.

Raisin Barn Cereal. A barnful of raisins in every bowl! Huh? Waking to find himself laying on his side he started awake to see a hazy image of the strange advertisement flicker in and then out of existence in front of him. What the hay was that? Was it even really there? Is this a dream? It just dissipated into nothing. There appeared to be a large fountain with a pillar in the middle a short distance away, running over with..was that blood? What is this? That better not be blood. Hold on a second, it looked more like, ketchup? He groaned and winced, feeling somewhat stiff all over. Then it hit him.

"My head. Wait. Wait, what happened? I remember firing an empowered spell compaction round at that crazed robot. Could I be dead?" He muttered. Something else was amiss about this whole thing already. He still wore his heavy armor which was amazingly fully intact. If he was really dead, that wouldn't be right, would it? He tried to get to his hooves and turned his head only to find there did not seem to be any ground beneath him to get on to. It was such an ill sensation.

"Whoa, what!?" Despite seeming to be laying on his side, he really wasn't laying on anything. He pawed at the air, it somehow felt solid under his hoof, like walking on gelatin which somehow gave traction.

His mind reeled at the realization he could walk in any direction at will, feeling dizzy and sick at the sight of really only endlessness anywhere he looked. Up, down, anywhere. There was nothing anywhere. Nothing asides the strange fountain which oriented itself to whatever way he choose to turn so as to remain upright. How strange. It proved to actually be full of flowing ketchup. Why would somepony make a fountain with ketchup in it? Everything was weird. Being able to move like this might have sounded appealing otherwise, but only illness was felt from it in this instance. Someone else was here.

An ancient and sickly looking unicorn whose very skin appeared to be sagging and wearing robes of a sort unseen in ages flitted in and out of his vision. Who could that be? He was both there and not.

"Hello? Where am I? Who are you? What is this place?" As he spoke the pony was quite suddenly in front of his muzzle, then nearly collapsed. Magnificent reached out to hold him up, as strange a thing as it seemed in this place that appeared to have no up or down, solidity, or any kind of direction at all really. The pony looked and must have been ludicrously old, wheezing heavily. His muzzle didn't move, yet he heard him speaking inside his head as clear as a bell pealing.

"I am..I was the guardian. It has almost been broken. You must go back. Stop him, you're the only one that can!" He implored, almost begging. His tone indicated an utter seriousness.

"What has almost been broken? Guardian? Stop who from doing what?" He questioned. This didn't make any sense at all, nothing here did. That reeling sensation was not lessening and his head was feeling worse just from looking at sheer void around himself.

"There's no time! I used all my remaining power to save you, go now. I can just manage it. Stop him!" Manage what?

The ancient unicorn stallion seemed to use the very last of his strength to wave a hoof, and vanished as the everything and nothing swirled in a maelstrom around him. Stop who, from doing what? A terrific tugging feeling took the handsome unicorn and everything went dark. He awoke with a start to find himself splayed out laying on real ground this time, still in his armor. What was that all about? Was that a dream? How long was he out of commission? The chronometer appeared to state it was several days since the battle. How could that be? Where were Traveler and Tanner? He was alone. Carefully moving to get up, he checked his armor systems which reported fully functional despite the hammering it took.

What a tough machine, he thought. Finding himself heavily panting he took a sip of water from the internal storage tank. Good thing he always refilled it when stopped. There were no friendly or hostile tags. He was in good physical condition according to the armor readouts. Whew. The positioning system read that somehow, he was quite a few miles back from where the fight took place. What in the world? He would have to walk them again to stand any chance of finding the others. This was ridiculous. Maybe he really did die, or this was some kind of delusion. What if he was really unconscious somewhere, dreaming all of this? It made little sense. What was that old unicorn raving about?

Without any companions this trek was going to be very long indeed. He tried the suit radio, nothing but a disquieting static greeted his ears.

"So, am I alive or what? That had to have been a dream, right? I hope this isn't a dream right now.." Stating this to himself didn't help. It was that dull, dreary time still called day. Better get moving, the same way he'd already been.

"Here we go, again." He sighed, a strange mix of exasperation, annoyance and frustration taking hold as he set out to march the very same path he already took. He was no stranger to traveling alone, but this was so extremely strange.

A mile passed, then two. His friendly tag indicator popped into being as he caught sight of a pale pink unicorn and a young colt, both of whom looked like they'd seen a ghost. Perhaps they did, he thought to himself and carefully announced his presence. Better not scare them off. They may have seen his friends pass by. He hoped to find them both in good health.

- - - - -

How very odd.