Lunarium

by Tramper

Chapter 6 ~ I'm Just Prattling On (V2)

This time, Twilight dreamt of a pony as white as snow, with a long mane waving in a ghostly wind. She was tall and had wings larger than any pegasus', and she looked at Twilight with a kindly smile. The filly noticed the long horn that emerged from her head, a bone that only added to the radiant elegance of this person.

Twilight did not know who this mare was, but she knew exactly what she was, because Twilight had read of alicorns before. Yet, reading about them was one thing, standing in front of one quite another.

Her sheer size outclassed any adult Twilight had ever seen, and even though she did not move a muscle, just the way she carried her stance made her seem–for lack of a better word–regal.

There was a great deal of awe Twilight felt in the presence of this alicorn, but she did not feel small or unimportant. The eyes that looked down on her made her feel like an equal.

Twilight had learned of strength as Trixie reached out to her, but not this kind, because the white alicorn’s presence gave her a confidence she wouldn’t have believed herself to have. She wasn’t weak, she wasn’t the small filly in the hospital, covered by warm blankets and looking out of the window.

She saw her parents in the dream, too. Them, and Shining Armor. Her mama, rubbing Twilight’s head, laughing at a joke somepony must’ve said. Her papa was laughing, too. It was not the harsh guffaw Twilight knew from him, the condescending one so filled with hatred and contempt. No, he was just happy to be with his wife and his children, of whom he was so proud.

Shining Armor was roaring the loudest, he looked less like a pony and more like a lion. Twilight’s brave lion, who was always there for her when she needed to be protected.

Everypony laughed and everypony was happy, and Twilight never even wanted to notice where they were, because this was her perfect world.

Her paradise.

That was when she realized that it was only a dream.

For a second it was only that, a realization, creeping up as slowly as the sun on its rise, but as she looked around, didn’t feel the hoof on her head, didn’t hear the cuckles, didn’t smell the perfume her mother had loved to use and didn’t feel the air around her, it all became clear.

This wasn’t real, it had never been real, it would never be real. Yet, Twilight Sparkle didn’t want to wake up. She looked at those three, and she really didn’t want to leave them in this place she was sure to never reach again.

"Twilight Sparkle,“ she heard the white alicorn's voice speak up–a sweet voice, as regal as the pony to whom it belonged, "My faithful student.“

---

Twilight woke up, feeling weaker than ever before. Her legs were shaking, her heart was pounding and every part of her body seemed to hurt. As she tried to open her eyes, the sensation only drowned her in pain and not with visuals as they were meant to do. Every breath sent bolts of hurt through her neck and nose. As she tried to move, she felt the strain of her legs’ muscles, felt the sting as she tried to shift around for a bit.

She took one deep breath, waited for another moment, and the pain started to subside. Second after second passed, and Twilight could only lie there, trying to adjust, trying to regain her health. They were painful moments, but she finally managed to open her eyes for good and the world moved into focus. The filly saw something moving above her.

A big, yellow moon surrounded by stars and small figurines of breezies, the mythological carriers of winds and seeds. Twilight, being her usual smart self, understood the meaning of the device above her immediately. It wasn’t something she had ever possessed, but she had seen them in shops and heard how they were placed atop the beds of young foals. Knowing all that, Twilight had to admit that she was quite a bit too old for a mobile. Then again ... She was in some stranger's room as it seemed.

The blankets that now covered her were made from patches with more colors than a rainbow could have had. Compared to the sofa this bed felt soft and warm. Together with the mobile slowly moving in circles above her, she felt the grogginess overtaking her slowly, and the realm of dreams calling out to her.

The foal resolved herself not to go back to sleep and lifted her head to get a better look at the room. A single lantern on a lone desk illuminated this place. She found that it wasn’t as big as the hospital room, but she still spotted another bed just by turning her head.

It had the size for a filly her age, with a similar colorful bedding and a few stuffed animals sitting atop of it. Well, not just animals, some looked like pastries too. That bed appeared to be made out of an old metal, whereas the one Twilight slept in had to be a wooden construct.

Toys laid scattered across the room, Twilight found as she turned her head away from the other bed. She spotted the door opposite to her own blanket fort, and as she turned her head farther, she spotted a window with ragged curtains, and the orange tones of a sun–either rising or going to hide beyond the horizon–pushing through. Beneath it stood a third bed.

That one looked less colorful, with notes on its greyish covers and a giant music instrument laying atop of it. Twilight contemplated getting up into a sitting position for a moment, but decided against it. Instead, she began to search her memory in hopes of figuring out whether she had read about instruments before and could name this specific one. It looked like an oversized violin though.

The brown foal sighed and looked up at the mobile again. The constant movement started to annoy her, if only a bit, but she felt too weak to do anything about it right now. Though most of the pain had faded, it had been replaced by an ugly feeling in her stomach and her surroundings were spinning. As a matter of fact, even turning her head had made her heart pound against her chest real hard, and the fear started to appear within her heart again. She clutched at the blankets, tried to take deep breaths once more.

Atop all of that, she also felt famished. Twilight figured she could even eat a whole bowl of alfalfa about now ...

No, wait, no, she couldn't. That stuff was disgusting! And green! All green food with the exception of flowers was disgusting, and even a few of those were only borderline cases.

She sighed again, and this time she was answered by the rumbling of her own tummy. Against the surges of pain it seemed like the lesser evil, but an evil nonetheless, and so Twilight tried to let her mind wander again, far away from the dreadfulness she felt.

Why was she in this strange place? That seemed like the next best question and Twilight looked up to the ceiling and the mobile again, hoping to collect her thoughts. They were scattered, but she remembered going with Trixie, then they had been at some kind of building with lots of old stuff in it.

She had sat on a sofa, then they had met Lyra and then … Twilight felt a shiver running down her spine.

After that an earthquake had happened. She tried not to linger on that thought, though she recollected how Lyra had hugged her, and how warm it had made her feel. Thereafter they had wanted to find shelter in the hospital.

That was everything she recalled, but something else must've happened then, yet she couldn't remember what it was exactly.

She only remembered bits from her dream, but doubted the alicorn–or any alicorn for that matter–had played a role in the real world. Papa had always told her that the last alicorn on this world had died more than a century ago, and Shining Armor said that she must've been a real stupid alicorn, calling herself 'Princess of Love' and all.

Shining had said that they were lucky that she was gone, he was sure he wouldn't have liked her. He had liked many girls though, so Twilight wasn’t sure about that.

Twilight’s thoughts were broken as her tummy did not intend to give up so easily and another rumble escaped. Her thoughts turned to flowers and oatmeal, wheat and vegetables; stuff that would’ve hopefully improved her situation. She had none of it here though, so Twilight admitted to herself that this truly felt like the worst day of her entire life now.

Yet still it seemed just like the start of every other day.

"You're awake,“ she suddenly heard an unfamiliar voice, it sounded very high-pitched even for a filly.

Twilight turned her head, fully expecting to see some foal much younger than her, but what she saw coming through the door was just a filly who couldn’t be much younger than Twilight herself.

This one looked unremarkable, had a grey coat and blackish grey hair, with only her violet eyes standing out. She walked over to Twilight with something that might've been a noblepony's strut, if that noblepony would be extremely clumsy. And the filly seemed to try so hard to get every single step right, too.

Twilight could see the effort she put into and and even how she tried to hold her nose up as arrogantly as possible, only to stumble over a toy. She landed right on her face, with an accompanying “Oompf”.

Seconds passed as Twilight could do naught but look at this stranger. For a single moment, everything else faded from her consciousness and then the foal started to whimper. Twilight, who until this point had never done much with other foals, was taken over by it as tears started to fall from the earth pony’s eyes. There was nothing she could do as the other pony reacted miserably to the fall.

Twilight could only look at the filly.

A part of her wanted to start crying, too, because she wasn’t used to the sight. It seemed really appropriate. She kept her mouth open, since maybe she should speak up, give words of comfort or just ask where she was. What am I supposed to do? she wondered, not looking away.

Some adult would come was what she hoped, and an adult did come through the door. A stallion of strong build with a grey coat–missing patches revealing pink skin–and black hair similar to the filly.

“What’s wrong, Octy?” he asked with a raspy voice.

The filly didn’t respond, but Twilight took it for the obvious. Wherever she was, he had to be the adult in charge.

“She fell down,” the filly said, causing him to look at her.

He had bags beneath his eyes, she noticed, and his sigh was a heavy one as he stepped towards the young filly. Twilight gulped, knowing from her father what would happen next, she dreaded it and was happy that she herself wasn’t crying, otherwise he’d be mad with her too. Except he wasn’t, and quickly betrayed Twilight’s expectations by pulling Octy into a hug.

“It’s fine,Octy. Everything’s fine,” he said as caring as he could.

The filly threw her arms around his neck, and he gave a smile as he patted her on the back. His eyes went back to Twilight.

“Sorry about this. Are you alright?”

Twilight nodded.

He didn’t say much, but merely went over to the bed with the musical bedsheets, making sure not to step on any of the toys that lay scattered across the ground. As he sat down, his comforting made the earth pony filly quiet down.

The moments were almost silent, and Twilight merely watched, only for the moment to come where she couldn’t stop herself from asking. “Where am I?”

His smile, though tired, was a comforting sight. “Trixie and Lyra brought you here after the earthquake. I guess you could say it’s a sanctuary.”

Twilight knew that word, she was a smart filly so of course she did.

“My name is Hugh Jelly, yours is?”

“Twilight,” she said meekly, “Twilight Sparkle.”

“A wonderful name, Trixie said you come from the hospital.”

Twilight nodded. She needed to get back there, otherwise Nurse Redheart would be mad and wouldn’t come whenever Twilight broke down.

Hugh’s mouth was twitching before he spoke up again.

“How about I’ll get you something to drink first, does that sound good?”

Another kind soul she would’ve never met if she hadn’t stepped out into the world. Twilight felt her smile grow to a size that hurt her a bit. In a way it felt like something was missing, something in the back of her mind, but she didn’t care about that. Not really.

All that mattered now was that she could go back to the hospital. Somepony was waiting for her.

Surely.

As he left, he gave her one last nod and she thought of how empty her stomach felt. She wanted to say that she wanted something to eat but decided against it. Somehow, Twilight was afraid of just seeing food. This was still uncertain territory and she didn't know how this person might react if another pain-attack hit her.

So he went, getting her something to drink. That was something at least. She leaned back and a moment thereafter sounds filled the quiet room. Outside, she heard ponies talking, only a few rooms away. Quite a few they were, and then they were laughing. Not only that, but then came the music and she looked to little Octy on her bed, with a violin-like instrument that was much too big for her.

Here and there was a mistake, sometimes she missed a note in that piece she was playing. It sounded rough, untrained, but at the heart of it, it also sounded a bit beautiful. Twilight couldn’t pinpoint what exactly made her not dislike the amateurish music Octy presented, but there was a certain quality to it.

"I'm just prattling on, yet everypony says it's good,” Octy commented, pushing the bow across the strings. “It’s too big for me and I can’t even play it properly.”

Twilight didn't know what to answer, so she just spoke with a sore throat, "It does sound wonderful. Where did you learn to play like that?“

“As I said: I’m just prattling on. Playing the cello, that’s different. I know that, because it’s impossible for me to do.”

Another moment that was only filled with distant voices, and Octavia played a chord progression that Twilight knew. She couldn’t say where the melody belonged to, but she had heard it before, somewhere in the past, when her father had wooed another mare.

“I’m Octavia Quarternote, you probably know the name?”

Torn out of the sea of her thoughts, Twilight felt body stiffening. Quarternote, that wasn’t a name she was familiar with, so Twilight shook her head. “Do they own a jelly factory?”

What followed was the worst chord Twilight had ever heard.

"What?“ Octavia asked aghast.

"Because your papa ... Hugh-“

"He's ... He's not my father, more like a ...“, Octavia interrupted, but then she didn't say anything, but merely looked away from Twilight. “A good friend.”

Another quiet moment came, and then Octavia resumed playing. Twilight didn't quite know how to respond to that. The filly was strange, but on the other hoof, she must've been a friend to Trixie and Lyra. Maybe everypony associated with ponies like them had to be weird.

"My papa is probably looking for me at the hospital.“

Or he was at a bar, drinking and complaining, maybe he was even celebrating now that the other ungrateful brat was gone from his life. Papa was better in her dreams, he smiled and was together with mama. She would've really liked the dreams to be true.

Twilight leaned against the bed and looked at the fake moon and stars above her, their slow movement was a bit relaxing.

"Can't be,” Octavia answered flatly, “Madame said that the hospital is gone.”

Twilight stared blankly at the mobile for a moment, before her eyes widened in shock.

Immediately a thousand questions ran through her mind. What? Why? How? When?

But most importantly: Where would her papa search for her if that was true? She didn't know how to respond to the statement so she did the only sensible thing she knew.

Because sometimes, even smart fillies lost control, and so she just let the wave of sadness wash over herself and as it crashed the tears started flowing. When you cried, your parents came, just like it had happened with Octavia a few seconds ago. Her father would come, he needed to come. Or at least Shining, her brave knight coming to save her from pain and suffering. Her big brother best friend forever.

Twilight tears rolled down her burning cheeks, but neither came and not even Nurse Redheart was here. She was gone.

Hugh arrived with a cup of warm tea, immediately spotting another crying filly. He shot Octavia an angry look, but rushed over to Twilight, setting the cup down by the bed.

He wasn't her papa and he wasn't Shining Armor, so she continued her crying. She was hungry and thirsty, she was alone in a strange place and her papa hadn't visited her once. Shining had run away with some marefriend of his and her mother had died long ago during Twilight's birth. She had been sick and weak and always about to die.

The truth was, there was nothing more she could do but cry.

Comments

[ferret]

...

[Tik-Tok-deerpony]

its not Octavia Quarternote. its Octavia Melody.

[Tramper]

5228511 At the point this story was conceived it was still just Octavia. Now, I'll just go and say that her name is different because it's an alternate universe, that, and I didn't feel like changing it would accomplish anything.

[swyrl]

Buck this story is good. So many feels, and such a good story.

[Shining Dawn]

and Shining Armor said that she must've been a real stupid alicorn, calling herself 'Princess of Love' and all.
Shining had said that they were lucky that she was gone, he was sure he wouldn't have liked her

Oh Shining, if you only knew.

[Shining Dawn]

5228525 I always Thought of her as Octavia Philharmonica.

[the7Saviors]

Twilight could see the effort she put into and and even how she tried to hold her nose up as arrogantly as possible, only to stumble over a toy. She landed right on her face, with an accompanying “Oompf”.

Aaaand this is how I died from adorable overload.

[The Cynical One]

After all the excitement we went through this feels... sane? In a strange way I can only feel empty in a good way? In essence seeing light only to be dragged into the cave. Glimpses more akin to insanity than any new knowledge. So far feeling like a fluffy friend mired in oil. Will we ever be clean? Only way to see is onwards!