Rain beat down on the tent hard, wind tugging at the fabric, but inside it was warm and dry, lit up the fireplace in the middle.
Silver and Meadow were talking quietly at one end of the tent opposite from me, working on some sort of craft that involved wool. Not sure how they got it, but they were working it into thread.
Spear Point were by the fireplace, carefully working the barch of a piece of wood with a stone knife, Luna next to her father and assisting by holding the branch firmly.
He was apparently the tribe's premier spear crafter. I couldn’t argue they were wrong in that assumption, the ones I had seen outside had been of the very finest craftsponyship, carved with patterns of streams and menacing with spikes of flint.
Primitive materials perhaps, but by this day and age, top the line.
And apparently it paid well in other things, going by the blanket I was laying on and the tea I had been offered earlier. Both of very fine quality.
Celestia returned from the fire with roasted carrots on a stick before settling down right next to me, offering them to me.
“Thank you,” I said and took one.
“Our parents like you,” Celestia said quietly with a small smile, “I think they are planning to see if you’d get together with their strange daughters.”
“Strange huh?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
Celestia smiled a bit wryly, “Our appearance does not exactly make us overly popular in this time of separate tribes,” she said quietly, “Our tribe accepts us, but the rest are hesitant at best.”
“I did think you were a bit old in this frame of time to not have a stallion already,” I admitted.
“We’re far from the only ponies,” Celestia said with a small smile, “Stallions were even more uncommon during this time than in modern day. Plenty of unmarried mares even in our small tribe.”
I slowly nodded, “Ah. That’s why your mothers work so hard to impress me. The nice blanket, expensive tea…”
“They like you,” Celestia said and glanced down at her hooves, “They would have liked you.”
“If they didn’t know I had originally been something else and then a unicorn at least,” I pointed out quietly. A thestral would definitely have been right out.
Celestia smiled a bit, “That was how it was at that time, but in Lunas and my case I think mother would have been… fine... even with a unicorn for Luna and myself. Not happy perhaps, but... It would be a long time before things become better in that regard… and things would get worse before they got better. A lot worse.”
I nodded silently.
Dark times ahead.
“But the start of that is several years in the future from here,” Celestia said quietly with a small smile, “The pegasus city states haven’t even formed yet. But soon… perhaps even now… bronze is being discovered. Things will change.”
“Eventually for the better.”
Thanks to you two.
“Mhmm.”
I looked towards Luna and her dream father, “But this… this is pretty nice too,” I admitted before I glanced at Celestia with a small smile.
“There were hard times too,” Celestia admitted and then laughed softly, “But that’s not the ones you dream of, is it?”
“I try to stop them when you do.”
Celestia nodded and nibbled at her carrot as she looked out across the tent as rain beat the large tent.
“Still,” I continued quietly with a small smile, “I highly doubt that your parents would need to work this hard to find somepony for you two. They would have to be idiots not to see that you’re amazing and beautiful..”
Celestia's cheeks turned slightly red in a small blush before she raised her hoof to them, “Why did I blush at that? We say more teasing things all the time, in casual conversation even!” she asked with a small frown.
“Because it’s your dream,” I explained, “Even as you dream it, it affects you. Thousands of years of experience and life or not, you are still the same filly that grew up here. It’s just much closer to the surface than usual right now. It’s why you were outraged about your mothers comment about inviting a colt back earlier.”
“Oh.”
“It affects Luna and myself as well,” I continued, “Mostly because we let it. I use it to help guide me not to do something wrong enough to break the illusion, Luna… surely you noticed that she’s acting a lot more like she used to back at this time?”
Celestia nodded slightly.
Luna got up by the fire and crossed over to us, settling down by my other side, her wing brushing across my back as she laid down, “It’s getting to be dawn,” she said quietly, “It’s time to wake up, sister.”
Celestia nodded, “It is, isn’t it?” she asked and looked around the tent before she smiled at us, “Thank you.”
“No,” Luna said and leaned in past me, giving her a hug with her wing, “Thank you, sister. It is your dream. Now it is time to wake up.”
Celestia and the dream turned into sparkles of light, leaving Luna and myself in the dream realm. Luna kept her younger form for a moment as she leaned against my side,
“And thank you, My Page. It may only have been a dream, but it was good to see them again,” she said quietly.
I put my wing across her back, holding her close for a moment, “It was your sister's dream, not mine,” I answered and kissed her cheek, “I only helped. And I’m glad you liked it… but we should not do it often.”
Luna sighed and nodded with a small sad smile, “Remembering the past is a good thing, but living in it is not.”
“True, but not really quite what I meant,” I said and then smirked at her, “Don’t want to make a scene in front of even dream images of your parents. You have no idea how hard it was resisting kissing you in there. You’re so beautiful.”
She leaned in and kissed me firmly before she pulled back, “It wouldn’t bother them, just make them move their plans forward,” she teased before she stretched her wings with a small giggle, “Because if we really had met you back then, looking like you are now and acting like you did in that dream? Forget marrying us, if my sister and I hadn't both have been with foal before first snow, it definitely wouldn’t have been due to lack of trying,” she said with a teasing smile before disappearing in a shower of sparks as she woke up, leaving me behind, speechless.