“…and by sending the energy over any distance, you can see and hear a small area around the target of the spell.” Dante said, finishing his explanation of scrying to his new friend.

“And this power can be blocked by magic that’s less powerful?” Shade Strider asked.

“Exactly. Think of it in terms of that magic bauble you want. What would be easier? Locking it in some vault or beating everyone around you so they wouldn’t think of stealing it from you?”

“I guess that makes sense. It just seems surreal that weaker magic can stop stronger magic. I guess I would have to be a unicorn to really get it.”

“I’ve got something that will really confuse you then.” Dante said, chomping down on another donut. “My specialty is evocations, basically manipulating energy at its most basic level. For example, shooting fire or lighting from my hands. One powerful spell unleashes a freezing ray of energy at a target. It can be blocked outright by a spell of much lower power, albeit it must be cast by a powerful magic user. After that’s said and done, both spellcasters have used up one spell; one used a higher level spell, the other a lower level spell, and they both have one less spell they can cast that day.”

Shade Strider looks at Dante confusedly, sipping a bit of his wine. “That’s another thing I don’t get: ‘cast that day.’ Are you saying you can only cast so many spells in a day?”

“Well, yeah. But see, our spells are different from unicorn spells. I won’t go into too much detail, but suffice to say that our magic isn’t really our own. We’re just borrowing it from the world around us, where unicorns seem to have their own, true magic. You pegasi do too, with your weather manipulating powers, and earth ponies, who can manipulate plants and the land, to a degree. In truth, even—ah shit!” He yells, standing from his cushion.

“What? What is it?” Shade asks, looking around nervously.

“Some guard in the cave just grabbed my eye with its magic. I can’t move it.” He says, covering his eye socket. “Damn, not even a little bit.”

“Does this mean you’re going to be missing an eye forever now?”

“Sigh. No, I can regrow it, but it must be destroyed first. And, judging by how the unicorn is handling it, I don’t think that’s going to happen anytime soon. This is just an inconvenience for me. A really annoying inconvenience. I’ll just have to get it back when I steal that bauble for you. Well, it’s getting late, so I think I’m going to turn in for the night.” He says, turning to leave.

“Hey, I’ve got one more question for you.” Shade says, moving from his cushion.

“What’s that?”

“Well,” He pauses, looking around for a second. “Do you believe in coincidence?”

“Nope. Why do you ask?”

“Well, I know one of the ponies your friend met.”

“That’s not really a coincidence. Know them how?” Dante asks. Shade hesitantly broke eye contact again. “Look, you should probably tell me now, rather than later. I have a tendency to do stupid stuff, so if one of them is your lover or something, I should know so I don’t accidentally kill them or something.”

“Rainbow Dash. She’s…my sister. My younger sister.”

“Oh. Well, that’s definitely not a coincidence then.”

“Why not?” Shade asks, a look of confusion on his face. “I meet a strange creature while hiding in the mountains, and that creature has a friend who meets and befriends my sister. That seems like a real coincidence to me.”

“A real coincidence would be if you had said Fluttershy was your sister, since Iatril bumped into Fluttershy at the market yesterday. Or the fact that Rainbow Dash is your sister at all, not the meeting between her and Iatril, since that was bound to happen anyway, given the circumstances.”

“So, what would you call this then?”

“The aftermath of a coincidence.”

“Are you just making this up as you go?”

“Probably.” Dante said jovially, heading towards the hallway. “Well, I’m going to bed. Feel free to sleep in any of the other rooms and eat whatever you want.”

As Dante walked out of sight, there was only one thought that repeated itself in Shade’s mind: ‘This is definitely going to be the weirdest business I ever do with anyone.’

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

In a tower in the royal palace, a group of unicorns were working in what could be called a magical laboratory. One part of the room held beakers with various powders and liquids. In another part, open tomes covered a table. Occasionally, a unicorn would walk over to an open book, look up a piece of information, and return to what had stirred them into research: a small creature that looked as if it was just an eyeball with legs attached to it.

Not even an hour ago, a search party in the mountain caves came across this creature near an entrance by a waterfall. When it was brought back to the palace, Captain Shining Armor confirmed that it was related to the creature he encountered early this day. Since then, several magi have been researching what it could be, though no definite answers have been found. One theory proposed by Crescent Moon, the head magi of the mage’s council and leader of the investigation of this ‘eye’, was that this was simply the eye of the creature, though how this could be is still unknown.

So far, various spells have been cast to find the location of the creature this small, eye-creature belongs to. Each one resulted the same way: with failure. This does, however, show that the creature that broke into the palace has the ability to shield itself from locater spells. Every spell used to determine the power of this eye has also yielded nothing. Again, Crescent Moon theorizes this eye acts as though it were still connected to the creature, in that the creature can see everything the eye can. This, too, has no scientific or magical backing.

From the reports of the search party, the eye tried to escape the telekinetic grip of a private for only about a minute before ceasing its efforts. Since then, and while it’s been in the lab, under observation, it has made no movement other than occasionally adjusting of its legs. Once again, Crescent Moon believes the eye must be commanded by its owner to move, otherwise it will remain stationary. Like his previous theories, this has no evidence in support of it, only intuition.

All this and more was contained in the report sitting on Celestia’s desk. The solar princess looked over the report many times, hoping she missed some piece of information and would find it eventually. Alas, there was nothing. There was no way to track the creature and no way to locate it. The only information on its whereabouts was it recently being in the mountain. It may even still be there, but, if so, it is exceptionally well at keeping itself hidden. Never the less, a squad of pegasi and unicorns were keeping watch over all entrances to the caves.

A knock at the door stirred the princess from her thoughts.

“Come in.” She said, making sure she held her composure.

The door opened and in stepped Princess Luna. “Sister, what are you still doing up? It is nearly midnight.”

“I know, Luna. I’m just going over the report from—”

“Celestia.” Luna said sternly. “No matter how much you go over it, nothing will change. For now, we must wait. You know this.”

“Yes, I do know this. But the thought of a creature like Discord running around Equestria freely terrifies me!”

“Which is all the more reason you should rest, so that when we do find this creature, you will be able to confront it.”

Celestia stood from here desk. “You’re right, Luna. I suppose I should retire for the night.”

“Good.” Luna said. “Now, I must return to open court. I shall see you at dawn, Sister.”

As the sisters parted, Celestia’s thoughts went back to the creature. ‘I simply do not understand how it could have come into the castle and left without either Luna or me noticing it. Now we supposedly have a part of the creature and still can’t locate it. All of this in little over a day. I shudder to think of what it will do tomorrow.’

Celestia reached her bedchambers and entered the room, passing the saluting guards. As soon as she reached her bed, she fell onto it, exhausted from worry. ‘Luna is right. Nothing will get done if I run myself ragged. Perhaps more will develop tomorrow.’

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

A town cloaked in the dark of night stood near the edge of a forest. The denizens of this town, however, were anything but sleeping. On the streets of this town, humans walked around, catching up with old friends and bartering with vendors. The streets were lit with torches and, in the busiest areas, magical torches that would never cease burning. Down one less populated street, Dante walked around, observing the buildings.

‘Huh, I wonder where I am. I know this is a dream, but I recognize this place…somehow. I must have been here before, but I don’t really see anything familiar.’

As he passed an intersection, he heard the voice of an elderly man cry out. “Where are you, you fucking warlock!?”

When he turned to look, Dante saw an old man wearing a dark blue robe, swinging his staff in the air as he walked around aimlessly. His eyes were clearly stabbed out and covered with a faint, red glow.

“You think you can kill me, you lowly warlock!? As soon as I find you, I’m going to burn you alive and feed you to the wolves! Then you’ll know better than to come after me!”

‘Hah! Well, this is familiar, I’ll give it that. The scenery is off and he isn’t being escorted by any paladins, but hey, I can enjoy killing a dream version of that annoying prick.’

Dante brought up his hand and fired bolt of acid right into the chest of the elderly man. He cried out in pain only to fall over, dead, a moment later.

‘Eh. Not as fulfilling as I remember. I probably shouldn’t have killed him the exact same way as before.’

Dante continued his journey down the street. The more he walked, the more diverse the buildings became. Some were made of stone and wood, and others were built into trees that seemed to be randomly placed in town. A few were even made from mud. Every building shared the same thing: the residents were dead, staked to the ground in front of their homes.

‘Huh. That’s new. I’m pretty sure I never did anything like this. Too much work.’

Finally, he came to the end of the street. Before him stood a wooden structure that seemed to go on forever on either side. As far as Dante could see, the pale, wooden wall of the building stretched over the horizon. The building itself wasn’t too tall; it stood a little taller than ten feet. On a sign hanging above the door to the building, the words “Bark’s Tavern” were embedded. Shrugging, Dante entered the building, figuring he might as well get drunk if his dream wasn’t going to make sense.

The tavern was dark, lit only by a single lantern hanging in the center of the room. This, however, was no problem for Dante, since he could see in the dark. All around, the tables were barren of any substance, the chairs and barrels used as seats were pushed under the tables. The walls were covered in scorch marks and the floor stained with blood. Behind the bar counter, a man with short, black hair stood, cleaning a glass, his back to Dante.

“Hey, Chief,” Dante said to the man, “how about a round?”

The man didn’t reply. He simply kept his cleaning his glass. Dante, growing impatient, walked over to the counter. “Hey! I want some ale here!” He called again. The man still kept his back turned. Dante grabbed the shoulder of the man and turned him around. “Hey, dream guy, listen to me when I’m—” As the man turned around, he fell on top of the counter. His face was burned off, only a blackened skull remaining. He lied there, motionless, as a soft laugh came from behind Dante.

When Dante turned, he saw a young woman standing before him. She had curly red hair that came just down to her shoulders and had slightly pointed ears. She stood less than a foot shorter than Dante. She wore a simple dress, clearly made from low-quality cloth and colored a dark shade of yellow. The dress stretched down just to her ankles, showing her bare feet on the ground.

“What’s so funny?” Dante asked. “For that matter, who are you?”

“You’re funny, Dante! You know Bark is dead. And you know who I am too!” She replied happily.

“Sorry, I don’t believe I know any half-breeds.” He said stoically.

“What do you mean?” She asked, tilting her head to the side. “It’s me, ******”

‘What the hell was that? I couldn’t hear her voice for a second there.’ Dante pondered. “What did you say your name was?”

“It’s ******” The young woman said again.

‘There it was again. It wasn’t that I couldn’t hear her, it’s that her voice was distorted. Why can’t I hear her say her name?’

The half-elf looked at Dante sadly. “You really can’t remember me, can you? Did I really mean that little to you?”

“Apparently.” Dante said, feigning arrogance. “If we really did meet and I can’t remember you, then you obviously weren’t worth remembering.”

“But you can remember the name of every paladin you’ve ever killed! You write their names down in a journal!”

“I’m not going to get into an argument with a dream.” Dante said angrily. “Now be gone from here so I might drink in peace.”

“Fine!” She yelled, before calming down. “I’ll leave. I know someone else who will remember me, anyways.”

“Oh?” Dante asked smugly. “And who would remember you?”

“Me” A menacing voice from the girl said.

Instantly, her body was absorbed into a great ball of fire. The writhing flames struck out at the surrounding tables with tendrils of fire, smashing into them as if the flames were solid. The sphere grew in size until it reached the ceiling, catching it on fire. Quickly, the walls and floor of the building were aflame, lighting up the entire room. Soon, the sphere condensed itself into a figure, standing as tall as the ceiling.

The figure was similar to that of a man. Its skin was blood red, its hair course and short, standing in a narrow line trailing behind its head. On either side of its head, a yellow horn stood out sideways. The creature’s torso, arms, and legs were bulging with muscles. Out of its back, two dark wings spread wide, making the creature seem bigger than it really was. In its left hand was a whip, seemingly made of fire, and in its right was a lightning bolt shaped sword, covered in flames.

“You!” Dante yelled, taking a step back. “How dare you break the sanctity of my dreams!”

“Come now, Dante. Your dreams are my dreams, too. Your memories are my memories, even if you can’t remember them.” The creature laughed manically. “Tell you what, I’ll make a deal with you: you let me have control and I’ll let you remember this pretty thing.” It said, now holding the girl from before with his flaming whip.

“Like I would agree to that!” Dante yelled, drawing his blade and pointing it at the monster. This blade was made of a sparkling, green metal that looked sharp enough to cut into steel. “That girl probably never existed in the first place!”

“Hahaha!” The beast bellowed. “Poor Dante. Can’t even remember what mattered most to him! Can’t remember anything at all! You might as well relent. Your struggle with Aselith has left you with little time to garner power over me anymore. I’ll be in control soon, anyways. By the looks of this place, you won’t be able to find any energy to contain me any longer! Or, maybe you’d like to try using the life force from some dual-nature creatures?” The beast laughed again. “I’m sure that will turn out well for you!”

“Silence!” Dante screamed at the being before him. He charged his eldritch energy into his sword and flung it at the creature, stabbing it in its chest. The energy released itself and shot out in all directions from the creature. The creature itself quickly exploded in a ball of fire, taking the woman with it. The flames passed by Dante harmlessly, striking the bar and breaking it apart. Just over the flames of the building, the creature’s voice could be heard, laughing.

“So angry. So vengeful. You can pretend you’re in charge all you want, but it’s a simple fact: you can’t hold me in forever. All I have to do is wait for you to call on my power one more time, and then I’ll be the dominant one. And this time, I won’t let that elf bitch stop me! I’ll string up her corpse in this land’s capital and preserve it forever, just so you will know who is really in charge.”

Dante had had enough of this place. He turned to the door and walked right to it. He flung open the door and saw Shade Strider standing right in front of him.

“Are you okay, Dante?” He asked. “I heard some banging and what I thought were blasts of magic, so I thought I should see if you were okay.”

Dante turned around to see that the burning insides of the tavern had disappeared. In its place, the room he slept in appeared, albeit with much of the room burned and scorched.

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.” Dante replied, collecting himself.

“Bad dreams?” Shade asked, turning to walk down the hallway.

“Yeah.” Dante said, following him. “You could say that.”

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

Here's the next chapter, everyone. Sorry it's out so late; college and whatnot. It's also a bit shorter than intended, but I'll try to make up for it in the next chapter or two. Please enjoy your reading...well, I guess you would have already read the chapter before this part. Hmmm. Well then, a preemptive 'enjoy your reading' for the next chapter. :D Peace out.