Getting off the train reminded me of a question I had to ask nopony in particular.
“Why does the train have an engine if it’s pulled by Earthlings?”
“Because Lauren Faust wrote it that way,” Pinkie answered leaving me too confused to respond.
We went on our way to Twilight’s castle, Applejack and Ironsparks trying not to embarrass each other during a conversation, Soarin trying to tell Rainbow Dash something to no avail, Fluttershy talking to the animals that popped up on the way to castle, Rarity admiring some gems she found in Appaloosa, and Pinkie… Being Pinkie, I don’t know how she managed to do any of what she did at that time.
I took one step past the flower shop that just so happened to be my burned down home from when I was ten (Which reminded me that I had to talk to my sister Starlight about that incident) then the world around me got… darker, and everypony around me became a hazy image, though I could still make out who was who. I got a look around and noticed that things just started flying everywhere and remained in the air, just sitting there like it was suspended by some unseen force.
“What the Hay is this!?” I yelled. Everypony looked at me and seemed to see something wrong.
“Flash?” Base asked. “Why do you look… fuzzy?”
“I don’t know about me, but everypony around me looks like a hazy image, and things are suspended in the middle of the air,” I did the one thing I probably should stop doing as often as I do. “Tenebrae, you know what this is?” Tenebrae fazed into reality (?) next to me, took a look around and gave me one of a thousand plus answers I probably should’ve expected.
“Welcome to the Breaklands,” he turned to the others and told them that we’d meet them at the castle.
“What are the Breaklands?” I asked.
“To a visitor, the Breaklands are a compiltion of everybody else’s perception of reality. That fact that you found yourself here without the use of a portal means you must’ve been dragged here by a Breaklander other than me.”
“How do I get out of the Breaklands?” that was my main concern right now, there was a lot I had to do, and I couldn’t do that in a world made up of everyone’s perception of reality but my own.
“There are two possibilities, one; find an operable portal, but one hasn’t been set in this town.”
“And two?” he looked at a shadow passing in front of an ally way.
“Beat the Breaklander who dragged you here. I think I know where they are.” I followed him to Sweet Apple Acres. What I saw defied everything I accepted as real. My mother, a blue unicorn with white mane called Angel Watcher was hovering just above the trunk of an uprooted dead tree hanging suspended by this strange otherworldly logic.
“The Nether Mare,” Tenebrae said. “You’re not in danger… for now.”
“Hello, Flash,” the Nether Mare said. “Angel Watcher has a message for you, and a gift. She says; I’m sorry Flash, I have failed you as a mother, and I never got a chance to be a mother to Base. A few months after you were born, I was diagnosed with leukemia. I was already weak after Starlight, so I couldn’t be with you while you grew up, couldn’t comfort you while you were hurting, couldn’t praise you when you did well.” As she spoke, my mother’s face faded off her head, making her look like a ponyquinn. “When Base was born I couldn’t so much as get out of bed, and had to be spoon fed by doctors because I was too weak to use magic. The only reason I didn’t die of leukemia was because of the fire and Kayen. I just wanted to say this, at least once, before I crossed over, and you became your own colt. I love you, Flash Sentry. Tell First Base I love him too.” The Nether Mare lost her face completely and then disappeared into little flecks of light.
“I feel like I intruded into something personal,” I was very loosely aware of Tenebrae saying sympathetically. “I’m… sorry.”
“It’s alright…” I choked out. Bad time to cry. I heard a cracking sound as… something crawled out of the ground in front of me. The first feature about them that hit me was the smell. Now I can compare that scent to a combination of oil and burning gasoline, but at the time it was completely foreign to me. I then saw the bodies, they were thin all over, gelatinous at the joints, and spikey everywhere else. The three monsters had a human structure to them, with a huge left hand that had long claws that doubled as spiked knuckles.
“Ryfians,” Tenebrae said. “Not the most threatening Breaklanders, but they shouldn’t be taken lightly either. Time to Engage.” I nodded, though I was still a bit Hesitant about fighting after hearing a message from my six years dead mother.
“Tenebrae! Engage!” one shadowy transformation later, I was back in my Guardian form, blue shoulderless shirt, baggy pants, sword on my waist… yeah, I’m one of those guys, sue me, I plead guilty. I drew my sword, Sinhunter as Tenebrae called it, and waited for one of the Ryfians to charge at me. Two came at once; I grabbed one by the throat and stabbed one through the chest before swinging it like a bat into the third into one of the floating trees. Then I threw the one in my hand on the ground and drove Sinhunter through… where its face should be. They all disintegrated right then, and only then did I notice a small scratch on my forearm. I didn't think anything of it as I sheathed Sinhunter.