"Where am I?" he mumbled while looking carefully around.
He was standing in an endless universe made of this very strange white space. He could hear nothing, smell nothing, feel nothing nor see anything else than this white realm. For a few minutes ago was he falling through the sky, like a fallen angel, till he hit the hard cruel soil.
"But now this?" the person asked himself once again, staggered by the outcome of the act.
"You chose a rather pathetic path, don't you think?"
The confused person's body automatically reversed to the direction where the rigid hard voice was heard. "This voice can't be..." began his thoughts.
A person concealed by a thick shadow was standing a few feet's away from him. This black shadow with no face nor a detailed body, however. Resembled a human, spoke like a human, with a familiar voice.
"Is this... Heaven, Hell, or the beginning of something new, Archard?" he whispered to the shadowy being almost a little blissful with tearful eyes. At the same time confused that he chose such a question.
The shadowy person coughed a short stiffly laugh filling the white space with wonder and tension.
"You could say this is the beginning of something new, Cecilio..." the creature began while Cecilio could feel how his heart snatched when the name was mentioned.” I, you, can reach a realm where you will find true happiness, the core that has been missing your whole miserable life." the shadow continued while pronouncing the last two words with a sharper voice.
"This could be the true enlightenment which will guide your senses to the right path or maybe, even that realm, will be engulfed by your own pathetic shadow. Your destiny will simply be in your own hands."
Cecilio's lips was sealed for a few moments, making sure he was done with his speech, until his mouth cracked by curiosity. ”You knew my name and with that voice too, so you really are Archard? So this place is some sort of dimension for the dead, waiting for a new life? Or as you mentioned, that realm which would make me happy?!" he spat out, while waiting impatiently for an answer.
"I'm Archard, or your mother Jamelia, or everything, or nothing, or you." he replied with a loud voice while pointing towards Cecilio. "Everything depends on how open your eyes are and what path you will choose."
"What does that even mean...?”
"Your questions will sooner or later be answered but even more important choices are at the stake. Are you ready to move on, to the plane where you will achieve true happiness?"
"Yes, no, I mean... What is that place?" Cecilio asked confused while shaking the head slowly from the right to the left.
"It differs from person to person, an illusion which will become a reality for that individual, the place where all mortals seeks whether they are aware of it or not."
"Like a paradise?"
"...At the costs of one important fragment, an important part in order to reach, your so-called “paradise”."
A curiosity mixed by uncertainty spread over Cecilio while he stared intensively on the mystical figure.
"The past, your last life will be forgotten and instead will you spring as a new person in your new universe!" the strong voice rang around us.
"That's, that's..."
"...The only way or else will you never become truly happy. Do you really want to remember your old life? The painful memories? The darkness which made you take your own precious life, just so you could move on."
Those words silenced Cecilio's throat. Small droplets sank slowly on the chin while remembering what he had escaped from, the reality which never brought happiness. The life which felt like a prison and every night painfully letting him enforcing hope. That the next day would become a day where he could feel useful, happy, loved and remembered by someone else. Especially from Jamelia... Not sitting everyday in the gloomy timeless room trapped by personal fears and imagination, the imagination to be in another world. A world full of magic and friendship...
"That place will be your enlightenment, your paradise" the being ended while waking Cecilio from his slumber.
He got quite shocked how he ended the sentence, almost as if the shadow knew what he was thinking about. While thoughts about everything tried to hammer inside Cecilio's mind, the other person merely stood there, in the bright universe while reaching a shadowy hand towards Cecilio.
Someone suspicious as Cecilio would never agreed to something like this but wasn't that the old him? The one who got nothing, while now...
Cecilio's sight got suddenly lowered to his feet where he could see his naked legs, stomach and body?! A tingling uncomfortable feeling sneaked upon him when he realized that he's been naked in front of a stranger this whole time. At the same time didn't that really matter because that creature before Cecilio felt so familiar, someone he knew very well.
Cecilio woke suddenly up from dormancy when his sight met the shadow being and more serious thoughts began to pounder inside him. Losing memories would mean Cecilio would forget about Archard and Jamelia... When thinking about mother, the way she had just lost another man in the family made him shed tears. Not only because of her loss of Cecilio but because she would nonetheless be able to comprehend the situation. Jamelia, the kindest, the most beautiful woman in the world. Now merely a shell of her past, sealed away forever in the white building, never to see the light again. Now, only live to hear even more sorrows...
"Now then..." Cecilio began with a low and wounded voice after been thinking and whimpering for awhile.
"Now then!" he repeated with a stronger voice, more confident.
He walked slowly towards the shadow while trying to focus on the happier aspects of his last life. The time before he passed away, before she was locked away. The times when he was that naive happy child with round healthy cheeks. Always smiling towards the world that in the end would only rip it off from his face.
A sudden smile cracked on Cecilio's stiffed cold face.
"Finally.... Will I be reborn." Cecilio whispered for himself while looking with determination towards the shadow that held the new future.
******
The soothing night shrouded over Ponyville while the small golden stars slightly made the soil more visible. Most creatures in this area were at ease after having absorbing yet another harmonic day. Contrasted to the creatures of the light was this the time of the other side of the environment. Those who simply wasn't created or accepted by the bright light, those living in the dark, adored the sweet summer night. The lush trees around the green field swayed as the wind exhaled through the earth, water and air. On the most dignified trees of them all, barely outside the small village, sat the Night Templar. Those small yellow eyes peered intensively around him, a vision seeking through the dark atmosphere, surely hunting its prey. However, he was most surprised when he instead saw a pink pony, jumping around on her four hooves in high spirits. Her pink cotton-like mane bouncing up and down while her voice shaping sweet thin sounds vibrating around in the empty darkness. Her big black-blue puppy eyes suddenly met the yellow mystic and fearful eyes who had been watching her. Even though she was one of those creatures of the day, those who are afraid of the darkness and of the obscure, she simply smiled to the owl. Her ability to see through the fear of the unknown frightened the so called Templar of the Night. He left his proud and humble oak tree and as he flew he could feel her impenetrable smile behind his neck.
"Oh well, here I thought I found Owlowiscious." Pinkie Pie giggled for herself while continuing leaping on the small natural grass trail.
An infinite energy of happiness was firing inside her itchy liveliness body and she had such a desire to share this joy to every pony around her. Even if Pinkie Pie didn't see a soul before her she still imagined herself as a firefly lamp who attracted every sad being in Equestria to her and after seeing her light they would never feel any grief again. "And then they would be my friends and we could have had a lot of fun parties, cakes and and... try to get even MORE friends so we could have even more parties!" Pinkie Pie cheered to herself while jumping even higher up in the air.
"Best party ever" had countless faces said to her this night at Applejacks barn. The place was filled with catering, food, cakes, and balloons in Celestia-know-how many colors, entertainment, games and most important of all: Happy party guests! Everypony knew about Pinkie Pie's crazy-funny parties but this one truly took the cake!
"And WE ate it too!" Pinkie Pie said to herself for unexplained reasons.
Pinkie Pie continued to reminisce about tonight's party till her body suddenly started to shake, her pupils grew while her legs forced her to jump around uncontrolled. "I-is Th-i-i-s my p-pink-kie s-s-enses?"her teeth clattered while she made weird movements which resembled something you would see on a rodeo show. Her head went up and down and it was then she noticed something very strange. On the black sky filled with thousands of bright stars was it a certain red glowing star which was falling down. The glowing dark red star released a red cloud of smoke behind it while it lit up the dark night, a reality she had never witnessed before. Finally it was approaching the earth and eventually landed in the frightening and dangerous, Everfree Forest.
"Wohoo!!!" Pinkie Pie shrieked with an abnormal squeaky high pitched voice as she did one last jump into the air and ultimately landed on a few soft bushes. She quickly jumped back to her hooves and watched carefully on the open land before her while scratching her chin keenly and painstakingly.
"Hmmm..." she uttered thoughtfully while looking even further, watching the harsh and barren trees that were the beginning of the Everfree Forest. Her pinkie senses lasted no longer and the star ended up in the Everfree forest. During night.
"Twilight Sparkle, whatever shall I do?" Pinkie Pie said while imitating Rarity.
"You should not travel to the Ever Free Forest during night, at the very least not alone! Celestia says many foul creatures lives there whom can become a serious hazard. Besides, you should go back and get some sleep. You have been partying the whole night and needs some sleep or else you can create sleep deprivation and even- bla bla bla..." ended Pinkie Pie the sentenced with while imitating her left front hoof being Twilight Sparkle.
"Hmm... most interesting dear Twilight Sparkle. However, what is your opinion about this matter, dear Rainbow Dash?"
"Charge towards the forest! Find the red star! Kick the enemies the buck outta there! In ten seconds... flat" "answered" the right hoof.
"Yeey, good idea Dashie." Pinkie Pie divulged while she turned to another path towards the forest.
"My words always fall for deaf ears" Pinkie Pie whispered suddenly while letting her left hoof touching her ear.
"Silly you! I can hear you perfectly fine." Pinkie Pie answered her own hoof with a cheerful voice.
Two yellow eyes found it somewhat interesting to look on the pink pony bouncing on her way towards the dark forest. When his eyes lost track of her began this mysterious bird to fly towards the black night. Away from her towards another goal.
******
The tall grass, the thick branches, the strong and dark shades, the frightening shadows and the sounds of animals in an almost complete darkness frightens most ponies. Pinkie Pie, however, found it very funny to jump in random bushes to find insects or flowers she never seen before. At times when the forest would get a little too quiet she simply pulled out her trombone from the backpack and started playing a gentle melody in order to spree happiness around her. However, her cheerful personality also made her less aware of her situation that is, not noticing the one who were moving in the shadows...
"Where could that pretty star be? Weird, I can't see that red light like be-"
Pinkie Pie gasped when she suddenly entered a smooth meadow, shaped like a small circle with no trees. In the middle of this flower meadow there was a red stone, almost as fine as a shining sapphire. As fast as lightning sprinted Pinkie Pie towards the stone and began carefully to inspect the item. She laid down comfortably in the soft meadow and started playing with the stone between her hooves.
"Oooh, its sooo… shiny. I bet Rarity would want a falling star as a gem."
Less than a second flashed Pinkie Pie's eyes and something occurred to her.
"A falling star.... and I saw it fall! I can wish for... ANYTHING!"
She put a big smile on her face while sitting amongst the flowers. Hundreds of ideas flowed chaotic in the head and the more she thought about it the happier she became. It really was tingling in the stomach when she thought more of it, she could wish for the world's largest cupcake, an everlasting balloon with disco lights or wish for a rainbow canon or...
Pinkie Pie swallowed, feeling her heart pumping more blood while her body got goose bumps of excitement.
"... I could wish for true friendship." mumbled Pinkie Pie for herself while gazing with an empty stare in front of her.
"Um, Hello..?" a dry voice broke the peaceful atmosphere.
Pinkie Pie turned her soft head automatically to her left and saw something very unfamiliar.
"Hello there, you startled me, almost gave me a hiccup.” she started happily with a humorous undertone. “That's okay because I'm sure you didn't want to scare me, you probably just wanted to be friendly and who are you? Do you come from the Everfree forest?" flew friendly words out from the pink pony.
The creature was standing on two legs with long black dirty clothes, worn shoes and a face full of small marks, short messy black hair while having a weird scar across his light brown right chin. He looked very confused to the pink pony, almost a little scared of her.
"Well, I'm Pinkie Pie and I come from Ponyville. The pony village outside this forest." she continued while giving a big smile to the confused fellow.
An awkward silent broke out between them when Pinkie Pie had ended her sentence. He merely stood there, with a hanging jaw and look.
"...But did you hear my... ehmm… wish?" the pink pony asked suddenly out of the blue, with an uncertain voice.
"Yeah." the two legged creature spat the sentence out but quickly took his hands over the mouth. As if he answered automatically without thinking.
Pinkie Pie was just about to feel as her heart turned into a heavy stone. One thing was that she didn't want any pony to hear that. Also because she revealed her wish and it is said a wish from a falling star can't come to true if you reveal it... She quickly forgot about that when noticing his weird front hooves he put in front of his mouth. They reminded her of Iron Will's; just these were even stranger. Her curiosity began to approach the limit.
"Are you... some kind of minotaur?" she asked naively with big puppy-like eyes.
A particular interest in her question flourished from the unique creature and his eyes slid suddenly down to the stone Pinkie Pie held in her hooves.
"I'm not a minotaur I'm a... human. Do you know if there exist more humans, like me?"
Pinkie Pie merely shook her head from right to left.
The human felt a pricking tension on his back and how he started sweating from nervousness.
"My name is Cecilio and I can't really remember anything." he said while feeling how his face got redder. ”I mean... I can only remember, minimal... I don't come from this place, I fell from the sky and landed, there." Cecilio said slowly while pointing one of his fingers towards the pony.
"From the sky?" Pinkie Pie tasted a little on the last word in the sentence, and suddenly she made a high pitched shriek. Cecilio screamed in fear and fell on the soft flowers on the meadow in front of her. He slightly looked up and met a big smile in front of him.
"So YOU are the star who fell here? Wow isn't that cool? I mean, I saw you from Ponyville while walking in the night after having a great party and you were this red falling star which got my attention so I just had to check out for the star and then I found this stone and-" Pinkie Pie took a break from her talking and looked down on the stone she held. "This one must belong to you." grinned Pinkie Pie while giving Cecilio the weird stone.
He looked somewhat amazed on the beautiful gem-filled-stone and was at once surprised that it belonged to him. What surprised him even more was the energy this little pony had. Not only was she talking a lot but she ran around, threw balloons around him for welcoming him to Equestria and now... playing quite beautiful on a trombone.
Pinkie Pie's funny actions painted a smile on Cecilio's face and he fell on the flowers, laughing. She decided suddenly to join as well and jumped down beside him, laying at his side laughing. Their laughter slowly transformed into a pigs cough and even further, the pink pony got a cute high pitched hiccup.
"You really know how to make a per-...someone happy, don't you?" Cecilio smiled while looking towards Pinkie Pie.
She answered back by putting on a happy expression.
That expression and her kindness penetrated Cecilio's body and warmed him up. The feeling was so strong that it almost hurt, while the confusion and fear transformed into happiness.
"Oh? What's that? Even more of you ponies?" the human continued while stretching his body slightly higher up, while looking towards the darker part of the forest.
Pinkie Pie flew up and looked intensely against the shadow coated trees. The happy frivolous pony had suddenly a serious frown over her face while her body shook strangely.
"Cecilio... Get up! Get ready to run."
He quickly got on his feet and gave Pinkie Pie a beclouded look.
"What is ha-"
Before Cecilio was able to finish his sentence a dark brown animal with yellow dense eyes was standing in front of him. Cecilio stared in horror while the creature began slowly to approach its prey.
"Get lost timber wolf!" the pony roared towards the drooling bloodthirsty wolf.
The human stood petrified and looked at the pony. Both these creatures walked around in a circle, together with intense gaze, ready to attack or become attacked. The night wind swept across the landscape and refreshed the hot, disturbed mortals.
A sudden leap shattered the suspensive silence and the monster's jaw approached her throat. Smoothly moved the pony slightly to the right and when the wolf's head was beside her, ascended her left front hoof in the air and quickly smashed the enemy's cranium towards the earth.
"Wha...Wow..." Cecilio uttered amazed.
The timber wolf laid still on the ground for a few seconds and felt the pain, the anger of being humiliated like this. His furious gaze met eyes filled with fury, fear but also forgiveness.
"I'm sorry, do you want to be my friend?" giggled Pinkie Pie while giving a happy expression to her former enemy.
With a pitiful sound escaped the wolf from the supreme creaturely. Such kindness wasn't this beast familiar with and it scared him more than her strength and reflexes.
With a trembling body began Cecilio to slowly walk towards this indescribable, admirable and merciful character. Every step was heavy, the legs felt like matches while the stomach was filled with butterflies. Cecilio wasn't consumed by fear but of tension and happiness. He stretched out his shaky arm while the small distance that remained between them felt like an eternity. Pinkie Pie looked both happy and a little insecure to Cecilio.
"Why are you shaking so much? Are you dancing or did you get bitten by ants?"
Cecilio crouched down so their faces were in the same level and met her puzzled face with a smile.
"I'm so glad, so filled with life after meeting you. I don't know where I'm, I don't know anything about my past but... somehow, it feels like I've never felt happiness like this before. My chest..." Cecilio grabbed Pinkie Pie's hoof and put it over his hot, throbbing chest. "No longer feels empty as it did when I was walking, alone, in this dark forest.”
He could feel that he had spoken quickly, too quickly. The breathing was heavy while salivary fell on the ground. At the same time, felt it so good to be able to "vent" his feelings to another individual.
"Aww thank you Cecilio, that was really nice of you to say" Pinkie Pie replied while hugging him like a stuffed up teddy bear.
"I-Its nothing..." Cecilio said while he became even more heated with joy. Pinkie Pie jumped around with him.”But how about you, are you okay after the wolf attacked you?"
Pinkie Pie ignored his words and instead continued to talk and jump around in happiness while he was joining without free will. Cecilio wanted to join, dance, talk, sing with her, but the body could simply not keep up. His sight became more and more devoured by darkness, the sounds became heavier, while the feelings in his arms and legs became more lax. The last thing he heard before everything vanished from him was that the next day was going to be:
“...the best day of your life.”