There Is Nothing New Under The Sun

by chasethebrony

Ch 8: Sweet Dreams Are Made of These

There is Nothing New Under the Sun

Ch 8

Sweet Dreams are Made of These...

I am in a middle of a coliseum.

A large moon hovers over the stadium.

Immediately surrounding me are thousands upon thousands of empty seats.

I don’t know why, but I feel like I am supposed to be here.

Almost like... It’s my destiny.

A voice whispers...

“You are the next of the conquerors...”

Then everything collapses into icy darkness and I feel my soul being ripped in twain.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Screaming, I sit straight up in bed frantically gasping for breath.

I am still in the cellar, though after conversing with Twilight, I convinced them to let me have a bed brought in and the rest of my bindings removed.

Soaking wet with sweat, I begin to chill. Pulling my sheets around me, I light the candle near my head.

I don’t want to go back to sleep.

Though I am quickly forgetting what exactly woke me up, the words echo in the back of my mind.

“The next of the conquerors...”

Just the memory of that phrase sends chills down my spine.

Picking up my book, I try to drown out the nightmare with stories from home.

Teacher’s Pet

Like every other morning, Twilight Sparkle started off her day with some coffee, cereal and some light reading.

Currently she was perusing through “Quantum Magic Theory Vol. III” and eating wheat flakes (now with extra fiber!).

She was puzzled by the way magic reacted around Jake. Nothing she had ever read or heard of could possibly have caused anything cast at it to simply disappear. That just doesn’t happen. Magical Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, so it had to be instantaneously transferred... somewhere.

Part of Twilight was in awe of the new discovery in front of her. Nopony had ever seen anything like what she was working with right now.

The other part of her was about ready to start tearing out her mane in sheer frustration.

Anything she would cast on the human would simply be annihilated. Analyzing spells, Scurrying spells, healing spells, they all got absorbed into the alien.

The only reason she knew that it was being absorbed was because the human could start using the magic himself. For example, the translation spell should have failed. Instead, it disappeared, but the human began speaking in equestrian as if it was his first language. So far, only passive spells like the translation enchantment became immediately in effect. Any of the active spells she cast on it simply disappeared without any trace of being useable by the human.

Not understanding things like this made Twilight grumpy. Even Pinkie Pie’s Pinkie Sense made more sense than this.

After letting out a big sigh, Twilight closed her book and called for her number one assistant.

“Spike! I am heading out to talk with Shining at his Headquarters. Don’t worry about making lunch for me; I doubt I will be back until later this afternoon.”

“You’re doing WHAT to his hindquarters?!”

“No, I am going to his Headquarters”

“So... his butt?”

“No Spike! Ew, Gross! Ugh, just... don’t worry about it ok? Just plan on me being out for the day.”

“Oh, why didn’t you just say so?”

After facehoofing and a sigh of exasperation, Twilight grabbed her bags and left before her assistant could misinterpret anything else she said.

Family Time

Shining was not very happy at the moment.

Ever since he had been sent on to Ponyville on his first real deployment, he had been up to his ears in paperwork. Apparently, when in a time of war, everypony thought that everything was a crisis and needed his attention.

He had 3 different stacks of papers on his desk: Scouting/combat reports (thankfully few now that the alien was in custody), Support and Logistics (second largest), Things to Delegate to Subordinates (a towering stack of papers that probably broke some sort of record for its sheer height), and the Trash Can (mostly full of fan mail and the invariable spam that always wound up ended up in the mail).

While drudging through another report on the status on camp food-stores and provisioning requests, he was interrupted by his favorite little sister.

“Hey there Shiny!”

“Hey sis, what’s up?”

“Well, I have several things. First, I have a preliminary report on the captive human and several related recommendations and precautions. Second, I wanted to see if you had time to go get lunch.”

Failing to find an open space on the desk for her report, Twilight instead stuck it in the Scouting/Combat Reports pile.

“Ready to go?”

“Sure, did you have anyplace specific in mind for lunch?”

“Yes actually. Follow me; it’s going to be a surprise.”

Lunch Date

Walking together, Twilight and Shining armor walked through Ponyville to a small cafe near the middle of town.

After ordering their food, Twilight went ahead and pulled out her notebook and placed it on the table between them.

“Shining, I think you need to be brought in on the prisoner’s interviews.”

“Huh? I thought you had those well in hoof Twily.”

“I do, but I think that you should at least sit in on some of the questionings. I think that you could benefit from learning about Jake and his purposes.”

“No. Honestly, I don’t feel comfortable with you in there with it. It has already nearly killed a pony and I don’t want you to be in danger.”

Twilight was a little shocked at her brother's disagreement.

“Wait, what? I thought you were behind me in this.”

“Nope. That creature is nothing but trouble. I think we should just banish it to Tartarus like the rest of the monsters and be done with it.”

“Shining, Jake is not a monster! He is a rational being who just happened to end up in Equestria. Banishing him among the monsters would be absolutely awful!”

Sadly shaking his head, he simply replied “Anypony who attacks on first sight is a danger to society. I doubt that any ‘civilized’ pony would do such a thing. “
Twilight was at a loss for words.

“Brother, you do realize that I am also the most powerful unicorn in Equestria right now right? I think I can handle one creature.”

Giving her a look that said ‘you-may-be-powerful-but-you’re-my-sister-so-you-really-shouldn’t-be in-danger’ he acquiesced the point to her for the time being.

“Well, I just hope you know what you are doing. I don’t want to be responsible for you getting injured. Other than the fact that i don’t think I could live with myself if you were hurt, I think Princess Celestia would probably relieve me of command for it at the least. At the worst, she would probably blame it all on me and banish me to the sun or something.”

“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I promise you that I will be careful. Don’t worry Shiny, I can handle this.”

“I really hope so Twily, I really do...”

And with that they ate the rest of their meal in contemplative silence.

Homesick

All this time away from home was making me depressed.

Normally I can work my way out of a funk if I have something to do, but just sitting in a dank basement/prison gives me too much time to waste just thinking.

And naturally, my thought turns to Earth and my family.

It had been almost a week since I was transported here, and assuming that a similar amount of time had passed back home; I was really running out of time to get back.

I had told my wife to expect a call or some form of contact a day or two past my scheduled return date, and if I missed it, to go ahead and call for a missing person. Then she was to give them a copy of my route and expected camping areas.

That point was probably 2-3 days ago.

Now, the rescue teams were probably combing along the trail I took, looking for any sign of me.

The worst part is that I know that they wouldn’t find anything. Maybe some weathered tracks if they look carefully, but even those would just end suddenly.

I usually forced myself to stop thinking at that point, if no other reason than because I start crying all over again.

I miss my family dammit.

So when two ponies loudly burst into my room, I was not happy.

Looking up at the figures in the doorway, I just whisper.

“What do you want?”

Twilight walks down towards me. She sees my tears and stops for a second, unsure of what to do.

She then settles with sitting down in front of me, and just trying not to be in the way.

After a couple minutes pass, I gather my thoughts and prepare to face her once more.

“What do you want from me?” I ask hoarsely, my voice a bit raw from the sobbing.

“Well Jake, I actually came to ask you a couple questions.”

“So you are interrogating me?”

“Only if calling it that makes you feel better. I just want to know a few things about you.”

Pulling out a notebook and pen she began to prepare to take some notes. I glared at her in silence

“To begin, why are you here in Equestria?”

“I don’t know. One minute I was out backpacking, and then I appeared in the forest over here. I definitely didn’t come here by choice if that is what you are asking.”

“So how did you end up in the Everfree Forest?”

“Well, I had just broken camp and was hiking when suddenly everything went white. There was a searing pain that filled me completely. Then I woke up in Equestria.”

After furiously jotting down some notes, Twilight moved to the next question.

“Why did you feel the need to attack Second Pvt Storm Front in the forest?”

Balls. I did not like where these questions were heading.

After pondering the question a bit, I came to the conclusion that there wasn’t really a tactful way to say that you shot him because he was in the way.

However, I was in a bit of a nasty mood at the moment, so I just told her exactly that.

“He was in my way.”

Twilight dropped her pencil in shock.

“That's it? He was just in your way?!” Her voice was getting a little hysterical.

“What? Would you rather me lie to you and tell you it was all a misunderstanding? Don’t get me wrong, I am glad he is apparently ok, but I was under a bit of pressure at the moment, and quite frankly, he was the path of least resistance.”

“Is... this normal for humans?”

“To attack on sight or to take the easy path?”

“Uh, both?”

“Well, about the first, the answer is a definite maybe. It depends on the individual and on the circumstances. As for the latter, as a whole, yes. Humanity historically tends to take the path of least resistance when offered several choices.”

Then with a shrug I sit back down and let her think for a bit.

She closes her notebook and sets it down next to her. A slight frown crosses her face as she looks me in the eyes.

Quietly she begins again.

“Why were you crying earlier?”

“Well, probably because, I have been abducted into an alien world, I am pretty sure my family back home thinks I am dead, I have a massive headache, I haven’t been outside in what I can only guess is several days, and I haven’t gotten more than a couple hours of sleep per night since I was thrown down into this basement. Now can you please just leave me alone? I don’t feel like talking anymore.”

With that, I walked over to my bed, lay down and turned over.

“I just want to go home...”

Comments

[Zarord]

scranton.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/img/mlfw4040-tumblr_liglinp2u11qbugdjo1_500-1.png

[junkers1337]

"who in their mind would disagree? I traveled the world and the seven seas, everybody is looking for something" I love that song too. I seriously hope Celestia doesn't go all tyrant mode on him when they do meet.

[faren455]

1259020 just think back to all the fanfics that Celestia has welcomed a human to her lands and you will have your answer to that.

[Langly]

He was not just in his way. He was part of a manhunt that the princess started because she felt like it.
They backed him in a corner and he defended himself, that's the most natural thing to do. Even a Pony's should see that. They know that not every being becomes a quivering mess when it feels threatens, some attack intelligent or not.

They had days to think about it and I'm not sure where you are going with them not realizing how they themselves contributed. They can't be that ignorant and they seriously cant claim moral highground after they hunted him down just because and imprisoned him for defending himself. Lets not even begin with prison conditions, from what I understand its not more than a cell from the dark ages.