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// Chapter 6: The meeting 
// Story: Dream Whisper 
// by Dream Whisper 
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I was quite surprised when the door opened. At the round table not only Princesses Celestia and Twilight were sitting, but also five other ponies. One was Pinkie Pie, one was Fluttershy and there were three I had not seen yet. 
One seemed like a rural earth pony: A cowcolt hat, freckles, apples for a quitie mark, and common fringes. She had an orange coat and a yellow mane. Green eyes, by the way.

The next one was obvioulsy an urban unicorn: Possibly the adviser of Celestia or something. She had purple hair, curled as if she had just recently been in a beauty salon or something like that. She had a white coat and diamonds as a cutie mark, matching her eye color. Clearly a pony of style and appeareance, something I hated to the deepest. How can you spend your life for 'the trend' and not realize, that friendship, kindness and generosity were much more important than your own beauty.

The third one was impressively colored. Never before had I seen a pony, that assembled all colors of the rainbow. Quite impressive. Even Princess Celestia didn't have such a broad spectrum of colors. The pony's mane ranged from vermillion to indigo and her coat was as blue as a clear summer's sky. She was a pegasus with this certain expression on her face; I think the impression was what most impressed me. She was so content, it almost felt like her aura was spreading into the room. Her cutie mark was also quite strange. A colorful lightning from a white cloud. You see many ponies, especially when you enter their dreams. In the dream of every dreamer are a couple of friends or relatives, but I have never seen a pony colored only closely to this. She was the embodiment of amazingness. I could have stared at her for hours, if she wouldn't have looked back at me angrily.

Princess Celestia had the first words: 
„Dream Whisper. The recent events have lead us to believe, that you are involved with the murder of Princess Luna. However, we cannot justify any premature actions. Today you will have to speak the truth and only the truth before all of us. Interrogating you will be Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Clestia...‟ 
It was a common thing to name the royality first even though you had to name yourself before others then. To still be modest you can name yourself in third person. 
„..Apple Jack...‟
She actually pointed towards the orange coated earthpony. 
„...Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Rarity.‟ 
She continued pointing at the corresponing ponies. Rarity was the unicorn and Rainbow Dash was the incredible pegasus. Quite a matching name. Celestia stopped for a moment, then proceded with the introduction:

„The five ponies, you were probably not expecting to sit here, are some of the most important ponies in Equestria. They represent the Elements of Harmony together with our beloved Princess. If you try to do anything stupid, be warned, that it will not end well as their power is unmatched. However, if you cooperate, you will be granted a reward.‟ 
She magically hovered a glass of water to her mouth, drank a bit and then carried on speaking:
„The five ponies, representing each an element of harmony are here, because there seems to be a special connection of you and them. Have you been in the dreams of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?‟ 
A special connection? Probably not. If there would have been a special connection, shouldn't I have been in their dreams earlier? I would call it an unlucky coincidence:
„Yes, I have been in their dreams.‟ 
Princess Celestia just carried on. There was nothing she had to say about that, or she actually had something in mind, she didn't want to tell me. 
„Where have you been born?‟
‟What?‟ 

The question had really surprised me. Why did the princess want to know where I was born? What does that have to do with all this? I decided to answer anyway, so I would not sound suspicious: 
"I have been born in Dustshire.‟ 
Now it became apparent, that the princess indeed had some kind of suspicion, which she wanted to verify. You could see her brain working behind her eyes. 
„Can you tell us the name of your mother?‟
„Her name was Moon Struck.‟ 
Celestia nodded. Probably just what she thought. The other ponies in this circle seemed as confused as I was. 
„Your father was Duskbringer?‟ 
How did she know? Was my family known to the royal family? I had never heard of something like that. My parents have told me nothing about some special connection. 
„Dream Whisper, do you know about the secret behind your ancestry?‟

Secret behind my ancestry. You know, at this point, you have 2 opinions storming at you at once:
1 You think whoever is telling you such thing must be a crazy pony. A very impossible thing with Princess Celestia, but possibly more possible than it actually being true.
2 You feel like in a strange dream; Or in such a bad novel, only a bad writer would write. A novel with a completely expected turn. Hopefully, it's at least written well.

Really, how should I have reacted? Somepony was telling me, that I had a secret behind my ancestry. Imagine, somepony would tell you the same thing. It's right, you can't, but I can tell you, what I did:

First of all, I started to laugh. After a short while, I realized that it was no fun matter and everypony was looking at me seriously. It felt like their looks were piercing my skin. Then I looked on my own hooves, not able to understand anything anymore. I actually hoped something would happen, but it was just this awfully long time, in which nothing happened. They looked at me and I looked down on my hooves, unable to react. They meant this nonsense. 

I probably could have known something due to my special talent, but other ponies have special talents, too. So why should my family have some secret? Why on Equestria should my parents not have told me? This was not making any sense. 
„No.‟
Celestia didn't seem surprised, most likely due to my reaction on her words. 
„Then I shall reveal the truth:
Your family has a long history, dating back more than 1000 years to 'Dream Cry'. The similarity to your name was the first thing I noticed. Dream Cry was a big threat for Equestria. He was a strong wizard, who had the same talent as yours. With his talent he started to bring havoc to Equestria. He made every dream to a nightmare and then he used his talent to bring the creatures of nightmare into reality. In a major attack on the kingdom he overexxegerated. He died from his own magic in the end. A terrible fate, even for a murderer. After that, we had thought, that the threat had been terminated forever, but obviously you have his heritage. It had been clear that some day it could happen, that there could be somepony like you. We had to observe your family for all those years. Now we have to deal with this situation, even though we all hoped it would never come so far.‟
A pretty nice way of saying, that I was a threat to all of Equestria and they had to stop me. Maybe I wasn't a threat to all of Equestria, but I was a threat to every dreamer in Equestria. 

Princess Twilight was the next speaker. Her voice was a lot angrier: 
„Why have you been in our dreams? Even though you are here, you are not free of any guilt.‟
She earned a reprehending look from Celestia: 
„I am sorry for Princess Twilight Sparkle. She is still upset. Tell us your version of the story, please.‟
Okay. This was my time to hopefully dispose of my guilt.
„Well, as you probably know already, I have this talent to enter other ponies' dreams. I like to call it a talent, though it is somehow more of a curse. I cannot actively decide, whether I want to go into any dreams or not. In whose dream I arrive is purely random, at least it was for the entirety of my life. Every time I sleep, I enter somepony's dream, except I use a sleeping potion. When I enter somepony's dream, their dream gets much more dangerous. The pain and the wounds of the dream start to become real without my intention or aim. You have to undestand, I do not want to hurt anypony, but every pony is hurt by my appeareance. When I entered Fluttershy's dream, I had no idea that Princess Luna would enter it. When the Timberwolves attacked us, we had no real chance to defend ourselves. I could only see the princess' death from down in the cliff. It was never my intention, but it is my fault.‟

Princess Celestia was thinking. Princess Twilight was even angrier now: 
„How dare you lie to us so untroubled? We will not let your actions go unpunished. You will have to suffer for what you have done! You could have used a sleeping potion. It is all your fault. Why are you doing this to us?!‟ 
Why was she so angry? Had something changed? Had not she been the pony granting me a chance? 
„Twilight Sparkle. Calm your mouth. We will not come to premature conclusions. Your emotions are of no matter in this meeting.‟ 
Maybe Twilight Sparkle was scared, because I was in the dreams of her friends and there was nothing she could do about it. Maybe she knew more about my ancestory than me. 
„You will have to stay in your chamber as long as Twilight Sparkle and me have a discussion about the legislation in this case. Your meal will be brought into your room. Now please excuse us.‟ 
There was a high amount of anger in her voice. This was not the way she had expected Princess Twilight to behave.

I spent the rest of the day in my chamber reading in the book about teleportation. I managed to cast some major shields and tried to stop the time inside them. It did not work. I mean, stopping time sounds easy enough, but seriously, I don't feel the flow of time like a third limb. I have no idea how to influence time and all the books teach the same: 'When you use the flow of time to your advantage...', but there was not a single book saying: 'This is how you manipulate time: ...'
However, it got easier and easier for me to create shields. I started to create shields around everything, trying to apply the same magic inside the whole volume. Somehow, it is a lot easier to use magic in confined areas, because then you don't have to worry about the exact strength of the magic. It was just overall easier to cast magic inside the shield. Something, I began to like more and more during the rest of the day.

As Celestia had said, there was actually a guardian pony coming by, bringing meal. It had not been the same pony, which was a little bit disappointing, but only a little bit. As the supper was brought in, I was already creating shields like a madmare. Everything in the room was covered in shields, which I dispelled just before anypony came in. After the supper, I actually started to feel the exhaustion kicking in and decided to take a short nap.

I had a slight headache; Obviously the nap had extended to a whole sleeping session. There was something different here; Something, that was not usual for dreams. 
„Hello Dream Whisper.‟ 
This was a stallion's voice. 
„Do you know me? Do you know, who I am? Probably not. The least ponies actually know, who and what I am.‟ 
Oh, this stallion was obviously either slightly confused or completely crazy. 
„I am not a stallion.‟ 
Holy mother of Celestia. Either the crazy stallion was good at guessing, or this was some serious case of dream logic messing up my mind. 
„I am just good at guessing, don't worry. Nothing is messing up your mind. You can call me 'Discord'. You are 'Dream Whisper', if I am not mistaken?‟ 
He stopped for a moment. This was definitely a case of messed up dream logic. 
„Hah. You don't even need to answer.‟ 

Suddenly a dragon mutant snake with hooves and horns and stuff appeared in front of me. Am I crazy? No. Just look it up in a book. The creature called Discord represents the spirit of disharmony/discord between us. It is assembled by all possible body parts. It's the weirdest thing you will ever see, if you ever see it.
„Now you are here in my own dream. Finally... I have waited for you. You will help me have my fun. In return, I will help you with the case of Princess Luna.‟
Yes. Always trust the dragon snakes. 
„Why should I trust an abomination like you? Do you believe, I was some crazy pony? I will not trust you. Ever. You are a dragon snake thingie guy.‟ 
He started to smile: 
„Don't you feel bad for discriminating against  dragon snake thingy guys? I would have expected more from you. Once again, I only earn distrust and hatred for my miserable appearance.‟ 
He leaned over as if he wanted to cry on my shoulders: „Oh well, distrusting me wont bring Luna back. Seems like you had not much chance. What do you think, how they are going to react on your murder? Didn't you hear how agressive Twilight Sparkle was? What do you think: Will the star student convince Princess Celestia, or somepony who murdered Princess Luna, her own, younger sister? You see, you are condemned to be guilty. Whether you really were, or not. I know, you were not, but Twilight Sparkle believes you were. You will have to trust me.”

Damn. I hated, I really really hated, when other ponies - or dragon snake thingy guys - were right. He was right about everything. I didn't want to go to be punished with death or imprisonment and Twilight Sparkle hated me for doing what I couldn't stop. She would get Celestia to believe her eventually. He may be a dragon snake thingy guy, but he was right. 
„What is your proposal?‟ 
I could still refuse it, if I didn't like it. 

„It is pretty simple. I will show you, how you can get Princess Luna out of the dream and you will do this one thing for me. You will save Luna. I know, this sounds strange for the vilian, but actually I just want to have a true enemy. Fighting with Twilight Sparkle has become predictable and she has enough power to stop me. So I need another target. Don't worry though, I will not harm her. I swear.‟ 
He held his both hands up to swear. I was really sure he lied. He had another plan, a better plan with better motives for himself, but he did not want to reveal anything of it. 
„I wouldn't be a true gentleman, if I hurt anypony. I just want chaos to reign, but you cannot reign chaos without an enemy. Even chaos is boring when there is no one to live in it. A true enemy is like bread on your butter; Or the ice cream on your topping.‟ 

Still, I was not convinced on the whole thing. There was something in his eyes, that told me, that it was partially true, but not the full truth. There was a deeper plan behind it, but well, this was the only chance I had. This could be the help I needed. Discord may have been a dragon snake thingy guy, but he was a helpful dragon snake thingy guy. Maybe you shouldn't enclose yourself in a wall of prejudices too early; And maybe this plan would horrifically backfire. Well, when there is no choice, there is no choice. 
„Okay, we have a deal. You train me in getting Luna back and I will get her back, so you can have your fun with her.‟ 
Still better being the target for Discord's evil plan than being dead. 

„Here is what you have to do, my young padawan.‟
„Padawan? What do you mean. What is a padawan?‟
He had a broad grin right now: 
„Don't worry. It doesn't matter. Let us start: What are you seeing right now?‟
I looked around, for the first time in this dream. A room, which was just painted with every possible color. Sometimes you thought, you had just found some pattern for the colors, but you were always proven false. 
„Well, I am seeing a room.‟ 
He laughed: 
„Exactly, you are seeing the room, but you are really seeing the behind of your eyelids. To get Luna back to the living, you will have to get her out of a dream and to do that, you will have to see and feel the dream instead of what is represented inside of the dream.‟ 
There was this thing again: Saying 'You have to feel the dream' instead of saying 'This is what you have to feel and how you feel it:...'. 

„Don't worry, Dream Whisper. It is quite easy. Do it as following: Relax. Try to ignore anything that is happening around you in the dream. Then concentrate on the dreamer as much as you can. I don't know, look at her or him and count his or her hair; Or you can count the hairs in my magnificant beard; Or you could estimate the height, length and maximum speed of the dreamer.‟
This. This was an instruction, finally. Okay, first part: Relaxation. Breath in, breathe out. Ignore all of your thoughts. Breath in, breath out. You don't need to think at all. Now concentrate on the dreamer. 
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9... There was something. I could see Discord, but I could also see wispy lines floating around. These lines, light blue in color and very transparent, were floating around me and through the whole room.
„I... I am not sure, if this is what you meant, but there are some ... lines or something.‟
Discord grinned and laid back on a seat he had just magically put below him:
„Exactly what you need. Now, if you would please, try to make a shield around me and yourself.‟ 
Hmm, okay. I created a shield as I did for the whole day before. You could see the bright light blue-ish color of my magic surrounding the whole shield now. They were much clearer now, much more opaque. It was wonderful to just look at it. Sometimes when two lines crossed, the dream behind them was actually hidden. 

„Haha, I think you have got this. You only need training now. One last tip though: Don't try to throw me out of my own dream, it is not going to work.‟ 
How did Discord know so many things about dreams anyway? Why was he so nice? Discord meant discord, not harmony, didn't it? Despite all the distrust, I was finally able to do something. With some training, I could probably do something effective in the dreams. 

The rest of the dream I relaxed, concentrated on Discord and created a shield. Again and again and again and again and again. You can believe me, it was an eternity to me. I didn't even know, dreams could last that long. After that eternity, he told me to leave the dream, but with a shield and a little artifact. He created a small cup of chocolate milk. I surrounded the cup and myself with the shield, concentrated on the dreamer and counted to ten. I was really getting good at this. The whispy lines started to appear around me and the cup and bent around the shield.
“Now I am going to wake myself up, you just have to keep your shield up. Remember to catch Luna for me, will you?” 

The dream started vibrating, but inside the shield, I felt none of these vibrations. In front of me, the dream slowly disappeared into complete blackness. The only colors were the whispy lines and the shield. Within a heartbeat, reality took place of these colors and the whispy lines faded into the contours of the room.