//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Dreamlike Reunions // Story: Do Ponies on Earth have Magic Dreams? // by TikiBat //------------------------------// The two night ponies happily ate their meal at the small table, telling stories and sharing a little more of their past with each other. The thick black curtains on the windows were pulled tightly shut to keep the sun’s bright rays out, leaving the pair comfortably in the dark.  “So you just ran off into the forest and got lost?” Scarlet asked in between a few bites of her salad. Silver nodded, taking a sip of water and clearing his throat, “Yeah, we were actually camping out in a park that wasn’t too far away from here I think. It might have even been this place too for all I know, it’s kind of hard to remember all of that.” She chuckled, “Well seems like it was your destiny to come back here then. So did you guys do stuff like that often? Or was it just a once in a while kind of deal?” He smiled, “My brother and I were Boy Scouts growing up, so we camped a lot until we both outgrew that. There were a lot of summers spent in the forest, or along a riverbank— all stuff I just loved as a kid.” “I bet it was a blast, my parents used to take me and my sister camping all the time when we were little and I think that’s part of why I found my way back over here.” “Oh it was,” he excitedly cheered. “I’ll never forget those memories, really gave me a real appreciation of the outdoors, and even helped out a bit when I was on my own for a while.” “After ETS you mean?” Silver nodded, taking another bite of his salad, “Yeah, when I had the falling out with my dad I just decided to go off on my own for a bit. Camped around some nights, crashed couches on others, even stopped by a few pony villages from time to time. It was kinda fun but definitely lonely. Only ever really ran into a few other night pony stallions which started to make me think that I was maybe the only one around for a while. That made things feel kind of lonely and awkward when you think about it,” he paused for a moment, “— I mean in the sense that there weren’t many ponies around that were on the same schedule.” The mare let out a small laugh, “Don’t worry I get what you mean, but hey at least you’re a step up from that now.” Silver smiled, “That’s right, I’m camping with another geek now, what could be better than that?” “Camping with a geek out on the beach maybe?” “That does sound relaxing. Maybe we can take a little excursion somewhere sometime?” “That’d be a ton of fun, I’m dying to get back down to the pier.” “I haven’t been there in ages, so I like that idea.” “All the more reason to go then,” Scarlet added in between bites.  “Sounds like a solid plan to me.” She smiled, “See, I knew we’d be great friends.” “I never doubted you for a moment.” The two continued their conversation between bites, and before long they had finished up their meals. Silver stacked up the bowls and carefully brought them toward the sink, rinsing them off and setting them aside to dry.  He glanced back toward Scarlet who had already hopped onto the bed and burrowed into the covers, “Are these fine here?” She nodded, “Yep, if you can’t tell, I don’t really have a dedicated glassware place, so just anywhere out of the way works fine for me as long as it’s not complete chaos.” “What about organized chaos?” She replied with a playful frown, “How about no chaos?” He smiled, “Gotcha, a little chaos it is.” She shook her head, letting out a laugh, “I guess I can live with a little chaos, as long as it doesn’t get too out of hoof.” She glanced back toward Silver, who had taken his place on the couch and let out a chuckle, “You sure you’re okay on the couch there?” Silver nodded, “Yeah, I think I’ll be fine.” “You think or you know?” He slowly shrugged, “I.. I mean I think so? It can’t be that bad right?” “Maybe not, but are sure you don’t want to share the big comfy bed that’s being taken up by one incredibly small pony?” Silver began to speak, but paused for a moment, looking between the two options, “I… You sure it won’t be a bother?” Scarlet shook her head, “Not at all. It’s a big bed that I have all to myself, and you have an uncomfortable couch that’s going to give you a stiff neck in the morning or something. I really don’t mind sharing, you don’t need to worry about being in my personal space or anything.” “You sure?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “Ugh, I sound like a human.” She nodded, “Yep, no need to worry, I don’t bite.” “I didn’t realize that was something I had to worry about,” He replied with a small laugh. She let out a chuckle of her own, “Well we do have fangs but last I checked I wasn’t a vampony, so I think you’re good.” Silver nodded as a smile spread across his face, “Right, well uh I guess that works for me too then.” He hopped off the couch and trotted toward the bed, hopping up and making himself comfortable. “See? Better right?” Silver nodded, “Better.” A small smile spread across the mare’s face, “Told you so.” “I never should have doubted you. So what kind of dreams should we explore today?” “Dunno,” she shrugged, “I think it’s your turn to pick.” Silver nodded, “Well I ran into a night pony that had some crazy nightmares a while ago, that might be fun to explore.” “Nightmares? You have a weird definition of fun, my friend.” “Oh come on, doesn’t a big adventure through some crazy nightmare sound like a great time? We don’t even need to worry about breaking it up, this is kind of his thing.” “For Freddy Krueger maybe,” she replied with a laugh, “but if that’s the dream you want to go explore then that’s what we’ll do.” Silver let out a yawn, “I promise it’ll be a great time.” “I’m sure it will,” she let out a yawn of her own and rolled onto her side, “sweet dreams Silver.” “Sweet Dreams.” Thunder crashed in the distance, lightning illuminating the forest around him and casting strange shadows all around. The night pony fearfully glanced to the side, swearing to himself as the shadows seemed to stretch into terrifying wraith like figures. The sounds of those shadowy monsters crept ever closer from the darkness, seemingly surrounding him. To say that Stanley was afraid would be an understatement... he was terrified, but his night pony instincts kept telling him to be brave and push forward through the forest, he was the scary monster after all, not them. The thunder continued to crash all around, the bright flashes doing nothing to reveal the creatures hunting him. Two more crashes, another series of flashes... Stanley made a run for it, running like he had never run before in his life. The heavy downpour of rain did nothing to make this feat easier, only making his fleeting attempts at escape even more fruitless. Soon enough Stanley found himself cornered against the cold rocky face of a mountain, facing a snarling beast that he had no chance of reasoning with. This was it, he knew that there was nothing he could do to escape his fate, and with another crash of thunder and a strike of lightning, the creature lunged out from the abyss... A strange feeling welled up from within Stanley, and for once in his life as a night pony instead of flinching back and accepting the worst, he simply closed his eyes and decided to be brave, stomping a hoof on the ground and trembling as he expected to meet a grisly end. Almost immediately he could tell that something was off. The usual crushing feeling that followed this part of the dream simply hadn’t happened. With a hesitant pause, he opened his eyes and jumped back against the rockface, staring back at the shadowy creature that was just sitting there frozen in time, as if he had simply hit the pause button on reality. “So uhh, having a fun time I see?” Came a voice from all around him, causing the yellow night pony to glance around the dim forest.  “What… who... who’s there?” Silver and Scarlet walked into view, gazing at the strange wolf-like creature that was frozen in time, “Hey Stanley, long time no see.” The night pony’s face softened, “Oh, Silver, it’s just you. Good to see you again,” He glanced toward the red mare, looking back toward Silver, “A new friend of yours I take it?” Silver nodded, “Stanley this is Scarlet, an astronomer from over near Idyllwild. Thought we’d stop by and see if you had any crazy nightmares for us to explore.” The night pony waved around, “Well as you can see it’s all just nice and peachy here, no nightmares at all.” He paused for a moment, returning a smile, “So Idyllwild eh? So I’m guessing you’re not down in LA anymore?” The stallion shook his head, “Not anymore. We met a week ago in my dream, though we had crossed paths before that too.” Scarlet stepped forward, greeting the other pony with a smile, “Yeah Silver got tired of being all alone so I figured why not solve that problem by inviting him up to the mountains.” “And I thought it was a great idea,” Silver cut in. “Life got a little boring after you went back to OC and that Dusk guy didn’t stick around too much after so I was kind of a loner for a while.” “Oh shoot, you should have told me, I know a few other night ponies who set up camp in the area, they probably would have let you tag along.” Silver shrugged, “Nah it’s cool. I love the mountains and Scarlet had said it was really nice and secluded from everything else. Besides, it’s not like I don’t get interaction, I’ve still kept in contact with some of the others.” “Others like Dusk and Star I presume?” Silver nodded, “Every once in a while. I’m guessing you still hang with Moonlight?” “Off and on, If you’re asking if we’re a thing then the answer’s no. As much as it’s nice to have each other’s company we’re not that close. Besides, she’s made it clear that she wants to stay down here, while I still don’t know if I want to stay out in OC or catch up with some old friends in Arizona. I was actually going to go see one of them in a few, I haven’t talked to him since before ETS, but maybe a move could be a nice change of pace.” “Well hey, if you ever want to stop by and rest your head along the way I’m sure we could find a place for you,” Scarlet replied back to him. The yellow night pony glanced back over to the mare and smiled, “That sounds wonderful. Maybe I’ll make a trip up there if I ever wind up getting bored down here. I still don’t know what I’m going to do for sure, I guess it’ll depend on what my friend’s up to, for all I know he could still be human.” “Have you tried walking to him yet?” Stanley shook his head, “I did earlier, but came up short. If he’s a pony he’s probably not a night pony, unless he’s staying up for some reason. I figured I’d work through some stuff and then maybe check back a little later when he might actually be asleep.” “Well if he’s in Arizona it shouldn’t be too much longer.” The night pony nodded, “Yep. Figured I might as well work through some stuff while I waited, you guys happened to show up toward the end of it.” “Still getting those nightmares regularly then?” He waved around the frozen dream, “Yeah, still dealing with them, though I’m getting better at working through the actual fears. I’ve talked with Phobia Remedy a few times and she’s helped me work through some of them, now it’s just second nature to confront them instead of blindly trying to run from them.” Silver nodded, a warm smile coming across his face, “Well that’s great to hear, I always thought it was good that you were choosing to run through them with friends instead of away from them, and I’m glad it’s actually helping.” He paused for a moment, “So I’m going to guess you have some other plans today then?” The night pony nodded, “Yeah… sorry if I can’t really host a big nightmare for you, I mean I could probably set one up, but there were some other friends I wanted to try and get in touch with. I feel like I’ve just barely gotten my life back on track as a pony, and figured why not just go down the list and see how everyone’s faring.” Silver nodded, “That’s fair enough, I understand.” “But hey, I’m game for something tomorrow if you’re still interested, I’ve got the whole alien dream that I’ve still never worked my way through, maybe that could be a fun exercise?” Silver smiled, “Sounds like a blast.” He glanced back at the red mare, “Well I guess we’ll leave you to your little adventure, we’ll probably go run around some nearby dreams until night, feel free to stop by if you want to hang out or anything.” “Will do Silver, take care.” “You too Stanley.” The night pony nodded, opening up another dream and walking off, leaving the pair alone as the rest of the nightmare faded away, leaving them in the open dream realm once more. Scarlet looked toward Silver and smiled, “Well he seemed nice.” “Glad to see he’s doing well,” he paused for a moment. “Guess that kind of puts a damper on our plans eh?” She shrugged, “Wanna go jump into a random nightmare or two? See what kind of adventures we can go on?” “You mean jump into something we’ll have no chance at preparing ourselves for?” he said in a surprised voice, doing a small double take. An adventurous smirk slowly spread across her face, “You afraid or something?” Silver replied with a smirk of his own, “You wish!” “Let’s get going then, I’m sure there’s plenty of adventures out there just waiting for us.” The stallion let out a small laugh as he followed her lead, heading into a nearby nightmare. A dark cramped hallway greeted Stanley as he walked through his friend’s dream. As he glanced around the narrow space an uneasy feeling passed through him, though he simply pushed that lingering fear into the back of his mind. To the casual observer this might seem like the start of a bad nightmare, he knew what nightmares felt like, and this was definitely no nightmare. Figures he’d have some weird alien dream, The night pony thought to himself, shaking his head and letting out a chuckle as he proceeded down the hallway. As he stepped through the door at the end, he found himself in a large circular chamber bathed in a pleasant blue light, an annoyed voice echoing through the chamber. “Look, I told you a dozen different ways, there need to be more tests! No... we’re not set up to transport anything that far and you know it! We don’t even have a good grasp on sending inorganic things across a room and you want to try and send someone clear across a state?” A harsh muttering came from the comm, though Stanley couldn’t make sense of it. The unicorn at the comm shook his head again, letting out a sarcastic laugh, “This is groundbreaking work and you’re treating it like some high school science project. If something goes wrong then I’m not going to be the one responsible for it… No, no you don’t get it, you’re saying what those mad scientists want you to say, and believe me my friend, they’re not working in your interests. Stanley crept closer, still keeping to the shadows as he tried to get a better read on the pony sitting at the terminal. The voice sounded familiar, but aside from that the pony bore no resemblance to the human he had previously been, something that didn’t surprise Stanley in the slightest. “Yes of course it’s a potential risk! Didn’t you bother reading their documentation?! Teleportation isn’t something you can just mess around with, there’s far too many variables involved to just jump in without the proper safety failsafes!” He paused, letting out an annoyed sigh, “Oh really? You’re just begging to get hit with a slew of ethics violations when your travelers show up at their destination as a pile of ash! Ha, that’s a good one, no, go ahead and get the think tank on the comm and then I’ll consider helping out with whatever crazy plans you’ve got in mind.” He angrily hung up the comm, and resumed pressing buttons on the console. The lighting in the room around him suddenly shifted from pleasing blues to harsh reds as his chair turned around. “Heya Pat.” The figure jumped back in surprise, nearly falling over his chair as he lit up his horn to better illuminate the room, “Who are you? How on earth did you get in here?!” “Why don’t you take it down a few levels Pat, It’s just me,” the night pony casually replied back. He dropped his defensive stance for a moment as the familiar voice clicked in his head, “S...Stanley? Is it really you?” Stanley walked out from the shadows, revealing himself to his old friend, “In the flesh… or fur I guess? It’s been ages since we chatted, thought I’d stop by now that the world’s kind of getting back to normal.” Patrick stood there for a few moments, finally chuckling to himself, “You know? I shouldn’t really be surprised that you turned out to be a night pony… Stanley The Wolf Man himself… Sorry if it seems like I’m laughing at you, I’m not. Though maybe Drac is a more fitting nickname now eh?” “Don’t worry Pat, I’ve learned to face my fears… but can we finally let that nickname die?” “Oh you know I can’t do that Wolfie, you remember how scared you were when you first saw that movie?” “Come on Pat, I was afraid of everything back then…” “Of course, but you also insisted on leaving every light on at night for a month so the Wolf Man wouldn’t get you.” Stanley couldn’t help but laugh with his friend, as annoyed as he was it brought back a slew of memories he hadn’t thought about in a long time, “Ok Pat, I’ll give you that, but let’s get serious for a moment. How have you been lately?” “Two months is a little late for a reunion checkup don't you think? But hey, better late than never right?” The night pony shrugged, “Guess so. I’m sorry about that by the way, I figured phones are kind of hard to use with hooves so I wound up ditching mine. I guess I could have been a little more proactive with trying to get in contact with you though. I know it’s only been a couple of months, but I’ve been slowly working down the list and trying to see what’s up with everyone from back in the day.” “So you came to see me first then right?” The night pony let out a laugh, “Of course, who else would I visit?” “Jess maybe?” “Yeah, as if… I kind of already ran into her in the real world, she’s in the same boat as me.” “She’s a scary bat horse too? Why do I feel like that’s fitting.” “Probably because it is, remember how competitive she’d get whenever we played? That energy’s gotta go somewhere.” “I’ll take it she was a little too busy to fit in a visit to her old flame then?” Stanley shrugged, “Probably, I didn’t realize you still thought so much of her.” “Oh I didn't… though another visit post… well whatever you can call the global schism would have been nice.” “I’ll pass that onto her, who knows, maybe she’ll finally stop boasting about the hockey game she killed you in.” “You mean the one where she cheated?” “Totally.” He paused for a moment, “Not that I don’t find this years long grudge interesting, but I’m kind of here for another reason.” “Oh? And what’s that?” “Well I’ve been thinking of skipping town, figured I might try and get in contact with some family out in Arizona. I heard there’s some promising pony communities popping up around there,so I thought it might be a good idea to touch base with some of the ponies I knew out there.” Patrick let out a small laugh, “So uhh, funny you say that. I’m actually up in one of those myself, some place out in the Grand Canyon if you’re interested in stopping by.” “No kidding, well truth be told, I’m kind of interested.” He shrugged, “I figured you might. Want me to go ahead and send you the info?” His face lit up, “That’d be great, I don’t know if I’ll stick around forever, I’m just so genuinely curious to see if they’ve actually been able to get it off the ground. All the little villages around me feel like they’re halfway there, but I know it has to be working for some.” “I’m gonna assume you’re following the vision?” Stanley froze for a moment, “Well… not fully. It’s hard to explain, but I guess I just like some parts of it. I mean I see stuff like Riverview popping up out east, and I kind of want to see more.” “Well hey, come on down and stop by and see if it lives up to the hype, it’ll be just like the old road trip days,” he added with a smile. “So have you ever actually been to the Grand Canyon?” “No… but it’s never too late for a first time visit right?” “That’s the spirit I can’t wait to see you again, we’ll have to catch up over lunch like the good old days when you get here. Where’d you wind up after all the chaos anyways?” “Not too far from where I was. I’ve been visiting some of our old haunts lately, I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t making me nostalgic for the old days.” “Well I can’t wait to see you again. So uhh… is there a good way to send you the coordinates for this place? I mean it’s a little hard to describe it especially if you’ve never been there before.” “Send it to my old Discord if you can, I’ll see if I can get someone to help me out with it. I’ve been long overdue for a visit with my parents, I don’t think they’ll mind at all.” “Hey whatever works best for you Wolfie. This is going to be a blast, I’ll let some of the locals know you’re stopping by.” Stanley let out a laugh, “Oh I’m sure it’ll be a blast, let’s just hope it’s not the literal kind again.” “Still upset over the firecracker incident?” Stanley flashed his fangs for a moment, “Do you even have to ask that?” “Oh lighten up Wolfie, it was just a prank.” “Har har.”