I’m one of those kinds of people who have weird dreaming patterns. Sometimes I’ll be able to have a lucid dream, and others I forget the dream entirely when I wake up. It’s as though my subconscious can’t decide if it wants me to be forgetful or one of those lucky people that can have loads of fun in a dream.
Whatever the case is, this time I dreamt of electric sheep.
I think I might be a robot.
My dream took place in a field. It was your standard kind, nothing really special about it. Rich, green grass, rolling hills, starry night sky, a bright and clear moon, and a long wooden fence that traveled into infinity in either direction. The only weird part of the dream was the sheep.
The sheep were shaped like sheep, as they often are. Their bodies were made of metallic part, circuitry, LEDs and diodes. Their wool looked like metal plating, steel maybe, that was curved and shaped to look like actual wool, but you could easily see the gleam of the metal as the moonlight hit it, and the seams and lines of where rivets held different sheets of metal together. Their heads were shaped like a sheep’s (no real surprise), but it was made out of some dark blue metal, the color almost blending into the night sky. The eyes were a collection of LEDs and such, and the ears were simply small electrical towers that sent off sparks of lightning to each other. They had no mouths, which I felt made sense, for some reason.
The sheep were all standing in a line, walking forward at a steady, almost rhythmic pace. When a sheep got close enough to the wooden fence, they simply hopped over it, and walked off over a nearby hill, and seemingly beyond.
I got the feeling my subconscious was trying to tell me something, though I had the thought without gaining lucidity. My dream self stood there, trying to figure out what was going on, when I felt a prodding sensation on my mind. The poke drew me to lucidity, and I looked around the dreamscape.
The prodding sensation continued as I looked for the source. When the feeling finally stopped, I heard a slight tearing sound come from behind me. I turned and saw a tear form in the air, its edges opening slowly to reveal a figure.
It was Luna.
The Princess of the Night walked out of the tear, panting slightly, as though from doing some particularly heavy lifting. “Thou has a very defended mind, my friend,” She panted. “it took me some time to be able to come before you in dream.”
I narrowed my eyes at her.
She tore her way through my mental defences (which clearly needed an upgrade) just so she could come and talk to me in a dream? I would have let her in if she had knocked. And that made me mad.
Not the fact that she didn’t knock, though that did irk me a little. It was the fact that she just assumed that she would be welcome here. This place was mine. It was my head, and she just barged in as though it were public property. I have no problem with her here, but the fact that she simply walked in, not even bothering for permission. I can be a bit possessive of what is mine, and my mind is one of the things I hold close to me, for many reasons besides the obvious.
So when I got a more than a bit angry at her, I feel that it was completely justified. This wasn’t something that I would stop being friends with her over, due to her not knowing how I felt about the subject, but I certainly needed to let her know my imperial displeasure.
“Luna,” I said slowly. “What are you doing here?”
She blinked at me. “I thought that I would come see thee, while thy slept.”
My narrow eyed stare turned into a glare. “Yes, but did you ever consider for a moment that I might not want you to be here? You are, after all, invading my mind, and I would be well within my rights to cast you out.”
Her confused look didn’t go away. “Why would thou do that? We are friends, are we not?”
I nodded. “Yes, but just because we are friends, doesn’t give you permission to just barge into my head. This is an invasion of privacy on such a massive level, the NSA would be appalled.”
“I am Princess of the Night! It is my responsibility to protect Equestria’s citizens from nightmares.”
I snorted. “First, nightmares aren’t a bad thing. Scary, sure, but sometimes they’re your subconscious’s way of telling you something that might be important. Second, while I may be a citizen of Equestria, this is still my head, and I get to chose if I want your protection or not. Not you.”
Luna thought about it for a moment, then her ears flattened back a little, and she said, “Oh, I see. Then I shall go, if I am unwanted.”
I breathed a sigh through my nose, more frustrated than angry. “No, no. You can stay. Just knock next time. I don’t like it when people just intrude on what’s mine without my permission.”
Luna nodded. “I suppose that would only be polite of me. I did come in uninvited. It is just that most ponies are honored to have their princess be present in their minds, and they tend to overlook any small altercations such as invasion of privacy.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t consider you my princess. To me, you’re just another person to antagonise and be sarcastic to.”
She smiled slightly. “I can appreciate that. Life is oft’ too short to spend all your time concerned with honorifics.”
I nodded my agreement. “So, you come here for a reason, or just stopping by?”
Luna thought about her words, before saying, “Before my banishment, I would protect the dreams of the ponies of Equestria, such as I do now. Back then, however, I had a following larger than what I do now. I was jealous of my sister’s popularity amongst the citizens, but that isn’t to say I had my own loyal subjects. Many times, I would take the Followers of the Night, as they called themselves, into the Dreamscape with me, to help in policing dreams.”
My brows raised at that, my interest piqued. “Sounds like good times.”
She nodded. “Those that came with me had become some of my closest friends. I was curious if you would like to accompany me tonight. I would welcome the company, and you may even be helpful.”
Travel across the Realm of Dreams with Luna, hangin’ out in dreams, kicking the shit out of nightmares, and doin’ generally awesome stuff? Sounded like a good time to me.
I didn’t really have to think very long to come up with the answer. “Hell, yeah. That sounds like something that I want in on.”
Luna beamed at me. “I am glad to hear you say so. Before we go, however, you need to learn how to exit your own dream.”
“And how do I do that?”
“You must gain awareness of the fabric of the dream,” she answered. “You must gain the level of lucidity that you have in the waking hours, in your dreams. Once you do that, you must then grab the fabric of the dream, and alter it to your will.”
Sounded a lot like manipulating the fabric of Reality, only a shit ton less taxing. I squinted my eyes mostly closed, focused on the barrier between my dream and that of the space between them. When I got a solid hold onto that barrier, I started to unravel it.
They don’t call it the fabric of Reality, and the fabric of dreams for nothing. You have to literally take apart the dream, bit by bit. First went the smell for me. The fresh grass, the smell of the weird robot sheep, and the dew of a light spring rain all fell away from my nose, leaving the dream scentless.
Hearing went next. The buzzing of late-night insects ceased, the baying of the sheep halted, and the rustle of the grass became no more. The meadow was left in utter silence.
The feeling was next in line to be cast aside. The pressure of my feet on the ground, where they made small impressions on the damp ground. The low breeze that pass through suddenly stopped, making my skin miss the gentle coolness it had brought.
And finally, my sight went out the window. The electric sheep, the rolling green hills, the starry spring night sky, the long-running wooden fence. All these things simply faded into a black void that waited to be filled by one’s imagination and creativity.
The sense of taste had to go somewhere along the process, but I wasn’t eating anything, so that sense went away quickly, and without much notice.
When I was done, about half a minute later, Luna and I stood in the middle of a dark void, one that went on forever. There was no sound other than our breathing, no feeling other than the clothes on my body, no scent other than that odd scent you smell when there isn’t anything too smell, and nothing to see other than the pony in front of me.
Said pony looked slightly impress. “That was well done, Connor. Most that I brought with me to help my work had to take multiple days to figure out how to exit their own dream. Even I did not do it so quickly on my first attempt.”
I shrugged modestly. “Ive… had a lot of practice with things like this.” I shook my head, and got onto the topic at hand. “So, where are we?”
“We are merely in the space between your mind and the full Realm of Dreams. It is the border of your domicile, and the man hub of connecting dreams.”
I tilted my head at her. “‘Connecting dreams’? What do you mean?”
“All dreams emit a kind of magic,” she explained. “That magic is often attracted to each other, and that merging point of magic creates a central hub where one can easily get from one dream to another.”
“Ah,” I said, understanding. “So, where we are right now, is like a train track to the station.”
Luna nodded. “Correct. We should be arriving shortly.”
True to her word, Luna’s horn lit up, and a cascade of colors and sounds seemed to melt out of it. The colors flowed in swirls that slowly seemed to take the form of buildings, streetlights, and benches. The sounds all combined together to make the familiar noises of the night. Crickets chirping, a slight breeze passing through every now and then. When the suddenly appearing senses finally found their place, Luan and I stood on a street in Ponyville. There was no difference in the geography of the place. All the buildings were where they were meant to be, streetlights at the correct intervals. Strictly speaking, you could barely tell the difference from the real Ponyville and this dream version.
Except for all the odd lights.
When my gaze traveled over to one of the nearby houses, I saw a strange dull light emitting from the window. The light was shaded dark purple, and pulsed in a seemingly random rhythm.
I stared at the light, and asked Luna, “Hey, where are we?”
“Ponyville,” she responded. “Or at least the dream version of it. When a community goes to sleep, the magical energies that the dreams emit create a landscape that the dreamers are familiar with. It is a way for somepony like myself, and you now, can identify where you are in relation to your dream, or somepony else’s.”
I nodded. “And that light in there?”
She looked in the house. “That is how one identifies a type of dream. There have never been a specific color code to reference, given that colors mean different things to different ponies, but whatever that color represents in the dreamer’s mind is what kind of dream they have.”
“Oh,” I said in understanding. “So, say that the color of my dream was blue. To some people, the color blue means sadness, but to me it might mean calm, and that difference would be what separate my calm dream from that person’s sad dream.”
“Indeed,” she agreed. “And we are going to go into one of the dreams tonight.”
I nodded my head. “Cool beans. Which one?”
She looked at me, and pursed her lips. “Why don’t you decide?”
I blinked, but then started to look around for any dreams that I might want to hop into. There were a lot of houses on the street, and I imagine that looking around off this street would provide me with more to choose from. A cascade of all kinds of colors emitted from every house in view. Greens, blues, purples, reds, and oranges, just to name a few. I could see Bon-Bon’s house, were a dual lighting of pink and maroon blended together, one of those colors being Lyra’s, Bon-Bon’s roommate.
I pursed my lips, and thought of an idea.
“Hey, Luna,” I said, getting her attention. “Is this Ponyville built exactly like the real one?”
She nodded. “To the tee. Any pony that has ever slept anywhere in this town sent out magic that built the dreamscape.”
I nodded. “Good. There’s someone I want to see.”
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Signal Flare had taken up residence in Ponyville in a modest little house about a block away from mine. It was a simple building. Two stories, small yard, and a tree in the front. When you thought of ‘urban standard’ this was the house that came to mind. Not a big place, but not an apartment like mine. Granted, I have a five-star club in my building, and every square inch of my apartment is high class.
The light that emitted from Flare’s house was a bright yellow light. The lighting seemed to dance lightly on whatever it touched, as though powered by some kind of endless mirth. IF I had to guess, I’d say Flare was having a very good dream.
Luna stood next to me, in Flare’s front yard. “The Ponyville regional commander? you wish to see her dreams?”
I shrugged. “Why not? Despite the fact that I like to mess with her head, I don’t have any ill will against her. She can be a bit callous, but she’s not a bad person. Plus, I want to see if there is anything that I can find to fuck with her some more.”
Luna shook her head. “You truly are insufferable.”
I smiled at her.
She rolled her eyes. “Well, if we are to enter her dream, then we must find the fabric of her dream, and create an opening for us to enter in.”
“Just like with getting out of my dream?”
“Similar,” she allowed. “But we will not be stripping the senses away, merely finding the border between the dream Ponyville, and the Commander’s dream.”
“Ah,” I said. “Want me to try?”
She bowed her head a little, and stepped back to watch me.
I took a breath, and squinted my eyes. I sent out my magical senses to try and feel for the dream’s barrier. The ambient air around us was filled with magical energies that fluctuated and changed in time to the beat of their source, the dreamers. When my senses got closer to Flare’s house, the presence of the energy increased. In a wall of magic, the barrier that separated Flare’s dream from the dreamscape was a thick blockade. When I tried to make an entrance for Luna and I, the barrier seemed to harden with the more pressure I put on it. The stronger the effort I made to get in, the more the dream-energy resisted to keep me out.
I furrowed my brow in concentration. If I couldn’t just go through the barrier, I would have to find some sort of weakness to exploit. When my search turned up nothing, that there were no loopholes to use, I had to do something that I normally only did in the most dire of situations.
I used my brain.
The more pressure I put on the barrier, the more it rejected me. So, I would have to find a way to gently push through the wall.
I sent my senses back out at the barrier, but this time, I did it slowly. I made sure to move my power as softly as I could manage. When I finally hit the barrier, there was a small amount of resistance, then the barrier slowly started to open up. As eager as that made me, I had to make sure I didn’t go any faster. So, I held in my enthusiasm, and continued to slowly push forward.
Finally, I pushed all the way through the barrier, and made a hole that Luna and I could go through.
I brought my senses back to myself, and looked at my handiwork. Where the door that lead into Flare’s house had been, now stood a tear in the dreamscape that lead into a black void.
I turned to look at Luna, and smiled, showing teeth. “There. That good?”
She walked up next to me, and said,”Indeed, I think you did well.”
I beamed at her, and bowed theatrically.
“I aim,” I said, dramatically. “To please.”
She giggled. “There are things that you must know before we enter another’s dream.”
I straightened, and quirked an eyebrow.
“If we enter a dream, we cannot wake the dreamer up. If we did, then our minds would be stuck inside of their dreams until they fell asleep again. We can change the outcome of the dream, but not wake them. It would be inconvenient. Another thing to note, is that if you have an apparition as a part of the dream, then you take the role of the double. Finally, dreams are very illogical. Sometimes the slightest things can cause a happy dream to turn into a nightmare. Therefor, you must be careful with your actions.”
“Don’t wake ‘em up, you take the part of the dream you, assuming you’re in it, and be careful with what you do.” I nodded. “I gotcha.”
She looked at me, as if to see if I was taking her seriously. When my expression and manners didn’t change, she sighed and nodded. We then proceeded into Signal Flare’s dream.
Where, upon entrance, I was punched right in the face.
My life blows sometimes.