//------------------------------// // Wake // Story: Her Forest // by AliziaRoElier //------------------------------// Day slowly opened his eyes to bright light that filtered through the green forest canopy. The hard light bit into his eyes and he hissed in discomfort. The light was overwhelming. He blinked slowly in an effort to adjust to it and slowly his discomfort disappeared and was replaced by confusion. The light was unlike anything he’d ever seen. Rather than the white light he was expecting, the light above him was scarlet - brilliant and disconcerting. The light reminded him of the color of diluted blood in a test tube. He looked around himself for clues about his location. He was under a forest canopy. The ground beneath him was hard but covered in a soft layer of moss and felt uncomfortably wet. His usually organized mind started to panic. As was his habit, he started to speak to himself as he thought. “Okay. Okaaay. I’m in a forest. Obviously not on Earth anymore. Earthlike planet at least and that’s a start.” He sat up from his supine position and then stood up. His hands sought the comforting presence of his walking stick and he used it to stand up on the slippery moss. “I have the clothes on me.” He examined himself finally, “Scratch that. I have my clothes and a backpack. I have my walking stick.” He tentatively reached up to his face and felt for his glasses. “Uhhh... okay, no glasses but apparently that’s alright, my vision’s perfect.” He turned and opened the backpack at his feet. “Hmm... I didn’t pack this but whoever did has to be involved in this.” He pulled out each item in and on the pack and laid them out beside it. They were sealed in vacuum-packed bags. “Three sets of clothes not including what I’m wearing. Five MRE boxes... that won’t last long. Uhh... rope?” He examined the neon green and blue rope more closely. “Maybe fifty feet of it and what the hell is it made of? It’s like... metal or something.” His previous panic started to subside in the face of his methodical cataloging of the backpack’s contents. “Hmm... collapsible pot, compass, ball... thing? Hmm... I can figure that out later. Axe-hammer. Some kind of variable lens?” He examined the object and curiously turned it about. It was a foot long rod that had mounted on it five objects that looked like magnifying glasses. The could turn about the common axis of the rod. He looked through it. “Hmm... acts like a telescope I guess... or maybe a fire starter?” Suddenly the background noise of the forest increased in volume and Day looked around warily. He haphazardly packed the items back into the bag except for the axe-hammer, compass, and metal ball. He through the bag on his bag just as the forest went silent as quickly as it had grown loud. He stuffed the ball in his pocket and hooked the axe on a knot on his walking stick. He examine the compass for a moment and slowly spun around to find North. As soon as he found it he started walking in that direction. The lack of sound unnerved him more and more as he walked uninterrupted and unmolested for an hour. Two. Three. By the fourth he had to stop. “What the hell am I doing? I don’t know where I am, where I’m going, fuck if I know why either...” The silence didn’t provide him an answer and he didn’t really expect it to. He looked up at the forest canopy and the unnaturally bright red light that filtered through it. “Well... I guess I could be dreaming... unlikely considering I feel like crap. So, let’s assume I’m awake. I’m in or on a world with a red sun presumably. And breathable atmosphere. And earth-like ecosystem. Like the uncanny freaking valley considering how freaked out I am at the moment.” He started to pace. No sooner had he started that the world seemed to bend around him and he was in a clearing. His nervous rating went through the roof and he looked around wildly. “Jesus... fuck... what?” I assume that you’re wondering what is happening? Day let out a high-pitched yelp of fright and turned around to the oddest sight he’d ever laid eyes on. In front of him was a pedestal and atop the pedestal was a horse. A white horse with purple eyes and a slowly billowing, multi-hued mane and tail. They were both at least fifty feet long. It was smiling at him pleasantly but he could read nothing from its face. His mind temporarily shut down trying to understand how a horse could smile. Day stared and stared. Blinked. Shook his head. Blinked again. The horse was still there. It watched him and continued to smile enigmatically. “Okay. Stay calm. I’m on another planet. There’s a telepathic horse on a... throne.” He looked up and his eyes widened. “Uh... there’s a red giant star right above us and I’m not burned to a crisp. I’m going to take it back. I’m dreaming. I have to be dreaming.” His speaking aloud did nothing to quell the panic Day felt. I can assure you, you are not dreaming. Day didn’t know how to respond to the horse’s attempt at what he assumed was reassurance. His mind shut down again and he looked up to stare at the red sun. Curiously, even staring at the light directly did not bother him now. “If I’m not dreaming... that means this is real?” He asked. Quite. “Oh.” he squeaked, “Just wanted to make sure. I mean, this is impossible but hey, whatever I guess this means I’m dead. Not sure if that’s better but whatever. I mean, talking horse. Telepathic talking horse. Forest. Backpack of camping stuff I didn’t pack. Perfectly functioning compass even though there's a flipping STAR right above us. Sure, I can handle this. Totally can handle this.” The horse’s smile seemed to widen into a truly amused grin while it listened to him ramble on. No, you are not dead either. You are very much alive. Day’s rant sputtered to a stop and he deflated. He fell to his knees. “Oh... hmm... I... um... have no idea what to say to that.” His nervousness and fear vanished underneath the crushing apathy of a man unable and unwilling to comprehend what was going on around him. The horse watched Day slip into a shock induced slump. It’s eyes narrowed and a thoughtful expression replaced its smile. This world will end soon. The words seemed to come reluctantly from the horse’s mind. I welcome it. Long have I waited for a chance at death. But you... you are young and I can feel it in my bones that you are not meant to die here... Day looked up at the horse in confusion. He didn’t know what it was talking about. “What?” The horse jumped off of its pedestal and walked to Day’s side. It sank to its knees and then laid down on its belly next to his kneeling form. The horse’s billowing mane and tail wrapped around them in a wide ring. Long ago this world was a thriving metropolis. A city covered the planet from pole to pole. This forest was sacrificed to its creation. Long before that, this world was steeped in magic from its core to its moon to its sun. Magic saturated its being and all life danced to a single purpose - all life but this forest. The forest you find yourself in was never meant to be removed, never meant to be tamed. My children’s pride could not accept this. They slowly devoured it, removed it... destroyed it. They embodied everything the forest was not. They were order and law, Harmony and Innocence. They could never accept that this forest was meant to be. They once called this forest the Everfree. Day found himself entranced by the horse’s story but felt compelled to ask, “But why am I here? What am I here for?” The horse’s smile returned. I do not know. Truthfully, you are the first I have spoken to in thousands of thousands of years. Perhaps you are the reason I could not bring myself to die. The horse looked up at the shining red star overhead and sighed. Almost as if it had a tangible weight, Day could feel the burden of the years that the horse claimed to have lived. That one sigh contained so many intangible abstracted feelings he could only name a few: sadness, hope, and a soul-crushing, weary loneliness. I have felt compelled to hold back the sun’s expansion for so long now. I did not understand why. Perhaps... no... you are the reason I have held back the sun. I can feel it. Day looked at the horse incredulously, “So... I’m keeping you alive. Huh. I can’t help but ask again, what am I doing here?” The horse looked down at Day with mild amusement. I think... you are here to bring about my death. I think you are here because of all the beings I have known, you are the most in tune with this forest. I think you are here because the forest does not wish to be alone. The horse leaned down and nuzzled his chest. Day continued to stare at the horse incredulously. The whole situation was so completely bizarre that he couldn’t do anything but accept everything at face value and move on. The forest is alive. It feels and wishes. It thinks and contemplates. It dreams. I can feel you and your mind. You feel it as well, do you not. The forest calls to you. It cries for attention and you... you are the first that can give it. The mane and tail around them started to billow more strongly as if in a powerful storm. But for now, it does not matter. You are not meant to be here in this time. You are not meant to die. I will send you to a time where you may live in peace. Day’s eyes widened and he tried to rise and found he could not. “What are you doing? What do you mean send me to a different time? Who are you? What are you?” The horse looked into his eyes with its own purple, tired ones. I am the final goddess of this world and I have held many names. Dawn... Light-bringer... She Who Scorches and Destroys... but I have always prefered my first name, my birth name. Once, long, long ago I was known as Celestia. Celestia’s eyes started to shine a gentle, white light on him. Live well, Day Roark. Celestia’s smile turned into a mischievous half-smirk. See you on the other side. A flash of golden light replaced Day beside Celestia. She looked up at the sun she had tended to for billions of years and her soft smile returned to her face. She closed her eyes and let her hold on the sun slip away.