Venus Transcendent

Seamus slept in his bed, tossing and turning fitfully as nightmares flooded his once pleasant dreams. After a while of this he woke with a sigh and cursed his own foalishness. Thoughts and shadows of the past plagued him even now, with no chances of letting up. They were fraught with images of his dead friends and his non-existent family, of Jakben and Melody. Sadly he had no way of staving the nightmares off, so he reached over and sipped his small cup of water, hoping the cool  springwater would calm his nerves and steady his breathing. it didn't.

So without another pause the colt trotted out of his tent with his cup of water under his wing, out into the crisp night air. The soft breeze was devoid of humidity and cooler than a pool on a hot summer's day, easing the tension out of the alicorn's shoulders. It gave the night a comforting mood. Even Seamus, in his grumpy mood, had to admit to the comforting feeling of the wind in his mane. He trotted off through the camp, where a few lanterns were still hung just in case the troops needed to be up at moment's notice.

He wandered outside of the pool of light that was the encampment, and over to a large cliff he'd found earlier that day before they'd settled. It was a long drop, and he was sure that it was dangerous even to him, but he didn't much care. He wanted to feel in danger, he felt he deserved it somehow. He smiled and sat Lyra-fashioned on the edge of the cliff, trying his best not to look down. The chasm before him was so deep he couldn't well see the bottom of it, but he wanted little more than to fly on the trough of air it was giving off. But his wings denied him, as they were still a fluffy down.

He'd always wondered when he'd mature, when he'd grow a few real feathers and his magic would fully return. He wanted to have some sort of control over his body, something that made him look even a bit adult. But looking at him from any angle and you would undoubtedly mistake the poor young stallion for a young foal. He was so small, he had barely grown an inch since last year and his mane wasn't even all that trimmed up, so he looked like a wild pony. He looked like a small street urchin, and he felt like one too.

But that wasn't the time to dwell on those things. The reason Seamus had made his way to the cliffside was a far more personal reason than to wallow in his self-pity and loathing. Tonight was the night he celebrated the passing of the most important pony of his life. He'd wanted a view of the moon, and there it floated in the sky like a beautiful silver orb. It was even tinted a light orange for the harvest moon, making it even more perfect. The pony he was thinking of had always liked the moon, and heights.

Without further ado Seamus plucked one of his down feathers and let the wind take it, spinning and twirling up into the sky, never to be seen again. The thought of the feather was the grim symbolism that marked that night. Sky had passed just as suddenly, just as unceremoniously. And now he would forever remember that date to be the day he was to grieve.

"Why so glum?" Scootaloo asked, appearing as if from nowhere.

Seamus nearly jumped out of his skin, but he retained his composure. He turned to see Scootaloo sitting on the edge of the cliff face, just like he was. She had a curious look in her eyes, but a caution he hadn't seen in the filly before.

"Scootaloo... could I just have a moment? It's not that I don't want to talk to you I just-"

"Tonight's that night isn't it?" She sighed, putting her head in her hooves and looking out into the country. "The night when Sky died?"

"Yeah... I always do this. I can never just sleep tonight, I always wake up, like my body is making me remember."

"Can I ask you something personal? Like, really personal. I swear not to tell anypony."

"What?"

"You and Sky... I guess you two were a little more than friends, but what did you two have before? Before you came down to Equestria?"

Seamus though about it, but tears sprang to his eyes in pain. He didn't want to talk about those simpler days, as for some reason those were the moments he wanted to relive. He wanted to go back to those and relive them over and over again, no changing a thing. To just see him again would kill him inside...

"Scoots... I really want to tell you... but I don't think that I can. I'm afraid I'll get all teary-eyed." There were already tears leaking down onto his cheeks, but he hadn’t noticed them yet. "Besides... it hurts too much."

"Okay... can you show me? You have magic after all."

"You want me to let you into my memories... well, it would be better than telling you everything. But why not go ask Amethyst? She's not as emotional as me."

"But I want to hear it from you, Sea. Your view is always the most interesting."

"Please Scoots I don't want to."

"Pleas Sea? I just want to see Sky. I didn't get to see him all that much back when he was around."

"Fine." Seamus tried for magic, letting what very little he had focus into the right spell. He was taught by Twilight how to do this, how to transfer memories instantly. It would hurt him more than he could imagine at the moment, but maybe then he'd have somepony to talk to. A filly that actually knew about his past in detail. "But Scootaloo, I will only show you a bit at a time. Just a bit each night, while we march."

"Sure! So how do we do this....?"

Seamus held out his hoof, biting his lip. He had no idea how Scootaloo would react to this, but he knew that she would never badger him about it again if he just gave her the truth. His hoof glowed with a purple energy, an aura that was trying already to leap to Scootaloo in attempt to share his thoughts, memories and dreams.

"Can you just promise me one thing?" He asked.

"What?"

"I'll still be your friend once we're done."

"Got it."

Seamus pressed his hoof to hers, and they both ceased all thought.

Seamus woke up back in the tower, the same one he'd spent years of his life in. It was beautiful as ever, with it's massive, open arches out into the night sky and balconies. The one bed that was set up on a podium overlooked the whole room, allowing him to see the whole night sky at a three-hundred-sixty degree pan angle. The couches down at the base of the podium were a soft leather and the bed itself was made of the finest of brazilwood. Seamus didn't dare turn over, he didn't want to. He was afraid of what he'd see.

Just then he saw Scootaloo at the far corner of the tower, approaching quietly on the tips of her hooves. She was so quiet that she almost took Seamus by surprise when the filly appeared beside him. The colt buried his face in his pillow; he didn't want to talk. She'd come to see Sky, and that was it. So he would let her.

Most say that a piece of a friend or true love will live on inside you forever. Nothing could be more true with magic involved. In this memory Seamus held Sky, eternally bound in this room for this same day for the rest of the alicorn's life. It was a version of Sky that was the young pegasus in every way, from his physical feel and appearance all the way to his bright blue eyes. And this version of Sky lay across from the other colt, mocking him with it's realism. But in his mind Seamus always knew this would be fake, unreal version of his true love.

"Hurry up." Seamus simpered, wanting this to be over as soon as possible.

Scootaloo looked intently at the Sky the other colt had given her to look at. It was him in every way except that he was living in reality. Here, he was technically alive. It was all too tempting for some mages of good standing to retreat into their own worlds when a loved on is lost, and Seamus didn't want to be a victim of that. He wanted to go back, he knew that the real Sky would want him to move on, to live in the real world. Not with this fake bubble of lies.

"He's pretty cute, I've gotta give you that." Scootaloo commented.

The alicorn bit his bottom lip so hard it started to bleed. He wanted nothing more than to turn around and see Sky again, but he knew that if he did he'd never leave this place, he'd never go back and he'd trap Scootaloo here with him. But... wouldn't it be worth it? To be able to live on with his immortality in this world where Sky could live on and never die? And once the memory was done and over with he could just set the memory to loop, the same day over and over again forever. The only ponies that would notice the time would be him and Sky....

"Scootaloo... can you give me a few days in here?" The colt asked. "Just enough to see him again?"

"Umm... okay." Scootaloo said. "But won't somepony notice me?"

"You were never in any of these memories, so the ponies in the dream world can't see you."

"But won't somepony notice that we're gone?"

"Scootaloo, we could spend years down here and only an hour would pass in reality. This is my head, so I can kinda make things how I want."

"Okay... but isn't that a bit dangerous? For you, I mean? What if you can't leave once you've spent that much time here?"

"I will." Seamus lied.

Allow me to ask for some reviews  here and a little more. Who's fault is it for them staying there? Scootaloo's or Seamus'? I'd love to hear your answers. Leave them in the comments if you wish, my  dear readers.