//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: Responsibilities // by Hiver //------------------------------// The dream realm shimmered around me as I flicked through the bad dreams, the portals moving before me. Not a single Nightmare yet today. While it was boring, boring was a good thing. Boring meant no ponies being terrorized, which was a very good thing. Didn’t change the fact that things were boring though. Even worse, since I learned how to do this, normal dreaming didn’t work. No random entertaining dreams. It just didn’t work, I tried. It was either fully… well, awake was the wrong word… but it was this or completely asleep with no dreams. Getting up, I stretched and spread my wings before looking around. Sleep until morning or stop by a friend? Sorting out their portals, I looked around them. A couple were just deep calm sleep, Swift Spear and Silver Leaf were deep asleep. Thunder Cloud was having a pink dream which meant not touching it with a large pole. Sunset and Twilight were missing which was amusing but also not surprising considering Twilight was leaving early tomorrow morning. Luna was still awake. Applejack was also having a pink dream so that’s out, we weren’t that close anyway. Rarity was having a mild nightmare. Not uncommon, she was always so stressed, that often leads to nightmares. Except on Thursdays I noticed. Then her dreams were always calm and sometimes even pink. Reaching out, I tapped my horn against the dream. The mirror of her dark silvery portal calmed down to a smooth silver shine of calm sleep. There, she’ll sleep better now. Well, don’t want to bother her now. I sent her dream away with a smile and a flick of my hoof before I looked at Cadence’s dream. It shimmered a bright pink. I think I've only seen her have a nightmare a couple of times and blue maybe a dozen times. Pink was normal for her as expected of the alicorn of love. No way in hell I stepped a single hoof in there, no matter how curious, if just for the fact that I’m pretty sure she would be able to tell. Out of all the Alicorns, her Realm was the closest to mine, even closer than Luna. She couldn’t Dreamwalk, but that’s likely because she never learned to. Even before I learned, I could feel when Luna entered mine. At least as soon as I realized what that feeling was. I visited her a couple of times in the past, I bet she would be able to tell by now. So, while I may be a bit curious about exactly what the Alicorn of Love might dream of so strongly so often, there was no way in hell I’d check. Also, the 'not being able to look her in the eye afterwards' also factored in heavily. Shining Armor was missing. Working late wasn’t uncommon but him pulling longer hours than me was rare. Must be preparing for something big, wasn’t there some kind of holiday coming up that I knew of? Maybe something special for just the Crystal Empire? Turning to the next portal, Celestia was sleeping a calm blue dream. I think I’ll drop by and see how she’s doing today. Touching my horn to the dream, I passed through the portal to find myself on a mountain cliff overlooking the ocean. The sun was shining far above and the grass was waving in the soft wind. By the edge of the cliff was a smaller Celestia, looking out over the ocean far below. She had a pink white coat and long pink mane. She looked… She looked like she was younger than I was. Quite frankly, she was adorable! I couldn’t wait to tease her about this! Tapping my hoof against the grass, I solidified the dream to make her fully aware of what was going on instead of the normal dream state. Celestia flicked her right ear and blinked, looking around before she smiled, “Page. Welcome.” “Hi Sunshine,” I said and trotted over to sink down next to her, “This is a nice dream.” Celestia nodded and shifted a bit, looking up at me, “It’s close to where Luna and I grew up.” “It’s beautiful,” I said and looked down at the sea, “Where is it?” “Was,” Celestia sighed softly, “It fell into the sea thousands of years ago.” “Oh.” Celestia nodded, “Time always moves on. Even landscapes are not forever, Page,” she said and then smiled a bit, “It may not exist anywhere but here, but in here it’s still real.” “This can be as real as anything out there,” I said and smiled back, “If only for a little while.” She nodded and shifted to stretch her wings, “That’s very true,” she agreed, “I wouldn’t mind dreaming about this place a bit more often,” she admitted after a moment. “I’ll see what I can do, Sunshine.” “Thank you,” she said before looking up at one of the clouds, “…That one looks like a bunny.” “…Maybe if you squint?”