//------------------------------// // Chapter 15 // Story: Dreams About Friendship Are Magic // by Soft Story //------------------------------// Twilight blinked a few times, not wanting to believe what she was seeing. The picture of her as a foal holding the sketch of Cadence remained unchanged. She continued to stare at it for several long and silent minutes, as her mind rapidly prepared itself for the oncoming panic attack that was bound to happen once she snapped out of her trance. Slowly, a few stands of Twilight’s mane unfurled and sprang free of their usual resting places, giving her a slightly disheveled look. One of her eyes started to twitch as her brain finished processing what was in front of her. Her jaw dropped and she jumped up, grabbing the photo album with her magic. The only thing she could think of was running to find Celestia. She didn’t remember how she got there, but Twilight got from her office to her bedroom in record time. The doors nearly blasting off their hinges as she charged in, her magic crushing the doorknobs as she simply used brute force to open the doors. “Celestia!” The Princess and Spike were sitting on Twilight’s bed. A small novel was floating in front of Celestia’s face while Spike was holding a brand new comic book, the duo sitting in content silence. Content silence that was easily shattered by the distraught Twilight as she flew into the room, startling both of them. Twilight wasted no time jumping onto the bed and pressing the picture album into Celestia’s face. “Look!” “What am I looking at, Twi?” Celestia asked, her voice mumbled by the thick book covering her face. Twilight pulled the album back and pointed at the picture in question. “There, that sketch I’m holding. Look what it is!” For a brief moment, Celestia began trying to comprehend what was happening as her eyes were cross-eyed staring into a multi-colored blob. She blinked a few times as she gently rubbed her nose, feeling a bit confused as to why Twilight had suddenly shoved something into her face. She looked down at the picture and gave a smile of recognition. “Oh! Are these your foal pictures?” “Yes, but that’s not important,” Twilight said, her voice taking on an urgent and panicked tone. She slightly shook the album in her magical grasp. “Look here, at this sketch!” Celestia looked up at the state Twilight was in and quickly realized that her marefriend was far from excited about the pictures, but rather panicked over them. She scrutinized the sketch closely, seriously analysing the photo before her. “It’s a pink alicorn mare with a questionable mane coloring. Why is this—” “That’s Princess Cadence! From my dream! I mean, exactly down to the detail; that’s her. I’ve drawn similar pictures to that one in my dream when she would foalsit me,” Twilight explained. “Really?” Celestia looked at the photo some more. A brow slowly levitated and vanished into her mane. “Are you sure?” Twilight gave an annoyed huff, her face pulling down into a large frown. “Of course I am. Pink alicorn, blue crystal heart for a cutie mark, curly mane. This is her. How is this her? She’s a character from my dream!” Spike moved over so he could see the picture. “Hey, she’s rather pretty. Didn’t you say your brother marries her in your dream? Way to go, Shining.” His comments went completely ignored as Celestia moved to hug Twilight. “This might just be like that sofa and quills store from Ponyville: something bleeding through into your dream. Maybe your dream pulled up this design from your memories when it needed to add a pony to your life.” Twilight seemed to mull that over as she sat silently for several seconds with her head resting against Celestia’s side. She hadn’t thought of that in her panic. “But, an entire pony is different than just the idea of some store—” “Is it really the entire pony?” Celestia asked. “I don’t see anything on this that labels your picture as Princess Cadence. It’s just a sketch of an alicorn.” Twilight once again fell silent. Celestia gave her an encouraging nuzzle. “She’s not a real pony Twilight, I promise. I think I would find out if there were any other princesses running around out there.” Spike laughed at that, but Twilight still stayed quiet. After a short while, Twilight gave a loud sigh as she slumped over against Celestia. “It was just so surprising that I couldn’t even think clearly. But what you said makes... a lot of sense. I should have thought of that at first, instead of just freaking out.” “If you didn’t freak out, we’d think something was wrong with you,” Spike said, with a cheeky grin on his face. Celestia chuckled at Spike. “As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right. Twilight Sparkle without panic attacks wouldn’t be Twilight Sparkle. It’s not a bad thing. I’m always here to help you calm down.” Twilight turned and kissed Celestia on the cheek. “Thank you, Tia.” “Of course, Twi. Now, let’s look at these photos.” Celestia grabbed the album with her magic and opened it back up to the very front. Twilight snugged up against the Princess so they could look together, the anxiety of her panic attack already subsiding to the depths of her mind. Spike returned to his comic book, having seen the photos before. The next day, before court started, a large griffon arrived at the palace with a note for Celestia and Twilight from the griffon Prime Minister. After politely dismissing the messenger, Celestia read it over before passing it to Twilight. Out of habit of dictating to Spike, she started reading sections aloud. “Border negotiations between two border towns… Tax free trade for local businesses… Merging the towns… Request a meeting tomorrow to discuss these issues.” Celestia sighed softly, giving a clearly fake look of hurt. “I suppose that means I should let you go. It’s been a while since you saw Gerald. I shall endure the loneliness that your absence will make.” Twilight smiled as she suppressed a giggle. “Don’t be so dramatic. It’ll only be for a few short days.” The Princess grabbed her in a hug, briefly enveloping the smaller mare in her wings. “Do try to get work done. Go get a chariot and I’ll send Spike to join you.” They shared a simple kiss and headed off in opposite directions. In under half an hour, Twilight had packed a suitcase for a few days stay and met up with Spike outside. They climbed onto a simple chariot and took off. Spike pointed out that a second chariot with some unicorn guards was following them. “Celestia probably sent them to keep an eye on me, in case someone should try to curse me again,” Twilight answered, a slight edge of nervousness in her voice. She had been so excited to visit with Gerald that she had forgotten that there were ponies out there who wanted to hurt her. Spike gave her a big grin. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. You’re used to dangerous adventures from your dream, right? It’ll work out.” Twilight had to resist the urge to point out that her dreams were simple fiction and that the real world wouldn’t be the same. Instead, she gave him a hug and did her best to seem relaxed for the rest of the two-hour trip. The border was nothing like Twilight was expecting. A massive stone wall was clearly visible as they approached, erected and cutting the land into indisputable halves. Two small villages had sprung up on either side of the wall, near a large tower with a gate. Even from a distance, Twilight could make out all the griffons flying around over the village on the other side of the wall. “We’ll land near the edge of town and find accommodations before we venture off,” Twilight said to both Spike and the pegasi pulling the chariot. A few minutes later, and they touched down in a grassy patch near the road leading into town. The second chariot landed beside them, four additional unicorns stepping off. Twilight addressed the group of pegasi guards briefly, keeping her voice down so that Spike wouldn’t hear her. “We’ll be here for a few days. Find a place to store the chariots; I want you to be present for our stay. I’d feel safer if we had some wingpower to go with our spellpower,” she admitted. They all smartly saluted her and replied in unison. “Yes, Lady Sparkle.” Twilight smiled sheepishly and walked back over to Spike, lifting him up with her magic and gently placing him on her back. “Now then, let’s go find someplace to keep our bags. Keep your eyes peeled for a hotel or an inn of some sort.” With their escorts in place, they headed into town. Most ponies recognized her on sight, others just stared at her escort with vague trepidation. The few griffons that were in the town recognized her and called out friendly greetings, ones that she answered with a broad smile and a silent wave. Apparently, she was somewhat well known to the griffons because of her previous negotiations with the Prime Minister. It didn’t take long for them to find a small hotel in the center of town. Twilight got three rooms: one for her and Spike, and the other two to be shared by her guards. They dropped off the bag Twilight packed and returned back out into the town. Some helpful griffons told her that the Prime Minister was across the border, so they made their way to the gate. Twilight was stopped by several griffons in armor who very quickly and politely made sure she wasn’t bringing anything illegal across the border. With no baggage accompanying them, however; it was a brief process that ended up being more of a formality than anything. She couldn’t help but feel some anxiety as she walked away from the checkpoint; was the trafficking of illegal goods so common that they had to enforce it with magic detectors and armed guards? The thought perturbed her. The griffon village was nearly identical in feel to the pony village, despite the shift in architecture. Griffons went about their lives, greeting Twilight with large smiles, and the few ponies who were on this side of the wall were clearly doing trade or business. Someone must have informed the Prime Minister that Twilight was out and about, because he soon came flying over towards her. Two silent Griffon bodyguards accompanied him as he got within shouting distance. “Twilight! How good to see you again!” She looked up as he landed a few steps away from her. “Gerald!” They shared a brief hug. “How have you been?” He looked rather happy, his usual cheer obvious in the way he almost seemed to be bouncing on his talons. “Good, good. Things are just fine politically, which is why I have time to engaging in something as offbeat as this.” “Yes, your letter sounded quite interesting,” Twilight replied. He waved off the conversation. “But let’s save that talk for tomorrow! Come, let me treat you and friends to dinner tonight. We’ll catch up and just enjoy ourselves before we have to worry about... bleh, politics,” Gerald suggested with a comical expression of disgust. Twilight beamed at the thought of just getting to relax with her friend for the evening. “That sounds lovely; thank you.” She followed him as he led her through the town to wherever he had in mind for dinner, which ended up being a modest little restaurant. The evening was spent chatting about everything that had been going on in their lives. Twilight was thrilled when Gerald congratulated her on her relationship with Celestia; she had a hunch he’d be fine with it, but she was still nervous nonetheless. Spike was friendly enough, but remained mostly quiet as he knew Twilight and Gerald were good friends and wanted to catch up. Several hours later—with Celestia’s sun long since dipped under the horizon—Twilight and Spike headed back across the border. As they approached the hotel, something caught Twilight’s eye. A blue pegasi with a rainbow mane and tail was trotting briskly down the road. For a second, she didn’t realize why the mare seized her attention. That is, she didn’t until Twilight did a double take as her brain called out that she had just seen Rainbow Dash. When she scanned the road again, however; it was void of any rainbow-maned pegasus. There was a sky-blue pegasus mare not too far away, but she had a storm-cloud gray mane. Said mare seemed entirely unaware that she stopped the Countess in her tracks as she mosied along on her route, passing Twilight without a glance. Twilight scanned the area for another few seconds, before heading inside and roughly shaking her head. It had to have been her imagination. It had to have been.