Beyond the Skies

by FrostTheWolf

Scroll 34- Mind Games Part 2

Author's Note:

Part 2 of 3

Beyond the Skies- Mind Games Part 2

---

Elsewhere

“Thanks for coming to help me with all of this, Calvin,” Spike said as he crossed off another item on a list he was holding in his claw, before looking to the Skyshifter as he was holding onto a rather large grocery bag, “That should be everything we need.”

“Remind me again why exactly do we need all of this?” Calvin now asked, “I know I agreed to help out, but I didn’t expect for us to come out of the toy store with some bags that are this heavy. Is somepony’s birthday coming up or something?”

“No, that’s not it,” the dragon shook his head as his friend took a moment to set the bags down on the ground, so he could rest his arms, “You know how Twilight tends to take on a bit too many things at once sometimes?”

“I think you and I both know that’s an understatement.”

“Well, on top of everything else on her schedule, Twilight also agreed to help Cadance by looking after Flurry Heart for her, while Shining Armor and her are attending an exhibition or something. I didn’t get the full details,” Spike folded her arms, “So, I thought that by getting some of these done ahead of time, it would put less stress on her.”

Personally, Calvin had heard of Flurry before. Yet, outside of her name and that she was Twilight’s niece, he honestly did not know why exactly she would stress people out. Though, his focus was less on that and more on what exactly he was carrying, “Okay, but why toys? Surely, one pony does not need this many, right?”

“Technically, those ones aren’t for her,” the dragon pointed out, “One of the things that Twilight had planned was a visit to the Ponyville Hospital. If I remember correctly, Cheerilee’s class came down with a bad case of Horsey Hives, so Twilight wanted to bring them toys, treats and also read them a story to cheer them up. She planned to try to make a full day of it, but with Flurry added to the mix, that probably isn’t a good thing.”

When he heard Spike talk about this, he couldn’t help but think of all the times he and his mom would donate old toys he didn’t want anymore to charity. Even though he probably wasn’t going to have fun playing with them, another kid might, and that was a good thing. “I see what you mean,” Calvin said as he bent over to pick up the shopping bag, “So, do we have any other places to visit?”

“How about we head back to the castle first and drop this off before we make any additional stops?” Spike suggested, “Rather not have your arms grow tired, if you were carrying that around all day.”

“Fair point. Though, since I did agree to help, I should at least know some more about what else needs to be done. You did say that you wanted to get on top of things.”

The dragon was going to counter what Calvin said, but after thinking about it a bit, he decided just to go along with it, as the two of them got closer to the doors of Twilight’s castle. “The only other things I can think of would be kind of smaller compared to-”

As they opened the door, both of them were greeted by an odd sight. Twilight and Raquel were standing by the Cutie Map, but there were two strangers that Calvin didn’t recognize. To make things weirder, both of them looked human and had regular clothes like his. The first one had long brown hair and a red scarf around her neck, while looking only a couple years older than him. As for the other, she appeared to be around his size and had pink hair.

“Oh, there you are!” the familiar voice of Twilight soon followed, “Where were you, Calvin?”

“Just helping Spike make things less of a headache for you,” the Skyshifter replied, before his eyes shifted over to the unfamiliar figures in the room, “Uh, did we interrupt something? I can just-”

The Alicorn shook her head, “No, not at all. In fact-”

At the mention of his name, the pink haired one now looked a little bit intrigued as she gave off a confident smirk. “So, you’re Calvin, huh? Gotta say, you look a bit different than I thought you would look like, if I’m going to be honest.”

Despite trying his best not to assume anything, Calvin did not really feel pleased with how this new person was approaching him. So, instead of looking towards her, he just looked towards the dragon for a brief moment, before shifting his gaze to where he looked directly at the Princess. “Uh, Twilight, what’s going on? Did something happen while I was outside the castle?”

“Well, yes and no,” Raquel now replied, “Even though something did happen, it wasn’t exactly anything bad, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

“Okay, but who are these two?”

That’s when the taller of the two ladies readjusted herself, and turned towards him, “Let’s just say that we know about you, but it has been very difficult to try and find you,” she said, “My name is Ember Valkyr, and the one that’s probably making you feel uncomfortable is my mother, Maeve.”

Immediately, any things that Calvin might’ve had began to slow down to a halt. While he hadn’t met these two before, the name and voice of this ‘Ember’ sounded oddly familiar to him, like he had heard it somewhere once before.

Then, a realization clicked in his head, “H-hold on just a moment-!”

Without any warning, Calvin ran up the stairs and bolted towards his room, as he began to look through everything inside. The Skyshifter knew for a fact that he had something in his room that was related to what was happening now. The only thing was, he needed to find it. He first checked the drawers of his nightstand, only to find dust and paperclips. His desk had nothing but notes and papers from his lessons at the academy. Even searching his closet was unsuccessful, for he could only find some of his pajamas, clothes and the costume he wore on Nightmare Night.

However, when Calvin checked under his bed, that was when he found exactly what he was looking for, a glowing red feather that was warm to the touch, the same one that ended up being given to him while he was celebrating Nightmare Night with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their friends.

Once it was firmly in his grasp, he raced back out the door, before looking to Ember and holding out the feather. “T-this is yours, right?”

That surprised some of the people in the room, but none more so than Ember herself, “Huh, so it did find its way to you.”

As this was happening, Twilight looked a bit more confused as Spike went to put the bag of toys away, “Calvin, how-?”

“Remember when I was celebrating Nightmare Night with the girls last year?” The question was followed by a nod from the alicorn, shortly before he continued, “Well, when we were going around Ponyville, the pony that owned Quills and Sofas ran out of candy when I was there. So, instead, he gave me this. I just thought it was a fancy looking quill, but when I got back to my room and pulled it out-”

“You heard my voice from it?” Ember asked.

“Y-yeah, but there are s-some things that don’t make sense,” he stammered a little, trying to focus his attention. But before he could say anything else, the stranger gave him a comforting smile and pulled out one of the chairs from around the Cutie Map.

“How about you take a seat and get yourself comfortable,” she suggested, “We can help answer some of the questions you have, but it may take some time.”

At first, Calvin was hesitant. He had only just met these people, and they were promising to answer questions he did not fully understand. Yet, this might be the only chance he had to get those answers. So, the Skyshifter nodded his head, before carefully sitting himself down on the chair as he looked across the map to where Twilight and Raquel were.

Then, as he looked back towards Ember and Maeve, he asked the first question that came to mind, “How do you know who I am?”

It wasn’t quite a question that either of the two expected, but Maeve still took it upon herself to answer. It even looked like she was trying to come off as normal as she looked to Calvin. “It’s a long story, but,” she paused, her eyes drifting like she was coming up with the right way to phrase it, before looking back at him, “I know about you because your mother told me about you.”

Immediately, any feelings he had of trying to be careful dropped at the mention of that, “Y-you know m-mom? I-is she okay?! P-please tell me she’s-!”

“Slow down there, kitten,” Maeve cautioned, “I haven’t seen her in some time, but the last time I did, she told me all about you. About the young boy she raised that was filled with excitement and joy, how one day you vanished, and how she was worried about you. I even promised that one day, we would find you together. I just… didn’t think this was how we would finally meet.”

Calvin felt a small bit of relief when he heard that. Yet, it was soon replaced with more questions that he wanted to ask. Though, before he had the chance to do so, that was when Ember spoke up, “As for your first question, tell me. What’s your full name?”

“C-Calvin Valkyr?”

“And who’s your father?”

Calvin paused as he tried to collect his thoughts. He remembered seeing his dad so many times, but rarely did he remember hearing his actual name. “I-I don’t remember his name, but it s-started with ‘Ors’. Like, t-those things on boats?”

Ember chuckled a little as she gave a warm smile, “Clever. Though, I think you mean Orson.”

“Yeah, t-that!” he nodded, before a new question surfaced, “W-wait, how do you know about dad?”

It looked like Ember was trying her best to stay composed as she looked back at him. What she said next was something that Calvin was never prepared for. “Because my father is also Orson Valkyr. Maeve and I know about you and your mom because we’re all part of the same family. Your displacement and mine might’ve separated us from those we care for, but it also brought our families together. As for you, well,” she took a moment to rise up from her seat and move a little closer to him, before finishing her sentence, “You’re my little brother.”

Those words were enough to stop any thought he had in his head. For the longest of times, he didn’t think that he had any siblings at all and didn’t know much about his family. Yet, all of that changed with everything that Ember had just shared right now. It was a lot to think about, and with his mind still trying to process most of it, only one thing was said, “I-I’m… what?”

“She’s right about that, kitten,” Maeve tried to help. Yet, all that did was make Calvin even more confused.

“B-but, if that’s true, t-then why didn’t he say anything? W-why didn’t he tell me?”

Raquel and Twilight watched as Ember bit her bottom lip, before moving up from her seat to get closer to Calvin, “I’m afraid I don’t have an answer for that one. Only dad would know, and we’ve been trying to find him, as well as you and your mom, for years without any success,” she then gently placed a hand on the Skyshifter’s shoulder, “Because of your friend though, we were able to find you, and mom and I are not going to stop looking until our whole family is back together again-”

Calvin didn’t say anything at first, but instead surprised Ember and the others when he wrapped his arms around the caretaker and pulled her in for a hug. She could feel her clothes start to get a bit wet as she noticed tears in his eyes. Not of sadness, but perhaps joy? It was hard to tell at first.

Then, Ember heard him mention something in a very low tone, “I-I… don’t know w-what it’s like t-to have a sister. A-am I… doing this right?”

She couldn’t help but smile, before pulling him in for a hug as well. “There’s a first time for everything, I suppose,” Ember replied, before she looked over to the others, “Could you-?”

“Give you a moment?” Twilight’s question was followed by a nod of confirmation from the caretaker as the alicorn looked back at the other guests. With a tilt of her head, she led Raquel and Maeve down the hall to another room, giving both Calvin and Ember enough space and privacy to talk among themselves.

“Well, all things considered, I think that went rather well.”

Maeve’s comment made Raquel smile a little. Though, another thought occurred inside her head. While it was good to see that Ember and Calvin were able to reunite, it also meant that she was going to have to wait a bit before Ember could help her. Personally, Raquel would’ve wanted to get this done sooner rather than later, but what kind of a friend would she be if she just barged in to interrupt them?

Yes, What kind of a friend are you?

Raquel flinched, but did her best to ignore the voice as she looked back to Twilight and Maeve. “So, what should we do while we wait?”

“Well, normally, I wouldn’t suggest anything,” the rougeish figure replied, “But since my daughter is planning to help you after their chit chat, then maybe we can take care of some… uh, what’s the phrase? P-prep…”

“Prep work?”

“Yeah, that,” Maeve quickly accepted Twilight’s answer as she pulled out a little notebook from her pocket, along with a pencil of sorts, “I’m sure you told Ember quite a bit about what’s going on with you. Though, has there been anything that you haven’t told her yet? Like, something you wanted to mention, but didn’t get around to it?”

At first, Raquel was a little bit hesitant. But the more that she thought about it, the more that a decision came to mind. The only way that Ember could help her with her powers and the voice in her head was if she told them about the voice. Otherwise, she would just be avoiding the main issue. “There’s one thing I can think of. I kind of told Twilight about it earlier, but haven’t had the chance to share it with Ember yet.”

That had Twilight lift up her head rather quickly, for the Alicorn was quick to recognize what she was talking about, “You mean the voice that you hear when you try channeling magic?”

Maeve just raised an eyebrow at that. But instead of saying anything, she just let Raquel speak, “Y-yeah. This is more something that’s been happening… recently. When I channel magic, I hear this voice that’s similar to my own, but more… twisted, like it’s trying to force me to remember all the bad things I used to do when I was younger, things I felt guilty for even doing and have tried to move on from since. It even tries to bother me in my sleep, and I’ve had nightmares the last couple of nights.”

That had the rogue pause for a minute in what she was writing, before she looked back at Raquel, “You know, that sort of sounds awfully familiar.”

“It does?” Twilight asked, “How?”

“Well, there was a story that I heard about from Luna a long time back, about how she created some creature to haunt her in her dreams one time,” she scratched the back of her head, “Honestly, can’t remember the name of it.”

Immediately, Twilight felt that she needed to stop Maeve before she could go any further, “Hold on a minute. Are you saying that Raquel somehow created a personal Tantabus?”

“A what-?”

“Tantabus! That’s the name!” Maeve snapped her finger, finally remembering what it was called. “If I have to be entirely honest, that’s the only one I can think of, because of the similarities. However, it’s not completely the same.”

At that, Raquel just put her hands up as she looked at both of them with a distressed look on her face. “Okay, you’re going to need to be a little more specific. I mean, what even is this Tantabus thing?”

“Some time back, Luna told my friends and I that she created a creature to haunt her dreams called a Tantabus,” Twilight now explained, “She did this because she felt that she needed to punish herself for her actions when she was Nightmare Moon thousands of years ago, and its power came from her guilt. When we encountered it, it came really close to trying to break out into the real world. However, when we helped Luna let go of her past, the Tantabus was weakened, and it became part of Luna again.”

That just left her a bit baffled, for there was a lot of information that Raquel was missing. Yet, she tried her best to make sense of it as she slowly looked back at Maeve, “I’m sorry, but I doubt that is what this is. I mean, I don’t even know anything about Luna outside of her being Celestia’s sister.”

“Well, if you have any other possible ideas, I’m open to hearing them.”

When Maeve asked that, something that Raquel remembered from earlier in the day began to resurface, specifically the conversation involving magical artifacts that she had with Twilight just this morning. It might not have lasted too long, but something that the Princess said during that conversation began to come back to her.

---

The nature of magical artifacts takes on the form of whoever is wielding it and is a reflection of themselves.

---

“A reflection.”

When Raquel said that, she noticed Twilight’s ears twitch as she looked back at her, “What was that, Raquel?”

“Remember what you told me this morning about magical artifacts,” she asked, looking down at the band on her wrist, “If that’s true, then what would happen if something went wrong with it? Like it reflects something that’s a part of me, but isn’t actually who I am?”

That was a valid question, and one that Twilight didn’t quite have an answer for. Though, it didn’t quite seem like Maeve had one either. “Then, I’m afraid that what we might be dealing with is something Aberrant,” the rogue sighed, before a question came to mind as she looked back at Raquel, “Remind me, what are your powers again?”

“Well, Ember said that what I could do was along the lines of what she called Psionic Sorcery. Like, mind powers and what not,” she added, before she glanced over at Twilight and gave her a small shrug before looking back to Maeve, “Does that help?”

At first, the pink haired rogue didn’t answer. Instead, she just folded her arms and looked to be pondering what Raquel just told her as she closed her eyes. This continued on for a few minutes, and to those who were watching her, they couldn’t tell if she was just lost in thought or if she just dozed off. Yet, after some time, Maeve finally said something.

“It does. Though, given that we’re dealing with something that’s mind related, it’s a bit up in the air. Best case scenario, we can find a way to deal with this ‘voice’ in a peaceful manner. Worst case, well…”

“Well, what?” Raquel asked impatiently.

Maeve just folded her arms before asking both of them a different question, “Do either of you know what a Mindscape is?”

While Raquel shook her head, Twilight had a different response, “I-I think I saw it once in a paper or something, when I used to live in Canterlot, but it mostly seemed theoretical.”

“Okay, guess it's time for a quick lesson then, since I’ve had to deal with this kind of problem myself once upon a time,” the rogue replied, stretching out her hands and cracking a couple of her knuckles in doing so, “A mindscape is essentially ‘the world of the mind’, with certain ones being different based on that particular person and so on.”

“Wait, hold up,” the girl interrupted, “Are you saying that the worst case scenario is that we need to go inside my brain?”

“Well, based on what you told me, this ‘voice’, Aberrant or whatever we’re calling it, decided to take up residence in your head and is essentially being the equivalent of an overbearing houseguest,” Maeve explained to the two of them, before twirling one of her knives around her finger. Then, by surprise, she grabbed its hilt and tried to replicate a stabbing motion, “The only way you can really deal with the issue is if you confront them directly. Or as you phrase it yourself, go inside your brain.”

Both Raquel and Twilight looked back at one another for a brief moment, as they tried their best to understand everything that they just learned. Even though the two of them had a general sense of what they had to do, both of them still had a few questions as to how they were going to do this. Jumping into someone’s mind was not something that was common knowledge. That, and Maeve wasn’t exactly clear on what exactly would happen once they were inside.

Before the conversation could continue any further though, that was when they heard a familiar voice as they turned around to see Ember rejoin them. “Sorry to keep you all waiting.”

“No, no. Everything’s fine,” Twilight insisted, before noticing that one particular person was not next to her, “Where’s Calvin though?”

“He wanted to take some time to help out Spike, so we decided that we’ll revisit our conversation later,” the caretaker answered, before looking to Raquel, “I did mention to him about how I was going to help you, and he was eager to volunteer, if you would allow it, of course.”

Immediately, Raquel wanted to object to the thought of that. Unfortunately for her, Maeve beat her to it. “Good! Let me bring you up to speed, and we can get the preparations ready.”

Just from that alone, Raquel couldn’t help but feel as if this was the beginning of a giant rabbit hole they were going to find themselves in.

---

“So, let me see if I understand this correctly. Your current theory is that there is an ‘Aberration’ in Raquel’s mind that’s preventing her from channeling her magic properly… and your best solution is to go into her mind to fix it?”

“It’s either that or just simply ignore it and hope that things would just get better on their own,” Maeve told Ember as they stood by the Cutie Map. Raquel and Twilight were also with her while the rogue was informing Ember on everything they’ve discussed already. However, the caretaker of the Candlelight Archive had some reservations to what Maeve was suggesting, “And you and I both know from experience that problems are never resolved by just pretending it doesn’t exist.”

As Raquel watched, everything that she was saying sort of made sense. However, Ember did not seem entirely enthusiastic with what the rogue was telling her. “Is something wrong, Ms. Ember? Are you… against this?”

At this, the caretaker looked over to both her and the Alicorn as she tried to be reassuring, “No, I’m not. However, I fear that Maeve might’ve glossed over some important details with her proposed plan.”

With how that was phrased, Twilight grew a bit more concerned, “What kind of details?”

“Well-” Maeve tried to speak, but Ember was quick to cut her off,

“No matter how good your intentions may be, just the act of changing one small thing could cause major changes to a person’s behavior,” the caretaker explained, “Messing around with how the brain processes certain emotions can end up unintentionally causing damage to someone’s psyche, to the point that it might be irreversible.”

When Raquel first heard that, it definitely didn’t sound that good on the surface. However, what was still unclear was how something like this would happen. Luckily, Twilight was thinking the same thing and proceeded to ask more on that, “Do you mean something similar to hypnosis or mind control?”

Ember shook her head at that, “No, this is more along the line of removing inhibitions, the one thing that holds someone back and prevents them from acting on impulse. Say for example, you accidentally remove the inhibitions from somepony that’s an artist. Sure, it might open up their artistic freedom in a way. Yet, it will also not stop them from seeing anything as a canvas for their work, like the side of a building or the walls of your castle.”

That’s right. The voice inside Raquel’s head mocked her, As the saying goes, actions have consequences. Are you willing to take that risk?

Now Raquel felt as if she had to say something. “So, you’re saying that there’s no way to tell if this can actually help me and we would end up doing more harm than good if we were to go forward with this?”

“There is some risk, I will admit,” the nervous rogue admitted, “But the thing is, kitten, the previous times I had to do this, it was in someone else’s head, and they didn’t know I was there. This time, since it would be you going inside your own mind instead of a stranger like me, you would be more familiar with what might be inside. That doesn’t mean you would have to go alone though.”

“What… exactly were you thinking?” Twilight asked.

At that, everyone that was present in the room was looking towards Maeve and waited for her to provide an answer. “Well, the idea I had is kind of like this. Ember would be with me in order to do the spell to place you in your mindscape in the first place and maintain it while you’re inside. As for who would be with you, I think we could send two others with you. Since Calvin already said he wanted to help, that still leaves one spot open. Perhaps a certain princess would like to come along?”

That had Twilight’s cheeks blush a bit, before she hesitantly looked over at Raquel, “I-if you’re okay with it. I-I mean-”

“Oh, come on now,” Maeve groaned, “If you’re anything like our bookworm, you’d jump at the first chance of wanting to learn something you have no knowledge of. You don’t have to be nervous about it.”

“W-well-”

“Mom, you do realize that she also has duties of her own, right?”

It was at that point that they all heard a familiar voice speak up as it walked towards the Cutie Map, “Not right now, but tomorrow’s a different story.”

When Twilight turned around, she now realized that Calvin had come back with not just a book in hand, but also a receipt. “Oh, Calvin, I didn’t-. W-wait, what’s… all this?”

“Stuff for your little hospital visit tomorrow. Spike thought that if we got some preparations out of the way, it would be less of a headache for you,” the Skyshifter said as he placed them on the Map for her. “Receipt for a Sugarcube Corner order that can be picked up tomorrow while this storybook is one that Ms. Cheerilee recommended.”

“O-oh, thank you-,” she said, before noticing that someone else was missing, “W-wait, where’s Spike?”

“When we passed by the schoolhouse, Sweetie Belle was asking if Spike could come over to Carousel Boutique to help Rarity,” he said with a slight shrug, “Something about making new clothes for your ‘new guests’ or something. It wasn’t exactly clear, and you’re not expecting company until tomorrow.”

Even though Calvin wasn’t quite so sure, Twilight had some kind of idea as to what he was talking about. Still, with the most immediate things that she had to do already being taken care of, nothing was practically stopping her from going with Raquel. Though, the alicorn was still uncertain about all this and didn’t exactly have the luxury of time on her side to think of a proper answer.

“Well, Princess. What do you say?”

It was only then that Twilight looked up towards Raquel as the alicorn gave her an answer, “I-if Raquel is okay with me being there, t-then I’ll come with you.”

“Splendid! That’s exactly what I wanted to hear, Kitten,” Maeve chuckled, “Of course, could you guide us to another room in the castle? Preferably one where you wouldn’t have visitors coming through your door at any minute. What Ember and I need to do requires a lot of concentration, so the less distractions, the better.”

“So, what are we going to do then?” Calvin asked, a little bit confused, “I know I said that I was going to help, but-”

“Don’t worry! We’ll fill you in on everything once we’re all set up and ready to go!”

Ironically, as Maeve said that, Raquel noticed that the look on Calvin’s face matched the same nervous glance she had only a few minutes ago, as both of them watched Twilight guide their guests away from the Cutie Map and up the stairs. When he looked back towards her, all he could really do was give off a confused look. “Do you know anything about what we’re going to do, Raquel?”

All she really could do was shrug and try to answer as best as she could, “Sort of. Maeve said that she might have a solution to the problem I’m having with my magic. However, it involves going inside my mind, and there’s no telling what will be waiting for us there.”

“Huh, that’ll be a new experience then.”

That was not the kind of answer that Raquel expected to hear from Calvin. If anything, she expected for him to act either a little bit concerned or confused. “New experience? D-don’t you think this will be… well, rather strange?”

“Well, yeah, of course,” he nodded, “But then again, I’ve already been to a lot of strange places and met strange people. So, this doesn’t seem anything too different. Even had to help the Cutie Mark Crusaders a couple of times in the process.”

That just had her blink for a moment, before asking an entirely different question, “You mean Apple Bloom and her friends? They don’t seem like the kind of people that intentionally try to get themselves in trouble.”

At that, the Skyshifter couldn’t help but chuckle, “Oh, trust me. There are times where even though they might have the best of intentions, not everything goes as planned. Hopefully, that’s not the case with us today.”

While that was meant to sound encouraging, Raquel couldn’t help but feel a bit of uncertainty linger in the air as both of them followed in the same direction that Twilight went. Sure, Calvin might have seemed confident, but the thought of not really knowing what exactly they were getting into clung to her and couldn’t easily be shaken off.

And why would you? Without me, what are you really?

That time, Raquel found it a lot more difficult to just ignore the words spoken in her head. Not because of what was said, but because no matter how much she tried to ignore it, there was a sensation that made her think that the voice was somehow speaking the truth, something that she thought was a trick of the mind to make her have second thoughts. Though, all it really did was make her even more annoyed.

---

“So, when Luna originally asked for help with her nightmares, we would set things up in here,” Twilight said as she led both Ember and Maeve into a particular chamber of the castle. The room itself was rather wide and had numerous beds placed not that far apart from one another. “After the whole thing with the Tantabus, I kept things organized on the off chance the girls wanted to hold a sleepover. Though, as of now, it’s more likely to be used as an extra guest room.”

“I see,” Ember replied as she watched Maeve look around and analyze everything that was around her, “So, what do you think Mom? Will this work?”

As she asked that question, the rogue took out a particular knife from her belt and began to hold it straight down. For a moment, what Maeve was doing came off as more confusing than anything else. However, after a few seconds, the edge of the knife started to glow a vibrant neon pink. “Heh, the magic in this room is so dense that I can cut through it,” she replied with a smirk, before looking over at Ember and Twilight, “This place would suit our needs perfectly. Though, we may need to make some rearrangements.”

“Rearrangements? How so?”

“Well, the methods for how we are going to do this have a tendency to pull in anything that might get too close. Like how a tornado can pull in anything that’s not properly held down,” Maeve said as she turned to Twilight, “So, I think it would be safe to say that you rather not want to lose anything valuable, right?”

Twilight could only blink as she stared at the rogue, puzzled by what she said, “Okay, but how exactly does this work? You already told us of where it will take us, but not how we get there or… well, anything else.”

“Now now, why spoil the surprise, kitten?” Maeve asked playfully, twirling the knife around her fingers before holstering it at her waist, “Besides, it would save me the hassle of repeating myself over and over if I explained everything when everyone is here, wouldn’t you agree?”

Much to the princess’ dismay, the rogue made a valid point. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait too long, because around the same time that Maeve appeared to be done with making her preparations, Raquel and Calvin happened to find the room that they were in.

“There you are,” the Skyshifter let out a sigh of relief, “I’m sorry we didn’t get here sooner. I swear this castle acts like a maze sometimes.”

“Yeah, I’ve been there before,” Ember chuckled. “And actually, both of you arrived just in time. Right, mom?”

Maeve couldn’t help but give a slight smirk as she nodded her head and turned to face Calvin, “Indeed. Now that we’re all here, we can get started. First thing’s first, I would like for you and Twilight to stand over here next to me and have Raquel stand right where I am.”

The request seemed a bit odd, but none of them questioned it, for if Maeve told them to do something specific, then it was entirely possible that there was a reason behind it. As they got into place though, Maeve approached Raquel and held up her left hand as two fingers touched the forehead. When the rogue closed her eyes, her hands began to emit the same vibrant glow from earlier, as the magical energy around her flowed.

At first, it was just to Raquel, but then the same glow was felt by Calvin and Twilight as well. Despite feeling very foreign to the touch, it also felt rather warm as the magical power left from her fingertips. The form that the magic took looked less freeform, like what Twilight would do, and instead looked a lot like that of strands from a ball of yarn.

“Okay, the first part is done,” Maeve said as she opened her eyes, “Now, I want all of you to look behind you.”

When they turned around, all three of them were immediately caught off guard. The empty wall that was there before now had what looked to be a giant wooden door, decorated with what could only be described as ornaments you would find at a carnival. “W-what’s this?”

“That is the door to your mind,” the rogue answered, “That door is what you’re going to be going through when you enter your mindscape. However, you can’t just simply walk in, which is why I had to make some adjustments. You should be seeing it now.”

As she said that, the three of them did notice something else along with the door. What looked like a transparent string of yarn was attached to each of them, with each string going towards the door. “What are these?”

“Soul tethers,” she answered, “This is my way of making sure that all three of you are okay. If for some reason the tether breaks, you’ll immediately come back here. However, this also leads me to another important point. If any of you get hurt while inside there, any abilities that you might have will end up getting weakened, and you won’t be able to recover your strength as fast as you normally would.”

“A-anything else we should know?” Calvin asked nervously.

“Well, have you ever heard of an ‘out of body experience’?” she asked. When no one answered, that was when the rogue sighed, “Well, you’re about to have one. Best of luck.”

“Wait, what-?”

As Maeve swung her arms outward, the door swung open as the tethers that were attached to them pulled with overwhelming might as they were yanked out of their bodies and through the door. When the door sealed shut, the only thing that remained was their forms on the floor and Maeve trying to catch her breath.

“Mom, seriously!?” Ember snapped, “You could've told them about that first before doing that!”

“If I did, any one of them would have hesitated and complicated the nature of the spell,” she coughed, “Now, help me put them on the beds and keep the door closed. We need to keep an eye on them to make sure nothing goes wrong and that means no one is disturbing them.”

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