Equestrian Dreams

In my dream, I soared.

Through fluffy white clouds I flew, the vivid greens and purples of the world stretching out before me, feeling the wind in my mane and tail. I clipped the edges of more solid clouds with my wingtips, trailing streamers of white behind me as I looped around brilliant columns and towers of rainbow-accented white.

Other pegasus ponies dropped into formation alongside me. We met each other’s eyes and smiled, sharing the exhilaration of flight for a brief moment before they parted ways with me, circling back around the city in the sky.

A mountain came into view before me, and then I was flying upward, circling around it. Another city came into view, built into the mountain, partially hidden behind a towering palace of white and gold and purple, its spires jutting into the clear blue sky.

My smile grew wider as I approached the city. Canterlot. The home of the oldest of Equestria’s princesses, Celestia and Luna. Royal guards waved as they saw me, their gilded helmets and armor glinting in the light of the setting sun.

I circled around the tallest golden spire, windows flashing by my outstretched wings. I could see ponies on the other side of the glass, ponies smiling, ponies talking, ponies laughing and living and loving. They saw me as I passed and waved, and I waved back.

Finally, I reached the top of the spire and looked out over the city, my wings beating rhythmically as I hovered in place, turning slowly. I could see the edges of Equestria’s shores to the East and West, and the sparkle of the sea beyond. I could see the frozen North, and the rocky wastes of the South.

I slowly turned over onto my back, looking upward at the moon as the sky darkened. It filled my vision, and I couldn’t look away. My wings slowed. The sounds of wind and air faded. All I could hear was my own blood pumping through my veins, and all I could see was the swollen pale orb of the moon.

My wings stopped. I should have been falling. Instead, the moon grew ever closer. I should have been cold. Instead, I felt nothing. My heartbeat filled my ears until I could not imagine it would become any louder without deafening me. Then, mercifully, it too stopped, and I heard nothing, until…

“Hello, little pony.”

The cushion of air that had been holding me up dropped out from under me as the mysterious voice, deep yet definitely female, spoke. I started to fall, slowly at first, but gaining speed.

“You come here often in your dreams. Seeking to escape heartbreak, perhaps?”

The voice came from below me. I struggled to turn over, flailing awkwardly with my hooves. My wings had stopped working and were nothing but dead weight at my sides.

“Searching for solace in the silence of the sky?”

I managed to turn over and look down toward the source of the voice. A zebra looked serenely up at me, falling at the same rate as me, with her back toward the growing mass of Canterlot below us, yet she seemed unconcerned. A faint smile played across her lips. I could only see the faintest bit of the glyph adorning her flank, but what I could see was intricate twists and curls. I tried to speak, but the words caught in my throat.

“Do you believe in fate, little pony?”

My wings fell away from me, but I barely noticed. I was as lost in the zebra’s eyes as I had been in the moon.

“The idea that your future is under the control of some celestial body?”

I blinked, and the strange zebra was gone. The streets of Canterlot rushed up at me, and I could see the ponies in them slowly fading from existence as well.

“Well, little pony,” the zebra’s voice came from within me now, and she chuckled softly, “It seems that fate…”

I slammed into a cobbled street and felt stone shatter under my body as my own bones shattered along with it. As I faded into blackness, I heard the zebra’s final words.

“…believes in you.”