//------------------------------// // Chapter 13: Dreams // Story: The Missing Bard // by Kiniro //------------------------------// The Missing Bard Chapter 13: Dreams I remember falling asleep on the train. More than likely due to my injuries draining me of my energy. I could vaguely recall hearing voices of the ponies that accompanied home. But after a while the voices stopped and everything was dark. My mind was in a full state of rest. Finally I could rest easy or so I thought, as a loud explosion rocked me back and forth and I awoke violently. "DAMN IT KINIRO! GET DOWN" I heard someone yell and felt a violent tug on my shoulder that pulled me down to the ground. "What the hell are you thinking!" As I fell to the ground, I opened me eyes to see a human warrior in front of me in plated armor covering his entire body, with a royal crest on his chest plate. As I looked up at the face, there he stood, the Colonel of the Royal Guard, Lightning Strike. "I know your anxious to get back an retake the castle from the rebels but you have to wait for our reinforcements to form up from the rear!" "What are you talking about Colonel Lightning Strike?!" I questioned furiously, as tried to push up from the ground, I saw... I no longer had hooves, but I had hands again. Somewhat phased by what I saw, I reacted quickly upon hearing another loud explosion near us and I quickly pushed myself up. As I pushed myself up I got a quick glance at my body, arms, normal legs, wearing shoes and clothing I must be human again. I followed up by quickly looking around and saw myself in a trench with other armor plated warriors. "Colonel!? Are you kidding?! I'd never take that kind of promotion! Remember it's CAPTAIN Lightning Strike! Say it with me! Captain!" Lightning Strike tried to joke with me unphased from the explosion that just had happened moments before. "Whats wrong with you kid?! You see to be out of your element! Whats wrong!?" "I'm not sure Lightning! I'm just surprised to be here! That's all!" I tried to respond, unaware of why I was back in Midgard. "Trust me Kiniro! We all are! You got us here! You had infiltrated rebel forces to get us the intel that they were going to strike here at the heart of Pronterra and now we have them trapped in the city walls! Good thing too! We were able to move King Tristam the Third just hours before they arrived!" "Good thing we were able to move him out! I wouldn't want him to be caught up in this mess!" I tried to add to the conversation still unaware of what was happening, but yet somehow it seemed oddly familiar. "Anyway! We are waiting on the 25th Morroc Ranger Platoon and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment to arrive! Both of them are just minutes from forming up and arriving at our front lines! Its been a tough fight holding these positions! But damn it! WE ARE THE ROYAL GUARD! WE FOLD FOR NO ONE BUT THE KING!" Lightning strike yelled out to hear scores of voices cheer out. "Well they wouldn't be here if it wasn't for a fine commander such as yourself!" I complimented Lightning Strike. I slowly peered my head over the trench line to see the city of Pronterra in the distance, but the skyline I had saw a long time ago was not there... "Save it Kiniro! We have a city to retake! FOR PRONTERRA!" Lightning yelled. "FOR PRONTERRA! HURRAH!" Many voices yelled out, but the cheer was quickly cut short with the sound of a loud whistle over head. "GET DOWN ALL OF YOU! MAGICAL BOMBARDMENT INCOMING!" Lightning yelled out and quickly hit the deck. Following his queue I hit the ground as quickly as I could. "What now Captain!?" I heard another voice call out! "Wait this bombardment out! Our reinforcements can't be more than just a few minutes out!" Lightning responded to the voice. "Kiniro! Don't just lay on the ground! Make yourself useful! See if you can make a barrier with your music! Help keep some of us alive! We'll be useless if we can't hold out against a pathetic bombardment like this!" Lightning called out to me. "You got it Captain!" I agreed. "Where's my guitar!?" "You dropped it! Here catch!" Lightning Strike tossed me my guitar, but it was my old acoustic guitar. It was still in one piece, but no lever on it and it didn't looked weathered. "Now hurry up and play the damn song!" Slowly I began to play a small melody, that was soothing, as if to calm the nerves even considering what was happening around us. I closed my eyes for a small amount of time as I played. Letting the magical energy flow through me. "Almost got it!" I called out. As I felt the surge of energy stop, I opened my eyes I saw a small blue bubble surrounding me. "You know Kiniro! I still find it fascinating that your guitar glows blue. I've worked with many musicians before! But you happen to be the first kid! You happen to remind me of the old stories of this bard I heard of his name was Al-" Lightning Strike paused as a whistling noise over head grew louder and louder. "BOMBARDMENT! ITS COMING STRAIGHT DOWN!" "HOLY SHIT! GET DOWN!" I yelled, and I saw Lightning Strike hit the ground in the trench. I knew that him doing so wouldn't save him from the incoming blasts. I knew my magic barrier was small, but I had to try. I quickly jumped on top of him bringing him into the barrier, and I closed my eyes. Feeling the shocks of the blasts and the explosions deafened me as I laid on the ground. "BY THE GODS HELP US!!!" I yelled out at the top of my lungs, I suddenly felt a kick in my side. As I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the trench that I was just in moments ago. I laid in the ground, it was cold as stone and I quickly looked around. I saw many royal guards surrounding me and I saw buildings in the background, it was the city of Pronterra with a developing skyline. Slowly my hearing began to return to me. "-ink I'd be able to realize what you and the other members were planning to do?" I heard a female voice call out to me. "What?" I responded, unaware what was going on. "Where is Captain Lightning Strike!?" I shouted. "Oh don't you worry foolish bard. You're friend isn't here, so he doesn't know what is going on. I'm sure if he knew why you were here for, he'd try to stage a coup against me. Just like you did." I recognized the voice, and I looked up, there she was, Queen Xellie, still alive, and threatening me. "Where are am I!?" I shouted. "Surely you don't know? Can you not tell? Its the city square. It's your execution day! Foolish bard. But I thought I'd make something of it. Every one of these guards has wanted a piece of you, since you denied my request to self exile. Instead you chose to fight my excellent decree and offer." Queen Xellie explained. "Execution?!" I shouted, I finally realized were I was, but upon discovering where I was. I no longer felt in control of myself. "You damn know that myself or the other guild members would have never planned a coup against you! We are loyal! We all fought hard to achieve this peace! We don't deserve this type of punishment! That's why I resisted. Unlike the others from the guild that took your offer into exile, I'm not afraid of you!" I proceeded to push myself up to stand and as I stood tall, I spat in the Queen's face. "You'll regret this! Guard's get ready!" Xellie yelled. I looked frantically for my guitar. "Looking for this?" Xellie held out my guitar in her hands. "Tell you what traitor, I'm feeling generous, and the crowd is anxious, how about you do what you do best. Entertain a crowd, by fighting to your death." She tossed my guitar at me and I barely caught it, fumbling with it until I was able to hold it upright. I quickly depressed the lever to open the slot to see how many arrows I had in the guitar. I counted ten fully loaded. Just enough. I'm guessing she didn't know about the slot and what else my guitar could be used for. Considering I had modified my guitar to be able to chamber arrows and fire them. It was a creation of mine, but I had based it off some old blue prints I had stumbled across when capturing one of the initial strongholds during the Wars of Emperium before it was eliminated from play. So its modification was kept secret until I had planned to unveil it once it was completed, this was going to be able to give us an undeniable edge considering we had a numerous of musicians in our guild, none as skilled a me however. During my time with them, I had given them my full attention, my loyalty, and my respect, but as the wars went on, my noble leader turned, cold, brutal and lost face with her original noble cause. So it gave me little to no reason to announce its completion after the second year of fighting, especially as Xellie slowly succumbed to madness and greed for power a our victory seemed more and more imminent as the days went on. So I kept it my little secret ace in the hole as time continued to pass to myself, and did damn good job keeping it that way. "Making your guards do your dirty work! Why don't you make it a point and fight me yourself?!" I called her out. "Because I'm royalty, and royalty does not succumb to such brutish tactics. Have you learned nothing?! I have people to do my dirty work now." Xellie explained. "Now prepare to defend yourself bard, I don't even think your impressive skill of using that song of your's, you call 'The Rift' can help you, there's no way you can dispatch all my guards by swinging that guitar of your's in five to ten seconds." Xellie mocked me. "Guards on the ready!" "Bring it your over zealous bitch!" I shouted. "Attack!" Xellie yelled. Quickly I played the song the rift, with its relaxing tone and melody. Forming the song, and seeing my guitar glow its signature light blue. Slowly time slowed down significantly and I felt the surge of adrenaline flow through me. It was now time to unveil my creation to my former leader. I quickly took aim at the first guard to my right, aiming toward his exposed face, and depressed the lever, seeing the arrow in flight head toward its target, him completely unaware this his life was coming to an end. I quickly turned away to avoid the scene of gore and aimed left toward the second guard repeating what I had just done. Quickly I turned and repeated what I had just done with first two guards to the remaining seven that surrounded me. As my adrenaline wore off, and time returned to normal, I heard quick screams and then they suddenly silent with a mist of blood spraying into my face. "What the... how did you..." The Queen tried to respond but could not just comprehend what happened. "You're next Queen, I promise, but you're next." I said as I wiped the blood off my face. "You bastard..." The queen responded. "But I know your power Kiniro, the song has worn off and you won't be able to be fast enough to fight me!" "But that won't stop me from trying!" I quickly rushed at her with my guitar ready to swing and as I reached her position, she disappeared. "Come out here Xellie and fight me! Fight me in front of all of them!" I yelled. "I have one arrow left in this guitar and it has your name on it Queen! Fight me!" "In due time Kiniro, you wouldn't want to fight an unarmed opponent now would you? That wouldn't be fair." Xellie mocked me. "But until then... let my guards take care of you..." I knew, I more than likely wouldn't be able to pull off that stunt that I just performed with my guitar again, as I only had one arrow left. I knew that if I wanted to make a stand against Xellie and her tyranny, it wouldn't be here. "I promise by Odin's wrath! I promise you! You will fall by my hands with this very arrow! "I said as I pulled the final arrow out of the slot and showed it to her. "I promise I will save it for you! Because I don't deserve what you did! Neither do the ones who went into exile! Nor do the people of Rune Midgard!" I shouted. I quickly loaded the arrow back into the guitar, slung my guitar over my shoulder and ran. Pushing my way through the crowd that had formed around the sight of the battle that had just took place, knowing that more guards were on their way. Slowly as I continued to run, my eyesight slowly went black and my hearing went deaf. I felt a slight nudging on my back and as I felt the nudging my hearing returned to me. "-re arriving in Ponyville! Wake up Kini!" I heard some thing call out to me. My eye sight returned to me to see a purple unicorn staring down at me. Shocked by the responded I jumped up from laying down and fell down to the floor, feeling a sudden jolt of pain. "AH! Ouch..." I yelled out in pain. I looked down at where I had fallen, seeing my arms in front of me, seeing I had hooves again. "Where am I?" I asked. Slowly my memories of being in Equestria and being a pony returned to me. "You're on the train you silly pony. Did you forget? Or did your nap get the better of you?" I heard Twilight joke. "Right... the train." I responded slowly stroking my head with my right hoof trying to figure out what had happened. "How long was I out for?" I asked. "The entire train ride. Everyone just got off the train, the girls are waiting for us on the platform! Did you have good dreams?" Twilight smiled at me. I looked at Twilight with a puzzled look as if unable to answer, but within a few moments of silence, I found the words I was looking for. "No Twi... they weren't good dreams. Not good at all..." "Nightmares Kini?" Twilight asked. "Yeah..." I responded with a slight disappointment in my voice. "What about? If I may ask." "About my past... Why I'd be dreaming about that now... I don't know." I said with an unsure tone. "There's nothing wrong with that is there?" Twilight asked. "Maybe you're remembering something important or maybe you're subconscious is trying to tell you something" "Maybe... but what were they trying to tell me..." I asked. "That's for you to figure out Kini. I wish I could tell you." Twilight responded trying to comfort me. "I'm sure in time you'll figure it out. Now come on the girls are waiting." Twilight stated as she began to lead the way off the train. "Right... lets get off the train." I responded following her lead. I'm not sure what my dreams meant or what my subconscious was trying to tell me. But my dreams they seemed so vivid, mostly that first one. It was about my time during the civil war and when I saved Lightning Strike's life, but I felt more in control in that one. Yet when I figured out where I was in the second dream, I no longer had control, I was just as if I was watching a magical replay of what happened that day. What they meant I don't know, considering I hardly ever remembered my dreams unless they were important. Maybe they held clues for me on how to defeat this Meadow Song pony if I have to fight him again, but one thing was very apparent from me in the dreams and considering my last fight with him. I was much stronger when I was a human, than I was as a pony, I had to train both physically and magically if I ever wanted to fight him again... End of Chapter 13.