Waking up after fully exerting yourself the day before is painful. Anybody who works out for the first time in a while will tell you this. The morning after is sore city. A debilitating feeling that your nerves are swollen to the point where the slightest movement or touch could feel like all hell breaking loose across your body
Nevertheless, heat was building up on my body, bringing me back to consciousness. The warmth washed over me in ways that made me want to curl and cool down somewhat. Like a ray of light striking you in the morning while you're still in bed.
“Save her!” My hoarse voice called.
“I already have.” The voice said calmly.
The memories of last night returned to me. Taking and killing my morning ignorance, and striking me with a dreadful sense of worry.
I sat up, as quickly as possible, looking around for Celestia, the images of her deathly pale furry face, stabbing at my heart, causing it to skip a beat or two. My vision only caught the sunlight as it entered the cave’s mouth.
The light didn’t deter me as I shook my head desperately looking for the cute little ball of fur I’d spent the last day or two caring for. Finally her image came to me. The pristine white coat of a little pony, with her wings of purely white feathers, and her cute little horn met my eyes.
She laid right beside me in her blanket. Perfectly safe, breathing with a cute exhaling breath that was almost a whistle, and sleeping without a care in the world. An adorable little angel if looks are to be believed. Completely undeterred to sleep the morning away even by the rocky surface of the cave. Safe from starvation, sickness, and neglect. I finally could relax.
It was then when it hit me. Several jolts of pain simultaneously took hold of me. Causing me to wince and whine (a little) until I layed back down on the angled floor of the cave. The pain was like stabbing a hundred toothpicks into you body. Until all of them stood up on their own from the flesh holding them in place.
Now imagine you're doing this whilst laying on a slab of jagged rock too, and any movement you make caused some of the toothpicks to enter your skin more, as the toothpicks were pushed in by the hard rock! Okay so maybe I whined a lot, but Lord kill me now it hurt.
Hurray for waking up half asleep and feeling nothing, and making one lousy movement, and feeling like you bathed yourself with flaming toothpicks.
I stirred a lot, letting out a low picked cry occasionally.
My whining caused Celestia to stir. The little filly, rolled around a little in her blanket, before letting loose a tiny high pitched yawn that was so adorable, the pain became ignorable for the duration.
I watched as Celestia rustled in the confines of the blanket until she freed herself only about a minute later. I watched as she struggled with keeping her balance on the lopsided floor. She nearly toppled over on her face a couple of times, as her hooves slipped from the damp rock underneath her.
The pain in my leg spiked at that point, and I let loose a fairly audible cry.
Celestia Jumped a little, startled by my cry of pain. She squealed in fear with a tiny voice. Her face and beady little eyes making a surprised look before her legs scrambled to run away. But she slipped on the rock, and harmlessly rolled to the lowest point in the floor.
It was so adorable, cute, and even funny that. I laughed. Ouch, wrong move. My laughing caused a spasm of pain that rocked me. I tried to keep my silence if only to not frighten Celestia any further.
She takes a little time to stare at me, as if assessing the situation. But her expression is unmoving, her eyes fixed on me as if she’s frozen in fear. Obviously she didn’t recognize me.
I felt hurt. I spent all yesterday and the day before caring for her, and she couldn’t or didn’t recognize me... It really, really hurt. A kind of internal pain that just burrows into your heart and the more you think about it, the more painful it becomes. I may have been hurting on the outside, but that pain was like a grandiose message compared to this.
At that moment I desperately wanted to know why she feared me or showed these signs of unknown. It occurred to me just then that Celestia looked much taller and mature than her tiny appearance yesterday. It was as if she’d grown into a toddler from a baby.
But that still begged the question. If she didn’t know me, then how could I prove to her I wasn’t a threat? I exhaled in a tiny bit of frustration and pain. My mouth even had been sore, causing my lips to stay close together in an effort to avoid exerting my face muscles.
Unexpectedly, from my ‘closed lip’ exhale; I whistled gently.
Celestia’s ears perked up, and her body language, tentatively relaxed for a moment. In pondering the question as to why, I flashed back to yesterday (or was it the day before?) I had whistled to Celestia to calm her down when she was crying. Did she remember that?
I tried playing the tune from the day before, but it was at this point that my acute memory has failed. I couldn't remember the song. But that didn’t stop me from trying anyway.
The new song, which was without much of a tune, was just three repetitive notes. If I knew how to write it in music, it would resemble an arc, or something. Hell I have no clue, I’m just guessing here.
But anyway, the new tune had a profound effect on Celestia. Her guard and alert/ready to run body language has disappeared. She had finally relaxed, and turned her head in such a way that the sun reflected off of those cute purple eyes of hers.
I’m glad it did too. When the light lit her eyes, I could see them well enough that it was like looking into Celestia’s soul. She noticed this herself, and returned the look, now looking into my eyes with the same intensity I’d demonstrated.
But there was something about the way that we looked at each other. Its not something I can easily put a finger on, but during that look, it felt like we were communicating. As if by making eye contact in such a way that we could read each others thoughts.
Was it some sort of uber empathy? I felt her relax even more, returning from the really distressing state that she was in. I could feel her heart finally slow down to the point where it felt like it normally was. It was odd, because my heart mimicked hers, or was it the other way around? Regardless, in those few moments, both of us were free from our distress.
My body flared in pain again. My muscles were still horribly shot and making for damn sure I knew it. I winced again, as I tried to still my body so I wouldn’t be hurting myself.
Celestia noticed this herself, and I could feel a sense of confusion and concern radiate from her, like some kind of feeling, heat, or chill was possible to communicate a feeling. She stepped towards me as if trying to assess the situation. I know...She’s pretty much just a toddler, but that’s how it looked.
When she was barely a foot, or a quarter metre away from me, her eyes scanned me, and she made a cute little face while doing so; sticking her tongue out, and her little eyes rushing from side to side. Her focus was so much on me, a slight step closer caused her to trip a little, and land harmlessly on top of me.
I chuckled a little from it. But the slight jumps I made with that chuckle made my muscles scream for the duration. Yeah sure, a little pony landing on top of me from tripping wouldn’t hurt. But if I laughed I might as well be shooting myself in the foot with pain. I have such a douchebag of a body.
To her credit, Celestia got right back up to continue what she was doing. After a brief minute, her constant eye scanning had been enough. Her mannerisms changed, as I noticed her take a wide stance, as if to prepare herself. Her eyes closed suddenly, and I became very nervous for what was about to happen next.
A white light started to glow around Celestia’s horn. My mind had finally put two and two together and it certainly wasn’t what I expected. A little filly or foal, was trying to cast a spell, or perform some kind of magic.
I was anxious, here for the first time, I was witnessing real magic. Magic from a tiny toddler-like unicorn/pegasus pony that that was performing her first spell. I had no idea what to expect, as the white light grew larger and started to hum with intensity.
The only thing I did know was that Celestia wasn’t trying to harm me, no. The moment we’d just shared told me in a profound way that Celestia would never harm me. I don’t even think she would harm anything for any reason. But just because she wouldn’t intentionally do it to me, doesn’t mean she couldn’t accidentally do it.
The charge of energy and light grew even more in force, so much so that the entire cave was now bathed in such a powerful light. The hum itself was progressively becoming a high-pitched whine. I knew what was coming next, it seemed like the spell had reached its apex and fear overtook me as I braced for the worst.
Everything was drowned in the light, even sound, or feeling the feeling from my own body. Almost like I was put back into that white existence with that otherworldly being. When I blinked from the heavy exposure, I expected to see darkness behind my eyelids, but no, the light had been so powerful, even with closed eyes all I saw was the same white light. I started to wonder if this is what it felt like to be blind, but then I had an interesting thought, if I couldn’t feel my own body how did I know I had my eyes closed in the first place?.
And suddenly, it was all gone.
The world as I had just been in, had returned to normal, with everything in its rightful place, I was still laying down in a semi lit cave, and Celestia was just right there in front of me, struggling to keep her balance, and she seemed very tired.
When it seemed like she would fall, I instinctively lunged to grab her. I held her soft warm body in my arms, careful not to squeeze her, and placed her right beside me. I exhaled out in relief. The spell, for whatever reason, hadn’t worked, or so I knew. I had no idea what the spell was supposed to do. All I knew was that I had a tired little filly right beside me, trying to recover from that exertion, and that my body was in horrible horrible pai-...
At that moment I realized what the spell had done. When I lunged to grab Celestia just then, I never felt any backlash or pain from the effort, slight as it may have been, I should have felt it. But I hadn’t.
I moved my arms and legs around, doing so confirmed what I thought. Celestia had used her magic to heal my muscles. And now they felt just like new. I looked down to the little filly laying there, probably about to doze off, and smiled. She’d relieved me of a dreadful amount of pain, and she wasn’t even able to speak.
I layed down to relax against the floor. I felt tired, and wanted to catch some sleep myself.
As I looked up to the ceiling of the cave, I could physically start to feel my body melt away back into unconsciousness, but I was briefly stopped.
Celestia stirred, and tried to get up. I hesitantly, but very willingly, lifted myself up and looked over at her, to observe her and make sure she didn’t go off to explore or something. (You never know with kids I guess.)
But she didn’t bother going very far. Celestia, with all her limited strength, got to her hooves, and then climbed on top of my leg. Concerned, I moved to prepare to catch her should she lose her footing. But I watched vigilantly as she moved her way up to my torso. I layed down to accommodate her movements. But she wasn’t done there though, as she put her head under my shirt, and crawled her way up my chest until she popped her head through my shirt’s collar.
Her head appeared right next to mine, and although nervous of her short white horn, my concerns were void when Celestia decided to lay down, and curl on my chest, with my shirt as a blanket once again. I watched as her eye’s closed as she finally was swept off to her sleep. I couldn’t help but to smile, from the bottom of my heart from this adorable action.
She was right there, adorable as ever, sleeping right ontop of me. I chuckled lightly from the sheer amount of happiness and surprise, and I put my arms around her to lovingly cradle her into place while I too joined her in a joyous sleep.
_____________________________________________________________________________
I dreamed.
I found myself in a landscape full of trees. Great tall trees for which I didn't know the name. It was like a great forest. But something was off, in a normal forest, trees were spread out chaotically, in natures fashion. However, all the trees my eye could see stood in lines, like a well established farmland.
I took a closer look at the trees and noticed each and every one had red orbs filling every branch, like polka dots on a shirt. But these weren’t red orbs, they were infact large red apples. All of them impossibly red and ripe.
My senses were exploding with hunger, and the need to fill an empty belly that I’d ignored for so long. I reached out for some of the low hanging apples, grabbing one just within my reach and bringing it up to my face for a closer inspection. I was right, the apples were impossibly red, almost as if they were covered in cadmium red paint, but it was if the color was truly part of the apple skin. The apple produced a nice, seducing smell that only I could only imagine a starving person could smell. The scent of the nice piece of fruit was delectable, with a tinge of green leaf.
It was too much. A moment later, I lost control over myself. I took a bite out of the apple so large I think my jaw should have broken from the attempt, and yet the bite took nearly half to apple with it. The piece of apple was almost too large to be chewable, but it was so tantalizing to the tongue that I found away. The amazing natural taste of the the apple and the sugar drove me into a frenzy.
Before long I ate the apple whole, core included. I didn’t stop there. My senses became attuned to the smell and taste of an apple, soon after I found myself eating apples almost by the dozens, in the same monstrous way I’d done the first. It was like I had a black hole for a stomach. The worst part is, I didn’t want to stop myself from eating so desperately.
So I ate and ate and ate. I watched my stomach grow in disproportionate sizes, Making me look almost if I was a pregnant women with eight children all in their last month before birth. I felt with each apple my weight growing more and more. I suspected that I might have been physically slowing down from the new bulbous size and freight train weight, but to my disbelief, I moved just as freely and easily as I had before.
Always consuming, never stopping, I eventually grew so large that I finally toppled over, completely and utterly unable to move. By now I was double the size of a tree in length and size, A completely round ball of flesh. It was only then my need to consume was content for the moment.
Day turned to night as I layed there, finally satisfied with myself. No thoughts moved through my mind. I only sat there and remained in an ignorant bliss to anything that happened around me. Never bothering to move from the discomforting feel of branches poking my stomach, or leaves tickling me endlessly, just staying there. Doing nothing but existing.
However, something drew the curiosity of my giant like mind.
I heard the sound of rustling leaves, and I turned my head to see movement below the trees. A Silhouette of some kind of creature, making audible sniffing sounds close to the ground, came into view.
It was so dark out that I could only make out the silhouette of a four legged, short neck creature the size of a lion or jaguar. With spines covering it from head to toe, almost like a hedgehog in what shrouded appearance I could make out.
Interestingly enough, it seems hungry. I see it going around, sniffing the apples, sometimes licking them, as if this animal wants to see if its an edible fruit. I watch on curiously as this animal goes and does this to several trees and multiple apples.
Suddenly, it decides to take a bite of the nearest apple. I watch in horror as the thing eats an apple and swallows it whole in one simple action. But something catches my eye in the process, something odd.
The animal, satisfied with the taste, proceeds to start eating more apples in a similar fashion to myself when I started. Finally, I see what caught my eye with the creatures first apple.
While taking a bite out of an apple the size of car tire, I get a good, long look at the beast’s teeth. They are glowing with red crimson. The only thing clearly visible on this thing where its glowing teeth, how horrifying, as they were large teeth, fangs really, I would guess at five inches in length minimum, with almost four rows of teeth on it like a shark, but deadlier.
I continued watching this animal feast on apples just like I had, and sorta saw a mirror of myself being played out with another body. It climbed to the top of a tree and devoured all the apples off of it. When it was finished, it stopped for a few moments. I wondered why as, when I was in that position all I did was eat eat and eat without a break.
The thing lifted its head up into the air and let loose an nauseating, echoing howl that was loud enough for me to want my stubby little arms to cover my ears. Immediately after, more secondary howls answered to the first, and I could see movement in the distance.
It was more of these creatures, numbered in the hundreds. I watched them enter the apple orchard, and started to immediately consume all the apples in sight. Some of the creatures took to ramming the trees down with their combined weight, snapping the tree in half like it had been a twig.
Their eating of all the apples in sight hits an all new high when some of the creatures start to eat the trees whole. I’m totally unsure of how it all works, but I couldn’t imagine where these things put a whole or multiple whole trees into their body.
The morning comes, the soft light of the sun beginning to rise started to chase away the darkness. The horde of silhouetted monsters were now brightly illuminated. But to my horror, nothing changed. These monsters, with their glowing talons and fangs, and otherwise hidden features were still as black as their silhouettes. I couldn’t make out any sort of feature or characteristic these things had, other than they were so dark, that even the rays of the sun couldn’t characterize them.
The last trees were finally being devoured by these specimens of darkness. And finally the land was barren with nothing by me and the horde of creatures just finishing up their ‘endless’ meal. It struck me that I had no idea what they would do next. Would they leave? Stay and rest, or even dig down and consume the earth itself?
But I found out soon what their next motive was. The swarm of black creatures started to surround me, all of them trying so desperately to get as close as possible to me, even going so far as to climb and crawl past others to do so.
I had a good feeling I knew what was going to happen next. And sure enough, I was right. I was next on the menu. I felt their razor sharp teeth all start to consume me at once, in a ravenous synchronized frenzy. I felt no pain, only sensation of it all. So I only stared in shock as I observed myself being eaten alive. I did not scream as I felt the prickling of the spines either, as deadly sharp as their teeth were.
The more I observed these creatures, the more I got the feeling they weren't eating me at all. It was almost like the spines, fangs, and talons of each monster were all working together to tear me apart at the smallest level. Almost like I was to be separated molecule from molecule.
Finally, they reached my face, tearing it apart as easily as the rest of my body. I became nothing else. Everything about me was gone, but strangely enough, I could still see.
Now that the monsters had finished with me, they continued on each other, as if their need for consumption was so desperate that the survival of their species didn’t matter so long as there was something to feed on.
For a long time I’ve known in the real world it was a dog eat dog world. But this was as close as I’d ever gotten to experiencing the full explanation of it. Finally, the last creature with its glowing crimson fangs consumed the other last of its kind. There was nothing left to prove that there had been any other but that sole specimen.
But not all was right after it finished off the last of its kind. It started to morph and grow in size, its neck extending, the silhouetted expanded as wings grew to be a part of the creature. The head of the creature grew in length and the tail extended as well.
When the process was finished, the new creature had grown to be about my size, before looking directly in my direction. Although I did not have a body anymore, it saw me as if I had one.
At that moment I experienced fear, a fear unlike any other. I had experienced none at my own consumption, but now I was driven mad in fear as this new monster approached me. The very sight of it struck at the horrors deep inside of me, phobias I never knew I had. A feeling of utter dread and desperate need to escape flowed through whatever body I might’ve had.
It reached forth with its long neck, and finally showed me the inside of its mouth. Aside from the the glowing red teeth and fangs it possessed, deep down it’s throat I could only see myself, and before those jaws of death could claim me, I blinked.
When my eyes opened, in that split second, I had escaped that beast. My eyes were filled with the familiar white of that plain of existence. My body had returned to me, as though I’d never lost it. Its hard to imagine, but the sound of my own heart beat was the most relieving thing I’d ever heard. My mind was now in full gear, what in the actual hell had I just witnessed?
My thoughts seemed as though they echoed on invisible walls throughout this unworldly place.
“Welcome my partner.” It was the voice from the creator, playing inside my mind as it always had. I had not forgotten the strange effect it had of calming me down either. That latest experience was harrowing to say the least, and I could use it right now.
“Thank you for bringing me here, that thing...” I couldn’t go on the thought of it was horrible enough.
“I’m afraid I have to disappoint you, but your arrival here was unexpected.” The voice came back to me. This threw me for a loop. I didn’t know what to think.
“Then how did I get here? I mean the only times I’ve ever gotten here was because of you!”
‘’No I did not. You came here of your own wishes, and of your own power.’’ Wait what? I didn't notice using any kind of power or anything that would resemble such a thing. Soo...
‘’Wait a second,’’I began to ponder what it just said, before finally just giving up completely. And so I gave my obviously intelligent and well thought out statement, ‘’What?’’
‘’When I mentioned that you were special for reasons not yet known to you, well this is one such manifestation. Your ability to enter this place when you want.’’ I had the power to come here? I mean that's fine and all but what a lame power to have.
‘’Um, okay, but I never really wanted to come here, I didn’t even know where here is.’’ I said in a kind of confused undertone.
‘’Here does not have a name, it is just a simple plane of existence where you can speak directly to me. Which you will come to find as a useful ability, as It is difficult for me to reach out to you when you are not on this plane.’’
‘’So what, I wanted to be here? And so I came? Like something out of a crappy ‘B’ movie?” What the flying hell?
‘’Your dream, you wanted desperately to escape from the nightmare you were having, and thus the end result brought you here.” It explained.
“Look, I’m not sure if I believe that I have a power to bring myself here or anywhere-” I said before being cut off.
“Not anywhere, just here.” It interjected, leaving me a tad frustrated.
“Yeah, whatever, point is, this is weird.” I rolled my eyes.
“it is interesting you should believe that this of all things was ‘weird’” “However, the events that you have already witnessed were evidence enough in this matter.”
The bell of realization finally wrung for me. I chose now to be completely disbelieving of things? Being sucked up into a tornado, waking up in the middle of nowhere, taking care of a baby- actually a baby pony! With wings, a horn, and...even magic too, how do I ignore all of that and call this instance of specifically weird?
“Good point.” I simply said.
“Yes, and now that we’ve discussed that, I do believe you had questions regarding the events of last night.” That was the bomb shell, I had many questions from the experience of last night.
“Yeah I do... But before I ask, thanks for saving Celestia for me.” My tone soothed.
‘’I did not save her.’’ It said quite calmly.
‘’Wait what? I saw her, she was dead in my arms, there's no way she lived if you didn't intervene!” I shouted, this wasn’t making any sense, and me mad. I wanted answers, not more questions.
‘’I only saved you.’’
‘’Wait what?’’I was blindsided for the second time by this god thing.
‘’This may be difficult for you to comprehend, but last night you exhibited another one of your abilities. Unfortunately for you, this ability drains of your energy in such a way as that it can destroy your body. The fact of the matter is, you died immediately after I told you all would be well.’’ So I died and was revived by this god thing. I suppose I should be grateful.
‘’Um, thank you.’’ Geez, way to show your appreciation for living.
“It wasn’t a problem, however my power in giving you life is a finite, try not die again, or you may be forever lost.” It said as calmly as ever.
“So what about Celestia?” I asked, but I wasn’t sure I’d like my answer.
‘’Celestia was saved by you and your ability.’’ It echoed. Always with cryptic statements huh?
‘’And what ability is that?’’
‘’You were able to transfer your lifeforce into her.’’ Lifeforce? That makes sense about what it said about me transferring my energy or whatever.
‘’Which explains why I died of course.’’
‘’Yes, however you should note it is not something you cannot do it to any being you wouldn’t be willing to love as if it were your own.’’
‘’So you’re saying I’ve adopted her?’’
‘’I am, does that bother you?’’
‘’Yeah it does.” I paused a second to go over the implications. Did it? I mean, I’ve already proven I was willing to die for that kid, but still. “I never expected that by some fluke of magic that I saved the life of a tiny pony princess by adopting her. Its just so strange.”
“All things are once strange.” Yeah that doesn’t help.
“Yeah but it doesn’t cut it here, I’m out of my element, and dammit if I’m a parent then this kid is going to have a hard childhood, because I know jack all about this.”
“You may know nothing about parenting, but all you need to do is avoid doing anything you don’t believe is right. I have full confidence in your actions and choices.”
“That doesn’t exactly drive me full of confidence you know.” I rolled my eyes.
“I’m afraid if that is the case, and if you do not believe in your own abilities, mystical or not, choose to believe in me, who believes in you.” What really? That's what your going to tell me?
Before I could respond, I felt extremely light headed, and lost my balance briefly. A sense of vertigo overcame me and The next time I opened my eyes I was staring at a sleeping Celestia who’d rotated in my shirt so that we were now face to face.
A/N: Hey guys thanks so much for the reception! I got about 40-50 favorites and about 40 likes from you fellows! And I’ve reached the 100 thumb milestone! Thank you all so much! Also don't be shy and feel free to leave a comment, I’ll make it my best effort to reply! Oh and the more you guys do, the more motivation I can cultivate from it all! I’d also like to thank my editor Grffin100000 for the excellent hand in making my stuff legible for you fellows too. Give em a good high five.