> The Tale of Adrian > by DarthMalentai > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Darkness. All of what there is and what will ever be lies in the cold darkness. All hopes and dreams that have been had are twisted to form falsehoods and lies. Anyone that is around can see... “OH, GOD, MY FUCKING EYES!” I scream as the lights to my near pitch black room turn on. “It’s time to get up, lazy ass,” my older brothers says. My lights all of a sudden flicker, and then go out. “Oh way to go, Francis, you killed my lights!” I retort, scowling at him from the opposite end of the room. “At least tell me there is a little bit of coffee this morning, and you didn’t drink it all.” I might have forgotten to mention this but my dickwad of a brother is actually adopted and I am bigger than him. Even though he can beat me in a variety of activities, he is only older than me by a single hour. The only thing I have him beat on is the variety of hobbies I have: drawing, painting models for a few games, reading, annoying the shit out of a certain deserving brother… Other than that there isn’t much else. Unfortunately, since brothers like to know what you do, this brother knows everything hobby­wise and then some. That “then some” being a “touchy subject”, as he puts it, that what I would rather not have some of my friends know. “God I wish I was in a dif erent reality or something because this thing of a brother is going to drive me nuts,” I thought to myself while still laying in bed, staring daggers at my brother for more than one reason. “Yo, get your ass outta bed so we won’t be late for school,” He says as he decides to be brave and step into my room. My room is a war zone of practically anything you could think of: clothes, food (containers really), soda cans and bottles, open miniature boxes, etc. “Stop. Don’t move 'cause I just saw something move beside your foot,” I warn sarcastically. His face… OH, his face went pale, and I could practically see his brain running through what could possibly live in my room besides me, almost making me burst out laughing at him. Then it was gone as he took a step… then his face met floor with an audible thud. That sent me over the edge. I stop laughing after looking at his expression and seeing the “get up now or die” look he has given to me in the past. I usually hope that look doesn’t come about 'cause then I remember the hardships we have been through since our mother died 4 years ago and our father disappearing just 6 months ago. The sad part of all this is that we both consider ourselves hopeless individuals who have nothing to really live for and that what we’ll end up doing for the rest of our lives is what the streets offer. That or we get a job at the lovely McDonald's. The thoughts that end up going through my mind from some of the places nearby are beyond worse than what my room can offer as “dirty”. I have fucked up enough to know that even at my age there will always be something to kick you down. After our mother died, I was hit real hard, my brother and father noticed this and tried to help me but I was tumbling… tumbling into that blackness that is in all humans. That which we all see as evil but is truly just what we have to endure to plain live every day. Then that day arrived. ­3 years 7 months ago­ It was a Saturday morning and I was watching the Hub at a friend’s house (thank god they let me crash at their place for a night while my room was getting fixed after the ceiling caved in… again) and I wasn’t paying much attention to what was on. All of a sudden this god­awful song comes on and I see the show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. I had heard rumors about this show being good, but also heard that this was a show aimed for 5 year old girls but happened to get a large adult following. So the show was going and it was actually making sense to me. I watched what apparently was one of those stupid mini­marathons. My mind started to wander as I was watching these technicolor ponies, and I thought, “They look so happy. Man I wish I was that happy.” After that I watched it as often as possible to see what it was like, and upon finishing what there was, I found myself much happier. My father and my brother noticed and thought I might have gotten over the pain of losing my mother, but really I was just suppressing those emotions so I didn’t feel them. As the months dragged on I got more enveloped in the MLP society and eventually found stories. As all teens do they go find the fun, dirty stories and fan out from there, but I went to the dark, morbid stuff, then on to the “happy go­lucky” side, and then back again. During that time I was talking to a lot of people for help with my depression problems but quickly checked out as okay. Apparently they just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to shoot up a school or something. The only drawback to the MLP stuff was that I was starting to yearn for the happiness that was in the show and that world. ­Present­ I get out of bed and help my brother back up to his feet. “If there isn’t any coffee left, I will make sure you pay,” I warn. Coffee has been our best friend for a while and neither of us could see giving it up any time in the near future. If it is anything to anyone, I will literally drink 2 cups every 2 or 3 hours if I can. Coffee has literally been the only incentive for getting up in the morning for me, and my brother likes adding special syrups to the cups before adding the coffee. Personally, I like it with a little bit of creamer and a little sugar, then I am set. As we walk into the kitchen, I start to notice something strange. There were packed lunches on the counter. “Hey. Aren’t we a little old for that crap?” I ask, “I mean, I have nothing against it, but doesn’t it seem a little silly to be bringing food to school that could, and will, get crushed to shit because of the stuff we have in our bags?” He nods, and then looks at me with a twinkle in his eye I have come to hate and distrust. “Oh these bags?” he asks sarcastically while picking up both with one hand. “Yea, these are for us, or would you rather not eat lunch again and get nagged at by the teachers for falling asleep in class?” He had a point. I almost always fell asleep in some respect or another in school. Sometimes I just lay my head down and pass out, while other times I will just zone out and wake up in same position with the person next to me poking me to de­zone me. “Take one if you really feel like it, but you know I do have to watch out for you and keep us afloat for a while,” Francis says, and again there is that pained look he has. He must have remembered something I hadn’t because usually this happens once every few weeks and then he will shut up for day or two. I feel bad, but then again, he might be going through a weaker form of that falling depression that I had when our mother died. “Hey, just take it easy, okay? I am not a little kid that needs to be looked out for,” I say as convincingly as possible. He knows this to be true, but hell if I can’t force him to see me as a near equal and not a brother who was 5 years younger. “I know man, but you know how I feel. I­I just need something to take my mind off Jim leaving,” he admits for the umpteenth time. Jim Faulkner was a jerk of a stepfather but he could be the most gullible dumbass ever. If I were to say that there was a lobster in the bathtub; he would get this disbelieving look on his eyes and then go investigate like the idiot that would believe some stupid crap like that. Although he might be one of the biggest jerks to ever grace a family, he was also one of the nicest if he wasn’t stressed about some insignificant little thing. I swear his stressing out reminded me of Twilight from MLP, freaking out that there wasn’t something right or was late about something and then getting stuck, and then literally causing more chaos than what would have happened if he didn't solve the littlest of problems. Something hits me in the head, and I realize I must have zoned out again as I look around and I notice that my lunch bag is on the floor in front of me. Looking up, I see that Francis isn’t particularly happy about me zoning out. “Hey, what’s got you so worked up all of a sudden?” I ask since he doesn’t normally act this way. He just looks at me then the clock. I look towards the clock as well and suddenly understand what happened, and that realization hit me like… well, a bus, really. “You have got to be kidding me. We should to have left 5 minutes ago!” I kind of shout, getting him to cringe at the sudden volume increase. As I grab my lunch and head to the living room to grab my bag and get my shoes I hear, “Yeah, about that. You might want to change first,” I finally notice what I was about to wear to school. I was pretty much in the painting attire I wore the other day since I paint late into the nights every so often, and the school didn’t have a dress code, but you were harassed about having exceptionally messy looking clothes. I curse to any possible thing I can think of, and I think somewhere in there I might have heard “Celestia’”, but I was too focused with the best part of those lovely “sprint to be ready” days I had so many of, and that part was getting clothes that were all right. ­7 horrifyingly dull hours later­ The bell goes off signaling the end of yet another adventure through how many ways you can possibly be depressed. As the teacher says good bye to us and that we should take a look over our notes for the next class's test, I get out of the seat and thank god the school day is over. Now to get home and look at maybe a paragraph's worth of the notes before eating and going to sleep. As I am getting up, though, I start to feel uneasy about something. I usually have these feelings when in public in a place I rarely, if ever, visit. As usual with these instances, I just look around me, and then I just go back to doing what I was doing but a little faster. After gathering and packing all my useless school crap, I go and look for Francis near the rear of the building. “I feel sorry for some of the kids that have to go miles to get home and are not rich enough to get eligibility for the bus system” I think to myself as I see the weather outside and it definitely looked frightfully cold. I wish that those who had to walk would get home before the blizzard, even if it was currently snowing outside, they should still hurry or find a ride with someone. As I wind my way through the halls, I see the faces of happiness, sadness, hope, and the normal drone like look a lot of people get once set into a routine. For me it was just depression mixed with curiosity since this was going to be a more entertaining weekend than what I could remember for the past couple of months. The only reason it was going to be more entertaining is that the new decorations we have for Christmas will arrive tomorrow and I was absolutely thrilled at seeing the crappy­ass house looking decent for the holidays. I notice my brother Francis at the exit with this other guy. My only guess is that the other person is Carl. Carl is just… Carl. There is no explaining him at all. Kind of reminds me of Pinkie, but then again, I don’t like spontaneous stuff. Spontaneous events don’t bode well with me and especially parties, I hate surprise parties. Okay, maybe hate is strong, but I usually immediately walk out of the room and walk back in once I was ready. Thankfully, Carl doesn’t pull out a cannon and fire it in school just to spruce up a room for a party. “That would add a little excitement to any day” I mused to myself. As I approach them, Carl looks over towards me with a look that had “you have fun” painted on his goofy face, and then proceeded to walk off. As I get even closer, Francis looks to me, expectant to hear me ask some question relating to what had transpired. All I do say is “Ready?” “Sure, why not?” He returns. As we walk home in relative silence, I ponder how the house would look with the Christmas lights. The image alone makes me laugh a little. Seeing a three room shed basically rimmed with little lights. Francis looks to me with a “What?” face and I just wave him off. ­10 minutes later­ We arrived at home, and I finally can get back to doing what I was putting off last night. What I hadn’t realized is that Francis looked a little off the whole time. I only noticed it when he immediately went to his room and not to the kitchen to grab a snack. Wondering what could be wrong, I follow. “This is bad. This is bad. This is so, so bad.” What’s he talking about? I am about to question him when I remember that it really isn’t my place to ask what is wrong 'cause this is probably related to something to school. If that is the case, I am usually no help, whatsoever. Walking back to my room I look at my unfinished metal model car that has decided to lose half the paint on it. “What am I going to do with you?” I sigh as I get back to work. If this car was any other, I would be so happy, but no, it had to be metal, and that metal had to be a bitch to paint. I decide to try and at least get it back to how it looked earlier, but decided against it since it was just going to be the same in the morning. Out of the blue my stomach decides to have a riot at not having anything for lunch. “Heh, shouldn’t be surprised that didn'tI feel hungry after seeing that sandwich as it was. Wonder what’s in the fridge?” I ramble to myself as I walk quickly, the hunger pangs intensifying a little bit. When I walk into the kitchen, my hunger suddenly goes away. “What? Now I am not hungry? What gives?” I question myself and my stomach. ­Later­ In the land of dreams there is said to be someone who can watch over you. Whether they're family or friends long passed, and/or greater being that resides over us all. I have always pictured that being something akin to the Grim reaper and a butler put together. The only downside to that, I think, is that since I have given that being form, they just want to piss me off in my dreams, 'cause I always end up with the short end of the stick in so many situations. This particular dream was especially cold and it felt as if there was something I was “resting” on that was much harder than dreams normally made stone out to be. The worst part is that I heard talking, and, as usual with a dream, the conversation could never be made out, but as background noise. This dream was also brighter. Too bright. I open my eyes, and see the sun. “What the hell?” > Chapter 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What the hell?” I say to no one in particular. I look around and notice that, somehow, I am apparently in a castle or some form ancient Greek or Roman building. I get up off the cold, smooth floor, and notice that the size of this room was roughly the size of the high school I went to. Well the school and then the neighboring fields. I start to look to my left, but then I hear the talking again. I hope whoever that is, they are at least not talking about an unconscious teenager on their floor. Speaking of floors, this floor seems pretty fine, smooth….marble? This takes me back to a trip to a museum, with its floors as smooth as glass. I look off in the direction of the talking and see some of the largest doors ever to be seen by eyes. ‘I wonder how heavy those doors must be’ I question, but then that talking again. This time I start to worry because the talking is much closer than I felt comfortable dealing with. I take a look around me to find a spot to hide behind, but stop when I see something on the far side of the room that catches my eye. On the other side of the immense room was a picture I remember from artwork for…. “That can’t be possible.” I stare shocked at the banner over the chair…or would that be throne? I look all around me, starting to get scared about the possibility of being somewhere other than home. The banner in question was a picture of a white/gold and dark blue figure spiraling around a moon and a sun. “Well, this has turned to shit faster than I was hoping.” I say to myself, realizing the full danger I had at being in this land of what I had come to realize, from the banner, as Equestria. At the same time realizing that I was in Equestria, I was also fearful for what would become of me. This realization brings about interesting ideas, all the while I am still looking for a spot to hide behind. I see a potted plant and start quickly making my way over to it. As my luck would have it, I was half way as the door bursted open, and a very angry white blur with red shade came in and just….stopped. I stood there looking at something well over half a foot taller than me, and yet it looked ready to smash something to pieces. It, I think that might be Celestia though, looks at me and stares. I start to get a little bit scared ‘cause I still see anger in those magenta eyes. I start backing up, and fortunately her eyes, those hard, piercing eyes softened as I backed off. I still back away ready to run if she were to take advantage. Celestia, keeping in mind I am still in a “fight or flight” mode from my body language and how I am acting, keeps her distance from me, but looks like she is about to say something. That is if someone else hadn’t first. “But Auntie, it is only a small stipend I ask for. Why do you s…..” I look to the newcomer and see that it is in fact another pony. That newcomer looks at me, and I immediately know what type of per....er, I mean pony, that he is, and that I just know I am not going to get along with this apparent upper crust shit stain. As a note I do not actually know this pony since I never watched the show much, but just in how he talked I knew I was not going to like him much, or at all. He looks at me and then with apparent disgust says the thing that should never be said to a newcomer to any place. “What is that wretched creature, Auntie? It looks quite revolting. I say you send it to the moon and we never speak of this animal again,” Said Mr. Snobby McAss. Not that I was surprised that he said it, but that he wanted me dead for just living. It kind of hurt. I stopped at that point and instead of taking a step back I took one forward. Celestia, I think, took this as a sign to make Snob shut up, “Blueblood, how can you be mean to something like this? Don’t you see it’s scared, and by saying what you said, it clearly will defend itself.” I look between both of them and then realize I haven’t done anything but just walk and look kind of stupid. The anger already seeping from me, I took a more relaxed stance and decided to say something, but couldn’t think of anything to say. If anything I could have said something back at Blueblood, still like Mr. Snobby McAss better in my opinion, but even that escaped me. “But Auntie don’t you see that filth? Look at how vile it is! It has barely anything to call a coat, and it looks evil! I’ll get the guard this instant if you ar…” he doesn’t make it halfway around before the doors close on him and something happens to the whole room. Celestia, apparently irritated with Blueblood, looked sternly at him, “I do not need the help of the Guard, and if I did call them, this creature would run off and we might have an incident later in the day of a guard…”she stops, somehow becoming a little paler than possible, ”Might kill this being we have never seen.” The whole room became darker but not by much. ‘I guess this is the affect that some spells have on a room,’ I thought to myself. The silence from both of them was becoming a little unbearable so might as well reveal that I can do something besides look weak. I look to Celestia, and say, “uhh….Hi?” What happened next almost made me laugh. They both flinched, and slowly turned towards me. “You can speak?” they both reply, both with surprise written all across their faces. I continue, “Yea… I am a…a little freaked out about this whole situation.” I say as bravely as I can. You try looking at two beings who can use magic and not be scared. I look between both of them, Celestia with surprise and maybe a little bit of relief, meanwhile Blueblood look, somehow, even more disgusted than before. “So not only does this thing speak it doesn’t know who it’s talking to!” He exclaims, “I demand it be sent to the….” He was cut off by Celestia’s stare, and he cowered a little at that. I just mentally laughed at him and hoped he’d just shut up for a small amount of time, only if he was like this all the time. “I don’t think you are in a place to be demanding anything, Blueblood. As I remember you are still in trouble for those charges against certain citizens of Canterlot for your drunken escapades!” Celestia’s voice boomed at him. So, he is a spoiled upper crust snob who only likes himself. Perfect, just absolutely fucking perfect. I start to wonder what could have occurred to incur Celestia’s wrath, but I was pulled out of the thought as I head someone address me, I think. “So what are you exactly? I mean we have heard of rare creatures but none ever described like what I see now?” I look up and see Celestia staring at me. I start to back away cause of that look, even though it looks like she was trying to be nice it just creeped me out. She must have realized this because she stopped looking at me like an eagle, but her eyes held anticipation for what I really was and fascination along with it. “I am a human.” I try to say above a whisper. She must have heard it fully though and went into a pensive mood. Then to top off the cake, Blueblood must have heard. “A human? Why that sounds repulsive, like you, and I think you should be exiled.” He states with his annoying ‘I am better than you so you should love me’ bullshit vibe I keep getting from when he even speaks. "Well sorry if sounding human sounds disgusting, but just shut the hell up cause I do not want to deal with whiny assholes who look to higher ups to help them out of trouble when they get into trouble,” I respond a little to tersely. I see Celestia look at me with a little bit of disappointment and…gratitude? Blueblood on the other hand was, well, angry. “DO you not know who you are talking to?! I am Prince Bl…” I cut in, “I do not give a shit who you are. Reasonable beings do not wish for others to be dispensed with in a manner that seems unfair. Hell if I was related to you in anyway, just from being here right now and hearing you, I would have jumped off a cliff and run to another country, and disassociate myself from you in as many ways as possible.” I see Celestia start to look a little uneasy at what I said. As I look to her I sense something, and start to turn towards Blueblood and see a bolt of energy about to hit me. As I start to fall back, and as my vision goes black I just think, ‘Well, fuck.’ In the back ground, I think I hear angry shouting but other than that I feel nothing and less. I think I feel something lift me, but for the love of me I cannot tell what. My vision darkens to the point where I am just breathing and eve… ‘Is this how I die?’ I think before I go unconscious. > Chapter 3 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the land of dreams, I just review what I have experienced within the last couple of minutes before that damnable blast of light hit me. ‘So, apparently I have appeared in Equestria, encountered what appeared to be Celestia and her… nephew? Blueblood is an ass. How was…oh that’s right.’ I end up talking to myself while going through basically everything over and over. ‘Was there a better way to handle the situation? No, that was truly the only way to do it with me being scared at that moment.’ I continue to basically go frame by frame segment right before I get hit by that light. ‘If there is something I can get from this, I am either unconscious, hopefully or…’ the thought being a little too much for me to contemplate or even think about. All of a sudden my surroundings start to get darker. ‘Damn this is starting to get unsettling,’ I reflect, remembering that the darkness usually holds things untold by the normal realms of the mind. If there was anything I didn’t want to relive, it would be the funeral for my mother. That memory was put under lock and only something powerful would make me want to ever make that time come back again. Of all memories, that would be the image I would want the least to resurface. As all of this is happening, the darkness starts to envelope me, I start to…hear? ‘Really?’ I ask myself, ‘ So I take it I didn’t die. That being the case I wonder why I didn’t die due to the pain.’ Wait, was there any pain? I hope that I don’t get yelled at for somehow instigating the event, even though it wasn’t I who started it nor ended it. ‘I still can’t believe that what I said caused such a callous reaction from Mr. Snobby. If anything a hit physically, but not magical punch to…my whole body, I guess? I do start to hear more and there is light. My initial thought is to get away from the light, but my body remains immobile. ‘If I die now I swear I will haunt that ass of a “prince” for the rest of his insignificant life.’ I swear vengeance and anything else during this slow, ponderous trip to the light. ‘I wonder if this is as fast as this ride goes?’ I questions as I start to become impatient. The source of the light becomes bigger by about twice its size from when I started this little climb. If there was anything else that could occupy my time than waiting to get to the light, I would have gladly taken it. Out of nowhere, I…wake up. I can’t feel my body that much. I try to move something and all I can get is numbness. That prickly feel felt very, very annoying to the extent that I just laid there as I felt warmth go through my body again. I start to realize how cold I was. ‘Wow…the coldness. It feels…nice.’ I thought to myself, remembering all the times of my bed back home and how cold my room was naturally. My reminiscing brings about more memories, both good and bad to their own respects. An image of my mother bundling me up for school, just to have me remove half of it and be fine. Later that week I stayed home due to a cold, though I loved the cold. Another memory surfaces, this one being the reports from the news. They reporter said that there was a pileup that had killed a dozen or so people when a semi ended up spinning out and jumped the median, and then crashing into another oncoming semi and together spun around a few times taking out some cars and a school bus that was too close to dodge the spiraling death. Many more memories appear, some very happy with mother and the rest of the family. A few being dark, mainly all my times I had considered the easy way out of life. My thoughts made me tune out enough that I hadn’t heard the doors to where ever I was open. The moment the door closed, I broke out of my memories and jumped a little. Well as much as a fully numb and prickly body would allow. I looked over to who it was and saw… a nurse? Wow I really need to remember that even in other dimensions or realities that there will always be some form of hospital. ‘She looks kind of scared of me; do I really look that threatening?’ I think to myself and then remember that she has probably never seen a human before. As I watch her, I take into consideration that if I did anything sudden that I would probably scare her, so all I do is just lay there looking at her. She gets closer, but slowly. The only reason I can see why is that she thinks I will try to run away or something, not that I can actually since I still feel quite numb all around. As she gets even closer I can start to hear what sounds to be breathing coming from her. ‘Poor dear, must be very frightened that she has to check on the strange creature from planet X’ I mentally scold myself for making fun of her. In her position I would most likely be having the same reaction. As she nears and starts to turn to head closer to my upper body, I could REALLY hear her breathing. I decide to end this stressful event for her, “Hi.” What happened next was…unexpected. As I greeted her, she hopped up at least 4 feet into the air, did a 180 turn, and just ran out of the room. Obviously this kind of hurt my feelings, but what can I say; I scared her just by saying a simple word. ‘Oh well, might as well rest for now and hope I can get feeling in my body when I come around next time.’ -Some time later- I start to feel the presence of something, or someone watching me. Not that I find it creepy but I swear I can feel breathing on my skin. ‘Who ever this is doesn’t really respect space or just thinks I will not mind having my personal space broken and shattered. I think I can…feel? I know I felt that there was something watching me but that was just a guess and decided to get up to investigate. ‘I really hope it isn’t Celestia right in front of my face,’ I thought and hoped against all hope it was just a nurse. I begin to open my eyes and notice that, besides it being sunny, there is in fact someone in front of my face, and cauing m. That someone had a dark bluecoat and black to blue flowing mane. ‘Luna?’ I realize. ‘I wonder how long she has been doing this?’ I start to wonder what exactly she is doing to begin with. “Ah, We see thou art awake. We wondered if thee would wake up from sleep soon,” She said. I basically just…well laid there and she was staring straight at me. If she was a few inches closer her nose would be in my left eye. “Uh… Yea, hi. Who are you?” I ask as innocently and unknowingly as possible. With that she backs up with a face of wonder, those eyes of hers dancing with what I could only guess to be thousands of questions. “We are Princess Luna, co-ruler to the lands of Equestria. Thou hast already met thy sister, Celestia,” she responds, “Thou has also met our vile nephew, Blueblood.” I nod and get the idea that both her and Celestia do not like Blueblood, and I just can’t possibly fathom why? “We have a question for thee? Can thee explain to Us why you are here?” She asks me. I, out of my sane mind, just look at her confused, complete with a ‘What?’ face. “Heh…I guess that I could do that, but I thought that you already know what happened?” I ask with a little bit more confusion as I still try to debate whether or not to tell her what happened. After a little bit more coaxing from Luna, I gave in and decided to tell her from my viewpoint of what happened. All the while, she is looking at me with a disappointed face and then remembers something; my name. “If We may ask, what is thou known by?” This took me out of the blue and I had realized that none of those who have seen me know who or what I am. I decide to reveal myself. “My name is Adrian, and I am a human,” I say, still quite hesitant at wanting to reveal anything, and being asked to reveal myself was definitely at the bottom of the list for things I was comfortable saying. All that Luna does is look at me, and I could see that she was on the verge of asking another question but all of a sudden the doors to what I had already guessed lead out of the hospital and to the rest of the castle, open. The pony that had entered the room made me a little happy but then again feel like I was trapped. Celestia walked in, and as expected from any form of royalty, she was flanked by some guards. ‘Man that armor looks fancy,’ I mentally comment. As Celestia comes closer, I see that she is at least calmed down from earlier. “Ah good to see the mysterious being has awoken at last. Now tell…” Luna cuts off, “His name is Adrian and he says that he is a ‘huemin’.” I look to Celestia as she nods her head in knowing. “I knew this being was a human, but not what his name was. Good to know that he told you.” I see her look to me expectantly. I have absolutely no idea what I should do at this point so I do the only thing I could do. I try to get up, and to my surprise I am able to sit upright. While the prickliness is still in my lower extremities , I could move them a little bit without that much discomfort. “Is it alright if I ask you a question, Celestia?” I ask. “Yes. What is your question? Wait… let me guess. It relates to your condition?” I nod my head to that. She continues, “You should be ok with in a day or two. I have already dealt with Bluebloods actions towards you. Next time be careful, he can be quite fragile.” She said while starting to grimace. I notice this and stay silent. “Well I say we leave you to your rest and we shall come pick you up then,” Celestia says, still holding a slight grimace. God I feel sorry for her dealing with Blueblood. “We will see you on ‘morrow, as well.” Luna adds in. I just nod to the both of them and get settled back in. I watch the both of them walk off and out the door. Shortly after I loose sight of them I see the doors close. “Why do I always screw up my life?” I ask myself as I settle back into the bed. I then realized something. When do I get food? > Chapter 4 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I lay on the bed, dreaming about things past and how things might happen to me, and the possible repercussions of what I have done go through my head like a vinyl record that keeps repeating. Those dreams…dreams that seem real, too real for some but real enough that I feel everything and anything that happens. Dreams about the times Mother has scolded my brother and me for doing something naughty, or father coming back from work with bags under his eyes and arms. The other dreams where I cannot stop my mother’s death, just held still, frozen in time watching the bullet enter her chest and slowly making its gory exit out her back. Then those new dreams. Blueblood bigger than I and just standing there, all the while launching blinding white lights at me that cause my skin to burn and peel. Another one of the new dreams where Celestia bursts into the room I am occupying. Standing in the middle of the floor facing away, and as she barges in I turn only to see a white and red mass run me through with a horn of the brightest white and hottest flames ever to be conceived. Then there is always that one…really, really strange dream. Luna just stares at me and I try to get her to stop and she just continues. No matter what I do I cannot stop her and I end up jumping out the window. When I think I am about to hit the ground far below I somehow end up standing in front of Luna again. And as fate in dreams would have it, I would repeat the process as long as I jumped. “Why does thou jump?” A voice bursts out. I freak out and jump again only to find I cannot move. I look around with my eyes and see the Luna that has been stationary the whole time, and then I see a rip in my dream open up. Standing in the rip with one of the most worried faces I had ever seen, is Luna. “I asked thee, why does thou jump?” Luna asks again, worry creeping into her voice. I just stand there, again at the precipice of my own despair and sorrow. I just stare and just as confused as ever. “I…I don’t know.” I croak out. As I say this I feel myself fall backwards once more…but I don’t. My body, now free of what ever held me in place, goes all limp and slides to the floor. After what felt like an eternity, I got back into a sitting position, and just looked around. What surprised me was that the hospital walls were fading or crumbling away to what must have been a field. “What’s this place?” I ask but not really expecting an answer. The grasses and the flowers glowed a very faint green, kind of like that episode of the Simpsons when the family went to become farmers for a small amount of time while they waited for their house to aerate out. “An image from your subconscious We presume.” She responds a little to intrigued that this was a place I had in mind. Even if it reminded me of some fields that we used to live by I was still quite strange to see the plants and what not glow. “Why did you enter my dreams?” I ask Luna. I quite like the idea that I was saved from my nightmares but at the expense that something private like dreams being available to one of the princesses just…unnerved me. “I mean, not to be rude or anything but from where I come from; there is no way someone could enter anothers dreams and intervene at the crucial moment.” I add in, hoping she doesn’t take offence for my rather blunt question. “We sensed something very wrong in the dream realm, and as ruler of the night, We have to make sure our subjects are having peaceful dreams and to stop the nightmares that assault anypony but since the strong disturbance came from you; We had to stop thou’s nightmare before the ripples had affected our subjects dreams,” She responds, and she sounds understanding. It truly made sense that there would be a pers… I mean pony that would take care of the night but to think that the same pony took care of dreams was…well…strange to me. “Wasn’t there another way to stop the nightmare? I mean that even if you hadn’t stepped in; is there a way to isolate the problem and leave it there?” I ask even more curious than uneasy. Damn human curiosity! “We could have isolated your dreams from the rest but thy’s dreams would still send out ripples that, in the end, would affect others of this world sooner or later.” She states. As she was talking I started looking around me and saw that we were up on a hill. The plants and whatnot were still glowing faintly green and seemed to fade. “It is time for us to take our leave of thee,” she states as she gets up and starts making another rip. This rip, however, was visible and not as bright as I would have thought. More like a pale blue that had light tinges of white and green on the fringes . “We shall see thee in the morning, Adrian.” She walks out of my dream and I sense an uneasiness that must have been building up the whole time with her. As I look around the landscape starts to turn red, either fire red or red of warmth I cannot tell but I am still wary nonetheless. And as my luck would have it, the red tide was a fiery warmth. As I sit there, burning slightly at the intense heat, I hear voices…again. > Chapter 5 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I start to regain sense of what is around me, I hear the faint calls of birds, and the occasional rhythm of…hoof-steps? ‘So if there are hoof-steps; there will be someone nearby,’ I think to myself, curious as to who it could possibly be. As I look out the window nearby, I see a newly raised sun. ‘Those nightmares are going to be the literal death of me at some point,’ I muse to myself as I wait for something to happen, and just hoping that the next person I see is that nurse that ran off before. Just thinking of how she reacted to my response brought a sad smile to my face. After reflecting for a while, I hear steps approaching closer but don’t put any mind into it. ‘Might be a new nurse trying to check on me,’ I guess but without any information going with the information, I could have guessed maybe one of the princesses were coming back to see me. ‘Why am I such a fascinating creature, they must have things that look like me or at least close enough?’ I ponder. Taking a guess from last time, I was expecting to see a nurse walk slowly into the room, fear written all over her face. That wasn’t the case. “Ahh, it is good to see you awake, Adrian.” I turn my head and see Celestia at the entrance to the room, looking at me with a pleased look on her face. “I was going to guess you’d still be resting but sometimes it is good to be wrong.” Hearing that, I was surprised that she would say something along those lines. I had expected that she was happy she was right, not to be happy that she was wrong. “Yea…I woke up a little while ago, actually I still waking up really,” I respond. As I was still in bed, and that I couldn’t feel anything on my chest still, I was expecting that I would need to be in the hospital for a little while longer. Though if there is magic, who said I wasn’t healed already? I raise my voice, but as how fate would have it….I cough. I look towards Celestia in my fit of coughing, and I see one of the most caring faces I have ever seen. After the fit, I say, “I was just wondering something. Well more like two things really. First one is when am I going to be able to get out of here and the second relates to food.” “To your supposed first question, you can leave within the day, or now. Just to make a final check to clear you is all that needs to be done. To that second question…well we kind of don’t know what you eat. From what the doctors told me, you were carnivorous but then they saw molars farther back in your mouth. I take it you are omnivorous?” I nod and then shake my head. “What do you mean ‘Yes’ and then ‘no’?” “Let me clarify that. I can eat meat but I do not. The main reason being I was raised since birth to only eat fruits and vegetables. Since I was a child, I have never truly eaten meat. The times I have were either dares, or that I didn’t realize that there was meat in what I was eating until a bite or two in. So, yea… Does that help clarify things for you?” I look to her as she stared at me. I was about to say something more but not only did she raise her hoof to silence me I just didn’t know what I was really going to say. As I sit in silence looking at Celestia looking at me, I start to get uncomfortable. After a few more minutes of silence, I decide to look away and notice something that makes me feel uncomfortable…again. “Uhh… Celestia…where are my clothes?” I ask. Looking around I don’t see anything resembling my pajamas. “ Oh… you mean those things that caught fire and burned away?” Hearing that, I snap my head towards here with the my face contorted in utter shock. She giggles, “I am just joking. Your clothes are being cleaned and repaired. Blueblood’s attack left a gaping hole in the front of what was your upper garment,” She says. I sigh in relief at hearing they weren’t burned away. But with how she said it I feared the worst. “And speaking of clothes, I take it you are uncomfortable in your current state?” She asks in a curious tone. I look down at myself and notice that, other than the blanket that I had, I was completely naked. Yea…totally gonna walk around naked around creatures I have never seen before. “Ummm.. I could but I would rather wear something.” I say. Celestia nods and abruptly leaves. I sit there, surprised that she up and left. Thinking that she’d come back much later in the day I lay down to rest. -Not that much later- As I sit there looking at the ceiling, counting all the blocks for the umpteenth time, I hear hoof-steps again. Guessing that my previous guess last time was wrong, and guessing this might be Celestia, I just wait while I look towards the door. Then after a brief time I see… “Luna?” I see Luna standing there, tired as hell, and standing there with my clothes in her magic. “Yes. It is I *Yawn* and I have come to give you your clothes back.” She says. She obviously looked ready for bed. “You look ready for sleep.” I state bluntly. She nods her head to this. “Yes. I was going to bed but *Yawn* Tia told me to gather your clothes for you and to give them to you. Tia also bid me to tell you that she wants to see you after you dress yourself.” She launches the clothes at me. The projectile coverings soared through the air, and landing on my face. As I start to remove them I hear receding hoof-steps. A little while later finds myself fully clothed, and ready to go see Celestia. “ So… it’s off to see the princess.” I state as I start to move towards the large double doors, and from there to a new day, or was it afternoon? > Chapter 6 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As I approach the giant double doors, I start thinking to myself about how I should address the princess. That thought then starts a chain reaction of ‘why I do I even care?’ to ‘It is only right to address rulers as such.’, and then back again. The rapid fire of worry and carelessness ended with me walking right into the door with a faint thud. The door opens suddenly to a pair of golden armor-clad guards, one a unicorn by the looks of it and the other has no horn. What the other one had were wings. ‘So….it only makes sense that if this is the MLP universe it means that there should be the Mane six and if that is the case…oh god questions galore ahead for me.’ I hope as soon as the thought goes through my mind that there won’t be a certain purple unicorn…wait that’s right she ascended. So hope there isn’t a purple alicorn that will question what I am. “If you will follow us this way with your meeting with the Princess,” said the unicorn guard. I nod and look at the direction that…she said. I steal a glance at the other guard and notice that he is just staring at me with eyes that want to hurt you if you step just the wrong way. As we start off, I walk a little off just to give the female guard her space but I am not happy that the winged guard…what was the name, again? ‘I’ll ask the princess about the names of the winged ponies if I remember to not be intimidated by her presence.’ -A lot of walking later- As we pass the 7th set of moderately oversized doors in silence, I start to feel a pressure change in the air. ‘Why does the air feel more….heated, tense? I doubt this can only be Celestia.’ I start hoping to all that is holy that Celestia is still in a good mood, because I do not want to see an angry Celestia like the first time I awoke in this strange world. “We are almost there just around this corner and then another small stretch,” the unicorn guard said to me. As we turn a corner, I see the most outrageously sized double doors ever. The throne room doors were, at the very least, 30 feet tall, and were white and gold, with accents of other colors to faint to tell. At either side of the doors were a pair of guards that went to attention when we got closer. That pressure was stronger than before, and I was really hoping that there was a happy Celestia and not an angry Celestia. One of the guards motioned to us to wait when we were nearly at the door, and slipped into the throne room as silently as possible. After a few minutes of waiting, the same guard reappeared and signaled for us to come on in. As we entered the room, I instantly noticed that there was a definite increase in the pressure of the room. As I looked around, slowly walking forward still, I saw a really shiny spot on the ground and guessed that was where I was hit. I started to feel bad for what I had said to Blueblood, even if he deserved it a little bit for calling me ‘it’ and ‘creature’. As we are around half way through the throne room, I see Celestia waiting with an expectant face. “Ah, it is good to see you up and about, Adrian,” Celestia says with a little bit of a weird tone to her voice. ‘Is that eagerness I sense in her voice?’ I think to myself. Celestia speaks again, “I am sorry but if you remember that second question of yours about food… well you will need to wait for lunch.” I nod in understanding. My initial guess is that I woke up late enough to miss breakfast but before Celestia started whatever she had obligations for. “I was wondering something….again. When we started getting close to this room I was feeling some pressure from the surrounding air…” I was cut off. “That may be residual power from me from yesterday when I was getting upset at my nephew. That was right before finding you and him launching a fireball at you.” She said, turning a little away from me. I can see some anger in her eyes at what he must have done. “If you were thinking that he was completely unprovoked, then you are wrong. It was mostly my fault for instigating the attack that he made upon me but I hate being called ‘it’ and ‘creature’ and talked about like I wasn’t even there,” I state, and she nods at that. Her look doesn’t brighten but instead takes a more disappointed look. “If there was a way that I could have changed what happened to the end result of that I would have done so but with how I react to certain things, and certain people, I cannot really control what I say some of the time.” I finish explaining my reaction to some extent. “I was hoping that your reaction to his statements wouldn’t get the response that you received. Personally, I was hoping for a better solution and what I got was you unconscious on the ground and Blueblood acting like he defended himself from a dragon,” she said, obviously getting a little bit irritated at just mentioning what happened right after I went out. “If it is any consolation, I kinda deserved what I got. I can’t always control what I say when others start acting like I am not there,” I say a little ashamed that I admitted a self-fault in front of a person I didn’t even know. ‘Why do I feel comfortable? I don’t trust anyone here and I feel most comfortable around her, why?’ I quickly think to myself. “I do have a question.” She looks at me. “When is lunch?” > Chapter 7 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- “When is lunch?” She looks at me like I was crazy. “Lunch is in an hour,” She just looks at me and is confused that I just changed the topic that suddenly. ‘She must have expected me to ask about Blueblood.’ I think to myself, hiding my amusement. “There are a few questions though, for food preference. I know you said that you don’t eat meat, and that with how you said you were a omnivore but one thing makes me question what you can eat…” “If you are asking what I can eat plant wise, it probably isn’t as wide as what you can eat.” I plainly state. “Are you saying that there are things you can’t eat that we can?” She asks, looking a little confused. “One of the things are flo…” “Flowers that grow, that’s a no. Flour for baking, that is something I can consume…. I mean when used already in something baked. If I were to eat flour when in a powder form there is literally nothing that would help me in anyway.” I say. “What about salads?” She asks, with a faint look of worry in her face. “Depends on what is in the salad. If there is lettuce, carrots, tomatoes, spinach, and that sort of stuff then I can eat it. If there are flowers, then I can remove them.” I clarify. The look on her face went back to a pensive state; I guess there was more that she was trying to think about what other foods that might not be good. “Look, if you want to see what I can and can’t eat have whoever make a normal lunch and I will ask what is in it. I think that would be best course to go mainly so you can see what I can and can’t eat.” I stand there, hoping that she would say yes to the idea so I wont feel like I am being interrogated by someone. She nods, “Yes, that might be the best course to go. We have a little while yet till then.” She turns toward a guard who stood to her left, and motioned him over. I looked away and lost focus because the pressure, even if it felt like it receded to some degree, was still hammering my senses. After what felt like forever zoning out, I realized that Celestia was trying to get my attention. “Sorry about that, I seem to have lost focus.” I say a little embarrassed. “That does seem to happen when facing the ruler of a nation and you don’t want to offend said ruler,” Her look shows that she might be trying to reassure me but I am still a little uncomfortable to be calmed. “Is there somewhere where I can wait for lunch?” I ask hoping yes. ‘I am not certain but this whole situation is awkward enough make Carl look normal.’ I think to myself. “I could have my guards send you back to the Infirmary, or send you to a guest room. You can choose but sooner or later you will be moved to appropriate accommodations.” She says while looking at me with the blankest of faces I had ever seen. -A while later- “So…what is your choice, Adrian?” Celestia finally asks. I had been standing there for a good while thinking about the choices. “I’ll take…no….maybe….” ‘God why can’t my brain come up with the fucking answer already!’ I scream mentally at myself for not being able to decide.’ Celestia looks close to forcing the decision onto me completely.’ “You know what, Adrian? Since you are a guest I will not force you into a choice but I will suggest taking the guest room. Does that work for you?” I nod my head at that. “Now….” Her ears flick towards the doors noticeably enough, so I turn to see what it is. The door opens suddenly, and I see…”AUNTIE!!” Blueblood shouts, looking close to anger. He stops when he notices me, then proceeds with whatever he was on about. As he entered though I lost all interest in what he was saying. That didn’t stop me from listening to his “plight” occasionally. “Blueblood.” Celestia speaks finally. “…And the thought that she thinks she can just blow off an important…” “ Blueblood.” Celestia speaks a bit louder. “….I mean the nerve of her to think she is better than me is outra…” “BLUEBLOOD!” Celestia shouts, and knocking me down in the process. “Sorry, Adrian. Now Blueblood, what have I told you about wasting my time with all these pitiful squabbles that you go through, and the nerve to make them seem important enough to waste the day court hours is beyond me.” She scolds Blueblood. I smirked as the whole thing went down. ‘So Blueblood wastes her time often then? That is kinda sad.” I think to myself. “But Aun…” Blueblood starts. “Just..*sigh*..be reasonable.” Celestia says calmly. “There is probably a reason that she couldn’t show up for the date. You know how busy some of the families have been, and you trying to get on with some of their daughters is…” she looks deep in thought for a second, “…irritating. To say the least that is.” “What do you mean irritating?” I ask curiosity getting the better of me. “Adrian, do not get in this conversation. Let’s just say this isn’t the first or the hundredth time this has happened.” She states with a slight hint of disgust in her voice. “Now Blueblood, let me make this clear. Since the economy has been steadily dropping for the past decade I have to manage all the finances. The idea that you throw huge parties and invite hundreds of ponies and the amount of property destruction costs a lot, AS YOU KNOW. The only reason that you have not been serving anytime is because I hope you learn your lesson soon and stop these mad parties. By Tartarus, that last party you threw caused enough damage to make Ponyville look like they are normal.” She states, exasperation and slight depression tingeing all her words. I take another look at Blueblood. He looked away from Celestia and looked like he wasn’t even listening anymore. “Blueblood.” I say in an even tone. He doesn’t turn towards me, nor does anything move. “Celestia.” She looks at me with a knowing look. “I know. He usually doesn’t pay attention at this point. Here let me try something.” She looks with a sly smile at Blueblood. “Blueblood, I can’t believe you didn’t see that there was a black spot on the back of your neck.” At that Blueblood’s eyes open wide and immediately react. “WHERE! WHAT HAS MARRED MY COAT! I NEED A MIRROR!” And with that he galloped from the room. “What was that all about?” I ask, very curious. “Blueblood is basically in love with how he looks and if there is anything he hates more, it is something to tarnish his looks.” She states, still holding a smile. “So ,Adrian, are you ready for lunch?” She asks, emitting a grumbling sound as well. “Wha…Oh sure. Just lead the way.” And at that Celestia gets up, and I follow her. ‘Who knows maybe I can eat more than I was initially thinking I could here.’ I think to myself hoping for maybe something delicious and satisfying. > Chapter 8 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later in the same day, I walked beside Celestia. She had asked questions over lunch but I had said to save them for later, wanting to not reveal too much to the nice ruler for fear that I would be judged for what I would say about the human race as a whole. During the rest of lunch, I discovered just about how much I could actually eat………One dish. All of the other dishes contained something or another that caused me to shy away. Be it flowers or something that just didn’t sound good, you name it. The only upside, besides eating in a garden and having lunch, was being outside. The downside to being outside was….well….BEING outside. After lunch, she started to ask me questions, and I answered. The questions ranged from history to normal life. The look on her face when I said we were a warlike race was kinda funny. I guess that someone like me couldn’t possibly be violent, then I reminded her about Blueblood and his action towards me. “If he hadn’t knocked me out with that attack of his, I would have tried to take him down.” I state simply. Looking over to Celestia with a dark look, I notice that she looks surprised. “I do have to ask, out of curiosity of course but how did Blueblood become a prince with how he acts? I mean if I were you, and I am not trying to tell you what to do, I would at least have it to where he was limited in all possible ways for his behavior.” “I see how you may question his position but rest assured it was a normal way into power,” She looks over to me with a annoyed look. “As fate would have it he was born into the family.” Something causes her to smile, and my only guess is a little Blueblood in a diaper. How on earth that would be cute is beyond me. “Oh if he could have been born into a more conserving family then what you would have seen would not be the true him,” Her eyes downcast at this statement. “His mother and father were, and I do believe this, probably the most ostentatious ponies I have ever seen. I visited their home once and just the amount of gold that they had…was…” Celestia goes quiet, paling (somehow) at what I guess is just the memory. “Uh…Celestia?” I ask curious. “S-So….M-Much….G-Gold.” Celestia stutters out. As I looked closer I saw that her pupils were much smaller than they normally were. Stepping back for no real reason I look at her head. Her mouth quivering, and…she is slightly drooling. I have no idea what her problem is. “Celestiaaa?” I ask worried. I start poking her in the head trying to get her out of whatever the hell she is in. “Celestia, Blueblood just took your tiara.” I say hoping this evokes a response. And what a response that was. “WHAT!” She shouts at what must have been louder than normal shouting because that had everything on the ground that I could see shaking a little. Her horn bursts into life as her tiara gets lifted. Once sure it is still there she looks at me with an annoyance. “Adrian, that is not funny to joke about Blueblood and my tiara.” She states, and I see that there must have been a slight hint of thanks. “So besides what must have been a mountain of gold, anything else?” I ask, hoping against hope that there was something else besides “Rich snob child” being pegged to Blueblood. “Yes, when he was a foal he had the cutest…” And the hours went by as she regaled how cute the little jerk was. I mean I have heard that some parents will drown their childs crush, or if the crush became the persons significant other, and at times try to outdo the others parents. “…and then he had this little bow on for his…5th?...yes 5th Heartswarming Eve, on his little head and it was one of the most adorable things besides my sister when she gets confused about things…” She continues. ‘Has she taken a breathe yet?’ I wonder after having lost interest in what his first word was which, believe it or not, was “Money”. -God knows how much later- “Celestia.” “Yes?” “That was too much information on how Blueblood became a prince.” I state. After what seemed like hours of describing every aspect of Bluebloods childhood, I was still nowhere near understanding how he has become how he is now. “I mean, yea he might have been cute as a child but can you stop gushing over those memories.” I look at her, and her look conveyed confusion. “Gushing is to be exaggerate something, be it writing or talking. I could talk lengths about how much fun it is painting models for friends but I don’t go to the extent that you did. I-I mean…,” my voice starts to die as I come up with one of the things she said. “D-Did you really have to say how cute it was cleaning him up after his accidents. I mean children are cute and all, even if they kill you in a way, but- ” “I understand. You can stop now.” Celestia interrupts quickly, completely embarrassed her whole body a faint pink hue. “Here is what I can recall as the first time he started changing,” At that I look straight at Celestia face. “Right around his 8th year he started getting needy. Whenever I saw his parents they looked tired and he would always have something ridiculously expensive on. The downside is that since they were related to family by a loophole, which I had rectified, and by having ties to the royal family they were able to access the royal treasury. Picture anyponies face when they find half of the royal treasury gone and most of it spent on trifles. When we tracked down all of the sales, guess who we found?” “Blueblood?” I guess, even though I already figured who had done the deed. “Correct. Blueblood used over 8 million bits on clothes and 20 million on trying to look better. All of this over the course of a single year. ONE year!” Celestia exclaims, obviously exasperated still. “We had to limit his spending so much that he became grabby with everything. Another thing that I forgot to mention, HE BANKRUPTED HIS PARENTS!” She said with enough hatred that I had to guess she liked his parents. “The thing I still cannot fathom is how he could leave his parents penniless, and be content with what he has done. I mean his family had enough gold to make the palace look bland in comparison. If they hadn’t spent so much on him and more on what they normally did then he wouldn’t have this problem. Did you know that Blueblood had a gold pacifier and gold crib?” “No I didn’t. What is up with his family and gold?” I inquire. ‘How could a family of royalty have so much gold that it make the palace look dull?’ I mentally ask myself. “They were from a long line of gold miners and merchants. Their family would make gold…whatever really, and sell it. I’d buy a large amount every once in a while to make up for what gets stolen every time the dragon envoys come around. Occasionally the griffon diplomats take spoons, as to why I will never know.” She shrugs what must be her shoulders. I merely shrug with her. “So, besides the left of gold, and Blueblood spending a large amount of money, was there anything else?” I ask hoping that there could be a root to the problems. “There is really nothing more. He acts like he did since then. There is no way to tell the origin of what caused his change from a happy, friendly, outgoing colt to this stubborn, ignorant imbecile of a stallion.” She simply mutters while looking downcast. I feel like she might want someone to be there for her but I don’t think it is my place. ‘Fuck it. She clearly needs some form of reassurance.’ I scold myself. I move a little bit closer and reach out my hand. Then I rest it on what might be her shoulders, hell if I know, and leave my hand there. Celestia looks to me confused, then a small smile forms her eyes speaking what does not need to be said. “Hopefully there will be a way to pull that stick out of his ego’s ass.” I say without thinking, and getting probably the weirdest reaction from the princess yet. Her eyes, just full of thanks, went wide with what I just said. Then out of the blue she started giggling. A lot. I couldn’t help myself but to laugh a little but I was completely lost as to what Celestia was truly laughing about. -An hour or two later- As I arrive back to my new room with Celestia I start to notice that she has gone silent again. I put it out of my head as we say good night to each other and I head into the room (The room being somewhat like the room I first woke up in, just nicer and more normal to a fucking penthouse suite) for, hopefully, a good night’s rest will get things set straight in my mind. ‘And hopefully those dreams don’t come back.’ I hopelessly pray to some unknown god. As I look around for what I need to do before bed. After 20 minutes of doing my normal night routine, I go to the bed provided by my new accommodations, and get ready for sleep. I never got fully comfortable before my whole vision blanked into the normal sleep cycle of someone who is extremely stressed. The last thing to cross my mind is ‘Why is there a blue blob in my room?’ > Chapter 9 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don’t know what I expected this time after entering the dream state. The only thing I did know that was reverberating around my mind was what that blue blob was in my room. All that could describe the blue blob was main big blue blob center, top left and going across was lighter blue. That is all I saw. I couldn’t put it to any of the ponies I had been with but I didn’t, and don’t, care. The only true concern I had was what was going to be waiting for me in my subconscious mind this time. ‘I hope it isn’t a repeat of last time,’ I mentally say. If there was something off about my last dream, it would be Luna popping in and changing it. ‘What did she say again? Something about “ripples” affecting other ponies dreams?’ “YOU!” I hear a shout and look around. I take in the scene placed around me, and that is still forming. It’s… my Elementary school? Why here? “YOU” I hear again but this time behind me. Turning around I face someone I hadn’t wanted to face in a long time. The kids name escapes me but he was probably THE worst person in the world, well short of all the major criminals from the various wars we have had. This kid was well known to the police as a possible gang member but they never really did anything because he was buff as hell, and broke a door by ramming it. The kids face was scarred and bruised, as he usually looked, and his muscles literally bulged from him. “What do ya want, ass?” I respond. I notice that I am at least 2 feet taller than the kid. That still really didn’t leave out the intimidation factor that he gave off since he was out of school more often than not for violence against other students. “Give me your money, Fruitcake” He spoke out in a voice so full of hatred and malice it made Celestia sound like her normal self when she spoke out the same way. I swear to God there is no way that Celestia could match the same amount of hatred as this kid. “Sorry but it seems I have run out of fucks to give,” I respond near the same level as him. “Sorry what was that? You have none?” I nod. “Well looks like you get a free beating for leaving me hungry!” He looks overly joyed at the perspective. “Not a chance.” I step back, willing a wall in between me and him. Thinking that the wall will stop him I start walking away. “My dream means my rules, bi-”A large explosion followed by rocks, bits of brick and cement flies over head. “I didn’t say you could leave now, DID I!” he shouts. As I look towards him I see he is now at least 8 feet tall. ‘Why does this always happen?’ I question myself as he starts charging at me. “Now prepare to be demolished!” ‘it’ speaks in almost a daemonic voice. “But I don’t wanna!” I yell back as I will myself into the air over his head. Then I will there to be a chasm right in front of him, and as I watch him fall in I proceed to mentally pat myself on the back. “Man, dream fights are always annoying but fun.” I smile to myself while looking at that kid falls into the abyss and disappear. When he was sufficiently far gone, I closed the chasm. With a resounding crash the ground where the chasm was seemed as it did before I ripped my dream up a little. ‘Now when does the scenery change?’ I question myself. Usually when these fights ended my dream moves on. “Unless…” I look back to where the chasm was and noticed a slight rumbling sound. “…please tell me that isn’t what I hope it is. Please oh PLEASE!” I beg to the same unknown gods. As fate would have it, the dream descended into a war between myself and all things that have scared or given me a terrible life. Hell even Barney was there, and that purple dinosaur creeps me the fuck out. Besides that, as usual I would lose, and this is where things go downhill. First it started with me being speared by creatures best left not said, then it was being slowly skinned and gutted for food. As dreams go, you are awake for all of this so you see as they slowly move you innards around, draining you clean of blood and cleaning the blades that would be used to cut and gut you. The only difference is at this point everything froze. I have no idea why but I took that chance. Summoning all my will power from the gruesome thoughts, I turned darkness into light and began piecing myself back together. After all my parts came back into one, I turned my hatred for things that make me incapable of happiness towards the things that reside within my mind. Forming my hatred, I create a blade of pure gold, and along its’ blade were tally marks. As the dream came back from its frozen state; all the creatures turned to face me. I formed beings of light to aide me for I was already done dealing with the things that caused me pain and fear. When the creatures of darkness had finally turned towards me, I charged. With each swing of my blade, I slew things that had caused me to freeze with fear. Aliens from the Aliens movie and the Predators from Aliens vs. Predators were hewn left and right. My rage burning brightest as the disfigured forms of bullies and people I thought were my friends when I lost my mother also appeared. Their forms I left no quarter, and sliced each at least a dozen times. As I look around, I notice that a good quarter of the foul beings that reside in my head gone but I had only been cutting the literal surface of the memories. In that instant of surveying the field, I had missed the form that I dreaded the most. It was my darkest thoughts and memories coalesced into a form more horrifying to behold than it seemed. The Darkness itself smashed its giant clawed hand straight into my stomach, launching me back a good distance. Pain was all I could register, and as soon as I regained my sight I saw the monstrosity slowly lumbering its way over to me. As fate would have it, in that instant I froze. I could not move nor speak. All I could do was look at what was coming towards me with slow stride. ‘This is going to hurt,’ I think to myself. Then the cynical side of my piped up, ‘At least it was an interesting dream.’ ‘Cram it.’ I respond ‘No’ the cynical side replies. At that moment a bright flash envelopes my whole field of vision. ‘If this is Luna I am really screwed.’ I think to myself. As the light dies down my fears become true as Luna stands there with a annoyed expression. “Would you like to explain to me what this is?” Luna gestured with a hoof to the surrounding area. “Nightmares trying to kill me?” I say in a quieted voice. “What’s that? Sorry, didn’t hear you.” Luna asks getting a little closer, obviously more agitated than I originally thought. “All my past nightmares were trying to kill me.” I say again, still hushed. “Nightmares. You know how big of a wave you caused with this one!?” Luna says loudly. “I had to go to a fair amount of our subjects to quiet their dreams after finding that you caused yet another bout of nightmares for others.” “Sorry?” I say near silent. “No that wo-” She gets knocked aside by a giant hand. I look past where Luna had been and see the Darkness again. “LEAVE.” It commands Luna. The next few moments were probably the scariest thing in my life. Let’s just say angry Luna is something not to trifle with. She not only banished the Darkness but then lecturing me for what seemed like years, and when more of my nightmares came up she just looked at them, and they ran. If I hadn’t been scared stiff I would have been right next to them. “L-Luna?” I stammer, very afraid if I did one thing wrong she’d would probably smash me into nothingness. She just turns her head towards me, still very irked. “What?” Luna breaths out, then lets out an sigh. “N-Next time you pop in I’ll make sure to be having a happy dream cause you are scary when your angry.” I say, still scared shitless. Her look turns to one of bemusement, and then she starts laughing. “What?” I ask, slightly taken back that she was laughing at me. After her laughter died down she looks back to me, and then she just shakes her head and disappears. “See you in the morning Adrian.” She simply states from…wherever she is. “Uh…sure?”I question the apparent nothingness. “Well… *Sigh*.. This sucks.” > Chapter 10 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pain. All that is registering is pain. ‘Note to self: try and avoid being dissected in dreams. Love – the rest of the fucking body.’ “Ugh.....”I groan, moving a hand over my stomach feeling for any open wounds or just a giant gaping hole. My heart stops when I feel a spot in the center of my stomach seemed to dip more, then stopped remembering that it was probably my belly-button. Turning my head I see that the sun is just coming up, then I groan and flip over so when it does shine I don’t see it. *Knock-knock-knock* “Yes?!” I grumble loudly. No response. *Knock-knock-KNOCK* Getting up on my elbow, I shout, “WHAT DO YOU WANT!” “Celestia wants to see you for breakfast.” I hear through what is probably 4 inches of some heavy wood. “Tell her I don’t have a change of clothes unless she doesn’t mind seeing me wear what I have been wearing all this time.” I respond. I hear hoofbeats receding, and decide that getting up may not be as bad of an idea as originally thought. ‘Now how big of a headache am I gonna get this morning?’ I ask myself, prepping for the pain that could possibly land me back on my bed, and holding my head tight. As I get up….nothing. No pain. No…anything really. “Huh….that’s….good?” I hope. --A little time later— *Knock-Knockity-Do-da-day* “Ja?” I answer. “Permission to enter?” Whoever the hell it is. “Maybe” I reply. ‘Let’s see what this pony does,’ “Could you kindly give me an answer?” the pony responds, sounding a little agitated. “Where the fun is that then?” I bounce back. Out of nowhere the door bursts open and a guard with fancier armor is standing there with a faint tinge of red donned on the face. “GIVE ME A STRAIGHT ANSWER!” She shouts. (Thanks to the door and my good ear not blocking the noise.) “What did Celestia say?” I ask, hoping that this mare will not beat me to shit. That must have taken the angry mare back a bit, maybe being the last thing she would have guessed I would say. “She..um…said come as you are, and sometime today or tomorrow she will take you to a tailor.” She gets out. “Ok, so do you mind leading me to where the food is?” I ask, and as I expected there was a confused look. “You want me to take you to the Kitchens?” she asks, with the look of near perfect confusion. “If that is where Celestia is going to eat her food, then yes. If she was going to eat on the roof of a building, and had invited me, then would you show me then?” I ask, taking a few steps forwards. “Are you questioning me on how I follow my orders?” She bounces back, a look of anger coming back to adorn her face. “Not really, no. I was curious as to whether that were to happen, what would you do?” I reply calmly, walking past the guardsmare and motioning for her to lead on. “Well if she told us to get you to join her for lunch on somepony’s roof, we would follow what she said.” She answers, still a hint of anger in her voice. Silence prevailed for the rest of the walk until we got to the Dining hall entrance. As she goes up to the door to knock, I question myself asking whether I had been an ass. ‘Most likely’ I had surmised after a few seconds of thought. My deliberation on other non-important topics was broken with a hoof to the stomach. “See ya later, Jerk.” She said as she walked away. I flip her the bird when she wasn’t looking and proceeded inside. “Adrian, How well did you sleep?” Celestia asks before I can get my mind back on track. ‘She sounds too cheery. Or am I just misreading this?’ I ponder. I stand there for a bit looking at the room, ignoring the question, and see it is like the rest of the castle, and just like the castle it’s big and extravagant. It’s so big that it puts a lot of 5-star restaurants to shame, at least in appearance. The table looks to be about half the rooms length and half that in width. Every couple of feet are center pieces, that range from elaborate pieces of art, to what appear to be lazy Susans, to even bowls of fruit (I bet they are fake). “Adrian? You ok?” Celestia asks, with a hint of worry. I look to her with a face of pure amazement. “This room, I have to say, was what I expected….and then some.” I answer slowly, still looking around at everything that was in this chamber. When my eyes eventually land back on to the table and the only other person in the room, I see she has calmed down from what could have been me going into a panic attack. “I do have to say that I was also expecting you to look tired as any normal being…” “I did but at least I make myself representable to my subjects and weird alien beings.” She mocks. I just laugh. “Well you don’t need to worry about covering your body half the time.” I reply. ‘Seriously, does any of the ponies here actually wear clothing? I mean, besides armor and what I guess to be a tie on Blueballs that’s been it.’ I quickly think to myself. “Yes Ponies do wear cloths, not all but some do.” Celestia answers my thoughts. “W-What?” I stammer out. “Oh sorry, I sometimes will reach out and feel through the current thoughts of my subjects, but to answer your question, Yes ponies wear clothing but most usually go around in nothing. It’s usually the nobles who will wear something all the time.” She clarifies. She notices my face. “Did I break you?” “Uhhh……” is all I manage to say. Celestia walks over and starts and precedes to poke me. “Adrian.” She says in a singsong voice, “Oh, Adrian.” I remain unresponsive. “Well, no food for you then.” And as if out of nowhere my stomach yells protest. “GET ME FOOD!” it shouts, but as is life no one gets what it truly says. I come back to mentally and see Celestia giggling. “What is for breakfast, anyway?” I ask. > Chapter (Unknown) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: This is as close to a true event as I will ever get to from my true life so if you dislike it then you can just leave. (I’ll explain how a certain thing happened at the end) If you don’t like then well you can’t handle the painful truth about some people. As I once again descended into the dream realm, I took notice that the atmosphere seemed to slow down and get heavy. ‘Strange..’ I think to myself. The area immediately around me started to morph into a something rather than just a large medium grey blob. “Adrian…” Someone spoke out. Looking around to find the voice, I noticed that the individual was a few feet away from me. “Adrian, the office needs you.” ‘His tone..’ “For what?” I hear my past self say. Looking behind me, I see myself sitting with friends. There say Jim and Sarah on the other side of the table with the same look of confusion and worry that I had. “They didn’t really say but your father is here to pick you and your brother up.” The monitor, Mr. Leves, said. Worried, my past-self got up from the table and proceeded to walk out the room. As I followed I could literally see all the thoughts that had been circling my head. One image I saw circle around that was faint was an image of my mother’s face. As my past-self made his way down the hall I looked out the windows I passed. Noting that there was absolutely nothing outside the windows I turned back towards my past self. “I wonder why I could have been called unless…” The past me instantly picked up the speed, and was now walking at least twice the speed. The only image swirling around my head was a corpse and a face of my mother. ‘Why do I always pick the worst case scenarios.’ I mentally mumbled. Reaching the office my past self and I saw the brother, or at least the back of him, and our father. His face was that of sadness. At the door, I slowly opened it, and barely making a sound. “He’s here” I hear one of the women say, and at that moment I was watching thorough my own eyes. At that they both turn towards me. “Ok so we just need you to sign here and you can leave.” Said the other lady, who I had dubbed ‘Master of the check-in/out list’. My father just nods and walks over, picking up the pen and then writes. I look to my brother hoping he might know what is going on but he just shakes his head, and shrugs. “Come on you two.” My father speaks in a somewhat quiet tone. Turning to go I hear one of the women at the front desk say “I’m sorry”. As we exit the school, we were all quiet, then dad pipes up, “They found your mother this morning..” We looked at him confused. “..She was found dead. Apparently she had taken some pills and drank some thing that caused the medicine to become highly lethal. She died in her sleep, at least.” My brother and I just stopped. Everything stopped. There was no movement and no sound. At that moment, one of the people I had loved and been loved for my whole life suddenly die without me knowing probably hit strongly. “W-w-what?” I hear Francis sputter out. “S-she can’t be dead. I mea..” I grabbed his shoulder. Looking at me, I could see tears start to form in his eyes. Then out of nowhere he hugs me and starts crying. I just stand there with a blank a face as anyone could muster up the pain that I held within me. I looked to my father and saw that he was holding back tears. “We need to get going. Crying here will only create rumors.” I say in a slightly choked voice. My dad just nods and starts walking again. “S-She can’t…” Francis whispers out. “Shhhh..” I say. “.Sshhhhh…. Quiet now, brother. Save the tears for home where we can mourn for later.” I feel a slight nudging where is head is in contact with my chest. “Besides we need to be strong. We can’t let others see our weakness.” -At home- When we got home, Francis had practically ran to his room. I, on the other hand, was still fazed that Mother had died. The area surrounding me was just a blur. I get my school stuff put where it usually goes, and then preceded to my room. I could hear the crying of my brother and father in his room. “How…Wh-W-Why?” I mutter as I sat on my bed. “Why did this have to happen.” Then I broke down. Keeping in mind that I was usually calm or happy, I never really cried much but now with nothing but happy memories that I had of my mother and myself when we went to the park, or the pool, or anywhere really. I was happy and all but the fact that her sudden passing made me look to what I had started just to try and become as good as her in her art. “I started this hobby with you mom. You said that you could eventually help me learn how to paint better,” I say quietly while looking at the few models that I had. “..and you said you would help me get my artistic ..” I break off as I start to cry heavily. After what seemed to be hours I stopped and looked at what I had. “Y-You’d promised that….you would help me become just as good as you.” -Knocking- “Adrian?” My father spoke from the other side of the door. “Adrian, you ok?” I make a loud ‘Uh huh’ noise, and hear receding footsteps. My thoughts go back to all the things that had happened, both good and bad. Especially when times seemed bleak for Francis and myself. As those memories came up I felt myself get tired. Within 5 minutes I was out. Those dreams I vaguely remember but what I do remember is that was when the nightmares started. Then I was promptly ejected out of my body. Everything started to fade out, everything except for the body lying motionless on the bed. What seemed like a minute or two afterwards was in reality many hours later. I had woken up with tear-streaked eyes. I watched myself get up and just sit there. Not doing much. I looked towards the clock at saw that every second was a few minutes. ‘So I really just sat there for a few hours?’ I thought amazed. -Knock- “Son?” I heard my father call from the hallway. “Yea?” I heard my other-self answer. “Are you hungry?” I heard him ask. “Not really.” Other Me responds. Again I hear receding footsteps. Not much happens, really, just a teen thinking and reminiscing about times long gone. Time goes by, and by the time my past-self actually does anything it is 5 PM the following day. Getting up, finally, I watch my other-self go to the kitchen to finally get something to eat. As I followed myself into the I see things I had put out of my mind come back. ‘Why live without her?’,‘ There is no point anymore.’, ‘The pain is too great, I need a release.’, etc. Images of razor blades, knives, scissors, blood, a noose, a gun, anything that could help me get a release from this pain, then I remember how devastating MY death would be to the family. Not only losing a loved artist but an teenager just because he couldn’t bear the pain of loss, just in the end to kill himself to rejoin her. Then what comes to mind is my mothers face, smiling and peaceful, while she stands on a boat going off into the sunset, waving at us for the last time. I snap out of the thoughts at a touch to my side and see Luna standing there with tears in her eyes, and a hoof on my shoulder. ‘She must have seen everything.’ I surmise. ‘And why is she much taller than she should be?’ Out of nowhere she hugs me so strongly that if it were my real body I would probably be handicapped. Whispers of “I’m so sorry for you,” and other stuff like that comes out of her mouth then I touch her neck. “It’s all in the past now. There is no need to really cry for those long dead.” I say with a very dead tone. “Besides this probably isn’t over if I had to take a guess.” She looks up with slight surprise. “What do you mean?” She asks. I break the hug. “Here.” I respond as I reach out and root around for the funeral memories. “This is when we laid her to rest….Well…more like spread her ashes.” “What?” She asked. Instead of speaking, I just pulled the memory of the lake house that we had. Family members and some neighbors had come by to pay final respects to the now few month deceased artist, who was so greatly loved by friends and family that her influence still lasts. I am standing on the steps that lead straight up to the cottage. To either side of me stand blueberry and huckleberry bushes and behind me is my grandmother. As my grandmother hands me the back of ashes that were once my part of my mother, I look to everyone who had been considered part-time family, and wished that she could see this. I remove the bag from the other bag (Why bag-ception?) and prepare do dump the remains not onto myself. “What is in that bag?” I hear Luna faintly ask. The memory stops as I turn to her, putting a finger to my lips. The memory resumes and as I spread the ashes, I feel a little bit of weight lift off my shoulders. Not much, but it is slightly noticeable. The memory fades again and this time we are in a parlor, one that I had dreamed of for events where I needed to think. “What was in that bag and the other bag were the remains of my mother. To dwell on the past is something I do often, and do not like to do when even that happens.” I state rather deathly. I walk over to one of the large chairs with a Iron Cross affixed on it. I motion for Luna towards one of the large couches opposite my seat. I notice that she still as tears in her eyes but care naught for them for I have shed what I have wanted to. “How can you be so relaxed about this?” She questioned. “I have lived it once and have accepted what has happened. I have come to terms with what cannot be done and undone. It is merely Fate, playing with the strings of life,” I replied in my cold, hollow voice again. “This will need to be brought up with Tia you know?” She said, wiping away a few tears from her eyes. “I know and do not care for much. Just know that when you pop up into my head there will sometimes be pain.” I stated matter-of-factly. “And if you can’t truthfully handle it then just put up another barrier like last time.” “I’m happy to say this wasn’t a nightmare so there is no need.” Luna replied. “So if that is all for tonight…” I start “I do want to say I am sorry for your loss. She must have been a great mother.” “Yea….” I sigh, “..she was.” And at that moment, the dream parlor faded and Luna disappears. There I am again, standing in the greyness. Alone