Scarlet sat up and looked around her cozy dream. She wasn’t a big dream crafter like Silver was, but she could still quickly make herself aware of her dream, something that wasn’t always the case with night ponies. It was always interesting seeing what kind of place her mind would conjure up, and today was no different. A dim and cold cave, normally something that any rational human would probably avoid, but Scarlet wasn’t any old human, she had stopped worrying about that kind of stuff with no regrets and had gladly embraced her new nature. She was a night pony now, and for a night pony, this was as close to a perfect place as you could probably get. She hadn’t noticed this much in the waking world, (probably because there weren’t really any caves that she was exploring constantly) but something about this place just filled her with this warm sense of glee.
“Interesting dreamscape,” Silver commented from behind her, “Wouldn’t have been my first pick, but it’s not bad either.”
The mare smiled and turned toward him, “About time you got here. You know it’s not nice to keep your marefriend waiting around, right?” She teased, sticking her tongue out at him.
“Totally my bad,” he trotted around her, “So what’s the punishment then?”
“I take the reins on our dream adventures today and you get to teach me more dream stuff.”
“I said what’s the punishment, that sounds like a dream come true to me.”
“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow, ”Well if you want an actual punishment I can call a warden over or something, wasn’t it Yinyu who talked about something like that before?”
Silver’s face reddened for a moment and Scarlet couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh, “You're cute when you get all flustered, you know that?”
Silver only blushed more and let out a nervous stammer, “I’m not nearly as cute as you are.”
“Yeah, you’re even cuter.”
The stallion looked away, earning another round of laughs from Scarlet. She smiled and reached a hoof out to him, “Okay, let’s get to the teaching stuff before you just shut down entirely, sound good?”
Silver slowly nodded, “Y—yeah.”
“Good. So what should we start with today?”
Taking a moment to compose himself, Silver looked around. An unreadable look spread across his face and he gave a short nod, “Alright, well you did the basic crafting the other day right? Well, what if we shift gears a bit.”
“What do you mean?”
“Let’s step away from crafting today, and try out something else.” An old school blackboard popped into existence behind him and Silver quickly turned it over, crude chalk drawings of what was presumably him and Scarlet drawn across it in a series of doodles that she couldn’t quite understand.
“Huh?” she asked, trying to make sense of the presentation, “What’s up?”
“Dreamwalking,” he answered, “Today’s lesson is on dreamwalking.”
“What about it? We’re doing that right now right?”
“Not quite,” he commented, “It's a part of it sure, but there’s more to it as well.”
“Well, lead on then mister professor.”
“Mhmm. So, it’s also moving from dream to dream and finding ponies. Hard if you don’t know them well, and even harder if you want to try and figure out who you’re going to. But what if I told you it wasn’t?”
“That’s today’s lesson?” She asked skeptically.
“Hear me out,” he reassured her, “Because up until now we’ve just been randomly jumping through dreams, really only knowing what kind of dream it is. It’s hard to get a feel for who the dreamer is and what tribe they’re from, but it’s actually doable.”
“So, what’s the point of all that?”
“Well, you pointed out that I was the only night pony stallion around, and that’s true by us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t go try and make some friends in here.”
“Do we really need to though? I was kinda hoping we could just have a fun day where you teach me how to do some dream stuff and I make us some cute little place to hang out in or something.”
“And we can still do that, but let’s be real, it’s healthier to branch out and make some friends every now and again.”
“We’ve already got some friends though?”
Silver nodded his head, “Yes, but of those friends, I’m the only night pony stallion and it’s honestly not a bad idea to meet more. I was thinking a lot about what you said, and maybe just being around more would help make both of us more comfortable.”
“You’re making it sound like I’m just a slave to my instincts. I only really got annoyed when you were around Sine because she was acting all buddy-buddy with you and looking at you like a mare that really likes a stallion does.”
“Right, and maybe we just need to spend more time around mares and stallions just so you can feel more comfortable with that and not like I’m going to get stolen away by some other mare— because I’m not.”
Scarlet let out a sigh, “No, you’re right. I guess it just feels like there’s not really any others out there and I don’t know…”
“It makes it feel like there’s competition?” He offered.
“Yeah.” She nodded, “It really does. And it’s stupid, but it does.”
“It’s not stupid at all,” he rested a hoof on her back, “We’ve got all of our protective urges dialed up to like eleven. It’s totally understandable, and always will be.”
“It doesn’t need to be though,” Scarlet complained, “We don’t need to be overly protective of things.”
“Well,” Silver paused, “We’re stuck with what we’ve got, might as well make the most of it.”
Scarlet pulled him in for a tight hug, “I love you.”
“I love you too. We’re gonna work through this together, I promise.”
She squeezed him tighter, “Thanks.”
“Of course,” he smiled “So how about we go off on a little field trip? Maybe visit a night pony stallion that we both know just so we can break the ice a little more?”
Scarlet looked up, “Who do you have in mind?”
“Somepony you’ve already met before.”
“That yellow guy? What was his name again? Steve?”
“Stanley,” Silver corrected, “I haven’t seen him in a while, which'll make this a little trickier. But that’s good for our lesson.”
“I’m sure there’s a good reason, but just humor me. Why is it a good thing?”
“Because I’m not as familiar with him as I am with you, which means that his dream signature is less easy to spot.”
“So, you’re going in blind again?” She asked in confusion.
“Not entirely. Remember what I said about identifying dreams?”
“You said it about five minutes ago so…”
“Well?”
“Well what? We’re going to use context clues to make sure it’s the right dream?”
“Yep!” Silver excitedly clopped his hooves together. “You won’t notice much at first, but I want to feel out with your magic once we enter the dream. It’ll be subtle stuff, but if you do it right you should be able to notice a couple of differences between how his dream feels compared to mine or yours.”
She shook her head and let out a laugh, “Where on earth did you learn all of this?”
“Long story.”
“Time’s pretty slow in here, I think I can afford to hear it.”
“You sure?” He laughed, “It feels weird when I look at it all in retrospect.”
“I mean we’re talking magical horses in a parallel reality that’s solely created by magic. Everything looks weird in retrospect,” Scarlet pointed out, trying her best to hold back a laugh of her own.
“Well,” he shuffled his hooves around, his eyes betraying his hesitation, prompting Scarlet to wonder what his secret could be.
“Well?”
“Well… you’re right. It’s not really all that weird when you hold it up next to everything else.”
“So, what’s your big deep dark secret?”
“The truth is, I didn’t learn all of this by myself. Well, not true. I figured out I could do a lot of it, but a couple of the wardens, and that mare we visited a while ago helped me direct my magic. Figure out what I can do, how things work, what to look for… you know, that kind of stuff.”
A brief vision of the wardens teaching Silver like some kind of foal ran through Scarlet’s head, finally breaking the dam and eliciting a playful snicker.
“So, you’re learning from the wardens, eh? Seems kinda advanced.”
Silver shook his head, “Trust me. I’m a fast learner and I can do some cool tricks, but I wouldn’t say I’m doing anything advanced yet.”
“What about that dream within a dream thing you did that one time? Or that meditation thing you can do?”
“Huh? Oh. I mean they’re advanced, but I still don’t have the best handle on them.”
“That’s still pretty cool.”
“Maybe, but we’re missing the point here. Today’s lesson is learning some of the context clues you can figure out from a dream.”
“Right. So how do we do that?”
“We go to somepony else’s dream. Like I said before, you know how my dream feels—“
“Adorable and cute, like you,” she interrupted, relishing in the fact that it earned yet another blush from the flustered night pony.
“Right… and you know how your dreams feel. So, I want you to think about how both feel different, but what you can pick out from each. Then we’ll step into another night pony’s and you can get a sense of how his dream feels. Maybe if we have time we can go find another tribe’s dream too.”
“Let’s get dreaming then.”
Silver nodded and closed his eyes for a moment, summoning a bright star that seemed to just radiate with a warm happiness, Scarlet’s first clue about the dream’s content. Unfortunately for Silver, it was also the perfect chance for her to launch yet another jab that was sure to embarrass her already flustered stallion.
“It’s a happy dream right?”
Silver nodded, “Yep!”
“So, how’s this different from that happy dream you had the other day? You know, the one where we were trying on some cute outfits and I caught you staring at my flanks while I was wearing those socks? And then you asked if you could try on a pair too?”
Silver tensed up and looked away, a deep red blush spreading even further across his face.
“Hey it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, I thought you looked really cute in them too. Cute enough that maybe we need to get a few pairs out in the real world, don’t you think?”
“I.. I, why— ahhhh” he stammered out, making Scarlet’s smile grow even larger.
Trotting up to him, she gave him a kiss and laughed, “I’m just teasing you. But I do think those were cute and I’d love to see you in them again sometime.”
“I… okay,” he took a deep breath, “So you clearly know the different emotions that make up a dream.”
“Oh, believe me, I think you gave me a good crash course in that.”
“Right. So let’s hop on in then, and we can start making more friends too. When we get back I want you to tell me everything you felt from the dream, okay?”
“Okay,” Scarlet laughed, “I guess I should stop teasing you then, otherwise I’ll probably only pick up your emotions.”
Silver let out a nervous chuckle, “Do you just take pride in pushing my buttons or something?”
“Maybe,” she offered with a devious smirk, “You’ve got a lot of buttons to press, and it’s fun watching you get all flustered from them,” she paused, “and maybe later I can give you another wing massage? Those buttons are especially fun to push.”
Silver blushed hard but didn’t turn away this time, “That’s not fair, you’re not supposed to be this evil!”
Scarlet did the only thing she could think to do at the moment; let out another series of laughs as she entered the dream with Silver.
The experience of crossing into another dream was something that Scarlet could never quite put into words. More often than not, it was a weird feeling that she could best describe as an out of body experience for lack of a better term. From her very limited understanding of the magic behind it, they were essentially jumping into another pony’s mind, or at least a representation of a part of it, and with all of that came the ghosts of feelings— sensations, emotions, sometimes even the echoes of thought. All of it an overwhelming experience to her if even only for just a brief moment in time.
A thought began to run through her head as cheerful emotions flooded her mind. Maybe this is why she and Silver had grown so close over such a relatively short amount of time. Getting to know a pony was one thing, actually jumping into their dreams and getting an impression of them was an entirely different thing, which she was perfectly content with. Still though, as the emotions leveled out and the dream materialized around her, it only reinforced the idea that none of this was comparable to what she had ever felt in the waking world.
A beautiful desert landscape caught in a perfect sunset greeted the pair. Like any dream, it wasn’t perfect, but that didn’t matter much when you were in awe of the important parts.
“Silver? Long time no see!” A masculine voice exclaimed from behind them.
“Hey Stanley,” Silver replied, a hint of happiness carrying across in his voice, “You don’t mind us popping in for a little visit, right?”
Scarlet looked around the new dreamscape, letting out an involuntary sigh of happiness as she took in the picturesque sights of the Grand Canyon. A deep happiness welled up inside of her and for a brief moment she was lost in the dream, becoming a part of it’s narrative. This was another thing that she never heard many ponies talking about. It didn’t happen often, but on some occasions a dream was so overwhelming and powerful that a pony couldn’t help but enter its narrative. This wasn’t always a bad thing, but one could easily get sidetracked if they had other things to do, something that she was definitely up to today.
A short shake of her head was all it took to clear the lingering haze of the dream, her attention turning back to the yellow stallion who’s dream they had visited.
“Hey Stanley,” she greeted him, slowly feeling her perceptions return to normal.
“Sorry to just drop on in,” Silver continued, “But I wanted to introduce Scarlet to some of my friends and show her a few dream things.”
“Hey no trouble at all,” the yellow night pony cheerfully replied, “Was just clearing my head for a bit.”
“Oh? Something bothering you?”
Stanley hesitated for a moment before nodding, “Just some drama out here. I guess it’s not really shaping up to what I thought it’d be.”
“That village you were going to?”
“Mhmm,” he nodded, “I got tossed into an admin role and it’s just turning into me being the mediator between a perfectionist and a realist.”
“I see, I see,” Silver commented, “Doesn’t sound like a fun thing to deal with at all. What do you think Scar?”
Scarlet looked up at the blue stallion and shrugged, “Sounds like a hassle.”
“You could say that again,” Stanley chuckled, “It’s okay though. We’ve got a big town meeting coming up and I think I managed to broker some kind of peace between them.”
“That’s good,” Scarlet smiled, remembering part of the reason for their visit. She started to lazily walk around the rocky area, looking off over the canyon in the distance before turning back toward the two stallions, “So, uhh, what kind of ponies did you wind up meeting out there? You were kinda in the same boat that we were, right?”
Stanley nodded, “A couple of night ponies, a bunch of earth ponies, and then some pegasi and unicorns. Go figure that the night pony running the place and the lead Earth pony butt heads constantly.”
“Sounds like you’re stuck between a rock and a hard place then.”
He shrugged, “Yeah, you’re not wrong. I have a good feeling about the next meeting though. Dawn’s a perfectionist and I know she’s never going to be onboard with what Midnight and I were able to negotiate, but it’s a step forward at least. Midnight says she’s got some kind of backup plan, so I guess we’ll just have to see how things go.”
Another thought ran through Scarlet’s head for a moment, giving her reason to question whether the fact that she had seen so few stallions around was merely coincidence or something far more skewed. She hadn’t thought much about it until recently, but more of the pieces were starting to fall into place, and she was already dreading the thought of possibly having a repeat of the other night’s frustrations between her and Sine again. Or any other mare for that matter.
“So you’re the only stallion around then?” Silver asked, clearly putting together some of the pieces as well.
Stanley raised an eyebrow, “As in the only night pony stallion around? I mean I never really thought of it that way, but I guess I am.”
“Interesting,” Silver noted, “Anyways, sorry to bother you.”
“Don’t be,” he waved a hoof at them, “I needed to clear my head, and spending time with friends helps.”
“Why don’t you get us caught up with what’s happened since we met up last,” Silver offered, “It’s been a while, and a lot of things can change in that time.”
“You two are evidence of that,” Stanley laughed, “You’re sure looking a lot more lovey-dovey since the last time I saw you.”
Scarlet suddenly became aware of the fact that she had gravitated towards Silver and had leaned up against him. It wasn’t the kind of interaction that she’d normally think much about, but something about the clear lack of stallions, and the way that she had let her anger flare up just cast these kinds of displays in a new light for her. The feeling of a warm wing pulling her close brought a sense of ease and happiness to her, and she quickly let those thoughts fade into the background as she just enjoyed the embrace of her stallion.
“I’ve got an idea,” Silver offered, taking note of the hesitant look that had spread across Scarlet’s face. “You catch us up and we’ll catch you up. You’re not wrong, a lot’s changed since we hung out last, and I honestly feel bad for letting this sit for so long.”
Stanley shrugged, “Don’t sweat it, it’s not even been that long.”
“Feels like it’s been,” Scarlet muttered.
“Well,” Silver started, “I guess a good starting point is right after you left us last time…”
As Silver began to recount the things that had transpired, Scarlet couldn’t help but take note of the different emotions that filled the dream, and all of the subtle feelings that made this dream feel different from the rest. It was something she hadn’t ever really paid attention to, but just as Silver had said, it was there.
She looked up at him again, smiling as she looked forward to the future that the two had planned together. After all, big things were on the horizon for them, and she couldn’t wait to experience it with him.
