Chain of Dreams

by Hippocrene Artifex

Chapter 13

“Not there...”

Those two words stopped two mares and a filly dead on their tracks. At first, Purple Shade looked around in great fear for the source from whence those two hoarse words came but it was Gold Star that knew immediately and turned her head backwards. She did not need to hear them spoken for she felt them in the expansion of the colt’s lungs laid across her back.

It was the unnamed unicorn they found at the river with the filly, Snare. He seemed to have gained a measure of consciousness enough for him to open his eyes. That measure, however, was more than enough for the filly hop on her little hooves just before his head and speak joyously, “Yay, you’re awake! We’re going to Canterlot to see the Princesses.” And, with a rather too confident tone, she added, “And you are coming with us!”

Gold Star smiled fondly at the little pony that seemed to have a natural gift at finding what makes her feel happy. Upon the one hair-veiled eye visible to her, however, Gold saw a flash pass through and, again, he spoke with a whisper that was strained this once, “Not there...”

Shade approached the colt from Snare’s back and then lowered her head to gaze at his face. She could see his pupils shaking and his eyebrows sweating and offered a series of gentle coo’s to calm him down a bit, “ There, there. It’s alright. Yes, we’re going to Canterlot now to see Princess Celestia. Did you... did you come from there?”

At her gentle voice, the hitched breath of the colt calmed a bit and his eyes drooped. Both Gold and Shade nodded in agreement that this unicorn was far too exhausted than to be allowed to talk but it was at that moments that the voice spoke once more, “Canterlot... taken. I must escape... Queen Chrys... Chrysalis.”

With the last word he managed to utter, his eyes closed and his breath came out in a sigh and the silence that followed moments later was only interrupted by a muttered “Not again!” that came from Purple Shade.

If Gold Star was worried that this colt might be beyond her reach to heal him back to his hooves, she was now fearful that he might be beyond the reach of any medical help if a few simple words were taxing enough for him to faint afterwards. Shade’s fearful eyes sought out Gold’s but the latter’s eyes were downcast and gazing at the face of the colt while lost in deep thought. She did suspect, after all, that the colt they found on the river’s bank was bad news to them and their quest. The last word he uttered was the one she feared to no limit and yet it didn’t even cross their minds with everything they went through already: Chrysalis, the formidable Queen of the changelings that had mysteriously obtained magic powerful enough to defeat Princess Celestia herself once before, but could that be true, they both wondered? Gold shook her head to clear it. She did not know what to do or where to go from there. She turned her head to her other companion but only to find Shade in a state of agitation and fright.

Purple Shade’s fear expressed within the words she spoke out, “Queen Chrysalis? She is in Canterlot? We can’t go there now! We mustn’t even be within eyeshot of the castle! We have to go somewhere else!”

Gold was slightly taken aback by these exclamations that she had to shush her companion, “Calm down, Shade! We can’t lose focus. We need to think!”

But thinking simply eluded the frighten, purple-maned mare. She had just escaped capture in her very home and now, it seems, she was about to fall in another. Indeed, Purple Shade felt as if the very trees were closing in on her and the very shadows felt as if about to turn into changelings with snapping jaws. Gold Star continued to reach out to her friend, but felt shaken as well and her hooves felt as if they hardly could hold her weight, let alone the added weight of the colt laid across her back and so she laid him on a soft spot of grass and walked unsteadily. The idea of heading to her home in Brightwood did cross her mind but the idea of carrying the colt across a four-day trip was not appealing to her not to mention that the direct route passed through Ponyville, the very place they knew would be swarming with changelings by now.

Shade was simply helpless.Too frightened to move or feel while the older mare before her appeared on the verge of breaking inside herself. She wanted to do something to dispel the fear-saturated air, but she couldn’t, she just wanted to put as miles as she between her and the changelings. Oh, yes, a little thought whispered in her head, You were hopelessly helpless before, but still you found a way. You just ran away… ‘I-I didn’t run away.’

You just ran away!

The last words kept ringing silently within her mind and across her glazed eyes. She blinked back to reality when Gold shook her hoof before her eyes, “Shade? Shade?! Are you okay?”

Gold had pulled her away from the colt and filly and came to sit near a tree trunk and she asked again, “What did you say? You were muttering incoherently.”

“We have to run away...” Shade repeated the same words as the memories of another, and rather horrid, life seeped out of her mind.

“Run away?” Gold asked, looking at the mare before her as if she had lost her wits, “Away where, Shade?” Her eyes, then, sought the face of the unicorn before she continued, “Look! Ponyville fell to their hooves right in front of us so who knows what other cities and towns had fallen... maybe even Canterlot! Look at how badly hurt he is!”

Hesitantly, Shade asked, “You... believe what he said? About Canterlot?”

“I-I’m not sure, but,” Replied Gold with some hesitation, “I don’t think he would lie about this or be delusional. Look at him! He’s badly wounded and I don’t think he just fell, not to mention...”

But Gold was silenced by Shade, already knowing what she was thinking. “We don’t know that for sure. Something tells me that you’re not as convinced yourself. I think we need to get to Canterlot and see for ourselves. Canterot is not too far ahead and our home... w-we have no place else to go other than forward. Just like me not too long ago.”

There was a strange light within the young mare’s eyes as she spoke those words. ‘Hope’, Gold Star recognised the feeling to be. A calming light that silenced Gold’s fluttering heart and made room for her thoughts to breath a bit. She did not know for certain what Purple Shade meant and indeed it was a dangerous quest they would embark upon. Gold Star only knew how dangerous it can become, especially with the added company of an unconscious, nameless colt and an over excited filly. Purple Shade patted her wing across Gold’s back and saw the features of the face before her relax a bit. Gold nodded and smiled gratefully; she never thought of herself as the leading type and to have the responsibility dumped upon her unceremoniously made it even more worse. She felt a bit flustered by the idea, but knew that she could count Purple Shade if she needed a helping hoof just as she did now.

And so, it was with a renewed heart that Gold took to her hooves once more, gathering the unicorn colt up across her back and the filly Snare hopping right after them. Purple Shade had pleaded, persisted, and insisted on taking taking turns in carrying the colt but Gold simply refused all her advances by explaining that she had the strength to do it and that they will need every ounce of strength Shade possesses for the trek that lay ahead. They had decided to move on and not sleep through the night to gain distance while using the cover of the moonless night but, as Canterlot came into view, they clearly saw that the words the unicorn uttered before he fainted once more were not the work of anypony’s imagination.

--o0o--

Indeed, as they reached the foot of the outskirting mountains, they saw large rubble of something, that was perhaps neatly carved before. Jutting out of the river the jagged debris only made them wonder if the unconscious colt hadn’t only escaped the changelings, but was even lucky enough to survive the falling rubble.

Their good fortune held on as they moved around the mountain; no changeling troops came between their path and so they figured that these forces, now finished with Canterlot, were busy herding ponies elsewhere. Despite their determined hearts, the sight of the once glorious city falling into such decay made their prospects appear grim and it even made it worse that they had to turn their backs to the city in hope of finding a sanctuary somewhere else eastward.

The start of dawn the next day, brought the sun which hadn’t yet risen above the line of the horizon just yet, and they decided to take a rest near a small stream. Its voice was bubbling and served to calm their exhausted bodies while they drank their fill and tried to pour some water into the colt’s muzzle without choking him. Shade was gazing towards the visible glow in the east, telling of how soon the sun would rise while her thoughts wandered, “How come the sun rises? Where is the moon? Where are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? What does it all mean?”

These questions and many more Gold saw in Shade’s eyes as the latter turned toward her. Tearful eyes that quickly changed into shock while she yelled, “Look!”

Gold turned her head in the direction of Shade’s pointing hoof to see it there: it was a train standing underneath a water tower. Under the dark night, they must not have seen it but now, they saw it clear enough and it was starting to move. With a lurch, Gold was swiftly on her hooves and directed a command towards Shade, “Go! We have to stop it! Flag it down. Snare?”

Snare was instantly before Gold with one hoof raised over her forehead in a salute, “Yes, ma’am.” It was a scene that would have made Gold laugh fondly under different circumstances and so Gold instructed her none too kindly, “Hop onto Shade’s back while she tries to stop the train and stay there. I will be right at your heels.”

Snare jumped. The moment she was on Shade’s back, Shade took of in a speedy gallop. Realizing that Shade left her saddlebags behind, Gold placed them on her back and then nudged and rolled the colt above. The added weight of both items was taxing, she had never hefted so much before, but it would never cross her mind to leave the colt and run for herself, “I was saved once before” Gold thought to herself as she threw the colt across her back, “And, now, it is my time to repay a debt. Please, wings... help me this once”

Such were the thoughts of Gold as she made to run in Shade’s wake. She was beyond exhausted and her muscles screamed in protest after the events of a full day of toil and run. Flight was out of question, what with the added weight of the colt across her back, but still she opened her wings wide and flapped them with each galloping jump she made to propel herself forward.

Far ahead, and still going on, Shade was shouting at the top of her lungs. She could feel Snare trying hard to remain on her back by clinging to her mane but she could not slow down; the train seemed to be gaining speed as it moved from under the water tower. She couldn’t risk flying for fear that she might not knock the filly off her back and even though she was sure that she could catch it if she flew, the other mare, a long way behind her, was on her mind; she simply couldn’t leave her. However, no matter how she jumped, flailed her hooves or yelled her loudest, no one on the train noticed her to stop. Shade’s hooves started to falter... she felt as if she were beyond the hope of being saved that she very nearly choked on her own tears.

Shade’s head bowed just when she decided that it was no use to chase after the train but that was when she felt two tiny hooves being firmly placed on her temple. In a passing thought, one that she was just about to mouth in words, Shade wondered what Snare was doing when she could hardly hold on to her but a flickering light silenced that thought any any other words she might have uttered.

Raising her head slightly up, she saw the little filly. Her head was bowed down and her eyes were tightly shut in concentration. Her lips were moving and, when Shade flipped her ears, she heard the tiny voice muttering, “Please ‘horn’, just this once. Do it for Miss Shade, not for me... please, give us some light just like my mom used to do.”

Still doing her best to catch up, Gold was about to shout at Shade to stop and follow her back into the woods when a tiny star shone ahead. It was not a star in the sky and, even though the sun was just minutes away from rising over the horizon, the light of dawn obscured most stars but not this one because the light came from no star... it came from Snare. Gold was so mesmerized that she very nearly tripped but, still, she could not take her eyes of the little filly that had climbed barely above Shade’s head as the latter ran ahead.

It was magic, she knew that easily. Though not at all like the glowing light any unicorn trained to use magic could invoke for it seemed so weak and fragile that any gust of wind might have blown it away like a candle’s light. Yet, in the semi-darkness of the dawn, it shone like a beacon across the distance from the tip of Snare’s horn to Gold, urging her to pick up her pace, and all the way to the train, pleading with it to halt on its tracks.

“What do I know of Magic? I’m just a Pegasus,” Gold thought in wonder while her speed increased despite the strain as if her very soul answered the call of the day-star but it was not she alone that did it: way ahead of them, they heard a long screech betelling of a train coming to a sudden stop... a high-pitched noise that was sweeter than any music they could have chosen to hear.

Gold rejoiced at the sight of the train’s halt, her legs feeling like lead blocks after so much exertion. She would have collapsed altogether but her perseverance told her that she would have to reach the train itself before she could slow down. Snare and Shade were already in the midst of speaking with one of the train engineers by the time Gold arrived completely out of breath.

As she boarded the train, the engineer only spared her half a glance before returning to his verbal chastising on the pegasus, “Flying out alongside of a train, what were you thinking?!”

“Please, sir,” Purple Shade tried to make herself more assertive, “We were just trying to flag down your train to hopefully travel with the rest of you.”

“Yes.” Gold panted heavily, “And we have... have somepony who is injured,” Gold stepped in to offer to their plea. The engineer looked apologetic now that he saw the situation the ponies were in. That is, until the conductor appeared beside him with a dark rimmed frown. “What’s the problem Coal Duster?” the Conductor asked and eyed each of the ponies before him.

“Um, these ponies say they are refugees from Ponyville and wish to travel with us to safety and get some medical attention for their friend here.” replied the engineer with a questioning look directed at the conductor.

Snare smiled and waved innocently to the conductor, who ignored her as he surveyed rest of the ponies again, “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow this.” Snare’s smile dropped almost instantly to be replaced by a dejected frown.

“Wait a minute! What?” Gold jaw dropped at the statement, “Why can’t we travel with you? I know we don’t have any bits for tickets but, please, this stallion needs to see a doctor!”

The conductor took another look over Gold’s back to see the unconscious stallion and a few of the minor wounds he had across his body. He looked like he was contemplating something before he spoke again. “I’m sorry miss, but I can’t allow you to board this train.”

Gold nearly snapped at the reply, “Why not?!” She had a few choice words to use in this conversation, but Gold would sooner chastise herself before swearing, and especially in front of a filly. The conductor went back to contemplating his next words when the engineer went to whisper in his ear. Gold couldn’t hear much of what the engineer was saying though there was something in there that she recognized; ‘maybe changelings’. Gold almost stomped her hooves, ready to battle against the accusation when something stopped her from doing just that.

“Excuse me, Mr. Aboard,” the group was interrupted by a new arrival from within the train. A dusty brown earth stallion, with an hourglass for a cutie mark, appeared from behind the conductor and the engineer and remarked, “I hate to be a bother, but I noticed that the train had stopped, well, a second time. Not including the the stop for water tower, but I guess that couldn’t be helped what with steam locomotives needing steam to operate. Which in turns needs water and such, but I was wondering if something was the matter. Well beyond the need to restock the reservoir.” The stallion seemed to be ignoring the ponies just outside the train and procured an old fob watch from underneath his tie lapel; however he managed to hide it underneath the seemingly small place was beyond anypony, “We seem to be currently three minutes and twenty-seven seconds behind schedule now, oh well three minutes and thirty-two seconds actually. Darn it all and this thing, always a few seconds behind... hmm, oh hello there. Sorry for being so rude. I didn’t see you lot there.” The stallion seemed to have finally recognize the distinctive cough of interruption coming from Gold Star outside the train. Snare snickered at the stallion’s lack of observation while Gold Star and Purple Shade felt like it had all been intentional.

“Excuse me, sir,” the conductor asserted himself into the conversation, “But I must ask you to return to your cabin. We will be departing shortly, but we have a small situation to take care of first.”

Gold Star flared her wings, “Small situation?! You were just about to accuse us of being changelings and don’t you dare say otherwise! All we want is to get our friend here to a doctor!”
The conductor backed off a bit from the now aggressive pegasus and tried to think of a way to defuse the situation but, before he could, the brown stallion from before jumped in, “Now now, Miss...”

“Gold Star.” The Pegasus supplied.

“Miss Gold Star. You have to understand that due to the recent events that had befallen Equestria, it is perfectly reasonable for someone like ‘All Aboard’ here to be a bit wary of those around him. Especially if four wandering ponies that just show up and just happen to be out at the break of dawn looking for some help.” The strange stallion’s words carried an air of certainty and trust which helped Gold calm down and think straight. He was right in that regard; she would probably be just as worried if she was in the conductor’s horseshoes. “Though if I were to be so blunt, these ponies are most definitely not changelings.”

The conductor, as well as everypony else that was present, just gawked at the stallion’s sudden declaration. Nopony could honestly come up with a rebuttal over the bluntness of the earth pony’s words and just continued to stare at him as if waiting to see if he was joking or had anything more to say. Alas, he just opted to smile dumbly and read each pony’s expression with an inward chuckle. “Well, if this was all the fuss was about, I think that it’s about time that we be off, wouldn’t you say?” The earth pony turned away and trotted off with a merry tune humming on his lips.

“I guess we better be off. Coal Duster? Man the engine, I’ll escort these ponies aboard.” It wasn’t until the conductor spoke up that everpony regained their own senses.

“Wait, what?” Asked Purple Shade in pure astonishment.

The conductor smiled lightheartedly toward Purple Shade’s questioning gaze, no more suspicion hanging on his expression, “That gentlecolt has helped us out in more ways than one when we first departed from Canterlot and I’ve come to trust his judgement.” They all looked over toward the stallion in question just as he picked up a piece of stray coal that fell from coal cart upfront and licked it while mumbling something under his breath. All the ponies simply gave him a strange look. “Even if he tends to have some…strange habits.”

Not wanting to really question the stallion themselves, the group of refugees left him to his own devices while they were escorted aboard the train as promised. The weight of such a strenuous day was finally settling in and left the group fighting against a blanket of fatigue bearing on them. Maybe once they had reached their destination they would be in a better condition to venture out on their own against the army of changelings that had decimated their homes. Quite the task ahead, Gold thought just as they entered an unoccupied compartment.

As they boarded the train, and despite everything they suffered since the day before, they somehow felt that this was the happiest day of their lives.