Honor the Dead

by BinaryTroll

25: I would walk 10000 miles...

Honor the Dead
by BinaryTroll
Pre-read by Honored Service
Chapter 25: “I would walk 10000 miles...”

--------------

"Captain's log, stardate: I wish I had a fucking calender
I have never watched Star Trek, so I quite clearly have no idea what I'm saying or why I'm saying it. But I'm going to do this anyway. Even though nobody can hear me."

Joel groaned. "We can hear you, we just wish we couldn't."

"I am already sick of walking, big surprise, but it at least keeps me sane to some degree. Boredom is setting in once again and I'm getting the feeling it won't be leaving any time soon. I want to kill something, but these plains are deader than a can of Cram. Cram apparently tastes goddamn horrible, so I'm avoiding that. Magic is helping the journey, but without wings or some other form of transport this is going to take far too long. Even with StaminUp, which I expect may be StaminUp 2.0 due to the huge speed increase when I sprint, this is taking far too long, and my stamina still drains very quickly if I sprint. I'm sick of this shit already and we still have almost three weeks left. End Log."

"Finally." Joel flopped onto the ground with a soft thump.

Shyvanna and Vi had already fallen asleep, and Joel was obviously wishing he could do the same. I had insomnia. The moon was waning, it's calming light diminishing. Soon I would only have the stars to greet me at night. Nevertheless, I appreciated the moon's light. As Joel rolled over, bundling his clothing around him, I stared into the fire. The grass burned quickly and didn't give much light, so I let the fire die, allowing my clothing to shield me from the night's cold. Fortunately a warm breeze blew through the night, and I thanked Luna for it.

My thoughts wandered, the night giving me an odd clarity. I assembled my various observations and ran through them. The changelings, the vault, the food, even little things that I didn't consciously notice until now, like the small difference in appearance between changelings. I tried to avoid the memory of killing the pair of changelings. Finally my thoughts traveled to the mock battle between Shyv and Vi a few hours earlier. Something about it intrigued me, but I could quite place my finger on it.

Then I realized, the two hardly knew each other. But somehow they both knew exactly what the other was going to do and countered it, despite having no previous knowledge of each other's fighting style or even thought patterns. They were like Joel and I had been when we met for the second time, we knew each other somehow, even though we hadn't talked in close to ten years.

I groaned. My mind annoys me. My brain is smart, but I'm not. Thus, I end up out-thinking myself. It's a real pain sometimes. I lay down on the grass and closed my eyes. Maybe I would be able to get some sleep, if you don't bet you can't win.

Somewhere waaaaay too far away

I groaned and flopped face first onto the mountain of paperwork. It made a pleasing rustling sound. I forgot how much paperwork goes into war, but you would have thought the idiots would wait till after the war's over to dump it all on me. I seriously don't know how my sister coped with doing all this in my thousand year absence. Every day.

I shifted my muzzle out of the paper so I could breathe and opened my eyes. I looked up at the mirror that rested on my desk. An indigo alicorn stared back, her hair falling over her eyes, only just shielding the bags that rested under them from view. I blew my hair off my forehead and sighed. The days since Honored had left were just getting longer.

“Blegh.” I slumped back into the paper, dislodging a couple of sheets. “Bucking paperwork.”

I had raised the moon hours ago, but here I was, still working. Contrary to popular belief, I'm not nocturnal, I just stay up late and sleep in a lot. I could feel sleep calling, and the paper was so soft. A small part of my mind wondered why they bothered using such soft paper, but the rest of me didn't care. I just needed some time to relax and do nothing, so no nightmare duty tonight. I was sick of it anyway. Let the ponies fix their own bucking nightmares, I've got sleeping to do.

Inside the dreamscape

My ethereal body opened it's eyes and stretched. The various dreams and nightmares swirled around me, but I batted them away, I was sick of working. I conjured up a bed and jumped onto it, folding my hooves under my body.

It felt good to just lie down for a bit and relax. I rolled over onto my back, curling up into a ball. The dreams swirled hypnotically above me, small images flashing there way through. I noticed an ice cream for a split second. How long has it been since I have had ice cream? I wondered. I'm always busy these days, I miss ice cream. I'm going to get some ice cream after this war ends. If I'm still alive. I noticed a fleeting image of myself in somepony's dream., giving a seductive look to who I presumed was the owner of the dream. I shrugged, it wouldn't be the first time.

More dreams passed, I was surprised at how few nightmares there were amongst them. It certainly would make my job easier. I guess when you're living a nightmare you don't need more.

I continued to watch the dreams pass by. There was a changeling, lying down in some browned grass, a half dragon with a flaming red mane, slowly flying through the sky. I stopped the maelstrom and brought the two to the fore. The changeling was interesting, they usually kept their dreams heavily guarded. I took it and set it apart from the whirlwind. I studied the half dragon's dream. It looked peaceful, relaxing. I hadn't seen a half dragon for close to three thousand years.

I projected my essence into the dream, my pledge not to work overrun by curiosity.

I landed on a cloud, overlooking the landscape below. A mountain range stretched to the horizon, linking up with a grassy plain and some of the extended Everfree forest. Below me the half dragon flew, spiraling down towards the ground. A small group of other creatures sat in a circle below us, they were hard to make out from this distance. I grinned and jumped off the cloud, doing a somersault just for the heck of it.

I felt my hair blow out behind me and I made a mental note to fly for enjoyment more often. I spread my wings just a few meters above the ground, bringing me to a halt. I gently set myself down and made my way towards the group. I made sure to keep my essence hidden from the group, I wanted to see this dream play out normally.

As I neared the group I noticed something strange. Only one of the members of the group was actually a pony. The other two were shaped much more like a minotaur, or...

“Oh motherbucker.”

I teleported into the air above the group, changing my essence into an invisible cloud.

“What the buck are you doing here?” I asked quietly, staring down at Edward and the others.

He looked up, directly at me. “Oh, hi Luna. What are you doing here?”

“You can see me?”

The human raised an eyebrow. “Noooo, I'm completely blind.”

“But-”

“Seriously, you can't hide from me in my own mind.”

“But this isn't your mind.”

The human blinked. “Sorry, what?”

“This is the dream of this half dragon over here.” I said, gesturing towards the pony.

The half dragon growled. “I have a name you know.”

“I-”

“What the balls is happening?” Interrupted a voice from behind me.

I spun around to come face to face with a green haired human. He was slightly shorter than Edward and had a small splatter of faint freckles across his nose and cheeks.

“You would be Princess Luna I presume?” He said with a slight smile.

I lost it. “WHO IN TARTARUS ARE YOU?” The full force of the royal Canterlot voice forced the human back a step.

The human plugged his ears. “Jesus, that was a bit loud.”

Deep breaths. “Who are you, and why are you here?”

“Name's Joel. Why am I here? Because I'm dreaming I presume.”

I gritted my teeth. “You can't all be in the same dream. Only one of you is real, and that's the half dragon.”

A new voice piped up. “Her name is Shyvanna, and I take offense to being called not real.”

I turned once more to face a familiar looking changeling. “Sister damn it, what is going on here?”

“Apparently we've encountered a rare phenomenon where multiple creatures are sharing the same dream.” The changeling said.

“But that's only a theory.”

The changeling laughed. “Well, I guess I sneaked into the right magical theory lesson.”

“What?”

“Long story with a bad punchline.”

“So who are you?”

Edward answered for her. “That would be Viridi, future queen of the changelings.”

I sat down heavily. “What kind of gathering is this? Two humans, a half dragon and the new queen of the changelings. How did you all find each other?”

“The fucking GPS didn't work, that's how.” Edward muttered.

“GPS is for scrubs.” Joel replied.

“Last time you said that we were jumped by an army of shadows.” Edward said, scowling.

“Yeah, and we ended up with both Jug and StaminUp.”

“And I almost fucking died!”

“And that happens almost every day.”

“Shut up.”

Joel just grinned.

“Are they always like this?” I asked Shyvanna, not taking my eyes off the pair.

“As far as I can tell.” She replied, settling down on the ground beside me.

“So what's your story?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from the humans.

Shyvanna sighed. “I was born, shunned and chased out of my home, and ended up in Canterlot. I talked to your sister and lived there for a while, but eventually the constant abuse from the other ponies became too much, so I ran back home. I lived in a small cave for most of my life, until I met these two, who fell from the sky in some sort of metal cart thing.” She smiled. “Apparently humans wear clothing all the time.”

I grinned easily. “I remember the first time I met a human. I walked in on him while he was in the shower, which he didn't take to kindly to.”

“What happened?”

“He turned red and literally kicked me out. After that I made sure I brought the incident up at every available opportunity.” I giggled in a matter that probably didn't befit one of royalty. “Good times.”

Edward was now trying to brain Joel with the butt of his gun.“Kind of fun to watch, isn't it?” Viridi asked with a laugh.

“Yes, it is indeed.” Joel was running in circles, his arms in the air. Edward was chasing him, swinging his rifle like a club. “So, you're the new queen?”

“Yeah, not really by choice though.” Viridi said.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, these three blundered into the hive yesterday, killed the old leader, and forced me into the position.”

“Wait, don't you have to be of royal descent to become queen? And who was the queen before you?”

Viridi laughed with a hint of bitterness. “Thanks to you killing off most of us, we didn't have any designated heir, so the most powerful drone took charge. He was originally one of the generals in Queen Chrysalis's old army. As for the old Queen, your pet human took care of her.”

I blinked. I didn't know what to say. “Umm, Sorry.”

She sighed heavily. “No, it's not your fault. It was the Queens's. If she hadn't been so damn stubborn we wouldn't have ended up in this mess.” She slammed a hoof into the ground. “I hate that we have to be shunned! It's not fair. That's why I decided to ditch the hive and go along with these guys.” She gestured towards Edward and Joel, the former of whom was now throwing fireballs at the latter.

Joel back-flipped over a fireball. “If you left the hive, how are you queen? And why would you abandon your subjects?”

“My friend Cae is taking care of the hive for now. I just don't think bringing an army of changelings into Canterlot would be a good idea, especially considering recent events.” Viridi shrugged. “And besides, it takes much more resources than we can afford to move such a large population for little to no purpose.”

I decided then that I liked this new queen. “That is remarkably well thought out, and beneficial for your subjects. I believe you will make a great queen once you return.”

“Thank you, I hope to make your acquaintance proper at some point in the coming weeks.”

We returned our gaze to the two humans, who were still fighting. Edward had somehow managed to grow a pair of wings, and proceed to float several meters above the ground, firing massive lasers towards Joel that decimated the landscape. At some point during my conversation with Viridi, Shyvanna had joined Edward in chasing Joel, to no avail.

“THAT IS IT!” Edward yelled in a voice that rivaled (and possibly surpassed) my own. “I AM GOING TO FUCKING TEAR YOUR LUNGS OUT!”

“Fun.”

Comments

[Veo Skride]

Lolz

[BinaryTroll]

3201738
Well well, that was fast.

[Veo Skride]

3201753
I was already reading something when the update was posted and though 'Why the hell not!'

[Dubious]

Mnyah, I be caught up now. On a sidenote: If you feel like adding another human, add me. And don't let me pick my gun if you do, a ten second burst would likely glass the planets surface.

[Max Caulfield]

MAKIN' MAI WAY DOWNTOWN, WALKIN' FAST, FACES PASS, AND I'M HOMEBOUND! Doo doo doo doo doo-doo. Doo doo doo doo doo-doo,

[Dubious]

3205603 Well I've played a game, don't remember its name, where you can duel wield them and swing as fast as daggers, completely disregarding the collision mesh on the walls.

[BinaryTroll]

3206104
World of motherfucking Warcraft. Or something else.

[Dubious]

3206124 Something eBut if you've got the first supreme commander, I'll gladly verse you in multiplayer and turn your side of the map into desiccated husks of metal interspersed with gamma radiation.

[BinaryTroll]

3206135
Never played supreme commander, so no can do.

[Dubious]

3206146 Bugger. Ah well, I guess I can just go up against cheating hardest AI with severe handicaps on me whilst they're all on the same team.

[BinaryTroll]

3206174
*Backs away slowly*

[Dubious]

3206195 And they're all Aeon.

[BinaryTroll]

3206201
You need to find a new game.

[Dubious]

3206206 All my good games are on my desktop, the one with a melted videocard.

[BinaryTroll]

3206210
Get Airmech, more people need to play that. And it's not particularly large.

[Dubious]

3206217 I'll keep that in mind, unfortunately my laptop is too shit to play most games in my collection. I'd play Fallout, but I lost the disc. I might have other games, but I doubt it.

[BinaryTroll]

3206238
Play the original Doom, or Doom 2 then.

[Dubious]

3206304 Don;t have them. I might see if minecraft would work, but I can't be bothered downloading it.

[BinaryTroll]

3206324
You can play them online.
http://www.kongregate.com/games/mike_id/doom-1

[Dubious]

3206330 Oh, then yeah, can't play them, my laptop doesn't react kindly to browser based games.

[BinaryTroll]

3206335
You need a new laptop.

[Dubious]

3206344 Yes I do, this one is so infurating that it's keyboard bends up at the edges from some "light encouragement" me and my brother give it every time it makes a slowpoke look fast.

[BinaryTroll]

3206353
Does that "light encouragement" involve a sledgehammer?

[Dubious]

3206376 It has force equal to that applied by a sledgehammer involved.

[djponyfl]

another good chapter.

can't wait to read the next chapter.