Eternal Slumber

by Shimmer305

Secret Revealed

"Hey, sleepyhead, wake up!" called a voice.

Sunlight flooded into the room, disrupting my deep sleep. I groaned and covered my face with my pillow. I hadn't slept very well last night, so I was tired as heck.

"Hey! Wake up!" sounded the voice again. It sounded a lot like Rainbow Dash's. I peeked through a sliver under my pillow. Sure enough, RD herself was hovering just outside the open window to the left of me.

"What is it...?" I mumbled.

Rainbow hopped onto the windowsill, looking around the room. "Jeez, this place is boring." She was right--there was barely anything in my room except for my bed. That was because last night I hadn't had much time to set things up, and I was really tired, so I simply shoved the bed in there.

"Anyways, Fluttershy and I wanted to know if you'd want to go swim in the lake with us! You know, to give us more time to get to know you better," Rainbow said, grinning.

I sat up, the blankets still covering me. "Really? This early in the morning?"

"Oh please, it's not that early! And besides, the cold of the water will wake you right up!"

"I don't know..."

"Come on, it'll be lots of fun!"

Fluttershy suddenly flew up just behind Rainbow Dash and said softly, "Oh yes, it will be lots of fun! We'll get to see the little ducklings being herded by their mothers, the cute turtles walking everywhere, the squirrels drinking water, the butterflies fluttering in the wind, and the--"

"Fluttershy," interrupted Rainbow. "That's not fun."

"Oh yes it is!"

"No. Fun is diving into the pool at your top speed and making a wave that dowses everypony with the sick, dirty pond water, and trying to beat the fastest fish at a swimming competition, and seeing how long you can hold your breath underwater without dying!"

"That's not fun!" countered Fluttershy. They both argued about what was considered fun.

"Hey!" I butted in. Fluttershy and Rainbow looked at me. "Can't we do all of those things that you said and still have fun?" The two pegasi looked at each other, and shrugged.

"Wait--you're implying that you will go?" inquired Rainbow, arching her eyebrow. I nodded.

Fluttershy clapped her hooves, softly woohoo-ing.

"Well, come on! Let's go!" Rainbow said, beginning to fly away, Fluttershy in pursuit. Suddenly they stopped and looked back at me.

"Oh yeah...unicorns can't fly..." realized Fluttershy. Rainbow flew into my room and tried to drag me out of bed by my mane.

"Come on, we'll fly you!" she urged, her mouth full of black and white mane

I politely pushed Rainbow away. "No, no, it's okay. And besides, I want to get ready, I'm still tired."

Rainbow Dash groaned. "Oh, okay. But hurry up!" She zoomed out of my room, shutting the blinds. I went to the bathroom and washed my face, went downstairs to put on a cute little blouse, and ate a few crackers in case we wouldn't have any breakfast. When I was completely ready, I opened the door. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were hovering about 5 feet above me, pacing in the air. When they saw me, they flew down to the ground, grinning at me.

"Alright, let's go!" said Rainbow enthusiastically. She shot off the ground and did a few somersaults in the air.

"Um, Shimmer? Why do you have a blouse on?" asked Fluttershy. "I mean, we don't exactly need clothes."

I looked down at myself, and shrugged.

"Come on, you two! We can't wait forever!" protested Rainbow. She flew ahead. Fluttershy and I had to gallop a little to catch up with her. And so it went, the three of us talked about some things along the way, such as why I was moving to Ponyville, where did I come from (I nervously chuckled, said "Somewhere," and changed the subject). Rainbow Dash recounted the story of when she did the Sonic Rainboom, saving Rarity in the process, and Fluttershy half-whispered about when she turned Discord over to the good side ("At least we think he's on the good side," Rainbow muttered).

When we got to the pond, Rainbow flew straight into it, making a small wave that almost touched Fluttershy before she yelped and flew up. I giggled.

Rainbow Dash's grinning face popped out of the water. She spit out a long stream of pond water which got Fluttershy's mane wet. Fluttershy glared at her and tried to wring out her mane as Rainbow Dash guffawed, nearly drowning.

"Haha, I gotcha! You shoulda seen the look on your face!" shouted Rainbow.

"That was not funny, Rainbow Dash!" said Fluttershy, a hint of a smile creeping up on her face.

"Are you Rarity or something? It's just water!"

"Yes, but--" Fluttershy spotted a few ducklings over by the water, gasped, and zoomed over to them. She crouched next to the ducklings, observing them with a huge smile on her face. Rainbow rolled her eyes and started backstroking across the lake.

I trotted over to Fluttershy. "So, I take it you like animals?"

Fluttershy nodded vigorously. "Oh yes! They're my best friends next to ponies. Nearly my entire life revolves around them. In fact, I found my cutie mark when I fell off of Cloudsdale and discovered that I could take care of animals!" She held up her butterfly-dotted flank.

Rainbow swam up to the shore and scoffed. "Puh-leeze. That was only because of my Sonic Rainboom. In fact, none of the six of us would've gotten our cutie marks if it weren't for my totally awesome Sonic Rainboom! Oh yeah! Nothin's better than my epic and amazing Sonic Rainboom!"

"Yes, Rainbow Dash," sighed Fluttershy. "You don't have to repeat it so many times."

"Wait, what do you mean 'six'?" I asked. "I mean, there's you, you, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. That makes five. But who's the sixth?"

"Princess Twilight Sparkle," replied Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash in synch.

I suddenly recalled my first meeting with Pinkie Pie, where she'd said something about being friends with Twilight Sparkle. This confused me, because from what I'd gathered from Equestria so far, she was a princess--so how could she be friends with a few simple ponies from simple Ponyville?

"She wasn't always a princess, you know," said Rainbow Dash, as if reading my mind.

"No, she wasn't," agreed Fluttershy. "She was just a regular unicorn, Princess Celestia's most faithful student. But then she learned the magic of friendship through us, and the Princess turned her into a princess."

"She used to live here 24/7. Now she's only here when she doesn't have some sort of royal duty."

Fluttershy looked down to the ducklings, which were swimming away by now. "A few days ago, she said she'd be back yesterday. That clearly didn't happen. So we're hoping that she'll come back today."

She and Rainbow were silent for a few moments, before Fluttershy perked up and said, "But now we've got you, Shimmer! And when Twilight comes back, you'll be able to meet her and maybe she'll be able to teach you a little extra helpful magic!"

"Say, what kind of magic do you know?" inquired Rainbow.

I thought for a moment. "Just...yannow, magic in general."

"Yeah, but what can you do?"

"Oh! Well...things like this:" I gathered up my magic energy, and my horn began glowing with sky blue magic. An orb of water the size of a coconut rose up from the middle of the lake. I willed the orb of water to swim in the air, doing tiny somersaults and flying around Rainbow and Fluttershy's heads. I then gathered some courage and tried to break the orb in half, but one half started to fall to the water. I quickly picked it up back again, sweat forming on my forehead. Slowly and steadily, I levitated the two orbs of water back into the lake. I exhaled tiredly. Magic was one of those things that I sucked at, but was forced to do in everyday life.

"Wow, that was awesome!" cheered Rainbow Dash while Fluttershy clapped.

I blushed. "Really? My mother taught me it." As soon as I said it, I regretted it. The word mother sent me back to many memories, ranging from both good and bad memories. Mother...I could see her face in the trees, her warm smile in the clouds, hear her voice in the wind, her hoofsteps in the ripples of the water, and feel her warmth in the grass. But all this just lasted for a split second before Rainbow spoke:

"You betcha! Hey, come into the water with me!"

I had to recover from my trip to dreamland. "Well, I'm not sure--"

"Oh, don't worry! You get used to the cold!" Rainbow said, grabbing me and dragging me into the water. For a few traumatizing seconds, I kicked and squirmed for the surface of the water, desperate for air. When I hit the surface, I forced my head out of the water and gasped for breath.

Fluttershy looked at me worriedly. "Are you okay, Shimmer?" she asked. I steadied myself in the water, sucked in a breath, and let it out slowly. I smiled to let Fluttershy know that I was okay, that I'd just had a tiny panic attack. See, I'm not much of a swimmer.

"Hey, Shimmer," chirped Rainbow Dash as she popped up beside me. "Ya wanna know what it feels like to fly?" I looked at her, confused.

"Wait, what are you saying?" I asked, backing up.

"I mean this:" Just as I realized what she meant, I felt Rainbow's hooves go around my torso, and I was hoisted out of the water. Air whipped at my mane, pushing droplets of water off my body. I felt Rainbow's wing beats carrying us higher and higher and higher into the sky. In only a matter of seconds, we were so high that the lake looked like a tiny puddle. I could barely make out Fluttershy--she was just a tiny yellow and pink speck.

"Rainbow Dash!" I shouted above the wind. "I don't like this! Let me down, please!"

"Don't worry, Shimmer. I won't hurt you. Trust me on this, okay?" assured Rainbow. I looked at her grinning face. She was 100% sure that nothing bad was going to happen.

"Rainbow, seriously! I'm not kidding!" There was an edge of panic beginning to creep into my voice. "Just get me down!"

"Are you afraid of heights or something?"

"Yes! Now let me down!" The truth was, I'm not really afraid of heights. But this time, I felt really uneasy about Rainbow dragging me up there. It was as if something really bad would happen.

Rainbow sighed. "Oh, alright. If you say so." I felt us begin to slowly descend.

I sighed shakily in relief and said, "Thank you so much. I was starting to feel as if--"

"JUST KIDDING!!!" shouted Rainbow, suddenly flapping her wings and making us plummet headfirst toward the ground. I couldn't even scream as I felt the pit of my stomach tingle with nerves. The lake was getting closer with each passing second, and suddenly we hit the water. The water slapped at my face and body, as if somepony were whipping me. The ice-cold water seeped through my blue fur, chilling me to the bone, immobilizing me. For what seemed like forever, I floated in the dark, wet, frigid world, partially conscious of what was going on around me. I heard a muffled yell, and something seemed to come off me...

All of a sudden, I felt myself being dragged upward--or what felt like upward. When I was out of the water, I got my awareness back. I felt the solid ground beneath me, and also felt that I hadn't breathed in awhile. So I coughed, making sure to get all the water out of my lungs. When I was done, I wiped some sweat off my brow, and gasped for air. "Rainbow--Dash--don't ever do that again, you got it?" I scolded, looking up.

Rainbow and Fluttershy were just standing there, staring at me. They both looked surprised, and confused at the same time.

"Um...Shimmer?" said Fluttershy slowly. "You, um...you have...uh, how do I say this?"

"Well, see, the thing is," Rainbow continued. "You kinda have...well...right there you have...um..."

"What?" I asked. "What do I have?"

"Just like...it's..." Rainbow waved her hooves around, trying to find the right words.

"Um...er...ah..." Fluttershy didn't even know anymore.

"Just tell me!" I said, impatient, and starting to get a little scared. What did I have that was so strange? Rainbow stuttered some more and pointed a hoof at me. I slowly turned my gaze downward to where she was pointing. What I saw made my urge to scream even stronger than when Rainbow and I'd been plummeting toward the lake.

My blouse was gone.

In perfect unison, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy said,"You have wings!"

Author's Note:

SURPRISE!!! Haha!

...you knew that Shimmer was an alicorn already, did you? Yeah, I know, it's a little predictable. But anyways, do you like her character? Because usually people hate alicorn OCs because they're typically Mary Sues. Well, does Shimmer seem like a Mary Sue so far? Or is she an anti-Sue? Or is she simply bleak? Please tell me what I could do to make her personality better! Please! It would help me so flippin' much!

Comments

[GMZ_Casper]

As far as it goes, she seems alright, but to be honest, it had only been four chapters. Wait until a few more before we can properly judge Shimmer's personality. But, like I said, she seems alright so far.

One thing to note: Celestia did not transformed Twilight into an Alicorn. She ascended on her own merit. Celestia just greeted her in that little 'dimension' (best way to describe it) and explained a few things for the most part.