The darkness fell thick like an ink-stained curtain, bleeding Sunshine Delight's peach coat a deep purple as she plunged into unconsciousness. Her eyes couldn't help her in such stifling conditions. It was almost as if she had shut out the world and banished it from her perspective entirely, only to not be replaced by dreams and rest.
Instead, she reached out and she felt nothing.
She felt around, worming through the unending and directionless shadows aimlessly. It felt vivid and real. But everything about it felt too bizarre to be so.
The murk felt thick enough to swim in. It could have drowned her. It clawed at her body, penetrating her dense pegasus coat and oozing over her entirely. She felt violated in its presence. It carried the same creep-out factor of the colts who used to stare at her on the playground, but worse. Ten times – no – a thousand time worse. It was as though something pored through her mind, her soul, her secrets, and stripped her bare.
The revolting sensation stirred her. It was so foreign and detestable, yet felt so familiar in so many ways. It encompassed her and flooded her psyche with demands she couldn't begin to comprehend.
It pierced her mind with thoughts of pain and numbed her with fear.
She wondered if she was dying, flailing helplessly about in the grasp of Grim Reaper himself.
Her entire body wrenched as a bitter wave of cold swept over her like a hurricane of ice and snow. It clung to her coat and left her shivering, teeth chattering, longing for the warmth of day.
Then it began to suffocate her, squeezing in on her and holding her in place. She struggled but couldn't feel herself move. She felt icy talons digging into her and bleeding her willpower.
She let out a noiseless scream of panic.
Her eyes pierced the darkness. She peered into the inky murk, looking for a way out. It swam across her eyes like some vile serpent.
Then, something peered back.
Sunshine Delight tore herself out of her sleep with the trailing end of a startled scream. Her chest heaved as she reacquainted herself with the living world.
Her lungs burned, her chest ached, and her heart thumped out-of-control.
A soft blue light shone from the nightstand to her left, and she threw a glance over towards it.
2:38 a.m.
It took a moment for the pegasus to catch her breath. Her coat was drenched in perspiration and heat, in spite of the cool spring morning that caused the ground outside to glow with frost under the moonlight. A ghostly azure light filtered in through the curtains, reassuring her and bringing her mind back to the ground.
Heaving a deep breath, Sunshine swept her hoof back through her striped mane, rubbing at her temples and breathing out through her nose.
She heard a soft whimper to her right, and she turned her magenta and green eyes that direction.
Mandolin Moonlight's silver eyes glowed softly in the dim evening light. Her ears pinned back against her head as she let out another soft, breathy whine.
She smiled that toothy smile of hers despite her sister's ability to perceive it.
"I-it's cool, Mandy," she chuckled nervously to her sister. "Just a bad dream. That's all."
Her younger sister sniffed a timid reply, her white tail flickering and glinting with the moon's rays.
Sighing a hot breath and shaking her dizzy head into clarity at last, Sunshine got up and crossed the distance between their two beds. She hopped up on top of the covers and threw her forehooves around her younger sibling's navy withers, planting a kiss on her forehead.
"See? Just a bad dream." She nuzzled her platinum mane. "Everything's just fine."
The space of several moments was filled with a pause. Sunshine felt herself quaking, and hastily ended the hug before her younger sister could feel it.
Jumping down off the bed, Mandy looked after her with blind eyes, following her shape in the darkness the best they could. Her ears wilted further and the younger pegasus wriggled off the bed to follow her.
"I'm uhh... gonna use the bathroom," she said.
Mandy pouted and sat back down on her mattress, while Sunshine made for the hall.
She shut and locked the bathroom door behind her, resting back against it before she finally let herself breathe again. She slid down to her rump and got a look at herself in the mirror. Her mane was a ruffled mess, matted with sweat to the sides of her head. Her wings were outstretched, the feathers a disheveled wreck. Morning would require dedicated preening.
At last, her chest stopped burning with the flames of breathlessness, and she looked at her trembling hooves before closing her eyes and resting her head in them.
A knock at the door behind her drew her back to the surface.
"What was all that screaming about?" asked a broken voice from the other side.
Sunshine gulped.
"S-sorry, Daddy. I uh... must have had a heckuva nightmare," she grinned awkwardly to herself.
"You sure you're okay? 'Cause you know your mom would kill me if I didn't make sure."
"Ah heard that!" came the southern accent from down the hall.
Sunshine chuckled, wiping the sweat from her brow. "Yeah, Daddy. I'm fine. I promise. Just need to use the bathroom."
"Alright. If you're sure. We're just up the hall, if you need us."
She nodded. Another wasted gesture. "Got it."
She heard her papa trotting away, and breathed a bit easier, standing again and reaching for the brush on the counter. After readjusting her appearance again and downing a sleeping pill, Sunshine sighed and pulled the door back open, heading back to bed for another bout with her dreams.
ACT ONE: The Firewall Sanction
"And They all looked down upon the Sixth, who had fallen to her own grand delusions,
And the Betrayer looked up and spoke in a tone most dire, 'Woe betide you my sisters,
For the day will come when your tomb cannot hold me. And I shall stir from my prison
And be as one with the light again. And you will call upon your children numerous and
Far to return to you, but they shall not hear your wisdom nor heed your saddened cries.
"'For it will instead be my own voice that they hear whispering unto them, and it will be
My voice that they flock to, and beg for wisdom and guidance. And it will be my words
That they cling to and know are right and just, while yours are of madness and heresy.
"'Marvel upon your Eden and be made merry in the goodness of your great vision, for it
Will, like all things in the end, become mine own. For as the light is my craft and my
Own making, it will proceed from me and return to me and obey me, and all thoughts
And words and deeds will become my own thoughts and words and deeds. And thus you
Will know when I am She above all other things that I alone was the greatest of us All.'"
—Testament of the Old Ones, "Book of Sorrow"
Chapter 17; Verse 22 - 24
Author's Note
Thanks to Rated Ponystar for helping with this one.
