A month had passed since the conflict in the gardens and in that time I had introduced Luna to the concept of the multiverse, endured several more attempted assaults and my knowledge of Will had increased by a vast amount.

Today would present a new form of opposition.

I sat in front of a small, decimated squad of griffins, who had been sent as an assassination unit for either princess. The last one, barely able to be considered an adult and most likely only intended to be a lookout, was holding his sword in front of him, quaking so hard he couldn't have been less of a threat if he was a bunny.

However meek though, I knew better than to leave him alive. Too much could go wrong if I did.

I drove my blade through the back of his neck, ending him instantly, and as the tip of the Sword of Aeons pierced the ground, my Will leapt into it without my direction, and in mere moments a Cullis Gate had risen before me, born in the blood of the fallen.

I watched it for a few moments, but without a reaction from it, I dismissed it as, for the moment, useless as it was very probably the only one in existence so far.

Returning to the castle, I was stopped at the door.
While all the guard knew who I was and where I was staying, there were a great deal who had never interacted with me, and this was one of them.

As he stepped in my way, he said, " Thou shalt not enter. Our princesses art in a meeting with a relation and wish not to be disturbed."

His partner, who had encountered me before, simply shook his head as I gently my hand on the side of the blocking guard's head and slammed his head into the archway we were under with just enough force to not render him unconscious.

The other guard simply stood where he was and watched me pass before checking his associate.

As I entered the throne room, the one meeting the princesses, another alicorn, this one the same generic brown as the tree trunks of the forest and with a mane fashioned similar to the katana swordsmen of Samarkand* and tied with what appeared to be vines.

Fixing me a glare, the newcomer said, "Hast thou no sense? A closed door means we wish not to be disturbed, knave."

Returning his glare, I responded, "I'll be sure to take that into consideration, whelp."

Before he could react to what I don't doubt he considered insolence, Celestia interrupted. "Brother, calm thyself. We allowed him here."

Wheeling to face her, he continued, "So thou hast summoned this lesser creature as an insult. Mine subjects will not take this without consequence."

"No, you simpleton," I continued, "She allows it because she couldn't stop me anyway."

After a deep breath, he spoke a calmer, but deadly serious tone. "Very well then. Celestia, Luna, mine sisters, Thou shalt receive no assistance from us or our ponies until thou come to thine senses and rid yourselves of this thing. I bid thee good day."

And with that he left, giving me a sidelong glare as he passed, the vines tying his mane growing thorns as he did so.

As the doors slammed shut behind him, I said to myself, "This could be a problem."

"Indeed," Princess Celestia said, drawing my attention.

"Our brother never was inclined to help us and our ponies, favouring his little Leprecorns** over those we care for," Luna added. "Thou should not take offence to Terrace though, for he hath always been this way."

In response, I simply grunted ambiguously and turned to the door, thinking.

"Princess!" came the cry of an exhausted sounding guard as he burst into the dining room, interrupting breakfast and earning an indignant exclamation for my repulsive 'nephew'.

"What is it?" I asked, lowering my teacup.

Catching his breath, he saluted and answered, "A messenger-pony!"

"Messenger?"

"Yes Princess. She came from Raven Rock, saying it's being attacked."

As I heard the name I paused, trying to recall why it felt important, missing the expression and the fidgeting of the guard standing near my seat. I moved on, asking, "Who or what is attacking?"

"Changelings," he spat, a scowl crossing his features, "What are your orders, Princess?"

I thought it over, subconsciously standing and pacing, but ultimately, I couldn't think of any course of action.

What could changelings possibly gain by destroying a town? Especially a small one?

"We do nothing," I said.

This time I noticed the guard by my seat as he took a wider stance and gasped angrily, but before he could speak, I said, "We'll wait and see if this was an isolated incident. If they attack again, we'll respond."

The guard who delivered the message simply nodded his head and left, headed for the barracks to rest, while the guard beside me spoke up.
"Princess, please permit me to go to Raven Rock. I need to help defend against this threat."

Looking over, I noted the recklessly angry expression he held. "Denied, Commander," I told him, "I'll not have you throw your life away when we may have a far greater threat looming over us very soon."

"You would have me do nothing while my home town gets destroyed?!"

In as soothing a tone as I could, I said, "Calm down, Commander Xerces. You're thinking rashly. Why don't you turn in early tonight and think things over, before you do something you'll regret later on?"

Inhaling shakily, the Commander walked out, but didn't withhold from slamming the door.

'Perhaps a few days leave is in order,' I thought to myself before pondering the significance of Raven Rock.

While generally a rather forgettable little town, it held great significance to the current situation.

But this attack could ONLY be a coincidence. Changelings, as a species, were not known to ponies until several centuries after Jack's imprisonment.
Even if he'd allied with them only recently, there's no way he'd have enough authority to direct them with as precision as this.

Something wasn't right.

I furiously dug through my old diaries and journals, thankful that Celestia had kept them after my banishment, desperately trying to recall something Jack had once said.
Something that troubled me greatly.

Page after page and book after book, I tore through them, looking for that particular passage.

In my nervous state, I almost missed it.

I was speaking with Jack again today when he told me something most curious. He explained that after witnessing my dream-walking that he possessed something similar, that not only reached far and wide, allowing him to reach, and furthermore, locate, more than half the population of the land, no matter his location, but also extended into his ever elusive 'Void', which he still refuses to allow me into.

This 'Mindscape', as he called it, is supposedly infinitely large across an unknowable number of realms, and that as he further understands how it works, the more he can reach. He even went to demonstrate, but stopped not long after and left, saying, "They are like mosquitoes. Drawn to the bright light of the flame that will be their inevitable demise."

After he was gone from my sight, I made my way to the throne room to join 'Tia.
Our brother was to come by, yet for some reason, 'Tia's worried about it.

I slammed the book shut and sat down quickly, the revelation stunning me.
Celestia probably never knew, and for the moment it was probably best to keep it that way.

He'd had over a thousand years. How much stronger could his connection to the Mindscape have gotten?
How far did it reach?

I opened my eyess slowly as I left the Mindscape and came to my physical senses, chuckling darkly.

I'd felt her fear. Her despair.
I noticed that sliver of dark temptation worm its way back into little Luna.

*To those unfamiliar with the Fable series, Smarkand is a desert wasteland far off the West coast of Albion, the main country in the series.

**Leprecorns: a race of tiny ponies with stubby horns and strong magical connections to plants and animals. While they generally try to avoid the various other races of the world, they have somehow become acknowledged as the mischeivous and short-tempered.
A fully grown leprecorn stallion is, at tallest, the size of a Pegasus filly around the age where their cutie mark appears. Leprecorn mares stand at around muzzle level of their male counterparts.
Leprecorns, despite their size (or perhaps, because of it) do NOT like being picked up off the ground by any means, magical or mundane, and will become extremely agitated and aggressive if they are.

Author's Notes:

I apologise for the increasing lateness of my new chapters.

Due to a horrendous combination of new books, new games, RL dramas and general procrastination, these are coming out, for the foreseeable future, at a slow crawl.

That said, I hope you enjoyed this one and please leave any comments.

Also, should you find any grammar errors, please point them out, because I do most of my typing between 11pm and 4am, so I've very probably missed a LOT.