I stared at Mum for a few moments before my training in analysis and trouble kicked in. "Where do I need to go? The Guard?" There was a lot of ways I could have gotten out of the amazing dress in a rush, but of the all none was as fast or as free of tearing cloth as a teleport.

Translate dimensions to the left, leave matter behind, plug the modification into the weave, and teleport. Pomf! I loved the sound every time I heard it.

"Sorry, Cadance, looks like work calls." I caught the dress with my magic before it could fall to the floor, and waited for Cadance to grab it with hers.

"Don't worry about it. I know how it can be." Cadance collected the dress and carried it over to a ponequin. "Just promise me you'll keep everypony safe."

I almost jumped as Mum put a wing over my shoulder. "I'll certainly try to." Turning to Mum, I asked, "Is this urgent or do I have time to get my armor?"

Mum, however, looked at me with a twinkle in her eyes. "My little girl in a wedding dress!" She stretched her wings out and gave them a flap of excitement. "Sorry, I just needed to shout that. Princess Celestia is waiting, as is Dream Thunder."

I followed Mum to the castle itself after waving goodbye to Cadance. The Royal Guard parted for us, but it wasn't until one shouted for everyone to make way for the royal courier that I realized Mum was doing a little more today than just chatting with the princess.

In the throne room—a place I rarely saw Celestia—the princess was standing at the base of the dais and looking our way. Beside her was Dream, and despite the somber moment I couldn't help but run forward and meet her halfway in a hug. "It's so good to see you again, Dream! You've gotten so big!"

"Me? Princess Celestia told me you joined the military?!" Dream hugged me with her forelegs and her wings and squeezed me tight. "I wish I was here with better news."

"Lyra Heartstrings, you are being recalled to active duty for the duration of this hunt. You will assist a squad of Monster Hunters in escorting Dream Thunder and her hunters in the capture of the Yara-ma-yha-who." Princess Celestia sounded serious, which I knew she hated being. She gestured to Dream with a wing. "I understand you know Dream Thunder?"

"When you live through your lives being turned upside down and share all the problems of becoming a different creature, under the same roof, you either become sisters or you go crazy," Mum said.

The sound of stomping hooves from the entrance drew everyone's attention. When I turned and looked, I saw Sergeant Broad Strokes from my training, and she looked grim. "Your Highness! I have a squad of Monster Hunters ready to move as soon as you wish. I understand we are to reconnoiter along with some allies?"

"They are waiting just outside the city. Dream Thunder said they can track the creature, but it will be harder if you wait." Princess Celestia gestured to Dream. "So you have my leave to take care of this problem. Good hunting, Sergeant Broad Strokes, Private Lyra Heartstrings, Ambassador Dream Thunder."

I snapped a salute as sharp and perfect as any I'd done during training and trotted at Sergeant Strokes' side. Once outside I saw the squad she'd brought. Six ponies—two earth ponies, three pegasi, and a unicorn—stood looking sharp in their armor, but it was one in particular I had eyes for.

"Private Lyra Heartstrings will be joining us for this mission. She's an expert on our allies and their strengths and weaknesses. She trained beside several of you, you know she'll have your back." Sergeant Strokes gestured to the gate. "Lift those hooves and start a march. Heartstrings, how long will it take you to get your uniform?"

My mind was already running the calculations to teleport to some clear air above the dormitory. "Sir, if you have to ask it will take twice as long."

"See to it. Short Wing, fly high above us to help Heartstrings find us again. Ambassador Thunder? Would you show us where your hunters are?"

I didn't need to hear more—I had my orders. Building the pattern of my first teleport, I poured power into it and with another Pomf was outside the castle grounds and—precariously—was just starting to fall. A second faster teleport and I was at ground level, while a spell to make the ground more like rubber turned any downward motion into a bounce that I used to push me into motion.

My hooves barely seemed to touch the ground as I sent myself rocketing up to the single room I lived in. I used my magic to lift my armor from the hefty ponequin in the corner. Well oiled and polished, I buckled up straps and cinched it down around me until I was sure it was on perfect. Then I double checked it. Finally satisfied I had my protective gear on, I pulled my helmet on and threw the door open to head out.

"What's going on?" Candy Cane's eyes were narrowed as she looked at me from the doorway. "Lyra Heartstrings, you don't just throw on your armor and run off without giving me a kiss on the cheek and saying you'll be back soon."

I used magic to lift my helmet off and walked forward to kiss Candy on the cheek. "I'll be back as soon as I can. Want me to tell Sweetie anything?"

"She's going along on this? Tell her I expect her to bring you home." Candy Cane smiled and kissed my cheek. "And you take care of her, okay?"

When Candy stepped back from the door, I let out an excited whinny and charged down the hall and outside. Sighting upwards, I used my usual teleport to send myself skyward and cast a quick cloudwalking so I could stop on a cloud and not keep falling.

In the months since basic training I'd kept up my exercises and built my recovery up incrementally. Looking down on the city, I spotted the group of bat ponies waiting on the road outside town, judged my distance and teleported again.

With another Pomf! I settled on the ground just in front of all the bat ponies. Now, it was time to mess with them. "G'day!" I said in fluent English.

It seemed to take a few seconds for them to register that I had just literally appeared and then a bit more before they realized I spoke in English and not either Equish or Thestralian. My smile grew and I shoved out a hoof. "Lyra Heartstrings, formerly Michael Robertson of Victoria." Again I spoke in English.

"You're the pony Dream keeps talking of? You're a soldier?!" Their reply was in Thestralian—which after the rush of magic in Australia became the default language.

"You've met Lyra Heartstrings?" Sergeant Broad Strokes and her squad were remarkably quiet as they'd proved. She was standing right behind me. "She'll be our liaison for this mission."

"I'm a little iffy on Equish. What'd she say?" the bat pony who was apparently the spokesperson of their group asked in Thestralian. "She said your name, and something about friends?"

"She was just saying I'm going to be the one doing most of the talking back and forth," I said.

"That's not all she said, Lyra." Dream Thunder stepped out from beside the group of Guards that were behind Sergeant Broad Strokes. "She said Lyra's your liaison for this. The Sergeant filled me in on your training, Lyra."

If that wasn't the most loaded statement ever, I don't know what is. "Okay, so we're about half and half with languages. I don't have a spell for this, so that path's out." It was so easy to slip into Equish again, which meant this was going to be a test. Why wasn't this Twilight's job?

"It'd probably be best if you focus on Far Dreamer, he's our best tracker and will be leading us most of the way. I can help translate as well." Dream Thunder pointed to the bat pony who'd first spoken. "Far Dreamer, This is Lyra Heartstrings."

"Yeah, she already introduced herself. Come on, we split off from the trail not far from here. These things are a pain to track, though it was a lot easier here than back home." Far stretched her wing out and down to point the way back down the mountain.

"Where exactly? Was there a train track?" My mind raced trying to remember the immediate geography. Nearby Canterlot was one of the bigger non-city towns in Equestria—Ponyville. The thought of something doing what Dream said in a town like that sent a chill up my spine.

"Passed some tracks on our way up. It seemed to head east of the switchback. Populated?"

I nodded and turned to Sergeant Broad Strokes. "They said they followed its trail until the monster headed east near the switchback that leads up here. Sir, that's Ponyville."

Sergeant Broad Strokes puffed out her chest and blew a snort. "Squad! Prepare for a good run!" When I started to move toward the squad (to fall in line), Broad shook her head. "Up here with me, Private. If I need to yell something at our friends, I need you to yell it in something they'll understand. Forward—Trot!"

I fell in beside Sergeant Broad Strokes, and we stepped forward into the military regulation trot. It was the simplest and easiest movement style for a pony. Any pony in Equestria could trot all day every day, but the training the Guard had given us all demanded more than that.

"Canter up!"

There was only eight of us, but the sound of thirty-two hooves built into a constant drumbeat that would rival any concert.

We turned with the switchback and started our descent along the mountainside, and then Sergeant Broad Strokes raised her voice again. "Gallop!"

The gait we all pushed into was only one cadence more than a canter, but the extra push it required meant we all stretched out, and when our hooves came down together it was like thunder.

Overhead the bat ponies—with Dream Thunder and Far Dreamer leading the way, swooped down. I'd only ever seen Mum fly solo like this, but seeing so many of them together in a tight group was no less impressive.

The only downside to a gallop was it pushed a pony. Most could only keep up a gallop for an hour at most and they'd need a break to re-hydrate and spare their muscles. Our basic training had made us gallop on and off almost all day from dawn to dusk, for a week.

We met the bat ponies at the bottom of the switchback and it was already obvious they were itching to move on. Three of them were missing, however.

"Squad halt!"

We drew up and dropped from gallop to trot, and then slowed to a stop. Each drop of pace was measured to one pony-length so that we were all stopped in a fairly short distance given the speed we'd been moving.

"With me, Lyra. Ask them what's going on." Sergeant Broad Strokes stepped toward the bat ponies.

"We're waiting for our scouts to return." Dream Thunder seemed nervous, but given what we were hunting I couldn't actually blame her. "We always scout by threes. If they find something, one will return with the information while the other two keep an eye on it." She spoke perfect Equish, unsurprising given she'd been a pegasus just two years ago, though now she had an accent that I could pick up.

"Will your scouts be able to find us if we move?" Sergeant Broad Strokes asked.

Dream Thunder nodded. "Even if they don't know where we are, I'll tell them in a Dream."

"I'm going to take you at face value, ma'am," Sergeant Broad Strokes said and turned to the squad. "Get ready! We're continuing on to Ponyville!"

"Did you see them run down that goat-path? Holy shit I'm glad I've got my wings." The words came from one of the bat ponies present, but I tried to hide that I'd heard them. Another voice added, "Yeah, bloody crazy. Give me the sky any day." It was all spoken in Thestralian.

For a moment I had to reflect upon how short a time it was since everything in Australia had gone pear shaped, and how their attitude was now that flying was the best way to get around. "Up on the table. Arms out, knees together…" I couldn't help myself.

"What was that, Lyra?"

The sergeant's question pulled me back to the present. "Nothing, sir. Just remembering what it was like before—Just remembering." I walked over to her side and felt the moment we were all in position and ready. As soon as Sergeant Broad Strokes commanded us, we broke into a trot, then canter, and finally into another gallop.

"Short Wing? I want you in the air and just ahead of us. Don't leave our sight. If you see anything, drop back." How the sergeant had any air in her lungs to spare to barking orders was a mystery, but it was something that seemed to be a superpower.

The same pegasus from earlier shot into the sky and pumped her wings to get ahead of us. Even knowing how hard it was to pull a pegasus out of the air, I had to admire her ability to adjust from galloping to flying—all in armor—so quickly.

We traced the railway line through to the town, but with the tops of houses barely in sight over the horizon, a single bat pony was pumping their wings hard on their way toward us.

"Halt!"

We drew up in regulation order as the bat pony landed with the three that had been pacing with us and Dream Thunder. It was Far Dreamer.

"Big town ahead. We thought it best to pull back rather than go in without an escort." Far Dreamer looked at Dream Thunder with a significant raise of one eyebrow, and in return Dream Thunder nodded. "We followed its trail to the edge of town. This isn't good."

I translated things for the sergeant, then had to translate back to Thestralian. "What happens when they reach a community?" The words were horrid to get out—I'm sure we could both imagine what would happen if they were allowed the run of town.

"They'll pick a mark with as little dream presence as possible who lives alone. Usually the pony won't be missed until—" Far Dreamer's eyes hardened and she flashed her fangs and screeched. "Until more than about a quarter of the town is converted or being converted. We have to stop this fast, and searching a town that big doesn't happen fast."

Sergeant Broad Strokes made me repeat my translation twice for her. Each time I explained it, she looked a little more queasy—which was about how I felt. "If we storm in there, it'll cause a panic. How do we find this thing without searching every house?"

"I can do it." Dream Thunder had an unhappy look on her face. "But I have to wait for night time." She turned to Far Dreaming and told him, "I'll build a Dreaming here tonight. You have to catch it before dawn."

Remembering what had happened back in Australia when she'd pulled us all into a dream once, I tried to explain to Sergeant Broad Strokes what would happen. "Dream Thunder said she's going to make a Dreaming happen. It's going to be weird. You'll fall asleep and wake right back up, but it won't be the real world."

"But we can find it like that? Then we wake up and hunt it down?" Sergeant Broad Strokes asked.

"No." Dream Thunder clenched her teeth around the world. "Not just a dream, Dreaming. It makes—It's like another world, but on top of this one. What you dream is real there, it's where these things are most dangerous, but also easiest to find."

"So we'll fight it there?" our sergeant asked.

"No, we'll fight it there." Dream indicated the other bat ponies. "The Dreaming isn't easily navigated, and a monster like the Yara-ma-yha-who cannot be fought there except by the strongest Dreamers. I wouldn't pull everyone in if I didn't think I needed to. I want you—any of you who can move around—to keep everypony clear of the fighting."

Sergeant Broad Strokes looked like she was ready to bite through steel. She turned from Dream Thunder and walked back to our squad (I kept by her side, of course). "Okay, listen up. Dream Thunder has said our chances of finding this thing before it—before it kills a pony isn't good. She's going to work some kind of magic, and they'll find it tonight."

"Sir?" Sweetie Drops asked. "Aren't we going to fight it with them?"

The sergeant had to wave down the others of our squad with a hoof to calm them. "She said the best we could do, if we could do anything at all, is to keep ponies away from the fight."

"Sergeant?" I asked. "It's a bit more than just not being able to fight it. The Dreaming she'll use is like another world—a dream world. On the plus side, language won't be a problem, but trying to keep ourselves focused will."

"You've been in this before? Please, continue." Sergeant Broad Strokes turned to stand beside the rest of the squad so I could talk to all of them.

"It'll be confusing. Without Dream focusing on us, the Dreaming will be formless and a little wild. The longest I was in it, she was working with an actual god to keep us all ourselves." I wanted to scream and teleport back to Canterlot and get Tufts to come and fix the problem, but I couldn't do that if what he said was true. Dream Thunder was as much his child as I was—maybe a little more when it comes to magic.

"Imagine—" I screwed my eyes closed to focus on how to explain it, "—and that's the problem. It will be a dream—a literal waking dream. If your mind wanders just a little, whatever you dream up will be real there. If you're lucky, whatever you dream will be helpful, but if it's a nightmare or something like—"

"Like the Yara-ma-yha-who?" somepony asked.

"Yeah. Something like that. Don't dream of that, by the way. We only want to fight one, though I don't think you could make another just with one thought of it." Okay, now I had questions for Dream Thunder. "Actually, I'll ask her about that before I go assuming it."

"Good plan. I don't any surprises in this. I want to know what that thing is capable of and what we can do to support our allies in stopping it with zero casualties."Sergeant Broad Strokes gave me a nod and then turned to the rest. "We'll have another briefing later to get all the intel Private Lyra obtains. In the meantime, I want you to treat this like a regular mission and set up a camp. I want a defensive perimeter. You've all been briefed on what this critter looks like—don't take any chances with it."

"Sir!" Everypony said back as sharp and clear as they could.

"Lyra, try to find out everything you can about what will happen. Like I said, no surprises." Sergeant Broad Strokes gestured with her head toward where the bat ponies were setting up their own camp to the side of our own site.

"No surprises, got it." I snapped off a salute and made my way over to the bat ponies' camp. "Hi!" I said in Thestralian. "Can I talk about what's going to happen tonight? Sergeant wants to know how things will happen so there's no surprises."

"Yeah yeah, hold your horses." One of the bat ponies put down the machete they'd been sharpening to walk over to me. "M'name's Filthy Dreams. Just call me Phil, please, and don't ask about the rest of it."

"It's dirty!" another bat called from somewhere.

"It's okay, Phil. So what is going to happen?" I asked.

"Dream Thunder'll put up the Dream, which'll probably take everything she's got here, and spread it over the whole town. I'll be honest, Yara-ma-yha-who are big bastards in Dreamtime, and they turn super aggressive to anything that interrupts their feeding. It'll be about—if Dream can do her thing right and not let it take over—about ten feet tall and look like some kind of dragon-thing. Teeth, claws, the works. We'll be using Dreamtime magic to keep it from hurting us, but if your lot can keep civvies back it'd be great. Dream Thunder said you've been in the Dreamtime before?"

"Yeah. Back when this was all starting. She got some help putting a Dreaming together for the whole of Cowwarr to talk about what was going on," I said. "Got a little strange toward the end, Mum'd brought home a pet bunyip and it kinda wanted to eat me."

"Your mum had a pet—fucking—bunyip? Shit, I gotta hear about that sometime. So, it'll be kinda like what you're thinkin', but about ten times more intense. She's not going to just scrape the surface here, this will be full Dreamtime. If you can imagine it, it can happen. Focus on happy stuff and happy stuff happens." Phil wobbled his wing in the air. "Don't think about unhappy shit. At best it becomes a nightmare for just you, at worst it becomes something we gotta clean up."

"Could you not pull everyone into it?" I asked.

"No promises on getting the little bastard, then. Normally they'll jump at a chance to get into the Dreamtime and go to town, but this little mongrel has been slippery before—it's why we're here after all." Phil spat on the ground. "I'll talk to Dream Thunder about raising the Dreamtime around us first, then spreading it to town, so your lot get some experience with it. If it doesn't work, I'll get her to shove anyone who can't hack it out to guard the camps."

"I'll let our sergeant know. Thanks." I hadn't realized how much swearing was apart of Aussie culture before, or how much it wasn't part of pony culture. Just another quirk I'd lost I guess.

Phil wasn't done, though. "Hey, you really are from Cowwarr though? Like, really?"

"Yeah," I said.

"What was it like before it became so big?"

"I have no clue how big it's gotten, but it was a nice little town, even when Stonecrop merged with it. We were all neighbors trying to help each other, that kind of thing. Spending an evening at the local pub to have a meal we didn't have to cook ourselves." Much as I liked that feeling of camaraderie, I'd learned to appreciate the pony way a lot more. "But like I said, I don't know what it's like now, but it used to be a quiet little town in the middle of nowhere. It was kinda why Mum brought us there."

"'Us'?"

"Yeah. My sister and me. Robin Robert—"

"You're Robin Robertson's sister?!"Phil looked completely shocked. "No one could believe a young miss like that 'ad so much going on upstairs. You half as smart as her?"

"I wish. Apparently the brains skip the first-born in the family. She got the lot." Despite my downplaying, I was so proud to hear how well my little spud of a sister was doing. "Mum's a doctor, sister's some big-wig brains, and I'm just lucky to not get my head cracked when another pony decides to take a shot at me."

"Ain't that the truth? Well, guess you better go talk to your boss. For what it's worth, I hope this all goes well. These things are a pain when they're stupid and weak, but this one's neither."

Lifting up my hoof, I gave Phil a good clop on his before turning. "Thanks, Phil."

"No problems."

I sure hoped there'd be no problems. Problems, with this nasty, meant ponies got hurt. Walking over to our camp, I saw Sweetie Drops pitching a tent (in the literal sense) along with another earth pony I didn't know. When she spotted me, I couldn't keep from smiling. "Hey," I said.

"Hey yourself." Sweetie made sure she was close to the path I was walking, and as we got close she swung her flank around to bump mine with a light clang of our armor hitting.

"Careful where you're walking," I said and turned to face Sweetie.

"Hey. Calm down, she didn't—" The other pony, I noticed from the corner of my eye, froze mid sentence when Sweetie kissed me. "You mean this is the Lyra you're always talking about, Bon Bon?"

I raised one eyebrow as we broke the kiss. "Bon Bon?"

"Nickname. Everypony gets one in the Guard." Sweetie kissed my nose then turned to the other mare. "Yeah, Bucks, this is my Lyra."

A thrill ran from the tip of my horn all the way to the end of my dock. Her Lyra. I shivered again just thinking it. "Well, hopefully your Lyra soon. I thought you were still in your initial training for the 'Hunters?"

"Ha! Bon Bon's from three classes after mine and yet here she is. Not just great at her job, but a total sergeant's pet. Damn she's good in a fight, though. She's been apprenticed to our squad for two hunts now." Buck's praise didn't surprise me—I remembered how well Sweetie had grounded my magic when I'd tried to use it on her in practice.

"I just got done talking with the bats. Hopefully you guys won't be doing any fighting in this one," I said.

"Really? Why's that?" Sweetie asked.

"Because if we wind up fighting, it's all gone pear shaped." I stole another nuzzle of Sweetie's cheek before I let out a sigh. "Which I'd better report to the sergeant."

Sweetie leaned in and pressed her snout to my ear. "I'll be graduated to full Monster Hunter in a month. Think you can have everything ready by then?"

If I could have melted on the spot, I would have. As it was I barely managed a nod before whispering, "Cadance was fitting me for my wedding dress today." That was still something I wasn't sure on. Growing up, dresses had been a girl thing—not my thing—but now I was a girl and that made them my thing. It was sometimes hard to be a pony with a monkey brain.

My words, despite my confused thoughts, had a remarkable effect on Sweetie. Her legs wobbled a little, and her face looked like she was about to explode into smile-fireworks. Just being this close to her made me want to smile more.

"You—You're amazing, Lyra Heartstrings. One month." Sweetie kissed me again, a long and lingering kiss that Bucks left us to enjoy. Words couldn't convey everything I wanted at that moment. If there wasn't a squad of Guard around us, I'd have done such inappropriate things to Sweetie as to make both of us blush for a year.

When the kiss finally broke, I contemplated doing the inappropriate things anyway, but it was Sweetie's little nuzzle at the end that finally pulled me from the haze of joy. "I love you so much, Sweetie."

"I love you too, Lyra. One month and we will be married. If the thought of that makes you half as giddy as it makes me, I'm surprised we're both standing," Sweetie said, gazing into my eyes.

Whatever she saw in me, I had no idea, but it made me happy to know she was as crazy as I was. "It's the armor. Without that, I'm sure I'd float away."

Sweetie laughed, and there was nothing so beautiful in the world—either world—as her at that moment. Armor, dirt, and all. "Go tell Sergeant Broad Strokes what you found out."

"Yes, Lyra." The sergeant's tone was more bright than it should have been if she'd discovered a private shirking. "Tell the sergeant what you found out, and don't forget to kiss your fillyfriend once more."

"Sir!" I was full of shout and straight as a die. "Yes, sir!" Following an order had never been so wonderful. The kiss almost managed to blot out the fact that our commanding officer had meant it as a joke. At least I thought she meant it as a joke. If it was ironic somehow, I could always claim I was distracted by Sweetie.

Breaking the kiss, I fell in love with Sweetie's lop-sided smile and hungry eyes. I hated having to turn around and face the sergeant. "Sir?"

"What's the deal, private?"

"Dream Thunder will be raising the Dreaming a bit early and just around us so we can get used to it, then she'll extend it to cover the town. Our job—those of us able to do anything useful in the Dreaming—will be to keep civilians out of the action.

"The big-bad is going to be huge, full of claws and fangs, and will be pissed off when the Dreaming happens. When it sees us, it'll see targets. The bats will be the only ones that can hurt it, so we need to give them space.

"Anypony who can't handle the first Dreaming, they'll kick out to defend us in the real world." I felt a little deflated by the telling of all the details. I left out the banter, of course, the talk of family and the sleepy town I fled to Equestria from.

"Good work, private. This is exactly why you're along. Prepare yourselves for a fight regardless. If the bats don't pull this off, it's the Guard who will fight their beastie." Sergeant Broad Strokes stomped a hoof and turned.

I snapped a salute until she was out of range, figuring she was going to brief the others.

"Is it really that bad? This yara-whatever?" Bucks asked.

"They said a regular one is much less trouble—being stupid and typically weak—but this one is neither of those things. Sweetie, can you check my armor for me?" When I turned to look at my future wife, she gave a curt nod and advanced on me.

We passed the time until nightfall in an uneasy bout of routine preparations. Armor was checked, weapons were honed with stone and magic to within an inch of their lives, and we all worried for the night ahead.

When Celestia finally pulled the sun below the horizon and pushed the moon into the sky, I looked up at the pony head emblazoned on the silvery ball and whispered a little prayer to whoever made it. I wasn't religious, but I figured somepony pretty important might be watching, and I'd be stupid not to turn down any help.

Sweetie Drops: did you enjoy your first assignment as monster hunter?

"My first one? It was soooo boring, but exciting at the same time. I was a trainee, and we got to deal with a stray jackalope that had strayed too close to Neighagra Falls. It was harassing a few farms up there, but we relocated it back to the forest it came from." Sweetie Drops looked undeniably excited at the question. "Why?"

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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