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// Twilight -- Dream quest Pt 3 
// Story: Projected Nightmares 
// by bearcat 
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	As the lavender alicorn raised her padded body from her padded chair they were filled with hate. Flaring her wings she rushed up to the group but Twilight thought she hadn't even seen her visitors yet. She said, and Twilight thought it was to her friends but wasn't sure as her eyes were pointed to the hallway, was "Excuse us a moment." Then she began augmenting her voice, shouting "Begone foul intruders! Thy hooves be cursed each step thou take! Begone!" 

The doorway, still open, began to fill with lightening so thick it completely obscured the zombies outside, who were catching fire and stumbling away. Presently the door swung shut and Twilight did a quick head count as she heard the latch click into place, locking them in with this unidentifiable member of the royal family.

"Hey Twilight she's got your cutie mark is this your dream self?" blurted Pinkie Pie. Twilight looked to confirm this alicorn, as tall as Celestia, had the same cutie mark she herself wore.

The unnamed alicorn looked at Twilight, and raised an eyebrow. "Truly? Art thou Twilight Sparkle? Lie not to us or it will go poorly with thee."

Feeling awkward beyond words Twilight could only bow, and stammer out "Yes, your highness." Behind her came Jack's voice, sounding suspiciously like it was coming from the floor, as if he was bowing too. He never bows to the princesses. Why me?

"It is an honor and a pleasure to meet you, Twilight's heart." His voice now coming from halfway up the room, he was obviously done with formalities. "Might we know by what name to call your highness?"

The alicorn sighed, and carefully set her wings to her side. "We are Princess Eos, by the grace of Celestia we are ruler of the kingdom of Twilight." Her head turned to Twilight as she finished. "Of Twilight Sparkle. Rise, young unicorn." Twilight stood up. Out of the side of her eyes she saw her friends had all been too worried about getting away from the zombies to show proper respect to an alicorn.

But now that things were slowing down, Rainbow, goggles still down, was expending great effort to suppress a giggling fit as she decided to raise them off her eyes.

Walking to the blue mare, the alicorn said "And to what pleasure, or horror, do we owe the honor of thy visit? Wherefore dost the holders of the elements spoken of old intrude upon my most inner sanctum?" Rainbow Dash was trying very, very hard to look serious.

Twilight, hooves still rooted in place turned her head to say "We've been pursued by the things that made those zombies. Princess Luna thinks we can defeat him permanently if find some tool inside our dreams."

Again the alicorn sighed, and turned back to her table. "We shall consider your request. We have screwdrivers and hammers, but we think these are not the tools thou searchest for." Scrolls began floating out of her bookcase and unfurling before Eos, before curling again and floating back.

Dash made her way next to Twilight, and put her goggles on Twilight's head. "Ya gotta see this, girlfriend." Dash whispered.

Still unbelieving Twilight humored her friend. Probably a prank. Y'know Dash now's not the best time. she thought to herself but looked anyway. There, floating book after book in front of her bespectacled eyes was an aged version of Twilight. No wings, small horn, and extra large saddle bags filled to overflowing with books, scrolls, ink and quills. Her lavender coat had faded to light gray around the coronet bands, and her muzzle was white.

Presently, she had turned her head and was peering over glasses to make eye contact with Twilight. "Dost thou find us amusing, then?" And the utter mismatch of regalia and frumpy elicited a short snort of laughter.

Twilight pulled the goggles off quickly and said to the alicorn "No, your highness." and tried to fumble with the goggles to give them back, but princess Eos grabbed them by levitation and, once she held them above her head, summoned a mirror.

Trying to look at herself through the goggles left a look of deep confusion on the princess' face, until she tipped the mirror down to what should have been her chest. Now, she turned her head from side to side, and a small smile could be seen at the corners of Eos' face. "Truly?" was all she said before dismissing her mirror and floating the goggles back to Rainbow Dash. "These devices of vision art thine, are they not?"

Dash plucked them from the air and set them over her ears. "Yes, ma'am."

Rarity's voice joined with Pinkie's in a surprise scream as the tip of a spear erupted from the door to the hallway. Princess Eos flared her wings and shouted with full augmented royal canterlot voice. "Dost intrude here? Thou shalt retreat by my command! None who are unfriendly to my kingdom shall dare such approach!" The spear retreated only to smack again against the door, although this time no second hole formed. Eos' ears twirled and twisted as she considered the news of this attack.

Turning to Twilight she said "What thou needest, young mare, is not to be an old filly. Thou art a warrior now, a wizard of Celestia's army. Confidence in thyself is lacking; thou art indeed, something special" her horn glowed, and a long, gently curving sword appeared in front of her. The handle was wrapped in strips of red silk, folded so as to present a checkerboard of dark and bright red colors. The scabbard was a deep red mahogany. Tied to the scabbard were enough straps of vulcanized cotton to hang the sword at a pony's side.

Princess Eos handed the blade to Twilight, who levitated the straps so it would hang at her left side. It was long enough that the tip of the scabbard was across her flank, and the tip of the handle was a little ways in front of her chest.

Another clang at the door, again the blade did not puncture again. Eos paid it no mind, so Twilight tried to keep her focus on the princess. Herself. Whatever.

Princess Eos explained "That tachi is called by the name xìnxīn. It reminds thee to believe what thou already knowest." Twilight tried to reproduce the pair of sounds she heard the princess say, silently to herself but was having a heard time. Seeing her distress, Eos grinned and said "Shin, sheen. As thou wert to polish up thy hock 'til doth shine. Shin-sheen."

"Shin-sheen" Twilight repeated. "Is that pretty close?" but by the princess' friendly grimace Twilight guessed she had mangled the name.

Eos shrugged, and said "It is close enough, young mare. Thou shouldst research the old forms, and the ways of the gryphon. Thou must have once, ere we could know the name of thy blade." Right. Twilight thought to herself. That's me up there. So I know everything she knows.

Turning to her friends, she found the maneuver a little awkward with the unfamiliar and unyielding steel strapped to her side. "Alright girls?" but Twilight looked up and saw Jack, slightly glassy eyed as he followed the alicorn back to her inside throne. "Jack?" An ear twitch, little more. "She's not real. You do know that, right?"

Finally the dusty equine shape turned to regard the wizard mare. "Even so, even so. You're quite the looker as an alicorn, you know." He winked at her before looking at the rest of the party. "We out? All copacetic?" and with a few nods from around the group, Jack said "On your lead then, oh shiny of shin." and he stepped aside to let Twilight Sparkle have clear access to the door.

As Twilight drew her tachi xìnxīn, blade of the heart, a spearhead erupted from the door. Thank you so much for this honor, Jack. And Eos. But her sarcasm remained unspoken. Instead she took several breaths to steel her nerves, before levitating the door wide.

The action was fast enough that the spear was yanked out of the hand of the moray eel-dog. Twilight burst into a full gallop and slashed at the double hands that reached for her, some part of her mind noticing the small wounds from the apple bombs were still oozing wetly. On the far side of the narrow hallway she called to Applejack "More bombs!" before engaging the grasping arms in melee. Too close! Long sword plus long arms mean neither has a good advantage but he's used to his body!

Twilight skittered to the side trying to give herself some slashing room as four explosions, one close after another, detonated on the eel-dog's shoulder blades. It caused him to miss a swipe at xìnxīn but otherwise had no visible effect. On the far side of Eel-dog came the moans of approaching zombies. I've trapped myself by skittering this way! was all Twilight could think.

Her friends poured out of the royal bedchambers and forgot about Eel-dog, instead focusing on clearing the approaching undead horde. As Twilight backed up she tried to think where this hallway went. Dead end. Literally this time. Phooey. Worse still was that every step she took gave her opponent the same measure of increase in strength of strike as she herself gained.

From down the hall, at the edge of the railing came Rarity's voice. "Teleport Twilight! No zombies right now." But her moments of struggle let her see the shift in weight of her opponent. He would turn and run at her, the moment her spell discharged. Two more explosions against his back, with no more effect than the first four.

Eel-dog's right inner hand went across her chest, and the outer hand grasped for her left leg. Rearing out of that reach she struck at the fishy face, but the other hand came straight up, this time grasping the blade firmly. There was a loud clatter as one of the equines in the hallway galloped full bore towards the fighting pair. Twilight's jaw ached as she held onto her sword but Eel-dog was steadily driving the handle towards the floor.

And then he let go, as his own spear poked out from the base of his neck. Peeking around Eel-dog's broad shoulders, Jack's head appeared to say "Now canst teleport?" Twilight spared a handful of milliseconds to glare disbelieving at their guide. "Canst" ? Sorry, big guy, can't help you. Then she gathered her magic and formed a teleport spell that would put her near the railing. no room to run so I'll have to use the static form Not that Twilight actually thought those words, but the image of the lower energy doorway as compared to the teleport-in-place spells appeared before her, and she chose the one that would be safest to use.

Having never wielded a sword before, Twilight was surprised she had done as well as she had, but now that she was trying to sheath it, she was running into real problems. Applejack leaned over to offer some assistance. "Blade down to the ground so it matches the scabbard, hon. Never mind the handle just point the tip, there. Like that just, yeah." the tang snapped into place, holding it firmly in the scabbard.

Jack was flying backwards, wings brushing firmly against the masonry with every stroke. He nearly ran over Pinkie and Dash doing it, and did trip himself knocking down poor Fluttershy who had just ducked instead of running aside. "Make like a tree and leaf, ponies!" the three winged party members took to the air. Twilight saw Fluttershy make eye contact with Jack once they were airborne and had to hope that was enough friendship patching for now.

Now they were galloping, the sound of steel impacting stone became routine sound behind their hooves. Eel-dog had pulled his spear free and was chasing whoever seemed slowest, his weapon's reach enough to threaten even the pegasi who had to avoid the low ceiling, or drop to a gallop while ducking through arched doorways. Rarity and Twilight ran in front, using push spells to knock aside the rotting trash that used to be dream ponies.

The front drawbridge was still open, and with no sign of another crowd of zombies the group poured on the speed, gaining nearly a meter gap between Eel-dog and themselves before crowding through the gate. Behind them, Jack dropped to the ground to face their attacker but was unable to bring up a shield spell before a third of a meter of sharpened steel buried itself in his chest.

Fluttershy's wings folded in utter fear, and Twilight gasped but waved her friends onto the train. Jack turned his head, blood already staining his lower lip. "Run. Get the engine going." he said with what strength he could muster, then turned to Eel-dog to cast something. Twilight could see the energy on his horn but didn't see an effect and didn't take time to interpret the flow of energy.

Applejack ran to the controls, and shouted "All aboard?" after hearing several mumbled assents, she slammed the two levers to send them back to the station in Luna's mind. Twilight was knocked to the ground as the engine jerked itself into motion.

"What about Jack?" Said Pinkie, who stuck her head out a window to see him still struggling with Eel-dog, and clearly losing.

Twilight, standing now, replied "He said he'd anchored us and we should concentrate on getting back to Luna's." Sort of. Hope that lie doesn't catch up with me too badly. He'd clearly intended for the group to leave him.

As Jack fell to the ground, Twilight noticed her dream wasn't in color anymore. And the sound, as Rainbow Dash asked what was going wrong, sounded distant. Twilight couldn't feel her hooves, or the steel grating she was standing on. She could feel a warm weight across her hips, however. And her neck was starting to hurt.

Opening her eyes, she realized what had happened. When Jack had died, their anchor to each other had failed. She was awake now, in the library, and a wall clock showed her it was two in the morning. Her friends were blinking their eyes, lifting their heads.

Except Jack, who was breathing was fast and shallow, his limbs twitching slightly. After a few minutes of this, Twilight went to wake Spike. She'd need to write a letter to the princesses that Jack needed saving.