A Misty Future

Silence is maddeningly unending,

A faithful companion,

The target of my incessant hatred.

In the silence, my thoughts

Are the screams of my sleeping moments,

My dreams of the emptiness of reality.

I long for the feel of an evening breeze on my face,

To see each white petal of a daisy

Growing in the soil outside.

I want to dance among the trees and sunlight,

Even if freedom only lasts for a moment.

--

I could feel magic in the air this day, more so than was always present. For the past years, it had been a tingling in the back of my head that I didn’t notice anymore. Now it had crescendoed to a hum that I could feel in the base of my ears; it was particularly annoying in the deep silence of the house. Even when I pressed them flat along my skull, trying to dampen the noise, the buzzing still persisted.

I sat in my living room, staring up at the door that I’d locked all those years ago. I could use this to my advantage somehow. I played around with the thought for awhile, wondering what I could do with this sudden source of energy. The image of the door before me began to change inside my head. I saw the door creak open, and beyond it, the grass, the trees, the flowers, the sky, all lying before me, no longer held from me by Celestia’s force field!

Escape.

The word was tantalizing, and I uttered it aloud.

“Escape.”

It was sugar-sweet to feel my mouth make that word and to hear it aloud for the first time in ten years. But if I wanted to act on that word, I needed to figure out how, exactly, I was going to get past the shield.

“Maybe...maybe if I can gather up all the magic in the air and blast it at the shield, the spell will overload! And I’d be free, finally. Freedom...” It was strange to hear my mouth make that word, too. But I liked it. There would be so many words I hadn’t used in so long that I would be experiencing firsthoof soon!

I dashed upstairs, flapping my wings for extra speed. I wanted to get out as quickly as possible, and there was no time for petty things like stairs to get in the way. Onto my bed I levitated a pair of saddlebags, white with buckles imitating my cutie mark. My journal floated out of my bedside drawer and into the bag, along with a few articles of clothing from my closet. Next, I glided back downstairs and into the library, grabbing a few books on survival and tossing those in as well. I skipped the kitchen; all that was in there were the flowers I’d cultivated since I had no other food, and I couldn’t very well drag around a pot of daisies. Still, I did give them a fond mental farewell. After all, I’d taken such care growing them, and worked so hard to make sure that there was plenty for me to eat. Such hard work deserved a proper farewell.

With the saddlebags nestled comfortably between my wings, I sat back down on the floor in front of the door and sent out the barest trace of my own personal magic. The ambient magic would be attracted to it, and I would be able to use that to blast down to the door.

“Now all I have to do is wait!”

And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

“And wait, and wait, and wait...” I found myself mumbling and fidgeting. The words bounced around inside the house, inside my skull painfully. I’d barely spoken aloud. Silence was comforting. I found my face meeting my hooves at the ground, hooves that were so cold. “Why does it hurt...?”

I wasn’t used to having this much magic around me, evidently. And...the pain...I think it was killing me. It felt like that, anyway. There was nothing but pain inside my head, and the bright hope of escape.

Just a few more seconds, then I can use the spell. Just a few...more...

The pressure, the noise; both were building up in my skull. Finally, when I couldn’t bear it anymore, I decided it was time to put all this magical energy to use before it crushed my head from the inside. I staggered to my hooves and lit up my horn, using the energy around me to power the spell.

That was when everything exploded around me.

“Princess...? Princess? Please, Princess, you have to get up.”

Something warm and solid poked me in the side, while something cold and solid rested on my back leg, pinching the fur a bit. I didn’t mind; it didn’t hurt very much. I wished the warm thing would go away, though. My fur was so warm and my body was so heavy.

“Princess!”

I cracked open an eye to look around and see what was bothering me. That was when I also became aware of the fact that my throat was very, very itchy and let loose a rasping cough right in the face of the pony who was trying to revive me, then jerked my head back in surprise. For a moment, we both stared dumbly at one another until I broke the silence by saying something clever. What came out instead was, “Who are you talking to?”

The pony, who had prostrated himself on the floor, lifted his head, looking very surprised, and said, “Why, you, of course, Your Majesty. There isn’t anypony else for miles around. Uh, do you need me to help you get out from under that?”

I looked down at my legs, remembering the cold, solid thing that had been on my back leg. The edge of a slightly charred roof chunk easily twice my size had nearly missed hitting me while I was out, trapping me under it. I was lucky; since the roof was sloped, I didn’t have the full weight of it on me, but it still held my leg firmly in place. I wouldn’t be surprised if I bruised up from it. At least it explained why the front half of my body was turned a different way than the lower half.

“Could you, please? I’m low on magical power after...whatever just happened to me. And please, stop calling me Princess and Your Majesty. I’m not a princess.”

The stallion sat up. “But you’re an alicorn.”

“Does that make me a princess?” Princess of what? I thought. Celestia is the princess. And where did he come from, anyway?

“I...huh. I don’t know. Oh, right, your leg.” He moved over to the piece of rubble, and started shoving it back with his shoulder. Slowly, inch by inch, I felt it move off of me. Using what little magic I had, I grabbed the other end of it and pulled as hard as I could. By the time I exhausted my reserves and he exhausted his physical strength, just my hoof was left pinned. I yanked it free and pushed myself to my hooves.

Now that I wasn’t focused on escaping, I decided to take the chance to examine my surroundings. I was standing on the wooden floor of the house, but the walls and roof were nearly gone. In fact, a few lonely fires were puttering out in the more wooden parts of the house. Wondering why the house wasn’t blazing, I realized it was because of the cool breeze that I could feel on my muzzle. I turned away from the fires and stared up at the daytime sky for the first time in years.

The warmth of the sun on my fur was so pleasant. I closed my eyes so they wouldn’t sting, and thought of Celestia. I hoped she was safe, but she must be, because here was the sun, shining as brightly as ever. All these years, she must have been watching over me, smiling, laughing. Like the sun, the thought filled me with warmth, and I held onto it. I pictured a joyful Celestia standing here to greet me, crying tears of happiness because she had missed me.

A cough broke me out of my reverie. It was that stallion that had helped me. I saw now that he was merely an earth pony, which explained why he hadn’t used magic while he was helping me. The most striking thing about him was his golden eyes that matched his mane perfectly, watching me with confusion and concern. Together, they offset his maroon coat nicely, almost making up for his lack of wings or a horn. I stared at him, unable to think of anything to say. What was I supposed to say, anyway? How did one talk to a pony after ten years?

Luckily, the stallion took this decision out of my hooves, and said, “Uh, my name is Compass Rose,” holding out his hoof. I stared at it dumbly for a moment, then realized I was supposed to shake it. I did so tentatively, and replied, “Swirl Mist. Not ‘Princess Swirl Mist’, by the way. Or...no, just Swirl Mist.”

Misty is Celestia’s name for me. Nopony else’s.

“Well, hello, then, Pr...Swirl Mist,” Compass Rose said, then looked around at the ruins of my home. “Do you know what happened to your house? This is your house, right?”

I sighed. “I guess it was, now. Not much of a house anymore. I think I might have set off an explosion with my magic.”

Compass Rose looked confused. “You blew up your own house?”

I shook my head, horrified, and said, “No, no, no. There was a huge concentration of magic in the air, and I sparked it off by trying to use a blasting spell. Like setting off a room full of gasoline,” I added when he looked as though he didn’t understood. Understanding dawned on his face.

“Oh,” was his response, then, “Why were you using a blasting spell?”

“It’s a long story.”

“Well, do you want to come with me and explain? My camp is a little ways away and it doesn’t look as though you have a place to stay anymore.”

I was struck by indecision. Sure, I’d been planning to get out before the explosion, but now that the moment was here, I didn’t know if I could even survive in a world outside what I’d known. Still...it was demolished. I’d never be able to live here again. With an inward sigh, I thought, I don’t have a choice. And I suppose I’ll have to stay on the ground, too, since he’s an earth pony. It’s better than starving, though.

“Okay. Thank you, Compass Rose.”

I took a moment to adjust the straps on my saddlebags, then followed Compass Rose out of the smoldering ruins of my former home. I’d like to have said I didn’t look back, that I left that chapter of my life cleanly, but I couldn’t stop tossing glances over my shoulder forlornly at the rubble. Finally, when a hill came between myself and the house, I had no reason to keep my eyes anywhere but straight ahead. I concentrated on the ground below my hooves, marveling at how soft grass felt. It was almost like the carpets back home, but more alive.

With the fresh breeze on my cheek, the sun warming my back, the grass below my hooves, and absolute freedom surrounding me, I couldn't help but let out a little giggle, hardly believing I was finally outside again. I felt the days of my fillyhood coming alive again before my eyes, where the same trees stood proud and tall, and the same mountains reared up at the horizon. What lay beyond those peaks? Not a void like I'd thought before; after all, this other pony, this Compass Rose, couldn't have come from the valley. I'd been to the bases of every mountain, and every place in between, and there were no other ponies but me and Celestia."So, you were going to explain why you were blowing things up?" Compass Rose had stopped so that I could catch up, and asked his question as I pulled even with him."Oh, um, of course," I said, trying to gather my thoughts. “Well, I've been living in that house my entire life. The only other pony I've ever known was Princess Celestia, my mother."This time his tone was awed. "You're the Princess's daughter? But she never...how old are you?"I stopped short at the question, trying to catch the number that was evading me. "I think...somewhere in my late teens. Nineteen, probably." I frowned. I should know my own age.Compass mulled over that for a minute. "Yes, that makes sense. Celestia did disappear for awhile that year. Poor Princess Luna had to take over the sun from her. I was just a colt then...Luna didn’t know much about raising the sun. Sometimes we were afraid that it would be nighttime forever. But things got better. She learned."I tilted my head. "Who's Princess Luna?" Compass's only answer was a dumbfounded stare. "I told you, I've never even seen a pony who wasn't my mother." We resumed walking."You're taking meeting me surprisingly well.""Yes, I suppose I am. May I continue?""Of course.""Anyhow, Celestia used to visit regularly at night. She'd bring food, tell stories, talk to me, help me with my writing, and when I was little, teach me how to fly and use magic. Then, one night ten years ago, she told me that she had to go away, and she might be awhile. Then she cast a shield spell around the house, probably to protect me from whatever she was dealing with. Well, she never came back, and I've been stuck in my house for ten years."Since then, all I've wanted to do is get out of there, and I've obsessed over how to break down the shield. Today, I got the answer, when for some reason there was a high concentration of magic around me. In fact," I took a moment to flash my horn, and was greeted by blue sparks lighting up the air around me, "It's still there. So, I gathered the magic energy around me, and tried to use it to overpower the shield. Only, it backfired, and...well, you know the rest.""So, you're looking for your mother now?""It'd...never really occurred to me what I would do once I got out...but I suppose, yes. Do...do you know anything about her?""She was the Princess of the Sun for as long as anypony, save her sister, could remember. Nopony has seen her for ten years, though.""Wait. Did you say she had a sister?" How could Celestia have never told me something like that? Compass Rose nodded, then continued, “Princess Luna, the pony I mentioned before. She’s been ruling Equestria alongside Princess Twilight since Celestia disappeared. The two of them refuse to say a word about where Celestia’s gone. But life goes on, I suppose. Nothing much has changed since then except the faces at ceremonies.”“Equestria...that’s the name of this kingdom?” The word felt strange, but it sounded nice.“Wow, you really don’t know much about anything, do you?”I flared my wings out defensively and glared at him. “And what’s that supposed to mean? That I’m stupid?”“Sorry, sorry. Really. I just meant that you don’t know things that are common knowledge to even the youngest foal. But I can’t blame you, I guess.” I snorted, but didn’t say anything. I wanted to process what I’d been told, anyway. One huge, glaring fact that contradicted everything I’d known stared me right in the face, though, and I tried as hard as I could to wrap my head around it.“The world is a lot bigger than what I thought.”“If you’re going to be staying with me, you’re going to learn that the world is even bigger than you could imagine. I’m an explorer, you see. I travel to new places, map them out, get to know the natives, and try to bring peace to them. Some ponies think that most of the world is just Equestria; they think that there’s only the Badlands, the Crystal Empire, and a bit of ocean out there. Boy, are they wrong.”“That must be fun. Is this your camp?”It was a modest setup, with two tents, each bearing a compass symbol that I now realized was his cutie mark. Interestingly enough, the only direction marked on the compass was north. I’d have to ask about that later. Compass Rose led me to the larger tent and pulled out a sleeping bag from one of his packs. “I always keep an extra in case something happens to mine, but you can have it,” he explained, then hoofed it to me.“Thanks, Compass. Can I just call you Compass? Your name is such a mouthful,” I asked, taking the sleeping bag from him with my magic.He nodded. “Alright. I’m going to go forage. You can...poke around, or something. Do you know how to start a fire? It gets cold at night this far north.”I racked my brains, trying to remember if I’d read anything about fire spells, before remembering the survival book in my saddlebag. “I think I can handle it. And, uh,” I searched around for the words awkwardly, “thank you. Really. I know this was unexpected, and you’ve been very kind.” It was hard to admit it, but it was true. I’d have a very difficult time surviving on my own, even if I could fly. I still wasn’t sure if I could fly, anyway. The thought was terrifying, but I hadn’t lifted my hooves more than an inch off the ground in a decade.These thoughts heavy on my mind, it felt ironic to be walking out of the tent when every instinct was crying out for me to attempt takeoff. I resolved to test my wings tonight, and with that turned my attention to setting a fire. It turned out that campfires were the subject of the first chapter; keeping warm was fairly important out in the wilderness, after all. Okay, so, first I need to get some firewood...

Surprisingly, I didn’t burn myself in the process of building a fire. I did, however, use up what little magic I’d had left or regained in the walk back. It would take hours, maybe even days to let my magical strength build up to where it normally was, but that didn’t matter. I was alive, and free. Just the fact that I could smell things I hadn’t in a very long time, like the burning firewood, or the wind, or the trees and flowers, or the scent of another living, breathing pony, made the entire experience feel like a lucid dream. But it’s not a dream, I gleefully reminded myself. It’s all one hundred percent real.

As I rested by the fire, I considered the options ahead of me. I’d told Compass that I wanted to find Celestia, but from what he had said, she had disappeared from this Equestria at the same time she left me. I knew nothing of this world, and the ponies of Equestria must have searched for her. Still, I was an alicorn; I was special. With the proper knowledge, I could probably find her. Maybe I could enlist the help of Princess Luna, if she was an alicorn, too. He called me princess because of my horn and wings...are all alicorns princesses? Or are all princesses alicorns?

Maybe I am a Princess after all.

From there, my musings drifted towards images of myself, wearing a full set of regalia and a crown, sitting proud on a throne and ruling over my own kingdom. It wasn’t long before Compass Rose returned with full saddlebags. He set them down next to me and darted back into the tent. I took a deep inhale to see what he’d gathered for dinner.

“Grass? Are you serious?” I asked him upon his exit from the tent. He set down the two bowls he’d been carrying and looked at me strangely. “Yes. Why, are you allergic or something?” he added with a snicker. I wasn’t amused.

“No. I just didn’t think it would be acceptable to eat grass, since we, you know, walk on it and all.”

Even less amusing was Compass’s barely suppressed sigh and eye roll. “I didn’t get it from where we were walking, and I highly doubt that anypony else has walked this valley recently.”

I glared at him. “You got here pretty easily. Who’s to say other ponies haven’t been here, too?”

“Because this valley wasn’t here yesterday. It just appeared out of nowhere.”

“Oh.”

Apparently Compass sensed he’d won the argument since he hoofed over a bowl, which I accepted grudgingly. We ate in silence, although my time was more occupied with trying to figure out how to eat. On the first try, the three leafy strands I’d scooped up fell back into the bowl before I could move my hoof. I tried again, with much the same results. Over and over, the food slipped out of my grasp, mocking the uselessness of my horn with its insistence on not complying. Compass Rose’s laughter interrupted my frustrated growl.

“Swirl Mist, just eat it like this,” he laughed, then showed how he wasn’t using his hooves to eat, but instead simply eating straight out of the bowl. It looked like a disgusting way to eat, but a grumbling belly forced me to stick my muzzle in the bowl ungracefully and begin eating.

 I tried to focus on the fact that this was my first meal in a very, very long time to distract myself, and after a few mouthfuls, it worked. The food was deliciously bland, and the feeling of chewing and swallowing felt so satisfying. With a grateful hiccup, I finished off the last of the food and placed the bowl back on the ground.

“So, you liked it then?” Compass teased. I flattened my ears. Was he making fun of me?

“Yeah, it was fine.” The silence following my statement was loaded, as if one of us were waiting for the other to say something. I stared stubbornly at the flames in front of me, refusing to even look at the stallion lest my expression admit defeat. I hadn’t anything else to say, in any case. With every passing second, scrape of a hoof on the ground, cough, or pop and crackle of the fire, my mind became gradually blank as I searched for something to say. Finally, it occurred to me that I didn’t even know how Compass Rose had gotten into my valley, anyway.

“So, um, tell me a bit about yourself, Compass,” I managed, still not making eye contact.

“I’m 22, available, and I like peanut butter sandwiches, sweater vests, and long walks on the beach.”

“What?”

“Never mind,” he sighed. “You just can’t take a joke, can you?”

At this point, I noticed that my ears had pressed down against my head again, and forced them upright. “If that was a joke, it was a very bad one.”

Compass just rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Madam Not-Princess." That earned him another glare. "Okay, okay. Anyway, if you hadn't guessed, I explore the unknown places of Equus. That's the name of this planet, by the way."

"Pla-net. So, a planet is bigger than a kingdom?"

"Yeah. Like I said, it's much bigger than you can imagine. And I'm the lucky stallion who gets to see it all!"

It wasn't much new information. He'd pretty much already boasted about his job earlier, but something else he said caught my attention.

"If you explore the unknown regions of the...planet, and we're already in Equestria, why are you exploring this valley? Like you said, it just appeared out of nowhere, and that happened today. Yet you had a camp set up and were already at the center of the valley."

"Actually, yesterday this place was a glacier." He began to trace some jagged lines in the dirt. "See, these are the Crystal Mountains right here," he explained, then drew some houses below them, "and this is the Crystal Empire, which is the farthest north anypony's ever explored, even though Equestria has no northern border." He made an X shape very far 'north' of the mountains. "That's us. I was mapping out the Icy Wastes north of the Crystal Mountains when this place just appeared. I didn't mind, really, since it's so warm here.”

“Well, it’s not that warm here. It’s nothing like my house can get sometimes,” I remarked, remembering the times when the sun, being focused straight down on the sealed house, set the very air ablaze. Or so it felt.

“Trust me, it’s freezing out in the Icy Wastes. Some places have been buried under snow for millennia.”

“Wait, what’s snow?”

He froze. “You’ve...never...actually, that does kind of explain a lot. Is it always this warm here?”

I nodded, confused. What was he going on about?

“Okay, um. This is really weird to be explaining to an adult.” Fifth glare of the night. “Sorry. In a certain time of the year, the pegasi make really cold out, sometimes below the freezing temperature. Then they make tiny white ice crystals fall from the clouds, which is called snow. It’s basically frozen rain. Er, you do know what rain is, right?”

I rolled my eyes, then said, “Well, duh. How do you think plants grow? But why would pegasi make it cold? Wouldn’t that just kill everything?”

“Well, no. It’s actually because of the plants and animals. A long, long time ago, there were no ponies around that could control the sun, moon, and weather. So Equus would tilt sometimes when it moved around the Sun-”

“Don’t be ridiculous. The Sun moves around Equus.”

“No, it doesn’t. Luna just controls the rotation of the planet. Celestia used to do that in the day, and Luna at night, but now both duties fall to her.”

“Oh. That’s...actually pretty logical, I guess. What’s it called? The cold time?”

“Winter.”

He looked down at the dirt again, scuffing out the map he’d drawn. We drew into silence again, though I hardly noticed. I was drawn in by the image of winter. I wanted to see these ice crystals falling from the sky. But most of all, I wondered what everything looked like covered in snow. Did it look pretty, like a white blanket over everything, or did it look as though somepony had drained all the color from the landscape?

After awhile, Compass said something and stood up. I stared at him blankly for a second, then realized he’d said he was going to bed. “Goodnight,” I said, stumbling over the word a bit. I’d forgotten the word for just an awkward second. When I figured he was settled in for the night, I, too, stood up, but headed out of the camp instead of into the tent. I walked back toward the path we’d taken to get there, then backtracked once I’d found it.

Soon, I came to the edge of the trees and was greeted by the familiar mountain skyline against an open field. I could practically feel the ghost of my last flight, and it seemed as though if I listened hard, I would hear the soft sound of wingbeats up above. Almost in a trance, I unfurled my wings and raised them straight above my back, gazing detachedly over the landscape for a moment, before thrusting down with all my strength.

I didn’t dare hope that I’d ever get off the ground; after all, I was out of practice ten years ago, and since then I’d stayed to a basic hover. There was just no equinely possible way I could ever hope to sustain true flight.

Naturally, I was surprised when I found myself lightly bobbing in the air a good foot above the ground.

“So, no magic, but at least I can fly. I guess that makes me a pegasus for now.”

I angled my wings toward the ground, flapped, and came to a bit of a rough landing, but still a landing nonetheless.

“Let’s hope that’s the lowest I’ll have to sink.”