Dream Whisper

by Dream Whisper

Chapter 1: Unpleasant dreams

What is good and what is bad?
Are there really bad ponies?
Is it just a type of behavior, some ponies have and others don't?
Is it something, that sticks to you like globs of mud, after you ran through deep puddles?
Or is it maybe something, that comes with birth and is a part of your character?
Am I damned to be bad?

My story begins in a situation, I had not expected to be in. Most nightmares are easy to detect: Either it is dark and cold or it is dark and scary. This nightmare however, was completely different. I was standing on a wonderful beach, while the sun slowly lowered beyond the horizon. The whole sky was painted in warm colors. The reflections in the calm water made the whole picture even more enjoyable. Behind me, there was a huge forest of palm trees, slowly swinging from side to side with every breeze. The beach was completely empty except for one filly. The filly had an orange coat and a dark red mane.
It was strange to know, that that pony was the creator of this whole situation; She was the dreamer. That is how I call the ponies, who dream the dreams, which I then enter.

My special talent had led to many problems already, especially when I entered nightmares. I would have liked to just leave the dream right now, but I neither knew how to get out of a dream, nor did I know, how to enter the dream; It just happened. Well, to be honest, I knew one way to get out of the dream: Waking the dreamer up. It is an unpleasant experience and I rather like to just let my magic run out with time.

I only found out, when a growling sound blew through the forest of palm trees. I tried to calm the filly down, hoping to prevent further fear in a nightmare, but the filly surely was not calmed by my appearance; A dark blue skin, an even darker mane. Much like Princess Luna, but not nearly as shiny and without all these stars and stuff in the mane. Just a regular pony with an irregular talent.

When the ground started to vibrate for the first time, I knew the filly had already created some devilish creature from her fear. After the next vibration, a shadow slowly rose over the forest of palm trees. It was a giant Snow Wolf, something I had really not expected here. The tale of snow wolfes is a tale, that we tell young fillies to get them to do nasty duties. The whole situation would have not really been dangerous, if I would not have been here. Usually, you would just wake up, when you die inside of your dream. However, something strange happens to dreams when I enter them. My special talent does not only force me into these dreams, it also does change the dreams themselves.

Whilst I am inside of a dream, wounds are possible. Although you do not die inside the dream, the wounds can be fatal. I may be forced into these dreams, but somehow it is my duty to prevent any wounds so they couldn't carry over into reality.
The glowing of my horn reminded me of another fact about my talent. The magic, that holds me inside the dream seems to be my own, although I cannot control it. Once in my foalhood I used too much magic, which caused the bond between me and the dream to intensify. Somehow, my magic had spiraled out of control causing a huge explosion. My mother was furios.

The Snow Wolf came closer and closer and I decided to finally do something. Magic against such a huge foe would not really work, especially considering my magic potential. I decided to take another route, one that I have relied on in most dreams: Dream Logic. The logic of the dream is quite impressive, as the dream is nothing but the illusion of the dreamer. If the dreamer imagines flying horses, there will be flying horses inside of the dream. I only had to convince the filly, that there was no danger. As my previous attempts to just calm the filly down had not really worked, I decided to use another strategy. “Don't you worry, the crab nation is here to save us.”

Utter nonesense, to be honest, but as long as the dreamer believes in your words, even utter nonesense can turn out to be quite helpful. Instead of calming the dreamer down, I had given her an opportunity to give herself some help. Suddenly, the ocean began to foam, until a couple of giant crabs rose from the depths. Although they started to fight the Snow Wolf, it became clear, that they would not win. However, they gave me enough time to use a bit of my magic towards my advantage: I hovered just a bit of water out of the ocean, towards the little filly and blasted it into her face. Not to be mean, but instead to wake her up.

It worked, at least as far as I could tell. There are a couple of signs of being in a dream: Dream logic, which is affected by the dreamer, the dream edge, which I am going to explain in a second, and of course, the glowing of my magic.
So, what is a dream edge?

In a dream, there is not a whole world, not all of Equestria. Why would the brain think about a raindrop falling in Canterlot, while you dream of being in the Crystal Empire? When you enter a dream, there is always an edge to it. It is a sphere around the dreamer with a size depending on how far the dreamer can see in his current situation. It moves along with the dreamer as the dreamer moves through her or his dream.

When I looked around in my house, I realized a bitter truth: I had to go out into the town. On the one hand, most of my food supplies were gone. On the other hand, all my sleeping potions were empty, which was the reason for today's adventure.
Somehow, I was a little bit scared every time I had to leave the house; Other ponies might remember me from their dreams. I didn't want to be asked the same crazy questions every time and I don't want them to stare at me as if I was Nightmare Moon standing right in front of them.

I went out early in the morning, prepared with a long robe above my coat. The reason was not only the cold weather outside, even though the sun was blocked by big black clouds. The main reason was anonymity. I was not really welcome in most places, but the small village shop, somehow had to sell its goods. I don't live very close to the town, but a long walk in the morning isn't bad at all. The wind was causing the trees to rumble as if they were in a bad mood. There are not many scary creatures in our forest, but I was always careful anyway. Enough stories of encounters with Frostbirches have been told in the past month.

Frostbirches behave like normal trees for most of the time, but when the temperature drops below zero degrees, they start to walk around and search for frozen food in the ground. They use their roots to grab whatever they can find and thus are often not dangerous to ponies. However, sometimes the frostbirches don't find enough food, and then they can be harmful. I never got attacked by a frostbirch, though. Usually they hide deep inside the forest.

The walk through the forest was shorter than expected. It probably only seemed so short, because I couldn't really see the sun behind those darned clouds. The town was empty, as always. Not only did most people leave the town after the last big snowstorm, but they somehow knew, how long I would need for my supplies. Maybe, they tell the stories of the dream pony having appeared again. I smiled at that thought; Just like a ghost spooking in their nightmare.

The town did not really deserve that classification. Just a couple of small houses, usually 10 or so, depending on whether the last snowstorm knocked one down or not. The only thing in this town, that was somehow stable, was the shop I used to buy in. It was small, but it had an incredible variety of things to sell. The black house with small windows was not appealing, but it stood against every storm. If there had not been a big sign saying 'Shop' in the front, you would think it would be a house for some secret demon summoner or voodoo practicer. I stepped inside, looking forward to the warm air. Only the shop pony was sitting in an edge, seemingly ignoring anything that happened in his shop, but his eyes crusing around the place as if he could stop shoplifters with his bare looks. I had to smile again. With the amount of ponies living in this town, shoplifters would probably not be a huge problem. I took some of this, some of that, nothing special. Mostly food, some common things and the same potion as every time. The potion came directly from Canterlot and was thus very expensive. Despite that, these sleeping potions were the last resort I had, if I didn't want to be in danger of appearing in somepony's dream again.

The problem with my talent was, that I could not control it. I couldn't decide, whether I wanted to enter somepony's dream or not. I couldn't decide, whether I wanted to make somepony's dream more real than they or me would have liked it to be. This inability to decide scratched at my sanity.

That is, why I liked to use the sleeping potions. If I didn't dream, I couldn't hurt anypony.
Sometimes, I hate the exclusion from others, just for being different. Then again, it is probably the best for me. I'd rather live alone than live together with somepony, whose dreams I know and appear in.
Dreams are supposed to be something personal and not something, that can be invaded.

People hate me for knowing, what even their closest friends are not supposed to know. I cannot blame them. I have seen things in their heads, nopony would ever like to let any other pony in this world know about. Things, either disgusting or just terrific. I have to live with them now. As long as I dream, there will be new memories. That's why I don't like dreaming. I hate dreaming, I hate being thrown into their worlds. Still, there is a certain fascination with dreams. Almost like a moth is attracted to light, I am attracted to dreams. The infinite possibilites are overwhelming.

When I stopped myself from thinking about my talent, I was already home again. Time flies by if you don't watch it closely. Inside again, I prepared for my bedtime. Although the way to the town had seemed to be short, the way back must have taken me much more time. It was already dawn, when I stored every little piece I had bought in my shelves. The sun just touched the horizon, when I got the potion out to sleep without dreaming.

Comments

[EnderBlaze]

I was in a bit of a bitter mood, but hell, after reading ch 1 all that had been replaced by keen intrest! This is very good so far! Thank you for brightening my mood

Also, I'd like to add that you have gotten better with commas since this. Ugh. Good job!