After leaving the school building, I slowly walk to the town center, where the fountain is located. My head is still swarming with questions about the school’s curriculum and I almost pass the fountain entirely. Before I do, however, a voice calls out to me, “Hey! Feld! Over here!” I snap out of my trance and look around. I notice Aurora waving energetically at me with Hem and Lucky waving lazily next to her.
I head over where they are. “Hey everyone,” I say as I approach. “Geez, Feld, you seem out of it. What’s up?” Aurora asks me. Lucky is looking at me with a concerned face, while Hem seems to be indifferent about the matter. “I just learned our school’s curriculum doesn’t include The Great Tragedies. They are my favorite subject, is all,” I tell her, disappointment in my voice. “Ah-ha…So you noticed already, hu?” Aurora gives a forced laugh while smiling weakly. “That is actually part of the reason why we wanted to talk to you,” Aurora explains. “Aurora,” Hem says flatly. Aurora turns her head to look at him, and Hem nods his head to the right slightly. Aurora turns her head to follow his nod, as do I. I didn’t see anything particular, however Aurora must have seen something, as she said, “Well, we can talk about that later. For now, let’s get somewhere more private.”
She begins to walk away from the fountain with Hem and Lucky close behind. As I begin to follow, I look back to where Hem nodded, but still don’t see anything. We walk for a few minutes in silence before turning and going to the rear of a house. Behind the house is a small shed which Aurora heads straight to. She looks around before opening the door and slipping inside, followed by Lucky. Hem, however, motions me inside before looking around one last time, and entering after me.
Inside, Aurora and Lucky move around a table in the center of the shed and take positions at the side opposite the door. Hem closes the door and stands next to the table, between the door and me. Aurora and Lucky suddenly change their expressions to have a serious demeanor, Hem on the other hand looks as impassive as ever. Lucky clears his throat before saying, “Before we continue, I’m sure you won’t mind if we ask you some questions, correct?” Despite his serious appearance, his voice still carries its gentlecolt-like manner.
I suddenly feel a pit form in my stomach as I begin to wonder if I should have followed them after all. Trying to ignore this feeling, I respond with, “S-sure.” Aurora uses her magic to float up a scroll in front of her. “Ok, first question. What country were you born in?” She asks. I look from one pony to the other curiously as I answer, “The Magical Symposium.” She nods and continues, “Question two. Who was crucial in stopping The Plague?” A question about The Plague? I smirk while answering, “Queen Waning of the Moon Kingdom.” Aurora nods again then asks, “During the Great War, which country lost the most land?” Another question about the Great Tragedies? My smirk disappears, replaced with a look of confusion as I answer, “The Sky Floatilla.” Without missing a beat, she asks, “What tactic employed by the Scarlet Empire contributed to the Great Famine?” I answer with, “Scorched Earth.”
Aurora continues to ask me various questions. The majority of which are about the Great Tragedies. I begin to lose track of how many questions she asked me when she final says, “Ok. That’s all. Well guys, how did he do?” Hem and Lucky nod, which prompts Aurora to exclaim, “100% correct! Good job Feld, honestly no one before you has answered all of them correctly. I didn’t even know the answers to some.” Their serious faces return to their normal, smiling selves. All except for Hem’s, whose remains impassive.
“Now then,” Aurora begins as she walks around the table towards Hem and I, “Lucky, if you’d be so kind.” On que, Lucky uses his magic to envelop the table and move to against the wall opposite the door. As he does so, I notice a trapdoor that was hidden beneath it. Hem’s magic wraps around the trapdoor and opens it. “Let’s go!” Aurora says with a happy voice as she begins going down the revealed stairs. Lucky and I follow her, with Hem taking up the rear. The stairway is dimly lit and I can barely see Lucky in front of me.
As we walk down the stairs I hear Aurora’s voice from the front, “By the way, Feld, don’t tell anyone about this, ‘kay?” She says with an energetic voice which quickly turns cold, “If you do…well…” Her voice trails off for a moment before her energetic voice comes back saying, “We’re here!” Suddenly a bright light erupts from a little ways below me, forcing me to close my eyes while moving towards it. After a few more steps, I reach level ground and blink a few times, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the sudden light.
============~+~============
“Feld, allow me to welcome you to our secret hideout!” Aurora says through a smile. “But, let’s get down to business. We can talk privately here, and no one can hear us. So Feld,” Aurora’s expression goes from a playful one to a serious one before she continues speaking, “we believe that there is something very wrong with this city. We have talked to various residents, mostly our classmates and new arrivals. Most are just like us, ponies from a different city whose parents decided to move here. Through some basic questions we found out a decent amount about them. But, one question in particular causes mixed reactions,” she paused for emphasis.
“Did you have a dream prior to moving here, one that stood out like a nightmare you couldn’t forget?” I flinch at her mention of this, which she notices. “So, you appear to have had one, correct? Tell us, what was it about?” Aurora asks. I look around at the others who seem to be listening intently. “How did you know I had one?” I ask. “We have all had them, the three of us, and all of our classmates,” Lucky points out. “All of them?” I ask. “We will talk about that after you tell us your dream,” Aurora says.
I take a breath and tell them what I remember of the dream I had before I came here. The more I talk about it, the more I more vividly recall the memory and the more it seems real. Once I finish the three look at each other and Hem says, “Just like the others.” I raise my eyebrow. “What do you mean?” I ask. “The dream you had is just like the dream the three of us, and all of our classmates have had, though with small differences. In the dreams, our parents get killed by monsters,” Aurora informs me. “What does that mean?” I ask.
“It means that this town isn’t what it seems,” Hem says flatly. “Yes, but there is more to it than that. The children are the only ones who have had these dreams and the adults we have asked say the same thing ‘No, and they mean nothing.’ Exactly that with no variation. It is as though they are trying to cover it up. But the three of us kept looking into it and as a result we have become ostracized by most of our fellow students and the adults treat us like we are troublemakers, as you have already seen.”
“Ok, but that doesn’t seem like enough to go on to claim a conspiracy. I mean, children have nightmares all the time, and especially with all the most recent tragedies the world has experienced, it wouldn’t be wrong to think that that could cause similar nightmares of parents dying,” I tell them. “Ah, you’re quite logical. I like that,” Aurora says with a smile. “But, let me ask you. Have you ever heard of this city before you came here? Also, why does the school curriculum skip over the Great Tragedies and seem to skip over a lot of history in general? Doesn’t it seem like they don’t know much about it? As though they either didn’t care about the history of ponykind or that they closed themselves off from the rest of the world.”
I thought about it for a moment. It certainly did seem odd that they didn’t talk about the Great Tragedies, but I haven’t been attending the school long enough to know about it lacking history. It certainly sounds suspicious, but I still wasn’t fully convinced. “Let’s say you are correct, and this is a conspiracy. What would we do about it?” I ask. “Well, there-in lies the issue,” Lucky began, “there is nothing we can really do. No one believes us and the adults have completely discredited us. We need support, but we can’t get it since no one believes us. That is why we try to recruit all new arrivals.”
“I see,” I reply, “How long have you been looking for new members?” Aurora put on a disappointed face as she said, “About two years. That is when I realized this town was off and began looking for proof and others to join my cause. It is also when the adults started treating me like a troublemaker. It was just me, but a few months later I managed to convince Hem to join and about a year ago Lucky joined us. Shortly after we discovered this hideout and began using it.”
“So, in these two years not much has happened then? No crazy occurrences or anything that would get more ponies on your side? It doesn’t seem much like a conspiracy if there are no negatives,” I tell them. “But that’s just it!” Aurora shouts before lowering her voice once more, “There are no negatives. Nothing, not a single thing bad happens here. I have been here for two years, and I haven’t witnessed a single crime and there are almost no injuries or sicknesses. For a city this size it is almost unheard of.”
“Which means something is odd in this city,” I mutter to myself. I look at each of the ponies at the table before saying, “I’ll join you. Since I can’t researched the Great Tragedies, I’ll have a lot of time on my hands, I might as well help you all out.” They all smile and stand up. “Great!” They all shout in unison. “Welcome to the Society of Slumber, SoS for short,” Aurora says. “Society of Slumber?” I ask. “Once the three of us got together, we decided we needed a name for our group. Since we think the dreams are what link everything together, we went with Slumber,” Lucky explains.
“Oh, that makes sense, I suppose. Then, what’s our next step?” I ask. Everyone’s face goes blank. “Eh? What do you mean by next step?” Aurora replies. “Like, what are we going to do to attempt to uncover the conspiracy?” I ask, with a bit of concern in my voice. Aurora smiles and responds with, “Haven’t a clue!”