• Published 10th Oct 2013
  • 1,743 Views, 25 Comments

I wish, I hope, I dream, I pray - TNBi



When Princess Luna heard of Snowdrop's wish that she wanted to see the world, she determined that she'd somehow help her realize it. She walked into her dream, and granted her dream vision -- not knowing what the consequences would be.

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Chapter 10: Ponies

“AAAAAAAAAAAGHHH!!”

It hurts, it hurts!

“Doctor! She’s critical! What shall we do?!”

It hurts... so bad!

“It can’t be! All previous checks indicated she was fine, for heaven’s sake! Need a sedative, stat!” shouted the doctor anxiously. “Snowdrop! Can you hear me? Answer me!” he called.

“It hurts! My head is splitting in two!” she screamed. The rusty taste filled her entire mouth, and her blood burned like boiling water. She couldn’t think anymore in the excruciating pain; all she could do was cry and scream.

“Seize her! Quick!”

A few nurses rushed and held her in place; one of them took a syringe and injected something chilly into her body. It cooled her down for a brief moment, but before long, the burning sensation returned even worse.

“AAAAAAAAAGHH!!”

Such unbearable pain was too much for her. She hoped she could faint from such agony, but was denied — the pain somehow kept her mind from crossing the border into limbo.

“It didn’t work, doctor! Her status remains unstable, her pulse and blood pressure keep raising! Shall we get another shot?”

She wasn’t aware of how long the suffering had lasted; to her, it could be as long as a century — then suddenly, a giant bumping sound came from the windows, followed by sounds of shattered glass pieces falling to the ground. Then all the ponies gasped in disbelief.

“Princess Luna?!”

“Step aside! I’ll handle this!”

On hearing the voice of her princess, Snowdrop felt somewhat relieved inside. She felt herself lifted up, and a wave of refreshing breeze brushed around her body. It was gentle, but it somehow carried the burning sensation away. Her boiling blood slowly calmed down, and all the pains faded away from her.

“Unbelievable! Her pulse and blood pressure has returned to normal!” Exclaimed one of the nurses.

“Princess Luna, you’re wounded!” interrupted the doctor, “those glass cuts must be taken care of at once!”

“Do not worry,” she answered, “my wounds can heal a hundred times faster than yours. Now could you excuse us for a moment? I need a word with Snowdrop.”

“Yes, Your Highness. We’ll take our leave.” The doctor answered, and led the nurses out of the room.

“Snowdrop…” after seeing all other ponies go away, Luna took a deep sigh. “Why did you keep it from me all the time? You must have noticed that the strange illness was related to what I’ve been doing, haven’t you?”

Snowdrop tried to open her unseeing eyes. She was too weary from the hell she just suffered, and she wanted to fall into sleep right away — but she couldn’t. She had questions to answer.

“Because I feared...” she sniffled, “that if I told it to you, you’d never walk into my dreams, or show me the world of so many wonders ever again... and above all, I feared you’d blame yourself.”

“Snowdrop... I’m so sorry.”

The blind filly felt something dripped onto her face. It tasted a little salty — it must be the princess’s tear.

“It was all my fault... I couldn’t fully master the techniques to manipulate a dreamscape, and I brought forth so much suffering to you.”

“Princess Luna? Please don’t cry,” regardless of her weary body, Snowdrop still slowly reached out her hoof, touched the Moon Princess’s face and wiped away her tears.

“I don’t mind that at all... Thank you for everything you did for me. I’m truly grateful and happy, and I don’t have any regrets.”

“However can I compensate you? Please tell me, whatever it may be.”

“Well... Could you sing a lullaby for me, Princess? I’m so tired... and I’ve never heard a princess sing before either. Can I have it as my compensation?” Snowdrop smiled a little. She was sleepy and tired, so tired that her head felt rather heavy.

“A lullaby? I do know one — it was from one of those most ancient, most tranquil places.”

“Could you sing it?”

“Sure...” the moon princess gently put the little filly to her bed, covered her in the quilt before she started to sing.

Her singing voice flew out from Snowdrop’s ward, into the silent night, into every corner of the hospital. The lullaby she sang was one that nopony had heard of, and it was so enchanting that whoever heard it felt relaxed and peaceful inside, as if they all were little infants again, tenderly held in their mother’s arms... Soon, even the doctors and nurses on night shift fell into a deep sleep without knowing.


***


The next day came. When Snowdrop woke up from her bed, she found Princess Luna had already returned to her castle. She left her word to the doctor that Snowdrop had already recovered and was ready to discharge. After a detailed checking, the doctor was relieved to find that all her readings were normal again, so he allowed her to apply for discharging procedures.

What happened in the hospital was even more unbelievable: nearly two thirds of all patients, the hurt, the ill, and the ponies hospitalized just one day before, became healthy again and ready to be discharged. Among the rest patients who were in critical status, two thirds had their condition stabilized, and the rest passed away in peace without any suffer. For the first time ever, the ever so crowded hospital turned a little empty.

For little Snowdrop, she had been wanting to thank Princess Luna properly ever since she returned home. It was nothing easy for her though, for she had little chance meeting her either in dream or reality.

She waited on and on, until finally one night, when she opened her eyes, she saw Princess Luna again — only that she was accompanied by two more ponies she didn’t know: one of them seemed to be an aged unicorn with big white beards, dressed in cloak and hat with constellation patterns and many bells hanging on his hat’s rims; the other looked even bigger than Princess Luna, her coat was white as snow and her mane pink like a peach, and she had both wings and horn too. Snowdrop knew who she was — her cutie mark of the sun was too obvious for an answer.

Seeing other ponies in her dream, Snowdrop was quite surprised. On the other hoof, the expression Luna had on her face looked remorseful, like she was a child that just did something wrong.

“Good evening, Snowdrop the little pegasus.” The old unicorn said and walked forth to introduce himself. “The name’s Star Swirl, but they call me Star Swirl the Bearded for obvious reasons.”

“Star Swirl the Bearded?!” Snowdrop’s eyes widened in awe. She absolutely had heard of the Royal Prime Magician’s name before, and it was a name known to anypony who had ever been to school.

“And I am Princess Celestia. You’ve seen... heard me before.” the white pony said, confirming the guess she just made.

“Good evening, honorable Princess Celestia and Mr. Star Swirl the Bearded,” said Snowdrop and bowed to them politely.

“I’ve already heard of your story... and I’m sorry that such a thing should have happened to you.” Celestia said and walked to Snowdrop, a hint of regret in her eyes, and continued, “And I hereby promise to you, that I’ll never let such a thing happen to you again.”

“Never happen to me again? W-what does it mean?” Snowdrop asked, panicked.

“I think... maybe it’s better to let Luna tell you herself.” Celestia turned to glance over to her sister, but the moon princess only hung her head in silence.

“Luna!” Celestia called out, a little irritated. Still, Luna only bit her lips looking at Snowdrop with grief in her eyes.

“Now, now, let the old one handle it.” Finally, Star Swirl said and stepped out in the embarrassing silence, then walked towards Snowdrop to explain.

“Dreamscape Manipulation, the magic Luna had casted on you, is a forbidden and dangerous technique. It’s forbidden, because it could pry a pony’s privacy; it’s dangerous, because it’ll cause a tremendous burden to both the caster and the target. It amazed me a lot to see Luna had created so many illusions using that very technique, although it’s practically the problem we’re facing — their quantity was far too great for Luna to carry alone, so they took their toll on you as well.”

Star Swirl lifted a forehoof to fondle Snowdrop’s head. She shrunk a little in fear at first, but the old unicorn’s touch was really gentle. Little surges of warm magic flowed from him to her, it felt so good that her body wasn’t as resistant.

“To Luna, the burden could only cause a fatigue; to you, as a normal pony, it could be fatal. Methinks, you have already experienced such pains, have you not?”

“But it wasn’t Princess Luna’s fault! Really!” defended Snowdrop, “It was because of my selfish and wayward wish that it came to this! Please, don’t blame her for it.”

“But Luna was fully aware, that manipulating a dreamscape would cause consequences. It was her fault to continue casting it, and by doing so, she deliberately disobeyed our oath, that we would protect all the ponies from harm.” Celestia said sternly, while Luna flattened her ears at the verdict.

“You’re standing here in one piece without any harm, because we are here to carry the burdens caused by this manipulation in your stead. Still, for me and Luna alike, we have our own duties to fulfill, and Luna had failed hers too many times for the sake of you. That’s why we’re here — we’re here to remove everything, and seal the way to your mind, so that you may live free from any more of this harm.”

“What?! But why...” Snowdrop was wide-eyed and dumbstruck. Knowing all of these wondrous things in life would soon disappear, not even able to see in her dreams forever, she couldn’t control her tears from falling from her eyes.

“Sister... Star Swirl the Bearded... Is there really no other way?” Princess Luna, who had been silent all the time, finally spoke as she saw Snowdrop wept. Her own voice sounded like a hoarse whisper, and she looked so helpless and powerless.

“I regret having to do it as well, but I’ve just checked the remaining amount of magic in Snowdrop’s head. If we don’t do so, she’ll die soon. It would definitely endanger her life.” Star Swirl the Bearded said and shook his head, eliminating any remaining last hope.

“But it’s not fair to her!! All Snowdrop ever wanted was the ability to see! If she could never see anything even in her dreams...” Luna protested agitatedly.

“Yes, I know,” Celestia said and turned to Snowdrop again,“I know that doing so will ruin you wish forever… So I promise that we’ll compensate you for it, in any form you want, is that all right?” She walked over to Snowdrop’s side, unfolded her big wing to cover it on the little one’s back. Snowdrop only hung her head without a word in response. Seeing this, another fleeting look of sorrow came to the Sun Princess’s eyes, lingered for a brief while, then went away. She put on her stern look once again, and walked away.

“We’re running out of time. We have to get it done before sunrise; it’s no easy task.” Star Swirl said as he lit up his horn on the head. Celestia nodded in response, and ignited her own horn as well.

“Unh!” the old magician gave a swish to his horn. The living animals in the dreamscape started to disappear: their forms became transparent bit by bit, until finally there was nothing left.

Princess Celestia looked up at the replicas of the Sun, the Moon and the Stars. A piercing beam shot out from her horn straight upwards, and a white light started to expand from where it touched the sky, devouring everything there, first the Sun, then the Moon, then the Stars one by one.

Luna could do nothing but look up and watch as the sky above disappeared, her own heart bleeding inside. Abruptly, she felt someone cuddled in her embrace. She glanced down and saw it was Snowdrop, who wept silently and buried her head in her chest.

“I’m sorry… I’m truly sorry…” The Moon Princess held her tightly, failed to keep her tears from dropping anymore. Her teardrops fell down, and soaked into Snowdrop’s wings.

Snowdrop was heartbroken. She knew too well that they did it for her own good, but why must all such caring protection be so harsh on her? They feared she could hurt herself, so she wasn’t allowed to go too far on her own, or go to the ground to play, or this, or that… To her, the said “protection” served nothing more than reminders of that she was a useless pony.

Star Swirl blew a long breath to the plants on the ground. They soon all withered, darkened, before finally turning to ash and dirt. The once beautiful scenery and the changing seasons were there no more.

Princess Celestia stood on her hindhooves, raised her forelegs high and stomped on the ground with heavy might. With a tremendous “BOOM!”, a shockwave rose up from where she stood, its ripples traveled through all the land, then all the sea, until the end of sight. The lands and seas it swept over disappeared too, along with any remaining sound of wind and water. Once again, the world returned to its origin: a place where only Light and Shadow existed.

“Here’s the final step. As long as we close and seal this space, Snowdrop would return to her normal life, and stay away from the threats of death.” the bearded unicorn spoke, and started to perform his magic spell.

“WAIT!”

Hearing it was Snowdrop’s call, Star Swirl, Celestia and Luna all turned to look at her.

“One more night… Just one more night! Please allow me to have one more night with Princess Luna in my dream! This is all the compensation I’ll ever ask for — I don’t want anything else, not even the beautiful things or colors I’ve ever seen! Just one last night… I want to look at Princess Luna closely, remember what she looked like and keep that in my head… for ever and ever.”

She said, her tears still wet and lingering all over her face.

“I’ll have to turn it down, for I know Luna too well. We have to be swift, or she could put everything we did in jeopardy,” answered the Sun Princess emotionlessly.

“Celestia!! WHY do you have to be so ruthless?!” Luna roared; she couldn’t contain her anger anymore.

“Then answer me: what if those fatal consequences strike her again? Have you not learned your lesson already? If you hadn’t saved her in time, now you’d be scolding yourself before her grave in remorse!”

Each word of Celestia fell like a heavy hammer upon her sister’s heart.

“As a princess and your elder sister, it’s my duty to protect the ponies from harm and protect you from suffering from your own wrong doings. I won’t let you make even more mistakes,” said Celestia, looking directly at Luna in the eyes. Her younger sister turned away from her gaze, and looked at Star Swirl pleadingly as if seeking his help. The aged unicorn didn’t speak for a long while, before finally nodding his head slightly.

“Fine then. Luna, you’ll be left here alone to seal the space on one condition: you must promise that you’ll never enter another pony’s dream again, especially Snowdrop’s; forcing this sealed space to reopen could result in a burst of the magic remained in her head, and kill her instantly.”

“I… promise.” Princess Luna nodded. As she heard she could kill Snowdrop on entering her dream again, her expression turned serious.

“Well, Celestia… Let’s go first.” Star Swirl’s horn started to glow again, this time his and Celestia’s limbs started to turn transparent.

“Are you really sure of this?” Celestia asked in concern.

“Oh Celestia… I know you always strive to prevent the worst things from happening, and protect all the ponies and things you hold dear… But someday you, or Luna, could be confronted with something inevitable, beyond any help, that leaves you in sorrow and regret. Sooner or later, you two will have to learn to face it, accept it, and let go of it… By then, you’ll have to support each other to see it through.”

Before completely vanishing, this bearded magician left these words to both princesses.