//------------------------------// // 3| Counting Stars // Story: The Evil Paradox // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// The moment after I fell asleep, I felt myself ‘wake up’ again, only I wasn’t in Luna’s bed. All I could see was a nebulous void that made me feel like I was floating in the middle of a star cluster in deep space. Rich colours of every shade imaginable were floating lazily around and past me, the void itself dotted with an innumerable amount of stars in the background. When my hooves didn’t find any solid ground to stand on, I panicked. My legs kicked out, desperate to find something to stand on. My wings, which I hadn’t even put a second thought into, were flapping out of sheer instinct to keep me aloft. The fear of falling exists because you know what’s going to happen at the end and you’re utterly helpless to stop it. But that never came. I eventually came to realise that I wasn’t plummeting with the grace of a brick, but floating like an astronaut. Even though I had no million dollar space suit, I could still breathe, which was bizarre, because there’s no air in a vacuum. I took several deep breaths to calm my heart as it tried to claw its way out of my chest. As I began to calm down, my eyes darted around my surroundings, trying to figure out where I was. Then, one by one, patches of swirling colours as endless as the cosmic clouds began blinking into existence around me. Amongst them all was one with the purest white I had ever seen, and I could sense a gentle, yet firm presence beckon me towards it. Was this Purgatory? Did I somehow die? And was that the bright white light you’d find yourself going into? If that was the case, I didn’t exactly fancy going into it. I was extremely angry that Luna conveniently neglected to mention this; dying and then finding yourself in a vast emptiness. Not only did I intend on giving her a piece of my mind if we saw each other again, if stuff like this kept popping up I couldn’t wait to swap back. Assuming I was still alive, that is. Ignoring the tug of the white portal for now, I realised that this place, this… void seemed a great spot to practice flying. I knew then and there I had functional use of these wings, so maybe this was a place I could practice with no risk of injury. And it wasn’t unreasonable to guess that there was existing muscle memory and a section of my brain dedicated to the use of these wings. I took in a relaxing breath and willed the wings to flap. Though awkwardly, I managed to pump them downwards and felt myself casually float through the aether at an angle. I came close to one of the swirling patches, just barely avoiding the grass-green oval. I wondered what the hell these things were. Cautiously, I reached out and touched it. It felt like dipping a hand into a rippling pool of water; I could even see my hoof on the other side. I slid it further in and, despite my trepidation, nothing immediately bad happened. Having binged on a lot of sci-fi shows, one thing that popped into my head to explain those things. Portals. But where did they come from and where did they go? Another dimension? ...Earth? Only one answer to that question. I pulled my hoof from the dubbed ‘portal’ and cautiously slid my head through the opening. I found it mildly amusing that my head emerged from the trunk of a tree. Beyond was what looked like a fenced off backyard on a farmhouse; wooden posts with lengths of wire bent and warped from the elements. The house, in all its old and weather-worn glory, looked as though it was straight out of Courage the Cowardly Dog, though much more friendly-looking, and complete with a barn out the back. On the grass just forward of the back door was a lone colt playing with a few toys. He had a coat the colour of burnt orange and a straw-yellow mane, but no tattoo thing on his butt. I pulled myself from the tree and idly walked up to him with curiosity on my face. It wasn’t until my shadow loomed over the colt that he froze in the middle of playing with his toys, and his head slowly turned to look up at me. His eyes widened, his ears splayed back, and he shuffled on his hooves until he bumped up against the steps to the back door. “P-P-Princess Luna?! What are you doing in my dream?” Woah woah woah, I thought, this was a dream!? If that green portal lead to this colt’s dream, then the rest of the portals must’ve lead to countless other dreams. Was it something Luna did on a regular basis? Going off the colt’s reaction, I could safely assume so. “Something wrong?” I asked. What would Luna say in a situation like that? “Did you not expect me to visit the dreams of my subjects?” Talking like a royal was definitely an experience. “I-it’s just… I’ve never seen you in my dreams before.” The colt relaxed enough to pull his toys closer to him. I barely noticed the remaining half of his right ear as he turned his head to keep me from looking at it. “What’s your name?” “H-Hayseed, Your Majesty.” “You can just call me Luna if you’d like,” I tried to say warmly as I sat down in front of the colt. He kept his eyes averted. “How come you’re only now visiting my dreams?” he asked. “I, uhm… There’s as many dreams as there are raindrops on a rainy day, and each drop is a different pers–pony’s dream.” Truthfully, I had no idea how it worked, so I changed the subject. “Where do you live?” “A town called Mercy, halfway between The Castle of the Two Sisters and the south-east border.” He perked up a bit. “That’s where you live, isn’t it?” I nodded and gave a short “mmhmm”. “I’ve always wanted to visit the castle, but Momma and Poppa are often too busy to travel,” Hayseed said while idly pawing at the ground. “Oh? What is it they do?” “Mercy is a farming community, so they spend most days tilling the soil while I’m at school.” “Working on a farm must be fun,” I said. Hayseed just shook his head. “Why is that?” He heaved a sigh and turned his head, giving me a proper look at the remaining half of his ear. “I was trying to pull one of the small ploughs when I tripped. My ear got caught under the blade, then Momma and Poppa got worried I might hurt myself again so they hired some help.” I shuddered slightly. “Come now, it isn’t all that bad. Even I’ve got a few scars of my own.” “What from?” he asked. And then my gut dropped. I was talking about my human body, not Luna’s. Thankfully I didn’t say as much, so I made up a little white lie. “I can’t show you under all this hair,” I said with a small chuckle. “I can assure you, it’s not all bad.” “The other colts and fillies at school make fun of me for my ear,” Hayseed said indignantly. “They call me Half-Head Hayseed.” My breath hitched. “Hey now, it’s not all bad. You know, bones heal, pain is temporary, but scars… look good.” “You think so?” “I think it makes you look handsome,” I said with a playful nudge. “Can… Can you visit my dreams again sometime?” Hayseed asked earnestly, looking up to me with his great big adorable eyes. Damn it, how do you say ‘no’ to something like that? I sighed in defeat at The Look and nodded with a small smile. “I’ll do you one better. How about I come visit you one day?” He gasped. “You’d do that?!” “I don’t see why not.” “Thank you, Princess, you’re the best! I’m going to tell all the kids at school!” If the other kids were giving Hayseed grief because of his ear, then telling his classmates that I’d be visiting might give them more ammunition. I didn’t really want to crush his spirits, so I said; “Just keep it between us for now, alright? We can surprise everyone else!” “Yeah, that is a good idea!” He seemed a lot brighter than before, and that made me smile. And you know what they say: Smiles are infectious. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got more dreams to look into.” Mainly, I wanted to find out what was behind that white portal. Maybe my return trip to the (loosely put) real world? “Can I come with you?” Hayseed asked longingly. “Maybe another time,” I said. I wasn’t even sure if I could bring others with me into that freaky place. “Until then, try not to let the other kids get on your nerves. If you do your best to ignore them, they tend to get bored when they don’t get a reaction.” “O-okay, Princess.” “Remember, you can call me Luna.” I promptly said goodbye and phased back through the tree, emerging back into the void. I could still feel the pull of the white portal, so there wasn’t much trouble in locating it. I paused for a moment outside of it, wondering what–or who–could be on the other side. I steeled myself and took a moment to relax before I stepped through. On the other side, I found myself in a tranquil meadow with lush green grass, flowers, and birds happily chirping away. To my surprise, I saw Celestia sitting on a blanket atop a grassy knoll with a picnic spread around her, casually sipping tea by herself. “Ah, Luna,” she said without looking up. “It’s been awhile since you decided to grace my dreams.” “There are more dreams than I care to admit,” I said with a dry chuckle. “Banished any nightmares lately?” What the hell was that supposed to mean? “You’re actually the second one I’ve visited today. Or tonight, as the case may be,” I said. “Oh? Who was the first?” Celestia asked before a sip of tea. “A little colt that had a bit of a bully problem.” I explained what had happened, but when I got to the part where I said I’d pay him a visit, she didn’t seem too impressed. “You still have your duties to worry about, and we have court proceedings to busy ourselves with tomorrow since I had to fill in for you,” she said sternly. “Oh, I completely understand,” I said, nonplussed. “However, it’s an inevitability that there will be periods of time with little to do, and I intend to adhere to my promise at some stage.” I caught that split second where she glared at me out of the corner of her eye as she took a sip. I stole a better look around Celestia’s dream and asked; “Do you always have the same dream?” “Oh, not at all. Because yesterday was busy, this is my respite for tonight. As a final favour for you, I’ll lower the moon in the morning so you can rest a bit longer. That just means you’ll have to be in the throne room first thing after breakfast.” “That’s fair,” I said in agreement. “As grateful as I am that you visited, would you mind if I enjoyed the rest of my dream?” “By all means. I’ll see to some other dreams in the meantime.” I bade Celestia farewell and went back through the portal. I didn’t know what it was about Celestia that didn’t sit right with me. Whether it was her attitude or my interpretation of was up for debate. I couldn’t really blame her for wanting to have a bit of ‘me’ time, though, so maybe it was the stress speaking. Regardless, the lack of gravity in the void (which I still didn’t understand) gave me a good opportunity to practice with these wings. As much of a handicap as it was, I wasn’t sure how much it would help when it came to actually flying. That’s not to discredit the practice that went into it. I pumped my wings harder each time, gaining significant speed with every flap. No matter where I was in the void, the portals always seemed to radiate away from me like a focal point. Since Celestia was Luna’s sister, I thought she’d be somehow drawn to Celestia’s portal. However, it didn’t explain several others that caught my attention. Celestia mentioned something about nightmares, so was that what I sensed from them? It’d make sense since this is Luna’s job, for lack of a better word. I was curious as to what someone else’s nightmare looked like, so I closed my eyes and tried to focus on finding the nearest one. I located the portal, swirling with diseased green and purple energy, and stuck my hoof through it. Oohhh, it felt like a bad one. It was like someone was dripping nasty, viscous tar all over my leg, and I instinctively pulled it out. I looked at the portal in horror. Whose dream was that? What I felt… It wasn’t natural. I shuddered and went to locate another one. The next portal felt much better. A mere fraction of the negative energy of the last one, I poked my head through and saw a little filly screaming at the top of her lungs, running through a dark forest like a bat outta hell. A giant black spider that looked like it was right out of Eight Legged Freaks gave chase, intent on capturing its dinner. Its ridiculously large fangs oozed and dripped venom, leaving a trail its wake. With a swift pounce, the legs became a cage around the filly as she fell onto her stomach, then the spider reared up and revealed its ice picks for fangs in all their morbid glory. “Stop!” I screamed, and flung myself at the creature to knock it off. I phased right through and landed on the dirt, wondering what the hell just happened. Unfortunately for me, I was successful in drawing it away from the filly. Slowly, it turned, creeping over to me and rearing up a second time. I gave a sharp kick to the abdomen, my rear hoof passing right through.  What is this thing?!  It stared me down, and it felt like there was a thousand pairs of eyes all looking at me in the dead of night like it was dinner time. I fumbled to pick up a nearby log with my magic and brought it down onto the arachnid, and to my horror, it simply phased through, though it did make the spider pause and reform. On my back, I pushed myself away with my hind legs and got far enough to get back up and keep swinging like Babe Ruth. Each swing through the smoke made it stagger back and reform, only for me to go at it again and again. Seemingly pissed off with me, the spider batted the log away like it was nothing, which was completely un-fucking-fair, then swiped me across the face with a leg as it pounced and slammed its fangs into my shoulder. I screamed bloody murder in fright, and almost instantly I was pulled from the dream and back into the aether. What the hell was that all about? I wondered as I heaved and gasped, trying to calm my ragged breathing. Damn it, Luna, I got a serious bone to pick with you. I shook myself off and gathered my wits, electing to ignore any nightmares for now. Despite being scared out of her mind,  I figured that filly would be alright when she woke up. Just a bad dream, after all. Having had my fill of nightmares for the evening, I decided the time I had in this place would best be spent practicing flying. I don’t know how long I was in the dream realm since I had no concept of time in this place, but gradually, the entire realm began to glow increasingly brighter. Like the moment I felt tugging in my chest when Luna and I traded, I was eventually pulled from my slumber and back into the ‘real’ world. Even though surprises like this kept popping up out of nowhere, I was cautiously curious to find out what other abilities Luna had in store. Afterall, you can’t go somewhere entirely new and not expect anything bad to happen.