Company of Myself

More nightmares...always more nightmares. It was always the same dream, but each time more vivid.

Why was he tortured like this? He didn't seek the Eternity Stone, It sought HIM. In his mind, he believed that he didn't deserve this. Not that feeling sorry for himself was going to fix anything. No, only if he could find a cure for the curse could the fire in his mind burn out. Until then, he would have to suffer through the nightmares...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~/ The Dream /~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starlust ran, knowing that IT would be on him in seconds. The only sound that he heard was his own labored breathing and that.....demented laugh. Then he saw it... the thing of nightmares... Twenty feet high, its body covered in bones. It shreiked at him and leaped. The monster dove INTO his chest. Starlust could feel the thing inside his heart, inside his mind. He began to scream.

"NO. Get out of ME! Get out!" He yelled.

The thing did not comply, only focusing on making its new home inside the poor colt's mind.

"NO! Get out of my mind! It burns!!!" Starlust shreiked.

The monster showed no mercy. Starlust could feel the thing crawling around in his head, he felt like his brain was about to explode....Thats when he blacked out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starlust awoke with a start. He knew it was a dream, but even though he was aware of the fact that everytime that he slept he would have the nightmare, it still cought him off guard everytime. This is one of the reasons that he wanted the curse lifted, the nightmares.

'Oh well.' He thought, 'Better get packed up and head back to town.'

As he packed he remebered the dream, and shivered. Nopony deserved the kind of torture that burned his mind.

That was beside the point however, what mattered right now was checking in on how Fluttershy was doing.

So he headed into town. First thing he did was head to the doctor's office to ask where exactly the very shy pony lived. After receiving the adress from the pony at the front desk, he began to head to Fluttershy's house. After finding the right adress, he found that it was a small cottage. Many bird houses surounded the building. He walked to the door and knocked. A few moments later Fluttershy awnsered the door.

"O-oh....Starlust...." She mumbled.

"Hey Fluttershy. I just wanted to check in...you know, see if you were ok?" He said.

"Oh, I'm fine....thank you for saving me." She said to him.

"It was my pleasure, I couldn't just let you get hurt." He told her.

"I hope I didn't cause you any trouble..."

He laughed, "I believe any trouble I had, I brought with me."

They both laughed at that. It wasn't often that Starlust was in a truthfuly good mood, so he knew he should enjoy it while it lasts.

"So, I was wondering if you knew anyone who knew a bit about curses..." He asked her sheepishly.

"Well my friend Twilight might know a thing or two." Again with this Twilight person....

"Prefect! Care to join me?" He asked.

"o-oh, sure." She said.

So they walked back into town, and just as Starlust guessed, the the library. Fluttershy knocked on the door, on a good day, this might have made a sound slightly louder then a butterfly's wings.

"Allow me" he said politely, and knocked much louder. Then Spike awnsered the door.

"Oh hey Fluttershy!" He said. "Wait a sec, Starlust? What are you doing here?"

"You two know eachother?" Fluttershy aksed.

"As a matter of fact, yes." Starlust said. "Oh and Spike, we were hopeing to speak with Twilight. Is she home?"

"Yea. Come in"

Once inside he finaly got the chance to meet the pony.

"I'm guessing you must be Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes indeed." The light purple pony in the middle of the room responded. "You must be Starlust? Spike told me about you."

"Oh..." Starlust mumbled, not sure weather that was good or not. "Well I was wondering if you knew anything about the Eternity Stone."

"THE Eternity Stone? The most powerful Artifact ever made by unicorns?" She said.

"Yes well, I was wondering is anyone knew how to sepreate its power from a pony's mind."

"W-why do you need to know?" She stuttered, unsure of where he was going with this...

Starlust lowered his head, knowing that what he said would most likely make everyone in the room fear him to some extent. "Awhile back, I found a cave in the Everfree forest. I went inside, wondering what could be inside. What I didn't count on what that the Eternity Stone being in there. I absorbed all the power that it contained, which made the stone itself shatter. It gave my magic strength beond what I thought possible."

"But that much power would drive a pony to the brink of madness!" Twilight exclaimed. Starlust simply nodded his head.

"I wish i had never found that cave." He noticed that everyone was looking at him weird. He knew that look, he guessed it was fear. He lowered his head and began to walk towards the door.

"Wait!" Fluttershy yelled. Now it was everyone turn to look at Fluttershy funny. "I-if thats ok with you."

"Fluttershy's right though. Don't leave!" Spike said. "So what if your differnt."

"We will find a way to lift this curse! I promise." Twilight assured him. She quickly began to search for books containing information on curses, or any book on the Eternity Stone. Then Fluttershy spoke up.

"Starlust, the power you have, um, well its a true gift." She said.

"A-a gift?" He had never thought of it like that. Maybe she was right.

"Yes and you could use it t-to truly help people, that is if thats ok with you." She whispered.

"A gift....." He said as his eyes grew distant, wondering if parting with this power was a good idea. He had always been so sure that he wanted his old life back, not a life plagued by Insanity, but having heard what Fluttershy said, he wasn't so sure anymore. If he learned to control it, could the power be used to help others? Discord proved that Chaos could be reformed, what about Insanity?

"FOUND IT!" Yelled Twilight, breaking Starlust's train of thought. "Its a book about the Stone." She began to read from one of the pages. "If one wishes to be free from the Stone. They must find the Changling Queen, and must not do it Alone.

"Well then, I guees I'm going to the Badlands then..." He said.

"I-I want to go too." Fluttershy stated.

Starlust raised one eyebrow "Fluttershy, I would love the company but this trip is going to be dangerous."

"Well it said that you can't go alone, so I'll go, if thats ok with you."

Starlust let out a long breath. "Ok I guess, promise me that if there is any trouble that you will stay behind me."

"ok."

"Well then, we better get moving."

"I'm Going too." Twilight said.

"Well I could use the help, ok then everyone get packed, we better get going....."