//------------------------------// // Disasters, Dreams, and Delusions // Story: Hosting Luna's Student // by Kartac //------------------------------// A/N: Here it is, the second 'half' of chapter 2. Now officially chapter 3. I'm glad with how it turned out even if it took an extra 15 days to get anything of substance out. Although I'm appreciating the support from my proofreader greatly, encouraging me to write to increased length and higher qualities. Much love and thanks to Arklight once again. ### “So, we walk the path through a deadly forest, risking life and limb to visit your friend, and she lives there?” Stoneheart proceeded to point at the gnarled tree in which Zecora was known to live. “How exactly has a manticore just not knocked it over?” “Come on, the forest is barely dangerous at all if you actually stick to the road.” Twilight replied, holding in a scoff. She didn't care at all for Stoneheart's whining and decided to just trot up to the door. As much as she respected his ability to learn, he just wouldn't get it until he actually met the zebra shaman. Twilight gave the door a gentle knock, causing it to gently swing open. Inside, Zecora was working over her cauldron mixing up some kind of potion or brew, as per usual. The thing that caught Twilight's eye and put her a little off guard was the thick, faintly green smoke that was all throughout the home. The air was heavy and a bit difficult to gather a full breath from, though Twilight didn't find it in any way cumbersome, in fact she quite enjoyed the faint herbal smell of it. The zebra waved the purple unicorn in from the door and gave a simple gesture to the guest entering with her to indicate to him that he should shut the door. "Hello Zecora, what are you working on?" "Young Pumpkin’s teeth are in much pain, a mixture of these herbs should make it wane." Twilight leaned over the cauldron with a curious eye as it belched out another heave of smoke. Twilight inhaled the scent again, and it brought a brief smile to her face. "It smells amazing." She said, Zecora just nodded in agreement. Across the room, weakly trying to exit the building was Stoneheart whose breaths had been reduced to heaving shudders. Twilight hadn't even noticed him back away from the cauldron, nor was she seeing his weak, desperate steps towards the door. "Twi... Light..." He spoke softly, hoping she would hear him over the boiling cauldron. She heard her name faintly called out and turned just in time to see Stoneheart barely standing. He looked pale and sickly, almost as if he was ready to vomit. She walked over to him and helped him properly onto his hooves. "Stoneheart! What's wrong?" She asked, her voice had taken on a pleading tone, as if she was begging for an answer. "Can't... breathe..." Were the last words out of his mouth before he collapsed in a heap. *** A foul smell snapped Stoneheart out of his slumber. Twilight was seated next to him, dabbing a wet cloth gently against his forehead. She looked into his eyes and smiled wide. She leaned in and nuzzled him quickly, before rechecking him for injuries. “That was quite a reaction. I was really worried about you.” Stoneheart gave Twilight a simple wink, which caused her to very quickly turn away from him. Stoneheart gave her a funny look. Something about her reaction didn't quite seem natural. She faced him once again, a frown on her face, the slight blush distracting from it. Why was she blushing? Why do I feel like I've seen this before? “I didn't know... I'm sorry.” Stoneheart quickly regained enough strength to sit up. He felt familiar warmth in his heart when Twilight attempted to stop him from sitting up. It was nice to know that someone other than Luna cared about him a little bit. Twilight sighed as the cloth tumbled from his forehead, levitating it back into its bowl. Stoneheart couldn't have misunderstood the dirty look that followed if he tried, she wanted him to rest. He wanted to do no such thing. “How long was I out?” He asked her. “An hour or two. I was really worried about you.” She repeated, not that it was necessary. Even an idiot could read the concern off her face. Stoneheart realized that something here was definitely off. He chanced a glance at the space around him and realized that Zecora was nowhere to be seen. In fact, this wasn't even Zecora's cabin, unless somehow the library magically teleported inside it. He was in a tree for sure, but it was certainly not Zecora's. It was impossible of course, with him in that state, bringing him back here was just impractical. He searched across the room for some sort of sign and spotted the shelf where the dragon reference books were supposed to be. It was close enough to him that he could tell the guides were no longer on it, and in fact, the books that were there had his name on the spine. What? “No Twilight, it's not your fault. Come here.” Stoneheart said softly, leg creeping around her to pull her close. From that point on, Stoneheart could tell he wasn't in control of himself any more. He was just going through a sequence of motions and he could not fight against them, in the deepest parts of his soul, he just wanted them. There was an internal voice just screaming at him that this was how things were supposed to be. His other front hoof grazed itself along Twilight's cheek, drawing her closer. Her face was now a furious red blush, growing darker as his leg slid behind her head and forcibly pulled her in. It took nothing for Stoneheart to pull her velvety lips against his, he knew it was brief, fleeting, possibly unreal, but for all he could process at that moment it might as well have been eternal. She tasted herbal, strongly like the tea she so commonly drank. It made her lips just as soothing as any cup he'd ever had. He knew something was drastically wrong with this picture, but he just couldn't resist what was happening before him, it was like some far off release based on his new attraction. He was so enraptured that he didn't notice the library around them slowly collapse into a crystalline, swallowing darkness. How exactly am I seeing myself? Soon there was no library as the outer walls just disappeared into the infinite blackness, the books and their shelves disappeared soon after. The floor was crumpled and swallowed as the shade overtook more and more. Until the kiss broke and Stoneheart was granted the pleasure of seeing Twilight gradually be swallowed, her face contorting in pain as the blackness ate away at her. He panicked, and tried to reach for her, only to learn that the darkness had eaten at his legs and covered his horn, leaving him as just a face in the black. Then he saw it, one thing that terrified him to the core. They were Luna's eyes in the darkness, but not as he knew them how. They were as they had been once, when she was threatening to coat Equestria in this blackness. They were Nightmare Moon's eyes. The darkness comes... *** “Twilight!” Stoneheart yelled, snapped vigorously from his slumber. He bolted upright, the blanket sliding partway off of him. He quickly looked around, frantically to get his bearings. He thankfully recognized a few things almost immediately. There was the double doors leading to Twilight's balcony, the (now multiple) towels hanging over the cornerposts of the bed as Twilight often did, and of course the spare bed across the room. Spare...? He held on that thought for a second. Was he in Twilight's bed? He was so confused by his observation that he didn't notice the purple unicorn sit up next to him until he was nuzzled into by her. “Did you have another nightmare love?” She asked, her voice concerned and yet somehow still cheerful and relieved. She placed a gentle kiss on his neck, making him feel like everything would be alright. “Come back to sleep, it's cold without you.” Stoneheart turned to face her slowly, he didn’t know what was going on, or what to expect. When he saw her though, he couldn’t help but smile, it was his... His...? ... Twilight alright, looking at him with a worried look on her face. He could certainly spot a couple differences in her, ever with minimal light he could see that she was definitely a few years older than he remembered, an adult for certain and not a well-learned teen as he saw her last. He could see that her hair was a fair bit shorter in the back although he couldn’t help but enjoy the fact that her pink stripe remained defiantly against her new maturity. The last and most important thing he noticed was a bump over her stomach. Wait, why am I bearing a child? Twilight? Stoneheart’s stomach leapt into his throat. That same feeling of unreal déjà vu overtook him, this seemed so real before and now it seemed scripted. A play, with he and Twilight playing perverted versions of their parts. At the same time he felt so happy, here with her. He throat remained locked up, he wanted to speak, to recoil, to desperately scramble together a sense of what had happened to get him here. Twilight’s eyes opened wide and she grabbed his hoof, pulling it against the bump. “She’s kicking...” Twilight whispered. He didn’t speak, he wanted to scream out loud, demand to know what was going on. This was real, he could feel it. It was certainly reality, but it had never happened. He and Twilight weren’t even close enough to consider a relationship, even if he did certainly have an attraction to her. Yet, she had his child. He was happy, and tortured. He could not speak, and still he did. “Is she now?” Stoneheart said amused. Then he felt it, the dull hit against his hoof. It startled him, possibly more than it should have, causing him to accidentally recoil back out of the bed. He never hit the floor. There was a deep pit of blackness and he could do nothing but tumble through it at speed. He could feel the stress of the rushing air against him, threatening him with unconsciousness. No, he wouldn’t give in, he had a daughter coming... No, he had research to finish. Who was he? He kept falling, more blackness, darkness eternal. It was exhausting to deal with, he so didn’t want to but he had to sleep, and accept his fate. Again, Stoneheart fell unconscious. *** He was on a small slab of stone surrounded by rivers of lava threatening to swallow his platform whole, taking not only his life, but the lives of the unconscious ponies around him. He recognized them all immediately, Celestia was unconscious, her horn somehow still glowing, projecting an aura over the six other unconscious forms. Twilight and five others, the elements. Twilight was no longer an adult, she was a teen again, Celestia’s loyal student. Stoneheart shook his head, what did he mean she was a teen again. Of course she was a teen, he was also in his late teens, right? Who did I become? "Stoneheart!" Came a deep female yell from ahead of him. Stoneheart gingerly lifted his gaze, trying his best to ignore both the searing heat and his own splitting headache. He could see Princess Luna, barely able to stand, holding up a large shield of magic that was desperately forcing the molten rock aside. Stoneheart could see plainly that the barrier was crumbling and Luna could not hold it for much longer. He leapt to his feet and dashed forward, horn flaring a powerful grey aura as Stoneheart scrambled to reinforce Luna's failing blockade. Then he heard it, serpentine and gruff, the roar. It wasn’t really a roar, more like a piercing shriek of dominance. Brute strength and power defined in a single, awe-inspiring sound. He had heard it but once before, ear splitting and constitution shaking. There was only one source for a draconic roar like that. He hoped in his mind that he was wrong, it couldn’t be, he wouldn’t do this to everything around him, he controlled the earth. What could cause such a terrible disaster but him... He looked up the mountain face and saw the massive silhouette of a creature, made of stone and earth, whose mere movements made the lava ebb and flow. "Stoneheart..." Luna said weakly, her legs were bent and buckled and her eyelids could barely be considered open. "Why... why did you fail us?" Deep inside his mind he could hear himself shouting in his mind, this hadn't happened, he hadn't failed anyone. Yet, he suddenly felt like just giving up... This was his fault and there was nothing he could do now. It was final, yet tormented. A war between himself and this self, from Zecora's shack to this mountainside, he honestly wasn't sure which was the reality. None of this had happened, but it had happened... hadn't it? His horn ceased to glow as Luna fainted and he merely accepted his fate, allowing the heat to overtake him. The heat did not swallow him, as much as he wished to be encased in its burning glory. At least then he would not feel. Instead he was surrounded by a haze, a thick fog that he could not penetrate though the air was still stinging his lung, almost a burning dew. It was suffocating, painful... and herbal. It smelled really good, but it made him sick. Am I sick? *** Stoneheart awoke gasping for air, he like he hadn’t breathed in hours and his entire body was on fire. He silently hoped that Twilight had managed to catch the train he must’ve stepped in front of to feel as awful as he did. He hacked and wheezed his way to recovery as his body seemed to relish in the existence of elements necessary for living, like oxygen for example. He could tell he was now in Zecora’s cabin but he was barely able to connect one thought to another. He was... delirious? That was the word, right? Luckily his coughing fit drew Zecora’s attention and the zebra came over with a bowl full of some sort of liquid in which she had a cloth. She took the cloth and held it in front of his mouth and Stoneheart just stared at her confused. She poked him in the jaw a few times and he managed to let his jaw go slack with a little effort, he felt like such a foal until she wrung the cloth in his mouth and had him swallow some of the nasty tasting liquid which suddenly made him feel cool all over and snapped his mind back to attention. “Oh Zecora, right now you are a lifesaver.” Stoneheart spoke through sighs of relief. The zebra merely chuckled at him, enjoying the irony of Stoneheart calling her a lifesaver when it was her herbal mixture that nearly killed him. Stoneheart writhed in bed, revelling in the blissful cold that the zebra provided him with. His mind began to straighten out, leading him to two fairly unrelated but pivotally important points. He didn’t know why they were so urgent, but there were two things he needed, Twilight and to go searching for dragons. “Twilight, where is she?” His voice was desperate and scared. Zecora looked at him surprised. She didn’t expect him to come around nearly as fast as he had. “She was afraid to watch you lie, in and out of life; she feared you might die.” Zecora emphasized her point by pointing towards the door and holding a hoof up to her mouth. Out of the silence he could hear some tearful wailing from beyond it. Twilight was clearly crying, quite eccentrically at that. “From what I know; you’ve not known each other long, I cannot guess why her fear was so strong.” Zecora spoke a little louder than usual giving Twilight the information she needed. The door swung open with a massive bang and her horn flared with energy, Stoneheart hadn’t even quite realised what had happened before two lavender legs were wrapped around him and any air he’d had in his lungs was painfully squeezed out. She sobbed into his shoulder uncontrollably and he felt her warm tears plunge into his fur. “I’m sorry... I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know. I don’t know what I would tell the Princesses, and I would feel so guilty, I’d have to tell your parents too and I haven’t even met them and you would be gone and I’d see those stupid dragon guides every single day and... and...” Twilight rambled on and on as she cried and Stoneheart didn’t really know what to do. “Twilight, I’m fine. There are some plants and stuff that affect me worse than most. It’s normal, it happens. I’m alive and everything’s okay now. I just need to get back to the library and send a letter to Princess Luna.” Stoneheart nuzzled Twilight’s neck gently, comforting her much like when they cuddled up side by side on the balcony. It finally stopped her waterworks, although she still sniffled heavily and refused to let go of her powerful iron grip around him. He inhaled deeply to keep air in his lungs before trying to get off the bed. Twilight head him firm, shaking her head into his chest, she clearly didn’t think it was safe to let him stand. “Twilight, please... I need to stand up so we can see if my hooves still work...” He joked, but Twilight sobbed in return, making him feel awful. “and make arrangements with Zecora to go searching for dragon dens.” Twilight immediately pulled back from him, and stared at him with tears forming in her eyes. Then they quickly disappeared as Twilight regained her senses, she was still sniffling and clearly wanting to cry, but she was back in her right mind, not in hysterics. “Look Stoneheart, I know that’s why you came but I’m not letting you go until you’re healthy.” Twilight said matter of factly, showing the spectacular tact of a doting mother, much like when she’d heard his history. “I agree with friendship’s student, waiting until you’re healthy would be quite prudent.” Zecora added, the zebra was holding a sly smirk. “Especially if we are searching Whitecliff Veil, for creatures at that height we must certainly scale.” Stoneheart just stood up, gingerly placing his hooves one at a time against Zecora’s wood floor thankful that none of them were buckling underneath him. He gave the witch doctor a deadpan stare, hardly amused at her pun. “Fine, Zecora. If I come back in one week, would that put everyone at ease?” Stoneheart was thankfully granted a few nods of agreement. “Twilight, I know this wasn’t a great visit, but would it be alright if we just headed home. I still feel exhausted and Luna is certainly going to want a letter about this.” Twilight just nodded, wearing a smile for the first time since Stoneheart came to. She walked over next to him and just waiting for him to begin walking out, almost like she was just waiting for him to fall down. Fortunately, this event did not occur. Stoneheart closed the door silently after him. Zecora listened intently as Stoneheart and Twilight continued to speak while trotting away from her house, there had been a noticeable change in Twilight’s demeanor after Stoneheart had passed out and it had gotten even worse after he momentarily stopped breathing. Something intangible. Zecora immediately rushed to her cabinet, where she kept the bulk of the herbs she worked with and snatched the bottle she’d worked with earlier that day. She peered down at the label and frowned. Whatever was so special about this was far beyond her expertise, she couldn’t decipher why it would affect anypony the way it did him. Something about Stoneheart was odd, and it was now affecting Twilight. Zecora put it out of her mind, for now he was going to spend another week in the safety of Ponyville. Then Zecora would have the chance to ask him anything she wanted.