Young Luna has plans for her new dreamwalking. She wants to play with her big sister, and she wants to even help Princess Twilight - but Headmaster Spike has other ideas, like friendship.
Young Luna has just learned to dreamwalk, and she has big ideas what to do with it. She wants to play with her big sister, she wants to join the Research Mages, and she wants to even help Princess Twilight -- but Headmaster Spike has other ideas for her to focus on, like friendship.
The schoolhouse was vacant now. There were no students galloping down the halls, and no dragon to go to for advice. But even if Headmaster Spikendar was still curled up in his office, I hadn’t come here to ask him for more advice. I was here on other business.
I galloped down the empty school hallway, past all the closed classroom doors, to the dormer windows. Sure enough, there she was out in the meadow, coat as white as the fluffiest of clouds. Her pink mane seemed to blend with the blue sky above her, wings spread out over three of her friends.
"Celly!" I called out the windows.
She didn't look over. Instead, she leaned in to one of her friends - a yellow unicorn colt named Sunburst - to whisper something.
I narrowed my eyes. Was I just irritated at my sister, or was I starting to get a hornache again? Whatever; I wouldn't give up on my quest now. "Celly!" I yelled again. "Celly!"
Celly's other friends smiled as they joined in on the conversation; one of them even beat together some air into a small cloud. If I remembered correctly, that'd normally be impossible so close to the ground
As I watched for what seemed like just a couple minutes, the hallway around me began looking dingier and dingier. And it wasn't just a trick of the light - my horn was definitely starting to hurt now. "Celly!" I brayed once more, leaning out the window.
She glanced at me, shook her head, and turned back to her friends. Her wings were only covering Sunburst now.
I leaned back in and glanced around the hallway. It was decaying faster than I'd hoped; I couldn't even make out half the doors anymore beyond a mere suggestion in the fog. I tried to push the fog out; I'd done it before! But pain shot through my head; I lowered it.
No, I wouldn't give up now!
I set my forehooves on the windowsill, tested my strength - everything seemed good - and vaulted over. A moment later, I was in the meadow with a throbbing headache, and galloping down to my big sister.
"Celestia! Celestia!"
She looked up at me and gasped. Sunburst lowered his horn, but Celly glanced at him, and he raised it again and froze stiff.
A moment later - all three of her friends now stiff - Celestia stood and slowly stepped over to me.
I sank down on a small mound and rubbed at my horn.
"Lulu?" she asked, kneeling. "What's happening?"
"I... I wanted to see you? And now I'm here!"
"Lulu?" She threw a wing over me. "What's wrong?"
I rubbed my horn again, and my forehead too. The schoolhouse seemed swallowed up in mist now. "I've got a bad headache."
"Oh no!" She hugged me closer. "Maybe some unicorn could cast a healing spell, or let me get you some warm chocolate —"
"No, no!" I shook myself under her wing. "Not now. I could've had all the chocolate I wanted, but I got here all on my own magic, and I want to stay here, but —"
Celestia looked at me in sudden shock. "Luna, are you really —"
We were now almost sitting in a sea of mist. I grabbed her foreleg, exclaiming, "Remember, Brave Nocturne! When we both wake up - Brave Nocturne!"
I couldn't hear her response.
"Lulu?"
My head was throbbing. I ducked down in my nest of sheets.
"Lulu?" Celly's voice was as soft as her feathers. "I've got some willow tea, if you want it. It'll help your head."
I opened my eyes. Celly was holding a silver tray in her wings, with a steaming teacup. She offered it to me silently, her face beaming.
The first sip tasted like liquid fire. Suddenly shocked alert, I gulped down another mouthful - but no fire this time, just the smooth sweetness of honey. After another few swallows, my head was back to feeling just dull and heavy. I looked up at my sister. "Magic?" I asked.
"In the tea?" she said with a smile. "Of course. Some stored crystals. I wouldn't want your head hurting for another hour till the willow-bark does its work."
I didn't know what to say, so I settled for "Thank you," and levitating the cup back onto the tray.
She took it, set the tray - Grandfather's filigree dragon-and-crystal, I now saw - on my bureau, and sat down at the foot of my bed to start absentmindedly smoothing out the covers I'd rumpled up in my sleep again. "You're so amazing, Luna."
Celestia must have really felt it, I thought, to use my full name. But, with my head still spinning even if no longer aching, I could only say, "Thanks."
"I'm sure you know... but what would you say about the name 'Brave Nocturne'?"
It wasn't quite how I'd imagined the scene, but Celly could probably have given that smile even if the school really had been dissolving around us. I grinned. "It's the name of a very didactic play written three hundred years ago, probably by the Princess herself... but also, I told that name to you in my dream last night. Our dream."
"That’s so wonderful!" She leaned over to give me a warm embrace. "I don’t think any other pony’s even tried anything like that, but you did! How long did it take you?"
"Thank you!" I exclaimed, wriggling a little amid her effusive praise. "I've been trying this for six or seven moons now - periodically, I mean, not every night - I thought I'd caught some shadows of dreams before, but this was the first time I'd actually been able to walk around and talk with a dreamer -"
My babbling cut off as Celly released our embrace. "I was sure you've been working hard on this, Luna, and that just makes it even more marvelous."
"Thanks." I awkwardly swung out of bed, letting Celly finish smoothing my covers and give the hairbrush a quick swipe through my mane. "Uh, did you mention any of this to Mother and Father?"
"I said I'd be bringing you tea in bed. Anything more's yours to share."
"Uh..." I glanced at the pendulum-chimes; it was half-past-dawn. Still, thinking of the other things I'd meant to do today, I grimaced. "Could I wait to tell them? Till after school, I mean? I don't want to rush it..."
She peered at my face. "Of course. But they'll definitely be happy for you."
Celly disappeared into the kitchen to scrub the teacup and fetch some oats for breakfast, while I ran into our library. Father was there, sitting in front of several scrolls for his work in the Her Immortal Highness's Own Agricultural Magic Ministry. He looked up, pen and monocle held in his magic. "Here so early, Luna?"
"Yes! I just want to check a couple things before school -" I pulled down our copy of Minds and Magic.
Father frowned. "That's a heavy book for such a young filly to be looking at so early in the morning, without even having her cutie mark yet."
"It's for school. Well, sort of," I said without looking up as I flipped through the dense text. Where were those few passages on the differences between ponies' and dragons' minds? Unfortunately, all I found was the pamphlet about the Princess's Research Mages that I'd hidden in the book last week. I'd already done as much as I could in that direction so far, though — right now, what I needed was actual research. My plans would go faster if I could impress Headmaster Spikendar.
"And if I talked to your classmates, would they tell me they 'sort of' got assigned similar projects?" He leaned back and pulled another scroll from the stack. "Even your sister…”
I rolled my eyes and mouthed along with him: "...who, may I remind you, Luna, is several years your elder…"
He continued, pretending to ignore me. “...even she hasn’t mentioned any 'sort-of-assignments' like this.”
I didn't bother answering. After a few moments, I heard a sigh and the scratching of Father's pen again, and I went back to work. If I couldn't answer my questions, I could at least formalize them in a list for Spikendar.
It was both too long and too short before Celly and I were off to school. I was munching on two apples, as I hadn't taken the time to actually sit down to breakfast. For once, Celly didn't protest at all.
"... and you need to really fall asleep first, but set a trigger-spell inside your head, so you can recognize that you're dreaming and use your magic in the dream," I was explaining between bites.
Celly was listening quite eagerly. "But what sort of trigger-spell would that be?"
"Princess Twilight herself explained it, in that play I mentioned."
"Oh?"
I grinned. "It was Headmaster Spikendar who showed it to me in the school library. The Princess went into amazing detail there. I guess I can see why the common herd didn't like the play, but if you're studying it instead of watching it onstage, it's amazing!"
Cellly nodded slowly. "I suppose she would... If Twilight wasn't the Princess, I'm sure she'd make an amazing teacher."
"Amazing for somepony just as interested in the subject as she is." I snorted, imagining what somepony like Sunburst or Glitterhoof - or, sometimes, even Celly herself - would make of a lecture as detailed and relentless as Princess Twilight's writing. "I'd guess that's why she never lectures with her Research Mages."
"That means you've got a Princess's mind?"
I snorted again. "Thanks for the compliment! But I've got a lot more to learn today..."
"Don't put yourself down like that." Celly gave me a quick hug with a wing, tickling me with some of her feathers.
I darted ahead, tail waving behind me.
Celly took to the air to catch up. I flashed her the grin we used to tease one another with when we were both little fillies; she flashed back a benevolent smile. "You really are amazing, Lulu! Whatever Mother and Father say, whatever they want you to do, you already are."
I didn't reply.
As soon as we set foot in the schoolyard, two other fillies about Celestia’s age ambushed us and dragged her away with them, chattering about colts. She turned, as if to point me out to them, but I'd already slipped through the gates. I felt at my notes again; if I could do it before class...
Unfortunately, the large passageway to the Headmaster's office was already crowded with ponies, both teachers and students, mostly waving some paper or other in magic, or wings, or mouth. I shied back; I'd never get through that crowd! No matter how polite Spikendar was when we did talk...
Headmaster Spikendar's door opened. A pony slipped out, and the Headmaster's large lavender draconic face peered out behind him. "All right; anyone with particularly urgent business..." His eyes scanned the crowd before lighting on an Earth Pony filly not too far away from me, sporting a bruise on her muzzle. "Ah, Babs Seed. Yes, I'm sure it's important; I know that much from your face. Come right on in."
The door closed behind Babs, and I sat down against the wall, sighing. No matter how interested Spikendar was when we were actually talking about my explorations of dream magic, he never seemed to pick me out of a crowd and say that it was important. He'd rather talk to other ponies about fights or grades or tea parties or whatever...
The crowd had scarcely diminished by the time first bell rang. Unfortunately, it was Brightleaf's history class, with all the other fillies and colts my age who could hardly care less about actual studies. And for all the amazing reputation of Spikendar's Institute (starting from his having been the personal friend of the Princess herself), too many of the lower-level classes still catered to their students' ordinary tastes. If only anypony actually cared about anything important...
"Alright, fillies and colts!" Brightleaf trotted to the front of the room, book held high in her magic, face beaming.
I slumped forward on my desk. She was holding another thin book with pastel cover pictures, that would no doubt butter over all the important details like a Hearth's Warming Eve pageant...
"Today we're going to learn about alicorns. Can anyone tell me how many alicorns -" (I waved my hoof in the air) "- can anyone besides Luna tell me how many alicorns we know of? And why I ask 'how many we know of'?"
Two. Of course.
"One!" a pegasus exclaimed. "Princess Twilight Sparkle herself!"
Brightleaf shook her head. "No, Lightning Dust. There were -"
"Two!" another unicorn interrupted. "But there’s only one now, and the Princess’s the one who we care about!"
"But there were two alicorns, and that leads into our lesson for today."
She opened the simple pastel book. Everypony except me was listening eagerly. I let my head sink down on my desk. I'd read it all in a better book long ago; it wasn't like it related to anything important or challenging like performing dream-magic on a dragon. The other alicorn wasn't even around anymore...
She was reading from the book now, that simple pastel tale... "... there were two regal ponies, a brother and sister, who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. The sister used her alicorn powers to bring out the sun and moon at the morning and evening twilights; the brother used his to shield the land from all harms. Thus, the two maintained balance and harmony. And as time went on, the brother fell in love..."
A couple ponies made faces at that. I didn't bother, but just made a note to avoid walking into the dreams of anypony in love. It'd be far too mushy.
"... and he pleaded with his sister to make his true-love into an alicorn, so she could help them rule over Equestria forever..." I rolled my eyes. The pastel picturebook had skipped over so much in that one sentence, including five years of their being married.
"...said sorrowfully that she could bring out the sun and moon, but the hearts of ponies were far beyond her; ponies must make themselves into alicorns; she could not do it for them. And, though she spoke true, her brother turned his back on her, and walked in the paths of dark magics while his sister wept..."
My eyes went wide as Brightleaf read of the sister's - Princess Twilight's - weeping. For all the picture-book language, somehow I hadn't thought of that before. Yes, if Celly turned to dark magic (dark tornadoes? Whatever it'd be for a pegasus) like Twilight's brother had... well, if I couldn't do anything about it, I’d feel horrible too.
"... and at long last she came upon him and his true-love in a cavern of crystals in the far north, while they were in the middle of a dark ritual. But she could only watch in horror as her brother’s beloved collapsed amid the ritual, her body shot through with holes. And her brother leaped to attack her in his madness, and by her alicorn powers she was forced to banish him into the crystal forever..."
There was one more class after that before break: mathematics, where the numbers demanded just enough of my attention that I couldn't let my mind wander. But then, as I galloped down the halls the moment the bell rang in hopes that I'd be able to get to Headmaster Spikendar's before everypony else, thoughts of Princess Twilight kept filling my head. It wasn't the textbook she'd thinly disguised in a play, nor even her Research Mage program that'd filled my thoughts for months; I was thinking of her standing, tears running down her cheeks, horn lowered at her brother...
A bookful of pastel hadn't been able to mask that image.
... and then she'd flown back to her castle and raised the sun and moon and led the Guard and Research Mages and done everything else all by herself ever after, for almost a thousand years.
What dreams must she be having?
Fortunately, the hallway was empty of waiting ponies this time. I galloped over to the Headmaster's dragon-sized door and knocked.
After a moment, Spikendar opened it and peered out. "Luna, how good to see you again! If you'll just wait a moment while Pudding Bowl and I finish up these budget figures?"
I nodded, of course, but I was sure he saw my impatience.
After some time that I was sure was far too short to finish any part of a budget, the door opened again, and Miss Pudding Bowl (a butter-colored earth pony) walked out, notebook in her mouth, with a polite nod to me as she passed.
"Ah, Luna," Spikendar purred as I sat down on the bench in front of his desk, notebook in front of me. It was the only seat in the office - as he'd always said, a dragon could rest in perfect comfort on just a rug. (Or on gold, if they wanted luxury — Spikendar had mentioned once the Royal Treasury had been quite comfortable, but he hadn’t minded giving it up when he'd left.) "What brings you here today?"
"Dreams." Daydreams of pictures — no, not that! "I was reading over Brave Nocturne very carefully, but even though the Princess gave so many useful details, I've still got some questions. I wondered if you could help? Especially since you used to work with her?"
A painful look passed over Spikendar's face. For a moment, my heart jumped, and I instinctively poised to run from the dangerous dragon — but I bit down on my instincts, and he collected himself after a moment. "Perhaps you should work with what you do understand first, and then go on to what you don't?"
I shrugged. Sometimes his prodding had set me on a better course, but sometimes he just seemed to try to discourage me for no reason I could see. "Why can't I do both at once?"
Spikendar exhaled two thin jets of smoke. "What sort of work are you doing?"
I smiled. "I walked into my sister's dream last night."
His eyebrows shot up. "Admirable!" he rumbled, reaching over the desk to shake my hoof in his great claws. "Well done, Luna. Perhaps you should try working with some of your classmates next?"
What would Babs' or Lightning Dust's dreams be like? I made a face. "I'll choose some other ponies, I think. Can we talk about my questions now?"
He frowned but nodded.
"So, the Princess writes a lot about how magic interacts with the surfaces of a pony's mind, but she doesn't describe how the surfaces themselves work." Spikendar nodded. I flipped back a few pages in my notebook. "I was looking in Minds and Magic about the differences between ponies' minds and other creatures', but they don't speak in any detail. I wondered if you could help?"
Spikendar let out several puffs of smoke before he answered. "Few ponies have bothered to study other creatures in such detail. Some of them even think bears are dumb beasts, just because they don't bother talking." He swept his tail across the back wall. "Their loss. But it makes me wonder... what makes you so interested in this topic?"
I stared the dragon in the eyes. "I want to do bigger and better things with dreams than any other pony ever!"
To his credit, he didn't laugh at me like my classmates, shoot me a disappointed look like Mother and Father, or even hug me like Celestia. He simply nodded approvingly. "Well resolved."
"I want to walk in buffalo's dreams, and cows' dreams, and even in dragons' dreams!"
He nodded again. "And that will be your project as a Research Mage, should you join them like you plan?"
I nodded.
"A worthy project. But will you just write it up in a monograph which might lead to further results in a century — like Small Hammer's work with teakettles — or will you yourself use it for those 'better things' you mentioned?"
I nodded hesitantly. Princess Twilight's play had mentioned that dreamwalkers could help with bad dreams. But that'd sound sort of weak if I brought it up here. I searched my mind — and two ideas quickly put themselves together into something that felt completely right to me. "Even before I try for the Research Mages,” I said, “I.. I want to..."
"Yes?"
I straightened up and looked him in the eyes once more. "I want to find Princess Twilight's dreams." I swallowed. "And I want to help her feel better now that her brother's gone."
Headmaster Spikendar stared at me for almost a full minute, not even blinking his great reptilian eyes, before he laid a forepaw on his desk, almost enveloping it entirely. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "The Princess has lived with her sorrow for nigh on a millennium, and many ponies..." He paused with a puff of smoke, seeming to be choking back a word. "...have tried and failed to comfort her." Another puff of smoke. "What makes you think you can succeed?"
I stamped my hoof. "I don't know, but I'll try!" I frantically rifled through my mind, trying to find something to back up my sudden claim. "The minds of alicorns are very different from regular ponies, right? So no dreamwalker's been able to find Princess Twilight's dreams, so if I can, I might be able to help her!"
Spikendar slowly, reluctantly, nodded. "What you say is true, and seeing you in her dreams would at least be a surprise to her..."
"And won't she be happy when she finds somepony has actually learned from her play?"
A great rumbling sounded in Spikendar's throat, like rocks were shaking. The dragon was actually laughing. "Yes, Luna, that would make Twilight happy. At least for a while."
I flipped back through my notebook for a minute, waiting for Spikendar to recover from his laughter. "So..." I finally prompted.
"So." He nodded in agreement. "Very well, then. If that is your goal, I shall not attempt to stymie you." He paused. "And while you are here, perhaps we should look at your course selection for the next semester?"
My ears went up in surprise. "That's all you're going to say? You aren't going to help me? I thought you and Twilight were friends!"
He nodded, blowing out more smoke. If it wasn't for the air-freshening spells, I would probably have been coughing by now. "Yes, Luna, we were friends." I thought I could see a tear in his eye, before he blinked it away.
"Anyways," he continued, "regarding your course selection. Your history teacher reports that, despite your knowledge of some facts, you have been most inattentive and poorly-behaved in class."
"Well, if she'd actually read something interesting -" I protested.
The dragon's raised claw silenced me. "Therefore, I am forced to recommend you stay with your classmates for the next course in the Introduction to History sequence."
My heart plummeted. Another semester of pastel picturebooks.
Spikendar looked at me, seemingly impassive. There were a lot of dragon emotions I still couldn't read. "And though your performance in Mathematics is very acceptable..."
"But what about dreamwalking?" I burst out.
Spikendar blew a small puff of smoke.
"Aren't you at least going to give me some suggestions, like you did before? How to get better? Don't you want me to be able to help Princess Twilight?"
The dragon's claws clenched shut on the edge of his desk. The wood cracked beneath them. He growled, "Perhaps your classmates can teach you the next lesson better than I can."
The bell rang.
Spikendar gestured emphatically for the door.
Giving my instincts free rein, I galloped away from the angry dragon.
I tried to sit with my classmates at lunch. I really tried. But, Babs Seed laughed at me as soon as I sat down, with some incomprehensible joke about the salad Celly had packed for me. Somehow, all the other fillies and colts around seemed to get the joke... and I seized my salad in my magic and trotted away. Whatever puzzle Spikendar had set for me, it couldn't have been this.
Still, after what he'd said, I couldn't let myself just eat by myself in front of a book again. In the end, I walked over to where Celly was sitting with three of her friends... two of them not quite the same ponies as in last night's dream, but it was the same spot. "May I?" I mumbled, salad-bowl in front of me.
"Of course!" Celly flashed me her sunniest smile and nudged the colt next to her - Sunburst - to move over.
He did, and I sat down, chomping on salad greens to cover my silence as the conversation started up again. Apparently, from what I heard, Celly had promised this morning to help clear the clouds away for a hurdles race Sunburst was running in tomorrow. Her friends started chattering excitedly about the races; I grunted and took another mouthful of salad.
"And how did your morning go, Lulu?" Celly bent down to nuzzle my mane.
I took the excuse to swallow before answering. "Spikendar said I'd need to stay with my history class for another semester."
"Oh, I'm so sorry!"
Another pegasus mare, whose name I didn't remember, tossed back her head. "Maybe you should try actually making friends with your classmates?"
I shook my head. "What in all Equestria would I talk to them about?"
"It might not be so bad once you get your cutie mark too -"
Celestia and I both shook our heads emphatically. Celly's sunny disposition hadn't changed since she got her sun cutie mark, neither had Lightning Dust's speed since getting her lightning bolt; why would anything change for me when I got mine?
After a brief pause, Sunburst said, "I'm sure there's somepony there who would want to be your friend. I know my friend's brother Party Favor is excited about magic..."
I snorted. "That colt who disrupts the whole class with his antics every week?"
Sunburst shrugged. "Well, he does like studying magic."
"For his pranks, maybe."
Celly interrupted. "Did you get a chance to ask Spikendar about your project?"
I hung my head. "He won't help me any more."
"What?" Everypony gasped.
"Celly's been telling us -" Sunburst started.
"He says I need to talk to my classmates," I snapped. "Not to him."
"... and even if it wouldn't help with this problem, it'd help with you."
"Please, Celestia!" Between my dejection and Celly's attempts to be helpful, the walk home from school had never seemed so long.
"All right, Lulu." She enveloped me for a moment in her wings. "I just want to help you. And I don't want to see you so glum."
I knew that - she was always the best friend around. It didn't help.
We continued in silence for a bit as I continued turning things over in my mind. Ever since I'd said it off the top of my head, the idea of walking into Princess Twilight's dreams had actually been sounding better and better to me. It was more exciting than just vague ideas of research with the Princess's Research Mages, and I could at least try to do it a lot sooner. Maybe, if I taught myself to dreamwalk with all sorts of ponies and other animals, I'd be able to find my way into an alicorn's dreams even without studying alicorns specifically? It probably wouldn't work... but I'd need to do it anyway, to improve my dreamwalking. That meant a lot more studying.
Celly interrupted my thoughts. "Don't forget, you get to tell Mother and Father you can dreamwalk!"
I made a face. "Not tonight, Celly."
"Why not?" She looked at me with concern.
I pawed at a pebble on the path. "I just don't have time for them now."
"I know they can be difficult, but they're our parents. And they do love us, even if -"
" - even if they want to drive me into all sorts of social games."
"They want you to have friends. In their own way, at least."
I snorted. "They sure don't sound like that's what they mean. But anyway, I need to be studying tonight, especially if Spikendar's randomly decided I need to shelve my project and start making friends instead."
We walked on a few steps before Celly answered. "I think... you could think of it as another project. There're many classes in a school, many things that go into making up an educated pony. And Spikendar's concerned with all of them."
"And friendship?"
"It helps you..." She flicked her tail. "It's a good thing. It's good for you, just like eating carrots."
I cocked my head. "You mean eating alfalfa?"
"No, carrots."
"But carrots taste good!"
"Yes!" Celestia beamed. "And having friends is fun! And it's good for you too - it helps you fit into the world, and check your plans with others, and keep your mind and magic healthy. Of course Spikendar wants you to make friends - it's even more important than learning math! He cares about you!"
I peered at this weird framework in my mind's eye. I couldn't dismiss it at once, except for the part about the Headmaster himself. "I... I think he's really upset with me."
Celly stopped dead still. "What happened, Lulu?"
"I... I asked him about Princess Twilight. And I said I wanted to help her after her brother was banished. And..." I hung my head, but if I could tell anypony, it was Celly. "... and I asked if he cared about anypony helping her."
"Oh, Lulu!" She nuzzled me. For once, I didn't mind at all. "I'm sure he does care about her, but I'm also sure he knows what's best for her. They were almost brother and sister, once."
I leaned against Celly's neck. He hadn't told me that part, but I should've guessed something like it after I'd found a reference to Princess Twilight's monograph on dragon eggs. "And then he got really upset and growled at me to get back to class."
"Don't worry, Lulu; he's a good dragon. I'm sure he'll be over it tomorrow, or at least next week." I closed my eyes, as if to lose myself in Celly’s coat. "I don't think so. You haven't worked with him as much as I have."
Mother and Father came home all excited about breaking news from the Princess's Research Mages: they'd discovered a new medicinal use for zap apples. The Princess was sponsoring lectures about it throughout Equestria, and they were invited to one tomorrow night. Celly gave me a meaningful look at that point, but I shrugged it off and went back to Minds and Magic. The friendship project - if it was really an important project - could wait for later. Now that Spikendar wasn't talking to me, this book was my best bet.
It wasn't a very good one, though. By the time I cast the alarm-spell on myself in my bed that night, I had little better hopes than the previous night. Though, still, that had been a breakthrough...
Some time later - one can't very well tell time in dreams - the crystal cavern I was lying in (which looked suspiciously like the Headmaster's office) broke into shards, leaving the fields of dreaming open to me. I looked up from the Headmaster's desk at a few clouds floating above me, shining with otherwise-nonexistent sunlight, and the vague outline of a few grassy paths against the mist. According to Twilight's play, nearly everything I saw here would be metaphorical. The sunlit clouds would almost certainly lead me to Celly's dream. The grassy paths might be almost anypony else; I'd need to go down them to see.
I picked a path at random and trotted down it. The mist settled around me, about three yards away, and Celly's clouds kept pace above me. Unfortunately, my horn started aching again... and I still hadn't found any actual dream. Reluctantly, I turned back.
On the second path, I saw a boxing glove before my horn made me turn back. I didn't know who that was; probably one of my classmates. (It wouldn't be another neighbor; Twilight had also taken pains to point out that personal familiarity was at least as important as distance from the dreamer.) On the third path, I found my father's monocle hanging in the mist. I sat on my haunches, wondering whether I even wanted to enter his dream. I could probably pass unnoticed, if I wanted to see it; it'd taken a while for Celly to recognize it was the real me...
My growing hornache decided things. I pranced up in the air (it was a dream, after all) toward Celly's clouds, determined to end the night with at least one success.
Celly was lounging on a cloud tonight, with nothing but pure blue between the sun on her flank and the sun in the sky. But next to her was Sunburst.
"Hello, Celly!" I waved as I jumped onto the cloud.
Celly and Sunburst both started as she saw me. "What're you doing -" Celly checked herself, glanced at Sunburst's bare forelocks, and smiled. "Ah, this's a dream. I should've noticed Sunburst didn't have a cloudwalking bracelet this time."
"This time?" I shied. "You've done this before?"
She flung one wing over me and the other over Dream-Sunburst. "Of course. I could fly you up tomorrow after school if you want."
"But the hurdles race," I reminded her.
"I could have you on my back anyway?"
I shook my head as the pain throbbed in it. "I'd just slow you down. Anyway... my head's starting to hurt again, and I'd rather end this myself than have it throw me out of here again. Good morning."
Father peered over his monocle at me when I came into the library again. "This makes almost a week you've been studying, Luna. I'm starting to get concerned about you."
"Oh?" I made my best "Face of Perfect Innocence," as Celly'd termed it some years back when I was still trying to sneak into the cookies.
"Studying magic theory is entirely commendable, but your mother and I have higher hopes for you than to be a scholarly recluse."
It was a familiar refrain. I tried a new protest this time. "But the Princess studies just as much -"
"The Princess has her many cares," Father interrupted, holding a pen high in his magic as if to stab home the point. "But you do not need to bear all Equestria on your back. You can enjoy the advantages of Spikendar's Institute, and establish connections which will be most important -"
"But I am enjoying them! I'm connecting with all the books in the library! And Spikendar himself -"
"I was speaking of other ponies, scions of notable families throughout Equestria, whom it will be very advantageous for you to know." His pen punctuated that last line like a conductor's baton.
I hung my head. I couldn't reply now without getting into dreamwalking, and that would lead to a very embarrassing conversation I really didn't want to have now. "I think I'll help Celly with breakfast," I mumbled.
Celly smiled at me when I walked in and offered to help. "Of course. If you could beat these eggs? I've got a nice fruit salad for lunch, but I'm still making some pancakes for breakfast..."
After some nice repetitious egg-beating, she asked, "Did your studying get you down again?"
I shook my head. "Father."
"Oh." She plunked down the mixing-bowl on the counter to give me a quick hug.
A few minutes of silent work later, I ventured, "What's with you and Sunburst?"
Her white cheeks flushed almost as pink as her mane. "We're really good friends!"
"Friends?" I asked, grinning. "Didn't you say that's a good thing?"
"Well, yes, and..." She turned back to beat the batter furiously.
History class moved on from the two known alicorns to various myths and legends about other alicorns who might've existed in the shadowy Pre-Discordian era. Father had mentioned once that the Princess frowned on teaching legends in history class, but Headmaster Spikendar insisted it'd be beneficial. Myself, I didn't mind one way or another - both were presented far too childishly for me to get any benefit from at all. And even if these hypothetical Pre-Discordian alicorns had been real, none of them had left any useful notes on how alicorn minds worked (or notes on anything else, for that matter.)
My other classes were better than that, as usual. Party Favor set off a gale of confetti in physics class, causing the teacher to set us all to cleaning it up while she instantly changed the lesson plan to use it as an object lesson in Brownian motion and, hence, the randomness of microphysics. To their credit, Party Favor and several other classmates of mine actually seemed interested... but when I approached him in the hall afterwards to ask if he wanted to talk about Brownian motion some more, he pulled a whistle from somewhere and blew it as he shook his head, while Lightning Dust laughed in the background.
After that, I didn't even bother to approach Headmaster Spikendar. Even if Celly had been right... how in all Equestria would it help me to be friends with ponies like these?
Celly herself was waiting for me outside my last class when school got out. "Do you want to go flying with me?"
The hurdles race was in just an hour. I shook my head. "Go clear the sky for your friends."
"But I can do it with you on my back? Please come with me?"
I paused. "Sure, I'll be on the ground. I might as well bring my books out there."
The race was no more boring than usual, but also no more interesting. Some ponies were galloping around the oval track while jumping over some obstacles. I hadn't the least idea why everypony else was cheering so much. An Earth Pony named Emerald Rich won, with Sunburst a narrow second; they proceeded to the front of the stands amid more cheering for a teacher to put medals around their necks, while I tried to flip through a book from the school library that was looking like it'd be even more useless than Minds and Magic.
Then Celly dove down from the air right next to Sunburst... and he reached out his muzzle and kissed her on the lips.
"No, Luna," Celly repeated amid the green grassy plain that was her dream that night. "You're always welcome in my dreams, but please, there's no need to yell at me all night as well as all evening."
"I'm not yelling!" I stamped my hoof. It wasn't as satisfying in a dream as in real life. "I'm just wanting you to tell me -"
"I told you already, Luna. Yes, I'm in love with him. No, I don’t know what we’re going to do together in the future. And yes, you're free to tell Mother and Father; they already know, and they don't mind."
I scrunched up my face for the biggest insult I could muster. "You're playing their game after all?"
She whisked a light breeze back at me, her face not hurt but simply sad.
"Good night!" I yelled brusquely, and then vanished from her dream.
Celestia's grassland vanished into mist behind me as I paraded down the dirt path between dreams, indignant that I couldn't even hurt her with my lowest shot. Soon, it split into four paths. My horn was only lightly twitching now - three nights of practice had probably helped drive away the ache - but I didn't know how much time I'd have when I started searching out other ponies' dreams, and I wanted to be sure I found the colt at fault! Fortunately, the school library's book had described an ancient searching spell which sounded like it might work in this dream-realm of metaphor. I focused on Sunburst's golden coat, his sun-rays-and-jewels cutie mark, and how he'd leaned in to steal a kiss from my sister - and then I leaned down and pushed all that out through my horn.
The dream-paths whirled around me, and then one laid itself out straight in front of my horn.
I trotted down it. My horn was starting to ache now, and the mist was closing in around me. Maybe that spell had taken more out of me than I realized, or maybe walking the dreams of someone less close to me than I'd done before was inherently exhausting, but it was worth it.
And then the dirt path turned into a marble-paved hallway, the mist solidifying into walls, and I was in Sunburst's dream. A mansion it was, with pictures of vague outlines of unicorns and pegasi on the wall. There was nopony in the hallway, but I could see an open doorway up ahead with sounds of cheerful conversation beyond it. My horn was aching all the more; I galloped ahead, my hooves silent on the dream-marble.
It was Celly herself who greeted me at the door. There was a crowd of ponies behind her, not quite well-enough defined to count them, but I could see a number of familiar faces from school. With her sunniest smile, she exclaimed, "Welcome to our ball!"
I shied in shock - first at her, and then at how she didn't recognize me - but then I shook myself; how dare Sunburst put my sister into his dream! "Excuse me, false copy," I said curtly.
She shot me a hurt stare as I pushed past her. That wasn't quite how my sister looked when hurt, I reminded myself; Sunburst had probably never seen it to copy... but it was close enough.
I slipped between pony after pony, overhearing their chatter about this wonderful mansion, these other ponies who were running races and making friends and falling in love, this lovely hostess... oh, and apparently somepony had figured out how to heal the sick with specially-focused sunlight... I shook my head. Just how lavish a dream had Sunburst made for himself tonight? Except for everypony avoiding politics and being nice to each other, my parents would be quite at home dreaming of this ball! If Sunburst was like them after all, then he really would be even more beneath Celly!
"Little miss?"
Sunburst suddenly appeared in front of me. I reared up, trying for every inch of height. "How dare you?"
"Dare what?" he said with perfect innocence. "I sensed somepony wasn't happy at our party..."
"Your party?" I neighed. The simulacra partygoers around us whinnied nervously and drew back. "You brought up images of my sister and hundreds of other ponies just so you could have a party for your magnificence and politics or whatever?"
"Your sister -" He blinked and focused on me. "Celestia's my wife."
I snorted and reared again, my horn aching now. "When did you marry her?"
He blinked, shook his mane, and blinked again. "I... don't remember... I guess this's just a dream. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to." He reached up to rub his neck, as all the partygoers - including Celestia's image - vanished around us. "I wonder what it means that I dreamed of Celestia's little sister reminding me."
I snorted. "I'm no dream of yours. I'm the real Luna!"
His ears stood up in surprise. "You learned to dreamwalk? That's amazing! But no more than I should've expected from Celestia's sister..."
Despite myself, I couldn't find anything in there but legitimate praise. "What're you doing with my sister? You kissed her, you dragged her to your hurdle-race, you made her say she's in love with you, you dreamed her into a party for -"
"I love her." He touched my shoulder; I shied away. "All this I dreamed — I mean, I haven’t dreamed anything like this any other night; I suppose — I assume I was trying to dream of something she’d like too..."
"You're not halfway good enough to take her away from me!"
"Take her away?" He blinked. "I wouldn’t dream of it —"
"But you’re going to drag her away by yourselves and —"
"Oh!" He blinked. "I wouldn’t, er, doesn’t she already make time for all her friends? And it’s not like we’re going to actually get married anytime soon..."
"What're you meaning with this fancy ball? Are you trying to force her into making connections and striving and politics?"
"Of course not! I was just dreaming of having friends over for..." He paused. "You said... did Celestia say she loves me too?"
Sunburst reached out a hoof toward my shoulder. I sidestepped.
My whole head was hurting. For a moment, I wished I could have some of that specially-focused sunlight that'd gotten into Sunburst's dream. (Would it have worked for me too, when I was inside his dream? Another question for the books.) It was the pain from straining my magic, of course, but then also, everything I could say was just sliding off Sunburst! I reared up again and brought my hooves down upon him. "You're so insipid!" I exclaimed. "Just you stay away -"
Sunburst's magic caught me up, leaving me squirming in the air as mist burst through the walls to envelop both of us. A moment later, I was back in my blanket-nest, the first rays of dawn piercing my bedroom window.
I beat my hooves at the blankets for a few minutes, wrapping them even tighter around myself, just like when I was a foal. It was all I could do now. I'd gotten to Sunburst's dream, but I hadn't done anything. He'd had infuriatingly perfect responses for everything I'd said, and his magic could beat my hooves even in dreams. "Next subproject," I grumbled to myself. "Find out how to defend myself against hostile dreamers."
That'd be easier if I could talk to Spikendar again. Just like everything else.
Celly gave me a concerned look over our breakfast of cracked oats, but mercifully, she didn't ask about last night. Father and Mother, on the other hoof, seemed all too eager to talk about how Sunburst's mother was the chief mage of Fillydelphia, and his great-aunt was privy secretary to the Princess herself, and how Celly had dragged him out of his antisocial shell so that he might in the future enjoy the social stature a mage of his probable standing would deserve...
Just like in that dream. Except worse. I buried my head in my hooves.
"Father!" Celly protested. "For Lulu's sake, can you change the subject?"
He narrowed his muzzle at me, but changed the subject to zap apples. I buried my face in my oats, now even more mortified.
Sunburst was waiting for us at the schoolyard gate. He nervously stepped forward as we approached. "Hello, er, Celestia, Luna?"
I frowned. I'd been running ideas through my mind all the way from home, but I still didn't have anything better to say to him.
"So glad to see you!" Celestia flashed him a smile. "I'm afraid I need to talk with Headmaster Spikendar now, but why don't you try talking with Lulu?"
She nudged me forward. I balked, but she smiled again, waved a wing, and walked away leaving me with Sunburst.
I pawed the ground, still not sure what to do. I couldn't very well rear up and attack him here, in reality!
"... So," Sunburst began nervously after a moment. "I had a strange dream last night."
"You should say," I snorted. "You dreamed up my sister as hostess to your banquet!"
"Oh, good!" He grinned. "I mean, that was really you! You have learned to dreamwalk!"
"Well, yes, and I saw -"
"Did you manage to teach yourself, or did any of the teachers help you? I've been delving through the school library myself — for other projects, I mean — and there's so many good books, but there’s just so much it’s hard to find what you're looking for!"
Despite everything, I felt I had to offer, "Did you talk to the Headmaster?"
"Well -" He stopped for a moment. "Yes, but I hardly know where to begin. If I had a single project, like yours - I imagine yours, at least -"
"Specially-focused sunlight." I snorted again.
He had the good grace to look abashed. "That was my dream, not me. But now that I think about it, there was a study from the tenth century on the magical effects of sunlight and moonlight; if I had a better library, maybe I could see if anypony followed up on it..."
"Probably a dead end." I waved a hoof.
He shrugged. "Still worth looking at for its own sake."
I couldn't deny that. If it'd been anypony else, I would've been chomping at the bit to track down that study.
"If we did do some experiments on the effects of sunlight..." he offered after a moment, "do you think Celestia would be interested in working with us?"
"What'd be the use of looking into sunlight?"
"Oh, just an idea. And something Celestia might be interested in. We could work on co-casting spells instead - not that there's much new research to do there, but practice's still something."
He was sounding so reasonable. I threw out another idea I'd been thinking earlier of trying myself. "Or we could try assembling Pre-Discordian history?"
"Oh!" He brightened. "That might work! It'd be tough, but I've found a couple of fragments in the school library, and if we can't find any more, that'd be a perfect question to ask the Headmaster..." That sounded actually interesting, but my mind wasn’t in any shape to work on it. "Maybe later? I’d like to do some library research myself right now..."
To his credit, he didn't press me. As we joined the flow of ponies walking into the school building, he made a couple suggestions for my ostensible history research. Apparently he much favored Stronghoof's theories over Shining Tail’s - if my mind hadn't been spinning, and if he'd been anypony else, I would've been glad to talk over why.
Sunburst peeled away from me inside the school doors, thank Harmony, once it became clear I didn't want to talk any more. I sat at a table in the library, head in my hooves, trying to think through what to do next. If we'd only talked yesterday, before the kiss, I would've hailed Sunburst as the answer to Spikendar and Celly's challenges. Even a couple months ago, when I was still working on where to start dreamwalking, he would've been a great research partner. But now, after everything...
... maybe I should wipe away the past and make a friend?
But what about Celestia? I asked myself.
I couldn't imagine him using her for politics now...
But still...
And then the bell rang for classes.
After yesterday's unexpected class on Brownian motion, our physics teacher moved on to collisions. After a brief lecture, he got out some marbles and rings marked with degrees of the circle and divided us into pairs to send one marble crashing into another and write down where they ended up.
I got paired with Party Favor. His emphatic gestures and attempts to "make things more exhiler-fun-erating!" were rather distracting, but I finally got him to settle down to work, stop sending five marbles off in all different directions at the same time, and stop adding "sound effects" to the collisions.
After class, though, he bumped me on the way out of the room. "Want to play some real marbles over lunch?"
I made a face and shook my head.
"Oh. Well... at home then?"
I tried to imagine what Mother and Father would think of my inviting a colt over for marbles. They'd probably be glad I was reaching out and making connections.
"Nope," I said, setting my jaw.
"Well, maybe some other —"
I turned and shot him a withering glare.
He half-reared in exaggerated shock, but ran away without waiting for an answer.
I paused by the door to the schoolyard at lunchtime, classmates streaming outward around me like a river around a rock, my spinach cakes held in my magic. Should I go out and try to talk to somepony... maybe even Sunburst... or ensconce myself in the library again to try to tease out more facts about dream-magic?
Celly interrupted my musing. "Lulu! Could you come outside? I've got some news..."
"What?" I asked. Her face was a little sad, but not worried.
She hesitated. "I'll tell you there?"
That tipped the balance; I followed.
We meandered out to the same hillock where she'd been sitting in that first dream several days back. A couple ponies I vaguely recognized as her friends were heading in our direction; she threw a wing around me and gestured them back.
For the first time, I grew a little concerned. "What's going on, Celly?"
"I didn't think you wanted to them all to hear about your dreamwalking," she said with lowered voice.
"Oh." I'd told Sunburst, of course, but... "Thanks."
We sat side-by-side for a few moments before she continued, "I'm sorry, but Spikendar still won't help you yet."
"I knew that," I grumbled, before suddenly blinking. "Wait - you talked with him?"
"Yes, it was so mean of him to just shove you aside like that. You've got a great mind, Lulu, and -"
"You actually talked with the headmaster for me!?" I reached over to nuzzle her back. "Even before I'd made friends?"
Celly smiled. "I know you can study more than one thing at once. Friendship and dreamwalking as well."
She really did care about me. "You're a real..." I paused. "Friend."
Just then, I noticed Sunburst in the corner of my eye. I didn't think I glared or anything, but something made Celly look, and then she waved him over.
He stopped a few feet away, holding both a bowl of salad and a sheaf of papers in his magic. "I don't mean to, um, intrude on the two of you..."
"Were you talking with the headmaster too?" I asked.
"The Head -" He cocked his head. "Did you go begging him again, Luna?"
"You didn't know?" Celly had gone on her own? "No - that was Celestia. She was asking if he'd work with me again, but I didn't know until just now..."
Celly gestured for him to sit down. "I was sure he didn't mean to just stop Lulu's work, but he wouldn't talk with me at all."
"Well, I've got something that might be able to help with that." Sunburst set down his salad and spread out a couple papers in the air. I skimmed them over; there were some familiar diagrams from magic training interspersed with notes on what looked like educational theory. "I hope you don't mind my taking the liberty, Luna?"
I swallowed down my resentment - I didn't know what he meant to do with this, but if he meant to help me, I'd take it. "No, but what's this? I've already been through the standard magical training; I don't need any work to hone up on that..."
"Of course, of course, but have you studied how dreams differ between, well, ponies of different ages and marks? And how that affects your walking into them?"
I shook my head. "You think it would - wait, of course it would!" I facehoofed. "Dreams come from the mind, and the mind develops..." Hence the educational theory in his notes to track how it developed, and these magical training diagrams weren't meant for me so much as "... and I need to harmonize my magic with the dreamer..."
Sunburst nodded eagerly. "Have you noticed any difficulty with that so far?"
I shook my head. "I've only been in Celly's dreams, and yours."
"Oh!" He started. "Then if that's your natural setpoint - I guess that still needs to be measured - your magic must be several years at least beyond your age!" He peered curiously at my still-blank flank.
I shifted uncomfortably to hide it under Celly's wing.
"A new line of practice for you!" Celly cheered. "Lulu, maybe you could try entering one of your classmates' dreams?"
"Well..." I tossed my tail. Saying I wanted to dreamwalk with buffalo and cattle and dragons and even Princess Twilight sometime in the future was one thing... but actually doing it with my classmates, maybe even next week, was something else. It was suddenly all too real, and too uncomfortable.
"Or maybe Mother and Father?"
My ears went up in surprise.
"That's actually a great idea!" Sunburst exclaimed. "Their magic's much more mature, but the natural parent-filly connection would make it psychologically much easier -"
I raised a hoof. "You're right." I paused, swallowing, and glanced between Sunbust and Celly. They both knew, and if we were actually going to do anything aside from research, I'd need to tell somepony, and tell them eventually... "I'll do it. Tonight."
The rest of the conversation seemed almost hazy after that resolve. Sunburst tried to share his research plans, and they did seem like they'd be useful (even though I had to correct a few points with what I'd learned about dreams; he noted them down without any reluctance), but after several minutes I needed to beg off and ask to delay till tomorrow.
As I nibbled on my spinach cakes, Sunburst and Celly moved on to talk about yesterday's hurdle-race. I listened with one ear, but most of my attention was fixed on Mother and Father, and their dreams tonight.
I could only nibble at the casserole that was our supper. Every time Mother or Father glanced at me, my stomach clenched.
"Are you feeling well, Luna?" Mother asked.
I shrugged.
"Surely you aren't still upset at your Headmaster?" Father pressed. "He's pressing you to take advantage of -"
"I'll tell you tomorrow," I snapped.
Mother cocked her head but nodded, and conversation flowed on around me.
Celly stuck her head into my bedroom later in the evening, as I was combing my mane. "Good luck."
"Thanks." I flicked my tail. "But... could I stop by your dreams too?"
Celly nodded. "Afterwards. Not before."
Her pink curls rippled behind her as she trotted back to her room, as merrily as always.
The dream-realm seemed comfortable around me, like the mist-shrouded grassy paths were where I was supposed to be. I curled up and even experimentally nibbled at the dream-grass. It tasted like the sweetest timothy, and felt like a Pegasus-feather bed.
But I had something to finish tonight. I swallowed, focused with lit horn, and found Father's monocle in front of me just like last night. I stepped forward down the path, like a foal toddling down to confess to breaking the cookie jar again.
The mist rolled in as I walked toward Father's dream. I lit my horn again and again to force it back; my head buzzed as if there was a bee in my mane. But I couldn't see anything more than mist and dirt, let alone Father.
I shook my head, sighing. Was my magic really so different from Father's that we couldn't mesh dreams, like Sunburst's papers had suggested? Or was it something else? Maybe I could just go back and lie in the dream-sun with Celly for the night?
No, she'd ask if I'd talked with Father. And I'd have to tell her.
Or... a happy idea entered my head... maybe, just maybe, Father would understand? Like Sunburst did? Sure, Father really did want us to make connections for politics - but Sunburst really was in love with Celly, and that'd been fine. Well, mostly.
I sparked my horn with the dreamwalking spell again and stepped forward. The mist rolled back, revealing grassy borders around the path, and I walked forward. My head was hardly buzzing now.
After several more steps, the grass gave way to cobblestones, like in a town square. And - a moment later - I could see Father, sitting by himself at the desk from his study under a setting sun. His desk was piled high with paperwork, and he was scratching at it with four pens at once, with a tired and irritated face.
In real life, I would've retreated with a good book at once. But dreams were my realm. I walked up to him fearlessly. "Father?"
"Come back later," he mumbled, not even glancing up. Another paper floated its way to the edge of his desk, and he picked up another in his magic.
"Father? It's me, Luna. What're you doing?"
"Luna... Tell your mother I really need to get this work finished before nightfall. Tourmaline over in Stalliongrad wants more zap-apples again, and we don't have any, and she says I need to find them or nopony will ever believe me again..." He wrote something on another paper and floated it to a third pile.
I touched his shoulder. "Father, you're having a nightmare."
"... and Flash Biscuit needs some carbuncles at once, and if I could just get a minute, before everything falls apart..."
I waved my hoof in front of his face. "This's all your dream."
He floated two more papers aside and picked up four others, ignoring me.
There was one dream-spell I hadn't tried yet. Not only could I bring myself into a dream, but once there, I should be able to create other things as well...
I concentrated, lighting up my horn, and two plates of Celly's best stir-fry appeared hovering over his papers.
Father blinked. The quills and papers he was holding vanished. For the first time, he really looked at me.
"It's time to put down your work and have supper."
The other papers gathered themselves up into neatly-ordered stacks and vanished into dragon-flame to be sent wherever they needed to go. The desk turned into our dinner table, set with four plates of stir-fry. Father nodded to me, and then looked around the empty town square. "What is this? Where is everypony? And Tourmaline... why's she even asking for more zap-apples when she doesn't even have the extraction machines..."
For the first time in a year, I gave Father a hug without being asked. "It's a dream, Father."
He hugged me back, sighing with relief. "Thank you for coming to rescue me. Biscuit will want the carbuncles in the morning... but now..." He loosened the hug and sat back in his chair. "You said you'd tell me what was wrong in the morning, Luna?"
This wasn't at all how I'd thought Father would act. But, then, I couldn't expect everypony to hit on the central question as squarely as Sunburst. "I was just worrying about what you'd say when I walked into your dream, Father. I didn't know I'd be saving you from a nightmare."
Father slowly looked up at me. "You walked into my dream? You're not part of my dream?"
I shook my head. "I'm the real Luna."
He stared at me for a moment before his face cracked into a smile broader than any I'd ever seen on his face in waking life. "How marvelous! Congratulations!"
"Thank you!" My heart burst with glee. "I've been studying for months, and it was only this week I finally got to actually doing it! And now I want to keep doing it, again and again!"
"Of course!" Father leaned over to sweep me into another hug. "And you can talk with your - with ponies without anyone else even having a chance of hearing, and you never have to worry about nightmares yourself!"
I chuckled - I hadn't even thought of those things yet, but they'd be fun. Almost as fun as having Father actually approve.
"Have you walked into anypony else's dreams yet?"
"Only Celly and Sunburst."
Father peered into my face. "What'd you say to Sunburst?"
"Well... we argued... but it's all right now!" I didn't expect just how sincerely I'd say that last bit. "He's got some great ideas about what to do with dreamwalking next! And it turns out he isn't focused on playing hobnob with well-known ponies -" I stopped myself, just too late.
Father opened his mouth, but then he closed it for a moment before answering. "I don't talk about that because it's fun, Luna. I talk about it because now's the time to make the connections that'll get you settled in life. Like Sunburst - if he gets to be a famous mage and researcher, wouldn't it be an advantage to know him?"
"Well..." I pouted. I couldn't deny it made sense, however little I liked it. "But can't I just go forward by myself?"
"By yourself? Without Spikendar either?"
That made even more sense. "But I've got Sunburst now!"
Father looked at me.
Was there something to dreams that made it easier to talk about what you were really thinking and feeling, just like it was easier for them to show up around the dream? "Can... can we just go walking together? Until morning?"
"Of course, Luna." He stood; the dinner table vanished, and we were standing in the middle of a lovely, well-tended flower garden. "You've done something amazing today. Have a treat."
I bent down and chomped on a delicious rose.
"Lulu?"
It was Celestia's voice. I peered out of my blanket nest again to see her standing by my bed, holding a teacup in her wings.
Father was standing next to her, a broad smile on his face. "So you're a dreamwalker, Luna," he said.
"Lulu? Are you feeling alright?"
I was. I nodded, but my magic wobbled as I took the cup. I took a few sips - honey-sweet without any firey magic this time - and set it down on my bedside table. "Thanks, Celly. And -" I turned to Father - "thank you, too."
"Thank you," he replied with a deep nod.
Celly cocked her head. "What happened?"
"She saved me from a nightmare," Father said. "I suppose, if she can do that for other ponies..."
It was an "if," this time - and phrased that way, not as a "you really should," it seemed more inviting than irksome. "Maybe I will," I said. "A few days ago, I was thinking about maybe even helping Princess Twilight herself..."
Father looked surprised for a moment, but then thoughtful. "Harmony willing, perhaps..."
"Want to get out of bed, Lulu?" Celly interrupted. "We can make your favorite blueberry pancakes for breakfast?"
I gasped, craned my neck around, and then ran over in front of my mirror. There was a crescent moon on my flank, against a miniature night sky. I'd won my cutie mark! I'd found my talent! I'd be able to research and develop my dreamwalking, and maybe even figure out how to help Princess Twilight after all!
"Lulu?" Celly put her wing around me.
Suddenly realizing I'd reared up, I settled back to the floor. "I can do it! I've found my special talent!"
The dream-grass tasted even better the next night, with my dream cutie mark. And, when I set a hoof onto one of the paths into the mist, Father's cutie mark instantly appeared in front of me.
I smiled, turning to look at the seven or eight other paths leading off from my little meadow. This would save me a lot of time.
The next path I came to showed Celly's cutie mark; the one after that, Mother's. The next one (more mist-shrouded than the first three) showed Party Favor's. I paused, tapping my hoof, as the question finally forced itself to my attention: whose dream would I walk into next? If not Party Favor's, or Mother's, then whose?
A swirling in the mist snapped back my attention. It was swallowing up several whole paths! A moment later, a new path — dry rocks, looking like pictures of the Badlands, with only a few sprigs of grass poking their way up — was revealed. Surprised, I trotted over and tapped my hoof on the first rock.
A flame erupted in the mist.
I jumped back; the flame vanished just like the four cutie marks had. I cocked my head; I didn't know anypony with a cutie mark of a flame! Curious and eager, I stretched out my hoof and took the first step along that rocky path.
The mist suddenly drew back ahead of me to reveal a large lavender dragon.
I gasped. "Headmaster Spikendar!"
He smiled a broad, toothy smile. "Well done."
"Why'd you come -- how'd you possibly --" Dragon's dreams were different, weren't they? And even so, how come I'd reached him so quickly? "Are you a dreamwalker too?"
He shook his head. "No, but I know enough dream-magic to make my dreams visible. Still, you are the first dreamwalker who can see anything except their closest friends' and family's dreams since..." A hint of sadness passed over his face. "Since before Twilight's brother left us."
"Almost a thousand years..." My eyes went wide. Learning to dreamwalk had been hard, very hard, but I hadn't guessed I'd already come further than any other pony! "Then how -- why would Princess Twilight have written --"
"Perhaps just for fun. She likes writing monographs." Spikendar let out a slow stream of smoke; the mist receded to a mage-lit sitting room. I found myself sitting on a rich velvet couch, with Headmaster Spikendar on a gleaming silver couch next to me. Around us, the walls were covered in vaguely-defined tapestries. "Or perhaps she wrote that play to reach out,” the Headmaster continued, as if nothing had changed, “to try, to see if somepony would learn from it and find her in turn."
My eyes went even wider. "The Princess was trying to find somepony like me!?"
The couch groaned as Spikendar shrugged. "Perhaps. In a way, I hope she is -- she wouldn't have tried to reach out to anypony like that before I left her."
"Why did you leave?" The words slipped out of my mouth, almost unbidden; I had never dared ask in waking life.
"Ah... now that would be a story..." He blinked back a tear from one eye.
I held my breath.
"... a story you could, perhaps, hear some other day."
I sighed and looked around the room. Unfortunately, the tapestries were only vague blurs. Even so, I thought some of those blurs looked like other alicorns — in white, in brown, and in several other colors that weren't the Princess's lavender.
But before I could ask Spikendar, he was speaking again. "Congratulations on your near-unprecedented achievement, and on your cutie mark, and on your budding friendship with Sunburst. As I hope you will soon see, such friendships will help you greatly in developing your new special talent."
I gave him a confused look. "So, what now?"
"Continue practicing," he said simply. "I trust you to develop a good plan of study, with your friends-to-be."
"But... aren't you going to help..."
He shook his head. "In the future, but not at once. For now, develop your own special talent, and, Harmony willing, in time you may even be able to walk into the Princess's own dreams." He looked off at one of the tapestries. "And, Harmony willing, you will come help Twilight before certain other problems find her..."
I followed his gaze to that tapestry, but I couldn't make out anything besides a lavender splotch and a white splotch. They might've been two alicorns... maybe.
"But that's for the future." He eased his draconic bulk off the silver couch. "In the present, I believe you have more friends to visit than an old dragon?"
And, with that, he bowed and vanished.
The sitting-room hung around me, still stable for the moment. I galloped over to the tapestry, but it was already fading into mist. Whatever the Headmaster had been thinking was still locked up in his head.
But... he trusted me to plan how to study dreamwalking myself. He trusted that I would be able to get to the Princess's dreams.[m]
And the first step? Talk with my new friend.
Horn blazing, I set off through the mist towards Sunburst's dreams.
