The roughhewn walls and worked stone floors were all too familiar to Treeling and Nurse Clarity, though this perspective of them was new to Sombra. Also new was the level of magical wards preventing the unicorns from casting their spells. It was dark and dank, and for the first time Sombra could take no solace in the shadows. To prevent them from communicating the mute filly was placed in the cell between the cells of the adults. However, they knew when the guard was being changed as the sound of spit hitting the wrought iron doors could be heard before anypony new officially took the position guarding the prisoners.
It was late in the evening when Lieutenant Hurricane had escorted them to their cells; cells that were guarded by Military Police. When the regiments were ready to deploy these three prisoners would be taken with them to fight on the front lines since the Queen was quite adamant in establishing the alternative to be far worse.
Treeling batted at the antimagic barrier, like a cat with a ball of yarn, until she heard the steady sound of sleep rhythms seeping through the walls. She thought of her previous dreams and the words of the doctors after she woke. She wasn't sure what "metastasized" meant, but she knew what "brain" meant, and what "dead in a few hours" meant. She also knew the look of surprise and what "gone" meant, but Asheveld was not "gone" because she had seen her since. Treeling lay her head down on her fore-hooves as she thought of how much she wanted to see Asheveld again. She dug in deep and pulled at herself. She drew on the fragments that Ashveld left in her body until she felt like she was going to tear herself apart but nothing came until after she gave up on forcing it.
Come.
It was neither a word, nor a thought, but a primal draw for her to follow. A feeling that was accompanied by the jingle of bells. Treeling looked around through drowsy eyes but only when she blinked could she see Asheveld. Finding her behind her eyelids she took the opportunity to rest them, and fell into the dreams that Asheveld had prepared.
***
The air was surprisingly clear here. There were no fires and no smoke. Even Asheveld had a fresh new look but Treeling could still tell it was her by the way they needn't use words to communicate. The only similarity between this dream, and any previous that she had, could be seen in the distance: the sun and moon were locked in perpetual rise and set. The dirt beneath her hooves was charred but didn't smell of sulfur, and the silhouette of Nurse Clarity could be seen at the end of the long narrow bridge that they found themselves on.
Leading Treeling to that end was Asheveld. Her fur was no longer cracked and flaking, but rather a solid sheet of supple satin. Her mane still flowed with regal splendor but lacked its smokey fluff. It instead captured the endless night that first appeared overhead in her previous dream. It had in it spots of black that one could lose their eyes in forever. The moment before Treeling could even form the thought that would question them; something in the sky drew her attention. A memory borrowed from another's mind. Several stars simply collapsed in on themselves and took back all the light they had ever shown; forming these same dark portals that appeared in Asheveld's new mane.
Though she no longer resembled the world of molten slag from Treelings nightmare, neither mare felt it was necessary to find a new name for the pony, as they both knew from what she had been born. As the pair approached the cardboard cutout Asheveld continued to walk forward and disappeared inside of it. After a tenuous pause Treeling followed nervously after her.
Jeering could be heard as Treeling stepped through the hole that Asheveld had opened in Nurse Clarity's mind. A term that Treeling did not recognize was being repeated ad naueam. At the center of a mob was the filly Crystal Clarity. Her opalescent coat paled under her beryllium mane and she sadly lacked the paper hat that Treeling had grown accustom to seeing her in.
"Blank-Flank!" the crowd chanted over and over again on the playground. They were outside the image that Nurse Clarity had pushed into Treelings mind with the word "school." In the distance beyond the crowd—standing far above them—stood a similarly white unicorn with a blue-agate mane neatly tucked under a familiar red-crossed paper hat. She stood looking down at her daughter disapprovingly. Upon glancing at her mother C.C. had had enough. She leapt onto the alpha of the pack and pummeled away at his face with her hooves.
Then the ruffle of hair from the mother's mane could be heard, as if were scraping against her eardrums, when the school nurse shook her head at the disappointment her child had become. This isn't right. This wasn't how it happened. Clarity's thoughts echoed through the landscape I... I ran home to cry and my mother consoled me. Her thoughts continued to carry to the invisible observers. As they did Treeling moved through the crowd to sit face-to-face with little C.C, cocked her head, and made herself known. Similarly Ashvelt followed in locked step, serving as a second shadow, and remained invisible to their host.
The filly Crystal Clarity looked up from the broken and battered colt under her hind-quarters into the scarred face of her other self. She didn't realize that this Treeling was an outsider. The pair leaned in toward each other and their two horns touched which caused C.C.'s coat to ruffle. A tingling feeling swept across her skin as the beryllium silver of her mane could also be seen as a glittering gilt in the base of her coat.
"No!" she shouted as all the pain and hatred of the schoolyard bullies was torn out of their hearts. The gilt had drug it into hers. "No. No! NO!" she cried frantically when the implosion compressed emotions ripped out of her and destroyed all those who had gathered around. Their bodies were petrified by the blast, their skin cracked, and twisted leafy-greens grew from every pore. The grass reached up around their lifeless husks and strangled out what nutrients remained; as saplings and shrubbery grew from their corpses.
"Get out of my head!" the prepubescent nurse screamed at the oaken filly; as Mother closed her eyes and turned her back on both of them. Treeling's teeth shined to a mirror polish as she stretched her lips into her toothy grin. They were white and reflected the meticulous care that went into maintaining them. As the color faded from her coat her mane took on the silver shine of the young C.C. Everything that Crystal Clarity was, reflected in Treeling's appearance as she faded from view, and everything that Treeling was had been engraved on the crying filly.
She ran home to her mother the way the story was supposed to play out, but her mother said nothing– did nothing. She just sat in their yard, her eyes had glossed over, and her hair had begun to fall out. It was cancer. "That's not possible either!" C.C. screamed as she ran to clutch her mother. She shook her hard and kept screaming, "Wake up mommy, wake up! You didn't die– you're still alive!"
The mare's head and shoulders slowly slumped before a flood of termites spilled from her mouth. The deluge washed over the horrified Crystal Clarity before her mother crumpled to an empty pile of waste. Her sobbing tears were like air-raid sirens to Asheveld who quickly leaped into Treeling's shadow.
"Child, can you hear us?" a gentle voice called to Crystal Clarity, before the eyes of an alicorn caught Treeling perched in curiosity, observing the wreck of the N.C. Clarity. "Thou dost not belong here," Luna said to Treeling with an audible note of concern.
Treeling cocked her head and raised an eyebrow as to repeat the same accusation of Luna's presence.
"How didst thou comest to be in this place?" Luna questioned.
The present scene swept away and was replaced by the memory of the cells. This time the horn touch that launched Nurse Clarity into the wrought iron door was reenacted by the filly versions of both unicorns. After which chalk lines constructed a two dimensional house in three dimensional space, and a mat with hoof-prints scrawled out in front of it... both where the real Treeling was sitting.
"Thou mustn't live in the mind of another. Tis dangerous. Thou shouldst depart," Luna cautiously warned. Treeling slowly nodded in acknowledgement of the dangers that visitation may possess before she rose to all fours and turned to the silhouette. Asheveld's black-holes gleamed in Treelings eyes and her gilt ruffled her coat on their way to the exit.
Stopping briefly next to the mental rift Treeling looked back to Luna whose form flickered and whose face reflected surprise. Luna's magic was countered, she had been forced out of the mind of their host, and she was barred from reentering. After a hesitant glance to the crystal filly Treeling continued through the breach and sealed the demesne with Asheveld's magic. There would be no more magic meddling from either of them and that was the way the world ought to be.
***
The sound of a hooves shuffling and the butts of spears slamming against the stone floor could be heard outside the doors. "Sir!" the voices of the guards shouted as their hooves clicked against their hard helmets.
"Open it," Hurricane ordered.
The sound of metal scraping against stone preceded itself as the door opened and closed with the pegasus stepping through. It was a small room with four doors, one for each cell, and the one that swiftly locked behind him as he entered. "Those too," he ordered, "I want them to hear this."
The MP nodded and shouted an acknowledging, "Sir, yes sir!"
There wasn't much different about Hurricane today except for an extra half-width gold bar on his shoulder which was tightly nestled between two full width bars. The addition put extra swagger in his step as he closed the gap, and baritone in his voice that he used to call out to the prisoners. "We've got our orders. You three will be deploying with me to the border between Equestria and the Crystal Empire."
"Congratulations, Lieutenant-Commander," Sombra's fatalistic complement was accompanied by an extrapolation of the news, "but you mean to say that we are going to find Discord, and shank him with our shiny new 'sword'... while you foal-sit."