Location: Canterlot
Date: April 5. It has been five days since Sky’s disastrous battle with the Chimera.
The train slowed to a crawl as the station drew steadily closer. The steam from the engine filled the air, wrapping the following cars in a sheath of thick white clouds. The cool night air was still and calm, and as the train passed through the steam trail, it carved a tunnel for itself through the mist.
As the trail of steam slowly dissolved, the engine finally ceased its slow approach and came to a complete stop against the platform. As the doors opened, a white unicorn with a green mane and tail bounded off the train, breathless as she frantically looked to and fro. Her luggage followed close behind her, held in her magical grasp. Her face was wrought with sorrow, but there was an unmistakable look of panic in her eyes as she dashed back and forth across the platform.
“Lily Pond.”
She stopped dead in her tracks upon hearing her name. As she turned to the source of the voice, she found herself staring into the eyes of two of the most famous ponies in all of Equestria. She had never actually met either, but she had heard enough of them to know them when she saw them. One was a tall white alicorn with a glistening multicolored mane and a golden crown adorning her head. The other was a shorter, purple unicorn, who stared up at the alicorn in surprise.
Lily looked on for a few tense moments before gathering her bearings and bowing. “Princess Celestia,” she said at last. Daring to look up, she saw the monarch step towards her. Celestia smiled, but it was more of a compassionate expression than one of pleasure. The unicorn stayed close to her side, though her gaze had turned to Lily.
“Lily, I must apologize for asking you to come so suddenly, but we believe that you may hold the key to solving this riddle,” Celestia said. She glanced at her companion for a moment. “This is my student, Twilight Sparkle. It was her idea to have you come here.” Twilight blushed slightly, but did not smile.
Lily nodded in acknowledgement. “Sky told me all about you, Twilight,” she started. “He really thought a lot of you.” She suddenly felt her throat tighten and her eyes begin to sting. She had said his name. He was the reason she had come so far so quickly. Her knees went weak as her insides turned to butterflies.
“Where is he?”
Twilight’s look of surprise dissipated quickly. “In the palace. Would you like to see him?” she asked, her voice barely audible above the din of the station.
“More than anything.”
He looked on from the very edge of the city. The strange bubble around the city would not keep him out; he had no doubt about that. But even from this distance, he could pick out the eerie multicolored lights of bodies moving back and forth within the city. He hesitated. “Well, now what?” he asked to no one in particular.
It had been some time since he had awoken from his sleep. Hours, days, weeks…he didn’t know. He had no exact concept of time. In all honesty, he didn’t have a clear sense of anything. He didn’t know what day it was, what year it was, where he was…or who he was. Any memories of who he was or may have been at one point in time were gone.
He had awakened on a field, and the shock of his first discovery had yet to wear off: he had no body. He could see the grass and the trees, but he could not feel them. He couldn’t smell the flowers, taste the grass, or feel the wind. Was he just a thought, or some strange bodiless entity? He didn’t know, but as the time had passed, he had become increasingly convinced that he was supposed to have a body. He just didn’t know where it was.
His first discovery was quickly followed by an equally stunning realization: he may have had no body, but he could still see. Well…perhaps “see” was the wrong word. But it was as good a word as he could come up with. Everything he “saw” glowed with light. There were certainly things that he did not see because they did not glow. But he had let the thought pass. For now, he was caught up in the lights.
It hadn’t taken him long to realize what he was seeing: they were other living things. Creatures with existences, much like his own, as they moved about their lives. However, there was one major distinction. Every light he had encountered was encased within a form: a body. And the light from within their bodies was broken and scattered from each one of them, causing the lights to glisten and sparkle like gemstones of many hues and varieties. And as the lights approached each other, they would often glow brighter, causing their separate rays of light to mingle with the others’, creating a wondrous display of color.
However, as beautiful as the lights were, he found that he was unable to endure their presence for long. Every time he approached one, he was quickly overcome by a feeling of terrible dread, forcing him to retreat from the lights. He did not understand what it was about them the frightened him so, but he had decided to stay away from them as best he could.
That is, until it had passed him. It had been another light, moving faster than any other creature he had encountered, and moving in his direction. He had quickly begun to move away when he felt something new: a longing, yearning desire to be near this light. He had stopped to observe the new light to find that it had, to his amazement, begun to grow in power and brilliance, as though his presence there excited this creature. It was almost as if it was calling him; begging him to stay with it.
And he had. He followed the light as fast as he could…which, for not having a physical form, is quite fast. He stayed right with it…until he had approached this bustling center of creatures. There were hundreds…possibly thousands of them in there, and the same feeling of dread that all other lights had cast on him returned. However, he could not shake the strange sensation of this singular light. Even from so far away, he felt restless, as though he simply belonged with this other being. He was supposed to follow it.
His thoughts returned to the present, where he watched the lights from a safe distance. Together, the lights mingled together to form a shimmering core of radiance; a glorious star that could light even the darkest of nights. He tried to find pleasure in the thought.
“Then why am I so afraid of it?” he asked.
Because you do not belong there.
That voice. It echoed like it came from a great distance away, yet he could understand every word as though it was being spoken by someone right in front of him. It had been with him almost since the moment he had awakened. It had given him advice and helped him along his way, though he could not shake the feeling that it was hiding something: that it knew more than it cared to let on.
“And just how do you know that?” he asked, making his suspicion evident.
If you belonged there, why would you be so terrified of what you see there?
He had to admit, it was a fair point. If he belonged among the lights, then why did they fill him with such fear? He didn’t know how, but he was certain that wherever his home was, it wasn’t supposed to feel like that. But then again…
“What about that other light? It called to me. What if I do belong with it?” he asked. He didn’t expect a fully honest answer from the voice, but his curiosity got the better of him.
A brief moment of silence followed. …Do you think that entering that crowd of lights is worth finding out? came the eventual reply.
He gazed intently toward the radiating hub before him. The apprehension he felt about approaching was overwhelming, but he could feel the presence of that one creature as it pierced his thoughts like a needle. The two forces pulled on his consciousness, each one vying for control of his actions. He drew his attention from his internal struggle and simply stared through the darkness to the city of lights.
“It might be.”
Lily bit her lip in apprehension as they walked the quiet halls of the palace. The guards stood at perfect attention as the trio of mares passed them by. The halls were bright and beautiful, decorated with regal-looking banners and tapestries and lit by brilliant lamps. But to her, the world seemed to have been drowned in a deep sea of gray. There was no cheer to be had in this place. Not like this.
Celestia and her two companions were perfectly silent as they came to a closed set of doors on their right. The princess walked beyond the door, then gestured to Lily to enter. She caught her breath. This was it. On the other side of these doors, Sky lay in what could be his last sleep. Her mouth went dry and her stomach felt like it would drop to her hooves. She nodded as beads of sweat began to form her forehead. Her horn glowed white as she pulled on the handle with her magic.
Before her, five colorful young mares sat around a simple bed, seemingly entranced by the lone object resting upon it. Their attention was quickly redirected as they took note of the ponies approaching from the doorway. They all stood and bowed as Celestia followed Lily in, though nopony spoke a word. An awkward silence followed before an orange pony with a well-worn cowpony hat spoke up.
“You must be Lily,” she said in a thick country accent.
Lily merely nodded. Her voice had vanished, unwilling to participate in the scene she was witnessing. Her eyes slowly circled the room, taking in the sense of despair that hung in the air. Each face in the room was pointed in her direction, and she thought she saw a glimmer of hope in each pair of eyes. She didn’t know how, but she was certain that it hadn’t been there before she walked in.
“We’re, uh…we’re all really sorry that we asked you here for this,” the country mare continued. “Sky’s our friend, but we all know that you mean somethin’ more to him.”
Lily managed a small smile. It was only a minor gesture, but she appreciated how this other pony referred to Sky in the present tense: he wasn’t gone. He was just asleep…and alive as ever.
She suddenly found that her voice had returned. “Thank you.” It came out softer than she had intended. “Although I’m…I’m afraid I haven’t had the privilege of meeting any of you before.”
“Oh, how rude of us!” exclaimed a purple-maned mare from the opposite side of the room. “I am Rarity.” She gestured to each of the other four ponies in the room. “And this is Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and, of course, Applejack,” she said, pointing to the country mare Lily had been speaking with before.
“I’m afraid there will be time for pleasantries later, my little ponies,” Celestia said from the doorway. “But I believe that Lily will want to spend some time with Sky.” She paused for a moment, and Lily could almost feel Celestia’s commanding eyes drifting from pony to pony. “Alone.”
“Oh…right,” Rainbow Dash said, signaling to the others. “C’mon, guys.” She took to the air and grabbed Lily’s gaze. “If you need anything, you can just call any of us.”
A hearty “ahem” from behind Lily pulled Rainbow’s attention away, then she blushed slightly and shot through the air, leaving the unicorn alone with a familiar blue stallion in the bed. As she heard the door click shut behind her, she approached the side of the bed. Her hooves seemed to move independent of her will, as though she was drawn more than she walked. As she reached the head of the bed, she rose up onto her hind hooves and placed her front hooves against the bed. Her eyes immediately floated to the pillow as her mind braced for what she would see.
A warm smile rose to her lips as she stared into the face of that goofy blue pegasus that had won her heart just a few days ago. A wave of memories flooded her vision as she recalled that first morning after he had arrived. She had nearly tripped over him as he slept in her living room, sprawled out across the floor, mouth agape like it was inviting an insect to fly inside. She saw the breakfast that they had eaten that morning. She recalled the meeting in Polarmino where they decided to set out to find the windigo colony. She beheld the journey to the halls of King Icevein, and the battle against the Chimera. And she remembered that beautiful sunset on their very first date.
The memories slowly faded in spite of her unwillingness to face reality. As her world gradually shifted back to Sky’s lonely room, she found that her vision had grown blurry behind a veil of tears that had begun to grow in her eyes. She felt her throat tighten as her lip began to quiver. The tears began to flow in earnest.
Her head collapsed onto the bed as her muffled sobs floated away into the quiet night.