Chapter 1

It’s amazing how much can change in just one month.

A month ago, if you’d told me that I’d wind up on another world, I wouldn’t have believed it. A month ago, if you’d told me I’d find myself caught in the middle of a war that would determine the freedom of an entire species, I would have laughed at you. And a month ago, if you’d told me that magic - not sleights-of-hand and parlor tricks, but real, genuine magic - was real, I probably would have called you insane.

And yet it came to pass that, exactly one month after that fateful day that I ascended into the mountains for a simple camping trip, I found myself on another world. I’d already been through a war to determine the freedom of another species. I’d fought for my life, killed more times in 2 weeks than most people killed in their entire life. And I’d seen magic. Real, honest-to-God magic. Fireballs summoned from thin air, levitation, teleportation, and even the disruption of time itself.

So why this came as such a big surprise to me, I have no idea.

“So… you weren’t kidding.” It wasn’t a question. More a statement of genuine disbelief. My arms folded as I glanced towards my travelling companion. “Like… Ponies actually control the sun and moon.”

As I glanced towards my companion, I was reminded once again of how similar these Ponies were to Humans, and yet at the same time, incredibly different. As a Pony, Luna’s form was similar to that of a young woman - graceful, perhaps a bit taller than average but nothing out of the ordinary. She was certainly thinner than most women, though that had more to do with recent events than her natural body type. Even so, she wasn’t nearly as thin as I had seen her a few days before.

Rather than skin, however, her body was covered by a layer of dark-blue fur. Though it had lost a lot of its lustre in recent days, I knew that once she returned to a healthy size that it would shine in the moonlight that streamed through the windows. A horn jutted from her head, the same color as her fur but made of a substantially tougher material - bone, perhaps. Her face was not flat as a Human’s, but had a small snout, much like a horse though not nearly as pronounced.

I raised an eyebrow as she chuckled. “Of course they do,” she replied. “How else would they move around Gaia?”

“What… by gravity, of course!” I exclaimed. Now it was Luna’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Like… Terra revolves around the sun, held in place by a perfect balance of momentum and gravity. And our moon revolves around Terra in much the same way. Physics, not magic.”

Luna cocked her head to the side slightly. “Really? How odd…”

“And controlling those celestial bodies by magic isn’t at all odd?” I paused for a moment as we turned into a narrow doorway and began to ascend the spiral staircase that lay beyond it. She went first, with me following behind, being careful not to step on the back of the pale-golden dress that dragged along the ground behind her. “I mean, you’ve got to admit, it sounds a little… sketchy. How is one Pony supposed to control something as big as the moon with enough finesse to keep it perfectly in orbit?”

“Well actually, Chris, there’s a whole group of Unicorns that -”

“And that’s not even mentioning the sun, which given how far away it is and how much bigger than the moon it is…”

“What? Chris, you do know that the sun is only a little bit bigger than the moon, right? And only a little further away?”

I froze there, halfway up the spiral staircase. Luna paused a few seconds later, looking back at me with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. “Honestly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you knew nothing about how things work in our world,” she added with a smirk.

I shook my head and began to ascend the staircase again, a bit slower than before. “I’m starting to think that might be the case…”

“Well, it seems that you’ll have a while here to figure things out.”

“Don’t remind me,” I muttered, my mood growing darker. I could feel a scowl forming across my face.

Luna didn’t look back, but she must have heard it in my voice. “Well, it could be worse,” She retorted. “You could have been kicked out into the wilderness to fend for yourself.”

“True,” I sighed. “I’m just lucky I had you three to back me up.”

“Father will warm to you in time.” Luna glanced over her shoulder and gave me a smile. “Just wait and see.”

Yeah right. I chuckled under my breath and shook my head. Solaris had made his opinion on me pretty clear, and I had a sinking feeling that it wasn’t going to change soon. But Serenity and the princesses seemed to be enough to keep him tolerating me. So I suppose my best bet would, indeed, be to follow Luna’s advice, and just wait and see.

That was my basic plan, for the time being. Wait, if not for Solaris’ approval, then for something to change with the portal. See if something changed, or if some Unicorn somehow discovered the secret to interplanetary teleportation. The specifics… honestly, I had no clue. I had a feeling that I was going to be playing it by ear for the next little while.

The two of us fell into silence as we arrived at the third floor and stepped out into the hallway. This part of the palace was just as magnificent as the hallway we had just left. The ceilings were easily twenty feet above our heads, with chandeliers dangling down at periodic intervals. Normally lit with dozens of candles each, the flames had died down to a dim glow as the day faded to night. They were enough light to see by, sure, but not enough to reveal the details. Still, I knew some of the decorations by instinct now. Two busts of Pony heads on my left - one Unicorn, one not. A painting of a mare and a stallion working on a farm to my right. I knew these decorations.

I’d certainly seen them enough times.

Luna’s pace slowed down to a crawl in the middle of an intersection between two hallways. She glanced in either direction, then out the window directly across from her, then back towards me. “Which way was it again?" She asked.

“To the left. Third one on the right,” I replied. I knew this route by heart now. Sure enough, as we approached the room I had pointed out, I could tell it was the one. The one I had stayed in for near enough two weeks during the Minotaur’s occupation.

“Alright, Chris. Last stop.” Luna pulled a key out from around her neck and inserted it into the lock. The lock clicked open, and the door was pushed inwards, revealing the same room I had remembered. The four-poster bed centered against the opposite wall, flanked by two large windows. A single door leading into the bathroom on the wall to the right. A set of double door on the wall to the left, leading to a walk-in closet.. And bookshelves, lining the wall behind me and to my right.

“Rest up, Luna continued as she tossed me the key. I snatched it out of the air, slipping the string around my neck. “Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.”

I felt a twinge of uneasiness. The way she had said that… “... Big how?”

“Mother wants to do a few tests with you. Nothing invasive!” she added as I opened my mouth to protest. “Mostly just… running, lifting, that sort of thing. Testing your strength, speed, endurance. Physical tests that we never got a chance to do back at the camp. If you’re going to be staying with us for a while, she wants to know what exactly you’re capable of.”

“Your father wants to know, you mean.”

“...yes…”

I snorted. “One of the things he demanded in order to let me stay?”

“Chris, please… just… play along, alright?”

I snorted again, but nodded my head. “Alright. If it’ll give him some peace of mind I’ll do it. Just… be direct with me in the future, hm?”

Luna flashed me a sheepish grin. “I’ll do what I can. No promises though,” she added with a laugh. I couldn’t help but return the grin as Luna backed away and out of the door. “G’night Chris.”

“‘Night, Luna,” I replied. I heard the door click closed, and the muffled sound of hoofsteps fading away into nothingness.

Much like the first time I had entered this room, my backpack fell from my shoulders to the floor with a muffled thump. My shoes and socks were next, followed by my shirt. The bed beckoned to me, and I was happy to fall upon it. It was just as soft and comfortable and satisfying to lay on as the first time I had laid upon it. Perhaps more satisfying, now that I wasn’t planning on stabbing the castle’s owner in the back.

I couldn’t help but smile again as the full weight of the events of the past few days hit me. It was done. My mission had been a success. Adamant Will was dead, Equestria was free, Solaris and Serenity had been restored to their rightful place… The only downside to this whole thing was that I still couldn’t go home. But of course, I was still nearby. Still near the pool to keep an eye on it. If it opened up, I’d know about it pretty quickly. All in all, things had turned out pretty well. With these thoughts, I quickly found myself lost to sleep.

---

Pure darkness.

Darkness so absolute that I could not see my hand as I pressed it against my nose. I was weightless, floating through nothingness. Unseeing. Unknowing.

And then, it flashed to life. The sole source of light against the infinite blackness. It was blinding. I had to shield my eyes, wait as they slowly adjusted to the newfound source of light. Finally, I was able to discern the source of the light. A single candle. And yet, in the void that surrounded it, the light from that candle was blinding. A single candle was all that was needed.

All that was needed to reveal the beast.

Only its silhouette could be seen - despite the light from the candle, the shadows still clung to the beast. A draconic visage, with twin horns sprouting from its head. A serpentine body, slithering off into the eternal void. Two wings, far too small to physically be capable of providing flight. Two claws - short and stubby compared to the length of its body, but certainly long enough. Two legs, sprouting near the end of its body, on the very edge of the light provided by the candle.

The beast of my Nightmares.

My eyes widened as I took in its form, and it took all of my willpower not to scream. Yet, despite my arrival, despite the newly-created blinding light of the candle, the beast didn’t seem to notice me. It slithered around the light - never fleeing into the safety of the darkness, nor drawing too near to the candle. Darkness dripped away from the beast like a flame, shielding the beast from the light.

“The knight has fallen,” The beast hissed - a deep, dark, bassy hiss. Its voice was laced with disappointment, maybe even a hint of anger. “How… disappointing. It appears my opponent has discovered a new pawn. One that can resist me... This will require closer examination…”

“No matter.” The beast surged upwards, out of my sight, out of the vision granted by the light from the candle. A moment later, it descended again, wrapping itself around the light as a snake would wrap itself around prey. “My grip weakens, but is not broken. This new pawn will require careful monitoring, but is... insignificant.” The beast’s grip tightened, and the darkness followed the creature, squeezing against the light. I could feel the pressure building within the safety of the candle’s light. “My claw will stretch across this land, one way or another.” The squeezing became tighter. The pressure was almost painful now. My eardrums felt like they were ready to burst.

“And all will know fear.”

The beast’s claw finally descended upon the candle.

And with a final hiss, the light was gone.

---

“Chris?”

I bolted upright. My breathing was heavy, I was drenched in a cold sweat, my heart was hammering away in my chest. My gaze whipped wildly around me. Bed. Window. Door. Bookshelf. I was… in my room. “Just… just a dream…” I murmured.

“Chris? Are you awake?”

My head whipped towards the door. That had been Luna’s voice. Sure enough, a quick glance out the window told me that dawn had just broken. A new day. “Yeah, I'm up!” I called out. I hopped out of the bed and threw my clothes on - the same ones as the day before, save for a new pair of underwear. No sense in dirtying another set of clothes today.

After all, I had a few physical tests I needed to do...

Chapter 2

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The journey through the castle was a quick one. By this point, I was certain that the Minotaurs had intentionally led me around in circles while escorting me around the castle. Either that, or they regularly became lost. The journey down to the dining hall - a trip that had taken easily ten minutes when I had gone to dine with Adamant Will - today took a mere three minutes.

Even so, it seemed that we were already late. As Luna pushed the door open, I saw that we were the last ones to arrive for the morning meal. The other three, in fact, had already risen from their chairs, and were making their way towards the door on the opposite end of the dining hall.

Solaris and Celestia exited the room without a backwards glance. Serenity moved to leave as well, but paused as the door slammed shut behind us. Her head swiveled towards us, and her lips curved upwards in a small smile. “Ah, good morning Chris, Luna,” she greeted us as we approached. “I was beginning to wonder whether or not you were going to join us.”

“We would have been here sooner,” Luna replied, giving me a playful nudge, “If Chris here hadn’t taken his time in dragging himself out of bed.”

“As if,” I scoffed with a smirk. “I was out of that room less than a minute after I woke up.”

“Well, we’ve already finished our breakfast,” Serenity continued with a chuckle. “You two go ahead and eat up, but do try and make it quick. When you’re done, meet us near the barracks out behind the castle.”

“Is that where we’re going to to be doing these tests?” I asked.

Serenity nodded in response. “Yes. They’ll have the equipment we need to get a decent measure of your physical abilities.”

“Equipment?” I murmured. “So… what kind of tests are we talking about specifically?”

That only earned me another smile and a shake of the head. “Ah, but that would be telling,” Serenity replied. “You’ll find out when you get there.”

With that, Serenity turned and walked out of the dining hall, closing the door behind her. Luna and I were left alone, and so we took our normal seats at the table - me at the second to last seat, between where Serenity and Celestia would normally sit; and Luna directly opposite me, next to her father’s usual spot.

Breakfast passed in silence. It was the same sort of food that seemed to be the norm for the royal family - grapes, cantaloupes, carrots, a few piles of roasted hay, and so on. What stood out to me, however, were two plates full of food that I’d never seen any Pony eat before - fried eggs and ham. A glance towards Luna’s plate let me know that she was avoiding these new items, instead choosing the fruits and vegetables that I knew were more comfortable for Ponies to digest. I could only assume that these two plates had been served specifically for me, and so I helped myself to their contents, happily devouring the meal that had been left for us.

It wasn’t long before both of our plates had been cleared. Neither of us moved to take any more from the serving dishes laid out before us. As one, we rose from our seats and exited the dining hall. Luna took the lead and turned to the left, with me following right behind.

It wasn’t long before we emerged onto the back lawn of the castle. I’d only ever seen this area once before, when waiting with the Minotaurs to be led to the execution. I’ll be honest, at the time I hadn’t exactly been in the mood for sightseeing. Now, however, with panic no longer gnawing at me and no Minotaurs to distract me, I was able to fully take it in.

Not that there was much taking in to be done. The lawn itself was enormous. To be expected, considering the size of the castle. The only problem with the size of the lawn was how… empty it was. A couple of trees here and there, a few meandering paths, what looked like a hedge maze in the far corner. The rest of the massive lawn was almost entirely barren - just an empty plain of grass.

In fact, the only other feature that could be seen was what looked like a compound towards the back of the lawn, right up against the perimeter wall, with a single path leading directly from the castle towards it. A wall of stone rising from the ground, starkly contrasting the grass that surrounded it. If anything out here was going to be the barracks, that would be it - a thought that was confirmed as Luna turned down the path that lead directly towards it.

The clang of metal striking metal reached my ears as we approached the barracks. Beneath that, I could hear the occasional order barked out, though I couldn’t hear exactly what was being said. The smell of sweat and smoke filled the air. As we reached the heavy wooden doors, I heard another sound - the sound of hooves on stone. An instant later, Luna and I were forced to jump to the side as the doors flew open and a group of stallions in heavy armor ran down the path we had just come up. As the soldiers cleared the doors, Luna and I took the opportunity to slip in behind them, entering the compound as the doors slammed shut behind us.

It was a lot bigger on the inside than I had expected - at least as long as a football field in both directions, with part of the compound jutting out beyond the palace walls and into the city itself. Aside from the size, however, the interior of the compound was visually uninteresting. The main area that we had stepped into was open-air, allowing the sun to shine down into the compound.. Most of the area was taken up by a large grass field, with a paved path encircling the entire field. Doors lined the outer walls, leading into side rooms or tunnels - to where, I had way of knowing. The field itself was littered with what I assumed was training equipment. Straw and wood target dummies, Bullseyes, rocks of varying sizes lined up next to the track, racks of dull wood and stone weapons, and so on. Several dozen stallions were spread out across the field, doing their training either on their own or as a group under the watchful gaze of what were clearly drill sergeants.

I felt Luna nudge me. I turned my head towards her, and she jerked her head to her right. Sure enough, standing against the wall to our right, I could make out the familiar forms of the rest of the royal family. Celestia and Serenity seemed not to have noticed us yet, but Solaris certainly had. His face was locked in a frown, and his gaze never left me as Luna and I made our way over.

“You made it,” Serenity spoke up over the noise as we stopped a few paces away. I guess she’d noticed our arrival after all. There was none of the liveliness or humor in her voice that I’d heard earlier. Instead it was flat, almost monotone. “Thank you for coming, Chris. I assume by now you’re aware of what we’re doing here.”

“You said you wanted a measure of my physical ability.” I replied.

“We want to know what you’re capable of, yes.” That had been Solaris. His eyes still had not left me, and I felt a small shiver run down my spine as he continued. “There will be three main components today - strength, speed, and endurance. Follow me.” For the first time since I had entered the compound, Solaris’ gaze fell away from me. I released a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding and shook my head to clear it. Solaris had already begun walking away, and I fell into step behind him and Serenity, with Celestia and Luna following as well.

Solaris came to a stop next to the large boulders that had been left next to the outer paved path There were at least two dozen of them of varying sizes, stacked up in order from largest to smallest. Up close, I could see that small handles had been carved into the rocks.

“Your first test. Strength.” Solaris took a step back and pointed at the boulder closest to him - the largest one, by far. “Grab by the handles. They’ve been enchanted to grant you a stronger grip, but that will not make them any lighter. Your task is to lift this stone to your hips. If you find you cannot, move down to the next smallest one and continue until you can.

I blanched slightly as I stepped up to the first boulder. The rock was taller than I was, and nearly as broad and as thick. Even before I reached out to grab the handles, I knew I would be unable to so much as nudge it, much less deadlift it. Sure enough, the rock refused to move as I pulled upwards on the handle. I shook my head and moved down to the next one - slightly shorter, with less depth and breadth as well. Even so, it was still far too large, and it refused to move as well.

And so I moved down the row. The heavier ones were clearly intended for Earth Ponies, given their enormously increased strength. It was only at the sixth one that I was even able to budge the weight, and even then I could not lift it. I frowned as I heard Solaris scoff behind me, but ignored him as I moved on to the seventh.

Towards the middle, I could see that the lifting stones were becoming more and more shaped like barbells. Sure enough, the tenth one was a proper barbell, with two weighted stones on either end of the bar. This one I could lift a bit, but still found that I could not properly deadlift. I released my grip and moved on to the eleventh weight in the row.

“Pitiful,” I heard Solaris sneer behind me. “I lifted that one when I was twelve years old...”

My brow furrowed, but I did my best to ignore Solaris’ remarks. Instead, I reached down to grab the next barbell in the row. It was certainly heavy, and I felt a sweat break out on my forehead as I strained against the weight. Still, I could feel the weight lifting off of the ground. A moment later, and I was standing up straight with the barbell held at my hip level. “Done,” I announced as I let the weight crash back down to the ground.

“Eleven and a half stones…” I heard Serenity murmur. “Just over average for a Pegasus.”

I felt a small twinge of satisfaction. I had no way of knowing whether or not the stones used in measuring here were the same as back home, but I knew that back home that eleven and a half stones was just over 160 pounds. And the barbell had certainly felt heavy enough to roughly fit that measurement. I felt a small smirk cross my face. Not bad…

“Finally.” And just like that, one quiet snark from Solaris erased that satisfaction. I shot a glare in his direction as he continued. “Let’s move on. Speed next. This one shouldn’t take quite so long. Just run from this wall to the one on the opposite side as quickly as you can. Get ready.”

I moved to the side so that I wouldn’t trip over the barbell I had just lifted and moved backwards to press myself against the wall. A small twinge of nervousness rushed over me. I could feel that I wasn’t in as good a shape as I used to be. Not as fast. This wasn’t going to be a good one…

“On my mark.”

I bent down so that I was almost lying on the ground. The tips of my fingers touched the stone beneath me, and my foot touched the wall behind me. Hopefully that would help me get a bit of a boost.

“Go!”

As soon as the word had left Solaris’ lips, I was off. My legs churned underneath me as I sprinted across the field. I could feel the gazes of several of the stallions on the field as I raced across, but paid them no mind. They weren’t anywhere near me. They weren’t going to get in my way.

It was actually going a lot better than I had expected. My speed was good, I could tell. My breathing was paced, though certainly becoming deeper and rougher as I approached the end. The far wall was fast approaching. I skidded to a stop and slapped the wall with both hands before spinning around and extending both hands over my head. I received a similar signal from Serenity in response. I let loose a small grin as I set off at a slower jog back towards the other side.

“Thirteen seconds,” I heard Serenity say as I came to a stop a few paces away from them. That only made my grin return in full force. Thirteen seconds for roughly a hundred yard dash? Just a few seconds more than most of the guys on the track and field team back in high school.

“Disappointing.” And once again, Solaris’ voice cut into my thoughts, with an instant deflating effect. “And you claim that your species are predators? Either you must be a runt, or else I cannot -”

“Solaris, enough!” Serenity’s sharp command instantly cut the king off, and drew the stare of more than one nearby stallion. I couldn’t exactly blame them. The glare she was aiming at Solaris made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

But if Solaris was fazed, he didn’t show it. He merely shrugged and rolled his shoulders. “The final test will be that of endurance,” he continued as if nothing had happened. “We’ve seen your strength. We’ve seen your speed. Now we need to know how long you can keep it up. Your task is pretty simple. All you need to do is run around the edge of the drill grounds until you can go no further. I don’t care how fast you’re going, so long as it’s faster than a walk. Just keep it up for however long you can.”

As Solaris spoke, I could feel a sly grin crossing my face. The grin didn’t fade as he fell silent. If anything, it grew wider. “Just… as long as I can, huh?” I repeated. “I hope you all don’t have any pressing plans for the rest of the morning.”

“Confident, are we?” Solaris smirked. “Fifty bits says you don’t last twenty minutes.”

“I’ll take that bet.”

“But Chris!” Luna exclaimed. “You don’t have - “

I merely waved my hand. “I’m not worried.” I chuckled. “Just tell me when to start.”

I glanced back towards Solaris, taking note of the look of confusion on his face. Clearly he’d not expected me to take his wager so willingly. But he clearly was unwilling to back down from it. His brow furrowed, and he held one hand up in the air. “Get ready. Go!”

And I was off. Not nearly as fast as my sprint across the center, but at a reasonable jog. A light breeze rushed past me, and I felt my grin return. Solaris was in for a nasty shock…

The first lap was slow - close to three minutes, by my estimation. As I passed, Solaris, I could see that cocky smirk plastered across his face. He said nothing, and I refused to make eye contact as I jogged past him.

The second lap passed much as the first. And the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. Sweat lined my forehead by now. My breathing was deeper, more deliberate. But I wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot. Even out of shape, I knew how long I could keep up this pace. And I was getting only getting faster.

Twenty minutes came and went. I’d done seven laps, and still wasn’t even close to my limit. I flashed the royal family a grin as I finished lap eight and continued past them.

Half an hour in, and I’d begun timing myself. At this point, the royal family had removed themselves from the running track, instead standing with their backs to the wall as I ran my circles. The lap times were now a consistent two and a half minutes, give or take a couple of seconds. Every few seconds, I did a quick once-over. My legs were beginning to burn, but I knew that it would be a while before they truly started to hurt. I was breathing properly, making sure I had enough air. I’d wipe the sweat away every now and then. Other than that, I was focused on my run.

By now, the other stallions in the area had started to take notice. I caught glimpses of a few of them staring as I made my laps, and more than one leaned in to whisper to another. I tried to ignore the attention I was receiving, but given how blatant it was becoming, it was pretty hard to do.

And it wasn’t just the soldiers staring. Solaris’ smirk had long vanished, transforming into an expression of disbelief. Serenity maintained her usual mask of neutrality. Celestia seemed nearly as shocked as her father, while Luna was doing her best not to laugh at their dumbfounded expressions.

At one point, around the forty-five minute mark, I passed by a pair of Earth Ponies by the weights I had attempted to lift earlier, their backs to the track and to me. “What is that thing made of?” I heard one of them ask as I approached. “He’s got to be slowing down by now…”

“No…” the second muttered. He glanced over his shoulder at me as I passed, but quickly averted his gaze. “No… I think he’s just hitting his stride…”

And so I was. My breathing was regular, the burning wasn’t getting any worse, I was easily able to keep wiping sweat away as needed. It wasn’t a fast pace, certainly not a full-on sprint, but a brisk jog. And for this demonstration, that was all I needed.

Finally, after what must have been at least an hour and a half, I spotted Serenity walking onto the track ahead of me, one arm outstretched in front of her. I gradually slowed my pace until I had come to a mere stroll a few dozen yards away from her.

“I must admit, Chris, that I am… shocked,” Serenity began. “Even an Earth Pony would be exhausted after such an effort, and yet you look no worse for wear.”

I continued to walk past Serenity, walking a small circle on the track. I knew I had to keep moving, at least a little bit. I had to keep the blood flowing or else risk getting dizzy after such a long jog. Still, I couldn’t help but shoot her a grin as I walked my small circle. “It would have caught up to me eventually," I half-panted, "but I could have kept that up for a while yet. And I’m not even as good shape as I was before I came here.” My gaze snapped towards Solaris, whose expression had not changed since I had slowed down. “You owe me fifty bits, by the way.”

Solaris shook his head as if to clear it. “I have to admit, that was… impressive,” he muttered. “How did you do that? What training did you have to go through?”

“No training.”

“None?” That had been Celestia who had spoken up. She now drew closer, standing between Serenity and Solaris a few paces away from the circle I was walking.

“Nothing outside of the normal stuff Humans do to keep in shape,” I explained. “A little jogging, weight lifting, that sort of thing. We’re just built for this kind of thing.”

Serenity cocked her head to the side. “What do you mean, ‘built for this’?”

“Well, as I’ve told you, Humans are, by nature, predators,” I began. “Humans are the only species on Terra with any level of intelligence required for civilization. Every other creature is just… an animal. Sentient, yes, but not sapient as you and I are. In recent times, we’ve turned to agriculture, but before we began developing our civilization, we were hunters and gatherers”

“Even then, our greater intelligence helped us. We used tools to bring down prey that we would normally be unable to hunt. But of course, the hunt involves actually catching your prey before you can bring it down. And as you’ve seen today, Human’s aren’t exactly the fastest creatures ever.”

“So?” Solaris interrupted. “What does this have to do with -”

I held up a hand to cut him off. “I’m getting to that,” I chided. “So, Human’s aren’t that fast. Even back before we settled down and developed civilization, we couldn’t nearly match the short bursts of speed our prey could put out. But we had a skill that made us the alphas, the apex predators of our world.”

“Our endurance. We couldn’t hope to match the speed of some of our prey, but we could track it. We could follow prints in the dirt, tufts of fur in branches, scrapes against tree bark. We could pursue our prey to the ends of the earth and back again. And no matter how far we had to go, no matter how long it took, we would get our target. The creature would be left on the ground, too exhausted to struggle as we caught up and claimed our next meal.”

By this point, Luna and Celestia had visibly blanched. I nodded in their direction. “You see? You understand how terrifying that must be?” I asked. “From the perspective of our prey? To know that no matter how fast you ran, how far you got away, that the predator would track you down until you physically could not run any more. And bear in mind that, while Humans can’t use magic, neither can anything else on Terra. If you can’t fight and can’t run, then it’s over.”

Serenity took a half pace forward. “And… exactly how far could you track your prey?” she asked. “What are the limits of your endurance?”

“Humans can take far more abuse than you’d think, looking at us,” I replied. By now, I'd stopped walking my circle, and was instead turned to face the royal family fully. “It wouldn’t be painless, nor would it be without consequences in both the short and long term, but Humans have endured some incredible circumstances. Humans can go up to three minutes without air, three days without water, upwards of a week with no sleep, and three weeks without food. We live in climates as harsh as the Sahara desert or the frozen polar region. We’ve survived being cast adrift at sea for months, or lost in the mountains or in the jungles for weeks at a time. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again - we were built to endure punishment. And we turned that endurance into one of our greatest weapons, along with our intelligence, in order to become the apex predator of our world.”

Silence descended upon us as I finished my explanation. Silence broken only by the sound of the soldiers training around us, but even that seemed almost muted and distant. I glanced over each one of the royals in turn, trying to get some idea of what they were thinking. Solaris’ expression was that of guarded curiosity. I could tell that his perspective of me had shifted, though to what I couldn’t say. Did he see me as even more of a threat now? A potential ally? I couldn’t tell.

Serenity and Celestia both wore carefully guarded expressions that betrayed no emotion. It was clear which one of her parents Celestia had taken after. Neither one afforded me any insight into their thoughts on me.

Luna, on the other hand… She made no attempt to conceal her thoughts. Curiosity was plain as day, as well as a hint of fear. I could only imagine the shift of perspective that had occurred in her mind after my speech. Before, I’d just been Chris - a friend, an almost accidental hero perhaps. What I was now? I could only speculate.

But my speculation was cut off as Serenity cleared her throat. “Well that was certainly… insightful,” She began. Behind her, I could see Solaris motion towards the princesses. The three gave a backwards glance at me in unison as they walked away, towards the door at the end of the training grounds. Serenity and I both watched as the door swung open, and then shut closed behind them.

As soon as the door had closed, Serenity let out a sigh. “Thank you for doing this today, Chris,” she began “And I’m sorry about how Solaris has been acting. Just give it a little while and I’m sure he’ll come around.”

I shook my head. “I hope so…” I murmured. Luna had said essentially the same thing the night before, but especially considering his attitude towards me today, I was hardly convinced.

“Now, there is one other bit of business to discuss before we part for the day.” Serenity shot another glance towards the door before leaning in close to me. “Meet with Luna in the library after dinner tonight. There is something she and I have arranged there. And make sure Solaris doesn’t know.”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “Keeping secrets from the king?” I whispered back. “What are you -”

“Just trust me. It’s best he not know quite yet.”

A small knot formed in the pit of my stomach. My first day as a semi-permanent resident of Equestria, and I was already being told to keep secrets from the crown. But if Serenity was sure… “Alright. If you say so.”

“Thank you, Chris.” Serenity did something I had never seen her do. A mischievous grin flashed across her face, and she patted my shoulder. A show of emotion unlike anything I’d seen out of her before.

“Trust me. It’ll be worth it.”

Chapter 3

View Online

To say that dinner that evening was awkward would be a bit of an understatement.

I was sat in my normal spot, between Serenity and Celestia and opposite from Luna. The dinner itself was standard Pony fare, as usual - fruits, vegetables, and nuts, as well as grasses that I knew better than to touch. The conversation topics were unchanged. We discussed the continued pushback against the Minotaurs. New commanders - Ponies whose names were unfamiliar to me - were debated as possible replacements for those lost in the attack on Everfree. I learned of supposedly heightened activity in the Frozen North by the Griffonian Empire, far across the sea from their homeland. On the surface, it would seem like any other dinner that I’d had since the fall of Adamant Will.

But just beneath the surface, I could tell that all was not well. Their ears were all folded backwards ever so slightly. Celestia was far less vocal than normal, only speaking when spoken to and keeping her response brief. Solaris kept glancing across the table at me, even when others were speaking. Serenity seemed more interested in my opinion than usual. And Luna refused to meet my eyes, choosing instead to look at her plate, at the speaker, at her fork… anywhere but at me.

Of course, learning that your dining companion is a predator perfectly capable of running you down over the course of hours or days might have a chilling effect on the mood…

Luna was the first to finish her meal. She averted her gaze as she slid backwards in her seat, rising to her hooves. She said nothing, instead exchanging only a brief glance with her mother and a nod with her father. A moment later, she was gone, the doors closing shut behind her as she walked out into the hallway.

I glanced to my left. I found Serenity glancing towards me as well. For a moment, our gazes locked. And just as suddenly, they were broken. I felt a few butterflies flutter in my stomach as I returned my attention to the remnants of my meal. I picked a bit at the small pile of beans I had left, only to find that what remained of my appetite had abandoned me. Still, I forced myself to finish the few remaining bites on my plate.

It was only a few minutes more before I and the others had finished as well. I heard the scraping of wood against wood as Solaris rose to his feet. Next to me, Serenity and Celestia rose together, and I stood up as well. Together, we all made our way out of the dining hall and into the hallway.

At this point, on a normal evening, We would have all gone our separate ways. Serenity and Solaris would head off to the left, while Luna and Celestia would join me as we took the right-hand passage before we, too, parted ways at the far end of the corridor. Save for Luna’s absence, it seemed to start no different than normal. We said our evening farewells and went our separate ways - Serenity and Solaris going one way, Celestia and I the other.

I knew, however, that tonight was going to be a bit out of the ordinary. The library was my destination - a location I’d visited a few times over the past few days, and one that I felt confident that I could find on my own. However, that particular route would take me off of my beaten path, and instead have me not part ways with Celestia at the end of the hall. Instead, I’d be following her… at least until the spiral staircase, if not a bit further than that.

I didn’t make a big deal of it, instead simply turning with Celestia as we reached the end of the hall. She turned her head towards me, and I could see her lift an eyebrow. “Not headed to bed quite yet?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No, I think I’ll head to the library for a bit,” I answered.

“Anything particular you’re looking to research there?” She asked. She turned her head more fully towards me. “I could help. For a while, at least.”

I had to shake my head. I didn’t know whether or not Celestia had been let in on this secret meeting that Serenity had set up. If she hadn’t… “No, nothing in particular,” I replied. “Just gonna browse a bit.”

That seemed to placate Celestia. She said nothing else as we continued down the corridor, towards a large spiral staircase. I followed behind Celestia, stepping off at the second floor as she continued upwards. She glanced backwards as we parted ways, and we both exchanged a small smile as I passed through a gilded archway and out of the staircase.

From there, it was a simple matter of actually getting to the library. It was a route I’d traveled several times before. First right, third left, skirt around the guard patrol as they gave me a funny look, and then fifth door on the right. Sure enough, the familiar double oaken doors greeted me. I grasped the knob, turned, and pulled the doors open.

As I stepped in, I couldn’t help but marvel once again at the sight before me. I’d emerged from the center of one of the sides of a large, rectangular area. This open area stretched from my feet to far above my head - two additional stories, in fact. This rectangular area was devoid of bookshelves, and was instead littered with tables and chairs of every type imaginable, from simple wooden chairs to leather recliners to padded benches. Ornately-carved marble pillars lined the outer edges of the rectangular area.

Beyond the pillars lay the bookshelves. Hundreds, maybe thousands of them, from the wall to the edge of the rectangle, each one containing thousands of books. Only one section was devoid of these bookshelves - a small corner, on the far side and to my right, where a marble staircase rose to the second floor. I knew that each floor was more of the same - countless more books on countless more bookshelves. More books than one could possibly read in their life.

And looking directly up, I could see perhaps the most spectacular feature of the library. An extravagant crystalline structure, almost snowflake-like in design, anchored to the ceiling and stretching down to the second floor. A single ball of light-giving energy rested within the structure… or so I’d been told. I would never have guessed it was only one, for the crystal reflected and refracted the light in such a way that no corner of the library was left dark. The reading area on the bottom floor was also bathed in the warm glow, ensuring that there was ample light to read or write by from any chair or table.

I stepped forward into this glow with a smile. I’d already spent several hours in this room, learning all I could about Gaia that might help me in the coming weeks and months. I had a feeling that I’d be spending hours more during my stay.

But for the first time that I could remember, I wasn’t alone.

Luna was already there. Not that I was surprised, of course. I’d known she was going to be there. She was sat with her back towards me, her gaze locked on the book in front of her. Only the fact that her ears were angled backwards towards the door gave any indication that she’d noticed my arrival at all.

It wasn’t until the door clicked closed behind me that she closed her book and directed her full attention to me. A small strip of paper slipped between her fingers before finding its place in between the pages of the book she had been reading. “Chris,” she greeted me as she closed the book and set it aside.

“Luna.”

“Thank you for coming tonight. I know you have a few questions,” Luna began. She rose to her hooves and stepped around the couch she had been sitting on. “What are we doing here, for one. And why this needs to be kept secret from father.”

I remained silent, inviting Luna to continue. “The answers to these questions are actually one in the same. Tonight, and every night from now on until the foreseeable future, we are going to meet here. Mother has asked me to educate you in a number of subjects that you may be unfamiliar with here in Equestria. Our history, customs, the other races that we share this world with, magic, and so on. We will also continue your combat training here.”

“Combat training?” I repeated. Well, that would explain why Solaris was being kept out of the loop. He was uncomfortable enough with me being here without me still being trained to fight...

“Yes, combat, “Luna continued. “You may have defeated Adamant Will - with a bit of assistance,” she added with a chuckle, “- but you still need to know how to defend yourself. Especially given that an entire kingdom now wants your head…”

“Thanks for reminding me,” I muttered darkly. “So, why are we meeting in here? This doesn’t exactly look like the best place to swing a sword or shoot an arrow… Why not outside?”

“Because we’re not supposed to let father know?” One of Luna’s eyebrows arched upwards. “And sparring on the back lawn is a surefire way for him to either see us our hear about it from one of the guards.”

“Fair point,” I conceded. “But this place still doesn’t seem… y’know… open enough? There’s all these couches and stuff in the way…”

“Just leave that to me.” Somehow, I just knew she was going to say that. “When the time comes, I’ll make sure the room is nice and open. But for tonight, that won’t be necessary.” Luna turned her back towards me and began walking back towards the couch she had been sitting in. “Mother asked me to work with you on something other than combat tonight.”

“Oh?” I asked as Luna sat back down on the couch. I moved past her and plopped down on the seat next to her. “What exactly did you two have in mind?”

A small smile crept over luna’s face. She held one hand out, palm-up, at chest level. Her horn glowed with a dark-violet aura. From somewhere in the library’s upper levels, I could hear a small poof. An instant later, the same sound resonated through the room as a thick tome appeared in Luna’s outstretched hand.

“Tonight, you learn about magic.”

There was a brief silence. I looked up at her. She returned my gaze evenly.

“...Magic.”

Luna nodded. “Magic.”

Another brief silence. “So… what, are we talking like… theoretical stuff, history… what?”

“Theory leading towards practical applications.”

“Practical applications… by whom, exactly?”

“By you, of course.”

I felt my brow furrow slightly. “Um… Luna? I hate to burst your bubble… but Humans can’t do magic.”

“Oh?” I could hear the feigned surprise in her voice. “Really? How about when you turned invisible, hm? Or slowed your descent when you jumped out of a window? Or slowed down time?”

“That wasn’t me, though!” I protested. “You and Celestia and Queen Serenity were the ones that made the scrolls! You’re the ones who gave them the magic! I just -”

“Just what?” Luna’s voice was calm, but that smile was still there. If anything, she was struggling to keep it from growing bigger. “Just activated the spell yourself? Triggered it to go off at the time and place of your choosing?”

“...Yeah? But that’s not...”

“Still unconvinced, I see.” Luna leaned over to lay the book down on the table in front of us before returning her attention to me. “Perhaps I should offer some evidence of my own, then, on why we believe you can use magic. But first, a very brief lesson on how magic works.”

“Beneath the surface of our world, a number of rivers flow. Rivers not of water, but of energy. Pure, raw energy. Energy we have come to call mana. These rivers, or leylines, criss-cross our planet. It is this mana that Unicorns and other spellcasters tap into in order to fuel our spells. This is a gross oversimplification, but in essence, a Unicorn’s strength is primarily determined by how much mana they can safely draw from the leylines at once.”

“The spell scrolls that you were given… I suppose, given your explanation of the device, they can be compared to these guns that you showed us.” I opened my mouth, but found myself cut off as Luna held up her hand. “Yes, I will explain. The spell scroll is like… the projectile and the powder that you inserted into the gun. It has the potential for energy, but it requires something. A spark to set it off. When the spark ignites the powder, the gun fires its projectile. When this spark activates the spell scroll, the magic stored within is unleashed.”

“Okay… And I’m guessing the spark for the spell scroll was me touching it?” I asked. I received a nod in response. “Right. I get that. But I’m failing to see how this gives you the idea that I can use magic…”

“Because the act of applying pressure to the seal on the spell scroll is not enough to set off the spell,” Luna explained. Her hand made a circular motion in the air in front of her. “It requires… a little something… more. Otherwise, all of the scrolls would have gone off in your pouch, and you would reached in and found nothing but ash.”

“So it needs a living creature to touch the scroll to activate it?” I could feel my brow furrowing again. I’d already assumed that much. I still wasn’t seeing how they thought I could -

“No.” Luna shook her head quickly. “Not just a living touch. A magical touch. There is a reason you won’t see spell scroll vendors selling levitation or teleportation scrolls out in the market. Earth Ponies and Pegasi simply don’t have the magical touch necessary to undo the seal and release the spell, let alone control and shape it to their will. They have their own magic, sure, but they cannot harness a scroll imbued with unicorn magic. Nor can a Griffon or a Minotaur born without a magical touch, or any race for that matter. If you do not at least have the potential to harness mana, then the spell scrolls will not activate for you.”

“But you, Chris. You were able to activate the scrolls. Which means that you have that touch needed to use magic. Not just from spell scrolls, but from spells that you cast.”

Silence fell once more. Silence as I attempted to process all of the information I had just been given. As I tried to wrap my head around the implications of what I had just learned.

Magic. Actual goddamn magic. If everything Luna had just said was true…

“Wait a minute… How… If… Okay.” I let out an exasperated sigh. “Look. I clearly didn’t believe that I could do magic. I didn’t even know magic was a real thing until I was floating around a cave. But you gave me those scrolls anyway, knowing there was a good chance that I wouldn’t be able to use them?”

“What?” Luna cocked her head to the side for an instant, but just as quickly righted herself. “Oh. That." She averted her gaze and reached back with her free hand to scratch the back of her head. "We… had our suspicions that you had this… untapped potential. Celestia is a lot more sensitive to the ebb and flow of mana than I am. If you recall, she was the one that sent you, as you put it, floating around a cave. She says that she felt… something there. Some indication that you had the potential to use magic, even if you’d never done it before. If we hadn’t thought that, we probably wouldn’t have given you those scrolls or sent you into Everfree in the first place.”

“...So you didn’t know for certain.”

“Well, nothing is ever certain. We were… fifty-fifty.”

“So you wagered my life on a coin flip,” I deadpanned. “Brilliant.”

“Look.” Luna let out a large sigh, and her shoulders slumped. “I know that sounds bad. But you have to remember, at that point, a fifty-fifty shot was as good as we were going to get. It was that or we all die, you included. And it all turned out alright, didn’t it?”

“...Fine,” I huffed. “So… what, now?”

And just like that, that smile returned to Luna’s face. Her head swiveled towards the table, and she leaned forward. The cover was flipped open, and she flipped a few pages forward. She stopped on one page, and her finger trained its way downward before coming to rest about halfway down the left-hand page.

“Now, Chris… we learn.”

I watched as Luna sat back upwards and turned so that she was sitting cross-legged on the couch, facing me. “Most Unicorns are born with an innate knowledge of magic. How to tap into the leylines, how to direct its flow and shape its power to their will. It’s an instinct, very much like how we're born knowing how to breathe. This knowledge becomes more refined with age, research, and practice. There are, however, a few rare cases in which a Unicorn has little or none of this instinctual knowledge. Centuries ago, a technique was developed to open the minds of these Unicorns so that they may begin to learn to harness magic.”

Luna’s hand rose to her chest level again, and her horn was once more surrounded by her magical aura. I watched as a small sphere of energy began to form in her hands - a radiant ball of light, flickering with ever-changing specks and patches of white and sky-blue. The orb grew to the size of a basketball before finally stabilizing in her hand.

“As you’ve probably been able to guess,” Luna continued, “Unicorns conduct magic almost exclusively through the horn. This is our conduit, our means of controlling mana and harnessing its power. It is for this reason that, when opening the mind of a young Unicorn to magic, they would touch this orb with the tip of their horn."

“Obviously, you have no horn through which you can channel mana. Other races, such as Minotaurs, do have horns, but these horns are not useful for the purpose of controlling mana.. For the few spellcasters amongst them, it is theorized that they channel their magic through their hands.”

“So, in order to begin unlocking your potential, you must place your hands - both of them - upon this orb. You will likely feel a tingling sensation in your arms, but try not to let it distract you. You must then turn your mind inward and attempt to find what you are searching for.”

I felt my eyebrow rise as I stared at the orb floating just above Luna’s outstretched hand. I glanced upwards at Luna before returning my gaze to the orb. “And... what exactly am I searching for?”

“Your potential, of course. To turn it into actual power. Those who have undergone this process have described it as being similar to trying to remember a distant memory that you know is there, but just can’t find.”

“That’s it?” I asked. “Nothing more, no other hints… just search til I find it?” There was no response from Luna, and I felt my shoulders slump. “Alright, let’s give this a shot then…” Both of my hands reached outwards and descended upon the orb.

Tingling, my ass! The sensation was not dissimilar to the time I accidentally touched a live low-voltage wire when cleaning behind the dryer back home. Perhaps not as intense, but certainly unpleasant. It took all of my willpower to not recoil from the touch. As it was, I let out a short yelp, and my eyes clenched shut as the sensation shot up my arms. “Ohhhh God, I don’t like this…”

“Focus, Chris!” Came Luna’s reply. “The sooner you find your potential, the sooner this will be over.”

Much as I wanted to argue, I knew she was right. Once I’d found… whatever the hell I was supposed to be looking for… I’d be able to let go and maybe regain some feeling in my hands. And I certainly wasn’t just going to give up on an opportunity to actually, maybe, learn some real magic. So I gritted my teeth, closed my eyes, attempted to ignore the numbness creeping past my wrists, and began searching.

You know how when you’re trying to remember something - a word, a phrase, a memory that you just barely can’t remember? Maybe a dream you had last night? How if you close your eyes, you’ll see images flashing through your mind? It was almost exactly identical to that. The only differences were that the images were far sharper and clearer, and I could actually control what I was seeing. Sort of, anyway. In a kind of sifting-through-sand, wading-through-water kind of way.

It was like a big, black void, with images floating every which way. Some small, some huge, some bright, some dim, all incredibly crisp and clear. And all seemingly in my way. I would reach out to move some out of my way, but more would just float in front of me. It was a jumbled mess as I tried to wade past the images.

And then, I saw it. Just past the swarm of images. An ironclad door, floating off in the distance. I felt myself moving towards it without a second thought. But the images… they wouldn't move. They wouldn’t stop swarming around me. I swatted, trying to drive them back, but they kept coming. Like a swarm of flies…

“Chris!”

I jumped backwards as my eyes snapped open. The ball of energy had faded away, though my hands and arms were still half-numb. A cold sweat had formed on my forehead, and run all the way down my back. I swiped a bit of it away as I turned my attention back to Luna.

“Well? She asked, leaning forward expectantly. “What did you see?”

“I saw… images,” I began. “I… don’t remember what they were. But they wouldn’t leave me alone. And there was… a door.”

“Go on…”

“That’s it.” I shook my head to clear it. “I felt drawn towards the door, but I couldn’t get any closer. The images kept swarming me.”

Luna let out a small sigh. “I should have expected as much,” she muttered. “Most Unicorns who have to undergo this process require multiple sessions to actually break through and unlock their potential. I suspect the same will be true for you.”

“Those images… what were they?”

“Distractions,” Luna shrugged. “Sensations from the outside making their ways into your mind. The door leads to your potential, of that I’m certain. But you must push past the distractions in order to unlock it.”

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The experience had been… jarring, to say the least. And I was still regaining the feeling in my fingers. But knowing what to expect going back into it… “Alright. Let’s try again.”

“Not tonight,” Luna shook her head. “We’ve already been at this for an hour and a half, and -”

“Wait, what?!”

“Yes. An hour and a half.”

“But…”

“I know,” Luna smiled. “Now that you know this might actually happen, you want to see it through. And we will. But it’s getting late. And our session already lasted longer than most. We don’t want you getting hurt.”

I watched as Luna rose to her hooves and picked the book off of the table. Her horn lit up once again, and the book vanished with a small poof - a sound that was echoed an instant later from the upper reaches of the library. “No,” she continued. “We will continue this tomorrow. Same time, same place.”

“And remember to have a little patience, Chris. Good things come to those who wait.”

Chapter 4

View Online

As I was walking back to my room from the library, I couldn’t stop smiling. I’d been skeptical, but everything Luna had said was starting to look more and more true. I might be able to do magic. Actual magic. Every time the thought crossed my mind, My smile would return, and I’d feel a little more adrenaline pumping into my system. Thus, when I finally reached my room and buried myself under the sheets, I expected that I would have a hard time falling asleep.

I couldn’t have lasted half a minute before I was gone. Maybe it was the drills I had been through that morning, running an hour and a half in a circle to top it off. Maybe it was rummaging through my own mind to try and find something that I hadn’t known was there. Maybe it was just the excitement of the whole day finally wearing off. Maybe it was all three. Either way, I have never fallen asleep so fast before in my life, not to wake again until the next morning.

Light was already pouring through the windows when my eyes finally opened. I took my time in sitting up, cracking my neck as I did so. I was in no hurry to flee the warm confines of my bed. After all, the guard hadn’t been sent to wake me up yet. I must’ve woken up early.

Still, though… it was too bright. I had to keep my eyes squinted to shield them from the blinding light pouring in through the windows. Surely if the sun was up, I would have been woken up by now. Had I slept through it? Had he gotten lost? What time was it? I’d long since stopped checking my phone for the time - its battery had dried up long ago. Instead, I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light before moving to the windows and peering outside. Maybe I could guess the time by the position of the sun.

The sun was about halfway to the apex of its arc through the sky, so it had to have been at least 10:00. I quickly found my interest in the time waning, though. Maybe it was just me, but was the sky… pink? Not the kind of pink that appears in the sunrise. A solid, uninterrupted wall of pink. Maybe closer to Fuchsia. I don’t know my shades of pink very well. Either way, it certainly wasn’t a natural color.

And then, at the edge of the horizon, I saw movement. My eyes went wide as a solid orb of white rose from the horizon and sailed across the sky. The moon. I watched as the moon slowly slid towards the sun. Before long, the moon had reached the sun and slid in front of it. With a bright flash of light, the sun was gone, hidden behind the moon in a total solar eclipse, and the pink sky became pitch-black, illuminated only by the stars that had been hidden behind the sun’s glare..

I don’t know what I should have been feeling. Most people never get to see a total solar eclipse. It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. I don’t know what I should have been feeling, watching the moon hover there in front of the sun, but I’m fairly certain it should not have been an overwhelming sense of dread.

Another bright flash of light nearly blinded me, and I let out a loud yelp as I stumbled away from the window. I rubbed my eyes to try and regain my vision. Slowly, the world around me began to come back into focus. I blinked a few times to make sure my eyes were alright, and moved back towards the window.

My dread returned in full force. The moon had been hovering there in front of the sun for several minutes. Surely by now it should have moved on… or at least it would have on Terra. If Luna had been telling the truth, then who knew when the eclipse would end. Which brought up another question - why had the eclipse happened in the first place if Ponies controlled moon and the sun? Was there some sort of special occasion? If so, why could I hear screams of terror floating over the castle lawn from the city?

A small movement to the side of the moon caught my eye. I narrowed my eyes as I scanned the blackened skies, looking for the source of the movement. There it was again, just a little lower to the ground. This time, I was able to track the slight ripple, almost wavelike, as it descended towards the ground. As it drew lower, it became bigger and bigger. Features began to stand out against the darkness. Claws. Wings. Horns. A serpentine body, which I realized with a flash of horror was slithering down towards the ground. Shadows clunk to it like smoke, but I could still make out two glowing, fiery-red eyes.

The beast.

Only the starlight illuminated its monstrous form as it slithered to a halt, floating somewhere above the palace grounds. I could do nothing but watch as it stretched one claw out and waved it through the air. A stream of shadows followed in its wake, forming a ring of shadows around the beast. The beast raised its other claw and gave a snap, audible even from this range and through a closed window. With a sound like rushing air, the ring exploded outwards, surging through the sky and quickly vanishing over the city.

“Soon…” The beast hissed. I could see its glowing red eyes narrow as it gazed out towards the horizon. I felt a small rumble under my feet. “Very soon... this pitiful kingdom will be brought to its knees…” The rumble was getting stronger now, growing in intensity. My teeth were chattering from the power of the shaking, and I averted my eyes from the beast, instead scanning the horizon for the source of the shaking.

I jumped backwards as a tree erupted from the ground, just on the other side of the walls of the castle grounds. A second tree burst into full bloom right next to it. Judging by the amount of debris being launched through the air, I could only guess it had sprouted underneath a house. And there was another tree. And another. And another.

And they were getting closer. The next tree exploded upwards through the walls of the ground, sending stone and steel flying high into the air. A line of trees began erupting from the ground, surging straight towards the castle. Straight towards me. I tried to move, but found that i could not. I was frozen. I was helpless. I could only watch. And wait. And pray.

A tree burst from the ground inches from my face. A branch snagged onto the back of my shirt and held. I rose up, up, up through the castle. Unable to move. Unable to yell. Unable to do anything except watch in horror. More trees began erupting throughout the castle. And still I was rising. Higher and higher, pivoting in the air, until I was dangling far above the ground.

And still more trees. I could see them all around, bursting from the ground, demolishing buildings and roads and homes. The forest was reclaiming the city. And still I could do nothing but watch. Watch as more trees rose from the castle, and more, and more, until with a great crashing sound, the castle collapsed in on itself.

“My world...”

The dark, bassy rumble drew my gaze skyward once more. The beast was still there. Still hovering. Still watching. “Gaia will be mine...”

“No…”

The words flew unbidden from my lips, and my hands flew upwards to cover my mouth. But it was too late. The beast stiffened. Its head rose into the air, and it sniffed. And again. “An intruder?” It hissed. “In my domain? Impossible…”

Get me down, get me down, get me the hell down!

“Ah… Christopher Powell… Of course. I should have known…”

Shit!

“I smell you… your fear...”

The beast was drawing closer to me. I looked down towards the ground and gulped. It was a long drop.

“I see you.”

No choice.

I reached behind myself and grasped at the branch that had snagged me and dragged me skyward. I tore at the fibers that had gotten caught. A loud ripping sound pierced the air, followed by the rush of wind. And not a moment too soon, if the sound of splintering wood above me was any indication.

“You cannot hide,” The beast snarled as I plummeted to the the ground. “You cannot escape.” I rolled in the air so that I was facing the ground. “Your days draw to an end, mortal.” The ground rose to meet me. “This world is mine…”

---

“SHIT!”

My face impacted with the cold, stone floor beneath me. A sharp pain shot up my nose, and both of my hands snapped upwards to clutch at my face. More curses flew from my lips as I rolled so that my back was lying on the ground. My gaze was directed upwards towards the tree I had fallen from.

But rather than a tree, it seemed I had simply fallen from my bed.

“Another dream?” I muttered as my groggy mind began to connect the dots. Sure enough, as I pushed myself into a sitting position, I found myself sitting beside my bed, in my room. A room decidedly lacking any trees from which I could have fallen.

“Damn…” I hissed as I removed my hands from my nose. A splotch of red liquid was splayed across my hand. I reached up with the other hand and pinched just below the arch of my nose in an attempt to stop the flow of blood. I waited a few moments to make sure the blood flow had completely stopped before releasing the pinch and wiggling my nose with my fingers. Fortunately, it seemed I had avoided any injuries more serious than a nosebleed, if the lack of pain was any indication. The blood on my hands was wiped off on my pants legs as I stood up. I wouldn’t be wearing these pants today anyway.

“Seriously… this whole ‘waking up from a dream by rolling out of bed’ crap is getting old,” I growled as I rubbed the still-sore point of impact on my nose. This would have made… what, the second or third time? At least it wasn’t still the dead of night - A glance out of the window showed me the soft glow of dawn as the sun rose above the eastern horizon.

But the beast… I thought I’d been done with it. I’d thought that my dreams would be free from its presence again after I’d dealt with Adamant Will. But no. It was back. Two nights in a row now I had dreamt of this monstrosity. Two nights, and two nightmares. For all I knew, I’d have another tonight. Surely there was something I could do to alleviate this problem. Maybe there was a book on the subject? The library was massive, and I’d barely scratched the surface on perusing its volumes. If nothing else, such a search would surely uncover some other interesting titles.

It was with that thought in mind that I prepared myself for the rest of the day. I threw on some new clothes, brushed my teeth, splashed some cold water on my face with the promise that I’d wash up properly tonight, and gathered my usual personal effects: my knife, my dead phone, and my pouch of scrolls. When my wake-up call came knocking at my door, I was ready to go, and so I set off towards breakfast.

Breakfast itself passed as usual. Luna seemed to be in a good mood, while Serenity was less so. The conversation of the morning seemed to be mostly between Serenity and Solaris, with the Princesses and I remaining mostly silent. Something about the Frozen North and the Crystal Empire. I don’t really remember. I wasn’t paying attention.

After breakfast, I wasted no time in making my way towards the library. The warm glow of the crystal structure greeted me, and I couldn’t help but smile. I’d spent a good number of hours in libraries throughout my life, mostly during college, but none had ever had the same feeling of welcoming as this one. And so it was that, with a smile and a lighter heart, I began my search.

It wasn’t easy. I’d only ever really looked through one bookshelf, mostly dealing with the history of Equestria and Gaia as a whole, as well as details on the other kingdoms. Walking past each row of shelves, it really hit me just how massive this library was. The room itself was easily as big as the main library at my university - perhaps not quite as tall as that five-story building, but certainly as big around. In addition, there were no computers or printers or study rooms taking up space along the walls, allowing even more books to fill the space instead. Trying to find something to deal with my nightmare problem in here was going to be quite a task.

I decided that my best course of action was to start at the top and work my way down. I made my way to the corner of the room and ascended up two flights of marble staircases, arriving on the third and top floor. From here, by looking out over the wall that lined the inner edge of the floor, I could see the top and widest bit of the crystal structure. I made my way over towards this wall and began slowly walking down its length, peering at a few of the titles in each row of bookshelves as I passed.

I stopped at the ninth row, about a third of the way down the line. One of the books had caught my eye - a relatively small tome with a crescent moon on its spine. I pulled the book from the shelf and looked at the front cover, only to let out a small sigh. “‘Details of the Lunar surface’” I read aloud. I shook my head and returned the book to its place on the shelf.

And so I continued my search. Every so often, I’d find something that would catch my eye, but nothing along this row of bookshelves seemed promising. And so I started down the next line of shelves on the second side of the room. This time, however, I decided to be a little more thorough in my search. I wandered down the entire length of each shelf, picking up books that seemed promising and replacing nearly each and every one with disappointment. I emerged from this line of shelves with only two books tucked under my arm - neither of them to do with my problem, but merely concerning a topic that struck my fancy. I set these books on the railing with the promise to return for them, and continued my search.

And so the day continued. Weaving in and out of bookshelves. Stopping every now and then to examine a book, but finding myself disappointed each time. Most of the books on this floor seemed to deal with research and observation of the physical world, with nothing even mentioning dreams or nightmares.

It was on the second floor that I found myself pausing more often. Many of the tomes here were clearly spellbooks or journals of magical study, and so I found myself flipping through a good number of them. Those that weren’t books of spells were often filled with recipes for brews and potions. My progress on this floor was far slower than even the top floor, and while I found a number of books that I knew I would love to study at some point, none of them seemed to even come close to my problem. The closest was a book dealing with divination through dreams, but that was the telling of the future, not the prevention of nightmares.

It wasn’t until the third wall on the second floor that I stumbled across something. I had all but given up hope of finding anything in this library that could help me when another book caught my eye. A dark leather volume, with pale-blue symbols scrawled across its spine. Symbols that, as I squinted my eyes, turned out to be letters, albeit in an almost illegible font.

“On...eye… ro... Ken… esis?” I read aloud. “Oneirokinesis…” I pulled the book from its shelf and wiped a bit of dust off of its front cover before flipping it open. “Oneirokinesis: The magic behind dreams…” I felt a small grin creeping across my face. “Well now… this looks better…”

“Ah, there you are Chris.”

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a new voice reached my ears. I fumbled the book in my hands, and only barely managed to catch it before it fell to the ground. I whipped my head towards the end of the line of bookshelves, where the voice had come from.

“Oh… Queen Serenity…” I chuckled weakly. “Don’t… don’t sneak up on me like that.”

“My apologies, Chris,” Serenity smiled as she walked down the aisle towards me. “I was merely worried. When you didn’t appear for lunch, I had feared something had happened. I am glad to find you still in one piece.”

“Yeah, I’m f… wait, what?” I cut myself off. “Didn’t show up for lunch? But… How long have I been in here? What time is it?”

“Nearly four in the afternoon.”

“Bloody hell…”

“I take it you lost track of the time?” Serenity chuckled, to which I nodded. “No matter. I can’t say I haven’t had the same happen to me before. If I may ask, though, what was it that took your interest so?”

Before I could say anything, Serenity’s gaze slid down and to the side slightly. I could see one eyebrow raise as her gaze returned back to me. “Oneirokinesis?” She asked. “But Luna told me that you hadn’t unlocked your potential yet… and even the most skilled Unicorns take years to move up to something as advanced as dream manipulation…”

“Oh, no. I haven’t,” I shook my head. “I’m just… looking around. I’ve been having a bit of a nightmare problem the past couple of nights, and -”

“You know, you could have just come to me,” Serenity cut me off. “I’m considered quite an advanced Oneirokeinetic. Or did you forget?”

Oh yeah. I mentally kicked myself for forgetting the time that Serenity had intervened in my nightmares - a nightmare involving the beast, no less. “I… might have…” I admitted.

“Well, what sort of nightmare troubles you?”

“It’s… it’s that creature again,” I began. I felt my pulse quicken as Serenity stiffened. “The same one that you repelled from my dreams that one night. It’s been back the past two nights, and I’m not sure -”

Serenity held up one hand to cut me off. “That’s all I need to know,” she interrupted curtly. “I will attempt to join you in your dreams tonight. With my horn unrestrained, it should be less strenuous than the last time."

"Wait... join me in my dreams?" I asked. A sense of uneasiness washed over me. "I thought I already told you, like, a month ago, I don't want anyone poking around in my head."

"You didn't seem to protest the last time I visited your dream," Serenity countered. "Besides, you want the nightmares to stop, don't you? This is the simplest and most likely way to do that. If the nightmare returns, together we may be able to track down its source.”

“Its source?” I coked my head to one side. “What do you mean?”

“It is...complicated,” Serenity began slowly. “The magic behind dreams is very broad and deep, but I will attempt to explain it as best I can. The essence of a living, sapient creature can be divided into four separate but equally vital components. The mind, which allows us thought and comprehension. The heart, which allows us emotion and understanding. The soul or the spirit, which allows us life. And the body, which provides a shell for the other three to work and act through. Though some functions of each essence overlap with each other, these are the most basic functions that each provides individually. Without one of these components, the other three are lost.”

“When we sleep, the body shuts down to recover, as it must. Its link to the spirit, mind, and heart weakens. Almost like letting out more rope that ties a small boat to a dock, allowing it to drift further away. At any moment, the sleeping individual may drag the boat back in by waking up, but for the untrained it is near impossible to wake of one's own volition. Either enough time must pass for the body to recover its energy, or an outside force must wake us.”

“But even while the tether to the body weakens during sleep, our spirit, mind, and heart remain linked as strongly as ever. Our spirit and heart gain new experiences during this time, unhampered by the physical restraint of the body. But without the eyes and ears and other senses of our body, the mind has difficulty interpreting these experiences into something it can comprehend. That is what a dream is - an interpretation, often a flawed one, by our mind of what our heart and soul experience while drifting from the body. The practice of Oneiromancy is essentially the attuning of the mind so that it may more accurately interpret what the spirit and heart experience, and sufficiently skilled oneiromancers may even began to consciously manipulate these experiences, a practice known as Oneirokinesis.”

“The experiences that the heart and soul endure during our slumber can come from many different sources. Some come from one of the aspects themselves. The mind may cause the heart and soul to re-experience the day’s events, the heart may project an object of deep emotional significance, or the soul may be drawn closer to another soul, that the two may share a dream. The soul and mind may also come together to project a memory that the heart and soul then re-experience. Particularly traumatic memories recalled in such a way are one of the most common sources of nightmares.”

“There are other sources of dreams that I have not mentioned, and surely some still that have yet to be discovered. So to answer your question, this is what I mean, when I say source. From where do your nightmares spawn? Is it a traumatic event? Is it an outside force influencing your dreams, intentionally or otherwise? Or do they spawn from a source that we’ve yet to discover? That is what I intend to find tonight.”

“But you need not worry yourself,” Serenity smiled. She reached out and placed one hand upon my shoulder. “Come, let me see that book. I suppose I will need to refresh myself. It has been a while since I’ve properly dreamwalked.” Her hand fell away from my shoulder, and reached out to take the book that I now offered her.

“And now, Chris Powell, I’d suggest you find something less strenuous to occupy your time with.” Serenity gestured behind herself towards the upper floor, where I could see the two books I had taken and laid upon the railing. “A nice book to relax with, perhaps? Preferably something that won’t cause you to miss dinner as well?” she added with a chuckle.

A chuckle that I returned. “I will. Thank you, Queen Serenity. I’ll see you again at dinner.”

“At dinner, then, Chris. And then, in your dreams.”

Chapter 5

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Alone. Alone within a black background. A shimmering, silvery road beneath my feet, narrow as a school desk, with the abyss falling below me. My own heartbeat, pounding away in my chest. My breath, calm and collected, yet easily audible in the absolute silence that surrounded me. And at the end of the road, a simple wooden door.

A shiver ran down my spine as I looked towards the door. And with that shiver, a burst of light flared to life in front of me. An image, fuzzy and distorted, hovering at eye-level just off of the road. It began swirling around, moving erratically, this way and that, crossing over the road at times. I tried to judge its movement, discern some sort of pattern so that I could pass safely, but found that its movements seemed to be completely random.

And with that thought, a second image burst open on the opposite side of the road.

My heart began beating faster. Luna had warned me about this. Every new thought provided a new distraction, and a new chance for failure. Even these thoughts were distractions - distractions made manifest as three more images flashed into existence.

I did my best to clear my mind, to wipe away thoughts and distractions as Luna had told me. But even this mild effort caused another image to emerge from the darkness. I knew that every second I waited just made it more and more difficult for me to reach the door. Every new thought, every new distraction, was a new opportunity for failure.

So I ran.

As soon as my feet touched the road, the images swarmed towards me. Like a cloud of gnats, buzzing this way and that. I did my best to ignore them. I really did. But it was like half a dozen flashlights shining into your eyes randomly just after you’ve woken up. Even closing my eyes did nothing to help.

I made it past the halfway point before I slipped. I guess I took one step off of the narrow road I had been travelling. My hand reached up to grab onto the road, and for a brief moment my fingers made contact. But it was only a glancing grasp, not enough to stop my fall, only to delay it. I couldn’t even scream as I fell into the abyss…

And jolted up and backwards into the couch.

As soon as I flinched backwards, Luna had made the same motion. The orb of energy that she had been holding - that I had been touching - vanished into thin air. Its effects could still be felt though. That unpleasant tingling sensation running down my hands and arms were testament to that. I gave both arms a quick shake in an attempt to regain the feeling I had lost in them, to no avail.

“Well?” Luna asked as I finally settled for letting my arms flop down to my side. “How did it go?”

I shook my head. “No dice this time,” I sighed. “I made it about halfway before I lost my footing.”

“How many distractions were there?”

“At least six, before I started running.”

“Better than your first time.” Luna leaned back in her chair and folded her hands in her lap. “Next time, just start going. Don’t even think. Just run.”

“Noted.” I wiggled my fingers a bit, tapping them against the couch below me. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was already beginning to regain some feeling in them, though it would probably be a while yet before my arms were fully recovered. I leaned back in the couch and allowed myself to sink into it a bit. “So, what now?”

“That’s it for tonight, I’m afraid,” Luna sighed. “Like I said last night, it’s dangerous to make multiple attempts in the same session. But you’ve progressed well,” she added. “If what you said is true, you should be able to reach that door within the next week or so.”

“Awesome.” I felt my lips curving upwards. Once I’d reached that door… Once I’d unlocked this magic...

“Which means we should probably get going to bed,” Luna interrupted, pulling me from my thoughts. She pushed against the chair and rose to her hooves,stretching her arms behind her as she did so. “It’s been a long day, and tomorrow is shaping up to be even longer.”

“How do you mean?”

“It’s… complicated,” Luna sighed. “Suffice it to say that two of our allies are not exactly happy with each other.”

“Political troubles.” I rose to my feet as well, cracking my neck as I did so. “I’m hoping this problem won’t involve sending me deep into enemy territory with a half-baked plan to assassinate some head of state?”

That drew a laugh from her. “No, I doubt it,” she chuckled. She began moving towards the library door, and I fell in behind her.“You shouldn’t even need to get involved in this one.”

The doors opened and shut as I cracked a small grin. “Excellent. I think I’ve gotten myself into enough trouble here as is.”

“Agreed. Good night, Chris.”

“G’night, Luna,” I replied. The two of us turned in opposite directions and began walking away, back towards our respective rooms.

The journey to my room was short and uneventful, giving me a brief moment to reflect on the day. After Serenity had left, the rest of my time that afternoon had been spent in the library, reading one of the books that had struck my fancy during the search. I’d made sure to not miss dinner as well, arriving just seconds behind Celestia. Dinner itself had been a boring affair, especially considering my focus on the events that were to follow. And now, my session with Luna had concluded - ultimately unsuccessful, but productive. I felt myself grinning once again as the thought of prospect of me learning actual magic crossed my mind.

But that grind faded as the I closed the door to my room behind me. I knew what was to come next. Even sleep would not be the end of my day. Not when Serenity would be waiting for me in my dreams. I took my time in preparing myself for bed, even leafing through a few pages in one of the books I had borrowed from the library. But eventually, I could put it off no longer. I slipped the bookmark back in between the pages and set the book back on the bedside table. One last drink of water later, and I was settled into bed, ready to sleep.

I’m not sure how long it took me to fall asleep. I remember opening my eyes a couple of times and just staring at the ceiling above me. Each time I did, my stomach twisted itself into a new knot. I knew what was to come, and I was completely uncomfortable with it. At least once, the idea of just staying awake all night floated across my mind. But no, I couldn’t do that. Not without irritating Serenity, at any rate. And annoying one of the Ponies on whom my stay in the city was dependant… No. And so I forced myself to close my eyes again.

But eventually, I had to open them again. I let out a sigh and pushed myself into a sitting position. It was going to be one of those nights. The ones where you can’t get to sleep, no matter how hard you try. I reached for the glass of water on my bedside table, only to find that it was already empty. My feet left the warmth of the blanket, and I rose to walk towards the bathroom. My glass was filled from the basin, and I turned back towards my bed.

I hadn’t been expecting another figure, cloaked in shadow, to be standing beside it.

“There you are.” I sighed as a familiar voice emerged from the shadows. Sure enough, as the figure stepped forward into the moonlight, the shadows parted to reveal Serenity, still clothed in the same pale-purple dress she had been wearing all day. “I was beginning to wonder whether you would be sleeping tonight.”

“Queen Serenity,” I nodded in greeting. “So... I take it that I’m dreaming now?”

“Yes, we are within your dreams,” Serenity confirmed. “Your mind, heart, and soul drift away from your body.”

“So… what now?”

“Now… we explore.”

I cocked my head to the side. “Explore?” I asked. “Explore what?”

“This castle. This world.” Serenity’s horn flashed with a pulse of violet light, quick and almost painfully bright, before fading. “This is your dream, Chris. In theory, you and I should be the only ones in here.” I could see her brow furrow slightly in the moonlight. “And yet, I already sense… something. Something, or somepony, else.”

I took a sharp intake of breath. “And… is that bad?”

“Not necessarily, no. As I said earlier today, a dreaming soul may drift close to another. In this way, the two souls would share a dream. Normally, this is entirely down to chance, but extremely skilled oneirokinetics have the ability to enter the dreams of others at their will. This is how I have arrived in your dream. Those of us with this skill are known as Dreamwalkers.” There was a brief pause as Serenity closed her eyes. “But notice that I arrived in this dream world very close to you. If another were sharing this dream, they should have appeared nearby as well. And yet, we cannot see them.”

“So… where are they?”

“A good question. Their presence is clear, but faint. I would imagine that they are currently within the city, but not within the castle borders. So now, we simply need to find them.”

“But the city is huge!” I protested. “Even if we were to split up -”

“Remember, Chris,” Serenity cut me off, “that this is a dream world. The normal laws of the physical world do not necessarily apply here. Each dreamer, if they are aware that they are dreaming, may consciously exert influence upon the dream. I’m using my own influence to keep this world as close to the waking world as possible. You, on the other hand…”

“Can do whatever I want…” I finished slowly. My lips slowly curved up in a grin, and I extended one hand out in front of me, palm up. I closed my eyes, willing an object to form.

When I opened them, a cheeseburger had appeared in my hand.

My grin grew wider as I lifted the burger to my mouth. True, It was only a dream burger. But for now, that would have to be good enough. I took a bite, noting that the flavor was as real as if I had not been asleep. “That’s good…” I muttered as I swallowed. “Never know what you miss ‘til it’s gone.”

Serenity cocked her head. “A Human meal, I assume?” she asked.

“Mhm” was the only sound I managed to squeeze out past a second mouthful. “I don’t think you’d care much for it, though.”

“Well, a taste of home is all well and good,” she smiled, shaking her head. “But surely you can think of something else that would be more… useful? Something that could aid us in searching the city for this other presence?”

“Could do,” I nodded. I took a third bite of my burger before setting it down on a plate that had appeared on my bed. With my food now safely stowed away I closed my eyes. With the knowledge that I could bend the laws of reality to my will, surely even searching a city wouldn’t be that hard. An idea sprang to mind, and I seized upon it, willing the idea to be made real. I felt myself fall for a brief instant before a sense of weightlessness washed over me.. Opening my eyes, I found that I seemed to have shrunk by a foot or so.

Or, as a glance downward told me, I had half-sunk into the floor.

“Flight and immateriality,” Serenity chuckled. “An interesting choice. But effective.” I jumped slightly as Serenity sunk half a foot into the floor before halting, half-buried in the ground. “I’d suggest we search the city together. With you so inexperienced at Oneirokenisis, I’d feel a lot better with you having a Dreamwalker with you to keep things stable.”

“Wait… what do you mean stable?” I asked, a cold knot forming in the pit of my stomach.

“Nothing you need worry about, so long as I’m around.” Serenity flashed me a small smile, which quickly became amused. “Though I’d suggest you not attempt this sort of magic without supervision unless and until you know what you’re doing.” Serenity closed her eyes and rose out of the floor, hovering a few inches off of the ground. "There’s a very good reason Oneirokinesis is considered master-level magic.”

“Noted…” I muttered. “Wish you’d mentioned that before we started messing around inside my head…” The two of us fell silent, and so I followed Serenity’s lead and willed myself to float upwards and forwards, through the wall behind my bed and out over the palace lawn.

Let me tell you, dream-flying? Not the easiest thing in the world. Oh sure, it was fun, sailing high above the ground. But it was very difficult to control. I’m guessing it was because I was using my willpower to direct myself, because whenever I got distracted by something - the moon, a particular building, anything - I would veer off course or drop out of the sky for a second. I’m lucky Serenity kept glancing over her shoulders at me, or else I’d have never been able to keep up. I’m sure to her, I looked like I’d been drinking way too much, the way I was wobbling all over the place. But if she was amused at all - and I can’t imagine that she wasn’t - then she kept it to herself.

I’m also lucky that she seemed to know where she was going, because I had no clue. In retrospect, I suppose I should have tried to use my new reality-warping dream powers to try and figure it out, or at least asked Serenity. But I was a little preoccupied with trying to fly a straight line, and so the thought never occurred to me. I simply trusted that, sooner or later, she would get us where we needed to go.

But the more we flew, the more it seemed that we would be arriving at our destination later rather than sooner. At first, we flew in more or less a straight line out over the city, not stopping for anything except for my wobbling. But as we flew, Serenity began to pause. Not very often, to start off, but more and more frequently. We would dip down into the city itself and fly through a building before popping out of the other side. Each time we did this, I could see Serenity’s brow furrow just a little bit more.

After the seventh building flythrough - or had it been the eighth? - I couldn’t resist calling out. “You alright?” I asked, wobbling to a stop next to her. “What’s going on?”

“This is very strange…” Serenity murmured. “I’ve read about this sort of thing occurring, but never seen it myself. This other presence… it’s… well, to put it bluntly, it’s leaving decoys.”

“Wait, what now?”

“Not intentionally, but the effect is the same whether intentional or not. Every time we approach this individual’s presence, I’ve found it to be nothing more than a shadow,” Serenity explained. “An imprint. These are places where this individual has been - and where it lingered for some time - but no longer is. The echoes of its stay at that spot still call out to me…”

“So what does that mean for us?”

“It’s complicating, to be sure. In order to leave an imprint, especially one strong enough for me to mistake it for the actual individual, they must have stayed in that spot for quite some time. Hours of time in the real world, at the very least. And there are, quite literally, dozens of them all over the city. ”

“So… but wait…” I frowned. “I’ve only been asleep for… what, it can’t have been more than eight hours, surely? How -”

“This is not your dream,” Serenity interrupted. “Not originally, anyway. I’m guessing - and this is just a guess, mind you - that you’ve been drawn into somepony else’s dream. Somepony who’s been sleeping for a long time. Weeks, at least, if not months or years…”

“Someone in a coma?” I suggested.

“A coma?” Serenity rubbed her chin. “Perhaps. But there is another factor that complicates that theory. For these echoes to exist, the dream must have been maintained in at least relative stability. Since I have not been here any longer than you have, that means that this other individual has been maintaining this dream world on their own, and keeping it quite stable.”

“So… another Oneirokinetic?”

“Exactly.” Serenity’s mouth formed into a thin, tense line. “And a skilled one, at that. Perhaps even a Dreamwalker like myself. Which begs the question… how in the world did you end up here?”

“I have no idea…” I sighed and let my feet touch the ground, rubbing my eyes with my left hand as I leaned up against the side of a building. Serenity dropped to the ground as well and sat down on the side of the road we had landed on, just in front of me Silence descended upon us as we let the information soak in. As we tried to think of what to do next...

“What about the beast?” I finally asked. “Could it have anything to do with this?”

“Honestly? I don’t know,” Serenity admitted. “This is beyond my experience. There is only one Pony that I believe might know more about this, and even then…”

“Who would that be?”

“Starswirl the Bearded.” A faint smile formed across Serenity’s lips. “Head of the Celestial Council, which controls the rise and setting of the sun and moon, and my personal mentor when I was a filly. He taught me most of what I know about magic, and everything about Oneiromancy and Dreamwalking. If anypony could help us track down our Sleeping Dreamwalker, he can.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I nodded. “But while we’re here… what can we do?”

“Not much, I’m afraid,” Serenity admitted. “There are far too many echoes in the city for us to check each and every one, and it is nearly time to wake as it is. But tomorrow, after breakfast, I will take you to meet Starswirl. Perhaps he will be able to help you where I could not.”

“But for now, Chris, rest.” Serenity’s horn lit up, and I found myself sliding down the wall I had been leaning against, until I was sat on the ground with my back against it. “You need at least a few minutes to rest your mind before we take on a new day.” My eyes became heavy… I had to shut them, just for a moment…

“Good night, Chris. And sweet dreams…”

Chapter 6

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On the surface, breakfast seemed no different than normal. The meal itself was the same as ever. Serenity and Solaris were discussing the latest news from the front as the last of the Minotaurs began their retreat from the farthest reaches of Equestria, among other topics - I wasn’t really paying attention. Next to them, the princesses were discussing their lessons - Something to do with money, it seemed. I kept my own head down, speaking only when spoken to. Trying to catch Serenity’s gaze.

But she wouldn’t meet my eyes.

She knew something. Or at the very least, she had an idea of what was going on in my head. Of what was going on with that presence in my dreams… or, well, not my dreams, but the dreams I had found myself dragged into night after night. She had to. There’s no way she’d be sending me to meet the head of the Celestial Council otherwise. Sending her former mentor out looking for who knows what without even the faintest idea of what it could be? Without knowing that something was wrong? No. She knew more than she was letting on.

I felt my eyes narrow slightly as Serenity dodged my gaze once again, passing over me to instead smile at Celestia and Luna. She was keeping secrets about the contents of that dream from me. Surely that was something that I, if anyone, should be entitled to know.

So why wouldn’t she tell me?

Everyone around me began to rise from their seats, and I realized that everyone had finished their meal. I quickly moved to join them. Serenity motioned for me to join her, and so I moved around the table to her. I said nothing as I approached, choosing instead to let her speak first.

“I’m afraid I will be unable to take you to see Starswirl personally,” Serenity began. “I apologize, but it would seem the situation between our two allies is deteriorating rapidly. Solaris and I must intervene as quickly as we can. Luna will take you to see Starswirl instead.”

“You know something.”

Serenity blinked. “What?”

“About what’s going on in my head. In my dreams. You’re not telling me everything.

There was a brief pause as Serenity glanced to either side. Solaris had moved to the far end of the table, and was now waiting at the door. Luna, likewise, was waiting at the near end of the room next to the opposite door, while Celestia had moved past it and disappeared into the corridor. “What makes you say that?”

“You don’t deny it.”

Serenity let out a large sigh. “I’m sorry, Chris. I really don’t have time -”

“You’re not telling me everything.” I repeated. My eyes narrowed. “Again.”

That seemed to get to her, if the slight twitch in her tail was any indication. “I will tell you what I know. Or rather, what I suspect. I promise. Tonight.” Serenity glanced down the table towards Solaris, who was now staring back at us. “I will join you in your dreams again. And I will explain all that I can. If anything must be kept secret, I will try to tell you why. But right now -”

“Fine,” I cut her off. “Tonight.” I pulled away from Serenity and moved towards the door closest to me. Luna was waiting with her usual smile, a smile I forced myself to return as we walked through the doors and turned to the right door the corridor.

I tried not to let my frustration show. I really did. Yes, Serenity was keeping secrets from me. Again. This time about what was going on in my own head. But she’d promised to tell me everything tonight. And she had a good excuse for not taking the time to explain right now. If my experience with the phrase “deteriorating rapidly” was at all accurate, it sounded like two of Equestria’s allies were about to go to war. And so I tried to make myself calm. Tried not to let my frustration show.

But I must have been doing a poor job. We hadn’t even gotten halfway down the first corridor before Luna turned her head to me. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

I shook my head and forced another smile. “Nothing,” I lied.

It was clear she didn’t buy it. “We’re dedicating as many resources as we can towards finding you a way home. I promise. We’re doing everything that we can...”

“I’m… That’s not it,” I sighed. I closed my eyes as we continued to walk. “But thanks anyway.”

“Then what?”

“It’s.... complicated,” I finally settled on the most appropriate word I could think of.

I felt a light weight fall upon my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Luna’s hand resting there. “Well… if you ever need to talk to somepony about it… or anything… I’ll listen.”

I felt a smile - my first genuine smile of the day - cross my lips. “Thanks, Luna.”

“Don’t mention it.”

It was only a few more steps before Luna turned right to enter the spiral staircase that led to the upper levels of the palace. I step in a few paces behind her, content to let my mind grow blank as I followed her up to the third floor. I’d begun to get a feel for the layout of the palace by now, but as I had never met this Starswirl or been to his study, I was glad to have Luna guiding me. Thankfully, she seemed to know exactly where she was going. Sure enough, it was only a few moments before she stopped next to a wooden door, halfway down one of the interior corridors.

“Well, here we are,” Luna announced. “Starswirl the Bearded’s study.” I caught her gaze twitch towards the door for an instant before it returned to me. “Before you go in, let me just warn you that Starswirl is a bit… eccentric.”

“Eccentric?” i raised an eyebrow. “Eccentric… how?”

“...You’ll understand in a moment,” Luna replied. She raised one fist and brought it towards the wooden door. “Just remember that, regardless of his… quirks… that he is one of the most brilliant magical minds of our age, and perhaps to have ever lived. One of the foremost magical researchers in Equestria, and an incredible mentor. He’s the one that taught me, Celestia, and mother most of what we know when it comes to magic, and it’s quite possible that he’ll play a role in your education as well. So just… be respectful.” With that, she rapped her knuckles sharply three times against the door.

Almost before her hand had lowered, I heard a distinct click echo from the door. A second later, the door swung inwards. I felt something nudge me in my back, and I took a few steps forward through the frame and into the room beyond. I glanced back towards Luna, and she gave a quick wave just before the door creaked closed.

Looking around the circular room that I had stepped into, it was clear that whoever spent time in here loved to read. A lot. Bookshelves lined every wall, from floor to ceiling, and each shelf was crammed full of books. Not neatly, either. There were books on their sides, books crammed in backwards or upside down, books left open with their spines up in the air. And the scrolls! Heaps of them, lining the base of the bookshelves, or on the shelves in front of the books, or mixed in among them. Some were still rolled up and sealed, but a great many of them were unfurled and left to lie there, and still others had clearly been hastily retied and cast aside.

I was careful to avoid stepping on any of the books or scrolls as I stepped further into the center of the room. Beneath the paper and parchment, I could see that the floor was hardwood, a stark contrast to the marbled tile in the corridor outside. The planks of wood were arranged in such a way as to divide the room into two sections - an outer ring, where the planks pointed inward, and an inner circle, where the planks were actually curved to form a circle. Four marble pillars rose out of the ground where these two sections met, rising up to the ceiling. Above the central circular area, a glass dome allowed the morning sunlight to come streaming into the room.

And from this angle, the light fell towards the far end of the room, illuminating a great wooden desk. Yet more scrolls and books and bits of parchment encircled the desk, though they did not obscure the large inkwell and rainbow-colored quill upon it. Two chairs surrounded the table - one on this side of the desk, and one on the opposite side.

And in that second chair, looking directly at me, sat the Unicorn that could only be Starswirl the bearded.

He seemed to be of average height, though it was difficult to judge while he was sitting. His fur was a dark, storm grey, starkly contrasting his snow-white mane. He bore a beard that can only be described as glorious - it put Gandalf’s beard to shame, stretching from his chin down to his lap. It remained grey like his fur near the chin, but quickly became as white as his mane. He wore the stereotypical wizard’s robes - blue, with a matching pointy hat, and stars and crescent moons emblazoned upon them both. The upper rim of his hat, however, was adorned by a dozen tiny, golden bells - as was the hem of his robe, I noticed a moment later.

By now, I’d seen him staring at me for several seconds. And as the seconds stretched on, his gaze never left me. He didn’t speak. I couldn’t even be sure if he was blinking. He was just staring at me, brow furrowed, hands folded behind his beard and beneath his chin. The silence was deafening. And awkward as hell.

So finally, I had to break it. “Uh… hello?”

As soon as the first sound left my lips, there was an immediate reaction. He blinked twice, and his brow unfurrowed. He glanced to either side quickly. “What? Huh? Who’s there?” He all but yelled, to which I had to stop myself from snorting. I’d been expecting his voice to be deep and… epic, I guess. Like Dumbledore, or Saruman. Instead, it was more like.. Disney’s Merlin. A bit higher pitched, a slight British accent, almost squeaky but not quite.

My small movement must have drawn Starswirl’s attention, for his eyes snapped back towards me. “Ah, what have we here?” He asked, rubbing his chin. His free hand reached down towards the desk and produced a pair of glasses, which he put across his eyes. He leaned forward across the desk towards me, eyes narrowing. “Aha!” he exclaimed, causing me to jump. “Yes, yes, of course! You must be that new thingummywut that Serenity said was coming to visit! Come in, come in, my colt! Sit down, make yourself comfortable!”

I hardly had time to react before the chair on my side of the desk had pulled back, seemingly of its own accord. I took a few tentative steps forward towards the desk, and the chair slid back into place. “Now now, don’t be shy,” Starswirl beamed as I sat down. The instant I touched the wooden chair, a loud whistle pierced the air. I leaped back to my feet, searching frantically for the source of the noise.

Starswirl, however, seemed decidedly less startled than me. “Ah!” He grinned. “Tea time!” Sure enough, an instant later, a large kettle floated over my shoulder towards him, close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from it. The kettle began to dump its boiling contents into a large, ceramic teapot - Had that been there before? - before floating back over my shoulder. When I glanced behind me, I couldn’t see where it had gone to.

“Now, young thingummywut…” Starswirl began, drawing my attention back to him. He was holding the teapot in the air over his desk, and as I watched, a stream of steaming-hot tea fell from the spout into two teacups - those definitely hadn’t been there before - that rested upon two small plates, hovering in the air. As soon as he had finished pouring, he set the teapot down onto his desk. He glanced towards me, and one of the teacups floated over in front of my face.

“... One lump, or two?”

“I, uh…” I stammered. I was still trying to process what had just happened. I tentatively reached out and plucked the saucer from the air before gingerly sitting back down.“Uh… Two?”

“Good choice!” Starswirl exclaimed with yet another grin. Four cubes of sugar floated out from behind his desk, and two of them floated over to my cup, dropping into the tea with a small plop. On the other side of the desk, I could see the other two cubes dissolving into Starswirl’s own cup. “Serenity and Luna and Celestia only ever want one cube. Can’t for the life of me understand it.”

He paused for a moment to take a sip from his cup. I, however, refrained from doing the same. And not just because I was still trying to figure out what was going on. I’d only ever had iced sweet tea back home, so the prospect of hot tea seemed just… alien, almost.

Starswirl seemed to sense my apprehension, for he glanced over the rim of his cup towards me. “Something wrong?” he asked

“I… uh, it’s… it’s hot,” I explained. “Back where I come from, we tend to drink our tea cold.”

“Cold?!” Starswirl exclaimed, loud enough that I flinched backwards. “But… b-but… GAH!” Starswirl slumped forward for a moment, head hanging low. “And for a moment, I thought you had been gifted with a fantastic palette for tea as I had… Ah well. Can’t be helped. ‘Tis a lonely road I walk, I suppose.” And just like that, he was sitting up straight in his seat again, taking another sip from his cup. “Go on, go on, drink up.”

“But it’s still….” I began. Starswirl, however, seemed not to care, as he began pouring himself a second cup, humming a tune as he did so. Quite honestly, I wasn’t sure what to do at that point, so I slowly picked up the cup and took a sip. Rather than the scalding hot liquid I had been expecting, however, the tea was ice cold. Perfectly strong, with the faintest hint of citrus, and perfectly sweet. I found myself gulping it down, and soon the cup was empty.

But only for a moment, as the teapot and two more lumps of sugar floated over to fill it back up. “Good, eh?” Starswirl laughed. “Maybe not as good cold as it is hot, but still. The leaf is from a particular strand of tea plant, that I myself found in my travels, on an Island just off the coast of Griffonia, and it makes the best tea… better than anything the Ponies down in the kitchen can brew. I had to have it, and so I brought a shoot back with me. Haven’t had another tea since.”

“It is… quite good,” I agreed, taking another sip.

“Indeed, but I’m sure you didn’t come just to share tea with an old stallion.” Starswirl let go of his saucer, which continued to float in the air as he ran his fingers through his beard. “So tell me, young thingummywut, who are you?”

I took another sip of my tea before putting it back down on the saucer. “I’m a Human,” I began. “My name is Chris… though it sounds like Queen Serenity has already mentioned me to you,” I added

“Ah yes, Serenity did tell me to expect a thingummywut…”

“Human,” I corrected,”

“...Shame she couldn’t be here today,” He continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “I thought for sure I could convince her to take that second lump… Bah, no matter. I’m sure she’s busy doing… Oh, whatever it is she gets up to nowadays…” I opened my mouth to speak, but found myself cut off as he continued. “So! What brings you here today?”

“Well… I began slowly. “Queen Serenity was hoping you could… help me.”

“Oh? Indeed?” Starswirl took another large swig from his tea - surely that had to have emptied his cup again - before looking back at me. “Well I’ve certainly helped a number of Ponies in my time. But I’m afraid you’ll have to be a little more specific. After all, one stallion’s help is another stallion's trash… or am I mixing up my sayings again?”

“I, uh… well, it’s to do with dreams,” I began. “I’ve been having these really bad nightmares for the past couple of days. And Queen Serenity came into my dreams last night to -”

“Ah, she’s still got the Dreamwalker’s touch,” Starswirl grinned. “I always knew she was a natural.”

“...Anyway… she came into my dreams last night to try and help me sort it out, but… long story short, she believes I’ve been being dragged into someone else’s dreams for the past few nights. Someone, or something. But she can’t figure it out, because the original dreamer has been moving around or something like that, so we can’t track it down. And she was hoping maybe you had some sort of… idea… to…”

I found myself cut off as Starswirl’s gaze focused in on me. Even the teacup was leaning in towards me. Whereas before he had been jovial and lighthearted, his gaze now was that of dead seriousness. “Serenity can’t track it down, you say?” Starswirl asked, all hints of frivolity gone from his voice. “That’s… bizarre. Does she have any idea what it could be?”

“I believe she does,” I nodded. My mood suddenly soured, and I broke eye contact. “Though she won’t tell me…” I growled

“Curious…. Curious…” Starswirl mumbled. “Well, I suppose there’s only one way to get to the bottom of this.”

I sighed. “Poking around inside my head?” I guessed.

“Precisely! Sharp lad, you are, even if your taste in tea leaves a bit to be desired.” And just like that, the seriousness was gone from his expression. “Well, perhaps not your head, per say, but rather using your head as a conduit to determine… Ah, but I’m rambling. Yes yes, tonight I think I shall join you in your dreams, young thingummywut…”

“Human.”

“...and together,” He exclaimed, rising from his chair and pointing upwards towards the ceiling, “we shall track down this creature, and put an end to your nightmares! But please,” he continued, looking back down at me as his finger drooped. “Do go to bed at a… ah, reasonable hour, hm? I’m not as young as I used to be, you know, and I do need my rest.”

“I… suppose I could miss one lesson with Luna…” I mused. True, I wasn’t entirely thrilled at the idea. Particularly given how close I was to getting to that door and unlocking magic… but putting an end to the nightmares once and for all, and finding out whose dreams I had been sharing… Surely that would be worth putting it off for one night. Hopefully Luna wouldn’t mind…

“Good, good!” Starswirl’s sharp exclamation dragged me roughly from my thoughts. “Now, was there anything else, young thingummywut?”

“Human.” I scratched my chin for a moment before shaking my head. “No, I think that’s all. Queen Serenity said she’d be coming into my dreams as well tonight, so -”

“Perfect!” Starswirl’s sudden outburst caused me to jump once again. “I’ve been meaning to see how well she’s retaining her skills. This will be the perfect opportunity!”

“Right…” I muttered, rubbing the inside of my left ear. It was still ringing from that last yell…

“Well, if that was all, then I hope you’ll forgive my rudeness in asking you to leave.” With a small pop, the saucer and cup in my hands vanished, as did the teacup on Starswirl’s desk. “I’m in the middle of some fascinating research, and I’d like to get as much done as I can before our little excursion tonight. Farewell, young thingummywut.”

“Huma - woah!” Before I could rise to my feet, I felt the chair rocking beneath me. I clutched onto the seat tightly as it spun in place and began hopping away, over the scattered scrolls and books and towards the door. The door swung open once more as the chair approached, and with a couple of short hops I was at the threshold. I felt the chair tipping forward, and I had to put my feet out in front of me to catch myself and stop from falling flat on my face. I turned to give one final farewell, but had to flinch backwards as the wooden door swung shut in my face, not even an inch from the tip of my nose.

I stood there for a moment, just staring at the wooden door that had been slammed shut in my face. I blinked a few times before turning and walking down the corridor, back the way that Luna had brought me. Slowly, a small grin crept over my face, and as I entered the stairwell to go back down to the library, I let out a short laugh.

“Eccentric.” I muttered to myself. “Definitely eccentric.”

Chapter 7

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“... And so Luke, Han, and Chewy were all given medals for their courage, and named heroes of the Rebel Alliance.”

“And what about Dark -” Luna began

“Darth,” I corrected.

“ - Darth Vader? What happened to him?”

“Well, his ship survived the explosion,” I explained. “So once he managed to regain control, he used the hyperdrive to get to a nearby Imperial outpost. He’s not done for. Not by a long shot.”

Both Celestia and Luna fell silent, allowing me a moment to myself. I’d met the two sisters in the library after my… encounter… with Starswirl. The two had finished their lessons early, and so had some time to kill before dinner. It was only a few minutes after they sat down at my table that Luna had asked me about the myths and legends of my homeworld.

So of course, I had to start with Star Wars.

Trying to describe the events of a movie in words was… difficult, to be sure. Trying to explain the concepts of spaceships and blasters and lightsabers to individuals for whom primitive guns were revolutionary was even more difficult. But if I was doing a bad job of it, they didn’t show it. Both Celestia and Luna had given me their undivided attention as I’d told the tale of A New Hope. I’d had to pause halfway through it as we went to dinner, but had resumed the story as we settled in for food.

I just hoped they didn’t ask me why Darth Vader was the way he was or where he came from. I really didn’t want to have to explain Jar Jar…

The story had had the unintended side-effect of distracting the princesses from the snippets of conversation floating between Serenity and Solaris. They’d sat next to each other, breaking the normal seating arrangement and causing us to shift a few seats down the table. Throughout the meal, they’d spoken in hushed whispers, and so my own voice covered theirs for the majority of the meal. Still, during the pauses - when I was thinking of how to describe the the Millennium Falcon, for instance - I was able to catch snippets of their conversation. Isolated words. Griffons. Heart. Amythest. Empire.

War...

“So… what happened next?” Luna asked, snapping me from my thoughts. “I mean… Darth Vader is still out there...”

“Sorry, Luna,” I smiled sheepishly, “But I’m afraid I’ll have to continue the story another time.” Almost immediately, both princesses deflated. I won’t lie, I felt pretty bad about it. It was clear they’d been enjoying listening to the story, and truth be told, I was enjoying telling it.

But I knew I couldn’t continue any longer that evening. Not if I was going to have Starswirl and Serenity helping me in the Dream World. “Sorry,” I continued. “But Queen Serenity asked me to meet with her, and I need to get to her as soon as I can. I’ll finish the story another time.”

Though clearly disappointed, that seemed to be a sufficient explanation for Celestia. She turned to the right and walked away from the door to the dining hall. I watched her for a short bit, until she turned into the stairwell.

“Good cover.” I nearly jumped as Luna’s voice broke the silence behind me. I’d assumed that she had gone in the opposite direction. Clearly I’d assumed wrong. My head spun towards her as she continued with a small smile. “I’d almost forgotten that Celestia doesn’t know about our our lessons.”

I turned to face her more fully, shaking my head. “Sorry again, Luna,” I sighed. “I really do have to go meet Queen Serenity here in a few minutes.”

Luna’s smile quickly faded. “Wait… so… we’re not having our session in the library?” she asked, to which I once again shook my head. “But why? You’re so close! Tonight you could -”

“I know. Trust me, I know,” I cut her off. “I want to break through that door too. But this is important. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t be skipping our session. And no,” I continued, cutting off Luna as she opened her mouth to speak. “I can’t tell you what this is about. Not yet. Maybe once it’s taken care of. But not yet. Sorry.”

Luna raised an eyebrow, and her tail twitched behind her. “Alright,” she muttered as I turned away from her and followed Celestia down the hall. I didn’t look back as I entered the stairwell and began to ascend, though I could feel Luna staring at me. I knew she wasn’t satisfied with that answer. And I couldn’t blame her. I wouldn’t have been satisfied with my answer either. But I wasn’t ready to talk about this. Not yet, not while I was still being sucked into someone else’s dream every night. I couldn’t rightly explain what was happening when I myself didn’t understand it.

Getting ready for bed didn’t take long. As I walked into my room, I noticed that a few candles and torches had been lit in the bathroom, and sure enough, a hot tub of water was waiting for me. I bathed quickly and dried off before throwing on some clothes and crawling into bed. Much like the night before, I could feel a small pocket of tension building in my stomach as I closed my eyes. Having Serenity poking around in my head was weird enough. Letting Starswirl in too… it was going to be an interesting night.

I had to have been laying down for half an hour before I felt something poking my shoulder. I opened my eyes and looked up to see Serenity standing next to my bed. “Good evening, Chris,” she greeted me as I pulled the covers back and pushed myself out of the bed.

“Queen Serenity,” I nodded. I glanced around the room before returning my attention to her. “Where’s Starswirl?” I asked.

“He’ll be along shortly,” She replied. “He has a certain process he always sees to before going to sleep. I’m certain you noticed he was a bit… eccentric.”

“Has he always been that way?”

“Yes and no,” Serenity shrugged. She waved her hand, and a chair appeared behind her, which she proceeded to sit down in. “He’s always been different. But he was still relatively normal up until about thirty years ago.”

“What happened?” I asked, sitting down in my own chair that had materialized beside me.

“He took interest in an old legend,” Serenity explained. “Well, took interest is putting it lightly, I suppose. He became enthralled. Obsessed with it, really. The tomb of the last Alicorn. It nearly drove him mad. Or, perhaps it did...”

I raised an eyebrow. “The, uh… the what now?”

That drew a chuckle from Serenity. “I forget, you are not familiar with most of our legends. The tomb of the last Alicorn. Ask Luna to tell you about it tomorrow. But for now… I believe I promised you an explanation.”

“Last night, I told you that the other presence here in the Dream World is leaving behind echoes of itself. Decoys. This is true. I also told you that I had never seen anything like this before. This is also true… to an extent. I have witnessed two souls meeting to share a dream before. Oftentimes, they will stay and talk for a while. Invariably, however, one will wake before the other. When this happens they leave behind an echo, similar to how our mystery dreamer is doing. To this extent, I have seen these echoes before, but never in a situation or to a scale even remotely close to yours.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but found myself cut off as Serenity raised a hand. “Just one moment, Chris. You may ask questions in a bit, but for now, let me finish. Now, you already know that, while only Unicorns and a few special members of other species may actively control magic, other creatures have magic flowing through them. It is how a Pegasus flies, though physics would dictate that they should not be able to. It is how Earth Ponies are able to grow such bountiful harvests year after year, and how they have much greater strength than they should. Every sapient creature has magic flowing through them. Bringing this back to your situation, the echoes left behind by a dreamer who has lingered in one place are actually the echoes of their magical signature. Do you understand so far?”

Slowly, I nodded my head. “I think so… So, is each one of these… magical signatures… is it unique to an individual? Could we use it to…” I trailed off for a moment, trying to find the words.

“They are unique to an individual, yes.” Serenity replied. “Though creatures of the same species tend to have similar magical signatures, each one is unique. Much like written signatures. But no, we likely could not use this magical signature in the waking world to track down our mystery dreamer. Tracking a magical signature isolated in the Dream World is difficult enough. In the waking world, where it would get jumbled with so many others? No, it’s not really feasible. It would be like trying to follow one particular set of hoofprints when thousands of others cross over and intersect it.”

“I do bring this talk of echoes and magical signatures up for a reason, however. As I said, each individual signature is unique, but those of the same species tend to… feel similar, for lack of a better phrase. Now, I have been Dreamwalking for a long time. Likely longer than you’ve been alive. I’ve felt the magical signatures of every well-known sapient species on Gaia, and many lesser-known species as well. But this signature is unlike anything I’ve dealt with before. It is no Pony, of that I am certain. Nor is it a Minotaur, a Griffon, or Dragon… nothing like that. In fact, I’ve only ever felt one magical signature that comes close.”

“The only other signature that has ever felt similar to this one, Chris… is yours.”

I blinked. “Wait… what?”

“Our mystery dream has a magical signature that matches your own. I was able to confirm this last night, after you woke up and left this dream. It’s not a perfect match, not by a long shot, but as similar as one Unicorn’s signature to another Unicorn’s.” Serenity leaned forward in her chair, closer to me. “What I’m saying, Chris… is that I believe our mystery dreamer may be another Human.”

Silence followed. Stunned silence, pure and unbroken. I simply sat there, staring at Serenity at yet not truly seeing her. I was too busy trying to grapple with the information she had just given me.

Another Human. Here, in Gaia. In Equestria. Nearby. I wasn’t alone.

But they were trapped here too.

“Now Chris,” Serenity’s voice jolted me from my thoughts. She was standing up now, and she moved forward to place a hand on my shoulder. “I have to ask… I know you’ve been with us for a while, and so I’m hoping you’ll trust us… if you know anything… anything at all about where this other Human could be…”

“I don’t,” I shook my head. “I… I honestly thought I was the only one here.” I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. “But… if there is another Human here, we have to find them. Quickly.”

“Of course we do,” Serenity agreed. “Not just for your own sake, but for theirs. This other Human has been dreaming for quite some time now. Does your kind hibernate by any chance, Chris?” she asked.

My heart skipped a beat as I realized what Serenity meant. “No… No, we don’t hibernate,” I replied. “Which means, if they’ve been asleep and dreaming continuously for a long time…”

“There’s something wrong,” Serenity finished my thought. She shot me a worried glance. “So the faster we find our mystery dreamer, the better.”

I nodded as the door to the room creaked open. Serenity and I both turned our heads towards the door as a chair hovered in through the door. Not a simple wooden chair, as Serenity and I had conjured, but an ornate, double-padded armchair more akin to a throne, with a matching footstool. And sitting upon it, with his hooves propped up and a cup of tea in his hands, was none other than Starswirl the Bearded.

“Perfect timing, Starswirl,” Serenity smiled. “As usual.”

“Quite, my dear, quite,” Starswirl replied, taking a long sip from his cup. I watched as he set it back down upon the saucer, and was instantly filled back up. “It’s good to see you again, Serenity.” His eyes drifted over towards me. “And of course, you too, young Thingummywhat.”

“Human,” I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “Hello, Starswirl…”

“I’ve just finished explaining to Chris the details I sent to you this afternoon,” Serenity continued. “You… did get around to reading that letter, right? Didn’t misplace it?”

“Hmm?” Starswirl glanced up from yet another mouthful of tea. “Oh, oh yes, of course. I’m old, my dear, not senile…”

“Good, good. So you know why we’re here.”

“Yes, yes of course. Looking for magical signatures and echoes, trying to figure out where their originator is located in the waking world. Just give me a moment will you?” Starswirl took yet another gulp from his cup. “I’m enjoying a rather excellent cup of tea.”

Serenity and I shared an exasperated glance, but had no choice but to settle ourselves in. I watched as Starswirl took yet another sip of tea, draining his cup dry. And yet, the instant he set it back down, the cup would refill again with more tea. A never-ending cycle of tea.

I could feel frustration building up inside me. We were wasting precious time just waiting for Starswirl to enjoy a cup of tea! A fake cup of tea, at that! I glared at the cup as he set it back down, dry once more, only to refill. We were going to be here all night at this rate! While this other person out there was in trouble!

That’s when it came to me. An idea. Perhaps not the most… polite of ideas, but one that would hopefully break the cycle and allow us to actually get something accomplished. As Starswirl drained his cup dry for the fifth time, I narrowed my eyes and focused my will towards the cup. Sure enough, as the cup touched the saucer, this time it did not refill, but instead remained dry.

I had to stop myself from grinning as Starswirl reached back for the empty cup. He glanced down toward it, an amused expression on his face. “Well, would you look at that,” he murmured, glancing in my direction. “All out. Well, all good things must come to an end.”

“Finally,” I heard Serenity mutter. Clearly, she had been growing as impatient as I had. “So, are we ready now?”

“Indeed, I believe we are. Now, let us away!” Starswirl’s chair raced towards the window and phased right through it, leaving no trace of his passage. In unison, Serenity and I both sank a half-foot into the ground before flying through the wall after him.

Much like the night before, I found myself more wobbling along behind Starswirl rather than flying in a straight line. I found that focusing upon the chair he was resting in would help me focus my flight, but any little distract would send me veering off-course. Flying low over the rooftops as Starswirl was, I was thankful that I had become immaterial as I crashed through more than one roof.

And, much like Serenity the night before, Starswirl seemed to be heading this way and that, turning at unexpected moments, plowing through buildings only to pop out a moment later. And judging by the expression on his face, i was willing to bet that he wasn’t having much more success than I was.

An idea sprang to mind. An idea that might be able to help with the search. Before I could do anything about it, however, an object had already manifested itself in front of me. I reached out to pluck it from the air. It was a map - of Everfree, I was guessing - with at least a dozen various points marked. As Starswirl dove down through another building, I watched as yet another point on the map became marked.

And so we continued through the night. Starswirl continued to zigzag this way and that, all over the southern quarter of the city. His turns were becoming more and more erratic as the night wore on. Each time he stopped or dove through another building, the map would mark yet another point. And Serenity and I continued to fly behind him, watching and waiting.

Finally, Starswirl came to a complete stop. “This is ridiculous!” he snapped, a previously-unknown trace of anger in his voice. “How in the world could all of these echoes have been left by one individual? Nopony could sleep this long!”

“We think there may be something wrong with our mystery dreamer that has kept them locked in a long-term slumber,” Serenity explained.

“Well… That explains it, I suppose,” Starswirl muttered, running a hand through his beard. “But that doesn’t help us. There could be over a hundred of these echoes all over the city. And half of the ones that we’ve been to tonight are old - the dreamer hasn’t been there in at least a fortnight.”

“Wait…” I began, the gears in my head beginning to turn. “You can tell how long each echo has been around?”

“I’ve been doing this a very long time, young thingummywhat. I’ve had a lot of experience in studying the echoes left behind by dreamers. The stronger an echo is, the more recently the dreamer has been there. The problem is that I can’t tell how strong an echo is until I get right up close to it…”

“Well… let’s try this.” I wobbled through the air over towards Starswirl’s chair and handed him the map, pointing towards a few of the marks that had been made. “Can you… make each mark’s appearance be based on the strength of the echo found there?”

Starswirl raised an eyebrow for a moment before grinning. “Ah, very good, young thingummywhat! Very good! Yes yes, by overlapping that information onto this map… I watched as Starswirl pressed the palm of his hand onto the map. As he removed his hand, the size of the marks that had appeared on the map began to change. Some of the marks began to fade, while others still became bolder and more pronounced.

And very quickly, a pattern formed.

“Bingo,” I smirked, holding the map up and examining it. “Our mystery dreamer, at least in the dream world, seems to be heading… north.” I announced. “And that would be…”

“Towards the palace,” Serenity finished.

“A breakthrough!” Starswirl exclaimed. “Now, let’s go see if we can’t -”

Starswirl cut himself off as a sound echoed past us. A low, rolling boom, not unlike thunder off in the distance. I glanced behind myself, towards the horizon where the sound had come from. At the horizon, I could see a small patch of darkness begin to form. A patch that quickly moved forward, expanding and filling the horizon with a dark cloud.

The cloud continued to move forward, spreading away from the horizon and towards us. Like a storm, rolling across the sky, blocking out the sky. A gust of wind blew past us, chilling and bringing with it the promise of rain. Another roll of thunder could be heard - closer this time, more pronounced. Flashes of lightning arced between the clouds, illuminating them as they drew ever closer.

Illuminating the clouds, and the serpentine creature that lay waiting within.

My blood ran cold. I knew that creature. There was no mistaking it. The beast from my dreams. My nightmares. Glancing to my right as the first droplets of rain began to fall, I could see that Serenity recognized it as well. Even Starswirl seemed to understand what was happening, for he rose from his chair for the first time that evening to float beside us.

“You are mine, little Human,” The beast growled from behind the cover of the approaching storm. “You just don’t know it yet…”

“Chris. Serenity. We have to get out of here,” Starswirl announced, all hints of joviality gone. “Now.”

“Uh… yeah,” I nodded quickly, floating backwards away from the approaching beast. “What… what is it?”

“We cannot tell you here,” Serenity explained. The rain was falling harder now. Serenity glanced towards the approaching beast before returning her attention to me. “To do so would only empower it. After breakfast. I promise. Now wake, Chris.” Her horn lit up with a dark-blue aura, and pulsed brightly. I felt my eyes growing heavy, and I began to descend towards the ground. “Wake!” Past my barely opened eyes, I could see the rain-slicked ground fast approaching. I braced myself for impact...

And jolted upright in my bed.

My heart was hammering away in my chest, and a cold sweat had formed on my forehead and down the back of my neck. I had to take a few minutes to calm myself down, all the while running through my head the events of the night.

Another Human, trapped in Equestria. Lost God-knows-where. Stuck within the Dream World, at the mercy of that… whatever it was. The monster. The beast. What was it? Where had it come from? Why had it appeared this time, when the night before it had not? What did it want with me?

There was only one way to find out. Dawn had just arrived, and the sun was streaming in through my windows, so I pushed myself to my feet and headed towards the bathroom to prepare for breakfast.

Serenity had promised me another answer. And I was going to get one.

Chapter 8

View Online

It seemed that my questions were going to have to wait.

For the first time since I had arrived, I was the first one to make it down to the dining hall. I took my normal seat, on the northern side of the table, third seat down from the far end. I wasn’t left alone long. It couldn’t have been more than five minutes before Celestia and Luna both walked in through the same door I had entered in. I flashed them both a smile as they approached.

A smile that quickly faded as I saw the expressions on their faces.

“Is everything alright?” I asked as they took their normal seats - Luna next to me, and Celestia across from Luna.

“Mother and Father will not be joining us for breakfast today,” Celestia replied. The tension in her voice was clearly audible. “Something’s happened. Something big.”

“We don’t know what,” Luna continued before I could speak. She picked up the plate of bread rolls and put one on her plate, along with a small bowl of honey.” But they’re meeting with all their top advisors right now. And that’s not a good sign. The last time this happened, the Minotaurs were marching into the city by nightfall.”

“Another crisis. Lovely,” I muttered under my breath as I took the plate from Luna and added a roll to my own plate. “And what about you all?” I asked, passing the plate over to Celestia and reaching for the fried eggs. “Are you going to be joining them?”

Luna shook her head. “No. We’re involved in many of the day-to-day operations, but something like this… This is beyond us.”

“And since Starswirl is one of their top advisors, it seems that our lessons for today have been cancelled,” Celestia continued. She picked up her fork and jammed it into a chunk of cantaloupe, with enough force that I was certain the plate would shatter. Thankfully, it seemed to be made of sturdier stuff, for it resisted the blow. “I feel so helpless…” she muttered, raising the fork to her mouth.

A strained silence descended over the table as we settled into our breakfast. It was the standard fare - mostly fruits and grains, with a plate of eggs and a small amount of meat for me. Ham today. But the food was muted. It didn’t taste the same. My mouth was dry, my stomach twisted in knots. I couldn’t finish more than half of my plate, and a glance around the table told me that Celestia and Luna had also lost their appetites.

“So… what now?” That had been Celestia who had spoken, looking across the table at both Luna and me.

“Well… I usually head up to the library at this point,” I suggested. “Do some reading. It’s a good way to kill time, if nothing else.”

“Unless you have a better idea, Celestia?” Luna asked.

Celestia shook her head. “I don’t. I don’t know what to do, honestly. The library seems like the best place to go, for now anyway.”

In unison, the three of us rose from our seats and abandoned our half-finished meals. We exited through the door closest to us, turning right and following the path up the spiral staircase to the third floor, towards the library.

We took our time in getting settled in. Celestia and I went in the same direction, towards the history section of the library in one of the corners of the first floor. I picked out a book on the Minotaurs before making my way to one of the couches in the middle of the library. Celestia took a bit longer than me, returning with a book not on history, but on legends - specifically, to do with the Crystal Empire. Luna was the last to arrive, carrying with her a thick spellbook with several illegible runes on the front cover. We all settled in and tried to lose ourselves in our chosen tomes.

But I found that I couldn’t. The words didn’t hold my attention. My mind kept drifting away, to my own thoughts. Towards Serenity and Solaris, and their room full of advisors somewhere in the castle. To the crisis they were dealing with. To my own… powerlessness. Celestia had put it perfectly. I felt helpless, powerless. A crisis was building, or had already broken, and while I had my own suspicions, I still didn’t know what was going on, how to deal with it… once again, it felt like my fate was out of my control.

It didn’t help that I still had plenty of questions for Serenity about last night.

The princesses didn’t seem to be faring much better. Celestia kept readjusting herself in her armchair, at first sitting up straight, then leaning over with the book on the table, and even moving over to another couch to lie down. It seemed as though she just couldn’t get comfortable. Luna, meanwhile, kept looking up from her book and glancing between Celestia and me. It seemed that, like me, her book could not hold her attention.

Finally, Luna gave up. She slammed her book closed and let it fall to the table with a loud thud that echoed through the library. “It’s useless,” she groaned, rubbing her temples.

“You too?” I asked, closing my own book and laying it down on the table next to Luna’s. Across the table, I saw Celestia sit back up and similarly discard her own book. In response, Luna merely shook her head. For a long moment, the three of us just sat in silence, stewing in our own thoughts, our own doubts and worries and fears. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife, and only growing thicker and more oppressive by the second.

Finally, I could stand it no longer. “I…” I began, noticing how sharply my voice cut into the silence. “I suppose… I could continue the story.” Together, Luna and Celestia’s ears both perked up, and they looked over towards me. “The one I was telling you last night.”

“That… would be nice,” Celestia smiled weakly.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, feeling the stares of both princesses upon me. “So, the last thing that happened was that our heroes received medals for their courage, and Darth Vader was sent hurtling into space. Our story picks up three years later, on the frozen world of Hoth…”

---

The rest of the day seemed to fly by. Luna and Celestia seemed to instantly forget their worries, if the enraptured expressions on their face were any indication. They sat on the couch opposite me, at times leaning back calmly in their chairs, at other times leaning forward expectantly. I must have seen every expression possible cross their faces at some point, from excitement during the chase through the asteroid field, to horror as Darth Vader made his big reveal, to terror as the Emperor assaulted Luke with lightning, to bittersweet pity as Darth Vader finally died.

The retelling was a nice distraction for me as well. If nothing else, coming up with appropriate descriptions kept my mind from drifting towards the looming crisis. And it was fun seeing their reactions as the events of the movies unfolded. I only wished that I had been able to show them the actual films, rather than simply describing them. Who knows… maybe it would have even lasted a little longer.

None of us were hungry as lunch rolled around. Maybe it was just me, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of walking back into that dining hall and seeing Serenity and Solaris missing again, and being reminded of the crisis every time I looked towards their empty seats. So instead, we elected to simply remain in the library and continue the story. It was preferable for me, and Celestia and Luna seemed to agree that they didn’t want to interrupt the story.

But all good things must eventually come to an end.

“...And with the ghosts of Ben Kenobi, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker looking on, the rebels celebrated the destruction of the second Death Star, and the Death of the Emperor. Though the war was far from over, a terrible blow had been struck against the Empire. One that would eventually lead to its collapse, and the establishment of a New Republic.” I took a brief pause to take a breath and let out a large sigh. “That’s the end of the story… that I know of, anyway.”

Across the table, Luna raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Well, there was another part of the story that was going to be released,” I explained. “Set thirty years after the end that I just told you. But I wound up here before the next part could be released.” Indeed, I noted with no small amount of regret that Episode Seven would be releasing… what, a month from now? It would have been coming out two months after I came to Equestria, and I’d been here for just over a month…

A twinge of discomfort shot through my abdomen, drawing from my thoughts. I looked down as the twinge repeated itself, before glancing across the table to the princesses. “Either of you know what time it is?” I asked, to which I received a pair of shaking heads. “Feels like it’s gotta be close to dinner time.”

“I am getting hungry…” Luna agreed.

“Maybe mother and father will be there?” Celestia suggested. “I mean… they have to eat at some point too…”

“And we could maybe get some answers,” I finished.

The three of us rose and turned towards the door of the library. I paused and cracked my neck, stiff from sitting in one spot for so long, as the princesses took the lead. Together, the three of us made our way out of the library, towards the stairwell, down to the first floor, and to the left, towards the dining hall.

Already, I could tell something was different. Whereas before there had normally been only a pair of guards standing watch outside the dining hall, now a half-dozen flanked the double doors. Just in front of me, Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance before moving towards the door. The three guards on the side closest to us inclined their heads as the princesses passed and pulled the doors open, raising them to glance at me as I followed. “Bullslayer, I heard one of them murmur as I stepped through the open door, letting it swing closed behind me.

Sure enough, we were not the first ones to arrive for dinner. Serenity and Solaris were already sitting at the end closest to us. And they were not alone. Surrounding them on either side were nearly a dozen mares and stallions, pouring over documents and speaking amongst themselves in hushed whispers. Starswirl was among them, clad in his usual robes, as was Colonel Firefly in her standard military uniform. I didn’t recognize any of the other faces in the crowd, though it didn’t take much guesswork to realize that these were the top advisors to the crown.

Every head swiveled towards us as the princesses and I stepped into the room. Just as quickly, however, the group returned to its hushed conversation. The princesses and I shared another look as we moved past the group. Our normal seats were occupied, and so we found ourselves sitting at the far end of the table, away from the rest of the Ponies in the room.

Dinner was a quiet affair on both ends of the table. Serenity, Solaris, and their advisors were speaking amongst each other, but I couldn’t make out anything other than a low hissing sound from their whispers. The princesses and I, meanwhile, ate in absolute silence, hardly willing to even make eye contact with each other. At least for myself, I felt all the weight of this morning’s fears and worries washing over myself. I couldn’t bring myself to give these thoughts a voice, and if they were feeling the same, it seemed that Celestia and Luna couldn’t either. The tension across the table was oppressive, stifling all thoughts of casual conversation.

Mercifully, dinner was also a short affair. The princesses and I finished only moments before Serenity and Solaris and their group of advisors. As soon as we heard the sound of chairs moving from the other end of the table, the three of us rose from our own chairs. Normally, we would have made our way to the other end of the table and out the door, with Luna and I heading back to the Library for magic training while Celestia would, presumably, go to her room. But with the gaggle of Ponies crowding the far end of the table, we silently decided to simply wait for them to leave first.

As the first of the advisors began to leave, Solaris turned his head towards us. Though he’d regained a lot of the body mass that he’d lost during his imprisonment, his face was still lean and gaunt, almost boney. His brow furrowed as his gaze passed over me, but his focus seemed to be his daughters as he moved down the table towards us. Serenity, meanwhile, remained at the far end of the table. Unlike Solaris, her gaze fixated onto me and stayed there. I locked eyes with her for a moment, and she motioned for me to join her.

I glanced sideways across the table towards the approaching Solaris as I made my way to the other side of the dining hall. Solaris had diverted his eyes away from the princesses, towards me. Our eyes met for a split-second. Distrust was still present on his face, maybe even a hint of anger, but it was nearly completely masked by… something else. Fear? Perhaps. But fear of what? Me? Or whatever this crisis was that he’d been dealing with? Both? I couldn’t tell, and was afforded no more time to think about it as we passed each other.

Serenity nodded in my direction as I stopped a couple of paces away from her. “Chris,” She greeted me.

“Queen Serenity,” I inclined my head slightly.

“I am sorry that I was not present this morning to answer your questions, as I promised -”

I held up a hand, cutting off Serenity’s apologies. “I understand,” I replied. “Something big has happened, if I’m understanding things correctly.”

Serenity closed her eyes and let out a large sigh. “Indeed. But not something that you need worry about… yet. Rest assured,” she continued, cutting off the beginnings of my protest, “that if and when that time should come, you shall know about it. But for now, you have your own problems to deal with. I believe I promised you an explanation.”

“The creature we observed last night in your dreams… it is far more than a mere beast.” Serenity paused to close her eyes and rub them. “It is known simply as The Nightmare. A malevolent… thing… that has existed since time immemorial. It exists within the Dreamscape, where all dreams originate and reside. Gathering information on the Nightmare is difficult, to say the least, but we have been able to make a few observations.”

“Firstly, we believe that The Nightmare… feeds, for lack of a better word. It feeds off the fear of others. When encountering another dream within the Dreamscape, it will maliciously influence and corrupt that dream to turn it into one of fear and darkness. If left unchecked, it can keep its victims locked in an unending slumber, trapped within an eternal nightmare. Thus, this… thing… can feed off the fear it generates, and grow in power.”

“Second, we know that the Nightmare seeks to escape the Dreamscape. It has made several escape attempts since we first discovered it, each one with disastrous consequences for the waking world. One of our most well-known legends, the tale of Hearth’s Warming, is no legend at all, but a factual retelling of the effects of one of these attempted breakouts.”

“Should the Nightmare ever escape the Dreamscape, the horrors it would inflict upon Gaia would be unthinkable. The Dreamwalkers recognize this threat, and were founded to stop such an event from occurring. We monitor the Dreamscape, driving back the Nightmare and breaking its influence on whatever dreams it may corrupt. I have faced this monster several times before, and I do not doubt that I will face it again. But last night…” A shudder ran down Serenity’s body. “Last night was unlike anything I’ve seen before. The Nightmare was far more powerful than I’ve ever seen it. Even with Starswirl, I doubt I could have driven it back. Hence, our need for a swift retreat.”

I’d remained silent up to this point. Not that I’d have been able to speak if I’d wanted to, I don’t think. My mind was still reeling at the horror Serenity’s revelation. That something like this could actually exist… Ponies, Minotaurs, Griffons, even Dragons, that was fine. I could handle that. But a creature that essentially amounted to an eldritch abomination, feeding off the fear of others? Drawing its victims into eternal nightmare? And it wasn’t just a myth or a fantasy - it was a real thing. I’d starred it in the eyes. It had held me in its grasp…

“But… why?” I began. “Why… why is it going after me? And how did it get so powerful?”

Serenity merely shook her head. “I wish I knew why it was so interested in you,” she sighed. “As to how it accumulated so much strength… I have no answers, only guesses. Perhaps our vigilance has been insufficient. Perhaps it fed on the fear that flowed through all Equestria during the Minotaur’s invasion. Perhaps it has found another source of power that we are unaware of. Perhaps it is all of these things, or none. We simply do not know…”

“And now,” Serenity continued, “I have told you everything I know about this… beast. This monster. I wish there was more I could tell you, but we simply do not know anything else. Until we do, we will continue to do what we can to keep you safe. I will join you in your dreams again tonight, while Starswirl investigates the Dreamscape itself for any clues as to how to drive the Nightmare back again.”

Serenity peered past me towards the other end of the dining hall. Turning my head to follow her gaze, I noticed Solaris standing at the far end, holding the door open and staring directly at us. “For now, I must go,” Serenity continued. “My day is not yet finished. And neither is yours. I believe Luna is waiting for you.”

Oh yeah. Right. In all the stress through the day, and the weirdness from last night, I’d almost forgotten that I was still meeting with Luna in the library. I opened my mouth to bid Serenity farewell, but she was already gone, walking down the length of the table towards Solaris. She didn’t look back towards me at any point, so I decided to take my leave and exit through the door closest to me.

A few moments later, I pushed the door to the library open. The warm glow inside was welcoming as ever, and I gladly stepped into it, out of the torch-lit corridors outside. I spotted Luna almost immediately, sitting on the same couch that I had been sitting on earlier that day. I made my way over to the couch and plopped down next to her. “Hey.”

“Hi, Chris,” Luna nodded as I sat down. “What did mother want? Did she tell you what was going on today?”

I shook my head. “No. It was… something else.” There was a pause as Luna cocked her head to the side. “Something… personal.”

“Ah. I see…” Another pause as Luna glanced around the room. “So… are you ready to begin?”

“Yep,” I nodded. “Let’s do this.”

The two of us turned so that we were facing each other on the couch, cross-legged. Luna’s hands came together in front of her and she closed her eyes. Her horn began to glow, becoming surrounded by her magical aura. A crackle of electricity sparked to life between her hands, which quickly expanded to become the orb of energy that I had become familiar with over the past few evenings. A faint hum pulsed through the room as the ball of energy stopped expanding, stabilizing at about the size of a basketball.

Luna’s eyes snapped open, and she looked towards me. “Whenever you’re ready.”

I took a deep breath, tried to clear my mind, and braced myself as best I could. This was always the worst bit. I reached out with my right hand and placed it upon the orb. Instantly, I felt electricity running up my arm, and it was all I could do to stop from pulling back. I forced myself to close my eyes and clear my mind as best I could - no easy feat when your hand is going numb from electrical shock.

As soon as I felt the sensation of electricity fade, I opened my eyes. There I was, again, upon a bridge of light above the bottomless void. At the far end was that same solid-iron door. Already, one flickering ball of light was zig-zagging this way and that across the track.

I didn’t pause to take in these surroundings though. Taking the time to make these observations would have merely created more images to distract me. Instead, I started running. Sprinting, as fast as I could. My eyes glanced towards the ball of light as I approached. As I weaved past it, another one flared to life, directly in front of me. I had to duck under it to get past, but in that time, two more had spawned, already swarming towards me. One missed badly, but the other slammed into my knee.

I let out a hiss of pain as I nearly fell to the ground. It was like getting hit by one of those rubber kickballs from elementary school… if it had been fired out of a cannon. Yet another ball flew over my head as I ducked down, fighting past the lingering ache in my knee. I pushed myself back to my feet and continued my run.

And yet there were still more, popping up every so often in front of me. When I would dodge around one, another would pop up. And the ones behind me weren’t done with me, it would seem. They chased behind, a swarming mass of flickering images and light. My stomach began to clinch into a tight knot. If this kept up…

And suddenly, I was free.

There were no more lights. No more distractions in front of me. Just a straight shot to the door. I knew the lights behind me were still coming, but I didn’t care. I didn’t stop to wonder why they’d stopped forming in front of me. I just ran, as fast as I could. The door drew steadily closer. Every so often, one of the lights from behind me would hit me in the back, in the shoulder, on the arm, but never with the same force as that first one. They couldn’t stop me. Not this time.

And just like that, I was there.

Normally, I would have taken the time to stare at this door. To examine it, to take in the moment. After all, I knew what was coming… Or at least, I had an idea of what was probably going to happen. And I would have wanted to relish it. But I knew those lights behind me were still after me. There was no time to savor this victory. So, I reached out. I grabbed the handle. Pulled it down.

And heaved the door open.

A blast of light erupted from the newly-opened door, blinding me. An instant later, some force launched me from my feet and send me flying backwards. I landed hard upon some solid surface - I assume it was the bridge. It was kind of hard to tell, with my eyes still screaming in protest at the sudden influx of light. And the heat. Oh God, the heat. Like the inside of an oven. And only getting hotter. I tried to get up, but another wave of force washed over me, knocking me to the ground again. And again. And again. I curled up in a ball, trying to ride it out…

“Chris! Chris!”

My eyes snapped open.

The first thing I noticed was that I was no longer on the couch. Instead, I was on the floor, staring up at the large crystal that lit up the library. Or, rather, I would have been staring at it, had Luna’s face not been in the way. She was kneeling over me, and judging by her expression, she was on the verge of panic. Sweat lined my forehead, soaked into the collar around my neck, into the back of my shirt. My right arm was still numb, though feeling was already beginning to return to my fingers.

As soon as my eyes opened, Luna let out a large sigh. “Oh, sweet Faust, Chris… Don’t do that!”

“Eh?” I asked. I waved her back as I sat up, rubbing the back of my head where it had hit the floor. The rug beneath me had cushioned the blow, but I could still feel where I’d landed. “What happened?”

“You went into a seizure!” Luna exclaimed. “You fell into the floor and started convulsing! I thought you were dying!”

“Well… uh…” I struggled for words as I dragged myself back up onto the couch, leaning back into its cushiony recess. Finally, I shrugged. “Sorry?”

Luna took a deep breath and closed her eyes, letting the breath out slowly as she pulled herself off the floor and onto the couch as well. “Are you feeling well, Chris?” she asked. “I mean… that wasn’t a small seizure either…”

“Yeah… I feel fine,” I replied. And I did feel fine. More than fine. As the feeling returned to my arm, I felt… something. Something else. Some other… feeling… that hadn’t been there in my arm before. A feel of warmth. Like a warm blanket on a cold night, only… inside.

I held up a hand to cut Luna off as she opened her mouth to speak. “Hold on,” I murmured. I paid close attention as the minutes passed, as full feeling returned to my arm. And that… something else… that other warmth now filled my entire arm.

And it didn’t stop there. It crept past my shoulder towards my neck and down my chest. Not quickly - it had been at least five minutes since I’d settled back into the couch by now - but quick enough. This comfortable warmth was spreading across my body, and I couldn’t help but close my eyes and smile.

“Are… are you okay?” I heard Luna ask again.

I nodded in response. “I’m fine,” I repeated. I opened my eyes to look at Luna as the warmth kept spreading, now to my stomach and my left shoulder. “I reached the door.”

Instantly, Luna’s eyes snapped wide open. “Wha… that’s great, Chris!” She exclaimed. “And what happened then?”

“Well… it was blinding,” I began. “And I got knocked to the ground and couldn’t get back up. And it was hot. Very hot.” I gave a small shrug. “And then I woke up. And now there’s this… warm… something or other… spreading across my body.”

Luna rapidly bobbed her head up and down. “That’s the feeling of mana seeping into your body. You’ve been closed off to its flow, but now that you’ve been opened up, it will begin to fill you. It’ll take a few hours to fully charge, but when you do, we can begin your actual training.”

I couldn’t help but smile again as I listened to Luna. I closed my eyes again and allowed my mind to wander. I was going to learn magic. Actual goddamn magic. Man, was I going to have some things to tell everyone back home… Assuming I actually got back home, I noted, my mood turning slightly sour.

But just as quickly, the sourness was gone. I opened my eyes and looked over towards Luna, who was staring at me intently. “So… What now?” I asked.

“Well… We can’t start training right now,” Luna began. “Your body is still filling with mana, and even once it’s done filling, it’ll be at least twelve hours before its stabilized enough to begin practicing safely. So, we’ll begin with that tomorrow. Until then… do you have any questions?”

“Yeah, actually.” I sat up straighter in my seat, popping my neck as I did so. “Are there going to be any… side effects of this?”

“Nothing noticeable, no,” Luna shook her head. “I mean, obviously there’s the warmth you’ve said is flowing through you right now, but once your entire body is filled with that warmth you’ll likely just get used to it. Other than that, the only side effects are the ones that come with being able to manipulate mana. You may be more sensitive to the leylines if you’re physically near one, or be able to sense if somepony around you is using magic. But you won’t be firing off spells at random or anything like that. Anything else?”

I began to shake my head. I really didn’t have any other questions about my new… status. But mid-shake, I froze. “… one more thing,” I began slowly. “Queen Serenity mentioned a legend to me the other day. One I’m not familiar with, one that’s not in one of those books over there.” I gestured towards a corner of the library. “She told me to ask you about it. So... Could you tell me about the Tomb of the Last Alicorn?”

Luna cocked her head to the side. “The Last Alicorn?” she repeated. “Well, I haven’t heard that legend mentioned for a long time… Starswirl was obsessed with that legend, you know. Nearly drove him mad. But I digress… Sure, I can tell you.”

“The legend is neither long, nor specific, but it is wondrous. It tells of a powerful Pony that lived long ago, back even before the legend of Hearth’s Warming, when we still lived in the frozen north. Nopony knows her name. It was said that this Pony was not a Unicorn, nor a Pegasus, nor an Earth Pony, but instead was all three at once. An Alicorn. She had the horn of a Unicorn and was capable of magic. The wings of a Pegasus, which allowed her to fly. And she was stronger than any Earth Pony, with a deep connection to Gaia that we can only dream of.”

“Under her rule, the three tribes were united, and lived in prosperity. And her rule lasted a good long while, too. Some versions of the legend claim she was ageless, existing outside of time and unaffected by its passage. Others claim that she was so powerful, she had managed to best death itself. And still others claim that she had no death-defying powers, but simply happened to live longer than usual. But all versions agree that eventually, one way or another, she did die. In every version, her final words are the same - ‘From darkness, comes light.’”

“So great was the respect she held, that the Ponies constructed a mighty tomb for her atop the nexus, where all the leylines of Gaia converge into a single point. Her death, however, also meant the end of the alliance between the tribes, which would not be restored until the founding of Equestria after the events in the Legend of Hearth’s Warming.”

“Of course, scholars and historians have long sought the Tomb. Starswirl was one such scholar. And one would think that it would be easy to follow the leylines until we reached a point where they all intersected each other. But multiple expeditions towards this location - far to the Frozen North, beyond even the Crystal Empire - have come back empty. So far, we’ve found no evidence that this is anything more than a legend.”

“And that’s all there is to it,” Luna finished with a smile. “I’m not surprised it’s not recorded in those books over there. It’s so old, and with so many conflicting versions, that it’s impossible to tell which one was the original.” There was a brief pause as Luna pushed herself to her hooves. “So… anything else?”

I shook my head as I rose to my feet as well. By now, the warmth had spread halfway down my upper leg, making my feet feel like ice in comparison. “No, I think that’s it.”

“Very well. Good Night, Chris,” Luna smiled as she walked past me towards the door. “I’ll see you back here tomorrow. Same time.”

“And come ready. The first lesson is always the hardest… but also the most fun.”

Chapter 9

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Sleep came to me slowly that evening. I knew it would. By the time I’d gotten to my room, the warmth of the mana flowing through me had reached all the way through my body. I was so full of energy that it was difficult to even lie down for a few minutes, let alone fall asleep. I’d actually done it. I’d reached the door. I was going to learn magic.

That thought alone was enough to make me get up several times and just pace across the room. I knew my training started tomorrow, but what would we start with? Nothing fancy, of course. I tried not to let my mind wander too far. Getting overexcited would only make it more difficult to sleep. Not that that helped me much. It’s hard to calm yourself down, knowing something major is going to happen the next day.

But eventually - finally - I found my eyes growing heavy. A small yawn left my mouth, and I turned back towards the bed. Maybe now I could get some sleep. The warmth of the mana still enveloped me, and I found as I laid down that the blanket was hot. Oppressive. I instead elected to simply throw the blanket off, allowing the cool night air to cover me instead. I forced myself to stop thinking about the lessons the next day and closed my eyes.

I don’t know how long I laid there. It couldn’t have been too long before I felt something soft prod my shoulder. I opened one eye and turned my head towards the source of the prodding. “Queen Serenity,” I half-yawned in greeting, sitting up and stretching my arms.

“Chris,” Serenity nodded in response. She backed away from the bed and sat down in a chair that materialized behind her as I turned to face her more fully. “I hope the rest of your evening went well.”

“It did,” I replied with a smile. I flicked my wrist as the map I had been using the night before burst into existence. “I managed to reach the door.”

Serenity cocked her head to one side. “The door?”

“In my mind,” I tried to clarify. To little avail, if the look of confusion on her face was any indication. “I unlocked my ability to use magic.”

“Ah,” Serenity smiled, nodding slowly. “I see. Well done, Chris, well done indeed. I assume your actual training begins tomorrow, then?”

“Yep.”

“Best of luck to you. Oh, and two words of warning.” Serenity sat up straighter and locked eyes with me. “First, do not expect magic to be as simple in the waking world as you find it here. The dreamscape is far more malleable than our own world. And second, do not overexert yourself. Now that you are open to the flow of mana, draining yourself of that mana by using magic too recklessly can have severe consequences.”

“Noted.” Not that I ever intended to find out firsthand what those consequences were…

“Now, on to the matter at hand.” Serenity rose back to her hooves, the chair fading from existence as she did so. “We’re going to pick back up where we left off last night, tracking down this other Human whose echoes are scattered across this Dreamworld. But I’m afraid we will be slower tonight. I am experienced at Dreamwalking, but my ability to detect the strength of an echo is not as tightly tuned as Starswirl’s. It will take time for me to determine an echo’s strength.”

“Considering the direction in which the echoes indicated our mystery Human was moving, I would suggest we start here, in the palace grounds. It appears they were headed in this direction, and I can certainly sense echoes of their presence nearby. Any questions?”

“Yes, actually,” I began, pushing myself from the bed to my feet. “What’s the plan if the Nightmare shows back up?”

“I wake you up. And pray that your connection to this dream ends before the Nightmare consumes us.”

“Brilliant,” I deadpanned. But if Serenity heard me, she chose to ignore it. Instead, she turned away and moved towards the window. Rather than opening it, however, she simply walked into and through it, floating in the air on the other side. I made sure I had the map with me before following behind her. Together, we turned and began to glide away, around the outer walls of the castle and towards the main entrance.

As we approached the door, Serenity veered off to the left, angling towards a tree that loomed over the path leading up to the castle. My feet touched the cobblestone seconds behind Serenity, and I stood back as she knelt underneath the tree. For a few moments, she remained there, eyes closed. Silence descended.

Finally, she stood back up. “The other Human was here,” she announced. She motioned for the map, and I handed it over to her. The scroll unfurled, and she poked the map with her finger. From my vantage point, I could see another mark appear near the entrance to the castle - A darker mark than any that had come before. “We’re on the right track,” Serenity continued, handing the scroll back to me. “And from here, I can sense plenty of echoes within the castle itself.” With that, the two of us rose off the ground and towards the main door.

As we passed through the front entrance, Serenity dropped back to the ground. Her head flicked this way and that, back and forth, she took a step to the left, but quickly stepped back. This process repeated several times before she let out a large sigh. She turned her head and stretched her hand out towards me. “Let me see that map for a moment.”

I handed the map over to Serenity. She unfurled the scroll and closed her eyes. One finger reached out and touched the center of the map. The ink on the map began to rearrange itself, twisting and turning in on itself, until the map itself had fundamentally changed. No longer was it a map of the entire city, but instead a more detailed map of the castle.

But it appeared that she wasn’t quite finished. As Serenity touched the bottom of the map, the map changed again, with the interior of the building rearranging slightly. It took me only a moment to realize that that touch had changed the level of the castle that the map was displaying. “Very nice,” I murmured.

Serenity nodded towards me in acknowledgement. “Hopefully this will do,” she began. “I can sense multiple echoes nearby. This new map will allow us to more accurately track their locations throughout the castle.”

The next couple of hours were spent floating through the halls (and the walls and floors and ceilings) of the castle. I couldn’t see or sense what we were looking for, of course, but Serenity clearly could. Every so often, we’d stop and float for a moment next to a particular spot. Usually just some random spot - in the middle of the hall, up against the wall of a room, on the fifth step up on the second staircase in the library. When we stopped, Serenity would unroll the map and flip to the floor we were on. She would then close her eyes for a couple of minutes before marking the location on the map. Once she had finished, we were off again, floating towards the next unknown point.

I’ll admit, it was more than a little boring for me, just floating along behind while Serenity did all the work. But I had remembered Serenity’s warning from the first time we had wandered through this Dreamworld - that I should stay close to her if I was going to be manipulating the Dreamworld at all. And no-clipping through the castle, phasing through walls and floors and flying through the air - I had a sneaking suspicion that would be considered manipulation of the Dreamworld.

But that didn’t make it any less boring. Just floating there. Waiting. Watching, while Serenity did all the hard work. It didn’t help that Serenity was so focused on her task that she didn’t seem interested in speaking.

So, by the time we’d reached the fourth echo - or at least, where we stopped for the fourth time - I’d had just about enough of the boredom. So, to pass the time, I willed an item into existence. A small tablet, along with a set of earbuds. With Netflix, of course. Except this Netflix happened to have Game of Thrones available.

Hey, my Dreamworld. I can do what I want.

And so, I spent most of the rest of the evening with one earbud in, rewatching the first couple of episodes of the first season. I know. All the things I could have done during that time, and I decided to watch a TV show. I can’t tell you why I chose that, or why that show in particular. All I know is that I was bored, a little homesick, and needing a reminder of what it was like to look at and listen to another Human speaking. Even if that was just a TV show… it was something. I just had to make sure the screen was pointing away from Serenity during a few… select scenes...

It wasn’t until near the end of the third episode that Serenity spoke to me. We had entered the throne room a couple of moments before, but I had been too busy with the tablet to give it too much thought. I heard Serenity’s voice, though I couldn’t understand what she had said past the noise from the earbud. I wrenched my gaze away from the tablet, allowing it and the earbud to fade from existence. “I’m sorry, what?” I asked.

“Distracted, were we?” Serenity chuckled. “No matter. I apologize that tonight may not have been the most… engaging night for you. But to answer your question…” Serenity’s gaze flickered from me, towards the thrones atop the stairs at the back of the room. “... I said that I have a feeling our search has only just begun… and at the same time, may be drawing to a close.”

I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“There is one more echo in this room,” Serenity explained. She turned away from me and began floating towards the thrones. “And if this particular echo is as strong as I suspect it will be…”

I turned to follow Serenity, gliding through the air beside her. As we reached the top of the stairs, both of us came to a sudden stop. A rush of cold wind washed over me, sending chills down my spine and causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. I glanced towards Serenity to see that she was looking back at me. “You feel it as well?” she asked.

I nodded in response. A small knot had formed in the pit of my stomach. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” I murmured.

“As do I,” Serenity agreed. “Be on your guard.”

The two of us crept behind the thrones, towards the back wall. I knew what lay behind that wall. The secret entrance into the cave system underneath Everfree. It seemed, however, that we would be remaining above ground for now. Serenity knelt next to the back of the thrones and closed her eyes. For several moments, she remained almost completely motionless.

Finally, she stood back up and opened her eyes. “As I suspected,” she muttered, touching the map with her index finger. As she removed her finger, the map rolled up and faded away into nothingness. “This is the strongest echo we’ve found yet. And even this one has to be at least a week old…”

“So… what does that mean?” I asked, already knowing the answer to come.

“That our mystery dreamer, at least in this Dreamworld, went down into the tunnels”

“And… let me guess,” I sighed. “We’re gonna have to go in there.”

“Correct.”

“I have a bad feeling about this,” I repeated as Serenity moved closer towards the back wall.

“Then I would suggest you be ready to run.” Serenity placed her hand upon the wall, and her horn lit up. A second later, the wall where her hand was touching began to glow. The stones that made up the wall began to fade, much like the items that I had summoned in the Dreamworld whenever I willed them away, only slower. Still, it wasn’t long before the wall had faded, revealing the tunnel on the other side. Serenity’s horn lit up again, and an orb of light appeared in her outstretched hand.

My eyes opened wide, and I pressed my back against the back of the thrones behind me. Serenity scrambled backwards as the entrance to the tunnel was revealed. Or at least, where the entrance should have been. A few feet into the tunnel, the stone had disappeared, leaving only darkness in its place. A pitch-black void, swirling around itself like a storm just before a tornado would descend to ravage the ground below. The ground and walls leading from the vortex, up to where the wall had been, were absolutely choked by a black and red fibrous growth, almost ivy-like except for its density.

Staring at the scene before me, I’d almost expected the growth to start rapidly expanding outwards. But it didn’t. It remained almost perfectly still, save for a faint pulse that could be seen as the ivy thickened and thinned ever so slightly. Almost like the growth was breathing…

“This is bad,” I heard Serenity mutter just before she grabbed my wrist. She forcibly dragged me away from the tunnel, around the throne, down the stairs, and out of the throne room, all the while muttering under her breath, just loudly enough that I could hear her speaking but softly enough that I couldn’t understand her.

As soon as the throne room doors had been shut, Serenity turned to face me. “I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the source of that… stuff.”

“The Nightmare?”

“Precisely.” Serenity sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “And from the looks of it, the Nightmare’s influence spreads all the way down into those tunnels. How deep? I cannot say. Perhaps it has not spread very far. Perhaps the entire tunnel system is overrun. We cannot tell, and I dare not venture down there.”

“But… But they’re down there!” I protested. “The other Human! Or at the very least, they went down there...”

“I know, Chris,” Serenity muttered. Her lips pursed and she looked up towards the ceiling, letting out a long, deep breath. “I know. But I’m afraid there’s nothing else we can do here. Nothing we can do without putting our own lives in danger.”

“Surely there’s something we can do…”

“Nothing here in the Dreamworld,” Serenity shook her head. “And I think it would be best if we did not return here, for a while anyway. There is little else we can gleam from this place, and the Nightmare already has a strong grip on this individual’s dream. The only way to break its hold is to force them to wake up. And with the Nightmare infecting this dream… No, we cannot wake them from this side. We will have to find them in the waking world, and attempt to wake them there.”

“But where -”

“I don’t know,” Serenity cut me off. “Not for certain, anyway. But the presence of the Nightmare in those tunnels… perhaps the other Human is within the tunnels in the waking world as well as in the Dreamworld… I’ll make sure a search team begins combing through the tunnels in search of this mystery dreamer, or at least something we can use to track them down.”

“And… what about this place?” I asked. “I mean, I keep coming back to this dream every night…”

“I can sever the connection between your soul and theirs,” Serenity explained. “A little trick Dreamwalkers learned early on, for situations such as this where two souls were stuck in the same dream being taken over by the Nightmare. This would wake you immediately, but the next time you fall asleep, you would not be drawn here. And don’t worry,” she continued as I opened my mouth to protest. “The severing is painless and harmless, save for the fact that it drags you back to the waking world. And if necessary, there are ways to return here.”

I hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly. “Alright,” I conceded. I didn’t like it. It didn’t feel right, just giving up our pursuit like this. But much as I hated to admit it, Serenity was right. I had no power against the Nightmare, and Serenity and Starswirl together had both fled from it the night before. “Alright,” I repeated. “Separate us.”

“Very well.” Serenity reached out and placed her hand on my forehead. She closed her eyes, and her horn lit up. The last thing I remember was her saying “Now, hold very still…” and a brilliant flash of violet light...

Chapter 10

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Most of the next morning passed without incident. The Princesses and I were alone for breakfast again, leaving us to stew in our concern and worry over what was going on with this crisis. Neither of them seemed to know any better than me what was going on, and if they did, they did a very good job of keeping it hidden from me.

Unlike the day before, however, the two of them had things to keep them occupied today. It was getting towards the end of the month, and Luna informed me that this meant that she was needed to take care of paying the Ponies who worked in the castle. Celestia, on the other hand, said nothing to me about her duties, stopping only to frown and say that it was going to be a “fun day” before running off away from the dining hall.

That left me all alone for the first half of the day. And so, I relocated myself to the place I seemed to find myself in every time I had nothing to do - the library. The warm glow that filled the room raised my spirits somewhat, and I found myself leaning back into one of the couches. I was tempted to rummage through one of the spellbooks from the second floor in anticipation for my lesson with Luna, but I managed to restrain myself. I was almost certainly not going to be working with any of those spells tonight.

But I found that the library, usually a place of relaxation, today brought no such feeling of ease. My fingers kept twitching. I couldn’t get comfortable. My attention drifted constantly from the pages in front of me. I couldn’t sit still. My legs were restless. It wasn’t long before I found myself pacing back and forth across the library.

I knew what the problem was. There was no question in my mind. Yes, there was the crisis that Serenity and Solaris were dealing with, and that made me uneasy as well. Of course I wanted to know what was going on. But more than that, I wanted to be down in the tunnels. Looking. Hunting for this other Human that had found themselves in this strange world with me. Just sitting here, comfortable and safe in the castle, while they were trapped by the Nightmare in an unending slumber...

Once again, I just felt so… helpless...

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. The reasonable voice in my head told me it was foolish, to even consider wandering through those tunnels alone. Serenity had already promised to send guards to scour those tunnels for any signs of the other Human. Assuming, of course, that they weren’t needed for whatever crisis Serenity and Solaris were dealing with. And if they were… if the guards needed couldn’t be spared… what then? The reasonable voice had no answer.

I sighed and shook my head to clear it. All of a sudden, the library that had once seemed so warm and inviting now felt more like a prison. I had to get out. Outside, into the fresh air, at least for a little while. Try to clear my head. I left the book I had grabbed to read on the table. I couldn’t even remember what it had been about. I threw the doors open and left the glow of the library behind, stepping out into the sunlit hallways.

I got a few looks from the guards throughout the castle as I made my way towards the rear exit. I guess they still weren’t quite used to me being around, and those that were certainly weren’t used to seeing me out and about at this time. But aside from the occasionally mumbled “Bullslayer,” none of them spoke as I passed them.

It was only a few moments before I found myself on the back lawn of the castle. Though the sun was high in the cloudless sky, the air was crisp and cool. Without thinking, I began walking away from the castle, out into the grounds. Here in the shade of the castle, I could still see faint traces of my breath rising away from me as steam, though it quickly faded from visibility as I stepped into the sunlight.. Just as I would have expected it to be. It would have been late November back home, and from what I could tell, Gaian seasons worked nearly identically to Terran seasons… Discounting the fact that Ponies controlled it all.

Of course, that meant that winter was fast approaching. I made a mental note to inquire about warmer clothes when the opportunity presented itself. A couple of pairs of jeans and some T-shirts, even with a light hoodie, weren’t likely to cut it for the entire winter.

It was refreshing, being out in the open air. Being cooped up in the castle for the past few weeks, with only a couple of brief excursions outside the walls, had left me restless. A restlessness that I hadn’t noticed or acknowledged before, but now burned away inside me. I had half a mind to do few laps around the castle. Burn off some of the excess energy, and some of the excess fat that had developed. I knew I’d been neglecting my physical shape - my tests the other day had proven as much. Or maybe I could try to get through that hedge maze off in the corner. If it was anything like the corn mazes back home, it’d be a fun way to kill a couple of hours… assuming, of course, that I didn’t wind up hopelessly lost. It might at least take my mind off of the Human lost to the Nightmare, or the crisis brewing around me…

The sound of metal clanging against metal shook me back to reality. I’d been so lost in my own thoughts that I’d just been walking aimlessly in a straight line, directly away from the back exit of the castle. Which put me directly outside of the training enclosure that I’d done my tests in. I blinked and glanced over my shoulder towards the castle. Had I really zoned out for that long? That had been easily a five-minute walk... I shook my head and faced the enclosure again. Well, I was already here. They had a running track and some other equipment for exercise inside. Might as well go in. At least it was open air...

Stepping into the barracks, the first thing I noticed was how crowded it was. Whereas the other day there had been stone weights along the tracks and training dummies and bullseyes scattered here and there, now all of that was gone. In its place were at least a dozen groups of Ponies, scattered here and there throughout the training grounds, all dressed in military fatigues. Each group was overseen by a Pony in what appeared to be officer uniforms, running the groups through various drills.

I found myself frowning as I looked over the arena. It was so crowded. Too crowded for my taste. There had to be close to a thousand Ponies in the enclosure, all doing their own thing. I found myself backing away, towards the door again. A nice jog around the castle was sounding better and better by the second…

“Ah! Chris, was it?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin as a British-sounding voice chirped into my ear. I spun wildly towards the sound to see a Stallion about my height only a few feet away from me. Unlike the other Ponies in the room, he wore relatively normal attire - a tan suit-jacket and matching pants over a white shirt with a red bowtie. His fur was very nearly the same color as the jacket, while his mane was a much richer chocolate brown.

It took me a moment before I was able to put a name to his face. “Doctor Caligari?”

“So he does remember me!” Caligari chuckled, patting me on the back. “Good lad, good lad.”

I gave a small smile in response. “What are you doing here?” I asked

“Overseeing the training of new members of the Royal Army,” Caligari replied. His smile faltered slightly. “We have far too many to replace after all that’s happened… But what brings you here? Oh wait!” he cut me off before I could reply. “I know. I take it the King and Queen have finally come to an agreement?”

“An… agreement?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Oh yes, quite.” Caligari took a few steps forward, hands folded behind his back. “And i must say, it took them long enough. I respect the King’s… reservations… but the Queen is absolutely right. You must be able to defend yourself. So, if you’ll just -”

“Woah woah, wait just a minute.” I interrupted, holding a hand out in front of me as Caligari spun to face me. “Agreement? Reservations? Defend myself? What are you talking about.”

“I… Oh.” Instantly, Caligari’s smile had vanished. “So… The Queen didn’t tell you?”

“... No,” I muttered. “She seems to have a habit of keeping secrets from me…”

“Oh… Well, I suppose I owe you an explanation. The Queen believes you should continue the martial training you began in the camp under Princess Luna’s watch. And personally, I must say that I agree, but the King is less certain about the need…”

“Martial training?” I repeated. “Like… with the bow and arrow, and the sword and shield?”

“Among other things, yes.”

“And… why do you believe I need this, exactly?”

“Besides the fact that you very publicly betrayed and executed the leader of one of the most powerful empires on Gaia?” Caligari countered.”

I blinked. “I… suppose that’s -”

“- A sure way to make a few enemies, eh?” Caligari interrupted. “There’s almost certainly a bounty on your head in Minos. Quite frankly, I’m surprised an attempt on your life hasn’t already been made.”

“Thanks for making me feel so much better,” I muttered under my breath. I mean, I knew that I’d made quite a name for myself when I killed Adamant Will. No doubt the Minotaurs would curse my name for several centuries. But hearing it put that bluntly…

“So,” Caligari continued, “When - not if, but when - that attempt is made, you should at least know how to defend yourself.”

“Makes sense, I suppose…” I began slowly. “But if King Solaris has said no, then -”

“He hasn’t said no, though,” Caligari interrupted me again. “Or, at least not to my knowledge. And the Queen is all for it. So, let’s see…” His head turned towards the center of the enclosure, his gaze passing over the groups gathered there. “Mmm… no… no… No, definitely not him…”

“What are you -”

“Trying to figure out who should continue your training,” Caligari answered my unfinished question. “Mmm… but quite frankly, you would not fit in with any of these squads. They’ve all been through the basics. No, you need somepony to work with you one-on-one. Pick off where the princess left off… Aha!” he suddenly exclaimed. “Wait right here. I’ve got just the stallion!”

I took a couple of steps backwards as Caligari ran off into the sea of Ponies. My back touched the wall, and I slid down it until I was sitting. Suddenly, I wasn’t feeling quite so restless, after what Caligari had told me. I had half a mind to just go hole up in my room until dinner. But no. I knew that Caligari had a good point. In a world where an entire nation wanted me dead, not knowing how to fight was nothing short of foolish.

At least, that’s what the rational part of me knew. The rest of me still wanted to go hide away from the world...

So I sat there. Patiently. Waiting. My eyes glanced over the groups being put through their drills, but found nothing to really latch onto. So instead, I closed them. Surely Caligari wouldn’t be that long…

The sound of hooves on stone nearby cut through the chorus of drill sergeants barking out orders. I opened one eye and looked towards the sound as Caligari and another stallion came to a stop a few paces away from me. I opened the other eyes and pushed myself back to my feet, glancing over the newcomer. A dark-grey unicorn, with a blue-and-black buzz-cut. Another Pony from the resistance camp, one that I recognized almost instantly. One whose presence did little to alleviate my worries. “Captain Thunderbolt,” I nodded.

“The Doctor tells me that you’re reporting in for combat training.” No hello. No greetings of any kind. Straight to business. I nodded. “Lucky you, then, that my last training group just left to join the fight in the Badlands, so it looks like I’m gonna be taking care of you for now. How much training have you gotten so far?”

“A couple of weeks of archery practice with Princess Luna,” I replied, rising to my feet. “And a couple of days using a sword and shield, but not much there.”

“A complete rookie then.” I didn’t like the look of the grin that began to form on Thunderbolt’s face. “Excellent. You will meet me here at this time every morning. Doctor.” Thunderbolt’s head turned towards Caligari. “Ensure that there is a private training area for us every morning.”

Caligari nodded and motioned for the two of us to follow him. I intended to be at the back of the pack, but Thunderbolt seemed to have other plans in mind - he slowed his pace to walk side-by-side with me. “You’d best be ready,” he warned as we walked around the edge of the training field towards one of the hallways branching off of the main enclosure. “The Princess went easy training you. I will not. You will be tired. You will be sore. But you will walk away capable of cutting down anypony in your way.”

“I don’t need to know that,” I retorted. “I just need to know how not to die in a fight.”

“Easiest way to do that?” Thunderbolt’s grin returned full force. “Make them die first..”

“Brilliant…” I muttered as we turned into one of the hallways, softly enough for him not to hear it. Today was not turning out at all how I had imagined. I had just wanted to go for a damn jog…

We had only been walking down the stone hallway for a moment before Caligari stopped, right next to a wooden door on the right-hand wall. “501,” he announced as he pulled the door open. “Available now, and everyday.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Thunderbolt said as he moved past Caligari, not even glancing in his direction. I let out a breath and nodded my thanks as well as I followed Thunderbolt into the room. Caligari, it seemed, had no intention of joining us, as he closed the door behind us, sealing us in.

The room within was clearly a sparring room of sorts. Four orbs of glowing light hovered up against the stone ceiling, providing ample light to see by. The floor was covered in a thick rug, colored to form a pattern. Most of the rug was black, except for a few white lines that formed a decent-sized square in the center of the room. The walls were lined with wooden racks and shelves, bearing all manner of weapons - axes, maces, bows, crossbows, daggers, spears, shields, swords of every shape and size and length…

“Here,” Thunderbolt’s voice from behind me drew my attention. I turned just in time for him to thrust the hilt of a medium-sized sword into my hands. I barely managed to stop the blade from falling to the ground as I scrambled to catch it. “We’ll start with a backsword,” he began. “Simple and reliable. One-handed, so don’t you dare let me catch you trying to use it like a Greatsword.”

I gripped the weapon in my right hand, inspecting the blade. It had only been sharpened on one side, though even that side was quite blunt. I doubted that it could have cut through butter without smashing it. Almost certainly an intentional feature on these training weapons. It had a simple crossguard separating the hilt from the blade, with the blade extending about two and a half feet out from the hilt. It was surprisingly light in my hands - the entire thing couldn’t have weighed more than 4 pounds.

“Notice that only one side is sharp,” Thunderbolt continued, plucking another blade from the rack and taking it for himself.. “So only that one side is good for cutting. Against an armored opponent, you need to rely on a thrust rather than a slash, but against an unarmored opponent, either will work. Now, let’s see what I have to work with. On guard position.”

Quite frankly, I wasn’t entirely sure what I was doing. I’d spent a couple of nights using a sword and shield while training with Luna, true, but with just a sword and no shield? I did my best to improvise, with my right foot in front of my left and my sword vertical in front of me, edge facing away.

Thunderbolt let out a loud snort. “Sloppy,” he commented. “Relax. You’re as tense as a spring. No good for shifting your weight around in a fight. Your hooves… or whatever you have... should be nearly square with me - leading hoof slightly ahead. And don’t point that blade toward the sky,” he added as I shifted myself to match his instructions. “Angle it down a little bit… A bit more…. There. Better. Relax your grip a bit. You’ll never get the blade control you need if you’re clutching it as tight as you can.”

I finished adjusting myself and looked towards Thunderbolt to see him nodding. “Better. Better,” he repeated. He moved forward to stand right in front of me, matching my own stance. “Since you’re just getting started, we’ll go slow for now. Move your sword to block mine.”

His blade moved out and downwards towards my right leg. I took a small step backwards so that my left foot was now in front, and I shifted my blade to block his. “Decent form here, at least,” he nodded. “But you blocked it with the cutting edge. Never do that. Block with the face of the blade. Blocking with the cutting edge will dull your blade very quickly, and can easily lead to stress fractures that will break the blade. Back to guard.”

---

I was rubbing my upper arm as I walked away from the training enclosure back towards the castle. Thunderbolt had kept me at it for several hours, practicing my stances and blocks. The sword itself wasn’t heavy, but holding it upright for several hours at a time put quite a strain on my upper arm. Not to mention the fact that his strikes had gradually gotten faster and harder…

The last sequence had been particularly brutal. He had been striking fairly quickly by now, and alternated repeatedly between striking at my left and right side. Stepping forward and backwards, swapping the blade from side to side (never moving it to my left hand though - I’d learned early on how vulnerable wielding the blade in your weak hand made you), up and down to move from shoulder to leg to gut blocks… and the final move, an unexpected thrust towards my chest that he’d not worked on with me yet. I’d tried to deflect it, and was very nearly successful in parrying the blow had I not lost my footing. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground.

I’d expected Thunderbolt to react to this with his usual remarks. Cold indifference, or some kind of snark at the very least. Instead, I was surprised when he nodded. “Not bad, for a beginner,” he’d said as I pushed myself to my feet. “A decent improvisation, though obviously it needs some work…” He’d called it a day there, reminding me to return the next morning at the same time.

Was it the workout I’d been expecting? No, not in the slightest. But it had at least somewhat helped with my restlessness. I still could have gone for a jog, but I wasn’t going stir-crazy anymore. Besides which, any more exercise for the day was going to have to wait until after lunch, as my stomach informed me.

But it was more than just a needed to move about. It was a need to take my mind off of everything that was going on. The crisis, the Nightmare, the other Human… My training with Thunderbolt had kept me occupied, at least. But now, I felt all that accumulated stress and worry building back up, gnawing away at my gut. Pushing the doors to the dining hall open and seeing only two occupied chairs, rather than the usual four, did little to alleviate that concern.

Still, it wasn’t all bad. I still had my first magic lesson this evening to look forward to. I felt the knot in the pit of my stomach loosen at the thought as I sat down next to Luna at the table. Yes. Magic lessons. That was something to look forward to, at least.

Like breakfast, lunch was a silent affair. Mercifully, it was also a short one. All three of us had finished our meals within ten minutes, and neither of the Princesses seemed in the mood to stick around. Not that I blamed them, of course. I’d seen their tails twitching, heard the occassional tap of a hoof against the floor. I'd found it difficult to sit still at the table as well. Even walking out of the dining hall, I felt my legs twitching. I knew sitting down wasn’t going to be an option.

Maybe now I could go for that jog...

Chapter 11

View Online

Night could not come fast enough.

After lunch, I’d found it impossible to sit still. I’d gone back to the library and picked up my book, only to find that it once again felt like a prison. I’d retreated to my room, to lie down on the bed, but soon discovered that sleep would not come to me. I couldn’t find a comfortable position to lie in. My legs burned with the need for activity.

And so, I’d finally gone for that run. Outside, on the back lawn, I’d made my way to a stone path that circled the palace and just started running. Not too fast - I wasn’t looking to exhaust myself, just blow off some steam. I just needed something - anything - to do that didn’t involve just sitting around and waiting for something to happen.

My run gave me more than just a way to burn off excess energy. It gave me time to think. To compile my thoughts. Recent events had shuffled my priorities while I was here in Gaia. As I saw it, there were four main concerns for me right now - staying alive, finding a way back home, finding this other Human, and figuring out what this crisis was that was going on with Serenity and Solaris. With nothing else to distract me, I had plenty of time to put my mind towards these issues.

Staying alive… This was already being taken care of. I was in the center of the largest city in Equestria, surrounded by guards. I was well fed, clothed, sheltered, and protected. On top of this, I was starting to learn how to defend myself with weapons. And on top of that, tonight I would start learning how to use magic. Magic that almost certainly would eventually include combat application. So, staying alive wasn’t something I needed to actively worry about for the time being.

Finding my way home, though, was a different story entirely. I’d already formed a plan for this - Hang around and wait for the portal to re-open, and in the meantime, start getting acquainted with the more powerful unicorns in the palace and try to get them to help me find a way back home. But the crisis that Serenity and Solaris were dealing with seemed to have also consumed the attention of everyone else in the palace. Aside from my one meeting with Starswirl a couple of days ago, I’d not even met another magical researcher in the palace. I wasn’t even sure if there even were others in the palace. If not, that would leave Starswirl as the only magical researcher around. And if he was my best hope at finding a way home… I mean, he was obviously well-respected, but there was no denying that he was… slightly insane, perhaps? Even if I could convince him to take the time to look into my problem, his mental state did little to reassure me of my chances.

The vast majority of my time that afternoon was spent pondering the issue of this other Human. I was loathe to admit it, but in the end, I had to face reality - there was very little I could do for them. Our one lead, the echoes within the Dreamscape, had become too dangerous to continue tracking with the Nightmare consuming their dreams. There was a chance that they were down in the caverns beneath Everfree, but those caverns were massive! It could take months, maybe even years, to fully explore those caverns, not to mention the effort needed to accurately map them. Serenity had already promised to dedicate troops towards exploring those caverns, but going down there myself would be unproductive. Even if I didn’t get lost down there, the odds of me stumbling across the other Human were incredibly slim. And all of that was assuming that the other Human actually was down there… No. There was nothing I could do there. All I could do was wait.

And finally, the crisis. This was the second day of them dealing with this situation. Whatever this situation was. I still didn’t know, though I had a couple of uneducated guesses. Most prominently in my mind was the possibility of war, though with whom I couldn’t even guess. Most likely not the Minotaurs, not so soon after their king was slain and their power broken. But who else? What other nations had beef with Equestria? Or was it not even war? Was it something else? Something I hadn’t thought of? A poor harvest that could spell famine? A natural disaster somewhere else in Equestria? No, most likely not either of those, considering that Ponies controlled the weather. But then… what? I wanted to know.

So once again, I had a plan of action set out. I would search for other magical researchers and see if they could either reopen the portal or find another way for me to get back home. I would keep looking for any hints that could lead to us finding this other Human. I would try to figure out what crisis Serenity and Solaris were dealing with and determine from there whether there was anything I could or should do. And while doing all of that, I would continue to practice my weapons skills with Thunderbolt, and begin learning magic from Luna.

I felt anticipation fill me as I thought forward to my first magic lesson tonight, and a shiver ran down my spine. Or maybe that was just the chill of the air. The sun was already dipping down towards the horizon, though sunset itself was still a couple of hours away. I must’ve been jogging around the castle for at least an hour and a half. My legs were beginning to ache, my lungs were starting to burn, and I found myself slowing to a brisk walk as I approached the back door to the castle. Sweat lined my forehead and ran down the back of my neck, soaking into the back of my shirt. I pushed the door open and stepped into the castle, turning left to head towards the stairs leading upwards. Dinner was still at least two hours away, but I knew I needed a bath before then. And a little time to relax and recharge before my magic lessons with Luna would be nice….

---

The sun was already behind the horizon by the time I pushed the door to the dining hall open. I was bathed and changed, and had spent the rest of my afternoon in my room, resting and reading. Preparing for the night, and the lesson that was to come.

Serenity and Solaris were present this time, and the gaggle of advisors were notably absent. Celestia was also in her normal seat, and as I made my way down towards the far end of the table, the door on the far end opened and Luna stepped into the hall. A small shiver of anticipation ran down my spine as our eyes met, but we said nothing as we took our normal seats at the table.

Much like our previous meals that day, dinner passed in silence. It wasn’t long before we’d all finished. Celestia was the first to rise, and she began to make her way towards the door. She was stopped however, when Solaris cleared his throat. He glanced towards the two princesses as he rose from his chair and motioned for them to follow him. The two sisters exchanged a glance, but neither said anything as they moved down the table towards the other end of the hall.

Serenity, meanwhile, was staring right at me. As I looked in her direction, she jerked her head over her shoulder. The two of us also rose and moved in the opposite direction, towards the door closest to us. She turned as I approached, and the two of us stepped through the door and into the hallway beyond.

“Chris,” Serenity nodded towards me as the door closed behind us. “I heard about your encounter with Captain Thunderbolt.”

“I hope the King isn’t too upset,” I replied.

“He doesn’t know. And much like your lessons with Luna, it would probably be best if that remained the case.”

“Understood.”

“Now, to the actual reason I needed to speak with you. Solaris is explaining the situation to Luna and Celestia, but I felt it would be best to tell you myself.” Serenity closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “You know that the two of us, along with our advisors, have been locked away for the past couple of days to deal with a… situation. This situation was the formal declaration of war by our allies and trading partners, the Griffonian Empire, against another close ally, the Crystal Empire. As you can imagine, this places us in a rather uncomfortable position, particularly as we are still actively engaged with the armies of Minos at our southern border.”

“War, huh?” I murmured. Sure, war had been on my list of possible sources for this commotion, though admittedly I had not truly expected it. Certainly not a war that Equestria itself was not a part of. “So… why did the Griffons do this?” I asked. “Surely they didn’t just declare war without a reason.”

“It’s… complicated,” Serenity began slowly. “Too complicated to get into now, especially considering that you are unaware of the… tenuous truce that the Crystal Empire and the Griffons have maintained for the last century. What matters, however, is how we plan to react. Obviously, neither side will want us to deal with the other. We intend to maintain the best relations with both for as long as we can, but…” Serenity’s voice trailed off into silence.

“But?”

There was a brief pause. “...But, if our hand is forced, we will most likely back the Crystal Empire. For a number of reasons.” She sighed. “I assume I do not need to tell you that this information is not to be shared beyond myself and my family, correct?”

“Of course.”

“Solaris did not even want you to know what was going on,” Serenity continued. “But I’m no fool. If one of us didn’t tell you, then Celestia or Luna certainly would have, intentionally or not.” She let loose a small chuckle. “Besides, I believe I’ve held quite enough secrets from you. Now, do you have any questions for me before I let you go?”

I paused for a moment before shaking my head. “No, I think I’m good.”

“Very well. Good night, Chris.”

“Good night,” I replied as I turned away from the Queen, heading towards my left down the hallway. I turned to the right, ascended the stairs up to the third floor, and followed the familiar path towards the library.

I pulled the double doors open and stepped through into the warm glow of the library. As expected, Luna was already inside, though it didn’t look like she’d been there for too long. She was on the second floor, moving between the rows of bookcases, already holding a few books in front of her. I moved towards our usual couch and took a seat, closing my eyes as I waited for her.

It didn’t take very long. I opened one eye as I heard the sound of hooves on hardwood approaching. “Hello, Chris,” Luna greeted me as she sat down on the couch beside me. She deposited her stack of books on the table in front of us. Half a dozen volumes of varying thickness, with the spine facing away so that I couldn’t see the names of any but the top one - Introduction to Magical Theory.

“Hi, Luna,” I replied, turning my eyes away from the books towards her. “How are you?”

“I’m… well, I’ve been better, I’ll admit,” she sighed. “I assume mother told you about the war?” I nodded. “It’s… not going to be pretty.” She averted her gaze, choosing instead to look down towards the floor. “And I don’t care what father says, we’re not going to be able to stay out of this one for long.”

“But, that’s a worry for a different time.” Luna’s gaze returned to me, and a small, if forced, smile crossed her face. “Tonight, we’re going to be getting you started on magic. How are you feeling after last night?”

I shrugged. “No different than normal, I guess,” I replied. “I felt really warm last night, but when I woke up I was feeling alright again.”

“Any hot flashes today? Sweating for no reason, feeling of heat around the face or neck, that sort of thing?”

“Not that I noticed. But I was pretty active today, so… it would have been hard to tell,” I admitted. “None since I finished my run a few hours ago…”

“Good. The mana flowing into you should have stabilized at some point this morning, but it can sometimes take a little longer. But if you’ve not any of the symptoms, then we should be good to go.” She reached forward and grabbed the first book from the top of the stack, flipping it open a few pages. “Now, for the first little bit, I think we should just get you used to the feeling of manipulating mana. It’s going to be unusual and maybe a bit uncomfortable at first, but it won’t take long for it to become second-nature.”

“There is a leyline that flows underneath the city, not too far from the surface. Now that your mind has been opened to the flow of mana, you should be able to sense it if you search for it. Go ahead and try to find it. It might help for you to close your eyes while you get used to this. Find it, but don’t tap into it yet.”

I nodded and closed my eyes. I remembered the feeling of energy running up and down my arms as I had touched the orb that Luna had generated, and began searching for a similar energy. Almost immediately, I felt… something. Something buried in the ground, several hundred feet below the surface. My brow furrowed as I focused in on it.

And suddenly, a scene exploded into life before my closed eyes. A river of light, endlessly flickering, rushing in both directions at the same time, carving a serpentine channel through through the bedrock. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, and I felt my breath caught in my throat. “Holy shit…”

“You got it?”

Luna’s voice cut through the scene before me. I opened my eyes and blinked once, focusing back on the room around me. Though I could no longer see the river of light, I could still feel its presence deep below the ground. Deep below, and yet still there… I nodded slowly. “Yeah. I got it.”

“Good. Now, once you’ve got hold of the leyline, tapping into it is pretty straightforward. “She leaned forward and placed the book back on the table, on its own away from the stack of other books. “For a Unicorn, normally we would focus the mana into our horns to manipulate it and affect the world around us. For you, however, it would probably be best to use your hands. So, go ahead and focus the mana from the leyline into your hands. Once you’ve done that, make this book levitate and hover in the air.”

“Okay…” I muttered. I closed my eyes for a moment, but they quickly snapped back open. I turned back to face Luna. “How?”

“It’s… well, it’s different for everypony,” Luna began slowly. “Just… trust me. You’ll know how when you do it.”

“Okay…” I repeated. I’ll admit, I wasn’t entirely convinced. Even so, I closed my eyes again, turning my attention to the river of energy that was playing at the edge of my senses. The more I focused on it, the stronger it seemed to become. The more I could hear it. The more I could feel it. As though I had submerged myself into it.

I felt a sudden heat flash through my chest. Not uncomfortable, not like heartburn, but like I had put on a shirt that had just come out of the dryer. A slight tingling sensation short up my right arm, almost as though it had begun to fall asleep, though not nearly as uncomfortable. The sensation quickly spread through my hand to the tip of my fingers. I opened my eyes and glanced down towards my hand. Nothing had changed on the outside, not that I could see anyway. And yet the tingling remained.

My vision shifted towards the book on the table in front of me. I lifted my hand and pointed towards the book. I focused on it, envisioning the book floating up off the table into the air. My hand began to tingle even more, and a deep-red glow surrounded it. An instant later, that same red glow surrounded the book. My eyes grew wide as slowly, ever so slowly, the book shakily lifted off the table, wobbling in the air.

“Holy… Shit…”

And with those words, the book wobbled even more violently before falling back to the table with a thump.

“Well done!” Luna exclaimed. I felt her pat me several times on the back. “That was excellent! A lot better than my first time!”

“Really?” I asked, looking over towards her. “But… it just fell the second I stopped focusing on it.”

“Yes, really,” Luna nodded. “My first time using magic, I could barely make the book wiggle. Granted, I was… quite a bit younger than you are. Even so, for a complete novice, that was great. We’ll need to work on your concentration, obviously, but even so…”

I leaned backwards into the couch as Luna continued to speak. I could hear her voice as I closed my eyes, but the meaning of her words was lost on me.

Magic. Actual. Goddamn. Magic. It wasn’t just a theory anymore. Not some far-off idea that I could do it. I’d done it. I’d made that book move just by willing it to move. And what could come after levitation? Transforming items into other items? Maybe conjuring stuff out of thin air? Flight? Teleportation? Maybe…

“Hey!”

I felt something roughly prod my shoulder. I jerked upright and turned towards the source of the poke to see Luna staring at me. “Were you paying attention?”

“I… er…” I fumbled over myself. “Uh…” Finally, I sighed and shook my head. “No. Sorry.”

She snorted and closed her eyes shaking her head. “I figured as much. Doesn’t matter. I was… rambling a bit, anyway. Basically, just don’t let this go to your head. You know you can do this now. You’ve actually done it. But you need to ease yourself into the more advanced stuff. You can’t… just because you’ve made a book float a couple of inches off the table doesn’t mean you’re ready to go phasing through walls or anything.”

Right. Phasing through walls. Add that one to the bucket list. “Got it,” I nodded

“I’m serious, Chris,” Luna warned. “Magic is unforgiving. You lost your concentration while holding that book, and it fell. No big deal. Now imagine if you’d lost your concentration halfway through trying to teleport yourself.”

I felt myself blanch as I struggled to push away the messy mental image. “Got it,” I nodded again, slower this time.

“Good. So, you can understand why working on your concentration is our top priority,” Luna continued. “It’ll eventually get to the point where you’ll be able to perform more mundane spells while barely thinking about it, but anything more than levitating a medium-sized object or keeping a fireball in your hands will require at least a little concentration. Now, go ahead and try to lift the book again, but keep it in the air longer this time…”

---

Time seemed to rush by for the rest of the evening. I lost count of the number of times I’d lift that book off the table, let it hover for a couple of seconds, and then lose control and let it fall back to the table. And every time, I’d look towards Luna, and she would nod. “Again.”

I’ll admit, it was fun the first… oh, half-dozen times or so. That feeling of power rushing up my arm, into my hands and fingers, watching the red glow - my magical aura, I kept reminding myself - surround my hand and the book, seeing the book respond to my mental commands.

And yet, every time, it would only last a couple of seconds at best before the book would wobble and fall back to the table.

Needless to say, after the first dozen or so tries, it became less fun and more frustrating. I tried not to let it show, tried not to let it affect how I was doing. But by the end of the night, I was almost certain Luna could tell.

“Good,” Luna nodded as the book hit the table once again. “I think we’ll call it there for the evening. We don’t want you to tire yourself out. But you’ve definitely improved tonight.”

“If you say so…” I muttered.

“Well, the book’s not wobbling nearly as much, for one,” Luna continued as we both rose from the couch. “And you can hold it for an extra couple of seconds. The best you did was seven tonight, which is… quite impressive, actually, for your first night. So definite improvement. We’ll meet back here again tomorrow night and continue where we left off. In the meantime, you can try to levitate some smaller objects for some extra practice if you want. Just… be careful. Nothing too big, and definitely nothing fragile. Small steps.”

“Got it,” I nodded. Not that I’d have a whole lot of time to practice, what with my sword training with Thunderbolt… “Good night, Luna.”

“Good night, Chris.”

As I exited the library and moved down the hallways towards the staircase, I brought my hand up so that I could look at it. I flexed my fingers back and forth, clenching them up into a fist before releasing them. It didn’t feel any different than before. And yet, I knew that I could use this hand to tap into a well of power that I’d only barely scratched the surface of. It was... Exciting, I think is the best word to use describe it. Exciting, and at the same time, overwhelming. I kept flexing my fingers back and forth as I made my way through the hallways of the palace, not stopping until I had to use my hand to open the door to my room.

It wasn’t long before I was changed out of my clothes and sat on my bed. And still, I found myself staring at my hand. I had done that. I had made that book move without touching it. I had tapped into actual magic.

And yet, I knew fully well that I had a long way to go.

I glanced over towards my nightstand. The top of the dresser was empty save for four items - a glass of water, my long-dead phone, a lit candle, and my sheathed knife. I reached for the knife and moved it so that it was on the bed in front of me. I closed my eyes, searching for that same source of power I had tapped into not long ago.

It only took a second for it to explode to life before my closed eyes. The warmth in my chest flared up again, and I felt the tingling sensation run down my arm into my fingers again. My eyes snapped open, and I stretched out my arm towards the sheathed knife. Both it and my hand were enveloped in the now-familiar red glow. Slowly, ever so slowly, it lifted off the bed. I kept my eyes locked onto the knife, never letting my gaze falter.

And it stayed there.

I felt a small smile creep across my face as the five second mark passed. Then ten. At fifteen seconds, I let the knife fall back to the bed. “Small steps…” I muttered under my breath as I moved the knife back to my bedside table and extinguished the candle. “Small steps…”

Making my Mark

by Firestar463

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11