Chapter 9
There could be an eternity in a heartbeat. Stars might die, world might rise, within the time it took for a heart to cease to beat. For the moment life became death. For the instant the soul flickered.
Around me, wooden walls fell, crumbled, disintegrated. Above me, palm leaves flew with a wind that blew nowhere. Under me, grains of sand slid down the slope of the beach, near the splashing waves of clear blue water.
An eternity in a heartbeat.
My head rolled back, slowly, every thought twice as fast as the slightest twitch of my muscles. The falling walls stood near frozen in the air, as my gaze glided over them, over the slightest details I could recall with the faint echos of another's voice.
“We'll need to take down this one, Orchid,” grumbled an unseen stallion. “When I get back, we'll take a few days and finally fix that damn corner. No more stubbing our hooves on that twig.”
Tears stung my eyes, and I couldn't tell why.
The plank was still there. It had still been standing.
My eyes rolled back, my sight blurred.
The shade had fallen over us both so soothingly, tempered only by the dancing lights of the candles on the bedside table. His face framed in the shadows, he leaned in to kiss my cheek, and whispers words with a hunger to them that settled in the lower parts of my belly.
“I love you, Orchid.”
Words came out, breathed to a ghost. “I love you too, Harpoon.”
An eternity in a heartbeat. The moment the world shifted forever, and one person was gone. How many tears had fallen for his funeral? When the news had come, when the announcement had been given, I hadn't realized. How many ticks of the clock had come and gone while I didn't know, while I stayed blessedly ignorant of the truth?
While the world still had meaning.
My husband had died. Oh Harpoon...
With a startling clarity, like a rush of adrenaline spiking my blood, I felt my heart beat for the first time. A thrumming hum. A beat pulsing in my ears. My chest throbbed. Breathes rushed in and out, shallow, fast, as everything came to me in pinprick focus.
It wasn't the hut anymore, but the plaza, where Fish Stock put on his stall and waited for my arrival with a familiar grin. Where I sometimes stopped by for that dear old Anchor, or the Net sisters and their shining wares. The two mares had a knack for showing me just the kind of little nothings I would ask Harpoon to buy.
So many memories. So quickly, they brought another sting to my eyes, and I rubbed the tears out. Silly old mare.
Mare? the thought came to an abrupt end with a sickening lurch of my stomach. The faces muddied, as I reached out a black – blue – hoof toward the unmanned stall. This wasn't Horseshoe Bay. Not the one I had known.
Since when did I even know Horseshoe Bay?
I jolted, senses alert again, with the ghostly feeling of ice against the back of my neck. The shades evaporated, morning dew under the glare of Celestia's summer sun. No, the circle in the sky was green, and shimmered peacefully like a gem at dawn.
“Why?” came the confused word.
I had a hoof to my chest. Strong beat, pulses under my fur and my skin, waving into the sole of my palm. There it was, the proof that I lived.
“Sea Orchid,” I gasped. “Her name was Sea Orchid.”
It was her name. Not mine. My name. What was it again? William. William, I repeated with a frantic energy. Orchid had died. I stilled lived. Orchid had died.
Whose fault was that?
The houses blurred past me. When had I started running? Heat spread through my limbs, through my lungs as my breathing accelerated. A hotel, tall, imposing, zoomed right next to me. A statue. The hut that Anchor lived in. The school house, and all the cutesie little ones. A house. Another house, another, another. The whole lot of Horseshoe Bay, gone by.
I hadn't even thought of opening my wings. Did I have wings? Of course not, I've been an earth pony my whole– Leather. Feathers. I heard a flap as muscles attached to my back stretched. Which one, right now?
My hooves skidded across the sand until they came to a stop.
My fur is black. My fur is black, black, blackblackblack... blue. BLACK! My fur is black.
I nearly smiled. It had dawned on me a second too late, or too soon.
For a fleeting instant, being able to call my fur black had been a triumph. Now, cold sweat glided on the back of my neck.
“I don't even have fur! I'm human!” Those useless stumps of black furred flesh did not turn back into hands. “This isn't me! It isn't! Fuck Doom Darknight! Fuck Prince this and that, I'm human!”
With a shiver, the fur on my body straightened, in a motion like a wave at sea, and hardened, and curved. The blackest of it seemed to melt together. Covering me were now spiked plates that glinted an ominous purple. Dozens of them shielded my body from unseen threats.
I recoiled, and the armour gave a series of clicking sound where every plate collided. I blinked, and my sight felt cut through by the visor of my own helmet. I stretched my wings, and I felt on them the weight of bladed plates, ready to slice into the next threat.
I swallowed as if my mouth had become filled with molasses. Was it a finger of bone that scratched at my throat? A phantom chord of leather dug into both sides of my mouth, like reigns for a cavalier. And I knew in my heart what dark hand held the string that wanted to strangle me.
“He's dead,” I growled despite my hammering heart. “I killed him. I know I did.”
Orchid's dead, protested a silent shadow. It left me staring agape, unable to focus, to muster my objection. It left me with tears pooling under my eyes.
“I never meant to...” I choked on a sob. “I just wanted... I meant to...”
Help. Heal. Maybe even save her from that terrible loneliness. The thought might have been naïve, but where would it ever work if not in a dream? I hadn't meant to take anything from her. I was supposed to give.
“Thank you, Mister William,” she had said with that tired old smile. “That was very kind of you.”
I froze solid. Orchid's eyelids had fallen shut after that, but the look of content hadn't left.
My legs felt like jelly. I fell on my backside right where I had stood before. The scenery blurred again, shuffling, until something of stone pushed against my back.
By my side, I could see the faint outline of a dark grey stallion, his faint smile digging a few lines around his eyes. If I focused, I could remember the feeling of warmth that came when he put his leg around my shoulder, the faint blush that came to me as I let my cheek linger on his chest.
We had made promises here, in front of the plaza's fountain. It was the silliest thing, Harpoon told me every time, a fountain not a hundred lengths from the sea. But we had smiled together here all the same. We had sat by the calm, unmoving water, drinking the sight of us reflected within that small pool.
After a moment's hesitation, I took in the strange reflection.
The helmet was the first thing I threw aside with a jerk, freeing my flowing blood red mane. It felt a fierier sort than before, something waving from power rather than the cliché. I narrowed my eyes, who had changed to reflect a snake's. But, as I blinked, the red receded, only colouring my irises instead of the sclera. A soft gasp escaping me gave me a glimpse of flat teeth again. And yet, even then...
I could see why everypony had flinched.
Where there should have been curves, flattened fur or wild strands, there was only the smoothest plastic-like skin of a doll. What little imitated the shape felt painted on, but there could be no depth. My whole body jumped out from the rest of this dream, like a third dimensional shape in a flat world, a molded sculpture of clay next to a drawing. A crude, lifeless amateur work.
The less said of the feeling that crawled up my spine at the sight of my mouth dropping, of that artificial shape moving while knowing it was my fucking face... the better.
This is me, this is what I look like, a fucking pony ken doll.
“I don't have to take this.”
I could picture Harpoon so clearly. Orchid had drunk the sight of him at every occasion. Flutters had gone through her chest as they did now to me. She loved everything of him, from his looks, to his voice, the sight of his muscles rolling with every step... the swish of his tail, and what was hidden beneath.
Was it vain? Certainly. Was it unnecessary? In the grand scheme of things? Probably. But I wouldn't suffer looking like a monster. I wouldn't put up with that damned, plastic face any longer. I... I wasn't a monster, damn it!
“I promised.”
Cheeks burning up, I forced a glare toward that foolish image, and felt my face change.
~~
Within the hospital's walls suddenly rang a hollow laugh. Nurses and doctors alike paused and looked back in worry toward the source of the sound. The closest ponies felt the urge to run, as a primal fear sparked in their chests. The sound rang around them, surrounded them. Bitter, heavy, laced in a dark sentiment a thousand years old.
At the sight of the stormclouds simmering behind Luna's scowl, Twilight Sparkle couldn't help but clamp her wings against her side. For a moment, she had been reminded of another dark alicorn, one with slitted blue eyes, with a near identical growl built at the back of her throat. But the darkness was turned inward.
“The dreamon I met was but a trap. A lure!” The glare she sent the sleeping mare would have made a grown dragon cry. “He must have been bound to the dream in order to spread the influence and serve as a decoy for me. Now that he did his task, he is being cut off from the original prey he went after. The spawning nightmare must be ready to drain every pony still trapped, and the weaker one attempted to flee.”
A silence blanketed the air between the three princesses, as the growing gravity of this situation settled in.
“I must dive in once more,” Luna said, suddenly somber. “There is too little time left if there are multiple dreamons infecting our subject. I must wrestle control away from the greater dreamon at once, then destroy the lesser.”
“Luna, are you certain?” the Princess of the Sun asked, her gaze trailing over the bags under her sister's eyes and the locks of her dishevelled mane. Luna hated the feeling, like having open wounds prodded. “Is this the best course of action?”
“The theft of memories has begun, Celestia. That dreamon tried to manifest!” She pointed to Small Pond's sleeping form, and the smoke-like monster flashed back into their minds. “There is little time left. Her heart is ripe for the picking. She won't survive the day without our intervention! Those dreamons must be purged now! We must do it. We cannot delay any longer.”
There was hesitation in Twilight Sparkle's gaze. “What should we do?” she asked, and Luna gave pause.
She sensed the emphasis, the gentle reproach. One purple hoof carefully stepped on – never beyond – a line between them. Nothing had flowed outside the frame, nothing had yet escaped her control and authority.
“If it is trying to flee...” began Twilight. “Then...”
As her breath hitched, the Princess of Dreams realized that she did not want to hear it. That some part of her wished not to stop, could not stop. If she allowed a moment's rest, her body would likely collapse. Too many still counted on her and her powers to allow the possibility of failure.
Of misjudgement. Ponies counted on her.
“Princess Luna!” shouted a nurse barging into the room. At the startled looks she received, the nurse blushed a deep red and bowed. “Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight,” she added quickly. “You must hear this. The foals have awoken!”
“...What?” Luna's strained whisper barely reached Twilight's ears.
“All but one have been saved!” The nurse shook, her expression a relieved smile. “We've already begun feeding them sweets and fruit juices to help replenish their strength.”
The princesses scampered, moving in a flurry of colours so fast the nurse struggled to catch up. At the head of the procession, galloping, was Luna, a lost look on her face. Conflicting emotions lit up her eyes, confusion and relief, and hope, a terrible, disquieting hope.
When she came upon the door the nurse pointed out, she opened it with a powerful swing, and the doctors and nurses all looked up with startled gasps or yells. The ones nearest to their rulers parted the way in; the rest returned to their charges as soon as they heard the various mumbles and moans of the foals in the beds.
The alicorns surveyed the victims. Was it really possible? thought Luna. After all these efforts, after struggling to release but half of them, they awakened without outside intervention?
She felt a movement behind her, and with a quick glance, realized that her sister was looking at the one filly in need of reassurance. Despite the doctor's best effort, tears rolled out on the child's cheeks.
“Report, immediately,” Luna commanded, and the soft green stallion was all too happy to oblige.
“The colt named Sea Salt has yet to awaken, but every other foal that had been admitted stopped dreaming on their own a few moments ago.” Clean Bill paused to offer his clipboard to his princesses. When their eyes fell on the paper, he pointed to a line on the report. “We've detected little ill-effects on any of them, besides the expected fatigue. We're already remedying to this with a balance of revitalizing spells and sweets to quickly replace the energy drained from them.”
The filly on the bed let out a loud sob, and the doctor's ears drooped down.
“It'll be okay, Lilypad,” he murmured with a gentle wipe of her tears. “It's over now.”
No, not yet. Luna tensed at his words. Already, her mind worked in overdrive to figure out the dreamon's play.
But little Lilypad shrunk underneath the covers, hiding her head. The words came after, trembling, ashamed and afraid. “He looked hungry. He... he...”
Immediately, the three princesses became as rigid as metal, and their countenances were as unyielding. An adult pony would – and indeed Clean Bill flinched – be scared, but the foal did not even realize. She was lost in the recollection of the frightening nightmare.
“He was scary.” She sobbed. “He had big fangs, and his eyes were... were...”
“Hush now, little pony.” Princess Celestia's magic ran through Lilypad's mane. “The dream is over. You are awake and the mean nightmare cannot hurt you anymore.”
Moments passed quietly as the filly held onto her princess in complete abandon. Her tears dried under the calming influence of Celestia's humming. After, Lilypad shuddered, but held herself with some confidence.
“Prince William wasn't mean.”
Princess Celestia's smile carefully remained intact. “What was he like?”
“Fun, and nice, and he took us on some slides and gave us ice cream and... and...” The filly scrunched up her muzzle, then aimed a look at the Princess of Dreams. “He said 'take them, Luna. Take them away from me.' That's when I woke up.”
Beneath her fur, Luna's face went pale as a corpse.
“This... This cannot be true.” Her own voice felt like cracking glass.
The foal said something. Luna knew from the way the little filly jumped over the covers and her lips moving. A protest of sort, at being called a liar so thoughtlessly.
Luna could not hear a word. She could not bring herself to even care about the look of concern that Twilight Sparkle wore.
She stared into the pavement. Bore a hole into it. Looked and looked beyond. “It must be an attempt to startle me.” Her voice seemed alien. Muffled. “It wants to crawl under my skin and strengthen its stranglehold on the dreamer.”
The insolent stallion must have been laughing himself into a stupor at the thought of her.
Her fury turned to fire, and, as Celestia – perfect, kind, trusting Celestia – came closer with an arched eyebrow, Luna's blood boiled.
“Dreamons are not kind! I know them. It has always been my duties and dreamons never were kind! They steal and break and devour! They are parasites, thieves, destroyers. I have fought thousands, bargained with few and none kept their words! It must be false, Tia!”
Two pure white hooves stopped on her shoulders and held her straight. “Luna, you are frightening the foals.”
It punched the air out of her lungs. Nurses and doctors were whispering and singing to the little ones, holding them in their forelegs, smiling despite the sweat rolling down the back of their necks. Luna's legs threatened to give out under her, vertigo pushing a dizzying weight on her.
The world had turned on its head. The dreamon had captured her and subjugated her. This was his tricks, his evils. Ponies looking to her, trembling, cowering. As if her coat was still of the blackest night. His evils, she whispered frantically.
Her eyes went to the nearest window, and an abject taste of ash and sweet wine filled her mouth. Bright blobs of orange and red fought over the horizon's skyline, but her sister's duty had not yet ended for today. The sun remained, as did its precious light.
“I...” Precious light, laughed a hidden part of her. “I... I only meant...”
“You meant nothing of it,” replied her sister, still firm, but with softer eyes. “You meant only good perhaps, but this is not the way to reach it. Look at yourself, little sister.”
Yes, look at yourself, Luna. Look. See the one reflected in those eyes full of fear. It is not her, nor is it the dreamon. This is not a dreamon's trick. You know how to identify a dream. The files had been laid before her. Every word had been clear, precise, ink over paper. They held the name of the filly, and the others, that cried at the sight of her raging screams.
Her evils, came the bitter thought. Her temper running afoul, her stubborn streak the size of Canterlot Castle. They looked at her, not at the shadow that haunted her own nightmares.
“Princess Luna!” screamed a doctor barrelling into the room.
Together, the alicorns turned, and the pony blushed beet red at the weight of each gaze upon his head. Yet, Luna noticed in passing, his focus did not divert toward her sister, as most ponies tended to do. His grimace was meant for her, and his falling heart as well.
This one would bring no news worth celebrating.
Moments later, they were gathered around a lone bed.
“I have failed.”
Luna said nothing more. 'I have failed,' simply, a statement of fact. And it settled on her traits then, a touch of ice. Of cold. Of darkness. The Princess of the Night seemed a sculpture of brittle steel then, her expression unreadable, her stare distant, her mouth a thin line.
She had no reaction to her sister's wing falling over her shoulders, nor to the compassionate words that came with it. They didn't reach her. Each one slid off her skin without even a trace. Both her eyes were affixed on the recently deceased. She carved every detail into her mind.
“They said she passed roughly around the time the foals woke up,” Twilight mentioned as they exchanged a look. The question laid beneath the word.
Luna sighed, momentarily wishing that this could be over. She would give her left ear for a decent night of sleep, guilt-free, duty-free. But she couldn't, and she looked back with a solid stance. “By draining a pony of their life, a dreamon achieves great power. But this one was...”
Feeble. She did not want to think the word, but it fell at the front of her mind all the same. The deceased's limbs stretched bone-thin, her cheeks almost caved in, and her paling fur unable to hide the wrinkle skin beneath. The ordeal had devoured what little the poor old mare might have before it finally claimed her.
“Who... who was she?” Luna heard Twilight Sparkle's solemn voice say.
The mare's file floated in the air, held by a cloud of golden magic. “Sea Orchid, born seventy-seven years ago.”
They turned toward the Sun Princess together, the same surprise in their eyes.
“Did you... know her, Princess?”
A sad smile appeared on Celestia's face as she shook her head. “I knew of her. She was the wife of Vice-Admiral Steel Harpoon.”
Luna's eyes darted downward as her lips moved at a furious pace. No word were formed, but her frustration grew more obvious as the wrinkle of her brown deepened. Surely, after all this time since her return, the name would ring a bell in her head, at the very least! A vice-admiral!
She startled when her elder sister placed a hoof on her shoulder. “He died a few years before your return. I believe the reports mentioned he had begun suffering some form of dementia. He passed away at sea, and her name hadn't been mentioned to me since the funerals.”
“Surely...” Luna heard herself protest. “There must have been...”
“It was a small event,” were all the words the Princess of Day would say on the matter.
She moved a little closer to the deceased Orchid, and gently placed the blanket over the frail frame of the body. She did so slowly, without her magic. Neither her sister or her student could tell what thought reflected deep in her eyes. The quirk of her lips upward made a smile, but one tainted by melancholy, and longing.
“The sea orchid blooms only in the richest waters of the corral reefs, near Griff Port. It can only thrive surrounded by life.” A spark of amusement made her smile truer, as Celestia glanced back to Twilight. “It is sometimes called the flower of friendship. Did you know this, my faithful student?”
The purple mare shook her head slowly. “I hadn't come across this fact yet, Princess.” She bit her lips. “But... I'm not sure I understand—”
“Why are you telling us this, sister?” Luna cut in, her brows furrowed. Unlike her younger fellow, she did have an inkling of what brought that lesson about. “It was her name, we know.”
“She was an old mare,” the Eternal Ruler of Equestria said. “She had no foals, no family left.”
“Speak plainly.”
“She must have felt quite lonely, for all these years...”
Outrage burned in her veins, the reserves of her well of mana swelling suddenly as clouds nearby rumbled. “We cannot let it go unanswered, sister!”
“We won't,” the Princess of the Day replied with a hint of a frown, “but we must consider how to protect our living subjects before thinking of avenging the fallen ones.”
Anger flashed deep in Luna's gaze. “Is this so, sister?” she asked, her voice frosty.
“You will receive no gratitude from the dead.” This time, Celestia did not meet her eyes, nor those of Twilight. “We must first focus our efforts on the living. Luna, it is all I can ask of you.”
Luna found herself fighting her heart for the dying embers of her fury. She grasped at them, trying to hold them still, to cradle them to her chest and lean on them. Without that sudden pumping of adrenaline in her veins, it was impossible not to see the shadows on Celestia's face.
“C-can we?” Twilight cut in with a thought toward the crying Lilypad. “Do we have the means to protect them? Princess Luna was saying the lesser one gave her...” -- she glanced back to the fuming dark alicorn -- “...troubles. And if her deduction is right, there is another, even stronger.”
“We know a few things, my faithful student.” The Princess of the Day straightened, hints of weakness gone. “We know that one of the dreamons, if there are indeed more than one, drained Sea Orchid of the last of her life. This power, however, was insufficient to break Luna's quarantine seal. More or less simultaneously, most of the foals have been thrown out of the dream realm. One of them witnessed him giving them back to you, sister, apparently before he succumbed to his instinct.”
Twilight Sparkle glanced between both her elders. “This sounds... premeditated.”
The Princess of the Day hummed in agreement, to her sister's irritation. She could see the idea worm itself into the Princess of Magic's mind, and to her dismay, Luna felt a little voice at the back of her head whispering the same words. Where was her determination? Where was her promise to fight till the bitter end?
What would Fickle Heart say?
Biting her lips, Twilight turned to her, voice trembling. “Princess Luna, I know this is not my place, but... could he be reasoned with? If he let some foal see that he was hungry, but would fight it, could it be him trying to broker a truce with you?”
Twilight Sparkle looked at her with a strange hope in her gaze. Luna felt tempted to glance back at her sister, see what she thought of the idealism and naivety of her protégée. But of course, she dared not. Celestia had likely engrained the belief of fundamental good in the Princess of Friendship. Second chances, given out as if they were confections and treats.
And of course, this whole conversation had begun following Celestia's lead. Her perfect sister's mysterious plans, her all-knowing words, her discreet push in the right direction.
A glimpse of purple light seemed to reflect in the corner of Twilight Sparkle's eye, from the crown on her head. The Element of Magic. Friendship.
Like a crown of flowers, offered freely despite screams of eternal night hours before.
The aloof feeling she had nurtured cracked.
“They...” the words ground to a halt in her throat. How many dreamons had she faced in her time? Since her return alone? A few dozens, perhaps as many as a hundred, though none quite as powerful.
No, that wasn't the right word for such a creature. This dreamon wasn't more powerful. Truth be told, he seemed only middling in strength. But his reactions... his thoughts...
She saw him fallen in the sand, behind the enthralled foals. Pathetic, afraid. Pleading. A misunderstanding. He'd claim there was more to it than she knew. She remembered his eyes widening at the foals now. He hadn't known they would step in.
He hadn't known. It hadn't been malice.
Could it be? Truly?
“Princess Luna?”
“I... I do not know, Twilight Sparkle,” she admitted, and it was akin to leaving a festering wound open to cold air and dust. How much remained unseen by her bullheadedness?
Most of the foals freed. The false alicorn must have been the one. Of the two, he had to be the pawn. Hay, between her first and her second attempt, he had lost most cockiness.
If he had found the ploy, and realized his role...
It could be an attempt to appease her. It had shot itself in the hoof with its initial arrogance, but realized its mistake. He. Him. She would bet that if the creature had a gender, it would indeed be a 'he'. There was something almost boyish to the false alicorn's behaviour.
And something terribly not.
“He fed off one of our subject, enough that she passed away.”
Her sister's voice replied, with too neutral a tone to be real, “But if there are more than one dreamon, are we certain that this was the stallion's, this 'Prince William's', doing?”
She didn't have an answer. Dreamons were not kind. Dreamons ate and took and tormented as they pleased until they died – by her hooves most of the time. The flash of fear Twilight Sparkle claimed to have been witnessed to should signify the presence of a greater beast than the one she encountered. It could not have been anything else.
By her own logic, Luna was forced to acknowledge her sister's point. Assumptions had not allowed to seize victory yet. Rather the opposite, in fact. If there existed a chance that the lesser dreamon cooperated with her in exchange for his life, then perhaps, perhaps it would be their best hope to free the last few victims.
“Have you decided, Luna?” asked Princess Celestia, a note of concern etched on her face. “Twilight and I will bow to your decision in the end. This is your domain, and your area of expertise.”
Luna had learned a long time ago to read her sister's poker face. For a princess, for any ruler, the ability to twist the truth into a greater purpose was as vital a skill as any. Her sister's perfect reputation was one such lie, but her words just now hadn't been. And Twilight Sparkle looked back at her with eyes full of uncertainty, but she saw no defiance in their depth, only deference.
Despite the previous failures and the call for help. Her choice. Her responsibility. All she ever wanted and all she ever feared. For a second, Luna could have laughed. What little remained of her frazzled nerves hardened. They would overthrow at least one dreamon in the coming hours, the lesser one capable of pushing her back.
Luna glanced at the unmoving body. The wrinkled face showed naught but a last sense of contentment. Her mouth had taken the shape of a small smile in her last moments. A twitch of envy and regret pinched at her chest before she squashed it.
“Aye. I have decided, and I will require your help,” Luna replied without looking away from the dead mare.
Justice would prevail.
~~
The difference freaked me out.
I could see it. On my legs, the strands of fur, the individuals that formed a slightly wavy ebony black coat. Still, I remembered distinctively the chubby, almost blob-like limbs that I had had before.
Had my legs changed or had my sight? Both?
Had Horseshoe Bay always looked like an actual village instead of a weird cardboard cut-out of a vacation paradise? Something that could be lived in, rather than the postal card that it had felt like before? Not an image, but a place.
I shuddered as my nostrils tickled. The scents of sea salt and fish had grown exponentially. Every time I blinked, a small part of me expected to see a fish shoved into my face, for such a strong scent could not have been the simple lingering perfume of this town. Not... not when I had been here for some time now.
Years.
It felt as though I ought to know this little town inside out. The ponies I could likely call by name from sight alone. But, I realized as I caught a glimpse of a mare walking down the street in a daze, not everypony. The colours of her coat and mane brought a faint feeling of recognition to the back of my mind. Hadn't I already seen that mare here before?
“Hel-” I started to say, only to stop in shock.
Being calmer than before, the strange sensation that hit the inside of my mouth popped at the front of my mind like firework. What shape was my tongue even in now? What was a pony's tongue like?
I brought a hoof to my mouth, pressed it against my lips. The touch itself felt gentle, the tip of my hoof surprisingly squishy. Before... before it had always seemed to have been hard as a real horse's.
A hoof's touch could be surprisingly gentle... tender...
“Shhh,” said the dark stallion with a small smile. “Don't worry, Orchid. We'll work things out.”
I shuddered and shook my head, hoping to chase off the phantom sensation on the back of my neck. Focus, William.
I waved a hoof at the intruder. “Hello.”
“I was supposed to be doing something...” the mare stated with frantic looks to her surroundings. It was hard to tell if she even noticed me. “I had something to do.”
My eyes focused on the small bead of sweat curling at the edge of her brows. She looked too single-minded to care. Every inch of her body tense, it seemed as if she would pounce if she ever remembered. Something to do...
About what, I had an inkling.
“When did you come back from work?” I asked in an even tone.
She looked back, her brows furrowed, a pause in her steps. The way her mouth first opened and closed gave me hope that I had startled her out of her obsessive thoughts. “S-some... time ago.”
Yes, she had to be one. Well, time to use one of my own tricks.
“Do you remember closing the door when you left the house? Did you lock it?” I pressed on, watching for signs as her eyes darted up and left. Imagination, gotcha! “Was your house red?”
Startled, the mare nodded too quickly. “Of course,” came the words, with so little weight to them.
“I thought you said it was green?”
Her mouth clamped shut. Her eyes darted right and left as she seemed to pull into herself, her muscles about to spring like coils. Breaths came out of her mouth is rapid succession, confusion and panic settling in.
“No, no, it... it doesn't matter,” she hissed, “I wasn't. I hadn't left work or home. Neither. Both are wrong. Wrong. Wrong!” She clung to the word with renewed hope.
It was amazing that I hadn't noticed before. Even if I hadn't understood back then, this could not have been a dream npc. Not a mindless goal, not an automation, something programmed, but a spark in her gaze. A drive, and a desperation.
I closed in the distance between us. "You have a purpose, right?"
The mare jumped at least three feet in the air, and lingered there for another five seconds, to the clock. With a loud bump and a cloud of dust, she fell back, and looked at me, her eyes wide.
A muffled squeak passed through her mouth, and her tail twitched violently. I saw her eyes fly to my horn, then my wings. She had more awareness than most, it seemed. The moment I took a step closer, she scampered back.
I knew it. "Was the purpose to save ponies from me?" I asked with an even voice.
The mare froze stiff. "W-what? I... I don't..."
She was trying to look as discreetly as possible for an escape route. For a second, I worried that she might just vanish and reappear somewhere else. That couldn't happen.
"You do,” I said with a firm nod. "You have a purpose and you asked me what it could be, before."
The echo of my words died down on their own, slowly drowned out by the singing of the rainbow whales flying overhead. The haunting melody, so pure it should drive away the slightest hint of darkness, only felt like a cage that imprisoned us both. We couldn't move if we had wanted, and the mare heaved.
"It's you," she replied in a faint voice. "You're the reason Miss Pond wouldn't wake up. I..."
So, it is her. That would explain a lot.
Keeping my expression as neutral as possible, I gestured to the purple sky and the green sun. “Why are you here, Miss?”
Suspicion lowered her brows, and the muscles in her legs tensed. She seemed ready to bolt at a moment's notice.
But what I noticed then wasn't the fight still in her, it was the trembles in her. A blackish purple had carved crescents under her eyes. "I was supposed to keep watch over her during the night shift. I... I fell asleep during my break." She broke out a sniffle, unable to take it any longer. “I failed. I left my patient without supervision.”
And I could see the guilt worm itself deeper under her skin, weighing on her head, on her ears.
Well, I couldn't let that stand, now, could I?
“Don't worry,” I whispered, a wing around her shoulders. “I'm sure somepony tried to wake you up. Nopony else could awaken anyway.”
Her muzzle wrinkled, a small frown on her face. “Why are you saying that? You're... I know it's you.”
I took that hit less gracefully than I would have liked, my heart skipping a beat with fear and guilt. My reassuring expression faltered before I reigned those feelings in. Not the time.
“If it were up to me, this wouldn't have happened at all,” I said without room for discussion. “I swear it. This is as much my nightmare as yours. You don't need to be afraid. Nopony's gonna blame you. They'll be too glad to have you back.”
Her eyes went wide with the realization, and her hoof jerked in my grip.
I grinned in earnest. “You heard me right.”
“Thanks...” she whispered, sagging against me, drained of what little fight she had left.
The first thought that came to mind was about how vulnerable she looked. Almost broken, defenceless. And with that train, a familiar itch ran across the curves of my wings.
I gulped.
“You might want to wake up now.”
As the words rippled through the air, her form shivered and flickered. She evaporated, like morning dew under the sun. I took a moment to stare at the empty spot, wet spots under my eyes, then curled on myself to rub my aching stomach.
~~
On her bed, surrounded by worried family members, Nurse Band Aid jolted herself awake with a cry of shock.
~~
"Who are you?!"
"I'm Sea Salt." The stallion’s ears flattened on the sides of his head. "Prince William helped me a bit so I would show you I can be a good cook."
Small Fry didn't know what to say to that. The Sea Salt he knew was a colt not taller than his barrel. The stallion in front of him... bore a resemblance. He could admit that.
An emotion not unlike shame pinched the back of his conscience at the thought of the colt. He hadn’t meant to be harsh, only imprint the importance of his warning.
Yet, that much Small Fry pushed aside, in favor of a far more pressing worry.
Who the buck is Prince William?
But he needed not answering to that question. His mind had jumped to the obvious conclusion, and his teeth grounded together so tightly he felt shock at the lack of pain.
That monster. It had to be the monster that trapped his little sister in an endless dream.
Small Fry rammed into the door of his own restaurant, into the streets that lacked the telltale scent of salty water and fish, into a simile of his hometown with pure rage etched onto his traits.
Where?!
He had been given a mission, one he had gladly accepted. How much time had been lost because he had stayed behind in his restaurant, cooking for elites, celebrities and royalty that didn’t exist?!
He was supposed to look for his little sister.
“A strong shock might be enough to startle your sister out of the dream fog that clouds everypony’s action.” He remembered the princess telling him. “As her brother, I expect you to be qualified for this. If she becomes lucid, she may resist the dreamon longer. It might give me an edge against our enemy. She has power here too.”
And he had been wasting time cooking fine meals. Small Fry already knew he wouldn’t forgive himself for this blunder. He could only hope he hadn’t been too late.
Horseshoe Bay zipped past him. His heart told him to look elsewhere. Memories of a little filly staring at the waves pulled at his heartstrings. She would be there. And his running came to an abrupt stop when he realized that he had been right.
He could see Small Pond, aware, standing instead of lying in that damned hospital bed. She was there.
On the docks. Between two boats rocked to the rhythm of the waves stood a mare with a coat just like his. His sister’s fishing boat was tied to the dock, but her gaze lingered over the taller of the two, over the Equestrian flag tied to the highest mast. She mouthed words he could not hear at this distance.
One of her hoof nearly grazed the galleon’s sides.
The sound of a sailor shouting brought him out of his daze. "Sis!" he called at the top of his lungs.
Pure shock carved itself on her face, and something else beneath it all. Small Fry didn't give it a thought, closing the distance with wide strides over the sandy road. She was there! He’d finally found her!
"Sis, I'm here! I've come to save you!"
She vanished before his very eyes.
Good news, everyone! Mix-up, the same amazing dude that did my cover art, outdid himself with another picture of our poor malicious dreamon, William. Check this out!
Can you even? I can't even. Nope. Not in the slightest. Please, look at his gallery on dA. He does a lot of pony art. Definitely worth a look into. Or, you can go look at his blog here on fimfic for a small study of one he evolved in his art.
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Yay! It's here, it's here! All hail the newest chapter. Let the good times roll. Also that art? Awesome!!!
I imagine that art is from when William gets mad.
That!
That is one of these time were your talent clearly show!
It was disjointed, strange, complex, almost confusing... And yet you managed the amazing feat of making it enjoyable, easy to read and follow. The first part was a great way to open the chapter, Luna's scene was poignant, the scene with the nurse was a solid follow up and the conclusion to the chapter was great!
It could hardly be better.
Congrats on the front page. I believe this story deserves the attention.
Yay! Annodda chappa
I read every paragraph twice just to make the chapter last longer. I love this story.
No, just as I was getting back into the mood again it ended! Oh well, loved the chapter and can't wait for more!
This is really starting to get good. I wish the story updated more often.
A bit confusing, but technically, I guess most dreams are. I still loved the heck out of it anyways!
Still needs an editor.
Well, on getting to this point, I can definitely say this story deserves more attention. It's a pretty interesting take on HiE being transformed into an ridiculous alicorn oc, and the entire plot has me riveted, and I want more.
Oh, yeah. I had forgotten about that scene.
For some reason I find myself listening to this song whenever I read this:
The tone is kinda' sorrowful but upbeat, resulting in a sort of bittersweet feeling that I think fits this story very well, especially during the part about Sea Orchid's memories.
MORE!!! This story is amazing. Just found it, definitely tracking and favoriting this.
I should stop reading this so I can sleep... But it's so enticing...
Well, at least feasting on Sea Orchid is giving William a way to transform himself and his surroundings again. Goodness knows he might have gone insane on his own otherwise without it.
I recognise Princess Luna is working only off the information she has, but damn, she is just not genre-savvy at all.
I get the feeling Small Fry is going to blame Sea Salt for delaying him from realising he was in the dream state, and say something that'll send Sea Salt spiralling off in a bout of depression, giving the stronger Dreamon (if he's still around) a great power boost.