Luna and the Dreamscape - Episode 5: Sky Sailing

[Hippo]

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Luna walked into her laboratory, or so she liked to call it. It was a chamber of dreams, a room dedicated for Luna to serve her subjects on the planes of dreamland as their protector and upholder of good dreams and nighttime wishes. The guards just called this 'the unused room at the end of the Starswirl the Bearded wing.' Luna always tried not to take offense to that.

Tonight, she entered her dream room to the sound of music. A wonderful classical approach to a lullaby, softly expressing its melody as if it were singing to the moon. The two guards inside were listening to it half asleep, but stood up straight as Luna stepped her long blue legs into view. She smiled at the reaction and continued to her chamber, a large pillowed throne that had head rests on all angles, the perfect napping chair. However, this was not nap-time, it was time for Luna to enter the dreamscape.

Luna sat comfortably on the chair and drank her potion she always drank for this time of work. It was an elixir that allowed her to better tap into dreams, and to defend herself in them if necessary. After she drank it, she tried to fall asleep, but the soft music was distracting her. She poked out and eye towards the guards. "Excuse me, but I need that music off. "I can't concentrate with any kind of music playing, regardless of how peaceful it is." Luna said without too much annoyance. "Besides, I can't have you sleeping on the job while I'm sitting here hard at work." Luna understood the irony, but she meant every word she spoke. She wasn't going to play dumb with her guards. She never did.

Only a moment after, Luna's head dropped to the side of a head rest and she was asleep.

​

[Blueblood]

Backstage was the room inside the rocket just before the countdown started on the launchpad. Outside all was anticipation and pacing and scurrying but the interior was home to peace known only by the occupant. The quiet that now surrounded the pegasus known as Sky Sailing was like that which was almost never inside his head; that was a mind filled with noise and words and sometimes, when all went right, the notes of a song. Through patience and discipline and all sleepless nights Sky had found enough music to fill an album, and now was riding the wind across Equestria, playing and scattering the music far and wide.

The peculiar atmosphere persisted, even as he trotted on stage, ensemble all ready. His white shirt, black vest, tie, goggles, and flight helmet were his look, and brought a ripple of pleased recognition that he could see in the audience. He did not speak to them, shy as he was by nature; his way was to open with a song, which brought their minds and hearts in aligned harmony and made words easier to make and understand. Even the slightly unsteady nature of his bench and his keyboard were nothing unusual; the stallion passed most of his life in a sleepless haze, never quite sure if he was awake or merely dreaming, or if the dreams he was in were his own.

It is not easy for a pony to play a keyboard; hooves are not precision instruments. Sky had subverted this limitation by his wings; minute controls of his feathers to stroke out the notes and chords. All were ready, and so was he. The keys were pressed, and his mouth opened to sing...

Silence.

He didn't notice it at first; the music was inside his head, and often would drown out the outside world. Such a state could not last long, however, and the notice of it caused him to stumble to a halt.

"Oh, um, sorry..." He felt his mouth form the words, his tongue and teeth shaping the consonants and the puffs of air making the vowels, but no sound came. He looked up at the audience. No anger there, nor puzzlement. They sat, waiting.

In silence.

[Hippo]

Luna gained consciousness in the dreamscape sitting on a pillow. When she looked up, she saw herself in a large auditorium and she was sitting in her own private theater box, which hung independently of the rest of the seats in the theater. The audience was typically high class, but ponies of all walks of life could be seen, surely each with their own interests and dislikes. However, these ponies couldn't possibly all be here, for they were they would be apart of one of the most collaborative lucid dreams Luna has ever seen. Instead, these all must be projects from one singular pony. But who?

A light blue pony with brown mane and tail walked out towards what looked like keyboard instrument. When he reached it, he said nothing and sat down to play it. Luna was in suspense in seeing what would happen, and she was watching her her ears as she knew this was apparently a musical performance. She saw the pony start moving his hooves against the keys, and his mouth was hanging open with enthusiasm. But there was nothing to be heard, not even the coughs and rustling of an audience were ambient in the echoey auditorium. Right after, the pony moved his lips, but nothing was said. He must be nervous.

​

[Blueblood]

There is a difference between a mere absence, and a positive Void. It was not merely that the ponies were keeping silent, making efforts to keep from making noises.

No, there was something there, brooding over the hall like some dark bird over its nest. This silence was itself a noise loud enough to drown out the voice of a friend, or the notes of a musician. Sky Sailing, a sensitive pony, could feel it smother him, and he had to take several multiple deep breaths to calm himself. Once again, his mouth formed words, "I'm just going to check the equipment..." No sounds emerged.

He dove towards the speakers and amplifiers, but everything was in place. Tapping them brought no result, and not even the noise of hoof striking object. No longer quite able to stifle his fear, the pegasus rushed back to his keyboard and began playing again. No notes, no noise, from either the speakers or the audience.

He looked at the stalls and galleries again, where the ponies waited wrapped in silence. Sky fancied that he could almost see it; a black silk that held them to their seats and sealed their jaws shut. But their eyes still spoke, not words of anger, nor even of disappointment. If there was anything there, it was dull, whether it be sorrow or despair. If there was any happiness or joy there, it was buried too deep for the artist bring out.

He couldn't take it anymore, and fled. Out the stage door, into the street, desperate for something, anything. The happy laughing crowd of the evening, raucous yells of cab conductors, anything to break the sound of silence.

But that dark bird had grown, spreading the suffocating plumage over the city. It too, was wrapped in silence, and the ponies there had the same attitude of the audience. The air was cold and damp, and so were their spirits. There seemed to be conversations, but no words could be heard, and none were listening for any.

If you were wondering what inspired this dream:

[Hippo]

It didn't make sense to Luna at first. But of course, dreams that made sense from the start were rare. She was wondering why the dream had been normal up until the performance, but now she can see exactly what was so peculiar about this one. But she couldn't hear anything. For a while she had thought that this place was a peaceful quite. The the longer the silence stayed, the louder it got in both feeling and sense. Luna was calm about her realizing this, but the pony on stage made an embarrassed run for it. Everypony in the auditorium speechlessly wonder what was going on.

Luna decided to follow the pony. It was strange how it sounded, or didn't sounded rather, when she flapped her wings. She never realized how much she relied on the sound of the air around her to navigate through the sky. She constantly had to look around at her own wings, making sure they were consistent. The numb feeling she didn't hear because for some reason, everything was void of sound. She spotted the pony running down the street in a panic, constantly look around at everything that seemed to be making sound, but wasn't. Immediately, Luna assumed that this pony might be deaf. Most ponies who are deaf rarely have dreams with sound in them. And the ones that did were experiencing something amazing. However, if the pony was deaf, then would he really be this freaked out by his environment? Luna followed him from an aerial height, in order to investigate where he was going.

​

[Blueblood]

The phrases of everyday ponies are not only forcible, but subtle. Silence is everyday described as "deafening," so often that the paradox becomes a mere cliche. One also describes sounds as being "drowned out," as if a thing dependent on free air were smothered by something flowing like water, but with suffocating weight.

Whatever this silence was, it drowned out every external noise, leaving only what was inside the mind. Words spoken by no mouth, and heard by no ear. Perhaps there were songs, too, locked inside the skulls of ponies in the street; there certainly were in Sky Sailing's and the prisoners were restless. Gasping like a fish, he hung onto the streetlamp, watching the crowds creep by.

Yet, the stallion felt, somehow, that he could hear what was actually in their heads, all the ponies passing by. Voices of doubt, even of despair. They were lost in the darkness of their own brain, in isolation from brighter and cleaner things, even from the kind words of a friend.

Sky wanted to speak, to sing, to somehow reach them all. He hung from two hooves off to the side of the poll, opening his mouth, forcing air through, making music by muscle memory. He could not tell if any actual sound was being made; even in the waking world he almost never paid attention to it at the time, only hearing it when recordings were played back. The only indication he ever had that anypony heard or paid attention to anything he did, he had to see.

Nopony turned to look for more than a second. He could see that they saw him, but did they hear him? Could he possibly make himself heard by any of them? Could any of them make themselves heard? Sky Sailing was beginning to lose it; the noise in his head could not escape, and it roared between his ears. If there was something, anything that broke this spell of silence, it might repair his shattering nerves.

But nopony dared disturb that spell, and none of his words echoed in that well... of silence.

[Hippo]

Luna flew ahead of the pony, and then descended quickly, landing in front of his direction of travel. Luna wore a curious smile as she walked slowly against the dreamer's hasty pace. When the pony got near, she started waving her front leg to gain his attention. "Are you alright? Can you hear me?" Luna mouthed without sounded able to come out. Luna would try casting a spell to remove the silence, but she was unsure if this was something should be done now, of the dream required the use of no sound and mime. Luna would play it by ear... ...or sight.

​

[Blueblood]

He didn't know if he was heard, but there was somepony who contrasted with the scene, if not the silence. He could see one mare give a friendly wave of acknowledge and mouth words to him. He could read the lips, but could barely tell if there was any sound with them.

What was important to Sky Sailing right now is that she was listening. That was all the musician needed right now to pull him back from the brink. "I'm listening." He said, his vocal cords run to ragged to shout or sing. His voice was hoarse, but Luna could hear him, though nopony else on the streets seemed to. They were the only two ponies in the dreamscape who really were listening to each other. "Who... are you?"

[Hippo]

The silence broke when the sky blue pony finally spoke up in a raspy voice seemly torn by strenuous singing or shouting. Though the voice was but a whisper, it screamed in contrast to the silence, ripling stangnant sound waves in the distance. Luna walked close to the him. She had no problem answering the obvious question. Her modest royal voice did severe damage to the encasing of sound that voided out any rings or whistles to this point. "I am the Princess of the Night. It is my duty to come into your dreams while you sleep." Luna was always curious to see if her subjects knew off hoof that they were sleeping. They were often oblivious to that fact as what they were experiencing in their dream was no more or less stressful that whatever strange things they were dreaming. And on top of this, she hoped that he could hear him and was not actually deaf. It would make things a little more complicated.

​

[Blueblood]

It was not a particularly shocking revelation to Sky Sailing that he was asleep and dreaming; even in his waking hours he had that notion in the back of his mind. The stallion had always felt that some film or gauze was between him and the rest of the world, that blurred it out just enough for him to feel unsure about it.

Even so, Princess Luna probably expected a more animated reaction from him than a simple "Oh." As if having a real live Princess in one's dreams wasn't anything special. On the other hand, if she was simply doing her duty, and had checked on him as part of her routine patrol, perhaps it wasn't, really. Still, it might have been rude to imply that, so the pegasus cleared his throat before speaking again, "I mean, it's an honor to see you, of course, but..." He trailed off, looking around at the silent crowd. "I was kind of hoping you were here to hear the music. Nopony else seems to actually want to listen."

[Hippo]

"Well, I couldn't hear your music." Luna politely replied. "You looked very distraught at not being able to hear yourself as well." Luna got close to the pony and bent her knees to come to a more intimate eye level with the subject. "Tell me, do you sometimes feel like your music is falling on deaf ears, even when you aren't dreaming?" Luna could see several ponies walking around, all speechlessly mind their own business. Luna felt this pony was pretty mistakenly talented for projecting so many ponies into his dream. It wasn't typical for a pony to imagine that much social pressure in a dream, unless they were struggling with a subconscious issue.

​

[Blueblood]

"Oh...." Even in his own dreams, Sky Sailing didn't do well in crowded places. Yet, now that he knew that he was asleep, and that Princess Luna seemed was the only real pony here... the introverted stallion felt more comfortable, especially when she came down to his eye level. He loosened the flight scarf around his neck, sitting back against the streetlight pole.

"You know, I don't think I can actually hear myself, even when I'm awake. You can't hear what your own voice sounds like, you know? It sounds different to what other ponies hear. I don't really know what they're hearing, or if it's worth listening to. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm just a colt from Cloudsdale sleeping 3 hours a night just so he has time to play some music in his parent's basement."

He sighed, and looked over the illusory crowds. For all the bustle around them, he and Luna were alone, inside of Sky's head. This was, he realized, where he spent most of his life. It would be sad, except that he had found music here. "I want... to be able to give them what I found. There may be somepony who really needs to hear the songs I make, to let them know... they're not the only one; that they don't have to live alone with the noise in their head." He wasn't sure how clear he was making himself at this point. He thought a lot, but he didn't talk much, making his ideas more clear to himself than he could make them to others, in speech, anyway.

[Hippo]

Luna looked around the dreamscape. She saw many white buildings and several pegasus ponies wandering around tending to their errands and their life. Some had jobs, others were enjoying themselves. But all of this was sculpted in this one pony's dream. And according to the pony himself, it was because he lived to make other ponies' lives more fulfilled in what they do, in how they feel, and what they hear. Luna commended the nobility of it. "That is a very good thing you do. You should be proud of this." Luna stood back tall and towered a smile to the pony as she looked down.

But after a moment, she wished she had the best way to kick start what might be a hard swallow for a pony who is often comfortable in their own imagination. "But, why weren't you able to play music? Why were you not able to have your voice heard? Why does no one listen to you in your dream?"

​

[Blueblood]

It wasn't so much that Luna's question stumped Sky Sailing, the answer was not far from his mind, never was, really. They had been shapeless worries and fears before, haunting the cellar of his mind like the old family ghosts. It was hard to get a clear glimpse of them, when even in the light of Celestia's day, the fog of dreams clouded the pegasus' mind.

But now, the sky was clearing. The Princess could sense the shift in atmosphere; the air was growing cooler and clearer, and in the sky was filling with stars again. Perhaps it was her presence shaking the vague fears of nightmares from his mind, or just that he could find the way between the waking and sleeping worlds again. In any case, he gathered his mental bearings and unfurled the sail. "I can't force them to. I don't know... all I know is how to make the music that I do. I don't know if it's the sort they'd like; I don't know how the other musicians got started. I feel that... I can make music, but I don't know how to give it. And if I can't... it's like I never was playing at all, and nothing I've done matters. What is a song nopony hears, but another silence?"

[Hippo]

Luna looked pensive as Sky Sailing revealed his concerns. But when she realized some of his thoughts were trvial, she decided to shed a little light into them, starting with him. "Well, Sky. Do enjoy making music? A lot of things in this life are dependant on what you enjoy doing. If you don't enjoy playing music, you should probably try something else." Luna slid her hoof on the ground, it scored the sidewalk they were walking on, and when she finished the mark, the world around both of them seemed to slide through them. She was moving the world around them. "Not this world, of course, this is only a dream. But I can clearly see it is a reflection of what is going on inside of you when you are awake. It is commendable that you want to play music for other ponies. But before you even consider if they want to hear your voice, you need to answer the question 'do you want to hear your own voice'?"

​

[Blueblood]

Between what is trivial and what is essential, who can judge? The two are not so much separated as some ponies think; the questions that puzzle the philosophers are the same a tired foal will ask on a hot afternoon. In any case, it is dangerous for a counselor to make assumptions on the dividing line.

The city streets were shifting, changing; no longer were Sky Sailing and Princess Luna walking down the cobblestone streets of Canterlot, but the high white ways of Cloudsdale, and they were alone. This shift in location was unconscious for the pegasus, who only stretched his wings and looked curiously up at the Alicorn. "Is that really so? When you make the night, do you make it for yourself, or for us?" The idea that one's work was to be judged on whether it fulfilled one's own enjoyment was slightly alien to him; Sky's parents had often told him that one ought to search for joy in work in its necessity to other ponies. As his day job was hauling crates in the cold storage district in Cloudsdale, this advice had often got him through the day. While his parents hadn't exactly been thrilled at his ambitions of being a musician, they had been supportive of them on the condition that he brought the same work ethic to his craft.

These streets were silent as the ones they had left, but it was a cleaner silence, one of solitude and not of loneliness. The two are not the same. "I don't know if it really matters whether or not I want to hear my own voice; it's not as if I can stop hearing it, even if I don't speak or sing."

[Hippo]

"I do enjoy giving the moon for ponies who stay up late enough to see it and the accompanying stars. But if I could not lift the moon, I would find something else to serve my subjects. Being someone who has found talent in manipulating the dreamscape, I can assure you that I also enjoy bringing this service to ponies. But again, I would not be able to go through with it, if I could not carry the weight of the task and receive some self satisfaction out of who am I and what I was destined to do." Luna touched the pony's chin with her hoof. "Have you not discovered your destiny? Do you not know that your destiny is indeed a choice? You can either walk to it, or run from it."

Luna started walking along the spinning ground, and then jumped up on a giant musical note. She then grabbed the pony with her hoof and brought him on top of the note as well. It was a pair of large eighth notes linked together. And as then jumped on, the note started flying across the land into an area that was filled with empty sky. After a few moments, other musical notes could be seen clustering and swirling around like a tornado. There was no sound coming from it. "Look at these notes. What do you notice about them?" The torrent of musical notes featured several rest notes. Some eighth rest notes, some of them quarter rest notes.

​

[Blueblood]

There was something in Luna's words, Sky knew. Having an inner reserve was important for getting through the parts of a work that nopony ever saw or could see. Production work largely consisted of listening to the same clip of one's voice over and over until one got the right settings to make it ring somewhat true to one's inner vision.

"I... think I know what you mean. I don't see myself being really happy doing anything other than music, but... I don't know if I could go on if I didn't know that somepony else appreciated what I did." It began to occur to him just whom he spoke those words to. "Ah, but I guess you know all about that already." He looked away in embarrassment.

The sudden shift from streets to flying notes, while superficially jarring, yet seemed emotionally harmonious to the dream. Sky leapt onto one bulb of the connected eighth-note, while the Princess perched on the other. The pegasus looked around at the swirling notes, with only a vague comprehension. "I had to learn to play music by ear, since there were no teachers for me at 11 o'clock at night. I had to figure out writing music from scratch, which makes it hard for me to read what other ponies wrote. I can hear them well enough, though."

[Hippo]

Luna wasn't sure if Sky was being super wise and self-aware, being able to comprehend and hear things no pony, not even a princess could hear, or if he was plainly oblivious to the signs. "These notes you see swirling violently all have one thing in common. They are silent. I can't hear the silence. Can you?" Luna knew she was possibly opening a discussion about what listening to silence might actually mean. But if the pony engaged in it, it might actually help lead Luna to better understand how to help him in a time of enlightenment.

The note flew close to the rest notes, the swirling was silent. The only thing that could be heard is the hearts of the ponies beating and the breaths of the ponies inhaling and exhaling. Luna held her breath.

​

[Blueblood]

Many ponies walk the fine line between wisdom and foolishness, as thin as the line is between the sublime and the ridiculous. Sky Sailing's lyrics tended to straddle that line in any case, giving to his listeners the same impression that Princess Luna now had. As the silent notes swirled around him, Sky indeed tried to listen. They made no sounds, but the silence here was not empty, or to say better, it was only the absence of noise. Other things could be heard, the sound of breathing and of hearts beating, elemental rhythms.

The stallion opened his mouth wide in a breath, as if to drink it in, and let it out slowly. "This sort of silence allows things to be heard, it doesn't stifle them." There was perhaps something significant in that, though it was yet shrouded in the pegasus' mind. Perhaps it didn't matter if he knew it if he at least knew it was there. His expression grew somewhat less anxious as he let it all swirl around and through him.

[Hippo]

As Sky started to feel more comfortable about his surroundings, Luna almost felt the needs to jostle them back to a constant stressor. Luna's intent of course was not to scare the pony, but to help him out of his issue. He was a good listener for sure, but would his sensitivity to the silence be good for him? "Sky Sailing, look down there." Luna pointed down towards the bottom of the tornado of silence, and just inside the twister itself, the two ponies could see in view a small window that appeared to be the entrance to some kind of void. With a small shimmy, Luna moved the note they rode on down to the void, and very slowly and mysteriously, they were swallowed up by the portal and the portal closed behind them.

When they opened their eyes, Luna saw before her a vivid memory that belonged to Sky. In it, Sky could see himself, his father, and a large flat instrument sitting idly in a cardboard box. "Do you remember this?" Luna asked Sky giving him a chance to recollected and reabsorb the memory.

​

[Blueblood]

It is in the silence and the darkness that the still, small voice is heard. It was only by plunging into the dark portal that the faint lights can be seen clearly. The back of Sky Sailing's mind noted these philosophies as he and Luna plunged into the depths of his memory, down into his parent's basement.

There was something odd in the idea of having a cellar higher than most top floors, but that was cloud architecture for you. It qualified as a basement mostly because it had no windows opening to the outside, otherwise the white, puffy walls were the same as the upper floors, and it wasn't at all dark inside, as these were still the daylight hours.

The workshop was full, but not cluttered; each project had it's own space, and the spare parts and machines were off to the side. All the repaired devices were upstairs for display, this was the working place. Sky was a young foal here, still a blank flank, but not yet anxious to find his place in the world. His father was an older, and somewhat taciturn stallion, greyish-blue in color. His mouth rarely smiled, but his eyes were kind, and his voice steady.

"Customer dropped this off, but canceled the commission, and didn't pick it up. There's not much inside here that'll be good for the other projects, so I figured best thing to do would be to refurbish this. It ought to go to someone who'll put in the work to master it, anyhow."

Time could accelerate in dreams; the whole repair job took quite some time, as Sky's father had to wait until they both had time available to work together. But all the highlights came up; how Sky learned to use his wings to handle tools and later the keys of the instrument, how they tested each note with a tuning fork, how Sky would sneak down to play on the keys at night, trying to imitate the songs he'd heard.

His parents knew, but they didn't scold him. They simply watched from the top of the stairs without him noticing, watching him slowly improve. On his next birthday, his father presented the keyboard to him, saying simply, "You've put in the work. I wouldn't let you have it otherwise."

"Don't keep it to yourself, though." His mother added. "Good work doesn't mean much if you're just doing it for yourself. Let us listen at least once in a while, OK?" And the emerald mare gave a smile to her son. Even Sky's father had an upward twitch about his lips, and his eyes were the warmest and brightest that the young colt had ever seen them.

Outside the memory, Sky was smiling too. This was a happy memory for him; his parents hadn't been able to tell before what he was going to excel in, it was after this that he eventually got his cutie mark. It was later than most, and they hadn't been able to conceal their anxiety about his development. Right here, though, no hint of worry could be seen on either face, and none were there when they had listened to him play.

"And that's kind of why I feel the way I do, I guess." He said to the Princess, as the memory began to fade and waver out. "I know I can reach ponies if I try hard enough, but I can't seem to. I wish I knew whether that was because I'm not really meant to, or if there's some other part to being a musician that I just don't know about."

[Hippo]

"Sky Sailing, let me ask you something. If there is something you enjoy doing my yourself and nopony knows about it, does that make it meaningless?" Luna started walking into a void from the memory, everything growing black, and then growing back to a park, a dirt path underneath the princess' feet as she trotted. She went down the path for a few minutes before finally stopping and shooting horn magic at the sky. When the magic hit the top of the atmosphere, it shattered and left behind it an image. It was another memory. But it was not of Sky's. It was of Luna's.

Luna was weeping at a window sill. It was predawn. Behind her in the room, Celestia approached with concern. "Little sister, why are you crying again?"

Luna, sobbing uncontrollably, lifted her face with rage. "Because I just went another night without seeing a single pony enjoying the nighttime sky. Why should I even bother raising the moon if no pony is going to be awake while it is there?"

"Little sister, don't..."

"Just leave me alone. I'll put the moon down again, but I don't think I am fit to be a princess if I can't captivate ponies with the stars in the dark blue sky."

Reluctantly, Celestia walked out of the room and closed the door, and seconds later, Luna used her magic to effortlessly erase the moon from the sky. Luna, to herself, suggested the unspeakable. "If no one wants to care about the moon I raise, then I'l just have to keep it up next time and not put it down until somepony does care about it." The purple pony with light blue hair fell into her bed and fell restlessly to sleep, inviting the nightmares to creep inside her easily.

Back to the dreamscape, Luna looked at Sky Sailing. "Now it may not be as drastic as your situation, but if I had not been so worked up over my purpose, the nightmare would not have had a chance to consume me and transform me. You have to be honest with yourself, Sky. If you chose this path, why doubt it's legitimacy. Your destiny is what you make it."

​

[Blueblood]

There was something in Luna's question analogous to the old riddle, "If a tree falls in a forest, and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?" There mere sound and pattern of the words called the association forth in Sky Sailing's mind, and he still could not help but feel that he could give a good case for the answer 'no' if he felt inclined. But that was more a question of emotion than fact.

Another memory was called forth, but it was not one of the stallion's, but one of the Princess'. He'd heard the story before, of course; hearing it from the horse's mouth, as it were, was rather more vivid. At any rate, Sky could see where she was coming from.

"All the same," He said, continuing to look up at the sky, even though the image had faded, "There are ponies who appreciate the night. I know I do, when I fix my pinfeathers to the stars and let them tow me through the air. And some days... it's just not enough to say that you're satisfied with your own work. Do you know what I mean, those days when you felt that you couldn't go on, but somepony encouraged you?"

It was beginning to come together in the musician's mind at last, why he felt the way he did, and why he was doing the things he was. "I know how much that one pony saying they believe in you can mean, and that's why I make my music. It's enough most days to lose myself in what I do, but sometimes, I just need somepony to know, you know?"

His words may not have been all that different from before, but the tone was a great shift from before. Sky Sailing's mind was haunted by spectres no more; the nightmare had returned to the nest from which it came and roosted on his brain no longer.

[Hippo]

As Sky Sailing preached his own mind, the nightmare receded into the dreamscape's horizon. The darkness fled and the dreamscape was suddenly filled with music romantic to the ears that would listen to it. Luna and Sky were then standing in the beautiful park, it looking more beautiful than it had before. The designs on the flowers and the colors in the sky were very vibrate, only a creative mind could really shape such a product.

But as Luna and Sky were now comforted with the issue escaping, Luna knew this was not over. "It appears your nightmare is now gone. But unfortunately, when you awake, your doubts and your feeling of insecurity will still exist. You may not feel it right away, but there will come a time when you are yet again challenged with the problem of believing what you're doing is important to you first. And when you feel these negative thoughts again, try to remember what you dreamed tonight. For it is not about what we hear that guides us, it is our willingness to hear the things around us that helps us navigate through the negative energies of this world. The choices are yours to make. Just trust your heart and speak with you your passion. Write it down if you have to. Don't let the feeling of doubt overtake you again in this situation." Luna stood over Sky and smiled. She was confident that he would not fail. Like he said, he just needed a little push of encouragement. And with it, she would give him a heavy dose of enlightenment. Or so Luna would love to always say she provided.

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