Equestria's Dreamscape

by Blackdrag-rose

7. Elemental Stones Part 4; Loyalty

Rainbow Dash trotted through the thorny forest that the majority of her friends had walked through the past couple of days, or nights as it were. According to what her friends had said she should be expecting the ruined castle to be even more repaired when she arrived at the stony walls. So far Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie have seen the stallion they have been trying to learn about, but none of them had discovered what the stallion's name was. That was making it harder for them to determine if he was a friend or a foe.

Rarity was the only one who wasn't coming into the dream world, or the Dreamscape as Princess Luna called it, because she was going to be busy during the next few days. That meant that somepony was going to have to visit the stallion after Rainbow did, which was likely going to be Twilight going in. If Rainbow didn't discover the stallion's name than Twilight was going to break the stallion down and discover it for herself so they could finish the mystery. If it came down to Twilight discovering everything about the stallion then Rainbow felt sorry for the poor stallion.

Rainbow looked at the trees, still surprised that they looked like they did while the sky seemed to have taken on a more lighter blue color. She recalled the fact that Pinkie had learned exactly who the stallion's wife, a mare called Mistwing, was during her visit the previous night. She was still shocked to hear that the mare was a bat pony, one of Luna's guards, and seemed to be at ease around the stallion. She was sure that something was going on in this world, but whatever it was she wasn't sure of.

Rainbow turned right at the fork in the path and came face to face with the ruined castle, or what the others called a ruined castle. In front of her rested a nearly completed castle, the tower she had been told about was reconstructed, the courtyard was cleaned and presentable, and the main part of the castle, the throne room and housing for a ruler, was fully made. The only thing the castle lacked was a barracks for the soldiers and the usual banners that told whoever was visiting who the ruler of the castle was.

She walked down the stony pathway of the courtyard, her eyes scanning the statues that she had heard about and the strange ten sided star symbol they held. The ponies who had posed for the statues must have been bat ponies, seeing how each and every one of the statues nearly looked the same. The trees looked like they were healthy, not that she knew a lot about trees, and the area itself seemed to be more alive than what her friends had described.

That was because there were dozens of ponies walking about, as if the entire castle area was a real place and they were doing real business. Rainbow saw unicorns buying ingredients for what appeared to be an alchemy set, which was what Twilight called the art of making herbal potions or something like that. There were pegasi walking around, carrying packages while chatting with their friends, and even some busting clouds in the air. There were even earth ponies, either selling goods to their friends or actually buying them from other stall keepers.

The castle, Rainbow had discovered, was like a doorway to a completely different world. There was absolutely no way somepony had dreamed all this up and had set it to repair itself after being visited by some ponies like her friends had done.

"Ah, the Lady Rainbow Dash," a voice behind her said, causing her to turn around and come face to face with a bat pony stallion, "My Lord sent me to find you and bring you to him when you arrived. He and Lady Mistwing are currently in the throne room, but I was informed that you are free to wander the castle grounds and mingle with his citizens."

"Is that right you punk?" Rainbow replied, turning to face the stallion entirely.

"That is correct." the stallion answered, "My name is Thundercloud, or Thunder for short if you will, and I am the steward when my lord wishes me to be. I mostly watch over the citizens of his fair castle and insure that there are no drunken brawls or theft throughout the area. On the days I escort ponies around the castle my brother, the court alchemist by the named of Razorwind, takes my place as the steward."

"Fine then," Rainbow sighed, not sure what to make of the stallion, "So, what's first on the tour of the castle?"

"The airfields," Thundercloud said, turning towards the east gate, "Usually we have a dozen or more teams of pegasi, including my fellow bat ponies, preparing for flight. They fly all around the area, clearing clouds or adjusting them so the necessary farms get enough water so everypony has food to eat. Sometimes you'll see Mistwing out and about in the sky, outshining other ponies with her speed and her moves. Some say she was the first one to successfully perform the soon to be legendary Sonic Rainboom."

"Yeah yeah yeah," Rainbow muttered, trotting along side the stallion while he spoke, "I'll going to out fly and outshine Lady Mistwing. That's if she accepted my challenge and wanted to be down here instead of with her husband."

"Don't be too sure of that my friend," Thundercloud remarked, the open fields appearing before them, "Mistwing loves to spend whatever time she has practicing her flying and improving her speed. I doubt there is a pony alive that can outmatch my sister and her legendary speed."

Rainbow doubted that the mare was as great as the stallion said she was. There were almost no ponies around from the time of when the Sonic Rainboom was originally discovered and recorded as the hardest move in all of the flying techniques. There were the Princesses, Discord, Sombra, and the Changeling Queen Chrysalis, but Rainbow wasn't holding her breath if any of them even remembered much of the time this stallion was talking about.

But the airfields were larger than what Rainbow was expecting. Where she thought there would have been several rows for the flyers to take off there were towers and watch stands so other ponies could watch whenever they wanted. Each team apparently had a large area for themselves to use as they wish, such as practicing, exercising, and writing notes to their fans. Even now she saw three teams preparing to take to the air, the members stretching their wings as they prepared to show whatever fans they had in the stands some moves.

"This place is so AWESOME!" Rainbow squeed, not caring that the stallion could overhear her, "Seriously, how many teams does this place house?"

"Seven to be exact," Thundercloud replied, staring out at the field while keeping an eye on the mare, "This place can house seven teams of flyers at a time, but there are times where Mist and her team appear to join the others in the events. And if Mistwing comes here then you can be sure that our Lord will arrive to watch his wife and the others in action."

So there was a slim chance that Rainbow would be meeting the strange stallion she had been sent to investigate, the one who seemed to be in control of the entire dream area. She and the stallion walked down the steps that lead them to the seating area for the airfields, her eyes scanning the crowd for a sign of the stallion. She had a vague description of what the stallion looked like, considering he had changed from a sad old stallion to a young energetic pony. She didn't know what was happening, but by the looks of things they could figure out some mysteries that plagued the dream world.

Then she saw the royal couple, as they seemed to be, standing in the middle of the airfield. She was surprised by what she saw, the stallion wore a cape that was similar to the one King Sombra wore, but it was a light purple color instead of the vile red. Attached to his legs were what appeared to be some sort of black colored armor pieces that were identical to Sombra's leg guards while he wore a neck piece that was like a black version of Princess Cadence's necklace. He even wore a crown that was as black as the rest of his royal attire, giving him the appearance of being royalty when he was likely not in reality.

Mistwing, on the other hoof, was dressed almost like a Shadowbolt, only difference was that the black color had been replaced by the same purple color that was on the stallion's cape. On the side of her costume, where the symbol of their leader rested, was the same ten sided star that her friends had reported seeing on their visits. Whatever the star meant it was so important that it was displayed everywhere in this stallion's dream world, from the statues to the armor. Mistwing leapt into the air and she was gone, her wings allowing her to ascend to the sky quickly.

"So what does the ten sided star mean?" Rainbow asked, her wings itching as she wanted to take on the mare in the sky, "My friends and I have seen it repeatedly everytime one of us visits. There has to be some meaning to such a star."

"It is our Lord's cutie mark," Thunder replied, eying the mare's wings, "It represents the Schools of Magic that a unicorn has the potential to learn. But you did not come here for a history lesson, you came here to battle my sister in the sky where you do what you do best."

Rainbow shot into the sky, dust blowing as she skyrocketed right up to where Mistwing was waiting, most likely for her of all ponies. The mare nodded and a whole course appeared in the clouds, a course that reminded Rainbow of the course she took that earned her her cutie mark. The two smashed right through the starting line, tearing the ribbon to shreds as they traveled from post to post, breaking the poles as they moved. The sky itself blew as they flew around, wind whipping around their wings.

"She has skill," the stallion remarked, his bright red eyes trailing the two mares in the sky, "Maybe Mistwing has found an equal that she can respect in the sky."

"Only she would know my lord," Thunder replied, taking a seat behind his master as he watched his sister and the new arrival, "But this Rainbow Dash, she is the currently holder of the Element of Loyalty and has mastered the Sonic Rainboom, a feat that only my sister is capable of doing."

"Loyalty is a powerful trait for one to have," the stallion said, the sky darkening as the two flew, "we shall see if her loyalty to her friends is as true as everypony says. If it is then she will have no trouble getting through this storm I have conjured up. If not then she'll be feeling the tingle of lightning when she wakes up in the morning."

Lightning flew right by Rainbow's wings as she kept pace with Mistwing, who didn't seem fazed in the slightest about the sudden change of weather. She figured that the stallion was the one responsible for the change, but she didn't see how he could have changed the weather so quickly. She dived for a second to avoid the lightning and corrected her course, wondering what the hay was going on with this area.

Rainbow tore through the sky, chasing Mistwing as the two danced throughout the sky, tearing holes through clouds as they followed the course. The bat mare must have known the course pattern thanks to the stallion, seeing how all of this was his own projection anyway. So she was already at an unfair advantage over Rainbow, but she was planning on turning that advantage into nothing with her signature move. Rainbow was going to boom the daylights out of her opponent.

Rainbow strained her wings and went flying past Mistwing, a trail of rainbow colors following in her wake as she opened up the sky. She grinned, knowing that her opponent had no hopes of catching up to her at this point. She looked around and her jaw dropped in amazement. Mistwing broke right past her, followed by the exact same rainbow trail that Rainbow had used not a few seconds ago herself. The sky was alight with two sonic rainbooms, disrupting whatever storm had been summoned with tremendous ease.

"But Mistwing still got the better of Miss Dash I see," a voice said as another bat pony, one dressed up in flowing robes, joined Thunder and his Lord, "That's a shame really, I was hoping to see her perform a Double Sonic Rainboom so I could update my books."

"Ah, Razorwind, so kind of you to join us," Thunder sneered at his brother, "I was not aware that you would be leaving your tower to join us at the airfields."

"Oh trust me brother, I would rather be in my tower with my 'experiments'," Razorwind remarked, taking a seat opposite of Thunder's, "but my Lord called me out to watch our sister and Miss Dash compete, so I came out like I was asked to. I wish I could include Miss Dash in my list of experiments, but for now she is off limits and that alone has stayed my hoof in this matter."

"For now we act as if we are their friends," their Lord said, twirling a bit of red lightning as a evil grin filled his face, "but when at last the final seal is broken we shall break out of this prison and join Equestria once again as their mortal enemies. Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis, Discord, and Sombra will not know what hit them when at last we rise again. Not even the Elements of Harmony will be spared, unless they forsake the fallen sisters they serve and choose me as their Lord."

Deep in the forest, in the circular area that Luna discovered only once, a fourth pillar began to glow with an eerie red light of its own. It was joined by the light of three other stones, one with a pink light, one with an orange light, and a third with light blue light. The amethyst orb that rested in the center of the stone circle glowed, as if the four lights were allowing it to do something powerful. Whatever it was didn't bode well for anypony at all.

Comments

[Stella Dawn]

This ain't good....

[Sonata Blaze]

More power means more dreams...and this can't end well.

[Razzy]

C'mon, Chryssie, stop being a tease and appear already.