Stage Two: Vicharana, Investigation and Inquiry
~BlackRoseRaven
As our story continues, scrutiny falls on them from all sides, even as they seek to stare out of the abyss they have made their home. Yet all the same, Luna and Scrivener cannot help but find themselves driven onwards by their own growing and deepening desires: desires that will first target those closest to them, but may yet spread through the entire world.
Applejack's Dream Diary, Entry 3:
I had another bad dream tonight... sometimes I don't think they're ever going to end. This time, it started with teeth. Big, scary teeth, biting at me: demons, other monsters, I dunno their names I just know it was bad. But then something else came in and devoured everything else before it turned to me, and I was gobbled up by... I think it must have been Scrivener. Or maybe I should just say the Tyrant Wyrm...
Then I was back on the road, a Starlit Knight, except the memories were mixed with bad dreams. Half the ponies we were walking with were dead black and they didn't have eyes. Just sockets. Just empty sockets. One of them caught me looking and stared back and I turned my head away, looked forwards. And at the front of the line, I saw Nightmare Moon, and Scrivener, but he was half Tyrant Wyrm. And they were smiling as they led us towards North Neigh, even though the town was burning, and they were these giant, terrible monsters looming over it...
It gets fuzzy after that but I also remember falling down... and singing. Was it the Black Verses? Or was it the song, from those godawful puppets? It sent chills down my spine either way, it was... grotesque. It was horrible.
And dead people started to get up. I saw the Cakes and their poor foals, I saw... my parents... I saw... things I never wanted to see. The melody wouldn't stop, and made them dance like puppets... and I saw the shapes of creatures in the darkness I couldn't make out. I ran towards them, but then my... my parents got in the way, they were burned and they were... it...
The next thing I remember is thinking the nightmare was over. I opened my eyes, I was in bed, Rainbow was sleeping quietly next to me. I got out of bed, it... all felt so real. I checked on my big brother, and he was deep asleep, and I checked on my little sister, and she was fine, too. But when I went back to my room, I opened the door, and the floors, the walls, even the ceiling were made from that awful mire that Tyrant Wyrms create and Rainbow Dash slowly rolled over and... I realized he was dead. But he was still moving... he was breathing that blue mist. I turned, and ran to Big Mac's room... and it was full of Hellhounds, and he was nothing but... but bones. I yanked the door closed, and ran to Apple Bloom's... and she was... glowing. There was this awful red light, this awful red aura coming out of her eyes, and she was just sitting up in bed and whispering, staring at me, and I tried to run over to her but she wouldn't respond, I couldn't move her, I... I was terrified...
And then I turned around, and Luna and Scrivener were there. All the walls crumbled away into darkness, and Rainbow and Big Mac were standing with them,one a corpse and the other nothing but a skeleton. And they were smiling at me, laughing at me even as they made these sick promises...
And then the dream was over. The nightmares are getting more and more intense every night. But I'm scared they're not nightmares... I'm scared they're warnings.