• Published 30th May 2013
  • 3,143 Views, 142 Comments

Tenna - Listener



Tenna is a changeling. Tenna wants to fit in. But most of all, Tenna wants to be herself. Can the timid changeling overcome her fear and show her real self?

  • ...
6
 142
 3,143

Of Nightmares and Dreams

Tech woke up slowly, holding his head in pain as he pushed the helmet off.

“Oh... Celestia, what a nightmare. I can’t remember the last time I woke up this sore...” He said as he slowly picked himself off the ground and looked up. His eyes gave him a strange site that nobody wants to wake up to.

Two royal guards stood there, spears brandished in his direction. The guard’s stares were even, betraying nothing as he searched them for any clue of what might have happened.

“Wh-What’s going on?” He managed to whisper, swallowing with his already dry mouth again as he waited nervously for an answer.

A third figure appeared behind the two guards, this time a more familiar one. Though the expression was one that he had never seen on her face. Mud spattered legs, and what looked scar ran above her eyeline.

Twilight looked at Tech, a strange mixture of fear and sadness muddling her features.

“Twi-Twilight? Wh-what’s going on?”

Twilight cringed slightly at his voice before regaining her composure a bit, though her voice still betrayed her with it’s slight wobbling.

“Tech, you are hereby under arrest for the massacre of Ponyville.” She said, her eyes growing hard towards the end of the sentence.

Tech’s ears folded down as he heard the words, the rest of the world slowly fading to black as they registered.

“Wh-What?” He said softly, panic in his voice as he shook his head slowly. “N-No. That’s not me. I-I would never.” He looked back up at Twilight, his eyes wide with a crazed look. “Twilight, y-you know me. I w-would... c-could never do that!”

Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry Tech. I saw it happen with my own eyes.”

Tech breathed heavily, squeezing his eyes shut and putting his head down.

“No... It can’t be p-possible.”

“Then explain the horn on your head, Tech.” Twilight said, her voice low. All of her apparent apprehension had disappeared.

Eyes opening wide, he slowly reached his hoof up to his forehead, where it was met with an unexpected obstacle.

One that shouldn’t have been there.

“Wh-what!?” Tech said, both hooves going to his head, attempting to rip the obstruction off. “N-No! What is this!?”

“It’s a horn. Your horn.” Twilight said, before turning around. “Now get up. We’re leaving, and we’re authorized by the Princess herself to use any force necessary. We didn’t expect to find you unconscious.”

She stopped, and looked behind her at him. “And I don’t care what you have planned. I don’t care who you were. I will not hesitate to end this. Right here. Right now. So don’t try anything.”

With one last glare, Twilight turned and left the building, the door slamming shut behind her as Tech just stared at it blearily as the guards gestured for him to get up.

“Get up.” Was all the unicorn guards said, gesturing up with the spear, as the other simple stared at him with impassiveness.

Struggling to his hooves, Tech leaned against the nearby wall to stabilize himself for a moment before he managed to balance himself and hobbled towards the door, the two guards parting to let him through.

Lifting a forearm to shield his eyes, he gasped at the sight that greeted him outside of the house he was in. It wasn’t like anything he had seen before.

Or...

Had hoped he had dreamed.

He had stepped out of the house, into the ruined streets of Ponyville. He looked around quickly, feeling his breath speedup as he started to panic

“Wh-What?” He whispered, stopping.

Twilight turned around again, anger in her eyes. “Stop trying to play dumb, Tech! Look at this. Our... My home! Gone!” She said, anger clear in her voice as she glared at him.

Tech trembled under the weight of the knowledge that he had apparently caused all this destruction. His eyes wandered again slowly, taking in the sight. Many of the buildings were simply gone, remains of walls marking where they had once stood. The ground was slightly burned, and in the distance, smoke could be seen rising to the sky, presumably from a small fire. As he looked, he eventually looked back at Twilight, breathing heavily as he struggled to form a question.

“How did I... When...” He started, stammering the words out until his mind hit on the question he was looking for.

“T-Tenna?” He asked, worry surging through him system.

Twilight’s eyes seemed to soften for a moment, before hardening again, and with a look at the guards behind him, they prodded him into motion. As he slowly started to walk, Twilight answered him.

“She... is in critical care because of you, last I heard.” She said, softly, but the edge still plain for all to hear. Tech’s ears folded to his head, and his head hung as he nearly missed a step.

“But that’s not the worst part, Tech.” Twilight stared again. “You know what else you did?”

Tech didn’t even attempt to respond, and he didn’t need to. Twilight continued on anyway, as they walked past the roads that no longer existed, places that would only exist in memories now.

“Tech, you exposed her.” Twilight said, not even slowing down, or looking at him as Tech felt his body grow even colder. It seemed physically impossible how cold he was.

“I-I... wha?”

“Yes Tech. First, you broke her emotionally. And then, you just magicked off her disguise.”

Tech opened his mouth to protest, but Twilight stopped him with a glare. “And don’t you dare tell me that you wouldn’t do that. I. Watched. You.”

She said this, and got closer to his face with every word, ending up inches from his face. “And you broke her heart.” She said, her gaze like a knife against Tech.

After a few seconds of this, she looked away again, moving on. “Now come on. We’ve already wasted enough time dealing with this. Princess Celestia wants to have you in Canterlot as soon as possible.”

The guards prodded him again after he didn’t move again, his mind trying to cope with the information that Twilight had given him.

His legs moved, and his head hung low, but his mind was still whirling with the facts he knew, what he thought he knew, and the information that Twilight had given him. None of it made sense! The last thing he remembered was exploring the castle with Twilight...

And now this had happened.

The trek to the train was silent, and filled with unspoken emotion. The only noises that could be heard was the groups breathing and their footsteps disturbing the ground. The noises shattered the silence that seemed... absolute.

The train stood there, it’s normally bright and vibrant colors dulled by the mood of the somber town. Not even bothering to slow down, Twilight slid open the final car and entered it, leaving the guards to make sure that Tech got boarded.

The guards were none too gentle. Prodding him with the spears, he went faster onto the train where he was filed into a compartment where Twilight was already sitting. He was seated quickly on the other side of her, the guards sitting at attention on either side of him.

The train shuddered to a start towards Canterlot, drawing the train and it’s passengers towards Tech’s certain conviction.

Twilight sat there, staring at Tech for a few minutes, before breaking the silence that had pervaded the cabin since the start.

“It doesn’t make any sense.” She said.

Tech looked up at her sharply, startled slightly. “Wh-What?”

“This. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would you destroy Ponyville.” She asked, studying him. “What happened to you. Maybe if you explain, you won’t be executed.” She said, simply stating the fact.

Tech flinched at the causal use of that word. “I-I don’t know. The last thing I remember was looking for Nightmare Moon’s armor, and then...” He shrugged. “I don’t know... but Twilight, you have to believe me. I...” He stopped, unsure of what to say.

The silence returned for a few minutes, before she opened her mouth again. “Guards, leave us.”

The looked at her, confused and looking ready to argue, but at her look, they nodded, filing out into the hallway. Twilight looked at Tech again. “Tech... I’m not sure if you’re telling the truth, or if you’re so masterfully lying that I can’t detect it.”

Tech remained silent.

“You changed, after that. You checked out of the hospital with nothing but a mild concussion. You were slightly moody afterwards, but we wrote that off to the concussion.”

“Then you... you got mean. It was like you were... a completely different person. You were... I don’t know how to explain it. But we once again wrote it off as the concussion. And when Tenna tried to get you to go to the doctor’s” She paused, before cont you snapped. Exposed Tenna. Did some magic that I don’t even know how you managed to do.”

“You held Ponyville captive for a full day Tech. Only Celestia and Luna combining their power did they break the shield that had been erected.”

“You... didn’t like to lose. I don’t know if it was a Nightmare or something, but you cast a spell at Celestia, or at least... looked like you were. But... you collapsed your own spell matrix on itself. Without any escape, the spell overloaded and exploded.”

“Tech...” Twilight said, looking at him like she used to, like a friend, before her eyes hardened. “Now you know what you did. And why... why you must pay.”

Tech just looked at her with sad eyes, before a big bump caused him to hit his head hard, blacking out.

---------

He sat straight up, a loud, continuous beeping in his ear causing him to panic and look around in a hurry, taking everything in quickly. The popcorn ceiling, the ECG monitor, the plain white walls. He breathed quickly, the beeping still on the edge of his hearing as the brown door in the corner of the room burst open, a unicorn quickly reaching Tech’s side.

“Calm down. You’re okay.” The unicorn said, putting a hoof on Tech’s chest and slowly forcing him down into the bed again. “Just lie down.”

Tech resisted at first, but eventually laid down. “Wh-wha?” He managed to get out, his panic receding a bit.

The doctor chuckled. “You’re in the hospital. I don’t have the details behind your accident, but you’re suffering from a mild concussion.” He said, pulling up the clipboard from the end of the bed in his magic.

Tech looked at his doctor for a moment, before closing his eyes, suddenly weary.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep on me yet, Tech. I need to do some simple tests, and then there’s some ponies here to see you.”

Tech sighed, covering his eyes while groaning.

-----------------------------------------------

The doctor left after submitting Tech to a battery of tests, only confirming what he had already suspected. He left him with the standard list of symptoms to look out for.

“I’ll send in the ponies that have been waiting for you to wake up.” He said, leaving the door open.

Tech looked at the tube in his arm, moving to get the needle out of his arm only to be stopped by a purple aura.

He looked up to see a familiar purple unicorn enter, a worried look on her face. “Woah, don’t mess with that. They put it in you for a reason.” She said, before walking up to the bed.

“I knew it was a mistake to let you help.” She said, sighing. “I only ended up letting you get hurt, and in the hospital.” She said, before pulling Tech into a hug.

“Dammit, you. You’ve had half the town worried about you.”

“Half the town? Come on, I couldn’t have been in here for that long, could I have?” He asked, trying to joke, his head hurting slightly.

“You’ve been here three days, due to the magical feedback of the helmet.” Twilight explained. “They’ve kept you under while they bleed the excess magic out of your system.”

Tech started slightly. “Well... that was unexpected.”

“Speaking of that helmet, what happened to not touching anything that even looked remotely like the Nightmare’s armor?” She asked, getting slightly angry. “Do you have any idea the repercussions that could’ve happened if we hadn’t gotten it off of you? As it was, it was almost fully bonded!” Twilight said, getting upset at the end.

“We could’ve had another Nightmare on our hooves, only this time it would’ve been you.” Twilight explained, as Tech’s blood ran cold.

“Wha-What?” He asked, memories of the dreams flooding back.

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. It would’ve been bad, but we would’ve stopped it again. We stopped it before. This time would’ve been no different.” She said, smiling.

“Now, rest up, hopefully life can return to normal when you’re checked out.” She said, before saying a goodbye and leaving Tech to his thoughts.

Tech just sat there, worried.

Would life return to normal?

...Could life return to normal?

Author's Note:

So, here we are again, it's always such a pleasure.

Update for you guys~ Stay Classy my friends~

Comments ( 14 )

Wait so when he woke up again the massacre thing didn't happen? So it was just a dream?

Edit: FIRST ...... I think

I'm surprised he wasn't scared for his life when Twilight walked in the room. I mean, he felt the spears jabbing him, which must have hurt. That usually means you ain't dreaming...

I think, his dream was a kind of vision and is about to happen but slightly different.

4596285 Actually, the myth of dreams dont hurt is false.Stuff that happens in dreams cant physically do harm to you but you can still feel them.

Comment posted by Lucky Seven deleted Oct 3rd, 2014
Comment posted by Listener deleted May 18th, 2019

I am sorry to see that this story has been Cancelled. I was enjoying it.

Dragonfox

6071754
See here~ Just give me about a week, hopefully.

AGH!

Forsooth! I am yet again, remiss of abundant chapters!!!

My kingdom for yet another chapter to continue this story...

hi i love ur oc!!! my names Crystal Glow :rainbowlaugh: and im new here

Too bad this appears to be abandoned.

10075012
It's only on hiatus, I still have plenty of ideas for this story, such as finishing this arc. Just gotta get back into the right mindset to write it again!

10076905
Please do. I can't waut for the next chapter...

Login or register to comment