//------------------------------// // 28: Timelines: Gratis // Story: Static World // by Kendandra //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle’s eyes narrowed. “A dragon? What do these ponies and this dragon have to do with the sun and moon?” Luna shook her head. “Everything, Twilight. Everything. Just be patient, please. Now as you recall the young unicorn was in a wooded area when she stumbled upon the most fearsome beast she had ever seen. A silver dragon of immense size….” Helia attempted to back away from the silver dragon slowly. A sharp pain in her hind leg told her she was attempting to accomplish something that her physical form could not. She fell to the ground and scooted backwards by pushing with one of her hooves. The dragon’s voice was a deep and sultry silk. “Oh, you bring such tears into my forest.” The silver dragon snaked its long neck around the pony. As it encircled her, she nearly mistook it for a serpent rather than a dragon. “Your sorrow, dripping with such a mournfulness and regret, it wilts the flowers and makes the kudzu vines creep up and strangle the bark of the trees.” The dragon lifted its head up high, towering over the pony. “Such an… intriguing aroma your emotions saturate the ether with. Why the crickets string ballads and nocturnes, your sadness as their muse.” The beast grinned as its face passed by her again. Had its neck detached in her confusion and morphed into a snake? “Why are you crying, young one? What could possibly beg such a powerful reaction? Is it your injuries?” The beast waved his massive claw overtop of the pony. She felt the pain in her leg subside, but it only allowed her mind to focus on her dour mood without any distractions. “No? Then why do you make so many tears?” It was only at this moment that Helia glanced around and became aware of her surroundings. The woods she had run into were ever so much alive and its trees ever so free in their growth. She was in a small clearing, but instead of the sky being visible up above her head, the leaves formed a ceiling. This gave the clearing the impression of a cave. At the end of the area, past where the dragon was sitting, a quiet waterfall flowed down a large stone rock. Presumably it was a spring of some kind and its water simply flowed into a small sparkling pool and vanished without overspill. Flowery vines dangled from the leafy ceiling, swaying ever so slightly after being disturbed by the dragon’s movement. A few plants with large flat leaves slowly waved, unaided by the wind. The whole area appeared to breathe. The trees with sway towards Helia as the forest inhaled and it would give her breadth when it exhaled. Helia’s attention was forced back to the dragon as the great beast approached her and lowered its massive head to her eye level. Helia glanced away. She mumbled as inaudible as possible. “I don’t want to talk about it.” The dragon appeared to shrug and sat down with its body encircling her. The large beast set its head down on the ground and exhaled loudly. The dragon closed his eyes and appeared to fall asleep. Helia shifted slightly in her place. It was such an odd exchange that had just occurred that her mind was brought to a halt. At first the dragon had prodded her with a barrage of imagery showing concern for her plight, but now the creature simply fell asleep. She was caught so off guard by the events that she had, for a brief moment forgotten that she was crying. “What are you doing?” Her voice cracked sharply, as if she was using it for the first time. The dragon’s eye opened for a brief moment. “You said you did not wish to discuss matters.” The dragon closed his eye again. “So I am not discussing it. However, you have entered my forest. If it was solitude you sought, you would do best to leave and seek out a new location.” The dragon chuckled and then fell silent. Helia stared for a good while at the beast’s snoozing form. She attempted to wipe her tears from her face. While she had stopping sobbing, her eyes were still watering and blurring her vision. She whispered something inaudible as she bowed her head. “I’m sorry young one. Your lips formed a word but your voice failed to breath it life. But perhaps you are ready to answer my question?” The dragon lifted his head up and faced the pony. “I must say I am curious as to what would cause you so much grief.” Helia looked up at the dragon. “Well then, will you tell me, young one?” She gulped loudly before answering the creature’s question. “I’m a monster. I lead a fearsome creature back to my laager. It destroyed our homes and… killed my father.” Helia sobbed quietly. “The other ponies… they call me a monster. That I’m detached and heartless….” Helia crouched down and covered her face with her hooves. “Normally I would ignore them… but… my actions led to… the death of my own father….” Helia shuddered. “I’m a terrible pony. I’ve gotten my family banished. Eveypony hates me…” “Not everypony it seems…” The dragon lifted a leg and waved its claw overtop of a cluster of bushes. The shrubs rustled and swayed off to the side revealing a small blue pegasus filly, hiding her face behind her hooves. “Sister!” Helia gasped. “What are…? What are you doing here?” The small pegasus shuddered. “You ran off….” Selena bowed her head. “I… well… you said us blank flanks need to stick together.” The pegasus smiled sheepishly. “And you forgot this….” The younger pony slid a weighty tome forward with her hooves. “My book…” Helia’s face contorted into a scowl. “This… thing. It has brought me nothing but trouble. Perhaps it is this book’s hold over my thoughts that lead to such a miserable life!” Her horn glowed with magical might and a fire erupted over the cover of the tome. The unicorn fell down in tears and attempted to draw breath but could only manage a stuttering gasping sound. The dragon’s eyes darted in confusion for a moment. This being had brought fire into his forest and such a weighty negative aura. “You have quiet the talent for magic.” His tail brushed across the book, dousing its flames and tossing it off into the wilderness. “I have a talent for nothing.” Helia fell to the ground and rolled to her side. The grass was hiding half her face from the world and she wished it could manage to hide the rest of her. “Except for being a monster….” Helia let out a loud and short laugh, a twisted smile adorning her face. “Perhaps my cutie mark will be that of a monster!” The dragon swayed its long neck in the direction of the small pegasus. “This word, ‘monster’. What does it mean? Its use reaches my ears many times but I do not understand its true meaning.” The pegasus tilted her head slightly. “Some call the demons monsters. Some call each other monsters. I see little that connects the two beings as the same. How could both share a name? A flower has a name of its own that is separate from that of a tree. Nay, a flower has a name of its own that is unique from other flowers. When they call a flower a saponaria then a vine cannot be a saponaria.” The dragon looked confused. “In my experience one may have many names, but names themselves only have one one. What does ‘monster’ mean then? If it is not a name then what is it?” Selena looked at the ground and spoke quietly. “It is what our father calls… called things that others need protected from. It was a title that he gave to things that caused others pain and hardship.” Selena’s eyes welled up. “Father’s job was to stop the monsters. But….” “These ‘monsters’ sound atrocious.” The dragon looked down upon the crying unicorn. “Cheer up little one for you are not atrocious and therefore cannot be a monster.” The unicorn uncovered her face partially. “How can you possibly know I am not a monster?” The leaves of the trees opened around her, filtering streams of light upon the pony’s cheeks. “I can see into your past. I see the lonely filly absorbed in a book with unreadable characters and beautiful pictures. I see a filly who loves her parents, her mother most of all, but can’t seem to relate to others around her.” The dragon swayed from side to side as the trees bent around him. The view to the sky was blocked and the forest was unsettlingly dark. “I can see into your present. I see a young mare that is scared and distraught, but not an evil thing. I see remorse for an accident and I see misplaced guilt.” The light returned as the branches bent far away from the clearing. The sun illuminated Helia in a brilliant glow, giving her almost an angelic aura. “I can see into your future. I see power. Your ultimate destiny, while still a mystery even to me, will be great. It will be greater than any could imagine. I see an unbreakable will and devotion to others, a selfless pony with determination.” The branches closed again, focusing the light to a small beam aimed at the pony’s chest. “And I can see into your heart. Such good intentions lie dormant within. Such love for your mother. Even for your sister, though you do not understand her.” Helia leaned upwards. Questions riddled her mind, now that it was thinking a bit clearer. Only one of these questions managed to bubble its way up to the surface and out her lips. “Who… are you?” “I don’t know about ‘who’. But as to what I am… just as I have said before, one may have many names... and I am one.” The dragon looked up thoughtfully. “In the beginning they called me the end. For a time some have called me the silver serpent, the source of all magic, the prime, the center of the ether, and first life since the cataclysm. I have been named the creator and the father of the heavens. I have been the one with no name and the one with the first name. And I have let them call me as such… for at a time, all have been true in their own right. Nowadays however, I hear many refer to me as the Gray Dragon.” Selena gasped. “Then you are….” Helia spoke with wide eyes. “Gratis….” She looked away from the dragon, judging herself not worthy of being the presence of such a creature. “Gratis, the divine god.” She bowed her head in reverence. A quick glance revealed that Selena was not bowing alongside her. She felt a mix of shame and anger well inside her at the audacity of her sister not to show even the tiniest bit of respect for the god. In a sense she admired her sister’s boldness. After all, the gods of old, mentioned in stories of the Centaurs, were known for their tendency to smite. She supposed it was true, however that Gratis himself was never known to do such things, he was never known to do much of anything after the creation, actually. Selena looked up at Gratis with wide-eyed wonderment. She had never seen such a creature before. It was the shape of a dragon, to be sure, but now that its name had been revealed, it took on a different light. It was indescribable to say the least. As her eyes gazed at the god, she knew she was looking at a dragon yet her mind registered it as simply Gratis. No matter how much she tried, the form before her could not go back to being what it was only moments before. Perhaps she had been enlightened by this revelation? She did not know and was too preoccupied to dwell on it further. The only thing that seemed to interest her at the moment was Helia’s behavior. She had never seen her sister bow in the presence of anypony before. It was startling, to say the least. Even in the presence of her mother, probably the only pony she ever treated with respect, Helia would never genuflect. Gratis lowed his head to Helia’s level and smiled. “Now then. Dry those tears. Such weeping is most unbecoming of such a beautiful mare.” Helia sniffled. “I’m… I’m not sure that I can….” She stared at the grass. “I mean no disrespect, oh holy one. I know you say I am not a monster. But in my heart I feel otherwise.” Gratis remained silent for a brief moment as he contemplated the words the small mare had spoken. The trees swayed as the dragon inhaled and as he exhaled they shook their branches, scattering the light from the sun in dancing shadows. His lips curled into a smile and he a chuckled deeply. The large creature turned around slowly. His tail lifted into the air, enveloping the two sisters in its shadow. His steps were soft, even though his size and girth should have made then thunderous. As he faced his back to the ponies, he glanced over his shoulder. A look of disappointment adorned his face. “Well that certainly is a shame.” With a deafening flap, his mountainous wings spread forth from his back. “I’m afraid I must be going now.” The forest moved out of his way as his wingspan increased to its maximum. “Come with me, little one?” Helia’s head jerked upwards to face the dragon’s form. “Come with you?” Her tone was riddled with confusion. “Yes. Come with me.” Helia’s voice cracked and stuttered. “I don’t understand. You are… Gratis… the god! Why would you want me to…? Where exactly?” The dragon smiled a devilish grin. “You have offended me.” Helia recoiled. “What?! No, I…!” “No?” Gratis turned around. “Now you disagree with me, the great Gratis?” Helia attempted to shrink down to occupy as small of space as possible. The dragon looked upwards at the sky and let out a small chuckle. “Heh. I declared you not a monster and you say that I am wrong. In all the eons I have existed. After all of the things I’ve seen: the darkness of the void of space, the light of the first new dawn, the great war of chaos and the celestial destruction it wrought. I have never been wrong. If today shall be the first day that this is the case, then I shall revel in this brand new concept. But I desire my fair chance to defend my statement.” The dragon’s tail lifted into the air and came to rest near the unicorn. “Come with me, and we shall see if your world really is so bleak.” Helia shook her head frantically. “But…! I…” She laid eyes on Selena. “My sister! I couldn’t leave my sister behind in this dangerous forest.” “Then she shall come as well.” Gratis smiled. “Grab hold of my tail.” Helia shook her head again. “I…” She was startled as Selena raced forward and wrapped her hooves around the dragon’s tail. “Selena! No!” The young filly, in all honesty, did not have the slightest idea what had come over her at the time, but she felt that going with the dragon was simply something she was destined to do. Even against her sister’s wishes. Helia lunged forward to grab her sister. She had promised her mother she would protect her at all costs. She had already lost a father, she was not about to let her sister vanish with an ancient god. Once Helia’s hoof touched Selena’s own, there was a strange sensation. “Then we shall depart!” The dragon’s wings crashed downwards in a cascade of wind. In a flurry of demure green the whole world seemed to rush past. In fractions of seconds, less than perhaps, the forest was gone. Helia’s face was staring at the field of green below her as it shrank in her view. The world twisted around her. No, perhaps she was twisting in place instead. A spiraled climb into the air, she figured. The thought registered in the mind somewhere, but she could not bring it to the surface. Something white obscured her vision for a moment. Smoke licked at her fur. No, it was not smoke. It was not smoke at all, it was a cloud. She knew clouds were in the sky. What was that doing down here? No, wait. What was she doing up there? Then it hit her. She was flying. Her! A unicorn! Was flying! Never in her life had she ever expected to soar through the skies. She cast her gaze upwards. The blue sky had never looked so clear. The glint of the sun off the clouds dried her tears. She could not help but feel the worries of the world leave her as she soared. Up in the sky her troubles could not reach her. The climb halted and with a flick of the dragon’s tail she found herself flung away from the very thing that had brought her up so high. She was floating in the sky. Again, the thought was there but not completely. What did register in her brain was the fact that she was now free of the very thing that had made her capable of flight just moments ago. She spied Selena tumbling freely in the air. Her tiny wings fluttered endlessly and an attempt to propel her forward under her own power. The filly’s mane was flowing in the wind, a positively joyous smile on her face. The feel of freefall was something different entirely. By all reason, she should have felt terrified. Instead she felt exhilarated as the blue sky below and green land above did summersaults. Selena was giggling. She could barely hear it over the sound of the wind, but it reached her ears nonetheless. She had not heard her sister laugh since the incident. It suddenly stuck her that her sister laughed quite a bit, and that was something she had missed since the golem attack. Helia could not help herself any longer. A bubbling urge rose in the unicorn’s chest. She attempted to cover her mouth, but it was too late. She laughed alongside the pegasus. Her! Laughing! She could not remember the last time she had laughed. Now that she thought about it, this might have been the first time she had ever laughed. The two laughing ponies were joined by a deep bellowing chuckle as they landed on the back of the dragon. Safe again, Helia found herself watching the clouds fly by from the dragon’s back. She was amazed at the speed of the clouds, or rather the speed of the dragon. Selena shouted as she pointed with her hoof. “Look, Helia! I can see our wagon from up here!” Indeed, when Helia looked down she could see the wagon parked on the edge of the forest. Selena cheered, throwing her hooves in the air. Somewhere in the back of the unicorn’s mind is sadden her to see that her sister was not old enough yet to fully comprehend what had just happened to their little family, but the look of exhilaration on the young filly’s face warmed her heart. The dragon banked a turn and began to climb. Selena slid down the dragon’s back and came to rest in front of Helia’s hooves. “Oh, how dreadfully rude of me.” The dragon bellowed. “I forgot to ask what you are.” “What we are?” Helia said as she tightened her grip on the dragon’s back. “I’m just a unicorn…” Her face twisted in confusion. Was that not obvious to the dragon god? Selena waved her legs in the air as they flew through a cloud. “And I’m a pegasus! And I’m flying! Wooo!” Gratis chuckled. “Yes, I can see that. But what are you?” Helia looked puzzled as they burst through the cloud layer. “I’m a pony… A laager exile, I guess. I don’t understand the question….” Gratis glanced backwards at the small ponies riding on his back. “That’s what describes you. But what are you?” The pony simply stared blankly at the dragon. The dragon chuckled for a moment. “Perhaps I should restate my question. I am Gratis. What are you?” Helia did a double take, thoroughly confused by the dragon’s choice of words. “You mean my name? You mean who am…?” “Not who. What. What makes you… you? As the same as I simply am Gratis, what are you?” Selena giggled. “Oh! I get it. I am Selena!” Gratis laughed. “That’s the spirit!” The dragon did a quick roll, the ponies barely managing to stay on his back as he righted himself. “Now then, my little pony, what are you?” “I’m… Helia?” She said with a slight tilt to her head. “You’re uncertain?” The dragon smiled coyly. “I’m Helia!” “Yes. And don’t forget that!” The dragon reared up and the ponies almost slid down his back and fell. “Hold on tightly, we’re almost there.” Helia could sense it. Some sort of magical build up was saturating the area. “Almost where? Where’s there?” Helia’s questions went unanswered as the dragon lurched downward. As the dragon’s speed increased they passed through a cloud barrier. They burst through a cloud layer onto the most majestic sight Helia had ever seen. A pocket in the clouds was about the only way she could describe it. Below them a floor of snow white dunes blocked the view to the ground. Not too far above them a ceiling of perfect fields of fluffy white wisps blocked the view of the higher sky. This part of the sky seemed ethereal; off-limits to most creatures. The sun and moon, aligned just right to be visible in the pocket, cast haunting glows over the cloudy surfaces. The entire area was covered in a pale orange light that gave the impression of sunset despite it being nearly noon. Helia stared in awe, perhaps the laws of the sun were did not apply to a place such as this. Of course that made sense, this being a place shown to them by Gratis himself. The dragon's flight leveled out. In front of them was a sphere made of clouds. A swirling mass of dusty storm clouds that twisted in currents of wind was such an imposing sight to behold for the young ponies that even Selena, who had been cheering during most of the flight, fell silent at the spectacle. The dragon glanced around the area as they circled the storm sphere. “Now then, where are those two?” The area was soon coated a flash of light followed by a wave of shadow. “Ah. There they are. They always arrive late when you want them and early when you don’t.” “Who? Er... or what, I guess?” Selena asked as they circled around the storm again. “Why… the sun and the moon of course.” Gratis chuckled as a brilliant streak of golden light spiraled out of the cloud ceiling and raced up next to the flying trio. “Dagr you are so very slow to answer my summons.” Helia trembled. “Dagr… the spirit of the sun.” She shielded her eyes as the mass of light corkscrewed around them in flight. “Where is Nótt then? Late as usual?” Gratis asked. No sooner had he finished speaking than a swirling mass of pitch black smoke slid up and began to spiral around, endlessly chasing Dagr. “Ah. There he is.” Selena and Helia shuddered as they watched the corkscrew of light and darkness revolve around them. “Oh. Dagr… Nótt… you are scaring our guests. Perhaps you could slip into something more appealing for the little ones, hm?” The gilded light formed itself into the shape of a large ethereal bird. “A phoenix? You are such a showoff, Dagr. And you, Nótt, perhaps you care to be a little more creative?” The shadowy mass sprouted four legs and a pair of wings. The shape of a flying pegasus gradually began to form as layers of smoke peeled away in the wind. The face of the shadow turned and glanced at Helia. Seeming to sense that it was different, a horn grew from its skull shortly after. “Ah, nothing helps put the mind more at ease than familiarity. I would have a hard time imagining that the young ones will fear you now. The trees bear fruit in your honor today, Nótt.” Helia fixed her eyes on the phoenix. “Dagr and Nótt. And Gratis himself. Today I’ve flown… flown with the gods themselves….” Gratis laughed. “Hardly something a monster would get the opportunity to do, is it not? But alas, we have had enough flying for one day’s time. Now we shall plant our hooves and claws on land… well… so to speak. Dagr, Nótt, would you get the door, please?” The phoenix nodded. “Certainly, father, with haste.” Helia and Selena nearly swooned at the melodious sound of the creature’s voice. It rang like a bell choir playing a muted waltz. The sisters’ minds shared the same thought at that moment; they would give anything for the creature to speak just once more. Even if it only spoke a single syllable, their lust for the sound would be sated. The phoenix did not utter another word, instead only flying off to the swirling sphere of storms. The shadow pony with wings and a horn followed the bird with just the same burst of speed. In a moment they were circling around the sphere and the storm clouds began to dissolve. Underneath the fading clouds an imposing silhouette came into view. Helia’s mouth dropped open. “What… is it?” “My home. The Keep in the Sky.”