You're Here!

by Arn

Dreams in the Clouds

She caught the next airship in the morning, despite the morning assurances and His pep talk, a frazzle.

Forgetting absolutely everything He admonished her about.

Wearing nothing but an ugly hat used for gardening and a purse containing her life savings swing wildly around her neck, like an albatross, disbalancing her at every quick turn , the addled mare made a complete fool of herself, a trick, as she lept aboard the departing airship ,kid's do not attempt, considering the mares aboard were nearly as flustered (only difference: they on board being packed with appropriate attire luggage stowed as the airship departed and were not doing a flying leap on to a rapidly departing airship high off the ground!)

She had forgotten her parents teaching: did not use discernment, listened to her neighbor's voice thinking it His and continued conversation despite many contradictions. She charged up the platform, foam flecked and smelly jumping over the rope line charging up the gangway, all the while singing," I WANNA HOLD ANND, ANNNND!!!" running through town and the zephelport terminal.

Worse! Captain Updraft Tackey Tea Sails was, at that moment, the mad mare had collapsed at his feet, hoofing him her ticket as if he were a train conductor,considering to put her off if his wife hadn't interceded. He remanded the delirious, shivering and soppy pony, to the care of his wife Saffron Sails.

In the captains cabin,she dreamed delirious dreams.

"Marigold."

"Yes."

"What did I tell you?"

"You told me to go to the capital and get a husband to leave immediately or I would miss my flight, use discernment and follow my parents teaching."

"Are you sure? That doesn't sound like me."

"You told me to follow my parents teaching and to think."

"Did you behave thoughtfully? I never change my mind."

"Wait, that sounded like...."she turned red."Feather Duster!"

"Please...follow me."

It was on to another dream.

These dreams:
She had never had any like these before in all her life.This mysterious giant and an allegory of why it was important to listen to her parent's teaching, walking together through a shadowy valley.The giant brought her attention to something she would remember forever .

"The one who scorns a father's advise, and mocks a mothers teaching..."she ran from the sight of the birds in the valley.
The ravens, gorging, feasting!

Again, another dream:
She was running from a predictor, the predator seeking to devour, corned she screamed for help. Out of the sky, He reached down, He rescued her taking her up in his arms higher than she had ever been before! The predator howled and lashed at his feet...He crushed its head!

Now another dream.
As she opened her eyes, up high, becalmed, she asked questions.
" Couldn't you have done something? Did he have to die,the pony I saw?"

"What should I have done?"He answered softly.

"Stopped him,helped him, kept him from going....kept him from the bugs and the worms and the...birds."

"Oh? Made him go where I wanted?"He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"If you loved him, protected him...stopped him.."

"Forced him to listen?"

"Yes!"

"If he wouldn't listen. What then? Chain his neck? Force him to go from place to place??"

"Well, no I... "

"Smile all the time, saying nice things? Opened his mind wide so only good thoughts would settle on the cords of his brain?"

"Stop No!"

"I can you see!"there was a rumble of thunder with His words and a darkness that seemed to swallow up everything in that starlit sky.

Marigold trembled frightened, who was she talking to?

"But if I did that, he would never be my friend, could never be a friend,one I could share with...he would have been a puppet!"The darkness lifted.

There was silence in the dream for the longest time, only the moon bore witness, passing near.

He broke the silence.
"I saw him grow up, a little plant, a little sprout, before me. Stretching to touch the heavens, sun and moon.
Then I saw him turn." He sighed.
" Everything that could have been done was done. I sent him the best teachers. Many, many advisers and still he went where he would. Recklessly charged through ever warning, not caring who got hurt. So stuborn and proud!
He despised correction and discipline, ignoring his parents teaching.
He never cast his eyes up, always looking down in self abasement/pride or idolatrous greed!
He never cried for help as the monster pursued him, he went willfully into that awful valley without protection, following the lure, climbing over all road blocks.Mocking the huge cliffs above him, towering over, threatening to cover him utterly.Laughing at them like a fool.
He refused to believe there was danger, a threat or even concede I existed.
I reach out to him to the last, he smacked me away, even as he struggled, the beast above at his throat!"He hugged her gently.
" In ending, he, the utter ruin you saw. His choices were his own." the giant held the pony high in His arms brushing her mane from her eyes.

She looked down a the slugly and muddy valley.

"Mark him well, and be attentive to your ways, least you end up the same."He said.

"Am I your friend?"Marigold asked.

"Only if you chose to be....there are always consequences for actions/decisions both good and bad....."

She began experiencing sever pain wracking her body.

"You silly sheep! Jumping onto my husband ship like that, you could have gotten killed falling so far back the the ground!"the mare atteneding Marigold grumbled."Glad I had the sense to keep your joints warm, can't have you staggering around the ship."Saffron tsked. "And no warm clothes for these altitudes!"

"I assume I'm not dreaming?" Marigold said with a groan and a smack of her lips.

"And not dead. No, you're here! Awake."Saffron said sarcastically."I hope your decision and discernment skills improve while you are with us?"

Marigold opened one eye and stared at the mare, just to be sure.

"Up you go! Got to recondition your joints, slow exercise warm and cold compresses." Saffron Sails pushed and helped Marigold up to walk round the cabin to protests and whining, slowly working her legs till she was totally exhausted."There's your keep for sleepin in the captain's cabin!""

"...keep the hot compresses applied." she told the other two mares attending . "That's enough for right now."Leaving the cabin she exclaimed."My husband has an excellent safety record and I just won't have somepony limpin around the deck!"

After she was able to walk properly again after a few days, Marigold was unceremoniously evicted.
"That's all I can spare!"A bundle of thick blankets and an old warm coat of the captain's was thrown to her.
"If anypony ask you where you got them, say that they were in your hat. Better still, a little advice, tell them to buck off!"Marigold's mouth began to move.The captain's wife was in her face."You say otherwise, and I'll have my husband toss you overboard myself!
I will not have a run on supplies, I will not have it! Do you understand me stiff joints?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Stumbling out onto the crowded deck she spent the next hours slowly walking round and round the ship. The crew doing maintenance do to excessive wear the craft was experiencing. Marigold snuggled into the warm coat and sighed.

"Stop blocking the way."a heavy set mare said rudely shoving past. She walked right up to a crew member working on rigging.

"Hello hansom."she said with bating lashes. The crew member look at her and visibly blanched.

That moment a group of mares appeared between them. One stepped toward the mare aggressively showing a mouthful of teeth.
Her husband relaxed and did the same bearing a wide smile.

The heavy set mare began to back up slowly ears flat against her head.

"Hansom."said the dam."Heh,heh,heh. Not honey or sweetie..."the dam glared at the mare and brought herself muzzle to muzzle."The crew's wives have a message for you..."She whispered in her ear. Then she towered above the other mare who shrunk back.
"ruhaun..."the mare bolted just as the dam brought her teeth down to bare upon the mare's haunches.
"MINE!"she screamed out,raising to her full height pawing the air.

"Oh, my savior!"cried the sire to his dam."Whatever you ask...."

"Yech!"she spat out some tail hair."Something to take away the taste." He kissed her."Much better." she said with batting lashes.

Marigold spent many sleepless nights on deck with other mares on the overbooked ship. Sleeping little, having to move every time some mare became territorial, which was quite often.(The captain loved his ship as much as his wife and would never overload it or put it in danger!)

These mares.
They acted foolishly, he didn't mind.
They tried to seduce a members of the crew, he let the wives take care of them.

But....when a strand of rigging was brought to Captain Updraft Sails attention, frayed, the captain had had enough of these addled mares! He could see the teeth marks.

They were getting enough food!

"Peckish? Nibbling the rigging?"He looked at the bit of rope with knit brow."What reason, what right? We're dropping most of them off!" He threw the bit of twine down and pushed himself away from the table."They're going off tonight."

Saffron couldn't help but interceded again when she imagined tumbling, falling mares into the vast sky. How bad for business!
"Dear, let me handle them."she said with a nervous smile." In the morning you will have the trouble makers off in town and the trip will go much better!"

"I put them in your capable hooves, mine own, myself."he said to her"You decide!Which witch wench to rest off my ship!" He said a mouth full of bile as he left the cabin, his wife nodded solemnly.

Author's Note:

Marigold dreamed.
She entered a large open area high walls that touched the sky, it was night, and as the moon passed overhead, a statue, in the center, of the arena was relieved, golden copper gleamed with gray and green and olive patina.
As the moon came overhead Marigold swore she saw the mare in the moon smile. There was a cracking sound, and as the rock crumbled away smoke issue forth and a stallion was reveled with gray and green and olive colors, a mix, with a brown main, who shown with a copper gleam. Those strange alien gray eyes, but they looked right through her as if she wasn't there.
She ran and threw herself around him.
Wham.
Something hit her.
It hurt!
She tried again.
Wham!
It sent her to the ground.
One more time.
Wham!
She was sent flying and bounced against the wall and hit the ground.
"Hurry there isn't time! I thought you said she was learning..."said the mare in the moon.
"Patience..."said a masculine voice.
Marigold looked at the stallion, she was shocked, he seemed to be getting old as she watched, hunching over, sway backed....
Swayed back. She squinted her eyes. Yes! There was something on his back!
She brought it into focus, a two legged monster!
Every time she blinked it would change. It was a tiny female, then a huge fat thing, some kind of brute just as fat, wearing a suit with a piggy face and then a brown creature or a black one as dark as pitch, a white one as pale a dead flesh. It held the stallion fast with tight harnesses and halters. Every time the stallion would try to move the rider would pull the harnesses tight and jab him hard in the sides with sharp things it wore on its heals, Making the stallion gasp and shiver.
It mocked Marigold."He was mine before he came here,"it twirled a clock attached to a chain round its head, the fat animal in the suit did, as it air whistled through the chain, ", and he will be mine as I drag him away bound hoof over leg!"the young female played a hunting call on the horn attached by chains as she morphed into the fat pudgy thing to old and fat to go hunting, let alone be on a pony's back! It leered at her as the chains shined in its nose and ears, and chains attached to his bare chest rattle as it laughed."Time almost up," he said glancing at the moon as he put the watch back into the suit vest pock."He will be mine oyarsa of the moon!"It looked at Marigold, blowing its nose and wiping off on the stallion, rubbing the large digit over the four other smaller ones as he watched them."What will you do as your stallion turns to dust and blows away on the wind!" The bald Mohawked image grinned death at her, chains around its wrists.
Marigold just stared at it, a look he took as disbelieving. Then slowly a smile came across her face as if butter would melt in her mouth, then in satirical wit she spoke."Slave!"
She found him funny, hysterical!
"Proud.Proud spirit!"cried the mare in the moon, triumphant."You lost long ago! Poor deluded hopeless monster!"She laughed again."Even when you jump momentarily to the back of chaos and stare truth in the eye you will not acknowledge how wrong you are!He will tame chaos to a son and his daughter will be his friend, sitting in the apple tree!Remember the tree, snake!"
Marigold sauntered over and began unstrapping and unclasping all the straps that the monster held her stallion in check with. It howled and beat at her furiously,hoping to thwart the prophesy, but she never felt a thing.
As soon as the last straps were removed she threw herself around his neck and held him tightly, even as the thing showered her with curses and thrashings."Mine!"she said.
The stallion returned the embrace."Forever."
"No..."said the masculine voice from out of the sky.
He reached down and set Marigold on the stallions back.
"I will use you to hurt Him,him!"hissed the rider as he was displaced.
Marigold grasped tightly the mane of the stallion and held on for dear life.
She fell off.
She stood up and relised something was different.
She looked at her front feet, the were graspy clawy things and her muzzle was short!
She turned and looked at the stallion, he was haggard old and grey, scared.
"Am I still imago dei?" He asked frightened.
She threw her arms around him."Of course you are! As long as you can talk you will always be imago dei!"
The giant came,"Marigold, its time to go." There was weeping at a distance.
"He's mine!"Marigold grasped tighter to the stallion.
"All things must end, he will not be alone."
As she moved away a little colt apeared between them.
"Imago Dei!"cried the stallion.
"Father!" cried the colt. "Tell me about the intercessor and His Imago Dei!"
"Your mother followed His example!"the stallion said proudly."As must we all!"
He touched his father, wings burst from his sides! The rider cursed as he was thrown a distance away.
Both stallions young and old stood before a sea of mirrors, young Imago Dei swam across, a distant shore. There, he stood up on two legs and held tightly to one and bowed his head with two others who came with him.
As Marigold departed, the giant holding her hand, she looked back she saw another Mare standing with her stallion, a pegisus. They trailed behind, following, a great multitude following them.
Marigold was hit again in the ribs by a mare beside her,"Shove off! she snorted. Marigold picked up her blankets and began to wander the decks again, wondering what her dream had meant.

Comments

[Bast]

interesting fic =o

[Arn]

8394233
Thank you.