It was time for dinner when the sky grew several shades darker. I stared down at my plate of salad and potatoes. My parents held a conversation, but my ears adjusted to every other indistinct noise from ponies walking outside to the wind taping on the window.
Mom gazed at me. “GentleSketch, are you not hungry? You should eat something. You’re a colt, you need to eat.”
I shifted slightly.
“Maybe,” Dad said, “He’s not to that stage yet.”
“Stage?” Mom cocked her head.
“Yeah. Like teens start eating a lot, I guess around fourteen. I know JumpingJolt has done that.”
Mom shook her head with a grin. “He eats anything.”
I smiled a bit, thinking about how Jolt gobbles down all of his food at once. I’m glad I wasn’t like that (yet), I would want better manners than that.
Dad noticed my smile. Then it faded. For some reason, I wanted to hide my emotions. Dad was thinking.
“You just need to get out of the camp,” Dad finally spoke. “We should go to the city sometime. You need to socialize with other ponies, huh?”
“I guess.”
“You think that sounds good, HeartFelt?”
“Yeah, sure,” Mom responded.
Dad repositioned himself. “Ah. Well, we’ll have to see when we can go. Maybe we can do a mission.”
Black surrounded me just like the night before. I returned to a world of confusion. I understood there were towering trees around, but I did not understand direction. The smallest glimpse of light appeared. I attempted to pursue it, but brambles condemned me.
The glowing dot came from a hole in the brambled. My eye hovered over the opening but no shapes were definite. Both hooves covered the space as I made an effort to pry it open. Slowly, light flooded the area as my hooves ripped the fabric brambles.
Instinctively, my body went in. The light dimmed. Wood still housed me. Figures were now cognitive. One figure stood out. It was that filly, it had to be.
“What do you want?” I demanded. The only sound that filled my ears was of creaking branches. “Who are you? Why have you been following me? Do you even have a name?”
The filly moved. Her tail flowed gracefully almost as a paint stroke. Hooves below me pounded against the soil racing after the filly.
As the woods commenced to thin, the surrounding changed to concrete and brick walls.A street became my throne while shops were my kingdom. My mind built a section of Los Pegasus, most likely altered from the real thing. Twenty yards away, a small silhouette was present.
“Why are you doing this to me?” My voice echoed off the walls.
The small Unicorn turned the corner. Around the curb was a decline. A city skyline leveled my vision. Limbs surged and my body glided down the hill. Where was she leading me?
Something else hindered my quest: a crowd. Faces of camp ponies were everywhere yet my brain did not analyze their details. My head was placed low as I maneuvered through the crowd. One pony confronted me saying something but I replied “No, I don’t have time!”
When the crowd started to disperse, blaring sounds filled the air. It sounded like it should have been music, thrashing guitars and clattering drums. My ears pressed against my head as the “music” rumbled like neverending thunder. I could not identify the source of the noise. the filly must have been distracting me.
I halted. I had lost her in all of this chaos.
The bursting sounds shook me to the bone. I needed to escape.I flew into a building.
The area was much larger on the inside than it seemed on the outside. The floor dropped with many rows of seats that lead to a stage. I think I have seen this pace before, anyway, if I had not, my mind would not have been able to produce it.
The sounds from the outside were more tolerable now and grew quieter as I trotted up an aisle. The slope became even towards the stage. On the stage was- the filly!
Her dark aqua fur glistened a million different hues as spot lights from all around danced. I climbed onto the stage with ease, something that would have been very difficult in real life. I established myself in front of the filly. Thankfully, she did not flee.
“Why did you bring me here?” I asked almost immediately. Of course, she did not speak. “Why can’t you talk?”
She looked out to the arena. I looked there too and took in the knowledge of how big the place was.
“So,” My head pivoted to her. “Are you going to tell me- why you brought me here?”
She glanced at something on the stage. They appeared to be musical instruments. And coincidentally, the sounds outside became more harmonious. The music then felt as if it came from the theater, but the volume stayed low. The tune was familiar, presumably something Dad had played.
The filly stared at me with huge, warm brown eyes.
“What?” I shook my head for emphasis. “What do you want from me?!”
The little pony furrowed her brow as I raised my voice.
“I don’t get it!” I stomped my hoof. She grew angrier as I did. “What the hell am I supposed to do?”
She really didn’t like that. She leaned forward and stiffened her mouth. Her eyes appeared almost glowing yellow. Bringing a black hoof up, she placed it on my chest.
“What? What?!”
And the world around me collapsed. My mouth moved continuously as her glowing eyes faded. Everything was shaking so I shook myself to work to counteract it.
“What? What?” I continued to speak when I broke into the waking world.
My mother stood over me. Pushing her ears down, she took her hoof off my shoulder. She stepped back in reaction to my calling.
I halted for a second. I rubbed my eyes and said. “I’m sorry. I was in the middle of a dream.”
Mom stood up straight. “Oh.” She was less alarmed. “Was it a good dream?”
I let a hoof hang off the bed. “I… don’t know.”
“Hmm,” The mint green mare hummed. “Just a dream, then?”
“Yeah,” I replied, practically senselessly.
“Sorry to wake you, but I just wanted to know if you would like some breakfast.
I moved my hoof to my cheek. “Sure. I’ll be up in a bit,” I answered while moving my numb, dry mouth to get the feeling back.
“Okay,” Mom said. Her body turned as she went out but her eyes stayed on me until she reached the doorway. When the door closed behind her, my eyes fixed on the ceiling.
What does that filly want from me? Why does she keep coming back? It’s not like I have ever seen her before in my life. Why was she angry at me? Was she angry because I was angry? I growled behind bared teeth and slapped hooves onto my temples.