Chapters When I Wake in the Morning
Imagine the trippiest and bizarre morning you have ever had. You wake up, have no idea where you are, clothes on you don’t remember even owning, and a massive headache. Well that’s nowhere near what I woke up to that day.
“At last! The great and so called ‘mighty’ hero falls! ” yelled a deep, feminine voice.
Looking up from my viewing point, I saw the weirdest fucking thing ever. It was big, about ten feet tall, had large cyborg arms and a face carved from the mix of an alligator and a cell phone. With looks like that, it’s hard to be pleased with yourself, but she was doing a pretty fine job of it.
“ Now, nothing shall stop- “
“Excuse me?” I asked, slowly standing from what I could guess was rubble. “But who are you, and what the fuck are you?”
It looked down at me in total shock, a mixture of rage, fear, annoyance and joy running across shortly after.
“H-how is this possible? I just defeated you!”
“Yea, that’s great. Now answer my question, who and what are you?”
It just stared at me for a while, its eyes twitching and reddening.
“I-I am the rebirth of the great goddess Sin; the keeper of the gems of New Harmony and the only true ruler of Equestria!”
And that made no sense to me. Either I was on the most powerful drugs in the world at that moment, or it was some lucid dream.
“That’s great for you. So am I able to ask where I am?”
“D-Dark Moon?” said a sad weak voice behind me.
I turned to meet a group of creatures lying on the ground quite injured. A girl with pink hair who seemed to be wearing as little as possible while still trying to call it clothes, a blue horse with a rainbow mane, and some little blue dude; have I been sucked into a anime?
“Dark Moon? Are you okay?” said the little horse. For a reason lost to me, I found this to be more shocking than the mutant Sin goddess behind me.
“Holy shit! It talks?!”
It seemed to take that comment right to the heart from the pain across its face after hearing my words.
“I-it?”
Having enough of this weird dream, I decided to head for the exit, which was helpfully pointed out by some giant doors pointing inward with sunlight poking through.
“Okay, fuck this, have fun whatever you guys are, I’m leaving.”
And with those parting words I left the place. After leaving though the doors, I didn’t wake up as I hoped, but was instead greeted with some epic scenery. A large valley lay before me, with large mountains to the left and right stretching onward to the horizon. The valley floor was covered in the densest forest I had ever seen, except a large horizontal burn mark going half-way through it.
“Hero, Shouldn’t you be fighting?” came an old croaky voice to my right.
Turning, I was met with another horse, but this one was completely grey plus old and wrinkled.
“Ew,” was all I said as I walked past and down these large golden stairs leading to the forest.
Call this what you want, but so far this dream had great potential. Once I got down to forest level, I found a path already cut through the large vines and weeds, convenient was all this place seemed to be. The path was narrow but still easy to walk through. While walking, it gave me time to ponder what had just happened.
First of all, the small horse had called me ‘Dark Moon’, so that must be my dream name. Second, Sin the goddess said she was the true ruler of somewhere called ‘Equestria’, which must be the place I was in. Thirdly, talking horses and giant cyborg gods, had I been dragged into the future? That would make one hell of a story.
I walked on like this for a while, just thinking to myself, until I came across a river. It flowed crystal clean and was very inviting, it also reminded me about how thirsty I was; a quick drink and I would be back on my way.
The water was frankly the freshest I had tasted in a long time, defiantly a nice change from tap water and better than the crap you buy from supermarkets. I wished I had something to take some with me, seeing as the river might split from the path anytime soon. I realized that I should check what I had on me first, something I hadn’t done since I woke up. Looking down I found myself to be wearing… nothing.
I was naked. But that was okay, because where my skin should have been was fur; fuzzy dark blue fur. This was starting to make me panic and I tried to look at myself in the water, but it was moving too fast to catch a reflection. I ran down the river side and down a pool of non-moving water and gazed down.
My face was a horses face, long snout and fur all over. A mane of dirty gold mixed with sky blue swaying in front of my brighter blue eyes. I was a horse. Checking the rest of my body only confirmed my mind, hooves, tail, and wings all accounted for. Turns out I was a Pegasus too.
Enough was enough, even with dreams, and now was the time I wanted to wake up. I brought a fist, or a hoof, and smacked myself across the face. Nothing but pain. I tried it again only to feel more pain. I tried again and again but to no avail. There wasn’t any way I was going to wake up from stimulated pain, and while asleep I couldn’t bring any real pain upon myself.
Left with only a headache and disappointment, I walked, sorry trotted, down the path once again, descending deeper into the dense forest. What a way to start the day, an Up-and-Go would have been nice.
When I Wake in the Morning
After a few hours of uneventful forest, I finally leave it behind for some lush green hills and large snow tipped mountains. The path is a lot clearer, making trotting not so much of a tripping hazard, and eventually I come across a village.
The village is a small one, with about fifty houses at the most, then some shops and work buildings. Most of the buildings have heart shaped engravings in the wood they are made of, with pink and yellow the main colour scheme; giving the place what I could guess as a happy theme. That theme is ruined by the occupants.
More colourful horses roam around, heads hanging low with a faint feeling of despair. Some of them are trying their best to smile, yet fail anyway, giving them a worse look of hopelessness.
As I approached, some of them noticed me and their eyes started to glimmer with hope as they ran my way.
“Dark Moon, did you do it?”
“Is Twilight OK? Where are the others?”
“Did you defeat Sin?”
The most I could answer them with was looks of confusion and a “Hey, watch it!” when one of them bumped into me. Their eyes soon reflected my look of confusion, before more depression came to their faces as they backed away; eyes never leaving mine.
“The fuck do you guys want? Quit staring at me, sheesh.” I said before quickly moving deeper into the town.
I walked for a while, not quite sure of my destination, knowing this place was starting to creep me out. As I passed some buildings, I noticed that some were boarded up or collapsed completely; others badly burnt. I found the crater of a building that didn’t have any remains, except a sign that said ‘Ponyville Library’. Whatever the fuck happened to this place, it wasn’t nice in any perspective.
The streets started to darken and the sun slowly dipped towards to horizon, it looked almost pretty except for the mass of ruined buildings sitting around me. Instinctively, I started off in a direction and follow a road to a house. It matched the rest of the town, but the paint was far from faded and could hardly be called colour. The door opened without a key, and the inside glowed only from the slimming sun.
I walked through a living room to a set of stairs. At the top was a single room, a bed room, not having been touched in months judging from the dust lifted from opening the door. Under the dust were hundreds of notes and pieces of ripped paper, having a crunching noise as I walked around.
By the bed was a nightstand, and sitting on its lonesome was a book. I picked it up, somehow with hooves, and blew dust off the cover. The cover read: ‘Research diary of: Dark Moon.
Inside were words, obviously, and the words were about some kind of research project with someone called ‘Twilight Sparkle’ and how it was such a great honor and privilege to work with her. After a few pages of rushed notes and endless paragraphs saying what an honor this was, it finally started in something one could call a ‘diary’.
^\/^\/^\/^
Day five of research, two weeks since finding of the book
This is the research diary of Mister Dark Moon. I was given this by the one and only Twilight Sparkle in order to keep track of our notes and write about these experiences. I must say, working with her is such a great honor; I spent the first ten pages repeating it! But now, I must write about my experiences as Twilight said.
I was a small time writer, doing what I could to get by, mostly writing short stories for anyone who liked my style or found them amusing. As such, I did a lot of reading myself to pick up ideas and inspire my work. As my ideal day was reading, writing, or just going for a walk all day, I never got into be social. I would go to the library, pick the books I wanted, and then leave again; trying to avoid conversation which I deemed ‘awkward’.
One evening, just before dusk, I was on my way to return and pick up more books, when I saw a cloaked pony leave the library through the window, carrying a very old book.
“Hey!” I called out, wanting to know what this pony was doing. Instead, he or she took one look at me and ran.
I like to imagine myself as the big hero in books and day dreams, but when it comes to real life I would rather hide under my bed than fight a dragon. Despite that, I somehow worked up the courage to give chase to the pony.
He, let’s just call him a he, weaved and ducked through alleyways and doorways, doing his best to avoid me. But rather than speed out of sight, he stayed within view; presuming him to be as unfit as me, I guessed.
The chase ended when he took a wrong turn and slammed into an alleyway wall. I stood at the only exit, leaving him with no way of escape, unless he was a unicorn; which indeed he was. He charged his horn and lowered it at the ground, blasting a shock-wave that sent him over the wall. The book he was carrying did not follow him, and instead fell before me.
Perhaps it was fate, or just incredibly dumb luck, or some other ridiculous thing that made the book open on a page in front of me, perfectly facing my way. It was a book about myths and legends apparently, and the page it landed on was a description of a powerful being with the power to grant knowledge, locked away in a cave whose door was made from the gems of over a hundred dragons dens!
What stuck my interest more than that was the key required? It matched a relic my grandmother picked up on one of her wacky adventures, a sapphire statue of a kind of dog. She used to tell me about all the different traps protecting it in an old temple, as well as some strange fellow who summoned cats to do his bidding. It was one of my favorite stories, and soon became my most famous success in writing.
Unfortunately, the sun was setting, and I didn’t want to be caught with this and have people thinking I’m a thief, so I returned the book.
Twilight Sparkle was quite relieved to have it back.
“Oh thank you so much! I don’t what I would’ve done if somepony had got away with such a priceless work such as this. Did you happen to catch a look at the thief?”
“No, he jumped a high wall before I could get a good look. The pony was a unicorn though, if that helps.”
She nodded and smiled. “Every little bit does. Did you get to read it before you brought it back?”
I normally would of left it that that and leave, but I had to talk to someone about my little discovery.
“I managed to read a page of it, and it was very interesting. It actually reminded me of something I own.”
“Oh really?” Her eyes lit up a little bit. “Could you point it out? It does sound intriguing.”
I showed her the page and explained what I thought about it. To say she wasn’t interested was as far from the truth as you could get.
“Wow, this is amazing! You’re the author of the Daring Doo series, and not only that, but you might possibly have something that could unlock one of the world’s greatest secrets! Do you mind if you could bring the artifact here? I would love to study it myself.”
Me, a lowly author, being able to help the student of princess Celestia herself?! There was no way I could say no, and raced home to get the statue. A couple days later, she turned up at my doorstep asking for my help with a project she was starting surrounding the artifact and the door. I humbly agreed, and have been working with her ever since!
I will update this again when we find something, and that shouldn’t take long! Ooh, I can feel the excitement of making a grand discovery already!
Yours truly
-Dark Moon
When I Wake in the Morning
Day seventeen, week four since book discovery
It’s been a long time but we finally might have found something. There is a path that leads to the doorway, and we are on the brink of using it.
It’s not an actual path, but a magical one. In order to get to the doorway we must travel through the realm of magic itself, but even then we aren’t too sure if we can pass through there. With the massive amount of concentrated energy that will be sitting in wait, our bodies won’t be able to handle it, and as such cause mutations and other nasty bodily injures, some mental.
Twilight is in the middle of developing a new anti-magic field spell to fight this so that we may cross safely. It is taking some time, however, so in the mean time I am preparing everything we may need; with the help of Spike.
As close as we are, it didn’t come without it’s setbacks and side-effects; Twilight had become distraught at how close we are, I am so eager to go that with every little thing that gets in the way makes me increasingly angry, so I have to ‘let off some steam’. Some of my writings have become increasingly dark, as well as some things I write I just rip to pieces due to not being able to work towards the doorway instead.
We are so close. We just need to make the final push and we’re there. That final push…
-Dark Moon
Finally! I was at the edge there, about to lose it and some things I might regret, but at last we have what we need! The journey begins tonight; the door awaits us and I plan to open it.
There will be no stopping me from following my heritage. I must have that knowledge that lies behind that door; I’ve come too far, given too much. Two years of countless research, endless setbacks and problems, endless ‘excuses’. Now is the time.
We will travel to that door, and I will have the knowledge.
-Dark Moon
^\/^\/^\/^
Well that sounded cherry. I set the book down and glanced around the room once more. If he had spent years trying to get to that door, what did he find, and what happened that he hasn’t returned to this room since?
I decided that this place was completely nuts, and thought some sleep might be able to help; if nothing else would. I took the bed which must have belonged to this body and lay down on the dust.
^\/^\/^\/^
The next morning, after I coughed up several jars of dust, I ventured out into the town once again; hoping to find any clues.
After a few hours of pointless wandering, I found myself back at crater of the ‘Ponyville Library’. Gazing down into the burnt dirt, I began to grow a head-ache, like this place was one of grief. Remembering back to the book, this must have been the place where this ‘Dark Moon’ and ‘Twilight Sparkle’ had spent ages studying some door, also driven a bit crazy. I guessed that this was also the place of where they had summoned the portal. Was that what had caused the library to become that?
Standing around was starting to get pointless and I was growing hungry, meaning I would have to find food. The market place was nearby, but I lacked any kind of currency; despite this, I still needed food so I headed over.
When I arrived, everyone was packing very quickly and running into their homes. At first I thought that they were running from me but looking I saw some ponies who must have been homeless, sitting in the streets staring off down the road.
Coming down the road was a serpent the size of a… really big thing. The ponies still on the street looked away from the monster and started praying or bursting into tears; others just sitting there no longer caring. The snake slithered up the road towards the first pony; it didn’t hesitate at all to swallow her in one bite.
All I could do was stand and gaze in cloudy horror as it consumed the other five or seven ponies, before turning it’s stare at me.
Without a second thought, I turned and ran from the beast, a hissing of anger and the sound of scales against dirt told me to run faster. The chase was on.