>>156669>>156671Exactly when Amber falls asleep is hard to say, though it does not occur until long after she lies in bed.
Amber's dreams are filled with sound. Like the night before, they are filled with music, and the music is more memorable than any sight or image.
The first, fragmented memory that Amber has is of encountering a very large, orange stallion with odd, foreign looking ornate dress, a jeweled headpiece, and braided mane who approaches her beneath the gold-trimmed walls of a restaurant or night club. He speaks in strained Ponish with a strong accent, and approaches Amber directly with a request. He says that he has come in from out of town, and is looking for a mare. When she asks details, all of his answers lead to a tablet of some sort, though its relation with this mare is uncertain. Mustard Trim is there, and he wants no part of it. He is open and remorseless in his jealousy of the attention Amber gives the stallion, and he tells Amber he thinks the stallion is dangerous. Amber does not heed Mustard, and leaves him to get in the stallion's automobile. Her feelings towards the stallion are entirely non-romantic, and not of a sexual nature. But there is no denying that in his mystery, in that aura he gives off of something new and different, he provides her with a feeling she cannot get from Mustard Trim. And all the while, at every point in the dream, the viol of that aging griffin plays, filling her ears with intrigue. There is surely much more to this dream, and Amber knows it did not end with her entering his car, but the conclusion evades her waking recollection.
The second dream is shorter, as Amber sits under a spotlight playing her Mandolin on the stage of what seems to be a music hall, likely remembered from Childhood. It's Amber's own Greensleeves that fills this section - not that that song is what she would be playing in the moment, but it is what accompanies the memory. There is a crowd of ponies watching, and at least in thought, Mustard Trim is among those in the first row.
The third memory is of Amber sitting down in a field of tall grass before a river mouth that slowly empties into a bay. A light wind blows the grass and the tops of nearby trees. There are two small foals next to Amber, one the color of wheat, and the other a light cream color, and she understands that a stallion sits just to the left and behind her. The sound is of that filly from the church singing the folk songs of the old Equestria.
The final dream is recalled in more detail. This one too is filled with the haunting notes heard in Club Maurice, which play over nigh every moment. In this dream, Amber comes to the conclusion that she will never be able to escape the music, and asks the pegasus filly at Club Maurice where to find the viol player. She tells her to simply wait, and follow him home. This, she does, following him down the dim streets, past the smell of garbage, around the barking of dogs, and across an antique bridge, over a poluted river next to decaying mills with grand smoke stacks. She follows him down a narrow, winding street, until she comes to an apartment building. She does not go up immediately, but sticks around. From the floors above, she hears the music, and it is not like the music she has heard before, nor indeed, any music she has ever heard before. A whole orchestra plays on enchanted instruments. As she cannot hold back the curiosity any longer, she goes up to the room, and knocks on the door. It is unlocked, and she opens it. Dancing lights, a dog made of energy...
Amber wakes up. It's an hour earlier at least than she intended to wake up. She has to work retail in a few hours...