"...And then he left to talk to or fight Discord," explained Luna. I was in a coma, dying from accidentally stalling Dad's... 'Adventures' in a parallel universe. God-Horse II had started up a dream for me so she could come into it and tell me what was going on. We were sitting at a bar.

"Has my condition improved?" I asked, signalling the bar-Pony to refill my drink.

"No. Our- My sister claims that-"

"You know, you can say 'our' instead of 'my' here, I really don't care."

"Yes, but my sister wishes me to, as she puts it, 'update my linguistical abilities'." The bar-Pony refilled my drink and I took a gulp. "Anyway, as I was saying; my sister claims that your condition will improve when, and only when, Cloud actually accomplishes his task."

"So he could be in the middle of, well, y'know..." I sipped my drink.

"Your mother?" I coughed, spitting my drink over the counter. "Are you alright?" I took a few seconds to recover.

"Yeah. Anyway, so he could be in the middle of 'it' right now but I won't be okay until he, er... 'Completes his task'?" 'Complete' being the operative word...

"Yes. What do you mean by 'complete being the operative word'?"

"What? Oh right, you can hear the... Yeah. It's nothing, it's just a thing." I took a sip of my drink. "So what'll happen when you leave? Will the dream end?"

"Yes, the dream would end. However, I intend to stay in your company for a while to provide entertainment and comfort."

"Thanks, I really appreciate it."

"So what is it like?"

"What's what like?

"The universe you are from, what is it like?"

"It's... Different."

"Would you go back there if you had the chance?"

"For a visit? Yeah. To stay? Tartarus no."

"Why not? Do you not prefer it over there?" I sighed and took a drink before answering.

"I have a reason to stay here. I don't have one to go back."

"What about family? Your mother?" I didn't answer. "What's wrong?"

"...It's nothing."

"Would you prefer to talk about something else?"

"Yeah, just... Just move on."

"Very well. I hear mortals enjoy talking of their past exploits, so tell me, how did you earn your mark of ability?"

"My cutie mark?" I laughed. "Now there's a good story!"

"Then please, do tell."

"Sure. Okay, so I'd always love to hear the stories about the adventures my Mom used to go on before she stopped to take care of me, and one day, I decided to have an adventure of my own..."

"Mom!" I called, standing at the base of the stairs.

"What?!" Asked Mom.

"Can I borrow your sword?!"

"What for?!"

"I... Wanted to make a sandwich!"

"What?! Why would you make a sandwich with a sword?!"

"It'd be fun! And I need to practice using my magic anyway!"

"Dammit, Overcast! If you tried to make a sandwich with Dawnbreaker you'd set it on fire!"

"I, er, I wanted a toasted sandwich anyway!"

"Then why didn't you just ask me to make you one?!"

"I wanted to make it myself!" I heard the sound of her facehoofing groan. "So can I borrow it?!"

"No! You can't use a sword to make a sandwich!"

"Why not?!"

"Because I said so!"

"Dad would let me!"

"No he wouldn't!"

"Yeah he would!"

"Am I gonna have to come down there and lock my sword away?!"

"No-no-no! Don't!"

"Are you going to try to make a sandwich with it?!"

"No! I'm not gonna do anything with it!"

"Good! Just leave it alone! You'll poke out and set fire to your eye!"

"Fine!" I'll just have to be sneaky, it won't take long anyway. I snuck over to the study and opened the door. There in its case lay Dawnbreaker, as awesome looking as always. I quickly opened up the case and picked it up with telekinesis, holding it it front of me.

This is gonna be awesome!

After sneaking out of the house with the sword, I galloped as quickly as I could to the edge of the Everfree Forest. I stopped for a few minutes to catch my breath and let my magic recharge a little, then headed inside to start my adventure.

I was only a few steps inside when everything became much, much darker than it was outside. For a moment I stopped, scared of what could happen to me. The moment quickly passed and I continued heading deeper into the forest, the sword now in a better position, ready to be swung at anything that would want to attack me.

I went like this for about thirty minutes until I finally reached my destination; the Castle of The Royal Pony Sisters. I was pretty tired by this point, so I stopped carrying the sword with telekinesis and dragged it with my mouth instead. I got to the door and dropped the sword entirely to stare up at the door. I hadn't realized just how huge it was until then.

After staring at it for a minute or two I tried opening it with my magic, only to realize that I'd used almost all of it from carrying the sword for so long. I groaned and started pushing at it the old fashioned way. I tried for a good five minutes, but, much to my dismay, I had to stop. I sat there, panting.

"How am I supposed to get in now?" I asked myself. Unfortunately, something heard me. The sound of growling emanated from behind me, making me spin around in fear. Three Timberwolves were making their way towards me, each baring teeth and drooling their sap. I gasped and dived for the sword. I tried to lift it with my hooves, but it was far too heavy. I tried using my magic to lift it, but I was too panicked. I couldn't lift it. The middle Timberwolf lunged at me and pinned me down.

It was about then when I started screaming.

The Timberwolf snarled loudly and followed it up with a rake of its claws across my face. Blood oozed from my muzzle as the other two Timberwolves came up to my sides. It would have been acceptable for me to have passed out from shock, scream even louder or start crying. But what did I do instead?

I got angry. Really angry. Really, really, angry. Like, the special kind of angry. The kind of anger you get when you wait for an hour at a restaurant for food but then they get your order wrong and you have to wait even longer, and your date wants to leave because he's already finished his food but you're all like, "no! I wanna eat, ya dick!" But he mishears you and he thinks you're going onto him really strongly and he's not completely okay with that so he dumps you and leaves 'cause he's a pussy, then your food finally arrives and it was shit anyway so you go home to take a bath and try to calm down and your Mom's like, "hey! How was the date?" And you're like, "I don't wanna talk about it, I just wanna take a bath, maybe eat some ice cream and go to bed." But then she's like, "oh! So it's like that! Well screw you miss 'too good to talk to your Mom'!" And then she storms off and you're nearly blind from anger so you just go to take your bath but the boiler's broken so the water's cold and you don't want to heat it up yourself so you just go to bed but then you can't sleep because you're too stressed and then your sleep schedule is ruined. That kind of angry.

Anyway, I forced all of the anger into my horn and blasted the Timberwolf with a flamethrower-y type of thing, sending it flying into a tree, exploding on impact. The other two Timberwolves saw the fire and backed off slightly, but I was just getting started. I grabbed the burning body of the first Timberwolf with my magic and threw it at the one to my left. They collided and the second became like the first. The third Timberwolf pounced at me and had me pinned down again, so I threw a fireball at its head, strong enough to blow it up. Its body fell into a heap.

I climbed to my hooves, grabbed the sword with my magic and angrily limped back home.

By the time I was there, the anger had worn off. I was back to a scared and injured little filly. I hoped that Mom wouldn't have noticed I was gone so I wouldn't have to face her, but I immediately encountered her when I went inside. For a second or two she was angry, but the anger quickly turned to worry when she saw the state of me.

I cried, we hugged and I went to bed. The next day, I realized I'd earned my mark. Also that I'd caused a forest fire.

"...And that's the gist of it," I finished. Luna stared at me in shock, mouth agape.

"What?!" She exclaimed. "You- And then- I- What?!"

"It was a bit more exciting than the things most fillies and colts go through for their mark, but I got a good story out of it so it's all okay." Luna was stunned for a few more seconds before sighing and relaxing.

"Overcast Vesper, you truly are your father's daughter." She took a long drink. I laughed.

"Yeah, I really am."

"Do you have any clue as to why he is taking as long as he is?" I shook my head.

"Nope. But it's probably trouble. If it is then I'm not sure whether to be worried or happy for him, he's been pretty bored lately. I just hope he's okay, for both our sakes..."

Author's Notes:

Vesper's mane looked weird in the picture because it was at an angle I'm not used to drawing.
Sorry about that.

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Only one or two chapters left on this arc.