Team Awesome Short Stories: Dream's Reality

by Caustizer

Chapter 16

“That should do it.”

Picking up a green ribboned hat with her powers, Dream places it upon her head to complete her new look. Standing in front of a mirror, the Princess of Dreams admires herself and the impressive combination of hat and flank coverings that come with her new job as a Manehatten Marshal. When she arrived on this world a few days ago she had been dressed in royal attire with her dark starry hair weaving about her head, but now most of that clothing is long gone. Apart from her shoes, everything else has been lost or discarded along the way. Her flowing mane is now bound professionally behind her head giving Dream the look of a working mare just like the earth ponies she has so recently begun to admire.

“Mother would hardly recognize me,” the princess muses as she circles a few times to ensure nothing is out of place.

The cabin around her is simple but workable with a hammock for a bed and a few pieces of basic furniture. Sleeping in here hasn’t been as comfortable as it would’ve been back home in the palace, but after using a few spells to fix the temperature and humidity Dream has made it manageable. Using part of the reward she received for capturing those two thieves she had purchased the small place two nights ago.

“Or rather, one thief,” she reminds herself out loud.

The guilt of roping up that innocent pegasus along with the gryphon is bothering Dream, but it is not enough to dull her anticipation over today’s test to earn her Star of Authority. It is a custom for the earth ponies that every marshal has to be appointed by consent – that is, the townsfolk decide after a season long trial period if an aspirant lawpony should be given the right to police their activities according to the laws set down by their leaders. However, the first step in this process is to pass a test set up by a senior marshal to prove that they know the laws and are capable of ensuring other ponies obey them. Ever since Buck left for home, Dream has been doing some research into the whole thing and has even memorized most of Manehatten’s book of laws. This morning, she is ready for whatever these earth ponies have to throw at her.

Within a few minutes there is a knock at the door of Dream’s home, as expected. In her excitement, Dream turns into a cloud and zips over to the doorway slipping through the keyhole and forcing her way out, rematerializing into her normal form outside.

“You called?” asks the uniformed princess with a hint of amusement.

In front of her, Whiptail doesn’t share her enthusiasm. In fact it appears just the opposite, with the senior marshal wearing a scowl mixed with a look of impatience and disapproval. She is wearing her typical leather attire, bearing a similar set of hat and flank coverings to Dream except dressed up differently to signify her longetivity in the service. As is standard issue, she also carries the nasty looking hoof bow slung over her back along with some spare arrows and a lasso, none of which the princess had yet earned the right to carry.

“What did I tell ya about all that magical funny business?” pushes the brown furred pony marshal, “…just open the door like a regular pony.”

“Well what else would you expect from a ‘talented unicorn with an appetite for justice’?” replies Dream cleverly.

Whiptail looks annoyed for a moment, but then hides it beneath a mask of professionalism.

“As the first ever unicorn aspirant, this makes today’s test somewhat unique in our village’s history. If ya have any doubts, now is the time to make them said before we start.”

Dream dawns a look of confidence.

“None whatsoever.”

“Good,” replies Whiptail with a smile, before she walks a circle around the princess to inspect her uniform and appearance.

“Do ya think this is a beauty pageant?” pokes the pony marshal after she finishes.

“No.”

“A courting ceremony perhaps?”

Dream rolls her eyes.

“No.”

“Then why are ya wearing jewelled shoes? You are a public servant hornhead… not a walking beauty contest. You wanna do this? Take’em off.”

Grudgingly, the princess obeys.

“I have a name you know…”

“Not until we give ya one ya don’t. Part of this test is earning the right to be called marshal… if ya can’t handle that then I suggest ya stay home.”

Conflicted feelings begin to flare up in Dream. Half of her is enraged at the insolence she is being forced to endure from such a lesser being, but her other half is reluctant to fail the very first real test she has ever been subjected to. In the end, the second half wins out.

“I’m not staying home, Whiptail.”

“You will call me maim, unicorn,” insists Whiptail aggressively.

“I’m not staying home… maim,” corrects Dream reluctantly.

“Good.”

Whiptail turns and walks down the pathway towards town, motioning the princess to follow her. Dream obeys, this time using her feet. Having worn her shoes since she arrived in this place, the gravel path feels weird and uncomfortable on her hooves.

“Keep ur eyes peeled unicorn,” continues Whiptail with a hint of carefulness, “who knows what kinda mischief has popped up since I left duty.”

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Making her way into town behind the hard-nosed marshal, Dream notices something odd about the nearby buildings as they walk past. Rather then a place bustling with activity such as carts and goods being moved and ponies going about their daily business, all the occupants are standing on the side of the road staring at them and/or quietly chatting amongst themselves. The princess notices that they all seem to be watching her expectantly, as if something important is about to happen. A few seconds later, it does.

The doors of the Leaky Barrel Tavern suddenly burst open, and two stallions charge out at full speed. Within an instant one pounces on the other and the two start a frantic tussle in the middle of the dusty road.

“You take back what you said about my momma before I go ‘an make you, mudface!” shouts the red earth pony aggressor as he slams his hooves into the other.

“Hah you hit like a filly you goat loving son of an ass!” hollers back the bearded grey pony.

As the two ponies rough each other up violently in front of her, Dream glances over at Whiptail, who is eyeing her expectantly. With a nod, the princess recognizes this as her first test.

“HEY!” Dream shouts as she takes a step forward to break them up, “…what’s going on here!?!”

The fight comes to a momentary halt as the now breathless ponies separate, glaring at each other with menace.

“That one called my momma a donkey, marshal,” the red one insists, “I’m not taking that from anypony without a fight.”

“Little colty runs to the mop to save himself!” teases the grey one with a cackling voice, “How ‘bout you tell her about the illegal ‘shine you been brewin in your cellar eh?”

“That’s a damn lie and you know it,” shoots back the red one with rage.

Dream sweats out what to do in this unusual situation, before she makes a flash decision.

“Alright, if you two don’t stop this I’m going to have to take you both in.”

This statement drew a look of fear from the red one.

“No please don’t take me in! I’ll be good… I promise!”

“Hah you got nothing on me hornhead,” shouts the grey pony with emboldened anger.

“Fighting, disrupting the peace, and insulting a marshal on patrol,” lectures Dream confidently, “…that should be enough for about 3 days in the lockup don’t you think?”

The last question was directed towards Whiptail, but the senior marshal keeps a neutral expression and doesn’t answer. The grey earth pony does not look too happy at the notice of a potential punishment.

“You’ll never catch me alive,” he shouts, making a weak attempt to kick dirt in her face before turning tail and fleeing the other way.

On the ball, Dream shifts into her signature greenish starry cloud before reappearing rapidly in front of her quarry as she had done with Buck a few days ago. The grey earth pony is so surprised he nearly runs into her, but a conjured burst of wind later and he is knocked helplessly onto his buttocks.

“I think it’sss sssleepy time,” declares Dream as her voice tinges with ethereal energy and she draws deeply from her power.

The earth pony struggles, but after a moment of looking into her glowing green gaze his eyelids begin to drop and he slumps over fast asleep. Returning herself to normal, Dream catches her breath and rubs a bead of sweat off her forehead. All around her the earth ponies stare with amazement and a hint of fear, before clopping their hooves on the ground in applause.

“Pretty good,” states Whiptail with assurance, “but were this a real criminal, what would you do next?”

“I would probably lock him up for a night or so, and then speak to him in the morning to check his attitude. If he’s been straightened out, I’d let him go at noon. If not, I’d keep him around another night to think about his misdeeds.”

Whiptail nods her head, satisfied with the answer.

“Come,” insists the senior marshal, “your patrol isn’t over yet, aspirant.”

Sighing, the princess gets herself together and continues towards the next planned test awaiting her in this disorderly town.

…

Later in the afternoon Dream and Whiptail arrive at the Manehatten Lockup in the centre of town after a hard day of testing and judging by the former and the latter. The princess is exhausted and it is shown by the dirt on her fur and the weary look on her face. It became clear to her that a number of ‘test’ crimes had been set up by the marshals and the townsfolk, but she owned up to the task and saw them all through by the book – or at least as close to it as she could be.

In addition to the bar tussle there was also a colt stealing in the market, a cart path blockage, and birds eating the pumpkins in the field (which turned out to be a real problem – Whiptail shot one of them with her bow).

“I’m not gonna lie ya did real good today, aspirant,” praises Whiptail as she hangs up her bow and lasso on the wall. The marshal managing the lockup is busy shaving one of his hooves and doesn’t look up or acknowledge them at all.

“Your welcome,” replies Dream wearily, with perhaps a hint of sarcasm.

“I got one last thing for ya before ya can head back to home and hearth,” continues Whiptail with a hint of sadism, “Clipfoot, you got the feed buckets?”

The stallion managing the lockup continues what he is doing, pointing briefly towards a pair of metal buckets in the corner. Both are three quarters full with water, and next to them are a couple of apples.

“I know what yur thinkin,” announces Whiptail, “they steal apples from us, and then when we lock em up we give em apples for free. Unfortunately that’s the way it is… we’re not about to starve our prisoners like the unicorns do.”

That isn’t what Dream is thinking at all, but she nods in agreement anyway. The subtle jab at unicorn policies means little to her since she isn’t one.

“Feed the prisoners, aspirant,” commands Whiptail, before adding with a wink, “… and keep up the good work.”

The complement just bounces off the princess, who can’t help but moan to herself about being given yet another laborious task to do – perhaps being a lawpony is too much physical work for her. Taking a deep breath, Dream collects herself and picks up the food and water with her magic.

“Those two ‘ave been fighting all day,” warns Clipfoot as he looks up briefly, “might wanna watch yourself in there.”

Disregarding the advice Dream dawns a look of confidence and pushes open the door leaning to the prisoners block. Inside there are two barred cells with boarded walls and dirt floors covered in hay. On the cell to the right sits Magenta Dash, sleeping in a dark and cold corner. Judging from the fact she is caked in dirt and covered with small cuts and bruises her past few days in prison haven’t been enjoyable.

“I’ve brought you some food,” Dream says as she places down the first bucket just inside the bars, and sets the apple next to it.

Magenta Dash opens her eyes and looks expressionlessly at the princess for a moment before getting to her feet and walking over to the freshly arrived sustainance. Without acknowledging Dream’s presence she leans over and begins lapping up water.

“Aren’t you supposed to check it for poison?” teases Dream, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

It doesn’t work. Dash just looks at her sadly for a moment, and then trots back to the corner she had been sleeping in. The gesture, or lack thereof, gives the princess a moment of pause – what happened to her mighty spirit? Her combative instincts? Confused, Dream changes the subject.

“I know you’re innocent Dash,” declares Dream, “I’ve been meaning to get you out, it’s just that I’ve been caught up in other things.”

“Hah,” spits Dash disrespectfully.

“Okay so I made a bit of a mistake,” the princess continues, “but your attitude didn’t give me any reason to hurry.”

“You just don’t get it do you?” shoots back Dash, regaining some of her vigour “I don’t care if you want to poison me, or if I never get out of here. You’ve already got me… I’m dead meat, do you hear me?”

“Why?”

“Don’t you know how my kind work? When I get outta here do you think they’re just going to let me carry on like nothing happened? No way! They’re going to, to—”

Magenta Dash doesn’t want to say it, but she makes herself anyway.

“—clip my wings.”

Suddenly the atmosphere becomes a whole lot darker, and Dream feels a wrench of guilt. This pegasus’ life is now ruined, and it’s all her fault.

“So you can go ahead and put as much poison in my food as you want unicorn. You’ve won… and I’m sunk.”

Dash’s ears flop down, and a tear of surrender runs down her cheek. From the cell to the left of hers comes the sound of cackling laughter.

“Haha, serves you right flapper,” brags Gilden the gryphon, who seems to be in noticeably better shape.

Dream hardens her expression, and strides over to the gryphon’s cell with authority.

“Well look at this… the mudfeet have taken on a hornhead to help them out. Pretty pathetic they can’t take care of themselves.”

“That’s a bit odd coming from a creature that steals from others,” counters Dream cleverly.

“Hey, a gryphon’s gotta eat,” answers Gilden with a hint of condescension, “oh and a word of advice – I don’t think your lord is going to like you throwing in your lot with these mudfeet too much.”

“I don’t have a ‘lord’, thank you,” informs Dream matter-of-factly.

“So… what… you’re royalty?” continues Gilden sarcastically, “I doubt it.”

The princess decides to ignore the comment, and returns with one of her own.

“You don’t deserve this, but here are your rations.”

Dream drops the water bucket on the ground roughly causing it to rock back and forth and forcing the gryphon to leap forward to grab the tin before it spills. Waiting until he is prone in front of her, she spitefully tosses the apple at him with her magic and it bounces lightly off his flank.

“Don’t eat it all in one bite.”

Having finished with the gryphon thief, the Princess of Dreams returns to Dash’s cell. The pegasus is busy munching down the apple, and looks up with curiosity as she sees the disguised alicorn return.

“You certainly aren’t friendly, but I think you deserve another chance,” Dream comments, “I’ll get you out of here, and then I’ll help you deal with the other pegasi when the time comes.”

“Oh yeah? Well that sounds a bit too good to be true,” counters Dash suspiciously, “so what’s the catch?”

Dream extends a hoof through the bars.

“The catch is we have to be friends.”

Dash raises an eyebrow, but considers the offer for a moment. Having no other choice, she relents.

“Alright, we can be friends unicorn.”

The two ponies tap their hooves together to seal the pact.

“So, when are you going to bust me out?” pushes Dash with impatience.

“Soon enough,” returns Dream as she turns to leave, “and I’m not a unicorn.”

“What?” asks Dash with a look of confusion, “you’re joking right?”

Dream looks back with a smug smile, and Magenta Dash sees that she is indeed serious.

“If you’re not a unicorn…then what are you?”

“You’ll see…”

And on that note the princess winks at her and pushes the door open to leave the holding block, leaving Dash with a look of confusion and uncertainty on her face. After all that has happened between her and this ‘Dream’ pony she still has no idea what to make of her, and every time they speak things just seem to keep getting weirder and weirder.

Comments

[zeusdemigod131]

Yes it's back!

[La Vallett1]

Took you long enough. And Dream is best law-enforcer.

[Brutydude]

*Whoo hooo*