Sleeping in Equestria was an entirely new experience for me, almost disturbing in a way. The reason? Yinyu wasn't there. Most people wouldn't notice the absence of her or the rest of the Dreamwardens, but they were constants for me. Them not being present made the dream realm feel strangely empty. It was made more empty still because Luna didn't seem to be there either—probably because she was awake and doing something. It all felt very different, like walking into your family's house that always had someone at home but finding no one.
"Rebecca, you here?"
I hadn't formed any coherent dream for myself, so I was just in blackness, but I saw Sunflower enter into my field of view. My mood immediately picked up, and I made myself appear.
"GAHH!" Sunflower yelped as she jumped back. She then took a breath—or at least, went through the motions of taking a breath. This was a dream, and we didn't need to breathe here. "There you are. Why didn't I see you, and where is the rest of your dream?"
I looked around us. "I haven't made one yet. It is a blank slate still."
She blinked. "Hold up… you don't automatically start dreaming before you enter the dream realm? I always start in a dream in progress and have to tune it out."
I shrugged. "Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't. It comes with having been a dreamwalker most of my life, I think. I'm just more experienced at this than you are, so I'm in full control when I get here, at least part of the time, not all the time."
She gave me a puzzled look. "Can you make some sort of setting? Just sitting here without even stars makes this creepy, and this dream realm is already kinda creepy before that."
Since she was the one who had already gone out dreamwalking, I was interested in hearing about her experiences so far in Equestria's dream realm. First, I needed to put a setting to the dream. I didn't take long to come up with something, and the next thing we knew, we were sitting in a crochet field with rose bushes all around us, flamingos for crochet mallets, and hedgehogs for crochet balls. Several playing cards with spears stood at attention, guarding us.
Sunflower looked around. "Is this from Alice and Wonderland? Why'd you pick this setting?"
"First thing that popped into my mind," I replied.
She gave me a doubting look. "You aren't going to pull out the Queen of Hearts, are you?"
"Only if I get angry," I giggled. "Don't worry about the setting. Tell me about how your day has gone and about what you saw when you were dreamwalking to me. We haven't gotten to see much of each other since the tour. I know I had a little adventure in the library with Roger."
Sunflower gave a hedgehog an unsure look, and the hedgehog fearfully peered back as if expecting to be struck but equally afraid to run. She then settled down to sit, making sure she didn't sit on any small furry animals acting as sports equipment.
"I tried to find Blanche first since I knew she had gone to sleep before me. No such luck," Sunflower explained, picking up the terrified dream hedgehog in her forehooves and gently stroking it to soothe it, even if it was just a figment of my imagination. "Then I tried calling out to Arbiter then Ghadab to help me find her before I had my duh moment. Then I tried Luna, but she wasn't answering. After that, I looked for you, and your dream came up as a door instead of a star...I don't know why."
"Luna might have decided to have all dreams function as doors here. I know earth ponies, humans, and unicorns tend to use the whole door thing back on Earth," I explained. "Aa for Blanche, you probably couldn't find her because she is human. They operate on a different wavelength than ponies, and it can be tough for a pony to locate a human. I know I haven't ever dreamwalked her directly, have you?"
Sunflower shook her head. "No, a Dreamwarden always connected us, usually Arbiter."
"Then I doubt that she can find us; Jonathan wouldn't either," I said with all my veteran dreamwalker experience. "Roger is kinda fifty-fifty. He doesn't know us well, and we don't know him that well. We could go looking for him if you want."
Sunflower thought about it while continuing to pet the hedgehog. The tiny animal was now happily cooing. Did hedgehogs coo? I didn't know. This was Sunflower hijacking one of my dream elements and doing what she wanted with it, and if she believed hedgehogs cooed, then this one did.
"We can hold off; I don't want to put Jonathan at a clear disadvantage to everyone else by being the last to get to know everyone," Sunflower replied at last.
I nodded. "That's fine. Roger and I got to talk a little, and I'll let him tell his own story when we all get together. We did run into Jimsonweed again, got some off-the-books history lessons that I don't think most Equestrians know about, and got a brief rundown on how the sun and moon work here. What did you do all day?"
She smiled and snuggled the hedgehog, which now found was treating her like its best friend. "My parents and big brother hung out with me for most of the time, seeing the sites. My parents remember cities from years ago, but my brother doesn't remember them that well—he is less than two years older than me. They didn't get time at any of the cities along the way here to take things in, so they wanted to do so. It's very different from our farming community…" She paused to giggle. "...and I'm now the big city girl to them because I've been living in a city for a little over a month, and I'm treated like an expert! Haha!"
I blinked. "Well, are you, compared to them, I mean?" I grabbed my own hedgehog because I didn't want to be left out of hedgehog petting and mentally named him Sonic as I made his fur blue.
She shrugged. "I guess. I had to explain to my brother about tipping when appropriate and remind my parents about it since they hadn't had to tip anypony—excuse me, anyone—in years—I'm still trying to break saying anypony, and that made them think of me as a big city pony too when I said anyone. I wasn't as blown away by three or more story buildings as they were because they aren't a big deal to me anymore. They also seemed to want me to take the lead on everything. They were shocked when I said that this place is a bit more rustic than what I had gotten used to in Skytree. I caught them trying to see if my accent had changed too. I haven't been gone that long!"
I chortled. "Face it, you've outgrown your fishbowl, and they know it. You've gotten out to see the world, and there's no going back to being a little farm pony again. They knew you couldn't stay contained, so they have to be happy to see the changes. From what you said before, they wanted the best for you, and you're showing them how much you've grown in a little time. I know I've seen it."
She blushed fiercely and started to lift a wing to cover her face before she caught what she was doing and put it back down. She then gave a small smile. "Thanks. I mean it. I don't want to lose touch with my roots, but you are right. I'm happier now than I was back then. Now I'm getting to see even more amazing places than ever before! I can't wait to see Canterlot, Rainbow Falls, Baltimare, and Mountainshade! This trip is a dream come true."
I was looking forward to them as well. "So, what else did you do? You said you spent most of the time with your family, but you didn't say all."
Her smile sagged a little. "I, uh, met someone. The Dreamwardens asked the princesses to ask h—the person to talk to me. They are another storyteller, like me."
My ears perked. "Really? Was it about how to better control your powers? What were they like?"
She shook her head. "They wanted their identity kept secret, so I'm going to do that. Their powers aren't exactly like mine, but it's still the same… end goal, I guess you would say. They couldn't help me because mine manifests differently. It was more advice about how to react to what I draw and cautioning me to make sure others don't go all crazy trying to change things just because I drew something that scared them. They said they had… a friend… a very special friend a long time ago that took their visions and did terrible things trying to change the future—they became obsessed. They said that what happened to that friend haunts them every day of their life. It's my responsibility as a storyteller to caution others and not let them lose themselves. You can forget the difference between right and wrong when obsessed."
"Did what their friend did end up being that bad?" I asked with concern.
She looked away, and I thought I saw a tear. "Yeah, it was that bad. I promised not to give details, so I can't talk about it. I'm sorry."
I tried to decide what to say. "Your powers aren't evil, and you aren't either. I know you want the best for everyone, and you want to make people happy. I know you will do everything you can to be responsible about things."
She stared down at the hedgehog and hugged it close to her. "They scare me still. You don't understand how much they scare me. The person said they don't think the Story or Narrative can touch me here in Equestria, but there is something else here. I have felt it in the new quiet moments today. It is like it is feeling me out, curious about me."
I tilted my head as I tried to understand. "Like you are being watched?"
She shook her head. "Nothing like that. It is something that is there, on the edge of my magic. I don't know how to explain it. It is like the Story, but it isn't. I never realized that I could always feel the Narrative and Story, like something waiting just beyond my senses. They aren't there now, but something else is there in their place, whatever Equestria's equivalent is, and it is like it is feeling me out since I'm a foreign storyteller it doesn't know."
"Are you afraid it is going to hurt you?" I asked. "Is there something we can do to help?"
She frowned, not an angry frown, more of a thoughtful one. "I don't think it is going to hurt me. It feels, I don't know, more gentle than what I am used to. Our universe's Story can be rough, not mean rough, but like a small kid being too rough with its toys. This one seems different. I'm not scared of it. I guess the main thing is it makes me aware of how the other one is and more aware of things I hadn't been aware I was feeling because they'd always been there."
I looked up at the sky, imagining the dream realm beyond and still feeling the lack of the Dreamwardens. I was the most in tune with the dream realm out of the candidates, and I doubted they would notice it in the same ways I did. "I sorta get what you mean. It is something hard to put into words. You didn't realize something was always there until it wasn't, and now you can't help but be aware."
Sunflower gently set the hedgehog down before standing back up. "Let's get some normal, proper, sleep. This is our vacation, and our vacation from the Dreamwarden stuff is going to come up on and off, like today, but we should still try to take this time to relax."
I nodded. "Big day starting in the morning. We get to ride airships! That should be something. Rainbow Falls is our next destination. I wonder if the cliff is made out of rainbow-colored rocks, and that's where it gets its name. Wouldn't that be cool to see?"
She was the one giggling now. "A little tacky, but still cool! I'll see you in the morning, Becca. Enjoy your weird Wonderland dream."