“You dreamed of Princess Luna? Bwahahaha! So what? It’s not real anyway.”
Snowdrop came to the factory and told her workmates about her dream she had the night before excitedly, only to be greeted by Cumulo Nimbus’s cynical remarks.
“But it was real! Princess Luna did enter my dream, and she made me able to see, taught me of so many colors, and she promised me… she promised that she’d let me see even more when I dream again.”
Snowdrop defended herself hurriedly, when Cirrus, who was standing aside interrupted her, saying, “Last time in my dream, my dad promised me to take me to the ground for a tour, and I took it for real. It was not until I eagerly spent a whole week for preparations that I discovered it was just a dream, and shucks, it was a real turn-off.”
Cumulo Nimbus and Cirrus were Snowdrop’s classmates: one was a tart-speaking girl, the other was a boy with simple and playful nature. Snowdrop was surprised at start that they actually would like to join in the snow workers, and to surprise her even more, they three were assigned to the very same production group.
“Dream are just dreams; they are not, and will never be real!” Cumulo insisted.
“But…”
“No buts! Dreams are called ‘dreams’ because they just won’t happen! Enough talk; now you two move it and get back to work! One making hideous snowflakes, another being a slowpoke — thanks to you, I have to double my workload to keep us on schedule! How the heck could I be so unlucky as to work with you? If it weren’t for those petty bits they pay, I’d have quit working at this darn freezing dump!” complained Cumulo in discontent.
Hearing her mention the “hideous snowflakes”, Snowdrop’s heart winced again with pain — she still couldn’t get past the memory, when the snowflakes she had made were treated as waste product. It made her helplessly feel that she herself was so useless.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized. Cumulo Nimbus only made a cold grunt, before returning to her workbench to continue her work.
“Cirrus, what about you? Do you not believe my words either?” Snowdrop asked, discouraged.
“Uh… I’m sorry, but Cumulo was right. Even though dreams may seem so real at times, and you hope that it could be real… they are still usually just…” Cirrus finished his words with a shrug, then he realized that Snowdrop couldn’t see at all, and so returned to his workbench as well.
It really saddened Snowdrop that nopony believed her. Still, she was very certain that she must have seen the real Princess Luna, as there had been no real vision in her dreams ever before. She was sure that she could dream of her again that night.
It turned out that it didn’t go as she had expected. That night, Snowdrop went to bed early in hope of seeing the moon princess once more; when she opened her eyes again, there was only darkness, and the time was already next morning. She had slept through the night without dreaming at all — which was sort of frustrating for her; still, she convinced herself that Princess Luna probably hadn’t come only because she hadn’t had any dream.
And then the second day passed in the same way. Then the third day followed as well. Snowdrop became worried, in fear that it really just had been a dream, for Princess Luna hadn’t come to see her even when she was awake. Again, she managed to convince herself that both princesses were too busy dealing with political affairs to pay her a visit.
And then on the fourth day, things turned — but for the worse: Snowdrop had a dream, and inside it she could hear all the sounds, feel the wind on her face which brought the scent of the flowers in the fields; but she could see nothing but darkness. Everything was only the same as in the dreams she had had before. When she realized that she was already dreaming, she panicked so much that she awoke from her sleep, and started sobbing quietly.
The fifth day came, and depression had once again returned to Snowdrop’s face. She was about to give up any hope, for she herself couldn’t tell, whether it was real, or that she had a pretty dream merely because she wanted to see things so much… And she even doubted that Princess Luna’s promise, that she would grant her her wish, was also part of that dream.
One week passed, during which Snowdrop had a few more disappointing blind dreams. That night, when she was going to bed as usual, she couldn’t help but pray to the stars that she could dream of Princess Luna again: be it real or not, she still longed for seeing that beautiful figure of hers she saw in that very dream, even though she wasn’t sure whether that was how Princess Luna would look in reality.
With that, Snowdrop closed her eyes, and drifted into a sound sleep…
…
…
“...Snowdrop! Oh, I finally did it again! Snowdrop!”
When Snowdrop opened her eyes, she almost leapt with joy: her eyes could once more see the light, the shadow, and the moon princess before her.
“I’m so sorry that I failed time and time again when I tried to enter your dream; I’ve been trying and practicing it every night, trying so hard that I had hardly any energy left to visit you in the daytime. You must have waited for too long, haven’t you?’
“No,” Snowdrop shook her head, “I’m just so happy that I could see you again.” She nearly wept at the moment when she saw the princess. Then she noticed the look of fatigue on Luna’s face, knowing that the princess really had been exerting herself. Thinking of how she had almost given up her own hope, Snowdrop secretly blamed herself for having thought so.
“So, are you ready?” asked Luna.
“Ready for what?” asked the puzzled little filly.
“For seeing more of those fascinating things,” Luna answered, and closed her own eyes; the next moment, her horn glowed a pale light. Snowdrop knew what the princess was doing, for she had learned from her that a unicorn or alicorn could use magic with the help of that horn on the head. She was somewhat envious — oh, if only she could use magic herself!
In the meantime, she felt wind flowing by her face. The once empty dreamscape now miraculously had wind blowing in it, which seemed to be swirling right from the spot where Princess Luna was standing. Following that, a dazzling beam emitted from the princess’s horn, shooting straight upwards, and caused one ripple after another on the open space above them; then a lump of some mass appeared there, gray, without an exact shape. It grew larger and larger above, hovering above their heads; the space around them, which was still bright just moments ago, slowly dimmed down.
ZAP!
A white flash suddenly pierced out of that gray volume, accompanied by an enormous booming sound that caught Snowdrop completely off guard and startled her.
That must have been a thunder! She realized that right away by its sound. There had been times that she heard such sounds, loud like a roaring monster, and she had disliked it ever since. But this moment, she had just witnessed how such enormous energy struck from the clouds down to the depths, and she was shocked and amazed by such scene, unable to speak a word, until droplets of something cold fell on her. Knowing that the gray volume was a cloud, she could guess what these were.
It was her first time seeing raindrops — they seemed to be colorful and colorless at the same time, while their rims glistened with shiny light; she could easily see Luna’s figure through the rain while distinguishing the shape of raindrops. To her, all these seemed so amazing.
Just as she was admiring the wonder of the rain, another thunder boomed loudly from inside the clouds. Despite she had just witnessed one thunder a moment ago, she still huddled up out of fear. “Princess Luna…” she turned to look at the alicorn princess, and saw her eyes and horn were still glowing, showing that the magic she cast was still halfway from done.
The winds blew stronger, and the rain poured on, with thunders clapping every now and then. All reminded Snowdrop of a weather she had encountered before: a tempest!
“Princess Luna?” she called out to her once more; she was scared, and she had not the slightest clue why her princess would show her such terrifying scenes. She found out that the rain fell from the clouds didn’t just disappear; it was accumulating into pools right beside their hooves, in the blustering wind, water flew up and splashed on her and Princess Luna’s bodies. When the pooling water could almost submerge her, Snowdrop beat her wings in fear, and flew all the way up against the harsh gale.
“Princess Luna!!” She shouted and turned her head, only to find that the princess was still standing there, taking no heed of the water that had already gone up neck-high. Snowdrop wanted to fly over to her, but was blown into a wrong direction; when she looked again, there were no more signs of Luna that could be seen above the raging surface. In desperation, Snowdrop nervously flew above the clouds, and stayed at a less windier spot.
Soon after she flew up there however, the wind, the rain and the thunder all abruptly stopped — leaving only tranquility. Snowdrop saw that the cloud under her hooves slowly turned to white from gray and scattered about, and the waters that had been raging in the gale became still as well.
“Princess Luna! Where are you?” Snowdrop called anxiously from above a little mass of cloud. There was no reply from below but the silently running waters. She became even more agitated and started crying. “Princess Luna… where are you? Don’t leave me alone…” Her tears fell onto the surface and stirred some ripples.
RUMBLE…
All of a sudden, the still surface became thoroughly stirred, and some thunder-like but not-thunder sound boomed from the depths of the water. Bubbles started floating above, and Snowdrop was expecting with all her heart that Princess Luna would be breaking the surface pretty soon — however, what came out was something gigantic and completely unexpected.
SIZZLE! Something red-hot grew out from below and instantly vaporized the water into gas on contact — Snowdrop could feel its searing hotness even when standing high above on the cloud. It was her first time seeing something so brightly red and scorching at the same time; it felt like the sun at summer, only hotter, and it oozed around, but not being water.
More and more of that stuff grew out — Snowdrop was getting so nervous that her heart almost jumped out her mouth, for she thought she’d get vaporized as well. However, that was when it stopped its ooze. The brightly red became darker and darker, while the heat it contained cooled down bit by bit. In the end, it turned into something grayish black, not hot anymore.
Before she could realize what had been going on, the mass let out another odd “Pop!” sound, and a crack appeared, spreading across it in amazing speed; with another “Pop!” sound, Princess Luna jumped out from of that giant crack.
“It’s done! How does it look, Sno… Whoa!” Before Luna could finish, Snowdrop rushed to her embrace, so fast that she almost knocked her over.
“Princess!” she was weeping, “I was so worried about you! I’m so happy to see you all right!”
“Oh my little filly... Did I scare you? I thought you might find all these very fun to watch.”
“It wasn’t fun at all! You just disappeared there, and there were those horrifying things, and I was so scared!” Snowdrop was almost wailing while hugging Luna’s neck tightly — she was indeed panicked about the moon princess’s safety.
“Take it easy, my little friend… It’s already over. Now come on and see this place,” soothed Luna. The little filly let loose of her embrace, and scaned everything around them.
The mass below her hooves felt very firm, and although it felt a little soft too, it wasn’t a cloud. The breeze had already returned as well, gently, leaving waves over the water surface, which then splashed on the mass she stood upon. She lifted her head, and saw that beyond the clouds, there was an awesome color of clear blue above, just like her fur color.
“These are the three bases of the world we are living in: the sky, the land and the sea.” Luna told her.
“The sea? But isn’t it just water?” Snowdrop asked, after examining the flowing masses before her.
“Well, indeed; but it’s the ingredients dissolved inside that makes it the sea. You can smell it in the air.”
The sky blue filly closed her eyes, and sniffed the scents brought by the breeze. It was something different from the wet smell of rainy days, as if there were salt added to the scent. She walked to the water, bent down and took a sip.
“Yuck! It’s salty, like teardrops!” She grimaced. Seeing that, Luna couldn’t help but laugh a little.
The night princess settled down again, and started telling her little friend everything about the sky, the earth and the sea, about what colors they are and how much meaning they have to all the ponies. It didn’t last long however, when Snowdrop noticed something not right about the princess: she looked exausted, yawning on and on, and she could barely keep her eyes open.
And so the little filly asked, “Princess Luna, are you getting tired?”
“Only a little, but it doesn’t matter… I can still — yawn — go on with telling…” Luna’s head was nodding as she answered her.
“...Should we call it a night, Princess Luna?” seeing the princess had become so weary, Snowdrop said considerately, “having experienced so much just now, I’m too getting tired. Um… could we sleep together?”
“If that’s your wish…” Luna nodded at her as approval, and she came and cuddled by the princess’s side. Luna spread one wing, and gently placed it on her body as a quilt. The two of them rested comfortably in the sea wind, and soon fell into a deep sleep on this new born land. Until Snowdrop opened her eyes once again, and discovered there was only darkness, did she realize that she had already awaken.
“Snowdrop! It’s time for breakfast! Are you up yet?” Her mother called from outside her room.
“Coming!” She answered aloud.
“Until next time, Princess Luna,” she then murmured to herself, and came off her bed; just then, a sudden dizziness came out of nowhere and struck her, making her legs felt so feeble that she almost fell to the floor. Fortunately, it was only temporary, and she managed to regain her standing in an instant.
What she didn’t know was that it was only the beginning of a series of problems…