//------------------------------// // Chapter Three - Astral Assault // Story: Chaos Theory // by Rose Quill //------------------------------// “No,” Twilight said simply. "Out of the question. You told me the Sirens were bad news." “Hear me out,” I said, folding one corner of the blanket back and sitting on the side of the bed for a moment before sliding my feet under the blanket. “They're on the up and up. I verified it through Sonata's memories, and Fluttershy and Pinkie both vouch for them. I believe the Sirens have reformed. Even their new Song can't control people. At the least Sonata makes Pinkie happy. Happier, I should say. Even Aria isn't as surly as she normally is.” Twilight puffed up her cheeks for a moment as she took off her glasses and set them on the nightstand. “I don’t like it,” she said. “How do we know they aren’t behind the dreams you’ve been having?” “I think visions would be more accurate,” I said. “But I saw someone at the party that no one else remembers seeing, and after a few words, he was gone without a trace. And he called me ‘seer,’ just like my dream.” I locked eyes with her. “Like it or not, we have to at least see what we can find out. We can even censor what we send along if it's dangerous.” “What about that book Shining Armor got me for Christmas?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “The one that says unicorns are attracted to virgins, bearing cloven hooves and the tail of a boar?” She flushed a little bit. “True,” she said. She slid under the blanket alongside me, wrapping her arms around mine and lacing our fingers together. “I’ll go with you tomorrow,” she said. “While you and Twilight research, I’ll get some practice in with Starlight.” I squeezed her hand. “Just remember, she’s just as strong as Twilight is, so no magical shoving matches,” I smiled. “Anything you’re interested in?” “Teleportation, transfiguration, kinetic barriers, stop me anytime,” she said. Laughing I rolled over slightly and touched foreheads with her. “Point taken, my ray of sunshine,” I said. “You want to know it all.” She smiled, and we eased into the linked lucid dream we could share, and I started to show her the basics of the spells. She kept putting wings on me, and I don’t know why they bother me. It wasn’t like they felt wrong. On the contrary, they felt great, wonderful. I just couldn’t help but be reminded of what I had said to Celestia that one afternoon. While my guilt may have faded, even torn with Twilight’s love and my friends' support, it hadn’t disappeared completely. It would take more than two years to wipe away three times that of bad behavior. I was about to start showing Twilight how to power her horn to hold a spell until ready to release it, something that could be useful at times when dark clouds started to roll into the grasslands we used as our dreamscape. “That’s odd,” I said, depowering my horn and looking at the clouds, trying to will them away. “You bring them in, Twi?” She shook her head, the sapphire glow vanishing from her horn. Suddenly, she was blown backward, reverting to her human form as she landed. “What…” I spread my wings, beginning to fly to her when I suddenly slammed into the ground hard, the wind getting driven from my lungs. Gasping, I realized that I was still in my unicorn form, but my wings had been removed. I scrambled to my hooves, trying to get to Twilight and see if she was all right. This shouldn’t be happening, we had never had an issue like this occur ever before. Before I could get halfway to my fiancé, a billowing cloud of black mist started to filter up from the ground, the grass around it shriveling and blackening in an expanding circle. I slid to a stop as the cloud began to coalesce into a vaguely humanoid form. The birdlike head fixed its gaze on me, smiling. I shivered at the expression, feeling razors of ice slicing into me as the gaze roved my form. “So,” it said. “This is your true self, Seer,” it said in a cold voice. “I must admit, I did not expect you to have remained on this side of the aperture for so long.” It turned its gaze onto Twilight. “You do not concern me,” it growled. “Leave us.” “Sunset!” she cried, reaching out before her image burst into particles and blowing away like a sand sculpture in a high wind. “No!” I screamed and raced at the wraith, horn charging with an attack spell. It turned to me with an amused expression as the silver beam of magic ripped through its form, the body turning to mist for a moment before reforming. “Useless,” it hissed, flicking a hand at me in a dismissal. I saw my bolt of magic arc back and turn red. The shock paralyzed me as the bolt slammed into me, throwing me back to the ground and sending pain radiating through my body. I leaned my head up and saw a raw, red wound in my flank, blood flowing down my leg. “What are you?” I gritted through the pain. The form drifted over me, the grass withering in its path. When the radius passed over my body, I was wracked with pain. “Acerak,” it whispered, seemingly taking joy in my pain. It reached down and ran taloned fingers across my face, leaving deathly cold in their wake. “That is all you need to know, Seer. Soon all that will be mine.” He looked as though he were in ecstasy as he reached down to the wound in my flank and pressed on it, forcing a scream from my throat. “Until we meet again, Seer,” Acerak said before bursting into a slowly dissipating mist. I laid on the ground, writhing in pain and trying to end the dream. “Sunset! Sunset!” I heard voices, but I couldn’t see anyone. My vision started to waver, the edges going dark. “Twilight,” I whispered as the darkness closed in. I opened my eyes to see Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie clustered around the bed, all ponied up and holding hands. Twilight had a hand to my face, and Fluttershy had my hand in hers, completing the circle. Twilight had her eyes closed, tears running down her face. “Hey,” I said weakly. “I hope those aren’t for me.” She opened her eyes and gasped out a sob. “You’re ok,” she said, grabbing me in a hug, repeating those words like an incantation. “Twilight,” I gasped. “Air.” She relaxed her grip on me but didn’t let me go. “What was that?” she asked. “I don’t know,” I said, moving to sit up only to wince in pain. I slid the blanket down and saw a red mark like a sunburn on my upper thigh. “That don’t look too good, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “How long have you had it?” I looked at the farmer. “I got this in the dream,” I said. “But nothing received in the dreamscape should follow over to the waking world.” Fluttershy knelt and looked at it. “It looks like a bullet wound, almost,” she said. “In the dream, I attacked whatever it was,” I said. “And it turned my magic against me, turning what was supposed to be a stun spell into something lethal.” Pinkie paled. “Freaky deaky,” she said. “Ah suppose we might be in over our heads here,” she said, wiping her brow nervously. I slid out from the bed, wincing as I put weight on the ‘wounded’ leg, feeling the pain ease as I walked, the red welt fading as I did. I stalked out to the living room and pulled Twilight’s book from the cabinet, slamming it down and angrily scribing out a note. “Sunny,” Twilight said. “Are you sure you’re ok?” “It attacked us in our dream, Twilight,” I said. “Our dream. I don’t care what time it is in Equestria, I want answers.” I stalked back into the bedroom and started pulling clothes out. “Sunset, calm down,” Fluttershy said, speaking louder than I had ever heard her before. “You don’t know what kind of effect this had on you.” “Fluttershy’s right,” AJ said. “Ya need a clear head here, and…” “It. Attacked. Twilight,” I growled. “And it’s been stalking me for almost a month now. I haven’t had a decent nights sleep since we got this place and I’m tired in more ways than one.” The other four girls exchanged looks, then backed away as I pulled a pair of short boots from the closet. “The answers to this are in Equestria,” I said. “And I’m going to get them.” I walked up to the mirror in the courtyard of CHS, my jacket flapping in the wind. Not even waiting for Twilight to catch up with me, I stepped through the portal, emerging in the Castle of Friendship. I looked around, not seeing anyone around. I rolled my shoulders, an odd itch in my back forming just behind my shoulder blades. Sunshine slid through just a moment later, flipping her bangs out of her face. We were greeted suddenly with a flash of white light, a long serpentine body appearing before us. Its mismatched body parts looked out of place on its draconic body. “Oooh,” it cooed in a smooth voice. “You must be the crown stealer I’ve heard so much about.” “And since you’re a Draconequus,” I said with a cold tone, “you must be Discord.” “Oh, my reputation proceeds me, I see,” he said, dropping to the ground. “But my, what a frosty reception.” He shivered as ice formed on him and snow drifted down around us all. I shook my mane free of the snow and glared at the spirit of Chaos. “Not now, Loki,” I spat. “I’m quite put out.” He shook himself, the ice and snow vanishing as he suddenly sported a tropical shirt. “Well,” he said. “Obviously you aren’t here for a vacation.” He hopped backward and landed in a summoned hammock. “The Princess is in the throne room.” He looked at me with a grin. “I think you’ll find her concerns scintillating.” He vanished. We started walking towards the throne room when suddenly my flank started to twitch. I ignored it until Sunshine spoke up just outside the throne room. “Your cutie mark is flashing,” she whispered. I glanced back and saw it flashing in time with the twitch. “What in…” “That’s something I’d like to know,” I heard the voice of the Princess of Friendship call, the doors to the throne room opening in her lambent glow. “Apparently, you’re now recognized by the map,” she said, looking over the said artifice, my cutie mark circling the castle on the map. “But I’m not a bearer of any element,” I said. “And there are only six, so…” “I’m not convinced of that,” Twilight returned. “There may be six primary ones, but you apparently hold a seventh. My research into your magic turned up conflicting reports as to the true number of elements, mentioning the Element of Empathy in a very obscure text.” “Empathy,” Sunshine said. “Her empathic abilities?” “Indeed,” She said. “And she’s been showing up on the map several times of late, always circling the castle.” I watched the small replica of my cutie mark circle. “What is going on?” I whispered. “I don’t know,” Twilight Sparkle said. “And that scares me.”