A Certain Happening.

by Sasquatch1812

The end of the tail.

The realisation hit me like a blow. I was home. Home. Back in my bedroom. I jerked into a sitting position and looked around. The alarm on my phone warbled at me. Had it... had it all been a dream? My body ached but, there again, it had ached before. I was normal. True, this was a little worse than what I really would have considered 'normal', but pain wasn't unknown to me. I was back home. The change was so abrupt it took me some time to accept it. It couldn't have been a dream. Could it? I mean, it all seemed so real. The earthquake, the 'fight' - if I could call it that – with Celestia and Luna. The destruction of Ponyville. Had it all just been one excessively weird dream?

I could remember thinking that it was a dream earlier on when I'd... Was that just part of it, too? Had I only thought I'd woken up? Had it, indeed, just been another 'layer' in my dream? It had felt so real. But I'd had realistic dreams before. Very realistic dreams. But... Those others had been more along the lines of nightmares. Dreams that I'd been so very glad to get out of. But this? This felt different.

I lay back and thought about it, chuckling to myself as I did so. I could just imagine telling some of the people I knew on the Internet of last night's dream. Some, I suspected, would laugh. Some would probably be somewhat jealous. Some would be disbelieving. But one thing I knew for sure. Nobody would believe what it was that I was desperately trying to get my mind to reject. The idea that it might have been real. That there really was a place with pastel coloured ponies who spoke and acted pretty much like those on the show. If for no other reason, they'd disbelieve because nothing the likes of what I went through could ever happen on Equestria. No, they'd say that my dream was my twisted interpretation. That I'd wanted to see Equestria suffer, so my imagination had invented this tale.

An hour later, I was still lying in bed, still trying to accept the fact that it was a dream. Part of me, surprisingly, wished it hadn't been. I don't just mean the fact that I got to play 'hero', but... It was different. I thought of my dead-end job and my dead end life. I was going nowhere at a rapid pace. I'd be forty-eight soon, and... well, I had part of a house and a car. No 'significant other'; no real savings, nothing. The house was a little, run-down workers' cottage built during the second world war and starting to feel its age. It had been renovated a time or two but there was a lot of work still to be done. A lot of work. It had been the cheapest free-standing house in the city at the time I'd bought it. That, and the view, were the things that I liked about it.

But Equestria – even a disintegrating Equestria – had felt so different. I'd felt useful. Not just like some worker-ant doing something a half-trained monkey could do with equal efficiency and fewer bananas. They'd welcomed me. Thrown a party for me and all, when they didn't even know my name. They'd welcomed me, unconditionally, even though I'd been so very different from them. Then they'd trusted me. Trusted me with the life of little Aura. They could have insisted that I play no part. Or that the Six should have gone with me. But Aura's mother, of all people (ponies?) had argued that I should be the one to go. And go alone. I'd become friends, good friends, with a lot of them.

It was strangely detailed for a dream, too. And I could remember so much of it that... It didn't really feel like a dream at all.

I sat for a bit, then I got up, went to the phone and rang work to tell them I wouldn't be in. I... I just couldn't bring myself to abandon things that readily. After what I'd been through, even if it had been a dream, I couldn't face work. Anyway, the aches and pains I had gave me a good excuse.

I sat back on my bed to think things over. I lay there for some time, trying to make sense of it all, then I got up and turned on my computer. Going into one of the forums I frequent, I told them what had happened. I'd been fairly accurate in my earlier predictions. Some laughed, some were jealous and some disliked what I'd done to their version of Equestria. What I'd dreamed, apparently, was nothing like the show. That it had been a stupid dream brought on by my dislike for the show.

I did a few things during the day as I tried to sort out in my mind what had happened. I remembered a chat a friend of mine and I had had. How I'd said that a place like Equestria – as portrayed in the television series – was too 'good'. That that very 'goodness' of the place grated on me. I felt like I'd be waiting for the other shoe to drop. I was so used to this world, where bad things happened, I'd been doubtful that I could cope. His reply was that, if he ever had the chance to go there, he'd jump at it. I'd laughed. But now? Yeah. Now I'd experienced it? Now I'd actually been there? I sighed and couldn't help but wish for more.

Feeling tired just after lunch, I lay down for a bit of a rest. I wondered if I could dream again of being in Equestria. Even though it had only been a dream, it had been good, with friends and a usefulness that I didn't really feel here. I asked myself the question. Would I go back? I thought of this world and my place in it and I could find one answer was a very big 'Yes.'

"UNCLE!!" I grunted as something landed on my chest. 'Uncle?' I opened my eyes and looked up at a small, lavender coloured foal with a turquoise mane and tail.

"Hello, Aura." I said, wanting to do nothing more than wrapping my arms around her. "You're looking better."

"You've been gone days!" she exclaimed, somewhat reproachfully.

"I'm back now." I told her.

"Forever?"

"I don't know. I'd like that, though." I replied, realising it as the truth even as I said it. I looked around. I was in some kind of tent, but the sun shone outside and all seemed peaceful.

"Got to tell Mummy." she blurted, before dashing off. I could see that she was limping a little and not quite as quick as she had been but it was great to see her on her hooves.

I climbed to my feet and went outside. The place had been cleaned up, I noticed, but there were no houses yet. Ponyville, if it ever were to be, still needed to be rebuilt. Then I saw two things that really made me happy. I walked over and squatted down. "Hello, Fluttershy." I said quietly. She still looked a little worse for wear; her broken wing was strapped and there were signs of other injuries as well, but it was good to see her up and about after my last sighting of her. Pinky Pie, likewise still looked rather battered but much better than she had when I'd last seen her.

The others of the Six came over. They actually seemed pleased to see me. I squatted down, then flopped into a sitting position which was far more comfortable for my aching body. Twilight came up. “Welcome back.” she told me. “Celestia said you might be.”
“She did?”

“Yes. You're back sooner than we thought.”

“Oh.” I didn't really know what to make of that. “I'm glad to be back.” I told them. “I missed you. All of you.”

“It's good to have you back, too.” Mayor Mare told me, coming up.

“Thank you, Mayor.” I replied.

Pinky limped up. “If we had anything to have a party with, we'd have a party.” She said with a grin and I had to laugh. She was irrepressible, this one.

“Then how about we see what we can get fixed up and then we can party properly.” I told her.

“You're staying?” Mayor Mare asked. “You didn't just come to say goodbye?”

“Well. I'd like to stay, if I can.”

A sudden double flash denoted the arrival of the arrival of the two princesses. I greeted them politely while Aura, who had come back, looked on, awestruck by their beauty.

"You decided to return?"

“I take it this is the granting of a desire? But why? Why me? Why this?”

Celestia smiled. "Tell me." she said, in that quiet, rather regal tone she had. "When you were trying to get Luna and I to attack you, you said you expected to die. If that's true, why did you do it?"

"I wasn't thinking of myself, Princess. I was thinking of my friends."

"Friends?"

I waved an arm to indicate the ponies that were beginning to come over. "My friends." I repeated. Aura pushed herself against me and I ruffled her mane. “I couldn't just watch them die and do nothing. I had to do something."

Both princesses looked at each other, nodded and then looked to me.

“And that friendship.” Luna murmured. “Is what made you long to return?”

“Yes.” I replied as I saw Flash come into view.

"'Forever', as Aura asked?" Luna asked. I knew, then, that this—if it ever had been—was no longer a dream.

I didn't have to decide, I'd already said it. "If you'll have me, yes."

Celestia smiled. "You see?" She said quietly, her eyes twinkling. "Friendship is magic."

Comments

[alarajrogers]

It's a lot better now. I can see why you backed off on what was essentially turning out to be vampire Celestia and went a different way.

However, it's deeply weird to imagine that massive quantities of disharmony were weakening Discord's powers. He should have been drawing power from the conflict. It would, however, be fairly easy to imagine why it is he can't help; if the problem is a lack of harmony, Discord of all beings is not going to be able to solve it.

Decent story regardless of my nitpicks.