Dreamstrider

by OkemosBrony

Chapter 4

I look up from my plate and look at Princess Luna, and she does the same as she smiles at me. I try to go back to eating dinner, but it’s really awkward with us just sitting in silence.

“So how was school?” she asks, causing me to look up at her. “I know that I was busy and wasn’t able to ask you earlier.”

“It was good,” I smile a little. “The stuff seems really hard, but the teacher put us into groups. Two of them are really nice, but one of the colts is kind of weird. Didn’t really say anything all day.”

“He might just be nervous,” she guesses. “He has to meet all new ponies, and if he is not from Canterlot, he has to adjust to a new city too. Perhaps if you show him some kindness, he will feel more welcome and open up to you.”

I sigh a little. That could’ve been me, so she’s right. If I wasn’t lucky enough to be with Princess Luna, I wouldn’t know anypony either. And I know the ponies from outside Canterlot live in rooms near the school with somepony else, so he doesn’t even get his own space. That must be hard. I’m sure he’s just nervous.

“Did you learn anything interesting?” she asks.

I nod and start eating again. “Yeah, we learned about runes and charms today. I didn’t know anything about them, but I think I kind of understand them. The teacher gave us a textbook which has all our homework and some practice problems in it, so I can practice if I need it.”

“I can help you if you do,” she says after finishing the food she’s eating. “Charms are not incredibly important in Dreamstriding, though, so don’t feel bad if you don’t fully understand it. I’ll tell you what’s important so you can make sure you’re comfortable with it.”

“What even is Dreamstriding like?”

“What do you mean?” she asks, tilting her head.

“Just...how does it feel?”

She thinks about it for a moment, staring at the wall behind me. “It’s difficult to explain.” She pauses for a few seconds. “You feel...disconnected from your body. When you’re in the dream world, it’s not your real body.”

“Then what is it?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” she admits. “Whether it’s your mind or something else, I’m not sure. But in that world, you feel much more connected with your emotions and your magic, due to the loss of a physical form. And you’re much more aware of the ambient magic around you. Though I do it no justice; it’s truly indescribable.”

“Sounds exciting,” I smile. “Can you teach me?”

“How does tonight sound?” she asks excitedly. “If you feel you’re up for it.”

“I’d love to!” I yell, probably a little too loud. But she doesn’t seem to mind; she just laughs a little. But maybe I should dial it back a little.

“I’ll come to you tonight, around 9:30. You may do whatever it is you like until then.” She points her fork at my plate, just the way mom used to. “But make sure to eat up; Dreamstriding can be tiring early on. If you don’t feed yourself well, you might be a little too overwhelmed.”

“You sound like my mom,” I laugh as I take her advice and start eating some more.

She smiles back at me. “Well, it’s good advice. And good food too, so don’t be shy.” She points at the probably dozens of platters and trays at the table, each one piled up high with really good-looking food. She really wasn’t kidding about the serviceponies going all out for her.

It must be frustrating, telling them all the time but never having anypony listen to you. I wonder what she meant when she said she and Princess Celestia have some fun with the ponies, though. I’ll probably figure out eventually. Sounds like I’m going to be here for a while.

---

There’s some knocking at my door, completely bringing me out of the super concentration I was in while reading my book. When I look at the clock, it’s almost the time Princess Luna said she’d meet me at. I’ve probably only got a few chapters left in the Daring Do book, too. Something really must not want me to finish it.

“Come on in!” I call to her as I put my book on the nightstand. There’s always tomorrow, I guess. She opens the door and comes in, carrying a large tray with a teapot on it with her.

“What’s that for?” I ask, pointing at the tray.

“It’s to help you,” she says, moving my book to my dresser and placing it down on the nightstand.

“How’s it supposed to help me?”

“Tea can have some very interesting properties,” she tells me as she opens the small glass jar full of tea leaves on it.

“Like what?” I ask as I watch her work.

She opens a small metal wire ball at the end of a small chain and puts some of the leaves in it. “This blend will help you enter the dream world. One day, I will teach you about the properties of different types of tea.”

She puts the ball in a mug, then powers up her horn and starts heating up the tea. “Excited?” she asks.

I squirm a little. “Yeah,” I say nervously.

“I’m sure you’ll do fine,” she comforts me, pouring the now-boiling water into the mug. “I have confidence in you.” After blowing some steam away from it, she passes the mug to me.

It warms my hooves as I grab it. But when I move it near my mouth, the smell wafts up to my nose. It smells just like mulch. Not a great smell.

“Not yet,” she stops me by putting a hoof out. Her horn glows with magic again, turning on my bedside lamp and turning off the main lights.

“Why’d you do that?” I use the opportunity to move the mulch tea away from my nose.

“It helps you enter the dream world,” she says, pointing both hooves at her head. “Too much light, and your eyes get distracted. Too little light, and your mind gets distracted. By having low light, neither your mind nor your eyes have enough to get distracted.” That makes sense, I guess. My mind always races when I try to fall asleep, and I can’t sleep with a light on.

“Is that it?” I ask, waiting for her to let me know when to start.

She nods. “Drink a little bit.”

When I take a little sip, I find out that it really does taste like it smells; just like mulch. It was like the time dad was mulching his garden, and I tripped and got a mouthful of it. Mom got mad at him for laughing, but I laughed a little too. I was fine.

When I’m about halfway done with the tea, Princess Luna takes the mug in her magic and places it back on the tray. “Now, close your eyes and try to calm down.”

After taking a deep breath, I close my eyes and try to get all the thoughts out of my head. I don’t know if it’s the tea, but my thoughts seem quieter, somehow. And I’m aware of my horn now, whatever that’s supposed to mean. Like, I can feel the magic in my mind, slowly flowing around and in and out of my horn.

“Do you feel the pulling in your mind?” she asks.

“Pulling?” I ask.

She shushes me quietly. “Do you feel it? A weak pull on the outskirts of your mind? Wanting to move your mind, yet your mind resists?”

I really can feel a little pull that feels a lot like it’s magical. That might be it. “I think I feel it.”

“Good,” she says. “Now latch onto it, grasp it.”

When I put my hooves out and try to feel something, I just hit warm fur. I can hear her laugh a little as she takes my hooves and moves them to my own chest. “No, with your mind. There is nothing physical for you to touch.”

“How do I grab it with my mind?”

“It’s...difficult to explain,” she says after thinking for a little bit. “Just try to imagine engulfing your thoughts around that pull.”

I try to do as she says, but it’s more difficult than it sounds. It doesn’t feel like anything is getting done. “Will I know when it works?”

“You will feel it when you have a firm grasp, yes. The pull will intensify, and you will feel the magic already in your body much better than you do now as you go closer to the dream world.”

I try to grab it, but whatever I try and think about, nothing actually happens.

Maybe I should use something with my magic? I power up my horn, but I feel a hoof come down gently on it and stop it. “Not with magic,” she says quietly. “With your mind.”

I still don’t know what that means, so I try everything I can think of. Gently clutching my back legs so Princess Luna won’t see my trying to grab real objects, moving my magic around in my mind, picturing myself grabbing things, and concentrating even harder to the point that my teeth grit together. I can still feel the pull in my mind, but nothing else. Nothing is changing. When I can’t get it to work, I just open my eyes and see Princess Luna looking at me.

“Nothing worked,” I say, defeated.

“It’s fine,” she says while getting off my bed. “It’s not something that you can usually do the first time. I just want you to get accustomed to thinking about starting to Dreamstride.” When she takes the tray with the tea on it and walks near the door, she points towards my dresser. “I had them bring some paper and a few quills for you, by the way. I figured you might want to write back home.”

“Princess Luna?” I speak up.

“Yes?” she asks, turning around and looking at me with a little worry on her face.

“What if I’m not a Dreamstrider?”

“You’re a Dreamstrider,” she says, putting the tray on my dresser and walking back to my bed. She smiles lightly, then puts a hoof on my forehead. “I guarantee it.”

“Are you sure? I couldn’t even enter the dream world.”

“You said you felt the pulling, yes? You weren’t just saying you did because you thought you needed to?”

I shake my head. I definitely felt it. I feel it every night, but I guess I only noticed it tonight because of the tea. Or maybe it caused it to be there. I’m not sure which.

“Then you are. The fact that you even felt the pulling means you are a Dreamstrider; it is your mind aching to enter the dream world, where it knows it belongs. And I’ve seen your dreams at night; the magic that comes out of them is the magic of a Dreamstrider.” Smiling, she messes up my mane a little. “We have all the time in the world, and it will likely be a while before you can successfully Dreamstride. Do not lose hope, Aurora; you have to believe in yourself before you can.” With that, she walks back towards my dresser and takes the tray in her magic again.

I smile as she walks out. Maybe I should write home, that’ll make me feel better. I bet mom’s sitting on the couch downstairs, trying to get her mind off me being gone. It’s what she does when Snowy and Dew Drop go to camp every summer. And they never write, even though dad always tells them to. So she’ll probably be excited to get a letter.

I look out over my bed, but remembering how cold the floors can be, I instead go to the end of the bed and hop onto the rug. I have to walk across the cold floor to get to the dresser, though, so it didn’t really do a whole lot in the long run.

My butt becomes as cold as the floor when I sit down, but I guess it’ll just motivate me to write fast. I take one of the pieces of paper off the top and get a quill ready, then try and start writing.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I look at it, then shove the piece of paper aside and grab another.

Dear Mom, Dad, Snowy, and Dew Drop,

I don’t really get why I feel like I need to include them. They probably wouldn’t care, but I don’t want them to feel left out.

Canterlot is nice. I haven’t been able to go out and explore the city yet, but Princess Luna said we might be able to go out this weekend together. She’s really nice. I don’t see why so many ponies are scared of her.

I have to go to Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns for school, which seems like it might be kind of hard. A lot of the ponies there know a lot more about magic than I do, but the teacher put us in small groups and she put me in a group with a couple of really nice and smart ponies, so they’ll be able to help me. And Princess Luna offered to help me whenever I need it.

I look down at the letter and sigh a little.

I miss all of you.

Love, Aurora

I do miss them, I really do. But it’s weird. I miss them, but not as much as I thought I might. I just don’t think it’s really hit me yet.

Without really thinking it through, I grab the quill and put it to the paper again.

P.S. I tried Dreamstriding tonight! It didn’t work, though. Princess Luna gave me some tea that tasted like mulch which she said would help me, but I wasn’t able to. She said nopony gets it on the first try though, and we’ll keep trying until I get it.

I smile. It feels good to end on a happier note, not one where I get sad because I miss them. But I do.

Canterlot’s going to be fun, but it’s going to be hard being away from my family for so long.