TQ 74-75 Scene: Onyxia's Dream

Shima: Without any memory of events to have transpired, no recollection of how you arrived, you keep your eyes closed tightly and feel a great sense of weakness overwhelming you as you feel as though you're floating in mid-air, your movements dull, slow, difficult to make as you feel yourself in an odd mixture of unease and relaxation.

Your fur feels as though it's drenched, swimming around in some vicious liquid that surrounds your every pore, yet you feel no sense of drowning nor any difficulty at all in breathing. Though you feel tired, if you were to open your eyes you'd see a vast screen of green in all direction, fading images of a cavern and green lights just beyond it that you can barely see. Though trying, you do have the ability to move your hooves, though when you do you feel as though you've hit some kind of barrier, a transparent wall in the green hue.

You're trapped in something, and you hear only a slight whisper of a motherly voice singing coming through the fade.

Khazard: "...Hmm, huh?" Onyxia mumbles as she stirs in her amnesiac daze. Her eyes blink open, confusedly lookin around through the greenscape surrounding her. She stretches her hooves, causing her to waken more from the restriction more than the sense of being submerged. "Wha... What's that sound?" She says in a daze towards the faint voices as she pulls in her hooves close to herself to not push or fght at this barrier.

Shima: As you call out for the source of the sound, you hear them growing slightly louder in volume, and you note just how honey sweet the sounds feel to you as you hear the voice sing through the liquid.

>"Mother's children, oh how she weeps..."
>"For when they leave her next, she hardly sleeps..."
>"My darlings though we're far apart..."
>"Mother shall never leave your heart..."

You see a few scattering figments of movement beyond the green in the cavern like area, likely on the other side of whatever barrier keeps you in, but no one directly answers your question as you slowly stir within your imprisonment. The liquid seems to want to keep you restrained, and you find it harder to move the harder you push.

Khazard: "Mom...? Mom is that you?" Onyxia says, starting to get more lucid as the voice gets louder and more clear. She sarts to reach back out against the barrier, pushing back at it. "How'd I get home... It doesn't matter, just that I'm back does." She says, almost as if convincing herself. She pushes against the fighting fluids, wanting to get out to the voice, seeing the green surrounding as the light of her mother's crystalline coat. As the force intensifies, she tries to shift her hooves to break through it, to get out of this envelopment to her singing mother.

Shima: The voice continues singing into a new verse as your senses return to you, but fades away as you start pushing at the barrier, feeling more like the echo it was at the start. You shift your hooves enough to start making some headway against the barrier, not as solid as it felt at first now that you're awake but pliable, like some kind of thick plastic wrapping covering your prison. The liquid contracts and tries to keep your hooves from moving as you forcibly push against it, but as you struggle you feel a little tear form in the pod, a seeping *HISS* of air sounding out as you feel some of the liquid dripping out and falling onto a floor, the opening widening.

The singing does not fade nor grow, and the green hue disappears as you begin to see more of your surroundings: a deep, luminated cave with crystalline walls, and the lights of green being numerous, spread out throughout this cavern at multiple sources.

Khazard: Onyxia pushes out through the tear she makes, falling over and landing ungracefully on the cavern floor with a "Oof". Her hooves returning to normal, she stands up and shakes the liquid off. "Mom? Where are you?" She asks out through the cave as she looks around at the multiple lights. A bit of fear lays in her tone, though from confusion tan anything else. She takes a few steps forward as she looks around the walls, then turns to head towards the sound of the voice.

Shima: The liquid, though sticky while within your imprisonment, comes off easily after you escape, and you can turn to see what it was you were trapped in: a changeling pod, similar to the grotesque one you saw at the Castle after Chitus' invasion. As you can finally make clear sight of the cavern, you turn around a look at the green lights lining the walls of the cave: Each one is a similar pod, with a shaded figure of something inside, occasionally stirring but ultimately unclear who or what. Out of the corners of your eyes you hear the sounds of bug like wings fluttering and scattered movement, and the cave's sole source of light you see extending from a large opening in the ceiling.

The voice continues to sing softly, coming from opening in the ceiling (which is reachable by a large, cracked, ragged looking set of 'stairs' made entirely of stone leading on up with no rails).

>"Children lost, they've gone so far..."
>"But mother shows them who they are..."

Khazard: Onyxia's eyes widen in shock as she ses the walls of coccoons, and the one that held her. "Th-This isn't home, where am I?!" She shouts t herself in a mild panic, breathing starting to quicken as she looks for somewhere to go. Quickly turning towards the wing beats, Onyxia follows the stairs with her eyes all the way up to the cieling. The voice gives her an uneasy calm listening to it, and she takes a few slow steps towards them. "That light wasn't... This can't be you..." She mutters outloud as she climbs the stone towards the ceiling. "Mom?"

Shima: You take a few steps towards them, the voice moves on...

>"They're caught up in a silly show..."
>"Forgetting what they truly know..."

And as you ascend the stairs, the voice only grows louder. At times while you ascend you feel pebbles shake from the sides of the rocky slope, fearing to crumble beneath your weight, but they hold steady as you ascend through to the very top, making for the source of light coming through the top of the cavern.

After breaching it, you find yourself looking around at a familiar sight: around you is the main entrance chamber of the Crystal Tower as you've always known it from your own time, though now with a massive hole in the center leading into that cavern with the cocoons. Around you it appears that all clothes, rugs, tapestries have been torn, and many glass portraits, stained windows, broken or shattered. A trace of more green goo or black carapace, not pods but similar in appearance, line the halls around you moving off to various directions. The voice seems now to be coming from outside.

Khazard: Onyxia shields her eyes as she steps into the lighter crystal room. Lowering her hoof, she stands in confusion at the difference in location. "How did I, I was just—" The destruction starts to stare through the dissonance, snapping her to the broken glass, torn furniture. "What happened here, the castle always looked so nice." She looks out the window towards the voice source, the goo and shell its lying about... The memories of the Sons' attack on her home before snap back. Chitus' army buried under Canterlot. "No, they couldn't." She turns ad runs towards the nearest balcony to see outside. They couldn't have attacked her home, burrowed up in the castle too strike from the heart. ("Please be safe, please be alright.") She thinks over and over again in her head, worried for her parents, especially her father if changelings are here. Once she gets her head outside, she tries to look for her house from atop the castle.

Shima: As you panic, you head up towards the nearest balcony you can, and see that you find no familiar faces (or ANY faces) as you make your ways through the ruined halls of the Crystal Palace, damage apparent everywhere you go before you finally find a balcony with which to look out into the city.

What you find is a city covered in a thick, purplish-pink fog that surrounds it and blocks out the sun above, dimly lighting the town below as you see that most buildings have remained intact, but suffer similar damage to what you saw inside: cracked houses, broken windows, occasional crater in the streets. You think you spy what appears to be your house from afar, and see it has suffered some external damage as well but remains standing as a whole. But all over the city you see a similar spreading of coccoons, spreading carapace, changeling influence across the way.

You hear a great flap of wings and a small gust flow from behind you, and a light chuckle of the same motherly voice.

>"But mother shall free from their lies..."
>"Return to her in their blessed hives..."
It returns to a normal tone, and a strong, mature voice of a mare asks, "Good morning, my love. Did you sleep well?"

Khazard: Onyxia looks down over the city, hooves gripping tight to the railing at the sight of the damage. She feels her heart sink at the lack of anything in the city aside from destruction. Her coat dulls and loses its luster as she sees the spread of coccoons and carapace all over the city, her coat nearly matching it with its now faded black. She tenses up as she hears the wings behind her. "Did... did you do this?" She asks with a shakey voice, hooves still gripped to the railing tight as she turns her head to see the body that made the voice.

Shima: As your coat dims and you turn about to face the source of the sudden breeze you felt behind you, look back into the room from which the balcony extends. It too is now filled with the same pinkish-purplish mist surrounding the town, and within you can see a very tall, imposing figure. Slightly taller than Celestia, with a horn that elegantly curves upwards in a swiping motion, and two, beautiful eyes of violet attached to a shadowy figure that looks like it's slightly obscured by a robe. The room smells sweet, inviting, intoxicating, and the mare's mouth moves slowly and calmly.

"Why do you ask such a silly question, my child? Of course not. Not alone, anyhow." It takes a few strides forward, moving elegantly like a dancer. You now notice in addition to the horn, she has two, feather appendages leaping from just above her eyes, like long eyebrows that pull away from her head. "You've lost your shimmer. Are you unhappy, my darling?"

Khazard: Onyxia lets go of the railing, turning her body to face the figure as its steps from the mist. "You're the only pony I've seen here, what else am I supposed to expect?" She says, a little fear lingering in her voice, but without the trembles or other signs, her body feeling an uneasy calm at the room's scent. She takes a step back as the figure approaches, only to bump into the railing. "My home is destroyed! How else am I supposed to feel?!"

Shima: The figure steps forth through the mist, still very shaded in it and unclear in her features, but you see her 'robe' that's obscuring her seems more like an overly large set of beautifully colored wings, matching the colors of the mist as she approaches. Her eyes leer at you through the fog, but soften as you bump into the railing.

"This place...? Oh, you mean your foster home. It is not destroyed, my dear, look around you: it is simply undergoing a metamorphosis. We are making this place that took your father in and nurtured you BETTER. Soon it will be a shining beacon throughout the world for all Changelings... you should be happy. Thanks to our glorious Eon, you are with your true family now." She reaches out a hoof from underneath her wing-robe, beautifully chiselled without any noticable flaws unlike the images you've seen in school-books of Chrysalis's holed legs. "You woke up too early, I think. Let your mother take you back to sleep."

Khazard: "This is my *real* home." Onyxia says defiantly, but not lasting long as the figure grows closer. "Changelings? B-But the Empire was alreayd a beacon to Equestra, why would you destroy it? What did you do with my parents!"" Onyxia says in a panicked huff with hte talk of changelings and family, glaring up at the figure until it speaks of Eon  "E-Eon... No, nothing good comes from that, thing!" Her eyes stick o the hoof as it reaches out, the perfect image of them shaking her focus. She tries stepping back, pressing ito the railing with a quick look back over her shoulder and the edge. "You're not my mom! D-Don't get any closer!"

Shima: The figure grows closer, "Because there can be no rebirth without first descrution. No evolution without struggle. When we're done the Empire, and all of Equestria, will emerge more brilliant and more powerful than one could ever dream." She gives a smile, though not one that would fill you with comfort. It is a dreadful grin. "I am your Queen. And a Queen is mother to all her brood." She gives a loo coo as you approach the edge, holding up a hoof, "Come away from there, now, you foolish mare. My son and his nourishment are both well, but if you disobey me..." The eyes glow a hot, flaming violet, and you feel the rail start to break. "Regret."

Khazard: "You can't do that! What about all the ponies that live there?" Onyxia pleads at the Queen's plans. She looks up at the hoof, nearly cowering with how sh's backed into the rails. He eyes jump between the Queen's face and her hoof, her insides knotting at the threat on her family and from the figure saying them. After a silence, Onyxia takes a nervous gulp. "I have no Queen." She says, shaking as she puts her hoves on the ground, transmuting the crystal balcony away from underherself into a slope to slide down away from the Queen and towards the castle, praying there's another balcony or open window below her to land on.

Shima: "The ponies that submit? Well, of course they'll have a place... we can't live without their love, after all. The rest, well, sacrifice is the nature of struggle... though with your father on our side, the former should come more easily."

As you tell her you have no queen, her eyes glow and you see her jump back off of the balcony back into the chamber in the tower it extended from, watching you slide away from her using your transmutation.

However, you feel another sharp crack in the balcony as you transmute, and then another, and another appears as you hear a sharp breaking of crystal, and the transmutations you feel in your hoof shatter into thousands of fragments as you fall from the structure, plummeting towards the ground below at breakneck speeds as gravity takes hold. It is racing towards you too quickly, and impact is immiment.

>"You always had a queen. EVERY CHANGELING NEEDS THEIR QUEEN." The motherly voice echoes in the back of your mind as you fall.

Khazard: Onyxia glares as the Queen speaks of her father, followed by worry. She doesn't retort, focusing on escaping instead. Both emotions are replaced with panic as she starts to plummet through the showering shards of crystal. She flails her hooves through the air, trying to reach out for anything to stop her fall. Her eyes widen as she looks at the quickly approaching ground, throwing out her hoof at the castle's exterior as she shapeshifts it into a hook to dig into the walls. As the voice echoes, she shuts her eyes, squeezing them shut at both her plummeting and the voice's call. "I DON'T!"

Shima: Your hook legs dig straight into the exterior of the walls, cutting into it like paper as it starts to slow down your descent. As you close your eyes, you hear a whispering in your ears that fades with your fall.

>"You... are... of... Metamorphia..."

AS you close your eyes, you hear the crumbling sound of torn crystal beginning to sound more like tearing paper, and you feel as though you dragged your hook into the wall a great distance you never hit the ground. Opening your eyes, you see you've torn a great tear in the outer wall of the Crystal Tower that shines blue like the time portals. The tear streaches across the extend of the Tower until it opens up beneathing you, you falling into a swirling blue chaotic ocean of incoherence as you watch the Empire fade through the tear you've entered through.

Khazard: The voice echoes through her head as she descends, trying to ignore it as best she can. She cautiously opens her eyes as she feels herself falling for too long, looknig up at the portal. "Wh-What? What's going on?" She  questions outloud. As the portal streches to encompass the castle and the ground below her, she shifts her hoof back to normal and tries to reach away from it to not fall in, her mind flashing back to the first time she fell through the portal when she left into the frozen tundra that felt so long ago.

Shima: You begin tumbling through the endless swirling blue of the vortex as your tear fades farther and farther away from your ruined home, sights hard to make out clearly as you feel as though you're being forcibly swept up in a whirlpool of electical blue ether. Just to your side, you hear a slight cackling, and a green mist with a familiar horned face creeps uncomfortably close to your face as he licks his teeth. "Hah... not a bad fix up on the place, ain't it? Lot less fuckin' high and mighty after something like that huh?"

"Oh, Lady Onyxia! There you are..." you hear another flapping of wings jsut to yourside, and a much more friendly sight appear before you. A red coat with long flowing blonde hair flies up close to you, and a pegasi' hoof grips yours tightly and pulls you along through the vortex. Sterling chuckles, "My, whatever are you doing in the timestream after just waking up?! Sir Luke doth say tis quite irresponsible to go swimming before an hour after coming out of bed, 'tis it not?"

Khazard: Onyxia tries to keep steady as she falls through the endless blue void, hooves still grasping out to hold something, anything. As the mist pulls in clsoe to her face, she tries to 'swim' back away from it. "You, y-you were one of those Sons..." She says in disbelief, starting to remember Tor's damage at hearing hte voice

Her shock is broken at the more friendly voice pulling her along and guiding her. She look up at the red angel-esque figure pulling her hoof. "Sterling? Is... Is that really you?" She says, again in disbelief, but more joyous thistime, a slight glow returning ot her coat.

Shima: The misty green voice cackles, "Damn fucking right I'm one of the sons, you dumbie. What, did you forget this hot piece of vapor already? Gotta say, loved seeing the look on your face when your precious little got wo-owah HEY!" Tor shouts in anger as Sterling starts flapping her wings harder, the wind casting him away from you in the vortex as as she stares at him angrily.

"Oh, that's enough out of you! Begone, louse. Us gentle mares have no need to hear such vulgarity." She smiles at you as she pulls you further along, chuckling, "Well, of course it is, Onyxia, whoever else doth thou presume I'd be? Art thou feeling light headed?" She moves a hoof to your forehead, making a little 'ooh' sound as she touches the horn on your head. "Pointy. Well, come now, Steel didn't said you won't want to be too late, I'd better hurry!"

Khazard: Onyxia stares as Tor is blown away, turning back to Sterling as she talks. "B-Butt I heard, I-I saw you... you..." Her eyes start to mist up, taking a shine themselves from the few tears forming. She blinks them away and sniffles. "What do you mean, late for what? What's going on?" She asks, forcing herself to change the subject.

Shima: Sterling pulls on your hoof steadily as she soars through the vortex, looking at you with a great deal of concern. "Huh? Lady Onyxia, are... are you alright? Your eyes are getting quite misty, it's, disconcerting. Please refrain, my eyes tend to get misty when others get misty and that makes flying all the more troublesome, is there something I can do?"

As you soar, she looks at you as though she's confused, "Huh? Oh, well, for the goodbyes of course. He didn't want you to miss it." AS you look around, you suddenly see the blue vortex has shifted violently as though it has always been like this and you never noticed, into an endless field of pure black, similar to the inside of Steel's cape. Below, you see twelve figures gathered in a group, all of them cloaked in robes with the Symbol of Eon upon their backs... save for one. The familiar armored form of Steel, who looks up at you from below as Sterling lands nearby. "There we are! Safe and sound, my lady."

Khazard: "No, no, its fine. Just... just been going through a lot recently. I'm just glad ot see you alright." Onyxia says, putting on a smile.

"Goodbyes? What goodbyes?" Onyxia asks as they land in the black field, looking around at the strange scenery change. She looks at the cloaked figures, the Eon symbols making her body tense up at seeing so many of them. Her eyes quickly dart around as she looks for her Steel, feeling a sense of dread at seeing him with the group. "Thank you Sterling. Please, don't go anywhere."
Onyxia steps over to Steel's side, looking up at him. "Steel, what's going on? Sterling said something about goodbyes, and who are all of these ponies?"

Shima: Sterling looks at you with a concerned look as we land, and she nods her head. "Of course, Onyxia. I'll be right here..." she says as you turn and head up to him, Steel taking notice of you as you approach and reaches forward for your hooves, turning down his head.

"Onyxia... I'm... I'm glad you could come. I didn't want to go without..." he turns around at the various robed figures. You notice three of them carry staves similar to Fangs, but their details are fogging and unclear. Steel turns down to you, clutching your hooves. "This is my family, Onyxia... and I must return to them."

Khazard: Onyxia takes Steel's hooves as he reaches out for her, shine returning to her coat at being with somepony close after seeing her home destroyed. "I'm glad I found ponies I know, yu wouldn't believe...what... I..." She trails off. "Go? What do you..." Her grasp of Steel's hooves starts to weaken, but she doesn't break the hold. "Your... But, but what about me? I thought that we..." Onyxia stutters, luster fading again, hooves tightening around his. "Y-You can't— You can't leave me alone!" She shouts, eyes dampening again, "Please please please let this just be a joke! Wh-What will I do without you?!" She cries out, legs starting to shake in his hooves.

Shima: Steel grips more tightly, looking away from you slowly as you see a few tears gather in the corners of his eye slot, pouring out over the edge of the armor. His hooves weaken as well, and you see from behind his cape a staff appears to stretch out of his back, floating to place in one of his hooves that releases yours (while the other, large as it is, holds both easily). He taps the staff on the ground, shaking his head. "I'm... I'm sorry, Onyxia. I wish I could have stayed longer... but fate has shown me my path. I cannot avoid it any longer."

He leans down, giving you one, brisk kiss up on the muzzle, before he starts to pull away, turning about  as a red shimmering sunspot opens up near the rest of the twelve, a great heat emerging from it as they begin to file in, Steel slowly approaching it.
Khazard: "You can't just... It's wrong!" Onyxia shouts in denial, desperately trying to hold his hoof as he prepares to leave. Her trembles stop as Steel kisses her, but her coat doesn't brighten nor do the tears stop.

As Steel walks towards the sunspot, Onyxia runs in front of him, standing in his way as tears flow freely down her face. "I've lost my home, my family, control, and ponies I care about. But I'm not going to lose you!" She states, blubbering through a cracking voice. "You're the only thing, no, the only pony that keeps me feeling safe, that makes me feel I can keep going! I don't care what fate says, I won't let you go!"

Shima: Steel freezes as you move infront of them, though as you do you can see past him back where Sterling was supposed to be waiting: you see that she's vanished from sight, not a trace of the red pegasi to be seen as Steel looks down at you, solid as a statue as he grips his staff, unsure of his place.

A southern sounding, dignified voice calls from behind, "Come on now, son. We've waited long enough."

"Yes, Master... I know." Steel looks down at you, face blank and sullen, as he shakes his head. "It's... it's not up to you, Onyxia. Or to me... I'm sorry. I pray to see you again... I love you." He takes his cape and throws it over your head, the dimensional rip in his clothing running over your head, the sensation of passing through its small tear in dimensions as you feel a sudden cold rush over you.

Khazard: "What? No, you don't have to go, please just wait for a second!" Onyxia says through the cries, trying to talk Steel out of it. As he reaches for his cape, she tries to throw up her hooves to stop him, futiley.

Onyxia flails her hooves out as she passes into the darkness, trying to pull her way back out. "Steel! Let me out! D-Don't leave me!" SHe shouts out through the darkness, denying that he can't hear and hoping he would.

Shima: You hear a final hiss, "For all time I'd have been with you..." as Steel vanishes through the other side of the cloak, and you feel the source of the snowy breeze manifest itself in the form of an icy street, the road leading up to Claymore's house out in Coltchester.

All of the street lamps are dimmed, and no pony walks the icy street around you save for one figure. It is the image of a changeling, one you know quite well from across your travels through time. You only see the snippet of Sharithik clearly for a moment before the snowy breeze kicks up and obscures him slightly. You still see he's there, but the features you recognized are quickly covered up by snow as the air turns frigid. "Onyxia..." he whispers yet loud enough to hear over the wind easily, staying still as a statue where you can see him.

Khazard: Onyxia stands shivering in the cold as Steel's voice fades, letting the chattering of her teeth from the chill overwhelm the trembles of her sobs. She turns to look down the road, up to Claymore's house. The abode isn't too much of a welcome sight, the recent reveal of Cadeceus having lead them there for some purpose still lingering in her mind.

Her focus trails to the sight of her father, wiping at her eyes believing it was a blur from the freezing tears. "D-Dad? Dad is that you?!" She shouts over the wind. "H-Hold on!" She says, forcing her legs to run to the only familiar pony left.

Shima: You begin running after the snowy apparition of your father, but even though he seems to stay absolutely still he doesn't move any closer as you begin running towards him. He stays static, unmoving, glued to his spot as he continues to whisper "Onyxia..." loudly for you to come, but no matter how quickly your legs carry you can't seem to reach him.

A clicking sound comes from all around you all of a sudden as you run, like teeth ticking together, along with a sharpening of a sword.

Khazard: "W-Why can't i get closer." Onyxia mutters to herself, feeling it harder to move as she goes nowhere, her will to keep running starting to fade. As she hears clicking and the sounds of grinding metal, she nearly stops. "Dad! Be careful, please! G-Get somewhere safe!" She shouts as she tries to push though whatever distance is betwene them and what is trying ot hold her back, caring more abut her father's safey than her own at hte ominious sounds. "I can't lose everypony!"

Shima: As you nearly stop, then start running again, you finally see that your father is approaching closer, and at last you feel the distance starting to close. But as you get close, and the fog of the weather lightens up, you see an image that is no longer your father.

You see a creature with mandibles, compound eyes, and a pair of sickle-like appendages on his front hooves that takes the place of your fatherly apparition now that you have finally gotten close. The eyes focus on you in a disturbing glare, and he slides one scythe-leg up the other, and his familiar, raspy and sickly voice speaks,

"You did not have to. You could have given in... you could have had the family your father lost. We would gladly welcome you... but you spurned my offer of love. Now you WILL lose everything..." He raises up his scythe like arm to swing, "Just as I lost Lavender."

Khazard: Onyxia's legs freeze as she sees Chitus, falling over on her face at her sudden stop. "This can't be happening, this can't be happening." She mutters at seeing him.

She tries to stand up, pushing herself back away from him. "H-How are you here? You died!" She shouts in denial at seeing him. "You didn't lose her, you tried to kill her!" She shouts as she lifts herself to her flanks, legs weak from the cold and loss to stand fully.
As he raises a scythe-hoof, she holds up her ow, shifting it into a shield and cowering behind it to block the attack.

Shima: Chitus starts slamming down his sword leg into the shield, cutting into it and injuring you as you feel his blows stronger than you ever remembered through steel's metal form. "You deserve to lose everything... you're far too weak to keep any of it. Steel, your friends, father, your home... you thought you were too strong to need us, but tell me now as you see it all vanish."

He says stoically as he swings it down, again and again. "Tell me now how strong you are."

Khazard: Onyxia holds her shield-hoof up to stand through the blows, but she falls back farther and closer to the ground on each strike. "I-I'm not weak..." She strains to say through the pain of the cuts growing on her shield.

She tries to speak up to deny Chitus' claims, but she can't find any reason to. She's lost her home, Sterling, Steel, her father. She's only been seeing loss, while every foe they faced has been back and at the cause. She lies on the ground, back agains the cold stone as she tries to fend him off. She can't fight him, she was barely able to before even with Steel.

She puts her free hoof on the ground, giving  hopeful attempt as transmuting the snow aorund Chitus to freeze him still long enough for her to run.

Shima: "...." CHitus doesn't respond to your weak denial as he lays down cut after cut into the shield, only looking down as the ice begins surroudning his hooves, grunting as he tries to pull free of the entrapping ice. He lays off of your shield and begins cutting at the ice, providing you the needed opportunity to run away from your attacker (though he begins snipping through the transmuted ice crawling up his body at a quick pace)

"I TASTE your doubt. It's overpowering."

Khazard: Onyxia shifts her hoof back to normal, cuts littering her leg from how mny times he struck it. She stands and runs towards Claymore's house, not responding or looking back towards Chitus, keeping her head down until she reaches the door and rushes inside.

Shima: As you close the door behind you, you hear the ice-shattering just in time for you to safely get away from your attacker, him clicking his mandibles and scraping at the outer-layer of the building as you find yourself alone in the Sharp Attire.

There is no warm fire burning like before. It is dark, empty, abandoned clothes scattered everywhere as though the place has been left for years, and there are no sounds save for the banging of Chitus outside (he can't seem to follow you in), and the sounds of the snowfall outside.

Khazard: Onyxia stays leaning against the doo, breathing deeply afterall hte rushing. Her eyes dart around at the lack of life in the house. Even how worn it was before, it felt more like a home. The bangs pulling her from the thoughts and rest, she gathers up some of the scattered clothes and runs towards the backroom, shutting the door behind her.

Shima: You gather up a large bundle of the scattered clothes and head into the backroom, shutting that door behind you as you still hear sounds of Chitus hacking away at the front door of the store, seemingly having more difficulty breaking open that broken lock than you'd expect him too.

Within the backroom, the noise of both Chitus and the blowing storm outside are quieter, letting you be in peace... until you hear a little snickering coming from the darkness (there's little light within after you close the door).

"He's gonna get you in here you know." A young, mare's voice sounds out.

Khazard: Onyxia piles the clothes alongthe crack between the floor and the door as she enters the backroom, to both keep out the cold and for something soft to sit in as she collapses onto them.

She jolts up in surprise as her very short reprieve is broken. "Wh-Who's there?" She asks in shock. She looks back at the door, trying not to think about it. "He... He..." She stammers, trying ot deny it but exhaustion is taking its toll on her will.

Shima: As you drop down in exhaustion in the darkness, the voice snickers again. "Oh, you know, it's like a scary story. The mare tries and hides in the backroom where she thinks it's safe from the horrible monster outside? And then... when she least expects it..."

Suddenly, a light of blue pops up in the dark, and the look of a young, teenage mare (blue coat, and azure mane) makes a scary face with teeth gnashed right in front of your face quite suddently. "HE GETS YA!"
Khazard: "N-No, its not like that..." Onyxia says, eyes scanning around the room as the voice taunts.

"GYAA!" Onyxia screams as the mare jumps into her face with gnashing teeth, throwing up her cut leg back into a shield between her and it, sinking back into the clothes pile trembling.

Shima: As you fall back trembling into the covers, you hear a small cackling from the mare behind your shield, the blue filly throwing herself onto her bag in unending laughter as she watches you shrink down with fear. "HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oooh, oh my goodness,  your face just now, you were TERRIFIED!" She snickers, holding up her hoof to her muzzle trying to stop herself, "I-I'm sorry, but, that was too good." She stops to look at your transformed hoof, eyebrows raised up. "Woah." She grabs at it, pulling it closer to her as she looks at your shape-shifted leg. "What is that?" She asks as she prods and pokes it.

Khazard: Onyxia continues to hide behind her shield, only after her shaking slows does one eye peeking open at the continual laughter. "Y-You think this is f-funny?" She says, voice still trembling along with her heart rate. As the filly grabs at her leg, she pulls it away quickly, kicking the loose clothing in the pile under her to push the filly and her farther apart. "D-Don't come any close, I-I mean it!"

Shima: Luna holds up her hooves in protest as the clothing comes flying at her, horn lighting up to pick a few of them up mid-flight and ball them up, "H-hey! Watch the mane, sheesh. Can't you take a little prank?!" She grunts as you pull the shield back, glaring at you. You can see her clearly still as she keeps her horn lit, "Come on, it was a LITTLE funny. Better me than whatever that weird bug thing out there is, right? Now come out of there..."

Khazard: "P-Prank? Wh-What are you talking about?" Onyxia says in disbelief, with another clothing kick. "How is any of this funny?! Do you konw who that is out there?! H-How did you get in here?" Onyxia starts to shout back, voice still waivering a tad. She quickly turns her head to the door, then scanning around the room on her last line. "Oh no, no no, h-he'll get in here however you did. Where did you come in from!" She shouts, starting to panic.

Shima: The mare holds up her hooves, "You know, just, a little scare, something to make you jump? That kind of prank? It looked like you were having a bad time and, that seemed more fun. At least to me." She looks around the closet, "Uh... I just sort of was waiting here, I think. I was definitely here before you were." As you mention how he'll get in, she cringes.

"Okay, see, he might have been stuck outside banging at the door as long as you were distracted with me, but, now that you said that..." You suddenly hear a great break and shattering of wood as the filly looks up, staring at a pair of sharp, deadly scythes cutting through the top of the door above you. "Woah!" She says, backing up a bit. "Yep, that definitely got him moving."

Khazard: "Why would you think that's a good idea hen you see somepony hiding for their life?!" Onyxia shouts back as she scans the walls and ceiling, trying to see where Chitus would come from. "W-Waiting, why were you wai— GAAH!" Onyxia's cut of asthe scythes break through the wood. Her head dosn't turn to look, hearing the sound is enough. She gets up to run frm the door, but with one hoof shifted into a shield, she trips over the clothes and the filly in front of her, falling and tumbling into the prankster.

Shima: "OOOF! He-hey, get off!" the filly shouts as you try and run for your life away from the door, which is slowly being hacked apart bit by bit by the swinging of scythes down upon its wood as she struggles to get the clothes and you off of her, "I just WAS, alright, I got lost in your head and just wound up there!"

As Chitus begins hacking through the door, she looks at you as you cower in fear, "Would you calm down!? You're only making this worse if you lose your head, you know." She says, eerily calm in the face of the situation.

Khazard: Onyxia tries to scramble to her hooves, falling as they slide along the floor and clothes. She manages to roll off the filly and her somewhat reoriented, head turning quickly around hte room. "You're not making any sense!" She says, desperately looking around the room for another way out. "H-How can I be calm, do you not see him?!" Onyxia runs over ot the far wall, shifting her hoof back to normal and placing both on it, pushing against the wall as she tries to transmute it open to get out.

Shima: The filly turns back to you, glaring as she throws off another of the unfinished dresses off of her. "That's because you're not listening!" She says as the scythe cuts around the front of the door, nearly taking it down as you see a much larger and imposing figure behond, the familiar sight of Chitus' second form as she back away slowly from it. "Yeah, it's scary, but..." she stops as she sees you pulling back the walls of the back of the room, gasping as you transmute it apart. "Cooooooool! How are you doing that?"

On the other side however, is a sight you didn't expect to see. It is not the rest of the shop, nor is it the snowy town just outside. It is a vast, open space, a purple haz scattered around as far as the eye can see, and a billion, billion pin point lights of stars lining it tall, giving the vast void a sense of majesty.

Khazard: Onyxia doesn't respond as she opens the wall for an escape, rushing faster as an evolved Chitus breaks in. Once it opens to the mass void, she freezes up. "Wh-Wha...?" She looks back the oncoming threat, feeling trapped more than ever as she backs closer to the edge, eyes looking into the expanse wonder if she should risk it.

Shima: As you freeze up, Luna looks back behind her at the door starting to shatter, then you feel a pair of hooves pushing you from behind suddenly, thrusting you forwards into the expanse. "Sink or swim, lady!" She shouts, swiftly jumping after you after shoving you out.

She shoves rather hard for a filly her age, you feel yourself practically fired out of a cannon as you leave the tear, watching the hole back into the compromised closet slowly shrinking as your thrown into it. You notice, however, that you don't fall 'downwards', only away horizontally as you dive into the stars, seeing the filly following behind a short distance after jumping out.

Khazard: "Wha-aAAH!" Onyxia hortly yelps as she's rocketed from the room into the abyss. Her hooves flail out to stop or to grab something, but they slow as she just drifts through nothing. She looks bck at the filly as she follows behind. "Who are you?" She asks, her voice less paniced but still very much worried.

Shima: The filly looks behind her, whistling as the closet seems to disappear in the distance. "Phew... that was a rush. You sure have must have a messed up head to make something like that." She turns around, smiling through a light chuckle. You drift closer to her, or she to you depending on perspective, in the expanse of stars. "Hey, no fair. I'm the one who nearly got her head chopped off trying to help you, you tell me yours first lady."

Khazard: Onyxia turns in he floating path so she's facing the filly instead of having ot keep her head turned. "You can't act all calm and say I'm the one at fault! You said you've been waiting and getting lost, so you'll say who you are first!" She snips back, trying to cover up the panic and fear now that she's not being hunted.

Shima: The filly scrunches her muzzle, magically surrounding herself with an aura that pulls you closer to her as she gets up a bit closer. "Alright, alright, FINE! Sheesh, just saying, it's rude not to give your own name first. I'm Luna, aaaaaaand you are?" She asks politely as she can, seeming very impatient as she glare.

Khazard: Onyxia flails a little as the magic grabs her and pulls her close out of reaction, still apprehensive after everything that's happened. As the filly says her name, Onyxia calms but still remains tensed with the name recognition. "P-Princess?"

Shima: Luna growls, mumbling out the side of her mouth, "I wish..." before she gasps, shaking her head, "Uh, I mean, no, just... just Luna, alright?" She says, looking at you with a bit of tension as you call her a princess. "Alright, now your turn, talk. Your name is...?"

Khazard: "...Onyxia." She says after a short pause. "But, if you're here, then that means..." She trails, starting to calm if what she remembers of the Sisters was right.

Shima: Luna growls, mumbling out the side of her mouth, "I wish..." before she gasps, shaking her head, "Uh, I mean, no, just... just Luna, alright?" She says, looking at you with a bit of tension as you call her a princess. "Alright, now your turn, talk. Your name is...?"

Luna groans. "Yeah, you got it... Took you long enough to figure out, huh?" She sighs, crossing her hooves. "Listen, let's just say I have a pretty good idea of HOW you know these things about me, but, I need to ask you to NOT say too much about where you're from, or, what you know about me. Beardie will have my horn for it if he finds out I come out of here knowing things I probably shouldn't." She floats around, looking about the stars.

Khazard: Onyxia listens on as Luna explains, but most of it is glanced over. Once she stops talking, Onyxia grabs the filly princess into a hug. The trembles from fear have faded, the only shakes left are from sobs of joy. "You... You don't know how good it feels to see you here." Onyxia saysthough choked sighs of relief, trying not to lose her composure again in front of Luna.

Shima: Luna freezes as you suddenly hug her, the adolescent blushing slightly as you begin sobbing into her mane, looking uncomfortable but not pushing you away as she allows you to hug her. She slowly, ackwardly reaches up to pat your back, "Um... th-there there. It's alright, I'm here NOW aren't I?" She gives a curt chuckle that is quickly subdued.

"I-I figured you must have been having a bad time. I could tell from outside. That's why I came in, to help. I haven't gotten the gist of everything through your dreamscape yet, but, it doesn't take Starswirl the Bearded to see you have some deep nestled fears in here eating away."

Khazard: "E...Everythingjust felt so real. T-To see that it was all just a dream...They aren't gone..." Onyxia stammers as she's consoled. After a moment, she let's go of Luna as she starts to calm down. "Its... been a rough week." She says as she wipes her eyes. "Thank you, for coming."

Shima: Luna keeps a light grip on your shoulders after you let go of her, looking into your eyes as she nods. "It's nothing big. This is one of the heaviest dreamscapes I've been in, you must have gone DAYS without sleep to be this exhausted." She looks around the stars, floating about without a care. "I didn't get to you till the monster bug thing, I had a hard time navigating this place. I don't know what all else you've gone through. Have a LOT on your mind, huh?"

Khazard: "About three." Onyxia says thrugh a forced chuckle, still adjusting. "I can't even describe it... i saw ponies I hoped I would never see again, I was seeing everything I cared about dissapearing... It was horrible. I never felt anything this bad, o-or a dream this real."

Shima: "Three DAYS?! Not bad..."

Luna shrugs her withers, doing a little twirl about the cosmic space. "You probably HAVE felt dreams this real, just, forgot about them afterwards. Dreams are tricky little things like that." She floats down closer, "That sounds like a ton of stress has been building up for things to have gotten so bad. I'm guessing a lot of fears, too." She lists off on her hooves, "Doubts, insecurities, such and such, they all find a way of getting to you if you don't get to them."

Khazard: "I... Yea, there's been a lot. I lost a friend, I don't know when I'll get back home, I nearly lost my coltfriend. It's jst ben so much, a-and there's nothing I've been able to do to change it..." Onyxia lists, her voice trailing lower as she goes on.

Shima: Luna nods, "You're afraid. Everyone's afraid, that's nothing to be ashamed of. Heck, did you know fear is the driving force of over 90% of pony actions?" She holds up a hoof, "Don't source me on that. But, listen, one thing you should know about fear?" She leans down, tapping your chest lightly with her hoof. "It's coming from YOU. YOU made all of this, Onyxia. That means, as hard as it might be to believe? You can control it."

Khazard: Onyxia looks down at the hoof tap. "HOW can I control it? This is just a dream, if I faced anyting of the things I saw for real I wouldn't have lasted even half as long. I know I'm afraid, how could I not be when I'm just a pony and I've been facing others that can destroy a city just on their own?"