A letter from Hoofclid was supposed to be a happy moment. It would be him telling Braeburn some exciting news that he couldn't wait for the weekend to say. Or maybe a drawing he'd done to brighten his boyfriend's day. Once or twice, a photo from a party. Whatever it was, it made Brae smile.
Today Braeburn just stared at the paper.
Hi Brae…
Just writing to let you know I'm okay… well, a bit frightened. But okay…
There's a bugbear rampaging around the town. Princess Twilight and her friends are on it, but it's pretty loud out there.
Wish you were here.
The horn writing on that last line was shakier. Braeburn read it again.
Wish you were here.
His stallion had been scared, and he hadn't been there. He hadn't known.
Mechanically Braeburn walked to his bedroom and got out the box where he kept his letters from Hoofclid. That was where letters went. That was where this one should go.
But he couldn't do it. Closing that box on a letter was a way of freezing time there. At the end of a happy letter which ended with a "hugs and kisses" or a "snug you this weekend". He couldn't close that box on a wobbly "miss you".
Braeburn flopped onto his bed, tipped the box carefully and emptied the letters out. He would start at the beginning. The first letter, where the happy faces smiled up at him from the photo of the party where they'd met. Brae nuzzled the photograph and began to read.
It was back. He could hear the roaring even from here. He could see the bugbear blotting out the stars in the skies over Ponyville.
Braeburn began to gallop across the savanna. He could see the distant rooftops now. Some were already damaged. A flash of magic lit up the scene briefly, and showed that even the castle, looming over the town scape, was damaged. His Hoofclid was in there somewhere. His Hoofclid needed him.
Brae tried to speed up, but he was hardly moving. The firm ground gave way and now he was running on sand. Sand? Oh no. Turning, Braeburn watched in horror as the sand he had kicked up billowed towards Appleloosa. Growing in strength, the sandstorm slammed into the town. Both towns would fall. He couldn't save them both… he couldn't do…
"ENOUGH!"
Braeburn recoiled from a flash of light, stumbling backwards a couple of steps. When he opened his eyes again, the raging sand around him was floating gently to the ground, fused into glittering specks of stardust. Turning, he saw Ponyville bathed in the soft moonlight, silent and undamaged.
Not quite silent, actually. Wingbeats disturbed the air as a deep blue alicorn landed gently beside the earth pony. "Princess Luna? This is a dream...?" Braeburn asked with a bow.
"Two towns that are a hundred miles apart are both in view, your hooves kicked up a sandstorm all on their own and the Princess of the Night just appeared from within the moon. Yes, it's a dream." deadpanned the princess.
Brae looked back and forth between the two towns, now freed from impending doom. "A pretty messed up one, huh?"
"Trust me, I have seen much worse." Luna wrapped a wing around the shaken pony. "There are ponies whose dreams are knots it would take a legion of sailor ponies to untangle. But I suspect you do not need me to interpret this one for you."
Braeburn rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess not… I already felt split between two places, and that letter really freaked me out… I just hope Hoofclid's okay…"
Luna stood and spread her wings. "Would you like to visit him? In the world of dreams, he is not so far off."
Luna's horn flashed, and a spectral train flew across the savanna and pulled up alongside the two ponies. "All aboard!" cried Luna.
"No trains!" Brae stamped a hoof.
"But I was merely trying to fit the narrative..."
"I've had just about my fill of trains recently! Can't you just zap us there so I can hug my boyfriend?!"
"Fine, but I'm sounding the whistle as we go! I worked hard on this spell!" The horn lit up again, the train whistled, and Braeburn's vision blurred.
Disoriented, Braeburn stumbled slightly and blinked a few times. His sight cleared to reveal a stream. Plants. A bridge. A water garden. A unicorn peacefully reading beneath a willow tree. Brae galloped towards Hoofclid, his hooves clattering across the bridge alerting the calm pony to his presence.
"Brae!" the unicorn called excitedly, jumping into the arms of the oncoming stallion.
Braeburn didn't say anything. He didn't have to. The firm hooves wrapping around Hoofclid, encircling him and protecting him, the slightly ragged breath which calmed as the hug continued… it said more than his words could ever manage.
I'm here for you. You're safe.
Dream time doesn't work like normal time, so Braeburn couldn't tell you how long he spent cuddling with Hoofclid, patting and stroking each other's manes, nuzzling and kissing each other's hooves. It lasted until Hoofclid broke the silence, murmuring, "Are you real or a dream?"
"You could make an argument that he is both!" chipped in a voice that, while wise, clearly wasn't Braeburn. Hoofclid looked up.
"Princess Luna!"
"I must admit, ponies do tend to notice the presence of a princess somewhat more quickly than you have." Luna looked a little bored, but not exactly angry. Hoofclid gave her a hug just in case.
The familiarity surprised Braeburn for a moment, until he remembered that his boyfriend had not infrequent bad dreams. But now Hoofclid was looking at Luna with a distinctly confused expression. "Hang on… I wasn't having a nightmare?" he asked.
Braeburn rubbed his hooves together nervously. "No… I was." he admitted, a few moments before a mightily squishy hug enveloped him.
When Braeburn was finally permitted enough air to speak again, he sighed and looked down at his hooves to avoid the worried face of Hoofclid. "I got real scared by your letter… I just couldn't handle the thought of you being frightened or in danger and I couldn't do anything from so far away…"
Hoofclid stroked his hoof tenderly. "I'm sorry, honey… I didn't want to worry you… I just… I dunno, writing that letter helped."
Brae sighed and pulled his unicorn in for a hug.
"Distance is the worst..."
"Distance is the worst."
Braeburn felt a hoof on his shoulder and glanced up. Luna was looking down at him with concern. She whispered, “A band stretched too far may break. Make sure that you are not stretching yourself unnecessarily.” The Princess of the Night ignored the look of confusion and walked off. “I will leave you two be. Farewell!” A sudden gust of wind blew a shower of leaves off the willow tree. When the leaves cleared, Luna was gone.
“Well that was… enigmatic.” Braeburn stared at the space where Luna had been.
“Yeah, she does that,” Hoofclid replied, nestling himself on Braeburn’s shoulder and stealing a foreleg to cuddle.
Braeburn gave his boyfriend a kiss on the muzzle and smiled down at him. He tried to decode the princess’s words. He didn’t feel stretched? No, that wasn’t quite right. He didn’t feel stretched now. But when they were apart? Maybe stretched was the right word. Was it "necessary" to be this way? It was, so long as the two stallions were in different places. But Braeburn couldn’t leave Appleloosa, could he?
That same question was still rolling around Braeburn's head the next morning. Brae knew enough about brains to know that it wouldn't go away unless he let it out and talked to someone. He tried to go about his usual morning routine—shower, brush teeth, don jacket…—at its usual pace, but he found he didn't want to linger. He practically shovelled his morning oats down his throat before slapping on his hat and heading to town at a canter.
The earth pony knew his town well, and knew who he wanted to talk to and where to find them. Fortunately they'd be in the same place: Sheriff Silverstar would be at the Salt Block swapping the news of the day with Salty Molasses over his morning coffee.
Braeburn was galloping by the time he reached the saloon and crashed through the door. The piano stopped. The ponies stopped. Everypony stared at Braeburn, waiting to see what horrible news could have caused such an entrance. "Heh-heh…" Braeburn blushed and rubbed his neck, "Sorry folks… I'm just here to talk to Sheriff."
With exaggerated caution, the yellow stallion moved to the bar and sat in his usual seat next to the sheriff. He took off his hat and Salty Mollasses passed him a cider, which he took a swig from before speaking again. Salty and the Sheriff waited. Braeburn had declared his intention to speak, and they felt no need to rush him.
When he did start talking, Braeburn said it all. He was never a believer in keeping emotions inside, so he let it all out: the train journeys, the letters, the distance, the dream. Everything.
The sheriff and the saloon keeper nodded and patted his shoulder at the relevant points, but never seemed to be surprised. "It's all pretty obvious, huh?" asked Braeburn.
"You're a pony who wears his heart on his jacket, Braeburn." answered Salty, sliding him down another cider. "You'll be moving to Ponyville, then?"
"I don't know… I just keep thinking what could happen if I left? What if the town were in danger? Like that sandstorm last week?!”
The sheriff leaned on the bar and sighed. “Braeburn, that sandstorm just knocked over the flagpole. We know how to mend a flagpole. What we don’t know is how to mend you if you keep feeling, how did you put it, ‘stretched’?”
Seeing how forlorn Braeburn looked, the sheriff felt something more was needed. “Listen, Braeburn. We all appreciate how much you put into this town. We couldn’t have done it without you. But the town is built now! You don’t have to feel like you have to stay here just to fix broken flagpoles! We all know that if we ever really needed your help, you’d be here faster than a roadrunner fleeing a coyote. Wouldn’t you?”
“Of course!”
“There’s always a place for you in Appleloosa. But you don’t owe us a dime. You think about what you want. What you need. Take your time.”
Braeburn bit his lip and fiddled with his hat. “I’m… I’m gonna go for a walk. Thanks Sheriff.”
As Braeburn left, Silverstar took a swig from his coffee. “You know what, Salty? I think we may be needing to put together a going away party…”
A mysterious voice emerged from under a hat and cloak in the corner of the room. “I sensed that you might. We have work to do!”
Silver Star squinted at the shadowy figure. “Cheese Sandwich? You know you’ve been here before, right? You don’t need to be so dramatic?”
“But being dramatic is super fun!”
