Inside the door was something so normal that it took Ash completely by surprise. It was basically a school cafeteria, only scaled up for grown-ups. Tables, chairs, plants, everything in what looked like plastic. It was considerably larger than the cottage could have fit, probably able to seat several dozen ponies. A few ponies were milling around, eating their homemade packed lunches, or whatever they should be called at the middle of the night. Most of them were batponies—thestrals—Ash had to remind herself.
"So, you want a soda or some snacks?", Dream Drop asked as she walked past Ash. She rummaged through one of her ubiquitous bags and produced a shiny bit and walked over to a vending machine nearby. "Most folks here drink Colt-a-cola for the caffeine or just drink coffee, but I don't think that's a good idea for somepony your age... Not that you'd have to worry about being unable to sleep."
The last part had clearly gone unheard by Ash, who was poking at one of the artificial bushes. "So is all this really inside the, umm, Dreaming?"
"Mm-hmm." Dream Drop answered as she pulled a bottle of Para-Sprite from the machine and put it on a table next to them, plopping a straw in the bottle for good measure. "Boss wanted to make a place that was as every-day real as she could for ponies to relax in, and I guess this is what she came up with." She sat down and motioned towards the bottle. "All yours."
Ash climbed up to one of the chairs next to the table and pulled the bottle to herself, taking a deep draw from the straw. "Hey, it tastes like the real thing!"
Dream Drop shrugged. "It is real. Just don't ask me how it works. Everything here is real, brought from the Waking."
"Waking? Is that what you call where I come from?" Ash asked before taking another sip.
Dream Drop scratched her chin. "That's where I live too, you know. I have a nice little place in one of the cave communes up North."
"Ohh... I kinda thought you lived here," Ash said.
"Nope. I just work here. Nopony really lives here, even though some ponies complain that they feel like they do."
Ash kept scanning the room while she finished her drink. There were small posters on the walls with sentences like "No sleeping on the job!" and "This is the workplace of your dreams!"
A sharp male voice surprised them both. "Hey Dee-Dee! I didn't know it was 'bring your family to work day'." The voice belonged to a young thestral with a bright blue coat and the widest smile Ash had ever seen on someone. And it would have probably been one of the nicest too, if it weren't for the fangs. Those still needed some getting used to.
"It's, uhh, it's not," Dream Drop answered. Ash noticed that for some reason her cheeks were growing darker. "It's complicated."
"Hey, lil' miss," the young stallion offered a hoof to Ash. "Nice to meetcha. I'm Nap Stack."
Ash shook his hoof. "Ashley, but everypony c—"
Without letting her finish, Nap Stack already continued. "So Ashley, do you know where fish sleep?"
Ash's mouth was left open for a moment until the words caught up with her. She squinted for a moment in deep thought, then shook her hed.
"The river bed, of course!"
Ash couldn't help but giggle, which conveniently covered the groans coming from Dream Drop.
"Okay, okay, here's another one: Do you know—"
Dream Drop coughed unnecessarily loudly. "I'm really sorry, Nap, but we need to go. Right now."
Nap Stack seemed to deflate a bit. "But I was just getting started..."
"I know you were," Dream Drop said as she gently nudged Ash towards one of the exits.
"Bye, Mr. Nap Stack!" Ash waved behind her as they stepped through yet another door.
They ended up on a long slightly shimmering path through deep darkness that felt slightly chilly beneath Ash's hooves, with only stars above. It was easily wide enough for the two ponies to walk side by side.
"He seemed nice," Ash said. "And funny."
Dream Drop sighed. "He is very nice, but his jokes stop being funny after you hear them for the thousandth time."
"So why did you blush when you were talking with him?" Ash asked innocently.
Her answer was a sudden coughing fit from Dream Drop, who for some reason hurried forward on the path to yet another door that seemed to appear out of nowhere. Behind the door they stepped on a high platform above huge, steaming vats of bubbling liquids in all the colours of the rainbow. As Ash was leaning over the rail to get a closer look, something was plopped on her head. When she turned to look a Dream Drop, the mare was also putting on a bright yellow safety helmet. "We have to wear these here. Boss's orders," she said.
"So what's in them?" Ash asked, returning to lean over the rail and pointing a hoof downwards. Through the steam she could make out several ponies scurrying around the vats, all of them wearing white lab coats and helmets. "Do I get a coat like that too?" she added.
Dream Drop had already walked a few steps forward, only then noticing that her charge was still occupied. "You don't need one unless you work here." She motioned forward with a hoof. "Come on, we can get a better view from over here."
Ash quickly trotted after Dream Drop, turning her head to each side, trying to catch everything in the dim light, constantly fighting to keep the oversized helmet from falling over her eyes. There were transparent tubes of the various liquids running everywhere, machines with a lot of different dials and lights on them, and a very important looking machine with a billows that went ´parp´. They soon arrived at a wider platform, suspended in the middle of the room above what looked like a control center. Several important looking ponies were working on dials, twisting knobs and making notes in their clipboards.
"This is where we manufacture all the dreams that ponies see at night." Dream Drop said. "Yellow dreams are happy, blue dreams are sad, pink dreams are silly, and so on. Then we mix them up to make specific dreams."
Ash looked at one of the tubes which was merrily bubbling next to them. "So that's a dream?"
Dream Drop nodded. "We don't know what the dream ends up as exactly, because everypony has their own idea of what is happy or sad."
"So why do you make sad dreams? Wouldn't it be better for everypony to just see happy dreams?"
"It's a bit complicated, but basically everypony needs every type of dream once in a while."
Ash looked at the tubes in deep thought for a moment. "So maybe happy dreams to cheer them up when they've been sad, but also sad dreams when they're really happy so they remember that sad things can happen too? And maybe when they dream of sad things the happy things they do when awake feel even happier?"
Dream Drop didn't answer her immediately, and Ash turned to look at her. She was staring at Ash with her mouth slightly open. When their eyes met, she quickly shook her head and nodded. "Something like that, yes."
"Wow. Mrs. Shallot must have a lot of really silly dreams because she's always so serious." She prodded one of the pink tubes running next to her and it bubbled merrily at her. "Maybe that's her dream tonight?"
"It could be," Dream Drop answered. "Now, let's go meet up with the labponies. They might be able to explain more to you." She looked to the side before adding. "And maybe to me too as well."
A stairway soon lead them downwards to floor level and after dodging a pair of ponies pushing a sloshing barrel, they ended up at yet another door. "Now remember, no touching anything in here, okay?" Dream Drop said. After Ash gave her a very serious nod, she pushed the door open.
If the previous room had been full of tubes, then this room went overboard with them. Glasses and bottles of various sizes were bubbling and steaming on various tables around the room. The smell of various chemicals wafted in the air, some of them reminding Ash of shampoo and downy pillows. Several ponies were working around, covered from head to hoof in protective gear, from rubber boots to goggles and surgical masks.
Dream Drop leaned over a counter. "Hey, Deep Dive, got a minute?"
One of the labponies, a skinny Earth Pony with a dull brown coat and a mane apparently styled after an explosion walked over to them. As he removed his mask, a small stubble of a beard was revealed from underneath, but he left his goggles on. "I thought you were doing the rounds tonight?"
"I was, but then I met with Ash here..." she pointed at the filly next to her, who gave the stallion a wave of her hoof "...that didn't fall asleep from sleep dust."
Deep Dive scratched the back of his neck. "You think it was a bad batch of dust?"
"I did, but it worked just fine on the other ponies, so maybe there's something else going on here?"
"Hmmm..." Deep Dive said. He pulled a pouch very much like the ones on Dream Drop's vest from underneath the counter. "Ash, was it? Could I bother you to come over here and sit down for a moment?" He motioned for a soft-looking chair that looked very much out of place in the middle of all the laboratory equipment, especially because there was another pony asleep on it. "We use it to test new batches we make, and the one I have here was just checked to work, thanks to Hopper here." He prodded the pony on the chair in the side. "Hey, Hopper, time to get back to work!"
After a few grumbles about five more minutes, Hopper climbed up from the chair and sauntered out the door. Ash climbed up into the chair and lay back, feeling herself sink comfortably into a snuggly position. Dream Drop sat on a simple small chair next to her and took the safety helmet off of Ash's head to let get get comfortable.
Deep Dive took a tiny pile of the dusty sand in the pouch and gently blew it over Ash's face. It had a scent of deep, moist forest at dusk, and a hint of minty freshness to it. She blinked her eyes a few times as the sand sparkled on her coat, but just like before, nothing else happened.
"Curious," Deep Dive said. "Are you sure you haven't been drinking loads of coffee or something? Or anything else that might keep you awake?"
Ash shrugged. "We aren't allowed to drink coffee because Mrs. Shallot says it's only for grown-ups. She drinks a lot of it, though."
"Then it might be genetic," Deep Dive said. "Do you know if your—" he started, but had his head quickly pulled to the side as Dream Drop whispered something to his ear. "Uhh... nevermind," he said. He scratched his stubbly beard, looking at Ash with a tilted head. After a while, his mouth turned into a smile. "I think I have an idea. I'll be right back." He soon vanished from Ash's view behind the laboratory equipment, his figure twisting weirdly as he walked bahind the various curved glass surfaces.
"Hey, Dee-Dee, what's 'genetic' mean?" Ash asked
Dream Drop fidgeted awkwardly with her hooves. "You don't need to worry about it."
"Umm, okay," Ash said. She let her gaze wander around the laboratory, looking at the bubbly liquids dance in their pipes as they went on their merry way, before turning to look Dream Drop straight in the eyes. "Is there something wrong with me?" she asked.
Dream Drop leaned over her and stroked her mane. "Not as far as I know, no. You might be special in some way, but I don't think it's anything dangerous." After she saw Ash smile, she continued. "I'm pretty sure the labponies can figure it out."
As if on cue, Deep Dive returned, balancing a metal tray in her mouth. When he set it down, a shiver ran down Ash's back as she saw the small syringe and the needle on it. "I need to check a few things, and the best way to do it is to take a little blood sample."
"Do we have to?" Ash asked, still looking at the needle hesitantly.
Deep Dive nodded and smiled. "Don't worry, it's just a tiny little pinch, you'll hardly notice it."
Ash swallowed the lump in her throat down and tried to put on a brave face. "O-okay," she said, only slightly stammering.
Deep Dive got to work on Ash's forehoof, putting a little tournique around it. Then he picked up the syringe. "Here we go. It'll be over before you know it"
Ash watched as the needle slowly got closer, and turned to look at Dream Drop. She took a hold of Ash's other forehoof and held it tightly, all the while smiling. There was a tiny sting that made Ash go "Eeep," but it was over almost immediately, and when she turned to look, Deep Dive was already putting a little plaster on her forehoof.
"All done," he said. "Now I'm going to run some tests on this. It'll take a while so maybe you should check back here later?"
Dream Drop nodded. "I'm supposed to cover for a friend over at the carnival square, so we'll be back after that."
"Wait, carnival?" Ash asked, immediately forgetting to prod at her plaster. "We're going to a carnival?"
"I told you that I promised to take care of Rem's shift earlier, right? She's a friend of mine who works at the dream carnival tonight."
Ash was out of the chair and bouncing all over happily. "Carnivaal carnivaal I'm going to a carnivaal," she sang her made-up song, until there was a loud thump and the jingling of glass above her. As her eyes shot up, she saw a complicated assortment of glass bottles and tubes that were teetering close to the edge, but apparently right at the last moment decided not to fall onto her head. She turned to look at Dream Drop with a sheepish look on her face. "Uhh, sorry."
Dream Drop plopped Ash's helmet back on. "Let's go before you do something expensive, okay?"
Ash nodded, and followed Dream Drop to the door, waving goodbye to Deep Dive as she went.