The Green Angel

by LordOfCringe

Chapter 11 - Diamond Tiara

I awake in a void. A sea of ink is all that greet my eyes as they flutter open. The darkness stretches around me in all directions with no end in sight. The air, if it could be called that, chills my skin as I stand up. But I am not afraid, solitude has ever been my friend over the years. The precious minutes I get alone are small comfort against the pressure my life normally grants me.
I quickly realize I must be dreaming, the last thing I remember is me going to bed after all. It was an annoying time to be having such a lucid dream. Tomorrow was going to be a big day. But whatever my mind was trying to tell me was quite strange indeed, the darkness around me remained unchanged and unmoving.
As I take this in I slowly begin to walk forward, something driving me to walk through this mysterious place. I don’t bother fighting it. Wherever my body takes me I am ready for it. I shuffle along alone in the darkness for what seems like ages, the solid ground beneath my feet feeling as smooth as glass as I glide upon it to wherever my subconscious deems to take me.
On and on I walk, the dream never changing no matter how far I go. What a weird dream this is, aren’t they supposed to show or prepare you for something that you didn’t know or something? Now that I think about it, I don’t remember having a lucid dream before.
“Great, this is just wonderful. Awesome,” I say to myself in exasperation. The silence and darkness continue, but through it, I can almost feel a sense of something more touching my mind. And it feels...amused?
Then, almost as if that thing was placating me I see a soft warm glow far away in the distance. The thing my dreaming self wants to travel towards.
I continue towards it, it’s not like I have anything better to do. Whatever it is or represents in my life must be important enough to have this very weird dream about.
The darkness around me slowly gives way to light, it grows until my surroundings resemble golden mists that embrace me warmly. Like I had known them for my entire life instead of that one moment.
As I keep walking I begin to notice many glowing panels of light form beside me on either side. They shine even brighter than the mist. And as I take a closer look at them I see images dance across them, like a magical movie screen inside my head. These images begin to look more and more familiar as I keep looking at them.
And as I do, the weight of my life and all the choices I have made hit me. They look familiar because I know them, I experienced them for myself. They are my memories.
Recent memories, memories from when I was young. They stretch on further then I can see, past whatever horizon exists in this dreamscape. And all of them, in one way or another, are about me causing someone else pain.
From smaller things like an indecent comment here or a rude gesture there. To bigger stunts like teasing a disabled person for being unable to walk. It was honestly hard to look at now, but for some reason, I cannot look away. Like something is forcing me to watch myself terrorize my peers.
“So much pain. So much fear. You have much to atone for,” a deep indistinguishable voice says from the void. I turn around sharply. Panic grips me as I frantically try to locate the source of it.
“Who was that! Show yourself,” The void does not answer. Then, slowly, my surroundings fade again back to darkness and I am left once again utterly alone. The ground vanishes beneath me and I begin falling downward, another distant light appearing below me.
I plummet towards it, screaming all the way. I almost don’t notice my body shifting and changing into a younger state as I fall. It takes several minutes of crashing through the air before the light grows into something recognizable, the ground, by then I’m calm enough to identify the area as being my old hometown.
I narrow that down further to my old school. Not CHS, no, the building below me looked to be like a smaller version of my high school. I had to be falling towards my elementary school instead.
When I finally make ground fall the impact is much smaller than I thought it would be, the power of dreams I suppose. I get up to dust myself off and look around. Sure enough, it was just as I remembered it, a miniature version of CHS, made for the much smaller population of an elementary school.
“Diamond! Are you ok?” a familiar voice says from behind me. I turn and find myself looking at my best friend, Silver Spoon. Several years younger than when I last saw her, but she was there. It was all I could do to not burst into tears. Even I knew this was a dream seeing her again overwhelmed me with emotion.
Thankfully, my memory takes over and my body speaks for me.
“Ya Silvs. I just tripped. No biggie.”
“Well then, come on. We’re going to be late!” She takes off. My past self rolls her eyes but follows her all the same. I can’t quite place when this memory took place, but it had to be at least five years ago from how old Silver and my body were.
From there the memory plays out like a normal school day. It was almost nostalgic to see through the eyes of my past self going through those simple classes from a different time. It was..refreshing after what I had been going through these past couple weeks.

That was until recess. When my body and Silver went onto the playground to have some fun. Even back then I didn’t partake in sports. Mother never approved, she preferred me getting into dance instead. But that’s not something kids normally did at recess. So me and Silver would just talk to each other. We didn’t tease people yet as far as I can recall.

“My dance recital went spectacularly last night, as I knew it would,” my body boasts more or less confirming my recollection.

“Awesome, great as always. My Piano recital was also spectacular. It’s a shame they were on the same day, otherwise, we could have watched each other.”

We went back and forth like this, laughing and giggling about some topic or another. The conversation got more and more familiar as it went. And the more I heard, the more a sense of dread grew within me. I knew why my dream took me here, to this day.

After a while Silver started looking at the soccer game most of our peers were playing.

“You know? That looks fun. Why don’t we ever join in?” she asks me.

“Because my mommy says that those kids are beneath people like us. We’re too good to be playing with them.”

“Really? But they seem so nice…”

“I said that to my mommy too, and she said that lowlifes might appear nice, but are only trying to mooch up to us and take out wealth.” I cringe at this. I’ve known this to be a lie for years now.

“Really? All of them?”

“Yes. All of them. So if any dare try and approach us, we just tell them off,” I feel sick by how determined my younger voice sounds. Just then a soccer ball lands near us, and a younger-looking Apple Bloom comes running to retrieve it.

“Hey! Silver Spoon,” the ball had landed nearest to her “do you mind tossing that to me?”

Silver looks unsure for a second before straightening her back. “Why don’t you get it yourself you...lowlife,” she looks to my body for approval, which she receives in the form of a nod and grin. My cringe becomes an internal wail. This was the day it all began.

“Is this what you most regret? Corrupting her?” The booming voice of the void says, filling my existence as the world dissolves around me.

Eventually. I am able to whimper out a barely audible “yes.”

I did. Even during the worst of my bullying I always regretted bringing Silver along with me. Perhaps it was because having someone beside me made it feel better, or lessened the guilt as it was shared between us. Or perhaps deep down I knew what I was doing was wrong and hoped one day she’d stop me. I don’t know the reason, but now my choice could never be undone. Silver Spoon had died a bully, and it was all my fault.

I was on the verge of tears before I saw the golden mist appear around me again, and further into it I can see them grow brighter. The source of their light. I feel once again drawn towards it, so I choke down my tears and begin walking again.

The mist grew brighter and brighter before I could see the source of it. A glowing orb suspended in the air. I am captivated by the sight, and quickly draw in close. And as I do I hear the void speak one last time.

“Do you accept the Burden?” And I knew at once what it meant. It was a way to redeem myself. Make myself better. Become the person I wanted to be.

And so, with no hesitation I reach forward and grab the orb, its light absorbing into me and becoming one with my very soul.

“I do accept this Burden.”

Power grows in me until an overwhelming sense of strength overcomes me and my world vanishes into blinding light.

I wake up with a jolt, breathing heavily from my ordeal. As I calm myself down I look around my new room, the walls black as the nighttime it was. I sink back into my bed and stare at the ceiling. Breathing heavily as I suddenly realize that my life might never be the same again.