For a Dream (Operation Alaska_Down)

There once was a pegasus filly known for her witty humor, high energy, and general craziness. As expected, she lived in Cloudsdale with the other pegasi and was the only child of two pegasi who, though they were at the bottom of the local social caste (if there are indeed definite castes in Equestria), remained positive and optimistic in their outlook of life.

Her name was Felicity, or Fel for short and she was indeed a lighthearted and happy pony—as positivity had been reinforced within her by her parents and she had come to appreciate her place in life. The bright cream-yellow hue of her coat and mane reflected her sunny brightness.

Despite feeling rather satisfied with her life, Fel had no serious life-long ambitions. She, like Scootaloo, wanted to be like the ace flyer Rainbow Dash. She wanted to inspire and empower others and to hopefully learn the legendary Sonic Rainboom. Her life was rather vain at the moment but she was still just a filly, so she had some time to figure out what she was going to be in life and obtain a respective cutie mark. Yet this mattered not to this little filly, for alongside youth is the notion that life is eternal.

Though Fel was not unanimously loved for her endless happiness and positivity, she had quite a few friends at school and was relatively close to them. What was great about her friends was that they accepted her for who she was, as she reciprocated such respect and genuineness.

Yet at such a young age, friendships and other relationships are never as complex as they are later in life. The youthful life is indeed simple, despite the narrow, lambent fate of the youthful mind.

The rest of her story before she began her path to synchronization is negligible.

As Fel progressed through life and school, she reached a point in her social life where her friends stopped to accept her being for who she was, as the social trends and standards of her peers were evolving to exclude her behavior and character. Slowly and quietly, she was being rejected, even by her friends. She did not think much of the silence and strange looks of her friends when she did what she always did to stay connected to her friends. She remained positive. Yet her positivity was slowly abating, as her parents were struggling financially and were continuing to fall deeper into debt. One loss after the other chipped away at their spirits. They had now fallen to working at a miniscule rock-farming plant in this glorious city in the clouds.

The efforts she made to better herself and her parents were ineffective and failing, no matter what she tried.

How could something like this happen in Equestria? Was it actually happening?

One day, on the way to school, Fel was approached by two of her classmates: Ruby Luminescence and Royal Glitz. They had jeered at and berated her before and surprisingly had the support of a sizable amount of the school.

"Hey, Felicity. I heard that the Morning Weather Team is preparing a serious thunderstorm. If you want to prove to the rest of the school that you’re still cool, you’ll fly your blank flank through that thunderhead and retrieve my homework for me. Everyone else has been able to do it. I’m so nice I even reward them for running such a simple errand for me,” said Royal Glitz in a demeaning manner.

The sky was indeed darkening. Beyond the clouds, a deeper darkness was building.

Felicity did not say anything.

“What’s wrong? You can fly, right?”

Felicity pretended she didn’t her them.

“Hey, everypony! Look! Fel still can’t fly!”

Sure enough, they were all now on the school grounds and everypony except her could fly. Being able to fly was more important than having a cutie mark in Cloudsdale. Had Scootaloo been living in Cloudsdale, she too would have been amongst the ridiculed.

“I can fly! Even if I don’t use my wings, the light heart still allows me to fly!” came the reply.

“Where did you hear that? Did your mommy, the rock scraper, tell you that?” Jeered the two, laughing. Some others joined them in their mockery. The momentum of social conformity was building in that direction.

“Fine! You asked for it! I’ll prove you wrong!” retaliated Felicity. She never really had to snap back at somepony else until that day.

That day was different. The whole world felt dark for Felicity. She wasn’t happy. She wasn’t herself.

She approached the edge of the cloud-terrace and stood atop a stone parapet. Three small clouds lay below her like stepping stones or lily pads. She leapt elegantly from one to another, using her feeble wings for propulsion. The next cloud was a little farther away and there was a cirrus-like cloud below. Such clouds provide very little protection against long falls and have the equivalent density of a sheet of thin wood. They can be stood upon, but only by the nimble.

Agitated yet determined to defend the honor of her and her family, Felicity made the jump. She did not quite have the spring in her step and her wings just weren’t strong enough to provide lift. She plunged right towards the cirrus, which appeared much thicker at second-glance. Panic struck her nonetheless. No grown-up pegasi were in the sky and doubtless anypony would reach her in time. Now facing the surface, Felicity shut her eyes and prepared to crash through the thin cloud. A moderate shock from the impact tore through her and she continued to scream- but the wind ceased to rush by her.

Opening her eyes, Felicity saw nothing but whiteness in every direction. Her hooves were still visible before her but nothing else was. She was still falling but she could not see the ground to where she was falling.

Was she really still falling? Was she dead? Had all of this been a dream?

Below her, Fel spotted a hole of blackness. As she continued falling, it got bigger and bigger, slowly revealing a strange wireframe-looking image. Eventually, the image engulfed Fel and her acceleration rapidly decreased. She came to a soft landing on a metallic grey wireframe platform. Her sense of motion sensation seemed altered. Things seemed to be moving a little bit slower and she even felt less whole.

Fel could see all about her that she was no longer standing in Equestria- at least, not the Equestria she knew. As far as she could see, there were strange metallic pillars, strictly geometric tower-like structures, and blackness. Connecting the towers were strange tubes of cyan, purple and white light. Turning about, Fel could see way off in the distance a massive castle-like structure towering high into the sky- if there was an atmosphere in this strange dream-like world. At the edge of her wireframe platform there lay an enormous circular mirror-like plane of glass. Beyond the glass-like portal, she could see a very long tunnel, like a subway system without a train or tracks. Curious as to what it was, Felicity approached the edge of the platform. Maybe the tunnel lead somewhere. Was there a train or some sort of vehicle that transported ponies to the castle-like structure?

Speaking of ponies, where was everypony?

Intrigued yet a little absent-minded, especially after falling through the clouds, Felicity flittered down onto the track. Upon passing the threshold separating her platform from the track, she felt immensely strengthened in her wings and actually hovered above the ground. Not only did she manage to stay afloat, she started to move forward- then accelerate. Before she knew it, she was flying down the track rapidly. Her wings were luminous and twice their normal size and density. She was actually flying. The joy of the experience radiated in her heart and renewed her diminishing spirits.

She felt awesome! Totally, extremely happy!

With her strength renewed, she burst forward in a flurry of speed, the cyan-and-black track around her becoming more and more blurred by the speed. If she kept speeding up, she might even do the legendary Sonic Rainboom!...but only Rainbow Dash could do that.

And yet she was still accelerating. Felicity believed she could go faster and faster and so she did. What was in her heart, her intrinsic will, was directly fueling her abilities. Why couldn’t this have happened a few moments ago?

The speed was becoming exhilarating- so amazingly thrilling that Felicity finally thought she was going to explode. Sure enough- BOOM! A radiant blast of color exploded behind her and she reached legendary speeds. She was moving as fast- if not faster than Rainbow Dash. She kept accelerating. Her speed was starting to become frightening. The track on which she was travelling had been mostly straight, with some slight bends and drops but if she kept moving faster, she might tear right through the walls of the tunnel.

And yet she was still accelerating. She was going to outrun the colorful trail she had been laying. Before she knew it, there was another explosion and a wave of white light- the sum of the colors of the rainbow- exploded behind her just like the Sonic Rainboom. But this was faster than a Sonic Rainboom. Surely she was now writing history. The world around her was moving by so fast it was starting to disappear. While looking away, Felicity did not notice a bend in the track and inevitably she felt a hard impact.

Upon contact, the world suddenly seemed to vaporize into blackness and she rapidly decelerated. Everything was completely silent. She felt drained of power—the impact had had an immediate, extreme effect on her emotions, which she did not notice at the time. Everything was moving in slow motion. This state endured for a few moments and then as soon as everything disappeared, the world re-atomized around her.

Felicity was now standing in the grand castle she had seen from afar. The interior indeed looked like the clean halls of a castle—they looked somewhat like Canterlot Castle! The place seemed empty and the colors entirely greyscale- but not dishearteningly so. The marble-like surfaces still glistened with imperial grandeur. Looking up, Felicity saw rows of balconies lining the side of the tower that extended to the heavens.

While marveling at the halls, Fel heard hoofsteps. Somepony was coming. A grey unicorn entered the halls and trotted right up to Felicity.

“Excuse me but could you please tell me how to get back to Equestria?” he asked.

“I’m as confused as you are, erm…?”

“Call me Spark.”

The expressed character of the two had become statically narrow and restricted solely to practical exchanges. They were both beginning to fall prey to the numb singularity of the place. Thus, the two of them began to saunter aimlessly through the halls, engaging in flat banter.

“So where are you from?” asked Felicity, who, as has been mentioned, had become deprived of the energy that defined her.

“Canterlot.”

“Are you a student there?”

“Yes.”

A pause. The two stopped to survey the world in which they stood. More and more grey marble chambers with black-and-white checkered marble floors. The entire palace seemed to be made of marble. The very world around them was rather quiet, save a deep, guttural ambient hum- like the engine of a cruising ship. The strangeness of the place was continuing to dawn upon these two ponies. They looked at each other. The color in their coats and eyes seemed less vibrant. Their very form seemed less defined.

While musing, another pony approached, descending a stair case. Turning about, they beheld a strange being. It was indeed an earth pony- but he looked…different. His form was diminished or twisted. He almost looked like a ghost: dark grey, cloudy, and almost translucent. His eyes were closed but he knew exactly where he was going. His hoofsteps seemed heavy and his face was grim and solemn. Approaching the two Equestrian ponies, he opened his eyes, which were also grey and mutated- the pupil and iris bled into the rest of the eye.

“Welcome home, dearest seedlings” came a somewhat quiet, lambent, expended voice.

“Home? What are you talking about? What is this place?” asked the confused yet defensive Felicity.

“Welcome to Solum, the land of truth. I am Arc, the ambassador of His Omnipotence, Lord Aurora. Your presence here is no accident. You are both seeking answers and truth and only here in Solum will you find what you seek.”

Felicity and Spark were silent. They both wanted to know something. They weren’t even sure what it was, but they wanted to find out.

“This truth you seek cannot be found in Equestria, where there is no true peace. Only here will you find synchronization with a higher frequency of self-actualization.”

“Frequency? Truth? I don’t understand,” mused Spark aloud.

“Spark, seeker of knowledge and love,” began Arc closing his eyes. Spark felt a bit light-headed. “You want to know why your Canterlot friends and family left you alone and thought you’d be just fine without supportive friends. You also progress aimlessly deeper into magic studies without even knowing why you’re doing so. A perfectly ripe frequency for enlightenment,” he concluded, taking in a deep breath.

“How do you know these things about him?!” exclaimed Felicity, leaping into the air and re-gaining some color, invigorated by her strong new wings, “what are you trying to do with us?!”

“Felicity, seeker of acceptance, respect and happiness!” Arc’s words seemed to freeze Felicity in place. He was dead-on. “You want to know why your friends are rejecting you despite your enduring positive spirit and laughter-inducing antics. You want to know why your family is being mysteriously dishonored and humiliated. If you would cease your defensive aggression and hear out this world, you both would find what you have been searching for.”

The humbled Felicity landed. “I still don’t understand how you know so much about us.”

“Come and follow me and I will tell you.”

The three of them ascended the stair from which Arc had emerged. Another extensive incline lay beyond, as they still had yet to fully scale the tower. Arc began to narrate to the unicorn and pegasus the history of Solum.

“Long ago, when Discord was the overt enemy of Equestria, there was a secondary enemy whose existence has been censored in almost all literature to this day. His name was Despond and he was the kin of Discord. He was the master of all despair and sadness and thus, the most feared and dangerous threat Equestria, a land of love and happiness, has ever and will ever know. Luna and Celestia had to act quickly to defeat him and seal him away before they could target Discord.”

Arc stopped.

“They did not, however, consider the possibility of quelling his suffering. Using the suppressive power of the Elements of Harmony, they sealed Despond away forever- except for one of his iron feathers, which fell into the abyss over which he hovered. He did not resist- he simply gazed at them with his endlessly empty eyes and was destroyed.”

The three continued their journey upward.

“The little essence of Despond that remained in Equestria, that one feather, found a nesting place in that deep abyss, whose location is a secret to all except those two princesses. Thus banished from Equestria, Despond found a new place in the cosmos to call home- an empty, void place which became known as Solum, which in a strange mystical language translates to ‘The Lonely Place.' Nearly formless, Despond spliced his essence in half and took on a localized physical form- the founder and leader of Solum- Lord Aurora, which translates to ‘Lord Dawn.’ From his remote sanctum, Despond continued to channel the sadness, loneliness, and despair through that one feather, which slowly and invisibly seeped and bled into Equestria. Since then, he has regained a measure of influence in that land.”

They were nearing the top of the tower.

“Now, Solum is the home of the localized soul, or Auroran Frequency, of every pony who has ever despaired in their plight. The more they have despaired and the lonelier they are, the more powerful the frequency that dwells here. Our Nightmare Moon frequency, NTM-045, is especially potent.”

A cold fear was starting to settle on the two Equestrian ponies.

“An Auroran Frequency is both an individual being and an illusionary projection. It is both dependent and independent of the soul of the being it represents and does not necessarily have to be sorrowful to exist. In fact, manic, serious, and comparatively normal Frequencies exist- they just don’t have any real power. You see, an Auroran Frequency exists at numerical balances of the three “RED” Energy waves that parallel a pony’s feelings, efficacy, and external relevance: R-Lambda, E-Theta, and D-Alpha waves. High energy levels generally correspond with happy, relevant, confident ponies- although there are some mysterious individuals that seem to be free of RED Energy. Once Despond’s Feather detects and harvests this energy, an Auroran Frequency is born and stored in our archives. Indeed, we have cataloged every pony in Equestria, no- your entire world- in our archives. Speaking of every pony, we have arrived.”

The three of them now overlooked a massive drably-colored hilly grassland landscape dotted with ornate metallic structures and buildings connected by roads made of pure silver. The horizon was a lined with a queerly illuminated thunderhead- partly obscuring the diminished sun. There was a strange, enchanting placid beauty to the grandiose scene. Ponies of all sorts could be seen commuting and working dreadfully hither and thither, their colors, their spirits all flattened as they lived in perpetual introspection.

“Welcome to your true home, dearest seedlings.”