Finders: Find me in Ponyville

I had been in other pony’s dreams before, but that was so long ago.

I felt guilty taking the potion, but Luna was right, we needed SOME answers. Perhaps at least something to verify these two were just ponies under a magic spell and not human creatures from another world. Also, I admitted to myself privately, I wanted to be the first one to walk in an alien’s dreams. As I woke up this morning curiosity had just been killing me. I felt like Twilight getting a new book. I couldn’t just set the book down without at least getting a preview.

I started with the colt. I smiled warmly looking at him sleeping so peacefully. I tried to remember some vocabulary Twilight had taught me from the mirror world, just to give what I was probably about to see some context.

“Okay… girl… people… everybody… it should be enough to keep up, I hope.”

I closed my eyes.

Inside a dream there is a trick to observing. You can’t manifest unless you want to take part, and I didn’t. Basically the trick is to just watch and not try to take a form at all. Then you can see anything by just willing to see any part of your surroundings. Of course as an observer you don’t control the dream, so you just have to be ready for a ride.

I looked around to find myself in a room. I looked down to see two creatures rolling on the floor. They were pushing, shoving, laughing… I supposed they were rough housing. The creatures were wearing more clothing than I was used to seeing, even over their back sides… it looked rather distasteful I thought, indecent even… what if they had to use the restroom?

Well, from the looks of their bodies they had no fur, so how else were they supposed to keep warm, I supposed. Both creatures had rather light colored skin. One looked feminine, she was small, with raven black hair on her head. The larger creature looked more like he was a… “boy”, yes, that’s the word… The boy had brown hair and was a good deal larger. Their playing sounded so loud it caused a booming in the room I was currently standing in. The room itself had blurry walls, though I’m not sure if that was because they were items out of focus in the dream, of if that’s how things looked where Kyle came from.

I looked to my right and saw a black haired boy at a desk, smiling and looking to be tinkering with something. He had some kind of device between his hands that he was working on. He pushed a button on it and- well suddenly the entire landscape changed.

I was outside now. The black haired girl was crying. In her hands she held the hand of another human, this hand smaller than hers. I couldn’t make out what the hand was attached to, but I could see the smaller of the two boys leaning down next to the girl, a look of concern on his face.

The boy must have been Kyle himself and I guessed the girl was Jessica. Good timing on the guess as the landscape changed again. This time the boy and girl were hiding behind a bush. Jessica seemed excited. I watched as a very small and young looking human jumped into the arms of an older looking female human… a mother perhaps… reunited with her foal- child?

Did they bring the child back from the dead? Was it a different child? Dreams were always such a mess, and they rarely had cliff notes.

I then watched as those last two scenes repeated over and over. As I watched, it became clear, the hand was indeed of a dead child. However the child embracing his mother was not the same child, it was a different one. In fact each scene was of a different dead child and then a different living child and a different mother.

If I could decode this right… perhaps… Kyle had a job or hobby rescuing children in his world. Eventually the scenes morphed into scenes with strange incarnations of ponies and their foals. If any of this was a faithful portrayal of Kyle’s real life… maybe that was taking things to literally. Who knows? However, yes, the creatures I was looking at were NOT ponies, and when ponies did start showing up… they looked… wrong somehow. They were much more uniform in color from one to another and their hooves didn’t match their bodies.

I opened my eyes again, having left the dream.

Well that satisfied my curiosity about the boy being from another world. It seemed like he was. Of course a dream can never really give you details, but… I walked out and looked at the filly.

What in the world did she dream about?

I was actually more curious about her than him. She was wild and goofy and had so much energy. She was the one who forced me to doubt that Kyle was really as old as he said he was, but she was also the one who… well who opened my mind when she opened the roof.

“I should probably switch back with my sister. That way she can have time to rest before tonight and-“ I paused, just realizing I was saying that out loud as a few servants walked past to clean up the library. I looked down at the foal again. What did she dream about? I have no need to know of course… but then… I looked around. Finally I shrugged, sat down next to the foal, and closed my eyes.

When I looked around, the world around me was dark. I looked down and saw-bones. They weren’t pony bones, no, human bones, but they were bones all the same. I looked up and saw a… man… male human, their version of a stallion. He was holding a skull and grinning. I turned my head to see a black haired girl glaring at him, charges of electric energy flying around her. In her hands two swords appeared.

The man laughed, tossing away the skull. The girl shot forward, impaling the man with her both of her swords, I looked away, hearing the man continuing to laugh.

I then heard boos and shouts of disapproval. I heard grunts and gasps in Jessica’s voice, them sounding frustrated and even shocked. “I… I stopped him.”

“Who stops you?” came a yell.

“No one does!” another yelled.

“No one stops the queen. She must be stopped!” another yelled.

“I will stop her,” came a young voice. The boy, Kyle, appeared, surrounded by darkness.

“Kill her!”

“Destroy her!”

“No!” the boy yelled. The voices ceased. “It’s alright. I’m here. I said I would be with you. I still am. Even…” the boy looked at his hand as it instantly changed into a hoof, “Even now.”

A large white mare, looking like a morphed version of me walked over to him from nothing. “Are you now?” it said.

“Um… Jess… um” he started backing away from the mare. He backed into another dark mare behind him.

“Where are your swords boy… where are yours girl? This is our world. We’re princesses, it belongs to us,” who was speaking I couldn’t tell, I could only understand it was one or both of the mares. “And so then do you. So does he. He’s ours now. And again no one will stop you. No one.”

Kyle looked frightened and the mares were starting to hide him from view. I heard a thumping like the rhythm of a heart getting louder and louder. “No one will stop you. No one will love you. You will be alone, alone, again, alone, again, alone, again, alone-“

I couldn’t take anymore. “ENOUGH!” I yelled. I willed myself to take form between the boy and the mares.

The boy looked up at me. However instead of looking at me with relief, he just raised an eyebrow. “Wa… who… what?”

I opened my eyes, again out of the dream my mind reeling and my heart thumping. What was that?

(***)

Meanwhile, in Ponyville

Apple Jack-

The weather was sure actn’ strange ta’day. Rain, then sun, then rain again- somehow we gots some snow… don’t ask, I don’t rightly know- and at the moment, sun again.

I already talked to Twilight, who had apparently been fielding questions all day long about that very issue. She was apparently on her way to Canterlot to look into the matter with Celestia.

Well… whatever the weather does, it’s summer and the apples won’t ever buck themselves. Thus I gathered up my sister an’ a few buckets and threw em’ over my shoulder… actually I was just playn’ with Apple Bloom on thrown’ er’ over ma shoulder, she loves to monkey around a bit… and headed out to the field.

We’d been bucking for a good hour when speak of the devil on weather, out of the sky came Rainbow Dash. The way she flew in… seemed off. No flurry, no spins or zips, she just flew in and landed. I was about to start on a tirade about her management of the weather, but one look at her depressed face told me this was not the time. Rainbow was pretty immature, so I guessed at something silly upsetting her. “Ya know, our contest to see who’s faster at catchn’ crows isn’t until tonight.” Okay, that probably wasn’t a fair guess, but I had been dealn’ with a lot today.

“Yea… I’m probably going to have to cancel that… stuff is coming up and… well that just doesn’t seem to be very important ya know?”

She didn’t immediately walk up to me or Apple Bloom, she just stood in the middle of the field, looking at the grass for a few minutes, and then back into the sky, like she was thinkn’ a shootn’ right back up into the clouds. However she just stayed there. She kicked a small pebble she found on the ground with her front hooves.

“Somethn’ I can help ya with?” I asked. I had almost never seen her like this. Like she was lost in thought. Now no insult ta’ her but Rainbow was never much of a thinker… I guess that is insultn’ but I just can’t think of how else to say it. She looked off to the right, continuing to play with the pebble. “Ain’t you got things to do?”

“They can wait… they can… they’re not so important really.”

I looked over head at the sky, half covered in storm clouds over Ponyville, and the other half clear over Sweet Apple Acres. “Oh I’d say it’s pretty important. Think your pegasi can move some of dem there clouds over yonder over here? Ma western fields were supposed to get watered today.”

“Yea, I know the weather is wonky today,” her expression changed to one of irritation as she looked back at the clouds over Ponyville herself. “Celestia has been sending weird signals all day about what she wants and no pony can make heads or tails of it. Best I can tell it’s getting weird all over Equestria.” She looked back down. “Still… not that important.”

I raised an eyebrow at her. “It’s kinda your job.”

“Yea, just my job. There are more important things don’t you think?”

“Well… ah mean yea… I’m sure there are.”

She looked over at Apple Bloom, who was buckn’ away at a far off tree, and finally sighed. “Can we talk for a… bit?”

“Somethn’ botherin’ you?”

“Well… yea… can she go do something else somewhere… else?”

I looked over at my sister. Whatever Rainbow wanted to say, she looked serious, so it was probably best ma little sister didn’t hear. “Hey sis? How abouts you go play with Winona on the other side of the farm.”

“Uh, we got stuffs ta do.”

“I know, but Dash needs to talk and-“

“If it’s that big of a bother then maybe I should just go,” Rainbow said, spreading her wings and moving back to take off. “Still… this is a matter of… well… before it’s too late.”

I did NOT like the sounds of that. “It’s no trouble at all,” I said. “We can take a break. Apple Bloom, just go.” With an exasperated grunt, Apple Bloom ran off to the house. I then heard her whistle for Winona. “She’ll be occupied for a bit with that, now what’s on your mind?”

“I’m… I’m a good pony right?”

“Yer rough around the edges, but a pretty good pony at heart. Which, I would say is what really matters.”

“You think… you think I do a lot of good? You think people listen when I talk? You think what I say is well… important?”

“I’d say to me it is.”

“To others?”

“Well. Ya know, ya do have other friends. Yer sayn’ some kinda… off puttn’ things here.”

“Well that fits. I’m having some off putting thoughts.” She sighed and looked down. “I… there’s something I have to deal with… something I have to end… but once it’s over… I think I’m gonna hurt a lot of ponies.” She shook her head. “But… still I think I have to do it.” She looked up at me. “I know normally I don’t ask for this kind of advice, but well… I have to know if I’m making the right decision. I have to end this. For her.”

“End this… fer who… are you sayn’ what I think yer’ sayn’?”

“Maybe… have you noticed with Scoots… things with her… I think she’d be better off if I ended what’s happening with her. She really needs it.”

“You’re talkn’ stuff to do with that little sisterhood thing you got going? If you’re talking this way… look, she needs YOU.”

“I know… I knew you would say that. And well… I’m pretty sure if I do this well… yea that sisterhood probably end too… in fact I’m pretty sure it will. Yea, no doubt that’ll be over.”

“I think I know what’s going on. And… and ah might be able to help ya.” I finally said. I held back a tear, I wanted to look strong. The last thing a pony like Rainbow needs is to see someone gushn’. Probably make her uncomfortable, more than she was probably already feeln’.

“Well yea, I was hoping so.”

Well, this was bringing me back to something I did not at all like to remember. When I went to Manehatten several years ago, I made a friend. Storm Chaser was his name. He was a pegasi like Rainbow. A lot like her actually. Mind you he was just a foal at the time like me but… well Rainbow never has acted that mature anyway. He pulled a few weather pranks on me and played a few games with me when I entered town, and we had a fun little tussle before I left. Nothing much, but enough to remember his name. He told me his address and we were pen pals for about… three years ah reckon. But then suddenly he stopped writn’. I sent a letter to his parents and they sent me a news story.

I was shocked. Somethn’ had been bothering him somethn’ fierce. Whatever it was, he started losing interest in all kinds of things he used to like doing, like writn’ me. Then one day, he just took off into the clouds higher than he’d ever gone before, and just let himself drop. He was… well, dead before anyone could get there.

I cried myself to sleep that night. I swore I would never let one of my family think they needed to do somethn’ like that. They were all wanted and they would know it. I wanted everyone I cared about to feel welcome with me. That way they knew they were wanted and… if it came to it, they knew they could talk to me. Now Rainbow wasn’t family, but she was a real good friend, and in ma’ book, that makes ya the same thing.

I’d also read a little bit on the subject too. “I… I think we need to talk to Twilight about this,” I continued.

“Yea well… yea I think that goes without saying.”

“Glad you realize that.”

“Well of course. She’s gonna need to set things up for when I do this. I’m gonna need her help,” Rainbow said with a nod.

“Now- no. I don’t think Twilight or any of us are gonna help you with that. The only thing we’re gonna do is stop you. You should know that.”

“What?” she said, squeeking it out.

“C’mon, we’re your friends, we’re not gonna let you throw it all away.”

“Scoots needs this!” she yelled.

“Again, she needs YOU!”

“No… not like this she doesn’t. If I can’t have your help… well… I have to think.”

“Now Rainbow-“

“You can’t stop me. I’m going to do something anyway… no one can stop me. I swear it… for Scootaloo… I swear it.” I looked down. This was hard. What was I supposed to say? She thought this was best for her sister? How could killing herself help Scoots? Just what was in her head? “Look… give me some time alright? You try to go to Twilight right now… I’ll do something drastic I swear. But after that answer… I’ve got some thinking to do.”

“Well-“

Rainbow glared at me. “I want you to know, after what you just said… I can’t even believe we’re friends! Well… we’re not anymore.” She opened her wings, reeled back and took off.

That caught me a little off guard, stunning me until she was too far for me to yell after her.

I took off ma hat, a few tears flowing out of my eyes now. I wanted to go running to Twilight, but Rainbow’s threat kept me anchored there… I couldn’t… I had to do this right. Those words hurt, but not as much as Rainbow must have been hurtn’. I knew one thing, I had to be strong for her.