The Draconsteed

"What in tarnation was that!?"

Saphear just curled in a corner after her outburst. The slits of her eyes shriveled until they were no bigger than needles. Her gaze constantly darted around the room. Scanning everything as if it were a potential threat. Fluttershy was the first to approach her. All she got in return was that frightened stare. She tried to get closer but Saphear just bared her fangs and growled at her.

"Fluttershy, could you find anything wrong?" Twilight said with obvious concern.

"Nothing physical, but she's acting like one of the little forest creatures I take care of when I meet them for the first time..." Fluttershy plopped her self down next to Twilight with a soft sigh.

"I think I might know a spell for checking her mental state, hold on." Twilight's horn flashed to life as she started working on the spell she needed. Once she was certain she had it down she let loose a bolt of magic at Saphear. It quickly enveloped her entire head as the spell set to do what it was meant to do.

Or so it seemed.

Twilight slouched over as her magical aura enveloped herself as well. In seconds her whole world faded to utter darkness. She frantically started searching for anything within the blackness that surrounded her. After what seemed like hours a single light began to pierce the black veil that surrounded her.

She didn't give it a second thought as she charged for the light. The closer she got, the more aware she became of a voice echoing across the unknown landscape.

A soft giggle, the wind blowing through the trees, the soft plunk of fish jumping for the insects above the water. All these thing accompanied the sight before her once she was away from the darkness. Along with two forms laying against one another as they basked in the shade of a large tree. She recognized one immediately as Saphear. The other was also a Draconsteed, but her scales were a brilliant forest green. She had two large horns that started at the back of her head and curved around to frame her snout. The most stricking thing about her, though, was her armor.

Her royal guard armor.

Twilight just sat their, staring at the couple as she tried to register what was happening. She was just about to get a hold of her thoughts when another feature came and smacked her in the face. Both of the Draconsteeds before her had an all to familiar pudge. One Mrs. Cake had not to long ago. Before that reality of what she had just seen could sink in the scene was ripped away from her. Once again Twilight stood in the darkness. However, she wasn't alone this time. The barely audible voice from before spoke to her now, clear as a bell.

"Leave."

The sudden command threw Twilight off as she almost complied, but her curiosity quickly got the better of her. Forming the questions in her mind she wished to ask, she prepared herself for the truth.

"I'm in Saphear's mind, aren't I?" The reply to her question was immediate.

"Yesssss, leave."

"Who was that with Saphear?" The reply took only a second longer than the first.

"Emruad. Now leave." The agitation in the voice was clear, but there was one last thing she had to know.

"Were they both pregnant?"

A roar tore through the darkness. It's volume put Luna's Royal Canterlot Voice to shame, but that wasn't what scared Twilight. What scared her was how it sounded. No living thing should be able to make the sound she just heard. It was like a thunderous boom combined with a shriek that could easily shatter whole glaciers and had a coarse scratchyness to it.

A colossal head appeared before her, but she could only make out the eyes on it. The six eyes that adorned the mockery of a face. They were even blacker than the darkness she stood in and were rimmed by a dark blue. In each eye were three, glowing violet dots. Twilight stood bewildered as she realized this was the thing that had been talking to her. Then it talked, not with the soothing voice it had before, but with the tone it had used when it roared.

"LEAVE!"

Twilight awoke to her friends standing over her where she had passed out on the floor. Their questions and concerns fell on deaf ears as she played back through the events that had taken place in Saphear's mind. Saphear still sat in the corner, the same dumbfounded, wild-animal look on her face.Twilight was the only pony to notice that Saphear had suddenly started sniffing the air, as if she was a bloodhound picking up on a trail. Saphear slowly got up and made her way to the stairs.

Twilight's and Saphear's sudden actions quickly made the rest of the group become silent as they followed the two up the stairs to Twilight's bedroom. Once inside, they found Saphear poised over the still sleeping form of Scootaloo. Everypony tried to leap to the filly's aid but were quickly stopped by a single, hushed word from Twilight.

"Watch."

The other ponies looked at her like she was crazy, but the harsh glare that adorned her face made sure that they settled into a nervous position as they stayed ready to spring into action should something go wrong. What happened next shocked all but Twilight, who just closed her eyes and gave a sagely nod as her suspicions were proved correct.

Saphear tentatively sniffed the small filly before laying down next to her and wrapping Scootaloo in the same protective cocoon she had used in the everfree forest. When Saphear was done not a single bit of Scootaloo was visible behind the wall of scale and lean muscle that encompassed her.

"Just like a mother protecting it's child."

Twilight's sudden input snapped everypony out of their confused states long enough to catch a glimpse of Twilight as she headed back down the stairs. Twilight prepared herself as she heard her dazed friends follow her back down stairs. She still had to explain to her friends what she had seen and needed to send a letter to Celestia about her findings.

Tonight was going to be a long night.

"Awaken."

"You take over. Leave me to my memories."

"We cannot. It is your emotion and thought that give us direction. Without it, we are nothing."

"Then we shall be nothing."

"And what of the life you have placed under your protection? You are useless to her like this."

"...."

"Would Emruad want to see you like this?"

"....No. She would kick my flank for being such an idiot..... All right, if I'm going to regain control I'll need something that both my cognitive and primal minds can comprehend. Something that resonates with me to my very core. Until something like that happens we will bide our time."

"There is still the matter of that retched summoner to deal with."

"I already have a way to deal with him. I do not like it, but it is necessary. Once we awaken call Slendermane. The summoner fool will rue the day he thought he could bend Tartarus to his will."

"There is the cunning master that conquered us. Your will is our will, we will summon Slendermane."