//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - Nightmares // Story: 10 Days, 3 Adventures - Part 1 - "In Dreams They Came" // by TP Night //------------------------------// Spike slowly opened his eyes. He rose up and look around. All he could see was a thick, silvery fog. “Hello?” He called out. No answer. “Helloooo?” He tried again, louder this time. Still no answer. He began walking. Beneath his feet he could feel gravel. “must be a dirt road...” he mumbled to himself as he kept walking straight ahead. After some time, he saw something - or somepony - in the distance. Shadows, shaped like ponies. “Hello? Can you hear me?” He shouted toward the shadows. But they did not react. Spike assumed they had not heard him. He kept walking, but the shadows did not seem closer. He increased his speed, but the shadows still looked as far away as they had when he first noticed them. He started a full sprint. This time, the shadows did move closer. They were indeed ponies. Townsponies, the Ponyville citizens. He walked up to a mint green unicorn. “Lyra?” He said as he approached her. But as he spoke, the unicorn did not react. She did not look at Spike, she did not respond to him. She looked over at another pony. Her mouth started moving, but Spike could not hear any words. The other pony looked as if she was laughing at something, and then her mouth moved, and Lyra “laughed”. But Spike could still not hear them, it was as if they were just miming. Spike waved his hands. “HELLO?! Lyra? Bon Bon? What’s going on?!” Still no reaction from the two ponies. Spike gave up and started walking away, deciding to find somepony else. After a short walk, he found Twilight, sitting with a book. He again waved his hands. “Hi Twilight.” But she did not notice him. He looked at the title of the book she was reading. It was written in some language he did not know. All it said was, ‘Hoc est somnium’... And then, everything went dark... He woke up with a shock, sitting up in his sleeping bag. * * * Scootaloo was running along a narrow path. On both sides of the stone road was tall stone pillars, overgrown with moss and dark green vines, almost black. They were covered in white thorns. The pillars and thorn- covered vines formed walls, several meters high. She ran as fast as her hoofs could take her. In front of her, the road seemed endless, and so did the two walls. But she kept running. Only a few meters behind her, the walls and road was falling apart, fallling down into a dark abyss. She did not know if there was anything below, or if she could survive the fall, so she kept running. Her hoofs hurt. Her breath was heavy. She had been running for... She wasn’t sure how long, she only knew it was a long time. When had she started running? Where was she? Where was the road leading? She did not have any answers. All she knew was that she had to keep running, if she wanted to survive. Or did she? Could she survive if she let the road fall beneath her, and let herself drop into the abyss below? Was there something down there? Was the road a lie? Was there a road at all? She began to question her own mind. Far away in the distance in front of her, she could see a light. But before she could reach it, the road and walls fell apart in front of her too. She made a sudden stop. She was now standing on a lone pillar, surrounded by a deep nothingness. The darkness grew closer. In the end, it covered her and her pillar. She could hear something, a whisper. It seemed to come from all directions at once, but it spoke words Scootaloo could not understand... “Hoc est somnium... Hoc est somnium...” the voice repeated. Then, the last sliver of light disappeared... Scootaloo woke up with a shock, looking around her. * * * Sweetie Belle sat in school as usual, waiting for her friends. Scootaloo and Applebloom came a few minutes later, laughing and talking. Sweetie waved and cheered, but the other two just glared strangely toward her, frowning. They did not come to her, as they always had before. They always sat together. But today, Scootaloo and Applebloom sat down in another part of the classroom. With Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara... Sweetie frowned and looked confused. “Why... Why are you guys sitting over there, with them?” She asked. “Why wouldn’t we?” Scootaloo said with a sneer. “We always do. And YOU always cheer and try to be our friend. Get somepony else toannoy for once, blank flank.” “B...but...what? You’re blanks too.. We’re crusaders...” Sweetie Belle said with a sad voice, looking down at her desk. “Us? Blanks? No way.” Applebloom said. “Have you taken a look recently? We got our marks months ago. You’re the only Blank flank in Ponyville. When me and Scoot got ours, you became so jealous and annoying, we split up the stupid ‘Crusader’ thing. Me and Scoot started hanging with Diamond and Silver. Stop living in the past. Grow up.” “But....” She looked at Scootaloo and Applebloom. They both sighed and stood up, showing Sweetie Belle their flanks. Like they said, they did really have their marks. She looked at herself. Still nothing. Diamond cut in to the conversation. “You’re like, the only pony in town who hasn’t found your talent yet. Maybe you don’t have one? Maybe you’re never getting a cutiemark?” Sweetie Belle almost started crying, but managed to hold her feelings in. At least, for now. She sat in silence. Cheerilee came in to the classroom. She wrote something on the blackboard. Hoc est somnium. * * * Applebloom walked downstairs in her house. “Applejack? Granny?” She said in a raised voice. Nopony answered. She walked around the rooms looking for them. “Big Mac?” Still nothing. She thought maybe they were all outside then, so she walked out through the door. The porch was empty. Granny Smith usually sat there in her rocking chair, but not this time. “That’s strange...” Applebloom thought. “Where are they?” She looked around but could not see anypony from the porch. “Maybe the barn...” She thought, and quickly trotted over to the large wooden building. She opened the large heavy door with some effort and walked inside. “Hello? Anypony here?” She asked, but all she heard was a faint echo of her own voice. She went back outside and started looking around in the other parts of the farm, but she could not find any of her family, or Winona either. She ran up to the apple fields, but there was nopony there either, and all the trees were withered and dying. She saw Sweetie Belle and Rarity coming along the old road between the farm and the town, so she ran up to them. “Rarity, Sweetie! Do you know where my family is?” Rarity looked at her with a confused face. Sweetie Belle spoke. “Your what? You don’t have any family... You’ve lived alone on this farm as far as I’ve known you...” Then, Rarity spoke, but her words did not make any sense to Applebloom. “Hoc est somnium, Applebloom.” * * * Applejack stood in front of Mayor mare in the center of town just outside the town hall. The mayor had a stern look on her face, and a hint of sadness. “Applejack...” She began. “How.. How could you? How could YOU of all ponies do such a thing? You’re the last one I expected to make such idiotic decision. Thanks to you, they now own the farm! They have already started making offers and deals to buy out the rest of town too, piece by piece! If you had just said ‘no’, we could have gotten rid of them!” Applejack look confused. “What? Who? What did I do?!” Mayor Mare looked at Applejack, her stern look turning into a disappointed frown. “Oh Applejack.. First all that, and now you pretend you don’t even know what you have done?” Applejack turned her head and looked around. behind and beside her stood the citizens of Ponyville, including her friends. Everypony had various expressions of sadness or anger, some looked disappointed or confused. What was going on? “Can somepony please tell me what I did?!” Applejack almost shouted. Twilight emerged from the crowd. “Applejack. You really don’t remember?” “No, I don’t! Last I remember, I was at the farm working, and then suddenly I stood here!” “You put the farm down as a bet against Flim and Flam again... They came back, and... this time they won...” Applejack could not believe it. She forced her way through the crowds, and ran back to the farm. As she was about to enter the gate, she looked up. It no longer said ‘Sweet Apple Acres’. But it also did not say anything about Flim, or Flam. The large wooden letters read, ‘Hoc Est Somnium’. * * * Twilight slowly approached the guards and the large door. She was in Canterlot, on her way to see Celestia regarding... Well, she didn’t quite know what this was about, but Celestia had said it was important, and that Twilight should come as soon as she could. One of the guards nodded as a silent greeting when Twilight came closer. He used his magic and opened the door. As she walked through, an announcer pony on the inside said loudly, “Princess Twilight Sparkle!” She walked across the red carpet up to the throne where Celestia sat with a serious look on her face. “Princess Twilight.” She said in a cold voice. “It is my sad duty to inform you that Equestrias future depends on you. You must leave, and never return. Never make contact with anypony here.” “WHAT?” Twilight looked confused and shocked. “Throughout your period as a princess, you have caused numerous disasters, including giving Tirek our magic. Simply put, I was wrong. You are not fit to be a princess. For your reckless behaviors, You are hereby banished from Equestria. You may choose where you wish to be relocated, as long as it is outside Equestria. Dragonlands, Gryphon Kingdom, Zebra Lands, or some unexplored island. Choose.” “But... You can’t just throw me out like this!” “I can. I do not want to, but I must. It is not my personal decision, it is the will of the population based on votes.” Just as Twilight was about to protest again, the door slammed open. Nopony entered, but the announcer shouted “HOC EST SOMNIUM”, and everything went black. * * * Luna stood alone in the tower, looking out through a small window. Outside she could see the dark blue sky, filled with tiny white dots. Above the tower, out of sight from her position, was the moon. She smiled and gave out a relaxed sigh. It had been a rough day, but it looked like the night would be calm, at least for a while. Suddenly, she felt a vibration beneath her hoof. She looked down, and then around her. The room itself - no, the entire tower - was vibrating. The vibrations increased to a light rumbling. Luna quickly ran out from the room and unto a balcony on the opposite side of the tower, from which she took a leap into the air and spread her wings. She made a quick dash and a complete turn, and stopped in mid-air, looking at the tower from a short distance. The tower crumbled and fell apart. She looked down, and saw that not only the tower, but rather the whole castle was rumbling and falling apart, section by section. She could see streams of guards and other castle workers running and flying out from the doors and balconies, the able ones helping the less able as best they could. A guard pegasus came flying up to Luna. “Your highness! Do you know what is going on? None of us guards know, and neither does anypony else. The castle just started falling apart!” “Mind that later! For now, we must focus on safely getting everypony out before it all falls apart completely!” “Agreed!” The guard gave a quick salute and flew back into the chaos. From the rubble, a pony-shaped shadow rose up and screamed at Luna. “Hoc Est Somnium, Luna Princeps!” Unlike the other ponies, Luna understood this language. She responded with a loud shout. “Ego sum somnium princeps! Audite vocem meam, et disperdimini!” The shadow stopped in his movements and froze. Then, everything went black.