A huge battle was laid out before me. Groups of humans were fighting against an onslaught of monsters. It was a massive fight unlike almost anything that I could imagine. Yet, for some reason I wasn’t surprised. Despite some of the things I could make out from the overwatching height I was currently at, none of what I was seeing seemed out of the ordinary. It was like I was expecting this to happen. Even the fact that I noticed Twilight off to my side watching the chaos with utter shock didn’t phase me a bit.
However, the sight of Luna to my other side was a surprise. She was also looking at the battle with a look of shock. However, her face was much more subdued and looked even analytical.
“Even we have never seen such a battle as this in mine lifetime.”
“I doubt it as well,” I added with my consciousness coming to the forefront as I realized that with Luna there I was in a dream.
“What manner of beasts are these?” she said pointing towards the battlefield.
I looked back to the battle to confirm what she was seeing.
“Oh those? Those are called hollows. Hollows are formed from the spirits of deceased humans that are corrupted by some means.”
“That sounds utterly horrifying.”
“True. The only way to deal with them is with a shinigami. There are quite a few of them down there as well.”
As I said that, I pointed down to the battlefield. In specific, I was pointing towards the visage of one of people in the air above the fighting. I couldn’t see his face, but I recognized Captain Hitsugaya’s bankai anywhere.
“Shinigami, or Soul Reapers as they are also called, are tasked with fighting hollows. When they destroy a hollow, their spirit is cleansed of the corruption and they move on to, uh, whatever the next step on from there is. I forget that part,” I stated fumbling for an answer.
“I see. We are fortunate that they are here then,” she said sounding slightly relieved.
“I’m not really surprised. This is my dream after all.”
“Thou misunderstandith the situation. This isn’t merely a dream. This is also the future,” she stated as she faded from view.
As she disappeared, I looked over to Twilight, then to the battlefield. I shuddered as I realized something. This was one of my precognitive dreams.
“Wake up Seth!”
I awoke with a jump. It had been a very long time since someone had physically woken me up. I looked over to where it had come from while my heartbeat slowed back down. There at the end of my gaze was Twilight Sparkle standing there with a small smile.
“Twilight? What time is it?” I asked a bit groggily.
“It’s a little after sunrise. I was worried that we might forget again what we were supposed to do yesterday.”
I sat up in the bed and rubbed my eyes a bit before continuing.
“What were we supposed to do yesterday? I forget.”
“We were going to try and help my friends regain their memories!” she exclaimed in an annoyed tone.
“Oh yeah,” I stated as I remembered that little plan.
“Exactly! Discord’s little stunt yesterday has ruined my plans for today! I didn’t even remember that we were supposed to do that until you were talking about our friends during the party. I had an entire list of things that I needed to do for the day! Now I’ll have to reschedule all of them to accommodate this situation!”
“Look if it’s an inconvenience to you I can go do this on my own. Your duties as princess take precedence over some memories that are kind of inconsequential.”
“Forgetting about your friends is hardly inconsequential!”
“But we barely made-”
I stopped myself right there. Wasn’t I on the other side of this argument a few days ago? Things were just getting confusing.
“Alright. You win Twilight. Let’s see if we can get this done in a hurry so you can try to salvage the day you planned on.”
“Great! We can start immediately!”
“Do you mind if we start after I got dressed first?”
Twilight blushed and teleported herself out of my room amidst some quiet mutterings. After she left, I emerged from my bed and quickly dressed myself. I was feeling a bit better that morning than I had the previous few. Maybe it was because of the party last night? Or maybe it could’ve been what I ate? I guess I was thinking about it too much. I had days like these all the time back home. Just because I’m in a different world doesn’t mean that I’m really any different at the basic level. Of course, that doesn’t mean I don’t want to change, but that’s a horse of a different color.
Speaking of which, Twilight was waiting for me as I exited my room. I gave her a nice little ruffle of her upon seeing her and knowing she wasn’t Rarity.
“What was that for?” she asked irritatedly.
“I want to pet the pretty pony,” I replied in a silly sounding voice.
I think she had a conflict on whether to be shy about the compliment or exasperated by the silly talk. She settled on the latter fairly quickly. She let out a snort and continued on.
“The first pony we should talk to is Applejack. She should be out in the fields by the time we arrive.”
“Does her whole family alternate who goes into the fields and who operates the stand at the marketplace?”
“Indeed they do. They rotate the duties to keep themselves from getting overworked.”
“Was that before or after Applebuck season?” I asked sarcastically.
“Big Mac hurt his leg before the start of the season. It’s not right to-”
“Sorry,” I interrupted, “my jokes don’t come across very well sometimes. I was just kidding about that.”
Her rant seemed to die in her throat. Instead she just sighed.
“Come on. Let’s just head to Applejack’s place.”
I closed the door behind me and we headed into the living room. The whole place had been cleaned up after the guests had left. It was a pretty good party. None of the guests even ran away from Discord when he approached them. Speaking of Discord, he was lounging out on the couch as we came in.
“Hello there! I’m so glad to you up and about on this beautiful day!” he exclaimed in a sing song voice.
I looked outside and saw that indeed it was perfectly sunny and warm. Of course, I liked it when it was overcast, but that’s just me.
“It is at that,” I replied. “I better grab the parasol that Rarity lent me before I head out.”
“Oh? What’s the rush? You haven’t even had any breakfast yet. Whatever you’re doing can wait until after that.”
“You seem awfully nice today,” Twilight commented. “There’s something going on here.”
“Oh don’t you worry about me,” Discord stated as he phased through the bottom of the couch and then came through the ceiling right next to Twilight. “I’m not going to be doing anything to anypony at all today. Besides, I heard you talking about returning your friends memories and I don’t feel like getting in the way of that. Now, about that breakfast.”
There was suddenly a weird lurching sensation and I found myself sitting at the table before I knew what was happening. Twilight occupied a seat to my side and seemed equally confused. Just as suddenly, two bowls of cereal slid over in front of each of us. I looked inside and saw it was full of Frosted Flakes of all things. I was especially impressed that the milk in it hadn’t spilled. Well, until I realized ‘magic!’ anyway.
“I appreciate the gesture,” I said, “but you know I’m diabetic. I’m pretty sure you’re tired of hearing it by now.”
“Yes, I’m well aware of it. This isn’t actually what you think it is. I made it specially for you in mind. It doesn’t have an ounce of sugar in it at all! Now, eat up!”
I wasn’t really sure how that worked, but I figured if I declined my stomach would rumble comically like it seemed to have done several times since I had arrived. I grabbed the spoon that I didn’t notice until then and dug in. Twilight looked much more leery about eating hers before relenting and eating her bowl. I’ll admit, if he hadn’t told me that they weren’t Frosted Flakes I would never have noticed the difference. They tasted exactly as I remembered them to be. I guess given the amount of time he was on Earth he had all the time he ever needed to get the taste right. It didn’t take too long to finish off that bowl and Twilight was even faster given that she, for some reason, dove right into the bowl without using a spoon.
“Thanks for the food Discord. It was good,” I said gratefully.
“Oh it was no trouble at all. Seriously, it was a snap.”
He demonstrated the fact by snapping his claws and we found ourselves back in the living room right where we left. Thanks to all the teleporting I had done, it had barely affected me at all. More so considering that there wasn’t the odd lurching sensation from before. Discord was even laying back on the couch like nothing had happened at all.
“Now that that’s over with, you two go on your merry little way. I have something to do later.”
“What are you up to now?” Twilight asked suspiciously.
“Why nothing too rambunctious my dear. I’m merely looking after a few fillies after they get out of school today.”
“You’re what?!”
“Let’s go Twilight. He’s not going to do anything to some little children. Even if he was his old self, which I know he’s not, he’s not depraved enough to mess with them like that.”
Twilight opened her mouth and looked like she was going to argue with me for a moment. Instead she sighed and closed her mouth back up.
“Your right. I guess I’m just not used to him yet. We should get going.”
She led the way over to the door, opened it, and walked out calmly. I was a little taken aback by how easy that seemed to be, but in the end I simply shrugged and followed her out. I took a quick look back to see Discord waving his goodbyes to us. I smiled and reciprocated before grabbing Rarity’s parasol and closing the door behind me. We kept walking for a few minutes before she spoke up again.
“I can’t believe you’re letting Discord loose to watch some random fillies!”
“One, it’s not random,” I said opening up Rarity’s parasol and using it to shield myself from the sun. “If anything resembling logic occurs around here then he’s looking after the Crusaders. Two, I have the utmost confidence that he isn’t going to do a thing to them because he knows that if something happens to them then no matter what Fluttershy does he will be about five seconds away from being trapped in stone again. It won’t even matter if it’s not his fault. He’s basically holding himself responsible for their well being. Which is quite the step up for him in my opinion.”
I looked at Twilight while we walked down the road. I could see her mulling these facts around in her head. I know I had confidence in Discord. Sure, his track record wasn’t great, but unless he’s acting, which he isn’t that great at in all honesty, he’s going to try and give this a shot.
“All things considered, Twilight, he’s probably just going to watch them get into their usual antics which itself can create quite a bit of chaos. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just going to watch that and laugh at the chaos that they make. Heh, who watches the Watchmen?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing. Just referencing something from home. Still, I doubt he’ll do anything and he’ll be content to just sit back and relax.”
“But that’s also what I’m concerned about! If he’s going to be watching them, then he needs to be responsible for them not getting into any trouble! If anything, I’d expect him to guide them into trouble!”
“Maybe, but then again that’s where point two comes into play again.”
“Discord is smart enough to figure out a way to get out of being blamed,” she stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Holy crap Twilight!” I yelled; getting irritated at the situation. “Give the guy a chance alright!”
“We’ve been giving him chances!” she countered. “You’ve given him several and he has been giving you nothing but problems in return.”
“Exactly! He’s been doing this to me! He hasn’t done anything to any ponies whatsoever! Which means that if he comes to bite me in the ass again, you’ll still be out of the line of fire. Granted, my patience with him is getting pretty strained too. I’m honestly getting close to my last leg on second chances with the guy, but this morning has definitely started out better than the previous few so I’m willing to try and give him face value at his word today. I’m giving him today, and I suppose if anything happens I’ll relent and move to your side of the argument. Alright?”
“Uuugh… Fine,” she said dejectedly. “But don’t expect me not to say I told you so when this comes crashing down once again.”
It seemed a bit petty of her to say that, but I didn’t mind as I watched the farmhouse of Sweet Apple Acres come into view. I was only able to make out one figure sitting on the front porch of the place. That pony would be Granny Smith and it seemed that this time she wasn’t sleeping, I think. It was kind of hard to tell with her sometimes. As we got closer, my guess was confirmed. She just seemed to be rocking on her little rocking chair without a care in the world.
“Hello there Granny Smith!” Twilight said quite warmly.
Granny Smith looked our way and smiled back.
“Hello there youngin’. Ya come tah see Applejack have ya?”
“Yes we have. We wanted to talk to her about something important.”
“Well that’s nice. Too bad ya missed her goin’ intah town.”
“But I thought that she was supposed to be in the fields today,” she stated confusedly.
“Well she was, but Big Macintosh said that he had somethin’ on his mind and wanted tah keep goin’ with the applebucking today too. We tried tah get ‘em tah talk about it, but it weres no use. So Applejack agreed tah goin’ tah town fer the day.”
I chuckled at the thought of how her little talk about rotation didn’t matter today. I’m pretty sure Granny Smith hadn’t noticed me until then. Why you ask? Well, this happened…
“Jumpin’s Jehosephat!” she screamed as she jumped out of her chair. “It’s furless bear! Run fer yer lives!”
And she proceeded to run away...at a pace snails could outrun.
“Don’t worry Granny Smith,” Twilight spoke with a soothing voice. “He’s not a furless bear.”
“Yeah, I’m more of a hairless ape. Ohh, ohh ohh. See?” I said while hunching over and scratching my butt for full effect.
“What the heck is an ape?” Twilight asked confusedly.
I had to think about that for a second. Not because I couldn’t respond to the question, but because the question itself made me think about something. Where were all the primates in MLP? They keep showing all manner of animals thanks to Fluttershy, but for some reason I couldn’t think of a single one of them being a primate. I think the closest anything came to resembling such was that Ahuizotl character. I mean, other than humans, which Celestia told me had existed here before, I couldn’t think of a single instance of ever seeing one in the show. Why was that? What sense did that make?
“SETH!!!”
I jumped at hearing Twilight yell into my thoughts. I had completely zoned out everything around me and it took an impressive shout to get my attention once more.
“Sorry about that. That question kind of made me think about some stuff. It doesn’t matter what an ape is. We should go to Fluttershy’s since it’ll probably take less time than going to town.”
“That seems really inefficient. We should head to town and talk to Applejack and Rarity. I know both of them are in town and while we are there we can see if Rainbow Dash is around. If not, we can head to Fluttershy’s place next, get her memory back, and have her help getting Rainbow Dash to you if necessary.”
“That sounds good,” I stated bluntly. “Let’s teleport on over to Ponyville.”
“Why? We can keep walking there easily enough.”
Oh joy. More walking. Under the sun.
“I miss having magic.”