Dawn scampered from the magical studies building like a terrified mouse running from a cat. That odd stallion had really surprised and she was only really used to talking to Legacy as a friend. What that stallion was getting at was a little more than she was ready for. He had definitely been hitting on her. Little Dawn was being hit on!

She panicked internally for a couple moments outside of the student union where she had spent the previous week learning the layout of. Dawn turned round and checked over her shoulder that that Cobalt stallion hadn’t followed her here. He was nowhere to be seen so she tried her best to compose herself before fluttering her wings and pushing the glass doors open.

Walking through, she was landed in the vast atrium, this was the true heart of the college and it showed it. The walls were rimmed all the way round with shops offering nearly everything a student could ever want or need. Cheap stationery, cheap food and coffee shops, but most importantly for Dawn was the small bookshop tucked into the corner where she had spent last week totally socialising with the other students and making a total of zero new friends. Dawn wasn’t a very sociable filly at the best of times, an unfortunate side effect of her bullying in her earlier life for being different. In a huge room chock a block packed with other ponies who already had friends, she didn’t really have anyone to relate to. So as she had the week prior, Dawn made her speedy way to her place of solitude and sighed happily, breathing in the musky scent of second hoof books. Making her way round the shelves, she found her corner, the place Dawn had found and made her own, metaphorically. There was already a small wooden chair in the corner which was surprisingly comfortable and the perfect light for being able to read without the brightness impaling your eyes on a spear of luminescence.

Dawn hesitated a moment before claiming the chair in the corner and pulled her book out of her saddlebag, “On Magic in the Mind and Dreams.” was the tome she was delving into. Princess Twilight Sparkle had written so many books on magic now Dawn’s shelves at home were on the verge of bursting. Most of the books Dawn read were magical text books that she sometimes didn’t completely understand for being a pegasus, not a unicorn, but she does have a guilty pleasure of reading mushy romance novels and books about the Princesses. She especially adored reading about the early life of Princess Luna and all the shenanigans she got up to under the radar before she had her meltdown and was sent swiftly moonward bound.

She slipped down into her book and let the world melt into an indecipherable blur for a few hours, she didn’t have any more lectures today, therefore she was more than happy to will away the day, letting it simply become a flurry of words and phrases. Anatomical and arcane diagrams flew into her mind and were devoured by her endless need for learning.

A few hours later, Dawn was another three thirds through the technical book when she was unceremoniously woken from her learning induced stupor by one of the bookstore’s owners, Pages.

The older mare smiled at Dawn as she hobbled towards her, “We’re closing up shop now dear, better run along ‘less you want us to lock you up in a bookshop.” Pages grinned at Dawn knowingly, her smile making it impossible for Dawn not to giggle at her joke.

“Ok, ok!” Dawn giggled, packing her book away, “I’m going.” Dawn flung her saddlebags over her back again and flapped her wings gently to slide them into the right position. She smiled at the elderly bookshop owner and made her way out of the closing shop.

Before heading home, she stopped in at Buckeroo and attained a cup of hot chocolate with cream to go, which she happily sipped at on the walk. The hot liquid warmed her insides in the cold September’s evening as she started on the walk home. Rounding the corners in Fillydelfia, she worked her way through her drink and tossed the now empty cup into a bin.

It wasn’t long before she found her house and trotted happily up the garden path. Before she could reach out to open the door, it was flung open by an ecstatic Quizzy, her grey fur muffling Dawn’s surprised yelp as she was yanked into a happy hug by her overprotective mother.

“Dawn’s home Ratchet!” She cried inside and a crash was heard in reply from the workshop, quickly followed by a string of choice language from Dawn’s father.

Dawn managed to pull herself free of Quizzy’s embrace before she was smothered and nuzzled her mother’s cheek lovingly. “Hey mum, how was your day?” Dawn asked, walking past her mother and depositing her bags on the kitchen table on her way past.

“Tiring and annoying and not done yet.” Her mother complained, indicating to go into the living room, “Tell me how your first actual day at college went.”

Quizzy took the armchair and lay down, gazing at Dawn expectantly as she claimed the sofa. “Well, it went well, the teacher stopped the other unicorns from being racist, which I was prepared for, ya know, being a pegasus and all in an advanced magical studies class.” Dawn begun, then caught herself before she explained what had happened between her and that odd Cobalt stallion. “Besides that it was pretty normal, after the initial lecture, I just sat about in the union and read all afternoon, I have nearly finished On Magic in the Mind and Dreams now.” Dawn smiled, hoping her mother hadn’t picked up on her encounter. This hope was quickly crushed by her mother’s overwhelming curiosity and ability to read minds.

“What about the stallion Dawn?” She asked, making dawn look down in irritation, she and Ratchet had an agreement with Quizzy of no mind-reading at all unless it was absolutely necessary. Quizzy frequently forgot about their contract and Dawn couldn’t blame her. Quizzy had been born and raised in a society where delving into someone else’s memories was a normal thing, and she really hadn’t been in Equestria for very long.

“Don’t want to talk about it, get out of my head mum.” Dawn said angrily and Quizzy immediately apologised profusely, having definitely forgotten their parle about spending time sifting through Dawn and Ratchet’s memories.

“Well, big Uni girl is home!” Came Ratchet’s voice from the door, the large stallion’s grey coat stained badly by motor oil and what looked like wiper fluid. “Lemme shower and I will be back, get ready to tell me everything about it Dawn!” He said before stomping upstairs and the sound of running water was heard from the shower.

Dawn opened her mouth to ask Quizzy what her dad was building this time, but she was interrupted by a chirp from her mobile. Picking it up, she read the message on the screen. “Saw u hiding in the corner agn 2day, need 2 tlk?” Read the message from Legacy. Dawn quickly tapped out nah, just wanted some peace and quiet to read, thanks for the thought tho and sent it to her, receiving a short message of acknowledgement from her friend.

Ten minutes later, her father reappeared and Dawn recounted the day for the second time, again missing out the part about her run-in with Cobalt. Ratchet looked shocked about how the other students had spoken to her before the teacher had stepped in and had vowed to complain before Dawn talked him down from calling the school there and then by telling him how the professor, Crimson Spark had yelled at the crowd that she was the highest achieving magical sciences student on her course.

As Ratchet and Dawn were chatting on about their days, Quizzy had some time for herself to cook and think of how her day had been. She was a Gate officer and an abstract Guardian at the same time. The two jobs sorta fell hoof on hoof. Being a Guardian was the assignment given to her by the black mark across her left eye, it looked like somepony had took a wide paintbrush and slashed the small mare across the eye with it. In Abstract culture, this mark, or, “sigil” is it is formally known as is reminiscent of a cutiemark, as in, it dictates what your job will be. The crescent shaped mark is that of the Guardians. Being the gate officer was just as exciting as the regular duties of a Guardian, she got to stand outside of a tear in space, waiting for something exciting to happen. The area around said tear is considered neutral ground by interdimensional beings so Equestria is generally where diplomatic deals are made with Quizzy and her team of other officers oversaw the process and protected the dignitaries.

Today had been the start of diplomatic talks between a couple interdimensional races whose names Quizzy could never hope to pronounce. There had already been eight assassination attempts today and the team had been working in shifts, going home to rest between worktimes. After she had eaten, Quizzy would have to head out till the next shift change or the diplomats finally came to a decision without pulling out a pistol. In all honesty Quizzy sorta wanted one of the diplomats ended up dead so she wouldn’t have to go back to work, but she didn’t know the full extent of what the odd spacy creatures were discussing, for all she knew, Quizzy could be witness to a group of diplomats discussing a peace treaty after a millennium of war.

She wasn’t really paying attention to what she was doing as she assembled some sandwiches for Dawn and Ratchet and she ended up nearly buttering her hooves as her thoughts flitted about her mind about the diplomatic process she was overseeing. She was just glad that it wasn’t other Abstracts that had caused this dispute, the amount of times she has had to pull former colleagues off dignitaries was getting to her. Because of how dangerous riled up Abstracts could be, Quizzy was the only one brave enough in her team to take one on. Considering that her prior life was spent almost exclusively either standing in a hall looking less important than someone else or at war with some poor race so one of the Lords could feel good about themselves.

Quizzy’s brother, Ukedideka hadn’t had opportunity to leave their homeland, ending up in prison for being involved with some less than legal activities. He was a member of another elite sect of Abstract society, he was one of the mysterious infiltrators; assassins and saboteurs all of them. He had escaped from prison quickly enough and had begun to lay low instead of attempting a runner to another dimension. If he did, her brother would end up being too easily tracked, then ran into the ground like a fox during season.

Quizzy shook her head to clear her thoughts, she didn’t like thinking about her brother and how much she missed him. Dawn had met her uncle once, maybe fourteen years ago, not in person. Ukedideka had found a method of transmitting a message trans dimensions, unfortunately this was a massive red flag for the Abstract police and he had to leave. Dawn seemed to adore him and his oddities anyway. Sighing from looking back to past long gone, Quizzy put on a brave face and walked back into the main room with the sandwiches and tossed them at her husband and daughter who caught and chowed down on them gratefully.

Dawn liked her mother’s cooking, even if it was only a sandwich. Quizzy always found a way of making it just that little bit nicer. Adding a little salt and pepper to the bread, cutting the slices thick or making her own mayonnaise. Ratchet liked them too, but his opinion doesn’t matter because Dawn is the main character.

--==========================--

After they had eaten, Quizzy got changed into her uniform and slipped quietly out into the dark to continue her shift. Ratchet mumbled something to do with motor oil and a blender, kissed Dawn’s forehead and headed for the workshop. Left with little else to do, Dawn turned to her mobile phone, texting Legacy a couple times but not getting any reply. No reply from Legacy meant she was either asleep or dead, more likely asleep considering she was seventeen and perfectly healthy.

Dawn still wanted companionship from her bestie, so she settled down on the sofa and propped her head up on some of the cushions. Dawn let her eyes draw heavy and slowly close like curtains at the finale of a great performance, before she knew it, Dawn was asleep and in her own lifeless dream. As with most dreamwalkers, her dreams started out as a barren white plane with a small door barely visible in the far off distance. Dawn sat down and stared at the door, willing it to come closer, then it sorta just, was. Dawn had no clue how that bit of dreamwalking worked, and just knew that it did, she wanted the door to be closer so it came closer… there was just no in between the door being far away, and it being right up in her face.

She quickly opened the door and stepped through into the starry abyss of the dreamscape. Small bubbles floated around her, all of them containing the dreams of the sleeping ponies of equestria. Dawn could see some of them popping as ponies woke up and some seemingly appearing out of nowhere as the pony fell into a dreamy sleep. She walked through the archive of dreams, watching some of the bubbles playing little snippets of what was going through the minds of all the dreaming ponies on their glossy surface. Searching for a little while yielded the best of results, Legacy was asleep and having a happy dream about skipping through a meadow. Dawn reached out and touched the bubble with a hoof and the darkness flashed brilliant white for a moment, forcing her to shut her eyes against the sudden bombardment of bright light.

A moment later, Dawn could open her eyes again and found herself on a grassy hill. The smell of flowers drifted to her quickly and she sighed, happy that her friend had a world like this inside her. Happy giggles were springing from the other side of the hill which could only really mean one thing. Dawn trotted up the hill and peered down at her happy friend who was playing with a bountiful bunch of bunnies. Dawn put on an elated grin and sprung down to Legacy as if she were a part of the dream. From previous experience, she had found it best not to startle somepony when you enter their dreams, it can make them wake up which always landed Dawn with a headache like somepony had used her head like a drum.

Legacy noticed Dawn’s presence and turned around, clutching possibly the most adorable rabbit Dawn had ever seen. Said bunny had fallen asleep in Lecacy’s gentle hooves and had snuggled against her fur like a child would it’s mother. Dawn couldn’t help but coo at the intoxicating cuteness she was befallen with witnessing.

Few words were exchanged at first as Dawn came to sit next to her best friend. Legacy simply cradled the rabbit before turning to Dawn. “You brain Dawny or real Dawny?” She asked, stroking the bunny’s long silky ears.

“Real Dawny.” Dawn cooed, staring at the cute scene in front of her.

Legacy giggled at Dawn’s face then gently gave her the rabbit as not to wake it up. Dawn let out a little, “Squee!” of excitement at getting to hold such an adorable creature and cradled it just as Legacy had before.

“So, what brings you into the land of Legacy this time Dawn?” Legacy smiled at Dawn''s one-off ovation with the bunny. “Wanna talk about you hiding in the corner again?” She joked.

“No. I wasn’t hiding, I was reading.” Dawn answered dismissively. “I do want to talk about something though.”

“Go on then Dawn, spill.” Legacy sat down on the pillow that manifested beneath her.

Dawn hesitated and blushed a little. “After Magic class today, there was a weird stallion, about your age that obviously wanted a piece of Dawn.” She confessed to Legacy, handing back the rabbit as if it were a precious gem.

“Considering I know anyone who is anyone in college. Tell me what his name was and maybe the colour of his coat and I’ll see if I can get you two hitched.” Legacy said, misunderstanding Dawn completely.

“Hey! I don’t want to get with the stallion, I guess I just want to know a little more about him.” Dawn shrugged, kind of annoyed that whenever she mentioned a stallion to Legacy, her friends first reaction was to attempt to get Dawn into a relationship.

“Well… I can see if I can tell you a little about Mr… stallion.” Legacy said, raising a hoof defensively to her chest.

“Cobalt, and his coat was light blue.” Dawn answered, waving a hoof and sitting down on a comfy pillow next to her friend.

“Cobalt Daust?” Legacy repeated, “Wears glasses that are a little too big, odd spell circle with a bottle in it for a cutiemark?”

Legacy knew him, how the hell did Legacy know who this odd, awkward stallion was?

“Yeah. That sounds about right.” Dawn answered, still confused by Legacy’s seemingly unfathomable knowledge about the pupils in school.

“Well, Cobalt’s Dad, Spell Circle, is one of the lead professors at PCS (Princess Celestia’s school for Gifted Colts and Fillies) and is a lead researcher into arcane circles and self repair of said circles.” Legacy answered, leaving Dawn flabbergasted. Seeing Dawn’s shocked expression and guessing (correctly) that her own knowledge was its cause, she squeaked a small, “What?”

Dawn squeaked, Cobalt’s dad was one of the lead researchers into Arcane circle complexes and mecha-arcanum structures. Essentially one of Dawn’s favorite scientists, and she just met and denied his son.

“Nothing, nothing!” Dawn reassured herself more than she did Legacy, who shrugged and went back to tickling the belly of the now happily awake bunny. Dawn’s cheeks were burning bright red.

After chatting for a few hours about their courses and what they’d be doing with their time, Legacy had persuaded Dawn to finally go out and try to make another friend. Of course Legacy would do her best to help, but Dawn would have to make the commitment of a friendship outside of Legacy.

By the time they were finished talking, it was midnight and Dawn wasn’t resting while in somepony else’s dream. The pair wished each other fond farewells and hugged before Dawn closed her eyes and willed the door back to the dreamscape closer to her. She waved to Legacy before stepping back into the endless abyss of the dreamscape. After a few moments of searching, she found her own dream and touched the bubble, the bright flash forcing her eyes closed for a second time before she ended up stumbling around, blinded by her blank mindscape inviting Dawn to build castles and kingdoms. She lay down in the middle and let her dream begin.

--==========================--

A few hours later, Dawn awoke with an uncomfortable start, her wing had become stuck down the back of the sofa and she had rolled onto her other side, pulling out one of the feathers with a sharp needle of pain. She looked at the offending appendage with disdain before smoothing down her feathers and wobbling to her sleepy legs. It was five in the morning and Dawn didn’t have to be awake till eight, therefore the young pegasus decided best course of reaction would be to drag her heavy body upstairs and clamber into her warm bed, so she did.

Dawn grabbed her feather comb from her bedside table and she slid under the covers. She ran the comb across where the feather was pulled out earlier to sort them into some sort of order. Dawn closed her eyes again and allowed her dreamy abyss to take her again for the second time in so many hours.

--==========================--

She woke after what felt like thirty seconds of uncomfortable sleep and yawned, stretching her lean wings high above her head. She heard a satisfying pop from her joints and sighed. The clock said it was ten to eight in the morning. She had twenty minutes before she had to get out of the house so would not be able to satiate her desire to remain bedridden.

Groaning, she managed to drag herself out of the warm embrace of her duvet and shake out her fur.

She checked her wings over and corrected the couple rogue feathers that had the audacity to be out of place. Then she made the grave mistake of walking over to the mirror. Her mane was in shambles, sticking out at random angles and tattered as if she had just been dragged through a hedge backwards. Dawn sighed, knowing that if she was going have any way of wrangling her mane, it would probably mean not having a good breakfast. In any case, she made an effort to wrestle her mane into some semblance of sense in front of her mirror. In this act, she noticed her tail was not much better so decided to declare all-out war on her mane.

She started the shower and left it to warm up, going downstairs to put some toast on. Her father was already up and about, putting what looked like it used to be a blender back together after one of his moments. Ratchet looked up at his exhausted daughter and offered a small smile and an offer of burnt toast. Dawn politely declined his singed sacrifice and instead put her own toast on to brown. Downing a glass of orange juice, she made her way back upstairs and stepped into the steaming shower. The hot water came as a shock at first, dousing her coat, mane and tail, unfortunately washing out some of the grey dye that she had in. She would have to top that up too before she left. Her mane gave up resisting as she worked shampoo into it and eventually Dawn had control over her tail too. She washed her face and under her wings too before stepping out and wrapping herself in a fluffy towel, using one corner to rub at her wings furiously.

After she had rubbed herself down with the towel, Dawn was less waterlogged and happier with the behaviour of her mane and tail. She made her way downstairs where Ratchet had spread a hearty amount of marmalade over Dawn’s toast.

Crunching happily away at the bemarmaladed toast, Dawn watched her father working to reassemble the blender, he screwed the rotors into each other and gently placed the blades on top, giving it a small spin to see if it worked. When he got the motor system working, he placed it back in the case and wrapped some of the coppery wires around one of the conduits. By the time Dawn had finished the toast, Ratchet had managed to reassemble the appliance and make a smoothie out of half the fruit bowl.

Dawn went back upstairs to grab her saddlebags, tossing them over her back before fastening them to her back and wriggling till they fit snugly below her wings. She brushed her mane and touched the dye on her coat up where her purple coat was showing through her normal grey and checked herself in the mirror. Nothing was wrong, she looked great and she felt kinda crap, her head was pounding with a terrible headache caused by her bad sleep the night before.

Author's Note

As an aside, this chapter wasn't written overnight between the second and the third, as of the time of publishing this chapter, I have the next two chapters ready for proper editing and I will have them up on here as soon as my ever present editor, Ratchet is done picking them to pieces and reassembling my bad writing into something readable.

Again! Happy reading!