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// Spoken from Within 
// Story: Words spoken on Painted Canvas 
// by LucidTech 
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	(Sorry for such a long wait to only give you this measly chapter, I've been having a bit of an issue with writer's block recently and on top of that I wanted to make sure I portrayed this chapter how I wanted to. I knew what I wanted the dark aura to be, but showing that in written form was a challenge. -N64Fan)

Alice wasn’t quite sure how long she had remained crying with the yellow pegasus at her side to keep her company, but she was sure it had been quite long enough. With one last sniffle of sadness the artist wiped the wet tears from her face onto her shirt sleeve and patted the small cream colored pony beside her to assure her she was fine now. With that done Alice raised her gaze from the pink mane of the pegasus to discover they had a new pony in the room who hadn’t been there prior to Alice’s mental snap.

The creature took Alice’s breath away with its beauty and intrigue that seemed to flow from it in waves. The mysterious pony appeared to be both a unicorn and a pegasus at the same time, in addition to this it stood at twice the height of the other ponies that Alice’s meager experience had shown her. Her hair was a shocking sight all its own as well, it was like a pastel rainbow that billowed in an ethereal wind that only affected her. 

Caught unawares and not entirely sure what pony custom was Alice was quite unsure of what exactly she was expected to do in this situation that she had suddenly been thrust into. Looking for some hint as to the appropriate action she glanced to the other ponies, all of whom were bowing before the oddity. Deciding that it must be someone, or somepony as the case may be, of great importance the girl decided to copy the acts of the ponies as best she could. With this plan in mind Alice stood from the ground where she had been crying not a minute earlier and curtseyed to the being.

The creature spoke a word or two and the other ponies raised from their bows, Alice mirrored and stood from her curtsy to look once more at the creature before her. The odd feminine being looked over the gathered ponies with caring, parental eyes before directing her gaze to Alice, the girl merely looked back with eyes that were bloodshot from her earlier tears. The creature spoke a few more words in the odd, echoing, equine language and all the ponies looked to Alice in anticipation as if an important question had been asked. Alice shrugged her shoulders and looked back to the white pony.

After a few more seconds of silence the veterinarian pegasus broke into the silence with a soft shy tone. When she had finished speaking the white alicorn nodded to the cream colored mare before returning her gaze to Alice. The tall pony spoke a few more words that seemed different from the usual language, Alice shrugged again and the white pony spoke in another language. After they had gone through about fifty separate languages, none of which the human understood, the white creature shook her head and sighed.

Alice remained standing and kept a casual stance that she had slipped into about halfway through the ‘talk’. Abruptly the lavender unicorn spoke up with a respectful tone that reminded Alice of children talking to their fathers. The white being returned more words and both of them looked to Alice with curious, contemplative gazes. Confused Alice looked towards the yellow mare, who had taken her in, for guidance. The pegasus looked troubled over what to do for a minute while she bit her lower lip before looking back to Alice and hesitantly nodding head. 

WIth faith in the cream colored pegasus Alice looked back to the white creature standing before her and determinedly nodded her head. The creature smiled gently at the act and returned the nod with a smile. After a moment the creature closed her eyes and focused, in response to her will her horn began to glow an odd yellow color. A split second later Alice found herself surrounded by the same aura. Panic began to rise in the back of her mind at suddenly being at the mercy of the odd creature and she found herself looking to her side once again. Her gaze was met with a calm, steady look from the pegasus and Alice let herself relax. Taking a deep breath and focusing on her heartbeat the human distracted herself as the magic did its work.

After a moment of the aura swirling around her Alice felt the urge to close her eyes, she did as her instincts told her as they had only caused fairly harmless results so far and within a moment she had plunged her sight into the darkness of her shut eyelids. With the distractions of her sight gone Alice felt a tugging so soft and so fragile from somewhere within herself that she wasn’t entirely sure that she wasn’t just imagining it. The girl paused for a moment as she focused on the feeling and tried to find a way to use or examine it. After a moment of struggle with her own self she took an alternate approach and attempted to treat it like one would a muscle.

Immediately after trying to flex the oddity within herself the voices from the back of her mind came up once again and Alice opened her eyes to see the darkness that had surrounded her earlier surrounding her once again. The darkness floated freely around in the air, like water without gravity, but always stayed within arm’s reach of the girl. After hesitating for several minutes Alice reached out to touch it, it parted around her finger and began to twist in spirals around her extended digit.

“Curiouser and curiouser.” Alice said as she toyed with the animated semi-liquid darkness that floated around her. The mares were all giving her an odd look as she toyed with the black substance about her and began to lose herself in the simplest movements, it was like she was inside a lava lamp. Though the ponies couldn’t tell, Alice could easily feel that this.. whatever it was... wasn’t malevolent. It wasn’t even dark in any sense of the word beyond its color. It was similar to that feeling you get when you see a stranger with a familiar face, you fell like you know them and yet you don’t at the same time.

After a while Alice noticed the white creature walk out of the room with the lavender unicorn following shortly behind but was too intrigued by this odd substance she had conjured to think much about it. With the darkness flowing through the gaps between her fingers Alice didn’t notice the blue pegasus approaching until she stood directly in front of the girl. Alice waved the darkness to the side as if brushing cobwebs from the air before turning to look at the pegasus.

The normally proud face of the cyan mare had disappeared and was now replaced by an ashamed look that spoke volumes of the regret she felt for her hasty action of attacking Alice when she had seen her coming into town. The pegasus said a few words and Alice easily deduced from the tone that it was an apology, despite not knowing what the pegasus was saying Alice smiled. It’s that thought that counts after all, I’m sure she was merely protecting her friend. 

As she smiled at the seriousness of the mare’s apology Alice had reached out to tussle the mare’s hair when she was interrupted as the darkness in the air flooded into her upside down palm. As her hand hovered above the mare with the liquid between her hand and the pegasus' forehead the orb of odd substance held an odd purple glow until the mare looked up and confusion flooded her mind. In response the substance shifted colors to an orange-brown color.

Confusion was clear in both females’ eyes and a moment of silence passed. In the quiet she had been granted the girl’s mind worked overtime and after a minute Alice suddenly realized it was changing colors to ‘match’ the emotions of the mare. With this realization Alice once more felt the odd subconscious urging to close her eyes, this time it wasn't a quiet suggestion though, it was closer to a voice shouting at her from within her head, Alice once again decided to obey.

As she did so she directed her mind towards the odd, color-shifting orb just above the blue pegasus’ head. A moment passed and nothing happened, just as Alice had given up on the experiment she had jumped into head first a wave of emotion and power hit her mind. Riding along the pressurized wave of energy was a name. The name was not in words but in a very descriptive feeling that could, from Alice’s point of view, easily be related to diving into subzero water. 

Rainbow Dash.

Alice backed away suddenly as the voices of her subconscious rose as if on cue and began to whisper meaningless phrases in her ears, prominent among them were two words, Wonderbolts and Fluttershy. Her legs gave out for a moment, causing her to fall back slightly from the verbal assault. Realizing her slip up the girl managed to catch herself with her right foot and halt her stumble. As the mess of words danced about her mind the girl clamped her hands to her ears in an attempt to block the sound, much to her dismay however the sound came from within not without. Her shaky stance buckled once again and the girl found herself face first on the floor as the relentless voices continued to reverberate inside her skull.

The sound alerted the white alicorn who had been about to leave and she hurriedly entered the room. Upon seeing the collapsed human on the ground writhing in pain she approached cautiously and lightly pressed the edge of her horn to the biped’s head. Immediately her frantic movements stopped and Alice remained motionless on the ground. A moment passed where the human remained like this, with her body facing upward. With a flash of yellow from the creature’s head Alice’s eyes snapped open suddenly.

When Alice opened her eyes the odd substance had disappeared from the air and she found herself once again looking at the blue pegasus who now had a worried look on her face. Feeling like she had just taken a sledgehammer to her head the girl looked groggily at the pegasus. “Rainbow Dash?” She asked in a curious tone, like you would to a friend who you hadn't seen in a while. The blue mare’s eyes widened in reaction to her name but all the others in the room looked at the human with confusion displayed upon their face.

Though the barely awake Alice couldn't understand the words the ponies worked with she was fairly sure that, despite the fact that they couldn't understand a single word the human said, the pegasus had identified it as her own name and was now feverishly trying to convince the other's of the improbable fact. I guess names hold some kind of power here then, if she can identify her own name even when I say it in my language. What of those other whispers though, what were they? Alice thought to herself as she lay on the ground in her self induced trance, keeping her gaze on the roof..

With a sudden jolt she realized that something had just been removed from her forehead and she rolled her eyes to just under edge of the fully open lids to see the white creature rising to her hooves behind her. In what could be construed as a drunken attempt to move Alice rolled onto her side and pushed herself to her feet with her hands in attempt to meet the gaze of the white being.

Once she was steady on her own two feet Alice bowed to the creature to show her thanks for trying to help. The bow was somewhat jerky as Alice was trying to be careful and not send herself head over heels on her unsure feet as she did so. When she stood from the bow she was somewhat surprised to see the creature returning a bow of her own. After the creature had risen from her bow she looked at Alice with a kind of motherly caring. Though it was most likely an attempt to ease her and make her feel more comfortable Alice suddenly found herself depressed despite the bright surroundings. 

Seeing Alice’s reaction visible on her face the creature frowned slightly before bidding what Alice assumed to be a goodbye to all the other assembled ponies and, flashing her horn once, disappeared from the room. With the creature gone Alice felt a sudden repercussion of her headache and flinched slightly at the recursion of mental pain before shaking her head to try and clear it, rather than diminishing the pain spiked and the human immediately grabbed her head with both hands.

Upon seeing the actions of Alice the cream colored pegasus approached the human and nuzzled into her waist to try and comfort her. The human glanced down at the pressure against her midsection and smiled. Releasing her hands from the side of her skull Alice nodded towards the door and shrugged as she attempted to ask whether or not they could leave. The pegasus nodded in understanding and spoke a few short words to the unicorn who stood a fair distance away.

The two left the building and made an uneventful trip back to the cottage that they had come from, upon arrival the human would immediately collapse into a sleeping pose on the couch, the various events of the day having taken quite a lot out of her in regards to her own personal stamina. The pegasus on the other hand wasn’t tired in the least as it was still early morning and she still had several chores to accomplish around the house.

What neither female was aware of though was that their return trip had been noticed by another member of the town and even as they went about their normal habits that pink earth pony who had seen them was preparing something that Alice wasn’t going to soon forget.