Whatever this creature was– Discord, Twilight called it– it was much more colorful in my dreams, and had just about the voice I was expecting a creature like this to have. One that was a mixture of lighthearted fun and evil sinisterness. I had no idea what to expect.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Ashley, the pony I've heard so much about,” he said as he floated around, his body moving at different angles, almost slithering through the air like a snake. “Princess Celestia has told me so much about you. I hear you’re trying to make a name for yourself while you screw around with her plans. How delightfully chaotic!”
Yeah. I wasn’t surprised at all he jumped right into that. I was still incredibly tense and nervous, but a little less so knowing that it was almost certain Celestia sent whoever this creature was to talk to me. It’d been a little while since she talked down to me, or had somepony else do it for her. Maybe she thought it would be best to keep me in line.
“I’m a twelve year old girl who hasn’t even done anything close to important yet,” I replied. “There’s not much I’ve been able to do in life so far up to this point, despite what you probably think.”
“Oh, but there is! You separated the Elements of Harmony from six crucial ponies, and almost certainly doomed Equestria! You don’t understand how unbelievably powerful those Elements are, and nopony having control over them means that the continent will surely fall, because of your interference in affairs!”
What? That wasn’t bait I was gonna be taking, and all the nervousness I had completely evaporated. It would’ve been more scary if this thing said something like, ‘on your current course you’re gonna be named ruler’ or something along those lines. I half expected that to come out of his mouth, because the thought of that terrified me. As much as I wanted to be a politician, I did not want to be the ruler of this place.
“If the pony who raises the sun can’t defeat whatever thing is gonna doom Equestria, and one girl can cause an entire continent to be doomed, then it was all sitting on a house of cards to begin with. Can you get out of my dreams now, please?”
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Are you unconcerned by the news I’ve brought?” he asked. “You’ve released me, Discord, the Lord of Chaos, to be challenged unabated because of the lack of the Elements of Harmony being attached to Twilight Sparkle. Does this not concern you?”
“Um, no, I can’t say it does,” I answered honestly, no fear left anymore.
He apparently dropped whatever schtick he was going for and crossed his limbs, turning away from me with a peeved expression on his face. “Humph. Well, you’re no fun. For someone who’s as chaotic as you are, you’re quite boring.”
“Why are you in my dreams and talking to me?” I asked, wanting to get down to business. “Twilight told me she has some task about making friends with you that Princess Celestia gave her, but why are you talking to me in my dreams and not hers? Did Celestia tell you to scare me or something?”
“Oh no, I just came here to admire your chaotic nature!” Now he sounded less sinister and more like an annoying friend. “I will admit, I did perhaps tell a lie when I said Equestria was doomed, but you truly do manipulate events around you just by your presence, and I came to witness it firsthand! I must say, I am impressed with both you and whatever Feature it was that brought you here. They chose perfectly to make things just the nicest mix of interesting here in Equestria!”
That sounded more like bait I would nibble on, and couldn’t help myself against inquiring further. “What are you talking about? Me getting sick like 4 years ago? That wasn’t even something I set out to do.”
“Oh, I just mean your charisma, and the skill you have at manipulating ponies! It’s quite a remarkable talent you have, let me tell you! Second to none!”
I considered asking who I was manipulating before deciding it wasn’t worth the time getting into. That wasn’t even something I wanted to do outside of a couple of times when I very first got here, let alone actually did. What was this… creature that Celestia told Twilight to talk to, what was he trying to do?
“Why are you in my dreams?” I asked again, looking up at him with a little glare.
“As I said, I just wanted to meet you. I’m nothing but a fan, I assure you.” He said it with a large, almost creepy smile, continuing, “You’ve made such a name for yourself already, I wonder what you’re going to do next! You’re setting out to be a politician after all! A rising star, at that! Sure, you haven’t wielded your influence in a serious way yet, but once you do, I’ll be here to see it! Let me assure you! Fate chose well in bringing you into Equestria!”
This was once again getting a little bit unnerving. I had no idea what he was doing or where he was going with this, but I already didn’t like it. I didn’t reply though, only staring up at him silently and waiting for him to get to his point.
“My point is,” he said, probably able to read my mind, “I’m thankful for a little more entertainment being brought to Equestria in a pony like you. Sure, the Feature who brought you here might not be as well known or powerful as I am, but I do say, it made quite an excellent choice, a better one than I would’ve made. I approve!”
“What are you talking about? What in Equestria is a feature?”
“Oh, that’s just the word for the beings such as myself that rule the universe, both this one and the one Earth belongs to. I believe you use the term you use for beings like us is ‘god’?”
And there it was. That was what I was nervous about hearing. I didn’t ever stop believing in God, but my faith in him was teetering. Or maybe more accurately, waning. It was a slow but sure decline, to the point where I hardly prayed or even thought about God anymore. I guess I knew he was still there, but it was in the same way that I knew oxygen was in the air. Passively and not thought about every often anymore. Not good, I knew that, but that was just how it started turning out after so many years.
And now he was being brought up again by whoever the heck this thing was, some creature who was claiming to be more supernatural than Celestia was.
“There’s no way you’re God, is there?” I had to ask, a question I asked exactly once so far as a pony. “You can’t be. There’s no way you’re God. Why am I even asking the question?”
“Because you don’t know, do you?” he replied. “I might be, although I might not be. Certainly though, I’m not whatever god you worship. A creature of chaos like myself is much more powerful than whatever being you’re imagining that I am.”
Celestia was definitely doing something, but what, I didn’t know. But it did have me nervous though, as nervous now as I was when I very first met Celestia. Someone like whoever the heck this was running around felt uncomfortable to say the least. What was this being brought up right now?
“I’m being messed with,” I said slowly, taking a breath and thinking it through. Celestia told Twilight to make friends with whoever this thing was, and he was apparently trapped in stone right now, even if he was in my dreams. Unless Celestia was more powerful than God…
“Unless God is less powerful than a princess who gets her plans interrupted by one single girl, you’re not God, and you’re not more powerful than him. That’s just… a ridiculous claim.”
But what was interesting was why the claim came right then. It was strange to hear, especially with how passive I’d been about faith lately. I was almost certain this was Celestia trying to get to me somehow, but why? What was the goal?
“If you say so,” the weird snake creature laughed. Then he suddenly stopped, and looked down at me asking, “I have an important question actually. This might seem out of the blue, but do you prefer being a mare to a stallion, or vice versa?”
“What? What does that matter?”
“It’s very important in determining–”
“Begone, vile beast!” an extremely familiar voice shouted, the image of that creature disappearing, being replaced by the blue coated Princess Luna. The mare lit up her horn and changed the dark scene disappear into the setting of a nice park in the sun. I smiled at the sight of her, and she looked down at me with a smug expression.
“Do not worry, Asher. We are always here to clear up your nightmares,” she told me. “These ones were quite powerful from how they echoed into our senses, but no more easy to bring down than any other. Huzzah!”
“Thanks, Luna,” I said gratefully. “I have no idea what the heck that was about.”
“Nor can I say that we know. It seemed you were dreaming of the draconequus, Discord, were you not? How has he entered your dreams?”
“I have no idea, except that there’s a weird statue in Twilight’s library and Princess Celestia told her to make friends with the thing, I guess? Do you know what’s going on with all that?”
“We haven’t the slightest idea, and haven’t heard of such a thing,” she said. “I only know that he was here in your dreams, and that he seeks to cause chaos wherever he goes. My sister and I have defeated him before with the Elements of Harmony and encased him in stone over a thousand years ago. You said Twilight is seeking to make friends with him?”
“Uh, that’s what she told me, under Celestia’s orders, I guess?” I replied. Luna had about as confused an expression on her face as I felt, and I continued, “Do you think you can– actually, never mind. I’ll send her a letter with what I want to say.”
A letter about what the heck was going on and why she was trying to convince me God didn’t exist for the first time since… I don’t know, probably since I met her. Seriously, what was up with that? I knew she was involved in that dream, at least a little bit. It wasn’t a coincidence. But what was her goal?
“If you need me to speak to my sister, I can on your behalf,” Luna told me. “Although we must ask: are you quite alright? You’re shaking and sweating as you sleep.”
It was enough to get me to jolt awake, my bed covered in sweat just like she said. My hooves were shaking, too, not to my surprise though. I took a breath and brushed back my mane as I tried to calm down. What in the world was all that? Was any of it even real? And what was the point of it? I almost wished Luna hadn’t interrupted the dream so I could see where it was going and what point it was trying to make.
What point Celestia was trying to make, I thought to myself. Oh, she was going to have a very angry letter coming her way in the morning. She told me I should write to her if I had any concerns about anything since she wanted me to be her advisor, and I certainly had some concerns right now. If she was involved, which there was no way she wasn’t, then there was no way that was okay what she did. If on the off chance she wasn’t, then… I didn’t know. I didn’t know any of what the heck that thing was trying to do yet.
My praying had tapered off by a large amount over the course of time that I’d been in Equestria, but it took no time to think of one right now.
Lord, let your will be your will, and let me walk in your light. Please don’t let me be steered away from you, and continue to use your hand to guide me.
Man, was I shaking from such a short conversation.