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// Chapter 4: This Isn't Real 
// Story: Under the Black Sky 
// by ChronicleStone 
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     The landscape was covered by mist and looked rather gloomy to Sky.  He looked around for a moment before his mind entered a state of cohesion and a question arose in his head.
Where the hay am I?
The last thing he remembered, he had been in his chambers in Canterlot, and he had just settled in for what he had hoped would be a restful night of sleep.  He sighed.
“A dream, then,” he surmised aloud, though he figured that his voice was restricted to what he imagined.  He could see nothing through the fog, but somehow, he believed that he was supposed to figure out exactly where this place was.  After all, it was all in his mind…right?
He began walking slowly, looking around, searching for anything that might tell him what he was seeing (or dreaming, as it was).  The fog was thick around him, and any nearby objects were quickly lost to sight in the gloom.
“Well, I must be standing on something,” he said, deciding to start looking for clues in an obvious place.  Peering down, he found that beneath his hooves, there was a strangely familiar cobblestone road that extended in all directions.  Raising an eyebrow, he stamped on it and recoiled as a cloud of long-undisturbed dust rose around him.
As if on cue, the mist rolled back as if it was driven by a wind that originated from Sky himself.  He felt his eyes grow wide as decrepit buildings, long-forgotten market stands, and abandoned homes suddenly emerged from the misty blanket that had covered them.  He felt a strange nagging in the back of his head as he tried to determine exactly what he was seeing.
The scene was depressing, though Sky figured that it hadn’t always been that way.  This had apparently been a social hub of this town, but it seemed that it had been abandoned some time ago.  The place was devoid of all signs of life.  Even the plants were withered and brown.  Windows were broken, and tatters of curtains hung limply in the darkness.  Sky felt a pang of sorrow in his heart as the feeling in the back of his head transformed into a distinct ringing sound, like a warning siren.
Suddenly, a tall spire broke through the retreating wall of fog.  Sky’s eyes were instantly drawn to it.  He immediately recognized it, though his mind refused to accept the realization.
This is just a dream, he tried to remind himself.
Turning around, his heart fell like a stone as he saw the immense peak of a mountain rise from the far side of the city.  It rose high above him, and he had the sudden urge to hide from its immense shadow.  Scampering behind the nearest structure, Sky could feel his heart racing and his breath coming in quick pants.
“Canterlot,” he whispered.  “This is Canterlot.”
But it was not the Canterlot he knew.  The air was stale, and its taste made Sky feel sick.  There was no pony in sight, and he decided not to figure out where they were.  He was probably better off not knowing.
Daring to peek out from his hiding spot, Sky saw the mountain again, bearing down on him.  He was suddenly aware of a strange sensation that the mountain was looking down at him…almost accusingly.  Kind of like what I felt when I was going to Everfree, but…this is different.  It’s as though I can sense emotion simply by standing here.  Emotions that aren’t my own.
He turned his head and stared at the palace tower ahead of him.  Somehow, he felt drawn to it, as though the residual depression of this place were lessened there.  Cautiously, he rose to his hooves and made for the palace.
When he arrived, he found the front gate of the palace in ruins.  The doors had been completely removed from their hinges and lay crumpled and broken on the brown lawn.  The walls were scored with black scorch marks, and looking closer, Sky noticed what appeared to be claw marks in several places.
It’s just a dream!  He tried to reassure himself, but he could feel his body panicking as a sudden fear for the princesses drenched him in a cold sweat.  He darted into the palace, heedless of any danger as he searched for any pony that might have been inside.
“Princess Celestia!  Princess Luna!  Princess Cadence!” he shouted as he galloped through the halls.  He slipped on a pile of papers and went careening into a wall.  As he jumped back to his hooves, he caught the last few lines of writing on the paper: Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.
Sky choked back a sob.  No, his mind continued to fight.  This isn’t real!  Get ahold of yourself!
His wings burst open as he took off at full speed.  He just had to get to that tower.  Somehow, he knew that he would find the answer to all of this up there.  Around corners and through empty rooms he flew, fighting back the tears he could feel emerging in the corners of his eyes.  He sped up a long spiral staircase and dashed across a long walkway and found himself overlooking all of Canterlot.
The city was gray and lifeless.  For the first time, Sky noticed how completely silent it was.  No birds.  No crickets.  No ponies.
The air changed.  If it had been stagnant before, it was just plain oppressive now.  Sky could barely stand to breathe it.  In that moment, he felt the dark reality that his senses were trying to tell him.  There was no sound.  There was no color.  There was no life.
Canterlot, and everything in it, was dead.
Sky turned his head away as the tears streamed down his cheeks.  Dream or no, this was too much for him.  He couldn’t bear to see Canterlot like this.  It was the center of the kingdom.  It was the light of Equestria, the hope of all ponies.
It was home.
Sky slowly walked ahead, completely unaware of his surroundings.  Why am I seeing this?  What reason could I have for dreaming something as terrible as this?
Suddenly, he felt his head bump into something metallic.  He jumped back instinctively and looked up, only to find what appeared to be a surprisingly well-preserved telescope.  What’s this doing here?
Once again, he felt drawn to look into the telescope.  He hesitated for a mere moment until his gaze fell again upon the lifeless ruins of Canterlot.  Anything’s got to be better than that.
He peered into the eyepiece, and after a moment’s adjusting, he found himself looking at the floating city of Cloudsdale.  Sky felt his heart leap in his chest.  It’s still there!  Cloudsdale is still there!
But the city began to fade into a menacing shade of gray as lightning leapt from its underside.  Sky could barely make out the sound of the distant thunder as he watched, unable to turn away from the unfolding scene.  His hooves went numb, and the telescope seemed to hold his eye open against his will.
His stomach twisted in knots.  He watched helplessly as his colthood home experienced a violent upheaval that brought the city crashing down upon itself.  Within moments, the city had completely evaporated, and the sky was empty again.
The telescope seemed to turn on its own, and Sky felt himself dragged along behind it, an unwilling spectator to the devastation of his homeland.  He saw the landscape move in a blur before it settled on a row of ruined buildings along a dirt road.
Sky managed to blink for a moment.  But when he opened his eyes, he found himself standing alone in the road he had just been surveying.  Only now, he could see the entirety of the destruction around him.  And in spite of the devastation that had afflicted the area, he had no trouble figuring out where he was.
“Ponyville…”
Town Hall was gone.  Like, literally gone.  The creek that ran along the eastern edge of town was nothing more than a dry trench.  To the south, Sky could see the broken remains of Rarity’s boutique.  The top of the building was still intact, but all around the base, cracks and holes marred the once-beautiful structure’s design.
Turning, he saw a thick column of smoke rising in the sky, from the area of Sweet Apple Acres.  He broke into a full gallop and leapt into full-speed flight, racing between the decimated rows of buildings through the town.
As he broke onto the western edge of town, Sky stopped dead in the air.  His jaw dropped and his brain went dead as he saw the most heart-wrenching sight he had come across thus far.  A great tree lay on its side, its branches blackened from a great fire.  The stump it had fallen from sat mournfully to its side.  It was hollow, and upon closer inspection, one could make out the start of rows of shelves along the outer wall of the tree.
“Twilight’s library.”  Sky’s voice was barely a whisper.  He felt numb all over.  It was as though all of his worst fears had come true in one horrific moment.  His mind was reeling.  He was so stunned, he failed to remember that this was simply a dream.  The nightmare was real.
Suddenly, the scene shifted into a massive whirlwind, and Sky recoiled and covered his face.  It lasted mere moments.  When Sky opened his eyes, he felt the last shreds of his composure being ripped from him.  He yelled at the top of his lungs; an anguished cry that would have haunted the ears of anypony that heard it.  But there were none.
The scene before him was like the others: a blackened and burnt neighborhood, with houses and landmarks crumbling with decay.  Twilight wouldn’t have known this place.  None of them would.  Not even Lily would recognize this place.
But Sky knew it all too well.
Before him, a single house, once modest but comfortable in its prime, sagged in its place.  Its broken windows and missing door seemed to give the house a face, which Sky saw as sorrowful, as if to say, “I’m sorry.”
Sky shook his head.  The magnitude of the visage shook his mind free.  “No…no, this isn’t real.  It isn’t real.  IT ISN’T REAL!”
He saw memories of distant days spent in front of that house, usually playing with a small turquoise filly with a fiery orange mane.  He saw a pair of pegasi standing in the doorway, smiling as they watched.  He saw time go by, and the ponies grew older.  The little filly grew in size.  Then, at last, he saw a very familiar light blue pegasus give a hug to his parents as he walked out of that house and set out to make his own life.
The memories faded, and Sky was left facing the shattered remains of the home he had grown up in.  He felt a new emotion rise within him.  Every muscle in his body began to shake, from his hooves to his wings.  His teeth clenched, and his face wrinkled into a hateful scowl.
“This will NEVER be real.”
A noise reached his ears.  Turning, he saw the object of his rage.  It sauntered up along the ash-covered road, wearing three cruel grins on its faces as it approached.
“Well, what do you think?  I rather like the new look.  It’s so…festive.”
“What is this?” Sky demanded.
“What do you think it is?” the Chimera responded.  “This is your future.  This is what will be left of Equestria when I’m through with it.  I will rip everything from this landscape and bathe it in fire.  Equestria will be nothing more than a barren wasteland.”
“You’re wrong,” Sky said with cold fury in his voice.  “You won’t touch Equestria.  I’ll stop you.”
“Is that so?” the Chimera mocked.  The snake and goat heads stuck out their tongues at Sky, while the lion’s head continued.  “I accepted your challenge long ago, pegasus.  I’m just wondering what’s keeping you.”
“I’ll deal with you soon enough,” Sky countered.  “Every moment you live is one more moment too long.”
The Chimera began laughing.  It howled.  Finally, it leveled its three pairs of eyes at Sky as its body transformed into a writhing black mass with six glowing red eyes.  The mass suddenly sprouted upwards, growing more and more immense, like a mountain stretching to the sky.  “Come, then,” the Chimera said in an almost otherworldly voice.
Sky crouched as lightning flashed in the clouds.  Thunder rumbled.  The blackness towered over him, but Sky shot straight up like a missile, screaming as he raced defiantly into the face of his foe.
“Aaaaaaaaaagggghhhhhhhh!!!!” he screamed until his breath ran out.  Suddenly (and rather surprisingly), Sky found himself sitting in his own bed, the blankets wrapped snugly around him.  He was drenched in a cold sweat, and he was breathing heavily.
Almost immediately, Sky’s door burst open, and a royal guard stood at the ready, looking all around the room.  Light flooded in from the hallway and reflected off the guard’s golden armor, forcing Sky to shield his eyes from the glare.
The guard, apparently satisfied that there was no active threat in the room, turned to Sky.  “Is everything alright, sir?”
“Yes, I’m fine,” Sky replied, though his heart rate would have indicated otherwise.  “Just a nightmare.”
“I see.”  The guard started to turn away, but hesitated and turned back.  “Must have been quite a nightmare, sir.”
He tried to relax his breathing, slowing it down and taking deeper breaths.  “Yeah.  It was.”
“Is there anything that I can do for you, sir?”
He almost chuckled at the number of responses that popped into his mind, but in the end, all he asked was, “What time is it?”
“It’s just past four in the morning, sir.  Celestia should be raising the sun in a few hours.”
“Thank you, captain,” Sky said, noticing the identifying rank mark on the guard’s armor.  “I think I’ll just take a walk.  Sleep isn’t turning out to be as restful as I’d hoped.”
“I understand,” the captain nodded.  “If I can be of any help to you, please let me know.  My stallions and I are at your service, sir.”  He turned and shut the door behind him.
Sky sat alone in the darkness again.  His body was slowly relaxing again, though his mind was on high alert.  He replayed the dream again in his brain.
“It won’t happen.  I won’t let it.”