//------------------------------// // Bloody Dream // Story: The Red Martyr // by Kris The Kris //------------------------------// Avenger sighed as he sat in Twilight’s mental castle, holding the flames the represented his last memory before appearing in Equestria. It had been two weeks since their first meeting and she still didn’t remember him. He was toying with the idea of changing her dreams so they were his memories. Finally, he just grabbed a random flame and put it on the pedestal where a representation of her dream was and watched it spread over the large book. Yeah, it was always books. He sighed, knowing it would probably not change before looking to the small pool that showed her dream as it changed to a scene of destruction, fire, and death. Twilight blinked as she found herself in a nightmarish scene. There was fire and destruction and death everywhere. She could see one of the bodies nearby, missing three of its limbs. She felt like she was going to be sick but stopped when she heard breathing from the body. It started to move, desperately clawing at the ground with blood covering it’s entire body and leaving a trail. Twilight rushed over to help it but her hooves went right through. Then she heard it talk, rasp out a few lines. “I want to live.” It coughed up blood. “I-I don’t want to die.” Twilight could feel tears going down her face as she desperately tried to help the being as it spoke for what she thought would be the last time. “I-I need to live.” It whispered before it’s head hit the ground and everything started to turn dark. “So that’s how I died.” Avenger put a hand unconsciously to his right arm. “But, how did I come back to life? And as Avenger as well? And why?” The human turned Heroic Spirit looked to the ground of the castle, his mind just being full of questions without answers. He snapped his head up when he noticed the screen brightening as the memory, surprisingly, continued. Twilight was frozen, having just seen the being die before her and being absolutely unable to help. She didn’t even notice the encroaching darkness, just staring at the being at the growing puddle of blood under it. Then she saw a different source of darkness floating among the rubble. It was in a pipedial form and seemed to have a glowing tie, mouth, and eyes made out of light. And it was staring right into her eyes, seemingly into her soul. Twilight could tell, it could kill her without even thinking about it. “Ara? Oh hello there! Hi Twilight!” It waved. And that snapped her right out of it, along with the watching Avenger. “What.” “Ah, right, this isn’t part of the memory, Twili-chan~ But it’s nice to see you~ Aaaaaanyway, I’mma get back to the memory cuz this sad sack is probably gonna die without my help.” It turned, kicking the near corpse on the ground in the ribs and enveloping it in shadow (Avenger unconsciously grabbing his ribs there), letting it sit for a moment before letting the shadow dissipate and reveal a fully healed, though still unconscious Avenger. “Hmm… is that what he was dressed as…? I swear if I got this wrong again I’m gonna get in so much trouble…” It shrugged and tossed Avenger’s limp body into a portal, one smelling faintly of chocolate ice cream and ozone, even through the memory. Twilight finally found the courage and willpower to ask one question. “W-What did you do to him?” “Just a little something-something, Twili~” Twilight stood up, her horn glowing. “What! Did! You! Do! To! Him!?” She snapped, though her thoughts were different. ”What am I doing?! I can’t fight this.. this thing! Why am I trying to stand up for somepony I don’t even know?” “Saa, Twili-chan, he’ll be fine… more or less. And, well, you can’t really touch me seeing as this is both a pre-recorded message and a live transmission, that being that I’m not really here.” The thing shrugged again walked over to Twilight and patted her on the head- or at least it tried, letting its hand phase through her without any resistance, Twilight shuddering at the feeling. “Anyway, good job standing up for Avenger here. You got a good heart, kiddo.” “Avenger?” Twilight wanted to ask so many more questions to this thing but she could feel herself starting to wake up. “Who are you?!” “Well my name is- oh shit you’re waking up now bye!” “Wha-?” Then the memory/dream cut out with Avenger as Twilight woke up. He could feel her moving around, obviously to go research everything she had dreamt up, but he had his own questions. What was that thing? Why did it save him specifically? Why was it there and more importantly, did it cause that explosion? If it could predict Twilight in his memory, then how did it not know about his suffering? Was that it’s intention all along? Was that it’s reason for saving him and turning him into Avenger? To make him suffer? Avenger just grabbed his head, already feeling a headache coming on. “Dammit, why can’t I just get straight answers for once?” He glanced to the empty pool for a moment before walking out of the Mindscape Castle, wanting to think through the questions somewhere else.