It was a hard day for Robin and Dream. With Joyce and Lyra leaving, both felt a little empty, but what really hit each was that Tufts was gone. Throughout the morning they talked together of what they would do now that they had to learn on their own, and eventually reached a consensus: explore.
The two fillies climbed up on their sleeping perch just before eleven in the morning, and folded their wings around their bodies. It didn't take either more than three breaths before sleep came.
Dream Thunder spread her wings and stretched. "Robin, are you there?" She looked around the old mango tree, and eventually spotted her sister nibbling from a piece of fruit higher up. The tree, seemingly older than anything else in the world (or so it seemed to Dream) twitched in delight at having its fruit eaten.
Climbing up the tree was not a hard task—there were oddly shaped branches sticking out all over the place, but all were perfectly placed for a bat pony to climb from. Reaching Robin's side, Dream gave a little screech at her sister.
The dream world wasn't easy to get used to, and while Robin had practiced and practiced, when there was a good mango to be eaten it was hard to focus on other things. Chewing away, she gulped down the last shred of mango and dropped the heavy seed (all that remained of the poor fruit) to the ground. "Screech to you too. Oh! We had a plan."
"Mango breaks are important, but we do have a plan, and I think we need to reach out to someone." Dream stretched one wing out and pointed into the distance. "It just feels right."
"Are we going to them, or are they coming to us?" Robin's eyes already twitched, looking at another ripe mango just within her reach.
"Both. We have to go there and find her, but I think we can bring her here after that. Want to help?" Dream grabbed her own mango and started biting at it, stripping away some skin so she could attack the delicious flesh within.
With a little screech, Robin nodded in agreement. "Sure. I might need another mango first. For energy, of course." She grabbed her own mango and, for some time, both bat ponies hung in place eating.
The dim light overhead seemed to change. The shadow of the mango tree lengthened in one direction and then stopped. Both fillies finished off their mango and dropped the seeds to the ground below. Sharing mangoes was always a good way to make the hot day pass. Night was falling upon the land, and though both fillies would be waking up soon, time was easy to stretch and squeeze in a dream.
"We need to fly north. I think she's asleep now." Dream Thunder pointed off with a wing. "Race you there?" When Robin let out and excited screech, Dream replied with her own. As Dream swung out and spread her wings, she gestured at the seeds below and gathered them up, making them small enough for a bat pony to carry while flying.
The flight seemed to take days, maybe even a week, but both fillies kept flapping until Dream Thunder called out and pointed. Below them was a lone bat pony fighting at shadows around her. "First to break ten shadows wins a mango!"
Robin screeched at her sister and dove at her side. One mare on her own, fighting at the monsters of her dreams, could do nothing but stave off the attacks, but the mare had two of the battiest bats that ever batted.
Thumb-claws and hooves were useless against the shadows, but the two fillies quickly showed the mare that a bat's wing, through the shadow's center of mass, could dissipate them.
To Robin's delight the stranger didn't just relax and, together, all three bat ponies finished off the dark shapes with countering slashes of their wings such that the creatures couldn't duck, dodge, or weave quickly enough to escape.
"What were those things?" The strange bat pony asked.
"Shadows. Not nice ones. Are you okay?" Dream Thunder looked at the mare with shock. Standing proud on the stranger's forehead was a horn. A sense of panic that was an entirely pony reaction mixed with awe. "P-P-Princess?"
"It was 'prince,' but then things changed. I guess princess will do. Ugh, where are my manners." Straightening herself a little, the alicorn bat pony held out a wing and curled it before herself. "My name is Princess James, although Screech has been sounding better… Oh! Thanks for helping!"
"Screech is a really batty name." Bouncing in place, Robin was still full of excitement at beating up the nasty shadows. "Are you really a princess?"
"Last time I looked. Uh…" Screech looked at Dream, then waved a wing before her face. "Is your friend okay?"
"You're a bat princess! You're the pony I had to help!" Rearing up, Dream Thunder let loose a loud screech and flapped her wings in excitement. "I found you! All on my own! This is awesome!"
"I thought this was all a dream. Where are we?" Screech looked around the strange place. There were shadows (but not the monstrous kind) of buildings and structures around where she had gone to sleep, but everything seemed indistinct—except for Dream and Robin.
"This is the Dreaming! It's like a shared dream, but is also attached to the real world. It's—" Dream Thunder froze and bowed her head. "Your Highness, I'm sorry for not doing this sooner. My name's Dream Thunder, and this is Robin Robertson." The fight, and realizing she had found who she had been meant to, had caused Dream to get overexcited. That she had been talking to a real honest-to-Celestia alicorn princess without introducing herself first left her mortified.
"Oh no! I have to put up with bowing while awake, there's no way you are doing it while I am sleeping, too. Besides, you saved my life." Looking a little embarrassed, Screech let out a sigh. "I'm not used to any of it, truth be told. I'm so far down the tree of those likely to be on the throne that no one thought to even teach me all this stupid etiquette."
Robin was a lot less conscious of being in the presence of royalty (be it Equestrian style or earth style). "So how'd you become a prince—err, princess?"
Screech closed her eyes to think back to the event. "Family picnic—and by that I mean a really boring day spent with boring people—but then my third-cousin started yelling about her baby, Prince Alistair, being missing. I'm not saying she wasn't keeping an eye on him, but she wasn't. Next thing I know all the servants at the castle were going crazy looking so I joined in too.
"He was playing in a stream that winds through the grounds, and had fallen in. I didn't even know CPR, but I'd seen it on TV, right? Turns out I remembered pretty good." Screech let out a pitiful sigh. "Poor little guy, but he made it, and Gran was so thankful she gave me a letter."
"A letter?" Robin tilted her head to the side in confusion.
"You know what they say about letters with windows in them being bad? Well, letters hand-written by the Queen of England can be worse. Next thing I know everyone's calling me Prince James, and I have to be on TV and…" With a sound akin to her namesake, Screech shook her head. "I came here for a holiday to get away from all the madness. It's going great, except for the bits whenever anyone opened their mouth, and then my security detail—bunch of big guys who don't listen to a word I say—start yelling that we have to get to the airport."
"The Knowing." Dream Thunder couldn't hold back a little grin.
"Right, The Knowing. So everyone else starts groaning and grabbing at various bits of themselves but I feel a huge rush and bam. I woke up like this." Gesturing to herself with a wing, Screech let out a sigh. "Now it's worse. Everypony looks to me for help. It's like just having a horn means—"
Dream cut in on Screech's complaint. "It means your a princess—you're meant to be in control."
"That's what everypony says. They act like I should just know what to do, but I don't. I need them to listen and help me do what I know needs to be done!" Ruffling her wings in agitation, Screech began to pace. "And it didn't help that I kept getting more and more tired. Those things—the shadows—they were doing something to me."
"Tjinimin said they would drain a bat. I think they were feeding off you." Robin stared back at where the shadows had been, but then snapped her head around to look at Dream. "Wait! That's what this was all about! You came here to help Screech defeat the shadows and get everypony to listen to her!"
Staring at Robin, Dream blinked a few times and then looked at Screech. "That… Is that right?"
"I need someone to help me!" Screech didn't realize how desperate she sounded until the words left her mouth. Then it sank in: she really did need help. "I just want to help everypony."
"Well, between Tjinimin and Yingarna teaching her, Dream Thunder knows everything there is to know about Australia." Robin reached her wing up to hug Dream. "Right?"
Screech couldn't stop her instincts from making her tilt her head to the side a little. "You mentioned that name before. Who's Tjimin and Yinarna?"
"Tjinimin is the bat god. He gave us these,"—Dream Thunder spread her wings and wiggled her tufted ears—"and Yingarna is the Rainbow Snake. She is the reason magic isn't going even crazier. They helped me make The Knowing, and—"
"Wait! Hold on! You made The Knowing? All that… and the… Is there really a sea-green unicorn who guards us all?" Screech wracked her brains searching for more questions, but The Knowing had been all about answers. Answers packed into her head so tight it was impossible to get them all together at once.
Robin let out a little sigh. "Lyra? She had to leave. She might come back to visit."
"Okay. Dream, Robin, how quickly can you two get to Canberra? I need that help and I need it as soon as you can give it." Looking between the two girls, Screech's heart dropped as they both looked guilty. "You're not coming, are you?"
"I can't leave Cowwarr," Dream said, then at the confused look on Screech's face, continued. "Little town, where all the magic ripped through from—from another world. Part of that world slipped through as well, but Tjinimin said it was stable now."
"I could go." Robin's heart was thudding like a drum. "Princess Screech needs one of us. I can go and help."
Dream Thunder shook her head. "Robin, you can't! You're only—"
"Wait. How old are you both? I know everypony looks like a teen now, but you two look a little younger." Screech looked between the two girls, then fixed her eyes on Robin. "And you look younger still."
"I'm old enough to have my cutie mark." Turning side-on, Dream Thunder lifted a wing to make her cutie mark more visible.
Robin nodded and turned to the side. "Me too!"
"If you need somepony, Robin can help. If nothing else, she knows enough Dreaming magic to keep you safe at night." Blinking rapidly, Dream pulled the three mango seeds out that she had been carrying somewhere. "Oh, and I need to plant these. They should grow quickly if somepony is here to take care of them." She gave Robin a significant look.
"Look, okay. But you have to talk to your parents first." Screech shook her head and took a deep breath. "I wouldn't normally do this, but I need somepony to help me or the whole country is going to go crazy."
"Robin's mum has gone to study medicine in Equestria, but my mum is looking after her. I'll wake up and talk to her." Reaching a wing around Robin, Dream Thunder squeezed her little sister. "Make sure the princess is safe, and you're safe. The mango trees come a distant third. Okay?"
Robin nodded to Dream. "I'll take care of her. You talk to Candela for me, okay?"
Dream nodded to her little sister and then locked eyes with Screech. "And you take care of her, too. Treat her like your sister. Protect her and she'll protect you." When Screech nodded, Dream took a deep breath. "Wake up, sleepy heads."
Screech woke and was again Princess Screech. She looked around the state room she had slept in every night since she had turned into a baticorn. Everything seemed perfectly normal except for the other bat pony laying on the side of the huge bed.
Jerking awake, Robin looked around with a worried expression until she spotted Screech. "Why are you sleeping on a bed? This is really uncomfortable." She twisted around and flopped off the side of the huge bed, landing on her hooves.
"That dream was real." Screech stared at the slightly smaller bat pony. "Robin?"
"That's me!" Robin spread her wings out and gave a few test flaps. "Don't worry. If something bad comes for us, Dream will help."
Firm knocking came from the door, and Screech rushed around the bed and over to it. "I'm alright! Don't panic! I have a new—a new guard." Every morning since The Knowing Screech had felt worse and worse. Her thoughts would be muddled and confused deeper into each day. Now, with the shadows gone, she felt alive again. It was humbling for her to realize that Robin had been instrumental in that.
Opening the door, Screech poked her head out. "Guys?" The word was a bit unclear now given three of the four bodyguards were now three-quarter transformed female bat ponies. There was only two of her guards standing at the door. "Come in and say hi to Robin."
The guards, despite their half-formed legs, moved swiftly to rush into the room lest Robin actually be a threat. When they saw Robin, however, both relaxed noticeably. "Your Highness, why do you have a child in your room?"
"Because she saved my life once already. Remember The Dreaming?" Both guards stiffened at Screech's reminder. "She can fight off the monsters. There was a pack of them attacking me in my dreams. She and her sister saved me."
"It wasn't the food?" Roy, the only guard who hadn't become female so far, raised one eyebrow.
"There were shadows living in the Dreaming. Whenever Princess Screech went to sleep, they would attack her. But me and Dream showed her how to fight them!" Robin puffed her chest out with pride. "And we're trying to make all the Dreaming around here safer with mango trees."
Thanks to The Knowing, both guards had an idea there were monsters beyond their ability to handle. But both were forced to look at Robin with at least a measure of respect. They were (had been, at least) very practical men, and now they were becoming very practical bat ponies.
"I'm glad to have a specialist on board. If there's anything we can do to help, ma'am, let us know." Roy gestured to Peter, his fellow bodyguard.
Peter nodded, not as vocal as his workmate, but supporting the sentiment.
"That can be handled later." Screech felt a new rush of excitement. When she had transformed initially, there had been a certainty that she had a job to do and that she could do it. With Robin at her side she had regained that inherent knowledge. "I have a country to save."
"Wait!" Robin stood resolutely, and her exclamation caused both bodyguards to go on the alert. She gulped at that, but turned all her attention on Screech. "You just got up. You need to do your mane and tail at least. If you're going to be a princess for everypony, you need to look like one."
The suggestion cut through the predominantly male mindsets of both guards and Screech. The princess herself looked a little crestfallen that she had forgotten to maintain even basic stateliness. "See, guys, this is why we need a mare around."
Leaving Robin to the task of preparing Princess Screech for the day, Roy and Peter, as one, slipped back into the hallway and closed the door behind them.
"And I'll get somepony to make you a proper perch. That bed is horrible for a bat pony to sleep on. It's too soft, and you can't hang." Robin poked her tongue out at the huge bed.
"Alright, alright. But I have no idea what a perch for a pony would be like. Come on, I should probably have a bath, too." Screech trudged toward the suite's bathroom.
"I wasn't going to mention the smell. That's another reason bats shouldn't sleep on beds!" Robin pinched her nose as she followed Screech, only half in jest.