Dreamwalker's Tale

I ‘cast’ a spell. We left Rainbow's dream behind and the dreamscape shortly after, awakening in her bed once more. I blinked a couple of times to clear away the drowsiness. I laid still, silent... waiting. She was awake as well, obviously. But she had not moved yet.

“Could you leave, please?” she finally asked. She sounded awfully tired. No wonder considering the beating she had taken. My heart sank a little at her request, but it did not come entirely unexpected.

“Yes. Sure. Should I… tell anyone? Big Mac, maybe? To continue the harvest? Apple Bloom could bring you some tea or—“

“Just leave.” There was no malice in her voice. No trace of anger, just… tiredness. “I need to think,” she added belatedly.

That addition was welcome, although I could not tell if she was being honest right now. It made things easier for me. I climbed out of bed, careful to tuck the blanket around her again. Even without seeing her face, I could tell that she felt like crap. That fight had taken a lot out of her. Hopefully she did not blame me. “Get well soon, Applejack.” I left the room and walked down that hallway towards the stairs. I could not help but stop midway through and stare at the wall. I had distinctly heard Applejack ram the guardian into it. Soon after, I stood at the upper story railing and looked down and indeed saw a brass candle holder on a dresser. Eerie.

Granny Smith was softly rocking in her chair, fast asleep. Big Mac was nowhere to be seen, probably already out and about. And Apple Bloom, from the looks of it, had not returned from the CMC clubhouse yet. There was just nopony here to notify anyway. Maybe she had known.

I was not giving up this easily though. I rummaged through some drawers in the kitchen and managed to scavenge together writing supplies. I sat down at the kitchen table and stared at the little empty piece of paper. What to write?

‘Applejack is tired, please bring tea and spare her from work.’ Yeah, she’d love that.

‘Applejack got into a fight and needs to recover.’ That was even worse. She was exhausted, not actually hurt.

‘Please look after Applejack.’ Well, that was not ominous at all.

But I decided after a couple of more unsuccessful minutes that it was the best I could come up with. I pinned the note to the farmhouse’s front door, dispersed the supplies back to where I had found them and then left for Ponyville. Applejack wanted to think, wanted to have peace and space to do so. I honestly felt like I could use some space myself to clear my head. Those last flashes had been several instances worth of migraine. Adding to that the dwelling frustration about how unhelpful my attempt had proven and I felt like lying down. I was just searching for a nice place to do it.

I had never quite understood the concept of a ‘park’ in a town like Ponyville. It was a rural area, was it not? Greenery was all around everypony, every day. Whoever wanted to see even more trees, grass and flowers just had to walk a little bit out of a not very massive town and he would find himself standing right in the middle of it.

I was not about to question decisions of whoever was in charge of city development around these parts right now though. I instead let myself plop down at the shore of a very small lake, crossed my front hooves and laid my head upon them. I looked out over the water and every now and then picked up a pebble with magic and threw it in, just to see the water ripple and the reflection on the surface distort. A couple of birds were chirping somewhere nearby. I heard the hustle and bustle of Ponyville. Another pony walked past occasionally. I could not be bothered to even nod this time. Hm. Maybe I was sulking now?

I had just thrown another pebble into the lake when I saw a distorted white shape come down in tight circles. I heard her land with the utmost grace shortly after. How rude. Did she not see that I was sulking? Just by being here, she made that quite a lot harder.

“I take it you were not quite as successful as you had hoped,” she stated and laid down beside me.

“I’m sulking,” I mumbled. “You make that harder,” I complained just a moment later.

“Oh. Well in that case, I will not keep you.” She was about to get up when I grabbed her in my levitation. There was no real force behind it. I just wanted her to know that the attempt had been there. It was enough for her to sit down.

“I’m not Cadance,” I sulked some more.

Don’t smile, I demanded of myself as her light, bright giggle almost forced me.

“And that frustrates you?” she asked. “Would you switch places with her, if you could?”

I really was not in the mood for games, but it sounded like a funny question. Something amusing to lighten up my darkened thoughts. “I don’t know,” I started. “She seems like she’s got stuff figured out. Her empire hasn't crumbled yet, her subjects adore her, she's got a hunk of a stallion at her side. Seems like it could be a lot worse?”

She giggled and failed to hide it behind her hoof. “You would be utterly overwhelmed with having wings. They require a lot of care.”

Sure. That‘s what this was about. Absolutely. “You could teach me. I wouldn’t mind.”

The slightest hint of a blush — still very visible due to her pristine white coat — made me realize. Right. Preening. Intimate. But I still could not be bothered. Not even enough to be decently embarrassed. Actually thinking about it, though — it was honest. I would not mind.

She sighed once she had recomposed herself. “Sometimes ponies have to find — and walk — their own paths.” I heard her stir at my side but did not want to look to see what she was doing. Due to this laziness, I was a little startled as she whispered into my ear: “And sometimes, both have to be nudged a little in the right direction.” Her warm breath tickled my ear, my heart made a little jump and I kept my eyes closed for a moment. Then I heard wings beat. Her warmth had vanished and left me disappointed, yearning for more. She was gone as quickly as she had showed up. Was that her revenge for this morning?

I had enjoyed having her so close.

Seeing as she was not here anymore, I considered returning to my sulking. Surely it had to be done at some point, right? But I could not help thinking about Sunny. What had that even been? A statement? Cryptic wisdom? Advice? Over and over, I repeated her words in my head. Like the densest school filly I apparently was. I mean… she would have had problems spelling it out any more clearly.

Nudge. Them. Both.

Had I not gone to Sweet Apple Acres knowing full well and even bemoaning my own fate because I had to deal with two stubborn mules? I had messed with one so far. True, I was frustrated right now. Rightfully so. I was disappointed. But once I tried to look at it with at least a little bit more distance…

I had not failed. Sure, I had not succeeded either. Things were still up in the air, simple as that. And just like before with Pinkie and Fluttershy — just with a bit more drama and urgency this time — I should really get my ass into gear and get moving.

I smiled at the clear blue sky. “Thanks, Sunny.”

“No problem!” answered a familiar voice. I looked further above me to find Derpy smiling serenely as she glided by. I could not help but snort and laugh. Her smile grew into a grin and she nodded in satisfaction. And with that, the spell of my sulking was broken.

“Thank you too, Derpy. I needed that,” I told her. She mock-saluted like Pinkie had done in Sugarcube Corner and resumed her scheduled delivery route, clutching her saddlebags tightly as her wings flapped harder to build up speed again.

I should totally bring her some muffins sometime soon. Just buy a dozen, knock at her door and shove them in her direction once she opened up. That should be funny. She would love it.

I got up and walked towards the castle. I needed a new plan. Or idea. Or whatever. Most importantly, I needed Twilight's help. Because if I wanted to catch the Rainbow Dash, I needed to be able to walk on cloud nine.

That almost made me gag.

I chuckled a bit when I reached the castle. Derpy was there and currently sorted mail into Twilight's mailbox. “Small town, hm?” I greeted her.

“It is, but the ponies here are so nice,” she replied with a huge smile.

Meeting her here again made me think about my conversation with Applejack. About friendships and priorities. “Say, Derpy… are you still into board games?”

Her eyes lit up in excitement, one drifting up to the sky. “How do you know?”

I quickly found the perfect excuse. “I’m friends with Pinkie. So maybe you could come over this evening? That is, if you find a foalsitter for Dinky.”

She stifled a little laugh. “She’s not that young anymore!” she objected and then mulled my offer over. She suddenly stopped to look at me in embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I… I forgot your name.”

“Oh. Right, don’t worry, I’ve been a little bit too excited about this, I guess. I haven’t told you yet. I’m Dreamwalker.” I grinned a little lopsided and rubbed my neck.

But judging by the way she just smiled and nodded excitedly, I guess it was not that important. “I would love to! And where do you live?”

She had me chuckling again. “Ehrm, actually… in there.” I pointed towards the castle.

I was not sure what kind of reaction I had expected. There were certain ponies — like most of the Canterlot elite — that would be shocked by such a statement. Others might have reacted with envy or doubt. Derpy, however? Not her. “Oh, so you live with Twilight. She’s nice!”

Yes, yes she is. “Sooo… see you later then?”

“Yes!” She had a little spring in her step when she left. Considering she was flying, it looked awkward.

I turned towards the castle again and took what Derpy had left in the mailbox with me and entered. It did not take me long to find both Spike and Twilight. “Hey guys.” They were sorting, of course. But as soon as I made myself known, they stopped. Spike looked bored, but bravely soldered on and gladly took the mail I gave him as a distraction and promptly ran off with it. “Never seen a dragon this excited about mail.”

Twilight smiled and stepped up, mirroring my movement for a warm embrace. Hugging her never got old.

It was early midday, as I reminded myself. So that should hopefully leave me enough hours to get everything prepared. “I need to talk to you,” I started as soon as we pulled apart again.

“Me too,” she answered. That was unexpected, but alright.

I looked around and sighed. I had made him a promise. “So… maybe I can help you out until — if at all — Spike returns and we can talk in the meantime? Not sure how well that’ll turn out, but I’m willing to give it a shot.”

She briefly considered the proposal and gave it a curt nod. “Works for me.”

Within a few minutes she gave me a short introduction about what would be my task in the foreseeable future. And I knew that I would be here for a while because… I had picked up Spike, turned him around and set him back down as he walked around the corner when he returned a few minutes later. I faintly heard him giggle and run off to enjoy his free afternoon, so he clearly got the hint. Worth it.

Twilight had noticed of course, but she had no objections. So we were all in the clear. “So, I went to Sweet Apple Acres,” I started and inevitably immediately soured the mood. But there had been no way around that. And just as one was supposed to do with a band aid, I chose to rip it off quickly. “I found her, gave her ‘the talk’ and used my irresistible silver tongue to sway her to my dark and cookie-laden side.” Simply raising an eyebrow at me was enough. “Alright, fine. Less silver and less cookies. She almost punched my head clean off because I had to provoke her into talking to me. Important part being that we worked the fields the rest of the day, which seemed to do wonders for her mood. We had a nice, albeit lonely dinner and then went to the dreamscape. It changed again, Twilight. Dear Luna, it changed. You should’ve seen it. It was as if I was walking on the night sky itself. And the dreams… they were there. All of them were there!” I was about to rave on and on about this phenomenal beauty again. I luckily noticed it and reigned myself in. “Focus, right. We found Rainbow's dream. She wasn’t sleeping yet. So… turns out I’m able to use dreams to see the non-dreamer, somehow? She was wide awake, lying on her bed and crying. I’m not entirely sure what happened next, there had been a… massive flash before. I tried to shoot magic from my horn into her dream bubble, commanding her to sleep. I have no idea if that was successful and no idea if that even could have been successful in the first place. But she did fall asleep. With her in her dream, we both entered and found ourselves in an eerily creepy version of the farmhouse. Applejack took up the fight with Rainbow's guardian. A sort of… manifested splinter of her personality with the sole intent and purpose of defending her — or something more specific — against intruders. In this case, an armor-clad Rainbow was trying to keep the reason why she broke up with AJ from us. Applejack kicked her butt. Admittedly, the other way around was happening as well. In the wake of all this, I actually regained a lot of knowledge about dream mechanics and stuff. Like… there’s living beings in the dreamscape. Well, I mean… not living-living. Then again, they do reproduce and can be killed. Hm. Anyway, we managed to get past her guardian and it turned out that she had applied for active duty in the Wonderbolts. Again. And was denied. Again. Applejack told me that this isn’t exactly news, but I think I have a working theory why Rainbow freaked out this time. I just… I couldn’t convince Applejack. When we left, she asked me to leave her alone. ‘To think’, as she said. But she didn’t look me in the eyes when she said it, so… my guess is as good as yours. I got some decent advice on my way home, so I was thinking: If you could give me that cloud-walking spell and teleport me up to Rainbow's house, I could try to poke the second half of this issue. You know? Thinking about it, I might actually not even need the teleport. Maybe I’m able to lift myself up there with my telekinesis. I never tried using that on myself. Eh, getting off-track again. So, yeah, that’s the plan. Oh and one last thing, I, uh… might’ve sorta, kinda, invited Derpy for dinner? And some board games. I had this nice long bedroom talk with Applejack about life and priorities and friendships and I think she would be very cross with me if she ever learns that this is what I took from that talk, because I think she wanted me to just get a job. Oh, right. What did you want to talk to me about?”

Twilight blinked once. Then again. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out and after a second, she closed it again. It took her several attempts until she slowly and carefully started to dissect everything I had said. I was fine with that. My plan for the day had been to help her with the library, have some fun with Derpy and go bother Rainbow in the evening. Considering how I had found her wide awake last night and had maybe-forced her to sleep, I doubted that I would find her in any other state that ‘awake and miserable’ this late evening. And dealing with a tired Rainbow might even make things easier, all things considered.

So I answered her questions. Sorting the library slowed down considerably because of that, but I still tried to keep a part of her focus on it sometimes. She had summoned writing materials again and took notes of basically everything I said. All of the details about the dreamscape, its inhabitants, its mechanics, how I had ‘cast’ spells, everything.

That she was perfectly fine with having Derpy over for dinner had more or less become just a footnote in my own mental notes, as I was pretty sure that it found no space left on hers.

Once I had exhausted everything I could tell her and she in turn could not find new questions to poke me with, I asked again. “So about that cloud-walking spell.”

“No.” Her answer was immediate. She sounded rather insistent and made it intentionally seem non-negotiable.

“What do you mean, ‘no’? What? Why ‘no’?” I had not planned on this being a hurdle.

“That is actually a part of what I wanted to talk to you about,” she started to explain. “I have analyzed the data from last night.” Oh. So those silver bands did not even need to be physically present and she could remote access their data storage. “It is… it has me worried. Comparing significant data points with your report leads me to believe that every time you ‘cast’ in the dreamscape, you put significant strain on your mental well-being and exhaust yourself physically by proxy. Due to a process I do not quite understand yet, your magical reserves seem to counter parts of this stress, but it cannot handle all of it. What I’m trying to say is: Every time you dreamwalk, you put yourself in danger.”

“Every time you eat, you could choke on a piece of cucumber,” I countered. Maybe I was not as mature as I should have been at that moment. I was just miffed and strangely enough, felt kind of attacked.

“What? No! That’s not even in the same category!” she disagreed.

“Okay, let me rephrase it then. Every time you cast a spell, you weaken yourself, expanding your magical energy. And somehow, I have a feeling that if I were to ask around, I’d find a lot — and I mean a lot — of instances where Twilight Sparkle, Element of Magic, exhausted herself to the point of physical and-or mental collapse. You know what these instances have in common? You were trying to help somepony. This isn’t different. And before you start, I’ll have you know that I’m perfectly capable of looking out for myself. It’s not like I have a death wish, Twilight. I am in control. And this is… I mean… it’s what I do. My bucking name is Dreamwalker. What do you expect me to do, here? Give up on my talent? Because that surely worked out great whenever somepony tried it, right? If it helps you, I can promise that I will try to be careful. But really, that’s the best I can do. Just imagine, for a moment. Imagine I’m so worried sick about you that I really, really want you to give up magic. Not just levitation. Or teleportation. But magic. All the spells. Research is fine. Just please, Twilight. Don’t cast anymore. Anything. Ever again. At least until we found a way for you to cast without exerting yourself.”

Maybe it had been unnecessary to become this snarky. Probably. I meant no harm of course. But I thought I had brought up some good and valid points. What was she asking of me? So dreamwalking was putting ‘strain’ on me. I was pretty sure apple bucking did not do a whole lot of good for Applejack's body. Not in the amount that she did it. Exercise was all well and good, but what AJ did went far beyond that. Same with Twilight's casting. Or Rainbow's rigorous training exercises. But Twilight was not about to pester her farmer friend to search for a new job for herself, was she?

I was being defensive again.

I sighed. “I’m sorry, Twilight. That was mean and uncalled for.”

She nodded and sat down. She even put down the three dozen books she had still gripped in her levitation. When she paused like that, it was usually a sign of her gears turning with added urgency. Although I grew restless with the amount of minutes that passed by, I tried to calm myself. She was thinking. She needed time. I had to be patient.

It helped somewhat when Spike came along and carried White Tip. “Hey there buddies,” I greeted them. My feathered friend hopped over to my back and carefully searched for a good spot to perch after my last comment about his claws. I petted him on this head. “Thanks.”

Meanwhile Spike watched Twilight. “What’s she thinking about?” he quietly asked.

“I tried to fix AppleDash,” I started and got an incredulous look from him. “What? It’s shorter. Anyway, I tried to fix their problem, but so far, I only, like… softened it up? I need to get to Dash. But she doesn’t want to give me the cloudwalking spell because apparently, these rings told her that dreamwalking is bad for my health or something.”

He furrowed his brow for a moment. “You mean… like too much pizza?”

I snorted hard and then immediately proceeded to ruffle his head fin. “Yeah, kinda like that. Anyway, we’ve been doing some sorting, but I fear due to me talking a lot about dream magic, we’ve been coming along slowly. Hey, since you’re more or less the castle chef… mind making a little more for dinner tonight? Derpy’s coming over for some board games.”

His eyes grew wide with excitement. Strange. I could have sworn I had seen that just a couple of hours before. “Sure thing! Am I… I mean, are we…” He was fidgeting with his claws again and it was rather adorable.

“Of course,” I answered the question he tried to ask. “Most board games are more fun with four players anyway.”

“Have you decided what to play already?” Ah. So he was hoping for something specific.

“Nope. But I feel it’s only fair to warn you: As far as I can remember, Derpy is a wicked hard player.” I stifled a laugh as I saw how his face fell a little. Maybe he had actually planned to cash in on some easy victories. But that would not do, not on my watch.

“So no Monopony then,” he quietly chuckled and nodded to himself.

“Fine,” came from the other direction. We were not startled in the slightest, no. We jumped to see if your legs still worked. And then we looked at Twilight expectantly, while she looked confused for a second where Spike and White Tip had come from.

“So you’ll give me the spell?” I asked with renewed hope.

She immediately squashed that with a single head shake. “No. I mean… maybe.”

'Maybe' was good. I liked 'maybe'. It meant that there was a chance. “Alright. Tell me about ‘maybe’.”

“You said you have this under control,” she started. “That you can look out for yourself. No death wish, just a strenuous special talent. However, my data points have me worried. But I have to admit: They are just numbers.”

I nodded. “Sooo…?”

“So you will show me,” she concluded.

I blinked. “Uh… show you what?”

She sighed and smiled like a patient teacher. I didn’t like it. “You will show me that you are in control.”

I was about to ask ‘how’, but thought better of it. There was only one real way to show her that. “Alright. Fine. But in that case, I have a condition of my own.”

“That being?” she asked warily.

“If you agree that I can handle myself in there, you will give me the spell.” She tried to stare me down. I tried to stare her down. We exchanged terse “Deal!”s and then she just smiled happily. Probably because it meant that she was about to see the dreamscape for herself. Maybe all of this had been a ploy to get her there? No. No, she was not a manipulator. It might have been a beneficial side effect for her.

“Thank you.”

Huh? “Huh?” Eloquence. I got it. “For what?” I belatedly added.

“You are driving a hard bargain,” she giggled. “But you are doing it for their benefit. You’re trying to help my friends. You’re not giving up, although they already have.”

I quietly laughed. “Well maybe it just means I can out-stubborn them!” I boasted.

Both Twilight and Spike shared a look and then snickered. “Nah,” both replied in unison.

“Wow, gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, guys,” I replied in mock-indignation and then chimed in with their snickering. “So with that all settled for now, who wants to sort some books, eh?” I tried my best snake oil salespony impression and even Spike laughed for a moment.

“Fine by me,” he chirped. “I had my fun and actually came back to help out some more. If we do this together, we might actually get it done before Derpy comes over.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed and ruffled his scales some more.

We both looked to Twilight for any statement, but she looked at us bewildered. “Derpy is coming over?”

Our laughter filled the halls of the castle for a couple of minutes. And much to Twilight's dismay, Spike and I shared stories of her missing parts of conversations for the next hours. She tried to budge in with some embarrassing stories about Spike now and then and while I did appreciate those as well, she was fighting an uphill battle.

At some point during our sorting craze, Owlicious showed up and he and White Tip tried their best to help us out even further. “He told me that you went out with them one night,” Twilight remarked in a short break between stories.

“Oh, yeah. Couldn’t sleep and they watched the sky through a window, so, you know… thought I might let them stretch their wings a little.” And it had nothing to do with me needing some fresh air.

“They both had a lot of fun, so… thank you.” She gave me a kiss on the cheek. And I blushed. And Spike started to laugh again, that little scamp, so I chased him down the corridor with my angry attack bird. Fear the crow, caw, caw!

We had a good time.

All three of us were in the kitchen when we heard a soft knock from the entrance door. Owlicious and White Tip had returned to their perch for another nap, Spike was busy checking the oven and Twilight was apparently making a science out of salad dressing. Sure, why not. “I’m going to get the door,” I said and walked out.

I was surprised to find both Derpy and her daughter Dinky once I opened the door. “Oh, hey.”

“I hope this is okay? She was very insistent,” Derpy started, but her daughter chirped in immediately.

“Hey Mister Dreamwalker! I’m Dinky!” She was cute as a button.

I ruffled her bright mane and simply hugged Derpy. It was more of a reflex pushed by memories. We had been close before. I could not quite tell how close though, and it did not matter at the moment. She was surprised but did not object at all. She just took a moment before reciprocating the embrace. And Dinky giggled.

“Come on in, you two. Spike should be done with the table by now and Twilight… might have dissected the salad. We’ll find out.” Both entered giggling to themselves and I led them to the living room. All the while, both stared in wonder at the massive hallway, lined with bookshelves and banners and carpets. They had never been inside apparently, so any attempt to tell them about the changes was somewhat lost.

A couple of minutes and some greetings later, we all sat down to eat. It smelled great, it looked great and with Spike leading the charge in the kitchen, it tasted great as well. And the salad had survived its dissection. Twilight had even managed to avoid setting the kitchen on fire. Apparently that was a real worry Spike had. A reasonable one, too.

Spike blushed furiously the more praise we heaped upon him. And at some point during the meal, it became a little contest who could make him blush the most. While Twilight knew his weak spots and I just made up with quantity, Derpy used a surprisingly flowery language to flatter him. In the end though, Dinky won. Noticing how she could not compete against our arsenal, she stood up with a huff, stomped over and kissed him on the cheek. “It was really tasty!” she insisted before she stomped back to her seat and sat down again, sticking her tongue out at the rest of us.

The whole table cracked up at that. Or, well, everyone except Dinky and Spike.

As adorable as this little show had been, I was pretty sure that Dinky was a little too young for Spike. And that Spike had already noticed a certain other young filly trying to get closer to him.

Why?

Applejack might have been right. I apparently had a one-track mind. Sheesh. Maybe I should consider applying for an assistant position in Princess Cadances’ staff.

After all plates and bowls were emptied and the table was cleared, we searched the various shelves for what games we wanted to play. It became apparent pretty soon what most of the evening would be spent on as Derpy noticed with horrifying glee Twilight's edition of Monopony and it took just a few of her comments about how she won most of the time to rile up Spike who in turn challenged her and well, that was that.

However, both Twilight and I knew well enough that even one game of that could take up to six, eight, in extreme cases even ten hours. Something you would normally play over several days. None of us had any problems with that, but given both Twilight's and my lack of enthusiasm for the rather competitive game, plus we could not gauge how Dinky felt about it, we opted to instead play a couple of shorter games before that.

In our search I came across two editions of a guessing game called Fortune Stories. And the other half was appropriately named Misfortune Stories. I quickly scanned the instructions and it seemed easy enough. A short story was presented and read aloud. One pony read the backside of the card, where it was explained how said story came to pass. The other players then had to guess by asking questions that could be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The Misfortune Stories seemed to have a rather morbid sense of humor, so I levitated the Fortune Stories over to Twilight. Judging by how she grimaced and had to read the instructions herself, she did not quite remember owning that game, but she was in favor of it as much as I was.

We settled down around the table with Twilight and Derpy on the sofa and Dinky right between them. Spike and I sat on the other side near the fireplace on the carpet. And we started playing. I drew the first story and read. “After enduring many hardships, an old stallion finally wore the sun he cherished.” Well, that gave them little to work with. But I guessed that was exactly the point.

“Was it because of Princess Celestia?” Dinky immediately chirped in long before I had a chance to read the text on the back.

I turned the card over and took a minute. “Eh kind of?” I replied. “Yeah. Let’s go with ‘yes’.”

“You’re only supposed to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’,” Twilight noted.

I grinned and levitated a certain book about sleepovers from its shelf — just enough for her to see the title — and laughed when she blushed. “Point taken.”

It took them a while but they eventually figured it out. “I wonder if that is historically accurate,” Twilight mused.

“I wonder how such a noble bloodline could end up with a jerk like Blueblood,” Spike threw in.

“Spike! Language!” Derpy chided.

“No idea,” I addressed both — at least in my mind — before giving the stack of story cards to Spike. “Neeext.”

We played several more stories, got engrossed in this surprisingly fun game and did not notice how time passed us by. Only when Twilight tried to hand the stack of cards to Dinky did we come to realize that the young filly had fallen asleep. “Oh. Guess that explains why she had become so quiet,” I said.

I made an educated guess, looked at Spike to my left and saw the young dragon blinking rapidly, fighting his own tiredness. Twilight had apparently noticed as well. “Maybe it is time,” she remarked.

“But Monopony!” Spike whined quietly.

“… won’t run away,” I interjected. “And neither will Derpy or Dinky or Twilight or I. There’s going to be a next time and then you can battle to the death or something.” I snickered a little and then looked over to Derpy. “There will be a next time, right?”

Being a little tired herself, she opted for a smile and a somewhat subdued nod. “Yes please! This has been so much fun.”

I carefully lifted Dinky onto her back as she made to stand up. “I’m going to escort you to the door,” I offered and then addressed Twilight. “And you might be able to convince him to go to bed?” I nodded in Spike's direction who apparently had decided not to be tired or sleepy or anything like that, but was not quite attentive enough to hear what I had said either.

Twilight smiled and nodded. “That sounds like a good idea.”

I walked alongside Derpy. We moved slowly so we would not end up waking Dinky. “It was a fun evening. Thank you for coming. I’m hoping that we can repeat that someday soon and maybe you’ll consider me a friend somewhere down the line.”

“What makes you say that?” she wondered. And it was just that. Honest surprise.

It was disarming. “Well… friendships can be quite complicated,” I started, not entirely sure what to say exactly.

She softly shook her head. “I thought you were friends with Pinkie?”

“I am!” I hastily replied.

“Then you should know better,” she said and stopped walking. She waited for me to turn to her. “Here, it’s easy, I will gladly demonstrate. Ask me if I want to be your friend.”

Alright. “Uh… okay? Do… do you want to be my friend?” I complied and felt rather foolish.

Her eyes lit up in joy. Honest, genuine joy. As if she had not seen that question coming. It was a nice sight, but a little confusing at the same time. “Yes!” she replied and closed the distance to hug me. She was still careful not to wake up Dinky and somehow managed both. I lost her feathery embrace a moment later and fell in step alongside her once more. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”

“I… hm. I guess not? It’s just that… I don’t know…” I really had no idea what to say, did I not?

“You can’t earn friendship,” she objected to something I had not said. “No matter how much you try, how much you work for it, how much you risk and do. Friendship cannot be earned. Or owed. It can only be given freely. That’s what makes it easy. And hard.”

I still felt strangely speechless, but a smile lit up my face, so I could not complain too much. “I like you. I think I’m going to keep you.” I chuckled quietly. More so as I saw a slight blush grace her cheeks.

“Thank you,” she replied in a whisper.

We said our goodbyes and good-nights at the door and I enjoyed that persistent smile that she left behind even after I started making my way back to the living room. There was no trace of Spike to be found, but Twilight was in the midst of restoring order. So I wordlessly helped her out until the final piece was back in place. She stepped close to me once more, like she had done before we had started sorting her library, and just as she did back then, leaned against me. I embraced her gladly and almost melted into her. And in that moment, I recognized that I could now reply in kind to what she had said to me. “I trust you. And I feel safe with you.”

She did not respond. Not with words, anyway. She just hugged me that little bit tighter. “We should go to bed,” she said after what felt like a blissful eternity. I found it to be a particularly interesting choice of words too. ‘Let’s start’ would have done the job just as well. ‘Let us proceed with our evening plans’. Okay, that just sounded stilted as heck. But with her choice of words came certain implications.

And I tried not to let my imagination run away like a madly giggling colt.

I stood in front of her bed a few minutes later. And I was not tired at all. I felt a similar apprehension and nervousness again. Similar to when I had done this with Pinkie, Fluttershy and Applejack. The difference was clear as day though. This was Twilight. I was standing in her bedroom, she was lying on her bed and waited. Her beautiful violet eyes were always full of curiosity and thirst for knowledge. I swallowed hard and tried to force myself to move forward. Being here, with her, did not feel uncomfortable at all. Quite the opposite. And that was part of the problem.

I still struggled.

My memories told me to kiss her. How to do it. Whispered that I should just follow my instincts, honed by experiences I had not made yet, not with her anyway. If I would nip at her lower lip right after pulling away from a kiss, I would hear the softest, most beautiful little gasp from her. But there was a different reality in front of my eyes. Another Twilight. One I had known for a week, not years and years.

“Is this… uncomfortable?” she quietly asked. She tried to smile for my sake, despite her own insecurity. I would not lie to her. I could not. I finally overcame myself, moved forward and climbed up to her side. Mere inches apart, I gazed at her. “You are stunningly beautiful,” I whispered. She always had been. She always would be. She blushed. I could see it despite the night sky’s light being partially blocked by a thin layer of clouds. “It’s the sum of everything you are. The most beautiful mind I was ever allowed to touch, hosted in an attractive shell…” Weird choice of words.

“Is that something good then?” she asked and ignoring my weirdness.

I thought about it. We were lying close enough that her breath tickled my nose. I felt utterly comfortable with that. I could even scooch a little closer still and hold her. Stroke her mane. Let my hooves wander down her spine. Tease her wings. I knew this spot right between her shoulder blades. Massaging a little circle there would let her wings snap open. I would feel comfortable with that as well. On a certain level anyway. Because there was this nagging feeling. This alien voice that just told me to stop. This was not meant to be. Not this time anyway. And thus, I was conflicted.

But that was my burden to carry. So I steered away from the heavy thoughts and focused more on her expectant gaze. “I’ll have to correct myself,” I remarked. “I have come to the conclusion that it might, in fact, actually be a product, not a sum.”

She giggled warmly. I was certain that there were not a lot of ponies who would actually find this joke funny. Or this kind of compliment flattering. But leave it to Twilight to appreciate something involving mathematics.

My smile faltered. “I shouldn’t be flirting with you,” I admitted. “I shouldn’t even be able to. But it just… it comes so naturally. I remember our life. Lives, even. I… I want to show you. Parts of it, at least. If that’s alright with you?” It was a crackpot idea. Something that had come out of nowhere. I could not even tell if it would help at all, if sharing this burden would ease it, or if I was just about to weigh down on Twilight as well.

I was glad then that I was not alone in this. Twilight was smart. On many levels. And she considered the implications and potential consequences of my offer carefully before nodding. I really hoped she had done that at least.

I charged my horn once more, but stopped. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I wanted this. “Do you mind…?” I asked. I could not tell if she understood what I was asking for, but she nodded again. So I did scooch closer. Closed the gap and pulled her against me. I held her close and I could not describe how great it felt. Our bodies still radiated warmth into the cover where it mingled. Her breath on my neck, her scent in my nose… it did nothing to solve my conflict. It was oh so right and yet still wrong. But I had wanted this badly since day one and now I got it. I cherished this moment. Etched it into the walls of my memory. Let it linger for a little while,until holding the magical charge in my horn became strenuous.

I lowered my head and finally touched hers.

We arrived and I almost chuckled at the gasp I heard from her. She stared slack-jawed at one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. One of the most beautiful sights she most likely had ever seen as well. “It’s awe-inspiring, is it not?” I asked and once more appreciated the spectacle before us.

While she stared on in wonder, I tore my gaze away and started with what little preparation I needed. As per usual, my own dream was close by. I brought it a little closer still. Instructing Twilight on anything was a moot point as I had already told her everything I was able to remember so far. So instead I finally, softly, poked her shoulder. “Hey there. You still with me?” She had some initial difficulties battling her admiration, freeing herself from her trance, but finally I got her attention. “We need to get in there first,” I told her. I pushed a hoof into my own dream and it willingly accepted me in. As for Twilight… she was close behind. I liked to think that my dream would never put up resistance to her entering it.

“I’m sorry.” I should have warned her. That realization had hit me a couple of seconds too late. We stood before the Golden Oaks library. Intact and unburned. The late evening sun was setting in the west. She stared in disbelief. I could see that little bit of pain still lingering. Pain and love... and longing.

She recollected herself after a moment. “It’s alright.”

Accept what we cannot change.

I opened the door and she went in. “It’s different,” she immediately told me after I went in after her and closed the door again.

“Of course it is. It’s been our home for many years.” My voice felt strange. Sounded strange. Thick and viscous. I swallowed again after hearing them laugh. Twilight glanced back at me curiously. I nodded. “It’s okay. They can’t see us.” We went into the kitchen and saw a family at the dinner table.

“Stardust,” I intoned at the same time that my counterpart at the table raised his voice in an attempt to make the young colt stop. “If you continue to tease your sister, there will be no desert for you!”

The rambunctious colt considered his options. In the end, he looked over to Twilight. An older Twilight sitting beside 'me'. “Don’t look at me sweetie, your dad is right.”

The disappointed colt huffed and lowered the spoon full of peas. At the other side of the table, his sister sighed in relief. She was all about manners and etiquette; she would not have even defended herself against an onslaught of peas. But she would have remembered. Still so young, but she already knew how to hold a grudge.

“Arcana, please don’t,” Twilight requested.

The young filly, just as well as the colt before, considered her options. “He is going on the list. Again.” It was a defiant statement, but one that left room for argument.

“You know your brother,” Twilight said. “He did not mean anything by it. He is just bored again.”

“I know,” she remarked, but her grumpiness melted away under that soft and warm look in Twilight's eyes. “I know,” she repeated in resignation.

“When is mom coming?” Stardust whined.

I once more interjected in perfect unison as I answered with myself in tandem. “She should be here any moment now. Probably got swamped by a load of paperwork again.”

The scene ended. Well, it did not end so much as it just froze mid-conversation.

Twilight turned to me. “What happened?”

I shrugged. “That’s all I got. From this one at least. There’s more. Dozens and dozens more. Little snippets. Sometimes single sentences, sometimes a conversation, and sometimes half a day. But it’s all drifting around in my head without much to connect them with. I know that some of those memories are from different lives. I don’t know how many though. But in the vast majority of them, it is like this. Or similar to this.”

Twilight looked back. Carefully, as if her hooves could somehow damage anything, she walked a few steps around the table and inspected her alter ego closely. Then she inspected me and finally our offspring. Arcana had light brown fur, similar to my own eyes, but proudly wore her mother’s haircut. Her mane color was a touch off though, and we had never allowed her to dye it appropriately.

“We had a daughter…?” she whispered. Being confronted with a life that she had lived at some point, but that was not hers at the same time, was probably hard.

“And two sons, Stardust and Magnus.” The latter of which, as she immediately noticed, was absent from this particular dinner.

Twilight regarded Stardust with interest while furrowing her brow. “But he said his mother was not here yet…”

I blinked. Once, twice. Right. She did not now. And how could she? Well, this had potential to be rather awkward again. “You are not his… ehrm… mother by blood. But believe me, you are his mother just as much as she is. Was. Whatever.”

She looked him over once more. A bright purple coat, a lighter tone than her own, but a dark blue mane. I could see the gears turning until they came to a screeching halt. I thought I had a good idea of what she was thinking about and by the looks of it, she was decidedly not ready to go down that path just yet. So she pulled back and let that question linger unanswered for now. “We had an unusual family dynamic,” was all I offered and decided to follow suit and leave it at that.

We had made it work. Somehow. And we were happy. Very much so.

“Why show me this?” she asked before she immediately corrected herself. “Why this?”

I shrugged at first. “One is as good as the other. I wanted you to see how… crystal clear and detailed these memories can be. And I wasn’t sure if you would be able to pay much attention to that if I were to show you what we did in the bedroom.” She stammered for a moment and blushed heavily again. I noticed with some amusement that she looked rather conflicted before agreeing with me. “Now, let me try and show you the other end of the spectrum. Sit down and close your eyes.” After a moment of uncertainty, she complied. I concentrated and let the scene around us fall apart, let the colors run into each other and bleed out until only the black void remained. I concentrated on a particular memory and a second later, a voice was heard in the void.

“Don’t!”

Her ears strained, they swiveled about, searching for more, but... there was nothing more to it. That was it. She furrowed her brow and opened her eyes to look at me. “That is it?”

I nodded. “Sometimes it associates itself with other memories. Bleeds into them, or completes them. It came up a lot when I was with Applejack. A warning. Someone begging. Me trying to reign myself in. Internal, external. The voices change, too. But this was the original. Recognize something about it?”

“Can you repeat it?” she asked.

“Sure.” She closed her eyes again and I let the memory play on repeat. She almost looked like she was meditating. Probably some technique for enhanced sensory input or something.

“That is my voice,” she noted after a moment of concentration. Her analytical mind was racing. “It sounded like part of a lecture. But it was not the beginning of it. Or the end.”

I smiled. “Figured as much. It just took me longer to arrive where you are right now. A lot of them are associated with you, in some way. Makes sense, considering how large a part you were always playing in my lives. Though I have to admit, I lied somewhat. I told you that this was the ‘other end of the spectrum’, but that’s not entirely true. There’s a wealth of stuff even less tangible.”

She again fell silent for a while. “How… how detailed is it?”

I shrugged again. “Varies. You felt those floorboards in the kitchen, didn’t you? You could hear their voices, smell the food.” I could hear the giggle of our newborn son as clear as day. I felt her breath on my neck, erratic and full of desire right before it hitched. I could taste coffee on her lips after a breakfast kiss. Vile stuff. But still worth it. I felt that heavy, relieved breath after quickly searching for serious injuries when our daughter had tumbled.

Silence. Contemplation. “I’m sorry,” she finally said.

“I—“ know? No. Thank you? No. I said the only thing that sounded right in my head, accompanied by a lopsided smile. “I’m not. Don’t get me wrong, this is… it’s a problem. But it’s also helpful, right? And it gives me something to aim for, I guess? I told you that I feel lost. And while that’s true, I think I would feel even more lost without this. It’s confusing as heck at times and I at least internally curse a lot when these flashes happen, because dear Luna, sometimes they have unfortunate timing! But this is mine. Some ponies have their diaries. Or stamp collections. Or… I don’t know. Do you have this little wooden box with all the memorabilia under your bed?”

She looked almost shocked. “It will not be under my bed much longer,” she mumbled.

I just nodded. “It’s like that. This is a part of me. Admittedly, it’s a mess. But then again, so am I and therefore it suits me quite well, does it not?” While she did not exactly look convinced, she did look like she understood. At least parts of it. Which was fine by me. It was good enough.

She chewed her lip for a moment before she stood back up again and walked over to me. “Can we maybe visit Rainbow? I want to check up on her. See how she is doing.”

Her request threw me off a little. Enough that I tried to object without thinking. “I actually rather stay inside a dream right now?” A pleading undertone had mixed in at the end, much to my dismay.

Twilight watched me closely though. “Why?”

A manageable little flood of memories came. No flash of insight, no. Just a recollection of things I already remembered. Throws of passion, pleading, moaning, a cry of ecstasy… a shudder ran down my spine, goosebumps… and for just a second, my breathing hitched. When I had seen Twilight for the first time, I immediately rushed to kiss her. And I knew: Had she not taken measures, I would have tried more.

She, on the other hoof, had always been a lot more open about just how passionate she was.

I really was not prepared for this.

But I did not want to answer Twilight's question and choosing between the two options…

I brought us back to the dreamscape. My dream bubble spit us back out, the color drained from it and it returned to its inactive state of a swirling gray mass.

We both walked through the endless night sky, side by side, looking for Rainbow. It was not necessary, I knew that. And by extension, so did she. I could honestly not find a single reason why we were walking. So I stopped. This place was as good as any. I raised my hoof and… hesitated. Calling for Rainbow was easy enough. Her dream would comply and come forth. But my call could be heard.

By Luna, for example.

I looked over to my side, where Twilight was standing. She was marveling at the dreamscape's sheer beauty again. This was for her, was it not? I was trying to prove something to her, so that she would help me help Rainbow. “Fine,” I grumbled.

“What was that?” she immediately asked as her ears swiveled around.

“Nothing,” I deflected and stomped on the ground. Once, then again, and again. I formed an image of Rainbow in my head, her boisterous grin, her windswept rainbow-colored mane, her sleek, athletic body. It did not take long to see her bubble float closer. And then I chuckled. “You really can’t keep these two apart, even when they’re having another tiff,” I said and pointed to a second bubble following closely behind. Once they were nearby, they once more started to orbit each other.

“Are they merging?” Twilight asked almost enthusiastically. She obviously hoped to see something I had described as insanely rare.

It brought me no joy to deny her that. “No,” I replied and shook my head. “They could be. In a couple of years, maybe. They harmonize with each other well enough. That’s just what I meant… it’s like they were meant for each other.”

She mulled this over. “Do Pinkie’s and Fluttershy’s dreams do that too?”

I shook my head. “No. As I said, it is insanely rare for dreams to harmonize this well. Think of it like this: Every pony is both consciousness and subconsciousness. Two parts forming something whole. Here however, one of these parts is severely underrepresented at best. These two fit together like puzzle pieces though. They could very much create something whole. And maybe they will one day. But that doesn’t mean they will just magically stop to bicker and argue. Their consciousness is still there to trip them up over and over again. Because it’s true that we are our own worst enemy at times.”

I turned to face her dream. A swirling mess of colors at least let me know that she was asleep. Yay for small victories. I carefully touched a hoof to its surface.

… and I felt something hungry lunge for me.

“Stay back!” I warned Twilight and took a couple of steps myself. Rainbow's dream immediately went gray and lazy. A nightmare. She had woken up. Great. But what was even more important was the fact that something oozed out of her dream. Something that, after my untimely interruption, still remained hungry.

It reformed before our very eyes. “A timberwolf…?” I heard Twilight gasp. “Here?”

It was made out of light. Cool, blue-ish starlight. The creature was a little bit bigger than Winona and while Twilight apparently saw a collection of sticks and stones, I saw a regular wolf. The important part was: This was a predator.

“Ready a weapon,” I ordered her. I concentrated without taking my eyes off of the snarling creature and I thought of a sword. The most common weapon ever used. Pegassi could carry them in their mouths. Earth ponies could strap smaller blades to their legs. Unicorns could easily wield them with magic.

“Running is not an option?” she tried to make sure.

I shook my head. Both in an attempt to answer and to brace for the incoming flash. “Memories,” I whined. They really did choose the most unfortunate times.

Twilight gave up on her attempt to mimic what I had done and rushed to my side to steady me with a wing over my back. She held me tight while I used what remained of my focus to keep that one glowing sword in between us and the creature that had now started to circle around us. It looked at us like it had found its next best meal.

You do not cower if you stand at my side!, Luna's voice boomed in my ears. I felt tiny and useless, fearful due to her disappointment. I had mumbled something in reply, had I not? I could not remember.

The flash was strong but mercifully brief. “Weapon,” I croaked as I steadied myself. “They hunt for thought patterns and emotions. We cannot tell what they want so we cannot shed it and with time and distance being relative, escaping is somewhat complicated.”

Twilight tried again. Her horn aglow, she manifested a sword of her own and obviously tried to replicate what I had done. It would serve well enough, I thought. “… they?” she asked. I had no actual need to answer her. On one hoof, she was smart enough to recognize wolves as pack animals after another second or two, and on the other… even if she would not have understood, there were low growls and snarls coming from other directions now.

I counted six of them in total.

She tried to ready herself for what seemed inevitable, but I could see that fear in her eyes. This was not her first battle, not by a long shot. But these were quite unique circumstances. She did not know her surroundings all that well. Did not quite understand their mechanics. She had no practice fighting in here and her mind probably constantly told her that her magic was not real in here, which in turn explained why her blade flickered out of existence and back in every so often.

Adding to that… “I have never killed before…” It was a soft whisper. Quiet. Fearful. Troubled.

I had to think quickly and decided: I would be damned if I was the one to make her kill. “Shield yourself,” I instead commanded. Just as the first wolf pounced. I had expected her to form a… well, an actual shield. A round shield, a broad shield, a tower shield. Any shield really. She instead formed a shimmering purple bubble around herself on which the wolf just dented his snout in. It recoiled with another growl, only to immediately jump at her again. It did not even reach the shield this time, I made sure of that. My blade zipped forward and embedded itself in the wolf’s throat. The creature’s body dispersed into particles of light.

Just to keep them at bay a little longer, I used the moment and slashed at another. It tried to jump away, but the blade made contact with its shoulder anyway. A deep gash and it looked like it was bleeding light. Contrary to what I had hoped, the pack did not see this as a sign of unusually defensive prey, but instead a challenge.

“Behind you!” Twilight yelled.

I knew I could not hope to defeat four enemies. Not with a single sword. So I strained and created more. I threw them with force of will, like lances, and dissolved them as soon as they missed or hit. One creature I pierced with three swords at once, another jumped at me and landed head first into another blade. The third had managed to sneak close and kept low to the ground. “Behind you!” Twilight warned again and I kicked back in reflex, feeling some resistance as my back hoof connected to a snout. I whirled around and slashed with another blade but only managed to lightly graze its skull.

The two remaining wolves jumped back. Their first attack had been somewhat decently coordinated on their part, but utter chaos on mine. I barely pulled together enough information to know how to defend myself. I noticed how little remorse I felt striking these creatures down, however. Something to think about for later…

The two wolves were circling us again. Observing, lurking. This would not end. Dreams never fought back. The only defeat these creatures knew was at the hooves of others of their kind. And they did not recognize us as such.

It became obvious to me that they were testing us. Trying to decipher what we were. If we were prey, or predator. Being able to defend ourselves apparently was not enough information to make a choice quite yet. Did we really look that tasty to them? What in Luna's grace were they hunting us for?

When both wolves started to howl, I used the opening without a second thought. I lunged forward, the single blade I had gripped hard in my telekinesis and rammed it into one of the wolf’s throat. It dispersed instantly.

The other one successfully finished his call for help.

That’s a bad thing, I vaguely realized.

I looked over to Twilight. She seemed horrified. Maybe because of the attack. The viciousness displayed. Maybe because of me.

Murderer.

I tried not to dwell on the thought. “Twilight?” She was startled and quickly jerked her head around as she heard her name. “Let the shield drop, now we run!”

As soon as the shield was down, I rushed over, flung my last sword vaguely in the direction of the last wolf, grabbed Twilight and ran. The creature jumped out of the attack's way with ease and did not follow us right away — because that would have been useless all alone and without backup. These things were smart.

“Why are we running?” Twilight cried. “I thought that was useless?”

I nodded while I still ran straight ahead and dodged and weaved between dreams. “It kinda is? It will confuse them for a bit.” I felt strangely refreshed. Alive. In a totally not murder-hobo’y way, this was invigorating. Almost fun.

It scared the crap out of me.

“Stop!” I almost yelled as I felt… something. Something was decidedly wrong about this place. We slowed to a canter, then a trot, and then walked slowly side by side again. This part of the dreamscape was no different from any other. Night sky, stars, dreams floating about… but after a moment, we reached a clearing of sorts.

“They are coming,” Twilight told me.

“How many?” I asked while I was somehow unable to take my eyes off of that one single dream floating in the dead center of this clearing.

“Two Dozens minimum,” she gauged.

Yikes. Still. Something was up with this dream. I dared to step closer, just a little bit. “Dreamwalker? What do we do?”

“… let them come,” I said absentmindedly. I was certain they would not dare enter this clearing. I looked around and noticed all the other dreams, drifting and floating about, pushing each other off like magnets. “Dreams aren’t sentient,” I explained without even caring if she listened. “But in a way, they care about certain things… staying intact, for example. That’s why they float around but ultimately repulse each other. If they were to touch, the bubble would usually burst.”

I finally managed to tear my gaze off and look around. Although Twilight had noticed the wide berth every other dream seemed to give this one, she was more focused on the starlight wolves. She was right of course. Dozens. I had tried to count, but they were constantly moving. Some thirty plus wolves. They growled and snarled and circled and yet did not dare come any closer than those other dreams did.

Something was in there. In that one dream. Something that uncaring things like dreams suddenly cared about. Something that scared a massive pack of predators into cowering.

Well, they were not quite cowering. They were still very much aiming for our tails. And not without a certain dread did I recognize that every now and again, one of the creatures dared to step closer. And seeing as nothing immediately happened, the entire circle drew closer as well.

In a way, they were still coming for us.

“I need to know,” I mumbled. I charged my horn, turned around and carefully stepped up to the dream. A jolt ran through my horn, freezing me in place as fragments of a powerful dream overwhelmed me. I could feel cold marble tiles under my hooves, a freezing breeze caressing my coat... and I heard a voice sing. Thick with sorrow and despair, night after night, often half choking on her own words... for a thousand years. My knees gave in and I crumbled to the ground. Tears streamed down my face and my voice denied my every effort to utter even a single word.

I now recognized this. It was Celestia's dream.

A dream that felt as old as the world itself. And it was grief-stricken. So much of it that I could not bear to even think about it. So much of it that a single touch of my horn had reduced me to a mess. As I had suspected, there was a creature in there. And it was a farmer.

To have this kind of effect, it must have been old. Very old. And very, very well-nourished. It devoured her grief, but always sowed more to feed itself. It had grown massive. Enough that it affected the dreamscape around it. Enough that it scared everything away. It never left its dream. And why would it? It had everything it needed. All the pain and suffering it could ever desire.

It was feasting on Celestia. And thereby poisoning her.

What was I to make of such information? What? What to do with this revelation?

“They’re closing in,” I heard Twilight say. “Please… please come back to me.”

She sounded desperate. And I realized why. I was still lying on the ground. Unmoving, unblinking, with tear-stained fur, while dozens of enemies surrounded us. I would not, could not, let her come to harm. Had I not brought her here to prove myself? To show her that I could handle myself? That I was in control?

Putting that first hoof down felt like a colossal act. Then another. As soon as she noticed the movement, Twilight was there by my side again. She always was. With a little help, I stood up and slowly turned around to take in how close the enemies had gotten. They were becoming bold.

“Stay behind me,” I ordered and stepped up. I was in control.

I summoned swords. A dozen at once this time. I spaced them out in a circle around us, their pointy ends directed outwards. Try me, I internally challenged them. I should have been less cocky. But knowing about so much suffering right behind me, I felt so incredibly angry. And lest we never forget — magic was influenced by emotion.

I really should not have drawn from anger though. For obvious reasons. The magic of friendship made a pretty (awesome) and colorful rainbow laser that zapped the evil right out of someone. At least according to horrific simplifications of the process, usually made by Rainbow Dash. Anger… had less pretty results.

Before I could get myself worked up again to the point of actual consequences though… something fell.

Like a comet from the sky, something bright just dashed down from above and impacted with the amount of force one would expect from a comet impacting solid ground. I could feel the ripples of the aftershocks. I saw several of the creatures fly through the air and dissolve before they even hit the ground again. A cloud of pure, physical darkness floated above the place of impact. Everything was frozen for just a second. None of the creatures dared to move, unsure of what had happened. Twilight probably feared the arrival of another hostile force.

Which, to be fair, was not entirely wrong.

I was frozen because I was not ready for this.

The first thing that came out of that cloud was a double-bladed scythe. It whirled around like a boomerang, slicing and dicing more and more wolves as it made its way along the edge of the clearing. The first wolf that came to its senses and tried to flee was speared. Literally. An impressive longspear of pure moonlight shot out of the cloud and pinned the thing to the ground before it dissolved. And finally Luna stepped out in all her glory. She wore her silver-plated armor, enchanted with spells no book dared to list or name. It contrasted perfectly with her dark blue coat and her ethereal, starry mane. The latter was braided. Her cyan eyes were fierce, burning with the passion of combat. “Thee shouldst not has't cometh h're,” boomed her voice as she regarded her enemies for just a second before charging to her left and just trampling over the first two creatures with armor-clad hooves. She shoulder-checked a third one before she even noticed us.

She looked very, very confused when she noticed Twilight standing behind me. And just a teensy tiny bit miffed when her glare turned to me. She nevertheless rushed over. “Behind me,” she ordered just as I had done before. She recalled her scythe and spear and readied herself for the coming onslaught.

Because these creatures did not learn.

Half their numbers had fallen within mere moments and yet they persisted in their endeavor. In fact, the fearsome dream that had kept them at bay for so long seemed all but forgotten now and they just charged from all sides.

I knew Luna was a capable warrior. She had done this for centuries even before her banishment and had continued to do this after her return and recovery. But I had brought Twilight here. I had endangered her. Luna was pissed, to put it bluntly, and I could understand why. I would be too.

I tried to make it up somehow.

I turned around, stepped forward and put Twilight between the two of us. I had lost concentration when Luna ‘arrived’ — the little show-off — and my swords had vanished. But now I recalled them to my side and formed a half-circle before me this time. I looked over my shoulder to check on Twilight and while I was relieved to find her still standing there and looking okay-ish thus far, I also noticed how Luna raised an eyebrow in disbelief and stared at my swords. “Armor,” she noted.

“Right. Good idea.” I focused my thoughts and willed the image in my head to become part of reality. Heavy steel plating weighed me down in an instant and covered me like a shell. But I was a unicorn in a situation where the enemy was more than willing to come to us — mobility was not exactly a priority.

“Incoming!” Twilight warned and we turned back to face the onslaught.

Three wolves had thought of our ‘banter’ as an opportunity. And three swords zipped forward, precise as arrows, to answer their misjudgment. I focused on my side and trusted completely in Luna both handling herself and keeping Twilight safe between us. Twilight even recovered somewhat once her role had shifted so significantly. Since nopony expected her to kill anything, she could focus on what she did best. Lead and coordinate. She analyzed their movement patterns and yelled the direction of incoming attacks at us. She pointed out openings and we wore them down little by little.

A pair of wolves, the last two, finally, finally tried to flee. For a fraction of a second, I thought about letting them get away. Maybe it would help? Maybe the knowledge would spread that—

But it did not work like that, I reminded myself — and threw the remaining three swords after one of them, only calling out, “Left.” Luna nodded and flung her spear in a high arch to pin down the right one.

Once we were done with this grisly business, she turned to us and inspected Twilight for visible injuries first. With the utmost care, as I noticed. “Are you hurt?” she asked with an unexpected softness in her voice. And I noticed how she immediately switched to modern Equestrian.

Twilight smiled bashfully and took a step forward to hug Luna. “No. Just a little shaken, is all.”

The Princess of the Night almost melted into her embrace before she squared up again and turned her attention to me. “Thee has't been most careless, young fool!” she reprimanded in a firm, stern voice.

I immediately panicked. Maybe because of that earlier flash. Maybe because I still felt utterly unprepared. Maybe because she looked so gosh-darn attractive in her armor. Maybe, maybe. It mattered little as I grabbed Twilight almost possessively — or maybe like some kind of life jacket — and rattled down my farewell: “I know, I’m sorry, so sorry, bye!”

I could only imagine her standing there, blinking, maybe uttering something like ‘I wasn’t finished!’

We both jolted awake in her bed. “I cannot believe you just did that!” Twilight panicked.

“Neither can I,” I whined. “She’s gonna be sooo mad! She hates it when I leave her standing!” Or when I interrupted her. Or when I ignored her.

It was probably the tone of my voice that gave it away. That not-really-real-terror usually reserved for talking about a disgruntled spouse. “She has been your wife,” Twilight guessed in disbelief.

I was still panicky, very much so. I liked to think that otherwise, I would have shut my mouth. “Don’t try to get out of this one! She’s your wife too!” It clicked a second later and I cursed some very unsavory things beneath my breath as I looked over to her. “I’m sorry,” I tried. She had not been ready before. She had tried to steer away from this answer. Yet here I was, running my mouth again.

I did not know what exactly I had expected to see. How I expected her reaction to play out. I could not even muster any amount of fake-surprise as she blushed so hard that ponies outside who might have seen her bedroom window could probably take her for a foal’s night lamp.

Just as usual when things got awkward between us, Luna tried to help. Because surely that was the only way to interpret Spike sitting up startled from his sleep and burping up a scroll with her wax seal in a burst of green flame. “Sheesh. In the middle of the night?!” the drowsy dragon grumbled. “She could’ve at least waited 'till morning…” Vaguely seeing us sitting in bed, he threw the scroll over, only to immediately lie back down and pull the blanket over his head.

The scroll had hit Twilight on the head. She did not mind much. She instead opened it up and read through its very few contents. There was no address at all, no formalities or niceties, not even a signature. Even the two questions written upon the parchment seemed to have been scrawled there in utmost haste.

Are you alright? Are you safe?

Twilight stared at the parchment for a moment.

It felt like an eternity. I thought I could tell that she was still trying to process the whole wife-thing. In the end though, she used Cadance’s breathing technique, calmed herself down and summoned writing materials.

I’m fine. And safe. She was already about to send it, when she dipped the feather into the ink well again. It was lovely seeing you again and it warms my heart to know how much you care.

I did not read her letter. I would never lean over and satisfy my own curiosity. Just thinking about such accusations… the nerve!

She sat her signature under the text, put a proper address above it, curled it up, somehow magic’ed her wax seal on it and, floating in midair, let it be consumed by a plume of green flame.

Wait, what? “Wait, what?” Eloquence. I got it.

She smiled a little awkwardly. “It’s… dragon magic,” she whispered. “I studied it a couple of weeks after my ascension… please don’t tell Spike?”

Her plea was unnecessary. “I won’t, promise.” A quiet sigh of relief and we were both back to… what, exactly?

It was that moment that I noticed her shivering. Middle of the night. Made sense. So I scooched close again. “What are you doing?” She sounded confused. Maybe she had not even noticed being cold yet.

“Lie down with me. You’re freezing.” She complied a brief moment later. I used my magic to pull the blanket up once more and hugged her tightly again. She’s not mine. Stop hoarding her. She did not belong to me. And yet I clutched her tightly and a knot formed in my stomach, knowing what I had to do eventually. Because I knew where she belonged.

She was mine. For now.

I buried my muzzle in her mane. “Thank you,” I whispered.

There was a lot to be grateful about and I could not have pinpointed what exactly I was thanking her for in that instance. Maybe for trying to get Luna off my tail. Maybe for helping us in the fight. Maybe for giving me a chance to prove my capabilities. Oh, that was an interesting question. Had I proven myself capable? I had half a mind to ask Twilight about it, but when I listened… her breathing was slow, relaxed and even. She was sleeping again.

A couple of hours until sunrise. I hugged Twilight. Yeah, that was alright. I would survive.