//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: In the Dead of Night // Story: Awoke IN // by Qwix //------------------------------// "Penni? What are you doing?" His eyes snapped open. Reality seemed to slur like watercolors as dreams faded into the past, stitching the fabric of both together. Huh? What...? he thought blearily. He was standing on an ornate carpet, a fireplace lit before him. It cast a warm glow, but at the same time, he could not help but recall the flames from the dream and shudder. The stone gargoyles or the carved replica of a pair of human hands between them certainly didn't help. "Penni? You were sleep-walking. Or sleep-dancing or something. Put the quill down, have a bit of hot cocoa..." He swiveled on the spot, noting the quill he had brandished like a sword within his magic. Behind him, a mint-green unicorn mare he knew as Lyra was there; she had a hoof on his back, wearing a purple robe and holding two steaming cups in her magic. "Lyra... sorry. I was doing what?" he asked. She set down his cup on a desk strewn with paper and books. "I woke up because you were making a ruckus in here. Knocking ink bottles over and dancing around the living room like you were fighting something, you know. What's up?" Pennaprose paused and brushed his messy black-and-blue mane out from his lopsided glasses. "Um... call it a nightmare, I guess. There were these blades..." He perked up, looking back at the fireplace. Above it, crossed and hung, was two blades—Djiingoh and Changeré. "Those two were in it," he said, gesturing a hoof. She sighed behind his back. "Those two? Back from when Chrysalis was trying to take over Equestria? That was, like, a month ago, now you're getting flashbacks?" Pennaprose coughed nervously. He recalled the fights he had to endure with Changeré, a weapon gifted by one of Chrysalis's aides. The aerial battle with Gosthette and the subsequent stint in the hospital while he healed and regrew his fur ended only ten days ago. After that... "Sorry, Lyra. I know I shouldn't be wrecking your house while I'm—" "—here for as long as I say? You're going to be waiting long past either of our deaths, Penni." She jumped into one of the plush chairs, sipping her cocoa calmly. "Sit. Tell me about this dream of yours. After all, dreams are an incredible source of inspiration... maybe you can get something out of it from the speech you were supposed to be working on for the mayor tomorrow?" He took a glance around the room, orienting himself; lining the room was innumerable shelves of books that stretched to a gothic height ceiling, interrupted by the occasional glowing crystal that was mounted between them. He trotted over and sat in another chair unlike the one Lyra was in, picking up a quill and ink. "Well... there were these three mountains. They seemed enormous—big enough to swallow the sky!" he began. She was giving him an odd look over her mug. It was some combination of bemusement and wonder, her eyes unfocused as if in deep thought. He continued. "I was surrounded by flames. Sound kept flickering in and out. Um... there were actually three blades, besides Changeré and Djiingoh." "Really now?" she said. "Yeah... the third one was curved. Actually... its better to describe it like a dragon claw. Huge, no edges... yet just looking at it hurt my eyes! It was powerful..." "A dragon claw, you say? What happened with these three blades?" He fell silent, trying to recall the dream. The more he tried, the more they slipped away, like grains of sand. "...They impaled themselves into the ground before me. An earthquake happened, crumbling the mountains into dust. The flames disappeared, sucked in by Djiingoh... and a snowstorm came from nowhere. There was grass, or something... I—" "Can't remember all of it?" "Yeah..." She leaned over and shoved a hoof into his face, making his glasses fall off. "Um, Ly? What are you doing?" She ignored him, continuing to let her hoof run over his face. Eventually, she stopped, but in her magic she had stolen his glasses to examine them. "...Yeah, I have no clue," she said, twirling his glasses around absentmindedly. "You've been chipping away at this speech for the last two days, right? Maybe you just need some actual rest in an actual bed instead of using poetry books as pillows and getting nightmares about swords slicing you to death. I did offer to share my bed, you know—" "I-I'm fine with the couch, thank you." She still unnerved him with a knowing smirk as she said her offer. He stowed his quill on the table and took a slow sip of his cocoa. "You're running a slight fever, by the way. It's all the hard work that's getting to you." He smiled, thinking of the speech. The mayor had visited him in the last few days of his hospital stay and offered him a position as her personal speech coordinator, due to his impromptu performance before he tried to leave Ponyville the first time. "I can't help it. The pay is good, to be sure. I get to write for a living, and if it helps you with your monthly budget—" "Oh, I've managed on commissions for years, anything you make is extra. ...But thanks for doing that. I've felt less stressed since you've moved in," she said, lowering her mug with a wan smile. "Barely making enough to eat every day. Living literally underground. At least I have all these poetry books to pass the time when I don't have work to do." He smiled in return, picking his quill back up. "That's why I don't feel the extra work. If it helps you relax, then it helps me relax." She looked over, face as peaceful as can be. "...Well, where else could you have gone, in retrospect? Tirek's rampage destroyed Twilight's old home while you were laid up, so there was no going back there. I got accidentally locked in my diary chamber because of the tremors. Although she has a fabulous new castle now..." "Castle or no, this place is a palace to me," said Pennaprose, finishing off his cocoa. "It has you and all the books that matter. Like your diary, for instance." Even in the fire light, he could tell she was blushing. "Hn... I guess so. You've only ever slept in the company of books, now that I think about it." His eyes unfocused as he recalled the Golden Oaks Library and the old cot he used to sleep in while Twilight had extended her hospitality. "Yeah... that's a lot of books I never got to read. I'm sure Twilight was crushed when it happened..." "We should pay her a visit!" exclaimed Lyra. "You've been a mole in this place for too long, I swear any longer and you'll make even the dust bunnies your pets." "Maybe tomorrow, after the speech. She'll be there anyway, it's a major event." "You know, I've been meaning to ask," said Lyra. "What is that speech about?" He gave her a sly smirk, jotting something down on a piece of parchment. "Oh ho, you'll see tomorrow. I'm not allowed to show it to anypony save the Mayor. I just need a good conclusion..." He paused as a detail of his dream tumbled from thin air. "Ah... maybe? Yes..." The room fell silent, save for the scratching of a quill and the crackle of the fireplace. He scribbled for what seemed several minutes before the clink of a mug on wood made him look up. "Well, it looks like you found your conclusion. I'm heading back to bed. You'd be smart and do the same if you want to look presentable tomorrow. Er, today rather. Night." She trotted away, a tired air following her. Just watching her made him sleepy. She's right, I need actual rest. The mayor said I'll be presenting the end of the speech, so I'll need to be at full function before the event, he thought. Hopefully I won't have anymore nightmares... He set both quill and parchment down once more, trotting off towards a couch that had a patchwork quilt strewn about it. He jumped on and magiked the thin blanket onto his back, extinguishing the fireplace with a twitch of magically directed water from a can next to the fire. As the embers fizzled, he smiled and quietly thanked his luck as the events of his life since he came to Equestria melded his thoughts into the silk spinnings of the dream world. His eyelids closed, and he knew no more. Somewhere aboveground, underneath a new moon... "It is still elusive." She put up her lens, letting it retract back into place. "This is the third case, Mers. First Cadance, then that dream analyst from Las Pegasus. Now Pennaprose. What am I missing here...?" An earpiece buzzed, letting a staccato of chatter ring through. "Agent Drops, we have received the data you have sent us and are analyzing it in depth now. Did you manage to capture a visual of the event?" "Not in definite detail," she replied. "And Mers, call me Bon Bon for once, will you? I'm an ex-agent, you don't have to—" "Negative, Agent Drops. Once an agent, always an agent. Anyway, what do you mean, 'not in definite detail'?" Bon Bon, swiped the top of the briefcase that lie before her, revealing a panel. "Something interfered with the drone's camera. The quality of the video is poor, to be nice about it. The audio, on the other hoof..." She tapped the center of the panel. What amounted to a color-splotched snowstorm appeared on it. Along with it, clearly recorded yells and grunts came through. "I can't make heads or tails over it. From what I heard, the same sort of unexplained interference hit cameras while the doctor had a nap. Think these three have a connection?" "A princess, a scientist, a bookworm speech writer. The Crystal Empire, Las Pegasus, Ponyville. One alicorn and two unicorns. On the surface, there isn't much of a convincing connection..." Bon Bon fell silent. The grunts and yells suddenly died out as the reception cleared. It showed Pennaprose and Lyra in the living room, speaking to each other. She watched as they sipped cocoa together. "There were no cameras around when this hit Cadance," began Bon Bon. "I'm willing to bet that if there were, we'd have run into the same problem then. But I'm also willing to bet Princess Luna knows—" "—And won't tell anypony—" interrupted Mers. "—jack buck about it." She swiped the panel close, packing up the instruments and remotely drawing the drone back. "Now I remember why I left PINCH in the first place. Poor communication skills. Which reminds me: tell agent Vendetta about this. She might know a few whackjobs in Canterlot that could be prime for the next target." "That's correspondent Vendetta to be correct, Drops. And you say that, yet..." She paused, brushing her mane out of her eyes. She looked upwards, though there was no trace of the moon. All that shone down were the stars. "The moon likes hiding itself at times. After that, what are agents but stars to light a lot of nothing?" The drone buzzed up from the ground and landed squarely at her hooves. She stuffed it in her case and began to trot back off to Ponyville proper. "Some stars fizzle, others will die in a blaze of glory. But they all pale to the light of a moon that bares the land bright." Her earpiece buzzed again, this time with a wheezy laughter. "Reciting the old motto, are we? I knew your heart never left us." "Buck off." She yanked the earpiece out and unceremoniously jammed it in her case as well. She gave a long sigh and looked back at the concealed entrance to where Lyra's house was. "These unexplainable dream anomalies. And no explainable connection between the targets. And a new moon on the night before the Summer Sun Festival..." She sat down and swiped the panel back open, rewinding and pausing the video to a shot of Lyra's face, peaceful as can be. "Lyra...I envy you some days."