[Medulla’s POV]
I wandered through the caves in a haze, barely noticing the intricate structures and vibrant colors. Once I felt I was deep enough into the cave, I pulled five Leppa Berries out of my ‘bag’ and ate them like there was no tomorrow, found one of the less spiky corners of the cave, and closed my eyes and relaxed. When I meditate, I relive moments in my life or construct a mental playground, but when I’m particularly tired I only see memories.
[1223 years ago back on Earth]
It was my first convention but I wished I could have made a cosplay of Gold from pokemon. It was incredible, the energy in the merchant hall was infectious, but the body-odor off of some of them was almost unbearable. There was one merchant who no one seemed to even notice. I walked towards him, the crowd almost melted away, I felt like there was something pulling me to him.
He smiled as I approached him. “Well, what would you like to buy young man?”
As I looked around I noticed at everything was of incredibly high quality. But only one thing caught my eye, a fist sized gray cat’s-eye marble with pink and purple on the inside, looking exactly like the megastone Mewtwonite Y from the sixth generation of pokemon. I pointed towards it, “How much for that?”
He chuckled slightly, “Well that particular piece is handmade and with that quality it should be around five hundred at least, but you seem like a nice kid and I think that you’ll take good care of my handiwork, so for you… seventy five should do just fine.”
“There’s no way you could give me that kind of discount on something like this!” I said utterly shocked.
“No? I made it, I’m selling it, why can’t I set whatever price I want? I insist!” He affirmed.
“Okay, but I still feel like I’m robbing you blind.”
I payed for the the massive marble, and took it. I looked it over and felt the weight, it was beautiful and felt just right. Then the merchant started to laugh and I felt like an unseen wall around my mind shattered. For a short moment I could ‘see’ every mind around me, including the merchant. I could see he wasn’t a normal human, he was some kind of eldritch being projecting itself into this world. Seeing its mind broke mine. As the merchant tore me from my world I had already been driven insane, so as I traveled through the Void between worlds my mind couldn’t be broken anymore and it began to reassemble itself as best it could.
I landed in a forest clearing, my entire body was in agony and my mind reeling from seeing into the mind of an otherworldly unknowable entity. All I could do in that moment was scream, and only a small portion of that scream was vocal the vast majority of that scream was mental. And that mental scream, full of pain and confusion, tore through several miles around, and was echoed by every sentient mind with in that area.
[Celestia’s POV, Present time]
“Thou. Didst. WHAT!?", Luna roared, slipping into the Royal Canterlot Voice.
Shining Armor hung his head in shame, he shifted around as if trying to knock loose the right words.
Celestia while still disappointed in her Captain for his actions, knew he wasn’t entirely at fault for this. “Luna, he may not have been a stable state of mind, Insanity- I mean Medulla, even admitted that it manipulated him in his desperation.”
Shining responded quickly, “Yes, but everything I did was my decision. He never took my will as you pointed out, even though he might have been able to do it. I should still be punished for my actions even if I didn’t know this history.”
“If this knowledge were to become public, the populace will still want the pony responsible punished. We should act while only we know of this.” Luna added.
Shining stood resolute, “I should go before a tribunal to decide the punishment.”
Celestia decided on a better option, “No, effective immediately your on a one month unpaid administrative leave, after that you’ll receive a 25% pay cut until Medulla has been captured again. This must remain out of the public eye as much as possible, so we’ll find some excuse for the ‘official’ reason for this punishment.” He was about to protest when Celestia interrupted him, “Shining, I know that any punishment a tribunal decides on is nothing compared to the hell you’re putting yourself through right now. A month to think upon these events while you’re unable to do anything about it, is almost too severe in my opinion. You may go now, and take any personal effects home, you don’t want Storm Bolt messing with your stuff while you’re gone, do you?”
Shining bowed and turned around and began to walk away before pausing. He turned his head back and said, “I almost forgot, Medulla asked me to tell you that you had it all wrong, that you need to talk about this as adults, and that it’s sorry for everything, specifically that town because what ever happened there it didn’t intend. It sounded genuinely heartbroken, but I don’t believe that considering what you told me...”
Luna gave her a quizzical look as Shining Armor left but said nothing.
As his hoofsteps faded, the Princesses turned to one another, both looked very disconcerted. Luna spoke first, “I will head the search for the beast. It has an effect on the mind, I might be able to trace it by looking for the effect in ponies dreams.”
“True, we also need to have the Elements on stand by en case you find it. We wont have this be another century's long wild goose chase.” Celestia concurred.
“Captain Armor did mention that creature claimed a need to investigate oddities in the ‘mental landscape’ what ever that might mean, it’s likely a fabrication of some kind, but it won't be harmful to keep watch for whatever those might be.” Luna thought out loud.
At that moment they felt the presence of the being they once referred to as Insanity, but they now called Medulla.
“Just so you know, I do appreciate your sensitivity about my gender being unknown to you, you may refer to me a ‘he’. Although this body is genderless in every respect, I think of myself as a male for a few reasons.” Medulla chimed in.
Luna flared with rage, "DEMON! WHERE ART THOU!?"
“Now now, Lulu, use your inside voice, or as I like to call it your thoughts. Shouting at the sky like that is one sure fire way to make ponies think you’re crazy. As to where I am, you should have learned this by now, I can communicate with unicorns or alicorns that are almost on the other side of the world, because their thoughts are projected so loudly and efficiently through their horns. You should probably find a way to suppress that, I’m not the only creature that can do this kind of stuff, you know.” Medulla stated in a chiding voice.
“Why run? You’ve shown you can take us on before. Have you become a coward over your one thousand, one hundred year of prison.” Celestia said, her voice dripping with mockery.
“Well it’s quite simple really, I don...” His thoughts seemed to trail off.
The sisters stood in silence for a moment unsure of what was happening. Celestia and Luna share a silent look, and Luna cast a spell to try to trace him.
“... Sorry about that something... distracted me, what was I talking about?” Medulla’s voice seemed oddly flustered.
Somewhat confused Celestia reminded him, “You were explaining why you won’t just fight us head on.”
“Oh yeah, thanks Tia. As I was saying, I don’t want to fight you, because I want to make amends, so I have no reason to fight so long as you don’t try to confront me. Plus that time I beat you, I had caught you entirely off guard. So I wouldn’t call that a fair fight. Not only that but you two must have gotten stronger since my capture.” His voice seemed more focused now.
“Thou seem much calmer than when we confronted you a millennium ago.” Luna noted.
“Well it helps to not be in front of you two brandishing weapons at me, and commanding me to be silent when all I’m doing is trying to explain what’s going on. Oh and that tracing spell you’re cast won’t work. If you’ll notice, I’m using every magic horn in Canterlot as an interlocking array of relays. Face it, when you’re in Canterlot, I’m basically untraceable. I’ll give you a hint to where I’m going though, as a courtesy. There’s a mountain village where an anomaly has moved too. It originally appeared ninety years after my imprisonment. If you can find me before I investigate and possibly destroy said anomaly, I’ll explain everything and more, so long as you’re willing to listen. Auf widersehen!” And with that Medulla’s presence vanished.
The sisters just sat there quiet for some time.
“One thing’s obvious,” Celestia declared breaking the silence, “We’ve severely underestimated him.”
[Medulla’s POV]
Well, Using Gravity to make another wormhole is out of the question right now. I thought to myself as evening slowly approached.
I could use Telekinesis to lift myself up high enough, combined that with Gravity to pull myself forward, and move at about seventy to eighty percent. If that works out I should be there two hours past nightfall. That will give me plenty of time to investigate. This sounded like the least strenuous method of travel, unless I feel like trying my luck with Metronome… No thankyou!
I snapped my fingers twice, I started floating even higher than usual, and ‘falling’ due north. I used my innate levitation to move faster and bypass the normal terminal velocity.
Now, I began to let my mind wander, time to theorize who I’ll be going up against. The time frame of it’s original appearance would indicate a correlation between it coming here and all those minds far to the north disappearing. They didn’t die, or else I would have felt some about that… It could be that one… That would explain most of what’s going on. They’ve been bringing others here and breaking down this world’s barriers. But that still doesn’t explain ‘why?’