//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Return // Story: JANMMS // by Moterius //------------------------------// With the familiar flash of teleportation, I relocated myself, jumping back home from Equestria. But instead of finding myself in the spot I vanished from, I ended up in… nothingness? Slightly worried, I looked around. There was no magic I could feel and looking at the regeneration rate of my magic I found it to be abysmally slow, compared to before. It was much worse than usual, a sixth at most I guessed. Luckily, I still had my own magic stores, but my eyes widened upon realizing that it was slowly draining instead of filling. I was nowhere. And I could tell that the speed at which my magic was draining was slowly increasing. Becoming more than a little scared at the prospect of ending up nowhere without any magic, I tugged at the magic attached to my core, firing off the same spell I had used a few moments earlier, dissolving my body into pure energy and teleporting across the divide of worlds. With a massive flare of magic, I found myself popping into existence, high above Equestria, starting to slowly fall. I realized that traveling to Equestria this time had cost me almost all of my magic. But… the first time cost barely more energy than a teleport over a few kilometers, and when I tried to return, it was the same! Why was it so different, this time? Why? What had changed? There had been nothing! What had caused that strain on my magic, then? Maybe because there was so little magic, where I’d gone to? The less magic in an area is, the harder it becomes to cast magic as well, then? I could feel a flicker of energy latching onto me again from the aether, attempting to pull me along. I gladly consumed it, leaving nothing of the spell structure behind, filling up my magic from ‘next to nothing’ to ‘adult unicorn’. At least I could completely absorb those summoning spells, as long as I was in this world. But that was the only good thing about this situation… I looked around, and I could see Canterlot in the distance, a light forest below me. A few clouds were lazily drifting above said forest, and I guessed it was natural weather. But my thoughts only centered around how nice it would be to just lie down and sleep… to regain my magic… I flew down to one of the clouds, made sure it could hold me, and then collapsed onto it. I wasn’t scared of discovery, since I was so high up, and with my mind not finding anything else to be concerned about, I quickly fell asleep/unconscious. It was a fairly peaceful morning, so Celestia knew something was up. Would Blueblood once again make a nuisance of himself? Unlikely, since he knew how she would react to him interrupting her too often. Some other nobles, then? Also unlikely, most of them were either genuinely caring for the ‘common ponies’ or after money, and neither of them would be so stupid as to do something… well, stupid. Her gaze snapped to the ceiling a second later. Her magic covered a very big area, if only very lightly, and as such she could feel the massive magical disruption that was boiling high above Equestria. “Your majesty?” “Cancel the day court. Something has come up,” she responded, and while confused, Raven complied. There had been nothing really important on today’s schedule, luckily. She already knew who the cause of this was; she had met her only a few weeks ago, and the memory was still fresh. Nightmare had returned to Equestria, though the princess could not fathom why she did it in such a way. She did not even sense the slightest tremor of magic the last time she appeared, after all. Flying was one of the things she immensely enjoyed, and as such she did not mind having to travel to where she had felt Nightmare appear. And her endurance allowed her to fly as long as she needed, as long as she did not attempt to fly too fast. The center of the eruption was slightly to the west, she found, above the Whitetail Woods. (Which meant the clouds she encountered she could fly through unless she focused more magic into her legs.) But all those thoughts of hers vanished when she finally found Nightmare. The demon-like alicorn was lying on a cloud, sleeping. Exhaustion, maybe? Or was she sleeping to heal? Carefully wrapping her magic around the black mare, then she froze. She touched Nightmare’s arms, finding them to be quite cold. Right below her skin, she could sense magic residue of the mare, probably her magic protecting her. Just being cold was not a danger for their kind, though, Celestia mused. Bringing her horn close, she cast a spell that would allow her to compare herself with Nightmare, but she found the both of them to be adult alicorns. She was missing information. Something had happened to Nightmare, and she was unsure how to explain that cold feeling of Nightmare’s body. This was unlike anything she had ever seen, and it scared her. Her might was half her magic, and half her mind, both being her sharpest and most dangerous weapons. But she could not prepare against something she did not know about. Discord would probably escape sometime in the next three centuries, and Celestia knew from experience he would lose. Order and Chaos were fundamental, and unless Discord changed, he would always lose. The Crystal Empire, and the tyrant no doubt would return, but Equestria could win against him. The Dragons and Gryphons were too small in number to realistically threaten Equestria, and the same was true for Sombra. And the Wendigoes could be driven off by the right spell and posed no danger to alicorns either. Neither did temperature spells. Casting a different spell, she looked at Nightmare’s aura, freezing once again in surprise. Nightmare’s aura looked frayed as if something had done its best to rip the magic of the alicorn apart. Had she ended up in a storm made from magic? Perhaps this was a naturally occurring phenomenon that Nightmare had found herself in, Celestia mused. It was a far more comforting thought than someone – anyone – having the ability to rip apart magic. She hoped she was right, she oh so dearly hoped she was right.