Dreamseekers
“Princess, please!” Apple Bloom called out shrilly behind her.“They cain’t wake up when they’re in mah dream, so you’re really scarin’ them!”
The dream princess was right in the faces of Apple Bloom’s two best friends, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, who she apparantly just figured out were real, both of whom may or may not have been going completely mad by the eldritch forces involved with having the princess’s undivided attention. The princess did back up from her friends at Apple Bloom’s words, but she was dancing on her hooves in increasing excitement on the ground, saying “oh my gosh ohmygoshomigoshomigosh”
“This’s the uh, dream princess,” Apple Bloom declared loudly, walking uneasily around the princess to plant herself herself solidly between the princess and her friends. “An’ these,” Apple Bloom said to the princess, waving a hoof behind her, “Are my friends: Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. They ponies now. You really should check up with mah dreams more often, princess.”
“How did this... happen?” the princess practically squeaked in excitement, her violet eyes glued to the newcomers.
“Same way it happened for me,” Apple Bloom explained patiently. “Just happened like three weeks ago for them. Nobody knows why but somethin’ about a portal to another world. But uh...” Apple Bloom looked judgementally at the barely restrained princess, and instead of bringing up the subject of world ending catastrophies that needed to be immediately addressed, Apple Bloom dealt with far more important matters. She faced her friends and told them,
“Hey, Scoots, Sweetie, I know she’s weird, but remember she ain’t been seein’ no ponies or anyone at all, for the last like, forever. She needs friends more’n anything, so ah think she’d really wanna be friends with you too. Trust me that means a lot to her.”
“Yeah...” Scootaloo said leerily, looking at the princess.
Scootaloo’s unease was very understandable when Apple Bloom turned back to look at the princess too. Said princess currently faced Apple Bloom, and the princess had her chest pressed flat to the ground, forelegs curled, butt in the air, quietly whining “plee-e-e-e-ease?”
“That’s sorta obvious,” Scootaloo added... leerily.
“Why is she asking you?” Sweetie Belle stated, looking from the little yellow and red filly, to the big powerful purple, prostrate princess in puzzlement. “Isn’t she the princess?”
Apple Bloom blinked at that, and agreed with that, saying to the princess, “Hey yeah, why are ya asking me? Just ask them, nicely and calmly. What do you need me for?”
“Well, they are your friends, right?” the princess said, standing and looking down at Apple Bloom in some confusion. “Aren’t you going to introduce me? Or... something?”
Apple Bloom blinked again. “Ah did introduce you,” she said exasperatedly. “Why don’t you try introducin’ yourself?”
With a meaningful look at her friends, Apple Bloom tilted her head twice in the direction of the princess. Then three times in the direction of the princess. Sweetie jumped up in realization at that, saying, “Oh! Um,” then crouching her forelegs and bowing her head down, said, “I’m Sweetie Belle. Pleased to make your aquaintance, your majesty!”
“Yeah, and I’m Scootaloo,” Scootaloo said beside Sweetie, puffing out her chest. “I’m the cool one.”
The princess looked like she was going to start crying again, but she managed to restrain herself saying, “I’m so glad to meet you. It really is my pleasure, really. Pleased to meet you, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. I’m...”
“uh...” the princess lifted a hoof, and looked at it confusedly.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Apple Bloom helpfully prompted beside her.
“Right, Twilight Sparkle,” the princess said with a smile, holding out a hoof. “Pleased to meeee—” she wheeled on Apple Bloom then, shouting into her face, “YOU FIGURED OUT MY NAME?!”
Apple Bloom just couldn’t hold it anymore, and she woke up with a startled yelp.
“Oh, man...” the little apple pony girl groaned in the night, covering her head with her arms in exasperation.
“You awake, Apple Bloom?” Scootaloo asked, from the other side of the bed.
“Of course she’s awake,” the voice of Sweetie put in, the soft unicorn cuddled right in between them. “We all wake up simultaneously.”
“Yeah I know,” Scootaloo said in an embarassed voice, “I just... shut up”
“Sorry ‘bout that,” Apple Bloom said apologetically to the two of them. “The princess can be a bit overwhelming sometimes.”
“I thought you meant overwhelming in the regal sense,” Sweetie piped up from beneath the blankets. “Not overwhelming in the unhinged sense.”
“Both really,” Apple Bloom admitted, “Once you get to know her she’s just as beautiful an’ regal as the night sky. But uh... see, she’s been all by herself for a long time. Doesn’t even remember why. So she’s like someone who hasn’t talked with another human being in like, lots of years. Kinda childish I guess? She really, really needs friends. So she gets excited, you know?”
“And woke you up, so now we can’t meet her again,” Scootaloo groaned, covering her face in the giant pillow she had laid on.
“Oh, ah think we’ll be meeting her,” Apple Bloom herself groaned. “With you two here? She ain’t gonna miss one single dream for quite a while, least ‘till she gets distracted again.”
“Will she be there when we go back to sleep tonight?” Sweetie asked anxiously.
“Dunno, we got like... ugh,” Apple Bloom groaned at the clock. “Maybe three hours till dawn, so maybe not enough time to get back into dreaming. Let’s just all get some sleep, and if we see her, ah promise it’ll be fine. Just like, hug the princess till she’s catatonic. Imagine she’s like the most attention starved puppy you ever laid eyes on.”
The morning came without dreams however, and Apple Bloom found herself strangely disappointed, as the winter sun came edging late over the distant hills and snuck its way in to coax open her sleepy eyes.
Scootaloo could dream now, at least, but she was still struggling to pull herself out of it and join the others in awareness. Apple Bloom was getting to be pretty good at dreaming together with Sweetie Belle, though. In Sweetie Belle’s dream one night, Apple Bloom took some time to really have a serious talk with her pale furred unicorn friend. Apple Bloom found Sweetie Belle dreaming of a soda fountain, that the three of them used to hang out at after school, except in the dream the fountain served hay instead of soda.
To find her, Apple Bloom walked through a door in her own dream bedroom. The other side of the door ended up being the swinging door that led into Sweetie Belle’s chosen shop, with the bright sunny day behind her a lot different from the pleasant but interior room that Apple Bloom had left behind. But that was just how dreams went. Apple Bloom found Sweetie here in this cafe, trying to make her way through a bowl of ice cream that looked (and tasted) more like balls of yarn, than ice cream.
Apple Bloom made a mental note to get Sweetie Belle some ice cream in the waking world.
“Hey Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said easily, striding up to her dreaming pony friend on all fours, which weren’t anything unusual nowadays. “How’re ya doin’?”
“Oh, hi Apple Bloom,” Sweetie meeped, looking up in mild surprise. “I was just trying to figure how you were supposed to eat this...” she looked back at what was supposed to pass for ice cream, a disgusted and confused expression on her soft white snout.
“Never mind that,” Apple Bloom told her, hoof calmly sliding the inert dessert away from the unicorn’s puzzled gaze. “Ah think it’s just a centerpiece or something.”
“Oh, is that why it’s all dry and crackly,” Sweetie said, blushing. “I–I guess I should go order something else instead.”
“Or...” Apple Bloom said giving her a knowing look. “You could wonder how you got to the city here as a little pony, and why the tables are small enough for us, and why a soda fountain is serving straw for ice cream.”
“That’s... wait... wait.” Sweetie dropped her head and pressed her nose against the surface of the table, mumbling embarassedly, “I’m dreaming, aren’t I.”
“You’ll get it eventually,” Apple Bloom assured her, patting Sweetie’s back. “Maybe next time you can catch it yourself! Just ease into it for now, so you still have a table to sit at, and a nice city shop place, a place you can have a delicious glass of... of fizzy cider in.”
“That sounds... really nice actually,” Sweetie admitted thirstily, raising her head. She looked over across the dining floor, where some ambiguous dream people were bustling around behind the serving counter.
“Hey, could we get some cider over here?” Apple Bloom shouted to the counter.
“Right away!” came a male voice, the proprieter of the establishment, who Sweetie apparantly remembered very well. He came walking up with two soda glasses filled up with nice bubbly amber liquid, and a straw stuck in each so they could be easily sipped. You didn’t really see much of him, just his legs mostly, and his orange skinned hands lowering down to place the cider before each of them.
“Thanks a lot, fella!” Apple Bloom said appreciatively. That seemed to do the trick of paying him, and he left the two to sip at their cider in peace. Sweetie took a draw out of her own straw, and her eyes widened.
“This really tastes like cider!” she exclaimed in surprise, looking at the glass she sipped out of.
“Course it does,” Apple Bloom said, sipping at her own straw for that cool fizzy liquid with its deep sweet tartness. “Ah love that stuff!”
“But I never... but isn’t this my dream?” Sweetie asked uncertainly.
“Oh... uh... well,” Apple Bloom said blushing, “Ah’m in it right? So ah guess... that means... ah can be in the cider too? Just speculatin’” Then Apple Bloom chuckled at a thought that evoked.
“Ah sure do taste good, don’t I Sweetie Belle?” she said cheekily.
Sweetie glanced down, and then her eyes widened and she looked again at her cider ...leerily. Apple Bloom sighed, saying apologetically, “Sorry ah didn’t mean that in a weird way. It’s just cider, you can go ahead and drink it. Ah just kinda helped make it, just a little bit.”
Sweetie cautiously sipped at her cider again. “It really does taste good,” she murmured moodily. “I can never make stuff taste good in my dreams.”
“Don’t worry about that, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said kindly. “You’ll get it just fine. We can even practice some time, but ah kinda wanted to do something else now that we got the chance.”
With her ears tilting bashfully, Sweetie told her drinking glass, since she was too shy to tell Apple Bloom. ““I really appreciate you helping me get better at this stuff. S-sorry I take so much of your time.”
“It’s okay Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said, walking around the table to sit beside her friend, so she could nuzzle at her friend’s cute curly pink and purple Sweetie hair. Make her feel right welcome. “Ah been hopin’ to get some time t’talk with just you, anyways.”
“Why’s that?” Sweetie asked uncertainly, flicking an ear at Apple Bloom’s odd attentions.
Apple Bloom paused in them, and just rested her head sideways against Sweetie Belle’s.
“You make a good pony, you know that?” Apple Bloom said to her in an encouraging tone.
Sweetie didn’t answer, looking forward with a neutral expression on her face... muzzle thing.
“You been real down about this whole thing, feelin’ all useless and stuff,” Apple Bloom said gently, coming to face Sweetie Belle steadily. “I just want you to know, you’ll be moving around just as good as you used to in no time flat, better even. You’ll get better at talkin’ and you’re already better’n Scootaloo. And you really will use that horn of yours. Ah dunno how, but ah know you’ll figure it out. You ain’t just some dumb looking critter who thinks she’s a unicorn. You’re Sweetie Belle, an’ you’re awesome, and you really are a unicorn, as real as they come. A beautiful one, not a dumb or clumsy one.”
Sweetie turned to look at Apple Bloom and gave her a shaky smile. “I want to go back to school,” Sweetie said automatically.
Then Sweetie blushed, and looked forward again, covering her muzzle with her forehooves. “I didn’t mean to say that,” she mumbled.
“Heh... dreams ah guess,” Apple Bloom said, feeling a bit shaken herself at that. “Y’can ah mean... ah’m sure you cain uhm... ah cain’t exactly stop ya.” She took a deep breath, and said to Sweetie, “When you know all about how to run around like a pony, and you ain’t got no more talking problems, you cain... go back to school. A-ah’ll come with you t-to stop any kids from teasin’ you or freakin’ out.”
“You don’t have to, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie said solemnly. “I just miss it so much. I miss Sugarcube Cafe here. I miss singing with Chirpy, and my teachers, and... and even mister Doodle. He was mean, but he was really... funny and stuff. I know you don’t wanna be embarassed...”
“Ah’m mostly worried about people panickin’,” Apple Bloom said gravely. “They can just ignore me bein’ a pony, if’n ah hide out here, ah ain’t a problem that way. But if ah went to school... I dunno, someone might wanna hurt me or some like, because they couldn’t pretend I wasn’t there.
“Ah’m just a pony, Sweetie!” Apple Bloom entreated her earnestly. “Ah ain’t got no horn or wing things or magic really. Ah just got like... my old human colors, and that’s it. I didn’t feel like I even belonged in school no more. Because I was the only one... but with you two with me I—I think I could...do it.”
“Is anyone else going to change into a pony?” Sweetie asked, not Apple Bloom personally but just poising the question.
“I really hope not, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom sighed. “There wouldn’t be enough hay in the whole city! Ah could be happy with just you two, I think. Not that I don’t wanna help ya be human again, but... if we’re the only ponies in school, I think we could still do okay as long as we have each other. M-maybe Diamond Tiara, too.”
“I hope she’s okay,” Sweetie said, shifting onto her side and letting her legs kick out from under her. “I was so glad she came over this weekend, even though we’re here, and made her sad.”
Apple Bloom eyed the ground thoughtfully, looking Sweetie in the eye and saying, “Ah don’t know much we can do for her there. Just keep supportin’ her. It’s just... it’s just important that she don’t feel left out. Even though she kinda... ah dunno. I just think it ain’t so good for her to be alone right now.”
“Rarity says she’s been doing awful, terrible things,” Sweetie said with a slight smile. Apple Bloom looked at that smile with suspicious puzzlement, but Sweetie clarified right away saying, “Rarity was saying ‘oh Sweetie Belle it is ever so scandalous. That Diamond has been flaunting around Scootaloo’s special um... beau, as her own!’
“Basically,” Sweetie explained, “I think Diamond Tiara has been friends with Dinky last week, and since Scootaloo can’t be there too, it looks... um... like she stole him.”
Her eyes widening, Bloom said on that topic, “Oh golly! Ah hope Dinky doesn’t mind that his girlfriend’s a...
“uh...”
Now Apple Bloom was the one hiding her nose under her forehooves. “...a pony now,” she managed to mumble through them.
“It is kind of a deal breaker,” Sweetie admitted with a wry eyebrow raised. “I don’t think he’s just switching to Diamond though. It’s just a... um... circumstance.”
“Ah do wish more people’d turn into ponies now,” Apple Bloom exclaimed glumly, planting her face on the table.
“Why’s that?” Sweetie asked her morose friend.
“What’re we gonna do about boys?” Apple Bloom asked in mild distress, rolling her head to its side to look at Sweetie seriously. Sweetie seemed unsure of how to answer that, understandably.
“Ah mean, we’re gettin’ to that age,” said Apple Bloom, sitting up, staring forward. “But any relationships we had, it’d be just... really wrong.”
Sweetie had a blush in her cheeks now, as she mumbled, “But would it be any better if they were ponies too?”
“Ah don’t wanna date a pony!” Apple Bloom squealed in frustration. She just flopped down on the floor of the dream cafe, then rolling belly up, big pink bow flat against the floor. She looked up soberly at her four pony hooves curled up over her plump round little barrel, with that bright, expressive tail coming out beyond her, that oughtn’t not have been there at all.
“An’ ah don’t think nobody else should have to, either...” Apple Bloom added in a more subdued tone.
Sweetie turned from where she sat, watching at the laying Apple Bloom pensively for some indescribable amount of time.
“You’re a beautiful pony too,” Sweetie Belle said quietly.
Apple Bloom smiled up at the ceiling. “Thanks, Sweetie,” she said to her best friend in the whole wide world. Sweetie’s response was wordless, simply laying next to her friend, table manners forgotten in these strange circumstances. The two just lay there then, looking up at the soft light fixtures in the green roof, until everything wavered out of focus, and the serving counter started to look like a flat projection.
“What?” Sweetie said in alarm, sitting up on the increasingly fake feeling ground.
“We’re just wakin’ up, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said to the unicorn. She sat up too, and gave her friend one last hug as things started to fade out, saying, “See you on the other side, ‘kay?”
Apple Bloom thought she felt a snug back, before she woke up with her empty hooves curled over nothing but sheets and a thick quilt. She lay there in bed a moment thoughtfully, before in the darkness, Sweetie sat up next to her. Well, uncurled more like, and the unicorn stuck her head out from under the blanket.
“Was tha’...?” Sweetie asked unbelievingly, looking at Apple Bloom with wide green eyes that almost seemed to glow. “Were hyu rearly there?”
Sweetie crossed her eyes on the spot then, and smacked her lips, repeating more carefully, “really...there?”
“Hm...” Apple Bloom pondered in front of the curious unicorn, thoughtfully tapping on her chin with a hoof. “Only one way t’ confirm it.”
Then, she hopped forward, and gave Sweetie a nice big, tight, squeezy hug, quilt blanket and everything.
“Yup,” Apple Bloom declared cheerfully, “This feels downright familiar!”
“Ugh,” Scootaloo groaned, stirring on the other side of Sweetie. “Get a room, you two.”
Apple Bloom regrettably had to separate from Sweetie Belle, in order to use her amazing pony powers to smack Scootaloo in the face with a pillow.
Scootaloo was getting better at dreaming. But there was something else at which she had both of them beat, thanks to the kindness and wisdom of her mom. The three ponies were lying around the big living room one day, on the bottom floor of the farm house, while the wind whistled around the eaves, no other sound to be heard. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were flopped out on their bellies on the floor, while the curly haired white unicorn friend of theirs was on her back, staring at the ceiling.
“Maybe we should try sleeping...” Apple Bloom said dully, even her bow looking droopy in her languid malaise.
“We just woke up,” Sweetie grumbled, waving her hooves ineffectually at the ceiling.
“Why can’t we play with the ball inside?” Scootaloo complained grumpily.
“After we broke that vase, and the teacups, and the antique plates, ah think you know the answer to that,” Apple Bloom replied equally grumpily.
Scootaloo stared out at the window, where a whirling mass of white snow fell past outside. “Doesn’t look like it’s letting up...” she sighed.
“Maybe we could try cooking something?” Apple Bloom suggested.
“We just ate, too, though!” Sweetie protested.
“What books do we have left, that we haven’t read?” Scootaloo asked doubtfully.
“Mah brother’s engineering textbooks, and an old Introduction to Accounting book,” Apple Bloom confirmed glumly.
“Hope Ms. Cheerilee will bring some more books,” Sweetie mumbled, rolling onto her belly. “At least we can do that, then.”
“We have to face it, girls,” Scootaloo said bleakly, flopping onto her back, her little wings spreading to balance her back there. “We’ve done everything there is to do around here!”
“Maybe Big Macintosh would have an idea?” Sweetie suggested. Apple Bloom shook her head though.
“Mah brother just got to sleep, and he needs as much as he cain get, with all the extra schoolwork to go through and all.”
“Then what do we do?” Sweetie pleaded anxiously.
Apple Bloom just shrugged, and curled up half into a ball. “Welcome to mah world,” she said somberly. “Ain’t nothing to do around here with our pigs and all the cows taken care of.”
“How did you even last a whole two months?” Scootaloo asked in amazement. “It’s been two weeks, and I’m going nuts here!”
Looking at the window again, Scootaloo said with a frustrated huff, “I wish we could play outside, but even I don’t like snow constantly blowing in my face.”
“Maybe we could draw something?” Sweetie suggested, looking over at their growing pile of crayon (and rarely pencil) drawings.
“I guess,” Scootaloo responded without any enthusiasm. She rolled to her hooves, and sulked over there, collecting a bunch of paper in her mouth and balancing the crayon box on top of it. She came back to where the other two lay and dumped it on the floor, where Sweetie and Apple Bloom swiveled around toward it.
As they each picked a color, bit on the end of the crayon, and started doodling on the paper, it was pretty obvious to them all that they were gonna have to find something more interesting to do, and soon.
When Applejack got back, along with Cheerilee who came over to see Scootaloo, the CMC relayed their concerns to those two. Applejack didn’t have much idea beyond cooking stuff for later, which actually was a pretty good idea. But Cheerilee had a glimmer of an idea. She said to let her think on that, and then knelt there among the three ponies and regaled them with the incredibly exciting adventures of a librarian.
Considering what they’d done all day, learning about the students Cheerilee had to deal with was comparatively fascinating.
Well, it doesn’t snow much in Canterlot. Weather’s pretty even, in fact. The snow let up pretty fast, and the three finally got out to play during the day, and that was fine as could be. Cheerilee had brought more books with her for them to read, though there was a limit even for her how many books she could check out at once. More books meant more stuff to do, which was cool. But the really incredible thing was when Cheerilee came by a few days later.
Flat on her belly, Scootaloo grumbled out, “I am so... bored...”
She got no argument from the other two.
“I spy with my little eye,” Sweetie said, while the others groaned, “Something... tall.”
“That’s cheating, Sweets,” Scootaloo said casually, “Everything is tall for us now!”
“Okay, something...” Sweetie said taking Scootaloo’s quip straight, “With glass.”
“Is it a glass?” Scootaloo asked. Sweetie giggled and shook her head.
“It is glass, or it has glass?” Apple Bloom asked.
“It has gla—” Sweetie said, right when there was the sound of a car driving up the road to the house.
“They’re back!” Apple Bloom cheered, as the three ponies climbed to their hooves and trotted off for the front door. The chilly afternoon air cut into their coats as they made their way outside, greeting the truck and Cheerilee’s beamer as they came in one after the other. Applejack was in there today, along with Granny Smith as usual. And Cheerilee in her car. The three humans found themselves hounded by three ponies as they approached the house, Apple Bloom saying, “Good to see you!”
While Sweetie said,“What did you do today?”
With Scootaloo immediately following up with, “Hi mom!”
Then Apple Bloom saying, “What did y’all do today?”
And in short, the three fillies were speaking in such rapid succession that none of the three humans could get a word in edgewise, nor could they understand what the little ponies were babbling about.
Once they’d calmed down enough to be understandable, Cheerilee smiled at their curious inquiries and tales of woe, squatted down to almost their level and said, “Why don’t you three go see what I’ve got in the back seat of my car?”
Three little pony shaped clouds of dust were the only indication that they had been there at all.
“Lemme see!”
“I wanna see!”
“Lemme get the door open!”
Biting and tugging the handle to open the door, Sweetie Belle swung the door open while Apple Bloom and Scootaloo excitedly piled inside and looked at what was in the back seat. Scootaloo’s squeal of joy wasn’t quite audible from 20 miles away in Canterlot High, but it came close.
When Cheerilee noticed the pony children seemed a bit bored, and brought along her daughter’s video game console, she certainly expected them to appreciate it, Scootaloo especially, but she didn’t expect Scootaloo to bodily leap at her, and hug around her waist shouting, “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”
“It’s not a problem, honey bear!” Cheerilee said in mild astonishment, catching Scootaloo’s weight in her arms as the pony’s momentum sent her stumbling back a step. “You were getting pretty bored there, huh?”
“You have no idea,” Scootaloo groaned.
“Now hold on,” Apple Bloom stated, less enthusiastically than Scootaloo, trotting up to her and Cheerilee, “We don’t even know it’ll work here! Ah know this house got ‘lectrical wiring, but it hasn’t been redone in who knows how long.”
“Well, you can plug in your T.V., right?” Scootaloo said challengingly, from where she was perched up here in Cheerilee’s arms. “So you can plug in my Playstation!”
“There’s only one outlet in the living room though!” Apple Bloom protested.
“Actually...” Cheerilee said tentatively.
It was intriguing watching the three little ponies assembling the video game station along with the Apple’s old cathode ray tube television. Cheerilee brought along a power strip, which solved any problems with an electrical connection, but you wouldn’t think that a pony could manipulate those things with a mouth and hooves. The only thing Apple Bloom needed help on was plugging the final assembly into the wall, and even that was because she was leery about wrapping her mouth around a live wire. What would have been lifted in one’s hands was now bumped by one’s nose onto one’s forehead. What would have been twisted in fingers, their pony lips could take care of it.
The only real sticking point was when the television had the wrong connectors on it for picture and sound. But Cheerilee was happy enough to drive out the the local Radio Shack and get a converter for it. It wasn’t long before everything was all set up.
“Alright,” Scootaloo declared, “Which games don’t need you to use the side buttons?”
Three pony faces fell to serious contemplation.
Pretty soon Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo were laying there on their bellies, with one hoof over the D-pad and one over the buttons. It was more difficult to hit them, but by angling one’s hoof in the direction you could apply pressure to play them. On the television screen, a somewhat off-color image of little dudes running around and blowing each other up was displayed.
“Oh no, the corner—EEE!” Sweetie squealed as her little dude was trapped and blown up.
“Gotta watch out for the corner bombs!” Scootaloo said smugly, then slid her controller over to Apple Bloom. Well Apple Bloom was... pretty terrible at the game, and it didn’t take long for Sweetie Belle to hedge her in. “Aw, shucks!” Apple Bloom said as her dude walked right into an explosion.
“Better luck next time!” Sweetie said cheerfully, passing her controller to Scootaloo.
It was endearing for Cheerilee to watch them all working together like that, but in a bittersweet way, because once the victor was settled, and the next game was started, the three of them fell silent, concentrating on the screen, and not on each other.
When she first had Scootaloo, she steeled herself to not expose her child to video games, but they were just so convenient. She came to rely on them to keep little Scootaloo out of mischief, and to give Cheerilee a moment’s peace. But they certainly weren’t the most social of activities. These three didn’t seem to notice anything off, but when Cheerilee was young it was unheard of for kids to just... go silent like that and ignore each other, staring fixedly forward.
It bothered her, but she couldn’t put her finger on exactly why it was such a problem for kids to act like that. In the end, she tolerated that sort of thing, and here at the Apple household, one could only sit back and appreciate colonial architecture so long, it seemed, before getting snowed in started driving you up the wall.
There Dinky sat, with his book bag in his lap, legs close together, trying to look out the bus window. It was a chilly, overcast day outside, the buildings rolling by as the bus took them on their way to school. He stared out the window fixedly, at once both attracted and repulsed by the coy girl at his shoulder, who seemed determined to make friends with him.
“So then I like, had to show up late, and it was all over a giant misunderstanding. It worked out I guess because I like, would have missed the fire if I got to English class on time, and then we might not even have a Canterlot High, am I right?” she said, definitely a girl who liked to talk a lot.
Dinky just tried to put up with her, be there to listen to her, and not to blush at her closeness. He mumbled an affirmative or something, wishing he could just... open up to her, and tell her how he feels.
But enough about that boring stuff. During the long, cool nights back at Sweet Apple Acres, the Crusaders were making themselves busy in slumber, catching the princess up with everything that happened. The princess had a sort of childlike fascination with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. She never seemed to stop being amazed that they were real, and not something she or Apple Bloom made up. Real, for her, at least. Everything the princess knew was a dream, so her understanding of the difference between dreams and reality was tenuous at best. The princess was absolutely delighted at the idea that more ponies would be available now to dream, though she made a token effort to be sympathetic for their transformative plight.
“So,” Apple Bloom asked her majesty, on a night that all four of them were sitting there, out on a floating island covered in soft, yellow flowers, high over an endless ocean, “You are absolutely, totally sure you cain’t transform anyone into a pony?”
“I can’t possibly imagine how,” the princess said in a practical tone, legs curled underneath her in a larger fashion, but otherwise the same as the little apple pony, and the pale white unicorn sitting before her. Scootaloo was flopped out on her side less neatly, but listening nonetheless. “I’d be happy to try,” the princess said amenably to the three of them, “But who do you know, who’d be willing to change from being a weird two-legged thing into a pony?”
“Diamond Tiara,” Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo spoke up at once.
Apple Bloom herself blushed at the quick response from the two, and clarified, “Y-yeah, our other friend Diamond is kinda weird... she likes magic a lot, and wants to well, she’s probably the least likely to get upset over it.”
“Is she a unicorn too?” the princess asked, then corrected herself, “I mean, of course she’s a ‘human.’ And you couldn’t possibly know if she would become a unicorn, since she hasn’t yet.” Apple Bloom wasn’t sure if you were supposed to answer a question they just answered like that. So the princess smiled, saying, “Um, yeah. So, that’s that I guess. So, how about this cool... island thing!”
“I made daffodils!” Sweetie spoke up with a happy smile. The dream was, it turns out, her own creation this time. Just a simple, peaceful fragment of landscape under a clear blue sky. Sweetie was still rusty at it, and Scootaloo a complete neophyte, but Apple Bloom was pretty sure they’d pick it up quick, with the princess here paying attention to them.
“These are daffodils?” the princess said, putting her nose into the flowers and taking a bite out of them. The three watched somewhat shocked, as she chewed saying, “Hmm... why do they taste like alfalfa then?”
“I’m new at—this, sorry,” Sweetie admitted, turning her nose and blushing. “We’re mostly eating... alfalfa from a bale of it, in the waking world. I haven’t had a chance to t-try flowers, either, so I don’t know how they taste. All the flowers are gone, but it’s just winter out there.”
“Winter, huh...” the princess said, a blustery chill blowing through their fur. “I remember winter,” she said. “It’s got lots of white stuff, that’s actually crystallized water, if I remember right? Do flowers not like that?”
“It’s kinda cold for them,” Apple Bloom pointed out. “There are some berries. Winter’s got its own charm though, sittin’ by a fire, and how peaceful and quiet it is all the time. Spring’ll be here soon enough. Maybe when it comes around, you can be awake to see it!”
“Maybe...” the princess grumbled reluctantly, gazing listlessly at the faux flowers now.
“So, what happens when you try to wake up?” Scootaloo asked the princess, curiously.
“Hmm?” the princess said to Scootaloo. The seconds passed as she stared at Scootaloo, with no response from the princess. Then, just right before anyone could ask, the princess tilted her head and said, “You know, I don’t remember actually. It’s been a while since I tried it. One sec.”
The princess shimmered out of existence, leaving the three of them alone on their sunny island, unmoored from the shackles of the earth.
“...good going, Scootaloo,” Apple Bloom said, in a dead monotone. “Ah thought we’d never see the last of her.”
“Oh shaddup,” Scootaloo snorted, crossing her hooves.
“She’ll be back someday,” Sweetie said in apologetic comfort, “We just have to hope she remembers to check up on us, and maybe in a week or so we can start worrying.”
The princess immediately shimmered back into existence, surprising literally everyone. “Wow.” the princess said bemusedly, with a disgusted look on her face. “That’s why I never do it. I remember now!”
“What do you remember?” a surprised, but very interested Sweetie asked the peculiar purple princess.
“Hmm?” the princess asked, looking at Sweetie Belle in mild confusion.
“Oh!” Princess Twilight then concluded. “It’s just dark.”
“Dark?” Sweetie said, looking around as the moon rose over the ocean, that this island floated above.
“Totally dark,” the princess nodded curtly. “Boring. Can’t see anything, hear anything, feel anything, taste anything, smell anything, or anything. Your dream is much funner.”
She then proceeded to prance away, and rolled her regal princess self in the daffodils, laughing gayly at nothing at all.
Apple Bloom drew her hoof down her face, and gestured at the princess with it hopelessly. “Clearly she’s got important things to do,” Apple Bloom said grumpily.
Scootaloo rolled her eyes and responded, “Chill, Apple Bloom. Not like it’s a big deal or anything. So she’s a little weird. She’s also helping us a lot, and maybe it’s good for her to... do whatever she’s doing over there.”
“Um...” At Sweetie’s behest, the sun rose again illuminating them all, puffy clouds once again dotting the bright blue sky. “I don’t know about you,” Sweetie said, rising up onto her hooves, “But I think she’s onto something!”
“You wait here and be all serious,” Sweetie said to an ornery Apple Bloom, “While we go play in the daffodils.”
Then Sweetie Belle gallopped off, to jump on the princess, and started tickling her belly mercilessly. The princess was no match for the little unicorn, and both their laughter seemed to brighten the sun in the sky.
Meanwhile, Scootaloo asked Apple Bloom uncertainly, “Did Sweetie just... use sarcasm?”
“Ah’m not sure...” Apple Bloom said distantly, looking at the two chasing each other around the field. “Sure looks like fun though.”
“Oh I’m the fuddy duddy now?” Scootaloo drawled teasingly. “C’mon, let’s see how many of these things we can take out in one slide!”
She and Apple Bloom charged over, and somehow failed to decimate the daffodil population, despite bright white bursts of silvery dust escaping each flower that their bodies slid through.
It... was definitely going to take a while to catch the princess up on everything. Or on anything at all, for that matter.
The verdant green lands extended as far as the eye could see, rolling hills of waving grasses, dense forests that seemed like tiny matchsticks from way up here. Here, the billowing clouds rolled across the sky, like majestic temples of rain and weather. Their silver shone in the sunlight cast down from the emerald blue skies overhead. In these sweeping cumuli, among these valleys and mountains of white, the two figures conferring seemed tiny against that great expanse. High above the earth, a little earth pony named Apple Bloom nestled into the soft fluff like she was born to it, while next to her a regal pony princess was seated, listening to Apple Bloom with a childlike interest.
“So, Princess Twilight, why can’t I wake up, if ah’m in somepony else’s dream?” Apple Bloom asked the dream princess once another night, in a dream where Apple Bloom and the princess were alone, sitting in the sky on some fluffy clouds, once again high above the earth.
“It happened a while back,” Apple Bloom clarified, “An’ we woke right up when Scootaloo did, but ah don’t wanna get stuck in like, sleeping or something. Sweetie Belle was awful scared of that happening. Would I be like you then, stuck forever in th’ realm of dreams?”
“Would you?” the princess asked in response, “I don’t think so. I don’t remember how it works. I just live here.”
“Yes, but,” Apple Bloom kneaded nervously at the cloud material, like fluffy goose down. “When ah wake up, an’ you’re in mah dream, you don’t wake up too. What is it like when I wake up?”
The princess looked at her hooves, saying, “It’s really not like anything. Everything just... wobbles out, and I’m alone again. I can hold it a little if you just stop dreaming and stay in the blue wavy place for a while, but if you wake up even I just get tossed out. I can make my own dreams though, even while you’re gone.”
“Dunno why ah’m even asking really,” Apple Bloom flumped down. “You cain’t wake up, and you forgot why, so maybe you got stuck in some other pony’s dream ages ago, but you don’t remember so you cain’t tell me that no more.”
“I don’t know if you should be experimenting with this,” the princess worried at Apple Bloom. “There’s so much you don’t know about how the dream realm works, and I don’t know how much I can teach you. You already know how to stabilize, and to dream walk. That’s... pretty much all I can do, really. I know you like dreaming with your friends, but... I don’t want you to get stuck here like me. Nopony should have to go through this. It’s so horrible and empty, and long and lonely... but if you do get stuck, at least it won’t be lonely. I’ll always be here for you, and I’ll do whatever I can to help you wake up.”
“Hmm. You were in mah dream, while I was wakin’ up, and you didn’t wake up when ah did,” Apple Bloom poised, “You’re stuck even if someone wakes you up. So it really is different ah guess. I couldn’t wake up in Scootaloo’s dream, but Scootaloo could, and when she did, it was just impossible to stay asleep. We all wake up at the same time, when the one dreamin’ wakes.”
The princess added with a relaxed smile, “Plus when you’re in my dream, you don’t have any problem waking up. You can wake up at any time you want. I don’t... remember how I made it like that, but mine aren’t real dreams, I think. I’ve been here too long. This is awake for me, and there are no dreams anymore.”
“So it is different,” Apple Bloom agreed. “Here in your dream ah don’t feel like... tethered to the moment like then, like when ah was in that dream of Scootaloo’s. She was dreamin’ that I had to be there.”
The princess offered a suggestion at that, saying, “I could maybe show you how to shift your focus back to your own dream, when your dreamer awakes, so you don’t have to wake up,” She just shook her head then though, adding dismissively, “That’s about the opposite of what you want to do though. I’d say just don’t worry about it, if you are already waking up fine. But I really, really don’t know.”
“Guess ah could ask the other princess,” Apple Bloom offered. “She’s awake and... sorry ah didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay,” the princess said with an anxious wing ruffle. “I’m just glad that one of me gets to be awake, or however that works.”
“Ah’ll ask her, maybe,” Apple Bloom agreed. “Or maybe a professional dream like counselor or somethin’. They won’t know about pony dreamin’ but maybe...”
Something invisible nudged Apple Bloom. It just nudged her lightly, but for some reason Apple Bloom was compelled to roll over on the cloud they were on, rolling onto her back, and then to hold her front hooves over her. Apple Bloom looked at them confused, wondering why she had to lay like this.
“Looks like your friends are awake,” Twilight said in an echoey sort of voice.
“Oh, right,” Apple Bloom said, starting to realize how she was actually laying in bed, and her hooves were hooked over the covers. “See you later, princess!” she called out, as she left the dream, opening her eyes to join the waking realm again.
The slight movement against Apple Bloom paused, and Sweetie Belle’s voice quietly said, “Thank you, but I was just going to the bathroom... and I’m not a princess.”
“Oh! Heh...” Apple Bloom blushed and ducked her nose under her covers.
Sweetie gave her a teasing look, but just... quietly hopped over Apple Bloom and walked to the side of the bed, the unicorn getting on her belly and swivelling to dangle her hind legs down, dropping them to the floor. With all four legs on the floor, Sweetie Belle went walking towards the cracked open doorway, giving a sleepy yawn mid-stride.
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7010953
I dunno, the connection seems obvious to me. But there are a few possibilities at this point.
7012358
Pinkie Pie showed up in chapter 23, just to give Apple Bloom that relatively giant cupcake.
... *grins*
I SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!
7034941
Oh wow, look at all the cracks this boat has. Perfect! I'll take it! *sinks*
7038127 *gives a soldiers salute after dawning a captains uniform while the boat sinks* A CAPTAIN GOES DOWN WITH HIS SHIP!
7038150
derpicdn.net/img/2012/11/27/165439/medium.jpg
7040515 ... *silently bookmarks the pic for later use*
...Hm. So was the bit with the axe in Ponylike Creatures actually taking place after this chapter? Or this section of this chapter, at least?
...Though Sweetie doesn't seem to be calling this useless for the "quote, useless, unquote".
"Scootaloo poised skeptically"
"posed"?
"On the subject of being ponylike creatures"
...Hm. Did this section in fact used to be in Ponylike Creatures?
8276330
No, I'm pretty sure you found a total continuity failure.
That chapter used to come after this one, I think. Or, parts of it at least. Hm...
One reason I moved it, if I recall. I hate title drops.