Only Just A Dream

by Desert Nocturne

Five

Princess Celestia looked down at the creature in the cell. Her eyes were blazing as she surveyed it. From what her sister had told her, it was the culmination of her earlier premonition, meaning that it could be a danger to her beloved Equestria.

Before her sister's return, it had been centuries since Equestria had been seriously threatened, but she was taking no chances. It was not for nothing that she and Luna were rulers of Equestria. Together, they had defeated the villain Discord, and had worked tirelessly to bring stability to the land, using force when necessary. Few creatures could stand against their combined might. Still, this creature was an unknown, a variable, a possible danger.

She examined it closely. It appeared ape-like, although the few areas of bare skin that showed had surprisingly little fur. It was wearing but looked to be well-fitting, if dirty, garments over the majority of its body. It was powerfully built in comparison to her little ponies, especially in its long, muscular limbs. Standing up, it looked as if it would almost see eye to eye with her. She had never seen anything quite like it in all her long years. However, despite its intimidating appearance, her intuition was telling her that this creature was not an immediate threat.

“Leave us please,” she spoke calmly to the guards stationed at the entrance. With some annoyance, she noticed that they looked to her sister Luna for confirmation before acquiescing to her command. A millennium of being the sole ruler of Equestria had spoiled her slightly it seemed. Her expression was already softening slightly as the guards took their leave. The creature was cowering in what appeared to be terror, submission, or perhaps a bit of both.

“I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria. Who are you?” Celestia spoke gently to the creature. It made no reply. Perhaps it is not capable of our speech? However, if it is capable of clothing itself, then it stands to reason that it has some level of intelligence. Perhaps we can communicate through some other means. She watched it continue to shiver in terror for a moment.

“N-N-Nightmare Moon,” the creature said suddenly.

Princess Celestia gaped at the creature. Not only can it talk, but it recognizes my sister as her previous incarnation! She turned to look at Luna. Her sister had transformed into the physical likeness of Nightmare Moon in her agitation. Even Celestia herself was momentarily taken aback by the fierceness of her sister's appearance.

“Luna!” she exclaimed in an admonishing tone. She made a gesture towards the door and they exited the dungeon. “Until you can control your appearance I'm going to have to ask you to stay out here sister. You heard the creature, it is terrified.”

Luna snorted in disgust. “ALWAYS IT IS THE SAME! EVEN NEWCOMERS FEAR US!” she spat in her royal Canterlot voice. She nodded nonetheless, glaring at the dungeon door as if it had personally insulted her. “If you have need of me sister, I will be out here with the guards,” she said in her normal speaking voice, returning her gaze to her sister. As Celestia turned back to the door Luna spoke again. “Tia, please be careful. Do not be fooled into believing this creature is like our little ponies. My earlier premonition continues to vex me; that thing is... it is... different.”

Celestia paused and considered. She had not gotten that impression from her brief observation, but she would heed the warning nonetheless. She gave Luna a curt nod and re-entered the dungeon. The creature had backed itself into the corner of its cell. It was sitting in a way that no pony would be able to easily; its forelegs were wrapped around its rear legs and it was resting its head on them. As Celestia approached, the creature turned away from her.

“I apologize if my sister frightened you earlier. She can sometimes get over excited and lose control of her appearance,” she began. Clearing her throat quietly, she spoke again, “I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. I do not wish to harm you but I do need to ask you some questions. Is that alright?”

The creature raised its head and looked at her. Its eyes were dark brown, its hair was black, and its clothing was navy blue and black; on the whole its appearance was depressing and mildly sinister. Perhaps Luna is right about this one.

“Princess Celestia?” the creature spoke. It appeared to be slowly regaining its composure. “Princess it's me!”

“Oh? Have we met before?” she replied politely, drawing on centuries worth of diplomatic experience to hide her disbelief.

The creature stood, swayed for a moment, then approached the bars clumsily before steadying itself on them. “Princess it's me,” it repeated, “it's me, Spike.”

****

Edwin lay in Zecora's own bed propped up on a couple of pillows watching Rarity and Zecora discuss his condition. He and Rarity had arrived at Zecora's hut perhaps twenty minutes ago. Zecora had heard the commotion of the fight with the timber wolf pack and had actually been in the process of preparing a first aid kit (which included a saucepan, a hammer, and a party noisemaker for some reason) when they had walked up. As such, she had been able to begin treating Rarity, who had the more serious wounds, immediately. In that short time, Zecora had managed to heal most of Rarity's injuries with potions, clean and stitch the larger wounds, and dress them with herb packed poultices to encourage the healing process. He had watched with what he hoped was veiled amazement as she had performed these tasks, especially since she had done them primarily using her mouth. After exhorting Rarity to have Doctor Stable have a look at her at her earliest convenience, Zecora had turned her attention to him. That was when the trouble began.

Zecora was a master alchemist, a brewer of potions for most ailments and even some relatively major injuries. Nonetheless, her attempts at healing his injuries had failed. She had first tried to re-attach his avulsed teeth by using a tooth regrowth potion. The potion did not have much of an effect on Edwin other than causing him to shudder at its bitter taste. The teeth did fit back into their previous places but they were still a bit loose. It appeared that Spike, if he ever returned to his body, would not be snacking on gems anytime soon.

After that Zecora had used two additional draughts; one to accelerate the healing of his fractured ribs (“Granulation, callus, bone deposition, kept in place on its own will appear, With this potion and strong disposition, we will accelerate the process my dear,” she had said), and another to seal the scratches in his scaly armor. Both had no visible effect on him, although he had certainly been impressed with Zecora's knowledge of both anatomy and language. Presently, she and Rarity were discussing the possible reasons for Edwin's resistance to treatment.

A image suddenly forced itself into his mind. He was seeing his body, his real body. It was in what appeared to be some type of jail cell, lying on a pile of hay in the corner. Hastily looking around the jail, he spotted a pair of guards by the exit. They were oddly colored and looked slightly... demonic? Before he could analyze them further he was forced back into Spike's body with a little jolt. He shook his head briskly, like a dog shaking off water, forcing himself to stay calm. That was weird! Is that where my body is now? Locked up in some dungeon? I really need to talk to someone about this.

Edwin noticed that Zecora and Rarity were looking increasingly worried as their conversation continued. He cleared his throat to get their attention. He was miserably fatigued, in a lot of pain, and out of his element, both physically and mentally; he was eager to get moving again. He had watched a good portion of the first season of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; he knew that Twilight Sparkle was a personal protégé of Princess Celestia and a powerful unicorn in her own right. If anyone could help him get back into his body it would likely be her. Moreover, Spike was a personal friend and ward of hers and she deserved to know about his situation. He decided that he would make a beeline for the library, always assuming he could find it, and try as best he could to explain what was going on to her.

“Zecora I want to thank you for taking the time and effort to help treat our wounds,” Edwin said diplomatically. “I'm don't know why your treatments haven't been completely effective on me but I appreciate you trying. Perhaps dragons are simply built differently than equines?” When Zecora showed signs that she would not accept such an explanation, Edwin spoke again quickly, “I'd like to get moving again in any case. I should be alright to head back into town right?” He had purposefully worded the question so that she could not easily say no, a talent he had picked up from listening to people debate back home. The two females exchanged a glance before looking back at him, surprised.

“Spike, are you certain that's a good idea. You're just a baby dragon after all,” Rarity commented.

She had touched a nerve. Edwin snorted and bared his teeth briefly. He hated to be patronized. He calmed himself after a moment however; Rarity was ignorant of his personality quirks, or even his age, at this point and could hardly be blamed for being concerned for his well-being.

“I don't think I'll cause further damage as long as I take it easy,” he replied. “Besides it's not too far to Ponyville from here.” He was going out on a limb a bit as he was still not familiar with the geography of the area around Ponyville but he felt he could reasonably assume that Zecora, who apparently traveled to the town to resupply her hut, would not want to live too far into the Everfree.

Rarity sighed and looked at Zecora, who after a moment nodded and addressed them both. “Please be careful, my young, brave, friends, Do not stray from the path 'til it ends, The Everfree Forest is no place to wander, unless it's your life you wish to squander, This close to the edge, no danger I see, Yet stranger things have happened to me.”

Grinning slightly, Edwin leaped off the bed and immediately grimaced as fresh pained roared in his chest. “Can I ask for one thing please. Do you have any Aspirin, or even a piece of willow bark I can chew on the way?” he said through clenched teeth, hoping privately that there was not a dragon version of Reye's syndrome that he was risking with such a request. He stopped clenching his jaw as his recently replaced teeth wobbled and shot spikes of agony up the damaged nerves. “Or maybe, willow bark tea?” he amended, trying to communicate the discomfort in his teeth.

Zecora blinked, appearing surprised at his knowledge of medicinal plants. The willow, or osier as she thought of the shrub that grew in the swamps around her home, had long been known as an effective treatment for pain although its method of action was not well understood by her. There were often better treatments, but they usually involved the use of magical plants. However, since Spike was showing resistance to her usual methods, she was more than willing to try his suggestion. “Of course, my friend, it's the least I can do, let's rest for a moment, so the tea can brew.”

Edwin allowed himself a tight smile. Zecora's method of speech was certainly interesting, even entertaining. He hoped that he could return for some additional conversation when the situation was different. Like maybe when I'm in my own body. Wait, what am I thinking!? I should be more concerned about getting the heck out of here and back to Earth where things make sense instead of worrying about getting to know strange zebras. Maybe Spike's softheartedness is rubbing off on me. He shook his head slightly and approached the two mares.

Zecora had set a small kettle over her fire during his soliloquy and was presently rummaging in her stores for what he assumed was her bottle of willow bark. Edwin looked at Rarity and surveyed her appearance. Her upper back, where the wolf had bitten her, was covered in a network of poultices, but other than that her wounds were mostly gone. This is really amazing. I wonder if any of Zecora's techniques could be applied on Earth?

“Rarity, how are you feeling?” he addressed the white unicorn. “I don't want to head back if you're not feeling up to it.”

“Don't worry about me, Spike. I'm far more concerned about you. We haven't been able to do much for you I'm afraid.” She replied with a look of worry on her face.

“Sometimes time itself is the best medicine,” he answered simply. As he did with Zecora, he continued before she could argue, “ but I'll definitely go to the Ponyville Hospital. Maybe they can try further treatments then.” Thankfully, Rarity appeared to be mollified by the statement.

The kettle began whistling piercingly as the water boiled. After Edwin downed the bitter willow bark brew and the pain began to subside, he and Rarity began the journey back to Ponyville. He was looking forward to getting some of his issues of his chest but he was also anxious. After all, he did have a lot of explaining to do.

Comments

[Desert Nocturne]

I want to apologize for taking so long in returning to this story. I am uncomfortable with writing most of the established characters because I fear destroying their characterizations. Some, such as Applejack and Zecora, are difficult to write for technical reasons. Others are simply difficult for me to imagine. I've spent a lot of time over the past month reading lots of fiction to see how people approach this issue and I'm ready to try moving forward again. Please feel free to critique to your heart's content. I appreciate all feedback!

[Axz]

So you are afraid to write further on the story for risk of fucking it up... lol
dont be afride to write worst chase it that a randome stranger will say it sucks and that isent realy the end of the world rigth

But it is good to see that your taking time and and effort to make sure it's good and not just write and post chapter without thinking them through,
and so far it's paying off,
as long as we don't need to wait a month for the next update i have nothing negative to say about this story without nitpicking and looking for errors, its just overall well done and most important fun to read.

[Zobeid]

> It appeared ape-like, although the few areas of bare skin that showed had surprisingly little fur.

I don't mean to pick on you, specifically, but this is starting to become a peeve of mine. I've lost count of the number of HiE stories in which the first thing a pony does upon seeing a human is compare him with an ape. To me this seems highly unlikely for a bunch of reasons. For one thing, humans really don't look that much like apes. For thousands of years here on Earth, until Darwin came along, nobody made any special connection between humans and apes -- and Darwin only figured it out after years of study and insights into evolutionary processes that may not even happen in the magical land of Equestria (especially if griffins and pegasi and minotaurs are any indicators!).

Furthermore, we've got no reason to suspect that apes even exist in pony world. If they do, it's a good bet that they live in tropical regions far from Equestria, and therefore are not familiar animals for ponies to make comparisons with. I long for a HiE story in which a pony's first impulse is to compare a human with... a minotaur... or a gnoll (i.e. Diamond Dog)... or Spike... or an elf, a troll, a goblin, a fairy... I'm sure Equestria is at least as likely to have those as it is to have apes.

[Red Bomber]

403634
The story is looking pretty great so far, just keep on believing yourself and write the best way you can. That's all I can say for now.

Let's see how he and Spike can meet each other and save each other.