Return to Equestria

by David Silver

48 - Pony Imagining

David walked purposefully to the hobby store, full of all sorts of games and things. He went right to the imagining shelf with a duty. He was a hunter, at least when he shopped. He preferred knowing what he wanted and going directly to it. As a bonus, it lowered the ability of a store to distract money from him buying unrelated things.

He was there for games! Pony games of the imagination. He ran his finger along the spines. "Foals in Darkness," he announced to himself, plucking the first book free. A quick check told him it was a game with six-sided dice, and nothing else. "Alright, basic." He went around to the dice collections and grabbed a box filled with nothing but a lot of classic six-sided dice, ready for rolling.

"Seriously?" Posey was staring at David, brow raised. "Good, fine! Learn how to do something that isn't crashing into ponies for the fun of it."

Ah, right, his magic. He had forgotten all about it and its little benefits in the storm of reaching for professional fulfillment. "Sorry about that. You alright?"

"I'm fine." She glanced away a moment. "Not like you care."

"Of course I care." He had cared about Posey when she was a world away. "Sorry so many things like to use you as a target. Not fair."

"No... No it's not." Posey watched him with guarded eyes. "Are you trying to butter me up?"

"Calling it as I see it." He wandered towards the front to pay for his book and dice. "You don't seem like a bad pony."

"I... try not to be?" She trailed after him, a little confused. "Was that the question?"

"I guess it wasn't." A tap of his phone on a terminal completed the transaction and he turned back to Posey. "I'm getting ahead of things. I'll do my best not to ruin your days again."

"Thanks?" She kept right on following him out of the store. "I don't get you."

"What's to get?" He paused a short distance out of the store.

"You came out of nowhere, get arrested, get sent over there." Posey pointed down the block at the internet café. "And now you're like a local celebrity? What even are you?! And don't start with the videogame. You did not crawl out of a videogame!" She stomped a hoof with emphasis on that point she was prepared to defend to the last breath. "So what are you and where did you come from?"

"Easy." He doublechecked his book was tucked properly and shoved the dice into a pocket. "How technical do you want me to be?"

Posey flopped to her haunches. "What, really?"

"Do you want biological nitty gritty?"

She stared at him in befuddlement. "So you're not... just blowing me off?"

"Why would I? Perfectly valid question. I'd want to know the same thing if we swapped places."

Posey gave out a strained laugh. "Yeah! Right, of course..." She curled a hoof to her chin. "Well, start basic. I'm not a scientist."

"Alright." David considered his origin, basic. "I was born the old fashioned way from two other things of my species, like most of you I assume. Two different tribes."

Posey leaned left and right. "I don't see any extra parts. What tribes are we talking? I'm just guessing here, but you look like an earth pony of whatever you are."

"I am, taken from the pony perspective." He hiked a thumb at himself with a shrug. "Humans, that's me, we differentiated by how we looked, mostly, and how we sound. Cultural marks also were important. If someone didn't celebrate the same holidays, that was a sign of a difference. If they had different sayings, or even a different language--"

"You had different languages?" Posey scowled at him. "You had one species, just one, and you made up different languages? Why?! Just talk one and get it over with. Wouldn't that be easier?"

David chuckled softly. "Wouldn't that be nice? Alright, we'll go with one language." She pointed at Posey. "It's not this one though, so you'll have to learn the new one. No choices. We made up our mind. One language for everyone."

Posey cocked a brow. "What? Why wouldn't we stick with this one." She waved between herself and David. "It's working just fine."

"Sure, but other ponies over there." He pointed to the horizon. "They have theirs and they don't want to give it up either. There was a big vote, or they flipped a coin. Whatever, their language won. Ready to learn it and give up this one?"

"Huh..." She scowled, an expression she knew well. "I hate it. But I get it... I'm going to hope we never run into that. So, alright, you crazy humans separated all kinds of ways because 'ha ha, that one's red, and 'ha ha, that one's brown' and 'you talk that way? Weird!'

"You are quick on the take there." He fired a finger gun at Posey with a faux electronic noise. "I'm impressed. So, yeah, those were our tribes. Anyway--"

"--So how'd you get here?" She tapped at the ground. "And where are all those humans? I don't see any but you."

David went to a bench to sink on it. "I don't entirely know, but I do know."

"So do you know or not?" Posey cocked a brow at him anew, sitting in front of him. "Has to be one or the other."

"Do you read?"

Posey started at that. "What? Of course I can read!"

"I'm asking if you read, as a habit. Novels. Stories. That kind of thing." David rolled a hand as he went over it. "Do you?"

"Sometimes... Why?" She hopped up onto the same bench, peering at him. "You have a book on this?"

"I don't, sorry." He folded his hands in front of himself. "But I can weave a tale. Pretty sure that's happening right now. For me to be happy, I'm better off not thinking about that."

"What?" A flat question, dripping with doubt. "What are you talking about?"

David turned his hands palmside up. "This is getting into philosophy. Have you ever heard the idea that the world is a dream?"

"Philo--oh." She regarded David in a new light. "I thought that was above most pony's heads."

"I'm a little taller, not above mine," joked David. "So, you have?"

"Sure?" Posey shrugged. "The only thing we know for sure is that life is suffering."

David winced at that. "Sorry." He felt bad for Posey in that moment, but how to help eluded him.

"Don't look like that." she waved a hoof at the idea, banishing it. "I like more of it than not, so here I am! Anyway, what about it? Life's a dream, great, now what?"

"For every dream." He extended a finger on his right hand. "There is a dreamer." He put up a finger on his right hand, bringing the two fingers together, side by side. "Except, in this case, I am the dream, and I know who the dreamer is. But it's not me. I'm not the dreamer. But I also am, sorta?"

Posey nodded slowly along with the words. "You are getting heavy. Alright, so who is the dreamer? I'll tell them to stop bothering me!"

"That'd be nice." He reached for her head, but she ducked away from the incoming fingers. "Sorry." She relaxed the moment he stopped trying to touch her. Not all ponies were equally pettable. "So... This is where it gets a bit odd, and easy to assume I'm talking nonsense."

"Try me." It sounded like a dare, as if she couldn't be scared that easily.

"Alright... Imagine another me, back in that other world, creating a dream, this one." He hiked a thumb at himself. "I'm just a dream, his dream. A dream of himself. You've had dreams with you in it, probably all the time, but dream-you isn't the same as waking-you."

"Sure..." She looked herself over and back at David. "I'm not a dream."

"Most dream-people are very sure of that." David crossed his arms. "But here we are."

"Heavy... Heavy... But alright, let's give your philosophy the benefit of the doubt." She sat up, looking interested rather than terrified. "Alright, you are a dream. Which means I'm a dream, since that's how dreams work. What's the point? Why should I worry about making a dream work right? If it's miserable, and just a dream, why not quit?"

"Because it doesn't matter if it's a dream or not." David wagged a finger. "Life may be a dream, but we won't know for sure until it's over, and we wake up, or whatever. If you're a side character in a dream, 'waking up' may just mean ceasing to exist. I think you like existing."

"Existing is where I keep all of my things." She thumped the bench. "I'm not giving them up, human. So why, if you're the dreamer, the dreamed of the dreamer at least, aren't you living like a king?"

David shrugged at that. "I have friends, and am financially stable, and learning new things. This is a good dream."

Posey recoiled. "Wait. You didn't have those before?" David shook his head. "But... Huh... Humans. Alright, so you're having a nice dream. Why are you bothering with me then? I'm just raining on your sunshine parade."

"Because you are a pony." He would have preferred person, but why confuse her? "Dream or not, you are, for the moment, worthy of my attention and care. I hope you'd return the favor if it looked like I was in need. Being able to help, even in being a distraction, is another good thing."

Posey shrugged at that. "But you know you are a dream. If you're in trouble, so what? You'll wake up."

"Will I?" David cocked a brow at that. "I don't think I would, well, unless my dreamer... No. I'm stuck with the one I have. The dreamer will be fine, but I wouldn't be. One life, and that's alright. I like this one."

"If you have an in with the dreamer." She pointed up at her head. "Make them give me a fancy hat."

"They already heard you, but I doubt they'll do it." No hat was appearing on Posey's head. "He prefers to play by the rules. So unless there's a reason for a hat to land on your head, a hat won't land on your head."

"Lame." She hopped down to the ground. "Still, thanks. That was an interesting little thought. So you got here by being dreamed here, huh? That's pretty far out there."

"It's the truth as I know it." David shrugged. "But I prefer not to dwell on that. I have a life here, and I plan to live it."

"See, that's a good philosophy in general." Posey turned to start down the road. "Speaking of that, I have things to get to. I have one life, and I'm going to live it." She winked at David with more force than required. "Good luck with yours."

"Seeya." He waved at her departing form and rose up himself, stretching to the sky with a loud grunt of the stretch. "Alright!" He had a book to read! He resumed his trip home. It wasn't a long trip by any measure, just a few minutes of a hike and he turned into Joy's place, to wave and greet the ponies that spotted him coming in.

"Hey!" Pippster rushed up with a big smile. "Got time for a match?"

He had planed to get to reading, but saying no to the hopeful colt? Mmm, no, he couldn't do that. "Sure, but I haven't gotten much better at it." That didn't matter to the foal, who eagerly took his position and loaded up the track. David sank at another terminal and soon they were racing at simulated fast speeds down an equally imagined track. There were no prizes for winning or prices for failing. It was all for fun, and sometimes that was good enough.

Author's Note:

And now, some heavy philosophy! Feel free to share your philosophy below if you feel up for it.

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Comments

[Booster Spice]

In some realms, Discord placed a hat thereon, in some others, Pinkie did so, and in many, poor Hutch was chasing the little dragon on coffee round the store where it interacted with a hat directly or various levels of Jaded La Perm indirectly, until said hat was in connection with Posey head, no matter the resulting location, velocity, orientation or contorsions of said Posey.

[howard035]

I love your Posey.