When The Glass Breaks

A Timely Explanation

Celestia and Luna were a bit surprised at the calm tone the being before them used as usually the fact something was wrong enough to make a Princess scream would have others flat out panicking. James raised an eyebrow and simply stood there as his hands began to gently fidget as he never did have that great a grasp on patience. He watched the two Monarchs of whatever Equestria was while they walked to Luna’s bed once more and both sat down as Celestia motioned for him to sit into the chair that was by the window, accompanied by the table. He wanted to let out a groan from the frustration of waiting but simply let it go as he went to the chair, shifting the chair around to face them before sitting down in it.

Once both Princesses were sure that he was in a more comfortable state Luna spoke up, trying her best to put into words what she had seen and experienced when she went into his mind “James…. From what I hath seen… You are tr-truly something that should not exist. You….” She moved her hands up to her head and held it still closing her eyes as she felt the images growing clearer for each thing before continuing “Thou are not alone in your mind whether you know or not. There are many a shade inside your mind and thou need to be careful for if the wall I hath seen ever were to break you would be driven mad in an instant. For now, you need to dream and I will assist in whatever way I am able.” Hearing this James other eyebrow raised and the surprise was on his face both from hearing the explanation and also from what dreaming could have to do with this.

Seeing the confusion Celestia spoke in a bit more worried tone as the scope of this problem became apparent from the words of her sister “While I rule the day my sister rules the night and with each of our duties, we use a few abilities as well to coincide with it. During the day I know all that transpires in the open sun and my sister rules over the dreams of everyone in the Dream Realm. She helps to dispel nightmares and watches over our subjects as best she can. For what you have gone through I believe she needs you to dream to be able to help you understand and teach you what you need to know. So, to that end I wish to put you to sleep with a spell to allow this to happen as soon as possible. Would you mind?” James thought on this for a moment as he wasn’t sure whether to trust it but by going through the situation rationally, he had already been given a choice and so had the Princess. Instead of simply forcing her will onto him she had instead asked and by simply doing that the decision was made for him.

James smiled softly and nodded, saying with a happy tone as it had been awhile since he felt good about someone giving him a choice “Go right ahead Celestia. I trust you.” He leaned back slightly into the chair, making sure that when he fell asleep, he wouldn’t feel to uncomfortable as Celestia’s horn shone with a gentle gold aura once more and cast the spell onto him. He slipped out of the waking world and now went to his dreams, being overwhelmed quickly by images and sounds as he did so from so many things trying to play at the same time. Suddenly all of the it died down and Luna stood beside him with a blue flash.

“Now that we are here, I am going to take help you learn about one of the beings inside you. Whether you can adjust to it and use their abilities is on you but I will guide you to the wall and then instruct you from there.” Luna spoke in a normal tone as she looked around unsure if this was the right thing to do before turning to her left and walking away. James quickly caught on and then began to follow behind her wondering just what she had meant by The Wall but another thing came to mind and instead he had a question now.

James asked her with a curious tone as his inquisitive nature that led to science once again came out “So mind if I ask why you are speaking… well differently than when we were awake? It seems a little interesting considering you changed your inflections and speech pattern so quickly.” He followed as she continued to walk, noting that the view of her wings gave him a better idea of her anatomy as he could see they were truly connected and the feathers all seemed to be well in line.

Luna almost stopped as what he had said puzzled her but continued on as The Wall was getting closer on the horizon and speaking in a gentle tone “When I go into the dreams of another I use my influence to make it so they can understand what I say succinctly and thus my speech changes as you have just found. However, most would not notice this on their first time and certainly within the first exchange for those who do realize I am there and speak with me. In fact, I believe that you may be the first to realize this fact.” As she spoke, they got closer and closer to their destination and just as James was about to answer his voice caught in his throat as he stared at the brick structure before him.

It seemed endless no matter whether he looked left, right, or to the very top as no taper for it could be seen. However, the door at the bottom in front of them did catch his interest as it looked quite like the door to his Mothers house in his childhood days. He then looked to Luna as he felt he didn’t need to ask if this was the place she had meant. She nodded and so he smiled and chuckled as his curiosity was beginning to get the better of him. He walked over to the door and grabbed the golden handle and being closer he now knew this was the same door. The Mahogany wood was stained red and there were small cuts and indents in the wood that had been caused by him and others that lived in the house. He then asked with a bit of trepidation “So how exactly am I going to be doing this? Do I just open the door or is there something else I am supposed to do?

Luna smiled as she had seen his intelligence on display and it was there in his question and actions as instead of opening the door he instead asked for help with bravery, willing to confront his fear and not go it alone as she had offered her help. She then said with a happy tone “I believe the simplest way to do it is to focus on one thing, one word perhaps as you open the door and that may allow you to have a narrower view of the things beyond. For this I would recommend perhaps Mage or Wizard as with what my sister told me you were not shielded from the ambient magic but when it became too painful your body reacted. When you brought your hands to your ears you used a bit of magic to shield your mind from the magic for the moment. However unless you learn how to control it then you will most likely go mad without everything else even playing a part in it.”

James sighed as he should of known it wouldn’t be easy but then again with how well he was managing to stay sane in a world of creatures such as this he shrugged it off and focused on the two words she had mentioned. Mage, Wizard. James then turned the handle and opened the door before him as Luna’s assumption had proven correct and he viewed all the images that seemed focused on those two words. The thing that immediately struck him was that no matter which image he looked at the people within them seemed familiar and resonated with him. Focusing on five of them specifically he noted one was using his magic to heal and bless others, helping them recover. As he focused on the image and the subsequent ones that seemed to play from its information came to him, whispers coming to his ears as now understood each and every spell that person had ever used. He shook it off as the experience was strange but now focused on the next image. It showed a mage flying above a battlefield, observing the situation with a calculating gaze before he held one hand up and gathered what seemed to be a miniature sun and let it drop onto all soldiers in a certain area, making it a burned wasteland with nothing but ash there. As James continued to focus on this the spells and even tactical knowledge formed in his head, the whispers getting a bit louder now but he once again shook it off.

As he focused on the next image it to showed a Mage, this one in a dark cave, skulls and dead bodies gathered around them as purple smoke seemed to come off of them and the bodies began to jerkily move. It shifted and then showed the Mage cursing someone, their flesh falling off in patches and blood spilling from the areas. It made the person seem like a horrifying patchwork as half of their face was gone, bits of their chest and arms exposed muscle to the air and blood now pumping from the areas. James felt slightly sick from seeing it but knew that abilities like this were neither good nor bad, they simply were and could be used for either side depending on who used them. The next image showed an older female, staring up at a dragon with what seemed like lightning in her palm before moving up to aim and fire into the dragon’s eye, causing its brain to fry and fall dead to the ground. It shifted as the others had, showing her now mixing a concoction in a cauldron and when she deemed it done bottled it up as she had a wide smile. Again, the information came to him and the whispers now began to actually be heard “Alone, Powerful, Hungry, Worthy, Destruction” but as quickly as they came, they stopped.

James shuddered as he took a moment before finally looking to the last image, seeing a kind old man levitating something that must have easily weighed ten tons. It shifted again and now it showed him looking down at what seemed to be a literal demon from a hill and then began making ice, fire, lightning, water, and an ethereal form of energy before combining it all and launching it at the demon. The resulting explosion seemed to atomize the demon and half of the land where it had been standing while the old man simply had a sad look in his eyes. For the last time the information flowed into his head and with it he felt a small twinge in his mind as he suddenly began to remember many things in perfect detail. He growled slightly as he tried to stop some of the memories from surfacing before the whispers now came back louder than ever “Destroyer, Savior, Life bringer, Death dealer, The beginning, The end.” This was strange as the volume hadn’t gone down but instead stopped suddenly and he felt frightened as he closed the door and stood there for a few moments before turning back to Luna. She seemed a bit surprised as she asked “Are you done already? From my keeping you were only looking at them for a few seconds.”

James shuddered as some memories came to mind from each of those memories and he slowly let them play before nodding and saying “Yeah I am done…. I have to say that was weird… But now that its over I think I should have a good idea on magic and how to use it. But I don’t know if I would be able to test it here or if I need to be awake.” He looked over to Luna with a confused expression as the answer seemed to be in front of him but he had no experience himself with magic in this world and so looked to her for the answer.

Luna thought for a moment before saying with a cautious tone “Well you could use magic here however I would not recommend it for two reasons. The first is that if you use it and the spell is too powerful then it could end up going into the real world and affect things there. The second is that you while you cast you can see effects but won’t be able to properly feel the magic flow through you unless you are awake and coherent enough to sense it. So to that end shall we go back?” She held out her hand toward him with a smile and so he took it and in another flash of blue light they left the mindscape to come to the waking world once more.