//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12 - Dreamgate DG-1 
// Story: War of the Unfoals 
// by NPP6 
//------------------------------//

	“Is everypony alright?” The voice was distorted, watery sounding.
A colt groaned as he sat up. He hadn’t felt this off-balance since a crazed maniac nearly used dimension twisting to destroy the world.
“Hey, you okay?”
The colt opened his eyes to see a pair that were scarily similar to his own. He only knew of two other ponies with eyes like his, and he was fairly certain that none of them were the white bat pony filly in front of him.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Who are you?”
“Can you all~ Ah, that’s better, can you all hear me?”
A stallion had popped into existence in the center of what the colt realized was a large group of foals. There were both fillies and colts, all varying in age, size… and sometimes species apparently. He saw griffons, diamond dogs, changelings, a dragon, and several unidentifiable creatures intermixed with the ponies.
“Anypony? Can any of you–”
“Oh for crying out loud Midnight, they’re all too confused to answer, they can hear you just fine. Look at their heads turning.” A unicorn filly with a blue coat and a red on black mane appeared next to the stallion – who, the colt noted idly, was an alicorn. “Just get on with it already, would you?”
The stallion raised an eyebrow. “I’m starting to think Diamond’s a bad influence on you.”
“I’m sure she’ll be proud to know that.”
The stallion shook his head with a chuckle. “Alright, I guess I should let you know what’s going on. I need your help.
“The Alicorn of Tartarus has forced an army of innocents who exist half in and half out of reality under his control. They have little choice in the matter, but their abilities mean that they are about to take Ponyville. I trust you realize how dire this means our situation is.
“To combat his army of unfoals – yes, they are foals, your age – I broke a few rules. Nothing major, even less so considering Ponyville is currently sealed in a pocket dimension, but honestly, I’m desperate.
“My name is Midnight Star. I am the Alicorn of Hope in this world. My responsibility is to shine out and lighten hearts taken by despair. The best way I know to do that right now is you.
“I programmed the spell to assess needs and select ponies automatically. Each of you has a reason for being here. That said I will not force any of you to join our war. The spell has not finished yet, and any who wish to may simply walk away before going through the gate.
“Right now, you are asleep. I summoned you all here from your own universes – sometimes even different points of time within those universes – through the dreamscape to minimize the damage to dimensional barriers. In most cases, there will be no effect whatsoever. You will awaken tomorrow and this will all be as a dream – though you will find that even though it feels detached, it will never truly fade from memory. Your native universes will be unaffected. Even if you die, it will be like a dream, and your consciousness will simply snap home.
“You were chosen, seventy-one of you to balance the seventy-one lost souls that Demon Blood has enslaved. While we can likely save the world without you, I… sincerely doubt it will be anything but a pyrrhic victory. Throughout thousands of universes, and from different points in time and space within those universes, you seventy-one are the most capable of ending this well.
“We are not your world, and cannot expect you to help us in our fight, but we need help nonetheless. Will any of you answer?”



Lily raced into the Hall ahead of the other two. “Get ready! They’re coming!”
Button slid to a stop in front of Sweetie Bell. “We couldn’t… hold the gate… any longer.” He panted out.
Black Diamond smiled. “It’s alright you two, we bought enough time. They pushed harder because they knew something was up. I take it the spell worked?”
Featherdown nodded. “Yes. I got pulled into the gate at first, so I know our reinforcements at least arrived… whether they just turned around and went home though…”
Starlight shook her head. “I can’t believe that this kind of spell would pull that kind of pony.”
The younger unicorn sighed. “I guess. Still, I’d feel better if Midnight would just wake up.”
Diamond walked over and placed a hoof on the still sleeping stallion. “He’s not going to wake up anytime soon.”
The only adult left nodded. “He pushed himself past where most ponies would have died. He’s gonna be sleeping this off for a while.”
The doors Lily had just braced shook under an impact. “We’ve got company.” The group continued to watch with bated breath. After a few more hits, the wood began to splinter. “That’s not going to hold much longer, they’ll be in here any second.”
“Cool, I hate waiting.” The group turned away from the door to find that the archway the spell had been focused on earlier now had milky white energy swirling in it. An orange pegasus filly with a blue and pink mane had spoken, and several more ponies were stepping out of the portal behind her. “So can we get started already?”



Diamond smiled as she ran. She had viewed this night dozens of times, and knew exactly who was doing what with what timing, even if she had shadowed out through a window as soon as the battle started. At this exact moment, she alone knew the full effects that opening the gate would have.
Midnight had been in the center of the spell itself, and since Diamond was in the same place twice, she was the epicenter of a paradox in close proximity to the spell. The next thirty-seven times she and Midnight went to sleep within ten miles of the gate, they would balance the equation and visit the worlds of their friends.
The direct effects of their visits would vanish when they left, but the things they managed to cause to happen indirectly… With one night in her world being able to stretch for years in theirs, the next five and a half weeks would be the most intense training period Diamond would ever undergo.
There would be Tartarine moments, but even if this one night was the only reward, it would have been oh so worth it. Diamond’s smile grew as she raced across town, and in her mind’s eye, she replayed the key points of the night.



Anthea had made a request that they not hurt the unfoals, to which Dawn Lightwing had added something about a true warrior being able to save his enemies rather than beating them. Perlin Bluestreak had naturally used that comment to challenge him to what amounted to a fishing competition – whoever bags the most unfoals wins.
Starburst had weaseled her way into the challenge at that point, turning things into a transdimensional free-for-all that Prism Bolt, Nidra, Chiphoof, Carmine, Bethany, Bright Pinion, Hairpin Turn, Finesse, Kildeer-Adder, Bomber Jacket, Vulcas, Val, Blazing Dawn, Dreamcatcher, and Terra got sucked into as well. The powerhouses in the group spent so much time sabotaging each other that when the contest ended as they left the castle, Finesse and Starburst wound up tying for first place.



Twilight and her friends had split up to try to figure out where the unfoals went. This had been a terrible idea. Roughly thirty of the unfoals had been putting siege to Sugarcube Corner, which left almost forty more patrolling the rest of town.
Four of those had cornered Twilight in an alley and were stalking towards her slowly.
Three beams of light lanced over her shoulder to destroy the ground at the unfoals’ hooves. While the unfoals were still picking themselves up, three figures – one human and two fillies – left the rooftops.
“The first thing you’re going to do is step away from our mother.” Joshua said, his hands lighting up for another spell.
“The second,” Midnight Wish spoke around the wand in her mouth as she hovered, “is tell us where our sister is.”
“And third is that you’re going to quietly surrender.” Midday Wish smirked.



Fluttershy shrieked and dove as another unfoal tried to tackle her. She screamed again as something dropped to the ground in front of her.
The colt glanced over his shoulder as he whipped out his wing and scattered several feathers. “Oh, hey! Fluttershy, nice to see you. Dawn’s around here somewhere…” He twitched his wing again and the feathers he had shed danced around the area, herding a trio of unfoals into a corner. “I kind of have to take care of this… still, he and Coco would both kill me if I let you go off on your own.”
“Lightning Twister and I can get her to safety Perlin.” Fluttershy turned to see a gray unicorn and a blue pegasus coming around a corner.
“Alright, thanks Charcoal.”
The unicorn nodded. “Don’t worry about it, she’s our mother too.”



Rainbow about fell out of the sky as the first one blew past her with a “Hi Mom.”
The black pegasus with a familiar mane was followed by a gray bat pony with a purple mane and wings and the same greeting. “Hi Mom.”
A sky blue pegasus with a white mane was next, “Hi Mom!”
Rainbow halted her forward momentum and stared as the three foals dove to corral a group of unfoals.
“Eh, they’ve got this.”
Rainbow turned to find another blue pegasus filly with a white mane. “So… Please tell me I’m not your mom too.”
“Huh?” The filly looked at her. “No, but you’re my mom’s best friend. My name’s Keen Arrow, and those were Prism Bolt, Taboo, and Cumulus. Don’t know how those three work together so well, they aren’t even from the same dimension.”
“Dimension?” Rainbow shook her head. “Never mind, I’ll figure it out. Who’d you say your mom was?”
“Lightning Dust.”
For the second time in as many minutes, Rainbow nearly fell out of the sky in shock. “On second thought, I could really use that explanation.”



A pony, dragon, pony-dragon, and pony-shaped dragon stood in the middle of town square as flames washed out from them. The crackling of the fire that was forcing a group of unfoals closer and closer together was interrupted by a crack of thunder and heavy wingbeats.
“Guys, seriously? You’re going to burn down Ponyville!” Flicker, Vulcas, Claire, and Chiphoof all looked up to see Dawn Lightwing.
Claire laughed. “Come on, don’t be such a scaredy-cat!”
“Yeah,” Vulcas added, “We’ve got it controlled.”
Lightning crackled along Dawn’s wing. “It’s a basic force of nature. I know exactly how well you can control it once it’s released.”
Flicker gave a nervous chuckle. “He’s got a bit of a point. I really don’t want to burn down another building. Let alone a whole town.”
Chip couldn’t stop grinning. “I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation. Do you know how many beings our age can do this kind of thing in my world?”
An explosion on the other side of town drew their attention.
“Oh come on!”



“We are surrounded.” Finesse’s deadpan would have given Maud a run for her money.
Starburst flared her wings as a ring of over a dozen unfoals closed in on the tail to tail pair. “Just the way I like it.”
An explosion a few blocks away was the fillies’ starter pistol.



Bomber Jacket’s manic laughter was matched only by Marshmallow’s as the bridge was obliterated in an explosion. It was strategic destruction, the unfoals would have to cross that bridge to get to Sweet Apple Acres, and since nopony knew if they had been close enough for Discord to pull them back to reality with him, they had decided to err on the side of caution.
Bomber gave the pegasus next to her an appreciative glance. “I’ve gotta say, most ponies really don’t get why I like this stuff. It scares them off.”
The colt laughed even harder, “Are you kidding? My mom is the most powerful pyromancer in existence! This is awesome!”
Carmine, Bethany, and Kildeer-Adder traded smirks. “I guess that means it’s our turn now.” Kildeer-Adder said.
Doubloon surfaced in the water the bridge had once crossed. “I’ll keep an eye on the rest of the river while you guys – Look out!”
The group spun just in time to see a tawny blur intercepting an unfoal that had snuck up on them. Bethany cocked an eyebrow. “Didn’t we leave her at the castle?”
The griffon chick pinned the unfoal she was wrestling, talons to its throat. “I am Princess Sun Shines on the Misty Mountains at Dawn through Early Morning Hazy Skies! Underestimate me at your own peril!”
As the other three unfoals drawing near hesitated, Carmine burst into laughter. “I like her. Please tell me we’ve got one of her in our world.”



Pinkie giggled as she pronked through the battlefield the town had become. “I’m not too upset about being sidelined like this, I’m just glad I got to say hello to my extra-dimensional daughters first. I mean, I know about all of them, kinda-sorta, but it’s nice to be able to actually meet some and–” She came to an abrupt stop. “Hey, you aren’t supposed to be watching this part…
“This isn’t the scene you’re looking for. Move along.”



Applejack heard something coming up on her left as she galloped down a street.
“Hi, you’re Miss Applejack, right? My name’s Bright Pinion, call me Penny. I’m supposed to tell you to that if you can get to the forest, you’ll be able to find what you’re looking for by going wherever they don’t want you to.”
A bronze pegasus filly was flying alongside the farmmare, and it was her who had spoken. The white earth pony colt in the chariot she was pulling smirked at Applejack. “Don’t worry, Ponyville’s in good–” His eyes widened. “Oy, Paladin’s hurt! Terramancer, four spaces left, one back. Reinforce forward, three wide one deep. Knight, get Paladin to that shelter. Cleric, reinforce, patch him up. Cryomancer, you reinforce too. Area effect, freeze ‘em out. Ranger, we’re gonna come in low, hop on. Flygirl here’ll circle around while you snipe any unfoals trying to get close to the others.”
A diamond dog somersaulted away from a pair of unfoals he was fighting, spinning as he stopped and bringing one paw up swiftly. “Ruff protect!” The earth itself responded to his will, a curved wall rising that arced slightly over him, creating a shallow alcove three yards wide and one deep, the tip of the wall nearly ten hooves in the air.
A tan colt broke off his own fight, rushing off and snagging a younger orange colt by the scruff. With a flick of his head, Clay deposited Autumn Leaves on his back. “Hold on!”
The younger of the two brown-maned earth ponies snorted and rolled his eyes. “For crying out loud it’s just a scratch.”
“That’s a four-inch gash.” Terrycloth corrected as she arrived at the make-shift shelter at the same time from a different direction. “Although I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, patching up ponies is completely different from patching up stuffed toys!”
“It’ll be enough to get us through the night.” Kaneq spun as he slid to a stop, burning the momentum from his gallop as he left a trail of frost along the ground. “Also, it ain’t all about you Autumn. This gives all of us a chance to recover a bit from that last push.” With that, the half-windigo let loose, a blizzard spiraling upwards with the small shelter at its center.
Meanwhile, a white-coated unicorn’s red eyes flashed as she jumped into the chariot that had just buzzed the unfoals she was fighting. Rare Belle smiled as she started raining spellfire on their enemies. “Well this is going well. Exactly how many battles like this have you been in?”
Quest Talltale returned the roguish grin with a wink. “Oh, hundreds.”



The sunshine yellow unicorn filly turned, panting, as a pair of unfoals cornered her in a blind alley. “You know… for scary… faceless monsters…” Dandelion gasped out between breaths, “You’re really bad at this.”
There was a muffled thump as a cream filly and a gray colt landed behind the unfoals.
“Kinda makes ya wish our problems were this easy to deal with, doesn’t it?” Willow Wisp asked his compatriot.
“I don’t know about your world, but my mom just blasts our problems with fire and then cuts apart the ones that don’t burn.” Squeaky Wings returned.
And with that the bat ponies charged.



Glitter Belle was laughing as the brawl spilled through yet another empty shop. “This is fun! I never get to do this kind of thing back home.”
Light Stream smirked. “I’ll admit, this is a lot less scary than the last time I was in a fight like this.”
Terra knocked an unfoal back with a chair. “What I’m curious about is how this turned into a saloon brawl when we’re nowhere near a tavern.”
Bella raised an eyebrow as she ducked to let an unfoal fly over her and into its comrade. “A saloon brawl? I’ve always wondered what it’s like to be in those. Are they like this at your place Sunshine?”
The filly in question snorted. “Are you kidding? We cater to dragons, Pig Iron stops any fights long before they turn into real brawls.”



“Okay Starlight, final check. Is everything in place?”
“Alright, Tootsie Pie and Cotton Cloudy are providing the raw chaos…”
The pegasus turned to her extra-dimensional earth pony half-sister. “How did you get here anyway? I heard you weren’t going to be able to make it.”
“Well I wasn’t, the author accidentally miscounted and left me out, but everypony else was coming and I didn’t want to get left behind, so I went around the fourth wall and followed everypony else. The extra Moms here let me in through the mirror world once I got here. Should be able to get back no problem though.”
“…along with Illusion…” The draconequus-pony hybrid waved at the nonexistent camera. “…which is going to be stabilized by Dreamcatcher’s and Nidra’s dream magic.” The epicene and its extra-dimensional sister nodded. “This will allow us to pick and choose which magical rules from which universes apply where, as well as providing a central point for the various species-specific magicks.
“Blazing Dawn and Clover will be tapping directly into Alicorn’s Release and focusing the ethereal powers of that place, which will be filtered through Dulcet, Auspice, and Serendipity, who can handle the energy because of their part alicorn heritage and translate it into an equivalent form that will be safe for the rest of us to handle. The innate element of guidance will be offset by Pebble’s wild magic, at which point the order core will be brought into near-contact with the chaos core, allowing us to create a debatably stable pinhole in reality.
“Bright Eyes, Nebula, both Auroras, Golden, and Candy will be at the six cardinal points, their status as not being able to exist without manipulation of reality allowing them to be used as foci for the containment field until the spell completes and targeting loci when it is finished to make sure that we get everypony.
“Picket’s artificial life capacity is being combined with Val’s life-draining ability to focus and fuse life and death energies. Claw, aside from being a source of enough chronitons that we were able work an always-was paradox into the spell, is acting as a focus for the concept of hybridization tangentially attached to the transformation magic supplied by Flitter, Melody, and Lofty. Also tangentially attached to this is Gossamer, who is the unreal at the seventh cardinal direction. This should let the changelings’ magic play mix-and-match with any creature from every universe should it need to.
“Silverbelle will be maintaining the integrity of the physical aspects of the spell – specifically the runes and circles – while Solstice, Twinkle, Anthea, Wishful, and our visiting Midnight keep the mana structure stable. Sumac will act as a relay point, amplifying everything and smoothing it all together one last time before the spell is passed to the targeting loci and everything fires.”
“So we’re good to go?”
“No, are you kidding me!? This is a completely insane hodgepodge of cut-and-pasted theories that we’re hoping won’t play by the rules because we don’t want them to! If any part of this mishmash goes wrong each of our atoms is going to wind up in a different universe!”
“Yeah… how’d you come up with something like this so fast anyway?”
“…Time dilation. Please don’t tell Twilight, but… It was the only way I could think of. That’s why my part in this spell is so small, just ignition and statement of purpose, I’m almost completely spent. I actually spent a few weeks getting this worked out and this is still the best I could come up with. If anypony from the GCEM ever saw this groundwork I’d have my mage’s license revoked on the spot, be forbidden from ever casting magic again, and probably have my horn removed for good measure. We had to build a special platform just so that some ‘circles’ could arc around others without touching by playing in more than two dimensions. Tartarus, we had to warp space to make things connect right in two spots!”
“But will it work?”
“I don’t know! This is asymmetrical ritual magic! I’m completely out of my depth and territory! Maybe if it were Twilight, or Midnight, or hey, even Discord–”
She was cut off by Featherdown slapping her. “Sorry, you were going into hysterics. Also, don’t you dare put yourself down. You are Starlight Glimmer. You are the personal student of the Alicorn of Magic. You debatably usurped the position of Last Apprentice of Starswirl the Bearded from Midnight Star when you finished his chronomancy research. So I am going to repeat my question, and you are going to answer with confidence in either the affirmative or the negative. Will this work?”
“There’s only one way to find out and we’re out of time and options.”
“Close enough…”



Diamond smiled as she reached the cave. She turned and looked over her shoulder as the magical pulse spread through Ponyville, an ever-expanding sphere that penetrated even ground as it spread, rewriting a single rule in its wake. Two drastic, deep magic involving, reality altering spells in one night – not counting the… interesting bit… that was still waiting once it was all over. Really, it was no wonder that all the ancient powers started getting worried after this, with what they did, nothing could stop the dominoes from leading to Mrtyu Dara’s invasion… ironic that the chaos only led one place… of course, they were changing the route now. The Nightborn filly smirked as she manifested Blacklight and activated her beacon, stalking into the darkness in search of her quarry with predatory grace.