Ha! Bet you thought you'd have to wait till 2016 for the next chapter, huh? No much luck, Nisa's on a roll now - wheeeee! Big thanks to Defensive and Stormy Trix for their reviews!
What is this place filled with so many wonders,
Casting its spell that I am now under?
Squirrels in the trees, and the cute little bunnies...
Birds flying free and bees with their honey! (1)
Tegryn, Icy and Stormy admired / looked on at disgust (delete as applicable) as they strolled through the rolling meadows of Darcy's worst nightmares. The air was pleasantly warm and carried a soft floral fragrance in the breeze which could very well have been created by the thousands of brightly-coloured butterflies which fluttered merrily about their business.
"I don't care whether this really is a nightmare, this is nice!" Tegryn remarked as he stretched his arms and drew in a lungful of that sweet, sweet air. "I never knew your sister had any sort of nice inside her!"
"Don't get too comfortable, twerp!" replied Icy, "What makes you think we couldn't trash this place any time we wanted?"
"Because you're not calling the shots here, that's why. Surely you know that by now, after the way I kicked you three out of my head when I first arrived in Majix. We're in Darcy's mind now, so we're playing by whatever rules her subconscious has dreamed up... and right now, it's nice so I'm happy to go with it."
As they carried on walking, they couldn't help but hear a gleeful, almost childish giggling ringing out from behind a grassy bank, accompanied by wails of tortured anguish. Icy's and Stormy's eyes both widened in terror, for they both recognised the owner of those wails. They strode forward purposely with Tegryn in tow, taking care not to trip on the myriad of adorable bunny rabbits and kittens that seemed to swarm all around them. When they reached the top of the small hill, they were greeted by a sight which was either hilarious or horrifying, depending on who you asked.
A narrow winding stream bubbled in front of them, giving off a subtle, sharp scent and a faint fizzing noise as it did so.
Tegryn stopped by the stream's edge, dipped a finger into the clear liquid and tasted it.
"Lemonade? Man, Darcy has a really vivid imagination!"
They could see Darcy on the opposite bank, and unlike Tegryn she certainly wasn't having the time of her life. Sprawled on her backside, she was desperately trying to scrabble away from Musa who was trying to force-feed her a small cream cake. Of course, as this was a nightmare, it was actually a very close approximation of Musa, save for the fact she was wearing an outfit which seemed to be nothing more than an oversized red ribbon wrapped tightly around her body.
"Does my widdle Teggy-Bear want another cweam cake?" cooed Nightmare Musa.
"No I don't! Now leave me..." Darcy stopped when she noticed the three bemused onlookers, and glared at Tegryn. "You! You've got some nerve showing your face here after what you di..."
Her tirade was abruptly ended by a cream cake being stuffed into her mouth, which she spat out angrily. "Will you stop that?! I'm trying to talk here!"
Nightmare Musa looked down dejectedly, then looked up and eyed the visitors with suspicion. "You want to talk with those silly witches? But Tegryn, you don't prefer them over me do you?"
"I keep trying to tell you, I'm NOT Tegryn!"
"Of course you are! You're my silly-billy always-getting-lost widdle Teggy-Bear!" she giggled, tweaking Darcy's cheek.
Darcy took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress the ball of rage that was straining to burst out of her - as if this nightmare wasn't bad enough, she now had an audience to share her humiliation.
"Look, do me a favour and keep quiet, okay? I have to talk to these... three... witches. It's important."
"Hmmph! O-key dokey then," said Nightmare Musa. "But I don't like them. Especially that Darcy, she looks funny!"
Tegryn chuckled, as Nightmare Musa wheeled around behind the real Darcy and flung her arms around her, positioning herself so the witch's head was gently nestled in her bosom. Darcy shuddered as she felt Nightmare Musa nuzzling her with her cheek and sniffing her hair.
"I wuv you, my little Teggy-Weggy-Boo-Boo!" she whispered.
Darcy couldn't bring herself to reply.
"I wuv you!"
Still no reply.
"I said I WUUUUUUV YOOOOOOOU!" she squealed.
Darcy growled quietly to herself - not only was her patience being stretched wafer-thin, she was now well on the way to the mother of all migraines.
"Yes, I know you did. Now please, shut up!"
Nightmare Musa nodded and gave the universal 'my lips are zipped' motion.
"That's it Darcy, let it out!"
"Eh? Let what out? Who said that?"
The other three looked at her, confused.
"Who said what, Darce?" asked Stormy.
"What? Didn't you hear it? That voice..."
Her voice trailed off as soon as she realised that once again, it was the same whisper that had been bugging her - and only her - almost reaching out to her for the past few days... but why? What, or rather who the hell was it? Why did it choose her... or had it chosen actually Tegryn? Had he been hearing this voice too, or was it just her? What did it mean? Darcy sighed and turned to Tegryn who was now sat in front of her, stroking a kitten that had just happened to amble over onto his lap.
"Now then... are you going to tell me just why the hell you stole my body?"
Tegryn tutted. "I was going to ask you the same thing."
"You really trying to tell me you didn't do this?"
"Why on Majix would I want to swap places with you? And more to the point, how on Magix would I do that? It's not the kind of thing they teach at Alfea, and I reckon it's probably way too complicated for me anyway. You know what I'm like - I'm more of a blast-a-great-big-hole-in-things kinda guy."
Icy and Stormy looked at each other and nodded. "He's got a point - I can't see those goody-goody pixies using spells to mess with people like this. It's more of a witchy thing," the white-haired girl said with a grin. "And before you ask, it wasn't us."
"Right, so who was it then?" asked Tegryn.
"Have you pissed off any witches lately?" asked Darcy.
"Well, I..."
"Except for us, you moron," said Stormy. "You always piss us off."
Tegryn had to pause for thought. "Hmmmm... well now, other witches, you say? Come to think of it, I guess Morgan didn't like me calling her 'Moggy' a while ago... and her friend Noir wasn't too impressed with me either."
"Morgan? Noir?"
"A couple of freshers from Cloud Tower. They've got being annoying off to a fine art. Big fans of your work, apparently."
"So you think they're the ones behind this?"
Tegryn shrugged, and Darcy sighed.
"So all I have to do is go to Cloud Tower, meet up with you, search for these two, hope they're the ones behind this and get them to undo it?"
Icy shook her head. "We've got another problem. Some IDIOT..." she growled, staring at Tegryn, "...has got us trapped in the Omega Dimension."
Darcy struck the classic facepalm pose to show her exasperation. "WHAT?! You have got to be kidding me."
"'Fraid not," said Tegryn. "We need you to open up a portal and get us out of here."
Darcy's anger was boiling over at this point, so much so that she completely ignored that voice which implored "Keep going my dear, you're almost there!"
"Do you know how difficult that is?"
"I managed it easily enough."
"Yes, but you're just a moron who zaps people into random dimensions just for fun. Opening a portal to specific point in the Omega Dimension is totally different - you need to be precise, and for that we need a whole load of power."
"So? Shouldn't be a problem for someone of your witchy calibre, right?"
"If the three of us were together, maybe... but on my own..."
"Get someone to help you then."
"Who? The only ones who could possibly help us here are Valtor or Principal Griffin. No-one knows where Valtor is right now. The rumour is Griffin zapped his butt to who-knows-where... you wouldn't know anything about that, now would you?"
Tegryn smiled - it seemed Discorda has done her job, freed the principal and helped put a dent in their plans for good measure.
"Yeah, thought so - thanks for nothing. Anyway, there's no way Griffin would ever help us."
"Maybe not you three, but she might help me."
"You really think so? But even if she did help open a portal, there's no way we'd be able to find you... unless."
"Unless what?"
"Where exactly did you open the portal to the Omega Dimension?"
"In Discorda's chamber. Why?"
"Maybe they'll be some residual traces of it left. We could use those to at least get close to you."
"Excellent! So all you have to do is get to Cloud Tower, sweet-talk the principal and bust us out of prison! And in the meantime, we'll... erm... sit here and freeze our fannies off."
Darcy started to nod, then froze. She had been so deep in conversation that she'd completely forgotten about Nightmare Musa. More to the point, she hadn't noticed how she'd been gently stroking her bare shoulder, pressing her tighter to her, breathing heavier...
"Teggy dearest?"
"What now?"
"You know, holding you so close to me has made me feel all warm and... tingly inside!"
Darcy's eyes widened in horror for she knew exactly what was coming next. Every single night since she Musa had first kissed her, she had been plagued by the same recurring nightmare, with exactly the same ending. Before she could react, Nightmare Musa had swung around and pinned her to the floor, straddling her, panting, with a look of pure lust in her eyes. To make matters worse, her red ribbon dress had inexplicably disappeared, leaving only a rather revealing set of lace underwear.
Tegryn stared at this scene, transfixed by the sight of his beloved in the nearly-altogether. Icy and Stormy, however, had stood up to help their comrade.
"Don't worry," Darcy said as she struggled to keep Nightmare Musa at arm's length, "This is where I always wake up. Just please... HURRY UP AND GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE!"
1. "So Many Wonders", as sung by Fluttershy in an episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.