‘Well… they have comfy beds… I guess…’ Finn pushed down on the bed again, ‘How in the world do they make them so soft?’ Finn laid down fully on the soft bed sheets. His arms out away from him making a ‘t’ with his body. His Legs lazily hung off of the side.
Finn looked to the nearby window, the moon was still high in the sky. The stars shined around it like lights in an eternal sea of darkness. Finn sighed. ‘I guess I never took the time to really enjoy life.’ He contemplated, ‘I was always so focused on fighting and running,’ Finn looked back to the ceiling, ‘Never on living I guess.’
Finn his hand out and called on his Grass sword, he looked over it before feeling a familiar pain in his shoulder. He let go and it immediately slithered back to the affliction. His head rolled towards the door, “Are they just going to leave me in here?” It went back up to the ceiling, “That’s just cruel.” He said aloud. ‘I guess I should try to get some sleep.’
Finn sat up on the bed and kicked off his shoes and socks, surprisingly, they didn’t smell like a dead rat. Finn prided himself in his cleanliness and neatness. ‘What’s one without a system?’ He thought. Finn reached up and took off his hat, revealing his short and golden hair.
Finn moved up onto the bed, the rattle of the chain around his foot rang out throughout the room. Finn promptly ignored it or at least tried to. He looked down to his feet. Around his right one was a chain that held an enchanting glow around it, ‘It’s sorta mesmerizing.’ He thought He reached his hand down to it, ‘I wonder…’ His hand stopped a few inches from the metal. He frowned, ‘Probably shouldn’t.’ He quickly retracted his hand and instead pulled up the sheets around him. ‘I’d never treat a prisoner this nice.’ He thought.
Finn sighed. ‘I’d never do a lot of things I guess.’ He laid his head on the fluffy pillow. The cool feeling on the bed slowly gave way to the humans’ heat. Finn, despite the comfiness of the bed, did not close his eyes. ‘What if they just… experiment or something like that in my sleep. What if this is all just a ruse to get me to go… to… sleep…’
Finn’s body couldn’t resist the comfiness of the bed and he fell asleep.
Finn sat on the hill near his home, he looked to the sunset; the colors giving him a sense of calmness and serenity. The wind on his recently-cut open hair felt amazing on him. In his left hand, he grasped his hat firmly. His other hand held his white and blue sword, ready for any action.
Finn closed his eyes, enjoying the sounds of the birds chirping and grass swaying in the wind,
His hands relaxed on both the items, he breathed in and out many times, attempting to remain calm and vigilant. He heard the sound of grass crunching encroaching on him. Almost instantly he tensed up, turned around and, without thinking, lunged.
His brother stretched out of the way, various black spots, which by now have grown. “Jeez man, *Cough*, you gotta funny way of showing love to your family.” Finn turned back around and looked to the sunset. “Sorry, I’ve just been… on edge.”
“Finn, com'on man, you’re worrying over nothing. By now the Lich is probably long gone.” His brother said, “I’m sure this will blow over in a couple of weeks.” Finn rubbed the back of his neck, the green sword that usually wrapped around his wrist was noticeably unusual. “I don’t know man… maybe we should go talk to PB, she might be able to, ‘Science’ an answer.” Finn replied.
Finn could’ve sworn he heard some someone say something, “Who’s this PB? And is that a -” It was followed by a much softer “Hey!” It was a soft flute-like voice, but it was cut off before any more could be said. Finn turned back to Jake, “Hey, Jake, did you h-” Finn turned and saw that his brother was gone. Well, he was there but was somehow not.
Finn jumped up, his sword drawn. He looked down at his hand, it was gone. ‘I’ve never had a dream like this before...’ He stuck his hand through the somewhat-present Jake. It passed right through. “Hmmmm” ‘This is really weird.’
Finn began walking around the hill, ‘Okay Finn, weird voices, glitching… I’m most likely dreaming…’ He thought, ‘Alright, I’ve just gotta wake up!’ He concluded. He began to bring his hand to his arm but found it unable to pinch, almost like if some force was blocking it.
‘Wierd voices!’ Finn put his white hat on over his head, turning it several times to get it facing the right way. “Okay, I know you're here!” He yelled, “So come and face me already!” There was a bout of silence. Finn was continuously looking around, waiting for any type of movement or anything out of the ordinary.
Finally, after what felt like an hour, but was only really a few minutes, a large light blue flash revealed two ponies, both Alicorns, one, Finn knew, “Princess Luna,” He turned to the smaller Lavender one, “I assume you’re Twilight?” She nodded.
“Yes, you must be Finn the human.” Twilight asked him.
“Yes, I don’t think there were any other humans who followed me.”
“Okay; stupid question,” Twilight said. Finn turned to look to Luna, who in turn, looked away.
After about a minute of tense silence and a game of looking back and forth, Luna finally spoke up, “We are… sorry for the way we were trying to divulge information from your mind… It was… not ethical.” She hung her head in disgrace.
“Honestly, I don’t care,” Finn replied, Luna perked up slightly. “I’ve had a lot worse things happen to me than a bit of… whatever this is.” He gestured around his dreamscape with his hands.
“Well…” Finn turned his head toward to Twilight as she began to talk, “Do you mind if we ask you some… questions.” Finn shrugged, “Why not in the real world?” Finn retorted
“This is the safest place where no harm can come to any of us, and technically speaking, takes up the least amount of time,” Luna interjected.
Twilight continued, “Annnnnd we can at least try to make you feel welcomed,” She turned to Princess Luna, “Right Luna?”
“Yes.” She quickly replied while looking away from Twilight.
“Least amount of time?” Finn asked, “What; every hour in here is a second out there?”
“Something like that,” Luna responded. “It’s actually really misunderstood,” She followed up, “There are factors to take int-” Luna’s gaze traveled to Twilight, who was giving her the ‘Not right now’ look. “I will, um… tell you later.”
Twilight looked back to Finn, “I can assure you these questions won’t get too personal.” She said, “Unless of course...”
Finn huffed and sat down on the grass, the two Alicorns also followed suit. “Okay,” Finn said, “I’m game for some questions. Fire away.”
Twilight began with some, in her mind, menial questions, “What exactly are you?” asked, Finn was about to respond, but looked at Luna. She was grinning at Twilight. Finn moved his gaze to Twilight; her muzzle was stuffed in a notepad and quill, there was an inkwell off to the side of her.
She was writing stuff down intensely. She looked up to Finn and stopped writing, giving a confused look. Finn, however, looked to her notepad, “You’re in a dream.” He said.
Twilight looked even more confused, “Yeah... So?”
Finn facepalmed, “Why are you writing this down? It will be gone when you get back” Luna muffled herself as Twilight’s face went dark purple in embarrassment.
She threw the items behind her. “What are you?” She asked again, this time looking at Finn intently. “Me? I’m human.” She nodded.
“What exactly do you do?” She asked next, “Like in a job sense.” ‘A job sense…’ Finn thought, ‘Be vague.’
“I… used to work for my friend, err, sometimes that is… She was really smart. Other than that, We-I went out and did quests for her.”
The correction was fast, very fast, too fast. Twilight winced at the its speed. “We’ll come back to who you were with later, who is this ‘friend’, of yours?” Twilight asked.
Luna, who was mainly meditating off to the side, then added, “I am assuming it is this ‘PB’?
Finn nodded, “Princess Bubblegum.” He said, “She was possibly the smartest person in the world.” He sighed at the memory of her. ‘And a very good friend…’
“Your companion?” Luna asked.
Finn shook his head, “No,” Finn turned to where Jake once stood, “You’re talking about my brother, Jake. He really was something.” He gave a shallow laugh, “We practically grew up together.”
After a moment of silence, Twilight spoke, “You’re speaking in the past tense. What happened?” Luna then followed up, “Yes, I’ve noted that too, what exactly happened Finn?”
Finn looked to the ground. “That hits a little too close to home, I don’t want to answer.”
“Does it have something to do with the infection on Miss Dash?” Luna asked. Finn numbly nodded.
“Luna maybe you should stop this line of questions.” She turned to the now demoralized human.
She begrudgingly said, “I am sorry for that, it was unprofessional of me to say that.”
“No problem… it’s just a… hard subject.” Finn replied.
Twilight continued the interview. “Alright, you said quests, what kind?” Despite putting on a smile, Twilight internally was screaming at herself. ‘Come on Twilight, ask if there is a cure!’, but she kept her composure and stayed calm.
“Quests, hm…” Finn contemplated, “Well, I fought evil monsters, explored dungeons, I’m pretty sure I saved Bubblegum a couple of times.” Finn said, “I fought world destroying demons etcetera, etcetera.” Finn finished. “Next question.”
“Now… concerning Rainbow’s, erm, condition… Is there a way to cure the disease?” Twilight asked hopefully, Finn, looked down and shook his head. Twilight sprang up and began walking in circles.
“NO!” She screamed, “No, no, no, no…” all types of emotion flowing through her: Hate, sadness, fear. Her horn lit up, defiant, she pointed it at Finn, who was still looking down to the ground, his memories returning. Twilight snapped, “I refuse to believe that, I refuse to even acknowledge that!” By now Luna was also up magically pulling on Twilight. Finn had barely registered the fact that Twilight was yelling at him. Twilight herself was in tears. The dream world around the group seemed to be breaking and warping around them.
The human idly looked to the swirling dreamscape, Finn didn’t care though. “Twilight! Restrain yourself!” Luna yelled, bringing Finn back to reality. The dream world suddenly stopped shifting from landscape to landscape. The vibrant green, pink and yellow of the setting sun on a grassy hill was replaced by the mundane brown, black and grey of a wasteland.
Twilight seemed to have calmed down only to realize what had happened and where she was. “L-luna, what h-happened,” Her speech was still slurred from her sobbing mere moments earlier. “Where- where are we?” The midnight blue Alicorn comforting Twilight seemed just as confused as she was horrified. She turned to Finn.
“What happened here?” She asked exasperated. Finn put his hands to his eyes, he began breathing heavily. Luna continued questioning, “Finn, tell us.” He kept shaking his head, “TELL US!” She commanded.
Finn snapped, He instantly lifted his head and faced them, “I LOST, ALRIGHT!” He sat back down, “I failed them all…” He barely whispered, hoping the mares wouldn’t catch the remark.
The did however, “What beat you?” Finn went back to holding his head in his hands over his eyes. “Pure evil…” he replied, “It wanted only death…”
“Is there a way to beat this thing?” Asked Luna.
“After Jake… well, I had to pick up the slack.” He started, “The thing, this thing, is pure evil; I had to find the counter to it. I read through every book, every text, I called in all the favors, but I was too late. Eventually it had an army and attacked the Candy Kingdom.”
“Princess Bubblegum?” Twilight asked, Finn nodded.
“She sent me a message right before the attack, she told me there were these four elementals in our world that had the power to beat them.”
Luna asked, “So that’s why you went to find our Elements of Harmony?” Finn again nodded.
“By the time I found out what they were, it was already too late. Bubblegum was one of them, she was already gone, Slime princess had left to a remote Island and the Ice elemental had never been found.”
“The fourth one?” Twilight spoke up. “Who was it?”
“Flame Princess, she and I were friends, still are if she’s alive. I managed to get a message to her in time before the Flame Kingdom fell.” Finn finished up.
Finn then finally lifted his head up to look at the Lavender Alicorn, “How’s Rainbow?” He asked. Twilight unconsciously moved her head to the side, “Not good, her entire hoof is... covered… the doctors said that she isn’t in any condition to move.” She replied, “She’s trying to play it off as nothing, but I can tell, the rest of us can tell…” she paused, “I was hoping that you’d know something.”
“For what it’s worth,” Finn said, Twilight looked him in the eyes, “I am truly sorry. I understand how it feels to lose someone.” Twilight and Luna were tear eyed again, Luna asked, “Who did you lose?” “Everyone.”
The Alicorns went up to comfort him, but he reeled back, “I don’t need your pity right now, right now I just need to be alone.” ‘That’s the last thing you need right now.’ Thought Twilight.
Finn sighed, “I think we’re done here anyway.” Luna nodded, followed by a hesitant nod from Twilight. Finn saw both Alicorns leave his vision before waking up.
He hesitantly looked around, he was still in the same position he was in when he fell asleep. He looked out the window, the moon hadn’t moved. ‘I guess she was right.’ He thought. Finn sighed, ‘Am I really going to do this?’ He asked himself, he could almost hear his Finn-Sword answer, ‘Yes you are.’ He continued, ‘I am so dead.’ Finn reached down and out his shoes and socks on, soon followed by his loose hat.
Finn jumped off the bed, the chain rattled. ‘Here we go.’ He summoned his grass sword, slicing the chain in half, the shackle losing its distinctive blue glow. ‘An enchantment?’ He questioned before being brought back to reality, ‘No time to think now.’
The door immediately burst open. Finn turned around and, instead of being greeted by an angry blue Alicorn or a depressed lavender one, there was just a white unicorn in gold armor. ‘Guard. This should be easy.’
The unicorn shot a yellow glow from his horn at the human. Finn easily blocked it with his sword, which surprisingly, absorbed the magical blast. Finn, after recovering from the sudden attack, charged the guard; the guard, in turn charged as well.
After a short struggle and more magic being fired from the guard, the white unicorn found Finn’s grass sword around his neck. Despite the amount of pain his shoulder was in, Finn dares not retract the sword. “Where. Is. My. Stuff?” Finn said through gritted teeth. “T-the room in the left.” The unicorn stuttered out.
“Good.” Finn said. He wrapped his hands around the guards neck and choked him out. When Finn left he was able to hear light breathing behind the bed. He simply nodded and continued out. The pain in his shoulder was starting to impact him now, so he let the grass sword slid up his arm.
‘Come on, where is it?!’ Finn reaches what looked like a closet and opened the door. True to the guards word, there was his stuff, but also a certain sleeping purple Alicorn. Finn looked to his ankle. Despite cutting the chain, the shackle was still there with a small part of chain still attached; the problem was that it still rattled like hell. ‘Oh glob.’
Finn, with much trepidation, sneaked around the room slowly gathering the things he’ll need. ‘Life-juice, check. Rope, check. Sword,’ Finn summoned his grass sword, ‘check.’ Finn then grabbed his backpack, his Finn-sword still attached.
‘Rainbow must be in the castle,’ He thought, ‘She said that she was in no condition to move.’ He reasoned. Finn began silently opening each door in the circular castle. ‘Empty.’ He moved on, ‘Empty.’ He moved on, when he opened the door he was greeted with a giant blackish-blue floating orb, ‘No… just no.’ He turned around and moved on. He opened the door and saw a I.V. tube going into the covers of the bed. He entered and closed the door.
He looked around, there was a fire in the fireplace opposite of the bed, there was a bookshelf in the corner, and a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane in the bed. Finn walked up to the bed and put his hand over her mouth.
She instantly woke up, “Fimph what the…?” She said through his hands. Finn silenced her with him putting a finger to his mouth. She nodded. “What are you doing here?” She asked.
“Trying to save your life, then I’m leaving.” He replied, “I’ve caused enough damage just by being here.” He looked Rainbow Dash in the eyes, “I doubt you’d object.”
He took the role out of the backpack. “What are you doing?” She asked, he promptly ignored her comments, he pulled up the covers to reveal her blackened hoof. “Finn, What are you doing?” He tied the rope firmly around her hoof, eliciting a yelp of pain. He put it just passed the infected tissue. He quickly checked the rest of her body, ‘Just here,’ He thought, ‘Good.’
“F-finn?” Her voice was full of fear. He calmly turned to her, “Rainbow,” he started sternly, “If it gets passed your hoof, then it’s over, you’ll be the equivalent of dead.” He paused, “Do you understand?”
Finn walked up to the wooden bed frame. Taking his sword he sliced a large chunk of wood off of it. The sheer sight of the wood nearly made Rainbow burst to tears. “I said do you understand?”
She eventually nodded to his question, “Good.” He replied, he stuck out the piece of wood, “Bite down on this, cause this is gonna hurt.”