Dreams are a Gateway

by Spacecowboy

(Security) Check, Please!

I slowly came to with a slight throbbing at the back of my head, I must have hit it pretty good when I had what was probably going to be my first freak out of many. A quick glance showed a new addition to the room, a small nightstand had been brought in while I was out. On it was a tray with a glass of water and a pitcher of what I assumed to be water, as well as some assorted fruits. Next to the tray was a piece of parchment with a few lines of symbols written on it; looked like Wingdings to me. Ignoring the paper, I went for the water, gently sipping at the glass. At first the liquid burned my raw throat, but soon enough it turned into the wonderful calming sensation water provided, and whoever had left it here had been kind enough to keep it rather cool.

Setting the glass back down on the tray, I moved to refill it as I thought about what I knew about my situation, as little as it was. I was definitely not on Earth anymore, at least not the one I knew. My dreams that I had been having were somehow connected to this, and there was that fog of darkness that had wanted to destroy me, or so it had seemed. Somehow though, my bacon had been saved from the fog. Then I had a spirit trek, or something similar to one, at the end of which I had been reunited with my body, which seemed to have been sitting here for quite some time. And oh, talking unicorns! All things considered, the fact I was still sane and taking this rather calmly seemed rather extraordinary for me so far. For some reason I foresaw more freakouts in my future. Call it a hunch if you will.

After a few more glasses of water, I finally decided to give my throat a chance. The first few tries seemed to simply result in some coughing, although the fact that is was rather loud was a good sign. Much better than the squeak of a scream I had managed earlier anyways. "-ah, blah, blah, ha!" And there is was, my voice again, although it was still rather soft, my throat seemed to not hate me as the words formed. Now, what to do next? I moved myself to a seating position at the edge of the makeshift bed as I thought about standing up. As I kicked my legs to the edge of the bed however, shadows danced across the walls as I distinctly heard clopping sounds, faint but growing stronger, coming my direction. This caused me to stop where I was as I tried preparing myself to not freak out this time around.

Around the corner came a pony that seemed to be much taller than the previous two, and seemed to carry an air of importance around her. It was somewhat hard to tell at first glance, but it appeared her coat was a variance of white with the smallest hint of pink thrown in with it. Her mane was a multitude of colors, with a light forest green, dark sky blue and a dark shade of pink being the dominant ones. Although I had at first thought that she was a unicorn like the previous two that I had first seen, I was wrong. I had thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me, but as she turned to face me, I distinctly saw a wing folded in at her side, and a rather large one at that. She looked at me with what seemed to be a small hint of surprise with her pinkish eyes before her gaze became rather steely, it was most unnerving to be on the receiving end of that gaze.

"Can I assume that you can understand me?" She spoke after a brief pause, during which I had turned my gaze to the floor by my feet.

"Y-yes." I managed to squeak out, and punctuated it with a cough. My nerves were on edge, for some reason the thought had entered my mind that this winged unicorn could easily destroy me with but a thought and then move on as if it were just another day in her life. My freak-o-meter was quickly passing from nervous straight to full on meltdown rather quickly.

"Good, then this will make what I have to say much easier." I peeked up at her, and she still had that damn gaze locked right on me. This time she seemed to notice the effect she was having on me though, as she seemed to soften it somewhat and her invisible aura of power slowly diminished. "Please, try to stay calm. I know that this is most likely a first for you, I can tell you that I was extremely surprised when you just dropped out of thin air at my hooves. So please, try to stay calm so that we can have this conversation, it is somewhat important." She sat down on her rear outside of the cell, it looked like she was trying to be as unaggressive looking as possible and almost pleading with her words.

My freak-o-meter was now holding steady at the threshold to nervous breakdown, which allowed me to start to calm myself down somewhat. "J-Just, give me a minute, please." I took about a minute to try and gather my thoughts, making sure that I kept enough coherency to not look a complete fool in front of this pony. After getting back to simply being nervous, this time with a dash of apprehension thrown in, I figured now was as good a time as any. "Okay. Going to try really hard not to completely melt down."

"I am very glad to hear that. I heard about how you reacted to seeing my pupil and her brother, which is why we left you a note and I came by myself. Well, first thing first. What is your name?"

"Daniel. Daniel Volare."

"Daniel, welcome to the country of Equestria. I am Celestia. I want to apologize for your accommodations, however we have never had one of your kind here before and precautions needed to be taken, for both of our sakes." Yup, I could read between the lines. I was being isolated and probably sized up as a potential threat by whatever power controlled Equestria. Nope, no nervousness there at all whatsoever. "This is a land that has been without major conflict for about a thousand years, so you need to be kept isolated until we can ensure that you pose no threat or harm, I hope you can understand."

I was somewhat floored at hearing the thousand years without major conflicts. Flabbergasted really. Anytime I turned on the news on at home, there was always some reference to one of the conflicts or wars going on in the world. Even our own country hadn't seen any period of prolonged peace in its history. Mind you, we usually were doing the right things for the right reasons, but even then, peace was considered a pipe dream by many, something to wish for. I noticed her staring at me waiting for a reply. "Oh, eh, yeah, I can understand. I'm sure the same thing would happen if you had found yourself on my world. So uh, how can you decide if I pose a threat or not? Seems like it'd benefit us both to get that part out of the way."

"I am glad to hear that, I do not typically like these actions, but I will do whatever it takes to keep my little ponies safe and sound. As for taking care of that, I would like to, with your permission of course, enter your mind and get a general read of your character. That is the quickest and easiest way for me to find out, and then from there we can move on to more pleasant topics."

"Enter my mind? How exactly are you supposed to do that?" I trailed off as thoughts of old alien horror films came to mind. Probes were probably the most overplayed tool of the trade in those films, but it was definitely what was dominating my mind. My thoughts must have reflected onto my face somewhat as Celestia was looking at me with a rather odd face. "Ummm... I suppose so? Be gentle?" Seemed to be the best reply I could think of.

Celestia slowly got up and opened the door, not bothering to close it behind her as she came into the cell. "Simple really, magic. However, I need to come into physical contact with you in order to take a peek, so to speak. Please don't be alarmed, I promise that this won't hurt at all. It may feel a bit odd, but that should be the extent of it." She closed the distance between us and brought her horn down to my forehead and made contact.

As I opened my eyes I found myself seated on my couch in my living room, sitting on it comfortably. As I found myself thinking that maybe the minute chance of everything being a really bad dream was right, Celestia walked into my view. "This is a most intriguing place I must admit, I haven't done this very often but most of the minds I have entered have somewhat simple mindscapes. This however appears to be rather... complex."

I muttered a quick curse under my breath as she shattered my last holdout, and focused my attention towards her. "So, how do you do your reading, this is kind of freaky to be honest."

"Well, I must get a general view of your mindscape. This appears to simply be a welcoming area, so we must leave it. Please, lead the way out."

I figured she must have meant out the building, and so I got up from the couch and made my way to the door. "Follow me then Celestia." Throwing the front door of my condo open, the sight that greeted me was yet one more of many shocking things that had occurred to me. Outside of the condo, rather than the usual parking spots and road that greeted me every morning, there were a mix and mash of different buildings all neatly placed along a straight road. As my gaze moved across each building, I immediately recognized each and every one of them. My childhood home. My high school. My father's company HQ building. Every significant part of my memories seemed to be represented in my mindscape.

"I am unsure if I should be impressed or startled... This is beyond anything I have seen in a mind before. Well, time for me to do my thing." Celestia startled me a little as with a hop and a flap of her wings, she went airborne and flew up into the sky. After about a minute she seemed to find a spot that she liked, as she started hovering in midair as a bright light emitted from her horn. It wasn't too long before the light cut out and she made her way back to me, landing gracefully nearby and folding her wings back to her side. She looked to be deep in thought as if analyzing something, which I suppose she was.

"Well?" I spoke out after she had just stood there for a minute or two. Patience was never one of my strong suits.

"Oh, sorry. I see that although you are a rather selfish individual and like to question everything that is presented before you, you have good intentions. I think I shall look forward to the first time it is explained to you how magic works. Although we could probably spend the next hundred years discussing stuff and not run out of conversation topics, I think it best if we take this back to the waking world." With a nod of confirmation from me, I closed my eyes.

I found myself back in the cell with Celestia next to the bed as I reopened my eyes. "What you said about discussing stuff, you didn't see anything specific while poking around, did you?" I really hoped that she hadn't, while I couldn't recall anything too bad being in my head I didn't really like the idea of someone being privy to all of my memories.

"Nay, I simply scanned the surface of your mindscape to get a general feel of your character. While I could have easily delved into your memories, it would serve no purpose for what I was aiming to do." She stood up and stepped back a few paces. "Now, I know for a fact that there are many questions to be asked and answered, but first I would like to go grab a few more ponies who have an interest in you as well. It will also save from having to repeat it all more than once as well. Please, do not try to leave just yet, you are not a prisoner now that I have seen your character, but it would be for the best if you waited here for my return, for now." With that said, Celestia turned and left my sight, leaving the door open behind her. She must have trusted me to follow her little request, which honestly made perfect sense to me.

As the sound of hooves faded, I turned my attention towards the platter of fruit and water and ate. Once I finished, I passed the time by slowly flexing what little bit of muscle I had left, as well as getting up and walking around a bit. Although some of my muscles and joints protested at the walking around, I seemed to have found some more strength as I felt just fine after what must have been about five minutes of pacing around. I faintly heard multiple voices coming my way, followed by the telltale clopping sound their hooves made. It was almost time to have at least some of my questions answered at last.

Author's Note:

Author's Note: Well, here is the next segment of this story. From this point on, I'll be having to come up with content, as this is the last bit that I had typed. Luckily for you all I was able to end it at a decent point with an okay chapter length. Hopefully this bit was enjoyable for y'all to read, and till the next update, cheers!

Comments

[MLPFanForever]

Sweet! Keep it up!

[Ozone]

Have you decided who will get shipped?

If so, who?

[Spacecowboy]

1879095
I've got two choices in mind.
One of them makes me want to keep from having a bittersweet ending, which involves breaking a few of the traditional taboos of HiE. The other choice, not so much. Not that that fact alone is going to sway my choice.

Either Luna, Twilight, or a combination. Only thing I'll say on the relationship stuff for now, as I haven't made up my mind completely.

[Ozone]

1879120 Combination is always more interesting to me. Especially if Celestia herself is involved. Lol. She never gets shipped that much, for some reason...

[Spacecowboy]

1879140
Without spoiling too much, at this point I'm extremely hesitant on any 'herd' scenario, mostly because I feel that I don't have the skill required to properly pull it off. And well, I mean if I truly wanted to I could justify Celestia in a herd situation, I would probably lean more towards putting Twi with her instead.

Time will tell. I've got to brainstorm the next chapter's contents anyways, so we'll see. Regardless, it'll be a realistic romance, meaning no 'oh my god, we just met and this is crazy, but here's my dick so fuck me maybe?' situations.

And my god, did I seriously just make a spoof on Call Me Maybe? I sure did.

[Ozone]

1879167 Pfft hahaha!

And being realistic is always good! Stupid 1-shot clopfics...

[Spacecowboy]

1879204
Yup, I'm still shaking my head at myself for that one.

And yeah, I like the slightly more realistic approach to things. I mean, I've got the method in mind to give him some 'extra abilities' while keeping it semi realistic and not over powering him at all, but again, really just what I feel the most comfortable with. Regardless, there will be some major friend-shipping early on, as he needs time to acclimate anyways before he can come to see ponies in such a light. And I swear, this story keep gaining more and more folks... not that I'm complaining, just means I'm going to have to start stretching myself a tad more to ensure all my readers stay happy now, lol. xD Means I might have to work on the next chapter after BOWTN is done and I get a prologue typed out. *random musings of an author

[Ozone]

1879266 Well, this will definitely be entertaining. Keep it up

And don't burn yourself out on writing either. Stretching yourself a bit would be good, but don't over-do it. We be patient folk. Well, some of us.

[Spacecowboy]

1879332
I do hope so as that is kind of the plan, although more to be entertaining to myself. The enjoyment you folks get out of reading it is simply the icing on top, so to speak.

And I don't expect a burn out, this keeps me from pulling out hair during work, as 80% of my 8 hour shifts are spent doing... nothing. While I have no qualms getting paid to mostly do nothing, finding something to entertain myself is a must, and thus I finally got into writing semi seriously. For example, what is posted her took me approximately 5-6 weeks to write up. If you go peek at my other two stories, that has been over the course of ~15 days now. Plus I've got another 2.5k words written up towards my TwiLuna. It is a fun and enjoyable experience, plus I am learning a lot. And oh, being in control of a story for once? Amazing feeling.

[Lepking13]

1879332 Yeah, some. Personally, i get angsty waiting on a good story to update. I always want to know what happens next, and i get tired of not knowing. But i understand that some authors take time, so i have like 40 stories i'm reading to put off my mind. Yay for giant story sites like this.