A Plane of Peace: Prologue Part One
The world below looked quiet and undisturbed. It look as if it was un-opressed and un-shackled. The ground under her displayed no hostility or hatred. The rolling hills seemed to go on for an eternity as the farms and villages continued their work. The world below seemed to lack hatred in it's entirety. No war, no pain, no suffering, not even a petty squabble seemed to blemish the world below. If she didn't know better she would have even said the world seemed peaceful, but she did know better.
She knew there was no such thing as true peace. True peace is the greatest illusion life had ever produced. True peace was and is an impossibility. Yet as she looked on the world below and saw what he deemed impossible. She saw true peace.
Over the course of her long life she had seen many thing that would make others flee in terror. She had seen the dead rise from their graves in servitude to the unholy, she had seen the battles of demons and angels, she had fought angels and demons herself, but she had never seen true peace.
She had seen peace for sure, but never true peace. Wherever she found peace it was always spoiled. There was always that little man behind a curtain pushing all the right buttons to make people see what he wanted them to. To make them see true peace.
When she was younger she would see peace and have hope. Hope that maybe this time the peace was real. But as the years passed all the peace found she had also found to be fake. She became bitter to the idea of true peace, calling it an impossibility and a fairy tale. Yet she hung in the air above this land of peace seeing it to have no man behind the curtain, no silver tongued politician, no kings and queens of unclean intent, no generals trying to usurp the hierarchy, hell there wasn't even a mortal that hated their job. So she looked down on the world below with both wonder and disbelief as she thought to herself,"This, is gonna to be fun"
***
After she had descended from the heights of the upper atmosphere she found herself in a quaint little village of thatched roofs and farms. She could see the citizens but they didn't see her as she was at the moment a floating mass of Ethereal energy. As she could do really nothing at the moment she decided to hang around the town square to try and see what made the plane seem so peaceful.
She didn't learn much in the first hour or so. All she really found out was that just about no one wore cloths, if you put the inhabitants together you got a rainbow, and all the inhabitants were ponies. While this fact didn't surprise much, as she seen the same thing from the atmosphere, it was still weird to see pastel colored, talking ponies. By her experience horses were to be ridden for the sake of speed and maneuverability for bipeds, but it was blatantly obvious this was not the case.
The ponies trotted around the town square going about their daily business and chores. Some look depressed and others looked happy, in fact she saw one of them so happy that it was bouncing around singing and dancing to music that seemed to come from nowhere. For a second she thought she saw the dancing one look right at her but that fear was quickly put to rest as the pink dancing pony bounded away bringing her music with her.
After floating in the same place for about three hours she saw one pony in particular stick out of the crowd. A white unicorn mare she guessed to be in her early twenties or late teens, from what she had seen of other age groups in the square. What stuck out to her about the mare she wasn't quite sure. It wan't the fact that she was a unicorn, she had seen plenty of those in her time. It wasn't simply the fact that she had a pure white coat, in fact that might have even turned the Ethereal being away from the mare. Maybe it the grace she carried herself with. It may have even been the way the walked down the street with her head hung in self loathing and sadness, She wasn't sure what drew her to this specific mare but she felt a twinge, a pull if you will, towards this white mare. Being one to fall victim to her curiosity, she followed the mare through the town to what she could only guess was her home.
***
It was girls night out and Rarity was trying have good time with her friends, just like she did ever week, but lately she felt like something was wrong. Her friends had tried to cheer he up with dancing and a few drinks but it hadn't work. She was depressed, she could tell that much, but she couldn't discern what had her down in the dumps and that was what drove her to near insanity with frustration. So with head hung low she trotted to her home to wallow in her sadness and frustrations, but as she trod through Ponyville town square she felt a presence.
She had no idea what this presence was why she felt it but it wasn't there for long as it disappeared soon after she left town square. While this presence didn't last long Rarity couldn't help but dwell on it as she continued on her way home.
'What was that feeling? It felt so familiar and yet unknown at the same time. It felt both ancient and brand new at the same time. I think I'll have to ask Twilight about it later, I'm sure she'll know. She's great with this type of stuff.'
When she arrived at the Carousel Boutique she felt the mysterious presence once more but only for a moment. She quickly turned around to see of she could catch a sign of something or someone that could cause such a sensation in her mind.
"Hello is somepony there," she asked the air behind her. Getting no response she approached the door to her home with caution. She inserted the key into the lick using her magic, then turned it until she heard the tumblers click and the door unlock. Rarity braced herself for what might be on the other side of the door. Throwing open the door preparing for a fight she looked into the Carousel Boutique and saw nothing.
Bewildered by this she walked in further, still expected whatever or whoever caused the felling to jump around the next corner. She continued to like this until she had searched the entire building and found nothing except Sweetie drawing on the back of one of her dress designs.
So after a few more looks though the house she decided that it was really nothing, and went off to bed.
***
Rarity felt the presence once again but this time stronger than ever. She looked around the expanse of blacked wheat and grass trying desperately to find the source. When she had finally turned around fully she found the presence that was currently plaguing her mind.
She couldn't believe her eyes. The thing in front of her and the presence she felt in the square, was a human. Humans were nothing but a legend, an old mare's tale, and yet in front of Rarity stood a woman of thin figure, wearing dark cloths, and a veil of metal chain over her head.
She stared in awe for a few minutes before asking the first three questions that popped to mind "Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are you a human?"
"Well aren't we the calm and collected one?" the woman asked in a teasing tone.
"Just answer the questions," Rarity said in a voice that somehow managed snarl and remain calm at the same time.
"Fine, fine," the tall figure raised her hands in a mocking gesture."I'll answer you questions.First I am Lilian Vess, second I'm human because that's how I was born, and thirdly, I'm here because you're dreaming right now and I'm inside you head."
Rarity stood stark still as she thought over what she had just been told. This human woman calling herself "Liliana" was inside of her dream for reasons unknown to her.
'This could be bad' Rarity thought to herself as she finally calmed herself down from the initial shock of seeing a fairy tale standing before her very eyes.
"How can I know your not just figment of my imagination," Rarity raised an eyebrow at Liliana, thinking she found a hole in the claim of the human.
"Well, my dear Rarity, we are in you mind. If I was merely a image produced by your subconscious you could just wipe me away with a thought." Liliana smirked as she summoned a bench to sit on while herself and Rarity worked out their current differences.
"True," Rarity used the power of thought to change the scenery around them to something a little less depressing, while she trotted towards the bench Liliana had made. The area around them transformed from the dark and foreboding field of black to a empty Ponyville square with a table set for tea and a chair on the other side of it sitting in front of Liliana's bench.
"Quite impressive,"Liliana nodded to their surroundings,"It seem you have much control of your mind. That's a good thing, considering what I have planned for the future."
Rarity sat down at their table noticing Liliana had turned her bench into a proper chair. "And what, pray tell, do you have planned for you future?" Rarity asked, taking a sip of her tea.
"Oh my dear Rarity, I have such things planned. This world is so quiet and trusting I'm sure I could reach such heights of power as to touch the sun itself." Liliana finished her surprisingly calm statement with a sip of her tea
"I'm sure you know what they say, Liliana. Get to close to the sun and you will get burned." Rarity accented her statement with another sip of tea.
"This statement in itself shows me that you have wisdom beyond you years, but then I must ask: how can the sun burn you when it has been extinguished," Liliana took yet another sip of her tea.
"These are the words of one who wishes pain and suffering, that much I can tell, but I'm sure you have not come here to hear me judge a book my it's cover. So tell me, why are you here?" Rarity took a sip of her tea, only to realize that both her cup, and the cup of her guest, were empty. She took the tea kettle in her magic and began to refill the cups while Liliana began to speak.
"Well you see Miss Rarity-two cubes of sugar please-my reasons for coming into you mind are a very long and complicated matter." said Liliana taking a sip of her sweetened tea afterword and finding it delicious.
"Well how I see it, you have a lot of story and I have all the time in the world to hear it."
"I can see your point," Liliana said thoughtfully,"Okay I'll tell what has caused my presence in your mind but you might want to get comfortable, as this is going to take some time," Rarity erased the table of tea from her mind while placing a large red couch under herself in place of the chair she had taken out of existence. With Rarity comfortable Liliana began her tale.
"I think I'll start from the beginning. I grew up as the daughter of a king. While my father was rather strict with me it didn't stop me from tempting the servants into doing whatever I wished. My life was perfect, doing as I wished, drinking what I wanted, bedding whomever I pleased, but it would all come to an end when my brother, Josu, was poisoned by the enemies of my father. We never did find just what the poison did but what we did know was that it was killing. Slowly and painfully it pulled the life right out of him. Naturally I couldn't sit on the sidelines and let my brother die so with what little training in the ways of magic i had at the time, my mother sent me out into the wilderness to gather the necessary roots and herbs to cure Josu.
Out in the wilderness I searched. I searched high and low finding all it ingredients I need for the cure, all except for one. I came to the place where the final herb was said to grow in great abundance, but by the time I had arrived the area had been bunt to the ground by enemies of my father's crown. However on my way back to tell my family of the grave news I encountered a strange old man claiming to be a supporter of my father. He claimed to have a cure for the poison that had afflicted my brother. He warned that my family would say not to use this cure thinking it to be evil, and he was right, it was evil. The damn drink cured my brother, there was no doubt about that, but what it did to him afterward was truly a thing to make the blood boil. The drink drove Josu deeper into the sickness after curing him and then it broke his mind and sent him into insanity. Blaming me for the worsened condition of Josu my parents exiled me from the kingdom, curse to wander till death."
Rarity could feel all the pain suffering Liliana had felt as she wandered her world. It drove the white unicorn to shed tears for women since she would not shed them the tears herself. Rarity also felt the hatred Liliana felt towards the old man that had given her that vile concoction. It made her want to find the old man and kill him herself. As Rarity continued to feel what Liliana felt all those years ago, the women continued her story.
"Despite all that man did to me and my family I feel I must thank him," Rarity look up at Liliana in confusion at this urging her companion to continue."I felt such hatred for him that my soul burned with a hatred to kill him for what he had done. I wanted to tear him limb from limb, force him eat his own intestines and then force the same concoction that he gave down his throat then watch his decent into madness. It was this hatred that ignited my spark," Rarity looked up at Liliana questioningly. She was about to ask Liliana what a spark was before the woman answered her unasked question.
"The spark is something that resides in the souls of all mortals. When it is ignited-which is a extremely complicated thing in itself that I will tell you about on a later date-it give its owner unfathomable powers, the most prevalent of which is the ability to walk between the planes of existence as easily as you walk across the street. Since this ability is the most well known, we people that have burning sparks are called Planeswalkers." Rarity looked on in wonder as Liliana began to explain a subject that held much less emotion than her past had. "I, as you can probably tell by now, am a Planeswalker and as such I walk the planes of the mutiverse mostly in peace just trying to find a place to try and call home. While I have my fair share of enemies in my time I have also made my share of alliances. Recently my greatest allies and I ended up in the same plane as my greatest enemies. Me and my allies fought against them with such ferocity that the plane that became our battle field crumbled around us. We didn't have the time to planeswalk over to the next world so instead we did what we did to survive. We left our bodies behind to die in the shattering world and came here as our souls and minds. I didn't see any of my friends floating around my area so I came down surface of your world and learned about it. I really just hung around the square for a couple of hours, doing nothing. That is until I saw you through the crowd. For some reason I felt drawn to you ,and I still don't know what it was that drew me to you, but none the less I followed you to your home. After seeing you fall asleep I come close to you trying to figure out why I felt drawn to you, but as soon as I did your mind suck me in like a drink through a straw. So here we sit, deep in the depths of you mind, sipping tea and speaking of the past,"
Rarity laid there for a few minutes trying to take all it all in, but she found that is was all but impossible. She felt like Liliana was one the most tormented creatures in the mutiverse, and she felt better somehow. She felt like her problems weren't such a big deal considering what the woman sitting in front of her had gone through. After a while of thinking on these things Rarity gathered the courage to speak to Liliana.
"So what will you do now that your here?"
I'm not quite sure maybe find the others and find my enemies, make sure the're dead. Because if they are alive this plane will burn with their hatred." The scene around became one of the world of Equestria set ablaze in black fires.
***
Rarity awoke form her slumber in a cold sweat, screaming. 'Well, that was quite the dream' Rarity thought to herself as she swept herself out of bed to make herself some breakfast.
'Yes, that was quite the dream. I'm surprised you didn't scream more'
Rarity jumped at the familiar voice in her head 'Liliana? Is that you'
'Yes darling. Who else would it be'
Rarity immediately decided to skip breakfast and go strait to Twilight's house and get this sorted out.