Lucien boarded the train to Ponyville and spent the time trying to get some more rest. He was usually a morning person, but that fight the day before really tired him out. His rest was interrupted by a rather rude stallion muscling his way through Lucien's car, basically making a lot of noise and being obnoxious. "What a tool." Lucien thought before drifting off to sleep again.

But fate, however, didn't want him to get rest.

He awoke again moments later. He sensed he was in a different place, and his eyes flew open rapidly, scanning the surrounding area for any danger. There was nothing but inky blackness all around him. A single light shone down on his form, offering just enough brightness to see his hand in front of his face.

"Ah, geez." He said before buildings erupted from the ground underneath him. "Can't a guy just get his rest!?" He shouted to the dark sky that had formed above him. "Where am I now?"

He had, of course, been pulled into Limbo; a deep, meditation-like dreamscape in which visions, and usually enemies, were presented to him. He had been there before, three or four times, and every time he had seen something that was accurately predicted in the future. It was just one of the major perks of being a mage. In short, it was nothing he couldn't handle.

He admired the buildings around him. They began ordinary, like you would see in any urban city, (he hadn't decided which) but they were tinged by a tangible darkness that had the consistency of ink. These inkspots, as he would call them, had multiple functions. He was able to manipulate some of them into forming bridges or pathways, sometimes even opening up new areas to traverse. But, there was a negative side too, some were gateways to release these fragmented monsters, he called them Nightmares, that would try to halt his journey. Once he had been thrown out of limbo because he was defeated by one such Nightmare.

The city took a more solid shape around him. Colors became darker and edges more refined. Like an artist was painting a landscape onto a canvas with rapid strokes. The buildings weren't very pretty by this point. Not only were they stained with ink, but they were fractured in many places, with impossible angles and inconceivable arches that were supported by nothing. The street he was standing on was beige cobblestone and stretched on for a few feet down the way before giving into a corner and off to the right. There was a small archway to his left that led to a gate that he would never be able to open, and he had tried with similar ones.

To his right was the back of a building, and behind him was a plain wall. How exciting.

There was one thing about Limbo that he liked though. It granted him access to some...different abilities. One such ability, as he discovered early on, was that he could jump two times. Not once, but twice. He had no idea how, but hey, nothing really makes sense in dreams.

Another ability he had discovered, that wasn't exactly an ability, was that he never got tired. Maybe it was just a side effect of him being asleep, but it helped. He could keep running and jumping forever, and swinging his dagger never tired his arms out. It was pretty cool. The negative effect that this brought was that he couldn't cast spells. He had tried, but his magic reserves were locked off for the duration that he spent in Limbo. When he woke up the first time he had such a panic over missing his casting abilities that he accidentally blew a hole in his ceiling by releasing mana without thinking about it.

The final ability was one that he had found out about with a little experimentation, and one that he had known about since his first journey there. The enemies he defeated dropped these little balls of golden energy, and he was able to gather them up just by walking near them. He had some sort of built-in bar in his mind that allowed him to gauge how much energy from the balls he had gathered since his arrival. As he gathered these golden lights, he would always start to see something appear in his mind, almost like a long forgotten, picturesque memory coming back into the front of his brain.

"Well, might as well get started." he said, breaking out into a run. He noticed a few inkspots appear on the ground a bit ahead of him. His dagger flashed and was in his hand in an instant. He recognized the Nightmares instantly, even as they were clawing their way out of the darkness. These were the grunts, the Lesser Dæmons that would try to halt his progress through the world of limbo.

They were ugly little beasts. They stood jauntily on two legs, stumbling around at a moderate speed most of the time. Their gaunt bodies were nothing to marvel at. A cerulean and white paint job was done on the light armor they had on. It was concentrated mostly on the upper torso, forearms, and calves. He had, unfortunately, seen one's face close up before. That was the worst. It was jarring, most of all. It's face, or where it should have been, was always covered by some creepy china mask that was cracked in multiple places. Ink, or whatever it seemed to bleed, poured out of the cracks, and also through the joints on its body.

Its mangled hand always held the same weapon. It was a rusted sawtooth blade, about forearm length, always held backhand. Other, more powerful creatures he encountered had larger statures, bigger weapons held differently, and usually more armor. Some flew, some had projectile weapons, and some could only be defeated by certain means that he would usually have to work at.

He rushed the first one in front of him. His dagger flew forward, propelled by the motion of his swinging hand. It caught on the inside of the Dæmon's elbow, cleanly severing his right forearm off in a splash of black. They never seemed to bleed for long. He whipped his arm back and severed his head off at the neck. The whole thing fell over and then faded into the ground like the way ink dries on a page.

Two more to go.

The first one ran forward and tried to slice at him. It was a slow, obvious move, and Lucien simply jumped over the attack and brought his dagger down in a deadly slice. The blow cut clean through and the Dæmon was reduced to a puddle of fast-evaporating ink.

The third went the a similar way. It sidestepped Lucien's first underhand strike and nearly grazed him in a counterattack. Lucien danced backward, making sure to put enough distance between him and it. Then, in a fluid motion, he feinted to the left and went in for a short series of quick stabs. Each one released a bit of ink and the final reduced it to nothing. And like that, the fighting was over. He counted himself lucky that he was left unharmed in this fight. He might face something more dangerous later on.

He collected the orbs that the Dæmons dropped and went on his way, keeping a wary eye out for more inkspots. A faded picture began to form in the back of his mind. That was probably the worst part of going into limbo. The false memory would always tickle in the back of his mind, and it would take all of his willpower to ignore it.

He sheathed his dagger after checking the area for danger. He started out on a run towards the end of the street he began at. He had a moment to think. "Would it be weird if I said that was the 'street I spawned at'?" He just gave a mental shrug and continued on his way.

He reached the end of the street and turned left. The buildings spread outward and widened into an empty plaza. There was a fountain spewing gray water into a basin. It took up most of the area. The buildings themselves were mostly uniform, and they formed a ring around the area, their high walls permitting no escape other than a small arch that was across from where he came in. The arch grew up into a gated complex that had no visible way up to the second story except two holes that were inaccessible even to his double-jumping.

Lucien started to walk in cautiously, knowing that this would prove to be some sort of a trap. He took a step toward the fountain, then another, then another. So far, so good. He reached the basin without incident. "Huh. I feel...disappointed, almost."

"But hold on. What's that?" He noticed something glowing a faint yellow just above the spew of water coming from the top of the fountain. He took a few steps backward to get a better vantage point to look at it. "Aha!" It was an abnormally large golden orb, one that would probably get him well on his way, or maybe even all the way, to forming the mental image. "But how do I get up there?"

He started to look around for ways up, but just then, inkspots began to form around him. More than a dozen. "Ah, shit," was all he had time to say before the earth shattered and erupted from below him. Stones and chunks of pavement flew into the air around him, then stopped, suspended a few feet up. They bobbed up and down gently, offering a way up. "Sometimes this place is nice to me, sometimes it isn't. I really just wish it would make up its mind!" He vented to the fountain.

He took his first jump carefully, lest the chunk of ground suddenly crash back down. When it didn't, he bounced up and down on the balls of his feet and readied himself for the second gap. He ran forward and took it in a bound. When he saw he wasn't quite going to make it, he utilized the double-jump and made it with room to spare. He skidded out a bit on the smooth stones that made up that section of street.

He looked ahead. The flying pieces of ground were forming a slightly curved path that led away from the fountain and over to the caged building across the way. He backed up to the edge of the platform and got a big running start. He had a few more gaps to clear, and he didn't want to take his time as he had no idea if he would get kicked out of limbo if he took too long.

The first gap was cleared no problem, and he didn't even break in stride. He kept up the pace and jumped the second. "This is getting too easy." he said out loud. Another jump, another smooth landing.

He stopped on this last one. He could sense something was off about the last two chunks of earth. He examined them for a moment, and then quickly jumped back in surprise as they suddenly spun and shifted sideways. Now the tops, the only part that he could jump on, were facing to the inward, seemingly inaccessible to him. "Great. What can I do about this?"

He sat and thought about it for a moment. "Hold on." He took a another look. "That angle..." he tilted his head sideways for no real reason, "I could run on the sides of each."

A stupid plan, one that would probably end with him falling and having to start at the beginning, but it was the only one he had.

He took a few deep breaths and prepared himself mentally for the task as well as physically. He sprinted, and strode across the first gap. His feet hit the wall sideways, and for a second, gravity seemed to shift. Had he initially misjudged the size of the platform, or was it getting longer? It stretched on for a bit longer, and he looked to his left to see....the ground.

Right there he almost stopped dead in his tracks. Instead, he only stumbled and kept up a fast pace. "The ground is not supposed to be there, what the hell. I'm not even drunk or anything."

As he approached the end of the pavement chunk he decided that it would be wiser to act now and question later. Luckily for him, the next platform had turned with the one he was running on. Unluckily for him, it was turning the wrong way. Specifically, upside down.

He reached the end of the street and jumped. "SHITSHITSHITSHITSHIT!" His body turned while he was in the air.

Thunk! Crack!

His feet impacted the pavement and he continued running, unsure of what that loud cracking noise was. But then his foot caught on something, causing him to almost trip, and he heard the cracking noise again. He risked a glance downward and saw that the street was cracking apart. But that wasn't what scared him. What scared him was the fact that he could see a turbulent auburn sky straight through some of the cracks.

"Not good."

He doubled his speed, trying to reach the end of the platform that just seemed to continue to grow. More cracks formed, and the whole thing started to destabilize. Stones were flying off the sides of the street and falling upward into the sky. He really didn't want to join them on their journey.

The end was coming near. He readied himself for the jump to the caged building and then leapt. The gap was far larger than he had anticipated, and he barely made it in. He rolled on his side, the small amount of physical training his mentor had given him kicking in. He decelerated and then stopped rolling.

Lucien got to his feet shakily, turning back to look at what happened to the street. The majority of it was now above him, and the pieces that he had used to get up there gathered together, spun in a fashion that he could only describe as 'angry,' and then fly off into the sky.

But enough staring, he still had to find a way to flip gravity so he was on the floor again. He stepped back from the edge of the ceiling and looked up. The walkway that he was supposed to be on stretched down a ways, curving to the right. "Well, I've got nowhere else to go."

He started to run down the hall. He footsteps echoed in a way that didn't really make sense, since there were no walls to echo off of. No sense in questioning it.

He made it about halfway when a few inkspots pooled rapidly on the stretch of ceiling in front of him. Beasts began to climb up from their inky depths, baring their weapons menacingly. The four that popped up were all Regular Dæmons, more powerful and crafty versions of their basic forms. He could tell the difference because these Dæmons wore all white armor instead of cerulean. They had less holes in their bodies and some holes appeared to be filled by working mechanics. Their faces were composed of a blank-looking mask that seemed to be made of china too. These ones utilized a much more menacing-looking razor instead of a rusted sawtooth blade that the Lesser Dæmons wielded.

He heard splashing noises from above him and he looked up. There was another inkspot on the floor above his head. "Aww, shit," he said as another beast clawed its way out of the black depths.

He noticed immediately that this one was much bigger. In fact, it took up most of the puddle that had offered it entrance. The first thing that Lucien saw was its head. It was wearing a mask, just like the rest of the Dæmons that he had faced before. These Knights, as Lucien named them, possess a razor blade instead of an arm, and they also employ a shield to protect themselves. Their shields can be broken through successive blows, but they can deflect and counter weaker attacks. The shields themselves were a dirty golden color, with sharp waves on the sides that could easily do harm to Lucien. The whole thing was done in a base color of black, but with tinges of gold and red inlaid in its armor.

It seemed content to sit on the ceiling for the moment, so Lucien let it stay there. He had the Regular Dæmons to take care of first.

The first one went down quickly. It tried for a large, overreaching attack that Lucien easily ducked. It was left off-balance and Lucien stepped in and kicked it hard. While it stumbled backward, he drew his dagger and took a chunk off its mask. It fractured easily and the thing was reduced once again to a puddle of ink.

The second one seemed warier, and the third lined up next to it. The two parties eyed each other for a moment, each trying to decide on a course of action. Lucien made the first move. He attacked the one on the left first, making a show out of his movement so the Dæmon would parry it. Predictably, it did, and Lucien used the momentum to spin and kick it in the face.

His foot connected with a resounding crack and the Dæmon launched backwards a ways, not yet on its back. A mangled hand reached up to fix the mask that was now leaking ink, and when it couldn't, it tore it off, revealing nothing but a large. gaping black mouth. It screamed at him in a rage.

But Lucien had forgotten about the second one. He felt the dull side of a blade cut into the broad side of his back and he gasped at the sensation. The blow sent him tumbling forward, rolling to a stop at the feet of the Dæmon he had kicked. He had just enough time to scramble off the the right just as the beast's blade slammed to the ground he was at in a shower of sparks.

Lucien took advantage of his evasion and he sprang to his feet. His dagger flashed and then the beast was reduced again to a black smudge.

Predicting the final Dæmon's move, he jumped straight up into the air and looked down to see the glint of a blade pass below him. With practiced ease, Lucien jumped a second time and then threw his dagger downwards with as much force as he could muster. The dagger struck the ceiling with force, pushing it downwards. In response, the world pushed it back up, causing a miniature shockwave to be produced at the source.

The Dæmon was swept off its feet by the cracked ceiling suddenly falling and then rising, and Lucien took his chance to land directly on top of it. He aimed for his left foot to land directly on its head, and when it did, he was rewarded with a crack and a splash of black. The final Dæmon was returned from whence it came.

"Now, where did the last big 'ol guy get off to?" he questioned, looking up.

The Knight was back a bit, standing in the same spot it had come in from. Lucien started to run back toward it, and he felt gravity shift again. It rotated him so he was running on the ceiling, then the ceiling was slanted, then he was running on the wall when he reached the Knight, who was still on the floor.

His first slash was one filled with power, designed to pierce armor or jolt the enemy stupid enough to try to block it. It surprised Lucien when his attack was deflected easily and he was sent backward, his arm vibrating from the contact with the Knight's shield. The beast followed up with a slow attack, a sideways slash for it, but, for Lucien, a helm-breaker strike that he easily sidestepped.

The Knight's massive razor got stuck in the wall, and Lucien took the opportunity to move behind it and put a quick, three strike attack into its back. Ink was released and the Knight roared in anger. It's razor was suddenly unstuck and flying around towards Lucien. With no other option, he lifted his dagger in a block.

The vibrations from the impact struck straight through his body, but the knife held, and the razor was withdrawn. Lucien was laying down on the wall, the force of the attack having knocked him down. The gravity shifted again, and he slid slightly towards the floor. It went all the way, and he was right-side-up once again.

"Now it's on," he said to the beast.

It roared in response, beating its over-sized razor blade on its shield in earnest.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say." Lucien grinned cockily.

He wound back and charged up energy. Whatever limbo did to his magic, it offered one thing in return; the ability to infuse his strikes with pure energy.

His dagger glowed a bright green, signaling its readiness with a flash. He threw it with all his might at the Knight down the hall. It swirled through the air, still glowing. The brightness left a brief imprint on his mind before the knife shattered the Knight's shield and went straight through its chest.

The gaping hole filled up with ink, and the Knight sank to its knees. "Not so tough now, huh?" Lucien approached it, put a foot on its shoulder, and shoved it backwards. It was a puddle before it even hit the ground.

He looked up and saw his dagger, still spinning, flying back to him. He lifted up a hand lazily and caught it without much effort. He gracefully sheathed it and took a bow for whomever might be watching. You never know.

"Thank you, thank you, you're too kind." After thanking the imaginary crowd of screaming, adoring fans in his head, he continued on his way down the hall. It never registered in his brain that he had collected the golden orbs during the fight, and that they made the picture much more clearer.

"Time to finish this off." He reached the end of the hall and looked off at the fountain. A few more chunks of floating ground circled around it, possibly allowing him access through. "Aw, no way am I dealing with the whole, 'upside-down' shit again."

He decided to put his skills to the test and began to charge up energy. It gathered in the palms of his hands and coursed through his being. When he thought he had charged up enough to serve his purposes, he gave it a basic command and released it. Green energy spread out in front of him in a wave, catching the chunks of stone and stopping them.

Then, quickly, they bent and snapped over to form a bridge for Lucien. They lined up perfectly and gave him a path to the top of the fountain and the prize the he sought after. "One giant golden orb for yours' truly." he said while absorbing it.

His vision faded to white, and he knew that his time in limbo was over, and that he had completed his mission.

The vision started off fuzzy, but then got clearer as it progressed, like a TV taking a moment to establish a connection to a channel. The visions he usually got were slightly moving pictures, and it seemed like this one would be similar. The pictures were all stylized, like you would see in a comic book. They were even ordered in panels.

The first panel shown to him was a hunk of metal of a bronze-reddish color that had a note tied on top with a rubber band. That raised more than a few questions. "That paper seems to be one of Earthly design, nothing like the kind produced in Equestria. And is that a rubber band? I'm pretty sure they don't have rubber bands here. And that metal is like nothing I've ever seen before."

The second panel contained the note-bearing metal again, this time it was disappearing into his backpack. The background was too fuzzy to make sense of. "Wait, does that mean there's something in my backpack that I didn't know about? Damn, I should really start keeping a closer eye on my stuff."

The third panel was of a different subject; it contained weapons. On the left were two wicked-looking chakrams, each one had a silvery blue-ish tinge to it, giving Lucien the sense that they were made of the same metal. The weapon in the middle was a sword. Very elegant, but definitely not made by the hands of a normal smith, the first giveaway being that it was made from a metal only mined by magical means. Runes were visible done up and down the length, and the blade itself had a chaotic sort of nature to it, like two opposites at was with each other. The weapon on the right took up most of the panel. It was a massive war-hammer, just about identical to the Gravity Hammers that were found in the "Halo" series. Lucien, while not being a fan of heavy weaponry, had to admit that it looked pretty badass. It didn't give off that futurist vibe though, and its whole coloration was tinged red. The collection gave Lucien a sense of conformity, like all the weapons belonged to a family, and the sword was in the middle of the two.

The fourth panel confused him. There was a shadow on the ground, one that definitely belonged to him, and the shadow put him looking at a glowing forge. But, there was an interruption. As he looked on, the whole picture suddenly shifted for a split second before putting itself back. He looked again, and something was off. The shadow on the ground was now pony-shaped, and the glowing forge was now in a different layout. There was something off to the side in the picture, a worn-and-torn saddlebag that had a design of two interlocking gears on it. An aura of strong magic possessed the image, and Lucien could sense that it ran deep with a burning ambition. The scene shifted again, and now the forge was dark. All that he could make out was a glint of steel plating far off in the back.

The panel moved again, and this was the last image. It was a single imprint of a black spade against a white background. Ink splatters lined it and made it look like the image was painted, and then had a few buckets of the stuff splashed on afterward.

Author's Notes:

What a confusing series of images.

I would like to express deep gratitude to Coltsguy for writing my story into his story, Searching for Six Ponies (and Discord if I Feel Like it) as a chapter in which-- hold on, just go read it.

I did say that the next update would be coming sooner than usual, didn't I?

'Til the next chapter,
~Sandcroft