Chapter 10 a choice
I patiently paced around in circles in the palace, waiting for Celestia to return. What I had seen over the Everfree forest not ten minutes ago matched her description of what had happened when I first arrived. Not only that but she was there watching it for herself. I had to know what was happening.
It took nearly an hour for Celestia to arrive. She carried a grim frown on her face and the site of me did not help it either. She slowly paced over to me and waited for me to begin.
“I assume this isn’t the first time clouds like that have been over the forest.”
“So you did see them.” I nodded. “No this isn’t the first time. As I am sure you have already assumed those are the same kind as when you first arrived.”
“So another human is here?” I asked halfway excitedly.
“No, not yet. When you arrived it took an entire day before you arrived. He or she will be arriving tomorrow late at night.”
“So what are you going to do with this person when they come?”
“I honestly have no idea. I was hoping you could help me with that subject.” I hesitated a bit. “I am almost entirely sure that you are hiding something from me. You had a dream last night didn’t you?”
I was trying to avoid this discussion all day. Apparently by coming here in order to get answers I would be the one giving them though. When I tell Celestia though, it could possibly bring some negative results upon myself.
“I did have a dream last night.” Celestia raised an eyebrow. “In it I was at my funeral. I watched the entire thing from the perspective of…my brother.”
“Why didn’t you tell this to me earlier?” she asked in a semi sharp tone.
“I was afraid of how you would react. I am a human and if you knew I had a brother I couldn’t even begin to understand how that would make you feel.”
“Well you have no reason to fear. I brought you here and you are a citizen of Equestria, you are an amazing pony.” She noticed how that stung a bit. “You are obviously a very good human as well. Come now finish telling me about your dream.”
“Ya, well as it turns out…they know I am here.”
“How could they know that?” Celestia said franticly.
“I don’t know how they know but they do. What is more important is why they are coming here though, there was talk of some kind of radiation that doesn’t abide by the laws of physics that…” it was obvious that Celestia was lost in what I just said.
“I believe a short crash course in ‘physics’ would be useful.”
“Well im not exactly an expert on them but basically they are the absolute laws that govern our universe. Radiation would be something like heat or light. It is energy with the ability to change things.”
“I see, so this strange radiation what is it?”
“I think they found residual amounts of magical energy. They think they can use it to create things like gold or…” Celestia stopped me.
“Magic doesn’t work like that. Of any human you should know that.”
“I know that but THEY don’t. They think if they come here they can take that ‘radiation and use it for there own purposes. Celestia, they will do whatever it takes to get ahold of it.”
“I understand entirely. They want it for power and wealth, am I correct?” I nodded in agreement. “You know I cannot allow what I have seen to happen on earth to happen here. If what you are saying is true then you know I cannot let them in Equestria.”
“You may be able to reason with them though. Humans can understand.”
“I highly doubt they will listen to a pony.” There was a short pause. “But they may listen to a human.” She looked at me to emphasize a point.
“You want me to talk to them?” she nodded. “Well I don’t know if you noticed but im not exactly human like right now.”
“Honestly that is an easy fix. I can conjure an illusion spell that will make you appear human to them. While I cannot make you wholly human I can make you appear so.”
“So then, im you emissary then?”
“Yes, I would be honored if you would accept the position.”
“Are you kidding me? I would be extremely happy to be your emissary, and finally get to talk to another person again.”
“Good, in that case get some sleep. We will both need to be well rested for tomorrow when our guest or guests arrive wont we.” I nodded and headed up to my room.
Celestia was on my side this whole time. She had me stay here because she was afraid and I got that. I was her connection to humans and now I was even more than another pony I was an ambassador. That was a cheery thought.
Like Celestia said though tomorrow was going to be a big day and I would need as much sleep as I could get. Celestia and I were going to meet the first real human to set foot in Equestria. I say first ‘real’ human because a human in pony form isn’t quite the same.
Then it hit me. I also had the choir to attend. All the excitement had detracted from what I already had planned. I figured I had plenty of time before I had to go with Celestia so I could likely attend the choir before I left.
I arrived at my room and opened the doors, something was different. I raised an eye and stepped in looking around. It felt as though I was being watched by somepony. The air was very still though and there was a bit of a chill in the air. I kept feeling like something was off but I couldn’t put a hoof on it…until I saw the pencil writing a note without anypony holding it.
Nearly as soon as I saw it the pencil dropped to the ground and the strange feeling disappeared and the room began getting considerably warmer. Cautiously I approached the paper and read what it had on it. There were only four words, each was in capitol letters and it was underlined heavily.
YOU ARE A PONY!
“Who wrote this?” I asked myself.
Whoever did obviously didn’t know about me very well and my internal conflict. I crumpled up the note tossed it into the trash and told myself I would not think about it anymore. I lay down in my bed and closed my eyes and prepared for the calm embrace of sleep.
This dream was quite different from anything I had seen before. I wasn’t in the place of myself in the past or future or anyone else for that matter. I stood in a marsh and was sinking down into it very fast, I was human. For every second that passed more of my body slipped beneath the marsh. And as it did I forgot about that part of me.
One person was standing at the edge of the shore, he was my brother. He held a deep frown on his face but was holding out an arm as for me to reach for it and escape this black marsh. I attempted to reach for it, to try and escape what I was in but as I did my brother became the center point for a horrid display of death, fire and mayhem. In the background was Canterlot. It was burning, bombs were exploding in it.
I pulled away from him and the images disappeared. He was now pleading for me to take his arm. I was paralyzed in fear. My eyes were darting around and at some point looked straight at the murky mud. In it I saw myself, as a pony, in my house in Ponyville. I was there, happy, and with Songjay.
I was almost chest deep in the murk; everything below the surface was gone from me. To take the hand of my brother meant so much death and suffering. To be happy I had to die. In a panic I reached out and grabbed the hand of my brother. A white light blocked everything out and I was in a helicopter. I was human.
“I cannot believe that this place exists.” My brother started. “You wouldn’t think a place like this could exist.”
“I wish it wouldn’t have to come to this.” I responded.
“This is war Cameron, and to be honest did you expect any less?” they were so different from us yes, but the humans couldn’t see the similarities. They were afraid of us just as we were of them and as such retaliated. So much death occurred on both sides, I suppose my brother saw this as retribution.
He squeezed the trigger of a device and then before my eyes the sun disappeared and the horizon was filled with a white light. It took a while but I saw the result. A nuclear device, detonated over the center of Equestria. Cloudsdale was blown away, Ponyville was at ground zero. The shield that protected Canterlot didn’t hold from the blast and was down.
“Strike force you are clear for assault on the capitol city. Terminate any who resist.”
Over my head flew tens of bombers and helicopters. Equestria was gone, and everypony I knew was now dead. I was human but I had no one.
What I had seen that night was the most horrid thing I could imagine. If my dreams truly did tell the future…then did Equestria have one? But the thing that I couldn’t get off my shoulders was this feeling of guilt. Throughout the entire dream something deep within me was saying ‘it’s my fault.’
But was there another option? If I took my brothers hand in the dream then Equestria would be destroyed but if I didn’t… I would be dead. I thought long and hard on it, I even wrote down in excruciating detail what I saw in an attempt to understand it. I could find no meaning. I had to either die, or be human on the worst level possible.