//------------------------------//
// Morning 45, fragment two: For mistakes to echo, again and again 
// Story: A mare and her dog 
// by cammera 
//------------------------------//

Sunlight fell over them, in a park. Kids played in the edge of their vision.

"The other was but a shadow," explained the dreamer, Rubicon, "The idiot thinks he looks more..." he searched the word "He looks more "badass" at night. Applejack, right?" he asked "Perfect... now, do you have any idea of how dangerous it is for me to go there?"

Quibra didn't give her a chance to answer, for he walked and took the stallion by the throat.

"You owe us answers"

"Ah, yes. I guess I do" he nodded calmly. An instant later, he disappeared in a puff of smoke and reformed in the floor "Ask away"

"What in Tartarus is going on? Why are there so many yous?" started Applejack "Where are we? Some dream?"

Rubicon cringed.

"I made a foolish decision some years ago" he started "This resulted in the present situation"

Quibra and Applejack deadpanned.

"Do you-? of course you know of Princess Luna, your name is Equestrian. Some years ago she did something fascinating, that I was convinced was impossible. Do you know of the Tantabus incident?"

"Tant-" started Quibra "That was decades ago"

"And after finding out that making a memetic life form was indeed possible, I had to try to" eh sighed "A mistake-"

"A disaster!" Quibra threw his arms to the sky "Its a historical event with the word "Incident" in it! You don't repeat those, you avoid them!" he shouted.

"Ha! I was too clever to realize when I was being an idiot" Rubicon's cackle was dry "I still am. Point is, I was a fool. I tried to make life, but couldn't and grew desperate"

"But you did it" said Applejack "And it went wrong again. We just saw it"

"Yes, but my success was merely partial. I am afraid my intelligence pales to that of Princess Luna," he sighed "Do any of you know a soulcrafter, by chance? Because their beliefs are interesting, really worth hearing. Their definition of life is "Trying"" he smiled faintly "Just that. If something tries, that something is alive no mater what. Life is only truly ended when something can't, or lacks the will to, try anymore"

"I didn't ask if-"

"I am getting to it. One of the peculiarities of soulcraftery is this, that differently from many other disciplines dreams aren't a form of life for them. Dreams don't try to, they only want to. Dreams are, for an old fashioned soulcrafter, a mockery of life" he paused for a moment "Then the Princess made a fascinating travesty. A dream that tried. Tantabus, despite its failure, tried so hard to help her, no mater what..." he smiled "I wanted to, so much, to make a dream like that. Perhaps that's precisely my failure" From the door, which was opened nearby, the whale sung "Oh, there is little time left. I wanted to make a stable, reasonable dream that could live by itself, can you blame me? I am a dreamer" he laughed bitterly "But I couldn't. Until an idea occurred to me. If I can't make something, why not start by duplicating it and scale the complexity from there?"

Applejack's eyes opened wide in realization.

"I dreamed myself, old fool I am... but the idea was sound to me, at the time. I dreamed myself, and it took so much effort. But the dream is incomplete, for such is the inherent nature of dreams. The dream has some of my memories, yet doesn't understand. It has my knowledge, yet cares little for the lessons I learned. The dream knows it is incomplete, so it dreamed itself again and again. Now it wants to dream himself into reality, making reality into his dream in the process" he sighed "And I fear it may"