//------------------------------// // 32 The Dreamland, Part Three // Story: Continuity Disrupted // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// July 10th, 1000 Domina Solaria Applejack yawns as she slowly awakens, a rare occurrence for the farmer cuddling into her warm blanket. "No, Doug," she mumbles into her comfiest of pillows, "Ah'm too tired. Go bug Rainbow." The arm wrapped around her doesn't budge; Applejack's contented breath tickling the short hairs belies her acceptance of the fact that she won't be going anywhere for awhile, no matter the chores waiting to be done and apples waiting to be felled. Rainbow moans next to her on the couch as many of the mares strewn about the room stir, but none seem particularly insistent on getting up. Rainbow grunts out, "Ugh, fine. But you owe me, Applejack." She yawns as she rolls to her hooves, her eyes barely opening as she pushes Doug's comatose body onto his side. Applejack loses her headrest but not her blanket as she falls with Doug; she ends up on her side facing her stallion, clutching to his chest while his arm remains around her back, keeping her tucked close to him, no chance of letting her roll away from him and off the couch, the way her blond mane is spilling off. The pink mare laying next to the couch giggles at the tickling strands, yet remains still, a yawn from her as well. Rainbow roughly nudges Doug to his back, though it takes a few tries to move the mostly unresponsive and seemingly uncooperative human. She lays on top, her hind legs split by his hips, though she has to lightly kick Applejack away in order to slip a foreleg in between them. She lowers her legs, laying her full body across him and resting her barrel on his chest while her head finds the crook of his neck, muzzle just under his chin and facing her lead. "Your turn," she mumbles, her eyes closing. "Just don' wake me." If Doug heard her he doesn't move, his eyes shifting back and forth under his eyelids. Big Mac cautiously opens the door, then merely stands in his wheelchair in the doorway, taking in the scene in front of him. His green eyes narrow at Applejack's tired display; he's never known his sister to sleep in or miss an early start of work. Even when she was seven months along with Apple Bloom and the goal was to keep her from working all day, or from having to. In fact, he was half expecting her to come get him up, given how long Rainbow Dash and the rest of the herd had kept him in the orchards yesterday. Still an odd feeling, not using his hind legs to rejuvenate the trees. But it is working. The red earth pony's eyes draw to Rainbow, the mare he was expecting to need a little help waking up. From the looks of it, still does. While she sometimes has to get up for before dawn weather duties she certainly prefers starting an hour after breakfast. But since she rearranged her weather duties for the week so that the bulk of her weather work happens in the evenings, allowing her to devote herself to the competition, she needs to get up this early. But that still doesn't explain Applejack's odd behavior. In fact, Hedge should be awake at this time too, he could hear the chickens stirring as he walked past. But the filly is laying just next to Applejack, still fast asleep. Well, stirring a little, just like the rest of the herd. Wait, what is Twilight doing here? Nothing better have happened with her! Oh, and there's Spike. The deep throat clearing from the entrance of the Carrot House barely gets Rainbow Dash to stir, though Applejack opens one of her baggy eyes. She has to contort her body in order to regard her brother standing in the front doorway. She groans as she glances out the window. Still night. She yawns again, pushing herself up and out of her stallion's grasp. If her foreleg wasn't trapped between Rainbow and Doug this would be going a lot smoother. She gently tucks his arm next to him, out of the way, before tugging on her other hoof, Rainbow grumbling as she pushes up. One hoof comes off the couch, her whole body toppling off as she steps onto Pinkie Pie. "Ooh, is it my turn already?" Pinkie Pie exclaims as she pronks to her hooves. She glances around at the fillies still sprawled around her, not seeing any movement, then to Rainbow Dash laying on top of Doug. "Hmm, let's see." She leans in close, sniffing at Rainbow's flank. "Nope! Come on, slowpoke!" Her tongue laps out of her muzzle, eagerly smacking her lips. "Go'way, Pinkie," Rainbow Dash mumbles into Doug's neck, before uttering what no stallion ever wants to hear: "I don't know if he's done yet." "Um, I don't think he's started. Besides, Big Mac is here waiting for you." Pinkie Pie pushes Rainbow with a hoof as Applejack snores on the floor, her not-so-gentle reminder, "You don't want to get behind today, do you?" Doug loudly groans as Rainbow Dash steps on his body as she stumbles off of him. He rubs at his eyes, bloodshot despite the rest, then lightly massages his stomach. "Come on, Rainbow." He tries to smooth down the irritated skin, just a little reddened from the heavier horseshoe, "Watch where you're dragging those." "Not muh fault," Rainbow groggily states as she stumbles towards the kitchen. "Bad dream." "Oh, dear, it can't have been worse than mine," Fluttershy whimpers as she finds Hedge, drawing her filly in for a reassuring hug. Even if she is the one getting all the reassurance, Hedge still fast asleep. "Mine was very scary." Hedge kicks out in her dream, but this merely prompts the pegasus to grip even tighter. "Mine too!" comes the tired, yet slowly coming to, responses of most of the mares in the room. "That's possibly the second worst sleep I've ever gotten," Doug says with a stifled yawn. "Who wants breakfast?" He nods to the chorus of tired 'Me's, rubbing his face against his bicep as he gathers a few larger bowls. Rarity slowly comes to, her annoyance at falling asleep on her side dispelled by the sight of the purple unicorn happily snuggling into her belly. "Just like Sweetie Belle when she was young," Rarity softly remarks, "though I don't remember getting poked by her horn nearly as often!" She levitates a pillow, carefully lifts the snoozing unicorn, and slides out from underneath her as the pillow takes her spot. "Five more minutes, Velvet," mumbles Twilight Sparkle, grunting as she grips her new cushion, a frown at the lumpiness. She opens one eye, limply waving a hoof at Rarity as the white unicorn makes her way to the bathroom. She weakly calls, "Noooo... come back, I want my pillow back." Rarity merely smirks and winks at Twilight Sparkle's stretching form as she steps into the bathroom, reappearing a moment later with a brush straightening out the matted fur on one half of her coat. She gargles a bit of water before she smacks her lips a few times, remarking to Doug as she steps into the kitchen to assist, "It's been quite some time since I've fallen asleep not on my sheets. I can't say that I would recommend it. Especially with that dream ruining what little beauty sleep I was able to get!" "You too?" Doug asks as he greases up a few of the pans, Rarity lighting the burners and levitating a plate of greens to Rainbow's hungry mouth. All of the mares are struggling to their hooves, yawning as they awaken in the barely lit room. "It was dreadfully garish. Completely the wrong color scheme, like somepony was trying to pull off a Nightmare Moon costume using nothing but neon lights." Rarity shakes her head. Applejack walks up to the counter, grabbing herself some loose hay, "Ah don't know nothing bout no costume, but when this big blue smoke cloud came down on the apple trees, Ah knew there'd be trouble. And boy howdy was Ah right." "Blue smoke cloud?" utters Pinkie Pie, one eye scrunching as she tilts her head to the side. "My dream didn't have a cloud, but it was still horrible! It only had the third largest blue cotton candy cone I've ever had. But the taste was a little off, and the more I ate the worse it got! And by the time I finished it there was twice as much left over as when I started!" She shakes her head, tears streaming from her eyes, "What kind of candy is supposed to make you sick after you eat too much of it?" Rainbow Dash rubs her temples, "Pinkie, you don't have to eat all the candy in front of you. And that doesn't sound scary at all." "But!" Pinkie Pie says, her mouth hanging open in exasperation. Her forelegs chop down on the air to her right, "Candy! Taste good!" She repeats the motion to her left, "No taste good! No candy! It's like a mathematical proof!" Pinkie Pie begins salivating over how high she can 'proof' a sugar concoction, her grimace twisting like a candy cane to a grotesque smile. Rainbow Dash shakes her head, trying not to concentrate on her herdmate as she scarfs down whatever gets placed in front of her. "Still doesn't sound that scary," she says between bites. "Plus, it's probably just a coincidence. You know, brought on by too much..." She trails off, glancing at Applejack and gulping, "I mean, just enough hard work. Not too much to hoof, you know." Twilight Sparkle groans as she gets to her hooves, searching for her early morning coffee. She grunts as a glass of liquid levitates over to her, peering into the murky depths. Not black, the way she likes it, but more of a tan difficult to make out in the blue glow of Rarity's light. "I think you used too many sugars." "That's because it's orange juice, darling, not coffee." Rarity replies apologetically. "Oh." Twilight Sparkle takes a sip nonetheless, her frown at not having her early morning (and afternoon, and only sometimes late evening because of Princess Celestia's assignments) pick-me-up. She continues glowering as she says, "I don't know what could have given each of us a dream like that, but I do know somepony who might. Spike?" "Zznk? What?" Spike perks up, a very brief yawn as he stretches. "You need me?" He is instantly at the ready, no trace of the struggles the rest of the ponies seem to be going through. "Take a note," Twilight says sleepily, "this time to Princess Luna. She was said to have power over dreams. Maybe she can help." "F W D Princess Luna. Got it!" "Okay, let's see." Twilight Sparkle yawns, "Dear Princess Luna. Last night my friends all dreamt of a creature made of blue material." She smacks her lips a few times taking another sip of, sadly, not-coffee. "I'm sure you're very busy, but when you have the chance, please let me know if you have any idea what it could mean." She sighs into the glass of still-not-coffee, trying to shake the sleepiness out of her eyes. "Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle." "You young'ins ready for breakfast?" Applejack calls as she looks around the still-sleeping forms of the eight fillies, a frown at none of them having gotten up during the morning commotion. Hedge is almost always up by this point, filly knows her chores need to get done, and the animals don't like waiting. And she's never known Lemon to sleep through the sounds of pancakes sizzling. Some of the others come as no surprise: Applebaum would sleep through her bed being bucked, and Scootaloo goes back to sleep just as quickly. "Morning, sleepyheads!" Applejack tries as she pokes Apple Bloom with a hoof. Applejack tries a little louder, "Apple Bloom! Morning!" She frowns at the lack of response, glancing to the other mares in the room and getting worried looks in response. "Hey, they-" The front door slams open, Princess Luna thundering in the Royal Canterlot Voice, "WHICH'ST OF THOU SAW'ST THON CREATURE OF BLUE SMOKE IN THEIN NIGHTMARE??"