Not Another Good Guy

As the dream world began to build itself, I noticed that things were not going as I had hoped. Instead of confronting the strange voice, I was going straight into a memory. Before the physical objects fell into place, I could hear a cacophony of voices. They were all around me, moving in every direction. Yelling, whispering, hollering, screaming, they did it all. What am I doing in such a confusing place?

Sight returned to me as the memory strengthened. I was standing in a massive room filled with people. Everyone was going somewhere, following a multitude of signs and billboards or listening to announcements blared across speakers throughout the facility. The crowd was a sea of confusing motions and directions, yet everyone seemed to know where they were going. There was a semblance of order within the apparent chaos consuming this place.

Ah, yes. The airport. I was in the airport. Where I was going was uncertain, but my past self seemed to know his destination. He walked forward with a determined stride that exuded confidence. Despite the confidence felt, there was something else as well. Fear? No, it couldn't be. Apprehension? No. I found the word a moment later. Anticipation. Something big was going to happen, and my past self could hardly wait.

"Thomas!"

My heart soared in my chest and I turned to look for the voices.

"Thomas! Over here!"

A moment later, I saw two hands waving over the crowd. I barely managed to stop myself from sprinting towards it as joy filled the entirety of my being. A moment later, I was out of the crowd and standing before the people that made me so happy.

"Mom! Dad!" I said, embracing them both. "It's been too long."

"No kidding," said Dad.

"Six years. Six years is far too long," said Mom, who looked like she was trying not to cry.

"Hey, cheer up!" I said, ending the hug. "We're together again!"

"Yeah, but for how long?" said Dad.

"That doesn't matter," I said, forcing some positivity into my voice. "What matters is what we do with the time we have. Let's not waste it debating how much we have to use."

"Alright then," said Mom, who seemed to be forcing a smile to placate me, "what do you want to do with our time together?"

I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket. "On the flight over here, I built a list of the things we could do!"

They both cringed and groaned, but their smiles got a bit wider. We were just happy to be together again, so it didn't matter what we did.

Eventually, we agreed to go into the mountains and rent a cabin for a week. It would be the perfect time together as a family, away from the city and out into the wintery wilderness. We had skiing, hiking, and many more activities planned out by yours truly. The plan was to have fun, and fun would be had!

As I watched my past self talk with my parents, I felt an odd pain in my chest. It was odd. I should have been overjoyed at the chance to regain a happy memory of my family, but instead I felt hurt. The faint aching continued as I watched a week go by in my memory. I observed joyous recounting of tales. I gained experiences through words that replaced the moments I was not present for. I saw a week of a content family, happy simply to be in the presence of each other.

Of course, all good things must come to an end.

The memory began to sharpen as on the last night of our vacation. Every moment seemed so much more important than the week leading up. Every word from their lips and every second that passed left an invisible weight on my soul until it felt that I could not breathe. As my past self went to bed on the last night, I watched with terrible foreboding in my heart.

I awoke in the middle of the night, coughing and wheezing as thick, smoky air billowed about the loft I was sleeping in. Instantly, I was wide awake and on the move. I grabbed the Element of Light from my nightstand and threw it around my neck as I bolted towards the stairs, but never made it there. The floor beneath me suddenly gave away with a loud shriek, providing a painful shortcut to the living room directly underneath the loft.

Fire surrounded me. It was everywhere. Nothing could escape the horrible orange glare that swirled around me. For a split second, I could only stare in shock. A moment later, a piece of the wall fell apart and smothered a bit of the blaze, clearing a path to the front door.

My ears rung and my entire body ached when I pushed myself off the floor and sprinted for the door. I grabbed the emergency supply backpack (that I so carefully and thoughtfully planned for just this sort of situation) and flew through the doorway. Two steps out, I slipped on some ice and hit my head on the porch railing. The world spun and blurred as I tried to stand up, but I only succeed on falling onto my back and crushing the contents of the backpack into my spine. My ears felt as if someone had filled them with cotton, and all of my thoughts moved painfully slow. Despite this, I managed to make out one sound as my ears cleared up.

Screaming.

"Mom! Dad!" I tried to yell, straining my charred throat and sluggish mind. Even if my voice could reach them, it no longer mattered. It was too late. I had failed them. I watched in horror as the cabin suddenly collapsed, throwing up ash and smoke to blind me once more. Still trying to come to my senses, I failed to notice the burning wooden beam until it fell onto me and crushed my right ankle.

I screamed as the fire consumed my leg, only for the Element of Light to glow and heal the flesh. My moment of relief was torn away as the fire caught on me again, burning its way through my skin. Once again, my element knit the flesh back together. The cycle of agony continued for what could have been hours as I was powerless to do anything but scream in pain. Pain for the loss of my family. Pain from the fire that I could not escape. Pain from the knowledge that I failed the people who loved me the most.

And then there was darkness.

I came back to reality when the rescue team pulled my still burning body from the collapsed cabin. I blindly fought against them as they extinguished my crushed leg and carried me away from the building. My parents were still in there. I screamed, I begged, I cried, but they kept a firm hold on me as they lifted me onto a stretcher. My vision swam and blurred as I saw flashing lights all around. I faintly heard the sound of voices asking questions, but they sounded distant and unimportant.

Nothing mattered anymore. The two most important people in the world died because I failed. As they put me in an ambulance and left the cabin far behind, a part of me died as well. Nothing was right anymore, and it was all my fault.

I spent a week in the hospital afterward. Oddly, the Element of Light stopped healing me at some point. My right leg was harshly burned and the ankle horribly scarred, but I didn't care about that. I stopped caring about anything the night everything burned. I spent my days slipping further and further away from reality as my heart shut itself off from all emotion.

On the eighth day, Aubade showed up. He didn't say anything for a long time. We simply sat in silence together as he struggled to find the words to say. I barely registered his words when he finally did speak. Gas leak. Nothing I could have done. Don't blame myself. There for me. "Sorry".

I involuntarily twitched. Sorry, he had said. Something inside me had sparked for a moment at his words. Something unfamiliar and unsettling, yet oddly pleasurable as well.

Aubade let out a sigh that snapped me out of my thoughts. "I'll be heading back home soon, and I'd like you to accompany me. It will be good for you." I nodded, but otherwise remained quiet. A small frown crossed his lips, but he stayed silent as well. A look of pity flashed on his face for a moment before he left me, presumably to talk to a nurse about my release from the hospital. That look brought back that spark inside, but only for a moment. Then it was gone.

With nobody there to see it, I cried.

Back at Aubade's little cottage in the woods of the far north, I sat on the bed in the spare room and scratched at the scar on my inside of my ankle. The Element should have healed it, Aubade said. There were a lot of things that should have happened that didn't. I should have been able to save my family. The scar was just another "should have" on a list of things that never came to pass.

I opened my eyes and rolled out of bed. I stared into the mirror that rested on my wall. I remembered a time where the eyes that stared back at me were full of life. They were the eyes of the hopeful. The face of someone who saw a better day and strove to make that day today. These were not what I saw today. No, the eyes of today were of broken and sorrowful spirit.

From the door came a soft knocking. When I failed to respond, Aubade opened the door and brought in two items that I never thought I'd see again. The first was an old pocket journal that I had forgotten about years ago. The second was the survival backpack from that night.

Aubade tossed them both onto the bed and looked at me with a sad smile. "I can tell you don't want to talk about it right now," he said, his eyes a mix of sorrow and compassion. "I thought maybe it would help you to write it out like you used to when you were young." He turned and left when I didn't respond, that look still frozen on his face.

I understood what he was trying to do. He probably thought that giving me some way to express what I felt without talking would help me feel better about what happened. It didn't help at all, but I did not fault him for trying. With nothing better to do, I stuffed the journal in my pocket and opened up the backpack to go through its contents.

Unfortunately, there was a problem. A jar of healing slave and a water jug had burst open and spilled over the other contents of the backpack, rendering all of them useless. After digging through a pile of molding bandages, I found a small red cardboard box. I gave it a small shake and some things rattled inside. I didn't remember what it was. My curiosity piqued, I opened the box to see the only things that had survived that fiery night...

Matches.

I felt something at last. After weeks of nothingness, I had my first emotion. It was the same emotion that had came to me in a flash back in the hospital. Rage.

I could feel every pulse of my heartbeat as I stormed out of the cottage and into the forest. I started running, not sure where I was going. I ran until the scream inside that I had been denying burst its way free. I fell there, howling at the world around me until I thought my head would explode.

It felt good. Simply letting the rage vent made me feel almost a little dirty, but still so wonderful at the same time. Above all else that I felt in that moment, I felt powerful. Every pounding beat in my chest was a scream for destruction. Every breath in my lungs was a call for violence.

Something about where I had collapsed suddenly caught my attention and snapped me out of the rage. I looked around the circle of stones and felt a small wave of nostalgia. This was Nocturne's practice circle, the place I had always wandered to when I was stressed. I ran my hands along the runes and let the familiar shapes and memories calm me down.

Almost without thinking, I began going through a series of forms that Nocturne had taught me. The stretches and poses had helped clear my mind countless times in the past, and they proved fruitful again as the minutes wore on. When I was almost done, I felt a little bit better. I still felt broken inside, but the pain felt less harsh than it did before.

When I reached the last pose of the final form, I let a small flow of magic through my hands. It had become tradition for me to cast a small amount of pure light magic at the end of the exercise. Light magic was a representation of the purest power available only to those pure of heart, and simply summoning it healed both the body and mind.

Well, it would have. I stood there for a moment, hands extended and magic flowing. Nothing. I frowned, the let my hands fall to my sides. I went through the motions of the final form again, pushing energy into the air around me. At the last movement, I pushed a large amount of power into my hands and watched for the soft glow that signified a successful cast. Still nothing. Frustrated, I tried again and again. Every time I met the same result: failure.

"Having trouble seeing the light?" asked a voice that emanated from everywhere and nowhere at once.

The memory seemed to blur and fade for a moment as I almost jumped awake. I knew that voice from outside the memory, I was sure of it.

"Eris!" I shouted. "Stop hiding and show yourself!"

A large zipper appeared out of thin air, unzipping itself as a strange creature stepped out. It was a strange mixture of limbs from all sorts of different animals that all got jumbled together, a rare creature known as a draconequus.

"You called?" she said, folding her arms behind her head and floating in place.

"Don't play games with me. What are you doing here?" I asked, not bothering to hide my irritability.

"I thought we were friends! Don't friends show up and help each other in tough times?" she asked, pouting and batting her eyes.

"The other element bearers are my true friends. Not you."

"Oh really?" she asked, looking around the stone circle. "Where then are these friends of yours? I don't see them here to support you."

I tried not to listen. I knew very well how her words could worm their way into the mind and devour all logic to be found. Even knowing this, her words still stung me.

"In fact," she said, ignoring my silent fuming, "it seems that I am the only one here for you."

"What do you really want, Eris?" I asked.

Her innocent grin dissipated. "It seems you know me too well." I rolled my eyes, but otherwise did not respond. "To be honest, Tom-"

"Only my friends call me Tom."

"Right, right. Anyway, you've been so boring these past couple weeks. Your little outburst was the first abnormal act you've performed in over a month. A month without chaos! A whole month!"

"Get to the point," I grumbled.

"You have been so dull recently, and it bothers me. I'm here to get you feeling better so you can go back to being spontaneous and chaotic!" she said, throwing confetti into the air and summoning balloons.

"Hooray." Instantly, the balloons popped and the confetti disappeared.

"Bah. You're no fun," she said, snapping her fingers and winking out of existence. When I was certain that she was finally gone, I let out a long sigh and sat against one of the standing stones. I idly floated a few pebbles around with my magic. "Magic works fine," I muttered, dropping the rocks back to the floor. "But what happened to the light?"

I tried the final form one more time, promising myself that this would be the last try. I began going through the movements once more. Each was smooth and fluid, one position flowing to the next with ease and...

I frowned, pausing in the middle of the form. Something felt off about the movements. I was doing them correctly, but they didn't feel as in tune with me as they had in the past. I started the motions again, a bit faster. Better... but not quite there yet.

After a few more trials, I felt more in tune with the motions. Instead of flowing from one position to the next, I erratically flew through them. At the end of the form, I released the magic just as I had done so many times. Instead of the soft glow I was so familiar with, a harsh red flash went off on my fingertips.

"Dark magic!" I breathlessly whispered to myself. For years I had been trying to cast such a spell without success. I had almost given up on it entirely. My first instinct was to go run and tell Nocturne and Aubade of my success. That quickly died as a different thought came to mind.

What if I just made it my little secret?

It was a tempting thought. I mean, it's not like I was hurting anyone with it. It was just a little bit of practice, that's all. Since light magic wasn't working, I had to practice something. I idly floated some more rocks around as I paced and walked. That's when I noticed something odd about the glow surrounding them. Whereas my magic was normally a pure white, it was now a cold black.

Maybe I should do some more trials and research before making a decision...

Weeks flew by in the dream. I would spend most of my free time exploring the new field of dark magic available to me, taking care to not alert Aubade and Nocturne to my new talent. I eventually began bringing the matches with me, as they were a perfect catalyst for the dark energy. It seemed fitting that the thing that took my parents away would bring me great power.

I also began using that old journal that Aubade gave me, but not for the reason he intended. I needed some place to record my new discoveries and log my experiments, and the journal was just the place to do it.

Day Twenty-Nine
Solid objects confirmed success for dark catalyst. Gems and crystalline structures are best for energy storage and efficient use, but any material will suffice if enough energy is present. Nocturne noticed me taking matches last week. No further signs of notice since I hid them in my shoe. Dark spell success rate at eighty-seven percent, twelve higher than the last trial.

I yawned and shut the journal. I had been pouring over my old notes and developing new spells relentlessly for hours. It turned out that I was just as proficient in dark magic as I was in light magic. My eagerness to learn more about this new power was only kept in check by my need to eat and sleep, the latter of which I hadn't done in... some uncertain amount of time. I looked over at the calendar, then opened the journal and made a modification.

Day Twenty-NineThirty-Five

"There we go," I muttered, closing the journal once more before lazily flopping onto the bed. I was grateful for Aubade's hospitality in allowing me to live here with him and Nocturne, even if I didn't quite understand it. Seriously, my apartment was literally less than an hour away. Why bring me here?

While I may not have understood it, I certainly was taking full advantage of the closeness to Nocturne's practice circle. There, I had been able to safely and discreetly develop my new powers. I couldn't do dark magic in my apartment, that's for sure.

As I lay in bed and contemplated all of the things I could do to test out the new field of magic, I slowly began to drift into sleep. That is, until a set of voices drew me out of my slumber.

"What the heck is going on with those two at this hour?" I grumbled, rolling out of bed and shambling over to the door. Down the hall, the door to Aubade's study was slightly cracked and Nocturne's frustrated voice could be heard.

I approached the door, ready to give them a piece of my tired mind, when I heard Nocturne say, "We really ought to keep a closer eye on him." I froze, immediately wide awake. Where they talking about me?

"I am sure that he is fine. He is still trying to cope with his grief. As such, it is completely rational that his behavior will seem odd for some time," Aubade calmly replied. Certain that they were discussing me, I silently crouched next to the door and listened in carefully.

"I don't think you understand." Nocturne replied, his voice sounding strained. "Thomas has become increasingly obsessed with fire. Don't you think it's unhealthy for him to fixate on the thing that killed his parents?

"It is only natural, Nocturne. That is probably his way of coping with what transpired that night."

I clearly heard Nocturne's frustrated sigh. "There is another thing that has been bothering me. Have you seen Thomas perform any magic around us? Any at all?"

"I cannot say that I have. Why?" replied Aubade, his voice not wavering from its usual calm tone.

"Don't you find that odd? He used to run around performing incredible feats of magic with just the flick of his wrist. He absolutely loved showing us his latest discovery or a new spell he made."

"Like I said, he is dealing with a lot of grief. He probably feels too emotionally tired to perform such taxing spells. I am certain that Thomas will return to normal in time."

"No, no, that's not what is so strange. If he just simply dropped his fascination for magic while grieving, I would completely understand. Aubade, he's still casting magic regularly."

"What?" said Aubade, a small amount of worry worming its way into his voice.

"You heard me. Don't tell me you haven't noticed the magical energy that lingers about him. Don't tell me you haven't noticed the way he eats enough food to sustain a dozen men. Both are obvious signs of excessive magic use and magical fatigue."

I heard the groan of wood as Aubade leaned back in his chair before replying. "It sounds like he is still in denial of his situation and is simply avoiding contact with other people so as to not be forced to accept the truth."

I flinched as Nocturne slammed his hands into the desk. "Listen to yourself, Aubade! It is not Thomas who is in denial, it is you!"

"Mind your tongue, brother!" Aubade growled, all pretenses of calm gone from his voice.

"Please listen to me, Aubade! You remember what happened last time you ignored a problem until it was too late. Don't let him be another mistake that you'll have to live with!" shouted Nocturne.

"Is that what I am?" I asked, pushing open the door and revealing my presence. They both stared at me, slack-jawed. "A mistake that you are forced to live with?"

Nocturne was the first to gather his wits. "No, of course not!"

I crossed my arms and glared at him. "I don't believe you," I said, turning and walking down the hall.

"Thomas!" Aubade shouted. "Wait!"

I walked into my room and threw my few belongings into my backpack, and then put the Element of Light on my neck. Not that it would do me any good. The darn thing stopped working for me weeks ago. I ignored Aubade and Nocturne's pointless apologies and pleadings as I slung the bag onto my back and walked out the front door. Just a few steps out, I felt Aubade's hand on my shoulder.

I cannot accurately describe what I felt in that moment. It was as if every ounce of anger that I had felt in my life had been doubled and compounded into one burst of emotion. "Rage" didn't even hold a candle to what I felt. No, I felt something far stronger.

Kill him.

"I hate you!" I shouted, turning and swinging my fist into Aubade's chest. I heard bones crunch and snap as he flew backwards into the cottage and took out a wall. Instantly, Nocturne was upon me.

"Stop!" he shouted, desperation in his eyes. "Please, Thomas, don't go down this road!"

"Die!" I shouted, shooting bolts of dark magic at him. He swatted them out of the air and fired multiple icy blasts at me.

"You don't have to do this!" Nocturne said. "You can stop before it's too late!"

I began throwing every ounce of effort into my attacks. A dark glow swirled around me as I launched blast after blast of dark magic, only to be stopped by Nocturne's efficient use of ice magic. Time after time we traded shots until suddenly a lucky hit knocked him off balance. Just as I was about to finish him off, a searing bolt of heat lanced through my chest.

Gasping, I looked down at my body. A hole the size of my fist was right where my heart was supposed to be. I fell to my knees as blood sprayed over my hands and soaked the ground beneath me. As my vision rapidly blurred and darkened, Aubade limped in front of me.

"Thomas... I'm sorry," he said.

My vision cleared immediately. Blood sprayed out even faster as I lurched upright and bellowed a roar of pure hatred. Even as I bled out faster, I felt revitalized. The darkness covered my chest like a mist and quickly knit the flesh back together. I felt a heart begin beating once more with the pulse of rage, and I was not one to deny it.

The fight began anew, with both brothers forcing me back into the forest. Aubade relentlessly threw spears of pure fire at me while Nocturne pushed me back with a rain of frozen daggers. It was impossible to gain any ground against the two of them.

As a burning piece of my arm regenerated itself, a terrible idea crossed my mind. Stepping out directly into the line of fire, I charged at the brothers. Each step closer resulted in another blast of frost or fire, and each blast only fueled the hate that healed me. Step by step, I made my way to the brothers until I was just a few feet away.

My pain meant nothing to me now. HATE The beautiful power coursed through me as I rushed forward and grabbed Aubade around the throat. Nocturne screamed something that I ignored. I kicked him in the gut and sent him stumbling backwards with the strength of my HATE.

My grip tightened on Aubade's neck. My nails cut flesh and red flowed out. I spat in his face and laughed as his struggles grew weaker. I heard Nocturne screaming again, but my pounding heartbeat in my head drowned out the words. Didn't matter. I wrapped one arm around his neck and reached with the other to grab his head. I gathered my strength to snap his neck and end him... and I stopped.

Nocturne was lying where I had kicked him. The most he could do was make a bit of frost form on my hand. It was truly pathetic. Yet something in those eyes stopped me. They were the eyes of the broken of spirit. The eyes of the weary and powerless, only watching the inevitable with sorrow.

Even as he fell limp, Aubade managed to choke out a few words. "Thomas... one day... I will find you again. I will... free you... from the monster... you have beco-"

*Crack*

"Pitiful," I said as Aubade's twisted body hit the ground.

Nocturne froze in shock, unable to comprehend the scene before him. In a matter of minutes, I had taken his entire immortal life and torn it apart.

"Nocturne," I said, dragging his fearful gaze to match mine with only the force of my words. "I want you to do something." I pulled a match out of my shoe and lit it with one deft movement.

"Scream for me."

He obeyed.

An hour later, I sat on the log of a toppled tree and watched Aubade's cottage burn. I found the flames to be very ironic. The thing that destroyed my life showed me the path to true power. I idly scratched the scar on my ankle as I contemplated, until a familiar voice brought me back to the present.

"I've been waiting a long time for that," said Eris, sitting on the log next to me.

I chuckled a bit. "Me too, but I just now realized it." A moment later, I laughed again. "You don't need to pretend anymore, Eris. I know you didn't come here just for small talk and frankly, I don't care anymore. Go on with whatever scheme you have cooked up this time. Just leave a bit of the fun for me, okay?"

Eris and I shared a laugh for a moment, before she leaned forward conspiratorially and spoke in a serious, hushed tone. "As it were, I actually came here to discuss something with you. I believe that we both stand to gain very much from each other."

I frowned. Usually, Eris made deals that seemed good but only truly benefited her. This time, her usual act of the trickster was gone. It wasn't like her to be serious. "Go on," I said, extremely curious as to her intentions.

She grinned at me. "Seeing as you have just killed the mortal connections to the sun and moon, somebody -*ahem*- or something will need to raise and lower them."

"Other than the planet being destroyed, what is the benefit of even bothering to keep the cycle going? I'm sure that with my new power, I could easily survive the end of the world."

Eris rolled her eyes at me as if I should already know the answer. "While you certainly are powerful, this is the true apocalypse we are talking about. You cannot survive that. No amount of power changes the fact that you are still mortal. I'm not, so I could just find a way to cross dimensions and leave before the apocalypse even starts."

"This sounds more like blackmail than a deal," I dryly remarked.

"That isn't even the real reason, so hear me out. If the sun and moon stop cycling, the world will notice. A few people probably already have noticed that the moon is traveling oddly slow across the sky right now."

"So what if they notice? I'll just wipe them out."

She shook her head at me, much a like a disappointed mother would to a child. "People will begin searching for the reason why the sun and moon have stopped. Eventually, they will realize that the only other person at the cottage with Nocturne and Aubade is also the only person not accounted for. You will become the most wanted criminal across the globe. Your evil will likely unite the entire planet to the single cause of hunting you down. Do you really think that you can take on the might of every nation in the world?"

"Fine, fine, I get it," I grumbled. "Now what is the catch? What is in it for you?"

She smiled and ruffled my hair. "Oh, how kind of you to ask! In exchange for me keeping the people of the world oblivious, all you have to do is help me take over the world once you are strong enough to do so. We share the rule of the world, and we both promise not to murder each other. So, do we have a deal?" she extended her paw to me.

"Deal," I said, shaking her paw.

"Deal," I said, shaking her paw. I blinked. Something seemed off all of a sudden. I looked around the memory to see that everything had been frozen in place. Oddly enough, I was in full control of my actions once more. I stepped out of my "body" and looked around the destroyed clearing around the cottage.

"What is going on? Why did the memory stop?" I wondered out loud.

"That would be my doing."

Dread filled my heart as I turned and watched Luna step out from the trees on the other side of the clearing. My pulse immediately quickened. Even in the dream, the Element of Darkness started glowing around my neck.

"Please," I said, backing away from her. "stay away from me."

"I think not, monster," she said, coming closer.

No! Fight it! "Don't come near me!"

With a scowl set on her features, she continued to slowly walk towards me. Her horn glowed softly, and I felt an immense power building around her.

"I don't want to fight you!" I said. Even as the words left my mouth, my own body began to disobey me. My hands began shaking and my knees began to slightly wobble. I struggled to contain the rage and pushed back the red haze that was threatening to consume my mind.

"Then surrender and accept your punishment," she said, eyes gleaming in the darkness of my dream.

I frantically grasped at the Element of Darkness, trying desperately to remove it. Somehow, maybe due to it being in a dream, I couldn't tear the damned thing off my neck. It was fueling my hatred and forcing my body to betray my mind, and there was not a thing I could do to stop it.

The first tears began to fall as my trembling hands rose and pointed towards Luna's slowly approaching form. "I'm sorry!" I shouted as pure dark energy swirled around my fingertips.

"You certainly will be," she smoothly replied.

We both stopped for a moment. In the dead stillness of the dream, I could only hear my heartbeat raging out of control and could only feel my mind following close behind. It lasted only for a second, but that moment seemed to be an eternity.

Then Luna launched a great blast of magic at me, shattering the perfect moment. Likewise, I flung all my power at her. Her cold blue magic met my dark magic directly in the center of the space between us, and time seemed to slow as an explosion rippled out from the collision.

When ten seconds passed and the magical explosion had hardly moved, I realized that time really was slowing down. I was complete frozen in place as the dream got brighter and brighter, slowly filling up my vision with pure white. Luna was unable to move either, forced to watch alongside me as the dream collapsed into nothingness.

"Wake up, Thomas," said the voice.

I burst into wakefulness in the massive crystal bedroom. I felt a sharp burning sensation around my neck, but quickly confirmed that I wasn't wearing my element. I leaped out of bed and dashed to my backpack, opening it up and dumping out the contents. Thankfully, the Element of Darkness was still there. It was still safe and, most importantly, not spewing out dark magic. I let out a sigh of relief, and then shoved everything back into the backpack.

Certain that nothing unspeakably evil was about to occur, I let my thoughts wander back to the dream. I felt like I should have been grieving, but I felt very little. Whether it was due to a cold heart or a simple lack of other memories to connect me to them, I did not feel any strong emotions about the death of my parents. While it was certainly saddening, it all felt too distant to really apply to me here. The same went with the murder of Nocturne and Aubade. Everything felt too disconnected to affect me.

The same could not be said for Luna's appearance in my dream. That filled me with a spark of hope. If Luna was awake, then surely Celestia would follow soon after. All that was left was to wake up Twilight's friends somehow, and then we could find a way out of this cult mess together.

Or... maybe not. A small bit of worry wormed its way through my optimism. There were my prisoners, and likely would not be willing to work with me at all. While it was true that I held all the cards, they still had to agree to play the game in order for me to manipulate our chances at success.

With a new goal in mind, I decided to make a trip back to the dungeons.

Discord paced along the roof of Canterlot Castle, mumbling to himself and scratching his chin in thought. He paused for a moment to snap his fingers, and his puppet illusion of Celestia gave a particularly moving speech to the day court about the castle's bakery funds. It was standard protocol when the princesses went missing for him to conjure up a temporary replacement. It had been since that Tree of Harmony fiasco so long ago.

The missing princesses wasn't on Discord's mind today, however. Oh, he had no delusions as to their current whereabouts. What troubled him was the human. Discord's brow furrowed and he grumbled, pacing faster as he thought about the previous night's troubling events.

"So close... I was so close! Then along came that meddler... interrupting everything important..." he muttered. After a moment, he let out a breath and recollected himself. That is, the body parts that had crumbled from his stress popped back into place. "Oh well. In the grand scheme, nothing has changed. Everything is still running smoothly. So long as the human continues to play his part, everything will turn out according to my plan."