Dreamstrider

by OkemosBrony

Chapter 35

Grabbing my hot chocolate out from my magic, I wrap my hooves around the warm cup to try and keep them from going numb in this brutal Canterlot cold. When Dew Drop was in college I at least got to spend time with her if we were waiting for mom and dad at the train station, but sadly, she’s graduated and left me here in Canterlot. But she does live in Taillahassee now, so I guess I can go escape to the warmth if I ever want to. Not that I have, but the option’s open I guess.

I look up at the board of arrivals and see that the train from Coltlumbus has now been updated to arriving, to I clench my cup even harder out of excitement. This weekend is going to be so much fun! Even though they’re coming up to go to the hoofball game tomorrow which I admittedly know nothing about, it’ll be nice to spend some time with mom and dad now that I’m older and we can actually do stuff we all enjoy. Or at least, I think I’ll be able to enjoy it. Regardless, they haven’t ever really had much time to come up here and do a whole lot of stuff with me in the time I’ve been in Canterlot, so just doing anything is fine with me.

A few minutes pass, and then I can hear the train’s whistle before seeing it come around the bend and pull onto the platform. Instinctively, I get up and walk a little closer to the train, even though I have no idea what car they’re in and sitting on the bench is probably smarter so they can see me. It won’t matter much anyways, this is the first train of the day, which means it just stopped at all the small towns in Equestria and then went into Canterlot. There’s hardly going to be a hoofful of ponies on this train, everypony from Fillydelphia or Manehattan is going to come in later.

Right as the doors open, I can see mom and dad standing there and talking to each other, seemingly not even noticing me. As soon as they look up, however, mom gets a little startled while dad just smiles.

“Didn’t expect you to be right there!” mom laughs before walking up to me and hugging me. “How’ve you been, sweetheart?”

“Same old,” I respond while putting out a hoof to get dad in the hug. “How are you two?”

“Got some good news,” dad winks before pulling out an envelope in his magic. “We were asked to hoof-deliver this to you.”

“Hoof deliver a letter?” I ask, breaking the hug off and grabbing it in my own magic. “Who from?”

“Think you’ll find out inside,” mom says with her ‘barely concealing a smile’ look. “Go on, open it!”

The front of the envelope just has Miss Aurora Borealis written in very intricate and beautiful cursive, but no address or indication of who it’s from. Only one way to find out, I guess. I open it up and pull the letter out, instantly recognizing it as Snowy’s hoofwriting because she always had the best penmanship of all of us.

Aurora,

I can’t believe I’m writing this, but Jure proposed to me: we’re going to be getting married! We don’t have a date set just yet, but I just wanted you to tell that you and Dew Drop are going to be two of my bridesmaids! I love both of you so much with all of my heart, and I can’t think of two mares I’d rather have by my side on the happiest day of my life than my two little sisters. Again, we don’t have a date set yet, but I’ll be telling you as soon as we know.

Love,

Snowy

P.S. I know I’ve said this hundreds of times before, but we do really hope to get out to Canterlot to visit you sometime!

“Can tell you’re excited,” dad remarks as I finish reading the letter.

“What?” As soon as I speak up, I notice that there’s now a pretty sizeable smile on my face. “Oh. I’m just excited for her, I guess. First one of us to get married, which I guess isn’t surprising since she’s not only the oldest, but was also the only one of us with a boyfriend. Been seeing him for five years too, guess it was just a matter of time. Bet you two are excited, huh?”

“I remember when I first found out I was pregnant with her,” mom coos as she looks over at dad. “Remember how I sent you to the drug store to pick up the test because I felt so sick, I could hardly get off that ratty old couch we had in our apartment?”

“I do remember being sent out for saltines and ginger ale a lot during that pregnancy. Good thing it was the first pregnancy you were the sickest for, was much easier to manage when it was just the two of us.”

“Our little filly, all grown up and getting married,” mom says as she parts a few loose hairs out of my face. “Our other two still have a few more years, I think. You can’t grow up too much more now, you hear? You’re the baby, and even you’re living in Canterlot and have been at the castle for eight years now!”

“I’ll try,” I promise, “but I think getting older is out of my control.”

“Well, let’s get going to our hotel,” dad interrupts in his typical way when he wants us to get moving. “You packed everything you’re going to need, right Aurora?”

“Including some clothes for tomorrow,” I laugh as I look down at my green and gold sweatshirt. “I was always the first pony Dew Drop went to when she went through her closet after a shopping spree. Which, as you can imagine, was pretty often.”

“I hate to admit it, but you look good in it,” mom compliments as she starts walking away from the train. “I suppose if your team’s never going to win, you have to settle for good-looking clothes. But even that they don’t do as well as us.”

“Mom’s a little competitive when it comes to hoofball,” dad whispers as he walks up to me. “You should have seen her at the game our junior year against the Celestial Sea University, almost got us thrown out of the stadium! I was certain I was going to walk out of there with a broken nose because she chose the biggest, meanest stallion to pick a fight with. Mom’s not that big, I thought he was going to snap her in half!”

“You say something?” mom asks, seemingly oblivious to our conversation.

“Just talking with Aurora,” he winks at me before we start following her out. Mom getting in a huge fight and almost getting thrown out of a stadium? That’s hard to imagine, I guess they were both really different ponies when they were in school. Being at a game might have something to do with it, too. I never went to a game, but Dew Drop always told me that hoofball could bring out the worst in ponies.

Because I think we’re all pretty tired given how early it is, we walk through the rest of Canterlot Station in silence. The sun’s just barely poking over the horizon once we step outside, bathing Canterlot in a warm red glow. It would be really pretty outside if it wasn’t so cold. I’ve been here for eight years, and I still don’t think I’ll ever get used to just how cold it gets up here in the mountains during the winter.

“So how was the train ride in?” I ask them once we’re walking towards the hotel, a cloud of fog coming out of my mouth with every breath.

“Slept almost the entire trip,” mom responds. “Good thing dad can never fall asleep on the train, because he in charge of waking me up when we got close. Never been a fan of those early morning train rides, but they’re just so much better than later in the day when everypony from the cities is on those. What about you, are your studies going well?”

“Starting to move into some studies of my own,” I smile. “Pretty much finishing up everything other Dreamstriders have written on demons, so then it’ll be my responsibility to write the next things that future Dreamstriders will look to for knowledge.”

“When I was sixteen,” mom laughs, “I was worrying about getting smoothies with my friends after school got out. You always have been mature beyond your years, Aurora.”

“Thanks,” I mumble through some blushing I’m trying to conceal. How do I even respond to that? I guess it’s kind of true looking back to when I was in school, but I probably owe that to having much older sisters who I always tried to act like because I admittedly used to think they were so cool and mature.

“What kinds of studies are you doing on your own?” dad asks.

“I’d probably just bore you,” I dismiss. It always gets weird talking about Dreamstriding around my family because they get so fascinated by it, and I’ve never really liked being the center of attention the way I am when I talk about my work.

“It’s always interesting to hear what it is you’re doing,” mom adds in. “It’s not something we can really read about elsewhere, so we like to hear about everything it is that the Dreamstriders are doing.”

“Well, I’m starting to think about how I could look into what demons and the dream world are. Only a hoofful of ponies at any given time can go into the dream world, and while it’s been known for thousands of years that we’re special, nopony knows why or how. And not only are we the only ones who can enter the dream world, but we’re the only ones that can physically understand the demon language. Non-Dreamstriders have tried to understand it, both spoken and written, and there’s just something about it that they cannot grasp. I can write something in demon and give it to somepony else, and even if they’re looking right at it, they can never reproduce what I’ve written. And if I tell them what each word in a sentence means, if I show it to them in a different sentence or by itself, they can’t understand it.”

“I have no idea where you got your magical know-how from,” she laughs. “Neither of us were really that great with magic. We both know the basics, but much else and you lose at least me. And it’s not like your sisters are much better than us, so we must’ve had some important wizard somewhere, and all their knowledge just waited to come out in you.”

“It’s not really that hard,” I respond, now really feeling like my face is turning red. “I’ve just spent a lot of time studying it. Snowy and Dew Drop just haven’t studied it a lot, because where would you in Coltlumbus? What few unicorns there are there just know the basics, so it’s not like they had anypony to learn from. I, on the other hoof, had an over-thousand-years-old princess and the best magic academy in Equestria. Just a matter of opportunity.”

“Just being modest,” dad smiles as he puts a hoof around me and rubs my back. “We’re very proud of you and just think you’re doing very well with yourself. I don’t think either of us could have ever expected we’d have such an accomplished Dreamstrider as a daughter, mostly because...well, neither of us had ever heard of them until we found out you were one.”

“And I guess this is one thing I know I’ll be the best of your foals at, since I’m the only one. Will always have that over them.”

“You don’t get that from me,” mom sighs as we walk up to a nice-looking hotel not too far from where I know Canterlot University is. “At least you don’t make everything into a competition like a certain father of yours does.”

“Somepony’s just mad she keeps losing,” he teases her as he uses his magic to open the door for us. Mom groans as she walks inside, then gets in line to check in at the front desk. I take a few steps towards her, but when I realize that dad’s gone to sit on one of the couches in the lobby, I decide to instead go sit with him as opposed to just wait in line.

“We got a room with a queen-sized bed,” dad informs me as I sit down next to him. “I think they said the couch is a pullout, though, so you’ll have somewhere hopefully cozy to sleep. We looked into getting a room with two full beds, but they were all booked pretty much throughout this area of the city because of the game.”

“How big of a deal can one game be?” I ask. “I know Dew Drop and you guys have talked about how the Canterlot University and University of Equestria Canterlot game is a big deal, but not even the Summer Sun Celebration causes that many ponies to come into town.”

“Over a hundred thousand attend every year,” he winks. “And it’s listened to on the radio by ponies all around Equestria, so it’s a bit of a big deal. We’re just excited to go, because we haven’t been back for a game since we graduated. And we hope you’re excited to attend your first-ever hoofball game!”

“As much as I can be without knowing anything about the sport, I suppose. You’re not going to get me one of those cheesy little certificates they give little foals for their first ever games, right?”

“Only if you want one. And if you don’t want to feel silly, I’ll go get one with you.”

“You’ve been to tons of games,” I point out.

“They don’t know that,” he replies slyly. “Could even try and see what other lies I can say to them before they catch on. Perhaps they’d believe we’re superheroes who can be invisible, but only if nopony is looking at where we currently are?”

“I doubt that one,” I giggle.

“Or perhaps we’re a Prince and Princess of Equestria?” he wonders. “Could probably get pretty far with that, actually, since you know Princess Celestia and Princess Luna fairly well. What would they do, go check our pedigree?”

“And what would we get out of it? A pony who thinks they met royalty when they really just met two regular ponies?”

“A good story, maybe some fun,” he shrugs. “Just make things a little more exciting, you know?”

“And what would mom say once you walk back to our seats with one of those certificates and ask why you have one?”

“Think she’d buy it if we said we were royalty?”

“I doubt it,” I shake my head.

“What about just you? You’re close to Princess Luna, who’s to say she hasn’t given you a title yet?”

“I think mom would know if I was a Princess,” I point out.

“Not if you don’t tell her,” he defends.

I sigh and shake my head, and I swear I can almost hear him laughing. When I look over, I can see that he is indeed smiling at me. “What?”

“Mom and Snowy do that to me all the time,” he smiles. “Looks like finding all my dad humor annoying definitely runs in the family.”

“Well, I’m going to need some tea if this dad humor is going to continue. Want me to get you anything while I’m up?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” he says with a wave of his hoof. “I’ll just be here when you get back, it doesn’t look like mom’s going to be done anytime soon.”

With a nod of recognition, I get up off the couch and stretch a little bit before going into the hotel’s breakfast area and browsing their tea selection. I’ll have to admit that I know almost nothing about tea for regular ponies now, especially not anything about drinking tea for caffeine and to stay awake. So, I just grab a packet labeled as ‘breakfast blend’ and start brewing it.

As it’s going, I just look out over the hotel and survey the lobby. Almost everypony in here is wearing some sort of blue and silver for Canterlot University, with the odd pony here and there such as myself wearing green and gold.

To say the least, this game is going to be interesting. Maybe I’ll be able to figure out what it is ponies seem to like so much about rooting for one school over another.