//------------------------------//
// Chapter 21: Similiar situations 
// Story: Dream Whisper 
// by Dream Whisper 
//------------------------------//

I woke up in the hospital in the Crystal Empire. Twilight and her friends were lying in the circle they had entered the dream in. I tried to wake them up, but nopony responded. It was unusually quiet and I decided to trott outside. Nopony in the streets, but a warm summer day, at least in the boundary of the Crystal Empire. I turned towards the royal tower and started to walk along the street. Some happy ponies were selling their goods and some were just walking along. I was quiet glad and relaxed, but suddenly my mood changed. 

Right there in front of me, Celestia came around a corner. She looked happy, until she saw me: 
“You. You disgusting monster.” 
The anger in her eyes was almost coming out. 
“You are the product of abuse and thus not a bit better. Your father made a terrible mistake, when he took my sister in her weakest moment. Your death is the only thing between me and my sister.” 
Celestia had grown while speaking and was now seemed to burn. Her eyes were filled with anger, trying to kill me just by staring at me. Without a further warning, fire started erupting from the ground. Most of the ground fell down into a deep pit of lava, leaving me on a small platform. Celestia was floating in the air, laughing maniacally. 

Stop. Wait. I had been in enough nightmares to notice one when I see it. An overabundance of happiness? A turn of events into the pure opposite? Mostly unlikely, except in the world of dreams. I had never dreamt before, so it actually felt quite strange to now be inside of one myself. 
If my hypothesis was correct, I just had to get out; I created a shield and jumped. In hindsight I can say: I would probably never do it again. The risk of it not being a dream was just too high. Before hitting the lava, I woke up. Well, I was not really awake, but not caught in the nightmare anymore. It was the Dream world, where we were being guarded by the shadow monsters. Twilight and her friends were still all asleep and it would be impossible to fight the shadow fiends alone. I decided to at least try to sleep in the dream world, something I had actually not tried before. I relaxed, even though that was quite hard, considering we were surrounded by a bunch of shadow fiends. 



I arrived in the dream world, but in a different dream world. Everything was filled with a dim light, not really bright, but not dark blackness either. Only six lights were shining here, everything else was completely empty. When I got closer to the lights, I realized, that each of those lights were representing one nightmare. A dream world inside a dream world? Maybe there was an infinite plane of dream worlds. I wanted to think about all the possibilities, but for now, I had to get them out of their miseries. I started with the closest light, showing me the dream of Pinkie Pie. To free them, I would have to wake them up, but keep them shielded. 

There was a house, a bakery or something like that. I pushed the door open, which made a deep squeeking noise. Since the room was dark and I couldn't see anypony, I decided to go upstairs. There I met Pinkie Pie, but Pinkie Pie didn't look the usual Pinkie Pie way: Her hair was completely flat and she looked a lot .... darker. Maybe just the result of the absence of a real light-source, but still very creepy. When I got closer, I could hear her whispering to herself.

I tried to get her attention, but I couldn't make a noise. It was almost as if I was muted. It got even scarier: When I tried to touch her, I just pushed through her like a ghost or something. If I couldn't get her attention, I would not be able to get her to wake up. Using magic would result in some uncontrollable result, maybe killing us both. Not the best idea – I had thought about using magic already. My luck with the spells getting cancelled before them killing us all was not really a reason to test the risk. I did not know what had happened to me and to be completely honest, I did not want to test it either.
At this point I was out of ideas. The only thing, that could possibly help, was water. I went out of the room again. Pinkie Pie's nightmare was probably about being alone and forgotten, the only plausible reason for me not being able to contact her. Stupid dream logic. 

Water. Water water water. Seriously, why is there no water in any dream? It would make things so much easier, if every dream had just a bucket of water standing around. For almost an hour, I was searching for water now, but just nothing. I looked around: Cake, chocolate toppings, cupcakes, delicious pastry and finally an idea. If this worked, I could have saved me a whole hour of searching. I took a cupcake with my mouth and went upstairs.

I just threw the cupcake at Pinkie Pie and completely missed. The intended effect however, was still achieved. For a second, Pinkie Pie was just confused, but then her brain processed: If there had been a thrown cupcake, there had to be a cupcake thrower – At least I think, that is what she thought. Within seconds, she noticed me and her expression was completely confused: 
“Dream Whisper? How? Why? You here?” 
Her face lit up and her hair got suddenly fluffy again. I got so surprised, that I acutally winced. When I opened my mouth, I was finally able to speak again: 
“Pinkie Pie! The flood is coming.” 
I was impressed, how fast that idea came and by how convincing I actually said it. 

Now she just needed to believe it, but why shouldn't she believe me? The sound of a door bursting in was far more pleasant, than anything else. Now I just created a shield around Pinkie Pie and all this should be done. It was impressive how I had literally been searching for an hour, trying to find water, just to then end the whole dream in a matter of some heartbeats. A brown fluid slowly crouched up the stairs. Chocolate milk flood? I could just hope, it worked as well as water. The fluid rose and rose, slowly crouching up the legs and covering our bodies. When it touched her face, the dream started to weaken. When we got out of the dream - after creating the shield of course - we arrived at a place, but not to where I had expected; We were in the grey-ish dream world again, together with 4 remaining stars. Due to entering the dream from here, that was probably the reason for exiting the dream here. 

I decided to not think about it too much and continue with the next one: Rarity. 
I took Pinkie Pie with me, knowing it would be better for her than being alone in this empty place. Furthermore, I did not want to test what would happen if I would just stop casting the shield around her. Maybe she would drop back to reality, maybe into the dream world, alone with all those shadow thingies.



Rarity's dream was a lot different. Instead of emptiness, there were lots and lots of rich people, probably the high society of all of Equestria. They were all looking at something particularly interesting, which I could not make out yet. The giant crowd really made it impossible to get anywhere. It appeared, we had arrived somewhere in the midst of some kind of public showcasing. After a couple of confused heartbeats, I finally made out Rarity. She stood on top of a podium, on which some dresses were presented. Those were probably the ugliest dresses, you could ever see in your entire life. Even from down here in the crowd, I could see Rarity's confusion mixed with shame and embarrassment. I tried to get her attention, but my voice was not louder than a whole laughing crowd of aristocratic ponies and such. Again, I had to find a way to get her attention and to make her wake up. Only if all six of them were together, we could get out once and for all. This time, though, I got unexpected support:

Pinkie Pie, who I hadn't really noticed before, started yelling: 
“A giant crowd? A giant party pony crowd?  Let's do a giant pony party, crowd!” 
Of course most ponies were not really interested in what she was saying, but the pure presence of her caught some of the ponies attention. Then – you might guess it, it's Pinkie Pie after all – she erupted with balloons and streamers and sweets and lights and the sound of these party whistles. Either that was dream logic at work, or she was really carrying all that stuff with her at any time in case of party time; And of course, of course, she began singing, yes, singing. Usually ponies, especially in the north don't really sing. I know, ponies living further in the south sing a bit more often, but Pinkie Pie? She even sings, when she is in a dark forest full of scary trees. To be quite honest: At that point, I didn't really know, she sang so often: She told me afterwards. I just had never heard a pony sing with that enthusiasm. Just maybe that was just what we needed. 

Most ponies turned around and trotted towards her, leaving Rarity alone. I was able to get through to her. Again, I used the dream logic to full effect: 
“Those water balloons at Pinkie Pie's party are really dangerous, aren't they?” 
Almost as to verify my words, a stream of water balloons erupted from where Pinkie Pie stood. 
“Yes, those balloons can really ruin your day. Once my beautiful new haircut got completely ruined.” 
I had her now. The only problem was, that still every water balloon missed her, but that was not hard to change: 
“Watch out, right above you.” 
Splat. The water-balloon exploded in her face, right when she had looked up. It is impressive, how things in dreams start to exist only because they were mentioned. Without wasting more time, I created a shield around Rarity, Pinkie Pie and myself to get us out safely.

Just for your entertainment, that is the song Pinkie Pie sang: 

“Hey, come on you there, I know you want to party:
Beeecause a party party is nothing like a party party, without the ponies partying. 
A party with ponies not partying is more like a phony pony party, because only the real pony pony party have lots of ponies partying the pony party. Unless of course it's a phony pepperoni pony party, because phony pepperonies are better for ponies than common pepperonies. Howeveeeeer, a common phony pepperoni pony party is still better than a phony pony party party with common pepperonies. If how ever, you happened to be on a phony pony polka party, bring a common pepperoni and turn the phony pony polka party into a prime pony polka party with a pepperoni. Iiiif the common pepperoni turns out ot be a phony pepperoni afterall, cancel the phony pony polka party, because the phony pony polka party will turn into a poor phony pony polka party with a phony pepperoni. If you bring a phony common pepperoni to a poor pony polka party, though, the poor pony polka party turns into a phenomenal prime pony polka party with a phony pepperoni...”

I didn't get the much more of the song, but you can imagine how it continued. 

Again, we arrived in the gray-ish dream world. I am still not sure, how I should call it. The dream world 2? The dream dream world? The dream-ception world? I don't know...
I made the suggestion to continue the search. 
“We should help the others.” 
I would have helped the rest anyway, but knowing, I wasn't just taking Pinkie Pie and Rarity against their will, was much better. Now, I also felt bad for just taking Pinkie Pie and making the decision for her last time. 
“Okeylidokey.” and “Yes, true friends help each other.” were all the statements I needed to get ready again.
I created the shield again and went to the next shining dream: Fluttershy.



Fluttershy's dream was a lot different to the other two dreams: Instead of being about ponies, it was actually about a field of giant pillars, of which you couldn't even see the bottom. This pegasus pony really had a problem with height. She was cowering on one of the other pillars. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and I were on three different pillars, but all quite far away from Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy?! Are you okay?” yelled Rarity, but Fluttershy didn't seem to hear her. This would be a lot harder than the last dream. Suddenly, a pillar to the left of Fluttershy just fell into the black depths beneath. However, it didn't stop there; Within a couple of heartbeats the next pillar started to fall. Whenever one pillar just fell into the darkness beneath, the next one followed the example. I threw a small pebble down from my pillar... 

Nothing, even after 20 heartbeats, there was no sound of it landing. Either down there was a liquid, or this was truly a bottomless pit. 
“Rarity, can you shine down there?” 
I wanted to be sure, before taking the risk. If down there was water, I could just push Fluttershy off and she would land in the water, causing her to wake up. As Rarity let a shining light fly down into the pit, I realized, that this truly was bottomless. The problem with a bottomless pit is just, that there is still a dream edge, so it is not really bottomless. I didn't intend to fall into eternal nothingness and either dissolve or be forever trapped. I couldn't continue my thoughts for very long as the pillar below me began to crumble. Within a heartbeat, I was pulled downwards into the pit. I decided to take a serious step, not because it was rational or good, but just because there was nothing else possible for me. 

I used my magic to lift a part of another pillar in my way, so I could fall on it. Again, my spell didn't work as expected. Instead of moving a part of another pillar, the part started to shine in a bright, blinding light, starting to fly like a shooting star, faster than I have ever seen anything moving. Instead of stopping, it completely exploded under the pressure of acceleration. A giant light below me was the first thing I noticed and after almost 3 heartbeats, the shockwave reached me and I was being pushed upwards with a brute force. 
There was a terrific noise, that caused everything afterwards to be muffled. The good news were, that I was thrown so far up, that I could actually just barely land on another pillar. The bad news was, that now every single pillar started to collapse. Within heartbeats,  I saw everypony falling down into the darkness. 

Then, something unexpected happened: Fluttershy suddenly opened her wings and began to fly. She started to do loopings and barrel rolls and other flying art. That didn't really help us, instead, by her resisting the fall, the dream edge would come closer and closer. Suddenly, there was ground in reach: Seemingly Ponyville, but I could only guess - From the bird's eye perspective it's really hard to recognize. The feeling of actually being able to fly must have brought Fluttershy to better thoughts, thankfully. 

However, there was now Ponyville coming closer in an alarming speed. Suddenly it stopped and I was thrown to the side, then back and afterwards slowly down. When being dropped on the ground, I realized, that it had been the dream version of Rainbow Dash, who had saved all 3 of us. Fortune favors fools, I guess, because it certainly wasn't anything but luck.
Down here in Ponyville it would be easy to get some water. It was a really strange feeling to speak to a pony, of whom you know, that he or she is not real, just inside this dream. They seem so real and yet they are only the perceived illusion of the pony. After a while, I noticed, that this Rainbow Dash was actually a bit different: She was a bit more beautiful and a lot... I don't know, what the word should be... I guess friendlier... or maybe something else. However, we managed to convince to let her get Fluttershy and take her to the river. After a couple of minutes, both came flying side by side towards us. A bit to close, but who am I to judge their relationship.

 “Fluttershy. Finally. This is just a dream and we have to get out. So, if you would please, just take a bath in that river.”
Apparently Fluttershy did just believe me. Although it had also convinced the other two to, I would have to get a better version for Twilight, which was easier to believe. Fluttershy was just following my 'advice', which was more of a command. She slowly climbed down into the water and within a heartbeat or two, the whole dream started to collapse. Of course, I had created the shields earlier, so nopony would be lost forever in an empty dream.

In the second dream world, there were three lights left. It was slowly getting exhausting to jump in and out of the dreams, but it had to be done as fast as possible. I didn't even want to know, what was happening with us in the first dream world. The next dream we entered - after asking everypony, if they would come, of course - was the dream of Applejack:



Inside the dream, we landed on an apple orchard or something like that. Something about this place seemed familiar. After a while I noticed, that it was actually sweet apple acres, from the picture on my cider bottles. It seemed a bit different, but when does advertisement seem like reality? Over by one tree, there was a pony looking like an artificially weakened Applejack. It was strange to see her so thin and weak. She was actually trying to get apples down from a tree, but not even one Apple fell down. 

This was actually a quite pleasant surprise: With this kind of dream, it would be quite easy to get Applejack out. 
“Applejack, you need to come!” 
I yelled, thinking she would just come. Instead of reacting, she continued trying to get the apples down. 
“I don't need your help, I don't need the help of nopony!” 
As I already wanted to enrage, Fluttershy slowly trotted forwards and started to speak with Applejack. She spoke so quiet, that I could not actually hear her very well. It took a couple of minutes, but the wait was well worth it. The strangely weak looking Applejack came closer and yelled from a distance: 
“Thank y'all for comin' over. Fluttershy told me, that I would have to fix that water problem of yours. It's all fine.” 
I did not really pay attention as I was already thinking about the next dream. What would Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle dream? How could we help them? What would we do afterwards?
It took a couple of minutes for us to reach the river flowing through Ponyville, but I was glad it had not been like Fluttershy's dream. Applejack just went ahead and dove into the water. How the hay had Fluttershy done that? She had completely convinced Applejack in a matter of minutes. I could not have done that, but then again, I was not the closest friend to Applejack either. 

The dream quickly receded into nothingness and we all arrived in the grey dream world again. I was glad, that this dream had not taken hours again, because to be honest, I really wasn't sure, how long I would be able to hold on. There were only two lights left in the dream world: Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. I don't even know why, but I decided to go for Rainbow Dash's dream first, a bit curious, what she could have a nightmare about. Why did I think it would be a nightmare? Well, all the other dreams before also had been nightmares, so why not this one too?



Rainbow Dash's dream was a lot more like a 'normal' nightmare: I arrived in a giant hall, with two flood lights. In the middle, there was a light centered at Rainbow Dash. A big iron chain was clinging to her feet. Another light was centered at a big cage in the air, in which all her best friends were contained. I was not inside there, but that was nothing I had really expected. The terrific thing about the dream was, how spikes were slowly pushed into the cage by some crazy machine. Pinkie Pie was already severely hurt and the others didn't fare very well either. Rainbow Dash was trying her best to get to help them, but the chains kept her bound to the ground. It was almost an obscure scene of struggle for her friends. 

“Up here. You have to help us!” 
They had noticed me. 
“We are the real ones.” 
I was so confused, nopony else was here anymore. Furthermore, it had been Twilight's call and that  had caused my mind to be blown. The dream Twilight seriously also said, that she was real. That was a point, where I really got scared. There were some questions arising from that statement: What if the dream ponies actually completely felt like the real ponies? What would the Rainbow Dash in the other dream had done, if we had told her, that she would left behind and brought into nonexistence? How should I know, which ponies were actually real? I decided to do the only logical thing: Trying to save them all, even if they were all just dream illusions.

I spoke to Rainbow Dash, the only real thing, I could do other than exploding the whole place with my magic: 
“Rainbow Dash, I am going to pull that lever over there, which will free them, okay?” I trotted into a corner of the room, eagerly waiting for a lever to appear from Dream Logic. However, Rainbow Dash did not really trust me. “There is no lever.” That sentence felt like being hit in the face. Disbelief is your worst enemy in dreams. Once they start to not trust you, you can try as much as you want, you are not going to get anything done with dream logic. In my confusion, I still tried to convince her – without much success of course. My heart was beating so very loudly, that I thought everypony would hear it. I didn't know what in Equestria I should do. At this point, I was basically screwed. Dream logic wouldn't work and her friends – my friends – would be impaled by spikes; I was slowly losing my calm. 

“Twilight, use your magic to open the cage!” I screamed up there. If Rainbow Dash did not trust me, maybe she would trust in Twilight. Twilight began casting a spell on the thick metal bar. Only the belief in Twilight could save them now. The spikes slowly further advanced and for a minute I thought, nothing would be happening. Then, with all of her magic, one bar slowly bent to the side. The opening was small, but enough for them to squeeze through. I tried to catch Rarity, who fell down from the hanging cage first, but was crushed by her weig...errrmmm... her velocity, of course. 
Pinkie Pie followed, then Fluttershy, and finally Applejack and Twilight almost at the same time. Twilight also removed the chains of Rainbow Dash, who came in an instant to help us up. She was so happy to be reunited, that the scary background of the dream actually was changing. It was strange to just see everything changing: In one moment, it had been a terrible hall of torture and now we were suddenly all in Ponyville, again. Obviously they all remembered Ponyville as a place of happiness.

There was still one thing, that had to be solved: Twilight Sparkle. I couldn't just leave her here, but how should I take her with me. At that point, I wasn't even sure, whether the other ponies were real or just dream ponies. It took me almost ten minutes to come up with a suitable test to identify, who was real. Rainbow Dash was obviously the dreamer, so I got her to stay aside – after a bit of a discussion. 
I started to ask everypony the same question: 
“What did you last dream?” 
Pinkie Pie answered: “A scaaaaary nightmare, where everypony left me.” 
Rarity answered, after a short while of hesitation: “A dream, in which everypony laughed at my collection for absolutely no reason. Those dresses were more than marvelous.” 
Applejack was also a bit hesitant about her answer: “A dream in which I was too weak to buck any apples and everypony wanted to help me, but I just couldn't live with that embarrassment.” 
Sometimes I forget, that the dream doesn't start when I enter it. I can only wonder, what had happened to all of them before I got inside their dreams. Fluttershy had problems with speaking loud enough for me being able to actually hear her, she was most uncomfortable: “The p...p...pillars.” 
She almost began to cry. “Okay, that is enough, Fluttershy, thank you.” 

Lastly I got to Twilight Sparkle:
 “What did you last dream?” 
She thought about it and she continued thinking and she just couldn't give an answer. I knew it, my plan worked: How could Rainbow Dash, the dreamer, create an illusion with really exactly the same memory of Twilight? The answer is simple, she couldn't. She couldn't know what Twilight had dreamed as her last dream.

Even though I now knew, that it wasn't the real Twilight, I couldn't just leave her behind, could I? I looked at her. She was completely confused. She looked back at me and there was fear in her eyes. That dream Twilight wanted to live, to be real as much as anypony is. She had saved all these lives, but nevertheless, we couldn't just have two Twilights in reality. However, I could not just kill an innocent pony, especially not Twilight. What was I supposed to do now? 
“Twilight, you have to remember your own dreams!” 
Rainbow Dash was totally confused as I had not explained her the whole thing yet. How could I leave that pony behind, if she was so real? Yet, it was obvious, that she existed only in this dream. I was scared about what would happen, if I would leave her here and at the same time, I was scared to take her with us.
It was actually dream Twilight herself, who spoke these words: 
"You have to leave me behind.” In her eyes was the same fear, but mixed with certainty. Girls, don't you remember the Pinkienvasion? I have to go, because I am nothing but an image of the real Twilight. I couldn't replace her, nor could I live together with her.” 
She could not actually mean that, could she? 

“Twilight, you should not try to...” 
I could not continue the sentence, knowing she had already made the decision. Maybe I could just get her out. It was not time to play a hero, when you do not have to. The others were also furious: 
“Twilight, no, you can't.”
“You just saved us.”
“But...But...you can't...” 
I tried to just make the shield and get us all out, including dream Twilight, but before I finished casting the shield, she was gone.
In the end, she just disappeared into a magical purple hole, without even leaving me any choice. A teleportation into somewhere beyond the dream edge, she was gone. I only now noticed, that I had actually held my breath. Everypony looked devastated. Somehow, we lost our friend, but then again, she would be in the next dream. It literally hurt my head to think about it. I couldn't really grasp it.

What would happen, if I actually took a dream pony with me into reality? Would they become real, be what the dreamer always thought they were? Would the real pony just be replaced? It was impossible to tell and I never wanted to try it out. 
I pulled us out and we had to take a pause until we would enter Twilight's dream.