Dreamstrider

by OkemosBrony

Chapter 43

“You got your alarms set? Dew Drop whispers as she walks out of the bathroom and over to me.

I look over at the three alarm clocks on the nightstand next to me, all of them set to a minute after each other. “Yup,” I nod. “If my three and Snowy’s three doesn’t wake us up, it’s got to be some sort of omen.”

“Look at her,” she softly laughs, getting in the bed next to me. “She’s been so antsy and worked up these past few days, I think she just crashed. Her wedding’s early anyways, so good thing. Don’t want her passing out from exhaustion during her big day. Now scoot over, I’m half hanging over the edge here.”

I do so to the best of my ability, but now I’m almost falling off the bed. I look back at Dew Drop, and it doesn’t look like she’s much more in than I am. At the very least, we only have one more night of this. Tomorrow, mom and dad and Jure’s parents got them the honeymoon suite at one of the really nice hotels in the city, meaning Dew Drop and I finally get to have our own beds in this room. There was a few nights ago where we all drank a little too much and I stayed at their apartment, but I hardly remember that anymore, so it hardly counts. Didn’t sleep well, anyways.

“I know you can see in the dark,” she says as her horn lights up and flicks off our lamp, “so you won’t mind if I turn this off. I’m wiped too, and a mare needs her beauty sleep.”

“I’ve told you before, I can’t see in the dark. It’s just that my eyes are much better at using very little light than non-Dreamstriders. Think of it like your eyes adjusting when you turn out the lights, mine just do that much quicker and better.”

She yawns, then turns over. “Explain it to me later, I’m tired. Night.”

“Night,” I sigh as I place my book down on the ground. Nothing about Shooting Star or Baku tonight, not on this trip. Only fun reading. Well, I think the history of non-Equestrian Dreamstriders is fun. I’m apparently in the minority for that opinion, if the other Dreamstriders are any indication.

When I lay down and close my eyes, I can hear a faint snoring coming from Snowy. I can’t help but smile a little bit, because she already snores at her age and gets super defensive when anypony mentions it to her. I’ve almost gotten a little used to it over the past few days, and being such a heavy sleeper means the first few nights didn’t even bother me that much.

It occurs to me as I turn over and try to get comfortable that I haven’t done any Dreamstriding since I’ve gotten here. Suppose it wouldn’t hurt to go and do a quick scan, I know Luna does very brief flybys of the different cities in Equestria, but hooves on the ground would make the investigation a little better.

When I push into the dream world, I come out on one of the higher plateaus on the mountain Manehattan is on. As I walk to the edge and look down, I can see what’s probably hundreds of thousands of dreams all strewn about, nearly blanketing the ground in their gray mist. The moon and stars are nice and bright tonight, so I can see pretty far. There’s even a gentle breeze down below me, because some of the dark blue leaves are gently dancing in it.

“I always did think this mountain was beautiful,” a stallion’s voice says from behind me. I swear I’ve heard that voice before, but I can’t place my hoof on where.

I turn around, and sure enough, there’s a stallion with a pale pink coat and a pure white mane standing in front of me, a sly smile on his face. He’s no Dreamstrider I recognize, which means there’s only one of two possibilities here.

“I don’t believe I’ve introduced myself,” he proclaims as he walks up to the ledge and looks out over it. As I turn around to look out over it all with him, I catch a glimpse of his cutie mark: a few small, white stars in a circle around a bright blue one. “My name is Shooting Star. If the wards you’ve been placing on your dreams are any indication, I assume Princess Luna has informed you who I am?”

Without even saying anything, I just power up my horn with magic. Not anything specific, just magic so I can do whatever it is I might need to. As soon as I do so, though, he just shakes his head.

“I’ve no idea what you’re planning to do, but I promise you it would be a poor idea. We’re not here in the same way.”

“We’re not what?”

“Your body is in the awakened world,” he explains. “This is my body. To spare you details, you are trying to cast a spell through a world with less magic than there is here. It would be quite a feat for you to do anything of significance to me."

“How is your body here?” I ask as I just look him over and look for anything out of the ordinary. Honestly, there's absolutely nothing about him that looks any different than any stallion I'd pass on the street.

“Ask your Princess,” he spits, “for she’s the one that put me here.”

“You tried to kill them! She told me all about the demons you let into the Dreamstriders’ dreams, you should be lucky it was only banishment to the dream world.”

“Not false,” he shrugs, suddenly much calmer than he was before. “But not the full truth. I imagine she did not tell you much beyond such lies?”

“You wanted to rule over both the awakened world and the dream world,” I recall.

“And she likely painted me as a cruel despot, no?” He brings up a hoof and gestures to the landscape in front of us. “Look at all of this. Such a beautiful world, brimming with knowledge, but a dangerous one as well. You have to have been Dreamstriding for a good portion of your life now, so I ask you: how many malevolent demons have you killed? How many more exist beyond Equestria, outside of the barrier we created to keep them out? We have been blessed with one of the greatest gifts in this universe, Aurora, and yet we squander it running around and protecting ponies from sleeplessness and nightmares. How safe could we make them if we had the power to do what it is we need to? Some of the most important pillars of magical knowledge originated with Dreamstriders, imagine what we would be able to do if we were able to devote our full time to that and have nearly limitless resources at our hooves!”

“And we do that by trying to kill the other Dreamstriders and mutilating their families? I saw the village where the descendants of the original Dreamstriders live, they told me about what you did to them.”

“They refused to listen, just as Princess Luna did. At first they all ignored me, then they tried to silence me.”

“So you silenced all of them, innocent ponies included, just because they wouldn’t listen to you?”

“I silenced them to punish the head Dreamstrider for what he did,” he corrects. “I knew that the only thing he would want was forgiveness from the others, so I made them incapable of doing so.”

“You’re just…” I train off, not even knowing where to continue that though. “Evil. You would seriously hurt so many ponies so badly just to do something you want to do, even when they did absolutely nothing to you in return?”

“Stuck in your own beliefs,” he scoffs. “I see the Princess has learned nothing from our disagreements. Closed-mindedness and a refusal to see beyond what you are told are what destroyed the Dreamstriders a thousand years ago, not me.”

“You destroyed them,” I assert. “I know about Baku. Why would you be trying to free such a powerful malevolent demon if you weren’t trying to destroy us and rule with an iron hoof?”

“Do you believe Princess Celestia to be a benevolent ruler?” he asks out of the blue.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“Answer the question,” he commands. “Do you believe Princess Celestia to be a benevolent ruler?”

“Yeah,” I nod.

He laughs for a few seconds, then looks me straight in the eyes. “If she is a benevolent ruler, why does she maintain one of the most powerful standing armies in the world? Why is she constantly surrounded by ponies whose entire career revolves ending the lives of others as quickly and efficiently as possible? Why does she train a small number of unicorns in magic powerful enough to obliterate entire cities with a few carefully-crafted spells if she is a benevolent ruler?”

“That’s different!” I assert. “She’s not using it to take over, only in defense of innocent ponies.”

“And is eradicating the world of dangerous demons not defense of innocents? Is using magical knowledge to better our world not defense of innocents? No one climbs to the top of a mountain without using their muscles, and that is why I gather allies for my cause.” The intensity quickly fades from his face, and he is looking at me now not out of determination, but of pensiveness. “We need not fight each other, Aurora. We are both Dreamstriders, members of an organization perfectly positioned to improve the world but instead choosing to waste that opportunity. We could work together to create a better world, one where stopping nightmares and mindless patrols are moot points, unnecessary relics of a lost age. I would welcome you as my equal, should you choose it.”

“I’d never work with you,” I reply without hesitation. “Regardless of what you say you want, you’re willing to make anypony who stands in your way suffer. I can’t support that.”

“I had hoped this generation of Dreamstriders was able to think for themselves,” he sighs. “Unfortunately, it appears you’re just the same as my colleagues. A shame, really.”

“A shame we have empathy and a conscience?” I rephrase for him.

“You dislike me because I would hurt ponies. Would I hurt those who side with me? I am not a perpetrator of senseless violence, despite what you appear to think. I would not kick down an unlocked door, much as I would not harm any of those who agree with me.”

“All I hear is that you see the rest of as obstacles.” Silently, I shake my head. “Not intelligent ponies who have their own ideas and views, but roadblocks to what you want. I can either be with you or against you, in your eyes.”

“And yet you fail to realize your own hypocrisy in saying that,” he speaks, his voice much softer and less worked up than it has been. “I see where you stand. I gave you an opportunity and you rejected it, so do not expect to come back to me later and find a warm welcome.”

Before I can respond, he turns around and starts walking away from me. “I will see you again someday, although I do think it shall be less civil than our meeting today.”

“We know you’re planning to attack this time,” I remind him. “You won because you had the element of surprise, but without that, you don’t have anything.”

“We shall see!” he calls back as he begins walking down the mountain before disappearing in a teleportation spell.

I guess there’s not much else I can do tonight. Not like he told me where he was going or anything.

Suppose I just have to go to sleep and hope I can rest up for my sister’s wedding tomorrow.