The Realm of Dreams: Luna's demesne, where ponies arrived every night in worship to the Lunar Mare, whether they realized their fealty or not. Where necessary, Luna would step into nightmares and return her subjects to peaceful slumber. More often than not, though, no intervention from her was necessary, as the majority of dreams were either peaceful or at least rather innocuous and inoffensive.
Tarnished Relic's dream was not a nightmare, but neither was it completely without note.
He was stood beside a wide river, at least a mile wide or perhaps more, the water moving along swiftly but without violence or froth. He followed it with his eyes, and it split into two rivers. And then four. Eight. Sixteen. Thirty-Two. He could see farther than he thought equinely possible, and he saw that the streams kept on dividing, splitting again and again exponentially, spreading out in all directions, a million thin streams swallowing the horizon. All was quiet except for the peaceful ambience of the river beside him...but then he heard a voice begin to speak:
"The river flowed out of the True Dream,
dividing into infinite streams,
and every life was gently watered."
Huh? But...that's my voice, he thought. It was indeed his voice, or at least it sounded very much like it, though there was a strange resonance to it.
"We all reach out to each other
from whichever riverbank we call home,
and together the chaos is beautiful."
Tarnished looked around, looking to see if his doppelganger was visible. But no, it was only the voice which he heard, and he felt a chill run down his spine. He had never dreamed this vividly before. The waters of the great river were crystal blue and glowing, throbbing and pulsing with light. The banks along the river were lush with greenery, the flora well-watered and made to flourish. He had never seen such healthy plant life before, and though it looked delicious, he felt no hunger. Staring at the waters, which looked so clean and inviting, he found that he felt no thirst either. He merely acknowledged the beauty. He felt strangely moved by what he was seeing, and the closing words of a poem he had read many years before suddenly came back to him: And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything? And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for? And have you changed your life?
"But love, love cannot be divided, only multiplied.
Like the kudzu it devours all
and leaves peace and joy in its wake."
The vocal doppelganger spoke once more, and the flora around him exploded in growth, grass shooting up to his neck, multitudes of flowers opening and straining upwards toward the unseen sun that was illuminating the scene before him. Try as he might, he couldn't direct his gaze upward, unable to look upon the burning ball in the sky. It seemed there were some limitations to this dream, then.
"The river has divided, spreading out in all directions,
but love brings all streams into itself."
Suddenly, he was whisked along at high speed, lifting into the air, moving faster than any pegasus could. For an earth pony like himself, this was both thrilling and frightening, and the cry leaving his mouth was somewhere between terror and delight. He soared over the multitude of streams, the infinite streams, but noticed that as he was borne along towards the horizon the streams began to converge and mix until they had once again formed one great river.
"Xzalamat is love, she brings all into her embrace."
The river disappeared, along with everything else, and he found himself floating in a white, featureless void. Uh...what the buck just happened?, he thought, feeling an undeniable ache in his chest at the loss of the preternatural beauty he had just been witness too. The void did not remain featureless for long, as a pair of eyes opened in the nothingness, giant eyes towering over him, green eyes with a slit black pupil. The eyes very like Chrysalis' eyes, but he knew these eyes did not belong to her. He didn't have to dig deep to know whose eyes were trained on him. These were the eyes of Xzalamat, and though they were daunting in size, they looked at him kindly. It was then that he heard his vocal doppelganger speaking once more, and the voice was tinged with sheer rapture:
"Xzalamat, Xzalamat, kju pirir zo!
Chitinous Eternal Mother, hold me close!
May my fangs glint in the sunlight as I smile,
overcome with joy,
may I feel secure and at peace,
with no terror surrounding me,
may my heart be acceptable in your eyes
when I offer it to you!"
Hearing these words in his own voice sent another chill through him, but he also noted that they filled him with the stirrings of excitement and joy. These were not his words, they were not words he could see himself saying, and yet hearing them being said aloud with his voice made his heart quicken in his chest. Was this merely a fantasy dream, or...or was it a portent of things to come?
Before he could get too deep in his ruminations over the meaning of what he had seen so far, he heard another voice speak. It boomed from the void, it echoed from every direction, it filled his ears. The intensity of it reminded him of the Royal Canterlot Voice, the volume of which commanded fear and awe. But the Royal Canterlot Voice had nothing on this.
"All that I will do for you and more, my son, if you return to me, if you will give yourself over to the one whom you have not known but who will henceforth be known to one and all."
Xzalamat's voice was loud and all-encompassing, but it was also sweet and kind, and he fell before Her eyes onto his knees, unbidden tears of joy springing from his tear ducts and rolling down his cheeks.
"I...I will...I...I want to..." It was his voice speaking, soft and tremulous, but this time it was from his own mouth. His vocal doppelganger had been leading him along to this point, but now it was time for him to continue, to finish the dream. He didn't know why he was agreeing with this strange new sentiment, but it felt right.
"I know, my son. I know you do. I love you. Now...AWAKEN!"
His eyes shot open and he gasped loudly, looking wildly about. It took him a few moments to remember where he was, to overcome the confusion of waking up in a place that was not his bed, and then he registered the warm presence of Chrysalis beside him, nuzzling him.
"Are you all right, Tarnished?" She asked, chirruping softly and giving his cheek a gentle lick.
"I...um...I think so, I just...had a dream." His voice quivered. His whole body quivered, as he was still overcome by what he had witnessed. He was more shaken up by it than any nightmare he'd had as a foal. "It was...like nothing I've ever seen."
"What happened in it?" Tarnished then proceeded to describe what he had scene in his dream, the river that divided and then converged again, the beauty of the water and the flora, and he also told her what his vocal doppelganger had said. When he got to the point of the dream where he had encountered Xzalamat, or at least Her kind yet overpowering eyes, he found himself stumbling over his words, his face rather flushed. When he had finished, he looked at her and waited for her pronouncement. "It is very much a portent. You must feel honoured that She would send a vision to you."
"I...I'm not quite sure. I mean, I found myself agreeing at the end of it, but was that really me? I hardly know her. I hardly know you. This is all so new and sudden! Throwing myself at the mercy and love of a goddess I thought up until now only a myth is...well...a little hard to swallow."
"I will concede that it is so. You have not known her, nor has the rest of ponykind. A few know of her name in myth, as you do, but otherwise she is a complete unknown. But you will know, Tarnished, be assured of that. I shall teach you. She shall teach you. All of Equestria will know her in time. Whether in a short time or a long time, I know that all will be like me, wearing the True Shape and content and at peace in Xzalamat's embrace."
"You seem fairly confident of your success, Chrysalis."
"I have been given a vision as well, and I have seen it. Xzalamat does not lie. She is not a pony so as to tell lies. If she has said it, then it will be done."
"...all right. But then why did I get a vision? I'm nopony special. Why would she single me out?"
"You are a highly favoured one, Tarnished. From the beginning of my slumber, Xzalamat knew you. Aeons would pass until your birth, but she awaited it with excitement, for you would be the one to awaken me. It was your destiny to find me."
"So I had no choice in the matter?" He asked, frowning. "I'm not sure I like that."
"So much is made of choice. When one has no choice, they chafe at it and demand choice. But when they are given choice, they know not what to do, and are miserable with their choice. But I will say this, you still have a choice. Either you wish to attend to me and help me, and dwell at my side, or we can go our separate ways and you can turn your back on me and Xzalamat. The choice is yours, Tarnished. You know what I wish, that you would choose the former, but I cannot and will not stop you from choosing the latter." Gently disentangling herself from him, she stood up and stepped over him, walking down the steps of the altar. "Day has broken, and it would be best if we moved on. Where do we head to from here?"
"Well...I guess we'll be heading back to Canterlot, and we'll get there by catching the train leaving from Appleloosa. Appleloosa is about a day and a half walk from here." His voice was soft and flat, devoid of enthusiasm, too much on his mind at the moment to summon enough affect to colour his words.
"Lead the way, then." She said, and he walked down the altar steps, leading her out of the hollow butte. As they stepped out into the morning light, sand swirling in eddies around their hooves, he turned back and looked at the towering rocky edifice, thinking how quickly everything had changed in the space of a few hours. Even if nothing came of Chrysalis' quest, which he thought likely to fail, he would never be the same stallion again.