The Tome of Exalted Ponies

The Golden Janissary stands tall and mighty, ready to strike any soup of evil, reheating it with cleansing fire if need be.

…

Oh, what a nightmare this was. The dreamscape of Rakshi, the queen of fangs.

Speaker stumbled about, unsure of what was solid enough to step on until he remembered to use his power of the fervent dream phantasm to assume full control of the dream – mainly just to stabilize the immediate area around himself… and even that didn’t grant him full control, only local control – how strange.

Once able to breathe a sigh of relief, Speaker tried to look around – but distances vanished as he looked at them, the dreamscape was clearly not very keen on being observed with such scrutiny… or maybe it was something else? Speaker knew that this whole place was an expression of Rakshi’s unconscious dreaming mind – so what would an elder lunar dream of?

First thing Speaker noticed was that above him was a clear and star-lit sky… but there was no moon. He wasn’t quite sure of the symbolism of this, but he had seen her caste mark light up enough to know that she was a no-moon caste lunar like Shimmer, so it could just be a sky with a no-moon?

More worrying were the sounds he was hearing around him: Cries of terror, screams of anguish, joyous yet beastial howls, plus a wide array of feral animal sounds – and a very loud chorus of various ape noises. There was a lot going on in this elder lunar’s mind, but then again Speaker knew from the first age that once an exalt got more than a hundred years old then the power of one’s essence allowed a pony to expand beyond the limitations of what a mere mortal could do – so for a lunar elder who was many thousands of years old, then it didn’t surprise him that even in her dreams she could have many things going on.

Extending his control over the dreamscape again to stabilize it, Speaker made his way towards the nearest of the sounds: Galloping, cries and a taunting voice.

As Speaker moved, he found himself crossing a strange threshold – as if the very nature of the dreamscape he had come into was very different in nature – had Speaker been more familiar with travel in the wyld, he would have recognized the concept of traversing into a new waypoint.

The air was warmer, he was indoors, and he could hear a pony galloping around frantically: “Stop – please!”

Rounding a corner, Speaker beheld the scene: A nightmarish caricature of the keeper, still wrought of origami, but now all the origami was of rude gestures, floating around while holding the book of three rings. Rakshi was chasing the Keeper around – but it was always holding the book out of reach.

Before revealing himself or doing anything, Speaker carefully observed the nightmare: On a surface level it certainly looked like it was about an evil keeper keeping the book of three rings away from a desperate Rakshi – but… once he peeled away the layers via use of his knowledge of psychology it didn’t add up: She wasn’t looking sad, she was angry, looking obsessed – psychotically so. The keeper wasn’t taunting her, it was fleeing from her with her book. The surface appearance of the dream as how Rakshi’s madness saw the scene – but the truth… oh it was very ugly.

Right – so what to do here? Speaker knew that he ultimately just had to stall for time – but he didn’t know how to judge time outside of the dream… but he knew how to judge madness – and here Rakshi couldn’t hurt him, for he was the one lucid dreaming… well, hopefully the only one.

Maybe he could fix her?

Wait, fixing her would also require forgiving her for eating gods knows how many innocent foals. Rakshi clearly revelled in her cruelty and madness – but perhaps scaling back her madness would make it easier to pass down her sentence? It certainly helped that a condemned pony understood why she was to be executed.

Hell, with any luck she might even become sane enough to feel remorse for her actions before that.

It was with these lofty goals that Speaker revealed himself to Rakshi’s dreaming self, at which point he realized that something was horribly wrong now that he was nearer. This Rakshi… this was not her dreaming mind – well, it was, but it was broken. It was not unlike a pony-shaped mirror that someone had shattered and then only partially reassembled. There were enough parts of her that you weren’t in doubt it was Rakshi, but it certainly didn’t look like something that had been pleasant to do to one’s own mind.

The shattered part of Rakshi’s mind at first didn’t pay any attention to Speaker, maniacally focused on getting that damn book – but as Speaker exerted control over the dream and made the image of the Keeper vanish, leaving the book hanging in the air, Rakshi instantly snatched it and cracked it open… but it cracked open like an egg, revealing that it was naught but a hollow shell. Made sense, sort of: Rakshi would never have read the third volume, so she wouldn’t know what was in it…

Rakshi of course, responded poorly to this – and this time she turned towards Speaker, her jagged fangs of broken dream-shards menacing like any good nightmare – but Speaker was having none of it. With his dream powers he had her immobilized, even as she snarled and spat impotent fury at him.

With his medical diagnosis charms he saw her mad obsessions – and like a surgeon of the mind he plucked them out of her, but because they were still in her mind, in her dreamscape, they didn’t just vanish like they would in the waking world, but instead manifested as different versions of her… except these copies were quite whole, not shattered – but also twisted, warped, for they were the warped and twisted aspects of her mind; her obsessions given form.

These two new copies of her also weren’t held by his dream-control grip, so the instant they manifested they each leapt into action – sort of…

One of them, with a great ravenous maw in the back of her head where her otherwise beautiful red mane should be that snarled and screamed for more, seemed to represent her obsession with learning the secret of third circle sorcery simply started sniffing around like a bloodhound, quickly concluding that neither Rakshi nor Speaker was of any use to it. It didn’t even notice when Speaker hurled Homage in the head-mouth, carving the strange madness-mutant in twain, destroying the madness for good.

The other madness-mutant looked almost deceptively normal, but that was until Speaker came around to where it was cradling the shell-like remains of the third volume of the book of three rings. As he approached it broke into tears, angrily looking at Speaker: “You did this! You broke it! Now I will never have it!”

Speaker braced himself for an attack, but instead that version of Rakshi got up and started to shape up some form of sorcerous spell. Now, as Speaker had been taught back during his time with the seventh legion, then sorcery rarely worked all that well for combat purposes unless you had time to prepare – in which case it was usually quite devastating – but when facing an opponent then stopping to do magic was never a wise choice, for it left oneself completely open to attack… something that this obsession made manifest clearly wasn’t thinking of.

It shattered when struck by Homage, revealing itself to be as hollow as its pointless fascination.

This left the shattered part of Rakshi’s mind, still struggling against the impossible dream-bonds Speaker had willed into being.

Approaching her, Speaker noticed that this Rakshi now seemed more… whole, now that the truly broken parts of her had been removed and struck down. This let Speaker properly see her beauty, her moonsilver tattoos, her bright eyes that pleaded with him to release her.

“I can release you – but know that I still control this dream” Speaker said, making a swiping gesture at Rakshi, causing her mind-fragment to drop to the ground.

The mind-fragment of Rakshi landed on her hooves quite expertly – and yet she sounded wrong, for the fragments she was made of ground against each other, making her sound quite unnatural. Still, she didn’t do anything brash just to begin with, instead simply standing up and looking at Speaker: “You… you were… you’re not supposed to be in here… in me”

“Sidereal martial arts – and you don’t seem as crazy as you did earlier” Speaker replied, his expression and stance guarded in case Rakshi tried anything.

The Rakshi before him rippled with moonlight, then sighed deeply: “True… she’s been doing this for a very long time, breaking her mind into pieces so that not all of her suffers each time she sleeps. I get her obsession with getting that damn book and learning solar circle sorcery”

“Interesting. Partitioning your mind and dividing out your insanity so she remains sane during sleep. Do you know what other fragments of your… of her mind… there are, and what madness they carry?” Speaker wondered, not quite sure how cooperative this Rakshi would be, or if she might snap at some point.

Closing her eyes for a moment, the Rakshi pulsed with bright moonlight: “There is her cruelty, her megalomania, her cannibalism… and the one I cannot speak of, for she binds each part of her mind shards to obey”

Taking a deep breath, Speaker nodded: “Right… so four other parts of her mind to work over”

“Those are just the fragments – there is herself, her core – the one who gets to sleep soundly while the rest of us are made to suffer” the fragment spoke, sounding clearly disgusted and unhappy about having been relegated to suffer so her original could sleep without nightmares.

Speaker was guided by the obsession-fragment along to the next dreamscape. Around them everything changed, the ground becoming a wooden floor, the sky becoming the roof of a straw hut. The dimensions of the dream-hut they were in were strange – for the walls extended into the infinite, yet the hut felt quite small around them. The sound of laughing foals rang out everywhere, and moments later dreamy wisps in the shape of foals began to dance around, playing invisible games with toys that weren’t there.

“Ah… the cannibalism dream, great” the obsession-fragment deadpanned, shaking her head.

Speaker had found the obsession-fragment a surprisingly good conversationalist, though she was rather pessimistic. She had all the memories of Rakshi prime, though she claimed that as part of the mental partitioning then her intellect had also been divided, so she wasn’t as clever or wise as she was when awake while in this addled state.

“So, you can’t tell me what she’s done to the Keeper?”

Obsession-fragment shook her head, the shards that made up her form jingling: “I know that she worked on it for centuries, to weaken its resolve and make it more agreeable… but I don’t know exactly what she did it. She never wanted to fight it, because it could lock her out from the two lesser volumes of the book of three rings that she was allowed to read, permanently”

Speaker nodded, pondering why the fragment specifically did not have a name, though it knew that it was a part split off from Rakshi prime. It would respond if he called her Rakshi, but would also correct him.

The jingling from the obsession-fragment soon attracted the foal-wisps, but a distant growl saw them scatter and flee, hiding in corners and behind simple wooden furniture that hadn’t been there earlier.

“There you are” Speaker said, as the Rakshi-fragment of that particular dreamscape revealed herself, stalking into view like a tiger who didn’t care that you could see it, for it knew that it could take you and eat you.

Indeed, this Rakshi-fragment was much bigger than a normal pony, with clawed hooves, and her fragment form was assembled in such a way that her mouth was a serrated jigsaw puzzle of long sharp teeth: "You… don’t look tasty”

“I have been told that I’m very stringy – but I do have a flavour” Speaker replied, calmly gesturing at the fragment. With his simple and non-threatening gesture, the fragment saw no threat in Speaker… right until it realized that it couldn’t move due to his dream powers.

Moving closer to inspect the fragment, Speaker asked: “So what madness have you been shaped around… let’s have a look see, yes… cannibalism. Such a twisted hunger. I wonder how it’ll look once I force it out”

“It’ll be hungry. It always is” the obsession-fragment said, while the cannibalism-fragment grunted and struggled against invisible dream-stuff restraints. Indeed, once Speaker repeated his previous trick, combining his dream-based martial arts with his powerful medical charms, a truly degenerate version of Rakshi revealed itself, while the shard-maw of the cannibalism-fragment withered into a much more normal mouth. Speaker didn’t even give the cannibalism manifestation a chance to speak or act before striking it down.

“Perfect, where to next?” Speaker asked the obsession-fragment, not really bothering with freeing the other fragment. He only needed one guide.

The obsession-fragment poked the remains of the cannibalism manifestation: “We’re not done here… this one only ate… it’s the other one who hunts and toys with her prey”

It happened so quickly. First several of the wisps that sounded like foals screeched horribly, as they were torn apart – then in a blur of motion and claws it was upon him, gnawing, ripping and tearing – it was first when Speaker was able to react and restrain his opponent that he became aware of what had attacked him.

With red fur and notably ape-like features, this half-baboon half-pony creature was no doubt another fragment of Rakshi’s mind – but its eyes… oh its eyes were pitiless dark spheres, truly frightening to look at.

Crawling out from under the now frozen monster, Speaker looked for obsession-fragment. She had taken cover behind the still restrained cannibalism-fragment: “Ok, and who or what is this?”

It was explained to Speaker that this new fragment was Rakshi’s cruelty and malice – her psychotic drive to hurt and toy with everything she controlled – to destroy and harm simply for the sick and depraved fun of it.

Speaker seriously considered destroying this cruelty-fragment outright, to not bother separating the madness from that one. Of course, he had no clue how Rakshi’s mind would respond to a bit of it being destroyed – so he opted not to take any chances, separating this new madness out with one hoof and instantly striking it down with another.

Looking at the liberated cruelty-fragment, Speaker observed how it changed: It became less bestial, more like a pony, its claws receding, its fangs shortening: “If I release you, will you behave?”

The fragment looked, in a word, frightened. Speaker took that as a positive sign, releasing its bonds. Without even having thought about it, doing so also released the cannibalism-fragment – it instantly beginning to vomit.

“Ok, that’s… understandable, I guess. There’s one fragment left now, right?” Speaker mused, stepping about the chunky puddle of sick.

While the cannibalism-fragment had its dry-heaves, the cruelty-one simply slumped onto the floor, appearing to despair at its own previous actions while cradling the remains of one of the foal-wisps, leaving the obsession-fragment to shake her head: “Should be. It will be well guarded – she takes a sick pride in her power, so be careful”

“Will you stay here, with them?” Speaker said, seeing how she looked at her two peers.

The obsession-fragment nodded: “They’ll need help getting accustomed to existing without their burdens – and if we come along, magolamania will know what you’re doing in an instant”

“I still control the dream – if it has forces to array against me, I can commandeer those in an instant” Speaker said, confident in his ability to stay in control.

The obsession-fragment silently nodded, not appearing entirely convinced.

Seeking out the last fragment was easy enough: It wasn’t trying to hide – and in demonstrating its power and megalomania, it dominated the mindscape around it: A hollow nightmare version of Sperimin, shining and glorious, but also strewn with bones and blood-soaked jewels. Down the crystalline main street walked an endless procession of ponies, spirits, demons and gods, all bowing their head to the massive throne set at the end of the road, upon which a glorious and shining Rakshi-fragment sat, the shards of its being arrayed to make it as shiny and fancy as possible, crowned by her own grandeur.

The procession made it easy for Speaker to approach, as he could easily blend in with it. Walking next to hollow dream-figments that were probably meant to look like powerful demons was strange, but there were also sights in the procession that were – to Speaker – down right laughable: Everyone in the procession sang Rakshi’s praises, including the dream-figment version of Luna and Celestia. Speaker had to struggle not to laugh, for Rakshi had their voices so very wrong – and he knew their voices well, having met both gods at various occasions in the last few years.

As the procession carried on, everyone moved to position themselves around Rakshi’s throne in adoration, which let Speaker get surprisingly close to the throne. This let him examine the whole dream quite well, for while it was clearly made in such a way that everything was orbiting the megalomania-fragment, then it was actually surprisingly civil. Rakshi was drunk on power, obviously, but this fragment wasn’t cruel or vile – of course the cannibalism and wanton cruelty had been separated out into other fragments… but it still made Speaker think.

Where had these insanities come from? Prolonged exposure to the wyld? Shimmer had said that Rakshi had been instrumental in developing the moonsilver tattoos, which meant that she had gone a long time without such tattoos – what exactly did they do? The megalomania just didn’t look like a wyld mutation… this was a derangement born of unquestioned power – still, it was a form of madness none the less.

Stepping out from the adoring crowd, Speaker walked up in front of the throne: “Rakshi! This needs to end!”

The sky grew dark and around the temple-like throne as a thousand torches and braziers erupted, and the Rakshi grew to an impossible size – towering into the sky, the stars becoming jewels in her moonsilver crown, the moon her halo. Her booming voice made the ground shake: “Who dares stand before me!?”

With but a gesture, Speaker assumed total control of the dream, instantly shrinking the Rakshi-fragment into a more manageable size. The procession and the adoring crowd similarly changed, no longer chanting Rakshi’s praise, but instead scowling at her with quiet judging looks.

The fragment recoiled in horror, curiously enough not at Speaker, but at the crowd looking at her: “No! I’m not meant to have that… I’m supposed to have fun here!”

This struck Speaker quite odd, as he noticed that the dream-fragment was exerting a kind of influence on the crowd scowling at her – well, trying to, because Speaker’s domination of the dream prevented it. Curious to see what the effect would be, Speaker permitted it, to which end the crowd began laughing.

The fragment curled up into a ball, crying – somehow completely unable to cope or deal with what was going on around her.

Was this some kind of insecurity Rakshi harboured, one she had veiled by developing a megalomaniacal mentality, so that it would dominate and control everything around her? It was a plausible explanation. Either way he quickly seized the fragment and tore the madness out of it, and destroyed the manifestation of the madness.

“So… that’s it? All her fragments purged?” Speaker said to himself, wondering if he should make an effort to wake up, or if the rest of the circle still needed time for the book copying procedure and getting Rakshi properly restrained… not that he could tell how long he’d been in the dream.

The megalomania-fragment, still curled up on the ground, simply whimpered as the crowd had settled into scattered giggling and monkey howls. Speaker made the crowd fall silent, then picked the fragment up: “There, now stop being such a wuss – you’re a mind-fragment from a powerful sorceress, act like it!”

The fragment struggled to stop crying. It wasn’t until the three other fragments arrived that it seemed to be shocked out of its misery: “What? You’re here too…”

“And he helped all of us – but he’ll need help to find the forbidden one” Obsession-fragment said.

The four fragments looked at each other, none of them appearing happy about the topic. To Speaker’s surprise they reached for each other, which resulted in a very ugly sound of grinding and grating glass as their fragments slid and ground together, becoming an almost whole Rakshi. The final product of them certainly looked far more normal, appearing mostly like a normal pony with a few missing bits… just enough bits to create one more of her from the pieces.

With tears in its eyes, the almost-reassembled Rakshi thanked Speaker, and instructed him to seek out laughter: “I cannot tell you the nature of the forbidden one’s madness. Rakshi hates it so… but you unintendedly touched on it with megalomania. Seek out the sound of laughter… or the voice of an angry stallion”

“Thank you” Speaker said, nodding his head at the strange amalgam. He didn’t quite know if he was speaking to the ‘majority’ of Rakshi’s mind… or if this fragment creature had been a lesser part of her mind to begin with?

The amalgam wept tears, tears that crept into its cracks and dripped down through its fragments: “No, it us me who should thank you. We will have peace now, at least for this night – but do be warned: Rakshi uses a demonic lacquer on her claws, one made specifically to kill the exalted. Her first impulse when you and her awaken will be to kill you for doing this”

The fragment amalgam departed while Speaker took in the warning, it leaving to some other part of Rakshi’s mind for its own last few moments of peace. Alone, Speaker listened carefully for the sound of laughter, but he heard none. What he did hear was the voice of an angry stallion.

Homing in on the sound of the voice, Speaker found a new dreamscape: A village, with shadows walking around – not in any negative way, but in the centre of the village was a hut where a stallion was shouting, and the shadows were orbiting the hut as if to give the illusion of there being others in the village. Approaching the hut, Speaker found himself recognizing some of the architecture. The huts were simple but well made, wrought of sun-baked clay bricks. A nearby fountain had clear running water. A banner fluttered in the wind, bearing a sunburst symbol. That settled it: This was the dream of a village in the first age, one in the dominion of a solar.

“Useless!” roared a stallion in old realm from inside the hut, followed seconds later by the sound of a hoof striking a soft target and young filly crying out in pain.

Oh, it was that kind of nightmare.

Speaker’s compassion bid him to intervene – but having seen the village, he knew that he had to intervene properly. Thus, using his dream-twisting powers, he reshaped his own appearance in the dream, and ripped the door off the hut: “Cease your violence!”

The door of the hut, and the entire wall from that side of the structure, flew off as if straw caught in the wind. Revealed was an angry stallion with a short-cropped red mane who didn’t look like a dream figment at all. Whatever this stallion was, then he was based on some very vivid and clear memories from Rakshi – and the red-maned filly lying on the ground who had cried out… there was no doubt – it was a very young Rakshi.

Had Rakshi been beaten by her father in her youth? Had she nursed some kind of inferiority complex into a full-blown obsession and derangement that led down a path of cruelty and megalomania?

Speaker certainly understood why Rakshi had separated this part of her mind out while she slept.

“Who are you?” the stallion said angrily, his face contorted in fury… right up until Speaker stepped into the light, his golden robes and shimmering crystal jewellery shining gloriously.

The stallion instantly threw himself to the ground, and quickly grabbed Rakshi and slammed her into the ground as well quite hard: “Down you idiot girl!”

Speaker approached at a dignified pace: “Do not use violence upon her. Does your lord not see to proper schooling for young ones? You call her useless, an idiot, but I see bright young eyes full of potential – it is you who is blind and foolish”

With his face pressed to the ground, the stallion seemed at a loss of how to explain his actions. Speaker had seen the clay tablet over in the corner that Rakshi no doubt used at school: “I thought so. Arise my little pony, tell me your name”

“I… my name is of no matter to your grace. I am not worthy to be known to you” the stallion said.

Did Rakshi not remember the name of her own father? Speaker frowned, but replied kindly: “That is for me to decide, not you. Give me your name or I will give you one”

It was a strangely comical situation that turned the entire scene on its head. No longer did the stallion seem intimidating, instead he came off as confused and not at all sure what to do with himself. This paradox seemed to completely disintegrate the stallion, the dream figment fading into nothing as the shallow nature of the dream-character was laid bare.

With the abuser gone, Speaker expected things to be resolved, but to his surprise the Rakshi fragment instead burst into tears: “No… now my daddy’s gone too!”

Speaker wanted to say something, but that’s when the laughter started – the shadows outside the hut starting to laugh quite loudly, the shadows huddling around the windows of the hut. The laughter was full of taunting and mocking jabs: “Haha Rakshi’s got no parents now!” “She can’t get anything right” “She just keeps looking stupid”

Frowning, Speaker rubbed his brows: “Right… he wasn’t the madness, it’s in you. I’m guessing some kind of persecution complex… hmmm”

The Rakshi-fragment didn’t reply, simply crying on the ground. No wonder the other fragment had recoiled in horror when Speaker had gotten the crowd to laugh at it. This did make him wonder how this particular madness would manifest in the real world. Cruelty, cannibalism, megalomania, all those had simple and well-known ways of expressing themselves – but this… this did not have an obvious real-world counterpart.

Approaching the filly, Speaker used his dream-based martial arts and his medical charms to remove… something… out of the filly. Indeed, the rakshi-fragment changed into the form of the adult Rakshi as it was purged of its madness, though Speaker was none the wiser to the nature of the madness as he removed it, for it had no immediate form.

What manifested did not come into being as a physical creature. At first Speaker thought he had done something wrong, but then he heard the stallion’s voice again, the angry shouting and berating. This gave his medical diagnosis charms all the information it needed: This wasn’t a deranged compulsion; it was a hallucination! Rakshi heard voices, the voice of her angry father, the voices of unseen ponies laughing at her… oh dear.

Striking down an unseen sound was… difficult. How does one strike a sound? Make more noise? No, that didn’t work. Instead, Speaker used his dream-control to completely change the dreamscape into a white featureless void. This caused the voices to simple come from the distance, at random direction around the two.

“No! Now I don’t have a hut to live in either!” the Rakshi-fragment wept, tears streaming down her face, as if she was still a helpless foal.

Speaker’s caste mark flared as he used a fair bit of essence to give himself an idea: “Right – we have to give the voice a body”

Using dream control, Speaker made a pony appear. It looked a bit like Rakshi’s father from before, but a little different – chiefly in that it had no face, and even had its head shrouded in a large hood. Chaining this pony down and having it face away from Rakshi, the pony instantly sprung to life, struggling against the chains and raving against her, speaking in the previously disembodied voice.

“There – now you have been bound to form – now you can be struck down” Speaker stated resolutely, bringing Homage to bear and flinging it at the dream-made pony.

The relief on the hallucination-fragment’s face as the dream-made pony was shattered by the chakram was palpable: “Oh thank you… it has been so long since I had true silence”

Satisfied that this final fragment had been helped, Speaker restored the dreamscape to the original hut and village – but there were no shadows walking around outside, and Rakshi’s father wasn’t there either. The fragment, with tears still in her eyes, thanked Speaker profusely: “I don’t know how to repay you”

“No need to give me anything. I came here to help you, I’m happy I was able to make it work” Speaker said, quite satisfied with himself.

The fragment approached Speaker, sauntering towards him while swaying her hips quite suggestively: “Oh come now… I’m certain I can find some way of showing my appreciation”

Looking at the fragment, Speaker frowned: “You look like you’re made of broken stained glass. The wise stallion refrains from sticking his meat into glass shards, no matter how shapely”

Stopping dead in her tracks, the fragment instantly became aware of her actual physical appearance. Sighing deeply, she shook her head: “It’s all I have… fragments aren’t made whole. When Rakshi breaks me and the other fragments from her mind, we only get just enough to carry the burdens she loads us with”

“That’s ok. Like I said, I came here to help, not to extract favours – same for your four peers that I’ve already helped. That Rakshi’s better now is all I need” Speaker reassured the fragment.

As the implications of her four fellow fragments having been cured and alleviated of their madness dawned upon her, the fragment found herself briefly at a loss for words, right until she put on an expression of dread: “No… this won’t make her better. It’ll make her angry”

“Her? You mean the real Rakshi?” Speaker wondered, curious at this change in the fragment’s expression.

Nodding quickly, the fragment raised a hoof and rearranged the shards that made it up to make it look as if her hoof had long claws: “She splits us all off from her mind to sleep calmly at night – but during the day… The madness doesn’t scare her, it fuels her! She loves them… and she wants everyone else to feel like her! You have taken that from her!”

Speaker wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. Was Rakshi fundamentally that broken? It certainly raised some grim questions that he wasn’t really sure how to answer – though he figured that with Cash’s sagacious reading of intent, then he would be able to confirm if Rakshi truly was that nuts: “Are you… well you were split off from her, so of course you would know – but is she really that far gone?”

The fragment nodded slowly: “She has a weekly ritual where she and her priesthood seclude themselves and they laugh at the silver pact, mocking them for their failure to properly detect and understand the extend of her madness. She sees it as a sign of her own superiority, as well as proof of the stupidity and nativity of the rest of the lunar host”

“I’m sorry, but if she believes that, and you’re made from her, why aren’t you sharing that view?” Speaker wondered, trying to find a logical explanation or method to Rakshi’s madness.

Making her bed, the fragment could only sigh and shrug: “It’s a product of all of her derangements working together. As a mental fragment we’re only given enough mind to comprehend the madness we’re meant to suffer – never enough to revel in it like she does”

“Fair enough – her reputation would have her be a lot smarter than what any of you or your peers have shown me. Thank you for the warning” Speaker said, concerned, but none the less hopeful that now he’d at least expect Rakshi to be deceitful once they woke up.

The fragment laid down in her bed, resting her head on a dream-wrought pillow: “Also beware of her claws. She brews a crimson lacquer that she coats her claws with, it is a poison meant to fight exalts – I don’t know what it does, but if it’s made to kill exalts… then its bad”

Speaker once again thanked the fragment, excusing himself so the fragment could enjoy its peace.

This left Speaker walking the spaces of Rakshi’s dream between the dreamscapes. In these strange voids he paid careful attention to sights and sounds, seeking out the primary dream of Rakshi’s prime self… but he found nothing.

Pondering what the other fragments had told him, that Rakshi prime had split off all those fragments so she could sleep peacefully, but it occurred to Speaker that compared to the large size of the fragment dreamscapes, then Rakshi’s own true dreamscape might be very small… especially if it was completely mundane and undisturbed by delusions and derangements.

Either way Speaker concluded that he wasn’t going to find Rakshi’s true dream any time soon. He kept finding the other fragments, for they were the only manifestations in the dreamscape he could see. Had Rakshi somehow hidden her own true dream from her nightmares?

Even with his basic dream-based martial arts, Speaker was unsure of what to do next. He wasn’t even sure how to leave the dream – and attempting to use essence to sense time didn’t really work.

One thing Speaker did figure he could do, was slow down the dreamscape he was in. The effect was simple enough: Time would pass more slowly for him, while it would pass at a normal rate in the real world. Almost the instant Speaker enacted this, he experienced a sinking feeling. Blinking, he found himself waking up and snapping back into reality…

It all happened so fast. The claws in his neck, Shimmer shrieking, and a – for Speaker – now familiar female voice speaking softly into his ear: “Think you can mess with my head? Come back and try that again in your next life, fool!”

Oh, that hurt. Anaesthetic charm, there we go. And what did that fragment say? Poison immunity charm, already on.

Turning his head ever so slightly, despite Rakshi having lodged a strong right hoof with red-lacquered moonsilver claws in his throat: “Greetings oh Queen of fangs”

Rakshi snarled at Speaker, revealing teeth that had been either been shapeshifted or filed down into jagged fangs all the way around. A second or so later she seemed briefly confused: “How are you still alive?”

“Your fragments warned me – and I’ve fought a number of foes who specialize in poison and disease, so I have charms to counter that” Speaker said smugly, feeling quite satisfied that his kindness within Rakshi’s dream had paid off this well.

Rakshi’s grip lessened as she seemed to realize that she hadn’t dealt a deathblow. It was then that Speaker in turn also became aware of the other ponies around him, Sunrise and Shimmer trying to pull the two apart, Sully slashing at Rakshi with his cleavers over and over along with Cash and his extendable shoe-claws to no apparent effect.

As Speaker and Rakshi finally came apart, Speaker quickly said: “Cash, your charms – what lies in her heart and what is her price?”

Cash knew well enough what Speaker meant. Not only did Cash have charms that let him understand obscure references almost perfectly, but this wasn’t the first time one of Cash’s other circle-mates had requested a quick check to see if someone they were talking to was on the level.

The answer Speaker got was when Cash dropped to his knees and actually started vomiting. Was Rakshi truly that vile? Was the price she would ask for cooperation so ungodly as to make Cash lose his cool that much? It certainly stood to reason.

In the confusion Shimmer, in her warform, had wrestled Rakshi to the floor: “Speaker!”

“Yes – now!” Speaker called out, getting up and drawing Homage and Gift from elsewhere in one smooth motion, his weapons poised to strike.

Rakshi of course wasn’t slow to respond, sprouting new limbs that Shimmer couldn’t grab, limbs full of poisoned claws.

Shimmer didn’t have the same kind of poison immunity charm as Speaker, and in trying to restrain Rakshi she was the first to be struck repeatedly by the swarm of clawed limbs, dying with a pained howl. The blue-clad dandy in his fancy silks fell next, his pathetically weak ego-shield unable to fool Rakshi’s razor wit – for it had been honed for millennia to reject both the lies of the changelings and the lie that one needed something as pathetic as sanity…

The bearded one with the faded red uniform – so what if he could handle the poison – her clawed limbs strangled him just the same. This left the young one in the off-white hood, screaming at Rakshi as if her weaponized voice could really hurt her. She choked on a single fanged tentacled forced down her throat.

Oh, this was too easy… she might nibble on their corpses later. The idea of eating solar flesh certainly sounded fun.