Making my Mark

by Firestar463

Chapter 4

As I was walking back to my room from the library, I couldn’t stop smiling. I’d been skeptical, but everything Luna had said was starting to look more and more true. I might be able to do magic. Actual magic. Every time the thought crossed my mind, My smile would return, and I’d feel a little more adrenaline pumping into my system. Thus, when I finally reached my room and buried myself under the sheets, I expected that I would have a hard time falling asleep.

I couldn’t have lasted half a minute before I was gone. Maybe it was the drills I had been through that morning, running an hour and a half in a circle to top it off. Maybe it was rummaging through my own mind to try and find something that I hadn’t known was there. Maybe it was just the excitement of the whole day finally wearing off. Maybe it was all three. Either way, I have never fallen asleep so fast before in my life, not to wake again until the next morning.

Light was already pouring through the windows when my eyes finally opened. I took my time in sitting up, cracking my neck as I did so. I was in no hurry to flee the warm confines of my bed. After all, the guard hadn’t been sent to wake me up yet. I must’ve woken up early.

Still, though… it was too bright. I had to keep my eyes squinted to shield them from the blinding light pouring in through the windows. Surely if the sun was up, I would have been woken up by now. Had I slept through it? Had he gotten lost? What time was it? I’d long since stopped checking my phone for the time - its battery had dried up long ago. Instead, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light before moving to the windows and peering outside. Maybe I could guess the time by the position of the sun.

The sun was about halfway to the apex of its arc through the sky, so it had to have been at least 10:00. I quickly found my interest in the time waning, though. Maybe it was just me, but was the sky… pink? Not the kind of pink that appears in the sunrise. A solid, uninterrupted wall of pink. Maybe closer to Fuchsia. I don’t know my shades of pink very well. Either way, it certainly wasn’t a natural color.

And then, at the edge of the horizon, I saw movement. My eyes went wide as a solid orb of white rose from the horizon and sailed across the sky. The moon. I watched as the moon slowly slid towards the sun. Before long, the moon had reached the sun and slid in front of it. With a bright flash of light, the sun was gone, hidden behind the moon in a total solar eclipse, and the pink sky became pitch-black, illuminated only by the stars that had been hidden behind the sun’s glare..

I don’t know what I should have been feeling. Most people never get to see a total solar eclipse. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. I don’t know what I should have been feeling, watching the moon hover there in front of the sun, but I’m fairly certain it should not have been an overwhelming sense of dread.

Another bright flash of light nearly blinded me, and I let out a loud yelp as I stumbled away from the window. I rubbed my eyes to try and regain my vision. Slowly, the world around me began to come back into focus. I blinked a few times to make sure my eyes were alright, and moved back towards the window.

My dread returned in full force. The moon had been hovering there in front of the sun for several minutes. Surely by now it should have moved on… or at least it would have on Terra. If Luna had been telling the truth, then who knew when the eclipse would end. Which brought up another question - why had the eclipse happened in the first place if Ponies controlled moon and the sun? Was there some sort of special occasion? If so, why could I hear screams of terror floating over the castle lawn from the city?

A small movement to the side of the moon caught my eye. I narrowed my eyes as I scanned the blackened skies, looking for the source of the movement. There it was again, just a little lower to the ground. This time, I was able to track the slight ripple, almost wavelike, as it descended towards the ground. As it drew lower, it became bigger and bigger. Features began to stand out against the darkness. Claws. Wings. Horns. A serpentine body, which I realized with a flash of horror was slithering down towards the ground. Shadows clunk to it like smoke, but I could still make out two glowing, fiery-red eyes.

The beast.

Only the starlight illuminated its monstrous form as it slithered to a halt, floating somewhere above the palace grounds. I could do nothing but watch as it stretched one claw out and waved it through the air. A stream of shadows followed in its wake, forming a ring of shadows around the beast. The beast raised its other claw and gave a snap, audible even from this range and through a closed window. With a sound like rushing air, the ring exploded outwards, surging through the sky and quickly vanishing over the city.

“Soon…” The beast hissed. I could see its glowing red eyes narrow as it gazed out towards the horizon. I felt a small rumble under my feet. “Very soon... this pitiful kingdom will be brought to its knees…” The rumble was getting stronger now, growing in intensity. My teeth were chattering from the power of the shaking, and I averted my eyes from the beast, instead scanning the horizon for the source of the shaking.

I jumped backwards as a tree erupted from the ground, just on the other side of the walls of the castle grounds. A second tree burst into full bloom right next to it. Judging by the amount of debris being launched through the air, I could only guess it had sprouted underneath a house. And there was another tree. And another. And another.

And they were getting closer. The next tree exploded upwards through the walls of the ground, sending stone and steel flying high into the air. A line of trees began erupting from the ground, surging straight towards the castle. Straight towards me. I tried to move, but found that i could not. I was frozen. I was helpless. I could only watch. And wait. And pray.

A tree burst from the ground inches from my face. A branch snagged onto the back of my shirt and held. I rose up, up, up through the castle. Unable to move. Unable to yell. Unable to do anything except watch in horror. More trees began erupting throughout the castle. And still I was rising. Higher and higher, pivoting in the air, until I was dangling far above the ground.

And still more trees. I could see them all around, bursting from the ground, demolishing buildings and roads and homes. The forest was reclaiming the city. And still I could do nothing but watch. Watch as more trees rose from the castle, and more, and more, until with a great crashing sound, the castle collapsed in on itself.

“My world...”

The dark, bassy rumble drew my gaze skyward once more. The beast was still there. Still hovering. Still watching. “Gaia will be mine...”

“No…”

The words flew unbidden from my lips, and my hands flew upwards to cover my mouth. But it was too late. The beast stiffened. Its head rose into the air, and it sniffed. And again. “An intruder?” It hissed. “In my domain? Impossible…”

Get me down, get me down, get me the hell down!

“Ah… Christopher Powell… Of course. I should have known…”

Shit!

“I smell you… your fear...”

The beast was drawing closer to me. I looked down towards the ground and gulped. It was a long drop.

“I see you.”

No choice.

I reached behind myself and grasped at the branch that had snagged me and dragged me skyward. I tore at the fibers that had gotten caught. A loud ripping sound pierced the air, followed by the rush of wind. And not a moment too soon, if the sound of splintering wood above me was any indication.

“You cannot hide,” The beast snarled as I plummeted to the the ground. “You cannot escape.” I rolled in the air so that I was facing the ground. “Your days draw to an end, mortal.” The ground rose to meet me. “This world is mine…”

---

“SHIT!”

My face impacted with the cold, stone floor beneath me. A sharp pain shot up my nose, and both of my hands snapped upwards to clutch at my face. More curses flew from my lips as I rolled so that my back was lying on the ground. My gaze was directed upwards towards the tree I had fallen from.

But rather than a tree, it seemed I had simply fallen from my bed.

“Another dream?” I muttered as my groggy mind began to connect the dots. Sure enough, as I pushed myself into a sitting position, I found myself sitting beside my bed, in my room. A room decidedly lacking any trees from which I could have fallen.

“Damn…” I hissed as I removed my hands from my nose. A splotch of red liquid was splayed across my hand. I reached up with the other hand and pinched just below the arch of my nose in an attempt to stop the flow of blood. I waited a few moments to make sure the blood flow had completely stopped before releasing the pinch and wiggling my nose with my fingers. Fortunately, it seemed I had avoided any injuries more serious than a nosebleed, if the lack of pain was any indication. The blood on my hands was wiped off on my pants legs as I stood up. I wouldn’t be wearing these pants today anyway.

“Seriously… this whole ‘waking up from a dream by rolling out of bed’ crap is getting old,” I growled as I rubbed the still-sore point of impact on my nose. This would have made… what, the second or third time? At least it wasn’t still the dead of night - A glance out of the window showed me the soft glow of dawn as the sun rose above the eastern horizon.

But the beast… I thought I’d been done with it. I’d thought that my dreams would be free from its presence again after I’d dealt with Adamant Will. But no. It was back. Two nights in a row now I had dreamt of this monstrosity. Two nights, and two nightmares. For all I knew, I’d have another tonight. Surely there was something I could do to alleviate this problem. Maybe there was a book on the subject? The library was massive, and I’d barely scratched the surface on perusing its volumes. If nothing else, such a search would surely uncover some other interesting titles.

It was with that thought in mind that I prepared myself for the rest of the day. I threw on some new clothes, brushed my teeth, splashed some cold water on my face with the promise that I’d wash up properly tonight, and gathered my usual personal effects: my knife, my dead phone, and my pouch of scrolls. When my wake-up call came knocking at my door, I was ready to go, and so I set off towards breakfast.

Breakfast itself passed as usual. Luna seemed to be in a good mood, while Serenity was less so. The conversation of the morning seemed to be mostly between Serenity and Solaris, with the Princesses and I remaining mostly silent. Something about the Frozen North and the Crystal Empire. I don’t really remember. I wasn’t paying attention.

After breakfast, I wasted no time in making my way towards the library. The warm glow of the crystal structure greeted me, and I couldn’t help but smile. I’d spent a good number of hours in libraries throughout my life, mostly during college, but none had ever had the same feeling of welcoming as this one. And so it was that, with a smile and a lighter heart, I began my search.

It wasn’t easy. I’d only ever really looked through one bookshelf, mostly dealing with the history of Equestria and Gaia as a whole, as well as details on the other kingdoms. Walking past each row of shelves, it really hit me just how massive this library was. The room itself was easily as big as the main library at my university - perhaps not quite as tall as that five-story building, but certainly as big around. In addition, there were no computers or printers or study rooms taking up space along the walls, allowing even more books to fill the space instead. Trying to find something to deal with my nightmare problem in here was going to be quite a task.

I decided that my best course of action was to start at the top and work my way down. I made my way to the corner of the room and ascended up two flights of marble staircases, arriving on the third and top floor. From here, by looking out over the wall that lined the inner edge of the floor, I could see the top and widest bit of the crystal structure. I made my way over towards this wall and began slowly walking down its length, peering at a few of the titles in each row of bookshelves as I passed.

I stopped at the ninth row, about a third of the way down the line. One of the books had caught my eye - a relatively small tome with a crescent moon on its spine. I pulled the book from the shelf and looked at the front cover, only to let out a small sigh. “‘Details of the Lunar surface’” I read aloud. I shook my head and returned the book to its place on the shelf.

And so I continued my search. Every so often, I’d find something that would catch my eye, but nothing along this row of bookshelves seemed promising. And so I started down the next line of shelves on the second side of the room. This time, however, I decided to be a little more thorough in my search. I wandered down the entire length of each shelf, picking up books that seemed promising and replacing nearly each and every one with disappointment. I emerged from this line of shelves with only two books tucked under my arm - neither of them to do with my problem, but merely concerning a topic that struck my fancy. I set these books on the railing with the promise to return for them, and continued my search.

And so the day continued. Weaving in and out of bookshelves. Stopping every now and then to examine a book, but finding myself disappointed each time. Most of the books on this floor seemed to deal with research and observation of the physical world, with nothing even mentioning dreams or nightmares.

It was on the second floor that I found myself pausing more often. Many of the tomes here were clearly spellbooks or journals of magical study, and so I found myself flipping through a good number of them. Those that weren’t books of spells were often filled with recipes for brews and potions. My progress on this floor was far slower than even the top floor, and while I found a number of books that I knew I would love to study at some point, none of them seemed to even come close to my problem. The closest was a book dealing with divination through dreams, but that was the telling of the future, not the prevention of nightmares.

It wasn’t until the third wall on the second floor that I stumbled across something. I had all but given up hope of finding anything in this library that could help me when another book caught my eye. A dark leather volume, with pale-blue symbols scrawled across its spine. Symbols that, as I squinted my eyes, turned out to be letters, albeit in an almost illegible font.

“On...eye… ro... Ken… esis?” I read aloud. “Oneirokinesis…” I pulled the book from its shelf and wiped a bit of dust off of its front cover before flipping it open. “Oneirokinesis: The magic behind dreams…” I felt a small grin creeping across my face. “Well now… this looks better…”

“Ah, there you are Chris.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a new voice reached my ears. I fumbled the book in my hands, and only barely managed to catch it before it fell to the ground. I whipped my head towards the end of the line of bookshelves, where the voice had come from.

“Oh… Queen Serenity…” I chuckled weakly. “Don’t… don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“My apologies, Chris,” Serenity smiled as she walked down the aisle towards me. “I was merely worried. When you didn’t appear for lunch, I had feared something had happened. I am glad to find you still in one piece.”

“Yeah, I’m f… wait, what?” I cut myself off. “Didn’t show up for lunch? But… How long have I been in here? What time is it?”

“Nearly four in the afternoon.”

“Bloody hell…”

“I take it you lost track of the time?” Serenity chuckled, to which I nodded. “No matter. I can’t say I haven’t had the same happen to me before. If I may ask, though, what was it that took your interest so?”

Before I could say anything, Serenity’s gaze slid down and to the side slightly. I could see one eyebrow raise as her gaze returned back to me. “Oneirokinesis?” She asked. “But Luna told me that you hadn’t unlocked your potential yet… and even the most skilled Unicorns take years to move up to something as advanced as dream manipulation…”

“Oh, no. I haven’t,” I shook my head. “I’m just… looking around. I’ve been having a bit of a nightmare problem the past couple of nights, and -”

“You know, you could have just come to me,” Serenity cut me off. “I’m considered quite an advanced Oneirokeinetic. Or did you forget?”

Oh yeah. I mentally kicked myself for forgetting the time that Serenity had intervened in my nightmares - a nightmare involving the beast, no less. “I… might have…” I admitted.

“Well, what sort of nightmare troubles you?”

“It’s… it’s that creature again,” I began. I felt my pulse quicken as Serenity stiffened. “The same one that you repelled from my dreams that one night. It’s been back the past two nights, and I’m not sure -”

Serenity held up one hand to cut me off. “That’s all I need to know,” she interrupted curtly. “I will attempt to join you in your dreams tonight. With my horn unrestrained, it should be less strenuous than the last time."

"Wait... join me in my dreams?" I asked. A sense of uneasiness washed over me. "I thought I already told you, like, a month ago, I don't want anyone poking around in my head."

"You didn't seem to protest the last time I visited your dream," Serenity countered. "Besides, you want the nightmares to stop, don't you? This is the simplest and most likely way to do that. If the nightmare returns, together we may be able to track down its source.”

“Its source?” I coked my head to one side. “What do you mean?”

“It is...complicated,” Serenity began slowly. “The magic behind dreams is very broad and deep, but I will attempt to explain it as best I can. The essence of a living, sapient creature can be divided into four separate but equally vital components. The mind, which allows us thought and comprehension. The heart, which allows us emotion and understanding. The soul or the spirit, which allows us life. And the body, which provides a shell for the other three to work and act through. Though some functions of each essence overlap with each other, these are the most basic functions that each provides individually. Without one of these components, the other three are lost.”

“When we sleep, the body shuts down to recover, as it must. Its link to the spirit, mind, and heart weakens. Almost like letting out more rope that ties a small boat to a dock, allowing it to drift further away. At any moment, the sleeping individual may drag the boat back in by waking up, but for the untrained it is near impossible to wake of one's own volition. Either enough time must pass for the body to recover its energy, or an outside force must wake us.”

“But even while the tether to the body weakens during sleep, our spirit, mind, and heart remain linked as strongly as ever. Our spirit and heart gain new experiences during this time, unhampered by the physical restraint of the body. But without the eyes and ears and other senses of our body, the mind has difficulty interpreting these experiences into something it can comprehend. That is what a dream is - an interpretation, often a flawed one, by our mind of what our heart and soul experience while drifting from the body. The practice of Oneiromancy is essentially the attuning of the mind so that it may more accurately interpret what the spirit and heart experience, and sufficiently skilled oneiromancers may even began to consciously manipulate these experiences, a practice known as Oneirokinesis.”

“The experiences that the heart and soul endure during our slumber can come from many different sources. Some come from one of the aspects themselves. The mind may cause the heart and soul to re-experience the day’s events, the heart may project an object of deep emotional significance, or the soul may be drawn closer to another soul, that the two may share a dream. The soul and mind may also come together to project a memory that the heart and soul then re-experience. Particularly traumatic memories recalled in such a way are one of the most common sources of nightmares.”

“There are other sources of dreams that I have not mentioned, and surely some still that have yet to be discovered. So to answer your question, this is what I mean, when I say source. From where do your nightmares spawn? Is it a traumatic event? Is it an outside force influencing your dreams, intentionally or otherwise? Or do they spawn from a source that we’ve yet to discover? That is what I intend to find tonight.”

“But you need not worry yourself,” Serenity smiled. She reached out and placed one hand upon my shoulder. “Come, let me see that book. I suppose I will need to refresh myself. It has been a while since I’ve properly dreamwalked.” Her hand fell away from my shoulder, and reached out to take the book that I now offered her.

“And now, Chris Powell, I’d suggest you find something less strenuous to occupy your time with.” Serenity gestured behind herself towards the upper floor, where I could see the two books I had taken and laid upon the railing. “A nice book to relax with, perhaps? Preferably something that won’t cause you to miss dinner as well?” she added with a chuckle.

A chuckle that I returned. “I will. Thank you, Queen Serenity. I’ll see you again at dinner.”

“At dinner, then, Chris. And then, in your dreams.”

Comments

[Tedious_Blizzard]

That's an interesting take on dreams and how they work. Good interesting by the way, great chapter! Keep up the good work

[Silentwoodfire]

Let us see where things continue onto, maybe he will get lucky and find that magic part of him, a good deal of the brains never been mapped yaknow.

[Lysander Shadowheart]

Serenity seems to be with holding something back, or perhaps because I believe this beast to be a spin off discord has me assuming she knows more than she is letting on. In any case I am thoroughly engaged and excited to see what happens.

[Firestar463]

Just a quick update: I know it's been three weeks since the last addition to the story. The next chapter is in the works, I promise. Hopefully it will not be much longer.

To distract you, here is a pink pony. Enjoy.

[ForgottenBackgroundPony]

That is what a dream is - an interpretation, often a flawed one, by our mind of what our heart and soul experience while drifting from the body

If that's true then my heart and soul either experience some weird shit or they do some shrooms while my body rests...

[robotic]

8773468
thats what i was thinking