Chambered

by The card holder

Rating: teen
Tags: Science Fiction, Crossover, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark
Length: 6211

After a spell apparently does nothing, Twilight wakes up in a completely different place, with a gun, some bullets, a tape deck, headphones, and a horde of killer robots coming after her.

Even as a princess, Twilight keeps finding new things.
Like a book filled with ancient spells, most of which have unknown purposes.

With this in mind, she decides to test one of the spells on herself, to see what it does.
But nothing happens.

Disappointed, she goes to bed, but when she wakes up, she's not in her bed, and her mind is full of questions:
Where is she? What is this odd device she has? Why does she have a tape deck with headphones? And what are those whirring noises she keeps hearing?

A one shot crossover with Receiver, inspired by the cover art.

Published 2014-04-10 02:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-04-10 02:20:02 UTC

Chambered

Twilight hurried back and forth between writing on a scroll and reading out of a large, old book. She had found said book while taking a look around the Everfree castle's library, and it seemed to be filled with all manner of ancient spells. However, the book didn't give descriptions of the spells, only names, so she had no idea what most of the spells would even do.

This didn't mean that she wasn't going to try and find out, though. It's among her duties of being a princess, right?

After finishing a sentence on the scroll about how she was going to test this spell, she went back to the book and looked for one of the unknown spells, hopefully something harmless. After turning a couple of pages, she found one, the name being "slide". She didn't know what it meant, but she knew that it was probably something harmless and easily reversed.

Probably.

After making a few last calculations and writing down the spell in question, she charged up her horn and aimed it at the book, the runes printed on its pages coming to life. After a few seconds, Twilight sent a surge of magic through her horn, to cast the spell, and closed her eyes as the room was bathed in purple light. When she opened them back up...

Nothing had changed.

Sighing, she went back to the scroll to finish her report. "Spell did not appear to have any effect," she said to herself while writing. After confirming that she suddenly didn't have any extra body parts or anything, she continued. "Spell could've been defective, or the runes may have deteriorated with time."

After finishing the sentence, Twilight looked at the clock, and let out a yawn upon seeing that it was half past one in the morning. "Maybe that's enough for tonight," she thought out loud, heading over to the nearby bed she had brought to the castle for situations exactly like this. Blowing out all the candles she had lit, the princess curled up into bed, ready to continue working on that book in the morning. Or, later in the morning, at least.

Twilight could feel herself beginning to wake up, the same as she did most mornings, but she kept clinging onto the feeling of sleep. Until she noticed that something was... off.

Like the fact that she wasn't sleeping on anything soft.

Suddenly alert, she sprang to her hooves and looked around, but she didn't see anything familiar. She wasn't in the library after a long night of studying and experimenting. Instead, she was in an almost completely blank room, the only notable features being a doorway and a window, though it only faced another wall.

Panicked and confused, Twilight began to walk around, only to nearly trip over something. Taking a closer look at it, she was left perplexed. It was an L-shaped device of some sort, with a number of different mechanisms of unknown purpose on the outside of it.

Twilight went to shuffle her wings a bit, to stretch them, but nothing happened. Shocked, she looked back at herself, only to see that not only were her wings missing, but she was wearing a tape deck, along with a harness with several pouches, all of which were empty. Connected to the tape deck was a large pair of headphones, which surprisingly were already on her ears without her noticing them.

This left her with too many questions and not enough answers. Hoping to find out what's going on, she called out. "Hello? Is anypony there?"

Silence answered her. Frightened, she decided to leave the room, taking the weird device with her, when suddenly she noticed something in the corner of the room. It was a few small, shiny yellow things scattered around a single red and white tape.

Eager for some explanations, Twilight levitated the objects towards her, putting the small yellow things into one of the pouches, and stuck the tape into the tape deck, then hit play.

"If you are listening to this tape it means you have survived the mindkill," a dull, monotone male voice began. "Previous attempts to listen to this tape would have found it blank, but now it contains immediate instructions for your difficult path forward. This is the time that we have prepared for. Take a moment now to find your firearm."

The voice paused, and Twilight pushed her own questions aside for a second to figure out what the voice meant. She looked at the L-shaped device she still held with her magic. Is this what it meant?

"Some of you will be familiar with firearms from our training camp, but more recent receivers will have focused on mindtech in order to survive the mindkill event. In either case, please take a moment to confirm that the firearm you have been issued is in working order and contains one full magazine. You have also been issued one tape deck with headphones and two double A batteries."

Twilight didn't know what half the words the voice said meant, but she kept listening. "When you have checked your equipment, leave the safe cell. Keep moving, and be careful. The threat will have trained killdrones near your location."

The tape clicked to a stop, and dozens of questions piled on top of the questions Twilight already had. What was a mindkill? What were killdrones? Just what was she involved in now?

Remembering what the voice said about checking her equipment, she looked at the device she had been looking at this whole time. Curiously, the top part was able to slide back, and when she did so, a shiny yellow object, like the ones she picked up with the tape, flew out. Upon hitting the ground, Twilight inspected it, finding it to be identical to the other objects she acquired.

Further inspection revealed a button on the device that, when pressed, released a small box from the bottom of it, which she could see was partially filled with those yellow things. Getting a small flash of inspiration, she took some spare objects and slid them inside the box, filling it until no more could fit inside. Was this the magazine the voice mentioned?

Twilight slid the mag back into what she guessed was the "firearm", and put the unused yellow things back in their pouch. She continued to inspect the firearm, finding another lever that seemed to do nothing, and a large lever-type device near the bottom.

Wondering what it did, she ended up pulling the lower lever, causing the firearm to suddenly kick back, giving off a large amount of sound and even a bit of light, for a split second. Even with the headphones on, Twilight's ears were ringing, and she nearly dropped the firearm in surprise when it went off. On the floor, not too far away, she could see yet another small yellow object, though this one seemed to be missing its front half. On the wall where she was pointing it, there was a hole slightly smaller than a single bit. The unicorn gulped, now aware that this thing she had was a weapon of some kind.

After replacing the wasted round, Twilight decided that it was time to actually get some answers. Leaving the room, she looked around, finding herself in what looked like a kitchen. Another room was further down the hall in one direction, and an exit was located down the other.

Checking the other room, she found a few more yellow things, but other than that the room was empty. With no other options, she went out the exit, finding herself in a hallway with large boxes on the side. At either end of the hall were doorways, both of which led outside. Choosing to go left for no particular reason, she exits into the night air. She was now on a stair case leading both up and down, looking over a courtyard. In said courtyard, she could see the faint shape of another tape, so she decided to head down there.

As she finished descending the staircase, Twilight couldn't shake a general feeling of unease. She had no idea where she was, or what she was supposed to do, or even why her wings were missing. She was just hoping that these tapes would shed some light on her situation.

Ejecting the old tape and setting it aside, she inserted the new tape, and hit play. However, instead of a voice, the recording was only static. Twilight waited, but no voice started talking, and after a couple minutes it clicked to a stop.

Now even more confused, she looked behind her, towards a doorway leading to a room below the one she just left. Seeing not much reason to choose one direction over another, she entered the doorway, leading her inside a dark hallway. From the presence of a few cylindrical containers, this was probably a boiler room of some kind.

Suddenly, Twilight spied a flash a blue light around a corner. Not sure if she actually saw it, the light reappeared a few seconds later, before going away again.

Cautious, but intrigued, she crept forward, wanting to see what the source of the light was. When she peeked around the corner, she saw a strange machine standing on four legs, spinning in a circle. One end of it was much thinner than the other, and it also seemed to be the same direction the light was coming from.

The machine spun around to her, and when the blue light came into contact with her form, it beeped loudly, the light suddenly turning yellow. Just as suddenly, the light turned red, and Twilight ducked back around the corner as the turret fired twice. Panting and sweating heavily, she fearfully looked at the two holes in the wall where she was just a second ago, as the machine let out a softer beep and turned its light back to blue, before beginning its rotation again.

This was getting to be too dangerous. That could've killed her! Why would they-

Suddenly, something occurred to Twilight. That first recording mentioned something called "killdrones". Was this one of them? And if so, how would she get past it?

Amidst her thinking, Twilight's gaze fell upon the weapon she still had clutched in her telekinetic grip. The voice said it was supplied to her, so was its purpose to give her protection from those things?

Carefully, she tried to figure out how to properly use it. There were a few protrusions from the top of the device, which she found out would line up if she looked down it. Perhaps this was to help aim it?

Now with a rough idea about how to use it, Twilight hovered the gun in front of her face, lining up the sights, and leaned around the corner when the blue light passed. The turret was looking away, so she aimed at its base, and fired. Despite the recoil not affecting her due to her magical hold on it, she still jumped at the loud bang, but it seemed to have served its purpose, as the turret sparked and ceased function.

As the spent round fell to the floor, Twilight couldn't help but grin. She had figured out how to use this thing!

During her celebration, she remembered that she could also just float the turret away. However, when she tested that theory, the turret wouldn't budge to her magic. Odd.

Now able to move forward, Twilight looked around the destroyed machine for anything worthwhile. And she did find something, right underneath the turret: a small pile of rounds.

She went to pick them up, but the moment she did, she heard another sharp beep. She whirled around and started backpedaling as a second turret around the next corner fired at her. During her evasive maneuvers, she felt something impact her torso. At first, she barely felt it, but it quickly flared up in pain, forcing Twilight to look down at herself. A hole was present on her body where she felt the impact, and it was bleeding rather profusely. As she looked at it, through a combination of shock, pain, and blood loss, she ended up passing out, her vision quickly fading...

Twilight snapped her eyes open, and quickly jumped to her hooves, feverishly inspecting her location. She was in another room, though this one actually had some items in it, namely a bed, a pair of small tables at each side of said bed, and a few shelves.

Panicking, Twilight looked down at herself, only to find that the wound she had sustained was completely gone. Not even a scar, or anything.

This was quickly turning very confusing and frightening. She knew that she had died, yet, here she was, as if nothing had happened.

As Twilight was inspecting herself, she soon noticed something else; the weapon she had last time was gone, replaced by a similar looking one. However, where the last one had what looked like brown, wood parts on the bottom, this one was entirely gray. It did appear to function in much the same manner as the previous one, though, with most of the same parts being present.

With this in mind, she ejected the magazine, but found that it was empty, and also slightly larger than the other one was. But when she checked her pouch for rounds, she noticed that one of the pouches on her harness contained another magazine, this one nearly full.

Swapping out the magazines, Twilight looked around the new room she was in, finding yet another tape and some bullets in a corner. Pocketing the rounds, she inserted the tape and hit play.

"A Receiver is said to be awake when he is able to get a completely clear signal," the same dull voice began, "free of any subconscious corruption. In this state, he will be able to see realities in their true form and transcend normal human limitations. Although some of the Receivers we choose to speak through are advanced in their ability, no human has ever achieved this 'awakened' state. Humans exist in two worlds: In Reality B, they live and work in their shadow bodies. In Reality A, they are asleep, their minds unconcerned and roaming free. But humans have the unrealized potential to exist fully in both realities. It is this reason why humans are threatened. If even one of them achieved an awakened state, they would see beyond the horizon of all known understanding."

The tape clicked to a stop and, in what appeared to be a theme, Twilight was left with more questions than answers. What were these 'humans' the voice kept mentioning? What were they threatened by? And two separate realities?

Something else the voice said stuck out to her. An 'awake' state... was all of this a dream?

"No, it can't be..." Twilight said to herself. "It feels too... real..."

Plus, if it was a dream, she would have more than likely met Princess Luna already. So what was all this?

Realizing that just sitting here wouldn't give her any answers, Twilight topped off her magazine, and exited the room. This time, she was on the upper floor of a small apartment, the only other room on the upper floor being a bathroom. Making sure there was nothing of note there, she went downstairs, where she found a few more scattered bullets. After pocketing them, she crept out of the building, once again finding herself with two different directions to go.

Left didn't go too well for her last time, so this time she went right. This time, she found herself in a large, open room, a column in each corner reaching to the ceiling. A few rounds were scattered on the floor, but next to them was a flashlight. Dumping the bullets in her pocket, she picked up the flashlight in her magic, satisfied that it still worked. Now hovering both the light and the weapon with her magic, she strode forward, eager to find any answers those tapes might provide.

Before she even entered the next room, she could hear a rather loud whirring noise emanating from inside it. Carefully leaning around the corner, she saw a small device floating in the air, the same blue light that the turrets had coming off of it. It slowly turned to face her, and made that same horrid beeping noise, before it started flying towards her. Panicking, Twilight ducked back around the corner, aiming the gun at the doorway. However, all she heard was the thump of the device hitting the wall, followed by the softer beep that came with losing its line of sight.

This was probably another kind of killdrone. Making sure her weapon was aimed, she once again crept around the corner, holding the drone in her sights. However, when she pulled the trigger, all she got was an empty click of the trigger. Shocked, she ducked back behind the doorway before the drone circled back around to face her.

Wondering just what was wrong, Twilight ejected the magazine, finding that it was still full. So why did the weapon not fire?

The only other thing she could think to try was the top part that moved back. Carefully, she pulled it back, only to see that there was no round being inserted into the barrel. Now aware of how exactly the weapon worked, she pulled the top back fully, bringing a bullet up from the mag. Satisfied, she let the slide go, making it snap back into place with a click.

Now certain that the gun was properly prepared, she made her way through the doorway one more time. Luck wasn't on her side, however, as the drone immediately sighted her and began advancing. Panicking, Twilight quickly took aim and fired off a quick volley of shots. At least one of them met their mark, as the drone fell to the ground, harmlessly tumbling past her. Letting out the breath she was holding, she searched the room for anything of interest, but found nothing, and moved onwards.

Now she was outside on a rooftop, a few vents located to her right. The roof rose sharply just in front of her, but it was still gentle enough for her to climb. On the other side, she found some bullets and a tape, but when she put it in her tape deck, it only played static. Annoyed at the lack of information, she pressed on, finding herself on top of yet another staircase.

Carefully, she descended the stairs, but as she passed a doorway on the intermediate level, she heard that damned beep again. She whirled around to see a turret aiming at her, and in her panic, she backed away, forgetting that she was on a narrow staircase.

The turret let out a few shots, which missed the unicorn due to her sudden descent. Her relief was short lived, however, as she was able to turn just enough to see the ground coming up at her.

She landed with a resounding crack, shooting pain through her neck. She noticed that she suddenly couldn't feel her body, and when she opened her eyes, she could see her body at an angle that isn't possible under most circumstances. Her numbness quickly spread to the rest of her, and unconsciousness quickly followed.

Once again, Twilight snapped her eyes open, this time awakening on top of a roof that was eerily similar to one she walked across before her... accident.

Subconsciously rubbing her neck, she took stock of her situation. Apparently, wherever she was, dying was only a minor setback from some unknown goal. Also, every time she died, she started in a new place, with new equipment.

Speaking of equipment, she looked herself over, to see what she had this time. Most of her pouches were empty, save for the one where she stored spare bullets, and her weapon seemed to be a completely different kind than the last two. Whereas the others were L-shaped, this one had more of a curve to it, and had less external mechanisms, only having a single button of unknown purpose and the trigger.

Pressing the button, Twilight was surprised when, instead of a magazine falling out, part of the gun fell to the side, revealing six compartments in a grooved cylinder, a few already occupied by rounds. There was a pin at the other end of the cylinder, and pressing it ejected the bullets, which she could see were still good. Scooping them back up, she inserted them one at a time into the weapon, before closing the cylinder back into the body of the weapon. Somewhat amusingly, she found that the cylinder could be somewhat freely spun around, though it seemed to serve no purpose.

Once she was comfortable with her new weapon, Twilight once again began walking in a random direction. As soon as she entered the next hallway, she spotted a tape on the ground just past a corner, but she could see the blue light of a turret from where she stood. Creeping along the wall, she she waited for the light to pass, then peeked her head out and quickly took aim and fired. This weapon seemed to be louder and kick back more than the other two, but it was still manageable. The turret sparked, but instead of shutting off completely, it was now stuck facing the wall, it's blue light still on. Shrugging, Twilight went ahead and picked up the tape before playing it in the tape deck.

"If you recently started receiving you may wonder why the training tapes are so important. Over the last several decades, your media has been slowly corrupted to be used against you. By feeding your mind a constant stream of damaging ideas, your view of reality has been warped to fit into a sinister agenda. How can one tape, listened to once, possibly have an impact on the face of a lifetime of accumulated deception? It can only have the smallest effect, but even that small effect can be built on. If you listen to that tape one hundred times you may notice a difference in how you feel. If you listen to the tape a thousand times, you will be transformed, and if you listen to the tape a million times, you will become more than human: an awake Receiver. Listen to as many tapes as you can, listen to them as often as you can."

Once again, there was that mention of whatever a 'human' was. Still, the voice may be trying to help her. Maybe if she listened to the tapes enough, she'd manage to get out of this place?

Still following her very loosely laid plan, Twilight continued down the hallway, keeping an eye and ear out for any signs of killdrones in the area. Her hoofsteps echoed throughout the empty building, giving off an oppressive atmosphere.

Soon, she emerged outside on a walkway. A couple of staircases rose to the right of it, but they weren't accessible from her current position. With no other options, Twilight simply kept walking forward, sweeping her weapon around in case of threats.

The next room had a lone turret placed over a few rounds, and it was easily dealt with. The light on top of it went out, but it continued circling, completely ignoring the unicorn in its sight. Gathering the spare rounds, Twilight tried to keep in mind that she had four shots left, now, before she had to reload.

The hallway split into two up ahead, so she went to the first branch that was available to her. It appeared to be the right choice, as a tape and a flashlight were both visible on the ground.

Turning on the flashlight, Twilight then inserted the tape, ready to either learn more about this crazy place, or failing that, be confused even more.

"You are listening to the first tape of the perpetual set. This set of tapes represents the most critical receivings, so that future humans will have the information they will need after the mindkill. This set, when listened to sufficiently, and in its entirety, is speculated to be the minimum teachings needed to achieve an 'awake' state. Besides this tape, the tapes included in this set are: Firearm operation. Initiation tape A. Mindtech. Reality B. Mindtech cleartape. Mindkill contingency. Killdrones. Repeated listenings. The cleartape. Awake."

While the tape was playing, Twilight saw fit to reload the two shots she had spent already. However, when the voice mentioned 'an awake state' again, she froze, and everything in her magical grip fell to the floor. As it went on to name the other tapes, she counted them, adding up to eleven tapes total, counting this one.

Picking her equipment back up and finishing her reload, Twilight now had a plan. Apparently, to become 'awake', she had to listen to all eleven tapes, presumably without dying between them. It might not get her out of here, but it was better than wandering around aimlessly until something happened.

Spinning the revolver shut in a fashion that was a bit too flashy to be practical, she continued down the hallway, determined to get out of this desolate place.

At the end of the curving hallway, there was a set of stairs leading up into the night air. Ascending them, she soon heard the noise that the flying drones made. From the sound of things, there were a number of them waiting for her outside. Carefully peeking over the top of the stairs, she saw that, indeed, there were a few hovering drones milling about, none of them having seen her yet. Slowly, she levitated the gun in front of her face, lining up the sights on one drone's rotor.

She pulled the trigger, and the drone fell to the ground with a satisfying crash. Grinning, she turned to another, just as she heard that dreadful beep. Quickly, she turned to see the other drone flying towards her. Soon after, the drone she had focused on also spotted her, and began flying at her.

Panicking, Twilight backpedaled downstairs as quickly as she could. At first, she thought she was safe, but then the drone came through the doorway, quickly reacquiring her. As she took aim in a desperate attempt to survive, she just noticed the other drone follow the first through the door.

Three shots went wide, though one of them hit the first drone to disable it. The second one was still coming, though, and Twilight fired off another two times at it, but both shots didn't hit anything vital, and just ricocheted off the frame.

Her eyes wide, the unicorn did her best to quickly load more rounds, but the drone soon caught up to her, hitting her with what felt like ten thousand volts. She collapsed immediately, and her vision started fading out soon after, the drone still flying around her.

When Twilight awoke again, she was in a corner of one of the hallways she had seen, the grey gun in her possession with the top part locked back. After performing her usual inventory check, finding that she had no spare mags, she pressed the slide lock, and readied the gun for use.

Now, she had a plan in mind: find all the tapes, and listen to them. Hopefully, then, she could escape.

Twilight wiped the sweat off her forehead after ducking behind a wall.

The room ahead of her was filled with killdrones, both hovering ones and turrets. A few bullet holes marked the wall behind her, showing how close she was to death.

She had quickly lost count of how many times she 'died'. Time had little meaning, though by now it felt like she must've spent days in this place, at least. Thankfully, every time she 'died', her body seemed to reset, as she didn't need to fulfill basic bodily needs like food or sleep. Not that she'd notice, with how focused she was on her goal.

In this 'life', she had managed to get seven tapes out of eleven, so far. But it seemed like the closer she got to success, the more drones showed up to prevent her from reaching that goal.

With practiced ease, she ejected the magazine on her gun, quickly loaded it with more bullets, then inserted it back into the gun and released the slide. These movements, which originally took her upwards of fifteen seconds, were done in less than five.

Chancing a look around the corner, she lined up a shot and disabled a turret, before shifting her aim and doing the same to a hoverdrone. Three shots later, the room was now empty of threats.

Once again topping off the mag, Twilight calmly walked inside. A few bullets were scattered around, along with another tape. She quickly placed it in her tape deck, hitting play, yet not even listening to it. Over her many 'lives' spent here, she had listened to all eleven tapes at least once, though, just as she thought, that didn't seem to have any effect unless she did it all in a single 'life'.

Making sure she didn't miss anything, Twilight moved on to the next room. She had all of this boiled down to a single process: enter room, shoot drones, find anything worth picking up, move on. She had a couple of close calls, but she didn't allow herself to lose her cool. She just had to stay calm, and she'd get out of this.

Three more tapes. Just three more, and... well, she wasn't sure what would happen. Still, it was better than nothing.

The next doorway took her back outside, onto a roof. There were only a couple of hoverdrones, both of which were quickly dispatched. As she began searching for more tapes, one of the fallen drones began sparking at her, even though it was motionless on the ground. Smirking, Twilight stepped around it, finding more bullets, but no tapes.

Now finding herself with a free moment, she went ahead and topped off her mag, finding that she still had enough bullets to fill another. She only had two mags, however, so she simply kept the spare rounds in their pouch and replaced the mag inside the gun. Her flashlight was still working perfectly fine, too.

There were stairs leading to a higher level, so she climbed them. She ducked down at the top, having seen the tip of a turret waiting for her. Quickly, she disabled its camera, then looked around for any other turrets on the top level. There were none, and she ascended the stairs fully. Another tape was sitting next to a pillar, so she grabbed it. Just two more.

Taking a glance around the room, Twilight decided to backtrack slightly, going into the rooms above the ones she just left. The walkway didn't reach all the way to the doorway, but it was nothing a running jump couldn't handle.

Now outside a small apartment, she once again checked for any signs of hostiles. Other than a pair of turrets inside the apartment, both of which were taken out with no problems, there weren't any drones.

Another tape was on a counter in the apartment, meaning that there was just one left. The suspense was fully palpable, along with the fatigue that was now catching up to her; this was the single longest 'life' she had so far, which was apparently long enough to finally feel the strain of her activities.

Her gun wavered in her grip. Hoping to conserve magical energy, Twilight pocketed the flashlight, throwing the inside of the building into darkness. It's was still light enough to see, though, so she slowly left the apartment and turned right, hoping that the last tape was within reach.

Another roof was waiting for her through a doorway, and she could see and hear quite a lot of hoverdrones and turrets waiting for her. Sighing, she made sure a round was chambered, and with no other option, she went to work.

She was able to knock three hoverdrones out of the air before a turret spotted her. Twilight ducked behind a nearby wall as a pair of bullets flew past. Up above, another beep went off, and she quickly aimed at and took out another hoverdrone, sidestepping to avoid its falling body. Not giving herself time to let the adrenaline wear off, she quickly jumped out from behind wall and took out a pair of turrets. One more was locking onto her, though, and she rolled behind another wall, dodging another set of bullets. Her gun was empty, so she ejected the mag and let it fall to the ground, then quickly inserted the other one before releasing the slide.

One more peek from behind cover, and the last turret was down.

Letting out a deep breath, Twilight surveyed the area around her. Bullet holes marked the walls, and disabled drones littered the ground, along with numerous shell casings.

The area was completely silent, save for her heavy breathing. The adrenaline rush began to wear off, and her movements gradually became more and more sluggish. She had fought tooth and nail to get this far, and she wouldn't die now just because she got tired.

Under a staircase at the other side of the roof was the one thing she wanted to see more than anything at that very moment: the last tape.

Not wasting any time, she placed it in the tape deck and hit play. The monotone voice began speaking again, but she didn't listen to a single word he said. She had done it. This was the last tape of the set, which was apparently enough to become 'awake'.

Soon, the tape clicked to a stop, and Twilight couldn't help herself from slumping against the wall, sleep beginning to draw at her eyes. Before she could fall asleep, however, her vision began to gradually white out, until all she could see was white.

Slowly, Twilight began to approach consciousness. Without even thinking about it, she began stretching her limbs, starting with her front legs, then her wings, then her back le-

Wait, wings?

Suddenly, the memories of what had happened hit her like a two ton train. Quickly, she sprang to her hooves, and inspected herself. Sure enough, her wings were back, and she was no longer wearing a harness, a tape deck, or headphones.

She then surveyed her surroundings, and saw that she was back in the Everfree castle library. Her unfinished report on that book of spells rested on a nearby desk.

Not sure if what had happened was dream or not, Twilight read over what she had written down. It was the same as she remembered it, saying that the one spell she tried before she went to sleep didn't appear to do anything.

Grabbing a quill in her magic, she quickly scratched out that sentence, instead writing that the spell appeared to trap her in an unknown world where death was just a setback until a certain requirement was met. Despite this, it seemed that no actual time had passed in the real world, and it was as if she just fell asleep and dreamed the whole thing.

But there's no way it could've been a dream. On top of the complete absence of Princess Luna, everything felt too real, every step, every shot, every lethal fall...

Twilight shook her head. Whatever all that was, she was back, as if she never left, and that was good enough for her.

Still, she ended up sleeping in the castle, rather than the library. Her friends were probably worried about her.

Setting out to show that she was fine, Twilight was about to fly out the window towards Ponyville. However, just before she took flight, she noticed something in the corner of her vision. The book that held the spell that started that whole mess was glowing ever so slightly.

Cautiously, she approached the book and opened it to where she had it bookmarked. However, where the spell used to be, there was now nothing but a picture of a gun lying on one of those red and white tapes. The words "Happy Receiving!" were right under it, followed by the spell itself.

While this was certainly strange, Twilight just shook it off. Before she was going to worry about this any more, she was going to make sure her friends didn't worry about her.

With this in mind, she jumped out the window and took flight, heading towards Ponyville, intent on seeing her friends again after what felt like so long.

She knew she'd have to report this spell to the other princesses. But until then, it probably wouldn't hurt to leave it alone.

...Right?

Yeah, probably.

Author's Note

I actually had to have a full playthrough of Receiver open in another tab while writing this, just for the tapes. Also, good god this took forever to write. Writer's block is a serious issue, and should be taken seriously.