Red sighed. He had a long journey ahead of him. Red looked at the clearing he was in. "Great, surrounded by Timberwolves. 'Cause let's face it, my life just isn't cruel enough already." Red sighed again. "What're you complaining about? You can easily slaughter them. Besides, it's not like you have anything to do..." Wrong. Remember that I have to check up on Chrysalis? "Oh yeah..." Suddenly, a wolf behind Red lunged. Turning, faster than any of the wolves could blink, Red kicked it's open jaw, shutting it. Then, Red pivoted the foot he had on the ground, turning his body by ninety degrees, and kicked the wolf back. The wolf landed on it's back, unconscious. Red drew his sword, wanting to finish with the wolves as soon as possible.

Another wolf lunged. Red stepped out of the way, and cleaved the sword through the wolf's neck. Two more wolves lunged. Red ducked, bringing the sword up just enough for it to slash through the underside of one of the wolves. It dropped behind Red. "Alright, who's next?" Another wolf lunged.

A minute later, there were nothing but bodies surrounding Red. Red sheathed the sword, and began walking. As he walked, he heard snapping sound. Turning to the sound, Red's eyes widened. Holy... "Shit..." Nightmare, what's the biggest thing in this forest? "The largest known animal that resides in the Everfree would be an Ursa Major. Why?" I think I just found the cave to one... "Oh. Well, are you going to go in?" You kidding? It's my job to go in...

Red stepped into the cave, the size alone astounding Red. Nightmare, exactly how big is an Ursa Major? "About the size of a castle." Shit... Red looked up, he couldn't see the ceiling. How reassuring... Red walked deeper into the cave. God, I couldn't be in a worse situation... "I call bullshit on that..." Fuck you.

Suddenly, there was a deep rumbling throughout the cave. Red struggled to stay on his feet. Is this the Ursa Major? "Hmph, if it was, the ceiling would have crushed you by now." Then what the hell is it? "Probably the cub." Cub? "An Ursa Minor. They're roughly the size of a house." Great... Soon, the rumbling stopped. Red looked around the cave, nothing had crashed down. Then, Red felt a strong gust push against him. Red turned, and saw a pair of eyes about the size of himself. Red blinked once. "It was nice knowin' you, kid..."

Red snapped his fingers, and began to turn into black smoke. By the time the Ursa realized what was happening, the smoke was long gone. When the smoke had made it back to the camp, Red materialized back. Red looked at the fire in the center. It was still burning. Good, I need some rest... "Don't think that just because you got away from the Ursa, that it won't hunt you down." Great... "Hey, look at it this way; you'll be able to use the gift Celestia made for you." Whatever... Red walked to the tent, and headed inside. I need some sleep... Soon after closing his eyes, Red fell asleep.

Red woke up, feeling a weight on his chest. Opening his eyes, Red saw Pinkamena, sleeping atop of him. Red smiled, and closed his eyes. Damn, how long has it been since we first met... "Longer than I can remember..." "So, I ask you again, you had intercourse with a pony?" "Yep, and once they were finished, she was just a mess." "Ugh, I think I'm going to be sick..." You know, if I were to find you a body, I could change your mind on the subject... "I think I'd rather drown." Red rolled his eyes. You're not very open minded, are you?

Red sighed, and closed his eyes. So, how's my mindscape doing? "Hmph, I've made slight changes. Nothing too big." "Yeah, if changing the entire prison into a palace doesn't count as big..." She did what now? "Oh please, it's better than that filthy prison." I have to see this for myself... Red opened his eyes, and took a deep breath. Then, his eyes seemed to lose the life in them.

Mindscape

Red opened his eyes, and blinked. He looked around. He was in a great room. He walked to the door in front of him and opened it. On a couch on one side of the nest room, was a man, about the same height as Red, with blonde hair, white pants, blue eyes, and a black shirt, reading. "Broken, where the fuck is Nightmare?" Red asked. The blonde man looked up from the book, and shrugged.

"I don't know."

Red's eye twitched. "Fine, when you see her, tell her I'm here, and that I want to have a word with her." Broken nodded, and went back to reading. Red walked past Broken, through an open doorway. Red sighed. Suddenly, Red felt something breathing down his neck. Red turned, and rolled his eyes at Nightmare. "Okay, what the actual fuck? You changed my mindscape? How? And why?"

Nightmare Moon stuck her tongue out, and booped Red on the nose with a hoof. "Oh come now, I'm sure you much rather prefer this than that dark prison."

Red blinked. "One would think that, but I actually prefer the dark. It doesn't give me a headache. Now, you didn't answer how you actually changed my mindscape. Spill it."

"Hmph, fine. It wasn't that hard, to be honest. Just a few thoughts, and instead of a prison, there's now this great castle. An enormous improvement, if I do say so myself."

"You're lucky that I don't kick you out of my head right now. If you pull something like this again, its back to the forest for you."

Nightmare's eyes widened. "You wouldn't dare..."

"You'd be surprised at what I'm willing to do..."

"Hmph, very well. Would you like me to change it back?"

"No. It's already done." With that, Red snapped his fingers, and slowly faded away.

Reality

Red blinked. Where the absolute fuck am I? What the hell happened while I was in my mind?

Red was in some kind of cocoon. Red reached for his sword, and found it was missing. Of course they took my weapons... Red looked around the cocoon, moving slower than usual, due to the gel in the cocoon. Red's left eye turned dark grey, and a black fire seemed to erupt from his hands. Red closed his eyes, and the fire in his hands moved to form an orb of energy. Red opened his eyes, and hit the cocoon with the orb. The orb exploded on impact.

Red fell out of the cocoon, onto the floor, with a loud thud. Red looked up, and saw more changelings than he could count. Fuck my life... Red got to his feet, and told the changelings, "Move. Now." Every changeling's horn flared with magic. Okay then, let's do this the hard way... Suddenly, black fire erupted from Red's arms. "Let's get this over with." Every single changeling let loose their magic, focusing it into one beam. Red pulled his arms back, and pushed them forward, unleashing a gigantic beam of pure back energy. The beams collided, and for half a second neither beam yielded ground. Then, the magic from the changelings began to get pushed back, until the black energy completely overwhelmed the changelings.

The fire on Red's arms was extinguished, and he walked to a changeling trying to crawl away. Red grabbed it by the back of the head, and lifted it up. "I'm only going to ask you this once: Where is Chrysalis?"

The changeling squirmed, before answering, "She's deeper in the hive, you can't miss her."

"Thank you for your cooperation." Red then crushed the changeling's head, and began walking, then stopped. "Dammit, I should have asked it where my weapons were as well..." Red shrugged, and continued walking. Next Chapter: Down the Rabbit Hole Estimated time remaining: 36 Minutes