Dreamwalker's Tale: Project Greenwood

Several busy but ultimately eventless months of toil later.

It was okay, I told myself. And I tried to keep my pace measured. I tried to not speed up into a canter or outright run down this very familiar dirt path. My target was in sight. The anticipation had been building up for hours now, the entire way back. My original plan had been to have a nice morning, slow and peaceful, get things in order one by one and head back around late morning to early midday.

Turned out I was way, waaay too excited for that.

I could not sleep properly. I tossed and turned in bed until I gave up with an annoyed groan. The sun was nowhere to be seen, Luna's beautiful night sky was still on full display and it was therefore way too early for me. My body did not care. Neither did my mind, it seemed. So I snuck out of our house without waking Aurora. I trotted to the river and finished my morning routine in record time. And I had everything else in order before the sky even dipped into lighter shades of blue.

My own eagerness made me chuckle several times on my way back.

There was plenty to do. There always was. Greenwood was a busy village, a newly founded, quickly growing bloom on Equestrian maps. The call had been sent out. Ponies heard of this new place, full of opportunities and maybe chances to start over, turn a new leaf. And they came from far and wide. Only a trickle, sure. That would change soon enough. It would get busy. Real busy. And as much as that excited me, it also made me feel antsy. New and unfamiliar faces. Not hoof-picked by me. Not strange outsiders and outcasts whose quirks I knew well. Or at least: Knew at all.

Greenwood was in a good spot. Stable. It did not need my continued presence anymore. The changeling invasion had been… repelled. Somehow. I was assured multiple times that they had ‘dealt with it’. I did not know what that meant in detail, I never asked, I tried not to care. The less I heard about pesky bugs, the better.

Nopony had witnessed Tempora. Nopony in Greenwood, at least. She decided to visit Canterlot first, to catch up with her sisters, make proper introductions again if necessary, and get a ‘lay of the land’, as it were. She was out there. Somehow, that filled me with pride and joy. And ease of mind. Answers were out there. I finally knew that they were out there, at least.

And I had a new friend. Velvet Dusk. Who I was not allowed to call Vivi. Who sometimes called himself Wildfire, to sound edgy and mysterious, I presumed. Similar to Fizzlepop Berrytwist calling herself Tempest Shadow. Ooohhh, spooky.

Other times, he called himself Dawn. As a reminder to himself why he was still going.

He loved adventure novels. And the academic pursuit of magical research. He was smart. Witty. A family stallion at heart. He would fit right in in Ponyville. I was eager to introduce him and Twilight to each other. I was eager to make him familiar with the concept of Ogres & Oubliettes.

Velvet was sleeping. It sounded nicer than ‘being in a state of temporal stasis’. He dreamt of the day he and his beloved were reunited. It would happen eventually. I would make sure of that somehow. One day.

And I was finally allowed to go home.

Greenwood needed to exist. Celestia knows why, but it had to. And now it did. And I was free. I had paid my dues. The name was on maps.

Are you pleased now?

I walked up the steps of the Crystal Castle. And as I came to a halt right in front of the grand entrance door, I suddenly grew horribly self-aware. I checked my coat. It was… okay. Not brushed to a sheen. Rarity would have things to say about that. But it was fine. My mane was a mess, but considering I had occasionally sped up into a gallop, canter, outright run before I managed to reign myself in and slow down back to a brisk walking pace — and adding the occasional gust of wind —, it could have been a lot worse.

I could feel the slight bags under my eyes. I was even sleep-deprived enough to check for my saddlebags. I wore none. The missing weight did not clue me in, no. Only when I stared at my own flank did I remember that I had talked about this with Spike. He and Gabby considered staying in Greenwood for a while longer. The village did not need a fierce protector anymore. They had Whisper and Peter now, and a pack of timberwolves secured forest north of town, and a couple of manticores kept the southern parts peaceful.

But they wanted to stay a little while longer and I did not mind. They would bring back whatever needed to be brought back. So I traveled with a light load of… nothing.

I sighed and tried to calm myself down. I closed my eyes, focused on my breathing, my rampant heartbeat, my slightly jittery legs. And I counted. “It’s fine,” I coaxed myself. I opened the door and the thin line of my lips quickly grew into a face-splitting grin as I saw Twilight sitting a dozen feet behind it on the carpet in the middle of the hallway.

How long had she been there? How long had she waited for me to finally open that door? I had informed her of my return with a letter, delivered courtesy of Spike. But surely she had not planted her pretty rump there as soon as she woke up. Right?

Either way, I closed the door behind me and that seemed to rouse her from her stupor. She blinked twice, then smiled from ear to ear as well as she stood up. She advanced towards me, slowly at first, measured. Movement I recognized easily. And before I knew it, she sped up. “Eeeeeeee!” she squealed as she ran into me.

I was ready for her. Sweet Celestia, stars and heavens above, I was so ready for this. I sat down firmly, caught her in my front legs and hugged her and I would never ever let her go again ever.

The warmth of her body. The brush of her coat against mine. That subtle scent of old paper and ink and her lavender shampoo wafting from her mane. I ingrained it in my memory. This moment, I had waited for it for months. Way too many months, it felt like.

I relished it. Every facet of it. I closed my eyes and slowly stroked my hoof down over her neck, her shoulders, her back. Felt the subtle up and down of muscles. The tension from her latest late-night research binge. Her body was so intimately familiar to me and it was such a relief to return here and reacquaint myself with it. With her. With this hallway. With the little details. Like the distinct light level the sconces and lamps managed to imbue these tall corridors with. The almost unnoticeably faint scent of ‘library’ in each and every room of this place. The subtle coolness of the crystal floor beside the plush and fluffy carpet. The sheen of the crystals. Their coloration. The color of these bookshelves that lined the walls. My memory told me how they had changed over the years. They were darker now than they had been the day Stonewood and his employees installed them.

I drank it all in. This place. Her. Everything. Broad strokes and details alike. And there was only so much I could do to not choke.

I was home.

Twilight nestled against me. The sudden stirring caused my attention to snap back to her. “Everything alright?” I asked. Quietly, as if I did not dare to disturb the peace and quiet. Or maybe I thought the moment was sensitive to loud noises, fragile. I could not tell — my mind was swamped in a chaos of spaghetti-thoughts. Long chains, slightly sticky, definitely entangled, would go great with tomato sauce.

Twilight sighed happily. I felt her nostrils flare against the coat of my chest and realized that she did very much the same thing I did. “Now it is,” she murmured back. She placed the faintest kiss on my chest. “I missed you so, so, so, so, so much!” Another kiss slightly higher, on my neck.

I grinned. “And yet you didn’t write me a single letter…!” I faux-complained.

“Mhm,” she replied as she peppered a line of kisses and even a little nip along my neck, throat and lower jaw. Until finally, she reached my muzzle and… pulled back. Just enough to look me in the eyes. “And it took great effort to do that!” she insisted. “It would not have helped you in the slightest otherwise. You would only have missed us even more and I did not wish to be the one who tested your resolve.”

She was probably right. She usually was. And even if she was not — now? Now that did not matter any longer. Because I was back home. I cupped her cheeks with my hooves, tilted my head ever so slightly and kissed her. A proper welcome-home-kiss. Oh how I loved how she melted right into that one. It was hard not to build upon that. Hard not to get frisky and let my hooves trace all over her body again, but with purpose and a different intent. “I’m home, peanut,” I mumbled as we broke our kiss. And I felt choked again. By sheer happiness. How ridiculous was that?

She nodded eagerly. “I know.” She embraced me fiercely once more, only to then pull herself away entirely, almost as if she had to tear herself away. As far as I was concerned, we could have spent the entire midday hours and afternoon right here in this spot in the middle of the hallway, right behind the entrance door.

She had other plans. “As soon as I got that letter, I wrote a couple myself. I invited Celestia and Luna over for dinner. I thought we could celebrate your return together. I hope that is okay with you? Not too much, too overwhelming?”

Always considerate. One of many qualities I loved about her. “I think that’s a lovely idea,” I replied with a fond smile. The three ponies I loved the most in this world, and I got to spend my entire evening with them? No. Overwhelming, this was not. I just knew that I would make myself look like a fool, babbling nonsense and clinging to whoever was closest to me at the time. I was not that touchy-feely most of the time, but right now… I felt the incessant need of actual physical contact. I just hoped that I would continue to avoid sobbing in joy. Because that was embarrassing. And I could not tell why that was the point where I drew the line.

I wanted to kiss Twilight again. And with a coy grin, she kept herself a hoof’s width away from me. She giggled as I pouted and gestured for me to follow her as she turned around and walked down the hallway. My gaze was transfixed onto her flank for just a couple of seconds before I scrambled to my hooves and closed up the gap.

If we had guests incoming, we needed to get some preparations done. And we had no Spike to lead the charge.

The afternoon turned to evening. Sunny would set her sun to sleep, Luna would coax her moon awake and sprinkle the sky with stars and they would arrive shortly after. So basically any moment now.

Twilight and I were almost done with our preparations. I was busy cutting the last few vegetables and she had preheated the oven and prepared the baking dish. Our glorious plan for tonight? A massive lasagna. Cut veggies drowned in spicy tomato sauce, separated from the next layer by lasagna sheets and a probably unhealthy amount of grated cheese. Not enough to trigger Twilight's aversion of course, and we were careful to use cheese with the least cheese pull, one that did not get as gooey as others.

A relatively simple dish, but a filling one.

And we had managed to not set the kitchen on fire, despite Twilight actually working in it for more than just making a cup of coffee. Spike would be so proud of us.

Soon enough, the last layer would be put on top, the dish could be placed in the oven and we would migrate over to the living room to await the others' arrivals. It would be a celebratory feast worthy of such a label.

And yet I found my mind wandering. And my eyes followed towards the kitchen window. I mindlessly stared out into the encroaching dark. And a heavy weight slowly, carefully, settled on my shoulders and pressed down on my heart.

I felt like I could almost see it.

It and its ever-present, sad smile.

Twilight stepped up to my side and her gaze followed mine towards the window and out into the dark. “Did you see something?” she asked.

I did not. Not really. Neither did she. I sighed and shook my head. “No. No, just… a closing window, I guess.”

Storyteller lingo. Was there such a thing?

She recognized… something. Out of the corner of my eyes, I noticed her looking at me with worry. She slowly lifted a hoof and placed it gently on my shoulder. I felt bad for making her worry about me in the first place. “Stay with me,” she said. The intonation was not clear to me. It was as much a plea as it was a question, a suggestion, a direction, an order, and so much more.

I heaved a heavy sigh. The smile that followed felt… easier, somehow. I leaned over and kissed her. Her warm lips were welcoming. She faintly tasted like the spicy sauce we used for the lasagna. It made me grin into the kiss. “I will,” I told her as we parted again. “I’m fine. Don’t worry, I’m home.”

I’m fine.