More Than A Dream

by nanashi_jones

Chapter 9

They only had to walk for one more day before they met their first checkpoint. Twilight’s casting of the Princess’s glamour worked, as did the official writ, and they passed the guard ponies without incident. The land was a different matter.

Where once was sprawling hills of lush green and bursting life, now the terrain became rougher, as though a farm had a bad year. The green was bitten and dull, the trees hung slack, the water looked like it needed to be boiled at least once and most worrying of all was the lack of anything actually moving around.

Earlier in their journey, it had been quiet, but they had bumped into one wary traveler on the road and seen and heard other animals going about their critter lives. Though more inclined to hide, save from Fluttershy and Nova, life was active as they buzzed flowers, chewed on bark, prowled through verdant grass and cheeped, hooted and growled from all variety of shrub.

Past that first checkpoint, there was none. No ponies, no critters, no nothing. Only the most stubborn of bugs were present and the girls watched in muted fascination as the small creatures quietly burrowed deep in the earth. Save for the wind, the drained land was quiet, hollow.

“No jokes or songs against fear?” Iris asked Diane.

Diane and Pinkie had matched stride with Iris and Rainbow, quietly looking around. Pinkie looked particularly flat, her gaze mostly ahead, her mouth a firm line.

“Nothing funny here,” Diane said.

“Plenty of scary to go around,” Nova muttered.

They were coming upon the next checkpoint and Aurora cast the spell absentmindedly to cover themselves.

“It’s not that bad,” Aurora said. “Haven’t any of you been to a place that was just... Struggling...”

She blinked. The previous checkpoint had been heavily fortified to be sure, but still had a gate- a way of passage. This checkpoint was only a checkpoint in name and a barricade in reality. Stationed by sentries of a much harsher cut than the first, standing at attention in a way that looked almost painful, they patrolled a solid, makeshift wall of bags and brick and hastily grabbed earth.

Ahead was a wasteland.

The sky was gray, tinged with brown. The grass was sparse to the point of nonexistence. Dead, flayed earth showed in domination as hollowed, black and aching trees littered the landscape. Then, there was the feeling. The sensation that they weren’t walking into a wild forest, or even the waiting maws of absolute danger. That would have been comforting by comparison.

It was dread. Dread that they stepped beyond the care of anything good. Dread that swam up through their guts and informed a new reality. Dread that crossing this hazy border meant they wouldn’t come back.

“Sorry ma’am, nopony crosses here,” an official, and in-charge looking stallion said.

Aurora levitated the Princess’s royal decree like she was a unicorn, keeping her hands at her side and swivelling her head. The stallion, a unicorn himself, took it in his magic.

“Official business,” she said, crisp.

The sentry looked at the orders, then Aurora and her group. He cast his horn on the parchment and then them. Aurora could feel the tingle of his magic at work.

“Why the glamour?”

“Enemies are everywhere,” Aurora said firmly.

“And friends?” the stallion said.

“Everywhere else,” Aurora replied with a grin.

The stallion nodded, floating the orders back.

“Free to pass!” he bellowed in a magically amplified voice. Turning to the girls, he paused, then added, “Celestia help you all.”

They nodded their thanks and the barricade was lifted by six sturdy earth ponies with magical assistance from four unicorns.

Not one of the guards looked at the girls.

The girls didn’t look at them.

Once they’d crossed into the dead fields, the gut-sapping dread amplified. Nova and Fluttershy nearly collapsed in its presence. Ashley and Applejack had to catch them in support.

The barricade came down. The girls steeled themselves and marched on.

When they had gotten at least one-hundred paces from the barricade, “Sa-lute!” roared out of command from behind, making the group turn.

All along the barricade, pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies in dulled gold armor snapped a salute of crisp perfection and perfect deference to the civilians. Their gazes were straight ahead.

“Celestia go with you!” came the roar from the commanding officer.

“Celestia go with you!” echoed the entire line.

The girls smiled back and waved. They resumed their journey.

“That was pretty cool,” Iris said.

“Not to mention impressive,” Rarity said.

“Like a pony in armor, Rarity?” Twilight said, trying for humor.

“When they are honorable and kind like that in a cruel and harsh place like this?” Rarity said, casting a look back. “It’s the most beautiful gem in the world.”

As they walked, Aurora thought about two things: a school trip through Nevada with its empty spaces and hot, oppressive heat, and her Uncle Tavri’s trip to the Sahara. Tavri had shown her pictures and described the place as vast and sandy and empty, but that it fit with nature there which was harsher and more unforgiving. So too did she think of that space in Nevada- harsh, unforgiving, almost devoid of life, but appropriate for what the land was doing there.

While “harsh” aptly described what she trekked through, it didn’t look like a harshness made by natural forces. The earth wasn’t just cracked, and brittle and showing everywhere, it looked completely barren. Trees were drained husks and tilted on roots that looked like string. The air was painfully dry and carried a dust-filled wind. Aurora felt no colder, but she rubbed her arms all the same.

Nova softly cried. Fluttershy and Rarity tried consoling her, but fear was in their eyes and it wasn’t leaving.

Nopony wanted to be here. Nor did any human.

“I’d rather be going up against Nightmare Moon again,” muttered Twilight.

“A-men,” Diane said.

“At least Discord made chocolate rain,” Pinkie grumbled. “This is just... Blegh.”

“Hay, Sombra had traps and stuff, this is... I don’t even know what this is,” Rainbow said. Even translucent, her colors seemed duller in the gray, brown air rather than the stand out blast they should have been. All the ponies seemed grayer.

Psychological byproduct of environmental conditioning, Aurora thought.

I do that too, Twilight thought at her.

Hey! No peeking!

You were “talking” pretty loud.

Sighing, Aurora thought, Fair enough.

After a few quiet steps she thought to Twilight, What do you think?

It keeps with what we know, Twilight replied. He affects everything and drains it, little by little. I’m still figuring out how we can stop him.

Aurora smiled a little. Not talking about destroying him anymore, huh?

Twilight walked in silence for a few beats.

Chrysalis was... Pretty educational. I don’t want to get consumed like that. I’m still angry, but... I can’t use it. It won’t help here.

“What will?” Aurora said aloud.

Twilight looked up at her, holding Aurora’s gaze before breaking away.

“I wish I knew,” the unicorn said.

“What are we going to do when we see the Smiling Pony anyway?” Iris asked.

“See how close we get and go from there,” Aurora said.

“That’s it? That’s the big plan?”

“Well, fighting him didn’t work, blasting him with magic didn’t work, and nopony’s gotten close enough to talk to him. So let’s give talking over a distance a shot,” Twilight said firmly.

“We’re gonna talk the bad guy to defeat,” Iris grumbled loudly. “Sure.”

“Y’think you can just buck him silly?” Applejack said.

“Better than talking!” Rainbow shot.

“Girls! Girls!” Rarity said, interposing between the pair. “This helps no one. Let us continue and focus on getting there.”

Rainbow and Applejack shot sore looks, followed by sighing and nodding.

The group trekked on.
~
The sun was near to setting when they came to the empty town. It could have been Ponyville’s twin.

More accurately, it could be a twin that had fallen on hard times. Creaking shutters were left open on windows that were warped or shattered. Holes of all sizes broke up multiple roofs and walls. Doors hung as if they’d been smashed in. Plants wilted, looking like wrung out bits of old fabric. Dust shot through alleyways on a dead wind. The brown and gray atmosphere lay over everything.

The girls looked ahead, grim and determined.

Diane whistled. It was a familiar tune.

“Wah wah wah...” Pinkie added with a gallows smile.

Diane smirked. She whistled again.

“Wah wah waaaaah...” Pinkie continued.

Diane was joined by Iris and Ashley.

“Wah wah wah wah, waaah waaaaah...” Pinkie concluded.

“Shoulda worn my spurs,” Ashley said with a grin.

“I see him,” Aurora said.

They all could.

The reality was underwhelming.

He lounged, next to a black, bent tree in what could have once been a lively park. He was in that same dark blue suit jacket, but his tie was red now. Mane still too slick, tail perfectly off to the side, blank flank casually at an angle. He looked like he was having a relaxing nap, sitting at the base of the gnarled tree.

Nova and Fluttershy’s knees started knocking audibly.

“What do you think?” Twilight whispered.

“Give ‘im the Ray Stanz speech,” Iris whispered back.

Aurora turned around to give Iris a Not Now look.

“You want to talk? It’s a good speech. Just remember, you’re a god.”

Aurora sighed and stepped forward. She could feel the edge of the Smiling Pony’s strongest influence. Even though she stood just beyond it, her stomach dropped out. Licking her lips, she felt Twilight step up next to her and hold steady.

Her stomach settled. She smiled gratefully at Twilight, then cleared her throat audibly.

Without opening his eyes, the pony turned his lazy head toward them. Aurora wavered, but held fast.

“Smiling Pony?” she said.

He nodded.

“Uh. Good- Good afternoon.” She sighed. Now it was all she could think of. “As a duly-designated representative of the city of Canterlot and the lands of Equestria, I order you to cease any and all supernatural activity and return forthwith to your place of origin, or to the nearest convenient parallel dimension.”

“Oh man! She did it!” Iris said, grabbing Ashley’s arm.

Ashley shushed the other girl.

The Smiling Pony didn’t say anything. He rose, easily, patiently, as if he had all the time in the world. He opened his eyes. Black eyes. Empty eyes. He started walking toward them.

“Shield,” Aurora said.

Twilight’s horn blasted to light and white-purple magic sparked from Aurora’s hands to form the perfect purple dome. The falling pit in her stomach settled again, but she felt the sweat on her brow.

“Any ideas?” Aurora said.

“I still wanna buck him,” Iris said. “Hit him. Whatever.”

“And how’re you doing Iris?” Ashley asked. “‘Cause I feel like I’m gonna throw up stuff I ate when I was a sprat.”

“I’m-” Iris wiped at the sweat on her forehead. “I’m good. Rainbow?”

“I’m fine. Hey! I’m fine!”

“I am too!” Twilight exclaimed. “Girls?”

“I’m not fine,” Fluttershy said. “Nova’s very scared.”

The girls all looked inward and realized that while they were doing okay, their human companions were already showing the effects of the Smiling Pony.

“Merge?” Applejack asked.

“No!” Aurora said. “We’re not in good shape. We don’t want to wear ourselves out even further. That’s last option. Only if we can’t figure anything out.”

“I can’t,” Rainbow said. “I vote buck or merge.”

The Smiling Pony strolled forward the entire time, leisurely and guileless. His smile seemed to grow bigger as he got closer. He could have been whistling a jaunty tune if not for the razor blades that jangled in Aurora’s mind.

Her knee dropped to the dirt and she started panting.

Keiko put a hand on her shoulder and Aurora felt the magic she had in Twilight grow. Rarity was sharing.

The jangling razor blades receded, but the Smiling Pony kept moving toward them.

“Someone do something,” Keiko said. “We can’t just wait for him to walk up to us!”

“Leeeeerooooooy Jenkiiiiiiiins!” Rainbow Dash howled flying out of the shield.

“Rainbow! No!” Twilight shouted.

Rainbow rocketed at the Smiling Pony with one hoof out, her face set in a determined line. Even though she’d pass through him, she would get enough speed going and have Iris fly out to slam him across his smug face while Rainbow pulled her back to safety. The plan was foalproof.

“Eat this!” Rainbow said as she came up on the Smiling Pony.

And made contact.

The Smiling Pony flipped back and hit the dirt, skipping like a stone till he crashed into and through a house.

Iris spasmed under the shield, grabbing the arm that matched the forearm Rainbow had hit the Smiling Pony with.

“Ah! Aaaah!” Iris hissed.

“How did...” Keiko whispered.

“He’s a spirit creature!” said Twilight and Aurora as Pinkie and Diane exclaimed, “He’s a dream thingie!”

Applejack and Rarity shared a look and Twilight brightened. Pinkie reached behind her to pull out a bright blue canon on pink wheels and Fluttershy’s knees stopped knocking.

“Oh,” Rarity grinned. “It. Is. On.”

In a blink, Aurora dropped the shield and the ponies exploded at a full run as the Smiling Pony stepped out through the house. Twilight struck first, loosing the most powerful bolt of raw magic she could conjure. The Smiling Pony barrelled across the courtyard, scraping a dead furrow in the earth, right into Applejack’s waiting hooves.

Ashley had ran behind the apple bucking pony, putting as much slack on their tether as possible so Applejack could meet the Smiling Pony with both barrels of Bucky Mcgillicuddy and Kicks Mcgee. The Smiling Pony went sailing into the air.

Where Rarity caught him with her magic and flung him to the Earth. Hard.

Pinkie loosed the party cannon on Full Carnivale Mode, blanketing the area in spiritual confetti, punch, balloons and streamers.

An enormous cloud of the gray dust hung in the air. Panting, the girls all glanced at one another, fierce smiles on their faces.

“We get ‘im?” Applejack asked.

Ashley had walked up next to her, squinting into all the kicked up dirt. The other girls were behind her, trying to peer through the debris to spy the enemy. Ashley rubbed at her legs, feeling a deep-rooted tingling she didn’t like.

A pile of confetti rose and shook. An indistinct figure stepped forth, parting the smoke. Ashley squinted and couldn’t believe her eyes.

“No way...” Rainbow groaned.

The Smiling Pony was completely pristine. He wasn’t even rumpled. He didn’t even have so much as a hair out of place. And he smiled. He was grinning daggers. And he aimed them right at Ashley and Applejack.

The cowgirls spasmed wildly as if struck and started blinking fast, their faces breaking out in a cold sweat.

“What the-” Applejack said.

“How-” Ashley murmured and fell, hitting her knees.

“No!” Aurora yelled.

Aurora was up and running before she could react and then the Smiling Pony smiled wider and everything went white.
~
Aurora blinked. She was laying in bed. Not her bed, but a bed. In a place with white curtains and a white, tiled ceiling. Reaching up, her arm felt heavy, awkward, as if it saw little use.

Frowning, she pushed the curtain aside and saw sterile blue walls adjoining a window. The window revealed a lovely spring day. Wait, spring?

“Alright, Miss Amaryllis time for- Oh my.”

Aurora turned slowly and a nurse in soft green scrubs was holding a tray of food. She was in her mid-thirties and looked every inch a professional. She also looked a bit shocked.

“Ex- excuse me,” Aurora said, her voice awkward and wavery- as much disused as her arm. She focused. “Where am I?”

The nurse brought in doctors after that. Doctors who asked repetitive questions. Doctors who tested her reflexes. Doctors who seemed far too keen on what she’d been doing in a field seven months ago.

“Seven months?!” Aurora screeched. As she’d spoken, answering more questions, her voice had warmed up to the task. The pitcher of water they’d brought helped too.

“Yes Miss Amaryllis,” Doctor Olson said. He was a raky, pale Caucasian man whose glasses kept catching the light, obscuring his eyes. “You went into a field with five other girls and when you were found two days later, all of you were in one form of catatonia or another. You were muttering about ponies or somesuch.”

Aurora was struck dumb, slumping into the pillows and raised bed.

“You’re the first to recover actually.”

“Recover...?” she said, thickly.

He nodded and one of the nurses pulled a curtain to reveal Iris Speede, eyes wide open, mouth moving, but no sound coming out. Her face was pinched, as if in pain.

“You recognize her?” Doctor Olson asked.

“Iris?” Aurora whispered.

“She kept muttering under her breath,” the Doctor said. “Strange things about... Equestria? Twilight?”

“Sparkle. Twilight Sparkle,” Aurora said. She didn’t even realize how cold she’d felt until that small warmth blossomed in her heart. Her breathing picked up and her cheeks flushed in response.

Doctor Olson frowned. “That can’t be good. This girl was delusional, didn’t you know?”

“She wasn’t-” Aurora started, but caught the dominating look in Doctor Olson’s eyes and coughed. “I was her caretaker. I was familiar with her condition.”

Doctor Olson nodded.

“Did she give you anything? Drug you?”

“What? No! I had... I had an Appletini a whole day before and felt fine. She never...”

“Hmmm...” Doctor Olson said.

“Please, where are the rest of them? Ashley, Keiko, Diane, Nova? Are they here?”

“They’re around you. We thought keeping you together might spark a stimulus.”

Energized by a rush of adrenaline, Aurora rose suddenly and grabbed at the curtain next to her bed, tearing it free. Diane looked up from her prone position, her face in a rictus grin, her nappy hair looking thoroughly unkempt. A soft, unsettling giggle came from her mouth.

“No...” Aurora said. “Di...”

Doctor Olson stood just behind her.

“They’re all about like that. Some form of catatonia. We have them on-”

“I want to talk to my parents,” Aurora said, using the bed to prop herself on unsteady legs.

Doctor Olson was quiet.

“I’ve been committed. I’m not a minor, but my family still has power of attorney in these instances. I know, I helped draw up the document. Where are my parents?”

“I’m... I’m terribly sorry, Miss Amaryllis. They’re dead.”

The fleeting warmth in Aurora’s heart vanished as ice came to freeze it.

“What?” she whispered sheets twisting in her hands.

“They set up your care, yes, but after a trip where they all came to visit there was... An unfortunate accident,” Doctor Olson said in a soft, apologetic voice. It was the same tone Aurora had heard many psychiatrist or professional use for breaking bad news.

“What?”

“Your mother lasted longest, but she bled out. Their funeral was a month ago.”

Aurora became aware of a noise in her head. She couldn’t make it out.

“No...” she whispered. Her family. Her closest... It was Nani all over again. Only worse...

“We’d meant to wait, ease you back-”

“You’re lying,” Aurora growled, turning on weak legs, her eyes full of tears. “You’re... Lying!”

Doctor Olson sighed, looking down, saddened. He placed a comforting hand on Aurora’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

And that did it. That bare honesty. That reality. Suddenly her friends were gone, she was insane, her parents were dead. It all crushed in on her.

Aurora realized what the noise in her head was. She was screaming.

She gasped, tears bursting through her eyes.

“Easy,” Doctor Olson said. “Eeeeeasy.”

He maneuvered Aurora so she felt her bed, her patient-cared-for, hospital bed beneath her and eased her back. Tears flowed, even though all Aurora could do was gulp air.

“I’m sorry,” he said, his voice genuinely sad. “I’ll... I’ll give you a moment.”

He left. The nurse who had stood nearby exited the room as well.

The tears continued to flow, like someone had a tube behind her eyes, pumping out water at a rate she didn’t think possible. Then, after a minute of just silently crying, Aurora let the screaming out of her head and into her throat.

She wailed. Pain-filled and terrible, she wailed. Like she’d been gutted through her very soul. Like someone had carved a hole in her.

She turned, seeing Iris, and rose from her bed. She was still making that noise, that noise she didn’t think she could make, but she went on, screaming out her pain. Looking for someone to hold onto. She wrapped a hand firmly around Iris.

“C’mon...” Aurora keened. “C’mon... Wake up! Wake up Iris! Wake up please! I need... I need someone... Please...”

Iris remained still. Her face pinched, soft words coming from her mouth.

Aurora let her go. She fell to the ground, sobbing. She saw the three other pulled curtains. She didn’t dare look behind them. She couldn’t see Keiko like this. Ashley like this. Nova...

Fresh pain tore through her and she screamed more. She screamed until her throat was raw. She screamed until all she knew was that noise in her head and in her ears. She screamed.
~
The nurse came twenty minutes later to move her back to her bed. Aurora had nodded numbly. It didn’t matter. Nothing mattered.

Once she’d screamed till she almost started throwing up, dripping spit and drool on the floor, she lay against Iris’s bed. Hollow. Empty.

Her parents: dead.

Her friends: catatonic.

Her: regarded as mentally deluded. Possibly drugged. Permanently broken.

The last was the worst to face. She broke down. She went along with it. With Equestria, with ponies, with the whole dream. She bought it and though she’d thought she was carving a circle in an apple orchard, what had she really been doing? Mixing some cocktail? Drinking Kool-Aid?

She’d never get her degree back on track. Who would take her? Who would listen to Aurora Amaryllis, the Broken Girl?

Her thoughts circled without progressing. They remained as such till the sun was easing out of its apex, heading for sunset. She caught the light change because it hit on something metal on a nearby table. A razor.

The razor blade was cheap, a man’s. One of those blue travel ones that are more necessity than quality tool.

She stared at that blade.

She remembered being here before. When Nani died.

Her grandmother had died two years ago. She’d beat breast cancer in her sixties to have it catch up and somehow attack her kidneys at 86. She’d lasted a month. Aurora had visited her every day.

When Nani died, Aurora remembered how she’d felt. She felt hollow, pained, gutted. Just like now. Like that time that boy had walked out on her or when her Elementary school friends never got back in touch, only magnified and multiplied to unbearable levels.

Her mother had shared the pain with her. Even her stepdad bore some grief, which let her ride it out and work again. Re-piece herself together again.

They weren’t here now. Not even her less-than-stellar biological father. Or her odd, but warm-hearted stepmother. They were all gone. Every. One.

That blade shone in the dying light of the day.

Aurora pushed herself up. She swung her feet to the floor. Her legs wobbled, but that was to be expected. She’d not used them for a few months.

Using the beds as support, she leaned her way over to the little Bic blade and picked it up. Such a small thing. The blades were clean though. Sharp.

She was a psychology student. She knew what the gallows humor was: “Remember, down the block, not across the street.”

“I remember,” Aurora said.

She’d... She’d need a shower or bath. Something with warm water to flow. Right?

Could she just do it here?

She stared at the blade, the pain in her chest swelling, her muster rising.

Aurora! No!

She blinked. Who had...?

Aurora! Stay with me!

Again.

She looked around. The voice had been nearby. Where had-?

“Miss Amaryllis!”

She turned the other way. Doctor Olson stood with two other nurses. They were big. They looked unpleasant. They also looked... Something. Aurora’s forehead itched.

Doctor Olson started walking closer to her. Talking in soothing tones.

“Where did you get that, huh?” he asked.

Aurora looked dumbly down at the blade. Something wasn’t right.

Aurora! You’re not alone!

Wasn’t...

“What color are your eyes, Doctor?” Aurora said, a sudden, quiet power in her hushed voice.

“Don’t worry about that, Miss Amaryllis. Why don’t you just put the blade down and...”

“I don’t think I can, Doctor,” Aurora said, casually, still looking at the blade in her hand. “Because I’ve been here all day and I’ve never seen them. Your eyes, I mean. It’s important. It’s part of my delusion.”

“They’re gray,” Doctor Olson said. He was closer now.

“Now, you’re lying,” Aurora said, authority in her voice.

“Does it really matter, Miss Amaryllis?” he said.

Aurora took a few steps back. She could feel the heat of the sun on her back as it eased down outside the window. She’d always liked laying in the sun. She liked stargazing too. What she liked most though were the sunrises and sunsets. When the twain met, that was breathtaking to see. That was when she believed in magic.

“It really does, because if I’m right, and I usually am, then it will mean the world to me.”

Doctor Olson saw where Aurora had positioned herself. Aurora reached behind her and found the latch to the window.

“Miss Amaryllis, careful there. Are you certain you know what you’re doing?”

Aurora bumped the window open with her elbow and she felt warm spring air gust in to wrap around her. She smiled.

“I’m very certain,” Aurora said.

Her smile grew wistful. She threw the blade back into the room, hearing it clatter on the floor.

“Tell me, Olson, are you familiar with Kierkegaard?” Aurora asked, sitting to perch on the window’s ledge.

“Somewhat...” Doctor Olson said, trying to get within grabbing range now that Aurora had no weapon.

“One of his big ideas was ‘the leap of faith.’ I’m not terribly fond of it. The idea that you get to a conclusion just so you have a place to operate from. What if your conclusions are wrong, you know?” Aurora relaxed against the side of the large window, letting the sun set. “You have to start all over.

“That’s probably why it became so big in religion. You take that leap of faith, accept the ‘unexplainable’ as it were. But I’ve learned this applies to more than religion, Doctor Olson. It applies to trust.

“There comes a point, where you have to trust another. Even if all your instincts and experience say it’s a bad idea. Trust gets you hurt. Caring gets you hurt. Better not to trust- life is full of enough dangers without having to trust people, right?”

Aurora glanced down, chuckling. The sun was falling behind the trees, she could tell.

“But we can’t do that. Most of us, anyway. We’re social. We’re better when we interact, when we trust, when we take that leap of faith and trust someone... Or somepony will be there when we need them.”

Doctor Olson had frozen just out of grabbing range. The large nurses flanked behind him, looking more like linebackers than hospital assistants.

“That’s very good,” Doctor Olson said. “Now, how about you trust me, and lean away from that window?”

Aurora cocked her head and the sun sank and that shine, that always glasses obscuring shine gave way to show Doctor Olson’s eyes. They were black eyes. Pits of coal where pupils should have been.

Aurora smirked. Doctor Olson swore. She pushed back, falling out the window.

Into Twilight Sparkle’s waiting forelegs.
~
Aurora woke, gasping.

“Holy- What?”

She was in a spirit shield. She could tell just by the quality. While this wouldn’t hold off anything solid it apparently held off a very pissed off looking Smiling Pony.

“Aurora! You’re awake!” Twilight said jubilantly, hugging her tight.

“Yeah! Yeah, I’m good! What’s-”

“When he got close, all of you fell. We rounded you up the best we could, but... I don’t know. His influence... Something’s wrong with Rainbow’s foreleg and AJ’s back legs.”

Aurora rolled over on the ground and saw what Twilight meant. The limbs that had struck the Smiling Pony were even more indistinct than the rest of the girls. And it looked like that was spreading further into the bodies.

Mouth going into a firm line, Aurora stood up. Her friends at her feet.

“Are you with me?” Aurora said.

“Of course! What did he do?”

“He messed up,” Aurora replied. “Drop the shield.”

“What?!”

“Drop it.”

Twilight looked up at Aurora like she really had just got out of institutionalized care. Aurora smiled back at her.

“Trust me?”

Twilight cocked her head. She took a breath, then nodded.

“Then we’re going to have to do this hooves on,” Aurora said. “Girls!”

The ponies raised up from their care of their respective humans.

“Tell them they aren’t alone,” Aurora said, voice ringing with authority. “Shout in that line. Shout in their ear if you have to. Be there for them.”

The girls all nodded.

“Okay, Twilight, let’s do it.”

Twilight’s horn shone again and the shield dropped. Aurora felt the grit, the urge to fall, the sudden pain blossom up in her gut and she put a hand on Twilight’s withers and the feeling all but vanished.

The Smiling Pony trotted forward, his mouth a line cut from one side to the other. As he got closer though, he seemed... Off.

Aurora closed her eyes, steadying her breathing.

Think about what you want. Think about what you need to see. See it for what it really is.

She opened her eyes and the Smiling Pony was gone.

The Smiling Man stood in his place.

Dark blue suit, shoes that shone like a polished knife, blood red tie on a clinically white shirt and a smiling face with black pits where the irises should have been.

“Gotcha,” Aurora said.

Twilight blinked. “What- How is...”

“He gets in your dreams because he’s made of them,” Aurora said. “He underlines your loss, your pain, your loneliness. He makes you think you’re all alone.”

The Smiling Creature stood there. Unmoving. Aurora could tell rage was spilling out around those smiling features.

“He was wrong.” Aurora smiled, a good smile. “I’m never alone. Whether I like it or not.” She turned her grin at Twilight, whose eyes widened in understanding.

“The loss of love, the emptiness...”

“Sucked them dry. I don’t know how it worked for everypony else, but for me,” Aurora said. “He hit hard and fast. If you hadn’t been there for me, Twilight...” Tears shone at the corner of Aurora’s eyes. “I’d be a goner.”

“You’re my friend,” Twilight said, leaning against her. “I’m always there for you. Always.”

“Me too,” growled Iris. She rose on shaky legs. “I never leave a friend in the lurch.”

“Me neither,” Ashley added, standing slowly.

“Me three,” Diane replied, using Pinkie as support.

“I stand by the best,” Keiko said, brushing dirt from her pants as Rarity lifted her up.

Nova just smiled, holding onto Fluttershy, who rose up on determined wingflaps so her friend could stand.

Aurora grinned back at these girls. At loyal Iris. At straightforward Ashley. At silly Diane. At giving Keiko. At kind Nova. These girls, who reflected the best in the ponies and the ponies who reflected the best in them. They were her friends. Just as she and Twilight were friends.

Aurora turned, standing at the front.

“I am surrounded by the best people in the world. Not to mention the best ponies.” She reached her arm out to Twilight, the signal clear. Light bloomed where Twilight’s hoof touched Aurora’s hand.

Behind her, the girls did the same, the spirit bonds growing in strength, their presence doubling, the air crackling with something new and powerful.

“We stand against you and all you stand for. You will not take our love, you will not take our harmony...”

The merge completed.

“You will not take... Our! Friendship!”

Light exploded above Aurora as a tiara with a purple star settled in her now Twilight colored hair.

“Was that the best you’ve got?” Aurora and Twilight told the Smiling Creature.

It stepped forward, opening its maw wide.

Aurora and Twilight closed their eyes and opened their hearts to Harmony.
~
Aurora woke to birdsong.

No sudden gasping this time. No pain or confusion. She felt light-hearted. At ease. She enjoyed it.

“Easy there,” came a familiar voice.

She opened her eyes, blinking. Oh. She was standing. Okay.

She looked around and found Twilight, pressing her barrel into Aurora’s leg to keep her balanced. That wasn’t the big deal though. Twilight was also standing in the grass. Which bent away from her because she was solid.

“Twilight!” Aurora exclaimed. “You’re-!”

“Yep!” Twilight Sparkle said, her grin threatening to split her face.

“Aaaaaah!” Aurora said.

“Aaaaaah!” Twilight agreed.

Aurora bent down and picked her up, spinning around and laughing. She pulled Twilight into a deep, powerful hug, which Twilight reciprocated. Little tears danced out from the girls as they rejoiced. Then, Aurora remembered what she’d been doing.

Skidding to a halt with Twilight still in her embrace, she said, “Wait, the Smiling... Whatever...”

“He’s over the hills buh-bye!” Pinkie said hopping through the lush green grass. It was everywhere.

Life sprung up all around Aurora. Where once there was barren cracked earth, she found healthy, green grass, where once was silence she heard animals moving and acting, where once she saw broken houses... Well, she still saw broken houses, but they no longer looked as beyond repair as they once had.

Shaking her head, Aurora tried to recall what had happened between the barren earth and this lush sprawl of life.

She remembered glancing... Something huge. And vast. And wonderful.

She smiled. Harmony. It really was a big thing. Especially when you’re acting as a channel for untold amounts of it to pour forth into a world starving for its presence.

The experience of using Harmony was a blur. Aurora could vaguely remember how at ease she’d felt, how at peace. She certainly remembered all the girls in her head. Like everyone had linked hands and was sharing a new spirit bond at high speed. Little glimpses in her soul.

Then there were the bits of the Smiling Creature. It had... Yes! It had opened its human/pony/whatever mouth wide and the girls had loosed Harmony’s energies right in.

At first, the Smiling Creature drank deeply, finally getting what it wanted, but then it had started squirming, twitching, like it had thought it could eat the full buffet and was starting to find the reality more daunting. Then it bucked, twitched harder and the light of Harmony started shining out of the creature and spilling to the ground. Rainbows mixed into the Earth, swam in the sky, beat with a single heart that Aurora realized she could remember clearly.

The Smiling Creature had gasped.

Then there had been a wrenching... Unsound.

Harmony exploded, bursting forth from the Smiling Creature to pour out into the lands and beyond. Washing the devastation and destruction away in a simple, warm gesture. It was a release, it was a need, it was a weight that Aurora had shared equally with the girls and all the rainbow light had touched.

Speaking of weight... Aurora realized she still felt some. Reaching up, she found she was still wearing a tiara. She looked back to Twilight, who was wearing her tiara and Aurora frowned.

“Uh, what’s...”

“Hey ‘Ro, check it out!” Iris said, running over to the spot where Aurora was removing her jewelry. “We’re full-fledged Elements of Harmony now!”

Iris wore what looked like a necklace not too dissimilar to Rainbow Dash’s, but rather than a lightning bolt from a cloud, it was a lightning bolt with wings. As the other humans came up with necklaces adorning them, theirs too were variations on the theme with their shared ponies, save for Keiko’s.

“The more jewels in the world, the better,” she’d said with a wink to Rarity.

Aurora examined her own jewelry and found rather than a star-shaped gem, it was a simple, round, violet jewel.

“My special talent is a circle?” Aurora said, her eyebrow arched in quizzical good humor.

“Sounds good to me. We’re completely out of my expertise,” Twilight laughed.

“If I had to guess...” came a melodic, regal voice. “I’d say it was a clear-seeing cutie mark. You do have a knack for seeing things others missed.”

“Princess!” the girls said, turning.

“Hello my little ponies,” Celestia said.

The girls rushed at their Sun Princess and bowed, save for Twilight, who barreled through to wrap her forehooves about her mentor. Celestia bent low to hold her prized pupil. Tears of joy trickled out of Twilight and though nothing fell from Celestia’s eyes, she held that hug as long as her student dared.

Sniffing, Twilight released the embrace and stepped back to compose herself. Once settled, she bowed, which Celestia returned in kind.

“Princess,” Aurora said, stepping to the side of the group of ponies. She bent at the waist in respect. The other humans did the same.

“My!” Celestia said with a laugh, casting her gaze about the little town. “You girls have been busy!”

She laughed again, which just brought everyone in with her.

Comments

[Shilic]

2393844 you rolled a 7, +3 Discord bonus, +10 persintance bonus. Roll failed.

[Shilic]

2435553 Everyone knows the weight of yellow is the weight of blue to the power of . Factor in the taste of purple, the answer is ¥7.341. It's so simple!

[Jlargent]

Enough said.

[shapeshiftingpedro]

And this, Smiling Pony/Human, is why too much of anything is bad for you. Now, have you learned your lesson?

[SoulboundAlchemist]

Love this story, gotta say I didn't expect anyone to come up with a villain creepier than the Slender Pony.

[nanashi_jones]

2606939

Thank you. Thank you very much. I don't think I'm very good at creepy, so that's really nice of you to say.