Alexis blinked, or at least thought she did. Before her was a deep foggy expanse, and something that appeared before her as a ball of rainbow coloured flames. She looked down at herself, hands having shifted into paws to put her weight on, and cracks had formed over her apparent body. "You're not going to find answers looking at the form you've taken", the light said.
Alexis looked back at the light, and stared at it; not even feeling a hint of emotion looking at it. "Who are you? What are you?"
The light's flames flickered. "A better question would be 'who am I?', unless you think there's a mirror between us"
"A maid like me isn't supposed to think too hard," she trailed off.
"Oh please," a voice spoke from her left eye, "given how much trouble we are just by existing, thinking is all we can do without causing trouble for everyone."
She raised a paw to her eye that seemed to speak, it seemed more broken than the rest of her as it felt like running a hand along where a window was struck. "You're right... But what else can I be, I can't be-" she stopped herself, realizing. "You're... The old me... Or at least my memories of the old me... Which makes..."
"... Me your 'soul', unchanged no matter what happens," the ball of light said, "if I said my true nature was that of a thief, a trickster, a phantom... Would you abandon chasing me? You've practically admitted, if that's who you are, you can't become that since it would go against what your master needs. But you can't reject yourself, since that goes against his desires."
She felt a sudden pain strike through her as the cracks in her body seemed to vibrate. "PLEASE! NOT NOW! I'm... It tears me apart enough while I'm awake, I don't need this while I'm asleep! Besides... He... Doesn't want me to hurt myself just to figure this out."
"I don't see the problem," her eye spoke, "a true phantom thief would cut through the contradiction and choose both. You can help your master, AND be a trickster. The problem with me was that I was afraid... But we can embrace being a trickster at heart without even acting on it, we can just think of it as pretending to be normal; and then if your master needs your talents, you can live a double life."
Maid Alexis smiled, and with a small flourish, the ball of light dove into her chest, giving her a feeling of warmth. "I... Feel like I've awakened to... Something."
"Just don't actually wake up just yet, its not exactly pleasant out there right now," her eye said.
"What do you-" she was interrupted as the darkness gave way to nauseating colours, and she felt that nausea pass through her. A new dream began to play out in front of her, resembling a peaceful field. "... Oh... This is a dream."
---
Simone was having her own dream, a large feral dragon stroking her hair as she lay between the larger dragon's generous breasts. It took her a while to notice, but the larger dragon looked a lot like her, just older. Same golden underbelly, same black coated body scales. She smiled, at Simone, and sighed.
"I'm sorry for all the pressure you're under, or about to be... I didn't expect this to happen... I don't think anyone did," the larger dragon said.
Simone shivered, a pinch of reality touching her. "I don't mind... I just don't want to be alone in the middle of this storm."
"Would you still say that if you knew we're responsible for this storm?" the larger dragon said, "... Hundreds, maybe thousands of years from now, I lost track... I became a true god, I'm not sure if it's because I simply got strong enough to cross that threshold, or if some force just approved of me... But I felt it. Before that, I remembered things I probably shouldn't have... And it gave birth to regrets that still haunt me... Still haunts us both through this storm."
The two dragons sat silent in the dreamscape for a while, the younger Simone looking up at what she began to realize was her future self.
"Did you... Go back in time or something?" Simone asked.
The larger dragoness shrugged. "Not entirely... Just a couple of fragments of my soul, namely my regrets... One regret that I never truly had the chance to thank our master for letting us truly be ourselves, as I didn't truly know what he'd done for us until he was gone...And another fragment consumed by regret over how short the lives of all our friends were; even that of our master, and that by the time we got true godhood, and the power to extend their lives through granting them mythic status, they were already gone... And both fragments mourn what happened to those who lost their sense of self."
Simone looked up at the dragoness and sighed. "I don't know what to say to that... You had good reasons, but I guess this is about this royal responsibility I'm supposed to learn," she said, "so... Where are these fragments of yours... Or ours... Whatever is going on."
"One is... Me, or the fragment I'm speaking to you with... Its embedded within yourself, perhaps its giving you your demi-god status I've noticed you have, or perhaps it merely skewed judgement in your favour to let you have that status... But whatever the case, its with you... The other is embedded in the city itself now, most deeply into the 'maid school', intertwined with the reality warping effects that occurred there."
"So, I guess I need to pull that fragment out of the city?" Simone suggested.
The older Simone sighed. "I... Don't think that's possible anymore, between how much your power and mine have fuelled the storm, and how much it effects us in turn... I'm not sure your body is capable of going out there anymore."
Simone raised an eyebrow, only for the older dragon to hang her head in sorrow.
"You'll see if you open your eyes."
Just then, Simone's eye's bolted open, and her eyes flinched as they felt goo slide over here eyeballs. Within the dull golden light, she could see her forelimbs had re-shaped, her thumbs almost vestigial. She felt small, and just floating within a thick goo, surrounded by a dark translucent shell of something crystalline, showing a golden glow coming in from the outside.
'no... I can't be', she thought to herself, her attempts to voice the thought muffled by the goo, 'master... Help me...'
There was a sudden flash of the storm as something surged within her, and then...
---
Curt thought for a second he heard Simone calling for him, and suddenly in the middle of the cabin, a nearly black egg materialized inside the cabin.
"Simone? Is that you?" He said.
Simone's thoughts could be heard, it was almost like crying, 'yes master, I've... I'm... I'm scared! I'm trapped in this... This egg thing! The storm is out of control, and its my fault!'
Curt rubbed the shell of the crystal egg, he could sense Simone calming at the warm touch. "Its okay, you're safe. And even if you are causing it, you're not to blame. You can't exactly control it."
'So... You believe me?' Simone thought
Curt shrugged. "I guess I had my suspicions, but I wouldn't have thought it was just you. Its probably all of us adding to it." He felt Simone curl up against his hand, seeming to nuzzle against it.
'I really wish I could have shown you my recital... But it doesn't look like that's going to happen,' Simone thought, starting to calm down.
Curt sighed. "I was hoping it could still happen, maybe the storm would clear up, or they'd still try to host it tomorrow anyways... But I guess that's just being hopeful."
"Well, I guess now's as good a time as any to call an evacuation," Pearl said. Everyone looked at her, and noticed she was on all fours, and her belly was starting to balloon with the signs of her clutch of eggs. "I just got off the phone with Danielle, she was already on her way with a truck since she was worried about us, so hopefully she can take us into the next town over. I told everyone else to arrange safe transport, and that its safer for them to stay where they are until it arrives. The reporters will inform everyone else in the city who's not on the payroll."
Just then, there was another flash of lightning outside causing a psychic yelp from Simone; and the rain that was barely a trickle before opened up into a downpour.
"... Did someone tempt fate while I wasn't listening?" Anna said, trying to make light of the situation.
Naomi made a faint chuckle, and stayed curled up in the enchanted blankets, she looked like she was young enough to be using pull up diapers now. Skyla meanwhile looked over everyone, checking and noticing that Alexis didn't look much older. And then there was Curt, who was starting to look as young as he did back in high school, which before he turned into a dragon wouldn't have been that long ago.
Skyla sighed. "Let's just hope Danielle gets here before we all find ourselves needing diapers."
---
Meanwhile, Danielle found herself tying to push her truck forward after it got bogged from the mud caused by the sudden downpour. With a good shove, it started rolling forwards, and she took a deep breath. She reached back to massage her shoulder beneath her now drenched cloak, but noticed a new set of muscles starting to flex themselves on her back. Lifting her cloak to get a good view of her naked back in the side mirrors of the truck, showing off a tiny new pair of wings.
Danielle sighed. "Does this mean I'm turning into a Pegasus pony? Or would that be Pegasus mule?"
She shrugged, and smiled. She could worry about that later. She jumped back into the truck and put the drenched cloak aside, and put on the spare one she brought, who knew if the rain had the same effect as the energy in the air did?