...The Dawn? (Retconned)
A still silence hung over the house, save for the sounds of my hoofsteps as I ascended the spiral staircase. It had been...a surreal evening, to say the least. I'd fought a figure from an old mare's tale, been trapped in an endless nightmare, had my mind melded with my sister's, and reunited with my parents inside a memory of my long-destroyed home planet. School-age foals just aren't cut out for this kind of stuff.
"Okay get a grip," I told myself mentally. 'First I need to find Apple Bloom and straighten out this misunderstanding. Second, I need to find a way to break the curse. And lastly, I need to stop Nightmare Moon and save all of Equestria from eternal darkness. Easy-peasy right?'
The second floor of my parent's house was certainly...unique. The staircase exited to a circular hall ringed by a series of colorful circular doors.
Bam!
Bam!
Bam!
"Consarnit, why won't any of these stupid doors open!?" I looked over my shoulder to find Apple Bloom bucking her hooves frustratingly against a door.
"Ahem." Apple Bloom stopped and smiled embarrassingly at me.
"Need some help?" I called out to her. She sighed and sat down on her haunches as I walked up to her.
"I had some trouble with doors the first time I was here too," I explained standing on my hind legs to press the panel next to the door. It slid silently open revealing a simple but elegant bedroom with a princess-sized bed. I quickly deduced it was my parent's room. "Looks comfy, and there's a spectacular view."
"Yeah spectacular." Apple Bloom mumbled sounding unsure as she slowly stood up.
"Look, Apple Bloom, about what my Mom said, I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding. There was no way she could've known." She looked down at the carpet, her eyes tracing the lines running through it. "All I'm saying is please don't be mad at them."
Apple Bloom raised her neck and looked up at me. "A'h ain't mad at 'em." She said.
"You aren't?" I asked her. She shook her head.
"No A'h ain't," She answered simply. Not realizing I should probably just let it go, I kept going.
"Then why did you walk away from them?"
Apple Bloom sighed and climbed up onto the bed. She lay down on her back and looked up at the ceiling. "A'h just didn't want to upset them."
"Is this about them letting you call them Mom and Dad?" I asked. To which Apple Bloom replied.
"What was A'h supposed to say to them?" I rolled my eyes and shrugged my shoulders.
"Eh, you got a point there," I said as I sat down at the end of the bed. "Still, I gotta hoof it to you, you're taking this a lot better than I thought you would."
Apple Bloom sat up and sighed. "Yeah, well A'h guess Ah've just sorta gotten used to weird alien stuff happening."
"I don't think I'll ever get used to it," I said with a smirk. Apple Bloom fell back laughing.
"Bah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha huh, Are Y'all serious?" She let out a snort as she rolled onto her side.
I couldn't help but chuckle a little myself. What can I say? My sister's laughter is infectious.
"Applejack as my witness it's true," I said as I placed my hoof over my heart. This sent Apple Bloom into a fresh peel of hysterics.
"Is that what you call seeing your parents for the first time in five of your Equis years?" A familiar disembodied voice said. We both looked up to see the figure of Loran materializing in the doorway.
"EYAAAAAAHHH!!!" Apple Bloom sprang up like a startled cat and proceeded to wrap her hooves around my neck like a loa constrictor, sending both of us tumbling off the bed. Flailing desperately I grabbed ahold of the bedspread in a last-ditch effort to pull us back up. That...is not what happened. Instead, we ended up tangled in a rolling heap of legs and tails sprawled across the floor.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you like that." Loran apologized as Apple Bloom and I rose to our hooves.
"I think it's the suddenly appearing out of nowhere that gets to her," I said rubbing the side of my head reflectively. Neither of us was actually hurt since we weren't in our physical bodies.
"A'h wasn't scared of her." Apple Bloom said in her defense. "A-A'h just ain't used to ponies appearing outta thin air like that is all." Loran tried her best to hold back her laughter.
"Well, I'll try my best to use the door in the future." She said mirthfully as she turned her attention to me. "Kom-El your father wants to see you downstairs."
The way she said that was...weird. Not weird as in how she said it or pronounced it, but weird in how normal it sounded. Almost like she could be just another mare from Ponyville instead of a four-dimensional sentient memory of a mare from another planet.
"What for?" I asked.
We descended the staircase, only to find the living room empty.
"He's not here," I said stating the obvious. "I thought you said he would be downstairs."
"You thought correctly." Loran calmly said as she walked over to the large column in the center of the room.
"So where is he?"
Loran placed her hoof on a panel on the column. Instantly a section of the floor to her left slid back revealing an illuminated spiral staircase leading down.
"Downstairs in his basement laboratory of course." She answered. "Well get a move on, let's not keep your father waiting."
Apple Bloom took one look at me and said. "Y'all go first."
At the bottom of the stairs stood a silver metallic door with a panel next to it. Loran offered to let one of us push it. I decided to let Apple Bloom do the honors. Give her a chance to redeem herself for what happened upstairs. The door slid open with a soft hum revealing a large octagonal room that certainly didn't look like any alchemy lab on Equis. The walls floor and ceiling were covered in a silver metallic sheen. Strange floating screens displaying strange symbols resembling hieroglyphics covered the walls in a display of different colored lights. In the center of the room sat an imposing half-moon-shaped console with a large floating screen showing what looked like a model of an equine brain.
Both of us were struck speechless, the technology in this place had to be at the very least, centuries ahead of anything on Equis.
"A'h there you are," The voice of Jav-El echoed from the ceiling. The empty chair in front of the console suddenly turned around by itself. The sight shook Apple Bloom out of her silence as she let out an ear-splitting shriek and reached out to grab me as a familiar shimmer of lights signaled the arrival of the Koltonian scientist.
"So Kom-El, Apple Bloom, what do you think of my...laboratory?"
Apple Bloom clung to my back petrified with fear, her forelegs frozen in a death grip around my neck, and her hind legs wrapped trembling around my barrel. Meanwhile, I was lying splayed out on all fours like somepony who had a wagon full of pianos dropped on him.
"It's...incredible, " I groaned. Jav-El just stared at both of us dumbfounded.
"I think you came on a little too strongly there Sir." I heard Kerax say. I couldn't see where he was though.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He apologized,
Apple Bloom hesitantly released her grip on me as I rose to my hooves.
"Ah'm sorry Ah'm so sorry, please please please don't be mad at me." She apologized profusely.
"It's fine," I hissed, "just promise me next time you get scared you'll only hold my hoof?"
"You got it li'l big brother!" She exclaimed happily shaking my hoof harder than she ever had.
"So...Dad," Still felt weird calling him that, "Mom said you wanted to see me?"
He looked at Loran and nodded approvingly. "After our little chat in the living room, I decided to take a closer look at a hunch I'd gotten when you arrived. But I couldn't get a complete picture of what it was through melding alone. So I had Kerax take a neural telepathic scan of your brain.
"Well, where is he?"
"Right in front of you." The robot's voice answered from the holo-screen behind Jav-El."
"A'h thought he was a robot?" Apple Bloom said.
"When we spoke earlier, you were speaking to one of my robotic shells." He explained.
"So you're like a turtle?"
"I do not know what this turtle is you speak of young Apple Bloom. Is it what your species refers to artificial intelligence cores as?"
"Umm...no."
"Why don't we continue this discussion at another time Kerax." Jav-El interrupted. I think right now Kom-El is more interested in the scan results.
"Wait," I protested. "When did this happen?" Jav-El reached over and picked up the image of the brain in his hoof and held it out to show us.
"When your mind first melded with the crystal, I sensed it was giving off abnormal neural oscillation patterns so I had Kerax take a neural telepathic scan of your brain." He rotated the brain around to show the brainstem, around which pulsated a dark sandlike blob, its essence racing through my synapses like venom turning the image a murky dark blue. "Go ahead, touch it."
I hesitantly reached out with one hoof. It felt cold to the touch, I quickly drew my hoof back.
"That looks like the sand Nightmare Moon used on me," I said, "only it feels like it's..."
"Alive." Kerax finished.
"I was gonna say moving, but now that you mention it... wait! How did you even reach that conclusion?" Jav-El calmly flicked his hoof, sending the hologram floating back to the screen like a bird set free before turning his chair back over to the console.
"It spoke to me," Kerax said resuming his typing.
"It spoke to ya?" Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow as the image of my brain disappeared, replaced by a graph of a wavy blue line covered in a black ghostly aether.
"Kerax playback the audio sample," Jav-El commanded. The line suddenly began moving erratically.
"Apple BLOOM!...WHAt IS GoING On heRE?" The voice was deeply distorted, with seemingly no control over its speed and pitch. It was almost like somepony was trying to control what I was saying.
"Where are you?... HoW DiD YOu maNAGE to PENetRate My...That's it!" The static grew steadily louder, sending the waveform into a frenzy of spikes.
"...WhaT EVer IT iS Your dOing... Apple BLOOm lisTEN to ME, I Need you...CanNOT EsCape Me...Can you do that? Good, now I want you to...SuRRenDER tO the NIGHT...Just close your eyes and...WHat Is tHis..." The computer sent out a high-pitched crackling before it finally faded to silence.
"O-Okay...A-A'h believe ya." Apple Bloom stammered, her legs shaking like a foal trying to walk for the first time.
"Whatever this thing is, its consciousness has somehow become neurally entangled with yours," Kerax said as Jav-El tapped the line on the screen with his hoof. The line disintegrated at his touch into hundreds of tiny dots. Some were light blue, some pitch black, it wasn't hard to figure out which were mine.
"Now watch what happens, when I separate the two brainwaves into individual neurons and reform them inside separate fields." The dots scattered in opposite directions, following the motions of Jav-El's hooves. It quickly became clear what he was doing.
"It's like some kind of puzzle." Apple Bloom said as she watched him tap the two separated groups. Like metal particles to a magnet, the dots were drawn to each other merging into two separate lines. With one final tap, the dark line spoke again.
"WHAT'S HAPPENING? WHO IS WITH YOU? HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO PENETRATE MY SPELL? WHATEVER IT IS YOU'RE DOING WON'T WORK! GIVE UP AND SURRENDER TO THE NIGHT. WAIT WHAT IS THIS STRANGE MAGIC I'M SENSING? DO NOT THINK YOU CAN ESCAPE ME, LITTLE PRINCE! WHEREVER YOU GO I WILL FOLLOW!" The voice faded back into static before Jav-El switched it off.
"I'm sorry Kom-El," He said regrettably as he knelt his head. "I tried to stop her, tried to fight back." He stood up from his chair and looked at us. His eyes were no longer the familiar blue I shared but instead glowed with a bright cyan aura. "But she was just too strong." I was so startled I stumbled backward, almost tripping over my hind legs. This couldn't be happening, I-I had to get Apple Bloom and Loran out of here. I grabbed Apple Bloom's hoof and made for the entrance, only to run smack into my Mother. To my horror, her eyes were the same as Jav-El's
"Forgive me my precious shooting star!" She sobbed, tears running down her cheeks as she wrapped her forelegs around my body. "It will all be over soon." I wriggled and thrashed and thrashed about. But Loran's grip was like a vise. My 'body' in this place was only a construct of my subconscious, deprived of its usual superequine strength.
"MOM LET GO OF ME!" I shouted. Loran howled with laughter, A very familiar laughter.
"Mommy's not here anymore little prince," She said mockingly in Nightmare Moon's voice. "It's just you, your sister, and me now. But do not despair both of you will be seeing them again very soon. In fact, you'll be so happy you'll never want to leave again." A dark portal appeared below us and a pair of dark tendrils emerged from it.
"APPLE BLOOM RUN GET OUT OF HERE!" I shouted. But Apple Bloom remained still, her legs frozen in fear as one of the tendrils wrapped around her barrel like the body of a hungry snake. The sensation shook her out of her shock, She let out an ear-splitting scream as the tendril dragged her toward the portal.
"HEEELLLLLLLLP MEEEEEEEE!"
"NO APPLE BLOOM!" I struggled with all of my strength but to no avail. I was only as strong as I would've been on Kolton. I could watch as Apple Bloom disappeared into the dark swirling abyss. And suddenly I felt Loran's grip release me. I fell to the cold sterile floor like a sack of potatoes.
"Let this be a lesson to you Little Prince," Nightmare crowed. "You can try to run, You can try to hide, But you never escape me. For I am Terror, I am Fright, I am Nightmare Moon!" Jav-El silently walked up next to her, His eyes gazing at me with the same hunger as Loran's. "Still, I feel as though I should thank you for showing me the secrets inside this crystal, Never in all my years could I have imagined the wonders I have seen. When Equestria is mine, I'll be sure to put it to good use."
Nightmare Moon's sickening laughter filled my ears as I rose to my hooves. I had no idea how I was going to fight her, or what good it would do. Luna was gone, Apple Bloom was gone, and my parents were gone. All because I couldn't save them, It felt like Pa all over again. I felt a sudden rage erupt deep inside me. Without thinking I charged at the laughing form of Loran and jumped into the air. My hoof struck her muzzle with a satisfying smack, sending her crashing to the floor with a shriek.
"I-It's okay my little shooting star." She cried her voice no longer that of the evil sorceress who controlled her. "I do not blame you." My anger and better judgment melted away as I rushed to comfort her.
"THWACK!" I got backhoofed across the muzzle for it.
"Is that any way to treat your mother Little Prince?" Nightmare scolded condescendingly as she rose to her hooves. "I think you need a time-out." Before I could react she pivoted on her front hooves and bucked me in the face. I felt no pain as I tumbled and rolled across the floor over the portal's edge. Only the tearing of my heartstrings as I pulled myself up to see my parents walking silently towards me.
"Goodnight Little Prince." Jav-El hissed as he kicked my left hoof off.
"Sleep tight remember you've got school tomorrow," Loran added as she did the same to my right. The last thing I heard before the darkness consumed me was the sound of Nightmare Moon's laughter doubled by the two of them.
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Poor Nightmare Moon, she is not going to have a happy Comet very shortly.
Whoa mama. That is some really good detail concerning the dream world Comet is certainly trapped in thanks to Nightmare Moon. Have to admit, posing as Comet's birth parents WAS a clever move on Nightmare Moon's part. . Again, the exchanges, characterizations and future chapter set-up are all well done in all the right places.
I'll most certainly be looking forward to more of this.
9171787
He is going to be very pissed off.