Lost in the Dust

by Leon Banz

Insipid dreams

Corvo lay there staring at the moon-lit roof. He had not been able to sleep for the past few days, and what sleep he did get, it was in fits. They had been filled with nightmares of the past, and fears of the present and future. He had tired everything from drinking a glass of hot milk, to going out and taking a run across the rooftops and nothing seemed to work very well for him.

'When will I be able to find any sleep at all?' He asked himself. He had asked it multiple times before with no answer that would ever come. He closed his eyes and sighed. From outside an owl hooted. As he listened closer, he could hear footsteps coming closer to his room. Light, unhurried and carefree footsteps. He reached over to his nightstand and silently slid the drawer open, grabbing his folding sword and laying it next to him. He lay there as if asleep and kept a steady breathing pattern. Too much experience with assassins had trained him well. The door creaked open, and a soft voice came from it.

"Corvo? Are you still awake?" A young Emily asked from the doorway. She was still young and had nightmares from time-to-time. Quickly, Corvo put his folding blade back into the drawer, shut it and sat up.

"I'm surprised you still are, Emily." He said. "Have another nightmare, huh?" She saw her silhouette move across the room and next to his rather large bed. The springs collapsed under her knee as he set most of her weight onto and climbed onto the bed. Laying back down, he positioned himself so he was facing the young queen.

"Yeah. It's always the same one, Corvo. The one where everything is on fire and I'm running away from it. It won't go away." She said. She turned to face him, and the moonlight illuminated her features. Fear struck her eyes and every other feature was tired and glossed over. She closed her eyes and relaxed.

"Get some sleep, Emily. We have a big day tomorrow." He told her, petting her head like he would a dog to comfort her. He closed his eyes after a while, and sleep finally came upon him.

---

Everything around Corvo was a little less like he remembered it. He was staring up at a sky instead of Emily like he had remembered falling asleep. A few clouds drifted by in the bright sky, adding a calm serenity to the location.

Quickly Corvo sat up. He was in a large field of yellow and pink and blue flowers. He could not name them all and did not recognize the area of the castle yard. In fact, he could not see the castle at all. No matter which way he looked, all he could see was open fields and rolling hills. He could see no one else around him. He stood and surveyed the area more. Then he realized he wasn't looking with his normal eyes, but the zooming mechanism in his mask. He put it in the back of his mind after assessing his situation and taking the mask off to look at it. It had an area for his nose and mouth so he could breath, and a small magnifying glass in the right eye for zooming.

A sudden shout broke his train of thought and he put the mask back on. He looked up and found that a blurry blue animal was plummeting towards him. Before he could react, the thing had collided with him and knocked him over. He rolled back too where he could pin the thing down. He brought his head back in surprise to find it was a cyan pony with wings.

"Hey! What's the matter with you!? Let me go!" It yelled, struggling. It writhed under Corvo's strength. After a few moments of processing the new discovery that ponies could talk, he let go and stood back up. The pegasus jumped up, flapping its wings to gain lift and land on its hooves. As he took a better look, he saw that it had a rainbow mane and tail, and a thunder cloud with a tri-colored thunderbolt leaving it. It opened its eyes and showed it had magenta irises, and its eyebrows came to a furrow in anger.

"Do you even know who I...." It trailed off as it saw him, its eyebrows unfurling and raising in surprise. "Lyra was right...they do exist...." It said. Corvo stayed silent, still processing this pegasus. Putting everything to the back of his mind, he reached for his folding blade and found it there. He could also feel his flintlock pistol and his crossbow on his left side. He had no need to look at his left hand to check for the symbol that lay there. The symbol was an intricate one, and looked like a reticle. He glanced back at the pegasus to find it had fallen over unconscious.

Corvo sighed and picked her up, walking away from the large field of flowers in hope of finding a town.

---

It had taken the better half of an hour to find the nearest town. Corvo found himself rather tired after carrying the pegasus for three quarters of an hour. She was small but strong from what he could feel. Her muscles didn't bulge, though. As he walked into the outskirts of the town, he could see a farm off in the distance.

When he did step into the town, he instantly got odd looks from everyone around. What he didn't expect, was all of them to be ponies like the one he carried. He could hear whispers about his mask and the way he stood, the hilt of a sword on his right and a crossbow on his left. He looked up and found a very large tree that seemed to be made completely of crystal. As he looked closer, he could see that a castle had been ingrained into it. A large star stood at the top of it like it was a christmas tree. He decided to walk towards it, as the pegasus in his arms would most likely receive medical attention there.

He tried to ignore the stares he received, but he felt them burn into his back. From the corner of his eye he could see a rather minty pony. Its mane and tail was a light mint green with a white stripe through it. It looked at him with wonder and triumph in her eyes, or so he thought that's what it was. He had payed little heed to it.

As he approached the castle, he saw a small crowd standing around someone. Being taller than all of them, he could see who or what was at the center of the crowd. There stood a rather long rod, the handle seemed to be made completely of wood, yet at the top, metal had been worked atop it. In the middle of an upside down metal half-sphere was a rather fine cut crystal. it was blue, and had a faint glow as he looked at it.

Just behind the staff stood another pony. It had a purple coat, mane, and tail. Though the mane and tail had two lighter shades of violet in them. Her eyes were also violet. He could also see a horn upon her head, and faintly see wings folded on her back.

As ponies noticed him walking toward it, they parted. The alicorn saw this and raised her head from studying the staff. Her eyes widened as she saw the rainbow pony in his arms.

"Rainbow Dash!" It yelped. Her horn began to glow, and so did the rainbow pony. The pony that was in Corvo's arms was lifted, then inspected by the violet pony. "Wake up!" It yelled. The rainbow pony jolted and awoke.

"What happened?! Where am I?!" It looked around and finally saw the violet pony. "Twilight, what are you doing here? I was just in that field next to the Everfree Forest." From it's voice, Corvo determined it was a female. The violet pony seemed to be female as well.

"Obviously not anymore. This nice-sir?-brought you back to town." She let the pegasus out of her magical grip.

"Oh! Him! He's a human! Just like the ones Lyra is always talking about." She pointed to Corvo, and every eye was on him. Under his mask, he could feel a bead of sweat roll down his cheek. He could feel that the rest of his day would be rather long.

Comments

[Cherry delight]

Interested ...

[skyway920]

more please