Elements of Resonance

by Daemon McRae

Exodus: Part 3

Chapter 8: Exodus, Part 3: Why didn't I take the red pill?

Golddusk couldn't move. More likely, didn't want to. He kept himself rooted to the spot, staring across the near-empty field they'd come upon, seemingly paralyzed by the sight in front of him.

"Ok, what now?" Octavia muttered, walking up to him and gazing out over the whatever-it-was that Golddusk seemed to be captivated by. She spared a sideways glance to the pegasus, expecting to see some kind of goofy, comical expression about the wonders of the world they were discovering.

A look of sheer, unbiased terror, however, wasn't what she expected. She looked back over the plains before them- the same dark blue grass, now spotted rather generously with little white flowers, all in seemingly different stages of bloom, some showing a full circle of petals, others only half that or less. Nothing too terrifying. She was about to inquire as to why a bunch of flowers should freak them out when Fluttershy made a small gasping noise, stopping just short of where they stood, then moved to keep the rest of the group from moving forward.

Twilight wasn't expecting to get, albeit rather gently, bull-rushed by Fluttershy, but things happen. She regained her composure in time to give the yellow mare a look and ask, "Fluttershy, what is your problem?"

The timid pony tried to stammer out an explanation, not really to any avail. The most any of the girls could understand was "flowers" "not good" "find another way around".

Pinkie Pie started to jump ahead. "Oh, come on, Fluttershy, they're just flowers, what's the big deal?"

She got about a yard ahead of where Golddusk and Octavia stood before both of the pegasi in the group all but tackled her and pinned her to the grass. Golddusk was a bit more fluent in his explanation. "Look, Pinkie Pie, the river of moonlight? So far, totes fine. It's shiny, cold, and makes you glow in the dark. That we can deal with. But an entire hillside of moonlillies? Nuh-uh. Not happening."

"Care to explain, oh fearless leader?" Artemare asked. "I'm pretty sure we're going to need more than a nuh-uh to convince us that these flowers and anything more dangerous than a bunch of weeds.

Golddusk stood back up, releasing Pinkie Pie from her pin, and motioned for them all to gather round. He took a seat, looking ready to sit in for a rather long explanation, and looked to the girls to join him. "I'm pretty sure Fluttershy knows most of this already, given she's about as apprehensive to cross this field as I am. But let me start with the easiest explanation. I couldn't explain to you why these flowers were dangerous if I tried. That's the problem. Moonlillies are some of the most potently magical flowers I've ever heard of."

"How much could you possibly know about flowers? Don't you study Princess Luna for a living?" Octavia ask, a seemingly innocent question that didn't come out quite right.

Artemare gave the black pegasus a sly look. "Oh, he did quite a bit of research on flowers and flora a while back. Looking for the right ones to send Luna for Hearts and Hooves Day."

Golddusk blushed furiously, so much so that even in the middle of the night against his black coat, it was obvious. "NOT the point here. Look, moonlillies are stupid powerful, but noone knows what they do, save for a handful of specialists. And even they don't know all the effects. The power of a moonlilly depends on two things: how far blossomed it is, and what phase the moon is in. They generate a random effect depending on those two circumstances. And so far none of them have been any good. The nicest effect I've ever heard of is a sleeping potion that can only be cured by another phase of moonlilly. Otherwise it doesn't wear off. Who knows what they'd do to you if you walked through a freaking field of random blooms? Especially if they're untreated."

Fluttershy nodded her agreement. "Yes, that's right. There's a small patch of them not far from my hut in the Everfree Forest that I had to fence off because my animals were getting sick, and I couldn't do anything."

Golddusk gave them all a look that said "This isn't debatable," and stood up. "Ok, we're going to have to look for another way around. The next best thing would be Fluttershy and I flying everyone from one end of the field to the next, or something. And I have no idea how far away the other end of this patch of flowers is."

The girls exchanged glances, and the group set off to look for a way around the field of moonlillies.

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

"How... in Equestria... did you ponies get through here the first time?" Stallius gasped, leaning against the trunk of Zecora's house. The group hadn't stopped until they'd seen the zebra's hut, and dove into some bushes to let the flock of cravens fly by. Unfortunately, the secluded herbalist was nowhere to be seen. "And if you tell me "magic of friendship" one more time I'm going to go home."

Rainbow Dash looked around, searching for some clue as to where their friend had gone, if she wasn't home. "I don't know. Everything just seemed to fall into place for us. Like something wanted us to get there. Even with Nightmare Moon working against us, it didn't feel anywhere near as difficult as this."

"Somethin 'bout this forest has changed, alright," Applejack mused, taking a look around. "It feels more... alive then it used to be. Ponyfolk were always worried 'bout this here forest because it never worked quite right. Plants grew on their own, clouds moved by themselves, and animals looked after their own. Not to mention all of the weird and dangerous monsters floatin' around."

"Not to be rude," Kwan Do interjected. "But the only thing we've come across is a swarm of cravens. Having effectively dodged those, and learned not to disturb them while they're eating, I believe we're jumping to conclusions about how dangerous this place may or may not have become since last you were here. We've already made at least some progress into the forest, if we think about it. Zecora's house is on the beaten path through this place, right? So we're not exactly lost. It'd be better if we just kept moving before we effectively psych ourselves out."

Applejack shook her head. "But that's just the thing. The last time we were in here, it only took us a few hours to get to the castle at all. For as long as we've been in here today, it's probably almost nightfall, and the others are probably well on their way to the Crater by now, if not there already."

"That's preposterous," Rarity scoffed. "That Golddusk fellow said that the Crater was well on the other side of the mountain from Canterlot, and it's easily a half day's train just to get to the capitol. For them to be on the other side of the range, it'd have to be the next morning already. We can't have been in here that long."

Stallius gave a quite, contemplative, "Hmmm," then closed his eyes, and poured some magic into his horn. A few moments later, a large luminescent clock face appeared before him. He raised an eyebrow in confusion, then another in alarm, and then tapped the spell a couple of times. "Well, fillies and gentlecolts, it doesn't look like I'm going to be of any use here. Unless we've been in this forest a full 24 hours, my Timekeeper is telling me we just left."

Rarity shoved him out of the way, looking over the giant clock's face, then poured some of her own magic into it, presumably to fix whatever she thought needed fixing. Aside from a slight pallet swap, there was no change. "Well that can't be right," she muttered. "I guess this just means we're not going to get any kind of straight answer as to what time it is until we get out of this dreadful place."

Applejack shook off the concept of time not moving like a bad joke. "Ok, whether or not we know what time it is, we still gotta get to that castle. So let's get moving," she commanded, taking the lead. The other ponies looked more than complacent letting her do so.

"Let's just hope the forest let's us," Rainbow Dash muttered, pausing for a bit before flying after the others.

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

Golddusk and Twilight grunted in effort, the former shoving their shoulder into a rather stubborn boulder, the latter trying to assist him with a boost of telekinesis. A few moments later, the large rock rolled downhill, revealing a rather simple grassy plain surrounded by somewhat intimidating hills. Aside from the night-sky-blue grass and rather dark soil, it looked to be any old field one could find if they walked far enough out of Ponyville.

"That's a little disappointing," Gold sighed. "You'd think a boulder between two really big hills would be in the way of something more... well, coveted. This is kinda boring."

Octavia just let out a small breath she'd been holding. "Well, it can't all be poisonous flowers and rivers of moonlight, can it?"

"Hey, guys!" Pinkie shouted, from somewhere far ahead of them. A few ponies raised eyebrows at how she got such a lead on them but set it aside.

"I'm just glad we were able to scout out a path around those flowers," Twilight's grateful tone mixed with a bit of exhaustion betrayed how tired she'd become. "How big did you say those fields were, Fluttershy?"

"Oh, I had to fly at least to cloud level to see the other side of it. I wouldn't have been able to carry any of you that far."

Golddusk nodded in agreement. "Right, and I'm not exactly Kwan Do, myself."

"Guys!" Pinkie shouted, a bit more urgently.

"Yes?" Artemare mused, less out of curiosity and more out of a sense that Pinkie wouldn't stop until someone answered her.

"It's getting kind of late, maybe we should set up camp here?" she suggested, bounding over to the rest of the group.

The others seemed to think this a good idea. "It has been a rather long day," Fluttershy noted, pulling some supplies out of her saddle bag. "We've been traveling since this morning."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Wait a second, though. It's been nighttime for hours, hasn't it?"

Something in that sentence seemed to set the cogs working in everyone else's noggins. Octavia looked a bit confused. "I know we're on the other side of the mountain from Canterlot..." she puzzled, "but I don't remember taking the train there. Do you guys?"

The rest of the group seemed to muddle over the question for a bit. "No, not really," Pinkie Pie answered. "I remember walking out of Ponyville, that's for sure."

Twilight nodded. "And I remember us looking back to the mountain that Canterlot sits on. That was a couple of hours before we got to the river."

"But I don't remember stopping to watch the moon rise," Golddusk grumbled.

Octavia and Artemare exchanged glances, then looked back to their friend. "Are you sure?" Artemare asked.

"Positive," Golddusk grunted, casting his gaze to the moon, giving it a sharp look. "Something's... off. I don't know what it is. But..." he paused, as his eyes went wide.

Twilight and Fluttershy gave the newcomers worried looks. "What's going on? Why is that important?"

Artemare moved her head slightly in Twilight's direction, still looking at Golddusk, who seemed to be puzzling something out. "Golddusk is a creature of habit. He has a routine, like most ponies, but there are some things that he never ever forgets to do and never forgets doing. One of them is watching the moon rise and set. He'll even set his alarm for it in case he falls asleep before hand or doesn't wake up in time. A couple of us have had some rather annoying experiences because of his habits."

"So if he doesn't remember doing so earlier this evening?" Fluttershy asked hesitantly, not really wanting to know if she wanted an answer.

"Twilight, how long would you say it took for us to make our way from the river to the flowers to here?" Golddusk asked over his shoulder, pointing slightly at the sky and making a few quizzical gestures.

"A couple hours, at least," Twilight told him, walking up beside the black pegasus to try to see what he saw. "Why?"

"Because I know why I don't remember watching the moon rise. And why it's been night since we got here," he grumbled, looking somewhere between annoyed, scared, and slightly bemused.

"And?" the girls all asked at once.

He turned to face them, pointing a hoof to the moon. "Because the moon didn't rise. And it hasn't been rising. Or setting. That moon has been in the same place for the last several hours. Girls... I think we're asleep."

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

"What do ya mean, asleep?" Applejack asked, giving Kwan Do a hard glare.

"Trust me on this. I've been meditating every day for years. I can force myself asleep when I want to, and in doing so, give myself the dreams I want. At least, most of the time. I know a dream when I'm in one," the martial artist answered, rather matter-of-factually.

"Ok, let's calm down and look at this rationally," Rarity interjected, trying to keep some semblance of balance in her voice. "What makes you think we're asleep, Kwan Do?"

"A few things. One, cravens don't eat animals," he stated, sitting back on his haunches, and rubbing his chin with a hoof while he thought. "They eat bugs and only attack a pony long enough to get them away from their nest. They're only seen as an infamous creature because they're known for stealing the eggs away from pre-built nests, leaving them wherever they feel like, and moving in."

"So why did they attack us like that? And why were they eating that poor animal?" Stallius challenged.

"Tell me, Stallius, what kind of animal was it?" Kwan countered, a stern expression on his face.

"I... well... I don't know. I must not have gotten a good look at it," he concluded, although he looked uncertain.

"You had more than enough time to see what it was because you sneaked up and talked to them. The reason you don't know what it is is because the only pony here who's convinced they eat meat doesn't know what kind of meat they eat," he capped off that bit of alliteration with a glance in Stockpile's direction, who, up to now, had been stark silent.

"L-look, I don't like 'em, ok? I gots too near a nest when I was a colt, and got carried off a ways. Been afraid of 'em since," he shuddered. "So wait, you're saying they showed up like that because that's how I think of them?"

"Exactly," he nodded. "And this Zecora pony's house. Zebra, whatever," he corrected, as Rainbow Dash and Rarity moved to correct him. "We ran in a completely random direction in a straight line and just happened to come across her house? Unlikely."

"So why wasn't she home, then? We should be able to see her in a dream, since RD, Rarity and I all know what she looks and acts like," Applejack pointed out.

"Most likely because she's not in the dream with us. And if we did see her, it'd be like a recording. She'd only give us answers we already knew, and that kind of thing, based on what you guys know about her. Think about hit, how does travel work in dreams?"

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

Twilight nodded. "It doesn't. Usually you just find yourself wherever it is you want to go, or it takes forever to get there. Which is why we don't remember taking the train," she finished, as things seemed to click into place.

"Exactly," Golddusk nodded. "Everything in here is based on how we would perceive it normally. Unfortunately, given the fact that Pinkie Pie seems to have been trying to summon something out of thin air throughout this conversation, the Law of Lucid Dreaming doesn't apply."

"The Law of what?" Octavia asked, having been lost in the conversation for a bit now, still trying to wrap her head around the fact that they were all asleep.

"The Law of Lucid Dreaming," Twilight reiterated. "It's a concept of the subconscious that rules that someone who is aware they're dreaming can affect the dream the way they want. And I'm willing to bet Pinkie's been trying to summon something to eat. So if we can't affect this dream ourselves, most likely one of two things has been happening," she added, contemplating.

Golddusk nodded. "I think I know where you're going with this. Either the combination of our subconscious overrules the Law, which, given how much anypony knows about how our minds work, is as much a possibility as it is a wild guess, or-"

"-this is someone else's dream," Twilight finished.

"And considering we seem to be making some rapid progress, more so than I would think, and we've come across near-nothing as far as obstacles, whoever is having this dream for us wants us to find what we're looking for," the black pegasus looked concerned with his last statement.

"So why is that a problem?" Pinkie Pie asked. "That means they're on our side!"

"No, Pinkie Pie, it doesn't," Artemare interjected. "If they wanted us to succeed, we'd be in the real world looking for the real Elements. Whoever is keeping us here wants us distracted, but out of harm's way. There's a lot of damage you could do to someone in their dreams. But if that's true, then they would have gone to much greater lengths to make us believe this is a dream, wouldn't they?"

Golddusk's eyes widened again. "Unless they don't need us to believe it's real anymore. It's impossible to tell real-world time in a dream. We have no way of knowing how long we've been unconscious."

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

"You mean we could have been out for days?" Rainbow Dash asked, looking alarmed.

Kwan Do nodded. "Whoever is holding us here obviously wants us out of the way, and wants to keep us there, otherwise we may well have woken up by now. So either they're too distracted to focus on this dream, or spell, or whatever it is long enough to ensure we didn't notice all the little nuances that give away that we're dreaming, or they don't need to anymore."

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

"So one way or the other," Octavia muttered, dreading the end of that sentence.

IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI

Kwan Do, and Golddusk said in unison, in far separate locations. "One way or the other, it's too late for somepony."

Comments

[TheAlmightySage]

DUDE!
I remember this from FF.net! Awesome to see it here!

[Daemon McRae]

3496187 I'm glad someone remembers it.

[Lahirien]

Had to hunt this one down after seeing it on EqD. Too bad it's cancelled. :(

[Daemon McRae]

8460902
Part of me wants to pick it up again, but it's been so long since I wrote it I don't remember where I was going with any of it. Not to mention all the stuff that'd be horribly incorrect given how many seasons it's been.