//------------------------------// // Chapter 16 // Story: 64 vs. Equestria // by Jman9877 //------------------------------// Chapter 16 Princess Luna POV Green Hills. Large rolling green hills which painted miles and miles of land, all of it wanting to be explored. Hills so large that it would take months to try and observe them all, and lakes so big that it would take a week to swim across. The landscape was something out of Neigh Zealand’s valleys, but it had something else in the air. The air felt cool, crisp, and refreshing, but it also had a sense of yearning. Despite this beauty I was experiencing there was a dark side. Alongside these rolling hills there was a dark and desolate flat desert, filled with nothing but dead shrubs, dying grass, and pools of toxic water. The two areas stood alongside each other almost perfectly; there was no overlapping, and no signs of unnatural landscaping. I had no idea what these conflicting landmarks meant, but obviously one would rather be within the beautiful hills rather than the deadly desert. I had to fight the urge and take flight into the hills myself, but I knew I had a duty to do within this domain. Obviously the creature would prefer being in the hills, so I chose this area as my area of interest. “Where doth the creature lie?” I wondered, taking to the skies to get a better view of the entire landscape. I started to fly into the rolling hills, but as I went deeper I felt myself become colder, more sluggish, and eventually, I began to see things. Flashes of images flew by my vision as I was forced to land to keep from crashing into the ground later. Images of prisons, blood, and agony flew by seconds at a time, and I was forced to turn back and return to the horrible and dark desert. As I crossed the safe threshold I nearly vomited at the memory of those images which still lingered in my mind, but it wasn’t until I heard the sound of crying in the distance that I was knocked out of my stupor. I followed the sound until I saw something moving in the distance, as if it was striking something invisible. I recognized the figure as the same one in the nightmares of many other fillies and colts this night, and wondered what he was striking at. I began to walk forward, and saw one of the strangest things I had ever seen within a dream… The creature was standing on the exact border between the two lands, but was swinging at an invisible barrier in the air with his fists. I watched these actions for about 10 minutes, wondering what it was trying to do, until the creature finally stopped and slumped to the ground, on its knees. I walked over to the creature, and put a hoof out towards the barrier which held it, but found there was nothing there. All I felt when my hoof crossed the border between the two lands, was that the temperature dropped tremendously when someone crossed into the Rolling Hills, preventing anything alive from actually enjoying their stay, and in fact made the trespasser turn around and return to the desert, lest they be frozen by the extreme cold. “C-can y-you feel the p-prison….?” The creature sniveled as he still cried. Now known as a male, the creature didn’t back at me, not knowing who I was. “I-if you can’t f-feel it, t-then you must feel the cold…” he continued, getting back onto his feet to look a bit more dignified for whatever was behind him. It appears that the creature wiped his nose with his sleeve, and cleared his throat before speaking again. The creature seemed to try to compose itself as if he usually never was like this. “I saw you trying to fly into Sanctuary. I just didn’t want to say anything, Princess Luna…” I looked up in shock as I learned it knew my name. My natural reaction was to be defensive, so my wings flared out as I charged a Spell to terminate this dream if need be. “HOW DOES THOU KNOW OUR NAME!” I spoke in the Royal Canterlot at him. He seemed oddly unfazed, and simply turned around, showing me a tear stained face and red puffy eyes, yet he had a small grin adorn his face. “Simple. I know a bit more than everypony thinks. Still, it surprises me that you are here right now, I had no idea you had the ability to enter anyponies dreams.” The creature said, still wiping away a few straggler tears. “Explain thyself with your expanse of knowledge! Where doth thou hail from?” The creature looked down as if he should actually tell me anything, going through a large array of emotion. First Confusion, then anger, then questioning, before he finally reached answer. “I was made by accident.” He simply shrugged, as if it was a very common occurrence. Although this was confusing, that didn’t answer the question I still had, and I knew there was more to that story. “We know that is neigh the entire tale! Tell the tale in its entirety!” The creature shrugged, and then reached out his strange hoof. When I reacted by preparing to strike him, he simply nodded toward the hoof, asking me to put my hoof to his. I had no idea of his intentions at this point, although this is an action I always use to show that the dream is nothing but a figment of someone’s imagination, I had never been offered a hoof myself before. “What is thy intention?” I asked, quieter than I would normally speak. All the creature did was nod towards his hoof once again, urging me to grab it. I steeled myself for what I was going to find, and wondered if this was going to be a good idea. “I will grab thy hoof, only thou would answer one question. What is thy name?” I asked, trying to get something out of the very cryptic creature. “Project 64.” He said plainly. I could see by the look in his eyes that he didn’t lie about something as simple as his name, but I still thought how queer it was for someone’s name to be a number. Having uphold his part of my question, I reached out my forehoof, and grabbed his hoof as well. Immediately I saw the same images of blood and torture, only this time they were much clearer, and actually had other sense to go with them. I could feel the freezing liquid I was submerged in, before the entire contents of the large container were simply dumped onto the floor, dropping me. I could tell I was within the body of “Project 64”, seeing his point of view. All I could see were the blurry outlines of a few ponies which surrounded me, all dressed in lab coats, and some even in very large hazmat suits. I could see the outline of on very distinct pony though. My dearest sister, Celestia. I quickly wondered what was her reason in being here, before Project 64 let go of my hoof quickly, as to prevent me from seeing what was to come. “That was how I was made, and where I’m from. I was made by accident in a test tube in a lab, then brought to Princess Celestia, end of story.” He said, obviously leaving very big details out, such as what that intense stench of blood was. “I know what you are thinking, but that container was simply full of blood plasma, helping me stay alive in a comatose state, and that made it smell like a war zone.” He quickly retorted, as if he read my mind. “But… why did I feel as if I had gone through another 1000 years of anguish? So much pain…” I whimpered, completely dropping my Royal Canterlot voice. “That… is something I can’t tell you right now. I… need to get back to this….” Project 64 said as he turned back to the invisible barrier, and continued to keep throwing punches towards it, but all the barrier did was shimmer and return back to normal. “Why can you not pass through the barrier field? I could pass through with ease…” I wondered out loud, making him stop mid swing of his punch. “Because until I can break free of this desert, I can’t cross into Sanctuary.” He said, pointing to his back hooves, and showing they were bound in chains connected to the desert sand. When I attempted to pull them free with my magic, I felt they couldn’t budge, not even with my dream magic. “No use, those things aren’t coming off until I’m free.” He said, before continuing to punch at the barriers. “What is the meaning of this dream?!” I yelled in frustration, this being the first time I couldn’t decipher what a dream meant. “This isn’t a dream. It’s a desire, a desire to be free. To be in Sanctuary, for salvation.” Project 64 waved his arm at the entirety of rolling hills, showing that to be free was his deepest desire. “The desert I am chained to represents what is holding me back from entering Sanctuary, the obstacles I have had to face.” “Tell me, Project 64, what have your obstacles been?” I asked carefully, not wishing for him to have another emotional episode. All he did was put out his hoof again, and I took it without hesitation. This time images of being within a prison cell flew by. Of being chased by a near legion of guards off of the cliffs of Canterlot, of being attacked by guards on patrol to search for him, and being attacked by myself when I was throwing him across a field on the day of Nightmare Moon’s return. I then began to see my sister once again, but it seemed this was a much different confrontation. Celestia stood across from Project 64 as yelling was exchanged between the two within the throne room, until Celestia finally had enough, and launched a flaming bolt of magic towards 64, forcing him to dodge, and run away, with Celestia in pursuit. Celestia continued to fire magic at 64, until he was forced to jump off the Cliffs of Canterlot itself to evade her. 64 released my hand and allowed me to exit those memories. I couldn’t even speak at the amount of shock I had just gone through at witnessing those images, what Celestia would do to keep this one accident contained. “That, Is my prison. Having to keep running, and hiding, and trying to avoid capture at the hands of your ‘beloved’ sister and her crazy advisor, Dr. Silent Knight. I would show you the rest of these memories, but I don’t want to ruin your image of what is really going on since you have been gone. Sate your hunger with those dozen.” 64 said furiously while trying to control his breathing. I still couldn’t speak at what Project 64 had to go through to survive all these years and still held himself up like this. There were images of him having to hide within a Septic Sewer to avoid being seen by a large patrol of Unicorn guards, 64 having to outrun 4 Pegasi Guards through a frozen forest, all with a sliced open leg, and a broken wrist. 64 having to slice open his arm to get the poison out of his blood after a confrontation with a few guards. 64 having to try and save a little filly caught in the crossfire of one of his worst chases through the Redfur Woods. Flashback 3 Years She was simply wandering through the woods, not a care in the world, when all of sudden she started to hear explosions. 64 was running from a few Unicorn Guards, when they started to use explosive magic. 64 caught sight of her for a few seconds, before a stray bolt aimed near her, catching her in the blast radius. 64 went berserk and retaliated, nearly killing the Guards in the process, but he stopped before delivering the killing blow. He had taken the filly, with a yellow coat and an orange mane, back to his cave he was staying at overnight. She had shrapnel from the various splintered trees all over her body, puncturing one of her lungs and liver, and she was suffering very badly. All 64 could do was make her comfortable as she slowly passed, trying to calm her down as she wept for her mother, her sisters, and her friends. All 64 could do was ease the pain with a few plant salves he could make, and numb the pain of slow passing. She died at 10:34AM on a Sunday. Flashback Over “I… cannot possibly fathom… what you have gone through in the last 6 years. I don’t even… know what that feeling must be like…” I trailed off. All I felt for 64 at this point was sympathy. Even in my time on the moon I never had to witness anything as horrible as that. “Princess Luna. You have done nothing to me; therefore I will not hold any of this against you. But I cannot, and will not forgive Celestia for what she has done. Too many deaths. Too many secrets. I advise against telling her any of this because of the fact that she will probably get a report from Twilight Sparkle sooner or later about me confronting her in Ponyville, and I doubt there is a need to bring anything else up about me.” 64 said convincingly. I think I know who to think as the better party between the two. There was my sister, who after today I know is less than “beloved.” And then there was Project 64, who has been trying to expose Celestia’s wrong doings for a very long time, going out of his way to try and prevent death, and simply trying to do the good thing. “Project 64. I won’t utter a word of this confrontation to anyone in Canterlot. In fact…” I said, trying to hint what I was getting at. “In fact… what?” He said, all of a sudden confused. “You need someone to help you from the inside. I can see Celestia is no longer the saint I once saw her as. I ask if I may assist you in your endeavor.” He gave me a look of uneasiness, trying to see if I was trustworthy. “Princess Luna, with all due respect, I no longer know what to do regarding Celestia. I can see that her past plans were either terminated, or put on hold. I think I’m going to have to wait awhile before I can proceed, wait for the heat to die down.” 64 said with a frown. I saw 64’s image begin to flicker, signifying that he was beginning to wake up. “Project 64, I will see you very soon.” I said as the dream too started to fall apart. “Hopefully not.” He said before he was ejected from his dream and I too, opened my eyes and found myself back inside my bedchamber. “You are a strange one, Project 64.”