To Be Somepony

The exceeding joy of it being the last five minutes of school on a Friday was coupled with the regretful disappointment of going to her final day of training at the Green Field Meadows. The past two days served no better to Ribbon than the two before, and still affected her in school and home. The day before however the manager had visited her in the staff room during her break to inform her of her excellent output and that her training only served as a hell week, meaning she was given a rough schedule to push her to her limits and that it would be easier if she decided to stay on. He also told her that on her final day she would receive her first paycheck.

The bell rang and all including the teacher left the schoolhouse swiftly and eagerly. Outside as she began walking up the road, Ribbon felt Sprinkle brush up against her side.

"How you feelin?" she asked.

"Okay I guess." Ribbon sighed, "Really looking forward to the weekend though. No homework, no work, and I get to sleep in tomorrow."

"That's good."

Sprinkle had been more attentive to her friends appearance the past few days after their short talk during break, and was more subtle and earful than her usual manner.

"So me and the girls were going out tomorrow if you want to join."

"I don't know, I can't think straight right now. But maybe. When?"

"Noon at my place if you decide to. But if you're too tired that's fine."

"Thank you."

Sprinkle lifted her friends chin up with her muzzle.

"Good luck."

The two parted and Ribbon soon reached the restaurant, where she dawned her uniform and made herself appear presentable. But she couldn't do anything about the dark lines underneath her eyes, neither did she care how she looked at that point.

Punching her card then walking out to the kitchen, she took a deep breath then relaxed her muscles and exhaled to some relief.

"Here we go."

Rumor around the kitchen was that it was going to be and easy day for a Friday, which brought more relief. But there was still plenty for Ribbon to do such as wiping down most of the tables and sweeping outside. As she swept however she caught herself leaning forward slightly to close her eyes for a moment, but then remembered what she was obligated to do.

As the sun began to set and the sky turned into a rainbow of warm colors, Ribbon looked up at the clock in the kitchen as saw there were still two hours before she could grab her check and leave. Her hooves were halfway in the sink washing the same dish that had a small chip underneath it for what seemed like the hundredth time. She rinsed then placed it on the rack the chef's used for their meals, dried her hooves then strapped on her tray to go gather more used dishes.

She made her route through the top and bottom floors then went outside and saw a pair of ponies with empty plates on their table. One had a glimmering white coat with purple mane and tail and was wearing a bonnet. The other she noticed was the same she saw feeding the ducks a week ago and had nearly walked into at the library.

"You would not believe how busy it has been at my boutique lately." the white mare said to the other as Ribbon went up to their table, "What with Sweetiebelle and her friends and all the customers I've been having I hardly have enough time to work on my new line of cloths. I say... sometimes its just delightful to get away from it all and just spend time with my friends. Wouldn't you agree Fluttershy?"

"It is relaxing." the other said.

Ribbon came to their table.

"May I take those for you?" she asked.

"Oh why certain... MY GOODNESS!" the white mare said, "Darling your eyes, have you slept at all in the past week?"

"Oh I'm fine thank you. Just been pulling a lot of work lately."

"Well I can see that, just look at your mane. When was the last time you went to a spa?"

"Um... never I guess."

"WHAT?! NEVER? But darling your coat and mane would look so lovely if you were to just take a long soak, or maybe even a steam to help you relax. You look so tense."

"Call me a workaholic." Ribbon laughed, "Are you by any chance Rarity by the way? The owner of the dress shop by the meadow?"

"The very one." she answered, "And this here is my dear friend Fluttershy."

"Hello." she said in her soft voice, "You look familiar. Have we met?"

"Last week at the library. I almost hit the door and you were very apologetic about it."

"Oh my, you remember. I'm so sorry I almost hit you."

"It's okay."

"Now about your mane deary," Rarity went on, "you should really get that bathed and groom. It would look so well if you were to trim it and add some lacing."

"I most of the time let it loose. I think it looks fine being natural really."

"Me too." Fluttershy said, "I don't do much to my mane either."

"Well I suppose the natural look does work for you. But I must say you would look so divine in one of the dresses I recently made. You must stop by sometime and model it so I can gather some inspiration."

"Oh... I get stage fright real easily."

"But of course darling, anything so long as your comfortable. Why don't you come by tomorrow sometime while I'm working."

"I suppose I could get around to it. But may I ask if I could bring a friend? She asked earlier if I could hang out, and I'd hate to leave her."

"Anything, just come by so you can try on the dress. I know you'd look perfect in it."

"Thank you."

Ribbon took their plates.

"What your name by the way darling?"

"Ribbon."

"Hmmm... interesting. Didn't Spikey mention a Ribbon the other day?"

"I think Rainbow Dash heard it from him." Fluttershy said, "And she said that you started crying for some reason."

"Everything alright deary?"

"Fine." Ribbon quickly said, "That must have been someone else. But I should be going now."

"Lovely meeting you."

"Have a nice day."

The two ponies soon left, and Ribbon's shift ended a while after. She was in the staff room when the manager came in a gave her a letter with her check in it, then asked her if she'd be staying to which she answered yes. Leaving with her pay and schedule for next week, she made her way home where dinner waited for her like usual.

Her parents didn't bother her with a conversation and allowed her to peacefully walk up to her room where she hung her bag, took off her uniform and undid her braid. Looking in the mirror that hung on the inside of her closet door, she saw that Rarity's speculation weren't at all exaggerated. The rings under her eyes made them look as if all hope had been drained from her, and hair from her mane stuck out from split ends.

"A soak in a tub would be nice. But then again a swim in the lake would be cheaper and wouldn't be much different anyway. Maybe on Sunday if you aren't busy, which you won't."

She look at her desk and saw the book with a string sticking out from the pages as a maker, but decided not to read and placed on a record instead and went and sat on top of her windowsill. The moon had now become full and was like a white eye that watched over the earth.

"I wonder why Rarity was so generous today. Most wouldn't be so giving and welcoming, but she insisted anyway. Hopefully she doesn't make too big of a fuss tomorrow, and hopefully Sprinkle and the others will want to go... well just Sprinkle anyway. She's been acting weird lately, like what I said to her really scared her and now she probably thinks I'm a mental case. I'm probably am anyway."

She leaned against the side with her cheek rubbed up against the wood and her eyes lazily half closed.

"I bet those mental asylums have nice rooms for the crazies. It'd be nice to just lay down in a padded room and do nothing. But I'll never break down, I know I won't."

She looked up at the moon.

"What would it take to bring that thing down? It'd make a good story or movie where the hero somehow stops it. Add some sad and dramatic music and it'd be amazing. But how would you build the story up to such an amazing climax? Maybe foreshadow its falling somehow symbolically, with a dark mood to help increase the tension. Then once it happens the audience just feels their guts being squeezed by the amazingness. That's a good feeling."

Out in the distance the clock tower rang, followed by the whistle of a departing train.

"Looks like I'll be on that train someday soon, if I pass the exam. It can't be that hard, just the same stuff we've been going over."

For a while numerous thoughts and question went through her head as her music played then stopped at eight thirty. She went to bed when it did.

To her amazing disbelieve, Ribbon found herself in the same library she had dreamed of the night before in all its grand splendor and dignity. The garden was still in the middle and the sun was still setting over the ocean horizon. But as she began meandering through the labyrinths of book shelves, she began to realize something was different from last time. She felt more aware of her surroundings, and as if her body was under her complete control. As she stopped and began to look around, a familiar sense of reality began to make itself familiar to her.

She turned the corner into a large sitting area with the lengthy couches and saw Princess Luna relaxing in the middle of one reading a book. Ribbon at first didn't believe what she saw and anxiously made her way up to her.

"I assure you child this is no trick." Luna said, "It is as when we meet before."

"What are you doing here?"

"Really, after all the heart ache you've suffered, this is how you present yourself. I expected you to be more rejoicing and pleased by my visit."

"Well I am, really... I'm really am glad you're here. I just don't know why."

"Why don't you join me. This is quite the library."

Luna patted the couched and Ribbon sat across from her, both of them laid out to fully enjoy the couch's generous length.

"Since our last meeting I have watched over you in my spare time, and I must say you've changed in such a short period."

"I wouldn't say changed."

"Oh but you have. Though it may seem insignificant you your eyes, the actions you took are impressive for a pony your age."

"Like what?"

"Such as taking on responsibility for your future, and opening up to a dear friend on a matter that though you find unworthy of mentioning helped you through your struggle."

"I don't know, it just felt like the right thing to do to start working, and I knew I wouldn't be able to hold back with Sprinkle for much longer. I wouldn't say I've changed much."

"If thou sayest so."

"So did you come here to just check on me?"

"Partially. But I can tell your mind is still flustered and you desire some release."

"I desire some sleep too."

"I see." Luna cooed, "Go ahead and rest. I will still be here when you wake."

"You mean to dream while in a dream? That... doesn't seem possible."

"Rest." Luna said, then gently lowered Ribbon's head to the cushion.

She closed her eyes and immediately went to sleep. When she woke again, she found herself still on the couch and Luna was still reading her book.

"Well I don't see what good that'll do." she said.

"Think of it as a more powerful sleep, where your mind completely leaves the body. When you dreamed the dreamless sleep, your body that now lays in your bed became almost inactive, dead if you prefer."

"That's... interesting."

"Now," Luna said, then her horn glowed and the book went flying off into the library back to its empty spot on a shelf, "Shall we speak?"

"I guess, but about what?"

"Anything I suppose. You seem fully certain in your capabilities, perhaps we shall talk about our daily lives. Pass the time as you say"

"Yeah."

Coming up with a topic they could discuss however proved difficult, since Ribbon couldn't think of anything related to the princess that she shared.

"Umm..." she started, "So how's Canterlot?"

"Well. I believe you'd enjoy yourself there someday."

"Yeah, yeah. Good, good. Uh... have you seen the new college yet?"

"Unfortunately no. My duties preoccupy me during the night, so I rest during the day and cannot afford to see it."

"Ah, I see. I was thinking of going there."

"Really. You must be an accomplished student then."

"I guess. My teachers and parent think I should go, saying I'd do well."

"You should heed their opinions, mine as well. My sister has spoken of its air, and you seem well suited for it."

"Hmm."

Ribbon leaned her head against the back of the couch.

"You are unsure of going however?"

"A little. I'd be leaving a lot behind and would be all alone."

"It is nothing to fear prior to. If it worries you, we may speak of something else."

"What was that book you were reading?"

"One of my favored romances called Amid the Flowers. Do you read romances?"

"I don't read much at all really. I think I'd write a book before I read one. I did however pick up one from Spike that's pretty interesting. Over the Mountains and through the Void, by William ColtField."

"Really."

Luna closed her eyes and her horn glowed again, then the book gracefully came flying and landed on the couch right between them. It opened itself to the first page of the prologue and she read the first page.

"How interesting." she remarked, "Quite the unusual hook for a novel. Do you enjoy this book?"

"I've only read the prologue, but it does seem different from most stories and I do like the way he presented the story's beginning."

"You'll have to tell me more of it's contents if we meet again."

"Will we?" Ribbon said, wishing they would.

"Perhaps. Hopefully in person rather than in a imagined world."

"I think I'd settle for an imagined world. You don't have to worry about leaving and you can shape the world into anything you want."

"Care to give me a demonstration?"

"Wh... what?"

"This your world after all, created from your mind. Go ahead and turn it into something else, something beautiful and exciting."

"I'll... try." she said, then closed her eyes and tried to imagine something that would impress Luna.

She peaked to see if things around the library were beginning to change, but they weren't.

"No peaking." Luna giggled, "It distracts your mind."

Ribbon placed her head on the cushion to get more comfortable, as if she were to fall asleep again and thought. She thought of what made her happy, what she would dream of during class, where she wanted to go to escape and be free. Grass seemed like a good start so she imagined a great plain of tall green grass rustling in the wind, with a hill and a great tree on top of it. She felt a breeze against her coat and opened her eyes.

The grand library had become a vast field of grass that bathed in the sun, while she and Luna sat underneath a great tree with smooth bark and leafs so thick they completely blocked the sun and gave them delightful shade in the cool breeze. Ribbon was speechless as she saw how real everything looked and felt, how the grass and fields had been nothing but shelves of books a moment earlier.

She stood up and went to the edge of the trees shade and looked out in awe, then back at Luna who watched her from the base of the tree.

"This... this is amazing." Ribbon said.

Luna smiled and got up to join her.

"Your imagination is powerful." she said, "The realism reflects how powerful your mind is."

"I like to imagine far off places, places that don't exist except in books. But to be able to actually go there..."

"Would you like to show me?"

It pleased Ribbon immensely to hear those words, and she closed her eyes and thought of another place she dreamed of seeing made real. When she opened her eyes, they were in a grand hallway with a ceiling far above them with great columns holding it up with flags and garlands decorating them. The floor was a polished granite with long velvet carpet running through the middle and up to a throne that sat on top of an altar. The shear size of the room made the two of them seem as ants.

"Monumental." Luna said, "What else?"

Again Ribbon closed her eyes and then the hallway turned into a great tower with them at the top. Its white marble reflected the sun of the desert off its hull, with a view that allowed the two to watched the wind carry the sand over the dunes for miles.

"A beacon of hope in a world of disparity."

"Something like that." Ribbon said, then closed her eyes again.

Great joy overcame her as the world changed into every place she could imagine, from being on top of mountains to being in cities underneath the sea. She felt as if the power to do anything was at her mercy, and an evil grin began to emerge on her face as the places she created became less and less majestic and more and more vehement.

Small bridges over streams turned into great bridges over lakes of lava, and plains of grass turned into barren wastelands where meteors fell from the black sky. The intensity brought out the grin on her face as Ribbon imagined great battles waging across the fearsome landscapes she created.

"Interesting." Luna said as the two stood on top of black tower over looking a bottomless abyss.

"What?" Ribbon asked.

"Do you recall my saying that dreams are gateways to the inner chambers of our minds?"

Ribbon looked at her as she tried to remember, then her eyes widened when she did. She looked out to the scene of gray clouds looming over the black sky, then down at the abyss were black mist rose up from. A sadness came over her heart and she walked away closing her eyes and then opening them again to create the library. She got up back and laid down on the couch.

"I don"t know why I have thoughts like this." she said as Luna went up to her, "Who thinks of places of misery, were no life grows?"

"Someone who knows however what true beauty is and suffers looking for it." Luna said looking down at her.

"You call that beauty?"

"What I saw was passion. You took time to create what you love so that it was perfect in your eyes and your eyes only."

"Too bad I'm the only one who can see beauty in a black world of oblivion. Am I insane?"

"Do you think you are?"

"...maybe. Maybe that's what my cutie mark will be, something to do with insanity."

"I think you put yourself through too much blame without seeing your true potential. We have very little influence in matters such as this; they happen for a reason and it is up to us to determine what to with them."

"Sometimes I even scare myself with what I think, and that can't be normal."

Luna sat on her hind legs and rest her chin next to Ribbons.

"Don't let your emotions control you. Stop holding back and let yourself blossom so that other may see how beautiful you really are."

"Can we go to one more place?"

"Of course child."

Ribbon closed her eyes, and the entire library and the world around them turned dark as the sun vanished. The ground turned into a gray sand and the sky turned black with more gray clouds. Large jagged rocks appeared from the ground in different locations, vast and far apart from each other. Luna looked out and saw nothing, as if the world Ribbon created were dead.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"Some place where I can be alone, where I don't have to worry about becoming anything. No obligations or responsibilities, and where I can let myself go insane without worrying anybody."

Luna stood up and walked around, leaving hooveprints in the sand while Ribbon continued to lay down. The desolation and emptiness brought back many horrible memories into Luna's mind. She went back and sat next to her. Ribbon looked up and saw her eyes swell with tears.

"Such a thing to create." she said as a tear went down her cheek, "To purposely seclude yourself from the wonders of your life."

"Luna... no."

"Forgive me, I disgrace myself by crying in your presence."

"What, no. Don't.... don't cry."

Ribbon got up and sat in front of her as she struggled to wipe away the ever flowing tears. She hesitated, then rubbed her head against Luna chest to comfort her. Pressing her ear, she heard Luna's heart as it beat melodiously.

"Don't cry." Ribbon whispered.