As I descended the stairs leading from the hospital, the lavender adjacent unicorn's ears twitched back at me. Twilight turned to look my way, hopping up off the bench to meet me as I reached the bottom of the steps. "Hey Argent! Got everything ready?"
My instant knee jerk reaction of a sarcastic reply was cut off my the taste of paper. As was my second, as I couldn't stand on just my hind legs long enough to pat down some non-existant pockets.'im not sure if that would even make sense here havent seen any pants around after all.' I settled for dropping the bag on the ground and circling it, kinda like a dog that had lost their toy.
It wasnt long before I got a reaction out of the mare, unfortunetly it was just mild confusion and not any kind of laughter. 'Eh, oh well.' "Yep, everything accounted for." I smirked. "In all seriousness, yeah, I said goodbye, and thank you to every-pony," I corrected at the last second, "--for taking care of me." 'Alright, didn't even slip up that much, just a little stilted!'
The unicorn nodded, her horn lighting up with a purple-pink sparkliness, an instant later, a similar shimmering blob of color surrounded my dropped paper sack o' medicine. The glowing aura proceeded to lift said bag off the ground and place it within her saddlebags.
I gapped like a fish for a minute at the… whatever that was that I had just witnessed. "Whoa…" I breathed softly in amazement.
Twilight giggled. "What, never seen a unicorn use magic before?" She asked, her tone joking.
"No, I haven't." I answered honestly, which seemed to bewilder her for a time.
The purple unicorn gave me a funny look, one ear folded and her head cocked to one side like a dog. "Never?"
"There weren't exactly very many unicorns back home… Shouldn't we get going? It's getting pretty late." I pointed out, gesturing toward the setting sun.
"Ah, I suppose you're right, they should be… follow me, I'll show you the way to Golden Oaks, it's where you'll be staying for the time being, with me and Spike. He's my assistant, you'll get along great!"
"I look forward to meeting him." I nodded politely, trotting after her. "So, where did everypony else go? I kinda thought I would at least see 'em on the way out, even if we didn't all walk to uh, Gilded Oaks, together?"
"Golden Oaks." Twilight corrected absently as she turned to look back at me as we continued down the road. "Oh, well, Applejack had to stop by her brother's room in the hospital, before heading back to the farm to prepare for the harvest."
"Ah, I think I remember hearing something about that… she said he was going to be laid up for… two weeks? What exactly happened?" I wondered, trying to remember if I caught any more details from beyond the door.
"Apparently he got caught up in the stampede for gala tickets last week coming back from a delivery… he's okay now, but I feel kinda bad about being the cause of it." Her ears drooped and she looked like a kicked puppy.
I didn't know what this gala was, or how exactly she was the cause, but seeing a sad pony is kinda like watching all the happiness in the world be snuffed out. Yes, they are that adorable. I quickly changed the subject to avoid seeing such a thing for a second longer. "W-what about Rainbow?"
Twilight looked up, scanning the sky for a moment as the sadness drained from her features. "She had to go and divert a wild storm from the Everfree to keep our water table on schedule, so we won't see her for a little while." The unicorn explained, gesturing vaguely to the south east where some nasty black clouds could be seen rumbling in the distance.
I shivered involuntarily, imagining being caught up in that storm after a week of unconsciousness. 'Would I have even lived through my mini coma if I hadn't been found? Now I'm extra glad they found me.'
"Fluttershy had to go back home to oversee a late clutch of tortoise eggs hatching, she seemed pretty excited about that." Twilight smiled.
"Yeah, baby animals are adorable, do you think she'd let me see them at some point?" My voice had more pleading in it than I was happy with, but I did really wanna see the baby land-turtles.
"I'm sure she would be delighted to have you over to see them in a day or two, animals are kinda the best way to get to know her."
We slowed down as we neared an intersection, Twilight sat at the curb for a moment to let a couple pony drawn wagons go by, while also pointing out a giant circus tent style building. It was all done up in complementary shades of blues, yellows, pinks and purples, with a red triangle flag flapping at the top. A pair of slightly stylized ponies stood either side of the second or third story, depending on how space efficient the structure was.
"Rarity had to rush home to complete an order for a client before the pre-fall rush could come in." The unicorn was actually only just getting back herself, so we were able to wave at her in greeting. She returned it with a smile before we got going again.
"Pinkie seems capable of dissapearing at the drop of a hat, but I have a feeling we will be seeing her soon." I turned to look at her, but before I could ask for more details she turned towards a large tree.
A quite impressive specimen, its trunk was easily on par, or even slightly larger than the trunks of ancient redwoods, about the same as any house nearby. This type of tree seemed to favour girth over stature, as its height didn't match. It was only two or three stories high. 'A stub of a tree, healthy, roots probably go down for-- is that a door?'
I looked closer, and, indeed, Twilight was opening a little red door on the tree's side. It was the kind that split in two, top and bottom. 'Can't remember the name of that type… wait, she lives in a tree?!' It was only at this point that I noticed the balconies, windows, and the sign out front with a depiction of a book on it.
"You live in a tree?" I asked, scampering back up beside her. "A literal tree house?"
That earned a laugh from the purple mare. "Indeed, but it's more of a live-in tree library actually." Twilight smiled fondly, gesturing into the open door and the blackness that lay beyond.
I walked in cautiously. "Shouldn't it be brighter in here? I saw a bunch of windows out-" was as far as I got before the lights flicked on.
Black out paper was removed from the windows as ponies numbering in the dozens all shouted at the top of their lungs. "Surprise!"
My legs locked up as my ears shot back. I winced at the volume before falling over with a pathetic, goat-esque noise. My heart beat a mile a minute as Pinkie bounced into view, blowing a party favor with a huge smile on her face.
"Hiya Argent! Welcome to your Congratulations-Getting-All-Better-and-on-Waking-Up-Slash-Welcome-to-Ponyville-Party!" This promted all present gave either a "yeah!" "Congrats!" "Happy to see you!" Or something similar. The ball of sugar, happiness and pink grinned down at me. "So, were you surprised? Did we get ya? Huh? Huh? Huh?" With each word she got a little bit closer before snapping back to her prior stance.
After a minute of desperately trying to keep the phrase "Scared the piss out of me" from graduating from metaphorical to litteral, I nodded. "Y-yep, you got me r-real good."
"Awesome!" The pink pony cheered, blowing her party favor again while the room cheered once more. Things went from ordinary to raging-but-child-friendly in a matter of minutes. There was cake to be had, and punch, and caramel apples and candy. Many a-game that made very little sense were spread out over the floor and on the walls.
I mostly tried to stick to the free walls, sampling a few of each of the goodies before they could go away, but I was never much of a sweets person.
As I sat on the stairs with a small plate of food and a cup of something grape and strawberry flavored I sighed, the sound easily lost in the music of the party.
'And to think, I was this close to saying "this might not be so bad." Murphy gets you before the thought is even fully formed, apparently.'
^
< ◇ >
v
The party ran for a few hours, ponies generally having a good time while I tried to not get involved in anything I could be made to look like a fool in. After the sun had set and the moon had risen, Twilight went about politely disbanding the event and kicking ponies out of her home.
Politely, again.
The excuse? I was a child that needed her rest. I'm glad I was nowhere near the mare as she was doing this as I was having trouble suppressing my annoyance at being misgendered. Or rather, what plumbing came with the new body… 'yeah, that's gonna take a minute to get used to. Let's just add it to the pile for now.'
After the only two ponies left in the building were me and Twilight, I was introduced to the library's third resident, who was, incidentally, not a pony!
I looked at the little bipedal purple reptile, unblinking as my eyes went from the short tail, to the green spines, to his slitted eyes and to his claws. I must say, Spike didn't look anything like what I expected when Twilight said she had an assistant.
She failed to mention that said assistant was a dragon. A dragon.
"D-dragon?!" I squawked in surprise, nearly toppling over again.
"Yep! Spike here is a baby dragon." The unicorn giggled, apparently finding my gawking hilarious.
'Talking ponies, unicorns, magic, and now, dragons. I'm totally in a fantasy world, aren't I?' I sighed mentally, while redirecting my thoughts to a more helpful track. "How does… but he… what… how?" I squeaked, unable to do more than jibber questioningly. 'Hmm, yes, helpful… indeed…'
Apparently Spike decided to answer my question. "Oh, well, Twilight is actually the one who hatched me, so I've known her my whole life!" He smiled. "Also, because I was hatched by really strong magic, I turned out to have some cool latent magic of my own! It lets me send things with my breath to ponies, so Princess Celestia decided that I should live with Twilight. As I got older, Twilight started training me as a scribe, which is basically just writing things down for her and sending them to the princess, but eventually she also let me help her out with other things too!"
Twilight pulled the purple reptilian into a hug with one hoof, Nuzzling the top of his head "And I couldn't ask for a better assistant!" Spike blushed brilliantly, half heartedly squirming in an attempt to break free.
I laughed at their antics. 'They seem close, like family.' "Sounds like you're quite a bit of help then!" I was starting to get a bit tired, and I felt a yawn coming on, so it felt like it was about time to wrap up the day. "So where exactly am I going to be sleeping? Got a comfy couch?"
"We're not gonna make you sleep on the couch!" Spike said, seemingly shocked by my willingness to not be a bother.
Twilight nodded at the little dragon. "Quite right Spike. I've got a spare bed up in the loft. ``The mare layed a hoof over my shoulders looking me in the eyes to add sincerity to her words, I guess. "It's yours for as long as you need it."
As a group, we headed up the stairs. Walking up stairs as a quadruped is actually incredibly easy, it's going down that's hard. The only reason I didn't have trouble leaving the hospital is because the steps were both long and shallow. These steps were both steep and short, like the kind a human would use, and I could just tell how much of a pain in the ass it was going to be getting down them in the morning.
'Problem for tomorrow, I suppose.' Twilight hauled the large four post wood frame bed out of storage with nothing but her horn, applying fresh sheets and pillows almost as an afterthought. 'Holy crap! Magic is freaking awesome! Why couldn't I show up as a unicorn?'
As I stared stupidly at the show of power and dexterity, teeth clamped around the scruff of my neck, which I apparently had now, and deposited me in the center of the bed.
As I touched down, I found out just how exhausted I actually was. To tired to be filled with wonder for certain, I couldn't even dredge up the curiosity to wonder what the sparkly noise that accompanied my yawning.
I nosed my way under the covers, laying on my side, I turned back to a confused looking unicorn. She shook it off quickly enough and stepped closer. "Well, it looks like you're comfortable enough. If you need anything, don't hesitate to wake me up, okay?"
I nodded sleepily, and she leaned in to give me a nuzzle, fixing the covers over me in a flash of magic. 'Woah, kay then, uhh, ponies are a lot more touchy feely than I'm used to. I guess… it's not that bad, but…'
"Goodnight my little pony." She said, in an almost sing-song manner.
'Ah, right, I'm a child now… how exactly do I keep forgetting that? Everyone is three times my size!'
"Goo'nigh'." I yawned back, something making that sparkly sound again. 'There's tha' noise again.' my head hit the pillow a moment later.
I wiggled for a few minutes, trying to find a comfortable position. I rubbed at my forehead for a bit sleepily before finally drifting off.
^
< ◇ >
v
A cool summer breeze blew by, the grass swaying gently in waves of green. I stared up at the beautiful blue sky.
Flattened grass tickled my back and arms, while the taller specimens swayed into view every now and then, seeming to switch between green, gold, and blue every now and then. A tree stood just a bit away from me, its leaves cast in shadow as it added to the harmony of a pleasant day.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, a smile tugging at my lips as I relished in the smell of a nice summer day. Somewhere nearby, I could hear a river, and the leaves of the tree rustling in the wind. Everything was so nice, so peaceful…
My ears folded back in alarm as water dripped into them. I bolted upright and shook my head violently to dislodge the invading liquid.
As I ground a hoof ineffectively into my ear, I looked around in annoyance for the source. 'Was I too close to the river?' I wondered, but no, it was a fair distance away. More drops landed on my back, so I jumped like a cat, whirling midair to glare at the offender. The wood would have quivered in fear if trees knew to be afraid.
"Wait, the tree?" I stepped back to observe the odd plant. The bark was strange. A dark, rich brown for the most part, but with white new growth, like young branches, or where old bark had flaked off to be replaced. The leaves were a pale gray and… fluffy? It was almost like a cloud and a tree had been mixed into one thing… which was supported by the fact that the tree was giving off rain. Oh sure, it was in light amounts, but just past this one, I could see more that were really pouring down.
I turned around, and beheld… nonsense.
To start with, there were the rivers. Three, I could see from here. One of them flowed uphill, which isn't that bad, it's against physics as far as I'm aware, but not that bad.
The one that decided to flow around a tiny hill through itself, made no goddamn sense. Seriously, the currents looked to be tied in a freaking knot!
But! At least it wasn't flying through freaking the air!
Along with that, bushes grew jars of peanut butter. Shrubs rolled away from butterflies in terror. Shadows seemed to have absolutely no appreciation for where light said they should be, and lay in a myriad of shapes, lengths and depths, regardless of the object casting them.
My eye twitched as I folded my hooves over my face. "Why does nothing make sense…" I groaned.
The trees seemed to rain harder in response to my complaints, the pixelated sun zipped to midday and a perfectly circular sourceless shadow slowly bloomed over me. The wind picked up, and the loopy river started doing gravity defying loops ala-rollercoaster style.
I tried and failed to pinch the bridge of my nose. "Okay, I know this is a world of magic, but, but some things have gotta follow some rules, right?"
The blue splash over my hoof seemed to gain saturation, before an oddly familiar feeling left me. A wave of colors seemed to possess the landscape. Random things that didn't make sense started glowing a bright pink, or orange, or so on, before becoming something more normal. Most things became normal anyway, the odd peanut butter bush, raining tree, and backward river were still around, but most of the place was acceptable.
I looked between my once more pale blue splash, and the landscape. "Ah, I'm dreaming, aren't I? That would… make a lot of sense actually! Okay, if I'm dreaming, theeen, hmm… a baseball bat could be useful?" I waved vaguely to my right, and the desired sport stick appeared, falling into a normal, if bright, bush.
I nodded, a satisfied smile on my face. "Right, so I'm still able to do the neat, dream bending, lucid, whatever you want to call it! Kay then! I'm incapable of being bored if that's the case!" I clapped my forehooves together, rubbing them together as I thought about what I was going to spend my dream time doing.
"Hmmm… let's try that first?" I looked down at my hooves, disappointed that I seemed to remain a pony, even in my dreams. I closed my eyes, and focused hard on what I used to look like. The feeling of fingers, toes, two legs and two arms. Being tall.
I opened my eyes, rolling my- "aww…" pony shoulders, on my pony body. I sighed dejectedly, before shrugging and moving on. "Never was overly good at changing what I looked like in these things. Ah well, nothing for it but doing something else."
I stood up, stretching for no reason for a minute before trotting towards one of the rivers. It was the largest of the bodies of water in the current landscape, and thankfully flowing in the right direction. I stared down at my distorted reflection for a moment, before thrusting a hoof into the current, breaking the image. After a minute of swirling my forehoof in the water, I noticed how the current seemed to be dyed orange as it flowed past. Experimentally, I thrust my other hoof in with a splash, and a second band of color joined the first, a noticeably lighter blue this time.
Humming a song from the little mermaid, I jumped into the river, sinking several meters in the span of seconds to the bottom, my hooves digging into the clay. I sat on the riverbed, I breathed out a sigh of contentment facing down stream. As I watched, the entire thing slowly became dyed in my personal rainbow of highlights.
Looking upstream behind me I saw that the river appeared to have looped in on itself, becoming completely rainbowfied. Before boredom could set in, I stood up and trotted downstream, a smile playing over my features as river weeds gave way to coral and tropical fish, octopodes and sea pan- I mean, rays.
'What fun! But I think I'm done down here for now.'
With a thought, I lept off the riverbed, carried upward by the currents bent to my whim towards the shore. As I thought, I now had a lovely little technicolor stream weaving through the dreamscape. 'Eh, it makes for a good landmark!'
After wringing out my mane like a damp T-shirt, followed by my tail, I shook like a dog, and set about finding a nice place to set up.
I found one with a copse of trees. With a wave of my hoof, the trees left the earth with an explosion of dirt. I gave each a mental command to work themselves into usable cuts of wood. Then I reared up on my hind legs and slammed down on my forehooves. The hilltop flattened at my command, excess material filling in the holes left by my extreme lumberjacking.
Looking back at my resources I saw the last of the trees twist apart into two by fours. I nodded. "Great then. Now, you lot over there." I pointed at a few trees farther down the hill. "I need the frame of a house, studs, roof, the works. Oh! And a nice thick door." The trees crawled out of the ground in a far less destructive manner than the last group. One of them took charge of the rest, and directed them through the process of becoming a homestead.
'Let’s not think too hard on this.' "Right, while you're doing that, I'm gonna collect stone, n' bricks n' other stuff for the foundation and-slash-or decoration." The lead tree nodded at me, before it resumed overseeing the debarking of its charges. I took that as my cue to get moving.
As I trotted over to a outcropping of decently sized boulders, I realized just how quickly I had been able to do so. I looked down at my legs in wonderment. 'Now is this an example of dream logic, or am I actually getting somewhere with the whole walking thing?... oh god, that was terrible…'
I shook my head violently at the accidental pun, before getting back on task. With a shaky grasp of how to grasp things, coupled with dream manipulation, I was easily able to free the boulders from the earth. After a minute of considering exactly how to turn them into something I could use, I decided to just jump on it. With a cry of "Paaaaaaancake!" It kinda… melted, becoming a usable block with a squelchy grinding noise. "Gonna need a few more though."
I hopped around from rock to rock, flattening them into a bunch of nigh-identical slabs, perfect for building a house on. 'I think. I don't actually know all that much about building houses, aside from like, minecraft… buuuut, because I think that's how it works, then it totally does! Dream stuff!'
I smiled, flipping all the large squares on top of each other. With a mighty kick, the stack went flying in the general direction of my hill. With a nod of satisfaction, I left behind the pockmarked area, not really feeling up to filling the holes at the moment.
I made my way back to the rainbow river, intent on digging some of the bank up for raw materials. Sitting down by the purple bank I plonked a hoof into the water and pushed… out? It felt kinda like extending something inside my arm. I pushed down and a ripple went out over the surface in response to my poking. Balls of slightly rainbow tinted clay bobbed up from the depths.
I picked up a blob and shaped it into a rough brick. It didn't… look very good, or functional. With a disappointed sigh, I simply thought the clay blorbs into bricks, then touched them each gently with my orange hoof. Each one burst into flame. "Association for the win!" The fired bricks came out blue, for some reason, but I personally was quite fond of the result.
The rectangular building materials all slotted together like a giant, really simple puzzle. The resulting massive cube – I made a lot of bricks – floated along beside me as I made my way back to the hill.
Sitting on my haunches, I placed my forehooves together and flexed them out, like one does when cracking their knuckles. The series of satisfying pops was absent, but the gesture made me feel better anyway. "Okay~ time to build a house!"
The trees were doing a lovely job. If I was reading the prebuilt sections floating about correctly, things were shaping up to be around three stories, with a balcony on the higher floors. Trotting up to my stack of heavy stone squares, I ran a hoof over them appraisingly, stopping at the second to last one from the bottom. I sucked in a breath and swung, knocking the slab out of the stack and some distance away, where it fell perfectly in the corner of a shape outlined by sticks and white rope that sprouted from the ground.
The rest of the stack fell one space with a loud thud, and I swung again, sending another block next to the first. I repeated this until I ran out of foundation, and the first step of my project was complete.
I turned and nodded to the wooden frames, prompting them to slot into place and snap together. Nails and screws seemed to either appear between blinks or sprout out the side before driving themselves in, locking everything together. The huge block of Bricks split off a smaller version of itself, slamming into the frame with nary a shake. The lesser cube then unrolled itself along the wall, shrinking with each rotation and leaving a mortared together lower third of the outer wall in its wake. Three more such cubes broke off from the mass and treated the other walls in much the same fashion, while the rest floated up over the house, and began disassembling itself brick by brick. The fallen blue rectangular prisms began stacking into a chimney, a satisfying, rapid ceramic drumming noise filling the air.
While that was happening I directed my original lumber cuts to begin phase three. Boards formed window frames, stairs, each individual floor and several basic furnishings, like tables, wooden chairs, and bookshelves.
The roof snapped into place, and I threw a glob of rainbow clay at it. The goopy ball splattered over thin air, before being sucked back into shape as a rough fifteen or so shingles. They sat in a circle, floating over thin air. Another pitch, and another smattering of roofing was added. By the end, my arm was a little sore, but the roof was done! Mostly. It was still raw clay, just in the shape of shingles.
So naturally, the first thing one does when they have an unfired roof is to grab a ball of wood, from origins unknown, and poke it with anything flamey on hand. Or hoof. I poked it with the orange limb, and the ball turned from wood to fire. I gave the ball of pyromancy a good overhead toss and the roof was set ablaze.
I sat and watched the tongues of fire thrash for a time. When the flames abruptly cut off, they left behind perfect, dull dark purple ceramic in their place.
Pulling a cloth rag from my mane – because I lacked any kind of pocket – I blew a breath over empty window frames and wiped away the moisture, leaving sparkly clean glass behind.
As the chimney finished stacking, the lead tree came up to me, offering me a clipboard which I promptly signed. The tree nodded before lumbering over to the empty door frame, slowly morphing into an elegantly simple heavy door, complete with a brass knocker and knob. After struggling with the round door knob for all too long, I decided that this just wasn't going to work, and pulled on it. The metal stretched like taffy before snapping into a much more hoof-friendly leverish shape.
The new door swung inward, revealing the space within to have been furnished quite nicely. Since I had no way of making a fridge, the plush couch and armchair, or a vast majority of what I found within, I was happy. "Glad I signed for this stuff to be moved in for me."
As I went from room to room, the walls went from empty to filling up with paint, an effect similar to filling a glass with water. The color was different for each room, and I quite like the blue in the living room, it brought things together.
I sat in front of the fresh fireplace and once more, utilized my orange hoof. "I'm gonna have to figure out if I can shoot fireballs from this thing or not, because that would be cool." Striking it like a match, I set a few flames in the empty brick enclosure.
Happy with my house, I flopped over onto the rug before the fire, stretching like a cat with a yawn and several pops. I curled up into a ball seconds later, shading my eyes with my tail as I basked in my accomplishment. And the warmth of a roaring fire.
^
< ◇ >
v
An unknowable amount of time passed, before I zoned back in. With a yawn, I stood up, my ears twitching as the flames crackled louder. I pulled my gaze away from the now-blue-for-some-reason fire, and set about coming up with a plan on how to spend the rest of my dream time. "Lessee… don't know how much time I have left, so starting a big project probably isn't the best of ideas, so… how about a bunch of little ones until I wake up?"
I ambled my way over to the door, punching the wood at around eye level, as for some reason the door knob had vanished. A green glow radiated out from the point of impact through the veins of the wood, and the sound of locks turning could be heard before it popped open a bit. I pushed it the rest of the way and scampered off in search of something.
Eventually I came across my prize, one of the remaining rain trees. I threw a rock at the canopy, deleting a chunk of the leaves and getting a lightning shaped pine cone-acorn thing for my troubles.
After a brisk gallop back I planted the seed outside the kitchen window, where it immediately burst into a sapling about on level with my shoulders. While waiting for the thing to grow into a full fledged tree, I drew a bunch of circles in the dirt around it. A bunch of pipes burst up from my doodles, ready to collect the water when the tree matured.
"But how do I do power…" I shrugged, deciding to do that particular undertaking at a later date I returned to my house, stepping out onto the balcony to do some planning, the proper way. I even brought blue paper and white pens!
I looked up at the sky, trying to judge the time. The pixelated celestial body indicated it was on the descent, and judging by how tired I felt, I would likely be waking up soon. I sighed, dumping my half finished blueprints of power generators in a large square chest as an unfamiliar moon crept into the sky. I leapt up onto the sofa, settling into the cushion as I prepared to wake up.
^
< ☾ >
v
Luna, Guardian of the Night, Dream Warden, Steward of the Moon, Night Mother, Mistress of The Dark Hours, Lady of Twilight, First of Dusk, Fear Hunter, Lady Dreamshield, and Princess of Equestria, was so unbelievably bored!
One would think that being deposited several hundred years in the future would be endless excitement, but in actuality, it more often left her overwhelmed and numb.
So many things had changed. At times, it was as if too many things had changed. The traditions, the vernacular, even the bloody holidays! So many new ones had risen up to take the places of the old.
Monday! Ooh, monday! Why had they felt the need to change her day? Why did everypony seem to hate it?!
The court had become complex in new and infuriating ways as well. No longer were the nobles noble in any way! The lot were full of self entitled prats who thought themselves above the ponies their ancestors were sworn to aid. These fools knew nothing of their history, knew nothing of history in general! And they were so, so, so, irksome. With their thinly veiled insults, their hollow words, their double meanings they thought her too naive, too simple to be able to recognize. Just because she preferred the old ways of speaking, didn't mean she couldn't understand the vast majority of what they said!
No longer was she able to defenestrate those who tried to deceive her or manipulate the crown. Or those whom bothered her in general.
She was glad she got one final showing of that, before being informed of the new rules.
And what a grand sum of information that was. Every day – Tia was keeping her on the schedule until she was well versed in modern culture – she studied; law reforms, taxes, bloody taxes! New traditions, things that were no longer acceptable – brought on by her throwing ponies out the window – and ugh, modern equish.
Simply put, her days were packed, and she was stuck sleeping at night rather than through the warm hours of the day.
Fortunately, in the sea of change, there was one thing that would always be the same. Dream walking. It was therapeutic to aid others with their troubles in their dreams for her as much as them. The first night of her stay in the new capitol, this sacred duty was out of reach. She had spent far too much magic as Nightmare Moon, robbing her of even base telekinesis, and much of her stature.
When the second eve had come, she was able to raise the moon under her own power once more, and what's more, she was able to dream walk.
It may not have been as much as she used to do, but on that night, all of Canterlot was able to sleep peacefully.
With each passing day, she could reach farther, help more ponies. On the third, not a pony in Equestria had to endure a restless night. It had cost her, horrible migraines followed in the morning, and she had stunted her growth for the time being even further, but it was worth it to be able to help her ponies once more.
Upon the fourth setting of the sun since her return, Luna noticed a new dream. But it was all but empty. No dreamer to comfort, no real dreams even, good or bad. It was as if they were asleep, but their mind was elsewhere.
The dream was not a void, however, occasional bursts of noise in response to stimuli or the mind nearly grasping a memory, only to slip back into the state of deep unconsciousness not long after. Based on the few details she was able to gather from the dream, it belonged to a foal, but that was it.
Her efforts to reinforce the dream to allow the foal a proper rest were in vain, no matter how much magic she used. At best, she witnessed a fleeting glimpse of nonsense.
Her concern pushed Luna to mark this dreamer for repeated visits, and so she checked on the young pony every night.
On Luna's seventh day in the new Equestria, the empty dream popped like a soap bubble. This signaled a rather sudden awakening, and the return to unconsciousness naught but a half hour later worried her greatly. When the alicorn of the night entered the dream this time, it was chaotic. Scenes flew by, crashed together. They bled into one another, before fading away, only for it to happen all over again.
Dreams were not meant to happen so quickly, and so Luna, Dream Warden, took hold of the frantic dreamscape and commanded it to hold.
Midnight blue magic spread over the chaos, stilling the landscape and leaving what was supposed to be a pleasant dream in its wake, but once more, the dreamer awoke before she could calm them.
After raising the moon and sitting through a now woefully empty night court for a few hours – the nobles were not nearly brave enough to try "pulling one over on the younger princess again" – Princess Luna was alerted to the reappearance of the marked dream. A few basic probing spells told her that everything was going smoothly this time, much to her relief.
However, as she would not be needed in the empty courtroom for the rest of the night – she was only allowed to hold it for a meager two hours before being forced to bed – she saw no reason not to retreat to her chambers and contact this young dreamer.
As Princess Luna passed through the empty halls, it once more became apparent that she would need to bump up reinstating the night guard, the castle was far too vulnerable with the skeleton crew of sleepy guards it had.
Princess Luna settled atop the mattress, closing her eyes while her horn shone with dark blue magic. The aura vanished as white light traveled up the fluting of her horn instead. Two white strings flew off the tip of her horn, tracing mesmerizing patterns in the air for a moment before splitting off.
One came to rest against the alicorn's temple, ready to drag her into unconsciousness, while the other traveled for another meter before it simply vanished with a ripple of the air, slipping into the dream realm to bridge the distance faster.
When Luna next opened her eyes, she stood in the realm of dreams. Thousands of twinkling lights – dreams, fantasies, and other things that passed through the immaterial plane – swirled, sparkled, and danced before her. Even after all this time, Luna couldn't get her stars to match a fraction of the beauty she saw here. Sadly it was a rare few she could share this sight with.
A ribbon of gentle white light, not unlike the light of her moon, carved a gentle path through the realm, guiding her on towards the marked dreamer without disturbing any others.
Lady Dream Shield, Luna calmed any nightmares she passed along the way, but eventually came upon her destination. As light poured forth from the dream to grant her access, the alicorn wondered what form the doorway would take, as she could tell a bit about the dreamer by what form the aperture appeared as.
The light solidified into a large rectangle. The door was simple, brown painted metal with a little window too small to use effectively. The handle held a decorative knob, but above it sat a peculiarity. Soft white squishy circles sat over a deadbolt, each bearing some character of a rigid script.
Luna poked at the buttons for a moment, marveling at what their purpose could be, before remembering why she was here and opening the door with a flash of magic.
The Alicorn of Dreams came into a slightly dulled landscape. A few trees gave off water, ranging in amounts from trickle to downpour. The shrubbery was similarly warped, growing odd fruits with the appearance of glass, a red hard cap, and a brown substance filling the inside.
Other than a few oddities, it was a fairly simple dream. Pleasant breezes in an open stretch of land. The… blocky sun made the air pleasantly warm, and the babbling rivers set a serene ambiance.
Despite the calmness of the dream, the filly was roused from relaxation rudly by her proximity to one of the raining trees. The brightly coloured foal took in her surroundings for seemingly the first time and slumped "Why does nothing make sense…"
We art not sure wherefore this dream upsets thee so, but we shalt arrange for thee a peaceful slumber.' Resolved to give the foal a good night's rest, Luna called upon her magic, the moon rising to stand beside the sun as she prepared to change the dream to one the foals usually enjoyed.
The dream changed in response to the filly's distress, the rain coming harsher, the air colder and wind whipped up to uncomfortable levels. But before the alicorn could alter things to the child's liking, something interesting happened.
The foal seemed to glow from within, a pale blue light within their eyes as their various highlights went from faded to bright and luminous. The surprising amount of energy the filly had summoned left her in a nova, quickly lost to visibility itself, but still touching the various objects that displeased her. Each irregularity was summarily returned to a state of normality.
Even the image of her moon was pushed back beyond the horizon, much to the surprise of Luna. Quickly letting the half formed spell fade, Luna looked down on this foal in a new light, especially when they began to summon items at will. 'A dream conductor, certes? They seem quite skilled for their age, especially since our sister claims nopony practices the art nowadays.'
Luna quickly rendered herself invisible, intent to observe the filly's exploits. And also perhaps gauge the depth of her talent. 'Mayhap we couldst take her on as an apprentice? T'would beest a joy to teach the art of dreams to the young once more… we very much wilt need to see about reinstating the night guard, our ponies has't hadst their dreams wend unguarded for far too long.'
The Lunar Diarch was pulled from her lamentation as the filly jumped headfirst into the largest of the rivers.
She became particularly worried when the waters downstream began to turn red!