//------------------------------// // Dreams and visions. // Story: Golden Shadows // by Sylif Daring Doo //------------------------------// ______*Lyaroa's house, the next morning, 10:00 AM.*______ Roxanne walked down the stairs and into the living room, she was still slightly tired but not enough to deter her from moving. Skitter had moved in recently, and she brought Garth with her, the two really helped to brighten up the home, but Lyaroa stilled craved the old days, but she knew that those would never come back. Roxanne walked down the hallway that Lyaroa made, it was apparently endless, and every door was a gateway between worlds, according to Lyaroa they were unstable, so at best she could open the door and look inside, she walked through the hallway until she reached door three nine seven, she opened it and peeked inside. The world here was that of Earth in ancient times, Roxanne stared into it for a time before closing it. "Are......are you alright mom?" Firefly's voice asked. Roxanne looked down at her daughter. "Yea, guess I just miss Nightmare, it's hard to miss something until it's gone." She replied. Firefly nodded. "She's coming home soon right?" She asked. "Of course, as soon as Lyaroa's power is stable at any rate." Roxanne replied. Strangely, Firefly shivered a little bit at the reply. "What's wrong?" Asked the fox. "It's nothing, I just have bad experiences with Sentinel power." Firefly replied. Roxanne knelt down and patted her daughters head. "Don't worry, Lyaroa won't use to hurt you, I know that much." She said reassuringly. Firefly nodded. "Yea, you're probably right." She said. With that said, the two walked back to the living room, where they saw Lyaroa talking with Estalli. "Galesh isn't that stupid to come back with me on alert, if she were, I would have sensed her." She stated. Estalli sighed. "All I'm saying is that your powers are very erratic right now, I'm not sure if you CAN sense her." She replied. Lyaroa chuckled and leaned on the wall. "My powers are not out of control, it's just difficult to use right now." She stated. As soon as she finished her sentence, the wall she was leaning on collapsed, and she fell into the rubble, everyone was silent as they got closer to look. They saw Lyaroa laying in the rubble with an annoyed expression. "Ok.....maybe my powers are a little out of control." She said before teleporting into the living room, then with a wave of her hand, the wall put itself back together. "How long until your powers go back to normal?" Roxanne asked. Lyaroa shrugged. "Five days or more." She replied. "Or you can burn off the excess power and have it done with in a few hours." Estalli offered. Lyaroa looked at Estalli. "I would rather not, I'm going to need this power if the Sentinel's send a hunting party after me." She replied. "Can we send Nightmare a message then? tell her how long it will be?" Roxanne asked. Before Lyaroa could answer, Estalli spoke. "I can do it easily and without risk, I just need to know where I'm sending it." She said. Lyaroa sighed and looked to the center of the living room, a magical portal appeared before them, and they saw Nightmare and Shade. "Alright, what do you want me to say?" Estalli asked. "Tell her it will be five days to a week before we can bring her home." Lyaroa answered. Estalli closed her eyes and Nightmare's ears perked up in the portal, when Estalli opened her eyes she looked at the others. "She said she's alright, and is staying with Shade until she comes home." She stated calmly. Lyaroa closed the portal and laid back in her chair. "And now we wait." She muttered. ______*A few hours later.*______ Roxanne was in her Pegasus form for once, she was walking with Firefly through town, as they walked however, they heard the townspeople whispering about how strange it was that Umbrea was gone. "Is......is Lyaroa going to bring her back?" Firefly asked very quietly. "Someday, I hope, me and Nightmare just had no memories, Star was simply just Fang with a different body, but Umbrea was her own person, give it time okay?" Roxanne whispered in reply. The two walked for a while until they found Twilight walking around with Spark and Spike. "Hey Twilight." Roxanne greeted. "Oh, hey Roxanne." Twilight replied, she seemed distracted. Roxanne raised an eyebrow. "You alright?" She asked. Twilight nodded. "Yea, I'm just under some stress." She replied. "You can tell me, maybe I can help?" Roxanne offered. Twilight took a breath. "Ok then, I recently received two tickets for the grand galloping gala, one for myself, and one for somepony else, problem is, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy all want to go, and they won't leave me be about it." She explained. Roxanne blinked. "Uh, why not just write to Celestia? tell her that you can't choose one of them and send the tickets back?" She suggested. Twilight nodded. "I suppose that's the right choice here, thanks for the suggestion." She replied. Roxanne nodded and looked at Firefly who was talking to Spike and Spark. "Come on Firefly, let's get going." She said. Firefly ran over to Roxanne and walked with her. "Where are we going Koni?" She asked, defaulting to Changish in the end. [1] Roxanne chuckled. "Nowhere specific." She answered. _______*elsewhere.*______ Fang awoke with a jump, the sound in the world were heavily distorted and the world itself was a pale blue, he looked around as he breathed. His breath was very loud, he could hear it as though he was breathing heavily. "Not again." He whispered. The world suddenly shifted greatly and he was flung into a room, he landed with a groan and forced himself to stand up. "How long......does she have?" Asked a familiar voice.. Fang turned around and saw Roxanne, Nightmare, Estalli, Skitter and Firefly, Spark and.....Galesh? "Two weeks at best, after that......." Galesh trailed off. "How can we stop this?" Nightmare asked. Galesh looked at Nightmare. "We need to--" Her voice was comepletely warped and distorted, and then Fang was flung out of the room. He soon ended up in a jungle of some kind, where a reptile of some kind came into view, it had a golden shine to it and it's eyes were bright cyan, it looked straight at Fang, he was then flung away once more, but this time he was floating above a city of dark gray materials and golden lights, his vision suddenly focused intensely, he noticed Sentinel's walking around and he witnessed a window break on a very tall structure. He saw a very familiar white wolf land on the ground and run off. "What.....is this?" He asked himself. He then witnessed a battle between Lyaroa and Galesh, ending in the death of Huralo Juzor, he watched as Lyaroa ran away, and teleported to who knows where. Fang was then flung away once again, but now he was in a chamber, he recognized barrier symbols all over the walls, there were so many of them and they were all glowing, he looked to the center of the room and saw a pedestal, there was a sword floating above it, it was shaped like a Japanese katana but radiated incredible power. Fang soon heard whisper after whisper in his head, they multiplied rapidly and he clutched his head. "Stop it! shut up already!" He cried out. ______*elsewhere.*_______ Fang shot up out of bed, his heart pounded and his eyes were wide open, he could smell the sweat on his body and he tried to calm down. "Hey?......are you ok?" Asked a voice. Fang looked in the direction of the voice and saw Trixie in the doorway, he took a few deep breaths and got out of bed. "I'll be alright, I'll clean up." He replied quietly as he took the sheets and blankets off the bed, he then took his pillow cases and walked out of the room. Fang wordlessly carried the bedding to his washer, he put it all in and put the detergent in, he then turned the machine on and walked to the bathroom. "I'll.....make some tea." Trixie said. With a nod, Fang stepped into the bathroom, neither of them really drank tea, but when they did it was to help calm one or the other down. A few minutes later, Fang walked out of the bathroom and changed his form to Star Shifter, he walked downstairs again and saw Trixie set the tea on the table. Fang sat across from Trixie. "Was it another nightmare?" She asked out of concern. "In a way, it was more confusing, but the ending of it was......unbearable." Fang stated. Fang took a sip from the tea and continued. "It was more of a vision, at least, it might have been." He looked at the unicorn mare. "I'm not sure what to make of it, but given how accurate my old visions were, I really hope it was just a nightmare." He stated. "What did you see?" Trixie asked. Fang sighed. "It's.....better I don't tell you, nothing we can do about it even if we tried." He said as he took another sip. Trixie said nothing in reply, instead she simply drank her tea with Fang, eventually, she spoke again. "Have you ever considered the future? outside of your visions?" She asked. Fang shook his head. "I see enough of the future as it is, I prefer to live In the present." He stated. "Oh, I guess that makes sense." Trixie replied. Fang finished his tea, he then noticed that Trixie was quieter than usual. "Are you ok?" He asked. "Yea, i just.......Fang, how long have we been together?" She asked out of the blue. Fang blinked and then crossed his arms. "I think......a couple months or so." He replied. Trixie drank the last of her tea and set the cup down. "Yea, and those were some great months, but never really seemed, happy......so what's wrong exactly?" She asked. Fang sighed and leaned forward, he took a breath. "Truth be told......I'm afraid, last time I came close to finding happiness, it was taken from me and the world as I knew it ended, I don't want to feel that again." He said, his expression was a sad one. Trixie walked over and placed a hoof on Fang's knee. "I may not be the best at this sentimental stuff, but even I know that you can't give up because things didn't go right before, you need to keep going and keep trying to find happiness, even if it's only temporary." She stated. Fang looked up at Trixie, he chuckled a moment later. "Yea.....your right I guess." He took a breath and stood up, shifting back to his wolf form. "I'm gonna go check on the laundry, then I'll get the spare bedding set up." He stated before walking to the laundry room. ______*Later.*______ Estalli walked into her room and sat down on the bed, ever since the battle with her mother, she had focused solely on training, and she simply spent her off time talking with Lyaroa or sitting in the park in silence. Before she could lay down however, Estalli was greeted by a screen appearing before her and her mother appeared on it. "Oh, mother.......how goes your recovery?" She asked. Galesh seemed to ignore the question. "Did you learn anything that I should know about?" She asked. For a brief moment, Estalli debated whether or not she should tell her mother, but in the end she decided. "Her power has been erratic lately, I think she overloaded her systems and hasn't used enough to burn the excess out, she will be back to normal in five days, less if she uses enough power." She said. Galesh sighed. "I don't know what that girl was thinking, taking in all that power, but regardless, I think it would be best if you kept your guard up, don't trust them entirely, not yet." She stated. Estalli was silent for a moment, but answered anyway. "Of course mother." She replied.