//------------------------------// // Maps, Maps Everywhere, And Not A Path To See // Story: Jewel Of Nightmares // by Darksonickiller //------------------------------// Chapter 5 Maps, Maps Everywhere, And Not A Path To See “How can this make any sense!?” Twilight groaned as she went over what few pages they had, “North of the Valley of Deathly Chills, East of the Crimson Tower Spike, but West of the Fields of Frozen Flames? I get these are places in that world, but couldn’t they have at least drawn a second map?” Starlight and Luna blushed as they knew Twilight was asking no pony but herself, “So while she tries to figure that out, what can you tell me about that parasite that latched onto you.” Starlight asked only to see Luna turn her head away, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to…” She began to say only to stop and change her statement, “I didn’t realize that you still feel bad about what happened.” “I-it’s alright Starlight Glimmer,” Luna whispered as she tried to find the words to explain how it happened, “It was shortly after I discovered the jewel within the dream realm, it was like any other night I was up alone. I went into the realm and entered the nightmares of others to help them find the answers, and resolutions to problems they didn’t know how to deal with during the waking day.” For a moment Luna paused as she looked up at the jewel to see a faint shine from one of the runes, “But that night there wasn’t any nightmares for me to tend to, there wasn’t anypony who needed help so I just walked among the dreams. Enjoying the wonderful things they wished for or enjoyed doing themselves, it was then I saw that jewel shine like it is now.” With those words the two smaller mares jumped back as Luna walked towards it, “But when I saw it back then I could only see it as a small dot, no bigger than maybe the tip of a quill at best.” Slowly stepping closer to it, Twilight examined the glowing rune, “I’ve seen that one before.” Twilight whispered as she looked through the journal, “Here it is!” She exclaimed as the others came closer towards her to have a look, “According to this, the rune that’s glowing now is meant to keep this jewel dormant for as long as possible. And it does this by draining what magic the jewel tries to take in, and if that’s the case then that means…” Twilight groaned as she flipped through the pages, “that these following runes aid in disrupting the jewel’s use of magic up to a certain amount.” “And what of the other runes?” Starlight asked as a second bottom rune on the far left began to shine. “That one, according to this, acts as a means to force out any overflow of magic the first rune can’t.” Twilight giggled as she smiled with enthusiasm to learn how the runes interacted with one another, “Oh this is amazing, which one or ones are lighting up next?” Twilight asked as she faintly bounced off the ground. “None of them are.” Luna said as she looked up and down the jewel, “Maybe there’s something about it in the journal?” Flipping through the pages Twilight soon came across an odd bit of information, *Though I fear this part will be useless to whomever reads it, I still feel that it must be noted and inked within these bindings.The runes I’ve carefully etched into this damned jewel don’t just restrict the usage of the damn thing, or how often it activates, but some runes don’t do anything to aid in restricting the jewel. Sadly I seemed to have lost a bit of my mind while working, staying up late and working on as little sleep as possible. All just to ensure that bitch can’t come after me again, and no pony could ever fall into that world. The runes do something else remarkably when active, if used right they can grant communication between that world and wherever the caster is from. Sadly however, the runes don’t work in reverse and I have no idea why I etched them into the jewel. At least no idea in my stable rational mind, I’d have to check back in my notes to see if crazy me left anything.* Looking through the journal they found nothing more on the matter other than a small note on another page, *Can’t blame me for this, blame crazy me, that bitch is an asshole who can’t write to save her life. Or at least it appears that way, I couldn’t make heads or tails of it.* “So that part she’s talking about is in the other world with Rainbow.” Luna groaned as they looked over the runes, “And one way communication only, that makes this far more difficult than expected.” “Maybe,” Twilight sighed as she looked over several books on long distance communication through magic, “it says one way but maybe because it acts as a focus point.” “You mean like Spike when he burns those scrolls with his breath?” Starlight inquired as she looked over to see the young dragon going over a check list of things he had to do. “Sort of,” Twilight replied as she as she came to the section regarding runes, while looking at theory on interdimensional communication, “Spike just sends a message from one point in this world to another point in this same world, but when he does it he has to have the individual and their location pictured in his mind.” “So you’re thinking we could find a similar rune in these books, and reverse the effect?” Luna asked as she looked down at the page Twilight had opened. “Well that’s the problem.” Twilight Groaned as she looked at the rune and several paragraphs that followed its image, “According to this we start with the basic vocal rune for leaving messages, then add the proper markings for distance as well as vocal pitch and audio level.” “In other words we need to know where Rainbow is in that world to contact her.” Starlight sighed as she looked at the directions the journal owner had left, “Well it looks like we are back to square one.” With a grone she slowly looked at the notes she took in regards to directions, “If only we had a map of that place, then these would at least make some sense as to where we can try first.” “But we still come back to the same problem as before.” Luna chimed in as she rubbed the back of her head, “The fact that she could have landed anywhere, and depending on if she’s moved or not making it that much harder to guess where she is.” All three mares groaned at how impossible things had become for them, and how this strange new world now held their friend with no real means for them to help her. At best all they could do was study what they had, and find a way to control the jewel. If such a thing was possible.