Bug Butt Filler 16

>As the evening wears on, you start feeling fatigued
>That Sombra character had taken something from you, and it almost feels like you needed it
>You find it hard to perform spells
>Because of the exhaustion or something else, you can't tell
>Another thing you notice is that magic related things aren't registering in your mind like they did earlier
>Now they sort of leave a shadow
>A shadow to recognize things by, but not learn from
>Staying awake is becoming increasingly difficult
>Twilight is trying to lecture you about how magic works, but you aren't alert enough to absorb the lesson
>Her speech becomes a background noise, and eventually you tune her out completely
>Then things get weird
>They start small at first
>Like Twilight mouthing incoherent things
>The fact that you an't hear her anymore
>Then her shadow flickers
>That's when the changes become more drastic
>Walls start to ooze away
>They slide away to become bars
>Twilight sits on the other side of the bars, and is moving backwards though standing still
>Even the floor changes, its colors seeping away into something grey and lifeless
>Looking around, it's like you're in a cell
>Only the walls are all bars
>And they curve upwards, forming a dome
>Past the bars, colors are still swirling into some semblance of recognition
> A grey and lifeless cavern, stretching north to south seemingly for eternity
>And at the bottom, a black abyss, following the tunnel of a cavern you're in
>At the same time as all this scenery is happening, you feel something
>An impression of magic, a shadow
>You don't know what it is, but you feel it trying
>Trying to come in
>The one thing that stops you from being able to stop this force is the recognition of where you are
>You're in a cage that will imprison you for an eternity
Just to test and see, you reach out and grasp a bar in your hand
>Only to rear back in pain, just like...something
>Not just physical pain
>The torment and agony of millions of lives is what you feel
>The pain is so much to bear that the shadow trying to come in eases back for a moment, before finally entering in while your gaurd was down
>You can't really do much about it though
>You are still waiting for the pain to leave
>Truly, there are all kinds of pain
>And what just hit you was easily the combined form of all of them
>Some eternity later, someone stands before you
>Or, right in front of the cage bars
>When you can see clearly, you find it to be nobody you've seen before
>Another alicorn, it would seem
>Unlike the last two you've met, this one has a flowing, gas-like mane
>Looking much like the night sky
>The rest of it matched that theme with the dark blue coat
>You stand up and walk closer, stopping before you reach the bars, not keen on a repeat experience
>Then it speaks
What manner of being are you? To have tried escaping here...
>Escape?
>Is she blind?
>You are clearly stuck he-
>Small memories come back to you
>Enough to give you the piece of the story you need to know
>You did get out of here before
>You were trapped for eons, but you got out
>At a cost
>You recall bearing the excruciating weight of the pain the bars hold
>Just the memory hurts to think about
>You recall how you refused to let go, and climbed your way to the top
>You remember squeezing your way out of the small hole there
>You even remember the massive relief of being able to let go
>And fall into the river below, with only the thought of getting out running through your head
>All of these memories come back to you in an instant
>And you snap your attention back to the starry alicorn
I. Am a free man.
>And you've proved it
>You aren't held by fate, you endured the largest of sufferings, and crawled out of the river Lethe
>Nearly empty, but strong
>You had come to understand that no matter what, there is an inch of freedom that will never be taken away from you
>It can be broken, but never truly erased
>Your will
>Your will to be
>That's how you escaped
>You surpassed limits because you found that they don't have to exist
>Willpower is as strong as you make it to be
>And you have made sure it is stronger than any limits one would place on you
>Newfound energy flows through you
>You look the alicorn dead in the eyes
And I will not be imprisoned against my will.
>As you say this, you reach out and grasp the bars in front of you
>It hurts
>More than anyone can ever percieve
>But you hold on
>You will not be bested by mere bars
>The pain grows more intense as the bars try to keep you in
>Your volume rises as you fight through the pain
I WILL NOT BE KEPT HERE!
>You shout, as you break off the two bars of the cage and throw them into the river
>The alicorn, who seems to be standing on nothing takes a step back
>And then another
>Then it shimmered
>...
>You walk out to it, ignoring gravity
>You reach out with your left hand, as if to try and touch the being in front of you
>Who is trembling a bit in fear, but calms a little at your movement
Who are you?
>You ask, faking an amazed expression
>The pony straightens up, shimmering for the briefest instant in doing so
I am Luna, Princess of the Night
>The shadow
>The one that had entered into your mind
....
>You grin
Nice try, bastard
>And give him an uppercut straight to the jaw, making a snapping sound that resonated through the illusion world, shattering it
>The alicorn howls in pain, dropping its disguise
>And revealing himself to be none other than King Sombra
>With his disguise goes most of what you realize to be a massively complex spell
>All of this was a dream
>But that's not all
>Being a dream, the spirit was partly seperated from the body
>He had led your spirit to the actual cage you were once imprisoned in
>On top of that, he had aimed to use that alicorn as a way to keep you docile to your imprisonment
>His flaw was that you don't know such a pony
You failed
>You say as you walk over to him, still clutching his jaw from where you hit it
>He tries to back away, but you don't let him
>Instead, you pin him by his tail, getting a good look at him
>He wore armor on his legs, a crown, and a red robe
>His eyes were green and red, and his mane a flowing black
>The remnents of some part of his master spell still clings, but you can feel your will overcoming it
>You take your time looking him over
>Then you let him go
Fight me then
>He looks at you in surprise
>You just stare evenly at him
>Then hi smiles
>In a really creepy way
>Just before your will breaks hold of the spell, he replies
One thousand paces; One thousand faces
Ten hundred to defend; Ten hundred ways to meet your end
>And with that, he pulls out of the spell before you can shatter it
>Immediately, you shoot your eyes open
>And the scene before you is beyond your immediate comprehension