//------------------------------// // 44. The Hunt // Story: Hero Souls: Awakening // by SvenFoxx //------------------------------// Swoop down under the wave of ink. Roll to the side to narrowly avoid the following five foot long, extremely sharp, quill. Spin kick the book that tried to eat her face. Backflip over the rolling inkpot that came from behind. Behead the golem of notebook paper with a conjured scythe. Spin around and neatly bisect the group of origami hellhounds that formed around her. Rolled again to avoid a paper sword in the grip of a paper mache knight. Parry the next blow and leap over it, performing a front flip and cutting the knight neatly in half with her scythe. Princess Luna was not a young pony by any stretch of the imagination. She wasn’t some grizzled old wrinkled mare, but her experience, even discounting what she remembered of her time as Nightmare Moon, far outclassed that of most other ponies on the planet. Combine that with Luna’s warrior training back when the world was still in the Dark Heart era shortly before Discord began his reign of chaos, and Luna was not someone you surprised easily. That said, Luna knew better than anyone that you do not underestimate the Dream Realms. No amount of experience will prepare you for the mind unshackled and unfiltered. This was what led to Luna fighting against a veritable hurricane of stationary and office supplies. She really needed to speak with her sister regarding Twilight’s obsession with knowledge… and maybe some anger management classes. Her posture and wings wilted slightly when she turned and found a wall of far too many book bearing down on her. Spinning around, she took off with a clap of displaced air. She was ducking, dodging, weaving, and narrowly twisting out of the way of all manner of leather, paper, and ink projectiles that appeared in her path. Then she flying through an obstacle course that featured book-made platforms and loop-de-loops. At one point she had even had to contend with a tornado of dense script text. ONLY dense script text. Ink could be deceptively sharp. The small cuts and nicks along her body could attest to that. Despite everything though, a small grin played along her muzzle as she continued her harried adventure through the Shifting Sands. If she was completely honest with herself, she had missed this feeling. The adrenaline, the chase, the frantic fight to move forward, to survive. It was… it made her feel alive for the first time since her return. She saw a flicker of lavender and banked hard, utilizing her magic to propel herself in ways similar to a jet engine, something many Hero Souls had explained the concept of to her, and a couple even gave her the knowledge necessary to recreate one if she ever decided it was necessary. There. She saw Twilight blasting through the stationary that tried to assault her as if it wasn’t even there, rocketing forward in a straight line at blistering speeds. Her red cape flapped harshly in the non-existent atmosphere. Luna poured on the power of her jet spell, pushing harder than she had in a very long time, and even then she found herself only just breaking even with the speed the reincarnated Man of Steel was effortlessly putting out. She noticed Twilight perk up, and then the sound barrier was shattered and Luna once more lost sight of her ward. As Luna resumed her frenzied search, she found herself hoping the shockwave she managed to snap off just before the Shifting Sands had closed them in had gotten to her sister. --- Celestia was indeed awake and aware of the situation, though only to point where she knew her sister was trapped within what she had called the Shifting Sands. Celestia herself had never been allowed to traverse the Dream Realms, her far too overwhelming power a very real threat. The sheer pressure she put off around her, while it did not affect the physical realms, greatly destabilized any and all immaterial realms. This fact had been key in the defeat of Discord, as he had been fond of yanking powerful opponents into his own personalized realm of chaos where errant thoughts shaped the world around them. For most it had been disorientating. For Celestia? A single shockwave of magic had collapsed the entire dimension in on itself, and had in fact severely injured the Draconequus when they had been ejected. That had left him open for the Elements of Harmony to finally hit him. Powerful the Elements may be. Easy to use, especially in the hooves of only two ponies, they were not. Luna had long ago explained to Celestia why no dreamwalker would let Celestia leave her own dreams, but Celestia, wishing with all her might that she could be there for her sister when she did her job, had convinced Luna to design a shockwave-like spell, one that was meant to mimic her sister’s method of dealing with immaterial realms. It had failed, but they had discovered one night that if Luna used that shockwave while traversing the Dream Realms Celestia would feel it through her own dreams and immediately snap into wakefulness. They had agreed it was only to ever be used in the event Luna found herself trapped in the Dream Realms. ANd, as Celestia had suspected, when she entered her sister’s room she found said sister laying on her bed with her eyes closed and horn lit with magic, but completely unresponsive. Even more alarming the Celestia was the mildly bleeding cuts she could see occasionally forming on her sister. Whatever had happened, she was fighting. Celestia’s grim expression deepened as she left the room. She noticed that only one Night Guard stood at attention at the door to her sister’s room. There were supposed to be two. “Where is your partner?” she asked. “Sov...Princess Luna has sent him to deliver word to Ponyville that one of the Bearers is in danger and requires medical aid,” The Thestral explained, correcting himself when he recalled that Celestia was not as understanding as Luna about their desire to call her Sovereign. Celestia’s mind ground for a moment at the information, then panic set in, but then she quashed it. Pegasi, at the very least, would have informed the Solar Guard if something major was happening in Ponyville. “Do you know what happened?” she asked. The Thestral shook his head. “I only know that the message said to wake Doctor Tender and inform him that a soul had rejected their memories. A Miss Rarity Belle, I believe the name was.” ‘Oh buck,’ Celestia thought, already beginning to see what Luna’s actions would have been after discovering that. While Luna was the unquestioned guide for Hero Souls, there were times, especially after Luna was banished, that Celestia had taken that mantle. ‘Rarity rejected her memories? It must have been a conscious rejection, or things wouldn’t be this severe this fast. And Luna… she likely pulled one of the other awakened Bearers into the deeper Dream Realms to try and convince the now unconscious Miss Belle to accept them.’ What had happened to her to trap her in the Dream Realms afterwards, Celestia could only guess at. She didn’t need to know how it happened anyways. She knew enough to know Luna was trapped and needed her help. “Will you do me a favor if I call in a couple Solar Guards to stand guard over my sister?” Celestia asked. The Thestrals respected her, yes, but that was all. Celestia had no power to give them orders once Luna returned. She could force it, but she really had no need to. Her relationship with the Thestrals was good enough that they usually would do as she asked. “That won’t be necessary,” came an increasingly familiar voice to Celestia. She turned and found Luna’s relatively new Captain of her Lunar Guard, Mitternacht, on approach. “Mitternacht, hello,” Celestia greeted, bowing her head slightly to the minor Hero Soul. “Greetings, Your Highness,” Mitternacht returned the bow. “How can I help you?” “Luna’s trapped in the Dream Realms,” Celestia said bluntly, having learned through interaction that Mitternacht appreciated when you didn’t beat around the bush with him. She gave Mitternacht props for his only reaction to this news being the slight widening of his eyes. “What?!” His subordinate, however, was not as disciplined. “Return to your duties, soldier,” Mitternacht commanded, his eyes now locked on Celestia’s own eyes. “But sir!” CRA-KOW! Even Celestia winced at the sudden crash of electricity that ineffectively struck the stone floor in front of the soldier, making him leap a foot in the air. “Your job is to protect our Sovereign while she is vulnerable during her own duties. Her dedication to the mental well being of not just Thestrals, but all of Pony-kind, is thus that she rarely ever sleeps herself, pushing her mind, body, and soul to such drastic lengths that more than once I have had to watch as Princess Celestia forces her to sleep for her own wellbeing. We can only follow her example and remain dedicated to our own jobs in our effort to show our gratitude and loyalty.” His eyes narrowed. “Return. To. Your. Duty,” he repeated, blue electricity crackling along his eyes to give the illusion of a sinister glow. “Y-yes sir.” The soldier managed a shaky salute. “Please follow me, Your Highness,” Mitternacht said, walking past Celestia and finally breaking eye contact with her. Once the two were a ways down the corridor, Mitternacht stopped and face the Alicorn of the Day. “Please, tell me how I can help my Sovereign,” he asked Celestia. “Luna managed to inform me of her status that she was trapped. I came here to confirm it. Now that I know she actually is trapped, I was going to ask your subordinate to gather a few ponies together so we can stage a rescue.” “Who am I to go get?” Celestia inwardly smiled. She only wished her own Solar Guard was even half as dedicated as Luna’s Captain of the Lunar Guard. She hadn’t even asked yet, and Mitternacht had accepted the task. Luna really had found a gem here. “Hazy Glow, Doctor Stitch, Moon Dancer, and Rosy Crystal.” Mitternacht frowned. “The Archmage, Tender’s apprentice, a magical researcher, and one of the most powerful conjurers in the Royal Guard?” Celestia nodded. “A lot of power is required to punch a hole between dimensions and physically enter the Dream Realms,” she admitted.