Dream Whisper

by Dream Whisper

Chapter 13: Wandering about

I just walked through the snowy forest, not caring for anything around me. I just wanted to sleep. Even though I was totally exhausted, I only had the one goal: To finally get home. To ignore everything, that had happened, bury it deep inside my brain, where it could never be found. Step by step I got closer to that goal. I didn't even care about the time anymore. Just step after step I marched forwards.
It was very late in the night already, when I opened my door. I just trotted to the bed and then just fell onto it. Time to forget it all. I created a shield as I did not want to drift into somepony's dream right now. After some time of silence, I slipped down into the strange, dark world. It actually felt much darker here now. If I looked to the south, I could see some lights in the distance, but surrounding me, was nothing; Only darkness. So I wandered off, not to the south, but actually to the north. I wandered into loneliness, hoping to forget, but the image stuck to me.

For some hours, I just found nothing, but darkness. I made a light with my magic, but it did not really help. I was surrounded by darkness and wanted to just stay here for all eternity. Heartbeats went by, turned into minutes, which turned into hours. Being cut off from everything was nice at first, but with every further heartbeat it got more and more stressful.
I realized, that I was wasting my life. This realization hit me more, than I could have ever expected. Every single second in here was a second less I could be doing something, maybe even something good. This was a dead-end, exactly what I have had before. This should not turn into another banishment dream again.
I decided, it would be time to stop myself from drowning in my self-pitying. It was time to do something, although I was not quite sure, what I should do. I decided, I would search for a goal. My whole life had been empty to this point, although I had never realized it. It felt as if these horrible events had woken me up from my trance. I knew, that my life had just been flowing down the drain, wasted in every second. I had done that to myself, I had lived the boring life, which was just not a life worth living. This all had not really been, what I had been looking for. Without hesitation, I just released my shield, which I had kept up all the time.

I should have probably just tried to pull myself out of a dream, because now I landed inside another dream.The dreamer was an orange coated pony with a purple mane, which had light blue strings. She had a rose behind her ear, giving her a nice colorful touch. We were in an alley and she was sitting in a corner. I already wanted to leave the dream, when she started running. I realized, that she had been hiding from something or somepony. Furthermore, I realized something else, far more important: Maybe everypony had their bad side, maybe nothing was perfect, maybe there were no heroes, but even if that all was true, there was no reason for me not to be a hero. There was no reason for me not to help, to be somepony, all the ponies can look up to. I may have caused an accident with Luna, but in her own words, it had not been my fault. I may have caused Dream Cry to come back, but I had also managed to resurrect Princess Luna. Maybe I can be a better pony, somepony to save the dreamers. If I wanted to get out of my self-pitying, out of all this emptyness, maybe I should finally step up and do something good, because it seemed as if even the most idealistic ponies like Celestia were not doing enough.

Bringing me out of these thoughts was a roaring and rumbling behind me, which I suddenly heard. Although the dreamer had been running for the whole time, she had not moved after all. It was one of these mind-bending illusions caused by the logic of your dreams. The rumbling was caused by a fully grown dragon chasing her. Ponies are often split about dragon. Most small dragons were cute and friendly, but older dragons were just scary for almost all ponies. This one was a dragon in a nightmare, so I was pretty sure, it would not start playing with her or me. I created a shield around us both and deflected the fiery breath. She was an earthpony, so she would not really be able to aid me with magic.

The dragon did not even seem to bother the shield, when his mighty foot just destoyed it like a soap bubble. “Run!” she screamed and again, she was not moving a bit. Instead of trying to run or hide, which both were bad ideas in a nightmare, I decided to fight the dragon. However, instead of just trying to throw my spells at the dragon, I wanted to try something, that I had never really managed before: I tried to make the dreamer believe, I was a mighty magician. The only other time, I had tried that idea, was in Twilight Sparkle's dream and it had been doomed to fail from the first second. Twilight had known well enough about the limitations of magic to know, that I could not be infinitely strong. Before that, as I had said often enough, I had tried to evade the dreamers or take a sleeping potion.

The light I created to make the dreamer think, I would be mighty, had the same color as my magic aura, but this time I made a much higher effort in getting every sprinkly shiny detail right. While the glowing was increasing in every second, I could feel the power streaming through my body. A final explosion should finish the dragon off. I took all together, what I had and threw it into a mighty exploding ball of fire. Everything got blinding for a split of an heartbeat, then there was only smoke. My shield had protected us from my own explosion. I already wanted to turn around to the dreamer and wish her good luck or similar, when the dragon started roaring again. It stepped through the smoke, trying to crush us with his mighty feet. I channeled another attack, but this time I went completely wild on the illusion of my magic aura. It seemed to be a giant spiraling stream of hot magic, causing the air around it to flicker like the hot air in the desert. I created additional spheres of magic circling around my horn, just to strengthen the effect. A glowing background radiation, a firey aura, a blinding center light, alternating colors and a thick stream of light in the middle of it all.

Thankfully, this pony believed in what I did. When the foot of the dragon almost reached the shield, I theatrically released the energy in my body to cause another explosion. This time, my magic started to grow and grow, flooding through me into the explosion. It started to hurt my horn and I had to cancel it very soon. The problem was, that I lost control over the spell. Instead of the energy stopping, it just went completely out of order. It started to flow through every inch of my body, almost like a fire having found a barrel of oil. I feared getting ripped apart, and to be honest, that had been a reasonable fear. These amounts of magic would have killed any magician trying to deal with it.
The only reason for me not dying there was the dreamer believing in me. The dreamer believed, that I had everything under control. I could almost feel the magic looping faster and faster to a point, where it would become irreversible. With a deafening bang and a blinding lightning, the dream just ended. I still don't know the exact reason for that. Either the dreamer had been woken up by the light and sound, or the magic had been too much for the dreamer's mind to handle.

When waking up, I found out, why it had been a bad idea: After a split-heartbeat of silence, all the magic stored inside the dream just erupted inside my small forest hut. It was terrific, everything was too loud and too bright and impossible to fully grasp. Almost instantly I drifted into unconscious, but instead of being in the well-known blackness, I still had the image of the light glowing in my inner eye.

When I woke up, I felt like something had driven over my body. There was a giant crater all around me, still glowing in blueish color, almost as if my magic had still not ended. Everything had just been evaporated and I was quite confused, why I was still alive; It could have only been the result of the dream logic saving me in reality. The air was still buzzing from all the energy. When I got up, I was still very weak, and I almost fell down. In the next couple of minutes, I slowly crouched up the crater. When I got to the edge of it, I looked around; I got completely startled. The whole forest around my house was moving, but not as you expect trees to move in air. Instead, there were hundrets of Frost Birches and Pines, standing around the crater, attracted by the glowing remnants of the magic. A couple of them had already advanced into the other end of the crater and were not letting their roots suck up the magic.

However, most of the Frost Birches and Pines were not advancing, they were just staring at me with their empty eyes made of resin and sticks. I just wanted to hide, but there was nothing to hide behind. I could hear whispering; Not the usual chatter of ponies, not even the usual whispering of ponies. It seemed as if the wind was carrying the voice of the Frost Trees. The feeling of fear was creeping up my legs, into my brain. Every little part of me wanted to flee. I did not want being eaten alive, especially if eaten by being pierced with roots, which slowly creep into every part of your body and suck you dry.
Another breeze of wind blew through my hair, and the Frost Birches and Pines were taking that as some kind of signal, slowly starting to tread towards me. Without any more hesitation, I stepped onto the remnants of what had been the door and assembled my magical energy. An explosion right below me flung me up into the air, right over the circle of Frost Trees. The explosion itself had not been my intention: Instead, I had wanted to hover the piece of the door below my feet and myself with it; The apprentice version of teleportation.

My flight ended quicker than I had hoped for. I fell somewhere through the thick dark green roof of trees below me and was surrounded by leaves and needles, slowing me down, until eventually I landed in the soft, white, cold snow. The whispering - appareantly coming from the Frozen Trees - now came from behind, but it was louder than before. I turned around and looked directly into the resin eyes of one giant Frozen Pine, through whose needles I just have fallen. Its roots were already piercing through the snow, trying to reach my feet. I started to run immediately, without thinking, just following my reflex. I think, I have never run faster in my life. The adrenalin was pumping through every part of my body, giving me the strength to flee as fast as I could. I ran, until I was just completely exhausted, but I still had to get further. So I continued trotting, as fast as I could. When I finally arrived at some town, I just fell down – There was blood in my mouth and my hooves felt like I had tried to rip them apart. Despite that, I was finally in safety. I slipped into the darkness again, but it was not a dream; It was just exhaustion.

When I woke up again, – how many times have I been knocked out in the last days? - my body had not recovered by then. My feet were still hurting, but at least there was no blood in my mouth anymore. The next thing I noticed was the shift in my surroundings. I was actually not lying on the snowy road leading into the village anymore. Actually, I was inside a room. Somehow, I have the talent to pass out somewhere and wake up somewhere else. This time, I looked around and got mightily startled. There was a pony sitting right next to me.

“Oh sorry, I didn't want to startle you right after you wake up.”
It was exactly the same mare, whose dream I had entered. Was that still just coincidence?
“I am Candy Pop.“
I should have probably said: 'I am the pony of your dreams.', but then again, that would have been mightily creepy. I was actually quite surprised, that she had taken care of me. I would have not saved the pony invading my dream and causing a giant explosion. Somehow, I had only caused pain yet. Nevertheless, I did not want to give up already.

“I am Dream Whisper.”
I decided to just tell the simple truth instead of even referring to the dream. Instead, she did.
“You are that pony from that dream, aren't you?”
Of course I could have denied it all, but what would have been the sense of that?
“Well, I am. I am really sorry for causing so much commotion.”
The reaction of her was actually totally different to my expectations.
“Oh, that is so cool. I always wanted to be in somepony's dream. Can you be in anypony's dream you like? It must be so awesome to see their dreams. Can you take me with you?”

At first, I had fumbled for words, then I tried to answer as calmly as possible.
“Now I can actually choose, which dream I want to enter, but that was not always that way. I don't think I want to take you with me. Don't misunderstand me here, it would be nice to be accompanied, but I fear for your well-being. You got almost killed in that last dream and maybe next time you won't be as lucky.”
She seemed disappointed, but after a while her mood started to become brighter again.
“What was the coolest dream you have ever been in? What was the worst one? What was the scariest dream, you have been in?”

It was nice to see, that somepony actually had an interest in my talent. Most ponies disliked the idea or were even hateful. “Hmm... Those questions are actually difficult to answer. I think, the coolest dream was, when a pegasus made a huge colorful explosion, which shined in ever color. It was bright, it was loud and it was awesome.The worst one was probably the dream where I had been stuck for a week, doing nothing but self-pitying myself.”
I did not mention, that both had actually been a very recent dreams.
“The scariest dream I can think of was the one, where the dreamer had actually been in a hospital, but that hospital was filled with crazy nurses and doctors. If we speak about non-dream things too, I think the events that have lead me here were the scariest.”
Candy Pop was totally excited. In her eyes was only curiosity, not even a bit of anger or refusal for my interruption in her dream. Maybe that was the reason, why she had taken me to her home.
“Tell me. What has lead you here? Were you coming to look for a magical artifact? Have you found mysterious ancient runes? Have you come to tell us from the imminent ending of the entire world?”
She theatrically lifted her hooves in the air, when she said 'entire world'. I actually liked her, the way she spoke, the way she acted. She was not like most ponies: She was open and straightforward, but not overly extrovert.
“Okay. It all started with your dream.”
Already with those words, I had her hooked.
“You remember the giant explosion?”
She nodded fastly, curious to hear, how my story would continue.
“A bit of that explosion actually carried through the dream and destroyed my home.”
“Oh, that is terrible. I am so sorry.”
“Don't worry, it had been my decision to use the magic, so I had to bear the consequences for it. I am glad, nothing happened to you.”
She laughed.
“Well, something happened. Bits of my sheet have caught fire. I was already wondering, how that had happened.”

I continued with the story.
“After that, there were hundrets of these Frost Birches circling around my home. Just barely I had managed to cause an explosion, that threw me into the air. However, I landed just in front of a giant Frost Pine. It had its roots already trying to crawl up my hooves, but I was just fast enough to get away. Then I ran all the way here.”
“Wow, you have such an interesting life.”
She frowned.
“All I do is making candy.”
To see her so sad made me pity her a bit, but then I had an idea, how to lighten up her mood again.
“At least with your talent you make ponies happy. All I do is destroying dreams.”
“You are a heroine.”
I had not expected those words and I fumbled for words again.
Somepony in this crazy world actually believed, I was worth something. She believed, I was a heroine; I was her heroine. It was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. However, it took me the ability to speak properly.

“Well... You see.. Err...”
She laughed.
“You can stay here for a while, just to relax yourself after doing all these adventures.”
Although I really had not wanted to get on somepony's nerves, especially not on the nervers of such a nice pony, I had to take the offer. It was only the truth, that I was still a bit exhausted. I decided to stay just a little bit longer.

For two hole days, Candy Pop and I had lived together peacefully. I had really started to like that pony. She cared for me and she was always nice to me. It was like finding a best friend in the most unexpected place. She had been the greatest company of all.
I just loved to sit by her side and tell her stories of dreams I had visited or telling her stories of what I had experienced in reality. Within these two days, she probably found out more about me than any other pony before. In these two days, I also found out a lot about her, a lot of things, that made her only more sympathetic. I have really liked her. She always made me feel special, but in the good way. For her I was the heroine, and I just loved to be that. There was nothing more satisfactory than actually being the hero for somepony.

Instead of visiting anypony's dreams, I had actually preferred to meet her in her own dreams. In the first night, we had actually gone for an epic adventure, through all of Equestria to find a hidden treasure. We had worked together and helped each other out. We laughed and we lived.
The second dream had been a lot different: Right in front of me there was a white pegasus with a blue and cyan mane. She was standing behind a desk, on which some vinyl disks were lying. There was a brief moment of total silence, until the sound crushed onto me like a wave. Not only the rhythmic techno beat, but also the voices of hundrets of ponies screaming. The DJ-Pony seemed to enjoy herself quite much. I actually found out her name when looking around for Candy Pop: “DJ-Pon3”. I could have thought of that for a DJ-Pony. Although I never have had any interest in partying before, it was one of the best feeling to just dance with Candy Pop, drink with her and have fun with her. I have to say, it had been the best night of my life. However, life is not nice. Life doesn't let you life happily forever. Everything ends. The bad times end, which is nice, but also the good times end.

At this next morning, everything changed: I woke up from a loud noise, but I was still too exhausted from the dream; I laid there for a couple of minutes, until finally deciding to stand up and greet Candy Pop. She would have probably prepared a breakfast by now. Her breakfast was always containing muffins and candy and deliciousness. Before I opened the door, I realized that there was something, I hadn't heard for days: Silence. You may think, silence would not have been strange in the early morning and I completely agree. However, this was total silence; No birds, no market ponies, not even leaves rattling in the wind. I opened the door and got shocked:

Usually there was a door on the other side of the corridor, beautifully ornamented with some shells, a bell and a bit of fabric. Now there was no door, just ashes. My room and the dining room were the only two rooms still standing of her house. The rest was either covered with grey ashes or completely burnt down to the ground. How? That was the first thing, I was asking myself. Why would it hit the rest of the house, but not my room? Well, the latter question was easy to answer: Probably just luck; The dining room was also still standing. Another question, that crushed onto me was, if it was my fault. Had I done anything in a dream, that I had forgotten? Had my magic spontaneously combusted everything? I came to the conclusion, that it would have been also impossible, because my room would have exploded first. It had been some outer force.
When I stepped out of my room into the hallway without a ceiling or walls, I was able to see the rest of the city. Everything was burnt, exploded, destroyed. Only sparely, there were some ruins still standing.

More and more questions arose, but they got interrupted: There was a quiet whispering, not even loud enough to be understood, but still enough to be heard. It came from the ruins behind me on the left. The ceiling had crushed everything; Candy Pop's room. I ran towards the room, while I was still completely in shock. The whispering got louder, but it was not getting any clearer. I lifted up some wooden joists, until I uncovered her face.
I will never ever forget the image. Her face was horrifically burnt, flesh exposed, skin dripping like water, blood surrounded it all. Her eyes looked into the distance, trying to search for a reason, trying to search for help, for my help. Maybe I could have prevented this all. Why had it hit the innocent, not me? Her eyes knew the reason; They knew what had happened. She was still coughing blood.

Suddenly, she moved her empty eyes and looked at me, through me. I was unable to do anything, but staring at this image. This grotesque image of pure devastation. She had been as innocent as a pony could be. What had she done in this conflict of harmony and disharmony to deserve this? A tear ran down my chin, where it dropped into the ashes. Her eyes were seeking for the answer.
The next minutes were rather a dream than reality. I tried to get her out, but I was not actually strong enough. The harder I tried, the more hushed her whispering got. With every minute I got more frantic, but she only got weaker. I tried, I really tried. Even before I had started to do anything, I had already lost her. I wanted to scream, but nothing was coming out. There was still this image of her burnt face searching for an answer. Every part of my body burned in exhaustion, but I could not stop. She was already gone, but I could not stop. Yesterday she had asked me, if I wanted some more apple juice, now she was gone forever. She had been the only pony, I had ever really liked. I forced myself to stop.

This had to end now, right now. There was no more time for toleration. I didn't care about good or evil anymore. Nopony was good, but at least Celestia didn't hurt innocents. There was only one being in Equestria, who could have done this: Discord. I would not stop, until I would see Discord suffer for everything, until I would find the same look on his eyes as on her eyes. He had to suffer, he had to be exterminated; He had to be ripped apart in every single way; He had to be reduced into nonexistence; His very essence had to be destroyed. For everything he had done, for every explosion he had caused, for every pony he had hurt, for every pony he had killed, I would make him suffer. I was not longer able to hold my tears back. I would be the judge for all of his actions. It felt good to let the rage grow inside me. Every of my steps was powered by the growing need for vengeance.

The sun had just risen over the horizon, the birds were singing again and the wind was making the leaves chatter with each other. I however, could not have cared less. Like an upcoming storm, I cleft my way through the forest, not even bothering to use the normal path. I wanted justice – As soon as possible. I wanted to see Discord dead.