Waking Dream

Some form of squeak escaped Rarity. “I, think I’ll be heading home now. I’ll let you know what I think of the chi.” There was a flash of Rarity’s soft-blue magic and then she was gone.

Luna made an expression between surprise and curiosity. “I did not know she had learned that spell.”

Pip also stared at the empty space. “I think she just now found the motivation.”

Luna wilted. “I got you a mushroom and cheese omelette with hash browns: extra crispy,” Luna offered the box with a sheepish grin.

The dejected look stabbed at Pip’s heart. She’d brought him his favorite breakfast, probably from some place in Canterlot, and here he was making her feel bad. Absently, he cleared space on the counter for the two of them to eat. It was both unimaginable and rote that she knew how he liked his hash browns. But then he knew she liked them crispy as well. Both his mother and Celestia had a tendency to overcook things. “I... How long?”

Pip was met with a genuine look of confusion from Luna. “How long?” she asked, setting out their meal.

“I thought it was just a dream.”

Luna gave him one of her impish grins that he loved so much. “This morning was quite real.”

He took a bit of his omelette, then tried the coffee. They were every bit as good as they smelled. “No Luna, I thought it was all a dream.” He looked at the mare sitting across from him.

The life drained from Luna’s eyes. “Oh.” She sat her fork down. “I’m sorry. I’ll leave.”

“No.” The word left Pip as a declaration and a plea. A hoof lunged forward on its own and caught the edge of her wing. “Please don’t.” His voice faded to a cracked whisper. “Luna, my first stories were about chivalric romance for a reason.” A shy grin began to spread across Pip’s muzzle. “I’ve had a crush on you since about five minutes after I hit puberty. I’m just confused, maybe a little hurt. Why just dreams? You could have walked in here any time. Why now?.”

Luna sat back down. She poked at her meal, but didn’t eat. “At first, you were just a colt who had fun dreams. I thought of you as something like a favorite nephew I like playing with. Then I realized you were natural lucid dreamer, and a talented one too. Enough that I fancied making you into something like my apprentice.”

Pip’s ears perked at Luna’s words. “You think I could dreamwalk?”

Luna gave him a sage nod. “You could, but by the time I was going to teach you to enter the space between dreams, Celestia and I retired. I couldn’t really offer you a job and I had more time to spend in the dreaming myself, so I didn’t see a reason to complicate your life.”

“Is that when you started encouraging me to write?” Pip asked

“Indeed. Your creative sense is strong. It would be a loss for you to now follow it.”

Luna ate a bit of omelette. It reminded Pip that he was hungry, and took a few bites as well.

“I Intended to recommend you to some art school, but then your mother’s accident happened. After we spent the night talking on the roof of Canterlot spire, I knew you weren’t ready to let go of your mother’s store.”

Luna looked around the little shop as an excuse to gather her thoughts. She smiled. It was a delightfully quaint place.

A strangled sound snapped her attention back to Pip.

“That was real!?” the question begged for validation. “I really spent the night crying on you, on a roof, in Canterlot?”

“Of course,” Luna said with a confused pout. “I told you that at the time.”

A manic energy twisted Pips face into something like glee. “I’m not insane, you really teleported us up there?”

Luna nodded.

Pip’s expression twitched. “Huh...” A bemused grin replaced the mania. When their eyes met Luna found an honest smile. “Well, if I never said it, thank you for that.”

The smile soothed Luna’s heart. “After that, I visited your dreams a lot more. I thought you knew it was me, but wanted us to keep the same relationship. I convinced myself that you were the one afraid of what would happen if I became part of your waking life.” Luna rested her hooves on the counter. “Then one day I realized I was spending time with a stallion. A handsome young stallion that I very much wanted to spend more time with, but the fear of losing what I had only grew worse. So instead, I waited for you to make the first move. Maybe I knew all along you didn’t know and I feared change.”

A silence hung as Pip pondered his coffee.

“I could have asked Spike to send you a letter, but I never did. If I’d gotten back some polite version of, I don’t know you,” it would have destroyed me.” Pip rested a hoof on the counter, then reached out to hers.

“I know you very well.” Luna pressed her hoof into his.

“I like this,” Pip said. “We should spend more time together in real life.

Luna made a crooked grin. “Agreed.”

With hooves pressed together a comfortable silence settled over them as they ate.

Luna stretched, then made a defeated sigh. “Sadly, I must return to Canterlot shortly.”

“Are you working tonight?” Pip asked.

“Only till Pearl Diver comes in. She runs the place better than me anyway.”

A blush crept over Pip. “Would you want to spend the night.” He gave the slightest nod towards his bedroom above them.

Luna leaned forward to answer him with a kiss.

“Um...” A timid voice drawled from behind her, they had both been oblivious to the door chimes. “Should I come back later?” Fluttershy asked.

/ / /

Luna awoke on a pile of silk pillows. A grand, Saddle-Arabian style tent sheltered her on three sides, framing a sliver moon over rippling dunes that stretched to infinity.

She became aware that Pip was laying against her. “It’s beautiful.”

“Uh? I thought you made this?”

Luna snuggled into Pip’s embrace. “No, I think I wandered over here by accident. Luna scratched at her chin. “It’s probably because we’re sleeping in the same bed. Our auras are touching.”

Pip poked at Luna’s shoulder. “You're you, right.?”

Luna swatted him with a pillow. “I am.”

Ignoring the blow, Pip snuggled closer. “Good. Can we go back to sleep? I had enough adventure for a bit.”

A yawn crept out of Luna. “Indeed.”