Scarlet opened her eyes and let out a long yawn, stretching out her limbs and rolling over in bed. She didn’t often wake up and immediately roll out of bed, and tonight was no exception. She squinted and glanced over to the nearby clock, and then over to her sleeping companion. She had only known him for a short while, but with the way the two ran around the village and their dreams, you could have assumed that they were lifelong friends.
At face value it might have seemed weird that she had befriended him so quickly and had opened her home to him, but that’s what ponies did, and none of it bothered her in the slightest. Maybe it was weird, but the more time they spent together, the more it felt like Silver was closer than just a regular friend, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he felt the same too.
In the end it didn’t matter to her, the two were part of their own little herd, and as long as they were able to spend time with each other, she was more than happy. As she sat face to face with the midnight blue stallion she couldn’t help but smile. She had tried her hardest to make him feel at home, and as nervous as he was to move in with her at first, he was definitely well-adjusted by now.
He slowly started to stir, a smile spreading across his face, “Evening,” he replied with a long yawn.
“Sleep well?” She asked as she let out another yawn of her own.
Silver nodded, “You know it, how about you?”
“Well my nights aren’t as chilly anymore now that I’m sharing the bed with somepony else so I’d say being nice and warm is a great thing.”
“That is a nice perk,” he sat up in bed, “So what’s on the agenda for tonight? Wanna do some more stargazing? Or maybe we could take a trip down to the creek.”
“Why not both? Go for a nice night swim and round it all up with a nice stroll under the stars.”
“That sounds wonderful, I just love how peaceful it is here at night. It feels like we have the whole village to ourselves.”
“We practically do, I mean at least we do for the best parts of the night,” she paused, “So it was definitely worth coming up here then, don’t you think?”
Silver looked around the small room and nodded, “Well, I get to spend time with an amazing, welcoming, and kind mare. I get to spend that time with her exploring a relaxing forest that may as well be out of some nature postcard, and we get to run around a bunch of fun dreams every day… what more could I ask for?”
“Don’t forget about the part where you get to geek out about nerdy hobby stuff with me too.”
Silver smiled, “And I get to geek out about nerdy stuff with her too. It’s like a dream come true.”
“A dream come true for me too, peaceful and beautiful… but lonely without an awesome friend to share it with.”
The two hopped out of bed, with Silver trotting toward the small bathroom. Stepping in, he flipped on the sink and started to brush his teeth, “You know, it’s the perfect kind of environment to just meditate in, I've started doing that more whenever you’re busy with stuff or whenever I just need a little alone time.”
Scarlet nodded as she fished around the fridge for the remnants of the fruit salad they had shared the previous night, “Aha, so that’s why you wander off into the outskirts of the woods alone sometimes, just to mediate and nothing else.”
“What did you think I was up to?”
“Oh nothing,” she replied as she started to take a few bites of the salad, “I assumed you had your reasons, didn’t see a need to pry into your private life and question why you were running off into the dark forest late at night,” she teased, “Now if you were running off into the bright sunny forest all alone during the day then that’d be a different story.”
“Har har,” he replied in between brushing. “You know, it's really relaxing, you should come along sometime. There’s a nice little clearing with a few small waterfalls and it’s like my own little slice of heaven. Sometimes I’ll just sit there and think about everything for an hour or two.”
“I think I’ll stick to my own dorky hobbies, thanks for the offer though.”
“Did I mention you can really see the stars so clearly from there? It’s even further away from any of the lights.”
Scarlet poked her head into the bathroom, “Even less light pollution you say, why didn’t you just open with that?”
He rinsed his mouth out with water before returning a smirk, “Well I had to get your attention somehow. Maybe it’s not the most entertaining thing out there, but I’d love to spend more time with you, and trust me, that place is amazing.”
“Well, if it’s as amazing as you say it is then I’m game.”
“See? I knew you’d warm up to the idea.”
Scarlet started to fill up a couple of water bottles as he walked out, already ready for their usual evening walk, “What can I say? You know exactly what I love.”
“Glad we’re on the same wavelength then. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t in love with everything up here.”
She slid a bottle over to him and nodded, “Glad to hear. So are you going to eat breakfast or are you itching to get out?”
The stallion paused in consideration for a moment, “Maybe something light to go? We could have a nice picnic out in the clearing later if you’d like.”
“I’ll take that as a no then. That’s fine by me, but don’t complain when your stomach starts grumbling.”
Silver shook his head and snickered, “Okay, I’ll grab one of those little breakfast bars you had stored away.”
“The ones from those traveling farmers, right?”
“As opposed to the ones with the hard to open wrappers? Yeah, I’ll take the easy to eat ones.”
Scarlet nodded and reached for her saddlebag, swiping a few of the bars on the way, “I’ve only got a few left, so save some for me, alright?”
“Wouldn’t dream of doing anything else.”
She passed him a bar, “Good, now I need to go freshen up too, so do yourself a favor and eat. We don’t need to be in a hurry to get out of here.”
“Alright, well if you insist,” he sarcastically replied back as he took the food, “Thanks for looking out for me.”
Scarlet started to trot toward the bathroom, “No need to thank me, just keep helping out around the place like you’ve been doing.”
“We make a pretty good team, don’t you think?”
“You could say that,” she replied back as she kicked the water on, “hang tight, I won’t be long, and then I promise we can go on our walk.”
“Take all the time you need.”
She ran a hoof through her mane and smirked, “Trust me, I will.”
Silver held open the door for her and smiled, “Shall we?”
“Finished up with your breakfast?”
“For now, can’t promise I won’t sneak a snack or two later though.”
“I guess that’s fair enough. You’re a grown stallion after all, not my problem if you don’t start the night with a nice balanced meal.”
“Trust me Scarlet, I’ll be fine.”
“Alrighty, just don’t take it personally when I get to say I told you so,” she chuckled, “C’mon, let’s get going.”
“Well that sounds like a me problem then,” he teased.
Scarlet slowly led Silver along the worn path that led to the nearby creek, “So you said you stopped by up here as a foal, but did you ever go swimming in the creek?”
Silver shook his head, “We dipped our toes in the water a few times, but never actually swam in it.”
“Even when you’re out in your little meditation spot?”
He nodded, “The water’s too shallow there, barely goes above my hooves.”
She smiled, “Then this should be a blast. By the way… how do you feel about snakes?” She turned toward him, unsure about whether it was something he’d be afraid of or not.
“Snakes? I can handle snakes, why?”
“Oh it’s nothing,” she shrugged, “we just get the odd snake or two slithering down by the water sometimes, and it usually scares ponies away from the place if they’re not expecting it.”
“Understandable. Now if it was spiders that’d be a different situation entirely.”
She let out a small laugh as she imagined such a small thing scaring a night pony like him, “Not a fan of them?”
“Nope, definitely not. Just thinking about them sends a shiver down my spine.”
She shifted her face into one of mock sympathy, “Well if we see any big scary spiders along the way I’ll take care of them, okay?”
The stallion let out a laugh, “You’re my hero, you know that?”
“Oh I’m sure I am. The small red pony against a legion of scary arachnids, a real hero if I’ve ever heard of one.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, you’re a lot braver than I am when it comes to that sort of stuff.”
“It’s kind of funny that that’s your biggest fear, I would have thought it’d be something a little more…”
“Scary?” He finished.
“Yeah, something a little more scary.”
The stallion shrugged, “It’s the legs, I don’t know what it is about them, but man they’re just so freaky!”
“Hey, if that’s what you’re afraid of then that’s what you’re afraid of, nothing wrong with that. We’re all afraid of something.”
He paused and looked over to the mare, “What are you afraid of?”
She paused her stride, glancing back toward the stallion,” You really want to know?”
“I mean, if it’s nothing too personal. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, that’s perfectly fine.”
“No, you shared your fear with me, it’s only fair that I share mine with you. It’s pretty ironic though.”
“What is it?”
“Earthquakes.”
“Earthquakes?”
“Yep,” she nodded, “like I said, it’s ironic. I practically lived on a fault line my entire life and you’d think I’d get used to it by now, but ehhhh….”
“Let me guess, you hate them?”
She nodded, “With a burning passion.”
“Trust me, that’s nothing to be ashamed of, take it from the guy who freezes up at the sight of even a tiny spider.”
“And there’s nothing wrong with that either. We’ve all got our own fears to face, even if they seem a little silly.”
“Even when they’re more than a little silly? I mean look at me, I’m this little bat horse thing with big scary looking bat wings and I’m mortified by a tiny household pest,” he replied with a laugh.
“Maybe, but hey, it’s a part of you. I don’t think it’s that silly at all.”
He smiled, “Well that makes me feel a lot better,” he paused, “So, how much further is it?”
“Not too much further, we’re almost there. See that little drop off?” She gestured with a wing, “It’s right over that.”
Silver trotted forward and paused as he reached the small hill, “So this is your hangout place eh?”
“Was, for a while at least.”
“So uhh… how’s the water?”
“Why don’t you tell me?”
“What? You’re the one that’s swam in here before.”
Her face shifted into a smug smirk, “Come on, are you afraid it’s going to be too chilly or something?”
Silver shifted on his hooves, “Well not afraid, just uhh—“
Before he had a chance to reply, the mare quickly pushed him toward the water, leaping after him. The two rolled down the hill and landed in the creek with a large splash, the brisk water surrounding them and eliciting a few shivers.
“Wh..what was that for?” Silver asked through chattering teeth.
“To get you in the water of course!”
Scarlet began to splash water at the surprised Stallion, making him laugh and throw back a few splashes of his own.
She laughed again, and relented for a moment, giving Silver a chance to relax. “I knew it’d be cold, and I knew that if I told you it’d be cold then you’d never jump in with me.”
“So you thought it’d be a good idea to push me in?”
“Yep!” She replied with a laugh, “You’ll get used to it in a few minutes.”
He slowly nodded, treading in the water awkwardly “I'll take your word on that.”
“Tell you what, I’ll make us something nice and warm for dinner, even though it’s your turn to cook.”
“Well… if you’re putting that on the table then I guess I can forgive you,” he replied back as a small smile spread across his face.
“See, it really wasn’t that bad.”
“You’re right,” he looked up at the night sky above them, laying back and floating on the water’s surface, “That said though, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to swimming like this.”
“First time doing it as a pony or something?”
The stallion nodded his head, “Yeah, I mean I swam around at the beach for a little while, but got spun around by a big wave and wound up washed up in a daze. Wasn’t a fun experience and I guess it turned me away from it.”
“Well in that case I’m sorry for pushing you in without any warning, I didn’t know—”
“ — Don’t be,” he interrupted, “It didn’t traumatize or anything, and hey, maybe I just needed that push,” He paused for a few moments, “and I’ve really gotta say, I’m glad you did.”
“Oh? Why’s that?”
“Because I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this.”
She raised an eyebrow, “The stars or spending time with me?”
“Both,” he smiled, “Coming up here’s been like a dream come true. I felt alone for so long, felt like I didn’t really have a family anymore, no close friends… and then you came along.”
“I know how you feel. My family lives so far away, and I don’t really get to talk to them as much as I wanted to, using a phone is such a nightmare that it’s almost not even worth it sometimes. My old friends were a bunch of humanity first speciests, and I just got so tired of hearing their crap all the time.”
“Well, it seems like we were meant to be friends then, doesn’t it?”
“Two loners in the world making the best of a bad situation… maybe you’re right.”
“Maybe ETS was a blessing in disguise. I mean I never used to just sit around and watch the stars at night… or even just enjoy nature for that matter. I was always so engrossed in my work and then some alien from another universe showed up and threw a wrench into those gears, and in the end I wound up meeting somepony I’d say is one of my best friends.”
“One of yours?” She asked with a laugh.
“Okay, my best friend.”
“That’s more like it.”
The two continued to float along the surface, relaxing and just enjoying each other’s company. Scarlet had loved to do this before meeting Silver, but being able to share it with him made it even more enjoyable. It was as if the two of them filled some personal void that they had been missing, and she wouldn’t trade this time for anything in the world.
“You weren’t kidding, I think I’ve definitely gotten used to the water now,” Silver chimed in, breaking the silence between them.
“Oh? Well that’s great. That means we can do this more often, right?”
He nodded his head, “Absolutely. Can I be honest with you for a second?”
“You haven’t been so far?”
He chuckled, “You know what I mean.”
“Of course, so what’s on your mind?”
“I really love spending time with you, I seriously owe you one for being so inviting.”
“That’s what friends are for right?”
Silver smiled, “You know it.”
“So, you had some nice little meditation spot you wanted to show me, right?” She sat up, “Why don’t you take me over there and show it off?”
“You mean right now? What about swimming in the creek?”
“Like we’ve been doing? It’s not going to go anywhere, and you said you’re game for coming back more often.”
Silver shrugged, “Well, you’ve got me there. If you really want to go it’s not too far away.”
“I’d love to, it’s been forever since I’ve gone for a night fly. I usually just glide around in the mornings to watch the sunrise, there’s so much empty forest to see at night though, and you can even see the city lights in the distance which is just so beautiful.”
“Well let’s take the long way then, I can’t think of anypony else I’d love to explore nature’s wonderland with.”
The two swam toward the banks of the creek, shaking the excess water off of their coats and shivering briefly. Scarlet began to brush her long mane aside, pushing a few stray strands back into line, “You wanna lead the way Silver?”
He nodded, “Sure, I think I’ll be able to find it even easier from above.”
“Well lead on then,” She replied back with a grin.
With a nod, Silver took off into the sky, Scarlet following close behind him.
The bright stars seemed to surround them as they flew over the trees and down toward Silver’s spot. The bright city lights in the distance seemed to be the only indicator of the outside world, making the two feel as if they were the only two ponies around— something they didn’t mind one bit. As they neared the small clearing they lowered into a sharp bank, coming to a soft landing near the small pond.
“Well, here we are,” Silver gestured around as the crimson mare looked around.
“This is beautiful, you really spend some nights here all alone?”
He nodded, a smile coming across his face, “You can see why, right? It’s like the best place to just sit down and clear your head.”
“I can imagine. So what do you do out here anyways? Just meditate?”
“Sometimes I meditate, sometimes I awkwardly try to doodle in a sketchbook. That really hasn’t gone anywhere, but the meditation is still nice.”
“Care to show me how you do it?”
He raised an eyebrow, “You mean show you how I meditate?”
She nodded, “Why not? You’ve given your own rave review on how nice it is, why not relax together?”
“You really want to?”
“Why not? You took the time to show me here, and I didn’t just ask to see it for nothing.”
Silver closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths, “Okay, well I usually start out small. Just taking deep breaths and focusing on clearing my head.”
“And then what?”
“I usually just let the thoughts come to me— you know, have my brain fill in the blank canvas. Sometimes it’s like I’m dreaming, and I almost want to try and chase that feeling, see where it takes me.”
“Have you ever tried that?”
He opened an eye and peeked over toward the mare, “Not yet actually. I mean I never really saw a reason to…”
“Why not give it a try tonight? Might be worth giving it a shot.”
He shrugged, “You think so?”
“Maybe, I mean what’s the worst that could happen?”
“I bore myself to sleep?”
“See?” She beamed, “No reason not to give it a try.”
“Well, I guess you’re right. Don’t get your hopes up though, I don’t think it’ll be all that interesting.”
Silver closed his eyes again and began to clear his mind, letting the outside world fade away. Thoughts, feelings, fears, wants— all began to melt away as he took in a few more deep breaths. As his mind emptied a strange, almost familiar feeling began to well up from within him, almost the same kind of feeling he got whenever he would dreamwalk with Scarlet. While he would normally ignore this feeling and simply let his imagination fill in the blanks of his mind, today was different, today he was going to latch onto this feeling and try to go deeper.
Letting his instincts take hold, he followed that feeling as if it was a path laid out in front of him, imagining a long winding road that he could trot down. Stars, memories, lines connecting dots— a whole visual world seemed to come together, growing ever more vivid as the minutes stretched on. The further he walked down this road, the more of the outside world faded away, until finally the road seemed to reach a peak. Feeling a small shiver run down his spine, he opened his eyes, only to find himself in the endless starry expanse of the dream realm.
He jumped back in surprise for a moment, in shock that he was actually here. For a moment he thought he was simply asleep, but none of this felt the same.
“This… I… is this really happening? Am I really here or am I just imagining this all?” He shouted out to no one in particular.
His first instinct was to simply try and wake up, but something kept him here. Call it a strange curiosity, but this was new territory for the young night pony, and something about it seemed to drive his interest further.
Looking skyward toward the stars, he called out to anyone that might hear him, “Any wardens that might hear this, I have a question that needs an answer.”
He sat in silence for a few moments before the world suddenly shifted into a long hallway of doors that seemed to stretch on forever. From out of the darkness swam a strange pony-like creature, that seemed like a mix between a mermaid and a pony.
“Uhh hi..? You’re one of the wardens right?”
“Yes I am, Silver Eclipse, and I think you’re forgetting something very important.”
He nervously shuffled his hooves, afraid of whether this would end like the time he tried to press his luck with Sha’am, “Wait, how did you know my… never mind, you’re a warden and I owe you the oaths. My bad, this won’t happen again— I promise!” He took a deep, very much unneeded breath, and continued, silently overjoyed that it wasn’t the Warden of Death who had shown up,
“Psychic Calm, we promise ponies shall dream in peace.
Yinyu Wu Yan, we shall not allow our passions to lead us to folly.
Ghadab, the Wardens' anger is unyielding and just.
Phobia Remedy, fear of the Wardens keeps us safe.
Tikhiy Krik, we shall keep the secrets of the Wardens.
Sha'am Maut, better to die than to face the Wardens' justice.”
The creature smiled, “Very good! So what kind of question did you need me to answer? Something fun I hope?”
He put on a nervous smile, “You’re uhh… not like the other wardens are you?”
“Definitely not, I don’t think we’ve actually met before either,” The creature held out a fin, “I'm Yinyu Wu Yan, the Dreamwarden of Lust. Nice to meet you!”
He slowly nodded, awkwardly shaking the offered fin, “Nice to meet you too miss… Yinyu... So uhhh I guess this is going to be a boring question, but where am I?”
“You’re in the dream realm silly. You should know it well, you and your little marefriend spend so much time running around other ponies’ dreams.”
His face reddened at the mention of Scarlet, “She’s uhh not my marefriend, we’re just good friends— trust me.”
“Right… well you two make a cute couple. Where is she by the way?”
He shook his head, “She’s awake… I thought I was too, but then I showed up here. Is… is that normal?”
“Nope!” she cheerfully replied back. “You must have entered a waking dream, it means you’re dreaming while awake.”
“Should I be worried?”
“Probably not, ponies don’t do it often, but it’s not impossible either.”
“So you’re saying that I can do this again?”
“Probably, which means you get to see me again if you do!”
“Right…” He glanced around at the long hallway, “So uhh… how do I actually do this? Like what did I do to get here?”
The sea pony shrugged, “You tell me, you were the one that found your way here and asked for me, not the other way around.”
He nodded, “Okay, well I guess that’s fair enough… to tell you the truth, I have no idea how I got here.”
“Well, what were you doing before?”
“Uhh, well I was in a nice quiet spot in the woods with Scarlet—”
“ — I thought you said you two weren’t a thing,” She teased.
“We weren’t doing anything fun— well actually no we were swimming in the creek together —”
“ — fooling around in the creek? You two are more fun than I thought, I should stop by your dreams more often.”
His blue face turned an even darker shade of red, “We were just swimming, and then we went to this quiet little spot where I like to meditate when I just want to clear my head and try to get some ideas figured out. So I started meditating like usual and felt something kind of like what I feel when I’m in here, so I just followed it and uhh… well, wound up here.”
“Well, I think you have your answer then.”
“Wait I do? You mean It was the meditation then, right?”
She lazily swam around him, “That’s my best guess, you probably figured out how to get yourself into a nice little dream while doing it, and here you are now. So what were you trying to do in the first place?”
“Well I guess I was trying to do this… I’ve been trying to see what I can do with my dream magic, I really want to try and do as much good as I can with it. I’ve been crafting dreams for me and Scarlet to spend time in, and I think I’m really getting the hang of it.”
“You made dreams just for you and Scarlet? Sounds like fun.”
“Not in the way you’re imagining. But yeah, it is. I just want to do as much good as I can with all of this, even if it’s just little stuff like helping someone work through a nightmare, or giving them something fun they can do in a dream. There’s so much more I want to do too. I used to be really into lots of sciency research stuff, and I don’t know, I guess I thought that maybe I could use this place for that someday somehow. Get back into that lifestyle again you know?”
“And this is something you just decided to do out of the blue one day?”
He shook his head, “Not entirely, it’s actually something some Equestrian encouraged me to do. One of their princesses, Luna.”
“You’ve met Princess Luna?” she asked in surprise.
“Uhhh yeah… I’m guessing you know her?”
“More than you can imagine, but that’s besides the point. If it’s something you’re trying to do for good then keep doing it. And if you ever want to invite me over to one of your fun dreams with Scarlet I wouldn’t mind either.”
Silver rolled his eyes, “Right, well I’ll definitely think about that. It was genuinely nice meeting you, hopefully we’ll cross paths again someday…”
“The pleasure’s mine, feel free to call me up again if you need anything else.”
“Will do…” He gave a quick nod before forcing himself out of the dream realm and back into the waking world.
With a jolt he opened his eyes and shook his head, quickly looking around to try and get his bearings.
Scarlet perked up and raised an eyebrow, “You okay bud? What’s wrong?”
“How long was I out for?”
“What do you mean?”
“How long was I uhh… in that weird trance thing?”
She flashed him a concerned look, “You closed your eyes for like a minute… is everything okay? What happened?”
A big grin spread across Silver’s face, “I did it Scarlet!”
“That’s uhh… good? What did you do exactly?”
“I took your advice and wound up latching onto that weird feeling I got. I somehow entered a dream… you said I was out of it for like a minute? That’s weird… I guess I’ll have to ask them about that later.”
“That’s good… why don’t you take a seat and drink some water, tell me all about it.”
He nodded, “That’s… maybe not a bad idea, I feel like I was gone for a lot longer…”
“Yeah… let’s sit down and calm down for a minute, okay?”
Silver smiled and gave a quick nod, “Okay!”
