But For a Dream

by Doctor Axiom

Chapter 1: Mom's Famous Roast Asparagus

“Well, if you’ve already taken the medication, I don’t need to give it to you. And just press the button if you need anything, Hazel.”

“Thank you, Mister Mint,” I reply.

My right hip is still sore, so I turn on my left side and gently lean back against the bed.

I close my eyes, and focus. The drum beats once, and I'm there among the stars.

It's my favorite place to be these days. There are less stars here than in the city, but there are enough kids and nurses and doctors to make a few constellations here and there.

The drum beats again, and I smile. The facility might be dull by day, but now I have all night to explore and maybe find a new friend. Some of the ponies are in isolation. That means that nopony is allowed in without masks and those funny see-through suits to make sure they don't give them any germs. Doctor Glance says it's because as part of the procedure, they have to make it so that our bodies can't attack any bad stuff from outside the body. Otherwise they might accidentally attack the good stuff that the doctors put in. I asked her why the body couldn't tell what was good and bad. She said that most of the time it can, but sometimes it can't.

Just like for the cancer.

The cancer is bad, but my body doesn't know it's bad. Otherwise I wouldn't need to be here anyway.

The drum beats again. The Dreaming feels like home no matter where I go. I learned to dreamwalk when I was 12. Even the Princess can't remember any younger dreamwalkers. It didn't get me my cutie mark though. I wasn't very good at it, and I couldn't even do it again for a long time. I used to think that if I didn't have my cutie mark, then I wasn't special. The Princess says I am though, and it took me a while to believe her. I'm starting to understand what she meant, about how everything is connected in the Dreaming. I'm starting to understand why she wanted so hard for me to not be afraid of it. It's calm here.

I look at a small constellation of bright stars as the drum beats again. Younger ponies have brighter dreams. I think that these stars are for the foals in the isolation rooms. They're not very close together, but they have connections to some of the stars that I think are for the hospital staff.

I have it easy when it comes to making friends. Ponies like you when they've already seen you in their dreams. Hopefully I can find some friends my age here. Unfortunately I can't reach Shady or Mister Ravioli from here when I dreamwalk. I hope they're happy to see me when I'm back. Maybe I can send a letter and get them to visit me some time if they're free. The Princess says she's coming to visit me tomorrow though, so I'm excited about that.

The drum echoes my heart again, and I pause. In the corner of my eye I spot a dull, gray, flickering star. I frown. That's usually not a good sign. This star is close to the constellation of kids, but definitely not a part of it.

I take a deep breath. As an apprentice dreamwalker, and the only dreamwalker in the facility, it is my duty to safeguard the night. I suddenly notice that my wings are flared. I tuck them back in with a frown. There's no reason to be afraid right now. I repeat that to myself a few times, then reach towards the star.

---

Everything's bright red for a moment. I close my eyes. The drumbeats come quickly, and I can't tell if I'm falling up or floating down. I feel dizzy and I want to throw up. I haven't done this bad going into a dream in years. Eventually I feel my hooves touch solid ground. I open my eyes and blink.

Dark, and empty. The ground is a dull grey and goes on as far as I can see. The whole sky is black, and everything seems like it's obscured by a dull haze. No one should have a dream like this unless they’re dying. This must be the sickest foal in the whole hospital. The drumbeats are still fast. They are always faster inside a dream, but the drumbeats here are much faster than they should be. If I squint I swear the darkness turns the slightest tinge of red with each beat.

“Hello?” I call into the darkness. “Is anyone there?”

There is no answer.

The Princess says dreams like this are not really dreams. They're what the inside of your mind looks like when you're asleep but not dreaming.

I turn around and try to make sense of my surroundings. Now that I'm used to the dark I can tell the sky really is turning red with each beat of the drum. The red is brighter towards my left. I feel like I'll find something if I start going that way. It's a good idea to listen to your feelings in a dream. I also feel like I won't like what I find if I start going that way. I shiver and start walking towards the red anyway.

It is not long before I notice a shadow against the red sky. It's a huge spire, shaped like a curved cone, with round openings on it. The openings are in odd places, and some of them go straight through. They almost look like holes were cut out of the sides. It looks strange and out-of-place.

I walk up to the structure, but I can't find any way inside. I try flying up to some of the lower windows. It turns out that they actually are just holes. There isn't an inside to the structure at all. It's just a solid piece of smooth stone with holes in it. I sit in one of the holes to try to see if there is anything else in the distance, but I don't see anything but the pulsing dark sky.

The Princess says that when somepony is asleep, but not dreaming, the only things you can find in their mind are fragments of what they hold most dear. She also said that it is a terrible invasion of privacy to walk into their mind, unless you know they truly need their help. I haven't been in a dream like this since the fire. I know this is the dream of a foal who's dying. I want to help, somehow. Maybe I should just trust the doctors here to do save this foal. I don't even know what this stone means, and I feel like I can't do anything until I figure out what it means.

I sit back and make myself comfortable. There's a few dim twinkling dots in the sky that I didn't notice before. Are those- they're definitely stars. I squint up at them, but I don't remember my constellations well enough to tell if they are in the right places. The Princess would chastise me. The stars are growing brighter now, and the red beats of the sky are getting dimmer. It feels like this dream is becoming a full, real dream. Maybe I didn’t need to be here after all.

A sudden shiver runs down my back.

I feel like I'm being watched.

I peek out from the hole I'm sitting in and look around slowly. Something moves in the corner of my eye. I glance down at it, but nothing is there. “Hello?” I call. A shadow peeks out from one of the holes at the bottom. Two hazel eyes open and look up at me, but quickly retreat back into the hole.

I blink to myself.

“I'm not going to hurt you,” I say. “I'm just here to make sure you're okay.”

There is no response from the foal in the hole.

“I'm coming down now,” I announce.

I tip myself over the edge and glide in a big circle down to the ground.

The foal is curled up in the corner of the hole, but she looks up at me when she hears me land. She has hazel eyes, the same color as mine, and a jet black coat with a grey mane. I'm instantly a little jealous because her mane is the same color I wish mine was.

I shake my head to focus on the job I have to do.

“Hey there,” I tell her. She looks up at me curiously. “You don't need to be afraid. This is just a dream.”

I can tell she's still a little scared of me. I'm used to that. Ponies sometimes do that when they see my wings. I fold my wings against my side just in case.

“My name is Hazel. What's yours?”

She blinks at me and opens her mouth, though she doesn't say anything.

I sit gently and wait for her to be comfortable.

She closes her mouth and opens it again. Her two black leathery wings flutter slightly. I must not have noticed them before against her coat in the dim light. She's a thestral like me. She sits up and looks intently at me.

“Hazel,” she whispers.

I smile. “That's me! What's your name?”

She blinks, and then smiles a small smile. She reminds me of mom a little. I blink slowly to clear my head. Happy thoughts only. Hearth's Warming with mom, playing catch with mom, eating my favorite, Mom's famous roast-

“Asparagus,” she says.

I blink at her. It must be obvious I'm confused because she explains.

“I'm Asparagus.”

My face brightens. “What a coincidence,” I say. “That's my favorite vegetable!”

“Mine too,” she whispers.
I smile. She slowly smiles too.

We both start laughing.

The stars in the sky begin to shine brightly, and the ground around us begins to turn green. The moon peeks up from the horizon. Asparagus crawls out of her hole and sits next to me by the spire. Lush grass springs out of the ground around us. The big black stone spire stays the same, but somehow it looks less strange now. It shines beautifully in the moonlight. It looks pretty, like it's meant to be there.

“Hazel?”

“Mhmm?”

“You said this was all a dream?” She frowns.

“Uh huh!”

“Why does it feel so real?”

With those words the haze in the distance disappears. Asparagus seems to become more solid too. I smile knowingly.

“It's hard to tell sometimes that we're dreaming until we wake up.”

She shakes her head at this.

“It doesn't feel this real when I'm awake.”

I frown. She really must be the sickest foal here.
Suddenly she squints and looks at me suspiciously.

“Are you real?”

I laugh. I expected her to ask sooner or later.

“I'm real. I'll find you sometime when we're both awake and then you'll see.”

She scrunches up her face. It's kind of adorable.

“But then how are you here?”

“I'm a dreamwalker,” I explain. “It means I can go into other people's dreams and talk to them, or help them fight their nightmares.”

She makes an 'O' with her mouth before she grins and says:

“That's really cool!”

It's obvious that Asparagus is a lot younger than me. I wonder what kind of disease she has that has her so sick.

“Are you one of Doctor Glance's patients?” I ask as a few flowers pop up near us.

“Doctor Glance?” She blinks. “Yes. I like her. She takes good care of me.”

“She seems nice,” I say. “She came to the train station to make sure I got here okay yesterday.”
I shift my leg as a rock pops up next to me. I'm a little jealous again. The way her dream looks, it seems like Asparagus spent a lot of time outdoors. I don't get to go outside the city much. It's nice to see how green the grass is, even if it's only a dream. The sky begins to turn dark blue.

“I'm a cancer patient” I tell her. “I'm here so they can cure me. What are you here for?”

She scrunches up her face.

“I don't know what I am.” She frowns. “I have something missing.”

She stands up and smiles. The top of her ears only come up to my shoulder. “I'm getting better though.”

“That's good,” I say. I stand up too. Theres an orange glow at the edge of the sky, and I start having the feeling of a dream coming to an end.

“It feels like you're going to wake up soon,” I tell her. “It was nice to meet you, Asparagus.”

I raise my hoof to her. She looks at it for a bit, and then lifts her hoof and bumps mine. She giggles.

“Bye Asparagus, I'll try to find you when we're both awake, okay?”

“Bye Hazel!”

My vision goes white.

---

I wake up in my hospital bed. The moon is really high up outside, so I have some time to go back to sleep and dream some dreams of my own.

I grin and hug my pillow to myself. Just like that, I've made my first friend here.
The Princess would be proud.

My pee bag has filled up, so I gently empty it into the container Mister Mint gave me and clip it back to the band around my leg. I settle into my bed and I’m asleep before I know it.

Author's Note:

Asparagus is my favorite vegetable too.

Comments

[Reclusive]

That was so cute that I expect Asparagus to die the next chapter

[Doctor Axiom]

11039637

Now now, if I were to do something like that I'd give you multiple chapters to get invested first.