//------------------------------// // Nightmare // Story: Antecedent // by Anonymous Pegasus //------------------------------// Sentinel stirred slowly, a hoof lifting to rub against his brow as his eyes opened. The glow of the moon cast murky light across the room. It was so early that not even the birds dared sing their morning song yet, and the faint glow of the rising sun wasn’t even visible. Shifting a little bit to get more comfortable, Sentinel found that Raindrop was curled in against his chest, having obviously taken up his offer of the bed sometime after he passed out. Her nose was buried in the crook of his neck, and her hooves were curled up between them. Sentinel nosed down at the sleeping pegasus gently, shifting her a little bit away from him so he could get a good look at her. She looked peaceful, for a change. She probably didn’t notice it herself, but her expression seemed either frozen in a perpetual scowl or a frown of disapproval, with the weight of her problems a rather visible effect on her person. But now, she looked calm, serene. She really was quite cute. The guard smiled as he imagined what she would look like if she actually smiled herself. Sure, the edges of her lips lifted sometimes when she was insulting him, but he had never seen her truly smile. Lifting a hoof, Sentinel gently pushed Raindrop’s mane out of her face and into a more ordered position. He couldn’t fathom what it was like for her at all. Finding out she was part changeling, her coltfriend leaving her, being forced to chase after the Elements of Harmony and now, their bearers as well. Not to mention assassins in the night trying to kill her for unknown reasons. And she couldn’t even really control her ‘powers’ as it were. Plus, they almost killed her. One issue after another after another were just stacking up on the pegasus, and deep down, Sentinel knew that if it was he who had those problems, he’d have given up long ago. Raindrop stirred faintly against him, and whimpered, hooves pushing at his chest and her expression changing to one of worry. Her eyes flicked back and forth under her closed lids, and it was obvious she was dreaming. Green flames. Green flames everywhere. Raindrop was underground. She could see dark, rocky walls all around her, and flames. The green flames surrounded her, eager to consume her flesh with their relentlessness. A voice called to her through a break in the dancing flames. Come to me, my child. Raindrop’s ears perked, and she bounded through the flames, feeling their long tendrils clutching at her hooves eagerly, trying to drag her back. Searing burns found their way to her hindlegs, and she screamed in pain, trying to kick the fingers of flame from her hooves. Burning agony filled her, and she cast her gaze left and right, trying to find something to sooth the burning of her flesh. A pool of water beckoned to her, and she leaped towards it, coming to a halt next to it. Encroaching flames followed her, eager to devour. Raindrop inched closer to the water, a sense of foreboding coming over her. She knew if she looked down into that pool of water, then her reflection would not be her own. But the burning in her limbs demanded that she soothe herself, and so she took a deep breath, and leaned over the surface of the water. A soft sigh of relief left the pegasus as she found her reflection to be normal, Her normal pink eyes gazed back at her. Without hesitation, Raindrop threw herself into the pool of water, sinking her hooves into, giving a low groan of relief as the burning in her limbs stopped. A second reflection caught her attention, and her eyes widened. She could see a changeling staring at her in the reflection of the water. With a start, Raindrop looked up. The young pegasus found herself nose-to-nose with herself. Only it wasn’t her. Raindrop could only stare at her doppelganger. The doppelganger stared back, a smug grin on its muzzle, vibrant green eyes narrowed with evil intent. The green flames flickered at the edge of the water, and shapes began to step from them. Changelings. One after another after another. They surrounded her on all sides, giving her no avenue of escape. Raindrop turned back to face the faux-Raindrop, but in its place, a new figure stood. In her heart, Raindrop knew what she was. She was the Queen of the Changelings. Their leader. “Join us, my child,” Chrysalis hissed, smiling at her, revealing the pointed teeth in her maw. Sentinel had absolutely zero warning. One moment, Raindrop was giving a little whimper and moving slightly, and the next, she was screaming and pushing herself away from him, wide-eyed, hooves scrabbling at the blankets in an attempt to get away. Automatically, Sentinel tried to hug around Raindrop, to soothe her, managing to grab on around her shoulders and pull her against him, where her hooves could only scrabble weakly at his chest instead of get the full damage and reach of a flailing hoof. “Raindrop! It’s just a nightmare!” Raindrop gasped heavily, and her hooves latched onto his chest, squeezing impossibly hard as she buried herself against him with a shudder, clinging to him as though for confirmation that he really was there. “Just a dream,” Sentinel wheezed, wiggling a hoof against Raindrop’s own to try and get her to loosen her grip. Raindrop began to calm slowly, her ears splayed back and her wings stiffened, obviously in the fight-or-flight reflex, and her grip slowly loosened on him. “I-I could feel them,” she breathed against his neck, her eyes clenched closed and nose buried against him helplessly, seeking protection. Sentinel wrapped his hooves around the mare, making a soothing sound. “They weren’t real, Raindrop. It was just a nightmare.” “T-they were real,” Raindrop protested. “They’re me.” Sentinel didn’t have anything to say to that, and lapsed into silence, settling for rocking the pegasus soothingly back and forth. One image was burned into his mind though. The image of the wide-eyed Raindrop trying to push herself away from him, with wild, vivid green eyes. Sentinel went back to sleep with no problem, but Raindrop found it impossible. Every time she became drowsy, the image of her own eyes, green and demonic, flashed into her mind and forced her back awake. After an hour or so of this, Raindrop decided to give up on sleep altogether, and instead crept through the quiet halls of the hospital and to the cafeteria, beginning to make herself a cup of coffee. “Can’t sleep?” A nurse asked sympathetically as she stepped in to get herself a cup of coffee. “Yeah,” Raindrop admitted hesitantly, picking up her cup and downing some of the liquid, ignoring the burning it produced in her throat and on her tongue. “I can give you something to help you sleep?” the nurse offered, raising a brow. Raindrop shook her head, shuddering and then mumbling, “I don’t want to sleep. Nightmares.” The nurse nodded sympathetically at that. “I’m afraid there’s no real cure for those as of yet. Just try to remember that they’re only nightmares. They’re not real.” Raindrop downed the rest of her coffee and set the mug aside, shaking her head for a moment. As she moved towards the door, she said over her shoulder, “That’s the problem... This nightmare is.” Raindrop crawled back into bed with the sleeping Sentinel, settling in next to him, and then worming her way into his hooves. For all that she would never admit it, he was her one island of calm now. Somepony to depend on. Somewhere she could go when she just couldn’t handle it all any more. The words to an old zebra song played through her mind. ‘Don’t worry, be happy’. The message it carried with it: Why worry about the things you can’t change? It was a nice philosophy. But it was hard to follow. But right then, Raindrop had a handsome guardpony to snuggle against, and she would have to content herself with that. She was doing all she could to fix her ‘curse’, and Shine was something she couldn’t effect. So she just focused on Sentinel. Maybe it was a faux friendship. He was only with her because Celestia ordered him to, really. There were hints of more, like when he kissed her, but it was soon after Shine that she had no idea whether or not she really felt anything for him or it was merely a product of him being the only pony she could actually depend on at that point in time. Raindrop sighed faintly, and pressed herself closer to Sentinel, closing her eyes. She didn’t intend to sleep, but hoving in the sanguine abyss between sleeping and waking was a very appealing thing to her at that moment. Maybe Sentinel would be just another let down in the end, but right at that moment, it was good enough.