Chapter Three
Nightmares
Big Macintosh bowed for the two royal sisters present in the room, but as he lowered his head, he kept his eyes on Celestia.
They exchanged a look filled with mutual gratefulness.
“Princess Celestia,” he said.
“Big Macintosh, Captain Jack Harkness, thank you for coming to my sister’s aid,” replied the Princess, her tone full of formality. However, both of the ponies in her service detected the wavers of desperation in her voice.
Captain Jack didn’t bother with the formality of bowing. “Torchwood serves you and the future of Equestria. Just doing our job, Princess.”
With the pleasantries complete, the everypony turned their attention to the Princess of the Night asleep on the bed.
Big Macintosh had never met Luna before, but he, like every other pony, had heard the old stories of Nightmare Moon, even firsthand accounts from his sister, all detailing her malice. Looking at the sleeping blue pony now, he could not even imagine that such infamy could stem from her.
There was something wrong with Luna. At first glance, Big Macintosh thought she was simply asleep. But as he looked closer he realized there was more to it than that. Her neck and ears twitched sporadically and there was a sheen of sweat on her coat. It looked as though she was in a deep, fever-induced sleep.
Celestia was lying next to her sister, ignoring the sweating and the twitching, with one of her wings wrapped around her sister’s side. As if she was holding Luna so close that she might not be able to fall away even if there was a black hole pulling her into oblivion.
“Is she alright?” asked Big Macintosh stepping closer.
Celestia shook her head solemnly. “No, she is not. My sister was found this way two days ago. At first we thought she was ill, however the greatest healers in Equestria have not been able to understand what is plaguing her. I have tried my own spells to heal her, and even Torchwood has tried to use their most powerful devices to revive her. Nothing has so much as stirred her. Although, sometimes she tosses and turns in her slumber, and whispers words that do not make sense. It is almost as if she is in a nightmare.”
Jack stepped forward, watching Luna’s distress closely. “We have gone over nearly every possibility and known ailment. We thought that maybe a fragment of her Nightmare Moon personality survived the Elements of Harmony, but this isn’t how it happened before. We don’t know what it is or how it got to her. We just have one clue.”
Jack picked up a book from the nightstand beside the bed.
It was a very large book, as big as one of the dictionaries Big Mac had seen in the Ponyville Library. The cover was a dark navy blue with patterns of the night sky and the moon inlayed onto its cover in the same fashion as Luna’s cutie mark.
“That is my sister’s diary. She did well to hide it, even I was unaware she kept one until two days ago,” said Princess Celestia, watching carefully as her Captain handled the book.
“Torchwood analyzed it. It is authentic and written with Princess Luna’s style. There are entries that date back over two thousand and six hundred years. It has an enchantment on it that preserved it this long. However, that is not the intriguing part.”
Jack flipped open the book and pointed his hoof to the picture drawn on the page.
“This entry is dated to be one thousand and one years ago. One day before the nightmare moon incident.”
Big Macintosh swallowed, looking at the picture.
It was him, and a dozen different ponies he didn’t recognize, all of them armed and storming the gates of a stone Castle. He told himself, in his head, that it was most likely just a pony that looked like him…but considering the reason he was here, he knew that he was telling himself lies.
“The diary doesn’t provide any insight into what is going on in the picture. There are, as expected, entries about her feelings of ill will towards, you, your highness. However, there is one more detail that is unexpected. She describes some anomaly she has encountered during her duties over the realm of dreams. Some kind of thought, or idea. This entry here is the most helpful,” Jack flipped to a different page and cleared his throat.
“I heard the whispers again today, louder than before. I did my best to rid the dreams of them, however they are very persistent. If sister was not so busy with her own duties in the daytime, mayhaps she could help. The whispers are devious; I even heard them say, quite vainly, that they are of an immense intelligence. I know I should not listen to them, as they haunt the dreams of my little ponies, but they do say what a wonderful world would be if only it was night more often, and that the world was more of dreams than my sister’s world. I know I should not listen to them, but it feels difficult to disagree with them at times…”
Jack sighed and put the book back down. “We believe that these whispers may be connected with Luna’s transformation, but we aren’t sure.”
“Have you tried using the Elements of Harmony again on her?” asked Big Macintosh, studying the faces of the distressed monarchs.
“No, not every problem can be solved with the use of the elements. In fact there are a few instances in history where problems were exaggerated by them. It all depends on the situation, and the elements are best suited against beings with pure malicious intent and other forms of malicious corruption. Until we know what this is, we aren’t trying anything else,” said the Captain.
“Are you sure that these whispers are involved in what is happening now?”
“Yes, I am.” Jack flipped open to another page, the last one with words on it. The words were slanted, and messier than the other entries, like they were written in haste.
It read, “Celestia, the whispers are back, I will try to stop them but they are back, closer, and stronger than before, whatever you do not…”
The rest just trailed off.
“This was the page the diary was open to when we found it lying next to her on the bed. It was the last thing she wrote,” Jack told Big Macintosh.
“So this is the mission? Go find out what caused this, and then pray that we find a way to reverse it? Back one thousand and one years ago?” asked Big Macintosh.
“Yup.” Captain Jack closed the dairy and then reached into his pockets, pulling out two small necklaces. He offered one to Big Macintosh. “You will need this. A perception filter should keep us from being noticed. Oh, and these.” He took a piece of paper out from a different pocket and also gave it to him. “Those are the coordinates.”
Jack smiled bitterly as he watched Big Macintosh type them in.
“I must warn you both, Captain Jack Harkness, and Big Macintosh, that those days were very dark times for Equestria. Exercise great caution,” Princess Celestia advised them.
“We will, Princess, but I doubt that it will be the worst place either of us has been to,” replied Jack truthfully.
“Please,” spoke Celestia in a tone that approached begging, “find a way to bring her back…I cannot lose her, not again.”
“We will do everything we can, Princess,” spoke Jack.
“Cannot...cannot…wake…up,” muttered Princess Luna weakly.
Celestia looked down on her sister with despair as she nuzzled her. “It will be alright Luna, it will be alright. Our best little ponies are going to help you.” The mighty alicorn looked to the young farmer and old captain for something, anything, that might save her sister.
“I will see you soon, Princess.”
Big Macintosh sighed as he finished putting in the coordinates.
He did not want to do this. He did not want to leave his life behind again, but he owed Celestia something that he owed no other pony.
He had hopes this would be over quickly, and his dear Applejack wouldn’t even notice his absence.
Captain Jack placed his hoof onto the edge of the Vortex Manipulator, and then Big Macintosh activated it. The two agents of Torchwood fell into the Time Vortex.
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Applejack was out of breath, sprawled out on the wooden floors.
She was terrified.
She could not move, whether out of fright, or out of irony, she did not know.
But she just watched as the red pony who stood at her side for all her life died.
A hundred cuts and slashes ripped through his fur, his breathing ragged.
A shadow stood above him, holding a bloodied butcher’s knife.
“Wake up, Applejack,” spoke the beaten body of Big Macintosh.
Applejack shook her head, not willing to give up. “I got to save ya’. Big Mac, stay with me!”
“Nnope, I’m sorry, sis.”
She looked on in confusion as Big Macintosh crawled forward desperately, the shadow watching with content amusement.
With his forehoofs he pushed her forward, sliding her off the edge.
“You have to wake up,” he whispered into her ear just before she fell.
She fell into darkness.
It was like going a thousand miles per hour through the darkest night sky.
And it was like staying perfectly still in the center of nowhere and nothingness.
Thus is the way a pony falls to their death in the dream.
Applejack gasped, sitting upright in her bed. She was covered in a cold sweat and breathing like she had just run a race against Rainbow Dash.
It was just a nightmare.
She was still terrified.
For a long time she just sat there waiting for her breathing to slow.
It was mere seconds after rational thought returned to her that she left the bed, nervously trotting to a safe haven.
The door to her brother’s room creaked when she opened it. She hoped he would hear it, that he would sit up, looking to see what intruded, just so she could see him alright. Just to prove that her dream was just a dream.
But a growing pit in her stomach formed when she saw no likeness of her brother dearest in the bed.
She looked around, hoping for just a trace of him, but to no avail.
Slowly Applejack walked to the bed, and jumped on top of it so that she could nestle herself in safety within the protective blankets. She sighed, hoping with every ounce of her frightened mind of the night that he would come back.
“Where did ya’ head off to Big Mac?” she asked.