Forbidden Places

by Starscribe

Chapter 13: Jordan

Jordan drifted. There was no telling what caused him to do more than simply sleep; maybe it came from being somewhere he felt safe. Maybe it was just exhaustion, or random chance. Whatever the reason, he drifted.

This time the sensation was not new to him, and he was quick to recognize the strangeness of it. He was flying effortlessly, he no longer felt confused and uncomfortable about his own body, no longer ached to be back home. For a time all he did was drift along those feelings, enjoying the relief that came from a lack of pressure and stress.

The longer he drifted, gliding through foggy starlight on bat wings, the more he wondered. Why did he feel different during his visits than he did in waking? Was something strange erasing his feelings, or only helping illuminate the truth?

There was no one to ask, because he was alone. But he hadn't been last time. Where had he found that other pony again? Down.

Instead of falling, Jordan tilted down into a dive. He didn't know how to fly exactly, but that mattered far less. He knew he wanted to be somewhere else, and that flying would get him there. That was enough for a dream.

Rather than crashing into the stony floor, he skidded to a stop, kicking up dust and sand. But he managed to keep his footing on strange pony legs. They weren't strange here, really. He was the right height off the ground, and the balance of his weight made perfect sense. How else would he look?

There was an opening in the ground before him, just like he'd seen last time. Steps descended into the earth, and he took them two at a time. Now he had a purpose: he was searching for someone. Pale Light—would he find Pale Light here?

The cavern was just as he remembered. Its walls were decorated with scrawling in an unreadable language, ritual patterns and spells that seemed to have meaning but he could not read.

He found no bat waiting for him this time, though, smelling strong and trustworthy.

This time, he found an open door, creaking slowly on its hinges and swinging closed. He had only a split-second to decide—and there was never really any question about his choice. Jordan had devoted his life to exploring forbidden places, not staying where it was safe and googling pictures.

He leapt through the opening, folding his wings to his sides and dodging around the heavy wood. It banged closed behind him, then vanished.

For a second Jordan stood in place, utterly dumbfounded by the transition.

He stood in a dense forest of evergreen trees, with loamy brown soil and many rich ferns unfurling towards the moon.

It shone down on him from overhead, as bright and warm as sunlight on his naked body. Come to think of it, that didn't bother him either.

He glanced over his shoulder towards the door, and found a broken doorway carved of cracked gray stone, with a few sections hovering just slightly out of position with the rest. There was no door anymore, or sign of the cavern. Just more forest, and the moon shining like the stars.

Crickets chirped, and his nose filled with a familiar pine smell, inviting him to venture deeper into the forest. Jordan had never really been much into camping—it was what people built that fascinated him. But sometimes the most interesting places had been overgrown by nature. Maybe this door was one of many. What else could he find here?

A familiar smell, as it turned out. He hesitated, sniffing eagerly. That same confidence about himself also applied to his senses. That wasn't just a horse smell, he knew that bat.

Jordan didn't think about how he did it, he just took off, dodging up through the canopy and along the numberless trees. Cat eyes stared as he left the ground behind, though he didn't fly far above the trees. His target wasn't really that far away. Flying wasn't practical, it was fun.

The scent was close, or maybe it was more of the strange time of dreams, but suddenly he could see a pony below, searching through a ruin.

It looked a little like a library, if it had been made from a tree as big as a skyscraper, then exploded. The structure had expanded outward in all directions, scattering shelves and books around it for miles. They covered the ground, flattened the trees, and obscured the grass and dirt.

The bat didn't look up—how quiet was he flying, exactly? Didn't matter. Jordan dove again. But the ground here was books, not dirt. They scattered from around him, raining down behind him as though they weighed nothing.

Finally Pale noticed him, spinning and baring his fangs—but only for a second. He caught himself, wings falling limp to either side. "Wait a minute... I know you."

"You do!" he declared, slipping past him to inspect the bookshelf he'd been digging through. He lifted one of the books in his hoof, flipping through it.

He shouldn't have been surprised. Jordan had tried reading in dreams before, and the result here was no different. Sentences were printed inside, but they made less sense than a chatbot. "Where dolls deem lecture gyms army..." He flipped it closed. "The hell are you reading, Pale?"

The bat closed the distance between them in a few steps. "You shouldn't even... be here. Jordan, right? I thought you weren't trained in Oneiromancy. Didn't you say you were just asleep?"

"Yeah." He settled down on his haunches beside the bookshelf, looking up. "I'm asleep. You told me that, remember? This isn't a real place, I'm just like... my mind is here or something."

"The Dreamlands is a real place," Pale Light said flatly. "It's a real, nonphysical place. It's formed of essence organized by sleeping minds. Every ensouled being resides here while they slumber, but..." He trailed off, turning back the way he came. "You descended the 7,770 steps of deeper slumber, and passed into the Dreamlands. Are you Luna's daughter or something? Everypony knows the princesses have been with other ponies before, but..."

"I'm gonna go with no," Jordan said. "I told you before, I'm from another world. I think I'm in yours currently, but... I'm not from here. My parents are from Minnesota, real traditional farmer types. They'd never have a name like 'Luna.’ That's 'hippie shit.' But if you mean that big door, it was kinda already open? I just walked through it."

The bat only seemed more confused, though at least he didn't waste more time questioning Jordan's honesty. "You're the strangest mare I've ever met here," Pale finally said, pushing him gently off the shelf with one hoof. He started digging through it again, inspecting each cover before tossing them aside.

Overhead, burned wood creaked and groaned under their weight. But Pale Light didn't seem particularly bothered by it, so Jordan ignored it too.

"Oh hey! I have like a million questions for you," Jordan continued. He didn't block the shelf this time, but remained just close enough that the bat wouldn't be able to look away.

He didn't look away from his work, though after going through the shelf he soon turned away, trudging over to another and dumping out old books. Many were burned beyond recognition, though Jordan could see a few were intact. Though why anyone would want to read what they said, he couldn't imagine. "That's too bad, Jordan. I don't mean to be unfriendly, but I'm here on a mission. I can't abandon it to help a neophyte with her powers, not now. You should come to Echo Caverns and visit the Monastery. Just wait for nightfall and visit the night district, the first bat you find should be able to point the way."

"Well that was sure a stack of proper nouns I've never heard," he said. He could've asked about any of them, but didn't. He might not get another chance to get answers. He had a list, even.

As he thought about it, the list appeared in the air before him, just as he'd scrawled it on an old receipt from a Paris corner store. Below the fresh baguette he'd ordered, was... a string of nonsense words. "Tamu zap flee mild goog." He tossed it aside, and was halfway to stomping contemptuously on it when he hesitated.

"Wait a minute. I just..." He picked it up again, using dexterity he couldn’t even imagine in the real world. But apparently he could dream of it. "I just imagined the list of questions I had for you, and it... it's here."

Pale Light snatched the list from her with a wing, skimming over it. He grinned. "Well, almost here. I can't read this language, and this other stuff is... well, what I'd expect. Great first steps with your Oneiromancy though. You should keep practicing, you've got some real talent here."

The receipt blackened and burned in his grip, then blew away in an unseen breeze. Where was the lighter? How had he even done that?

Again, there were more important questions. He didn't need the list to ask about all of them. Jordan waited behind the bat, long enough for him to go back to digging. Then he spoke. "One of my friends turned into a fish. Like a tail, only two legs... that one's weird to say. No air. It's real shit for her. Do you know any way to help her?"

The bat looked up. "If you're friends with a hippogriff, they don't need your help. Every one of them gets a little piece of this... pearl. One of the most powerful enchantments in the world. They can use it to switch from sea to bird whenever they want."

He's listening. Unfortunately, what he was saying was also completely unhelpful. "She's not a hippogriff, we learned that from... whatever, doesn't matter. She's actually called a seapony, at least that's what the crew of this ship told us. I have another friend who can transform into copies of people, but Kaelynn can't. At least, I don't think she can. Do seaponies have powers?"

Pale Light groaned, taking another step over the books. “You're not going to let me work, are you?"

Jordan shook his head. "I'll help you if you want! But I need answers while I'm here. If I don't get them, my friend might die. She's one leaky tank away from drowning as it is. Can we do anything for her? Maybe... get her some of this 'pearl' stuff? From the hippogriffs you said?"

"The hippogriffs use the pearl. It works on regular ponies, like you and me, but I've never heard of one who they ever let keep it. I don't know what it would do to a... you actually found a seapony? That's a significant discovery. Most scholars think they went completely extinct during the reign of Discord. His first conquest."

He spoke so solemnly, as though Jordan had accidentally referenced a terrorist attack. But he also seemed to know what a seapony was, which was more than any of them knew. Granted, half his list had been about their new bodies. But it made the most sense to ask about the one who might die.

"So what did scholars know about them?" he continued. "Before they vanished, I mean."

The bat faced him, looking down. "They were one of the early pony tribes, just like pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns. Not like crystal ponies or bats—they just always existed. They used to visit the land often, and trade with ponies living on the coast. Sometimes they fell in love, and that's what made the other tribes better with music. The better a singer a pony is, the more seapony is in their family tree. So they say."

Well we've gone from listing proper nouns to folktales that make no sense. Still, Jordan began circling the bat, as though he could stop him from taking off, and thus rob him of his only source of reliable information. He'd only dreamed about this bat, yet he knew without knowing how that he could rely on him far more than the weird cat.

"Okay, that's interesting. Do you know anything else? Like... beyond being good at singing?"

"That depends," Pale said. "Will you help me find a book?"

Jordan grinned back at him. "I'm great at finding stuff."

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Well, that's definitely one way to get information from the locals. The question is how much stock the others will put into answers that literally came to Jordan in a dream. If nothing else, Ryan's capabilities demonstrate there's more to this world than they know. We'll see how it goes from here.

Also, exploded tree library? I'm not sure if I should think of Twilight or Lonely Day.

[Mister Morden]

Huh, so Jordan is a savant at dream walking it seems.

Also, some more information about Seaponies! Though none of it was super helpful or relevant at the moment.

[minibox]

Pale Light's certainly a good source of information to understand Equestria. Though Jordan probably shouldn't prod him too much. Everything Jordon's achieved in the Dreamlands so far seems very hard, if not impossible for a novice to access. It might not take much for Pale Light to become suspicious of the talented mysterious mare from nowhere.

Jordan had devoted his life to exploring forbidden places, not staying where it was safe and googling pictures.

Mandatory title drop.

"You descended the 7,770 steps of deeper slumber, and passed into the Dreamlands. Are you Luna's daughter or something? Everypony knows the princesses have been with other ponies before, but..."

A pony with talent like that... even with no royal blood, it's gonna attract a lot of eyes if they start noticing.

"That's too bad, Jordan. I don't mean to be unfriendly, but I'm here on a mission. I can't abandon it to help a neophyte with her powers, not now. You should come to Echo Caverns and visit the Monastery. Just wait for nightfall and visit the night district, the first bat you find should be able to point the way."

With how skilled one must be to apparently access this area, the mission must be an important one. Important enough if Pale Light asked the incredibly talented mare to not disturb him and stop by his place later on. Still, unless there's a Worldgate in Echo Caverns, I doubt Jordan would have much motivation to take a detour.

"Well, almost here. I can't read this language, and this other stuff is... well, what I'd expect. Great first steps with your Oneiromancy though. You should keep practicing, you've got some real talent here."

Well, Pale Light isn't gawking over Jordan like he's the chosen one, so his abilities aren't unprecedented. Just rare. Let's hope Jordan doesn't have enough talent to go beyond the impossible. We don't even know what that would look like.

"The hippogriffs use the pearl. It works on regular ponies, like you and me, but I've never heard of one who they ever let keep it. I don't know what it would do to a... you actually found a seapony? That's a significant discovery. Most scholars think they went completely extinct during the reign of Discord. His first conquest."

Jordan's situation is looking more preposterous to Pale Light by the minute. Still, knowledge about the pearl will give the group some hope even if the gate itself is a bust.

[Josiador]

Interesting, so the Dazzlings were Seaponies?

[LunarRai]

10694635

It might not take much for Pale Light to become suspicious of the talented mysterious mare from nowhere.

Quite frankly, I'm certain that ship has already left port. A bat with farmer parents? And she comes from a nowhere place called 'Minnesota'? And another world?

[minibox]

10694713
Well, this is Equestria... with magic and stuff. The situation would be a little less preposterous. A little less. At least it appears Pale Light is treating Jordan with curiosity and for the most part, keeping things at arms length. Though I wonder if there's enough concern for him to start reporting his encounters to his superiors. That might bode well or ill for the group.

[Teraunce]

Ouch. Poor library tree but nice informative chapter.

[Level Dasher]

Bummer about the tree. And if they need to find a book, and Jordan can't read, that might be a bit difficult. Unless it's distinguishable by just its outward appearance. Guess they'll have to judge the book by the cover.

10694694
No, they were sirens, who in the real world were also known to take mermaid-style forms in mythology. The Equestrian equivalent (if I remember the episode correctly) is that they looked somewhat similar to (actual) seahorses, another aquatic creature, and it would make sense that they weren't seaponies because they were actually evil.
At least, that's the way I see it.

[Stellar Light Sparkle]

10694694

Interesting, so the Dazzlings were Seaponies?

I don't think so. They were called 'Sirens', and I think that could be the proper name for their species. And, apparently, when they died, they come back as Wendigoes.

[Eroraf86]

Well, I'd call that progress. I wonder what book Pale Light is looking for?

[alluringming]

Just found this today and im very intrigued. Like idea group of friends end up in equestria and each of them turning into a non-pony, exception of batpony. Like how diverse the species you choosen for them too.

[redmar]

This is an interesting development and they now know what species Kaelynn actually is and Jordan might gain more information from Pale Light.

[Blaster M]

The bat faced him, looking down. "They were one of the early pony tribes, just like pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns. Not like crystal ponies or bats—they just always existed. They used to visit the land often, and trade with ponies living on the coast. Sometimes they fell in love, and that's what made the other tribes better with music. The better a singer a pony is, the more seapony is in their family tree. So they say."

SHOO BE DO

[FOXTrot2]

Jordan grinned back at him. "I'm great at finding stuff."

Indeederoomi. like finding trouble.