• Published 22nd Dec 2016
  • 5,490 Views, 1,260 Comments

Perchance to Dream - David Silver



Linda settled for bed, only to awaken in the middle of a garden of statues of horses. She was one of them, only not so stone. When she eventually slumbered there, she returned home. Living two lives, can she make sense of it all? Fix it, or enjoy it?

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67 - Balance

While getting a nap was a fine enough idea, I had other things to do. I set the cup of coffee down gently. "Thank you, Minuette, but I think I should get to work."

"Going to look for the humans?" She turned for the door. "I'll come with. I'm curious what happened to them myself."

I hesitated a moment, but thought it through. She was a friend of Princess Twilight, so she wasn't a nobody. She had powerful time magic, though I hadn't seen the full measure of it. If she wanted to help, why argue it? So far, she had been dependable enough, and nice to have around. "Alright. I was going to go to the castle first and ask about it, see if we can't dig up any leads."

She ambled along beside me as we headed out towards the castle. Was she another 'interest' for my newfound stallion interests? No. No she was not. She was cute, but I was quite occupied with life at the moment to be worrying about 'that' kind of thing. I could worry about boyfriends and girlfriends after my life stopped being a political drama. If that was ever going to happen.

At the castle, the guards waved us past, and we found the princess of the night was the one in attendance. Luna seemed happy to see us. "Good that you're back," she started with a smile. "Any news?"

"Good to see you too." I gestured to Minuette with a hoof. "This is Minuette. She's helping."

"Charmed." Heads were dipped at one another politely.

"Now, about humans." I sat down on my haunches. "Myself not included, the odds of my being so very special that I'm the only one seems unlikely."

Minuette bobbed her head. "I wasn't going to say anything. I mean, if you wanted to be special, who am I to pop that bubble?" She giggled softly. "So, hear anything about it, Luna?"

Luna raised a hoof a few inches before it came back down lightly. "I haven't heard of humans, not specifically, but there are always rumors and reports of strange beasts. It can be difficult to sort through them." She inclined her head at me. "I mean no disrespect, but what would a human be to a pony?"

I didn't fight the smirk that came free. "A strange beast, much the same that the human world fears when they see ponies. Can we narrow down the reports at least?"

Luna pointed before moving. "I will show you to the records, but I am afraid I have other work to do this evening. The night will not guard itself, I'm afraid."

Minuette beat us there, somehow. She was standing beside the door when we arrived, smiling brightly. "They wouldn't let me in." She jerked her head towards the stoic guards.

"As well they shouldn't." Luna nodded. "But now they may." Her eyes were on them. "They are permitted entry. Good luck in your research, and thank you, for your efforts for those ponies. I hope they are returned safely soon." She trotted away, presumably to 'guard the night', however one did that.

Minuette made a grand sweep towards the door. "After you, my prince." She giggled softly.

I decided to take her at face value. She was joking around. A dip of the head, and I went past the guards into the cluttered disaster. Scrolls, piles of parchments, and cubby holes for cubby holes greeted me as I looked around the intimidating mess. Where was a search engine when I really wanted one?

Minuette bounded in after me and peered around a moment before her specialty struck. "They're at least chronological."

That was good. I went to where Minuette pointed and saw things as recent as that day. Reports and sightings of all kinds of things. Some of them had names. Chimeras, hydras... a beholder? It seemed a lot of monsters lived in this world alongside the adorable little ponies. How on earth did they survive? It did make sense that they would go big or go home, with densely populated cities where one was relatively safe from being chomped on. But... Ponyville wasn't a dense city, and it seemed to do fine.

I shook my head free of the distracting puzzle. I had a task! "Look for things with two legs, that's an easy start."

"Roger wilco," chimed Minuette, ever cheerful, and we both got to work digging through the papers.

Unicorn magic made it easier to sift through the dense mess. I didn't want to imagine doing it with hooves or mouth.

"Here!" Minuette thrust a glowing scroll in front of me. "Suspicious, I think."

I took it from her magic into my own and unfurled it to give it a look. It came from a town called 'Hollow Shades'. "Where is that?"

Minuette shrugged. "I haven't been there myself, but I hear the bat ponies are from there."

Bat ponies? Terrifying, or adorable. Considering the world I was in, I decided cute was more likely. Hopefully, if there was a human involved, they agreed. Dated just a few days prior, a foal reported seeing some 'strange slender creature with two legs'. It had fled when she spotted it. It could be a human, or a thousand other things... "Keep looking."

And there it was. Far more damning. There apparently was a section for it, which amused me. Apparently ponies falling in love with strange creatures was a thing that happened often enough to make space for it. Marriage announcements. Within I found the tale of an earth pony stallion that had found love in the form of an exotic creature. 'She has two legs, two arms, and ten clever fingers that know how to make me melt. She is mostly naked of fur except on top of her head, and where her limbs meet her torso. She is helpful, intelligent, and we love each other,' it described. A human female, a woman, had gotten married to a stallion.

I set the scroll aside. "That's one confirmation."

"And I think I have another." Minuette thrust a small bundle of parchment towards me in her magic, but the papers pulled back as soon as they went forward. "Uh oh. Hey, do you mind if you take a nap?"

"What? But we have work to do."

"You'll thank me later."

I was asleep.

I was asleep as a stallion. I dreamed of galloping across grassy fields. I met other ponies. It was happy, and simple, and fragmented as dreams tend to be. Then I suddenly ran right into a human. It started me awake.

My eyes snapped open to find I was still in the document room. Minuette was picking her way through diligently. A small pile was arrayed beside her. She perked an ear at me. "Have a nice nap?"

"Did you magic me asleep?" I stood up, still shaking the sleep from my eyes.

"I did, please don't be mad." She pointed at my hooves. "You were starting to slip, and now you're still here. See, it worked! Also! Look!" She hefted up the stacks with her hooves. "I have plenty of material for you."

There was a problem with that... "How can I know how much time went by in my, uh, original world?"

"I suppose you can't." She tilted her head one way and then the other. "Oh, right! Twilight said you tend to snap awake whenever something bothers you over there. Since that didn't happen, no alarms must have gone off or friends come knocking, so we're alright?"

Did that mean I actually spent some time resting after visiting normally? It had to. "Huh, if that's true, it means there won't be any warning. I'll just flash-freeze when it's time to wake up."

Minuette nodded. "Less warning, but more time to enjoy yourself. A fair trade, right? Just don't do anything risky." She laid a hoof on the stacks of scrolls she had dug up. "Reading is pretty safe. It looks like it's been going on for a while. You're not the first, or the last."

Alright, so I wasn't all that special, but... "That means ponies have been falling onto Earth for a while, likely just as long." How had it been kept a secret? What were other countries doing with ponies that appeared among them? "How many?"

"Not a lot." She shrugged. "I count maybe a dozens spread out. Of course, these are just the ones I found."

Which meant a lot more likely came, some not even to the country of ponies. "Just another strange monster..." I shook my head. "I think I'm happy being a horse in horse land."

"Aw, don't be like that." Her horn glowed as the marriage announcement floated into view. "It looks like some of them found happiness."

That was reassuring in a way. "Some of them probably want to go home. Some of them are happy here. We need to find some of the former if we want a bargaining chip."

"Right." She spread her hooves and the pile split into two. "Which is why I was already doing that. These are the happy ones." She tapped one pile. "And these are unknown or specifically unhappy." She tapped the other. "And since you're going to be busy going home in too soon, I'll get on this. It'll be me and the girls on our own adventure! Twilight thinks she can corner all the excitement? Ha! I bet Lyra'll get a blast out of this."

That got me a little curious even as I eyed through the pile of unhappy potential-human guests. "Does Twilight go on a lot of adventures?"

"Just about everyone around her." She stuck out her tongue, blowing a brief raspberry. "Except me, but that changes! You've brought the adventure to me, and I'm going to make the best of it." She clopped her hooves with building excitement. "We're going to find some humans! I'd already be running off, but that would be kind of rude while you're still here and all." She suddenly grabbed one pile in her magic. "So whattaya want to do until you head back?"

On one hand, I kind of wanted to review those piles. On the other, I had just spent a whole day... reviewing digital papers as a human. Maybe I had reviewed enough for a moment. "If you do find a human, how do you plan to approach them?"

Minuette raised a hoof and waved it energetically. "I'll say hello, of course! I'll ask Lyra to bring some of her marefriend's candies with her. That'll break the ice in no time flat. Have you tried one of Bon Bon's bon bons? Mmm, to die for!"

She would handle it like a pony, and I saw little wrong with that. "Before you rush in to shake hooves, be sure they're alright with you coming closer. They may be scared and alone, and that is when any creature, human or not, can be dangerous. Make sure they know you mean no harm, and only come close when they give the alright and no sooner. Let them decide how close you ever get, and if they decide against it, respect that. Come back another day, offer, but never force. You can leave the candy behind as a gift."

Minuette tilted her head. "That sounds like trying to make friends with a wild animal."

I felt my mouth tugging a bit in one direction. "We're all wild animals, especially when we're lost and scared. You know you mean no harm, but they don't, so don't assume they'll react well if you just spring up on them. Assume they're as timid as the most timid rabbit ever, but with teeth like a bear."

"Timid, fierce, right." Minuette slowly nodded. "I'll be extra careful and make sure any human I meet knows I'm here to help."

"That goes for your friends, too."

"Oh, right!" Minuette giggled. "That would be silly, going in all quiet and suddenly Lyra charges in, fwoosh! I'll be sure to tell them."

Author's Note:

Task Force Human Hunters is ready to engage. A step in the right direction, or a typo ready to unfold before us?

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