The Titans' Orb: Rising Storm

by Mister Horncastle

Chapter Three: Whispers in the Dark

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Unable to even breathe, I stared at the head in stunned silence. I could hardly process what I was seeing, and holding. Twilight’s eyes were rolled upwards and her tongue partially stuck out from her parted, slacked jaw. In a state of absolute shock, I dropped it, where it hit the cave floor with a moist smack. Beset with revulsion and terror, I fled, turning away and running as fast as my legs could carry me. I burst from the cave’s mouth and out into the snow, where I fought with all my might to remain composed. I could feel my stomach squeezing tighter and tighter, and it took every ounce of willpower not to vomit.

Twilight was… Twilight was dead!

{The others?} I thought, {Oh god, where are the others!?}

Charging back in the direction of camp, I began screaming the girls’ names, desperately hoping I could find them before this thing did. Returning to where I had come from, I found the camp to have changed. The trees were all black and twisted, and the tents were suspended in mid-air. Upon closer inspection, I realised that they were hanging from a sticky, white rope.

Turning all around, I had no idea what to do, I just kept screaming and screaming for the others, but the only reply that came to me was the distant howl of the biting wind. Breaking into a sob, I collapsed to my knees, sinking into the snow. I had failed; Twilight was dead, and the others probably were too. Everything had been for nothing, and in this harrowing realisation, I knew there was no reason to go on.

“Kill me…” I croaked, sensing the shadow’s presence.

Looking up, I saw the dark form towering above me. It loomed overhead and lowered itself down until it was inches from my face. And then, from the swirling black mass came a thin gangly arm, sporting a massive set of sharp claws. They rested on my shoulder and gripped me tightly, piercing the skin.

“Wake up.” the voice spoke.

The clawed arm then shook me forcefully, and then repeated itself.

“Wake up!”

Its voice sounded different now, it was feminine, and familiar. It shook me harder, and with a gasp, I sat bolt upright to find Rainbow Dash shaking me with one of her hooves.

“Dude! Wake the fuck up! You’re freaking me out!”

Scrambling away from her and gulping down mouthfuls of air, I glared at the pegasus, until I realised that it had all been a nightmare. The girls were safe, Twilight was alive, and aside from Rarity’s injuries, everything was alright. Relief flooded my system, but with how fragile I currently felt, I couldn’t help but burst into tears. Lunging forward, I grabbed Rainbow Dash and squeezed her tightly.

“Oh! Uh, okay…” she wheezed, “You’re fine, dude… You can stop crushing me to death now.”

Letting her go, I wiped my eyes and shook my head, still panting.

“S-S-Sorry…”

She shook her head and said that it was fine, and then asked me what the heck I had been dreaming about.

“You were crying in your damn sleep dude.” she told me, “Your legs were kicking out like crazy, it was like when Twilight had that nightmare in Ukraine, when we were still in the city, remember?”

Shaking like a leaf, I told her what I had seen, and her eyes widened.

“Okay, that’s pretty messed up.”

“It-It felt so r-real…” I stammered, “The snow was so cold that it hurt, and Twilight’s head, it-it-it felt as real as you do.”

Offering me another, less constricting cuddle, Rainbow Dash promised me it wasn’t real, and then suggested that I drank some water. Taking her advice, I reached over to my rucksack and took out my water bottle, which I had refilled just the other day from Rarity’s refrigerated supply. Being from Equestria, purified with magic, it was the cleanest and most crisp water one could ever drink; anyone who ever claimed that water had no taste couldn’t have been more incorrect. Immediately feeling refreshed, I let out a long sigh. It was still dark outside, and upon sticking my head out of the tent, I was ever-thankful to find that there wasn’t so much as a flake of snow to be seen. Flopping back down beside Rainbow Dash, I could finally relax again.

“Great, now I need to pee.” Dashie grunted, getting up.

“Ugh, so do I.”

We both left the tent together, where we split off to do our business in private. After that, we sat outside for a moment, looking up at the stars.

“Look, dude…” she began awkwardly, “I’m sorry about earlier, I really didn’t mean to make things weird. I just wasn’t thinking and got ahead of myself. You’re my friend, okay? Please don’t think I was just pretending to like you so we could, you know…”

Exhaling out my nose with amusement, I told her that I didn’t think anything of the sort. At the end of the day, Rainbow Dash was just a very free-spirited individual and wanted to try her luck. I knew that, and assured her that I wasn’t upset with her, and didn’t think any less of her.

“So long as you don’t try something like that again, I’m more than happy to look past it.” I finalised.

Nodding, she promised me that she wouldn’t, and with that, we went back to bed, now feeling much more comfortable with each other. She pressed up against me, and just as I often did with Fluttershy, I put an arm around her upper body, holding her gently and letting her know that even if I wasn’t into her sexually, I was always up for a good cuddle.

The next day was thankfully a far better one, wholly devoid of any conflict, bear attacks, living shadows, or severed heads. It seemed absurd to say, but seeing Twilight emerge from her tent, alive and well, filled me to the brim with an overpowering sense of relief. Possessed by the emotion, I was unable to control my actions as I got to my feet and ran over to the pony, stooping to my knees and wrapping my arms around her. Taken completely off-guard, the unicorn’s body became like stone, tensing up in a state of uncomfortable surprise.

“Um… what do you think you’re doing?”

Realising what I had just done, I reassumed command over myself and pulled away. Everyone was now staring at me with their mouths agape. Swallowing, I pulled a sheepish grin and pointed at Rainbow Dash.

“She dared me to do that.”

Opening her mouth, the pegasus was about to protest, but stopped herself upon catching my desperate glare. Remembering what I had told her last night, she knew this was about the nightmare, and so she went along with it.

“Heh, yeah.” she chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck, “I said that he could never pull it off! Heh-heh, well done dude, you proved me wrong.”

Everyone bought it, with Twilight ordering me to never do something like that again, lest she was to hit me in the face. Sitting back down by the campfire, I asked Fluttershy how Rarity was getting on. Apparently she was doing alright, with her breathing nice and steady, and her temperature at an acceptable level. I asked if I could check on her, only to be denied. With her brain switched to ‘nurse mode’, Fluttershy was as assertive as ever, instructing me to let the mare rest.

With that, we had little else to do, and so we got to talking more about differences between the cartoon and real life. Not wanting to end up accidentally destroying the future or something, I steered clear of anything beyond Twilight becoming an alicorn princess. Instead, I simply implied that the last thing that had happened was the reforming of Discord.

For quite some time, we chatted about such things, until Twilight finally warmed to me again after the hugging incident. Clearing her throat, she said that she finally wanted to get the ball rolling with modifying my phone. Much to everyone’s surprise, I was invited into her tent, where the two of us sat opposite each other and went over possible upgrades for the device. Treating it like a genuine project, Twilight acquired some parchment, using a quill to draw up all phone’s current features, along with how they could be altered.

First, there was the operating system itself. Being an Android device, it was already rather customisable, but Twilight wanted to take it further, wishing to give it a more magic-friendly interface. To this end, she planned to reconfigure it into a whole new breed of system software, where instead of Twilight and Rarity needing to resonate with it just to gain control, they could simply command it with their thoughts while holding it with their telekinetic grasp, no different to how I could control it by touching the screen. This would also allow her to create new apps, which she could weave from the data of the currently existing ones. The Offline Maps app was to be left the same, as we didn’t want to risk breaking something that worked just fine. However, with the phone’s ability to send texts and voice calls being useless at the moment, she wished to reinstate their potential.

“Are you suggesting I could call you on my phone?” I huffed, somewhat in disbelief.

“Mm-hmm.” she hummed back, “If I could make it send a magical frequency instead of an electromagnetic one, I would be able to pick up on it, just like with a unicorn’s ping spell.”

She went on to explain that if she could make the phone send data through such a frequency, there was a chance she could receive it in the form of telepathy. To dumb it down, I could send her texts, or speak over a voice call, and Twilight would hear it inside her head, akin to an inner monologue. I was more than up for such a feature, as it would allow us to speak over long distances, even if we got separated.

“Hey, speaking of inner monologues.” I began, “There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

“What is it?” she asked.

Though her tone was blunt, her eyes glittered with curiosity, studying my face as I made my query.

“Ever since we found the shard in Brazil, I’ve been hearing this… voice, of sorts.”

“Voice?” she repeated, frowning, “What voice?”

Swallowing, I feared that I would sound insane for saying it, but I chose to go on.

“So, you know how your inner monologue works? How you sort of… hear a voice in your head, when reading quietly to yourself? Well, since finding that Orb shard, I’ve been hearing that voice more than ever before, commenting on things that have happened, and making quips, and jokes. In other words, my brain’s been conjuring thoughts that I haven’t meant to think.”

Narrowing her eyes, Twilight stared at me as though I had two heads. Nervously pressing on, I told her that I had once theorised that I might have gone a little bit mad after Inigo’s torture, but since recovering from that whole ordeal, the voice had continued to exist.

“It’s almost like… my inner monologue has gained sapience.”

Putting her mouth to one side, Twilight wasn’t sure what to make of my explanation. After giving herself a moment to think, she speculated that just as I had absorbed mana from the Orb fragment in Ukraine, perhaps the Orb shard in Brazil had affected me in some way as well. There was no telling how long that fragment had been submerged in the lake, so perhaps the mere act of swimming in the magic-infused water had muddled something up inside my head.

“I suppose that could be it.” I hummed, looking to one side, “Those damn crocodiles had certainly been altered by the Orb’s energy, so you might be on to something.”

“What was it you called them?” Twilight chuckled, “Über-crocs, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, that was it.” I huffed, “That would almost be funny to look back on, if you hadn’t murdered me.”

Blinking rapidly, the mare let out a strange, outward grunt. Almost immediately, her eyes welled up, and I realised that the comment had struck her far worse than I had expected it to. Her mouth then opened and closed repeatedly as she tried to find words, before finally, she let out a raspy whimper.

“Why… Why would you say that? I… I said… I said I was sorry for that.”

Sighing, I regretted being so cold, especially when we were in a half-decent place at the moment. With a disgruntled shrug, I tried to steer the subject away, hoping to return to the previous matter.

“Alright fine, yeah, that was a bit harsh.” I admitted, “Look, this voice. It doesn’t sound like my voice, it sounds like someone else’s. I’ve tried to rationalise it, but as time’s gone on, it’s starting to worry me.”

Sniffing, Twilight looked down and used a foreleg to wipe her eyes. Focusing, she asked if there was anything else I could tell her, anything that might indicate that there was more going on here. Thinking on it for a moment, I remembered the bizarre dreams I had been having.

“I’ve been having strange dreams.” I confessed.

Now that caught her attention. It had been no secret that Twilight had been suffering from rather intense nightmares as of late, and at the mention of strange dreams, the mare was now fully invested. Shrugging, I told her everything I could remember from them.

“It feels like I’m reliving someone else’s memories.” I told her, “I’m a unicorn, with a pale blue coat. Every dream has me fighting in a great battle, against griffons and minotaurs, with these weird flashes throughout.”

“Flashes?” she echoed.

“Yeah.” I answered, “They’re like… little glimpses of this unicorn’s life, or something. Sometimes I’m having arguments with ponies, shouting at them. Sometimes I’m killing them, but not in battle, it’s more like an execution. And other times, I’m… I’m making love.”

Craning her neck and acting somewhat judgemental, she asked me to elaborate.

{You uh, you really don’t have to clarify that.} the voice insisted.

{Oh, now I’m definitely clarifying that.} I thought back.

“Well…” I started, blushing slightly, “You have to understand, these flashes only last a second or two, so I don’t really know what’s going on half the time. But from what little I’ve experienced, I’m sleeping with both mares and stallions. It feels like I’m really there, like I’m really, erm… inside them.”

“Okay, yeah, that part I didn’t need to know.”

“Hey, trust me, as someone who’s not attracted to ponies, I’m not exactly a fan of it either!”

Huffing with annoyance, I went on to say that the flashes were different each time, but the dream always ended in the exact same way, with me killing myself in front of the Titans’ Orb, with Princess Celestia at my side. Needless to say, this detail had Twilight leaning so far forward that she damn-near kissed me. Gulping, I repeated the words to her, praying that she might know what they meant.

“Lest not abhor, he who brings me back to you, but love him rather, as you once loved me…”

Clenching her jaw, Twilight desperately tried to make sense of the words, but to no avail, she had absolutely no idea what significance they had. Eventually, she shook her head, and gave me her diagnosis, though it was riddled with uncertainty.

“I think you might be seeing a part of Equestria’s history. As I’ve explained to you already, there was a great war in the past between ponies, minotaurs, and griffons.”

“Yeah, the Repugnant War.” I hummed, remembering the story well.

“Well…” she continued, “I think, since you went swimming in that lake and touched the Orb fragment, you’ve been seeing memories from that war. You’re probably seeing the perspective of some soldier from that age, and by the sounds of it, perhaps an old friend to the Princess.”

“But that’s not normal.” I pointed out bluntly, “What you’ve just described is not normal. How the hell can I be seeing your world’s history?”

“Well, you’re not the first.” Twilight retorted, “Think about it. How did Lauren Faust come to learn about our world so extensively? How did she come up with your My Little Pony cartoon? Chances are, she probably saw what you’re seeing, glimpses from our world, or flashes, as you’ve described them.”

I was about to argue, but thinking about it, her reasoning made sense. Just as Lauren Faust and the show’s other writers had seen Equestria so clearly, leading to the creation of the show, I too, must have been seeing a depiction of Equus. Perhaps touching the Orb fragment had connected my soul to their world in some sense, attuning me to it? But even if this was the case, there was still the mystery of the voice.

“I don’t know.” Twilight confessed, “But hearing voices? Callum, that isn’t good.”

“Trust me, I know.” I spat, making sure she knew how serious I was about this.

“It’s not… asking you to do things, is it?” she inquired, “It’s not telling you to hurt us or anything like that, right?”

“Goodness no!” I exclaimed, “No, nothing like that! It’s just like having a funny little man hanging around in my head, commenting on whatever situation I’m in and making silly jokes.”

“Hmm, well that’s good at least.” she murmured, shrugging, “Maybe you’re right on that front? Maybe after what happened with Inigo, a part of your brain formed its own personality, as a way for you to converse with yourself and work through what happened to you.”

“Wait, so you’re suggesting that I’ve accidentally made an imaginary friend?”

“Well, I would liken it far more to a personality disorder.” she hummed, “But hey, for the sake of your simple mind, sure, let’s go with that.”

“It’s always a pleasure talking to you, Twilight.”

“Hey, you were the one who needlessly brought up the clone incident.”

“Egh, that’s fair.”

Without much else to be said on the matter, we ended the conversation with the agreement that if anything changed regarding the voice, I would tell Twilight immediately.

We then got back to the subject of my phone, and after a little more planning, the mare got to work. Her horn lit up, and the device vibrated a few times. The screen then flickered, and over the space of about half an hour, Twilight transformed my trusty Sony Ericsson Xperia, into the first pony-made cellular device of its kind, which she decided to call…

The Sparklight.

“God, that’s so corny.” I laughed.

“I mean, what else are we going to call it?” Twilight huffed, shrugging.

“I mean, do we have to give it a name?” I pointed out, “Why don’t we just keep calling it what we’ve been calling it? It’s a phone for crying out loud, why not just stick to calling it that?”

“Because I’ve created something new, and I want to give it a name.”

“Ugh, fine.”

Rolling my eyes, I picked up the Sparklight and held down the power button. Just like it always had done before, the device vibrated, but instead of being greeted by the usual Sony Ericsson splash screen, I was met with Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark, which pulsated faintly while the phone loaded its brand new operating system. I was then met by the home screen, and although it was mostly similar to its old design, there were some very clear differences. For starters, the apps were no longer down at the bottom, but were instead arranged in an evenly-spaced ring.

“Right, walk me through this.” I said, raising an eyebrow.

Coming to sit beside me, Twilight showed me all the changes, guiding me through the reworked operating system and all the new bells and whistles it came with. As planned, the LED light was now bright enough to blind a hawk, and the thumb-print reader now functioning like a biometric scanner. Testing it out, I put my thumb against it, which automatically opened one of the new apps, aptly titled, ‘BioScan’.

“You really went hard on naming things, didn’t you?” I scoffed.

“Look, I like things to have titles, okay? I’m a librarian, sue me.”

Rolling my eyes, I let the app load up, and slowly but surely, the app scanned my body. Essentially casting Twilight’s monitoring spell, the app displayed my blood pressure, body temperature, along with a handful of other attributes, from my hunger and thirst. There was even an ‘abnormalities’ section, which would highlight anything that was glaringly out of the ordinary. From illnesses to foreign bodies, the app ought to notice it from here on out, using my current state of being as a reference.

Backing out of the program, I went to the new ‘Speak’ application, which had been built from the Messages app, the Contacts app, and lastly, the Phone app. Firing it up, I was met with a single contact, of which was of course, Twilight. Tapping on it, I was met with the choice to either send her a written message, or to call her. Starting with the text, I wrote out a simple, yet eloquent message.

All hail Her Book-Loving Majesty, Twiggie Sparkbottom, Duchess of Nerds and Virgins.

Hitting send, the phone sent out a signal. Almost immediately, Twilight shuddered, and then raised her lips at me with disgust.

“I genuinely despise you. You know that, right?”

“It works!” I exclaimed, breaking into a wide grin.

The mare grunted loudly, and then ordered me to leave the tent and test the voice chat feature. Stepping out into the forest, I scarpered off by some distance, and then attempted to call her. After a few seconds, some static came through the speaker, followed by the echoey, warbled voice of one Twilight Sparkle.

“Is it working?”

“Bloody hell, Twilight.” I replied, “You’ve actually done it.”

“Oh jeez, that’s weird, I can hear you inside my head!”

At that, I threw on a silly spooky voice and began to moan at her.

“Oooohoohoohoo… That’s because I am inside your head!”

“Trust me, you aren’t, and you sure as heck wouldn’t want to be.”

The call then hung up, and I was left feeling a tad confused. What did she mean by that? Shrugging, I assumed that she was referring to her nightmares, and chose to let it go. Returning to the tent, I congratulated her on her successful experiment; the Sparklight was fully operational. Much to her annoyance, I went to the unaltered camera feature and took a selfie to commemorate the occasion. After that, we rejoined the others, where we began to speculate what we might find in Portugal, aside from the third Orb fragment of course.

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A few days went by, with Rarity’s condition stabilising enough for Fluttershy to return to sleeping with me again, which I had to admit, I was more than thankful for. Between Rainbow Dash’s snoring and the underlying awkwardness from knowing she wanted to have sex with me, I was overjoyed to have my platonic snuggle-buddy back. I told her what had happened, to which the little pegasus broke into a giggle, rolling her eyes.

“I wish I could say I’m surprised.” she laughed, “What did you say she called me?”

“I do believe her exact words were ‘little bundle of innocence’.”

We both chortled about it for a while, before finally enjoying our first night together again. As for Rarity, the poor thing was still in too dire a state to get up and walk around, with her pain simply being far too intense. This had been beyond embarrassing for her, as Fluttershy had been required to assist her with going to the bathroom by way of a bedpan. Being a nurse, this was no problem for her, but with Rarity being a lady, modest to the bone, it had been nothing short of a mortifying nightmare. To this end, it wasn’t long before she was forcing herself up and about, and with a generous dose of painkillers in tow, we ended up seeing more and more of the pearly unicorn.

Unlike in the case of Rainbow Dash and her plucked wings, I absolutely dreaded the inevitable day when the bandages would come off. In Dashie’s case, we would hopefully be met with healthy cyan plumage, with the pegasus pony’s flight restored. However, for Rarity, there wouldn’t be an ounce of joy in the removal of her dressing, for it would be only scars to greet us, with the soignée, well-kempt mare undoubtedly finding herself wrought with feelings of ugliness and deformity. Never again would the elegant fashionista feel confident in front of a mirror, and it pained me to imagine the first time she would see herself unwrapped. I could only hope that Twilight had stitched her up as immaculately as possible.

By the second week, she was able to walk around, and with the rest of us going a little stir-crazy, she insisted that she was fit to travel. Though we wished to give her a few more days, the mare was adamant, and so we packed up the camp and readied ourselves to move out.

Along the way, Twilight asked if the others could go on, as she wished to speak with me about a private matter. The others were apprehensive, but conceded nonetheless. Taking off, in the direction of the Soviet Radio Telescope, I was left alone with Twilight. Once the others were out of sight, I gave the unicorn a friendly smile.

“So uh, what’s going o-ah!”

With her telekinetic hold now wrapped firmly around my neck, I was yanked down to my knees, where I stared at Twilight in shock and surprise.

“What… What are you doing!?” I gasped, struggling for air.

“Start talking.” she ordered, “Right now.”

“I don’t unders-stand!” I choked, “Let go of me!”

Refusing to loosen her grip, Twilight stepped towards me and glared into my eyes.

“We’ve met you before.” the mare growled, “Before now, before the Orb, before any of this! I saw you!”

By now, my chest was convulsing from the lack of air, and with a desperate plea, I swore that I had no idea what she was talking about. Letting me go just before I blacked out, I fell onto my side and wheezed loudly, gulping down breath after breath as I fought to remain conscious. Now seeing stars, I clenched my fists and demanded to know what the hell she was on about.

“I saw you.” she repeated, “In the house, with Princess Celestia, and the rest of us. You were holding Rainbow Dash, and she was crying!”

{Oh fuck…} I thought to myself.

Very quickly, it dawned on me what was happening.
Twilight was starting to remember the My Little Dashie incident…

“Those ‘flashes’ you’ve been getting, in those strange dreams of yours?” she went on, “Guess what, I’ve been getting flashes of my own, and I keep seeing us in the same house. You’re hugging Rainbow, and she’s sobbing her eyes out, and the rest of us are crying too. Even the Princess was upset!”

Planting a hoof against my chest, she raised her lips and hissed at me through her gritted teeth.

“You know what happened to us, because you were there, weren’t you? What did you do to us!?”

Still trying to get a hold of my breathing, I met her gaze and scowled at her.

“I had no part in any of that, I swear! The man you’re seeing in those flashes, it’s not me. His name is Rob, and he wrote about what happened as though it were just a My Little Pony fanfiction. I read it years ago when I was just a child, and I promise you that’s the truth! The Princess removed your memories for a reason, and I’m not going to betray her trust by telling you.”

“And what of my trust?” Twilight spat, “How am I expected to travel with you if I can’t trust you? I want you to tell me what happened, and I want you to tell me now.”

“Twilight, what you ask of me is to disobey Princess Celestia.” I reminded her, “By her decree, I cannot tell you.”

Considering the fact she was starting to remember for herself, a part of me wished to spill the beans. However, I feared that it may open a whole new can of worms. If news of this spread to Rainbow Dash, and she came to remember her memories as well, it could very well cause the ‘irreversible damages’ that Rarity had once mentioned. After what Inigo did to her in Brazil, Rainbow’s mind was more fragile than ever, and it was a very real possibility that fifteen years’ worth of Earthly memories flooding back may just break her for good. It was a risk I wasn’t willing to take, and so I put my foot down.

“When you go back to Equestria, you can ask her for yourself.” I told her, “I’m sure she would tell you, and would restore your memories if you asked for them. But until then, my lips are sealed, and I beg of you to understand why. I promise you, I’m not trying to keep secrets, I’m just respecting the Princess, surely you can see that? Please Twilight, I know you don’t trust me, but please see the reason in what I’m telling you!”

Whether it was the look in my eyes, or the desperation in my voice, my words were enough to defuse the situation. Standing down, Twilight sighed heavily, shaking her head with bitterness and accepting that I was making sense. With a somewhat apologetic demeanour, she reached out to help me to my feet, but as I touched her hoof, she recoiled from me, causing me to fall back down.

“Okay, don’t help me then.” I scoffed.

I then realised that she hadn’t done it maliciously, something was wrong. The mare was wincing in pain, throwing her head to one side. Quickly getting up, I walked towards her to see if she was alright, only for her to whip around and glare at me.

“Don’t touch me!”

“Okay, okay!” I blurted out, stepping back.

Not wanting to rock the boat, I said that the others would be wondering where we were, and so with a great sense of unease, we pressed on.

{I swear, she’s losing the fucking plot.} I thought to myself.

{Aye…} my conscience agreed, {Who knows when this madness will end?}

Putting my mouth to one side, I trudged on in silence until we regrouped with the others. They of course, asked what we had talked about, to which I rather bluntly set them straight.

“If it was for you all to know, she wouldn’t have pulled me aside to speak privately.”

Hearing the gruffness in my tone, they questioned me no further, and over the next few minutes, we plodded along until we reached the Radio Telescope. Now that we knew long-range teleportation was possible via man-made frequencies, Twilight suggested a different approach to getting to Portugal. Instead of her teleporting there and opening a portal, she elected to teleport us manually, one by one.

“Human goes first.” she ordered.

Rolling my eyes, I knew there would be no point in arguing, and so I stood in front of her and prepared myself. If direct teleportation was anything like the Pullie-Portal, or worse yet, an actual portal, then I knew I was in for a horrible time. The mare’s horn lit up, and I felt a warmth around my body, along with a peculiar tingling in my skin.

“Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I confirmed, gripping my backpack straps.

“Good, because you have a lot of walking to do.”

At that, my eyes narrowed.

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

With a look of malice, Twilight’s lips slowly raised into a wicked smile, and her eyes flickered with a madness that I had only seen once before; in the eyes of Inigo Montenegro. Something was wrong, very wrong, and in the blink of an eye, I realised that this was a trap. But before I could even open my mouth to shout to the others for help, the unicorn’s horn flashed brightly.

The spell was cast, and everything went black…

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