//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Team Awesome Short Stories: Dream's Reality // by Caustizer //------------------------------// Solon had never ridden on a cloud before. The feeling is unusual but comfortable. It is far beyond anything he has ever felt in terms of bedding… however the same could be said for the pain currently wracking various parts of his body. Luna is clearly a talented magician, for she has not only devised a spell to allow a unicorn to rest upon a fluffy perch but also made one to keep away the incessantly driving rain. It has been pouring since the fight a few hours ago, and shows no signs of stopping. Unfortunately the same 'shield' did not extend to his faithful guards, who trudged along miserably behind them bearing his tattered helm and banner. To their credit neither of them had requested to be included in the spell, perhaps to demonstrate their toughness to make up for their stupidity. At this moment though, Solon doesn't care about them. The fresh wound over his left eye has stopped bleeding but the stinging pain remains, driving him to groan in discomfort every so often. Luna continues to walk beside him, looking over with concern every so often at her patient. Mortal injuries are a complete mystery to her, with nothing above cuts and bruises existent in Mother's palace. The five of them feel pain of course, but it has never occurred to Luna that there exists a place where the integrity of one's insides can be broken. From what she has seen of this new world that Dream dragged her into, it's not a very nice place to live. Ponies are numerous here, but they are also divided along racial lines in a way that she and her five siblings are unfamiliar with. Sure they are all different, but that's what makes them unique. Is it the fact that ponies can injure and even kill each other here what drives them to do it? The thought of death alarms Luna, and heightens her admiration of the unicorn that is now in her care… for he stared down and accepted the possibility of absolute oblivion in a way she never could or would. The group of ponies finally reaches the gates of Castle Nightstar, a sight unfamiliar and imposing to Luna. She has never been outside the Palace walls before to know what it looks like from the out there and she is not entirely sure she likes the idea of being locked out. "Allow me my…uh… Lady," insists Zephyr, unsure of how to properly address the new arrival in their midst. The unicorn guard drops Solon's helm on the ground and raps on the gate multiple times with his armoured hoof. There are a few moments of silence, then the hinges begin to creak as the door guards haul it open with their powers. Unwilling to suffer the indignity of appearing weak before his underlings, Solon rolls off the cloud and onto his feet, cringing as his battered bruises ache. At least he can walk. Reaching over with his magic he picks up his helm and places it upon his head, drenching his almost completely dry fur with the watery contents that had collected inside. Unable to hide a shiver, he turns to Luna as regally as he can. "Come, you are welcome inside." Solon and his two guards step through the gate, leaving the Princess of the Moon on her own. Looking back quickly, she wonders where Dream is and if she has been found by Mother yet. Seeing that there is no other choice, she decides to accept the hospitality of the unicorns and trots forward to catch up. … "Oh Solon what have to gotten yourself into," muses Lady Nightstar in worry, examining the injuries on her sons face up close. Two other female ponies dressed in the garb of junior apothecaries are assisting her by preparing a cloth and ointment to help heal the son of Lord Nightstar's eye. Fortunately they had discovered the injuries to be superficial with no permanent damage to his eye, but that didn't mean it does not need to be treated as there is always the threat of infection. "Settle down," insists Lady Nightstar as Solon fidgets with the application of liquid salve above and below his eye, "you're only making it worse for yourself." Solon forces himself to sit still and take the annoyance of being fussed over, but he doesn't like it. His thoughts quietly shift to Luna, who was shown to the castle guest room about half an hour earlier. After the fight with that wretched pegasus he had dismissed the expedition to the crater as a complete failure, a total waste of time that earned him a good fight but also plenty of injuries he didn't need. However, after observing her care for him the way she did as well as her impressive powers he can't help but feel there is something different about her. Normally mares have the tendency to act as damsels in distress or faint at the sight of danger (the ones at Castle Nightstar do at least) but Luna hopped right into action the moment the fight stopped. Clearly she is no stranger to spectacular displays. Silently he wonders what they have been teaching her at the lector monastery. "How did you say you got this cut?" asks Solon's mother questioningly, as if she knows what to expect. "I duelled a pegasus, mother. She insulted our family name, and I was obliged to make her repay the words in blood." "…she?" pipes up Lady Nightstar in surprise, "So now the pegasi are sending their mares to fight us? Perhaps we slew too many males in the last battle for them to make up the difference." Solon is slightly amazed at her comment. It seems usually brutal for his mother to speak this way. "I hope you didn't lose to a girl now, did you?" continues Lady Nightstar with a chuckle. He suddenly realizes his mother is jesting with him. "No," insists Solon with a hint of agitation, "we… it was a tie." Lady Nightstar adopts a smirk as she finishes wrapping cloth around his upper eye, finishing it by tying a bow around the back of his head. A knock on the door suddenly disturbs the moment. "Pardon my lady," insists a castle guard, "Lord Nightstar wishes to see his son." "Tell him he'll be there in a moment," replies the female unicorn as she moves out of the way for her firstborn to rise off the apothecary's bed. "I don't understand why he can't come here on his own," complains Solon, his misery reflecting in his statements. Looking at the dire look on his mother's face, he can tell that something is wrong. "I didn't want to tell you," admits Lady Nightstar, "your father is of ill health." Solon doesn't need to hear anything more. A half second later he bolts out the door and makes his way down the hall to his father's quarters. Had he known some calamity had befallen his father, he wouldn't have bothered with the fussy treatment for his injuries. The hallway to his father's room is short, and Solon makes his way to the doorway of his parent's quarters in little time. Halting briefly before going inside, he tries to correct his mane to make himself appear slightly more presentable. Slipping in quietly, the unicorn looks upon his father lying quietly with his eyes closed. Lord Nightstar's breathing is shallow but controlled. All over him are black burn-like marks of magical exhaustion. It takes Solon a couple of seconds to figure out what had happened. "Oh father, I should have stayed," muses Solon with a hint of sorrow as he looks upon his dad's injuries. Magnus opens his eyes and peers upward faintly at his son. It takes him a moment to examine the hideous scar that is only partially covered on Solon's face, and to understand what created it. "You should have stayed," Lord Nightstar replies with a slight smile. … "So another pony put up a fight along the way," suggests Magnus from his bed, "it must have been an impressive opponent to lay you so low." Solon glances angrily at a nearby open window, where rain is pattering on the sill and dripping onto the floor. "It was a wretched pegasus," he fumes, "I think she said her name was Pridewing, not that it matters now." Surprisingly, Magnus laughed. "Ah Pansy, how you have grown." Solon turns slowly, eyeing his father inquisitively. "You know of her?" "Her father and I duelled many a time during the last war. Try as we might, we could barely lay a hoof on each other." "You speak of them as long lost friends," accuses Solon with a hint of hate. Magnus frowns. "I speak of them with respect Solon. We do not get along, us unicorns and pegasi, but we also perform our natural duties as required for our mutual benefit and survival. If the rain never falls, then how will the grass grow?" Once again Solon is forced to bow to his father's wisdom. He turns his gaze away from the window and walks over to a nearby table. Using his powers he picks up his father's dinner, delivered a few minutes earlier by a helpful kitchen pony, and carries it over to the bedside. "So I presume you won the duel," continues Magnus, "judging from your warm body and flowing mood?" Solon resists the urge to lie. "It was… a tie," the navy unicorn answers hesitantly. "Hah, she let you live didn't she?" returns Lord Nightstar with a chuckle. This time Solon can't restrain his anger. "We struck each other down, and then offered to raise weapons no more! I was not beaten by the likes of a pegasus!" "Easy," insists Magnus calmly, "I was merely speaking of the mark on your face. No unicorn could continue to fight under such injury. Given what I know of their kind's martial code, one would have to invoke much anger for a pegasus to attempt such a lethal blow..." His father didn't ask him what he had done to provoke Pridewing, but with a hint of shame Solon remembered exactly what it was. Maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to lift his tail in her direction. A hint of moonlight flickers in through the open window, glistening off the raindrops. "So tell me of what you found," continues Magnus changing the subject, "was the falling star the omen I suggested it might be?" "No," replies Solon in disappointment, "it was just a failed spell wrought by a lector. I found her and brought her back here to await the rest of her kin." "So this whole ruckus was caused by a single unicorn spell gone awry?" "Yes," answers Solon with certainty. "Are you sure?" questions Magnus with a hint of amusement, nodding his head towards the open window. Looking closer, Solon's eyes widen with amazement. Moonlight! The unicorns in Castle Nightstar hadn't raised the moon yet… how is it possible? Rushing over to the sill the navy unicorn peers out over the courtyard. The storm clouds of Luna's earlier creation have parted revealing a beautiful night sky full of stars. The sun had long been forced down and the moon is bathing the land in its elegant blue light. At the centre of the courtyard, right amongst the nicely pruned garden and vivid decorations, sits Luna. With a wave of her horn the stars move themselves in the sky, changing their arrangement to suit her artistic whims. Finishing the creation of her night, the princess tops it off with a stunning meteor shower which burns up in the atmosphere making a sight of surreal beauty. Solon is completely amazed. Luna is no ordinary unicorn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All he can see is green. The world is a sea of green, and all he knows is that he loathes it will all his being. He longs for the world to be the way it was intended to be, free of the blight of green, free of the blight of age and improvement. Can't they see that they are perfect the way they are, without the need to remake themselves or the world around them? Can't they see the joy of expanses of emptiness? He has nothing and his pure enjoyment of that lack of burden washes over him like a lingering madness. Unwilling to awake from his private state of ecstasy, he remains on the ground motionless. "Get up, I haven't got all night." The harshness of the voice astounds him, and suddenly he finds the energy to open his eyes. "I was enjoying my rest," he finds himself compelled to respond, "why have you awoken me?" Lord Eclipse looks down upon the twisted and atrophied body of his latest creation, his vicious sneer providing the perfect counter for Light's otherwise pretty features. A few hours before the Lord of Destruction had poured the vials containing the essences of Evil, Starvation, War, and Ruin into the four vats containing the mortal ponies that he had long ago captured for his own ends. Surprisingly, the green unicorn from the vat he had poured the essence of ruin into began to awake very quickly. It is time for Eclipse to assess the potency of his new creation to determine if it suits his tastes. "Your weakness will not do, not at all," insists Eclipse through Light's body. With a burst of power he enhances the physique of the green pony before him, increasing muscle mass and general health in a matter of seconds. As the treatment finishes, the unicorn stumbles to his feet and looks Eclipse right in the eyes without a hint of fear. "You didn't answer my question." "Tell me, what do you feel?" asks Eclipse, ignoring the pony's question, "what is your foremost desire?" Seeing that he isn't about to get the answer he's expecting, the pony decides to play along. Looking around to take in his surroundings, he twists his face into a nasty expression. "This setting offends me," the pony growls, "how dare you move the natural elements of this place to suit your own desires? Do not the waters in your vials belong in the river? Do not the stones of these walls belong in the place of their creation? Does not the wood belong with the trees that grew it?" "Good," answers Eclipse with pleasure, knowing that his first pony of the apocalypse is almost complete. Not waiting for an answer from his creator, Ruin begins to focus a portion of his power into the ends of his hooves. Raising himself onto his back legs, the green unicorn prepares to unleash the energy to destroy everything around him in one big seismic wave. Sensing what is about to happen, Eclipse intervenes. "That won't be necessary." Using Light's impressive magical might, he drains away Ruin's powers turning his resulting stomp into a mundane thump comparable to a child's tantrum. The unicorn doesn't look pleased. "I'll tell you what," begins Eclipse cleverly, "I have but one task for you to complete, then you will be free to practise your desires however you choose." Ruin is still annoyed that the laboratory around him is intact, but appears attentive. "I'm listening." Eclipse nods, and conjures an image of Dream out of thin air. Ruin eyes it with curiosity. "Remember this pony, for she is found where I am sending you. I want you to find her, and then I want you to break her." "Break her?" questions Ruin. Eclipse lashes out at the false image, and changes begin to occur. Dream cries out silently in suffering, and falls to the ground. Her image begins to alter itself, with her skin turning greyish and lame. Her hair becomes long snake-like strands and her mouth becomes toothy and menacing. Her eyes are buried and soon vanish completely, forming a perfect composite of Nightmare. "Fight her and break her spirit," continues Eclipse venomously, "and then you are to implore the being within to break free. Succeed in this, and you will earn your freedom from my will." "Sounds simple," replies Ruin confidently, almost arrogantly, "when shall I begin?" "Right now." Using Light's powers once more Eclipse reopens the gateway into the orb containing the Pony World. Impatiently he tosses Ruin towards the sphere, and the unicorn cries out in surprise as the object sucks him in. Eclipse's red eyes hum with glee as he gazes into the now inert orb. Soon Dream will be bent to his control, and once Nightmare is unleashed she will have no difficulty turning that weakling Luna to his side. With two of Light's children allied with him, he will finally have the power to break free of this wretched prison and get the vengeance he so desires.