Oneirophobia

by Valorousspectre

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, Princess Luna, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Romance, Original Character
Length: 35171

Romance, Supernatural, Librarianism is Magic obviously. Look at Twilight. MAGIC! and cheese.not..

Talisman.

His entire name and appearance screams anonymity, nondescript and boring. But this unicorn stallion is far from normal. His arrival one cloud ridden morning in Ponyville sees him practically living within the confines of the great library and, inevitably, in the company of Ponyville's leading scholar and element of Magic, Twilight Sparkle.

So... What in the hay is up with this stallion? And what's the story behind the stone around his neck?

Sequel to 'Paranoia'

Published 2012-06-13 03:54:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-10-16 04:49:31 UTC

The Mysterious Stranger

Chapter one: Mysterious Stranger.

Lightning.

The discharge of magnetically charged particles in clouds meeting their polar opposites in clouds. A curious concept normally, and one a certain purple librarian had put a great deal of time and energy into studying. But right now? She couldn’t care less for any of it. Why? Simple.

The damn noise woke her up.

Grumbling, she rolled over to watch the pouring rain hitting her window. The sound of pattering rain had always had a lulling effect on her, the sound of thunder and lightning significantly less so. In fact, it had often had the opposite effect on her, keeping her awake. And it annoyed her. It annoyed her greatly. She was tempted, if but for a moment, to walk out and simply magic the storm away. But she knew the pegasi had not only went to a lot of trouble to put this together, and tampering with the weather on such a large scale could potentially spell disaster for all of Equestria as she knew it. So, sorely tempted as she was, she stayed indoors and under her warm blankets…

Until the knock came at the door.

Groaning in frustration, Twilight Sparkle rolled out of her bed to go and find out who on Equestria would not only be up but be knocking at her door at this hour. She flung the door open and glared sullenly at the stallion at the doorstep.

“Yes? What do you want?”

The brown stallion smiled sympathetically. His voice was oddly musical as he spoke.

“I’m sorry to disturb you; it’s just the storm’s gotten worse. Is the library open? I could use some shelter.”

It was only then that Twilight noticed his condition. The stallion was shivering, evidently from the cold, and his coat, mane (which seemed to be stubbornly hanging over his eyes) and tail were damp, or at least partly wet from spray. Her irritation passed as she sighed and stepped to one side to let him in. With a polite thank you, he trotted into the library common room and promptly curled up beneath the main desk. Resigning herself to him staying the rest of the morning there, Twilight shrugged to herself and went back to her room.

She was too tired to deal with this stuff right now.

~*~

Three hours later, Twilight let her eyes crack open once more. She was still tired, and the thunderstorm was still raging on like it had only just been started. Resigning herself to a miserable day, Twilight got out of bed.

“Spike? Are you making breakfast?”

Silence. Grumbling as she began to brush her mane, she called out again.

“Spiiike! Are you awake yet?”

Faced with the lack of response yet again, Twilight turned to look at Spike’s little bed to find it empty. She sighed, cursing her impatience.

“It’s alright Twilight, he’s probably already making it.”

She made her way downstairs, trying not to stomp her way down the stairs. She couldn’t smell anything cooking and that was unusual when it came to Spike. He liked to cook things. He liked the idea of using heat to create things. Probably had something to do with the fact he was a dragon.

Confused and still more than a little irrationally angry, Twilight stomped her way down the last few steps and into the kitchen.

“Spike! What are you-“

She stopped mid sentence. The kitchen was bare, nopony was in there, and no dragon was either. Grumbling that her breakfast be later than she was that morning, The angry librarian went looking for Spike. She stalked through the library like a vengeful cloud of doom, searching Spike’s favourite hidey holes, even the ones she let him think she didn’t know about. Under the table, in the gap under the floorboards in the guest room, behind the third bookshelf on the right where the back of the shelf had rotted away. Every single haunt he had was searched, and still she couldn’t find him. Finally giving up, deciding he must have gone to see Rarity again, and made her own breakfast. Cold cereal and milk later and she figured it’d be best to make a new schedule for the day.

And thus she located Spike.

He was in the basement. Used as both a storeroom and the most common place for Twilight to perform her magical experiments, the basement was the most private and the strongest area of the interior. Built out of pure stone, the walls were created (and later magically enhanced) to withstand a high magnitude earthquake. The enchantments that Twilight had later woven into the walls themselves were specifically designed to not only enhance the strength of the walls, but to add a massive resistance to magical energies. This prevented her from ever uprooting the tree or blowing it to pieces in her magical experiments. Not that that happened.

Much.

Spike was curled up on the floor and the tan stallion was standing beside him. Spike looked to be asleep and, had Twilight been in a better mood, peaceful. The stallion’s horn was glowing. In the split second before she said anything, her critical eye analysed him. As before, he was nondescript. Two tones of brown, mane fell over his eyes and, strangely, a dreamcatcher cutie mark. He’s the kind of stallion you’d forget the moment he left. Around his neck rested a smooth, perfectly round stone inscribed with swirling patterns.

“Hey! What are you doing to Spike?”

Her tone was perhaps a little more aggressive that she’d meant it, but she was in a bad mood so she didn’t really care. Neither of them reacted anyway. The stallion didn’t seem to hear her, and Spike merely giggled in his sleep. Not one to be laughed at (when she was in a bad mood anyway), Twilight grunted in frustration and yelled at the pair. For a long moment, neither reacted once more and Twilight was just about to forcefully cancel any magic the stallion was using when he retracted it himself. His eyes fluttered open, a brilliant sky blue. His only stand offish feature. For some reason, they annoyed Twilight all the more.

“Oh, finally decided to join us have you?” She asked acidly of the calm stallion, who merely looked at her as though she was being silly (which, admittedly, she was.)

“I’m sorry, did we wake you? Your assistant insisted that this room was soundproof.”

“It is,” She replied, “And no you didn’t, however you did prevent him from making me something to eat, AND you put the books you read back in the wrong locations!”

His brows rose in slight surprise at her vehemence and Spike yawned and started to stretch, beginning to awaken.

“I apologise for replacing your volumes in the improper spots, I meant no disrespect. They couldn’t have been off by any more than a place or two.”

To be honest, only one book was out of place, but Twilight seemed bent on making him feel as guilty about this as possible. Something that didn’t seem to be happening, and therefore was irritating Twilight more and more.

“Well they were! Now what were you doing with Spike? What spell were you casting? Why?”

Spike’s eyes fluttered open and he looked up at Twilight, almost smiling before noticing her seriously annoyed expression and recoiling away from her, hiding behind his tail. The stallion, to his credit, seemed unfazed by her irritation.

“I was merely sharing dreams, ideas and such things. Many of them were quite amusing. Jokes, stories. It’s amazing how much can be done in dreams in such a short time.”

Twilight glowered angrily at him. Spike remained behind his tail, and he merely looked at Twilight in what could almost be described as amusement. Twilight, having finally processed what he just said, found herself almost automatically scoffing. She’d spent several years in her youth researching dream magic and divination and had eventually decided the entire venture was pointless.

“Dream magic? Divination? Useless spells and uses of magic that haven’t even an ounce of use to the magical community.”

This seemed to strike a nerve and the stallion looked affronted by the blatant insult. His eyes narrowed dangerously and he brushed his mane out of his eyes once more.

“I’ll have you know that I specialise in the field and it’s far from useless. I have utilised its special and unique gifts many times to much success. Just because your mind cannot see past the end of its nose in the complex field of dreams doesn’t mean you should condemn the art as useless my narrow minded librarian.”

Twilight bristled at his insults.

“Narrow minded!?” She screeched incredulously, “I have studied almost every branch of magic there is and know and can use at least a few spells from all of them I’ll have you know! Including the more complex, true arts such as thaumateurgy, Druidic Sciences, Illusions, Transmogrification and transmutation!”

“And yet you still could not quite grasp the irrational, illogical and completely symbolic realm of dreams because your mind runs on a single, rigid track that cannot bend and cannot comprehend the idea that something so illogical could have such meaning or power. Dreams and visions so chaotically pieced together or so illogically linked to have such powerful meaning or such great, undeniable power.”

The rant Twilight threw at him after this went on for several hours with many, multiple references to various very important scholars, quotes from very thick tomes written by very clever ponies and their assistants and the stallion probably would have fallen asleep through it had her voice not been rising several octaves every few sentences. The town was lucky the room was soundproofed via magic; otherwise there was a very good chance that the entirety of Ponyville’s windows would have shattered under the strain.

Spike had snuck out of the cellar the moment the rant started. There was no way he was staying for it.

~*~

Somewhere within the confines of the patisserie paradise, cocoa coated, sugar surrounded establishment of Sugarcube corner, a bright pink ear twitched and a bright blue eye opened, shining with an ominous mischief that could scare even the most perverted of pranksters and trickster.

It was an eager shine. A hungry shine. The shine of one that sees all, knows all and does what one pleases.

It was a dangerous sign that all ponies that lived within the area had come to fear.

~*~

“DID I HEAR A NEW PONY!?”

Cut out from her two hour long (so far) rant at the plain brown pony before her, Twilight’s eyes went wide as suddenly, from under a very flat sheaf of paper that had fallen upon the floor, a very pink, very excited and incredibly bouncy, pouncy, trouncy, flouncy pink pony with bright, electric blue eyes pounced upon her quarry with a squeal of glee and a shout of consternation and shock that was much more akin to a stallion’s c…

Wait. It was the stallion crying out.

Never mind.

The stallion hit the floor and looked up at the pink pony above him with a mixture of awe and fear.

How the..?

“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie and you’re a new pony! I know you’re new because I know everypony in town and I mean EVERYPONY! Oh! That reminds me! You’re new which means you don’t know anypony which m-“

The stallion cut her off in a pained voice.

“Please Miss Pinkamena, no parties. I’m really not up for it right now. And I can’t dance anyway.”

Pinkie pouted and Twilight tilted her head.

“It’s PINKIE silly! Not Pinkamena! And can you read my mind? Huh? Is that how you knew I was gonna say party or was it a lucky guess? Ooh! Are you like, a circus psychic pony? I like the circus, it’s lots and lots and LOTS of fun!”

“Pinkie.”

Pinkie stopped and looked over at Twilight.

“What?” She asked brightly. Twilight sighed.

“Your reputation has obviously preceded you. He just knew you’d want to throw him a party is all. Probably because he’d been told somewhere on the road that you’d do so.”

Her tone was one of pent up frustration and resignation, knowing that getting angry at her would accomplish nothing.

“Now if you’re quite finished interrupting me, I was talking to the pony you’ve pinned to the floor, so please get off of him and Go AWAY!”

Twilight yelled her last few words before a powerful lethargy fell over her and she started. Or, she tried to. More she sort of had a dim recognition that she shouldn’t be so…

In moments she was asleep, as was the excitable pink pony, crashing like those who spent the entire night on a sugar high. The stallion pushed her off of him and stood up and sighed.

“Talisman, what have you gotten yourself into now?”

A curious lunch indeed

Chapter two: A curious lunch indeed.

Lunch was on Talisman’s mind by the time he finally left the library. He’d explained the situation (and the events leading up to) to Spike and, unhappy though he was, Spike had agreed that putting the two ponies to sleep had been the best course of action. So leaving the little dragon in charge, he’d set out to find someplace in which to indulge himself with the few bits he had. As he walked, he became aware of a niggling whisper on the back of his mind. He tried to ignore it, but as he walked it became stronger.

Hey, who’s that? I’ve never seen him here before.

His brows drooped into a sullen frown. Here we go again. He started trying to pinpoint the origin of the niggling thought that was not his own.

It was an oddity that had more than once gotten him not only weird or disbelieving looks but often full on glares and threats, Talisman had the unique ability (Or, he thought it was unique. Honestly, who else in Equestria could boast such a power?) to pick ideas and thoughts from the minds of others. In expansion to this, their emotions and how they were feeling also felt as tangible to him even if they hid it well. He didn’t know how he obtained such a skill set, but he did know he wasn’t born with it. He strongly suspected it had something to do with the stone around his neck, but he wasn’t sure how.

The only problem was his lack of control. He couldn’t decide who to pick ideas from and it annoyed him to no end. For example he didn’t need to see the fantasy of a teenage colt as he watched a (admittedly) cute mare of his age walk by, nor need he see somepony mentally undress another when they were wearing something, especially if they were making it into a fantasy. However it had its moments of brilliance as well and had saved him from as much ridicule as it had earned him, which was a lot.

Wow, he looks annoyed. Wonder where he came from? Heh, probably just came from talking to Twilight. That egghead would drive anypony crazy.

Finally tentatively pinpointing the location of the mind almost screaming its thoughts at him now, he looked straight up. For a moment he didn’t see anything, then he noted a rainbow coloured tail off to his left a little and he sighed, deciding to get it all over with. He looked around for a relatively dry place and sat down, waiting for the Pegasus, whom he now identified as Rainbow Dash after digging a little deeper (after much concentration and effort). It didn’t take long for her to settle in a tree above him, looking down at him with undisguised interest.

“Hey! Haven’t seen you around before!”

Talisman felt a stab of irritation as he lost his focus on Rainbow Dash.

“I arrived last night. It isn’t altogether terribly surprising that you don’t know me.”

“Jeez, you are annoyed!”

Talisman sighed.

“Yes well, I’m certain you’d agree with me when I say Twilight could drive anypony crazy.”

Rainbow let out a light laugh.

“Ha! You’re totally right! She’s a total egghead.”

For a moment he got a flash of insight into the mind of Rainbow and he smiled.

“Coming from an avid reader of the Daring Doo novels, that doesn’t mean much I’m afraid.”

The blush he got from Rainbow was enough to brighten his day a little and he felt his mood lighten.

“Hey! Daring Doo is awesome okay!? Just because I read Daring Doo doesn’t mean I’m an egghead!”

“Of course it doesn’t, and she is pretty adventurous.”

~*~

Back at the library, Twilight was beginning to wake up. She’d been having a pleasant dream involving herself and Celestia when an insistent nuzzling woke her up. Her eyes opened blearily to behold the bright pink face right in front of her. In an instant she was backed up in a sitting position with her eyes wide. Pinkie had been practically kissing the librarian and looked as happy and bouncy as ever.

“Hi Twilight! You’re finally awake! I woke up ages ago and I was thinking ‘hm, I wonder should I wake up Twilight or not?’ then I thought of the new pony in town and he was noplace to be found and thought maybe I should go after him but then I thought I couldn’t leave you on your lonesome and then decided that-“

Twilight tuned out after the initial onslaught and sighed, taking a moment to admire the new stallion’s decision to put them both to sleep. The extra shut eye had done wonders for Twilight’s disposition and she was quite a bit more rested now than she was earlier. But she was also hungry. Very hungry. Guessing that it must be lunch time, Twilight looked at Pinkie, who was still talking.

Huh, does she even take a breath when she’s talking? It’s hard to tell.

As much as she’d love to understand Pinkie more, Twilight knew that a psychoanalysis of her character and mind would render literally no results, nor would wondering how she seemed to be able to speak for hours endlessly without taking a single breath give her any insight as to how she seemed to defy the laws of physics so easily. So she politely awaited the end of the pink puff of sugary, energy loaded joy’s long soliloquy before telling her she was going out to get something to eat, since she’d decided she really wanted something not particularly healthy and maybe a milkshake. Pinkie was only too happy to oblige her and the two left the library. Twilight let her mind wander to the new stallion. Her eidetic memory allowed her to recall his physical appearance with ease and a frown formed on her face.

He really was a plain looking stallion. Boring really. Brown coat, brown mane, brown tail, blue eyes. Rather generic really.

Her inner eye came to rest on the strange, round stone around his neck and her frown deepened.

What’s that? I would understand perhaps an amulet or a locket, but what’s so special about that stone? I suppose the inscribed patterns are intricate, perhaps an item he obtained from a craftspony? A mystery indeed…

She was distracted with the sudden appearance of Rainbow Dash, although her momentary hello was all the distraction her mind allowed before going back to analysing the stallion.

Dreams he said, the realm of dreams. A dream catcher cutie mark makes sense. But I still don’t see how it’s potent magic. I’ve researched it extensively, but I could never quite understand what some ponies saw in it. It’s second rate magic at best, like illusions, good for parlour tricks but little else, very little real world application.

Applejack joined them soon after and Rainbow and herself shared a brief hug. The pair had been dating (experimentally) for a week or so now and it had been two months since Demon had returned to Ponyville with Fluttershy in tow. They’d like to say it’s getting along well, but the pair had only started dating to test out the waters in the first place. It was quite awkward at first, and whilst the awkwardness had eased, it was still clear (even to Twilight) that the pair had their fair share of problems. But all of them respectfully stayed out of the relationship, wishing the best for both sides. Applejack stepping on Demonheart’s tail led to himself and Fluttershy joining them for the little outing, and Rarity even stepped out of the boutique to spend time with them.

The whole group back together for a while…

Her mind latched onto when he’d predicted Pinkie Pie’s want to give him a party.

What if I was wrong? What if Pinkie, in all her randomness, was right? Reading minds… is that kind of magic even possible? I wouldn’t have thought so, and if it was I imagine it would have been outlawed for obvious reasons. A spell like that’d be so unbelievably dangerous I doubt even Celestia, no, Luna would dare use it. But no, I sensed no magic used. Even when he cast the spell to send me to sleep I remember feeling a surge of magic from him for a moment. What if… What if it wasn’t magic?

She’d descended to the realm of pure speculation now, oblivious to the chatter of the ponies around her.

What if it had something to do with the stone? Could that be possible? I know runes and such things can give powerful additions to skills and magics… But no, that can’t be it either. I can’t recognise any of the inscribed symbols. Ugh, this is so frustrating. Mysteries, mysteries, mysteries.

She was brought back to Equestria as she sat down by Rarity asking a question, but not of her.

“Say, who’s that over there?”

Twilight looked over and, to her surprise, saw the stallion from earlier. He was absently munching on a fry as he scribbled in a small notebook. Or, it looked like he was scribbling. Twilight shrugged, unseen by the others and answered (amazingly) before Pinkie could.

“Don’t know. He came into the library early this morning and started reading ‘Professor Insomia’s guide to Dreams, Dreamscapes and Dreamology, a comprehensive guide to dreams and dreamer’s magicks.’ “

The others looked at Twilight, who was now currently ordering an extra large serving of hay fries with melted cheese and tomato ketchup upon them and a large burger with anything deep fried on it. The waiter almost looked intimidated by the order as he took the others and left. Twilight looked back at them.

“What?”

Rainbow burst out laughing.

“Is that even a real book? It sounds ridiculous!”

Twilight felt her face flush and went to answer when…

“It is a real book.”

The strangely musical voice floated over from the stallion, who had yet to look up from his notebook. The seven ponies looked at him in surprise. He was only one table away, but even so. He looked up at Rainbow Dash gravely.

“It’s a very detailed and comprehensive guide to the inner workings behind dreams, dreaming and the magic behind it, you should read it some time. Very informative.”

Twilight snorted and looked at him in amusement.

“What Professor Insomnia wrote was a bunch of words that may as well have been written in Draconian or something to any normal pony, a whole heap of gibberish.”

The look the stallion returned her was just as amused, and a spark flittered across his eyes.

“Only if you don’t know what you’re reading. In order to do magicks such as his or my own, one needs to keep an open mind and be willing to accept certain things as possible that many others do not. You’re one of the latter.”

Twilight leaned over the table. The other six ponies, reduced to Bystanders, looked from Twilight to Talisman as they spoke.

“Cold and clear logic can explain why something can and cannot work, and even magic has scientific roots to it in many respects. Research into magic requires cold hard facts, which is more than the half baked theorems and half finished conclusions of the professor, even the other great ponies of magic in the day scoffed at his work.”

Talisman grinned and layed his notebook to one side.

“That may be, but Celestia did not, and I’m sure Luna herself would wholeheartedly agree with everything he said should she read it. Insomnia was one of the greatest minds of the century and predicted many events before they happened, including the events upon Nightmare Moon’s return up to the elements being united and forming, although not whether or not they prevailed.”

Twilight laughed.

“He was a charlatan and a liar as well who tried to get in the good books of the ponies in higher houses by promising them that he would predict all of their problems before they arose…”

“And they turned him down because they thought he insulted them when he was trying to help…”

“And then they were either cast down or murdered soon after, leading to the arrest and subsequent trial…”

“Which proved naught but that he was innocent of the charges and they let him go where he went on to publish his research and works into his book, ‘Professor Insomia’s guide to Dreams, Dreamscapes and Dreamology, a comprehensive guide to dreams and dreamer’s magicks.’”

Twilight pouted as her food came and the stallion smiled.

“You may not think so, but it is a legitimate field of study, one I have dedicated a substantial part of my life to. Perhaps you could ask your kind and noble teacher, or her sister, about it one day.”

Twilight and the rest of the ponies started and Demon looked at the stallion sharply. Twilight looked at him in shock.

“I… what… I never told you…”

He smiled at her again and went back to his notebook. Fluttershy looked at Demonheart and Demon got up. Shy hurriedly followed him as he approached the stallion, disregarding his food entirely. He towered above the slim stallion as he sat down, eyes inquisitive. The stallion looked at him.

“Oh, hello,” He said to the big Pegasus absently, “Can I help you?”

Demon tilted his head slightly before opening his mouth to speak, his velvety soft voice slipping out of his mouth.

“My name is Demonheart. You are..?”

The stallion smiled and nodded to Demon.

“Talisman.”

Talisman’s eyes flickered to Fluttershy.

“And you’re Fluttershy, yes?”

Fluttershy jumped momentarily and nodded quickly. Talisman smiled.

“Yes, excellent. Now how can I he-“

He shuddered as his mind briefly touched Demon’s, then went limp and collapsed as Demonheart stiffened suddenly and his eyes began to cycle quickly from purple to red.

The curioddity behind Demon’s soft and gentle character, he hosted a creature deep within his physical body. The cumulation of two consciousnesses resulted in an almost constant battle between demon and pony, and most times Demon stayed in control. The dilution and colour shifting of his eyes generally was a bad sign.

“Run…” He growled out softly to Fluttershy beside him.

Sound faded, and Talisman could barely hear the shouts of shock. Vision faded and his sight was clouded by yellow fur as Fluttershy rushed in front of Demonheart.

Am I…?

~*~

You come where you are not welcome mind leech.

Talisman looked around. The area he was in resembled a dreamscape, an area of ‘space’ so to speak that creatures conjured in their subconscious when they fell asleep in order to create and fabricate the inner workings of their mind or to bring forth different fantasies, and not all of them nice. Sometimes it was old memories brought forth, but in any case, this one did not look welcoming. Dark colours blended in on the horizons and sky and the ground beneath his hooves was cracked and dry. The voice sent shivers down his spine and made his flesh crawl. It was not a voice one would expect from the mind of one so gentle, but rather was filled with malicious glee and a dreadful hunger. It was light and almost childlike.

Who are you? Why am I here? It’s dangerous to go within another’s mind when they’re awake, I could be trapped here.

The voice came again, a chuckle of dark intent.

I already share this space with another, what makes you think I want to do so with you?

The chuckle faded and the voice began to darken and deepen.

No, I brought you here to issue a warning.

He saw something, something like roiling smoke in his peripheral vision and he turned to face it, but could never quite catch it.

Warning? What warning?

The roiling cloud of light purple smoke, for that’s what it was, finally allowed him to settle his sight upon it when it suddenly shot forward. Skeletal, draconic arms reached for him as a pony head, rotted and decayed with white bone showing in several places and one half decayed eye, still attached to the optic nerve, lunged out from the smoke in a hungry roar and Talisman screamed…

~*~

The prone form of Talisman screamed in sheer and abject terror and Demonheart roared his frustration to the sky as the roiling emotions and second mind within him came to an epic climax. It sounded like the end of the world but was made of eight voices, one more than others.

And it wasn’t Demonheart’s.

Up in Canterlot, Luna sat bolt upright in her heavily veiled bed. She’d heard a familiar sound, but couldn’t quite pinpoint what it was. Deciding it would be best to wait for the night, she sank back into her bed and fell asleep once more.

Back in Ponyville, Demonheart slumped forward, his eyes back and remaining their normal emotional purple. Fluttershy stood beside him, helping him stand with a wing draped over his shivering, tormented form. He looked to her and nuzzled her neck lovingly in thanks, earning a blush before they both looked to Talisman. He was curled in a foetal position and looked to be in physical pain and was sobbing quietly.

Talisman remembered pain, so much excruciating pain he could almost taste it, then mercifully blacked out.

Rest and recovery... sorta

Chapter three: Rest and Recovery... Sorta.

Talisman woke up screaming, the fateful words screamed at him from the half decayed pony head reverberating evilly within his mind and the gruesome sight burned into his skull. He panted heavily and fitfully until he was marginally calm and looked around. The birds that had been watching him were starting to come back now and his brows knitted at the unfamiliar room he was in, let alone the bed. It appeared he was in a cottage of some sort. The room was relatively small, with the majority of the space taken up by two beds. The one he was on was made up of slender beams intricately carved with beautiful roses and birds. The other was much plainer and clearly made to withstand much more weight than that which he rested upon. It was stockier and had no such carvings upon it and was made of a much darker wood than his current resting place.

His observations were interrupted by a rumble from his stomach and he suddenly smelled something that made his mouth water in anticipation. His eyes fell upon a bowl of soup sitting at the bedside. It was still steaming slightly, so it was still at least warm. He fell upon it like a jackal fell upon a half eaten carcass and devoured it, licking his lips afterwards. It was brilliant, a pumpkin soup if he wasn’t mistaken, not that it was easy to mistake pumpkin for something else. Ever. Looking up, he looked for a long moment out to the blue sky. Probably late morning, maybe early afternoon by reckoning.

Shivering at the realisation he’d slept the day through, Talisman made his way out of the room. The house he was in, he noted, wasn’t especially large, even for a two story home. He descended the stair cautiously, afraid that his still unsteady legs would fail him. when he reached the doorway after a considerable amount of trouble, he stumbled through it, his legs suddenly prepared to fail him completely. He came face to face with the young yellow Pegasus he’d identified earlier as Fluttershy. Or, he assumed she was young. She certainly looked no further than out of her teens, although all things considered, he doubted that was the case. Behind her was the large, black stallion who had introduced himself as ‘Demonheart’.

A fitting name… he thought grimly to himself as he pulled himself up to a respectable sitting position, trying not to slump.

“I… thank you.” He managed to stumble out and cursed himself for his body’s weakness. His mind was very sharp, and had not dulled, although it was still remembering the power and malice behind the message left for him by whatever the heck it was within Demonheart, “You didn’t have to take care of me.”

Fluttershy had frozen in place and suddenly blushed and backed up a step or two, mumbling something about it being okay then something else Tal didn’t catch. He smiled at her and began to stumble away when the silky voice of Demonheart slipped it’s velveteen fingers into his ears.

“I wouldn’t do that were I you. Miss Redheart asked us to send you to the Healing Water’s spa when you were awake, y-y’know, to help you recuperate…”

His voice had an undertone of regret and guilt to it, but simply looking at him made Tal flinch and he asked a question he wasn’t quite meaning to voice out loud.

“What the hell are you?” He asked quietly. Demonheart seemed to wilt under the question and Fluttershy bristled. Her voice turned strong and commanding as she spoke.

“He’s a stallion! A beautiful, kind and gentle stallion and you’d do well to remember that!”

Talisman flinched and actually looked ashamed of himself before trotting away, head held low. Demonheart nuzzled Fluttershy gently in thanks, earning himself a pleased murmur from the shy Pegasus.

Talisman had an appointment to keep.

~*~

The Healing Waters spa was a large building, as spas are wont to be. It was very popular with the female population of Ponyville and was run by the twins Aloe and Lotus. Their cousin, Vera, often joined them when she could to help out, but was much shyer than her cousins and often couldn’t work up the courage to do the work required of her. Whilst the spa was most popular with the mares, there were a few stallions here and there that frequented the establishment as much as the mares. Demonheart was one such stallion. In fact, he was on very good terms with Aloe and she went out of her way to make sure she treated him personally every time he came, with or without Fluttershy and Rarity. Whilst it had a reputation of being neat, clean and looking impeccable, the main thing the spa was known for was its results, pure and simple.

Talisman felt the results as he walked out of the beautiful place and took a deep breath of fresh air. He’d been treated by Aloe, since it was Demon who’d set up the appointment and Aloe had insisted that she treated Demon’s ‘friend’ as she insisted he must be. He got the impression several times that she got frequently frustrated with his slender build since she seemed to think that she’d hurt him more than help if she pressed to hard in her massages. A point made abundantly clear when he’d felt a pang of pain (Or at least, more than usual) at one of her rubs when she was distracted by something he said.

They may not look much, but by Celestia, those sisters were stronger than they looked.

Inevitably, he found himself wandering back towards the library. His hooves felt funny and he had to resist the urge to simply melt onto the ground underneath them, finally making it to the library. Twilight was unsurprised to see him and she smiled at him, although he couldn’t tell whether or not she was doing it just to be nice or out of some genuine reason.

“Hey there. Felling alright?”

Talisman nodded before speaking quietly.

“If you wouldn’t mind Miss Sparkle, I would like to read in peace. There’s much for me to consider today and I’d like to get it out of the way.”

This Twilight could understand and her smile grew a little.

“No problem, I’ll make sure to tell Spike not to bother you and I’ll make sure you’re left alone alright?”

Tal nodded to her in thanks before stepping away.

Why lead me here..?

~*~

“But darling,”

“No buts Rarity! I don’t want anything to wear. I’ve never needed anything special to wear to meet Celestia before, I don’t need it now. I don’t care what other ponies think, I meet Celestia as myself, and I don’t really like wearing clothing for anything but really special occasions.”

Rarity pouted.

“Oh but darling,” She wheedled and Twilight shook her head.

“No. Not a chance.”

In the other room, Talisman gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the mares, but it was getting harder. The fact that he was getting occasional flashes of insight as to how Rarity wanted to design said dress didn’t help, and one of the symbols on the stone around his neck, unseen by him, was pulsing with a noxious yellow. He could feel Twilight’s irritation, Rarity’s mounting frustration. It was only a matter of time before the two erupted into a full blown screaming match he believed. Finally having enough, he slammed his book closed and stood up. The sudden noise shut both unicorn mares up and he stormed out of the library, face like a thundercloud, taking his knapsack and few possessions with him. He vaguely heard the sound of Spike calling for Twilight, but aside from that, Talisman was out of the building, and glad to be away from the pair.

“Mares,” He huffed under his breath irritably, “I’ll never understand why they get so frustrated at stupid little things.”

Tal spent the rest of the day on the hills of Sweet Apple Acres, sitting beneath a flowering apple tree, notepad out, pencil in magical grip. Sketched into the notepad was the image of the library as he’d seen it some time back, before he’d even come to Ponyville. He shivered and flipped the page over. Sketched here, in horrific detail, was the roiling cloud of smoke that he’d seen within the mind of Demonheart, skeletal arms outstretched, scraps of decayed flesh hanging off of them and the mostly decayed head, eye hanging out of the socket off of its blood slicked optic nerve. An image he was never likely to forget.

The words reverberated through his head and he sighed softly.

I wouldn’t have been in there in the first place had you not dragged me in. What are you..?

~*~

Night fell, and Talisman found himself before the Library once more. It wasn’t a cold night, but the occasional breeze was chilly. He curled up upon the doorstep to the great tree and yawned mightily before settling his head down on his knapsack (Which was practically empty now) and falling promptly to sleep. It was several hours later when he was awoken by, of all things, sand and dust. It made it into his coat, his eyelashes, and his mouth. He spluttered and spat and rubbed at his eyes frantically, trying to free up his senses and he finally opened his eyes, opening his mouth to scold the pony responsible and his jaw dropped.

The Princess of the Moon, Princess Luna, stood before him, a surprised look adorning her face. Realising he was gawking at her, he dropped into a bow in a hurry, spluttering out his apologies for being in her way and such things. She laughed softly, making him stop mid sentence and look at her. She smiled at him.

“Don’t be absurd. Thou art… Sorry, you are not in my way. I came simply to speak to Twilight Sparkle. You have just as much right to sleep here as you do anywhere else.”

Talisman smiled thankfully and stood up.

This was precisely the moment Twilight decided to open the door.

Very quickly.

The door was flung open and Talisman went from being before Princess Luna to being sandwiched between a door and a hard place. Twilight burst out of the tree and bowed before Luna, who snuffed a laugh. Talisman was so busy feeling sorry for himself and (quite honestly) hurting that he didn’t hear what was said between the pair. He heard Luna thank Twilight.

“Oh, and you may wish to peel thy friend off of the wall. Being struck by a door does not sound like a fair fight.”

Luna opened her wings and lifted off, vanishing into the sky. Frowning in confusion, Twilight pulled the door away from the wall, allowing Talisman to hit the ground in a miserable heap of fresh bruises. Talisman waved her off before she could make any apologies and sat up, arching his back to crack it a few times before sighing.

“It’s fine Miss Sparkle. Not the first time a door has been opened in my face.”

She winced at his casual admission and looked around, anywhere but at him.

“You know… I’m pretty sure there’s a storm scheduled for tonight… You want to come inside? You know, ride it out?”

Twilight cursed herself inwardly. What was she thinking? Bring a stranger into her library? What the hay was wrong with her? Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but feel a warm feeling as he smiled and nodded tiredly.

“I would greatly appreciate it, thank you for your hospitality.”

Mentality

Chapter four: Mentality.

“oof!”

Purple eyes sprang open in shock as Demonheart was woken up to the sensation of his fillyfriend jumping onto him. For a moment he looked up at her from beneath her, a shy smile and blush on her face, before smiling and rolling around on his particularly large, heavy beamed bed, Fluttershy holding on for dear life. The pair laughed, Fluttershy’s higher pitched giggles and occasional squeals shadowed by his deeper laugh, somehow just as compelling as his speaking voice. Eventually admitting defeat, Demon stopped rolling and lay on his back, looking up at Fluttershy whilst the both of them caught their breath. After a momentary breather, he lifted his body up and embraced the mare upon him loosely, touching his nose to hers, eyes closed and she kissed him gently….

~*~

Talisman woke up, blushing furiously, eyes wide and body temperature uncomfortably hot. That was undeniably, inevitably and most emphatically NOT what he was trying to see. Whilst he was attempting to utilise the scrying spell, the last thing he wanted was to see that. Scrying was the art of creating a portal between one place and another that allowed one to see what was happening and, if strong enough, hear what was happening at any given time. However, depending on the spell, it varied on whether or not these portals were one or two way. This one was only one way.

Traditionally, Scrying was attempted using a flat, reflective surface such as a calm body of water or a mirror. These mediums were the easiest to utilise. However, other mediums included the use of light, shadows, any reflective surface at all, crystals or fire. In this case, Talisman was attempting to use his own mind as a medium, and was being fairly successful. However he simply could not fix his vision upon that which he wanted to see. It was as though his spell continuously got distracted and wandered over to something it thought was much more interesting.

“What did you see? And why are you blushing like that?”

Twilight sat across from him, watching him closely. Beside her was a pair of tea cups, each with a translucent orange tea within. She’d been watching him since she’d come down from her room and found him, slumped over a book with several around him, asleep. His face had been resting on the book for so long, his fringe had been plastered to his forehead. Talisman looked anywhere but at her.

“Uh, you probably don’t want to know. Suffice to say it wasn’t what I wanted to see. On the other hoof and on a totally unrelated note, I think Fluttershy and Demonheart are going to be happy for the rest of the day.”

The ever oblivious Twilight sighed and shook her head.

“It’s not all that difficult Talisman, even if you’re using your mind as the magical medium. The focal point of your magic is being projected back into your subconscious rather than something on the outside world, like a mirror or open flames, so theoretically, envisioning your subject matter and therefore focusing your spell should be foal’s play. I don’t understand why you’re having so much trouble with it.”

“Because I cannot control my subconscious perhaps?” Talisman asked coolly in return, earning a slight glare from Twilight.

“That has nothing to do with it. It reacts to conscious thought, not subconscious or unconscious.”

Her horn sparked momentarily and he felt his fringe flick out of his eyes. She’d been doing that all morning, and every time she looked more and more annoyed at the rebellious fringe. Hers, he’d noticed, had been cut so it didn’t fall into her eyes. The last time he’d done that to his it had grown back overnight.

“And I don’t understand why you don’t get your fringe trimmed. It must drive you crazy!”

He snuffed a laugh and shook his head and cautiously levitated his tea over next to him and took a sip. It certainly wasn’t the best tea he’d ever had, but it certainly wasn’t the worst either.

“I tried that once. It grew back through the night. It makes no difference how, why or with what I cut it with. I could shave my entire mane off and it’d be back the next day.”

The look Twilight gave him told him she obviously didn’t believe him. He laughed again and her expression softened.

“You’re so full of it. Unless you’re making it regrow, it won’t simply grow back, it’s an impossibility.”

Tal raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“Why not do so and find out? Trust me, it’ll still be there in the morning. You can even monitor my spells if you like.”

Twilight pursed her lips in thought and smiled. Tal smirked in reply as a pair of scissors floated over to Twilight’s hooves.

~*~

“I must ask, what’s the stone? I thought it was perhaps a rune stone, but I’ve studied runes extensively and never seen any of the symbols on it.”

Talisman sighed softly as a piece of his mane fell to the floor. She seemed to be taking his challenge very seriously and had decided to, instead of just his fringe, trim his entire mane. She was clipping away with deadly precision. Okay, maybe not as precise as somepony like Rarity would, but precise all the same. And thankfully the scissors were sharp.

“It’s complicated.”

Twilight perked up at the answer.

“So, like a puzzle?”

Talisman huffed.

“No, not like a puzzle. It’s complicated.”

“A mystery then? Something one has to figure out?”

He shook his head, making her frown.

“No. It’s simply too complicated to put into words. I don’t want to talk about it anyway.”

Twilight pouted, irritated at not having all the answers and there being something she didn’t know about or understand, but she dropped the subject. For now anyway. The room descended into silence save for the occasional ‘snip’ of the scissors.

“So,” Twilight ventured curiously, “Pinkie thinks you can read her mind.”

Talisman laughed quietly.

“Does she now?”

She let the scissors float over and drop onto the table.

“Yes, she does. She’s convinced you’re some sort of mind reader.”

“Well then, she has a heck of an imagination doesn’t she?”

“I looked it up again.”

“Did you?”

“That sort of magic hasn’t been developed. And if it has, it’d be outlawed by now. Too dangerous.”

“Good for you.”

Twi felt an stab of irritation in her swelling with her frustration.

“Are you saying you can’t read minds?”

“I’m not sure, am I? Why not use that logic of yours to figure it out?”

Twilight took a moment to take a deep breath and calm down before sighing.

“Alright then. In that case I’d say you’re not possibly capable of reading minds since the magic for which either does not exist or has been scratched from any recorded developments because of its potential dangers.”

Without turning around, Talisman responded.

“And say, theoretically, I discovered one such recorded instance of its use that hadn’t been destroyed?”

Twilight almost growled, frustrated at the smug sounding unicorn.

“I’d say that it would have been your duty to deliver it to the princess or destroy it yourself. Did you come across such a work?”

Talisman turned and looked at her, faux shock on his face.

“Good heavens no Twilight. That’d be silly.”

He trotted away and into the library proper, leaving Twilight in a frustrated, angry way with steam practically coming out of her ears. She stormed after him.

“Now wait just a minute! Why suggest something that’s so absurdly silly in the first place, then say it was silly even thinking that it could have happened when it could legitimately be done?”

“Because it’s a silly idea Twilight,” He replied patiently, reaching for a book, “Honestly, mind reading. You’ve been reading too many fantasy stories. Mind reading doesn’t exist.”

He took his book over to a reading desk, Twilight following him closely, trying to put together a viable reply. He sat down and went to open his book only to have Twilight slam it closed and lean on it, glaring at him angrily. He looked at her in mild surprise.

“Now that’s silly. Magic is the expression of a unicorn’s will. Theoretically it would entirely be possible to create a spell that allowed one to see into the mind of the other.”

A flash of amusement crossed Talisman’s features, enraging Twilight further as he too leaned forward before speaking calmly.

“You and I both know that magic like that would be dangerous and unpredictable. You’d have to compensate for the knowledge being absorbed straight from the mind of another to make sure the reader would keep his or her identity instead of becoming a heap of other ponies instead of themselves.”

“But it IS possible!”

“Is it?”

Silence fell over the pair, Talisman with his short cropped mane leaning on his hooves, elbows on the desk, Twilight with both hooves pressed down upon the book, glaring at him angrily. Talisman was the epitome of calm, he even looked a little amused. Spike walked into the room before seeing the pair and slowly backing out, afraid that Twilight would turn her anger onto him. The two were inches from each other, Twilight’s nose almost touching his and for a bare moment, She was lost in his eyes. She never lost her nerve however, and searched those blue orbs for any sort of chink, doubt or possibility that he was concealing something from her. She found nothing and huffed angrily. He smiled, a genuine, non mocking smile and sat back, leaving her still glaring at him.

“You know, you must be the first pony I’ve ever met that manages to still make a cohesive argument when they’re angry, especially on topics like this.”

Her glare softened a little before falling apart completely and she sat down, blushing.

“Sorry… I just… I got caught up in the whole thing and I guess I went a little far huh?”

He chuckled and shook his head.

“Not at all Miss Sparkle. It was quite the little argument.”

Silence fell again. It was approaching late afternoon now. The time had flown past the pair without either of them realising it. It was Talisman who felt the pangs of hunger first and he sighed.

“Ah, Hunger. I suppose I’ll be going to get myself something to eat.”

Twilight looked at him.

“Oh, right. Just tell me, honestly, before you leave. Is Pinkie right?”

He smiled as he stood up, stretching his muscles as they screamed at him from being still for too long.

“Oh, I’m not mind reader. But I pick things up here and there. Emotions are much easier, but here and there I pick up a thought or two. Only recent ones without any sort of effort though.”

Twilight stared as he made to leave. To this day, she would not understand, even after careful analysis of her thoughts, actions and surprise she had felt at his answer, why she spoke up. But she did, and she said what she said and, with no way of taking it back without being rude, she had to stick with it.

“Hey… you can eat here if you like, I’m sure Spike wouldn’t mind.”

He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her, mild surprise on his face as well.

“That… would be excellent, thank you Miss Sparkle.”

She giggled, another thing she thought long and hard about later.

“Please, just Twilight will be fine.”

He smiled.

“Alright then, Twilight.”

As he left the room she cursed herself. Now she’d be stuck with the one stallion who seemed to know exactly how to annoy her for the entire night.

And it was her own fault.

Illness

Chapter 5: Illness.

Dinner at the library was a quiet affair that night. Well, aside from the crunch as Spike munched on gems. Talisman was sitting to one side of Spike, Twilight on the other side. It was a simple affair, with dandelion salad being the main part of the dish, except in Spike’s case which was gems. Twi continuously shot curious looks at Talisman as they ate, her mind considering him closely.

So he claims to be able to pick out thoughts from somepony’s mind, but he hasn’t really proven it yet. Pinkie is fairly well known from Canterlot, and somepony from Ponyville could have told him of her tendency to throw parties for new ponies. It wouldn’t be too difficult to find out that I’m Celestia’s student. Annoyingly, almost everypony here knows that. So…. How do I know he’s not lying?

The answer was so obviously simple that she smiled.

“So, you claim to be able to pick the brain of anypony in range then?”

Talisman stopped and looked at her warily.

“Yes… what of it?”

Twilight smiled smugly.

“Perhaps you could prove it to me?”

“You still don’t believe me then?”

She laughed and shook her head.

“Of course not. You’re talking about literally picking out an idea or thought from a pony’s mind like they were a book rather than a pony. Would you believe it if I told you?”

The plain looking stallion considers this for a while before frowning.

“Not without proof, no. I suppose you’re correct.”

She smirked triumphantly as he sighed.

“I can only try I suppose.”

Twilight felt a stir of triumphant pride as he said this.

Ha! He was faking!

He stopped eating and looked at her intensely, as though trying to bore through her mind or see into her soul. He sat like this for almost ten minutes, with Twilight getting more and more smug with each passing moment. Without breaking eye contact, Talisman spoke quietly.

“About all I can get is from Spike here and his rather obsessive crush on your friend Rarity. That and things about gems.”

Spike stopped eating and looked at Talisman in alarm and then back to Twilight, who looked at him with one brow raised.

“What? I didn’t tell him about that!”

She looked back at Talisman who sighed and shook his head.

“I can’t take anything from you. It’s… strange.”

She snuffed a laugh.

“See? You can’t do it.”

Talisman looked at her seriously.

“On the contrary, I most certainly can. I can’t control it, but I can achieve it. For example at lunch the other day I was bombarded by such an overload of information I couldn’t concentrate on my notes. Applejack and Rainbow Dash haven’t been doing so well as a couple, but neither of them will admit that to anypony else because they’re too proud, Miss Fluttershy was worrying about a small echidna she had recently splinted the leg of, front left if I’m not mistaken. The worrying thing was I couldn’t pick up anything from you. It made no sense at all. It’s like something is blocking me. When it does pass over you, all I get is static, nothing useful at all. It’s like you’re protected by a wall.”

Twilight still looked sceptical and Talisman sighed.

“Alright then, obviously you don’t believe me. I suppose I don’t blame you. I does sound a bit… absurd. But it’s true all the same. I cannot make you believe me, much like I cannot make you believe in just how powerful dream magic can be. But perhaps someday I will come to understand it, and will be able perhaps to persuade you to rethink your opinion. But until I understand this, or control it, I will not think any less of you for your thoughts.”

~*~

The rest of the meal was a quiet affair with little said or done. Even Spike was quiet despite the makeup of his meal. When the meal was over, Spike stayed back in the kitchen to wash up and Tal stretched his legs in the library proper. Twilight followed him. For a while there was a silence purveying the room that was near awkward and Tal yawned.

“Well. Thank you very much for dinner Miss Sparkle, it was excellent. I will be out of your mane now, I suppose I will see you in the morning.”

Twilight cocked her head to one side, confused.

“I… I guess. And no problem, you really should thank Spike though, he’s the one who cooked it all.”

Tal smiled and nodded.

“Well, thank him for me will you?”

“I will.”

He smiled at her and turned away, trotting out the door and closing it gently. Silence invaded the room after he’d left. A few minutes of standing still, staring at the door was enough for Twilight and she marched over to it and opened it a lot more cautiously than she had the night Luna had come to visit. True to her suspicions, Talisman was settled upon the doorstep where it was dry. She grumbled in annoyance and picked him up telekinetically and carried him back inside, heedless of his shout of alarm. She deposited him upon one of the many plush seats of the library’s reading room and glared at him.

“You are not sleeping out there on the concrete. You’re lucky enough you haven’t caught some sort of nasty cold already without having to press your luck every night. You’ll stay in here. I’ll get you a blanket and a pillow and you can sleep in here.”

Talisman merely stared at her whilst she was saying all of this before a small smile crossed his features.

“Is that concern I hear in your voice?”

Twilight started and shook her head adamantly.

“No! I just don’t want somepony catching a sickness on my premises and being able to charge me for it.”

The smile widened and he chuckled softly.

“No, I’m fairly certain it was concern. You’re not actually starting to care are you?”

She blushed heavily.

“You want to sleep outside?” She asked quickly and maybe a little more aggressively than she intended. He laughed and shook his head.

“No, I appreciate the hospitality. Thank you.”

~*~

“Are you sure about this Twilight? I’ve heard some pretty disturbing things about this place.”

“Oh sure, the path to Zecora’s is completely safe! If one avoids straying from it that is. The forest itself is mostly just scary, there’s actually not nearly as many creatures in it as ponies think there is. Trust me, I’ve been through this place more than once.”

Talisman and Twilight stood before the one entrance to the Everfree forest accessible by ponykind. Twilight seemed entirely at ease, but Talisman was more than hesitant about the whole thing. Even if one didn’t grow up in Ponyville, one always heard stories about the infamous Everfree Forest. Tales of creatures so horrifically foul or so terrifyingly grotesque they defied imagination, and monsters that could turn you to stone in an instant. Dragons and star filled abominations that would sooner rip your head off your shoulders than look at you. There were even rumours of races of creatures that held no viable or believable records and some that fed upon nightmares themselves. Unconfirmed sightings of cat like creatures as large as a large pony and almost twice as long that manipulated the shadows as though they were naught but servants and hound like creatures with eyes that burned with a fire so hot it could melt stone in but a glance.

Yes, there were many creatures in the forest that gave Talisman reason to be petrified of it.

“So… this Zecora pony…”

Twilight giggled softly and gestured to their escort before entering the forest, leaving Tal no choice but to follow her and the big Pegasus stallion Demonheart.

“She’s not actually a pony Tal. Zecora is a zebra from the plains outside of Equestria. She knows things about stuff I don’t even know about, and I don’t say that lightly.”

Talisman blinked, processing this as he brushed his mane out of his eyes. True to his word, his mane had regrown overnight and once again fell into his eyes seemingly by a stubborn will of its own every five minutes or so.

“A Zebra huh? Never met a Zebra before. I have met a pony who was raised by them though. Curious pony with a yin-yang cutie mark. Didn’t show much in the way of emotion.”

The trio walked down the path that led to Zecora’s hut at a cautious pace. Tal and Twi ended up walking at the front, Demon behind them. It was with casual curiosity that Demon noted that Talisman, upon entering the Everfree forest, had gravitated closer to Twilight and seemed more wary of his surroundings. The walk to Zecora’s was not short stroll and eventually Twilight let her curiosity get the better of her.

“So Tal. Where is it you were born?”

Tal fell silent and considered the question for a long while, chewing the sudden question in his mind, grinding it down before answering simply.

“Canterlot.”

Twilight started and smiled brightly.

“Really? Me too! Mother and Father live still in Canterlot. So does my brother, but I think that’s mostly because of being Guard Captain and married so…”

She shrugged, still beaming. Talisman sighed wistfully, a fact that was missed by the ever oblivious Twilight, but captured in detail by the ever observant Demonheart.

“My family,” Talisman spoke softly, “Were descended from great unicorn magicians. Not many were ever really brilliant enough to be famed, but we did have a rather powerful bloodline. My sister inherited some of that power. My skills outside of dreams… well, you’ve seen it. I’m lacking.”

He shifted uncomfortably.

“I’m not terribly skilled outside of sleeping spells,” he admitted after a short pause, “I can perform basic feats, levitation and such things, but the more advanced magicks, such as transformation, transmogrification, transmutation, summoning, the manipulation of elements… I can’t do it.”

Twilight said nothing, not sure what to say to his admitting his shortcomings. A small smile swept over his face before fading to a faint, melancholic smile.

“Ah, but the things one can do in a dream. There are so many limitations in reality, so many things one cannot do, even within the supposedly boundless limits of magic, there are rules, laws you cannot break. In a dream, the only limit is your imagination.”

The pair of unicorns stepped lightly over a gnarled root poking up out of the path. Demonheart followed suit soon after, a mysterious smile on his face.

“You can pick out fantasies, dreams and thoughts and turn them into reality, implant ideas into other’s, although that’s very dangerous and frowned upon very seriously. I can take nightmares and use them, change them, dream up old memories to relive them once more. There’s never been anything I’ve experienced that I have forgotten and it’s because of my inborn talent for this school of magic. Everything is possible within a dream.”

His steps faltered and he almost fell, being caught by Twilight before he hit the ground. A short thank you later and he spoke again, quietly this time and not so bragging as admitting.

“See messages from others, send messages… even glimpse a possible future.”

Twilight frowned at the last revelation.

“Nopony can glimpse the future. It’s not possible.”

Talisman smiled.

“No, it’s entirely possible. The problem is that as soon as one glimpses the future, it has a chance of changing entirely depending on how one acts upon it. For example, if I glimpsed right now that we were going to be attacked and killed by, for example’s sake, an angry dragon right now and I tackled you and made it miss you and kill me, then you have a chance to react and you might wound it or drive it away before it killed you, thus changing the future. Everypony assumes time runs in a straight line. But it’s not true. If time travelled in a straight line, everything would be inevitable, and it isn’t. I could decide to stop where I am right now and that would open up a plethora of new options in the timeline. It’s very inaccurate, but it does work.”

He looked at Twilight as they walked, smiling a weird, lopsided half smile that Twilight found both annoying and endearing, if that was at all possible.

“In fact, it was a dream that brought me here. I saw a great tree, hollowed and filled with books and firelit candles.”

He hesitated for a moment before Twilight, eager to hear the rest of his confession, nudged him with her nose.

“I couldn’t tell you how I knew, but something told me that, if I found this place, and I searched long enough and hard enough, my life would be better off for it. I don’t know what I’m looking for, and I don’t know how long it will take, but I won’t leave until I find it.”

The pair walked in silence for a while before it clicked in Talisman’s head how that sounded and he blushed.

“Uh, that is, with your good graces Twilight, I wouldn’t dream of overstepping my boundaries.”

Twi couldn’t help but giggle at him and smile.

“Don’t you worry. I won’t simply kick you out because you’ve got a weird kind of creepy story about dreaming about my library.”

“Your family.”

Talisman and Twilight damn near jumped a foot when Demon’s voice floated over to them on a bed of velvet, having clean forgotten he was even there. The instant they spun to look at him, Demon’s ears pinned back and he looked to the ground.

“I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

Talisman tried to swallow his fear, both literally and metaphorically, and failed miserably. He’d been terrified of the big stallion since his first meeting with him and had tried as hard as he could to stay well away from him.

“It’s… quite alright. Y-you were saying?”

A rare smile flitted over Demon’s face before he spoke once more.

“You said… ‘were’… ‘were’ descended from great unicorn magicians…”

Talisman flinched and instantly turned away and started walking. Twilight went to look at him only to find him gone and spun around and hurried after him, calling his name. Demon’s ears now lay flat against his head and he hid behind his curtain of a mane, following slowly after them.

By the time Twilight caught up with Talisman, he was breathing heavily. Evidently he was not used to any sort of physical exertion. She leaped in front of him and braced herself for impact.

“Oof!”

Tan collided with lavender as the two unicorns met each other and fell. Twilight had, in her momentary thoughts, not compensated for the slightly damp leaves beneath her hooves and had been sent sprawling, but not before grabbing Talisman by his ear with her teeth as she fell. If she was going down, he was coming with her. Now with Twilight sitting on top of him, Talisman refused to meet her eye, preferring to look away. Twilight, just as stunned as he was, recovered quickly and put both of her (now admittedly damp) hooves upon his chest and spoke as though scolding a small foal, or Spike.

“That was rude Talisman! Demon asked you a question, you can’t just walk away like that! It was an honest enough question and I was beginning to wonder that as well! You c-“

“Shutup.”

So shocked was Twilight to be interrupted in the middle of her scolding that she actually did shut down and shutup. Talisman looked up at her, his eyes haunted.

“You think I like being ‘rude’ Twilight Sparkle? You think I want to be like that? No. But it’s something I’d… rather not talk about…”

Twilight looked at him stunned for a long while. It was only once Demon arrived that he gently removed her from Talisman and the trio returned on their way, albeit much quieter than before.

~*~

Talisman looked the strange house curiously. It certainly wasn’t what he was expecting. The mask above the door fascinated him and the clearing around the house was teeming with curious looking plants. These seemed to have caught the attention of Demonheart, who was pacing slowly around the clearing, closely inspecting the foliage. Twilight ignored all of this and walked directly up to the door and knocked primly. Shaking himself free of his reverie, Talisman approached the doorway and only just caught the faintest notes of the last of the exchange that happened between Twilight and the closed door before it swung open. In the doorway stood a female zebra, just as Twilight had said. He smiled, if a little hesitantly, and nodded a greeting to her.

“Come in friends, come in,
Let us find solace within.”

Tal looked at Twilight in confusion as the zebra turned and ventured deeper into the little house and Twilight either didn’t see him or ignored him as she trotted after her. With a glance to the seemingly enamoured Demonheart, Tal followed the two mares into the house, closing the door behind him. Demon stopped his ‘observations’ and looked to the door, his long mane pooling onto the ground and his now dirty tail ceasing movement. Whilst he was curious about what would happen within the confines of the abode, a voice in his head warned him against venturing inside, lest something be released that he wanted nothing to do with.

So he stayed outside.

Inside the home, Tal sat beside Twilight as she, to the best of her abilities, tried to explain Talisman’s predicament. She wasn’t doing it overly well however and soon Talisman stepped in. Or he went to, before he touched the mind of the rhyming zebra and faltered.

He didn’t mean to go all that deep. Hell, he didn’t mean to even touch her mind at all. But the one brush of contact that he did accidentally manage filled his mind with an overload of memories that weren’t his own.

Memories!? What in Celestia’s name… I can’t remember ever collecting memories!

Whilst Talisman tried to pull his brain back into order, Zecora started and looked at him sharply, stopping Twilight in her tracks. Tal sat rigid, trying to pull himself into line. He was confused, not sure who he was anymore. The memories were overwhelmingly powerful.

My name is T… Is it? I can’t remember… Zecora.. No, I’m not… I’m not a zebra, Zecora is a zebran name, not a pony’s name. My name… I’m sure it was… What was it!?

“Tal? Talisman, are you alright?”

His mind latched onto the voice and he looked wildly to Twilight, his eyes wide.

TALISMAN! That’s it! That’s my name!

Like ripples clearing over a pond, Talisman’s mind settled, his memories his own again and Zecora’s off to one side. He blushed heavily and pushed them all aside, vowing to forget them later. He looked to Zecora and her sharp glare and looked at his hooves, ashamed.

“My apologies Miss Zecora. I did not mean to… do whatever it was I just did. It was purely accidental, I assure you.”

Zecora merely sighed and looked at Twilight blankly.

“Stay a while and listen,
I’ll see if I can fix him.”

~*~

“I’m not broken.”

Talisman sat next to the big cauldron that dominated the centre of Zecora’s room, sulking. Zecora ignored him, trotting around the place and pulling various ingredients from pots, jars and bags and adding them into the mix. Twilight, off to one side, giggled at him.

“Oh Talisman, you know she didn’t mean any harm by it.”

“Yeah well I- OW!”

He flinched as Zecora yanked a hair from his mane and rubbed at his head petulantly.

“Ow… was that really necessary?”

Zecora nodded as she worked.

“I could take blood if you like,
But for that I’d need my hollow spike.”

Talisman winced and shook his head.

“No, that’s quite alright, but you could have just asked you know.”

She shrugged and threw the hair into the mix. The liquid hissed and a cloud of billowing smoke streamed up from it. The smoke was a sickly sort of green colour and smelled of sugar and the peculiar scent commonly associated with Poison Joke. Tal looked warily at it and Zecora sat down looking, if anything, pretty pleased with herself.

“Breath in deep the smoke of life,
And if deemed worthy, end your strife.”

Tal looked from Zecora to the smoke to Twilight and back again.

“You’ve got to be joking right?” he asked Zecora incredulously. She shook her head and pointed to the smoke. With another glance at Twilight, who gestured him on despite looking fairly apprehensive herself, he sighed and nervously approached the pot. With a deep breath, he plunged his face into the smoke and inhaled deeply before gagging and pulling back out of it quickly.

“Celestia and Luna, I can taste the stuff!” He gagged, coughing and rasping his way through the sentence before looking up. His pupils had dilated to the point of almost none of the blue colour of his eyes being visible. Twilight stood up in alarm.

“Tal? Tal are you alright?”

~*~

What is this?

Talisman’s thoughts were hazy and clouded as the smoke’s magic worked its way through his system. His head felt light and he couldn’t feel his hooves anymore. It was weird. Then, as he watched, his thoughts became visible to him, written in the air in a light blue colour.

Whoah… He thought as he watched the thought turn into reality. Dimly, he heard his name and he looked over to the source, Twilight and stared in a sort of stupefied wonder.

Wow… look at all that colour…

Her body was a swirl of a multitude of lights. Dimly, he registered the significance of this idea before cocking his head to one side. He couldn’t see her thoughts as he could his. There was a big ugly wall in the way and it annoyed him. Tiring of it, he turned away and caught sight of it.

A long stream of thin, blue tendrils.

There must have been hundreds of them, floating aimlessly in the air, clumped together. What he found even funnier is that they all connected to his head, and one thin tendril to the smooth, engraved stone around his neck.

Would you look at that… I wonder if I can…?

He reached out with his mind and the strands moved. Just a twitch. He frowned and reached for them with his hooves, hitting nothing but air as they rippled around him. He frowned deeper and reached for them with both hooves at the same time and, once again, they rippled impossibly and were still whole after his hooves passed by. Grumbling, he allowed his magic to well up within him and he tried to grasp them with that, failing once again.

listen…

He frowned. Where had the voice come from?

Listen and obey…

He looked down. One of the engravings on his stone was glowing, pulsing with a strange maroon light.

Hear my words and I will teach you to control my power.

~*~

Twilight watched in concern as Talisman reached for nothing and grumbled to himself. At one stage, he even began to talk to himself. It was an interesting experience to say the least. She glanced at Zecora who shrugged in return.

This was a curious predicament.

~*~

Now focus, focus and let it flow… You defeated me with all my power, now keep it, and use it as you will. This is my word, and as a creature of my word, It is on my honour that I pledge my power to you, now and until you die. Should you have any descendents, bestow upon them this amulet and I shall honour my pact even unto your offspring. But beware, should any not of your flesh, regardless how small, wear this amulet, I will tear them apart. This is my bargain, and I shall stand by it for all eternity, or until one sees fit to release me.

Think with your enemies mind, but remember who you are, or suffer as I have. This is my warning to thee, and this is my promise. Heed it, and heed it well.

~*~

Talisman gasped and shook his head, ‘waking up’ so to speak, from his trancelike state. He looked around wildly as the colours and words around him began to fade. Twilight watched as his pupils shrank down to regular size, then smaller. He swayed, unsteady on his hooves, nearly toppling before Twilight rushed forward and caught him. His eyes slowly focused on her face and a goofy smile swept across his face.

“Oh… Hiya Twilight… Gosh you’re pretty, you know that?”

Twilight blushed and pushed him away irritably, ignoring his cry of surprise as he hit the floor, choosing instead to glare at him. He looked at her with an injured look.

“Twilight, ow! That hurt!”

“Oh be quiet.” She grumbled at him irritably, “You’re not feeling that well, so you’re not thinking straight.”

He frowned and tried to get to his hooves, only to fall over again. He blinked and looked around until he found Zecora and smiled again.

“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll just… stay here for a while.”

~*~

It didn’t surprise either Twilight or Talisman that Demonheart was asleep by the door when they came out. It had taken Talisman almost an hour to recover from his deluded state after his trance and, it seemed, he didn’t remember anything from that state, although he seemed to remember exactly what happened whilst within his trance.

After rousing Demon, they went upon their merry way, but not after Talisman left a heartfelt thanks to Zecora and Twilight had rolled her eyes at him. The trio was walking very quietly. Talisman was poking around with his rather unique skill that he had, admittedly, only just learned to control and was, to be brutally honest, really bad at controlling. He could see it, and tried incredibly hard to keep it well away from Demonheart and the creature that seemed to rest within him.

Eventually he managed to manipulate his ‘gift’ to face Twilight and, once again, he got nothing but hash.

Huh… curious. So, why is it I can pick up Zecora and Demon and pretty much everypony else, but not her?

Twilight felt his eyes on her and she glanced at him. He looked away quickly, only just noticing that he was looking at her himself. A smug smirk crossed her face.

“What? Still can’t get to me?”

He sniffed and shook his head.

“No, I can’t. And I know you still don’t believe me, but I’m sure tha-“

There was a shriek from Tal’s stone and a spherical shield flashed into brilliant life and Talisman cried out in alarm as he felt something hit the shield, not to mention as the shield flashed into life itself. Twilight’s eyes widened and, as Demon turned around, eyes wide, she collapsed senselessly to the ground.

The last thing she heard before she blacked out was Talisman calling her name.

REST IS FOR THE WEAK!

Chapter six: REST IS FOR THE WEAK!

Twilight vaguely remembered dreaming. She couldn’t remember what it was she dreamed, but she knew she dreamed something whilst she was asleep. It was frustrating, and she spent a long time in a half doze, wondering, trying desperately to remember what it was she had dreamed about, getting more and more frustrated as time wore on.

Or perhaps time did not wear on at all. Perhaps she only spent minutes in sleep, perhaps only seconds. Perhaps she was never asleep, or dreaming. Was she asleep? Had she dreamed? Was she still dreaming?

It was a mess of complicated and useless thoughts and emotions, a powerful frustration she wasn’t sure she was feeling at all. It was strange and new to her. To the mare who was normally so organized, so compartmentalized and so bluntly straightforward, it was certainly something to feel scared of.

Until there came a whisper in her mind.

Twilight…. Twilight please wake up….

It was melodious and full of an undeniable power. She found the voice familiar, but strange all at the same time. It was sibilant, but full of blunt honesty, soft, but full of power.

Wake up Twilight Sparkle… your friends fear for you.

~*~

Twilight swam into consciousness slowly, the world around her swimming and distorting in her view. With a few quick blinks her vision began to clear and she found herself in her bedroom. It took a moment for her senses to catch up with her sluggish mind and she slowly became aware of the blanket covering her and the feeling of her own bedsheets. She was in her bed, in her room, in her house. These were her favourite sheets. Her motor skills came soon after that and her eyes were treated to more angles of her bedroom as she moved her head. Yep, definitely her room. Her window on the raised part of her room which held her bed. It was all familiar.

She was never so glad to see her own room before in her life.

And then she looked to her left and couldn’t help but smile.

Sitting in a chair next to her bed, head down on his chest with his fringe hanging over his eyes, was Talisman. He looked like he hadn’t moved from the spot in hours and there was a large bottle filled with water next to him. It was untouched and Twilight couldn’t quite tell if it was for her or for him. Sitting up in bed, she yawned and rubbed at her eyes, causing a spike of pain to lance through her head and she hissed. After a moment the pain faded and she eyed the bottle.

Oh… I’m sure he’d understand, even if it is his. I can always apologise and get him some more.

It took her a moment to get her magic in order to pull of the spell. The involuntary sickness, or whatever it was, seemed to have left her entire system disorientated and Twilight’s mind filed the information away for future reference. With only a sip from the bottle, Twilight started to feel a little better. Gulping down a few mouthfuls made her feel significantly better and she’d downed half the bottle before she could stop herself. With an embarrassed flush she returned the bottle to it’s original position and smiled at the stallion at her bedside once more.

He didn’t have to be there the whole time…

Without thinking she leaned over and nuzzled him gently and he murmured in his sleep, making her giggle softly. Moving carefully so as not to wake him, Twilight slipped out of her bed, making sure the covers were perfect before leaving her room and walking downstairs. To her surprise, Demonheart and Fluttershy sat in the downstairs library area, back to the doorway. Demon had one big wing draped over Fluttershy, his ebony feathers contrasting strongly with her yellow coat. He towered over her, as usual, but his quiet demeanour and gentle touch always offset that, and the way his wing was so tenderly hanging, almost as though Fluttershy was made of china instead of the flesh and blood she was, was adorable. Shy shivered and whispered something fearfully to Demon, who shook his head.

“Don’t say that, I’m sure she’ll be just fine. Twilight is strong, she’ll pull through.”

She whispered something again and Demonheart chuckled softly.

“Now now, there are things that aren’t serious that take a week or two to heal as well. Just because she’s been out for a week doesn’t mean it’s serious.”

Twilight started at the revelation and almost made a noise, stopping herself at the last second.

A week!? I was out for a week!? No wonder I’m so hungry.

“Ahem.”

Demon and Fluttershy both turned to face Twilight, pleasantly surprised. Fluttershy squeaked and rushed over to her friend, hugging her tightly.

“Twilight! You’re okay! I mean… you are okay… right?”

Twilight giggled softly and hugged the zealous Pegasus back.

“Yes, I’m alright Shy. I’m a bit hungry… okay, that’s a lie, I’m really hungry, but I’m okay.”

A shadow loomed over her and she looked up to see the tall form of Demonheart towering above her. Fluttershy pulled back as Demon stepped in and engulfed Twilight in a hug of gargantuan proportions. Surprised, it took Twilight a moment to hug him back. It was rare that Demon showed affection to anypony except Fluttershy, let alone the bookish Twilight.

“Don’t scare me like that.”

Twi coloured and giggled nervously.

“I promise I won’t. It wasn’t exactly intentional.”

The big Pegasus squeezed her gently and Twi could have sworn she heard her ribs creak.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

It was then that Spike decided he’d had enough of waiting outside of his room and stomped by, muttering about going to bed. He headed upstairs and slammed the door as he went. Twilight and Demon separated and watched the door as, a bare minute later, the door opened again and a tired looking Talisman stepped out, his mane a tangled mess hanging over his eyes. Even so, his obvious smile of relief as he saw that Twilight was alright broke over his face like a tidal wave.

“Twilight. It’s good to see you up,” he said happily as he trotted downstairs. Twilight smiled back at him.

“It feels good to be awake. I trust you didn’t sleep as long as I did?”

Talisman hesitated and Demonheart chuckled softly.

“He didn’t leave your room. He’s been in there since he carried you in. He’s had about as much to eat as you have. If it wasn’t for Shy and I giving him water, he probably would have died of water deprivation.”

Twi gave him an unimpressed look and Tal smiled sheepishly.

“What? I was worried!”

~*~

It was almost an hour later. Demonheart and Fluttershy had left, satisfied that Twilight was, in fact, okay and that, even if she wasn’t, Talisman could take care of her. Twilight and Talisman had finally eaten something, giving their rather disgruntled stomachs something to process and were now sitting in the library proper. Talisman was currently running a brush (Due to Twilight’s lack of a comb) through his tangled mane, trying to fix it up and was, to a point and very slowly, succeeding.

“So, what actually happened out there? I remember walking through the Everfree with you and Demon and then… I guess I blacked out.”

Talisman frowned, trying to remember the words of Redheart the day she’d came to the library after being made aware of the situation with Twilight.

“Well, to be honest, I didn’t understand everything the nurse said, but it had something to do with the electrical receptors in your brain. Apparently, your entire nervous system had a moment where it just shut down, and the receptors in your brain went haywire. It kept your heart beating so you stayed alive, but not much else was actually functioning.”

Twilight frowned.

“But that doesn’t even sound possible.”

Talisman laughed softly.

“You really like that phrase don’t you? That and questioning the possibility of something being impossible.”

Twilight pouted and shook her head.

“No! It’s just that the pony body has limitations and those limitations can’t simply be ignored! I suppose with the assistance of dark magic it’s possible for the soul to have no limitations, but in order for the brain to keep the heart beating for a week without sustenance on its own would require electrical impulse frequencies way above normal and way, way above and I’m not sure that the brain would be able to continue functioning with such massive electrical impulses at such high frequencies. I’m almost positive it’d short out the brain completely.”

Tal smiled, chuckling softly.

“Well, it didn’t, and I for one am glad it didn’t.”

Awkward silence suddenly reigned through the room as what Talisman said hit home to both ponies and they both blushed and looked away. After a while, Tal stopped brushing his mane and looked over to Twilight. Telekinetically, he removed his hairs from the brush, the tan strands finding their way into a bin close by. He then stepped forward to Twilight, brush in hoof, and raised it to her mane. She flinched away.

“What are you doing?”

“Your mane is a mess Twilight Sparkle, I’m going to fix it.”

She actually looked offended at his remark and flicked her mane.

“I am perfectly capable of brushing my own mane thank you!”

He chuckled softly.

“I know that, but we don’t know if you can use magic without backlash yet. So, I’m going to do it for you tonight and we’ll have Redheart look at you in the morning.”

Twilight pouted and let him start brushing her mane. It was a minute or two into it when she spoke again.

“You know that was a really weak reason to brush my mane.”

“I know,” came Talisman’s smug reply.

There was a moment before she spoke once again.

“And this never happened either.”

“I know.”

“And why are you brushing my mane with the use of your hooves instead of your magic?”

“My magic is too imprecise and I’m better with my hooves.”

“Point taken.”

And so it was with a smirk that Talisman brushed Twilight Sparkle’s mane with a hoofbrush before carrying her to bed after she’d fallen asleep and, once again, fell asleep beside the bed.

~*~

It was a nightmare. Some sort of nightmare, but not one that would be considered normal by any stretch of the imagination. For starters, there was nothing to see. Even in her mind’s eye, Twilight couldn’t see anything. Like sight, she heard nothing. There was nothing to hear at all. Similarly, she could smell, feel and taste nothing at all. It was almost like she wasn’t even dreaming at all, if not for the oppressive pressure being forced upon her. It came from everywhere at once, squeezing her, trying to crush her. Like she was deep, deep underwater without a pressure suit or a spell to protect her from the crushing depths. But there was no real pain either.

It was torturous.

Her mind couldn’t rationalise it, couldn’t understand it and it screamed out in protest at the illogicality of it all. Just as she was about to break down, there came a light. A single pinpoint of light in the darkness, and she rushed towards it hopefully, begging it to be a way out when a tan hoof stepped through. Slowly, as though passing through a semi-solid mass, a vaguely familiar stallion stepped through and into the void and, as though it were but a cobweb, his horn burst into light and flicked the darkness and the oppressive presence away without even breaking a sweat.

She didn’t know who he was, nor why nor how he got here, all she knew was that she was glad he was there, and she threw herself into his hooves, sobbing. He let out a small, surprised exhalation as she collided with him and hugged her back, a rich, melodious laugh slicing through the air.

“Calm down Twilight, it was just a dream. An interesting one, but a dream nonetheless. I wouldn’t let anything hurt you here.”

The voice was terribly familiar, but she couldn’t quite place where from. She looked up at her rescuer and saw he was smiling softly down at her. His mane was pulled back into a ponytail and was several shades darker than his tan coat and his coat was pristinely maintained. It was the eyes that gave him away and Twilight gasped.

“Talisman?”

He nodded slowly, still with his hooves around her.

“I won’t let anything hurt you here Twilight. This is my domain, and dreams, whether they be pleasant or nightmares, cannot defeat me.”

He smiled impishly down at her and for a moment she considered pushing him away before she stuck her tongue out at him and pulled back, turning away with a pout. He laughed again and she felt herself dragged back until she was on her rump, her head and neck resting against his chest as he held her from behind, that cheeky smile still on his face.

“Hey, I’m not that ugly.”

At that moment, Twilight had no inclination of being anywhere else.

She was content.

Home

Talisman was awoken by an insistent prodding at his ribs. With a murmured complaint he opened one eye to the unimpressed look of Nurse Redheart. He turned his head to face her and yawned before offering her a goofy sort of lopsided smile.

“Oh… Morning Nurse… I didn’t know you’d be here so early.”

Her left brow raised, still unimpressed.

“Mister Talisman, it’s almost three in the afternoon. I had to take care of several clients in much more critical conditions before I came here. I had expected you both to be awake. I have been trying to rouse you for the better part of an hour.”

He stared blankly at her, uncomprehending. She looked back at him. This went on for several minutes before a sheepish, slightly guilty smile replaced his confused look.

“Um… sorry? We stayed up fairly late last night.”

An amused look swept over Redheart’s face and he flushed heavily.

“Nothing happened! We spoke and stuff is all! We’re just friends! Not even that, colleagues, no, more sort of acquaintances.”

A soft whuff of laughter escaped the nurse and she nodded to Twilight.

“Was she alright when she woke up?”

He nodded quietly.

“Yes, she seemed alright. I didn’t let her use magic, just in case of backlash being a possible after effect.”

“Well, at least you did something right then.”

He frowned at her momentarily until he realised she was smiling at him and he chuckled.

“Yeah well. I’m not sure if she’ll tell you, but she was having some sort of a nightmare when she was asleep. Nothing I couldn’t handle, but still.”

Another raised brow before she nodded to him and relocated herself to Twilight’s bedside. She was about as gentle with waking up Twilight as she was waking up Talisman, in that she began poking her in the ribs rather insistently.

“Wake up Miss Sparkle, I’m already late as is.”

Talisman couldn’t help but chuckle as Twilight woke up with an irritated grumble before he was shooed out by Redheart.
An hour later heralded the return of Redheart looking very satisfied. Not long after came a very disgruntled looking Twilight who marched over to a random bookshelf and took a random book out and began reading. Talisman looked over at her in mild amusement.

“Something wrong?”

Twilight huffed irritably.

“She asked too many questions and too many of them were personal.”

“Personal?” He asked, “How personal would she have to be if she ruffled the unruffleable Twilight Sparkle?”

She looked at him with a glare that could wilt plants simply by it landing on one.

“I was unaware that my reproductive organs could have a viable reaction to a sickness that affected my head.”

~*~

To Twilight Sparkle

My sister has told me that these days friends are meant to occasionally visit to keep one another company. In knowing this, I, Princess Luna, Would like to ask of you and your friends to visit the castle that we may partake in friendly activities, or at least that you may teach me more on the topic of friendship as I am so woefully lacking in my knowledge. We would request you bring all of your friends, both old and new, so perhaps I may make new friends as well.

I do profess tis not my only reason for doing this. My sister is missing you dearly and wishes to see you, not that she would ever actually admit to it. She is intensely proud.

I do request that you make haste. In order to make sure you have a swift way to Canterlot, I am sending my personal chariot to collect you and your friends, magically enlarged for your convenience. Forgive me if it is too large, I am unaware of how many friends you have made since our last meeting.

We look forward to seeing you and all of your friends.

Princess Luna.

~*~

“So I guess we’re going to Canterlot girls. She said bring our friends, both old and new.”

Twilight shot a smile to Demon.

“So I suppose you’re coming along too.”

Demon looked nervous at this thought and huddled closer to Fluttershy, who in turn nuzzled close to him. Rainbow and Applejack, although they sat together, sat at slight angles so as not to face each other. Rarity sat as she always did, with an air of implacable style and grace, and Pinkie was being Pinkie, bouncing slightly on the spot.

“A..Are you sure I need to…?”

Fluttershy looked at Demon and nuzzled him gently before whispering something into his ear. He blushed and nodded quietly.

“Okay… I’ll go then.”

Rarity smiled at the duo before looking to Twilight.

“So? You going to invite Talisman to come as well? I think he’s been with you long enough to be considered your friend.”

Twilight scowled.

“Are you kidding? He’s annoying and weird!”

Rarity smirked at her purple unicorn friend.

“Of course he is. But if you don’t invite him to come along, I’m sure Demon or Fluttershy or anypony else here would be perfectly willing to invite him along anyway.”

Twi shot an irritated look at Rarity, and then looked at each of her friends in turn. When she hit Rainbow, she got a response.

“Hey, no way would I invite him. I don’t even know him that well!”

Suddenly, Twilight smiled a self satisfied little grin.

“And besides, who’s going to go into the forest and get Zecora then?”

Fluttershy twitched an ear and spoke softly.

“Oh, um… Zecora isn’t at her house right now. She left a note saying she’d be back in a week… Or something close to that…”

Six pairs of eyes were suddenly looking rather expectantly at Twilight and she sighed.

“Oh alright, fine! I’ll go ask Talisman if he wants to go with us, alright? Jeez.”

~*~

“So, yes. That’s why I’m asking.”

Twilight sat before the amused looking Talisman as she finished explaining why she was asking him to accompany her to visit Luna. Tal smiled at her.

“Well, I’m flattered. I didn’t know you cared. Especially that you think I’m your friend.”

She flushed and frowned at him.

“I’m only doing it because I was told to by everypony else!” She shot back at him defensively and he laughed.

“Naturally. I was only teasing you.”

She pouted irritably and looked away.

“Celestia you’re annoying.” She grumbled at him irritably. Again he laughed and shook his head.

“I beg for your forgiveness dear and humble student of Celestia.”

He glared at him angrily and he merely smiled back at her.

“See? This is why I didn’t want to invite you along! You’re annoying and weird and so full of yourself!”

He actually looked a little hurt at her brash and angry outburst and instantly Twilight felt bad, but she refused to let herself show it, preferring to continue glaring at him.

“Hey, that’s not true! I’m not full of myself at all! I’m terribly sorry to be such a burden to the great student of Celestia,” Talisman shot back angrily, “I’m sorry that I came across my abilities at a steep cost and that I’m proud of where I’ve gotten and what I’ve achieved! I’m sorry I can’t match you horn for horn when I’m conscious! I’m sorry that my skills don’t make any bloody sense to you and your perfectly ordered, logical mind!”

He growled angrily as Twilight took a shocked step back, a guilty look welling up on her face.

“And I’m sorry I ever came to this stupid, rustic bloody town and met it’s stubborn, all knowing, smug, inflexible, narrow minded, tunnel visioned librarian!”

He stood up suddenly and stalked out of the library, eyes aflame with a burning rage and hurt indignation. Twilight lifted a hoof after him, but her words died on her lips as he slammed the door shut behind him.

~*~

For Twilight, the day passed in a dazed sort of slow motion. Talisman’s injured look haunted her and she wasn’t sure why. Certainly, she felt bad for what she’d said, and even worse that she hadn’t had the chance to apologise at the time, and even worse still that she hadn’t sought him out to apologise to him. But that didn’t seem like a reason she’d normally put down to being this downtrodden and depressed. It wasn’t normal.

It worried Spike, who almost constantly asked after her, only irritating her and thus adding to her mood further until finally he decided it was best to simply leave her alone lest he exasperate her condition even more. To add to it all, she complained of a splitting headache since the argument and often paused when she was moving in order to stop herself falling over. Spike even considered writing to Luna asking, begging her to change the time of their get together due to health concerns, but the look Twilight gave him even as he thought of the idea discouraged him.

He knew she couldn’t read his mind like Tal could, but he also knew she didn’t have to. She’d known him for long enough to know precisely what he was thinking and exactly how to quietly prevent him from doing so without even having to voice a single word.

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting when she found herself trotting to the rendezvous point for herself and the gang. She wasn’t sure if any of the girls would be there and, if they were, if they’d want to go anymore at all. She was positive that Talisman wouldn’t show at all after their argument, and wasn’t sure if he’d told the others and made them upset at her. Not only that, but her headache was still raging along in her head and she occasionally found it difficult to breathe, like her ribcage was pressing down on her lungs and heart, constricting her.

The chariot was already there when she arrived, and Luna had outdone herself. The magical enlargement of it could probably fit the entire town onto the roofless chariot. It was a wonder how the two dark clad ceremonial ‘nightguards’ managed to pull the massive thing. Whilst they looked strong, certainly, as all guards did, They didn’t seem strong enough to pull a chariot of that size on their own, and only two of them were attached to the thing. She saw her friends waiting for her and barely heard them speaking to her, but smiled anyway and greeted them.

She wasn’t sure how she felt when she saw Talisman sitting silently behind Rarity, but she certainly didn’t feel any better. He glanced at her once that she could tell, but looked away afterwards, the remnants of his old anger flashing in his eyes. She avoided looking at him again, but even whilst they were flying to Canterlot, she couldn’t help but occasionally glance back at him.

She didn’t catch him looking at her again, but he did seem apprehensive of something. The closer they got to Canterlot, the more apprehensive and the more wilted he seemed to look. Eventually Twilight decided she must be tired or stressed, curled up upon the floor of the great chariot and fell asleep, her rest fitful and full of an oppressive darkness.

~*~

“Twilight. Twilight wake up, we’re here. Come on, get up already.”

Twilight felt an insistent nudge at her side and she grumbled sleepily, vaguely telling the voice to go away. A huff of laughter and another nudge made her open her eyes and glare at the offending pony, her eyes widening as she saw a faintly smiling Talisman standing above her. Instantly she frowned and turned away.

“I’m still annoyed at you.” She said bluntly, trying to save face. To be honest, she wasn’t annoyed at him at all, but rather at herself, but it seemed to make more sense if she blamed it on him. She heard him grunt and another nudge and she sighed and stood up.

“Well be annoyed then, but hurry about it will you? We’re going to be late.”

For once the prospect of being late wasn’t something that bothered Twilight as her headache returned full force and she winced before it faded as fast as it had appeared. Talisman’s face showed concern.

“You alright Twi?”

“I’m fine!” She said forcefully and nearly fell over on her first step, only being saved by Talisman’s quick response, catching her against his side and pushing against her to steady her.

“No, you’re not. For now at least, lean on me,” He said gently and continued soon after as Twi went to open her mouth, cutting her off, “No arguments Twilight, you need the support. For now at least. When you’re feeling stronger on your hooves you can walk on your own.

So, with a grumbled retort and a not too happy look to her, Twilight leaned on Talisman as they walked through the city. As they walked, Talisman explained that the others had gone ahead to assure the princess that they were okay, and weren’t late. Twi had laughed at this and poked fun at his idea of ‘not late’, at which Tal smoothly pointed out it was her that made the pair late. She blushed and looked away. A little into the walk, Twi proclaimed she was strong enough to walk, and Tal let her take a few shaky steps before apparently being satisfied she could walk on her own.

But as Twilight’s mood waxed into a full blown happiness at being in her old home and growing at every light hearted step, Talisman seemed to wane and grow smaller, especially once they stepped foot into the nobles sector. He trudged rather than walked and walked as though his head were too heavy for his body, ears splayed back and tail held low. He walked behind Twilight, as though afraid he’d be recognized and stayed well away from the few ponies still out in the crisp night air. It had only just begun, the night, and the moon had yet to be raised.

Twilight’s concerned questions were met with barely a grunt until eventually he stopped in mid stride and turned to face a large building with columns that would make a temple envious. The house itself was sheeted in a thin layer of marble, as shown by a small hole in the sheet by the top of the left most column, and it was three stories tall. Despite this, the garden was neatly tended and sparse, without anything exceedingly expensive within it. The windows had heavy curtains drawn over them. Twilight had to backtrack a few meters to meet up beside him. He’d sat down by this point and he looked mournfully at the house. He glanced at Twilight and pointed with a shaking hoof.

“Home.”

~*~

After Twilight finally made Tal move on, the pair hurried to the castle, being accepted into the castle after only a moment’s hesitation when the guard questioned who Talisman was. The unicorn pair made their way through the castle and, after collecting a few directions, they ended up in the lavishly decorated, dark room of the Princess of the night. The others were already there, however Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Luna herself were nowhere to be seen. Twilight raised an eyebrow at the other mares and they shrugged.

“I’m not sure why Luna wanted to talk to them, but she asked them to come aside almost as soon as we arrived here. They’ve been in… whatever room that is since then,” said Rarity to Twilight’s oncoming question, knowing she’d ask, “I’m certain that they won’t be much longer.”

At her words, an unseen door on the side of the room opened and Applejack and Rainbow Dash stepped out, their faces strangely light. There was no sign of the forced happiness they’d been showing in the past few weeks, but they also seemed a bit dazed and bewildered. It was… an interesting combination. Luna looked slightly amused, and more than a little proud of herself.

“Oh! Twilight Sparkle, thou has finally arrived. Who is thy friend?”

Twilight looked to the downtrodden, depressed looking Talisman and felt a stab of concern.

“This is Talisman. He’s a newer friend I met recently.”

Luna smiled at Talisman, although it seemed a little forced, as though she was trying to hide something. Most likely, she was trying to hide her concern for Talisman in his depressed state.

“Greetings Talisman. Tis good indeed to meet new friends. If thou wouldst excuse me, I hath duties I must take care of.”

She smiled and gestured for the group to follow, and follow they did, with Twilight nudging Talisman along on the rear. He was getting worse as she looked at him and it troubled her. Had she known….

The group stood just inside the room as Luna stood on the balcony and began the fantastic process of raising the moon and stars that night. The lights shone supernaturally bright for a moment before fading down to their usual glow and Luna turned around to face her friends. Each one of them had helped her to get away from her waking nightmare, each one had helped to bring her back the love of her ponies, and her sister. Her eyes fell on Talisman as she opened her mouth to speak but stopped, the words dying on her lips. Talisman was visibly trembling, and he seemed to be struggling to keep his head up. Twilight was, for the first time since the girls knew her, at a loss for what to do.

Somepony spoke, but Tal didn’t hear them clearly. It was sluggish and low, deep in pitch and he blacked out, falling to the floor with a sick ‘thud’, with a crowd of ponies around him and a worried looking Luna floating above them all.

~*~

It was dark. Darker than usual. Leylines of power were thick in Canterlot, always had been. A Primal place, a powerful place, a dangerous place. The strands of magical energy were visible in the dream realm. The realm that Talisman felt most at home. It's a strange place. A world of impossibilities made possible, and possibilities made endlessly impossible and strange angles that shouldn't rightfully exist. A place where logic and physics have no meaning and no power. Brute strength was determined by imagination alone, and the more imaginative the individual, the more raw power they had.

Only in the realm of dreams.

Talisman looked at his prone body, lying on the hospital bed. Beside him was Twilight Sparkle, asleep from waiting. Her upper torso was draped over him. He'd witnessed the whole thing. Dragged to the infirmary, had tests done. It didn't matter. He was just asleep, unconscious to them. But it was all the same to him. With a sigh, he turned away, a new destination in mind. As he moved, the ground trembled and warped at his touch, becoming smooth, understandable, as only he could make it. He moved through the dream, and it changed for him. A wall in his way folded itself back, brick by brick, until it was but a memory. Guards simply became incorporeal, or perhaps that was Talisman? It is difficult to say. A light guides his way. His mane is brushed out of his eyes and doesn't fall. The lights of the stars in the sky are bright, bright enough to light up the night in silvery glows with ease as Talisman left the castle. Or, perhaps he did not. Who is to say the castle did not leave him? At the same time, he was still in the castle after all so....

His hooves barely had to move and he was moving quickly, like a heat wave in summer, Canterlot seemed to simply sweep away as he moved. He wandered for what could have been hours, trying to figure out what to do. Where to go? Should he go there? Was there any point? Why should he bother?

They abandoned me... Why should I go to see them?

The instant the thought touched his head, the dreamscape swirled and before him was his family house. Marble sheathed and storied, almost imposing, daring him to enter, to see what it contained.

I haven't seen them in almost seven years... but is there any point?

With a moment's hesitation, Talisman stepped forward and into the house, looking around at the distantly familiar objects. The mirror, the old couch, the big woolen rug. Yes, this was his parent's house alright. And there, sitting on the dresser, a picture of his family. An older stallion and mare, smiling but with a melancholy look to their eyes. A filly a few years younger than himself. And in the arms of the older mare, a young foal, barely old enough to walk. But Talisman was not in the picture. With a regretful sigh, he went to turn away when something caught his eye. A scrap of a photo that looked like it'd been burnt a long time past, laying flat on the dresser next to the picture frame holding the family portrait. An image of a much younger Talisman. It was damaged, but it was still him. Dream Catcher cutie mark, mane over his eyes.

And on the bottom, written in neat, cursive black ink...

My son.

He couldn't tell if it was his father or his mother who wrote that, but it brought tears to his eyes nonetheless. With a lingering 'touch' to the photo, he did turn away and worked his way up the steps, seeing if his father's room was in the same place it'd always been. Poking his incorporeal head through the door confirmed it. There was his father and his mother, asleep in bed. With only a slight hesitation, Tal reached forth, his arm elongating, and tapped his father's head.

And was drawn, just like that, into the dream.

There was nothing there. Just darkness. Tal could feel the consciousness within the dark, but it wasn't awake. It was asleep, not functioning at a level high enough to cause dreams. With a soft and slightly nervous sigh, he took in a deep breath and blew. The wind from his mouth cascaded through the space, clearing away the darkness. And there, in the middle of it all, rose a stallion. With a coat a shade darker than Tal's and a mane and tail of gold, he looked tired and old. He looked at Talisman, frowning.

Who are you?

Tal felt his heart beat painfully in his chest and fought back tears.

Father... You don't recognise your own son?

The old stallion looked closely at Talisman, eyes narrowing as he looked at him. A pair of spectacles slowly swam into view on his nose. It was a look Tal wasn't used to. Then his eyes widened.

Tal?

There were no words in the dreamscape. Their thoughts were made reality, thoughts based upon the other pony were heard made real sound. Talisman smiled almost sadly.

Yes father. It's me. Been a long time huh?

Family Issues

"The strength of a unicorn is dependent on a few factors. Bloodline, genetics, hereditary illnesses and a large amount of luck. Talisman's family was one of the lucky ones, it seems, and bred powerful unicorns. But in the entire bloodline, never had there been a bigger disappointment than Talisman.

Tal had held the hopes as an heir to their line. First born, male and a unicorn, he was expected to wield the power of his father, his father's father and their fathers before them. What they got was a weak stallion. Although his intellect was impressive and his ability to solve most problems was admirable, his magical skills were lacking in every department. Potency, amount, ability, it all fell apart with him. Our combined strengths could not help him, and even when we poured magical strength into him from us, it just seemed to vanish. Then came his younger sister. We payed little attention to her at first, and she's a mediocre spell caster at best. The family began to talk, asking if perhaps Spell Singer had been fooling around. Talisman had left in the years following, and had been disowned. Then we had our baby daughter and we despaired, thinking we would never have a powerful heir, given that the females in our family, no offense, were never the strongest casters. But when Spell Caller was two years old, she almost blew up the house trying to pick up her fork at the table. The fork itself melted in her telekinetic grasp and we knew she'd exerted much too much force, so we took her away to test in a safe location. We asked her to pick things up, taught her how to do things, and rejoiced. She was the heir we'd been looking for, powerful and joyful, full of life. She lifted even the heaviest things without complaint nor sweat. But we still, despite all of it, missed our son... My son..."

The tired looking stallion looked at his guests with a tired smile.

"And now he's come home, back to us and Canterlot, and I can finally make wrongs right, I can mend the tear in our family that I created in my frustration."

Tan embraced brown as tears fell down two faces, two stallions locked in a tearful hug.

"Welcome home... my son."

~*~

So many ponies, all in one room. A deep blue filly with golden hair ran around from place to place, ecstatic that there was company in her home. A pale orange filly, probably mid teens, was by her mother's side. Spell Singer and Arcane Enchanter, the two parents, chatted animatedly to their guests, and their son. Twilight Sparkle was listening in rapt attention to Spell, and behind them all stood Princess Luna, a gentle smile on her features. Talisman was by Twilight's side, groaning at his father's stories.

"You would not believe some of the results of his attempts at moving things with telekinesis. He froze a very expensive set of silverware once. It was, well I was annoyed at the time, but now that I look back at it, I find it quite amusing."

"Daaaad!" Tal groaned, glancing nervously at Twilight, who was giggling behind her hoof.

"Daddy!"

Arcane Enchanter turned just in time to catch his daughter, the little blue filly with the golden mane and laugh.

"Oh look! A little vagabond come in from the street!"

The little filly giggled a little before blowing some of her mane out of her face.

"Daddy, tell them what happened when I tried!"

Spell Singer, the mother of the trio of younger unicorns, smiled and laughed softly.

"Oh yes. Little Spell Caller is out proud little witch. She must be the strongest member of our family in a very long time. She tried to pick up her spoon at the table and set it on fire instead. The poor silverware melted and Enchanter and I had to work together to put the flames out."

Twilight perked up at this.

"Oh? That normally happens when the vibrations of your magical grasp hightens too far for the item to handle. On fire you said? So the frequency was quite high! Silver normally melts before it's set alight. Have you considered enrolling her in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns?"

Spell Singer smiled broadly as Enchanter put his daughter down.

"Oh, she's not quite ready for that just yet. We do plan to enroll her, but only after she's mastered basic control. We'd hate to give poor Celestia more to clean up. Or her sister."

Luna smiled quietly from the doorway at this, and met Spell Singer's glance with a kind smile.

"But yes, she will join the academy. She's certainly strong enough."

Twilight smiled, then grunted as a flash of pain shot through her head. Tal looked at her in concern, as did his parents.

"Are you alright dear?" Spell Singer asked softly. Twilight smiled in response. The pain had passed faster than it had hit.

"I... yes, just a little pain in the head. I suppose I should have my horn checked for stress points. In any case, if you would like, I could talk to Princess Celestia. A unicorn with that kind of power should have a special teacher."

Spell Singer went to reply, but Luna beat her to it.

"That won't be necessary Twilight Sparkle."

Luna approached the group, a laughing little Spell Caller tightly hugging her foreleg.

"My sister already has a protege and student. You, on the other hoof, might benefit from such a responsibility."

Twilight stared at the Princess in shock.

"I... Me!? But, I've still got so much to learn! There's so much to do all the time, so many of... of everything!"

Luna giggled softly and shrugged.

"Our sister, your mentor, found time to teach you around running all of Equestria on her own. One thinks you could find time to teach the young unicorn around your studies, should she prove as powerful as we've heard."

Twilight looked helplessly at Luna, who smirked.

"We shall inform our sister forthwith~ Tis an excellent idea, to be certain."

Twilight groaned and facehoofed. The ensuing giggles and chortles from around her, especially from Talisman, irritated her.

Silence them then. You know you want to.

Twilight's eyes went wide and she thanked Celestia she had her face downcast. It quickly changed to a frown.

That wasn't my voice I heard... I always hear my own voice when I think, and that wasn't me...

She filed the event away for later analysis. The second eldest was calling that dinner was ready, and she didn't want to worry her hosts.

~*~

Dinner was a simple affair. The eldest girl had only just started learning to cook proper meals, so simple salads and a simple plate of fritters made up the majority of it. Luna had decided to stay for dinner, or breakfast as she called it. She sat at the head of the big table. Talisman softly told Twilight he'd never liked the table, that he thought it was over extravagant and stupid. But, without telling her, she could tell he was glad they had it now. Twilight was trying not to wince every few minutes as she was assaulted by sharp pains in her skull, mostly situated approximately two inches under her horn. It was getting worse the longer the night went on. Arcane Enchanter had just finished telling a joke when Twilight politely excused herself from the table, walking outside for air. Tal looked at his father, who looked just as concerned as Talisman felt, and Enchanter nodded a little to him. Tal excused himself from the table and followed her. He found her outside on the front verandah, if one can call the extravagant exterior of the building that.

"Hey Twi, you alright?"

Twilight huffed a little as she heard Tal's voice.

"Should have figured," She joked weakly, "You would come after me wouldn't you?"

Tal shrugged nonchalantly.

"Well, yeah. You might be able fool your friends Twi, but I'm a little harder to deceive. Are you alright?"

She looked at him and smiled a little. It was weak though.

"Yeah Tal, I think so. My head hurts, but... yeah, I just needed some air."

Talisman obviously didn't buy it, but he didn't call her out on it. Instead, he just sighed and pulled her into a gentle hug. She considered pushing him away, but instead leaned into the hug. He smiled a little and kissed her forehead softly.

"Don't worry Twi, you'll be okay. I won't let anything happen to you."

They stayed as they were for a while until they were interrupted by a giggle. The pair looked at the newcomer. The tiny little filly, Spell Caller, stood looking up at them with a big smile. Blushing, both ponies broke away from the hug and faced away from each other, Tal rubbing at his head.

"Oh... hey sis. I didn't see you there."

The little filly giggled again.

"Big brother, are you and Twilight dating?"

The pair blushed again and Tal shook his head.

"Uh, no Spell, Twi and I aren't dating. Where did you even learn that word, let alone what it means?"

The little filly giggled again, ignoring his question to answer with "Not yet you aren't~"

Tal looked at his sister strangely. She seemed oddly sure of that. He was about to question her further when Twilight inexplicably collapsed.

~*~

Talisman waited. He'd been waiting, sitting by the bedside almost the entire night, since she'd been admitted in fact. The castle hospice wing was useful, and the nurses were pleasant. Luna had just entered and was standing next to Talisman, who sat at the bedside on a chair.

"... You can get some sleep, Talisman. Twilight will understand."

He shook his head no and sniffed stubbornly.

"I won't leave her. I won't leave her until she wakes up. Her friends went to bed hours ago, understandably. They were tired, and deserved rest. But... I promised her I'd not let anything happen to her. I promised it and I meant it. I will stay at her side, with her, until she wakes up whole and well, and that is the truth."

Luna paused for a moment before smiling gently.

"Such dedication is rare among simple friends, Talisman. I hope you know what you're doing."

He didn't answer her, nor did she wait for him to. She gave him a moment to answer and, when he did not, turned and walked away. Tal rested his head upon the slowly rising and falling chest of Twilight Sparkle.

"I won't leave you to be alone, like you took me in, I will watch over you, Twilight Sparkle."

Welcome... to my Nightmare!

Twiiiiiii-Liiiiiight~

Twilight groaned, batting ineffectually at the empty air.

Come now Twilight, you're not that sleepy.

She groaned again, muttering something about leaving her alone.

WAKE UP!

The voice that woke the little unicorn up was certainly NOT the sibilant hiss of a voice that was whispering to her before. Instead, it was vaguely familiar, like she'd heard it in a dream before.

"Tal... Talisman?" she murmured softly before her eyes cracked open.

And then shot open in shock as she sat bolt upright, looking around in horror.

The world around her was burning. Cracked earth beneath her hooves gave way almost periodically to fire in places and what trees there were were burnt to ashes, standing in forlorn agony of their own existence. Skeletons and rotten corpses rested here and there upon the floor, in the branches of the broken and burnt trees.

"What!?" She cried, distressed, "Wh-where am I? What is this? Talisman? Tal, if this is you it's not funny!"

The world around her fluctuated and wobbled as a giggle hissed its way through the air and Twilight took a step back, glancing around her furtively.

"Twiiiiiiii-"liiiiiiight~"

There was that voice again! The sibilant, malevolent voice. She took another step back and bumped into something. With a small shriek, she spun around, shaking and her jaw dropped.

It took her a moment to recognize the place, burnt and a skeleton of what it was, but the one thing that seemed only singed was the single letterbox where a gate or fence must have once stood.

Sweet Apple Acres

She looked up at the burnt out and destroyed farm and barnhouse in horror, then at the burnt and destroyed land.

"This... This can't be happening..."

"Oh little Twilight~ You failed them. Your friends are all dead...~"

"No..." she whispered, shaking her head, "This is a dream, it's all just a nightmare, it can't be real!"

The landscape around her blurred and her hooves left the ground. She was falling and she screamed, closing her eyes but unable to move her shaking hooves or legs as, with a solid 'thud' she landed on the crumbling earth once more. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes and tears flooded them. She was outside the remains of Sugarcube Corner, the rusted steel girders and burnt and rotten wood all that was left. Inside she could see four skeletons, and the voice laughed again.

"Oh yes, but then how can you tell a dream from reality, when even reality cannot be proven?"

"No..." She said, her logical brain repelling the idea, the scents, the sounds of crackling flames and the grisly sight of a family of four skeletons within the confines of the building, two of them obviously only foals.

The cakes... no...

But look as she might, the family were missing something... something that would never have left, something... Twilight let a small smile grace her face.

"I don't see Pinkie here," She said, a note of triumph in her voice, "So this can't be real. If I'd failed, Pinkie would be here right now, in there with the Cakes. This is all a fabrication!"

The world rippled again as the voice sighed and tutted.

"Tsk tsk Twilight Sparkle, Tsk Tsk. Pinkamena Pie killed herself, years ago. Didn't you know?"

Twilight froze and, no matter how hard she try, a worm of dread crawled into her stomach.

"Wh...what do you mean?" She asked nervously, trying and failing to hide her fear.

"When you were proclaimed out of action for an indefinite time, your friends all took it differently."

The ground left her again, much to Twilight's shock and she yelped as she landed once more, this time at the dilapidated building that could only have once been the Carousel Boutique. Rarity's home, and Sweetie Belle's.

"Spike, the little dragon you once loved so much, went almost mad. He went after the grief stricken Rarity and..."

Twilight's head was taken in some sort of invisible force and, despite her attempts, began to be turned until she saw, on the only floor with any sort of floorwork left, or at least enough to support a full grown pony, a pair of skeletons, blackened and bare. The older one had a broken horn and jaw, the younger over the older's ribcage. Twilight burst into tears.

"Rarity... Sweetie... Spike'd never..."

"Harm them? Perhaps not in his right mind..."

Somewhere in Twilight's mind, a little voice was shouting, desperately trying to make her listen, to make her realise he was playing on her fears and deepest concerns, that he was playing her like a professional plays an instrument, but it couldn't be heard. The fog of grief and horror would not, could not be penetrated or cleared away. Twilight tried to take a step and fell, crying into the ashes of the once beautiful town of Ponyville. The voice came back, this time tinged with sympathy.

"Do you want to know what happened to your other friends?" it asked, masking its glee with sorrow. Twilight shook her head despertely. She didn't want to see any more, hear any more...

She didn't want to have anything to do with any of this anymore. But there was one niggling thing her head that wouldn't go away.

"Ce-Celestia," She choked out past her sobbing, "W-what happened to the Princess?"

There was a long silence before the voice sighed.

"Very Well."

Once again, Twilight felt herself leave the ground. She didn't feel scared anymore, she wasn't taken by surprise. She landed at the gates of Canterlot.

Or, what was once the gates of Canterlot.

Bricks littered the ground covered by twisted plants with pulsing fruits and foul smelling, rotten looking flowers. The once proud and mighty oaken door that had heralded the city's opening or lockdowns was splintered and broken, pieces of it scattered over the ground. There was a shattered guard helmet not far from where Twilight lay, looking on in horror.

No... not Canterlot...

She forced herself to her hooves and took a step forward. Every step she took, she found another terrible detail. The crushed skull of a pony, a severed leg of a somehow still partly preserved changeling leg, the doll of a young filly on the side of the destroyed path. Craters littered the city's paths and sites where buildings once stood proudly. Twilight recognized the city library, still burning seemingly perpetually. Her logical mind cried out against this, but Twilight was too anguished to care about logic or physics.

"Time has not even avoided the ravaging Equestria was put through..."

Twilight barely heard the voice as it spoke. She saw a primary school in ruins, scattered with bones and the same twisted plants by the gate, the blossoms pulsating. As she watched, one of them bloomed. The pod split and red, cloying sweet smelling liquid spurted out. It took Twilight a moment to realise it was blood. But so numb was her body and mind, she wasn't even phased by it anymore. The blossom bloomed gruesomely, still dropping fluids as Twilight moved on, oblivious now to the world around her. Oblivious to the 'crunch' of a nearby plant as it move over the ground and settled over a desiccated corpse and began to chow down with teeth filled roots.

The castle, the once proud palace and final sanctuary of Twilight Sparkle, lay before her, in ruins. The stones were blackened and bare, parts of it broken away, Holes in the once great walls and rotten wooden beams showing through here and there. The windows were spattered with a dark substance that Twilight's mind refused to identify. Step by step, she entered the destroyed place. Two guard skeletons were pinned to the wall by long, lance like spines of obviously organic origin. She ignored them, walking past them in numb horror. The entrance hall was almost pitch black, but it didn't matter. The few shafts of light that fell through lit almost nothing, but Twilight knew where to step. She continued, set on first checking the throne room.

What she saw affected even her numb mind and with a cry of absolute despair, Twilight collapsed in the doorway, tears streaming down her face as she finally broke down.

The doors to the great throne room boomed shut behind her as Twilight screamed her grief to the broken roof of the throne room.

~*~

"She'll be alright, I'm sure of it, you girls need sleep. Go."

Talisman all but shoved Twilight's friends out of the room. Demonheart had not attended this visit, admitting a massive headache and severe nausea. He'd also refused treatment, saying it would pass quickly. Talisman had no doubt about this, but it had taken more to persuade Fluttershy to leave him behind. Twilight had been asleep for almost a full day and Tal had not left her bedside since, even going so far as to request to be able to stay there officially from Luna, whom had smiled knowingly and granted his request.

Truth be told, as the girls left the room, he wasn't sure of anything. Whatever hit her had hit her hard and fast. He didn't like it. He couldn't find her consciousness anywhere in the castle, like she was deliberately shutting him out of wasn't even there anymore. It worried him. More than that, it scared him. He'd tried a few times to wake her up, even shouting at her at one point, but nothing had worked. The best response he'd received from the comatose unicorn was a mumble of his name, then nothing. She was still breathing thank Celestia, so he knew she was alive, but...

Celestia had visited earlier, concerned for her precious student, but hadn't had much time before having to leave, trusting her medical staff to take care of Twilight and Talisman to explain things when she woke up. Except she had yet to wake up, and yet to even move save for the once she'd spoken his name. Things were looking grim. Tal sighed and returned to Twilight's bedside, sitting before it despondently.

"I'm sorry Twilight," He said quietly to the immobile unicorn, "I should have seen this... Should have helped you earlier... I'm so sorry."

He lay his head on her chest, closing his eyes, trying not to cry.

Twilight's eyes opened.

But there was none of the Twilight Talisman knew in those eyes. He had yet to notice, so busy was he. Twilight looked down at the grieving stallion and smiled wickedly as her horn slowly started to spark.

Power Corrupts...

It was a rare thing, the great castle of Canterlot being attacked. The most recent, evidently, being the Changeling invasion, but stretching back all the way to the dragon wars. Canterlot had stood its ground for centuries, never moving and always remaining stalwart and strong. But even the strongest of stones were susceptible to extreme force, or terrifyingly powerful magic, as the walls of the hospital and Talisman found out as he was flung straight through the wall sectioning off the medical center from the castle passages. The resulting tremor shook the walls of the castle as Twilight Sparkle, the element of magic and potentially the most powerful unicorn on the continent of Equestria, stepped through the wreckage of the wall and a swirling aura of black magicks formed around the bottom of her hooves. The crackle of flickering lightning around her horn as the last magical backlash of the spell she cast settled back into the focal point of her magic and was reabsorbed back into her being. The off white glow of her eyes glared down at the smoking wreck of what was once a wall and she smiled wickedly, two piercingly sharp fangs where her incisors should be.

With the dark aura licking at the ground, she glared at the scattering crowd of staff with the same wicked smile and her horn crackled back to life, bursting with swirling magical power. But before it could reach the fleeing crowd of nurses and doctors, a shout caught her attention. She whirled around with a nasty snarl to face the trio of guards that were facing her. One of each species, and the pegasus faltered, a dreaded look on his face.

"L-Lady Twilight!?"

Without a response, her magic swirled back into life as it shot towards the trio of guards. Without hesitation, the unicorn jumped to the forefront and summoned a bright blue shield to deflect it. The other two guards hid behind the shield, but the pegasus guard's eyes fell.

"...We're not going to make it..."

Time slowed down to the trio of guards as the black magic shot for them, forming into a bolt of black and purple lightning. The lightning arced towards them. The bolt struck the shield in super slow motion and as the bolt tore through the first layer, then second, third and fourth layer of the shield like they weren't even there. The first layer was designed to spread the power of the impact, the second and third to cushion it and lower the strength behind it, and the final to absorb the magic and use it to reinforce the shield again. but no matter how much power he tried to pour into it, the bolt ripped through it like gossamer. It hit the unicorn and, without even giving him time to scream, the pony was destroyed, disintegrated in an instant. And, since they were so close to him, the other two guards were hit by the backlash and flew, bits and pieces of armour flying away and pieces of guard melting and disintegrating, the smell of burning flesh filling her nose.

When the shockwave had finally stopped blowing all the ashes away, Twilight took a deep breath through her nose and grinned darkly.

The aura had started to lick at her lower legs as she stalked away.

~*~

The resulting magical shockwave from the powerful spells being thrown around without care woke nearly every pony within the castle, and probably a few unicorns outside of it. Being the most attuned to magic, the unicorns within the castle collapsed if they weren't strong, and winced if they were stronger.

But of all the ponies to be shocked, Luna was perhaps the worst.

Not, however, because of the magic. Certainly, the sudden residual waves of magic did shock her, and due to her being in the throne room at the time, nearly knocked her right off her throne, but that wasn't the worst shock. Even as she called an emergency stop to the Night court, she was already on her hooves and leaving the place. Unfortunately she had take longer than she'd have liked, walking at a stately pace out of the room. When she did finally get out of the room, she fixed the familiar image of her sister's room in her mind and with a flash she teleported. It took her a moment to shake off the momentary disorientation and look around, the call for her sister dying on her tongue. Celestia was not in bed. Another look around revealed the glass doors to Celestia's balcony were open, though the wind was not blowing. Cautiously, Luna approached the doors. True to her suspicions, Celestia was seated outside at the edge of the balcony, her light pink mane flowing down her shoulders, like she'd never needed to brush it before in her life.

"Sister?" Luna inquired cautiously, taking another careful step. For a long moment, Celestia was silent. Just before Luna could try again, the white alicorn sighed.

"Yes, Luna?" She replied in a melancholic tone.

Luna started. Celestia had never sounded this tired. She'd run a country without Luna's help for a thousand years and had run it in tandem with her for countless centuries before. She'd handled politics, threats to the security of the nation, diplomacy and everything inbetween and had always stood strong and proud, never backing down, never giving in, always willing to sacrifice whatever time or freedoms she had left for the ponies she ruled. She'd faced down Discord with Luna, and even Luna herself when she was consumed by her jealousy, all without hesitation. Even banishing Luna was something she did without hesitation after reason failed. Luna had no doubt she'd have cried about it later, Celestia's love ran far too deeply to simply be abandoned and picked back up whenever she saw it necessary. But now...

Her voice felt weighed down, like it was feeling the thousands of years that Celestia had been alive for the first time in its life. It was weary, weak and bereft of the normal warm, powerful something that had made her so adored the land over. Her shoulders were slumped, and her head was held significantly lower than usual. Her wings no longer looked like that of a leader, of a powerful alicorn princess that bent the sun itself to her very will, but that of a filly that hadn't yet learned how proud she was to be of her wings, and how much of a gift they were to her.

"Sister," Luna began, alarmed, "There's something happening in the castle, we must-"

"It's Twilight," Celestia interrupted quietly. Luna gawked at her, stunned.

"Twilight? N-no way, Twilight's... Twilight would never... What?" She stammered out, stunned her sister would make such a damning accusation of her student. Celestia merely sighed and nodded sadly.

"Can't you feel it?" Celestia inquired softly, "You've felt Twilight's magic before..."

Luna shook her head.

"No! No, no, it can't be! I refuse to believe it. It's too... dark. Twilight would never cast such abhorrent magicks."

"It is..." Celestia countered, "It's Twilight. Darker or not, I know her magic signature, it's her..."

Luna glared at her sister. It wasn't like her to be so negative, especially not for this long or about her own student. For what felt like a century, nothing was said. Luna forced down her irritation as another wave of powerful magical backlash washed over her and, most certainly, her sister.

"So?" demanded the dark princess, "What are you going to do about it?"

Celestia didn't reply, but a tear did fall from one eye, unseen by her sister. Her sister's ire raised, Luna stomped her hoof down to the floor with a clash of sapphire on marble.

"What happened to you sister?" She demanded thunderously, "Why art thou sitting here, feeling sorry for thyself, when thy subjects are in need of thine assistance!?"

"Don't raise your voice at me, Luna," Celestia said, a measure of sternness to her tone. Luna refused to back down.

"We remember when you would face entire armies on thy own, saying we were too young, or that thy armies would only be harmed in combat! We remember when you would stand before the very avatar of chaos itself and not back down! We remember the day you looked death dead in the eye and scoffed at him! WE remember you facing down US, thy own corrupt sister, and sending us to the moon to protect your little ponies! We remember when you were a proud alicorn princess!"

Luna leaned forward to her sister's ear, rage twisting her features from their normal unearthly beautiful appearance, and hissed into it.

"What happened to our sister Celestia? I don't remember you being so weak"

The room went from somber to freezing and Luna swore later she could almost see the black rage emanating off of her sister. There wasn't much that could get under Celestia's skin, but this seemed to be one of them, and not in the 'hot and bothered' kind of way. A low growl rumbled out of the white monarch's throat as she turned slowly to face her younger sister, who glared adamantly back at the thundercloud like face of her sister.

Oh dear... did I push her too far?

~*~

Screams reached the ears of the almost unconscious pony, the sound of thunderclaps and laughter, running hooves and shouts of alarm, laughter and cries of agony. Slowly, two eyes fluttered open and a pair of lung were strained as nostrils sucked in air. Tal's ribs creaked as he breathed in and he started coughing as his beaten lungs tried to take the air in to no avail. He sucked in another breath of air, and this one stayed. Tal looked around, trying to get his bearings. The first thing he noticed was that he was in a pile of rubble. The next was that his left foreleg was under broken debris, and it was throbbing with pain. His entire body was hurting, but this leg was aching, throbbing in time with his heartbeats.

Aw... hay.

With a pained groan, he rolled over to grasp his leg with his other foreleg and took a deep breath. He winced at simply touching his leg and hissed. Deciding this wouldn't work without help, he took another look around and, muttering a thankyou to Celestia, he grabbed a piece of wooden beam, probably from a bed frame, in his mouth and clamped his teeth around it. Once more, he grabbed his leg and winced, his teeth biting down into the wood and helping at least a little against the pain. He huffed once, took a deep breath, and yanked. an agonised groan rolled out of his throat in time with an alarmed yell. His leg didn't seem to move, but it hurt like hell. Another yank, and another agonized groan, louder this time. This time, the leg budged, scraping against a point or two, a rough spot of stone. He yelped as something in his leg shifted that was never made to shift.

Ah... Celestia, Luna and whatever cursed being there is...

He was preparing to the next yank, tears in his eyes, when a scream from close by took him by surprise and he yanked involuntarily. With a muffled cry of excruciating pain, his leg jerked free. and curled close to his chest. It didn't take a professional to be able to tell that it was broken.

Ugh... Twi... Light...

His thoughts slowed as his pain hit his nervous system in an assault on his physical body. Regardless, he forced himself to his hooves, three on the ground and one tucked to his chest.

I have to... find... Twilight...

Demonic Rivalry

It had been a long time since Demonheart had felt such rage from his 'room mate'. For the most part, Spectre was insane, yes, but not really angry. Sadistic, bloodthirsty, malevolent and utterly insane, but not really angry. Wrathful even, but never truly angry. And it had taken all of three seconds for him to shove Demon out and take over, something he normally took extreme pleasure in doing slowly and as painfully as he could. This time, Demon didn't even feel the transformation as Spectre shoved him aside, taking over the corporeal form they both shared, and twisting it with his power once more. Now merely a blur of dark shadows and red, Spectre moved through the halls of Canterlot Castle.

Hunting.

Demon had no control, and watched helplessly, a victim in his own mind, as the dark spirit manipulated his body like a sick puppet, sniffing for their prey. The one thing Demon could feel was the waves of dark, powerful magic that radiated erratically throughout the castle, and it scared him.

Magic he wasn't sure even his dark side could defeat.

He'd left the others behind some time ago, and though he hated the thought of leaving Fluttershy without him, despite her being far from helpless, he was glad he, at least, was well away from her now, and that wherever this thing that was pouring out what seemed to be limitless magical energy was, he could only hope it was nowhere near his dear Fluttershy. He had a terrible feeling about this whole affair, and not just the dread from the very idea that Canterlot was being attacked again. Something was wrong with the magic, even for dark. It felt twisted, like pure evil.

Contrary to popular belief, Dark magic is not inherently evil. In fact, several dark magicks were created for the purpose of healing the injured, although at great cost. They were powerful spells, but all with some nasty drawback of some kind. Some inflicted great pain, some exchanged blood for great healing capabilities. Others had more dangerous side effects or dangers. Many of them could cause insanity, some could kill. One or two of them had the potential to turn your brain into mush. Many of them could simply backfire if one didn't have the power to pull it off, or the intent to harm. Of course, such a powerful set of spells, it was bound to be corrupted, and the power started to make ponies turn away from the more productive side of it, and started to make dangerous, harmful spells.

And of course, the rest is history.

To a demon like Spectre, dark magic is second nature. from dark lightning bolts to the blurring shadow walk he loved to use so often, it was as though Spectre was addicted to the dark stuff. It didn't take long for Demonheart to come up with the theory that he was chasing another demon, although why he was angry befuddled him. The pegasus had assumed that Spectre would be glad to see another of his kind, although second reasoning lead him to think maybe not so much.

"Spectre, what are you doing!? What is happening?"

The phantom's form twisted and the draconic skull snarled out of the cloud of purple vapor.

Do not speak! it snarled angrily, the eye sockets of his skull burning in red flame, This is MY fight! I will handle it MY way!

Demon flinched as the creature inhabiting his body snarled so venomously into his mind, and didn't say anything else, instead observing his cellmate in a mix of fear and curiosity.

~*~

"It's rare, you know, finding a mere pony that can stand to a demon's power, let alone mine."

Twilight Sparkle, or what looked like Twilight Sparkle, stood before a panting guardspony. His armor was nicked and torn, and he looked downright exhausted. But the most obvious thing that stood out about him was the streams of dark magic from the corners of his eyes. A dark red shield was dissipating from where he'd summoned it.

"M-Miss Sparkle please..." he panted, exhausted, "Please..."

Before he could bring himself to summon another shield, there was a powerful bolt of magic crackling out of the tip of the purple unicorn's horn aimed directly at his face. His green eyes shut, waiting for the end.

But it never came.

With a powerful shove, the lanky guard was thrown out of the way, the left side of his chest piece creasing and then cracking at the impact, then screeching as he slid along the stone floor. In his place stood the tall, imposing figure of Spectre. The magical bolt struck Spectre's chest and rolled off of it, dissipating into the air as the red eyed stallion snarled at the significantly smaller mare.

"I know that magic, Ty Zmrde."

The little mare tilted her head and regarded the imposing figure, then smiled slowly.

"That's not nice, cousin."

Spectre growled darkly.

"We're not cousins Ty Zmrde. Just because we are demons, doesn't mean we are related, nor that you may relate to me as such."

"Spectre, Spectre, Spectre," The amused voice of the corrupted Twilight Sparkle chuckled, "Now you're just being mean. We haven't seen each other in what, two hundred years? And all you're doing is insulting me, and not even in Equestrian. That is just sad my dear boy, I'm hurt."

"Save the bullshit, Sstheris," Spectre snarled, "You and I have unfinished business to attend to, and it's better late than never, Sstheris. Today, you die."

Die!? What in Celestia's name do you mean die!?

Shut it Valour! This is my fight!

~*~

"Luna... what's going to happen to her? Twilight's never..."

"We'll help her sister, don't for a moment doubt it. Your student will be safe, I promise you."

Celestia stopped suddenly, her head tilting. Luna had almost ported away again when she noticed and turned to meet her sister.

"Sister, what's happening? Why have you stopped? We must keep moving Celestia."

Celestia frowned and looked around.

"Can you not feel it sister? There's a pair of survivors close."

Luna huffed impatiently.

"Then leave them be, they'll be fine!"

The ground beneath their hooves quaked and it almost threw the younger alicorn off her hooves. Celestia shook her head.

"No Luna. Whatever's going on, we know that Twilight's been stopped for now. Whatever it is that's preventing her from moving on, it seems powerful enough to at least stall her for now."

Luna's discomfort at not having sensed the epic battle between Twilight and her opponent was pushed away as she went to reply.

"Sister ple-"

"No Luna," Celestia said gently, "We take care of the ponies nearby before we go after Twilight again. Our little ponies come first."

"That... won't be n-necessary your Majesties."

Both monarchs turned with mild surprise to face the duo of stallions approaching. The guard that had fought off one of Twilight's attacks, and a broken stallion.

"Talisman?" Luna asked, eyes wide, "Talisman, what happened?"

Tal grimaced and sighed.

"Something's wrong with Twilight... There's a foul taste in her magic, I... I don't... Ugh..."

He winced, his leg clenching in reflex to pain. The guard looked at the princesses helplessly.

"Majesties, he can't walk without assistance, I'd recommend he returned to the medical wing but... there's..."

"There's nothing left of it," Tal finished, "Because that's where she was. It wouldn't matter anyway, I'm going."

Luna sighed softly, looking at Tal sympathetically.

"Talisman, you can't go in your condition, it's too-"

"I won't be left behind," he interrupted stubbornly, "I won't leave Twilight behind when I know I can help. I won't leave her behind."

Luna paused, then looked at Celestia, who nodded. The dark sister turned back to the unicorn.

"Alright, but thou shall come with me."

Tal fought off the urge to correct her, and could see Celestia behind her giggle slightly.

"Yes Princess," he said softly, "I can walk, I promise, it's nothing serious."

The guard looked at Tal in disbelief.

"Don't be stupid, your leg is broken! You can't walk on that."

Tal shot a glare at the guard, who held the gaze.

"I. Will not. Be left. Behind," reiterated Talisman firmly. Before the guard could argue back, Tal was levitating up, surrounded in a dark aura that made up Luna's magical signature. She rested him upon her back and nodded to the guard before turning away. Celestia smiled at the guard.

"Little pony, what's your name?"

The guard gulped and blushed heavily.

"O-Oh um... Arc, your Majesty. My name is Arc."

Celestia nodded.

"Arc. I need you to get everypony you can out and away from the palace. And go and fetch Shining Armor, he should be at home enjoying his holiday. He'll want to see to his sister."

Arc blinked, taking it all in and his blush faded. He saluted smartly, ignoring the pain in his side.

"Yes your majesty!" he responded sharply, before turning and galloping away as Celestia turned back to Luna, who looked at her expectantly. Tal had his head resting on Luna's shoulder.

"Let's go."

~*~

SPECTRE! You're going to get yourself killed! We can't face off against Twilight in a duel of magic, are you suicidal!?

Demon screamed at his demonic roommate desperately, feeling strike after strike hitting his body without pain, but he could see Spectre was feeling it, and whilst he was sadistic he certainly wasn't masochistic. Their physical body was covered with wounds. Burns, cuts, lacerations and Demon was sure they had a few broken bones. On the other side of the equation, Sstheris, or Twilight, was untouched. It seemed that no matter what Spectre hurled at the smaller demonic presence, he couldn't break through the defenses thrown before his enemy. What made things worse, was that he was getting slower, and his anger was breaking his concentration, and something new was coming through. His form had altered, the clouds that swirled around him burning red with sooty fire, and the bones that made up his more terrifying true form had blackened and warped into an impossible form of spines, spikes and barbs.

Enough weakling! Spectre's voice boomed out, momentarily turning away from focusing entirely on the combat, We will crush you with the creature before us!

Demon snarled back at the creature.

Don't you fucking threaten me you half witted degenerate! Let me speak to the real Spectre! The intelligent one!

The creature snarled angrily and turned entirely around, ignoring the fight altogether and swung around, claw extended to attack Demon. Demon stood tall, staring the creature down.

DIE!

You kill me, Demon said calmly, And you die as well.

The creature faltered, then screamed as the smoke around him blew in an imaginary breeze and Demon rolled his eyes. Spectre had always been dramatic. The bones on his form cleared as they turned white and the Spectre Demon knew emerged from the purple smoke; bones, dead flesh and all.

What do you suggest, Valour? he asked darkly, one massive claw curling around the cranium of the large pony and tilting it up to better face him, How do you see us winning?

Demon grimaced as the sharp tips of Spectre's fingers dug into his flesh, and one too far, drawing blood. Thankfully, since this was his consciousness, Demon knew he wouldn't suffer the injury in the flesh. So long as he didn't die in here, he would, at worst, have a headache when he once more took control.

I'm suggesting, he said tersely, We fight together. Nopony knows your power like you do, and nopony knows my capabilities like I do physically. I can't guarantee we'll win now, but we can hold him off until help comes.

Spectre started to growl and his grip tightened, then slipped down to his throat as the spirit spun behind the pegasus, whose eyes went wide as Spectre's other hand grasped his wing painfully, holding him off the dreamscape's ground.

Why should I listen to you? he snarled suspiciously. Demon managed a weak laugh, although it was obvious he was scared.

Because if you lose this fight, you lose your life, Demon replied quickly, And so do I. It's in our mutual interest to beat this creep, or at least to hold him off until Celestia and Luna get here.

Spectre didn't sat anything, but his grip tightened. Demon felt another flash of panic.

Use your head Spectre! You can't win this on your own! Twilight is the most powerful unicorn this side of Equestria, if you take her on with the added power of one like you, you'll be destroyed. Your lucky the bastard is playing with you right now! You can't do this on your own, let me help you!

Spectre's eyes burned and he growled deep in his nonexistent throat as his tooth filled, rotten flesh covered maw creeped closer to the panicking Demonheart.

...... Then we have an accord.

Domestic Warzone

The halls were a battleground, foul smelling corpses and noxious fumes and ashes. Broken bricks and shattered stones. Fallen candelabras, burning curtains, molten gold...

Talisman closed his eyes, trying to ignore the sickening smells assaulting his nose, and the horrifying visuals out of his head.

"Goddess Twilight... what happened to you?" He whispered softly to himself, under his breath. Celestia glanced over at the unicorn, worried.

"We'll get her back little one," Celestia said softly as the trio passed through the ruined corridors, although it sounded more like she was trying to reassure herself more than Talisman, and this was something Luna picked up on. She shot a concerned glance at her older sister. She looked tired, worn.

Defeated.

It had been thousands of years since last the mighty Princess of the sun had doubted her power. Through the war with the dragons, lasting for centuries, she had never doubted her power. During the tense cold war with the Gryphon empire, Celestia had never doubted her power. Even when Luna had become the twisted form of her old self, Celestia had never once doubted her power. She had experienced self doubt. Indeed, that came hand in hand with being a ruler. Self doubt she felt on a daily basis. It had been eased somewhat since her sister had returned, but it would always be there. In times where her benevolent attempts to help everypony failed, however, she had always had her massive power to fall back on. All the power of the sun at her disposal, and there wasn't much stronger. The last time she had doubted her power had been the one time it was able to be turned against her.

The first Discordian war.

He had been the only being that ever made her doubt her power, giving that his powers were completely unpredictable and entirely up to his whim and seemingly had absolutely no limits, even to the laws of magic and nature. He'd turned her power upon her and her sister, burning the both of them.

It was the only time Celestia had ever been burned.

But this was for a completely different reason.

"Sister?"

Celestia started and looked at Luna.

"Yes Luna?" She responded almost automatically.

"We will get her back sister," Luna said firmly, "I promise you."

Celestia took a moment to compose herself before smiling.

"I know Luna," She lied smoothly, "She'll be okay."

She let Luna take the lead before sighing softly under her breath.

"I hope..."

~*~

"Spirits! She's more powerful than I thought."

You think? I really hope you know what you're doing, because another blast like that will kill us.

Demon jerked his head away from another blast that skated by his ear before leaping out of the way of another, trying to ignore the maniacal laugh from his opponent.

"Just help me move faster will you? When I said work together, I didn't mean shove everything on me. Help me out here!"

Ugh, fine. You're damn lucky I need you to survive.

In a blindingly fast move, Demon suddenly blurred into action and promptly hit the wall, cracking the stonework.

Twilight stared at the dazed creature before her, blinking.

"Really?" She asked bluntly, "Am I really wasting my time with you? You can't even move right, you have to hit the wall."

Demon didn't respond

"I'm just... You know what? I'm not even going to start. I have an entire castle to destroy, monarchs to overthrow and a nation to essentially demolish. I'm not going to stand here and play with you anymore. "

Demon blinked owlishly and shook his head.

"No... You're not going... anywhe.. Ugh."

He staggered and Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Come back when you actually know what you're doing."

Twilight turned around only to come face to face with Princess Luna, Celestia behind. There was a long silence as the ponies stared at each other.

"Well," Twilight said, "That saves me the trouble of searching for you."

"Likewise," Luna said plainly.

"Twilight..." Celestia said gently, putting on the facade she had for centuries, that of a cool, calm leader, "This is not you. Why have you let it control you?"

The thing that was once Twilight looked now upon the monarch of the sun, thoughtfully for a moment. Celestia couldn't help but feel a swell of hope in her chest as her student looked troubled for a moment.

Hope that was shattered in an instant as it started to laugh.

"I'm terribly sorry princess," it replied mockingly, "Twilight Sparkle isn't here right now. She can't hear you. She can't even see you. Would you like to see what she sees?"

Its face morphed into a grin. A maniacal, homicidal, nihilistic and completely insane grin, eyes and horn crackling with energy.

"I could show you you know. It wouldn't take much effort. This vessel is so powerful. So powerful, in fact, I'm certain she will even allow me to surpass you!"

Most would expect Celestia to crumble, to shatter into a thousand pieces as the creature before her, the visage of her best friend and beloved student, rejected her and then insulted her, challenged her. Celestia was known as a loving monarch, the ever warm and strong sun Princess, nurturing and loving as the celestial body she was so innately tuned with. But this had quite the opposite effect on her. A white hot rage raced through her before she could quash it and she growled, the challenge met as her own horn and eyes erupted into bright fiery ribbons of pure magic, Talisman snatched away at the last second by a wide eyed, panicking Luna as she teleported to the far side of the room, followed by an alarmed Demonheart, now back in his own form.

"You test your magic against me?" Celestia intoned in the rarely used Royal Canterlot Voice, the powerful voice storming over the entirety of the ruined palace, "The teacher and the student? I WILL cut you to ribbons! Burn the ashes until there is nothing left! I will raze this castle, nay, this very mountain to the ground into the pits of the fiery infernos of the underworlds before I will allow you to keep my student!"

The vessel that was Twilight responded in kind, ribbons of dark purple magic interspersed with streaks of jealous green mingling in with the shafts of mighty white light.

"But would you destroy her in the process?" It asked, silibant voice crackling with mirth as ribbons of black magic twisted around it, cracking the stonework below its hooves.

"If I must, I will," Came the snarled, angry reply. For a moment, the creature looked startled, before becoming angry.

"Fine."

The roof above them was suddenly blasted apart and waves of white hot light poured forth, the sun burning mercilessly red behind them, obeying his master's beck and call and smiting her enemy. The creature responded with a burst of black, firing straight up like a glob of slime as it stuck to the whole in the ceiling, thick and blocking the light and heat out. In response, Celestia hurled a ball of liquid fire at her enemy, countered by a wall of water appearing out of mid air. Luna, Demon and Talisman drew back a step or three as Celestia summoned a long swathe of fire and it froze, hanging in the air in the form of a rough, fire composed spear and she hurled it at her opponent, only just barely missing as it deflected it almost desperately with a burst of black.

Then it was its turn.

It hurled a ball of toxic green sludge at the fire monarch, who incinerated it without thought. But as she did so, shadows reached up clawed hands from beneath her and reached for her, grabbing her legs, her flanks, one her tail and one reaching for her throat. With a burst of light that would blind even angels, the shadows were banished. But the creature had one last trick up its sleeve. With a maniacal fit of laughter, a globe of darkness burst forth from Twilight's horn, engulfing her and her mentor in a sphere of absolute black. Luna gasped, eyes wide and Tal looked on, pained. Demon twitched and his ears flicked up from where they had fallen. Several muffled sounds, such as explosions, screams and painful thuds sounded and the sound of something burning, but not the crackle of flames, just made it through the sphere.

And slowly, it began to fade, revealing the grisly scene.

Talisman turned away, tears in his eyes. Luna gasped, tears already flooding down her face. Demon didn't seem to notice.

Celestia had been defeated. Worse, she was dead. Standing over her was the triumphant form of Twilight Sparkle, or what was once Twilight Sparkle. It glittered with evil energy over the skeleton of the once great monarch, a foul sludge under its hooves that stank of death and decay. The stonework was stained with the dark blood of Celestia's destroyed form and the stones themselves were blackened and cracked.

"The reign of these pathetic ponies is over," Twilight intoned gleefully, "This is MY land! And it's my world now!"

Demon suddenly twitched again.

"It's a trick," He murmured. Luna didn't seem to hear him, falling to her haunches is shock. Only Tal, now on the floor, heard him.

"What?" Tal asked in disbelief, "That looks fairly freakin' real to me. Look at it!"

Demon scowled and looked at the now laughing creature.

"No. Spectre knows this entity. He's like him, a demon from the underworld."

"oh, so your evil twin knows him. That's great! What does it matter!?" Tal nearly yelled hysterically, "Celestia is dead, and Luna isn't here anymore, look at her!"

Demon shook his head again.

"He specializes in illusions. Nothing there is real. Certainly, I wouldn't put it past that Celestia is defeated, but I don't think she's dead."

"And how would you know that?" Tal snarled as Twilight turned its attention to them.

"Because he's a drama queen," Demon said, glaring at the creature with a small smile, "Because he loves theatricality. It's the source of his strength, but also his greatest failing. He's too obsessed with ponies and creatures seeing his power, showing off. He wants the Princesses to be seen as defeated, not killed."

"Oh, is that Spectre talking to you?" The creature smirked, stepping towards the pair, magic beginning to spark around it, restoring itself to its massive magical overload, cracking the stones beneath it, "He's a demon you know. They're prone to lying. When the pony people find out their own precious princess' student killed her, they'll turn on the other one, unable to protect them. Weaker, unwanted."

Tal shook his head, limping up to his hooves.

"No. Not dead. More likely, you'll put them on display, and then execute them publicly. Or, to suit your own twisted avarice, you'll display them like trophies. It's so obvious now."

The muscles in Twilight's face twitched as Luna fell to the floor, unthinking and unhearing, only seeing the memory of what was left of her beloved sister.

"You are becoming an annoyance," Twilight snapped, clearly losing a battle with her emotions. Demon took a small step forward, glancing at Tal the same moment Tal glanced at him. A silent agreement passed between them. "I hate annoyances."

With a sudden blur, Twilight shot forward, a rabid, angry cry ripping through her throat. Demon at the same moment blurred as well, his eyes blasting red and a yelp of pain coming from him as he felt Twilight's horn pierce his flesh and hit bone, his ribcage protecting him from the worst of the damage as Talisman, in an incredible and almost impossible show of resilience and determination, leapt over the big stallion and slammed his head into Twilight's, his horn bursting with light as they both toppled to the floor, the magic from around Twilight fading, and subsequently, the illusion that had been cast around Celestia, as her inert form became clear, swimming into view like a mirage vanishing in reverse.

Battered, beaten and broken, but very much alive.

Demon staggered back, Twilight's horn having left his body as she'd fallen, and limped over to Luna, nudging at her neck and shoulders as she wept her innumerable sorrows to the uncaring stone ground.

"Luna..." he managed to husk out, "Luna, open your eyes. Your sister..."

That was all he managed before he passed out, just as Luna opened her eyes, anger sparking in her. Could they not let her mourn in peace? For her only family?

And saw the truth of things.

With a cry, she flew to her sister's side, falling beside her and putting her ear to the older alicorn's chest, and almost crying in relief as she heard a heartbeat, and turned her cold, black gaze unto the... sleeping unicorn?

Twilight twitched now and then. For the battle had yet to end.

The fight for Canterlot had ended. The war for Twilight had just begun.

Author's Note

OHMAIGOD I'm sorry this took so LONG!

Ugh

For a long time, I'd lost motivation. I had no want to write this scene, I had no reason and I had so many reasons to avoid it. No motivation, no feeling of needing to, resentment to everyone else that could write such amazing stories without breaking a sweat, you know. Envy, Sloth, Gluttony. That stuff basically. But I had a great day today, so here you go! Much more epic than originally planned, complete with WARTORN BATTLEGROUNDS AND EPIC MAGICAL DUELS!

Hope you like it!

Mind Games

Canterlot. Canterlot castle to be precise.

A perfectly composed, confident Talisman looked around his surroundings warily. This dreamscape was incredibly well formed, intricately detailed. The stonework beneath his hooves felt like stone. He could smell the scent of burning and rotting flesh. The sky was dark and thunder boomed every so often. if he wasn't so disgusted by its meaning, he might have thought it a work of art. But this was the mind of Twilight Sparkle. This was her dreamscape. This was her mind, her subconscious he was stepping into. And he had a mission.

Get her out.

He took a step, relishing the lack of pain. No broken bones here. The corridors were unfamiliar, busted and broken. The occasional bone and fetid flower littered the path as well. It took him a while to find his bearings, especially since the destroyed corridors left the place more of a maze than it was in one piece. A growing sense of foreboding was forced down as he plodded along relentlessly. He knew something was wrong, that's why he entered her mind. That's why he put her to sleep. He was most powerful when he was at his most vulnerable, asleep.

And wow, was Twilight's mind messed up.

"Come now Talisman," He muttered to himself, "If I was going to trap Twilight in her own mind, in Canterlot Castle, where would it be..?"

It only took him a few seconds to come to a conclusion.

"Throne room. Thick doors, reinforced walls. Best place to lock somepony away."

He moved faster, with more fervor and purpose now that he had a clear destination He had to reach Twilight. But it seems that his opponent had decided to make things difficult on him. The new corridors of rubble were winding, and when he did eventually reach the mighty doors of the throne room, he found them closed tight and locked as only the great doors of Canterlot could.

"Hmph," Tal hmphed irritably, "Bloody doors."

With a surge of magic and a wave of his hoof, the door was blasted to pieces, fragments flying for a short span before slowing and stopping altogether, millions upon millions of fragments of wood at a standstill in midair. And there she was, on the other side, at the mighty throne. And it was obvious why she found herself stuck. Without giving the fragments a second thought, Talisman walked swiftly through the potentially deadly field of wooden blades, but they merely bounced off him with the same 'tink' sound that glass would make before reforming behind him, falling back into place as the mighty doors to the Canterlot throne room with a thunderous 'boom' and glowing an ethereal blue colour, testament to Talisman's meddling.

"Twilight," Tal said quickly as he moved to her side, glaring angrily at the scene before him, almost trembling with rage.

It was not a pretty sight.

Upon the dias, frozen forever in her seated throne, was the once proud and mighty Princess Celestia. Tal noted dimly that the creature that had taken over her mind so easily seemed to love the very idea of those of power being brought down so publicly. What appeared to be a spear of organic origin was plunged through her skull, just under her horn, and stuck out halfway through the throne behind her. Her bones were barely covered with a festering coat of rotting flesh, blackened, dried blood still clinging to the once proud coat of the celestial monarch. The only thing truly revealing the nature of her character was her jewelry, which had been left as it was, the tiara on her head now hanging limply from her horn, but her golden shoes were where they should have been, and the decay had not yet touched the magnificent golden collar that had once rested around her neck.

It was a scene from only the most horrific of nightmares.

"Twilight, get up," He said firmly, placing a hoof on her shoulder, "We need to go."

Twilight's lifeless eyes, puffy and red from crying tears of absolute despair, looked up uncomprehendingly at Talisman for a long moment before a small spark of recognition lit in them.

"Tal..?" She said softly, her voice breaking. Talisman nodded, subconsciously brushing his now nonexistent fringe out of his face.

"Yeah Twi," he replied with a warm smile, as strained as it was for him, "It's me. Now come on, let's go. We have to leave this place."

"But..." Twilight said hopelessly, looking back to the long dead illusion, "Celestia... P-Princess Celestia is..."

"Alive and well," Talisman said bluntly, losing patience quickly, "Twilight, use your head. Celestia wouldn't let herself die on her throne whilst everypony around her suffered. Celestia would have been out there, fighting to the bitter end. She'd die protecting her subjects. Now get up will you, this place is poison."

Twilight sniffed and shook her head.

"But she's right there..." Twilight said with a sniffle, "Can you not see her? She's dead Talisman... and it's all my fault..."

Tal felt a muscle under his eye twitch.

"Fine," He said with a frustrated sigh, "If he's gotten in that deep that you won't leave, I'll have to push this place away from you."

Twilight didn't respond, and Tal didn't wait for one. He closed his eyes before starting as there was a vicious crash at the doors. He looked over at them in alarm, thanking the spirits he'd reinforced it with his magic as he saw a shadowy entity behind them, slamming its fists into it. Pushing the sound from his mind, Talisman closed his eyes and focused, feeling his magic build up in him. He channeled it to his horn, building up the pressure as he formed his spell before releasing it. With a mighty flash...

Nothing happened.

Then slowly, ever so slowly, the landscape began to melt away. The little things were first. The feeling of stone under one's hooves dissipated. Then the smell of flesh rotting and festering faded from their nostrils and the scent of fires died away. Extinguished next were the sound of lightning booming in the distance and the sky went white as everything up there was obliterated, all two dimensional illusion. The fallen bricks vanished, melting away as the landscape's colour blurred and the throne cracked and melted, falling to the ground and melting through it, much to Twilight's dismay as she rushed to catch the skull of her teacher as the projectile ceased to be, catching the skull mere second before it too faded away, turning to dust in her hooves to be blown away in a nonexistent wind.The floor beneath them vanished and Twilight gave a cry in fear as her hooves stepped on solid nothingness before the walls were blown away as though they were nothing but leaves on the wind, although the door remained, and locked within wall of pure light was the entity from before.

The Dreamscape was finally purged as the disgusting, abominable blossoms burned in black flames into nothingness.

"It was all an illusion," Talisman firmly stated to the shocked Twilight Sparkle, "Used by a Demon who knew your innermost fears. He's been using you, Twilight. Come on, you know me. Could you get up now and trust me?"

"But..." Twilight said, obviously going into shock again, "I saw... I felt... It was... You were..."

Talisman rolled his eyes. As much as he knew he should have expected this, as much as he had known he'd have to be delicate here, he simply didn't have the time. There was a creature knocking angrily at his barriers and he wasn't sure if he could hold the thing off for terribly long. He could feel his barriers splintering as they spoke.

"Look, Twi," He said, forcing himself to be gentle as he bent his neck to nuzzle at her shoulder, "I know it's confusing, and I know you just want to curl into a ball and cry. But there's the slight problem of a demon knocking on my barriers and I can't keep him there for long. He's already beginning to break through and I need you with me to fight. Can you do that? Do you still have the will left to fight this evil from your mind?"

Twilight looked sharply at him, accusingly.

"The real Talisman wouldn't have even broken a sweat!" She snarled in reply, causing him to lift a brow, "The REAL Talisman would have already blown it away, effortlessly. The re-"

"The real Talisman," He said impatiently, "Knows his limits. This creature is clearly just as skilled here as I am, perhaps more so. There's not much I can do on my own without severely harming you, and he knows it. I need your help! That's w-"

There was a sudden sound, like an intake of breath, and Tal's eyes widened as the barriers he had built around the demon in Twilight's mind burst in the cacophonous sound of shattering glass. Lethally pointed shrapnel burst out in a starburst of glittering blue, hanging in the air for a moment before firing back at Talisman. Twilight squealed, magic as of yet beyond her as Tal stood his ground. The shards of energy hit him and were simply absorbed, melting back into him. Tal smirked.

"You'll have to do better than that," He said to the ball of sickly green smoke, "To best me."

In place of the creature banging on the doors was a large haze of smoke that was, yes, sickly green in colour. Tal couldn't help but be reminded of the purple haze of a similar, if not the same nature, of the demon hidden within Demonheart's psyche.

"Show your face," Tal commanded angrily, "I know you have one."

The smoke twisted and writhed as it received his words, but made no move to dissipate. A long, low growl echoed around the space.

'You dare invade here?' came a dark voice, 'In my sacntuary?'

Tal couldn't help but crow inside in triumph. It had spoken.

"This isn't your mind," He replied forcefully, taking a step forward, towards the smokey veil, "This is Twilight's mind, her inner world. I will come and go as I damn well please if it will save her."

Its voice came from everywhere at once.

'But this one is mine now,' it replied sibilantly, 'There is nothing you can do.'

"I can fight," He replied instantly, "And I can draw you from her mind like poison from a wound."

There was silence for a long while. Slowly, a sound swam into being, and it took Tal a moment to realise what it was.

It was laughing.

"You cannot win!"

The voice came from the cloud, directed right at Tal's mind and he repelled it easily, sending it back with double the force at the cloud only to blow it away.

And Tal's heart dropped.

"Oh Celestia..."

With the cloud cleared, the horrifying form of the demon was laid bare. It wasn't like Spectre at all. It had a pony's form, but it looked so wrong. There was no mouth. Where the mouth should be, the muzzle simply rounded out. The horn spearing the heavens from its forehead was as waxy white as its flesh. It had no hair, and no mane. Its tail was nonexistent and it looked at Talisman with dead eyes, black as pitch. It had only one ear, the other one nothing but a foul hole of bone and waxy flesh.

Twilight cowered away from it.

"A destro! Oh Celestia help me, we're going to die!"

Tal put the hysterics of the mentally unstable unicorn out of his mind. He didn't know what a Destro was, but he had one before him, and this one was no doubt tougher than real ones. It didn't seem to have many means of attack other than magic though so...

Which is precisely when it decided it'd be best to open its mouth.

It seemed to strain for a moment before the flesh that covered its maw started to rip and tear, rivers of dark purple blood flowing from the horrendous wound as the rupturing flesh tore faster and the creature screamed, the sound rattling in Talisman's head as the horrendous image struck fear in his heart. Inside the ruined mouth were two rows of pointed, stiletto like teeth, no doubt designed to bite through the hardest of substances. Its scream was like a banshees, heralding the death and doom of all who heard it. It shook the pair of ponies listening down to their very souls.

Okay... things just got difficult.

The horn upon the Destro's head flared into life, darkened black magic swirling around the creature as the 'floor' beneath it darkened and cracked, flares of soot and flame peaking through. Talisman brought his own magic to bear, lighting up the darkening room around him with a flare of turquoise light as he stood his ground, grass growing beneath his hooves in the dreamscape's malleable surroundings. The two lots of magic met and battled, turquoise meeting purple-black, clashing against each other with nasty crackles of dangerous sparks.

In a way, Magical duels in the mind of a pony was more dangerous than one in reality, given that they're not just risking their lives, but their own sanity. In this case, Talisman knew he was taking a risk battling the Destro in Twilight's mind, and unless Twilight got up and fought with him, he wasn't entirely sure how much he could do without damaging her.

It was with a grim acknowledgement that Tal realised he was losing.

Slowly, ever so painstakingly slowly, his magic was being pushed back. The turquoise was slowly giving way to the darkness, but not without a fight. The creature screamed again, displaying its ruined mouth as it took a morbid step forward, and suddenly Tal was under mountains of pressure. He grunted, focusing his magic as he took a more steady stance, spreading his legs for stability as he pushed back mightily. The creature snarled and paused, halted by Tal's sheer determination as he shoved again, pushing it back a half step. But for all his power, this was a creature of dreams and raw spiritual power. It took another step forward and Tal slid back a step. Another step, but this time Tal held his ground. he could feel the corrupted feeling of the Destro's power around him, closing in on him. It took another step. He could feel his hooves digging into the nonexistent floor. Another step. he could feel the malevolent magic of his opponent around him, squeezing the life from him. Another and he could feel the flames under his hooves.

And then the pressure lifted a little.

Tal's eyes shot open as he felt a familiar magical presence as Twilight Sparkle stood beside him, a grimace of determination on her face as she too began to push back, sloppily at first, but learning quickly how this place worked. The Destro screamed in defiance as Tal smiled and turned back to face his enemy, reaching into the deepest reserves he had and pushing back. He felt Twilight's magic join his as they pushed back instinctively, their magicks tuning into each other's frequencies, strengthening them exponentially.

A concept only really known to unicorns, Magical 'frequencies' were difficult to master. The theory was that magic resonated on different 'frequencies' across a spectrum, and a pony who was capable of making their magic thrum at the same frequency as another unicorn's would find their power boosted, so long as they were working together on the same spell.

The Destro almost looked alarmed as its magic was pushed back, the grass beneath Talisman and Twilight's hooves growing little lavender flowers as it pushed back the cracked and decayed earth the Destro had been pushing onto them. It was forced back a step, and another, and another. Faced with the idea that it was being pushed back now instead of them, the Destro spread it legs like Tal had and braced itself, its magic forming into a more defensive cone around it as Twilight and Tal pressed their advantage, stepping forward every chance they could until they were almost face to face with the cone of dense purple magic that was the demon's black magic. With a combined effort, the pair of unicorns crushed the cage.

With no results.

The cage toppled, but there was nothing in it. Both unicorns suddenly felt the fatigue from the magic they had exerted and nearly collapsed, Tal just holding on by a thread to his upright position, his knees shaking.

"It's... not... over..." He panted softly to Twilight, who looked pale and more than a little sickly.

"I can't..." She answered, panting heavily, "It's too much... I can't... this place..."

And the Destro came back.

With a scream that would have shattered glass, it buried its teeth into Talisman's shoulder and neck, obviously deciding magic wasn't going to work. Tal shrieked in pain and fell back as, in the microseconds that the brain works he went through his options.

And came out with only one viable option.

He looked at the horrified Twilight as her horn began to burn with magic and smiled.

"It was an honor...," He whispered to her. Dimly he registered her confusion and hysteria as he latched onto the demon, grabbing it around its shoulders and locking his hind legs over it before a burst of light left Twilight alone in her mind.

Free of the Demonic presence that had plagued her.

~*~

In the quiet, ruined corridors of the great Canterlot Castle, Luna cradled her sister's head in her hooves, watching the two unicorns laying on the floor as Demon lay beside her, breathing shallowly, but thankfully steadily. She'd managed to patch the hole in his side so he wasn't bleeding, but he'd already lost a lot of blood. There was a bright flash from Talisman's horn and he suddenly opened his eyes. Something was wrong. One of his eyes was a sickly green, the other his own. Twilight woke up not two seconds after, but seemed too weak to get up. Ignoring the broken bone in his leg, he staggered away, growling dangerously. His voice seemed to waver between his own and something else as his eyes shut tight.

Dimly, he heard Twilight scream his name and sighed.

I'm sorry Twilight... I wish I had more time.

Mustering his strength, and ignoring the angry demands of the creature now trapped inside his head, Talisman built up what little magic he had left, what little he could muster and cast one last spell. With an inpony shriek of agony, Tal slumped to the floor as he felt it being ripped from him, the Demon's soul. A flare of ghastly green poured from his horn before turning into a ribbon of green lightning and hitting the stone he wore around his neck. The stone flared with power as the lightning etched itself into the stone, drawing an unearthly symbol into the rock, carving its substance into the eternal life of the stone.

And with his final breath, Talisman managed a weak smile.

Resolutions

It's blurry... I can hear something, but it makes no sense... something's above me. I don't know what it is... the sound is coming from it. Wait... there's another sound... beeping... is something beeping..? I don't understand... my eyes hurt... I don't understand what's...

Why does my head hurt... so... much...

~*~

"It's not that simple. We're not entirely certain how this happened. I'm looking into it, I promise, and I swear it will never happen again."

"But Miss Sparkle, this destruction and chaos was caused by your magic! How can we know you won't lose control again?"

Twilight sighed. The press. The bane of the existence of anypony that has any sort of fame. For Twilight, she'd dealt with it before. Well, kind of. She'd been questioned after a small misuse of magic that had sort of ended up with the translocation of a small amount of the castle wall.

"I didn't lose control," She corrected, trying to control her irritation, "I was temporarily possessed by a spiritual being that I didn't know how to fight. He deceived me with illusions in my subconscious that fooled me into giving up my body to him. Using it, he took control of my magic and used it to try and destroy the castle, defeat Princess Celestia and take over or destroy Equestria. He failed. I'm now going to be studying how to prevent such a thing from happening again."

"What's going to happen to the Castle now? Canterlot's biggest draw point is in ruins."

Finally, a question not about her.

"Canterlot Castle will be repaired. It's stood through Dragon Attacks, Discords return and a Changeling invasion. It has stood for over a thousand years now, and it will stand for thousands of years more."

Twilight sighed with relief as Luna landed beside her, cutting off the questions on the lips of the other ponies.

"Subjects of Equestria," She intoned loudly, "Our people. Today My sister and I and the Royal Guards of Equestria were faced with a grave threat. Many lost their lives, but the intruder was defeated."

The silence was deafening as the reporters looked onwards, listening in rapt attention to their monarch.

"We are tallying our losses," She continued somberly, "And checking names. We will honour those who have fallen, and remember the dead for the years to come. Those who have lived through the attack will remember them for their lives, and we, my sister and I, will mourn them, as we mourn all those who have perished under circumstances dire and unfair. Those who have given their lives to protect us and our people."

Luna swallowed hard. She wasn't used to making these addresses. She normally left this to her sister. But since Celestia was receiving medical attention (more of a formality really, to check that she was okay. She was notoriously difficult to harm, let alone injure for a long term) the job fell to her.

"Celestia is fine," She went on after her pause, "As, we are pleased to announce, are the beloved elements of Harmony. As you all know, the Canterlot Castle gardens hold the memories of those passed to each threat Equestria has faced since my sister and I came to power. This is no different. Our sister and I shall be swift to erect a monument to the fallen, and we shall hold a service as soon as we can, to mourn our honored dead properly. Until then, we ask for time. Time to gather ourselves and time to restore ourselves. We shall answer all the questions we can at a later date. please, for now, let us recover and recuperate."

Twilight let out a sigh as the crowds left, turning to look gratefully at Luna.

"Thank you Princess... You saved me a great deal of trouble."

Luna smiled.

"That wasn't the true reason I came Twilight Sparkle. I had thought you'd want to know. Talisman, your friend. He's awake. He seems a little dazed, but he's alright, or so the doctors tell me."

Twi's eyes went wide and she bolted, ignoring her friend's startled yelps and cries as she went.

Luna merely smiled.

~*~

Tal groaned as the doctor who was looking after him removed the IV from his foreleg. Originally feeding painkillers into his system, Tal had fdecided it was a nuisance and was an all round pain in the neck and had demanded it removed. The doctor, deciding that the stallion had had enough of the Morphine anyway, had obliged.

"Thanks..." Tal murmured, surprisingly lucid for a drugged unicorn.

"You're welcome. Sorry I cannot stay longer, I have a plethora of patients out that I need to treat. If you need anything... well, just yell out, I'm sure somepony will come running."

The doctor left. Tal was in a makeshift medical center. In the ruins of the old medbay was the new field hospital. Tents had been erected that held the medical supplies. Beds around the area were separated by white medical curtains erected upon aluminum stands. Basic privacy, best medicine.

Well, until Twilight rushed in.

"Talisman!?" She demanded, poking her head into sectioned off 'unit'. Tal looked at her in surprise.

"Twilight?" He asked back. She sighed in relief.

"Oh thank Celestia, it's the right unit. Fifth time's a charm right?"

Tal blinked slowly.

"Yeah... I suppose so."

Five? Five rooms?

Twilight took a moment to compose herself before walking into the little area with a forced smile. The smile only lasted a few seconds however before dropping, a troubled look on her face.

"What's wrong?" he asked, wincing as he started to feel the pain in his splinted leg, "You're not hurt are you?"

Twi couldn't help but giggle sadly.

"No," She replied, "But I think that's more a question for you. How bad is it? Are you in pain?"

"Oh, no. It's nothing. I barely feel anything."

For the moment anyway...

She giggled softly again.

"Liar," She replied.

"Heh... Guilty as charged. What is it? You come here to laugh at me?" He said back with a pained chuckle. Twilight smiled sadly.

"No... to thank you. If it wasn't for you... I'd be... I'd still be..."

Tal held up his (Good) forehoof to her lips, silencing her.

"You'd still be trapped in your subconscious nightmares," He said grimly, "With no idea what was going on around you in reality. It's not. Your. Fault."

"I should have seen the illusions for what they were!" She burst out, tears in her eyes, "I've studied them extensively, they should have been so easy for me to identify!"

"In your mind," He countered quietly, "Illusion is reality. The only limit to the imagination is whatever constraints placed upon it. There was no way you could have known."

"But Celestia... Applejack..."

"Are fine," He cur her off firmly now, "All of us are fine. You aren't responsible for this Twilight, and I won't have you blaming yourself."

The pair went silent, Twilight wrestling with her guilt, Talisman mulling over the events that were slowly swimming back to his fatigued mind past the haze of nightmares.

"Hey... Twilight," He began curiously, "In the dreamscape, you called that creature a Destro. What's a Destro?"

Twilight sniffled and shrugged.

"Some... creature I studied..." she answered evasively. Talisman smiled.

"I want to know," He replied simply. Twi sighed and straightened a little, some of her normal glow coming back as she began.

"Destros are... well, equine shaped creatures that reside in the most dangerous areas of the Badlands. In fact, these areas are the most dangerous simply because of the Destros. A Destro has no fear, no pain and no thought for its own survival. Studies into their anatomy and biology have revealed a complete lack of pain receptors, and a lack of brain capacity to identify it either way. Their skin is waxy and quite vulnerable to physical attacks, but most magical strikes or spells simply roll off of them. Of course, Destros don't actually use magic. That must have been a factor akin only to whatever that thing inside me was... A Destro with magic would be possibly one of the most dangerous things in Equestria.

In any case, Destros have one thought. To hunt and feed. I don't think they even sleep. They're fiercely territorial and mating habits are unknown. Their eyes are almost always black, although some survivors swear that theirs was a rotted green colour, and their mouths are sealed over with a thin layer of skin and flesh, resealed very quickly as they close their mouth to eat."

She paused here and frowned.

"No, wait. A fact's not true here... They do have pain receptors. But, only in the flesh over their maw. I don't really understand why their physiology would even allow for that, but we can only imagine the agony that it must cause them to open their mouths. I think that's what makes their screams so bone chilling. There's not just rabid hunger in them, there's heart stopping agony in there as well. They have no mane and no tail and don't seem to be capable of rational thought. And before you ask, no, they're not even distantly related to our kind."

Talisman took a moment to absorb all of this new information. Twilight seemed much better, he noted to his satisfaction, but now she looked about ready to ask him something.

"Question for a question," She said slyly, "What's the stone. I mean really, what is it?"

Tal felt his heart drop. She had to ask that.

"Well," He said, almost swallowing his tongue, "I suppose you answered mine, I'll have to answer yours."

He made himself a little more comfortable in the makeshift bed, wincing as his splinted leg moved a little.

"This is a soul stone," He explained, stroking the polished, etched surface of the stone, "It's a magical artifact that is common in Zebrica for its luck, although it has a much more useful function. Using this stone, and a series of spells designed by some obscure unicorn researcher whose name was lost, I'm capable of taking the essence of a being, or their soul, and bind it to the stone, effectively ensnaring them within."

He ignored Twilight's intrigued face as he continued.

"I've had it for years now. I collected it off of an... an old friend who died. Drowned in a pond one day when he went to fetch water. He never was a good swimmer. In any case, he taught me the uses of the stone before he got himself drowned. I used it to scrape by a living, helping ponies who claimed their houses were haunted or their loved ones possessed. Some of them were right, others just imagining things. As I used it, I noted an unintended but useful side effect. The souls I managed to snare in there were forced to give me their power."

He held the stone up with a wry smile.

"Every symbol has lent me power. Some of them gave me something other than their magical strength. One of them gave me a shield, defending me from harm. His skill saved my life when you were possessed, and as a result, his soul was depleted."

He paused before chuckling.

"Oh yes, and my curious talent for reading minds? That's also an interesting ability I picked up from a creature's soul I took from a two story home in Manehatten. He meant no real harm. He was simply a mischievous soul."

Twilight took all this in and smiled.

"Why don't we have more like you? Doing what you're doing?"

Talisman laughed, wincing at the pain in his leg.

"Because it's dangerous," He replied, "In order to do what I do, you have to draw the spirit into you, and then channel it into the stone. That's how I knew the personality of each spirit. But that creature... It's the worst I've felt. I didn't think, for a moment, that I could contain him."

"But you did," Twilight reminded him with a smile, "And I can't thank you enough for that. Without you... I'd still be rampaging."

There was a pregnant pause between the two before Twilight blushed lightly.

"So... When this is over and finished... You want to come by the Library and tell me about this magic? I haven't heard about it before."

Tal smiled back at her.

"I'd like that, sure."

Twi giggled happily and, before she lost her nerve, leaned down and pressed a light and quick kiss on Tal's cheek before skittering out of the unit. Tal's eyes went wide in surprise and he touched his cheek lightly, looking up as Demon's smug face poked into the unit.

"Not a damn word," Tal said to him fiercely. Demon merely chuckled and made a motion of zipping his lips before leaving.

Tal had a lot to think about.

Author's Note

Thus ends Oneirophobia. I hope you guys enjoyed it, and I'm really sorry it took so damn long to get out. I will now start work on Athazagoraphobia, and I hope you enjoy that as much as this.

Prologue

Prologue

It was cloudy, dreary and there was the rumbling undertones of a thunderstorm threatening to break across the sky the day the pony arrived. His piercingly blue eyes peered through the dim light of the absurdly early morning, looking upon the small countryesque town of Ponyville, the seat of so many different happenings in Equestria.

He trudged on, entering the sleepy town. Guided only by memories of a dream once had long ago, he slowly tramped his way through the town, not in any rush, until he arrived at a tree.

A very specific tree.

The tree that housed Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and the Ponyville Library. The stranger smiled a wry smile.

“Right where I remember.”

He took a deep breath and looked to the cloudy, threatening sky.

“Looks like rain today.”

He gazed upon the tree once more and sighed. Swinging his knapsack down in a glow of light brown telekinesis, he rested his head upon the rough cloth full of small items and foodstuffs on the porch of the great tree, using it as a pillow as he finally, after a long time of restless nights, fell into a deep slumber.