Dreamwalker's Tale

The next morning came with a slight change in our new routine. Spike did not oversleep this time, so he was up early and came into the kitchen while I was still preparing stuff. “Oh, hey, morning!”

“Good morning. Sorry that I missed you yesterday, I… uh… took a bath.” I still felt quite embarrassed and rubbed my neck with a hoof.

“Yeah, I heard. Lucky I got to you before Twi is up, though. I managed to talk to Stonewood yesterday. He said he was ready to start work today.” Going out for Pinkies gemstone cupcakes, coming back with useful information.

I smiled. “And that’s why you are the number one assistant!” I praised him. After a moment of thinking, I turned to him again. “So… I need your help again,” I started.

“Distraction?”

“Distraction.”

“Got it.”

I could not help but laugh a little and ruffled through his head fins. “You’re the best.”

When Twilight came down a short while after, we were already waiting for her. And almost immediately, Spike started his attack. While she was eating and still taking in her coffee, he began to list all his little triumphs and achievements and successfully completed tasks. Those that were not part of the daily routine package. Finally, she had enough of this list and addressed him. “Spike… what do you want?”

He grinned widely. “So you agree that I did really good as of late and deserve some—“

“You’re not getting more gems,” she interrupted. Although he seemed a little put off by that for just a couple of seconds, we all knew that his draconic greed needed to be carefully controlled, lest unfortunate things might happen. Again.

After a moment though, Spike regained his composure and started awkwardly fidgeting with his claws and avoided looking at Twilight. “So there’s this comic book store… in Canterlot… and they start selling a new line today, a week before everyone else, because the main artist was from Canterlot and they struck some deal or something…”

It took just a couple of seconds for Twilight's features to soften considerably. She glanced over to me for a moment, studying me, searching for any improvement of my condition. And while I had not slept per se, the bath did make me look a lot better than I had yesterday. “Will you be alright if I leave for a day trip?” she asked, still not having decided on anything.

“I know you’re worried because we haven’t made much progress yesterday. And I fainted. I guess that, too. But I’m feeling way better and I want to remind you of your own words. About patience when researching and stuff.” I did my best to muster an honest smile and hide how tired I still was.

It seemed to work for once. Thank Tia for that. “’Patience and stuff’, yes, that does sound exactly like something I would say,” she teased with a smile. She looked back to Spike, who mustered his best impression of puppy dog eyes, silently pleading with her. It really wasn’t fair. But that was what siblings were about, I guessed. “Fine.” Spike jumped up, elated about her decision, and simply stuck himself to her side. “Spike!” she tried to reprimand him. “I still need to… to do stuff and… this is not… helping…” She tried to pry him off, but she failed. She could obviously have just used her telekinesis, but she did not. Because this was part of sibling teasing or something, I presumed. And judging by how she grinned, it did not really bother her all that much.

Love and be loved.

I smiled. While she got her saddlebags and some bits, I cleaned the dishes and waited for them at the door. “Spike, I wish you good luck and I hope you get one!” I told him and then looked at Twilight. “Take care. And see you later.” I stepped closer and went in for another embrace and noticed with no small amount of satisfaction that she did not flinch. She just smiled and reciprocated it.

And hooo boy, was it high time. It took less than half an hour for Stonewood and his crew to arrive after Twilight and Spike had left.

The muscular earth pony was broadly built, pitch black with a stone-gray mane and curiously enough, two crossed pickaxes for a cutie mark. His ‘boys’, as he referred to them, were mostly earth ponies as well, but I did spot a couple of unicorns and a single pegasus. “Mister Stonewood, welcome!”

He raised a brow at me. “Mornin’, mister…?”

“Dreamwalker, it’s a pleasure to meet you. Princess Sparkle sadly won’t be joining us today, as she had to depart with an early train to Canterlot. Princess-business, I presume. However, I was instructed thoroughly on what to do.” I did my best ‘clerk’-impression. And to be fair, I thought I sounded pretty convincing — and it seemed to work. I was pretty sure that in any other town or city, be it Appleloosa, Manehattan or Canterlot, what I was doing just would not fly. At all. But this was Ponyville. These were good and honest folks, right? And it was not as if I was asking them to empty Twilight's library for me. He remained a little cautious because I was a face he had not seen before, of course. But my posture, how I spoke, how I offered him entrance with a warm smile… I convinced him.

Sweet, sweet success.

They brought in enough wooden planks that I was starting to ask myself if a little forest was being stuffed inside this castle. But I immediately had a very good feeling about this whole thing, because it smelled so fantastic! I did not know what kind of wood it was. Maybe oak? That would have been a nice bonus, but I had not thought about that when we wrote up those orders.

So, I gave them a tour of the castle. That I had gotten lost on numerous occasions in the last couple of days actually worked in my favor now. I instructed them where to place which shelf and they got to work immediately. I was almost astonished at how straightforward everything seemed.

Stonewood was the supervisor here. I knew that and I did not interfere if I was not asked a direct question. But, I thought that in my role as Twilights clerk, I should walk around and take a look over their shoulders, so to speak. They did not seem to mind at all.

And then, I smelled ozone. For a short moment, I panicked. Had something gone wrong? Had Twilight forgotten something and just returned? I knew she could do that. Teleport from Canterlot to Ponyville. Once per day. But then again she probably was not even in Canterlot yet. I carefully, slowly, quietly opened the door to the living room.

What I saw was both a relief and very, very troubling at the same time.

The Royal Canterlot Archive had started to deliver. Apparently. Piles of books and maps and scrolls and banners and-

Wait, banners? What the heck? “Mister Stonewood, if you would excuse me for a moment?”

“Sure, go on. We got this.”

I nodded in thanks and hurried inside the library. I had to dig through an ever-growing pile in the middle of the room, because it just kept coming. Several books, neatly stacked, with each teleport. Or scrolls. Or maps. Or banners. And a bunch of other stuff that was just weird. Like… there was a bust of Princess Celestia.

What. The. Heck?

I found a single scroll with a seal. It was not the seal of one of the Princesses, but that of the Archives. I broke the seal and started reading it immediately. Flowery language, something something, very surprised, yes yes, big order, hopefully everything is in order, yadda yadda…

Spike.

They addressed Spike. From what I could gather, at some point, somehow and without me noticing, he must have slipped a note in that pile he sent to the Archives. The writer of this letter tried to be formal, but there was a faint hint of something personal in there. No wonder — Twilight had practically lived in that library for a couple of years and so, too, had Spike. If they still employed the same librarian as they did back then, they probably knew each other quite well. And it would be really hard, especially for a librarian, to not like both Spike and Twilight.

So apparently he had asked for ‘some decoration’. Nothing specific, as the letter explicitly mentioned ‘making an educated guess’. And it included a little complaint about not having enough time to put something together.

I wanted to hug that little dragon. And strangle him. At the same time, preferably.

Alright. Fine. So this room was a lost cause. The books would just keep coming. As would the decorations, apparently. I would have to sort this out later. 'Later' sounded fine. It sounded like a future-Dreamwalker-problem.

Right now, I had to take care of Stonewood and his crew. So I returned outside and found everything to be in order. They were still working tirelessly, without any incident to speak of. Nice.

A few hours later, they were actually done. It had been quite the spectacle. Watching those new shelves come together, lining the walls. When he whistled, his ‘boys’ came, tools all packed up. “That would be it,” he remarked, taking one last look at his work and apparently being satisfied with what he saw.

“Thank you!” I offered. “Princess Twilight will surely appreciate your work for many years to come.” After just a couple of seconds, a horrifying thought creeped up on me. “What about payment?” I asked. I felt the color drain from my face.

However, Stonewood remained professional and just shrugged with a slightly raised eyebrow. “This fancy form of yours was quite clear on that. I’m going to send an invoice to the Royal Treasury and that’s that.”

Before I could actually start to panic, I found myself relieved. I nodded eagerly, maybe breaking character a little bit too much. But right now, I did not quite care as much as I probably should have. “Right, right… thank you. Again. For your work. And the shelves.” I realized that I was rambling, but I just could not stop talking. And judging by his look, he was starting to get a little creeped out.

“No problem. If you find any tools lying about, just send Spike over and I’m coming to fetch them. My regards to the Princess and have a nice day, mister Dreamwalker.” He nodded, turned and with him, his crew started to leave. When I closed those doors behind them, I took in a deep, deeeeep breath and exhaled slowly. They were gone. The shelves were in place. Step by step.

Time to tackle the next one.

I returned to the library and started by opening the window. The smell of ozone from so many teleportations had become quite heavy. But from the looks of it, it had stopped to add to the pile. By this point, it almost reached the roof of the room and stretched in all directions. But there was still a nice little walkway around it.

I started by removing all the decorations from the pile and sorted those to the side, building a smaller, second pile. Then I studied the massive amount of books. There was no way in Tartarus that I would be able to sort those in the time I had left. A quick look out the window — it was afternoon. Yeah. Not gonna happen. I had to get my sorry ass into gear.

So I grabbed as many books as my magic could carry and did what would immediately make every single true-hearted librarian faint in horror. I shoved them into shelves, with no regard to title, genre, color, size or any other method of sorting.

I really, really hoped that Twilight might actually have fun with this, though: Sorting and rearranging her library. She did it on a regular basis and I remembered that she once told me how she found peace doing it. Spike hated that and after all he had done to help me, I could not help but smile a little guiltily while shoving more and more books into random shelves. “Sorry, Spike… gotta do what I gotta do,” I mumbled.

It took longer than I had expected to just reduce that pile in the middle of the library to nothing. With the last books in place, I sorted through the secondary pile. I had seen those rugs in Canterlot Castle before. In the hallways, to be precise, so out there they went. The busts and smaller statues I shoved in with the books, breaking the monotony of some of those shelves. I actually had to chuckle a couple of times. Miniatures of Tia and Lu? Yeah, sure, I could understand that. But there was a small replica of Star Swirl's hat, staff and cape. A clay replica of chancellor Puddinghead's… head. It was just paraphernalia, I knew that, but those were nice little details.

And that left me with the banners. They were simple, but beautiful. Twilight's colors, with her cutie mark being the central aspect, but flanked by stylized depictions of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Someone had fashioned them a long time ago, letting them wait for this moment in some dusty closet — of that, I was sure. So I spent my next couple of minutes trying to find a toolbox. I was then trying to figure out how to fix a nail within the crystal without breaking said crystal and then realized that one single nail would never hold the quite impressive weight of those banners.

So in the end, I just pinned them to the sides of some of the shelves. With quite a lot of nails. It really was not perfect. But I did not dare to risk damaging the castle and what I had tried was not anything that could not be reversed. Getting a nail out of wood was easy. Restoring crystal? Not so much.

When I put that toolbox away again, I closed the closet door, turned around and sat down on my haunches. I felt exhausted. But at the same time, I noticed a growing tension. I was getting nervous. Everything was done. For better or worse, this was it. I would sink with this ship if that was indeed its destiny. All that remained was waiting for the only passenger’s approval. And I was horrible with metaphors.

I let my eyes wander along the walls of the hallway. The rugs helped break up the monotony, the bookshelves were imposingly tall and filled with knowledge and little winks to a history nerd who gushed over some dusty old ponies. It seemed perfect. And there was no singular library in this castle any longer. This castle was a library. It was the closest to becoming a book fort as it could get.

I wandered the hallways, not getting lost for once. The smell was unique, and enticing. Freshly worked wood had its own appeal, and it mixed with old books and ink. It smelled great. It smelled like home.

But my attempts at distracting myself started to fail more and more. I found myself arguing pros and cons of this whole endeavor, knowing that it was too late anyway. Finally, I just settled near the door and resigned myself to my fate of becoming a frazzled, nerve-wrecked mess by the time they got home.

Which was more or less exactly what happened.

They returned late. Not being in a room with a window, I did not know how late exactly, but it felt late. I heard Spikes excitedly babbling, muffled through the door, before I heard the door itself open up. The sound of hooves on crystal, then hooves on carpet, then… silence, until…

“What?” It was a simple, single word that Twilight uttered. She sounded more confused than anything else. I looked up and saw Spike gawking at the changes. Well. At least he seemed to be impressed. But he stood right beside Twilight and she… I could not get a proper read on her, but I would not let Spike take that fall for me. He was not to blame here. I had roped him into this whole mess!

“Before you start freaking out,” I pleaded, “please let me explain.” She nodded dumbfounded, her eyes flitting here and there, not able to focus on a single thing in particular. “I… thought it was a nice idea. Something to make you happy… or at least a little happier?” Nice idea. I should clarify. “It was my idea!” I added hastily. “Spike had nothing to do with—“ Please don’t lie to me. Damn it! “Okay, so, Spike helped a little, but really it was my idea and I basically blackmailed him into it. You were just so sad with this place and I could tell that you were missing the old tree and now it smells like tree and it’s basically a book fort now and look, they even had banners for you prepared and I think they had those lying around for weeks or months now and those aren’t the actual books from the Archives, just copies, but you need new forms for ordering those, as we, I mean I, used them all up and I forgot to close the library window again, because it smelled of ozone in there—“

Rambling. Couldn’t stop myself. Great.

“Listen, I… I’m really sorry. I just—“

That was becoming part of a routine, I felt. The world laid down sideways. However, this time, she did not kick me or punch me and I certainly did not faint. She tackled me to the ground. And she held me. And rubbed her damp cheek against mine. And her ragged breathing tickled my ear. I flicked it involuntarily, but as soon as I comprehended my situation, I hugged her as tightly as I could. And I held onto her for dear life.

It was embarrassing, really. How just a couple of hours had reduced me to Rarity-level dramatics. To be fair, what I had done was not exactly a ‘small change’. I suppose, if I actually had messed up badly, she would have been quite cross with me. Maybe some yelling would have been involved. A couple of days of a cold shoulder, even. But we would have figured it out. I was convinced that we would have figured something out. Together. Because Twilight did not abandon her friends, and neither did I. And while for me, it was set in stone that she was my friend, if not more, I believed that she saw me as her friend as well by now.

I took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to regain control. It was not easy, with Twilight being this close, her fresh tears still staining my coat and her pressing against me with such force. She calmed down. Slowly. As did I. And finally, we let each other go to disentangle your limbs.

“Thank you,” she whispered, still standing quite close, and pressed her lips to my cheek. It burned. And I loved it. And I wanted more. Suddenly, the urge was there. To tilt my head ever so slightly, and switch up her target from my cheek to my lips. But I controlled myself and just smiled.

“I’m just glad you like it.” As if on cue, somewhere in the background, one of those heavy banners ripped its nails out of the bookshelf and fell to the ground with a mighty clutter, eliciting a startled yelp from both of us. “Bucking banners,” I cursed. A second later, we both giggled quietly. It was a relief. I felt like a weight was lifted from my shoulders, my lungs, my heart, even my head seemed to clear up a bit. Enough to notice Spike’s immediately suspicious absence. But I did not comment on that until Twilight asked me if he really had helped. Squirming a bit and remembering her plea, I nodded. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without him, actually. He loves you dearly, and when I presented an option of making you feel more at home in this place, making you feel more comfortable here… even if it was just a ‘chance’ of success, he basically jumped at it.”

Purple light engulfed her horn, she closed her eyes and a stream of active magic snaked away, down the hallway and around the corner. A couple of seconds later, an unsuccessfully wiggling young dragon was dragged through the air, back to us. “I didn’t do much really,” he tried.

“She likes it,” I interrupted his starting plea.

“She does?” he cautiously asked.

“She does,” Twilight answered and hugged him with all of her might.

Once again: Sweet, sweet success. Though I still felt like I was sweating buckets.

So, with Spike firmly planted on her back, I gave her a tour. I told her about Stonewood and his crew, how I might be seen as her clerk now and how I totally did not freak out when I entered the library and there was just this growing book monster. I showed her some of that paraphernalia and she immediately tore into it. Obviously. Star Swirl's hat was not long enough. His cape would have been too tight for his neck. Puddingheads nose was not that long. Yet while she listed all the imperfections, she did not stop smiling once. I recognized it. She knew these busts and statues and whatnot. She sounded like she had played that game before, maybe with a librarian of the Archives, maybe even with Princess Celestia — a game of ‘find all the mistakes’.

I did not mind. It was perfect. I knew that, because she told me so. Multiple times.

After the tour, we returned to the living room. I snuck sideways, finally closing that darn window I forgot about like five times already, while Twilight relit the fireplace and Spike vanished in the kitchen, shortly after returning with the explanation that he had started to make some tea when somepony had dragged him away for sudden cuddles.

We sat down, all three of us, and for a good while, we were just silent. It was comfortable. Then Spike spoke up, putting his emptied mug on the table. “I really don’t know why so many ponies like this stuff. It’s just herbs with water, it tastes… I dunno… bland.”

“Rarity likes tea,” I tried to tease.

“I know,” he replied and it almost sounded like he did not care all that much. That… took me by surprise. He looked down at his fidgeting claws and he did not seem entirely comfortable with saying anything ‘against’ his beloved, but he did not retract his statement either.

Good on you, buddy. It was a simple change. A small one. But even those could be important.

“Did you get your comic book?” I asked and offered a change of topic.

“Yeah. We had to wait in line for a couple of hours, though. Still, it was pretty great.” He mused a moment, then shook his head. “I’m heading to bed. You guys have fun, good night!”

“Good night, Spike,” Twilight answered quicker than me, so I just echoed her.

I watched him go, listened until his steps were not audible anymore and then looked at her. “Now. I have… prepared something.”

She looked up from her tea, first towards the door and then with a rising eyebrow towards me. “Did you now?”

I chuckled. “Uh-huh.” With my magic, I grabbed two books I had hidden beneath the sofa. She blushed a little when she read the title. “Supposedly, there’s, like, a single adult scene somewhere in there. I don’t think Spike knows what kind of book that is and I had a feeling you didn’t want him to learn about that. But, you know, it’s still relatively harmless and I thought we could read something fun for a change. I felt horrible when I found you last night, but you were reading this romance novel, right? Nice change of pace, so to speak? We can continue research tomorrow.”

After a moment of thought, she accepted my proposal and we started to read. I had grabbed the first Daring Do novel. I knew that I had read that one before. Multiple times, even. Probably in multiple loops. But I wondered if things changed inside the book as well. And honestly, my recollection of its contents were fuzzy at best anyway.

The next hour or two were quite comfortable. She once again leaned against me. Sometimes she chuckled and, when asked, read a paragraph to me. She had to give a little context first, of course. And she did it with this precious spark in her eyes. Oh how I loved her. But even though she was this close, I did not want to lean in and kiss her. The impulse was gone again. It was the first time that I considered that maybe, just maybe, it was more like… the love siblings shared? Was she like a sister to me now?

I buried my muzzle between her haunches, one last lick and the tremors started to rock her body…

No. Alright. That was… a clear no.

Not making any progress on that front, then. Fine. I once again decided to just leave it be for now. Once she started to get tired, she closed her book, laid her head on my shoulder and just watched the fire burn away merrily. And a couple of minutes later, she drifted off to sleep.

I probably should not have been as surprised as I was. She trusted me. She felt safe with me. I closed my own book, put it down on the table and once again started to lift her up. This time she reawakened, though. At least halfway. She still seemed drowsy and only partially there. “Your head… is in the noose…” she mumbled, sporting a warm smile for me.

“Is that so, huh?”

“Mhm… met Pinkie on our way home,” she continued to mumble. “She was sooo sad… her Pinkie Sense had told her somepony new was in town, but she could not find him…” I immediately knew where this was going and braced myself. “She looked like she was about to cry… I just… could not…”

I sighed. “It’s alright. I’ve been sort of hiding, haven't I? I should really stop that, it’s a bad habit.” She nodded. A little bit too eagerly as well, which made my magic strain a little bit. “Sooo… ‘welcome to Ponyville’-party it is?” I dared to ask.

“No… not quite. I managed to talk her out of it… for now. I, uh… might have compared you to Fluttershy? I made her promise not to go all out Pinkie on you immediately. But she is coming over tomorrow, though.” She watched me closely, even in her sleep-drunken state, while I was carrying her aloft towards her bedroom. I was not sure what she was searching for, but apparently she did not quite find it and that relieved her.

So. Pinkie. Tomorrow. I could expect a guest. That… was great. Right? I liked Pinkie. I loved Pinkie. She was like family. And I was still… incomplete. But hey — now I did not have much choice anymore and maybe that was for the best.

When we reached her room, she was asleep again. I put her to bed and once again left her room to return to the library, skimming through book after book, for hour after hour. I tried. With somewhat renewed vigor. I was glad Twilight had refrained from mentioning my sleep deprivation again. This was… what? The fifth night? Considering that, I was doing great. No hallucinations or health issues or other things I should have experienced by now.

The texts blurred again. And nervousness creeped along my spine all night. But I tried to power through anyway, because what else was there to do? I was looking forward to this visit as much as I was afraid of it. But maybe, juuust maybe, these books were helpful. And thereby, different from the others.

They were decidedly not.