A Musician's Guide To: "Whatever this is"
Chapter 27: Chapter 25: Dream-land Duel
Previous Chapter Next ChapterMe, Chrome and Luna hung about a bit, but soon it was time for us to turn in.
We all exchanged our goodbyes and the couple began to leave. A thought hit me and I stopped Luna on her way out by poking her back.
"Yes Dan? What do you need?" Luna said, stopping in the door-way. Chrome noticed she was not following and looked at her longingly. "I'll be with you soon," She said to him. "Go to our room, please."
Chrome huffed and continued walking down the hallway. Luna stepped back into the room, closed the door behind her and looked at me expectantly. "Well? What do you need?"
I smirked. "How 'bout's, you give me one of those dreams again tonight? I promise I won't kill you this time."
She shook her head. "I cannot, no. It takes energy to maintain that kind of dream, if I just gave them out to all who asked for them..."
"But Luna," I whined, "I've never had a dream like that before!"
She rolled her eyes. "Fine, but just this once. Those dreams are usually reserved for emergencies and blocking nightmares." She thought for a second. "Oh, and I'll give you a little surprise as well!"
I smiled and began making my way to the bedroom. "Thanks Luna. What's the surprise?" It wouldn't be a surprise if she told you, you idiot -- Shut up rational brain, now's not the time.
She just laughed somewhat scarily and left the room. I attempted to shrug that off as much as possible, but I still found myself slightly unsettled. But she probably only did that since I did the same thing to her when I first made the electric-guitar.
I walked into the bedroom and got ready for bed in the quickest way I knew how: Strip of at least two pieces of clothing then jump into bed and hope the last thing you ate wasn't sugary because otherwise you'll wake up with fuzzy teeth. I put this practice into motion with practiced ease.
I made sure that the sheets around me were relatively tight, since I will likely be doing some insane stuff tonight. I didn't want to fall off the bed again. Upon thinking about what I was doing, I pulled an arm out of the sheet-burrito and reached to Ebony, he was still in that magic coma or whatever. I put my hand to the back of his ear and scratched, just the way they liked it. "Hope you get well soon buddy." I said as I retracted my hand and began trying desperately to fall asleep, so I could get started.
Obviously, it took a while, but it eventually happened.
I appeared back on the street corner again, the sky was completely clear and the air was that perfect mix of dry warmth and cool breeze. I called out, "Yo Luna? You here?" There was no response. I shrugged. "Time to put all those years of video-games to use..." I said to myself.
I dramatically extended an arm, pointing at the road. "Sports car!" A car popped into existence. It was a typical rally car. Two seats, roll cage, bulky shape, (That's just what I thought of. I don't think I even needed to say any of the stuff out loud, it just made me feel cool). I pointed to the top of the car. "AA cannon!" A large two-barreled cannon appeared on top of the car, seemingly fusing with the metal. There was a large metal box that contained the base of the barrels, allowing the gun to pivot around, and made the whole thing look like a miniature, sporty tank.
I stood back and admired my work for a second. Thinking of something, I threw out my hand again, "Sick paint job!" The whole thing turned mat-black, then flames painted themselves onto the front of the car, as well as the ends of the gun's barrels. I shrugged. "Cliche, but cool." I walked up to the door and placed my hand on the handle. I was about to pull, but a small piece of paper fell in front of me, landing perfectly on the car.
On it, was written, "Surprise!"
I turned around. Nothing. I looked up. Nothing. Huh. "Luna?" I called. Only to hear a giggle. The wrong giggle.
"It sure was nice of Luna to link our dreams like this, don't you think?" Celestia said smugly, peaking her head over the hood of the car. She stood up and tapped the metal with a hoof. "What is this?"
I think I screamed, but I refuse to remember I can't remember. "That," I said, once I had composed myself. "Is a car... With a Anti-Aircraft cannon on top."
She looked at me confused. "Car?"
"Locomotion."
She looked up at the barrels of the gun. "Anti... aircraft cannon?"
I shrugged. "It's used to shoot down planes." She blinked. "Planes are flying machines."
She shook herself. "This is not why I am here. I am here, at Luna's request; to duel you."
My face lit up, Celestia flinched. "Really?"
Celestia looked a lot less confident after seeing my reaction. "...Yes. The duel will begin at..." A clock appeared next to her head, which she inspected. "10 o'clock."
"How does time work here?" I asked.
"It's completely fictional. This clock will ring very loudly when it reaches 10. Which is in twenty minutes. Rules are - No weapons of mass destruction. So no 'mukes'."
"Nukes." I corrected her.
She waved a hoof. "None of those. No teleportation. And nothing indestructible."
I shrugged. "Sounds fair enough."
She smiled smugly. "See you at ten." She said, before an army of ponies rose out of the ground and carried her off. She laughed into the distance.
Oh god what did I just agree to.
I quickly got into the car and pretended to know how to drive. Luckily, anything goes in dreams apparently, since I did a perfect 180-handbrake turn right off the bat and began speeding towards the ocean. My house was near the coast, and I recognized the street I was on. So in about five minutes, I had made it to the sea. Upon seeing it, an idea hit me. Before, I was just going to fly to Spain or something and hide, but I got a better idea just then. I stopped the car on the rocky shore-line and stepped out.
I held both my hands towards the sea in a show of power. I said, slowly and dramatically... "Air-craft carrier!" The boat appeared in the water, barely even creating wave. It spawned quite a ways into the water, so I had to get to it. I held out a hand, "Impossibly light plank of wood, just long enough the reach the boat." A plank of wood extended into the sky. I poked it and it toppled over, the end touching down on the boat. "Aw yeah." I ran across the thin plank flawlessly. Once I got to the boat, I pushed the plank off and into the water.
I took a look around my boat. It was large, very large. There were multiple guns and cannons aboard, but I had something else in mind. I ran to the end of the runway and pointed at the ground in front of me. "Fighter jet. Errrr... F16?" Sure enough, there it was. The F16, a forth generation fighter jet. "Those model-sets I got for Christmas last year came in handy for once!" I cheered as I sped towards the machine, climbing up onto one of the wings and pulling the glass dome open. I sat down, strapped myself in and closed the glass back down.
I smirked, as I sat there and waited. Looking for any sign of movement on the horizon.
"I know where you are, Dan." Celestia said from somewhere.
I span my head around, trying to find her. "Where are you?! Get out!"
"Calm down, I am nowhere near you. But I can see your... thing." She didn't sound that confident.
"Oh really? What do you think of my human engineering?"
"...It's...good, I'll give you that. But I don't know what half of those things do." I guess she was looking at the guns or the radars.
I laughed. "So, you know where I am. Where are you then?" I asked, looking about in the sky and on the beach beside the boat.
She giggled. "I won't tell. You will have to find me."
I shrugged. "K."
I pushed a couple buttons and switches, again, pretending to know how to drive this thing. Beep, beep boop, click, click, clear for take-off! I grabbed the joystick and pushed a sliding lever that I figured was an accelerator all the way up. The jet ran down the runway, I barely felt like I was moving. Once the end of the runway was nearing, I pulled up on the joystick, I left the boat and went a couple hundred meters into the air, before leveling myself off by pushing the joystick back down.
"What is that!?" Celestia yelled.
I laughed. "This, my little pony, is a Forth Generation F16 Fighter Jet!" I said, as I turned the jet to face back towards my boat. I flipped a switch, thinking to myself since Celestia could hear me, 'Heat vision'. The glass dome turned into a digital display, showing my surroundings in black and white. There was a large white blotch in the center of a field a couple streets away from the coast. I flipped the switch back off, my view returned to normal and I turned the jet towards the field, seeing that was full of tall crops, perfect for hiding in. I figure she's got an army hiding in there or something.
I said nothing as I approached the field. Celestia stayed silent too. Once I was pretty close, I slowed my jet and pointed the nose down towards the crops. I pressed every button on the joystick, sending a barrage of rockets and missiles towards the crops. Before they made contact however, the crops erupted from the ground, revealing a very large crater, with a very large white Dragon inside. Straddled on the back of it's neck, was Celestia. The Dragon took off with one beat of it's massive wings, dodging the explosives that then impacted with the crop-covered crater.
I screamed and turned my jet side-ways, skirting around the dragon that was swiftly approaching me. "You didn't think it would be that easy did you?" Celestia asked. I pushed the throttle to the max and sped away from the dragon. It had since turned to face me and was continuing its pursuit.
"Actually, yes." I said. Pulling out of the way of a ball of fire sent speeding towards me from the dragon behind me. "I wasn't expecting a dragon!"
She laughed. "And I wasn't expecting a... er... whatever you said." Real princess-like.
I took a sharp 180 turn. I sped towards the dragon, its course didn't change. Once again, I unloaded the jet's arsenal of explosives at the creature. It's neck reeled back as it rapidly attempted to gain altitude. I saw this and angled the jet up towards it's head, and pressed the joystick's buttons again, sending a second barrage of projectiles towards it's head. Oh my god, this is ridiculous.
It beat it's wings furiously, the first batch of rockets missed, passing underneath it. But since it had gained altitude, the batch I fired at it's face were now headed for it's chest. It's eye's widened at the quickly approaching explosives and it clamped it's wings by it's sides. Dropping like a stone and narrowly missing the second batch as well.
While it was low to the ground, I sped over it's head, gained altitude and looped over backwards, facing towards the ground. I placed myself above the dragon, who had since noticed I was directly above it and had started to speed towards me yet again. I set my jet's course very precisely, then pushed against the glass dome above me, the rushing air held it shut.
"Shotgun." I pumped it and shot at the glass, it shattered and I leaped through the whole it left. The tail of my jet almost hit me as it descended at a far greater speed. I looked down, at the now distant plane as it flew straight at the dragon. The dragon saw that it's trajectory was not changing, so fired a wall of flames towards the jet. The jet continued through the flames for a couple seconds, making it just meters from the dragon's mouth, before the fuel seemingly had enough.
The jet exploded, both its highly flammable fuel and its weaponry ignited just in front of the dragon's head. The dragon's head and neck were engulfed in flame, smoke and shrapnel as its speed only pushed it into the inferno even further. The dragon fell limp, falling from the sky, similarly to me. I was still in free-fall, with a shotgun in my hands. "Parachute!" I was no longer in free-fall, and instead, gently cascading down towards the fields. I watched as Celestia jumped from the downed dragon's back before the fire could reach her, her wings carrying her towards me.
"Dan?" She asked. She was still very far from me. I aimed my shotgun.
"Yes?" I answered.
"Nothing. Just making sure you're still in." She said as she approached me. Clearly she didn't know what a shotgun could do.
I pumped my weapon, took aim, and fired once I thought she was within an appropriate distance. She yelped as one of her wings fell limp, she began to spiral towards the ground violently. Seeing that almost made me feel bad, that looked painful.
"Knife." I cut at my parachute's cables and free'd myself of it. I dropped my shotgun and placed the knife in my teeth. I set my course for the flailing alicorn. I fell head first as to catch up with her, grabbing her by her shoulders as I flew by her. We both sped towards the ground, looking at each other.
I smiled. "You okay?" My knife fell from my mouth as I spoke. It sped past us, upwards.
She smiled back. "Yeah, just shock really. It didn't actually hurt." She said, flexing her limp wing.
"Ah okay. Parachute!" I said, I held onto her as he glided the last couple feet to the ground fairly slowly. Once we hit the ground I helped her stand and removed the parachute.
"You didn't have to do that, you know." She said. "I would have saved myself."
I rolled my eyes. "You think that's what I was doing?" She blinked. "Nah," I held out one of my hands, not breaking eye contact with her. I caught the shotgun I had dropped earlier by the pump, it's speed causing it to pump and replace the empty shell as soon as my hand grabbed the pump. I placed my other hand on the grip and trigger, pointing it at her. "I was just setting you up." I said as I pulled the trigger.
Now, have you ever seen a head explode? Because I sure as hell ain't describing it. Needless to say, it scared me, like, I wasn't expecting it to have that much power. What I was expecting as for it to almost kill her and she'd fall to the floor then give me a 'you and me are the same' speech or something. Not... horse-head-explosion.
I stood there in the field awkwardly for what must have been minutes. Just looking around me. A headless alicorn, a possibly headless dragon corpse, the scattered wreckage of a plane, two parachutes, a knife sticking out of the ground (which turned out to have barely missed us as we landed) and a shotgun, still in my hands.
Eventually though, Luna showed up, climbing through one of her portals.
"I just heard Celestia wake up, did y-" She froze. Staring around at ruined landscape, and Celestia's decapitated body. She blinked and collected herself. "It looks as if you gave her a... good fight."
I laughed. "Yeah you could say that." I put down the shotgun. While I was doing that, I found that I was covered in Celestia chunks. "Oh that's-." I choked, almost throwing up.
Luna rolled her eyes. "You get used to seeing the inside of her head after a couple hundred duels." She looked me up and down. "Though it seems the method you used was a lot more brutal than... say, a sword. Like I am used to."
I swallowed down the sickness rising in my stomach. "Yeah, maybe I should have beat her head in instead. I guess I can try that later?"
Luna nodded. "There is no doubt she will want a re-match. She is rather competitive."
I smiled. "Awesome." I held up a hand to the heavens. "New clothes! Sports car, the one from earlier!" My clothes were replaced with clean versions of the ones I already had on, and the car with the cannons on top appeared in the field. I gestured towards the car. "Care for a drive?" I asked.
Luna nodded somewhat nervously. "Yes, I would like to see this how this machine works." She gave a wary look to the guns on top.
I got inside the car, and she slowly sat in the passenger seat, very cramped due to her long neck and horn. She huffed in annoyance, before becoming slightly smaller, allowing her to easily fit in the seat. I didn't say it at the time, but slightly-smaller Luna is adorable.
"Don't worry about the guns on top. I put those there, they are not usually there." I said as I strapped myself in.
Luna gave an understanding nod and strapped herself in with her magic, following my example. "Let us... 'drive'!" She said, throwing out a hoof.
I stamped on the accelerator, in a matter of minutes we had cleared the fields and were on the regular roads. I had never driven before, but it was nice to look out at all the places I remembered from back home. Well, it was nice to drive car, I tried once back on earth and I sucked, so it was complete dream-power that stopped me from crashing. I pointed out landmarks and other places with importance to me and explained what they were. She looked somewhat interested, though focused more on the car itself.
I saw a very familiar building coming up, so I pulled up outside it. "You mind if I have a look outside for a second? There's something I have to do."
"This is your house." She said, knowingly. She continued in response to my shocked look. "This place is based off of your memory. This area has a lot more of the 'little details'. So you must have been here very often."
I looked out the window, she was right, everything looked normal, but down the road, some of the houses seemed to repeat, and some of the paths didn't have the wear-and-tear the ones here did, such as the pot-holes and small scraps of litter I was used to seeing.
I nodded to her. "Yeah, this is my house." I said as I stepped out of the car.
"May I come too? I wish to see your living conditions." She asked as she also exited the car.
"Yeah, sure. If you want... wait, do you hear that?" I asked, leaning my ear into the wind. It was another car somewhere nearby.
Luna smiled. "This place is very familiar to you. It allows your mind to create a much more vivid simulation of the real thing."
I smile and shook my head. "Heh, magic. Come on then." I led her past the cars outside and to the door. I put my hand on the handle, remembering it's texture. By pure muscle memory, I reached for my key-chain, to find it in my hand. I looked down, shrugged and placed it in the lock, twisting it and letting myself in.
"Home!" I said, mockingly. There was no response, as usual. My mother was usually out by the time I got home. And my sister stayed around her friend's house most days, so an empty house was no surprise. I sighed and Luna comforted me with a hoof to the shoulder, she was full-size again.
I continued walking into the house, Luna closed the door behind her. She was taking in the details of the rooms as we walked through the lounge and into the large kitchen. I sighed happily, hearing the familiar sound of the laminate floor crackle and creak slightly under my feet. I got to the fridge and opened it, fully stocked. Luna had at some point left me, so I pulled out a small selection of foods, mostly the ones I had missed while in Equestria. I sat on the sofa in the lounge for a couple minutes, eating my way through about half-a-meal's-worth of snack foods. I didn't feel any more alert or full afterwards, but the taste was there.
Once I had finished I placed the dish I used on the side, ready to be cleaned by... well, I put it on the side. I turned back around to find Luna walking into the kitchen. "Have fun looking around my house?" I asked
"Yes, it is very... well, it's different to how I imagined it. Also, there is a box upstairs making a lot of noise. Do you know of this?" She looked concerned.
I smiled and nodded. "Yeah, that's probably my computer. Stay away from that. Please." Can't risk her seeing a pony. If Celestia hadn't told her, she obviously did not need to know. She gave me a suspicious look, but I continued. "Lets get out of here, please. It's... making me depressed."
"Are you sure?" She asked. "You have not even been upstairs yet."
I shook my head. "No, it's better for me not to become attached to this place again, it'll just be torn away again. Now come on, lets go, I'll show you how we made flying machines." She gave me a concerned look, but respected my decision.
We spent a couple hours flying about in a passenger airliner I thought up, but I think we both woke up rather suddenly as the plane hit what I think was a cliff. Neither of us were watching where it was going, since I was walking her past the many seats in contained. All I heard was a massive crash, everything moved at once and then I was back in bed. I didn't fall off the side this time either, so that was good. Plus I had a some-what unexpected guest.
"Bad dream?" He asked from my side.
I turned to see Ebony looking at me with tired eyes. I smiled and pulled him into a hug. "I missed you dude." I said over his shoulder, choking on my voice slightly.
He pulled back slightly and gave me a confused look. "What? Why's that?"
I blinked at him. "Dude, you've been asleep for like, days."
He gave me a confused look, before his eyes widened. "Queen Vicissit!" He yelled, making to leave, but I stopped him.
"Dude, dude, Ebony. She's fine, she has her own room and everything." I said, pulling him back down into his spot on the bed.
He let out a relieved sigh. "Are the ponies okay with My Queen?"
I nodded. "Yeah, her and Celestia actually get along pretty well. But there is a problem you should know about."
"What's that?"
"I can't see or hear her. Don't ask why or how, if you want to know, ask Celestia. It's magical stuff that I've already forgotten."
He looked slightly disappointed. "So... you'll never see her?"
"Oh yeah, I will. Apparently it'll ware of in a week or so. Well, a couple days now, actually."
He smiled. "Just you wait, she's magnificent."
I laughed. "I've felt her, that's it so far. So all I know, aside from a vague description from Celestia's Log, is that she is like... super huge!"
He rolled his eyes. "How is everyone else doing?"
I shrugged. "Nothing of major-note has happened since you passed out. Luna and Steve 'n Dawn asked if you were okay. Also, I would stay a slight distance from Celestia today."
I shrank into himself slightly and blinked nervously. "Why?"
"I kinda killed her last night." He stared at me in fear. The I realized what I said. "In a dream."
He relaxed. "So it wasn't really her." It wasn't a question, it was a statement of what he assumed was fact.
"Nope, it was her alright. Luna set up a dream-duel thingy. Linked her dream to mine. Blew her head off with a shotgun."
He blinked. "So that's what a shotgun does."
I snorted. "Let's just say there's a reason I don't tell the ponies about these things much." I mean, it killed Celestia. Sometimes I wonder if there is anything a shotgun can't do! "Now come on, we've got to tell the others your finally awake!" I said, sitting up and throwing my legs out of the bed and onto the floor.
He beamed with excitement.