The Dreamcatcher

by Show Stopper

Questions And Significantly Fewer Answers

Chapter 3

Questions and Significantly Fewer Answers

Rebekkah hated it when the sun woke her up.

Every morning, she set her alarm to wake her up just before sunrise so that that evil glaring light wouldn’t be the first thing she saw in the morning. Over time, her body had adapted itself to this schedule, and she only needed to set her alarm on nights that she’d been partying with Diane.

So why is it, she thought, wincing as the first rays of sunlight broke over the canopy of the Everfree Forest, that I’ve been woken up twice in as many days by that space-forsaken ball of fire? Grudgingly, she opened her eyes and staggered to her feet. Hooves, she corrected herself, glaring at her appendages. Still hooves, still a pony. Maybe that has something to do with it.

She sighed quietly and looked around. Once again, only AJ and Talon were up before her. How that egghead managed to beat me to the punch, I will never know, she thought as she started to graze. Then again, I guess she’s used to not getting much sleep with all of the studying she does. I guess it makes sense for her to get up early when she gets to bed at a reasonable hour. She nodded to Diane as she awoke, and then she went back to grazing. But wait, if that were the case, then wouldn’t I still be waking up early too? Rebekkah looked over at Anne, trying to solve this conundrum.

Well, she reasoned, she still has her Stetson and her accent, not to mention those three apples on her tush. Maybe the body she’s in is also an apple farmer’s? That would explain her early rising. She then turned to look at Talon, nodding to Faith first as she got up. Now her tattoo offers no clues. A purple star and five small white stars? What can I possibly make of that? She shrugged her shoulders and started to stretch, preparing herself for the usual morning spar session. Oh well, it doesn’t really matter. At least I’m still up before the other three.

By this time, most of the others had finished breakfast as well and were warming up. Rebekkah stood up on her hind legs, somehow instinctively knowing how to use her wings and tail to keep balance. She started sparing off against Anne, letting her body take over as her mind wandered. Useful things these wings, they really seem to help with balance. Too bad I’ll probably never use them for anything else.

As the six friends sparred off against each other, they failed to notice two sets of eyes hiding in the bushes: one pair green and the other a sunset gold. Zecora the zebra and the yellow, red-maned filly Applebloom watched from their hiding place, crouching amongst the foliage. “Though confidence in my words you used to lack, you can see now that they indeed are back.” The zebra spoke with a strange accent, one that Talon might have referred to as African.

The filly nodded her head slowly and replied with an accent that Anne would have recognized in a heartbeat. “Y-y’all’re right, Zecora. I’m mighty sorry I doubted ya. But, are y’all sure they’re them? They sure look like ‘em, but I ain’t never seen Rainbow Dash or Sis fight like that. An’ I ain’t never seen th’ others fight at all. Fluttershy’s face is downright scary, an’ Rainbow Dash don’t look like she’s even payin’ attention.” In fact, this strange behavior was the only thing that kept Applebloom from leaping out and hugging the mare that looked just like her sister.

“True their actions do not seem right; perhaps they have picked up how to fight?”

“In one week? Less than a week even, it’s only been five days. I know that Twilight learns things real quick, but even she couldn’t learn that level of martial arts that fast. There’s no way.”

“There is one way that I can see, an act of the Elements of Harmony?”

“Maybe,” admitted Applebloom, tapping her chin with her hoof, “but I still don’ think that Fluttershy would ever look like that if her friends weren’t at stake. Somethin’s goin’ on, an’ I wanna know what it is.”

Zecora was about to reply, when they heard the six ponies in the clearing start talking. They quieted down and turned to watch and listen.

“Whoo-ee, that was a good spar partner,” said the pony who looked like Applejack. She trotted over to the mare who looked like Twilight Sparkle and patted her on the shoulder. “Well Talon, you about ready to head into town? I’d sure like to figure out what’s going on.”

“Me too,” said the pony who resembled Pinkie Pie. “But, Ruth and I were talking with Faith last night,” she said, gesturing to the ponies who looked like Rarity and Fluttershy, “and we agreed that it might not be a good idea to just stroll into town claiming to have amnesia. We think that we need to find someone who we can tell our whole story to, so they can help us blend in.”

Seeing her opportunity, Zecora nodded at Applebloom and prepared to stand up.

“Actually,” chimed in the pony who looked like Rainbow Dash, “that’s a pretty good idea. How about we go with the two who are watching us from the bushes.” Zecora and Applebloom froze as she pointed straight at them.

Rebekkah had noticed the two pairs of eyes about half-way through her spar session with Anne. She’d thought about mentioning it before now, but whoever was in the bushes didn’t seem to be attacking, so she decided to wait until after her friends were calmed down from practicing how to beat someone up. This was probably a wise choice on her behalf, as her friends still jumped into defensive stances and glared suspiciously at the two pairs of eyes, even without the adrenalin flowing through their system.

Talon straightened up and stood tall and proud, the way she’d learned to from her mother. “Whoever you are,” she said in a voice that practically rang with authority, “you had best show yourselves at once. We are all Black Belts in Karate, and we’ve fought a number of vicious monsters in this forest over the past two days. If you do not reveal yourselves immediately, we shall be forced to assume the worst.”

Showoff, thought Rebekkah, but I guess that’s what happens when you get adopted by President Sol.

The six girls watched warily as a zebra and a young yellow pony with a red mane and tail walked cautiously out from behind the bushes. The zebra’s mane was done up in a mohawk, and the filly’s was held back with a pink bow. While the zebra had a strange wavy circular mark on her haunches, the filly’s were bare. The zebra spoke up, gesturing to herself and the filly. “To see you again is a great boon. It is just us, Zecora, and Applebloom.”

“Zecora an’ apple who now?” asked the ever tactful Anne, watching them suspiciously. “I’m mighty sorry, but we don’t know either of ya. Y’all must have us mistaken with some other girls.”

To the surprise of everyone there, the filly started to tear up. “A-Applejack,” she said in an accent that matched hers almost perfectly, “it’s me, your sister Applebloom. D-don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about us.”

Anne started to answer, but something stopped her. She didn’t understand what was going on; she didn’t know anyone from this world, how could this filly be her sister? She must have been mistaking her for someone else; it was as simple as that. And yet, she also felt a strange urge stirring inside of her, a desire to wipe away the filly’s tears and tell her that everything was going to be ok. Anne was confused and didn’t know what to do.

Talon, however, was not frozen in indecision. She stepped forward, still keeping her almost royal demeanor, but softening her eyes when she looked at the filly. “I’m sorry, it was ‘Applebloom’, wasn’t it?” the filly, seemingly hurt and confused, nodded her head. Talon let down her guard a little, lowering her head to better see her eye to eye. “I’m sorry Applebloom, but you must have our Anne confused with someone else. You see, the six of us don’t even know where we are or how we got here. We all woke up in a cave a couple of days ago, and we’ve been trying to find a city or town ever since.”

The zebra chimed in as the filly processed this strange information. “You say that you awoke inside of a cave. Was the entrance perhaps near the demon city’s grave?”

Talon was taken aback, not only because the zebra was right, but also because s her rhyming was kind of creepy. “Yes,” she said slowly, eyeing the zebra warily. “There were ruins of something called the ‘City of Demons’ outside of the cave. How did you know?”

Applebloom jumped in, glaring at the six, the “teary little filly” act dropped. “Because that’s where Sis an’ the other Elements o’ Harmony went to face the Dream Catcher.”

The girls were taken aback by the filly’s sudden change in attitude. “The Dream Catcher?” asked Talon. “What’s that?”

The more important question, thought Rebekkah, is what are these “elements of harmony”? They seem to have something to do with a group of ponies who look just like us; seems to me that that would be the most important question to get answered.

Applebloom glared up at Talon and glanced over to the Anne before speaking. “The Dream Catcher is an evil pony who wants t’ destroy all of Equestria! He uses his magic to make ponies dream of bad things, and somehow makes them want t’ do them. There’d been a lot o’ ponies stealin’ and hurtin’ other ponies f’r about a month before anypony figured out what was goin’ on. It’s actually thanks to Pinkie Pie.” She looked over at Diane, “She’s th’ one who figured out tha’ someone was messin’ with her dreams.” She turned to look over at Rebekkah, looking a little confused. “Somethin’ about Rainbow Dash an’ cupcakes.”

She shook her head and looked back at Talon. “Anyway, Pinkie told everypony about what happened t’ her, and Twilight,” she said, pointing at Talon, “sent a letter t’ Princess Celestia, sayin’ that somepony was messin’ with their dreams. Celestia came t’ Ponyville an’ told us about the Dream Catcher, sayin’ that he was probably startin’ to break free o’ his prison. Then she sent th’ Elements o’ Harmony to his cave t’ seal him back up.” Applebloom looked down at her hooves, obviously worried. “That was five days ago, an’ Celestia said tha’ the cave was only two days away. Everypony’s startin’ to get worried about them. The bad dreams stopped three days ago, bu’ we ain’t heard from ‘em since.” She looked up at Anne, her eyes pleading a little. “An’ now y’all’re here, an’ you look jus’ like ‘em.”

Everyone stood in silence for a while, trying to wrap their minds around all of this new information. Rebekkah’s thoughts were running faster than her feet ever had. First of all, everypony? Somepony? I guess a different world is going to have some different terminology. Equestria, huh? I guess that’s the name of this country. Ponyville must be the town we saw yesterday. Princess Celestia: Equestria must be some sort of monarchy. Pinkie Pie? Rainbow Dash? Twilight? I really hope this ‘silly name’ trend doesn’t extend to the rest of the population. And then there’s the elements of harmony again, they must be some sort of powerful weapons or something. So, this Dream Catcher is really powerful, huh? Could he have drawn us from our world? More importantly, could he send us back? Also, did she say ‘magic’? I’m guessing she isn’t talking about card tricks.

All of this flashed through Rebekkah’s mind in ten seconds flat. The others seemed to be taking a little longer to process everything, so she decided to start talking first. “You’ve mentioned these so called ‘elements of harmony’ twice. What exactly are they?”

Applebloom turned to Rebekkah, glaring at her suspiciously. She was about to answer, but the zebra held a hoof out in front of her. “’We are not your friends’, those are your claims. Perhaps you could tell us then, what are your names?”

Rebekkah was a little annoyed at the zebra for cutting Applebloom off, but she supposed it was natural for her to be suspicious based on the situation. “It’s Zecora, right?” The zebra nodded. “Sure, I’ll tell you.” she said, shrugging her shoulders. “I’m Rebekkah Dare.” She pointed to the others as she named them. “This is our unofficial leader, Talon Swift. This is her older sister, Faith. Here we have Ruth Johnson, and the pink one who hates the color pink is Diane Pierce. The one who looks like your sister is my best friend, Anne Jewel Smith,” Anne snorted, obviously irritated, “who prefers either ‘AJ’ or her first name only. Now that I’ve answered your question,” she turned back to Applebloom, “maybe now you can tell us about these ‘elements of harmony’.”

Applebloom turned to look at Zecora, who nodded briefly. She then turned back to Rebekkah and started explaining. “Th’ Elements o’ Harmony are th’ most powerful magic items in all of Equestria. They’re even more powerful than th’ princesses. Applejack an’ her friends used them t’ defeat Nightmare Moon an’ free Princess Luna, an’ then they used ‘em a year later t’ trap Discord in stone! My big sis is the Element o’ Honesty.” She said proudly. “Rainbow Dash is Loyalty, Rarity is Generosity, Fluttershy is Kindness, Pinkie Pie is Laughter, and Twilight Sparkle is Magic.”

There was a tense pause, and Applebloom was worried that he’d said something wrong. That is, until all of the girls except Rebekkah and Talon burst out laughing, and even the usually stoic Rebekkah was trying hard not to chuckle. Talon had a look of abject horror mixed with disgust on her face. Having read and hated the books, she’d been a bit uneasy ever since learning that she looked like someone named “Twilight”; adding “Sparkle” to the end just made it worse, and the way the filly had said it just put it over the top.

Applebloom was very confused. “What is it?” asked Applebloom. She looked over to Zecora. “Was it somethin’ I said?” The zebra shrugged, just as confused as she was.

“Don’t worry about it;” said Rebekkah, grinning hugely, “it’s nothing. As long as we don’t meet any hot vampires or were-wolves, I think we’ll be ok.” Applebloom and Zecora looked even more confused as Rebekkah purposefully looked anywhere at Talon, who was glaring hard at her and grinding her teeth as the other four fell to the ground, rolling around in uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Applebloom turned to Zecora again. “What’re vampires an’ were-wolves?” Again, Zecora shrugged.

“It doesn’t matter,” said Rebekkah, still smiling widely. “It’s just a reference to a book series that’s really popular where we’re from. Anyways,” her face grew a bit more serious (but just a bit), “who are those other two you mentioned that were defeated by the elements. I think their names were Discord and Night-time Moon?”

“NightMARE Moon,” corrected Applebloom. “She’s what happened when Princess Luna grew jealous of Princess Celestia over a thousand years ago. She was angry that everypony slept through her night an’ tha’ they didn’t appreciate it enough. She refused to lower the moon one night, and her hate and jealousy turned her into Nightmare Moon. Princess Celestia sealed her int’ th’ moon f’r a thousand years. Sis an’ the others used the Elements o’ Harmony to destroy her by takin’ away Princess Luna’s bad feelin’s.”

Wait a minute, thought Rebekkah, lower the moon? HER night? Living on an airless, waterless rock for a millennium? Is this a princess or a goddess? Maybe both. Whatever the case, one thousand years of banishment seems a little harsh. “What about the other one, Discord?”

Applebloom glared at the ground. “Discord is a Draconequus. He’s the spirit o’ chaos an’ disharmony. He used to make Equestria miserable before the Princesses trapped him in stone. But he, uh,” Applebloom shuffled her hooves nervously and blushed while Zecora raised an eyebrow at her, “he escaped an’ started causing all sorts o’ trouble. Bu’ th’ Elements o’ Harmony were still able t’ beat him in the end.”

Zecora decided not to mention how Discord had escaped, and decided instead to try to find out more about these strangers in familiar bodies. “You have listened to our explanations well,” she said, “but what tale do you have to tell?” By this time Talon had stopped glaring at Rebekkah and the other four had calmed down enough to get to their hooves. They stood there for a minute looking at each other, silently asking how much they should tell.

Finally, Talon stepped forward and cleared her throat. “We can’t tell you everything, we hardly understand the situation as is, but the simple version is this: the six of us were apparently sucked from our world and we woke up in the cave behind the “City of Demons” to find that our bodies had been changed into those of ponies. Don’t ask what we were before, it doesn’t matter. We don’t know anything about this world, about how we got here, or about where your sister and her friends are. We want to get home as soon as possible, but we’d be more than willing to try to help you find your sister and her friends in the meantime.”

“I appreciate th’ offer, Miss… Swift, right?”

Talon shook her head and smiled. “You can just call me ‘Talon’,” she said.

Applebloom nodded. “Anyway, thanks f’r th’ offer Miss Talon, bu’ I don’ think we’ll find my big sis or her friends anywhere aroun’ here.”

Talon raised an eyebrow curiously. “Why not?” she asked.

Applebloom pointed to the tiara sitting on Talon’s head. “’cause that tiara is th’ Element o’ Magic. Th’ necklaces th’ rest of y’all’re wearin’ are the other Elements. I don’ think your bodies changed; I think y’all an’ my sister an’ her friends must have somehow swapped minds.”

The silence that followed was so complete that you could have heard a pin drop back on Earth. “That means,” Faith whispered, her face paling significantly, “that for the past two days, six ponies who know nothing about how our world works have been running around in our bodies.”

“If they go blabbing about being ponies from another world, they’re going to end up in the loony bin!” exclaimed Diane.

They all stood shell-shocked for a few minutes before Rebekkah said what was on all of their minds. “Our reputations are officially ruined.” They all nodded sadly.