This castle.. there’s something about it that really calms me, I don’t really know how to explain the feeling. It’s like this place is surrounded by an aura of peace. Ironic since this place has definitely seen death before.

I continue my limping crusade until I come across another set of large oak doors, these ones still intact. I find my curiosity getting the better of me and I push the doors open, revealing two thrones.

The throne on the right has a stone carving of a sun, planted right at the tip of the seat. The throne on the left, is the same exact seating design, except instead of a sun, it’s a crescent moon.

I think about these thrones for a second and approach them. The arms of the thrones have an assortment of gems engraved into them. Rubies, emeralds, amethysts . It’s quite stunning actually.

I decide to focus on setting up camp before exploring a bit more and I pick a spot behind the thrones that have little to no debris, and still has the roof above it.

I set down my gear and move back to the front of the thrones to go tear down one of the many tattered and aged banners placed along the walls. I decided to tear down one of the dark blue moon themed banners to use as a blanket.

I wonder how Discord’s fairing. I hope he managed to make Zecora look more crazy then she already was. Having the amount of ponies that know about my existence is bad enough as is.

I bundle up the banner and place it beside my bag and turn back around to fetch some more banners as a placemat. After some tearing and positioning I had a nice little comfy spot to lay down. I place my hands on my hips and look at my makeshift bed.

“Good enough.” I say out loud. Not really caring what heard me.

I go back into the main throne room and spot a set of blue armour with that crescent moon on the chest plate. The armour looks like it’s fitted for a pony, figures.

While I’m inspecting I see a shadow in my peripheral moving quickly out of the room. I turn to face where I saw it but see no disturbances in the environment. I move to the oak doors and close them. Once the doors are fully shut I turn back to the armour to see if I can find any more pieces to it.

Maybe I can put it together? I start slowly searching the room for any scattered pieces of armour. In the end of my search I have; the chest piece, two pieces of leg armour, a helmet and a spear.

Their armour doesn’t look all that strong to be honest. If I were to put a heavy enough punch into the armour it would break, or heavily dent.

I look up through one of the many holes in the ceiling and see that the sun is about to go down, and at the same time, I yawn.

I look back down and limp over to my bed and lay down on top of it. I take off my helmet and place it beside my head on the stone, and pull the banner I’m using as a blanket over myself. I then shut my eyes and try to catch some sleep. Hopefully this one won’t be interrupted.

•
•
•

Floating. Always floating. I can’t help but feel annoyed with the constant floating. I don’t feel anything while in here but it’s still nice to atleast simulate the feeling of walking on solid ground.

Oh wait, I can. I roll my eyes at my forgetfulness and close my eyes, thinking of a random memory. I wait for the shift on the other side of my eyelids and when I see it, I open them.

I’m standing on top of a hill. The grass is the greenest green there can be, little patches of flowers fill random spots on the hill. The sky is a light blue, with clouds partially filling it, and the sun beams down onto my figure.

I take a step forward, then another. This is my happy place. My own secluded spot of greenery.

I take a seat, not having the burden of injuries when in here, and breathe in the simulated air. I feel happy. Knowing this I let a smile appear on my face, and the muscles in my body start to relax.

I feel something try and pry into my head, and my smile drops. I wait for a second and that feeling of uneasiness washes over me. Suddenly the sky turns into a black and the flowers and grass around me start to wilt and die.

I swivel my head in every direction, only to be met with the same sight. Death. What is this? I didn’t do this!

I hear something in the wind. It sounds like.. screaming? I close my eyes and try to end the stimulation but I can’t, and I begin feel a tightness in my chest.

I open my eyes to see that everything’s returned to normal. I look around in a panic, and everything had gone back to how it was previously. What the fuck..

I worriedly sit back down, deciding to worry about this when I wake up. For now I need to let my body get as much rest as it can. I feel I’m gonna need it soon.

~ POV: ? ~

Watching the creature sleep in my castle aggravates me. Who does he think he is to walk into my castle and claim it as his own?

My attempt to enter his mind was a failure. Whatever this thing is it has a very strong mental barrier. Interesting.

~ POV: October ~

I ended the simulation and decided to just float around in the white. Allowing me to think about the first time I was here. I’ve always been prone to lucid dreaming, but the night I arrived was the first time I’ve been in my own mind so to say. Or atleast that’s what that voice told me. I don’t mind it though. Having a blank slate like this can be nice. I do have the freedom to make whatever I want. It’s like an empty canvas, and I’m the artist.

I didn’t realize I was doing it but while I was thinking I had begun to rub a specific part on the side of my body. A portion of my body I wish I could remove. I clench my fist and move it away from my side, trying to change my thoughts before I have to sit through the memory.

I do manage to change my thoughts and I let out a puff of non existent air. I’m gonna have to learn to control everything here. One wrong thought to cross my mind and I’m living through it again.

I feel my body in the real world begin to shift and turn. It’s wake up time.

•
•
•

I wake up and just lie there on my bed for a minute before slowly sitting up. My back is a little sore, but other then that I think the sleep was refreshing.

I look down at my thigh and remove the gauze, wanting to take a look at the progress of the healing. I unwrap the wound and find myself completely shocked to find that the wound has been completely healed. I thought the Zebra said a week? I look at my hand and unwrap the gauze there too, revealing the same results.

I’m overcome with enthusiasm now that my wounds have been healed, and I stand up, wanting to exercise my leg. I stretch my arms and leg before going for a light jog around the rundown castle.

While jogging I start whistling a random tune I had thought of and turned down every turn I could find that wasn’t basically destroyed, liking the feeling of being able to run again. I guess I realized how much I really depend on my legs because I feel like I gained a piece back to my soul.

I make my way back into the throne room and stand in the centre, taking some breaths.

FLASH

“There you are! Do you know how hard it was to track your aura with you out here?” I hear Discord’s voice and I turn to face him.

“I have an aura?” I ask with genuine curiosity. “What is it like?” I say looking at him.

“It’s the kind of aura, Death would have if you can imagine it.” He says with a look of intrigue as he stares at me. I was about to ask what he was staring at when I realized my helmet was still beside my makeshift bed. I turn and run back to the helmet, quickly putting it on my head and stomping back to Discord.

“You know I might kill you right now, right?” I say in a threatening tone. He takes a step back and puts his hands out in front of him.

“Don’t escalate this. I’ve already seen your face before, you forget I’ve been watching you for awhile when you were back on earth.” He tries to defend himself. Knowing this information I raise my fist ready to strike him but I calm down and lower it.

“Are you the only one who knows.” I point at him, he nods quickly. “Keep it that way. Or I’ll turn your head into a trophy.” I turn away quickly and I can hear him let out a noise of relief.

“Don’t worry October. Your secret is safe with me.” He says with a hand over his heart. This gets me thinking again.

“If you know everything about me, why don’t you call me by my real name?” I look over my shoulder at him.

“For two reasons. I don’t wish to be turned into mince meat, and I do it as a form of respect.” He replies with a bow of his head.

“Smart answer.” I walk over to my bed and grab all of my gear before walking back to Discord. “Teleport me somewhere.” I look at him.

“I thought you didn’t want to?” He has a worried expression.

“I don’t. But I want to test something.” I say back to him, standing closer and forcing his hand onto my shoulder, before closing my eyes.

FLASH

When I open my eyes the only noticeable reaction to the teleport is slight nausea. I look at Discord and see that he’s looking me over in interest.

“Your not writhing in pain. The magic must have done something with your previous wounds. Speaking of which, how are they gone already?” He says poking my thigh with a finger.

“I honestly don’t know. But I’m not complaining.” I take a look around and see cells, are we in a prison? “Discord where are we?” I take a step away and crouch down looking at a damp unlit torch lying on the ground.

“We are currently in Canterlot Dungeons.” I stop my inspection and look at him quickly at this. We’re in the mountain city?

“What are we doing here. I thought I said to wait before speaking to the Princesses.” I frown at him, though he can’t see it, I’m sure he can sense it.

“We won’t be talking, we will be observing. You see I want to have the upper hand when we do get you to meet them face to face. Unfortunately they already know of your existence, they just don’t know your sentient, or my companion.” He smirks.

“Companion?” I question, starting my walk down the dungeons hall.

“Well what else would you be?” I ponder over this before shrugging. “How will we be ‘observing’ the royalties?” I ask Discord when he catches up and walks with me.

“Well, we will have to stay away from the main hallways, and I have an idea to do so. Walking through the castle would be idiotic to say the least, so we will have to travel above it all.” He grins and looks at me. This can’t end well.

Author's Note

I don’t have an editor, so I have to go back through all the chapters and re-read them, making sure that I make changes where needed.

The next chapter is a work in progress, wanting it to be over 5k words.

Please be patient with me while I work out all the grammar and punctuation mistakes in previous chapters.