“Ugh, Dad, this is going nowhere. Sin, let's just go upstairs.” The vampire nervously nodded, not wanting to continue the argument either. He and Robert had come to a major disagreement over what course of action to take against the Marquis-- he had only been getting more vicious in his attempts to overthrow the throne and the humans weren't very willing to assist them in their fight-- but that had resulted in little more than upsetting Toya and Alexandria, so he was more than happy to drop it.
“Right.” He gave a loath nod to the man before slipping off behind her.
“Don't get too comfortable,” Robert warned distastefully, as though Sin was really the kind of boy he should have been so explicitly concerned with.
“Yes, sir,” Toya retorted sarcastically. They walked quickly up to her room, sitting on the bed together. Horatio lay back with his head resting on her lap, smiling up at his girlfriend with one of his fangs poking slightly over his lip. She seemed troubled by something else, so he leaned up and kissed her softly on the cheek.
“What's wrong, Toya?” he asked, taking her hand in his and squeezing it.
“It's nothing. I'm just ticked off at Dad.” He could sense that there was more and decided to press further. “Well, it's stupid... but I've just been having this weird dream, and it's really bugging me...”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“Well, I'm always this...” She blushed and he absentmindedly ran his fingers through her hair with a grin. “Weird creature. Like a horse, but... with wings, and green. It's night time, with just this perfectly full moon and four stars in the sky, and I hear this freaky voice whispering to me. Stupid, right?”
It seemed as though it being purely coincidence that he himself had encountered a similar dream recently was impossible. Given he had taken a different form of sorts, and it hadn't really made him as uncomfortable as it did to her. 'Obviously,' he thought to himself. He was the young leader of the Royal Vampiric Empire; he'd seen his parents both murdered with him as a hostage. She, however, was a different story-- the girl had grown up living her life primarily from the morning until just past sundown, whereas he had never been able to (nor cared to, for that matter) set foot in the sun.
“No, it's not.” He didn't mention his subconscious visions to her. Instead, he snuggled closer, closing his eyes and allowing his ears to fold back and softly brush her arm. She laughed, stroking one of them despite his halfhearted protests and twitching. “That tickles,” he complained, smiling involuntarily.
“Aw, does it?” she asked, kissing his sensitive auricle. She continued her teasing until Robert came up to grouchily remind Sin of the time and practically dragged him out of the house. She went to bed without another word to her father, drifting off into the same dream she had described to the vampire once more.
“Ugh… what the heck?” the girl asked upon waking up, something strange brushing her nose as she fidgeted. “Grass?” She went to sit up, getting a good look finally at her hand and screaming—though a better word to describe her limb a hoof. “Wh-wh-what? I must still be dreaming…” She stretched her wings and looked around at her bright, cheerful surrounding, shrugging and deciding to explore.
Robert woke with a similar start, his foreleg wrapped around an equally confused Alexandria. They both immediately concluded they were dreaming as well, but that was quickly disproved by their mutual state of lucidity, much to their discomfort. Alex decided there was no point in panicking, however; instead she chose to carry on in her typical optimistic manner. “Alex, how can you just frolic around like that at a time like this?” the dark brown pony asked, struggling to so much as walk with his new set of feet.
“Well, since we’ve got no clue what’s going on we might as well have some fun.”
He sighed, his aqua-furred girlfriend having at least enough of a point to calm his nerves a bit. “All right, so what do you propose we do? Should we look to see if we can find someone else?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Once Robert got the hang of moving in a quadruped body they went on their way to do exactly that, searching for any sign of another person—or pony, they supposed.
Eventually a town caught their attention, painted in several pastel shades with streets filled with colorful creatures much like themselves. The newcomers approached with caution, their time working with vampires having trained them to be suspicious of anyone despite their appearance, though few even so much as glanced at them as they walked by.
“I swear, this can’t be real,” Robert repeated, nearly bumping into a large red stallion as they strolled past a cart of apples. It was a regular marketplace, in a regular quaint little village, filled with a rainbow of horses. What kind of strange world was this?
“Seems pretty real to me.” Alex shrugged, dismissively waving her tail. “By the way, you’ve got a horn now,” she added, making a face.
“What?”
“On your head. You just grew a horn.” She couldn’t help but laugh—the thought of Robert Anderson being a unicorn was just too funny.
“WHAT?” His inquiry was loud enough to draw a lot of unwanted attention from the crowd, including that of a particularly odd pink pony.
“Ooooooh! I haven’t seen you two around before! You must be new here! This is so exciting, I can’t wait to throw a party for you!” she spouted, seemingly all in one breath.
Robert edged back, also noting that Alex too had by now sprouted a horn, and stared in confusion. “Err, who are you?”
“My name’s Pinkie Pie, nice to meet you! What’re your names? Wait, let me guess! I love guessing games! I bet you’re… Brownie! No, Shadow! Wait—!”
“Robert Anderson,” he deadpanned, wanting her to stop. “And this is Alexandria Martin.”
“Wow, those are weird names. Oh well, I have to get going so I can start planning your welcoming party!”
Alex held up a hoof to stop her before she bolted off. “Look, there’s really no need for a welcoming party. We’re just trying to find our way home right now, so we won’t really be here long.”
“But why can’t I throw you a party then? I do that for all of my friends!” she cheered, ignoring both of the nervous unicorns completely and vanishing into the streets as she bounced away.
“That was… strange.” Robert nodded in agreement, still barely able to process what had just gone on. “Who knows, though; it might be helpful.”
Sin opened his eyes, enveloped in his dream form of a large, red-coated alicorn. Something felt different, like the world around him was more vivid and real than it had ever been. He disregarded it, spreading his wings and taking flight as he had taught himself to do through his past experiences in the odd world, the distinct flavor of the night wind causing his heart to race.
Something was off, and he knew it, but he couldn’t place his finger on it. Below him he spotted the pastel village he’d come used to seeing, but now it was bright and several figures moved about the street. He’d never seen any other living thing in his mind’s fictitious world before.
Curious, the enormous pony allowed himself to descend near the outermost street, his hooves clacking rhythmically against the cobblestone road. He made his way to where the lights were the brightest, surprised to see dozens of much smaller horses of all different colors, some also bearing wings or horns, crowding into a large, hollow tree decorated like a regular building. The door was far too small for him to fit through.
“Hi there! You’re so big, are you related to Princess Celestia? You must be, you’re an alicorn!” He nearly fell off his own feet, greatly startled by a certain pony with an untamed curly mane that had rushed out to greet him.
“I-I don’t know anyone named Celestia. I am Horatio Sin Ambrosius, King and High Lord of the Royal Vampiric Empire--.”
“That’s a long name, can I call you ‘Batty’ instead?”
“Err, I’d rather you not. Where did you even get that?”
“Your cutie mark, duh! It’s shaped like a little bat with a tail! Or is it a dragon?”
He sighed, the pony talking way too fast for him to keep up. “That’s my royal seal,” he stated, finally getting a look at the part of his flank she had pointed at. He hadn’t noticed it before. “And you may call me Sin, if you’d like.”
“Sin? That’s a scary name! I’m sorry, that was mean of me. My name’s Pinkie Pie!”
“Pinkie…Pie?”
“Yep! I didn’t know you would be coming or I would have put your name on the banner, but you should totally come to the library for the party I’m having!” He nervously shifted. He didn’t want to seem rude, but parties weren’t his thing whether he was awake or not. “That makes four new ponies, because Toya, Robert, and Alex came earlier and now YOU’RE here!” His ears perked up.
“Robert and Alex? And Toya?”
“Uh-huh! Do you know them?” He nodded, glad to hear familiar names. For some reason he felt like this dream was too real to be a dream, and he knew that seeing someone he recognized would at least help him some. Not to mention that he thought Toya would be very cute as one of the little creatures, which made him blush a little.
Of course, getting through the door would be another story.
