Dreamstrider

by OkemosBrony

Chapter 9

“The train will be stopping in Coltlumbus in five minutes,” the crackly loudspeaker announces, waking me up. I guess I wasn’t really asleep, but just was taking a quick nap. I had to wake up really early to get going today, and I didn’t sleep well last night because I was so excited about Dreamstriding! Everything about it was just so cool, and I’m just so upset I won’t be able to do it until I get back to Canterlot.

I stretch a little as I open my eyes, just now realizing that these seats are not comfortable at all. My back hurts, and my butt is sore from having to sit for such a long time on the hard wooden seat.

The stewardess starts going down the aisle with a drink cart and asking ponies what they want, so not many must be getting off here. I know that they usually don’t serve drinks in the last few minutes before a stop, but I’ve only ever been to big cities before, like Fillydelphia when we’re visiting mom’s family and Applewood for dad’s.

Even though it’s cold, I lean my head against the window and look out. I’m starting to recognize a few things like the corn farm and the path down to the lake, so we’re pretty close. I pull my bags closer to me and smile; I’m almost home! I’ll be able to see everypony again!

Soon, the train comes to a full stop and I can see almost of all of downtown, including the Rich’s arnyard argains. The B’s kept getting stolen for whatever reason, and eventually, the owners just gave up on replacing them. Most of the market stalls have moved inside for the winter, but a couple of them, like Cross Stitch and her winter scarf business, are still outside in the cold.

I put on my bags and try to get off, but almost hit the drink cart in the process. Nopony else has stood up, so I guess I’m the only pony getting off here. I can’t see the platform from the side I’m on, but I can’t imagine many ponies are getting on, either. We’re pretty much the only ponies in town with family that's not in the area, so nopony else would have a reason to travel for the holidays.

The conductor opens the door for me when I get to the door, and a strong blast of cold wind hits me straight in the face. Turning my head a little to the side to try and not take it head-on, I brave the cold and step onto the platform.

“Hey, Aurora,” I can hear mom’s voice say right in front of me. Turning my head back, I can see her looking down at me, smiling. Her nose and cheeks are a soft red, but she doesn't seem to notice.

I just go in for a hug, not even bothering to say anything. Her body’s a little cold, but it’s okay. I’m a little caught off guard when she wraps her cold hooves around me, but it’s all okay. I’m going to be cold anyways, may as well do it while hugging her.

“I missed you a lot,” she says, her voice heavy but still really happy.

“I missed you, too.” I can’t help but break out in a tiny smile.

“Think that’s your bag there?” she laughs, taking one of her hooves off me. A single bag is standing on the platform where she's pointing, and it doesn’t look like the conductor is doing much else. Guess finding my luggage will be easy?

She stops the hug and walks to the bag, taking it in her magic. “You must be tired if you’re getting in this early,” she says while we’re walking to the end of the platform.

We walk onto the ground, and a cold shock goes through my body as my hooves touch the frozen ground. “Yeah, I had to get up early.” Smiling, I look up at her. “And I was able to Dreamstride last night!”

“That’s amazing!” she beams. “Was it a lot of fun? Get to jump around everypony’s dreams?”

“It wasn’t quite like that. Like…” I pause, thinking of how to best explain it to her. “Like, there’s this different world, and that’s what I entered.”

“A whole new world?” she repeats. “You’ll have to tell me all about it!” Suddenly, she points at one of the stalls in the market square. “By the way, let’s get some hot chocolate! It’ll be a special little treat for the walk home to celebrate you coming back.”

We go to Lemon Sorbet’s hot chocolate cart and get some, which is really nice because I always beg mom for some when I’m running errands with her and she almost never says yes. Dad’s a little more willing to buy me some, but even then he rarely says yes.

Once I take a sip of my drink, I can feel my cheeks and nose start to warm up. “How’s everypony been doing since I left?”

“We miss you, but otherwise we’re doing well.” She takes a sip of her own hot chocolate. “Snowy’s starting to hear back from some of the schools she applied to, and of course she’s gotten into all of them. We all knew she would.”

“Is she maybe going to go to school in Canterlot?” I really hope she will, because then I’d have somepony close to me. That would be really nice.

“She got in to Canterlot University and the University of Equestria at Canterlot, but she didn’t seem very interested in either. She sounds the most excited about Manehattan College, though we’re trying to get her to keep her options open. There are a few places and scholarships she’s still yet to hear from, and we don’t want her rushing into something when maybe somewhere else will be the best choice.” She laughs a little. “We’d love for her to go to Canterlot University since that’s where dad and I both went and we loved it, but we understand it’s not for everypony and will support her whichever she chooses.”

I’m a little surprised mom and dad have to try and keep her from deciding, because Snowy was always the most patient of me and my sisters. But I guess that was because she’s the oldest, and it sounds like college is really exciting. I probably won’t go since I can’t learn my special talent there, so I won’t have to go through everything my sisters have to. I can’t help but smile a little at that; over the summer, mom and dad were really bugging Snowy to start thinking about schools, and she really didn’t want to have anything to do with that. Any time mom and dad aren’t constantly bugging me about something is a good time.

The rest of the way home, she asks me all about Canterlot, though seems mostly interested in Dreamstriding. I’m not great at describing things, but she seems to kind of get the idea behind what I’m talking about. I know I shouldn’t, but I laugh a little when she gets all worried once I start talking about demons. Even though I explain to her that they’re not all evil, she still seems a little worried. Which I can understand; I was able to meet one, and that helped me because I could see that they really weren’t all evil.

Before I even know it, we’re turning down our street. It feels so weird, because it wasn’t that long a walk from the train station to here. Maybe five minutes, and that’s about how long it took me to walk to school back in Canterlot. This town seems a lot smaller after living in such a big city.

“Home sweet home,” mom says as she steps onto our porch and unlocks the door. As we walk in, an indescribable smell hits me that just makes me grin as widely as I possibly can. I don’t know what is causing the smell, but it just smells like home.

“Snowy and Dew Drop are at school and dad’s at work,” she says while putting her hot chocolate on the table. “So it’s just us for now.”

I walk in, and it seems I was right; mom has put up all the decorations already. Our tree is up and has all the ornaments and lights on it, and a few presents are starting to collect under it. There’s a fire in the fireplace, so it just feels really cozy.

“Come on, let’s go put your stuff back in your room.” I look back over to mom, and she’s standing next to the stairs with my suitcase. When I go up, she follows me into my room.

“Kind of weird being back here,” I say while taking my saddlebags off my back.

“Hopefully it still feels like home,” she smiles, putting my suitcase on the bed and opening it.

It does, but it’s still weird. It’s always hard whenever I think about being away from home, but Canterlot is feeling more and more like a home now. Which is also a little sad, because that’s not where my parents or sisters live. I never really realized how much I missed everypony until I left.

“So how did the last little bit of school go?” she asks, opening my suitcase up.

I quickly look in my bags so she can’t see me blushing. “It went well.” I don’t know why, but I don’t really want to tell her about Dusty yet. If I tell her, I know she’ll start acting really weird and asking me all sorts of questions about him, and I don’t really want her to be like that over break.

---

“Aurora?” dad asks while knocking at my door.

The knocking startles me, breaking my concentration and causing the pillows that I was levitating to fall to the ground. I don’t really know what this exercise was supposed to do, but Luna had it in her little book of magical training, so I have to do it anyways.

“Yeah?” I call back.

“Mom and I are just heading out to Mister Geranium and Miss Posy’s house,” he replies. “Your sisters are here if you need anything.”

“Alright, see you later.” As I can hear his hooves moving down the stairs and towards the door, I look around my room, which is a little bit of a mess. I haven’t even been here a day, and already a lot of my stuff isn’t where it should be. Oh well, I guess I can try and clean up tomorrow. And tomorrow, I’ll probably say that exact same thing. At least I know what to expect with me.

Come to think of it, I haven’t really talked with either Snowy or Dew Drop since coming back, and I don’t think they came up after dinner. That would be kind of fun to catch up with them. I have to push one of the pillows to the side to get to my door, but before I know it, I’m downstairs.

“Hey Aurora, come put your hoof here,” Snowy says almost right as my hooves step off the stairs.

When I walk up to the table, I can see she’s wrapping something wide and really flat. “Who’s this for?” I ask while putting my hoof where she’s pointing.

“It’s for mom, we got her The Magic Inside,” she says while tying a bow around my hoof.

“‘The Magic Inside’?”

“Yeah.” She just looks at me. “You know, the new Coloratura album?”

I continue to stare blankly at her. I have no idea what she’s talking about.

“She’s a really famous musician, and she’s really changed her style recently. Everypony’s just been raving about her new album, and mom’s been trying to get it but they can’t stock it fast enough.” Slyly, she picks up the now wrapped album and smiles. “Guess which two mares bought the last copy in town?”

“Us, in case you couldn’t guess,” Dew Drop proclaims from the couch, holding a hoof in the air.

“Yes, because nopony knew who I was talking about.” After slapping a To Mom, From The Kids sticker on it and levitating it under our tree, she looks down at me. “So how’s all the dream magic been going? They paying you to nap yet?”

“Hit me up with that job if they’ve got an opening,” Dew Drop calls again from the couch.

“Dew Drop, if you’re going to be in the conversation, at least come over here.”

I smile a little as she moans and walks slowly over to us. Nice to know not everything changes when I leave.

“It’s going well, was able to do it for the first time last night.” I look back up at Snowy. “Mom was telling me about you looking at schools.”

“Don’t remind me,” she moans, some disgust clear in her voice. “Can hardly get off them my back about it.”

“At least you’re not me, who’s going to have to live with them for two years all alone,” Dew Drops butts in.

“I had to do that, too!”

Dew Drop laughs, and I can’t help but laugh a little too. She always pulls out that excuse. “You were two when I was born,” she points out. “Those two years don’t count when you don’t remember them and your biggest priority was learning to use the potty.”

“I managed to avoid seven years of being alone with them,” I brag.

“Yeah, and consider yourself lucky for that,” Snowy says as she rolls her eyes.

“Maybe your life would be a lot easier if you actually did what they told you to?” Dew Drop suggests.

Shaking her head at our laughing, she mutters something under her breath that sounds a lot like when she calls us childish.

“Hey, can I ask you two about something?” I blurt out, not even realizing I did until the words are done coming out of my mouth.

“Yeah, what?” Snowy responds as they both turn their heads to me.

My heart’s racing now, to the point where it feels it might just jump right out of my chest right here. “What are you supposed to do if you like somepony?”

Snowy starts thinking about it, and Dew Drop’s jaw drops into a big smile. “You like somepony?” she nearly screams.

“Yes, and you don’t have to yell it so everypony can hear,” I hiss back.

“Oh.” She looks at the ceiling for a few seconds, then looks back to me. “Do you know how to play hard to get?”

“Wait, what?” Snowy asks, turning her head to her. “You’re suggesting that she play hard to get?”

“Yeah!” she confirms. “So?”

“Wait, do you play hard to get?”

She nods. “Why?

“...A lot of your breakups make so much more sense now that I know this about you.” She looks at me and shakes her hoof at Dew Drop. “No, don’t play hard to get. Then he won’t think you’re interested and will just give up trying.”

“Only if you do it poorly,” Dew Drop argues, shoving Snowy’s hoof down.

“And how many of your relationships got past two dates?” She just bites her lip as Snowy just smirks at her. “Thought so.”

“Doesn’t mean it can’t be done well!”

“But we’re giving her advice,” she says while pointing at me. “And do you really think somepony who’s never successfully played hard to get should give advice on successfully playing hard to get?”

“Fine,” she groans. “Does he like you back?”

I nod. “Yeah. We’re in a group together and did a project, just the two of us. He kissed me when we finished it.”

“Then he already likes you,” Snowy says, lovingly putting a hoof on my shoulder. “There’s nothing you need to do except be yourself. He clearly already likes you, and so if you act differently, he won’t like you anymore.”

“But like...do I tell him I like him? Do I wait for him to say he likes me?”

“You’ve kissed, so it sounds like you’ve already established that you like each other,” Dew Drop shrugs. “Just tell him you do and talk about what you two want to do from here on out.”

“Okay,” I reply softly, trying to take all their advice in. I just wish I could have told him how I felt before I left; now I have to wait all of break before I get to see him.