The Second Dream

by totallynotabrony

Movie, part 2

Sunny actually did not get arrested after her stunt at Canterlogic’s show. I’m not sure what it would have taken, but clearly trespassing wasn’t it. With nothing better to do, I followed along as Hitch escorted her out of the building.

“Do you have any idea how many bylaws you broke in there?” Hitch seethed. In fact, he escorted her all the way down to the shore with me trailing along behind.

“I’m sure you’re about to tell me,” Sunny replied.

“Actually, for once, I can’t, because there’s so many!”

“Um, so, what’s the charge for something overwhelming like that?” I asked.

“I don’t think you’ve ever arrested anypony, Hitch,” Sunny said.

“I like to think I’m good enough at my job and community relations that I don’t have to,” he replied. “Which is why it’s getting very difficult to keep associating with you, Sunny. I’m here to uphold the law and keep everypony safe.”

“Aha, you said ‘everypony,’ that includes pegasi and unicorns,” she said, pointing a hoof at him.

I was beginning to realize that my earlier suspicion that Sunny was the local crazy person might be slightly inaccurate. She wasn’t crazy; my presence alone was enough to confirm her previously-panned theories on other pony races, but she was apparently a notorious troublemaker around Maretime Bay. Though she was politically active and casual about breaking laws, that didn’t make her a terrorist, buuut I was growing more and more concerned that maybe I needed somebody else to help me. The trouble was, as I’d just seen at the Canterlogic show, there might not be anyone willing. At least Sunny had lent me a jacket and sunglasses for disguise.

Ping.

Both Sunny and Hitch looked at me.

“Sorry,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. It was nothing.”

My phone had been blowing up ever since I’d posted the video from the show, with local racists and Sunny both making a fool of themselves. I had already gotten hundreds of the little hearts that showed people liked the video, and more were still coming in. There were probably a lot of comments too, but I hadn’t read them. Never read the comments.

Hitch swung back to Sunny. “All that pony unity stuff was just a bedtime story made up by your dad,” he said, tone trying for conciliatory. “You keep saying we have nothing to fear from other ponies, so then prove it.”

Sunny’s eyes cut in my direction.

“Uh…” I started to say.

Somebody screamed. “Unicorn attack!”

That got my attention. I wasn’t sure why everybody within sight was suddenly running. The unicorn ambling down the street was lavender in color with a long, wavy blue mane, and she seemed totally unperturbed.

I hopped up atop the railing beside the ocean, for a better vantage for filming. There was already a stampede of ponies that had run over Sunny, leaving her sprawled on the pavement.

I tried to keep myself from snorting in amusement, to keep it out of the video. Running from a pastel unicorn, really. Sunny managed to get up, only just now turning to see what everyone was so afraid of.

“Hi, new friend! My name’s Izzy!” the unicorn said, and Sunny fell over again, this time in shock, somehow, despite meeting me earlier in the day. Maybe she was just allergic to other extroverts.

The Splat-a-pult and Unicorn Traps I’d seen at the Canterlogic show earlier started to emerge from the factory atop the hill, apparently already ready for deployment. That was fast.

Sunny and the unicorn, Izzy, were directly in the path and blobs of green slime started to rain down all around. It was good TV, but I realized I should probably do something to help. I was kind of fighting for my rights, too, even if nobody knew I had wings. Besides, maybe my apparent army of online followers wanted to see in-person combat footage.

“Get down behind the trolly!” I ordered, pointing to where it had been abandoned in the middle of the street after everyone around had run from Izzy’s arrival.

The globs of green goo began to thwap into the other side of the trolly as the three of us took cover. Good thing they had no real kinetic energy behind them or we might have been in trouble. I chanced a glance out and just barely ducked getting slimed. I’d never really wanted to go on that Nickelodeon show, and even less now.

“This is a great place to hide!” Izzy said. I looked at her. “For hide and seek,” she clarified not at all. “Earth ponies are serious about games.”

“They’re not playing!” Sunny countered. “They’re terrified!”

“Oh, no! Of what?”

“You! You’re a unicorn! Earth ponies hate unicorns!”

“Where are we going?” I asked Sunny, interrupting them.

“Uh...”

“We can’t stay here or they’ll eventually flank us,” I pressed. "Come on, you know the area."

“Home,” she decided.

“Alright, let’s get this thing moving and use it as mobile cover,” I said, pointing down the tracks back towards the lighthouse house. It didn’t go all the way there, but would keep the slime off us to the edge of town. I supposed we would just have to run after that.

The trolly controls didn’t look all that complicated. I leaned inside the cabin and pressed the button marked “go.”

The thing didn’t move all that fast, but we kept up a brisk trot beside it and it blocked all the slime. Worked like a charm, which was good because it was clear Sunny and Izzy didn’t have any idea about basic use of cover or squad tactics.

As we trotted, we had to avoid the unicorn traps set into the street, but they were so obvious that even a blind person would have noticed them with their cane. Izzy skipped. Although, she probably didn’t know what they were.

Coming to the edge of town, we broke away from the trolly line and hustled for the lighthouse. I didn’t think it was going to be a good defensive position, owing to the fact that it was a dead end on the peninsula and there were only three of us.

Wait, why was I with them again? Sunny might have been a terrorist and Izzy was a wanted person. Granted, now that I had a moment to consider it, Izzy was arguably the more innocent of the two, but that was overshadowed by the town’s inherent racism against her.

Huh, weird looking at this from such an angle.

Running back to Sunny’s house left me winded and sweaty, despite my longer legs than the other two. I really needed to get this jacket off. At least my makeup did actually seem to function pretty well as eye black, assuming it wasn’t going to run. Just to check, though, as soon as we were inside I excused myself to the restroom, leaving Sunny and Izzy talking in the kitchen.

I’d seen my reflection in water and in store windows of Maretime Bay, but this was my first time getting a good look up close in an actual mirror.

My first impression was fuzzy. I hadn’t been able to see many individual hairs before that I now could with this level of detail. It wasn’t like I was a puffball or anything, but I could also tell it was going to take a lot of work to stay this trim, sleek, and shiny.

Aside from that, yeah, my makeup was ruined and I was going to have to figure out how to freshen up. Hunting through the drawers and cabinets, I found some makeup in the bathroom. Sunny didn’t seem to use it, so everything was practically untouched. I used up most of the black.

When everything was touched up, I paused to take a selfie. I was practically obligated to. Post.

I was in the process of taking the borrowed jacket off when I came back into the kitchen. Sunny was running through with Izzy a similar list of questions she’d asked me. I caught “Do unicorns actually take your hooves and grind them into midnight snacks?”

“No,” Izzy replied. “We’re not so much into cannibalism. But I heard pegasi eat their own young.”

She turned to look at me, just as my jacket came off revealing my wings. Smiling awkwardly and showing my teeth was in hindsight probably not my best move right then.

“Sentra says she’s never eaten a pony,” Sunny quickly jumped in.

“I can’t fly, either,” I added, hoping to help assuage Izzy.

“Wait, you can’t fly!?” Sunny exclaimed. “How did that not come up in conversation earlier?” She shook her head. “Oh right, we couldn’t reveal to anypony else that you were a pegasus.”

Sunny turned to Izzy. “And if we’re going to keep you safe, can I ask what kind of magic you can do?” She picked up a can of beans from the counter. “Can you make this float?”

“No, but I can do this!” said Izzy. She tossed the can in the air and tossed her head to hit the can repeatedly with her horn, keeping it in the air. Dink dink dink dink. In just a moment, the sharp point on the horn had neatly opened the top of the can and the beans splatted to the floor. “Tadaaa!”

“Wait, you don’t have any magic?” Sunny asked, crestfallen. “A pegasus who can’t fly and a unicorn who can’t do magic…”

“It’s not like earth ponies could do those things, so it’s like we’re even, right?” I offered. “Here, bring it in, Loser Club selfie!”

I threw my hooves around the two of them to pull them in close and held up my phone to take the picture. I’d accidentally gotten the spilled can of beans in the background, but whatever.

I’d done a surprisingly decent job on my makeup touchup, not to mention it was apparently unheard of to see all three races in one place, so this picture was going straight to the internet. They were loving my content so far.

Just then, a voice through a megaphone outside demanded, “Sunny Starscout, Sentra, I know you’re in there with that unicorn! Come out with your hooves up and surrender!”

“This is bad,” Sunny worried. “How sneaky are you?”

“Uh, medium sneaky?” Izzy said.

“They still don’t know I’m a pegasus, so I guess I’d put my sneakiness at high,” I replied.

Sunny nodded. “I can work with that. Okay, I’ll distract them.”

“Oh, pffft, relax, I’ll talk to them,” said Izzy, opening the door despite Sunny’s protest.

Outside, Sheriff Hitch and Deputy Sprout had come to face us down, which seemed like a remarkably small posse to me. Both in the wild west sense and in the party sense. If I was going to be internet-famous, I should probably know these things.

“Hi guys,” said Izzy. “First of all, Sentra’s a pegasus. Isn’t that cool?”

“Maybe I’m medium-high sneakiness now,” I muttered.

“Now, I know what you’re thinking,” Izzy went on.

“Aah! She’s already reading our minds!” Sprout shouted. “Quick, before she fries our brains!” He ran away down the hill back towards town, Hitch turning to look after him in exasperation.

“Now would be a good time to move,” I pointed out. Sunny evidently agreed with me and we dashed out the door, collected Izzy, and vanished into the landscaping and brush around the lighthouse house while Hitch’s back was still turned. It wasn’t much of a ploy, but did give us at least a few extra seconds’ lead. I wasn’t sure if Hitch was going to come after us, now even more outnumbered, or if he would cut his losses.

After a few minutes of running, it seemed like it might be the latter. We’d long passed the Leaving Maretime Bay sign. The three of us slowed down, with no indication of pursuit in our backtrail.

“I can’t believe this,” Sunny said, breathing hard after running. “I am on the run - literally - with a unicorn who has no magic and a pegasus who can’t fly. What are we going to do?”

It seemed like a weird time for a musical montage, but Izzy launched into one anyway. Sunny even picked up a few lines here and there. The two of them seemed to enjoy it, and I admit it did help lift the mood. We also covered quite a bit of ground and were pretty far outside Maretime Bay now.

“You know, you can sing along too,” Izzy said to me when they were finished.

“I seem to have a voice that’s better suited for screaming.”

“Yeah, you are a little hoarse.”

I clicked my tongue, winked, and pointed a hoof at her. “I’m a pony.”

Sunny snorted. Izzy said, “You sure are. We all are. Ponies, united. You know, meeting you two has been really great for me. You’re both a lot nicer than all the stories I had heard about earth ponies and pegasi.”

“In the meantime, we still don’t have a plan,” Sunny said.

“Well, we’d have to figure out how to smuggle you two in, but they seem to like me in pegasus territory,” I offered.

“We are kind of going that direction already,” Sunny allowed.

I hoped her sense of direction was better than mine, because if I’d gotten lost wandering away from where I’d woken up in the forest, I sure was lost now. We'd ended up in some kind of foggy canyon.

“We should be careful going there,” said Izzy continuing the conversation. “You do know pegasi can steal your luminescence, right?”

“Say again? What’s luminescence?” I asked.

“You know, like, your sparkle?” said Izzy. To Sunny, she said, “Yours is lavender and the happier you are, the brighter it shines.” She turned to me. “Yours is...wow, I’ve never seen that before.”

I was just about to ask what she meant when there was movement in the fog behind us. Whatever it was looked about our size and was fast enough to whoosh as it went by. A couple of rocks tumbled down the canyon walls.

“Hurry!” Sunny shouted, breaking into a run. Still trusting that she probably knew where we were going, Izzy and I followed her, only for her to lead us into a dead end. It was a box canyon. I should have anticipated this, from all my years of playing conveniently hemmed-in video game levels.

Sunny headbutted me in the hindquarters and I stumbled to the wall. It was sloped a little, not totally vertical like I had originally thought, and between an unthinking scramble and unconscious wing flaps for help, I actually managed to make it to the top. Up here, I was suddenly above the fog and found myself on a sunny, rocky mountainside. I sat there for a moment, quietly thankful it hadn't been Izzy headbutting me in the hindquarters.

Speaking of, Izzy made it up next, followed closely by Sunny. At the last moment, Sunny slipped, though, only to catch hold of Izzy’s horn. From the beans incident, I already knew unicorn horns were pretty tough, but was still surprised to see Izzy lift Sunny’s entire body weight with it, dragging her up to the level ground atop the canyon.

The three of us stood there breathing hard for a second before I pointed out, “If we were able to climb up here, whatever that was probably can, too.”

The other two immediately got up to continue running, but just then a pegasus soared up out of the fog and landed atop a nearby rock. They were pure white with fuchsia and teal feathers and a similarly-colored forward mohawk.

“Whoa! A unicorn and an Earth pony? Together?!” she gasped. At least I was pretty sure it was a mare despite the relatively deep voice. You might say I was an expert on that.

“They’re with me,” I said, subtly lifting my wings.

“Well, it looks like your day’s been pretty interesting,” she replied.

“You have no idea.”

There was the sound of someone approaching and the other pegasus suddenly dove off the edge of the cliff into the fog. “Don’t tell them you saw me!”

“There’s no way we cooooould!” Izzy said, voice trailing off as if making it sound like she herself was falling off a cliff would help the departing pony hear it. “We don’t even know your naaaaame!”

Wondering from whom the pegasus could have been running, I turned towards the approaching steps to see two more pegasi, though these were wearing metal armor. One of them yelped in shock at the sight of us.

“Get it together!” his partner demanded.

“They’re with me,” I said again.

“Are you some kind of traitor!?”

“No.” I very carefully did not say but. “I just happened to meet them today.”

“Sentra’s too weird to be anything but a casual acquaintance,” said Izzy. She gave me a deliberate wink.

That earned her a tennisballing from the armored ponies. At least it was just the “stick a tennis ball on her horn” kind and not “beat her with a tube sock filled with tennis balls” kind.

“You’re coming with us,” said one of them, although he kind of indicated the group of us.

“Hang on a sec,” I said. “Are you cops or soldiers or what?”

“Uh…” The two armored pegasi traded glances. “Soldiers, I think. Zephyr Heights Royal Guards.”

“Okay, so this is a capturing, not an arrest.” I nodded. Good to know where I stand.

“Not you,” he said. “You’re a pegasus. I think.”

“‘A pegasus. I think,’“ I said, typing it into my phone. “Ha.” I pressed post.

Despite the capturing, the soldiers did little more than tennisball Izzy. Sunny wasn’t restrained at all. Maybe they should have done something with her mouth, because she kept up the stream of questions she’d asked me earlier. I felt slightly offended, as if I wasn’t a good enough pegasus for her.

I couldn’t stay mad, though. Getting captured - or maybe not really in my case - sure made it a lot easier to not only find Zephyr Heights but to get an escort right into the city.

I have to admit, I was impressed with the place. It was an actual city. Not that Maretime Bay wasn’t holding its own with its small-town feel, but this place was glittering in every way. There might have been some actual gold in the spires. There were modern jumbotrons broadcasting video everywhere. People didn’t look at me weird for pulling out out a phone.

I took all this in from a glass elevator as the guards escorted the three of us into the castle. I was too busy looking at the city and my phone to realize where we were going - or that there even was a castle - until we were already there.

“Does anybody know what a Pippsqueak is?” I asked, looking up from my phone for the first time in a few minutes. “That’s not how you spell it.”

I realized we were in some kind of throne room and a pink pony with fluffy wings was glaring daggers at me from across the room. And oh hey, there was the other pegasus we encountered in the mountains earlier. The two of them flanked an older mare, who had a big bejeweled crown.

“Your Highness, we found these intruders in our territory,” said one of the guards.

The crowned pony known as Your Highness - a queen perhaps? - gasped. “Is this an attack?! On the night of our royal celebration?!” She demanded, “Why are you here?! Who sent you?!” And to the guards, “Nopony must know they’re here!”

“It’s too late,” the pink fluffy pony said, sourly. “She already told everypony.” She gestured at me, phone in hoof.

“Now Pipp, don’t drag your rivalry into this,” the queen said.

Rivalry?

“Um, excuse me, Majesty?” Sunny broke in. “We only want to ask you a few questions about magic.”

“Guards! Please escort these ponies to the dungeon,” the queen ordered without even pretending to listen to Sunny.

The guards took away Sunny and Izzy, leaving me standing there. Apparently they’d decided I wasn’t a threat, or maybe it was just oversight, which I was beginning to realize might be the norm. Frankly, taking an earth pony and a unicorn, possibly with unknown powers, directly to see the head of state seemed remarkably poorly reasoned.

The queen departed, off to do whatever it was that royalty did.

“You’ve got a lot of nerve coming here,” said the pink fluffy pony, Pipp, if my context clues were correct. She hopped off her elevated throne and approached, to get in my face. “You think you’re so popular,” she said, waving her own phone for emphasis.

“I don’t even know who you are,” I replied. The way her face contorted in rage, apparently that was exactly the wrong thing to say. Or maybe the right thing.

I glanced over at the other pegasus in the room, who I wondered might also be some kind of royalty, based on her position opposite Pipp from the queen. It was the white mare with the mohawk we’d met earlier. “Hey. ‘Sup.” I gave her an upwards nod. She returned it.

If anything, that only seemed to make Pipp angrier. Choosing that moment to depart and thus deny her the opportunity to get the last word in, I turned around to walk out of the throne room.

I had no idea where I was going, but the opportunity to explore a castle was too good to pass up, and it would provide decent material to post. Not of the attention-grabbing quality I had put up before, but content is content.

While I was thinking about it, I should also probably see about Sunny and Izzy. The pegasi, like everyone else I’d met so far, seemed remarkably racist but with little actual force. In fact, Zephyr Heights seemed more lax than Maretime Bay, so the two of them would probably be okay. Hmm, now where did they keep the dungeon around here?

There was a sign. Dungeon/Spa -> Well that was convenient. I followed the arrow.

I knew I was getting close when I saw a few extremely well-groomed guards. So far, me being a pegasus, nobody had given me any trouble around the castle, but I got the feeling that they wouldn’t just let me into the dungeon to rescue prisoners.

So when I went up to the guards, I had a bluff ready. “I’m here to question the earth pony and the unicorn that were just brought in. I’ll get them to spill the beans and reveal their secrets.”

“Who are you?” one of them asked.

I turned slightly to show off the star on my hip. “I’m a marshal.”

“Marshal who?”

“...Law.”

He nodded and stepped back. “Go right ahead, ma’am.”

I couldn’t believe it worked. As I headed for the dungeon, part of me was incredibly torn. I wished I had covertly livestreamed that, because it would have been amazing, but I also knew that it would have blown my cover and I wouldn’t have been able to get away with it again.

Glancing at my phone as I walked, I saw a curious tag #spillthebeans and wondered what it could be about.

Comments

[Neo4K]

... Damn. When I said that Sentra and Pipp would have something in common with each other, a social media rivalry wasn't what I had in mind. But who knows? Maybe they'll become friends later.

[Lithl]

10999663
If Sentra is anything remotely like Valiant, "friends" will be a stretch.

[Neo4K]

10999762
Hmm. Kinda like the 'frenemy' thing like Valiant and Twilight.

[totallynotabrony]

10999768
That one definitely trended downhill towards the end.

[Neo4K]

10999774
😁 You know, I wouldn't be surprised if 'Valiant is God' was trending. Or 'Valiant in Space'.

[Crescent Pulsar]

I turned slightly to show off the star on my hip. “I’m a marshal.”

“Marshal who?”

“...Law.”

She then proceeded to somersault flip them into dreamland.

[Hawattie]

Never read the comments.

[Telly Vision]

10999792
No one has said “Thank God” yet, I’m sure we’ll get a pre recorded You’re welcome eventually.

[Neo4K]

11005405
Here's hoping. Valiant may go down in history as the smartass genius of his version of G4. 😁

[Vaalintine]

The only thing this story is missing is the reactions and responses Sentra is getting online.

[uis]

I couldn’t believe it worked. As I headed for the dungeon, part of me was incredibly torn. I wished I had covertly livestreamed that, because it would have been amazing, but I also knew that it would have blown my cover and I wouldn’t have been able to get away with it again.

Record it