Dreamers Beware

by ApplauseJunkie

Introductions

Pinkie Pie couldn't stop pacing. She had asked Cheese Sandwich for some time alone, and had gone out to the castle gardens to think. The pink pony had more on her mind than just Fluttershy. She still hadn't talked to Cheese about leaving Ponyville to go on a party tour with him. The more she thought about it, the more she knew she couldn't leave her friends, but the more pain she felt at having to see Cheese Sandwich leave again without her.

Finding herself in a patch of tulips, Pinkie flopped down onto her stomach and sighed miserably. "What am I gonna do?" she asked a ladybug who was making its way up a nearby stem.

Rolling over onto her back, she groaned. "I know exactly what I'm gonna do, and I really don't want to do it!"

"Do what?" asked a voice, and the tulips bent in the breeze of Rainbow Dash's wings as she landed next to the distraught Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie covered her face with her hooves. "I have to tell Cheese Sandwich that I can't go with him to party all over Equestria because I can't leave Ponyville because it's where my friends are and it's my home and I just don't want to tell him because then he's gonna leave without me and then I'll be miserable again because I love him and I'm already miserable because I know I have to tell him and I don't want toooo!" she wailed pathetically.

Dash stared at her for a moment, letting her sobs slow down. "He asked you to travel Equestria with him?"

Pinkie nodded. "Mhm."

"Did he say you'd have to leave Ponyville forever? Because that's how you're making it sound."

The pink pony sniffed. "Well...I just thought--"

"--Cuz I mean, he's gotta have a base camp somewhere, right? Where else does he keep all that crazy stuff like that giant party cannon and the hippopotamus and enough fruit punch to fill a lake?"

"What?"

"All I'm saying is I bet he has some kind of permanent residence somewhere. It just makes sense. Where does he go when no one in Equestria is having a party?"

Pinkie Pie wiped her eyes, thinking it over. "Hm..."

"What if he moved that base to Ponyville? That way you could see him in between parties, and go with him some of the time, without being gone all the time."

Rainbow Dash cried out as Pinkie Pie suddenly tackled her with a hug. "Rainbow Dash, you're brilliant!" she squealed, squeezing her friend until the pegasus had to tap her arm for air.

"No--" she gasped, "--problem." She smiled as Pinkie zoomed away to find Cheese and ask him about moving to Ponyville, then took off back into the sky.

Inside the castle, a pair of guards was very carefully spooning broth into Fluttershy and Discord's mouths. It had been over twelve hours now since Discord had followed Fluttershy into the realm of dreams, but since Fluttershy had gone under long before Discord had, they weren't sure how long she had left. Already her face was ghastly pale, and her breathing was getting shallow. The guards did their best to keep both sleepers fed, but it would take more than food to keep them alive.

In the dream world, Discord was trying to come up with a plan. How could he convince her that he was real and the rest of this world wasn't? Simply explaining it to her wouldn't work; she'd just think he was crazy. Somehow he had to get her to believe in him of her own free will.

He glanced over at her, watching her as she wandered. He ached to run to her and scoop her into his arms and carry her away from this place, but she didn't know him, and he couldn't bring himself to kidnap her outright. Besides, he wasn't sure it would work.

However, he knew he couldn't just sit here and think. Time was running out, and he needed to get Fluttershy out of here before the nightshade locked her permanently in the dream realm. So he stood up and walked cautiously over to her.

"Fluttershy?" he murmured tentatively.

She turned around, her eyes somewhat unfocused, as if she couldn't tell where his face was. "Yes? Are you the one who spoke to me earlier? You ran away so quickly I didn't hear your name."

Discord suppressed the pain of her ignorance and replied, "Yes, that's me. My name is Discord. I'm very pleased to...meet you." It wasn't a meeting, but she didn't know that. He offered his eagle claw for her to shake. She went to take it, but instead her hoof passed straight through him. Discord blinked. "What--"

He reached his claw up and gingerly tried to touch her mane, but he couldn't make contact; his claw passed through her like a ghost. Getting desperate, he attempted to touch her face, with no success. "Can you feel that?" he asked, although he already knew the answer.

Fluttershy shook her head. "No. It's like you're not really there."

"But you can sort of see me, right?"

She nodded. "You're blurry, but I can tell that you're tall and mostly brown. I think your head is gray, though."

It was little comfort to know that he was only visible as blobs of color, but at least he was visible at all. A thought struck him. "Well, what if I tell you what I look like? I can describe it in great detail, and then you can imagine what I look like instead of just a blur."

Fluttershy beamed. "That would be perfect!" she squealed, and promptly sat down on her haunches and closed her eyes, ready to imagine.

"Well," Discord began, "My head and neck are gray, and I have a short black mane. My eyes are yellow with red pupils, and I have one dragon fang in my mouth. The rest of my teeth are normal."

"Which side is the dragon fang on?" Fluttershy asked.

"The right side. I have bushy white eyebrows and a white goat's beard. I also have one deer antler and one goat horn on my head."

Fluttershy looked confused by this point. "What kind of creature are you, exactly? I've never heard of anything like you're describing."

Discord grimaced. "I'm a draconequus," he said. "I'm the only one in Equestria."

"There used to be more of you?"

"Oh, not here in Equestria. I came here by myself."

"Where are the other draconequus-es?" Fluttershy stumbled over how to make 'draconequus' plural.

"We came from a land far, far away. But that was thousands and thousands of years ago."

"Wait, then how old are you?"

Discord paused. He had stopped keeping track of that some time ago. "I'm not sure. Probably close to twenty thousand by now."

"Twenty thousand...?"

"Give or take. Draconeqqui are immortal."

"Wow."

Discord blushed. "I--well--yes, we're immortal. So are alicorns, you know. And dragons live practically forever. It really isn't all that rare."

"But still! Twenty thousand years old? You must have seen and done so many things!"

Not many you would approve of, thought Discord bitterly, but he just coughed and hurried along. "Yes, well. We digress. The rest of my body from the neck down is brown, and very long--like you said, I'm tall. My right arm is a lion's paw and my left arm is an eagle's claw. My right leg is a green lizard's leg, and my left leg is a goat leg, complete with cloven hoof. My tail is a snake tail with red scales, and at the end of it is a little tuft of white feathers."

"Are all draconequus--um, are all of your kind like that?"

"Like what?"

"All mixed up like that."

"Oh, yes! That's part of what makes us draconequui! We're all made up of different parts, not one of us looks like another."

"Then how do you know there aren't others in Equestria that just look different?"

"I would be able to sense them with my magic."

"You have magic?"

Discord winced. He had almost forgotten that Fluttershy still had no idea who he was; it was just so easy to talk to her. Mentally, he kicked himself for getting too comfortable. Then he took a deep breath and continued. "Yes, I have very powerful magic. Draconequi are creatures of chaos, and we have magic to match."

"Chaos?"

"Yes, you know, randomness, confusion, disharmony..." he trailed off as Fluttershy's face began to look worried. "Oh, I'm not dangerous or anything! I would never hurt you, Fluttershy." He bit his lip as he remembered that it was his failure to protect her that had landed them both here in the first place. "Never."

Fluttershy relaxed a little, and Discord had an idea. "Here, why don't you let me show you? Tell me something you like, anything. A flower, a food, a certain type of music, anything at all!"

Discord bounced on his toes eagerly as she thought. "Well, um, I like tulips..."

With a snap of his fingers they were surrounded by a field of multicolored tulips. Fluttershy gasped. Discord groaned slightly. Every single one of them was as blurry as the rest of the world.

"Are they tulips?" Fluttershy asked, trying to touch one and finding her hoof pass straight through it without even bending the stem.

Discord sighed. "Yes, they are. I had hoped they would be a little more real..."

But Fluttershy just smiled. "Oh, that's all right. I remember what tulips smell like, and I can imagine their pretty little flowers."

For a moment, Discord was still, watching her with a small smile on his face. Eventually, she turned back to him with wonder in her eyes. "Can you make anything appear? Just like that?"

Discord shrugged. "There are limitations, but pretty much."

"Will they all be blurry like that?"

He groaned. "Probably. In the real world they're not, but it seems like everything I do here isn't completely real."

Fluttershy looked perplexed. "The real world?"

"Don't you remember the place you lived in before you came here?"

"Well, yes, but I didn't know you came from there."

"Your friends sent me to bring you back."

"Back?"

"To the waking world."

Fluttershy blinked. "You mean, like just wake up?"

Discord nodded hopefully. Somewhere in his gut he suspected it wouldn't be this easy, but he desperately wanted to be wrong. With bated breath, he watched as Fluttershy closed her eyes and concentrated. Her image started to ripple...and then solidified.

Discord's face drooped as she opened her eyes again, still firmly in the dream realm.

"What's the matter? Why didn't it work?"

Fluttershy shook her head, putting a hoof to her temple. "I can't wake up."

Discord stiffened. "WHAT?!"

"I--I can't wake up." Fluttershy was starting to look frightened. "My waking self isn't strong enough."

The ground beneath Discord literally crumbled. He flapped his wings and hovered over the blurry hole in the ground. He racked his brain frantically, trying to find a loophole. "Um--um--take my body! My waking body is right next to yours! You can have it!"

Fluttershy looked at him curiously. "How can your body be right next to mine when I've never met you until I came here?"

"But I'm there, Fluttershy, I swear! I'm real, just like you! I--I--" he choked back the tears that were forming in his throat as he recognized the disbelief on Fluttershy's face. "What will it take to convince you that I'm real?"

The pegasus frowned. "I don't know. I've never had this problem before. I wish I could see you," she sighed.

Discord groaned, knowing that the only way she would be able to see him was if she believed he was real. Despair started to set in, weighing on his joints and bringing him to his knees, then onto all fours. He was almost ready to give up and collapse when he caught a glance of the fear on Fluttershy's face. He gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and forced himself to stand upright. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. I'll find a way to get you out of here. I promise."

Fluttershy's eyes turned upwards, and Discord could have sworn he was looking directly at his face. "Thank you, Discord."

Comments

[taterforlife]

Oh, I'm so glad to see you're still writing! I'm so curious to find out how Discord is going to prove Fluttershy that he's real, that they pretty much have to start all over again from scratch, but before it's too late! My only suggestion is that when writing what Alberich's crystal is saying is to put it in italics, or some other way to distinguish that it's talking. I had some trouble transitioning between it talking and the narration of the story.

Otherwise, good work!!! I look forward to the rest!

[ApplauseJunkie]

5754933
Oh, it was originially in italics. I guess it didn't transfer from the word document. I'll fix that real quick.

[Marina Stars]

Wow, getting Fluttershy to beleive is going to be hard. I kind of changed.my mind, that might be the real Fluttershy. It probably is. Now O must continue reading.