Chapter 7
Consciousness came to me in short bursts: a flash of light here, a directionless hum there. My eyes fluttered, catching glimpses of something just a few feet away from me. Running my hands along the floor, I felt the distinct coarse texture of hardwood brush against my palms as I tried to recall previous events.
At first, everything was a tumultuous storm of confusion. I had no recollection of how I got here. No attempts at jogging my memory worked, and it seemed as if something was repressing the events that had happened previously.
This confusion only reinforced itself when my tired eyes adjusted to the light.
The dilapidated, rotting bed frame was the first clue that something was blatantly amiss. If the foul odor and the black stains were any indications, something must have crawled onto it and died ages ago, forgotten and left to rot.
The small nightstand to the side fared slightly better; it was still standing. However, like the hardwood floor I had apparently dozed off upon, the discolored brown wood was warped, scratched, and dented from water stains. From the looks of it, a stiff breeze would be enough to knock the damn thing over and scatter the moldering splinters into the wind.
And lastly was the room itself. Apart from the solitary door at the far end, it was utterly barren. There were no closets, drawers, or other pieces of furniture to be seen. It felt so utterly alien, and some part of me believed that something was seriously wrong with what I was witnessing.
I rubbed my stinging eyes as I tried to ignore the musty mushroom-like odor aggravating my sinuses. It was all too much, and I tried my hardest to understand why I felt this way, let alone the plethora of other questions I had.
I can’t remember coming here and have no reason to go spelunking inside abandoned houses, right? Not unless I have a history with this place specifically.
Silence reigned.
Yes. There has to be a reason for all of this.
The boards creaked under my feet as I stepped towards the nightstand, glancing at the solitary, toppled-over photo frame splayed out on top of it. Like everything else, father time had ravaged the gold-colored metal with spots of rust and grime, and I was hesitant to touch the damn thing.
But curiosity won out in the end.
I grimaced, my right hand grasping at the edge of the frame as I slowly tilted it up.
…
Four people smiled back, and then I remembered.
The gilded cage. The endless hallways. The nightmares.
Luna. She did this! S- she dragged me into the throne room and then-
I reflexively brought a hand up to my forehead as a lance of pain stabbed itself just above my right eyelid. There was so much missing.
So much out of place.
I knew that I used to remember these people and that this was all some fucked up dream, but that knowledge was not enough to calm my nerves. Luna had done this. She stole my memories of them and still wasn’t satisfied.
What use was I to her as an empty husk? A thoughtless automaton? None of it made sense, especially not for a delusional and socially starved creature like her.
With my newfound perspective, I glanced around the room again.
Water damage. Stains. Cracks in the walls. Scratches and bumps on the waterlogged hardwood floors. All of this would have made any house or abode in real life a safety hazard from the festering molds and other contaminants alone. But this wasn’t an actual room in a real home; it wasn’t the result of neglect or some natural disaster.
This was my mind.
And I didn’t know how I was supposed to repair this or if it could even be fixed. Humanity certainly never figured-
VVVRRRRIIIIINNNNNGGGGGG!
I looked downwards.
It made sense that I missed it at first glance, only a tiny corner of my black iPhone was jutting out from underneath the nightstand, and what was visible was cast in a thick shadow. Without a second thought, I bent down and scooped it up in my hands before answering immediately.
“Hello?” I said.
White noise and static hissed in my right ear.
“...Sarah?“ The name tumbled out of my mouth, but I couldn’t connect it to a face or a memory.
“Barricade yourself immediately,” the voice on the other end replied suddenly, and my eyes widened in surprise at its familiar regal timbre. “And no matter what you hear outside, do not be swayed by its lies. Do you understand?”
“Wait!” I cried out.
“I know you must have many questions, but I am afraid I cannot answer them right now,” Celestia continued. “I must attend to an urgent matter-”
“I know this is a dream, Princess,” I said. My eyes remained firmly on the door as I spoke. “And we both know that whatever you’re planning won’t work! Luna mopped the floor with you once already, and she didn’t have the home-field advantage then!”
“What would you have me do then, Daniel?” the Princess snapped, causing me to twitch in surprise. “Do you truly think I have any other choice in the matter? Or should I stand aside and let my sister corrupt you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “But we should try to think of a better plan before we try and fight the mistress of dreams in the dream realm!”
“We are out of time,” she replied with a softer tone. “I know I am nearly powerless compared to my sister in her domain, but there is too much at stake to allow her to remain unopposed! You have suffered enough because of my failures.” Static crackled in my ears again as the Princess paused. “Please, Daniel. Let me make things right.”
I tapped my bare foot on the hardwood floor in agitation as I tried to find the right words to speak. “...There has to be some way I could help. If this is a dream, then I could-”
“Your efforts would prove futile, even if you had all of your memories intact,” she said. “As you are right now? You would be a liability at best.”
“Please,” my other arguments died at the tip of my tongue. There was no way I would convince her otherwise. “At least tell me what’s at stake. I deserve that much.”
I kept my phone pressed to the side of my face with bated breath as I filtered out the white noise.
“What is a Queen without her subjects? A mother without her children?” Celestia said. “Luna has been denied both for centuries, and the wounds in her psyche run far deeper than you can possibly imagine.”
“She’s using me as a crutch to fulfill her fantasies?”
“No, it's far worse than that. Luna truly covets you above all else, but you are ultimately just a means to an end,” she replied. “Do you remember anything about your arrival here, Daniel?
My eyes flitted as a few flashes of light and sound rushed through my mind. “Luna. She- I was sprawled on the ground in front of her after she pulled me through a portal.”
The small snippet of memory, the only one from Earth that supposedly survived the journey, was gone. I clearly remembered scrawling my thoughts and fears about my encounter with Luna, with her explanation about her portal experiments and how I was wrenched away from the comfort of my bed, but the more I thought about it, the less sense it made.
“She told me I needed to be kept a secret for my safety and apparently led me through the castle in secret to avoid her subjects.” I placed a hand on my forehead as I tried to make sense of all the noise buzzing in my skull. “And yes, I know now that was a complete lie, but… Princess, I can’t remember this encounter ever happening. I wrote about it, and I bet it's still sitting on that desk in my suite-”
“And yet you can’t remember it ever happening?”
“Not just that.” I began to pace around the room. “I don’t think it ever did happen.”
More flashes of light; more muddled answers revealed themselves to me in my mind’s eye as my feet plodded against the damp hardwood. My thoughts led me to the memory of another room.
Blue walls, polished marble floor, a pattern of stars and constellations painted on the ceiling, and a row of bookcases—I remembered tearing through them like a man possessed, trying to find some means of escape.
“They were just like the one I wrote in my suite,” I whispered.
“Daniel?”
“The notes. My writings. Luna kept them hidden away in her room, and I stumbled upon an entire collection of them!” My heart started thundering in my chest, and even though I knew it was a dream, I couldn’t get it to stop. “But I don’t remember writing any of it!”
“Daniel!”
I halted in place.
“Breathe. Deep breaths.”
I followed her advice. Centering myself, I focused on keeping my breathing slow and even until my heart rate slowed.
“Okay,” I whispered with the breath I was slowly exhaling. “Princess, thank you.”
“Call me Celestia,” she said reluctantly. “I am nearly as unfit for that title as my sister.”
“That isn’t fair to you.”
“Isn’t it?” Celestia questioned. “I allowed all of this to happen. I abandoned my sister when she needed me most, allowing her jealousy and hatred to fester. And when the time came, I could not do what was necessary to defend my subjects from her.”
I heard Celestia clear her throat.
“That day will forever be burned into my memory. One moment, my little sister stood before me. Then, just like a nightmare, another creature stood in her place. It wore her face and used her voice, but deep down, I knew she was gone.”
“I’m sorry," I said. I didn’t know what else to say, even with the knowledge that I had also suffered from Luna’s actions. With how powerful and seemingly immortal these demi-goddesses were, everything I suffered through must have been a single raindrop in the ocean compared to the shit she’s seen.
“The Luna I knew a thousand years ago, my bright, cheerful, young sister, is already dead. She’s been dead ever since she gave in to her madness, and it’s taken me this long to come to terms with it. I let her hurt you because I couldn’t let go!”
Another pause. I remained silent, allowing Celestia to recollect herself.
“I have strung you along for far too long already,” Celestia finally spoke. “Luna knows you are not of this world, and she has combed through your memories hundreds of times to learn everything she can about you. Your language, your customs, she has itemized and collected every last shred of data she can get her filthy hooves on.”
“It is not without saying that she truly does care for you in her own twisted way, but having you requite the love she has given you is secondary to her true goal—to find and rule over new subjects, willing or not.”
I was at a loss for words, but how could I not be? Luna had intentionally blinded me to anything other than her truth, her words. I had nothing else to go off of for all this time.
“She cannot be reasoned with or appeased, and her greed is unmatched even by the mightiest of dragons,” Celestia declared icily. “I must stop her here and now, or else her evil will befall your people just as it did mine.”
“What are you saying?” I said, my eyes wide with shock. “T-there’s no way she could find Earth! It would be like finding a needle in a field of haystacks!”
“Do you truly believe that, knowing how much power she wields? Did you not ever question where Luna disappeared off to while she let you rot in that suite?” Celestia went on. “She has scoured the ruins of our kingdom ever since she brought you into the castle, looking for the anomaly that sent you here. And I fear that she is close to finding it.”
I tried to reply, but I couldn’t find my voice as some of the pieces clicked inside my head. Luna had been ruling over a dead kingdom for god only knows how long, so there was no reason for her not to give me her undivided attention. For her to disappear for extended periods, only to appear at random intervals to feed and check up upon me…
I was already at the door, pulling and twisting at the knob as my heartbeat accelerated threefold.
“Daniel, you will be much safer fortified inside your mind than in the dream realm!” she reprimanded, somehow knowing what I was trying to achieve before I even put my mind to it.
“Bullshit!” I cried out, remembering how the cheap wooden door had flown off its hinges. The extensive ‘water’ damage I could spot on nearly every surface of the room only further justified my point in my eyes. “Hiding with my back against the wall didn’t work the last time! And it definitely won't work now!”
“You are in no condition to fight, and I will not let you use yourself as bait! Not again!”
“You’re one to talk!” I snapped back.
With another twist, I wrenched the door open.
Blackness, swirling into stars.
My body lurched forward, and my stomach twisted into knots. My phone slipped from my hands and plummeted downward into a mirror-still ocean far below, reflecting the nighttime heavens back up above.
“Shit!” I reached out with my right hand while leaning back and holding onto the door handle for dear life with my left. It was just an endless ocean of stars, with utterly alien constellations slowly wheeling overhead, and I could feel a sense of disjointedness as I struggled to maintain my balance.
My eyes darted around, with thoughts panicked and frayed. Were it not for the solid ground beneath my feet, I would not have been able to tell which way was up and which was down.
And that terrified me.
Like everything else, I knew this was fake, but that didn’t stop the fear that crept up my spine as I balanced precariously at the edge of the doorway. I had no recollection of anything like this before, but something was eating away at me. An instinctual hatred and fear of the waters below and all the things lurking underneath its surface.
Stop. Move back. Move. MOVE.
I heaved. The muscles in my left arm strained, and I struggled against some unseen force as I shifted my weight and pulled.
The door closed shut.
I fell backward.
Something clattered onto the floor beside me.
The bare white ceiling was spinning above me while I lay senseless on the floor, reeling from the unpleasant churning of my stomach and my sudden bout of vertigo. It wasn’t until my hand brushed against cold, polished glass instead of damp hardwood that I regained my sense of awareness again.
Black case. Cracked, black screen. Same as it was before, as if the damn thing didn’t fall eight hundred meters into the drink. I didn’t question it, instead hastily bringing the phone to my ear.
“Celestia?” Much to my dismay, there wasn’t any sound—not even a single burst of static. “Damn!”
Glancing downward, I idly tapped at the cracked screen of my phone, taking in the rainswept sidewalks and streets, the lines of taxis and cars, and the wall of fog that enveloped everything ahead for a moment before trying to enter my passcode.
Second verse, same as the first—nothing I tried worked, just like last time. My lips pinched together as I beat my head over the metaphorical wall, knowing that I had inadvertently egged Celestia on further due to my abrupt hangup.
“Please, just work! C’mon! C’mon!” I let out an impatient snort as I tried yet another string of numbers, falling further and further into despair with each incorrect password. “None of this is even real! I shouldn’t be having this much trouble!”
Another string of numbers. Another failure. I could feel my blood pressure rising with each tap of my fingers on the glass, and I was all but ready to throw the damn thing across the room before a pinprick of pain poked at my thumb.
The cracks in the glass shifted, knitting themselves together like needlework. My posture stiffened when the last fracture disappeared, and the text ‘swipe up to open’ prominently displayed itself at the bottom of the screen.
Apprehension began fluttering away in my stomach as my thumb scraped upwards against the polished glass.
Some part of me had expected this, but even that couldn’t stop the long, low sigh that escaped my lips. Sparse was underselling just how barren the ‘home screen’ was, with only a single app nestled in the far left corner. But perhaps the biggest gut punch itself was the background image.
A familiar, solitary wooden desk illuminated by dim candlelight.
I gazed upon it, my hatred and fear of Luna running in a recursive loop inside my head. The strong take, and the weak suffer. That was the only lesson Luna imparted upon me that stuck. And I knew if I didn’t fight her until my dying breath, I would be trapped in that room again.
I shivered, hugging my legs to myself.
My thumb hovered over the photos app and pressed down.
To my dismay, I could find no evidence of my previous life outside the confines of Luna’s castle, save for the lock screen photo. Family and Friends, Places, Favorites, all these albums were utterly empty.
The recent album was my only lead, with thirty-seven photos to scroll through.
Tap.
That fucking desk was the first sight I was greeted to, alongside many other similar images of my prison suite. The only difference between them was the slightly different angles and overly exaggerated shadows, but they all captured that claustrophobic sensation perfectly.
It took thirteen swipes before this trend changed.
A wooden door, with my hand clasped around its golden handle. It would have been an unremarkable image to anyone else, but to me? It was so much more. My desire for freedom, my fear of the unknown, and my unbound sense of curiosity, all packaged into a single picture. It was the point of no return, but I had a greater understanding of what lay ahead this time.
I swiped left.
Endless hallways bathed in candlelight. Sterile, empty furnished rooms. The isolation I had experienced was something otherworldly, and even with the knowledge of what happened next, I could still feel a sense of wonder in these liminal spaces.
Swipe. Recollect. Swipe again.
The tone of the slideshow quickly changed. Gone were the still images, replaced by blurred and unfocused photos, as if the cameraman was accidentally snapping one pic after the other while running for his dear life.
Without the small glimpses of landmarks sparsely laid out between the stretches of blurry images, it all would have been impossible to decipher. But I was able to recollect my journey, from the first time I laid my eyes upon the massive, twin set of golden doors to the last.
The emotional rollercoaster continued as I swiped at the screen with my thumb. Anxiety, stress, anger, hope—all these conflicting emotions fought for dominance as I neared the end of this macabre slideshow. The soreness in my aching muscles, the fear that gripped my chest, my lungs and brain starving for oxygen, I remembered these feelings clear as day as I moved from set piece to set piece.
A kitchen. A broom closet. Luna’s room. My breathing hitched when I spotted a glimpse of Luna’s legs in a photo, and the harrowing memory of hiding under her bed came back to me in full force. It was enough to make my stomach churn.
The image quality took a sharp nose dive after that, with shadows dancing in every nook and cranny, and everything else visible was warped in some way. Perhaps it was a sign that my memory was faulty and suspect or that I purposely purged the events that had happened afterward from my mind, but I still knew enough to fill in the blanks.
The stench of pennies and gasoline burning my throat as I drowned to death was something that would continue to haunt me from this life to the next. Even so, there was something about seeing these from an outside perspective, from a detached point of view, that made me thank whatever higher power was watching over me.
The tension that had long since welled inside me was ebbing away in tiny trickles.
I swiped again. The war for my emotional state continued in my head, with each side savagely fighting a protracted battle of attrition with no clear-cut winner. This continued as I continued to study and swipe through each image, with the photo quality becoming increasingly distorted until they were utterly incomprehensible.
All, save for the last image.
Everything, from the broken stained glass windows to the fallen debris and piles of snow, was captured with perfect fidelity.
Everything, including the menacing form of the Lunar Princess.
Her air of kindness and understanding was absent in this photo, replaced by an insatiable hunger in her turquoise eyes. This was also reflected in her maniacal grin, which bore no resemblance to the calming smile she always wore in my presence. But what set me off the most?
It was her poise. With the gait in her bent legs and her eyes locked directly into mine, she looked as if she was ready to pounce at me through the screen. And with being trapped in the confines of her domain, I knew such a thing was possible.
That knowledge haunted me as I sat still, gazing at the phone screen.
My hatred and fear of Luna ran in a recursive loop inside my head.
…
“No.”
Her eyes remained unblinking.
My chest tightened.
“I won’t let you do this. I won’t let you use me as your plaything! I’m tired of feeling helpless, stewing over all the ways you could fuck me over!”
I blinked.
Luna had moved an inch closer.
My nostrils flared.
“For all of your might and power, you are nothing more than a spoiled child, Luna. You squandered everything and let your people die for what? What possessed you to do any of this? You had a kingdom! Untold riches! A sister who loved you! And you threw it all away!”
Despite the discomfort and watering of my eyes, I forced myself to not blink. I wanted the truth from Luna, not a cheap jumpscare. Trying to wrangle it from her was like drawing blood from a stone.
“This ends now,” I said with finality. “You’re not getting any more new toys to break. You’re done.”
A strange sense of calm overtook me, washing away the conflicting clutter of emotions fighting for dominance. I could still feel my head and neck tingle with fear, but I accepted that. To be brave was to be afraid.
“I refuse to be your victim anymore.”
Luna disappeared.
I cast my gaze around wildly.
The room had gone and changed on me.
The smell was the first clue—the musty mushroom odor that originally wafted around the room was overpowered by the scent of spicy cinnamon.
I quickly spotted the second. The cracks and chips of paint peeling off the walls had been repaired and painted over. Even the omnipresent water damage that dampened and warped the flooring underneath my feet had all but disappeared.
The last clue became blatantly apparent as I turned. No longer in tatters, the queen-sized bed would have been highly enticing had I spotted it in the waking world. Seeing something purpose-built for humans was a sight for sore eyes, and I had no doubt in my mind that I’d have a restful night's sleep tucked underneath its striped black and grey comforter.
The room wasn’t the only thing that changed. I could feel it in my shoulders, which no longer sagged from some unseen burden, and hear it in my chest, with the rhythm of my heart slow and steady. Breathing came easy now, and I no longer felt an everpresent, crushing weight upon my chest.
Was this what courage felt like?
It was an alien sensation. Tonal whiplash. Like an author changing genres mid-story.
I…
I glimpsed at the nightstand out of the corner of my eye.
I want to change. I want to be better.
My eyes squeezed shut.
She wanted me to feel vulnerable. Afraid. Ashamed. Stripping me of my clothes was just another one of her tactics and perhaps the most effective. Surrender to the cold or surrender to her warm embrace—the choice was simple, especially for someone close to the brink.
In the waking world, I had to make do with makeshift togas and sheer spite to stay warm and sane. Here in the depths of my mind?
You have no power over me, Luna. Not anymore.
Tangled thread tied together, snaking across my skin. Pull, push. Twist and turn. A threaded needle, a bundle of cloth. Stitch. Stitch. Stitch.
Black sweatpants, a hoodie, socks, and sneakers. Unoriginal, but comfortable and warm, and in a place like this? Wearing anything at all was a fashion statement.
Pushing myself off the floor, I found that the floorboards no longer creaked as I bounded past the bed in a few powerful strides.
The golden picture frame was fresh off the store shelf, yet I still couldn’t remember them. My gaze and thoughts were lost in their smiling faces.
“I don’t want them to be strangers,” I said, tilting my phone horizontally.
Ka-Chick
There was a time and place for getting lost in existential tangents over my memories, and it wasn’t here and now. So, I turned away, stuffing my phone into my pocket as I approached the door again.
Turn. Pull. The sparkling black of the dream realm’s starry expanse stared back. There was still nothing within sight for miles on end, and the only way seemed to be down into the mirror-still ocean below.
Before, I was sure I would be leaving my sanctuary in the company of Luna or the company of the sea. Even now, I wasn’t sure which choice was preferable; my deep-seated fear of drowning was absolutely justified, after all.
But what if I don’t need to choose?
I closed my eyes and focused.
Find Celestia.
The sound of rumbling and clattering broke the silence as I blinked.
Directly ahead, stone slabs blinked into existence before fusing and grinding together like shifting tectonic plates.
Watching on with amazement, I took the first step, feeling the unyielding hardness of the smoothed-out stone from under my feet. With each step, more chunks of rock materialized from the aether, extending the path before me.
BOOM
Twisting around, I could only see stars.
It didn’t take long for me to find her.
Of course, with the stone path railroading me directly towards the blinking yellow and blue lights in the distance, it was impossible to become lost.
It took even less time to close the wide gap between us.
Even from this distance, I could see Celestia’s panicked wings struggling to keep her aloft. Like every other appearance in my life, Luna seemed absolutely unphased by comparison as they blasted away at each other with nuclear weapons yield spellfire.
She knew she couldn’t win; I knew she couldn’t win, yet Celestia continued to fight on my behalf. Her display of courage was still just that—a display. One that Luna was seemingly taking joy in taking apart piece by piece.
For that reason, I stopped about half a football field’s length away, closed my eyes, and concentrated.
My mind’s eye focused on the blinking blue blur in the distance. My frothing hatred for Luna became a bubbling black mire within me. The feeling of being helpless, powerless, unable to do anything but stand and watch, was all more fuel for the gasoline fire.
But all fires needed a spark.
I searched deeply in every darkened recess of my mind, scrambling for the match that would set it all ablaze. But no matter how many stones were unturned, I couldn’t find anything at all. There was no match. No spark.
C’mon! Not now! She needs me! She needs me!
As Celestia’s golden light waned off in the distance, I reached down into myself.
…
…
…
Empty. Useless.
There was nothing left within me that Luna didn’t scoop out. All that was left was a sad, angry husk of a man. A pathetic worm that couldn’t help others or themselves.
…
I opened my eyes.
My phone was cradled in my hands, and the faces of four strangers were smiling at me.
Glimpses of warmth suddenly flickered through my mind. I immediately chased that feeling down, riding a wave of nostalgia as I did so. Static shot up my arm as I remembered a smell—a fresh, pungent zing followed by musty earth and petrichor.
My eyes drifted toward the vibrant eyes of the daughter and son.
“Summer rain, wash away yesterday’s pain,” I whispered.
It was subtle at first, a fair wind that blew in from somewhere unseen. It rubbed and caressed the skin on my face and trailed down my neck like long-lost lovers reuniting. The scent was next: Petrichor and wet grass. Familiar, just like the dream I had chased down.
The atmosphere shifted next.
Stars, constellations, and every source of light within Luna’s tapestry were meticulously snuffed out by a miasma of black smoke and darkness.
The skies above the two monarchs rumbled.
I turned, staring up into the dark overcast above with my mouth agape.
Arcs of lightning danced across the roiling, thick storm clouds as they converged upon the battlefield like a swarm of soldier ants. As they marched in unison, the brief flashes of white were the only light source within the ensuing darkness. The air suddenly grew humid and thick, swirling around to form an all-encompassing barrier around the forward billow of the storm.
The seas below became agitated from the commotion above, and tall waves the size of skyscrapers began to circle underneath as if they were birds of prey waiting to feast upon carrion.
The alicorn sisters reacted similarly to me, both winged figures in the distance were frozen in place inside the eye of the storm, staring toward the sky.
I cleared my throat, not willing to give up the upper hand, as I glared at Princess Luna.
“Kill,” I said. I had found my spark.
BOOM
White streaks of light converged upon a single point as the thunderclouds all clapped in unison. I watched in grim satisfaction as the distant shape of Princess Luna tumbled down towards the open sea.
BOOM
Another white flash.
Another thunderclap.
A ghost of a smile formed upon my lips.
Luna’s lifeless body inched closer to the drink. The storm followed, rain and wind beneath its black shadow whipping the once calm ocean into a roiling fury. It struck again and again like the wrath of an angry god smiting down an upstart.
One second. Two. The tyrant’s body splashed into the waves and was swallowed up by the sea.
I released the breath I didn’t even notice I was holding. My gaze lingered upon the waves, waiting for Luna to soar upwards in a display of terrifying power.
A minute passed. Two minutes. Three. A cold exhale of wind came, causing me to shiver despite my heavy clothing acting as a buffer against the wind’s chill. I rubbed my hands together but made no move to look away.
Is it over? Is she truly gone?
My chest tingled at the mere thought.
Luna? Dead? Impossible! She always has another trick up her sleeve or another card to play! She couldn’t… it couldn’t be this easy! Could it?
But the longer I looked, the more certain it seemed to be the case. The now murky, cold sea churned below, restless and uncaring of its prisoner trapped beneath the waves. Dream or not, assuming that she somehow survived having her organs and muscles burned from the inside out, she would have been long since dead from drowning.
It was almost too much to process at once, and I couldn’t do anything other than continue to rub absently at my arms.
“Luna! Sister!”
Celestia’s voice echoed softly around the dreamscape; I could barely hear it over the thundercloud's ceaseless rumbling.
A slight pang of regret echoed alongside the warmth radiating through my body. I was close to tears with elation and felt downright vindicated by my actions—but part of me still was weary. Once bitten, twice shy, and I’ve been bitten far more times than I could possibly remember.
No. No, this is an act. This has to be an act. The wrath of Mother Nature isn’t enough to bring down a god.
Dizzy. I was feeling dizzy. My skin tingled alongside the hairs on my neck and arms as I watched, waiting to catch sight of Luna rising above the waves to swat us down like flies. One moment. Two. She wasn’t there.
Where is she? Where the fuck did she go?
“Luna!”
I shook my head.
Stone slabs spawned in from out of the aether, fusing together to form another path towards the distraught-
BOOM
Celestia was suddenly engulfed in a flash of white and gold.
“No!” I shouted.
I was already sprinting, the rock path ahead transforming into a set of stairs for me to descend as I threw caution to the wind.
I looked up.
Closer. The overcast sky began to float closer overhead, bathing me in its dark shadow.
My eyes squeezed shut.
“Stop! Dissipate! Begone!” I bellowed.
A gust of gale-force winds blew towards me, swiping me off my feet. Dazed, confused. Pain erupted in the back of my skull.
My unfocused eyes gazed upward.
And closer. The outer edge of the storm’s rain was now falling on the stone path.
BOOM
I raised a hand to shield my eyes, and the rain hammered down, soaking me in an instant.
BOOM
Another white flash and an instant roll of thunder reverberated in my lungs. Rain streamed down my face and into my eyes.
How could this have happened? How could I have lost control so suddenly?
I strained to see, to think. My ears rang like church bells.
A reverberating rumble sounded off overhead.
I was still senseless on the floor, blinking the lingering white spots and water from my eyes as I tried to get back on my feet. The constant noise caused by the storm and the incessant ringing in my eardrums made this impossible.
Lightning flashed, and thunderclouds screamed.
BOOM
CRACK
Brighter than all the others so far, a blinding bolt of white sailed past my head, shearing through the stone steps behind me.
The aftershock of the boom catapulted me upward.
There was no more reflection of the nighttime heavens within the water. No, just like how Luna had peeled back her mask, the sea below was now showing its true face. The waves were gnashing teeth, chomping at the bit for the newest morsel dangling in front of its face.
And just like its master, I knew it would never be satiated. It would always feel the ravenous pains of hunger in the pit of its stomach.
There was no real difference between them, only the execution method.
And somehow, I was less afraid of whatever Luna had planned than drowning.
Panic flared in my chest as I began to plummet.
The ocean’s gaping maw widened.
I tried to think of anything to get me out of this situation: a pair of wings, a jetpack, a ledge for me to break my fall.
None of these worked. I couldn't concentrate on anything except my fear of the waves and what lingered underneath, and part of me knew that I was responsible for empowering it in a twisted feedback loop.
Half the distance between me and my watery demise had already been covered, yet it felt like I was wading through thick molasses in my freefall.
“Flight! Wings! Float!” I screamed desperately.
Lightning and Thunder. Rain and wind. The noise was all-consuming as my world dissolved into a howling nightmare.
All noise, except the whoosh of a pair of wings.
My eyes darted around, trying to see past the downpour of rain.
Gold light.
It took me by surprise.
Not a flash nor a scream from the black heavens above accompanied it. Hammer blows of rain crashed against the light, sizzling and burning like bacon and eggs on a frying pan as my insides lurched. My momentum had suddenly stopped.
The wrathful seas below chewed on its lips before lashing out, black talons outstretched to pluck me out of the sky. My body shot up and forward, cleaving a path through pillars of torrential downpour until I suddenly found myself firmly seated on Celestia’s withers.
“Hold on tight!” Celestia shouted exhaustedly as we were both bathed in ethereal golden light. The all-encompassing noise suddenly evaporated, and I could hear the beating of my heart once more.
“Way ahead of you!” I cried out, clinging onto her neck for dear life.
Celestia frantically beat her wings as she tried to gain altitude.
The storm boomed.
I pressed my head into the back of Celestia’s neck, trying to blink out the lighting flash that seared itself into my retinas.
“Are you alright?” Celestia’s voice seemed so far away even though she was speaking right next to me. Any anger I imagined Celestia harboring for my actions evaporated as her tone softened. “Daniel?”
I groaned out.
“Daniel?!”
The roaring winds blew against us, halting Celestia’s momentum and causing her to jerk upward. My arms constricted around her neck as I nearly lost my grip.
“Just get us out of here!”
“I’m trying!”
The sky cracked again, and another bolt of Zeus's thunder lanced through the heavy air, crashing down just a dozen paces behind us. It was only by sheer luck that the next two didn’t hit us, both crashing down directly ahead in a display of power even Celestia herself couldn’t seemingly match.
“But this is just a dream! Just teleport us out of here or wake us up!” I shouted. “Why does any of this even matter?”
“If none of this mattered, why haven’t you jumped already?” Light and an instant thunderclap followed her retort. Celestia shook her head. “There is no time to argue or place blame! I need you to save your strength and focus! You’re the only one who can dispel the storm before it leaks into the material plane!”
“But how? And why should I care?” I spoke in a rush. “There’s nothing for me to go back to! And besides, I can’t even think clearly enough to conjure up a dust bunny, let alone reign in this fucking storm!”
Rumble. Flickering Lightning. Endless rain. Flapping wings.
“Yes, you can!” Celestia cried out. “It’s fueled by your emotions!”
“And I change them more often than someone changes socks! What makes you think I can control them? What makes you think I can just will this bullshit away with a wave of my hand?”
“Because this isn’t who you are!”
The roaring of the waves. The angered shrieks of the clouds. It was all pure, undiluted hate. Unexplainable rage. The storm was the champagne that spewed out of the bottle after popping off the cork.
“...I can’t.”
“Daniel- “
“Don’t you see? This is all I have left!”
“That’s not true!”
“But it is! I can’t remember a goddamn thing before this because she took everything from me! My life, my memories, my family! They’re all just fucking museum pieces now, collecting dust in whatever vault Luna tossed them away in!”
Celestia dived lower, twisting around another scattershot of lightning as it grazed us. An endless downpour of raindrops continued to fizzle against the golden energy shield.
“You have every right to feel this way,” Celestia replied solemnly. “After everything, your anger for my sister is unquestionably justified. But deep down, you know this anger isn’t pointed toward her alone, is it?”
KRRASSH BOOM
Shattered skies cracked open. Celestia swiftly dodged another strike.
“What do you want me to say, Celestia? That I hate myself for being weak? Useless? Because you’re right! I’m just a clueless fucking moron that has to rely on others for help! I can’t do anything right myself!”
The pointless, rage-fueled tirade continued to tumble out of my mouth as I felt my muscles and veins straining against my skin. “I’m so tired of feeling helpless and weak! I’m tired of the changing goalposts! I’m tired of jumping at every shadow!”
“And I’m tired of forgetting!”
Three more flashes. Three direct hits. The golden light surrounding us flickered, and the winds howled like wolves trailing a wounded deer.
“I can hardly remember their voices anymore! Their faces! It’s all just colors and white noise because your whore of a sister stole my memories, and there’s nothing I can do about it!” The words scratched at my dried throat as I abused my vocal cords. “I’m afraid to close my eyes and rest for even a moment because I know she’ll be waiting for me! Taunting me!”
My throat burned. The storm continued its tantrum.
Celestia’s golden light enveloped us once again.
“You are not weak,” Celestia stated. “You are not weak for being subjected to the torment my sister put you through.”
“I couldn’t stop her,” I insisted.
“And you think that this is a failing on your part?” Celestia responded. “Her power is outside the realm of any context that you, or any mortal, could fathom. No amount of planning or forewarning could have changed this outcome for you or anyone else put in your place.”
“That just proves my point.”
“No. It only proves mine,” Celestia’s wings flapped and flexed as we knifed through a low-hanging stormcloud. “After all the evil she inflicted upon you, you are still unquestionably yourself. Beyond all this fear and hatred lies a soul, unbound and unbroken.”
Celestia’s face turned towards me slightly, and I stared deeply into her pale magenta eye.
“Don’t you see, Daniel? Even with all of her power, not once has she broken you. Not once have you willingly yielded to her.”
I broke eye contact first.
“She’ll come back,” I said despondently.
“You will be ready to face her this time,” Celestia said resolutely. “And I will stand beside you.”
I sucked a mouthful of humid air into my lungs as butterflies fluttered about in the pit of my stomach. The cold and heavy burden I placed upon myself was still there, along with all the self-loathing it implied. One pep talk would never be enough to solve this issue, but I needed to focus on the now instead of the past.
I needed time to think. I needed quiet and peace of mind.
“Can you teleport us out of here?”
Celestia’s eyes widened for a moment before she shook her head. “I would need to lower the shield first, and I cannot predict where we will end up.”
“But we can’t stay here! The storm is expanding faster than we can outrun it!”
Celestia remained silent, her eyes focused directly ahead of her before finally responding. “We will have to make due! I will attempt to fly above the clouds and buy you some time!”
We began to ascend upward at an angle, causing my legs to squeeze against her sides as my body lurched backward.
“Dissipate! Cease!” I repeated as a mantra, watching as the darkened overcast began to shift. Lightning bolts streaked passed, the storm attempting to predict our flight path as the skies around us exploded in a cacophony of violence.
Ascending. The frenzied seas below gnashed their teeth as the distance between us widened.
“Dissipate! Cease!” I continued. Amidst the seemingly impenetrable overcast, a font of silvery moonlight slithered through the cracks. I couldn’t tell if it was the light at the end of the tunnel or the sign of an ill omen.
The storm clouds regrouped, filling the gaps in their ranks as they relentlessly pelted us with torrential rains.
Up and up further. I squeezed my eyes shut as Zeus’s arrows came crashing down on us. Several dozen booms assaulted my thoroughly abused eardrums.
We closed in. The air pushed down, flattening me against Celestia’s back. It was so hard to breathe that I could no longer speak, yet I held on. It was all in my head. This anger was my emotions, not some freak storm or accident.
I was in control here.
KRRASSH BOOM
The storm clouds were within reach, a dark gray and flat black plain.
“Cease!” The words reverberated within my body as I tried screaming to the high heavens. I couldn't hear or see anything within the thundering blackness of the storm. It was a complete annihilation of the senses.
It didn’t mean I wasn’t feeling anything at all, though.
The difficulty breathing came first. The rapidly thinning air and chest pain caused my sudden shortness of breath, and I wheezed with each pained exhale. My lungs overclocked, trying to fill in the lack of oxygen intake by breathing even faster.
It didn’t help.
My respiratory system was still under constant abuse as my eardrums suddenly popped. My sense of hearing was once again stolen from me as a sharp ringing sounded off inside my ear canals.
The rapid cold came a few moments later. Perhaps it was due to some outside factor—my body’s way of screaming at me to wake up before the freezing temperatures turned me into a human popsicle in the waking world.
“-aniel!”
Or perhaps everything I had felt up to this point in the dream realm wasn’t a figment of my imagination, and emotions weren’t the sole arbiter of reality in this sunless place.
“Daniel!”
My ears popped-
-and then warmth. It spread across my body, snatching me from the cold’s icy talons as my breathing slowed to a steady pace. I blinked, pushing my head out from the crest of Celestia’s neck, and looked down below.
Above the sheet of foggy glass was peace—a world where the winds, rain, and flashing lightning did not reach.
But that was only a matter of perspective. The infinite starfield above and the ever-expanding grey plain below were different frames of mind, and a healthy mind was able to experience both.
Celestia craned her head towards me.
I closed my eyes and centered myself.
Hate. Hate. Hate. Hatred of Luna, myself, and missing pieces that I couldn’t put a face, time, or place to. The phantom ghosts of cold, hard eyes. The sound of unintelligible jeers and taunts. The elevated pulse and dried throat from witnessing something horrific.
It was then that I came to a startling realization.
This storm wasn’t the hatred of one man.
It was a collage—a collaborated effort of dozens of people to paint a single canvas with different shades of red. A collection of voices all howling with rage in solitary over the same injustice.
“ENOUGH!”
The stars shifted. Unfamiliar galaxies and constellations were brushed aside. Comets raced across the sky, trying to escape the gravity of the full moon that had materialized from the shadows.
Celestia’s ears pinned themselves down to the sides of her head, and I felt her magic press me down against her back as her whole body trembled. I suffered a similar reaction, my fingers digging into the fluffy tuft below Celestia’s neck as my skin crawled.
A harsh blade of moonlight, brighter than the sun's rays, bore upon us.
Princess Luna glared down at us from atop her unwavering lunar throne.
Credit to Neither for the fantastic art and INeedSleep and UnamusedWaffle for helping me edit this chapter!
I will start work on the final two chapters soon, but I don't have an eta for the release date due to my hectic schedule and the scope of these chapters being much larger than I anticipated.
Stats
Page generated in 0.023 seconds
Total duration
1,104 users online
1,771,432 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Why do I hear boss music?
Amazing chapter, definitely worth the wait! That art can work as the cover art with minimal spoilers, and I really recommend using custom art when you got it.
11403095
I can do that! And thank you for everything! You inspired me to write this!
Feels weird to say since I helped with it, but great chapter! Even without the updates for editing, I know I would say it's worth the wait. And it's great to properly read it with the art visible, really gives me the creeps!
11403103
I couldn’t have done it without you and waffles help!
This was chilling and the art is just perfect with how unsettling Luna is. Next chapter gonna be epic.
Great work i’m kind of curious what Luna‘s reaction was to learning about World War I and World War II all the cruelty that happened during those wars or just the cruelty of humanity in general
Oh wait maybe I was overthinking and they are just on the moon. Or in the dreamscape
11403290
At this point, it's in the dreamscape. Last chapter ended with "Everything went dark" and he can manifest things now.
11403344
*in the dreamscape he can manifest things, just to clarify. In the waking world he’s still just an average human with asthma.
Just now started reading this and gotta say the story is good and the cover art is quite creepy. Especially since I'm posting this from chapter 7 and have the context for it -- good job to the artist because goddamn is it spooky.
11403344
well yes, I meant overall.
Edit: Im just musing on how I might be wrong. my theory was sound when I wrote it
also I think the description should have an artist credit. this is some good ass work
11403530
Done!
Well, this story is fucking awesome.
11403657
I’m glad you like it!
Dreamscape. So many things that are taken as given. So many arbitrary rules. Why even try to escape raging waters? Why fight for breathing? Be water elemental, that just don't need breathing, assimilate sea into yourself, become it. Then be calm and unbothered by storm, it wouldn't be able to harm you at all. I'm not even sure that all this fight and both Celestia and Luna aren't figments of his imagination.
What a great chapter that picture is especially unsettling I did a double take when I first saw it cause it’s so creepy and then when Daniel sees it in his phone and it gets closer to the screen was just super spooky, and very easy for me to envision as I was reading it on my phone. Cant wait for the next two chapters
I really am loving this story man. Fuckin awesome.
11404189
Thanks!
Is this Yandere Luna?
11404358
Yesn’t
She’s just off her meds
Wonder what would happen if the EoH would be used on Luna now. Does she go back to the moon, turned to stone?
11403803
That was my exact reaction when I saw it, I literally recoiled
WOW this is .... I’m speechless but question is he in a endless dream or is he like a ghost?
11436523
This is taking place in the dream realm right now. In the waking world, he’s still in the throne room with Luna.
Saw some early speculation about what was going on and was leaning towards post-nightmare victory It’s def not a topic I’ve seen a lot of surprisingly. Good stuff so far.