Venus Transcendent

They say that dreams, and rather, nightmares, are mere gateways to our subconscious. Sometimes we don't expect what our minds secretly experiment with in the back of your heads, and most of the time we aren't aware when we're dreaming. That changes when you've lost someone close to you. I'm not talking about an uncle or your great grandma, but somepony that you were close to, lived with on a daily basis. Somepony you laughed with and gave your most dark, mischievous secrets to. A childhood friend that had grown into a best mate for life.

Seamus had lost one of those, and his dreams would never be quite how they were. Before Sky had died, the world was right, had one general purpose and direction. His dreams were borne to easy, simple matters, lucid illusions of what could be if he'd ever escaped his prison in the North. Once he'd had freedom he wanted to go back for Sky, and soon the other colt had consumed his dreams like sand absorbs a heavy summer's rain. But once he was there he hadn't slept all that much, he'd been too absorbed in duties, distractions, having his will picked at by colt-napping and treason. The things that consumed his attention wasn't Sky, the pony he'd longed to see or the colt he'd vowed to spend every moment with.

Then,  when the two were finally reunited they spent two nights together, the only two nights they'd ever spent as free ponies. Even then, on just the eve of the third night,  Sky was killed in a bloody assassination. The funeral had been short, only Seamus had attended since Sky had no family, and the world all but forgot of the baby blue colt.

But not the pony that had loved him more than life itself. Seamus had never forgotten, had never stopped looking back at that fateful night and saying 'I could have saved him'. That was the one subject that consumed Seamus' dreams. Every night it was about Sky, invariably. Sometimes it was the night he was killed, replayed over and over in an awful repeating nightmare. On others, it was just him and the colt sitting on a cloud, as they'd always dreamed of doing, and having a picnic.

The colt cried no matter what happened in his dreams, they all ended the moment he woke up. Sky was there, polite, innocent and strangely charming, then he was just... gone. Burnt up in the sands of time. The worst nights were the good dreams, when Seamus tries his best to apologize for letting his best friend and lover die. Of course the pegasus would forgive him and they'd embrace, but no sooner. Than that the alicorn would wake up in reality.....

Seamus cracked his eyes open  to find Angel the Bunny tugging on his tail, trying his best to get the alicorn out of bed.

"Leave me alone, Angel." He grumbled. "You know I hate it when you get me up this early."

The rabbit lost patience with him, grabbing a calendar and throwing it onto the bed. It was August ninth, his first day at Ponyville schools, and actually the first day of his education. As a prisoner in the far North he'd never had the ability to learn much, bits and pieces here and there about magic or history, but overall his knowledge was constricted to a few subjects. He grasped magic naturally, as was to be expected from an alicorn. His history was spot on after so many, many lectures from Twilight about his home country in The Northern Counties.

Angel snapped his fingers and slapped Seamus on the nose, pointing to the door. Without any more delay he gave into the rabbit's command. He set about his morning ritual, bathing, combing his mane, tail and preening his feathers. Luckily for him Fluttershy had a nearly limitless supply of shampoo due to Rarity, that and the other products she gave him kept the colt smelling like a batch of daisies.

The colt finished brushing his teeth and went off to breakfast. He knew that Fluttershy wouldn't be up at this ungodly hour, so he made himself a sandwich and tucked a pencil behind his ear. At any rate he'd be early; school started at about seven and it was only six o'clock. Despite this he left in a hurry. He wanted to be early and stake out a seat by the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Seamus and the Crusaders went back a year, to when he'd first arrived in the beautiful country of Equestria. Shortly after he'd met the fillies, and they'd had a small misadventure with Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom, he'd been forced to leave Ponyville to live at the castle. He hadn't seen them in a year, and he couldn't wait to see them again. Scootaloo had never been all that friendly towards him, but they were still friends. Apple Bloom and him were on thin ice with each other due to Applejack’s rather harsh opinions on the prince. Sweetie was (rather obviously) both envious and attracted to him at the same time due to his royal status and looks. He didn't return affection.

Walking anywhere bored Seamus, maybe because he'd rather fly, or teleporting was just easier. True, he could have been there in less than a second, but if he'd done that he would have missed Scootaloo heading out of Sugar Cube Corner with Sweetie Belle. His heart leapt into his throat; how would the two react after he'd disappeared for a year? He'd never even said goodbye, he'd just vanished from their lives a short day after he'd met them. They'd really had it off, and he was sure Scootaloo especially would be angry.

"Hey guys!"

Scootaloo clocked him upside the head, sending him reeling backwards. No sooner had she done this did she grab him and pull him into a hug. Sweetie Belle just stood there staring like he was a ghost. He'd been gone a long time.

"Um... feeling a little conflicted?" Seamus sighed.

"I want to hit you again, but I'm afraid I might break your face. That was for leaving, this is for coming back."

Sweetie pulled the two apart. "You're alive?! We thought you'd died or something!"

"No... I'm alive, mostly. So what're you two up to?"

Scootaloo took a bite of her jelly doughnut, speaking through her mouthful of grape flavored jam. Specks of food and bread spattered the other two foals. "We were just getting somethin' to eat."

Seamus brushed off his front, smiling. "Classy, Scoots. I’ve been at the castle-"

The pegasus filly shoved her hoof in his face, silencing him. "Um... not that I don't think she's old enough, but I already know the story. I don't want Sweetie to hear about it."

"What story?! I wanna hear!"

"Oh, boring stuff, paperwork and running Equestria, meetings with Luna and all that fancy barf."

The filly narrowed her eyes, pointing at them suspiciously. "I know there's somethin' up... and I'll figure it out... watching you two... always watching..."

"Scary." Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "So I hear around you're going to school, Sea?"

"Yeah, I just wish that I knew half the ponies there.... wait, how did you know I was going to school?"

"Well, a filly hears things if she knows what to listen to... like Rarity's constant gabbing about how you're so cute in a bowtie." She snickered. "All you have to do is sit there and nod along n' she'll tell anypony everything about you."

"I think she likes Seamus more than she likes me." Sweetie sighed.

"Aww... I'm sure she loves you, Belles. At least you have a family. Both me and Sea have no family to speak of."

"There's that, but I think that Sea is stealing all my time with Rarity. We didn't even take our scheduled vacation to Canterlot this year since she had to watch you for the week...."

Seamus sighed, guilty. "Well, I'll get Fluttershy to watch me all next week, how's that? You two can go off gallivanting all over Canterlot and beyond if you want."

"Galli-what-ing?" Scootaloo questioned. "Is that a disease?"

"Yeah, it's where your wings dry up and fall off." Seamus teased.

The filly's eyes shrunk to pinpoints of terror at the thought. She reached back and felt her wings to make sure they were still attached to her body.

"I was just kidding, you big chicken!"

She drew back and hit him in the side, angry at being deceived. "I was really scared there! I thought I was going to have to walk everywhere for the rest of my life!"

Sweetie Belle gave her a look. "Ooooh, so scary, how horrible to have to walk anywhere!"

Well, this chapter went from heavy, to light, to medium, to light again with humor at another pony's expense.

That type of  humor is the best!

Leave a comment of two sentences or more, please. This was another chapter I couldn't have proofread, so please point out mistakes!