[ 3 ] The Memory

Chapter Three – The Memory

This sandwich, to say the least, was the best sandwich ever. It was the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten. Ever. It was so delicious that I asked for seconds, and seconds for my seconds, and seconds for my seconds for my seconds, and… well, now here I am eating seconds to my seconds to my seconds to my seconds. The sandwich was a plain and simple daffodil sandwich, but DAMN it tasted amazing. Okay, I’ll stop with the sandwich now.

“How many of these are you going to eat?” the cream colored earth pony asked me after dropping another plate of sandwiches on the table.

“I donf knor.”

“It’d be better if you just finished what’s in your mouth before you spoke, you know.” She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

I gulped down the food that I had been chewing ever so diligently and replied, “I don’t know. This is some good stuff. Why are you always here with Lyra anyways?” I took another bite of my sandwich and eyed the mare before me. Her blue and pink mane curled at its ends. Her just-as-blue-and-pink tail curled at its end as well. It was kind of cool.

“Huh, I thought you’d know who your food supplier is.” Her bold turquoise eyes bore into mine as she continued, “I’m Lyra’s roommate, or housemate if you prefer. The name’s BonBon. You’ve never told me your name yet. Lyra just invited you in and asked me to start stuffing you.”

“Oh, heh heh. My bad, my name’s Flare. Silent Flare. It’s quite an honor to meet such an amazing sandwich maker.” I took another bite from my sandwich and closed my eyes, letting the flavor tickle my taste buds. Ah, this was just serene. Well, it would be if the back of my throat was screaming at me to get up and get some water. The bread was, unfortunately, quite dry. Even if the daffodils were crunchy as well as juicy, the bread was drier than a desert. I finished chewing and looked back at BonBon.

“You wouldn’t mind it if I asked for a glass of water, would you?”

BonBon’s face wasn’t amused at all. “You know, you have hooves too, and wings. Oh, and what’s this?” BonBon scoot closer to me and tapped my horn, “And a horn! Wow!” I understood where she was going with her pathetic sarcasm. “Yea, yea, I get it. I’ll get it myself.” Satisfied with my response, BonBon backed up some to let me get up.

“Um, but where do I get it from? I don’t really know my way around the house at all.”

“Oh, it’s not a big house; just a basement, first floor, and second. You’ll find it in no time.” BonBon then spun around and trotted away. Wow, all these mares and how they trot was just utterly tantalizing. I don’t think I needed water if I could just stare like this for a while. BonBon must’ve had a sixth sense or something because without turning her head she scoffed, “That’s not where you’ll find the water.” Damn. BonBon left the room leaving me to chart out this foreign land.

“Hm, it can’t be too hard. Can it?” I cantered around the dining room in thought, trying to find the most reasonable place that water could be. Without a second to spare, my brain uploaded its first thought: bathroom.

“Aha! There’s water in a bathroom!” I trotted to the bathroom with my head held high with confidence. “BonBon thought she could outsmart me? Ha! How wrong she is. But, um. Where’s the bathroom.” Damnit. Not this cycle again. Screw this. I began to trot around the room once more and looked to the hallway to my left. So, there was a living room and a single hallway that branched off of it. I dashed to the mouth of the hallway and studied what I saw. Down the hallway were two bedrooms on either wall. At the very end of the rather short hallway was a door. Bathroom. I galloped down the hallway and blew right through the door.

My throat was as dry as it would ever be now, which meant that I needed water right now. Right. Now. Well, I did blow through the doorway at the end of the hallway, but I fell. I didn’t expect the bathroom to be sunken deeper into the ground, or to be pitch black, excluding the light coming from the door above me.

“Ugh, what the? What happened? Is this the bathroom?” I started coughing and unsettling some dust bunnies laying around as my vision became dense with dust. Wow, there’s so much dust around here. You’d think that Lyra and BonBon would treat their bathroom with more respect. I couldn’t see anything at all. It was just too dark in here. Alright, I need a light. What do. My eyes shut in hard frustration. I thought for a second and after a few seconds my eyes shot open and a grin appeared on my face.

“NIGHT VISION! Too perfect!” I shut my eyes again in concentration trying to make my eyes adopt night vision.

“NNggg… ugh.” This was some tiring work. Magic’s hard. I gave up and opened my eyes. The whole place was lit up in a shade of cyan. Oh, snap. Who just used magic to see in the dark? ME.

This was too cool. I just gave myself night vision! That’s awesome. What wasn’t awesome though, was the fact that I wasn’t in the bathroom. I was in a dusty cellar or something full of old furniture. There were sticky cobwebs littering the tables and chair frames. I know they’re sticky because I got some on my hoof and it didn’t come off until I set my hoof on fire like I did inside the changeling tunnels.

Before I could make sense of anything else someone spoke up behind me. “… What the hay are you doing down here?!” The voice behind me made me flinch. I was in trouble.

I started turning around while saying “Well, I was trying to – ”

With a scoff, the voice immediately shrugged off my excuse. “Don’t worry about it. Just – ” Lyra’s voice was cut off and her lower jaw was frozen in its mid-sentence state. Her eyes couldn’t be any more narrow and she slowly brought a hoof up and pointed at me before screaming.

“YOUR EYES! YOUR EYES, FLARE!”

I immediately panicked. I didn’t even know what was going on, I just started looking around the room frantically, trying to find something like a mirror. Finally, I found a rather large mirror up against the far wall. It was slightly cracked, but other than that it was relatively clean. I galloped to it and peered at my counterpart. What I saw was equally awesome as it was terrifying. The entirety of both of my eyes was cobalt blue and cyan flames were extruding outwards from them, licking the side of my head all the way up to my ears. I was frozen in terror and awe. I think my brain was overloaded for the second time ever. I started swaying before Lyra was by my side, letting me lean against her much smaller body. I put a hoof around her shoulder to stabilize myself. Lyra on the other hoof was trying to avoid the flames emitting from my eyes. I looked back at the mirror and the completely cobalt eyes stared back.

What had happened? I didn't want this. My eyes didn’t burn, but they turned me into some kind of monster and Lyra knew it. She was avoiding the flames like a plague. At least she was still considerate enough to be there to stabilize me. I shook my head and continued to stare into the mirror. I glared at the image before me and imagined the cobalt blue disappearing into my original eyes and the flames going out like a candle running out of fuel. Almost immediately, the cobalt blue in my eyes faded back, except for the cobalt in my irises. The cyan flames took slightly more time to completely disappear. Once my eyes returned to normal, the cyan flames immediately went out like a fire deprived of its fuel.

Lyra was looking into the mirror with the same expression I had had on. We were both frozen with awe and terror. After a moment I spoke up, “Well, that was… um, cool?”

Lyra’s eyes were still narrow and her voice was evidently shaky. “Yea, cool. Let’s get out of the basement. I need to use the bathroom.” When Lyra said “bathroom” my ears perked up and I grabbed Lyra and picked her up. “Bathroom? Where?!”

“Whoa Flare, didn’t know you wanted me this much.” My eyes went wide and heat started resonating from my cheeks. I set Lyra down and ran a hoof through my mane and chuckled nervously. Lyra then scoffed and raised an eyebrow before slowly walking towards the entrance to this dusty prison. Her flanks were swaying side to side even more seductively than BonBon’s. Wait, no. Flare, calm down and focus. Focus on the task at hand. I shook my head violently. I need to get out of the basement to drink water. I quickly followed in behind Lyra as she made her way up the steps to the basement door.

After maybe 10 seconds of walking, Lyra and I were right in front of the bathroom door. It was ironic how the bathroom branched off from the living room. The living room which was right next to the dining room I was in. I could’ve sworn that I even came in here while I was trying to think up where the bathroom would be. Facehoof. Oh well. I get a drink now so it was all worth it.

“What are you doing?” Lyra looked at me with an eyebrow raised. My mouth was open and staring into the bathroom, breathing heavily. Lyra on the other hand was already inside and eyeing me. “You just want some of these goods don’t you? I didn’t know you were that desperate, Flare.” She grinned and then winked at me.

My face was overcome with redness and heat once more, not that it was visible but still. I started stuttering like a complete idiot, “I- I- what? No! I- uh.. what? Never! Why would I want any of them? By which, uh, I mean that, uh, you probably don’t like me like that.” I coughed a few times and cleared my throat before closing my eyes and scolding myself for being so stupid. Lyra just started to giggle and said, “That was a joke, Flare.” I looked back up at Lyra whose tail was flicking around playfully.

“It- what? Joke? Oh. Well that’s, ahem, that’s good.” I nodded and drew in a few breaths. “Great.”

Lyra giggled again and shut the door in my face. I sighed and clonked myself on the head. Stupid, stupid. Brain, why? Damn, I’m thirsty. I let my tongue flop out my open mouth and started panting.

“Water… Must. Drink. Water. “BONBON?! WHERE’S THE WATER?!”

I heard BonBon’s voice come from a room upstairs, “The what?”

“THE WATER.”

“The what? Speak up.”

“THE FUCKING WATER BONBON. WHERE IS IT?”

“Hey! There’s no need to use such profane language, Flare.” I heard the clip clops of hooves as BonBon made her way downstairs. I was glaring intently at where she would be when she was at the bottom. When she got the first floor she gazed at me with slight annoyance. My glare was doing absolutely nothing to falter her stance. BonBon rolled her eyes and waved off my death glare. “The hell did you want, Flare?”

“Water.”

“… You’re still looking for water? Flare, that was like half an hour ago.”

“I, uh, got stuck in the basement. Lyra found me and I was about to get some but she went to the bathroom.”

BonBon raised an eyebrow. “You couldn’t get water, because Lyra went to the bathroom? What does the bathroom have to do with getting water?” It was obvious that the cream colored mare was confused beyond reason.

“The water’s in the bathroom, isn’t it?” I returned her confusion and tilted my head to the left slightly.

“Flare, you idiot. The water’s in the kitchen. Why the hay would you need to do anything with the bathroom to get water.” BonBon’s eyes were monotonous and told me that she was kind of irritated. I sat down and thought about what she had just said. There was water in the bathroom, but I guess that water would be kind of disgusting. In the kitchen? Where was there water in the kitchen? The sink? That’d work. I got up and held my head high, “I knew that…”

I walked towards what I had thought was the kitchen and huffed.

“That’s the dining room Flare. Do you even know what you’re doing?”

“I do. I was just, uh, making sure you knew where the kitchen was too.” My pathetic excuse caused BonBon to sigh and roll her eyes at my stupidity. I turned to the last door in the room that could lead anywhere. This better be the kitchen. When there was no retort from BonBon, I grasped the door lever in my hoof and pushed it down. Behind it, was the kitchen.

“Sweet Nectar, there’s a sink in here. WATER.” BonBon rolled her eyes again and strode up next to me before slapping my face with a hoof. That hurt. A hoof is pretty hard, that’s for sure. I felt my jaw with my own hoof and felt around for a little bit.

“That hurt, you know that, right?”

“It was meant to. We’re not as uncivilized as you might think we are, Flare. We have our own water dispensers that give us filtered water.” BonBon then trotted up to a box with a faucet on it that was next to the sink on the counter.

“Oh.” My brain’s need for water kicked in and I galloped to the box, knocking BonBon aside. I stuck my head under the faucet and pulled on the small lever. The glorious sparkling water seemed to fall into my mouth in slow motion. The perfect, cooled liquid. I started gulping the water down, anxious to relieve the discomfort in my throat but the more I drank, the more I craved it. I continued to consume the water with an unending want for it. Well, after being knocked aside, one could assume that BonBon was furious. Which she was. She lowered her head and started pawing at the ground with her left hoof. She was imitating a bull ready to charge. I, however, was completely unaware and happily drinking water. I was more vulnerable than a pony lost in the Everfree.

BonBon took off and leaped at me, taking me by complete surprise, and tackled me to the floor. She then leapt up and pinned me down before I could do anything. The second part of her assault made me wonder about her. BonBon slowly shifted her pin and then just lied on top of my body. My size was nothing of an advantage against this mare.

“Uh, BonBon. What are you doing? I’m thirsty. I need water!” I began to wriggle and squirm around but wow, BonBon knew how to keep a pin in place. My efforts were futile while BonBon just remained atop me smiling slyly.

Sensing my discomfort in such intimate situations, BonBon grasped the opportunity and tapped her hoof to her chin. “You know, I’ve never really had such a large stallion around me before. I wonder if you’re as talented as you are big.” Her sly smile persisted as she winked at me. My mind raced as I tried to figure something out before this mare did anything I didn’t want. BonBon then leaned in and did the unexpected. She licked my muzzle. My eyes went wide and my first escape attempt formulated in my mind without any actual thought at all.

“LYRAAA! HELP ME!” I yelled at the kitchen door.

Lyra thought I was just playing around and kidded, “Oh? Do you need help out of the p – knock knock knock – you made while drinking water? Don’t drown.” There was a knocking on the door while Lyra was in mid-sentence. It sounded like she was going to say “problem”. Did she know that BonBon was causing me trouble in such a way? She couldn’t have, she had a mocking tone to her voice. What if – lick. My aggressor had licked my muzzle once more and her expression became seductive.

“No BonBon! Get off. Stop it. I DON’T WANT YOUR GOODS.” BonBon leaned in to give me another lick, this time on my neck, when the kitchen door swung open. Lyra and a little purple dragon were standing in the doorway. BonBon’s tongue was extended from her mouth and centimeters from my shoulder. Her gaze however, was at Lyra and the purple dragon. Immediately, BonBon jumped off me and cantered to the door and pushed past Lyra and the guest before making her way back upstairs with a light giggle.

I was still on my back with my legs in the air when Lyra turned to me with wide eyes.

“So you must be Silent Flare?” the purple dragon spoke up and crossed his arms. “Already getting intimate with the mares around here, eh?”

“What? No! It wasn’t like that.” I tried to refute the purple dragon’s argument, but before I could Lyra threw herself at me and wailed, “How come you don’t treat me like that?!”

“No, get off. Lyra! Get off.” I pushed Lyra off and she smirked playfully. I wasn’t too amused, but I dropped the issue. Lyra’s tale was swishing around again. I quickly got to my feet and sighed before turning to the miniscule dragon and asking, “How do you know my name? Do we know each other?”

Now that I was standing, it gave the purple dragon an actual chance to scale me up to size and appearance.

“Hot Rubies, you are one big pony. No wonder Twilight wanted me to come get you.”

“Twilight? Wait, the purple unicorn mare? She what?” I’m going to run out of reasons to blush soon if this keeps up. What’s up with the mares of this town?

“Well, yea. That’s her. She lives in the giant tree down the road.”

I blinked a few times in disbelief that this baby dragon belonged to that mare. Oh well, I guess that kind of stuff tends to happen once in a while. “Well then, my fine purple friend, we shall go to Twilight’s house.. But, er, what’s your name?”

“Mine? Ha! I’m spike! The vicious fire breathing dragon of Ponyville!” Spike brought his claws up and bared his teeth in an adorably menacing way. I couldn’t help but let out a soft “aww…”

“Hey buddy, nothing cute about this fearsome dragon. Now let’s get going, we should have already been back my now.”

“Alright then, Lyra I’ll be out with Spike here.”

“Sure thing, Flare.” Lyra grinned and ushered us out of the house before shutting it behind us.

“So, then Spike. Shall we make our way down the dangerous path of adventure towards your mare’s treehouse?”

“It’s not really a treehouse… It’s just a house made out of a big tree. And she’s not my mare, Rarity is.”

“Rarity? Who’s that?” I lowered my head to eye level with the dragon before asking. Spike turned to me and raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t know who Rarity is? How dare you! She’s just the most gorgeous pony in all of Equestria.” Spike’s eyes started to dilate and he began to float a foot off the ground with little hearts circling him. This was getting kind of awkward. I quickly popped all the floating hearts around Spike and pulled his tail down until Spike’s feet were back on the ground.

“Ahem, we were heading to Twilight’s?”

“Huh? What? Oh yea!”

Spike and I continued down the path, but it was pretty hard to follow Spike when my normal walking pace was more than double the speed of his. I let out an aggravated sigh and looked at Spike for quick second before pondering a thought.

“Whoa! Wha – hey!” Spike yelped as I picked him up and tossed him onto my back. I then spread my wings out and flew up into the air.

“Alright Spike, where to then? Spike?”

Spike was just sitting on my back at the base of my neck with large pupils and an open mouth. His arms spread out wide and his mouth curved up into an open smile. Spike then shut his eyes and took in a deep breath.

“Wow, this is what it feels like to fly? It’s so nice up here…”

“Yea, I guess so, but Spike. Weren’t we going back to Twilight’s tree?”

“Well, yea. We were, but I wanna experience this just a little bit more. It’s really nice.”

I started flying around, opposed to floating. I soared above Ponyville and looked down at all the buildings and roads while Spike was enjoying himself. It was a pretty cool town, considering its size and population. The town was larger than the average town and I could see ponies everywhere bustling around in the early afternoon. Before long, I spotted a humongous tree standing alone amidst the road. This must be Twilight’s tree house. I slowed my flap and lowered myself to the ground.

“What? Flare, come on man. I was enjoying that.”

“I know you were, but I didn’t know what to do, so I just continued along with what we were doing before you started going all high.”

“But, why?” Spike’s pleading eyes made me turn my head away.

“Come on bro, we gotta see Twilight, remember? You told me yourself that she wanted to see me.”

Spike groaned, “Right, fine.” The dragon looked on either side of me and nervously coughed a few times before saying, “Uh, could you help me down? You’re a little bigger than the average pony around here.” I looked back at Spike and then my gaze fell to the ground. I guess it was a slightly intimidating fall for something of his size. I smiled and lowered my right wing to create a slide. Spike must’ve known what I was doing because as soon as my wing looked able for being a substitute slide, he hopped to his feet and slid down. His feet hit the dirt with a perfect landing.

“Alright then, let’s go see Twilight.” I scoffed and looked back at Spike in amusement. Spike ran ahead of me and pushed through the door. Not knowing whether to knock or not, I simply just followed behind the dragon and invited myself in.

Let me tell you this first-hand. If you thought the tree was massive from the outside, then you had a another thing coming. The interior looked so much more massive than it probably did from the outside. There was a nice wide open space with a few comfy sofas off to the side. In the very middle of the room was what looked like a statue on a pedestal, but I couldn’t make out what it was supposed to be of. Along the walls were built-in shelves, each stocked to the brim with multi-colored books.

“Whoa Spike, this place is pretty neat.” I let my eyes wander for a bit to realize that Spike wasn’t in the room. “Uh, Spike? Where are you? Spike?!”

“Yea, Flare! I’m down here.” The voice came from behind a door next to the far left shelf of the library. I trotted towards the door and opened it before looking down the stairs. It would be pitch black if the candles on the walls weren’t there. Thank God for light. I actually kind of wished that the candles weren’t there so I could set my eyes on fire again. That was pretty cool jazz. It would’ve been pretty sweet to show Spike too.

“I’m coming down Spike.”

“No, don’t come down, I’m coming up.” Twilight’s voice was followed my Spike’s, “We’re coming up in a second Flare, go sit on a couch or something.” Hmm… what are those two doing..?" Dismissing my curiosity, I strolled over to the sofas and lied down on one of them. It was a little small but I made do.

My discomfort was steadily growing, but I endured through it. Soon enough, I heard  hoofsteps come up the stairs.

Twilight strutted through the basement door and took a gander at me. “Ah, if it isn’t Silent Flare. I must commend you on what a nice cutie mark you have. It reminded me of something that I had read two weeks ago in a book about Equestrian history. But aside from that, I’d like to welcome you here. This is my house and the library of Ponyville.” Twilight grinned widely with pride.

Spike got off Twilight’s back and plopped a pile of books down on one of the reading tables. “Need some help Spike?” I tried to get my way out of the conversation I was having with Twilight. To be frank, it was kind of awkward and it made me nervous the way Twilight eyed me from time to time. Like how she was right now. What did I do to Twilight? Wait, she said something about my cutie mark just a little bit ago. I looked back at my cutie mark real quick to see if anything happened. It was the same as ever. Two swords crossing. One engulfed in flames, the other bathed in electricity…

I was in a dark castle. Everything was a shiny black and fires were set atop braziers all around the room. I was sitting atop a throne and two tall ponies were before me. The one on the left had a white coat and a flowing mane with a multitude of colors. Her tiara and chest regalia were both a bright gold. The pony on the right had the exact same set up, but her coat was a dark blue and her mane and tail resembled the night sky.

I began to hear myself talking, unable to control anything about the situation. “Princesses Imera and Nychta, I must decline on your offer once more. I will not change the social hierarchy of my empire. You and your meddling Equestrian ponies have done quite enough damage to my society. Leave now and I will spare your lives.

The two princesses weren’t about to back off without a fight and each of their horns began to glow, bright gold and night blue. I continued menacingly, “I shall state this once. Causing a quarrel here would leave you two in mortal danger, not to mention dampen your subjects’ morale. I advise thee to vacate my vision.”

“We shan’t retreat at a moment of this sort. We shall fight you until you agree upon our terms and merge the empires.” Princess Imera was at the brim of her anger.

“We demand thou return our subjects to us. We can negotiate terms for peace. Please Lord Dunamis, it isn’t necessary for the blood of our own kind to shed by its own hands.” Princess Nychta tried her shot at persuading me to not use violence.

“We cannot become one! Our empires differ too greatly. Additionally, I do not want to merge the empires. Equestria and Ippari are rival nations and I refuse to aggravate my people. Leave now or I’ll have to chain you two in my subterranean penitentiary.”

The two princesses still didn’t back down despite the ungodly threat. They both materialized energy blades on either side of them. All of the alicorns in the room knew that regular weapons of the ground wouldn’t do any harm to them. So basically, weapons that weren’t composed of pure energy were completely useless in a situation like this. I shook my head slowly and said hotly, “Such foolishness.”

I charged up my horn and waited for the princesses to make the first move. Small curves of energy would shoot off it every now and then. For a few long seconds, the room was completely motionless and silent barring the sparks and electricity that would go off from my magic. Before I knew it, Imera teleported next to me and swung her blade at me. The blade swung at my neck and found its target. There was a loud thunderclap and bright flash of electricity as Imera’s sword deflected and evaporated into thin air. I let out a sigh and kicked Imera’s front legs so she’d be forced into a bowing position. My horn glowed cyan and black electricity enveloped the white alicorn. She was frozen in place and unable to do anything.

I foolishly let my guard down while dealing with Princess Imera because soon enough, Nychta was charging me at full speed and tackled me to the ground. My concentration broke and Imera was released from my magical grip. Nychta got back to her feet and stood next to Princess Imera who had stood back up as well. The two lowered their horns and shot magical sparks into a large ball of pure energy. I spread my wings and flew up. My fire-enveloped wings lifted me up and trailed fire behind me as I swooped to the other side of the room before landing. My eyes glowed a deep cobalt blue and I released a pulse that ran across everything in the room. Princess Imera and Nychta immediately slowed down and entered a state of slow motion. I strolled over to them and sat behind them. The energy ball that they were creating was still being matured by the two alicorns. I tapped the ball with my still vibrant horn and leeched all the energy from it, causing it to disappear almost instantly.

I then moved myself forward before sitting down at the point where the ball was. “Girls, please. You cannot defeat me. This is your last chance, I advise you two to leave once my time field has been depleted of its magic.” Soon enough, the pulsating blue enveloping the room lost its color and disappeared completely. The two princesses immediately slumped down and started breathing heavily.

“No. We must save our subjects. We’ll never concede to your wickedness, even if it kills us.” Princess Nychta was gulping in air desperately.

Princess Imera then raised her head and glared at me. I yawned lazily and looked back at them with a bored expression on my face.

“Honestly, I’ve never done anything wicked. I fail to comprehend any reason you might have for believing that I am a villain.” I then blinked a few times before continuing my talk. “Are you going to leave, or not?”

Princess Imera slowly got to her hooves and spoke, “No. Even if you over power us like you do, you must still be aware of the Hundred-Thousand’s Curse.” A slight smirk found its way to her lips.

My eyes widened slightly. “You wouldn’t dare utilize such unstable magic, Imera. You can’t possibly pull off such forsaken and powerful magic alone.”

Nychta took in a deep breath, ready to accept her fate. “She won’t be doing it alone.”

Nychta got to her hooves next to Imera and stared at me with intent. I stood up to intimidate them into bluffing. I was a whole head taller than them and my mane, tail, and wings were ablaze. I spread my wings and yelled out, “YOU WOULDN’T DARE USE SUCH A CURSE.” I flew up and attempted to fly out a window just to be locked in by a barrier spell. It wasn’t strong enough to contain me, but my progress would be slowed dramatically. I turned back towards to see Imera and Nychta enveloped in a blood red glow. The glow extended out an appendage that wrapped around me and held firm. I was helpless against the forbidden magic as it quickly dragged me back down to the mass that had enveloped the two noble princesses.

“NOOOO!!” I fought the magic as best as I could, but before there could be any actual noticeable resistance, everything in view faded to a rich red and I felt my body start tearing apart.