None of this could be real. The world was far too green and verdant, far too lush in the dead of winter, and it was as warm as a late spring day. There was also the niggling little detail that Sumac had full control over his body, a clear indicator that something was up. This was Princess Luna’s realm, a dangerous place for introverts with weighty consciences and troubled minds.
Honeysuckle brushed up against his sides, tickling him in the worst ways as he trotted through the field, heading towards the sound of a familiar voice singing. Birds were chirping, cows were mooing, pigs were oinking, and somewhere, ahead of him, a sunny yellow pegasus was singing. Was it the real Fluttershy or just a construct in a dream? Sumac didn’t know, but he was going to find out, because this dream felt especially lucid to him.
A bumble bee went buzzing past, off to do bumble bee errands, but something was somewhat off with this bumble bee, because it was wearing what appeared to be a fedora and carried a tiny briefcase. What did a bumble bee need with a briefcase? Things didn’t have to make sense in dreams, but most things held a deeper meaning. Whatever the reason, Princess Luna was just showing off.
Ahead, in the tall grass and the honeysuckles, he saw a pastel pink mane and sunny yellow wings. What looked like Fluttershy was lost in song, she had her head high and thrown back, with her ears resting at perfect relaxed angles. The song had no words, just sounds, happy sounds that left him feeling both restless and peaceful at the same time, a strange feeling indeed.
“Hi!” Sumac’s over-exuberant greeting caused Fluttershy to launch into the air with the politest of panicked pegasus poots, and if this poot had a colour it would have most certainly had been a polite pastel poot, as befitting a panicked polite pastel pegasus.
“EEEP!” Fluttershy’s shrill cry of alarm caused many of the nearby birds to take wing, and there was a rain of bird droppings—once again, Princess Luna was showing off. “You scared me!”
“I’m sorry,” Sumac said, apologising and meaning it. He did his best to look apologetic and watched as Fluttershy’s face explored a broad spectrum of emotions before returning to its typical serene state. “It looks like we’re sharing a dream.”
“That happens sometimes.” Fluttershy began to nod and she eased herself back down to the ground, coming to what appeared to be a weightless rest. “Princess Luna is such a busy pony. I don’t mind sharing a dream if it makes things easier for her. How have things been, Sumac?”
“I might be engaged to Limestone Pie.” The look of shock upon Fluttershy’s face left Sumac uncomfortable, and before the flood of questions could burst past the spill gates, he added, “How is Discord?”
Now, Fluttershy just looked sad, the change was abrupt and sudden. “Nothing has changed. He hasn’t moved. I don’t know what to do for him.”
At this moment, Sumac was distracted by a butterfly that went fluttering past and his ears pivoted around as he tried to determine if he could hear anything. Intent, he began to stalk the beautiful bug, his ears still locked on its direction, but before he could get close, the butterfly scrammed, leaving him frustrated.
“Oh, you’ll never catch them that way,” Fluttershy said in a voice filled with the most reassuring gentleness. “But if you sit down and hold very, very still, the butterflies will come to you. Trust me, I know.” Turning to one side, she gestured at her cutie mark and flashed Sumac an eager, excited smile. “Sitting still and being calm is a wonderful game… I’m really good at it too.” Then, as an afterthought, she added in a squeak, “Oh, I don’t mean to brag or boast, I’m sorry.”
There were times when Sumac liked sitting still, so he could be thoughtful, reflective, and introspective. With his eyes following the butterfly, he sat down and tried to ignore where the long grass was tickling him, because grass just tickled there and nothing could be done about it. As he sat there, he began to wonder if sitting still could make other desirable things come to him, things like… Pebble. Yes, if he sat still long enough, she would come; either to check and see what was wrong with him, or she might assume he had turned to stone and would have an irresistible fascination with him because she liked things that were hard.
“You have to be very still, and very quiet,” Fluttershy began with words so soft that they tickled the ears. “It helps if you think about happy butterfly thoughts. Think about peaceful butterfly things, like inviting flowers and really gentle breezes filled with pollen.” Then, the sunny yellow pegasus began deep breathing and made a gesture for Sumac to follow her example.
Did butterflies dream? Sumac didn’t know, but he guessed that they didn’t. Butterflies were pretty stupid, after all, and there wasn’t much of a brain to have a dream with, so he guessed that these butterflies were all dream constructs rather than the real thing. How terrible it would be to be a creature that did not dream… but then Sumac reconsidered when he thought about all of his own troubling dreams. Perhaps butterflies led a carefree existence, untroubled by nightmares and uncomfortable dreams.
Butterflies just were, or so Sumac reckoned, and they just existed. If butterflies had any cares, they wouldn’t flutter about, carefree. No, they would probably go off and mope somewhere, just like he was prone to do at times when life was overwhelming and the lurking tempers within him grew too strong. They would become buttermopes and nopony would like them.
Sumac became so engrossed with thinking about butterfly thoughts that he forgot about the actual butterfly flitting about. He never quite understood the sorts of ponies that thought that thinking was a chore. Walking the length and breadth of Equestria, there had been a lot of time for thinking, because there wasn’t much else to do, and when everything was still, was quiet, when everything was tranquil, those were the times when things like his hypothesis would come to him. The most fantastic of ideas would appear within his mind just like magic. Of course, it was magic, or so Twilight said, and he was discerning the will of magic itself, which made itself known to just the right ponies.
Thus, the colt was quite surprised when the butterfly landed on his nose and he went cross eyed trying to focus upon it. Up close, it was quite different than from afar. It was dusty with pollen, had big buggy eyes, and a long curled tongue. Perhaps the most curious thing of note was the fact that this butterfly appeared to have a cutie mark; but try as he might, he could not make it out, as it was little more than a tiny smear of yellow and orange.
“Look at me, I’m pretty,” the butterfly said in a familiar voice that Sumac could not place.
“Ugh, this butterfly is vain.” Sumac tossed his head about to dislodge the peculiar butterfly and then watched as it flapped away, now humming to itself. The dream realm was quite a strange place, indeed. “Fluttershy, my butterfly is defective—”
“No I’m not!” the butterfly cried in protest as it made good its escape. “I’m beautiful and perfect.”
“O-o-oh my.” Fluttershy covered her mouth with one dainty hoof and she too, watched as the curiously vocal butterfly flew away, off to pollinate some nearby sunflowers, no doubt. “We shouldn’t judge, Sumac. All lies and jest, still a butterfly hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest, hmm.”
“What?” Baffled by Fluttershy’s curious words, Sumac couldn’t help but feel that this dream was steering into surreal seas.
“Nevermind.” Fluttershy sighed, shook herself, and swept her mane back down over her face. “We should frolic, Sumac.”
“Alright.” Sumac shrugged and then followed Fluttershy’s lead as she took off.
The colt, observant, noticed that Fluttershy flew in the dream without flapping her wings and this gave him ideas, marvellous ideas. Dreams didn’t have the same rules as the waking world, so as he bounded along after the sunny yellow songbird pegasus, he tried to will himself to break free of whatever gravity operated in this place.
Rules could be broken, pushed against, with magic rules could be stretched like so much taffy. Sumac understood this better than most, because his sorcery broke the known laws of magic to provide a wellspring of near-limitless power. Not so much for himself, but for others, but such was the life of a sorcerer. But that was okay, it was all okay, because Sumac understood the real power of his sorcery, and it was friendship. His friends would keep him safe, friends like Fluttershy, a pony that he admired even if she smelled like animal pee sometimes.
With each bound, Sumac went higher, and higher, and higher still. He was clearing the tops of the honeysuckle and the tall grass and in triumph, he clicked his hooves together just as he was prone to do when pronking. Either the ground was growing rubbery, or Sumac was getting lighter, because now it felt as though the rules were breaking down.
Nearby, the sunflowers began tittering, they giggled while swaying side to side.
Bubbling with laughter, Sumac was overcome by the sheer joy of the moment, and at the apex of his next pronk, he broke free. Shooting upwards, he let out a startled cry, his joy fleeing from him, and beneath him, the ground retreated. In the span of a single eyeblink, the ground now appeared to be miles away. With wide, troubled eyes, Sumac looked at the startled pegasus hovering beside him.
“Help me,” he squeaked.
Then, Sumac fell. Drawn downward by cruel force, he fell once more, just as he had done over Ponyville, but there was no Rainbow Dash to save him. In mere seconds, he was going to so fast that the air made his eyes sting and his four legs flailed about as his panic tried to make him run.
With a fierce expression, Fluttershy dove, she plunged like a kestrel after its prey.
Sumac reached up as Fluttershy reached down, but the gap between them remained constant. Below, the ground seemed to be retreating away from Sumac even as he fell, and the colt kept his eyes locked on Fluttershy’s eyes as the determined pegasus did everything within her power to save him. As his heart smashed against his ribs, the colt started to suspect that his saviour would not be able to reach him.
It was soul-crushing to watch as Fluttershy poured everything she had into trying to save him, but it was all for naught. Forelegs outstretched, Sumac strained to reach her, not only to save himself, but also to comfort her, as he could see the tears welling up in her eyes. Every second spent in freefall was absolute terror and Sumac was certain that his heart would burst within his ribs at any moment.
“Go still, Sumac!” Fluttershy hollered at him. “Go still, and be calm! Think butterfly thoughts!”
Such a thing seemed impossible given the circumstances, but Sumac understood. Thinking butterfly thoughts was the key to lucid dreaming. Twisting around in the air, Sumac faced the ground, tucked in his legs, and accepted his fate. Crashing would not be the end, no, it would just be really, really scary. Eyes glazed from wind and fear, the colt forced his breathing to slow down and now, the ground was rushing up to meet him, where as before, the ground had fallen away from him even as he plummeted.
“Calm thoughts, Sumac!”
It sounded as though Fluttershy needed calm thoughts and Sumac gave the distraction a mental shove. What was there to be afraid of? Everything! Heights were scary now after what had happened to him, falling was awful, but the worst part was the sudden stop at the end. On impact, he would be a puddle, yes, he would be gooey puddle of something that resembled fondue.
Spreading his forelegs, Sumac fell in a swan dive and kept his eyes locked upon the ground below, refusing to look away even for an instant. It wasn’t real, it wasn’t solid, it was just a construct, something made of dreamstuff and it was only as tangible as he believed it to be. It didn’t have to be ground, it could be chocolate spongecake if he so desired.
“Fluttershy, you have to be calm too!”
“I’m trying!”
“Stop flapping,” Sumac said and his voice was torn away from his muzzle by the force of the wind. “No matter what you do, you can’t catch me.”
“O-o-oh.” Fluttershy’s whine made Sumac’s ears perk. “You’re right.”
The ground was close now, and getting closer with every passing second. A verdant meadow, windflowers, honeysuckles, a few trees, and a patch of sunflowers prone to giggling. A bumble bee with a fedora and a briefcase. Somewhere below was a butterfly secure in his belief that he was pretty and perfect. In this realm, these things were possible, and as such, anything was possible, just as it was with magic.
Sumac began to slow and he leveled out in the air. Overhead, Fluttershy had closed her eyes and she fell with her wings limp, trailing above her. The air around him had a strange thickness to it now, it acted as a near-solid and felt almost like a dry liquid. Reaching out with his mind, Sumac willed the ground to come to him. Twilight and Trixie both had taught him about focus, about control, and Lemon Hearts was teaching him how to still his mind so he could control his temper tantrums.
There was a pop from Fluttershy’s direction and Sumac saw a bright yellow and pale pink butterfly fluttering down to him. The wind found no purchase, and the butterfly was untroubled by turbulence. The Flutterfly had gone beyond wind, beyond the physical, and she now existed as a construct of this place. Sumac realised that his sorcery had touched her somehow, though he did not know how, but he could sense it, he felt it and the knowledge burned within his mind. Here, he did not need zap apples—because the rules were different. He only needed calm control and force of will.
When she landed on his nose, Sumac began to drift like a leaf on the breeze, and was no longer in any danger at all from falling. Sucking in wind, he tried to control his breathing and his lungs burned from his prolonged panic. His trust in his friends had saved him. Was that the lesson here? He wasn’t able to do much to save himself, but he could trust in others to save him. The Flutterfly had saved him and as he drifted down to the ground, he tried to puzzle out the meaning to all of this.
With his hooves on the ground and the Flutterfly still on his nose, Sumac watched as a midnight blue alicorn slipped off between the trees in the nearby copse. She stepped into a shadow and then was gone, leaving Sumac to reflect upon his thoughts with Fluttershy. A lesson had been learned here, but what? And for what reason? Why go through all this trouble?
Now, Sumac had questions.