The darkness that he figured was his dream... He knew he was asleep? But how...? There were no answers. Only the darkness that was where he had been right before waking from paradise. Difference was that now he could at least see his own body, if no floor, roof, walls or anything else.
What was this place?
He looked around in hopes of answer, but to every corner of him, more darkness awaited. He began to question if he was even dreaming anymore, or if he was stuck somewhere. The pain on his back was no longer there, but he could feel his hooves step atop something. His boots were gone.
Boots...?
His thoughts echoed like he had said them out loud, and disappeared in an endless distance.
Finally, after regaining his thoughts within his own control, not letting them flow wildly about anymore, something approached.
At first, just a white light, soon, much more.
Snow...? But... What does it mean?
*Thud, Thud*
He heard knocking below him. Something was below him, and trying to get out. He had no idea what though, yet he knew perfectly well what it was. At least some part of him told him he was. He intended on helping whatever, or whomever was below him, but as he tried putting his front hooves to the ground in an attempt to dig, they slid right through the ground. He felt like a ghost. Was he one? Had he died as he fell asleep instead?
But if all he had to do was stick his head into the ground to see who was below, then that was a lot easier. Even if it meant he couldn't help the ones below. His request was denied. As soon as his head touched the cold flooring below, it all vanished, and instead, he slammed his head right into the black, lifeless and rock-hard ground.
It was merely cold. It had no substance. No special feeling to it. Even as he licked it, as much as he didn't like the idea, it tasted nothing. It wasn't refreshing. It wasn't salty, dusty, toxic or any other word he used to describe things. It was just... cold...
As soon as he had finished tasting his surroundings and stopped being overly confused, knowing there was no sense in this place anyways, he simply sat down and awaited the next occurance. He knew it was coming. He could feel that more awaited him, like a sixth sense had told him so.
And like his 'instincts' had told him, another thing approached him. This time, he sat high atop a mountain, next to a timber wolf. He wanted to simply leap away, but it took little to no time before he realised the wolf paid him no attention. Or rather, didn't see him. It was howling, and then ran off.
Looking down from the massive cliff, he saw two figures, far off. They were just two dots on the grassy field below in his vision. A dark-toned green, and a black one. There seemed to also be a mix of red, but before he could become certain about it, or even fly down to take a look, he found himself sitting in that black, cold room once more.
But... What does all this mean?
He found himself questioning things he knew he wasn't going to get any direct answer of, but the feeling that it meant something to him, he couldn't shake away.
A third time, something appeared before him. This time, he couldn't even catch hold of his thoughts before it came.
He sat outside a building, staring through a window. The figures inside were all blurry, due to how foggy the window was, but he could make out the general things that were done. Again, the green and black figures found themselves before his eyes. This time, accompanied by two larger, and bigger brown visages. Soon, both the two he had seen earlier found themselves in each their bed. One had been there for some time, the other just went in.
Hours passed. Hours no longer than minutes. Somehow, he found the wait much more bearable than he'd thought, thinking those few 'minutes' he had sat there were too short.
He didn't realise he had cried all along, until the green... Pony?
Whether his tears had cleared the window, or something else had, he now saw every figure in the room clearly.
One black and red, and one green. One, he knew from when he had awoken from paradise, but the other... Who was he?
Worse yet... Why did he seem so familiar?
Again, whatever lay before him disappeared before he could even figure out much more than what he had seen, or rather, why he had seen them.
Darkness replaced the images that left more questions than answers.
One more awaits
A voice, yet just words, echoed in his ears. It was neither female, nor male. It had no gender, nor age. It was always there, and yet, never existed. Toneless, yet it spoke.
But he didn't have time to sit idly by and think about who, or what had spoken. He already had enough on his mind, and as the voiceless words had told him, more awaited.
One more time, the darkness gently disappeared as an open field was revealed before him. Not too far to his right, a forest. Before him, and to his left, as well as behind him, a dead wasteland. The ground had long since died, and few craters shaped a painting of sorts, without any direct drawing, or art. It just fit so perfectly well together. It made balance.
But his eyes weren't fixated on the 'art' the area had formed. It was focused on the war-zone before him. At least it looked like one. Something rolled violently by, and he had no idea why, until he yet again saw the two figures that had repedetively shown up until this point.
The black and red-striped one flew off, with the green one in his arms. Without much movement from the green unicorn, it was probably unconsious.
He's... A unicorn... How do... I know that?
The next few seconds made the entire scenario crash before his eyes, and many hours... Days... Weeks burst before his eyes in a matter of seconds.
The black and red-striped one's wing snapped, and he crash landed. It was that very moment that he realised just who the pegasus was.
"He is... Me..."
He realised that he hadn't spoken in the black space that had appeared once he had seen the crash-landing, but it was instead just his eyelids before him that were shut. He heard his own words clearly, and raising the black layer before his eyes as the light forced him awake with the brutal fashion of causing rapid blinking as a response to the sun striking his eyes.
"Rrrk...." He mumbled, aggitated. Grumpy and tired, he looked up into the skies, where the sun was making its way, having barely gotten across the mountain-side to brighten up the valley that was otherwise shadowed by mountains in all directions, blocking out the sun for a few extra hours, compared to any other area.
The aggitating feeling of just waking up vanished seconds after he had gotten on his feet, replaced with pain, which then again was replaced with thoughts. Thoughts of the dream...
The... Dream...
It was too real. It couldn't just have been a dream. It had to be more. He had to find the pony named Toby to get answers. To reassure him that what he had seen wasn't just fictional dreams he had formed in a delusional state of pain and imagination.
Problem was, he had no idea where to go, or if he even could go. His body still ached. It hadn't recovered in a day. Yet, it was far weaker than it had been yesterday. He knew one-day recovery was impossible. At least without medical attention, and even then, even WITH help, he was unlikely to recover from what he had gotten through. Yet, the pain was more than bearable now.
Something was itching both his wings, chest, hooves and head.
Multiple spots were covered in white fabric. Somepony had taken care of him in his need YET again. He had hoped he didn't need to be taken care of all the time, or at all, for that matter. That was why he set off on this journey at least. Yet he found himself needing help countless times, and only expected that if he somehow managed to pull through further, that he'd need more help.
His pride was gone at this point. What little he had before he set out on the journey, as well as what he had gained while on it. But there was nopony who did what he did, even if he DID need medical attention every time he pulled off something.
He was the one who had fought off timber wolves. He was the one who had fought against Tartarellas, seen them, and even met a 'king' of their breed, and come through, and he had managed to survive an assault from a Veratus.
That was of course if what he had seen was the truth of it all, and that he hadn't just made it all up in his head.
But one thing was for sure. He wasn't home in his bed in ponyville, so he must have at least done something to get to this point. He still remembered how it was like to live back there, so he hadn't lost all his memories. He knew he had lost a lot though. Every day since when he was last in ponyville, talking to a pink-maned pony, up until this point, was gone from his memory.
Whether or not what he had seen in his dream were the lost time or not, was uncertain, but if not that, something else was his story.
"You're a lucky one..."
He heard a female's tone. Whom it belonged to was uncertain. She was hidden behind a tree, and he didn't dare approach her. Not in his condition anyways.
"Yes... Everything was you... Every last bit of it... And that green fellow you've saw? He was your companion..." She continued. Her voice was emotionless, and as blunt and straight forward as it could've been. He almost felt insulted by it.
"And how do you know what I dreamt of?"
"Has anypony told you that you talk in your sleep?" She replied, still without emotion.
He only blushed without much of a response to give, embarassment taking over him. Yes, he had heard it once before.
It was at a school sleep-over. He had never attended to any other sleep-over, even as the opportunity had offered itself many times. They had all told him about what he had said during the night. The words almost haunted him.
He had said out loud that he had crush on the self-proclaimed 'uber cool' filly. A cyan-coloured pegasus. She was one of the few that didn't laugh, but she didn't seem very happy or understanding about it either. She hardly spoke to him. Whether she was insulted or embarrased she had never told him, and as time passed, he let it off as a memory and nothing more, without pursuing the truth any further.
It was the memory that came to mind when the mysterious voice questioned him, and he ended up spacing out for a minute, before a cough brought him back to reality. The female was growing impatient.
"Anyways... He headed off north... He's not very quick, so you should be able to catch up with him, even in your condition..." Her voice actually trailed off into sympathy, and it nearly threw him off guard enough to forget about the question he had for her since she first spoke.
"Who are you?" He finally managed to throw out, right as he heard her about to set off.
"Nopony important" Her tone found its emotionless, yet somewhat natural tone again, and soon after, he heard her galloping into the distance. That made him realise she was a pony, and the tone soon found its place in his memory, at some earlier point as well. This wasn't the first time she had saved him, but it was the only other time she had spoken.
More so, it was the first time she had REALLY spoken to him, or that he'd heard her voice for more than a few seconds.
It made his intention of meeting her again at some point all the more realistic.
For now, he had to find his green partner again, and as the pain was bearable enough to run without whimpering, stuttering or stumbling over, that was what he did. His wings were perfectly shaped once more, but considering how tightly the bandage had been put on, he knew it was to keep him from flying, so running would have to do, and he wasn't going to take flight any time soon, whether the wings had been treated as best as they could've been. Much to his surprise, the mending even surpassed doctors.
He put all other thoughts aside. He had to if he was going to catch up to the poor colt that had headed off.
Crying at that.
The night before was as clear as day, and he had seen tears fall from the ground of a turned around unicorn.
He felt guilty. Very much so. He had to find his partner. Not just to regain him, or at least hope to, but also to apologize.
As he ran forth, he thought up as many ways of apologizing as he could, barely focusing on the path ahead, nearly side-tracking because of it. He only barely realised that he was running off as badly as he was as he stumbled in his own hooves in his sleazy manner of running. It wouldn't have ached so badly if he wasn't already wounded, even as it was mended for the most part.
Rolling forth a few times on the ground, his body ached, and he was stuck for a few minutes trying to recover. Shouting in pain, he heard rustling. Something approached, and he immediately got up, preparing to either run, or fight back, depending on what it was.
His eyes shot wide-open.
It was neither boars nor bunnies. Nothing he'd expect to see.
It was the one he had been looking for.
A green pony before him, messed up, his fur covered in dirt, his mane and tail having sticks and stones attached to them. He was a mess. This was what happened when he was alone appearantly. He turned into a mess.
"O-Oh.... It's you... I'll just leave you a-alone then..."
He could tell Toby had trouble talking. His eyes were welling up, and his tone was as shaking as his entire body.
Laxed didn't speak, but approached the unicorn, and put his front hooves around the neck and shoulders of the mess of a pony and hugged him. Gentle, yet tightly.
"I'm so sorry..." He whispered, and this time, it wasn't Toby who was crying, but him.
It didn't last for long though. As soon as he felt the wet drops of tears run down his cheek and mane, he put his hooves back around Laxed's shoulders.
"I-It's okay... I-It's my faulth you had t-to save both of us..." He stuttered back, his voice choking on his own tears and sobs.
Neither spoke, neither had more to say. They simply remained in the tight grip around each other, hugging like their life depended on it.
Neither knew how long they remained there, but they were in no hurry, and the hug lasted as long as it had to, before they finally let go of one another.
Whiping their eyes, they decided to set off on their journey again. Their equipment was gone. It had been abandoned in the assault of the Veratus. Neither cared though. They had both found something far more important, and each with their own smile as they wandered forth, neither speaking for the time being.
- End -