Into Your Dreams...

Chapter 10: The Inner Sanctum

"Are you ready for this Joe?" Fluttershy asked me smiling, looking very excited.

"Ohhhh Yeahhhh." I said with a grin, reclaiming my hat and sunglasses from her.

She giggled a bit, "Alright, here we go."

Fluttershy turned the handle on the vault style door leading to the Inner Sanctum. What I saw was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen in my life. There was a set of glistening ponds in rocky outcroppings, each feeding each other by a small waterfall between each. Each one was about a foot below the previous one and the last pond had a stream heading out of the Sanctum on the far side. Surrounding the whole area was zap-apple trees intercut with red delicious apple trees. The grass was a lush emerald green, and seemed to be perfectly trimmed. Upon further inspection it turned out that the grass wasn't cut, it just didn't grow past the desired length. In front of the apple trees were rows of colored roses. There were seven rows in total, purple on the far outside, and going through the colors of the rainbow, eventually ending with pure white roses on the inside ring. At the exact center of the Sanctum was an eight foot wide circular patch of flowers surrounded by stone. The flowers were, again, arranged in rows but spaced further apart this time- roughly six inches between each row- and only one flower wide versus four wide on the outer rings. The very center flower was white and had six petals. To my amazement, the veins in each petal changed colors every few seconds. Each petal had a different color in the veins at any given moment, in accordance to the colors of the rainbow. Then surrounding the central flower was the same arrangement as the outer flowers, except the flowers were all different here, and started with purple on the inside, and white on the outside.

It then occurred to me that I had no idea what I was looking for, other than that it was a flower. I thought back to Twilight's house, and thought hard to see if she had shown me the flower. Anything to hint what it could be, I was at a loss. I finally swallowed my pride and went to Fluttershy to admit to my mistake.

"Hey Fluttershy?"

"Yes Joe?" She was so happy to be here, I wonder how she would react to this.

"Um...well...I now realize that I have no idea what kind of flower we're supposed to be looking for here."

Fluttershy looked at me, then looked off, thinking. She then came back to the present and face-hoofed.

"Of Course!" She exclaimed, catching me by surprise.

"What?" I ask.

She didn't seem to hear me as she rushed to the bag she brought with her all this way. She stuck her head in and pulled out a book with a single leaf painted on the front.

"This!" She exclaimed.

"A Book!...I'm afraid I don't understand."

"This is the book I had compiled-am compiling-about everything in the sanctum."

"This place is amazing, but there isn't much to compile is there?" I was kind of thrown by how big of a job Fluttershy was making it sound.

"Oh no, you don't understand. This," She motioned with her hooves, "This is only the beginning. I looked back here a few weeks ago, and found that you can go past the tree line and there's even more to the Sanctum than you could ever imagine! Like to the left over there there's a massive canyon system! And over there there is a gushing river full of white foam rapids going every which way! That's why its so cool to be here."

"Jeez if I knew this was here I would come here every day! But it sounds like you don't."

"Oh...The Everfree Forest is too scary for me."

"Well I think this is amazing! The hike, the challenges, it was so worth it to get here. Just this area with the ponds, the apple trees, the flowers. I can see why you felt it needed protecting, hell I'd guard this place with my life and come see it every day!"

I felt a tingling start to grow inside me during my little speech, and now it was all over my body. The tingles began to "move", per say, down my body, focusing in on my flank. From there, my flank began to glow and a picture created itself on my flank. Fluttershy squealed with joy when she saw it and clapped her hooves, and I just stood flabbergasted, staring at my new cutie mark!

I was simply astounded, my cutie mark was not like I had expected at all. I was expecting a music inspired one like Vinyl's but it wasn't even close. My cutie mark was three trees, the middle one at the fore front. In front of the trees was a grey gate with an "E" on one side and an "F" on the other. I then made the assumption that the letters stood for the Everfree Forest, but couldn't understand why the gate was necessary.

Fluttershy had gotten over her joy and had come over to see my mark and froze. She stood staring at my flank, motionless.

"The Guardian..." She breathed.

"What?" I asked nervously.

She snapped out of it, "What, Oh...Sorry, I...Well," Fluttershy closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, collecting her thoughts. "After entering the Sanctum for the second time, a lone parasprite appeared. At first I was incredibly worried, especially after what happened last time, but something struck me as odd: The parasprite was colored rainbow like the zap apples. I had stared at it for a moment, and then it spoke to me, saying that I was to be the temporary guardian of the Everfree Forest until 'He' came along. The sprite somehow showed me an image of what your cutie mark looks like, and told me that this was the mark of the real Guardian."

I stood there, digesting all this new information.

"Don't you know what this means, Joe? This means you're the Guardian of the Everfree Forest!" The wind suddenly picked up as Fluttershy said "The Guardian" and I was floated into the air. I had no Idea what was going on, and it appeared that Fluttershy didn't either, seeing as she ran and hid behind a tree when the wind started.

I was lifted about three feet in the air. THe wind was blowing leaves all around me. Soon a rainbow blur joined the wind currents and a cloud of rainbow sparkles appeared before me. I gasped at the sudden appearance of the cloud, sensing its true power.

"What, is your name," A booming voice asked me.

Normally I would have been petrified by this display, but for some reason, I felt empowered.

"Mirror Shadow!" I called back confidently.

"Mirror Shadow," It called back, "Do you accept your place as the Guardian of the Everfree Forest?"

"I Do."

The rainbow cloud pulsed with each word, "Do you swear to keep safe both the Everfree Forest from ponies, and ponies from the Everfree Forest?"

"I Do."

"And do you swear to keep safe the purity of the Inner Sanctum, by any means necessary?"

"I Do," I was still feeling powerful, responding confidently to each question.

"Then go forth Mirror Shadow, Guardian of the Everfree Forest!"

The cloud disappeared into the white flower in the grove, and the wind abruptly stopped and I fell to the ground. When I hit the ground there was a boom of thunder and a single bolt of lightning shot across the sky. Then everything was more or less normal again.

Fluttershy crept out from behind the tree she had fled to, cautiously, then I looked at her and she eeped and shot back behind the tree. I laughed a bit, then went behind the tree and found her huddled on the ground, shivering. She then looked up after seeing my hooves, smiled, a little embarrassed, as her face blushed a deep red. I laughed again as she stood up. THen she came up and hugged me.

"Oh I'm so happy Joe! This is such an honor!"

"I know, this is amazing!" A thought occurred, "Oh Fluttershy."

"Yes?"

"We still haven't gotten the flower."

"Oh that's right! I was just looking before, well I guess you were there."

She went over to the book again and flipped through until she found what she wanted and brought it back for me to see.

"If' diff un" She said, mouth occupied by the book.

Her writing was a clear cursive with big loops. It was quite impressive, seeing as she had to do it with her mouth, but I had more important matters to attend to. I looked at the picture. The flower was a yellow colored, orchid-looking flower that I had seen in the center circle.

"Got it."

I walked over to the circle of flowers and found that on the opposite side was a path leading to a pedestal in front of the center flower. I used the path to safely reach the ring of yellow flowers. I was about to pluck the flower from the ground when I remembered my new responsibilities to the Forest. I examined the flower and found a seed pouch and buried it in the ground where the flower had been.

"Okay, I have it," I said to Fluttershy, who put it in another bag, which she gave to me.

"Cool, let's head back."

"Wait you don't want to explore some more?"

"Well it's almost dinner time and I don't have any food packed."

"What about apples?" I said, indicating with my hooves the apple trees surrounding us."

"True, but I have to get back to the animals back home."

"Oh, yeah sorry I forgot. Here, hop on."

Fluttershy Jumped up onto my back and we started towards the vault door again.

"Isn't there a quicker way out?"

"Just trust me on this one."

"Okay Shy."

I turned the bit on the door and opened it up and lo and behold I was right next to where I entered the outer ring. I could see the sky turning orange to indicate it was getting late so I started out at trotting pace, and started going a bit faster, but didn't quite reach galloping. This time managing the foliage was a non-issue. Whereas before I had to move, and at times cut, the plants and vines, now they simply shifted slightly, and a path opened before me.

On our way back I heard a thumping noise. I slowed to a halt, and listened again, and heard the noise repeated. I changed course to where I heard the noise and found the opening we passed before with the family of bears. This time, however, there was simply the tub, overturned in the middle of the clearing. I then saw the tub move slightly and a muffled cry of, "Help."

I quickly closed the short distance between me and the tub and picked it up. Underneath was the cub from before. It looked at me and repeated the word, "help". I was at first amazed at how I could understand the bear, but then I remembered the cubs's predicament.

"Which way did your family go?" Fluttershy asked the cub.

"I don't know, probably back home. All I know is that I was playing in this box you gave us and I got stuck inside."

"What can we do to help?" I asked Fluttershy.

"Could you just walk me home?" THe cub answered for her.

"Of course, lead the way." I replied. Fluttershy looked at me strange and jumped down and walked alongside me and the cub.

"You could understand what the cub was saying?"

"Yeah I know weird right? For some reason I could understand him this time around."

"You mean the first time you came you couldn't understand us?" THe cub asked.

"No I couldn't. Hey by the way, what is your name?"

"I'm Paws."

"Nice meeting you Paws, now how much further from here do you live?"

"Actually our den is hollowed out under that tree right there."

I looked ahead to the tree and found it was a massive redwood looking tree, and was about 12 feet in diameter, and towered over the other trees surrounding it.

"Come inside, I wasn't you to meet my parents, for real this time!"

"Thank you that's very kind, but we can only stay a few minutes. We have commitments back in Ponyville," I told hime.

"Sure."

We walked down and found a hollow roughly the same diameter as the tree above, but the walls were made of roots from the tree, and the massive central root, about a foot in diameter, stretched from floor to ceiling in the middle of the room. On the other side of the den was the mother and father, the mother in tears. I called out to them,

"I believe someone here would like to say hello."

THe immediate reaction was the father to whip around, startled by the outburst, and started growling. Paws stepped forward and called, "PAPA!" and all traces of anger vanished from the father's face and both he and the mama bear ran forward and nuzzled paws.

"Oh Paws, I'm so glad you're okay," said the mother.

"What happened, we thought you were hurt," the father said.

"No, I just got stuck under the food tub, and these two came and helped me out and made sure I got home okay." Paws revealed.

The father stared at his son a moment, then shifted his gaze to Fluttershy and I.

"You gave us that tub of food didn't you." He asked us.

"Yes, we did," replied Fluttershy.

"I guess I owe you a thank you for that," he said, "And for bringing my boy back home again."

"Actually, sir, it is my friend here that you should be thanking for that. He's the one who notice your son in the first place."

"Hmm...Is this true?"

"Yes sir. I heard Paws here cry for help and I got him out from under the bin," I said to him.

"Then I guess I owe you a debt of gratitude. My name is Bearclaws by the way."

"Mine's Mirror Shadow, and please, you don't owe me anything. I was recently appointed to the role of the Guardian of the Everfree Forest so it is my duty."

"Oh I apologize for my lack of manners sir," Bearclaws said.

"No worries, I don't expect any special treatment. now what do you do around here Bearclaws?"

"I'm the head of the order of animals out here."

"Head of animals?"

"Yes, in case of disputes between species I either moderate or referee, depending on the species."

"So is that the hierarchy out here?"

"Yes, well sort of. We are just the normal animals, the birds, mammals, cold-bloods, and nocturnal animals. But aside from us there is only the mystics, but they mostly keep to there respective territories."

I knew I had to go soon, but this intrigued me.

"What are the mystics?"

"Oh the mystics are the creatures unique to the further regions of the forest."

"Like what?"

"Like the manticore and the timber wolves. All the mystics have their various methods of herding."

"So do you ever meet or have an overall leader? The mystics and non-mystics that is."

He gave me a queer look, "Why, you are the moderator of the groups now. Didn't you know?"

"Sorry, no I just learned about an hour ago."

"No, I apologize. Next time you're around just find me and I can fill you in on your duties here, I'd be happy to help."

"Thank you very much Bearclaws. Have a nice evening, and Paws?"

"Yes," replied the expectant cub.

"Stay safe bud."

"Okay, see you around."

"Bye all, come on Fluttershy." She had layer down near the wall and I roused her so we could head out. She seemed exhausted from the day, and could barely stand. Once we were outside I lifted her up onto my back with my magic and started walking.

"Thanks Joe." Fluttershy said, got cosy, and fell asleep on my back
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That's the First of the handwritten chapters, probably about two more to come, based on where transitions come. Like I said before, I started getting writer's block recently and am at a crossroads as to where to take the story next, so I am starting on, hopefully, a much shorter fanfic showcasing Twilight's 5 day journey to De-trot, seeing as I live near Detroit I thought it would be a nice homage to the city. I am accepting OC's for the new story, as I need people to inhabit De-trot, just PM me and I'll ask you about it. I am accepting maybe 10 to 15, but I don't want too many more than that.

Felix lectio

-Skiskinator