Thomas had been lounging naked on the sofa for an indiscernible amount of time, as was the nature of the dream world. His eyes shifted anxiously between the wide screen TV and the door his guests would enter through. Quickly he went over his mental checklist, which conveniently manifested as a tangible piece of paper. Everything seemed in order, but that knowledge did little to quell his anxiety. He went over the mental exercises Luna had taught him to stay lucid while dreaming, not wanting his worries to corrupt the day’s date.

With Hearth’s Warming just around the corner, Thomas decided that taking his ladies out on a special date would make for an excellent opening present. What could be more special, he reasoned, than a brief vacation to an alien world, but without the inherent risk of shady government organizations doing shady government things?

At long last the doorbell rang. Thomas sprang forth from his seat and bounded across the room, where upon he hastily pulled the door open. Beyond lay the nebulous space filled with aimlessly wandering bubbles, but the ponies standing on the other side of the door were of greater interest. He eagerly waved them in and marveled as he watched their naked bodies shrink to adjust to his dream reality. Luna remained the tallest one present, but she was only a head taller than Thomas. At the other end of the spectrum was Silver, who was a head shorter than her host. And lastly was Moonlight, who was about a couple inches smaller than her human stallion.

“Wow,” Moonlight said as she lingered in the doorway, staring in wonder at Thomas.

“I know, right,” he agreed with a silly grin. “Nice to not have to crane my head back for a change.”

“Speak for yourself,” Silver huffed. She’d folded her arms as she stepped into the living room, her eyes wandering curiously across the alien setting. “What’s that?”

“That would be the television, it is a device humans created both to entertain as well as educate and inform. It presents a series of moving pictures at high speeds. Other technologies may be connected to a television to expand its use to show a slideshow of pictures as well as other devices, such as gaming and the information superhighway connectivity,” Luna answered, trying to sound knowledgeable. “It transmits visual and audible signals via electronic mechanisms.”

“Truly?” Silver gently touched the edges of the black screen, mindful of its sleek reflective surface.

“Yup,” Thomas answered simply as he moved to join the others. Moonlight followed close beside him. “Everything here is a product of pure human ingenuity, brought to you by the imagination of an extraterrestrial alien.”

Silver regarded the human a moment before going back to examine the room. She’d taken the revelation of his origins rather well, agreeing that the secret needed to be kept to prevent public panic. “Strange,” she said as she ran a hand over the coffee table. “I would have thought an alien environment to look more… alien. Many of these objects look quite ordinary.”

“Our worlds do seem to have a most peculiar quantity of similarities,” Luna commented. She turned suddenly to face the unicorn, her breasts bouncing along the way. “Moonlight. What do you have to say?”

Moonlight flinched at being caught off guard. “Sorry. I guess I’m still coming to terms with how big my stallion is.”

“I think it’s actually you guys who are smaller,” Thomas noted as his eyes darted from mare to mare. “Speaking of which, if I were to go into your dreams, would we all be about the same height?”

“Enough about our height,” Silver growled irately. “I want to know more about the human world.”

“Verily!” Luna cheered. “Where shall we begin?”

Moonlight possessively clung to Thomas’ side, her breasts wrapping around his arm. “Thomas. Where exactly is this place?”

“This? This is my old house,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“This is where you grew up?” Silver asked.

“Nah. When I was little, my parents and I lived at my grandmother’s place. We moved around a little after that until ending up here.” He waved his hand in presentation. “It’s no castle, but it was home.”

Thomas lead the mares from room to room, repeating his first tour with Luna in showing off his collections of old toys, movies, and video games. Silver hopped into Thomas’ well-made dream bed and bounced idly. Luna explained the complexity of human video games and how she would come here to play when the day was proving stressful. Moonlight found herself distracted by old pictures of Thomas in his youth.

“Your family?” she asked.

“Yeah.” Thomas walked up beside her and pressed his shoulder against hers. “That’s from a family reunion at a lake that we went to sometimes,” he pointed at a picture of a six-year-old him riding with his dad on a jet ski. “I remember one time we were out riding, I was having so much fun I didn’t even notice when dad went flying off until like a minute had passed,” he laughed nostalgically.

Moonlight touched the glass covering Thomas’ father’s face, a thoughtful look on her own. “He’s quite the handsome stallion.”

“Ya think so?” Thomas asked.

“I know so.” Moonlight nuzzled his cheek.

“Yes, yes, very nice.” Silver tapped her hoof impatiently. “But I thought we were going to go out exploring.”

The pleading looks of the mares ultimately proved irresistible as Thomas lead the way out the front door. They emerged into the suburbs at around mid-day. Luna and Silver reflexively shielded their eyes, despite the light being perfect for all to see comfortably. Recalling his old neighborhood, Thomas led his naked ladies up the road. Silver and Luna dashed this way and that as they explored while Moonlight was content to take in the sights from the comfortable position of Thomas’s side.

Not wanting his lady to miss out, Thomas rushed ahead to the latest house Luna had broken into. It was all so incredibly detailed and lifelike, despite the fact that the human had never set foot in this particular house before. Luna explained that dream logic was borrowing from memories of other houses he’d seen, either in person or on television, and approximated their settings to fill the gaps in this or any other area he was unfamiliar with. Essentially, the details of all unvisited areas would be generated automatically in such a way as to keep things interesting. By the third break-in, Moonlight had finally loosened her grip on her man, but still refused to stray too far.

Upon spotting a van colored the same shade as Luna’s coat, Silver insisted they take this human vehicle for a ride. Thomas, feeling nonchalant about adding grand theft auto to his crimes of public indecency and breaking and entering, volunteered to drive. Luna called shotgun and clamored into the seat beside Thomas, leaving a mildly disappointed Moonlight to sit in the back with Silver. All three women watched in fascination as Thomas went through the motions of starting up the car and setting off to the next stop on their adventure.

Traffic was hardly a problem as Thomas effortlessly swerved through cars on the street. His ladies had figured out how to roll down the windows, sticking their heads out like dogs to get a better view and feel the wind in their faces. Why this appealed so much to natural flyers like Silver and Luna was beyond Thomas as he turned in to their first stop, the grocery store. The four explorers disembarked and entered the store to resume their exploration.

In addition to being naked in a public facility, Thomas felt a further thrill of freedom as he snatched a broccoli stalk from the display, took a single bite, and set it back. The vegetable was only mildly bitter, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that he now had the freedom to do as he liked, to indulge in every petty fantasy he’d ever imagined without consequence. Thankfully the mares were there to make sure he didn’t step too far out of line, even if they were momentarily preoccupied with examining the other humans.

The people in the dream were comparable to NPCs. They mechanically went about their activities, paying little mind to the players. Some spoke when pressed, but they all sounded like second rate pre-recorded lines.

“So many stallions,” Silver awed as humans disinterestedly walked past her. She stepped out in front of a portly Hispanic man, causing him to stop and begin examining the spices to the left as Silver examined him. “There are so few colors.”

“Humans have ethnicity instead of tribe,” Luna explained, drawing from Thomas’ dream memories. “Their differences, as far as I can tell, are largely cosmetic, literally skin deep. To be honest, it seems as though breeds of dog have more substantial differences than breeds of human.”

Moonlight was examining a human of her own, a thin black woman. She ran her hands along the woman’s body, pulling her clothes off as the woman shifted her body to make the former unicorn’s task easier. The now naked black woman stood still, staring blankly as Moonlight stood beside her for comparison. “It’s… just so amazing how similar we are,” she said in awe.

“You’re telling me,” Thomas chuckled as he watched Moonlight cup her breast and compare it to the black woman’s. Moonlight’s next object of interest was the woman’s relatively plump posterior. Thomas observed Moonlight’s body, but found no traces of arousal as she groped the other woman’s various private areas. Her actions, it seemed, were motivated purely by innocent nonsexual curiosity.

Luna took to the air, flying without flapping her wings as she took in a bird’s eye view of the store. “Foals!” she called out, causing the mares to drop what they were doing and rush to investigate. Thomas hurried to follow, laughing as he compared their excitement to children in a toy store.

The ‘foals’ in question were a Caucasian boy and girl. They looked to be seven and nine respectively and were standing idle while their mother picked out cereal. They paid no mind to the nearly ear-shattering squeal from the mares. Thomas arrived in time to find his mares fawning all over the kids, commenting on their adorableness. However, like children in a toy store, they were soon distracted by the next object of interest.

For Silver, it was the meat department as she soon pressed her face into the glass shielding the frozen fish. Luna took back to the air to continue her surveillance. Moonlight went off to explore the toy aisle. Every now and then a mare would call Thomas’ name, forcing him to come and answer their questions about this and that.

“Look here,” Moonlight giggled excitedly as she gestured at a male human who bore a remarkable resemblance to Thomas’ father.

“I can see that,” Thomas replied as the unicorn drew nearer to the man’s face.

“I like his moustache. It looks very dignified.”

“Really?” With a little concentration, Thomas grew a moustache of his own. “What do ya think?”

Giggling, Moonlight began kissing along the human’s upper lip, making sure he knew her target was the facial hair. “It tickles.”

“Hey. I want to feel.” Silver spoke up as she came around the corner and pulled Thomas away to have her turn.

As she watched Silver and Moonlight begin bickering over who had rights to Thomas’ fuzzy lip, the Princess of the Night felt herself struck with inspiration. “Ladies,” she called from above before coming to a landing, ending the spat. “Thomas’ self-alteration has given me an idea. If his dream wishes us to be human sized, and we are to explore the human world, would it not follow to carry this to its natural conclusion?”

“What’s she talking about?” Thomas asked from his position of being pulled between two mares, either arm wedged between their respective cleavage.

Luna’s mouth moved, but Thomas heard no words. However, judging by the way Silver and Moonlight’s ears were twitching, he guessed they had no such trouble.

“I think it’s a fine idea,” Silver cheered. “When in Roam, as they say.”

“Agreed. That sounds like it could be fun,” Moonlight added, seizing the opportunity to pull Thomas free of Silver.

“Was there just some meeting where everyone agreed to talk around me like I wasn’t even-” Thomas’ words were cut short as Luna’s horn lit with a bright flash, momentarily blinding him. When his vision returned, he stared in shock as his eyes went from mare to… woman!?

Just as Luna’s spell had given him the appearance of a pony so long ago, the Princess’ latest spell had turned all three mares into humans.

“This is… oh wow!” Silver gasped as she ran her hands down her now hairless stomach, shivering at the sudden loss of insulation. She’d been turned into a Caucasian, which probably made sense given her Prench heritage. She had very soft features, making her look extra delicate. Her hair was still white and her overall figure remained unchanged, just like the others. However, that did not stop her from turning around to get a full look at her now furless skin.

Luna made a sound of contentment as she surveyed her work and new shape. “Quite nice.” She was as tall and well-endowed as ever. Her mane hung limply against her back as she twisted her body, watching the way it swayed in amusement. She was also Caucasian with pale white skin that looked like she’d never seen the light of day. Her hands ran over her hairless body, causing her skin to bristle beneath the strange sensation.

Moonlight’s eyes were wide in wonder as her hands ran over her face, testing the smallness of her non-muzzle. She flinched when her fingers brushed over her forehead without resistance, and began rubbing at the spot her horn should have been. Moonlight’s features were harder to place with her dark skin, thin lips, and slightly squinted eyes. Apparently her lineage didn’t quite match to any specific ethnic identification of Earth.

Thomas continued to stare dumbly between the mares-turned-women; naked women at that. Weeks of adjusting to pony nudity culture seemed to be thrown out the window as Thomas had never actually stood in the presence of a naked woman, having never actually seen one up close since he was very little. It didn’t help that the mares were still exploring their bodies. Goosebumps ran along their bare skin as they touched and caressed their curves. Moonlight had taken to sitting on a recently materialized bench so as to better play with her new toes. Luna and Silver, on the other hand, had recently discovered each other and had begun testing the feel of each other’s bodies.

“Thomas,” Moonlight spoke, startling the born human back to his senses. She blushed heavily as a flat smile grew across her lips. “C-could you help me with something?”

“I… sure?” Thomas agreed uncertainly and sat beside his girlfriend on the bench. “Wh-what’d you need?”

Moonlight scooted away from him and lifted her foot for his inspection. “I was just wondering, um, do these look alright?”

Thomas had never been much of a foot fancier, but he’d be lying if the tiny digits now wriggling in his face weren’t the cutest things he’d ever seen. Tentatively he took hold of the appendage, causing Moonlight to flinch. When she nodded that she was okay, Thomas began carefully exploring her foot. He manipulated her toes, bent the newly formed joints and bones this way and that, and discovered exactly how ticklish she was. However, as Thomas’ eyes roamed over the mare’s new womanly body, he found his hands drifting slowly over her ankle and down her smooth leg. She shuddered, but gave no sign of protest.

“What’re you two doing?” Silver scolded, causing the lovebirds to spasm in surprise before pulling away and sitting in an upright and dignified position. The former bat mare suppressed a chuckle at the display. “You two can cuddle any time. We still have some exploring to do!”

Giving in to Silver’s emphatic insistence, the group continued their exploration of Thomas’ memories. They took turns driving as Luna channeled the knowledge into the former mares. The group explored toy stores, a post office, a bar, two hardware stores, several clothing outlets, and much more before arriving at a mall. There Thomas directed them to the place he’d been eager to show them since the beginning.

“A theatre?” Moonlight asked. “Is there a show you’d like us to see?”

“Sort of,” Thomas admitted as he examined the posters. Each was of a movie or show he’d seen countless times and committed to memory, even without the aid of magic.

“I still fail to see why we cannot go to an amusement park,” Silver complained.

“Pace yourself, my dear,” Luna soothed. “You do not want to burn out on your first trip.”

“Sorry,” Thomas apologized. “I promise we’ll do an amusement park next time, but I’m pretty sure you’ll like this.” He’d settled on a film and paid for the ticket. “Trust me.”

The women followed Thomas into the theater, still naked as they took their seats. The chairs were recliners with retractable armrests, allowing the group to sit as they pleased. Thomas reclined back as Moonlight laid herself out over him. Both parties enjoyed the way she could rest her full weight without fear of hurting him. Despite the familiar sensation of the mare’s back against him, Thomas maneuvered his erection away from her rear. It would still be a distraction, but one they were well accustomed to as he wrapped his arms around her belly. Silver did much the same with Luna as the credits began to roll.

‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’

“Are you serious!?” Silver excitedly asked as she sat up from her Luna chair. “Are we really going to watch the Halloween?”

Thomas smirked as Moonlight gazed back at him with equal excitement. “The ride was inspired by only the opening song,” he whispered as the narration began. “There is so much more.”

**********

Time passes differently in the dream realm. None knew this better than Luna who had made an art of exploiting this fact in her many ventures into the dreams of others. Hours passed as the Princess and her lovers indulged in Thomas’ memories of movies and shows playing out on the big screen. The reality beneath their hooves, and also feet, proved equally malleable as shelves containing old VHS copies of these films appeared to make choosing the next viewing more convenient.

Thomas had insisted they at least try and watch things in the relative order they were made in; Tom and Jerry should come before Game of Thrones and such to build an appreciation for how far the medium had come. However, he’d been outvoted on many occasions. Silver just had to watch Disney movies, Moonlight begged to see the next episode of Fullmetal Alchemist, and Luna, with the authority befitting her station, demanded more Godzilla.

Even though they’d gone horrendously out of order, Thomas was happy. He’d always been content just sitting back and watching movies with those he’d cared about. When his few friends had come over, they’d always binged some of their favorites. In college he’d found quiet spaces to watch things online. And after he’d grown and his schedule often conflicted with that of his parents, making it harder to spend time together, he’d savored the nights when they’d either watch their favorite show on TV or pull up something online and rig it to the TV. It was these activities that he remembered the most, sitting contentedly with his loved ones while they vegged out in front of a screen; and now he was making new such memories with his new family.

“Please tell me we’re doing this again tomorrow,” Moonlight pleaded as she sat up from her seat on Thomas. Even in the dream realm, it was still possible to feel exhausted, and the females had finally succumbed. “Because that was amazing.”

“All those stories,” Silver marveled. “And you’re saying there’s more?”

Thomas grinned. “What we saw barely scratches the surface,” he said to the amazement of the others. “Some shows proved so popular that they have over a hundred episodes. Hell, if we stayed here for two weeks straight binging nothing but this anime called One Piece, we wouldn’t even make it half way.”

Luna blinked in shock. “How can any story be stretched to such a length?”

“Because the guy who writes it just keeps thinking up new things to stretch it out,” Thomas laughed. “And his readers love him for it. Last time I checked, there were very nearly a thousand episodes, and even then it’s implied the story was only half over.” Thomas began to sober as he heard his own words.

“Thomas?” Moonlight asked with concern.

“I’ll never see how it ends,” he said with a half-smile.

Sensing where this was going, Luna altered the area to resemble Thomas’ bedroom, modified so that all four of them could fit on the bed.

“My parents, too,” Thomas whispered somberly. “My family… I’ll never see any of them ever again.”

Before he knew it, the human was quickly engulfed in the familiar fur of his loves as they embraced him. They’d reverted back to pony form, that which he was more familiar with snuggling. Suffice to say it was comforting, but did not fully distract him from his woes. His parents, extended family, and the few friends he’d made and ultimately lost track of. They were gone forever.

Of course Thomas had known this and believed he’d come to terms with it a long time ago. However, something about the shows he’d never be able to finish somehow opened the old wounds and tears began to flow. It wasn’t just the sadness of his lost life, but the shame of what had reminded him of it.

“Show?” he growled angrily under his breath as he felt tears run down his cheeks. “Of all the things to get me worked up, it’s stupid, goddamn shows?” He buried his head into a familiar set of cleavage. Even in his distracted state, he could recognize it was Moonlight’s. “What’s wrong with me?”

“Memory is a fickle thing,” Moonlight answered. “I was young when my grand-dame died. I didn’t understand what death was, even at her funeral,” she sighed, holding back her own tears. “It wasn’t until I found my favorite story book, the one she always read to me, that it finally hit me that she’d never-” she choked back a sob.

“I still see reminders of all those I’ve lost,” Luna said, sounding as though she’d lose control at any moment. “I see it in the faces of their descendants, the little mannerisms that somehow managed to survive through the generations. It still hurts to this day, and it always will.”

“How?” Thomas asked.

Luna nodded, not needing him to elaborate. “I remember the good times we shared.”

As if on cue, ‘Do You Remember Me’ from Snoopy Come Home began to play https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFMB12MqvjY That did it. In an instant, all vestiges of self-control melted away as the four began to bawl into one another, each recalling past friends and loved ones they’d never see again, and relishing in the empathy shared by present company. No words were spoken as the four merely tightened their grip on whoever they could, pulling them desperately close for fear of losing them again. They cried and cried and until the dream decided they’d cried enough, though they lingered in each other’s embrace.

The moment passed with time, like all things inevitably do. However, as the group tentatively loosened their grip, they continued to touch. They smiled at one another, grateful for the shared experience as they lingered on the bed. Smiles and understanding were shared freely, and Thomas knew this would be a moment he would treasure for the rest of his days.

Well that was a thing. Nothing quite says tearful longing like Lila’s Theme. Seriously, that one gets me every single time. I’m not even remembering any lost loved ones, but this song still stabs me right in the feels. I decided to add it after I was already starting to weep while writing and decided to go full force.

Anyway, apart from the sad ending, this chapter was pretty fun. I’d been meaning to write the rest of the harem visiting Thomas’ dreams for a while now, and this seemed as good a time as any, in part because Silver being in on Thomas’ origin will be relevant in the next chapter. Wish I could have gone into more detail on the mares acting like tourists, not to mention devote a little more time to them exploring how it feels to be human, but I suppose that can wait until next time. The infinite possibilities of the dream realm are too tantalizing to ignore, even if I do already employ Magoffin magic that does whatever I want in the real world.