that one senior that got pregnant last year, remember?”

“Oh right, her! The really dumb one!”

And just like that, the conversation shifts back to them. I guess that’s one advantage of being the youngest; you tend to get overlooked a lot, so I can just lay low when I want to. Now I just get to eat dinner in peace.

After finishing dinner and quickly putting my dishes in the sink, I rush back upstairs to finish my book, or at least get as far as I can before mom comes up and tells me to go to bed.

When I hop on bed and pick up the book, I start leafing through it, trying to find the page I was on. I could’ve sworn I remembered it, but when it gets to all the stuff about Dark Mage Venefici, I have to stop. Wrong page. Plus, I bet he’s totally the pony who’s behind all the bad luck that had been happening to Daring Do. Total spoiler.

When I can’t find the page I left on, I finally just give up and go back to the first chapter I recognize. I try to skip some of it, but every time I skip a paragraph, I seem more lost than before. Maybe I really should use one of the bookmarks they’re always giving us at school.

Before I know it, the hooded unicorn who I bet is going to be Venefici is about to reveal himself, and mom knocks on my door and comes in. “Time for bed, honey,” she says sweetly.

“I’m almost done with the chapter!” I beg, but it’s a lie. I have no idea when the chapter ends.

“Fine,” she smiles lightly. “But after you’re done, go to bed.” Before she leaves, she flicks the switch by my door. “And turn the light on when it gets dark! Reading in the dark is bad for your eyes.”

“Fine,” I say before going back to the book. I didn’t even notice it was dark; looks pretty much the same to me.

When I reach the end of the chapter, I close the book and put it on my nightstand. If this were the summer, I would’ve stayed up until midnight reading, but I actually have to get up early tomorrow. And as much as I hate to admit it, I am kind of tired.

Using my magic, I flick off the lights from my bed and lie down. Even though I’m tired, my mind keeps racing over the book. Mom always says it’s a good way to unwind before bed, but she must be reading the wrong books, because I can’t wait to come home tomorrow and keep reading it! I close my eyes and try to go asleep, but I’m still too excited about the book to fall asleep right away.

Chapter 8

Somepony starts knocking at the door as I’m hauling a bag across the room in my teeth. I try to yell to them to come in, but of course it comes as gibberish because of the strap in my mouth.

I pick up the pace, and the knocking grows a little louder. “Come in!” I pant as I drop the bag hard on the ground. Good thing nothing breakable was in there. I think. I hope.

Princess Luna opens the door and walks in, carrying a tea set like she often does. “Do you need help?”

“No,” I say, wiping some sweat off my face. “Got it pretty much done at this point.”

“I’ll just join you by your bed,” she says while levitating the tea set onto my nightstand. After stretching my sore back a little bit, I hop in bed.

“Tonight is a different blend than you are used to,” she informs me while shoveling some red dried leaves into the tea infuser. “I figured with ending school and getting ready to go back home and celebrate a holiday, you might be a little excited.”

I blush as I remember the kiss with Dusty, something she thankfully doesn’t know about. “Yeah, I kind of am excited.”

She drops the infuser in the mug, then pours some steaming water over it which starts turning red. “This will help you relax. It will dull your emotions and increase your calmness, which are of course important when attempting to Dreamstride.”

She waits a few minutes before bobbing the infuser a few times and passing it to me. By now, it’s a deep blood red and must be extremely sweet, because I can smell the sweetness already. I place my lips on it and drink a little, and it’s delicious! It tastes just like all kinds of fresh fruit, and makes me feel really warm inside.

When I finish most of it, I place the mug on the tray and close my eyes. The warmth from the tea is spreading through my body, relaxing my sore muscles and generally calming me.

“Good, now attempt to grab the pulling, just like we’ve tried,” she whispers calmly. I try and move my magic around it and can feel it graze it a few times, but never grasp it outright.

“Imagine something that is soft yet firm,” she instructs. “That is what you must recreate.”

I imagine hugging my dad, because his fur is always really soft and his body really warm, but it’s still a strong hug nonetheless. I try and capture the feeling from that and move it towards the pulling, and I can feel like I’m hitting it a little more than I usually do.

Eventually, I manage to get a grasp on it. I finally did it! After all those months, I was able to finally do it!

“Now that you have a grip, push!” she demands, a little louder this time. “It wants to push into your mind, and you must push back!”

When I start pushing it, it doesn’t want to budge. I grit my teeth and focus all my strength on it, and eventually it feels like it’s going. But it’s slow, and it feels like I’m trying to push something through a pit of tar. Every little movement I make seems to slow me down even more, like the tar is starting to collect on my body.

“I know it is hard, but keep pushing! It gives eventually!”

I grit my teeth even harder, and I can feel some of my muscles clench up. Which is weird, since this is all in my mind. Just a natural response, I guess. I keep pushing and pushing, and eventually, I feel like I trip, which jolts my eyes open.

Princess Luna’s nowhere to be found, though. “Hello?” I ask. “Princess Luna?”

There’s no response. I get off my bed and look around. Empty. That’s weird, she was just here. Did that take longer than I thought? Was I maybe trying for a few hours to do that?

“Well done,” Princess Luna says from behind me after a few seconds of me just looking off into space. When I turn around, that is definitely her.

“Where’d you go?” I ask. She simply laughs a little. “What, what did I say?”

“You’re in your own dream,” she smiles. “You’ve done it.”

“I did it?” I echo. She nods, and I can’t help but break out into a huge smile. I did it! I finally was able to Dreamstride! I can’t help it, but now I’m just jumping for joy! I don’t even know why, I just am!

“Calm yourself,” she laughs, putting a hoof up and coming closer to me. “While this is your dream yes, it is technically not the dream world.”

“Oh.” I stop jumping. “So I didn’t do it?”

“Not all the way.” She gestures to the ceiling. “What do you see?”

I look up like she wants me, and instead of seeing the ceiling, there’s just some weird gray mist. “What’s that?”

“That is the entrance to the dream world.” She puts out a hoof. “I will teach you to enter it yourself eventually, but this is something I am capable of assisting with. Do you wish to see a world other than the one you have always lived in?”

My smile comes back as I run up to her. “Yeah! Let’s do it!”

She wraps her foreleg around me and pulls me in tight. “Now, try and remember this feeling, as you will need to replicate it later.” With that, she crouches down and points her other hoof to the mist, then jumps up. While we’re flying towards it, my stomach and heart feels like they’re bouncing around inside my chest. I feel like I might be sick.

Before I really am sick, we land in the dark on our hooves. “Look around,” she instructs, taking her hoof off me.

I do as she says, and it looks like we’re just in a cave. A big cave with little puddles of gray mist all around us. “Where are we?”

“The dream world, of course,” she smiles. “Those puddles of mist are the dreams of other ponies. Specifically, the ones in Canterlot.” She gestures to the walls of the cave. “This cave corresponds to Canterlot in our world, and it has been named Canterlot Cave as such.” She brings her hoof down. “Every place in our world empties into an area of this world. Your home town empties into a forest, for example.” She waves her hoof towards herself. “Would you like to see what the dream world is really like?”

Again, I can’t help but smile. “Sure!” I walk up next to her, and she starts walking towards the light at the end of the cave.

When we emerge, it’s really weird. It looks really normal; it’s basically just a forest, with a small mountain behind us. But the trees and grass are all some weird color blue, and the sky looks like a night sky, with a big moon and tons of bright stars littered throughout. It’s all calm and blue, not bright like our world.

She walks into the grass and starts looking around, and I follow her. The grass kind of throws me off, because it’s cold. But like, a good kind of cold. It feels inviting and comforting, which is weird because that’s not usually what I think cold is. Like a much-needed breeze on a hot summer day, or a big drink of water after running for a long time.

“Perfect,” Princess Luna whispers to herself loud enough for me to hear. “Aurora, do you wish to meet a citizen of this world?”

I don’t even answer, that’s how excited I am! I quickly turn around, though what I see isn’t really what I expect. Princess Luna’s forehoof is outstretched, and a small white cat-like creature is perched on it. But it has no paws, and its face looks more like a pony’s than a cat’s.

“What is it?” I ask in wonder, not able to take my eyes off it.

She chuckles a little to herself. “This is a demon.”

Wait, a demon? I take a few steps back; I don’t want a demon near me!

She laughs again, a little louder this time. “This is why I held off on telling you what they were called until you were able to meet one.” She scratches its chin, and it raises it so she can continue scratching. “Yes, creatures native to this world are called demons, but our language has corrupted that word. The word ‘demon’ in Equestrian may mean some evil creature or spirit, but in truth, it just describes a race. It would be as if the word for ‘pony’ in a different language were to become synonymous with evil; the word implies we are all evil, but it is simply the name of us.”

I take a few steps back towards it, and it starts looking down at me. “Uh, hi,” I say to it.

Princess Luna shushes at it quietly and not harshly, more drawn out than you would when trying to get somepony to be quiet. Like when my aunts or uncles try to get my baby cousins to stop crying. It shushes back at her in the same way, and she turns her head to me. “It says it remembers you.”

I tilt my head a little and just look at it. “Why does it remember me?”

“This is a playful demon,” she says happily. “Small little creatures, not very powerful. Demons require energy, and they find it in different ways. These types of demons get it from fun, happy experiences. They roam the dream world, looking for dreamers, particularly foals. They make them dream about a fun experience in their life, and they get energy from that.”

“So that thing ate one of my happy dreams?”

She shakes her head. “No, while some demons do leech or outright devour the dreams of the dreamers, others, such as this one, are simply energized by the experience. They get energy, and the foal gets a happy dream.”

“What did I dream about with it?”

She shushes at it, and it shushes back at her. “It says you were at the lake with your family, and that it was many years ago. Your sisters helped you make a sand castle after you kept building it too close to the shore and having it knocked over by the waves, and you three convinced your parents to buy you all ice cream after.”

I don’t remember this at all, but I know we go to the lake a lot in the summer, so that sounds like it could be true. “How do you speak with it?”

“In the demon language, of course.” She nods a little. “Yes, it is something you will need to learn, and yes, it is difficult. Because magic here flows much more freely than in our world, it incorporates much of that magic into its speech. To speak in the demon language, you need to draw from your emotions and your thoughts, because those are louder than sounds in this world.” She says something else to the demon, and it hops off her foreleg and runs into the cave.

“What did you tell it now?”

“Simply that we do not need it anymore, and to go find another foal to give a happy dream.”

“Do all demons act like that one? Giving us happy dreams and all that?”

She thinks it over for a moment. “There is no uniform way demons act. Like ponies, some of them act similarly, though some act much differently. They are generally classified fairly well, with categories such as playful demons or love demons. Each one seeks different types of magic, and they all act differently to find and use it.”

“Are all demons good?”

She shakes her head. “Again, like ponies, there are good demons and bad demons. Some, like the playful demons, are considered benevolent, because they help us by giving us happiness. Creative demons are considered neutral for example, because they simply go from dream to dream and spread ideas and experiences they have seen in other dreams while experiencing new ones all the same. Although they help us by secretly exposing us to views we’ve never experienced, they do not care that they do so; it is simply a byproduct of them gaining our own views. And then there are the malevolent demons; blood demons, who seek out dreamers who feel no remorse or regret over the lives they’ve ended or go kill their fellow demons for sport, or silvertongue demons, who live only to lie and deceive their fellow demons.”

I’m not really sure what to say. That’s a lot, and it’s really hard to wrap my head around the fact that there’s a whole race of creatures most ponies probably don’t even know exist. “Wow,” I say softly. I guess I can’t put into words how strange this all is.

“I suppose we have a few moments,” Princess Luna says to herself while looking at the moon. “Aurora, come over here and sit down, would you?”

I do as she says, sitting across from her. “Princess Luna?”

“Please, just call me Luna,” she instructs.

“Okay Luna,” I say, trying it out. It’s odd not to address a Princess as such. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course! You may ask me anything!”

“You do more than protect us in our dreams, right? Because that’s all I thought Dreamstriding was, but now we’re sitting in a different world and we just talked to a demon.”

She nods a little. “Yes, though clearing away the demons which cause nightmares to torture my subjects is the only responsibility they can see. I also study this world, trying to better understand it.”

“What does studying this world get us? No offense.”

“I’m not really sure what studying this world gets us,” she admits. “It is a vast world, one that is saturated with magic.” She runs her hoof through some of the grass. “Unlike in our world, where magic complements the physical elements that make up the world, the dream world is mostly magic, complemented by physical elements. There is so much magic in this world, much more than in our world. Since our world’s brightest minds will never be able to enter here and study it for themselves, I must if we have any hope of learning something from this world.”

“How could we learn things? Would it even work on our world?”

“You mentioned you were studying divination in your class. Were you aware that divination is a field of study started by a Dreamstrider?”

“No,” I shake my head.

She nods. “Yes, a Battlemage known as Sleepy Hollow was the first to formalize the study of the magic that surrounds us. He was able to do because of the freely-flowing magic here, where he first started measuring and studying. He then took his findings into the real world and shared them, where they helped to create the backbone of modern magic.”

“Have you ever found anything?” I ask excitedly.

“A few things,” she confirms. “Mostly about the ponies of Equestria. You’ll find yourself feeling different things in different dreams; those things you feel can give you insight into what a pony is like and what they will become.”

“Is that how you knew I was a Dreamstrider?”

“Somewhat. I felt it when you were born; you likely have felt it before when one is born but did not know what it was. There is also a certain magic surrounding your dreams, one that makes you feel familiar even when I did not know you. I will have to bring you to some different dreams and have you feel what I am talking about and what each thing you feel means.” She looks up to the moon, then back at me. “Alas, we have unfortunately used up our time for tonight. I need to let you get a good night’s sleep, after all.”

“Thanks for doing all this for me, Luna,” I tell her sincerely.

“It is no problem,” she beams back. “It feels good to discuss the dream world and magic with another Dreamstrider again. It has been far too long since I was able.”

We walk back in silence to the cave, which now has more puddles of gray mist than before. “How do I tell which one’s mine?” I ask her, worried I might get lost and not be able to wake up.

“It will feel...right,” she says, clearly trying to look for the right words.

With only that to go on, I start walking around. Most of these clearly aren’t mine, but one of them I pass pulls on my mind a little, so I walk towards it.

“Does this one feel right?” Luna asks, walking up to me.

I think about what I’m feeling for a moment. “Kinda.”

“That is the Dreamstrider magic you feel,” she explains. “That is my dream.”

Oops. As much as I’d like to see what her dream is like, I leave it and start walking through the dreams again. I get to one that pulls me again, but when I get closer, it feels much stronger than the other one. “This one, right?” I ask.

She nods, then puts a hoof around my body. “Ready?”

“Yeah, ready.”

She places her other hoof in the mist, which just disappears. She then dips her head down and goes in with me, and we’re soon surrounded by a cloud of gray mist. The mist then clears, and we’re floating gently back down the ground of the fake bedroom that is my dream.

“Can I ask one more question?” I make sure to ask before she pushes me back into the real world or something.

“Ask away,” she nods.

“Are all our dreams like, just mirrors of what we see around us? Because this is my room, and you said when I first met you that you were sleeping in the Dreamstrider office.”

“Not quite. Our mind just makes a copy of what’s around us when a Dreamstrider begins to Dreamstride; we are essentially forcing our mind to dream, so it just creates what it sees currently. Should you dream normally, you would see something else, something it creates on its own and may not have a parallel in the real world.”

“Okay.” I look around, seeing if there’s anything that says how to get out of here. “How do we go back to the real world?”

“Close your eyes,” she says calmly.

I do as she says. “Now what?”

“You had to push in your mind to get here. Now release the tension in your mind between the dream world and the awakened world.”

I have no idea why, but I know exactly what she means. Where the pulling in my mind usually is, there’s just some mass of tension. I grasp it way more easily than I can grasp the pulling, and I push it. This time goes much easier, unlike trying to create the dream. The feeling of my bed rapidly returns to me.

I open my eyes to see Luna resting her head on my bed, eyes closed. She must still be coming back, so I wait. Only a few seconds later, she opens her eyes and looks at me.

“That was really cool,” I smile.

“The first time always is,” she smiles back. “Now that you are able to enter your dream, the training when you get back starts being fun.”

“Can’t wait,” I say, barely containing my excitement.

She stands up and takes the tea set on my nightstand with her, but leaves the mug. “Drink the rest of the tea; it will help you relax. And you have a big day tomorrow, so you will want to make sure you are well-rested.”

I grasp the mug in my hooves and smile slightly as she walks out of the room. I’d say my life is really going well right about now.

Chapter 11

I peek around the corner quickly, then snap back behind it when I see who’s guarding the door to Luna’s private quarters. It’s Sveta again, and she looks just as frustrated as she always does. What’s she even frustrated at? She knows I’m not here to cause any trouble.

“Just come out,” I can hear her sigh from around the corner. Has she caught me?

Meekly I walk out, and she rolls her eyes a little at the sight of me. “How did you know I was there?”

She doesn’t say anything, just instead flicks her ears a little bit. I guess having bat ears would make your hearing better.

“So, uh...can I go in?”

Again without words, she steps aside to let me inside Luna’s personal chamber. The door slams shut behind me, closing the room off and somehow making it feel a lot cozier. There’s a lot of magic in this room, I can feel that now. And although I can’t really tell what it all is, there’s a lot of heaviness in it, making me just want to stop and think. About what I don’t know, but I can tell that Luna has had a lot of memories here, and not all of them were exactly good ones.

“Good evening.” I didn’t expect her to be out of her bedroom, so my head snaps to the couch, the source of the sound. She’s laying on her side and reading a book, not even looking up at me.

“Good evening to you too,” I reply, walking around the couch and sitting on the end where her back hooves just barely give me enough room to not be squished up against the arm. “Why did you want me to be here?”

“I just wish to speak with you a little bit,” she says happily, closing her book and levitating it onto the small coffee table in front of us. “How are you doing, Aurora?”

“Good, I guess.” I shrug a little. “Not a lot important going on.”

“You’re making good progress with Dreamstriding, I can tell.” She raises one of her eyebrows. “I can tell because I can see you running around in the dream world at night, something I specifically remember telling you not to do.”

My face is probably turning a deep red, so I try and cover it with my hooves. “Are you sure that’s me?” I ask, hoping she’ll fall for this.

Laughing, she nods. “Yes, it is indeed you. I can tell when somepony is a Dreamstrider, remember?”

Oh, right.

“It’s okay,” she smiles warmly. “I was quite similar to yourself when I began my training, not wanting to listen to rules and procedures. At the least, you have not yet gotten stuck between worlds and needed somepony to come help you out.”

“It’s just a really exciting experience,” I beam.

Her response is a smile and a quick nod. “How about you and I go for a little stroll in the dream world? There is a place I have been meaning to show you.”

“Sure,” I shrug.

“Sveta!” she calls to the door. “Please, would you fetch my tea set?”

I peek over the back of the couch, and Sveta has entered the room and closed the door and is now placing some things on a silver platter before carrying in her mouth to us.

“As requested, Princess,” she bows after placing it on the coffee table in front of us.

“Thank you, Sveta,” she smiles while starting to brew some tea for us. “You may return to your post.”

Bowing again, she walks back to the door and opens it, but not before shooting a quick glance my way when she passes me.

“Here you are,” Luna says after a few minutes of silent preparation, levitating a full cup my way. It’s the really fruity kind, I can tell by the smell. She smiles a little as she takes a cup of her own in her hooves. “Cheers.”

“Cheers,” I reply before we both start drinking. Once I can feel my thoughts calm down a little, I close my eyes and push through to my dream. It’s still pretty difficult to do so, but it gets easier each day I try it.

Now’s the hard part; actually getting into the dream world. Closing my eyes again, I try and imagine my body draining of everything, leaving me weightless. It’s a bit easier because the tea also calms my body down, but shutting everything out completely is still not very easy.

Eventually, I feel I’m ready and slowly jump up, and it must have worked because I’m not coming down. When the cool mist surrounds me, I reach out and hit solid ground with my front hooves, and my back hooves soon follow.

“Good work,” Luna says from behind me. “Lead the way out of the cave, and I shall lead the way. It is a long walk, so I hope you are ready.”

“Yeah,” I say, walking towards the blue and silver light coming from the cave’s entrance. “I don’t mind a long walk.”

There’s a slight cool breeze going over us, making the grass dance. I wish she didn’t suggest we take a quick break and rest here, because while she’s tall enough, I’m not and so I keep getting hit in the face with the ends of the grass.

“We’re nearly there,” Luna says with a small smile. She gets up and looks up at the sky, taking a deep breath. “I know I have said this before, but it good to no longer be alone here.”

I get up too, brushing some grass away from my face as I do so. “It’s kinda fun to be in here,” I smile. “So this world we’re in, like...does this place only exist in our minds? Or is it one of those things where it’s kind of an alternate reality to where we live?”

“It is…” She pauses for a little bit. “I am...not exactly sure. Many of the demons here do not care to attempt to discover what exactly the world around them is, and with so few Dreamstriders and the inability to take anything from our world into here, it is near impossible for us to conduct our own research.” She looks up at the sky again. “I believe that to be part of the beauty of this place; there is mystery surrounding it. I continue to find myself surprised at what I find in here.”

“So nobody knows what this place is?”

“Rumors exist of very old demons living deep in this world that know exactly what and where it is, though I give little faith to them. And if they did exist, I do think that perhaps I would not want to know. There is something comforting in not knowing, don’t you agree?”

“Not really,” I admit. “I don’t really like not knowing, especially something something as big as what a whole other world is.”

“Different ponies have different views, I suppose. That is good for the Dreamstriders: if we all think identically, then we will never have any fresh or new ideas.”

We continue walking for a few more minutes, the trees around us growing thicker and thicker. Luna stops walking a little before we exit the forest, a small clearing in the trees with bright silver moonlight coming through it not too far in front of us.

“Everything okay?” I ask her, and I can see her start to hang her head.

She just stands there, still as a stone.

“Luna?”

“Yes, everything is fine,” she says, some pain clear in her voice. I can feel a little sadness in the magic around us now, too. “It is just that this place means much to me, and so I just ask that you be respectful in it.”

“Oh.” What should I do? I end up just walking over and putting a hoof on hers, hopefully that will help.

“Thank you,” she says, taking her hoof away from mine. “I can explain when we are there.” She starts walking towards the light in the clearing, and I follow her.

When we pass through the trees, I can see that there’s a large valley in front of us, as far as the eye can see. Long grass, some streams, and no trees anywhere. “It gets better once we’re down there,” Luna says happily, rushing straight past me. She must be really excited to get into the valley.

I follow her down and to a large flat rock, which she is now laying down on. There’s plenty of room for me when I reach her, so I climb up with her help and sit down.

“Now look at the sky,” she says, hardly containing her own excitement.

When I turn my head skyward, what I see stuns me: millions and millions of little lights scattered throughout the sky, with tons of colors up there. There are the scattered white lights in the darkness, but stretching all across the center of the sky is a massive band of colors, ranging from dark purple to bright pink and pure white. It all seems to be flowing ever so slowly across the sky, making it almost literally an ocean of stars.

The moon is low in the sky, making it huge and prominent. It’s casting blue and silver light all over the valley, and it’s the most quiet I’ve ever heard in my life. I can’t hear a single thing, not even that faint buzzing everypony hears when there’s no noise. It is dead silent, and it sounds like nothing has ever disturbed this area, ever.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Luna asks after a few minutes, breaking the calmness we were experiencing.

“Yeah,” I agree. “What is this place?”

“I have never named it,” she responds quietly, shaking her head. “To try and describe the true beauty of this place in words would be fruitless, and I feel it would be an insult to it were I to try and do so.” She looks back up at the sky, and it looks almost as if some tears are starting to pool in her eyes.

“You told me to be respectful before we came in here.” She takes a deep breath. “If you’d like to tell me, why? I can tell this place means a lot to you.”

“I come here often to be alone with my thoughts,” she says, parting her mane a little bit. “It is calming. Being immersed in magic such as in the dream world allows one’s emotions to be felt in ways impossible in our world, and I know I will not be distracted or disturbed here.”

She takes another deep breath, a single tear starting to force itself out of her eye. “I asked you be respectful because I first encountered this place after Starswirl the Bearded, a close friend of Celestia and mine, passed away, and so I attempt to be respectful here to honor his memory. He was not a Dreamstrider himself, though he was the one who encouraged me to develop my talent. Though it may seem fitting now for a Princess to have abilities such as mine, I was intended to be perfect in every which way, and being a Dreamstrider was not part of the vision my parents had for me.”

“Why would they not want you to be a Dreamstrider? Wouldn’t that make you a better leader because you could help the ponies of Equestria?”

Sadly, she just shakes her head. “No, I was not destined to be the ruler of Equestria. That privilege was given to Celestia, the oldest child. They wanted a second child so that they may offer her hoof in marriage to the highest bidder, the prince or lord or king whose marriage to me would prove the most fruitful for Equestria. But no ruler of any esteem would take a witch as his wife.”

“A what?” I ask, making sure I heard that right. I’m pretty sure that’s one of the words my sisters use amongst themselves and their friends but always tell me never to use around mom and dad.

“A witch, yes,” she confirms. “A terrible word, but one that was accepted back then. Though it is a less-than-polite term for somepony now, when I was young it meant any pony who held some form of unusual magic. Earth ponies and pegasi who could perform magic, unicorns who held power over the earth or sky, or in my case, a Dreamstrider. I was groomed from a young age to be the perfect wife and the perfect Princess and Queen, though when my gift was discovered, I was simply sheltered. The Unicorn Tribe had been gone for a long time by then, and so little was known about Dreamstriders. They were unsure what to do with me; to them, I was no longer a child, I was a liability. Celestia even was instructed to keep a safe distance from me, lest my powers somehow hurt her.” Pausing, she wipes the trail that the tear left on her cheek. “She listened to them and believed that I was dangerous, something I know she feels regret towards to this day. But I do not blame her; we were both young, and our parents were strict. She was too intelligent to disobey them.”

“So Starswirl was the first pony to really care about you?”

She nods. “Yes, he was brought in as a private teacher for Celestia. When she let slip that her sister was a witch, he grew curious. He was the first pony to tell me that I was not dangerous and that my ability to Dreamstride was a gift and a blessing, not a burden.”

“So he’s...basically the first pony to believe in you, then.”

She nods. “Yes, he provided both of us great counsel, and acted almost like a father to us when our own parents passed on.”

I bite my lip a little. “You know, it sounds almost as though you liked him more than your own parents.”

She puts her tongue in her cheek, clearly thinking something over. “I am not surprised that is the impression I am giving you. While yes, I do miss my parents, I will have to admit that it is not a strong feeling. They were my parents yes, though I cannot say I agree with how they treated their children more like objects than ponies. Celestia does long for their return, though I feel that is because she was indeed treated better by them. She was allowed not only to walk the castle without fear, but also to pursue her own interests as opposed to what was deemed to be most attractive to potential suitors. She was allowed to choose who she wished to marry, if at all, instead of having the world scoured for anybody who would take a risk marrying a mare with special powers that she was never taught to use correctly.” She sighs heavily. “I blame my parents for planting the seeds of jealousy towards her that would eventually take root and allow Nightmare Moon to take over my body and mind, endangering all of Equestria and robbing me of a thousand of years of life through an exile that I forced my own sister to give to me. I saw how they treated her and I saw how they treated me, and when I saw the ponies of Equestria loving her day more than my night, it brought me back to watching my sister play in the courtyard while I was locked in my huge, empty room as a filly, incapable of understanding why she was allowed to do so many things I was not. Yet again, I had found myself on the wrong side of favoritism.”

“I kinda know what you’re talking about,” I tell her to comfort her, a little jealousy growing inside me as well. “I’m the youngest too, and I get what it feels like to see your sisters get to do stuff you don’t get to do.”

“Be glad your parents love you,” she smiles warmly. “I visit them occasionally in their dreams, and it pains them that you are so far away. They may not let you do everything they let your sisters do, though they still care for you and see you as a blessing in their lives.”

“What were your parents like?” I ask. “Just curious. Nopony really knows anything about where you and Princess Celestia came from.”

“I do not remember them terribly well,” she admits. “I remember mostly their actions, not their images. I know they had horns, though I do not remember if they were alicorns or not. My mother was…” She looks down at her hooves, trying to remember. “She had a magenta body, yes, and a...gold mane? Yes, it was. She spent nearly two hours a day having her mane and tail worked on, and about as much time being adorned with makeup and jewlery. She wore expensive, ornate dresses, and I don’t believe I ever saw her wear the same one twice. She would always scold me for not behaving like a lady, let alone a Princess. And she had little sympathy for my powers, telling me it would be disastrous if ponies learned about my ‘deformities’, as she called them.”

“That’s terrible! What about your dad?”

“Similar when it came to dealing with me,” she recalls sadly. “I did not know him as well, for he was the true ruler of Equestria and was often quite busy. And when he was not, he preferred to spend his time with Celestia, who he adored. As a result, she has much clearer and more positive memories of him than I, who cannot even remember what he looked like.” She stops and just stares blankly for a little bit. “He was called in when my gift of Dreamstriding was discovered. And I’ll never forget what he said.” She closes her eyes. “He said, ‘It is a shame that she is defective in this way’.” She jolts opens her eyes, which now have a lot of anger in them. “‘Defective’, as if I were some object! I remember thinking he hated me, so I began to bawl and beg him to still love me. I cannot remember what happened as I was in a fit of hysteria, though I cannot imagine he agreed to.”

Gently, I place a hoof on hers. “I’m here for you now,” I smile. “And if you’re going to be a freak because you’re a Dreamstrider, at least you have somepony to be a freak with.”

“Thank you,” she says, pulling her hoof away from mine. “While your kindness is appreciated, it is unnecessary. I am pleased with my life now: my sister and I have never gotten along better, a new generation of Dreamstriders is being born, and the ponies of Equestria accept me and love me as one of their Princesses.” She looks up at the moon, and a big smile starts growing on her face. “While yes, my life has not been easy, it is safe to say nopony’s ever has been and likely never will be.” She turns her head to look down at me. “Everypony has old wounds they do not enjoy opening; you have seen mine here tonight. Though that does not mean there are no parts of my life worth celebrating or remembering fondly. My relationship with my parents may have been very cold, though I had Starswirl and Celestia, even if we did not always get along.” Playfully, she pats me on the head. “You mentioned you empathized with me because of your own status as a little sister, so you will understand perhaps even better than I that a sister is, by definition, somepony you are never sure whether to hug them or strangle them.”

I giggle a little. She’s right.

“Thank you for listening,” she says softly, her voice full of gratitude. “After coming back from my exile on the moon, I realize it is important to embrace my feelings, not shy from them.” Looking up at the sky, she takes a deep and slow breath. “And I prefer to do it here, as I already mentioned. It is private, and I am able to feel the true depth of my emotions. And in the awakened world, everypony simply wishes to help, wishes to offer advice.” She takes another deep breath and smiles a little. “Demons do not. In some odd way, I enjoy not having anypony try and help me. Demons just listen, let you pour yourself out, and they are able to feel your emotions too through your magic and opening yourself up to speak with them. There is no disconnect as in our world.”

“I’m still sorry about your parents,” I tell her. “Even if I don’t always get along with mine, they always supported me.” I’m trying not to, I can’t help but laugh and blush a little. “Even when I had some really weird and stupid ideas.”

“Such as?” she teases.

“No,” I blush even more, turning away from her. “I did a lot of dumb stuff when I was a foal.”

Lovingly, she starts stroking my mane. “As we all have.”

Chapter 18

As I skim through my grimoire of demons, a small smile grows on my face; I can understand as much as I did before. Or at least, I think I can. With something as weird as trying to read Demon, it can be hard to tell what level you’re at since some days you can understand more of it than others. Still, I can understand something, which is more than I could have said a few days ago.

I can hear our big grandfather clock downstairs chime, telling me it’s now eleven at night. It’s getting late, so I should probably head to bed. But that just gets me thinking; should I rest another day, or should I try and Dreamstride so I can figure exactly what caused me to feel ill? I keep going back and forth because on one hoof, I don’t want to bring myself any harm, but on the other hoof, something caused my weakness. And not just me, either; dad also feels kind of weak, and I saw Cressie the other day and she seemed a lot less energetic than she usually is. Luna told me I was responsible for Coltlumbus, so I guess I should go try and figure out what’s going wrong for the sake of our town. And I know a decent bit about Dreamstriding, so worse comes to worse I could always protect myself and get to safety.

After turning off my overhead light and flicking the switch on the lamp on my nightstand, I pull the covers over me and close my eyes. I haven’t needed the low level of light to get into my dream in a while, but I should probably do it tonight since the pulling in my mind has been a lot weaker in the past few days than it ever has been. All my Dreamstrider abilities went away, even. I always took being able to see really well in the dark for granted, because I got up and went to the bathroom one night and could just barely make out everything around me. Walked face-first into my bed frame because it was so dark. No idea how anypony lives like that.

It takes a few tries, but eventually I manage to grab onto the pulling and start pushing myself into my dream. For whatever reason, it’s a lot harder this time than normally, kind of like when I was first doing this. Guess my magic isn’t totally back after all.

Before long, I trip and fall out of my bed and onto my floor. This is definitely my dream; I can feel the dream magic floating around in here. And sure enough, once I look up to my ceiling, there’s just gray mist. Now for what’s probably going to be the hard part: actually getting from my dream into the dream world. The first jump goes poorly and I don’t get my hooves right as I land so I just slip and land on my side. The second jump goes pretty much the same, but this time I’m able to catch myself and not just fall.

Third time’s the charm. I take a deep breath, go down close to the floor, and jump...only to just go a few inches up and land back on the floor. I was totally sure that would work.

Fourth time’s the charm, I guess? I take more deep breaths and concentrate even harder, and this time I jump straight up and out of my dream, my hooves soon landing on the fallen blue leaves that blanket the outskirts of the forest where Coltlumbus is. There’s very little activity here, and there’s a lot of tension in the air. The ambient magic of the dream world is heavily influenced by the surrounding area, which means something bad must be nearby. It’s not as bad as the blood demon I found in the forest, but it’s still not a good feeling. Feels kind of like when I accidentally let that silvertongue demon into that one mare’s dream back in Canterlot.

I try to speak some Demon to anything that might be in the area, but it just comes out like a regular shush. I guess my ability to speak Demon still isn’t totally what it used to be.

My heart sinks as a chill passes me over. Something’s here, and whatever it is isn’t friendly at all.

“Who’s there?” I ask in Equestrian. That one silvertongue demon is the only one I’ve ever met that knew Equestrian, and I feel that was a special case. Still, whatever this is might hear me and come out, at which point I would hopefully know what to do.

One of the bushes a little ways away from me starts rustling, and my thoughts speed up. I probably don’t want to be standing right here, right? There aren’t many good places to hide around here. I suppose I could always try to teleport onto a branch of one of the nearby trees, but my teleporting skills are really kind of hit-or-miss. I’ve only practiced them in the awakened world though, so there is the possibility that it would be easier here due to all the extra magic. Worth a shot, I suppose.

First step in teleporting is to fill my horn up with magic, but not prepare any specific type of spell. Then, envision where I want to go: a branch that’s not very far away and high enough up that I wouldn’t be seen easily but is still strong enough to support my weight. Next, try and displace my magic, focusing on the spot I want to move to. Finally, the actual teleportation spell itself. I only move a few inches at first, but the second time I reappear on the branch. Normally I’d be really excited that I managed to teleport, but I have more pressing issues.

As I lay down on the branch to make myself even harder to see, the rustling from the one bush is getting louder and louder. Before long, a giant spider as tall as an adult pony but twice as wide comes into my vision. But it’s not just any spider: this one has a lot of eyes all over its body, all looking around in different directions.

Unfortunately, one of those directions happens to have me in it.

As soon as one of its eyes looks at me, every other one shoots directly to me. There goes my stealth, I guess. I’ve seen this type of demon before somewhere. Where, though?

While I’m trying to rack my brain and figure out where I know this thing from, it charges at my tree and starts climbing it. Teleporting would take too long, so I jump down and then shakily make my way back near the dreams.

The thing must be way faster than I thought, because it tackles me before I can get back to my dream. Luckily for me, I’m a youngest sibling, so I know a little bit about escaping from a creature that’s much larger than me and wants to pin me to the ground. I narrowly escape its hold on me and look back at it. All its eyes are scanning me in unison, clearly trying to get a read on me. I might be imagining it, but I swear I can see something different in each one of its eyes.

It shrieks loudly before charging again, and I have enough time to get a shield spell up before it hits me.

“What are you?” I yell at it while it’s attacking my spell with all eight of its legs. It doesn’t respond, instead just shrieking and continuing its attacks.

I can’t hold my shield up for much longer, but I can actually use that to my advantage. Right as I let my spell down, I step to the side. The demon falls forward, and I quickly turn around and buck it as hard as I can, which probably isn’t very hard but it’s at least something.

When I turn back around to face it, it tackles me again, and this time I’m face up. It starts drooling on my face, but it seems to have learned its lesson from last time and secured me on the ground pretty good. I don’t think I’d be able to wriggle or fight myself free. Good thing I’m a unicorn, then.

With a flash of light, I teleport myself onto the spider’s back and grab on for dear life. As I bring my head down, I get a good look into one of the spider’s eyes. And I can see dad in it. He’s with a mare, too.

It’s hard to get a good look at the image since this giant demonic spider is trying to buck me off its back, but I manage to see that the mare is mom. Or it looks like her, at least. They both look a lot younger than I’ve ever known them, almost like the pictures I’ve seen of them in college. They’re in some room that I don’t recognize, sitting on a bed near the window. Dad looks like he’s telling a story, and mom can’t seem to stop herself from laughing.

Suddenly, it hits me where I’ve seen this demon before: I saw it on the page in the grimoire where I learned about soul sickness. And I wasn’t able to read anything about it at the time, but I distinctly remember Luna teaching me about demons that look like spiders and destroy our dreams. This thing is a devourer demon, a giant spider that eats our dreams and leaves us feeling ill and weak. It gets bigger with each dream it eats, and they all become eyes on its body. This one must have eaten a dream dad had about dating mom in college.

I think I remember how to cast the spell that banishes this thing. Every time I try to do it, though, it just keeps trying to buck me off and disrupts my concentration. There has to be a better way to do this. I bet if I could just restrain its legs, then I could get off of it and concentrate enough to banish it.

First, I have to get off this thing. To do so, I just channel a burst of magic into my horn and let it in no particular spell. That stuns it and gives me enough time to teleport in front of it and start charging my shield spell again, as well as another spell in the background.

The demon wastes no time with charging me after it’s recovered, and thankfully by then I have the shield spell fully charged and deployed so we’re back at it flailing its legs trying to get at me. My secondary spell is ready, so I shoot it out of my horn and aim it at the demon’s legs. It works: my light blue magic turns into a shimmering chain that snakes its way around all its other legs and binds it.

Just to be safe, I back up before casting my banishing spell just in case the chain gives way. Once the spell hits it, it starts shrieking even worse than before before starting to dissolve into gray mist. Some of it starts just going up into the sky, but some of it starts going towards the dreams behind us. A bit of mist goes into my dream, and a lot of other bits into some other dreams. I can’t help but smile as I see this happen: this is the first time I’ve really done much on my own, without any help. Not just Dreamstriding stuff, either. Mom and dad think I’m not responsible to do much on my own because I’m just nine, but I just got rid of a giant demon spider and did it without anypony else’s help.

Speaking of mom and dad, I wonder if he got his dream back. It is kind of late and I don’t see any dreams just hovering around like there’s no dream to go into, so my guess is everypony with a dream that got devoured is currently asleep. Honestly, I want to go into his dream and see if it restored with the one he had stolen from him. I’m not quite sure if that’s how dream restoration would work, but I guess I could go find out.

It’s pretty easy to find three of the dreams in the cluster that feel familiar, so one of my family members isn’t asleep yet. One feels a lot more like my dream than the others, which means it’s one of my sisters’. Luna tried to explain why that works like that, but all the magic she started explaining got way too confusing for me.

To figure out which of the remaining two dreams is dad’s and not mom’s, I have to close my eyes and really focus. A little bit of magic builds up in my horn, and while I have no idea what it means, it feels almost like my blood is separating itself into the two halves of my body. My left half feels like mom, whatever that’s supposed to mean, and the right half feels like dad. Guess dad’s dream is the one on the right, so I go up to it and walk in.

The ground squeaks when I land, so I look down and see some old hardwood floors beneath my hooves. There’s a little bit of noise coming from the room on my left, so I inch forward and try to listen carefully.

“Cuddling?” a mare’s voice that sounds a lot like a younger version of mom asks while trying to keep some laughter in.

“Not even kidding,” a stallion responds, his laughter sounding really similar to dad’s. “I wake up and I’m cuddling him on the kitchen floor, and he’s got the most stupid fucking smile you’ve ever seen on his face.”

“How’d he react when he woke up?”

“Wouldn’t know. I got off him as quietly as I could and came here, but I think Strawberry Seed saw me as I was leaving. If he does know, it’s because she told him.”

“I told you not to touch the 190-proof stuff she brought last night,” she laughs. “You were already feeling it pretty good after playing Hurricane with Ball Lightning, almost pure alcohol was the last thing you needed at that point.”

“I’m fine now, by whatever miracle. Starving, though. Have you had breakfast yet?”

“It’s eleven. I told you I was working this morning, that’s why I couldn’t stay long last night. Had to open the library at six. And you know I hate going anywhere on an empty stomach.”

“Well, I’ll make me some breakfast and you some lunch,” he says as I can hear a few hooves go onto the creaky floorboards. “Who goes to the library at six on a Saturday, by the way? I’m pretty sure there were still some ponies at our house at that time.”

“I don’t know,” she replies as a second pony’s worth of hooves gets up. “There were three this morning at opening, one more than usual. Think they were there last night, went to the main library at closing, and came back to the library of public studies when we reopened because they liked it better.”

As the door to the room swings open, I power up one of the memory-erasing spells Luna taught me without even thinking. This one just makes them not notice me, unless I interact with them or do something really loud or something like that.

The ponies that walk out look a lot like mom and dad, just younger like in the demon’s eye. They don’t seem to notice me, instead just walking towards the kitchen to my right. It’s kind of weird, actually. I know I’m technically not meeting them and they’re just visions in a dream, but I did just see my parents dating before they got married and had my sisters or me. When they go into the kitchen and start talking in there, I jump out of the dream and back into the dream world. There’s really no reason for me to stick around, and I probably shouldn’t have even been in there in the first place because he wasn’t in any danger at that point.

A cool breeze blows through my mane as I land back in the dream world, causing a smile to grow on my face. The moon here is really bright tonight, casting its silver light all over the world. The blue leaves and grass are dancing gently in the breeze, making a nice and soft rustling noise.

It’s been a difficult past few days and fighting that demon was really scary, but scenes like this remind me why being a Dreamstrider is so great. I can see why Luna loves the dream world so much.

She was right: words cannot describe this world.

Author's Note

One year ago today I published the first chapter of Dreamstrider. I would just like to take this moment to thank you—all of you—for being with me as I tell this story. Whether you're reading this on the day it's published or at a later date, I want to thank you for getting this far and would love to welcome you to join me as the story continues.

Have a glorious day. :twilightsmile:

Chapter 45

As I finish A Compylation of Magycks of Anchient Sipponi, I groan and close the covers together before laying my head down on my desk. Why does every single book about magic have to be so boring? And on that, why do all the books about dream magic have to have been written so long ago? I can’t even keep track of all the books I’ve read about the subject looking for any way to track down something in the dream world or anything else that might help us stop Shooting Star, but still no luck. Worst part is, I know I still have a long ways to go. I’ve been reading almost nonstop since I got back to Coltlumbus, and I know that I’m probably going to be reading nonstop until I leave here, too. Young Aurora would’ve loved that idea, but it’s just so miserable now that I’m living it.

There’s some light knocking on my door, so I lift my heavy head and stretch my back a little bit. “Who is it?” I call out.

“It’s me,” dad replies quietly. “Can I come in? We made you some hot chocolate.”

That does sound nice, it’s been a long day and I’ve been watching the snow fall outside my window for almost the entire day. Using my magic, I open up the door and look towards it to see him with a weak smile on his face and two steaming mugs in his magic. “Mom and Dew Drop are just taking theirs downstairs,” he informs me as he places one of the mugs on my desk and sits down.

After taking it in my magic and blowing on it a little bit, I take a sip and nearly burn my tongue. Still too hot. “Not taking yours downstairs with them, too?”

He blows on his own mug, then takes a sip. “I wanted to come up here and spend some time with you.” While dad’s never really had a harsh voice, it seems much softer and more gentle right now than it usually does.

“Kinda busy right now,” I tell him as I put mine down on the desk. “You could go spend time with Dew Drop, I won’t mind. I know she’s busy a lot and you don’t get to see her very often.”

“Don’t get to see you often either,” he points out. “And you’ve been busy a lot this trip, so I figured I’d just give you a break. You know, just talk for a little bit.”

“Maybe some other time,” I sigh before grabbing another book with my magic and putting it in front of me.

“What are you working on?”

“Just Dreamstriding stuff.”

“Must have a lot to do if you’ve been cooped up here almost your entire time back,” he guesses.

“I do,” I confirm.

“I imagine that must be pretty stressful,” he continues.

“Yeah, it is.”

“Are you okay?”

The question takes my surprise and it honestly is likely I misheard him, so I turn around and look at him. “What?”

“Are you okay?” he repeats. “You really do seem very stressed, do you need somepony to talk with?”

“I’m fine,” I mumble.

“You aren’t seeming like yourself recently.” He pauses for a moment, a thick silence hanging in the air between us. “I’m just a little worried about you is all. You’ve always been a little quiet, but you’ve hardly said anything since you got here. And when we’re all together, you seem almost distracted. Yeah your mind would sometimes wander even when you were little, but this is beyond that.”

I sigh, and I can feel my voice starting to quiver. “I guess I am kinda overwhelmed.”

“You know I’m always here for you, Aurora, in whatever way you need it. I’d be happy to give you advice, lend an ear, or even help you find and pay for professional help should you need it. I know asking for help can be hard, but I promise you that us or somepony else can help you get through whatever it is you’re going through.” He gets up and sits next to me before putting a hoof around me and bringing me in for a hug. It’s not really that tight or that loose, but just the right amount of firmness while keeping the right amount of warmth. “I know how much you love Hearth’s Warming, so it’s upsetting to see you so down right this time of year. I know there’s no magical cure or anything, but I’m willing to help you with whatever it is you need.”

Scooting a little closer to him, I let myself get more enveloped in the hug. “Did mom send you up?”

I can hear him laugh a little bit. “Come on Aurora, I’m not that unperceptive a father; I like to think I know all four of my mares well enough to tell when something’s upsetting them. I don’t even know if mom or Dew Drop has noticed anything, mom just seems excited that two of you are here for Hearth’s Warming and Dew Drop is glad to be off work and not be in the Hayseed Swamps sweating her tail off. I figured if I didn’t come up here and talk to you, nopony would. And that would only make everything worse.”

I don’t even say anything, just try and get up right next to him to make the hug even tighter. I can still smell a little bit of aftershave on him, a smell that just brings up all sorts of nostalgia from when he used to apply it pretty liberally when I was younger. Or maybe it’s because now I’m both here less and hug him less often, I don’t know. Regardless, it’s a nice smell.

“You know,” he begins, “I don’t think I tell you this enough, Aurora, but I love you.”

“Where’d that come from?” I ask as my face grows a little warm.

“Came from my heart,” he winks. “But in all seriousness, I’ve probably been ruminating on it ever since you two showed up for Hearth’s Warming and Snowy didn’t. Just kind of hit me that she and Dew Drop are adults, and you’re just a few months from being one. I just want to make sure you know I really do care about you, sweetheart.”

I nod slightly, then rest my head on his shoulder. “I know.”

“You don’t have to talk to me right now if you don’t want to. Just know that I am here if you need me, okay?”

“Okay,” I mumble back.

“You excited for Hearth’s Warming?” he asks, completely changing the subject.

“I guess,” I shrug.

“You guess?” he repeats, hardly holding back some laughter. “I remember a little filly who could hardly sleep on Hearth’s Warming Eve because of how excited she was, I have a hard time believing she now ‘guesses’ she’s excited.”

A smile does start to grow on my face. “Well, it’s no longer mountains of new books and all the chocolate I can eat. Can see why that would make any foal excited.”

I can hear a few laughs escape from him. “Books were the gifts we gave Snowy and Dew Drop to feel like we were good parents by offsetting all the doll sets. And if I remember correctly, it wasn’t supposed to be all you can eat chocolate. Given I’m the lenient one, I doubt mom was letting that happen.”

“Too late to say my sisters let me do it?”

“Blame Snowy,” he winks. “She’s not here to defend herself. That’s what younger foals do, right? It’s what Uncle Proscenium and I did once Uncle Galangal Root moved out.”

“Wonder what she’s doing,” I wonder. “Can’t imagine what I’d do for Hearth’s Warming away from Coltlumbus.”

“Got a letter from her the other day. She does miss us, but they’re really excited to celebrate their first Hearth’s Warming as husband and wife together. It’s really sad for mom and I to not have our oldest foal here for the holidays, but we understand. We were in Coltlumbus for our first Hearth’s Warming together, and unlike us, they’re familiar with the city and there’s a lot to do there.” He rubs my shoulder a little bit. “Not that mom and I don’t love your hometown, but there’s not exactly much to do here. Especially considering we both grew up and went to school in big cities, coming here was a bit weird for us. Not that we’re complaining; we were both government workers, so if we wanted to leave, we would’ve. We just hope you three enjoyed growing up here.”

“I don’t even know where to say I’m from,” I admit. “Technically speaking, I think I’ve spent more time in Canterlot than I have here.”

“Nine and a half years,” he states while shaking his head slowly. “Hard to believe. Seems like you’ve enjoyed yourself, even if times like this can get pretty rough.”

“Yeah,” I shrug as my mood starts dropping again after being reminded of exactly why I’ve been stressing so much.

“You need to take breaks like this one. I remember when I was in college and would be up to my horn in studying, I’d need to force myself to walk away once things got super stressful. Grab some drinks, get some dinner, talk with friends, spend time with mom...just something to distract me.”

My problem’s not quite as simple as taking a break, but I guess it doesn’t hurt. I’m not sure if it’s actually taking a break or dad somehow always knowing how to cheer me up, but I really am starting to feel better.

“Cocoa’s probably pretty good to drink now,” he says as the mug gets levitated in front of me. “Don’t want it to all go to waste now.”

“You know me so well,” I comment, reaching my hooves out and wrapping them around it. It must be really cold in my room, because the warmth of the drink is really a shock to my hooves. Must have been boiling right as it got poured for it to be this warm.

“So what’re you reading?” dad asks as he takes my book in his magic. “Looks real old. And where’s Sipponi?”

“Somewhere under the desert in Saddle Arabia. And it’s boring reading, just looking for anything useful.”

“Useful for what?”

“Useful for…” I just trail off, not entirely sure how to end that thought. How do I tell him without telling him too much? I’m not sure how much Luna wants me going around and telling ponies, and even then, I don’t know how much I’d want to tell somepony who can’t do anything about it. All he could ever be able to do is just worry, not like he could jump in the dream world with me and help me solve all these problems.

“Just some independent research,” is what I settle for. “The first ever recorded Dreamstriders were in Sipponi and they were at the top of society, so there’s probably something there we could learn from. Starting from the beginning, so I’ve got a few thousand years of written history to go.”

“You’ll do fine,” he asserts. “You always were really bright, definitely had to have gotten that from your mother. I’d say I look forward to reading whatever it is you write in the future, but it’ll probably in Demon I imagine. Even if it wasn’t, I wouldn’t understand a word of it.”

As he’s speaking, I let out a huge yawn before taking a sip of my hot chocolate. “What time is it?” I ask.

“Not even eight,” he laughs. “Tired already? I know you like to sleep, but I think this might be a new record.”

“Maybe it’s because I was buried in really boring books all day,” I say through another yawn. “I can stay up, don’t worry about me.”

“You can go to bed if you want to,” he smiles as he exits the hug and gets up. “Keep the cooca up here, drink as much of it as you’d like tonight. Maybe tomorrow we could do something together? Mom’s still procuring boxes of decorations from Celestia knows where, but you and I could sneak out of the house real quick and go do something, just the two of us. Probably haven’t done anything like that since those daddy-daughter events around town, right?”

“Here’s hoping whatever we decide to do is more fun than those,” I laugh. “I think you were always the only stallion who wanted to be there. Kinda fun for us, but the atmosphere…”

“We’ll find something to do,” he brushes off. “Tomorrow morning, after breakfast?”

“Sounds good,” I agree.

Instead of heading out my door, however, he walks up to me and plants a quick kiss on my forehead.

“Sleep well, sweetheart. I love you.”

“I love you too, dad.”