> Bad Wolf > by Dusk Writer > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Bad Wolf Arises > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Doctor stood defiantly in the middle of the main broadcast room, Daleks surrounding him and cutting off all escape. He no longer had the Tardis with him, having sent Rose back to her own time along with the time machine. Now she could live out her life in safety, and the Tardis would no longer be used for anything, left to gather dust. However, fate had different ideas as a familiar whooshing noise emanated from behind him. One of the Daleks moved its eye stalk to that particular section of the room, yelling out in its robotic voice, "Alert! Tardis materializing!" The Doctor whirled around to see the box was indeed materializing. But how was this possible? He had locked it so it would stay in the year 2006! The Dalek Emperor spoke to the Doctor in his deep voice, "You will not escape!" As he finished speaking, the Tardis fully materialized, and the doors opened to reveal a silhouette standing in front of a brilliant golden light within the Tardis. The Doctor covered his eyes so they could adjust, looking back up to see lines of golden mist flowing from the blue box, the silhouette gone now as well. The very sight of these golden mists caused him to fall backwards onto a pile a of wires. The golden mist then gathered into a single spot, dissipating to reveal Rose Tyler. He looked up at her, shock clear on his face. "What have you done?!" He cried to her. Rose only looked down at him, face emotionless. As she spoke, her voice now sounded modified and different, as though there were three of her talking very close together. "I looked into the Tardis, and the Tardis looked into me." His face changed from shock to fear in mere moments. "You looked into the time vortex. Rose, no one's meant to see that!" The Dalek Emperor, who had up until this moment been quiet, decided to break his silence. "This is the abomination!" One of the Daleks within the room obeyed an unheard command, and began an attack on Rose, yelling, "Exterminate!" As it shook in its metal casing. It fired its weapon at Rose, only for her to raise her hand and intercept the beam. Time seemingly reversed for the beam, as it retracted back to the gun it was fired from. The Doctor watched in shock as it travelled back along its course, turning back to Rose when she spoke. "I am the Bad Wolf; I create myself." She looked up to the logo upon the wall of the room. "I take the words, I scatter them, in time and space." She waves her hand as she says this, the words Bad Wolf peeling off of the wall and flying out of sight. "A message, to lead myself here." "Rose! You've got to stop this! You've got to stop this now!" The Doctor was insistent now, but Rose seemed unresponsive to his pleas. "You've got the entire vortex running through your head; you're gonna burn!" At this, she turned her head towards him, telling him the one thing that was on her mind as her the golden glow in her eyes faded. "I want you safe. My Doctor; protected from the false god." The Emperor's eye widened at this statement. "You cannot hurt me. I, am, immortal!" Rose took her eyes off the Doctor to look at the hologram with the Emperor held within it. "You are tiny. I can see the whole of time and space. Every single atom of your existence, and I divide them." She raised her hand, eyes coming aglow once again. As she did so, the Dalek that had originally fired at her began to dissolve, starting at the top and bottom, into a fine golden dust, which dispersed within seconds. It was like the Dalek had never even been there. She began to lower her hand, speaking as she did so. "Everything must come to dust. All things. Everything dies." She then raised both her arms looking at the Daleks around room as they all dissolved one by one. She looked back to the Emperor. "The Time War ends." The Emperor started to shout in denial, "I will not die." His eye stalk starts to frantically look around the massive cavern of his ship, yelling as his ship is dissolved as well. "I, cannot, diiiiiiie!" But his cries were for nothing as the massive dull gold disc dissolved into dust and dissipated. Rose continued holding up her arms, the Doctor trying to be persistent with her now. "Rose, you've done it, now stop." However, she continued to stand there, arms held up. "Just let go!" She continued to look into the distance. "How can I let go of this?" She asked, voice quavering as she did so. "I bring life." Somewhere on the ship, Captain Jack Harkness was brought back to life after sitting against the cold, hard wall, gasping as he sat up "But this is wrong; you can't control life and death!" The Doctor was truly beginning to fear for his blond companion now. The longer she held the time vortex within her head, the closer she got to burning up. She simply looked down at him, the glow fading from her eyes. "But I can." She got a faraway look in her eyes. "The moon, and the sun. The day and the night. I can control both, and I will bring back all who died on this station." She raised her arms as she exerted more power than ever before. She was successful, as all the humans who had been killed by the attacking Daleks gasped as they were brought to life. However, Rose wasn't as fortunate. "Rose! You've got to stop using so much power! It's gonna kill you! Small tears rolled down how cheeks as she began to openly cry. "But I can't. Doctor, it hurts so much!" The Doctor jumped to his feet and began to run to her, only for her to dissolve like the Dalek ship. He stared at the place where she had been mere moments before, then dropping to his knees and bowing his head to the ground, body shaking with the sobs that racked through him. ~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight eyes bolted open as she tumbled to the floor from her bed. Fortunately, she managed to stay on the higher level in her bed room. If she had rolled another couple of feet, well, let's just say it would have been painful. She got up onto all four of her hooves and thought about that crazy dream she just had. She shuddered thinking about what would happen if somepony actually gained the amount of power that blond-haired creature had. She began walking down the steps to the lower section of her room, checking the time as she did so. Three in the morning? Ugh, it's way too early to be up. However, she couldn't fall back asleep, as she was too awake right now. Letting out a sigh, she walked through the door to the rest of the library. Her face brightened as she looked around the large room at all the hundreds of books. Even though they were all inanimate objects, she still felt as though some of them were very close friends to her. Of course, they were nowhere near a good replacement for the real thing. She got to the bottom of the stairs and turned toward the door that lead to her small kitchen. She was not a cook, in any way, shape, or form, so that was why Spike usually cooked for both of them. However, if there was one thing she could cook, it was coffee. As she got everything set up for the morning elixir, she used her magic to pull a random books in from the main reading room. It floated in as she stood there watching the brown liquid slowly drain into the pot below. Looking at the title of the random she had grabbed, she realized that this was one of the new books she had yet to read. Specifically called, "The Guide to Time and Relative Dimensions in Space." It was an odd choice of book for this day and age, but it was still scientific, and it was still Twilight. As she finally finished the coffee and grabbed both a cup of it and the book, she heard what seemed to be a loud crash in her basement. Setting down both objects, she grabbed a lamp and lit it, heading for the basement door. She opened the well-oiled door and quietly walked down the sturdy steps. All of her equipment appeared to be fine, and she didn't see anything that could have made that loud crash she had heard from upstairs. She reached the bottom of the stairs, and examined everything a little more closely. Ah! There in the corner of the room was a large broken beaker, the shards of glass scattered across the floor. She let out a sigh and grabbed all of the small pieces of glass with her magic, floating them over to the trash and dropping them in. However, now she was a bit confused. She could've sworn she had left that beaker more towards the center of the table, nowhere near the edge. She walked over to the table and began examining the wooden surface. Some of the other objects had been moved around as well and Spike was still up in bed, which could only mean one thing; there was an intruder in her house. She floated a makeshift weapon over next to her, and with a quick glance, she found it to be a chair. She heard a small shuffle from behind the table and cautiously began to walk around it, crouched low. Then, she jumped around the corner of the table, chair raised and magic charged with an attack spell, ready to do a one-two attack. However, instead of finding a muscular masked pony, like in those comics Spike liked to read, there was some type of furred creature. It was rather hard to see in the dark lighting, but it was covered in pitch black hair, and appeared to have scraps of clothing attached to it. Whatever it was seemed to be twice her size. She moved a little closer to the creature, seeing that it was shaking. In fact, just from what she could tell of its body language from behind, it actually looked scared. Now, she was no animal expert, but it didn't appear to be scared of her in particular. She set the chair down softly, and powered down her horn. She took small steps forward until she reached the mass of black fur. She stuck out a hoof, before lightly resting it on the figure. "Um, I'm not sure if you can understand me, but uh, well, I have a friend who can help you." It's shaking had stopped fortunately, Twilight taking it to be a good sign. The giant covered in black fur shifted under her hoof, so she took her foreleg off and placed it onto the ground, backing up a little. When the creature finally turned to look at her, she finally found that it was actually a giant wolf. She backed up quickly in instinctual fear. How in the world had this predator gotten down here in the first place? However, what scared her even more than the wolf's form, were its eyes. They glowed with an unnatural golden light; it seemingly came off as a mist. Those golden eyes seemingly pierced into Twilight's soul as she stood there. The wolf's eyes seemed to convey a sense of sadness and ancient wisdom, yet at the same time, youthful fright. The wolf continued to stare at her, until the golden light dissipated, revealing soft amber eyes. That's when they rolled back into its head and the creature collapsed onto the basement floor. Twilight continued backing up until she bumped into the bottom of the stairs, at which point she turned and bolted up said stairs. Once she burst through the door at the top, she turned, closing it and bolting it shut. As she leaned against the door, she thought immediately of what she should do. She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote a note to Spike just in case he woke up before everypony else in Ponyville, which probably wouldn't happen. She ran out the door of the library, eyes already set on the path she needed to take to get to Fluttershy's house. Hopefully she would know what to do with the giant black wolf. > Meet the Medic > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- As said earlier, Twilight is in no way a cook, but she could make a few simple things like coffee when she needed to. The same rule applied to being a runner. She was nowhere near the level of Applejack or Rainbow Dash, but when there was a giant black wolf with golden glowing eyes passed out in her basement at three in the morning, she found herself running to Fluttershy's house at a speed she had never run at before. Fortunately, the streets were empty since nopony else was awake quite yet. She ran past all the empty stands in the marketplace and the gingerbread house known as Sugarcube Corner. Getting to the cottage only took ten minutes out of the usual thirty. She ran up the dirt path to the ecological home and began pounding on the door. After several minutes of her incessant knocking, the door opened slightly to reveal Angel tapping his foot upon the floor. The little demon bunny had a curler in his tail and a look of irritation upon his face. After kicking her foreleg, he motioned for the panting mare to come in. Pointing to the couch, he motioned for her to sit, and clapped slowly as she lay down on the couch and continued trying to catch her breath. He turned and hopped up the stairs one at a time up to Fluttershy's room. After a few seconds, she heard some light mumblings and the sound of somepony moving around on the second floor. After another few seconds, Fluttershy clomped quietly down the stairs with a crazy bed-mane. She reached the bottom of the stairs with a small stumble, but managed to remain standing…barely. She raises a hoof to rub the sleep out of her eyes, and lets out a yawn before speaking. "Twilight? What're you doing here so early? A-and why are you panting so hard? Were you being chased by a monster?" She started shaking slightly, but stayed where she was standing. It took Twilight a few more moments to finally catch her breath, but when she did, she got her words out a bit slowly. "Well, I had woken up really early this morning and couldn't fall back asleep. So I went downstairs to make some coffee and read a book." Fluttershy's eyes widened a bit at this statement; she had no idea Twilight could cook at all. "And then that's when I heard the sound of something breaking downstairs in the basement. So, I walked down there and got a makeshift weapon just in case it was an intruder. However, instead of another pony, I found a giant black wolf with glowing gold eyes. It collapsed after a few seconds, but then I ran straight here." She took in a deep breath, not yet recovered from her run through Ponyville, and also realizing just how out of shape she truly was. Fluttershy stood in front of her, slowly digesting the story she had been told. "So, you're wanting me to see what I can do?" Twilight nodded her head rapidly, hoping that the yellow mare could be the answer to her problem. "Well, I'll see what I can do. Oh, I hope the poor dear isn't hurt. Just let me grab a couple of things," She said quietly, flying off to another room to grab her saddlebags and a few items she needed. Coming back with the necessary items, she spoke to Twilight in a rare firm tone, "Alright Twilight, let's go see what I can do about this wolf of yours." Angel held the door open for the yellow mare, but kicked Twilight on the way out and stormed back to his comfy bed. "Yeesh Fluttershy. It really seems like Angel doesn't like anypony but you." Fluttershy merely shrugged at the comment and continued walking. Twilight sighed as they reached the outskirts of Ponyville and looked up into the night sky. Not many ponies truly appreciated Luna's night sky and the work she put into it. However, there were hundreds more than back before she was banished. Shaking her head of the dark thoughts, Twilight focused more on where she was going since she almost ran into her friend. this time, it did take them the full thirty minutes to reach Twilights house, the leaves on the tree swaying with the wind. Strangely enough, the tree seemed more sinister now to twilight than before, but that may have just been because of recent events. She pushed open the door, glad to see that both her note and the basement door were left untouched in her absence. She walked over to the basement door and turned to her friend. "Alright Fluttershy, you ready?" At her friend's meek nod, she unbolted the door and pulled it so that the passageway was clear and jumped away it, expecting an attack. When no such attack came, she peeked down the stairs for any sign of her golden eyed guest. Seeing nothing still, she motioned for Fluttershy to follow her as she walked down the steps for the second time in the past hour. The trip downwards seemed to take a few minutes instead of the actual few seconds. By the time they reached the bottom, Twilight had begun to sweat with anxiety from seeing the giant again. However, Fluttershy was as calm as ever; there was an animal that needed her help, and she would make sure it got that help. "Alright, the last time I saw it, it was over in that corner." Twilight pointed to said area of the room and led Fluttershy over to it. As they rounded the corner of the table, Fluttershy let out a quiet, "Oh my." The black wolf had woken up since Twilight leaving, shifting enough to let a small beaker on the table fall to the ground. At some point it had rolled over onto the small shards of glass, giving it deep lacerations over multiple parts of its body. "Oh you poor thing! Come here!" Fluttershy flew up to the wolf and began checking its wounds. The wolf growled at her when she got close, but then stopped itself. Fluttershy looked into its eyes and saw not the usual trusting look animals gave her, but shock. Almost as though it hadn't meant to growl at her. She reached into one of her saddle bags and pulled out some gauze and tweezers and went to work on the cuts. The wolf seemed interested in something else in the bag, but it ignored it for now. Twilight watched nervously as Fluttershy adeptly used her wings to hold the tweezers to pull out the shards of glass and then press the gauze against it with her hoof, cleaning up some of the blood that leaked out. There were several times during the meticulous procedure that it seemed like the wolf wanted to snap at Fluttershy, but it restrained itself. There were times when the clothing got in the way, but Fluttershy managed to work around it and pull pieces of the fabric off every so often. Finally, after about an hour of repeating the process of "Remove glass, press gauze", all of the shards had been removed. Fluttershy floated back over to Twilight with her saddlebags and set both them and herself down onto the ground. "She should be fine now. I managed to get all the pieces of glass out of her fur. But, it was strange; as I worked, she seemed almost sad, and if you look closely, you can see the fur around her eyes is clumped together, indicating tears of some kind." Twilight took a closer look at the wolf's eyes, and sure enough, there were tears there. When she got close though, the wolf stared at her with an intelligence that frightened her; nothing at all like the wolves she had seen or heard about in the Everfree. "Hey Fluttershy, do you think you could talk to it?" A glare from both the wolf and Fluttershy forced her to change her words. "Sorry, I meant her." "Sure, I'll see what she says." With that, Fluttershy walked over to the she-wolf, who tracked her very carefully with her eyes. Fluttershy leaned down and whispered into the wolf's ear. "Do you have a name?" The wolf nodded, and seemed to be trying to use her mouth to say something, but the results were some garbled mess that not even Fluttershy understood. Attempting again, the wolf stared at Fluttershy for a second, before huffing in defeat, and making a noise that a normal wolf would make. There were grunts, whimpers, and growls, but after a few moments, Fluttershy turned back to Twilight with a confused look on her face. "She says she is the Bad Wolf, but it's more like a title than an actual name. She also seemed to have trouble speaking in wolf tongue, but from what I could gather, she said she wasn't always like this." The wolf's huff of irritation at the name Bad Wolf did not go unnoticed by Twilight. This new information gave Twilight much to ponder, as she had looked through many of her books for the possible wolf species, but finding nothing. The problem was simple; there just weren't any other types of wolf anywhere close to her size. Before Twilight could say anything, Fluttershy continued to talk. "Also, I think we should move her to my cottage. Some of those cuts need stitches and I don't have the required tools with me." Fluttershy's eyes widened as though she had just remembered something important. "Oh my, I forgot to give her something to eat! Hold on just a second Twilight, if you could please." Fluttershy walked over to Bad Wolf, and pulled something out of her saddlebags. Bad Wolf's nose twitched and she rose her head to see what the soft yellow mare was bringing her. Said object turned out to be a piece of raw meat. Fluttershy's face was a little green as she carried the flesh in her hooves, but she managed to make it. Throwing the meat down on the floor, she backed away quickly whispering softly, "I'm sorry," repeatedly. The Bad Wolf watched her with an amused, if confused, expression, before bending down to sniff the raw meat. She continually opened her jaws as if to snap it up, but seemed hesitant to do so. Twilight continued to watch, a little green around the gills, and turned to her friend. "Fluttershy, just why did you have meat in your saddlebags?" Fluttershy had turned away from Bad Wolf, looking much better now that she was no longer carrying a piece of meat. "All animals have different diets. Wolves are completely carnivorous. Although, it's rather odd; this wolf seems much more hesitant than others." She turned back to she she-wolf as she picked up the meat in her jaws, turned around and quietly began ripping it apart. It took her a few minutes, but when she finished the piece of meat, she let out a sigh of satisfaction and stood up. "Okay, now Bad Wolf, I'm going to have to bring you with me back to my little cottage. Is that okay?" Bad Wolf did look a little frightened at this comment, but slowly nodded her head. She took a step forward onto one of her paws, but slowly and unsurely; much like a pup just learning to walk. It took her three minutes to get to the stairs, and another five to get up them. Fortunately, she was just small enough to fit through both of the doors to get outside. To the east, the horizon was beginning to turn a very light pink, signifying that Celestia would soon be raising the sun. They didn't have much time before one of the early risers would walk out of their house and see Bad Wolf, more than likely starting a panic within the town. The walk through town was a bit hurried, but they made good time getting past most of the small town. However, Bad Wolf stopped near the garden of one the houses close to the edge of town. She walked over to the flowers that grew there and searched them endlessly until she found a giant patch of a certain type of flower. Yet again, Twilight was shocked by the intelligence that the seemed to hold as she motioned for the two ponies to come over to her. Fluttershy wasn't shocked, but more curious. When she had been taking care of the wolf earlier, it felt more like she had been taking care of an actual pony instead of an animal. They walked over to where the she-wolf stood. She motioned to the flower, then to herself. It took them a few seconds before they got what she was trying to tell them. "So, you're saying your name is actually Rose?" Asked Fluttershy. Bad Wolf, now Rose, nodded her head and began wagging her tail. "Well, Rose, we should really get back to my cottage so I can look at those cuts." Rose nods again and walks past the two ponies in the direction they were originally going. Both of the mares turned and followed, neither thinking about the irony that the garden had turned out to be Roseluck's. Rose, Twilight, and Fluttershy finally reached the cottage just as the sun began peaking over the horizon. Fluttershy pushed open the door to reveal all the critters she had waiting for her to feed them breakfast. However, at the sight of Rose, all of them but one rabbit immediately bolted from the room. The rabbit, or more commonly known as Angel, simply watched Rose as she struggled to fit into the small cottage. Finally squeezing through the tiny door, she collapsed onto the floor panting. Twilight walked through after her and Fluttershy behind her. The yellow mare flew over to the panting black wolf to see if she was okay. Then the wolf started making a noise that Twilight could only describe as possible chuckles. She tilted her head at this, but remained quiet as she observed Fluttershy get the necessary materials and go to work on the wolf. The process this time took a little longer, but was easily more nerve wracking by tenfold. Every time Fluttershy stuck the needle into Rose's skin, the she-would would let out either deep growl or a whimper. After a few more times that seemed like Rose would just snap up Fluttershy, the operation was finally done. Fluttershy stepped back from the giant wolf to give her room to stand. In the hour and a half that it took her to complete the stitches, several of the animals came back from where they were hiding upon realizing that the giant black wolf may not be a threat. Rose stood up onto all four and stretched a bit like a cat, pops being heard along her spine. Twilight and Fluttershy winced at the sound, but Rose groaned in satisfaction. Rose then looked at the two ponies as if to say, "What now?" "Well, thank you for all your help Fluttershy, but I would like to find out more about her and her kind of wolf. I have never seen anything like her in the books!" Fluttershy just nodded her head and went into the kitchen to start making breakfast. Rose rolled her eyes at Twilight's, but didn't make any sounds of disapproval. "Well, Rose, if you could please stay here with Fluttershy until I get back, I won't be long." Rose just nodded her head and shook her front a paw in manner that told Twilight to just go. However, as Twilight opened the door to leave, she found a certain cyan pegasus mare standing in her way. For a few tense moments nopony did anything, until Rainbow Dash leapt forward with terrifying speed. "WHAT DID YOU DO WITH FLUTTERSHY?!" > Power Player > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Rose hadn’t really been having all that great of a day. First of all, she had accidentally disintegrated herself by over-using powers when she was the Bad Wolf. Then, something had happened, turning her into an actual wolf then sending her into a world full of ponies. After waking up from exhaustion and shock, the shock coming from seeing Twilight, she felt even more degraded to having to eat like a wild animal because of her ravenous hunger. The bloody piece of meat had tasted extremely good, but it still felt odd to be eating it raw. Next, she had to get stitches. She already hated needles, but being stitched by a creature that her new instincts saw as prey made it all that much harder not to snap at the meek little pony. And now, she was being attacked by another pony that had jumped to conclusions. Rainbow slammed into the black she-wolf, catching her off guard. Rose stumbled with her paws and fell over, directly onto some freshly stitched wounds. She growled in pain, but Rainbow mistook it for the hostile growl of a wild and out-of-control animal. She pumped her wings again, shooting towards Rose. However, Rose was prepared this time and managed to hit the bottom of Rainbow Dash jaw with her head. The blow dizzied the blue pony, but not for long. In an attempt to confuse the wolf so she could land another blow, Rainbow began to fly rapidly in the small room, forming a rainbow colored wall directly around Rose. Rose watched what seemed to be a wall carefully, but when she tried to get a glimpse of the blue pony, it only began to make her feel dizzy. Seeing her chance, Rainbow flew as fast as she could into the wolf’s ribs, causing Rose to fall to the ground a good six feet away. Rainbow shot towards the downed wolf for the knockout blow, but then saw Fluttershy run out of her kitchen. “Rainbow, don’t!” Yelled out Twilight, but it was too late; there was simply too much forward inertia. However, Rainbow never hit her mark…or really anything at all. She was held in the by something that looked like Celestia’s magic aura, but didn’t at the same time. The aura that surrounded her looked much more like golden dust than any type of magic. However, to Twilight, it seemed eerily familiar, but she couldn’t figure out why. However, Rose’s growl brought her attention to the she-wolf, finding just why it was familiar. Rose’s eyes were aglow with the same golden light, looking like particles of dust floating around in organized patterns. Suddenly, her dream from the previous night came rushing back to her; the weird metal room, the strange cone-shaped robots, the giant, gold UFO, and most of all, the blond two legged creature, whose name was Rose, and had the same glow in her eyes as the wolf in front of Twilight. Remembering what the creature had done, Twilight began to panic. “Rose! Don’t do it! She didn’t mean to hurt you; she was scared!” Rainbow gave her an exasperated look, but couldn’t say anything. However, what shocked them all next, was the voice they all heard inside their heads. “But she attacked me.” The voice had the same accent as ponies from the English Bridals. “Yes, I know she attacked you, but she realized her mistake. Please Rose, just let her go,” Twilight said in a calm and soft voice, trying to calm the frightened she-wolf. Suddenly, Rose whined, dropping her head to the floor with fresh tears matting down the fur around her eyes. She took her front paws and held her head as though she were in pain. “My head; it’s killin’ me.” It was said with a shaky voice, as though she might break at any given moment. However, the golden glow persisted to hold Rainbow Dash in the air. Fluttershy bolted over to the wolf from the kitchen, wrapping her fore hooves around the wolf’s large neck, effectively giving her a soft hug. Speaking so quietly that Twilight and Rainbow had a hard time hearing her, she said, “It’s okay Rose. I know the pony hurt you, but you need to let go of all the stress. Just let go.” With that, she planted a soft kiss on Rose’s head, like a mother would to her child. The glow vanished from Rose’s eyes and from around Rainbow Dash. The blue pony dropped to the ground and crouched like a cat, prepared to attack if she needed to. However, it was unneeded as Rose lay her head down fully and passed out again, finally getting her first peaceful sleep in a while. Rainbow looked to Twilight and crossed her fore hooves, using her wings to stay standing. “Mind tellin’ me what’s going on?” ~~~~~~~~~~ “So, you basically think that this wolf is a thing you saw in your dreams, and has an unimaginable amount of magic power inside her,” Dash deadpanned, obviously not fully believing the crazy story. “I know it’s hard to believe, but it makes the most sense after what just happened with her eyes!” Twilight was brimming with excitement at this new discovery. She knew a spell that would allow her to see a pony’s or other creature’s magic stores, but she wanted both to ask Rose’s permission, and for Celestia’s. While this spell was useful, it had to bypass several layers of the subject’s mind, effectively taking away all forms of privacy. “Just try to make up with her when she wakes up please; I don’t need her thinking that most ponies will attack her on sight.” Dash just gave her a huff of annoyance before floating over to the couch and landing, ready to start her own nap. Twilight rolled her eyes, accompanied with a sigh before leaving the small cottage. She knew Rainbow Dash would at least try to keep the peace between herself and the wolf. Going back into Ponyville, she noticed at some points that Rose’s paw prints were obvious. But she was able to quickly fix this with a few sweeps of her tail. It was just in time too, as several ponies opened their doors and walked out into the rising sun. A couple gave her curious glances as she swept her tail along the ground to hide the last of the tracks, giving them a sheepish smile in return. They simply shrugged and went back to their own business, and Twilight left the area quickly before suspicions could arise. As she walked through the small town, more and more ponies began to wake up, signaling the true arrival of a new day. It was so peaceful at that moment it was easy to forget about the giant black she had found in her basement earlier. Finally, she reached her library, and upon seeing no lights on knew that Spike wasn’t quite awake as of yet. She decided to let him sleep for a little while longer and write the message herself. Grabbing a quill, some ink, and a piece of parchment, she began to write upon the thick paper. Dear Princess Celestia, We often meet strangers who look different than us and judge them easily for it. I ran into something like this not too long ago; last night to be specific. Last night, I found a giant black wolf with golden glowing eyes in the library basement. At first, I thought it was a wild animal, so I ran as fast as I could to get my friend Fluttershy so she could help it leave. However, upon returning, I found it to be just as sentient as us ponies. It allowed Fluttershy to do some basic cleaning and stitches in the wounds it received from broken glass, then followed us back to her cottage, conveying to us that her name was Rose along the way. After a more thorough stitching, my other friend Rainbow Dash attacked her after making a quick assumption about her eating Fluttershy. That’s when I believe Rose used magic, and I recognized the eyes from the dream I had had the previous night. I wish to see her magic stores, for which I would like your permission and hers to proceed with. Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle Reaching deep into her own magical reserves, she called forth the power she would need to teleport the letter to Celestia herself. Her horn glowed, and there was a flash of light as the letter was sent instantaneously to her teacher. While she waited for a reply, she decided to first wake up Spike and then catch up on some light reading. Slowly trudging up the wooden steps, she found her exhaustion hit her like a bag full of bricks. It was actually difficult to walk up the rest of the stairs, and when she got there, she had to practically drag herself up the second set of stairs to her bed. ‘Ugh, I’m way too tired to even read. Maybe I’ll just close my eyes for a few minutes,’ She thought as she pulled herself on top of the covers. She fell asleep almost as soon as her head hit the pillow. ~~~~~~~~~~ She didn’t have any dreams this time, only a black expanse of space. However, she was brought out of her dreamless sleep by a warm nuzzle and soft voice. “Wake up my student; we have some work to do.” Twilight only mumbled in her sleep and turned over so she was facing away from the sun. “Just five more minutes Princess…” That’s when she realized just who was in her bedroom. Her eyes shot open, as her body jolted upwards into a sitting position. “Princess Celestia! I-I’m sorry you had to see me sleeping like that!” The white alicorn princess simply chuckled light-heartedly and shook her head. “It is okay, my student. However, I did receive your message this morning and came as quickly as I could, although, you did send that letter nearly four hours ago.” At Twilight’s panicked look, Celestia was quick to allay her fears. “Do not worry Twilight, I have already checked on Rose; they are all fine, but we should go join them now.” Twilight nodded and quickly brushed her mane and tail into a more presentable condition and followed Celestia to the door. As they opened it, Twilight had to shield her eyes from the blinding light. Suddenly, she realized something was amiss. “Princess, where’s Spike?” “Oh, he is already at Fluttershy’s cottage and is waiting for us as well.” Twilight nodded her head, and then walked out the door and into the public view. Many of the ponies gasped in surprise and bowed down to Princess Celestia as she walked past them alongside Twilight. She waved a hoof to most of them, treating everypony as though they were great friends. Twilight watched her mentor with awe, observing the attitude of a true leader. It seemed as though it took no time at all to reach Fluttershy’s cottage right next to the Everfree, and when they opened the door and walked in, they came upon a most unexpected sight; Rose sat on her haunches playing a game of chess with Rainbow Dash, who was sitting on the couch. Rose moved her queen to a new position on the board and growled. Apparently, they’d worked out a system as Rainbow groaned in annoyance. “Gah! I don’t know why I let Fluttershy convince me to play this with you! You keep winning!” Rose simply made a deep throaty noise that sounded a bit like a chuckle. Her ears twitched then, and she turned to face the newcomers, just nodding at both of them while Rainbow bowed to Celestia. “As I said Rose, I have returned, and my student wishes to look into your mind to find if there are any traces of magical power. However, she needs your permission before we do. Do you give her, a complete stranger, permission to violate your mind, your safe haven? Do not take this matter lightly.” The fur above the she-wolf’s eyes furrowed as she brought her brows together into an expression of thinking. After a few seconds, she slowly nodded her head. “Okay, Rainbow Dash, give Twilight some room to work her magic.” Rainbow Dash did as she was told and flew over to Celestia’s side. Fluttershy also came in quietly to stand next to her ruler. Twilight moved forward to the black wolf, no longer hesitant in trusting her. Her horn began to glow with power and she brought it into contact with Rose’s forehead. Celestia watched as the entry took place, as Twilight went past many of Rose’s memories. To them, it only took a few seconds, but Celestia knew that it seemed like a few minutes to Twilight and Rose. When her student was back in her own body, a confused look etched itself upon her face. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” Celestia knew that look all too well; Twilight had gotten it many-a-time when something confused or she didn’t what was going on. “Well, I can’t describe it princess, but normally, a creature’s conscious is a black void, with whatever magical power they have appearing as a sphere. But hers was more like a giant white wall.” Celestia frowned slightly, then going up to Rose and saying, “As much as it pains me to ask, may I now enter your mind as well?” Rose huffed and nodded her head again, and Celestia smiled. She called up the necessary amount of magic and touched her horn to Rose’s forehead. She leaped into the black scape, flying along towards its center past pictures that were memories. Quite a few of them held an odd looking creature with short hair and a goofy smile. However, almost as common as the creature, was a large blue box that revealed itself to be bigger on the inside. Finally getting past the memories, she reached the very core of Rose’s subconscious. As Twilight had said there appeared to be no sign of a sphere, but a large white wall. She willed her body to fly back to a further distance and turned around to look at it again. Still, all she saw was the white wall, reaching up wards, left, right, and downwards forever. That’s when the realization hit her. This was Rose’s magical power, so large that there was no way it could’ve fit inside one being; Rose should’ve burned up by now. However, it appeared to be hidden in what Celestia could only describe as a pocket universe. The revelation was so shocking, so mind blowing, that her consciousness was pulled out of Rose’s mind and back into her own with enough force to fling her backwards a bit. She managed to recollect herself and calm down the others before their cries of shock could escalate. “It is okay Twilight. But what we found was more than just a white wall. Twilight, that was her magical power. Rose, you are easily the most powerful being to have ever existed in our universe. In fact, I would go so far as to say the amount of power you hold, is unlimited.”