//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: Team Awesome Short Stories: Dream's Reality // by Caustizer //------------------------------// “Sir Starflank bounds quickly but gallantly towards the Forlorn Woods, off to fight the vile dragon to win back his love,” recites Cadence with the passion of a storyteller. Loudly she shuffles along the wooden miniature of a unicorn knight with her powers, and she moves it in a wavy motion that imitates a pony trotting along an open field. The wood clacks against the decorated floor as she does it, making a sound very similar to real hooves. Looking back over her shoulder from where she is sitting on the floor, the Princess of Love peers up into her massive collection of similar figurines and picks out one with the attire of an earth pony, a crudely made stallion with saddlebags full of miniature vegetables and places it in front of the knight. “What ho, a traveller?” she says in as deep a voice as she can manage. “Nay I be a pony of the land, adventure appeals not to me,” Cadence replies in a more moderate and rougher tone, trying to sound like an earth pony. “Well can thee spare a guiding hoof or a bushel of nourishment, commoner?” inquires the knight, “I go to slay the vile dragon Stoneheart, and shall I succeed such an act will benefit you folk as well as mine self.” Cadence places a hoof to her chin and thinks about what to say next, unsure how to continue her tale. All around her there is a very impressive assortment of decorations featuring artistic lights, furniture, miniature terrain pieces on the floor, and above all the biggest collection of dolls ever to exist. The Princess of Love’s bed is king size and shaped like a massive pink heart. In the middle lies a single pillow where she sleeps at night, but positioned beside it there are pillows of all shapes and sizes filling up most of the space she normally occupies. Around the edges of the bed are piles of plushies of almost every animal type one can think of including cats, bears, lions, birds, and even more elaborate ones like gryphons, manticores and dragons all of which have been presents from either Light or her siblings over the years. Where there aren’t windows the walls are decorated like big paintings, featuring grasslands and mountains full of animals made to look like they are all living in harmony. Cadence’s room also features a three-quarter circle of couches and a lovely two pony table for refreshments or games. By far the most dominating feature of the room though is the decorated floors, which take up half the room and are made to look like miniaturized versions of the real thing. They include a desert, a forest, a mountainside with cliffs, a wide canyon with a narrow bridge running across it and a castle with several small huts around it. Light had helped her considerably with the project as well as Luna, who had spent weeks helping her put it all together and make it look as realistic as possible. There is even weather such as rain and wind, though it is mostly just for decoration and never severe. At the moment the Princess sits next to this diorama, along with a box featuring her rather impressive collection of wooden miniature ponies and beasts. “Nay I cannot spare a bushel nor a kernel, for a have a family over yonder to feed,” continues Cadence, “and I…umm…” The Princess of Love halts mid sentence as she forgets what she wants the pony the say. After thinking about it for a minute, she gives up. “What’s the use?” comments Cadence out loud as her ears drop in sadness, “this is no fun without Luna.” Of all her siblings, Cadence has the best relationship with Luna. While it’s true that she and Celestia get along really well, the Princess of the Sun is more like a big sister then a best friend and she rarely makes time for anything like playing with dolls. Combining that with Dream’s passion for reading books (and anger at being disturbed) and Discord perpetually getting on her nerves, she has found that her and Luna have a lot in common in terms of interests. Luna’s artistic talent is amazing, and the two of them would spend whole days together playing with dolls on Cadence’s floors, weaving tales of knights and kingdoms far away. A stab of loss hits the Princess of Love as she glances over at a blue figure box with a moon on it. It is – or rather used to be – Luna’s miniature box. She doesn’t want to give up faith that her sisters will be found, but after five days of nothing it’s starting to sink in that they might really be gone. Grimly Cadence sets down the traveller and knight and flutters up onto one of her couches, turning over onto her back and staring at the ceiling. Very recently she has began to have a prickling feeling in her head… not just one that comes and goes with incidents involving broken toys or arguments with her siblings, but an overarching and deep form of anger. She is very familiar with this feeling for she has felt it before – Hate. Like the others, she has a dark side and her name is Haetra. Cadence fumes as she remembers how much she dislikes her and all the mean things she says. Every day Haetra whispers to her, encouraging the Princess to despise everyone around her and were it not for the companionship of her sisters and mother’s guidance she wouldn’t be able to keep the bad thoughts away. These last few days with Dream and Luna gone and mother in despair it has become even more difficult to remain in control. In an all too recent and dangerous incident Cadence had almost lost herself, but she promised then to never let it happen again. A knock on her door interrupts the Princess of Love’s thoughts, and she rolls over onto her feet and takes a moment to make sure she is presentable. Using her powers, she pulls open the door. “Who is it?” Cadence asks. “Oww, watch it with the horn!” complains Discord as he shuffles inside, speaking to somepony behind him. “Discord?” questions Cadence with a hint of annoyance, “what are you doing here?” “I’m trying to come inside without being stabbed or burned anymore by this psycho princess!” Filing in behind him is Celestia, and she doesn’t look happy. “Discord is here to apologise for all the mean things he has done to you these past few days,” the Princess of the Sun insists with an angry glance towards her brother. “Come on Celestia I was just joking around,” the draconiquis protests. “You’ve been deliberately hurting her feelings,” counters Celestia, “and setting traps in her room.” “What?” asks Cadence with confusion, and then her face contorts with anger. Discord crosses his arms, and dawns a grumpy look. “Now disarm those traps and say you’re sorry before I let you-know-who come back to talk to you.” With a sigh of submission, the draconiquis snaps his fingers and a number of objects in the come alive. The wooden dragon Cadence was minutes away from using suddenly belches a wall of smoke which surely would’ve gone towards her face had she picked it up, and two of her pillows on the bed spring up to attack her only to be halted and put back in place by Discord. “See, just harmless tricks,” he states innocently while shrugging. Celestia glares at him, and her mane starts to smoke. “Fine, okay,” submits Discord, “Cadence, I’m sorry for trapping your room.” “…and?” pushes Cadence, forcing him to continue. “…and I’m sorry for cheating in cards, and for calling you names, and for taking advantage of the twins’ disappearance to tease you for caring.” Cadence is a bit surprised, since that covers almost everything. “Okay,” she says with a giggle, “I accept your apology.” Discord offers one of his hands timidly, and she accepts it with a hoof bump. “There,” Celestia concludes with relief, “now we have to focus on the real problem here… finding the twins.” “Agreed,” returns Cadence, “Discord is there anything you can think of that can help us? …anything at all?” The draconiquis sits for a moment in thought. “We should start our search in their rooms,” he begins, “there are spells that I can use to retrace their steps.” “But mother and I already tried that,” returns Celestia, “Dream and Luna were sleeping, and then they just disappear.” “Yes but you didn’t use MY spells, did you?” corrects Discord as he cracks his knuckles with anticipation, “I have a few tricks I’d like to try.” … Later, Celestia, Cadence and Discord all gather in Dream’s room which has lied empty and untouched since its occupant disappeared almost a week ago. “The twins disappeared in their sleep,” Celestia insists as Discord prepares the collection of spells he plans to try, “Mother said that Dream likely visited Luna in her dreams and spirited them both away somewhere. We looked for a teleporting spell or spiritual residue and found nothing.” “Spirit each other away in body and soul? Unlikely,” replies Discord in concentration, “but let’s set up a trace to make sure.” Working his hands, the draconiquis produces a ghostly outline of Dream in bed. It takes some effort, given that the events he is bringing back to life are almost a week old. As the magical recording reaches its end Discord begins to sweat profusely and ground his teeth with effort. A haze of red begins to settle over the ghostly image becoming more and more intense until Dream snaps awake and leaves the bed, walking out the door before disappearing completely. “Celestia did you see that?” proclaims Cadence with excitement, “Dream got up and left the room!” Celestia looks shocked. “But… when mother did this Dream didn’t get up at all…” “Mother didn’t use the right spell,” insists Discord, “or at least she didn’t put enough power into it. Regardless, I know what her magic feels like and this feels like it’s been covered up.” “Covered up? What do you mean?” asks Cadence eagerly. “I’m saying that somepony has deliberately concealed most of the trace,” continues the draconiquis. “But who would do that?” pushes Celestia, “are you suggesting the twins didn’t want to be found.” “Possibly, but it doesn’t feel like them or mother. If I were to say who it feels like, I’d have to say it reminds me of Solar Flare’s magic.” “Okay now I’m confused,” puts in Cadence, “what does Solar Flare have to do with this?” “No, not her,” continues Discord, “but somepony like her… of the same blood.” Cadence tries to think of who that could be, but comes up short for ideas. “Dream probably had Nightmare helping her,” suggests Celestia out of the blue, “but that still doesn’t explain where she went and why she decided to take Luna with her.” Discord pops up a small scroll and begins writing things down vigorously. “What are you doing?” pushes Cadence. “Keeping track of all the clues,” he answers, “not to mention I just love doing it, especially with my inventions.” “Let’s try Luna’s room now,” Celestia insists, “maybe we can use your spells to see what happened there too.” … Luna’s room is just across the castle wing, and in fact is on the same floor so it is a short glide across the ledge from Dream’s. Discord uses the same method he used before, but this time he fails to produce anything. “The covering is too thick,” the draconiquis complains, “Luna’s trace disappears around the same time Dream’s does, so if we want to see what happened between them its towards the deepest part of the blanket spell.” “So rather then erase as she went, Dream just erased everyone’s magical signatures starting at a set time on the day she left,” concludes Celestia with a hint of wonder, “how could she even do that?” “With all the books she’s been reading, maybe she found something big and powerful?” suggests Cadence thoughtfully. “Hold on a minute,” interjects Discord, “she didn’t ERASE the signatures… Dream merely covered them up. I’m thinking if we all work together with our powers, we can see through the blanket.” “Great idea Discord,” praises Celestia, “just tell us what you need us to do.” With a few gestures the draconiquis positions the two princesses exactly where they need to be to aid with his channelling and begins the spell. This time it was hard for him right from the get go, and he strains to keep it going as a faint ghostly outline of Luna appears in her bed. “NOW you two!” Celestia pushes power into her horn, and focusing it on the centre of Discords spell she pumps it full of her own magic. Almost immediately the outline of Luna becomes even clearer, and Discord relaxes. A moment later however the cover becomes even thinker, and Luna starts to fade once more. Seeing this, Cadence works up the courage to help too. As she adds her contribution the trace goes back to being clear, and suddenly a ghostly Dream walks into the room and stands over Luna, casting some sort of spell. Celestia holds back her surprise to keep the reflection going, and as all three of them strain against the ever-strengthening red haze blanket Luna suddenly springs up and attacks Dream. The two ghostly images fight briefly before engaging in a brief conversation and leaving the room. At once all three of them give up, and the spell is quickly swallowed by the red haze and fades. Celestia, Discord and Cadence are all breathing very heavily, but are immensely proud of the feat they have accomplished. “So Luna was convinced to go along with Dream,” Celestia states after she composes herself, “they must have gone some place familiar, as it would be unlike her to go along with something she knows nothing about.” “Exactly,” deducts Discord, “which leads me to conclude they probably didn’t leave the Palace. I can’t imagine Luna sleeping somewhere other then here for any length of time.” Wow Discord is really smart, thinks Cadence. It’s too bad he is usually so apathetic and annoying she can’t stand to be around him. “Where does this leave us?” asks Celestia, “we know the twins left the room together, but where did they go to?” “Think about it Celestia, is there any place in the palace where you and mother haven’t looked, anywhere at all? What about secret passages or hidden rooms?” “Well we haven’t looked in mother’s room… but it’s… oh.” At that moment Celestia realizes what must’ve happened. “They went to mother’s room!” “But its forbidden to go in there,” interjects Cadence worriedly, “I mean… mom has so many security spells on the doorway there’s no way they could get inside without getting caught. Remember what happened the last time we tried to get in? We were in big trouble.” “I know its impenetrable Caddy,” replies Celestia, “but it’s the only place I can think of where they could possibly be – maybe Dream found a way to get inside.” “Well… umm… it’s not exactly ‘impenetrable’,” Discord admits half-heartedly. Celestia and Cadence immediately round on him. “What do you mean Discord?” Celestia asks nicely, though it comes off sounding more like a demand. “You see,” begins the draconiquis, “I needed a challenge to keep me busy, and after that time we got caught trying to get in I just couldn’t let it go… I learned all about the security spells and broke them one by one.” “What are you saying?” pushes Cadence. Discord hangs his head in shame. “I might have left the door open the last time I snuck in for supplies.” A dead silence settles over the room as it sinks in how important that information would have been days ago. It is broken by the sound of Celestia smacking her head with her hoof. “Unbelievable,” complains Cadence in frustration, “and you didn’t think to tell us about this earlier?” “Nope,” admits Discord weakly. “…while we were moping about and searching fruitlessly?” the Princess of Love adds accusingly. “Listen I didn’t want to get in trouble okay,” the draconiquis states in his own defence, “I was afraid if I told you two then you’d tell on me the first time I pranked you.” “Alright what’s done is done,” insists Celestia, taking charge of the situation, “this is the best lead we have for the whereabouts of the twins, so I suggest we follow it immediately.” Celestia turns and takes flight, leaving swiftly. She is followed closely by Discord, who floats after her in the air. Cadence lags behind, still showing a hint of reluctance. “But wait a minute,” the Princess of Love calls out, “if they’re in mother’s room how could she not have found them by now? …guys?” It becomes apparent that she has been left behind, so Cadence spreads her wings and speeds out into the hall to catch up with her two siblings. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dream is in her world again, only this time it’s a completely different place. No longer is it a mere testing ground for scenes from her books, but a living replica of the world of ponies. Unwilling to waste any time even while sleeping, the Princess of Dreams is spending every moment she can fashioning buildings, fields and ponies to add to her dimension. The task is proving meticulous and time consuming, and at the moment her creation is leaden with errors because of how much she still doesn’t know about the real thing. That, and the constant distractions provided by a certain eyeless and evil mare. “Whatsss thisss?” hisses Nightmare as she steals a piece of fruit off a cart and sniffs it, “scentlessss…” Extending her long and snakelike tongue, the aberration grabs it and pulls it into her mouth whole, snapping it into pieces with her sharp teeth. “Tastelessss,” she mocks. “I’m working on it,” replies Dream as she focuses on another task entirely. The Princess of Dreams picks up a stallion passing nearby by the tail and dangles him a few feet off the ground in front of her. The dull eyed pony is walking in the air as if he thinks he’s still on the ground. “Hmm, this one seems lifeless… not to mention he’s missing a cutie mark. Drat! Why didn’t I think to add that?” “Thatsss not all he’sss missing,” comments Nightmare as she walks calmly up to Dream’s side, “he’sss missing fear.” The aberration leans forward inches from his face and roars like a wild beast, snapping her teeth threateningly and slobbering a bit in the process. The fake pony doesn’t bat an eye. Her examination complete, the Princess lowers him to the ground and he carries on walking like nothing ever happened. “Have I ever mentioned you have a classy way of doing things?” teases Dream as she watches Nightmare wipe away the spit from her chin. “No worssse then yoursss,” retorts Nightmare, “you sssee fit to befriend poniesss you should be tormenting!” “By twisting their dreams into nightmares?” asks Dream casually, “that’s boring… and not to mention irresponsible.” “You are not resssponsible to your inferiorsss!” Dream’s face contorts with annoyance. “Inferiors? I suppose they are in a sense, but that still isn’t a reason not to respect them,” answers Dream with a hint of cleverness, “you need to open your eyes Nightmare… oh wait, I forgot you don’t have any!” Nightmare growls at the insult. “I may have no eyesss, but I can sssee just fine. It isss you who isss truly blind.” Suddenly Dream hears a loud knocking back in her cabin in the real world. Dismissing Nightmare’s taunts, she snaps awake. … Dream is fully awake and ready within a second as the door of her house is again struck with an urgent, pounding knock. Sensing some kind of emergency, the Princess of Dreams uses her magic to remove the locking bolt and swings the door open. Outside stands the stallion marshal who had been watching the pegasus and gryphon’s cells the previous day. He looks terrified. “Miss Dream I know yer off duty but ya gotta come quickly!” “What’s wrong?” inquires the Princess. “An army of pegasuses is gathering outside town!” the stallion shouts with alarm, “they’re gonna invade! The warden’s called up all the marshals and militia.” Down the street Dream can hear the town bell ringing, and the sounds of chaos as the townsfolk rally to meet the emergency. She can see a family running by the doorway, led by an earth pony father with a hoof bow, and it looks like they’ve grabbed as many of their possessions as they could carry and fled their home in a hurry. This is clearly not a nice situation. “Alright I’ll be out in a moment.” The marshal leaves hastily and shuts the door behind him. Not wasting any time, the Princess of Dreams slips on her patrol attire including the green ribboned hat Whiptail gave her the day before. Taking a moment to look at herself in the mirror, she turns into a green cloud and whisks away through the crack under the door. As she floats over the town the full scope of the tragedy becomes visible as she sees large numbers of earth ponies fleeing into the countryside with their families. Evidently they aren’t the bravest lot, or maybe they know something about pegasi that she doesn’t. Either way, the Princess resolves to protect them in any way she can… up to and including dispatching some dirty flappers! Silently she scolds herself for using such an insulting term, even in the privacy of her own mind. Perhaps the mannerisms of these earth ponies are starting to rub off on her, even the bad ones. Reaching the edge of town, Dream spots the place where all the marshals are gathering. Swirling in from the sky, she rematerializes amongst the group. Being familiar with her favourite method of travel none of them look too surprised to see her appear out of thin air, but a few of them look relieved that she’s there on their side. “Alright that’s all’a us,” declares Whiptail to the two dozen marshals and militia present to defend Manehatten, “if this goes south, we’re going to have to fight it out with ‘em hoof to wing.” “Here here,” shouts a particularly enthusiastic stallion who isn’t wearing a marshal’s uniform, “let’s shoot us down some flappers.” A chorus of agreement comes up from fully half of the number, along with the clicks and twangs of loading hoof bows. Almost all of them have one, save for Dream. “Now hold your hooves,” insists Whiptail, “we’ve got orders from Smart Cookie tuh see what they want before we do any shootin’, so none of ya fillies get too trigger happy and get everyone killed. When pegasi come, they are gonna mean business.” Almost right as the marshal mare says it, a mighty flight of pegasi appears on the horizon. Lit up by the approaching dawn, they form an arrowhead shape that fills a significant portion of the sky. Their numbers produce an audible gasp amongst the group. “There’s gotta be hundreds of ‘em,” remarks a female marshal beside Dream. “Actually there’s eighty six,” corrects the Princess after doing a quick count. “That means…” “They outnumber us approximately three point five eight to one.” The eagerness drains out of the entire lot in an instant, and from the glances back towards the town Dream can tell more then one of them wishes they had fled with the others. “Hold fast and form a line!” commands Whiptail, “they may outnumber us but we still can’t let ‘em push us around.” As the flock of pegasi gets closer it descends towards the ground, landing in perfect formation a fields length away from the edges of Manehatten. Following barked commands from their leader, they form up quickly and begin to advance in a clean line. As the earth ponies watch, they come within a hundred meters and halt. “Mother of Creation, please watch over my family,” whispers another nearby marshal, and Dream’s ears prick up in curiosity for a moment. These ponies pray to her mother? One of the pegasi near the centre steps forward and clears his throat. “Hear ye earth ponies of Manehatten village, on behalf of our lord Commander Hurricane, Sub-Commander Pansy demands that-” “It’s Pridewing you twit!” shouts the elaborately dressed pegasus in the centre with yellow fur and a flowing scarlet mane. Dream turns towards the winged pony named Pridewing and notices she is wearing a collection of very familiar jewelled artifacts. They’re Dream’s own crown and cuirass! The nerve! The Princess’ mind races as she tries to figure out how they got them, when she remembers leaving them in back in the crater where her and Luna landed. Drat! She should’ve taken them along with her or stored them someplace safe. “A thousand apologies milady,” the herald replies nervously before continuing with his proclamation, “Sub-Commander Pridewing demands the return of the pegasus named Magenta Dash, whom was unjustly kidnapped by your kind! In return for such an insulting misdeed against our kin, we demand due payment! Such tribute may take the form of culinary shipments, materials of value or weapons of a military nature, or-” “Just shut up already!” fumes Pridewing with impatience, before walking forward with her head held high, “give us Dash and a thousand crates of fruit and vegetables, or else we sack your town and take it from you!” Her having read up on these winged ponies after her encounter in the cell with Dash, Dream sees through their scheme right away and sneers with displeasure at their demands. It’s pretty clear they are taking advantage of the imprisonment of one of their number to squeeze more food out of these earth ponies. Had they simply wanted her back, a messenger would have sufficed. “I haven’t a clue what you’ve heard Sub-Commander, but yur kinspony was put in jail fer stealing from us,” answers Whiptail, “there’s no way wur giving ya a single bushel more then what’s due at the end of the month.” “I don’t think you heard me straight mudfoot,” insults Pridewing, “give us the food or else I give the order for my ponies to go in and take it!” “Over my dead body flapper!” shoots back Whiptail, and she readies her weapon. “Then it shall be so,” growls Pridewing, “march on the town and take-” Just as the pegasus is about to issue the command, Dream steps forward and throws off her hat, allowing her brilliant hair to flow freely in the wind. “That won’t be a very good decision pegasus.” Pridewing looks shocked, but it quickly turns to malice and hate. “A unicorn? What are you doing here? This is matter between pegasi and earth ponies and is none of your concern.” “I think it is Pridewing,” replies Dream hardly, “you’re about to commit a massacre both you and your kind will grow to regret. Should you sack this town and kill its remaining inhabitants, not only will it no longer provide you pegasi with food in the future but it will also drive the other villages closer to the unicorns for protection. I doubt this Commander Hurricane will approve of that too much.” Pridewing growls and bears her teeth in rage. “I’ve already cut down one of your kind hornhead, and I’d love to do so again to an un-armoured foal like yourself.” “Very well then a challenge it is pegasus,” answers Dream with a clever glint in her eye, “one on one… just you and I.” Pridewing stops to consider her options for a moment, trying to remember the proper protocol for public duels involving a pegasus and a unicorn. She recalls that they require both opponents to be of noble blood. “And what house are you from to make such a challenge, hornhead?” demands Pridewing as she checks her hoof blades are ready to go, “not another one of Nightstar’s weaklings I presume?” “I hail from my own house,” counters Dream, “I live in this town and like the rest of the earth ponies I don’t like you coming in here with your army and stealing our food.” Pridewing dawns a smug expression. “I don’t duel honourless commoners, hornhead.” “Then I think it’s time for you to see just what kind of commoner I am, mortal pony.” Drawing a massive amount of power into her horn, Dream’s eyes light up as she prepares a spell capable of demonstrating her might. It is nearly complete when she is interrupted by another earth pony urgently galloping from the town towards the crossroads. “STOP! No fighting! Please, stop!” The voice belongs to an older earth pony, and one that Dream has met before. Powering down her spell, she halts her intended show to allow Smart Cookie to speak. “Counsellor,” hails Whiptail as the other marshals part to allow the senior earth pony to approach, “these pegasi have threatened to sack our town if the prisoner is not returned and tribute of food is not given.” “…and we stall negotiate a solution warden,” interrupts Smart Cookie, before hastily turning towards the pegasi. “If you will have it Sub-Commander, the other counsellors and I have gathered in the town hall and are prepared to receive you.” Pridewing considers the offer, and after a short period of thought she decides in is in her kind’s best interest to take the way out of conflict. “Very well then earth pony, we shall negotiate an end to this crisis.” “Fall in line,” commands Whiptail. The official marshals line up in columns, preparing to escort the Sub-Commander and her honour guard to the town hall. The whole process goes smoothly, though Dream is left standing on her own and seething with anger. She is not used to being out manoeuvred, and she takes the lesson harshly. Pridewing struts by the Princess with her head held high, flanked by her best war-stallions and mares. Dream watches helplessly, before deciding to add some last words of her own. “Don’t think for a moment you’re keeping my crown and chest piece, pegasus.” Pridewing turns around to glare at her, but says nothing further and carries on with the precession. Silently the Princess of Dreams fumes, and she begins plotting her revenge. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------