The Universe Hates You Specifically

Though she wanted to, Bea didn’t dare scream. Pain coursed through the entirety of her left side even before she landed, and the resultant jolt from when she did hit the ground was almost numbing.

In a display of incredible willpower, the cerulean filly lay still, holding in all but the occasional sniffle.

“Again.” Like daggers. That’s what her voice was like- just like a thousand tiny daggers. Something sharp, pointed- meant to kill; but easily concealed.

“I d-” a gurgle drowned out her words, quickly turning into a hacking cough that sent new waves of hurt throughout her body. A small spattering of blood mingled with her spittle and wet the ground in front of her. She had bitten her tongue too, but that was far less concerning that the burning feeling crawling up her side.

Gently running her teeth over the bite mark, she found it produced a somewhat muted ache. Between the heavily layered taste of iron and the not altogether unpleasant sensation, she was able to wrest control of her focus, and ever so slowly, she shifted herself upright. It hurt- it actually hurt quite a lot- but she was up.

“I… don’t know if I-” more ribs cracked on her other side as the next hit landed just as hard as the one before it. “-HGGRK”

She hit the floor and the world turned sideways, sending her mind tumbling.

Far too abruptly, she regained stability. The constant sensation of the mats on the floor beneath her body simply ceased, leaving nothing in their place. All that remained of the mind-shattering pain was the shock, and even that was quickly subsumed by the feeling of wrongness as gravity shifted, putting her back in an upright position. She was not in the training room anymore.

The ground under her hooves was chalky, and a hoof lay reassuringly, on the back of her neck; digging into her withers, not quite hard enough to hurt, but there was still some force behind it, keeping her still as they watched from afar.

Ahead of her, the congregation that had formed up outside was all but ready to depart, and if they were lucky, they’d reach their destination before the next sleep. Bea longed to one day be part of the scouting party. To be allowed to roam free of the rest of the flock; a member of a close-knit group, bravely securing the safety of the whole school. It was a hollow dream and she knew it.

Peering out at them all from here, it was just like watching strangers passing by through a grubby window- something that she found quite accustomed to. She was able to make out some details through the smudges, but others were obscured by the grime.

There were the ponies of course; other students in the years above her, and one of the teachers. Then there were the things… for example, the wagon, already heavily laden with passengers and bags of supplies in equal measure. The wagon was a beautiful thing, and she had often fantasised about what adventures she could go on with it.

But what really caught her eye were the moments that others shared. The things that she glimpsed briefly between the legs of ponies far taller than her, or that she just managed to catch a peek at, a private thing, barely visible behind a stack of boxes, tucked behind the corner of the wagon. Siblings saying goodbye- lovers sharing a last moment before they were separated. Parents and children; friends and rivals alike.

It was natural that in this era, the fittingly named ‘Long Night’, that time would feel so much more dramatic. Before- when each cycle was separated into two parts, covered by a brilliant light and a shroud of darkness respectively- it was easy to get a feeling of progression. Without that constant change, everything felt like one laboriously drawn out silhouette of a moment.

So it was these little pieces of life, just going on- even as the great mechanisms that had marched time forward lay broken and still, these moments that really drew her attention. More than anything else, she wanted something like that for herself.

Through the fog, she recognised an older filly, one of the acolytes- more than double her age. Ivory Carver. She’d taught Bea how to braid her mane, and until recently, Ivory had read for her, bringing to life all the books with bigger words, the ones that traded whimsy and insufferable sweetness for intrigue and danger. Ivory hadn’t been afraid to challenge her when she was acting spoilt, and she often talked about her own life and problems, not just fawning over the young heir in an obvious attempt to better herself.

Even though Bea realised that the only reason that everypony was nice to her was because they had to be, it had always felt like Ivory actually cared enough to know her, even if only to ingratiate herself to Bea more efficiently. But she wanted to believe that there was more to it than that.

When she had been about to leave with the others, Bea was overcome. It was so rare that Bea actually acted out, that Jo barely registered it when the filly slipped out from under her hoof.

By the time the surly pegasus had moved to follow her charge, Bea had already rushed up, rushing past the crowd and squeezing through the fence. Having made it this far, she took a moment to regain her bearings and home in Ivory, standing proud and tall with her silvery mane and straw coloured coat and her rich laugh and her crown of flowers.

Ivory was in the middle of a conversation, and only turned just in time to be enveloped by a fierce hug; with Bea wrapping as much of her tiny body around Ivory as she could. “Be careful, ok?” She’d said tearfully, nuzzling into the older girl’s shoulder. Ivory had laughed, and hugged her back.

“Ok, ok! You got it, scamp. I promise.” She’d cast her gaze over to the colt she’d been talking to, and shook her head. “Sisters, eh?” He inhaled sharply, muttering to himself as he walked away, and Ivory tittered to herself yet again. Bea wanted to cling to her forever. Her sister- Ivory really loved her! Had they always been family- had she simply been too blinded by the self-absorbed expectation that nopony cared for her beyond her title?

Ivory must have spotted Bea’s guardian approaching, because she prised the small filly off herself and patted her on the back. “Alright kiddo, let’s get you back to your mother.” She leaned down to playfully whisper in Bea’s ear “She’s a little scary- I don’t want her to think I was trying to steal you.”

Bea giggled, “Jo’s not my mum, she’s my aunt.”

As they walked back to where Jo was waiting, Bea turned to get one more look at her friend- no, her sister, walking back to the rest of the group. Evidently, she lingered too long, and the stern hoof of her guardian came down on her shoulder. She winced instinctively, but when she looked up, Jo was wearing a tired smile. The pegasus used a wing to ruffle Bea’s mane.

They never saw anypony that had gone with that forward team again.

From what Bea could overhear, it had been concluded that there was an attack- most likely, agents of the Solar court happened to be patrolling the area and noticed them. Ivory and the others- if they were alive- were probably in the capital city by now.

Bea followed the teachings. She didn’t cry because she knew it was a luxury they couldn’t afford. She ate in silence and went directly to her room. A few hours later, she heard the door lock.

Staring wistfully out at the dark sky, she offered a silent prayer to the Mistress of Shadows, and clambered into bed, hoping to fall asleep quickly.

That night, she had her first dream.

~~~

It had been quite a few days- or cycles, as Bea insisted on calling them- since Luna had last spent any amount of time in her palace. Really, if one was being technical about things, it’d been a few centuries, at the least. As she ran the thought around her head, her head drooped under the sheer absurdity of her situation, and she found herself having to stifle a giggle.

It wasn’t too hard to keep quiet though; the chiselled grey-matter walls carried sound and thought for kilometres, echoing about the empty castle, which really hammered in the terrifying isolation of her situation. Perhaps she should spend some time sculpting again- maybe make some motionless grey subjects to keep herself company. Then again, surrounding herself with cold facsimiles of life might actually turn out to make her feel even more lonely.

One of her ears quirked at a familiar noise.

There was a flickering sound- this consistent rattle, occasionally stuttering or wavering. The cinema hadn’t been working the entire time she’d been back, but it seemed to be running just fine now.

During the initial days of her confinement, it had been her only source of entertainment. Even here, she could still see dreams, although it was hardly ‘dream-walking’, or at least not as it had been when she’d had a real body.

An idle thought led to another thing and on a whim, she summoned the theatre to herself. She was thoroughly fed up with painting for now, and there wasn’t much else to do.

Through the respectably sized double doors she strode, taking note of the projector, blank reel spinning away madly. Taking a quick look at the leaflet advertising the currently showing ‘features’, Luna sighed. There were only three, and of course Bea was one of them. That might explain why she was unable to project her form into the real. Maybe.

She turned the page over to the next one. There was no next page, and the back of the first one was completely blank. Her brow creased with a heavy frown. It wasn’t uncommon that only a few different dreams would be considered important enough to be on the front page, but there was never less than a hundred or so in total, over five or more pages.

The metaphoric constructs here could only go so far- how one would even try to represent every dream occurring simultaneously was beyond her. Archival was slightly easier, but considering the sheer volume of people that dreamed every night, there were still some restrictions on how the ‘films’ were stored, even if this realm wasn’t entirely bound by the same rules as reality.

In a heartbeat, she stood in front of towering aisles, crammed full of records. Without wasting time, she moved to the lectern at the front of the nearest aisle, grabbing the book atop it. Flicking through the index, she grew even more concerned. There had only been a little bit less than a hundred dreams in as many years.

A pout crossed her face briefly, but she quickly shrugged it off, and returned herself to the cinema. Grabbing her usual seat, she clapped her hooves twice and the room went dark. Picking up her glasses from the side table that hadn’t been there a moment before, she settled down to watch the first dream.

It didn’t work.

She looked at the screen blankly, unamused by this spanner in the works. Checking the brochure again, she noted that the title she had selected was now scribbled out.

Burying her head in her hooves, she tried with the next one, already certain that she would be met by the same result. Sure enough, the screen remaining perfectly white.

Great. That just left Beatrix’s dream. Usually, Luna liked to get permission to view the dreams of the people she knew, but she was really bored, and Bea was very understanding. She probably wouldn’t mind.

~~~

A force of pure destruction was tearing through the compound. It wasn’t specifically trying to demolish everything, but anything that remained in its path was permanently erased from this world. The stone floors melted beneath her hooves, walls crumbled as she walked nonchalantly right through them, and no matter where she went, the fighting pretty much instantly stopped, with cultist and soldier alike dropping back into a defensive position in the wake of this upset.

Minutes after she would pass by, a warbling tune would sing throughout the halls, heralding the arrival of a second stranger following along in her footsteps- a stallion that members of the School would have known as the Regent, while the agents of the Solar Guard recognised him from their briefing. He was an extreme threat, far beyond any of their capabilities.

Then, in each different area, groups of ponies composed equally by government operatives and heretical fugitives would arrive, and formally bring a cessation to the fighting. Apparently the Witchfinder General himself had shown up and demanded that the entire operation be called off, with both sides disengaging peacefully.

At the same time, the supposed “Witchfinder General” and a particularly low-ranking member of the School were also racing to track down Bea, unaware of her current state, and without the faintest idea of what to do when they found her. Notably, they had also taken a detour to collect some confiscated items from a secure lockup, namely a pair of saddlebags and a beret that Onyx thought was cute.

In the main chapel, most of the fighting had already drawn to a close. Naturally the mages guarding the Prior would be some of the most powerful magic-users of the entire School, however the guards that had expected to be apprehending unicorns were wholly unprepared for the fact that the much revered Prior Josephine Chrysanthemum was actually a pegasus, and in addition, she was not any kind of scholar, but instead an extremely accomplished warrior.

Even though the defenders were outnumbered, they managed to overcome the invading Guards with brutal efficiency. The Prior herself quickly took out two pike-wielding soldiers with a flurry of strikes followed up by a spear tackle, the two guards collided and dropped, winded and bruised.

The unicorns around her proved to be just as formidable, casting all manner of spells, calling upon powers granted by their mystical arts- between sizzling bolts of superheated plasma and salvos of magical explosions, another few went down. Of the ten guards that had entered the room, only six remained standing.

But while the strength of the two forces was clearly not evenly balanced, a good jab with a spear is still enough to put anyone down for the count. One cultist went down, and then another two. Pressing the advantage, one of the attackers rushed Josephine while she was distracted by the death of one of her flock. His sword sank deep into her, cleaving from her left shoulder to the elbow. Yowling, she bucked him across the room with her hindlegs and used her wings to flap over to her two remaining comrades.

Four of the golden soldiers closed in on the group. Both unicorns that were still standing held strong, protecting the matriarch of their church. Linking hooves, they began to chant, weaving a curse with densely archaic words, riddled with consonants. The approaching guards stumbled back in fear, as the two unicorns stepped forward, eyes glowing and lighting forking underneath their skin. In a flash, they were gone.

Victorious yet exhausted, the defenders regrouped. Two of their number had been slain, another was unresponsive but alive, and the Prior was still bleeding heavily. She panted heavily, and each movement was obviously causing her significant pain. “You both fought well. You all did.” As the robed mare fussed over her wound, she called out to the stallion checking over each of the bodies. “Hey, Thunder. They dead?”

He shrugged. “Spider Bite’s alive, but…” casting a resigned glance at the other two, he continued, “yeah.”

A yell from the doorway startled all three of them, and the last guard leapt at Thunder, going for yet another cheap shot. His sword screamed through the air, and there was no way that anypony could completely evade a surprise attack from that distance.

Metal clanged against metal and the sword went flying out of the guard’s hoof. Jo groaned, hoof still outstretched after throwing the spear. In doing so, she’d torn the wound on her left shoulder open further, much to the frustration of the mare who was trying to stich her back together.

Thunder rejoined the others, and the three of them stared down the intruder. Jo spoke up first. “You’re outnumbered. If you surrender now, we’ll show you mercy.” She cast a furtive glance at the dead unicorns before looking back up to him pointedly. “Which is more than you’ve done for us.”

He ignored them. “I am the Captain of the Fifth Company. This is my moment of triumph. Why would I fold in the face of already defeated enemies?”

The mare that had been trying fruitlessly to mend the Prior’s injury gave up, throwing her needle and thread down as she snapped at him “Are you blind? Look around! You lost!”

This did not deter him, and he spared only a moment to glance at his fallen subordinates. “Yes, I suppose I am alone. But you are all exhausted- I doubt you could even utilise the most basic of the abilities afforded to you by Witchery now.” Pausing for a moment, he leaned down and picked up a sword, the blade already coated in blood. “Funny that you will die as you lived, Prior.” A nasty sneer crept onto hjs face as he closed in. “Hiding behind others, too weak and too stupid to do anything more than prevent the sword from falling upon your own head. Goodb-”

An inferno entered the room, and the captain cried out, dropping his sword as his armour began to steam.

~~~

“What in the…” Edgar and Onyx both skidded to a halt as they entered into the grand oaken hall. They had found the source of all the destruction, after a few minutes of breathlessly following along a path of rapidly cooling molten stone.

Golden helmets, swords and spears littered the floor, and at least seven separate bodies lay in piles throughout the room, three robed, four armoured. Ahead of them, in the far corner of the room, another four figures remained upright. Two of the unicorn cultists crowded around a kneeling pegasus, while another member of the Solar guard- this one with a particularly flashy uniform- stood with his back to them. All four were watching the fiery creature in the centre of the room intently.

“Prior!” Onyx yelled, jumping forward and rushing towards his collapsed comrades. In the span of a single moment, a flaming tendril broke off from the rest of the pony-shaped mass of energy and heat and caught the unicorn with a savage blow to his spine. His recently acquired beret flew off his head, landing a few metres away.

Onyx crumpled immediately, and Edgar spread his wings, preparing to swoop in. “Hold on, bud- I gotcha!” But as soon as he took a step, the whip-like appendage came down on Onyx yet again, this time striking him in the withers, and eliciting a pained grunt. “Darnit!” Edgar yelled, skidding to a stop awkwardly. “Fine! I’m staying right here, just… just leave him alone, d’ya hear?” The heat momentarily subsided, and Edgar slid forward a step at a time, holding both claws up. “Neither of us mean ya any harm!”

“She can’t hear you, boy.” Came a voice from behind him, toneless and weary. Dressed in some kind of suit and plucking away at some kind of stringed instrument, the corners of the gentlecolt’s eyes creased with a barely restrained grin.

“Who in th-” The old stallion ignored Edgar and walked straight past him, showing no concern for Onyx who was still writhing about in agony, nor for the wreaths of flame that licked up his as he walked past the inferno. For the briefest of moments, the fire died down and Edgar got a glimpse of the Witch he’d been tasked with hunting, eyes closed peacefully.

“Now just hold on one minute.” Edgar moved to follow the newcomer across the room, and the raging tempest began in full force once again. As soon as he fell back, the fire stilled. “Oh. That’s just… great.”

Onyx’s coat had a pinkish tinge around where he’d been hit, criss-crossed by three strips of exposed flesh, bubbled and blistered from the heat. At least there wasn’t much blood, but even so, Onyx had stopped moving.

Edgar became acutely aware of an itch on the back of his neck.

“Prior! Are you still alive?” Sauntering up to the group at the far end of the room, the Regent was uncomfortably casual, considering the circumstances. Taking care not to tread on any of the unconscious or deceased ponies strewn about the floor, and avoiding most of the destroyed furniture, the old stallion slowed as he passed the extremely out of place captain, who intermittently yelped whenever his skin touched the rapidly heating metal of his armour.

“Yes. I am.” The mare paused to check herself, mock inspecting the non-insignificant amount of blood that had pooled around her, “Yep. I’m just friggin’ dandy.” Jo craned her neck around to look over her shoulder from where she was lying. “Why do you have a tiny guitar?”

Thunder piped up, putting one of his hooves forward and knocking over the tray of emergency medical tools. “I think that’s a viola-” He received a jab to the ribs, he turned to look at the mare treating the injured Prior. “What? It’s got four strings and-” she pointed at the scattered items and gave him a dark look. “Oh. Shit!” he scrambled to collect them. “My bad, Juniper.”

Juniper scoffed. “Whatever.” She took stock of the Regent, and had a thoughtful look on her face as she stared at the instrument in his hooves. The whole time, it’d still been vibrating with noise, but there was no pitch to it. Just a constant hum. “Besides, I’m pretty sure that’s a violin.”

The Captain whimpered, clattering to the floor. Jo looked over at him, and amused look tugging at the corners of her mouth. “M’ pretty sure it’s a-” she yawned loudly, sat up and blinked her eyes. “Screw it. Wake me up when all this is over.”

The Regent played a short note. “It’s actually a fiddle, and I suppose it should have been obvious that asking any of you for assistance would have been redundant.” The hum came to a stop, and his instrument came to rest. Using one hoof to slick back his hair, and straighten his already immaculate cravat, he took a wide stance in front of Bea. “No matter. I’ll simply do it alone.”

~~~

When she rolled over to check the pocket-watch she kept on her bedside, she found that the numbers wouldn’t stay still long enough for her to decipher what time it was. It was dark outside when she took a peek through the window, but when wasn’t it? Still, there were no active beacons; no ghostly fluorescence casting shadows upon the high walls of the courtyard. It was late. Everypony ought to be asleep. In other words, it was the perfect time for a daring escape.

Usually, it would be unthinkably difficult to slip past the defences keeping her prisoner. Even if she was somehow able to break open the metal grille over the window, make her way along a precariously narrow ledge and onto the relative safety of the courtyard wall, she’d still have to find a way to get down, and all this would have to be done without triggering any of the magic wards or alarms. At least, that’s the way things usually were, and the nature of normality makes it easy to assume that nothing’s different when presented with the same set of circumstances as always.

But ten cycles ago she’d had her first dream.

She hadn’t given it any credence at first. But then she’d had it again the next time she slept, and the next, and so on until now. She would have been utterly fed up if she weren’t so horrified by what she had been shown during her slumber. If even a little bit of it turned out to be true, then she had to leave, and get far away from the School.

When the forward team had arrived here, they hadn’t finished much of their work before going missing, and ensuring that one room was inescapable- no matter who it belonged to- wasn’t exactly the highest priority, when the entire colony was being hunted by the government.

The grate on her window wasn’t actually attached to anything- and with a little bit of force applied to the mesh, the screws loosely fell to the cobbled floor on the story below, clinking as they bounced away. Had that been too loud? Did somepony hear it? It’s not like there was much she could do if it did attract attention- without access to any magic, she just had to hope that things went ok.

Propping the removed grate up on her windowsill, she collected the bag she’d packed a few hours earlier. After grabbing her watch and putting on a warm coat, she was ready to leave- if things went well, she’d probably never have anything to do with the School again. She didn’t spare a second glance as she clambered out onto the ledge. A dark blue alicorn stepped out of the shadows, a concerned frown dominating her face.

The ledge around the building was wide enough for her to sidle along without too much trouble, so long as she held her bag in front of her. One she reached the courtyard wall, she was essentially already free. Using a derelict trellis as a makeshift ladder, she reached the ground, and was suddenly overcome by the euphoria of freedom. Had she ever been alone until now? Still, she had a long way to go.

She started down the ditch at the side of the road, taking care to keep her head down and ensure she didn’t trip. Darkness like this was something new to her- there had always been at least some kind of lighting at the School, and so she had to move slowly, in order to accommodate for her under-developed night-vision.

Then she heard wingbeats, powerful and fast. Had Jo realised and come to get her? Had she already been spotted? How had they even noticed she was gone already? The sound passed overhead, and Bea counted two minutes before she breathed a sigh of relief, and clambered out of the ditch and across the road. She hadn’t wanted to go into the forest because it was potentially far more dangerous, but there was no way she’d get caught there. She ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, kicking up dust as she moved.

She didn’t even make it halfway across the road before something dived upon her from above, crushing her into the dirt, and forcing her to cry out, her ribs still sore. “You little shit.” Josephine spat, obviously fuming. “After all that we’ve done for you? Now you’ve decided that you’ve had enough of leeching off us for years, you’re just going to up and leave?”

When Josephine raised her hoof to hit her, Bea managed to roll out from under the mare and scramble away. Josephine just laughed at her, and approached again, clearly toying with her. And then, just as she got within range of the terrified filly, she was hit from the side with so much force that it looked like she simply disappeared.

The world shifted again, and Bea felt herself coming back to lucidity, tears streaming down her face. She shuddered, closing her eyes. What memory would she be forced to relive next?

A warm embrace enveloped her, and Luna spoke. “Beatrix… are you alright?”