You're Here!

by Arn

Collusion With Parts Unknown

The stallion dreamed.

All the world changed in a moment at her last yawn. ^{(see notes 1)}
From: tucking in grey filly with the dulcet eyes, under the watchful(ness?) of her strange pet rock, after telling tales in her bedroom, too: the stallion finding himself in a gentle embrace in the dawn/dusk clouds.

No.
Not an embrace!
It was leading in a dance.
He: leading, the dark mare, with starlight in her hair, the dark mare was holding him.

"Lucy in the sky with diamonds!"he thought.

Such grace!
She was a Ginger Rogers or Grace Kelly, such wonderfully swinging movements!He couldn't even feel the ground.
No Fred Astair was he.

Such a strange dance, he recalled movements similare to visions in childhood, imagined, after reading Rudyard Kipling's. "Elephant's Dance."

And he was leading her?
He decide not to talk for a bit.
She was singing a melody, liltingly.

He knew the music.
Right on cue, the flute solo!

A little strange mousing, biped, leapt out of a cloud bank dressed in a wonderious uniform, of command regalia, of silver, gold and cobalt some scarlet for trim, wearing a neat captains cap, dance and playing the pipe with all his might, leaping jumping spinning his tail turning round him in a coordinate spiral, among the clouds, getting closer.

But, oh, so dignified was he, leaping and twirling!
"I wonder." thought the stallion."Is this what the audience, all those cowboys, thought at the premier of Aaron Copland's ballet "Billy the Kid" in 1938....I can remember all that, but not my name?It was Pea...It was Peaa.." Struggling to remember that human name the dream around him seamed to ever so slightly darken and flutter.

At the gleam of a single button,the stallion was distracted.
The dancers noticed inconsistencies in costume distracted he:
though his uniform was professional and neat, it had not been surviced in a while. Grey was in the white of the shirt he wore and the cuffs of his pants and jacked were tattered to threads. Though his continuance was pleasant and he smiling, his face, with its long mousey nose, looked tired. Grey was in his mane at the top of his head. He had the look of a hunter, a warrior long in battle by his eyes surrounded by winkles. Long in the trenches or under the marine depths, the winkles of sleep deprivation.
Those eyes looked as if they had seen sights to make men, yes, human beings mad!

Those old and weary eyes kept focused, locked, on the mare singing.

It wasn't a button at all!
A tiny star flitting in and out of the stallions preferential vision, something to say when you consider a horse can see nearly three-sixty!
It was joined by others, scads and swarms! Great bright pinpoints of light gathered to him charging across the clouds, sparkling like stars,lens flare fireflies, circling and dancing with him.

Tear, one, came to his diamond shining like eye. He was among friends, he had sent them away and now they had returned to find their...admiral! Yes admiral! Admiral of the stars!
At once the stallion knew, The Mousling Admiral of the Great Star Fleet, he was glad!

He finished and bowed, the stars took stationery orbits around him, waiting orders.He, standing back up, the flute clenched in his fist, waited.

Presently the mare spoke.

"Rest now warrior, my Admiral. The mission is finished, the battle joined, the hunt is over. You did well in my domains and did not take the final blow, deserved, in the house of my sister being at your mercy. Your noble heart would not let you. Let you end this jelious Alicorn's existance for the crime against those gliding ships in her sky.
Go now, to the heights of the sky!
Join your brothers, under the rollers there!
Living soul,
under the waves
among the broken instrumentality,
barely used,
,cry out to the intercessor as he walks above.
Bringing you up,
to walk as equal with him."

A gesture of his hand the stars zipped away in all directions, began dancing among the clouds.
Slowly, the old soldier, faded away.

The stallion didn't ask. He knew the story, could guess ,or at least come up with a dozen intersecting explanations...
....and the thing was, for our strange stallion, he knew, all of them would be true!

A true believer story!

"What a story."He though about contacting that dancer who lifted his wife one high above his head as a swan, contacting him to make..."A ballet. I would call it,"The Mouse Admiral Encounter in the Alicorn's Domain!"
She called him...what?
Piernas

Then the dark mare spoke to him....

" There’s never been such a sky!"she talked in verse, the little stars disappeared into the clouds,bringing attention back to her. ]" Damp clouds have shined it and soft winds have swept it as if to make it ready for a King’s ball. All its lanterns are lit, all its torches are burning, and its dark floor is shining like crystal...."she said.

"Most lovely!Where is it from?"She asked, he embraced in her wings. Alarmed the stallion, noticing, at that point the long and slender tipped glinting one coming out of his dance partners forehead.

Her lips didn't move but did...
"Here is the true story...." a darker, drifting, ghostly dragon,yellow, eyed image around her disappearing after it spoke...very disconcerting.

A terrible vision filled his mind.
Monstrous shadows, giant ships, illuminated by burning venting gasses,helpless!
A great space battle, high above the moon.

Again, what?
A horse! A flying unicorn with wings! A terrifying dark nightmare that the technologically minded should never see! Their energy weapons useless as she cleft one of the fleets ships in twain!
Diving through the force-field of another, like a pin lancing a blister, close to the hull, skimming past a large window, Time slowing...the Nightmare turning, turning her head looking. She, looking directly, directly at the one seated, flaring her nostrils to take a breath as if smelling him, him, the one in command, the Mouse Admiral, shuddering to the feeling of something breathing in his fur behind him.
Walking on his grave!

Without missing momentum, she flew past the tiny window, making a great arch of her back, displaying lewdity, actions stating,"This time, have a really good look!"
Forces fields rumbled protest, sparks flew from the tiny control consoles.

His pupils shrunk to pin pricks.
Discernment to the Admiral, he knew!

NO!!!
The statue!!
Her he recognized, he had seen enough.
Landing on the moon to look around, that found, they were enthralled...one might say enchanted!
Savagery, muscle and movement mixed with delicacy, his experts said the work of a genius!
Fine exhibit for the museums!

Who was going to say no if they took it?

Shoulda, woulda coulda!
Could have taken more of the day to study the thing.
Would have allowed a more detailed look with instruments, seen something wrong,instead of ogling.
Shoulda realized there was a problem when it took three armadillo heavy lift drones full power, to lift, upside down and encircled in chains, off the pedestal it was so mathematically and astronomically precisely placed!
Heaven knows what the thing was thinking head down at perigee just before all contact with the drones was completely lost!

Worse!
Being assessed by his thing, they were, by this demon, this impossible nightmare!This statue come to life, impossibly flying!
Toys!
These silver ships, bobbing, splashing about in her moab tub of moonlight!

Away! Away!
Even if nowhere twas warp computed.
Playtime was nearly over.
Either way, the second the force field made a sonic boom as she flew out again, that moment,he knew, the sparks flew,
his great star fleet was doomed.

He swallowed.

This mare, this mare in front of him smiling serenely, this mare was the nightmare!
"Oh God! Oh God! Intercede for me!"came the thought fighting through the seizing gears gum and tar in his mind.

The stallion replied with the first thing that came to mind.
Singing from the same opera.....
" Have you seen a Child, the color of wheat, the color of dawn?"he sang weakly."His eyes are mild, His hands are those of a King, as King He was born. Incense, myrrh, and gold we bring to his side, and the Eastern Star is our guide."

She looked him, quizzically.

He continued, almost in a squeak." Yes I know a child the color of wheat, the color of dawn. His eyes are mild, his hands are those of a King, as King he was born. But no one will bring him incense or gold, thou sick and poor and hungry and cold. He’s my child, my son my...."his throat became dry and he cleared it.
"Amahl,"he stammered again, recovering his voice."It is from a short opera called, Amahl and the Night Visitors."

"Ahhmaaaahhlll....."she sang, the very sound of it , it rang as a bell, the flawless tone of glorious fruit made of silver,
exactly as the mother of a lame shepherd boy should sound...
...perfect!
It sent shudders through the stallion as he rolled his eyes and he was assured, all was well.

"Oh dear. We have over compensated!" she said apologetically."Forgive us. Sometimes tonality reflects into the center, backing down the family lines from origin, affecting the humors! It will pass."

Collywobles: floating on the memory of the vibration, all of his apprehension slipping away.
"I don't ever want it to pass..."said the stallion, a stupid smile on his face.

Marigold woke up.
The strangest of sounds Her stallion had made. She checked over all the mud compresses, still secure. The warm mud would keep his joints from swelling and locking up. After attending him she looked at his face, the stupidest grins she had ever seen.

Getting up and stretched,"He must be dreaming."

Walking over to the fire she had so carefully constructed, she lay near it to absorb the heat.
Pity he was sleeping. She had found this place, made this fire, for him, for them so they could get to know each other better.

Marigold sighed, looking up at the silhouette in the moon.
All at once a directionless jealousy filled her.
"Mine!"she barked

"Oriiingin? Wha?"the stallion stirred.

"Oh dear!"said Marigold covering her mouth staring wide eyed at him. He let out a snore, "No harm done."
she said.

"Yes...."said the mare impatiently"That too will pass.".

"Did I hear that?"
Slowly rolling her eyes to looking at the moon it looked different somehow. "How odd."she exclaimed recovering.
"No." she thought shaking her head vigorously.

"Really?Get a grip on you're self!"

The Stallion heard Marigold and felt self conscious, embarrassment.
"Pardon me."politely speaking.
" Who are you?"he said quietly as he gently but firmly left the embrace pushing her away."You're like Celestia."

"I wanted to see to what you would do."she said."I conclude you are of a sound character..."

"Ohhhhh Xanadu(TM)uuuu!
Now that you're herrrrre! _{musical Xanadu}.

Mare and stallion were startled by the little filly.

"I love it!"she said falling backwards on the clouds.

"Gee."thought the stallion."As much energy as a cast member from Bye Bye Birdy. Don't judge! Its all that
comes to mind!"

"That's a terrible musical!"said the stallion.

"Nu uh." said the filly."I found an anniversary digital disk of the original eighties version."

He guffawed "Lots of bright colors....I should have known." grumbled the stallion giving the filly his full attention away from the mare."Of all the things to keepsake, without a player! I demand to know who brought it!"

The filly gave it a spin on her horn, it stood up and spun balanced on horn's tip.
"Nope!"she said, the stallion waited for a bubblegum bubble."He will remain...safely,"she took a deep breath,"anonymous."her mouth took a funny shape and she started to make funny sounds, eyes glowing light blue from the musical playing within.

A more exuberant filly jumping out of the clouds"Luna!Luna!"she cried excitedly , same main color, same mark, same horn and wings and."Tell him he must write it down when he gets to Filly Delphi, while he's dismembering car parts, and rocket engines, remembering recipes for candy bars! Its really fun!"

The elder mare eye began to twitch.

"I enjoy it as much as Celestia enjoyed Camelot, such a wonderful name for a city, Fiddler on the Roof is great and who could forget...."Mariaaaaa! I just met a girl named Mariaaaaa! _{musical West Side story}.

The jets are pegisi!"

"Luna."said the elder turning a little pink oviouly embarased.

"....shall we dance, shall we dance, shall we dance."said the filly twirling. _{Musical King and I.}

"Luna."warned the mare.

"...the power of the music of the nighhhht..."sang the filly falling into a cloud bank. _{Musical Phantom of the Opera.}

"Luna."the mares tone rising.

"...I could have danced allll night. I could have danced all night."Bellowed the little filly as she swam out of the clouds , skating along as if she were in an Icescapade. _{Musial My Fair Lady.}

"Luna!!"cried the elder mare.

"Who me?" was the look on the younger version of the mare with a dozen others similar popping out of clouds.

"Disentangle yourself at once from my inner child this instant!"she scolded."You know as well as I and will know better.... later, 'You don't know such things yet'!"

"Oh but Luna!" protested the filly."The world is so much boring without them, we would have never thought such thoughts, songs and music...I'm glad to know them."

"Well you don't!"snorted the mare."We never knew him or them in our time reference...that you should be getting back to by now!"

Talking off the top of his head."Well I for one, think a better musical distraction would be Peter and the Wolf, or More (Starts?), Magic Flute..

"Yes see!" Said one the little Lunas.
"The world's so boring don't you see, don't you see,don't you see! So will all the strange ponies please stand up,please stand up, please....stand...up.."she stopped under the withering gaze of all the other Luna's including the big one.
_{Slim Shady Eminem paraphrase.}

"None of you ask,'Where it is....'"she said darkly. _{Whomps there it is. by Tag Team paraphrased.}

"I agree said the filly,"there was mischief in her eye."So Papagana...."she asked the stallion,"How are you and Momagana getting along?"

"Luna!!!"cried the elder Mare again .

The stallion blinked.

"Pa,Pa,..Pa,pa,pa."they all began to sing the aria for Papa and Mamagana as a chorus, Except for the elder mare who rolled her eyes.

The stallion still in the bubble at the top of his mind.
"They're really quite good..."

The elder Luna silenced them all with her rendition of the "Queen of the Night's Aria" in staccatos only, with a frown.
_{Motsarts magic flute.}

"No."said the stallion.
"She's excellent!"

The younger Luna's pawed the clouds looking this way and that embarrassed, mumbling,to the effect,"We're practicing/working/getting there/ mother's helping me/starswirl is tutoring me/never heard that before simply improvising and not done yet..."

"What no Gilbert and Sulivan?"

There was a big breath....
"NO! That would be totally unpalitable, unacceptable and indigestable!
No Hms Penifore....the gang is.. just... leaving."

"Thank goodness for little girls." _{musical GIGi}
"That's right!"said the stallion feeling dizzy and silly."Everybody out of the pool! Do as your aunt says."

This resulted in uproarious nickering.

"He's so cute! Isn't he."they laughed."Just so thick!"

The elderly Luna stomped her hoof to a crassh of thunder.Silence for the longest time.
"I insist you disengage!" she said seriously."Your going to give him an anarism...."

They all departed, saying goodbye, each giving him a different nick or pet name the last having Xanadu snatched away, by her elder, she stuck out her tongue.
Leaving one.
Two.

"No he can't have an anarism...."This one was different, darker but still as small as a filly if not more diminished.
"Not just yet!"

"Soft, shinny Tears of argentum," she sang slowly aproaching.

"Graft is it now? Trying to bribe me with my own tears?"

The darker mare continued.
" The truth is that I never left you
All through my wild days
My mad existence
I kept my promise
Let's close the distancccccce.
I kept my promisssssse" _{musical Avida paraphrased}

"What do you want,martyr?" said Luna coming between the stallion and the approaching mare.

"Don't be a stranger.I only wanted to meet him...."

She looked like a mini version of the vision he had seen."Now that's a Xanadu..."said the stallion seeing all that glittering peering around Luna he shivered.

"Shhh...."Luna said."...and devour him?"

"Pray no!"said the other mare."We have the better deal here, crone."she said with sweet poison.
"You will become more, and I will become less."she smiled.

"What does she mean maam?" asked the stallion.

She sang a mockery.
"There was another
He was your brother
He came before you, fought the darkness, darkness won.

And he fought bravely, oh he died bravely
forsaken by the ones he wished to save.
when he died, he died in vain.
I was the only one who mourned!

"That's not true!"Luna said agast.

You need to know."Bellowing, the very growling voice of a rocker, the very vibrations of a electric guitar!
She started violently bobbing her head up and down , it was amazing she did not lose her helm, rocking!
"You are not him."she roared.
Smoke and fire billowed from her mouth. Letting only the eyes seen.
"This fight's not yoursssss...."she sang in anticipated dynamics. _{Musical Megaman paraphrarsed}

No he was wrong, this one was the ship ending nightmare!

Looking at her his eyes came onto sharp focus on the crown on her head.
Two small dots were flitting through the crown spires.

"Stop it!"Luna said curtly.
"Wouldn't mother be proud!"then she smiled, a trophy taken too early."Having trouble with reentry through the ragged layer of ether?Contending with that thick miasma?

"As you say....you would know.You will know!"said the darker filly with a shrug lashing her tail like a Cheshire, the voice of an intellectual and a pout.Noticing she had captured the stallions attention."Then, I just wanted to meet the stud with the piercing grey eyes." She stared at him.

The crown spires became minarets, and the crown became a fairy city pearched percariously upon a mountain side, Two puppets zipping in flight like gad flies, a marionette show around her head, one alicorn, the other, a historonically dressed humanoid mouse, chasing her in a rocket pack.
She flew in and out, the great city, weaving amoung the towers, trying to avoid the laser blasts from the two long cannon tied with cords to his mouse's arms.

Lucky shot!
Knocked down a wall pinning the dark alicorn puppet, he approached pointing at the helpless doll,now panting, his weapon charging, black ooze teared from his soulless eyes.
He hesitated for the longest time shaking. Wracked with pain he cried out too the sky, and fell at the alicorn's hooves. The shadows came out of him and the alicorn quickly held him to her side,under her wing.
The shadow rose above them like a monster.

"You shall not have him!"she cried.

There was a flash of light!
Marionette of Celestia, descending!
Tearing open a hole in the air with her horn, a flaming fiery hole, light wrapted the shadows and threw them, beyond.
Banished them in closing she spoke.
"Join the collected of thy ruin!"

Puppet Luna embraced the mousling cheif and seemed to weep.

Feeling funny,the stallion, tried to turn away from the nightmare filly, too late.
Wreathed in shadows,
her face filled his sight,
his vision
and his mind.

"How much like our little Admiral is he ."she smiled, as she continue her stare at the stallion, a sound in her voice.

"Contact has been made!"her voice echoed through the now hollow shadows of his mind.
Unheard by gloating Luna.

"Left behind inside the central control computer node as his fleet warped to limbo."that sound, a vibration,alien, growing. "What a dainty little kinder egg , with the prize inside, a little toy clock of gears and springs for me to adjust." Her voice distorted.
"All for me!" sounded strange along with...rattling.
"Can you imagine him dressed in armor, silver helmed, diamond shining eyes and chains."

Luna rolled her eyes at the thought of him being undignified slipped out of his uniform into such a armor carapace.

" Weapons, chain from each wrist." The stallion rolled his eyes becoming milky and whit
e."Crackling electricity."
"Chains, hot chain, to grab and bind and tear to rend...."The rattling of a snake's tail now fading."Head of my immutable army of shadows.
The gnawing, biting thing....thing.."she echoed in the stallions mind.

"Bah!"said Luna."That place has alread be chosen and is not for me to say!"with a word she had unknowingly tampered and bent the spell.

"Aye..."said the nightmare hiding behind half lidded eyes trying to cast the charm what she felt best.
"The little shadow of the moon...moon...moon..."

The stallion found himself staring into a pool at his reflection. He, girded in armor and barding one could only call nightmare armor. He was on a hill, looking a vast army. His mind full of duty and responsibilities, chewing his lip, thinking what the troops could do dealing with such violent and lawless ponies, having no respect for life, in the camp below.

He walked over to his companion. At his hoof, just up to his pastern, there was a little figure, he had taken his helmet off and placed it on a rock beside him. He was looking out a pair of antiquated field glasses his size. "Saramouse, Scaramous."he hummed."Can you do the fandango?"

He pulled the field glasses down.
"Very,very, frightening thing!" He yanked the helmet back on his head and lept to the stallions neck. An electrical surge passed through the stallion causing him to rear.The mousling used his weight to canterlever the pony, using his body as a fulcrum, tumbling and falling quite a distance.

A pegusi with ragged wings and unkempt fur slammed into the place they had been only moments.A large cloud marking the place as explosives shook the ground.

The stallion glared at the mousling who was, laughing?
"Classic!"he said giddy."Time to put that book learning to good use, one fire to another eh? This will be easy way to earn my spurs!"
He then became serious and sighed."Its behind the lines the real dirty work is." he look up to the stallion."I'll even gift wrap them like Ai for you."as he nudged the stallions pastern, leap away in a cartwheel. He let a chain and tested it, electricity ran through, throwing it round a rock, turning it dust and splinterings. Pulling it back, red dots from his shoulders set down long lines burning the ground.

"Warning twelve percent power remaining."

"Sigh. Don't need it till the last dash." he tested long blades that came from his wrists."Infiltration mostly..." he struck the ground with the spine connected to the armor of his tail. He raised his arms, shadow circled him like a shroud, flew of like ribbons, picked up the little granular bits of rock and piled them in a pile before he dispersed them with a wave of his hand.
Jumping on the stallions back,"Back to camp your honor." The stallion began to walk, unsure of his passanger."You need a distraction and I need to talk to your general."

"Better the nightmare Herself than her servant."softly sang Luna.
"Be not cruel,
Honor your parents little child.
To tell no lie.
For them, to you, interceding.
From:
thing, little gnawing biting....
shadows, he's always watching,
Little Shadow of the Moon!"

The stallions eyes cleared to Luna looking at him with concern the tip of her wing on his shoulder. He nodded to her.She brought her attention to the nightmare before her.

"So? You filtered into the air tight compartment and let him see your smoky visage."she said with raised eyebrow."Why did you let him go?"

"Oh I dealt with him!Nasty thing, part shadow hunter!"she smiled."Into the interstices flung he." she said polishing her hoof.
Immature race, the voids with them, along with the scrap of their juvenile little silver ships, to starve!"

"For me to deal with..."Luna corrected.

"Why didn't you let him go?"she smirked.

"He deserved to lay in state for the prescribed time, under the banner of his nation and handled with dignity, the custom of heroes we honor!"

"Hero..."The nightmare smirked, shrugged and she looked back at Luna."You see what's happening out there, don't you?"

Luna was silent.

"Here is another story for our little story teller."she said to the stallion.
"She has brought him before her, and there he is!"She said proudly pointing at the stallion."As queen she stands, she towers, towers over him, her shadow over him, in darkness is he,this week thing, this whelp, this mongrel pup, this dogggg..... she says.
'Who are you?'"

"But His eyes are seen through the darkness...all darkness.....it can never cope with with the light.
Go on."said Luna, unimpressed."What happened next, you are commanded to continue."she said with an almost smile.

The filly was unprepared."She...."she stammered as the story was dragged out of her."He...."she licked her lips."Those eyes turned to her,looked at her...she...trembled at their gaze.... stumbled back, she felllll, breathing hard, she gasped...."the filly said dry mouthed."Gaping at him,now even more terrible out of the shadow...how real he is! She asked again,'Who are you?'"she again looked to the stallion."Those eyes looked at her a long time, then spake he,"One who you will regret having ever brought into the darknessess presence!"...."

"That's enough."she said.

She looked at Luna"Till again."
She looked at the stallion."We all have riders on our backs don't we?"

"Begone!"

The filly disappeared.

The stallion was confused.

Again Luna gently wrapped him in her wings, he did not resist.
"For what will happen, for the things you must do, on behalf of Equestria I extend my deepest feelings, and thanks."

She let go.
"Know this that for every stripe of the rainbow I shall receive one strike, for every hurt that happens to your people, I will receive six more!
I am at fault. I was not there to give my sister sound council, I blame myself!"

A giant shadowy figure rose, a simplistic cameo of the mare of the night herself.
"And for every hurt, I inflict on you, I will punish myself with nightmares!"

The stallion with the grey eyes, turned quickly away from the cowering form of nightmare moon and spoke directly to Luna.
"NO.
LUNA."Luna looked directly at him cocking her head paying close attention." Bend your ear to me."Luna bent down."I forgive you."he said gently to the princess." You will not abuse yourself over me!"He approached her ear."I bind you to this promise by this name."He whispered it in her ear.

She backed away and looked at him.
The giant shadow evaporated.

"After....you will hear more on this. Know, that it comes from me, it comes from the one who saved me, from my father."
He looked at Luna and smiled."Lucy."

"One before called me Lucy."she said staring at him. "He wrote books about a Lordly Lion and dedicated them to me before he knew my sickness, my madness, he read them to me when I was alone to ease the screaming in my head....you tell some of his stories, I recognize the style."she looked at the stallion penitently."Will I see him again, to thank him for the stories when I was lonely?"

The stallion smiled.
"If a student of Celestia's, called Bee Tricks, can be caught up in a bad spell, redeemed, then called to pray for a creature she saw, so far away called Dante, and be lifted to the heavens to her astonishment at the heavenly light in her eye under the sun watch..."he chuckled."He does the impossible you know! More amazing things have happened!
Everyone anxiously awaits you and your sisters' return!" The stallion bowed and came to himself.

"Till unification."she said a gentle bow of the head.

"Luna."he asked."Will I ever remember the name I had before?"

Luna thought then spoke.
In borrowed armor, armor redeemed from a racist, through many blows but not one blow from you. Authority of a crown against the shadow name, spanned many shadows, the cur, from a time of magic yours but you will bow. Led to pasture along paths of poured stone but not brought to salvation torn grass and roots and soil. Scream the beast the stallion searching! Led away, hand in hand, from the two legged couple, the chase under the lightning lights of night. How hot the crown! The crown explodes. Through the portal, before the other, tumble. Duck! The final blow, the army stone, that is all Celestial. The singing throng but a note is wrong, through tears you press against the window.
Know this: you are not alone Amago Dei cries out, at your side, and will be with you! On your back, your youngest, called back through, irreistable, your strength shall be renewed and before your wife and children will cry your name to the heights of the clouds.

"Children?"the stallion spoke through his teeth."How will that happen?"he asked again.

Luna smirked."Your wife will lead you."

"Like a lamb to the...."

She grabbed his head and looked into his eyes.
"Like a lion! With much roaring as their hooves thunder in every hill and their wings flutter in the skies proclaiming the holy name whispered in my ear,closer than sister or brother, deeper than friendship."

"Who did that?" he asked.

"A worthy servant of the most high."she smiled.
"Summarize the parable of the scattered seeds."Luna commanded.

"Ummm....
Seed along the path, birds take away."the stallion recited."The evil one steals."
"Seeds in the gravel, shallow root, wither away.The shallow who hear."
"Seeds in the weeds, distractions choking the crop."
"Seeds in good soil, the noble acepting, good crop a hundredfold!"

"You get too distracted, Smudge Pot!" said Luna."Of all the things I could have said you had to glome on that!"she pouted."There are too many doorways into your mind, you must be watchful!"She stared at him earnestly.

"For your enemy, my enemy roves like a predator...back and forth...seek souls to devour! But you will have help!"she sighed gently patting his check.
"What a pair you make!"

She began to drift away, to move away at a rapid clip. Her hair tossed as if in a hurricane. She sat upon a luminous orb.
"We are tested in dreams!Dreams are timeless...."as she was obscure in the cloudy milky background by distance."Watch and be ready."The stallion swallowed.
"Remember:
Two have a better return than one on their investment."

"...I can let you have some stars."said a dark and wicked voice."Rending between worlds! Many stars, wondering stars, from many worlds. At the edge of the looms, the spindly rags."It chuckled."You just remember our bargain."

"You will be in fumus sulfury torment long before you collect!"

There was a bright flash, he turned in time to see a greasy colored fiery comet sparking, slight the sky above the clouds before. There was a skeleton of a Pegasus inside, a fiery figure of blue flame mounted aback, digging its heals. The skeletal head, looked at him piteously with luminous eyes, disappearing beyond the clouds before them.Dividing them in a thunder boom. After, an explosion, he looked at the clear sky above, full of stars.

He turned his eyes back to the clouds and his eyes settled upon a pegisus filly being tucked in clouds by an earth mare with three other lumps, two unicorns, an older child and a younger and a gold yellow blond earth filly lovely to look at with classical features.

"Where have I seen those before?" thought the stallion.

The mare came over to where Smudgie was, it was the same mare from before only in barding and battle armor. She smiled at Smudgie and sat down beside him gently taking his hoof.

A pegasus pony white and blonde darted away in the clouds till the sky was seen above, he looked away and back to the mare holding his hoof. She was looking seriously at the sky.

He looked back from the smoke of the comet a shadowy serpent took form it was coiling through the stars. Lashing out hurling many down.

It spied the stallion and came barreling towards him.

He tried to run pull away.
She held tightly.
"Hold your ground."said the mare in all earnestness holding his hoof tight. He looked to her stern face."This is going to hurt in the long run. I'm here!"

The thing dived into his chest till all of it disappeared. Smudgie gasped, he cried out, he felt the burning in his side again.
It was gone! He rubbed his chest with his other free hoof and began to laugh, the mare looking at him with thoughtful eyes.

"Did you think that you would ever be rid of me?" snarled a voice behind Smudgie in his ear, turning his blood cold, followed by the cramping in his sides.

Author's Note:

After lulling the pink filly to sleep, he tucked her in. Abruptly the starlight maned mare, with him,reared and leap up, passing through the wall, her tail followed like a pasta slurped up.

Checking the wall, finding it passable, the stallion went through.

The mare was no where to be seen. Just another filly, grey colored with dulcite eyes calmly watching him.

"Hee.Hello."he said nervously.

She was unimpressed, emotionalless, and expressionless.Such an immoble face, one can imagine ticks and expressions, not there, subject to interpretation of the looker. He decide to enterpret these precived movements as fear.

"That's..."he wracked his brains."uh....nice bit of...um...sedementary rock you have there!"

"His name is Bolder."

"Oh is it now?"he said with a gentle voice and smile."May I have a look at him?"

"Pick him up gently."

"Hooves. How do they work?"he thought somehow placing the rock on his upturned hoof, laying on his frog.

"He's perfect!" he said looking over the rock."Not a fisher. The layer of deposits, just barely going into each other, you can barely see the striations! Such a wonder of erosion."

"There was once a river here...."

"Yes. Such a fine, smooth, texture could only come from water."He ran the other frog over bolder's round side."The river gave, layer by layer, and as soon as it raised itself above the river bed, the river began to wash him away....leaving the bolder's very heart...."

"Now you're just trying too hard, to be friends, behaving as if you know what you are talking about."

"Well.. I do know erosion. How do you think I got to Equestria?"He gently put bolder back on the nightstand."I know a story about someone who had a pet rock."

"Someone?"

"Uhhu. His name was Sloane and his rock's name was Teddy."

He then gently sat on the corner of her bed and regaled with the tail by Issac Asimov called "Sure thing."

He concluded"'...You knew he could telliport.' 'Did not.' said Sloane counting his winnings,'it was a sure thing.''How so?' 'Well,everyone knows :
Sloane's Teddy wins the race.'"
There was a very long ackward pause.

"That wasn't a rock."she said.

The stallion though about smiling and passing through the wall again.

"The story was very humorius."at last said the filly, flatly.

The stallion smiled,"Go ahead and get some sleep."he tucked her in."I wonder if this is the steward's house metioned in Bunioin...I feel very comfortable here,"he thought..." or a hobbit hangout." 

He got up and turned to leave via the wall.

"Wait!Grumpus..."
He stopped.
"Would you tell me about the Great Bism?"

She was talking about a place mentioned in C.S Lewis, chapter 14, of the "Silver Chair."

He turned and cocked his head and looked over his back at her."How do you know about it?"

"My sister told me you would know....."she said in monatone.

"Indeed I do!
I supposes there is time.
Its from a story calle...um...the Silver Throne.
Lord Eustace and Lady Polly descendants of A-dam and Lady Eve, along with their companion Puddleglum the marshwiggle, tumbled down the steep tunnel under the City of Giants, having just escaped thier descendants, continuing in their quest to find the long lost Prince Rillian....son of King Caspian and his wife, the daughter of Ramandu the ancient star ."
The filly corrected him at every turn while they were underground till she heard that the gnomes were digging...."Of course that explains it.It's a mine..."she said with a yawn.

"Then they encountered a mysterious helmed stranger......
He continued the tail.
'By all hopes, by all fears, by the sun and moon, by overland, by Aslan himself! Set me free!"
He opened his eyes to see the rock sitting in front of him.

"He wants to know what happens next."she said.

"Three signs were given the adventurures by the Lord of that land, a Lion by the name of Aslan. First: Polly was to meet meeting of an old friend of the lion's.Next: upon finding writing the were to they were to follow instructions as written and the last: 'he will be the only person to ask you to do something in my name...' there was fear, some said it was only the words of the sign. They had missed the other signs. But the true believing Marshwiggle put them on the right path, in the end nothing mattered, 'We have to do what was said."

"What did they do?" Asked the filly, first signs of emotion tracing her face.

"They undid his bonds."

Maud gasped.

"He ran for his sword!"

Maud looked at him wide eyed.

"The madman armed himself and charged our friends."

She pulled up her sheet.

"He raised his sword...."

Maud brought the sheets to her chin cowering waiting for the blow.

"Downand he brought it with anger and violence. Down upon the silver throne!"

Maud relaxed.

"He smote it over and over again. Exhausted, he threw his sword down.
'Lie in ruin foul instrument of sorcery!' he said.
It was the prince!"

"No."said the filly."It isn't a mine, its a tomb."she said sadly.

"So his friends brought the prince back from the dead then?" Maud agreed.

After introductions, in rushed the Lady of the Green Kirtle, she was not happy about the throne's distruction. She cast a spell in green fire and tried to convince them the world above, the sun, the sky, didn't exist.
"She's not nice."said the filly.

"They tried to correct her through argument, but she had answers to all they knew, that they had imagined the world they knew."

"Why?"

"The green fire made them gulable, but again it was the Mashwiggle who came to his senses,'
My friends and I can dream up a world that can beat yours,"the stallion smiled,"hands down! And if this black pit of a world is the best you can do, thank you for tea and for supper but we'll be on our way."The adventurers agreed.

Maud shuddered as the lady turned into a giant green snake and was dispatched.

He described, giving more details than Mr. Lewis, the gnomes and their descent back to home in the great Bism...the lava rivers , glowing like campfires light, making the the iron and metallic salt and glass crystals, some forming trees and mountains, glow.
True, many descriptions were quoted verbatem from a geology lecture the stallion once heard, none the less, the filly smiled happily falling asleep, as the great casm in the earth opening to the bism closed up and as the rescue party, found by ponies, walked up the incline into the light of Narnia, where dweld talking animals, as the awfully mine was flooded behind them.

"Aslan commended them for everything he had commanded they had done, following the outline.But they bwere surprised. When had they followed the outline?
His old friend was steward of the court not the old king, though he was a freind.
They had seen the giant writing on the ground from the castle were they were virtual prisioners, the very city itself said,'underme.'
...and of course, they had freed the prince.
There is a lot of wiggle room in the outline but his outline is supreme."
It struck the stallion."The outline is supreme, only free will will put you on one side or the other and freewill is only possible because of statistics. Nothing is ever zero or one hundered percent, except in heaven, but that is outside the world...his outline, one side or the other because of freewill.. So no mater where are when or what you are nothing can separate you from his love."

He reflected"I have to come to a world of different creatures, common, that, by no means should, have freewill to learn this?" he sighed."Well, if All Wishes hadn't saved me, interceeded, I wouldn't have understood what was done in my world...I'm sure, God knows."

Agian he tucked the sheets around her.
How she reminded him of an aunt he once had.
"Sleep well Grace,"he said a gentle monatone himself"work hard, study show yourself ,well true and approved, in all your beliefs and someday, I may return. Yes, I will be back."he smiled"I might tell you a tale from the epic of Rose Quartz."He chuckled."...about her son, Stephan the Universal."He backed away and bowed with a flurry.

There was no one here to tell him a story was out of order or cannon.
He gave the filly a kiss on the forehead.
Then disappeared.

2.Luna smiled.
"Further, I promise in my right mind I will never fight your descedants!"

The stallion sighed,"I wish you hadn't done that!"

"Pray whyforever not?"Luna said surprised.

"Because..."sighed the stallion."Sometimes, when you have a bunch of little buggers scrambling round the palace, Sunshine and Sparkles just won't do!I'll need help and you'll miss out and be helpless because of your vow."

She cocked here head at him.

"I hope I and the little wife can figure something out!"He rolled his eyes."Of course I'll just be standing there, like an idiot, mindless, on what to do!As usual. It will all be up to her fine friend and help I am."He smacked his lips."How I hate it when history repeats itself, lots of anotation and good advice noone reads and folks have to improvise!"