I opened my eyes. Without orientation, slightly confused. The room was not stable, it was swinging from side to side, making me slowly sick. It was just shiny, the lights were overwhelming me.
I could make out a blurry bed, somepony lying on it. With time my vision got better. I was in a hospital room, the sun was shining, projecting the shadows of a flower vase inside the window onto the ground. The window was openend and a fresh wind was coming inside. The rumbling of some machine was heard in the background, sometimes going under in the voices of speaking ponies, hushed through the thick walls. Fresh air? I was probably not in the same room agian. Maybe not even in the same hospital. A mare voice from somewhere out of my vision alarmed me:
„Ahh, you have finally woken up? You have had quite a struggle. Thankfully, you were strong enough. We have relocated you after a couple of days. It's good to have you back conscious.‟
„What do you mean? A couple of days? How long have I been... asleep?‟
„Just a couple of days...Your relocation was just two days ago. The air out here did well. As it always does.‟
The air? What was she talking about?
„And... Where am I now?‟
„Oh, I have already wondered when you would finally ask. You are at the Mending Meadows, the best place to recover. The air here has healing attributes, due to the crystals in the nearby forest. They get absorbed by the trees over centuries and the trees become strong and some even invulnerable to natural diseases. That is why their produced air is so good for any patient around in Equestria. The Princess herself has ordered your relocation. You have mighty friends.‟
I was quite surprised about that, even though I should have probably not been. It was the only way, I could still be alive.
„Ah, and before I forget it, she also told me to advise you, that you should take a train to Canterlot as soon as you can. Your wound has nearly fully healed, and I think, you are ready.‟
She was actually about right. There was not much left from the intense pain from yesterday... I mean, from a couple of days ago.
„I don't know my way around in this... town? city ? place?‟
„Place. Even though I like to call it rural area.‟
The other pony, whose name I had not yet asked for, sounded a little bit hurt.
„There is a small train station. You just have to go outside, turn left, and follow the road. You can't miss it.‟
Maybe I should ask for her name.
„Sorry for my bad behaviour, but I have not asked for your name yet.‟
I turned my head a little bit more to finally see the pony I was talking to. It was a young nurse, sitting on a chair, reading something lying on the table next to her.
It was somehow really unfair. Earth ponies and pegasi had just the biggest problems with doing specific tasks. They were not able to hold small things up with magic. I mean, pegasi can at least fly, but what about earth ponies? I always think, they are left out. They are not in a socially lower class or something like that, but they are just not able to do, what unicorns or pegasi can. Pegasi and unicorns can do what earthponies can do, though. It's an unfair world we live in. I know, I know, there is always the thing about 'natural connection' and that stuff. Life is harder for them; It is a fact. They may have some really awesome talents, but life is generally harder. I was just really astonished, when I saw, that her page was magically flipped over. Right next to her appeared another nurse.
The earth pony nurse was quite pleased:
„Always right on time.‟
„Of course, I am always right on time. You know that best.‟
The other nurse was an unicorn:
„Your pages don't flip themselves.‟
„How true, how true.‟
„Did you meet our new patient by the way? If I am not misstaken, she is called Dream Whisper.‟
„Oh, what a beautiful name for such a young mare.‟
The unicorn turned towards me:
„Well, I am nurse Limbed.‟
The earth pony nurse also turned towards me:
„Ahhh, and before I forget. I am nurse Sugarpie.‟
What an unusual name for a nurse.
„Oh, and if you want to catch the next train, it is going to depart in fifteen minutes. You probably need ten minutes to get to the train station.‟
About time to head off:
„Thank you nurse Sugarpie and... Limb?‟
„Limbed, my dear.‟
The unicorn smiled at me:
„Nothing to thank us for. I hope you get there safely. I don't want you to end up in a hospital three times in one year.‟
How had she known...? Well, probably just a wild guess. She knew that I had been relocated from Frozen Falls to here and usually ponies do not get into hospitals much more often than that.
I packed my supplies, which were conveniently placed on a table next to me and headed off. At the check-in counter, I wanted to pay for the stay, but I was rejected: „The royal family has paid for your stay. They want you in Canterlot as soon as possible. They also advised me to tell you, that you should have a safe trip. Have a safe trip.‟
Why were all the ponies at the check-in counters to strange? Maybe it was the job.
Why I thought, that I could have been required to pay for the hospital? The 'hospital' seemed more like a place of cure for rich ponies. Everything was ornamented. It was probably not a public hospital. I opened the hospital main doors and the sun was breaching inside. It was a wonderful day. You rarely see such a beauty outside. From my position, I could look down into a beautiful valley: There was a river running through it; The whole valley was filled with trees in every color you could imagine. Blue, red, orange, purple, turquoise, green, yellow. Well, that were just seven colors, but you hopefully get the idea. With a soft warm wind, the whole valley seemed to move back and forth. My mane was a little bit muddled, but it should suffice for a train journey. I started to gallop down the road, awaiting to finally arrive at the train station. It felt so good to move freely again. I was still questioning, whether it actually just had been some days or rather a much longer time.
As a Unicorn, bookworm and magic-user, I was not really found of galopping down the road, but you got to do, what you got to do to catch your train. After a short trip through a rather short avenue with the forest on either side, I finally arrived at the small train station - if you want to call it that way. There was only a small staircase to get up to a paved platform. Not much else. Not even a sign, saying where you were. Lost somewhere in an empty landscape, waiting for some train, alone on a sunny podest. To my great pleasure, the train was already arriving.
The 'train' was not really a train after all. As it came closer, I realized, that it was just a cubicle on wheels. At least, it was steam-powered. The porter was alone in his cubicle.The first words of his sentence went under in the noise of breaks:
„... you Dream Whisper?‟
„Yes, yes.‟
„Then come aboard.‟
Even though the train was nothing more than a cubicle, the ride was not as boring as I had expected. Inside the train, there were three small beds and one bigger bed. There was a table for every passenger to eat at and some seats, which were very cushioned. A cabin for rich people obviously. The biggest bed was probably for the porter. I have never seen a train like this before; Small, but comfortable. In addition to that, also laid out for long rides. The reason for me not being bored was not the excellent comfort, which was nice nevertheless, but instead the landscapes outside of the train.
The first part of my ride went further north. The only central station was up in the north close to Frozenfalls. It seems like these 'Mending Meadows' are a bit south to Frozenfalls, and far north of Canterlot. To get further south to Canterlot, you had to get fully north to the central station near Frozenfalls, then get down south on the main road towards Canterlot.
The most valleys were just beautiful. A green sea of trees; Or sometimes a colorful grassland. Sometimes small valleys, surrounded by giant mountains, whose tops you could not see through the clouds. Sometimes the train even passed through ravines. It was impressive. On either side there were just walls climbing into the sky. The thick stones always looked like they would fall onto the train and crush us. Of course, nothing happened. For the most time, I was sitting on my chair, looking out, not exchanging any words with the porter.
When we arrived near Frozenfalls and after nearly a whole day, the train stopped for the first time. Looking out of the window, I could see Frozenfalls lying further down the river. In the central station we had to wait a little bit longer, because they had a hard time organizing our small train in between all the bigger ones, but I didn't notice much of that. For the longest time, I was just lying there, partially awake and partially asleep. I didn't notice much around me, but I was not asleep either. I was thinking, about what was going to happen from now... and about my talent.
It was impossible to prevent anypony from dying in the long run. There was really no solution to that problem. I could neither prevent the ponies from having nighmares, nor could I get them to safety every single time. Moreover, I could not just create water like Princess Twilight Sparkle to wake dreamers up. I guess, life gave me lemons and I will somehow have to make lemonade.
The second part of the ride went down to the south. You cannot imagine, how impressed and overwhelmed I was by the completely different climate. I have lived my whole life in the cold, but steady climate of the north. This was definitely different. It was a lot hotter, which made me have to pause from while to while. Especially in the first days it felt like getting burned.
The climate also changed a lot more. Up in the north, it is just always freezing. Down in the south, there is so much more sunshine. Not all the storm, rain, snow, hail and cloudy days of the north. You couldn't fault the pegasi though, I wouldn't work in the empty, cold north either.
There is also a good side to the extremely hot southern weather: It is filled with life. Every valley, every mountain, every cliff, every house, every town, every forest, EVERYTHING is filled with life. In the north, you can walk days and not find a living thing. Here, you trampel a bug with every step you make. It's great.
The central station of Canterlot is inside of the city; Or let me say: Canterlot grew as much as to surround the central station, that was once not part of the city. I was ordered by the Princess herself, but I was still surprised a little bit, when there was a pony waiting for me with a sign. Princess Twilight seemed to have taken care of everything already. Quite impressive.
Canterlot is surprisingly small. You would expect a giant city, that fills the area from horizon to horizon. Despite of it's number of citizens, actually much of it is just the castle, and the rest is small compared to other cities. You could see though, how in every corner rich ponies were eating exquisite deliciousnesses. Everypony was in fancy dresses or smokings. The best example for this 'higher class' was Fancy Pants. I never liked the 'higher class', because I always feel arrogance in their words... or maybe I am just jealeous. The stallion, which was supposed to lead me, trotted right beside me. He knew, that I could see the giant castle myself, so that his position was basically unnecessary. He did not complain about it as he was probably getting paid for just watching me.
When we finally arrived at the castle, it was already dark. Princess Twilight was already waiting at the door, surrounded by a couple of ponies of the royal guard bathed in the lights of the lanterns they were carrying. This time, I remembered my manners and bowed to her. Her voice was strict and serious: „Don't think you had my trust, only because I gave you a chance. I will watch you very closely, so don't try anything stupid. You will stay in the chamber designated to you. Tomorrow Princess Celestia and I will have a meeting with you at the round table.‟ The round table, a sign for the equality of all ponies in Equestria. A sign for every pony's equal right on their own lifes and on their own rights. A sign, that even though the Princesses are royal, they are not superior ponies. They are the regime, but not a dictatorship. It was a symbol for the chance they were giving me: I was still a part of the community. Maybe that would stay that way, but my hopes for that were not that high. After realizing, I would not say anything, Princess Twilight ordered a guard to take me to a chamber.
The stallion was quite handsome, especially in his armor, but I was not interested in such things right now. I was deep inside thoughts: What was I going to say tomorrow? How would I spend this night? My sleeping potion was obviously not worth the money. Maybe I could ask somepony to fetch some new potion for me. Canterlot should offer enough. „Here we go, young mare.‟ The royal guard interrupted my thoughts. I looked around; We were in the middle of the hallway, almost 20 hooves away from the next door. „Where do I go?‟ I asked carefully. Was I supposed to have seen something? Did I miss anything? „Right here.‟ He pressed a secret button to his left and a stone door slowly pushed open. „Haha. I love the look on your face right now. You should really see it. It's hilarious.‟ I had thought, that that stallion was handsome - So much about that. „Thank you, kind sir.‟ I almost spit out the last words. Who was he to make fun of me? At least his facial expression changed from joy to an ashamed frown. I trotted through the stone door and it closed behind me. This was clearly a sepcial chamber, designed to hold the biggest enemies of Equestria. Well, those, who could be held in cells, I guess. They probably knew, I would not be able to teleport out of the room.
The chamber was sparely lit by two lamps. I could make out a bed, a small cupboard, a couple of bookshelves, a chair and a table. Even though I had hardly noticed it before, but now that it was a little bit calmer, I really noticed, how tired I had been. I fell asleep before I had even prepared the bed.
I woke up again in a location I had hoped to not wake up in: As it seemed, this was another dream. The location of the dream was probably a bakery or something of that sort. A confectionary maybe. There were a couple of cupcakes neatly placed in a display case. There was sound coming from upstairs: The sound of a party. I went upstairs, even though I hated parties, but maybe I would find the dreamer there.
I did; The dreamer was a pink mare, an earthpony with curled hair and baloons for her cutie mark. She was totally over-energetic. It was hard to listen to her fast speaking. „Hey there, I am Pinkie Pie. Who are you? No, no, let me guess. You look like Dream Whisper.‟ How did she know? „You are probably asking, how I can know that. Well, you appeared in Fluttershy's dream and then in Twilight's dream and then you were in the hospital after you were wounded and then you were brought to Canterlot and now you are in my dream and I am so exciteeeed.‟ So, she knew Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy. This was actually quite interesting. Usually, I don't get into dreams of so closely befriended ponies very often as there are enough ponies to enter the dreams of. „I am Pinkie Pie and your new friend. Are you going to do some crazy stuff to my dream? I am sure you will. This is so awesome.‟ I was not sure how to react. „Well, probably it is, but probably it isn't. We have to be careful.” - „Why be careful? We are at the old shop, so why don't we make some cupcakes? It's perfectly save here. We could make a cupcake bake party and have some cupcake bakery fun.‟ Maybe this was a dream, not a nightmare. If this was really a dream, it should be safe, but you could never be careful enough. This pony, Pinkie Pie, actually started to dance around. I had to end this quickly as I did not really find myself really comfortable here. However, there was nothing in range to get her to wake up. So I had to stay the entire time in the dream. Instead of being the least bit relaxing, it was more stressful than anything. At least, I was not lonely in the dream. Actually, I was doing Pinkie Pie a lot wrong here, as it could have been much worse: She could have hated me, she could have ignored me or she could have had a nightmare. All three are scenarios, where I would not really want to be inside the dream. This was, comparatively to the last dreams, relaxing. Except maybe for that one dream, where the dreamer seemed to be unconscious.
When I woke up the next day, my back felt like it had been crushed. I found the reason for that in the same moment. Appeareantly, I was lying on the ground next to the bed; I hate, when that happens. To get the time around in my chamber I started to read one of the books, which I found in the bookshelf. It was called „The secrets of teleportation‟. Something, that I always had wanted to know. It was kinda hard to understand though. What I understood was following:
Teleportation has much to do with how time works. Time is like a flowing stream of water, always running down. Once it is down, it doesn't flow up again. With a bucket for example, you can lift some water up. The following problems exist: 1. The bucket has limited size. So you can only move objects of limited size through time. 2. The further you want to get the bucket back, the harder it is. You spend more magic on getting further back into the past. 3. Living things are the hardest to take back because they move. Not only their limbs, but also their organs. You have to be extremely careful.
In order to move your location without needing time for it, you don't have to turn back the time, only to stop it for a moment. Thus you have to make a bucket, but not have to move it.
Teleportation remains a big and dangerous task to master and I am not even sure, if I want to try it. There were a couple of things you can do to train teleportation. At the end of the book, but I was not sure, if I could do them. How do you create that „bucket‟? It was told, that you had to create something like a door to get into the bucket, but this was when the book got really cryptic. You were supposed to jump through the door into the bucket, move the bucket where and however you want, then create another door and jump out of it again.
I skipped the rest of the book, because I could not understand a sentence after that. I looked up the training methods. The first one was to create a shield around a small object of your choice.
My first tries were horrible. The shield was often incomplete, just some unconnected areas. I had been able to make shields a long time ago, but I had not trained for years, so that was probably the reason.
After a couple of failures, I finally managed to make a full shield again. It was not the usual sphere, rather a ugly thing, that looked like a crumbling potatoe. It was a shield nonetheless. I was just trying to make another, when a loud crumbling noise startled me. The door behind me was being opened and a guard came in: „It's time to move. The meeting will be at the round table. Follow me.‟