//------------------------------// // 8. "Honorable Li Kao." (Not_A_Hat) // Story: Dream A Little Dream Of Me // by horizon //------------------------------// Hotspur “Honorable Li Kao.” I nodded to the Quilin as he painted me into his dream. “Nightmare Hotspur.” He led me across a watercolor bridge with seven turnings, to a shady pagoda sketched above a sparkling pond. A pastel garden surrounded us, perched on a mountain spur overlooking a river valley. He tucked his brush behind his ear and poured tea for two as I sat. “To what do I owe this visit?” “I'm here to report.” I produced a folder from under one leathery wing and placed it on the table. He quirked a scaly eyebrow and smoothed his long moustache, leafing through the folio. “Poetry? Not exactly my forte, Hotspur.” “What, aren't you a magistrate of the Jade Empire?” I smirked, baring one pointed fang. “Calligraphy, dancing, music; I imagined you well-cultured.” “Calligraphy, perhaps.” He twirled his brush, half-listening. “Unfortunately, my job precludes much in the way of leisure… Surely you understand.” “Well, no need to evaluate the artistic merit. It may look different from your dream-drawing, but that's a Songline, a complete topography of Myinnkyun's mental state.” “Hmm.” He dropped the papers. “What has happened, in the space of two weeks, to merit such thoroughness?” “Let me show you.” He sipped his tea. “Very well.” He gave me a level glare, golden eyes glinting. “Sing for me, Hotspur.” So I did. I breathed long notes, twisting my ears for the Song's resonance. I felt him relinquish his dream, the garden dissolving in swirling, chaotic Noise. We hung for a moment in dissolution, surrounded by sparkling decay. “I will sing for you,” I hummed, “the last dreams of pony island.” I threw my mind back to the poems, grasping at wisps of meaning filtered through cobweb and moonbeam by the half-waking art of Nightmare. I twisted clues into strands that thrummed with the Dreamsong, pulling harmony from dissonance, and began a refrain: golden eyes hiding among flaring fans of leather wings and the streaming arc of her mane The tavern crackled to life around us, lamplight wavering with high contralto, tables popping with low notes. The two of us heard Leitmotif's music as a thin reflection, but the ponies danced with abandon, feathers and hooves and tails and manes flying, lost in revelry. “It started with jealousy—fertile ground for a saboteur. Look.” I pointed to the lone outsider, a world-weary mare whose eyes burned with hatred for the Nocturne and Pegasus who anchored the dance. “Peridot.” “They can flaunt it,” I sang on. The dream turned and we stood atop the wall. Peridot galloped desperately across the sand below. “It continues with rage,” I said. “The Mooken anger easily, even asleep, and whispering in the ear of a nodding guard is simple enough. Dawn Patrol.” I waved to the nearby guard, who blinked alert at the commotion. “The roster's public, and Spotlight's a drunk.” Dawn said to us with a shrug, seizing a spear. “Peridot's predictable, stupid, and a hypocrite besides, punishing the Nocturne for having what she can't. Still, this is better leverage than I hoped, to protect them—her.” The lucidity vanished from his eyes as he yelled, flinging the spear at the pursuing minotaur. He tackled Peridot as she crested the wall. “Did you think nopony saw your excursions?” Dawn snarled in her ear. Peridot struggled, but he pinned her to the stone. “If you don't want me going to Sunspot, wait at the docks. I'll have conditions for my silence.” The guardhouse windows brightened, and he nearly flung her down the steps. She ran whimpering. I chanted the next notes. Andi's all caught up in the drama over her murder and I shouldn't have any trouble The dream shifted to the harbor, silent but for the rhythm of the waves. Two silhouettes struggled at a pier's edge. We heard a soft thump. A muffled cry.  A quiet splash. A battered body bubbling as it sank. “And greed,” I continued, “played its part as well. Your dreams of murder sang clear, Majority Vote.” “She always hated me, you know?” The politician glowered. “Even when we were married. Nothing could satisfy that old bag. I thought I'd missed my chance when that fish-kisser and his pet were gone, but perhaps fortune's still smiling, sending such a tempting substitute.” He grinned and shrugged. “A stampede victory isn't so different from a landslide. The ponies only need a little push.” He stalked off into the night. I continued. i know they'll find her any day now There was twist of strangeness, and we stood before an open window. In the pre-dawn light, a slender Nocturne flitted out, landing catlike on the cobbles. “But in the end, it all returns to fear and hate. Surely you understand what pulls this town apart, Littlemoth?” I asked the specter. “Peridot couldn't keep it a secret forever. I panicked at how the ponies and natives might react, but I didn't imagine her dead! Dawn Patrol knew she slept with the Mooken. If anypony understood what happened, it would be him. But it was foolish to run off so carelessly, before hearing the rumors.” The graceful mare glanced back at the window, before turning to the empty harbor. “There's going to be trouble from both in and out, with the Nocturne caught in the middle. And these walls are a box-trap without the boats.” She sighed and hung her head. “This can't end well.” The Songline diminished and faded, and the surrounding scenery crumbled to nothing. “I suppose a ‘good ending’ is a matter of perspective.” Li Kao shrugged, a silhouette in the void. “Honestly, Hotspur?” The Qilin took up his brush, and re-formed his garden in broad strokes. “I hardly expected you to follow through. ” “I didn't have much choice.” I grimaced. “Equestria promises only suspicion and fear for a Nightmare, now. In Qilin I'll be judged on my own merit; I'll be able to start anew—assuming I've passed your test.” “With flying colors.” He nodded. “I will dispatch a boat tomorrow. As agreed, Qilin offers sanctuary to any refugees. And, Nightmare Hotspur, I would like to personally welcome you into the Quilinese Intelligence Corps. You have an auspicious start.” “I got lucky.” I shook the offered hoof. “I'm no amateur, but destroying the Equestrian opium trade is beyond the scope of my usual assignments. That town was ready to burn. I just spurred it on.” “Indeed.” He grinned. “But few could strike such a spark with a mere two bits.”