Stallion X

by Lost Brony

Chapter 2

Twilight quickly woke up, out of breath and drenched in a cold sweat. She was blinded by the sudden sunlight brightly pouring in through the window of the library. As soon as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change of light, the first thing she saw was Spike standing beside the bed, holding her front right leg. Then she saw her leg. Purple, she thought to herself, Not dark gray. Still breathing heavily, she asked, “It happened again?”

“Yeah,” Spike let go of her leg and gave room for her to breath, “You were talking to yourself again. Something about Discord. Just like the past several nights.”

Every morning, for over a week, Twilight had woken up talking, sometimes screaming, and feeling much more tired than the previous night. Her dreams were usually the same. There was a conversation between a stallion, a mare, and Discord. Some kind of plot was being planned out among them. On a few occasions, instead of just those dreams, they were nightmares. The nightmare had always felt as if it was only a few minutes, yet the next morning, she still had to struggle herself awake. The nightmares were worse than any other she had before. She placed a curse on Princess Luna, so Princess Celestia attacked Twilight, setting her to stone. That was where her screaming came from, seeing her own teacher angrily punish her own faithful student.

After rubbing her eyes again, she noticed the dark shadows underneath Spike’s. “I’m sorry, Spike.” Twilight couldn’t feel any more sorrow for her dragon assistant. Her constant speaking and yelling hadn’t only taken a toll on herself, but also deprived him from any sleep. She wished so badly that these visions of madness simply went away and never came back. “I’m wide awake now. If you want, you can go back to bed and rest.”

“No, it’s alright,” Spike yawned, “I’ll be fine with just three hours of sleep. I just need a drink of coffee or something.”

“Really Spike, I could just get Owloysius to help me out today.”

“But the Summer Sun Celebration starts tomorrow, and-”

“And that’s why you need to sleep.” With her horn, Twilight sent a purple dust cloud towards Spike. He dropped to the floor and quickly fell asleep. “I’ll wake you up tonight,” she said softly. She still wanted Spike to be awake during the night, she would only feel safer that way.

Twilight Sparkle got out of bed, walked over to the mirror, and performed her usual morning routine. Her messy, rocker-like mane became the clean, straight style she always liked with a few strokes of a brush. She repeated the same thing with her pony tail, matching it with her mane. She stared at the mirror, seeing eye to eye with the unicorn inside. You look really good, she thought with false happiness, Dark purple with a pink streak? Very clever, Twilight.

There was no use in trying to make herself feel better. It grew to bother her whenever she looked at her reflection and finding those stars on her flank. It made her think of the dream. It made her think of how her life would be like if she had never earned her cutie mark. Would I still have my friends or my magic? Although she had been able to convince herself that these dreams were simply dreams, somewhere in her mind, all this wasn’t a good sign.

A few days earlier, in one of her encyclopedias, she looked up what exactly a dream was. According to her research, a dream is an involuntary succession of images and ideas. It didn’t help very much. She needed a more psychological explanation.

Afterwards, when researching from her books had failed, she had decided to ask a good friend she knew, Zecora. Zecora was a wise, rhyme-chanting zebra. What she didn’t do in spells, she made up for in potions. She’s usually a voice of help for any situation Twilight and her friends faced. She was especially helpful when she was explaining the meaning of dreams. “A dream,” she chanted, “is a symbol to represent our past, future, and sometimes our present.” Zecora’s philosophy had always sounded like a complicated riddle, but this one made perfect sense to Twilight. Which is why she didn’t believe it, at least, she didn’t want to.

Even though she concluded Zecora’s theory of predicting the future as untrue, she still considered the fact that dreams can show things from one’s past. Twilight remembered her days as a young filly in her hometown, Canterlot. She loved to read and learn new things about magic. She loved her parents for making sacrifices for her to enroll into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. She loved her big brother, Shining Armor, for being her best friend forever. Twilight could never forget the day she had gotten her cutie mark. She would always be grateful to Princess Celestia for teaching her, and would always be thankful for having a new friend, a green and purple baby dragon, Spike. There was no reason that her dreams and nightmares came from her happy childhood.

The dream seemed to take place just before Discord made his appearance. It was then that she realized that all the bad dreams took place from the point-of-view of the stallion. A dark gray stallion. Discord’s student. Maybe it wasn’t from my past, she thought, but from somepony else’s.

Is it possible to see anyone’s past in a dream? Who was that stallion and why was he learning from Discord? She suddenly thought of Trixie. Wait, why was Trixie there? Why did she suddenly turn to Discord for help? Twilight remembered how she humiliated Trixie in front of everypony in Ponyville. She had been very boastful when claiming that she had fought and defeated an Ursa Major, but it was Twilight who had to take on an Ursa Minor, since Trixie was far too afraid. Was this her revenge?

Her thoughts returned to the dreams. If these are just normal dreams, why do they always come back almost every night? And whenever I don’t dream of Discord, I have a nightmare of Princess Celestia cursing me. Why?

Out of everyone she knew, Twilight had only told Spike about the dream, but even then, it wasn’t a very detailed description. She only mentioned Discord planning something. Spike simply said, “Don’t worry, it’ll be okay.“ It helped a little to have someone listening.

The problem, however, was that she had a strong feeling things weren’t going to be okay. She felt this way just before Nightmare Moon returned, and when Queen Chrysalis had almost ruined her brother’s and Princess Cadance’s wedding. Why should this have been any different?

Because these are just dreams, Twilight answered herself, Zecora said dreams “can” show things from the past, not that they “should”. She felt some relief growing within. It is possible to have the same, recurring dreams every night without any deep symbolic meaning. She remembered a few months ago, one of her best pony friends Rainbow Dash had a recurring nightmare that Pinkie Pie, another best friend, had murdered her and baked her flesh into cupcakes. That didn’t mean anything, except that Rainbow Dash needed to stop eating sugary snacks before bed. Twilight turned towards Spike, sleeping in his usual adorable way. When Spike dreams about Rarity, that just means he has a cute, little crush on her. It’s never anything serious. So, why should I worry about it?

Despite the relief effort, she looked at her reflection again and still saw a pony filled with grief and fear. Twilight felt scared deep down in the pit of her stomach. Her mind was a ticking time bomb on the brink of insanity. Or maybe I have lost my mind, because I‘ve spent about 15 minutes standing in front of this mirror. She didn’t know what she was more afraid of, going to sleep at night or everyone finding out about her dreams. She was able to work up enough courage to tell Spike, but not anypony else. She desperately needed to tell someone, she didn’t want to carry the weight of her emotions any more. She had felt a little safer when she told him about it.

I have the greatest friends anypony could have, she thought positively. They care about me, no matter what. She looked directly into the purple eyes of the unicorn in front of her, giving off as much confidence as she could. “Alright, you’re telling everypony,” she told herself. “You shouldn’t let fear run your life, Twilight. I know they’ll help you get through this.”

She left into town, feeling ready to start and seize the day.