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The Regal Dream - Manehattan Train Rain.

THE REGAL DREAM.

Chapter 1: Manehattan Train Rain.

Lonesome feeling.

It was raining.

Twilight stood right there in the middle of the rain, her coat getting wet. She could use one of her protection spells to cover her body but she wasn’t sure how the world of the dream would react to her powers. It was surreal and yet it felt tangible. She was in the middle of a street in the biggest city of Equestria: Manehattan. Manehattan was well known for its many big districts full of skyscrappers and buildings that forced the ponies to look up until their necks hurt. There were so many buildings Twilight didn’t know where to start counting them. It was an endless forest of towers, rectangular giants made out of concrete and glass, raising proudly over the tiny ponies, looking down on them. The rain, while not busy or copious, was enough to freeze and form big puddles in the sidewalks and on the roads.

The roads had some carriages, and she was surprised to see other ponies pulling from them. Other ponies. Were there other ponies besides her and her friends inside Celestia’s dream? There were ponies on the sidewalks too! And inside the buildings. She could see their shadows through the windows and the rain. These ponies didn’t look normal though. Their bodies were pitch black and she couldn’t see where their legs joint to their bodies. They were...shadows. Shadows of ponies walking up and down the street leaving a trail of faded black behind them. She shivered, but it was more the freezing water than the creeping fear. She shook her head to get rid of the water in her mane. She felt really uncomfortable.

“I have to find the others.” she muttered.

She started galloping through the streets. At first she didn’t meet anyone she knew. The ponies on the sidewalks distracted her beyond her good judgement. When she tried to look at their faces they either look down or look to the side. What is this all about? thought Twilight, Why don’t they let me see their faces? She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind and kept galloping. Everything felt so real. The rain splattering her body, getting into her eyes, soaking her mane and tail. She stopped to catch some breath as she looked up. She was standing in the middle of a square. Big buildings stood on opposite sides of it making a hallway that divided in several ways, their facades covered with banners announcing new books and movies. But the banners were either blank or blurred out. It wasn’t the rain, she just couldn’t recognize anything. The carriages moved at a fast pace, leaving trails of white foamy water on the roads before they filled again. The streets were not that busy with ponies now, but she felt overwhelmed. As she looked up in the sky, eyes half-closed to prevent the water getting in them, she saw how cloudy it was. The clouds were of a dark grey she had never seen before, that of a menacing maw closing over-

“Twilight!”

A shout made her jump in place. She turned around to see Pinkie Pie. She was smiling. Her hair, once puffy and curly, was now flat. There were gushes of water falling down her mane which looked like a pink waterfall on the left side of her face..

“Pinkie!” said Twilight “I’m so happy to see you!”

“So, this is the dream, eh?” said Pinkie “This is so cool! It feels real, but I can also do this!”

Pinkie rose a hoof and pulled from her chin deforming her face like it was made out of clay. Her eye sockets and her mouth stretched to an unnatural length, as she rolled the skin on her chin and let her tongue hung loose. She then shook her head side to side.

“BLBLBLBLBL!”

Arching one eyebrow Twilight looked at Pinkie and held her head between her hoofs, making the skin return to normal with a smacking sound like something just slapped her on the face.

“Pinkie! We have to focus!” said Twilight “Besides, you can already do that in the real world.” she added “Come on, we have to find the others.”

Pinkie just shrugged and followed Twilight. Now that she was with somepony else she decided to slow down her pace and take things a bit more calmly. The big city could have her friends anywhere, and if she wanted to find them they better start moving and checking every possible way. She could ask Pinkie Pie for ideas, but she supposed talking to the pink pony would only get her to a dead end.. Despite being with her though, she was still afraid of those other “faceless” ponies. All of them doing the same thing: Hiding their faces; burying their muzzles between their fore legs; even the way their…even the way their coats looked like.

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks making Pinkie smash her head on her hind legs. The ponies, all of them, had the same fur color. They had different shapes, sizes, genders, and even hair styles or saddles, but they all had the same color. It was a sea of black and gray, moving in rivers around the city over the sidewalks. She shivered and this time it wasn’t for the rain. Who were those ponies? Was this a nightmare? Had they stepped directly into a nightmare?

“Twilight?” it was Pinkie “Twilight, are you alright? You look a bit…well, sickly pickly.”

Twilight didn’t listen. She was more concerned about what laid before her eyes right now. Oh no! She just realized what a major mistake she made. She should have asked Luna if they were stepping into a dream or into a nightmare. What if this was one? Those nightmares, those terrible nightmares where somepony was trying to get her, or where she was trapped and tied to the floor unable to move away from whoever was going to get her! Throughout her research in dreams she read those examples and more from a book, giving her quite a few sleepless nights. Were they in one now? She never read of nightmares depicting cities full of faceless ponies who all had the same color, but maybe she just found a new example! What if-

“You worry too much.”

The voice startled her so much she jumped high enough to fall on her face when she landed. She stood up, turned around and saw Luna. She had Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy on her sides. The three of them were soaked wet, like her and Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to care, but Luna and Fluttershy had their manes pulled back over their shoulders.

“P-Princess Luna.” said Twilight with the shadow of a stutter “What is going on here? Who are all these other ponies?”

Luna looked around before giving Twilight an answer. The violet coated pony felt a tightening knot of anticipation before hearing the answer. She was afraid of knowing who all of those ponies were. If they were not real ponies, then what were they? She shook those thoughts out of her head and focused on her surroundings to calm down, their sound engulfing her. The rain splattering. The pools of water were forming everywhere as the rain drops sprinkled on them. The sewers making a suction noise that echoed from their cavernous entrails.

“We should move to a more calm, drier place.” said Luna “Follow me.”

She sounded so calm. Her voice was full of confidence. It was calm and soothing and it transferred to Twilight. She welcomed the feeling more than she was willing to admit. Luna moved forwards on the lead as Twilight and her friends followed her. She wasn’t running, she was just trotting. Twilight had to frown at that behavior.

“Where were you three?” said Twilight to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“Caught up inside a building.” explained Rainbow Dash “It was locked from the outside; took us a while to get out. From there you guys were just a few steps away.”

“Oh...” Twilight said, before continuing “It seems Luna placed us all together around the same area of the dream.”

“Yeah! Pretty cool, huh!?” said Pinkie as she made a rolling step only to continue walking.

“I am so happy.” said Fluttershy with a touch of excitement in her voice “I’ve never been in Manehattan. It’s all so big!”

Twilight had to admit that the view was breath taking. She had never been in Manehattan either, and seeing those skyscrapers made her wonder how they were built and how much effort and pony hours of work were used on building them. Then a creeping fear of doubt crawled inside her head. That wasn’t real. She wasn’t really in Manehattan. They were not in Manehattan. For a few minutes she forgot that was a dream and not the real world. That was a dream, a dream they were put into to save the ruler of Equestria and her beloved teacher, Princess Celestia.

“Don’t forget this is not real.” said Twilight “Keep in mind, we are in a dream, and we have to rescue Princess Celestia.”

“That’s right.” said Luna from the lead “If you forget you are in a dream you can lose your grasp on reality. You may never be able to differentiate between dreams and reality anymore.”

The five ponies gave several replies, understanding that the situation was more severe than they first imagined. Twilight had no problems differentiating between reality and dreams and she had no problems trusting her friends to do the same. She finally saw where Luna was taking them. It looked like a coffee shop with a gorgeous street terrace with tables and covered by a big canopy. The canopy looked waterproof and was engraved red and golden embroideries of leafs and flowers. It was dry underneath, and the sidewalk seemed dry as well. With a sigh of relief for finally encountering some dry place to stay, Twilight shook her whole body to get rid of the water. Her tail and her mane were still wet, but at least her coat felt drier and less cold. Her friends shook off the water too and took sit at Luna’s table. Fluttershy squeezed her pink hair between her hoofs. Behind them the opened glass doors let the bright golden light come through. It felt like the light of a flame inside an oven. A breeze of air, warm and cozy, came from inside the coffee shop. It smelled like recently baked muffins. Twilight welcomed it as Pinkie bounced on her place sniffing the air with a hungry expression.

“Are those muffins!? OH! I WANT ONE! I WANT TWO! I WANT FIFTY!” the pink pony was over-excited.

Rainbow Dash placed a hoof on her shoulder and pulled her down from her bouncing with a comprehensive grin.

“Not now Pink.” said Dash with a friendly tone “Besides, I am sure if you eat in a dream it doesn’t feel that real, right Princess?”

She didn’t reply. Luna had a very serious semblance on her face. She wasn’t angry She was concerned and not by Pinkie Pie’s sudden burst of hunger. She looked at the five ponies, cleared her throat and then started talking.

“Well, it’s good to know we all arrived safe and sound. Now, to answer your question Twilight, the ponies you see here are not real.”

Not real. They were not real. Oh no, they are nightmares, nightmares! thought Twilight, panic taking over her gut with cold fingers.

“They are not nightmares either.” Luna added due to Twilight’s growing expression of panic “They are nothing but a representation of my sister’s subconscious. They don’t have faces, and they are all the same color because my sister makes no distinction when treating everypony. So there’s nothing to worry about Twilight, at least not yet.”

Twilight hated when those words showed up in conversations. “Yet”, “though”, “maybe”, “but”…They always meant something else had to be added, and it frequently was something really bad. She ventured and asked:

“Why not yet?” her voice sounded frailty.

“It has to do with how we will move in this dream.” said Luna “In the dreams, there’s nothing keeping us from doing whatever we want. In the dreams we are free. We can fly; we can run on the walls, we can imagine all sorts of creatures, scary and funny. In the dreams there are no barriers. The only barrier is our imagination. But when we are in other pony’s dream, and we start twisting the foundations of that dream, we can alert the subconscious, and this will turn hostile.”

“So, if we change the dream space, we get attacked.” said Twilight.

“We would have to change the dream space a lot in order to trigger the subconscious and make it attack us.” said Luna, as she lifted a cup of something that looked warm and sweet that wasn’t there before. She took a sip of it and placed it down on the table. “For example, making a cup of chocolate pop on my hoofs won’t alert my sister’s subconscious.”

“Then, where is the limit?” said Twilight.

“It depends on the dreamer.” said Luna “My sister is very strong and very calmed, so we really have to mess with this dream space beyond our imagination before her subconscious takes measures on its own hooves.”

They didn’t see Pinkie Pie stand up from the table and rush outside of the canopy. They saw a blur of pink bounce off the table and then Pinkie Pie was hopping up and down in the middle of the street, with a smile on her face and a mischievous look on her eyes.

“Oh! Oh! Does this mean we can do this!?” she said, as she turned around, her back to the coffee shop, looking directly at the skyline of buildings right before her.

Twilight got off the table and stood next to Pinkie Pie. The other ponies and Princess Luna looked at the scene from underneath the canopy. Pinkie was standing on her hind legs. How could she do that? thought Twilight. With her forelegs she started doing circles in the air, like she was making a pizza as her eyes focused on three buildings in the distance. A violent crackling sound snapped through the whole city. Something really long and steel made just snapped, cracked and bent in an unnatural way. The ground rumbled under their hooves. Twilight looked around for the source of the noise and the rumbling as she noticed that it was coming from the buildings in the background. They were moving.

Twilight saw three buildings, all of them more or less of the same size, rocking side to side on their bases like they were bowling pins. The buildings looked alive, trying to get out of their foundations and start walking. But instead of walking, the buildings began to…inflate. Twilight saw the windows bend in an impossible way for glass, without shattering as if heated up inside a furnace and then expanded by a glass blower. The sound they made was like scratching a piece of glass with a rock. The metal bent from the inside, pushed by an invisible force. The surface was flat, no wrinkles were formed on it. As the building inflated like party balloons, they began to float. They floated. The buildings didn’t look like buildings anymore, they were round on the top and thin at the base, like balloons. They elevated high, higher, high enough to almost touch the storm clouds, until they stopped anchored to the ground by a chain made from steel pipes. The chains snapped with a jolt of electrified energy, making the ground tremble from the sheer force the balloons pulled.

The three ballooned buildings stood there, floating for every projection to ignore. Twilight didn’t care for the projections though. She was awestruck by the sheer mind-blowing display of power her friend just made. Pinkie Pie got down on all fours again, breathing calmly and smiling, as she said, without looking at Twilight.

“That’s really cool, isn’t it?”

Twilight was taken by the surprise and awe, and just replied.

“Yeah…it’s something.” despite her amazement she scolded Pinkie for such actions “But Pinkie, you can’t go around the dream altering it at your will. You don’t want the Princess’ subconscious to attack us, right?”

“Okie Dokie Lokie! I won’t do it again!” said Pinkie Pie and then proceeded to make her signature swear “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”

Expansive complications.

All Twilight took from Pinkie’s display was that the projections didn’t even care for how she just bent the dream space. If they didn’t care for such alteration of their world they were safe. After that they left the coffee shop and walked down the street. Even though it was clearing out the rain was still annoying. The street they were walking on had buildings on one side and a river on the other. The river was wild, it roared and boiled with the storm. The waves sailed over the railings and splashed the road. The few ships that were tied to shore rocked so hard against the rocks that Twilight thought they would crack like walnuts. The sound they made scared Twilight. She could feel the crunches of the wood in her guts.

Luna was now running at her fullest. Twilight knew the only way to find Celestia was using her own magic to detect the Princess’ magic field. Being the one held captive under this dream her magic energy would have levels higher than usual, making her a beacon they couldn’t see, but feel. Twilight was running as fast as she could, pointing with her glowing horn at every alleyway and road they passed by. Nothing. She felt all her efforts were getting them nowhere. Luna stopped dead in her tracks and turned to the four mares. She looked as exhausted as all her concern and frustration could let through.

“This is getting us nowhere.” said Luna “We have to split up. Two groups will cover more ground than just one.”

“Good idea!” said Rainbow Dash.

“Twilight…” said Luna “…you and Pinkie Pie continue going down this street. Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and myself will get into the alleyways.”

The alleyways? Twilight didn’t know about Manehattan as much as Luna did, but she knew that the alleyways of that city could be treacherous, to say the least. There was a literal labyrinth of twists and turns, dead ends and most frequently, doors that led to walls or houses that never got finished. It was quite disturbing, according to the reports she found in her library. Maybe in the dream world things would be toned down…or enhanced. Twilight felt compelled to share her concern.

“Are you sure of that Luna?” said Twilight.

“Don’t worry, we will be fine.” said Luna “If we get into trouble, we will get inside one of the houses and wait until everything calms down.”

Twilight said nothing. She just nodded and gave her best confident look at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. She nodded and winked at them as a show of trust, but in her deepest she felt they were never coming back. She blamed herself for having such negative thoughts. What would they think of her if they could hear what she was thinking? Before she could even notice Luna, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash disappeared inside an alleyway. She stood there in the middle of the rain looking at the alleyway for a while before turning around and kept on trotting.

***

The rain was now less copious than before, thinner in quantity but the size of the drops was outstanding. Twilight had her mane flat and stuck to her body, and so did Pinkie Pie. Her mane wasn’t puffy anymore, it was flat and stuck to her neck, face and body. Even looking like that her cheerful mood remained unscathed..

“What now!? What now!?” she said while jumping.

“Now, we keep looking.” said Twilight.

“Oooh, I love that game! I am going to look as hard as I can!”

She didn’t say more as she started prancing down the road. Twilight still had shivers from the rain, the faceless ponies, and the overall feel of that dream. It wasn’t because it felt out of place or wrong. It felt so real that she couldn’t believe she was asleep. She kept running, Pinkie bouncing behind her and often to her side. That Pinkie Pie! She could be faster than Rainbow Dash with just a few bounces. Twilight felt relieved to be with her. Despite all her unpredictability she was a really loyal friend.

It was during one of those inner trains of thoughts she was having when she realized there was something in the distance, shining. She saw a mare, about 500 meters away from them, walking with quite a haughty pace. Head straight up, her legs were longer than the regular pony’s and her coat of a pure white like snow. But it was the hair what caught Twilight’s attention, the mane and the tail. It shined brightly with the colors of the Aurora Boreal. A warm feeling filled her gut, her horn spurted a few sparks and then it glowed with a purple haze. She loved when that happened.

“There she is…” said Twilight unconsciously “She’s there. Pinkie! She’s there! I’ve found her!”

There was no doubt about it. She started galloping towards the Princess. Pinkie followed her as fast as she could. Twilight could see Princess Celestia walking towards some sort of building. It had hidden in between taller sky-scrapers and it had a pointy roof top. Twilight identified it as a clock tower. Her questions about what was a clock tower doing in the middle of a city were silenced by Pinkie’s voice.

“Oh, you found it! You found it! Whatcha find!? Please say a Diabolo, please say a Diabolo!”

“Pinkie! We are not looking for something! We are looking for Princess Celestia! And I just happened to spot her! Come on!” Twilight felt a bit upset about her friend’s light-headed attitude.

“Oooh, you’re right, you’re right. Sorry Twi” she sounded apologetic “I won’t do it again” and kept galloping…Only to stop five seconds later “Oh!”

Twilight rolled her eyes

“What now?” said Twilight, trying to hide the anger in her voice.

Pinkie Pie had stopped and sat down in the middle of the rainy street. She was holding her tail between her fore hooves. It was twitching. Not just a normal twitch but an uncontrollable twitch. Pinkie was amazed by it. She looked at her tail like that was the first time she saw that.

“Twitchy Twitch!” said Pinkie Pie “Something’s gonna to fall!”

Twilight groaned and just kept galloping.

“Give me a break, Pinkie. Come one!”

“Twilight! I thought you’d believe me!” complained Pinkie.

“I do. But this is not the real world, this is a dream and I doubt that your “Pinkie sense” works in here.”

She passed a hoof over her face and then over her ear to remove the wet mane hair from it. She couldn’t believe she found Celestia. At least, she hoped it was her. They galloped past next to what looked like a post office. It had a big sign shaped like an envelope hanging over the door, more faceless ponies waiting outside. She shivered just looking at them. But she didn’t mind. She will get away from them in just mere minutes.

“Who says it won’t work?” said Pinkie quite upset “There’s no rules! It’s like what I did with those buildings!”

“Oh please Pinkie! We have bigger issues here! I just saw Princess Celestia and we are going to miss her because of you!”

“Me? I’m not gonna miss her! I’m gonna miss you! Or…I’m not? Am I not gonna? Huh…” Pinkie talked to herself until her speech turned into a mumble.

There we go again, she thought. Why did Pinkie have to be so random? And why was she doing that wheezing sound? No. No, that wasn’t Pinkie. It wasn’t so much as wheezing as it was cutting through the air. It sounded like something big and heavy falling from the sky. She stopped galloping, not because she was out of breath. She stopped out of fear as she looked down and noticed the shadow of something rectangular right where she was. The worst part was that the shadow was growing bigger as the wheezing sound was getting louder.

Pinkie looked up. Her mouth hung open as she saw what looked like a rectangular shaped object falling right over them. It was close enough for her to notice the heavy wheels, the triangular shape of one of the rectangle’s sides, and the complex maze of tubes and pipes underneath it.

“TWILIGHT!”

But the violet pony didn’t reply. She was paralyzed with fear and confusion. Her legs didn’t answer to her impulse of running or just jumping away.

“WATCH OUT!”

Pinkie jumped. She didn’t think. She didn’t consider the options or the risks. She just leaped forwards like a frog, caught Twilight between her forelegs and pulled her away just in time before impact. Twilight heard the deafening impact when they landed on the sidewalk. It was so potent she could only hear a metallic clank, followed by the clattering noise of pipes colliding between each other. Her ears were stuffed now, shut close to protect the eardrums. She stood up. Pinkie was talking but she couldn’t hear her. She sounded really happy though, probably because she just saved Twilight’s life. She was worried, she was shocked, and she was definitely panicking. Right before her, blocking the road and their way to find Celestia, was a train engine, crushed and smashed, smoke and steam coming from beneath the mechanism. The cockpit was destroyed and there was coal lying all over the place. The sidewalk and the road sunk a few meters because of the impact, forming a crater shaped like the engine itself. The rain fell over it making a tinkering noise, like a kid playing with chopsticks on a tin can.

Twilight walked towards it, limping. She sprained one of her legs when Pinkie jumped to get her out of the way. Pinkie herself, once happy and relieved for saving her friend, was really startled, and her beaming smile was gone. She looked at the engine with the same abject terror-filled eyes as Twilight.

“This wasn’t supposed to be here.” said Pinkie “There’re no train tracks!” she then turned to Twilight “Twilight? What’s…going…on?”

Twilight couldn’t reply. She just moved her mouth without making noise, as she noticed something even more terrifying. It wasn’t the train engine, or anything coming out of it. She realized that the projections, those of Celestia’s subconscious, had stopped moving. They didn’t walk. They didn’t pull carriages. Worst of all, they didn’t hide their faces anymore. Their faces were black and empty except for two pure white, empty, judging eyes. And there were hundreds of them looking at Twilight and Pinkie, judging in silence, accusing. Blaming.

***

The rooftops had turned the alleyways into a jungle of artificial waterfalls. Anywhere they looked Luna, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy only saw streams of water falling from the roofs, splattering on the sidewalk and making sounds like rocks crunching. Dash was flying over them as Luna and Fluttershy just kept on their pace with a steady trotting. Luna questioned her own decision of going into the alleyways. Sure it was a fast way to cut through the city, but it also meant that they would have to get through very small passages. If they were caught by something or somepony, the fight could get pretty nasty.

“See anything Rainbow Dash?” said Luna.

“Nothing.” said Dash “At least nopony that looks like Princess Celestia.”

“I feel nothing either.” mumbled Luna to herself.

Her horn was glowing with a purple light, warming her forehead. The rain that made contact with it evaporated with a chirruping sound and a small trail of steam. She couldn’t sense anything but Twilight Sparkle about 3 kilometers away from her group. They moved a Great distance since they split up, she didn’t even notice. Her whole focus was on finding her sister.

“Wait, wait…” she had to stop “I’m out…out of breath…”

Fluttershy stopped but Rainbow Dash moved forwards.

“I’ll check around the place and then come back!” she said before disappearing behind a rooftop.

Luna didn’t realize how tired she was until she stopped. Her heart was pounding her chest so hard she felt it was going to jump out of it. The rain cooled her flank and her legs, and if it wasn’t for it they would be burning hot. She looked at Fluttershy. The little Pegasus pony was making Great efforts to keep her mane organized and away from her eyes. Luna had no problem though, she had short hair falling before her eyes.

“Here, let me help you.” said Luna, removing the hair from Fluttershy’s eyes in one expert move of her hoof.

Fluttershy smiled and looked at Luna to thank her. Instead she gasped. Luna didn’t see what made Fluttershy gasp but in the next couple of seconds all she could feel was Fluttershy bumping over her and pinning her to the ground. Luna’s face went right into a puddle. She was about to shout at Fluttershy when a beaming ball of fire crossed over their heads and impacted right where Luna was standing a few seconds ago.

***

“Why are they doing this?” said Pinkie.

Those eyes. White, empty. There was no way to get a response from them. But the worst thing was that they were not moving. What were they waiting for? What were they planning for her and Pinkie Pie, and why? Twilight wanted to talk, but she also wanted to run away from there. The creeping feel of doubt between both options paralyzed her.

She felt her panic rising when she heard Pinkie’s voice. The pink pony sounded both worried and scared. It probably was the engine that startled her and she was just getting over it and those pony projections didn’t help. Before Twilight could say another word a second explosive crash could be heard on their left. Twilight saw a trail of smoke and the side of a train wagon sprouting from a house’s roof. The roof was smashed beyond repair, the other side of the wagon cracked the external wall of the house and Twilight could see the seats through it.

“Is that a wagon!?” said Pinkie “Twilight! But what is th-!?”

Before they could get over the second impact they were cut off cold by the loudest sound Twilight had ever heard. It was a stream of cluttering noise, metal groaning and twisting, bending and shrieking, glass breaking and wood snapping. She didn’t took long to find the origin of this noise. Looking up she felt like Celestia herself opened the skies and let loose a rain of destruction. But it wasn’t water what rained anymore. It was trains. Engines, wagons, coal carts, and they all looked like they belonged to some kind of fair or variety show. Colorful roofs and sides covered in logos and pictures. The wagons crashed in a ball of splinters, or sometimes made a hole in the road with chunks of rock flying all over the place.

“What’s going on Twilight!?” screamed Pinkie Pie to make herself be heard over the roaring thunder of the train rain.

“You tell me!” said Twilight screaming at the top of her voice.

“I am not doing this!” said Pinkie clearly upset of the accusation “I promised!”

Twilight wasn’t up for arguing especially with Pinkie Pie. She had to find a way to get out of there before one of those carts or wagons or train engines fell over their heads. She could try climbing over the engine, or jump into the river. But the engine was quite big (even sunk into the ground) and the river was still rocking like a wild animal, bound and tied. A cart fell a few meters away from where they were, sending a cloud of splinters in their direction. Twilight hid her face under one of her legs.

“We’ve got to get out of here!” said Twilight.

Pinkie furrowed her brow looking at Twilight. She considered not getting Twilight out of there. What kind of friend was she to doubt her like that? The sting of doubt sparked within her, only to be extinguished by her newly acquired sense for stopping and thinking about it. Twilight was just scared. She was scared and her reaction was logical. Pinkie knew how to get them out of there. She directed her eyes to the engine.

“Twilight!” yelled Pinkie.

Twilight looked at Pinkie and then to where Pinkie was looking. She saw the engine twisting and bloating in an impossible way. It was like the metal turned into molten sugar and the machine dissolved in a small area before her very eyes. In the blink of an eye a gaping hole appeared in the engine, big enough for two ponies to walk through. The edges were glistening from the heat but the rain cooled them down.

“Through there! Quick!”

Pinkie and Twilight crossed the hole before a wagon fell on the spot where they had been standing a few seconds before, collapsing over the holed up train engine. Pinkie and Twilight galloped while dodging the falling carts. One impacted over a house left to Twilight. The front collapsed like a castle of cards and pieces of concrete and glass flew into Twilight’s path. She jumped over them and dodged a wood beam that crashed on her right.

“Watch out!!!” shouted Pinkie at one particularly large wagon that landed right before them.

The wagon was pretty long and it didn’t look like one of the others that were falling from the sky. It was silver colored and had red and yellow stripes all over its surface. It was made of metal. Twilight refused making sense out of the situation as she jumped inside with the intention of crossing through it. If they had some cover they might avoid getting injured. The inside was covered in seats that had been ripped off their base, glass shards and metal planks. Twilight could see the rain of trains falling through the windows. A clang made Twilight raise her head and look behind her, keeping up her galloping.

“What’s tha-!?”

Her sentence was cut off clean when she saw the wagon section right behind them just got crushed, flattened like a piece of paper.

“Oh hayseed… RUN!!!”

Pinkie felt her lungs were going to burst. She wasn’t used to galloping and she had never done so much until that moment. Her hooves felt chipped and tired, but she couldn’t stop. Another clang as another section got crushed. Twilight felt oil spluttering behind her staining her flank. It was hot, but not burning. She kept galloping, the exit a few meters away from them. As a last effort they both jumped, extending their forelegs and getting through the door. They then saw the giant hand made out of the sidewalk, crushing the train with its fingers. The wagon looked more like a paper cylinder crushed and crunched beyond recognition.

“Oh dear…” was the only thing Twilight could say to express her confusion.

She looked up in the sky as she noticed the rain was clearing. No trains or water seemed to fall anymore from the sky. She couldn’t believe what just happened. She had to ask…The others. Luna, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, were they in danger? The alleyways, she had to get to the alleyways.

“Luna…Quick! Pinkie, we have to find them!” she shouted.

She galloped as fast as her exhausted legs allowed her. Pinkie took one last concerned look at the destructed scenery. Train carts sprouting on the sidewalks, on the houses, on the roads, even on the river. They crushed bridges and other carts. The projection ponies that were not looking at her were trying to crawl their way from underneath all those machines. Smoke leaped from within their dead mechanisms, dirt, rocks and stones were scattered all over the ground, with basically half the houses, stores and restaurants reduced to rubble. She gulped down with sadness and contempt, as she galloped in the way Twilight left, deep into the alleyways.

* * *

When Luna and Fluttershy stood up from the ground they looked up and saw a pony standing on the roof. It looked like any other pony, with the four legs and the body shaped like a bean. But it wasn’t a pony. He was a stallion, from the size of his body and the shape of his muzzle. But he wasn’t a stallion either. His body was made of cogs and gears like the inside of a watch. The legs had three hydraulic mechanisms. The head looked like that of a real pony, with a smoking tube in the center of his forehead.

Before Luna could comprehend what she was seeing she heard the sound of metallic hooves clattering on the sidewalk behind them. Three more of those Mechanized Stallions, all of them with tubes on their foreheads. They looked like fake unicorns, or grown up kids playing at being a unicorn. She found it silly, until they started blasting. The Mechanized Stallion right above them fired another flaming ball as Luna pushed Fluttershy back down the alleyway.

“What are those?” said Fluttershy.

“I have no idea.” said Luna “Dodge!”

One of the three Stallions at ground level in the alleyway shot a lightning ball. It sparked the walls and made bricks explode. The water evaporated under the electric current. Luna charged another lightning ball within her horn to shot it back at them. Luna’s lightning attack was stronger. It fused with the Stallion’s and sent it back to the attacker. The Stallion was propelled backwards by his own attack and then exploded in a jumble of scrape metal.

The Stallion on the roof tops sent a barrage of fireballs, smaller ones but equally Powerful, that scattered a line of holes around Luna and Fluttershy. One of those hit the yellow Pegasus pony on her right foreleg. Fluttershy shrieked with a broken voice and fell on the ground, her leg flexed against her chest due to the pain. Luna pushed her behind a set of concrete steps to cover her from the intense fire as she shot back at the Stallion on the rooftops. She sent another lightning bolt, but the Stallion dodged it.

“He’s mine!!!”

Rainbow Dash’s voice came from the distance as Luna saw a zipping multicolored trail of light. Then she heard a clang and a punch, and the next thing she saw was the Stallion falling from the roof and onto the ground. His mechanical legs detached from his body and flew in different directions. A thick, gooey liquid sprayed the ground leaving a brown stain in the middle of the rain pools. Luna saw Rainbow Dash landing behind the other two Stallions. The blue Pegasus pony jumped over one of them and kicked him in the head, making him shoot a fireball to his partner. The Stallion exploded in a ball of smoke and refuse that then caught fire and sent Rainbow Dash against a wall. Luna fired another round of lightning balls to destroy the remaining Stallion.

Dash stood up and galloped to Luna and Fluttershy, feeling a little dizzy. Her mane smelled like she just stuck her head inside a fireplace. The yellow Pegasus had her right leg covered in bruises and scratches. Some of them were bleeding but not too much. It looked more annoying than painful.

“Fluttershy, are you alright?” said Luna, concerned in her watery eyes.

“Yes, I think so.” said Fluttershy “It doesn’t…hurt or anything. It feels kind of, well, numb.”

“We need to find a house to take refuge, we are not safe here.”

“No! Really!?” said Rainbow “What the hay were those things!? Those weren’t like the other Projections! Those were armed, for Pete’s sake!”

“No, they are-WATCH IT!!!” Luna called just in time to jump and get Rainbow Dash out of the way as two fireballs appeared out of nowhere, zipping over their heads. The fireballs hit the building right behind them overthrowing it against the building opposite to it on the alleyway, cutting their only escape route.

They looked at the place of origin of the fireballs and saw three figures. They were taller, they looked stronger, and aside from the steaming pipes on their foreheads acting like horns, they had wings made of thin tinfoil and steel. They were not moving; their bodies spelled tufts of steam that looked like their manes and tails. Rainbow was hesitating, her hind legs twitching in the indecision between jumping and waiting. Luna moved to Fluttershy and hopped her on her back between the wings. That didn’t seem to upset those Mechanical Alicorns. She moved close to a door and kicked it open with her hind legs. At the sound of the splinting wood the Alicorns started shooting at them. Their piped horns blasted an array of fireballs that destroyed windows, doors and brick walls. One of the houses had its wall collapse over the sidewalk with a rumbling thunder.

Luna threw Fluttershy inside the building and stood in the middle of the alleyway to return fire. Fluttershy felt her head throbbing with pain and a sheer feel of burning. Her eyes were moist, about to burst in tears. Rainbow Dash lifted from the ground and ran over the wall to avoid the relentless fire from one of the Alicorns who seemed focused on her. Behind her windows, flowerpots, roof tiles and other debris exploded and splattered to the ground. She landed next to the Alicorn and threw an uppercut to his chin that made his head spin in place. Rainbow saw the tubes going from the head down the neck and how these snapped and twisted, sending jets of sickly brown oil in a circle. The Alicorn fell to the ground in between spasms and shakes as his joints caught fire and exploded.

* * *

Twilight had no problems finding the alleyway Luna and her team was. The spectacle of fire and lightning could be seen from miles away, and the crackling of the buildings at how they collapsed by the magic attacks was even louder than the snaps of electricity and the roars of the fire. Pinkie and Twilight turned around another corner as they jumped to each side of the alleyway to avoid a loose fireball that crossed between them. A thick smell like burnt hair filled their nostrils.

They were behind two Mechanic Alicorns, and in the distance they could see Luna standing against them with her magic. Rainbow Dash was fighting another of the Alicorns in the ground, he had his head twisted and a brown liquid sprouted underneath his neck.

“Rainbow!” shouted Twilight.

Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight, happy to see her and Pinkie. She was about to smile when all of a sudden something fell on her. Her face smashed against the ground as she felt the metallic taste of blood coating her teeth and her tongue. The metallic hooves of another Alicorn that came out of nowhere stung her wings and her forelegs. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t even turn her head around to see who attacked her.

Fluttershy dragged herself outside until half of her body was out. She saw Rainbow Dash pinned down, the Alicorn pointing his piped horn right at her face. She could even see the multicolored mane of her friend catching fire on the tips from the heat.

“Rainbow…Rainbow, Luna. Luna!” shouted Fluttershy “Luna!”

Luna was sweating and her eyes were twitching. She had a lightning bolt charged and ready to blast that Alicorn as she dodged and flickered the other attacks, but she couldn’t shoot. Rainbow Dash was too close; she would just get fried in the process.

“I can’t!” screamed Luna “Rainbow Dash is too close, it will hit her too!”

Luna licked her lips, her legs were quivering from the mental exhaustion and her own energy draining from the extensive use of magic. Fluttershy looked back at her friend. Her eyes were on fire, her brain burning like a piece of coal. What could she do? What!? I am so useless, she thought. If I could use the stare to push him away from Rainbow. If only I could…But before she could finish her thoughts, her view got obstructed by a blinding white light. Everything before her turned white as she felt a warmth spreading all over her face.

Twilight saw Fluttershy popping her head from inside one of the buildings. She was going to shout her friend to take cover as she charged another fireball spell, when she saw the eyes of the Pegasus pony turning white. The pupils and the iris disappeared, as a burning beam of white light came from them, crossing through the Mechanized Alicorn’s body and turning him into ash. Twilight used this momentary distraction to charge against the other two Alicorns. Pinkie opened a hole under one of them and Twilight released her charged up fireball against the face of the second one.

Fluttershy blinked, trying to clear her view. When it finally did clear, the Alicorn that used to be on top of Rainbow Dash had banished, as well as another one of them. The last one was a burning carcass lying under Twilight’s hooves.

Luna was staring at Fluttershy with her mouth opened in a surprised gesture.

“Fluttershy that was incredible.” said Luna.

Twilight’s voice came from the end of the alleyway and it sounded with a ghostly echo.

“PRINCESS, LOOK OUT!!!”

Luna turned around too late. She didn’t notice the other four Mechanized Alicorns approaching them from behind, two flying and two trotting. They were not fooling around anymore, they were shooting at them with everything they got and not just magic spells. The four Alicorns spread their wings and Luna, who was the closest, could see small vents inside them. They all ignited and exploded in a blast of fire as a storm of spears flew right against them. Fluttershy closed the door and threw her body to the ground, just in time to see the spears stick to the door frame. They were long like swords, with dented edges and sharp. Smoke came from them as the tips of the dents glowed with red incandescence.

Twilight acted as quickly as her instincts allowed her. She casted a shield spell and covered all of her friends in a protective bubble made out of magic energy and air. That would be enough to deflect the spears or, if they got through her barrier, slow them down enough to reduce damage. The spears cut through the air with an eerie whoosh. Twilight dispelled the barrier and galloped with all her might against the Alicorns. She forgot her pain. She forgot the risks of doing something so irresponsible. All she cared for now was to destroy the remaining Mechanized Alicorns. She didn’t charge one fireball spell, she charged three at the same time.She leaped on the wall and pushed herself up with her legs getting over the enemies and directing her horn downwards.

“This ends, NOW!!!” she shouted as she released the three fireballs with an uncharacteristic rage.

The fireballs exploded the sidewalk with an unimaginable force. The paving stones flew up and then fell, burying what was left of the Mechanized Alicorns, as quietness reigned again over the alleyway. The impact of passing from chaos to silence startled her. Twilight turned around, her mouth dry and completely out of breath. She could taste the fire in her mouth, all over and under the tongue. She was so desperate for a drink she lowered her mouth and sipped some of the water on the floor. When she talked her voice sounded raspy.

“Everypony alright!? Fluttershy?”

“I am fine, I…am fine” said Fluttershy showing up at the door.

“Pinkie!” shouted Twilight to the end of the alleyway.

“I’m okay!” said Pinkie “Rainbow Dash’s alright too! She just lost a tooth!” she added as she helped her friend to stand up.

“Luna...”

Twilight didn’t get an answer from Luna. She didn’t need it either. The Princess was standing right next to her. Luna had her coat covered in dust and dirt, and her hoofs were coated in a thick layer of mud. Her once regal figure was now trying to stand up with difficulty. Her eyes were red and the fur around them was covered in dirt. She had her right fore hoof over her chest and she was pulling from something. A spear, sharp and dented like a shark’s jaw was stuck right in the union between the neck and her clavicle. Twilight gasped a scream in her mouth as the Princess yanked the spear out of her body, a spurt of blood spraying on the floor.

“I need your help Twilight…don’t you think?” said Luna before tumbling to her left and collapsing on the sidewalk.

Excruciating blame.

The building’s door was closed shut as Twilight added more locks and chains to it to make sure. Lying on the floor were Fluttershy and Luna. Fluttershy was okay. Her hoof was just scraped and she wasn’t bleeding anymore. Luna however was bleeding profusely and it didn’t seem to stop. Rainbow Dash was checking every window making sure nothing was coming on their way, as Pinkie Pie kept pressing on Luna’s wound to stop the bleeding.

“This can’t get any worse.” said Twilight.

“Don’t!” said Rainbow Dash, her mouth stinging from the lost tooth “Every time you say that, things get worse, so don’t say it…again.”

Luna sighed on the floor. She had enough strength to talk, even if it was in a weak thread of a voice.

“Twilight, what h-h-happened to you? Did you find m-my…my sister?”

Twilight forgot about that. She did see Princess Celestia. She saw her going towards a clock tower in the middle of the city. Twilight decided to give Luna the pieces of information one by one.

“We did see Celestia, but as soon as we started galloping towards her we got blocked by a train rain.”

“Train rain!?” said Rainbow Dash from one of the windows.

“Yeah! It’s like a rain, but with trains!” said Pinkie Pie bouncing on the spot.

“That’s not important right now!” said Twilight, and then turning to Luna she added “What’s going on here? Who’s doing all this?”

“Yeah, this makes no sense. You said her mind would attack us if we messed with her dreams, but we did nothing! And there’s no way Pinkie’s ballooned buildings caused this reaction!”

“Thank you Dashie!” said Pinkie with a big smile.

“You…” it hurt to talk, it was like having needles inside her lungs. Luna gasped and made an effort to raise her voice as she talked “You are right, this is something else…This is not my sister’s subconscious.”

“Then who the hay is doing all this!?” Rainbow Dash sounded more than angry. There were touches of fear in her tone.

“Whoever…wh-whoever is controlling my sister and keeping h-h-her under this sleeping spell is also controlling the dreaming space, and has filled it with an army of projections ready to kill us. That explains the rain of trains and…Th-Those mechanized ponies.”

“Kill us…” repeated Rainbow Dash, before a smile appeared on her face “Well, that’s not so bad, I mean…” she even found funny how a few minutes ago she was about to get her head blasted by that mechanic alicorn. It would be an awesome way to wake up, she thought “…If we die here we’ll just wake up, and all we’ve got to do is fall asleep again, right?”

“N-No…” Luna’s answer hit them right in the stomach “It won’t work that way…N-Not under these circumstances.”

Those words hit them harder than the rain of trains and the fireball blasts from the Mechanized Alicorns.

“What!?” they all joined at that scream, even Fluttershy, who stood up with a spring.

“What are you talking about Luna?” Twilight forgot the ranks for a moment and ignored using the “Princess” title in that sentence. She felt like something was twisting her guts, tightly enough to make her face contort in a painful expression.

“Yeah! What the hay are you saying? If we die we wake up. You told us!” shouted Rainbow Dash, as the all-too-familiar feeling of betrayal extended all over her body.

“This is…is a very, very Powerful individual. If this pony can control the dream space like this and send projections to kill us, it can certainly control the destiny of our minds when we die in this dream and before they return to our bodies.”

A silence crept inside the building, five endless seconds during which the rain and the creaking of the foundation were the only protagonists.

“Meaning…” said Rainbow Dash.

“If we die, whoever is controlling this will take our minds and drag them into Limbo.”

Twilight felt the cold fingers of fear grasping her spine and sinking her stomach into the abyss of panic. She knew of Limbo, it was explained in the books she had been reading during her studies in dreams. The prospect of that was terrifying.

“Limbo?” Fluttershy’s voice sounded lower than usual, taken by the trepidation.

“What is that?” even Rainbow Dash sounded filled with fear.

“Oh! I love Limbo! Limbo is the funniest dance ever! Can I be the first!?” Pinkie Pie didn’t change her usual attitude. Even in the worst situations she was still being Pinkie Pie.

Twilight looked at Pinkie so angry and so severely that the Pink pony just backed up and sat down with guilt written all over her face. She poked at her puffy hair to distract herself, as Twilight stepped forwards to explain.

“It’s nothing.” she said “Limbo is literally nothing; pure, raw, infinite and empty dream space. The place where we go when we don’t have dreams.”

Rainbow Dash was angry now, not annoyed nor upset, but angry. She looked at both Twilight and Princess Luna. Her wound was now dark around the edges and even though the bleeding was lesser there seemed to be no way of stopping the hemorrhage.

“You knew this too!?” said Rainbow to Twilight “You knew all along and said nothing to us!?”

“Rainbow-” started Twilight.

“Cut it with the Rainbow! We stepped into this dream risking our minds, and we didn’t know it! You lied to us!” she said alternating between Luna and Twilight.

“I am doing this for my Sister!” Luna shouted and this caused her to start coughing. Some blood drops fell on the floor “I wasn’t expecting hostile presence; I wasn’t expecting this pony to have such Powerful magic.”

“Great…” Rainbow finally gave up arguing and accepted the facts, but not without adding her own drops of bitter snark “So, we’re trapped inside Princess Celestia’s dream, assaulted by this super Powerful subconscious, facing somepony who can turn a building into a pony cruncher, and if we die our minds go down the drain all the way to Limbo until they become boiled clouds.”

“…I am so sorry.” was the only thing Luna could say.

“You will if we die.” sentenced Rainbow Dash before turning around and returning to look through the windows.

Twilight approached Luna. The bleeding didn’t stop. They had to find a way to stop it before she bled out alive.

“Can’t we create a medical kit to fix you?” said Twilight.

Luna smiled shyly and weakly.

“Even if we could, the wound is quite deep. In the real world, I would need surgery. I think it…I can’t remember what artery it was, but I think it’s severed.” the Princess looked at Twilight with a mix of impotence and fear in her eyes “I am not getting out of this Twilight. You and I know it.”

“Luna…” Twilight didn’t know what to say. She had to focus. Nothing was lost, not yet. They still had to find Celestia and bring her back, they could still do that. With all her determination, Twilight talked to Luna “Luna, we can still continue with the plan.”

Her friends looked at her, and Rainbow Dash left the window to go back with them.

“Girls, we can keep going with the plan. All we have to do is go get Celestia from inside that clock tower she went into. It’s just a few hundreds of meters away from here. Rainbow, have you seen any hostile projections out there?”

“Nothing. They are either hiding or this pony ran out of them.” said Rainbow Dash.

“Alright. We go get Celestia, and we activate The Fall. We have more than enough time to get out of this dream before Luna bleeds out. Now come on guys! Let’s move!”

Placing them deeper.

They left the building in a circular formation. Pinkie Pie helped Luna to walk, while Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Twilight stood on the front. The alleyway seemed calmed now, the remains of the previous battle still smoking. The rubble cracked under their hooves. Twilight checked if the main road was empty. The train wagons and the engines were still there, but everything seemed calm. The normal projections, those of white eyes and blackish coats, were still looking at them, but they didn’t attack. Twilight was surprised at how calm and laid back Celestia’s real subconscious was.

“All clear, come on!” Twilight whispered. She thought it would make no difference to whisper or to shout, but her instinct made her whisper anyways.

The five ponies moved as swiftly as they could, with the calm only ruptured by the occasional thunder in the distance. As they left the river behind Twilight looked at the clock tower standing fearful and tiny compared to the other bigger and taller buildings. She had the feeling that wasn’t in the original city of Manehattan. It felt like somepony placed it there for some reason. She asked Luna.

“Luna, is this familiar to you?”

Luna lifted her head. Her neck popped with a painful crack as she looked up. Having her head hanging between her shoulders wasn’t such a good idea. She felt so weak, her mouth tasting like liquid copper. When she saw the building a warm feel of nostalgia flowed inside her body, warming her cold hooves. She recognized the clock tower. The symbols carved in the golden planks, the architecture so rich in its details.

“It’s…our mother’s clock.” said Luna “We used to hide in it when we played hide and seek.”

“Well, that’s a huge clock for a house!” said Pinkie Pie arching one of her eyebrows.

“It’s...In the real world is s...smaller.” explained Luna “My sister’s subconscious must have brought it for her to hide inside, like we did when we were young.”

Fillies giggling. Twilight could hear them all around her. She could feel them running around her, but she couldn’t see them. Was Luna bringing a memory into that dream? Was the clock doing that to her? If it was something related to Luna’s and Celestia’s childhood, it was there for just one purpose: It was a shelter. Celestia was definitely in there. Once the creeping sound of the fillies faded, Twilight got close to the clock tower’s door. It was wonderfully detailed, pictures and engravings of moon cycles, constellations, different representations of seasons and months. There was even a world map of Equestria drawn on the door’s blades. Twilight placed a hoof on it, but it didn’t budge. It was shut solid.

“Let…Let me…” said Luna.

The Princess got off Pinkie Pie’s back, and walked pitifully towards the door. She looked up, the water drops falling over her face and rolling down her cheeks. They had so many moments together inside that clock. They kept hiding inside until they were so big not even their legs could get inside. She only had to place one hoof on its surface and the door creaked open, a sliver of golden light coming from the inside. The doors moved away and allowed the five mares to step inside.

Twilight expected something more complex for a clock tower, but all she found was one single column in the middle of the building that stored the mechanism and a staircase that circled around it. It wasn’t too high, just four stories of any normal building in Manehattan. Going back to Pinkie’s side, Luna rested her body on top of the Pink pony’s with a heavy sigh. Pinkie had a red stain on her coat. They had to hurry.

“My sister must be all the way up.” said Luna.

They stepped inside as the doors remained open. Twilight moved in first, her horn glowing with a lightning attack always ready. She would make no mistakes again. Rainbow Dash covered her back as they walked up the staircase with their hearts pounding hard enough for them to hear it. It was even more audible than their hoofs clattering on the metal staircase. The mechanism made a clasp sound and one set of cogs started rolling, hammering away as the gears turned. Twilight didn’t know what that meant, only that it startled her enough to make her jump.

“You have to stop being such a scared pony.” joked Rainbow Dash.

They finally arrived at the highest level of the tower. There the floor made a circular shape and there was a railing on the edges. The floor was made out of a metallic grid, Twilight could see the bottom and the inside pf the mechanism through it. But she ignored all that when she saw the white body lying on the floor, the multicolored mane flat over the floor, lifeless.

“Oh no…” was the only thing Twilight could say.

She trotted towards her teacher as Pinkie left Luna on the floor and checked on her wound. It looked worse than bad. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy went with Twilight to check on Princess Celestia. Luna stood up and dragged herself next to her sister. She had to see if she was okay, she needed to see it. She was lying there, why would she be lying there? She wasn’t dead, oh please, oh please, don’t let her be dead. Her head was at boiling point with thoughts flying left and right, none of them good.

“She is asleep.” said Twilight.

Her words hit Luna like a bucket of freezing water. It wasn’t as bad as dead, but it wasn’t good news either. She laid down on the floor next to her sister. She looked so peaceful, so child-like sleeping like that. It made her forget about the stabbing cold pain in her chest for a couple of seconds.

“I don’t get it.” said Rainbow Dash “She is asleep. What do we do? We wake her up now?”

“We…We can’t.” said Luna, her hoof covering the gaping wound as blood flowed underneath “I can h-h-h-hear her now, the same way I could hear h-her in the real world.”

“Then what do we do?” said Pinkie Pie.

Twilight walked forwards. If she learnt something about all her studies in dreams is that being sleep inside a dream didn’t mean a dead end. They could still go inside Celestia’s head as she was right now. It could happen in real life. She read it in books, reports of ponies who had experienced dreams within dreams. If it could happen they could try doing it inside that dream.

“Well, we have to assume that whoever is controlling this has also put Celestia under sleep again, thinking we couldn’t get inside her head to rescue her.” said Twilight “But that pony is wrong, we can still get inside her dream right now the same way we got inside her dreams in the real world.”

“A dream within a dream.” said Luna.

“Exactly.” said Twilight “We only have to go deeper. This is how we will do it.”

Twilight divided the efforts between two teams. She would take Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Luna inside Celestia’s second dream. Fluttershy would stay into the first dream in Manehattan to protect them from the hostile Projections. Staying inside the clock tower wouldn’t be advisable as now it was opened and the Projections could get inside. Twilight asked Rainbow and Fluttershy to bring a carriage to put all of them inside for Fluttershy to drive around. In this case running away was better than facing the enemy.

While the two pegasi were away, Twilight took Luna aside for a moment to talk to her. It was breaking her heart seeing Luna like this. She had to repress her tears harder than she expected, her eyes stung and burned when the salty liquid went back inside. The wound looked worse than ever, the edges were black now and the flow of blood didn’t stop. Twilight wondered how she could still be alive.

“Luna…” Twilight didn’t know where to start or what to say next “Luna I…”

Luna placed a hoof on Twilight’s face. Her lower lip was coated in crimson and brown. When she talked she had a raspy voice.

“I know what you are going to say, Twilight.” said Luna “I am not going to get out of this alive.”

“Yes.” said Twilight “I know if we go deeper within layers of dreams you will experience less pain, but it’s a temporary arrangement. You will still die from blood loss and drop into Limbo.”

Luna shivered just hearing that word. It scared her, terrified her to the point of paralyzing her. She tried to act stoic despite being scared to death.

“Yes…I knew the risks.” said Luna “I knew them. You did not, you…nor your friends. If somepony deserves to end there, that’s me.”

“No!” Twilight couldn't believe how Luna said something like that “I won’t let you fall into Limbo. You won’t lose your mind Luna.”

Losing her mind, becoming an empty husk and starting from scratch, as if she was being born again. She smiled slyly when saying the next few lines.

“You don’t want me to become a little foal…” her lips tightened.

Twilight caught her joke, if she could consider it such.

“…Scared without her mother.” continued Twilight.

“Waiting for her big sister to save her.” finished Luna just to cough with such a raspy breath even Twilight felt her chest in pain.

“No. It won’t come to that.” said Twilight “You will come back with me. You will come back with me so we can be friends together. I will get in there and save you, you understand?”

Luna nodded. Twilight got her face closer to Luna’s, her snout pressing against the Princess’, their eyes fixated into the other’s. She could smell her breath, poisoned by the copper stench of blood. Twilight grabbed Luna’s head with her fore hooves as she spoke with a demanding voice tone.

“Say it. Say that you understand and that you will wait for me.”

Her voice sounded full of confidence.

“I understand and…” Luna’s voice sounded weak, but it was just because of her gaping wound inside her chest. Being intimidated by Twilight didn’t count “…I will wait for you.”

Twilight was startled when she heard Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy bringing in the carriage. She told Pinkie to move on and together they brought Luna downstairs and inside the carriage. The carriage was big enough to hold seven ponies, so having such tall ponies like Luna and Celestia made the carriage the perfect size for all of them to get inside. It was fully covered and had small windows. Twilight thought it was perfect. They laid Luna as comfortable as they could before going back upstairs and bringing Princess Celestia. They placed both sisters together on one seat as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie jumped inside. Before taking her place Twilight talked to Fluttershy.

“Fluttershy, I know you are careful, but try to avoid all bumps and air currents. Performing a dream within another dream can get pretty unstable and it doesn’t help if things get hasty on this level.”

“Don’t worry Twilight.” said Fluttershy “You know me, I am very careful.”

“I know.” said Twilight “Fly around for a while, give us enough time to find Celestia so we bring her back before activating The Fall.”

“Alright” said Fluttershy, only to add a few seconds later “How…How do I do that?”

“You fly as high as you can, preferably over the river or a big mass of water, and then you let yourself and the carriage fall. That will wake us up, and if we are not ready by then and we miss it, the splash in the river will do the trick.” explained Twilight as quickly as she could.

“Alright.” said Fluttershy “For how long do I have to fly?”

Twilight hesitated. Fluttershy remembered that inside a dream time moved slower than in the real world, so inside a dream that’s into another dream time would move even slower. One minute in the real world was twenty minutes inside the dream world, so the effect increased the deeper they went into dreams. If Fluttershy flew for 20 minutes into the first dream, that would give them 400 minutes inside the second dream, over 6 hours.

“Fly for twenty minutes, more or less.” said Twilight “That will give us around 6 hours. That’s more than enough time.”

“Okay Twilight. I will do that.” said Fluttershy.

Twilight wanted to hug her. She wanted to do it so much. She hesitated. Why did she want to hug Fluttershy so bad? She felt like she wasn’t going to see her again.

“Oh, to hay with it.” she threw her forelegs around Fluttershy’s neck and gave her a tight hug “Please, be careful.”

Twilight hopped inside the carriage and took her place next to Luna. Their heads together like before. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were lying on the opposite seat of the carriage, already half asleep.

“Just like…like before, Twilight.” said Luna.

“Let’s go.” said Twilight.

They used the Dream Infiltration spell again. Being inside a dream already there was no need to use any sedatives to get sleep. Twilight felt the surge of magic energy surrounding her body, making her fur stand up. The sparks ran all over her coat, around her mane, behind her ears, as she closed her eyes. The last thing she saw was Rainbow Dash and Pinkie holding each other’s hooves. The last thing she felt was this sucking sensation in her stomach. She remembered all the times she took a flight with Rainbow Dash and anytime they pulled from the ground she felt leaving her stomach behind. That was the same feeling she experienced now.

Fluffy. Spongy. It was like she was walking on clouds.

END OF CHAPTER 1.