//------------------------------// // Dream a Little Dream // Story: Thine Own Self // by jdb1984 //------------------------------// “What? You’re not going to come?” Sweetie asked. “We didn't tell Miss Cheerilee you were there, as thanks for helping us. Now you’re tossing that away by waiting for Diamond? After the way she treated you?” It was after school had let out. Sweetie was expecting Silver to go with her to the clubhouse while Diamond served her detention, but Silver insisted on staying instead, to wait for Diamond to be released. “I guess so,” Silver answered, sitting down under a nearby tree. “I am thankful and all, but Diamond’s still my friend. And she’s expecting me to be here when she comes out.” Sweetie looked like she wanted to say more, but she saw her friends beckoning towards her. She turned back to say, “I still want to see you alone sometime.” As Sweetie ran off to join with the rest of the Crusaders, Silver just watched them run off to whatever plan they were going to try next. She could tell that they would stay good friends with each other, long after they finally found their cutie marks. She wished that she had friends that would stick with her like that... “But you do, you have Diamond Tiara,” a part of her mind reminded her. “But is she really a friend? What if my family suddenly lost all their money, or what if she found the secret of my real cutie mark? Would she still hang out with me?” another part replied. She was able to admit to herself that she wasn't sure. Giving a yawn, she felt the heat of the mid-afternoon sun, a gentle breeze, and chirping birds lull her to sleep. --- She awoke with a start, realizing she wasn't at the place she felt asleep. She looked around, seeing she was on a cloud. She could see the buildings of Ponyville far below her, and some more clouds dotting the air space where her cloud stood. “This is impossible. I’m not a pegasus, I shouldn't be able to stand up here,” Silver thought. “Scootaloo would be jealous that I stood on a cloud before she could get to them.” Looking around for anything besides clouds, she noticed a paintbrush on a nearby cloud. As she made her way to it, she noticed that she can jump effortlessly from one cloud to the next, almost like she had wings. Once there, she realized she didn't have a place to use the brush. Acting on a hunch, she found that she was able to manipulate part of the cloud to make a makeshift canvas. After finishing, she noticed that the paintbrush already had paint on it, and the color changed to whatever she needed. With everything in place, she started on her newest picture. Before she could finish, though, she heard heavy footsteps coming from behind her. Dropping the paintbrush, she turned around to see an impossibly large Diamond Tiara staring down at her. Silver took a few steps backwards, unable to tear her eyes off the huge, yet familiar, face of her friend. The giant Diamond looked down at the partially completed picture, of the three Crusaders. They were all surrounding what looked to be a blank spot in the middle. As Diamond took a couple of steps forward, Silver grabbed the paintbrush in her mouth and jumped from cloud to cloud trying to get away, as the giant Diamond destroyed the cloud with the picture and went after her. As Silver continued to jump, she tripped on one of the clouds, the paintbrush falling out of her mouth. She quickly picked it up again, noticing that the paintbrush left a small yellow line on the cloud. As she continued, she looked back to see that Diamond didn't destroy it like the other clouds she went through, but instead had to go around it. Thinking quickly, she painted another line on the cloud she was on, this line a purple color. The third cloud had the paint changing to orange. She continued, with the paint lines alternating between yellow, purple, and orange, and the clouds with lines forcing Giga-Diamond to go around them. That slowed her down, but not enough, as Silver suddenly found Tiara’s mouth above her, and coming down... --- “OW!” Silver yelped, as a sudden pain at the base of her tail woke her up. She turned to see Diamond spit her tail out. “Glad you’re back in the waking world,” Diamond said. “Now, come on, I’m done with detention, and I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to.” Silver got up and started after Diamond. As Diamond started to complain about what happened in her detention, Silver barely listened, her mind still on the dream she had. Her concentration was only broken by something small and wet hitting her on the end of her snout, then on her back. As she looked up, she saw that the scheduled rainstorm was just starting up. “Oh, no,” Silver thought, knowing what the water can do to her cutie mark. “Come on, we better get out of this rain,” Diamond said, dashing off. Silver was right behind her. As Silver ran, she cursed her bad luck, as she was expecting to be inside before it started. As she felt drops running down her body, and obscuring the vision through her glasses, she silently prayed to whoever could hear that her cutie mark wouldn't be washed off. --- The two fillies burst through the front door of Sugarcube Corner and took a moment to shake the rain off their bodies. By then, the rain had become a shower, one that everyone inside the building was interested in staying out of. As Silver went over to a table to grab a napkin and wipe the water off her glasses, Diamond went up to the counter and ordered two chocolate chip muffins for them. As Pinkie went into the back to get what they ordered, Silver sat down in the seat next to her. “So...what next?” Silver piped up. “Huh?” Diamond asked. Silver pointed a hoof at the door and said, “I don’t think either of us want to go back out in that. But we can’t really stay here until it stops, my parents and your father are probably expecting us home soon. Plus, I don’t know how waterproof our saddlebags are.” In response, Diamond opened up her saddlebags and checked the contents. Though the outside looked to be soaked, everything inside seemed to stay dry. “Seems like everything’s okay. So I guess we’ll just eat our muffins, and walk home despite the rain. And if we catch a cold, we just have a few days away from school,” Diamond answered. Their warm muffins were brought out to them, and they talked to each other between bites. Then Diamond got up to stretch her legs a bit, and noticed something that made her pause. “Silver, what’s with your cutie mark?” she asked, as she stepped forward for a closer look. Silver turned to take a look herself. As she expected, most of the paint washed off. Parts of the silver spoon everyone knew were still there, but parts of her real cutie mark could also be seen. Oh, buck!