Chapter 3: Entering the First Dream
"What color is the object that you're thinking about?" Fluttershy asked Applejack as they continued to play one of their sleepover games.
"Red." Applejack said, knowing that she just gave away the answer. She turned to the next pony who would ask a question, Pinkie Pie, and as soon as she saw her eager face, she knew that she would get it.
“Oh! Oh! Are you thinking of an apple?” Pinkie Pie asked with a smile.
Applejack chuckled and gave a nod, “Aw shucks ya figure it out.”
"Yay! I told you guys nopony is better at sleep over games than I am!"
“How did you figure she was thinking about an apple?” Rarity asked.
“Well it’s Applejack, and almost everything that has to do with her involves apples.” Pinkie Pie answered with a big smile.
“Geez Pinkie, don’t ya start generalizin’ me now, ya hear?”
The group of friends all giggled like school-fillies at the fun time that they were having playing the guessing game, which was similar to twenty-questions and involved one pony thinking of something and everypony else asking one question at a time until they figured out what was being thought of. In the case of Applejack, it only took about one question from each pony before Pinkie Pie figured out what she was thinking of. Plus, choosing an apple as the object wasn't the brightest idea.
Eventually, the laughter slowed down and, eventually, stopped all together.
“Okay girls, it’s getting late. I think it’s almost time for bed.” Twilight said with a smile, looking directly at Fluttershy to make sure she did go to sleep. After all, she had to be asleep, while the others could just pretend.
Fluttershy nodded and everypony else did so at well, even though they weren’t going to sleep just yet. They, however, did pretend to get ready for bed by getting under their sheets and closing their eyes, giving them the appearance of being relaxed, ready for the sandpony to take them off to Neverland.
“Good night everypony.” Twilight said before getting under the covers of her sleeping bag. Everypony else followed suit as Twilight used her magic to turn off all of the lights in the library.
The group then remained “asleep” for a few minutes before Twilight opened one eye. Once she was sure that Fluttershy was completely asleep, she slowly sat back up and used her horn to cast a deep sleep spell on the yellow pegasus, ensuring that she would remain unconscious. Once the spell was cast, and Fluttershy was safely in a deep slumber, Twilight used her magic to turn all of the lights back on and stood up with an eager smile on her face.
“Okay girls, Fluttershy’s asleep. It’s time to…”
She looked around to see that everypony, except for Applejack, had fallen asleep, and had not woken up.
“Um AJ…why is everypony asleep?”
Applejack shrugged, “Ah guess they were plum tuckered out from the sleepover.”
“And why didn’t you fall asleep?”
“Because ah was told not ta?” Applejack said flatly, like she thought Twilight should expect that from her. “Why do ya act so surprised. Ah’m the element of honesty; not ta mention that ah was the only one besides you and Pinkie Pie not ta eat the cake on the train, remember?”
Twilight nodded, “Point taken, but now we need to wake them up.”
The two girls went to each of their friends to shake them awake.
“Ugh…no it’s still dark out.” Rainbow Dash mumbled as Applejack tried to wake her up. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were already woken, and now it was just the cyan Pegasus that was left.
“Come on RD, this ain’t no time fer sleepin’. We need ta help out Fluttershy.”
Rainbow Dash looked up at Applejack with a pair of irritated eyes, “Ugh, but isn’t the point of this whole thing supposed to involve us being asleep?”
“Oh Rainbow Dash, please just get up and stop complaining.” Rarity said with a roll of her eyes before she let out a big yawn.
“Coming from the queen of complaining herself?” Rainbow Dash spat at Rarity, who just gave a small “huff” and looked away from Rainbow Dash in defiance. Rainbow Dash let out a sigh and sat up, her eyes showed how tired she was from being woken from such a deep sleep,
“This whole dream-within a dream thing better be as cool as it sounds.”
“Well there’s only one way to find out.” Twilight said as she turned to look up the stairs to where her room was, “Spike! It’s time!”
On cue, the baby dragon made his way down the staircase to the girls. He was wearing a pair of sunglasses and a tuxedo. Once he got downstairs, he stopped in front of the girls and gave a salute.
“Mission control, this is Spike reporting for dream monitoring.”
There was a brief pause as the girls looked down at him in confusion before Rarity asked, “Um Spike, why are you dressed like that?”
“Oh this?” he asked, gesturing to the tuxedo and sunglasses, “I thought it would fit the whole “entering dreams” thing.”
“Well I hope you aren’t planning on fooling around, because this is serious business.” Twilight muttered. “Besides, it’s not like you’re going in with us. You’re just making sure we safely wake up.”
“Wait, Spikey isn’t going?” Pinkie Pie asked.
Twilight shook her head. “No, he’s staying awake. Not all of us will be able to go all the way into the deepest dream level.”
“What do ya mean?” Applejack asked.
“Well, Applejack, you’ll stay in the first dream and initiate the kick.” Twilight answered and Applejack nodded, as she remembered the whole “kick” concept that Twilight discussed with the girls when Fluttershy had to use the restroom.
“So you are in the first level, Rainbow Dash will be in the second…”
“Wait! Why can’t I go all the way to the deepest dream?” Rainbow Dash asked with disappointment in her voice.
“Because we need each level to have a kick that is in sync with every other dream, meaning you will have to create the kick at the same time that Applejack does, and those of us in the third dream layer do.”
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and crossed her forelegs in anger, envious that the others would be able to go three dream levels down while she would only go two. So after a quick briefing, the three girls realized that they had to find Fluttershy in each dream and then make her fall asleep, without ever telling her that they were really in her mind rather than just projections of her subconscious.
“Okay Spike, remember, we have to be up in an hour. If we are in there longer, you have to give us your kick.”
“And what’s that?” Spike asked.
Twilight pointed her hoof at a bucket of water that was in the corner of the room. “Pour the water in that bucket onto my horn, it’ll cause the magic to stop working and I’ll wake up. Plus the spell I put on the others will wear off so I can wake them easily.” Twilight said sternly, “But it has to be at the right moment, once we go through all of the kicks.”
“How will you know it’s time?” Spike asked. "You know...for you to create each of these...what are they called...kicks?"
Twilight pointed to a small cassette, “I borrowed that from Vinyl earlier, put those earphones onto Applejack’s head and play the music that’s in there. My horn will glow a different color each time we enter another dream. Once we’re in the third level, give us a few minutes and then start the music to warn Applejack that the final kick is coming. Then about two minutes later, pour the bucket of water on my head, that should give us enough time to climb back up the dream layers and into the first dream so the water will wake me up, and then I can wake the others.”
“Got it.” Spike said with a nod, though he could feel the gears in his head kicking into overdrive as he tried to process all of the instructions Twilight had given him.
Twilight motioned for the girls to come closer to the sleeping Fluttershy. They all did and got into a small huddle while Spike examined the cassette, something that most ponies in Equestria didn’t own, as it was a relatively new invention. It was fascinating to the small dragon, which was tempted to try the device out as soon as possible, which would have to be after the girls wake up.
“Okay girls, do you have your totems?”
They all nodded.
Now, obviously, none of them showed each other what they had chosen as their individual totems since that would get rid of the purpose that they served.
“All right, let’s get started.”
And with that, Twilight and the others, except Spike, all went up close to Fluttershy as Twilight leaned her horn to the mare’s forehead before casting the spell. There was a bright, purple flash that caused Spike to shield his eyes.
Once he lowered his hand, he saw all six girls asleep around Fluttershy, Twilight’s horn still glowing and pressed against Fluttershy’s forehead.
Spike sighed and gently placed the ear-buds into Applejack’s ears. He was about to press play when he suddenly felt the urge to put the headphones into his own ears and listen to the music himself.
He tried to restrain himself for a few minutes until he finally gave in, deciding that he had plenty of time before he needed to have Applejack listen to the music that was on it. Besides, Twilight had to enter all three dreams before he could even play it for Applejack, so it seemed all right if he enjoyed some tunes as he waited.
He shrugged and pressed “play”, as soon as he began to listen to the music, a huge grin spread across his face. He sat down and closed his eyes, tapping his foot against the wood floor of the library as the electro music flowed into both of his ears. He felt like a complete badass with his sunglasses on, his tuxedo on, and the cassette in his ears. All that was missing was a mustache, courtesy of Twilight's spell.
"Ahhh, this is the life."
Dream 1
Applejack was standing in the blazing sun of Appleloosa as she waited for her friends to pick her up. She knew that she was asleep, but it was still surreal, as she couldn’t remember when she started dreaming. After all, it seemed like she woke up in the middle of it. The strange thing, however, was that this dream was extremely vivid; to the point that she felt like she was awake.
After a few minutes, a wagon that was being pulled by four stallions stopped in front of Applejack. The wagon was quite elaborate, as it wasn’t a simple wagon; it was one that had a door that led inside of a small cabin.
The door opened to reveal Twilight, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. Rarity was wearing an elaborate blue hat that appeared to be shielding her from the sun, even while she was in the cart. At the top of the wagon, her hooves on the reigns, was Rainbow Dash, who looked down at Applejack with an eager expression on her face.
“Get in, come on.” Twilight said before Applejack hopped into the cart. Twilight shut the door and Rainbow Dash let out a “hyah” and the four stallions reared up and then began to trot off down the dirt road.
Inside of the cart, Applejack took off her hat and fanned herself, “Boy howdy it sure is an oven out there.”
“You’re telling me,” Rarity said with a smile as she pulled the large hat she was wearing onto her head more , as if to secure it, “we sure are fortunate to have this luxurious wagon to ride in.”
“I know, right? It’s so cool and fun! I feel like I’m on the way to the Grand Galloping Gala…but not that bad one we went to!” Pinkie Pie said with disgust as she looked around the cabin, admiring the beautiful interior that really did make it look like it was meant for royalty.
“Why in the hay are we in Appleloosa anyhow?” Applejack asked.
“Because this is your dream Applejack, and it corresponds to a place that you’re familiar with so you can understand the layout.” Twilight answered, “You have to make sure we evade Fluttershy’s subconscious at all costs, otherwise our entire mission could be compromised.”
“Okay, ah think ah'm startin' to get this, but it's still might confusin' Twi.” Applejack muttered as she rubbed her head with her hoof.
“Just make sure nopony catches us once we go under again.” Twilight said flatly and Applejack nodded, still looking like she didn’t trust this “dream within a dream” spell Twilight had cast.
“So we have to find Fluttershy and bring her into another dream?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Yes, we need to get her to fall asleep her and then follow her to the next dream, which will be Rainbow Dash’s.”
“Did somepony say my name?” Rainbow Dash asked as she peeked her head through the cart window…while the cart was still moving.
“Yes, remember I told you that the second dream is yours and…wait a minute. Rainbow, shouldn’t you be steering the cart?” Twilight asked, pointing to the front, where the stallions were pulling it.
“Eh, they’ve got it.” Rainbow Dash said with a wave of the hoof, gesturing to the stallions. She opened the door of the wagon and flew in, “Besides, they know where Fluttershy is.”
“Really, where?” Twilight asked.
On cue, the cart screeched to a halt, causing all of the girls to go flying forward, screaming as they fell into a heap at the front-end of the cart. Rarity and Applejack’s hats both went flying off of their heads, and Twilight landed right on Rainbow Dash, pinning her to the floor of the cart. Only Pinkie Pie, who was wearing a seatbelt, remained in her seat.
She giggled, “You all look silly, you should have worn your seatbelts!"
Rainbow Dash pulled herself out from underneath Twilight and glared at Pinkie Pie, "What is a seatbelt?"
Pinkie Pie pointed her hoof to the strap around her waist, which had kept her firmly in place.
She unclipped the belt and opened the door to the cart. Once the girls got their bearings, and after a brief hat mix-up between Rarity and Applejack, they exited and all stood in awe at the sight of a run-down, classic western saloon.
Twilight walked over to the front of the cart to the four stallions that had driven it.
"Can you boys keep the cart out here for us?" she asked, to which they all looked at each other before giving her nods. She thanked them and walked back over to the group as they stood in front of the saloon.
“They say she’s in here.” Rainbow Dash said, pointing her hoof up at the building.
The windows of the building were cracked, and the floors didn’t fare much better either, looking like anypony could fall right through if they stepped on a weaker plank...which was a problem because most of the planks seemed to be relatively weak.
On top of the bar was the name “Appleoosa Saloon” in big, red letters, which had a runny look to them from how hastily they had been painted, or if the building had bled in the past and the red liquid had dried to it’s surface, forever a reminder of the injury it sustained.
As the five girls stood, ready to enter the bar, two earth pony stallions exited. They both had very wide eyes, full of amazement, and seemed a bit jittery, either like they were anxious or excited about something that was happening inside.
“Oh my Celestia, I ain’t seen nothin’ like it before!” said the taller stallion with the red coat and black mane.
“She’s the best in the west!” said the other, shorter stallion with a yellow coat and white mane. “Ain’t nopony can beat her.”
As both stallions walked off, the five girls looked at each other.
“Any idea who they could be talking about?” Pinkie Pie asked.
Twilight shrugged, “No idea, but Fluttershy’s in there so we should be too.”
The five girls continued into the bar to see a huge crowd of ponies surrounding a table where two ponies sat. One of them was unknown to the five, a blue stallion with a yellow mane who had a very determined set of eyes as he glared at the pony sitting across from him. The mare he was staring at is who caught the girls’ attention the most.
“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked in shock.
Indeed, sitting across from the blue stallion was Fluttershy, who looked like her normal self, but with a stetson hat that greatly resembled Applejack's, and this did not go un-noticed by the orange earth pony.
"Why is she wearing mah hat?" Applejack asked.
"I guess it's part of the dream," Twilight answered.
The girls all looked to see what she was doing. In our world, it would have looked like the two ponies were about to engage in a drinking game of some kind, but here it was something else entirely, something that didn’t involve alcohol and may seem more harmless, until Fluttershy is taken into account.
“What in all of Equestria are they doing?” Rarity asked as she took a step forward.
Rainbow Dash wasted no time in zooming over to the crowd, flying over the majority of it and landing in the front, earning some shouts and groans from the ponies that she cut in front of.
“Fluttershy.” Rainbow Dash said.
Fluttershy looked at Rainbow Dash and smiled, “Oh…um…hi Rainbow Dash.”
“What are you doing?” Rainbow Dash asked with an eyebrow raised.
“We’re just about to have a staring contest.”
Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped and she felt her eye twitching. A tough, rough and tumble saloon in the middle of Appleoosa…and they were having a “staring contest”?
Only one word made it past Rainbow Dash’s lips.
“What?”
Before Fluttershy could answer, the stallion across from her slammed his hoof onto the table, “Come on I ain’t got all day Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy let out a sigh and nodded.
“O-okay, let’s get this done.” she meekly said.
There was a brief pause as the two ponies stared at each other, Fluttershy looking somewhat relaxed and the stallion looking somewhat nervous, as if he were the one that had to be afraid. He took a quick shot of apple cider that was on the table beside him and slammed the glass down hard before he turned his attention back to Fluttershy.
“Did she just say a staring contest?” Applejack asked as the four friends who were not lucky enough to have wings watched the competition from the back of the crowd, doing everything in their power to see Fluttershy.
“I can’t see a thing.” Rarity said with some irritation. Suddenly she felt herself get hoisted into the air, screaming a bit before she realized that Pinkie Pie had gotten underneath her and lifted her up so she could get a better view of the competition.
“Better?” Pinkie Pie asked with a giggle.
Once Rarity got her bearings from being hoisted up by Pinkie Pie, she nodded.
She then turned and watched as a brown pony walk over to the table. He was wearing a cowboy hat, rather a cowpony hat, and had a moustache
“All right!” said the stallion. “On yer mark…get set…GO!”
Fluttershy and the other stallion began to stare at each other. It didn’t take long for the stallion’s eyes begin to flinch. He began to bite his lip anxiously as Fluttershy kept staring, her eyes wide and intimidating as they bore into the soul of the poor stallion she was up against.
“Is she…” Rarity began, completely frightened.
“The stare.” Rainbow Dash said in awe as the stallion couldn’t take it anymore and blinked, which was hard to do considering how frightened he was when Fluttershy used her stare on him. He screamed and bolted out of the bar, yelling about “his soul being grabbed by a yellow demon”.
There was silence before a round of applause and cheering for Fluttershy, who only gave a small smile and blushed, feeling a little bad for the pony she just scared away, but glad that she had won yet another staring contest.
But through the cheering, she suddenly saw a flash of cyan and rainbow in the crowd. She looked up to see Rainbow Dash push her way past the ponies that had ironically budged past her in order to get to Fluttershy, just as Rainbow Dash had done minutes before to the other ponies in the crowd.
“Excuse me, pardon me,” Rainbow Dash muttered as she finally reached Fluttershy, “Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy turned back to Rainbow Dash, "What is it Rainbow Dash, I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you before I had to take part in that contest."
"So I saw." Rainbow Dash looked towards the others and gestured for her to come with. “Listen, you need to come with us.”
“Us?”
Rainbow Dash face-hoofed before she pointed over to the others who were all waiting behind the crowd. ‘Us, as in your friends.”
Once the crowd began to disperse, they made their way to Fluttershy.
“Um guys…what’s going on?” Fluttershy whimpered nervously.
“Oh nothing, we’re just trying to cure you of your fear of bunnies!” Pinkie Pie blurted out, causing Twilight to turn to her with a scowl.
“Pinkie Pie!” she scolded, as she didn’t want Fluttershy to know what was going on at all. While Fluttershy still didn’t know that she was dreaming, even knowing why they were there for her was a risk.
“Oh…whoopsy.” Pinkie Pie said with a sheepish smile.
“B-Bunnies?” Fluttershy whispered in a very hushed, yet still scared, tone.
“Bunnies!?!” said one of the saloon ponies with fear in his voice.
“BUNNIES!?!” shouted everypony in the saloon. Twilight and the others, except Fluttershy, all looked at each other in shock in confusion, completely unaware as to what was going on.
Suddenly, the entire saloon was quiet; each pony had a very fearful look on his or her face, as if the girls had just said the most terrifying thing imaginable. Twilight understood why they all acted like that, as each pony in the saloon was a part of Fluttershy’s subconscious and, therefore, would have a phobia of bunnies as if they were dragons, which would also cause panic since she was afraid of them too.
“Eh why is everypony actin’ so crazy?” Applejack asked as she rubbed her head with her hoof in confusion.
Suddenly, there was a tremor in the ground; mugs of cider and other drinks began to rattle, signaling some incoming doom. Everypony screamed and made a b-line for exit, as if they were trying to escape some terrible evil. Twilight and the other just looked confused, except for Fluttershy, who began to shake in fright.
“They’re here.”
“Here? Who’s here?” Rarity asked with a concerned tone, her left hoof holding onto her hat to keep it from vibrating off of her head.
Fluttershy whispered something, but it was so quiet that the girls couldn’t understand what she said.
“What was that?” Rarity asked.
Fluttershy said it again, but the girls still couldn’t understand her.
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, we can’t hear you.” Pinkie Pie said.
“Yeah Fluttershy come on, what’s everypony afraid of?” Rainbow Dash demanded.
“The Bunnies!” Fluttershy screamed in a very shaky, terrified-sounding voice that made all of her friends jump back in shock before what she said registered with them.
“Bunnies!?!” All of the girls said in unison, completely aghast that some rabbits could cause such a ruckus.
That is until they remembered the day Applejack herded all of the rabbits into Ponyville and caused mass hysteria. The six friends all ran to the entrance of the bar and looked outside to see what was causing such a commotion; to see if it was indeed rabbits.
The answer to their question came in the form of a huge wave of bunnies storming down the dirt street straight towards Appleoosa. Ponies all over town began to panic, running into the nearest buildings or simply trying to get ti higher ground.
“Are those...rabbits?” Twilight asked as she squinted at the mass of bunnies.
Suddenly, a pony walked to their sides, the one who had watched over the staring contest, and spoke, “Yes, but these are no ordinary rabbits. They are the most foul, cruel and bad-tempered rodents anypony has ever laid eyes on!” (Who can get the movie reference?)
“Awww, but they’re so cute!” Pinkie Pie said excitedly. “They can’t be that dangerous.”
Moments after Pinkie Pie made this observation, the rabbits began to leap up and attack ponies as they tried to run away, their eyes were red and their teeth were bearing, as it seemed as though they almost flew through the air from pony to pony, taking them all down like little, white torpedoes of fury.
The six girls screamed and ran for the wagon, which was amazingly still parked in front of the saloon, as the stallions had not started to run off yet, instead waiting for the girls to come out.
“Boys, get us out of here!” Applejack shouted to the four stallions before she entered the cart as well.
Once they were all inside the car, the four stallions didn't hesitate to take off, a mass of rabbits chasing after them with deadly speed and fury, eyes full of venomous rage that could only be a part of Fluttershy's dream, brought on by her fear of the tiny creatures.
But now the other five couldn't blame her for being afraid of rabbits, as they were now scared to death at the prospect of being nibbled alive before they could escape Appleoosa. Regardless, the chase was on.
Cue the epic Hans Zimmer music.
[A/N] Okay I know it's been a while since I've updated, and this story will most likely be one where the updates aren't regular. Also, I know this whole thing isn't exactly like Inception, but I'm going to try to keep it as close as I can (which is hard, Nolan's intelligence puts me to shame).
So I hope you enjoyed this last chapter, and yes the last bit with the deadly rabbits was taken from a movie, as well as the quote, but you'll have to guess what it is. :)