Perchance to Dream

by David Silver

7 - I Am not a Dream

While Twilight looked like she was ready to compare notes, I was feeling far less chatty. "Put me back," I said in a dead tone that I'd never heard myself use before. It felt as dead as I felt in my chest. Nothing was right.

Luna tilted her head. "From what you--"

I picked up a little container of ink I saw on the desk and hurled it at Luna with my magic. It bounced off her shocked face as ink flew everywhere, splattering her already dark fur. It struck the ground with a little metal noise before it came to a rest. The room was silent.

Twilight blinked softly. "Are you... alright?"

"No!" I wheeled on her. "I'm very far from alright! I want my life back, right now. Send. Me. Back."

Luna's horn glowed as she began clearing away the ink. "All evidence points towards your human--"

"No." I clopped a hoof. "Bring me one of those books right now."

Twilight grabbed a book with her magic and pulled it over. "No throwing, alright?"

"No throwing," I accepted, then took the book with my own magic and unfolded it. I stared hard at the first page, reading it purposefully, or I would have, if any of the letters made sense. The more I focused, the less sense it made. It was words, I knew that much. It was just like the front of my house.

"I have a new theory." I sat up, a new calm descending on me. "Either both worlds are a dream and I'm in a coma somewhere, or neither are. "Put me back now." I felt calm. It was an unnatural calm. I was losing it, and I could feel it, and didn't care.

Twilight shook her head. "I don't know how to do that. The only things we have capable of petrification are wild cockatrices, and the Elements of Harmony, and we don't have that, and it only works on bad ponies, which you are not, from what I've been told. Besides that, even if we did do that, there wouldn't be any guarantee you would transition to... wherever you were."

Luna gave an uncertain smile. "We're getting off-topic. Why do you suggest that? I can say with reasonable certainty that this world is no dream."

I gave her a glare. "What makes you the expert?"

Twilight coughed softly, but it was Luna who spoke, "I am the princess of the night, and dreams are my domain. I regularly patrol them for the sake of my people. I would say that give me some credence towards knowledge on the matter."

"Oh." I frowned at her. "Alright, great. Then you tell me, Miss Expert, why can't I read this?" I pointed at the book accusingly. "I bet if I specifically try, I won't be able to read anything, anywhere."

Twilight raised a hoof. "Maybe our written languages are different?"

"No." I shook my head. "It's not 'alien', it's nonsense jumbles that change if I so much as glance away. The numbers on my house did the same thing. I know they're writing, but I can't read them."

Luna frowned softly. "Perhaps you are injured?"

I grunted with building frustration. "My entire life is injured!" I took a shaking breath. Lashing out at them wasn't helping anyone. "Look, please... My life wasn't a dream. I know it wasn't. Please accept that."

Luna was still a moment before she nodded. "Very well. As hard as it is to hear the words of a scared mare issuing from the snout of a departed friend. I accept this, for your sake. You deserve to not have your world denied."

Twilight smiled suddenly. "Can you tell me about your world?"

I blinked at her. Why was she so happy? "Wait, didn't you say something about a 'human world' before? You already know about it?"

"Bits and pieces." Twilight wobbled a hoof. "I've only visited a few times, and never for very long. I will say that the human world is no dream." She glanced at Luna and back at me. "Can you tell me about yourself, as a human?"

She believed me. I felt tension melt from me. I think I liked that purple pony. I began to describe the job I had as the grease between the wheels. I got all the red tape out of the way to make projects move forward, and I was good at my job, or so I thought. I worked out contracts, investigated local laws, and followed all relevant news to keep us on track. It was hard work, but work I enjoyed. I had several great coworkers, some of them even good friends. I described how one came by my house in the middle of all this just to wish me a happy holidays and give me a little gift. It had been so nice of him.

"He does sound like a nice pony." I blinked at Twilight at that wording and she chuckled nervously. "Person! Person, sorry. So, you, you're named Linda, right?"

I could see Luna tense, but I nodded at Twilight. "Right. Linda F--"

The world fractured. I could hear a knocking on a door. I could feel my pony body stiffen unnaturally. I was caught between worlds, and it sucked a lot. I couldn't really move either body. I could hear Twilight say something in alarm. I could feel magic on me. I could hear that knocking getting louder.

With effort, I raised my hand and my hoof at once. I said... something. I couldn't tell what it was. I was slowly standing up. Twilight said something. Luna said something. That knocking wouldn't stop!

I was standing. I could see the front door. I struggled to it, each step slow and painfully disjointed. Human bodies and pony bodies do not move the same way, let me tell you.

My hand settled on the knob. My pony hoof met no such thing.

Suddenly it was clear again. I was a human woman holding a doorknob. The pony world fell away.

Heaving loudly for breath, I wrenched the door open almost angrily.

A police officer stood there, blinking at me. "Is everything alright, ma'am?"

Of all the people, I did not expect that. "Rough holidays," I muttered, glad I could understand him, and speak. "What's up?"

He gave a little smile. "Your friend's been trying to reach you and thought you might be hurt."

Suddenly poking his head out from behind the policeman was Kevin, the friend that had brought me the gift. He looked quite relieved. "Linda! Sorry for calling the cavalry. I didn't know what else to do."

The policeman tipped his hat. "And here he is. I trust you know him?"

I smiled. "Kevin..." I had forgotten his name to whatever madness this whole thing had infected me with. "Please, come in. I'm alright, officer, thank you."

Sticking around long enough to peer around and see nothing looked smashed, or maybe sniffing for drugs, the policeman did eventually retreat, leaving me with my friend.

"Linda, I tried calling you, no answer, and I knocked, nothing. I had a terrible feeling. Like..." He was fidgeting and looking nervous. "Jesus, listen to me. You're probably fine."

I had to laugh at that. "N-no... A lot of things, not fine. Thank you." I hugged him tight. "What's my last name?"

He started with surprise. "Is this a test? You are Linda Frohein, a name I always thought was cool. You're an amazing part of my team, and I respect you, as a person, and a professional." He glanced and saw the cat book. "Hey, did you like it?"

I let him go from my frantic grip. "That gift was one of the nicer things I got this weekend. Look..." It was time to do some fact checking. "Look, I'm going to ask some questions that sound crazy and stupid, but, please--"

"Hey, it's alright." He led me towards the chair that rested at the counter between the kitchen and the living room. "Look, you're obviously way frazzled. I'm not here to judge, honest. I mean who am I to talk? At my coworker's house on Christmas, stalking her a little creepily." He gave a nervous little laugh. "So, go ahead."

"R-right..." I took a moment to just breathe, and he went off to start making some hot cocoa. By the time he returned, I felt ready to ask the first question. "Were we just fired or not?"

"W-what?" He gave me the cup and pulled out his phone. I could see him pulling up his email. "Huh, if we are, this is the strangest termination letter I ever got." He turned it so I could see, but it was all gibberish to me. I couldn't relax and 'let' the words be words. I was still in a dreaming state of some kind.

"What does it say?"

He looked baffled. "Are you alright?" I gave him a look. "Right right, forget I asked. It basically goes on about a great year. The client's given the final approval and I, at least, got a big fat bonus. I can't imagine you didn't too. What do you mean fired?"

I didn't know what to believe anymore. But Kevin was there. Blessed Kevin. At least there was one bit of stability. "Could you go check on my computer?" I pointed to the machine that I didn't dare approach that moment. I sipped at the hot chocolate and felt warmth spread through me. I hadn't had that particular treat in some time, and it brought a little smile to my face.

Kevin tro--jogged over to the computer, waggled the mouse, and got my email up in a snap. "Oh, you were just reading it? Same as mine, ya know, minus the name. Heh, figures they'd send a congratulations as a form-letter." He tapped the screen. "They gave you more of a bonus than me, pfft, figures."

My life hadn't fallen apart? Maybe... I could wait to try calling my father again. "Would you like to hang out?"

"Hmm?"

"For Christmas, you know, as friends." I gave a bit of a smile. "I don't want to be alone right now."

He gave a laugh that had a little bitterness in it. "I can feel that. Why do you think I came over?" He saw my remote and snatched it. "Got Netfix?" As it turned out, I did, and soon we were enjoying some Christmas specials.

I was still confused about so many things, but I felt better. Kevin wasn't a lie, and I wasn't either. I'd get through this, somehow.

Author's Note:

Things get real? Maybe.

Support me on atreon!

Join my discord to chat!

Comments

[Lt Rainbow Slash]

I am so fucking confused right now! What's real!?

[Master of Shadows]

7825758 When everything's real, Nothing is.

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, this is perplexing. Linda didn't even know if she had a Netflix subscription until she checked. Something is definitely wrong here. I'm just not sure what it is. That coma hypothesis may not be far off the mark...

Regardless, the typos are definitely real:

"Either both worlds are a dream and I'm in a coma somewhere, or neither are. "Put me back now."

Extra quotation mark.

I had forgotten his name to whatever madness

Idiomatic usage issue. "Forget to" refers to the forgotten information, not what caused one to forget it. You want "because of" here.

[Valhuir]

7826130 Actually, the "forgotten to" construction can work, too. It's an archaic construction, and a little out of character for her, and related to a construction like "I lost my friend to a 500 lb bomb in the war".

[Daremo]

moment to judge breathe - moment to just breathe

hot cacao - hot cocoa

---

I think Linda is tumbling farther down the rabbit hole, rather than finding a stable refuge.

Occam's razor would lead me to postulate that both her life on Earth and Equestria are dreams as both have aspects of dreams and characters that are acting oddly, based upon my own admittedly meta observations.

If both are a dream, where is the waking world?

It feels suspicious that things go well when Kevin is present, even if that is contradictory to prior events. If someone or something we're trying to learn all about an individual, how she reacts to unusual situations, whether she like girls or boys, how she responds to stress, etc, an enforced dream state could be the way to do it safely. Such an entity might want to be close to actively steer her toward a desired result, taking the role of a friend in her time of need for example. Kevin and Princess Twilight would be perfect roles to assume if this were the case.

I've never seen 'Inception' or 'Dreamscape' so if there are parallels to be drawn they are beyond me.

Still, Linda was on the proper, though a bit reckless, track with her near suicidal test with the knife. A simple, hard pinch, will do as a test. I have my own tests and tell to check of I'm dreaming on the occasions when my dreams slip into lucidity.

Is it strange that True Shot has been silent through all this?

[FanOfMostEverything]

7826198
Huh. Didn't know that worked with forget. Neat.

[David Silver]

7826852 All fixed, but what about Linda? Both are dreams? Well, she's certainly dreaming both, but that doesn't make them less or more real. Perhaps on a personal basis. It's hard to accept the validity of anything once you know you're dreaming. She has to snap out of this, somehow.

[kris664]

Not like kimi no na wa

[David Silver]

7861868 For the better or worse?

[Snow]

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy....

[Mist_Chaser]

8050093
Caught in a landslide and escaped from reality.
(I know thats not the actual lyrics.)

[Teraunce]

The world fractured. I could hear a knocking on a door. I could feel my pony body stiffen unnaturally. I was caught between worlds, and it sucked a lot. I couldn't really move either body. I could hear Twilight say something in alarm. I could feel magic on me. I could hear that knocking getting louder.

That isn't good.

[Elderlichlord]

8277183
Open your eyes, look up to the skies and seeeeeee!