Chapter 28: The Biggest Dreamer.
Sunlight glistens down through a hole in the ceiling, feeding life to a small flower bed. Sunlight is a rarity for the lower city, so I need to remember not to walk on the flowers. I sit and lean back in one of the pews, taking in the old church. The ceiling and walls are starting to collapse, and the new hole I put in the ceiling back then hasn't helped matters. It was the flower bed that broke my fall, wasn't it? A simple flower bed, planted in the center in the sunlight after someone tore up part of the floor. Someone...
I throw my arms back, resting my elbows on the top of the pew and sigh. I look to my left and find my sword resting against it next to me - the chocobo-killer sized, one-sided sword lined with ornate engravings and two simple Materia slots, where a pair of Green Materia shimmer in the sunlight. It feels good to relax here - this place that's so safe and familiar. I can't remember how I'd come back here, but seeing this place again helps put my mind at ease.
As much as I want to, I can't stay here much longer. That man is waiting for me, deep in the north. Sephiroth. If I don't move soon, he'll enact his plan - to damage the planet enough to make the Lifestream respond, and harness it to gain control of the planet itself. We have the Black Materia needed for his plan - the Materia to summon the creature Meteor - but unless we confront him, he'll keep reaching out, keep trying to steal it away for himself.
But, can it really be done? Sephiroth, one of the few examples where the man is larger than the legend... can we really beat him? He's already... My eyes turn down to the flower bed. There isn't any choice. I stand and grip the handle of my Buster Sword, spinning it with a one-handed flair and putting it in its place on my back. Now's not the time to dwell on half-hearted doubts. That crazed man has already taken too much.
I turn to leave, careful not to step on the flower bed as I begin walking the aisle between the pews. My hand trembles slightly as I reach the door, but I push through it, reaching out and grabbing the handle. Now's not the time to be afraid. I push the door open, and squint my eyes shut as a pure, white light pours its way inside. I steel my body, and...
"Don't step outside." A female voice commands. It's not the voice that should be here, warm and welcoming, but strong and authoratative. Steps sound behind me as the voice's owner comes closer, the telltale falls confirming its owner.
"Princess Luna." I state matter-of-factly. "I thought you said you would no longer enter my dreams?" The door is pulled gently shut with a faint glow of midnight and I turn around to face the smaller of the two alicorn sisters.
"Special exception." She replies, becoming a bit more casual and giving me a cheery expression.
"Sometimes I wonder if your specialty is dream-walking or mind-reading..." I mutter as I walk back into the church, sitting in one of the rear pews and resting the Buster Sword against it in the aisle, Princess Luna walking to close the distance.
"Yours is not the only dream We are paying special heed to on this night, dreamer."
At her statement, the memory of the Crystal Caves comes back with, well, crystal clarity. "How is Trixie?"
She looks at me, amused. "You remember your ordeal and your first action is to inquire about your companion?" She moves to sit in the pew across the aisle, needing a minute to find a comfortable position for her pony-shaped body in the human-shaped seat. "Truly We were right about you, dreamer. And more truly, Our Sister owes Us fifty bits."
"You two bet on whether I'd be a threat to the planet or not?" I ask, looking at her with bewilderment. "Really?"
"Royalty must find ways to amuse itself too, dreamer." She replies with a giggle. "But, do not worry, at least physically, your unicorn companion is in good health. We are doing Our best as well to ease the trouble in her mind."
"What about the creatures that appear during the night?" I ask, already feeling the need to change the subject. The mention of the 'trouble in her mind' only serves to remind me of that one moment...
"They do not move on this night." Princess Luna replies. "The creature we face is exerting all its power to infiltrate this dream. We believe it seeks to rend the remnants of your mind while your body teeters on the edge of this world and the next."
My hand absentmindedly reaches for my chest, where I remember Sephiroth running me through with his sword. "He did get me pretty good, didn't he?"
"Quite." The Princess nods. "Though, your body has proved quite resiliant. All present believed you doomed, but, with the aide of the Royal Healers, your condition has indeed improved. Hence the creature's redoubled efforts to destroy your psyche while the opportunity exists. One could say it is quite a miraculous thing that your body can resist such grevious wounds."
"The real miracle is the presence of modern second-person pronouns in your vocabulary." I lean back and give her a small chuckle. "If only a certain other linguistically-challenged individual would make that kind of improvement."
"Ah! You noticed, dreamer!" She claps her front hooves together happily, in a way reminiscent of Twilight. "Our Sister's Student noticed the lapse in Our linguistical practice after these events started, so We compromised to begin using other facets of the modern Equestrian vernacular in trade for being indulged in Our continued use of what the common pony now calls the 'Royal We'. Sometimes, We wonder if Our Sister's Student is an even more insistent teacher than Our Sister herself..."
"Your sister... she's really something else, isn't she?" I ask, thinking back to the display of power she used to wipe the fascimile of Sephiroth from the Crystal Caves. She wasn't kidding when she said not to underestimate her just because the sky wasn't what I originally believed it to be.
"Quite." Princess Luna's expression darkens, just slightly. "When angered, Our Sister is truly a force to which few things can measure. Though, We believe such power is a burden for her, more than a blessing. She is kind-hearted, and detests the need for combat."
"I see..." I trail off, turning to face the front of the church. "I got that impression when I met her this time as well."
"That is quite good, dreamer." The Princess replies. "Her heart has also been warmed to you after seeing you fight to protect her ponies against such an overpowering foe. While Our Sister still believes in caution, We believe She... hopes to be shown wrong, in this instance."
"She will be." I reply, picking up the Buster Sword and laying it across my lap, running my fingers along the designs decorating the body of the blade. "That man... Sephiroth, he's no friend to me."
"Another of your kind?" Princess Luna inquires. "You believe we face one like yourself, dreamer?"
"Thinking of him that way is a mistake." I look up, turning my attention to the sunlight-framed flower bed. "I only remember so much, but... he's more like a monster in human skin, both in his objectives and in his power. He was once a decorated war hero, surrounded by legend... legends which undersold his true ability. And the further his plan gets, the stronger he becomes."
"We... believe you are mistaken, dreamer." She says, and we turn to look at each other once again. "The life force of the threat We have perceived feels naught like anything from Equestria, or our planet, but... it also feels naught like your own."
"You're the one whose mistaken." I respond, gripping the hilt of the Buster Sword in one hand, trying to quell the anger that comes paired with the thought of that man. "What I fought in the Crystal Caves was some sort of body double... but it moved like Sephiroth, spoke like Sephiroth, fought like Sephiroth. It can't be anything else."
"Do you truly remember enough about your past to be sure, dreamer?" Princess Luna's simple question is enough to tear my resolve in the man truly being Sephiroth to ribbons. I've regained many old memories of him, memories part of me wishes I hadn't... but do I have them all?
I try to think back, back to the night at Nibelheim, the day he started down the path to insanity. What did he find down there, hidden away in the mansion's basement? The thing that ties he and I together, that ties this entire crazy mess together - what was it? No matter how hard I try, I can't force the block on my memory aside.
"Dreamer," Princess Luna cuts into my thoughts, "do tell Us about this place we find ourselves. When building our ward for your dream, We stumbled upon the image of this location, glowing warmly like the dreams we often protect and keep pure for our ponies. Mayhaps you recall the significance of this place?" She uses her wings to get a small amount of lift and leave the pew, returning to the aisle and walking forward to explore the small church.
"I... don't." I reply, the words leaving me feeling hollow as I look down at the sword in my lap. A place like this, that makes me feel so welcome, that my heart clearly has a fond rememberance of, and yet... my mind can't tell me why. I finally turn up to see she's reached the end of the aisle. "Please, don't trample the flowers."
"Ah..." She looks down to the flower bed, the turns back to face me. "Of course." She flaps her wings again, making a small hop over the flower bed and across to the opposite side, where a door on the left leads behind the church's altar and into the back room. She peeks in there for a moment, looking around before coming back to the main room. "This place... it's quite old and uncared for, is it not?" She asks, looking up to the hole in the ceiling, where the small beams of sunlight filter in to feed the flowers.
"Yeah..." I reply, standing and making my way to the flower bed as well, the Buster Sword held limply in my right hand. "But that's why the flowers grow here. This is one of the few parts of the lower city where the sunlight reaches, and the building protects them from being eaten or trampled."
"A lower city devoid of sunlight?" Princess Luna turns the words over in her mind, then turns her head down to make eye-contact with me. "What is this city like, dreamer?"
"I... I don't remember." I turn my gaze down to the flower bed.
Her eyes follow mine. "These flowers are well-tended, despite the harrowing conditions you described. Someone truly cared for them."
"Yeah, she did..." I reply half-heartedly.
"She?" The Princess replies curiously, leaping back across the flower bed to stand next to me. "You also show great care for these flowers, so We can only assume she was quite important to you as well." She steps up to my side, reaching a wing up and resting it on my shoulder. "Who was she, dreamer?"
"I... I don't..." I can't even finish that sentence.
She pulls her wing off my shoulder and begins walking down the aisle between the pews again. She looks around, examining the walls and windows of the building as she makes her way back to the heavy doors of the building. "We do believe this location could be quite beautiful, were its original state restored."
"Maybe, but..."
"The flowers?" She cuts me off, turning back to face me. "Restoration of the old does not necessarily mean destruction of the new, dreamer. If We truly wish them to remain, We will find a way."
I turn my gaze down to the floor, my loose grip on the Buster Sword tightening, not able to find my voice for a reply.
"Besides... does it not make sense that a complete building would serve better to protect your flower bed than a half-standing ruin?"
A silence hangs in the air between us for a few minutes. Every time I try to formulate a reply, I can't find the strength to speak.
"We must go." Princess Luna says after a time, breaking the silence between us. "Your companion is in need of Our ability, and you seem to have much to think about on your own." Princess Luna extends her wings once more and gives them a flap, stretching them. "Fare thee well, dreamer." She takes to the air with another strong beat of her wings, flying out of the church through the hole in the ceiling that feeds the sunlight down to the flower bed.
With that, I'm alone again in the church, though no longer on the rails of the dream I started with. I sit down in one of the front pews, again staring down at the flower bed as I lay the Buster Sword down across my lap. Much like the flower bed, the sword is eminating a warmth in its own way. I close my eyes, thinking. Just as the flowers hold the memory of the woman who cared for them, this sword also holds its own memories, ones that feel just within my grasp but so desperately far away. Like the flowers, the Buster Sword also contains the memory of a person who once cared for it - a reckless, friendly, charismatic man, that would always charge ahead no matter how difficult the challenges got.
"You'd laugh if you saw me like this, wouldn't you?" I ask the sword resting on my lap, the cold metal not able to give me a reply. What had happened to these people?
I stand up, grasping the Buster Sword in my right hand, blade trailing behind me as I near the flower bed. I approach it carefully, reaching my arm out and planting the sword firmly in the center of the flowers. The metal shines under the rays of the sun, reflecting the sunlight as I move to sit back down in the pew, close to the edge so that I'm in the sunlight as well. I turn up, leaning back with my arms hanging off the back of the pew, taking comfort in the sun's warmth. I blink, and...
...As my eyes open, the first thing I notice is the sunlight is gone. I'm laying on my back, looking up at a dark ceiling, with a blanket over me. I shift my body, the mattress under me soft and giving while the pillows behind me head jostle themselves slightly out of place. Had I woken up? I raise myself up to my elbows, my chest flaring with pain as I move. Yeah... definitely woken up. Hopefully that didn't just re-open anything.
Once I'm sitting up, I begin looking around the room. Everything is dark, but I can make out a small table next to the bed, and a window on the wall to my right, the curtains drawn shut as the smallest amount of moonlight reflects off them. A hospital room? A room at the castle? Maybe I was back at the library? It's impossible to tell. The only thing I see that's familiar is what's in the far corner of the room. There's a two-person wide chair resting in the corner, against the wall facing the door. On it is a small figure, wrapped in a star-speckled cloak, a magician's hat-turned-pillow cushioning her head, her body moving with the faint rises and falls of breathing.
I lean myself slowly back onto the bed, staring at the ceiling, wincing at the pain of changing positions again. It does make more sense to use a complete building than a half-standing ruin to protect the flower bed, doesn't it? I close my eyes and rest my mind, allowing myself to drift back into one of the first truly peaceful slumbers I've had since arriving in Equestria.
The next time I wake up, the room is bright with sunlight, making me squint my eyes as my brain starts up. Tilting my head to the right shows the window's curtains have been thrown aside, window open to let in some fresh air. It's hard to know for sure without sitting up for a better look, but from my prone position, it seems like the only thing visible through my window is the morning sky - no trees, buildings, or mountain. If I'm recalling what I've experienced of Equestrian geography correctly, this means I should still be somewhere in Canterlot, with a window facing out toward Ponyville. That, combined with the brick walls of the room, crosses off the Golden Oak Library from the places my half-dead self has ended up.
I groan slightly, my head throbbing with a dull pain. I try moving, but am quickly stopped by the pains eminating from the wound in my chest. They feel worse than they did last night, so either I've reopened the wound, or some sort of painkiller I was given has started to wear off. As I groan and shift, I hear the patter of hooves against the floor, and soon my view of the window is blocked by a familiar, azure face.
"Dusk? Are you awake?" Trixie asks as our eyes meet.
"People tend to wake up in the morning, don't they?" I respond with another groan. I steel myself from the pain and put my arms under me, pushing myself back up into a sitting position once more. No pain was going to take away the dignity of at least being able to do that much.
I look at Trixie again, and it's clear she's holding back tears. "Even when you're half dead, you're such an idiot!" Her angry declaration is juxtaposed by her getting closer, wrapping a hoof around one of my arms and pressing her head against it. "I'm glad you're alright, Dusk." I contemplate replying, but decide it's just better not to, leaving the moment to itself. After some time, she continues. "I'm sorry... when you needed me the most, all I could do is run away..."
"It's okay, Trixie..." I try to reassure her.
"No, it's not okay!" She pulls my arm tighter, nearly making me lose the balance that's allowing me to stay in a sitting position. "I go around, telling everyone I'm the strongest unicorn in Equestria! But when my friend needs me to be that... I'm nothing more than elaborate unicorn parlor tricks. If something like that guy from the Crystal Caves shows up again, what am I supposed to do? Throw a deck of cards at him?"
"Trixie..." I don't know what I'm supposed to say.
"Don't coddle me, Dusk!" I can hear a small, choked sob. "When things became dangerous, Twilight was able to step up! The train, the night in Ponyville, the cave... she always steps up, she always fights, no matter how difficult things get. But I... each time something happens, there's less and less I can do to help you. Even that animal-loving pegasus would be more useful than I am..."
She pulls away from me, wiping her eyes with one hoof. "We should stop traveling together, Dusk. The more things happen, the more I realize I'm just a burden to you."
"Trixie..." I repeat her name again, finally collecting the words I need. "Things aren't going to be less dangerous going forward, but... do you think I care about any of that? That you can't fight as well as Twilight? That you're not as brave as Twilight? If I wanted to be traveling alongside Twilight, I would be."
"Dusk..." Trixie trails, now being the one unable to find the words she needs.
"Things will only get more dangerous. We'll probably get hurt, even worse than now. I might die. ...You might die. It's true, there are many things only Twilight can do. Impressive feats of magic, great intelligence," I give Trixie a small smirk, "intense list making and itemization. But there are things only you can do, Trixie. The only reason I've seen as much of Equestria is thanks to you. No matter how discouraged you were, depressed, defeated, you always put one foot... one hoof in front of the other, and kept going."
"..." I see her eyes well up again as she takes a deep breath, still not replying, though the quip I threw in seems to have at least gotten her to crack a small smile.
"You've always been able to press forward, and that bolsterous confidence of yours make it easy for me to forget my own problems and go with the flow of what's going on." I pause for a moment, again trying to get the right words together. "Like I said in the caves, I hadn't told you about it before now, but... while we've been traveling, the person we saw has been messing with my dreams, attempting to distort my view of things and dominate my mind." I close my eyes and let out a small sigh before continuing. "Again, things will only get more dangerous, so I won't blame you if you still want to leave, but... if I had been with Twilight this whole time, I don't think I would have resisted Sephiroth's attack on my pysche anywhere near as well as I have, nor would I be ready to do this..."
"Ready to do what, Dusk?" Trixie asks, the tiniest bit more cheer coming back.
"If Twilight really thinks she can sort out the mess in my head, I'm... ready for her to try." I reply. "I don't know why my gut has been telling me to avoid it before now, but it doesn't matter anymore. Whatever happens, I won't let Sephiroth have his way with this planet, and the information I need in order to stop him is still locked away in my head."
"Are you sure?" Trixie comes closer. "Dusk... do you really think you can stop him, even if you remember everything?"
"It doesn't matter what I think, Trixie." I grip the sheets of the bed in my hands, taking a deep breath. "Even if the difference between him and I is insurmountable, I have to stop him. I have to find a way. I don't have a choice."
Trixie finally gives me a smile, wiping her face clean again with her hoof, then beginning to walk toward the door of the room. "Let me get you breakfast first, Dusk. The doctor Princess Celestia asked to help you said that even at the rate you're healing, it'll be a few days before that wound heals enough for you to move."
She leaves the room and I look down at myself for the first time, pulling the sheet on top of me away. The top half of my SOLDIER uniform and its associated metal and leather plates have been removed, replaced with tightly wound bandages around my midsection where Sephiroth's sword skewered me. I try to touch the wound with one hand and wince. Whoever this doctor is, if anything, their forecast on my healing is generously fast. This wound is pretty bad. But... do we even have the luxury of waiting a few days for me to heal?