All Things Shall Pass

by Harold_Genhi

Chapter 2: Hypnagogic

Gravity felt far too keen on keeping Rael down as his senses reactivated in his body. Groggy eyes and a head full of nails, he groaned and tried to take his bearings, but was only greeted by an all encapsulating darkness that was only broken by the bright moon in the sky, hidden partially by a drifting cloud. Only the broken claws of barren trees filled the sky as testament that he was still within the Everfree. The lump on his head only left him confused and disoriented as he looked around his surroundings. He was nowhere near the strange half circle indentation. Instead, he found himself staring in a heart freezing void that stretched as far as his adjusting eyes could see. As they adjusted more to light, the expanse merely stretched out before him. It was a large hole in the ground, not perfectly cut, but a crater of immense proportion.

A thick fear hung in the air, sapping Rael of his breath and leaving a cold sweat beading on his fur as he back from it, turning his head quickly to the sides to try and find the assailant that had so easily knocked him unconscious. Not even the most remote of sounds could be heard as the air hung still and the animals large and small, prey and predator huddled in their homes from something strange, something far more frightening than them. Rael could feel it in the air and out in the darkness, watching him. Everyway he moved, he felt the cold grasp of being exposed with no means of defense.

From being with the Night Guard, he learned that light would expose himself more than it would expose whatever was lurking in the darkness. It might not have noticed him. It might not even exist if his imagination fabricated the entire stalker, yet still something was not as it seemed. Whatever was out there could easily see him. Rael swallowed the slight panic in his throat and let his horn fill the night with light to see his surroundings clearer. With his magic, he focused the beam around the tree line, catching no sight of any eyes or nightmarish beings. He turned back toward the edge of the deeper void. It was nothing more than a deep hole in the ground, though his magical light could not reach the bottom of the hole.

“Is anyone out there?” Rael asked, hoping that his assailant had a degree of class in which to converse with those that he had kidnapped.

The night greeted him in silence. It left an uneasy squirm in the pony’s chest. Someone or something had knocked him out and dragged him to this area of the Everfree. The thought and mystery of the situation only left him at full alert as he kept his ears pivoting around the surrounding area. Rael pressed through what he felt to be the direction back to Ponyville, mostly by the use of the moon that hung in the air only increasing to a humbling respect to Luna’s normally under-appreciated gift to the kingdom. A slow rumble broke the appreciation and caused the guard to turn quickly around to try and defend himself properly only to witness the flashing lights of an incoming storm that was brewing on the horizon.

The clash of dark skies with darker clouds cast an ominous fear as the promise of shelter would be far between with most caves threatening to be occupied with foul and fatal fauna that would end his days faster than getting caught in the soggy breath of the storm. With time running short, the decision to refuse magical light was tossed into the wind. The air glistened to life with a magical lighting that revealed the greenery above his head and the ashen ground that lied around the deep crater in behind him. The leaves above hung with great weight and with great breadth, giving Rael a small sigh of relief as he harvested them and began to fashion a suit that would prove to be more waterproof and warm for the rain. It would be temporary until a proper shelter could be found.

Moving through the Everfree proved to be much more taxing as no straight path through the twisting trees were evident and what animal trails existed were almost never straight with many veering completely off course forcing Rael to tackle through another thicket of brambles or bushes whose branches laid thick in overgrowth. All the meanwhile, the low rumble behind him only spoke of the incoming storm that threatened to hit the forest without any decrease in power from a group of pegasi. The lone pony only used such a threat to keep his legs moving before a dark mouth opened from the trees.

The cave entrance hung open like a mouth with jagged rocks hanging like teeth ready to gobble anything the traversed too close to it. No sound resonated from the cave implying either an ambush or true vacancy, which with a cave so large and open only made the latter thought to exist as an unbelievable actuality, but the sudden explosion of wind blew all thoughts of questioning its safety. With his armor still on his body, any assailants would still need to catch him off guard again, which he made sure he kept his senses open.

The pony climbed the small mound of rocks that hung in front of the cave entrance, filling the mouth of the cave with light and revealing the abandonment of the entrance, but the empty void that turned a sharp right at the end of the initial cave only hinted that the cave travelled further into the rock face. The flooring of the cave sloped slightly downward only hinting that at the other end of the cave, water had collected or still continues to carve the cave into a larger structure. A few areas in the entrance were flattened and elevated slightly allowing for him to remain off the ground where water most likely travelled down into the cave. He turned back to the dark forest, using his magic to tear a number of branches and leaves into the cave with him.

Moving into a deeper section of the entrance that nullified the gusts of the wind, the leaves were stripped and laid out as a makeshift and uncomfortable bedding to wait through the storm. The sticks were broken and stacked into a small pile before being ignited by Rael’s magic setting the cave ablaze with orange light and the crackling promise of warmth and a degree of security amid the danger that still lurked around him. Rael slid his helmet from his head and sighed in annoyance at his oversights and not following protocol.

“Bullheaded, Rael. Smooth.” Rael grumbled to himself to let an echo of a voice give him some comfort amid the growing din that crashed outside of the cave. The helmet scraped against the rock floor slightly causing it to echo through the nether reaches of the cave.

The echoes from both speech and movement only unsettled Rael as he kept his eyes shifting between the two points, the cave entrance and the dark crack in the wall that led to the right. He removed the rest of his heavy armor carefully and slowly to examine its condition from hitting the tree before he lost consciousness. He found the dent from the collision, but what he didn’t find was it covered in dirt as would have been necessary to drag him. Instead, it only held the dent.

“Teleportation with a partner and a great distance.” Rael noted to himself aloud, a means of keeping his thoughts straight. “Too high a magic to be an ordinary unicorn. It has to be related to the house burning in Canterlot.” Rael pictured that unconscious pony that was taken to the hospital and the chunk of ground missing from the ground as if it was teleported. “Something isn’t right.”

“Nothing is right.” The familiar voice that spoke before he lost consciousness resonated through the cave.

Rael snapped to his feet, his magic quickly snapped every piece of armor onto his body as his eyes snapped around the room for the source of the voice, but no pony materialized from the darkness or the storm.

“Show yourself rogue.” Rael growled, the final part of his armor clicking into place.

A stream of water began to pour into the cave’s mouth, moving like a snake. Rael spotted its unnatural movements and shot a bolt of magic at it causing the water to explode into the air. The droplets caught themselves on an invisible shape directly behind it.

Rael’s eyes narrowed as he shot another bolt directly at the invisible form, but his bolt passed straight through it. His heart skipped as his eyes darted around the cave to find the puppet master of the distraction.

“We meet again, Rael.” The voice came directly from the invisible form that stopped a few hooves into the cave. The stream of water began to rise up and create the outlines of a pony sitting in its place. It started with the hooves and worked its way up, slowly filling an invisible container. The water remained though the shape of a pony was quite noticeable, and not just an ordinary pony, but an alicorn.

“Who are you?” Rael questioned the form.

“This is a pre-recorded message so any questions you have will be in vain. Who I am will be revealed in time, but for now you must listen to my words. A great and ancient evil has been rebuilding itself and has amassed an army in the south. They have remained widely hidden from the Royal Scouts with the use of magic greater than any for over a thousand years.” The voice spoke proudly with an air of apprehension. “You must warn the crown. Disharmony is on our doorstep. I know of know other pony to trust more than you. Now, awaken.”

The water shaped pony glowed with an intense light that blinded Rael, forcing his head back and eyes shut. The world around him felt to shift and melt before the dying of the intensity blackened his closed eyes. Upon opening them, he found himself lying beside the tree he had hit when he was struck. Upon inspection of the sun’s position, the time had barely passed before the incident. More surprising was the lack of dent on the armor or a scratch on the tree as if it were all just a dream. The circle for the teleportation still existed, but the questions only began to grow. Rael took a few breaths before galloping quickly out of the woods, walking through the threshold. A sensation of freedom and safety washed over him as he passed the line into the meadow. He slowed and turned back to the dark stretch of trees, letting his heart settle before running through everything.

“It was a dream.” The mere statement of it felt wrong. “No.” It could not have been a dream with the amount of magic. He could feel it all around him. Somepony wanted to send him a message and with the rest of the confusion and the degree of magic being shown in the case, he almost wanted to believe the message. “It’s a trick.”

The Captain of the Night Guard steadied his breath. “But why all that effort?” He turned back toward Ponyville to catch the train back to Canterlot. A whisper sighed through the trees behind him, causing a cold chill to shiver up his spine.

He retreated from the Everfree with hurriedly feeling eyes surrounding his movements. Getting others involved in the case, to Rael’s logic, would help prevent the knowledge of his discoveries from being lost. Having experienced the magic involved, he knew that a report needed to be given directly to the princesses to be completely safe. Being still halfway between the Everfree and Ponyville, the sun passed over the horizon and the sky began to darken. By the time Rael arrived at the train station, the night had set in, the streets were deserted and the streetlights attracted the swarms of flying insects.

The train was not at the station, and according to the pamphlet, the train would not arrive for more than half an hour. The night sat uneasy with Rael as he kept his ears moving and his eyes alert. Taking a seat on one of benches, he pulled out a scroll from his pack and began to take down all of his observations, an act he had neglected to do before. Every detail of the case and the dream were written down in proper detail. He took the note to the main office and sealed it in a royal envelope and placed it into the mailbox before returning to the bench.

Despite the uneasy wait, the train arrived at the station. Rael released a sigh of relief as the train to safer areas was promised to him. He trotted to the door of the train car, which slid open as he approached. Rael’s heart skipped a beat as his eyes widened just before a bolt of magic shot from the car, penetrating both helmet and skull. Rael’s vision blurred as he stared at the dark image of the pony before him. The last detail he saw before his legs collapsed out from under him was the shine a red horn and green eyes.

“All aboard.” The dark pony growled before he pulled Rael’s lifeless body into the train.

Rael’s eyes snapped open with his surroundings blurred and shapeless. A cold sweat surrounded his body and what felt like his skin fell from his face. He blinked to clear the blur from his eyes only to reveal the cave he had taken refuge in his dream. He pressed his hoof against his head only to not only see, but feel his hoof shaking as he did so.

It felt far too real to have been a dream, but if that were true then the cave would have been just as real as getting killed. Rael breathed slowly looking around the cave for answers, but none arose from the rocky confines that all too quickly generated claustrophobia. The storm had passed leaving only warm sunrays into the mouth of the cave. The skin that Rael had thought had been peeling from his face proved to be the pile of leaves he had tossed for bedding. Everything was in place except for his armor and helmet sitting off to the side of the bedding.

“What is real?” Rael’s heart raced against his chest as every nerve in his body screamed out in paranoia. Everything had eyes and something sinister was watching him. Nothing mattered except to escape the cave and get to the train station to get back to Canterlot, to get back to safety.

Rael quickly re-equipped his armor and set out of the cave, making note of each detail and finding all to match his memory of his journey to the cave. Everything from broken twigs to hoofprints still slightly visible on the muddy ground, filled in with water stood in place to what one would expect, yet Rael couldn’t believe it. He moved quickly through the woods, ignoring all brambles and thick patches. The faster he traveled the more his worry grew. A reality of death and dying became all too real as he traced over the sensations in his dream. The fear and the wiping blankness of pain and blindness dwarfed the cave’s claustrophobia. It was a sensation of one’s own body caving in on oneself.

Rael galloped until he couldn’t force himself to gallop any faster or longer. His lungs burned from all of the foreign pollen. The sound of a creek and the promise of cold, soothing water only drew him in more. He moved through the slick ground still wetted by the night’s rains and having not dried by the sun above, which only proved to make the travel harder to his exhausted legs. Reaching the top of the hill revealed a stunning creek that came off from the mountains in the distance and making its way through the thick forestation. The water flowed with near perfection, as the waters remained clear. He put his nose near the water, smelling its contents before confirming it safe to drink.

The water soothed his dry mouth. Rael lifted some of the water with his magic, removed his helmet and splashed his face with it. It felt as if the water instantly began turning to steam upon hitting his hot face. Time was of the essence though seeing the sun still hovering directly overhead he knew that he had a few more hours of travel before the day ended once more and having left the edges of the mountains, any promise of a cave for shelter were gone.

The ten minute break turned into twenty as Rael removed the rest of his armor and walked into the water to let his muscles rest and recover from his run. The soak, despite the locale, proved to be the most relaxing experiences of his life. He sat in the water, looking at all the trees around him feeling completely at home despite his fear in the beginning. The wild world had its own chaotic beauty that he found staggeringly beautiful.

“Reminds me of home.” Rael spoke to break the natural silence around him. The time he waited only let the flood of questions fill his head. The division from his dreams and reality had blurred heavily in his time in the cave. Each moment of time in the cave and the train stop felt real, yet only one could have been and given that he was alive it had to have been the former that was a dream.

Rael pondered the questions as he suited back up and began his trek through the forest once more. His path proved to clear up as he moved, eventually stumbling onto a path in the woods moving in the direction he needed to travel. It wasn’t long before he broke out from the dark confines of the Everfree. The bright meadow almost hurt his eyes as it shimmered in a brilliant orange glow from the evening sun that rested on the horizon. He knew he had time to make it to the bus stop before sundown and catch the plane back to Canterlot before it left. He quickly ran down the road, ignoring his aching hooves and legs and instead gunned it to the train stop. He rounded the corner to see the train still sitting on the platform.

“Hold the train!” The dark gray pony yelled out as he ran towards the train. The conductor opened the door upon seeing the pony running for the train. He moved to the side and let Rael climb into the car. “Thank you.” Rael bowed with gratitude.

Breathing heavily, an eerie feeling still crept over him as he looked over the seats in the train car. No red horn or green eyes stood out among the crowds. To be safe, he chose a seat where he could keep an eye out in case of such a reality poking its head back up. Despite all of the paranoia, the grasp of sleep still manages to snag his mind and sag his eyes. He quickly passed out from exhaustion and when his eyes opened once again, the train sat in front of Canterlot. He smiled before he noticed a group of guards waiting on the platform, Shining Armor talking to the conductor. Something was wrong.

Rael moved out of his seat and walked to the door to the car of the train. When he revealed himself from the car, Shining Armor’s attention shifted from the conductor to the Night Guard Captain with some surprise.

“Rael, good to see you.” Shining Armor turned his attention quickly to the conductor. “You may leave. If you figure anything out, inform me immediately.” He nodded.

“What is this about?” Rael asked Shining.

“We received your report and found that the pony you identified as Lyra who was hospitalized has gone missing along with her wife that had been to visit her. We believe that she is trying to move your suspect.

“My,” Rael hesitated at the idea. “My report?” He questioned.

“Yes, you mailed it to us two days ago and found it note worthy with such magic being used. We went to the hospital to question her or see if her condition had improved and all we found was an empty bed.” Shining filled him in on the details.

“Can I see my report?”