//------------------------------// // Dream Runner // Story: The Magic of Dreams // by MegaTJ //------------------------------// Dream Runner Twilight Sparkle paced nervously beside the couch that held her surprise guest. Her breath came in small gasps and her heart was doing summersaults in her chest. Three hours had passed since she found him on her doorstep, and his condition had yet to improve. She glanced at him again. His dark gray-blue body was covered in bruises, scratches, and bandages. The same bandages she placed over his cuts three hours ago. His sudden appearance scared her more than she would have liked to admit, especially the condition he showed up in. “Zrhrmngah…” he mumbled in his sleep. She stared at him. It was the first sound other than snoring that had come from him since she found him. Her hope was that he was waking up. He moved a little in his sleep. Was he coming around? Twilight stood over him, ready to help him sit up if it was needed. After a few very tense seconds she looked away. False alarm. Twilight sighed. She was hoping he would wake up so she could know what had happened. A gentle knock came to the library’s door. The unicorn eagerly answered, glad something had turned her mind away from the Pegasus that lay on her favorite reading couch. One question did remain. Why would anypony visit her at this time of night? Fluttershy stood on the other side. She smiled tenderly. “Fluttershy, what are you doing here this late?” Twilight asked, motioning for her to come in. “Forgive me Twilight, but I think I left Angel’s favorite toy carrot here when we visited earlier. He won’t sleep without it. Do you mind if I—oh, my…” Fluttershy started. She spotted the blue Pegasus on the couch and fluttered her way over to see him better. “Twilight, what happened?” “I don’t know. I found him like this on my doorstep. I took him in and bandaged him up. He still hasn’t woken up yet”, Twilight explained. Fluttershy looked at her curiously. “Do you know who he is?” “No, the initials on his bag say ‘D.R.’. That’s all I know to call him.” “Eurgahm…Wherz…whoerzm…” his voice came again wearily. The two mares looked at him. He was slowly waking up. D.R.’s eyes opened slowly. He blinked the blurriness from them and focused in on the ponies that were watching him. He quickly shot up in fear. He wished he hadn’t have done that. Intense agony fired through every part of him. “Owwwww”, he nearly cried. The pain was more than anything he had ever felt before in his life. He tried speaking, but only to be hushed by Twilight. “Shhh, it’s okay. We won’t hurt you”, she said softly. He stopped trying to talk and instantly and watched her in wonder. This was the first filly, or living thing for that matter, that had ever looked at him with the caring eyes that she did. A blush sneaked its way over his cheeks and settled down across his nose. He quickly looked away, searching for something else to examine other than her face. Fluttershy moved forward. “Can you tell us your name?” “Uhh…D-Dream Run-n-ner”, he strained. His voice was shaky from the pain, but behind that sat curiosity. “Can you tell us what happened to you Dream Runner?” Twilight asked. She immediately regretted asking that. If it brought back painful memories, it could hurt him even more. Dream Runner thought for a second. The last thing he could remember was entering that forest. Everything after that was full of the black, unforgiving darkness of blocked memories. He cursed himself for being such a coward. He shook his head. “I don’t remember.” Twilight silently sighed. His eyes were fixed on hers for a moment. The warm brown made her heart decide to skip over several beats. She quickly turned so that Fluttershy wouldn’t see her blush. It didn’t work; Fluttershy had caught a glimpse before she looked away. “That’s okay”, said Fluttershy, “It may be for the best that you don’t.” Dream nodded. He remained silent, partly from the pain, partly from shock, and partly from the anxiety of being in the presence of two girls. Redness crept back to his face. Dream Runner tried desperately to think of something to start a conversation with. “Where am I?” he inquired. The smiles that came from them didn’t help his blush, but they sure did tell him he was in good hooves. They were the first friendly, non-evil smiles that he’d seen in long time. “You are in the Ponyville Library. I’m Twilight Sparkle”, the librarian stated. She offered a hoof to him and he awkwardly shook it. He caught his first real detailed look at the lavender unicorn’s eyes. His heart must have stopped completely when he saw just how beautiful her violet eyes were. He tried to jumpstart it by looking away, but his head would not move, nor would his hoof let go of hers. The unicorn didn’t want to let go, but she didn’t want to hold his hoof in front of her friend. “Um…Dream Runner, may I have my hoof back?” He shook himself from his reverie. “S-sorry, Twilight, forgive me.” “Oh, it’s okay.” “It’s just that…I haven’t been in the presence of such hospitality in all my life. I don’t know how to react to it other than awe”, he explained. He looked at the floor, remembering how harshly he was treated by others in the past. “Oh, you poor thing”, Fluttershy cooed. Dream Runner looked at her. He stuck out his hoof. Blushing, as was her gentle nature, she shook it. By now she was treating him as a colt, rather than an injured individual, so her shyness had returned. “I’m Fluttershy”, she said barely above a whisper. “It’s nice to meet you Fluttershy”, he said, only about a decibel louder than her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Twilight staring at Dream Runner again. She smiled. “Twilight, I’m going to go home. I’m sure Dream Runner needs his rest”, the nature-loving Pegasus stated. “I can find a way to make Angel get some sleep.” “Good night”, Twilight said, walking her to the door. “Good night.” As she turned to leave, Twilight could have sworn that Fluttershy gave her the smallest of winks. She shrugged it off as a trick of the light and walked Fluttershy to the door. As they were saying their goodbyes, Dream Runner was trying to get a clear thought to form in his head. The pain made it hard to think, let alone sit up, but he needed to. He wanted to show Twilight that he wasn’t weak and could handle himself. “How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?”, Twilight asked, having returned from the door. “Just…thirsty”, he gasped. The pain was going to give Dream a run for his money. He gritted his teeth and took it. “I’ll be right back.” “Wait.” “Yes?” Dream Runner pulled together all of his remaining strength and dared to stand. He got down from the couch. Once on his full weight, he collapsed, unable to stand the enormous jolts of pain that ran through his legs. It was so unbearable that he couldn’t even mutter a sound of agony. “Are you okay?!” Twilight exclaimed. He couldn’t even muster a single word, so she used her magic to set him back on the couch. “No, please, let me-” Twilight hushed him with a raised hoof. “I won’t let you hurt yourself any further.” Her voice was stern, almost scolding. “Now, let me get you that drink.” With nothing left to do, Dream Runner closed his eyes and started to think. He wanted very badly to be able to walk, but it wasn’t going to happen. Then he remembered his secret weapon. He reached around him. Sheer terror hit him when he grabbed nothing but air. He frantically started to look around for it. “Where is it? It’s gotta be here!” he panicked. “Hey, hey!” Twilight shouted, seeing him straining to get up. He stopped, shaking with fear. “M-m-my satchel, w-w-where is it?” he stammered. His eyes were as wide as eyes could go and his breathing could have out flown Rainbow Dash. “Don’t worry, it’s safe”, Twilight said softly. The Pegasus relaxed, he knew he could trust Twilight. If she said it was okay, then by Celestia it was okay. Twilight used her magic and pushed a glass of water up to him. He sipped it through the straw that Twilight set in it. “Ahh”, he sighed, “Thank you.” “You’re welcome.” “Can I have my satchel now?” He looked at her. His face was hard to resist, especially since he looked so sad about not having it. Twilight couldn’t resist. He was just so shy and innocent. Her horn glowed and the khaki bag floated from upstairs into his awaiting hooves. He started to dig through it, going deeper and deeper until half of his body had disappeared within it. Twilight heard the clanging of bottles and the clattering of metal as he rummaged through the bag. Something inside it slammed. “Ow! I’m fine Twilight, I just hit my head on a wood carving.” Twilight was about to pull him back out in fear that he would hurt himself again, but he had just finished as her horn started to tingle “There you are!” He announced. The pain in his chest made him stifle, but it wouldn’t matter in a few moments. He came back with a vile in his mouth. It was small, with a cork to seal the green liquid inside. He tore off the cork and quickly gulped down the potion. “Ugh”, he gagged, “I hate the taste of that stuff.” His eyes squeezed shut and he stuck out his tongue in disgust. His bruises and other injuries started to fade and heal. It was only a matter of seconds before they were completely gone. “What was that”, Twilight asked, amazed, though slightly amused at his “ugh”s and “ack”s. She had to suppress a few giggles. “Ack…A special healing potion”, he said. He looked back into his satchel. “And by the looks of it, my last one. Ugh.” “Healing potion?” she asked. “I’m very educated in the…ugh…study of medicinal potions and alchemy”, he explained. He cringed again, before putting the vile back into his bag. “You have to…ugh…know the type of medicines I do in order to be a Dream Chaser.” Twilight’s ears perked up. “Dream Chaser? What is that?” “I’ll explain later, but for now…” he started, hopping down and shaking his bandages off, “I would like some sleep. The potion I drank really makes you sleepy.” “Oh, okay.” Twilight smiled gently. She took his standing as a chance to get a closer look at him. He was about two inches shorter than she was. He had no muscles whatsoever. He was a scrawny colt, and he didn’t look to be very strong. His Cutie Mark was half covered by his wings, but she assumed it was a dream cloud with a map inside it. His mane and tail were very peculiar. They were both dark blue, without the grey that his coat carried. His mane was somewhat mid length and was fashioned so that it barely covered the tops of his eyes and ran down his neck and curled into him slightly. It kinda looked mareish, but at the same time, coltish. His tail was simply spiked outward. The peculiar thing was that they both had pink stripes running perfectly through the middle of them. In her eyes, he was still handsome. All the staring Dream Runner was getting from Twilight caused him to shy away, his face red again. He couldn’t handle the attention of mares much. He lay back down on the couch and yawned. “I have a spare bed upstairs”, Twilight said, “Why don’t you come and sleep in it?” The invitation was one of the best offers he had ever gotten. He nodded gratefully. Twilight motioned for him to follow her. She used her magic to put the bandages on the floor into the nearest trash bin. Dream Runner gasped as he saw that the spare bed was directly across from hers. He had never slept in the same room with a filly before, and his nerves were kicked into overdrive as he tried to process it. “Wait…you…me…sleep…same room?” he sputtered. “Yes, is that okay”, Twilight asked, nervous at how he was shaking. He shook his head hard. “Yes, it’s fine. I haven’t slept in an actual bed in a long time.” “Is that so?” Twilight cocked her head at him. He strained as hard as he could not to let his nervousness get the better of him. He nodded. “When you’re on the road like I am, you don’t get to sleep on anything short of a pile of rocks.” Twilight gave him a look of sympathy. He chuckled, “I’m used to it though.” Her response was a nod, and she moved to her bed, sleepily. Twilight didn’t notice how tired she was until she finally thought of it. On nothing but impulse, Dream Runner dashed forward and pulled back the blanket for her. “What?” “Consider it a small token of gratitude for watching me. I’ll think of another way to thank you better later”, he said from the corner of his mouth. She nodded, too tired to say anything. She lay down and he pulled the blanket over her. To add to her surprise, he took the extra time to tuck her in snuggly. He’s so sweet, she thought. “Good night”, Dream yawned. He walked back over to the other bed and plopped down. “Good night, Dream Runner.