//------------------------------// // Ch5. First nightmare pt2. // Story: Equis Dreams. // by Aiwhisper //------------------------------// After Twilight and I finished the last vision we knew what to do. “Alright Girls, Dream and I found out we need to return the Elements to the Tree of Harmony.” Twilight explained. “The what now?” Rainbow Dash gave a confused look. “The Tree of Harmony. It’s where the Princesses found the elements and built their castle above it.” Twilight explained. As she and the girls talked Discord floated back over near me. He pulled out a magnifying glass and began to inspect me. “Can I help you Q?” My patience was running thin now and my sadness was slowly turning to anger after watching those visions. “Just trying to figure you out my little pony friend. It’s not often I run into something that stumps me.” Discord turned into a stump. “Also you keep using that name.” He changed back and pulled on his beard. “Alright girls let’s get moving.” Twilight announced. I wasn’t about to be left alone with discord/Q so followed along. Once we were deeper into the forest Twilight slowed down next to me. “Dream you know you didn’t have to come along. Us mares can handle this, we are the Elements after all.” The others were walking ahead of us and chatting. “Like I would let my new friends go alone. Besides I could use the distraction.” I lowered my head a bit and huffed. Twilight put a comforting wing on my back which surprised me. “Want to talk about what happened? Applejack said she found you while really upset but not why.” “Maybe later. One life altering event at a time right?” I joked but she nodded along. As we got deeper into the forest we came upon a swamp one filled with monster crocodiles. The girls and I fought them but it wasn’t going well. Rainbow was trying to distract it while Applejacks rope was pulled from her teeth after lassoing it. I noticed Twilight fall at one point and was about to be eaten by the beast. “Twilight!” Running over I pushed her out of the way and was swallowed whole. “Dream Catcher!” Twilight held her hoof out as tears filled her eyes. Her friend had just saved her life and gotten eaten in her place. After a few moments however she couldn’t remember why she was crying. “Twilight are you okay?” Fluttershy asked after rushing to her side. Twilight grimly nodded and promised to look into why she felt this way later. “Twi, I think you need to go back.” AJ held her hat to her chest. “If something happens to ya…” “But… do you all think that?” Her friends all gave sheepish looks but she couldn’t argue. One terrible thing had already happened, even if she couldn’t remember what. Twilight flew off towards town crying again at her friends behavior. “Did we have to send her away?” Pinkie had deflated. “I don’t like it either Pinkie but she almost got eaten!” Rainbow half yelled. “It’s a miracle the thing collapsed dead when it did. Why did that happen Fluttershy?” “Um, it almost looks like it choked on something.” She poked the poor creature,sad it had died but glad her friends were safe. After a short rest the five moved on towards the castle of the two sisters. I took in a massive amount of air when I gasped awake. I was still on the couch after passing out the night before. “Well that sucked. At least Twilight is alive.” I sat there with my hands on my face for a bit. It was still the middle of the night when I received a notification that made me laugh wile reading it. ‘Cragadile core acquired.’ “Hahaha the bastard probably choked while eating me.” I set my phone back down, I can check what it does later. Then took a look around the darkened living room. Along the walls were dozens of family photos including my parents, sister, and I. “Fuck I don’t even know if she’s aware of what happened yet.” I fell back onto the couch and decided to call her. Since she works nights sometimes she just might be awake. When she picked up, “hey bro what are you doing up?” “Hey sis. Listen do you have a minute?” I was never one to drag out conversations with her or her with me. “Sure what’s up?” She matched my hesitant tone. “It’s about mom and dad.” I slowly explained what the cops had told me earlier, pacing the living room as she listened. About halfway through the conversation she had excused herself from work and was heading here. “You sit tight and I’ll be right over.” She hung up after that. I was extremely grateful when she hung up to focus on driving and then decided I might as well send my own job an email about how I would be taking some time off. “Well there’s one less thing to worry about.” Twilight, her friends, The Princesses and even Discord sat staring at the box given to her by the tree of Harmony. “Why the heck does it have seven keys when there’s only six of us?” Applejack was the first to speak up. Twilight was practically pulling her mane out over the inconsistency, six she could understand but seven? “Discord did you have anything to do with this?” Celestia eyed him. “Muah? Not a chance. I’ll admit I left those seeds behind but even I couldn’t effect this. Also I have had the strangest feeling I have forgotten something ever since you five sent Twilight back to town and then she caught up to you all.” He used the same magnifying glass on the box. Twilight’s friends all splayed their ears back and apologized again for sending her away. Twilight wasn’t quite ready to forgive them but was also focused on the strange feeling she had been having as well. “Just what am I forgetting.” She mumbled under her breath. As soon as my sister showed up we shared a long hug both of us crying. The sun had come up while I was waiting for her so had prepared us both breakfast while waiting for her. “What do we do now sis?” I asked while doing the dishes. We had both calmed down during our meal. I just can’t sit still now. Why do I have to worry about those ponies too? I knew the answer was because they had become my friends. “Well I can’t move out here considering my husband and I have our own kids to worry about. The schools and our jobs are too far away from the farm.” She sadly answered while blowing her nose. “Guess I’ll do it.” I nodded setting a clean aside glass to dry. “You’re really going to leave the city, you?” She sounded surprised. “Yeah well it’s not so bad any longer. I only left for college and didn’t move back because getting internet out here used to be a pain. Both those issues aren’t a factor any longer or worth losing the family farm.” I shrugged. “Alright we’ll I guess we better get working on… arrangements.” She started to cry again. By the end of the day we were both exhausted. Due to the nature of our parents deaths and their wish to be cremated the ashes were already being sent to us from out of state. Funeral arrangements and letting the family know had taken up most of our time as well as closing the farm to the public for the next few days. “Well I think that was about everybody from their contacts list.” My sister had just finished informing one of our mothers friends about the upcoming wake. Everything would be at the farm so there was no need for a venue. “Yeah and I just got done speaking with the estate planner. He is already working on getting everything in our names.” I replied. “Ours? But you’re going to live here.” she sounded confused by that. “Sis the farm was obviously left to both of us, if it’s an issue I’ll just buy you out of your half after I sell my house in the city.” “Right. Makes sense.” She shook her head. “I have been awake for way to long and should really get home. But maybe not until after a nap.” She yawned. “One last thing, tell me about that tattoo later.” She yawned again before heading towards one of the guest rooms. Looking myself over I only just noticed my Pajamas didn’t fully cover the marks on my hips and sighed. A long day finished and another long night incoming. I then sat down for a light dinner and considered fighting a few timberwolves tonight just to spend the rest of the night fully sleeping if I ‘died’. Why not? I need to hit something with my hooves after all this.