With a resounding bang, Cy rolled head over tail into the dead tree. Electric energy coursed along his path before lashing a new scar into the dead wood. He got to his feet with a wobble.
"Did I gets the socket powered the dish washer?" He asked something unseen to my right.
"Yeah, we're taking a break." Conner wrapped his tail around one of Cy's legs, guiding him to the water trough we had Lulu make for us.
Cy's ears fell when the trough came into focus. "Don't put the toaster in the tub." He whined. As Conner let go of him, Vince rammed Cy's rear, forcing him into the trough face first. Sparks jumped from the yellow canine, and off the water, before grounding in the earth around him.
"Ya know," I sighed from my branch, "I suspect he'll learn Bolt Strike before Volt Tackle." I hopped down and made my way over to the tree. I briefly inspected the scorch marks. "Well, the good news is that you've finally managed to get the electricity out. Now you just need to focus on not falling over."
Once the sparks stopped flying, Conner placed his healing paws on Cy's side. "I can't believe you still want to learn that move."
"I'm nothing if not stubborn." Cy nodded. "Thanks for staying to patch me up, Nurse."
Conner blushed. "Y-you heard about..." He coughed into a paw. "W-well, I gotta make sure someone patches you up. I guess I gotta get used to doing so after each fight we get into, if you're going to insist on using that move."
"Oh?" Vince asked.
"I was talking to Abes about this the other night. Guess what Mr. Myrddin told me." Conner smacked Cy over the head. "Volt Tackle does a third of the damage dealt back onto you! Try to avoid using it more than once a battle, please."
"That's assuming you can get it to work." Vince added.
At that moment, Rainbow buzzed us, mangled gibberish echoing in her wake. She angled herself back to town. "Thank's for the heads up!" I called after her retreating figure. I looked over at the others. "You guys catch that?"
"She said words?" Cy blinked. "I just heard a whoosh."
"Must be a me thing, then." I shrugged. "She said that we're staying with Spike and Moon Dancer while everyone's out of town."
"Oh?" Vince tilted his head. "This is the first I've heard of a group trip. Where're they going?"
"Oh, you know." I smiled at him, walking past Cy to the starting line. "Out gathering Apples, picking cherries, chasing wagons, ditching Pinkie and Rarity in Dodge. Y'know, a quick trip out."
"Huh." He and Conner walked back to their places as Cy joined me. "Wait, what was that last one?"
"Chasing wagons?" I turned to the Jolteon. "Ready to go again?"
He nodded, and we both blurred forward once more.
That night, we all lay in a pile at the foot of Moon Dancer's bed. The poor mare had to pull her hooves up so that our combined weight didn't cause her any harm.
I had just jolted awake. Wide eyed, I stared up at the ceiling as the breeze blew in from the open window, cooling the sweat trapped in my fur. Somehow, I had managed to worm my way to the top of the pile in my sleep.
"You awake?" I jumped, rolling down the pile, coming face to face with Abes. "You looked like you were having a nightmare. Claw dream again?"
I nodded. "Yeah. Nasty one this time." I looked Abes in his red eyes. "They've been getting worse."
The Umbreon's eyes flicked to the pile behind me before his rings began to glow. Gently, Lulu and Villhiem were pulled from the pile. Pointing to the door with his tail, Abes lead me from the room. Once we had made it into a side room downstairs, Abes gave the two evolved forms a rough shake.
"GAH! We're awake, we're awake!"
"Put us DOWN!"
Abes lightly placed them back on the ground, though his eyes didn't stop glowing. A cup floated in from the kitchen and landed in front of Villhiem.
"Yer gettin' real good with yer telekinesis." He murmured as he tore a chunk from his tail.
Lulu focused on her paw. "What's the occasion?"
"Leo." Abes picked me up and placed me beside the tea cup. "Claw dream again."
"Those really mess you up, don't they." Lulu smiled sadly at me.
"Yeah." I stared at the floor. "This one was the worst one yet..."
The full cup slid into view. "Whenever you're ready, darling."
I sat there, gathering my thoughts, sipping as I went. "After I left the Angry Monkey, I found myself in a desolate wasteland. One where storms of fire raged against tornadoes of water, where roots of gnarled trees rip the ground asunder as lightning lanced down from a total eclipse. I saw statues of you standing in a circle, each frozen in a pose of agony. Chains stretched from your heads to a statue of myself. God, my statue. I wasn't frozen in pain. No, my face....
"Oh god, my face! I was forever laughing. That damn, demented smile will forever haunt my memories. But it gets worse." I paused to wet my throat. "I heard the Claw's laughter as I drove it through each of you! Once I was done, I could see each of your flesh and bone bodies lying bloody in piles of dust. I turned to my own statue, and I...
"... I laughed the Claw's laugh! I laughed at my statue as it wept blood. I laughed as I drove the Claw -My Claw!- into my own statue's chest! I laughed as the sky burned and the moon wept leaves of electric blue. I laughed as a wave of crimson water carried me into the only standing forest. I laughed as I dropped through the wave in front of the Chained Monkey's cave. I was still laughing as I drove the claw through myself a second time. I was even laughing as the Claw burst from my own chest, spraying blood onto the dying me my own Claw was in.
"And then I woke up." I looked up from my empty cup, tears shining in my eyes. "These dreams keep getting worse. Are you sure Luna can't find my dreams?"
"She's looking as hard as she can." Abes held a paw out to me.
"SHE SHOULD LOOK HARDER!!" The cup sailed over the Umbreon's head, smashing against the far wall. Silence reigned as I shifted my Glare from Abes to stare in horror at my outstretched paw. I stared to shiver as I curled up into a ball. I looked up at the evolved forms, the tears falling as I made my plea.
"Please, help me."
dafaq is with his dreams?
Awww Leo
9010893
I bet Discord left something in them when he pulled them over. A form of Chaos?
9010893
Magic world not good for dreams when the guardian of them can't find you.
9010921
9010914
I personally think it might be a hypno or darkrai behind the bad dreams
What's deal with luna finding Leo's dreams?
Yeah... Leo needs to either evolve into an Espeon so she can get control of her mind back ASAP one of the others needs to evolve into one so they can do a mind dive to help her sort herself out...
Because this? If she can't deal with this soon it'll be the difference between insanity and madness.
Poor Leo. Sounds like she's not going to last much longer.
Why can't this story update, like, every 5 minutes, or at every hour! Why must we suffer for so long without such updates and new chapters to read?!
9011089
You do realize those are synonyms, right?
9011315
Perhaps, but it depends on context. Insanity is universal. No one is ever truely "Sane". We all have our little quirks, ticks and idiosyncrasies that set us apart. In most of us these little things aren't severe enough where others consider us more than slightly "Odd", and a majority of us who are worse off are aware enough of our insanity where we are able to keep a lid on it in most cases. Where the line between simple Insanity and Madness crosses, is when someone is even worse off than that, and can no longer control themselves either because their mental condition is so severe that they don't care, or they can't tell the difference between the fantasies their mind creates and the reality around them.
good chapter. spooky end. also hope to see more
I feel bad for Leo
9011315
Technically, yes, but they're usually used in different ways. Kind of like 'angry' and 'pissed'.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh why! Cliffhanger :(
Uhhhhhh what in the actual FUCK
Luna’s magic isn’t electric blue is it? Because the “skies burned and moon wept leaves of electric blue” sounds like some representation of Celestia and Luna, while the other part is clearly a reference to the current eeveelutions.
Either way, yay dream chapter!
Edit: although the dream has chains instead of light, the part where he pulls power from each of the eeveelutions sounds like Extreme Evoboost.
Claw and statues makes me think of Discord
The more we learn about the dreams, the more I think that Discord is behind them.
Very nice work, keep it up.
And in a separate note:
9011595
When did Pokemon turn into a magical girl show?
9012089
Eevee! Yours is the move that will pierce the heavens!
Ultra Z-Move-Espeon-Umbreon-Jolteon-Sylveon-Flareon-Glaceon-Leafeon-Vaporeon-Foxy-Cutie-Love-Soul-Hope-Dream-Special-Power Go! Secret technique EXTREME EVOBOOST!
Freeze frame bonus of everyone in Sailor Scout outfits.
9012296
Someone needs to write an Omake of this...
9012089
9012296
What makes all this funnier to me is that Yomega's Nightmare Night costume was (loosely) based off of Tuxedo Mask's....
We got all this stuff happening and then there's the Absol being thrown into the mix wonder how that's going to go
welp, I just finished binge-reading this, i didn't mean to do that at first, but the way you write this always leaves me wanting more...
9012364
9012695
This is my second time binge reading it!
Okay then ... starting today's backlog:
You know...
Typo: blurred
Tense Error: slid
Continuity Error: This chapter describes the visual appearance of Abes' telekinesis as his eyes glowing. Both times it has been described before - in chapter 16 and chapter 43 respectively - it was his rings that were glowing
One final remark: The description of the dream kinda breaks immersion for me, that sounds far to eloquent and coherent to come from someone who just had a terrifying nightmare ...
I had just picked this up again and the beginning of this chapter is great.
Well... WTF?! This is beyond fucked up...
Vos drava, ven mique don criva.
OMG WTAF!!??
A part of me thinks the "Dark" tag should be added.