985 C.E. Canterlot Bazaar.
“Shoes! Get your shoes here! Good, strong build! Custom fit! Beautiful quality! Get your horseshoes here! Perfect for work, special occasions, and anything inbetween! Get your shoes here!” The stallion’s familiar mantra rang out over the crowd of shopping ponies, with only a few sparing the dark brown unicorn a second glance. His daughter, seated next to the stand, let out a sigh. It was always the same thing: a day of shouting himself hoarse, then just one pony would come to inspect her father’s wares. If they were lucky, they’d buy something. If they weren’t, the pony would leave and they’d have to pray the bit bag could take the hit for the night’s meal
The two, the little powder blue earth filly with the dark blue mane and her brown-coated unicorn father, were traveling sales ponies, simply selling horse shoes to whoever would take them. The cart had been their home for as far back as the filly could remember. Their drafty, shabby-looking, creaky, and cramped home. Her father had told her that it had been the only thing left to him by her mother.
“Is she...you know….?” The little filly had asked.
“Dead?” Her father replied harshly with a raised eyebrow. “In a sense. She’s dead to me anyways… She left us, kiddo. Left us with just this cart. She had been a fairly successful stage magician when I met her. Thats where the old beast here came from. It used to be her stage.”
The little filly had been fascinated with magic from that point on. True, she couldn’t really perform as her mother could, what with no horn and all, but she could at the very least enjoy the craft. That was how the filly spent most of her days: reading up on famous magicians from her dogeared copy of The Encyclopedia of the Great and Powerful: Stage Magic through the Ages.
Today, as it turned out, was one of the less lucky days. Not one single pony had come to look at her father’s horse shoes. With the normal reluctance, the smithy began to pack it in.
“Come on, dear, I think Canterlot was a bad idea,” Her father said. The filly hopped off her stool and helped pack everything away. She bounced up next to her father. “Where’re we goin’ now, papa?” she asked as her father fixed the harness to his back. Her father gave her the same cheeky smile he always did.
“Oh, you know, dear, further down the road!” he replied. The two ponies had been all over Equestria, looking for that one place where they could sell daily and make enough profit to settle down. They’d been to Manehatten, Dodge Junction, Fillydelphia, Los Pegasus (her father hadn’t let her out of the cart for that one), and now Canterlot. No place was biting.
Her father looked down at her, smiling gently as they walked out of the bazaar’s entrance, his front hoof ruffling her mane. “Don’t get so down in the dumps, kid. We’ll find our place soon enough. It’s just a matter of t-oof!” Her father’s words were interrupted when he suddenly walked right into another pony going to their right. The cart skidded to a halt, the clink of metal hitting her ears. The two merchants looked up to find the pony they had collided with was a guard… An on-duty guard… An on-duty guard who was part of a pair, both of whom were flanking a regal white unicorn who stood a head taller than him. The guard fixed the two with a neutral look as her father stammered, “P-p-p-princess Celestia!” and quickly bowed. The little filly could do nothing but stare, wide eyed at the alicorn. The Princess chuckled musically. “Well, it seems we’re both foal sitting today,” she remarked, tossing her head behind her and to her left. Standing next to her right back leg was a unicorn, a little older than the blue-coated filly, light purple with a dark blue mane so straight and symmetrical it looked like it was cut with a ruler, streaked with dark purple and pink. She had a bright pink star, surrounded by a number of smaller white stars on her flank. The filly next to her father felt a little self conscious of her own blank flank, but she tried to hide her twinge of nervousness. The stallion next to her grinned nervously and nodded. “Y-yeah, my little girl loves helpin’ her pop, don’t you, dear?” He turned to her, the filly nodding her head so hard she thought her brains were gonna shoot out of her nose.
“Oh, really? What is it you do, my little pony?” asked the princess, sitting down in the middle of the dirt road to have this little conversation. “What is your name?”
“I… Your highness, my name is Sole. Sole Weaver. And this...” Her father said, patting the filly’s head (partly to get her to stop nodding), “Is Dream Weaver. My own little Dream!” He grinned at her, giving her a little ruffle of the mane. “Dad!” Dream whined, but she couldn’t help but grin a bit herself. Her father returned his gaze to the princess.
“I make shoes, your highness. I’m a shoe salespony.” Celestia rubbed her chin, the filly next to her quietly looking back and forth between Sole and the Princess.
“Shoes, hmm? Tell me, what do you make of this?” A golden glow encompassed the princess’ horn, quickly followed by her hoof, as one of the golden horseshoes was pulled from her hoof, and floated over to Sole. Dream had never seen her father more excited than he was as he studied the regalia.
“Excellent craftsmanship, your majesty. Polished to perfection, gold, I take it, and powerfully enchanted with several shield spells. Let’s see…” He examined it silently for a moment before he continued on “Scratch and damage resistant, heat and cold, and with enough shock absorption to walk from here to Manehatten and barely feel any hoof pain.”
“And yet they insist on flying me there,” the princess joked with a playful roll of her eyes. The group chuckled as the shoepony passed her shoe back. “All in all princess, it’s a masterpiece.” The princess beamed at him, before she asked the question that made the group grow still.
“Think you could make something similar?” The group fell silent. Dreamy heard a soft ‘ting’ from across the street. “Opps, dropped my pin.” A pink filly said, swiftly picking it up and following her family and their cart full of rocks around the corner.
“I...your majesty! I would need tools, and gold! And…”
“You will be provided with everything you need,” Celestia interrupted. “From materials and tools to measurements, styles, and of course payment. But will you try?”
“I…” Her father looked down at her before he turned back to the princess, positively beaming. “Yes, your majesty, of course I’ll try.”
“Excellent! Well, come along then, my little ponies, and we’ll get you two set up in your rooms.” The princess, her guards, and her little unicorn began to trot away.
“Rooms?” both Dreamy and Sole asked together. The Princess paused to look at them, her one visible eye twinkling mischievously. “You don’t really think I’d let the royal shoe smithy sleep anywhere but in the castle, do you?”
The pair looked at each other, before they quickly trotted to catch up with the rest of their group. Dreamy began to suspect that Canterlot was awesome!
Later that night
Sole smiled down at his daughter, firmly nestled into a bed. “Big day tomorrow, kiddo,” Sole said, gently rubbing his daughter’s mane. “New job, home schooling, and that big shopping trip to plan for at the end of the week.” Dreamy giggled. Her father had been commissioned by the princess herself to outfit her royal guard with top of the line combat grieves! First the officers, naturally; Captain Glimmer Shield herself had been first in line for hoof measurements. Eventually, measurements would be taken from every member of the guard, but that would take months, if not longer, with even more made every time a recruit made the guard. Sole had a steady job for the first time in Dream’s life.
“Are you excited?” asked Sole, quietly brushing her mane. Dream shrugged and responded with a little, “Uh huh.”
“More than a bit nervous too, I bet,” her father replied slyly. She blushed and nodded.
“Well, Dreamy, you know what? So am I. But there’s one thing we don’t have to worry about anymore. And you know what that is?” Dream shook her head and her father gave her a grin. “We don’t have to worry about who’s feeding this tummy any more!” Her father began to tickle her, Dream doing her best to fight him off from beneath the blankets. They eventually settled down, still smiling, and still laughing occasionally. Her father kissed her head. “Sweet dreams, my Sweet Dreamy. If you need me I’m just in the next room.” Her father quietly stepped out of the room, dimming the lights behind him. Dream yawned, rolled over, and was asleep in an instant.
Once again, Dream arrived in the flat black space inside her head, a crystal star hovering in the air like a weird-looking disco ball signalling, once again, that she was dreaming. She smiled to herself and willed the world to shape around her. She felt like having a picnic tonight. The dream world quickly took shape, turning from black and featureless- save for the star- to a green meadow, full of flowers, trees in the distance, and with a small checkered red and white blanket spread out over the hill. Dreamy sighed contentedly, and pulled a massive cake out of the picnic basket.
Suddenly, without Dreamy doing anything at all, a candle popped into life on the cake. With a series of similar small pops, every flower had a lit candle situated between its petals. Dreamy’s eyes widened; it had been a very, very long time since she last lost control of her dreams. She tried to will the fires out, but they only grew brighter, the flower fires quickly setting their plants alight, and the one on her cake sprouting one fiery eye that looked at her maliciously.
“I see you~!” It said gleefully, as the fire all around her spread to the grass and the distant forest. Dream let out a yelp and quickly sprouted a pair of wings. Taking off not a moment too soon, as the fire left the field barren and formed itself into a fiery wolf. Its hungry jaws snapped at Dream as she ducked and spun through the air. Dreamy was off like a bolt, zooming as fast as she could through the hot air, with the wolf practically right on her hooves. “Aww where are you going?” It cackled. “I just wanna play!”
Dream rolled sharply to one side, the jaws missing her by millimeters. She pointed a hoof down at the ground, right as the wolf stepped down, and a geyser sprung to life, spewing boiling hot water into the wolf’s face. It gasped and stepped away, most of it’s face gone for a split second before the flames rekindled themselves. It tossed it’s head, growling at the filly.
“You’ll pay for that!” It leapt at her, Dreamy yelping and turning herself into a rock, dropping straight through the wolf’s throat painlessly and heading towards the ground. Inches from the charred floor, she turned herself back into a pegasus, skimming the dirt and shooting back off, the wolf beginning the chase again. She began to head straight upwards into the cloud layer, and the wolf suddenly turned into a fiery bird to follow behind her. She kicked at the cloud she was hiding in, and a downpour began with a few jagged lines of lightning shooting downward. The bird shrieked and dove to one side as Dream panted. What on earth was going on!? She had never been this helpless before! This was her dream! She continued to pant beneath the cloud layer, when she suddenly noticed the cloud turning to steam around her. She looked up just in time to see the firebird diving for her, talons spread. She screamed and dove out of her cloud, the bird of prey changing direction to soar after her.
“Aww, don’t you wanna play~! Come on this is supposed to be fun! Come ‘ere little filly!”
Suddenly, the filly changed shape, dropping through the sky like a lead balloon. The eagle dove and caught the newly changed filly in one talon, grinning down at her. “Aww, quit so soon? I thought we were havin’ fun with tag!”
The filly squirmed her head up out of the bird’s talon, grinning toward her captor. She had turned herself into a stonefish; her gray, rocky flesh easily keeping the talons of the bird at bay.
“Nope, just thought you might wanna play Mareco Pollo!” The fish grinned. The bird’s eyes widened, it’s head darting upward to find an ocean of water- complete with coral reefs, fish, and sand- rushing straight for the two of them. The bird could only say one thing before the water engulfed them.
“Uh-oh!”
With a crash and a hiss, the bird was gone. Dreamy let out a relieved breath, swimming away from the hot spot it had left… Swimming right into another fish. A dark blue lion fish with bright green eyes. “Well done!” It said, grabbing her fin and shaking it.
“You really did amazing out there! Now, you won’t be waking up for another couple of hours, but I want ya to remember this! I want you to go to the south wing. On the ground floor there's a statue in this alcove, can’t miss it; it’s of a diamond dog, a minotaur, a griffin and a unicorn playing poker. What’cha gotta do is make the Diamond Dog fold, pull the Griffin’s cards closer, make the minotaur check, and make the pony go all in! Good luck!” Before she could say anything, the fish disappeared with a pop and a bubble. Since she was in the safety of her own mind and had no risk of being reprimanded by her father, she felt no need to censor what she said next.
“What… the… fuck.”
The next morning
The filly couldn’t help it; her curiosity had gotten the better of her. Within a few hours of waking and being left to her own devices by her tutor, Dream found her way to the southern wing. Paintings, statues, and busts lined each wall between highly polished oak doors. As she walked past one, it suddenly popped open. A teenage colt poked his head out, glaring at her.
“Would yoush keep it down, you pesasshent!” The unicorn colt had a white coat and yellow mane, and his slurring was caused by a simply colossal set of braces. The nerve of this boy, to call her a peasant! Dreamy was normally a nice filly, but bullying was one thing she couldn’t stand. If this colt was going to push, she was gonna push back!
“Oh, I’m sshhhhooooo, shooooo shorrry!” She said, her voice thick with sarcasm… and saliva. “I didn’t knowsh my hoofshtepsh were shoo loud!” The colt gasped as her spittle peppered his face.
“Working clash shpit!” he screamed, before promptly fainting on the spot. Nudging him back into his room with her hoof, Dream Weaver grabbed a do not disturb sign, hung it on the colt’s head gear and trotted off.
Exploring the maze of hallways was, in and of itself, quite an interesting undertaking, but it was the statues in one alcove that got her heart racing. Just as the fish had said, seated around the poker table were four figures. On the far left sat a minotaur with a truly massive chin and mullet that looked right out of a cheesy action movie. His face wore a flat, vaguely annoyed expression. Next to him, a one eyed griffin with a rather boxy appearance, and had one feather on the back of his skull sticking straight up. He looked rather cocky, and had one elbow nudging at the unamused minotaur. Next to him on the other side was the pony- a unicorn- covered in scratches dirt, and what looked like stoney droplets. Around his barrel was a harness that kept a large cannon strapped to him, with the pull string for it next to his jaw, and his right hoof had been replaced by a thick metal prosthetic from hoof tip all the way up to his hock. He wore an easy, laid back expression, smirking arrogantly at her. Finally, on the far right from her point of view was the diamond dog, who seemed vaguely confused by the cards in front of him. The statue was dressed in a suit and tie with a diamond print design, and wore a fedora. Glancing briefly at the scene’s chandelier… that looked vaguely like a potato... Dream stepped forward towards the poker table.
She started with the minotaur, carefully grabbing his arm and placing his hand on the table to signal the check. She moved passed his chair to the griffin. She grabbed the cards and his hand, and drew them closer to his face. Next, she grabbed the pony’s hoof and pulled… it wouldn’t budge. Puzzled, she simply grabbed the chips instead, and found they slid forward. She pushed it all the way into the center of the table, and was rewarded with the soft click of the mechanism inside. Finally, she grabbed the diamond dog’s paw and pulled the whole thing forward, as if he was tossing his cards in. A light near one side of the spud lit up. It began blinking, pointing towards one end of the poker table. It pointed to the opposite way from where she had started: directly between boxy griffin and the unicorn. As she watched, the light flashed, revealing a spiral staircase in the wall. She began her descent, the players sliding back to their original positions.
Down and down she went, further and further into the bowels of the castle- far past the dungeons, she assumed- right down into caverns underneath the castle’s foundations. She didn’t know how long she had been walking, but when she found her way out of the stairwell, she found herself in a large, open room, with dozens of ponies of all races. At one end of the massive cavern sat a lecture hall, complete with podium, chalk board, and seats. In another adjacent room was a gym of sorts, with weights, exercise equipment, and even a wrestling arena. Down another adjacent corridor was a room full of beds, covered by enchanted domes. Dreamy stared in wide-eyed wonderment at the place as a dark blue pegasus with a light blue mane and a military-style overcoat approached her.
“Ah, you must be the little rock fish,” he said with a smirk, giving her a nudge with his nose. Too stunned to say anything, Dreamy simply looked up at him as he waved out at the cavern.
“Welcome, to The Dreamwalker's guild. Congratulations, kid: you just got drafted!”
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From that moment on, Dream Weaver was trained in the art of Dream Walking, among other things, by the guild. Dream walking, as Dreamy found out, was not just an ability one could use as they pleased. There were plenty of things one needed to learn when going into another’s dreams; things like fighting, psychology, stealth, basic mathematics, table etiquette, and ways to geld a pony with just your hooves. The history of the guild was what she was most interested in, and her mentor, Star Hunter, was pleased to tell her. The Dreamwalker guild was created by the princess, as a shadow organization to help ponies deal with nightmares.
“Nightmares, especially recurring ones, can have a significant effect on the waking world. The magical energy given off by a pony suffering from a nightmare can cause quite a bit of problems; disrupting weather production, agitating and feeding emotion-consuming creatures, and a whole bunch of different stuff! And that’s before the sleep-deprived pony wakes up and starts stumbling their way through the day!”
The princess, however, had very little to do with the place herself. She acted more as their recruiting agent. Thats why she offered her father a job, Dreamy found out.
“Lucid Dreamers have a certain… look to them,” Star Hunter had explained. “I couldn’t tell you what it is if you had sword to my throat, but the princess is pretty good at spotting us. She does what she can to get us to stay around the guild hold, here in Canterlot.” Dreamy couldn’t help but feel a bit put out, knowing she was the reason her father had gotten such a good job, but Star was quick to derail her train of thought.
“Before you get your fetlocks in a twist, you’re the reason your father got a chance. His skill was the reason he kept the job. If he wasn’t good at his job, the princess would have done something else to keep you here. Probably make up some story about you having an incredibly horrifying nasal fungus that was crawling into your brain and turning you into a zombie or something. She’d tell him we’d have to quarantine you for an unspecified amount of time.” With that… rather specific and slightly disturbing thought in mind, Dreamy had let the subject pass.
The proudest day of her life was the day Dream Weaver finally made it out of basic and into one of the immersion pods. The pods were magically sound proofed, and all but light proofed. Nothing to distract the Dreamwalker from their duty. With Star Hunter as her guide, Dreamy was sent into a little filly’s dream. It was a rather small nightmare: the filly was worrying about getting her cutie mark. With Star happily watching from the side lines, Dreamy had entered the dream, under the guise of a cat. With her help, the filly had gotten over her anxiety, and Dreamy had gotten herself a tummy rub for her troubles. She was so proud of herself for helping the filly that she didn’t even notice the mark on her flank until after she had woken up.
Years went by, and Dream’s skills continued to grow. She worked her way up from lowly recruit to armed and dangerous dream warrior, and, eventually, she made it to the highest rank a Dreamwalker could receive. She was made a part of the Nightmare Corps. The Corps were the elite, hoof selected by the princess herself to take care of one specific pony. One pony whose dreams dominated the dream realm’s skyline. Her own sister: Princess Luna.
1000 C.E. 4:35 AM
Dream Weaver walked down the familiar hallway, followed by a very drunk Prince Blueblood. Ever since she had had her fun with him all those years ago, Blueblood seemed to have made it his life’s duty to make her life… well, not exactly horrible but more… annoying.
“Y-you know, you should be walking me to mah door,” said the prince, weaving as he continued to follow her.
“No, Blueblood. It’s right over there. You can find it yourself.”
“Did… did… did yoush just tell me to… to do somethin’ myself? I… I’ll have you know, I am a prince! And a prince… a prince…” He lost his train of thought.
“A prince doesn’t have to do things himself?” Dream supplied helpfully.
“Exactly!” Blueblood hiccupped, downing the rest of his martini and tossing the glass aside. Dream sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. The silence, however, was short lived, as she suddenly found Blueblood on top of her back, nuzzling into her shoulder blade.
“Ya… ya know… how would you like the… the honor of… hic!” He hiccuped once before continuing “How would you like to see… see my bed chambersh?” he asked, his hot breath on the back of her neck. Dream’s skin crawled. She promptly sat down, forcing him to slide off of her back.
“Blue, lemme make this so clear even you could understand. I would much rather hurl myself into a furnace than stoop to such a level. I would rather step inside a Cloudsdale lightning generator wearing a tinfoil hat than ever sleep with you! Do I make myself clear?”
Blueblood blinked at her slowly before replying. “Ish that a no?”
Dream groaned and rubbed her face. She slowly adopted a seductive grin, and motioned towards him. “Here… lemme show you.” The drunk prince immediately followed where she was leading him, and once again, he attempted to mount her. She threw open the window she was standing in front of, and with a swift roll and a buck, sent him hurtling out into the garden beyond, landing face deep in a hedge. She quietly closed the window, brushed off her hooves,continued back towards the poker game, and down into the guild hall.
The Nightmare corps was waiting for her, getting settled into their immersion pods. “Sorry I’m late,” Dream apologized, grabbing the edge of her own and tossing herself in.
“Blueblood?” one of her fellows, Artemis, asked.
“Blueblood,” she replied grimly
“Drunk as a skunk?” Artemis asked.
“Drunk as a rat who drowned in a cider glass.”
The Nightmares’ resident zebra, Kulala, piped up. “That unicorn is such a pain in the rear! He treats me like slime whenever he’s near!”
“Forget about him,” Dream replied with a roll of her eyes. “Lets get to the matter at hoof.” They nodded their agreement, and pulled down the lids of the pods. They were sent to the dreamscape in an instant, and made their way to the sun of this world of stars, arriving in the familiar battle ground. The night princess’ dream was a sparsely populated wasteland. Droves of pitch black monstrosities littered the place, and a great throne laid in the center, surrounded by the waiting army of shadow minions. In the throne lay a sleeping filly: an alicorn of about 5 years of age, with a light blue coat, and a dark blue mane around her. Also sleeping in the throne was a much larger, black alicorn, with a swirling purple mane, her forelegs wrapped around the smaller one protectively. Dream swung a hoof through the air, conjuring a spear and twirling it. “For the Princess!” she screamed, her words echoed by the others as they charged.
For centuries, her predecessors had fought this fight. Each one getting closer and closer to the end goal, and the rescue of the little filly. For years, they had fought tooth and hoof to get to this… but their goal would never be reached.
As they neared the throne- within spitting distance of it- two pairs of eyes snapped open. The little blue alicorn, with her turquoise eyes, stared out with a look of silent resignation. Her larger, black counterpart, grinned maliciously, showing her fangs, and those cat-like pupils of hers. “Time to play~!” she cackled.
The next thing Dream knew, she had sat up in her immersion pod, her head slamming into the soundproof glass. She flung it open, looking around at the others, who all looked back at their comrades, flabbergasted. “What… the hell… just happened?”
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One sunrise, through an extravagant party thrown by a pony several miles away, and the lowering of the state of emergency level later, the group got their answer. Two sets of hoofsteps made their way down the winding stairs to their base. The guild was armed to the teeth and ready to jump the intruder… only to find their ruler’s smiling face peeking around the entryway. “Princess!” the collective shout went out, with the group quickly dropping their weapons, several stammering apologies.
Princess Celestia chuckled goodnaturedly. “It’s quite alright. You were on edge. I understand.” She cleared her throat, before quickly dropping the motherly tone, putting on the ‘Princess Royal Decree’ voice.
“Mares and Gentlestallions of the Dreamwalkers Guild, it is with great pride and joy that I welcome back the founder of your organization, Princess Luna!” She stepped away from the stairwell to reveal a slightly smaller alicorn, with a light blue coat, and dark blue mane. She grinned sheepishly and waved to the group. Dream Weaver and her Nightmares were the first to kneel.
3 H.E.
With a sigh and a slightly shaking hoof, Dream Weaver knocked on the huge door with the crescent moon on it.
“Enter!” Came the voice from the other side, and Dream hastened to obey, entering the Princess’ study. She had grown quite a bit since the first time Dream had seen her in the waking world, now standing taller than Dream, and with a much darker coat and a sparkling ethereal mane. The princess sat at a table at one end of the room, a hard wooden chair set on the other side, opposite the princess
“Taketh thy seat.” The princess ordered, and once again Dream obeyed, climbing into her seat and glancing around her. The room was sparsely decorated; the only thing on the wall being a large clock which ticked quite loud in the silence. On the desk sat a large wooden abacus, a feather quill, a picture of the princess and her sister sharing some ice cream, and a set of manilla folders.
“Miss Weaver, thou hath been with the Walkers for almost two decades hath thou?” Luna asked in a neutral tone, tapping her front hooves together in front of the desk.
Dream nodded, trying to fight down the worry boiling up in her stomach. “Yes, your highness. It’ll be 19 years next month.”
“Mmmhmm, we see.” The princess responded with a nod. “And thou hath been a Nightmare Warden for…?”
“4 years, ma’am,” Dream answered.
“Dost thou consider thyself the most experienced member of thy companions?” Dream hesitated. She so wanted to say yes, to brag, to boast, to do… oh, all sorts of things, if only to keep the job she loved. But she held back.
“No ma’am… I wouldn’t say that. I mean… we all have our strengths and weaknesses. Artemis has a real knack for long range combat that I could just never wrap my head around. Kulala can calm just about anypony down without much fuss, and I never met a pony quite as sneaky as Stoom. I wouldn’t say I’m the best at all… if anything, I’m probably the least valuable.”
Luna smirked. “Really, now? We only ask because thy cohorts seem to have a different opinion of thy abilities. They wholeheartedly put thou ahead of themselves when we asked.”
Dream blushed, but remained silent. “Tell us true, Dream Weaver: what dost thou know about Ponyville?”
Dream blinked. “Umm… it’s that little town about half a day’s train ride from here, within spitting distance of the Everfree Forest.”
Luna nodded “And ‘tis home to the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The group attracts danger like no other in Equestria. We find ourselves staring at a newspaper with the words, “Ponyville,” and, “Catastrophe,” almost every week. ‘Tis only a matter of time before something happens. Something serious.” The princess of the night leaned back in her chair.
“So… unto Ponyville… we will send thee.”
Dream nearly fell out of her chair “M-me? Why me?”
“Why not thou? We needest someone trained in the art of combat, one whom can blend into a crowd, and one who can protect them from any sorts of danger. Thou art honor-bound to serve as our ponies’ protector, art thou not?” Dream tried to weasel her way out of Luna’s logic, but found no way to do so. So, the princess continued on.
“The newly-appointed Princess Twilight hast refused our offer to train a set of personal guards on her behalf. We respect her decision, but hath found it prudent to provide protection nonetheless. As the saying goes: ‘What she doesn’t know, won’t harm her’. Thy mission is to infiltrate her group of friends by any means necessary, integrate thyself with thy targets, remain vigilant, and protect them at all costs. A story of deception will be provided for thee, and thou wilt find their personality profiles here.” She pushed the stack of folders towards her.
“Make haste, young weaver. Thy train leaves upon the moon rise.” Picking up her folders, Dream Weaver quickly bowed to her princess and ducked out. Whatever Ponyville had to offer, it had better be good.