Tabula Rasa

by Rose Quill

Possible Paths

Twilight sat down on the cloud and took several deep breaths. Rapidly.

In fact, near to a panic as she came to the verge of hyperventilating.

"Twilight," Luna said. "You must breathe slowly. In, then out, then in again."

At the soothing words of the elder Alicorn, Twilight starting doing the exercises that Cadence had shown her, bringing her hoof to her chest then pushing it away as though shoving her anxieties from her presence. It worked and she slowly came back to rational thought.

"What are we going to do?" she moaned. "I don't know how to signal them to wake our physical bodies up! Why didn't I test this theory sooner?"

"You were worried for me," Tabula said. "Which I appreciate, don't get me wrong. But how are you supposed to help me from inside my own dream?"

Luna ruffled her wings. "Because you are now aware of the dream, you can also command it," she said. "Lucid dreams, such as what we have just created, can be shaped by the will of the dreamer. Perhaps while we await the time of your awakening, we can search for the answers that you seek."

"How am I supposed to summon up memories that are dim?" she asked.

"We go from here back," Twilight said. "The events are still in your mind, just locked behind some sort of arcane barrier. I'm sure if we trace the mantic residue from the spell we can follow it to it's casting." She closed her eyes for a second and her horn lit up, the lilac glow shifting and rippling along the spire's length. She turned slightly to each side before she sighed and her horn went out. "I can't localize the spell. It's everywhere it seems."

Tabula gave her a flat look. "You're inside my mind, Princess," she deadpanned. "Of course it's everywhere. I can't remember anything before you pulling me from that bush."

Twilight ducked her head sheepishly, giggling nervously. "Right,"

Luna sat down. "Perhaps it would be best to see what we can ascertain from what you do remember," she suggested. "You remember being freed from the bush, but what of just before that?"

Tabula laid down on the cloud surface. "I think...I think I remember falling," she said. "But it's almost as though I was dreaming, like when you go to take a step in a dream and you wake up when you take a real step." The Pegasus screwed up her face. "Before that, I think I was reading...something. I-I can't remember. Why can't I remember?"

The sky started turning black again, and a flash of lightning split the sky. "Calm yourself," Luna said, reaching out to place a hoof on the pony's shoulder.

Tabula swatted it away. "Easy for you to say," she snarled as thunder cracked. "You aren't worried about who you are or where you came from. Everything you've ever done is still there in your mind."

Luna rose to her full height, wings spreading as another bolt of lightning backlit her, momentarily giving Twilight a flash of Nightmare Moon.

"Take care of how you speak, youngling!" she said imperiously. "While my memories may be as fresh as the day they were made there are many that I would gladly give up if it meant that the trouble caused would be erased. Lest you forget, I am now the Princess Luna, but once I was Nightmare Moon! I was banished by my own sister to the moon to endure a millennia of exile for the crimes I perpetuated."

Tabula shrank down slightly, the booming voice of Luna echoing in the dreamscape. She drew in her wings and gestured at Twilight.

"Were it not for this mare, I would not be standing before you today," she continued. "She risked all to combat the Nightmare and won out, she and her friends. I am proud to call myself amongst them, and she would risk even the darkest reaches of your mind if it meant finding your lost past."

She looked at Twilight, a small smile forming. "Trust in her, as I did one Nightmare Night many moons ago." There was something in her eyes that Twilight could not place, but the warm glow her words lit made her smile back.

The skies lightened but remained overcast and gray as Tabula bowed her head. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "It's just so frightening, not knowing who you are. I have this huge gaping hole in my thoughts, sometimes, where I know something important was there but it's like it was ripped away."

She looked back up at the sky as the clouds broke apart and drifted on the wind again.

"It's like I don't want to remember sometimes," she mumbled. "Like I might find something I wished I hadn't."

Comments

[MorningRose]

another good chapter looking forward to more