Oh, Heavens above, my freaking head! Verso cried in our mind once again.
"That's what you get for telling me to sleep without any reason and scaring miss Twilight and her friends!" I told him aloud, still not happy with what he had done. "You seriously thought there were shape shifting monsters in Ponyville just because your sense field went wrong?"
Okay, I got it, no more looking like an idiot trying to save us all. Now, leave me alone with the worst headache in human history. Thinking and being a disembodied voice kinda hurt like hell.

I sighed and looked around in our room. Apparently, Verso had gone wrong with his spell and thought some ponies were dangerous monsters, ready to attack on sight. What a silly idea. Mister Discord said we weren't in any danger! And of course, he had to frighten miss Princess Twilight, her friends and Spike, nearly leading to a big national panic if he hadn't stopped them before they sent a letter to miss Princess Celestia. And to think he probably terrorized miss Lyra! She probably wouldn't want to be our friend after that...

And he just woke me up, retreated to the back of our mind and started shouting words I am not allowed to write at the headache he usually gets when he stays out alone for too long. Don't say he didn't get what he was looking for!

Anyway, when I showed up, a bit confused as Verso woke me up in a hurry without explaining anything, miss Twilight didn't looked pleased at all, probably didn't notice that I was in command and sent us to our room to think about what he had done. Needless to say, confused didn't even start to describe how I was feeling when we were punished like this. I didn't even know you could really end up sent in your room as a punishment! Isn't that where we spent most of our time anyway? What kind of punishment is that? It sounds silly.

But then, I understood : staying in our room meant that we didn't get to go outside and look at... well, everything, until we weren't grounded anymore. That's like, really cruel! I mean, we've waited for years to discover the outside world, it here, right outside, barely a meter away, and we can't go there. Truly horrible!

"At least, we still have a window!" I happily noted.

I walked to it and started gazing outside. Well, at least I would have, but it just so happened that there was a familiar flying blue pony that was pressing her face against the glass to peak inside. We looked at each other without moving for a second before she pointed at the lock with her hoof. As soon as I unlocked it, Rainbow Dash burst inside our room, slipped on the rather slippery cristal floor when she tried to land, and finally crashed against the opposite wall. I think Verso laughed for a second before he remembered that thinking was painful, and therefore cried in agony.

"Are you okay?" I asked as she stood up, canaries flying in circles over her head.

... Wait, what?

"Yeah, I'm fine," she answered, shaking her head and making the puzzling illusion disappear.
"Of course, she's alright! She crashes all the time!" an excited voice came from the window. Which was strange, because I confirmed with a glance, and there was nobody there.
"Uh..." I muttered.
"Hey, you know what, I think Twilight was a bit hard with you earlier," Dash said. "Wanna come with us and have fun in town?"
"Oh, boy, do I?" I answered with an energetic nod. "Wait, 'us'?"
"Yeah! Dashie and I! Us!" the excited voice said from the window again. And I still saw nobody there.
Uh, Verso, I think I'm hearing voices...
Well, what a scoop, he painfully grunted with all the sarcasm he could mutter. This is something totally new and weird for us.
Hey, no need to be grumpy against me! I replied. "Why are you always so mean when you're having headaches..?" I whispered for myself.
"Uh? You said something?"
"No! I mean, yes! I mean... Won't that just anger miss Twilight further?"
"Nah, I'm sure she'll be cool with that."
"And I'm sure Verso and you will have so much fun!" the voice from the window continued.
"Okay, what's going on? Is that window... haunted?" I asked stepping away from it.

I mean, it was the most logical possibility. Verso keeps saying that it made much more sense that what was really happening, you know.

"What? No! How could a window be haunted? And what kind of lame ghost would haunt windows?"
A multi-billions dollar company? Ugh, my head...
"Your window is haunted? That's so weird!" said Pinkie Pie as her head poked out of the window for a second before disappearing again.
"Uh..." I hesitated.
What is the pink horror doing up there? I thought we were several meters above the ground? Verso exclaimed in surprise, ignoring the pain.

I went up to the window to find out that Pinkie had just installed some kind of device - a trampoline, Verso told me - right underneath us and was bouncing on it. That looked awesome! And I guess it also explained the voice we kept hearing. I turned to Rainbow Dash.

"So, do we just get out of our room by the door ? Because miss Twilight said we were grounded."
"Nah, she would try to stop us," she answered, walking to us, examining us. "We're going to use the window."
"Great!.. Wait, how are we doing it? I don't think we can fly."
"Like that," Rainbow Dash said, smiling as she just slightly pushed us with her hooves.

I have to say, Verso and I were both really surprised as we fell over the windowsill toward the ground. I just blinked, not really understanding while he screamed and fought his way to the commands despite his head-splitting migraine. We hit the ground before he could do anything, though, and I found it strangely... soft?

Turns out we fell on a big cushion that Pinkie Pie had prepared for us. Still, it had been pretty surprising and we were frozen in shock, wondering what had just happened. Then Rainbow Dash's head appeared above us, laughing out of control, at least until Verso's rage broke him out of his shock and our arm shot to grab her by the neck, his eye burning in anger.

"Never. Do. That. Again." he said, his piercing gaze staring right into her eyes. She hastily nodded and he let her go before retreating back in the recess of our mind, groaning in a strange mix of pain and mean words I am not allowed to repeat.
"Oh, you've got to admit it was a pretty funny one," she croaked when he released her.

I don't think what he thought back is polite enough for me to repeat, and I didn't even understand half of his rant before his headache kicked in and left only a gurgling mess of pain. I translated:

"That was awesome ! Can we do it again ?" I asked, excited.
No! Verso somehow successfully shouted.
Oh, you're no fun.
"That's right!" Pinkie confirmed.
See, even Pinkie says so.
There is no fun in... Wait, what?

I turned to face Pinkie Pie, looking back at me with a toothy smile. Before I could ask anything, a visibly stressed Rainbow Dash moved between us.

"Maybe we should get going before Twilight sees us. She can get pretty crazy from time to time."
I, for one, do not like hearing that.
"Okay, maybe we should..." I said, looking for the trampoline and the cushion that were nowhere to be found."...clean this up. Uh."
What the fuck? Verso bluntly stated.
"Hurry, let's go!" Rainbow Dash said, walking toward Sugarcube Corner.
"We're going to eat ALL the leftovers!" Pinkie Pie excitedly completed, drooling as she bounced away in the same direction, leaving us alone for a moment.
"Did she hear you?" I asked.
Seems so, Verso grunted. We'll have to confirm. And now, I'll just shut the hell up and hope the migraine goes away.
"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" I asked, starting to catch up with the ponies.
Maybe. But I don't feel like 'sleeping' right now. Now, hush, I'm not here.

I caught up with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash just as he decided to nearly fade out of our mind, and we walked to the bakery with the pink pony blabbering something about cakes. I would have interrupted her to get answers about her hearing us even when we don't speak out loud, but she got me salivating the instant I heard her. By the time we arrived to the bakery, I was nearly drooling, and Dash was pleading for Pinkie to please be quiet and stop torturing us all.

She didn't.

So you can probably understand us when I say that we burst inside ready to devour the first pastry that would have the honor of being in our line of sight. Too bad that there weren't anything left from the party Verso made us leave. So while Dash and I were crying on the floor, another pony wearing a bag and a funny hat walked out of the kitchen and talked to Pinkie.

"Well, you're all set up, Pinkie. We're leaving you the kitchens this afternoon, like we said. Just don't forget to clean up after you're done."
"Of course mister Cake. Thank you very much!"

The pony walked out and Dash and I were on Pinkie's hooves immediately.

"We were promised cake!" I whined. "The cake was a lie!"
"Of course not, silly!" Pinkie giggled. "We just have to make one!"
I was confused. "'Make one'? Is that possible? As in, the laws of reality actually allow us to make them?"
"You're really weird, you know?" Rainbow asked, looking at me as if I had said something stupid.
"And you are a talking, flying pony with a rainbow mane," I said as I nodded in confirmation. "The balance of the world is safe."
"Uh..."
"Of course we can bake cakes, you silly filly!" Pinkie said, somehow grabbing Dash and us and dragging us behind the counter and into the shop's kitchen. "And we're going to bake some cupcakes right now!"
"But I don't know how to cook anything!" I said, hearing some music notes coming out of nowhere. Which is really, really weird.
"And I'm officially forbidden to come near any kind of kitchen furniture in Cloudsdale!" Rainbow Dash said.
"Oh, it's pretty simple," she said, climbing on a table that I could swear wasn't here a second before. "Here let me explain:"

And that's when she started singing. It was a pretty funny song about making cupcakes, kinda catchy and exciting. But it was so weird : during the dance accompanying her song, she somehow moved from one place in the kitchen to behind us even though we were still seeing her. And the ingredients and utensils she was talking about in her song appeared out of nowhere the moment she needed them. She even got a batch of cupcakes finished by the end of her two-minutes-long song, which isn't really possible. Verso weakly asked me to activate my own sense field in the middle of it so that we could at least try to understand what in the world we were seeing. And that only raised more questions, 'cause neither of us could understand a thing.

Still, I somehow - I seem to be using that word a lot when I'm talking about Pinkie Pie - knew everything I needed to know to bake cupcakes when she was finished. Verso was mentally gaping, Pinkie Pie was smiling happily, Rainbow Dash was looking at a cookbook as if it were common place and I was clapping. I don't even know why. Or when I started. It ended and I was clapping.

Weird.

Even though, we spent the next two hours baking and eating what we baked and starting again. It was fun - and tasty. Well except for Rainbow's cupcakes. I don't think I would accept to eat one of those for our weight in chocolate milk. Ever.

I will never get that... that 'taste' out of my mind. Bleh...

Verso had finally got his headache under control when Rainbow Dash said she had to leave. Something about cloud storing problems she had to fix. Anyway, it left us alone with Pinkie Pie. And so, Verso wanted to secretly verify whether or not she could hear him.

Hey, Pink horror, do you hear me?

Pinkie answered by loudly gnawing on one of our latest cupcakes, while Verso forbade me to eat anymore. They were good, but incredibly unhealthy, and we kinda liked our teeth not rotten. Huh, back to business.

Hey, the ridiculous pink deformed horse, I'm talking to you!
Why are you so mean with her? She made us cakes!
She responded to that last time. It's only fair to assume that she will react this time too. Doesn't seem to do much, though... he said as he watched Pinkie Pie doing nothing out of the field of possibilities.
Maybe she doesn't hear you and it was just a coïncidence?
It's always a possibility, but her phrase completed yours, and only yours. Hum... He thought for a second before a metaphorical lightbulb metaphorically lit above his metaphorical head. Ah ah! There was another time when she reacted to our thoughts!
Oh?
Yeah. Watch me: Parties suck and are useless!

The reaction was immediate: she flinched and glared at Verso with the cold, dangerous eyes she glared at us when we disembarked the train. And, unlike he had done then, his mind just froze numb for a few seconds, with Pinkie glaring at him all the while. Somehow.

When Verso finally returned to his mind, he was still a bit scared , and strangely confused, but he didn't try to get to the front. Pinkie smiled and started ranting something about a cupcake recipe.

So? I asked. Do you think she can?
I... Yes, he said with a strangely squeaky voice before he got a hold on himself. Yes, she can. No need to investigate any further. He stopped for a moment, putting his thoughts together. What time is it? You think Twilight may notice we've gone for hours? We should head back to the palace.

I agreed. I didn't think it would ever happen to me, but I had had enough cupcakes for the moment. I know, I know, kinda hard to think about it, but I swear it's true. Anyway, I concentrated back on the real world conversation.

"... and I said: 'Oatmeal? Are you crazy?!'" Pinkie Pie finished, laughing so hard she was having a hard time standing up. Too bad I missed the joke...
"Pinkie, I think I should go back to miss Twilight's crystal tree house. We don't want her to worry too much."
"Aw, but we were just getting started!" she whined, looking down. She perked up the next instant, though. "I'll come with you to see her. Maybe she would like to bake cupcakes too!"
NO! Uh, I mean, she still has to clean that place up.
Shouldn't we help her?
And risk breaking something?

That was a somewhat good point. And looking around us, the kitchen really needed to be cleaned. Rainbow Dash and I weren't particularly clean, and Pinkie Pie tended to be messy when she was having fun. In fact, it looked like a tornado passed through the room, got out and came back again for a good laugh.

"Maybe you should clean this up?" I asked.
She blinked and looked around her. "Oh, yeah... Well, I guess I have to shoo you out of here now." She waved a hoof in our direction, prompting me to leave. "Leave auntie Pinkie Pie to her work. Go on, shoo!"
I shrugged. "See you later, I guess," I said as I left.

I walked back to the Crystal Tree-house of Awesomeness without anything noteworthy happening, except for Verso relaxing more and more as we put farther away from Sugarcube Corner. That didn't last long, as the annoying he constantly has when we get near the crystal tree-castle returned soon. I stopped before the doorway, hesitating.

"You think I should knock? I don't think miss Twilight would hear it."
Then why bother? Just go in and try avoiding her as much as you can.
"But that would be impolite!" I retorted. "In the books and movies, they always knock on the door before entering, except when they are coming to arrest someone."
We're not in a sky-damned book or movie. Open the the door and sneak back in our room. I'm sure it'll be fun.
"Oh, yes!" I exclaimed, slightly more excited. "Just like we did with the guards!"
Yeah... Exactly like that.

I smiled and moved a hand to open the door, only for it to glow purple and open on its own, revealing a rather panicked purple alicorn that ran into us at ful speed, sending us both to the ground. She didn't even look at us as she tried to get up.

"Move! One of Princess Celestia's guests has disappeared! I must find him!"

She then remembered she had wings and flew away in a hurry, leaving us on the ground, confused out of our minds. Spike ran out of the castle and saw us.

"You're here!" he said with relief. "Twilight's just went to your room to allow you un-ground you and she said you had disappeared!"
"I saw, that," Verso replied as he picked ourselves up. "She didn't, though."
"We have to tell her you're fine!"
Verso looked up to a moving purple alicorn in the sky. "Just wait a second."

Miss Twilight stopped soon after he said that, turned around, screamed something in frustration and flew back to us, glaring laser beams at us.

"Yo," Verso casually said, waving at her.
"Do you have any idea how worried I was?!" she shouted back.
"About what? It's not like this town is dangerous or anything. You know, since I was wrong about the changelings."
"Princess Celestia placed you under MY responsibility! I can't let anything happen to you!"
"Well, Pinkie Pie showed us how to make cupcakes," I said. "Is this a bad thing?"
"Pinkie knew where you were?" she hissed.
"Well, yeah. The pink one and your blue flying friend brought us out of our room a few hours ago."
Miss Twilight went livid with anger. "You've been gone for HOURS?!"
"Yep. What a great guardian you make."

That last comment may have been a little more than miss Twilight could handle. She tried to fight her anger down, her face turned red and her pupils shrank into 'I'm gonna cut your head off' mode.

And then, she exploded.

Yeah, that was pretty amazing to watch: her body exploded in light, revealing a new form. White coat, red pupils, fire mane. And I mean fire mane, as in 'made out of fire'. Her eyes looked like they could actually shoot lasers and she was levitating without visible magic.

It looked awesome.

Verso jumped back and grabbed Spike, using him as a very confused dragon-shield. He activated his sense field even though he wasn't really worried about our security. It clearly changed when he felt her magical power shining like a small sun in his field. Then, he was really worried.

And, as quickly as she exploded, she calmed down, her coat only slightly blackened by the flammes. Her mane was in total disarray though. She rubbed the brink of her nose with a hoof.

"I'm just... I'm relieved you're okay," she finally said. "But next time, please tell me you're going somewhere before leaving. Especially when I told you to stay in your room."
That annoyed Verso for some reason. Who does she think she is? he somewhat angrily growled. We don't have to follow her orders.
Well, we do live in her house, so I think she gets to decide. Verso snorted and I rolled my eyes. "Okay, miss Twilight. I'm... We're sorry we made you worry about us."

Miss Twilight gave me a plain look, probably already guessing that someone wasn't sorry at all, but the shook her head and pointed entered the palace, Spike behind.

"Come in. We have a lot of experiments to run!" she said, excitement in her voice. "I want to test how good you are at magic."
I really don't like most of those words, but I guess magic training will be pretty interesting.
"Yay!"

As soon as the Pink horror glared at me again, it felt like the entire world froze as a familiar sense of horror I know all too well crept inside my soul. I was sucked into that horrible room, unable to see the physical world anymore. The weight of the chains circled around my body as I 'awoke' there. I quickly looked around me: the bed, the lightbulb and the thing were all I could see, as always. My breath was short and I could feel my heat pounding in my ears. Thankfully, I had finally calmed down the bastard for now, so the terrifying roars of thunder weren't here.

I tried to go back out, to see what was happening, but something didn't let me. Something that had a familiar feeling that made me shiver a lot more than that horrible thunder.

"Where are you?" I screamed in the room. "Show yourself!"
"Oh, but I will, little traitor," I heard back.

I could try to describe the voice, but no words can truly reflect how it was. It was somewhat feminine, that was for sure, but I couldn't tell why I was under that impression. It resonated all around me, the room resonating with its power. And it had me fall to my knees instantly, tears in my eyes. It was exactly like the other ones.

"Oh, don't be afraid, little traitor. I have no ill business with you... yet," it said, somehow concentrating in one spot in the room. "Here, I'll even try to comfort you a bit."

Pink, greasy goo oozed from the ground near me and slowly turned into a disgusting pile of faded pink. The pile slowly took the form of the pony currently haunting my reality. And so, a greyish Pinkie Pie with straight hair and icy, nearly glowing, eyes and a disturbing smile appeared in the sacrosanct of my soul. That was not a good thing. At all.

"What are you?" I whispered.

I must confess, I was completely terrorized in front of her. It didn't get better when it started moving around, looking at the metaphorical walls and their inscriptions.

"You know fairly well what I am, little traitor," it answered. It pointed at the Door. "I'm somewhat like them, and somewhat not."

I would have probably ran away if I could. But here, there was no escape. Especially since that thing was imprisoning me in this room. So, I did the next best thing: asking questions.

"Why are you..."

Of course, it didn't have the courtesy of letting me.

"You are trying to annoy me and my host, little traitor." It turned to face me and its eyes... Let's just say I crawled back to the opposite wall. It didn't stop smiling though. "I do not like it." It turned back at the scenery and poked the Door. "So that's what it looks like, huh?"
"I..."
"You are being irritating with my host and I. In fact, you are being irritating with everything." It walked toward me, stopping only centimeters away from me. "I know why you can't help it. Why you are always 'grumpy' and why he is always 'joyful'." It saw the horror in my eyes and it's smile got wider. It indicated the bed with its head. "And I know just who to tell for your darkest dreams to come true."
"You..."
"But don't worry! I'm not like Father or Guardian. I'm just an observer. I just play along."
"Why?" I finally asked.
"Because it is. So. Much. FUN!" she answered happily. "You mortals are so funny! You search for purpose where there is none, and better yet, you find it! You spend your blink of an existence trying to change your world and even though you last only an instant, you succeed!" She walked around the room as she talked. "For what even I would define as a long time, I watched you all from everywhere, seeing each and every input you make into your little world, watching as you slowly changed the world around you before you disappear. It was interesting, for a time.But I could predict most of what was happening, so it got boring. So I asked Guardian to let me change my point of view, to let me see the changes from the inside. And Guardian accepted, under several conditions." It turned back to me. "I have very little power here. I choose an host, propose to give it some power in exchange of letting me see through its eyes, and I make it forget I'm even here at all!"

I slowly rose to my feet, uncertain. It was one of them for sure, but it was different. It was nearly sane, in a way. I didn't think it would really hurt me, so I could concentrate on what was important: getting as much info out of it as I could.

"You say you are weakened in this place?"
It popped in front of me, gazing into my eyes. "Oh, yes. I cannot act here. Guardian doesn't let me. But I don't care. I'm having so much FUN!" It started laughing happily.
Okay, sane definitely isn't a good word for it. "Does that mean that..."
"Oh, no. The others aren't weakened as I am," it answered, its laughter stopping abruptly. "Guardian didn't brought them here. They cannot come in this world without his accord." I would have shouted in happiness, but it continued. "But you are their focal point, little traitor. They have their full power through you. You have the power to bring them, and they want to come. The Guardian cannot prevent them for taking you and using you."

My heart broke and I fell to my knees once again, tears of mixed anger and despair rolling on my face.

"There's just no way out, is there?" I whispered.
"I don't know," it said with a shrug, before its sickly smile returned to its face. "Do you have any idea how fantastic it is to be able to honestly say that? It's amazing!"
I got a hold on myself got up to my feet again. "Why are you telling me this? Isn't that acting?"
"Oh, I came to tell you to stop irritating me intentionally. I may have drifted a bit from the subject, but I'm sure it won't have any consequences," I said with a wink. "I wonder how Guardian's, Father's and Their's plots will come along. I'm sure it will be fascinating! Oh, and before I go," it added as it was fading away,"don't tell anything I was here. I can't seal your memories, so you better be cautious with them."
"Wait!" I called. "Who are 'Father' and 'Guardian'? How do you know their intentions? Why..."
Its voice giggled in the void. "Come on, now, you know I can't answer these question, little traitor. You'll figure out soon enough. And don't forget: try to smile!"

Its presence left the room and I felt the world starting again outside. I took a few seconds to think, and decided what to do.

"I have to learn how to stop him," I concluded as I was watching the door. "And I must find this Guardian." I looked outside, the pink unsuspecting host ranting about her sweets. "Maybe Purple Horse knows something about it..." I glanced at the door. "No, magic first. No use to search for this guardian if I can't hold him back long enough to find him."

Author's Note

I'm not dead! Woohoo! I know you missed me.
... You did, right?
Anyway, before I fall into a sudden pit of lack of self-esteem and you have to wait months for the next chapter to be written, I'm really sorry I didn't finish this one sooner. Kinda.
You see, I had actually finished my chapter 15 at the start of the month and I was about to publish it, when I re-read the 14th, realised I hadn't written something REALLY important for this chapter, and I realized that I couldn't use my first draft for it.
Picture me screaming at kittens.
So, I rewrote it entirely, finished again, re-read it and realized that this time, I had put something that should come later in the story in this chapter and articulated this second draft around it.
Picture me throwing kittens at kittens in an attempt to create some sort of kitten appartheid. Didn't work, by the way.
So this is actually the third attempt at making this chapter, and I hope it holds up. I'd hate to realize tomorrow that I forgot something.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it !
Nest chapter: Magic, books and History.