Was it dark? Light? Blackbird couldn’t tell and she didn’t trust her senses. She could see, but she had learned enough to know that whatever it was she thought she saw didn’t mean much. The eyes played tricks here, and whatever there was to be seen was no more real than the filly following after her. Perhaps illumination had no use here, and things were visible because they wanted to be seen.

Like what she saw in the middle of the room. There, in the middle, curled up atop a pile of pillows, Blackbird saw a slumbering foal clutching a… staring at it, Blackbird had no idea what the stuffed toy was, but looking directly at it caused her feelings of intense discomfort. Something about it was just plain wrong and Blackbird got the distinct notion that it didn’t want to be looked at. Why couldn’t Dim just have a stuffed bear, or a stuffed chicken, or something cute and fuzzy?

Because then he wouldn’t be Dim, a voice within her head told her, and it was hard to argue with this voice.

“What is that?” Blackbird asked in the softest whisper she could muster, though she feared the answer to her question.

“An act of kindness,” the Essence of Night replied, also whispering. “The Void’s gift.”

“Yeah, but what is it?” Blackbird tried to make herself look at the stuffed toy, and found that she could not. Her vision fuzzed over, she saw double, then triple, and then experienced a state of supernatural super-nausea.

“It’s a stuffed tarrasque. Ain’t it cute? I can still see the Void giving it to him. Dim is shocked and left happy, because he wasn’t expecting this act of kindness.”

“No.” Blackbird froze when Dim stirred in his sleep, and the idea of his discomfort caused her some panic. “I only see Dim sleeping… so what’s the deal? I thought the Void was dead. Isn’t that his body in that weird space?”

“It is. His existence terminated there. He died to bring you here. The Void had a promise to keep.”

“Promise?” Blackbird’s confusion was growing to be too much to bear.

“The Void promised that, with the last of his strength, he would bring Dim comfort. I can see him doing it right now. For being a monster, the Void was very sweet and kind, as centaurs tend to be. Though he became a devouring horror, he never lost that aspect of his nature. The centaurs loved their projects… all of them… perhaps a little too much.”

“I only saw him when he was dead,” Blackbird said, and upon reflection, she felt as though she had missed something meaningful, something vital, some great thing now forever lost.

“Look closer,” the tiny alicorn filly said to Blackbird while she stomped one hoof against the blanketed floor. “Closer…”

Something within Blackbird’s mind gave way when the filly’s hoof hit the soft blanket floor and time was freed to move in all directions. For a moment, she saw the Void as he was coming, as he was going, and while he stayed. He appeared as a centaur foal, an equine body with four legs, and where the head and neck should be, a slight simian form protruded.

Dim too, was out of focus, and doing many things at once. Crying. Throwing a tantrum and thrashing about. Sleeping. Creating his Pillow Fortress of Seclusion. She saw it all, everything at once, and it made her brain ache. Why was she not mad? She knew that she should be and a small part of her balked at the stark horror of what she was witnessing.

Just as things became a little bit too unbearable, the scene before her focused. The Void entered, his thin hands folded before him, his head bowed, his simian face was solemn. Dim, atop his pile of pillows, wept, ignoring the Void’s approach. The centaur, though appearing to be a foal, had aged wisdom in his eyes, an eternity of life. Blackbird could see it, sense it, somehow she knew of it.

All of it stretched out before her like terrifying taffy. The Void had seen whole galaxies come and go. He had witnessed universes dying and had watched them be born. During his tenure as the Void, new stars had blazed into existence and old stars suffered violent deaths—but in doing so, gave life to other things. Realities had come and gone, some destroyed by the Void himself.

“Why do you weep, little one?” the Void asked while he approached.

“It hurts. Everything hurts.” Dim’s words were muffled because his face was buried into a pillow.

The centaur came to a halt, folded his equine legs beneath him, and kneeled down beside Dim. Reaching out with one hand, he rested it upon Dim’s neck and with his other hand, he smoothed out Dim’s tail. Blackbird, frozen in time, unable to move, watched all of this as it happened, and she found that she could not blink, nor did she need to.

“I could feel the spiders biting me… it burned my blood… it was too much.”

Upon hearing this, Blackbird recoiled; she had done this to him—she had said to do whatever it was that was necessary to save him. Repulsed by her actions, she felt like retching, but trapped in stasis, she could do nothing, nothing at all but listen.

“That is only physical pain… though awful, little one, I doubt that is what brought you here. Tell me, little one, what has hurt you so? Speak to me… we have all the time we need.”

When Dim spoke, his voice came from everywhere, all around him, from every nook, crevice, and cranny in this reality, but not a sound came from his body. “Weaver Indigo died, and it hurt. I hardly knew him. He barely existed. But he died, and everything in my mind, everything that makes me who and what I am, it all tumbled around and settled into new places. I had this glorious moment of understanding, I saw what I could be, what I wanted to be, and I felt this great sense of purpose… I wanted to make his death matter… it inspired me. It caused things within me to awaken… it made me feel... Weaver Indigo made me care...”

When Dim said nothing else, the Void rubbed his neck, an act of comfort. “And?”

This question was met with silence. Blackbird too, waited, frozen in her stasis, her mind begging to be let go from this unnatural state. She realised that right now, at this moment, she was privy to the very secrets of Dim’s soul, his most private, most secret parts, and it felt like betraying him to intrude in such a way upon his privacy.

“I wasn’t strong enough.” Dim’s voice was a whisper that came from everywhere and nowhere. “In the stories, the knight was always this heroic saviour. The wizard always saved the peasants. Might made right and right won the day. Me? I could save no one. I failed. I couldn’t stop what was happening. I couldn’t save the helpless. I couldn’t even save myself. After mustering all of my might, I found myself lacking. In the aftermath, I saw myself for what I truly was, and the pain proved to be to much to bear.”

“And what did you see?” the Void asked, still rubbing Dim’s neck.

“A bully and a thug,” Dim replied, his voice now muffled in the pillow once more. “I was careful of the battles I chose to engage in. Calling myself clever, I went after those whom I knew had no chance of defending themselves against me. As Harsh Winters, I made a name and a reputation for myself, preying upon those that had no hope, no means to thwart me. My reputation was a finely crafted illusion, a lie with enough truth mixed in to make it satisfying.”

“And then, I suppose, the one time where it truly mattered to you, the one time where you sincerely wanted to do the right thing, you found your efforts all for naught?”

Dim writhed for a moment and then curled into a fetal ball, burying his face between his forelegs. “My guile and trickery were not enough. My malicious mischief was nothing in the face of real power.” Reaching out one foreleg, Dim pushed the centaur’s hand away and then covered his face once more. “This time, it mattered. So much was at stake. That… thing was an engine of wanton, rampant death. For a moment, I saw what others must see in me, but this was the real thing, and I… I am the author of my own myth.”

“But… you did something. Even though you faced overwhelming odds and you were outclassed, you faced the danger and put yourself in harm’s way.” The Void leaned forward, placed his hand upon one of Dim’s ears, curled his simian fingers around it, and gave it a tug. “Weaver Indigo had only his life to give, little one, and he gave it. But you… I sense that you have so much more. Are you really going to just give up? Is this to be your end?”

“I’ve been in the company of real heroes, and I am not one of them,” Dim replied, squirming beneath the Void’s touch, but unable to get away. “I have seen the truth… the Bard… myself… there are many of us… failures. Contingencies. Backups. We’re not even has-beens, we’re what-might’ve-beens. The world is full of us, let them fight and sort it out amongst themselves. I’m done.”

“And there was a time when I would be set upon you, to clean up loose ends.” Closing his eyes, the Void leaned against Dim’s pile of pillows, and Dim as well. “But my time nears its end. For too long, I have cleaned up the cosmic machinery and consumed the detritus of existence. I know not what comes next, but all of this nears an end.” Saddened, the Void shook his head and used his fingers to scratch behind Dim’s ears. “What if I gave you the power to change things?”

“I am unfit to wield it.” Dim’s tiny legs kicked and wiggled, but he was unable to get away from the centaur trying to comfort him. “Haven’t you listened to anything I’ve said? I’m craven… I am a coward. For quite some time now, I’ve been in the company of real heroes, those that have done truly great things. Me? I’m a fraud… if you want a real hero, go find Blackbird. There’s your hero. I am nothing compared to her. She does things for all the right reasons.”

“Funny,” the Void responded, shaking his head, “but I have this nagging suspicion that if I spoke to her, she might say the same thing about you.”

“I think not.” Dim’s eyes closed and once more, he attempted to bury his face into the pillows beneath him. “If she knew the truth about me, she’d be disgusted.”

“I am certain that you believe that.” The Void pulled himself away from Dim, but remained kneeling on the floor beside him. “And by sealing yourself away in this place, you’ve become the author of your own truth. You have no way of knowing or proving that you are wrong, so you can rest assured in the truth of your own making.”

The blanket entrance parted and Blackbird saw a blue alicorn filly enter, looking panicked and fearful. She paused just inside of the entrance, and Blackbird became aware that the Essence of Night was now in two places at once. Some sort of silenced communication took place between the filly in the entrance and the centaur, and it ended when the Void waved his hand at her. Turning about, the filly vanished through the blanket entrance and was gone.

Blackbird realised that the Essence of Night and the Void prepared while she had approached, for Blackbird that was to be was coming. Even worse, Blackbird realised that she was now in multiple places at once, and it made her feel sick in some weird, unknowable, unfathomable way. She lacked the omniscience to deal with this sort of warped reality, but she held on, determined to bear this for Dim’s sake.

“So… the pain of living… the pain of failure… it proved to be too much?” the Void asked.

Dim’s whole body writhed at these words and the centaur’s face fell.

“I didn’t mean to cause you pain, but I suppose I did inadvertently.” Reaching out, the Void held Dim’s hoof in his two hands. When Dim tried to pull away, the centaur held on with one hand, while rubbing Dim’s fetlock with the other. “I don’t think you’ve truly failed before. After you left home, you were canny enough to engineer your successes, which kept your ego going. That soothed the pain of living, I do believe. You left home and found yourself in a harsh, unforgiving world—the same world, I might add, that many are forced to scratch out an existence in. Rather than experience it, you deadened yourself to it through chemical means. You altered your reality to the point where it became artificial. Now, when faced with the harshest aspects of life, you’ve retreated, here, to this soft place.”

More than anything, Blackbird wanted to rush to Dim’s side to comfort him, but she lacked the means to move. Was Dim disappointed with her? Envious? She tried to imagine what might be in his head, but drew a blank. Why couldn’t Dim see his own part in bringing down the alicorn? Though Blackbird couldn’t say how or why—she did not understand magic in the slightest—she knew, she knew that Dim had played a role in the false-alicorn’s defeat. Dim had weakened it, robbed it of magic somehow, and that was the only reason she had been able to strike. When the alicorn and Dim had locked beams together, Dim had done something, but she could not comprehend what had taken place.

With a sad smile, the Void let go of Dim’s hoof and then he began waving his hands about. A peculiar black glow engulfed his fingers, a luminescent darkness that made Blackbird’s brain balk at the sight of it. This was a contradictory thing, a thing that defied itself, and was contrary to its own existence. The brilliant darkness took shape, it solidified as the centaur wove reality together, or maybe the Void was ripping reality apart: it was difficult to tell for Blackbird, as this went well beyond her limited mortal comprehension.

The Void was making something though—the Essence of Night called it a tarrasque—and watching as it took shape caused Blackbird’s eyeballs to vibrate in the most unpleasant way. It was crafted from glowing darkness, given form and shape. Blackbird wanted to look away, she couldn’t bear to keep looking, but she was stuck and this was torture.

Though still a foal, the Void appeared to age in some way—he appeared tired and wan. His hands shook and there was a fierce, sad intensity in his eyes. With his creation finished, the centaur paused for a moment to examine it, and then he drew in a deep breath. Placing his lips near the stuffed tarrasque, a cloud of swirling, liquid darkness exited his mouth, which went into the toy. Again, he breathed in, drawing in as much as his lungs could hold; when he exhaled once more even more of the strange gooey darkness came out and went into the stuffed toy.

A violent convulsion overcame the centaur foal for a moment, he shuddered as if he was taking bad medicine, or enduring something unpleasant. Blackbird could see the pain in his eyes and his hands trembled in the most dreadful way. He was undoing himself somehow, breathing his existence into the stuffed monster.

“Do you know what this is?” the Void asked while holding out the stuffed toy to Dim.

Dim’s eyes opened and he lifted his head. Blackbird saw him blink, but he seemed to suffer no ill reaction at the sight of the tarrasque, whatever it was. In fact, Dim’s face seemed almost peaceful somehow, the innocent, joyful look that foals have when offered a surprise gift that made them happy.

“That’s a tarrasque,” Dim replied, his voice wavering.

The centaur struggled to tuck the toy between Dim’s forelegs and once he did, he leaned one elbow against Dim’s pillows to prop himself up. “Very good, little one. Keep him. It is a gift. My gift, from me to you. Not many foals would appreciate a snuggly tarrasque.” Wheezing, the centaur struggled to draw breath and seemed to be growing weaker with each passing second. “Do you accept this gift?”

Dim nodded and hugged the stuffed monster to him. For a moment, he was blissful and Blackbird, though she was having trouble watching all of this, felt a profound warmth in her heart. Dim seemed happy—for Dim, anyhow, and Blackbird couldn’t help it, she wondered how messed up one had to be to find a tarrasque cuddly. She couldn’t even focus her eyes upon it without feeling as though her head might explode, or that her brain might liquify and go dribbling out her nose. Dim was special.

Perhaps embracing grotesquerie was some important aspect of monsterhood that Blackbird had not yet explored. If she stayed with Dim long enough, she would need to embrace that part of herself, otherwise she might never truly give Dim the understanding and appreciation that he deserved.

“I promise you, with the last of my strength, I will bring you comfort,” the Void said to Dim. “Sleep now, little one. Get some rest. I give you my word that when you wake up, you will find comfort.”

“How can you promise such a thing?” Dim’s voice was that of a vulnerable, mistrustful foal.

Extending one hand, the centaur touched the tip of one simian finger to Dim’s nose and said, “Sleep now, little one.”

Dim collapsed right away, falling into slumber. The Void struggled to rise and Blackbird saw the Essence of Night’s head poking through the blanket entrance. She came in, her face pained, sad, and went to the centaur foal’s side. In silence she stood as he looped his arms around her neck, and she helped to pull him up. When he stood, he almost toppled over, and the filly had to help him with her stubby wings.

“You’re dying,” the alicorn filly said to the centaur that clung to her.

“I don’t belong here,” he replied, “my universe collapsed long ago. I have long outlived my purpose. Do not mourn me.”

“Actually…”—the filly let out a displeased huff—“I’m a bit upset at what you’ve done.”

Together, the pair moved towards the door, the centaur dragging his hooves every step of the way, and he said to her in reply, “He will do right with it. Dim has seen and experienced the abuse of power and he said that he is unfit to wield it. He confessed that he is craven, and a coward. With great courage, he bared his very soul to admit that he is a bully and a thug. He might not be worthy now, but he will spend his life trying to become worthy, for such is his nature.”

“But you were wrong to give it to him—”

Who are you to tell me that I am wrong?

Cowed, the filly’s ears went limp and she shied away from the centaur that clung to her.

“Take me to the entrance of this sanctum. There is one more task that I must finish, one more promise that I must keep. I know what will rouse Dim from his state of defeated ennui. Dim is a shadow, and a shadow without a body is a broken thing that should not be. This must be corrected… and then I can rest.”

“You’ll work yourself to death, Void—”

“That is the plan, Night. Now take me to the entrance.”

Together, they exited.

Blinking, Blackbird found that she could move again, so move she did. In the corners of her vision, she saw things, ghosts of the past perhaps, things that were, and still perhaps lingered. Dim lay sleeping on his pile of pillows, still snuggling his stuffed tarrasque. A million questions danced between her synapses and all of her senses were still blurred from what she had just experienced. Things grew even more confusing when she saw herself entering Dim’s inner sanctum out of the corner of her left eye. Time was a fluid thing that ran in all directions.

From out of the shadows, a tiny filly pounced, black, sleek, and vaguely catlike. Like Dim, she had mismatched eyes and there was something very much like him about her. She also had teeth like a bear trap and a leonid tail. Startled, Blackbird jerked away and the filly landed where Blackbird had stood but a moment before.

“Papa needs Quiet time,” the filly said in a low voice, and then, before Blackbird could respond, she vanished, becoming so much substanceless shadow.

From the darkest corner, a pair of baleful green eyes could be seen staring, burning like witchfire in the darkness. Blackbird knew that she was being watched, but by what? Were these guardians? If she disturbed Dim’s body, would these awful creatures come and flay the metaphorical flesh from her metaphorical bones?

“Beware of what lies Lurking,” an unseen voice said, the very same voice of the filly that had been seen just a moment ago.

Annoyed, the Essence of Night’s horn flared with brilliant blue light, and the suggestive shadows retreated. Blackbird, thoroughly unnerved, felt a terrifying prickle in her belly and cold chills pierced her spine. Things—whatever these things were—had retreated, but were not gone. The green eyes had vanished but something still watched her, something terrible and unknown. Something not entirely wholesome or natural.

“What’s going on?” Blackbird asked while she crept closer to the Essence of Night.

“You made a deal with the Void,” the alicorn filly replied, “and he has kept his end of the bargain. Though I am displeased with what has been done, I do take pleasure in knowing that you will suffer tremendously for your foolishness, mortal.” There was a giggle from Blackbird’s companion, and it was not a pleasant sound, not at all.

Hearing it, Blackbird cringed.

“Yon prince lies sleeping,” the Essence of Night said to Blackbird in the most haughty manner imaginable. “Go on, wake him up. Be the heroine you long to be. Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered—you get the idea, I hope. You’ve endured every test thrown at you. I made you face the worst things I could muster in the dream realm, and you’ve pushed past them. You stumbled into a realm that should have been your undoing, and not only did you survive it, but you found a sponsor willing to assist you and pull you out. You learned how to navigate the entryway, you thought your way past three dimensional thinking, and when it came down to it, you were able to reject your inner-brutishness so that you could bypass Dim’s defenses that kept out things that might hurt him.”

Astonished, Blackbird blinked a few times.

“And then, I threw the truth at you and allowed your mind to be stretched in ways that a mortal mind wasn’t meant to be stretched. At this point, you should be howling mad, but somehow, you’ve endured. Since I can’t be rid of you, and something prevents me from tossing you out, I am left with only one recourse—”

“And that is?” Blackbird asked, eager to get to the point.

“To give you what you want, with the hopes that you might go away. You’re no longer a mere monster, but an abomination. In your mad, foolish rush to reach Dim, you’ve become like him. Something obscene, something offensive to reality. You’re too thick-headed to even understand what you have done, but you have become the surrogate for the Void’s offspring. His essence now remains in both you and Dim… and his essence will become an integrated part of this reality now because of your actions. A part of him will continue to persist now through your bloodline, now and forever.”

Blackbird, the wee little nipper that she was, puffed up at being called an abomination. She hadn’t even made real peace with being a monster, not yet, a chaotic amalgamation of assorted parts that existed in contradiction to one another. This hurt—even worse, this was a hurt that she had trouble fathoming. Her grasp on everything that had just taken place was tenuous at best, and she regretted her previous cruelty… the Essence of Night was getting the last laugh, so to speak.

“Dim, wake up.”

From Dim, there was no response, not even a snort, and Blackbird was at a loss for what to do. It seemed that there was one final test, one last obstacle that remained in her way. Almost stumbling, not used to being in such a small body, Blackbird clambered forward to the pillow pile where Dim rested and tried not to think about what had just been said.

It stung a bit.

“Dim?”

Shadows swirled around the edges of Blackbird’s vision, the stuff of dreams perhaps, and she wondered how much of this her mind had constructed in an attempt to understand it. Why, she might be in quite a different place—Dim could be sleeping atop a mountain of skulls for all she knew, but she doubted that. When Dim burned things, he seldom left skulls behind.

Reaching out, mindful of her stubby claws, Blackbird poked Dim’s sleeping body with her knuckle. Nothing happened. Now a bit miffed, she poked him again, and when nothing happened—again—she let out a frustrated yowl while the Essence of Night stood rolling her eyes in exasperation.

“Wakey, wakey!” Grabbing Dim’s hoof, she gave it a gentle yank, but nothing happened.

Frustrated, Blackbird began prowling, moving in a circle around Dim’s pillow pile, but her stubby legs were far too short to stalk about properly. Her tail slashed from side to side, her claws snagged against the blanket floor, and nothing about her body behaved the way she wanted it to. Dim was little, rather cute, and in his current sleeping state, did not at all resemble the pyromaniac arsonist that he was known to be. Why, he almost appeared innocent, except for the fact that he hugged a stuffed toy that had the most dreadful wibble to it.

“You’re pretty stupid, you know that?” The Essence of Night sat down upon a pillow and gave Blackbird a leaden stare. “For a time, I thought you immensely clever for having made it this far, but right now, I am having second thoughts. Luck is your greatest asset, the very core of your being, and there is such a thing as dumb luck.”

Lifting her right talons, Blackbird almost held out her middle claw, but that would be mean. Biting her lip, she resisted the urge and returned her attention to the slumbering prince. The very sight of Dim was confusing, because especially at this age, it was impossible to tell if he was a colt or a filly. Blackbird knew that he was a colt, but seeing him now was jarring in a way that she could not express. Having felt the pain of being different, of not being like the others, Blackbird knew for certain that Dim would have trouble around other foals—he would be teased and bullied to no end.

“Your empathy will not wake him, but it is admirable, Dodo Bird.”

Blackbird, tempted to use the Essence of Night as a scratching post, had to bottle up her feelings and let this insult slide. So the Essence of Night had to know what Blackbird was thinking, and that made sense—how else would one manipulate dreams? Chewing on her lip some more, Blackbird chastised herself for not realising this sooner.

Once, Blackbird had scratched up the sofa a bit, and Stinkberry had hit her with a scold. It had knocked her right over, floored her, and had made it very clear that scratching things was not okay. After the fact, when the sobs and sniffles had subsided, her father had cuddled her to make everything better. Narrowing her eyes, Blackbird glanced in the direction of the blue alicorn filly, and saw her narrow her eyes in return.

“You wouldn’t dare,” the alicorn filly said to Blackbird in cold deadpan.

The scold worked in the dream realm and might very well work here. Blackbird had never really used it all that much, because it only worked on those who were clearly in the wrong and capable of feeling guilt. It was a conditional asset and after leaving home, she had found herself in the company of creatures whom she doubted could feel guilt.

It might wake Dim up…

“No, no, no!” The Essence of Night gave her head a vehement shake and threw her forelegs up into the air in frustration. “You’re so clueless and this is so simple. He’s a sleeping prince, you numbskull earth pony freak!”

“Look,” Blackbird said while forcing herself to remain calm. “I know what you are trying to do. You’re trying to bait me so I rage and hulk out and then get blasted out of here where strong things should not be. You want to have a good laugh at my expense. I’m not having it.”

Folding her forelegs over her barrel, the alicorn filly let out a harrumph and frowned.

Not knowing what to do, Blackbird sat down near Dim’s head and stared at him, frustrated. The Void had put Dim to sleep, so this was magic, and Blackbird had very little experience with magic. Maybe pinching him might work, but that would mean hurting him, and she already felt bad for allowing him to be pumped full of spider venom.

“Just kiss him already,” the Essence of Night said, huffing out the words. “On the lips.”

Recoiling in horror, Blackbird almost fell over and shuddered in revulsion. “Oh gross!” Balanced on her hindquarters, she covered her mouth with her talons and tried not to gag at the very thought. Every fibre of her being shivered at the very idea and her tummy started doing flip-flops in reaction to her disgust.

“Really? Out of all the of the trials that you’ve had to face, this is the one that trips you up? Honestly, I don’t understand this aspect of horror that exists within the mortal mind. It is probably the most common sort of nightmare that happens for the very young. I don’t get it. Look at you… you literally physically eviscerated an alicorn and then blew it to bits… but right now you’re a big scaredy cat-horse-bird creature. What gives?”

Unable to muster words, Blackbird whinny-mewed.

“Come on… just do it. You kiss him and his eyes will open and you’ll be the first thing he sees and this is how the heroic knight rescues the damsel.”

Still clutching her own muzzle, Blackbird considered the Essence of Night’s words. Dim could be a damsel. He was feminine enough. She had kissed him before, but that was different—he was attractive then, but repulsive now. By turning herself into a wee little nipper, by thinking that she was little, harmless, and soft, she had changed some fundamental aspect of her very being.

“Hey… better still… touch his pee-pee!”

This made Blackbird almost swallow her own face and she could feel her own guts trying to slither out of her various orifices in a desperate attempt at escape. Squeezing her hind legs together, she endured a full-body shudder of revulsion. Mocking laughter filled her ears and Blackbird’s face burned with shame. Some things were just too awful to think about.

“I think I goofed with that first dream sequence,” the alicorn filly said, clutching her sides whilst she chuckled, gleeful at Blackbird’s suffering. “I should’ve dialed back your age and had Dim try to play doctor with you. That would have been hysterical. Mistakes were made!”

Blackbird knew what had to be done—this annoying trickster spirit had to be proven wrong—and this meant smooching Dim… right on the lips. At the very thought, her mouth went dry, her tongue turned into a strip of dry leather, and her parched lips clung together, unwilling to be parted without pain. Somehow, she had to find the courage to go on.

She had seen Dim’s pee-pee and had been unnerved by it. Once, when he was sleeping, he had rolled over onto his back, spread his legs, and there it was, unsheathed. It was nothing like other cocks that Blackbird had seen, for Dim’s wizard wand possessed a most unusual, most unnatural shape. The memory was too much to bear and Blackbird could feel the sting of tears in the corners of her eyes.

“Aw, don’t cry about it… it’s not funny if you cry.” Sighing, the blue alicorn filly slid off of her pillow and came over to where Blackbird was sitting. “You mortals and your feelings. This is why the dream realm is necessary. To clear the junk out of your brains. It’s the danger of living in a magic-rich reality. Dreams take on a life of their own, sometimes. I used to be a grown up too, but then the old dream realm began to fade away and the new dream realm took its place, and now, I’m kinda stuck like this. The next few eons are going to be rough. You know, the old me wouldn’t be feeling pity right now, or guilt, or much of anything really. Cheer up.”

“What happens if I kiss Dim?” Blackbird asked while holding back her sniffles.

Heaving a sigh, the alicorn filly sat down and rolled her eyes. “The two parts of the Void’s magic will reconnect and a spell of immense power will activate. I’m not sure what will happen, but I am certain that Dim will wake up. You see, the Void used animancy, soul magic, but not the evil, harmful kind. He put part of himself into Dim, and the other part of himself into you, and when you and Dim act together, the whole of the Void’s power will be channeled. You and Dim aren’t the only ones though… the Void saw his end coming and prepared. He and the Nameless One went galavanting around, searching for worthy vessels. Part of the Void went into the Black Hound—the part of him that could consume and devour souls tainted and left irredeemable by evil. He’s been a real pain in the neck on his way out. It’s a bit of a crisis.”

“I’m sorry you’re having a rough time,” Blackbird said to her companion, and she put as much sincerity into it as possible, hoping that she was honest about her feelings.

“Grogar’s war has spilled into the celestial realms,” the Essence of Night said in a soft voice. “You actually meant what you said. I’m sorry if I was a jerk, but it is my nature. Dim’s too. We’re supposed to antagonise and cause emotional reaction. It is our purpose and calling. We really can’t help it. Dim is an asshole because he’s a celestial. If this burden did not rest upon his back, he’d be a much nicer pony.”

“I’m sorry I was mean to you.” Blackbird thought about her apology, and found that she was actually sorry, even more so now that she knew that this obnoxious behaviour couldn’t be helped.

“You know, you’re nice, Blackbird. You are kind. Very few creatures would tolerate Dim and I. Even though you lost your temper, you’re being nice right now when it matters. Dim and I aren’t meant to be liked. Luna… is not meant to liked. If we were good, and kind, and sweet, we would have trouble scaring souls back into the light. We have no choice but to be mean… to be jerks. We have to be cold, merciless, and callous. If we aren’t, then souls are lost to darkness… and that hurts. It hurts more than you could imagine. Your mortal mind can’t even begin to comprehend the agony. So as terrible as it is, we have to do the ogrish things that we do, and it’s awful.”

Not knowing what to say, Blackbird draped one of her short, stubby forelegs over the withers of the alicorn filly beside her and pulled her close.

“You know what you need to do,” said the Essence of Night while allowing herself to be comforted. “Just like I know what I need to do. As icky as it might be, you need to kiss Dim.”

“And what is it that you have to do?”

“Hurt a friend.” There was a sigh, followed by a pained silence, and then an explanation. “Blackbird, you’ve been given immense power. I’m really sorry, but I’m going to have to be extra-hard on you to keep you in the light. Please don’t hate me, but I don’t have a choice. The dreams will come. I couldn’t stop them if I tried my hardest. I feel bad now. You will be constantly tested for your worthiness.”

Resigning herself to her fate, Blackbird nodded. She had made the deal, oblivious to its consequences, and now she had to live with what she had done. “No hard feelings. I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

“We’ll see… you did find your way here, after all.”

She had made her way here and Blackbird knew what needed to be done. A lifetime of unpleasantness awaited her, starting now. Withdrawing her foreleg from around the alicorn filly’s withers, Blackbird tried to get her lips to pucker. There was a war to fight; she and Dim would be strongest together, with him serving as her shadow, and she as his protector. What this meant, she didn’t know, but she would find out.

Dim looked so peaceful, cuddling his stuffed tarrasque.

“What is the Void’s power?” Blackbird asked.

“Erasure,” was the hesitant reply. “Obliteration. Absolute abomination annihilation.”

This didn’t do much to answer Blackbird’s question and she realised that she was stalling. Licking her lips, she tried to pucker up again, and felt queasy. Why was this so hard? Forcing herself to lean in, Blackbird found herself almost snoot to snoot with Dim. Reaching out, she brushed his mane from his eyes, a tender gesture of affection, and stroked his ears in that way that she knew he liked. Her black talons ended in claws that could flay the flesh from Dim’s bones—but didn’t, because Blackbird knew how to be careful, thanks to her father.

“Undead and unnatural beings… demons, eldritch entities, eye tyrants, unnatural horrors… the things that escape from the dream realm... you and Dim will have an intimate knowledge of their weaknesses. You will be a bane to the unnatural.”

Blackbird leaned in a little closer and summoned up her courage.

“Your mother’s guns,” the Essence of Night said just as Blackbird’s lips hovered mere inches from Dim’s. “Many search for them. This is why Chantico agreed to help you. Those revolvers were forged from the remains of Grogar’s bells, including the ancient bells that banished him long, long ago. I wasn’t supposed to tell you this, but I did. Besties?”

Glad for a reprieve, Blackbird nodded. “Besties.”

“Good. Now pucker up, buttercup!”

Squeezing her eyes shut, Blackbird pushed her face forwards and smooshed her lips against Dim’s, which seemed far too small. Far too late, she realised that her lips had connected with a nostril, and her tail retreated into her sweaty, clenching crack, where it would need to be dug out with a pry bar later.

Trying again, this time Blackbird’s lips actually connected with Dim’s and something magical happened…

Author's Notes:

Um, with each edit it grew longer. It was like I was stroking the words or something. I'm really very sorry.

Also, cliffhanger.

I'm not sorry about that. Not at all.