Gray ash and dead trees stretched as far as I could see. I was horrified, but my anger was still on high. I whirled onto the one that had brought me here.
“Where are we?” I demanded.
“The future,” she said. “Or rather, the present.”
“But, there’s nothing here!”
“That’s right,” she said, slowly becoming hollow-eyed and emaciated. “Look around you, Starlight. Gaze upon the world, one where everypony is equal.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said, the wind cutting through my coat.
She crumbled into the ash that coated the world. Horrified beyond anything I had ever been, I scrambled onto the table to cast the spell, to get out of this nightmare.
But the table crumbled to dust as I prepared my spell. I wailed as I watched it turn to sand, trying to scoop it together to maybe pull on the last dregs of magic the map held.
But it was futile. The dust slid through my hooves and the wind continued to bite at me. I sprinted away, hoping to see that it just that one area. I galloped until I was out of breath and my coat beginning to lather. I took a few more halting steps…
And fell out of my bed, feeling the cold crystal of the castle floor against my sides.
I sat up, an involuntary shiver working my way through my body. It had been a long time since I had had a dream like that. I wasn’t sure what had triggered it, but it wasn’t as if I hadn’t been through some recent events that were somewhat horrifying. Sorla surely had brought up some nightmarish situations.
I made my way to the kitchen, thinking maybe some cocoa would soothe my mind and help me get back to sleep. I found Twilight in the room, pouring some dark brew into a mug. She smiled when she saw me.
“You’re up late,” she said. “I thought you had gone to bed hours ago.”
I pulled the milk out and grabbed a small saucepan as well. “I did,” I said. “A nightmare woke me up.”
“Do you mind if I ask what it was about?” the lavender mare asked.
“Our duel,” I said. “Specifically the part where you pulled me along to see the wasteland.”
“Oh,” she said.
“Yeah,” I said. “But it was different. You wasted away after telling me to look upon a world where everypony was equal.” I shivered again as I set the saucepan of milk on the stove to heat it to a simmer. “It was really surreal.”
“Sound like it,” The pink pony gave a toss of her blue and pink mane. “How’d it end?”
“I rolled out of bed,” I said, sipping my hot cocoa. “It was terrifying at the time, though.”
“But was it wrong?” Starlight asked.
Wait…
I stared at the dark reflection of myself, anger still simmering in her eyes. The pot of milk I had sat on the stove began to boil over, but I had a mug of cocoa in my aura.
“Was it wrong?” my mirror image asked, still speaking with Twilight’s voice. “A world like that, everypony is equal no matter what.” Sharp teeth grew in to replace my familiar face with a shark’s grin.
Just a dream, it’s a dream. I squeezed my eyes shut. I suddenly felt a cold breeze cut through me and I snapped my eyes open to see the wasteland stretching before me again. Only this time, Chrysalis stood before me, her smug grin both annoying and frightening.
“I thought long and hard about what to do with you,” she said. “And I think this would be the most appropriate. Leaving you here, to be forever reminded of your ambitions and your inevitable failure.” A vortex appeared above her. “Farewell.”
The wind howled around me as I just sat there, faced with the worst consequence of any action I had ever created. I stood and just began walking, my head and tail held low. I probably deserved to be reminded of this from time to time. I had made some mistakes in the past, but I couldn’t think of any that could possibly top this.
The world began to break down, chasms opening up all around me, magma and steam billowing around, the heat stifling and the visibility cut to nearly nothing.
I just kept walking. Crags would open before me, only to be sidestepped. A magma plume would erupt and i would just stop.
The ground beneath my feet gave was and I fell. But it didn’t matter. I would either die here in the dreamscape or I would wake up. In either case, my opinion didn’t really matter.
I found myself floating suddenly, then the sensation of solid ground under my hooves, despite nothing being there. I looked around in confusion.
“Hello?” I called. I couldn’t see anything but a far stretching inky blackness. I blinked. And again.
The third time had me opening my eyes to my room, early morning sunlight streaming through my window. I frowned and climbed out of bed. On impulse, I lit my horn and pinched myself hard.
“Ow,” I mumbled, looking for signs of the dream’s collapse. It appears that I’m awake this time.
I wandered through the hallway to the library, pulling the rolling ladder along with me to the section on dream researching. Or at least, where it had been last week. There had been a booksortation in the interim.
Looks like this section remained the same. It didn’t take long to find a section on nightmare interpretation. One common thought was that if one ceased being frightened by it, it lost its power, and like a pony watching a boring play, I would eventually be dispelled.
I closed the book, remembering the wasteland, the ash that coated everything, and the dead vegetation that been the sole visible sign of life. It was still a terrifying image, but I found a new purpose for it.
I was always going to look at it from now on as a symbol of what forgiveness could prevent.