Trus who lives the life of a Deus Ex Machina runs into Luna on another dimensional trip after another one of his deaths. Disclaimer: This was pretty much just written as a personal story.
Trus who lives the life of a Deus Ex Machina runs into Luna on another dimensional trip after another one of his deaths. Perhaps he is not as much of a Deus Ex Machina as one might think, but he still is there right when he needs to be and does exactly what he needs to in order for get whatever is supposed to get done, done. What's he got to do with Luna? Well she did do something that made her quite regretful.
PS. This was started and continued as a exploration of myself and my character Trus, to test my skills as a writer, to make something that I hoped my God would be happy with (Yeah, you read that), and to see if a character that lives such a life can make an interesting story.
Consciousness filled his mind. He was relaxed due to his last death being calm and foreseen.
Trus smiled for a moment and then it quickly turned into a look of puzzlement. That smile didn’t feel right. As a matter of fact his whole body felt off. He hadn’t opened his eyes yet so he hadn’t seen himself, but since he was in such a good mood at the moment, he decided to figure out why he felt so weird simply by feeling his body through the use of his nervous system and muscles.
His head felt way too big for his body, but it oddly felt plenty light enough for the rest of his form to support. He felt wings a tail and what felt like a mane, and then he noticed a lack of fingers and toes. Where’s my phalanges’? he thought to himself, getting excited and more curious rather than more puzzled and confused.
He started thinking through all his forms (more specifically his newer ones) and after a brief moment one struck him. Pony! That’s it! His eyes shot open with the realization and he viewed his newest form excitedly.
I’m in the land of ponies! He thought, now getting filled with the wonder that almost always came with going someplace new.
He got up from his place on the unfamiliar floor he had been on and his excitement and curiosity both got shot down the moment he realized he was in someone’s room… And they were asleep in bed… And it wasn’t an ordinary bed.
The bed, and the rest of the room seemed quite regal, though the color scheme seemed a little dark for royalty. The colors matched those of the night sky and there were even objects in the room that were either in the shape of the moon or had the moon engraved on them. Blinds were covering up windows, making the room even darker and blocking out the sun that was about to start setting.
Trus figured that the pony had recently gotten to bed, due to the sun going down, but then came a knock at the door.
“Princess,” a feminine voice called, and Trus’s heart sank. Princess? You’ve got to be kidding me!
“Princess Luna,” the voice called again, “the sun is about to set. We need you up to raise the moon.” Wait what?
“Alright, alright we are up.” the pony in bed groaned. “Tell my sister that we will be there short-”
Trus had frozen sitting and staring at the door, but he knew that the pony in the bed, Princess Luna, had just noticed his presence. Well, here we go…
In a situation like this Trus usually decided to get as much info across to both parties as possible, and to do that he’d need to get the princess to listen. His best idea for that was to do the least expected thing he could think of. He turned his head to look at Luna, raised a hoof, smiled, waved and said “Hello” loud enough for the pony outside the door to hear. “I’m Trus,” he continued “and…I’m sorry for being in your room. I apologize sincerely.” He stood and bowed. “I-” He got cut off by the door to the room being swung open, as a female guard burst in and began glaring at him.
“Who art thou?!” She asked sternly and full of authority.
Trus, turning his head to look at her, but not getting up from his bowing position, stared back for a slight moment before answering. “Trus, Trus Nam.” He then stood and continued. “I’m a dimensional time traveler whom pops in wherever I can help. Though no, I have no idea how this situation can help.”
“Help?” Princess Luna piped in, sounding un-amused. “How could a mad colt such as thou help?”
“I don’t know.” Trus answered seemingly unaffected by the insult. “I don’t see where I’m going to end up or what the problem could be until I get to where I’m going.” He smiled. “Sometimes I never learn what the problem is. I just go where my magic leads me.”
“Oh sure mister time traveler,” said the guard obviously not believing it, “I’m sure you can help out from the dungeons. Now come with me.”
Trus took a second and then in a completely calm and somewhat peppy tone said “Ok.”
-
The dungeons weren’t so bad. They seemed to be well maintained and there was plenty of hay around to…eat or sleep on…Trus didn’t know.
He had been placed in a small cell with no window, but a good amount of that hay he didn’t know what to do with. He had spent his time there thinking about what had happened or getting comfortable with his new form.
On the way down Trus had tried with a little success to get the guard who lead him down to the dungeons to loosen up a bit. He had found out that her name was Golden Shield and that she liked to play along with jokes (which is how he had gotten her to loosen up). Her main and tail were the color of gold and her coat was a beautiful silver, which, Trus thought, looked absolutely amazing with her matching gold and silver armor. Her eyes stood out as the only un-matching color of royal purple.
Luna’s colors had been hidden by the shadows of her room so Trus couldn’t quite tell what they had been.
As for himself his coat was a pastel green, his main and tail were the six colors of the rainbow, and he had wings that looked too short to fly with. As for his eyes he hadn’t gotten lucky enough to find a reflective surface nearby to check. Though, three colors came to mind when he thought about the time he had come up with the idea for the form.
There was one thing that Trus had noted as odd when they were heading down. Just before they had left the sun was still quite high, but a few minutes later he had gotten a glimpse outside and it was completely dark out.
Trus had gotten a glimpse of the world once, just before he had created his pony form, but he hardly knew anything about it. All he really could remember was that it seemed like an exciting place full of interesting ponies and that it might be fun to go there. Other than that he didn’t seem to know a thing.
After a while Trus started a conversation with another guard asking him what the hay was for. He learned that it was supposed to be just for bedding which was surprising because there was already bed in his cell. The guard admitted being confused as well about that. He said that his name was Dark Sentry.
Dark was right! His whole body was black, along with his mane, tail and a pair of wings. The only things that weren’t black were his eyes. They were a calm, light, pastel purple. And of course he wore black armor of all things.
They talked for a while and Trus kept on getting lost and had to ask a lot of questions when Dark started talking about just about anything that had to do with anything outside of the dungeon. So they mostly talked about what the hay could be used for… But Trus did get to find out that Luna would raise and lower the moon and her sister Celestia would do the same with the sun, (Which explained how it had gotten so dark so fast) along with bits and pieces of what the land (known as Equestria) was like. There was a lot more problems in Equestria than Trus had ever cared to imagine.
While they were talking and laughing at the crazy hay ideas they had been concocting someone else had decided to pay a visit.
“Excuse us,” said a voice beside the two that both Dark and Trus recognized to be Luna’s, “we would like to talk to the prisoner in private.”
Dark turned around and bowed, “of course your highness.” He said, before trotting away.
Trus waited for Luna to stand in front of him and start the conversation. She didn’t look happy. Trus noted it, along with the colors of her person, the fact that she both had wings and a horn and that she stood twice a tall as he did. Her coat was a deep blue. Her mane and tail were slightly lighter hue of the same color, they had what looked like tiny stars shimmering in them and they flowed like ocean waves in slow motion. Her eyes were also blue and lighter than the rest, but still wouldn’t be considered bright.
“We have some questions for thou and thou will answer them as they are asked.” Luna demanded.
Trus’s eyebrows raised, as he responded, “Sure.” He said.
“Good.” She said flatly. “How didst thou get into our chambers without alerting the guard?”
“I probably just materialized and woke up directly into your room. Sorry about that again…”
“Why dost thou continue thy lies?” She asked, annoyed with his response.
“Would you rather I lie? I’m not very good at it by the way.”
“Silence! There will be no more of thy mockery.”
“Ok…I’ll try my best.”
“How didst thou get into our chambers?” She asked again.
Trus rolled his eyes, tilted his head and sighed. “How about I just tell you everything?”
Luna looked very displeasingly at him for a moment before responding, “Very well…” she said slowly.
“I’ve told you that I’m a dimensional time traveler,” Trus began, “but I am also a shape shifter. And I do neither at will. I…live many lives and when I die I usually jump to another place in time, space, or another dimension, unless I jump right back to where I was before. Usually when I die I come back to the place I died just as it happens later in my existence. So if I died right now you’d see me come back right when it happens, but for me it’s probably been so long that I won’t even remember you. Also when I go to another place I take one of my forms that best fits the place I go to.”
“Now when I come to a place my magic takes bits and pieces of the world around and it forms a body for myself, and when I die those pieces go back to where they were before. The same thing happens to parts of my body if they get disconnected from the rest of my being.”
“Now when I’m traveling from one place to another I’m not conscience,” Trus continued, “and my magic takes me wherever I am able to help out the best. I don’t control it beyond setting it up to work that way. So I have no idea where I’m going to end up. That’s probably how I ended up in your room since I remember waking up on the floor there…” Trus finished and waited for Princess Luna’s response.
During Trus’s explanation Luna’s features had hardened and then softened into a, still hardened, more quizzical look.
“You expect us to believe this?” she asked in a much softer tone than Trus was expecting.
“Ha, no.” Trus chuckled, smiling weekly. “No one ever does.” Trus looked away still smiling “But I like sticking to the truth anyway… As I said before, I’m not a good liar.” He looked back to the princess, his smile going away. “I can prove the part where my body returns to the places, where my magic took the pieces it took to make my body, from. All I need is to get a cut and any blood that comes out will change back and go back to where it came from.”
Luna looked somewhat disturbed by Trus’s offer at first, but her face hardened again and she nodded. “All thou needs is a cut?”
Trus nodded, “Just a big enough one to draw blood.”
She nodded and her horn began to glow.
Trus nearly fell over as one of his hoofs involuntarily lifted on its own. After stabilizing himself he looked up wondrously at Luna’s horn and then down at his lifted hoof. “Heh, cool.” He chuckled, looking back up at Luna.
Luna only reacted by looking up at Trus’s face and then back to his hoof. They stayed that way for a bit, Luna apparently turning something over in her head. Then she let out a breath that she had been holding and her features tightened again.
Trus felt a sharp, shallow cut being made on his leg and looked down to see a small amount of blood starting to flow out.
Luna moved in to get a closer look and Trus held out his leg a little bit farther for her.
At first nothing happened, but once the blood had started to run it started to change from red to a pure, radiant white. It began dissolving, floating into the air and fading off as it got farther away.
Luna was wide eyed, her mouth hung open and she had backed up some, while Trus just stared off behind her and off into oblivion.
There wasn’t much movement for a while. Luna would occasionally follow a drop of glowing…whatever it was now, until it disappeared into the cool dungeon air and then would look back at the cut where it sourced from. Trus would only snap out of oblivion for a second to check up on Luna’s reaction and then find a new place to look so he could zone back out.
It continued like that and then Luna started to close and reopen her mouth as though she were trying to come up with something to say. But instead of words she closed her mouth and relaxed a bit as her horn began to glow.
Trus snapped back out of oblivion for the last time as he felt something happening to his cut. He looked down to see it closing up and vanishing from his leg as though it had never been there. Once it was healed he put his hoof back down and looked up at Luna, who was moving in close again.
“Other worlds,” she said, barely above a whisper, “what are they like?”
“Err…” Trus stalled. “You’re a princess, so wouldn’t you have things to do that require your presence?”
Luna’s head dropped a little and she let out a sigh. “Yes…but…” Another sigh, “It’s not that important…”
Trus took a mental note of her reaction. “I don’t want to take you away from things that need your attention,” he said, “but I would be glad to tell you plenty of stuff.”
Luna looked back towards the entrance of the dungeon but didn’t respond beyond that.
“I could tell you a little now and then you could perform your duties so you don’t get in trouble and I don’t get in more.” Trus suggested. “Then I could tell you more sometime after that.”
Luna looked back at Trus and then looked away again, seeming to ponder his suggestion. “I think I have a better idea.” She said, standing up. “I’ll be right back.” She trotted off in the direction of the entrance and where Dark had gone.
Trus watched her walk away until the wall of his cell blocked Luna from view. He sat there for a bit and then suddenly feeling rather tired he turned around and flopped backwards onto the bed of hay. He looked at the ceiling for a second, then laid his head back and closed his eyes. He just continued laying there and began trying to think of the possibilities of what was about to happen next.
It wasn’t too long until Trus heard hoof steps again along with the sound of rattling metal. He rolled over so that his head was facing the cell bars. He opened his eyes and looked out of the cell to see Luna coming back into view, past the wall, and carrying keys to the cell with her magic. He wasn’t very surprised though, as letting him out was one of the possibilities Trus had thought up while he had been laying there.
Luna unlocked the cell door and waited for Trus to come out after it had been opened.
“I was just getting comfortable too…” Trus jested, as he closed his eyes again and let out a suppressed yawn. He then got up and began walking towards the door. He stopped though, and looked back at the pile of hay.
“Is something the matter?” Luna asked, in her more serious tone.
“Um…not sure. I’m usually completely full of energy after one of my resurrections…but…I just yawned…” Trus said, turning back to face Luna once he had finished talking.
“Is it that abnormal?”
“For me…very.” Trus shook his head. “Eh, forget it...for now at least.” He continued his walk out of the cell. “So no guards, or are they coming?”
“Dark Sentry is getting a few others to join us at the observatory.”
Trus nodded in reply.
“Let us be off then.” Luna said starting to walk. “You may begin telling me all about the other worlds.”
…
Trus had talked most of the time on their way. He had asked if Luna had any specific questions before he began, but other than that Luna only spoke when she had a question or when Trus asked if she understood what he was talking about.
There were two guards waiting at the observatory when they got there. One was Dark and the other was a blue eyed dark gray stallion with dark purple, gothic style, armor.
“Hello!” Trus said cheerfully to the new guard. “And hello again!” He said to Dark.
“Hello.” Dark replied.
“Why are thou here and not back down in the dungeons?” Luna asked. “And why are there only two of thee?”
“Well um, I found three others,” Dark explained “but one had to stay there and the other offered to take my post.”
“Hmm…very well.” She replied. “ Continue Trus.”
“Alright, but let me ask something first.”
“Very well.” Luna consented.
“What’s your name?” Trus asked the other guard.
The guard seemed somewhat surprised at the question and took his time to respond. “Dar-” he began, “no sorry Night Wings.”
Trus raised an eyebrow and smiled “forget your own name?”
“Only for a split second.” Night answered looking a little embarrassed.
“I forget things all the time.” Said Trus. “Now where were we?” he asked turning back to Luna.
The observatory was hardly what Trus had thought it would be, only because, there were no telescopes at all. The room had plenty of star charts and instruments to measure the stars and such. Trus just had hoped there would have been a telescope or two to use. The observatory was on the top of the highest tower in the castle with a set of stairs leading to the roof through a trap door. The rooftop was wide with the edges reaching out past the walls underneath. It helped to block out the light below so anyone who stood there could see the stars clearly.
…
“The whole place went up in flames. There were enough explosives to take out half the entire army.”
“And you were right in the middle of it?” Dark asked.
“Yeah. A long time later I got to go back years after it had happened there and I learned that the army I had been helping had actually been planning to use those explosives to take out cities of innocent people and force a surrender. So even though I totally messed up it turns out it all worked out anyway.”
“Wow.” Night Wing remarked.
Luna was listening intently while Dark seemed only mildly interested. Night hadn’t believed a word.
The four of them had stayed up there most of the night, the others asking occasional questions and listening to Trus talk about the places he’d been and of some of the adventures he had been on.
Both Dark and Night had started out very skeptically and had even questioned Luna why she was listening to him, but as Trus went on they became more and more convinced due to the details Trus had been putting in. However they became more skeptical when some of the answers Trus gave were “I don’t know” or "I don’t remember.” Those answers increased as the night went on and all of the questions became more and more specific. They only stopped when someone needed to use the restroom and when Dark asked a reoccurring question near the end of the night. Trus responded to it by saying “Enough, alright? I don’t remember and I’m not going to tonight while I’m busy talking.”
“Why don’t we stop for tonight,” Night suggested, “We’ve been at this all night.”
They others looked at him and then up at the moon which was nearing the horizon.
“Oh the time for the sun comes too soon.” said Luna, sounding less than a little disappointed. She had by far been the most intrigued in what Trus knew. She had been the main reason they had continued all night. The other reasons were that Night and Dark had gotten into it as well and Trus never ran out of new things to tell them.
“We could continue this tomorrow night.” Dark suggested. “Well, so long as no pony has anything to do.”
“Yes…” Luna said, letting out a deep breath, “I do not have anything important happening soon, but as Trus has pointed out, I should not neglect my duties.” Luna let out a sigh.
“Well princess,” Night began, “It’s not like Trus is going anywhere until he gets his sentence for sneaking into your room.”
“He did not sneak in, he appeared there.” Luna defended him. “Hast thou not been listening?”
“I have,” Night retorted “and it’s all been wild stories. What proof has he shown you that has gotten you so convinced?”
Luna opened her mouth to respond, but stopped and instead turned her attention to Trus. “Trus thy hoof.” She commanded.
Trus only reacted by raising his eyebrows and then one of his front legs.
“I will show thee instead!” Luna declared. Her horn lit and a small cut appeared on Trus’s leg.
Luna stopped talking and Trus decided to give an explanation. “You know the resurrection stuff I told you about that happens when I die?” The two pegasi nodded, even though they had confused looks on their faces from Luna’s actions.
After a brief explanation and a show, Night was looking rather stunned while Dark seemed to be unfazed. “So how do we know you didn’t get your blood enchanted or something by another pony?” Dark asked, quizzically.
Trus was taken aback a bit by the question but recovered with a smile and saying. “I like you, and I guess you don’t unless you can detect that sort of thing normally. See my magic is really hard to detect and probably very different than the magic you’re used to. So if you can detect anything it should mean I’m a fake, but if nothing then I’m the real thing.”
“And how do we know it’s not an external source?” Luna asked, with a look of concerned on her face.
Luna’s question really took Trus off guard and he just stood there looking rather stunned. He snapped out of it when she raised an eyebrow at him. “Sorry, wasn’t expecting you to ask anything.”
“Do you take me as a fool,” she asked, “To believe everything you say even when there is reasonable doubt?”
Trus gave her a hard, un-amused stare, “I hate to judge others,” he said with a matter of fact tone in his voice, “I do my best to not take anyone as fool or anything else unless they prove, or near prove, that they are that way. No I don’t think you are a fool,” He turned his head away, but gave her one last look to say, “You’re question is all too good of one anyway.” He looked up at the sky, now too bright to show any stars. “My magic works externally,” he said. “If you can detect it while it’s at work then you should be able to tell a difference between it and the magic in your world…”
“Very well, but it will have to wait,” said Luna, her tone calm but stern, “I have to lower the moon for my ponies.”
Trus was returned to his cell where he slept for the day and got to know another guard named Light.
“Just Light?” Trus asked.
“Yehup.”
“Cool. How’d you end up guarding the dungeons?”
“My turn.”
“Ah.”
“How’d you end up here?” Light asked.
“Woke up in Luna’s chambers.”
“Wha-ha ha ha.” Light began laughing. “Sure, sure,” He said when he stopped laughing, “what’s the real reason?”
“Woke up in Luna’s cambers.” Trus repeated.
“Seriously?”
“Yehup.”
“Like…”
“Let’s just say a teleport spell went amiss.”
“But…there are enchantments.”
“A very special teleport spell went amiss.”
“…O-kay.”
Light was a pegasi whom was all white except for his green eyes. Trus spent his time talking to him after waking up, until…
Light from the dungeon windows was climbing up the walls letting them know it was starting to get late in the day. Light had been sitting next to Trus’s cell there were no other prisoners to guard so he had stayed by Trus most of the day, especially when they started to talk. The two weren’t talking at the time, having run out of things to talk about for the moment, when Light stood all of a sudden and bowed to someone out of view.
Luna? Trus thought to himself. Or sister? Or someone…pony else?
It was not Luna or any other besides the sister, Celestia. Trus had heard her name the previous night.
As she walked down the dungeon hall and passed through the light from the windows she seemed to light up the entire hall with her white coat. When she came up to Trus’s cell Trus had his eyebrows raised in curious bewilderment but was able to keep from staring by glancing at Light before taking a bow himself. Did I bow for Luna? Trus thought to himself, Yes in the bedroom.
“You may stand.” Celestia said.
Light had been kneeling while Trus had only lowered his head and lifted a hoof. Then they both returned to standing position.
Celestia began the conversation. “I have heard that you were found in my sisters bedchambers last night and I would like to know why?”
“Why?” Trus repeated, looking rather perplexed.
“Yes.” Celestia confirmed.
Trus shook his head slightly, “Sorry I wasn’t expecting that exactly.”
Celestia just waited.
“Didn’t Luna tell you?”
“I chose to speak with you first because information tends to become skewed when it comes from a secondary source.”
“So you didn’t even talk to Luna?”
“No.”
“Alright.” Said Trus. “I have no personal reason for being there,” he said going right into his recount of everything that had happened and his explanation of everything about himself that he had told to Luna and the others, minus the stories of his adventures.
Celestia didn’t react much throughout Trus’s entire explanation. She had retained a non-expressive look the whole time that left Trus with little idea how she had taken the information. After Trus had finished his speech he sat in silence as Celestia stood there. It puzzled Trus how she could have stood there the whole time and not have cramped up. Then she looked down and began stretching her legs.
There we are. She still has quite a bit of discipline though.
“Your story is quite a wild one.” Celestia said. “But according to what Golden Shield has told me, about how you gave yourself away, I don’t think I have reason to disbelieve you.” Trus’s eyes went wide but he didn’t say anything. “Or at least I don’t think I need have fear of you.” Celestia continued.
Trus’s mouth started to hang open slightly. “Uh…wow.”
“But I will have to ask that you stay away from the castle.”
“Ah… there’s a catch.” Trus said, stating it more as a fact than anything else.
Celestia ignored him “Light.”
“Yes your highness?”
“Please escort him out of the castle.”
“Of course your majesty.”
Celestia turned to leave but stopped and looked back. “Fair thee well Trus.” She said before turning her head back and heading out of the dungeons.
“Well it looks like you’re free to go…as soon as I get you out of the castle” said Light, as he worked at unlocking the cell. He sounded as perplexed as Trus was.
“…Yeah…”
Light got the door open and motioned for Trus to follow. “Let’s go.” He said.
Trus walked out of his cell to fall behind Light.
“I know you’re going to miss your hay but I bet you’ll like outside enough to forget about it.” Light joked.
“Heh. You make jokes like mine.” Trus said half heartedly.
“That’s not a bad thing is it?”
“No, not so long as you only tell the good ones.”
“I’ll make sure to do that.” Light said. “But you don’t sound too happy about getting out, may I ask why not?”
“Uh…I guess I’m just a little confused is all.”
“About why the princess let you go?”
“Yeah.”
“Don’t be,” Light said, “Celestia is a wise pony. She knows what she’s doing.”
Trus perked up slightly. “I’ll take you word for it.”
Light only shrugged.
“We’re going through the castle to get out right?” Trus asked.
“Yes, we’ll be going right by the throne room too.” Light answered.
“Cool mind if you give me a bit of a tour on the way?”
“I don’t see the harm so long as we keep moving in the right direction.”
“Cool.” Trus said…
Light started pointing out rooms once they were out of the dungeons. Trus enjoyed the small tour and was quite fascinated that the castle was rather similar to a castle on earth except that it was far grander than any he had seen.
“Here’s the throne room.” Light said pointing a large open doorway they were coming up on. As they got closer they were able to look inside to see the entire room. Trus stopped and stared in quiet awe. Two guards posted at the door looked his way but didn’t do anything more.
“Hey,” Light called back, “We’re supposed to keep moving.”
“Sorry.” Trus said as he took another step toward Light and stopped again.
“Come on.” Light urged gently.
Trus didn’t move and looked completely zoned out.
Light walked back and was going to poke him, but when he got close Trus snapped his head towards him. Light stepped back surprised by the sudden movement.
“Sorry.” Trus said again. “Let’s go.”
Light didn’t say anything and turned around slowly. After walking away from the throne room Light spoke again. “What was that about?” He asked.
“I like throne rooms…” Trus said. “But they remind me that I may never see the greatest one.”
Light looked confused and looked like he was about to say something but apparently decided against it.
“Quite an impressive one I have got to say though.” Said Trus.
Light didn’t respond right away. When he did, he spoke solemnly “…It is the castle of the two sisters.” He said. “So it should be.”
…
The tour had continued as Light lead Trus out of the castle. When they got outside Light stopped and said “Well here we are. I guess I’ll see you around.”
“Perhaps.” Said Trus cheerily.
“Per- never mind.” Light said and headed back into the castle giving Trus one last wave goodbye as he went by.
Trus looked out at the city before him and wondered what to do next.
Trus started walking, deciding that he would find something to do rather than wait for something to happen. After a short walk though Trus stopped. Wait I have something to do already. Well maybe… I have that proof stuff to do with Luna, but Celestia let me go. Then again she didn’t talk to Luna so…Can’t go near the castle, but that’s no reason to not contact her. She should be-
Trus stopped thinking for a second when he noticed shadows around him moving irregularly quickly. He looked around and noticed that the sun was going down. However it was going down fast and when Trus saw it he went wide eyed thinking it was literally falling out of the sky. It dropped so rapidly that the world was covered in darkness and shadows in a matter of seconds. Then the moon rose just as rapidly until it was well up into the sky and then stopped there.
“Ah…” was all Trus could manage. He just sat there for a while, letting it sink in. So they literally raise and lower the sun and moon. Trus thought to himself once his thoughts had caught up. Does that mean they aren’t the same kind of sun and moon? Whatever I have Luna to find.
Trus opened his wings and took flight. Well the wings are definitely magic. They’re too small to fly with otherwise. Wait, He stopped flying forward, I can’t go to the castle and she probably won’t see me in the dark so I’ll need to find a way to get her to notice me. Trus landed again and began a search for something he could use.
He found a unicorn.
“Hey can you use magic?” Trus asked the unicorn.
“Uh not really my thing, sorry.”
“S-all-right.” Trus said. “What’s your name?”
“Yellow Lily.” She indeed was yellow. Her coat was a bright yellow and her main had two colors. One was white and the other was a few shades of yellow going from light pastel at the stem of her head to a darker shade at the tips. Her eyes were a pastel green. “And yours?” She asked.
“Trus.”
“Is that short for anything?”
Trus opened his mouth to reply but stopped and closed it again. He tilted his head and began thinking. The names here seem to reflect what the ponies look like…and in Luna and Celestia’s cases reflect what they do. My name actually may fit here.
“Trustin.” Trus finnaly said.
“He, he, did you need to remember it first?” Yellow Lily asked.
“No I just don’t usually use it.” This feels almost tailored.
“Hmm, fair enough.”
“So Yellow Lily.”
“You can call me Lily.”
“Ok. Lily, do you know of anypony that does have a thing for magic I could talk to?”
“Well there is the princesses or Starswirl, but they wouldn’t be having company right now. For that matter, almost everypony will be going to sleep now.”
“Ah…” Trus sighed.
“What were you looking to get form a pony with magic?” Yellow Lily asked.
“I need a light source that won’t go out when I fly.”
“Hmm, I don’t think I can help you with that, at least not at the moment. I mean, I can light up my horn but I don’t think you would like flying me around. And I don’t really want to go flying right now.”
“You can light up your horn?” Trus asked a little hope rising in his voice.
“Yes but I don’t know how that can help.”
“Could you show me?”
“Uh…I suppose so,” Lily said somewhat nervously, “but what would it do?”
“I have a bit of a skill in reading magic,” Said Trus, “So if you allow me to I might be able to figure out how it works, modify the spell, and teach you how to cast it, if you’re still interested in helping me some more.”
Yellow Lily looked away “Well it is late and I should be getting home…”
“I’ll be alright whatever you decide.”
Yellow Lily looked back at Trus. “Well I guess I could light my horn for you before I go,” She said, “but I’d rather not try to learn any spells. Magic and I haven’t mixed well in the past.”
“That’d be great.”
“Ok.” Lily said as she lowered her head a little. Her horn lit up slowly, but brightened up enough to light up the two ponies so that they looked like they were standing on the only spot of land in a sea of shadows. A pastel green aura lighter than Lily’s eyes surrounded her horn.
Trus put a hoof to his chin and hummed curiously. Then he reached out the hoof at his chin a bit as though to touch Lily’s horn and stopped mid way. “May I.” Trus asked. “I can usually tell more if I’m in contact with an aura.”
“Uh sure…” Lily said not actually sounding too sure.
Trus put his hoof to the glowing aura without touching Lily’s horn. He was almost expressionless with only a slight look of concentration. Lily on the other hand was starting to look quite nervous. Then Trus put his hoof down and smiled “Thank you,” he said nodding his head as a quick bow, “I should be able to figure something out.”
Yellow Lily smiled back, lifted her head, but kept her horn lit.
“Sorry for being so unsettling.” Trus said closing his eyes and giving the warmest smile he could. It seemed to work as, when he opened his eyes back up, Lily was giving a warmer smile right back.
“It’s ok.” She said. “Well I’d better be heading home. Good luck to you.”
“Have a good walk home” said Trus.
Lily trotted away leaving Trus in the dark. He watched her go for a few seconds before turning his head to look around for something else that might be helpful. When he didn’t find anything he figured that he might as well take to the air and try to find other light sources that could lead him to someone that could get him what he needed. He took flight and easily found an area that was lit up not too far away. He headed there and found that it was a small area dedicated to stores. Some looked like they were closing down for the night while others seemed to still be open for business. He went in one that was still open. It turned out to be a book store where he spotted a few more unicorns. Trus walked up to the nearest unicorn he saw.
…
The first two unicorns he met didn’t know anything useful for Trus at the moment. The third one he came up to he said “Hello, do you happen to practice magic or know if anyone else here does?”
“Oh umm, yes I do. Why do you ask?” Replied the unicorn. This unicorn was a mare with a brown coat with white patches and spots on her head and down her back. Her mane was brown with a white streak through it and her eyes were a calm green.
“Well I need a way to signal someone and my idea to do that is to get me glowing.”
The unicorn looked rather amused at this. “Well I’ve never made a pony glow before, but it could be fun. Why do you need to signal someone by glowing?”
“Well it’s not very complicated,” Trus began “ but I can’t get anywhere near her place, all I need to do though is just get her to see me so she knows where I’m at.
“Oh…OH! I get it. I’ll be glad to help! But let’s go outside for this, I don’t want to damage any of the books in here if anything goes wrong.”
“Ok.” Trus said rather cheerfully. “But it’s not a love interest or anything like that.” He said getting more serious as he said it. Why am I assum-
“What?”
“I-I got sent out of the castle by Celestia without her telling Luna about it, for all I know.”
“Uh huh.”
“I told Luna I would do something with her, but now I can’t go near the castle. So I need to get Luna to see me and come to me, so I can keep my end of the deal.”
“Huh…and what’s the deal?”
“She wants me to prove something. I’d rather not go through the long explanation again, especially since it’s hard to believe anyway.”
“And why should I help with this?”
“It would be an act of service, and instead of letting you believe it was just a love interest I told you the truth.” When the unicorn didn’t respond Trus decided to add in a little more incentive. “It would also probably be a lot of fun to make another pony glow like…uh something.” …why am I so friendly lately…
She snickered. “That does sound like fun… Ok I’ll help.”
“Nice!” Trus said with a wide smile. “Could I get your name first?”
“Cleft, Magic Cleft.” She answered as they began walking towards the exit. They stopped once they were standing out in the middle of the walking street in-between shops. “Alright stand there.” Cleft said pointing at the ground in front of her. Trus stepped onto the spot and stood there looking happily at Cleft. “Give me a second to focus.” Said Cleft as her horn began to glow. She closed her eyes and her horn slowly got brighter. Then her horn quickly went out and she opened her eyes again. “Alright, ready?” Trus nodded. “Here goes.” She said as her horn began to glow again. It got brighter and brighter and then Trus realized that it wasn’t the horn. He looked at himself to see his entire body glowing. “You look quite dazzling.” Said cleft sounding a bit awed, her horn no longer glowing.
“Thank you.” Said Trus.
“No really,” she began giggling, “you’re quite the spectacle with your mane and tail glowing the colors of the rainbow, and your eyes shining that orange…” She started to look a little lost for a second. She shook herself out of her oblivion, blushing. “Sorry, sorry, you don’t need me awkwardly drooling over you when you have Princess Luna to meet.”
“Don’t worry about it. And thanks for all the help.” Trus opened his wings preparing to fly.
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.” He said with another smile. Then he flapped his glowing wings and was off… Why has it been so easy to get so…totally friendly...?
…
He flew around for a while through the night sky streaking rainbows and the green of his coat everywhere he flew. After a while though he started to get a little tired, so he just started gliding around until he tried to go through a cloud.
He had gotten a bit sweaty and hot so he decided to cool off by flying through one of the cool water filled clouds. But the moment he came in contact with it he found out it had some resistance. He ended up lying down in the middle of the cloud wondering what just happened.
“Huh.” He said after taking a short look around. He took his time standing up, but once standing he began hopping around and laughing. “Fun.” He said once stopped. With no show of Luna Trus decided to just lie down while he could and take a look around.
After a quick look he decided against it. The fact that his eyes were glowing severely hindered his night vision and he could only see things near enough for the light from his body to illuminate. With a sigh he plopped his head down and decided to take a short nap, but his glowing eyes quickly put an end to that. “Oh you’re brilliant.” He said to himself sarcastically.
“Hm, hm.” Someone laughed.
Trus lifted his head and looked around, but saw nothing except cloud, shadows and the small lights below. “Somepony there...?” there was no answer. “I’m kind of blind out here at the moment so if you’re out there I’m not gonna find you…” there was no immediate reply, but shortly afterwards Trus could hear flapping. He smiled and tilted his head “ears seem fine though.” He got up and moved toward the sound of flapping. The flapping moved behind Trus so he turned around and started running in that direction.
All of a sudden there was no more cloud and Trus started falling. A quick recovery, with his wings, later and he headed back up to the cloud. He started circling the cloud and after finding and hearing nothing besides his own wings, he broke off in a random direction. He flew for a short distance and then slowed down to a slow glide.
“He, he, he.” He heard to his left and took off in that direction. More laughing burst out and then someone else started laughing in another direction. And then another. There were three flying around Trus and laughing. Two of them sounded female and one male. Trus started following the closest laughter until he lost it and then would follow another when it got close. Among the laughter Trus could hear armor clanking every now and again as well as catch glimpses of movement here and there. Eventually he caught onto the laughter of the one thing he had been able to spot and was able to catch up enough to see it. It was over at that point. The moment Trus could see the Pegasus ahead of him he put on a burst of speed and caught up with no trouble at all. He tagged them on the back “Gotcha,” he said.
“Awe” wined the Pegasus playfully. “All right, I guess the game is over…” The Pegasus was one of the mares Trus had heard laughing. She headed towards a cloud and plopped down on it. Trus followed her example and plopped down next to her.
“So what’s your name?” He asked. The mare looked a darker shade of green than Trus in the light coming off of Trus, but he guessed that wasn’t the actual color of her coat. Her mane as far as Trus could tell was blue. He couldn’t make out the color of her eyes at all though.
“Grey Sky.” She replied. Just as she said her name the two others landed next to them. And Trus still had trouble seeing them. Their shape gave them away however, “Luna and Dark Sentry.” Trus said “No wonder I couldn’t see you. You blend in so well with the night I’d never be able to spot you like this.” Trus motioned to himself trying to emphasize the glowing. Grey Chuckled.
“I actually just came up here to watch you,” said Grey, “but then Luna and her guard showed up and said we should play a game.”
“And a game we had!” Trus said happily closing his eyes and then opening them right away. “Wow that’s weird.”
“What is?” Dark asked.
“I can see the back of my eyelids when I shut my eyes…” Trus explained, “because my eyes are glowing and all.”
“Well whose idea was it to turn you into a rainbow colored star?” Dark asked.
“That was mine actually.”
The others chuckled slightly. “Would you want to stop glowing so?” Luna asked.
“Yeah I’m pretty tired of not being able to see anything now.”
Luna chuckled. “Ok she said.” She lowered her head and put her horn on Trus’s head. The lights went out and Trus couldn’t see anything. “Better?” Luna asked.
“Yes, but now I can’t see anything at all.”
“How is that better?” Dark asked.
“I’m not blinded by the light?”
The others laughed while Trus just smiled, feeling foolish.
“If it makes you feel better I can barely see anything now too.” Said Grey.
Trus chuckled “Yeah I guess that does make me feel a bit better.”
After a bit the laughter had died down and Trus had started to get his night vision back. The conversation had gone from making fun of Trus’s idea to turn himself into a live pony version of a star, to talking about the night sky. They were all looking up and Luna was telling them about the constellations. Trus was just looking at the moon because he still couldn’t make out the stars yet.
“That one I made for Starswirl for all he taught us about magic and all the magic he brought into the world.” Luna explained.
“What about that one.” Grey asked pointing at some constellation Trus couldn’t see.
“That one…” Luna began, “That’s the one for me and my sister…” Luna trailed off. Dark and Trus seemed unfazed while Grey looked down uncomfortably in the silennce.
“That one is Pegasus.” Luna said trying to move on.
“I think I’m going to head home now," said Grey. “It’s getting really late and I should get some sleep.”
“Thou doesn’t want to learn more about the night sky?” Luna asked sadly.
“No,” said Grey, “I mean yes, but I should really get some sleep I, uh, wouldn’t want to worry anypony back home.”
“Oh…very well. We would not want that would we…”
“Sorry,” Grey apologized as she got up, “it was great hanging out with you princess and all, but I really should get back home.”
“Ok, be safe on thy way home.”
“Thank you princess.” Grey said just before taking to the night air.
Trus listened to her wings beat until he heard Luna let out a small sigh. “Well thou are still here.” She said.
“I guess you don’t get much time to just have fun huh?” said Trus.
“No.” She sighed. “It is usually just me and the stars. The other ponies of the land sleep though my night…”
“So rather lonely without the night guard?”
“Yes. They don’t speak much when I speak to them anyway.”
“Well Dark here talks a ton when you get him started on hay.”
“Hey.” Dark said… Trus and Luna laughed. Dark joined in himself a bit after them. “I do talk about other things.”
“Yes, I was joking…but that was funny.” Trus said.
Dark didn’t seem to respond, but Trus gave him a smile anyway.
“Oh, that constellation is called the big dipper!” Luna said pointing up at the sky. “…I don’t remember why…now that I think about it...”
“There’s a constellation called that where I’m from.” Trus said looking up at the sky. “Too bad I still can’t see anything yet…”
“You still cannot see?” Luna asked looking toward Trus.
“Besides the moon and a few faint stars, nope.”
“But you’re sight is getting better?”
Trus took the time to turn and look in Luna’s direction before he answered in a bit of a surprised tone “Yes.”
“You are sure?” She said sounding a little more concerned than before.
“Yeah, just…not used to that kind of attention.” He shrugged, turning his head away and into the sky.
There was a long moment of silence where nopony spoke after that. Then Dark decided to break that silence. “So…are we just going to wait for Trus to get his sight back or what?”
“Perhaps.” Luna responded, but shortly spoke again. “Trus?” Trus looked away from the sky and back in Luna’s direction.
“Yeah?” He said when he noticed she wasn’t looking at in his direction. Oh hey I can see her outline.
“Do you enjoy the night?”
“…Oh yeah I love it! Well besides it getting colder during the night that is. Everything else I love.”
Luna turned her head, though Trus couldn’t tell if she was turning to look at him or to look farther away. He decided to smile and shrug just to be safe. “…thou say this, but according to thee, thou choose to wear the colors that are only present in the day.” She said rather sweetly.
“Huh?” Trus responded not quite dropping his smile at first. “Oh… well there’s always the aurora borealis, but yeah I suppose so.”
“An aurora bor…”
“-ealis. They’re lights in the sky that sometimes show up at night in the cold north.”
“The Northern Lights?” Luna asked.
“Yes.”
Luna didn’t do anything for a moment and then slowly started to laugh. Trus turned to look at Dark, but found that Dark was much harder to find in the darkness than Luna seemed to be instead. He ended up just looking back towards Luna and decided to just wait for an explanation.
“What’s gotten into her?” Dark whispered right behind Trus.
“I don’t know.” Trus whispered back.
Luna began to calm down from her little fit of laughter and turned again to either look at Trus or away from him. “If you truly love the night what is it you love?”
“Stars, Moon, the planets, the fact that I can get a glimpse of the other worlds out there, and I love the darkness.” Trus paused for a moment, but when nopony else spoke he continued talking. “The darkness, because it turns familiar things into unfamiliar things that I can explore or use to have an adventure, because of that darkness. It’s an adventure or things become an adventure because I get to explore using my other senses. I just find it fun to not use my eyes sometimes…”
After Trus stopped talking no pony spoke for a time.
A while later that felt like a time where everypony had begun a segment of personal exploration of their lives, Luna spoke up again. “Trus thank you for being so friendly.”
“Huh?”
“I’m very glad I could have met you and I hope we can be friends.”
“…Huh?” Trus felt like knocking himself in the back of his head.
Luna chuckled at bit “let me guess, you weren’t expecting that?”
“…Huh? I mean yeah. I mean…yeah. I’m also not used to having friends.”
There was a short period before Luna spoke again. “I find that hard to believe. A pony like you seems like they would have many friends.”
“Well yeah I…guess…” Trus said “There are probably lots of others that consider me a friend, but I usually don’t consider them to be my friends.”
“Why not?” Luna asked.
“Well…it…” Trus took a breath. “I usually don’t get to see them again or if I do I usually don’t remember them when I do, so...”
“You don’t want to get hurt…”
“…Yeah…” no one has ever noticed or cared to…to…what’s the word…
“Then I will be your friend,” she spoke softly “and you will see me again…do your best to remember me after you leave.” It almost sounded like a question.
Trus only took another deep breath and looked down. Then he looked up to the sky and began trying to think. No thoughts would come though.
“Please?” Luna said.
Trus looked to her. No way. “Sure…okay…yeah…I’ll try.” He saw a smile on her face. I’m such a horrid liar…
Luna just kept on smiling for a bit before she exclaimed, looking at Trus “Great! Now let’s play a game of hiding the northern lights from my sister!”
Trus had a hesitant moment of epiphany, before he smiled and stated a long “oh…h”
“All clear.” Luna said. She had been scouting ahead and around corners before Trus would follow her. They were sneaking him back into the castle even though there was no real need since Luna could just remove the banning order by giving a simple order. However she seemed to be enjoying herself by sneaking Trus past her sister.
“No pony behind us” Dark said. He was trailing behind making sure no pony could sneak up on the smuggling party. He didn’t seem as excited as Luna at playing smuggle Trus under Celestia’s nose, but he played along nicely and even slipped in a few smiles at times.
The castle was surprisingly empty for the living place of two princesses. The only other ponies that the group passed were part of the night guard and they just left the three of them alone after giving a bow to Luna.
“There’s a secret passage right over here.” Luna said as she came up to another corner. She rounded it and found a pressure plate in the wall that opened up the wall next to it. They hurried inside and Luna closed the entry behind the three of them. Luna then lit one of several small candles in the corridor they were in and carried it with her.
Both Trus and Dark were in front of her waiting for her further direction. Luna though, took a moment to simply stare at the two in front of her before she shrugged and continued leading on. Trus and Dark shared a glance and a shrug of each their own and continued following.
Dark didn’t fall back this time as they weren’t going to have anypony sneaking up behind them without them hearing them with the extremely acoustic walls of the corridor. Nothing was said as they walked. Trus began studying the stone walls in the dim, flickering light of the candle for no more reason than to have something to do and to not be looking at Luna’s backside. He began wondering if he could use a stone wall in a drawing or something when Dark snapped him out of it. “What do you plan on doing here anyway?” he asked, turning his head toward Trus and away from straight ahead.
“I… I don’t really know honestly. I rarely do.”
“Hmm… You know you’re starting to sound like a broken record with that line.”
“Well it’s not like anyone really knows how much they help someone else with anything they do until they’re told just how much what they did helped.”
Dark gave a puzzled look. “…What do you mean?”
“Say I were to help someone move a couch. At face value I did a nice thing, but I may not know how capable the other person was to get it moved or how capable they were to get someone else to do it. Depending on those things I could have really helped them out or I could have done almost nothing in their sights. It also depends on if I was asked to do it or not, or if they got help often or not. If they got help often it would probably just be another nice thing, but if they rarely got help it could mean the world of worth to them. So I really don’t know how much I’m helping often, because I just don’t know the situation well enough and that’s usually the case, because I am jumping around world to world, and so forth, so I can’t really find out what I need to know more often than not… I usually only find out how much I’ve helped long after the events have occurred and I usually don’t get to stick around after many of those events.”
Dark’s face contorted “So how do you know you’re helping in those situations?”
“It’s just the way I’ve set it up…”
Dark gave his puzzled look again. “Huh?”
“I’ve used my power when I was…a deity…I set up-”
“Hold on what!?!” Dark stopped walking and gave a hard stare at Trus. Luna slowed to a stop and turned back to look.
Trus sighed, his shoulders now feeling heavy. “I was once a deity and I gave it up… You don’t want to hear about it.”
“Oh yes I do!” Dark said. “Why would you give up something like that?”
“…Because I hated not knowing what was real…” Dark raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything so Trus continued. “Long story short I…couldn’t tell if I was just making things or if I was talking to real people. I wanted to help others out so I made a life for myself where no matter what I did, I would be helping someone…or somepony, in a positive way.”
Silence filled the cold, dark passageway. Dark looked stunned, his mouth hanging slightly open. Luna, on the other hand, only seemed mildly surprised.
After a moment that felt much longer than it was, Dark shook his head and stared moving forward. “Well let’s go…” he said. Trus gave Luna a glance to find that she was still looking at him before he moved his eyes to the cool, stone floor.
“Why do you seem so ashamed of your decision to leave a life of one so confused to one so honorable?” Luna asked quietly.
Trus looked back up at her for another moment before dropping his gaze again. “I guess…it’s still easier than the life of anyone else I meet.”
“And that is cause to mourn?”
Trus tilted his head and gave an awkward smile “Eh…”
“Come we can speak further in a more comfortable place.”
…
Once in the observatory again the three sat down on some cushions in the room below where they had sat on the roof the previous night. Several windows still allowed for observations of the night sky. The only light sources they currently had were the moon, stars and the lone candle they had kept from the passageway. The candle Luna placed between them once they were all seated. Trus sat quietly listening for the slight sounds of a breeze against the glass windows as everything else, but one another’s movements and breathing, was quite silent. He let himself sink into his cushion to try and warm it from its lack of use in the growing coolness of the night.
Dark seemed to be in a state of discomfort as he kept a stoic look upon his face. He would take occasional glances in Trus’s direction before looking away again and would often follow up with a deep breath.
With all the unease Trus was happy when Princess Luna was the first to speak, even if it turned out to be a question. She spoke softly yet with determination and purpose in her voice. “Trus thou hast been exceptionally honest with us, but if you are willing I would like to hear about thy troubles in your life of adventure.”
Trus nodded slightly, but didn’t look at her. “Alright” he said. Why am I hearing Old English, and why only half the time? Unless… Is she speaking Old English? ...Or can a magical translator mess up like that? ...Anyway… Trus heaved a sigh. After another moment he opened his mouth to say something, but closed it when he realized he didn’t know where to start.
Luna and Dark waited patiently giving Trus time to put his thoughts together. “I’m not really sure where to begin. There are lots of beginnings I could start from-”
“How about thou start at the very beginning?” Luna said. ...Why does that sound like such an overused line? It’s not like I use it much or hear… Oh…I know where I hear it…
Trus blinked himself out of his thoughts and nodded. “Alright...but it’s going to be a long story.”
Luna smiled “We have the time for such.”
Although curious about her statement Trus decided not to question it at the moment. Instead Trus took another deep breath before he began. I’ll probably have to tell the whole story for any of my problems to make enough sense…
“I grew up…on a place- planet called earth. I don’t know if you know what a human is, but that’s what I was there. I was one of nine children.” That got a surprised look from both Dark and Luna, and Trus immediately found it much harder to speak. “My parents…they were good people…just…bad parents…or bad at being parents…or whatever.” Trus closed his eyes and just breathed for a moment. Then opened them to look at the floor “They…treated us as tools… I don’t know how else to say it. They loved us, but…more for our use and not so much or at all for who we were…
“I would hide- or rather just stay…in my room and” he found another spot on the floor to stare at “out of their way so I would get called to do things, for them, less often… I started studying magic in there; mostly in the closet… I don’t know what I did in there, because I traded that knowledge for three wishes from another deity. I used those wishes and…manipulated them to get myself to be a deity.” Trus looked up in thought wondering if he had given a proper description. He noticed Luna out the corner of his eye nodding and decided to just continue anyways. “I…” Trus shook his head. It was getting really hard to think of words, “found out later that giving out wishes was really uncommon and frowned upon…” and now I’m starting to jump around. He took a small breath this time. “I found out that I had become one of the most powerful…deities of all from those wishes. I didn’t really think about it or look into it. I just went off into the deepest darkest place, that was as far as I could find in a short time from everyone else, where I started creating things…people.” He looked at the floor again. “Maybe… I started things I still don’t know are real or not.”
“I thought I was happy for a while and I believe I was. I got bored one day during that time and decided to go back to being mortal for a time while remembering what I would be after I died. In other words, I set it up so that when I died as a mortal I would just go back to being my normal deity self… Anyways that long story short the same deity that gave me the wishes abducted me and ended up becoming possessed. I had to stop them and I did eventually. Doing so released them from being possessed and it turns out that because that…or hold on. Let me put it better… They had chosen me half because of what I had figured out and half because they knew I would end up saving them from that possession. Which made me wonder if there’s any real, good reason for me to be who, or what I am now, or was at the time.”
The other two didn’t speak. Luna turned her attention from Trus to look in Dark’s direction as though to see if he had anything to say, but Dark continued to watch Trus waiting for him to continue. So Trus went on, pulling Luna’s attention back to him. “I don’t know if I have a purpose now beyond what I give to myself, which by the way is a really great one… I’m not actually very good at helping others, but I do get to do wonderful things and I get to give opportunities for others to change their lives that they wouldn’t get otherwise. I don’t know how grand a life really is, because I didn’t look into it before I set up this life for myself. I leaped before I looked in getting myself into all that I do now… Changing lives is amazing and wonderful, but I’d like to know how much it matters when that life is over. I’ve been told about how important a life is and what happens after death, but I have no way of comprehending it, understanding it, or really actually knowing it… without knowing how important those lives are I don’t know how important I am… And another question is, if life is really that important than why was mine so casually handled?”
Luna opened her mouth looking as though she was going to say something, but whatever it was got caught and she said nothing. Dark simply continued to stare.
Trus thought about just stopping there with Luna seeming to be getting troubled with her lack of being able to talk, but something about Dark just sitting there listening spurred him on. “That’s not the last of it all…” Trus said. Luna closed her mouth and took a glance at Dark again before she followed his example. “The whole reason I started my life of running around helping wherever I ended up…”
Trus stopped talking altogether and just stared off into the distance. He was still able to catch Luna taking another glance at Dark Sentry and looking back to Trus again. She looked at Trus with the same blank stare Dark had been giving him the whole time for a while. Then she broke into a smile and Trus realized that he had been staring at her. He smiled and looked down sheepishly.
“…The whole reason was, as I said before, I got to a point where I couldn’t tell what I had done from what was real. I…had so much power that I could change the rules of reality and make something do whatever I wanted with no real way of it actually being possible… I could make a rock shine like a sun if I wanted to even if there was no way for the rock to actually be capable of doing that. Everything just did what I wanted and then one day I wanted to learn how things naturally ran. But when I looked at anything I wondered if I was just making it work the way I saw it or if I was actually seeing how it actually worked. I realized I couldn’t trust what I learned. So I tried to think of a way I could trust in what I learned. I needed to remove my power when I was learning and I came up with the life I have now.”
Trus looked up again. While he had talked he repeatedly would look to Luna and Dark and then would look away at something else and then go back to checking on how they were taking it all. They both had remained still and had been staring at Trus as he explained his complicated life. Luna had, had her smile fade slowly as he talked and now they both were in a stoic look staring at Trus.
I did one other thing though. Trus thought to himself mouthing the words and looking away once again.
“Hmm? What was that?” Luna asked.
Trus looked back to her. “Oh I…did one other thing…during that time…when I was…coming up with…the life I have now.” Trus was very quiet now and if it wasn’t so silent up in the observatory he was sure they wouldn’t have heard him.
As it was though Dark asked “And what was it?”
Trus took a while to respond. “I looked into other dimensions…and alternate universes… I found…several versions of myself…none were deities…but I…looked…” Trus shivered and took some breaths. After a few deep ones he continued. “I look into their minds and found that most of them dreamed about me being…a deity.”
Both Luna and Dark showed the same mixed expression. It was one of fear, surprise, and concern.
Trus took another deep breath and they followed suit. “That’s about it really… Feels…really good…telling someone… Well unless you want me to talk about how much I was disturbed by reading-”
“No!” Dark said flatly; Luna saying the same thing almost immediately afterwards.
Trus was taken aback slightly, but smiled at their response anyway.
“Have you ever gone back to see your family?” Dark asked.
Trus’s smile faded at the question. Of all the things they had just heard that one seemed to be the least likely, in Trus’s mind, to be mentioned again, but here Dark was asking it.
“No.” Trus said.
“Why not?” Dark asked calmly.
Trus tilted his head back and to the side slightly. “In the past when I had the opportunity to go back I didn’t want to and now I can’t choose to go see them if I want to. I’ve had to get used to the fact that I’ll probably never get to see them again…and I’ve done things to help me let go.”
“Such as?”
“Doing something that I think might make them proud just because I feel like they would be proud if I did it.”
After a moment Dark actually smiled, catching Trus off guard again. “For all those big problems you talked about you really seem like you take care of yourself well now.”
“…Huh?” That was just one aspect of Trus’s life that he had been able to work out, how could Dark jump to a full conclusion like that based entirely on that? Especially after hearing about all that stuff he had just listened to!
Dark just smiled more and chuckled.
“Well that was not as long as you lead on.” Luna said coming out of her stoic stare with a calm smile growing on her face.
“Yeah I left out a ton of details. Like the time when the other deity abducted me took several lifetimes to get resolved.”
“Oh.” She seemed to perk up a little bit. “Well you shall have to tell us about it later sometime.”
“Well we could go over some of it now if you want, since we got through everything else so quickly.”
“No. I would rather-” She paused a moment “or perhaps if we do run out of things to speak of we could.”
“Alright. What do you want to talk about?”
She smiled weakly “I wanted to ask how you had dealt with not knowing your importance?”
Trus sat and thought a moment then got up. They had all been sitting a while and as far as Trus was concerned his cushion was getting really hot and uncomfortable. He stood pushing his hooves into the cushion to even out the crease he had left and then sat back down in another spot.
Once comfortable he began thinking again. “I usually just try to think of the possibilities, the best outcomes and the worst. I then try to think of how I can adjust and accept each outcome if one of them happens. I usually deal with most of my problems that way. As far as dealing with my importance I also tend to take another rout as well. That usually being, starting with thinking of myself with no importance and then building myself up from there by looking at the things I do and what I affect. At some point I reach a point there’s no clear way to build up anymore unless I use things I’ve been told and taught to believe. I find that if I don’t go past that though then I come to a conclusion that nothing is important and nothing ever will be. However if I do go beyond that and choose to believe those things then I can see incredible amounts of worth in doing what I do. But either way, I like to see people smile, whether it matters or not.”
“And what would you do if you could not make others smile so?”
“…I don’t know… I suppose I’d wait until I could…or until I couldn’t stand it anymore.” Trus looked out one of the windows and a cold night air and the glittering stars beyond. “I’d probably start looking for something else to live for.”
“And if you could not find anything else?”
“…I think if everything went wrong and everything fell apart every time something was tried and even when nothing was tried…anyone would try to kill themselves… I think it would take longer for me to reach that point, but a person can only take so much…” Trus was solemn in his speech, but he simply let himself breath and he took on a stronger tone. “But it never goes that bad and it never will. If anyone thinks it has all they need to do is think about how it could be worse… I’ve made it through some tough times by realizing that things could be worse or that someone else has had a worse life. Then I usually make up my mind about what I want and I try to get it. If I fail at getting it then I try again or I try a new way of getting it. I also try to get small things. Things as small as moving my…” He was going to say fingers, but he didn’t have any at the moment. “Wings.” He finally said. “or just being able to think of something I want. I focus on the things that I have that I want as well as the goals I’m trying to achieve. I know of several people that go unbelievable distances with just that in mind…”
Trus looked away from the window at Luna. She had been staring out the same window.
Dark got up and started walking out of the room. “I’m headed to the bathroom. You two will be ok right?”
“We will be fine.” Luna said. With that Dark left them with no one but each other for company.
“Isn’t the guard supposed to stay on post or at least have one other guard on post at all times during their shift?” Trus asked playfully.
Luna played along. “Indeed he is slacking in his duties. We shall have to punish him properly when he returns!”
Trus couldn’t help but start laughing and Luna joined in.
After they were done Luna spoke first. “Trus I would like to have you as a friend and I know you do not like to pick up friends only to leave and never to see them again, but would it not be better to have had been friends once than to never have been friends at all?”
Trus smiled. She had seen right through his silly little lie earlier. “Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but usually yes. I’m really bad in the whole friends area and it shows in my inability to call those who were and are friends to me friends. I do have friends. I just stupidly forget it sometimes and it takes somepony” wait that hadn’t been translated either “that’s willing to be my friend to remind me sometimes. I guess I get lonelier than I realize sometimes.” Trus was giving Luna the warmest smile he ever remembered giving. “Yes we can be friends.” She smiled genuinely at that. “and to be honest,” Trus said, his tone rising, “you’ve been a better friend to me these past two nights than anypony or anyone in…” Trus’s smile faded and he tilted his head back in thought. “Wow I don’t know how long.” He said his smile returning in a slightly lower degree.
Luna chuckled a little her smile still on her face. “Well I know what we can do to celebrate our new friendship.” She said.
“Oh?”
“Let us set a trap for our dear night guard as punishment for his slacking!”
Trus had a smile upon his face. It was combined with a look of awe and adoration for the idea Luna had thought up.
She had been quite unimpressed with Trus’s idea for a prank. He hadn’t had much experience in coming up with any ever, so his first thought was the old and simple bucket of water over the door of the bathroom.
Luna said to it “I expected something far more creative from thee.” Trus had shrunk away to her comment with an awkward smile. Then after sitting for a few seconds of thought she told him that they were going to play on the idea that he, Trus could have actually just been a lucky pony who lied about being a dimensional jumper to get closer to her…
“Are you sure he can take that sort of punishment?” Trus asked, after Luna had finished explaining the plan to him and his initial excitement over it had worn off.
“Oh yes. That pony could hold his posture if all of Equestria was on fire.”
Trus was quite skeptical. “…He broke pretty easily at the mention of hay…”
That seemed to get Luna thinking as she sat in silence for a moment. “If it goes too far then I suppose the worst that could happen is we would have to apologize.” Trus wasn’t convicted, but he didn’t voice his concern. “Come we do not have time to dawdle!”
“Thou must hide thyself and we must make the room to look as though there has been a struggle!” She said standing and lighting her horn to move things around in the room. She picked up Trus and his cushion as well toppling them over in the air and setting them down, cushion on top, behind Dark’s cushion. “Now there is something I must tell thee so thou are not so confused when I speak to Dark. This is a dream. And I know that it is tempting to think about and that thou will have many questions about it; and its detail. But hold them until after the prank is over, when we have laughed a little more and I will answer all thy questions.” She was throwing things around the room as she spoke.
Trus simply sat there unsure of what to do. So he quietly obeyed. He watched her positioning the last few bits of observatory room items that the room had so neatly held before being turned into a tornado alley and with all its carnage.
Being obedient and not thinking about what she had just said, he was left with only one thought left on his mind. “Are you sure he’ll be alright seeing this?”
Luna held a firm, focused look on her face, her ears pointed at the door. She took a moment to respond and when she did, her expression did not change. “He will be alright. We will be fine.”
Trus stared at her for a second longer, certain that something was more than just a little wrong. But then he smiled and said with all the cheerfulness he could muster, “alright! Let’s do this!” He tucked himself under the large cushion and gave himself only a small hole between the floor and the cushion to see the door through. Luna started the illusion of him being defeated in combat where he had previously been sitting.
He was worried about Luna and how Dark was going to take the surprise. But for now he felt that Luna just needed a little moral support, before he asked her why she was acting so aggressively in the idea that a prank was what was needed to happen. And as for Dark, I hope he can take a joke…
And so…they waited…
They didn’t wait long before the sound of Dark’s hooves could be heard, even though there was carpet on the other side of the door. Wait if this is a dream then why is there that much detail?
Trus’s thoughts were interrupted by Luna clattering a few things around to make it sound like a fight was going on. Then the door opened and there was a flash of light from Luna’s direction…
Dark stood in the doorway dazed for a moment and then he saw the illusion of Trus turning into glowing wisps of dust, the way Trus had told Luna it would look like if he died.
…This was a horrible idea. Trus thought to himself as he watched it play out. Why did I think it would be fun?
He could see Dark’s expression through one eye under the cushion. For all of the composure Luna had said he had, Trus could only see a slight bit of that. Dark looked absolutely mortified. His eyes were wide and terrified, his ears strait back. Trus was about to get up and end the prank right then, but two things happened that stopped him cold. The first was a chill that ran down his spine, paralyzing him, and the second was Luna speaking softly.
“Dark… It would seem that Trus was not here as our friend.”
Why can’t I get myself to move? And why is Luna continuing this?
Dark had turned his head to face Luna directly. His mouth was now slightly agape in an open frown.
…There was silence that seemed to take an eternity…and then.
“No,” Luna said “I am sorry. Trus come out.”
The ice in his spine cracked and he was able to push the cushion off of himself so he could sit up. He gave a short, weak smile to Dark. “We wished to play a trick on thee, but it would seem we let it go too far, far too quickly.” Luna continued to say. “We apologize.” She bowed her head. Trus followed her example.
…Dark let out a burst of air in a huff. “Wow…” He said. Trus looked up so he could look at Dark properly. Luna however kept her eyes closed and head bowed. “You really had me going! I didn’t know what to think when I first saw…all…that! That was amazing; totally had me spinning loops in my head!”
Trus let out a breath he hadn’t realized he had been holding. He can take a joke.
Luna sobbed a laugh. “I am glad that thou are not troubled by our...” She paused and took a gulp; not looking up. “By our…foalish prank…”
There was a moment of silence where both Trus and Dark just stared. “…Luna?” Dark asked, beating Trus to it.
When she didn’t respond, Trus felt something kick his insides and he pushed himself up. He moved to one of Luna’s sides and put a wing on her back; just barely reaching it. Dark followed suit on her other side. “Luna?” Trus asked this time. “What’s wrong?”
…And she sobbed…
Dark opened his mouth. “Luna…” he simply said.
She opened her wing on Dark’s side of her gently. Yet, when she did so Dark lifted off the ground like he weighed no more than a feather.
Trus watched him and then felt Luna’s other wing push against him. He however didn’t move an inch. A moment later she stopped trying to push him away and threw her head around to look directly into Trus’s eyes, looking both spooked and surprised.
Trus’s eyes darted around the room trying to avoid her uncomfortable gaze, but he only lasted a second or two before he was looking right back into her eyes.
Trus blinked wondering where he was and then noticed that he had a blanket covering him up to his neck and a pillow under his head. He was lying on his side in a bed.
Instead of getting up to take a good look around he just stayed there and with caution, he looked around at what he could see with his eyes without moving his head from its current position.
From what he could see, he was still in the castle. There were the stone walls and ceiling, the draperies of the sun and moon, and even a small window he could see out the corner of his eye. He didn’t see anyone around, nor did he hear anything so he turned his head and tried to sit up.
Tried and flopped back down on his back.
He blinked, stayed there with his head facing the ceiling and thought to himself, didn’t have this problem before.
He tried to get a feel for his muscles again and just thought about how he should try to get them to work for a bit. Then he sat right up and took a good look around the room. The other half of the room though looked exactly like the other. He could see now that he was in a raised bed, that there was a door at the far end of the room which the foot of the bed was facing towards, and that the room was quite small. Just two windows, a door, a few banners and the bed pushed up against the last barren wall.
Trus blinked again…and then again. Wait what’s going on? If that was all a dream then how do I know what this place looks like? Unless… He directed his eyes to the first window he had seen. Pushing the covers off of him, he moved to the edge of the bed, slid over the side and nearly fell over upon landing. PAWS, PAWS! HOOVES NOT PAWS! He thought as he stumbled and caught himself with all four legs spread. He took a quick breath in and a quick breath out. Not really used to hooves eh.
He steered his attention back at the window and took a good solid step forward. Then waddled forward a few steps and began walking normally. Okay yes I can remember how to walk as a horse.
He got up to the window and looked out at what looked like nothing at all. All he could see beyond the window was blackness. He figured it was night. Then he focused on the window and thought methodically. The window opened inwards, and as it moved out of the way a scene of a small lake, a mound next to it and a mountain beyond it was seen in the bright light of day. It was a place Trus visited in daydreams sometimes when he wanted to be somewhere else. Still a dream then. The scene before him waned and was pushed away as stars and the moon came to replace the scene.
Trus pushed the window shut with a hoof…
…So it was a dream…and this is still a dream…
So why am I having so much trouble moving around now?
He turned his head to look at the door. He moved away from the window towards it and just about fell forward when his front legs forgot to keep moving. It’s like I’m steering a ship that keeps forgetting how to move, he though after stumbling to a halt. He looked at the door again, breathed in and walked up to it like he had been walking for years. He put a hoof on the door latch and stopped. Not turning his head again he attempted to look back. This is already really weirdly inconsistent… His eyes snapped forward with another thought coming to mind oh…like a dream should be. He opened the door and walked out…then stumbled after he had come to a stop outside.
A curved hallway was on the other side of the door where Trus now stood. It was lined with pillars, torches, archways, several long red rugs that acted as carpeting and there was an occasional black suit of armor.
Someone snickered. “Are you alright?” Trus looked around to find Golden Shield a few feet from the door smiling with a cocked grin and looking right at him.
Trus lifted a hoof to make a gesture and he was reminded the he didn’t have fingers…or paws. As it was, he just stood there with his mouth open looking at his raised hoof in front of him until he thought of something to actually say. “I don’t know…” he put his hoof down. “I think I’ll be fine…once I figure some stuff out.”
Golden raised a brow with that same smile still on her face. “Sure, sure.”
There was a moment of silence. “…so- what’s going on?” Trus asked.
“What do you mean?” Golden asked back.
“How did I end up…” he motioned to the room he had just come out of.
Golden glanced at the room through the open door and looked back at Trus. “Huh?”
“In there? H-how did I end up in there?”
“Oh! You should have just said so in the first place. Luna said you passed out and I suppose she brought you here too. I was just told to stand guard until you woke up and now you are up! I will be off now!” She turned and started walking away down the hallway…
“Hey uh, where’s Dark…or Luna at?”
“Hmm?” She turned her head back and stopped. “I think Dark is somewhere patrolling the halls. I do not know where Luna keeps herself at these times of night.” With that she turned her head back in the direction she was heading and continued walking.
Trus watched her go and once she was out of sight he smiled and thought to himself. Heh I like that girl. He turned himself around and went in the opposite direction she had gone; only stumbling slightly on occasion as he walked.
…
After running into a few other guards and getting some hints and directions as to where Dark was, Trus eventually found himself walking past an archway leading to a balcony. With a glance out onto that balcony he spotted Dark standing at the railing, and looking out at the castle’s exterior.
Trus initially thought of calling out to Dark, but the will to do so got caught in his chest. So he slowly walked up next to him instead. After Trus joined Dark at the balcony’s rail Dark turned his head to face him and Trus could finally find the will to speak.
“Hi.” Was all that he said.
“Hello again.” Dark said with a smile. “What brings you out here?”
“I want to know if you know anything about…”
“About what?”
“About all the dream business.”
“Oh, that this is all a dream?”
Trus blinked, but Dark didn’t seem to pay any mind to it. “Yeah.” Trus said.
“Yes I know about it. This is usually when I leave however.”
“What?” Trus shook his head back slightly, blinking again.
“I suppose it’s time you learned about Luna’s story.”
Trus blinked twice more. “…And you?”
“You wouldn’t remember anything I told you about me. At least you wouldn’t once you woke up.”
“…What?”
“Never mind me or any of the others like me. Luna’s the important one that needs all the help she can get.”
Trus had a mind to argue, but again he couldn’t find place to his words. All the new information he was getting was starting to take its toll on him and all he was able to do was to stand there and to look really confused.
Dark apparently ignoring Trus, began speaking again. “Luna once was and can still can be considered a princess. However right now she rules over nothing.”
Trus only looked more confused after that.
“You see Luna was a princess of Equestria, but she became jealous of her sister Celestia who received far more praise and adoration than Luna did. Luna hardly saw any praise for herself in fact, and one day she turned on Celestia and became one with a darkness that turned her into a dark mare named Nightmare Moon.” Dark gave Trus a look. “Are you following?”
Trus thought for a second. He was still trying to cope with the information about Dark and why he would forget about him on top of trying to listen. “…I believe so…” He said.
Dark didn’t seem too convinced, but took it anyway. “Well okay then… After she became Nightmare Moon Celestia had to banish her in the moon. And that is where she is today; one hundred years after that event. She is still Nightmare Moon on the outside sitting there in her prison in the moon, but she can still be herself whenever she dreams...”
It took a moment, but Trus’s mind caught up surprisingly fast as the last thing Dark had said helped something clicked into place. ...Oh!...That’s why we’re in a dream…
Trus waited for anything else Dark had to say, a bit afraid Dark might start talking about something else random and mind blowing. Then, after his mind had settled down, he eventually asked “And…that’s it?”
“The jist of it yes.”
“…And yourself?”
Dark smiled with a single, short laugh. “I’m just a dream. Don’t worry about me.”
“…I don’t think dreams usually admit to being dreams…”
Dark gave a full on laugh at that. “Just call me a dream pony!” he said. “Dreams are the only place I and any others like me exist… That’s all there is to it. You’ll forget all about me when you wake up.”
Trus didn’t move and gave Dark a sad disappointed look.
“Go find Luna.” Dark said. “This dream is about to become a nightmare and she will be waking up soon. I’ll be leaving, because it won’t be safe for me to stay any longer.”
Trus tilted his head. “Huh’?” he said.
“Just go you. I’m not important, she is! You’ll only forget me.” He smiled once more. “You always do…”
…Trus stood there for another moment looking totally perplexed, his mind doing a few flips. Then he slowly turned away from Dark having had enough of his mind getting smacked for the time being. But then once he was halfway across the balcony, he stopped and looked back just to make sure Dark didn’t have anything else to say.
Dark was simply watching Trus leave and as it turned out he did have something to say. He opened his mouth one more time. “Oh one quick question. What’s that Cutie Mark on your rear stand for?”
Trus tilted his head again and gave a puzzled look. “…Huh?” He looked at his flank and noticed a picture of a cloud with a scene inside of it of two ponies beneath a tree next to a body of water. What the – What is that?
As though to respond to Trus’s thoughts Dark said “It’s supposed to represent your special talent.”
Huh? Trus looked at Dark back at the Cutie Mark and back at Dark again. “Does every pony have one of these?”
“Only the young ones that haven’t gotten theirs yet don’t have them.”
Trus stared at Dark a moment longer and then he took a good look at his cutie mark again. How did I not notice these things?... Must have seen- … Hmm… A cloud with a scene in it… “…Dreaming…I guess?” Trus finally said with a shrug. “What’s yours?”
“Oh mine’s just a shield. Sentry to the end.” Dark said gesturing to himself with a hoof.
“Huh.” Trus said, looking away from Dark again and towards the archway. He tried to think of what Luna’s Cutie Mark was, but all he could think about was a blur. He looked back to ask Dark if he knew, but when he did, Dark wasn’t there…
Trus blinked, lowered his head, looked at the stone floor of the balcony, slowly looked up, started walking while shaking his head and then proceeded to fall forward!
His wings reacted and caught him before he took a complete nose dive, but he still managed to nick his nose a good bit...
After getting over the small bruise, getting up and getting over the fact that he had bruised his nose in a dream, Trus headed to the observatory.
He didn’t find Luna there. Though, getting a good look at it again, he realized that it wasn’t actually much of an observatory. It was basically just a tower with one small telescope and a really wide roof that might block out some of the light from below when you stood on it. However, even with the not so grand observation Luna was nowhere to be found in the room. So Trus went searching the halls again…
There were no guards around this time so Trus had to simply take guesses as to where he should look. He found her bedchambers again, and from there was able to get to the dungeons. Neither held the luck he was after.
He decided to check the front door from there and, for a number of his own reasons, he hoped she wasn’t in the throne room. He followed the rout that Light and he had taken before, making sure to check all the little places they had previously passed.
…
The kitchen was clean of ponies, as was everywhere else. Trus only had a hall of pony’s armor left before he got to the throne room, the one place everyone thinks of for royal, worst case scenarios…
As concerned as he was however, he couldn’t help but to let his mind wander and wonder at all the current events; with some completely random thoughts thrown in as well.
He had just learned about people, or ponies in this case, who lived in dreams, though he figured that he might have already learned about that before as he took note of how Dark had stressed that he would forget. As an afterthought however Darks comments might just be part of the dream poking his interests which would leave him with some odd joke about a race that were said to exist, but that didn’t really exist. Bah, this is hurting my head!
On another note, he had also just learned that he was in a dream of a former princess that had tried to betray their sister. On top of that he had been sent by none other than one of those supposed ponies to help said former princess… My head…ehhhhhhhhhhhh…
Help how? He didn’t know. He figured he might be helping to lift some kind of emotional burden or possibly by simply putting her out of her misery…by some other crazy accident of his…
He hated it sometimes…his life destined to turn out for the best for the places he went… It didn’t mean happy endings. In fact it mostly just lead to really good learning experiences…for others. That or he would end up getting someone killed by some crazy accident that would end up aiding the rest of the world.
He smiled and laughed quietly. Some people say they feel like their life is toying with them. That is my life…how it is now…
He tried to think of all the reasons why Luna might have to go. The primary reason he could think of was that she was supposedly some sort of monster called Nightmare Moon in reality or whatever.
He also tried to think of all the ‘happy’ reasons why he would need to be around that hopefully wouldn’t end in her dying… The only thing he could think of was that somehow something he might do, might lead her to defeating that Nightmare from the inside out, or something.
He had passed the hall of armor now and was coming up on the throne room just around the next corner. He turned passed it and spotted not just the large door to the throne room wide open, but of course none other than Celestia standing right outside it, looking as though she was about to go in.
In a dream, with the one she betrayed being the only one currently around and standing in front of a rather important room… Whelp, that’s got to be where she is… I hate throne rooms…
Celestia walked in. As quietly as he could, while trying to hurry as well, he followed her in.
His mind kept telling him to turn and run, but it wasn’t something he was used to following anyways as his wellbeing usually didn’t matter. Besides, something in his head and heart told him it would all be alright, even if he didn’t dare believe it.
Celestia didn’t seem to notice him standing right behind her after getting inside the room. But that wasn’t actually of much concern to him anyways now that he thought about it.
He looked around, but there didn’t seem to be anyone else around besides the two of them. Huh…
Getting a good hard look this time, he could see that there was a discernible split in the room, starting with the two thrones. One was blue one golden. Each had a banner over them, one blue with a depiction of the moon and stars, the other golden with a depiction of the sun. Both thrones had their own staircase leading up to them and they were connected by a small bridge; railing and all. There were also other places where the imagery was present such as on pillars that went all the way down the sides of the room, on the actual walls and on other pieces of tapestry, but every image and depiction corresponded with what side of the room they were on. The left was blue with stars and the moon while the right held the color of gold and the sun.
That wasn’t the only thing that seemed off though. He thought back to the first time he had seen the room wondering how he had missed just about every single detail he was now seeing. When he thought back to the first time he had seen the room he recalled one throne and that it was… ‘nice’… Seriously? It’s like I was just looking at my own idea of what a throne room would look like… Hold on.
“Not another step...” Luna’s voice called out from the far side of the room, shocking Trus out of his thoughts. She stepped out from behind the blue throne and stepped in front of it. “Did you really think that I would sit idly by while they all basked in your precious light?”
Luna?
She walked onto the bridge. “There can only be one Princess in Equestria!”
What? Wait! Trus had a single realization run through his head. This is when she betrayed her sister!... His mind went back to moments ago when he had spotted Celestia standing outside of the throne room. Oh…right…duh.
“And that princess” Luna continued, rearing up on her back hooves “will be me!” she smashed her front hooves down onto, and through the railing. Then oddly enough, the wall behind her cracked and smashed open into a gaping hole!
In that moment Trus’s mind went blank.
Then with a glow of her horn Luna rose up into the air!
Through the newly opened hole the sun could be seen as well as the rising moon that came up until it blocked out the sun! Trus watched it all in a complete stupor.
Luna came back down to stand once again on the broken bridge when a blackish smoke like substance quickly came in through the hole lifting her up into the air once again as it began to surround her.
He felt something in his head snap, but he still seemed to be in some sort of mental oblivion. And then something else snapped and he charged forward with little thought while running past Celestia.
He picked up speed incredibly fast and so fast was he going that when he tripped he soared through the air! But though hooves weren’t something could rely on, he was used to wings never failing him!
He blazed up to Luna in a gust and grabbed her neck in a hug just as the darkness closed off the world around him. What am I doing?
The black that was starting to turn red, spun around them. It didn’t slow and looked quite violent. Trus however had faced and felt death far too many times for it to really concern him. He in fact was calm as a meadow with a cool breeze as he watched whatever it was, swirling rapidly around them.
“What are you doing…?”
The words were spoken calmly, but Trus’s heart sank. He didn’t know the answer to that. He looked up at Luna staring down at him barely an inch away from his muzzle. Uh, I don’t know… He thought knowing that she couldn’t actually hear him think. As it was, he couldn’t find the strength to even open his mouth. Great! Anxiety again!
She seemed just as calm as he was, though his heart was starting to beat heavier and heavier.
“Trus?” She said, her expression not changing.
He couldn’t think of anything to actually say. Instead he ended up thinking about how Luna might be feeling after getting a rather random hug… He figured it probably felt rather awkward so he let go. Problem was, he had forgotten they were in the air and he quickly realized that the dream wanted to continue playing along with the idea of gravity!
He fell…and met with that black and red raging tempest.
With contact with it, came a large surge of emotions.
Trus was no stranger to intense emotions. He knew of their power and even of their rare cases of lethality. He even had plenty of experience silencing his own emotions.
As it was, it was never a picnic to go through any kind of emotional attack and there was something new to this mix that made him feel all too unwell.
He began with the familiar feeling of fearing for the life, peace and sanity he had, although he knew well by experience that it would probably be fine afterwards. However he had no memory that would come to mind, of going through such an event while falling, or floating, without any physical contact and surrounded by an absolute numbing darkness that now was present.
He felt a choking, suffocating and paralyzing amount of fear. Some good degree of seething hate and anger, but it seemed far to tame in comparison to what he was used to for him to give it much of any attention. The loneliness mostly silenced it anyway! It was cold as the touch of dry ice!
Then there was the one thing he wasn’t used to and it was by far the strongest and the most nauseating. It didn’t feel cold, but he did feel an immense sickness throughout his entire body because of it. It almost seemed like hate, but he already had the seething block of brick stuffed in his chest and it didn’t feel quite right for it to be that anyway. His mind was starting to get shut down by all of the emotions as he tried to figure it out.
Thinking usually had problems beginning with having a mental thick black curtain, of sorts, in front of one’s mind soon falling in on his mind. This time however, that curtain hit him, seemingly, like a sky high wall of stone!
He felt like he was waking up, but he had no idea if he had even gone unconscious or not; or if he had, how long he had gone unconscious for.
The emotions were still there and all around him there was still nothing but thick blackness. His mind was telling him that his eyes were drying out and shriveling, but the moment he thought it he knew it wasn’t true. That is until he realized that he couldn’t feel his eyes at all!
Dream!
The word in his head made him realize that this time he may actually be more vulnerable to his emotions than ever. He had no actual sensations of his actual body. All he felt now all seemed to be memories of how it felt to have a body! As he thought about it now, he felt like what he felt didn’t quite match the body he had now anyways! This was not fun.
His thoughts were slapped away by the still rampaging emotions that had decided to bulldoze his mind again! This time though he was able to keep sense of himself and even turn his thoughts back on those feelings that were trying to crush and force his mind to flat line again! He caught hold of the one strange one and tried to figure out what it wanted… …Want? Want?... It wants!? He could sense himself grimacing, but couldn’t feel it or feel his teeth clenching hard against one another.
He snapped his mind back into focus!
Hate and want?! What is that?!!!...
…Jealous? Jealous?!... Jealousy!?!...
…That’s it isn’t it? He began to relax his thoughts some. Once he knew what emotion he was up against he could fight it off.
He decided to let the emotions just run their course while he barricaded his mind against them.
Then a world suddenly appeared before his eyes stunning him! Nnnnhhnggg…
He was lying on his side on stone and was surrounded by stone rubble. He recognized it instantly as the small bridge that Luna had crushed the railing to.
His mind jerked and stopped as though he had tried to use it to break said stone.
As his mind tried to process the new information along with the information being forcefully sent from his chest and…shoulders? He crashed!
He was now more aware of a more physical sense and could see and feel himself lying still and paralyzed while looking out blankly as his mouth tried to decide whether it wanted to clench shut or open wide to scream.
As he laid there longer, his mind began to spasm a bit and then continued to do so more and more until it snapped itself into a deep focus. He felt the blood beating through his eyes. Or at least, he thought that’s what he felt. A sense of confusion began to top the emotions inside him and he began to panic.
He was still lying paralyzed on the ground, but he knew he had to do something about his panicking. What tricks he knew of to calm such a panic in himself though, he feared might cause him to become un-paralyzed and might cause him to go into a frenzy of some sort. As he simply thought though, his panic began to subside.
And so he simply laid there letting the alien emotions pound on him…and they pounded…and pounded… And pounded away and away… He began to cry…
Then as he cried his paralysis left him and he began to sob.
That’s it. Let it out… The voice in his head told him…
Then he felt a hoof touch his side…
At first it didn’t seem like much, though it did quiet him. But then it just stayed there…doing nothing.
The emotions still in his chest and shoulders seemed to shiver and they made him tighten up. He continued his sobbing.
The hoof that was there still didn’t move. Trus didn’t look up at it, but it was beginning to get annoying as it just sat there.
The emotions that hadn’t quite faded yet sent spikes out at that hoof on his side. Trus ignored them, but they spiked towards it again with more fury and fervor! Again Trus ignored them. Then a third time…and Trus ignored it again. Then they were silent…and Trus began to enjoy their absence.
After a time he closed his eyes and relaxed…
Then they returned screaming like banshees and threatened to burst through the skin on his side! His eyes shot open and then he shut them tight again as he began spinning over! He knocked his two front hooves awkwardly against the one that was now falling off of him and begun half pushing against it, half flailing against it until it was taken away entirely from him.
He opened his eyes and took a jagged gasp of air, followed by several deep jagged breaths. He continued to breathe until he was calmed. Then he breathed deeply even after the emotions had calmed.
Once they, and he himself, had all been calmed down he threw his foreleg that was closest to the ground under him and tried to push himself up.
It was slow and he was still recovering from it all, but soon he was off the ground for the most part. He turned his head slowly in small amounts that followed the pattern of his breathing until he was looking back behind him. There he saw Luna who was mostly turned away from him, sitting and looking down at her left hoof… She was softly tapping and rubbing that hoof with her right one…
Trus watched her for a few seconds and then forced himself up... He haggard his way over to her and sat down next to her.
She set her right hoof down onto the stone and became very still. All the while, she continued to look down at her hooves…
“Sorry.” Trus said through a breath. “I was dealing with some…” He stopped to think of how he might describe it. “Some emotions from…somewhere…they…didn’t seem come from me…”
She made a noise that Trus couldn’t quite make out as if it was supposed to be either a laugh or a sob. However, judging from her expression he guessed it was the latter one…
“They were probably from me…” Luna said quietly.
“…Oh.” Trus replied, nodding slowly… The note hung for a bit as Trus tried to think of something he might be able to say…but his haggard mind refused to think…
Then the thought came to him of what she might have been trying to do when she had put her hoof on him. He looked up at her breathing just a little deeper than normal, and eventually said, “I won’t push you away again…if you…uh…yeah….” He grimaced at his own lack of confidence, but to his surprise she turned to him and looked at him with a sorrowful, guilt ridden and confused face. That took what was left of the wind out of his sails. “Sorry that was awkward… S-still stands though…” …yeah… He slowly dropped his head a bit at a time until he dropped it altogether and was looking down at his own hooves…
There was another long period of silence.
“Why did you do that?” Luna asked.
Trus looked up at her, a bit confused. “…Do what…exactly?”
“Fly up to me and hug me while I was…” She grimaced “I was…” She began to cry.
As she did so, he began to cry as well, which came as quite a surprise to him. The crying continued and he slowly reached out to put one of his hooves on hers.
She took notice of it and scooted away, then continued to cry some more.
Trus sat there with his hoof hanging slightly above the ground unsure of what to do next. That didn’t work… he thought. He tried to think of anything that had happened before that might help him make a decision…but he couldn’t think of a thing. So he just decided to do Something he usually did when someone was upset and simply scooted up to her, sat there and wait with his head down.
He let loose a few more tears too which he still found odd. Normally he couldn’t shed a tear at will if his life depended on it. However, now he just seemed to be doing it…
Luna’s sobs lessened over time…and then suddenly all, but disappeared.
Trus finding it odd how suddenly she stopped blinked and turned his head, staggering the movement only once, to look at her again.
She was looking at him with that sad expression again; although she seemed slightly less depressed then before for some reason.
She stared at him…and then turned her head to the stone floor again. “…How does one…attempt a hug?” She asked, turning back to look at Trus.
Trus’s mind went absolutely blank, yet some words seemed to come out of him anyway. He removed his eyes from hers as he said them. “I suppose it’s something you just do…I guess.” He looked back at her after he said it…
A second later she grabbed him in her forelegs in a mighty hug.
After the initial shock, Trus put his own forelegs around her to return the gesture.
Then Luna, sounding much happier said. “Of course. How could I have forgotten?”
After they parted, Trus gave her a gentle smile, to which she returned her own.
He decided to speak up before silence could make another awkward moment. “So…could I ask a few questions?”
“…First you must answer mine.” Luna said.
Trus nodded. “…Okay…” He thought for a second. “What was the question?”
“Why did you hug me while I was in the act of betraying my sister?...”
“…Ah…” Right… He thought about it and opened and closed his mouth a few times until he finally said “…I’m not sure… I guess I just…thought you really needed one…or something…”
“Are you ashamed of it?” She asked.
Trus instinctively gave it some thought before he gave his answer. “No...” he said quietly.
“You do not sound very convincing.”
“Eh, I don’t like admitting I’m a good person.” Trus said flatly.
Luna raised a brow and then she looked away from him. “…Ah…” she said. She took a little time looking off in the opposite direction before looking back at him. “Thank you…” She said solemnly. “I believe you were right. That I needed one.”
Trus didn’t say anything, but didn’t look away.
“What is it you would like to know?” She asked turning it over to him.
He looked down for a second and then asked “I know this is a dream now, but I would like to know, if you know that is, why I can’t seem to walk properly anymore?”
She furrowed her brows together “explain.” She said.
“…Uh…well…ever since I woke up in that bed I’ve been stumbling around every so often while I walk, but I didn’t have any problems walking before that.”
She stared at him for a second or two. “Hmm.” She said as she looked up into the corners of her eyes. “I believe it might be related to a connection we had when you arrived.” She looked back at Trus as he sat silently waiting for her to continue.
“When you first came here I thought you were just a new part of the dream that I had imagined, but I found it was not so when I tried to brush you away with my wing… It is simple to push the ideas of one’s own dream away while you are lucid dreaming, but it is not so if it is the dreams of another.
“The idea that you may not be part of the dream had crossed my mind, but I dismissed it as foolish thinking… I had thought that I was alone…in an isolated prison where I cannot reach the dreams of others and others could never hope to reach mine… However, you seem to have done so, but I cannot fathom how.”
Trus nodded, but did not say anything at first, thinking she might go on. However when she didn’t he eventually spoke up again. “And…what was it about the connection?” He asked.
Luna recoiled a bit “Ah yes! I am sorry.”
“It’s alright.” Trus said with a mild smile.
Luna seemed concerned at first, but then smiled in return. “The connection we had started at your arrival and it seemed to link our minds in small degrees. For instance, I did not know of the big dipper or the northern lights of your world until they came up. I believe that you may have been unknowingly using that connection to be able to freely move about.”
Trus leaned his head to the side. “Huh…” was all he said.
“…Are you truly from another realm? Or a traveler of other realms that is?...”
“…Yes…”
“Your capabilities to go anywhere must be truly endless then to land in a dream.”
Trus scratched the back of his neck. “Yeah, pretty much.”
“And you truly have done all of those things that you have told me about in your stories?”
“Yes.” Trus said hanging his head a little.
“What is wrong?” Luna asked.
Trus took some time to form his answer. “Not much…I guess,” He said with a shrug.
“Then why are you acting so miserable? Many of your acts are heroic! Your very life is that of a dedicated hero and any hero would not do well to frown at their achievements!”
“I don’t want to be a hero…. I… just go around…like one…”
“…Why…” Came the question from a confused sounding Luna.
Trus was looking at the ground again and couldn’t see what she was doing. It was silent for a good long while before he spoke again. “because I can be and other’s can’t… because it’s just my life...”
There was another moment of silence before either spoke again and when someone did speak, it was Luna, speaking solemnly. “I betrayed Equetria, my ponies and my sister, because I was afraid of being forgotten and I foolishly thought that I was the one being betrayed by my sister as our ponies seemed to forget about me and continued to praise her.
“I have nothing to be proud of…but you do! And yet you wish it wasn’t so? I would gladly give up my lot to live the life you live, even if it would only be for a short while.”
“…I’d trade you if I could…and if I could…allow it… It doesn’t end… unless I get a very…low chance of…something happening… It’ll never end.” He didn’t look back at Luna and she didn’t say anything at first.
With time though, she spoke to him again. “I would still prefer it rather than staying here for eternity.”
Trus let her words sink in for a little bit before he tried to reply. But in the end he couldn’t find anything suitable to say beyond asking, “You’re here for eternity?”
“Yes. I am a prisoner within Nightmare Moon imprisoned in the Moon itself...for the rest of time. I would gladly take on a life of heroism regardless of any self doubt.”
Trus looked up at her for a second before looking down again and taking a deep breath. “I’m more a pawn of destiny than any kind of hero… I’ve actually even been thrown into places just to roll into a death trap... I guess it was just so someone else who needed to live wouldn’t fall into it. I’m just a pawn. Not really a hero… I just get used when the timing is right for me to make the right decisions when I need to…”
It was a long while before either spoke this time…
…It was such a long time that Trus even stretched a little while he avoided looking at Luna. He did however occasionally glance over at her hooves just to make sure she was still there.
“…I think I would still accept such a life over my own…” Luna said, breaking the silence. “Even if I could go back home…I could not show my face to my people that I betrayed…
“They might forgive me, but it would not feel just, to simply accept such forgiveness. Even if they did not forgive me it would not feel just that I should get to return home after such a betrayal… No it feels right that I should sit here for the rest of time for my crimes against my own…but I do wish at times that I could get away…”
“…Heh, heh...” Trus laughed. “Heh, heh. I guess we should trade…if we could…
There was another long period of silence.
“…I feel like I’ve betrayed my God and every person I left back home…because I left without doing anything for…them…” He finally looked up and turned to look at her. She was looking back at him and looked to be listening intently.
He looked into her eyes, her sad worn eyes, and decided to ask another question. “Luna?”
“Yes?”
“…What do you want?”
She didn’t look away, but continued looking right back into his eyes. She didn’t say anything for a bit, but then finally opened her mouth. “To rot.” She said, her eyes almost closing.
Trus nodded slowly. He looked slightly down and then away before he said something else. “…I don’t want to exist.” His eyes lingered off into oblivion for a second before he remembered where he was and looked back at her. She was looking off to the side now.
“…Oh that we’d have such a blessing…” she eventually said.
That simple fraise seemed to calm him for some reason. Even though it seemed like it was something that should alarm him.
After a bit he smiled and said, “I’ll probably be up and saying that I’ll never give up and I’ll keep going soon enough.” He said, having looked down and looking back up as he said it. “I tend to change my mind kind of often.” He sank into his shoulders.
She looked at him and blinked. “Hmm.”
Trus didn’t know how to respond that so he just sat there, with his head in his shoulders, waiting.
“…That is good.” She said moving her eyes back onto him.
Trus smiled a tired, but genuine smile.
Luna actually began laughing.
At this point Trus had no idea what to do. So he waited for her to stop, which didn’t take long. However, she went into another thoughtful stare, so he decided to take another look around the room.
Not much had changed. Though there were a lot more cracks around the room and not just where Luna had smashed through the bridge. There were some small some large. A few big ones were on the walls closer to where Luna had done her work and there was even a small one that was on the blue throne. That one though almost seemed like it was coming off the throne and cracking through the air somehow. For some reason he couldn’t focus in on it however so he gave up and looked around a bit more. There were also some places that looked blurred out or smudged when they shouldn’t have been, but he was so tired of strange things that he just attributed it to the dream and moved on. He found Celestia standing in the middle of the throne room with a glazed look on her face. The doorway behind her was completely out of focus and smudged like someone had taken a sponge to a painting.
Seeing Celestia though, triggered another question concerning someone else he had recently seen. “Who is Dark Sentry?” Trus asked looking back at Luna.
She tilted her head a bit. “I believe that he is just part of this dream… Why?”
Trus took a moment to put his words together. “…He’s always sounded a bit different to me…and he told me about you being Nightmare Moon.”
Luna didn’t react at first, but then her eyes went a bit wide and she blinked a few times. “…I had…assumed that you simply had learned through the connection that I was Nightmare Moon and he has always sounded the same to me.”
Trus nodded. “I have a translator of sorts that changes the way some people speak so that I can pick up on some…usually minor things… For instance, you sound like you’re speaking from an older dialect while Dark has always sounded like he’s speaking from my time’s dialect.”
“…That may explain why you were beginning to sound so odd while we had the connection.” Said Luna. “I did not think much of it at the time. I had felt that I understood perfectly even, but nonetheless it was strange.”
Trus bobbed his head a few times. “Okay…I noticed you sound-r…starting to sound odd too around the same time… Anyway, Dark also said that he was a…dream…pony…or something…and that I would forget him when I woke up…” He looked at her with another question coming to mind. “Do you remember having any other dreams with Dark Sentry in them?”
Luna sat with another confused expression while she looked into the corners of her eyes for a while. “…No.” she said giving a hard stare that wasn’t particularly directed at him. “I remember the others in previous dreams, but Dark is new to me as well… I thought of it at the same time I questioned if you had been real, but I supposed that he was just another addition the way I had thought you were.”
Trus’s mouth dropped to slightly hang open. “…Huh.” He looked down to the stone floor again. Then he looked back up at Luna. “Do you…want to go find him?”
“Yes. I would like to know who else has been invading my mind.”
Trus sunk into his shoulders again.
Luna looked at him, smiled, put a hoof on his head and said “Do not fear I have greatly enjoyed your company. And you have allowed me to relieve myself of many cares I wished to let go of. Thank you. Let us go.” They both got up to leave, but as they turned to head to the doors of the throne room another question popped into Trus’s head. “Hey uh, if I’m still here, do we still got that…connection thing going on?”
She was standing tall over him and looking down to view him. For some reason now being shorter than her was bothering him. Must be that connection stuff.
“No, you are here because of a connection that allows you to view my dreams. The connection from before connected our mentalities, such as our personal traits, memories and sensations. That is the one I severed.”
“Oh…” He shrunk and looked away for a moment, “sorry about that…”
She smiled at him and gave him another hug, to which he returned.
“Let us find Dark.” She said releasing him.
They walked a little ways. Trus got ahead and then heard Luna ask one more thing. “Are you still my friend?”
He froze feeling ice creep through his spine. He looked back to see her standing still with a blank expression on her face.
He opened his mouth, looked down and then looked up again wearing an expression of fear and concern. “I believe so. Yes.” He said.
He turned away and continued walking.
“Trus.” She said.
He stopped and looked back with a blank expression. She stared hard into his eyes and he couldn’t help but glance uncomfortable away a few times. She smiled. “Then I believe I am your friend too.”
With that she walked up to and passed Trus. Then she looked back at him with her smile still on her face and said, “Come we have a Dark Sentry to find.” She turned her head around and took off in a gallop.
Trus just stood there for a split second and then snapped out of his stupor. He chased her past Celestia, out of the room, and down the halls.
After nearly face planting and being saved by his wings again Trus decided it would be a good idea to simply fly after Luna rather than run.
Each hall they went through seemed to be the same on basic levels with the red carpeting, stone pillars and arches along the walls and ceilings. However the decorating would change from hall to hall. Some were filled with several things like the hall before the throne room that held such things as small tables between the pillars that held elaborate candlesticks. There were also suits and, or helmets of armor for ponies. Other halls would have different kinds of decoration such as the hall of pony’s armor that only had dark, full suits of armor and candlesticks that hung off the walls.
The one hall in front of the throne room though, had one thing the others didn’t and that was stain glass windows. Trus didn’t get any good looks at them because he was in such a hurry to keep up with Luna. He did get to notice the difference though and again mentally complain about how much of the castle he had missed due to the previous dream state.
In the hall of pony’s armor, Luna quickly did something while Trus was catching up and an entire wall spun around leaving him behind. She soon returned with another swing of the wall though.
“Not there.” She said just before running off once again.
After they had scrambled around the castle a bit more, Trus began wondering why they were in such a hurry. After all, they had been sitting around and having a fairly calm conversation beforehand and then all of a sudden they went from that to going top speed through every nook and cranny a pony could fit in.
“Luna?” He called after her.
“Yes?” she replied without so much as slowing down.
“Why are we going so fast?”
She stopped and turned around. “We must find him before I wake and given that I have already gotten to the part of the dream where I betray my sister I do not have any idea when that will be.”
“…Ah.” He said, and they went at it again, without any more comment on the matter.
There were several more stops and places that they checked and all the while Trus began to think about everything they had shared. One, or perhaps two things in particular started to bother him.
She had said to him that she wanted to rot. He had said to her that he didn’t want to exist…and…that was okay?…for both of them?... That, more than anything started to get to him. It started to consume his thoughts whenever he wasn’t navigating through a turn, ducking under and archway or checking another shady corner. Is it okay to…want some sort of punishment or…to want simple nonexistence?... Non-feeling?... Nothing?
What good could come from it?
This is nothing we’re talking about; no good, no bad.
Those little statements in his mind quieted his thoughts for a while.
During the time when he wasn’t doing much thinking he began paying attention to Luna’s movements as she ran. She never seemed to tire, but then again it was a dream. However she did slow for very brief periods of time now and again for no apparent reason, but then she’d start up again seeming to be going even faster every time she did.
What’s she thinking about? Trus asked himself.
After a bit more of curious watching, along with some more thought on the matter of self worth, they came to a lounge room with several chairs, small tables for objects such as the standing candlesticks, an opening in the floor above to make room for a large chandelier that also created a rectangular balcony above, and then there was the usual large red carpet in the middle of the stone floor. There were several openings, such as doors and archways, to other hallways and other rooms from the lounge where they could go, to continue looking.
Trus was just gliding along behind Luna when she stopped in the middle of the room to look at all the ways they could go then she stopped moving entirely and planted a hoof against her forehead.
With a grimace on her face she asked. “You said that he had to leave correct?”
Trus thought for a second realizing the utterly silly fact that they had both apparently been oblivious about something so obvious. “Yes…”
Removing her hoof from her face she turned about to face him. “He is probably long gone by now then…” She looked at him wearily. “Do you know how he left?”
“Umm, not really, I guess…he was there one second when I looked away and then gone when I looked back.”
“Where was this?”
Trus thought about and started laughing. “On a balcony overlooking the outside of the castle!”
At first Luna just stared in bewilderment and then she slowly joined in the laughter as well.
They started laughing even harder until they both were on the ground.
Luna eventually calmed down enough to ask, “Why did you not stop me while we were looking?”
He had to calm himself down before he could reply. “It never really crossed my mind… I was thinking about too many other things at the time.”
They continued in what laughter they had left until they had just about laughed themselves out. “I as well.” Luna said when their fits were all but gone.
There was silence for a time when all that could be heard was the sound of each other’s breathing.
He was looking up at the chandelier when Luna asked. “Do you know what will happen when I wake up?”
He turned his head to look at her.
She had been looking up as well, but she turned her head to look at him after he had done so. “…No.” He answered.
She returned to looking up at the chandelier “Hmm…” He followed her example, turning his head back to the ceiling. “I was trying to distract myself from thinking about it with the search…” She said. “I don’t know if you will be there when I wake up only for you to meet me as Nightmare Moon or if you will somehow just be there when I go back to sleep.”
“Hmm…” was his initial reply. “I was thinking if it was right…just okay…or not, to want to not exist…”
They didn’t say anything at first, but after some time a thought crossed Trus’s mind. He slowly moved his hoof to the nose on his muzzle. It felt a bit tender now after having been smacked onto the ground from falling over, back when he was leaving the spot where he had last seen Dark Sentry.
“What is it?” Luna asked apparently having noticed him touching his nose so tenderly.
He glanced at her. “…Dark said he was going to leave because it wasn’t going to be safe for him to stay…”
“…What do you mean?” She got up to sit sideways. “We are but in a dream. One cannot be harmed in a dream.”
“Maybe…but if Dark could actually get hurt…then…maybe I have a form similar to his that can too…my muzzle does hurt…as if bruised from falling earlier.”
“What?” She said with her eyes narrowing.
“I might be able to be harmed here, is…what I’m saying...”
“But in a dream?! If you can be hurt then you could die as well!” She shook her head. “Here, in a dream!”
He turned his head to get a better view of her and then turned it back at the chandelier. “Yeah, I guess.” He said.
“…Why are you so calm about this!?”
“…I’ve learned to expect death…in unlikely places…” He shrugged “it’s my life...” He looked back at her finding her on the verge of tears again. He rolled over, got up and was about to put his hooves around her, but she moved away again.
“No.” She said. “How could you- …How could you… How…” She looked down, then stomped her front hooves down on the carpeted floor beneath them and looked up at him again. “We have to find a way for you to get out before I wake, before something happens!”
Trus thought to say something, but nothing felt right to say at the moment so he settled for just listening and seeing if she would talk herself out of whatever might be going through her head.
“If we can find a way to bring Dark Sentry back perhaps he could take you with him so you could return later!”
Trus wasn’t very convinced, but he thought about it looking into the corners of his eyes. “Sounds like a plan,” he said looking back to her, “but…what are you going to do if we fail?”
She smiled, and looked as though a screw was coming loose. “We mustn’t! We will not! I will make sure of it!”
Trus frowned and his eyes went cold and dead as he began to glare at her.
“What?” She said. “We can do it! All that we need to do is to find a way to bring Dark Sentry back so that we can have him take you somewhere safe while I am awake and then you will be able to return when I have begun another dream! That is all! That… Why do you continue looking at me like that!”
The only movements he had made were occasional blinks along with his subtle breathing while he maintained his cold, hard stare.
She got up so that she was standing on all four of her hooves now and the confidence she showed began to wane under his gaze. She backed up…and then some more.
“Stop!” she said. Then she reared up. “I command you to stop!” She came down with her front hooves smashing against the floor!
Trus only blinked out of instinct to keep his eyes watered. “Why are you looking at me so!” She asked. “I am trying to help you!”
“Luna…I’m going to die.”
Her brows pushed together at his statement. “I can stop it! We can stop it! We just need-”
“It’s scripted…”
She seemed taken aback and confused again. “What?”
“It’s scripted into my life…” He said. “I die when my work is done... It’s how I leave...”
Her jaw dropped slightly open with a gasping frown. However a moment later and her countenance hardened again.
“And what if I don’t want it? What if you’re not done?”
Trus’s expression sagged and softened. “If I am not done then I will get to stay around longer, but if not, then I am done… I don’t usually get to stay long, but on very rare occasions I’ve lived entire lives… However, in the end I always die, but never by age. Something will kill me and I often don’t get to see it coming. We’ll probably be able to say goodbye, but...yeah…” his eyes fell away from her. “I guess I should change that the next session I get to change one aspect of my life…” He looked back up at her.
She stood there and didn’t say anything. “Luna?”
She grimaced and tears were rolling once more. She looked away and didn’t say anything for a time.
…Then out of the silence she asked, “Do you think it is okay to desire that oneself should be allowed to rot away…?”
He let out a silent sigh… “I don’t know… I suppose if it were to happen, it could make a good example to others so they would not do whatever…oneself did. Same with not existing I suppose, but others would have to know of it happening and know of the causes for it to do any good for them…”
“…Then perhaps we are we evil for wanting such things…?”
He looked down to think for a second and then looked back up. “No…I don’t think so…but maybe if we tried to get it despite the costs…we might be then…” When she didn’t say anything he went on. “I guess it may not be about what we want…but what we need. It’s probably fine to want something, but if it’s not a good thing then it wouldn’t be good to go after it… It might possibly be bad to even put effort into trying to get it… So,” he let out a sigh, “I guess it might be just fine to want those things, but it might very well be simply wrong to go after them…”
“…humph, to only live upon what you need…” Luna said. “I could not imagine being happy with so little…”
“…I find that sometimes we need some of the things we want, if only because we want them; just as a source of comfort for us when we really need some comfort, when we can’t get it another way… Other things we want…I guess…aren’t all that important...”
Luna hung her head… “…Perhaps…” she said.
He dropped his gaze to the floor.
…Again…silence…
He began to wonder about what Luna had said about her waking up. Trying to think up all the possibilities was something he did on a regular basis, but he kept going back to thinking about meeting Luna as Nightmare Moon; whatever that actually meant. After throwing away three of those scenarios he got bored and let the last one play out in his head.
However, his little head-cannon experience got interrupted when he realized it had gotten much darker in the room. Shadows had begun to fill the room and they appeared to move abnormally. What’s going on?
He found Luna gazing a million miles away through the chandelier and just had to smile at her open mouth and far-off gaze. He dropped his head with a barely audible sigh.
He glanced at the shadows moving in, out of the corners of his eyes and then rested them on a spot directly below his head.
“So…” He said…still smiling. “Are we…” he looked up. She was still looking through the chandelier and there was no repose of any kind from her…
“…Still…”
He paused and regarded her a moment. He thought of calling her name, but decided against it. He looked away and laid down on the red carpet beneath him. “Nevermind.”
It got darker and darker until all around him there were only gradients of black and grays and nothing solid was in view. He looked back at the place he had last seen Luna and then dropped his eyes a little. Are you still my friend? Really my friend?... Were you ever really my friend?
He looked back up…but there was nothing to see anymore…
After a while of continuous silence in the darkness Trus laid his head down and curled into a ball.
Of course not, a voice said in his head as he got down.
...Oh shut up…
No one ever truly cares.
…Seriously shut up…
Why?
…
Oh come on figure it out.
…
Please.
…
All alone.
…
Well come on do something!
Just shut up already!…
So you’re going to just sit around and wait for the end or something?
After a long, sad, self harassment, Trus was snapped out of his self inflicted mental torture by something prodding him in the back.
With a little jump and a sharp intake of breath he threw his head up and checked behind him. There, barely visible against the dark background, hovered a tiny, solid black cloud of smoke that was so dark it looked like a hole in existence.
It just hovered there beside him for a second…and then it lunged at him and got him in his throat!
The instant it hit him His adrenalin kicked in. He reacted, slapping it with a wing while pushing himself into a position that he could jump and spin over from. He did so and then blasted himself away into the air while shoving the little cloud down with the air pushed down from his wings. It slipped off and he looked down at it a little perplexed. Okay stuff like that normally doesn’t work unless I’m in dragon form…
It started to come up towards him slowly so he moved up. He checked to his left, then to his right and then up. Everywhere he looked he could see tiny, black, cloud holes in existence covering every angle he could see, all of them growing larger as they seemed to be coming closer. He looked forward, brows low. Fun…
He checked his neck and winced. He felt it twinge in pain at the touch of one of his hooves. He drew his hoof away and looked at it. He couldn’t really make it out in the dark, but it seemed a bit wet. He could also feel something running down his side. What kind of cloud draws blood? He put some more distance between himself and the one that had gotten him. Even in a dream that’s pretty weird…then again most dreams are wacked.
He looked around and tried to spot any sign of Luna, but he could only see the black and the somehow even darker little clouds.
Gotta get out of here, but how?... he kept an eye out for any of them getting too close. There was no way of telling just how many there were, or even just how far away they really were, with them all so well camouflaged against everything, but they would easily cover all holes and possible exits soon. He flew at a spot that looked like an opening and nearly ran into a wall of them that only became visible as the clouds once he was closer.
He darted back in the other direction, looked around at his impending doom and thought. Portal? I did make an entire landscape appear earlier. He focused and thought of a portal opening to a place with much more space than he had right now.
It opened and he could see his destination with all the extra space it had. That is to say, it was a portal to space... He flew towards it and it puffed out of existence the instant he made contact with it.
...oh…
He then ran right into one of the clouds. It clung onto his chest, but a quick backwards spiral released it.
He felt his chest searing in pain and it made him want to clutch up. He did his best to resist the urge to do so however as another thought entered his mind.
He swung his wings with as much force as he could muster shooting a blast of air towards the last cloud that had gotten him. He could barely make out anything, but if size told him anything, it seemed to have at least pushed it away.
Little shimmers of white lights started to appear…
Ignoring any pain now, he started blasting air in every direction as fast as he could. He wished he could make a tornado, but he had no idea that, that was something a pegasus pony could do.
As it was, he was doing a really good job of blasting in one direction, then flipping around to blast in another direction, and then repeating the process.
It was a futile effort, but it was keeping them at bay for the most part. However, there was no way he could stop them all forever.
Little lights were everywhere now. It was both just as beautiful and gross as ever…
“Trus!” Came a yell! Then a blue light that resonated from whatever ground was beneath him just a little ways off, filled his view and covered the black sky.
It blinded him and left him stunned. He tried to continue with his efforts of blasting air around, but he was too disoriented by the light and the pain in his chest was catching up to him now, making it too difficult to do much of anything. The only thing he ended up doing was tumbling down through the air.
Thanks to his expertise in flying though, even though the light persisted, he was able to get himself out of his fall with a few quick tricks he knew.
Once stable again, he turned his head away from the source of the light and was even able to see something.
The light was growing out into a giant cone that illuminated all the little clouds that hadn’t been unfortunate enough to have been hit by it yet. Those that were hit by the cone were being disintegrated.
He looked on in awe and wonder. Then he attempted to turn around to face the light that was still blasting its way through the sky. However, his eyes just couldn’t stand its intensity and with his still disorienting wounds he became dazed again and dropped a few feet more. He caught himself again, but decided to flutter the rest of the way down to the ground. The beam followed him all the way down and grew outward as it did so until it filled the entire world around him.
When Trus reached the ground he landed on all four hooves, but he was quickly loosing the stability in his legs. He sat his haunches down first. Then they were quickly followed by the rest of his body. He made sure to lay down on his right side so he could see where the light was coming from. It was a bonus too that one of his wounds was on his left.
The source of the light waned and faded out leaving behind a beautiful, blue sky where the entire world reflected the same bright, blue hues.
As he had quietly guessed during his fallings, Luna had been the source of the light and now that all the deadly, dark clouds were gone she had put out her spell and was galloping up to him.
“No…” was the first thing she said when she got to him.
“Eh…it’s just a flesh wound, or two.” He said knowing she wouldn’t even get the reference.
“That is not a flesh wound!!!” She screamed! “How did this even happen!?! What were you fighting!?”
“Little, black cloud things of death.” He said, emphasizing the last word. “They touched me and this,” he pointed to his chest and then his neck, “happened… I haven’t actually gotten a look at it myself. How-” he let out a huff as pain shot through him. “How bad is it?”
Her horn glowed and his left foreleg was enveloped in her blue, magic’s aura as it was lifted out of the way for her to get a closer look.
There were little lights coming off him from all around the wound as well as from off the ground underneath him. Luna stuck her head in close and started blinking as the lights swirled around her face. She drew her head back quickly. “Why does that happen?” she said with a grimace.
“I choose for it to happen…”
“Why, when they could so easily get in the way of treatment!?”
“Well…if I’m going to die all the time…I might as well make it as pleasant…as possible…they calm me down…” He was taking short moments in between speaking to breath.
She looked at his face and then at his chest and clenched her teeth… “It is not as bad as I feared, but still needs to be tended to immediately… I should be able to heal it here, as we are in a dream.” Her horn glowed and he felt a nauseating tight pain resonating from his chest, part of his neck and left shoulder.
His breaths began to be rapid and shallow and he felt like he was going to pass out any second! Screw it all being a dream. That ******** hurts (and yes he censers his thoughts).
Luna stopped and had new tears in her eyes. She whipped them away and lit her horn again.
Trus visibly started shaking and his mouth went wide. He however didn’t make a sound this time…
After an excruciating, period of time that felt way too long, Luna stopped and looked him in the face. “That should do it. How do you feel?”
Trus was breathing hard and his eyes were a bit wide. Then they slowly relaxed and he responded. “I think you forgot to tear my heart out…but beyond that I feel really nauseous and okay.”
“Why would I need to take your heart out?!” Luna asked, looking horrified.
“Joke… Joke. It was a joke…”
“Oh…” she let out a deep breath that almost came out as a grunt. Her eyes hung half open as she looked down at him. “Will you be alright?”
He wasn’t sure what to say. “…Maybe... get my hooves up into the air so I don’t go into shock.”
She lit her horn again and he turned over onto his back as all four of his hooves were lifted into the air.
“Better?” she asked.
He did feel a little better. It was still totally odd to him that he could be in pain in a dream. It all felt like it was in his head, but at the same time…not. “A little. I should be more or less okay like this...” She nodded and remained quiet. “So do you have any idea on what was going on by any chance?”
She looked down. “I…” She paused. Trus waited.
“I am sorry. I believe I was the cause of this.”
Trus simply waited for her to continue. “I had begun to think about what could kill you in a dream and before I knew it, all my thoughts were playing out before me…”
“Okay.” Trus nodded. “Happens to the best of dreamers I suppose. The mind is hard to control sometimes.”
She looked at him frowning. “No it is not alright.” she said. “Not here, not where I could kill you with a stray thought!”
He thought about that. “I suppose, but…in that case I guess it would never be safe for me here.”
She hung her mouth open ever so slightly. “I’m sorry…”
He let out a sigh. “I am too… I don’t want to make you feel bad…just because you got a little lost in a dream and I got hurt. I get hurt all the time.” Trus said. “You can’t control all the thoughts that enter your head. You just have to learn how to…push the bad ones away…”
Tears had returned to her eyes. “Regardless I am sorry. I was caught up in the spectacle and…it was the little lights that snapped me out of it.”
He looked at her blankly and then smiled.
“What is it?” She asked.
“Don’t worry about it…my friend.” He was still smiling.
She gapped at him…
He closed his eyes.
“Trustin!”
He took in a deep breath and opened his eyes again. He looked up at her. “How did you know my actual, name?”
She was looking wide eyed down at him and breathing hard. “Do not do that again!”
“What?”
“Close your eyes!”
The world around them blurred and rippled like it was the surface of an ocean for a second. Luna snapped into a fearful sort of attention, looking wide eyed off into the distance.
Trus brows pushed together with semi wide eyes as he looked at her and glanced around in the direction she was looking. “What? What’s going on?”
“I am waking up.” Luna said blankly.
“Oh!…” guess I really shouldn’t have closed my eyes… “So uh…what now?”
She didn’t reply, just kept on staring off into the distance for a bit. Then she looked down at him, brows together seeming confused. “I heard it while you were talking to the ponies in town.”
“Huh?...Oh my name.”
“I do not know what comes next.”
She seemed very oddly calm now, yet her body was rigid.
She went back to staring off into the distance.
Things started to blur and her telekinesis dropped on his hooves. He was able to keep his hooves above himself while continuing to lie on his back. He watched her in confusion, glancing occasionally around to see the world falling in and out of focus.
Then her frame relaxed and she looked down one last time at him. “It was all a dream.” She said.
He blinked. “…Umm…Yeah…” He said. “…Except me I guess…and maybe Dark.”
She gave him an odd curious look and then everything blurred completely out of focus and went black.
…
Eye lids opened revealing a world high up above.
Where am I…? Thought Trus, completely disoriented.
A voice spoke that sounded similar to Luna’s, but it was somewhat off. “It was a dream…”
A dream?... Wait, am I looking out from inside Luna? Or…Nightmare Moon or… gah… Not this again. As he went about questioned things he began to notice that his vision was starting to fade.
“Just a strange, silly dream.”
His sight wasn’t failing him all too quickly, but it was certainly and slowly falling away bit by bit. Any other senses he still had seemed to be following suit…
Nothing was said for a time…and Trus didn’t have much that he wanted to think about at the given moment. He just felt like he wanted to keep watching that distant, blue world up above that somehow seemed just out of reach.
It nearly filled the view he had from, whoever’s eyes they were exactly.
There were only a few places in the corners of the view where he could see stars just before the edges of his vision faded out.
He finally settled down for the last little bit to look down at what, he guessed, must have been the land of Equestria…
…When his vision finally gave out entirely, the silence was broken one last time and he was privileged to hear one last, faint, little thing just before his senses gave out completely…
“…I am certain it was just an odd, little dream. How could it have been anything else?”
.
.
.
The next thing he knew, he was somewhere else entirely in some other form…
Stepping through a portal on to his next destination, Trus dropped from standing on two legs onto four.
His eyes slowly opened and his first view of the world around him was the first stars of the night appearing in the rapidly arriving night. Lamps were lit nearby so his vision of the rest of the world wasn’t drowned out in the shadow of that night. He sat down onto his haunches and calmly looked down at his hooves with his half closed, weary eyes. His mouth turned into a warm smile as he took a moment to take in how good it felt to be in one of his favorite forms.
He looked young and was full of energy from just having transformed into a new form, but he felt old and ever weary.
He could hear chatter a short distance away coming from the direction from where the light from the lamps was coming from. Around him stood tall, finely groomed hedges and he sat on cool, lush, trimmed grass. The air felt pure and clean through his nostrils. So much so, that he almost felt like he was missing something in each breath.
The air smelled sweet and full of all the lush greenery, along with the subtle hint of…cake?
“Hm.” He quietly hummed with a smile. He looked up towards the top of the hedges in the direction the lamp light.
He got onto his hooves again and with a certain unsettling, calmness that he had, he slowly walked his way around the hedges towards the light and the sound of ponies talking.
He soon realized the hedges were all part of a large maze and he was at the center of it. However, he found his way surprisingly easily with just some minor turns. This made him wonder if it was just for show and not for getting a person lost for the fun of it.
Upon arrival he noticed two guards standing with their backs to the maze just outside the entrance. They were watching a party of sorts. What it was for wasn’t apparent from his current position.
As the chatter was a good deal louder Trus decided to get a sneak peak at what was going on. He crept up to the edge of the entrance, right behind the guards and got a view of what seemed to be just a simple high society group event.
There were several tables of appetizers and cakes. A game or two of cricket was going on over to one side, tables with seating and ponies in them on the other while a stage with a crew of musicians were setting themselves up at the far end of the open area below the castle walls. Statues sat on pillars around the area in front of the entrance to the maze where some ponies were taking walks, just standing around or sitting while conversing with others. One other thing he noticed was that every single pony, whether they were a winged pegasi like Trus, a unicorn with their single horns on their heads, or one of the few earth ponies around without wing or horn, all were well groomed and all wearing some sort of fine attire.
Then he noticed, on the far side of the party, a large white, purple and golden castle. It looked like a collection of towers that had been fused together and domed with several different styles and designs that somehow all just flowed together. There even appeared to be a small vintage house sitting right in the middle of it and it too somehow just fit right in. The most impressive thing about it was that it was build off a ledge and stuck out like the bow of a ship!
He started to want a good look at the interior structure so he could see for himself just how sturdy it actually was. Something like that never seemed to last…
As captivating as it was, he eventually tore his view away from it to get a better look at the party itself.
He knew that he’d never be able to sneak into there, though he didn’t really care to do so that much, if at all. He’d stick out like a pile of confetti on a white floor, especially since his mane and tail still sported all six colors of the rainbow.
The guards suddenly turned their heads to one particular side as someone approached just out of his view.
He ducked back behind the hedges of the maze. Once hidden from direct view he kept watch through the holes in between the leaves of the hedges so he would be prepared if someone decided to take a look down through the maze.
The guards hadn’t seemed to notice him and they even resumed looking straight ahead once the one they had turned their heads to look at stepped in front of them. That pony turned out to be a tall deep blue alicorn with a mane and tail that flowed ethereally with a vision of the night sky in them both. Trus thought she was absolutely beautiful, except for the eye shadow that he barely make out due to the side of her that he could see being mostly in shadow. He had never been one to like the sight of eye shadow on anyone. The main thing that set her apart the most though, as he had seen many alicorns before and just hadn’t seen any others around this particular place yet, was that she wasn’t wearing any sort of clothing on her. Rather she wore black regalia with a single crest of a crescent moon on her chest piece that matched her cutie mark.
She spoke with some ponies who had been following her. He couldn’t make out her voice against all the other chatter of the party though.
As interesting as she seemed he was already getting bored of all the sneaking around parties that he didn’t feel like attending.
He tried to duck his head down a little to get another view of the castle. However he couldn’t get any good views through the hedge.
He thought to himself. There’s no way I’m getting there through the party, but if I can find a way around… He looked back towards the direction of the center of the maze. I could probably take off in the center of the maze without getting into trouble. He smiled and made a quiet chuckle towards himself. What am I talking about? It’d probably be better to see if there’s some way to get a tour. Still, I’ve never been inside Canterlot castle… He looked back towards the party. Not really anything too interesting going on here.
He got up and started walking back into the maze…
He took a few extra turns along the way to the center finding a few little interesting things to look at, such as a small area with a single tree and a small pond.
The center of the maze was a large open circle that had many pathways leading into it. Once he had reached it he looked up and stretched his wings… And then he folded them back up and sat down as he took in a good look of the stars above…
He started searching them trying to see if there was any difference in the stars in this reality than in the other alternate universes he had been to.
After a little while he came to the conclusion that everything seemed to be the same except that four stars seemed to be missing and… hold on. Why is the mare in the moon missing?
Normally when he looked at the moon he would see the shape of the head of a mare in it whenever Canterlot castle was around. That is, unless the world was an entire wasteland, but everything was lush and green and there wasn’t a single sent of waste, rust or sense of radiation in the air. The only other times he had seen the moon without the mare were times before Canterlot castle existed. He hadn’t even seen the other castle unless it was in ruin and surrounded by an extremely deadly Everfree forest.
He knew the story, the story of two sisters fighting and of one them getting sent to the moon. And he knew the one he had actually met once in a dream so long ago was the one that had been sent there. For the life of him though, because it had been so long ago and because dreams can be very vague on the details, he couldn’t remember what she had looked like beyond being tall, dark, and an…
An alicorn…
He looked back towards the party…
Could it be…? …I’ve wanted to see her again, but… How long has it been since then for her? …What could I even say?...
He started to pace. I mean I’ve heard of dream walkers in this universe but… “Hey I met you in a dream once…!”
Pffffffffffffffffffff…
He still felt mentally exhausted and now his mind wanted to run a million miles a second…
He stopped and looked up at the stars. There he saw the moon again… He stared at it hoping that somehow this moment wasn’t happening and at the same time he was getting so very excited that it might just happen!
You’d think I’d have thought about it more…and what I could say. But…how do you even think about the meeting of someone that inspired you to care about your friends again...?
He sat there almost surprised his thoughts had stopped.
He felt tears starting to push themselves out of his eyes, so he shut them. That just made them sting so he opened them again and laughed pitifully as he kept himself looking at the moon…
His thoughts went back to the alicorn he had seen back at the party. That may not even be her… He thought… It might be, but I may just be getting emotional for no reason… He looked down and made a single laugh.
…if that’s the case then I guess it’ll just be funny to walk up to some random person and find out that they’re not who you think… I’d laugh afterwards anyways…
He looked back at the party.
So no harm right…? Then what do I say?
He must have spent over an hour trying to convince himself that he’d be alright emotionally, as well as thinking about what he could say and what he could do to show it was him if she needed reminding.
He knew that he had proved himself to her before by showing her an effect he had once had when he got injured. Problem was that he had gotten rid of that effect, who knows how long ago.
Eventually he had come to the conclusion that all he literally had to show that it was him from her dream was himself and the memory of their first and last meeting.
He had walked back to the entrance of the maze and back to the party. To his surprise there were several other ponies that had joined in during the time he had been away and many of them weren’t wearing anything fancy if anything at all really.
The guards were still there, but this time he just didn’t care. Since there were ponies out there now that weren’t wearing anything either he decided to just walk right past them.
They glanced at him, but they didn’t bother him otherwise. He walked out into the middle of the crowd searching it for the tall dark alicorn that may or not be the alicorn he couldn’t remember the name of, but who he had once known.
Music was playing on the stage now and there was a fair bit of dancing going on in front of it. More tables had been placed out next to the ones that had held the appetizers and cake. The cake was still there, but the table it sat on as well as the new ones were now covered with all sorts of green food on them.
He didn’t see her.
That is, until the end of the song that was playing when she stepped up on stage to make an announcement.
She stood in front of a microphone and said to the crowd, “I hope you are enjoying the night of the Summer Sun Celebration everypony. We come here to celebrate the longest day of the year and I like to think you are celebrating it with me as the day of my return from the moon as well.”
There were some enthusiastic cheers!
“Thank you!” She said with a wide smile. “Some of you may also know that this day is also the hundredth anniversary of that event!”
There were some more cheers!
“Thank you, thank you so very much! I would like to commemorate this night with a song that I wish to sing for you on this night, the night of the Summer Sun Celebration one hundred years from the day that I returned to the land of Equestria!”
There was a loud cheer from the entire crowd and the crowd stomped their front hooves against the ground!
When the noise all settled down she began to cry! “Thank you! Thank you everypony! It is so good to know that you still appreciate me and still stand by me! Without further due I will sing for you!”
There was one more cheer and the ground was pounded again. Then when the crowd was done she began to sing!
Trus stood still during the entire song marveling at the three things going through his head. One, was that she most definitely was the one he had met before, though he still couldn’t remember her name and he had yet to hear it. Two, was that he remembered her being so sad and troubled over something she had done that had gotten her sent to the moon and yet there was, at very least an entire crowd cheering for her! Three…He loved her song… It was beautiful and full of appreciation. The words and melody all faded out of memory with everything that was going though his head, but he could remember the theme and meaning behind it clearly…
When her song was over he kept his eyes on her and walked over to her.
There ended up being a line, but he waited with his nerves quaking.
When he finally got up to her and it was his turn to talk to her he looked up at her all nervous as she smiled back at him ever so sweetly from all the greetings and well wishes she had been getting.
He opened his mouth and said something all the while feeling the bravest and yet meekest he could remember ever feeling. He was in complete awe at her and even if she didn’t remember him he knew he’d be happy having seen how happy she was now.
“Hi…I’m Trus… I met you some time ago and I don’t know if you can remember me, but…I believe you were on the moon when it happened and it was in a dream.”
She was still smiling, but it was clear she was confused as she tilted her head slightly to the side.
“We became friends… and I don’t know what to say.” Her expression turned pensive. “It’s alright if you don’t… I’m just glad…I’m glad you’re happy now.” He smiled up at her.
She looked down at him not seeming to be making sense of what he was saying.
After a few seconds had passed his smile widened and he felt it was time to let the next in line say something. “All well. Have a good time!”
But before he could turn to leave she took in a sudden deep breath and reached out to him. “No, wait.”
He stopped and waited. And hoped…
“What…” She said. “What was the name of that constellation? Or the light’s in the night sky? What were their names?”
Joy and excitement filled his heavy heart. He knew the answer to both of those questions! “The constellation is called the Big Dipper and the lights were called two things, the Northern lights or an Aurora Borealis!”
She stared at him in shock. “It’s you… That…” She put a hoof in front of her mouth and laughed nervously “Aurora Borealis!”
What?
Some of the ponies behind him seemed to be getting annoyed at how long he was taking.
“What did you say your name was?” She said dropping her hoof, moving in closer and looking excited!
“Trus…” He said. “And uh, I kinda forgot your name too…”
