Aim For The Moon

by CalmAndInsane

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of What?

Jonathan looked over his report in the mid morning light. He shook his head as he thought about the stir it would cause when it was finally declassified. Jonathan looked across the table at Jessica and Tom who were keeping an eye and ear on the extraterrestrials that had ‘accidentally’ wound up on Earth. Russ had on a sleep blind and was lying on one of the cots they had brought. Apparently he had decided to sleep on the language ‘problem’. Jonathan didn’t see how it was a problem, but then again, he had enough on his plate to worry about.

“Status report?” Jonathan asked.

“Well our princess-in-exile is standing guard. The others all seem to be sleeping,” Jessica stated before turning to Tom, “But because someone won’t give up the headphones I don’t know for sure!”

“It’s not my fault you don’t have the authorization to use them,” both Tom’s face and his voice failed to hide his amusement.

“Oh, so that mumbling from Russ authorized you to use them?” Jessica quipped.

“Yes,” Tom stuck out his tongue.

“You are so immature,” Jessica grumbled.

“Both of you shut up. I’m taking the headphones,” Jonathan snached the head mounted speakers off of Tom and fitted them around him own ears.

“I was using those!” Tom made a grab for the aforementioned equipment that was quickly stopped when Jonathan held up a hand. Through the headphones Jonathan could hear light snoring, no doubt from one of their guests. But what caught his attention was that the princess was talking to herself.

“Still thyself Luna. Thou art not at fault. Thou tryest thy best to remedy this predicament. Thy vessel shalt be repaired and thou will voyage home...”

“What the hell? Is that archaic?” Jonathan asked, pulling the headphones off and handing them to Jessica.

“As far as I can tell. What that means is beyond me,” Tom shrugged before adding with a snicker, “I’m sure Rusty will have another conniption over it though.”

Jonathan rolled his eyes, “Right. Jessica, you have first watch. Wake Russ up when you’re done. Tom, stop bothering her and get to sleep, we’ve all had a long day and I need everyone alert for tonight when the helicopters come to pick up their ship.”

“Alright, alright. Morning everybody,” Tom snickered at his joke.

“Yeah, well, night to you too asshole,” Jessica responded, slipping on the headphones. Her eyes widened and she quickly began jotting down notes on what she was hearing.

---

“Thou shalt message thy sister. We are most certain that she is distressed over thy vanishment. It will sooth her greatly to learn of thy safety,” I was pacing around the platform. As foalish as it was, I still found talking to myself outloud to help me think through particularly difficult problems. Then of course, there was me slipping back into the dialect used before my imprisonment. Though I could talk using the modern slang and such, when I was alone or sufficiently stressed I still reverted my antiquated style of speech.

Though I did not want to leave the others unguarded, I figured a quick trip wouldn’t be an issue. Besides, our hostess seemed very hesitant to step onto our platform. Whatever the reason for their trepidation was, it suited my purposes. A brief dream walk to talk to Tia, then right back to keeping vigil. After casting a spell that would alert me if anything got close to the platform, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

I have been told that the process I use to enter dreams is very similar to that of meditation. I stilled my mind, focusing only on the image of the door I used to enter the dream state. Now I did not have to use a door. Often when entering ponies’ dreams I did not, but I found it helped them understand that a transition was happening, so I adopted it when guiding ponies around the dream state. Eventually it became habit. Plus it is easier to enter the dream state when one has an object to focus on, and with all the things that were clouding my mind at the time, I knew it would be necessary for this trip.

With some extra coxing however, I found myself before my dream door. It was black with silver edging and had, predictably, a raised relief of the moon adorning its face. It opened and I stepped into the starry void that was the space between dreams. I willed the door to Tia’s dreams before me. Celestia's dream door is white with gold trim and has a sun emblazoned onto it. Much to my surprise, no door appeared before me. Such had happened before when I had been distracted, but never had no door shown itself. Puzzled, I made a second attempt, but again my efforts went unanswered.

I decided to try a different approach. The doors of those physically close to me flew in, the walls to an invisible hallway keeping them lined up on either side of me. Immediately in front of me, were three normal doors. I knew those belonged to Double Take, Quick Wit, and Hard Stuff. Ignoring them, I turned around and looked at the door immediately to the left of my own. I do not know what I expected one of our host’s doors to look like, but what was before me caused me unease. It was big, much too big to be a pony's door, that was the main reason I knew it had to belong to one of our hosts. It had a sheen to it that I recognised as belonging to one of those plastic materials that had been discovered during my banishment. The door was colored a drab light gray with two strange symbols adorning it’s face. One was a horizontal line that had another line extending down from its middle. This second line went straight down before curving around and climbing halfway back up its length. The second symbol looked like a circle that been cut vertically in half and had one side flipped so that it was below the other.

I had been in the dreams of other species before. On occasion visiting delegates would have nightmares that I would calm. But the dream of a creature from another world... I puzzled over what it might contain. At the very least it would give me a glimpse of their society and customs. I found myself unable to contain my curiosity. After all, just a quick peek would be harmless. If it had anything to do with us, I would simply leave. No damage done. With that foolproof plan in mind I opened the door.

“I, for one, welcome our new equine overlords. Ah your majesty! We were just talking about you,” Jonathan Smith and the other of his kind with him bowed as I stepped into the dream. We were in an ovaloid room, a rug with what looked like an eagle on it was laid before a rather impressive looking desk with a golden throne behind it.

“Excuse me?” I asked. Why did it sound like he was expecting me? Did he know about my dream walking abilities?

“It was all good things I assure you,” Jonathan Smith quickly added, “What can I do for you today, my queen?”

“Queen? You are confused, we are a princess. Not a queen,” I corrected him.

“I know that the crowning is not for a few days your highness, but it is still unofficially your title,” Jonathan Smith explained.

“Whatever are you talking about?” the mention of me being a queen brought memories of the Nightmare to the front of my mind, “We no longer have any intention of becoming queen.”

“Of course! Have you decided on the title of Empress then?” Jonathan Smith asked.

I opened my mouth but hesitated. Eventually I found my tongue, “Jonathan Smith, you are aware you are dreaming, yes?”

“Of course!”Jonathan Smith responded with a bow. Before I could determine if horror or relief was the proper reaction he continued, “It is such a dream come true to be your advisor of human affairs.”

Then, as if I was not befuddled enough, Quick Wit marched into the room and threw a salute, “The fleet will be ready to launch soon Empress Luna! Your usurpers will never know what hit them!”

I stared at Jonathan Smith’s mental representation of Quick Wit as I tried to fathom what was happening around me.

“Empress Luna, perhaps it would be best for you to get some rest before the invasion. Allow me to escort you to your quarters,” Jonathan Smith offered. I dumbly nodded and walked through the door than he had opened for me. I found it most peculiar how there was no hallway between what I assumed was the throne room and this bedroom. I also found some of the furnishings rather disturbing; such as the throne made of a combination of swords and skulls or the fact that the miniscule lighting present was provided by an open fire pit. The shark tank seemed quite out of place and I had not even the foggiest notion about the strange contraptions that were attached to the sharks’ heads.

The sleeping arrangements looked wonderful however. The bed itself was heart shaped and red, not something I was used to, but who was I to judge their culture? Several pillows of varying shades of pink and purple were piled onto the bed's head. The set was encompassed by a canopy that I was unable to determine the color of, but I assumed to be either blue or black.

“Enjoy your highness,” Jonathan Smith flourished with a bow, “If there is anything you require, simply ask and I will personally see to your comfort.”

“Yes, well, there is one thing,” I hesitated. I could tell Jonathan Smith knew I was struggling to word my request.

“Anything, Empress Luna. Just name it,” Jonathan Smith seemed much too enthused by the current situation.

I turned to look Jonathan Smith in the eyes, “I want you to answer honestly.”

Jonathan Smith nodded, keeping his gaze locked with mine.

“Are you actually enjoying this? Do you not find this situation a nightmare?” I asked.

“I can honestly say it is anything but,” Jonathan Smith smiled, “And do you want to know why?”

I nodded. Jonathan Smith knelt beside the bed and reached down for something.

“Because by the power invested in me by the United States government, I’m placing you under arrest,” Jonathan Smith’s hand pulled back up to reveal a small black device that he then pointed at my head. I suddenly found my hooves bound together. Looking down I discovered that a blue glow surrounded my legs.

“Surprised?” Jonathan asked, “You know how we said that in order to rule the Earth we’d need a blood sample? We lied. We used that to reverse engineer the nanobots that allow you to levitate things. We also created a type of nanobots that would prevent you from using yours. So don’t bother trying.”

I had no idea what he was going on about. Something about my blood being used to levitate things I think. Did this mean that their blood was a magical focus? This would make no sense though, since Jonathan Smith stated they needed mine.

“Yes, this whole thing has been carefully orchestrated since I originally learned of your plans. You thought you were keeping them hidden, but it was always quite clear what you were after,” Jonathan Smith bragged, “You don’t actually rule anywhere, all of those people you’ve seen were just acting. Everything has been staged. Agents run ahead to set things up, then after you’ve passed through, everything goes back to normal. We’ve been in control this entire time.”

This of course was completely false. He still had no idea this was a dream which meant I had total control over what happened. Still, I decided to play along to discover they type of things to expect should our relations sour.

“You’ll never get away with this! My servants will rescue me!” I warned him.

“Oh? You mean those other three that we’ve already captured? I don’t think they’ll be helping you any time soon,” Jonathan Smith grinned, “Come along now, there are places you need to be.”

Suddenly the feeling of the floor disappeared from beneath my hooves. Jonathan Smith floated me through the same door we entered, but instead of the throne room from before we were greeted by pristine white walls. Another one of Jonathan Smith’s kind sat behind a metal desk. This one had a pointy patch of hair growing on his chin. He stood when we entered the room.

“Agent Smith. Wonderful job,” the stallion praised, a small smile gleamed on his face, “I thought everything that could have gone wrong did. If we had known that it wasn’t a hoax, I think the Earth would be under the foot of our friend here. But as it was, we were lucky that another team wasn’t sent. That was a beautiful plan you came up with Smith, simply beautiful.”

“Thank you sir,” Jonathan Smith saluted.

“Please call me by my name, we are equals now,” the stallion reached his hand towards Jonathan Smith.

“Really? Thank you, sir!” Jonathan Smith took the other stallion’s hand in his and the two shook their hands up and down in a hoofshake. A handshake, if you will.

“Yes, now come. There are things I must show you,” the stallion lead Jonathan Smith off. I floated in the room, apparently forgotten. I was very surprised that anyone would simply leave a prisoner alone in the office of somepony that was obviously quite high up in a government job. But the curiosites had yet to stop. Less than a second after Jonathan Smith had left the room it started to fade. I quickly unbound myself and flew over to the desk.

There were only four items on it. One was a flat black box set to rest so that it was pointing up in the air. I ignored that. The next was a horizontal black board with multiple studs on it. Besides the confusing symbols in it, the board lacked anything of note. Next there was a small black object that was entirely curves besides the bottom. As I could find no obvious function for it, I decided that I would come back to it. The last item appeared to be a name plate. Once again, I found my inability to read their script to be quite the hindrance. I quickly focused on the lettering, keeping it from fading any further. Then I tried to reach into Jonathan Smith’s mind, searching for the meaning out of the words to display before me. Much to my surprise, it worked. Before me floated a cane, a belt of black fabric knotted together halfway between the ends and the middle, and a penis.

I decided that my efforts were unsuccessful and let the objects fade. Shaking my head in bafflement, I summoned the door back to the hall of dreams to contact my sister.

---

“For why do the fates conspire against me this eve!?” I shouted, grinding my hoof into the nonexistent floor. Celestia’s door was nowhere to be found. In fact, besides the doors of my companions, all of the doors were the large doors of our hosts. And there seemed to be an endless number of them. I had lined all of the doors up and made them to fly single file in front of me. Any door that was too large in size was to be passed over, allowing me to focus only on the doors of my little ponies. I had started slowly, allowing myself to glimpse each door, but had quickly lost interest. Now they were tearing past me at such a breakneck speed they all blurred into one solid wall, and there was still no end in sight.

I was unable to fathom how many beings must live on this planet to present such an overwhelming number of dreams. I most certainly did not envy their dream guardian. I was barely able to cover one of every few hundred nightmares a night. I imagined they might never visit certain ponies during the entirety of their lives.

With a growl of frustration, followed by a sigh of defeat, the wall of doors vanished and was replaced with my own door. I had wasted enough time attempting to contact Celestia. I would simply have to try again another time. After all, I sensed dusk approaching and wanted to be there to see the manner in which the moon was raised.

---

Jonathan Smith grunted as a hand shoved him awake.

“Jonathan, time to get up,” Russ informed him.

“Yeah it’s bedtime, dude! What are you doing sleeping?” Tom teased.

“I swear to god if my dream winds up happening I’m going to let her kill you,” Jonathan muttered.

“What was that?” Tom asked.

“Nothing to worry about,” Jonathan assured Tom before mentally adding a single word:

Hopefully.

Author's Note:

Alright, time to try one of these "Author's Notes" things.

First off, numbers! After a very informative discussion with Ryvaken, I have decided to have ponies use base 12. However, during the posy perspective, the story will still use base 10. This is because the numbers they use are familiar to them, so they should also be so for the reader. Human numbers won't be easily comprehensible in pony perspective to make up for it. You don't need to go back and re-read the chapter as it plays a very small part in it. You do however need to know that ponies now use base 12 or you will be sorely confused.

Second, I apologize about the time it took to get this chapter out. The school year was warping up, so tests and final projects and all that did cut into my time a bit. That isn't the main reason though. The main reason is that I had no idea what to have happen during the day. I couldn't just skip it as any talking between the two groups would be vital character building and cultural examination. So I needed to find a way to make the characters to not interact. For some reason it took me a week to realize that they had been up all night and would be tired. I was planning on a chapter where Luna went into Jonathan's dreams at some point anyway, so why not just move it up a bit?

Third and most importantly: thank you all for reading this and for all of your feedback. If you spot any mistakes, please inform me of them. I try to do as much research on the science side of this as possible, but I don't always get it right. Bonus points to anyone that correctly guesses the name of Jonathan Smith's boss.
-Calm

I messed things up. I forget sleep is a thing. I want to thank you for correcting me. Cane, black belt of fabric with a knot in it halfway between the middle and the ends, penis!
-Insane

Comments

[Ryvaken]

I'm not sure what Luna just saw, but I am sure that it was hilarious.

[IncongruousAndHarmonious]

*slowly claps* Nice ducking dream man...
P.S: can't wait for more!