A week later, Luna returned to the membrane of the pony's dream. She had to find out more. She had noticed that the it never went away. The pony never stopped dreaming.
Luna had practiced leaving particularly vivid dreams. She accomplishes this by changing herself so that she doesn't fit in with the dream anymore, and she becomes rejected by it. It required focus and control, but wasn't beyond her abilities. She had also practiced becoming aware if she finds herself in a nightmare again. She was prepared.
She pressed a hoof against the membrane, and altered herself to fit in with it. With a pop, it absorbed her inside.
She took the form of an owl this time, flying high in the air. She was just another part of the colt's dream. Nothing bad happened this time. It was her intention to find out more about him, maybe enough to locate his physical form.
It was night. To the west were mountains, underneath her was a forest, and to the east was the ocean. She could make out the species of trees in the forest and recognized them as native to Maryland. With her owl's eyes she saw a small cabin, lit by candlelight, where the treeline ended and a small farm began.
She flew down and landed on the windowsill. She could see the colt inside, bent over a table, writing, tallying finances, and doing arithmetic with his abacus.
The pony glanced at her. In an instant, he had materialized her inside and returned her to her pony form, Princess Luna. Luna scowled at the control he showed over her, and redid her form, making it crisp instead of the blurred form from his memory.
"Greetings." Luna smiled. More sternly, she added, "When a Princess visits, it's customary to bow."
The colt looked back at her lazily. "You aren't a princess here, but you're still welcome. I'd brew up some tea, but I must finish this first. It's not as though you were invited. Even still, I'm sorry for earlier."
His tallied numbers on his abacus and scribbled on his ledgers. Luna looked over his shoulder. Everything was in the red, he was losing more bits than he was making, but other than that, the numbers conveyed to her no meaning.
"What's your name? Where is this?" Luna demanded, but did not recieve an answer. She looked around his home. It was obvious that he lived alone. Littered about were selections of seeds, and various tools for farming.
After getting tired of waiting she intruded on the Colt's work.
"What was with the water?" She demanded, frustrated.
The Colt tried to ignore her. "What water?"
Luna pressed hard. "The water you were drowning in."
The Colt focused harder on the numbers, drowning her out.
"I command you to tell me your name!" Luna shouted.
The dream shrank down to nothing more than the clicking of an abacus, and she could no longer fit inside of it.