//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Enter the Spider... or Whatever I Am's Web // by Autum Breeze //------------------------------// Chapter 3 ___________________________________________________________ My eyes shot open and I sit up, looking around quickly. I’m… in a hospital room? I frown, putting a hand to my head. “Okay. How…?” I remember running from the Pony of Shadows with that Changeling, Glossa and… hitting my head? Must’ve gotten knocked out by the impact with Twilight’s crystal castle walls. How fast were we flying through that Fold anyway? I glance around the room, taking it in, not that there’s much to see. It’s just your basic hospital room, like the one Rainbow Dash was in when she injured her wing. Alone difference is I’m alone in mine, whereas Dash was sharing with… a stallion. That’s actually weird, now that I think about it. You’d think they’d have mares and stallions in separate rooms, like a male ward and a female ward. Were they out of space at the time, so had put Dash there? Her bed was taken up by another stallion after she was discharged and snuck back in to finish the Daring Do book. I blink, shaking my head. Now’s not the time to think about that kind of stuff. I need to find out what happened after Glossa and I got back from that parallel Equestria. Come to think of it, shouldn’t I feel drained or sore after that? I lift a hand to the back of my head where I remember feeling pain before blacking out… but it feels fine. No pain or even a bruise. In fact, looking down at my hands and clenching my fists, I feel raring to go, like I’ve tons of energy to burn. Shouldn’t I be feeling, well, the opposite? I feel like I’ve been super charged or something. “Or something is definitely what I’d go for,” a voice says from nowhere, before Discord appears in front of my bed. I frown. “So, you’re being here means…?” “We won,” he shrugs. “Queen Cheese Legs is exiled from her hive and the hive is now allied with Equestria.” I cock an eyebrow. “Well, that feels surprisingly simple. How’d that work?” Discord waves my words away… literally, I see my words in the air and he swats them away like flies. “Oh, that’s not important right now.” He leans down on the end of the bed, head in his mismatched hands. “I want to know about these new Guardians you mentioned. How did they come about? Are any of them new, or did some of CHYKN stay on?” I blink, before shaking my head. “No, it’s a whole new team. Though one of them is Yan Lin’s granddaughter.” Discord smiles. “Oh, I did like her. Quite the witty little mortal.” He rubs his chin, snickering. “So, it skipped a generation then. Is she also an Air Guardian or did she go against family tradition?” It’s hardly tradition when only two members of the family have done it. Suddenly, Discord pouts, folding his arms. “That Nerissa isn’t still hanging around, is she? I can’t imagine she would be a good influence on a younger generation of Guardians.” I shake my head. “She’s not a Guardian at all anymore, not after she… well…” I look away. While the incident with Cassidy, the Fire Guardian, is what got Nerissa locked away, I’m pretty sure it was what she did to Equestria that made the Council choose to make Cassidy the new leader of the Guardians. “After what?” Discord asks, seeming both curious and slightly worried. “Well,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck, “I think it was in part because of what she did to Equestria, but Nerissa had the role of leader and Keeper of the Heart taken from her and… she wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea.” “I can imagine,” Discord says sourly. “Well, after Cassidy was made the leader, Nerissa… she kinda… ended her,” I say, not meeting his gaze. There’s silence for a moment. “She… she what?” Discord sounds genuinely shocked. I take a deep breath and look firmly at him. “Nerissa murdered Cassidy.” “Because she was made the new leader?!” Discord looks aghast. I nod. “After that, Halinor, the Water Guardian, took over until she was asked to join the Council. Then it feel to Yan Lin to be leader while Kadma, the Earth Guardian, was offered a role as Queen of Zamballa, leaving Yan Lin to deal with things by herself.” Discord tuts. “Not exactly being true Guardians are they, those last three? Well, aside from the Air Guardian, but you get my point.” I nod. “Of course, none of them could’ve expected that thirteen years ago, Phobos would rise to power, forcing them to make a Veil to isolate Meridian from the rest of the infinite dimensions.” Discord frowns, rubbing his chin in thought. “It was about thirteen years ago I sensed the acceleration of Equiestria’s time stop. I guess making that Veil took away whatever magic Nerissa used on Equestria?” I nod. “And then some. The Guardians powers were quite limited after the Veil was put up. But, with it down, they’re all at full power.” Discord folds his arms, looking displeased. “With Nerissa around, I’d hardly see that as a good thing.” I shake my head. “No, it’s fine. After Nerissa resurrected Cassidy and brainwashed the other past Guardians and an Altermere of Yan Lin, she was locked away in a gemstone that was used as the Heart of Meridian.” Discord just stares blankly at me. “She… resurrected the dead?!” I nod, before realized how casually I’d said it and blush. “Yeah. That’s… kinda hard to explain. She used a lot of magic she gathered to pull it off.” “I’d think so,” Discord looks mortified. “Even I can’t bring back the dead. The amount of magic she had to have gathered to do that…” he shudders. “Tell me she doesn’t still have all that power now?” I shake my head. “Don’t worry. Nerissa is powerless now, trapped in her own dreams for all time.” Discord frowns. “Hardly comforting.” I shake my head. “Never said it was a perfect solution. Though, it did give Yan Lin a sister and Hay Lin another grandmother/great aunt in Mira.” Discord cocks an eyebrow. “Mira?” I nod, smiling. “That’s the name they gave Yan Lin’s Altermere and—” I stop, before my eyes widen in horror. “Um… Miranda?” Discord asks uncertainly. “That’s why he wanted my Astral Drop!” I stare at Discord in horror. “Gregor is planning on turning it into an Altermere of me! Or, rather, Miranda and… and, if he is planning on that, he’ll probably make sure she isn’t like me, but like Miranda herself!” Discord frowns. “That I find hard to believe.” I pause, looking to him incredulously. “Are you serious? Discord, my memories may be screwed up thanks to whatever Miranda actually did that merged my mind with her body, but that just means an Altermere with her mindset would have all my memories, even those relating to herself and her enemies, the Guardians. You don’t think that’s a seriously risky situation for us to be in?” Discord shakes his head. “Miranda, stop and think about it for more than a second. Even if this Gregor knew you’d be on Earth and made an Astral Drop of you, creating an Altermere would require far more power than he could possibly possess.” I am not convinced. Discord sighs, holding up a talon in a lecturing manner. “Creating an Astral Drop and turning it into an Altermere are two very different things. The latter requires way more energy than the former. And, since they are young and at full power, do you really think these, WITCH, did you call them, wouldn’t notice magic that potent?” “They didn’t when Nerissa turned Will’s Astral Drop into an Altermere,” I shot back. He shakes his head. “That’s Nerissa, Miranda. We both know she was far more resourceful and willing to give up her own life energy if it meant succeeding in her goals. From the sounds of it, this Gregor is an incredibly old human. He might’ve been able to track you and create an Astral Drop, but the level of magic he’d need to turn it into an Altermere would be far too much for him. His life force wouldn’t be able to do it, not without alerting someone of magical power, at any rate.” I frown, looking down at my hands on my lap. I want to believe him, but… but what if Discord’s wrong? He’s been wrong before. And we’re talking about events in a world he’s not even able to go into anymore. His knowledge of that world is nowhere near enough for him to make proper guesses. Though… Nerissa did mostly rely on traveling to Meridian and the magical artefacts in the Mage’s home and Earth isn’t nearly as plentiful, at least from what the show suggested, with magical artefacts that could be of use, so… I sigh, looking up to Discord. “Alright. I’ll trust you on that.” He smiles. “Good. Now,” he grins widely, “time to put that frown upside down! We’ve a Friendship Festival to attend!” … Huh? MEANWHILE, ON EARTH Will sighed as she walked down the snow covered streets, her hands in her jacket pockets. Two days had gone by and not a trace of Miranda had been found. The Council of Kandrakar were still trying to find her but, the Infinite Dimensions were, well, infinite. There were literally infinite worlds Miranda could now be hiding on and they had to find the single one she was using to stay hidden. It might’ve helped if she were hopping from one dimension to the next. At least then a strong enough trail would form and they could easily track her location and estimate where she’d arrive next. But, whichever random world she had gone to, she’d stayed there and wasn’t leaving, making it much harder to track down her exact destination. She clearly hadn’t really been thinking when she opened the Fold she went into. There had been a brief moment where it seemed like she’d returned to Earth, but then she’d vanished again. It didn’t even make sense where she’d been. A diner. Just a simple diner. Had she even meant to go there or was that just pure accident? Either way, they were still no closer to finding the last minion of Phobos. Elyon was particularly worried. She’d had her knights scouring the lands of Meridian and found no trace of Miranda there either, but it wouldn’t be the first time Miranda had hidden in plain sight without any of them realizing. So focused on her thoughts, Will wasn’t paying attention and bumped into someone. A loud cry was followed by a grunting. Will focused back on the real world and realized she’d bumped into an old man, who was now on the ground. He was bald, with white eyebrows and yellow eyes. He was wearing a simple grey sweater and deep-grey jeans, “Oh, my gosh! I’m so sorry,” Will leaned down, reaching under his arm and helping him up. “I was lost in thought and wasn’t watching where I was going.” “It’s quite alright, young lady,” he said as she helped him steady himself. “I admit, I was lost in thought myself.” “Do you need a hand with anything?” Will asked, wanting to make up for knocking into the old guy. He shook his head, waving a hand, a ring of bells attached to it jingling. “I’m quite fine. You may go on your way. I’m sure you’ve much on your mind right now.” “Well, if you say so,” Will said uncertainly, but hurried off. “Mr. R!” she heard a somewhat familiar voice she couldn’t put a name to called from behind her. “There you are. What were you doing?” “Sila, you can call me Runic you know,” she heard the old man saying as his voice started to fade the further away she got. “I know,” the other voice laughed. “But I like using Mr. R. Who was that girl? Do you know her?” Will didn’t hear anything else as she rounded a corner and their voices faded away. She put any thoughts about it out of her mind, anyway. She needed to get home quickly. She was feeling oddly tired, all of a sudden and, with school starting tomorrow, she needed all the energy she could get. Maybe she’d remember who that voice belonged to as well.