Ch 5.

Uhh... What the hell? I'm in a dream? I have emotion sinks, this is supposed to be impossible!

I shook my avatar’s head, and began to observe my surroundings. Only to find them… lacking

Pure black, absolute nothing, Void. All that was, is and shall be.

It feels calm, comfortable.

I sighed as I let myself rest in the emptiness of my mind. I could conjure up anything I wanted here. Afterall, this was MY dream. However, I chose nothing. Peace.

Hours passed like minutes, and seconds passed like years. Time was an abstract, and I enjoyed this to the fullest extent.

Eventually, a ripple went through my mindscape, foreign, powerful, an intruder.

I jolted at this realization, and reached out with my hands. I clenched space in my hands, and tore it open. The void was inverted into a static white state, one where everything could be seen as the horizon was infinitely far away. In the distance I spotted a dark blue speck.

I held out my hands to let a scythe coalesce in my grip. I pieced together my arcane metallic wings and folded reality.

Suddenly, I stood before a winged unicorn, and took a step forward to cross the threshold of bent space. The intruder flinched at my sudden appearance.

I spread my wings as I raised my scythe in a defensive posture. “Who are you? And why are you in my mind?”

A dreamwalker, in their true form… sloppy.

The dreamwalker’s glare hung over a grimace. She was tense, ready for a fight, and wing unfolded in preparation. “THOU SHOULD NOT MAKE DEMANDS OF THINE PRINCESS.”

I returned her look with one of cold emptiness. Eyes like the void I floated in before. I want that peace back.

“I bow to no dreamwalker, no princess, no king. NOW LEAVE. You are not welcome within my mind. If we are to speak, I will only do so in the waking world. This place holds my peace, and you have disturbed it.”

The longer I spoke, the more static dripped from my voice.

The intruder didn’t flinch. “THOU HAST BEEN NOTED TO BE A PRACTITIONER OF SOUL MAGIC?”

I sighed at this as I facepalmed. “God, why does everyone assume the worst… Soul magic has many branches, and yes I can do some soul magic, no I’m not a necromancer.” I dragged my hand down my face in exasperation.

Dammit… missed an emotion I guess, I’ll have to reignite the links. Must be faulty.

The dream walker narrowed her eyes. “WE DO NOT TRUST THINE WORDS FOUL NECRO-.”

I cut her off, “I don’t care. Get. Out. Now.”

The dreamwalker glared at me with a snarl. “HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO US IN SUCH A MANNER? WE ART THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT, WE SHALT NOT BE ORDERED AROUND BY THE LIKES OF YOU.” With this, the winged unicorn lowered her horn at me.

Fine then.

“Princess or not, no one invades my mind.” I snapped my fingers and disappeared. The intruder looked around while screaming about my cowardice or whatever. I watched as she wandered the endless white void for hours. She sent blasts everywhere, tried teleporting, and even attempted to force the dream to shift. Nothing happened. Nothing changed. The static was getting loud, and the silence was deafening.

She talked, she walked, she yelled, she screamed, and failed to escape. She was stuck here. I had dilated time, so that she felt years pass. Minds weren’t meant to deal in absolutes such as this, but she tried. Oh how she tried. She ordered, demanded, requested, bargained, she begged. She screamed and screamed and screamed for someone, anyone…
…
…
b͖͉͓̳̬̄͜ṷ̵͎̭̥̇͗ͣt͍͚͚̳̬̣̍͞ ̟̞͉͔͇̪̜ͯͨ̕n̸͇̩̺͆͗͌̋ó̪͉̭̙͖̥͢b̵̪͍̦̱͙ͨ͑̄͊o̫̺͎̖̫̠͂͟d̢̼̼̥̤̖̼̜̄ͥͅy̶͍̻̏ ̢̗̝̪̗̮͇̟͈ͨ͌ͮ̉c̨̻̳͋̈ͪa̡͈̮͇̥̟̠͉̐ͅm̗̯͔̀ͫ͡e̝̩͓̺͆̅͌͜
…
…
…

Eventually the intruder fell silent. She sat still, breathing heavily.

Pathetic.

As I finished the thought, the dreamwalker’s screams… started to scream back. Unending wails of rage, sorrow, and eventually, regret. Reverbing off the ends of this world in my head, her screams returned. To her, the screams were from nine years ago. Nearly a whole decade of nothing but her own voice ripping into the void.

I materialized then, black particles coalescing into the forms of my masks. They floated in their circular orbit, but my body wasn’t present. I used them as my mouth piece “This is your one and only warning dreamwalker. Now go.”

The strange blue pony sprinted for a door that popped open.

Maybe that was a bit… much.

The door slammed behind her as she ran. I let the white fade to black once more. Back to that feeling of coolness, the cozy dark, the pure tranquility. My. Personal. Void. Finally, rest…
…
…
…

My eyes slowly opened as I heard the flapping of wings and hooves on the gravel outside. Rays of sunlight passed through the window, bathing the room in a warm golden glow. The wood seemed to shine. The image didn’t last for long, as the sun rose swiftly, I narrowed my eyes. Why is it so fast? It wasn’t passing through the sky nearly as quickly yesterday…

Then it hit me. Two auras, the larger was golden and pure, while the other seemed… muted.

Greeeaaat.

I rolled off of the couch and stood up straight. Brushing down my coat, I removed my wards, and started prepping a warp to… I guess the clearing I made in the forest?

Never did get the name of that place

I was going through my routine stretches as I popped joints all over my body. I watched the door while I waited for whatever was going to happen.

The door slammed open as a far larger, angry-looking, white alicorn burst through. The wood on the door splintered, and the room’s temperature rose. Lines of flame danced through her rainbow mane. Then the aura hit me.

Annnnd she’s the big one. FANtastic.

I blinked my neutrality mask on, “Greetings, and may I ask to whom do I owe the pleasure?”

The white alicorn glared at me as she asked, “What did you do to my sister?” Her voice was low.

I tilted my head for a moment before grinning beneath my mask, “Well hello there ms. what-did-you-do-to-my-sister, my name is masker. You mind if I just call you wha? Your full name is quite a mouthful.”

Six more ponies walked through the door, a white unicorn with a neutral look, a scared yellow pegasus, a glaring indigo pegasus with a rainbow mane? An orange earth pony, a jittering pink earth pony that I fondly knew as the pink demon, and Twilight.

The alicorn continued to glare at me as she spoke. “I will not repeat myself again creature. What. Did. You. Do. To. My. SISTER.” Her strained voice raised into an earthshaking shout.

I sighed as I pulled my shoulders back to pop something in my back. “Could you please give me a description of your sister, please? Otherwise, I probably won’t have a clue about whoever you’re talking about.”

The alicorn spread her wings. “My sister is Luna, princess of the night, and my fellow diarch. She is an alicorn with a midnight blue coat, does that remind you of anypony?”

I tilted my head at the strange pronoun it’s almost like this world is a parody of mine… Bah best not to dwell on it. “Yes, it does, she practiced none of the dreamwalker etiquette, so she became subject to my dream.”

The White Alicorn’s eyes narrowed to slits “what do you mean?”

I shrugged “More than likely she spent some time in a static void.”

The alicorn kept glaring at me. “What do you mean ‘more than likely.’”

I straightened as I began to brush my coat off, again. I noticed the white unicorn grimace, but I ignored it “I don’t remember my dreams very often, hell I barely remember your sister, and dreamwalkers are supposed to solidify dreams. Though I do remember peace in my dreams, only place like that is a void.”

The princess snorted “likely excuse, now tell me why you locked my sister in your head?”

I responded in a neutral voice “I remember yelling… and pain, my guess is that she started a fight.”

The princess’s eyebrows furrowed as her scowl deepened. “My sister would do no such thing, enough of your lies. Girls, use the elements.”

I glanced at the other ponies and noticed as their jewelry slowly faded into full visibility.

Really? You’re fighting me with those trinkets? I can’t even feel their power.

I crossed my arms behind my back as I eyed each of them. “Might I ask what you think those will do? They don’t even have the strength to radiate an aura.” I shook my head as I strengthened my links to my masks. I need to focus, I need no emotion for this, just rational thought.

My power weakened with the exodus of my remaining emotions, but I didn’t think I would need it.

The princess smiled, and most of the other ponies were grinning at me.

They know something that I don’t.

I let Unhappiness replace Neutrality as I strengthened my hold on the warp. I shouldn’t need an out but...

I watched carefully as the smaller ponies began to float. Lines of white spread from the jewelry and connected the six. It seems all six members are necessary for their weapon to work properly… these ‘elements’ must be something of a glass cannon then.

After a few moments, Twilight opened her eyes to reveal glaring white lights. Creepy.
A rainbow shot from them, and barreled towards me in a steep arch. I tried to dodge, blink, jump, warp, nothing I tried, worked. I couldn’t even move normally, these ‘elements’ had me locked in place. What? No. no no no nonononono.

Shock replace Unhappiness at this realization
I had underestimated them, I should’ve learned my lesson from Strider…

I growled as I folded, looped, and tore space apart, trying to bar the rainbow’s path. Rips were repaired, loops were untangled, and it jumped across the folds. I failed to even slow it down.

When it struck I felt… PAIN. Not physically… at first, but that void in my chest was filled. I hated it. I felt energy coursing through me. MY energy. Every mask held my emotions, but to do that, each mask needed a sizable piece of my power. This power flowed through me leaving behind rivers of soul-rending fire.

Shock, the emotional sink that contained any emotion pertaining to surprise contained, cracked. I felt every emotion that was stored there all at once.

Panic, pure unrelenting panic. No no no NONONONONONNOOOO.

Fortunately, the mask held, but only barely. Whisps of power kept the fragmented mask connected.

Huh, I’m screaming. What am I saying? Oh nothing, just jibbering. I suppose I should get myself together then…

I gasped for air as I finally managed to pull my fractured mind back together. “Why… why.” I bowed my head as I continued panting.

Celestia’s look of shock slowly faded to concern, “Oh my, I didn’t know they would do that…”

I rose my head as I began layering my illusions. Eyestatic, the black fluid leaking from my eyes, those demonic symbols. I. Was. Finished. With this NONSENSE.

I growled as a pure black scythe coalesced into my hands. I spread my archaic metal wings, and to finish, I flicked Rage on.

Embers rose from my shoes as smoke leaked from the bottom of my coat.

“ÿ̴̲͉̻̺̗̬́o̘̳͂ͤ̽͡ư͕̜̜̮̜̘̔̆́ͫ ̵̩̲͚̗̅̌s͔̮̱ͪ͟h̻̫̠̻͓͖̟̓̽̆̔̕á̢̹̞͈͇̩̠͇̘͊͒l̫̪̘̃͢l̩͍ͯͥͫ̕ ̵̖͖͔͖̭̟̘́̀ͅr̯̭̭̝͕̜͌͑͌͢ẽ͚̲͜g͚̯̰̻̭ͪ̇̒͝r̙͓͉̝̄̌̊́͞ĕ̴̙̲̮͓̥ͮt̢̪̙̃̿̿̅ THA-.”

I was cut off by a pulling sensation. I had accidentally released my warp, and was yanked to a far-off location.

Celestia glanced at Twilight “What exactly do you know of him?”

Twilight gulped at Celestia’s worried tone “Wellll, he told me some of the basics of his magic, he can teleport pretty much anywhere, and he’s able to manipulate space like its some kind of rug.”

The mane six were worriedly glancing to each other as Celestia lowered her head to let out a sigh. “This intruder needs to be tracked down, if he’s capable of such things, who knows what he’ll do?” Celestia straightened up as she gently rubbed her forehead. “This situation just progressively worsens doesn’t it.”

Everyone shivered as they heard an enraged howl sound off in the distance. It was coming from the Everfree. They turned towards the Everfree as its treeline began to quiver. A single, distorted threat rang with malice. Enraged screams, repeating and overlapping, echoed from the woods

Y͇̳͔̬͖̟ͤͯ̒̀ͅO̬̥̻̫͓̗̫̗͊͛͜U̲̜͎̺͖ͨ͜ ̳̖̮̺̀ͣͪ̕S̤͉̼̠̞̜̞̣͌͛͝H̡͉̬̻͑͆̉̚A̶̳̗̻͎͉̥̺ͦL̴͚̥̖̗͇̊̄ͤḺ͓͙̹͎̳̯̾̀͗̀͞ ̸͖̭̝̞̠͚ͭͯR̵̖̻̚Ė̶̳͍̭̹̰̘̀̄̈G͑҉͔̬͈͔͕R̭͚̰̼͙͚̬̰̂ͬ͜E̞̼͔͈̠̖ͨ͟T̙̯̣͕̭͙̟̮̏̾͋̄͢

Author's Note

yoyoyo back at it again. Turns out this story seems like its updating every other week. Im mostly running into troubles with proofreading. I don't see an issue, and then another comes along and pokes so many holes in my story that it looks like swiss cheese. So Ill try to get the next chapter out next week, but no promises