//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Dreamventures Two; Dreameeting. // Story: That Time I Became a Friendship Bomb // by Carmine Craft //------------------------------// I trotted off in the direction I saw Applejack go, intent on being useful. But I was stoped in my tracks, picked up, and drifted back over to Twilight. "Where are you going?" She gave me a smile. "To thank Applejack. I've gotta." I replied. "Well then you can help us! We're going to throw her a party."Twilight said enthusiastically. "Alright That sounds like something I can get behind." I wiggled in her magical grasp. Twilight giggled and put me down. "Alright. First things first though. Let's head back to to Golden Oaks and have spike get dinner ready. While that's happening we will continue your magic lessons." "How is magic going to help us thank applejack?" I asked her. "What do you mean? If you knew more about magic you would be able to help her a lot more than you think." Twilight gave me a raised eyebrow. "I understand that you grateful to her for saving the town, just like everyone else, but you seem almost overzealous in your want to thank her." I moved to counter, only to pause. Why am I so keen on thanking her? I've only met her once! "I-I guess so." That's just weird, ugh, friggen pony/child brain. "So, what's next for magic?" I asked, changing the subject. "Well, how far into those books did you get?" She asked. "Uhh... well... I didn't even get to start the first one when the stampede happened." I said, happy to have a valid excuse. "Ah, that makes sense, well it doesn't really get in the way of our current plans, but you will have to know some of what those books hold if you wanna learn any advanced spells." Aww, I was looking forward to things like fire magic though... "So what is next?" I repeated. "Next is just more basic levitation practice, to help you get the feel for magic better and to work out you magic source." "My what?" I asked, but before she could answer a thought dawned on me. "Wait, is that what all those purple lines I saw earlier were? They were your magic source?" I flipped back to my mental vision and looked to twilight. "Uhh ye- wait, you can already sense magic?" She asked in an even tone. "Uhm, maybe? If that's what I'm seeing then yours are very clean pathways that look kinda like a nervous system, or maybe vascular, that connects to your horn. Where as mine is just a mess of the stuff free floating around." I offered. In my mental vision I saw her jaw drop, I opened my eyes to see that it indeed had. Twilight held me in her gaze for a moment. "The things this filly does and doesn't know..." She muttered to herself. "Well, I wasn't expecting you to pick up the magic sense ability so quickly, since you only just recently became a unicorn, but that certainly does give us an edge in your studies." Twilight led us back to the loft. "Alright same exercise as before, lift the quill." Twilight said as the item floated lazily back over to us. "But first watch me do it. Watch how my magic behaves when I do this spell." She instructed. Letting the quill rest on the floor. "But how should I- oh, duh." I closed my eyes and looked over to Sparkle, she turned her head to me. "Am I going to be able to learn to do this with my eyes open? I mean I-that that would be extremely convenient." I stopped myself when I realized something. Being able to see all around you even with your eyes closed is a very useful skill. Huh, maybe my super crisp mental vision is left over from the time I spent as a spirit ball? Or what ever that was. "Yes you will, but for now you going to have to make due with just this." Twilight said before turning back to the quill. "Now watch closely." And I did, I saw as magic rushed around her magic veins for a moment before her horn lit up. I glanced over to the quill to see she had picked it up and was twirling it around in a similar fashion that I had attempted earlier. "See the little symbols in the spell?" She asked. "What symbols? All I see is, wait." I saw tiny little squiggles and lines floating around her horn. "Ah yep, there they are. I took a step closer and observed the symbols in finer detail. "Think you can copy the spell?" She asked me. I took another moment to memorize the placement of the runes before nodding. "Good, it's your turn then." I saw the magic die down and heard the sound of magic stop. Weird to think that magic itself has its own noise. I thought before turning my head to the feather. "Alrighty, take two." I flipped my mental vision onto myself again and began tracing the symbols I had seen in Twilights spell into my own, after I drew the last one- how am I even doing this?- I saw my blob of light blue magic shift and heard magic begin to form around my horn. I cast the magical aura onto the quill. This time picking it up was a lot easier. I opened my eyes and looked to my horn, it was alight with sky blue magic. So I did get the color right? Why was it periwinkle before though? I shelved that for later and moved the feather around a bit. While I could now pick up the thing, it didn't do exactly what I wanted it to. It would spin and twitch on its own. "Great! Your already doing much better than this morning!" Twilight praised. "But it won't stop twitching." I told her. She looked to the quill and then back to me. "Your not making it do that?" I shook my head, and the spell popped like a soap bubble at that time. "And it's gone. Why does it keep failing like that?" I asked, disappointed in my abilities. "You just ran out of magic, that's all. You did just become a unicorn, and your still just a filly, so you just don't have very much yet. The more you use your magic though, the more refined the pathways will become, you'll expand your source and use the magic you have more effectively at the same time" She explained. "Oh, well that's disappointing." I said. "How long till I can try again?" "Not too long, but I think we are going to be done for the night, let's go have dinner, Spike should have it done by now." We had a delicious meal, the main dish a vegetarian version of a BLT, along with more of that air fried hay that I learned they call hay fries, sometimes it's just that simple. After I finished my drink Twilight gave her next instruction. "It's about time for you to head to bed." Twilight said, looking over at the clock. "What? Why should I go to bed? It's not even that late!" I insisted. Twilight just rolled her eyes. "If your staying here with us then you going to have to go to bed at a normal time, I won't have you burning yourself out." Twilight countered. I moved to argue, I wasn't tired in the least, if anything I had way more energy than I should have had. But then I realized just how much of a child I would sound like. Alright, fine. I'll play your game, rule number one is don't piss off the teacher after all. It was about time I stopped just rolling with what the world wanted me to do anyway, I could go about things calmly and rationally. weather I like it or not, I am in a child's body, if I over work it I'll just be miserable. I agreed to Twilight's, and my own sound reasoning. "We can pick up on magic study first thing in the morning." She offered. "Okay, I'll see you in the morning then I suppose?" "Good night, my little pony, I have a bit of reading to catch up on." Twilight wished me. "And you too Spike, I'll see you both in the morning." With that she excused herself from the table and made her way to the library. Me and spike headed up to the loft, he settled into his dog bed and was out like a light. Isn't that degrading? Putting a sentient being into a pet bed? Either that or Im putting way to much thought into this, or perhaps I'm using human logic where it simply doesnt apply anymore? I sighed and I later down on my bed. I noticed the position I found most comfortable to sleep in and sighed. "Deffinetly doesn't apply anymore." I mumbled as I drifted off to sleep far faster than I thought I would. Luna Luna was sitting through another empty night court. It was disappointing, though she got to raise the moon as part of her royal duties no one seemed to expect much of her past that. She stretched her wings when she felt absolutely sure no one was coming. "Perhaps we shall walk the realm of dreams." She spoke. She departed for her chambers. "And perhaps we shall chance upon our new dream conductor." She spoke in the empty hallway. As she walked she gazed out the windows at her night sky. She layed down on her royal sized bed and departed the waking world, the goal to meet a certain filly in mind. The lunar princess calmed any and all nightmares she came across as she searched for a particular dream. Once she found it she quickly hopped in to see what the burgeoning dream conductor was up to. Luna found the young filly bucking a tree, but now she had a rather unique horn. "Mayhaps she is the young filly in the care of our sisters student?" Luna said from out of earshot of the filly. She did remember that a note concerning the foal had been sent to Tia that morning. Luna giggled at the cartoonish way the tree broke apart as the filly delivered a final kick. Blocks of tree, and even the leaves fell as cubes. She watched as the filly took one of the sections of tree in her magic and tore it apart into four equally sized blocks of sodden planks, then into a single wooden structure with a three by three grid atop it's surface. She proceeded to place all of the disassembled tree onto the grid and they were once again refined into planks, and some of them into sticks. She then combined some of the sticks with a fragment of stone from the previous day. Tis somewhat astounding she has kept the dream from last night to this. Luna thought. The items layed upon the grid combined into a rudimentary shovel, and she repeated the process, this time with two extra stone fragments. This created a miners pick. She placed the spare items into her saddlebags that appeared at her need for them. She then put the pick into a belt loop, and with the shovel in her aura began searching around the flatlands. Luna followed the filly, still invisable. She looked at her cutie mark and to the tools she carried. Mayhaps she wishes to be a miner in the future? She thought, regarding the six grey circles. The filly stabbed the shovel into the dirt, creating a perfectly square one cubic meter hole in the terrain. She picked up the left over soil and continued to dig. Eventually she struck stone and she swapped her tools. After three more perfect cubes of stone she fell slightly into a cave. The filly peered around the darkness, she trotted over to a small vein of some material and began swinging her pick. The mined area broke leaving what was quickly becoming the usual cubic meter. The filly took the dropped items in her aura and a few sticks from her bags. Combining the items resulted in a flash of light as Luna's eyes adjusted. The filly placed a torch near where she made her entrance to the cave and explored, another torch in her grasp. Every so often she would place it on the wall and pull it away, leaving an identical copy afixed to the wall. The filly mined a large amount of stone, as well as anymore coal she found. Eventually she came across a vein of ore, and broke her tool upon finishing the vein of it. She appeared satisfied with her work and made her way back to the surface by mining a spiral staircase. As the young dream conductor made her way to her abode Luna made her decision. Enow of this waiting, we are eager to meeteth the young one! But mayhaps we shouldst dawn a disguise? Luna constructed the appearance of a young pegasus filly, whose coat matched her own and mane was a light blue. She made it to match the aproximate age of the one she intended to meet. She placed herself behind a tree before becoming visable. She stepped out of the shade of the tree as the sun set, and trotted towards the house with a bounce in her step. But just as she was about to enter the clearing she heard a gurgling noise and heavy foot falls approaching from behind. Argent I had constructed a furnace and was watching my iron smelt. As soon as I had three pieces I built a replacement pickaxe. Everything I crafted was a touch more blockish than their real life counter parts would be. More of a realistic mix of minecraft and the actual items, but I actually liked it. I had one more piece of iron in ha-hoof and was waiting on the second one for a sword when I heard an earsplitting scream of terror. I shook of my surprise and pulled the freshly finished iron ingot out of the fire. I slammed the ingredients onto the crafting table and was out the door before it even finished crafting. The new blade trailing behind me in my aura. I ran at a full gallop in the direction of the now quieter but still just as fearful screams. I brought the sword up beside me, blade forward, ready to strike. I came upon the scene of a light blue pegasus child backed up against a tree, shivering with terror. Slowly approaching her was the realistic/pony version of a zombie, and I must say, its quite a bit creepier. I rammed into the side of its barrel and sent it flying back a few block-meters?-a good dozen feet away. I sent the sword forward after it. The zombie flashed red with each slash my blade inflicted, after three it fell over and dissapeared in a puff of smoke. I stood in a defensive position in front of the filly, casting my gaze this way and that, my breath heavy. Okay, that was alot scarier than I thought it would be. I thought. I turned to the pegusus. "Hey, it's okay now, the zombie is gone, but we should get inside, it's not safe out here." I told her sliding the sword into a sheath on my flank that I don't remember making. The pegasus nodded and I guided her back to the dream house. I should come up with a better name for it than that. A separate train of thought went as I made sure we made it back to the house incident free. After I locked the door behind us I turned to the filly. "Did it get you?" She didn't answer. I bumped my hoof against hers and she jumped. "Hey! Hey, its okay, were inside, no monsters." She looked about frantically. "We're safe I assured her. She seemed to calm down a little bit. where Did this girl come from? Is this my pony brains version of a villager? I thought. "Do you have a name?" I asked her. She swallowed. "L... we are Night Strider." She responded. I smiled warmly at her over my shoulder, I dug around in the fridge and willed any and all meat products out of existance. I grabbed six beetroots and a bowl before coming back over to her. I put said items on the crafting table. I pa-hoofed? her the finished stew. "Are you okay?" I asked her. She bent down and drank the stew, I could see the tension melt off her to a degree. "That! Th-that wast a member of the undead. What wast it doing here?" She asked in a slightly raised voice. Why is she speaking in such an archaic..? Okay she has to be a villager, no one talks like that, or maybe... I thought. "Well, before we get to that, where are you from?" I asked her, just to be sure. "We hail from Canterlot." She said. Okay? I don't remeber ever hearing that one. Two options here, my brain made a horse pun on Camelot, or that's am actual place in... it's not earth is it? I know the country is Equestria but what's the planet called? I shook my head. Not important, were back at fity fifty territory now. Well, occupants of dreams will actively deny that the world around them is a dream sooo... "Okay, you know that this is a dream right?" I tested. She cocked her head at me but nodded. Alright, now we're in seventy five percent in favor of her being real. "Alright, well, that thing wasn't real, it's just kinda based off this popular game where I'm from, the whole dream is actually." She- Night Strider, didn't seem to know how to take that. "Tis not real? Tis but a game? What kind of game involves the undead?" She asked, looking at me shocked. "The game was no where near as realistic, the zombies and other mobs were little to be afraid of." I assured her. Something rammed against the front door, causing night strider to jump. "Scrap thats alot scarier like this." I said, startled. I turned from the door back to the filly now hiding under the cushions of my couch. "I'll go deal with that guy before he busts my door, you stay here okay?" She nodded and I turned to the door. It was breaking at about a fifth of the pace a normal wooden door usually would. I readied my blade before a thought occurred to me. I had the time to act on it so I walked back over to the crafting table and made all my remaining wood into fences. I pulled the stack of items apart with my magic. If only it was this easy in the waking world. I mentally sighed while putting the stack back together. I charged a spell in my horn as I stood before the door. Once I felt it powerful enough I poked the lock spell, the door came crashing open a second later and I released my spell into the zombies neck. With a sickening crack the putrid creature flew away from the house. The shuffling sound of feet quickened my haste in my next task, I launched the stack of fence posts out the door and spread them around ths house, each one expanding to full size upon being placed, the barrier erected itself around the house. I slammed the door shut and locked it when I heard the familiar noises a spider makes in the game. I went around the house, looking out every window to make sure I hadn't misplaced any fence or left a hole in the line. Finding none I breathed deep and let out a satisfied sigh. I made my way back to the living room to find Night Strider. She was shivering while staring out the window, following her gaze I quickly understood why. A giant spider had crawled around the outside window and was looking straight back at her. I closed the blinds and launched the spider off into the sky with a similar spell I had used on the zombie. "Nothing can get in here you know, we're perfectly safe now." I assured her. She gave me a disbelieving look. I sighed. "Yknow what? Come with me, I know how to get rid of these things." That turned her look of disbelief into hope. I led her into one of the bedrooms. I gestured her over to one of the beds on the inner limits of the room. "Lay down on that and close your eyes." I instructed, while doing so on a bed opposite the one I face her. "How- does thou really believe us capable of getting any sleep after witnessing that?" She said incredulously. "You don't have to." I corrected her, "You just have to lay down and close your eyes for five seconds." She did so reluctantly. After she closed her eyes a began to count the seconds out loud. Upon "five." the light levels visibly changed. "When she opened her eyes again. And wore an odd expression, I explained. "In the game you can skip the night by sleeping in a bed, it takes about five seconds. And most monsters, zombies and skeletons burn in the daylight." I stretched and jumped down from my bed before continuing. "Also spiders don't attack during the day." She looked vissably relived so I lead her back down stairs. I heard some more shuffling through the walls and stopped just before the stairs. "There is just one thing we have to worry about though." "What is 't?" She asked. "Creeper, weird green monster about as tall as a ma-are." I caught myself. "They dont burn in the day, and like to sneak up on you and explode." "They what!?" She screamed. "As long as you don't get too close they do little more than stare at you. Now before you freak out I need to know if you are a good flyer." She gave me a puzzled look but nodded. "Great" I said, leading her to the balcony. "I need you to fly around the house quick and tell me whats out there. As long as you stay about level with the peak of the roof nothing will get you." She shook her head vigerously. "Please?" Again met with a no. I sighed and poked my head out the window, nothing came into view. "I'll do it, but I'll hold you responsible if a section of my house blows up." I jumped out the window and landed onto of the fence, I made a quick circuit of the house and found no offenders. For the sake of the child's sanity I pulled up the options menu and set it to peaceful mode. "Alright it's safe now, they won't come back for another seven days." I said. Fudging with the mechanics of my game/dream world was easy, but I would like to keep it truer to the original, if I could manage it I would get this filly used to the game so I could set it back to normal mode. It's always more fun playing with more people after all. That is if she is here the next night. "Art thee certain?" She asked, not coming into view. "Yes. You know you can't really get hurt in here don't you?" "...yes" she glided down to the ground before me, her face growing confused. "How art thee doing that?" She asked me. I looked down at my feet to find my hooves a couple inches over the fence I was standing on. "Oh, fences are a block and a half in game mechanics, but only a block tall in visual, so your left kinda floating above a fence if you stand on it." I explained. "But wherefore? Yond doesn't make any sense." She said, still looking through the gap between my hooves and the wood. "I don't know it just does this. Moving on, do you know how long it will be till morning?" I asked her. "The time to transpire before dawn? I doth, wherefore?" She asked. "I just want to know roughly how long the dream will last, it was quite enjoyable right up untill the monsters showed up." Night Strider put a hoof to her chin. "'Twill beest about... five hours till the sun shines again." "Well, more time passed than I thought, but anyway, I'm going to be heading back into the cave to get some more resources, your welcome to join me." I offered. Night Strider thought it over for a moment. "Before I concur, thee might not but bid me two things." She said tapping the ground twice. I took a moment to decipher her words before answering. "And those are?" She tapped the ground again. "First thee shall giveth me thy name." She tapped it once more. "And second thee wilt bid me the rules of this game" I smiled. "My name is Argent Accord." Huh, I meant to say Peter there. "And the rules well." I I froze the day/Night cycle and started on the long explanation. "...and tilled soil will only stay hydrated when it is within four blocks of a water source block. Moving on next we ha-" "Enow!! For what reason is this game so complex!? Writeth it down on a scroll so yond we might reference the rules at which hours tis behoveful!" Night Strider shouted.