The scene before him played out again with the slow crawl of a snail. Luna had been puzzling over these heinous acts hoping to find the clues she had been searching for in the mystery that was Gusty Twilight. Cautiously approaching the movements of the beasts before her, the mooney mare stared at the writing on the walls and floor. Yes, literal writing. The first couple of times Zeccaran had not noticed it, too distracted by the horror that took place. But now that he was more deadened to the scene he could easily see the carved runes, set in the dark stone, glowing a dull yellow. The memory moved from its lumbering legato movement to perfectly frozen as Luna huffed, pawing at the markings with a hoof.

“I have seen these glyphs before. I did not understand them then. I do not understand them now. But, I do know they were also used by a certain group of acolytes you once lead, Zeccaran.” Luna turned towards him after she finished speaking.

Zeccaran walked up next to her, ignoring the uncomfortable squirming Nyx was doing in his head. He leaned a little closer to the runes, nodding his head in agreement that they were familiar.

“Okay, I do remember seeing them before. How one would use them? I don’t know,” he answered Luna’s unspoken question.

“A vexing problem,” she mumbled, placing a hoof up to her snoot. It was too cute of a nose for Zeccaran to consider it a snout. He looked around the grizzly display of the Shadow-kin’s brutality for any hints that might unravel the mystery. Noticing the etchings seemed dim compared to later in the memory he paused looking at the little brown mare that was subject of their debauchery.

Other than the unmentionable that was happening to her, she was otherwise unharmed at the moment. Gusty, however, upon further examination, had rivers of tears rolling own her face, her eyes held open by some sort of device, forcing her to watch.

“Princess, could we perhaps skip forward to when they skin her?” he asked stoically.

“Certainly. If you have some greater purpose than to indulge a need to observe gore,” Luna retorted her voice harsh, not at him but the thought of the torture displayed.

“I do, so let us skip forward then.” No sooner had he spoken than did the scene go into overdrive, and in the breadth of a second reach the point he desired.

“You are getting quite good at traversing the Astral Plane,” his Princess complimented. You are getting quite good at traversing the Astral Plane, his roommate murmured in unison.

Zeccaran shook his head while internally glowering at Nyx. For an Eldritch being she sure did not know how to keep her mouth shut. He almost believed that she wanted to get caught, but with what the once-Shade-of-shades had described as a labored and boring existence before, he doubted it. More than likely the guardian of the Abyss was simply excited to be doing and observing anything. Looking up at Luna after moment he nodded appreciatively, before attempting to distract her from the voice he was certain she had heard.

“Now if only it wouldn’t scare me when it did what I wanted,” he chuckled.

“Agreed,” Luna smiled either playing dumb or surprisingly fooled by his misdirection, “So what are you looking for?”

“The runes, look at them. Look how much brighter they are.” Zeccaran pointed at the wall and then the floor. The Princess followed his hoof and nodded in surprise her eyes widening.

“What does this mean though? Unfortunately, we cannot feel the air as it was in this moment. But, my assumption is that this means there is more magic being gathered in these sigils,” she flicked her mane as she summarized her thoughts.

“My thought exactly.” Zeccaran leaned back onto his rump to sit and think, “It’s just...I feel like I know more but I can’t piece it together.”

“Oh how crystal clear is hindsight ,” Luna grumbled angrily, more to herself than him. He looked up at her confused by her sudden displeasure. Catching his glance, the Princess frowned yet deeper.

“You cannot remember because I destroyed that portion of your memories. I was hoping perhaps I had missed some of the ritual details. I see now that I had not.” The blue mare’s shoulders sagged.

“Could you restore them? I mean the specific ones we need?” Zeccaran asked curiously.

“Perhaps, if I knew what I was looking for. But, in your special case I was not as careful as I would have been if I had been trying to console a foal or an elderly fellow who lost his wife,” Luna responded dryly.

“Understandable. But, and correct me if I’m wrong, I’m pretty sure you have, at least, a general idea of where to look, right?” he asked. The zebra did hold faith that Luna was exceedingly good at her job, but her admonishing gaze turned neutral.

Within the subconscious, emotions could flow more easily between ponies. The Princess of the Moon had warned him during his training that it could cause the minds of the ponies to meld together and not in a romantic sort of way. Only individuals of extreme power or skill in manipulating their own subconscious could maintain their individual consciousness and not be driven mad by having their minds blended into a single entity.

Thus, it was with both great fear and great excitement that he felt Luna’s emotions swing back and forth. Her state shifted between regretful, but steadfast, and curious yet hopeful. However, the sensation of her emotions disappeared even quicker than they had appeared and Zeccaran was left exhaling an ethereal breath he had not realized he was holding. Joining minds with Luna had always been a sort of fantasy of his; after all the mare was his chosen goddess. Although the current consequences likely outweighed the pleasure he would get out of becoming one with his mistress of the night. There was Pixie, who was somehow retaining interest in him, and there was also her brother, who was dating Luna. The wrath of one Stormwalker was more than enough. Two made the word overkill seem like a shameful understatement.

Ruining either relationship would prove extremely foolhardy, said the logical part of his brain. So when Luna turned her face back no him, it was with genuine relief that he waited for her to speak with words and not with her thoughts.

It would get quite crowded in here if she were to join in. And hostile. Luna and I stopped being on good terms when I fully possessed her body, Nyx commented.

Shut up, Nyx, I’m well-aware of how Luna might react, you don’t need to keep reminding me, Zeccaran seethed internally, hoping the rage did not make it to his eyes.

“Are you well?” Luna asked interrupting the moment.

“No.” Zeccaran looked right into her eyes, doing his best to remain calm and suppress both he and Nyx’s panic. “I am not well, and I’m not sure if I have ever been well, especially right now.”

“A rather astute self-observation: Continuing,” the Princess gave a brief rest in her speech eyeing him suspiciously, “I would note that I did not examine your mind in great detail. I skimmed. Very. Lightly. Skimmed.”

“Oh,” he swallowed. If the blue mare had avoided specific looks at his mind he could confirm finally that the crimes he committed were beyond any form of redemption.

“However, I will say this. The debauchery of the Shadow-kin displayed before us,” she waved both her wings to emphasize the whole room, “you, likewise, participated in regularly.”

“But unlike these more stoic and pragmatic monsters you took a disturbing glee and merry reverie in your work. Not to say the Shadow-kin did not take pleasure in their defilement of others but, it was as if regardless of the validity of your beliefs you enjoyed what you did with the sick dedication of a creature truly enamored with the suffering of others,” Luna paused, her gaze turning dark.

“Isn’t that right, Nyx?” Lighting her horn, Zeccaran felt all of his limbs extend out from his body to the point of almost being dislodged from their joints. Squeaking feebly as the feeling of all the air being punched from his lungs met him in this mental realm, he looked up to Luna pleadingly. The Astral Plane was her domain, but he hoped to stop her from finishing what her colt-friend had started. In truth, even if he could not remember the ritual Nyx could, it was her rite in the first place. Worse, ending Nyx might also kill him, and that would make him quite useless to Luna, something he could not bear to think.

“You think to hide from me in plain sight? You think I had not noticed Zeccaran’s abilities growing so unnaturally? Shade-of-Shades, you have again underestimated me!” The Princess boomed in her Royal Canterlot Voice.

Luna’s horn and eyes took to glowing a bright white, as if somepony had flipped a lightswitch. Zeccaran tried to flail his hooves up to cover his face as his eyelids were not enough to shield him from the ever increasingly luminous display. Unfortunately he was unable to do so much as vaguely wriggle within the Princess’s mighty telekinetic grip. Pressure built in his skull and the light seemed to pierce into his brain no matter how hard he resisted.

White brilliance gave way to a feeling of numbness and Zeccaran opened his eyes to find the place he had been quite absent. Gone were the Shadow-Kin, the sights of his captured friend and even the sounds of Nyx in his head. The world he existed in now seemed broken and disjointed. Pictures of familiar places and the sound of friends danced about, but between them great rips and tears of pure blackness. Reflexively, Zeccaran trotted up to one of them, screams of pain echoed out from its inky depths.

“Hello?” he called out in concern as he began to look down.

“This place..” came Nyx’s voice. It did not come from within but instead reached his ears as if it came from a nearby mare. Turning away from the fissure, Zeccaran nearly spun completely around before realizing he could see the faint spectre of a creature.

About his size and height the blurry outline turned to face him, displaying green-yellow eyes that lacked any pupil. Though Nyx’s face was barely visible, the zebra could just make out lines of a snout and the green of her bright eyes.

“I had never managed to manifest this deeply into your mind. I can feel, no, taste the suffering you caused. But these voids...these are Luna’s doing.” The spectre waved a shadowy limb in the direction of the tears. “She sought to remove what you had done, but at the same time she destroyed nearly all of the connections you had to me.

“Is that what is going on here?” Zeccaran asked, “This is my mind?”

“Indeed. Though I cannot flourish as I once did these portals will at least sustain me,” Nyx commented, as she walked up to the rip where he stood.

“I don’t think I should let you, ‘sustain’ yourself.” He wrapped a hoof around her and pulled her away from the portal into the black abyss of his past.

“It is too late for that. I had been concerned that if you pursued a way to remove me you would be successful. I have already absorbed the negative energies making such an endeavor at least slightly inconvenient.” Zeccaran squinted at her his mind thinking of how to deal with this predicament. “Do not worry. I cannot become more powerful than l am now, but I can at least avoid destruction.”

Pain suddenly pulsed across the zebra’s temples and he instinctively grabbed his head.

“This better not be your doing!” he growled from the ground.

“She is coming for us,” Nyx breathed unsteadily.

Terror etched itself onto her face, a face too eerily similar to that of a normal pony’s. A loud crack of thunder snapped his eyes towards its source. He beheld the grey backdrop of this place rent, a moving colored cascade of blues and blacks spilled out from the tear. Poking cautiously through the portal, the silver gilded hoof of Princess Luna slowly found its way to the ashen ground.

The full body of the alicorn slipped into the realm not a moment later, her face twisted into a scowl of pure rage that did not suit her in Zeccaran’s opinion. She stomped towards them, her passage here closing behind her with another crack of sound, giving him a sudden painful headache, that felt unsettlingly familiar. It would seem Nyx was quite right about invasions into the mind. They hurt.

Once upon them Luna’s anger was slowly replaced with a cold menace. Next to him, Nyx slowly backed up, trying to put him between herself and the alicorn. Zeccaran shot her a disgusted glare. He stepped aside of Luna’s path, the spirit withered and stopped moving in response. Shuddering even more violently than her natural glimmer Nyx’s eyes displayed her fear. The hiss of angry magic buzzing filled Zeccaran’s ears and the royal blue aura of the Princess of the Moon lifted the Shade into the air and hovered her to the alicorn’s face. All the zebra could do was watch. He would not impede Luna’s judgement, even if that meant his mind would become a slaughterhouse.

“You are weak...fragile. As you are, I could shatter your essence into one million pieces and scatter you across the Astral Plane so loosely it would take you as many years to return to this state,” Luna snarled into the face of the ghostly mare.

“W-we both already know that. Why d-do you repeat it as if it has any bearing on this situation?” Nyx peeped with a stutter.

“Because…” The Princess of the Moon’s eyes pinched closed in fury, “As much as I despise myself for this: I, again, need your help, Nyx.”

“What?!” Both Zeccaran and the spectre shouted in shock.

“Princess, you can’t be serious!” he jogged over next to her at stared at her incredulously.

“I cannot restore your memories, Zeccaran.” She pointed at the lesions of darkness. “But...you were once Nyx’s consort. She has watched the world through your eyes. If anypony knows how that magic works. It will be her. Everypony else is dead,” Luna explained.

Realizing the truth in the statement he froze in realization. While he could not remember what had happened during his days as her Conduit, Nyx certainly could. She had even made mention that she remembered everything he had ever done when she had manifested within his mind once again. Falling onto his rump Zeccaran felt his vision blur out into an unfocused haze. It was a simple solution, but he could not imagine Nyx participating willingly. He shuddered where he sat, disturbed by the implications Luna’s statement.

“So I propose to you a deal, dear Nyx,” the alicorn growled, “I shall give you payment in the form of clemency. You provide me the information that I want, and I shall elect to not inform a certain Shadow-kin of your continued existence.”

“I am in no position to negotiate your terms. But, I will not agree to such deal while being held aloft like some misbehaved waif,” the Shade complained.

In response Luna very cautiously lowered Nyx back onto the grey backdrop of his mind: “You have not changed you prideful dullard. Hubris was your downfall, yet you cling to it still?”

“When there is nothing left but that, what other purpose do I have? I can no longer control magic, no longer control the minds of mortals. I am but an empty shadow, a blurry reflection of a distant storm through the thickest and cruelest of glass,” Nyx stated. It was not a complaint, as Zeccaran heard it, it was more a statement of fact. She merely put words to something he could not, he almost sympathized with her. Almost.

“I expect no guarantees from you. Nor will I trust your words. And should my tests prove you are lying…” Luna’s face twisted into a gleeful and terrible smile. “I’ll pleasure myself while I watch him rip you apart, again. And again. And again.”

Zeccaran found himself backing away from the Princess of the Night. He had never imagined she could be quite so terrifying, or spiteful. There were always exceptions to the grace any one pony had, and it would seem Luna was no exception. Smiling nervously, he gulped down the lump in his throat, his only thought that he was glad her ire was directed at his roommate and not him. At least his Princess chose a perfectly irredeemable monster to unload her fury into, but it did not comfort him as he watched her devilish smile nearly overtake her whole face. Zeccaran decided that maybe he did pity Nyx.

“Luna. I-I...I know what you wish. B-but you shall find my analysis as accurate as I can make it,” Nyx responded as she also retreated from Luna. To her credit the Shade kept her composure as strong as possible and her chest and head held high.

“A shame. It seems we all know which outcome I’d prefer,” the alicorn’s smile vanished as her eyes widened with a briefly and disturbingly visible mania. Nyx had made it to Zeccaran now, and she stepped behind him again, as if he was going to actually be able to shield her from Luna.

Relaxing, the Princess lit her horn with magic again and the tearing of canvas echoed over the now silent party. Seemingly spawning otherwise on its own, the same swirling mass of stars and azure, inky hues splattered into existence.

“Come. Your work starts now,’ Luna motioned. Nyx to her credit removed herself from behind him and slowly plodded up to the portal.

Looking up at the alicorn with uncertainty, the Shade slowly reached for the passage out of Zeccaran’s inner mind and back to the subconscious of Gusty Twilight. A brief moment of clarity hit him and Zeccaran felt dizzy. Luna had thrown him and Nyx fully into the deepest part of his equinety and had threatened the Shade with exposure to Guardian Angel. Working his jaw with anxiety the zebra felt himself start to hyperventilate, which was positively preposterous in a realm where he did not require breaths. However, that seemed the least of his worries as his mind raced through the possible ways he could be discovered and tormented by the Shadow-kin. Around him his thoughts sprang to life and the horrors slowly brought him to a different realization. His ability to dreamwalk, his new relationship with Pixie, these were simply ways for the universe to fuck with him. They were not gifts of time with his favorite Princess, or a mare that he was fairly certain was becoming the love of his life. No, those were simply the fringe benefits of being now permanently stuck in a state of anxiety and fear.

“Zeccaran!” Luna’s voice drug him out of the reflection with a sudden lurch, making him nauseous.

“Y-yes?” he croaked looking up from her as the visions of his worries dissipated.

“Before we continue: how long has she been in your mind? I must know.” She stomped a hoof authoritatively.

“A week at most. With how busy I have been, I haven’t been paying attention. Five days? I’ll go with five days,” he answered as best he could.

“I see.” Luna’s face momentarily turned dark, “Unfortunate that she is telling the truth then.”

“If she ever does anything out of line you’ll be the first to know, Princess.” Zeccaran meant those words with all his heart. Luna smiled with appreciation, her mood seeming to lift as if she had had an epiphany.

“Very good. Let us return to the scene before then, your input is still most welcome,” she responded.

“Of course...just having a moment there…” Zeccaran let his voice trail off.

“Understandable...I believe we both may have,” Luna answered. “Come, I wish to keep this as brief as possible.”

He merely nodded in agreement as he trotted swiftly up to the portal and pushed Nyx the rest of the way through. The Shade did not fight his touch and she slid forward with ease. As he touched the passage out the pinching pain in his temples flared up again, but as soon as he breached the threshold and opened his eyes it stopped. Safe again in the frozen moments of Gusty’s darkest hours Zeccaran heaved a sigh, then felt like kicking himself for taking comfort in his friend’s suffering.

Ahead of him Nyx was already looking over the runes. She hummed and bobbed, her ghastly form more hovering than walking as she moved. This puzzled Zeccaran, the Shade should not be outside of his waking consciousness, unlike inside his mind, they were to be as one.

“Not while Luna is in control of where I can go within the Astral Plane,” she answered his question as he started to move his tongue. “And yes I can still feel your thoughts as they occur. We are still one, my dear Conduit. She is giving me the meager condolence of separate sight...for now.”

“Then what is all this?” Zeccaran pointed down at the carvings, the real reason he was here now with Luna.

“Indeed. What are these sigils, oh, most knowledgeable of Shades?” the Princess about made him jump out of his stripes as she spoke seemingly from nowhere but everywhere at once.

“They are markings of demonic origin. Give me a few more moments to analyze them,” Nyx responded immediately and obediently. A few minutes passed by as the spectre walked diligently around the dark chamber her green-yellow eyes tracing over the whole circle of runes. She stopped where she started, a shiver tracing it way through her shimmering form.

“You are distressed, beast. What have you discovered?” Luna’s voice echoed unnaturally again.

“This..this is an epitaph to debauchery and suffering. Over my years guarding the Abyss, I watched as the demons used it on each other. It is an ancient magic. A terrible magic that feeds not only on the magical energies a being possesses but also their soul. It is a magic older than myself...” Nyx suddenly trailed off as her head flicked towards the center of the room, her eyes locked on the floor.

“By Origin they used four of them...in all my years I have never seen four used,” she shuddered. Zeccaran moved forward, and looked down to where Nyx indicated she spotted the fourth ring. Faintly etched into the dirt, he found simpler glyphs, they appeared as if they had been only cut deep enough to be seen by someone who knew they were there.

“What are these things you speak of?” the mare of the moon inquired.

“There are not words in this tongue to describe them. The best translation of their names is this: Circles of Pain,” Nyx croaked.

Zeccaran grimaced. The name struck a chord within him. Somewhere inside his mind he had known that was the name of these dark sigils. Growing steadily, a churning feeling of disgust overtook him and he blanched repeatedly at the thought and the scene around him. It had just become exponentially more disturbing than moments before.

“Correct me if I-I am wrong,” Zeccara began, his voice unsteady from the stress, “if I remember right, the words written in the circle dictate what the magic does once they are charged with enough.”

“Yes. That is how they work. And what is written here is...foul. Even when it comes to describe the rites of the Shadow-kin,” The Shade responded tepidly.

“Read them to me, so I can record them. I wish to have Guardian Angel translate them to compare your description, even the most fine of details must be acknowledged,” Luna commanded, her voice less harsh yet hungry, still coming from all places. Zeccaran looked around to see if he could find her, but there was no evidence to be found. It was likely the Princes of the Night was viewing this mental event from the outside.

“I will start with the outermost ring then. It is fairly repetitive,” Nyx turned her head around the room looking for Luna as she slowly reached the humming runes written on the wall, “Are you ready?”

“Yes, please begin,” came the moony mare’s voice.

“Suffering, suffering, suffering. By Yethsoor’s blood, by his Mother’s Betraying Name. Be held to the Dark Lord’s fire, and become one with its torture and flame,” the ghostly mare traced the length of the words, moving only a small portion of the distance around the room. Her form only visible because of the glow of the vile magic.

“I see. Another reference to Yethsoor and Origin. Delightful. Does this circle say more?” questioned the Princess.

“No. It repeats itself a total of eight times as it wraps around the room. Next one?” the Shade stepped forward towards the edge of the dias where Gusty was bound. She looked down at runes Zeccaran could not see from where he stood, forcing him to curiously back up to the edge to find them. As he looked down at these more orange colored glyphs, Luna instructed Nyx to read the set he watched.

“This sacrament of flesh and souls shall consecrate, a payment made to the black hearts in all creatures. Wither and misery, shall be your fate. Be ruined in your heart, not your features. It repeats that four times,” she answered.

A silence filled the room, a heavy uncomfortable silence. To Zeccaran it felt as if the atmosphere suddenly reeked with a barely noticeable, but still potent aura of tainted magic. That should not have been possible, this was not the real world, but a deep memory of his friend’s. Perhaps hearing the words spoken in a way he could understand simply made him acknowledge the true horror that the Shadow-kin had wrought. It was either that or somewhere in his mind he could recall writing similar curses in the same script he stared at now. He repressed that thought quickly, taking the initiative for the Princess instead.

“Move on to the next one, we should not dally on these words while in this realm,” he ordered. Luna mirrored his sentiment and Nyx moved to the next set of carvings, they displayed a burned hue of dying coals.

“You will listen to us. You will be craven to us, our desires your obligation. Our words will pierce your soul.The blood of your kin given its only worth with your subjugation.” The shimmering outline of the Shade pulsed briefly. “Like before, its repetition follows the pattern required of this ritual, eight, four, this one is two, the last line will only have a single phrase.”

Nyx stepped towards the scrawled runes the faint lines of her face grimacing in the unnatural grey light of the main dias. The platform was more ashen colored dirt compacted so harshly that it appeared stone. Zeccaran kept watching the spectre as she carefully followed the text around where Gusty hung on the rack. After she made the full circle Nyx stood still, her head bowed in a fearful reverence.

“Our greatest work of art, living relic to our power, never to grow old. You shall become that which you sought to destroy. Welcome, sister, to our fold.”

Zeccaran felt his skin wiggle unhappily on its own. The Curse of the Shadow-kin now known, brought him only discomfort. He could feel the hatred, the cold and terrible planning that had been done. All for the purpose of destroying Gusty’s mind and taking control of her soul. Turning his eyes towards his friend, he looked at the strain in her eyes, the metal apparatus on her head reddening her irises. There was a life in her gaze that Zeccaran had not noticed before, perhaps because he did not have the reference. That sparkle however, was faint, like a different mare deep inside the alicorn was dying, being smothered by the loathing and debauchery. Foolishly, he cast his eyes over the scene again, finding the sight of the little skinned mare as the memory began to move again.

Her muscles shivered and twitched their veins spraying little fountains of blood from their walls. The gore did not bother him, instead what caught the zebra’s attention was a numb pinching and burning that he could feel over most of his body. There was no pain, but instead a dark foreboding growing in his chest. They were being watched. Zeccaran could feel it like a pressure building up in his gut, he knew it was the truth.

“Princess, I think we should leave. We got what we came for,” he cautioned. Looking about he searched for Luna, hoping she had taken her physical form at some point.

“I’m..trying!” the mare of the moon’s voice was echoing and disjointed in pitch as if she was screaming through a tuba.

Zeccaran shook his head trying to overcome the sudden cold sweats and his aching head. Around him the memories played faster yet were still understandable, as if whoever was controlling the scene was beaming the moments into his brain directly. Immediately he thought of Nyx: this had to all be a trap.

“Damn you, Shade! If I survive I’ll kill us both for sure!” he shouted as he doubled over in pain, the sound of laughter reaching his ears.

“I-it i-isn’t m-me,” Nyx responded. He followed her words to find her curled up next to him, her dark form flicking between fully formed and just an empty space. His vision faded to dull brown lights and the world began to spin.

Zeccaran, wake up!

Zeccaran, Zeccaran!

“You have to wake up it’s the only way out! Hurry!” the little shadow pleaded in terror.

Something grabbed his shoulders and thrashed him about. He fought it as best he could, his body tiring almost instantly from the bashes to his chest and neck. All the while the unsettling cackling of something he did not recognized continued to grow in volume.

Zeccaran! You’re still asleep! Get! Up!

Icy cold washed over him and the dark world around him shattered. Flailing in surprise and anger the zebra flipped up from where he lay swinging his hooves like mad. He did not hit anything, but he barely noticed, his eyes blurry and his body shaky from the freezing water. He squinted around the room in a daze, realizing it was the room it should have been. The Princess’s personal planetarium where she did her dreamwalking. It seemed like a year had passed from when they had entered the world of dreams, even though he knew it not to be true. Groggily he struggled to pull himself into reality. By the time he composed himself he noticed Luna was not in much better shape.

“Now I know why you have these on standby, Princess,” Stiff Inspection nodded as he tossed bucket onto the floor with a clamor before placing towel over the soaked alicorn. The soldier took another moment before he gave one to the zebra, who took it readily, wrapping up as tight as he could.

“I didn’t expect to actually have to engage the failsafe protocol like you said, but the two minutes passed and I had to, sorry.” Stiff shrugged waiting for them to speak.

“That is quite alright, Captain.” Luna paused to shudder before more fervently wiping herself down with the cloth, “You did what needed doing.”

A coughing and gagging momentarily took over Zeccaran’s senses as Nyx dragged herself back into the waking world. She continued to splutter for more than felt necessary.

You make it, Nyx? He questioned ironically.

Barely, I’m going to rest for a good while, I suggest you do the same. The Shade’s voice seemed to fade out almost entirely as she finished her sentence. He looked up to his friend, rolling his jaw not really having anything to say, still trying to overcome what had just happened.

“So...did it go well? I am to record any of the incursion’s details,” Stiff Inspection remarked eagerly, but with a touch of apprehension in his voice.

“No,” Zeccaran groaned before Luna could.

“Indeed. But, it was not a fruitless journey. Allow us to explain while the memories are fresh,” the Princess piped up, her momentary lapse in grace long past.

The two dreamwalkers took the better part of two hours detailing what had happened. Luna took the lead, purposely avoiding Nyx’s discovery. Zeccaran played along, acquainted with the song and dance of half-truths. He preferred to remain alive after all, and he appreciated that his Princess wished the same for him. Meanwhile the pegasus, busily wrote with a combination of his wing and mouth, filling out a clipboard and taking notes simultaneously in an impressive display of dexterity. When they finished the young captain looked between them, bags seeming to form under his eyes as Zeccaran watched.

“That is some real fucked-up shit. Forgive me, Princess, for being so frank,” he shook his head, his face pulled taut in an expression somewhere between concentration and disgust.

“As crass as your words are, they are still the best description,” Luna responded heaving a long sigh and a yawn.

“How long did Guardian Angel say he would be away? I’m forgetting now that I have gone through that mess.” Zeccaran nodded in agreement at the alicorn’s words his eyes closing. Relief and exhaustion were proving a powerful combination.

“Until mid-evening today your majesty”

It seemed like it took a solid three minutes for Stiff Inspection to respond, but he barely noticed. His head pulsed with an unpleasant numbness across his forehead and behind his ears. Still resting his eyes Zeccaran took a long breath for an even longer yawn, his thoughts pacing over what could have caused the sudden instability in the dream, if it was not Nyx. The only explanation was that the Curse of the Shadow-kin had become aware of their intrusion into its domain. The idea would have sent a shiver up his spine had he not been so dog-tired.

“Good. I’m going to need that time to sleep.” Luna momentarily interrupted his settling mind but it did not matter, he barely heard Stiff respond.

“Very good, shall I take you downstairs Zec...oh. They both passed out. Well, they certainly need it. I’ll give them an hour.”

Next Chapter: Act 4: Chapter 3 - The Small Differences between Friends and Enemies Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 43 Minutes