//------------------------------// // V. Expect the Unexpected // Story: In Lumine Lunae // by ParaNomaly //------------------------------// As it turned out, it was a long session. They went on for a minimum of three hours going over the various facets of Equestrian history and culture. Things such as the formation of the three tribes, the rise of the alicorn sisters, Starswirl the Bearded, and the establishment of Equestria as a whole were touched on the most, while the events that followed such as King Sombra and Nightmare Moon being on the less discussed side of things. It would take a while for John to absorb all of that and be able to recall it by memory but knowing the basics was a start nonetheless. Both the alicorn sisters and Nightmare Moon were two of the things that had interested him the most. After all, they directly involved him, so to speak. He still very much had his doubts that he was this... 'Princess Luna' they claimed he was, but outright denying it would get him nowhere. He tried bringing the subject back up with Celestia, but she seemed sure he was her sister, even if she didn't outright say it. Maybe these ponies could sense the soul of a person or something? Either way, it didn't sit well with him. He still found his mind wandering to his life back on Earth and how everything was going. He may have been gone for less than a day, but it should have been enough for the police to have gotten involved and probably had were either in an investigation into his disappearance or preparing for one. Hopefully, he could get to the bottom of this clusterfuck within a week or so; otherwise, he feared what may happen with his job. His boss had always been a hardass; he wouldn't put it past her to outright replace him as soon as she could. After Celestia had finished teaching John the basics, he had asked if he could go back to his room and rest for a bit. He had felt a bit tired before the whole lesson even with his previous nap, but after sitting on that beanbag for so long, he swore he had almost fallen asleep a few times while having to hear Celestia go on about specific topics for what had felt like hours. Her admittedly soothing voice and his general disinterest in reading would have put any man to sleep. Celestia had a few actual, proper guards come in and escort him to his room. He had assumed he was going to be taken back to the one he had previously been in, but after taking a completely different route than before and having to climb another rather large spiral staircase, a rocket scientist wasn't necessary to come to the conclusion that they had assigned him a new room. He had expected more or less for it to be the same, but boy was he wrong. He had to double take not only when he saw the door, which had been neatly decorated with designs of full and crescent moons, but when he entered the room itself. Breathtaking would have been an understatement. The entire room was coloured in various shades of blue and lavender, with numerous designs similar to the ones found on the door dotting the bedroom. Adding to the already unique style were various oddly shaped lamps placed in different locations within, with two covered-up windows flanking a crescent-shaped moon themed bed. To his left, he had spotted a nice, decently long desk which also had fallen prey to the moon theme. Multiple items were organized on top, some of which he didn't quite recognize. There was also a door to what he guessed was a bathroom some distance away from the aforementioned desk. Said desk was the one he was currently in front of, sitting on a chair that was probably more comfortable than the beanbag he had sat in for the past several hours. John wore a somewhat bored look on his face as he, per Celestia's instructions, practised his levitation. He had been at it for fifteen minutes or so, and he had already been able to control a few of the objects that laid in front of him at the same time, moving them around and even having mock dogfights with them. "What I wouldn't give to have my phone right now..." he mumbled as he continued to observe and manipulate the dogfight, which consisted of several makeup products and two brushes. He had even given them roles, the small makeup bottles were the fighters, and the brushes were the carriers. He had to imagine the gunfire, unfortunately, as he couldn't find a way to actually make them shoot anything. With a yawn, he leaned back in his chair and stretched his forelegs. Unluckily for him, he leaned back a bit too much, and the chair began tipping backwards. "Fuck!" He cursed out loud as he quickly shot forward, his wings springing out to their full size and stabilizing the chair before he had the chance to fall on his ass and make himself look like an idiot. John looked to his sides as the chair returned to its former position, observing the majestic looking blue wings that had helped prevent his fall. He hadn't paid much attention to them before, but now he wished he had. The implications of having wings hadn't dawned on him before, but now they most certainly did. "I have wings... does that mean I can fly?!" He grinned as he used his hooves to move one of his wings in front of him, gently stroking the long feathers. It felt strangely good as he did, like one of those ASMR tingles he got on occasion but concentrated on his wing instead of his head or lower back. "Magic and flight? Maybe this place isn't so bad after all." He yawned as he said so, reminding him that he was still fairly tired. "Eh, I can give this a test before I get some shuteye." He shrugged and looked around, looking for a spot that was far away enough so that he didn't knock anything over during his first attempt at flight. Once he found it, he gave his wings a stretch before standing up and making his way over. He glanced back at his wings and gave each of them a few experimental flaps, feeling the slight gust of wind they generated on his fur. "Birds do it all the time, how hard could this be?" He adjusted himself to what he thought was the best position and spread his wings to their fullest extent, their height extending almost two meters from his back. With a deep breath, he thought back to all the times he'd seen birds fly, trying to pull forth even the most minuscule of details. "Easy shite, come on." He exhaled and put whatever he could scrounge up from his limited knowledge of wings in action. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea. Almost immediately after he had flapped both of them at once with reasonable force, he was airborne. He barely got time to enjoy the feeling, however, as the second time around he miscalculated the timing between the two wings and sent himself right into a date between his face and the hardwood door. "Fuck! Fucking twat cunt sonofa-fuck!" He howled in pain as he fell back to the ground in front of the door, his wings now forgotten and sprawled out on the floor. He groaned as he lifted a foreleg to massage his muzzle. The pain strangely faded quite rapidly, and nothing felt broken. If he had been human and that happened, he was sure he would have had a broken nose and numerous cuts, which he saw none of. Unfortunately for him, the guards must have heard the sudden bang on the floor, because one of them swung open the door with a spear in hoof, startling John. "Princess? Is everything al... right?" The guard came in shouting, but his voice soon grew quiet as he noticed John laying on the floor with a hoof on his nose. The guard couldn't help but blink and stare at the... compromising position the Princess was in. Sprawled out on the floor, with legs dangling in the air... The guard's blush was hidden pretty well behind his dark coat, but before he could apologize and make a hasty retreat, John spoke up. "Jesus fuckin'... Has anyone told you to knock first?! I'm fine!" The princess waved her free hoof aggressively at the guard in a way that said 'Get the fuck out'. He didn't question it and immediately closed the door, uttering as many apologies as he could before his voice was cut off by the thick wood. "Ugh... Not doing that again." John grumbled as he picked himself up onto a sitting position, giving his nose a few more rubs to assure himself that nothing was broken. With a sigh, he slowly got up on all fours and dusted himself off. Maybe trying to replicate what birds do when you're a horse may not have been the best of ideas, but he did deserve some points for creativity, right? John yawned again. "Fuck this, I'll just go to bed." He huffed and did just that, walking over to his bed and pulling the covers over himself once he had laid down. He had to give props to whoever made these things here, the bed surpassed both the power of the beanbag and his desk chair combined by a considerable margin. Glancing upwards, he noticed something he had missed when he came into the room for the first time not too long ago. A lamp of sorts hanged from the very tip of the crescent moon shape the bed was built into. He squinted his eyes a bit as he stared directly at it for a second or so before reaching up with his hoof and giving the side a few taps. Surprisingly, it seemed to work in his favour, as the light turned itself off after the second tap. He set his hoof back down, and a smile crept onto his face as he snuggled into the ridiculously comfortable bedding. "Dreamworld, here I come," he mumbled as he drifted off into slumber. John's eyes flickered open as he let out a drawn-out yawn, his hooves reaching out to pull the covers off of himself and get up from the bed. Except there weren't any covers. 'Huh?' He opened his eyes fully and raised his head to look around for his sheets. He didn't find them, but he quickly found out why they weren't currently draped over his body. "Wha- What the hell?!" he sputtered out as he quickly scrambled to his hooves. Spheres floated about all around him, with a seemingly never-ending background that stretched out as far as the eye could see. A quick glance downwards revealed no visible floor, but he could still feel something holding him from falling into the sparkling abyss. In an attempt to get up on all fours, he ended up falling on his ass as he scrambled backwards, trying to get away from something that was all around him. He began to hyperventilate slightly as he swung his head rapidly in numerous directions. "The fuck is this?!" he shouted out loud in panic as he continued to rapidly move away from the spot he woke up in. It took him a minute or so to calm down enough to examine his surroundings in greater detail. His breathing slowly returned to normal as he looked around the vast expanse of spheres floating around him. When he focused on the one closest to him, he noticed movement inside. Shapes moving about and scenes changing every couple of seconds to something completely different. "What..." His words stuck in his throat as his previous panicked look changed to one of wonder and curiosity. He slowly got up from his sitting position and looked down, his heart rate spiking for a brief second when he noticed there was a lack of a visible floor, but a few taps from his hoof confirmed that it was still there, somewhat. The orbs passed through the invisible floor as if it didn't exist and continued on, vanishing from view once they reached a certain point in the sky. He looked on for a few more minutes, both observing and admiring his surroundings. Now that he wasn't panicking as hard as he was when he woke up, he couldn't help but admire the beauty of it all. "From pony world to the fucking ether. Where to next?" John sighed in frustration as he rubbed his eyes to get rid of any remaining grogginess. Going unnoticed by him, one of the spheres had managed to somehow sneak up on him and slowly floated up right in front of his face, startling him and causing him to take a step back. Once he realized what it was, he leaned forward and reached out with his hoof until it was almost making contact with the sphere itself. Now that one was close enough to him, he could see the contents of it more clearly. A purple pony was running away from... something, the best he could describe it as was a mixture between a wolf and the night sky, similar to his mane but far darker in shade. It was also huge, dwarfing the pony by at least ten times. The chase was currently happening in what he guessed was a town, as the pony passed several buildings and shopping stands. John blinked. What exactly was he looking at right now? He tried to remember what he and Celestia went over, but none of it came remotely close to mentioning anything like this, except... "Is this a... dream?" he asked out loud to no one in particular. He remembered Celestia mentioning something about Luna being the 'Guardian of Dreams', and how she helped ponies with their nightmares and such. Back then he didn't think the title was literal, he thought that just for show. He was starting to doubt that assumption, though. He went over the implications of his recent discovery in his mind. If Luna was the Guardian of Dreams, and he was... her, or at least in her body, didn't the title fall on him? How the hell was he supposed to pull that off with little to no knowledge on what to do? "Okay, assuming usual dream logic, I can do anything I want, right?" He inched closer to the orb. The pony seemed to have hit a dead and was now cornered with the creature now slowly approaching it. Even if he did want to help, how could he? It couldn't be as simple as touching it and- Twilight was not having a good day. There was nopony around, and there was some sort of monster chasing her through the streets of Ponyville. In her panic, she had taken a wrong turn and had found herself face to face with a dead end. To make it worse, she had been given no chance to try and go back the way she came, as the monster was now blocking the road, snarling at her and moving ever so closer, taking its time to get to her as if it was purposely playing with her. With her back pressed up against the door of a random building, the thought of opening the door and running in had utterly passed her mind as she hyperventilated, her pupils shrinking to the size of dots as all she could do was stare at her impending doom. This was it, she was going to die here. She slammed her eyes shut and looked away, a few tears beginning to run down her face. She'd never get to see neither her family or her friends ever again. She would never get to see Spike grow up and fulfil his dreams. She'll never- Her train of thought was interrupted when a sudden shout filled the area, followed shortly by the ground shaking and the monster screeching in pain. She reluctantly opened her eyes and turned her gaze over to where the beast should be. Replacing the towering monstrosity was now a tall, muscular figure with a strange, orange outfit along with a blue belt that hugged its waist. Its mane stood upright and formed spikes, which swayed slightly in the wind as it stood between her and her pursuer. "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" the figure, which she quickly identified as male, spoke up. The monster growled in response as it began to backpedal away from him. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" he taunted. Twilight couldn't make out much of his appearance outside of the basic since he had his back turned away from her and it was night time, but she couldn't help but notice how he looked remarkably like one of those humans from the world behind the mirror. The beast snarled in response as it began to reshape itself, abandoning its previous form and taking on more of a smoke-like appearance. It started to quickly flee the scene, to which he responded by shooting a yellow orb-like attack out of his hand at it as it attempted to escape. The attack hit, but the new body of the monster enabled it to reform from the attack with ease and quickly disappear into the sky. "Good riddance," he said out loud before turning to face her. Now that she had a more unobstructed view, she confirmed that he was indeed a human. Before she could do anything, however, he approached her and knelt down to her eye level. "Hi! I'm..." He trailed off, seemingly in thought, "Goku. You okay?" The now identified Goku smiled. Twilight blinked as her breathing began to slow. She slowly nodded as she fell back onto all fours and looked up at him with a mixture of curiosity and confusion. "Er... hi? I'm Twilight Sparkle. Thank you for saving me, If you hadn't come I-" She was cut off by Goku, who raised a finger to stop her. "No need to thank me, just doin' my job!" He stood up, the smile never leaving his face as he did so. "Now, I need you to do something for me," he began as he looked around, observing their surroundings. "...What's that?" Twilight's confusion grew. What was going on? And what could he possibly want from her? He suddenly leaned in, startling her. "Wake up, will ya?!" She didn't have time to respond, as the world around them suddenly faded away and she woke up back in her castle, both slightly panicked and confused. "Well, that couldn't have gone much better." He stood upright and glanced around, now having returned to the weird ether-like place in his pony body. He had freaked out slightly when he was suddenly thrust into a birds-eye view of the dream, but after a bit of experimenting, he managed to change forms and save the purple pony, now identified as Twilight Sparkle, from that wolf thing. He had half a mind to chase it down but didn't really matter, it was just a figment of Twilight's imagination. Was he supposed to do this all night? He had no idea how to get out, and while going around dreams and beating the shit out of random creatures as Goku sounded appealing, he didn't want to be stuck here forever. "Okay, maybe if I just concentrate enough..." he muttered to himself as he closed his eyes, doing just that. He remembered forcing himself to wake up from dreams before, maybe this wasn't any different? A few seconds passed with nothing happened as John's disappointment grew. He didn't know any magic that could help him get out of this situation. Hell, he didn't even know how he got there in the first place, maybe if he just focused a bit more, he could- John awoke with a small gasp, his eyes snapping open as he reached out to both sides of the bed. He visibly relaxed once he realized he was back in his room, although it still felt strange to wake up in a completely different room, it wasn't nearly as bad as waking up in an endless sparkling void. "Well, that was... fucked." He rubbed his eyes and yawned, stretching both his hind and forelegs as much as possible. He'd definitely have to talk to Celestia about that one, he didn't want to be waking up there again every time he decided to go to sleep. He certainly didn't want to go and sleep again, no matter how cool it would be to transform into as many things as he desired. He was tired and wanted real sleep, not to go about getting rid of nightmares. Maybe he should go talk to Celestia now instead of later to see if she was of any help. His ears perked up at a sudden growling noise. He glanced around the room in confusion before he heard it once more, now quickly identifying it as the sound of his own stomach. With a roll of his eyes, he got up from the bed and sat on the edge. "Man, I'm hungry. When was the last time I ate?" he mused, trying to recall the last time he had something to eat. He definitely hadn't had anything since he got his new body, which was... five hours ago? He couldn't quite tell how long he’d been 'asleep', time passes incredibly fast in dreams and considering he was in one, albeit not his own, it was safe to assume it had been more than just a few minutes. Then again, who really knew in this fucked up pony world. With a stretch of his wings, fell on all fours and yawned again. 'Maybe those guards know where the kitchen is,' he thought to himself as he made his way over to the door and opened it. To his surprise, the two guards that had guided him to his room were standing there, flanking the door and holding as still as a statue. He looked between them for a few seconds before clearing his throat. This got an immediate response out of them, as they turned their heads to look at him in unison. "What do you require, your highness?" the one to his left asked. Both of the guards looked precisely the same to John, that and combined with being talked to as royalty threw him off. How was he supposed to identify them if need be? "Er... yes, could you escort me to the kitchen?" he replied with a question of his own as he turned his attention to the one who had spoken up. "Of course. Follow me, your highness." He gave a short bow before he began to walk off. John did so as he closed the door behind him and started to follow the guard. "Say, what's your name?" John questioned as he glanced back at the other guard, who was still standing as still as a statue beside his door. John almost missed him staring at him as he walked away, a tiny blush on his cheeks. John furrowed his eyebrows at this but quickly dismissed it. He had more significant problems to deal with first, and that was his lack of food. "It's Emerald Striker, your grace," he replied as they neared the staircase down. "Well, Emerald, do guys have pancakes here?"