Chapter 8: Dream
I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling, my head reeling from today’s events. My mind kept telling me the exact same thing over and over again, trying to make it stick. Equestria is your home. Equestria is your home. Equestria is your home. Equestria is--
“Stop!” I muttered, clutching my head. “God, please, stop...” I sat up in my bed and looked around. My room looked not unlike Discord’s, albeit smaller. There was a door to a balcony, a simple yet elegant dresser with a mirror, and a small bathroom. The guards had given Lily and I adjoining rooms if we needed to talk, but we’d been silent since we came in here. I climbed out of bed and walked over to the dresser, on which I’d tossed my saddlebag. I reached into the bag and withdrew the orb. “Pete? Jake?” I whispered into it.
Things were silent for a minute before finally Pete came into view. “Creed! How are things going?” He asked.
“I could ask you the same thing!” I muttered. “Lily and I tried to contact you earlier, but there was this weird... squishing noise.”
Pete looked hesitant to explain. “Yeah, I kinda... swallowed the orb.”
I gave my head a little shake to make sure I was fully awake. “You what?”
Jake’s face came into view, trying and failing to keep a smile hidden. “Well... The Somber Blade took inventory of their equipment after your escape and must have found that they were missing, along with that map, a couple of their orbs. Bulwark guessed that you guys had an eye on the inside, and ordered a search of every single tent and every single alicorn in the camp. We didn’t want to lose the orb, so Pete had the wonderful idea of... stowing it.”
Pete shot Jake an annoyed look. “It was the only thing I could think of on such short notice, jackoff,” he growled.
Jake evidently hadn’t gotten to the part that had most amused him yet. “So, in order for us to get into contact with you again, we had to wait for...” He stopped, trying to find the right words. “...for nature to do it’s course.”
For the first time in hours I started laughing. “And how did it feel, Pete?”
Pete coughed. “Well, to be honest, I’ve passed worse stones.” He began to chuckle, having recognized the hilarity of the whole affair.
Jake couldn’t stop guffawing. “He’s still walking funny from ‘retrieving’ the orb!” I fell to my knees, laughing. The door to Lily’s room opened and she entered.
“What’s going on?” She asked. I was laughing too hard to say anything, so I just pointed at the orb. Lily approached the orb and leaned in while Pete and Jake explained their method of concealing the orb. She ended up laughing harder than me. “That is disgusting!” She cackled.
“It’s the greatest thing ever, that’s what it is!” Jake said. The four of us kept laughing and found it difficult to stop. After a couple minutes we managed to control ourselves.
“So... as for us, we’re in Canterlot right now,” I explained. “The Somber Blade from Dodge had followed us to Ponyville, but we escaped here. The princesses are at the Crystal Empire, but we met up with Discord, of all people.”
“Oh, really??” Jake asked. “He do anything awesome?”
“Well... he’s kinda weak right now. He expended a lot of magic recently...”
“Doing what?” Pete asked.
I opened my mouth to explain, but the thought of explaining everything brought a sharp pain to my stomach. I glanced over at Lily, giving her a nod and a look that said ‘Explain things’ before heading to the balcony door. I needed some air.
I stood on the balcony, staring up at the stars; they were truly beautiful tonight, Luna had reason to be proud of her night sky. The cool night air helped me clear my head, but I still found myself thinking about Discord’s story. Who was I really? Who was I before we were banished? I looked to my cutie mark of the six circles intertwined with one another; I still had no clue what it meant. What had I done as an alicorn? Where did I live? Who did I have for family?
Who did I love?
“Creed?” Lily came out onto the balcony. “Are you okay?”
I stared up at the moon, silent for a moment. Lily walked up beside me and sat down. “How are you handling this?” I asked quietly.
Lily looked down, dragging a hoof along the ground. “Not very well, I think... How about you?”
I took a breath. “I’m wondering about the life I had here before... The friends and family I may never know... If I had that ‘special somepony’... What was my name?”
Lily scooched closer to me. “I’m betting everyone else will be feeling the same way when we tell them,” she said.
My eyes drifted towards the train station below. “Well, maybe the Princesses will be able to tell us who we were tomorrow,” I said before turning to Lily. “Let’s get some sleep.”
Lily nodded. “It’ll feel nice to sleep in a good bed again...” She muttered.
We both returned inside, mumbling ‘goodnight’ to each other as Lily returned to her room. I climbed into bed, and the day’s overwhelming truths seemed to slip away as I fell asleep.
- - - - -
I lay in the grass, staring up at the gorgeous midday skies; the weather-ponies had truly outdone themselves today with removing the unsightly clouds. I rolled over to my left to look at her; I rubbed my hoof through her gorgeous golden mane and cradled her face, happily receiving her wonderful smile. She inched closer to me, wrapping her forelegs around my neck.
“I love you...” she whispered to my ear before nuzzling me affectionately.
“For as long as I live...” I whispered to her. I could simply lie here with her forever. Nothing else seemed to matter as long as she was near.
A deep rumbling noise snapped me out of the moment. I sat up, looking around. At first I thought the sound had come from the city to the east, but then I realized it was echoing from the very skies. I looked up and softly gasped as a massive number of black, swirling clouds began to blot out the perfectly blue skies, cracks of lightning serving as the only brief spots of light. “What’s happening...?” I muttered. She sat up and held me close.
“This isn’t right...” she said. “We should get back to the city.”
I nodded, and we both flew as fast as our wings could carry us back to the city. As we landed near the base of the Crystal Palace all of the other alicorns had gathered there as well. Hundreds of others were still in flight to the city center. The worried chatter grew louder with each arriving alicorn, until I could barely hear my beloved say to me, “Is this what we were called here for?”
I shook my head. “I do not know, but I dread whatever it means...”
Soon, the alicorns had stopped coming. Every last one of us was here in one tight crowd on Empire’s city streets. Some of us even poured into the buildings to make room for others. I held my love close to avoid losing her in the crowd. My heart seemed heavy, as if it somehow knew that one of the worst things imaginable was about to fall upon us.
One of the loudest cracks of thunder silenced us. The swirling clouds ceased their thundering, and gave way to a new sound; laughter. A cruel, proud laughter. The clouds parted somewhat, revealing a single figure floating down towards us. From the very sight of him I felt something in the pit of my stomach twist, almost revolted at what I beheld. He was... an amalgamation. He was built of a variety of animals. Goat, eagle, snake, lion, bat, all pieced together into a single being. My love beside me gasped. “A draconequus...”
“Alicorns of Equestria!” The being called to us, his voice magically amplified. “You have been gathered here for your gifts in ensuring an era of peace and prosperity in this land for thousands of years!” His initially cheerful demeanor suddenly dropped. “That ends today.” He held his talon and paw at his sides, channeling a thick, twisting red energy around his clawed fingers. “Take heart! Your sacrifice today will herald a new era for this land! An era of delightful, glorious... Chaos!!”
The crowd gasped in horror. Many of us, myself included, began charging our horns to confront the creature, to punish him for his hubris, for his plotting; he would rue the day he would challenge the alicorns-
The draconequus fired the crimson energy at the top of the Crystal Palace. The energy arced from the peak to the very base of the spire, spreading across the ground before any of us could react. The energy tore into our bodies, bringing about an excruciating pain... I screamed... we all did. I could feel my very bones burning from the searing energy. I turned to her; the sight of her in such agony made me feel worse than any pain I had ever felt, even now. I tried to reach out to her, to comfort her, to assure her that everything would be all right, but the mere act of twitching my foreleg seemed impossible with the energy tearing through our bodies.
The draconequus was laughing at the display as he continued channeling the energy. “Yes! You feel it, don’t you?! Your very essences, being torn from your bodies! Take one last look at your precious Equestria, alicorns, for the Harmony it has known for generations dies today!!”
To my left I saw one of us suddenly open his mouth in a silent scream, a blinding light pouring from his eyes and mouth. His very body seemed to crack like a crumbling statue, before finally bursting... there weren’t even pieces. All around us the same thing happened to many others. One by one, each alicorn began to leak a brilliant light before exploding, leaving no evidence they had been there in the first place.
Then I felt it; something in my chest, something white hot, was growing... I felt it burning my insides as it climbed up my throat. I looked to her, and saw that-
“NO!” I screamed as she opened her mouth, the light pouring from her throat and her eyes. My own mouth wrenched open as I began to spew the bright light, and I watched as she moved her head towards me before she exploded just like the others. I barely had time to suffer a grief worse than I had ever known before my vision became obscured by light and I knew no more.
“Creed! CREED!!” Someone was shaking me violently, but I barely noticed as I found myself struggling to control my rapid breathing. “Creed, wake up!!” My eyes opened to see Lily hanging over me, shaking me. Cold sweat leaked from my forehead as I sat up, gasping - sobbing, even. My stomach, it felt... wrong. I climbed out of bed and scampered for the bathroom. I knelt by the toilet and retched; it took me a few minutes before I managed to stop heaving and calmed down. I lay on the cold tile floor, slowly catching my breath. I felt Lily lay a comforting hoof on me, but she remained silent.
I began weeping. Silently at first, but soon I was sobbing uncontrollably. I had trouble clearly remembering my dream... but no trouble remembering exactly how I felt as I dreamt. “I saw them, Lily...” I said, once I got my breathing under control. “I saw us... the alicorns, we were being... banished... It hurt us so much...” A memory of a blonde mane flowed into my mind’s eye. “I had someone... I had someone I loved and I watched her suffer... I couldn’t stop it...”
The faintest thought of it being Lily in that scenario nearly made me heave again; I didn’t know why. After a few minutes I finally sat up, Lily not removing her hoof from my shoulder. I stared at the floor, trying to control my breathing. Lily tenderly lifted my face up with her hoof, looking into my eyes like a mother seeking to comfort a weeping child. When she couldn’t think of anything to say, she pulled me into a hug. “It’s okay, Creed,” she whispered. “It’ll all be okay...” I got the feeling that she had learned this from somewhere else... Like she had been the one who needed someone to hug her, whisper cooing assurances... I returned the hug, finding it much easier to take a steady breath.
Somehow I found myself feeling like I had in the start of the dream... in that moment of happiness, of bliss... it felt right.