Hallmark Dream-a (One-Shot)


                                            >Through a picturesque, infinitely-expanding meadow pranced a stark-white alicorn with a spectral mane, her movements resembling those of a deer more than a pony

                                            >Absent of her usual regalia, she was instead garbed in a flowing, cream-colored sundress, and wore an uncharacteristic expression of unrestrained joy as she bounded through the sun-soaked grass and flowers

                                            >The reason for her behavior quickly became apparent

                                            >A nondescript human male - well-dressed and conventionally attractive but otherwise average - playfully pursued her flight, joining in her merriment all the way

                                            >Catching up, the man scooped her into an aptly-named princess carry without missing a beat, and began twirling her around as if it was his intention to do so all along

                                            >The pair continued like this, giggling like schoolchildren, until the human's foot found the start of a conveniently-placed hill

                                            >Rather than attempt to resist the fall, he doubled down, diving into it and sending them both tumbling end-over-end

                                            >They eventually reached the bottom - unhurt thanks to the pillow-like qualities of the greenery - ending their fall laying next to one another, both looking skywards as they alternatively laughed in good humor and panted in relief

                                            >After their cacophony of revelry had subsided a bit, the pony was the first to speak

                                            >"Thank goodness your mother wisened up to your third cousin's scheming, Anon. I was terrified that we would need to keep our love a secret forever."

                                            >The man waved a hand dismissively in response

                                            >"Please, Celly. Even if she hadn't, I would still have proposed to you anyway."

                                            >A blush graced his face as he turned his head and locked eyes with his lover

                                            >"Your hoof means far more to me than any inheritance or title possibly could."

                                            >Celestia blushed in turn at the man's sincerity, but then took on a rather serious tone, twisting to lay on her side and face him

                                            >"It would be best to proceed with the wedding sooner rather than later, though. Your mother is one of the sweetest old ladies I ever did meet, but I'd rather not test the limits of that sweetness with an out-of-wedlock foal."

                                            >The man arched an eyebrow, also turning onto his side

                                            >"Out-of-wedlock fo-?"

                                            >His eyes widened, jaw dropping open in shock

                                            >The pony winked and stuck her tongue out, rubbing a circle on her belly with her hoof

                                            >Anonymous, utterly stunned, attempted to sputter something out four or five times, only for his speech to be stonewalled by the melting pot of emotions swirling in his mind

                                            >In the end, all he did - all he HAD to do - was draw his lover into a tearful embrace, murmuring "thank you" every few seconds at a loss for any other words

                                            >This display of pure, unadulterated happiness, along with all such preceding moments in these two lovers' interactions, was observed from a meter or two away by a pair of figures sitting on their haunches

                                            >They made no attempts to hide themselves, and in fact had no need to; they had no presence in this world, for they were not constructs of the creator's mind

                                            >Thus, they could not interfere or be interfered with by any events that took place within it, even if they wished to

                                            >The duo were both alicorns, the larger one a deep navy blue with a mane of pure cosmic energy and the smaller one a very bright pastel pink

                                            >Cadence, Princess of Love, was having something of an emotional moment, bawling and blubbering her eyes out while constantly drawing from a seemingly-bottomless carton of tissues

                                            >Luna, Princess of the Moon, was decidedly less outwardly affected, head drooped forward and eyes half-lidded in boredom at a scene she'd seen play out at least three times in the past week alone

                                            >The latter pony drew in a breath and rose her head up, preparing to explain the situation to the other princess

                                            "So, dear niece, this leads us to our reason for-"

                                            >She was interrupted not even halfway into her sentence by Cadence trumpeting loudly into another tissue

                                            >Coming up for air, the pink pony half-hiccupped, half-stuttered her reply to a statement that hadn't fully been made

                                            >"Oh, I *hic* know PERFECTLY WELL why y-y-you *hic* b-br-brought me here, a-au-auntie! Y-you want *hic* more g-g-gr-grandnieces!"

                                            >Luna rolled her eyes and smacked a hoof against her forehead

                                            "No, not at all, we were going to ask you if-"

                                            >Cadence got in her face, completely ignoring the denial attempt

                                            >The night princess balked at her niece, the tear streaks and smeared makeup giving her an absolutely ghastly appearance

                                            >"W-w-well *sniff* MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! I d-do believe that l-li-little scene *hic* m-ma-made me start *hic* ov-ov-ovulating uncontrollably! I-I'm gonna go back to *hic* S-Sh-Shining Armor and w-w-we'll *hic* get started r-right away!"

                                            'Perhaps Equestria is overdue for a Princess of Modesty' Luna thought to herself

                                            >Taking the other princess' head in her hooves, she began smacking Cadence across the face repeatedly with her wings, enunciating every word of her following statement with a slap

                                            "Pull. Yourself. Together. You. Neurotic. Foal. Crazy. NINNY!"

                                            >Releasing the bright pink alicorn, Luna gave her a few moments to slow her breathing and calm down, then iterated her intended original statement very slowly and deliberately

                                            "As we were saying, the reason we brought you here is twofold. One,"

                                            >Staring holes through the love princess to ensure she was paying attention, she continued

                                            "Stop giving Tia access to your Initiative's cache of human romantic drama films. We find them incredibly droll but she makes us watch and rewatch them with her nevertheless. It is tiring."

                                            >Cadence sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hoof, cocking her head slowly in response

                                            >"But why? They're so heartwarming and sweet! Straightforward, too! I can't get enough of them, myself."

                                            >The night pony groaned

                                            "That is EXACTLY what Tia says, and we believe it leads pretty well into our second point. Look, just humor us. No more romantic dramas, please?"

                                            >The pink alicorn posed to protest, but backed down and nodded in concession a moment later, a nod which Luna returned

                                            "Two,"

                                            >She paused just as she opened her mouth to give the second reason

                                            >Losing all of her dominant posture in one fell swoop, Luna scratched the back of her neck with a hoof and grumbled something that the other princess couldn't quite make out

                                            >"I'm *sniff* sorry?"

                                            >Stamping her hoof a couple times and blushing a bit, the moon princess answered with a bit more clarity

                                            "We said 'Please enter Tia's name in the Initiative queue.'"

                                            >While her body language indicated it was meant to be an embarrassing request, Cadence found it more confusing than anything

                                            >"I mean, does she need it? She seems pretty happy without her soulmate, and you'd think she would put her name in herself if she wasn't, right?"

                                            >Luna sighed, looking down and shaking her head while gesturing dramatically to the air

                                            "Cadence, look around you. Look at this dream. Would THE Princess of the Sun be dreaming of herself as a simple pauper girl getting whisked away by a rich prince with a heart of gold in some poorly-written romantic drama plotline if she was truly satisfied with her love life?"

                                            >The princess of love rested on her haunches and crossed her forehooves

                                            >"Oh come now, everypony dreams of an ideal romance every now and again. And besides, like you said, it's probably because she's been binging those movies I've been giving her anyway. So I'll just lock up the cache and it's done and dusted, right?"

                                            >The dreamwalker traced several successive circles in the grass, eyes following her own hoof in thought

                                            >She looked her niece in the eye, suddenly more serious than passively annoyed

                                            "It is not the dream itself that is the problem, dearest niece, it is the emotions that went into crafting it. Within this sickly-sweet imagery lies desperation and loneliness that we never even imagined Tia to be capable of."

                                            >She stopped tracing as Cadence moved in closer, intrigued by what her aunt was saying

                                            "We do not know if she is refusing to enter due to her pride as a ruler or her self-sacrificing nature, but that our sister would dream of such an idyllic experience is proof enough, to us, that she requires the presence of her soulmate more than ever."

                                            >A momentary quiet fell over the two, only broken by the soft breeze of the cloudless day and the giggles and whispers of the couple nearby

                                            >Clopping her hooves together, Cadence spoke with a more cheerful inflection

                                            >"Well, I'm convinced. I'll enroll Auntie Tia in the program - via anonymous tip, of course. I'm thinking... Priority Three. A solid cut in line, but it'd be a bad look for royalty to boost ahead of the more suicidal or medically disabled applicants. I'm assuming you want the interviewers assigned to her redirected to you? Are you confident that you can answer personal questions in her stead?"

                                            >Smiling at her niece's rapid-fire initiative, Luna gave a confident nod, eliciting a small series of excited hops from the other princess

                                            >"It's settled then! Ooooh boy, I can't wait to see what kind of lucky guy she gets matched with! Okay, I'm off for real this time. Still need to 'talk' to Shiny about the ol' aggressive ovulation issue, after all. Bye!"

                                            >With that, she disconnected herself from the dreamwalking spell the Princess of the Moon was actively casting, and her avatar quickly exited the plane of dreams with a small "poof"

                                            >Her little ride-along gone, Luna exhaled in relief

                                            >She was proud to call Cadence a relative, but that pony could be pretty... high-strung, at times

                                            >Still only the second most violently neurotic pink pony the she knew, though

                                            >Inexplicably

                                            >The remaining princess stood up, shook her body from neck to tail, and prepared to sever the flow of magic completely and return to reality

                                            >Before she did, however, a noise caught her attention

                                            >"Whoa there, Celly, what's the matter?"

                                            >A vocalization, from the so-called 'Anonymous'

                                            >Followed by subdued but audible sobbing

                                            >Before Luna could turn to face the metaphysical constructs, she noticed something was off about the scenery

                                            >The environment was becoming less and less defined, as though a film of petroleum jelly had been smeared over it

                                            >A sure sign that her sister was losing grip on the dream

                                            >Morning already?

                                            >Getting in contact with Cadence and setting the meeting must have taken up most of the night

                                            'Oh well' the princess thought with a sigh 'what's one more night of seeing th-'

                                            >A loud whimper hit her ears, followed by a serious of concerned questions from 'Anonymous'

                                            >"Seriously Celly, what's wrong? What's going on?"

                                            >Rolling her eyes at herself and damning her curiosity, Luna turned around and crept up to the couple - eavesdropping instincts getting the better of her knowledge - to see what exactly the deal was

                                            >And subsequently felt as though she was physically pulled down by the heartstrings in doing so

                                            >All six of her sister's limbs were wrapped around the human's rapidly-disassociating form as if holding on for dear life, her nose buried in his chest and eyes shut tight

                                            >Fresh tears streaked down her face and she shook all over while murmuring futile pleas of "don't go" and "it's not fair" into the progressively ill-defined man's shirt

                                            >It was, without a doubt, the most soul-crushingly depressing scene the night princess had ever laid eyes on

                                            >Indeed, it wasn't fair; it wasn't fair at all that Celestia - matron of all Equestria with more love to give than the entire world could possibly handle - was forced to go day after day and night after night with no true respite from her solitude

                                            >Luna hated boilerplate romantic dramas, it was true

                                            >But she hated seeing her sister in emotional turmoil a thousand times more

                                            >So, she reasoned, there was no harm in letting this one go on a little bit longer

                                            "Bleeding hearts of Equestria unite."

                                            >She said to herself, rolling her eyes again in an attempt to trivialize the importance of the favor she was about to provide

                                            >Breathing in, the princess drew in magic, focused it in her horn, and instilled purpose in it by thinking as hard as she possibly could about its end goal

                                            >Exhaling, the alicorn released her hold on the magic, allowing it to flow out over her sister's dreamscape in a massive wave

                                            >The blurriness of the landscape corrected itself almost instantaneously, coming back into focused detail like a telescope lens adjusting

                                            >More importantly, Celestia and 'Anonymous' were back to simply cuddling as they had been before the dream had started collapsing

                                            >Snorting in satisfaction, Luna once again prepared to sever her connection to the dream world

                                            >Tia would be asleep for a while yet; raising the Sun would likely fall on the younger sister's shoulders, as would quelling the bleating herds of bureaucrats for the first few hours of the day

                                            >The moon princess would collect on that favor later

                                            >For now, the sight of her big sister happy and content was compensation enough

                                            'Endure a little longer, dearest sister,' Luna thought as she finally ended the spell and disappeared from the dream

                                            'Your prince will arrive sooner than you expect.'