Chapter 04: The Land of Darkness and Fire
The intensity of the fires going on in the middle of the highway were more than enough to serve as a pseudo campfire, one that had been started on blood and suffering; just looking at it, the young man that had almost forgotten the sensation of his extremities and different anatomy was sure that he had already lived through this moment.
Just trying to close his hands were enough to make him want to shout and curl into a ball to survive it; he was sure that at least one of the fingers was broken. It was an odd sensation; he realized not too long ago when he knew what movements to avoid in the near future. Also, he had to be sincere in this, it felt strangely cathartic to feel something like that after having no fingers and legs, but something was even more important than having the bizarre experience of being back into his original body.
It was simple, why was he even in his original body?
Last thing he knew he had been on his bed as Celly after tucking his little sister, of course, after having one of the best parties in the last century, sadly it wasn’t cider season yet or it could have been even funnier, he was still wanting to know how would Twilight behave under the effects of that surprisingly effective beverage.
“If this is the reward that I have after all the things that I have done for Equestria, then there is something very wrong with the universe and I will have to find the responsible for this, I’m pretty sure they don’t know how hot the Sun can be but I’m going to teach the guilty party in all this the real temperature in a very close field study!” the young man almost shouted, not that there was anyone that was listening to him considering that the two cars had been totaled.
“How the hell am I outside? I’m pretty sure I was being crushed under the other car, not thrown aside like this, at least I think that’s what happened, all these centuries can do a thing to your memory… oh please, don’t tell me all this was just a dream? That will be the most cliché thing in the book,” he said with a half-smile at his own joke.
Now that he had at least got back his breath and in much more control of his hurt limbs he got into his feet. It was an odd feeling, being biped after so long, but it was like a bicycle. With that out of the way he was ready to see if there was anything he could do, but there was no phone or anything in his pockets, odd, both that he remembered what he had to have in that moment and that there wasn’t anything; not even his wallet and ids.
“I don’t think I hit myself that hard to lose all my things… I still remember I had my phone with me, it wasn’t the newest, but at least I had my own… weird that I can remember that, I guess I’m going native again, not that I forgot things, I still remember I dressed like the pony version of Alice Cooper for Twilight’s first Hallowtide Night… or did I?” Now his mind was working against him, that was enough to shake his head, there more important things to do now, like trying to see what the hell happened and if there were other survivors “please, if I got out of there like this, I’m pretty sure SHE got out of all this with barely a scratch, I swear she could be an Apple with that kind of muscle she has,” but before he could even take a step there came the magic sound followed by blue and red.
Never in his life had he felt so happy to see a police car appear in front of him, but in this case it was more than needed; now the paramedics and firefighters could appear to solve these entire problems.
Turning off the siren, the policeman got out of the vehicle, weird, he could remember that most police cars had two officers in them or maybe it was just his mind filled with too much internet and television.
“Oh my God, kid, are you alright?” gulping back his words he simply smiled and nodded, he didn’t want to give a police officer his own sarcastic comment, this time he was a mere human being, not a powerful alicorn in charge of a whole kingdom.
“I feel my body is broken in several parts, but beyond that I’m okay,'' okay, yes, he had to say that or he would feel worse. How could he say something like that even if something as horrible as human death happened not even a hundred feet from him? Maybe because he was still in shock after not only surviving but coming back to the human world, it was causing chaos in his head.
The police officer didn’t even bat an eye at his response, maybe he was used to people saying that to him, some cop thing maybe. He only nodded and said something to his radio, meanwhile the former alicorn was trying to get to grips with all of this. If it had been a dream after almost dying, then he had to take a long look at all this and go on with his life, but if it wasn’t… then he hoped Celestia was back on the chair.
If she had no idea of what happened all these years then she was in for a very nice surprise, nothing big, just a student, her sister returned to her glory and a world that was used to their leader being goofy and mysterious, hopefully they didn’t think she was a copy. THAT would be ironic.
Just as he was imagining Celestia’s face a certain click caught his attention, just like the glint of flames on the barrel of a handgun that had been released from its holster and a resounding gunshot that pierced the night.
And he stood there, his hand raised and the bullet levitating in the air after stealing all the kinetic energy from the projectile. A spell he had used several times before and that had saved his life 239 years ago when he was on a visit in Saddle Arabia.
“You are a monster!” the police officer said, raising once again his gun after being surprised about the freak’s ability to stop the bullet in midair.
“No, this is Patrick!” he said, throwing a small sleep spell at the officer not wanting to deal once again with bullets; he had barely reacted with the first one. The officer felt as if he was a puppet that had his strings cut “alright… that was new… change of plans, run like the wind bullseye!” he said quickly turning around and unlike his words he barely walked away due to his own injuries “okay, this sucks, that’s official, so it would be nice to know why a freaking police officer would want to kill me, I mean, yeah, cops DO have bad reputations back home but this is ridiculous… unless… maybe I’m not in my own dimension? Sun and moon I hope that’s not the case, but I have my magical powers, cool as long as I don’t become Sailor Sun or something like that… cosmos, I just imagined Luna as Sailor Moon, not the time now brain, if I come back home I’ll make her cosplay but later!” First he had to know what was going on while he got out of the highway and started to walk among the trees, slowly getting deeper into the woods; it wasn’t the first time he had suddenly gone camping in the wilderness, but not in this situation before.
“So, let’s see what is going on,” he said resting for a minute against a tree several minutes later “I find myself in the middle of a forest, I think, I’m back home or maybe not and a crazy policeman almost killed me, alright, a normal weekend then,” he said, the sarcasm heavy on his voice.
This was not the night he was expecting after finally helping save Luna “so since I still have my powers maybe this is not my original dimension… but the circumstances are still too similar, only probably the theory of Bullet Point can explain this, but I don’t see where the energy needed for that tarquial beacon of her hypothesis could be reunited, I don’t think I could create that kind of container in my sleep. Besides, if I was in the human world with enough magic in the environment to create spells I’m pretty sure my skin and hair would look different,” he said looking at his slightly tanned skin and he was pretty sure his hair was not a multicolored mess, so Sunset’s home was out of the question.
Remembering Sunset he felt that slight worry come back to him; it had been close to 6 months since Sunset’s last letter, she seemed to be having everything under control on her side, specially the Twilight of the other side of the mirror much to Sunset’s embarrassment… he missed her old student but they usually had so little time to get together due to their own responsibilities “If my time in Equestria wasn’t a simple dream, then I’m sure that I will find you again Sunset, then you better have a good excuse for not sending your letter, no fair for you to worry me like this.”
He said finally getting up and walking again, besides, he still had more important things to finish, among them the reason why he still had his abilities but all the squishiness of his normal human body, the blood on his several cuts was still running… and thinking on that made him stop in the middle of his step.
Why weren’t his cuts hurting him anymore? And also, blood hasn't stopped flowing, at least he must have felt a little lightheaded by now, but these things didn’t add up, just like everything else. By all purposes he shouldn’t even be here, well, he should have been in Equestria, but that was due to energies out of the scale, so why now? It was almost like... like a dre…
Lights appeared everywhere at once, policemen with their guns ready and pointing at him, he was trapped.
“Police, get on your knees, you are surrounded,” He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, because that wasn’t obvious by now you blockhead!” he said obviously not withholding his tongue now that he knew what was going on “besides, you haven’t even told me for what I am being wanted, with all of you here it seems you were after a president killer… or the music police after Beyoncé,” he said finally getting warm enough.
“Shoot to kill!” The guy that seemed to be in control of the whole spectacle screamed while bullets and rifles fired at him, all of them becoming dust when they touched his own shield, a smirk on his face showing how entertaining this was “he is a monster!”
“Well, I am not alone in that department, right my dear?” he said with his grin growing by the second while the sergeant, by the looks of his uniform and badge, was getting angrier.
“I don’t care what you say; you will be brought down for all the murders you commit.”
“Now murders, really, that is news to me, so who did I kill?Thousands of people? Did I start shooting in the crowd? Are you trying to make me the new Hitler or something like that? Although I’m sure you have no idea of what I am talking about… you are not human… Tartarus, you are probably not even a pony,” he said, making the rest of the officers blink in surprise and the sergeant flinch.
“Sir… what is he talking about?”
“He is only trying to confuse your mind, shoot him now!” the sergeant said more than agitated while shooting himself, of course he would, if he still had bullets on his own revolver.
“Surprised? Guess you aren’t very good with handguns, but I’m pretty sure you have never seen weapons like this before, after all, it has been a thousand years since you were in the dream world, right?... Nightmare?” Celly said with a huge grin on his face making the creature roar in anger, his form twisting in an inhuman form while the rest of the officers disappeared.
“You… you are more resilient than most creatures, it has been so long since my prey was this stubborn, but no matter what, your magic and body will release me and my vengeance will be complete.”
“Oh Tartarus, you are even worse now, but really, what were you thinking? You got bitch slapped in the face by a rainbow, how was the taste by the way? But after being drained of all your energy here you are back again!”
“You are but a mere foundation for my return creature, I don’t know what kind of monstrosity you are, but your words and jests will not matter in the end when I steal your body.”
“Is that it? Really? You don’t even know who I am? Was it just convenient? And monstrosity, really, does that make you the kettle or the pot? Because dude, they won’t let you compete in an ugly contest, you have an unfair advantage… you make me laugh, first you get into my dreams not knowing what the hell was going on, I’m pretty sure you just followed Luna but since she was purified you cannot even get close to her without turning into nothing, so let me guess, you picked the first thing you could sense, seriously, your luck has really run out.”
“Shut up, you are nothing compared to me, I am the Night, I am the terror!” The mass of energy was now nothing more than a cloud of black mist and its voice showed its anger.
“Yeah, the terror that flaps in the night, really, you have so little energy that you won’t even be able to scare the residents of Ponyville’s Retirement House,” his words seemed to make the Nightmare angrier, just like he wanted “but seriously, you just did an incredibly stupid thing, so let me inform you of what will happen.”
“You do not give me orders creature, I am your owner now,” It said trying to hold Celly with black tendrils, it was going to immerse him into the worst nightmares to gain his powers and finally destroy Celestia, but the moment it got close it was unable to move due to chains made out of pure light pining it, they hurt it, it was like being burnt alive by the sun itself, he could only see images between the strange creature and him.
“Now, please, settle down, I just want to teach you what happened in the past… you are not the first nor the last that has tried to conquer MY world,” different ponies, monsters, sirens, changelings and more creatures appeared as if they were summoned, but they were nothing more than images created from light “Black Brain, Captain Starburst, Doctor Drizzle, Queen Majestic, The Order, Roaring Horn, there have been oh so many… but tell me, who stopped them all?” and image after image showed these monsters be defeated time and time again by one mare, one alicorn, one goofy and crazy alicorn that never stopped fighting and like that, the human stepped through that image with a smile that threatened to split his face in half.
“Hello,” the human said with politeness “my name is Celestial Radiance, but you can call me Celly,” the nightmare recoiled at the name, its tendrils shaking, its mass convulsing trying to escape from its bonds, but the magic hurt and didn’t let it move “you did a very, very stupid thing my dear…basically… you screwed up… I’ve been waiting for this moment for long time; you see, I’m not like Celestia, I am Celly, she may have tried to help you, maybe just imprison you like she did to other criminals, all in the hope of seeing them being reformed,” as he kept talking, the chains began to tighten up, the sky began to change, a small sliver of light appearing on the horizon.
As it kept on happening, the Nightmare cloud tried to escape, to destroy the chains, but it was impossible, it was trapped and it knew what was going on.
“Mercy! You are not a killer!”
“I don’t like to kill, that is true, but you are not going to stop, not now, not ever, you are a predator that feeds on the fear and suffering of others and that will never change, so really, I think I’m doing a favor to all existence when I say this,” Celly then began to float upwards, his hair moving with an ethereal wind and changing color, his body began to morph, and soon she was ready to deliver the final words “here comes the sun,” was all said before the night was vanquished, light appearing on the horizon and magical energies poured over the fields making the Nightmare cloud squeal and scream, convulsing into itself as the light of the magical sun began to burn it away.
The human Celestia smiled at herself, enjoying the peace and quiet after vanquishing that terror, her body completely healed now after regaining all control on her dream “well, that was nice… I love a good reference,” she said before the world began to fade.
“That was a good job... Celly” that voice made her turn around, but in the middle of waking up she could barely make a hazy figure close to her and before waking up she was truly at peace.
She opened her eyes, once again back on her alicorn body, nothing more than a battle in her dreams, the nightmare defeated and it won’t be a problem for some time, but that wasn’t important.
Getting up from the bed she opened the doors of her balcony, looking at the calm night Celly relaxed knowing that happy days followed. Of course, she still had a lot of work; just like helping a little sister get used to modern life, finding what happened to Sunset and… finding out that woman in her dreams, or better said, that princess in her dreams.
“Oh, once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more… nah, Shakespeare is too serious… How did Oddball put it? Oh yes, woof woof woof , that’s my other dog impression,” Celly said while she raised the sun like she has done for the last 3 centuries, but maybe she won’t have to for long, all the while she kept whistling an old song, one about soldiers in a war, with full insanity and gold at the end, it felt quite fitting.