> I Dream of Pony
>  by StarkyShy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Return to Dreamland
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

        It was an average Thursday night, after doing your honest day’s work in Ponyville it was time for the town to sleep. To the night ponies, the brightest light source was the moon that Princess Luna raised, but to you, it was the faint glow of your unicorn horn.

        Although you were tired, you could still write. You wanted to write as much as possible before sleeping. It was your passion to write, but tonight, you were completely stuck. You’ve written a few novels before, many of them different genres, and they did pretty well. But now you were suffering the dreaded writer’s block. It had gotten so bad that you had begun to have nightmares about never writing another book again. You tried to think of ideas, but nothing came out, you were just scribbling ideas on paper. Although they had potential, you couldn’t find the inspiration to write. You just sat there under your covers staring at your scribbles until you felt your body give in to fatigue.

        The world began to change around you. It was at that moment, you weren’t in your bed anymore, you were in a duel to the death with wild bandits in the wild west. You parried each of their strikes and countered with slices and stabs with your swift sabre. Eventually, you got disarmed. And the hat on your head flew off. 

As your assailant approached you, his confidence slowly faded as he noticed your horn. Smirking cockily, you pointed your horn at the attacker and shot a beam of energy at him. He flew backwards into the saloon The other bandits stared at you in shock before taking off in fear. Even the largest one, horn still glowing, ran off quicker than the others.

You grabbed your hat and put it back on, laughing to yourself. You were like a male Daring Do. Of course, it was time to go, so you turned around to face your crew. With a smirk on your face and a tap in your trot, you began to explore the untamed jungle.

You looked around you, the air was thick with life, proven by the mosquitoes buzzed around everypony. Your tails swatted them away like it was natural. You lead the others with confidence as you made idle chatter.

Suddenly, you froze in place. You signaled your team not to make a sound. You turned your head, scanning your surroundings. There was something there, you swore there was, and it wasn’t friendly.

As if on cue, a jaguar stalked in front of your path. Judging by the menacing stare, you walked right into her territory near her babies, and she wasn’t going to let you get away unscathed.

You looked for any means of escape, but there was no clear path other than behind you, and that would surely spell disaster. You couldn’t climb up a tree or run, she’d definitely catch you. You could fire off a spell, but she could run easily, or you’d hit your crew accidentally. Couldn’t take it on in combat either, with that jaw, it would break you in seconds. There was only one thing to do. 

Do something implausible.

You motioned for your team to back up, you kicked up the dirt and raised your body, entering a fighting stance. You turned around, all five of them were looking at you like you were insane. 

The jaguar roared, charging at you, fangs ready to crush your bones. You dug your right hoof into the ground, then quickly swung it up into her jaw.

Everything was a blur, but next thing you remember was an unconscious jaguar to the side.

You just uppercutted a jaguar. And it was awesome.

You were surrounded by loud cheers, seeing six faces have a combination of shock and joy. The one unicorn in the group stopped the glow of their horn in disappointment.

“Alright, that’s enough celebrating...” You pulled the mask over your head. “I still have the rest of the city to save.”

You looked over what was once a beautiful city, now turning to ruin by supervillains.

        “I’m coming with you,” one of your masked partners said, resting their hoof on your back. You stared at her and shook your head.

        “No, I have to do this alone.” You brushed her off, but she grabbed onto you once more.

        “I’m not leaving you. I’m going with you whether you want it or not.”

        You took a long look at her, sighing before looking forward. “Alright, but you know how dangerous he is. We have to move quickly, time is of the essence.”

        She nodded, even though you couldn’t see her eyes, you could still feel her sadness. You turned to the ever-growing destruction of the city; hopefully the place was evacuated while you were disarming the bombs.

You had to transport yourself and your partner to the scene of the action. You landed in the middle of the devastation, facing the villain.

“Black Hole! It’s time for you to face justice!” you proclaimed, puffing your chest out. You were answered with deep brooding cackles.

“Oh, I don’t think so...It’s time for you to face your doom!” the villain turned around, firing a dark energy sphere at your hooves. You and your ally barely managed to leap out of the way in time.

“That was a nice attempt, but you’ll need more than that to defeat us!” You beamed, both of you charging up your horns for a counter attack.

“Oh, I never intended to hit you,” he chuckled, “I only wanted to trap you!” he pointed to the area where he aimed.

You turned around, noticing that the dark spot started to grow, it was pulling both of you closer. You tried to resist and back away, but the black hole and its pull only grew stronger. You extended your hooves to your partner, trying to push her to safety, but you two quickly sucumbed to the darkness.

Darkness...it was as deadly as it was horrifying. There was no telling what would be found. The lack of sight heightened your other senses; you could hear every creak and drop of water on the floor, smell the rot and desolation the place went through, and feel the hoof lightly tapping your fla-

You let out a rather girly scream that could shatter glass, and started to run forward out of fear. It was probably working pretty well until you ran face-first into a wall. At least, you hoped it was a wall.

While you were laying down, you felt your heartbeat pulse throughout your entire body, the sound ringing in your head. You scrambled to your hooves, trying to orient yourself. Suddenly, there was a bright glow in your pitch-black vision. From the source of the light, you started hearing a voice.

“Stay calm. I am here for you.” it said.

You deduced you were finally going crazy, or that you were so crazy that you became sane again. You nodded, not even noticing your entire body was trembling with fear. “Here, take this.” the voice said, and you found yourself holding something seemingly wooden.

“A torch. Great. Is there a fire to light this with?” You nonchalantly asked through chattering teeth.

As if on cue, an inferno nearly blasted you, but your shield took the head, as well as your armor. You were already sweating. The armor was helping resist the flames, but at the same time, you were not invincible; any longer and you would boil on the inside.

“Where is the princess, foul beast?” You yelled, as if the dragon could understand your language. The following reply was a loud, primal roar. You pointed your sword at his throat, although with the size difference, you could point at the cave’s ceiling and there would be little difference.

The dragon in question had dark crimson scales, and under its claws were piles and piles of golden coins, gems, and scraps of armor from previous challengers. It huffed, shooting smoke from its nostrils at you, as if saying “Your other comrades have posed no challenge to me. How are you special?”

You were sweating, but you needed to muster up all your confidence for this fight. Time seemed to slow down as you leaped into action, swinging your sword in a heroic rage. It seemed to do little as you quickly got slashed by the dragon’s claws, shredding your armor to scrap metal. You huffed, and started making a mad dash around the dragon.

You were quickly swatted away by the dragon’s tail, no longer deemed a threat. You grunted as you got back up on your hooves, noticing that the dragon was snacking on sapphires. You picked up your sword again, aiming and tossing your sword with your magic to swat the gem out of its hands. The dragon growled, now shooting smoke at your face. You rose your shield up to protect your face. Smirking that you got its attention, but horrified that now it would actively try to destroy you. Using your magic, you brought your blade back at your side. You pointed your sword again, a new feeling of confidence in your voice. “Alright, listen up...”

“...This is how the entire incident went down!” you pounded the table, giving a cold hard stare to the people in the room.

“We’ll start at the beginning of this terrible crime, at exactly 4 AM, where our culprit started out their planning. Our culprit entered the kitchen to get the murder weapon: the almond cupcakes!” You stated, constantly keeping eye contact with somepony every time, watching them for a nervous tell. It didn’t matter though - you already knew who did it.

“Now, this would lead everyone to assume that it was our cook that poisoned the cupcakes. But this was all part of the killer’s trap...the truth is that only our host was poisoned, if the cook added the poison to the cupcake mix, we would all be dead.”

“We all ate the cupcakes at around the same time, right?” The cook asked, getting nods from everyone. 

“But while the cupcakes took their time to cool, anyone could have poisoned the one cupcake for our host.” on of the guests stammered, shaking nervously.

Your heart began to beat, all the pieces of this puzzle were slowly being put together.

“Our host was poisoned with a lethal dose of cyanide, which smells like almonds. This would later lead our suspicion on over to the scientist. Again, this was another trap set up by the killer. Anyone could’ve grabbed the cyanide and poured the lethal amount into the cupcake. At this point, all of us are still potentially the killer. But this is where the killer began to mess up. There was only a brief period of time between when the cupcakes were cooling, and when they were served. This begs the question as to how did the killer know that the poisoned cupcake would go to the host? The answer is…” You paused, taking a deep breath, waiting to give the guests an explanation. “...They didn’t. The culprit didn’t want to target our host specifically, and left it to chance and risked suicide to poison someone. There’s only one pony crazy enough to play such a risky gambit. The most eccentric person at this party…”

“And that of course...is…”

“...The host himself!”

The entire crew gasped. You pointed out the window to show them the awful scene. A horde of the undead shambling towards your location.

The town you once lived in had quickly turn to ruins by the zombies. Everypony was constantly in fear of being infected, or worse. There were no warning signs, it happened like a level seven earthquake, but even more devastating. No pony was safe. Even the unicorns’ health spells and greatest medicine could not counter the infection. In a day, Equestria was nearly in ruins. Even the princesses panicked, forcing a panic that spread across the world, They split up and tried to save the survivors, but even they couldn’t be everywhere to save everypony. Deep down, you still had hope that there would be a cure, or that this horrible nightmare would soon be over.

You and your group of survivors were hiding out in a large supermarket, it was raided to the point where supplies were scarce. It seemed safe for a few days, there weren’t any zombies for miles.

Until now, that is.

Your ragtag group began murmuring, nearly panicking, until the group-appointed leader called our attention. She was larger than most of your group, and she seemed to know more about survival and leadership than anypony else you knew. Everypony quickly agreed that she could be the best hope for making it out alive.

“Listen, we don’t have much time. In a few minutes, we will be surrounded, we will have to fight our way out. Find some armor, weapons, and food. Take only what you need. This will be the group’s entire stash. What you have may be used or given to another survivor. Get a weapon that’s light but deadly. Word’s been going around that survivors are meeting at the pier. It’s far, I’m not going to lie. But we will stop at safehouses if we see them. But we will have to keep moving. You have about five minutes, understood?”

“Yes ma’am!” you all said in unison, splitting up to gather what you had scavenged.

You went to your stash, gathering some oat bars and canned apples into your backpack. You grabbed your weapon, a fire axe. Lightweight, but durable. It could easily slice through if need be. Unicorn magic could hold the infected off for a while, but all magic took a great amount of energy. Telekinesis, however, took very little effort if used almost constantly. 

After packing lightly, you grabbed a special keepsake. she told the group to gather necessities only, but this was a necessity to you. It was your father’s beach hat. It was the last remaining evidence of him, after the outbreak, you weren’t sure what happened to your family. 

You packed up everything, you needed, the rest would just be baggage. You met back towards your leader, waiting for the entire group to gather.

“Alright, we’re all ready? Before we go out there, I just want you to remind you on how to stay alive.” She started speaking like a combat general, pacing back and forth as she listed the rules of survival. “We do not engage the enemy unless they engage us: If they don’t see us, we don’t bother with them. If and when they do, aim for the head, the jaw is ideal, they can’t infect you if they have no head or jaw to bite you. Know your enemy, the unicorns are the smartest, the pegasi are the fastest, the earth ponies are the strongest. Finally, stay together. We follow my lead and look out for each other, got it?”

You all nodded, you stared out the windows, the undead slowly making their way towards the store. Your leader walking towards the back exit, motioning for everyone to follow.

She slowly opened the door, and you all went out single file, making as little noise as possible.

You felt your heart racing, you were back out in the open, vulnerable to danger. The store wasn’t all that safe, but it was better than being out here. You felt like your heart was about to burst out of your chest. You looked around, you could feel dead eyes just staring at you, as if they could sense your fear. Your body started to stiffen up.

You started walking in a manner similar to the zombies, hooves completely straight. The zombies started to shamble closer towards your group, closing in. Now you had to fight your way out.

        You brought your axe out and waited for one of them to target you, you began to get more clearheaded, the adrenaline rushing through your body. When it got close, you swung downwards, cutting it in two.
        You froze in place, you haven’t killed a zombie, you’ve just been running from them until you found temporary shelter. That pony used to be part of a family, someone’s child...and all of that was being taken away...

You started to phase out, unable to take the pressure. The undead began to descend on you, until you hear your name being called.

Upon turning around, your leader dashed in, swinging a broadsword, decapitating a row of the infected that were about to bite you. “What are you doing? We have to keep going!” She picked you up with her magic and dragged you towards the group. “First kill? Doesn’t get that easier, but it’ll get harder if you don’t get over it!” She yelled, slicing up some more of the zombies.

You took a deep breath, all your teammates were doing their best to stay alive. It was time to pull your weight. You started swinging, cleaving zombie after zombie in half. You kept telling yourself these were no longer ponies, they were monsters that had to be dealt with. It made it a bit easier to hack away at the hunks of rotting flesh. You were going on so long, you didn’t realize the group was slowly advancing ahead without you. Your leader had to come by to get you a second time.

“Come on, we gotta go, look!”

She grabbed your hooves, looking you deep in the eyes.

“It’s because you’re the only pony that’s made me feel this way…” she said, tearing up.

You nervously chuckled, “Well, I don’t know... I’m not that special…” you muttered, looking away.

She just scoffed in response. “Not that special?!” she grabbed your cheeks, forcing you to look at her. “Listen, you are one of the most important ponies I’ve ever met. No pony has ever cared about me the same way that you do. No pony makes me feel these weird feelings. No pony but you…” She leaned forward, and you felt something click against your horn.

“Hey, um...Our horns are touching.”

She giggled, “I know…” both of your horns began to glow, even though you weren’t casting a spell. You suddenly found yourself locking lips with your new sweetheart. You were surprised, but not disgusted. You two locked lips for what felt like forever, gazing into each other eyes.

When you finally the kiss, your face was a fine red, as you looked around, you began to notice something: you’ve only seen this mare in front of you for a few hours today, and yet you can’t shake the feeling that she was everywhere...Everything started to come together...

“...Wait a second, I was just fighting off zombies…” You looked up at your sweetheart. “How did we get here? Am I just...dreaming?” The world began to melt away. Leaving you and her all alone in a sea of stars.

“It appears so.” she said in a different voice. By the time you blinked, her appearance had changed completely, she was now a taller, dark blue alicorn with sparkling stars in her flowing mane.

“P-Princess Luna?” You gasped in disbelief. “I-Is that really you?”

“Do you not believe that I am here? Does it not make sense that I could appear here?”

You started to recall all the past events, from fighting bandits, to being a superhero, to solving a murder, all transitioning very quickly and making little to no sense how one connected to the other. It made sense before, but now…

“...Yeah, I’m dreaming. But is it my dream version of you, or are you the actual princess?”

“I assure you, I am the true princess of the night.” She smiled, various backgrounds from your past dream adventures making up a rather surreal scenery.

“But, why are you here? Aren’t there little fillies out in Equestria having nightmares you should be helping out with?” You asked, you were flattered, but you didn’t see yourself as all that special, no matter what your dreams said.

“They have been taken care of a long time ago, you have slept at a rather late hour.” She smirked.

You chuckled nervously, “But still, why me? I’m just a simple writer.”

“I have heard about your writer’s block, and have seen it through your dreams. I decided to...assist you. Truth is, I’m actually a fan of your work!” She winked.

“Wait, all the things I’ve went through, the superheros, the dragon, the zombies, all of that was because of you?”

She nodded, you swore you could see her blush. “Indeed, I wanted to help you out.”

You stepped back in disbelief. You were fully aware this was a dream, couldn’t it be possible that this was all manifested in your imagination as well?

“I understand if this is hard to believe, but let me prove it to you…” Her horn began to glow, and you two were instantly transported.
        You looked around at your new surroundings. It looked like a room straight out of Canterlot. You looked at your body, noticing how it was transparent, almost ethereal. You looked over to Luna, who looked as she normally did. Each of her movements made an impact on the room, her hoofsteps echoing as she stepped. Did this mean all of this was real?

She walked over to a small bookcase, lined with textbooks and old literature, but what caught your eye was what you say at the top. Placed between two crystallized bookends were all of your published books. Only your writings were given special treatment over the other books.

You were speechless, the news that one of the princesses enjoyed your work was mind-blowing. It also began to put a lot of pressure on you, what if your story wasn’t good enough? You felt you had to meet all of her expectations to be a good writer.

You looked out the window, the sun was beginning to rise...

The two of you returned to the endless sea of stars. She smiles softly, “Do you think you have an idea for a story now?”

“I...I think so, but Princess Luna, what if my story’s not good enough?” You said, starting to doubt yourself.

Luna put a hoof under your chin, still smiling at you. “I am sure that whatever you come up with, your readers will love it. Even me.”

You nodded, filled with a new sense of confidence and apprehension. All these dreams you’ve been having, there was an idea that could come out of it, right?

“You are about to wake up soon, perhaps we will meet again…” She said, the world starting to fade away.

“Wait, before I wake up, I have a question.” you shouted, eyes wide open.

“We will have to make it quick.”

“In that last part of the dream, was that part of my dreamworld, or did you really kiss me?” you asked, almost laughing.

You could see the princess say something, but you couldn’t hear anything, the world around you fading into nothingness, even your own body disappeared.

Your eyes shot wide open as you found yourself in your own bedroom. Your paper and quills were sprawled out on the floor. The entire dream, you remembered all of it. Normally you forget dreams a couple seconds after waking up, but you still remember every detail of what you experienced in your dreams. You finally had an idea for a story.

You picked up your papers, quill, and inkwell and went to your writing desk. It finally felt nice to feel the creative juices flowing…

Months later, after revising, editing, and making sure it was perfect, you finally went to Canterlot to do some cover signing. Your stories and novels slowly became incredibly popular, almost out of nowhere, but you still remained humble.

Your newest book was a story about a pony who travelled through fairy tales, changing what originally happened to create a new ending. You were nervous, this was your first time doing a cover signing, but you were glad that you became successful doing what you loved.

At the signing, you saw so many ponies, young and old, telling you how much they loved your stories. They all made you smile and blush. 

When you were about to finish and go back to the train station, another pony walked up to you. They were larger than the other ponies, and they had a dark blue coat. You had a sneaking suspicion that you knew who it was. They put a copy of your book on the table in front of you. As you signed it, they started to

“Have I told you I rather enjoy your work?” She said, winking at you.

You softly chuckled. “I might’ve heard it before…” You gave the book back to her, winking back.

“Didn’t I tell you that your fans would love it?” Luna smiled.

You shrugged. “Well, I guess it’s ok, I still couldn’t have done it without you, though.”

The royal princess laughed, “I need no credit, I’m just glad your stories 

“I’m just glad you like it,” You smiled, still trying to stay humble.

“I have to go back, thank you again!” She smiled, nuzzling your neck before taking her book and running off.

...You should get writer’s block more often.