Day 1

We did it!

All of our efforts paid off completely. We really were able to contact the depths of the Dreamworld and perform the summoning ritual.

And one creature answered our call.

Letavitsa, as it calls itself. This creature prefers the form of a zebra mare and has changed it several times to suit our preferences.

Is it trying to seduce us into breaking the ritual circle?

How foolish.

We have seen the true appearance of this abomination, and some of us are still nauseous: an oval torso with tentacles on one side and a stalk on the other with a sort of bell-shaped bud with stamens and eyes peeking out.

Zahur even joked that "we summoned a funny little flower on legs."

Sometimes I question his sanity.

The whole thing is a slimy mishmash of flesh and eyes. How did he ever think to compare it to a flower?

Though I too have used floral terms to describe the creature's appearance.

He's a bad influence on me.

Letavitsa. I think I heard that name from a shamaness. It seems to be a seductive spirit that takes the form of the deceased. That would explain the creature's behavior.

I doubt any of us would want to fuck this thing. Except Zahur. Sick bastard.

But none of that matters. We summoned this thing not for fun, but to gain information on deeper levels.

We ended up getting a lot more than just information.

We thought we'd have to interrogate the creature for a long time or make some kind of deal, but none of that happened.

Letavitsa simply handed each of us a pile of written sheets that we provided her with.

Information, spells, rituals, recipes. I still can't believe we got it all so easily.

It asked for nothing in return and insisted it was a gift to each of us. Is this a seduction tactic?

We checked the sheets thoroughly, but there was no catch. Although the veracity of the information is still questionable.

I can't wait any longer. I'm going to start checking right away.

Day 2

The information is authentic.

I want to close this fucking diary and just collapse into sleep. Why do I even keep it?

Because it's important, and experiences need to be written down so I can analyze them later. Yeah, yeah, I remember what you said, old geezer.

We summoned Letavitsa early yesterday morning, and now it's almost night. All this time we've been testing the spells and rituals written on those sheets.

Letavitsa did not deceive. They're all authentic.

The information on the deeper levels is still in question. We've compared the records with what we know, and the odds of it being authentic are pretty high.

There wasn't much else to tell - the whole group sat tucked away in books or in front of the cauldron.

Letavitsa fell asleep yesterday and slept the entire day, waking up at noon.

I have to say, she's a pretty sound sleeper. We have tons of questions piling up and have tried many times to wake her up, but nothing has worked. We even used some methods prepared for torture, but that didn't wake her up either.

At least we confirmed that we could do some damage to her. Well, she's still healing very quickly. Her regeneration is incredible.

That regeneration alone is a threat to us if she breaks free.

Those idiots started grumbling, but I still convinced them that we would do a full check of the ritual circle every two hours. Previously, we had agreed to do a check every twelve hours, but caution is never unnecessary. I think she's a lot stronger than she's showing.

Judging by the amount of mental energy she has, she's extremely weak. Weaker than any of us.

At first we thought it was some sort of concealment, but we've tested it dozens of times with all sorts of methods, and the result is the same.

Is her ability regeneration, or does she have some trick to hide her energy? But if she's strong enough to block our methods, she would have broken out of the circle by now. I still assume her ability is regeneration, but with these creatures from the Depths, one can never be sure.

Being a creature from another world, she should be overwhelmed by Equus' magical energy, but she'll soon adapt and the pressure will ease a bit.

A week at the most. After that, we'll throw her back out into the Depths.

I refer to her as a mare now, don't I?

It's just easier. I've never forgotten her true nature.

The circle is shielded, and we check each other for possible influences - all clear.

But this Letavitsa is really weird.

When she woke up, we started pelting her with questions, and she answered many without asking for anything in return.

However, then she made a request: she wanted to borrow some things from us.

Not body parts like hair or blood, but just random items from our lab: a piece of coal, an apple, a book, a coin, and a broom.

I don't get it.

I assumed these items had some significance to her, and several times I offered to replace them with other items. Even for junk like pot shards.

She agreed and asked to borrow them, but hoped that next time she would be given something more meaningful - she was bored and just wanted to explore our world.

We discussed and came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with this request - we've lent her parchment and charcoal before and nothing happened.

The other oddity of this request: she wanted to get something from everyone individually.

Zahur agreed to be the guinea pig and gave her a pot shard. An hour later, she gave it back to him.

We scanned his body for several hours, but found nothing suspicious. There was no problem with the shard either, but we destroyed it anyway, just in case. It didn't elicit any negative reaction from Letavitsa.

By the way, she did the same thing yesterday: she didn't give all the records to one of us, but gave a part to each of us separately, specifying that it was her gift.

First a gift, then a request to borrow an item.

Seems like a clumsy way to establish a relationship. It's weird, but what else would you expect from a creature from the Dreamworld?

Aside from Zahur, everyone else refused to grant her request.

She's upset and barely answers our questions. She's smart enough to remember who she gave what information to and who she gave it to, so asking questions through another doesn't work.

We have no methods of dealing with her. She doesn't seem to feel pain at all, and there's no other means of leverage on her.

We could kill her, but what's the point?

What she gave us earlier is only a small part of her knowledge, and of course, everyone wants more.

For now, we'll monitor our guinea pig's condition.

Everyone else seems convinced that she's just trying to establish a relationship, but I don't know what to believe anymore. All the facts support their arguments, and according to our information about the Dreamworld, there's nothing sinister about her request. She can't hurt us by getting a pot shard or any other nonsense.

If she could, she would have already harmed us by getting parchment and charcoal.

Besides, she's too weak for something like that.

And yet I still have my doubts. Maybe I'm just paranoid from lack of sleep?

We'll have to discuss the whole situation again tomorrow.

The last time I checked the circle, I found four shards lying neatly outside the circle. And all these morons swear they didn't give her anything.

Maybe she went out and got it herself, then dutifully went back into the circle and locked herself in?

That's enough for today, I want to go to bed.

Day 3

I can't stand that asshole's satisfied face.

While everyone else is suffering, Zahur is getting all the benefits.

Letavitsa won't answer our questions, but willingly chats with him.

We've tested him dozens of times - no problems. Is she really just trying to build a relationship? I hate to admit it, but I think it's really just me being paranoid.

If nothing happens to him tomorrow - I will participate in this gift exchange.

I can't wait any longer - we're sending her back in a few days and I still haven't gotten anything. This cunning fox has only given us basic information, devoid of many important points and subtleties. Many spells can't even be used until she explains all the nuances.

Not that I'm the only one who thinks so: today I found things near the ritual circle again.

It's the same as usual - no one saw anything or gave anything away.

Some of them are clearly lying.

I can understand the thirst for knowledge, but why doesn't the bastard just come clean? No, he wants to get everything and stay in the shadows.

There's probably more than one.

We take turns watching the circle, but I can't figure out who it is. Letavitsa always sleeps until exactly noon and only then makes a request. That is, the earliest that things can show up is 1pm.

But the time is always different. From 1pm to midnight.

Why did I even think she was only borrowing the thing for an hour? That was indeed the case the first time, but now I'm not so sure anymore.

What remains constant is the quantity. It's always five things.

I suspect some bastard was able to negotiate with her and is getting an advantage over the others.

Tomorrow I'll make everyone sit in front of each other from noon to midnight. It's high time that nasty bastard was figured out.

Looking at the last entry, Kiama let out a nervous chuckle.

The last entry in his diary was the third day, but it was now the morning of the fifth.

Yesterday, as planned, they had watched each other until just before midnight. Just in case, they had forbidden even Zahur from contacting Letavitsa.

As usual, she voiced her request: she wanted to borrow a mug from each of them. Everyone refused her and continued to watch.

Time passed, but nothing happened. He was beginning to think it was a waste of time. Even though all his partners swore they didn't give her anything, the facts told a different story. The bastard who'd been quietly making deals with Letavitsa had gone underground and wasn't going to show his face. How else could he explain all this?

That's what he thought until it was midnight.

There was a low, muffled knock, and everyone turned at the sound to see five mugs standing in front of the ritual circle. They were perfectly familiar to them - they were the dishes they had used at dinner a few hours ago.

What Kiama saw next still made him shiver with terror.

Letavitsa. She just stood there smiling. A perfectly normal, albeit rather creepy smile.

It was the look in her eyes, pure smugness mixed with triumph and hunger, that horrified him. She looked as if she had already won and her dinner was right in front of her, and now she was choosing where she would start her meal.

Another time, Kiama would have lied and said that he easily kept his cool while everyone squealed like a filly. But not this time.

Seeing in her eyes the thousands of mouths devouring his Self made him wet himself. And he's not ashamed of it at all - others have done the same thing.

Can one prepare for death? Probably not. At that moment, Kiama knew she was about to break free and devour them all. Once again, he was wrong.

Letavitsa continued to smile, doing nothing.

The minutes continued to go by as they stood frozen with terror in puddles of their own urine. No one dared even breathe loudly, and the silence was interrupted only by the occasional drops falling from their fur to the floor.

It took them an hour to come to their senses. At least they started thinking coherently and stopped huddling in a corner.

A few more hours and a couple of sedative potions, forbidden for sale in Equestria, could finally get their minds back in a workable state.

Letavitsa, by then, had long since fallen asleep, as if nothing had happened.

Kiama shuddered at the thought of approaching the ritual circle, but there was nothing to do - he needed to find out the state of the runes. His fears were not confirmed - the protective runes were fine, and Letavitsa was sleeping without a care.

They had originally intended to simply destroy her in this circle, releasing everything they had. It was a failure - Letavitsa was still sleeping on the pockmarked, smoking stone floor.

After trying everything they could, they finally gave up and decided to send her back to the Depths. Of course, killing her would have been safer - who knows what all those missing things meant - but they just simply failed to do it.

Kiama felt a sense of doom - would they be able to send her back, or would they all be screwed? Once again, his worries were not valid.

It took them a long time, Letavitsa was much stronger or had already recovered, but they managed to send her back to the Depths.

They started the banishment ritual in the middle of the night and finished it at almost noon. In all that time, Letavitsa had never awakened. Somehow that gave Kiama some hope.

Banishing her, the group breathed a sigh of relief, but didn't dare relax. Now they were quickly packing their belongings and were going to rush to the nearest major city at full speed. They needed to find out what this was all about and if they were in any danger. Kiama had a few familiar Depths experts he could call on for help. The rest of the group was in full support of the idea. They were willing to do anything to get out of this damn cave.

Kiama grinned as he saw them scurrying around the cave, gathering all the most valuable items. If it wasn't for his orders, they would have dropped everything and galloped to the city.

He couldn't blame them, he felt a similar urge himself.

It took them less than half an hour to gather themselves, and the whole group stood in the center of the cave, trying to gather their thoughts and remember if they had forgotten anything important. At least that's what Kiama was doing, and everyone else was looking at him impatiently, wanting to get out of here as quickly as possible.

"Alright," Kiama sighed, seeing the attitude of his group. "Let's load up."

The zebras immediately scurried about, piling bags and sacks around each other.

"Hello," came a familiar voice behind them. "Can I borrow something from you?"

Kiama's fur stood up and he began to shake, but he found the strength to turn back around.

Letavitsa stood there, smiling good-naturedly as if nothing had happened, in a rune circle that had not yet cooled after the banishment ritual. The protective runes were still in place - Kiama hadn't covered his tracks, they didn't have time for that - but that didn't explain how she'd gotten back.

The stronger the creature, the more connected it is to the Depths, and the harder it is to get out to Equus. It takes rituals, mass sacrifices, and tons of energy. It was an unbreakable rule. They had summoned Letavitsa easily, and that was the reason for their confidence.

But even weak creatures from the Depths find it extremely difficult to invade Equus unaided - otherwise they would have feasted on this world long ago.

Nevertheless, here she was, standing nonchalantly before them, breaking all their notions of magic.

"She came to borrow things," a thought flashed through Kiama's mind, frozen with shock. "She wants to borrow things, and that's why she's here."

It sounded like the logic of a lunatic, but Kiama was actually right. Letavitsa was borrowing things after noon. It was noon now, and she could borrow things from them. Where else would she be but here?

An extremely unsettling feeling enveloped Kiama and he bit down on half his lip, pain forcing his frozen body to move.

"RUN!" he yelled, bringing his companions out of their trance and rushing for the exit.

Not that he cared about their lives right now, but perhaps they would buy him some time.

"Could I borrow your legs?" came a polite voice from the ritual circle.

Before Kiama could even comprehend what he had heard, he suddenly collapsed to the floor - all four of his legs were gone, and a satisfied slurping sound could be heard behind him.

Blood gushed from his stumps, but unlike his screaming companions, he somehow managed to keep his cool.

With his stumps, he crawled stubbornly toward the exit, gritting his teeth. Would he be saved if he got out of the cave? If he didn't hear her plea, then....

"This is it!" a piercing thought burst into his mind. "Don't hear it!"

Immediately, he used telekinesis and pierced his eardrums, rendering himself deaf.

"Could I borrow your runes?" came a mocking voice in his head.

A moment later, pops were heard behind him as the protective runes began to explode.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Letavitsa emerging from the ritual circle, Kiama sobbed and continued to crawl towards the exit, slipping in blood.

"Could I borrow your strength?"

Kiama froze on the floor in the same instant. Physical, magical, mental - all the strength had left his body.

He didn't even have the strength to move an eye. His heart, also devoid of strength, stopped beating. By some miracle, he still retained the ability to think, but his mind was like a fog. He felt that his whole body was getting cold and he was dying.

"Could I borrow your life?"

Kiama died.

Several streams of white mist came out of his dead body, and following that, a soul flew out.

The existence of souls was a well-known fact. Especially for those who followed the path of developing mental energy, the energy they used was produced by this very soul. Was there an afterlife? No one knew. Ghosts could hardly be put in that category - they were just lumps of mental energy with a part of the owner's memories.

The soul froze in the air for a moment, as if trying to find a direction, and finally vibrated, ready to depart.

"Could I borrow your soul?"

Five souls darted straight into Letavitsa's wide-open mouth. After swallowing a few times, savoring the taste, she shifted her gaze to the five dead bodies.

"Oh, you're dead," Letavitsa said with a chuckle. "If you're dead, I don't need to return borrowed things, do I?"

Letavitsa wasn't actually evil, she was just following her nature. The concept of good and evil was also known to her. Her understanding of these concepts was gleaned from the inhabitants of Equus, but she considered it all utter nonsense.

Similarly, Letavitsa looked at the moral values of the creatures of Equus. Why would she listen to the fantasies of these lunatics? Just because the majority believed it to be correct? So what?

From her perspective, all the food inhabiting Equus was absolutely insane.

Despite everything she had just consumed, her mental energy had actually barely changed at all. Kiama suspected that she was somehow hiding her energy, but that wasn't the case. If one were to evaluate her in terms of the amount of energy, she barely reaches the level of a novice mage.

But that didn't mean she was weak.

After looking around the cave lazily, Letavitsa headed for the exit.

Meanwhile, a dark slime with many maws began to ooze from the walls of the cave, beginning to devour everything it could reach.

When Letavitsa stepped outside, the entire cave was completely empty, as if no one had ever been here.

Squinting, Letavitsa looked into the distance and took a step forward. The space around her shimmered, and the next moment she was standing on a hill in front of a huge city.

Many zebras were scurrying through the city gates - it was their city after all - but a few ponies and griffins could be seen following the caravans leaving the city.

"Time to find some new neighbors," Letavitsa thought, looking curiously at the city before her. "Too bad I can't cover everyone at once. By the way... I should think of a new name."

Letavitsa wasn't her real name. She didn't have any name at all. She had simply chosen it, deeming it appropriate for interacting with these zebra summoners.

Smiling, she took another step.

"Twilight, I respect your eagerness, but-" Rarity stretched out uncertainly, overtaking the purple unicorn. "Are you sure this is the right time? I mean..."

"You don't have to follow me," Twilight said indifferently, not slowing down. "That goes for you girls too."

Rarity could only sigh upon hearing such a cold answer from her friend, but she understood the reason. She felt the same way.

It had been six days since the changeling invasion, but the whole thing was still far from over. Princess Celestia had personally rushed to intercept the kidnapped Princess Cadance, but had returned with nothing. A curfew was imposed on Canterlot, and every day the remnants of changelings who had not escaped the city were caught. Meanwhile, the main forces of Equestria were converging on Canterlot. All in all, the situation was quite turbulent.

The Elements had been forced to stay protected in Canterlot until the end of the incident, and strong protection squads had been sent to their families in Ponyville and Cloudsdale. Even now, as the six mares walked through Canterlot, they were being watched closely by a multitude of guards. Celestia was going to leave them in the palace altogether, but Twilight had pressed her through Luna.

Twilight's mood, ever since the day they were all rescued by Princess Luna, was getting worse by the day. Her nanny, who she had spent her entire childhood with, had been kidnapped, and her brother had fallen into a coma and stayed in it for four days. When he woke up, he had a long argument with Celestia in raised tones, and then tried to gather his loyal ponies and head for the Badlands. Of course, he was caught, and now he was under house arrest. Actually, he was due a court martial for such a thing, but given his status, there was no punishment.

No one knew what Twilight was thinking. She had become more and more secretive in the last six months, and now she was not even eager to share her thoughts with others. She would never have argued with her mentor before, but now she wasn't just arguing-she was enlisting the support of Luna, who still felt indebted to the Elements, and challenging Celestia's decision.

Twilight thought the decision to lock them in the palace was illogical. The changelings had plenty of chances to kill them, but they didn't. On the contrary, they had been extremely careful with them, as if they were afraid of something or someone, and clearly not Celestia.

Her friends saw this change in Twilight, and though they were concerned, they couldn't blame her. Twilight wasn't trying to distance herself from them; on the contrary, they were spending more and more time together. It was just that she had more secrets now, and her temper was a little colder.

But was it really that strange? Compared to Rainbow Dash, who in the early days had exuded bloodlust and was out for revenge on the changelings, Twilight was the standard of normality.

Even Fluttershy had changed, something no one had noticed at all this whole time. Before, she would've cowered in a corner and come to her senses for months, but now she'd recovered from the whole kidnapping thing pretty easily. The ponies close to her noticed that her gaze had changed somewhat, as if she had decided something for herself. If they had known that she no longer averted her eyes when talking to strangers, they would have been at a loss for words.

The only one who seemed almost unchanged was Pinkie Pie, still exuding a positive pofy attitude. Whether it was the influence of the stone farm she grew up on or her philosophy of life, but her psyche was much stronger than her friends.

"We've kind of worked it out already," Applejack replied, looking around at everyone else. "Or do you yourself not want us to come with you?"

"I just want it to be your decision," Twilight sighed, stopping in front of the doors decorated with a picture of the moon. "I don't want you to feel pressured because of my desires."

"Everypony here is of their own free will, Twilight," Dash said with a slight tinge of annoyance mixed with impatience. "You're not forcing anypony. Can we go in now?"

"You should control your emotions better, Dash," Rarity said, meeting the piercing gaze of magenta eyes. "Especially considering who we're going to."

"I know," Dash's short reply followed with a sigh. "Sorry."

With a quick glance at her friends, Twilight turned to the guards at the door and requested a meeting with Princess Luna.

They didn't have to wait long. A few minutes later, the doors swung open, letting the entire company inside.

"Didn't expect to see you today, Twilight," Luna said tiredly, pulling away from a table littered with spell diagrams and a map of the central continent. "Oh, and with friends, too. Is something wrong?"

"Good afternoon, Princess Luna," Twilight bowed politely, and everyone else followed suit. "I wanted to ask you for a little help. Is this a bad time?"

"No, no," Luna shook her head, clearing all the papers off the table. "It's the fatigue speaking for me. What can I do to help you? Don't tell me Celestia wanted to lock you up again?"

"Mentor didn't bring it up again," Twilight replied, and a slight smile ran across her lips. "You have a way with persuasion. We're here on another matter."

"We want to take the Trial of the Lunar Guardian," Dash cut into the conversation, tired of all this formal going around and around.

The coffee mug held by telekinesis froze in midair for a moment, and Princess Luna's eyebrows raised slightly. She had indeed recently revived this tradition. It was one of several spells that had survived almost entirely even after Nightmare Moon's devastating actions with her memory.

Twilight, meanwhile, cast a quick disgruntled glance at Dash. This was a matter that needed to be approached carefully and with caution; too much haste could ruin everything. How to explain it to pegasi accustomed to speed?

"Why would you want to do that?" asked Luna, glancing around the gathered crowd, a smirk flashing across her face. "If you've decided to join my guard, I'm going to have a hard time explaining it to my sister."

"You know why," Twilight replied seriously, meeting the princess' gaze. "We want to get stronger."

Luna pressed her lips together. It seemed her plan to turn everything into a joke had fallen apart - these ponies were serious. Not that she was against it, it was just...

"Do you realize the seriousness of this?" asked Luna, looking carefully into each pony's eyes. "Yes, I can get you out if something goes wrong, but that doesn't mean total safety. Time flies sixty times faster there than it does in reality. You could very easily end up with some serious mental trauma."

"Twilight already explained everything to us, we'll be fine," Dash met the princess's gaze confidently. "What's the best score there?"

Twilight had gotten all the information about the test this morning from her father, who had advised her to take it. If Night Light's wife found out about such advice, the war with the griffins would seem like playtime to him.

Night Light explained the essence of the trial - Princess Luna would send the pony into a deep sleep, where they would meet with their inner selves, formed of doubts, complexes, regrets, resentments, dissatisfaction with themselves and other burdens that had accumulated over a lifetime.

The trial should end with resolving the inner conflict plaguing the mind and finding harmony with oneself, but out of ten thestrals, only one or two manage to complete it at all.

Night Light felt that was exactly what his daughter needed right now, even if it came with some risks. Twilight may not have shared her worries with him, but he could see it all in her eyes - she felt her own helplessness and weakness after what had happened.

Twilight was going to take the trial alone, but she still informed her friends - she wasn't going to force them, but they had the right to know and decide if they wanted the same or not.

That's how they ended up in Princess Luna's room.

"Then you weren't listening very well," Rarity interjected, who thought Dash was being rude to the princess. "Twilight was talking about the honor plaque at the Night Guard barracks. Best score..."

Rarity faltered when she noticed Twilight scrutinizing Princess Luna, who seemed somewhat uncomfortable with the question.

"Fuck," Luna thought glumly as she noticed everyone staring at her. "That's exactly the question I wanted to avoid. But I really don't want to lie to them."

Twilight waited patiently for the princess' answer. Her father, who knew his daughter, gave a brief history of the tradition and also mentioned the plaque in the barracks. She was aware of it, so the princess being the creator of the test should definitely know the best score.

So why did the princess hesitate upon hearing this question?

"One second," Princess Luna said with a sigh. "But you must realize that time is not important. Everyone's circumstances are different. The most important thing is the final result."

"What?" asked Dash perplexed upon hearing the time voiced. "So it's a minute inside the dream? I thought this test was going to be extremely difficult."

"Believe me, it is," Princess Luna replied with seriousness. "This will be the most difficult test of your life. Your greatest nemesis is yourself."

"Midnight Summer, four minutes and fifty-two seconds," Twilight quoted in an honors student's voice. "Best time in the last thousand and fifteen hundred years. That's what the plaque says. Was the record broken recently?"

"No, he just didn't want to advertise it," Luna replied with a smile, looking sincerely at Twilight. "Like I said: time means nothing. It will only confuse you and may even hurt you. You don't need to think about it."

"But the gap is serious," Dash muttered thoughtfully, still unwilling to let go of the subject. "The stallion, huh? Is he from thestrals or another tribe?"

"He's not from the pony tribe," Luna replied, rising from the table and opening a nearby door with her telekinesis. "I'll tell you that story after the test. Right now you need to focus on it, if you still want to pass it, of course."

"If time means nothing, why the plaque of honor?" asked Twilight, causing the princess to stop. "Can you tell me who he is?"

"Fuck me," Luna mentally cursed, turning to look at Elements. "I can't avoid it, can I?"

Catching Twilight's inquisitive gaze, she was even more convinced of that. Luna had no reason to keep it from them, but she was worried it would have a bad effect on Twilight. Not to mention that they didn't need to dwell on the time at all.

"Human," Luna replied simply, watching Twilight's reaction. "This is his score."

There was a grave silence in Luna's chambers as each pony pondered what the princess had said.

"He cheated, didn't he?" finally came Dash's annoyed voice. "Magic works weird on him, doesn't it?"

But the others weren't so sure about that. Cheating the Princess of Dreams out of what was her specialty and her own created test? That was highly doubtful.

"How did he do it?" asked Twilight, who was rather calm about the princess' revelation.

"I don't know," Princess Luna admitted honestly, pleased by Twilight's reaction. "He didn't have mental energy back then. I was able to put him into a dream, but I couldn't see what he was dreaming about."

Alexei, hearing this conversation, would have given Luna a bad word - this whole situation had happened because of her. She had talked to him at length about time limits, but had neglected to mention that the spell would break as soon as he resolved his internal conflicts.

Well, that was also his mistake - from Luna's words, it all sounded like he would only be able to wake up after completing the trial or when the time limit expired. He should have considered breaking the dream himself, but because of Luna's explanation and a few reservations, Alexei was sure that the dream would continue until he wanted to wake up himself. He had planned to stall for time if the score was too good, but in the end things didn't go according to plan.

Entering the dream, Alexei found himself standing on the smooth surface of the sea. He stood there for a minute, but no one appeared, so he was thrown back into reality. Thankfully, he was able to avoid unnecessary attention by blaming it on his non-magical nature.

He wasn't going to participate in the test at all, but he was able to play on Luna's pride and get a very good deal on the bet. She still owed him one favor, but it didn't matter now.

After answering all of the Elements' questions, Luna sat them down in a dark room and forced them to be silent for an hour, clearing their minds of unnecessary thoughts.

Only after making sure they were calm and ready for the test did she finally use a dream magic spell, plunging them into sleep.

Twilight blinked, finding herself in the hall of a giant library. Her entire vision was filled with books - they were everywhere. Most were neatly shelved, but here and there, on the black and white tile floor, there were tattered books, some of them turning into mountains. The many torn pages scattered everywhere made Twilight frown - book vandalism was beyond her tolerance. Despite the countless books, there was a huge open space between the shelves, comparable to the area of several houses.

Looking up, she saw nothing but racks of books going far into the air.

Twilight realized that this library was a reflection not only of her love of knowledge, but also of her methods. Celestia had created a marvelous meditation technique for her - Twilight could increase her magical energy and develop her core by simply reading books. The speed was slightly slower than other unicorns, but unlike them, she didn't need to do anything at all besides reading. This method was only available to Twilight, who was the Element of Magic. Any other unicorn, even after getting hold of a full description of her method and all the necessary schematics, would not be able to use it.

"Finally," came a sarcastic voice, snapping Twilight out of her musings about herself. "I kept wondering when we could have a nice chat."

Turning around sharply, Twilight saw her exact replica emerging from behind a mountain of books. The only difference was that her copy had a cold stare and a grin playing on her lips.

"Is this my inner self?" thought Twilight, scrutinizing her doppelganger. "It seems like it's not going to be easy..."

"Oh, you have no idea," laughed the copy, eliciting a surprised look from Twilight. "Are you completely dumb? I'm you. Of course I know what you're thinking."

Twilight frowned slightly - she didn't like this attitude at all, and she had a vague sense of where this was going.

"So, let's talk about the shit you're doing," her copy continued, ignoring the look on Twilight's face. "What did you pull at the wedding? Why didn't you strike when you had the chance?"

"Like you don't know," Twilight replied with annoyance, remembering that moment. "They had hostages and..."

"Bullshit," the copy interrupted her rudely. "They didn't touch us earlier, even though they had the opportunity. We'd already realized they weren't going to kill us. Even if we had struck - they wouldn't have killed the hostages."

"You don't know that!" roared Twilight, and her horn lit up, reacting to her emotions. "I couldn't risk the lives of the foals and Spike."

"Whatever you say," the copy hummed, unimpressed by Twilight's outburst. "Then what about that defense artifact Spike had? All it took was a thought to activate it."

"They were too close together," Twilight muttered, her earlier anger replaced by embarrassment. "The artifact could have hit the foals when activated and..."

A wild laughter interrupted Twilight's explanation and made her wince - she never thought she could laugh like that. Her copy, meanwhile, continued to laugh, casting Twilight a look full of condescension.

"I never cease to be amazed at your stupidity," the copy said, still chuckling. "When will it get to you? Do you realize you're lying to yourself, you stupid bitch?"

"Then you just called yourself a stupid bitch," Twilight smirked, accepting the terms of the game. "How self-critical."

"Keep your fucking wit to yourself," the copy snorted, moving closer. "You want to dodge the subject with jokes? How pathetic. We both know the artifact wouldn't hurt the foals. The problem is different, isn't it?"

Twilight gritted her teeth, realizing where her inner self was going with this - she had thought about it many times herself.

"The artifact reacts to danger and responds accordingly," the copy continued, pausing in the distance. "Given the situation, it should have killed those changelings after activation. That's what this is all about, isn't it?"

"I'm not a murderer," Twilight said, facing her copy with a tired look. "Is that what you wanted to hear?"

"Oh, really?" grinned the copy, tilting her head. "Not a murderer, huh?"

"Don't you dare," Twilight hissed, realizing what the copy was about to say. "I'm not going to listen to this."

"Then why did you come here in the first place?" laughed the copy, who was amused by Twilight's actions. "Wasn't it to torment yourself? Well, I'll gladly give you that: you could have killed those changelings, hit Chrysalis with the Elements of Harmony, and ended the invasion, avoiding unnecessary casualties. They're all dead because of your indecision."

Twilight could only grit her teeth and lower her gaze, hiding the tears that were coming behind her bangs.

"Oh, come on!" grumbled the copy, looking at Twilight perplexed. "We both know we don't care about them. What are they to us? Just some unfamiliar ponies. Although... remember that shopkeeper we used to buy snacks from when we went to school? Well, he's dead."

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" roared Twilight, lighting her horn and staring furiously at her copy.

"Or else what?" squinted the copy, and her eyes glittered with coldness. "What will you do?"

In the next instant, a hail of magical arrows flew at Twilight, some of which behaved somewhat strangely - they kept disappearing and reappearing a few meters ahead.

Twilight blared her horn, about to teleport - it was too dangerous to block those arrows with her shield, but the next moment someone interfered with her spell. The spell went out of control and there was a massive explosion, hurling Twilight into a rack that was surprisingly sturdy.

Collapsing to the floor, she groaned in pain - she seemed to have broken several ribs.

"You can do that too, can't you," the copy said indifferently, coming closer and closer. "All thanks to our mark. But you've never used that trick. Why? Because interrupting spatial spells is very dangerous. A poor opponent might as well be ripped to shreds."

Twilight gritted her teeth and tried to stand up, but collapsed, getting a kick right on her broken ribs.

"I'm wondering, Twilight," the copy said thoughtfully, picking her up with telekinesis and tossing her up. "When your friends are getting fucked by a mob of changelings, will you think the same way?"

A powerful gravitational force descended on Twilight, throwing her downward. There was a powerful impact, and deep cracks spread across the floor.

When the dust cleared, a sphere opened up, with Twilight floating inside it, unharmed by the attack.

"Not bad, not bad," the copy praised, looking at Twilight relaxedly. "I thought you were going to join the royal guard for training? Why? What can those losers teach us? You still haven't realized what your biggest problem is? You're afraid of your own power."

"I don't want to become a murderer," Twilight replied, and rows of purple symbols ran down her sides, healing her ribs. "Or another tyrant consumed by thirst for power."

"What about Celestia?" the copy asked suddenly, not trying to attack again. "We both admire her. You even consider her for a second mother. You could build an entire castle out of the corpses of those she's killed. Should we hit her with Elements since she's such an evil tyrant? Or is that different?"

Twilight had nothing to answer. She could say that yes, that was different, and Celestia had been forced to do it for the sake of the country, but even Twilight realized how weak that argument was - murder was still murder.

"You see the thirst for strength and power as something terrible," the copy's voice rang out, snapping her out of her gloomy thoughts. "But the truth is that this desire is the very essence of every being. Deep inside each of us is an instinct honed over thousands of years to perfection. Do you know what that instinct is?"

Twilight only shook her head, recovering her breath.

Suddenly, a sharp sound made her flinch - all the books around her began to bounce and rustle their pages. Feeling the powerful vibrations, she shifted her gaze to her copy, around which more and more purple runes were appearing.

"To dominate and slaughter your enemies!" the copy's horn flared with blinding energy. "And I'll beat it into your thick skull."

There was a strange pair traveling along a broken road in the northwest of Equestria: a huge gray wolf, with a pony lazily sprawled on its back, absorbed in its own thoughts.

That pony, of course, was Alexei, who had used his advanced training skills to subdue the wolf. Having escaped Canterlot and solved the transportation issue, he had a huge amount of free time, which he spent on analyzing spells and creating a recipe. Though Zebrica bordered Equestria, the distance was not insignificant - he still had several weeks of travel ahead of him before he reached the border of zebra country.

And all of this was only on the central continent, where ponies, zebras, griffins, minotaurs, yaks, and other sentient races lived. In addition to the central continent, there was also the western continent, the southern continent, the lifeless north, and the eastern islands. And all of them were as big as the central continent. The world was huge, but Alexei was sure that one day he would sweep across all these continents.

In the language of zebras, Zebrica meant something like "a place favored by the spirits." Actually, the name of the striped folk was also related to spirits. Maybe "people favored by the spirits"? By now Alexei knew the language of the zebras perfectly, but these names came from an older dialect, and he only vaguely remembered some things.

While he traveled to Zebrica, he was able to gather some ingredients for a potion based on Chrysalis' blood, but that wasn't even a tenth of the resources needed. Everything else he would have to buy from the alchemists or find on his own. But now he could relax a little - he had managed to create two mental spells in these six days.

The speed was impressive, but it was nothing to be proud of. He chose the one spell, ninety percent complete, that was very similar to the other blood magic spell at his disposal - a rib that caused a flash of pain. The similarity of the spells allowed Alexei to complete it rather quickly. This mental spell was also a mental attack, but it was somewhat strange.

When activated, a ghostly image of a skinny girl with short blond hair appeared behind Alexei, hugging him around the neck. In the next moment, she would let out a scream, attacking the mind of all opponents. The power of the spell was slightly inferior to his blood spell and did not cause pain - it was a pure mental attack, but the spell was much more refined, which meant it was harder to defend against. Now he had two spells with similar effects, but it was better than nothing.

The image of the girl wasn't random either - it was his first love. Such was the condition of the spell.

He certainly hadn't missed the connection between the journal filled with conversations with Sombra and such a spell. Had Luna created it in a fit of nostalgia for the old days? Was she in love with Sombra? Perhaps, but Alexei didn't care about any of that.

The most important thing was that he had a new spell in his arsenal. Ever since he'd become involved with Nightmare, he'd constantly had some sort of problem preventing him from dealing with spells.

Yes, he had a set of blood spells, but they were getting less and less to his liking every day. Of the seven spells, three were the same type of attack methods - the only difference was the strength, depending on the sacrifice.

The fourth spell was the rib he used all the time.

The fifth spell, which required sacrificing one's eye, had restraining power and was quite good, but the price was biting.

The sixth spell required sacrificing all of his skin and could produce a powerful area attack, but it was quite wild and difficult to control, so Alexei hadn't used it yet.

The seventh spell, on the other hand...

The Americans have an saying "do or die". Russians also have something similar, but it sounds different: "die, but do". The spell was the quintessence of this saying.

The seventh spell granted insane regeneration and powerful defense for five minutes. He hadn't used this spell himself, but he had read the gryphon's notes and it was truly impressive. Even limbs regenerated in a minute, what to speak of fingers regrowing in seconds.

If he used this spell, he could single-handedly destroy any squad of unicorns standing in his way. Regeneration combined perfectly with other blood spells and turned the mage into a killing machine.

But the price for this was also corresponding - it was required to sacrifice all internal organs, except for the brain. These organs were not restored by regeneration. For five minutes, the caster received temporary organs, which disappeared when the spell ended. The outcome was very obvious.

Unless he was backed into a corner, Alexei was never going to use this.

The second mental spell had been created by him personally, based on analyzing bits and pieces of all the other spells, other information he knew, and his personal ideas. It wasn't even really a spell, but rather a primitive scrap of meditation technique.

When mages created their core, they used certain techniques. In addition to compressing the energy into the core, they also used the techniques available to them to create a ring of energy around the core. This ring was needed to stabilize the energy within the core. With each upgrade of the core and new compression, a new ring around the core had to be created to keep it stable.

These rings around the core were the meditation techniques used to advance the magician. Aside from absorbing energy, strengthening the core, and, in rare cases, gaining some special abilities, the main purpose of the techniques was precisely to stabilize the core.

Suppose he turns into a nightmare and gains access to unlimited amounts of fear. Would he be able to soar to Celestia's level in a matter of days?

Theoretically yes, but in that time he'll have already exploded a thousand times.

First, his core couldn't handle the strain of so much energy in such a short period of time and would explode.

Secondly, without meditation techniques, he won't be able to stabilize it, and it will, again, explode.

So mindlessly absorbing energy would not end well. There was another problem: after creating a ring using a certain technique, he would have to create a second ring using the same technique, but of the second rank.

What does that mean? He would either have to find a high-level technique that would allow him to get to Celestia's level and beyond, or come up with his own.

How easy was that? If it was that easy, there wouldn't be so many people wanting to join the royal guard, which provided all the knowledge, spells, and techniques they needed. He was confident that he could create a rank one technique, but there was another problem: it had to be refined enough that he could increase its rank and create new rings around the core. If one ring was created based on one technique and another based on another, the result would be obvious: there would be a conflict between the different techniques, and the core would explode.

He already knew a few techniques, but none of them suited the nightmare. He could only use them as a reference, and even then with great caution. It was possible to switch completely from one technique to another, but there were their own problems and dangers. Alexei didn't even want to think about it.

The second spell was the result of these questions that had rubbed Alexei's mind for the past few months. The nightmare was essentially a condensed mental energy. So why not think of it as a core?

He was able to create several rings around the nightmare, stabilizing its state and slowing the rejection. This created other problems - the nightmare became more vulnerable to attack, but it was still worth it. The nightmare couldn't move far away from him anyway, and most of the time Alexei hid it deep in his mind altogether.

It sounded like a crude method, akin to wrapping duct tape around it, but it was extremely difficult. He looked to other techniques and mental spells as a model, but all the calculations and synchronization were strictly an individual case. Alexei had no mental attribute whatsoever, and his sense of energy was very mediocre - he was only connected to the nightmare, not in full possession of that energy.

Still, thanks to years spent practicing alchemy, his senses had been pushed to the limit, and he was able to accomplish this task. All things considered - his success was quite impressive.

Luna could be proud - her student was a genius.

Now he had a few months to spare, and he could safely get to Zebrica, create a potion that would buy him a little more time, and then begin to fully solve the problem.

For the moment, he lay comfortably on the wolf's warm back with his legs wrapped around him and pondered the ingredients. He had a rough idea of the basis of the recipe, but there was still a lot of experimentation and substitutions ahead. For now, he focused on the ingredients that could potentially be used in the recipe. He would probably find them along the way, so he had to at least know roughly what he could use.

He was torn from his musings by the wolf, who was starting to get visibly agitated, glancing back periodically.

"Hmm?" thought Alexei, stopping the wolf and listening to his senses. "Is there a tail after us? But he wouldn't have reacted so wildly. Some kind of beast?"

He continued to gaze into the distance, but there was nothing there but sparse trees covered in mist. His senses were also silent. Pulling his bag closer, Alexei continued to watch, looking for signs of whatever had spooked the wolf.

In the distance, at the limit of his vision, he noticed some anomaly - something rippled in the air like a mirage, and was approaching them very quickly.

Alexei reacted instantly. Jumping off the wolf's back, he pressed himself against its side, putting it as a meat shield between himself and the anomaly.

In the next instant, a powerful blow sent Alexei flying. The wolf that had received the main blow flew somewhere farther away.

A second after the impact, the air was filled with a furious crackling noise as the sound finally caught up with the anomaly.

Alexei, whose flight had been stopped by a tree, rose irritably from the ground. The wolf had taken the full force of the blow, so Alexei had only bruises and a few broken branches sticking out of his flesh.

The anomaly swept onward, leaving behind a pile of broken twigs and a disgruntled pony.

"Spatial fluctuations?" suggested Alexei, pulling the pieces of twigs out of himself and drinking a healing potion. "Don't tell me those two monsters moved the battle here."

The outcome of the battle in Canterlot was unknown to him, so he assumed that Celestia could still be chasing Chrysalis across the continent.

Another time he would have been glad for the opportunity to collect some more alicorn blood, but not this time. In Canterlot, they were somewhat limited in their methods - they had their troops under them. But in this wilderness? Those two crazy mares would wreck everything here. There was no way he was going anywhere near them.

"I didn't hear a battle," the man thought, scrutinizing his surroundings. "Did they just get here? Where are they?"

But aside from the beasts, alarmed by the anomaly and roaring in the distance, everything around them was fairly quiet. Couldn't these mares have suddenly taken a smoke break?

Alexei continued to study the surroundings, becoming more and more convinced that this anomaly was not the consequence of someone's battle. It was something else.

Tracing the source where the anomaly had come from, he mentally visualized a map of the continent and began to think about what could have caused it.

"It came from the side where the Crystal Empire used to be," Alexei concluded, checking the map. "There's nothing else there. Maybe some cache left behind by Sombra showed up?"

What if Sombra had a dimensional pocket, like Celestia's treasure trove, that had worn out enough to show up on Equus? That theory was entirely possible and very appealing. Given the power of the fluctuations, something quite huge should have appeared there.

He was distracted from his observations and musings by a convulsive wheezing sound behind him. When he looked back, he saw the swaying wolf he had ridden all the way here. After a moment, the wolf stumbled and collapsed to the ground, never getting up again.

Quickly running over to it, Alexei examined its wounds, but it had no serious external injuries. However, the wolf was wheezing and breathing frequently, and his heart rate was rapidly increasing.

Putting his ear to its side, Alexei immediately realized the cause and, looking around, rushed into the bushes.

Half a minute later he came running back, holding a thin hollow stem of a plant resembling bamboo in his telekinesis.

Grabbing a blade from his bag, he slashed at the stem, making an even and sharp cut that resembled a syringe needle.

Finding the right area, Alexei stuck the stem into the side of the wolf, which twitched in pain. With a whoosh, the accumulated air began to leave the chest.

Taking a vial from his bag, Alexei lifted the wolf's head and poured the content down its throat. After a while, the wolf began to regain his senses, and his breathing became more and more measured. He was even able to lift his head and stare perplexed at the stem sticking out of his side.

Pulling the stalk out, Alexei poured the rest of the potion over the wound, causing the wolf another bout of displeasure.

"Not today, buddy. You will live," Alexei smiled, stroking the wolf's fur affectionately. "You have fifteen minutes to rest, and your next stop will be already in the Crystal Empire. You can handle a few days without sleep, can't you?"

You'd think from the wolf's pitiful whine that it actually understood human speech.

"They seem to be doing okay," Luna thought as she studied the sleeping faces of the six mares. "Well, it's too early to judge."

Back in her office, she poured herself another cup of coffee and decided to get back to her paperwork. She couldn't stand over them the whole time, could she? If their condition changed - the spell would alert her.

They'd heard the result from the honor plaque and made incorrect assumptions. If they can do it in an hour, that's a great result. At most, she would allow them to spend four hours there, which would equal ten days inside the dream.

Immersed in her papers, Luna hadn't been paying attention as time passed when she suddenly felt a strange spatial fluctuation sweeping through Canterlot.

She had no trouble tracing the source of these fluctuations, and her face froze with shock.

The next moment, flames erupted in her chambers and Celestia appeared, with an equally worried face.

"Did you feel it too, sister?" asked Celestia, but Luna already had it written all over her face. "The Crystal Empire is back!"

There was no response from Luna - she was still staring off into the distance, immersed in her thoughts. Celestia, meanwhile, looked around and the six mares sleeping in the other room did not escape her gaze.

"Why are they even sleeping in your chambers?" asked Celestia incomprehensibly, nudging Luna with her wing. 'Are you helping them with their nightmares? Wake them up. We urgently need to hold a meeting, and they must attend. Without the support of the Elements, I'm not sure we can handle Sombra."

She had deep respect for her teacher, Star Swirl the Bearded, but even she recognized that Sombra was the most talented unicorn in the history of Equus. Perhaps Twilight could compete with him, but that was all matters of the future.

"I can't wake them up," Luna blinked, waking up from her memories. "They're undergoing the Trial of the Lunar Guardian."

"WHAT?!" Celestia burst out, but quickly got herself under control. "Okay, we'll talk about this later. Come, we need to discuss further plans."

A flash of teleportation followed, and Celestia disappeared. Luna glanced at the sleeping mares, added a few more alert spells, and teleported after her sister.

Meanwhile, far to the north, the lone figure of a unicorn stood against the black spires of the castle, gazing inquisitively at the sun.

Seconds turned into minutes, minutes became hours, but the figure still stood patiently, as if looking for something in the sun.

"Why is she still alive?" muttered Sombra, teleporting to the square in front of the castle.

Black miasmas swirled around, filling the square with a thick, suffocating fog. They wriggled slowly as if alive, seeping through the cracks in the stone sidewalk and upward, wrapping the whole place in clammy tentacles of darkness. The air reeked of decay and rot, and the square itself seemed engulfed in this black veil that obscured its true shape.

A few crystal ponies gutting their fallen kin shrieked and hurried away, but Sombra paid no attention to it - his mind was busy analyzing the reason for the failure. Pony-cannibals? He'd been raising them himself for fifteen hundred years. Why should he have been surprised?

He had paid a serious price earlier to implant a mental wedge with one simple thought of 'kill Celestia' into Luna's head. His return would be the trigger, and by now Celestia should have been dead. Luna had a whole thousand and fifteen hundred years to prepare. What could possibly go wrong?

Sombra was confident in his skills - no one except Discord would be able to not only destroy the wedge, but even detect it. Discord was on his side and he had no motive to get in Sombra's way.

"Alright, I've prepared for that as well," Sombra shrugged, heading towards the center of the square.

The giant tree standing in the center was ominously unsettling to all who looked at it. Its massive trunk, black and scarred by time, seemed to absorb the light, making the square even darker. The branches, like crooked claws, reached for the sky, as if seeking to catch invisible prey. The leaves, dark and sullen, rustled in the wind, emitting an ominous whisper that seemed to penetrate the soul.

The bark of the tree was covered with strange growths and cracks, resembling horrible faces frozen in eternal agony. From the depths of the tree trunk came a low, prolonged creak, as if the tree itself was groaning due to old age or hidden anger.

However, if any of the Elements had been in this square, they would have been at a loss for words, not understanding what was going on. It was clearly some evil demonic tree, but the Elements would immediately feel the same mystical connection they experienced when they came to the Tree of Harmony.

Placing his hoof against the trunk of the tree, Sombra closed his eyes and stood still for a while, listening for something.

"Almost done," Sombra muttered satisfied, taking a step back. "The world is going to change soon."

Author's Note

Letavitsa

Daddy Sombra

!!!WARNING!!!

The following image contains hard spoilers for the first half of the next arc. View at your own risk.