Dream #5: Time Reversion Power (Part 1)

Another dream so soon? Yeah, my subconscious has been really creative, to say the least. I'm just glad it keeps me occupied in the night, as opposed to a black, empty, silent void I'm subjected to on most nights in my sleep.

So, onto the dream itself. If you've ever played the game "Life is Strange," my dream was kind of similar to that. It started with me arriving in a small town, in the art style of Equestria, populated by both humans and ponies. I don't quite remember why I was there, but I know that I was a stranger to the town; I didn't know anyone there, and no one knew who I was.

But anyway, at some point while staying at a motel in the town, I realized I had a power. I could create save-states, like I was using a video game emulator. If you've never used an emulator before, basically, I had the ability to pick a point in time, in the past, and travel back to that point, only in the past.

For example, if I was eating breakfast, I could set the return point there, and later in the day, go back to that point during breakfast. It had to be at a point where I consciously decided to set the save-state, so to speak. As in saving the world in that state, and the return to the point where the world when it was in said state. That was my power in this dream.

So, at first, when I discover this power, I start having fun with it. For instance, I would set a save-state, go up to a stranger, human or pony, and strike up a conversation with them. Once I got to know them, I would ask them for their mothers name, and once they told me, I would go back to the save-state before I met them, and tell them their mother's name. Their reactions were priceless, like "Woah! What the hell...?" or "Wha..? How did you know that?!"

I just had fun screwing around with everyone, and making them all think I had telepathy or something like that. I could be like "Hey, think of a number between one and ten," then they would tell me the number, and then I would travel back, and tell them the number, and they'd be like "Woah! Are you psychic or something?"

But whenever I screwed around with someone, I always remembered to revert time back to normal, because I didn't want to get any kind of reputation in the town. I just wanted to retain pure reputation with everyone in the town, just an innocent, anonymous nobody. I just wanted to keep things clean and pure. Of course, messing with people like this wasn't the only thing I used it for, but it was the primary thing I had fun with.

So, after a while of messing around with my save-state power... I got bored, because I had tried pretty much everything I could think of with it. Nothing really stimulated me anymore. Soon, I realized that if I wanted to get some more enjoyment out of my power, I had to stop screwing with people in small ways, and do something extreme.

There's no consequences for actions if you revert time before it happened... right? So I decided to do something naughty. And by "naughty," I mean... I killed someone. Specifically, I killed Rainbow Dash, who happened to be in the town. Why did I decided to kill her, instead of somepony bad or evil? I don't know; super powers, might as well use them! There was really no logic behind it.

What happened was, I went to a hospital in the town, and found Rainbow Dash there for some unexplained reason. She went up to the rooftop, and I followed her up there, discreetly pulling out my switchblade knife, and once I got close enough to her, tackled her to the floor. She struggled against me, of course, but I was too strong for her. I plunged my knife into her barrel repeatedly, and after a few good stabs, she fell limp, her eyes and mouth agape, and her entire body covered in blood. She was quite clearly dead.

So, I reloaded an earlier save point, and go back to before I even encountered Rainbow Dash. From there, I leave the hospital, and just bum around in the town for a bit afterward. Now, some time passes, and a few days later, I'm using Google Maps on a computer to get a bird's-eye view of the town I'm in. I check the hospital out of curiosity... and I happen to see Dash's corpse still on the roof of the building.

But this is wrong, because I traveled back to before I killed her, so she shouldn't be dead in this timeline. I'm actually quite shocked by what I'm seeing on the screen, saying to myself "Wh-what the hell is this...? What is going on here...?"

So, I go back to the hospital, and ascend the building back to the rooftop, and sure enough, Rainbow Dash's corpse is there. It's been there for about a week, and is showing sign of rotting. It's a decomposing corpse. It seems almost like no one has gone up to the rooftop and discovered the corpse.

I go back into the hospital... and I see another Rainbow Dash, alive. However, she's completely different from how she previously was; instead of being upbeat and spunky, like how she was in the show, and before I killed her, now, her colors are very dull, and she is very apathetic and depressed.

It's like killing her in the previous timeline had an effect on her in this timeline, like she "died on the inside," if that makes any sense. It's weird, and I'm freaking out because I've never experienced any consequences carrying over from alternate timelines. I decide that I want to see how Dash would react to discovering her own corpse.

So, I go up to her, and I say "I need help! Something terrible has happened on the rooftop! You have to come see it!" So, I lead Rainbow Dash up to the rooftop, and she sees the corpse. At first, she goes "Oh my God! Someone collapsed up here!" But then, after getting a closer look, she realizes they're dead... then she realizes it's a clone of her, and then she starts freaking the hell out.

She's wondering if it's a prank, or if it's real, but it is a real, decomposing pony corpse. In any case, she has absolutely no idea what to do; she doesn't know whether to report this to the law enforcement, which I understand, because how could you explain that there's two of you? At this point, Dash is having a mental breakdown, since this is totally shattering her perception of reality, and she's worried that she could die as well.

So, she starts pacing back and forth, leaving the rooftop, and then coming back to the rooftop, going in and out of the stairwell door, trying to figure out what to do. I'm following her all the while, trying to talk with her and calm her down. I don't know what to do, either, because I've never had consequences carry over from time travel either.

Anyway, after a little while of pacing, after returning to the roof at some point... someone else appeared on the rooftop. It was a colt, who appeared to be in his preteen years, but unlike all the other ponies in this world, he's anthropomorphic. He had a blonde, slicked-back mane and tail, dark-yellow hide, and was wearing, what I would describe, to be a butler outfit. His suit was like Alfred Pennyworth's from Batman.

He had an annoyed look on his face, pretty much from this point to the end of the dream, that's how he was. In any case, his random appearance shocked me, because there's no other way to get to the rooftop, and no one passed me and Rainbow Dash on the stairwell.

So, here's the thing... he had a broom and dustpan, and he was making sweeping motions at the corpse, like he was trying to sweep it up. But a pony corpse can't be swept up with a broom, right? Wrong; as he was sweeping the corpse, the portion that he swept over detached from the corpse, moving into the dustpan, where it disappeared. It's like he had a magic, corpse-disposing broom.

Immediately, I start trying to ask him questions like "Who are you?" "How did you get up here?" and most importantly, "What are you doing to that corpse?" But no matter what I said to him, he refused to speak. He just kept looking at me with disgust on his face, like he thought I was an awful, terrible person. At first, I wasn't sure if he was mute, deaf, or just arbitrarily deciding not to answer me.

Eventually, I say to him "If I bring you a pen and paper, could you write down the answers to my questions?" And he stops what he's doing for a moment, thinking. Then, he turns toward me with a massive smile on his face, nodding rapidly, as if nonverbally conveying "Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah, bring me the paper, yeah-yeah-yeah!" It was a bit creepy, because up before then, he was very grumpy and upset.

Anyway, Rainbow Dash and I leave the rooftop, and all the while, she's still panicking, so I tell her to wait inside the hospital, just to remove her from the equation. So, I found a pen and some paper somewhere in the hospital, and returned to the door to the rooftop, which was now closed for some reason.

Before I returned to the anthro colt... I thought it might be kinda funny if I screwed around with him and told him that I was the one who killed her, that I killed her because I was bored, and tauntingly be like "How does that make you feel?" So, I set a save-state while I was right at the rooftop entrance door, just before I went back through. And the very moment I opened the door, the colt is standing just on the other side of the door, with a huge, psychotic grin on his face, his pupils small, and holding a large butcher's knife.

Before I even have a chance to ask him what he's doing, he lunges forward at me, plunging the knife into my stomach, and it hurts like hell. I panic, not knowing what to do, and I reload my save-state, which undid everything just then, including my stab-wound. So now, I'm standing in front of the door to the rooftop, knowing that there's someone on the other side, with a knife, who will try to kill me as soon as I open the door.

Immediately, I start thinking "Holy shit! Why is he standing there with a knife?! Why did he just try to kill me?!" And then, after thinking about it for a moment, my eyes went wide, and my mouth a small dot in my face. I realized "...He must know...!" He's this mysterious, anthropomorphic colt, who mysteriously appeared on the hospital rooftop, with a magic, corpse-disposing broom...

...I realize that this guy has got to be some kind of metaphysical entity, whose job is, apparently, to clean up evidence of temporal incursions, like erasing the corpse of someone who is not supposed to be dead. I figured that was why he was there. When Rainbow Dash discovered her own corpse, it must have messed with the fabric of time and space, and he had to come and fix it. And the reason for the disgust on his face must have been because he knew I did it, that I have time-travel powers, and that I'm a murderer.

So I begin to think "What am I supposed to do here?" I don't know what else this colt is capable of. I know he's capable of appearing out of nowhere, and a corpse-disposing magic broom, as well as a knife... but what other abilities does he have? How afraid should I be? How much danger am I in? Am I going to die because I've been screwing with time too much? Is this my temporal punishment? I simply didn't have answers to any of these questions.

Quickly thinking about what I should do, I realize it might not be wise to try and overpower him with my switchblade, because I might end up getting killed anyway. So, I figured that I would need to be more cunning than forceful to manipulate him. I had a save-state still in place, so I was "safe" for the time being, in case what I try doesn't work.

I opened the door, and tried to say something to get his attention, like "Wait! Don't attack me! I have something I need to say!" But he doesn't listen, and tries to lung at me anyway. So, I started running away, making my way through the hallways of the hospital. The colt was following behind me, knife still in his hand.

I'm worried and I freak out and panic... and I end up making a save-state, right then and there, and the was the dumbest, stupidest mistake I could have made just then, because now, I can only travel back in time to a point where I'm running away from a kid with a knife who's trying to kill me. There's now no way to escape this situation.

At that point, I decide that the only thing I can do is try to say something to him that will make him stop. So, I come to a halt, turn and wait for him to come within earshot, and I say "Wait! You've already killed me over a hundred times now! I'm getting tired of this!"

And this surprised the colt, like he didn't expect to hear that, and he stops dead in his tracks, and lowers his knife. I was surprised, too, because I was thinking "Holy shit, it worked! He fell for it! I just told him a complete lie, but it worked!"

So, I took advantage of the moment, and kept talking to him: "No matter how many times you try to kill me, I keep traveling back in time, and keep coming back! This is the hundredth time now that I've tried to tell you this! Trying to kill me is pointless, it's not getting us anywhere! So please stop! I've tried over a hundred different ways to get your attention, but no matter what, you won't answer my questions! I'm tired of dying! Please, just talk to me!"

Of course, I'm exaggerating this, since I only traveled back in time once with him. But I figured that, if he knows about time travel, he'll buy it. It'll sound plausible to him. So, his eyes go narrow, and his gaze falls to the floor as he tucked the knife into his belt. He ponders over what I just told him for a few moments, mulling it over.

Finally, he speaks for the first time, but he has this weird, deep voice, deeper than what a preteen male would have for a voice. He said "Fine... if that's the way things are, then I'll explain everything. You see... in this universe, there are cosmic entities that are beyond comprehension of any mortal being, akin to what you would call gods. These entities, for their entertainment, like to mess with humans and ponies, by playing games or making deals or bets with them. You were contacted by one of these entities, who wanted to make a bet with you."

So I said "What was the bet?"

And the colt responded "The bet was that they would bestow you with time-travel powers, if you insisted that you would only use them for good, and nothing bad."

Going along with it, I responded "Okay... so, why don't I remember this?"

The colt said "The condition was that you would receive the powers, but your memory of getting them, and meeting the cosmic entity, would be erased."

So, from this, I was able to extrapolate quite a bit about what happened. What gamified me having time-travel powers is that, if I used them only for good after a certain period of time, I would get a reward, but if I did anything bad, I would be punished. At least, that's how I interpreted it.

The key part to it was that I lost my memory of the event, and this fundamentally changed the way I used my power. See, if I had remembered making this kind of deal, of course I would have committed to it. But because my memory was altered, from my perception, I just woke up one day and had it, and decided to start messing around with it, assuming there would be no consequences, as I could simply undo any harmful events.

So, I basically disproved my claim to the entity that I'm a good person. I lost the game/bet. The point at which I crossed the line is when I killed Rainbow Dash. And true to what I thought, this colt was kind of a "cosmic janitor," whose job is to clean up time-paradoxes caused by violations of these deals that carry over.

Disposing of the other Rainbow Dash's corpse was easy from his perspective, but now my main concern is what was going to happen to me then. What punishment awaited me? What did I sign up for when I made the deal? What is my end of the bargain? Will I die? Is death my punishment, or something worse, like losing my soul? Will the cosmic entity do it, or will the colt do it? Will I lose my power and have to deal with the consequence of murder?

I don't know any of this, because I don't remember the details of the bargain. So I asked the colt "What happens now?"

And just when he began to speak... I woke up at my usual waking time, and the dream ended. I'll admit, this is another really interesting dream that I had. Yes, the content was rather dynamic compared to some of my other dreams... but also due to the fact that this dream was episodic, meaning it actually continued at a later point in time, a few days later. So, if you want to know more about it, stay tuned, and I'll post it soon!

Comments

[Bronycommander]

Heh, kinda reminds me of a dream I had once. My friend patch has this headcanon about batponies Dinky and co were bitten by feral batpony, starting to turn. But that wasn't the bad thing. Turns out Midnight had been the batpony who had bitten them, somehow temporarily turned feral, the kids having been able to see it's him as it happened. Bad was, the guilt of being responsible for this, drove Midnight mad..and the climax of the dream was that not even Luna could talk him down, him being close to committing suicide

[midnightwolfGX]

5350419
Oh, geez... that doesn't sound good! Must've been pretty tense, watching Midnight go through such traumatic thought. Kinda makes me wonder if Rue could end up having a spell, and possibly biting (or coming close to biting) Aversion in the process, before he snaps her out of it?

[Bronycommander]

5356212
Well, thing is, if one submits to the thirst, there's no coming back Though, I try to work out with Patch if there's a possibility to snap out of it