//------------------------------//
// Palace of Dreams 
// Story: Rebirth of Magic: In the Mists 
// by JimmyHook19 
//------------------------------//

I woke suddenly, in a place quite unlike Bridlewood. I looked around myself, to see where I was.

"Hello?" I called. "Is anypony there?"

I glanced about, to see what had replaced the place I had once been. For one, the wooden, rustic interior of Izzy's home was completely gone. It was instead replaced by cold metal and long corridors, which were completely empty apart from beeping machinery.

A siren blared through the corridors.

"ALERT! ALERT! ENEMY FORCES HAVE BREACHED THE INNER SANCTUM! ALL AVAILABLE UNITS REDEPLOY IMMEDIATELY TO FACE THE ENEMY! I REPEAT! ENEMY FORCES HAVE BREACHED THE INNER SANCTUM! ALL AVAILABLE UNITS REDEPLOY IMMEDIATELY TO FACE THE ENEMY!"

This station was under attack? I stepped to one side as a group of soldiers sprinted past, lugging heavy gear and carrying weapons. What was odd was that they didn't seem to notice me at all.

As if I wasn't there.

I decided to follow them to wherever they were going, trailing behind at a reasonable distance in order to avoid being spotted. I hid behind objects to minimize detection, but was sure to keep an eye on what was going on.

Sirens continued to blare and red lights flashed from warning boxes mounted on the walls. Presumably this was battle stations onboard this craft.

Once I was done with some of the following, I stopped behind a door, and peered through the access hatch. Some sort of firefight was going on inside the room. More of the soldiers were firing on something, but I saw a combined force of ponies fighting back.

Earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi. Together.

We had set aside our differences and were working together! It was some sort of miracle!

I moved along a bit to keep following the soldiers, but at last found my way along and into a window. Why this thing had windows I had no clue, but I looked out regardless. The area down below matched the landscape around Maretime Bay- a place I was yet to go.

Why was this thing hovering over Maretime Bay? Did it need to be positioned over it for some reason?

More explosions echoed from down below as some very large guns seemed to be firing from the ground. Seems we had quite the fighting force on the ground, that was actively repelling the invaders, whomever they may be.

Based on their build, they were humans. Members of the species I had once belonged to.

I shook my head as the ship shook again.

"ALERT! ALERT! SHIELDS ARE DOWN TO TWENTY FIVE PERCENT! TAKE EVASIVE ACTION! ALERT! ALERT! SHIELDS ARE DOWN TO TWENTY FIVE PERCENT! TAKE EVASIVE ACTION!"

I decided to get moving again, following along another corridor and hearing more fighting going on. I slipped through another door into what seemed to be a central station. Seeing as the path had led me here I could only assume that this place was very important to whomever commanded this thing.

At the core of this room was a large throne, presumably from where the ship was run. The ceiling stretched upwards into the sky seemingly forever, and the ground was made of some sort of metal or marble. Windows at one end let light in, revealing the sun setting in the sky.

Perhaps this craft was so large it blotted out the sun itself. That was a scary thought.

I turned my eyes to a huge machine stomping about the room. It seemed to be pack to the brim with weapons, and an energy shield glowed around its framework. Each weapon was currently firing out into the skies.

"Thought you could get away with betraying your own species, huh?" the pilot said. I recognized the voice. It was the same guy we encountered when we met the ghosts back on the mountains!

But then I saw what the weapons fire was directed towards.

Burning in from the top of the chamber was Sunny Starscout. She was fully powered up in her alicorn form, and her horn was glowing with barely suppressed energy.

"You want nothing but to kill the innocent! These ponies did nothing to you!" Sunny replied.

"They made the mistake of serving the wrong generation! This abomination must be put right!" The suit fired off a barrage of rockets. "You could have been like a god, putting the wrongs right and punishing those who question the will of the Gods!"

Sunny fired a beam to blow the rockets up, and then dived in. "I'D RATHER DIE THAN SERVE YOU!"

There was a pause. "Then die you shall. ACTIVATE OVERDRIVE!"

The suit's arms suddenly dropped down, and energy blades deployed from the hands. The blades began to spin furiously.

"LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE PLASMA SWORDS!"

The blades slammed into Sunny's shield, energy bouncing off and flying everywhere. Sunny's horn glowed once more, and she chopped through the blades like they were made of paper.

"You were saying?" she said, with a confident smirk.

The suit switched back to firing its guns, and Sunny whizzed about the room. "Missed me! Your aim must be lousy!"

As I watched on in awe, I realised what I was witnessing. This, somehow, must be some sort of great battle for the end of the world. And Sunny was leading the charge against whomever this was.

I then got a brief glimpse of the pilot, and noticed they were wearing a striped shirt.

Wait a moment. Opaline had mentioned that the foe was the One with the Stripes? Was this him?

As the battle continued to ramp up, soldiers flooded the room to fire on Sunny. "Oh, come on! Bringing in your hired help isn't very honorable, is it?"

"If you aim to fight fair, you're not doing it properly," the figure in the machine replied, the mech leaping into the air and slamming onto the ground. "EARTHQUAKE!"

Sunny was temporarily thrown off balance, and flipped over before firing once again. "EAT THIS!"

As the battle continued, I felt a buzzing sensation-





-And woke up. I looked about myself in surprise. "Hello? Who is it?"

Just then I realised the buzzing was from round my neck, and I saw the locket vibrating. I must have forgotten to take it off before I went to bed. I walked downstairs to avoid waking anypony up, then flipped it open.

"Hey Opaline," I said.

"I thought you weren't going to pick up!" Opaline said. "Five attempts, all to voicemail. How are we going to save the world if we don't communicate?"

"That's a fair point," I admitted. "Well, I'm in Bridlewood right now."

"Have you got the third crystal yet?"

"Not yet," I replied. "That's the plan for tomorrow. Then we'll put them together.

"Good. Time is of the utmost essence, Misty." Opaline's brow furrowed. "Is something wrong?"

"I think you're standing a bit close to the screen. I can only see your eyes."

Opaline grunted. "Bother. Must have forgotten to calibrate the cauldron again." She then backed up. "That better?"

"Yeah. As you were saying?"

"Time is of the utmost essence, Misty. It turns out that fool Gulfstream is proving to be more of a problem than I had thought. He's getting the pegasi ready to fight. If we don't act quickly all will be for nothing- I don't particularly fancy ruling over a nuclear wasteland, after all."

Wait. They had nukes in this world? That's a scary thought.

But then Opaline continued. "We may have to get rid of him somehow. But before then getting the magic back is of the utmost essence, as without it we cannot defeat the One with the Stripes. Trust me, I tried."

"Gotcha. So, err, well-"

"Out with it!"

I gulped. "So, I kinda have a crush on a guy and-"

"What is a guy?"

Oops! Used a human word. "Erm, a stallion."

Opaline's face looked quite approving. "A potential target to manipulate and move in the direction we want. Just don't let your attachment get too in the way, or it could hamper our other operational plans."

Suddenly, I heard movement from upstairs. "Opaline, I gotta go. Somepony's coming."

"Understood. Give me a full operational report when you have the crystals. Opaline out."

Opaline's face faded from the display as I closed the locket, and hid behind a chair.

"Hello? Is somepony there?"

I put my head up, and luckily it was Sprout. He looked at me. "Why are you up so late?"

I shrugged. "I wanted to get some air, so I hopped out of bed for some. That's why I'm here."

Sprout nodded, although something in his body language suggested he didn't entirely buy my explanation. "Should we pop outdoors? I think some air would be nice round here. Besides, I've heard Bridlewood can be lovely at night."

That sounded like a good idea, actually. I headed out of the door with my crush, keen to see what secrets this mysterious new place could hold for somepony like me, lost and confused in a dark world.