Awakening
---Chapter currently under revision---
Chapter 3
Awakening
"Princess Luna, are you okay?" one of the various night guards patrolling the halls of the Canterlot Castle knocked on the dark alicorn's bedroom doors as he asked his refined question. Muffled screams that had echoed all the way to his post had alerted him of a possible hostile situation amiss. He began to count to ten with the precision of a metronome, his dark grey lips silently counting down the seconds before he would burst into the room.
"We are fine, Sergeant Nightlock, please return to your post." the reply came from within the room lazily, but the guard could tell that she wasn't being forced to give the okay.
Nightlock reluctantly left the princess' doors, some would call him overprotective at times, but he knew that if he wasn't the one to put in the extra effort nopony else would.
Luna wiped a foreleg across her tear riddled face, just like she had been doing a lot lately. She looked around her royal bedchamber, taking in the deep hues that she personally selected to be used for the walls and flooring. Sighing, the night alicorn looked up at her ceiling, a perfect replica of the night sky, taking in her creations and the moon's waxing crescent phase.
"What irony fate has put upon us, we command the realm of dreams, yet we can't rid our self of the nightmares that plague our sleep." Luna shivered at the word that she once used as a part of her name, and the cold sweat coating her horned forehead wasn't exactly helping.
It almost seemed like a cycle to her, wake up, eat breakfast, attend royal court, and finally return to sleep that she could never enjoy. But, something was different that night, something she couldn't quite understand. She felt a wave of magic so subtle that only a creature with her amount of magical prowess would hope to detect wash over the face of Equestria, and with the way things had been going recently, she wasn't sure where it could have originated from.
"Perhaps it is just our imagination getting the better of us. Still, we'll have to look into this matter later on during the day." with a shrug and a yawn, the lunar goddess lay her head back against her damp pillow, hoping that she could get some rest before she was forced to return to her daily cycle. She would get none.
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"Hmm..." A lone figure stood atop a weathered boulder amidst a forest clearing that matched his stonefaced expression, various guards who were assigned to scout the borderlands laying unconscious at his hooves. The unmoving stallion stared at the pale moon in all of it's crescent glory, and a toothy grin spread his muzzle as his mind began to register what could have been responsible for the magical fluctuation that had just pulsed over the land.
"Perfect, the time of action is nearing its beginning, and there's nothing you can do to delay me any further, Lulu." He spoke to the lunar object hovering in the ebony night's sky as if he would actually receive a response from its mistress, delighting himself with the plans running through his secluded mind.
"Why the buck do you keep talking to yourself like this, it's really creepy you know?" The pensive stallion snapped his attention away from his stream of thoughts to focus on the newcomer that had joined him, a hot-pink mare with a curled, light purple mane that cascaded down the back of her neck. She pierced the disturbed silence with an appraising whistle before speaking, "Damn, another patrol squad this near to the mountain border?"
"Mimy, it would serve you well to watch your language when speaking to me. I know you're a mare of talents, but it gives you no right to speak that way to your superior." Mimy simply shrugged her shoulders in response to the stallion's scolding remark, showing him that she hadn't cared in the slightest about what he had just said, "And yes, I believe Princess Luna is beginning to realize that we prefer to operate near the Griffon Nation's border."
"I don't get why you don't just kill these bastards instead of just leaving them on the ground knocked out, that might get them to stop sending so many of them to look for us up here." Mimy trotted over to one of the guards she was talking about, lifting his chin up of the ground as she tightened her grip around his neck, preparing herself to snap it, "Just like th- OW!"
She dropped the guard's head so that she could rub the scorch mark on her flank that a minuscel lightning bolt spell had left behind. Mimy turned around to look at the stallion's unamused, celestially blue eyes, glaring at him with all her strength, "What the heck was that for!?"
"I've warned you about murdering the patrol guards already. I know Luna, she won't just stop sending her guards to look for us if you kill them, she'll join them and make our operations much more difficult to accomplish. Do not question my methods, Mimy, much less talk back to me."
Another undersized lightning bolt descended from one of the few clouds in the sky, striking the exact same spot on the mare's flank that the last one had, causing her to yelp in pain again. Her cry of aching annoyance contrasted heavily with a childish giggle that faded into the clearing housing the arguing ponies, one that caused Mimy's scowl to harden and the stallion's eyes to light up in the pale moonlight.
Some of the trees' various swaying shadows slithered across the ground, coalescing at a single point next to the stallion lecturing the hot-pink mare. The splotches of oozing darkness began to extend out of the ground, the youthful giggles getting louder in time with the form's growth, reaching their apex once the figure of a small colt was prevalent.
"Hehehe, see Mimy? That's why you have to be a good girl and listen to grandpa when he tells you to not do something he doesn't like. Oh, and hi to you too grandpa!" the ebony colt threw himself at the large stallion, wrapping his tiny hooves around his neck and hugging him as best as he could.
"Hello child, how have you been?" the stallion's soft voice was very much unlike the scolding tone he had used on the rebellious mare nearby just moments ago as he spoke to the magical projection of the small colt, happy to see someone who could give him an enjoyable conversation. Mimy simply gave an annoyed huff and retreated into the forest's depths, not wanting to be around the little colt any longer than she had to.
"I've been doing okay, the ponies are really nice where I live and they've been helping me fit in. I miss being here with you and Mimy though, its just so different over here. Why did you send me over here anyway, grandpa?" The colt's magical projection began to pout it lower lip, trying to coax an answer out of the stallion.
"It's because I have been planning a special mission, just for you." The smaller figure's face lit up at the prospect of a new assignment, always eager to assist his elder with any task at hoof.
"Really!? What is it, huh!?"
"You see, a very special unicorn has been asleep for some time now, and this unicorn has the power to hurt little old me, so I need you to stand keep your vigil over Ponyville and wait for her there."
"How will I know who she is?"
"Don't worry about that, you'll know when you see her."
"Okay grandpa, if you're sure about this, than I'll wait for her there, but I have one more teensy question."
"Yes?"
"What do I do when I see her?" the stallion rewarded the little black colt projection with a warm smile, one that it craved to get as much as it could from him.
"Put her back to sleep...forever."
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The blinding abyss left by the absence of light greeted Twilight as she awoke from her slumber, a slumber that nopony was ever supposed to awaken from. Her frantic breathing slowly chilled a burning sensation she felt within her pleading lungs. She couldn't explain why, but since the moment she opened her eyes it felt as if her internal system was devoid of any of the oxygen it needed to maintain itself.
Now that she wasn't vacuuming in all of the air inside the confines of her...well, she didn't exactly know what she was in, but she did know one thing, and it was odd. She felt comfortable. Very comfortable, in fact, which was really weird considering that she was prone to minor claustrophobia.
Twilight's pair of amethyst eyes began to adjust to the shrouding darkness of her little napping spot in no more than a minute, not really helping her out as much as they could since she could only see a wooden surface directly in front of her and surrounding her on all sides.
"Hmm...where am I?" the newly awakened mare's body began to respond to her commands as the oxygen began to spread throughout her circulatory system, washing away the numb sensation her limbs felt. The first thing she noticed with her regained sense of touch was that she was currently resting on something soft underneath her. Then, she became aware of the fact that she was holding something in her hooves, but her current situation didn't let her bend up to see what it was.
Twilight raised her left hoof, holding the unknown object in the her right one, and pressed it against the wood in front of her face. With a creak, the panel opened up and fell off of the hinges that held it together, clattering noisily on the ground. The mare could now see that she was inside some kind of building, most likely spacious if the echo given off from the wood was any indication. Twilight lifted her stiff body up to a sitting position, resting on her haunches as she lifted up her right hoof to curiously inspect whatever it was she was holding. She found herself enraptured by the beautiful blooming flower she held in her grasp, the elegant dark-blue colors being accented by the lavender tips of the petals, and it had a strange feeling to it, as if it were beckoning her attention towards it.
The unicorn's stomach gave of a loud rumble, apparently it didn't like getting teased with such a scrumptious delicacy as she inspected it thoroughly. Twilight giggled at her body's demands, more than happy to oblige them. Even though she did really like the flower, it just looked too good a meal to pass up, and a scent was coming off of it that made her mouth water the moment it entered her nostrils. The hungry mare moved the treat up towards her muzzle, eyeing it one last time before popping it into her mouth. The looks were truly misleading, it didn't taste great, it was the best thing she had ever eaten! The petals were smooth and felt heavenly against her tongue, the stem was so fresh that it seemed to have just been picked, and her personally favorite thing about the flower was that it gushed with some kind of delightful juice. The sweet red filling from the treat traveled down Twilight's throat, washing away a dryness she didn't know it held, and giving her a feeling of fullness for some reason. A weird anomaly considering that it was only one flower that had managed to sate her starvation-like hunger.
"Mmmm..." Twilight's tongue lolled out a little as she began to moan slightly, much to her embarrassment even though nopony was around to hear her, as a tingling sensation jolted throughout her body, concentrating on her overly tense muscles and the idle horn adorning her forehead. The stiffness she felt was eradicated after the feeling of euphoria finished its job on her body, leaving her feeling refreshed and ready to begin the day. However, she seemed to have forgotten the fact that she had no idea where she was due to being so concentrated on the morsel she had just finished eating, but when the bliss began to leave her body her mind caught up with her current affairs.
The lavender unicorn looked down, her blood freezing the instant she recognized what she had been sleeping inside, and promptly jumping out and away from it as soon as her brain registered that she had, in fact, been inside a coffin.
"Why in the name of Tartarus was I in a coffin!?" Twilight's mind began to dig up the hazy memory from the "Dream" she had experienced before she woke up inside the wooden burial cover. She remembered that she had spoken with someone, or something, and that it had told her its name.
Something that scared her greatly was that she didn't remember much more than the vision she had, the only other memories available to her being that she was a gifted lavender unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle, and that she had thrown herself in harm's way to push some...farm mare out of Death's way.
The mystery figure from her vision was the only other being she could recall by name, so she began to search the gray circular room in order to find the one who knew what was going on. The mare knew that the odds of her dream actually helping her out in the real world were slim to none, but she really didn't have any other leads to rely on.
"Potential, are you in here?" Twilight's search bore no fruit, the only things she found were some dried up flowers that didn't look anywhere near as enticing as the one she had eaten earlier, a dusty portrait of herself sitting next to some used up candles, and various dust bunny kingdoms scattered everywhere. However, a minute into her search, when her frustration began to slowly ascend to its apex, she heard it.
'But of course, you didn't think I'd leave you all alone in here did you?' the voice startled the unicorn mare, causing her eyes to frantically scan the dimly lit room in an attempt to locate the speaker amidst the shadows.
"Where are you?" Twilight's ears perked up intensely as they listened for any sound other than their owner's quickened breaths.
'I'm right here Twilight, where I've been for quite some time. Look not at the room in which you are in, instead look into yourself.' Potential's voice was, to say as clearly as possible, unidentifiable. Whenever Twilight thought she had the pitch for the voice figured out, it would change itself to be either an octave higher or lower, messing up her mental categorization and making it impossible to figure out the gender of its owner.
"Wait, not in this room, been with me for a long time, look into myself...you're inside my head!" the lavender mare's fore hooves flew to her head's sides, gripping it for no apparent reason, and the unicorn honestly didn't know how to feel. She was glad that she had figured out where the voice was coming from, and that in a way she wasn't truly alone, but she was more than a little freaked out that the voice was originating from within her own mind, not to mention that she was already pretty frazzled up from waking up in a casket.
'Aha! Correct, Twilight, I knew it wouldn't take you long to figure that out.' it may have just been Twilight's imagination, but she thought that the voice had grown slightly more feminine and stayed that way, finally giving her the closure she needed on figuring out whether Potential was a mare or a stallion...well those two didn't exactly apply either, after all, it was just in her head.
"Uhm, don't take this the wrong way, but, why are you inside my mind? Are you a figment of my imagination, or are you sentient on your own?" questions were the only things filling Twilight's head, aside from Potential of course, and she dearly hoped that she would get some straight answers.
'I'd love to explain it to you sometime, Twilight, but it would seem that we have other matters to attend to. One of which would be to get out of this place.' the newly awakened mare sighed and shook her head as she bore with the fact that she would have to wait to get her answers.
"Okay, I agree, but can you at least tell me why I'm here, or better yet, who I am."
'I don't know why we were in a coffin, but you already know who you are, don't you?'
"No, I don't. I know that my name is Twilight Sparkle, I am a lavender unicorn mare that is gifted in the magical arts, but that's all I know other than you and some other hazy memory of a cave collapsing." confusion and frustration were evident in the unicorn's voice, she was almost pleading for some understanding on her current situation.
'Well, I should have known that the memory loss would be more extensive than I previously thought it would be. Unfortunately, I don't know much about your personal life, I only know of what has happened after my placement within your subconscious mind.'
"Placed? By who?"
'I don't know, Twilight. All of my memories consist of the time you and I spent together in our slumber. The only other thing I know is my prime directive towards you.'
"Prime directive? So, are you some kind of neurological attachment, and if so, what do you do?"
'For the time being, I serve as your mental partner, I will offer my advice if it is needed, and I will be here if you ever need somepony to talk to. I can also carry out a more complex function, this being my principle objective, but that is one we will have to explore later on.'
"Okay Potential, just be careful with my head, now let's get out of here and look for anypony else who can tell us where we are."
Twilight made her way towards the pair of granite double-doors that marked the exit of the cold building she was in. Without stopping here trot, the mare lit up her horn and tried to push the doors open, promptly smacking her face against the cool stone once a padlock on the other side stopped her from opening the exit. Twilight sat down on her haunches and groaned as she rubbed a hoof against a sore spot on her nose, glaring daggers at the inanimate doorway.
"Great, just great, now I get to bear with a sore nose for the rest of the day." sarcasm dripped from the unicorn's remark, along with annoyance.
'You should have been more careful, sorry for being so blunt but it's true, now get back up and try to break the lock by pushing the doors with enough force.'
With a nod that nopony else saw, Twilight concentrated her magic on the heavy doors as she enveloped them in a red glow. She was a little surprised that she hadn't noticed the shift in her magic's aurora before, but distracted herself by snapping the lock on the other side of the doors as she pushed them apart, an action that seemed far too easy now, even with all her magical prowess, it should have been more difficult to do so.
Sunlight flooded in through the opening in the building, splashing against the unicorn and draining away the chill that the enclosed building had set upon her. Even though the celestial orb filled her with a warmth she craved, it also caused her to shy away from it, as if by instinct, jumping back into the shadows of the crypt. She could almost swear she heard herself hiss angrily a little once the sunbeams touched her. She began to worry even more about herself, from what she knew up to the moment, she had lost massive portions of her memory, her magical aurora had changed, and she kept acting strangely.
'What? It's just a little sunlight, go ahead.'
"I know, I know, but it's just so bright." Twilight slowly made her way into the sunlight with squinted eyes, letting them adjust to the absence of darkness. With clear vision once again, the unicorn could tell that she was in the middle of a grassland, and that the building she just just came out from had several cracks forming on the exterior, nothing major, but they didn't exactly make it look any better. She also noticed that the sun was much dimmer than she last saw it, but she blamed that one on her over-active mind.
Her head turned towards the north side of the field, spotting a huge oak tree that had grass growing near it that shorter than the one in the area around it. The sight brought jumbled images and blurs to Twilight's head, short visions of five other mares huddled around a picnic table conceiving conversations filled with laughter. Who the mystery mares where completely slipped away from her mind's grasp, frustrating her to the point in which she had to use her breathing techniques to calm herself down, but her controlled breathing wasn't the only thing helping her lose her irritation. A small gust blew through the grassland, through some fine grass, causing a sweet chime to ring out into the air and cooling the mare greatly.
"The Melodic Prairies."
'What?'
"I remember this place from some time in my past."
'Ah, it's good to see that your memories can return easily. If this is a place you already know, then there are probably more familiar areas around here.'
"Yeah, but I've got a hunch that we're going to have to traverse the forest surrounding this field."
'Then it would be best if we begin now, don't you think?'
The lavender mare and the neurological being began to move away from the building that had sheltered them during their slumber, making their way towards the thick woods surrounding the clearing. Oaks of all shapes and sizes greeted the unicorn as she entered the canopy's shadow, many of which held various scratches or markings. Twilight continued her trek even after the sun set beyond the horizon and made way for its sister orb, and she was a little more than surprised that she could see perfectly even though there was no light available. The mare walked into a small clearing in the dark forest, one that held a small fresh water pond, along with various herbs growing on the floor.
"How about we rest for a while, Potential?" Twilight wasn't actually tired, but it was exactly that that worried her, she had been walking the entire afternoon with nothing but a single flower in her stomach.
'That would be best, no need to trot on tired hooves.'
Twilight walked closer to the water's edge, and she found herself staring at her reflection, taking in the fact that she hadn't changed much. The only two things that were actually different about her were that her coat had grown slightly darker, and that her horn had grown about an inch and a half in length. The latter caused the unicorn to run a hoof along its spiraling length, admiring her improved magical tool, but she reserved all of her questions for later since she knew that she wouldn't be able to get any answers at the moment.
'Be wary of what is moving in the plants, Twilight.' Potential spoke in a highly warning tone, as if she already knew what was behind there.
The lavender unicorn turned towards the shaking plant, spotting a pair of yellow eyes staring at her from within. She shifted her stance to a defensive position, pointing her horn towards the creature in the topiary, a shield spell she had learned from her brother already prepared to be used. Just as she was going to push the creature out of its hiding spot, another bush behind her rustled, causing her to jump backwards. With her back to the pond, she stared at the trees and plants in front of her, spotting four pairs of yellow eyes looking at her. Four became five when yet another creature joined the onlookers, this one had the same golden eyes, but Twilight could tell that it was significantly bigger by the increased amount of noise and rustling it caused.
"Oh buck, Potential, I think I know what these things are." Twilight whispered to her companion, fearing that anything louder than that would cause the threatening creatures to attack.
'Velociprey, I know. You better run. Now.'
Twilight turned tail, teleported across the pond, and sprinted away as quickly as possible, desperate to put as much room between herself and the reptiles that were stalking her. The four velociprey left their hiding spots in the brush, jumping across the water's surface and giving chase to the lavender mare, leaving behind the biggest one of the pack. The larger creature simply stared at his hunting partners chase behind the mare blindly, shaking his head a little before jumping deeper into the topiary and taking a hunting route it always used.
Trees blurred in Twilight's vision as she ran with a speed she didn't know she had, incredibly staying ahead of the velociprey pack. Said pack was slobbering over the thought of sinking their teeth into their prey's warm flesh, and they were driven by pure eagerness to catch the unicorn in front of them.
"Velociprey, carnivorous lizard-like creatures that hunt in packs of four to five. Each pack is lead by a larger specimen of velociprey, named a velocidrome, who grows a red crest over its head as a sign of its dominance. They inhabit random tropical jungles and areas deep within the Everfree Forest, do not engage if escape is an option." Twilight recited the short summary on the creatures chasing her, finding that it calmed her slightly by making her feel like she knew exactly what they could do. In all honesty, nopony could actually research the velociprey species longer than a day or two before they were promptly devoured by the very pack they were observing. Twilight had read more about the velocidrome since it didn't exactly kill all of its victims, but in her eyes what it did do to most of them was much, much worse.
'Stall them, Twilight, use your magic to block off their path.' Potential's ideas were more than welcome at the moment in Twilight's 'What to do when being chased by carnivorous monsters' list.
The unicorn lit up her horn in its red aurora, concentrating on the vines cascading down from the grim trees, and willing them to serve as tendrils for her. Twilight used the vines to ensnare the velociprey at the head of the pack, causing it to give off a surprised yelp as it was lifted off of the ground and into the canopy made up by the thick treetops. The remaining three creatures dodged the vines that were sent after them, knowing their prey's fighting capabilities from what she did to their partner.
Much to her sheer terror, a tree root caught one of Twilight's hooves, causing her to fall face-first into the muddy ground, pain spreading through her muzzle quicker than the mud itself. The velociprey pack gave off their 'Barks' of joy at how their catch was facilitated, closing the distance between themselves and the mare. Twilight on the other hoof jumped back to a standing position and continued her frantic sprint, mentally berating herself for not being as careful as she should be. She felt a stinging sensation in her back, causing her to turn her head to look at what had caused it.
One of the velociprey had caught a few strands of her purple tail in his mouth, having gotten dangerously close to her. Twilight instinctively bucked her hind legs due to the pain and fear, kicking the lizard on the head and leaving it unconscious on the cold ground. The other two reptiles didn't even glance at their fallen comrade as they continued chasing the unicorn.
'Good kick by the way, now use a short-range teleportation spell to put some space between the velociprey and yourself.'
Doing as she was advised to do, the unicorn disappeared in a red burst, appearing a couple of feet further away from her would-be predators. The trees rushing by in Twilight's vision began to slow down substantially, a couple of drops of sweat began to form on her brow, and her breathing began to turn more labored. She was in deep trouble.
"Potential, I can't keep running forever! I'm going to have to find a way to lose them!" she had a plan, and she prayed to whatever was listening that it would work.
The velociprey began to tackle each other slightly, trying to get ahead of the other to get the first bite out of the unicorn, unaware of what their meal was planning. Twilight's horn lit up again and she blinked herself out of existence, causing the predators to frantically search the area ahead of them, overlooking the red aurora overtaking the ground. They were startled when all the stones on the floor lifted into the air and began to press against each other tightly, forming a solid cobblestone wall that blocked of the velociprey's forward path for a couple of seconds before they gained their senses again and ran around it, continuing down the path that led deeper into the forest.
"Haha, yes, I can't believe they fell for it." Twilight chuckled happily to herself as she climbed down from the tree she had teleported herself into.
'I have to say, that was incredibly crafty for a spot-on idea, even by your standards.'
"That's nice of you to say, but I'm just grateful I could get away from those things. There aren't many carnivores in Equestria, but velociprey are one of the worst." the unicorn trotted away from the path the predators took, looking for a safe place to rest until the sun would come up.
'True, but why did you study so much about them?'
"When I was little, I would usually attach myself to a specific genre of books for a couple of months before switching to another on. I studied about the carnivorous species of Equestria since I wanted to learn about monsters without heading into the fictional areas." Twilight set her sight on a steep cliff side a couple of yards ahead of her, spotting a cave low enough for her to be able to enter.
'It's a good thing you did, we would have probably been shredded to pieces if you hadn't.'
"Yeah, don't remind me about it. But there's still something bothering me." Twilight shuddered as she thought of what would be left of her if the velociprey had actually caught up to her.
'What, are you scared of them possibly coming back here?'
"Well, yes and no. When the pack found as at the pond clearing there were five sets of eyes watching us, but we only saw four chasing us." the unicorn began to climb up towards the cave mouth. She didn't know why, but he felt like she should be avoiding caves for some reason.
'It must have just stayed behind, probably too lazy to even try and chase its prey'
"No, I don't think it's that simple. That fifth one was much bigger than the rest, roughly a head taller than I am, and I think he might have actually been the pack leader." once she was inside the cave, Twilight cast a magelight spell that summoned a orb of white light that banished the darkness inside the domed chamber.
'Perhaps he knew somewhere else where food was easier to catch, who knows? Let's just seal this place up for the night and get some shut-eye, it's important.'
"What do you mean when you say it's important?" Twilight levitated various rocks in the cave, compacting them into a sturdy wall just like she had done when she tricked the velociprey to get away from her. She placed the cobblestone barrier at the cave's entrance, closing it off from the outside world so that she would be able to rest with a mildly peaceful state of mind.
'You'll see.'
"Okay, whatever that means."
Twilight gathered up a pile of fallen leaves that had been blown into her temporary residence before she sealed it off, spreading them out evenly as she fashioned a makeshift sleeping pad. Laying down on the itchy, cold, and lightly rotting leaves, Twilight closed her eyes and began to let her grip on the waking world slip away. Potential said something that the unicorn's drowsy mind didn't register as she slipped into sleep's silent embrace..
'It's about time we got to meet, face-to-face.'
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Luna tossed and turned in her restless sleep, whimpering slightly from the reoccurring nightmares she suffered through her nights. Her quick breathing began to slow down, her hooves stopped thrashing, and her head stopped shaking, all in perfect synchronization. Something was wrong.
The moon goddess' mind was still fully in her command, even as she slumbered, so she could tell that her hellish nightmare had been replaced with confusion, confusion that was directed at her dream magic. As the mistress of dreams, she could tell what everypony saw in their dreams simply by following a trail towards them through her subconscious mind and peeking into their fantasy. Nopony was ever excluded from her monitoring magic, she was always granted access if she some much as asked for it, so it really baffled her on how there was a dream going on that she couldn't get a hold onto.
She attempted to latch her magic onto it, only to have it repelled by dream itself, as if it knew what she was trying to do. No matter how much she focused on it, she couldn't enter the dreamer's creation, she couldn't even trace where, or who, the dreamer was.
Her nightmares long forgotten, Luna spent the rest of the night trying to break through whatever was shielding the dream from her magic, driven by curiosity, fear, and her pride.
'We will break thee, even if it is the last thing we do!'
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Twilight's eyes drifted open as one of her hooves wiped away a little of the drool that had trickled down her mouth as she slept, With a lazy yawn, the lavender unicorn got up from the reading couch she had fallen asleep on, a copy of 'Carnivores Of The Everfree' falling off of her chest and onto the floor with a dull thud. She slapped a hoof on her forehead as punishment for her ineptitude, hating herself for bringing harm to a defenseless book.
"Darn it, you've got to be more careful Twilight, a librarian does not simply drop a book on the floor." Twilight levitated the fallen book and put it on the coffee table nearby, a smile on her face as she noticed that no permanent damage was done to her book. She turned her head towards the stairway leading into her bedroom before calling out, "Spike! Let's make some breakfast!" She began to walk towards the kitchen she and her little dragon always ate in, getting halfway through the archway before she stopped dead in her tracks, staring at a spot on the wall with a confused frown on her face.
"Who's Spike? And since when am I a librarian?" the mare shook her head and walked towards the icebox in the kitchen, hoping that a nice glass of milk would be able to calm down her unstable thoughts. She very nearly dropped the bottle of milk when a voice sounded out from somewhere within the library.
"Good question."
Twilight wheeled around and stared at the archway leading back into the living room, her horn alight with her charged magical spells. She took a couple of tentative steps until she reached the entrance to the tree house's main room, still not seeing whoever it was that had spoken.
"Who's there!? Show yourself!"
"Why don't you come and find out."
The voice rang out again, but this time Twilight could tell that it originated from her upstairs bedroom. With an extremely deadly milk bottle in her magical grip, the mare ran up the oak wood stairway and burst through the door that led into her bedroom. Her amethyst eyes scrutinized every single inch visible to her, not finding the smallest of clues as to who had beckoned her up there.
Wanting to see her new appearance better, Twilight moved towards her large vanity mirror. She wasn't one to take too much time to judge the way she looked, simply combing her mane and checking for any filth on her coat, but the changes her body had undergone were more than enough to prompt a check-up from her. With the pristine mirror's surface, she could see her darkened coat shining against the moonlight that filtered in through the glass doors leading out into her balcony, she could also tell that her polished horn had not only grown in length, but it had also gained a sharpened tip, one that would make the results from the most expensive of horn makeovers look like dirt when compared to it. What really caught her attention though was her overall form. She wouldn't say that she was fat before, but she certainly wasn't the lightest of mares either, but what she saw in the mirror was anything but chubby. Her shimmering skin bulged slightly with refined muscles, how she gained them was another thing to add to her list on un-explainable occurrences. She didn't look skinny, like many mares thought looked the best, no, her body was sleek, from the tip of her horn to the end of her flanks, it was light enough to give her agility without sacrificing her muscle strength to scrawniness.
"Woah, I'm...I'm.." Twilight liked her new body, but she couldn't call herself what she wanted to.
"Hot?"
"AHHHH!" Twilight jumped away from the mirror she was using to look herself over after it finished her sentence on its own accord, making her fall to the floor, and nearly giving her a heart attack from the shock.
"Hehe, calm down, silly little mare, it's just me, Potential." the reflection walked through the vanity mirror to stand right in front of a panicking Twilight, offering her a lavender hoof to help her get up. Accepting the help, Twilight grabbed onto her partner's hoof as she stood back up, all the while her jaw was stuck in a slack position, well, until she spoke again.
"Why do you look like me!?" Twilight began to search Potential's body for anything that didn't match with her own.
"Because this is the way I am, Twilight, we are inside your subconscious mind at the moment, so you can see me for what I truly am." Potential's words put an end to Twilight's search. and reigniting the storm of questions.
"So this is where you are talking to me through? You're attached to my mind, but why, and what do you do other than offer me advice?" the barrage of questions was silenced when Potential raised her hoof and spoke in a exact copy of Twilight's voice, just like she had been doing since Twilight first heard her from the downstairs kitchen.
"One question at a time, okay?" Twilight nodded at Potential's question, prompting her to continue speaking, "Yes, I am attached to your subconscious mind. As I have told you before, I was introduced here by an external source, I have no idea who it was, but they left me in here to help keep you preserved."
"Preserved?"
"Yes, I acted as a anchor that kept your memories, personality, and innate magical abilities from permanently fading away through the time of our slumber."
"Wait, why do you keep mentioning a slumber."
"It was the period of time between my introduction into your being, and the moment you awoke inside of the coffin. The memory loss hadn't kicked in during the time of our sleep since we could only spend it inside your subconscious mind, so I helped you train your spellcasting and tactical abilities since those two only need your mind to be refined. I trust that the skills you gained during our training will come to you naturally as time passes by."
"Okay, and how come I'm a different shade of purple, have a longer horn, and a better body? Are some of these attributes even real?"
"I don't know how your body changed, Twilight, but I can assure you that what you saw in that mirror was very much what you look in the real world. I bet you're happy about that, aren't you, hot stuff?"
"Potential!" Twilight's blush threatened to burn her cheeks off, much to the amusement of the neurological counterpart.
"Hahaha, I'm just kidding, Twilight."
"I swear that sometimes you remind me a lot about Rainbow Das-" Twilight's statement was cut-off by herself as her eyes lost their focus on Potential, distracted by images of a cyan pegasus mare with a chromatic mane running through her thought processor.
"Hey, snap out of it." Potential clopped her hooves together in front of Twilight's face, releasing her from the grip her memories had put her into, "What happened to you?"
"Rainbow Dash...I know her from somewhere, but from where?" after Twilight finished her monologue, an explosion rang outside of the library, and the sky filled with every color of the light spectrum. The commotion drew the two identical mares outside onto the balcony, and they stared at the brilliant display for a while before it faded away. The buildings around the library, which were all just blobs of color, began to mold themselves into more detailed versions of what they were supposed to be, forming a small town.
"Ponyville, my home." Twilight cast her gaze over the town she once inhabited, each small sight bringing forth small snippets of larger memories.
"So you've managed to remember?" Potential was giving her host a praising smile, she didn't think that Twilight's mind would be able to revert itself so quickly, but it was anything but bad news to her.
"Yes, only a couple of things though, but from what I've seen in these little memory flashes, we are inside the Everfree Forest, directly south of Ponyville."
"Great, now we have a sense of direction for the trip tomorrow. If we pace ourselves right, we can reach the end of the forest within a couple of hours, at most. Now all we have to do is wait for this dream to expel us fro-"
The dreamscape that Potential and Twilight were in began to shake violently, causing both mares to fall to the floor, and toppling over some of the smaller buildings within the replica of Ponyville. A roar rang out in the sky, but its source was nowhere to be seen.
"Oh buck, Twilight, you have to wake up!" Potential had to scream over the thundering noise raining down from the night sky over the small town.
"What!?"
"Wake up! Wake up right now or we're both in a deep sack of horseapples!" Potential gripped Twilight's shoulders in her hooves and began to shake her wildly as she screamed in her face.
The ground under the library cracked apart and split open into a giant trench, swallowing the tree, floor, and the mares in its blinding darkness.
______________________________________________________________________
Twilight scrambled away from the pile of leaves she was sleeping on as something banged against the stone wall she had set up, adrenaline that was summoned in her sleep coursing throughout her veins. Just as she was about to relax her fighting stance slightly, the cobblestone wall shook again, cracks starting to appear on its surface. A muffled roar was heard on the other side before the offender tackled straight through the barrier, spewing forth a cloud of dust. After the obstructing cloud dissipated its large yellow eyes focused on the lavender mare in front of it.
The lavender unicorn stared at the large velocidrome in front of her, the same one that had peeled away from the pack, and the only one that actually stalked her through her journey in the forest. Through all the fear and the instinct to escape from the hostile situation, Twilight uttered one phrase, before getting swatted with a whip-like tail for trying to escape past the carnivorous lizard.
"Clever boy."
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Sorry for the long delay, but my internet was down for a couple of days, so go ahead and have 7000+ words for waiting. Like always, give me your suggestions, corrections, or just be a good ol' chap and leave a comment.
Also, enjoy the stupid Meme reference, I'm that evil, I'll ruin a scene with just two words.
PS: DAMM, TWO STORIES, TWO FEATURES, just wow.
squeeeeeee! update!
1735719
its nice to see some awesome stories up in that feature box. congrats on getting them in there.
1735806
Thanks.
This has just made my day
repeated paragraph
1736016
Thanks for that, I must look like such an idiot.
Me see big Jurassic Park reference. (Clever boy)
Jurassic Park References ahead!
Also, congratulations on the feature box!
EDIT: Problem was already fixed!
Solid chapter and I am loving the new Twilight look. Hope there is fanart of it eventually.
1736043
Indeed, clever boy, I heard you like references so I put a reference inside my fanfic so you can reference the reference I referenced in the comment section while referencing my reference.
1736066
Fixed it already, but thanks anyway.
1736072
Yes, I noticed that after I refreshed the page. My bad. I will edit the comment.
You are quick...
1686966
That's where I say this, and clicked on it.m
1736362
i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/003/087/clvrgrl.jpg
Without stopping here trot
Who the mystery mares where completely slipped away
We will break thee, even if it is the lest thing we do!
1. Her.
2. Were.
3. Err... No idea if this was how they said it back then but yeah, oh well.
Another reference I found would be the 'One does not simply _____'.
1736702
Thank you, dear editor person (that isn't legally an editor but still helps with editing), and also, I can't believe you caught that reference.
1736745
Yeah, a guide, but she will also serve as a mental sub-plot in the story, but I'm not giving any spoilers.
What the everlovin mother of fuck is goin on here? Is it just me, or is everyone writing with a line through all their words?
Those fucking dinosaurs man, especially dinosaurs with the Veloci- prefix, are such pains in the ass.
Well since Twilight now knows that she has such as sweet bod, hopefully she makes use of it in the form of one absolutely bloody prehistoric ass-whoopin'.
Also, Boromir would be proud.
Okay this looks promising, I shall be following its progress. Keep up the good work.
wait this turning into monster hunter vampony fic?
1736715 the only reason I caught it is because the group that I constantly Skype with use and even create their own memes. Then again, what group doesn't?
great chapter!
but im patient, i can wait
not quite what i was expecting, i was hoping for that celestia sees twi scene
i have a question though; is this going to be one of those vampony/necro war fics?
(think bleach setting)
1738106
No , the conflict here will be more centered around personal affairs.
1738121
im reading too many teen-shounen style vampony stories already, and this looks like it has so much potential!
good
Oh wow, this is awesome! I reeeally want to go on reading now... write faster!
"clever girl" Jurassic Park guy with SPAS-12 about to be eaten by a velociraptor
"clever boy" Twilight Sparkle with nothing, about to own the velociprey
funny thing is? bugger who died had the superior weapon
a bit of creativity here will see were this goes fav and followed...
(loved chappie 1 and 2 but this takes the cake(so far))
"Clever boy." i saw what you did thar!
keep up the good work :D
1738121
Somepony likes Monster Hunter!
But do you love it as much as I do?
1739704 I know I love Monster Hunter
I am planning to get a Wii-u and MH3U in March
1739714
Sweeeeeeeet. The Lagiacrus in the MH Tri single player is kicking my ass. I need my gear from MH Freedom Unite.
1739729 what weapon you using?
1739741
Chieftain's Great Sword or the Tough Break switch axe. My armor is made from Royal Ludroth. It's decent, and the dodge system from all games is integrated into my muscle memory, so I generally come out on top. Fighting underwater, though, is still something I need to master. On land, I'm untouchable. In the water, I sometimes feel like I'm flailing about like a Magicarp.
1739765 Lances are god tier in Tri, I actually prefer Bowgun underwater though
back when I played, that was basically what I used, Lance and Bowgun
1739783
Huh. I'm good with anything I pick up, but I am partial to the Great Sword, since I'm fast with it, even though it's supposed to be slow. The weapon I use usually depends on what monster I'm gonna fight.
1739788 back when I played it was full of Long Sword users, we called them trippers since that is all they did
1739811
Yeah, I know what you mean. But trippers are really helpful, especially if your strategy involves bombs.
1739828 problem is the only time teams use bombs in MH3 is for Diablos and Altareon horn farming
1739839
What the hell?! Why not just use bombs in general?! When I go out, I'm a freaking commando with as much stuff as I can carry. Seriously, if you were allowed to carry more than one weapon, you would see me with a light bowgun (I can use the heavy, but I don't like to) and a sword and shield, unless I have enough room for a larger weapon.
1739891 I love the Bowgun system in Tri too bad it is gone in Ultimate :c
1739900
Do you need a Wii U for Ultimate?
1739916 it is going to be a Wii-u exclusive yes.
I prefer the 3 piece mix and match from Tri over light or heavy in other games
1739923
Darn. Well, I still have yet to beat the Fatlalis, so that's a victory I need to achieve.
Monster hunter~
You don't see that everyday~
1739714
1739932
Ah, fellow Monster Hunter fans eh? It's nice to see that people still continue playing such a good franchise, and I couldn't resist myself from putting in a reference, it's kinda my thing.
1742654 no psp or ps3 so I only actually got to play Tri and MH3G
1742661
Yeah, it's a shame that many of the games are exclusive to only one type of console, not even I have played all of them.