Esquestria: The House of the Sun - A pony cultist experience

Having somehow reached the Dreamlands, you decide you must now explore them throughout this month. And you hope to find Princess Luna, or at least traces of her, as you do.
And in the Wake, the living world, you decide to make some time to know a few of your fellow cultists better. As well as foster your newfound relationship with a certain unicorn you have recently met.

As much as you might be uninclined to it, Stormchaser isn't going to be anywhere else for the next few weeks. You usually prefer having the whole bed for yourself whenever you go into the Mansus, since you have no idea if you sleep-talk or do anything else that might cause him to notice you, or that could even cause him to try to wake you up which would be far more inconvenient. But you are filled with a sense of urgency this time.

The map to the Dreamlands is still fresh in your mind, that haphazard sketch of half-written notes and poorly drawn drafts. You don't exactly fear that you will suddenly forget it, but you don't want to just keep it as a memory either.

So you made sure you had as much work as possible, to justify staying in your office until long after the sunset. You look out through the large window behind your desk, and the full moon stares back at you. "Fitting", you think, as you finally put your quill and papers away, and make the somewhat long trek down the corridor towards your room.

Thankfully, and as expected, you can hear your husband's soft breathing, indicating he is fast asleep. You summon up the faintest of lights from your horn, and gently floats the scissors out from a drawer, bringing it towards your mane.

Snip, goes a small lock, that you make sure to toss into the trash bin.

Who knows, perhaps the Moth might even approve of this sneakiness you're partaking in.

You climb onto the bed, each step making you realize just how tired you are from a long day of work, and you don't even notice your head hitting the pillows before you are fast asleep.

For all you are concerned, it was almost as if you had simply blinked, the darkness of your room suddenly lighting up into the moonlight of the crossroads.

You look back once towards the Woods, gazing at it for some reason that your mind can't exactly pinpoint what it is, but that your rationality insists that is to "make sure it is still there", and immediately after that you go towards the horizon, through the path you know that leads to the Dreamlands.

It is shaped like a cavern, this time, its entrance open wide from a small hill of dark sand, the stone path leading toward it. Maybe it is waiting for you, knowing that you are seeking passage, maybe it changes shape every night. But it matters little, for the faint dream-light still comes from its depths in its smoky substance, showing you that it is indeed the passage you seek.

You walk into the cavern, feeling the stone under your hoofs turn into sand, and that sand turn into something else. The faint light from the cave competes with darkness for a moment, until it slowly becomes brighter and brighter as if you were walking into a well lit room, the mist becoming brighter as it grows heavier around you.

And without warning, you step out of that mist, and find yourself in a totally different place.

You are on what looks like to be the end of a long wooden bridge, bright mist completely blocking the path from where you came. And before you lies the dizzying realm of the Dreamlands.

The wooden bridge ends before a floating carpet that seems to go on forever. It splits and turns, even going upside down and spinning into itself several times in what seems like a veritable labyrinth. It reminds you of the crossroads around the Woods, but far more confusing and random. The paths formed by the carpet are flanked on both sides by endless sets of doors, each marked with an unique symbol that you immediately realize are cutie marks, glowing softly in an almost soothing manner.

And on the backdrop of it all, utter darkness. The cutie-marked doors, have a glow of their own, and the very air seems to faintly radiate light, like the mists behind you. But apart from the glow of the Dreamlands, there is only an endless and lightless ocean.

[Taking it all in, breakpoints 40/80/100]

[Roll: 73 + 12 (Learning) = 85, you realize you can try something]

The whole landscape, you come to a conclusion, doesn't make any sense. But that's the whole point, it almost seems to be intentional. And two reasons for that come to your mind: one, because that whole place is the sum of all of ponykind's subconscious thoughts, once connected together, hence it being chaotic.

Or two… because the Dreamlands are shaped by ideas, and the way it stands before you is how your own mind is interpreting it.

Just because you are dreaming right now, it doesn't mean that the scenario before you isn't real. But just because it is real, it doesn't mean that it still isn't a dream.

Does that even make sense…?

"Well", you think, "but if the Dreamlands are still a dream in itself, maybe I can…"

[Glitching the system, breakpoints 60/100]

[Roll: 87 + 12 (Magic) + 5 (Gifted) = 104]

You close your eyes.

If you are correct, then this is a dream. The whole chaotic mess in front of you, at least, is a dream, and consequently it has that shape because your mind is interpreting it like that.

But you are also a pony, a being borne with magic, and magic is something which your race actively uses to reshape the world. Something that you actively use to reshape the world. So, if you attempt to shape the world before you with magic, then maybe you will convince your mind that you actually succeeded, and the landscape in turn will transform into what your magic tried to do in the first place.

You push aside the contradictory ideas that swim through your head as your horn glows, light shining out from it that you can see even through your closed eyes. If anything, you have learned that those sorts of thoughts work best not when you try to think on them, but when you feel them.

And you feel the world settle into place.

You expected some sort of rumbling, maybe some dramatic sound as the impossible labyrinth twists into itself. But you open your eyes after a period of awkward silence, and see the Dreamlands finishing to settle down in a much more convenient shape.

The Dreamlands presents itself to you as a labyrinth no longer, especially not a three-dimensional labyrinth you realize with relief, and instead is now shaped as something like a… perhaps a city? Pleasantly wide pathways, still of that same carpet, meet in avenues, sometimes forming small circles that perhaps could be parks, and sometimes thinning down into consecutive rows that could be small urban streets.

It is still impossibly vast, of course, with the glow of cutie-marked doors still stretching far beyond your sight.

But this is orders of magnitude better than before.

[Successfully reinterpreted the Dreamlands, +20 on all rolls for the rest of this night]

You step out of the wooden bridge and into the wide carpeted avenue, the main issue of your visit there coming to your mind.

How to track Princess Luna?

There was not really any material for you to fall back to. Everything you remember reading, and the few odd classes of pony history you recall, simply mentioned that Princess Luna was "guardian of night and dreams". But considering how unreliable recorded history is, since everypony somehow forgot that Princess Luna was real and not a cautionary fairy tale, that vague knowledge isn't much to fall back to.

Still, the Dreamlands exists, and if anypony can access it it's her.

Well, no other way to start then with a hoof in front of the other.

[Searching for Princess Luna]

[Search Roll: 3 + 8 (Martial) + 5 (SECRET HISTORIES bonus) + 20 (Dreamscape shaping) = 36, not much progress, really]

[Subtlety Roll: 92 + 10 (Intrigue) + 5 (MOTH bonus) + 20 (Dreamscape shaping) = 127, not a ripple in the dreamwater]

You are in unknown territory, looking for somepony who you are not really sure how might react if you find her, so you decide be as subtle as possible while you are here.

And oh, how well that goes.

You make your way deeper into the Dreamlands, your path quickly turning into a maddening criss-cross of confusion. You walk close to the flanking doors, their glowing cutie marks forming shadows under which you walk. You take paths that would have been back-alleys and shortcuts, if this place truly was a city, and when you don't see a path where you wish to tread you make one, a glow of your horn and your self-convinced point of view paving a narrow passage where once there was only blackness.

But in all honesty, for all of the random paths you are taking you also realize that you are walking randomly when it comes to your goal. You keep your eyes peeled towards the horizon, in case Princess Luna appears as some sort of shooting star in the emptiness that surrounds the Dreamlands. You even notice that some doors simply disappear, probably because the pony it belonged to woke up.

But nothing of Princess Luna yet, you think, taking three steps into a wider dream-avenue.

When you immediately realize something is wrong.

[Their detection Roll: 90 + 15 (???) = 105, vigilant, but not enough]

Something reels inside you, a buzzing in your head that is at the same time loud, sudden, and gone before you realize it was there. But by some instinct you wouldn't have been able to pull off with your real-life leg, you jump back towards the dream-alley from where you came and practically hug your back against a door.

You're not even sure why you did it, until you look down towards the floor.

A wave of dread washes over you when you see it. There are shadows on the ground. The shape of something is blocking the faint yet even light of the cutie-marked doors that are out of your view, but you can see that there is something there, and you very nearly stepped on its shadow.

Which, of course, would have meant it would have seen you.

You slowly, slowly distance your back from the door, practically putting your front hoofs on the ground one at a time, your heart beating against your chest, the air you know not to be real still stuck in your throat. Of course you are in a dream, but you know enough about magic and dreams, so you also know that being in a dream does NOT mean you are not in danger.

You keep your eyes on the shadows, but they are too vague for you to even begin guessing what they could be. Whatever it is, though, you intuitively know it is not Princess Luna or another pony like yourself. You simply know by the pounding on your heart and the… revolting sensation in your gut that whatever that creature is, it is not natural. Besides, dream or no dream the fear you are feeling is extremely real.

And then, you hear the chittering.

It is something like the noise of nails against a black board, banded with the sound of clicks and snaps, sending a chill down your spine whenever it reached your ears. Worse of all, you can clearly identify more than one source of it. It is either more than one thing, or one large thing with two mouths that are far from each other.

You gulp, realizing that it could very well be the second case.

Whatever that thing is, it doesn't look like it will move anytime soon, or if it does then it might just come in your direction, and you're not about to risk that. You quickly double back from where you came, sticking close to the shadows.

Keeping the frames of the doors between you and it, of course. The heart-pounding fear on your chest has already overtaken whatever curiosity you could possibly feel.

"What the hell was that… things," you think to yourself as soon as you far away enough, at least for the waves of dread to stop pounding against your heart. You have no regrets of not having seen what it was but, now that you can think more rationally, you realize that you are left with absolutely no knowledge of what you were going against either.

Was it a nightmare? Perhaps something that escaped somepony's dream? Perhaps some subconscious gestalt? You are in the Dreamlands after all, you are pretty sure that this realm can play fast and loose with its own rules, if there even are any.

However, there are still countless cutie-marked doors, going on forever in an endless map of faint lights, that means that most of Equestria is still asleep, and you still have time. You take a few more deep breaths, and prepare to look for Princess Luna again. For all you know, that thing was just some one-of-a-kind creature…

Of course, you think while keeping your body next to the cover offered by the cutie-marked doors, you are obviously not taking the risk of blindly believing in that assumption.

[Cautiously searching for Princess Luna]

[Search Roll: 36 + 8 (Martial) + 5 (SECRET HISTORIES bonus) + 20 (Dreamscape shaping) – 10 (Caution) = 59, somewhat better]

[Subtlety Roll: 88 + 10 (Intrigue) + 5 (MOTH bonus) + 20 (Dreamscape shaping) + 10 (Caution) = 133, like a moth in a forest]

[Their detection Roll: 25 + 15 (???) = 40, they cannot search if they don't even know you are there]

You practically crawl through the paths of the Dreamlands.

To hell with orderly pathtaking. The Dreamlands were a mess when you first stepped hoof in it, so it surely wont mind if you make a mess of it again. You create paths where once there were none, and then you make paths over those paths, and under them. Catwalks appear over avenues you prefer to avoid, holes are formed on the carpeted floor, leading to a level below yours that wasn't there before. You do everything in your power to change direction while still making meaningful progress whenever you hear that horrible noise in the distance, or whenever a wave of revulsion hits you, no matter how far.

And to your dawning horror, as you make your way and weave paths around those things, you realize that there are a lot of them. You even manage to take a look at one of those… creatures, once.

Obviously, you immediately wish you hadn't.

The creature you saw was a formless thing, a shifting wave of revolting darkness that looked too much like flesh. You saw no eyes, unless those glowing red things were eyes, but you did see many mouths. There were things attached to it that you think resembled tentacles, but you turned away before you could get a clearer picture.

The one thing that brought you the most vague sense of relief was the fact that for all of its hideousness, it didn't seem to have any substance to it. Like it was a mist or a shadow or a foggy reflection, but definitely not real.

Well, real enough to be there, and for you to know you do not want to bump into one of those. Real enough for you to realize that the one you saw was apparently licking one of the cutie-marked doors.

But not "real" real… you hope.

Still, for all of your halted and cautious progress, you think you made some headway. You didn't see any shooting stars flying over the Dreamlands, no alicorn figure doing alicorn dream magic, but you do see something that resembles a trail.

You pass by a cutie-marked door that seems to be shinning more than the others. You look around to make sure that you are alone and cautiously place one hoof on the doorknob.

And you feel it. You are not sure if you were going to try and open it, but as soon as you touch it you realize it's not necessary. You can feel the faint energy of relief, the soft whisper of a wordless thank-you. The sensation of somepony being caught mid-fall, and delivered into safety.

Princess Luna had been through that door, she had been inside that dream. Quite recently, you might add.

You quickly look around, searching for more doors that shared that glow, perhaps another hoofprint that marked her passing, something else that you can hang on to. You realize that the amount of cutie-marked doors is diminishing, a horizon clearly appearing where there was once an endless ocean of faint light. Ponies are waking up, perhaps the sun is about to rise.

One last attempt. You will take a route that heads towards the exit, even if you are a bit reckless, but you'll make one last attempt.

[Search Roll: 14 + 8 (Martial) + 5 (SECRET HISTORIES bonus) + 20 (Dreamscape shaping) = 47]

[Subtlety Roll: 43 + 10 (Intrigue) + 5 (MOTH bonus) + 20 (Dreamscape shaping) = 78]

[Their detection Roll: 23 + 15 (???) = 38]

But you find no sign of the Princess herself, and you arrive once more at the beginning of the wooden bridge, the solid-looking wall of bright mist marking your way back to the crossroads. You did see a few more marked doors, so perhaps you found a path where she had also trodden, but nothing more.

You look back, and watch as more and more of the doors disappear as ponies wake up, the endless sea of light from the Dreamlands disappearing much like the stars might fade from the sky as the sun rises. Perhaps that is intentional, you think, as you turn your back on it and step into the mists.

Perhaps you would also wake up if you waited long enough there, perhaps the Dreamlands would never truly shrink enough, as some ponies obviously sleep through the day. But those are things you are not willing to find out, not tonight.

You cross the mists back into the crossroad, stepping out of the cave and seeing the Woods in the distant horizon.

And you prepare to wake up.

You have come to the realization that sometimes the shape of the world depends on how you interpret it. The light of LANTERN opens avenues in your mind where once there was only darkness. Gained 1 scrap of Lantern Lore.
(Learned by achieving maximum bonus on Dreamlands reshaping)

LANTERN Lore is now level 1!

You called upon your knowledge of the Woods and wove paths of erratic deception around things you did not (and needed not) understand. Gained 1 scrap of Moth Lore.
(Learned by totally avoiding detection)