Distant thunder rumbled through the clear, starry sky while fire licked and crackled wild and free all over the mismatched town. The snow beneath Twilight's hooves crunched ominously, echoing about the defiled lawns and pathways. Broken homes and other familiar places assaulted her eyes with ugly black spines, industrial metallic structures, and odd rocket shaped objects, which invaded every space conceivable, utterly defiling a place she came to know as home. To further punctuate the grotesque landscape, bullet holes and splotches of a sickening tan decorated small parts of the various buildings, as if something happened long ago. Deep in her heart, regardless of its quivering, she knew this wasn't real. Wherever she ended up, Ponyville was doubtlessly safe for the time being. However, the fact that this town, despite being a very twisted parody, seemingly matched the layout of her beloved home only served to manifest intrusive questions, all boiling down to a single concept: Is everywhere in Ponyville here, including where I live? Morbidly curious, but ruing the thought, she wandered through the twisted landscape, following what she felt she recognized.
As she wandered, she noticed brief flashes of Ponyville's original look in the bright, daylight sun. In those moments, Twilight swore she could also see ponies milling about their day, chatting among themselves. These lapses lasted for few precious moments, until the bright world faded away, taken over once again by the odd corruption before her. As she kept trekking through the streets, she began to hear echos of events rather familiar to her.
Wow, what a gorgeous day.
Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, pivoting on the spot to try to find what she heard. "Wait, that's-"
Rainbow dash must have gotten up early for once and cleared all of the clouds away!
"Spike?" Soon enough, the voices faded out as memories of that day began to flood in. A few days of paranoia and prejudice, only to finally end in understanding due to the help of a stalwart filly's actions and headstrong nature.
Call me silly, but I think this whole hero thing might be going to Rainbow Dash's head.
Another slough of memories flooded in from the day her friends decided to teach the egocentric Rainbow Dash a lesson in humility. She wasn't entirely sure if they went too far, but the result was enough to keep her humble... for a while.
She tried following the voices for a moment, trying to focus as they faded in and out, unclear and vague. However, as she kept moving, she noticed the surroundings become more and more canyon like, with deeper and deeper snow coating the ground and much less vegetation. At the same time, she finally found the very thing that satisfied her inner inquisition, despite the distortion. There was Golden Oaks Library, but what a strange location it was in. Wound, stretched, and clinging to a strange building that seemed to be built within the rocky terrain itself. It was heartbreaking to see a place she came to love and cherish be so violently twisted around such a harrowing and foreboding place.
The wind began to pick up, causing Twilight to flinch as snow suddenly kicked up into a violent flurry. Within seconds, her field of vision diminished at an alarming rate until she could only see white, as well as grayish silhouettes in place of the unnatural environmental objects beyond the thick falling snow. Knowing she was a stones throw away from her home, she galloped forward to the structure and entered the front opening.
Upon escaping the snow and taking a moment to recollect herself, she gazed about her surroundings for a moment, before her heart sank. She no longer saw the beautiful wood-carved and hollowed oak tree library interior that she had come to love, but a cold, metal and concrete hallway that sloped down to a large vertically opening gate. Thick metal beams criss-crossed diagonally along the walls, with lights spaced evenly at the overlaps. To her left was a non-sloped, railed walkway that seemingly lead to some sort of machine and a glass window. The materials used to construct this place were sometimes rarely used in Equestria, but were never implemented to this extent, which emphasized just how alien this location was to her, especially considering how far reaching the structure seemed to be. Twilight's uncomfortable feeling only got worse as she reached the gate at the end of the slope, and noticed a space between it and the floor just enough for her to squeeze under. Faded black and yellow warning stripes were painted on the edges, giving a sense of danger of what she was planning to do.
However, before she could weigh her options, a loud, explosive bang was heard behind her, as the very entrance she came through was suddenly obliterated into little flaming wooden pieces. Stepping through the snow and chaos was a human-like creature, one that she didn't recognize, whom seemed to be entirely aflame. Panicking, Twilight turned back to the gate, flattened down to her belly, and crawled through as quickly as she could.
As soon as she made it to the other side, she stood up quickly while turning to the gate, and slowly backed away, as angry wails echoed from behind the barrier, and flames licked through the gap. Twilight jumped as the gate itself suddenly slammed shut, cutting off the encroaching fire and keeping the strange aggressor barred from her for the time being. She backed away slowly, only to bump into something hard and metallic, covered by some sort of tarp. As she calmed herself, she looked about the massive warehouse, and noticed more tarp covered box-like objects, as well as a giant, jagged hole starting from the wall on her right and traveling all the way to the middle of the far end wall. What made it so disconcerting was that instead of snow, rock, or any outside presence, there was just a pitch black nothing.
Prying her eyes away from the empty void, her gaze turned back to the tarp covered objects, where her curiosity got the better of her in the end. Flaring her horn, she gripped a loose flap with her magic and began to pull it open. As soon as she saw what was underneath, she gasped and backed away, letting go of the flap. She shivered and convulsed, trying hard not to be sick from the vivid and mangled shape of horrific burns and charred skin she saw underneath. What was worse was that for some strange reason, she felt like this wasn't the first time she saw something like that.
"N-no," she uttered, "That's impossible. Everyone is..."
They're going to kill me...
She paused for a moment. An image of a village burning and people screaming flashed before her for just a moment, before fading away. She could have sworn she heard voices she knew mixed in with the brief, chaotic cacophony. It was such a bizarre vision, one that she couldn't recall, but one that also sounded so familiar. She tried to remember, despite how afraid she was of what she saw, but the longer she thought about it, the more light headed she became. "Wh-what's... going on?"
C'mon, Mr. FOX-HOUND. The Commander is waiting...
Twilight looked up, and noticed the staircase to the far left of the warehouse, leading to a strange door that sat so uncomfortably close to the gap in the room. Despite the uneasy, foreboding feeling she felt in the pit of her stomach, something compelled her to climb the steps and open the door. And so she did, slowly and cautiously, keeping her ears focused, and checking behind her to make sure the gate wouldn't suddenly bust open. Upon reaching the door, Twilight -almost out of instinct- pressed a button on the panel that was situated right next to the door, causing it to open up. Inside was a small room with no other entrance or exit. Before she even realized what was happening, she had already walked inside of the small room, where upon the door shut behind her. Twilight whirled around, and tried to pry it back open again, but a sudden jerk from the room and the sound of something whirring just beyond the walls caused her to stagger for a moment and realized the room was taking her down somewhere.
Twilight sat down on her haunches while she waited, feeling as if she knew what was going on. At that time, she took a moment to do breathing exercises to calm her already frazzled nerves.
"Keep it together, Twilight. You're fine, your friends are mostly fine, and your home is fine. You are Twilight Sparkle. You can get out of this mess. You just have to find Mantis, and-"
The room suddenly stopped, causing Twilight to flinch again, before the door before her opened once more. Outside, however, was the pitch black nothing. She stepped forward and looked over the edge, seeing absolute darkness.
"Intruder!"
Twilight whirled around and saw an odd, threatening human clad in a black ski mask and strange green clothing, whom carried a strange dark metal object that was firmly pointed in her direction. Warnings of danger and fear caused her to jump and fall backward into an impromptu attempt to flee, but all it succeeded in doing was causing her to tumble out the door of the small room and deep into the void outside.
As she fell, she screamed through the endless nothing while watching the small box of a room get smaller and smaller the further she dropped, until it was gone. After a while, though, she felt something strange, and fearing for the worst, she shut her eyes and curled her little body inward as tightly as possible to prepare for the worst. Her descent into the abyss had slowed, and the vertigo all but ceased, until she finally stopped, which entirely threw her off her expectations. Unfurling herself, she stood back up and looked around, but saw only darkness to her dismay. With nothing else left to do, and no longer feeling she was in any more danger, she began walking through the darkness, trying with all her might to keep hold of her senses. However, after a fair few minutes of nothing, she noticed someone crouched in the distance. It was a small human with stark crimson hair in a dark grey coat far too big for the poor thing's body, wearing an all too familiar mask.
"M-Mantis?" she guessed.
The child didn't move, however, as he just remained in his crouched position, shivering with small harsh breaths filtered through that awful mask. It was then that she heard the voice of a woman, clear as day.
Пожалуйста, живи.1
Mantis looked up with a light sob, "Мама?"
Twilight looked up, trying to find the source of the voice that was speaking in Moscown.
Живи для меня, мой ребенок... Ty zasluzhivayesh' zhit'!1
The little unicorn's heart cracked, as tears formed at the corners of her eyes, which elicited a light sob while she tried to keep it together. "M-mom?" she weakly uttered. Upon realizing what she said, she shook her head vigorously. "No, my mom is... what's going on?" She quickly wiped away her tears, and turned back to Mantis, only to find he was gone.
It was then the darkness melted away with a sudden gust that came from nowhere, and she found herself in a run down shack of a home. Once again, the location was quite alien, but she did recognize a few details that gave her an idea of what she was looking at.
It was a living room, complete with house plants, a small area rug, a strange box with a glass front side, a warm fire place, various nick-knacks decorating random locations, a few photos of what seemed to be a human male and female, possibly a father and mother if the implications were correct, a worn couch, and a wooden rocking chair. In said chair was the large human male, with similar features as the one in the photos around the room. He sat with the most depressed expression on his face.
It was then Twilight noticed she wasn't the only witness, as she found Mantis creep up from behind her and peak around the corner, obviously worried. It was then that she heard a bitter, spiteful voice echo around her.
Она умерла из-за этого ... вещь. Это ужасное, отвратительное существо. Он не мой сын. Мне нужно убить его.2
Twilight gasped, backing away from the scene.
"Отец, нет," Mantis said quietly to himself in absolute fear and betrayal.
Before Twilight knew what was happening, the entire environment around her became consumed by fire, completely obscuring her vision as she attempted to flee. Screams of fury, misery, pain, and panic swirled within the flames and became louder while the fire grew to reach the star-lit sky.
As the fires died, Twilight slowed her speed until she finally stopped at the edge of a cliff, overlooking a forest. Behind her laid the smouldering remains of a village that suffered such an uncontrolled tragedy.
"No choice."
"Wh-AH!" she screamed as something grabbed her leg and tried to pull her off the cliff. She pulled back in reaction, only to look down out of curiosity of what exactly was attacking her, and laid eyes upon the soldier that threatened her before.
"No choice." He then melted into a new person. A grizzled man with short brown hair and a short brown beard, wearing a black eye-patch over his right eye, and that was clad tan and black camo patterned clothing now stared back at her. "No choice," he choked.
She gasped as she tried to pull away harder, trying desperately to get away. The figure then melted to a new human with a psychotic smile stretched across his face, whom was reaching down his side with his other hand for a knife he had stashed. "No choice."
She pulled much harder and more frantically, fearing for her safety, as the strange human began to melt again, only this time to become nothing more than a skeleton and disintegrate to ash. Upon the sudden change, Twilight fell backward, away from the cliff, and scooted away for extra security. She fought hard to catch her breath, but felt herself only hyperventilate.
"There is no choice," Mantis said, finally. Twilight gazed behind her, only to suddenly feel her neck be gripped by an invisible force, and her body lift off of the ground. "In the end, despite how much I loathe him, my father was absolutely right."
"I-It wasn't y-your fault," she choked. Her fading gaze looked beyond the manic psychic to the small child behind him that was now cowering away from the madness before him. "Sh-she waech- ... wanted you to live!"
"Is that so?" Mantis then threw Twilight aside, and turned around to his younger self. "I don't." As he got closer, he reached out to his past, hoping to finally end his own nightmare. "The last connection to my past... the last to my misery."
Recovering from the psychic assault, Twilight returned to her hooves, only to see Mantis attack the poor child. It was then that she saw red, and ran full speed at the slender mentalist, tackling him to the ground, before flaring her own horn and tossing him as far as she could muster. As soon as it ended, she dropped back to her knees, exhausted. The child, dumbfounded but safe, approached the unicorn cautiously and silently.
"Почему ты мне помог?3" he asked her mutely.
"It was the right thing to do," she responded, "You deserve to live."
Before anything more could be said, Psycho Mantis rose up from where he landed and furiously screamed out bloody murder before he charged across the scarred and scorched ground right towards the unicorn and his past self. Twilight, gritting her teeth and flaring her horn, began casting a defense spell. As emotions began to run high and the two intellectuals prepared to clash, the child suddenly felt an odd but welcome sense of nostalgia. It feels... nice.
A blinding flash overtook them, as locked minds finally drifted out of the darkness.
-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-
A hazy, numb mist ebbed while the horrible dream began to lose clarity, and flowed away into the inky blackness with the dull throb of murmuring pushing against the walls of consciousness. Memories scattered and returned to their rightful place while the link severed, minds no longer one.
Twilight stirred groggily from her slumber, eyes squeezing tight as a groan escaped her lips in protest with regards to a sore body and pressured head. Eyes shut, her body slowly rose from the velvety carpeted floor she slowly became aware of, which she involuntarily brushed with her hooves for a moment, eliciting a rustle of something on her back.
Huh?
Finally opening her eyes, she became far more aware of her surroundings, and realized she was not alone. Along with Mantis, whom was also stirring from his own sleep, she finally noticed the platoon of guards that stood a fair distance at the ready, weapons drawn, but seemingly at ease with looks of shock plastered on their faces. Along with the accompaniment, she noticed both her mentor Princess Celestia and Princess Luna present with stern, yet pleasant expressions. Behind the royals and their escorts stood the looming goliath Dumah whom watched them all, as stone faced as ever.
What's going on? she thought as she stood while something flapped gently. Wait, flapped? It was then that she turned her gaze behind her and noticed two very large, very purple wings. "Wh-WHAT?"
"Be calm, my dearest student," Celestia spoke as serenely as ever, "Quite a lot has happened. After you confronted... Mantis, if I'm recalling the name correctly from your letters, it seems as though you had accidentally lost control of your magic."
"I," she grimaced, rubbing her forehead with one of her hooves, feeling her now elongated horn for the first time, "I remember that. Mantis spooked me while my guard was down. I think I..." she rubbed her head again, trying to remember what happened.
"In your panic and haste, dearest Twilight Sparkle," Luna declared, "you attempted to flee with a teleportation spell while re-casting a mental barrier. The confusion and abruptness of Mantis' attack threw your concentration, and instead of focusing on one or the other, you tried to attempt both at the same time, resulting in..." she trailed off.
"I don't know what you saw, my dearest student, but the result was a new type of magic."
The revelation shook Twilight. "I created... new magic?"
"An extremely powerful spell. It was enough to render you unconscious, as well as the one you bound to." Luna approached the little, former unicorn and looked to her with the softest expression she ever managed. "While I'm capable of walking through a person's dreams, you have found a way to walk through the entire mental landscape."
"Is that-?" Twilight started, beginning to recall flashes and images of what she saw, and memories not her own. "Is that why I... I can remember his..."
The Princesses looked to each other for a moment in concern, but ultimately turned their attention back towards Twilight with a reply. "To be honest, we don't know," Luna started, "Spells of mind-reading and dream-walking are the closest to what you've created, and they are not nearly as in depth or complex, nor do they leave lasting effects on the caster. Even then, they are still extremely difficult spells to learn and maintain."
"In fact, if you weren't so close to us when you casted it in error, you would have been in danger of magic depletion," Celestia added. "However, despite the risks you took and the threat you faced, you succeeded in saving all of us, and in stopping Mantis, all while ascending as an Alicorn through your new magic."
"So, that's why," Twilight uttered offhoovedly, as her wings gave another gentle flap. "But, I can't. I can't just ascend, just like that. It was all an accident."
"Some of the best moments in life are not planned, my dearest Princess Twilight." Celestia gave a bow, which was shortly followed by Luna's bow, as well as the guards in the room. Even Dumah, whom stood silently behind the group the whole time, gave a small bow of his own. As the princesses and guards rose back up, Celestia pulled a book from a satchel one of the guards was carrying and presented it to Twilight. "We intended to send you this book, so you would have researched and finished Starswirl's incomplete spell."
Twilight's own magic gripped the book and pulled it closer to her, as her eyes glittered with wonder. "Starswirl's... incomplete spell?"
"A masterpiece he was working on before he... left," Celestia said in a tone of discomfort. With a sigh, she shifted her mood from sullen to proud, and continued to speak, "If anyone can make sense of it and complete the spell, it would be you, Twilight." She gave a warm, motherly smile. "I hope you can accept the book and its unfinished work as a gift of congratulations."
Before Twilight could express how overjoyed she felt right then and there, the sound of pained groans not too far away from her caught everyone's attention. Turning to the source, she saw Mantis stir and begin to return to the waking world. The tension in the air thickened as the guards raised their weapons in defense once again. However, Celestia's right wing opened, signalling them to stand down.
The psychic swayed as he pushed his body up from the ground until he was in a sitting position, comfortable enough to rub his scalp and the straps that kept his mask in place. A deep, filtered sigh escaped him as he gazed at the company kept, before he laid eyes on the transformed Twilight, followed by seeing the princesses in their glory for the first time.
"Mantis."
The ex-FOXHOUND member drew his gaze back to Twilight, whom had already stepped closer. He didn't move, nor did he reply, but instead watched the new alicorn closely and carefully.
"I... know more about you than anypony has any right to know... but hopefully, you know just as much about me. Is it enough for you to understand?" She paused, waiting for him to answer. When no reply came, she extended her hoof, "Is it enough for you to trust me?"
Mantis looked to her hoof, his expression still entirely unreadable due to the mask, but his body shook slightly, as if shivering in the cold for the first time.
"I... don't know."
Twilight allowed her hoof to drop, but she gave a small smile. "I won't force anything, but know I mean you no harm, and I promise that I'll get you back home, just like I promised everyone else."
Mantis just sat there in silence as his gaze cast to the floor. There wasn't any point in fighting or forcing his will at this time. He had failed in beating Twilight and her friends, just as he failed in stopping the agent that killed him. Furthermore, in the short time it took for him to wake up from that exhausting nightmare to the point that he spoke those words with earnest confusion, he had scanned the minds present, and met with a strange sensation. While the guards were still vulnerable under normal circumstances, he assumed due to the mental wells he hit, his mental abilities were utterly useless on the three alicorns and the monster vampire present, and it wasn't due to a mental wall. Something else, something more profound, was stopping him from picking up any thoughts or injecting his actions. It was a terrifying thought, and going up against such untouchable power in the state that he was in now was entirely unwise, no matter how powerful he was capable of becoming in this land. He had no choice. Mantis decided to comply for the time being.
"Very well," he finally answered, "I concede."
"Then, I shall leave him under your care, Twilight," Celestia declared, "I trust you will look after him until the time is right?" While the wording seemed like an unofficial request, Twilight simply accepted it with a bow of her own as if it were a command.
"Will thou escort our friend and her charge back to the train station?" Luna asked Dumah.
"I have no reason to decline," he replied, "Come, let us return home."
With all said and done, both Mantis and Twilight were excused from the throne room, accompanied by the watchful eye of the steadfast vampire Dumah. As they exited, they saw Lyra, having recovered from her own affliction from the situation, and while she was shaken, she was in decent condition. Twilight offered to take help her home, but Lyra insisted on sticking around Canterlot for the time being, to clear her head and relax from all the excitement. Before the small group left the musician alone, however, Mantis stopped for a moment and turned directly to her.
She froze up, far more weary and cautious of the human than she had ever been, understanding how dangerous he really was, but his verbal reply was unexpected and disarming.
"Lucid dreaming," Mantis stated, "It is the ability to manipulate one's own dreams at will. An ability I do not have, despite my talents. If you can make it work... you could 'totally abuse that', as you would say."
Lyra was utterly gobsmacked, and just as confused. For the time she was under his control, she could feel nothing but a malevolent force that worked her like a puppet and used her as a map, before tossing her aside once she had outlasted the novelties. She had just learned to be on guard around the being, and here he was, giving her advice on a silly little conversation they had a short time ago. Why would he even bother telling me?
But she would never get her answer, as the psychic turned away from her and followed the small alicorn and the goliath vampire down the battered hall of Canterlot Palace, aiming to return home and put this disaster behind them all. The best laid plans were now in ruins and all parties involved were simply exhausted. The one thing left to do was find those that had put themselves in Mantis' line of fire and bring them back home so they could be treated well and lead back to comfort, no matter their transgressions.