Dim believed that he could see the future, or that the future had become the present, because he found himself in the void. There was nothing to see here, no colour, no light. Nothing could be touched here, there was nothing below his hooves but emptiness. This was nothing, the sort of nothing that might drive a pony mad, but not Dim. No. Here, he found comfort in the darkness, in the nothing.

With enough operant conditioning, one could make a pony anything.

There was magic here, he could sense it, but it was faint and strange. He made no effort to shine a light from his horn, but drifted, allowing himself to enjoy this nightmarish experience. There was no recollection of how he got here, so he deducted that magic had to be involved, or he was dreaming. Under normal circumstances, dreams had rules, but this had nothing, and the magic was strange. If this was a dream realm, this wasn’t Princess Luna’s dream realm.

“In the first moments of your life, you drank an elixir mixed with my milk, and then you were left to face the darkness. I had such hopes for you, Dimmy, such plans. I had already given so much in preparation for your coming. You were the contingency for what might have been, and as such, your destiny had a certain flexibility to it. That softness was weakness.”

Dim knew that voice, and he knew it well. It came from everywhere, from nowhere, it came from the void because it was the void. His body shifted, and he tried to brace his hooves, even though he had nothing to stand on. The need, the instinct for combat was strong, and that in itself was its own special kind of conditioning. When faced with a threat, a survivor sought to react, to improve the odds for continued survival.

“I know what you gave,” Dim replied, and his voice was filled with an almost beautiful aristocratic rage. His parchment thin lips curled back from his teeth, but in the darkness, this could not be seen. “I have gained awareness of your crimes.”

“Aw, you’ve learned of your sister… I called her ‘Doomed Dark’ before she was taken… isn’t that funny, Dimmy?” The void now pealed with mad laughter, which seemed to echo between the pillars of nothingness. “She was a small trade! A worthwhile sacrifice! With her, I was able to pull away the curtain! I could read the stars, Dimmy, and they told me of you. The constellations became my alphabet, and once I knew the letters, I was able to read a great many things. I saw the futures, many of them, and I saw how reality splices itself together like a film in front of a projector made of starlight.”

Dim waited, adrift in a vast sea of sensory deprivation.

“Your success hinged upon the failure of another,” the voice said, filling Dim’s ears with sound, but offering no sensate relief, no comfort of hearing words spoken by a living being. “I felt that was cheating you, my little Dimmy. Every mother wants a grand, glorious future for their son, so I set about making one for you.”

“What is this place?” Dim demanded.

“You were cast aside by a cold, unfeeling universe, hostile to your needs,” Dark Desire said, and there was much mocking pity in her voice. “Twilight Sparkle defeated Nightmare Moon, and you were no longer needed. You were cast aside after the universe rolled the dice and found that you weren’t necessary. So many suffer this fate, being cast aside, their greatness robbed from them by cruel, random chance. But Mommy loves you, Dimmy.”

At the edges of his perception, Dim could sense that there was now something in the void with him. His nose caught a whiff of his mother’s perfume, and his stomach lurched in disgust, even as he felt the first stirrings of his perfect, beautiful cock in his sheath. So much had betrayed Dim in life that he now had trouble even registering it when it happened.

“Mommy still loves you, Dimmy.” More mocking laughter crashed through the empty expanse like thunder. “You were so perfect. You took to the darkness and you took to the changes. Those things were important to me, but a mother’s love goes beyond those things. Make no mistake, I adored you. With all my heart and soul, I loved you…”

Each word was a hammerstrike on the anvil, and Dim flinched with each syllable his mother spoke. Now, his mother giggled, that obscene titter of hers, and the beast that hung beneath his belly began to shake off its drowsiness. The first bit of light appeared, but came from nowhere, there was no source, only the suggestion of light.

“There was a naughty, naughty thrill the first time I pulled you from my teat and positioned your head between my legs, Dimmy… Mommy’s hungry little colt found something to suckle on. Oh, it was torturous, and slow, but somehow I endured until such sweet pleasure came.”

For whatever reason, Dim was not surprised, and he could not discern his own reaction. The void existed within now, internal, and while Dim felt himself emptying out, the external void gained substance. There was the distinct feeling that something was being drawn from him, taken from him, but he didn’t care. His mother’s words had left him stunned, stupefied, unwilling and unable to respond.

“You loved Mommy’s little pacifier!” More tittering reverberated through the not-so-empty spaces, the places that were now being filled with whatever was being drawn out of Dim. “I miss those days. I was happy. You made me happy. I too, was made to serve a purpose, I was little more than a slave, but once I had you… once I created you and began to shape your future… I ceased to be a slave. There was power in my creation. Freedom. No longer did my father humiliate me, no more did I feel his crushing weight on my back, and never again did he pant and huff into my ear. His excitable lusts were a threat to the plan, Dimmy, and he was the first thing to go when we began to prepare for you.”

“What happened to him?” Dim asked, his morbid curiousity getting the better of him.

“Mother and I cast him into the dark places between the walls, the thin places… and then, once he was gone, I cast her into those places as well.” Dark Desire’s tittering almost sounded like sobbing for a moment. “She never did anything to stop him… and she liked to watch. Mother had powerful magics, and for many, many years, I could hear her in the dark spaces between the walls, pleading for help, begging to be let out. I don’t know how she survived…” The words trailed off into silence, and then the silence became a faint crackle that filled the void.

Stars sprang into existence, and lit up the void. Swirling nebulae of raw magic could be seen and it was almost as if a new universe was being born. Dim could feel his own essence being drawn upon, and the emptiness inside left him feeling hollow. With new stars came new constellations, and he saw them as they came to life. One was pony shaped and filled with dark stars. Another was catlike, a bipedal felinoid. Another was like the suggestion of a goat, but still somehow amorphous.

“Dim?”

Wincing, Dim could not bear the sound of that voice. Her voice.

“Do you want to go and play, Dim? I could be your princess! You could save me!”

The eager excitement in the voice was all too familiar, and hearing it caused unwanted arousal. Now, the beast no longer stirred within its cave, but slapped up against his belly in anticipation. More constellations came to life, creatures of all shapes, all sizes, from ponies to dragons. A whole universe of evil sprang to life around him, and Dim’s awareness expanded.

This was a dream realm, distinct and different from Princess Luna’s. How it was being created, he did not know, but he was connected. This place came from him, or was drawn from him somehow, and he could feel everything around him. This was a place of action without understanding, and the conceptual workings of this place were absolute unknowns. This was an in between place, a hidden place betwixt the foundations of within and without, a location between the walls of life, death, dreaming, and reality.

“The bassinet is still empty, Dim.” Darling Dark’s voice filled the void with a sense of life, but it lacked warmth. “You were the replacement, Dim.” Now, Darling tittered, and she was indistinguishable from Desire. “Should Twilight have failed, you were to be the one that restored the world to light, and being the distant son of Princess Luna, you were to continue her legacy after you slew Nightmare Moon. Once these connections are created, they can never be fully severed, just incase destiny has a little hiccup later.”

“So this is a trick of destiny?” Dim asked as more of his essence was bled away.

“So clever.” This was his mother’s voice now. “So quick to catch on. The universe made contingencies of what to do if Twilight failed and Luna could not be redeemed. So many things might have gone wrong. One friend might have gone astray, or worse, betrayed her to Nightmare Moon. The universe is filled with redundancies, Dim, and I cannot help but feel that you were robbed of your greatness.”

Dim understood redundancies. “A simple twist of fate…”

“Yes Dim… a simple twist of fate.” The voice, now Darling’s, was filled with laughter and lust. “The world is filled with redundancies, and we are hunting them down, one by one, and we are delivering a little twist of fate. A little trick of destiny. All of these unused, unwanted connections that were never established, never used, we are exploiting them all. The universe was careless with its playthings, and now we’re collecting all of the unwanted toys.”

“All those who might have been.” Dim allowed this realisation to sink in, to settle into the depths of his mind. “All those who could have been. I suppose that is all I am. A cast off.”

“Yes,” Darling replied, her voice purring, “but your mother sought to give you something better. Surely you can forgive her for that? It just wasn’t fair that Twilight was so successful, and you were left with nothing.”

“I’m okay with it—”

“WHY WOULD YOU BE OKAY WITH IT?” Darling screeched, and for a moment, her voice wavered enough that she sounded almost like Desire. “You were meant to be a Celestial power! This was your potential! This is what could have been! The Ink prepared for all outcomes, all eventualities, and in those pages I saw, I read what could have been!”

Now, the void had mutable substance. It changed around Dim, altering itself, and he recognised the walls of his old room. How could he forget them? How many times had he stared at these walls while enduring fits of ennui? This was not a happy place, and seeing it filled him with despair. Was this to be his fate? To be returned to this place? The constellation creatures were gone, now hidden behind the walls.

In the corner of the room, his room, he saw something that chilled his blood. A bassinet rocked, and not just any bassinet, but the bassinet. Darling’s cutie mark come to life in perfect, exacting detail. The little baroque bassinet terrified him like nothing else, it froze his blood in his veins and sapped him of life, of will, of reason.

“Had Twilight failed, and had you succeeded, you would have ascended to take Luna’s place. You would have become an alicorn, Luna’s replacement, and you would have had all of the power due to you in that position. You have no idea what was stolen from you with Twilight’s success.”

“I don’t care,” Dim muttered, distracted by the feeling of the floor beneath his hooves and the rocking cradle. Even though he didn’t want to, he began to move, to shuffle along, compelled by some irresistible force that drew him towards the bassinet in the corner. “It wasn’t my dream, it isn’t what I wanted. I don’t know what I wanted, but I don’t want this.”

The rocking cradle somehow seemed obscene, and Dim found it was difficult to look at. His hooves scraped along the stone floor and he jerked ahead like a puppet. It was too terrible to look, to see, to observe, but he was being made to do so. This was destiny, a strong, steady pull, tugging you along to where one’s heart would chose not to go. Freedom was an illusion, with no more substance than Luna’s realm of dreams. In that place, anything could be made manifest, and reality was malleable.

This place was no different, and operated under the same rules.

It might have been drawn from his essence, but he was not the master of this place. He wondered if Luna was even the master of her own realm, or if she too, was a slave to some greater force of will. Was she subject to whatever cosmic forces existed, and did her proud neck bend? Perhaps her rebellion had a greater reason, a greater purpose, and perhaps she had allied herself with whatever the nightmare was so that she could have the strength to push back, to be free.

Dim could understand the reasoning, but could not abide choosing one form of slavery over another. There would be no happiness to be found, no sweet victory to savour. Both were defeat of self, a loss of agency. But what did he know of freedom? He was institutionalised, and part of him knew it. He was a born slave, given a wide range of options to look after his slave related needs. Slave to his mother, his family, his family name. Slave to destiny. Slave to purpose. Slave to addiction. A slave to basic living needs, and held under the tyranny that was the necessity of food and water.

“Only the dead are free,” Dim said.

“No,” the croaking voice in the cradle replied, “they belong to me.”

“There is a better way!” a voice cried, a commanding voice that made the walls tremble. “Don’t look into the crib, Dim! Fight it!”

“What point is there in fighting?” Dim asked. “What point is there in anything? I am defeated. All options lead to slavery.”

“Choose a better master!” the voice demanded.

It took all of Dim’s willpower to turn his head, but this was an understatement. This was like raising the moon or lifting the sun. He ripped his eyes away from the bassinet, and made himself look to his left. There was a paper pony, and her cheeks were stained with tears of ink. She—it was most certainly a she for some reason—was an alicorn of fine paper design.

“I can’t promise you freedom,” the paper alicorn said to Dim, “but I can offer you honesty and as much free agency as can be mustered.”

“So, I am forced to chose between masters, one of whom plies me with honeyed words. You promise truth, but do so with a promise of something I desire, while he”—Dim knew who was in the cradle—“does so with no pretenses, only a direct answer. There is no freedom.”

“Yes, but I offer life, and he can only give you death,” the paper pony argued.

“There is that, yes.” Dim paused, and the choice gave him power. The spell, whatever it was, was broken, and he found himself freed from whatever bonds had held his body.

“With life, there is a chance to live out your dreams and be happy. You can live, you can love, you can laugh and enjoy all that life has to offer. I will not be an onerous master, and I only ask that you do one task… just one and nothing else.”

“And what is that?” Dim asked, and he could hear ferocious heavy breathing from within the cradle.

“Resist,” the paper alicorn replied. “Only in resistance will you be free. You resisted looking into the cradle. Keep resisting him!”

“She lies,” the croaking voice in the cradle said. “She of the Ink is dying, and when she does, she will serve me in death. To serve her is to still serve my will. One way or another, you will serve me.”

“Ah, but she has offered me a choice… and you haven’t.” Dim didn’t allow himself to look into the crib, to look into the face of evil, so he could be smug and overbearing. “With that one action, she has won me over. It isn’t much of a choice, but I’ll take it.”

“What do you wish to be?” the paper pony asked.

“A vizard,” Dim replied, and he let out a sigh. “I wish to be like the knights of old. I would like to help Blackbird find her mother.” Then, as an afterthought, he added, “I would like to help Blackbird find her sexuality. She is very alluring, she is.”

“That’s right Dim! You can’t do that if you’re dead!”

“I beg to differ,” the voice in the cradle said.

“I like warm bodies!” Dim shouted, and then he shivered with revulsion while bile bubbled in the back of his throat.

“A warm body was given to you to satisfy your needs, and you cast it aside.”

The monstrous entity in the crib made a point, and this infuriated Dim. He had killed Darling, a warm, willing, compliant body. She was little more than a slave, and he had killed her. Her life, the entirety of her existence, was to serve the needs of others. His mother. Himself. Then, in the end, Grogar’s own will. In death, she served to cause guilt, to plague him with fear, loathing, and doubt. The loss of her life, the life that he had taken away, it was just something else for Grogar to exploit. Even in death, Darling was somehow serving him.

Lifting his head, Dim turned and looked the paper pony in her paper eye. “I would step back if I were you.”

“Why?” the paper pony asked, and she began retreating. There was fear on the paper folds of her face, and her paper ears were pricked.

“Because, paper burns,” Dim replied, and then, exerting all of his will, knowing that this place was constructed from his essence, understanding that even the dream realm had to follow certain rules, it had to obey certain laws.

Dim set the bassinet ablaze with a focus of will.

An ear-rending screech came out of the cradle and the flames whooshed in the most terrible way. A single tentacle slithered out, but it too, was ablaze, and being consumed. The monstrous entity in the burning bassinet gurgled, shrieked, and howled in agony. Two figures blinked into existence, and rushed to the burning cradle.

One was tall, bipedal, and catlike. Dim did not know her. The other he knew all too well. Both were rotten looking, dead, both were liches. The catlike one began casting spells to extinguish the flames, while Dim’s mother turned to face him, her horn glowing with an eldritch green light.

“Never summon me to this place again,” Dim said while the paper pony retreated into a far corner. “Now release me from this place at once, or else you too, shall burn. I mean it. Don’t think I won’t, Mother. I killed you once and I won’t hesitate to try to do it again. I have chosen, and you have no power over me here. If you did, you would be cutting me down right now, rather than just standing there, staring at me in shock. You would be bending my knee to make me submit.”

“You will be made to obey,” Desire promised, and there was no love, no affection in her voice.

“And you will be made to burn,” Dim replied, and in the corner, the paper pony began laughing, a booming, thunderous sound. “Now release me, before I flood this place with my fiery essence, and turn it into a second Tartarus.”

“You’re bluffing!” Desire’s rotting face contorted with rage.

“Am I?” Dim asked, and his voice was as cold as the grave. “I am done being a meek little slave. Your slave, anyhow. Now release me, or face my fiery wrath!”

“It would be wise to let him go,” the paper pony said, interjecting her words into the exchange. “You know who I am and you know what I am capable of… I’ll write in the power he needs to turn this place into a second Tartarus. I have nothing left to lose and you know it. My end approaches, but what an end it shall be. Right now, I live without consequences, and you made that possible!”

“Your day is coming, Nameless One!” the tall cat creature shouted as the flames died down. “I have seen your end! The stars themselves reveal that your days are numbered! When you die, you will be made to serve!”

“But today is not that day!” The paper alicorn spread her wings, and a torrent of ink spilled from her weeping eyes. It spread over the floor in a flood, and it was blacker than any void. “Release him, or else there will be a new Tartarus, and a new Lord of Tartarus!”

Snarling, the catlike creature made a gesture with her paw, and reality shattered into tiny fragments, a million, billion tiny fragments that seemed to outnumber the very stars in the universe. For a brief eternity, everything hung in place, existing, suspended within ink, and then that too, gave way. In the end, there was only nothingness, and Dim was hurled away from the new dark realm of dreams that had just been created.

Sitting on the roof of the vardo, Dim lit a clove and cannabis cigarette. Afterwards, he then looked out upon a vast, beautiful lake. It was quite a sight to behold, and possessed with a surreal sense of calm, he allowed himself to enjoy the moment. The dream was now little more than fading memory, and he did not feel troubled. In fact, all things considered, he felt pretty good. He puffed away, thoughtful, and his mind was on the future.

Resist.

Blackbird was below, folding up the sail and the rigging. The vardo shook a bit and began to slow while Dim yawned and thought about what he could remember. The paper pony… already, he was forgetting her, and the details were becoming fuzzy. What little recollection that he had crumbled when he took notice of a settlement along the shore of the lake, a little hamlet that existed out in the middle of nowhere.

It might be nice to sit by the lake and compose his thoughts by moonlight.

Filling his lungs with smoke, he tried to summon the courage to begin again…

Author's Notes:

So... something is up. The entire time he is on Tortoise-Tuga, he is left alone.