Stargazer didn’t speak a word for quite long now, and it was starting to creep me out.
This place was this quiet as long as I can remember, but this time it gave this eerie feeling, maybe because I was now expecting for there to be noise, maybe because this interaction just gave me more questions than it answered.
I didn’t know, and to be totally honest I didn’t really care why either.
The place I was in, however, had totally changed. Trees where sprinkled across the grass plains, flower beds blooming around their trunks, the vast array of colors totally contrasting the previous black-and-white spaces this place was, the sun now shining over me, seemingly at noon, its rays reflected almost blindingly by the sparces ponds and small lakes scattered across the almost perfectly flat grasslands.
The only thing contrasting with this fully natural setting was a gravel path not far from where I am, I had seen It not long after Stargazer stopped talking to me, and a path always lead to something, so it was the best direction to go to, right?
Yep, it was just what I thought it was, a normal gravel path, no signs, no buildings, no hoofsteps, even the path seem like it never has been used before! If only there could have been a bench…
“Dust! I need you here, I think they found my trace again!”
“Stop calling be Dust! You know my name very well!”
“No time for this Dust, Take two of the shards and go in there!”
“Are you sure? There is only 3 lefts Stargazer, you used them all the last time they caught you.”
“Oh no, oh no oh no. That’s really bad…”
“Yes, that’s what I said!”
“Well, I don’t have time. Do it anyway!”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I need to go now, I think they managed to put a tracker on me, and they can’t discover you, nor her.”
“Good luck then, I’m going in!”
“Good luck too…”
I had to take a nap on the grass, I’ve been awake for what felt like an eternity, and all this running around had gotten me exhausted. I had a weird dream, like if I was overhearing a conversation. A weird one.
The sun didn’t seem to move during my nap, and I don’t know if it because I didn’t sleep that long or if it’s just another quirk of this place, but I won’t really complain, walking alone at day is way better than walking alone at night.
I do think this walk could be a great place to try and improve my flying, my situation is pretty desperate… After all, who knows how long this walk might be? It could last three minutes like it could las–
“CRASH”
Something strange just fell out of the sky, like a cyan lightning bolt came crashing from the cloud to the ground, I didn’t get to see much of it other than this blue and orange blur crossing the sky, but it seems like it fell not far from here, and in the direction I was heading to anyway.
I just came across a weird dent in the path, it look like an impact.
Well, it is probably an impact, seeing how fast that thing fell, it’s quite normal actually. What’s less normal is the absence of the fallen thing, only the crater, and nothing mo–
“Hi!”
The sudden noice almost made me jump, and because I was a little startled, I only babbled out, “Uh, Hello?”
“So, just so I’m to date, you’re Nebula Right? Is that what he called you?”
I looked around, from left to right but I couldn’t see who was my interlocuter. “I guess… Where are you??”
“Look up!”
I did as I was told and looked upward, and here it was, a pegasus mare flying just over my head. “So who are you exactly?”
The cyan pegasus landed in front of me and said “I almost forgot! I’m Lightning Dust,” She reach out for a wingshake, “Stargazer told me to come here and explain everything, but to be honest I don’t think I understood every part of what he told me.”
“How is he?” I asked
“Who? Stargazer?” Lightning Dust took my left wing and started to drag me while she walked along the path. “I guess he’s fine, but not really my type.”
“No, No, I didn’t mean it like this, like what does he do?”
Lightning Dust seem to blush a little from embarrassment. “Oh, yeah right, I totally knew that.” She said, “Well he don’t tell me much, but I know he is from Equestria, I know he is pursued by a weird organisation and he helped me when I got here so I trust him.”
“What do you mean ‘he is from Equestria’, weren’t you in before coming to this weird shifting place?”
“He didn’t tell you…” She stopped for an instant, putting her thoughts back in place “I guess that’s why he made me come here!”
“And?”
“As you may already know, this place is inside a story, but it doesn’t mean you have no control.
On Earth, stories work a little differently, they become some sorts of ‘alternate realities’, but most can’t interact with the world. But yours is different, you see, Stargazer put in this story one of the few mirrors shards he had, connecting this place with Earth so you could help him.”
“Where is earth? I know about Equestria, but not a place named Earth.”
“Well Earth is in the primordial universe, where no magic naturally exist, and every other worlds are just stories.”
“So how did you come to Earth then if they didn’t have magic to get you out?”
Lightning dust looked at me before letting out a small sigh. “Can we talk about something else, I don’t know about all of that, even Stargazer is struggling to comprehend everything!” She looked around the plains, I didn’t even realize, but I could see in the horizon a cliff, and after that, an endless sea. “I could teach you how to fly Nebula, I’ve seen your last try, and it was very funny”
“Hey! Don’t talk bad about me, I didn’t even know I had them!”
“Then let me show you what you can do with them!” she said, launching herself in the sky at an incredible speed, she was going so fast, flying so precisely, cutting through clouds by shier force of wing, turning from left to right, up and down, making a looping or two, and heading straight back for the ground, landing next to me at such speed that she dissapeared in a small Dustcloud.
“Don’t think you’ll be at that level from the start, but I’m sure you could be as skilled as me with training!” She said, her smile wide.