//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Dreams // Story: Painted Horses // by Alaborn //------------------------------// Painted Horses By Alaborn Standard disclaimer: This is a not for profit fan work. My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is copyright Hasbro, Inc. I make no claim to any copyrighted material mentioned herein. Chapter 3: Dreams I sniffled as I landed belly-first in the cloud again. It was allergies, of course, because I was a big colt, and big colts don’t cry. I looked back at my wings. I wished they were bigger, but plenty of colts my age had wings like mine, and they could all fly. I climbed back onto the highest cloud in the park. I stretched my wings, recalling the lessons from the instructor at flight school. Wings held at a slight angle, muscles loose, full but gentle flaps. Become one with the air. I ran, flapping my wings, and jumped off the cloud. Two seconds later, I collided with the cloud below me. I didn’t fly at all. My allergies started bothering me again. “Don’t cry, little colt.” I looked up, brushing my brown mane from my eyes. A sky blue mare with a silver mane looked at me with kind eyes. “I’m not crying,” I protested. “Oh, I know how bad allergies can be for colts who are trying to fly,” the mare said. “Do you want any help?” “I shouldn’t need help. I’m doing everything right!” I sniffled again. “It’s not just how you use your wings, but how you use your magic,” the mare said. “You have to become one with the air.” “I know. That’s what the coach said. But all I’m doing is becoming one with the clouds!” “Let me show you how I learned,” she said. “You know the feeling in your hoof when you step on a cloud?” “Yeah?” “Focus on that feeling, then slowly lift your hoof away from the cloud. Do you feel it change?” I lifted my hoof. That cool tingling feeling faded as my hoof left the cloud. “Now try again, but this time, close your eyes and try to hold onto the cloud even though you’re moving away from it.” I did as she said, willing my hoof to stay connected to the cloud. I could feel I wasn’t physically in contact, but I could still sense the tingling of magic. “Keep your eyes closed and try shaping the cloud with that hoof. Nothing special, just make a divot in it.” I pictured digging a hole, like a pit trap on a cloudball field. I grunted; the connection was faint, but I willed the cloud to change. The mare clapped her hooves together. “You did it!” I opened my eyes. Sure enough, there was a small depression in the cloud, and I did it without physical contact. The mare rubbed my head. “Now, touch both your wings to the cloud, and then lift it up. Try to feel that same connection.” It felt weird to stick my wings in the cloud. The energy tickled, and I twitched my wings in response. “Close your eyes. Focus. Now lift slowly. Slower. Lift your wings all the way up. Do you still feel it?” I nodded. “Now let’s go to that higher cloud,” the mare said. I jumped up the cloud steps to my old nemesis, the high cloud. The park stretched out before me. The mare flew up and landed beside me. “This time, I want you to feel the cloud with your wings, but don’t start by touching the clouds. Can you feel it?” At first, I couldn’t. But I felt the cloud under my hooves, and searched for a similar feeling with my wings. Eventually, I found something. “I think I got it,” I said. “Very good. Now jump and fly!” I swallowed hard, spread my wings, and jumped. With the first flap, I felt that connection, and the air below my wings pushed me up at a steep angle. I turned my wings, flapped again, and found myself diving downward after overcorrecting. Six seconds after jumping off the cloud, I landed face-first on the cloud. But for four of those seconds, I was flying! The mare came down and patted my head. “I knew you could do it,” she said. “All you need is to understand your own magic.” I smiled. I would never forget the mare’s kindness. I awoke, not with a start, but naturally. The sun was just above the horizon, and I felt refreshed. The dream I had was fresh in my mind, and I thought how unusual it was. I had been a pony in my dreams before, but always as my pony form; never had I been another pony. I gathered that I was a pegasus pony, and a young colt at that. He wasn’t familiar to me, and the place I was, where the ground was made of clouds, was also unfamiliar. Jason was still asleep, snuggled up against Rose. She had her eyes closed, but her breathing suggested she was awake, and just enjoying the feeling of his warm embrace. I left the room quietly, looking to see who was awake. When I opened the door, I heard the shower running in the bathroom attached to the other bedroom. In the main room, Lightning Shield was still asleep, but two of the three Equestrian women were up and about. They had pushed the furniture to the side of the room, and were doing some kind of exercising. The redhead’s routine looked like a boxer sparring, and the brunette’s reminded me of martial arts. They did their exercises separately, but always with one eye on the other. From what I could see, they looked quite skilled, even in their new bodies, and both of them had toned muscles that put my own to shame. And I could see their muscles quite clearly, as neither woman was wearing a stitch of clothing. I averted my eyes. “Remember what I said about humans always wearing clothing?” “Wouldn’t that make them smell?” the redhead said. I think that was Sweetie Drops. “Yes, but still....” That would actually be a problem, if they came here with one change of clothes. If they couldn’t finish their job quickly, we might be looking at clothes shopping, and trying to buy clothes for people who had never worn human clothes would be a potential disaster. But there was something more pressing. “Did either of you have unusual dreams?” “No,” the brunette, Greta, said. “I did,” Sweetie Drops replied. “I’m pretty sure I was seeing things from Lyra’s perspective, but it was a story she had never told me. Minuette did too, and she wants to talk to all of us.” “She’s in the shower?” I asked. “Yeah,” Sweetie Drops said. “And it’s not like she was dirty or anything.” She huffed. “Unicorns.” “If you’re going to work out, you will definitely need a shower,” I said. “There’s probably a facility with exercise equipment in the hotel. If you want to test out your new bodies, that’s probably the best place to go. But first, let me talk to my friends about getting you clothes.” I retreated to my bedroom. Jason was just waking up, and Rose was now out of bed, looking out the window. “Hey, did either of you have dreams about being a different pony?” I asked. “We were just talking about that,” Jason said. “We did.” “Minuette wants to talk to all of us about that later. But right now, there are two nude Equestrians outside that door who need some exercise clothes.” After a bit of digging, we found some shorts and T-shirts that would make passable workout attire for the two women. The hotel’s fitness center was nothing special. It lacked weights or anything like that; it just had treadmills, exercise bikes, and elliptical trainers. Fortunately, we were the only ones there, so I could speak freely. “I guess the treadmill will be most helpful to you. You can use it to practicing running as a human. I don’t know how different it is from your normal gait; I never really figured out galloping. “I know how a treadmill works,” Sweetie Drops said. She jumped on one, and tried to move the belt. “It’s broken.” If I had to guess, she was envisioning some kind of manual treadmill. “It needs to be turned on,” I said. “A motor moves the treadmill, and you just have to keep pace.” I pressed a button; the treadmill started moving, at a very slow speed. “Weak,” Sweetie Drops said. “Press this button to increase the speed. As you increase the speed, you’ll start walking faster, and then you’ll start running.” I thought for a moment. “The difference is that, when you’re walking, you always have one foot on the ground. So give it a try. But until you get used to it, please hold on to these side bars.” Greta stood on the adjacent treadmill and looked at Sweetie Drops. She turned it on and started walking, and pointedly pressed the button to increase the speed. Sweetie Drops followed. I decided to use the exercise bike. I kept an eye on the two women, fully expecting their competition to end with one of them slipping off the treadmill and smacking into the wall. Greta leaned on me as we walked back to our room. She had one hand gripping my arm and was massaging her head with the other; there was a fresh scuff mark on her borrowed T-shirt. Sweetie Drops walked beside me, a smug look on her face. “At least we both know how fast we can run,” she said with a smirk. “I’m more impressed at your grip,” I said. “It doesn’t look like you’ve had any problems figuring out hands.” “I’m a griffon, you doofus,” she growled. “I have talons.” She looked at her blunt fingernails. “Good thing I don’t need them to fight.” “And how about you, Sweetie Drops? Are you used to hands?” She flexed one hand. “Curiously, this feels like it’s using the same muscles I use when gripping things with my hooves,” she replied. “But these finger things are strange.” “I never understood how your hooves were flexible enough and strong enough to hold things,” I said. Sweetie Drops tilted her head from side to side, which I think was the pony version of shrugging. “A simple pony like me never wonders about that.” “Simple, yeah,” Greta scoffed. I slid my key card into the lock and escorted these two rivals into the room. The rest of us were seated around the living room, occupying the couch and various chairs. Someone had brewed coffee, and it looked like Jason has brought up some toast and muffins from the breakfast downstairs. “Good, you’re back,” Minuette said. “I wanted to get the details of the dreams you had.” “Well, I didn’t have one, so I’m going to shower,” Greta said. “I had an unusual dream,” Bon Bon said. “I’m fairly certain it was from Lyra’s perspective, and it was showing Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, but it’s not a story Lyra ever told me.” “What did you see?” Minuette asked. “A meeting with a bunch of really old unicorns. They were encouraging her to continue on to advanced studies, and she said no. But that doesn’t make sense. She always told me she felt she wasn’t good enough to study magic, so that’s why she came to Ponyville.” “Actually, Lyra’s magical talent was quite high,” Minuette said. “Not at the level of Twilight Sparkle, of course, but certainly in the top 5%. I was surprised when she left school, instead of pursuing a career in magical studies or application.” “No,” Sweetie Drops said. “Yes, she was,” Minuette affirmed. “She was my best friend, and she didn’t tell me that?” “I don’t know her reasons, but sometimes even best friends keep secrets from each other. Right, Bon Bon?” Sweetie Drops glared at her. “So, you two were best friends?” Jason said, putting a particular emphasis on the last two words. Sweetie Drops stared daggers at him. “Yes. Best friends.” “Okay, moving on,” Minuette interrupted. “John, you had a dream as well?” I recounted my dream as best as I could remember. Jason speculated I was seeing some place called Cloudsdale. “Do you remember what color you were?” Minuette asked. I thought back. “I had brown hair, er, mane, and... maybe my coat was a brownish-orange color?” “That fits the description of the first pony to disappear, a pegasus stallion named Hoops,” Minuette said. “Princess Luna’s magic successfully guided our dreams, and showed all of the missing ponies. “Hoops? You mean one of Fluttershy’s bullies?” Jason said. “I don’t know,” Minuette said. “Wait,” Lightning Shield interrupted. He pointed at Jason. “You knew the name of Gilda just from hearing the description of my dream, identified your own dream as that of Trenderhoof, and now you know Hoops?” He stared at him. “You know more than you’re letting on.” “What? No!” Jason said. Lightning Shield looked ready to accost Jason. I put a hand on his shoulder. “Wait. How much did Twilight Sparkle tell you about the relationship between our worlds?” I said. “Pretty much nothing,” he admitted. “Trust me, there’s a really good reason why Jason knows about you ponies,” I said. “Why don’t you show him, Jason?” Jason went back to the bedroom, and returned with his iPad. After a bit of tapping, he turned it around, showing a wiki page with the character I dreamed about. Though the picture showed a colt, something told me the figure in the picture was older than the memory I had. “What is that?” Lightning Shield asked, pointing to the image. “A cartoon,” I said. “I know what a cartoon is. I do watch movies, you know,” he said. “But why do you have a cartoon image of this missing pony, from his foalhood?” “Long story short, in this world, your world is believed to be the fictional creation of a group of humans,” Jason said. He held up his iPad. “I could show you.” “That’s preposterous,” Lightning Shield said. “In our universe, the idea of traveling to alternate dimensions is preposterous. Yet here we are,” I said. “I don’t know exactly how the link between our worlds work,” Jason said. “Princess Celestia has never spoken on the subject, and Princess Twilight, who would normally eagerly speculate on the nature of magic like this, has remained suspiciously tight-lipped. But if our two worlds are ever officially introduced to each other, it will probably involve Twilight and her friends making an official visit. What we don’t want is for that introduction to be made by Malice trying to take over.” Thinking of the corrupted spirit of chaos, and my first meeting with him, I remembered that most important lesson. “We need to work in harmony, humans and ponies alike. If we don’t, we’re just playing into his plot.” “What am I, chopped liver?” Greta said, poking her head out of the bedroom. “Griffons too,” I added. Lightning Shield didn’t look convinced, but he settled back down into his seat. Minuette then spoke again. “Princess Luna’s magic guided our dreams, showing us memories of these missing ponies. It was not chance. There must be a reason. So the questions remain, from Malice’s side, why these ponies, and from our side, why these dreams?” “What were the other dreams?” I asked. Minuette filled me in on the others. For Gilda, who was another griffon, Lightning Shield saw her flying off in a huff from Ponyville after some spat with her friend Rainbow Dash. Jason saw Trenderhoof, who was some kind of travel writer, having an epiphany and then writing a headline for his latest article. Jason said it reminded him of clickbait headlines. Rose saw a young Doc Top crumpling up a flier for the school talent show, and then opening a thick textbook and studying. Finally, Minuette also saw an early foalhood memory, of Suri Polomare holding an unfinished stuffed animal she had sewn. She was looking at glass beads for the eyes and nose, and when she couldn’t afford those, another filly gave her three buttons to use instead. By this time, Greta had rejoined us, and Sweetie Drops went to shower. “Those aren’t very consistent,” I said. “Two memories from childhood, three from adolescence, and one recent memory?” “I think they’ve all met Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Jason said. “A lot of ponies have met the princess,” Lightning Shield interjected. “What about the others? The six ponies?” I asked. “The Elements of Harmony?” Minuette said. “I guess.” “That still doesn’t help,” Jason said. “They all went to Manehattan that time they met Suri Polomare. Or in Cloudsdale with Hoops, or Gilda in Ponyville.” “Yeah, but Gilda came to Ponyville to see Rainbow Dash,” Greta said. “Were each of the missing ponies close to one of the Elements?” Rose asked. “Suri Polomare was a rival to Rarity. The episode with Hoops and the others showed them interacting with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Lyra was listed as one of Twilight Sparkle’s old friends. Trenderhoof was the target of Rarity’s affection, but he in turn was fascinated by Applejack. Both Gilda episodes heavily involved both Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. But Doc Top....” Jason actually had to look that character up. “We’ve only seen him that time when Spike got big.” Jason grabbed the small pad of hotel paper and complimentary pen, and wrote out a grid. He started with each of the ponies associated with the Elements of Harmony, then added the element they represented. “Let’s match these up as best as possible.” He put Suri Polomare with Rarity, Gilda with Rainbow Dash, and Lyra with Twilight Sparkle. “By process of elimination, that would put Trenderhoof with Applejack, Hoops with Fluttershy, and Doc Top with Pinkie Pie. I definitely don’t get that last one.” “They both have frizzy manes?” Rose suggested. “Pinkie Pie was a traveling party pony. She could have met anyone,” Jason said. I looked over the list, noticing the Elements. Fluttershy’s was kindness, and thinking to my dream, it looked like Hoops had met a kind mare. “What if it’s tied to the elements? I saw Hoops learning to fly with a kind mare.” “If he was ever kind, he soon forgot about it,” Jason said. “Trenderhoof, in my dream, certainly wasn’t honest.” “My dream was like yours, John,” Minuette said. “It was a little act of generosity for little Suri.” “Gilda didn’t show much loyalty to her friend,” Lightning Shield said. “And your friend didn’t want to follow her talent in magic,” he said to Sweetie Drops. “But what does Doc Top have to do with laughter?” Sweetie Drops said. “Other than looking like Carrot Top?” Jason said. “Who’s that?” Rose asked. “Uh, human reference,” Jason replied. “He’s a comedian.” “You said something about a talent show in your dream,” I said to Rose. “Could that be it?” Rose closed her eyes and thought. Then she shook her head. Minuette went into our bedroom and returned with Rose’s dreamcatcher. “Let me try to trigger the magic again.” Rose took the dreamcatcher in her hands, tracing the strings with one finger. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. I was more focused on what Minuette was now doing. She held a blue crystal in one hand, and a wand in the other. There was no flourish of movement or pseudo-Latin incantation, like what I thought of when it came to wands. She just concentrated, and, I assume, used the magic. In that way, it resembled unicorn magic. “I see it now,” Rose said. “He was envisioning a performance on stage. I think it was a comedy act.” “Giving up on a dream to take a job to make his parents happy? That sounds positively human,” I said. “I think you may be on to something with these relations to the Elements,” Lightning Shield said. “For now, we need to discuss strategy. Minuette, do you have the spells ready?” “I have a variety of countermagic options in these wands,” Minuette replied. “Once we get to the site of the suspected imprisonment, I will analyze the magic being used. My best guess is Astral Shield’s spirit bind spell. It’s the simplest to cast, and thus simplest to break, but it doesn’t matter how easy it is to break a spell if you don’t expect anyone to possess magic. The spell is also usable with affinity matrices.” “One of those affinities is colloquially known as ‘like attracts like’,” Jason explained. “It’s easier to bind a pony’s spirit into an equine statue than it would be to bind it to a boulder, for example, because of the similar shapes.” “So it’s not strictly necessary to the spell, but it makes the spell easier, and speeds up his plan, whatever it is,” Minuette said. “Do you have any guess as to the plan?” Lightning Shield asked. “None right now. Our best bet is to investigate this statue we were briefed about, and see what we can learn.” “Let’s go,” Jason said. We made the short drive to my grandparents’ neighborhood, pulling the SUV to the side of the road near the painted horse. While Minuette was the only one with a job to do, the others were all interested in what was going on, and got out of the car as well. “Creepy,” Sweetie Drops said. “I mean, the stretched muzzle, and the eyes moved to the side of the head. It’s just so wrong!” “It’s the uncanny valley effect,” Jason said. “Humans experience the same feeling with some human-like images.” “Just hurry it up,” Sweetie Drops said to Minuette. “I’m not going to rush this,” she replied. With wand in hand, she looked over every detail of the sculpture, circling it as she went. Finally, she put away her wand. “What’s the situation?” Lightning Shield asked. “It’s Astral Shield’s spirit bind, as I expected. But there’s something else. The statue is being used as a magical anchor, collecting the faint magic that has escaped into this world and concentrating it. And then the magic is being beamed elsewhere.” “Where?” Lightning Shield said. “That direction,” Minuette said, pointing. Jason looked to me. I shrugged; I didn’t know what was in that direction. “For Malice to accomplish anything useful, he would need magic, lots of magic,” Lightning Shield said. “More magic would allow him to cast spells faster,” Minuette said. “Like this spirit binding spell? Is that why the disappearances started happening more frequently?” Sweetie Drops asked. “That would make sense,” Jason said. “I’m ready to dispel the magic,” Minuette said. “Can you get the vehicle ready to move? If someone sees us pull a pony out of this statue, I don’t want to stick around to answer questions.” “Okay,” John said. The rest of us got in the car. Sweetie Drops was last to enter, and she didn’t sit down. She perched by the open door, watching the scene, seemingly ready to pounce. Minuette pulled out a different want and a larger crystal. She concentrated. The magic was silent and colorless, unlike the unicorn magic I had seen used in Equestria. At first, I thought it wasn’t working. Then I noticed a change in the statue. The green colors started to brighten. A new image started to form in the picture, starting as a rough pony shape, but shifting to human form. And then there was a pop, and a human woman with platinum blond hair appeared next to the statue, falling to the ground and landing on all fours. She was clothed, fortunately, appearing in a simple dress and blouse. She looked like she was trying to move, but found her new limbs uncooperative. Sweetie Drops rushed out of the car. “Lyra?” The new human looked up. “Bonnie?” Sweetie Drops pulled Lyra to her feet. They embraced, and rubbed their noses together, like the nuzzles I recalled the ponies sharing. Apparently, that didn’t work as well for humans, as they both moaned quietly and rubbed their noses afterward. “All of you. Get in the vehicle now,” Lightning Shield ordered. Minuette was first to get in. Sweetie Drops helped Lyra get in after. And then we realized there wasn’t any more room. The seven-passenger SUV, which had looked like a ridiculously oversized vehicle for our three person vacation, was now overloaded. With a bit of negotiation, we finally squeezed in. Lyra, Sweetie Drops, and Minuette squeezed into the smaller middle row, while Greta, Lightning Shield, and I were more comfortable in the back. “Okay, we have our proof of concept. Good work, everypony,” Lightning Shield said. “We need to plan for the identification and retrieval of the remaining missing civilians. We should return to the hotel immediately.” “There’s something more important we need to do first,” John said. “What?” “Lunch. I’m famished!”