No spell for that

by Jeweled Pen

Chapter 15: Rude awakening

Drifting stared at the princess of the moon, her mouth open. Her mother looked like she was about to have a seizure, staring into the eyes of the princess.

“SO! YOUNG DRIFTING! WE HAVE HEARD OF THY'S AILMENT!”

“I-I'm Drifting,” she said softly, glancing between her mother and the princess. Were all the princesses insane? Were all her beliefs in the regality and nobility of the royals going to be shattered this year? “Please stop yelling.”

Luna turned and stared at the young mare. “Oh. Our apologies. So you are the young one who has abandoned her previous guise in order to one day blossom like a flower into a young maiden?”

Drifting nodded slowly, struggling to decipher that. Once she was satisfied she knew what was she said, she spoke up. “I... I think so.”

“Excellent! Your friends have spoken very highly of thou and we have in fact received a letter from the young princess of friendship requesting us to aid in any way we can.”

“O-okay. Err, uhhh, mom. I think I'm good. I'll see you later, okay?”

“Honey, are you sure you don't want me to stick around for... whatever... this is?”

She shook her head. “No. No no. I'm fine. I'm good.” She looked up at the princess. “So, errr... h-how can I help you?”

“It is not how thou can help us, it is how we can help thou! Your friends have requested that we allow you into...” She paused and looked to her mother, who was just staring with wide eyed shock. “Pardon us, child. But this is private and while your daughter has been allowed to know of it, thou has not. We would like to, kindly, ask thou to leave if you have no further business. If thou doest, we can wait.”

“W-what? Oh! I'm leaving, right away, sorry princess!” the mare yelled before galloping out the door.

Princess Luna nodded before looking down at Drifting, her horn glowing and making the door lock. “Yes. We have decided to allow thou entry into the Dreamscape, as one of our many guests.”

“The what what? Huh?” She gulped. “Can, errr, could you tell me exactly what you know? And.... what you want me to do? They didn't tell me anything.”

She nodded. “Indeed! We are aware of thy condition, young maiden. However, fret not! Thou is not the first we have met with such an illness.”

She blinked. “W-wait, really? You met another... err...”

“Indeed. A captain of our lunar guard and, quite like yourself, she chose such a pretty, flowery name for herself. A Petal as well.”

“R-really?” she asked, a little embarrassed she didn't have a unique one. “And you're okay with it?”

“Why of course! Of what harm does it do us for thou to become a maiden?” Her wing slowly moved out, lifting the young mare's head up. “Thou art quite pretty and will make a fare mare to whoever thou chooses. And if thou wishes to be a maiden during such an encounter, do as thou wishes.” She said with a nod.

Drifting stared at the mare, her mouth falling open. She couldn't contain it. She lunged forward and gave her a big hug. Luna looked shocked, but slowly her wings wrapped around the mare.

“There there, child. There is no need for such a reaction. One of our subjects is always a subject to be protected. So please, let not your heart ache. Now. We must depart, however. Head to the lunar guard tower when the clock strikes noon. Thy friends will meet you, and explain all. We welcome you with open hooves into the Dreamscape!”

Drifting nodded, a big smile on her face. She didn't really know what all she meant, but it was going to be exciting at the very least. She watched the princess turn and trot out, a little quiver of excitement running through her veins.

She didn't know what this Dreamscape was, but she couldn't wait to try it out. It had to be exciting if the princess was involved.

------

Drifting could barely contain herself from full galloping out of the castle, quickly bypassing other ponies in her rush to get to the tower. She gave a few nods to the guards as she trotted, but all she could think about now was the excitement of what was to come.

She caught a glimpse of Branding as she trotted, but she ignored the mare’s attempts to get her attention. She wasn't in the mood, far too excited to find out whatever the princess had in store for her. She hoped it was as exciting as she expected.

She soon stood outside the lunar guard tower and took a deep breath. It was now or never. She slowly pushed the door open and stepped inside.

The place was bustling. Pegasi, unicorns, bat ponies and earth ponies, the majority in dark lunar armor, were milling about and talking. She gulped before slowly making her way to the receptionist. “Hello. I, err, I'm here to see--”

“Drifting!” Neon's voice called out and she glanced to the right, catching sight of her friends.

“Neon! Aeon!” Drifting called, galloping to them. “O-oh my gosh I am so happy to see you. Um, Princess Luna woke me this morning and--”

“No, we know,” Aeon said with a grin, shaking her head. “Gotta admit, we didn’t think it’d go this fast. So, um. Surprise. We figured now we’d be telling you about it, but not actually going into it on day one,” she said sheepishly. “So, excited?”

“May… be? I’m not really sure what ‘it’ is though. What is the Dreamscape?”

Aeon blinked a few times and then sighed. “Right. Of course. I guess we should start from the beginning, huh? The Dreamscape is, to be clear. A uhhh… well...”

“A game,” Neon said, giving a nod from besides her.

“It’s not a game!” Aeon said quickly, her face going red. “It’s a specially designed training simulation spell that--”

“It’s a game,” Neon said with a snicker.

The unicorn gave him a glare, before looking back to Drifting. “Ahem. Ignore him. It’s a spell, designed to help draw members of the lunar guard into special simulations. You see, we don’t get a lot of time to like… fight in actual life or death situations. And with the attacks that have occurred recently, it’s only natural that we’d try to get all of our soldiers up to the best they can be, without putting them at actual risk. So we can do it in our dreams. The Dreamscape lets ponies gather up and go on training exercises against other ponies. Now, it’s only in the testing and, currently, it’s mostly maintained by unicorns, with only a hoofful of non-soldiers and non-unicorn permitted within. Aeon is one of them. However, we’ve gotten special permission to allow you inside. It won’t be easy, mind. It can be a bit disorienting at first.”

“Wait, so like… it’s a dream, right?”

“Sorta,” she said quickly. “But you’re not actually asleep. We have to put you under while in it. And there are certain… dangers. And even when you wake up, you’ll likely be sore as heck. Even though you’re sleeping, that doesn’t mean it’s ‘easy’. Also, you’ll find you remember everything. It’d hardly be a training tool if not for it, would it? It can take a bit of getting used to, but you’ll be fine with us there with you.”

“… But it’s basically a game, though, right?”

Aeon gave a long suffering sigh and face hoofed. “Fine. It’s a game.”

“… Why do you want me to do this, though? I mean, if it’s just a dream…. I already play a bunch. And it’s not really--”

“You could be a girl in it.”

“… Come again?”

“It’s your dream self,” Aeon said with a smile, grinning at the other mare. She could see by the way she was leaning in, that Drifting was now entirely hooked on the bait. “You’ll be able to be a girl in it.”

“I-I can?”

“You ca-- eek!” Aeon found herself suddenly glomped by a small, excited unicorn.

“Oh my gosh you’re the best pony in the whole world! No, the universe! Oh my gosh, you’ll let me? Really? You’ll let me try this?!”

The mare snickered and gave a nod. “Of course,” the older unicorn whispered, petting her head. “It’ll be fun, okay? But really, you should thank the Princess of Friendship, not me. If it wasn’t for her, we’d have never gotten permission to bring an unaffiliated civilian to all this.”

Drifting nodded. “O-okay! Thank you. Oh my gosh. I am going to write like… a five page thank you letter when I get home.”

Neon snorted. “Oh? So you are her student then?” he teased.

“No, but she DESERVES it! When do I start, when do I start? When when when?” Drifting asked, practically hopping up and down.

Aeon shook her head and pulled back. “Okay, come on then. Let’s go get you tucked in, okay?” she said, turning and walking through the door opposite them. She couldn’t help but notice all the lunar guard ponies who were watching her with looks of amusement mixed with concern. She gave a nod and mouthed ‘it’s fine’ to them. She hoped it’d be fine, at least.

Drifting barely resisted squealing while they walked through the halls of the compound. There were a lot of ponies in dark blue armor with moon emblems on them. She saw a few pegasi, but the majority seemed to be unicorns. She couldn’t really be surprised, though. A spell like this had to require a LOT of magic. She couldn’t imagine how many unicorns it probably took for every non-unicorn that entered.

They stopped outside a door near the end of the hall and she stared at it. “Are you ready?” Aeon asked.

“As ready as I’ll ever be...”

“Don’t worry, it’s not so bad,” Neon said with a snicker. “It can be a bit jarring the first few times. But you’re a unicorn, so it’ll probably be easy. You’re used to the whole… magic thing,” he said before giving a shove on the door and opening it.

Inside the massive room was a massive chamber, easily the biggest room she’d ever seen. Even compared to the massive ones in the castle. It was filled with dozens, no, possibly hundreds of beds. Almost all of them filled with ponies who seemed to be asleep. They weren’t hooked up to anything. Instead, there were a dozen or so unicorns in the same dark armor of the lunar guard wandering about, checking on ponies. Drifting felt like she was going to have a heart attack. She could FEEL the amount of magical energy being gathered and flowing through this room. Each unicorn giving a fragment towards a greater whole. And…

Her eyes were drawn up to the light. And she realized all too quickly that the massive, oval ‘light’ that was built into the roof wasn’t a light at all. It glowed with magical energy, illuminating the room. It was covered in runes. “That’s the focus, isn’t it?” she asked softly, pointing at it.

“Eeyup,” Aeon said with a nod. “One hundred percent moon stone. The princess herself supplied it. Now, they are talking about altering the focus to something more common in the future, and just using moon stone as the ‘beacons’ to connect different points at the waylines.”

“Why?”

“Because this is new,” Aeon said with a grin. “But it could be the beginning of a brand new wave of technology. For now it’s only for military ponies, but in the future this might become incredibly common for even normal households.”

“So basically use it as a game,” Neon said with a snicker. “There have already been a few companies that have been requesting permission to use the technology for development.”

Aeon sighed. “Fine, it WILL likely be a game. Eventually. But right now it is a VERY experimental training tool. So please treat it with the dignity and respect it deserves.”

Drifting nodded. “Right. So what do I do?”

“I’ll answer that,” one of the unicorns said while he trotted towards them. “Aeon. I take it this is the… civilian the princess has allowed to enter?” he asked. He turned his gaze on Drifting and made the mare shiver. She didn’t know why, but she already had a feeling this pony did not like her. Or maybe he didn’t like anypony, judging by the way he looked at the others as well.

“Yes. Drifting, this is Cottonpress. He’s one of the developers for the Dreamscape.”

Drifting gave a weak little wave. He had a dark coat, with a black and gray striped tail and main. She wondered if that was his actual colorations, or just required dye jobs for lunar guards. Considering almost everypony here seemed to have them, she assumed the latter.

“I see...” the stallion mumbled. “Once again I will voice my concerns about letting a civilian, let alone a minor, into the Dreamscape.”

“I-I’m graduating in a few years...” Drifting said softly, her eyes lowered.

“And you have yet to have earned your place as an adult, ergo, you are a minor,” Cottonpress said harshly. “And should NOT be involved in such a procedure.” He then gave a long suffering sigh. “However. As the princess has decreed, we, her soldiers, shall do. I cannot pretend to understand WHY she would desire this, Drifting. But I am sure our lady has her reasons. Now then, please follow me.” With that, the stallion turned and trotted away.

“He doesn’t like me, does he?” she whispered to Aeon.

“He doesn’t really like anybody except his work,” she whispered back. “Don’t worry, you’re fine. He’s just… uptight is all. And worried something will come down to cancel his baby. He’s been a part of this since the beginning...”

The stallion stopped besides a bed, and motioned Drifting into it. “Lay down. I will apply the necessary spells. Now, in theory, there should be no actual danger in the tests we will be performing today. However...” Two more lunar ponies trotted forward. “Aeon, Neon, you two will go in first, while I fill her in on all the details.”

Drifting gave the other two a nervous nod before turning back to the stallion. She started to crawl into the bed. “So… I just sleep?”

“Not quite yet. Sit, first. Ahem. Now, you have been told all of the risks, correct?” he asked, staring intently at her.

“Not… really...”

He sighed. “The princess asks, and we do...” he muttered, pulling out a clipboard. “The princess has gone ahead and procured your medical chart for this operation. While it has been perused already by one of my colleagues, I’d like to do a final check. First and foremost. Have you ever been in a group spell casting before?” She shook her head. “The effects are simple enough. You’ll have a constant drain on your magic and...” He stopped and examined the chart for a moment. He then looked back up at her. Then back at the chart. “Huh.”

“Huh?”

“… Your legal name is Snowy--”

“Yes,” she said quickly.

“And you’re a--”

“Yes.”

“… I see. Then allow me to warn you. You’re not the first to enter in this condition. And it may be quite jarring.”

“… Really?” she asked softly. “Someone else like… me has?”

“Yes. Not many, however. You’ll likely enter as a stallion, depending on how far along you are,” he said, his tone calm and relaxed.

“W-what? But I want to--” She stopped when he raised a hoof.

“The first few times. The Dreamscape enters us as we see ourselves. It can be altered and ‘fixed’ with a simple spell. Though this is something I SHOULD have been warned of before...” he muttered, distastefully. “Are you prone to nightmares?”

“Errr...”

“Yes, then. I will warn you now. This is still, for lack of a better term, a dream. If you cannot control your mind, you are likely to bring or something dangerous. Possibly putting yourself, or others, in danger. Understand?”

She nodded sheepishly, feeling the panic start to well up within. What horrors was she going to accidentally unleash? What if she COULDN’T fix it and even there she had to be a boy?

“The magic we use to put you under should, fortunately, ensure that if anything DOES happen while you’re under, you’ll wake up almost instantly. There are, of course, still dangers. If anything happened too quickly, you could be mentally scarred. The first subjects, before we… perfected the spell...” He closed his eyes, before shaking his head. “Fortunately, there are now plenty of dream walkers to help you through this matter.”

“Dream walkers?”

“Soldiers who focus primarily on dream magic. They assist the princess in the dream realm. Most are, currently, focused on aiding us with this project. Now… I need you to sign some waivers.”

“Err… but… I’m a minor. Will that still be okay if I do it?”

“Yes,” he said firmly. “In the end, this threat level constitutes only a D rank level threat to you. You are able to sign off on it without parental approval,” he said before sliding the clipboard over. “The princess would have never allowed your entry if there was any true danger.”

“Okay...” she mumbled, going over it and reading slowly. Once she finished, she signed it and turned it back over to him. “Now what?”

“Lie down and relax.”

“Yes, sir...” she mumbled, laying down. Her cheeks burned red as he pulled covers over her. She couldn’t believe he was tucking her in. She wasn’t –

And then everything went dark.

Author's Note:

Okay, finally. So, some good news. I'm back... ish. For now. However, I may be returning fully soon. A REALLY good opportunity has hit me and, depending on how it turns out, I may become a full time writer. At least, for a while. That'll mean all writing, all the time.

For now, I'm trying to regain my pen and start getting back into my writing exercises. I'm starting slowly, but I am hopeful that I'll not only regain my edge, but I'll finish NSFT in the coming months. It's near the end as it was unless I decide on writing a sequel. So today, you'll have TWO chapters, as thanks for all my wonderful fans and... well... for all those people who just need a story like this. I know when I started, I really, really did. And in many ways, I still do. I'll have more notes in the end of the next chapter when I post it. Thank you for your patience.

Comments

[Halira]

Holy crap it's not dead. This one I actually recognized what it was when it popped up on my feed after a long absence.

[Captain Absolution]

Whoa, it's back, time for an reread.

[Cross Lament]

Ooo hey, welcome back.

[SkyDream]

Wow, this was unexpected. I'm glad to see this story is getting finished. Great job on this chapter!

[Mocha Star]

Ah, the classic abuse of Luna's archaic speak pops up in another story.
Lol

[Jeweled Pen]

11335679
Luna is fuuuuun in this story. XD