//------------------------------// // 31 The Dreamland, Part Two // Story: Continuity Disrupted // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// A blue and purple void flits from nothing into one of the brown trunks. The leaves above rapidly wither, turning brown and dead. The desiccated, wrinkled apples look positively poisonous as they limply hang from the branches, now a motley collection of browns and blacks. The tree sways in a chill wind, a few of the leaves dropping and floating away, dissipating into ash. The change above her having gone unnoticed, Apple Bloom smiles as she readies herself as she always does. She rears up and bucks the tree, as she always does. She glances to the baskets, waiting for the *thunk thunk* that never comes. Her pleasant smile fades, one ear perking up as her gaze slowly travels up the trunk. Instead of the healthy Red Delicious she expects, she spots the blackened husks of what used to be her farm's namesake. The brown decaying remains splatter around her, many missing the baskets entirely. Apple Bloom recoils in horror, a disgusting dance to try to keep the crud away from her hooves. Finally the squelching sounds around her cease, leaving puddles of oozing apples amid dead leaves. Apple Bloom peers into the twisted branches above her, puzzlement plain over how this could have happened to her beloved. She barely spots, disappearing behind the warped wood, a cloud of blue and purple. The harsh void flickers as it flees, and seems to fade to nothing as it runs into yet another tree. * "Hmm. That last one wasn't quite right. Maybe I should have put it higher?" Applebaum considers the tunnel now blasted in front of her, the dust settling to below her barrel and allowing her solitary light to shine through. Well, as much as the thing does any day. Probably needs a new charge, but she has a spare in her pack. It looks safe. Which, all too frequently, means that the slightest wrong step and the whole thing comes tumbling down. The dust continues settling as she considers her options. Her brow furrows to a frown as she spots an odd purple cloud under the dust and rubble. Did she unearth something unknown? She sits quietly, watching the faint undulations of color flickering blue and purple. Hmm; maybe it's something magical, and her sponsor will pay dearly for it? She takes a small pebble, tossing it towards the void. It lightly bounces off, resting amid the other rocks. No reaction. Might as well try. She pulls away the first rock covering it, grabbing hold of the strange object, and immediately regretting her decision as the simple action brings down the rock that was resting on it. And so on. A glance backwards gives the immediate conclusion that the area behind her is collapsing and she needs to move right now. In a flash Applebaum dashes to the only safe spot she can detect, directly ahead and into the small, gemstone filled cavern as the rocks behind her crash down! The dust overwhelms her light, leaving her with the flickering purple void that she somehow managed to hold on to as she ran past. She considers her surroundings, her belongings and equipment, and her needs for water. Mostly a thought exercise to keep from panicking more than anything. She is in a small room, surrounded by gemstones, with five sticks of dynamite. Each powerful enough to blast the room apart by themselves. Hmm. * Pomarbo glances around as he shivers, the warm embrace replaced by the cool touch of stone. Nothing around him is familiar. Just the twisting, gnarled trunks of withered trees. Nopony can be seen. Just a weird blue blob. So, he does what any good colt should do. He sits down and cries. When that doesn't work, he cries louder. * "Well, what do you think about this one, darling?" Rarity holds the dress up to herself, a stylish blue and purple emblem stitched onto the saddle. It shimmers as the dress levitates, first showing off one side of Rarity, then the other. "Oh, Rarity! It's perfect! Just what I always dreamed of!" Sweetie Belle grins as she reaches for the beautiful fabrics that ripple like an aurora. Her smile fades as Rarity yanks the dress away from her. "You dreamed of?" The high pitched laugh comes out as a screech, Sweetie Belle grimacing as she holds her hooves to her ears. "All of these dresses are for moi!" "But..." Sweetie Belle says as she sinks to her hooves, the dress around her now mud stained tatters and ribbons. "But I thought..." * The scooter flies high and true, Scootaloo closing her eyes and beaming the widest smile she ever smiled as she soars. Eventually she nears the ground, just outside the schoolhouse. With a resolute sigh she places her blue and purple scooter back underneath herself, a perfect landing! She skids to a stop, the tails of her dress getting a little muddy. Wait, dress? "Scootaloo!" Rainbow Dash hurriedly whispers from the doorway, her tone brooking no disagreement. "Hurry! You'll be late for the dance!" The door closes behind her, leaving Scootaloo alone on the steps. Scootaloo glowers. Dance? What dance? She pouts, scuffing her hoof along the wooden steps of the schoolhouse, leaving a small divot. Wait. Why did she want to go to the dance? Because Rumble will be there! Why did she care about Rumble being there? Because he's her very special somepony! What? No way! Scootaloo glances down, her comically oversized belly dragging on the ground underneath her, spilling out of the lily white dress she is wearing. The door reopens, Rainbow again standing there but much angrier. "Don't make me make you," she practically spits out, pointing a hoof at Scootaloo's belly, then to inside the schoolhouse. Scootaloo grimaces, glancing back to her blue and purple scooter. Wait, those aren't the right colors! * Hedge's smile fades only briefly as the clouds above block out the sun. The world around her gets darker and darker as the storm grows black, brief flashes of light from one thunderhead to another. Reverberations echo around her, the ducks taking cover in the reeds. Hedge remains, indifferent to the rain surrounding her. She is a reed, blown by the wind, but bending. Not breaking. No- Ow! Hedge glares up at the sky, one particularly large raindrop having smacked her right in the face. That one hurt! She rubs the growing bump between her eyes, fortunate it hadn't hit inches to the left or right. She spots the offending material, a blue and purple lump resting nearby. Had somepony thrown it? Or did it fall from the sky of its own volition? Her curiosity overtakes her, much like the rain coming down in sheets and buckets, and she takes a few cautious steps. Now standing directly above it, her face contorts in anger at the offending object. She picks it up, hurling it into the pond! Well, her throwing foreleg has never been all that good. It lands on the shore a few feet from her. So she stumbles through the wet ground, the mud sucking at her hooves and nearly tripping her. She rips the void from the ground, leaving a large hole, and throws it again. A satisfied grin this time as it lands into the water, the splash lost in the multitude of raindrops hitting the surface. Though the water level in the pond should be going up, not down, because of the rain. Like somepony pulled the stopper out of the bathtub, and the water is now swirling around, disappearing somewhere. * "No, thanks," the closed door says, Lemon grunting at yet another rejection. She whacks the beanie on her hat with a hoof in frustration, the whirling blades wobbling as they spin. Either Pinkie Pie does way too good a job keeping everypony happy and depression-free, or these ponies are hiding something. Maybe not purely from her. She gasps as she realizes: they could be hiding it from themselves! They are depressed, and they don't even realize it! "What do you think, voidy?" she asks the blue and purple cloud next to her. It has grown in the few minutes it has been following her around, now slightly larger than she is. "Are they hiding something even from themselves, and they need somepony to go in after it?" The chaotic plit plat of brown stained water leaking out of it serves as enough of a reply, Lemon nodding along. "Yeah. I agree. I think I know what this means. It will be dangerous, there may be Leos and Capricorns, but no constellation of stars can stand in my way! It has to be done!" The trickle of water and mud pouring out of the void turns to a flood. "I have to go deeper!" Lemon lays down on the ground, promptly falling asleep amid a torrent of water. * This new dream is no better, Lemon realizes, the water at her hooves slowly trickling higher. Where are the ponies to help? She seems to be in some sort of desolate wasteland. Well, not a wasteland, more like Canterlot, but the bleak buildings might as well be craters on the moon. There's nothing to do here! She supposes she could wander around. Or try again. She spins the beanie on her hat, watching the blades twist round and round. * Meringue finishes reattaching the zebra's leg, satisfied at the results. Though this has merely created a new imbalance; perhaps the remaining three legs should be improved as well. This would have been much simpler to plan for if she had known the extent of the necessary modifications. She laments again the lack of higher direction. With no commands, she must continue her work. She would need more raw materials in order to do so. There is plenty of vegetation nearby, but this would require different compounds and proteins than readily available, and without a suite of equipment it would prove, if not impossible, then unwieldy and time consuming. Until she spots a blue and purple cloud drifting from behind one of the trees. She looks back; the zebra is gone. If it ever existed in the first place. Her previous work abandoned, she turns back to stare into the abyss. Her eyes light with the infinite possibilities of the void. She finds herself standing a hoof length away, with no memory of moving closer. The energetic being, if it is a being and not a fragment of the dream marionetted by her subconsciousness. She peers closer, trying to understand. The way the strands inside are concealed speaks of a higher, unfathomable being. A deity, for all intents and purposes. If she could indoctrinate herself to it, she would. She merely has to figure out how. "Query: Function?" The void moves vertically away from her, then a second time. Then it descends, and moves again, back to the starting position. "Illogical sentence structure." The blue and purple void shakes back, and then forth, repeating the motion a second time. "Response unintelligible." The void makes a sound like the breathless exhale of a cave, peppered with a single staccato note. Then it pushes the start button, and the world turns white. * Princess Luna startles awake. She has been forced from her own dream? She looks around the room in a cold sweat. She grimaces; what dream magic is this? Somepony besting her in her own realm? No; there are no traces of outside magic. It has to be her own, a misplaced memory that triggered something. She glances around, her eyes straining to find the out of place void. She cannot. Her eyes narrow as they continue searching; is she so weak that her endless Nightmare, the Tantabus she created, has already escaped into the dreaming minds of others? No. She can not accept that. She closes her eyes, trying to relive that fateful night yet again, intent this time on locating the blue and purple void that must, that must be contained to her own dreams. Sleep evades her for many minutes until a letter coalesces next to her.