This is what we do ch 5
By Foxgear
Mac sat on the stairs of the school with his eyes fixed on the broken statue ahead of him. To think for years he was passing a portal to another world every time he came to school and now today he was going to cross it… eventually. The truth is he was rather nervous about the whole, crossing the boundary between worlds thing. Not only that, but he would change, literary. Once he crossed the portal he would probably become a pony. The whole ordeal was beyond strange.
(That’s been my live the past few months. This is just another day really.)
He checks his watch. He woke up early and did his chores, having a quick gas station breakfast and leaving the girls asleep at home to come here alone. A part of him didn’t want to be seen off, why? He didn’t know for sure, but if he had to guess, he would say it would feel too much like goodbye. Which was not the case, he just didn’t want to cause a fuss. He was only going away to another world for a few days.
Still, he thought, flipping out his cell phone. He’d better call Adagio before leaving. “Hello?” She asked sleepily on the other side of the line.
“Hey, honey.”
“Mac… where are you? Why are you calling? It’s like five in the morning!”
“I know, I know,” he chuckles imagining how cute she probably looked sprawled all over their bed. She was probably going to be mad at him for leaving like this. He’d deal with that when he got back. “I’m at the school. I’m just about to cross over to Equestria and I… I just wanted to hear your voice one more time before I left.”
Adagio giggled, “How romantic of you. Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”
“I would love you to come, but I need you at the farm taking care of Applebloom and the others. Also to do damage control in case Aj gets back for I do. I don’t plan to stay long, but you never know what could happen.”
“I do know what could happen,” replied Adagio clutching her chest. “Just be careful. Don’t let Sixes drag you to some strange and dangerous place.”
“I’ll do my best, see you later honey, I love you.”
“I love you too, you big softy,” she hung up.
Soft, that was a different way to describe him. Pocketing his phone Mac walks towards the portal placing his hand on the smooth surface. This was it. No turning back. He already told Sixes he was coming, if he didn’t show up he wouldn’t put it past the black Rinin to come and drag him to Equestria.
Closing his eyes he walks into the portal. A feeling of weightlessness overcame him and he felt like he was floating in midair. This feeling came to an end very quickly as he exits the portal. Wobbling on his hind legs, completely unable to balance on hooves he fell forward. Extending his arms to catch himself. A loud cracking sound made him open his eyes; he looks down, his eyes widening at the sight of his massive hooves. Scrambling backwards his back hitthe edge of the portal, which was a vanity mirror in this world.
Taking a deep calming breath Mac straightens up and stood on his feet… or hooves and tried to walk, his hooves slipping on the crystal floor. He wished he had something to grip with. A strange feeling come from his front hooves as he trots, like they were coming apart or something, he looks down, getting his second shock of the day as his hooves transform into claws that dug into the crystal floor. Something was telling him he wasn’t a normal pony.
Turning around Mac stares at his reflection in the mirror in wonder. He was a pony, yet not a pony. He had sharp fangs sticking out from under his lip, red-orange scales around the bottom of his legs, a long lizard-like tail and orange spines sticking out of his ears and more spines traveling down the length of his tail.
“What the hell am I?” He reached out and touching the surface of the mirror, his hoof going through the portal and appearing as a hand on the other side. He quickly pulls his leg back, the feeling of being in two worlds at once too weird for his brain to process. Looking around the room the mirror was located Mac figured he probably had better things to be worrying about, such as where in the world he was.
Trotting to the door, his claws keeping his steps steady and firm. Opening the door Mac found himself looking down a long crystal hallway. Looking left and then right, he decided to take a right and began trotting, and trotting, and trotting. How big was this place? He spots a door at the end of the hall and deciding to open it. The room inside was a bedroom and a female occupied one at that judging from the vanity mirror and makeup. Carefully Mac began to slowly shut the door when a pink unicorn trotted out of what he assumed to be a bathroom, as a huge cloud of steam came out of the door. The unicorn trotted happily with her horn alight as she grabbed the towel around her flank and proceeded to wash in an area that had Mac turning even redder than he already was.
“Um… excuse me?” He said trying to get the pony’s attention. The pony stopped her grooming and looked at him with wide shocked eyes as her coat turned from pink to red. She disappeared in a burst of colorful sparks and reappeared behind the bed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb…”
“Who are you? Why are you in my room? Answer quickly!” The mare said in a harsh tone, her horn glowing bright. Mac had a feeling that a friendship rainbow wasn’t going to come out of it.
“Sorry, but as I was saying I didn’t mean to disturb you. I just got here and I’m a little lost…” Mac didn’t get to finish what he was saying as huge burp worked its way up his throat, seems his stomach wasn’t agreeing to the world jumping understandable, that or that burrito he ate was fighting back. Whatever case he didn’t understand is why he was burping fire!
A stream of hot flames traveled at the cowering mare, who whipped up a glowing shield of magic that then wrapped around the fire and extinguished it. Mac grinned sheepishly as she glared at him. He was fully expecting to be hit on the head or to be tossed out the window like in Sonata’s animes, but the mare just stood there looking… fascinated?
“You’re a dragon pony! Oh, this is so exciting! Twilight is always talking about dragon ponies and I’ve seen a few, but I never really got the chance to talk to one. Mainly because they look so scary, and they don’t like it when ponies say they want to study them. Oh sorry, I guess I shouldn’t be saying that in front of you please don’t tell Sixes or Luna!” The mare teleported across the room and appeared right in front of him with big pleading eyes, he looked away while scratching his chin.
“It’s not a big deal, I’m not really a normal pony, and I’m actually from the world on the other side of Twilight’s mirror. Names Big Macintosh. Nice to meet you… uh…”
“Starlight Glimmer,” The mare introduced shaking his hoof. “So you’re the Big Mac of earth? You seem much more talkative than the Big Mac here and more… aggressive looking.” Her nose wrinkled and Starlight looked down between his legs and sniffed before standing straight up with a deep blush. “And you’re mated too. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, it’s mating season here, so I’m a bit flustered. I actually just finished… um never mind you don’t need or probably want to know that.”
Mac grimaced, “No, I do not, if you could just point me in the way to Sixes. I’ll be on my way.”
“Oh, of course, just go outside the castle and head east to the Everfree forest, it’s the dark creepy forest just on the edge of town and follow the path and eventually you’ll come across Luna’s castle.”
“Right and how far is this castle?”
“Twenty miles give or take?”
(That’s quite a distance. I doubt I would be able to find it myself.)
“I’m sorry to ask, but could you show me the way or perhaps find a way to get a hold of Sixes? He should be expecting me.”
Starlight rubbed her chin in thought, “I could just teleport you there, and it would be the safest and fastest way. I just never tried teleporting two ponies at once… but today's a good day to try! Twilight’s going to be so excited when I tell her about this! I’m her number one student! Well, her only student, but neither less let’s get going!”
“Wait I think…” he didn’t get to finish a bright light engulfed both him and Starlight and in a flash they were in the brightly lit crystal castle to a much darker tone one, also they were on top of a table with Luna, Twilight, Kira, Fierce Fury, and Sixes surrounding it, all of them looking at them with surprise and a range of other emotions ranging from amusement, embarrassment, and irritation.
Starlight carefully stepped back as her teacher’s blushing cheeks told she had goofed up, but more importantly Fierce Fury wasn’t looking too happy, “I’ll just be going home now… bye!” Like that, she was gone. Leaving Mac stupefied on the table.
“Ah the earth Macintosh, how nice to see you,” said Luna with a wide grin as she did her best to hold back her giggles. “Let us adjourn this meeting for today. I’m sure you student is in need of counsel after such a… interesting entrance. Kira, please continue to rest and help Shadow Specter readjust, Fury you may return to your nap, sorry for waking you after returning from a long mission. Sixes I believe you have a new recruit to attend too.” The gathered ponies nodded as the Princess of the Night trotted out of the room, her giggles turning to laughter the further she got down the hall. The other ponies filed out leaving Mac and Sixes staring at one another.
“Well,” Sixes said looking at Mac, “I certainly didn’t think you’d actually become a dragon pony when you crossed over. I suppose that makes sense, though you look more like a Halfling to me.” Mac failed to respond. “What? Not what you were expecting?”
Mac nodded dumbly as Sixes climbed out of his seat, standing a head taller than Mac, the black rinin stretched his wings and flexed his claws as he circled the table. He looked more dragon like than pony to Mac, Sixes’s legs were thinner and covered with scales mixed with his coat, his tail was long and covered in orange splines, the only pony part of Sixes seemed to be his back legs, that still looked more dragonish and his wild orange mane that look exactly as it did in the human world.
“So,” Sixes said stopping his circling. “You ready to start training? I see you brought your armor, kind of beat up don’t you think?”
“Armor?” Mac looked down. Sure enough, there was an old battered breastplate attached to his chest and he didn’t even notice, probably because too many things were happening to notice. Running his claws across the battered steal Mac felt the numbers 088 carved into the plate. Sixes noticed too as he looked nostalgically at the armor.
“Night Patrol standard issue armor, Moon Phase, I remember when I used to wear this stuff. It was state of the art a thousand years ago, now it’s nothing but a museum piece. You were wearing Nico’s coat when you came through weren’t you?” Mac nodded. “I figured. I guess it makes sense it would return to its original form once you crossed the border between worlds. Why don’t you take that off and I’ll see if the smithies can fix it up for you? It’s not going to protect you anymore like that.”
Reluctantly Mac unbuckled the breastplate and it fell with a clang to the ground. Sixes was right, it was in rough shape. There was a huge crack on the inside of the plate, as well as several other cracks, almost like the whole thing was just on the verge of falling to pieces. Mac wondered if the damage was from his monster hunts. He always wore his dad’s jacket since it seemed he got hurt less when he did. He guessed he knew why now.
(You're still protecting me aren’t you dad?)
“Mac,” Sixes said motioning for Mac to follow. “Let’s get going.”
“Right,” Mac gathered up the broken pieces of his dad’s armor and followed after Sixes. As they walked many ponies stopped and saluted, giving Sixes and Mac the right away. Some giving the pair an odd look, the majority of the focus was on Mac. Many giving him a look of confusion as they went back to their duties.
“Pay them no mind. Equestria has a very limited Rinin population; most will probably think you’re from Nippon, probably sent by Kira’s kids to look after her or something. A lot of the others settled over there a thousand years ago after Luna’s banishment.” Sixes glanced around at the crossway and turned left. “Come, the smithy is this way.”
The temperature spiked and a red glow came from the room down at the end of the hall, the sounds of a metal hitting metal echoed with a rhythmic beat as the blacksmith went about their work. Sixes entered the room first Mac following behind him, the heat making the fur part of his body sweat. Walking further they turned the corner to meet the blacksmith, a slender unicorn mare with white pink tinted fur with a blue bandana wrapped around her head, defiantly not what Mac was expecting, to say the least.
“Platinum Belle, I have a special order for you,” Said Sixes, getting the mare’s attention. She smiled as she set her hammer down and placed whatever she was working on in the furnace. She trotted up to Sixes and kissed each of his cheeks.
“Why of course, Monsieur Sixes! Anything for you sir. Oh, who’ve is this?” She leaned close to Mac and quickly planted two quick pecks on his cheeks. Blushing madly Mac averted his eyes to the floor; he frowned noticing that her left foreleg had an abnormal shine to it. When she stepped back, he noticed both of her back legs also shined. From the screws and pins and the stiff movement of the limbs, it was clear they were made of metal. “He is cute this one no?” Giggled Platinum, if she noticed his staring, she didn’t show it, she just continued to smile. “I have not seen him before, is he kin of Kira’s country? Oh how rude of me! I’ve not introduced myself; I am Platinum Belle of Prance. Who are you?”
Mac looked expectantly to Sixes. How was he supposed to introduce himself to ponies? There were literary two of him in this world and he didn’t want to cause confusion. Lucky Sixes seemed to have an answer.
“This is… Macintosh…Little Macintosh,” Mac gave Sixes a blank stare.
(Really.)
Platinum giggled, “Well, he is not so little, but he is cute. Now Monsieur Sixes, what is it that you need from moi? I have many orders to fill, but for you, I make an exception.” Sixes took Nico’s armor from Mac and handed it over to Platinum, who took with her magic and looked it over. “My, my, this is in bad shape! Is this not Moon Phase: Phase 1 armor? Why would you have such a thing? This is over a thousand years old! Please tell me that you do not wish for it to be fixed?” Sixes nodded, causing Platinum to sigh, “I shall do my best Monsieur, but I make no promise. Now away, both of you, you get in way of my work.” Platinum pushed them out of the workshop via magic and slammed the door.
“Quite the attitude that Prance mare,” chuckled Sixes walking back down the hallway. When he noticed Mac wasn’t following he turned and gave the red rinin a confused look. “What?”
“Well… it’s just… her legs… I know it was probably rude to stare, but I just didn’t expect…”
“Didn’t expect to see ponies with missing limbs? I’m sure I told you Equestria isn’t the land of sunshine and rainbows you think it is if it was there wouldn’t be a need for ponies like me.” Mac nodded solemnly and trotted up beside Sixes, the black rinin looking excited as he began to talk at length about all the things he was going to teach him. “I can’t say how much I’ve been looking forward to training you Mac. You’ve already gotten so strong on your own, I’m sure Nico would be proud. He saved my life a long time ago and I want to return the favor the best I can and that means I’m going to put you through the ringer, so next time you fight a Gore you can just laugh it off. Trust me, in three months I’ll make you one of the mightiest ponies in all of Equestria!”
Mac’s ears flopped down against his head; he forgot to tell Sixes he was only staying for a few days, not three months! The night commander seemed to sense his mood as he came to a sudden stop and turned towards him. “Mac… what’s the face for?”
“I…” Mac sighed, “I’m only planning to stay for a few days, maybe a week at best, I just came to learn some things to help me understand magic better. I figured once I get the basics I can figure the rest out at home. We never know when a strong monster will appear and I don’t feel comfortable leaving everyone to fend for themselves without me.”
“I see,” said Sixes looking solemn. “That might be a problem. I’ve been planning a full regimen for you, but I can understand your feelings though about not wanted to leave your home short hoofed. Tell you what, you go eat, it’s about that time anyway and I’ll go discuss what we can do with Luna. She’ll know what kind of magic training would suit you best.” Sixes looked down a corridor, spotting Shadow Specter wondering the halls. “Shadow, take Mac to the mess hall for me!”
“Yes, sir!” The ghost pony shouted in the distance.
“Go with him, he’s adjusting to the castle, having you around might help.”
“How?”
Sixes’s brow frowned, “I don’t know, it just seems like a good idea to me. I’ll get in contact with you after dinner.” Just like that Mac was left in the capable hooves of Shadow Specter.
Pony food was… well, it was mainly vegetables, some fruits, and sweets. Lots and lots of sweets, like everypony, should be fat kind of amounts of sweets, also apparently rinin eat gems, because the lunch mare put a big red ruby on his plate. He barely managed to hobble on three legs to his seat. He had no idea how ponies carried things in their mouths, but they had his respect.
The mess hall was packed, yet Mac found himself eating alone with Shadow Specter. He didn’t know if no pony wanted to sit next to him because he was new or if Shadow was that scary looking, but it was kind of weird. Whatever the case he didn’t mind, he could think in peace.
Starting with the fact magic was awesome. Even if his stomach didn’t like the feeling of teleporting, the ability to jump from one place to another was amazing! Hopefully, he could learn something similar or maybe even the ability to fly. He didn’t have wings… but ponies knew how to make functioning prosthetic limbs; maybe they could make false wings too? There were Pegasus here; a Pegasus was bound to have lost a wing at some point in time here. Maybe he should ask somepony. His eyes traveled from his tray to pony across from him.
Across the table Shadow Specter happily ate his blue sapphires, chewing them loud and gleefully like candy. The ghost pony seemed to have no concept of table manners as he dug face first into his mashed potatoes with corn and gravy. When he lifted his muzzle out of the mountain of spuds he gave Mac a goofy skeletal grin as he licked up the potatoes.
“Sorry,” said Shadow wiping his muzzle. “I’m not usually such a messy eater, but before this, I was eating nothing but zebra food, it’s not bad, but’s it’s not Cookie’s mashed potatoes. Still one of my mates did try to make mashed potatoes for me.” A smile crept onto his tattooed lips as he chuckled. “It didn’t turn out very well. She used a rock to smash them, the potatoes were chunky and she had to use her own milk since they didn’t have cows, but I didn’t have the heart to tell her they weren’t right. I ate them all and believe you me, she made a lot.”
Mac chuckled softly imagining the scene, a similar thing happened when Adagio first tried to cook for him. She didn’t have a hand for it and she nearly burnt everything, the steak, the potatoes, and the toast. Still, he did eat it, even as she sat pouting across from him, taking little nibbles here and there and grimacing with every bit. There had been no denying that the meal wasn’t very good, but he never said a word and even asked for more. After that, Adagio went to Granny to learn how to cook and every meal been excellent.
“Did you like her?” Mac asked. Shadow had been held captive, as a stud to multiple mates, there probably wasn’t a lot of connection there. He wondered what it was like, it was every young male dream to bed a lot of women, but it was probably the opposite for Shadow.
“Maybe,” was Shadow’s reply, “I didn’t know her name. Very few zebras spoke fluent equestrian. She spoke a little, but on top of speaking a foreign language zebra’s also rhythmed when they talked. I couldn’t tell if she was saying her name or just saying a poem. I guess I felt a little something for all of them. They were all going to have my foals after all, but that’s a thousand years ago already. I wonder how many survived or if I have any descendants running around. Some ponies talked about a zebra leaving not far away from here, I was thinking of going and asking her, but…”
“But what? Don’t you want to know what happen to your kin?”
Shadow sighed, pushing his empty tray aside and resting his forelegs under his chin, which did not seem like a natural pose for a pony to Mac, did they not have knees? “Yes and no. Yes, I do want to find out, but no because what would be the point? My foals are long gone. I went from being a potential father to nothing in the span of a few minutes. Kind of the opposite of Sixes, it's kind of funny in an ironic way.”
“Wait, Sixes has children?” Mac felt like that was something someone would bring up. After the incident with Maddie Sixes spent at least a week with them, Mac would think Sixes would have mentioned his kids at least once during that time.
Shadow nodded, “Yeah, his name was Crusader, the last rinin created by Madhoof and Hoofenstein. He looked just like Sixes, except he had a white coat and blue hair; he also had antlers like a deer.”
“He was made… by Maddie’s father?”
“Yeah, we all were. All Rinin were made by Dr. Madhoof and Dr. Hoofenstein, Sixes, Kira, Fury, me, etcetera and so on. Crusader was a little different, he was made using Sixes’s blood and Celestia’s feather, and he was the only rinin to have alicorn blood running through his vein. Might be why he had the antlers. He was a good pony, I only knew him for two years before I was captured, but I know he and Sixes didn’t really connect. No matter how much Celestia tried to get them too. In my personal opinion, I think she made it worse. I heard he died after Sixes was sealed in stone from Kira, he has a statue out in the graveyard here, but if you want to know anymore you’ll have to talk to Sixes. It’s his business after all.”
Shadow returned to his meal, leaving Mac to pick at his food. Somehow Sixes mood change earlier made more sense to him now, if he was right that is, which he was pretty sure he was because Mac remembered that same look on his dad the first time he wanted to go play with his friends, then spend time with his dad.
(Great, now I feel like an ass. Not just about Sixes either.) Mac wondered how many times he made his dad’s frown like that, must be tough when your kids don’t want to hang out with you anymore. (I’m probably going to go through the same thing in a few years too.)
Picking at the ruby, Mac debated about trying it. The ruby shined in the sunlight streaming in from the bid stain glassed window depicting a pony flying towards what looked like a floating island with rainbows falling from it. The pony was dark blue with a silver mane, just like his dad... putting the ruby aside Mac leap over the table walking over to the stained window. Writing under the window was ‘Nico’s Greatest Deed’, this was his dad!
“Shadow… can you tell me about this window?”
The specter pony turned towards the window, a smile crossing his lips, “That depicts the Battle of Rainbow Factory when Nico disabled the factory’s shields and allowed the Princess’s forces to shoot down the fly factory. It when I first met Luna and your dad, sorry to tell you, but that was the last day I saw him too. I owe him huge thanks for the helping getting me out of that hellhole, though.”
It was the first time he thought of it, but this was probably the only time he may get to ask about his dad before coming to earth. Stories that his dad couldn’t share, because everyone would have thought he was insane.
“Who knew him best? I want to learn more about him.”
Shadow rubbed his chin, “Off the top of my head… I’d say, Luna, Sixes, Fury, or maybe Emerald Cutter, but she’s dead… actually better for you not to ask about Emerald, it’s a hard subject for everypony here according to Kira. She didn’t say why, but it’s probably for a good reason.”
Back the same list of sources then, he would just have to ask more about his dad when he had the chance. “Oh, there is one thing I remember about Nico,” said Shadow, he phased away and came back holding a blue gem. “He had the ability to change his fire breathe to other elements when he ate certain gems. What to give it a try? You might be able to do it too.”
Mac stared at the offered gem. Slowly he reached out and took it from Shadow, unsure what to actually do with it. Even if his body could process the hard mineral, his brain wasn’t prepared to try. Before he could come to a decision Princess Luna suddenly appeared in front of him and everypony dropped a knee.
“Macintosh,” she said in a much louder voice in probably necessary. “Sixes and I have come to a decision. Thou shall train with me first! Come let us not make waste, but haste!” Luna’s horned glowed and Mac knew what was coming. A flash and a pop later he was in a different location, his stomach doing flip flops.
“Ah… you are still unused to teleporting. My apology we could have simply walked instead.”
Holding back what felt like fire in his throat, which it probably was given earlier, Mac bit back the flaming vile with a grin as sparks shot out from between his teeth. Luna quickly caught the sparks within spheres with her magic and extinguished them; they were in a library after all.
“I’m fine, relatively speaking,” grinned Mac, Luna giving him a look of sympathy as she conjured up a cloud of magic and let it settle over him. Instantly he felt better and he let out the breath he’d been holding, fire free.
Luna smiled kindly, “Better?” He nodded his thanks and sat on his romp, he was feeling really exhausted all of sudden. “Are you feeling unwell Macintosh? Should I postpone the lesson?”
“No, no, I’m fine. Just feeling a little tired it all.”
“I see,” Luna spotted the gems in Mac’s claws. “You should eat really eat those.” Mac’s head shot up giving her a strange look as he held up the gems. She smiled softly at the human turned pony and took the gems from his grasp with her magic. “Let’s begin your first lesson to understanding Equestrian magic and Rinin Biology.”
A glowing board appeared in thin air; Luna produced a glowing stick of chalk with her magic and began to draw on the board. A notebook appeared in front of Mac, as well as a desk, the notebook copying down everything Luna said.
“Magic in Equestria comes in many types, but the main oneS I will tell you about today is personal magic and free-will magic. Personal magic is the magic a being, such as a pony, produces naturally and can control with their will, what this magic does depends on the race, skill, and will of the user. Free-will magic is inanimate objects that possess magic, either naturally or were created that way. They magical objects can be programmed to act a certain way by whoever created them, older objects tend to go rogue and obtain a certain amount of free-will. For example, an object made to work with a specific pony race, let’s say unicorns to enhance their magic, could over time develop the will to choose whoever or whatever it wants to give its power too. This is important in case you ever come across a magical object. Do you understand this Mac?”
Mac blinked, trying his best not to look like a complete idiot. “I think I got it, but why is it important that I eat gems?”
“A good question and one with a simple answer,” stated Luna drawing a picture of Mac on the board. “As I was saying just about everything has magic in Equestria, this gem is no exception, rinin are part dragon and dragons devour gems and other precious stones to absorb the magic trapped inside. Doing this allows both dragons and rinin to use abilities like their fire breath, harden their scales and much, much more that Sixes will explain later.”
“So I have to eat them…”
Luna chuckled, “I’m afraid so, think of them like rock candy.” She levitated the gems over to him and he reluctantly took them in his claw. Looking between Luna’s encouraging smile and the gems Mac gulped and tossed the shiny rocks into his mouth and bit down.
Chewing the gems Mac had fully expected his gums to be bleeding, but surprisingly enough his teeth crushed the rocks like normal hard candy, they even had a bit of a taste to them, strangely the sapphires tasted like mint and blueberries.
“That’s was actually good!”
The princess smiled, “I’ll take your word for it. Now let’s move onto your next lesson.” From noon to late into the night Luna taught Mac what she could about Mac till the human turned pony was nearly about to fall out of his seat. Deciding to end the lesson, Luna cast a weak sleep spell to give Mac the final push to the realm of dreams. Taking him in her magic she carried him off to a bed to rest.
Mac opened his eyes, he had hands again, and he was at home too. Did he just dream going to Equestria? No, no, that can’t be it. He’s done that before, but he could never imagine half of the magic mambo jumbo he heard today, so… was he dreaming? He’s heard of this, lucid dreaming or something?
“Kind of lame dream,” he noted, everything seemed… normal.
The sound of muffled sobbing came from the Adagio’s and his bedroom. Quickly he ran breaking through the door like a bull. “Adagio what’s wrong?” He yelled looking for any danger. He didn’t see anything, just Adagio sobbing on the bed… something wasn’t right here.
“Adagio…” He reached out to her, but his hand passed right through her. She was sloppily dressed in her nightgown, her face a mess of tears as she held a picture frame tight against her chest. He tried again to get her attention, but again his hand just slipped through her, like he was a ghost.
From the doorway, a pair of soft footstep shuffled across the floor, Mac turned around to see two little kids, one boy, one girl, looking like a mix of him and Adagio crawling to the bed. A tightness filled Mac’s chest as the children called out to Adagio.
“Mommy…” The girl begged, pulling at the helm of Adagio’s gown, “Where’s daddy? He was going to read us a story.”
The boy held up a book, “Yeah, story, story!”
Adagio wiped her tears, putting on a fake smile as she set the picture aside, “Daddy… daddy couldn’t make it home tonight either. I’ll read to you my little hatchlings.” She gathered the two up in her arms and read to them.
Solemnly Mac walked over to them and leaned over the bed to look at the picture Adagio had been holding. It was a picture of him.
“What’s going on? Adagio, Adagio it’s me! I’m right here!” He yelled, but she couldn’t hear him, “ADAGIO!”
“It is no use, this is not your dream,” Luna’s voice said suddenly. The scene before him shattered turning into a starlight void of doors that seemed to stretch forever. The Princess of the Night appeared beside him as pony silhouette before morphing into her human appearance. “I believe you will find this form more comforting.”
“What’s going on? What was that?” Mac demanded in a raised tone, before realizing who he was talking to. Reeling himself back he spoke again in a more respected tone, “Sorry, please explain.”
Luna smiled as she touched Mac’s shoulder, the scene around them changing that that of Luna’s room. “Fear not Mac, what you just witnessed was nothing but a dream, or rather a nightmare, Adagio’s nightmare to be precise. I had not expected that you two would share such a strong link between your magic, let alone one strong enough to cross between worlds. You should feel proud, not many have such a deep bond.”
“So that was a shared dream or something?”
“More like a dream exchange,” commented Luna, uncertain how to actually label it. “You saw the one thing Adagio fears most. She fears losing you. I assume the feeling is mutual?”
“Of course, why wouldn’t it be?”
“It is only a question Mac, nothing more. Different people worry about different things, in different ways. Adagio fears losing you and having to carry on without you. You on the other hand…” The scene changed, morphing into a fiery landscape. Mac recognized it; it was the farm, in flames! At the front of the house another him, kneeling with Adagio in his arms and all his loved ones sprawled around him, covered in blood. “You fear being unable to protect your loved ones.”
“Is this what Adagio is seeing right now?” Mac asked with horror, Luna nodded.
“Yes, I’m afraid so, this is what I meant by dream exchange. You two have swapped out your nightmares out of fear of letting the other worry about the other. As the Princess of the Night, it is my duty to watch over the dream realm and ensure the mental safety of all my subjects. However, I am uncertain if that authority falls to beings from another world, even if it does, I am unsure how to find the cause of these nightmares.”
Mac’s fist tightened, he had a pretty good idea why Adagio was dreaming of him dying. It was probably because of his confession of almost dying to the Gore, it must have pushed her fears to the surface, just like it did his. He couldn’t defeat the Gore on his own, meaning he wouldn’t have been able to protect his loved ones.
“Don’t worry about Princess Luna, we’ll take care of it ourselves, but I could use a little help. Could you get me and Adagio into the same dream?”
Luna smiled and nodded, “A simple task.”
The world morphed for the third time and Mac was back in his bedroom with Adagio crying. Quietly he walked over to the bed, sat down, and wrapped her in his arms. She gasped in surprise as she looked up at him with tear stained cheeks. He smiled as he wiped them away with his finger and kissed her on the lips and held her hand tight
He broke the kiss and whispered, “it's ok, I’m right here.”