Fields of Fire

by Wheller

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Having parted from the rest of the group, Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash and Spike headed off for home. Twilight, with Spike on her back turned down the High Street and was surprised when Rainbow Dash didn’t turn with her.

‘Rainbow? Where are you going?’ Twilight asked.

Rainbow stopped in her tracks, to be perfectly honest, she had no idea. Even though Twilight didn’t remember it, she had thrown her out. Her cloud home had been reclaimed by Cloudsdale where it was to be recycled into another part of the could city, or be made into somepony else’s home.

‘Um...’ Rainbow Dash said. ‘I didn’t know if you still wanted me...’

‘Rainbow Dash!’ Twilight cried out. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’

Rainbow Dash took a slow, uneasy step over towards Twilight. Rainbow Dash felt a lot like Fluttershy during this, she never thought that she would be in this situation. She really didn’t know how to feel about it.

Twilight frowned. ‘Rainbow Dash... this isn’t like you’.

‘I know... I just...’ Rainbow Dash said. ‘Twilight, you know I love you, right?’

Twilight nodded her head in affirmation.

‘Well... I...’ Rainbow Dash began, then looked to Spike who was still sitting on Twilight’s back. ‘Could you...?’

‘Yeah, sure’, the baby dragon said with a nod, hopping off Twilight and jogging back over to the Library.

‘It doesn’t change the fact, you dumped me Twilight, even if you don’t remember it, and it really hurt’, Rainbow Dash said, struggling over her own words, emotions weren’t her strong suit, after all. ‘And believe you me, I’m happy that we’re back together and all... but I don’t know if I’m ready for things to just go back to the way they were... am I making sense?’

Twilight frowned and shook her head. ‘Not really... but I think I understand what you’re getting at. You want to take things slow’.

‘Yeah...’ Rainbow Dash said with a nod.

Twilight looked up at Rainbow Dash and gave her a small smile. ‘I understand, we can take things slow. But come on, Cloudsdale reclaimed your cloud house, so you’ve got to stay someplace. You can’t just stay out on the street! There’s always the guest room’.

‘Okay’, Rainbow Dash said with a small smile as she fell in behind Twilight and the two of them made their way back to the Library. Rainbow Dash bid Twilight goodnight, and went off to the guest room. Twilight trotted upstairs and laid down in bed, pulling the covers over herself. It might have only been five thirty, but it might as well have been eleven thirty. As a matter of fact, it was eleven thirty in Trotterdam, even though she hardly remembered being there, her body had clearly adjusted to the time there. She was exhausted, and closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

...

Twilight opened her eyes and looked over to her clock, the time was... five thirty one? Twilight scowled at the clock, that couldn’t have been right.

‘I wouldn’t pay too much attention to that’, a voice from the far side of the room said. ‘It bears no relevance here’.

Twilight noticed at that point that the clock wasn’t actually ticking. Her head snapped up and turned slowly towards the voice. Standing in the corner of the room was the all too familiar stallion, grey coat, bright orange mane. His crimson eyes looking right at her, Monty Ulan didn’t take his eyes off her for a second.

Twilight searched her brain. She remembered Trotterdam, she remembered Heinrich Büchsenmacher. A smile came to her face at thoughts of the kindly schäferhund gunsmith, but her smile faded just as quickly as thoughts of Pierre La Roche returned to her just the same. Twilight realised that she was not in her bedroom at all.

‘I put the memories back’, Monty said. ‘You need them for what’s next’.

‘What’s going on?’ Twilight asked.

‘The Tribunal has met to decide upon a matter. You have been called to speak before them’, Monty said with a sigh.

‘About that? About La Roche?’ Twilight asked.

Monty merely shook his head. ‘No, that matter has been decided upon. The Tribunal is deciding what to do with me’.

Twilight blinked in confusion for a moment, Monty was quick to pick up on it and continued his explanation. ‘Me and the two others that were with me acted without the consent of the Tribunal, and for it, we are to be punished, the Tribunal just hasn’t decided yet what that punishment is’.

‘And they want to talk to me?’ Twilight asked.

‘I acted on your behalf’, Monty said with a nod. ‘The severity of the punishment will depend on what you say’.

Twilight frowned. ‘So no pressure huh?’ she said, rolling her eyes.

‘Oh no, there will be punishment; I knew that going into it. Just answer the Tribunal’s questions as honestly and truthfully as you can’, Monty said. ‘Now close your eyes’.

Twilight did as she was told, she closed her eyes. When she opened them up again she discovered that the scenery had changed to what somewhat resembled The High Court building in Canterlot. Doric columns held up the ceilings. The floors were marble, and elaborate tapestries adorned the wall. Twilight took a closer look at the tapestries, for some odd reason, no matter how much she looked at them; she could not make out what they were. ‘Monty? These tapestries... what are they?’

‘What tapestries?’ Monty asked as he trotted up. He let out a sigh and looked back towards Twilight. ‘Twilight, we’re on another plane of reality that you’re mind is not able to comprehend as it truly is. It’s approximating, take this place, this is the hall of the Tribunal, you’re imagining it as you think it should be. Probably some fancy judiciary building like you would find in Canterlot, correct?’

Twilight nodded in affirmation.

‘Regardless, I don’t see things here the way that you see them, these tapestries that you’re describing, what are they like?’ Monty asked.

‘Well... I don’t know, I’m looking at them, and I can’t make out what they’re trying to say’.

Monty looked over in the general direction that Twilight was. ‘These are the codex perficere. They’re a complete history of the entire universe. All knowledge is held in here. You can’t read them because you’re not allowed to, you’d become like Princess Celestia if you read these... except you’d be far worse’.

Monty looked back over to Twilight, giving her a worried look. ‘Come on, it’s almost time’.

...

Fluttershy pushed open the door to her home and trotted in. The sun was setting and it was going to be dark soon. The interior of her home was rather dark, too dark for her tastes. She would need to build herself a fire for light.

She went back outside and picked up a few logs of firewood and placed them in her fireplace. She took an elongated match in her teeth and struck it, setting the wood on fire and tending to it until it reached a proper position. Disposing of the match in the fireplace she took another one and struck it, this time lighting a few candles for extra light.

Fluttershy took a deep breath in, and then let it out. The atmosphere of her home was very relaxing. After running around the world with her friends looking for Twilight, Fluttershy was exhausted. She laid herself back down on her sofa, making herself as comfortable as possible. Her home began to fill with the warmth of the fire. So relaxing...

Fluttershy felt herself drifting off to sleep; she sat back up, quickly blew out the candles and allowed sleep to come.

...

Fluttershy’s dream took her to Ponyville, but it was not the Ponyville that she recognised. She was in the middle of the High Street, however, High Street had become busy and bustling, almost like that of Manehattan or Trotterdam. Ponies were everywhere, swarming around her. Police combots rolled too and fro. In the sky above her Zeppelins glided too and fro, docking at large tethers to take on passengers.

This was Ponyville?

Fluttershy looked up, in the distance she could see the mountains, but much to her shock, Canterlot was gone. Instead, the mountain had been flattened and a new city built on top of it. Zeppelins glided back and forth between metropolitan Ponyville and this new mountain city.

Ponies swarmed all around Fluttershy. She didn’t like how crowded this place was. There was a loud whistle that priced the airs. More ponies flooded. Fluttershy threw her front hooves over her ears and huddled down on the ground. Nopony noticed she was even there, save the odd one that stepped on her. Fluttershy cried out in pain, but her cries were ignored as the bustling ponies went about their way, not noticing, or not caring that they were stepping on her. She cried out as loud as she could hoping somepony would see her and stop and help.

As it turned out, someone did stop and help.

‘Are you okay?’ the kindly person asked.

Fluttershy shook her head in the negative. She looked up to see who it was. It was Mister Happy, hovering a millimetre from her face. Fluttershy screamed in panic. Throwing herself awake from the fright.

She discovered that she was in her home, and that Ponyville had not become what it was like in her dream... but the more she thought about it, the more she realised it was becoming like that.

Comments

[DreadedCandiru2]

Well, Celestia can at least count on one pony to be on Team Phobic Reactionary Moron. It's time to say hello to Ludditeshy. Also, I think I know how those fields are going to be set on fire and who'll help Sun do it.