A Dream So Real

by ThreeZeus

Trying to Understand

When Lyra had woken up for the second time, she still felt in shock from her terrifying dream. Like most mornings, Bon Bon had already crept out of bed and was preparing breakfast in the kitchen. Before moving in with Bon Bon, Lyra had always found it difficult to force herself out of bed in the mornings, but now that waking up was always accompanied by the fragment aroma of a delicious breakfast, the task was much easier.

“Morning Lyra,” Bon Bon said as Lyra entered the kitchen. When Lyra gave no response, Bon Bon turned around to face her. “Something wrong Lyra? You look...” Bon Bon struggled momentarily for a fitting word. “troubled. You look troubled.”

“Yeah. Had a crazy dream,” replied Lyra.

“Want to talk about it?” asked Bon Bon.

“I do, but first,” said Lyra, her glum expression lightening up somewhat. “let me get some of those.” Lyra pointed the scrumptious looking stack of pancakes which Bon Bon had prepared.

“Sure thing.” Bon Bon placed a couple pancakes on a plate and pushed them over in front of a chair beside Lyra. Lyra quickly sat down and began stuffing her face full deliciousness.

“Another human dream?” Bon Bon asked. This hadn't been the first time Lyra reacted to a dream, and when she did it was almost without fail one about humans. Considering her mouth was full of chewed up pancakes, Lyra decided to just nod in reply. “I keep telling you Lyra, it's no wonder you have dreams about them if they're constantly on your mind. You shouldn't get so alarmed by-”

“This one was different,” said Lyra, her mouth now clear of pancake. “Normally nothing happens in the dreams and they're fuzzy in retrospect. This time though, something did happen, and I still remember it all perfectly.”

“So what happened?”

“Well it started out like all the other ones. I was in that city with all the humans,” Lyra began. Bon Bon nodded in recognition, this was indeed the way all of Lyra's human dreams were set up. “But I felt scared for some reason... and then I saw these two humans looking straight at me.” Lyra continued to explain her entire dream in extreme detail, covering every sensory detail and each piece of action that took place in order to prove her point on how vivid this dream really was.

“Is that all?” Bon Bon said when Lyra had finally finished. Lyra seemed both shocked and disappointed at Bon Bon's reaction, so Bon Bon quickly amended her response. “I didn't mean it like that. I just think you're getting a little too worked up over nothing. So you had a bad dream, and it involved humans because you're always thinking about them. Doesn't seem too crazy to me. Try not to stress out over it too much.”

“I guess,” Lyra muttered . She really shouldn't have expected much else from Bon Bon, ever the realist. “It's just, it didn't feel like a dream. It felt like...” Lyra paused to try and think of the word she was looking for. “...well I don't know, but do you get what I'm saying?”

Bon Bon just shook her head; she really wasn't getting it. Deciding it wasn't worth pursuing, Lyra turned back to her pancakes.

________________________________________________________________________________

“Running a little late, Lyra.”

Lyra looked over to one of the many clocks on the wall of Dr. Hooves' workshop to check the time. “Thirteen seconds late. Gimmie a break.” Leave it to a clock maker to be that picky about time.

“Hmm... well I suppose I'll let you off the hook this time.” Dr. Hooves chuckled. “I've got to head out and do my morning rounds on the public clocks of Ponyville. Colgate's already in the back, so just ask her what you should tackle today.”

“Got it. See ya around Doc,” Lyra responded as the Doctor happily exited the workshop. Lyra walked into the back room to find Colgate happily working away at a cuckoo-clock. She pointed Lyra to a pile of damaged clocks and told her to work her way through repairing them. Yet another day of work as a clock maker began.

Clock making and repairing certainly wasn't Lyra's dream job, but she certainly did have some of the necessary skills. Just like playing a lyre, tinkering with clocks required very precise, careful magic. Beyond that, Lyre was quite fond of her co-workers. Dr. Hooves was a very good-natured boss and a enjoyable person in general. Colgate on the other hand was an absolute joy to be around. Save for perhaps Pinkie Pie, Lyra had never met a funnier pony. If there was one good thing that came out of this job for Lyra, it was her friendship with Colgate.

The work itself was often somewhat boring, but between casual conversation and reminding herself of the excellent pay, Lyra was generally able to keep herself sane. Today however she found herself unable to take Bon Bon's advice and was still thinking about her dream. Apparently Colgate noticed Lyra's distracted mood, as she brought it up not long into the day.

“So what's eating at ya Lyra?” Colgate asked without warning.

“Hu? What makes you think something's eating at me?”

“You're uh... working... slower than usual,” Colgate replied. Lyra looked glumly down at the clock she'd be basically just staring at for the last hour.

“It's nothing,” Lyra said, trying to refocus on her work.

“C'mon, you can tell me! We're friends! Issues with Bon Bon or something?”

“No, nothing like that. It's just... well you'll think it's stupid. Let's just get back to work.”

“No way, now I really want to know! Come on!” Colgate begged.

“Promise you won't laugh?” Lyra asked. Colgate nodded in reply. “Okay... I uh... had a really bad dream.”

Colgate kept a straight face a few moments, then cracked a big grin. “Alright, I admit I was holding back a bit of laughter there. But I guess if it's bugging you this much it must have been pretty bad one. Another human dream?” Lyra nodded. “Well you talk about those things constantly, it's no wonder they're in your dreams ya know.”

Lyra groaned. “You sound exactly like Bon Bon.”

“Nice.” Colgate grinned wildly. “Anyway, tell me about this dream, I wanna hear all about it.” By now, the two had completely dropped their work in favor of conversation. Lyra described the dream in great detail, just as she had to Bon Bon. Rather than seem unimpressed as Bon Bon had however, Colgate was clearly eating it up like a young filly being given a bedtime story. When Lyra finished with her capture however, Colgate's expression rapidly turned from interest to concern.

“I don't know why it's bothering me so much.” Lyra said as soon as she had finished. “It didn't feel like a dream, it felt like... like...” Lyra still couldn't find the word she was looking for.

“Wow.” Lyra's co-worker shifted awkwardly in place. “That's some dream. Guess we better get back to work though, hu?” With that Colgate turned around to return to the pocket watch she had been fixing up.

“Wait!” Lyra shouted, though she quickly felt embarrassed at how loud she had said it. “I mean, you don't think it means anything, do you?”

Colgate turned her head back to Lyra and bit her lower lip. “I'm not sure. Mayb-” Suddenly her face brightened up as if she had been suddenly blessed with an idea. “I know! You should speak with Pinkie Pie. She's great at understanding weird stuff like this.”

“Pinkie Pie? Are you sure?” Lyra felt unsure about asking Pinkie Pie for advice on something she was trying to take seriously.

“Positive! In fact, you should go speak with her now! She's probably at Sugercube Corner. Go on.”

“Right now? Really? Are you su-”

“Lyra,” Colgate's face suddenly became extremely serious. “You should really go speak with Pinkie Pie. Now.”

Lyra nodded sheepishly and rushed out of the workshop into Ponyville. She had no idea why Colgate felt so strongly about this, but if it made Colgate turn on her serious face, it was probably very important. Unfortunately when Lyra did reach Sugercube Corner, the line was flowing all the way outside. She wasn't ordering any food though, she just wanted to ask some questions, so Lyra figured it would be okay if she crept in and bypassed the line. Doing this got Lyra a couple glares, but no one called her out as she didn't seem to be inserting herself into line.

Behind the counter was Mrs. Cake happily helping her customers. No Pinkie Pie in sight. “Mrs. Cake?”

Mrs. Cake looked over to Lyra. “Something you need hun?”

“Sorry to bug you, is Pinkie Pie around?”

“Hmmm...” Mrs. Cake thought a moment. “No, I remember Rarity and her leaving together earlier though, so maybe they went to Rarity's shop?”

“Thanks,” Lyra said, quickly running out of the shop and to the opposite side of Ponyville. Part of Lyra was tempted to just return to work and say she couldn't find Pinkie Pie, but Colgate had seemed very serious, so she would probably just send Lyra right back out. Luckily when Lyra reached Carousel Boutique she could hear Pinkie Pie's voice inside, quelling her fears that she would be spending all day hunting down the pink pony.

“Pinkie Pie honestly, stop moving!” Rarity's voice called out.

“Hehehe, but it tickles!” Pinkie Pie giggled.

Lyra cautiously entered the boutique to find an exasperated Rarity struggling to keep Pinkie Pie still. From what Lyra could tell, Pinkie Pie had agreed to do some modeling for Rarity, and what Rarity had chosen for Pinkie to wear appeared to be, well Lyra wasn't sure what one would call it. It didn't necessarily look bad, but it was one of the frilliest dresses Lyra had ever seen, and she had to admit it looked rather ticklish.

“Oh hello Lyra dear. What can I help you with?” Rarity asked, not daring to remove her hooves from securing Pinkie Pie's shaky body.

“Actually I was just looking for Pinkie Pie.” Lyra admitted.

“Really?” Pinkie chirped. “What's up L-”

“She's a bit busy at the moment, could it perhaps wait?”

“Yeah, sorry Lyra. I promised Rarity I'd wear her tickle dress,” Pinkie said with a grin, clearly stifling back a few more giggles as she spoke.

“Oh, yeah I guess it could wait,” Lyra agreed, feeling somewhat disappointed. “It's just Colgate said I should really talk to you immediately.”

At the mention of Colgate, Pinkie Pie's expression blanked out for a very brief moment. A second later, Pinkie's grin returned. “Sorry Rarity, but this sounds super-duper important!” Before Rarity could react, Pinkie Pie hopped into the air and did a twirl, flinging all the clothing she was wearing haphazardly around the room. “I'll be back soon! See ya!”

Rarity looked as if she could scream, but merely muttered some harsh words under her breath instead as she began to pick up the scattered articles of clothing. Lyra felt somewhat bad for Rarity, but something was telling her she really had to speak with Pinkie Pie. It hadn't occurred to Lyra how strange it was that Pinkie reacted when Colgate was mentioned.

“So what didja want to talk about Lyra?”

“Colgate told me I should ask you about a dream I had.”

Pinkie Pie already seemed interested. “Okie-dokie-lokie! What was it about?”

“Well it started off with...” Lyra trailed off. With Bon Bon and Colgate they knew about Lyra's earlier human dreams. Lyra wasn't even sure Pinkie Pie knew what a human was. “Do you know what a human is?”

“Yup! Big tall things, walk around on two legs, no fur,” Pinkie responded happily.

“Hu, so you do know plenty about them.”

“You have no idea,” Pinkie said cheerfully. Lyra chose to ignore the comment. Instead she went into a explanation of her past human dreams, how they always seemed so uninteresting in the moment, how all the other people seemed so expressionless. Then she delved into the dream, just like when telling the last two times, Lyra was sure to fill in every detail. By the end of the dream Pinkie Pie had concern spread across her face.

“Jeeze Lyra, that's some doozy of a dream,” Pinkie Pie observed.

“I feel like it meant something... do you think it did?” Lyra asked, desperately hoping Pinkie Pie would have some insight.

“Lyra I...” Pinkie Pie looked down at her hooves. Lyra could tell she was uncomfortable with the conversation. She then noticed Pinkie muttering things very quietly under her breath. Who was she talking to?

“It didn't feel like like a dream,” Lyra began, hoping this time the word would come to her. “It felt like...” Luckily, she didn't have to search. Pinkie Pie finished the sentence for her.

“A memory.”

“Yeah... Pinkie, what does this mea-” A pink hoof placed over Lyra's mouth stopped her from speaking further.

“Listen Lyra,” Pinkie Pie spoke in an extremely serious tone. First Colgate, now Pinkie Pie. Why was everyone so serious today? “You will understand soon, okay? I promise. But you have to promise me something, okay?” Lyra nodded. “Pinkie Promise me you won't tell anypony else about this dream. It's very important that you don't!”

“Okay okay. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye I won't tell anypony,” Lyra performed all of Pinkie's silly motions as she spoke. It seemed to satisfy some of the party ponies' worry, since she was now smiling.

“Good! Now, who else have you already told?”

“Besides you, just Colgate and Bon Bon.”

“Great! Colgate won't blab. Make sure Bon Bon doesn't,” Pinkie instructed.

“Okay, fine. Now will you tell me what my dream meant? Please?”

Pinkie Pie sighed and looked down. “Not yet. You can't know yet. You aren't ready.” Lyra grunted angrily in response and marched off, now feeling very upset at Pinkie's refusal. “Don't forget your Pinkie Promise!” Lyra heard Pinkie shout after her.

To hell with the Pinkie Promise. Lyra wanted answers and she would get them. Pinkie Pie wouldn't tell her though, so who would? Colgate maybe? Lyra considered demanding answers from her, but a better idea came to her as she spotted a pony she was sure could help. Twilight Sparkle.

“Twilight! Wait up!” Lyra shouted as she ran to the purple unicorn.

“Something the matter Lyra?” Twilight Sparkle asked as Lyra stopped along side her.

“I need some help understanding something,” Lyra answered. With that Lyra walked with the purple unicorn, who was currently returning to the library, and explained her entire dream, not thinking twice about the Pinkie Promise she was breaking. Twilight's interest seemed purely scholarly. Lyra wasn't as surprised as she was with Pinkie when Twilight revealed she knew plenty about humans as well. When Lyra finished describing the dream, she was delighted to find that Twilight didn't suddenly become awkward or evasive. Instead, she had insisted Lyra come to the library with her, saying that she had some books on dream interpretation which may be able to help. Lyra was, of course, more than happy to come.

As soon as Lyra entered the library however, the mood of the encounter changed drastically. The door was magically slammed behind her and latched. Lyra looked over to Twilight, who's face now bore something cyan unicorn had never seen before. Lyra had seen the librarian frustrated or neurotic, but this was different. Right now Twilight's face was pure rage.

“Who else did you tell?” Twilight demanded through gritted teeth.

“I- What?” Lyra was taken aback by Twilight's sudden demeanor.

“I said, who else did you tell!? About your stupid dream!”

“W-w-why do you want to kno-”

“TELL ME!” Twilight screamed.

“N-nopony,” Lyra lied. She wasn't sure why she felt the need to lie, but she felt the truth my make Twilight even angrier.

“LIAR!” With that, Twilight turned and bucked Lyra right in the flank, eliciting a loud yelp of pain. “Come on Lyra, don't play games with me.” Twilight spoke down to the now fallen over Lyra. “Just tell me which ponies you told about your dream and we can be done with this.”

Lyra prepared herself to refuse, but suddenly felt whispers in her head. Tell her. Tell her. Tell her. Lyra found herself completely unable to resist them. She picked herself up and began to speak softly.

“Just B-Bon Bon, Colgate and P-Pinkie Pie,” Lyra stuttered. At the mention of the latter two, Twilight did indeed become angrier.

“Oh boy, you've made a big mistake Lyra.” Twilight smirked with malice. Lyra began backing away, but Twilight walked slowly forward. Soon Lyra bumped into the wall of the library and could only whimper as Twilight closed the distance between them. Lyra clamped her eyes shut in fear, when suddenly she felt the presence of everything around her fade away. She tried opening her eyes only to find she could not, they were sealed shut.

________________________________________________________________________________

The next moment, Lyra bolted awake, she was in her bed once again.

A dream. That's all it had been, just a dream, of course. But when had she fallen asleep? Lyra moved to get out of bed, only to find that her flank hurt to move. She turned her head to give it a look and realized with horror that a hoof shaped bruise had developed.

“What's happening to me?” Lyra asked aloud, not expecting any answer. Despite the fact that she had apparently just been asleep, Lyra felt immensely tired. Too tired to think about what had been dream and what had been real, or any of what just happened.

Lyra's head crashed into her pillow, and only moments later, sleep overtook her.

Comments

[ThreeZeus]

Tried to proofread, but if I made any glaring errors feel free to point em out. I'm no good at proofreading...

[Menoshe]

...Holy mindfuck.

[ThreeZeus]

930224

You think that's a mindfuck? It get's worse. Ooohh man it get's worse. I'm having too fun writing this next chapter...

[Menoshe]

930235

...Oh dear.