Heir to the Shadows
Chapter 4: Act 1: Chapter 3 - "...Really?"
Previous Chapter Next Chapter“Of course! I love having Gusty in daily court meetings with me! She is quite mischievous and possesses a very droll sarcasm that goes right over the heads of any of our visitors. She has really helped lower the stress of court duties and I feel much better about my day-to-day thanks to her. Why do you ask?”
-Princess Celestia-
Chapter 3 - ...Really?
The flash of light died away and Zeccaran found himself looking up at the bottom of a bunk. There was something greenish obscuring his vision and he moved to knock it out of the way, exposing the hoof he had used to be teal. He drew in a horrified breath.
“This isn’t happening...right?”
Gusty Twilight’s voice made a yawn as she shifted her viewpoint towards the door. Her thoughts felt different. She mused over her previous night’s rest, grimacing over the fuzzy recollection of nightmares. She was scared of the visions, though she would never admit it. The dreams varied from Gusty remembering battles, to deaths of family members, to raising children, children that she did not recognize. Like always when she woke up she shook her head to clear her mind and then meditated for about an hour to the god Origin. Origin was the creator of the world and life, the ultimate good.
“Oh, gods! No! Please, no! I can feel what she is feeling! Curse you cruel fate and your twisted sense of humor! Why would you do this to me?! Aaaaarrgghh!”
Gusty’s faith required her to seek out and cleanse the world of its perversions. Eliminating evil was something that she was not only obligated to do but relished with all of her being. That was how it had always been as far as Gusty could tell. Simply there was nothing else and that nothing else could distract her either.
“Great. Well at least it is a good look into how she thinks...then again I’m not sure I want to know. And she definitely was wrong about getting distracted, cause drinking and partying isn’t exactly eliminating evil and that’s all she has done since we arrived in Canterlot. Oh, well, at least she is interesting, maybe eccentric...and crazy. Too bad I don’t have popcorn this would be a great soap opera, she’s a total wreck of a character trope! Heh, forget my complaints”
Gusty decided for no reason in particular to give the train a scan with her “Origin Magic” to see if there was some sort of malicious intent about. She had always been able to do such, in fact she could practically find evil by simply thinking about it. And it was on this day that she felt something particularly virulent coming from the front end of the train. Gusty instantly jumped out of bed, not deterred by the pie incident a day before. However, her sudden movement stirred her zebra companion. She assailed him.
“Hey. Hey. HEY!! Get up, there’s something going on near the front of the train.”
“Urrggh. Remind me why I have to help?’ the dream Zeccaran grumbled not facing her.
“That’s where Gunther is.” Gusty said smugly.
“Oh. ok. I guess I’ll come along.” he rolled out of bed and directly into Gusty’s vision making eye contact with her.
“Maaaaan. I look tired. Do I always look that tired? Note to self: get more sleep, Note to self part two: Gusty does not care one bit about making me uncomfortable.”
Before leaving the room, Gusty put on her armor. It covered most of her chest and belly but left her flanks curiously exposed. She was a big girl and secretly rather modest so she felt silly without something covering her flanks. She compensated for this by wearing a short cobalt skirt. It was her best option considering there was a lot for wandering eyes to glimpse if she didn’t, that and she felt it accented her blue eyes. On the exterior of this outfit she strapped on her scabbard and sword and saddle bags.
“She’s modest? That’s what she calls modest? Okay. I don’t even know if this is real anymore or if I’m having a super deep incepted dream. Whatever, throw me another curve ball, I dare you!”
Gusty turned about to look at Zeccaran, who only had a plain bag on his back and a dull looking sickle tied to his side. Gusty resisted the urge to make fun of him about his lack of armor. She did not find his presentation pleasing but criticizing him would do nothing. It was then that Gusty took the lead and led her and her zebra companion towards the front of the train.
The unlikely pair finally reached the boxcar that stored all the luggage for the patrons. Gusty still felt the evil presences from before as they entered the car. However, this close they appeared to be above them, as if they were on the top of the car. They suddenly shot back towards the sleeper car.
“They went back that way!” Gusty cried, pointing a hoof the way they had come.
“Well, wait for me to get Gunther out of this box!” Zeccaran complained as he prodded at a wooden box that was making whimpering dog noises. “Hurry up then. I don’t like what’s going on. It doesn’t feel right…” she replied.
It took a few painful moments before Gunther was free and they could proceed back towards the ominous presences . They dashed through a few cars not allowing the staff to stop them from bringing Gunther along. The moment they reached the sleeper car harsh shrieking of metal rang in the air. Gusty turned to look out the only window in the car and saw sparks flying up and away from the train. There was a tearing and moaning sound immediately following that could only be described as the train violently jerking left then right and stopping instantly. The tumultuous action threw Gusty, Gunther, and Zeccaran to the floor and caused the other passengers to emit shrill cries of terror as the locomotive buckled.
Gusty was not quite knocked out but everything was significantly blurry as she slowly righted herself after becoming too friendly with the floor. Zeccaran was just as ponderous with his coming-to while Gunther lay on his back still acting as if he wished to have his rough oaken belly rubbed. Heavy hoof falls rang from above them and coarse male voices echoed outside through the now broken window of the sleeper.
Unwittingly Gusty stuck her head out of the open window. Towards the front of the train about six mixed stallions were unloading cargo from one of the boxcars. They were a rough looking group and fairly well organized by the sight of a getaway cart where the goods were being placed. Two more ponies tossed the poor bound engineer from his perch, one was a unicorn. He brandished a strange glowing sword like weapon in his telekinesis, holding it to the engineers pony’s throat to keep him quiet. Gusty then pulled her neck carefully back through the broken glass.
“What did you see?” Zeccaran questioned her. “A big group of ponies. They are stealing all the cargo from the train. Trunks of stuff. Good thing we got Gunther” she replied.
In the meantime, Gusty had drawn her sword and held it in her telekinetic grip. She prepared to charge through rear door of the sleeper car. She had a particularly strong feeling that bursting out of it would surprise anypony on the other side. This going to be one of her shining moments, she was certain of it.
“What are you doing? We could just open it instead you know--that and why are we bothering to stop them? How many were there even?” Dream-Zeccaran asked.
“I counted eight maybe more. Now, shush! Just trust me on this” Gusty gave him her most confident grin.
Zeccaran fell silent.
“I should have told her no. I should have told her no. I should have told her no. Why didn’t I tell her no! After seeing how organized they were out there I should sue!”
Gusty tensed up her legs and prepared to charge at the slightly broken door to the back of the car. She loosed a harsh yell and sprinted the short hall at the door. Impacting it with a shoulder with her head lowered. The door loosed from its hinges instantly and Gusty felt something fleshy be hit by the flying wood and her shoulder. It absorbed her momentum causing her to stop on the train car’s railing.
The alicorn paused long enough to see that an Earth Pony stallion now laid down on the ground below the car’s porch buried beneath the broken door his eyes closed, his body motionless. Gusty smiled in triumph at her foresight or rather she would have had a pegasus not knocked her to the ground in the next second. She lay on her belly unable to turn over as she desperately swung her sword about with her magic. Gusty liked to think that she hit the assailant in question but it turned out to be Zeccaran’s time to shine. Sadly, Gusty could not see her companion and would continue to think she had saved herself for quite some time.
Zeccaran seeing his counterpart disabled did the only thing he could think of at the time. He charged headlong at the pegasus on top of Gusty and tackled him off of her. Their bodies got tangled up as they whizzed through the air towards the ground, which was a good six feet from the train car’s deck. Zeccaran did not know whether it was out of luck or his own fool-hardy determination but he landed atop the pegasus, slamming the unfortunate fellow’s head and back into the broken door where his comrade already lay. The fight ended before it began and the stallion was suddenly unconscious completely limp underneath Zeccaran as he stood up to ensure Gusty had not been hurt.
“She’s like instant mental disease. Once you get around her you do really crazy and outgoing things compared to normal. Is it just her natural flare? Or is it something else? I’ve felt helpless with regards to wanting to help her, even when I know I shouldn’t...hmm perhaps she’s just that much of a natural leader. I suppose this dreamwalking might just show me the answer.”
“HA! I got him!” she cried. “what are you doing down there? I just knocked him off of me!” Zeccaran cast an admonishing look at Gusty but said nothing. By the time he had risen to his hooves Gusty was peering around the corner or the sleeper car at the other ponies that were robbing the train wondering if her stripped companion would hurry up.
“And she had the audacity to not thank me! She had to know that I helped her. Ugh!”
“Ok. I’m going in!” Gusty proclaimed without ceremony.
“Annnnnd there she goes...and nope. I’mma stand there and help her like an unthinking drone. *Sighhhh*”
Dream-Zeccaran stood there dumbly as Gusty flew off towards the train robbers. Her intent was to summon the very winds themselves to stun these robbers with her glory. She had done it before. In fact, summoning clouds was something of her special talent. That’s what her cutie mark was all about anyway. She liked to call the skill, “Cloud Master” and Gusty would routinely yell the name if she was going to use her alicorn magic to conjure up the forces of nature.
“That’s what she calls beating the crap out of me with clouds and wind? Good to know. Stupid mean alicorn and her stupid special magic and stupid abilities.”
Holding off on screaming however, Gusty climbed up into the air with her wings, gathering about forty feet of height. She bellowed down at the ponies below her trying to apprehend the criminals. “Surrender now, criminals! Or receive severe punishment!” not-quite-like the commanding mare that she was.
It was supposed to be enough to shock the stallions into at least some form of guilt. However, their response was to look up at her blankly at first and then laugh. They laughed a lot actually. While her voice was not normally so girly-sounding it certainly was this time and the effect became much less intimidating than she had intended. Her skirt and freckles probably did not make her the scariest thing either.
“No kidding Gusty. It's hard to be scared of a big bright-colored mare that looks she belongs in a Pony Opera as the female lead. Even has the sword and big mane too! At least she knows that she can be a damned fool. Not that she’d ever admit it.”
Thus, after their cackling had died down some, one of the unicorns mumbled something to his comrades. From her lofty position it could not be heard what was said, but she quickly found out. In an instant the unicorn fired a red-colored spell at her. She was unable to dodge simply because she was too surprised to react. The spell hit her dead center of the chest. The world spun to a bleak grey and she had the sensation of falling. The next feeling she had was her side impacting the hard and unforgiving ground. She instantly woke. Her ribs hurt quite badly, but Gusty was tougher than the pitiful tears she shed from the pain. Blinking her eyes clear she stared, shocked to see what was occurring before her.
“HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAAYYY~!!...not really. Me and Gunther got our assess kicked. Guess we are good at that though...not sure if that’s a talent or a curse.”
Dream-Zeccaran and Dream-Gunther had made it to the scene. His memory counterparts stood mostly surrounded by a group of stallions, two pegasi, one earth pony. That was the view from Gusty’s blurry eyes. Two of the Unicorns that she had seen earlier were missing. As the view cleared up the third one came into view charging towards her. His glowing sword from earlier brandished high. Two other earth ponies were scrambling to put a large number of boxes down in order to help while a lone pegasus peered from over the edge of the box car. Gusty cast a brief glance to her friends.
It was clear that Zeccaran and Gunther wouldn’t last long. The two exchanged blows with their assailants. Zeccaran quickly was knocked down his face bloodied by the pegasi and was only saved by Gunther who jumped in the way of a full rear leg buck of the earther. The wooden body of the dog creaked and he yelped as he was flung a few feet from the kick.
“Get him, Gunther! Get up, me! Come on, we are better than this! I think?!”
Zeccaran chuckled at himself knowing full well the outcome of the fight. It was an even more pitiful sight through Gusty’s eyes. Although he could get over that, he just wanted the disorienting feeling from looking through her eyes to go away.
Zeccaran quickly got back up and haphazardly punched a pegasus square in the jaw, knocking him away. He received a solid hoof to the gut from the other pegasus. Finally recovering, Gunther attacked the Earth pony with a bite to the leg, but was promptly kicked off. Though the two continued to hold their ground it was clear that they would need help as Gusty reared up into the air once more. Refocusing on the Unicorn that was charging her, she jumped into the air determined to bring the clouds to her aid. The unicorn swung his bound blade as she took flight, cursing at her as her wings outdistanced his magical reach. She smiled triumphantly as she made it to a high enough to cast her magic.
As soon as she reached the position Gusty began concentrating on her surroundings. To summon the clouds it was a process of magic and physicality. After a few strong beats of her wings and the feeling of magic swelling up in the surrounding atmosphere. She opened her eyes and directed her wrath at the unfortunate creatures below her. Zeccaran and Gunther would have to brave the storm like their attackers would. Gusty hoped it would not hurt them too much.
“She knew! She freakin’ knew! She hit us with that spell on purpose! Ohhh! If there is ever a time to get her back, I better make it good too! Argh!”
Wind and harsh heavy clouds strong enough to actually bludgeon her targets swirled down in a vicious howl. Thunder crashed and clapped as might winds of her magic induced storm knocked the two pegasi that had begun pursuing her to the ground. The unicorn below her was blown back towards his comrades whilst flying through the air. The Earth ponies in question were forced to steady themselves, only one was able resist the fierce bluster, the rest were forced the the ground in various heaps.
Gunther and Zeccaran did not fare much better. They were lifted into the air and tossed away from their assailants at the cost of what looked like pretty severe impacts with the ground. At least they were safe, or that's what Gusty thought anyway. They weren't moving and she refused to believe that she had just killed her own friends.
Gusty landed on the ground as quickly as she could after casting her spell and tried to take the great group of enemies by surprise. She only managed to dispatch a single Earth Pony, the one who had not been knocked to the ground by the wind. She had exchanged a few sword swings with him deflecting or dodging his blows with ease. She quickly ran the ugly fellow through his poor skill shining as bright as the red flow of blood that cascaded down her blade held firmly in her golden magic. The victory was short lived and as she pushed the poor fool over the other attackers were upon her before she even flicked her sword clean. However, Gunther and Zeccaran rejoined her side at not a moment's notice, ready to help her.
“Yeah and had I known she was the one that caused that freak storm I would have left her to fight while I pouted clutching my knee! That thing was sore for weeks!”
The combat that erupted was erratic to say the least. Three beleaguered heroes against a force that had gone from nine to five in number. At the beginning Gusty felt that she and her companions stood a good chance. One-and-a-three-quarters enemies for each of them should be easy, easier than math anyway. She, however, had forgotten to account for the unicorns.
“Or maybe she forgot to account for how unimaginably unlucky I am? Or perhaps the horror that would exit Gunther’s body in the most putrid manner possible. By Celestia’s beard it was a terrible fight...heh, Celestia’s beard. I need to keep that one.”
As the groups briefly stared down one another down, it was Gunther who would make the first move. He missed his attack entirely and went sailing past the earther he had attempted to bite as said pony side-stepped quite deftly. This sent the bandits into action, the pair of the remaining Earth ponies charged at Gusty, both landing solid kicks on her. Fortunately for her, they did nothing. She was, of course, in armor so even the full bucks that they landed had no effect. She responded with a several quick slices with her sword. Her telekinesis made the blade fast and agile, hewing one of her foes instantly. His big head rolled from his shoulders forcing his partner to retreat, the scared fellow’s eyes showing he would rather do anything else than face her in combat.
At the same time one of the unicorns of the group fired a stun bolt a Zeccaran. Like she had, Zeccaran immediately went comatose as soon as the magic projection hit him. He fell flat on his face. The pegasus that was still alive turned and kicked at Gunther, but rather humiliatingly missed and lost his balance, falling down behind his earth pony counterparts.
“This really should be a comedy show, it's a total farce of a fight where Gusty has already managed to kill two otherwise hapless individuals. I’m just glad the majority of Equestria is filled with good ponies and these guys were a fluke, otherwise I think the Princesses would have a really terrible time covering up the giant tally of murders Gusty would have.”
Gusty readied to attack the unicorn in retaliation but she was not prepared for Zeccaran's sudden spring into action. From where he fell he flipped up, sickle in his mouth. However, he did not attack with the weapon. Gusty balked as his eyes glowed golden for a few seconds and watched as he drew a mischievous sneer across his face. She was unfamiliar with the magic but she turned and saw the grass around the ponies they were fighting coming alive. It grabbed their legs and sought to hold them down. It was an impressive display and Gusty was left projecting thoughts of dark pleasure at him, glad that he was more than a punching bag.
“Okay, Dream Overlords. Do we have to make constant jabs at me?”
The thought was quickly dashed when one of the earth ponies dislodged himself from the sentient grass and hurled the nearby Gunther at Zeccaran. The action happened so quickly that Gusty almost did not see what had knocked Zeccaran down. Instantly, sharp fiery pain shot up and down her front left leg. She had not turned in time to see the bound blade of the unicorn hit her, but she certainly felt it. Unfortunately, that meant that the observer felt it too.
“AHHH! Okay, okay, I get it! You are gonna do what you want, I shouldn’t be mad when you make fun of me or you will make me feel excruciating pain!”
Gusty’s view tilted down as she looked at her leg, the blade cut a long shallow line along the limb. It hurt quite intensely, but the wound was mostly superficial, for now. The sight of her own blood got her attention and directed it at her attacker. She looked dead in the eyes of the bright-yellow colored stallion. From her view it was clear that the fellow existed for no other reason than to cause other ponies pain. He grinned with a special malignant delight that Zeccaran determined to simply be the look of a madpony. It was then a fury built in Gusty that rendered Zeccaran unable to even think as she charged at the Unicorn.
She summoned up all of her anger towards evil things hoisting up her sword with her telekinesis high above the unicorn. Screaming with a visceral fury she slammed the sword down upon him. The air filled with fine-misted blood and the familiar sound of bones splitting under her heavy blade crackled in the air. Zeccaran let go the fake-dream-breath he had been holding in wondering where all that power inside Gusty had come from. She turned her view towards the rest of the fight which had stalled. The gory action distracted the three remaining combatants to allow an attack from Gunther, who was unaffected by the pony exploding. The timberwolf had gotten up off of his unconscious master and was already charging towards the unsuspecting group of ponies. However, as he approached he slowed down and plodded up casually to the vertically split cadaver.
“Wait...Is this when Gunther...no, no no, no! No! It is! Oh-Ugh! I think I’m going to be sick! Why am I forced to see this? I was unconscious and ignorant! I wanted to remain that way!”
Gunther then turned tail above the body and began to defecate directly into the open neck of the deadpony. The sight was incredibly horrific and disgusting causing the three ponies nearby to immediately began vomiting. That was all Gusty saw though as she quickly took the skies to escape the nostril assaulting stench that was filling the air. As soon as she took her first clean breath of air the world went black. She awoke in a heap on the ground. Her everything hurt. She had no idea what had happened. As she tried to regain her bearings she looked on at Zeccaran.
The zebra looked as if he had been in a fight with twice the number of ponies he was engaged with. He charged without remorse at one of the earthers who was still vomiting. He struck violently at the stallion’s neck. Zeccaran's sickle pierced his flesh and slid the entire distance across his throat. The bile that he was spewing turned a bright awful red and he fell forward.
The last earther seeing his companion ended, fled. It was the right decision, Gusty thought, as she watched. Absently she observed a red-enshrined sword fly past her vision and hit the fleeing stallion in the center of his back. He slumped down and was motionless. Behind her there was someone cursing but she could not place its importance due to her concussion.
Turning her attention back to Zeccaran and his plight, Gusty watched as Gunther moved to the next corpse and began covering its entire exterior with runny foul-smelling excrement that no one being should have ever had to witness.
The remaining pegasus kept looking between Zeccaran and the stallion with the red-magic-lifted sword in his back. Zeccaran to his credit took the opportunity to attack. He missed. He missed so badly he threw his sickle into the train car. In fact, he overswung with such force that he tackled the pegasus into the unicorn Gusty had killed. The two then laid motionless in the filth and blood of the poor desecrated body.
“It took me a whole week of rolling in dirt to get that smell out of my fur. I just wish I had managed to hit him and not jump into all that filth. Oh, well win some you lose some, better than having to experience that concussion Gusty got with full-force. Thanks, Dream Overlords!”
Pain erupted from the back of Gusty's head. She cried out in pain and turned about to see what had struck her. It was a the last unicorn, just as yellow and crazed-looking as his counterpart. Unfortunately, the one remaining she had forgotten about until that blow to the head. Perhaps it had been that he had witnessed his crew get defeated or that the pegasus fellow had tried to run, but he looked especially angry. He also appeared a lot meaner up close than when Gusty had seen him earlier at a distance. That was reasonable though considering all the cranial trauma she had just experienced.
While things looked grim, Gusty had one last trick left before she gave up fighting. She fled. Gusty liked to think of it as a tactical withdrawal. And this time she paid attention to the unicorn as he hurled magic in her direction, making sure to still have her sword levitated too. Flying as fast as her pained body would allow she took cover behind the wagon the bandits had brought with them.
Once in cover, she reached into her pack and found the old bag of caltrops she kept for emergencies. "Don't question why I have these!" she yelled at the sky as she tossed them about her and around the front of the wagon. Gusty had the strange sensation someone was watching her and felt compelled to explain her possessions. "They are for situations just like these!"
“Well, she has a point my Overlords...a bad, ironic, rather situational point-but a point nonetheless! At least she didn’t gather them back up after this fight-completely nonsensical item for anypony besides a military engineer to carry around!”
Zeccaran was not sure it he was talking to himself or if the ‘Dream Overlords’ actually existed. He decided to not think about it and turn his attention back to Gusty’s plight. Then again there was not much a surprise to be had for screaming had exposed her position immediately. However, as the Unicorn rounded the corner to the wagon he stepped on the caltrops, tripped and fell among them. Without wasting any time Gusty re-levitated her sword from where she had dropped it nearby. She stabbed downward at the unicorns chest as he tried to get back up. The blade ran crimson as it poked out of his front, pieces of lung coming with it. He gasped and then collapsed back into the caltrops. The light quickly faded from his eyes as blood welled out of his nose and mouth and his breathing became gurgles. Finally victorious Gusty heaved a sigh and flopped back down against the wagon.
"Well, that could have been worse?" she said aloud as he looked at the dead Unicorn.
“No, in fact Gusty, it was positively the worst. Definitely. Even worse than when we met Stormwalker.”
Gusty slowly pulled herself up and look out towards the scene where the bodies lay. Gunther had moved to the pair of pegasi who had broken their backs from falling. It was at this point that Gusty decided she would simply ignore Gunther's action and his existence until he was done with his horrible deeds.
She flicked her sword clean for a final time and sheathed it. Gusty looked down at her still bleeding leg and used some of her remaining magical energy to lessen the wound to just a bad scratch. That special spell power came from her religious faith, she was glad for it, the patch up would allow her to at least walk right.
Adjusting her view she carefully made her way towards Zeccaran who was stirring in the filth he laid in. She saw him sit up partially and then begin puking. She certainly did not blame him. It was at this point as Gusty slowly made her way towards the train cars. Patrons and crew were slowly approaching the battle area. Most looked very disheveled but were otherwise unharmed. Eventually, the main Conductor sauntered up to her. she was covered in blood and sweat but he did not seem squeamish as he greeted her.
"Miss, I don't know what happened, but I have a feeling you stopped one heck of a robbery." He said rubbing his mustache.
"Yeah, I guess. Those guys really put up quite a fight, but we got them." She responded wiping away hot liquid from her brow.
"You...y-you killed them? That’s...that’s blood! I don’t know what to say!" The conductor stammered in shock. Gusty blew a puff of condescending air up at her mane.
"Yes. They were evil. I could tell, trust me." Gusty retorted.
“Now that folks is how you win an argument: Look and talk even crazier than the bad ponies you just murdered-I mean stopped from robbing the train!”
Before her the conductor fell silent his eyes wide. He looked past her towards the bodies and immediately turned a pale shade of green, then white. He turned and yelled for the ponies of the crowd that was growing around them to stay away. However, it was too late for them not to see the gory remains of the bandits. They began murmuring and quivering in horror at Gusty's presence.
"S-she killed them all!" "There were so many of them! I don't believe it."
"They didn't even try to capture them, monsters!" "This is horrible, why would you do such a thing!” “Tyranny!!"
Gusty had no remorse for the dead. They had harmed many ponies and sought to harm them further by taking their possessions and leaving them here in this forest. She was a vigilante of justice and the crowd did not have to understand. They were safe and that was enough for her.
No pony in Equestria could have predicted that this mighty alicorn would surface in such a vicious way. Many rumors would quickly spread across the land about a majestic killer for justice that would protect others to the death.
“That last bit was overkill don’t you think Gusty? Majestic killer for justice? I-I don’t even. Well, at least I can confirm what Luna told me. Crazy. 100% I almost wish this big teal menace could hear me, it would be nice to stick it to her...maybe if I get the hang of dreamwalking-that’s how I’ll plot my pranks...yeah...there’s an upside to this after all!”
Zeccaran grumbled some more as the dream he was witnessing began to fade away. He found himself suddenly sitting in a rather comfortable place that was not but empty blue hues. It was quite nice actually, certainly better than the excursion into the woods that had followed the incident on the train. He mused over the fame and infamy the event had caused; it had probably propelled them towards meeting the Princesses, not to mention Bunker. Either way that line of thought was lost as a pair of doors gradually materialized in front of him distracting him from his thoughts.
One door was a dingy white with its paint peeling in regular stripes to reveal dried old wood below. It appeared to be the same as the door before back when he entered his own dreams in what now felt like a week ago. The other door was stone with intricate carvings and a visible weight to it that made it look intimidating.And that was before an ominous dark shroud overtook its frame making it look downright unpleasant and unapproachable. Thus, he decided to open up his door instead.
“Might as well, take another trip down memory lane.” He said to himself as he pulled it open by its handle. The bright light from before came flooding back and sucked him into the portal.
Next Chapter: Act 1: Chapter 4 - Enter Bunker Estimated time remaining: 24 Hours, 25 Minutes Return to Story Description