The Meaning of Eternity

by LightningStruckTower

Chapter 3 Dreaming On a Midnight Clear

Chapter Three
Dreaming On a Midnight Clear

Discord walked from the crater with a purposeful stride, not waiting for stragglers. The mass of curious ponies followed him at a distance, both intrigued and alarmed at his outburst. A short walk away, he settled himself down humbly upon a simple rock. Still at a loss for words the ponies settled themselves in a great semicircle around him, with the princesses and the Elements at the front. Once everyone had made themselves remotely comfortable, he spoke.

“To begin, I have not always looked like this.”

The statement stood for a long while. Then, with a deep breath, he was consumed by light. When the eyes of the spectators cleared, a gasp rushed through the crowd. Standing where the draconequus sat was a tall and handsome storm-gray alicorn, with a flowing black mane, golden eyes, and an eight-spoked wheel for a cutie mark.

“My name was Phyrum, the Spirit of Order and Equestria’s first Spirit of the World, and I ruled this world with a benevolent hoof for nearly an aeon.”

The alicorn looked around the crowd, and his gaze was met with a unanimously rapt attention.

“At the beginning of this universe, a race of old ones, whom I have known as The Binding, came forth and made this massive realm, full of light and land in the forms of stars and planets. They filled the planets with life, and raised these species as their own children. For a time, there was peace, but then one among them grew disenchanted by the insolence that the fledgling races offered them. There was great strife, and the old ones fell into two factions; the gods who so loved and defended the mortals, and the titans who sought to reduce the mortals to slaves with broken minds. The gods won a great victory, and a new universe was made, built as a prison of great torment and the first enemy was sealed within. The titans were believed to have been fooled by the fallen one, and were merely hid away in the Ark, where the gods dwell.”

“Again, for a great many aeons, each of which was a bill- I mean a thousand thousand thousand years long, peace pervaded the universe and mortals flourished under the gods’ benevolent rule. But, like before, conflict shattered the tranquility, and the titans broke free from their bonds and made to topple the gods. Again, they failed. This time, the gods built planets and placed a single titan in the core of each one, and upon it, placed either a race of peace and love, or one of great potential to guard it. Equestria is one of these worlds, and to this day, The Prisoner slumbers at its core.”
The surrounding ponies gasped, and Phyrum raised a hoof to prevent interruption.

“Peace returned to the stars once more and lasted up until roughly an aeon ago. But this time, tension came in a new form. The gods had long regarded the many species as their children, and in a way, had parented them along throughout the countless years. But, as all children will, the races began to feel that they no longer needed the gods’ interference. They requested that the gods leave them be. For a year, the gods sequestered themselves in debate over whether or not mortals were ready to be self-governing. Some were opposed, and others felt they were ready. They made no progress until, near the end of the year, the king of the gods spoke his opinion.”

“‘I do not believe mortals are worthy of self governance. However, we have not offered chance for them to demonstrate their worth. So I offer compromise: We will grant them gifts and guardians for their safeguard and seal ourselves away, only to reawaken in their hour of need.’”

“The belligerent races accepted his proposal, and all worlds received at least three gifts, though some received four. The first gifts were the Spirits of the World. Worthy candidates from each planet were granted relative immortality and a minute fraction of the gods’ power. They were to rule the races with benevolence, offering species specific wisdom that would come with great age.”

“The second gifts were powerful relics that could only be wielded by mortals, should the race be dissatisfied with its Spirit, or if an evil came that was stronger than the Spirit. To Equestria was given a six-piece suit of armor, which reformed at my fall to be five necklaces and a tiara. The last time I remember them being used in their elder form was by a brave warrior who defeated a powerful, yet now inconsequential, evil doer.”

“The third gift was given for the event that mortal strife reached such a level that the titans stirred. This gift was the placement of massive machines hidden within each world, under seas, in mountains, or buried under great swaths of forest. If the titans awoke, the Colossi would as well, and engage the titans in combat. They were designed only to hold titans at bay until the gods could awaken and banish the aggressors to where they couldn’t break free.”

“The fourth was a gift we received as well. A massive sphere was constructed around Equestria, to both protect us and camouflage us from other, more aggressive mortal races. I apologize dearly to you, Princesses, when I say that the sun and moon you control are not real astronomical bodies, but far smaller ones placed to give a day and night to an enclosed planet. Sadly, beyond scattered knowledge of distant worlds and foreign races, that is all I know of the universe.”
Luna and Celestia glanced downward, trying their best to absorb this fantastic tale. Silence pervaded the camp, until Rainbow Dash piped up.

“So, let me get this straight. These god things put a titan, which is supposed to be like some super strong, super evil bad guy, inside of Equestria, but they still thought that we would need protection from other races? Sounds kinda dumb, if you ask me.”

Phyrum grinned knowingly before responding.

“Ponies, the most prevalent race on this planet, are peaceable and loving at heart, and I would be lying to you if I said that few other races stood a chance against us. The truth is that most other races possess the drive, physical ability and technological power to enslave our planet in a matter of weeks, and some with only fifty soldiers. We are not a strong race, unfortunately. But since titans draw power from hate and conflict, a planet inhabited by us is a nigh inescapable prison.”

“..Oh,” was all Dash could muster, looking slightly put out.

“Why did you stop being a kind ruler?” came a second question.

All heads swiveled to the asker, and Fluttershy shrank back from the attention.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to…”

“No Fluttershy, it’s okay. I want to. I need to get this off of my chest.”

“O-okay.”

“It started when I heard a whisper in the dark. A faint, pleading call. I searched for its source, and when I could not find it, I tried to block it out. I could not. It spoke of many things, of its plight, and I began to sympathize with it. As it continued to speak, I identified more and more, and it began to ask things of me. Small things at first, but their significance grew. Before long, I was indirectly inciting conflict among ponies. My influence soon became direct, and my permanent form twisted into that of a draconequus. The brave hero, great in age, confronted me, and I grew angry. In my rage, I struck him dead. I thought I was safe, but his daughters, two very brave young mares, came to my throne wearing the Elements as necklaces and bangles and turned me to stone. Apparently, the gods favored them from afar, and granted them the status of the new Spirits of the World and your princesses, Luna and Celestia. From that day they could only wield the Elements in the most dire of circumstances, and the Elements lay in wait for the next heroes to come along. And come they did.”
Silence again blanketed the crater site as Phyrum locked eyes with each of the Elements. It was short lived, though. The group exploded into a cacophony of questions and theories, and nearby birds flew away, aerially stumbling in their haste. But, the monumental day was not yet over. A whirring came from behind the ponies, and it was quiet enough that it went unnoticed for the better part of a minute. Discord returned to a normal one creature zoo and stared at the small orb with incredulity. Slowly, other ponies began to notice it as well. When silence had finally returned to the crowd, the orb shined a light blue luminescence upon the ground.

Inside of that luminescence formed…

“A ghost! No, an alien! An alien-ghost?”

Pinkie Pie screamed at the top of her lungs, stirring other ponies into a panic. Most of the crater camp population began to run wildly about.

“I should have expected this,” The apparition muttered, before raising its voice. “Please remain calm. While I do have a spectral appearance, I can assure you that I am not a departed soul.”

“What are you then?” a pony responded, and the sudden change in mood momentarily perplexed the ghost.

“It would take time that we do not have to explain what I am, and just telling you would be pointless.”

“Tell us!” Pinkie chirped.

“I am a holographic representation of an artificial intelligence,” the specter responded, complete with a flat stare, met with blank ones in return. “I am also here to deliver a message to your leaders.”

“We are the leaders of this land,” spoke Celestia as she rose from her seat, and Luna followed. “And we would be glad to hear your message.”

The “holographic representation” straightened itself into a more formal stance.

“I am Eurisko, and I bring greetings from the empire of Humanity. Even now, an emissary ship drifts in orbit above your world,
brought here by the trace left by the meteor you study. The captain of this ship wishes to formally meet you. If you accept, he will come down tomorrow, and I will remain here to help you prepare for his greeting.”

The messenger finished his delivery with a bow, as Celestia responded.

“Tomorrow seems so very soon, yet neither I nor my sister could contain our anticipation much longer. It would be an honor to meet this captain.”

The messenger froze and flickered momentarily before responding.

“He extends his thanks.”

Celestia took this pause to scribble a note and blow it to the wind. Once she had assured it was safely on its way, she responded to the apparition.

“Please come with us to our command tent. We have much to discuss.”

The two ponies strode off purposefully, followed by the floating orb.
______________________________________________________________________________________________

“The message was taken well, captain. They’ll be ready and waiting.”

“Extend my thanks, Eurisko, and thank you.”

The captain leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. He knew what had to come next. If he wanted to communicate with the natives, he’d have to put himself under the Digital-Neural Data Transfer. The boys called it the Bitch Librarian. After steeling himself, he made his way down to the medical bay. As the machine came into view, he shuddered slightly.

“Its bark is worse than its bite,” he reassured himself. Waving over a nearby physician, he said “Doctor, can you upload the Eurisko’s translating algorithm into the uploading dock?”

“Yes sir.”

The captain slid himself into the machine, aligning his eyes with the yellow dots given for reference.

“Are you ready, sir?”

Now or never.

“Yes.”

A metal band clamped tight about his head, and small rods were inserted into his ear. Twin, microscopically thin needles lowered from the top of the machine and pierced the lenses of his eyes painlessly. A rush of characters and phrases shot through his head, causing him to grit his teeth. The download was over in a few short moments, and the machine retracted its apparatus. The captain slid out of the end of the machine, and shook himself. Strangely, the worst part of the machine was not the needles, but rather the electrical pulse of the transfer.

“Doctor, begin uploading this to the crew, but start with Del-Kadeth Squad. They’ll be accompanying me to the planet on the initial journey.”

“Yes sir.”
____________________________________________________________________________________________

After discussions of Discord’s revelations and the presence of a new race of mysterious beings looming high above ran late into the night, ponies began to gravitate towards their tents and their beds under the weight of weariness. Noticing this, and realizing her own fatigue, Rarity, politely excused herself and made her way to the comfort of the princess sized mattress she had been allotted. The bed sheets were comfortably welcoming, gently coaxing her form towards them as she slid delicately between them. As soon as her head pressed against the down pillow, she left the world as she knew it. The world of dreams took her for ransom, and she had no desire return.

Her dreams followed their usual pattern. Some made no sense, while others were full of spending time with her beloved Sweetie Belle, or hitting it big on the Canterlot fashion scene. She was at peace in her sleep. At least, until a new dream came across her vision, one as real as consciousness itself.

She found herself in the Boutique, working on her latest order for a nameless Fillydelphian client. The air in the room was slightly stale, and the mood… off. She carried on with her daily tasks for a time, before stepping out into Ponyville for some errands. However, no matter where she went, the cordiality and happiness that so defined the small town was noticeably absent. Ponies were short, bordering on rude when they talked to her, and a general air of emptiness and depression pervaded the town.

She eventually returned to her home, and was greeted by a stoic Sweetie Belle. Rarity looked at her sister, and sighed before addressing her.

“Really, darling, where did all of this misery and anger come from? It’s as if everypony has suddenly forgotten the value of cheeriness and politeness. It’s only been a day of this and I am already losing hope and patience with these ponies.”

Sweetie looked at her, and gave what would have been a comforting smile, save for coldness in her eyes. Then she spoke.

“But you don’t understand. There is no hope.”

Her voice was unnaturally deep and gravelly, giving Rarity pause enough to turn and glance at her sister. She screamed like she had never screamed before.

Sweetie still held the smile, but her pupils had expanded to cover the entirety of her eyes, and from within those bottomless pits, tendrils of shadow leaked forth. The sockets seemed to expand, and soon Rarity found herself falling into the darkness. After the fall, her hooves found solid ground. Around her, she saw her family and friends, all smiling as if nothing was wrong.
But as she watched, they were slaughtered by an unseen force, and their essence splattered across the room, and her. Before her very eyes, the majority of the corpses awakened and twisted horrifically. She could hear the cracking of bone and the tearing of flesh, as well as the sound of popping pustules as the bodies reformed into disgusting abominations of what they once were. Some had their limbs fuse, and their entrails would form extra ones, and others had grown entirely new appendages using their vital organs. They reached for her, grasped her body. She felt her own skin peel apart as their claws pulled at her legs, and she tried to lose consciousness in the pain, but she could not. With a heave, she felt herself split entirely.

She snapped awake, feeling no residual pain from her previous ordeal. She was in Ponyville. A dead, burning Ponyville. She was reduced to gibbering nonsense at this point, and only faintly cried out for help. She wandered for a great while, and found nothing but desolation. The absence of all ponies gnawed at her last straws of sanity, for she knew that there was something on the horizon. Soon, she began to feel weary, and collapsed upon the burning sand that lay beneath her.
She was prodded awake this time, and found herself surrounded by maddeningly horrific creatures of a different kind. Thousands of mouths, tentacles and eyes existed in every direction. The creatures tormented her by their mere visages and made her long for the vicious corpses of her friends and family rather than be faced with these new loathsome beasts. After a lifetime, they released her, and she fell yet again.

She slapped upon a surface of icy water and sunk a distance before coming to. When she did, it was so black she could see nothing. The water filled her lungs, and though she felt herself drowning, she wouldn’t die. Then, she felt something move in the abyss. It was colossal, disturbing the water around and causing her to float about in its wake. She was screaming as loud as she could, but the beast didn’t seem to notice as it continued its tormenting cycle, occasionally brushing up against her shaking frame, tormenting her psyche in ways she could never have imagined. She begged for release. Death would be a paradise for her now.

Then, a warming, calming light like brightest day cleaved the absolute darkness, and revealed the beast. The gigantic serpent turned and squinted at the light, before bellowing through the water at it. A massive thunderbolt burst from the light and smote the monster, causing it to burn to ash. Rarity looked toward the light, and a silhouette formed inside of it. Somehow, she knew deep in her heart that this was her salvation. The silhouette resolved into a large, winged biped with a legendary aura of power and benevolent authority. Rarity closed her eyes and looked away, sobbing uncontrollably. The being gently pulled Rarity in and cradled her, calming her tremors. After what may have been an eternity, Rarity calmed and looked up. His face, though undeniably alien, was inexplicably familiar, and he wore a look of fatherly concern. His eyes were a dark crimson, but they weren’t fueled by the hate that so usually defined that color. He brushed a tear from her eye and caressed her cheek, and she wrapped him in a tight hug. He spoke to her, his voice carrying the authority of a king of kings and the tenderness of a father with a newborn child.

“Fear not what lies in darkness, daughter mine. You have seen much evil that exists in our realm, but even though you may not see me, I shall always be at your side.”
He looked to the sky, and with one thunderous flap of his gigantic wings, they rocketed from the abyss. Before tearing from the depths, she chanced a glance back, and saw a creature in the darker depths built like her savior, but larger in size with pallid skin stretched taut across a grossly engorged musculature. It gazed at her cruelly with dead, reflective eyes. She looked back to her noble guardian, as they began to breach into the previous tier of her nightmare. The horrors of her fourth vision fled in his presence, the fires of her third vanished, her loved ones healed in her second, and as they burst from Sweetie Belle, she too returned to normalcy. Hope once again pervaded her dream, and he pulled her to the sky. At their collision, she awoke in bed, clutching her pillow tight, and surrounded by her concerned friends.
____________________________________________________________________________________________

A scream tore Rainbow Dash from sleep. She leapt out of her bed, and joined the rest of the Elements as they sprinted towards the source of the constant, blood-curdling shriek. They soon reached Rarity’s tent and ducked inside without ado, only to see her thrashing against the covers of her bed while screaming, her face pulled into an expression of extreme agony and utter terror.

“Wake up, Rarity!” Rainbow shouted, prodding her forcefully with a hoof.

“Come on!”

The girls all attempted to force her awake, but to no avail. She had reduced to frightened, yet slightly manic whimpers, but was still tossing on her bed. The flap of the tent then flew open with the sound of tearing cloth, and the two Princesses strode through. Luna made her way to the front, and released a burst of magic, closing her eyes. Rarity resumed screaming at the top of her lungs, trying to flee from an inescapable terror.

It wasn’t long before Luna too was screaming. She ripped herself out of Rarity’s dream, shaking with fear.

“Those nightmares… I’ve never…. I can’t…” she stammered.

“It’ll all be-“ Celestia attempted to interject.

“I can’t, Celestia… I can’t even reach Rarity!” she shouted. “Those nightmares….. weren’t hers. They were coming from
elsewhere…”

A deep thrum came from the object outside, unnoticed by the occupants of Rarity’s tent. Again it released the strange
droplets of energy, which drifted towards Rarity’s tent. As it reached her bedside, the group was unsure of the strange power, yet it slowly moved to caress her forehead. As soon as it touched, she calmed down significantly and clamped down on her pillow. It continued to brush her head, and soon, she awoke.

“Huh….hwah….Why is everyone here?”

“You were screaming in your sleep!” said Rainbow. “Things are seriously getting weird around here.”

“Oh… I suppose you wish to know why,” Rarity stated with trepidation.

“Of- of course!”

After pushing herself out of bed with a sigh, Rarity began to divulge the horrors she had witnessed. As she progressed down through each level of the nightmare she had endured, her voice broke, until she reached the intervention of her mysterious savior.

“Though the light that shined on me should have been blinding, it was soft and calming. He was so gentle, but my tormentors feared him just as I had feared them. He seemed to be…” Raity paused as she searched for the right phrase. “He was the worst nightmare of the very worst nightmares.”

“What did he look like, sugarcube?”

“He was tall, with two legs and two arms, a tail, and a giant pair of wings. He also had deep red eyes and smaller pointy ears.”

“Sounds awful familiar, don’t ya think?”

“Did he give you an explanation as to why you couldn’t wake up, or why I couldn’t help you?” Luna interjected.

“No Princess, he didn’t. I was too far gone to have understood anything more than his words of comfort,” Rarity replied with a forced chuckle. “I just didn’t know what to do… how to react…”

The princess looked down in consternation and a pause lingered for a short while until it was broken by Applejack.

“Well, y’all best get to bed, if you wanna be at your best for the visitors tomorrow. Rarity, since Ah know you probably can’t sleep, Ah’ll sleep in here.”

Rarity wordlessly stepped over to put a hoof around her friend.

“Applejack is right,” Celestia said. “We have an important day tomorrow, and we want to represent Equestria well to the newcomers.”

The ponies dispersed, and Applejack departed long enough to fetch her cot and bring it to Rarity’s tent. When she returned, she plopped down onto it, cooing softly as her body relaxed.

“G’night, sugarcube.”

“Sweet dreams, darling.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The morning came almost immediately by the reckoning of sleeping ponies. The girls yawned exaggeratedly as they pushed themselves out of bed and made their way outside. The day started slowly, but there was a growing bustle in preparation for the arrival of the alien visitation. They were so immersed in their work that they had utterly failed to notice the group of badge bearing ponies that had arrived in the night.

One of these ponies, a blue pegasus with a white mane was conversing urgently with Celestia, while Luna looked on with disapproval. Celestia suddenly stomped the ground after a statement, and the conversation ended. The pegasus made his way off to a command tent, while Celestia and Luna reconvened and strolled through the encampment.

“I still don’t see why you had to hide them from me,” Luna pouted. “I don’t need anything from them, but must you keep such secrets from a co-ruler of Equestria, not to mention your sister?”

“I apologize, but I have my reasons,” Celestia retorted.

“I suppose those shall remain secret as well,” Luna huffed.

Celestia merely rolled her eyes as the two continued to walk aimlessly through the site, as everyone around them continued to look busy. Eventually, the monotony was broken by the messenger orb.

“Are you ready, princesses?” the orb asked.

“Yes,” came their reply.

“Then may I have the access codes for the shield that we discussed?”

Without a sound, Discord pulled a particularly worn piece of parchment out of thin air, and offered it to the orb.

“I always forget the most important things, so I wrote them down,” he said, winking at the group.

The orb shined a fine blue light on the parchment, and paused. A few minutes passed before there was any noise.

“Look!” Rainbow cried out.

The crowd held its breath. Up in the sky, a hole was spiraling open, revealing night on the other side. Another few minutes passed until a massive piece of metal moved inside of the shield. A collective gasp ran through the crowd as the new object came fully into view. The sun’s light spilled across the hull of shining steel, producing a glare that burned bright in the eyes of the ponies on the ground. Eurisko took this moment of awe to introduce the craft.

“At two miles long, a quarter mile in diameter and nearly one and a half million tons, I present to you the Erde-Tyrrenian Imperial Star Craft: Road to the Rising Sun.”

Comments

[ArtyTheReader]

Keep writing! I like your style!

[A fat elephant]

I can't wait to hear more detailed specs on that thing