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// Chapter 11: Gooseberry's Grief 
// Story: Dreamwalker Dash 
// by Fluttercheer 
//------------------------------//

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Inside an ice cream parlor in Canterlot, on a round table in the middle of it, Gooseberry was sitting surrounded by her big sister and her mother, Candy Wave. Gooseberry was happily snacking away at a huge portion of chocolate ice cream that towered in a bowl in front of her. Time and time again, her spoon dug into the delicious, brown mass and filled her mouth with it, causing her cheeks to bulge. The happiness spread out to Hyper Sonic and Candy Wave and infected them. Content and satisfied, they smiled over at Gooseberry as she kept shoveling ice cream.
Not far in the distance, Rainbow Dash, Luna and Hyper Sonic stood on a street in front of the parlor, watching the scene through the open door. Life was bustling around them, ponies of the mountain city and Equestria's capitol going about their business. A chubby, turquoise mare looked behind her and shouted at somepony to follow her, then ran past the trio. Luna noticed with amusement how Hyper Sonic stared in disbelief at the table inside the parlor. She leaned down to her.
“How does it feel to see yourself in a dream, young Hyper Sonic?”
Hyper Sonic stammered and opened and closed her mouth like a fish. “It's..... weird,” was all she could say after a couple seconds, nearly speechless by the sight.
Luna chuckled. “Even for a natural lucid dreamer, the realm of dreams offers new experiences.” She brought her head higher again and looked at Rainbow Dash. “This is your challenge for tonight, Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow Dash observed the happy scene that played out in front of them. “A challenge?” She tilted her head. “Doesn't look like much of a challenge to me.”
“We shall see,” Luna commented simply, nodding her head once. “Go a little closer and watch them.”
Rainbow Dash did as told. As she entered the parlor, none of the ponies looked up at her. She knew that Gooseberry was the only real one, after Luna's short briefing from last night. But that was the only thing she could spot that she would describe as “strange”. Rainbow Dash took up position closer to the table, just a few wingflaps away, and observed the three ponies.
Gooseberry had a mountain of chocolate in front of her mouth, as she had already noticed before. “That's an unusually big amount of ice cream for a filly her age. I wonder if she can even eat all that,” Rainbow Dash questioned. “But foals are known for having a huge appetite, so not too unusual, I guess.”
She redirected her attention to Gooseberry's company. Hyper Sonic and Candy Wave had much more moderate amounts of ice cream in their bowls. Hyper Sonic's portion was slightly bigger than her mom's, but the amount still wasn't anything crazy. Her ice cream was red, with a tint of orange color that made it look fiery. “Strawberry ice cream,” Rainbow Dash deducted. “Definitely strawberry.”
Candy Wave's ice cream was pink, she confirmed with a short glance, then looked away from it quickly and set her focus on the entirety of the scene again.
All three of them were eating peacefully. Hyper Sonic and Candy Wave wore content smiles, like they had already done as she watched them from outside. Gooseberry's face was pure happiness, the kind of look only a filly who relished in her wildest dreams becoming true could have. There was nothing wrong with this whatsoever.
Wrinkles appeared on Rainbow Dash's forehead. She shifted attention to the table. A pink cloth covered it, slightly hanging down over the edges. In the middle was a blue, transparent vase. It was half-filled with water and a single dandelion flower was in it. The bowls from which the three ponies around the table ate their ice cream had the same color as the vase, but that was the only remarkable thing Rainbow Dash could spot in the design of the table's decoration. Everything else looked completely ordinary.
The amount of ice cream Gooseberry devoured and the matching designs of the vase and the bowls were the only two things that struck Rainbow Dash as notable. But the only thing that was actually unusual was the fact that Gooseberry was the only pony at this table who was real and alive, not imaginary. But even this was to expect in a dream..... Suddenly, it clicked in Rainbow Dash's head. Gooseberry was real. Hyper Sonic and Candy Wave weren't. She flashed a look over her shoulder at the real Hyper Sonic who still stood with Luna in front of the ice cream parlor, then looked back at the table. Hyper Sonic was with Gooseberry all the time. But her..... More lights went on in Rainbow Dash's head.
Convinced of having found the answer, Rainbow Dash stepped at Gooseberry's side and addressed the filly. “Hey, are you missing your mom?”
Gooseberry's eyes and mouth opened wide and she froze. The spoon dropped out of her hoof and landed next to her bowl, leaving a stain there. The chocolate ice cream in the bowl melted at a high speed and turned into a substance akin to chocolate milk. It was flowing onto the table, too much for the small bowl to contain it, and changed the color of the table cloth where it spread out. The dandelion in its vase withered and its petals became brown. The imaginary pictures of Hyper Sonic and Candy Wave turned grey, then flickered and slowly dissolved like their bodies had become liquid, until they suddenly disappeared. Gooseberry slumped in her seat, sat motionless for a second, then her body started to rock slightly and some tears dropped out of her eyes.
Motivated by the sight, Luna and Hyper Sonic came and joined Rainbow Dash at the table. “You figured right, “Luna confirmed. “Although, it is not the purpose of a dreamwalker to trigger the grief of a pony by being too direct, Rainbow Dash.” The princess of dreams leaned down at the dead dandelion. “A dreamwalker is not supposed to destroy a happy dream.” She gently blew at the flower and the dandelion came back to life and raised its head, the yellow color of it restored.
Both Hyper Sonic and Luna took up position at Gooseberry's side. Luna was first with reacting. She unfolded her right wing and draped it over Gooseberry's back. “I see your happy dream is about to turn into a nightmare. Is there anything that is bothering you, Gooseberry?”
Rainbow Dash watched from the sidelines and took mental notes. This was a much more diplomatic and gentle approach than her own had been.
Gooseberry lifted her head and looked at Luna with teary eyes. “There is.....” she said in a weepy voice. “I miss mom.”
The information came to nopony's surprise. Rainbow Dash had just figured it out moments ago, Luna was the one who had chosen this problem as the first one Rainbow Dash should assist with and Hyper Sonic of course knew the woes of her little sister all too well. The older filly reached out and pulled her sister closer, Luna's wing sliding off Gooseberry's back in the process. She gave her a tight hug. “We're going to see mom again during hearth's warming vacation. It's only a few months anymore and you gotta stay strong until then, Gooseberry, or else mom will be sad.”
Gooseberry sniffed at Hyper Sonic's shoulder. But the words seemed to have taken effect, as she wiped over her nose and forced herself to a smile, while nestling her face into Hyper Sonic's short mane. “I'll try, Hyper,” she whispered with her soft voice.
The two sisters maintained their embrace for a minute, then separated. Gooseberry sat down on her chair proper again and Hyper Sonic took seat on the chair her image had been sitting on. The ice cream of her own image and her mother's was still intact. Hyper Sonic grabbed a spoon and began to eat something of the ice cream in front of her, while Luna took seat next to her and Rainbow Dash was sitting down opposite of her.
In front of Gooseberry appeared a fresh portion of chocolate ice cream and the mess around her bowl got magically cleaned up, courtesy of Luna's glowing horn. Gooseberry's smile returned and she dug into the ice cream without hesitation. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, watched Hyper Sonic eat. “You're enjoying your strawberry ice cream?” she asked her, smirking.
“It's chili ice cream, actually,” Hyper Sonic corrected her.
Rainbow Dash's smirk vanished and her lips pointed down while her eyes began to radiate a strangely absent look. “Really, huh?” she asked the filly, doubt in her voice. “It's a dream, so I guess everything works.” Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders.
“I had it before, when I was awake,” Hyper Sonic spoke casually, while consuming her ice cream.
“It's true,” Gooseberry confirmed, in one of the rare moments that her mouth wasn't full. “Hyper gets this super-hot chili ice cream every time we eat here together with mom.” Her ears dropped after she spoke the last sentence and Gooseberry quickly stuffed an extra-full spoon into her mouth to quench a certain feeling that was rising in her heart.
Rainbow Dash's mouth fell open and she didn't say more, only staring at Hyper Sonic.
“A unique sweetness followed by a huge kick which only intensifies in time,” Hyper Sonic described her favourite ice cream with a smirk of her own, teasing the mare in front of her.
Luna held a hoof at her mouth, closed her eyes and broke out into lighthearted giggles. Gooseberry giggled along with her, freed from her momentary sadness again.
Rainbow Dash flashed angry glares at the night princess and the lucid-dreaming filly, red-faced.
As the amused commotion calmed down and Luna returned to her usual composure, she spoke to Rainbow Dash more seriously again. “There is a great rivalry between you and Hyper Sonic, but she is not the filly you are here for tonight. Tonight, your attention should be devoted only to Gooseberry and her little problem.”
Rainbow Dash looked into the direction from where she felt Luna's stare resting on her and raised an eyebrow. “Still?” she asked. “But isn't it, like, already solved?”
Luna shook her head, slowly. “No, Rainbow Dash. Problems like these that weigh heavy on the mind of a young foal are never solved so easily. They are persistent and require long-term care. For now, Gooseberry is merely stable, but her problem keeps haunting her.”
Rainbow Dash looked at the filly to her right and observed how she shoveled ice cream that didn't seem to become less. The skin around her eyes was still red.
“There is still a task for you to do here and this time you need to act more gentle, Rainbow Dash. Be careful not to make the same mistake again.”
Rainbow Dash nodded, without looking back at Luna. She kept watching Gooseberry instead of saying something, trying to figure out the right approach. It took her a few minutes to be ready.
“So, uh, is there anything bothering you?” The almost exact imitation of Luna's sentence from earlier was the best she could think of.
“I'm bothered by this ice cream,” Gooseberry responded. Her voice suddenly had a slightly cheeky tone to it. “It doesn't become less no matter how much I eat.”
Confused by the answer, Rainbow Dash cocked her head. “Don't you like ice cream?” she asked.
“I do.”
“And chocolate ice cream is your favourite, am I right?” Rainbow Dash kept going into this direction with the conversation.
“Um-hm.” Gooseberry nodded, her mouth full with ice cream again.
“And is this your favourite ice cream parlor?” Rainbow Dash looked around and pretended to admire the interior and the table decorations.
Gooseberry swallowed. “It is. We come here every weekend. When Hyper and I are in Canterlot and not in the friendship school.....” There was that feeling rising in her chest again and, once more, Gooseberry quenched it with a big scoop of ice cream. She let it melt on her tongue and enjoyed how it soothed her.
“How do you like it in the school? It's your third year, right?” Rainbow Dash continued.
“Yes, it is. Hyper and I attend it since the beginning.” Gooseberry scooped more chocolate ice cream into her mouth and waited until swallowing before she continued with her answer. “It's nice there and Hyper and I have a lot of fun. But not everything is great.....” She trailed off again and transported more ice cream into her mouth.
“And what's not great?” Rainbow Dash moved closer towards the sensitive point.
Gooseberry stared at her from big eyes, but did not respond. She only kept her attention to her ice cream now.
The silence felt suffocating to Rainbow Dash. Seeking help, she looked at Hyper Sonic, then at Luna. The princess wasn't saying anything, but she gave Rainbow Dash a rather stern look and shook her head in a manner that seemed almost menacing to Rainbow Dash.
The aspiring dreamwalker looked back at Gooseberry. “Uh, what could make it better?” she asked the filly.
No answer and Rainbow Dash's reward was another sight of bulging cheeks.
“Like, what could be in the school to make it greater?” Rainbow Dash did another attempt. “Is there anything we can do to make you enjoy it there more?”
The silence from Gooseberry was persistent. It finally dawned on Rainbow Dash that she was uncomfortably close to the sore spot in Gooseberry's mind. But how was she supposed to help with her problem if Gooseberry refused to talk about it?
Once more desperate for help, Rainbow Dash looked at Luna another time. The face of the princess remained stoic, though. It was a silent expression of it that she had to do this alone. And without a doubt, as somepony who was blessed with the ability to take a look into the mind of others, Luna knew exactly what she was thinking about right now.
Rainbow Dash gulped. She looked back at Gooseberry, who kept devouring her endless supply of ice cream while giving her sceptical glances. Admitting defeat had never been easy for Rainbow Dash and, despite the things she learned in the last couple years, still wasn't. But as it was, she had no choice but to get this over and done with.
“When I.....” Rainbow Dash started and stopped again. Gooseberry watched her with big eyes now. “When I..... When I was a filly..... in flight camp..... in Rainbow Falls..... I..... I missed..... my parents a lot..... It got so bad that..... that I woke up sweating and calling for them in the middle of the night.....”
Instantly after the words had left her lips, Rainbow Dash's face flushed red. She pictured Gooseberry giggling, then pointing at her and laughing, as her chosen image as the pony who was always tough crumbled away and started burning. But Gooseberry was just sitting there and listening. She still wasn't saying anything, but her eyes were glued on Rainbow Dash now and her ears perked up. They were so stiff that they even seemed to vibrate from the tension in them.
Rainbow Dash gulped again, before she pressed on. “What helped me then was talking to another filly from Dodge City. She said she misses her parents, too, and that it helps her to write down what she does every day. I followed her advice and that made missing them easier for me, because it distracted me and writing down everything made me look forward to showing them what I did every day. Maybe the same thing can help you, too.” The words had left her mouth in a long stream without interruption, caused by her desire to finally get past the embarrassing moment. Now, Rainbow Dash panted, while giving Gooseberry nervous looks.
Gooseberry pursed her lips and her eyes became even wider than before. The bowl with chocolate ice cream disappeared. After a few seconds of staring, Gooseberry herself was suddenly gone. Startled, Rainbow Dash turned at Luna. “What happened now? Did I do it wrong?”
“Gooseberry woke up,” Luna clarified. “It happens sometimes when a pony finds an answer to their problem while dreaming.”
“So, it worked? Did telling that embarrassing story do something?” Rainbow Dash's voice was agitated and some anger was carried by it.
Luna nodded. “Your approach was still a little too direct, you could have been gentler still, and there is no guarantee that this solution will help Gooseberry to effectively cope with living separated from her mother. But you gave her a different perspective and for the time being, Gooseberry's sadness has been eased.”
“After telling her about one of the most embarrassing moments in my life,” Rainbow Dash growled.
Luna remained calm and nodded again. “It is one way for a dreamwalker to help, telling about their own experiences and passing them on to other ponies. Last night, you learned the most important lesson for every new dreamwalker. But today's lesson was the most important one for you personally. Remember it well, Rainbow Dash. A dreamwalker cannot afford feelings of embarrassment, for it would hinder their attempts to help.”
Rainbow Dash huffed. Some of the blush was still in her face.
“Be not discouraged,” Luna spoke as the remains of Gooseberry's dream vanished around them. “You did well for your first time. And the future lessons you receive will shape you into the dreamwalker you need to be.”
Rainbow Dash did not reply, but she gave Luna noticeable glares. It had been a taxing night for her. As the sun in the waking world began to rise into the sky and Luna, Rainbow Dash and Hyper Sonic went separate ways until the next night, Rainbow Dash questioned again if becoming a dreamwalker was the right career choice for her.