Dreamstrider

by OkemosBrony

Chapter 19

Somepony is knocking on the door to our train compartment, causing Snowy and Dew Drop to look up from their cards. I don’t, because I’m still trying to get the hang of poker so I’m still trying to figure out if what I have is good or not.

“We’re coming up on the station pretty soon,” mom says after barely cracking the door. “Make sure you get your things ready, don’t leave anything behind.”

After losing yet again to my sisters, we put the cards away and start putting all our stuff back into Snowy’s saddlebags. Once we’ve checked the private train compartment we claimed as our own because there’s hardly anypony else on this train, we go back and find mom and dad sitting next to each other in the main car, with dad’s nose buried in a map of Manehattan.

“You made sure you got everything, right?” mom asks us.

“Yes,” Snowy responds, some irritation clear in her voice. She usually doesn’t sound like this, especially not around mom and dad, but they’ve been after her the past couple days to get prepared for college and even Dew Drop and I are getting tired of her because she asks constantly to make sure she hasn’t forgotten anything.

“Now remember, even though they’ll have ponies to help bring your things to campus, we have to stay there to tell them what’s ours.” She looks at dad and puts a hoof over his map to get his attention. “And I told you, they also have a pony to bring us there as well. You don’t need to use that map.”

“I’m looking at things we could do!” he defends himself.

“Orientation is all day today and we’re coming back tomorrow,” she reminds him. “We don’t have time to do anything in Manehattan.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t look at things to do.”

With a playful eye roll, she takes the map in her magic and puts it in Snowy’s bag. “The train’s slowing down, so it’ll be any moment now.” She looks at Snowy and smiles. “You excited?”

“Yeah.” There definitely is some honesty in her answer, but everypony’s asked her that all summer; mom, dad, and all our extended family when we went to go visit them over the summer. She must just be worn out from having to answer the same questions over and over.

The train stops and the doors open, letting in the warm, slightly salty breeze of Manehattan. The other few ponies on the car quickly walk out, leaving just us. Dad walks up to Snowy and messes up her mane with his hoof, much to her dissatisfaction. “Ready, sweetpea?”

“Yes,” she mumbles, clearly hating him treating her like a little filly. At least, I’m pretty sure that’s how he would’ve treated her when she was young. It’s how he used to treat me.

“Let’s go, then.” He turns around and walks out, and we all follow him onto the platform of Manehattan Central Station. Bright light starts pounding down on all of us, and I can already start feeling myself sweat.

“I think they’re over there,” Dew Drop says. I look where she’s pointing, and I can see two stallions wearing purple and blue shirts with a giant fancy M on them. They look like they’re friends, because they’re both talking and laughing with each other.

Mom nudges Snowy towards them. “Go up and ask if they’re the ones who are supposed to help us.”

Slowly, she walks up to them and starts talking, then points back at us and comes back.

“Welcome to Manehattan,” one of them smiles while pulling out a sheet of paper. “You said you’re...Snowy Jade, right?”

“Yeah,” she confirms.

“Malachite Hall,” he says to the other stallion, who nods and stands near the baggage that’s being unloaded.

“Just tell me which ones are yours and we can get going,” he smiles.

Snowy walks over and starts gathering bags in her magic, and before long she has a ton of them collected around her. It doesn’t seem like it on this big platform, but it feels like she’s got hundreds of bags. We could hardly fit them all back on the platform in Coltlumbus.

The unicorn sparks up his horn and opens a portal, then moves it over himself to transport both the bags and himself at once. Snowy walks back to us, then the other stallion starts walking us off the platform and through the station.

“Ever been to Manehattan before?” he asks us, to no one pony in particular.

“No,” Snowy replies, not even taking her eyes off the massive ceiling, which has murals painted all over it.

“You’re going to love it here,” he beams. “It’s a great city, and there’s always something to do, be it on-campus or off.” He shoots a quick glance at his sheet, then puts it back and continues walking. “Says here you’re a geology major?”

“Technically. I’m going to be studying gemology, which is one of the specializations in it.”

“Sounds fun,” he nods. “Any idea what you’ll do take in first in Manehattan?”

“No idea,” she says with a nervous laugh. “Any recommendations?”

“Check out the Midsummer Theater Revival before it’s gone,” he suggests. “It started up again just a few years ago. Free shows put on the community in one of the parks near campus.”

He and Snowy keep talking and dad’s pointing out all sorts of things to mom, so it’s just Dew Drop and I near the back of the group just sort of walking in silence. I shoot a glance up at her, and she looks pretty bored. I can’t really blame her, I guess. Getting up early to travel halfway across Equestria and then move somepony’s stuff in isn’t my idea of a fun day, either.

After enough walking that my hooves start to ache, we come to a big stone sign reading Manehattan College carved into it and two iron arches above us with vines twisting all around and through them. Almost as soon as we pass under the arch, the noise of the city becomes much softer to the point where I can hear the wind in the trees over all the carts and hooves of the city’s ponies.

“Why’s it so quiet here?” I ask the stallion with us.

“MC keeps a protective sound barrier up at all times,” he replies in the same cheery tone he’s been using this entire trip. “As you could tell, a city like Manehattan can get pretty busy and noisy. We wouldn’t want our students to hear that all the time, so they have staff here all hours of the day to keep it up and give everypony a calm place to live and learn.

Makes sense, I guess. It also got a lot greener as soon as we set hoof on campus, so it’s like a little isolated bubble in the city. I’m glad Canterlot isn’t nearly bad as Manehattan because it’s a lot smaller, but I also remember Princess Celestia saying something like the entire city was designed carefully to not let noise travel very far. Seems like that’s something you’d need magic to control and not city planning, but she has been living there since basically the beginning and knows everything that goes on in the city so I believe her.

“We’re coming up on your residence hall here pretty soon,” the stallion says. “See that little courtyard there, with the five buildings surrounding it?”

“Yeah,” Snowy replies.

“You’re in the one with the dark green trimmings,” he says as he points his hoof towards the one right in the center. “Malachite Hall. And then, from left to right: Sugilite House, Pearl Manor, Malachite Hall, Morganite Hall, and Aquamarine Estate. All undergrads have to live in either Sugilite, Pearl, or Malachite their freshman year, and then can live in any of them from there on out. Some ponies decide to live off campus, and if you’re interested in that, you can start your third year here.”

Now that I’m looking at the buildings, they honestly don’t look that big. They’re about as big as the towers at Princess Celestia’s School, which even then aren’t more than a few stories high.

“Snowy Jade,” the stallion with us says to a mare holding a clipboard at the front of the Hall we’re going into.

“Room 118,” she says, moving the pen in her mouth aside to speak before crossing something out.

We walk inside, and the main area reminds me a lot of the living room area of the towers at Princess Celestia’s. There’s a bookcase built into the wall that stretches around the entire room, a currently unlit fireplace, and really ornate chairs and tables scattered throughout.

There’s very little time to admire everything, however, as we’re going up the stairs in front of us. Lots of fancy artwork is hanging along the walls as we go up, making me think of how much all this cost.

The next floor up is a lot like the one below in style, but is just a long hallway with old lamps providing magical light everywhere. We walk down it a little bit, then come to an open door and turn inside the room. Inside is the stallion from before placing the last of her bags on the bed on the right side of the room, which is completely stripped down to the mattress. The bed on the left has a very sleepy-looking pegasus mare in it, rubbing her eyes.

“Everything’s moved in,” the unicorn stallion says before walking outside. “We have to get back to the train station to help others who are coming in, but there are plenty of ponies here to help if you need it.” Before we can even respond, he goes down the hall and I can hear the sound of a portal opening again.

“Hey,” the pegasus waves weakly through a yawn. “My name’s Thundersnow, by the way. Sorry for looking like I just woke up, because...well, I did.”

“I’m Snowy Jade,” she waves back. “These are my parents, and those are my sisters Dew Drop and Aurora Borealis.”

“Nice to meet you all.” She spreads her wings wide to stretch them. “Anyways, I’ll get out of your manes so you can unpack. Also because I really need breakfast.”

“See you later,” Snowy replies as her roommate hops out of bed and starts trotting down the hall.

“She just woke up?” Dew Drop asks. “It’s one in the afternoon…”

“Welcome to college life,” dad smiles as he goes over to Snowy’s bed and starts opening a bag up. “My roommate sophomore year didn’t get up until three some days. It’s what you do.”

Now that’s just excessive. The latest I’ve ever woken up was eleven, and that was with a demon eating part of my mind, so I had an excuse.

“Where are you going to want everything?” mom asks.

“I don’t know just yet,” Snowy shrugs.

“We need to get it somewhere, there’s no room here for it to just be all around,” dad adds.

“I know!” she defends. I shoot a quick glance up at Dew Drop, and I can tell she’s doing the same with me. If none of us does something quick, they will probably get into an argument.

“Snowy, where’s your sheets and clothes and stuff?” Dew Drop asks. “Should probably start with that.”

“They’re in here,” she responds, taking a gray suitcase in her magic and placing it on the floor.

Dew Drop’s plan to distract them worked, because now we’re just going through every suitcase one by one and finding places for everything. Her room is way smaller than back home and she’s sharing it with somepony else, so the fact that we keep managing to find places for everything she brought surprises me. A drawer here, a shelf there, the storage just keeps popping up.

After much less time than I thought we would need to take, we’re putting the last of her stuff away. There are still a few things that she still needs to decide on, but they’re all not really important things like her winter clothes and some of the food mom and dad sent her with.

“So what do we do now?” I ask as Snowy’s storing all the empty bags under her bed.

“We all have different things we have to go to, if I remember correctly,” mom says, putting a hoof on her chin. “I know Snowy has some new student orientation she needs to attend, we have a parents’ orientation, and you two have a siblings’ event they’re putting on.”

“I saw signs for all of those as we were coming up,” dad says. “Looked like we’re all going to go our different ways for them.”

We leave the room and close the door behind us, and like before, Dew Drop and I are at the back while the rest of them are talking amongst themselves. And also like before, Dew Drop looks bored out of her skull. She didn’t seem very excited when mom and dad said we’d be coming here and helping Snowy move in, and that clearly hasn’t changed.

Once we’re outside and in the courtyard, I can see that it’s a lot less busy than it was before. There are some ponies who are leaving their dorms and splitting up like we’re about to do, but none of them are going in like when we came here.

“Guess this is where we split up,” dad says as we get to three signs pointing in different directions for the three events we’re all going to. “In case we don’t see you again before tonight,” he says while going to hug Snowy, “have fun, and don’t forget to stay in touch with us. Love you.”

Mom joins in on the hug without saying anything, and Snowy returns it.

“Love you both, too. And I’ll make sure to write every now and then to tell you how it’s going.”

They hug for a few more seconds, then break up. Mom and dad go off to the side, and Snowy comes up to both of us and gets us both in one hug.

“Bye, little sisters,” she says warmly as she tightens the hug.

“See ya,” Dew Drop replies. “You’ll have to have me over, you hear? All my friends were so impressed you’re going to school in Manehattan, and they were jealous I got to come here with you.”

“I’ll be sure to,” she laughs before looking down at me and giving me a playful wink. “And Aurora, stay cute. Think you can do that?”

I laugh a little. “No promises.”

We hug for a little while longer, then Snowy stops and glances over at the signs. “Guess I’m taking a right here. You guys are going left, and mom and dad are going straight. I saw some other ponies you guys’ ages as we came in, so I don’t think it’s far.”

“Have fun,” mom and dad tell us before going off to their thing. Snowy leaves just after them, leaving just Dew Drop and I alone.

“Ready to go this thing?” I ask her.

“Nah,” she shrugs. “Let’s go do something else.”

“‘Something else’?” I repeat. “The siblings’ event is the only thing we really can do.”

“On campus,” she winks. “Didn’t you notice a ton of stuff on the way here? We’re in Manehattan; I’m sure we can find something.”

“Are you sure?” I ask. This doesn’t sound like a really great idea.

“Aurora, come on,” she laughs. “How long have we been younger sisters? Our entire lives. And how many siblings’ events have been fun?”

I just stare blankly at her. I get where she’s going with this, but I’m still not totally on board.

“Zero,” she answers for me. “When’s the next time we’re going to get to just do stuff in Manehattan all by ourselves?”

“We can come visit Snowy,” I shrug.

“You’re saying you’d rather attend a siblings’ event?” she laughs. “Aurora, you’re a double younger sister, so you know better than I do that it sucks sometimes. Snowy is off doing her stuff and mom and dad are doing their stuff. We’re going to be sent to glorified daycare because we’re just extra baggage at this point. What’s the harm in going to a few shops or seeing a few sights?”

“What if something happens?”

“It’s the middle of broad daylight next to a college campus in a good part of Manehattan,” she dismisses with a wave of her hoof. “Aren’t you the filly that claimed she killed a demon all by herself earlier this summer? If you can do that, you can get away with playing a little hooky. Not like this is your big sister’s first time skipping an event, either.”

“Where would we even go? We don’t have any money on us.”

“Not like we can’t go check out what some places have to offer. Fashion Week is starting soon, so a lot of designers from all around Equestria are already here, and there’s some stores featuring the best dresses and accessories from all around Equestria, maybe even the world!” Her face doesn't look like it's big enough to hold her smile now. “Doesn’t it sound amazing?”

“You just want to go shopping, don’t you?”

“Duh,” she rolls her eyes. “And to teach you why it’s fun. When Snowy and I were your age, we begged mom all the time to let us go shopping for new clothes, but never once have you even asked. What else are older sisters for?”

“Why not,” I shrug. It’s not like I really have any other suggestions on what we do. Hopefully there’s some cool dresses, at least. Living in Canterlot for a year did make me realize clothes can be interesting sometimes.

“Perfect,” she says while waving her hoof towards herself. “We’re just a few blocks from where the shops start, so if we hurry, we should be able to beat some of the rush!” Almost immediately, she turns around and begins trotting quickly, which means I have to basically run to keep up with her. She must be really excited to go shopping.

Before long, we’re outside a three-story building with a sign proudly hanging above the door with the words Carousel Boutique. Where have I heard that name before?

“Come on!” Dew Drop beams before rushing in, not even waiting for a response from me. By the time I walk in, she’s already put on a scarf that’s the same pale green as her coat. “What do you think?” she asks, eyeing herself in the mirror.

“I’m not really good with telling what clothes are good and what ones aren’t,” I admit. “This place is famous, right? Even I recognize the name, and I don’t know anything about fashion.”

“You’re kidding!” she almost yells as she snaps her head to me. “You don’t know who owns Carousel Boutique?”

“Should I?”

“Rarity?” she asks. “You know, only the Rarity, the one and only Element of Generosity.” An enormous smile quickly grows on her face. “Oh my gosh, do you think she’s here? Do you think we could meet her? I’ve been following her since she was just making dresses out of Ponyville, I think I would literally die right here on the spot if she was here!”

“She’s not going to be in Manehattan for another few weeks,” a mare with a light teal mane interrupts, placing a hoof on Snowy’s shoulder to try and calm her down. “But if you come back then, I’m sure she’d love to meet some fans!”

“Oh,” Dew Drop replies, the excitement rushing out of her. “We’re just in town for a little bit, so we won’t be able to make it then.” She thinks something over for a moment, then looks back at the other mare right as she’s about to speak, cutting her off. “Hey, didn’t this place used to be call something else?”

“Miss Rarity changed it from Rarity For You to create a unified brand across Equestria,” she nods with a smile. “And even if you’re not going to be here for Fashion Week, there’s still plenty of fantastic options here right now. If you need anything, my name is Coco Pommel and I can assist with whatever you need.” She looks over her shoulder, then sighs. “Now if you’ll excuse me, Plaid Stripes is trying to make some...well, just come find me if you need me.”

Once the mare leaves, Snowy goes back to admiring the scarf around her neck. “We should’ve brought money,” she proclaims before looking at the price tag. “Scratch that. We most definitely should not have brought money.” She levitates the scarf back onto the rack she got it from and quickly jumps to the next item she can see, this time a giant sun hat.

“So what’s so fun about this?” I ask her as she’s tilting the hat, seemingly trying to find the best look for it.

She waves her hoof towards the other clothes displays, still adjusting the hat with her magic. “Go search the rest of the store, and find something that looks good on you!”

She doesn’t seem to be very invested in helping me, so I guess it’s up to me to find something that looks good. Most of the actual clothes look like they’re for adult mares and not fillies like me, so accessories are the only thing I can look at. There’s a small case with jewelry proudly proclaiming it’s made by some mare I’ve never heard of in Los Pegasus, so I open it up and take a look inside. Not all of it looks bad, to be honest. One of the necklaces catches my eye, a silver symbol in some sort of spiral, question-mark hybrid shape wrapping around a clear blue gemstone.

“That one’s my favorite,” a mare with an orange coat and dull purple mane says. When I look up, I can see that she’s not all that much older than I am. Recently-cleaned braces are filling her smile, making it almost as shiny as the necklace I’m looking at.

“Really?” I ask.

“Yup!” She puts the necklace on and starts modeling it for me.

“Plaid Stripes!” Coco Pommel yells from across the shop. “What did I tell you about wearing the merchandise?”

In the blink of an eye, Plaid Stripes takes the necklace off and puts it on me. “Just showing some jewelry to a customer!” Before I can even respond, she’s run off and is making herself look busy at a rack of dresses.

“So you’re a jewelry filly, then?” Dew Drop asks from behind me.

“What?” I look down at the necklace Plaid Stripes threw on me. “Oh. It is kind of nice, I guess. I was just looking at it and got involved with the mares that work here and ended up with it around my neck.”

“Looks good on you.” She points to it. “I think the color goes great with your coat and mane, and the design’s really nice. What do you think?”

“It actually does look kind of nice,” I admit.

“Brings out your eyes, too.” She points at my eyes, bringing her hoof a little too close them for my comfort. “Too bad we don’t have any money.”

“Guess we didn’t really think this shopping trip through,” I point out as I undo the necklace in my magic and put it back in the display case.

“You don’t need money to go clothes shopping,” she laughs. “Just coming in and looking around at what looks good is fun by itself. Take that necklace, for example. You said you liked it, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Don’t you feel a little happier after trying it on and liking it? Doesn’t it get you thinking about what else is out there, what could go with it and what else you could find that looks just as good as that did?”

“No, I just tried on a necklace and I liked it. And if I had the money I might have bought it so I’d always have it to look good in, so why would shopping without money be fun?”

“It’s the experience!” She scoffs. “I don’t know, maybe I just need to get you out more before you go back to Canterlot. I just pray you’re not like dad, who seems to be allergic to looking at things he hasn’t explicitly stated he wants to buy.”

“Is there anything else we can do?” I ask. “We can shop together in Coltlumbus if you really want to shop with me, but I want to do something we can both enjoy if we’re going to be spending most of the day doing it.”

“I know Manehattan as well as you,” she admits while putting her hat back on the rack she got it from. “Sure I know all the landmarks and everything, but I don’t know where anything is, or even where to start.”

“Dad said the central park’s near here, didn’t he? I hear there’s a lot to do there, and we won’t need any money to do most of it.”

After a few seconds of thinking, she nods. “The park sounds like a good idea. Plus, I have a few friends that would kill to go spend a day there, so I’d be able to make them super jealous.”

That’s an odd reason to want to go do something, but I don’t care because now we’re doing something I find interesting as well. The stallion from the College even said that there’s some sort of theater thing going on, so we might be able to see one of the shows. I don’t really know if I like going to see plays because I’ve never gone, but I suppose this is a good way to find out.

“Come on, let’s go!” she demands, grabbing me by the hoof and bringing me outside. Once we’re on the street, she lets go of my hoof and walks much slower than before, meaning I don’t have to sprint just to keep up with her again.

It takes us a while to get there, but mostly because Dew Drop got lost a few times and got lost despite claiming she knew exactly where she was going. I wanted to ask her how she knew where she was going in a city she’s literally never been to before, but then she’d get all stubborn, so I figured it was best to keep quiet.

The park is really weird, because it’s just so much nature in the middle of a big city. The park itself is a lot like home, which just does not fit in with the city. We walk a little further in, and pretty soon I just forget that we’re in Manehattan. Even the skyscrapers in the distance seem like they belong in this wide open field. There are ponies and even a few non-ponies all throughout the park, having picnics or playing sports or some sort of outdoor activity, which just sets us apart from the city even more. It’s not just ponies in fancy clothes rushing around, always looking like they’re late to something.

There are some big wooden stands near one of the lakes, so I tap Dew Drop and point towards them. “I think that’s where one of the plays is going on.”

“No time to waste, then,” she says before rushing off to go get some seats. She must be really excited to be here, because she never runs around this much when we’re home.

When I get up next to her, she takes a copy of the program that’s just on a small table for anypony to take and goes far up the mostly-empty stands and sits down. I take a program as well and join her, then sit down and start looking this program over.

We’re watching Death of a Salespony, and it claims the entire cast also performs this on Bridleway. I’ve never heard of the play or any of the actors in it, but it must be popular of they’re performing it on Bridleway.

I don’t totally understand what they’re talking about right now, so I decide to go through the program a little and see if it explains what’s going on. It gives a little bit of background on the setting which explains why all the actors are dressed like they lived a hundred years ago, but not much about what’s actually going on. The last few pages are all about interpretations and what the director thinks the play means, which just confuses me. It’s just a story, right? It doesn’t have to really mean anything. And even if it did, why wouldn’t they just go ask the author what it was about?

I’ve pretty much finished reading through this, so I set it aside and just try and watch the play. I’m watching a play in the park in Manehattan performed by actors who are normally on Bridleway, and I’m with my sister who I’ve hardly ever gotten to spend time with. I should enjoy this while it lasts, before I have to back to Canterlot.

Comments

[Snowfyre]

“Oh,” Snowy replies, the excitement rushing out of her. 

“So you’re a jewelry filly, then?” Snowy asks from behind me.

I suspect you meant Dew Drop