Projected Nightmares

by bearcat

Pinkie Pie -- Dream Quest, Pt2

Running to greet her was a small, white alicorn with light pink mane and tail flowing freely and the biggest grin on her face. Grateful for the attention Pinkie ran to greet the young royal pony, stopping only when they bumped noses into each other.

The alicorn, shorter even than Pinkie, looked embarrassed and took two steps back. "You're ... Pinkie, aren't you?" The white pony bent all her legs evenly for a perfect in place curtsy, and said "I'm just about to have a dinner party and there's no ponies in Canterlot to share it with. Would you like to join me?"

Pinkie looked suspiciously at the mane that was even lighter and pinker than her own coat of pink. "Uh, miss, I'm asleep. So that means I don't have to eat."

A mischievous look of delight crossed the alicorn's eyes, not quite making it to the mouth which was busy giggling politely. "I'm an alicorn so that means I don't have to sleep. Would you like to join me?"

With unflappable logic like that, Pinkie's defenses were overwhelmed. "Sure." So it was that Pinkie pogo hopped beside a young alicorn who was giggling like a schoolfilly as she skittered in a gait halfway between a proper trot and a reckless scamper.

Inside the castle was a large room with the largest table filled with foods she had ever seen. Even her time when she was first invited to the Grand Galloping Gala she wasn't sure they used a single table for all the food, like they had done here.

And the food was delicious like she'd never tasted before! And with no other ponies to complain she would go from side to side sometimes by jumping and sometimes by scooting under the table just to get to the next dish that happened to be on the other side.
The royal filly meanwhile was doing much the same but would gracefully fly from side to side.

Pinkie told jokes and sang songs, and the alicorn talked about the ponies that came to see her or that worked just outside the castle. It never got dark because there were so many lamps and lanterns and even torches but it did sort of get chilly but Pinkie found where the hot chocolate was and tea and mulled wine and several other hot drinks she didn't recognize so as she ate she could come back to the section with the hot beverages and just carried a cup of something with her as she sang.

Pinkie would occasionally remember that she was doing something important, but then the pink and white alicorn would start singing another verse, usually off key just a little bit, and they both would start laughing and then it would be driven out of her head again. But then one of the impromptu verses that Pinkie sang out reminded her.

"What were you looking for, Pinkie? Coming from Ponyville, I mean." The white alicorn was laying down on a blanket now, a little ways from the table. A glass of mulled wine was hovering near her head.

Pinkie slapped together a poem on the spot and tried to sing it as her response.

Twilight's light was bright
she lit the cave of night
we found a bucket of the mind
in the dream of an orange mare

Walking tall were giant feathered wolves
slay'd the mare who doesn't normally wear clothes
too late for her and the truth she'd find
too late for them and we left her there

slaughtered the pack from her castle
never were nightmares such a hassle
town was zombies not flesh eating kind
Jack rode back said okay did we fare

woke from dream to greet orange friend
slumber party of warrior mares again'd
shadowy false pony will be in a bind
sleep to wake and fight in his lair

Pinkie stopped silent, and looked around. Suddenly she remembered this wasn't Canterlot. Wasn't Ponyville. Probably wasn't even her own mind. Sparing just a moment to wonder whose brain she was using to dream about a cute filly alicorn with nothing better to do that laugh with her, Pinkie turned to her dinner companion, the smile faded from her face.

"Oh?" asked the alicorn. "I didn't think the rhyme was that bad." She levitated the ladle from a nearby punchbowl. "Maybe punch will help the timing?"

Pinkie shook her head. "No princess. Uh, miss." the earth pony laid beside the alicorn, their front knees almost touching. "I never actually asked your name."

The alicorn's voice put Pinkie in mind of a gently babbling creek, so soft and gentle was it. "I'm sort of like Celestia."

Pinkie tipped her head in confusion, feeling the silly unfocusing thoughts trying to return. "But you're not?"

The alicorn dipped her head, and shook it to say 'no', then looked up demurely through her forelock. "I'm just here as one of your distractions, Pinkie." Very quickly Not-Celestia kissed Pinkie lightly, just on the tip of the nose. "And that means you're welcome to stay as long as you'd like." The alicorn's face lit up with her soft smile.

"Until I wake, you mean?" Pinkie asked, to which the alicorn nodded, her pink mane bobbing gracefully off her shoulder as she did so. Pinkie drew the friendly dream projection of what filly Celestia might have looked like into a hug, forelegs wrapped around neck, then Pinkie stood up again. "I'm sorry Not-Celestia. But I have to find something, and then I have to go." But she took a sip straight from the punchbowl, and wiped her lips on her shin. As Not-Celestia giggled, Pinkie said "But I would like to see you in another dream." Looking over her shoulder she gave her projection an playful smile. "Someday."

The alicorn stood now, and nodded her head. "I'd like that." Turning her head towards the entrance, she warned "But for tonight I should tell you that your mind is a big place, and in here you can even leave your mind." Turning now to Pinkie the filly had the most sisterly look Pinkie had ever seen. "So be careful of where you go from here, but do hurry. I can hear your friend Jack screaming in pain and as much as I don't want your conscious mind to know what your subconscious already knows, if you're set on your task, you can save him." Doubt now caused the white fuzzy ears to twist and churn. "I think."

Did I ever give one of my sisters a look anything like that? I think I just scowled at them for borrowing my things. I wish I had a sister like Celestia. But of course, that would make me Luna, wouldn't it? I don't think I'd like being banished to the moon, even if it was because I was evil. I should write a letter to my sisters to say I'm not evil. Or I guess that would be that they're not evil. Even if they melted my crayons. I should write them a letter with crayons and send them the crayons too because I think my baby sister has fillies now. Or a colt I don't remember because we don't talk much. Oh no, maybe we ARE evil! I have to write a letter right away when I wake up to find out who needs to be forgiven worse!

With renewed focus, Pinkie said her farewells and trotted away. There wasn't another pony anywhere in Canterlot, and she had a sneaking suspicion this layout was physically larger than the real Canterlot.

But after what felt like forever, she got to a giant stone wall where the gate to the town of Canterlot should be. In some bushes nearby was an earth pony, old, bald of mane and toothless of mouth, he was dragging a rake across the ground.

Pinkie turned to him and nearly shouted "HEY! How do I open the gate?" The gardener stopped raking, and set the handle against his shoulder so he could stare mutely at the party pony. "I need to get out. To the next layer or whatever. How do I get through?"

The earth pony finally deigned to look at the wall where no gate was. "Tain't never been a gate, young filly." Slowly, slowly the gray stallion made eye contact with Pinkie who was starting to feel a bit manic from all the sugary treats she'd been eating the last few hours.

"So where is the gate, mister? How to I go on?"

The stallion blinked his deep gray eyes and smiled condescendingly before replying. "Oh, that's where a gate would go, little girl. But there isn't one, and since the bricks are at least two feet thick, I don't think you can break through them." He grabbed his rake again went back to his work, speaking around the wooden handle "Good luck to you, just the same missy."

Pinkie growled, and stared at the rock wall. What had Not Celestia Spoken? Pinkie tried to remember her parting words. Something about setting myself to my task. With that she backed up to the wall, and thought about the brief moment of pain when the thing that wasn't Twilight had stabbed her in the chest. She tried to picture that pain in her back hooves, and determined she would kick until her feet didn't work anymore. Kick right there.

And on her first strike, the stone shattered. Huge boulders became dust, and the dust blew away. well, that wasn't so hard after all. She turned to tell the gardener there was a gate now, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Pinkie shrugged and turned to trot through the hole, only to see a layer of bright red bricks laid just behind the stone wall marking the edge of the town. Pinkie reared up and screamed in frustration.

"Why!?! Why is there a fourth wall?!? I've kicked through my own house and the fort around Ponyville and even broken the castle down and still there's another layer?" Snorting and already sweating Pinkie ran at the new wall with all her might, again planting her left fore at the last moment to unfurl her weight and muscles against the offending barricade.

This left her hooves quite sore, but beyond the brick wall Pinkie could see a face. No hair, and the nose was completely separated from the upper lip. Glasses sat balanced on round ears attached to the side of the mostly round head.

"Oh. Ah, high there. Reader." Pinkie says to you. "It was that kind of a fourth wall. I'm sorry if I scratched your monitor." You notice Pinkie looking down, at the pile of bricks around her hooves. "Hey, you know what? I found my thing! My dream thing I'm looking for." She picks up one of the bricks, and holds it up for your inspection. A red brick, representative of the fourth wall.

"You see this saddle bag?" She's standing sideways to the hole in reality now, where pink suede saddlebags seem to have magically appeared strapped to her side. "It wasn't there a few seconds ago. But since I'm dreaming I can do THIS.

You watch as Pinkie puts the brick into her suede saddle bag.

"OK." She points at you with her right front leg. "You keep reading the story, alright? I want to know it turns out alright. You should too. For my sake, you know?" She's doing one of those impossible Cheshire cat grins right now. Please reader just nod knowingly we don't want to upset a manic Pinkie on a quest.

"Oooh!!! Questing!" Pinkie says as she reads the paragraph above. "Now that I have my dream thing I guess that's right." She's turning now, trotting away but you can still hear her through the hole in the story as she says "So long I love you buhbye!" Her voice is getting a little distant as she finishes "I'll come back later and fix that hole, alright? I promise I will but I have to save Celestia since that was her and not Jack that my subconscious heard screaming."