//------------------------------//
// No Need for Loneliness.
// Story: No need for Equestria
// by DemonWolf
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“Is everyone ready?” Nuada asked as they stood on the beach.
“I have a full charge on my blaster and a few tricks for these Collectors.” Bestla stated, patting her belt. She was in a tight fitting armored body suit with a belt full of supplies, she also told Nuada that she did have force field emitters in her shoulder pads that surrounded her with an invisible barrier that would stop most if not all attacks.
“I swung by the Cake’s and filled up on ambient lust energy, I’m gonna be good for a while.” Cinder said she wore a similar body suit that Bestla had made for her. It hugged her curves in such a way that Nuada had to fight back a blush as Bestla had helped her into it.
“Okay Ushio we’ll be back in a while.” Nuada said as he shifted in his Juraian battle armor, “I hope this is a short trip.”
“Me too, I wish I could go with you.” Ushio said sadly.
“I know, but for now watch the house. Twilight said her and her friends would come by tomorrow, and Celestia said she wanted to have some tea with you later today.” Nuada said with a nod, “Besides, we need you to watch the house for us.”
“I know, be careful.” Ushio said as a portal opened behind them accompanied by some bells ringing twinkle twinkle little star.
“We will be.” Nuada said as he walked through the portal.
“We’ll be back before you know it.” Bestla said following.
“Don’t worry we’re gonna kick some robot butt and bring back Sparkle.” Cinder said pulling Ushio into a hug before jumping through the portal and vanishing.
Ushio sat on the porch to the house, kicking her feet while chewing on an apple. It was the first time since she met Nuada that she was alone and she didn’t much like it. She began to shiver as she remembered her time in the cell on the Sonja.
‘Mistress Ushio, what is wrong?’ Kirito’s voice asked her through a mind link.
“Hey Kirito, I just haven’t been by myself since I got here, and with the others gone I started to remember where I was before.” Ushio told the tree spirit.
“I am sorry to hear that, is there something I can do to help?” He asked.
“Not really, Do you know when Celestia was gonna come by?” Ushio asked deciding that maybe doing some chores would help take her mind off things.
“According to Nuada, Celestia will arrive here around noon.” Kirito replied while displaying a clock indicating it was around 10:30am.
“Enough time to start some laundry.” Ushio thought, going to collect laundry. On the opposite end of the house from the kitchen a large building sat connected by the wood walkway. Inside were a couple baskets with various articles of clothes, mostly Bestla’s, Nuada’s, and her’s. She did note a daring pair of black pony panties and blushed, “I wonder if Nuada likes this kinda thing?”
“Master Nuada is more interested in personality than clothes.” Kirito thought to her, “However, he has shown signs of arousal when seeing Cinder’s plot.”
“Too much Kirito!” Ushio shouted while blushing profusely as she finished collecting the laundry and took it outside to the wash basin. Kirito had let in some lake water and warmed it up so it was hot but not painful. Ushio set herself to her task, and began scrubbing clothes against her washboard.
“Lady Ushio, Celestia is almost here, she should arrive in a five minutes.” Kirito told her, breaking her concentration.
“Thank you Kirito.” Ushio said sighing. She finished the pair of trousers she was cleaning and hung them up. Moving quickly, Ushio went to the kitchen and put a tea kettle on the stove that Kirito began heating.
“Celestia has arrived, I will let her into the courtyard.” Kirito said as Ushio pulled out the tea, before heading to the center courtyard.
“Ah Ushio a pleasure to see you again.” Celestia said as a guard stood near the arch for the portal.
“A pleasure to see you again Princess, I am sorry last time we did not have a chance to talk.” Ushio said remembering the last time she saw Celestia was in the puddle jumper as they were being rescued.
“It’s quite alright. I was hoping to see you sooner but, you know duties.” Celestia said smiling gently. “I must say this is quite a strange place, I did not know the sacred tree had this place inside it.”
“Kirito is pretty cool he maintains everything in here.” Ushio said spreading her arms indicating the entire subspace.
“Who is Kirito, I heard somepony mention the name before, is it the soul of the tree?” Celestia asked looking about.
“Yeah he is, Kirito say hello.” Ushio said looking to the sky.
“Lady Ushio, Celestia cannot hear my voice.” Kirito informed her causing Ushio to look confused.
“Is something wrong?” Celestia asked in concern.
“Kirito says you can’t hear his voice.” Ushio said, “but why?”
“Ushio only yourself and Nuada have ever heard my voice.” Kirito explained, “I don’t know why it’s that way, I was quite surprised when you actually could hear me.”
“Ushio, nopony in the last thousand years has been able to hear the spirit of the sacred tree. It only granted a few visions.” Celestia explained.
“Okay. Kirito, we can ask Nuada when he gets home, okay.” Ushio said with a smile. “I was just preparing the tea if you want to come in Princess.”
“That sounds lovely, do you have the Zebrican Red Tea?” Celestia asked as she motioned for the guard to stay where he was.
“I think Nuada has some.” Ushio said, leading Celestia into the dining area by the kitchen.
“Wonderful, I brought some cake with me that we could share.” Celestia said with a smile, watching as Ushio went about pulling the heated kettle off the stove and looked through the tea collection again. She prefered the mint Nuada had, but a princess guest should get her choice, she thought.
“That sounds nice, so Princess why did you want to have tea with me today?” Ushio asked, still confused that someone so important wanted to see her.
“To be honest; I was hoping to have tea with everyone, but I got Nuada’s message about having to help his friend.” Celestia said with a smile as she took a seat. “However, I did also want a chance to talk with you.”
“What would you like to talk about?” Ushio asked as she was bringing in the tea set. The smell of the tea soothed Celestia and helped her relax.
“I would like to know how you are adjusting, how Nuada has been treating you, and I’d like to talk to you about Katago.” Celestia explained with a grimace as she mentioned the tiger.
“I like it here, Twilight and Spike are very nice and help me out a lot. Once Rarity found out that Nuada and I wear cloths all the time she started working on designs, though Nuada seems to be avoiding her for some reason. Though after your invite to the Gala he finally went to see her, that day we meet Cinder.” Ushio said.
“It does sound like you’ve been getting along well with everypony. So how is Nuada?” Celestia asked before sipping her tea, giving a hum of appreciation.
“I’m kinda curious why one of the first things you and Sparkle asked are how is Nuada treating me. He’s been a perfect gentleman to me since I got here.” Ushio said as she pouted a little, at the repeated line of questioning.
“Sorry, but ever since Nuada got free of Nightmare Moon’s trap he has seemed a little off.” Celestia explained, summoning a cake to the table. It was a nice little strawberry topped, white frosted cake, from which she cut a slice for both of them.
“So I’ve gathered.” Ushio said before taking the cake offered. “Nuada explained to me about what he did before he was sealed, and everything after he got free up to rescuing me. He knows that he’s not acting like he used to but can’t seem to get ahold of his feelings. Some nights I’ve found him up at the training ground near here training with his bokken. When I asked what was up, he just said it was a bad dream and he wanted to work it off.”
“Strange, Luna hasn’t noticed this.” Celestia said surprised slightly, “Though she did mention she’s having a hard time tracking him.”
“That’s right; Twilight said your sister can enter dreams. Does she visit everyone?” Ushio asked.
“She tries to, but mostly she focuses on those who are suffering from nightmares. She has stopped in on all of your dreams, she was happy to see Nuada surrounded by so many ponies that care about him.” Celestia grinned and winked at Ushio.
Ushio blushed, remembering a very intense dream she had of Nuada one night, hoping that wasn’t the one the Princess had seen.
“Don’t get embarrassed Ushio, Luna doesn’t even tell me what she sees in ponies dreams. That and after Cinder, I’m sure your dreams are more tame.” Celestia said which caused the poor bunny girl to blush even harder.
“Um Princess, can we change topics please.” Ushio asked her face as red as the tea leaves.
“Of course, though I’d rather not ask, can you tell me about Katago?” Celestia asked her face adopting a mask of neutrality as she set her tea down.
“There isn’t much I know about him.” Ushio sighed as she also set her tea down. “He showed up one day on my world years ago. I didn’t pay him any mind, until one day I woke up in the cell Nuada found me in. Other children from my planet were taken and some children from across the galaxy were there too. We didn’t know what was going on and a lot of us spent a lot of time crying. We eventually found he was studying magic because he would talk to himself while he ran tests.”
“What happened to the other children?” Celestia asked already guessing the answer.
“Apparently forcing magic into someone isn’t the safest thing.” Ushio said shivering, “He said I was a freak because it didn’t kill me.”
“Oh I’m so sorry to hear about your friends.” Celestia said levitating Ushio over to her for a full hug, “and you’re not a freak. Different definitely, but not a freak.”
“Oh Princess. Why did he do it, why kill my friends?” Ushio asked crying into Celestia’s barrel.
“I can’t say for sure, I know that sometimes ponies do horrible things. But in a thousand years, I have never figured out why they do it.” Celestia softly said while hugging her tightly. They sat for a while just like that until the tears Ushio had held back until now stopped.
“Better now?” Celestia asked while nuzzling her neck.
“Yeah, thank you.” Ushio whispered, “Um, Celestia I have a question.”
“What is it?” Celestia questioned as she relaxed from the hug.
“I was wondering, if I might, well Twilight’s too small, but I mean you’re a Princess.” Ushio fumbled for words.
“Ushio, anything you need I would be willing to help with. In fact since we’re friends I’d like you to call me Celestia.” Celestia told her.
“Well then Celestia, as a friend, could I have a ride on your back?” Ushio asked shyly.
“Why certainly. Climb aboard! We shall gallop with all haste to the front lines!” Celestia cheesed with a broad smile as she lowered down, and Ushio squealed with excitement as she jumped onto the alicorn’s back. “Legs in front of the wings, arms wrapped tight towards the base of my neck where it’s harder to choke me.”
“You seem really knowledgeable about this.” Ushio commented as she got comfortable and Celestia slowly rose and moved about to help Ushio adjust.
“I’m old enough to remember the days when ponies weren’t so peaceful. Nuada introduced the idea to me during the war against Tartarus, I was just old enough to carry him at that point. We actually still have the training on our books, if we ever need to ally with the diamond dogs or minotaurs.” Celestia explained trotting out to the courtyard where she saw her guard give her a funny look. A smile placated him well enough and Celestia started trotting out to the forest.
“Sister how was Nuada’s?” Luna asked lounging on Celestia’s bed.
“Interesting, the sacred tree apparently houses a spirit, with power greater than either of us.” Celestia said tossing her crown and boots in a padded chest.
“What makes you say that? I read that it granted visions to special ponies, but that’s hardly amazing.” Luna asked.
“You know how Nuada said he lives inside the tree?” Celestia asked and got a nod back. “Well while I was in there I took a bit of a tour with Ushio. The tree is making a subspace, like what Starswirl theorized. Only instead of just making a bag twice as big on the inside like what we can do, the tree has made an entire habitat.”
“Habitat?”
“Nuada has a house, in a yard, next to a stream, with an orchard, and multiple plots of farmland, all inside a massive forest with mountains.” Celestia explained, “I flew for a few hours with Ushio just going out and about. I found no edge or wall. Nothing, not even a roof.”
“That sounds like an entire world. Are you saying the tree has made and is managing an entire planet?” Luna asked in surprise.
“I don’t think it’s as big as Harmony, but Ushio was saying they do get seasons in there too, the forest and farms are in a summer cycle. The house is kept at a constant late spring state.” Celesta said laying on her bed by her sister. “Oh and apparently Ushio can hear and speak with the spirit of the tree.”
“My word, that tree sounds impressive. How is Ushio by the way, I only saw her once when Nuada brought you back, and I glimpsed a dream.” Luna asked.
“Ushio is doing well, you should see her when you next have a free night. Something odd I noticed about her is her magic.” Celestia said.
“Magic? I thought Katago said magic didn’t exist outside of Harmony.” Luna asked confused.
“It’s very rare he said, and Twilight has told me that Bestla has said about as much as well. Apparently they both spent an afternoon analyzing one another. Anyway, Ushio was experimented on by Katago and magic user blood injected into her body. Ushio has shared that it was a failure as she never showed signs of having magic.” Celestia explained.
“You think she has magic?” Luna asked.
“I could feel it, she’s giving off magic like Twilight did the day I took her as a student.” Celestia said, “I don’t think she knows she has it though.”
“Did you tell her?” Luna asked.
“No I hadn’t, I wanted to speak with Nuada about it first, he may have some insight to help us understand the problem.” Celestia explained, “that and I’m not sure how she would react to knowing Katago’s experiment succeeded.”
“We should tell her soon, you know how bad untrained magic is.” Luna said nuzzling her sister.
“I will once I speak with Nuada, I was told to expect him in about a week.” Celestia said with a yawn, “anyway I’m going to sleep, I’ll see you in the morning.”
“Until the morning sister.” Luna said leaving her sister to sleep.
Ushio felt cold and in the dark. Attempting to roll over she realized she was vertical and strapped into something. Eyes open in panic she realized she was back in Katago’s test chamber. Tubes and needles were injected into various parts of her body, as she struggled to breath in the amniotic fluid she was stuck in. She began to thrash about as best she could trying to get free.
Was all of that an illusion? She asked herself as she thought of Nuada and home. The began crying as she saw Katago enter the room talking to himself. Computers sprung to life and she felt her restraints tighten.
“Time to begin testing if switching the blood of a mana user into subject will grant ability to use mana.” Katago said his features glowing with red lines of energy is teeth larger and sharper.
Ushio renewed her thrashing as a shadow with silver eyes watched from a distance. Luna watched in horror as she relived the memory nightmare with Ushio, had Nuada not slain Katago Luna might well have done so herself. Luna kept watching, from what Celestia had told her and what her last visit had shown, Ushio hadn’t been alone for a single night since she was rescued.
“I will help you through this.” Luna promised quietly to Ushio before something caught her eyes. A small single little sapling poking out of the floor right in front of her. It looked like it had just grown through the metal plating. Looking around she saw more growing, and every second of the dream world had another one growing in. Luna looked over at Ushio and saw her eyes surrounded by a green aura. Luna watched as Katago ignored the scene around him and was operating a console that was pumping the blood through Ushio.
All at once the saplings turned into vines and tore through everything, glass shattered, Katago vanished under a sea of green, and Ushio was plucked from the test chamber. Luna sneakily followed the vines up as they punched through the roof of the room. A gentle cage protected Ushio as they ascended through layers of steel. Luna soon actually lost sight of Ushio as the vines ascended too quickly for her.
Luna broke through the dark and saw sky. Luna did a quick loop around diving behind a tree as she took in her new surrounding. Ushio’s nightmare had turned itself into a pleasant dream it seemed. A thick lush forest surrounded a clearing where Luna caught sight of Ushio.
Ushio was in a vine hammock petting a puppy that sat on her chest as a few other animals surrounded her. Flowers of all kinds carpeted the clearing and a old looking tree was leaned over providing shade. More curious now than anything Luna decided to walk up and speak to the dreamer.
“Young Ushio how fairs you this night?” Luna asked her form coalesced to her natural figure.
“Oh Princess Luna.” Ushio squawked in surprise, the animals shifted around her forming a barrier between Ushio and Luna. “Stop that you guys, Princess Luna is a nice pony.”
“They seem very protective of you.” Luna said watching the animals mostly relax but kept eyes on her.
“My friends here always protect me when I’m in trouble.” Ushio said as the vines shook and the tree branches moved. “Yes you guys too.”
“You speak to the plants?” Luna asked she remembered anything could happen in dreams but this was strange one for her most ponies didn’t dream of talking to plants.
“Oh yes they have quite the stories the older ones, and the young ones are so full of energy. But enough about my friends and I what brings you here Princess?” Ushio asked before her face fell. “I’m just dreaming aren’t i?”
“Ushio no pony is ever just dreaming.” Luna said striding forward to take a seat next to the hammock. “Dreams are very important, they help us heal wounds and show us our inner most desires. Some dreams can even tell us the future.”
“My dreams must be very mundane compared to those.” Ushio said snuggling the dream puppy.
“Much to the contrary, this dream is one of the most unique I’ve seen in a long time.” Luna said pointing around with a hoof. “The detail of the environment is amazing, few dreamers are this detailed. In addition usually when nightmares are involved, they are dreams that go arigh. In your case you managed to make a nightmare into a good dream.”
“Oh that wasn’t me that was the vines, I was trapped powerless in the test chamber. The vines are what saved me.” Ushio said emphasising.
“Yes of course.”