Wish Fulfillment (Legacy Version)

by Boopy Doopy

(3) Dreams Of Better Things

Despite the biting cold, I managed to find a little bit of sleep. My dreams, however, didn’t start off great, beginning as nightmares. The one I was faced with tonight was one I’d had numerous times.

I was a little kid standing in front of the bathroom mirror, probably no older than nine or ten, examining my face. Whether it was a boy’s or a girl’s, I didn’t know. As I watched, though, it slowly started to age, changing from androgynous to probably a man’s to definitely a man’s. The face’s hair shortened and it’s beard and mustache grew in, it’s jaw becoming more prominent and it’s Adam’s apple starting to show. It was a slow march I was forced to watch, and quite unstoppable, a movie that killed me to have to see played before me.

Before when I had this dream, I would scream at the mirror and beat my fists against it, begging for it to stop and change into something else. These days, though, I only settled for crying in quiet sadness when I saw it, hoping to see it change into something that was finally myself at the end. Usually it did, but this time, just as it was starting to, it quickly morphed into the orange pony that I was now and continued the show from there.

I was taken aback by the change, watching as the scene moved on to showing an aging old stallion, one with a wrinkled face and a hard look and a large, fiery colored beard. He looked absolutely miserable, like he hated every day of his existence, and was a sight that made me gasp. It was frightening to look at, to think that I would now be forced to march once again to a future I didn’t want.

“Don’t let that happen to me!” I called out fearfully through my tears, as though anyone was listening. “I don’t want to be that! I spent my whole life trying to avoid that! I don’t want it!”

Dreams like this didn’t usually get to me anymore, but right now, I curled up on the floor, desperately hoping that that wouldn’t happen to me. I could not think of one thing I wanted less than that.

The bathroom was fading into the snowy landscape around me, the mirror somehow making its way over to me as I heard footsteps stopping in front of me.

“Look,” a voice commanded, sounding like the guy I talked to on the phone yesterday, Lord Zulu’s. I didn’t listen, closing my eyes and turning away, but somehow I was forced to open them anyway and stare at the mirror.

“You thought you could toy with a powerful spellcaster such as I?” he bellowed, his voice booming as the wind blew my mane wildly. It was snowing now, practically a blizzard around us. It blinded my eyes and forced me to squint as I tried to look up at him. My eyes, however, refused to move away from the mirror, locked in terror on them.

“Am I a child to you?” he asked. “A dog that I am to entertain you with tricks?”

“It was just a joke!” I tried to say, feeling myself starting to age, my voice unbearable for me to listen to. “It didn’t mean anything! I didn’t hurt you! I was just having a little fun! It’s not worth this! I’m sorry!”

“You will be sorry,” he commanded as I cried at the sight of myself in the mirror. “Lord Zulu is not one to fool with. For your sins, you will receive nothing but exactly what you asked for. Enjoy your future as the stallion you were born to be.”

I sobbed with those words. I wasn't born to be this. So much time and money had been put in to avoid having that cursed fate make its way upon me, but it seemed it hadn’t mattered. The best years of my life were being wiped away for a joke. Not even that.

For the first time ever, I was thankful for having a nightmare, because it turned out somepony was listening. All of a sudden, the world was shifting away again, and I was laying curled up in the dark expanse of a room before Princess Luna. I took a deep breath to calm down, but my teeth still chattered, this time because of my crying. I wasn’t surprised when I felt her bending down and wrapping a wing around me, touching the tip of her horn to one that I didn’t know I had.`

“...not, dear stallion, your night… more!” she proclaimed, although it was hard to get what she was trying to say. Her voice was cutting in and out, like bad cell service, and looking at her, her movements were stilted, too, in much the same way, pausing every few seconds. There was a lag that she had in my dreams, one that made me wonder how far away from her I could possibly be. At least I was still able to understand what she was trying to say, though.

“We must… where… Equestria are you?” She was asking where I was I put together, as if I had a clue. “There is quite… large… in speaking to you.”

“I don’t know,” I responded, my voice cracking as I looked up into her questioning gaze with wet eyes. “I’m on top of a mountain somewhere, but I don’t know where. I only got here a few hours ago.” Before she could ask more, I continued, “I don’t know what happened. I asked some guy to cast a spell on me to bring me to Equestria, and now I’m up here in the cold as some awful stallion.”

“Are you not… be a stallion?”

“No,” I answered. “I’m not even supposed to be a pony… well, I mean, I asked to be one, and I asked to be here, but I didn’t think this was a real thing that could happen, and I definitely didn’t mean as a man on the top of a mountain.”

“It is… if you… eyes, you… form yourself. It’s simple.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Do you… general idea where…?”

“I couldn’t begin to tell you where I am,” I said, figuring that was what she wanted to know. “I know I’m on top of a mountain, and there are mountains behind where I’m walking in the distance, and a green field or forest or something past a snow patch below me, but other than that… I don’t have a clue.”

“Hmmm, that could… numerous locations. But… must ask. Are… Equestria? I do not… encounter you.”

That one took me a little longer to piece together what she was asking me. “I’m in Equestria,” I told her, “but I’m not from Equestria. Someone cast a spell on me to bring me here. His name was Lord Zulu, and he’s… I don’t know. I want to say some scammer, but obviously he’s not if I’m here. And he put me on this mountain, and I need help getting off of it.” I felt a boatload of fear crash over me again as I nervously continued, “I’m worried about what might happen if I’m stranded up here alone.”

I gave her a pleading look, hoping she could fly over and help me out since she was in my dreams. She had to have had a general idea of where I might be. If not herself, she could certainly get Twilight Sparkle on it, or someone at all. However, my heart dropped when she gave me a frown and a sad look.

“We cannot… subjects of Equestria. We are only permitted… international law, in accordance… nations, even in Equestrian territory… apologize.”

I had no idea what the heck all of that meant, but I assumed it wasn’t good, because a second later, she was fading out of existence, and I was waking up again.

For a second, I forgot where I was, but then the frigid cold reminded me. I had no idea how much time had passed, but I assumed more than a little while, looking at the sky. The moon hadn’t moved, but I almost thought the stars had. I didn’t know for sure, but my grogginess waking up was another indicator.

I stayed huddled up in my corner, not wanting to move at all, unable to help feeling extremely upset by everything. Being a man, being on the top of a mountain, Luna saying she couldn’t do anything because of some law I thought. And the cold. The cold was bad. It felt worse than before, like the temperature was still dropping. My ears felt painfully numb, and so did my nose. My hooves and body didn’t feel too bad, but regarding my face, I was genuinely worried that frostbite was a risk. No more sleep. I wasn’t going to stay out here a second longer than I needed to.

I had to will myself to get up from my corner and leave the little bit of protection I had from the blistering temperature. Stepping out of it and back onto the trail was not fun. A particularly painful bite of wind hit me, one that brought tears to my eyes, and I cursed out loud at Lord Zulu.

He really intended to kill me, I thought to myself as I walked, moving more quickly down the steep trail to keep myself warm. He said he wanted to teach me a lesson, so there was no way he didn’t send me here on purpose. He was really trying to kill me for having the tiniest bit of fun at his expense.

I actually had to wonder if that was him telling me those things in my nightmare. I didn’t think so, but it was a possibility, honestly, one I didn’t want to rule out. It would be interesting to learn if he did, something I would definitely want to tell someone about. Not that I would ever know since I was a stallion stuck on this fucking mountain.

Suddenly, another scary thought popped into my head. What if Shorey and Forrester came here, too? My fear wasn’t actually them coming here, but them coming here and then being stranded on the top of this mountain, too. I would hate it if that happened, but I didn’t think I’d have any way to know unless I stayed up here or met them somewhere else. I didn’t want either of them or anyone else from our group chat to be put into the same situation as me.

Another strong bite of wind reminded me that I should be focusing on myself for right now. I could worry about them later once I was safe, something that I was not yet. My aching ears and nose told me that much.

I’m gonna get to safety, and then… I had no idea. I had no idea what I was going to do at all after that. Hopefully get to Canterlot and talk to Twilight Sparkle about all of this. About being a stallion at the very least. The only thing about that plan was Princess Luna’s reaction to me saying I wasn’t an Equestrian. I hoped that didn’t mean I would have trouble getting things done later, but I kept it in the back of my head as a possibility.

And even if it wasn’t an issue, what? Go back to Earth? Living my life in Equestria sounded like a dream come true… except not as a stallion, and certainly not at the top of a mountain. But if I was a mare in Ponyville, I couldn’t imagine any life better than that. But that would be something I’d have to play by ear, probably. I would have to see how it went, after I got off this dumb mountain and out of this terrible cold.

Focus on getting to safety, Raleigh, I told myself silently as I walked through the snow and the wind. You can figure out what the heck to do after that.

Comments

[silvadel]

Okay, you learned several important things.

One -- you are so very far from Canterlot that Luna has trouble with dream stuff, but not so far away that she couldn't hear you at all. Where you are is considered Equestria though, and it is a cold mountain top. If I were to guess, I'd put you somewhere in the Crystal Empire or further east in the Yaket range. It wouldn't be in Yakyakistan directly because that wouldn't be Equestria.

Two -- Luna is around and still doing her dreamwork. This means you are either contemporary with the show, or pre-banishment. You aren't in the period where Luna was banished to the moon.

Three -- There are apparently laws that Luna can't invade the dreams of peoples that aren't Equestrian Citizens. I would have at the very least tried to say "I consent of my own free will that I allow you, Luna, to visit me in dreams // help manage my dreams." I wouldn't make any other assumptions about whether or not Equestria can interact with you. It frankly makes sense that other nations would want treaties disallowing Luna from doing her dreamwork on them because all kinds of secrets could be revealed that way. This might actually make pre-banishment Luna more possible because, unless the kingdoms of Equestria move really quickly with laws, anything with Luna in it would be 1,000 years out of date. Though such treaties could be fresh in the mind of a Luna who had recently returned from the Moon but didn't look into them later.

[ratio-craig]

zulu is an ass

[silvadel]

11167805

Difference is Zulu was the real deal. A spell-caster for general hire who advertises openly is contra-indicated in this reality due to the unwanted attention it would get.