We stand united 1x1 Maple Bat

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"They would be really useful too, but we would have to be careful with employing such powers, we don't want to attract the attention of *you know who*."

Jack said.

He then looked at Zecora "Do you happen to have any points that stop the desire of sleep? I just cannot risk sleeping with that thing in my body as of now." he asked.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

The zebra nodded and walked over to to her cabinet where many different bottles and such where she grabbed one "This is for the wish to Sleep. So that you may have it beat." She said handing it to him the bottle was a normal glass bottle with a cork the liquid inside was light blue and had a slight glow to it.

Maple walked over to Luna "Speaking of sleep I think I need to get some to recover. I'll be heading home for a while."

Luna nodded "Very well if you'd like I could carry you home as well since I was about to leave."

Maple looked at her wing again and smiled "Thank you Luna. I'd like that." The two left the hut. Luna after dropping Maple off went to go inform the dragons about the incoming attack.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack then looked at Woody.

"Say, should we train together for a bit? I could really use a sparring partner right now, especially with what is incoming, I need to be at my best." Jac asked him with a smile.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Sp... Sparring. I'm not one to fight paw to paw... So to say. I usually help my sister or use magic to attack." Woody said motioning towards his mismatching horns "We could train like that if that's ok." He hummed a light melody summoning a gust of wind past his wings. Just for the breeze.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack quickly nodded

"That would be great!" he said with a smile.

"Meet me outside, I will have to gather some things before I think to start." he said as he walked outside to somewhere in the forest.

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Woody was surpised to say the least. He'd never had such a reaction when talking with a guards pony save a few of the night guards. "Well... ok then." He said happily "Can't wait for that then." He quickly pulled his song book out of the chaos realm portal looking for his more combat oriented songs.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

After a while, Jack came back and mentioned for Woody to follow him.

When they stood outside, Jack took a stance, and he stood ready.

"Alright Woody, throw your strongest attacks against me, don't hold anything back got it?" he said

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Woody was a bit nervous he didn't have the strongest of spells figured out and his strongest spell he had figured out was way to risky to use. "Hold on if you want to see it can we need head to the chaos realm it's a little destructive. I don't want to destroy anything." He laughed "We dragonequus are really strong magically. I have barley even scratched the surface of what I can do apparently. Music's kinda limited right now."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

"Actually um... I rather try something easier here, i am just not very fond of entering other realms, you know?" Jack said with an bit of an traumatic tone.

"Are you able to fire strong offensive spells towards me?" he asked

[Maple Bat 3,568]

The small dragonequus nodded "Yea I can do that." He figured Jack wanted a projectile so he kept it simple. He sung a warming melody firing a fireball at jack. He kept going and readied a few more but feared that he may set the forest on fire.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack just stood there, the fireball coming closer and closer until at the last moment he gathered some magic in his hand pushed it straight against the fireball, blowing it a way just a few inches from his face.

As more fireballs came, he tried to dodge them, the last one was to fast to dodge so he used the same trick as before, but to his horror, his magic somehow got nullified by some force as the fireball hit his hand point blank range.

he gave out a loud yelp, as he clenched his hand.

he was about to say something as he suddenly felt something.

"Hey Woody, could you please go inside for a minute? There is something i have to do." he said in a silent tone.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Are... Are you sure? I can heal that if you need me too." Woodland said getting quieter as he kept talking. "N... Nevermind I'll go back inside. Sorry." She dashed back inside feeling bad.

Zecora was testing another cure. "I'm not sure. Who I'm doing this for." She said quietly watching the effect closely.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack walked a bit deeper forest, he then sat down and closed his eyes.

'For some reason, i know something is going to happen, I had this feeling plenty of times before..' he thought.

Suddenly a tree next to him was ripped apart as it thrown towards him, he jumped aside quickly before he would get crushed.

'What was that?' he thought. He looked around suspiciously, yet he heard or saw nothing, just the silence of the wind.

 

Jack tried to remove the hand, but it was gripping him with an unbelievable force, after a second, he blinked, but to his horror, the hand was gone, and so was the choke hold, as that was left was the aftermath of that pain.

'I must be going insane... That is just not possible!!' he thought with unbelief.

'Is this some sort of optical illusion playing before my eyes?' he thought.

Suddenly a pattern of leaves fell on the ground, creating a specific path.

'Hold on, that is not natural, these leaves are shaping themselves like a... direction marker? I don't trust this one bit..' he tought to himself.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

When Maple got home she remembered her lived somewhere only flyers could reach. She built a small latter up to her room knowing her mother would put the stuff back. She laid down and extended her hurt wing. "Gah." She yelled quietly. Maple heard something moving down stairs. She assumed it was Fluttershy. She knew that her wound was bad but she had to let it breath soon otherwise it wouldn't heal properly. She left the bandage on for now. Going to sleep after a few minutes.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack started to follow the leaf trail.

After about 15 minutes of walking the trail led to a cave.

Jack hesitated for a bit, overcame his fears, he draws his knife and slowly walking into the cave.

as he kept walking he noticed the walls where starting to change in colour, the cave wen't deeper and deeper.

But in reality, Jack was in some sort of optical illusion, the colour changing walls and the deeper depths where never there....

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

After a few minutes of resting. Maple woke up. It had been about 30. She woke up when her wing had moved in her sleep and the pain shocked her awake. "Now's the time." She thought to herself, She unraveled the bandage around her wing. The wound had stopped bleeding as bad but it was still pretty messed up. After she got the bandage off she attemprted to go back to sleep when she heard her mother shreik.

Fluttershy was terrified at the wound. "Are you ok? That wounds looks fatal."

Maple sighed "I'll be alright but don't touch it. It still hurts."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack had been wandering through the tunnel for what seemed to be ages.

Every time he thought he was getting close, the tunnel would go even further, almost like it was constantly re looping.

'How far can this tunnel go?! I have been walking for so long that I don't even remember how much time has expired... Just what is going on here? No tunnel can be so long. And it is not normal for a tunnel to have constant change in colour!' he thought.

But in reality Jack had been staring at a wall for 5 entire days, no eating, drinking or sleeping, he was in an abnormal trance, and it would only get worse within time.

"Come on! Come on!!!" Jack shouted as he started to get desperate, he started to go in a sprint, yet it made no difference, he was looping through an never ending tunnel that was not real.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Jack had been gone for a long time. Woody started to worry about Jack. "I'm sure he's alright." He tried to reason with himself. "Then again Maple was in danger but I thought she was safe. Maybe I should go check on him. Yea I'm gonna, see you zecora."

Zecora waved him goodbye. Not really saying anything because she was focused on this cure. If they where coming then equestria needed to be ready.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack was clueless at this point after doing the same thing over and over again, wandering in the same place over and over again.

'This is crazy, this shouldn't be physically possible.... right?' he thought with concern.

'Perhaps I am dreaming? But...'

He gave himself a slight punch on his right arm and gritted his teeth.

'Ok, this is not a dream! In dreams, you cannot feel pain! But if this is not a dream, where am i? I walked into a cave and now i am suddenly stuck in Limbo... This makes no sense whatsoever!'

Suddenly some sort of door appeared a bit ahead, much to Jack's surprise.

"What in the...." he tried to speak out but he was too awestruck for words.

Seeing no other option left he walked through the door, and he came in some sort of dark blue room, in the centre of the room standing a biped mannequin.

"W-what?" he said with disbelief.

He moved a bit forward, but eventually, he stopped, he did not know what to make of the situation, all of his experiences in the past had never experienced something like this before.

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Woody wasn't sure where Jack was so he decided Maybe He'll come to me If he hears me So, He started singing hoping to draw out Jacks attention

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Fluttershy finished examining Maple's wing, Started Crying, and shook her head. "I don't think I want you doing this whole 'Guard' thing anymore. It's just so dangerous... I'm sorry but I really feel like it's for the greater good."

"I wasn't on duty when this happened!" Maple retaliated. She stood up facing Fluttershy "I can't quit the guard now something big's about to happen. I need to make sure that our race doesn't get wiped off this planet. I knew when I sighed up for the guard that I was risking everything, and this risk is so you and Dad are ok." She fell onto one knee. "So... I'm not going to quit but we can compromise with some downtime yea?"

Fluttershy nodded not wanting to agree but what she had said made since, Maple risked herself for not just her parents But all of equestria She worked harder than any other guards pony to ensure she and others where ready. "At least a month ok?"

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack was still staring at the mannequin when suddenly something bizarre happened.

When Woody's singing reached his body, the illusion that Jack was having started to get a sudden flash, giving off an ear cringing sound.

Jack recoiled back from the sudden change, but this was far from his biggest worry. The thing in his body got enraged by the hearing that song, especially because of its effects.

Jack became terrified when the mannequin suddenly came to life, it started crawling towards him like a baby, but with an impressive pace.

Jack drew his knife and tried to stab the mannequin, but when it came in contact, it bounced off by a sudden force.

The mannequin jumped at Jack and held him in a bear hold, he was trying to squeeze Jack's bones into nothingness, and what was more horrible was its unnatural properties.

'Argh!?! How is thing so strong?! It feels like it has 30 times of my muscle strength!' Jack thought.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Woody sighed as he stopped singing. "Maybe this isn't the best Idea" He told himself "I'll just go look for him." He felt exposed, and alone in everfree. Normally he didn't feel like that but something was off. "Is anyone out there?" He said. "Hello?"

Unknown to the dragonequus He was being stalked.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack tried with every strength in his body to stand against the grip, but the mannequin didn't seem to budge on edge.

Jack tried to headbutt the mannequin, which would have worked on most enemies, but it just ended up with a major impact on the back of his head.

"Come on!!" Jack screamed as he tried everything he could possibly think off, he even thought about biting in the thing, being an omnivore with sharp teeth and all, but dismissed that idea as he would break his teeth.

But the reality was much grimmer than it looked from his perspective, every injury that was being caused by his illusion stated was mimicked into his real body, the thing in his body syncing the inflictions from the illusion to his real body with flawless timing.

As the back of his head started bleeding, Jack tried a desperate attempt in creating an explosive blast from his magic, but to his absolute dismay, nothing was happening.

"NOOOO, WORK DAMN YOU!!!!!" he screamed in agony,

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Woody was walking backwards now looking for whatever he felt. He tripped over something. He saw a dark figure approach him.

"Well. I didn't expect you to be so scared of your own father." Discord Laughed as he revealed himself. "Your mother said there was some big problem so I came out here and nothing  was happening." he looked around everfree. The Forest was as eerie as ever but it was rather cool this day and he wasn't sure why. "So what was it?"

"Some sort of monster was attacking Maple but the guy who it belonged to called it off." Woody said scratching the back of his neck nervously. "It was actually really scary."

[MickeyAdaptus 2,209]

Jack was probably in one of the most desperate moments of his life, fighting against infected creatures and enemies most of the time was already rough,

but fighting against an inner entity that could not possibly be harmed during its own mind games was downright horrific.

And to his dismay, there was no other way out for him except to take on all the punishment.

After 5 minutes, Jack stopped struggling, his rib cage had been severely damaged to the point where his breathing was not functioned properly.

His body in the real world as actually suffering from a very similar effect, while it was not very easy to spot, the damage was actually started to form in his real body, it almost seemed like he was being crushed by an invisible force from the ongoing effect, which made it look really abnormal.