Conception

Chapter 7: Darkness

Eternal darkness endured in ubiquitical existence...

It was so dark; oh-so dark. Fumbling through a fabric of thick air, Alica tried to figure out what exactly was going on.

To no avail, she looked back to her memories. She couldn’t conclude anything besides the fact that she was going deeper into the dream that Vinyl and her could potentially be stuck in for eternity. How this could have happened, she had no idea. There were billions of questions and zero answers.

Alica tried looking around.

She saw darkness.

Great… Alica thought to herself sarcastically.

“Vinyl! Wanderer! Hello? Anypony there?” Alica tried calling out at the top of her lungs, but for some reason, no sounds were produced from her lips. She tried lifting her hooves in an attempt to at least navigate.

She had no hooves.

No body.

Before she could panic out of utter confusion and turmoil, she felt a pinch and saw swirling light in the distance.

She opened her eyes, and found that she was able to see. She quickly tried lifting a hoof, if any, and did indeed find that she had the same amount she was born with. Woah… I don’t want to experience that again, she mentally noted to herself.

Now with a tangible dream body, she lifted herself up and looked around. So this should be, what, the third dream level? Alica thought to herself. As she looked around, she could find that The Wanderer was nowhere to be seen, and neither Vinyl to her dismay.

She found herself in what looked to be a dark, forsaken, old-fashioned castle. There were small pocket-windows on the far wall, which had the black night shining through. It was no longer so dark as Alica’s eyes adjusted, and she decided to start heading towards the only passage she could find in the room.

It had stairs that led upwards spirally for what felt like forever, and at every angle there was a tiny window leading outside. After about a minute of walking up, she decided to look outside to see if she could find the others from this high up.

All she could see was a very dark fog down below, but up above, there shone a bright, gray moon. She stared at it for a few seconds, but then something strange seemed to happened.

She was looking at the faces of her parents -- she realized -- in the moon. They were looking down at her, smiling.

Before Alica could react, there was a distant howl and the moon shifted from gray to a simple silhouette. What she saw then was a monstrous wolf grinning maniacally. The dark fog from below covered up the moon, and Alica heard a voice.

“Long time no see, Alica.” It was dark, and it was familiar.

“W-who are you?” Alica asked, trying not to shake in fright as cold shivers ran down to her hooves.

“Oh, I’ve never introduced myself, have I? Some call me The Darkness. Others -- The Night. That is all you will ever need to know. If you know what I mean, I am quite a star.”

Alica felt shivers run down her spine once again. She simply continued walking up the stairs, ignoring the terrible pun.

“Now where are you going?”

Alica didn’t answer.

“I know you can hear me.”

Alica kept walking.

“You aren’t going to find them.”

Ignoring it once again, she found herself at the top, overlooking an abstract world ahead of her. Dark pits overlaid the landscape; large chasms contained dark colors swirling in all directions; huge masses of land jutted out of the ground like deformed mountains and cliffs.

“Well will you look at that. You are more lost than ever. What will you plan to do now?” It asked.

Alica sighed. “You are just a bad dream, and you know it. I will find them, because I’m the dreamer.”

“Haha! Is that really? Can you even say that you know what a dream is? What reality is? For all you know, you could be stuck in this dream forever.”

She kept walking. “I know what reality is. It’s with Twilight up above.”

“But what if it’s not? All your reality is right now is this state of limbo.”

“I don't think you will be able to break me so easy,” Alica said firmly.

“How does The Wanderer do what she does?”

“Easy, she-“ Alica stopped. Here, she had to think deeply about it. She had to think of how The Wanderer had been a part of her visions. She had to think of how she was even a part of the dream itself.

Most importantly, with all the other questions in mind, how she was the one who left the basket outside the house of the Underthoughts.

“It just doesn’t make sense, now does it? It drives you absolutely MAD.”

Alica held her head in her hooves. “Stop it!”

“You might think you’re the dreamer, but without knowing anything, how do you think you can beat me?”

“STOP IT!” Alica shouted at the top of her lungs, trying to quiet the voice.

“See, you can’t even think of a single thing to answer back. Just give up like I said before. It’s not worth it, and you know it.”

“No! Stop! Please!” Alica started to run as fast as she could. She didn’t care where exactly, just away from the voice.

“Why should I? I’m just asking you questions.”

Alica stumbled to find an isolated spot in the chaos around her. It was nearly like what Discord did with the world when he escaped from his stone prison, but here, it was ten times more maddening. There was no humor; only fear, darkness, and utter pandemonium.

Alica just couldn’t find a single spot of solace, encountering yet another large chasm of dark color cut into the ground. She started to panic more and more as she heard the voice cackle in the distance all around her.

Then, almost by luck, she found a tunnel, completely empty.

She hurried inside, hoping that perhaps it was a safe-haven of silence.

Inside, she was glad to find that it was indeed plain and isolated, but then again it was still dark. She took this chance to slump to the floor and try to get her mind together. The questions were there, she just needed to know what she needed to do next. They were just questions, so she knew she needed to find a way to keep her focus steady.

Instead, she started to sob.

For what felt like an hour, she continued to sob uncontrollably. Miserably, her tears fell from her face and onto the hard, stone floor. She was trapped, she knew, suffocating in the dark with no way out. Choke after choke of crying led her to begin to feel a chillness she had only now begun to notice. The sweeping feeling of terror heightened to a peak, and she choked yet again on her own sadness, not knowing what to think or do next.

Eventually, though, she had to lift her head up to wipe her dry tears from her face.

“Maybe… maybe it’s right…” She said to herself as she started to look down. Nothing was left in her eyes but a bitter emptiness. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. Every promise she made; every declaration to continue moving; and her last glimmer of hope -- all seemed gone in this quiet abyss of Limbo. Her expression grew grim, and in a slight vision, she saw herself giving up to the dark.

“No, Alica,” the voice of a familiar mare said. She lifted her head up completely to find a lantern. The Wanderer, holding this beacon of light, put a hoof atop of Alica’s head comfortingly. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’ve known him my whole life. You’re going to have to trust me when I say that there is all the reason to keep moving forward.” The Wanderer then smiled, trying to get Alica to see the truth.

Alica put her head back down, still with the vision of giving up. “It’s just…  it’s so hard.”

“But it’s worth it, in the end.” She lifted Alica’s head back up with a hoof and looked her in the eyes. “It’s worth it, okay? I know there are hard times, but you’ve got to remember one thing. There is always hope. I... I faced the worst myself, and trust me, it is worth it to find light.”

Alica looked back into her eyes. “R-really?”

She smiled to Alica, simply nodding. “You are going to have to fight this darkness for yourself. I can’t help any more than trying to get you to see just what you can do. You have so much power, Alica. All you need to do is believe. Remember what you’ve learned, and believe. Nothing can stop you, you see?”

A glimmer of light sparkled in Alica’s eye as she felt that old faithful feeling inside her; it was the great burning fire that drove her very soul.

So then, she proceeded to stand up proudly. Her vision of giving up faded like the dark had around her. There was hope; a vision of pure light and joy filled her being, and she knew, somewhere from her heart, that this was far from the end. This vision, it made her understand that there were things she did not know, but she could push through until she was no more.

“Thank-you, Wanderer. I think I know what to do now.” Alica smiled

She smiled back, nodding. “Vinyl and I will be waiting up above.” She then motioned Alica towards the exit of the tunnel. “Go show him who’s boss, and find a way to un-anchor this dream from his grip. You know how dreams work," she finished with a happy wink.

Alica nodded back, and walked out into the chaos outside. With a glance back, she saw that The Wanderer had disappeared. No matter, though, for she had all of the courage she needed.

So, she continued out.

“Hah, so you’re back? You come to give up defeat?”

“No,” she said firmly.

The voice was taken back from her change in mood. “Oh really? You sure seem proud of yourself. Do you even know who I am?”

“Yes.”

It cackled hideously. “You cannot even COMPREHEN-“

“You are what is holding me back from waking up, that’s who you are.”

“I- I don’t know what you mean…” It started to show a touch of fear.

Alica stood up taller. “Yes, I’ve figured you out. The Wanderer told me what I needed to know…” Just then, she spotted a large wall of colors circling around a large metallic object.

An anchor.

“Th... the Wanderer.... WAIT! No, no, there is no way out and you know it. Stop bluffing!”

“You’re right,” Alica said, throwing the darkness off-guard again. “Not unless I believe. I know how dreams work, and so you must know that I’m the dreamer.” She started running towards the anchor, pushing against the dark forces blocking her.

“No, you DON’T  know how dreams work! One day, you are going to have to accept the cold, hard truth!”

“Okay, but I am not going to listen to darkness to get the answer. I'll see it for myself,” Alica said back, nearing closer.

“YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! YOUR LIFE HOLDS ABSOLUTELY NO PURPOSE! GIVE UP NOW!”

Alica then remembered one of the most important rules to dreaming:

‘Don’t give up.’

She forced her way past the wall of dark colors surrounding the anchor and proceeded to unlatch it from the nightmare around. She held onto it as it soared higher into the brightening, abstract sky. The ground below her started to twist and shrink in the distance. Up above, a bright, white light shone down on her as she got closer and closer.

“This isn’t over. You can never deny the truth…”

Alica then felt a tinge of worry seep in as she heard the voice say this. Then, though, she shook her head and looked up, remembering Morning’s very words that she promised upon:

‘Just keep looking to the bright side.’

~     ~     ~

From a small cabin on the far end of a beach by a raging sea, Vinyl was heard yelling like never before.

“YOU KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN! Why would you SUGGEST something like this when you KNEW the risks?” Inside the cabin, Vinyl glared angrily at The Wanderer and then looked away and down to Alica, who was lying comfortably on a bed.

“She is the only one who can overcome it. I told you, I talked with her a second ago. She should be up anytime now.”

Vinyl groaned. “We’ve waited for so long already! You even said you went to help her! HOW CAN YOU SA-“

Suddenly, a sound came from Alica’s direction as she woke up.

“You see Vinyl? What did I tell you?” The Wanderer said as she smiled. “Morning, Alie.”

“Ugh, just five more minutes…” She muttered.

“Heh, reminds me of how I feel sometimes," Vinyl muttered, but then grew wide-eyed as she realized what was happening. "Oh! Alica! You’re okay!”

“Well of course, it’s not like I yell at myself every morning…” She mumbled.

Vinyl tilted her head. “What?” She laughed, not knowing what else to say.

“What was that Morni-“ Suddenly, Alica realized she wasn’t talking to Morning. She rose up out of bed immediately and looked around.  “Wait, what?” She then looked into Vinyl’s and The Wanderer’s eyes as she remembered everything. Still, though, she started to scratch her head. “Uh… Okay, I know that we’re still dreaming… but where are we exactly?" She started to look around for a few seconds, then continued. "I don’t remember this place…”

The Wanderer spoke. “Oh, yeah, about that… right as we went into the dream, the darkness put you under one more time. Into limbo, actually...  We put you here into this cabin until you woke back up.”

Vinyl shook her head in further relief. “I was so worried for you, Alica…” She glared back over at The Wanderer with shimmering anger.

“Oh, no, it’s okay. I think I might have saved us, actually.”

“What? really?”  Vinyl hurried over to help Alica, who was getting up and off of the bed she was atop of.

“I… I think. I don’t know, I was just assuming because of what The Wanderer told me,” Alica said back.

They both looked over to the mysterious pink pony.

“Maybe this is the time where I think I should explain a few things…” The Wanderer said as she side-glanced them, turning another direction.

“You think?” Vinyl said bluntly, clearly irritated.

“Follow me.”

Following The Wanderer around a corner, they found two couches. The Wanderer positioned herself on the one to the right of Alica and Vinyl as they all sat down.

Alica then saw something and gasped. “Wait, is that what I think it is?” In front of them, there was a large screen.

“I don’t know, is a memory screen what you think it is?” The Wanderer smiled ecstatically.

“Oh my gosh! I was just talking to Vinyl earlier about the idea in the other dream level!” Alica squealed happily.

Vinyl chuckled as she sat down. "Well, I guess we should prepare for a show. How long do we have?”

“As long as we need, especially this deep down in the dream. I hurried you guys before because I knew that the dark side of Vex should be stopped before he grew enough power to… well… cause actual damage.”

“Vex?” Alica tilted her head curiously.

“Oh, yeah, he was a part of the darkness down there. Here, let me start explaining what you need to know. This might answer a lot of your questions you’ve had since I first met you in that one dream…”

The screen turned on as it showed a gray-coated and light-blue-maned pegasus stallion with red eyes. Behind him, there were distant worlds and planets. He was resting casually on a couch as he looked out into space through a large, futuristic, glass window.

“So he is. He went by Vex, and his full name was Vex Vitiate.”

In the space station, he stood up and trotted towards a main control panel. There, he seemed to be accessing it to control the movements and formations of worlds below.

“He was a dreamer, but not just that. He created universes one cannot even imagine. He was so skilled at it, ponies would never believe him if he told them randomly off the street."

A few more scenes of extravagant sights passed by, and eventually the scene faded to black. Then showed a close-up view of his closed eyes.

“Eventually, something broke him to a point of no return. A friend ‘betrayed’ him. After that, he closed himself from the world and gave into dark and chaotic magic. Dreams bring a source of magic that is, in its raw form, infinite. By fully tapping into it, he brought out the worst within. With so many negative emotions manifested, he formed a darkness in the very fabric of the universe.”

Suddenly, his eyes opened, and they shone a bright yellow and red. It looked oddly familiar.

Just then, the scene shifted to him as a tall, dark figure standing on two legs shrouded over a corpse.

“He changed the world as we knew it, and with it, he had lost his only friends. I tried to tell him that it wasn’t the way to go, but he ignored me. He assumed that I would remain his friend, and that I would be his queen, but you see, he wasn’t himself anymore. He broke his soul into pieces to access this much dark magic, and from it came two beings.

“In Equestria, a part of him is known by one name: Discord.”

The scene shifted to a dark, abstract tunnel twisting in odd and mindbending ways. Dark colors wrapped inside out. From the right side, Discord seemed to come into being, and from the opposite side there was a shadow of a pony. The tunnel tore in two, and they fell in different directions. Discord's tunnel seemed to spiral up, and up he went. The perspective was kept on the shadow, in which it fell into a downward spiral of further darkness. Everything then seemed to expand, and grow darker and darker to the point at which nothing was visible.

“The other part of him was manifested in deeper dream levels of the universal consciousness. Even when he escaped his stone imprisonment, he still had that connection with who I now call Dark Vex. With Discord's recent reformation, the connection is starting to disappear, so it is becoming more and more likely that we can fix this entire mess. Although, this also makes it so Dark Vex has a greater chance to come into the physical world. He had already come through partially by creating Nightmare Moon, and I fear that we may have another possession on our hooves if we don’t do something about it. Worst-case scenario, the universe is filled with black and he comes here himself with unimaginable power.

“Also, if you are wondering how I am so old or how I can access dreams like this, before you ask, I will answer. I pretty much live as a being in the dreamscape. It’s complicated, but just call it a type of magic. My goal, for thousands of years, has been to keep Vex at bay. Discord is the essence of chaos, what’s left of Vex; and Dark Vex the essence of Evil, which its sole purpose has been for every dark intention imaginable. “

After showing a final image of Dark Vex -- a star-filled cloud of darkness with dim, shining, dark-red eyes -- the screen blinked off.

“So, any questions?” The Wanderer smiled patiently.

Alica blinked. It all finally started to make a little more sense. The one particular vision she had when she met Discord at Twilight's place especially seemed to clear up, at least to a point. Then, she blinked, and started to form a question she felt was fairly important.

“Wait, uh, how am I tied in all of this?”

“Ah, yeah, I probably shouldn’t forget that!” The Wanderer shifted spots in the couch as she got a bit more comfortable. “So basically you were born with a connection to Discord. I can’t tell you everything, because this might be the only way to defeat Dark Vex. If I told you, then Vex would have the upper-hoof… it’s so complicated, it really is. You are just going to have to trust me. You are our last hope, you see.”

Alica looked down for a moment, then back up. “What about my parents? Why did they leave?”

The Wanderer hesitated, but then decided to say it as simple as she could. “They were heroes. They sacrificed themselves to save you."

After a second of silence with Alica taking this in, The Wanderer continued.

"Dark Vex could’ve taken over your body with the connection you have with him. Your parents sacrificed themselves to act as a shield guarding you from The Darkness’ power. Does that make sense?”

Alica looked down once again. She did not know how to respond -- let alone what to think -- hearing this. She thought back to Morning's story, and thought about how sad her parents were to leave them. There was something that Alica remembered.

'But… where are you going?' Morning had said she asked them.

'We will always be here,' Greathoof had responded.

It was not a lie. It was never a lie, Alica realized. This is... this is true. After all this time... every vision... Alica began to think. They were here for me every step of the way. Even when... even when... She thought of her childhood. She thought of the pain she went through for being who she was; she always thought she was alone, not ever having a true friend. She thought of every time that she was pushed around; every time that she was laughed at; and every time that she was lost.

With all of these thoughts flowing together as one, she began to feel a trickle down her cheeks. She smiled; it was of a pure and whole-hearted truth -- that she was not alone...

That she was never alone.

Alica got up, and walked over to the pony who told her this. Without a hesitation, she hugged her in an embrace of absolute appreciation. "Thank you, Wanderer..." The little blue unicorn sniffled after saying this, and let every light emotion come into her existence.

The Wanderer hugged back, beginning to feel some of the same emotions as well. “Oh Alica, I'm just glad to be able to tell you all of this...”

Vinyl sniffled. “Woah…” She resisted the urge to cry as she joined in on the hug. She chuckled slightly. “Heh, this is the most realistic dream I’ve ever had.”

Alica giggled. “Yeah… hopefully we can have another, but have it a little more controlled. It all seemed to go by so fast...”

Vinyl's expression grew befuddled. "What the? ...I thought it was long..."

“Don’t you two worry. It will be more controlled. Vex is taken care of for now. I set up a block while everything was going on, especially with him being distracted by you, Alica. Although, it is up to you that you keep him below. I will be helping where I can, but now that you know of him, you will need to take initiative to protect yourself. Keep believing in yourself. Whatever he might say, don’t listen. He just wants control over Equestria and Discord, and nothing else. The way he does this is by finding connections of dark magic. When a pony gives in to darker emotions... well... that is what he looks for.

"Alica, whatever you do, please try your best to look to the light, especially now. Never let him lure you in. He is pure evil…” The Wanderer said. "I wish I could say there is hope for him, but he is barely even a pony... We are going to have to continue with my plan, which I... I cannot fully explain yet. You will have to wait until the time is right. You will know when."

“I understand.” Alica pulled back from the hug as Vinyl did as well. “So, um, what should we do when we completely wake up? I mean, we are in Star Swirl’s library still…”

The Wanderer smiled. “Just keep researching, that is all I can say for now. Oh! And also, you should really look into getting a totem. It might help you a little bit…. Ok, actually a LOT bit. They are used to help you tell when you are in reality or in the dream. I don’t have one for multiple reasons, but I can say that Vex used to have an ancient coin. It would spin forever in the dream. I recommend you find something of your own. If you have any other questions, talk to Luna. I’ll have her go into a dream of yours soon to finally talk.”

Vinyl sighed and looked around. “So when are we gonna wake up?”

“Wait, weren’t you saying before that you would be okay if we stayed here forever?” Alica asked, confused.

“Eh…” Vinyl shrugged. “I’m getting tired.”

The Wanderer giggled. “Oh trust me, I’ve planned how we are going to get out! Throughout my years, I have developed quite a lot of creative ways…” With that said, she pressed a button on a remote and the screen changed to a scene overlooking Alica and Vinyl lying down in a bed within an empty room. Pinkie was overlooking the two ponies.

It was the higher dream level.

“Close your eyes now,” The Wanderer said, getting up and off of the couch.

As they followed through, they started to feel the sensation of the bed under their body. Their past bodies seemed to fall back as if the couch had tipped backwards.

~     ~     ~

They opened their eyes to find themselves in the empty room. Pinkie started to bounce up and down joyfully. “Oh my gosh! Hi! How was your nap?”

Vinyl started rubbing her head. “Uh…”

“Sounds fun!” Pinkie grinned like never before. "You have no idea how booooring it was up here!"

Vinyl chuckled. "Nah, I do. I waited for Alica in another dream level even below the... uh... dream just now."

Pinkie Pie gasped as her eyes went wider and wider. "So a dream within a dream... within a dream within a... DREAM???"

Vinyl seemed to choke on Pinkie's words.

Just then, the elevator opened, showing The Wanderer. “Through here, guys!”

"OKAY!" Pinkie shouted as she bounced in. Everypony else followed inside as The Wanderer kicked up a lever. It started moving faster and faster upwards. There was a speedometer that Alica then noticed.

Ok, did the speed just double? Alica thought to herself.

Four times as fast, now?

A hundred times as fast?!

Alica couldn’t tell how fast it was now. It kept spinning at an incredible, blurring speed, showing that the acceleration was beyond physically possible. She could no longer stand, and could assume that they broke through the roof quite a while ago.

Are we in space? All she could see was the ground pushing into her face. For all she knew, they were hurtling through deep interstellar territory. Everything shook violently faster.

“Wooooo!” The Wanderer screamed ecstatically as she pressed a button. Alica didn’t care to understand how at this point, she just accepted the dream for what it was. “Hey Aven! Prepare the music!” The Wanderer continued in excitement.

The was a long, excruciating pause. “Huh? Already? Really?” Aven's voice was finally heard through a radio speaker up above, although muffled with the noise the elevator was making as it flew higher and higher upwards.

“Yup! And hurry! I think we're about to reach warp speed!”

After another long, excruciating pause, Alica could hear a very slow-motion track playing in the distance, somewhere.

"Hehehe, the old fashion way..." The Wanderer said to herself, rubbing her hooves together in anticipation. It sounded almost like folk music. Alica started to feel another body of hers. Just then, her vision blacked out with the force of the elevator growing to be too much-

~     ~     ~

-and she woke up in the damp cave, shaking her head in absolute dizziness. Alongside her was Vinyl, who was also way too disoriented for comfort.

Vinyl grunted. “Ugh… I think I’m going to barf.” She paused for a long, agonizing second. “...Hm… nope, I’m good.”

“Hiyo!” The Wanderer walked into the cave completely relaxed.

Pinkie immediately popped up. “Hi!”

Vinyl moaned. "HOW do you two do it?"

"Do what?" Both Pinkie and The Wanderer spoke in unison, looking at each other and then to Vinyl energetically.

In response, Vinyl just rolled over and started mumbling to herself. "I swear, they are two of the same pony..."

Over the next few minutes, not much else was said as they prepared to wake up into Equestria. Alica said that it would be good to make sure they didn’t keep Twilight waiting, so Aven didn’t question them too much on the specifics of the dreams.

With last farewells given to The Wanderer, Alica followed through with Twilight’s instructions to waking up. “Awaken,” she said, and the spell began to undo itself.

Alica started to feel her body up above as the dream started to fade. There was darkness as the world seemed to dissipate to but a memory, and then they felt the warm light surface on their coats as they awoke back into reality.

~     ~     ~

What a dream… Alica thought to herself.