//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 – Hope for the Best, Prepare for the Worse // Story: The Dream Guards // by Lusaminia //------------------------------// Once Melissa and Lucy explained to the Cutie Mark Crusaders how an emergency call was made, the two mysterious mares hung up. That left three little fillies alone in their clubhouse, unsure what to make of who the talk ended. There was an unsettling feeling in the air around Applebloom, as if dark shadows were watching and waiting for the perfect moment to strike. A quick glance around briefly assuaged the filly, her friends the only ponies currently around her. If only it had made her feel more comfortable. There was a certainty in Melissa and Lucy’s words. A precognition that something would go terribly wrong, and that the emergency call mechanic and number she had been given would be necessary. They didn’t say what it was that scared them, or why it was they had been so certain. Did they possibly know her and Ponyville’s reputation? Were they not the good ponies that she was having faith in them to be? She didn’t have an answer to either. Yet the question that scared her the most wasn’t how they knew she would get into danger, but what that danger would be. Was it a Nightmare Moon or Tirek-like threat? Had Yolina angered some really powerful pony, and her family saving them had put a target on her back? She didn’t know; there was no way she could know, and that terrified her. “So it can make voices go over long distances and apparently has a camera,” Sweetie Belle replied, going over the little bits about the “phone” that Melissa and Lucy had told them about. “Can it do anything else?” “I mean, it does this if I swipe up on this little white bar,” Applebloom explained, swiping up on the phone. The passcode screen showed itself, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle tilting their heads. “I tried to put some numbers in earlier, but after a time it said I was locked out for a minute. Then five minutes when I tried again… and ten afterwards.” “Oh, I get it,” Scootaloo spoke up, grabbing the device and lifting it up. “There must be some super secret stuff behind it!” “Or it could be rather private. Either way we should probably not mess around with it,” Sweetie told her friend. “I don’t think Yolina would be happy if we opened it and found her diary.” Scootaloo’s eyes went wide, quickly hoofing the phone back over to Applebloom. “Oh, uh, didn’t think about that.” “The only other thing it tells me are the time and date,” Applebloom explained. “It seems useful, but it doesn’t feel that practical to use with hooves.” Sweetie Belle rubbed the underside of her muzzle with her hoof. “Maybe it’s something griffon or hippogriff made. I mean, Melissa and Lucy don’t exactly sound like pony names.” Applebloom looked up to her friend, and then back down at the phone before her. Sweetie wasn’t wrong; both names did feel a lot less pony like and a lot more foreign. Griffons specifically had similar names. It would also explain Yolina’s name very unpony-like. “So does that mean we’ve just talked with creatures from outside any maps?” Scootaloo asked. “If so, oh my gosh that would be awesome!” “We don’t know that for certain, but Miss Yolina would!” Applebloom reminded them, unable to contain her own excitement. “Perhaps we can visit her tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll be a lot more up for company then.” “She did just wake up,” Scootaloo admitted, Sweetie Belle nodding across from her. “Okay then. We give her phone back to her, and she tells us all about where she came from.” “So she’s fine,” Jay replied, sliding down her seat. “Thank god.” With the day winding down, the sun was slowly sinking behind the mountains across Lake Champlain. Jay, Holly, Drew and Dragon, like so many evenings before, found themselves shore-side at a little café known as Brisk Wind. Run by Dragon’s adopted parents, it had quickly become the group’s goto place for studying. Peaceful jazz played over the radio, quiet enough where it didn’t truly register unless someone listened close. It mixed in with the sound of espresso and coffee machines and the murmuring of other café goers. As soon as Melissa and Lucy got off call, they informed everyone of Yolina’s location. It led to both a collective sigh of relief and several questions, all of the latter pertaining to the fact that Equestria was real. Even worse, it had distracted each of those at Brisk Wind from the equally important task of studying. Everyone sans Drew, at least. “Landing in tiny horse land certainly wasn’t where I had expected her to end up, but considering everything else we’ve seen….” Akane shrugged her shoulders. “Eh, it makes as much sense as Dragon growing wings and tail.” “I’m just surprised. I mean who would have imagined the closest dream realm to our own belonged to a rather popular cartoon come to life,” Holly replied, doing her best to not explode in fangirlish glee. “Not only that, but it was accurate to the point that an Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo exist. That means-” A cough briefly brought her attention to Drew, doing his best to force down the smile attempting to invade his features. “Sorry.” Dragon leaned over their table, a smug expression worming its way onto her face. “Seems the former pegasister is excited.” “Former!” Holly shouted, standing up and looking just a little offended. “What, you think I jumped ship as soon as the show ended? No, and at least it ended on its own merits.” She gave Akane a glare. “Can your soap operas say the same?” “No, but I don’t want it to,” Akane replied. “The more drama, the better.” “Your taste in television makes no sense.” “As you’ve told me, yet who is it that watched the entirety of Days of Our Lives with me?” Akane took another sip, leaving Holly with no retort. Suddenly, both looked at Dragon, the girl shrinking slightly from the presence. Jay joined in just for the hell of it, even though she had no idea why it had started in the first place. It didn’t take Dragon that long to figure it out, a metaphorical light switch flipping in her brain that sent her from looking nervous to livid. All it had taken was Holly’s sudden and oddly seductive smile. “You know Maria…” “Don’t.” “There is this incredibly hot dragon in Equestria you might like.” “I don’t want to… agh!” She thumped her head on the table. “Yes, I’m otherkin. Yes, I would very much prefer to be around dragons. That does not mean I want to date one!” “I mean, to be fair, the only one you’ve ever met was Nica,” Drew replied, briefly looking up from his law textbook. “Last I checked, she wasn’t a good first experience.” “You got that right. Hard to like someone when their idea of keeping you safe is locking you in a cage for their benefits.” Dragon sighed, arms snaking underneath her jaw as she laid her head more comfortably. “Either way, I’m not going to walk into another world’s portion of the dream realm just to get denied.” “Aw come on, you aren’t a little interested?” Jay asked. “Who knows, she might be your type!” Dragon moved her arms so that none could see the blush, giving her the ability to show no reaction. Except her voice had betrayed her.   “I-I’m not… that isn’t important! What is important is that Yolina is safe. Hurt, but safe.” “What kind of dream or nightmare did she run into?” Akane asked, leaning back in her chair with a pensive look. “It has to be a dream or nightmare, right? There can’t be that much danger in Equestria, especially for a Magral Knight.” “Who knows. Just cause we have a show to go off of doesn’t mean it’s one hundred percent accurate,” Holly said with a worried shrug. “Characters and events could be different, not to mention there are possibly beasts that we never got to see.” “Add onto that the fact Friendship is Magic was TV-Y7 and you got a bunch of unknowns with Yolina having the only real answers.” Drew closed his text book up, looking behind him to the outside window. “Though… it does call into question the show's very existence.” “I wouldn’t think too hard about it.” Attention turned to the sole empty seat at the table as a girl sat down, placing a hot cup on the table and removing her hands from it. She looked like a modern day Red Riding Hood, a red jacket with a plain white shirt underneath it and a blue skirt. She shook her hands, a permanent scowl on her face. “As nice as having a sense of taste is in this body, I really wouldn’t mind a lacking sense of touch,” she muttered to herself. “How is a doll supposed to enjoy a cappuccino if her hands feel like they're going to light up in flames just holding the cup?” “I think that is a you problem, Vee,” Dragon jokes. The disguised nightmare’s lips moved to its best approximation of a smirk, though its lips were still curled down. “You know, I really do think you should try some of the stuff Champlain makes. For school food it really ain’t bad.” “And deal with the questions of who this strange person on campus is? No thanks,” Vee replied, testing her cup’s temperature with her middle finger. Each time she drew it back, she placed a hand above the cup and cast a spell to cool it down slightly. “Besides, I get so little time in my actual body with how much you all are already out and about. Breakfast is plush body time.” “If I heard that from anyone else I'd call them insane,” Drew stated. “Yet somehow you feel like the most sane individual here at most points.” Jay nodded. “Leave it to our mascot to be the sane one, despite being the only one not actually human.” Vee’s scowl deepened, eye twitching at Jay’s little nickname for it. Needing a way to not think about the implications of such a nickname, the doll tested its cup once again. Finding the heat significantly more manageable now, she picked it up and chugged half of it down in one sip. Setting it back down with a thud, everyone was greeted with an uncomfortable and rather odd smile. “Seriously though, don’t worry about the implications,” it said, smile falling away. It always seemed impossible to keep up for more than a couple seconds, but Vee didn’t really care. “This sounds like another case of humanity dreaming something into the realm of reality.” “Really? Despite the fact this is an entire planet we are talking about and not some world changing invention?” Akane asked. Vee gave her a nod. “Is it really so different from movies, books, or video games? The creative dreamers make the world all the time, morphing them with their own dreams and nightmares. It only makes sense that those worlds can become reality.” Vee turned its gaze to the window, watching the sun as the first piece of its body sank below the horizon. Jay followed suit, followed by Dragon, Drew, Holly, and Akane. Night would soon be upon them, and with it the power of dreams and nightmares would become strong enough to affect reality. Yet their thoughts did not lie upon their constant battle to keep humans safe from the danger of the realm of dreams, but Yolina. A friend far, far away, currently out of their grasp. “Equestria, huh?” Jay whispered. “You think it’s possible for us to get there? Make sure she really is okay.” “I mean, if she got there then we certainly can as well,” Holly replied, turning back to the ginger. “We just have to make sure we don’t end up in the hospital like she did.” Luna’s horn glowed as she stood outside her balcony, raising the moon in tandem with the sun's fall. Her eyes did not look upon the city of Canterlot or the countryside below Mount Canterhorn. It also did not lie on the far off form of Ponyville, or her very own night sky as it came into existence. While her gaze was indeed up at the clouds and little stars twinkling, her focus on a particularly odd red light. A light that had shown itself the night prior. A light that coincided with Yolina’s unfortunate arrival in Equus.  Everypony else would see it as nothing more than a star far brighter and closer than most others. She knew it was a crack in the border that kept the realms of reality and dream separate. A crack that she had only ever seen one other time in her life. She hoped to keep a repeat of those same events from happening again. A hoof went to her mane, parting in just the right way where the knight's pin was visible. Centuries later a piece of her still felt like it didn’t truly belong to her. After all, if that poor colt had lived it would have stayed with him. If she and Celestia had been faster it would be somepony else watching the dream realm and not her. So many times since that day she had asked how worthy she was, and each time the answer had been the same. It didn’t matter what she thought, because she was all Equestria had. Until meeting Yolina she had believed that Earth was dead, for what else explained his reason for coming to Equus in such horrid shale. Now that she knew it wasn’t, she had a chance to keep history from repeating. Luna knew the horrid dream, waiting to use that cracked hole in reality for their own personal gain. It would see Yolina as a threat to their plans and send something dispicable to kill them. That wouldn’t happen, she would make sure of it. “I leave the comfort of dreamers in your hooves, Tantabus,” she said, turning around. Her eyes looked to the creature before her, featureless and made of the night sky. “A pony requires my aid tonight, and there is no other nightmare I would trust with such an important task.” The Tantabus nodded to its creator, causing Luna to smile. A piece of her felt strange, talking to it as a trusted ally when once it had been her punisher. Forgiveness had been one of the most important lessons her friendship with Twilight Sparkle had left her with. A lesson that she had used to mend ties with the very creature she had once feared. A creature she now dared to call a friend. With not a single word, it opened a gateway to the realm of dreams. It stepped through, closing the way behind it and leaving Luna alone. A snort left the princess’ nostrils, joyful anticipation filling her soul. While the night would be dark and haunting, a life depending on her being at the right place at the right time, it was also the first night in a thousand years she truly let loose. It was the first time in a millenia she would be fighting as a Magral Knight, and she would enjoy every single second of it. Hours had passed, and onwards still Twilight searched. Applejack and Spike had both fallen asleep within the library while Starlight took a reprieve to fill her stomach. It left her alone, searching high and low for the one book that held the answer she seeked. The one book that held the identity of Yolina Yvanova’s attacker. There were a few times she felt she had gotten close, only for either a gut feeling or contradicting fact to hit her on the head. Book after book after book read, books the others had read but she hadn’t gotten caught up in the mix. Her book fortress had grown so complex it had morphed itself into a book cathedral. She hadn’t noticed her accidental artistic masterpiece, head so deep in paper and ink that they might as well have fused into one. “Nothing. Nothing. How can nothing seem right?!” She shouted to herself. “Something attacked Yolina and yet absolutely no written book holds the answer. It's impossible!” She put her current reading material down and started pondering. “What am I missing? There has to be some subject I’m forgetting, but what is it.” A strong, impossible wind suddenly hit her fur, causing her wings to wrap around her for warmth in comfort. She averted her eyes, the chill so strong it felt like winter had suddenly rolled in. Then, as soon as it had come, the breeze faded away. She blinked, looking back up and around her to find two things. The first was that her cathedral of books had somehow been removed within the blink of an eye, everything put on its shelves without care or order (something she had to keep from screaming in panic from). The second was the fact a single window had been left open. “Rainbow, if this is some prank it really isn’t fun…ny.” Her vision was stuck on a part of the floor not that far away from her. In the midst of looking upon her suddenly disorganized bookshelves and the sole open window, she had failed to immediately see the pile of papers on the ground. She knew those weren’t there before, and they certainly weren’t a part of her library. The pony responsible for the crime of leaving her bookshelves disorganized had left it. It was the only thing that made sense. Several questions came to her mind, most of which having no immediate answer. Who had left them there? Why had they left them there? Had they been watching her for hours and she somehow hadn’t noticed from book-related tunnel vision? The only thing that hit her ears was the sound of nature from out the open window, an answer taken from her. Yet as she picked up the papers with her magic and brought them to her, she found another question taking precedence over all of them in the form of a title. What in Celestia’s name was a Lazaran?