The story was finally put together. We had the information we needed to get what was going on. The mare or Rossetta wanted Flurry Heart as her baby, or she really thought that it was her baby. Either way, she needed Cadence to live out that dream. My only guess at that point was through possession. Cadence had been missing and I was pretty sure I knew why.
"So what do we do then?" Discord asked as he leaned up against the wall.
We were in a tight situation. We had the final story put together, more or less, but we really didn't know what to do. Cadence was still missing and we didn't have any leads on how to find her.
"Well obviously we need to find Cadence," Spike said flatly. “But I really don't know how we're going to do that."
All the magic in the world wouldn't help us, mostly because magic didn't work on the dead for some reason.
I finally got up off the ground and wiped my face clean. I still felt so bad about the whole situation. Cadence didn't do anything wrong, yet she was the one paying for everything.
"So you don't have any ideas?" I asked Spike
He looked down at the ground. I could tell he was deep in thought. His eyes showed no sign of conscience, but there was no sign of defeat either. Spike loved Cadence and there was no way he was going to give up. He began to pace back and forth desperately searching for an answer. I could hear him mumbling to himself going over every detail. His eyes started to follow a pattern as if he was reading something. Then he suddenly stopped and looked up at Discord.
"Wait a minute, I might actually have an idea," Spike said as he jumped up. “Discord had no way of knowing what was happening with Cadence, but his dream was still connected to it. Almost like it was trying to warn him.”
"You know you're actually right," I agreed, “But what does that actually mean?"
"It means that Discord can connect with people even though they have nothing to do with him in that moment. Maybe he can do the same thing again."
Discord and I looked at each other in somewhat disbelief. It sounded like simple magic, something that was pretty common. But although Twilight or any of his friends could probably pull something off as simple as that, we all knew what Discord could do was much different. Magic didn't work on the Dead; a written in stone rule slash fact, but this Discord's dreams could.
The plan wasn't solid nor was it completely thought out, but with such little time improvising was our only option.
Spike told us we needed to go back to ponyville. I grabbed Flurry as Discord snapped his fingers and took us back to Twilight’s castle. Spike frantically search every shelf he could. Several books came flying off the shelf. We were in his bedroom where apparently he had a secret Library of Supernatural Intel. I was surprised that Spike hide it as a secret at least from Twilight, but I knew from experience that openly admitting or talking about that sort of thing didn't always work out. I could have judged a little dragon but at the moment I was very grateful for him.
Actually, as I stood there watching him, I chuckled to myself. I hadn't realized how much Spike actually had done for me in the last couple of months. Without him, we would have never been able to put an end to Barry Tarts. And without him and Discord recklessly going off by themselves trying to look for answers, then we would have never been able to put the pieces together. I took that for granted and I hadn't realized that before but in that moment I couldn't have asked for a better partner.
His frantic search went on for quite a while until an ocean of books covered the floor. I looked over the witness Discord quite shocked at the sight before him. I have to admit that I too was quite shocked. Most of the books had a rather creepy demeanor to them. This included some with skulls and real bones on them and others with what hopefully wasn't real animal skin. I'm more than anything wanted to know where in Equestria he got all of them, but that would have to wait for Less dire time.
Eventually, his search ended as he finally holds out an ominous purple and black book with an odd symbol on its cover. As far as the books came it wasn't that creepy nor was unsettling like some of the others. He quickly opened the book and frantically began skimming through the pages. It didn't take him long before he found whatever he was looking for.
"Aha," Spike shouted as he jumped for joy. "Luck has finally turned our way, my friends. We have exactly what we need."
"What what is it?" Discord asked as he took the book from Spike.
"I think, no I'm positive I can use this in Discord’s dreams to locate Cadence. Actually, doesn't seem like it's going to be very hard at all."
"Wait really?! Are you for real?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yes actually,” Spike said with a hint of pride in his voice. “Let's get started, shall we?"
Discord laid on Spike’s bed ready for the inevitable suffering, he most likely would have to endure. I sent helplessly on the floor next to Discord only able to watch. Unfortunately, I wasn't going to be very much helpful for the situation so I could only wait and watch. Honestly, that wasn't the worst thing in the world at that time. For the first time, I was okay with not being able to contribute as long as the one who was contributing could save my niece.
Spike laid out a display of candles and markings on the floor. In the middle of all of it Lane the book open to a particular page with a figure floating up to a cloud. I skimmed the words of the page for a moment trying to grasp what it exactly was. I was only able to get a few ideas of what the page was. It clearly was some kind of spell or ritual that allowed someone to manipulate the dream realm in some way. The idea when said out loud didn't seem very promising, but I knew that Spike had apparently done it before with this Discord and no doubting Lee could do it again.
"All right Discord," spike said as he gave a nervous look to Discord." You already know the ins-and-outs of how this works so let's try to make it as smooth as we can okay."
"Yeah yeah let's just please get this done and over with so we can save Cadence’s life."
Spike nodded his head and went to the middle of the room to the book. All of the candles seem to respond to this as they started to burn much brighter than before. The atmosphere turned darker and sort of thick, and it kind of freaked me out a little. Sure I had been through worse but this was coming from Spike of all creatures.
Discord was no longer in his body. He aimlessly stared down at his own sleeping body that laid lifelessly on Spike’s bed; a familiar to him at that point. He wasn't scared of it anymore, but he was still scared of what awaited him. Spike hadn't told him what to do Discord was pretty Clueless and didn't even know if he could find her. Nonetheless he knew he had to at least try. He closed his eyes and focused on the sea of darkness before him. He tried his hardest to imagine Cadence’s face in front of him.
Did he let everything go all of his fear, all of his regrets, and even for a second a bit of his chaos? All that mattered than that moment was Cadence, and all that filled the ocean of darkness was Cadence. Suddenly, he felt a dark presence. It certainly wasn't Cadence, it was something far more dreadful.
Discord opened his eyes to see Cadence in a dark room. He looked around to see that the walls were quite familiar. He then knew exactly where she was.
Are good luck had finally caught up with us and Spike’s plan had worked. We knew where Cadence was the only problem was we didn't know how to draw her out. Discord saw in his dream that she was no longer herself and neither was Rosetta.
Rosetta had brutally lost her baby many years ago and now she had the opportunity to get if back in a way and she was going to take it at all cost. In some ways I could understand why but it made no difference to me. She wasn't going to take my niece away from me nor her baby.
We went back to the Crystal Empire and we were ready to finally face the monster that had been tormenting all of us. We didn't know how to exactly get rid of her but we were more concerned with actually finding her. We never really discussed it but I knew that we were going to have to improvise when the time had come.
The plan we had for drawing her out was using the very things she wanted. I took Flurry Heart and sat with her in the middle of the dark lonely hallway. I looked down at both ends to see that I was completely alone. We had no idea this crazy plan was going to work but it was indeed our only plan.
I had Flurry Heart’s favorite toy and used it to play with her. I intentionally made sure that the laughs could be heard very well. I continue to play with them for what felt like a lifetime until I finally felt the atmosphere turn dark. I could feel the temperature of the room drastically drop along with envious eyes looking down my neck. I could tell that she was coming but I was still scared of what I would see.
I glanced over to the corner where I could see a glimpse of Discord’s tail hanging out. I looked to the adjacent wall knowing that Spike was there. If they hadn't been there I would have been totally scared out of my mind but I was still scared enough.
I heard the horrifying cries of a mare in distress. It was followed by several claw sounds. I tried my best to continue playing with Flurry Heart; pretending I heard nothing. But as the cries got louder, it became increasingly harder. Eventually, after the eyes seem to have come from right next to me, I saw Discord’s tail give me the signal.
I stood up engraft Flurry Heart with my hooves, not being able to use magic, and slowly turned around. I came face to face with my own niece. I stepped back and screamed in surprise.
Normally, I would have been happy to see her but this was the one time that I wanted to be as far away from her as I could.
Her face was now a dark gray. Her mane had a shade of black on its end and her whole body appeared paler as if someone drained the color out of her. Her eyes were pitch black and filled with nothing but dreaded anger. I no longer saw Cadence. I was seeing something truly evil.
I gasped at the sight and took a few steps backward. I could feel my legs started to shake as my body filled with adrenaline.
"She's my baby," the pony growled. Her voice didn’t even sound like Cadence anymore.
I quickly had to prepare myself for the worst possible outcome; not really knowing what that was. By doing so, I eventually realized that I couldn't be scared. I had to be strong for Cadence. I forced myself to stop shaking and took a few steps forward. I came face-to-face with her. I stiffened my body and showed no fear in my eyes.
"Then come and get her you bitch."