There's absolutely nothing intervening something that could be a dream or reality. You can be sleeping the most realistic dream, and even believe that its real. But then there's that time when you wake up, and you still think you're in the dream. Or, at least, you try to return to it by lying where you slept and trying to sleep.
Or you can traverse the most unrealistic dream ever, walking on air perhaps, and then you awake. You don't like the idea of returning to reality at all, and you once again try to traverse the thin portal called sleep and enter the dream world.
Again, there's nothing truly blocking either of these realms. You can dream when you feel like it. Imagination is just the beginning of a dream, and imagination is what you use to create a dream to reality.
Imagination points out what you want to be real. An adventure, a point of view, an experience. Even a story, all meant to be imagination, is what if not more people, what one person wishes to be true, in some perspective.
And in my case, the writer of this fiction, I do believe that I wish this story to be a little true in some way. To be in a world filled with magic and wonder that is a fantasy. A world where you have a different outlook on life or the perspective you're given. To me, that's what this story is.
But in the end, like most things, I must recognize that that is a dream that I cannot make real for myself. That I will just be a writer who wrote this story to wish I was a pony in the land of Equestria. But since I recognize that it will always be a fantasy, I will instead recognize that if I did not wish for a fantasy like that, then I would not have created this story. I would not have given a solid example of what it might be like.
After all. Dreams, no matter how realistic or unrealistic they may be, they are the foundation of everything. And whether you want to make it happen or not is up to those who have those dreams. Cause in the end, its only a matter of time before something could indeed make it true.
The Bedchamber - February 24th 985
I awoke in a cold sweat. I didn't normally dream, much less what I saw there. Nightmares to me were less common than dreams, but somehow, I had one.
I looked around and rubbed my head, getting the sweat off where it wasn't needed. Looking at the room made me feel safer, and I liked that. It calmed me down.
But what was that about? That didn't seem like much of a dream at all. It seemed too real... but I had woken up like it was just a dream. It was all just so... confusing.
My thoughts were interrupted when a few knocks came on the door.
Before I could answer, the door opened and Sunset Shimmer walked in. "Hey Blue! How are you feeling?"
"Uh... I'm.. I'm fine. Just woke up from a weird dream. Um... why are you barging into my room..?" I knew it wasn't my room, but I might as well call it that for now.
"What, I'm not allowed to check up on the only other pony smaller than an adult who lives in this castle?" she inquired.
"I have two responses for that," I counter. "First off, you forgot out changeling friend. And second, why knock if you don't wait for an answer?"
"Well, what if you weren't in the room? There's no one to answer and I don't want to wait out all day. Second... after that weird incident that happened with you, Celestia and... him... I've mostly been ignoring him."
"Oh..."
"Don't... worry about it. Its just some personal thing..."
"Right.."
"So, anyway, bad dream?"
"Yeah... Some... really crazy dream. Oddly enough, it felt like a dream, but I didn't feel in control when I knew that."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. I once heard that once you are aware that it is a dream, you can control what it is and how it works. But... I wasn't in control. And two voices I'd never heard before came up... One that was controlling me, and another that... seemed to want to control the other."
She blinked. "That is... really freaky... I mean, I haven't heard of being able to control dreams at all, but someone controlling you, and then afterwards, someone trying to control them? That is very creepy."
I shrugged. "Yeah, it is..."
"Do you... need assurance that everything's alright?" She said with a smile.
I chuckled. "No.. that not required."
"Good, cause I probably wouldn't be that much help anyway. I'm not some crazy colt who doesn't speak our language."
"No, but you were the one to cast a spell to translate it instantly as I speak it."
She tilted her head a bit. "True, true," she giggled. "That is why I am the Princess' Protégé."
"Can't pin that against you."
"No, you can't." She smiled.
I shrugged and stood up, getting out of the bed. "Well, thanks for checking up on me. I'm doing fine."
"No problem, Blue."
"So... is there any other reason you're down here?"
"Oh, right! Thanks for reminding me. Actually, Celestia wanted you to come down to the training room."
"Training room...?"
"Mhm. She wanted to see how well you were doing with your magic and studies."
I was a little shocked, honestly. "The princess want to see how _I'm_ doing?"
"Yeah," unset replied. "Why else would she put you in school herself if she didn't want to check up every once in a while?"
I bit my lip. "I guess that makes sense... but what would she want to know?"
"Just how you've been doing with it all. If anything, it doesn't seem that different than what I do every week or so."
"I-I see... Well, where is this training room?"
"Come on, I'll show you. Its outside the castle, where the royal guards train."
"Oh, I see. Doesn't seem fitting to have a room like that in the castle."
She giggled. "Yeah, it wouldn't. Well, anyway, lets get moving. It'd be rude to keep the princess waiting."
The Training Room February 24th 985
Sunset and I walked into the room, seeing it full of guards, all swinging at each other with practice weapons, honing their skills. We gazed around, searching for the princess, but saw no sign of her.
"She's not here..." I noted to Sunset.
"That's odd... she said that she would be here to test your progress."
I shrugged. "Do you think that we should wait for her here?"
She nodded. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." We walked over to the stands, where some other guards and some ponies from Canterlot were watching. We didn't talk much until she broke the silence. "So, do you enjoy it here?"
I turned to her. "Huh? What do you mean?"
"The castle!" she said, as if it was obvious. "Its been a while since you've appeared and lived in there with us, the Princess and I. And all your weird nonsense that's been happening a lot around you, Prince Blueblood, the changeling.. I mean, nothing like that was happening until you showed up. And of course, you came here speaking a language completely unknown to everyone, even the Princess! That's something extraordinary."
I blinked at her. "And you're wondering if I enjoy it here?"
She nodded. "Well, I just assume that its a lot to take in. You just sorta... appeared. Called yourself a weird name, even for a pony. And with all this happening to you, I'm just curious if you're overwhelmed... if this is the right place for you."
I looked down at, but didn't really pay attention to, the guards practicing their combat on the center floor. She was right on the dot. I just popped into existence here, it seemed. Right in the middle of Canterlot. Invaded the castle, got accepted, and then had all this weird stuff happen to me.
"I suppose it has been really weird..." I replied. "But if I were to think about it, nothing in my life has truly been this exciting to where I ever thought I'd get it like this."
"R-Really?"
"Yeah. I suppose that, for a while, I guess I wanted to know what it would be like to be in Equestria, and now I am here. Meeting with Prince Blueblood is just a thing in life that happens, so I'm not especially worried about that. I've always found changelings pretty interesting when I heard about them. Their one main spell they all know is to become a disguise."
"Why do you find that interesting, them being able to become anypony? They do that so they steal the love that another pony has for someone, just to feed themselves!"
"Well, if you were really hungry and was being refused to have some by probably the only group who can give it to you, wouldn't you try to sneak and steal food? I mean, you need to eat to live. Its just how they need to live and as it stands, no one here accepts them so they can have love normally."
She paused for a bit, as if pondering that over. "I-I guess that's true..."
I just nodded. "But as for why I find it interesting... Well, I suppose that its just a way to become someone else. To not be yourself. Not be the same pony each and every single day. To be able to become someone else it just amazing."
"Why would you want to become somepony else?"
"Well, I get tired of being myself. Following one guideline or another. I like to imagine myself being away from my own body and somewhere else. Its another way of being free to not always be yourself and follow one or the same guideline."
She seemed to ponder it a bit, but I just kept going. "But I suppose that there might be one other reason. Have you ever read stories about super heroes, who go around with super powers and fight crime for the good?"
That seemed to snap her out of the pondering. "Yeah, why do you ask?"
"Well lets say that you can have any super power you want. Anything you can think of, from tireless flight, unlimited magic, enchanted items, or even a few of those things together. If you could have any super power you wanted, what would it be?"
She just blinked at me. "Why would you ask such a childish question?"
"Its rhetorical," I responded. "You don't need to answer, its just a thought."
"But why do you ask?"
I looked over to her. "Well, long time ago, I realized that I could never just settle for just one, endless flight or even enchanted items. Because that would mean I could not have another. I would be stuck following those same powers until I either stopped using them in general, or died. It wouldn't be fun to be stuck with the same stuff over and over."
"You mean like being yourself all the time?"
"Exactly. Its not exciting to me to be able to do one thing but not have the ability to do another, if I were to say be a unicorn with magic powers, but not be able to fly like a pegasus or have farming skills and strength of an earth pony. As much magic I can learn, I could never do what they do, so its like following the same destiny over and over until it comes to an end."
She looked like the pondered it for a second then. "So... you'd want your special power to change?"
"To be more accurate, Sunset Shimmer, to copy. To see something happen and be able to do it myself. If one pony were to be able to do it, why not all ponies in some way? What's to say that a pegasus might eventually learn to do magic, or an Earth Pony find another way to fly, and a unicorn to farm? Some things that come naturally to one should be easy able to be learned, albeit with some difficulty to others, but what say that not being able to do it at all would just be... well, depressing."
"To copy something that another can do... huh?"
"Yeah. If you wanted to one day be able to fly without using magic or wings, that would be your superpower, or whatever you might be thinking that your superpower would be. And as mine, if I were to see you doing that, I would be able to mimic it and do it myself, whether with difficulty or not. And not just yours, really. Anyone's superpower. To be something other than myself. To do what makes others special. It sounds selfish, but really, there is no greater superpower than being able to do them all if they were played in front of you."
"I suppose that makes sense... and yes, it does seem selfish," she giggled.
I chuckled back. "Yeah, me and my selfish thoughts. Of course, superpowers are impossible. All there is appears as magic in one form or another. A changeling doesn't really copy either... just changes. But even so, its a start."
"I suppose it is."