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The Regal Dream - Forest of Memories

THE REGAL DREAM.

Chapter 3: Memory’s Forest.

Roaring confrontation.

Twilight felt her face covered with dirt and water.

She was lying on the bank of a lake in a muddy shore. Luna was lying in front of her but Pinkie Pie was nowhere to be seen. A cold breeze passed over Twilight’s coat making her fur rise. A shiver ran down her spine. As she stood up she removed the mud off of her face with one of her fore hooves. She dipped it in the water taking away the biggest spots of wet dirt and finally sunk her head underwater to give it a full clean up. She walked towards Luna and woke her up by shaking her shoulder.

“Luna.” said Twilight “Luna, are you alright? How’s your wound?”

Luna stood up. She felt really weak and a bit dizzy. Her hoof stained with smudges of blood when she placed it over her chest. The gaping wound wasn’t as big as in the previous dream but it was big enough to worry.

“I am okay.” said Luna with a confident yet faint voice “Just...give me a minute to recover.”

Twilight obliged and gave Luna a minute as she scrutinized their surroundings. They were on the shore of a lake, their hooves deep in mud, and around the lake an endless forest expanded. The lake was placed in an unnatural location for such a mass of water. The terrain bent and made a curve downwards and the water surface followed such curve with precise devotion. Curvature, thought Twilight, like those reports of Pegasi patrols talking about the planet’s curvature when they flew high into the atmosphere. But she was seeing it right before her very eyes and she wasn’t flying miles high above the surface. They were so deep that the dream space was starting to curve into itself. Her eyes darted side to side, looking at the strange environment. It was night, deep and without stars. The only light source was the shining Full Moon in the sky, glowing with an aura. The trees surrounding the lake extended beyond Twilight’s vision and they were so close between each other it seemed impossible for her to squeeze between the trunks. She took a while to realize where they were, and when she did notice the name of the place came out of her lips unintentionally.

“The Everfree Forest.” her lips drying as the last syllable escaped her mouth.

She couldn’t understand why. Out of all the places in Equestria why did Celestia have to dream of The Everfree Forest? She moved towards Luna. The Princess felt better after a couple of deep breaths. It was a terrible weakness spreading from the wound in her chest that was keeping her from moving right away. The crippling pain shut down temporarily the nerves on her neck and her left foreleg, stabbing her lungs with pain and forcing her to stop. She wondered if this was what heart attacks felt like. The simple idea terrified her. She took a couple of deep breaths, filling her lungs and ignoring the pain, then turned to Twilight Sparkle.

“Princess Luna, why are we here?” Twilight’s voice was taken by panic.

“I s-suppose you…you w-were expecting us to...event-t-tually step into...a nightmare, right?” said Luna “D-Don’t worry Twilight.” added after seeing Twilight’s face of abject terror “We h-have to find P-Pinkie Pie first. Then we c-can go get my S-Sister.”

“Do…Do you know where she can be in this place?” said Twilight with a mix of concern, incredulity and doubt.

Before Luna could give her answer they heard a rustling noise coming from the forest. From between two tree trunks Twilight could see a pink smudge shaped like a hind leg. It was struggling and shaking. The rest of the body seemed to be stuck inside the forest and grunts came from beneath the branches and the darkness. Twilight gasped and ran towards her friend. She grabbed Pinkie Pie by her hind leg and pulled. She pulled as hard and careful as she could, wishing for her to be okay and unscathed. The violet unicorn managed to pull both of Pinkie’s hind legs out of the forest, as well as her tail and half of the body.

“Come on Pinkie!” inquired Twilight, grabbing Pinkie by the tail base and pulling until her teeth hurt.

She felt Pinkie’s body giving up the struggle and a yelp as the pink pony fell on top of Twilight. With her face again in the mud, Twilight spat out all the wet dirt that entered her mouth as she ogled at Pinkie Pie with severe annoyance.

“Pinkie! Where the hay hav-…have you…been?”

Twilight’s voice broke up on her lips as she looked at her friend. Pinkie Pie’s neck and cheeks were covered in small scratches and bruises. She looked like she stepped out of a fight when she was winning. Her forelegs were slightly injured too, red scratches without blood on them over her bright pink coat. But what caught Twilight’s attention and speech capacity was Pinkie’s mane and tail. She didn’t realize before because she was trying to pull her out of the forest, but they were not puffy and curly anymore. They were flat. Her mane fell down over her shoulders and before her eyes, and her tail dragged on the ground in the same fashion. The few occasions Twilight saw Pinkie Pie looking like that happened after a soul-crushing depression.

“Is there something wrong Twilight?” asked Pinkie Pie.

“Your hair…is…” started Twilight.

“Yeah, I dunno what’s up with that!” said Pinkie pulling at a hair tuft with her fore hooves “Anyways! What are we up to!?” her voice sounded enthusiastic.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” said Twilight “You should tell us, before we keep moving, Pinkie.”

Pinkie Pie let out a sigh and looked at Twilight with a rather apologetic face. She hated to admit it, but there was something wrong with her. She rolled her eyes and then looked at Twilight.

“I’m worried for Dashie.”

There was no need to say more. Twilight stood up, taking Pinkie off of her and passed a hoof around Pinkie’s neck pulling her into a hug. Pinkie Pie sprawled and hugged Twilight with both fore hooves as she dug her face into the Violet unicorn’s shoulder. She forced herself not to cry, holding back the tears until her eyes itched and burned. She closed them hard until her eyelids hurt and her heart became a ball of liquid fire. She hesitated and felt the ground collapsing underneath her, but it was only the feeling of contempt she had for that presence that took Celestia away and separated her from Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie had never experienced anger like this. She had been frustrated, disappointed, even depressed to the point of considering exile. But she never felt such a surge of energy coming from inside her. A surge of energy that made her want to grab that dark presence and punch it in the face.

“But I’m fine!” said Pinkie Pie letting go of Twilight’s hug and adopting a determined pose. Her straight mane and tail made her look more severe than she already was “We have to find Celestia! Come on girls!” and as soon as she started walking, she stopped to ask “Uhm…Which way should we go?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and walked next to Pinkie as Luna kept up with them limping from the side she was injured. Twilight placed a hoof over Pinkie’s shoulder and looked over the forest. It was submersed into that still silence that forests have during summer nights, when not even insects or the rustle of leaves can be heard. The deep black treetops looked cut out over the bluish purple sky, still without stars. There was a shape amongst those treetops that stood up due to its uniqueness. It was an edification of some sort, made out of bricks judging from the shape of the windows and the ruined state of it. The moon light allowed Twilight to make out more details of the structure. It had the foundations of three towers peeled off of bricks and any sort of construction, and there was only one tower left erected in the back of it. The tower was pure white and reflected the moon light like a cylindrical mirror. The base, which used to be a hall, was now stripped of the roof and the walls had decayed to the point of leaving the bare bones of the wooden structure. Twilight could recognize the remains of The Palace of the Regal Sisters anywhere. She knew that Celestia had to be there.

“That way.” said Twilight pointing at the ruined castle.

“Our Palace…” said Luna, taking short steps “My sister will certainly be there.” she found it really hard to talk. It wasn’t so much the wound as it was the awestruck feel of surprise and dread the memory of that palace brought to her “Twilight…We have to hurry.”

“Yes. Let’s not waste any more time.” said Twilight

The three of them started galloping. Twilight was surprised that Luna could keep up with them, injured and dying from the pain and blood loss, she was still able to match their stride. They galloped following the shoreline of the lake as Twilight could distinguish a path opening between the trees in the distance. It was vaguely visible but she calculated they could get through and inside the forest. Hopefully it gets wider inside, she thought. Twilight looked at Pinkie Pie. The pink pony was biting her lower lip and her eyes were a mix between anger and concern. Twilight nudged Pinkie with her head as a signal of affection.

“Don’t worry about Rainbow Dash!” said Twilight “I bet she is perfectly fine.” she added.

Pinkie looked at Twilight and nodded back with determination. Pinkie knew that, she knew bone deep that Rainbow Dash would be okay, that she would be safe. Rainbow Dash was a big athlete. She was fast, strong, agile and very determined. Nothing could stop her. Thinking of her made Pinkie wish she was there with them. She wanted to see her face again. Those purple eyes bright with courage and that colorful mane. Looking at Rainbow Dash was what made Pinkie Pie so happy. No wonder having her best friend in peril had made her get so sad and depressed.

“Pinkie!” yelled Twilight “Seriously, she will be okay!”

Pinkie didn’t nod to that and let those words sink in. Rainbow Dash will be okay, she thought, there’s nothing to worry about.

* * *

Rainbow Dash received a kick in the face from Gilda that threw her against the doors of the Weather Factory. She was still fighting the shadow of her friend, a shadow made out of every single bad memory and bad feeling Rainbow Dash had for Gilda. Rainbow Dash didn’t have much trouble fighting against it until now. Even though the shadow was not a powerful foe, it was giving Rainbow Dash too many problems. The bad feelings against Gilda were minimal compared to the good feelings and the good memories; but the little strength that projection had inside itself was enough to put Rainbow Dash in quite a hassle. Right before hitting the doors Dash folded her wings and closed her mouth, gritting her teeth together. The doors to the Weather Factory slammed with an ominous crack that echoed through the entire facility. The edges broke against the walls and split in two at mid-section height when they impacted. A rain of splinters exploded around Rainbow Dash as she landed on her side against the floor. The impact had knocked all the air out of her and she had no time to recover when Gilda landed on top of her, planted her leonine paws on her hind quarters and passed one of her talons around the Pegasus’ neck. Rainbow Dash tried to get her off but the gryphon was tightly stuck to her. The surprisingly elastic tail wrapped around Dash’s hind legs and immobilized her.

“Don’t move or you’ll hurt yourself.” whispered the shadow of Gilda “Let me take care of that.”

Gilda tightened her grip around Rainbow Dash’s neck as she felt the claws digging inside her flesh. Rainbow Dash rocked to her right and threw a punch at Gilda’s ribs. The gryphon gasped and coughed as her grip loosened and Rainbow Dash rolled and kicked her friend’s shadow on the left flank. The Shadow Gryphon flinched and kneeled on the ground. Rainbow Dash stood up and punched Gilda so hard on the face she hurt her hoof. She could hear a distinctive crack when her hoof hit the stern beak. Gilda used Dash’s temporary pain to charge and bull-rush the Pegasus, smashing her against one of the snowflake making tables. Rainbow Dash spat blood over the cloudy floor as she punched Gilda on the base of the neck and threw her to the right moving away from the table. Her back was in such pain from the impact against the doors that she didn’t feel the knifing bruise from the desk’s edge on her back and over her wings. Before Gilda could recover, Rainbow Dash galloped against her and right before reaching her she turned around and bucked with both hind legs against Gilda’s body. She saw the Gryphon propelled against one of the walls as she tumbled in mid air and landed over another desk, which was full of snow flakes in the process of being made. The poor flakes shattered in a mist of ice crystals.

“Not before I hurt you to death.” muttered Rainbow Dash as she rushed against Gilda once again, ready to punch her until her head exploded.

* * *

Fluttershy was having more problems than she wished for in Manehattan. Her friends were still safe and sound inside the carriage, but the copious amounts of rain and the never-ending chase those Mechanized Alicorns were giving her was taking all the energy out of her body. Her wings ached, she was out of breath, and the rain drops stung her in her face and her body. She was so tired that the buildings were nothing but blurry rectangular shapes to her eyes. She rubbed them with both hooves as she turned to the right, avoiding another three alicorns that were approaching her from the front. Inside the carriage everything tilted to the right. Rainbow Dash, asleep and strapped to one of the seats, moved with the turn.

* * *

Rainbow Dash lost her balance and had to stop her charging when the entire Factory tilted to the right. She saw the desks sliding down over the floor and plummeting through the cloud walls making holes of their size and shape. The snowflakes flew all over the place as she was thrown against one of the walls. The entire world was moving to the right. The clouds changed their shape and some of them even evaporated. Gilda grabbed the edge of the desk where she was, as she jumped and flew straight towards Dash, who was defenseless. Rainbow Dash saw Gilda coming right at her but her reaction wasn’t quick enough. The gryphon landed on top of her and pushed all her weight over her, grabbing her forelegs with her talons, pinning Dash to the wall.

“Now what, Rainbow Crash?” said Gilda as her shadow mouth turned into a despicable grin.

Rainbow Dash gritted her teeth and let go a mix between a groan and a scream as she pulled her hind legs up and against Gilda’s chest, kicking her as hard as she could. She felt the bones crunching under her hoof as her kick pulverized the ribs of that projection. Rainbow Dash pushed Gilda aside to get up but a terrifying sound paralyzed her. She looked up. The Factory had turned completely on its right side. The right wall had turned into the floor and the left wall had turned into the ceiling. Rainbow Dash remembered that the left wing of the Factory was dedicated to processing the water and light in order to create the rainbows. She also remembered that the door, despite being prepared to contain leaks, wasn’t locked unless somepony pushed the switch to lock it. The switch was in the security room and Rainbow Dash was certain that nopony was there to push it.

The door of the Rainbow Processing wing opened and a column of liquid rainbows erupted downwards inside the room. The clouds that were hit by the column of pure liquid laser beams vanished in a puff of microscopic water drops. The floors were eroded by the sheer force of focused light and water. The sound it made was something Rainbow Dash never heard in her life. It was a screeching roar of water and light, a glistening torrent of fluids that broke through everything it touched. The column hit right between Gilda and Dash making a hole in the wall. Rainbow Dash saw how it dug through the clouds and concrete, the shrilling noise cutting through her ears so loud she had to cover them. A white smoke formed between the column and the concrete. The blue Pegasus was about to get up when she saw something coming right at her by the corner of her eye. It was a squirt of rainbow. She closed her eyes just in time as the squirt hit her cheek over her mouth. Rainbows didn’t hurt ponies or any other animal alive. It was just water and light. But it was enough to destroy through the clouds and if the quantity was big enough it could also eat through even more solid materials.

Rainbow Dash looked up to see that the wall of the Rainbow Processing wing was cracking up. Tiny holes appeared over the wall that soon filled with jets of rainbow juice. A constellation of holes appeared over the door, and soon grew bigger, joining the largest hole to become even bigger. Rainbow Dash rolled over on her side, and managed to stand up. She was confused by the unsteadiness of the Factory as it crumbled and shook. There were no tables or desks left, but the cabinets had opened and scientific equipment rained from them over their heads. Rainbow Dash dodged a microscope and landed on a desk that didn’t break through the wall/floor of clouds. She tried to find Gilda but lost her track after the column of rainbows started pouring inside the room. Maybe she got swept away by t-

“Gotcha!” Gilda appeared from behind Rainbow Dash and grabbed her by the neck again. “And this time, I won’t release you.” She squeezed Rainbow Dash’s neck between her taut arms.

Rainbow Dash put her fore hooves together and threw her left elbow against Gilda’s ribs, but to no effect. The gryphon stood behind her with her arms crushing her windpipe. Rainbow Dash panicked when the air was cut from her lungs and her mouth made a dry noise. She couldn’t breathe. She wasn’t breathing. Her eyes opened in abject panic. Her brain couldn’t register the lack of air. Her panic grew even bigger when she felt a piercing pain in her heart. Her eyes filled with water as she looked to the rainbow column. I need to throw her inside, she thought; please Celestia, don’t let it kill me! It was agonizing. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and with a Powerful flap of them she propelled herself forwards and against the rainbow column. The roaring torrent of light and water was still going strong, the rainbow fountains not running out anytime soon. Rainbow Dash calculated her fall just enough so she could hit the rainbow stream with her back. Gilda got hit by the turrent and she was forced to let go off Rainbow Dash’s neck. The colorful column splashed Dash’s back, mane and hair. They were uncomfortably warm. Dash took long deep breaths of precious fresh air, but her calm didn’t last long. The wall/floor where she was standing crumbled because of that rainbow column. The structure debilitated so much it finally cracked and Rainbow Dash plummeted towards the void. With renewed strength she spread her wings and stopped the fall as she witnessed a breathtaking view. The column of rainbows fell in a straight line of red, yellow, orange, blue and purple, mixing with the clouds and disappearing in the horizon. She could see clouds and pieces of concrete falling around the column. Rainbow Dash could see the shade of Shadow Gilda amongst the concrete and the swirling broken clouds.

“I have to finish this.” said Rainbow Dash as she darted towards the gryphon’s shadow.

* * *

Fluttershy was still turning to the right in her escape from the new Mechanized Alicorns when two of them started shooting at her with what sounded like a barrage of small fireballs. She didn’t know. She wasn’t sure at the moment. All she knew was that her friends were in danger and she had to protect them, no matter the cost. She remembered Rainbow Dash’s training, her flying tricks, all those flying maneuvers she saw her doing. What was the name of that move where Rainbow Dash twisted and turned like a horizontal tornado? She saw her doing that so many times she could try it herself just to avoid those Mechanized Alicorns, confuse them and get some extra time for her and her friends.

“Alright…” said Fluttershy with a weak voice “Here goes nothing.”

She closed her eyes, tightened her muscles and changed the direction and orientation of her wings. She passed the wind current under her right wing and forced it over her left, making her body twist to the left. As she turned over her side she pulled her hind legs up and pushed her entire body up and to the left. She kept the pose for a couple of seconds as she barrel-rolled to the left. The small fireballs zipped between her ears and between her legs, and even though some of them hit the carriage the maneuver worked just like she wanted it to.

Inside the carriage everything twisted and turned.

* * *

Rainbow Dash couldn’t reach Gilda’s shadow. The gravity of the world changed radically throwing her against the column of rainbows and through a set of clouds, dissipating them. Her mane, tail and coat got covered in water and light, her wings stuck to the sides of her body. She had to grab onto a cloud not to fall. She saw the shadow of Gilda recovering, spreading its wings and propelling up into the air but soon directed her attention to the column of rainbows and the clouds around it. They swirled and shaped into a vortex.

The column of rainbows curled and twisted until it turned into a tornado of colors and liquid, and the clouds around it skewed and stretched until they turned into cirrus. Rainbow Dash saw the clouds in the distance doing the same, acquiring the shape of an overly stretched marshmallow and started to swirl around the tornado of rainbows. Rainbow Dash jumped from one cloud to the next in order to get closer to Gilda. Gilda, with her wings cleaned up and free from the sticky rainbows, jumped and flew against Rainbow Dash. She passed through the cloud Dash was using as support and punched her in the chin. Rainbow Dash punched Gilda with her uninjured hoof and threw her against a wall of concrete that bypassed around the tornado. The Pegasus jumped at the concrete and charged with her head against Gilda’s chest. Dash felt confused, the entire world twisted around her. The words of Princess Luna resonated in her head: “If you fall in a dream, you wake up.” Rainbow Dash had no problem about it, except that her wings were covered in the rainbows and still stuck to her sides. She had bigger problems though as Gilda punched her in the face and threw her up and back to the Weather Factory.

Rainbow Dash landed on another cloud. The wind whistling in her ears added to the sense of anti gravity as she took a moment to shake the rainbows off of her wings. She considered it ironic. She saw Gilda jumping from a cloud to another and then disappeared behind the tornado of rainbows. The light made strange shapes over the clouds. The rays it spewed were so bright Dash thought she’d go blind if they hit her eyes. Finally, and after a lot of struggling, Rainbow Dash got rid of the rainbows on her wings and flapped them. A smile showed on her face but didn’t last long as Gilda pounced her from behind, breaking the cloud they were in and landing onto another piece of concrete, this one orbiting around the tornado like a satellite. It circled so fast that Dash could feel gravity on it as she stood up and confronted Gilda again.

“I will beat you, Dash!” shouted shadow Gilda, her voice so deformed it sounded both male and female “I always do!”

“You’re wrong!” shouted Rainbow Dash “ Gilda always beat me. You never will!”

Rainbow Dash jumped against Gilda snarling and screaming, grabbed her head between her hooves in mid jump and threw her on her back. She heard the bones breaking in the gryphon’s wings as she smashed Gilda’s head against the concrete platform. She smashed it one, two, three times! Then released her and punched her another three times, black goo spread all over the platform in triangular stains. The tornado of rainbows made a jittery hiccup and trembled. Rainbow Dash got distracted by that move as she saw the clouds and the pieces of concrete and wall around it starting to fall. They just stopped moving and plunged down to the ground.

* * *

Fluttershy barrel-rolled another three times before acquiring a steadier level of flight. She looked behind her to see the Alicorns were gone and to check on her friends. Twilight and Pinkie Pie had moved from their seats, but Rainbow Dash, Luna and Celestia seemed just fine. She sighed in relief and resumed her flying, this time getting closer to the ground and keeping herself in between the buildings. She even slowed down to take a breath and stop the rain drops from stinging all over her body.

* * *

The tornado of rainbows dissipated as quickly as it appeared and the column vanished into thin air. Rainbow Dash looked at the Weather Factory and saw how it returned back to normal. The sudden change of gravity threw her off the concrete platform and made a mess out of her wings. She couldn’t pull herself up and precipitated down to the building. She entered into outflow. Her wings flapped but she couldn’t get herself to fly. The wind passed between them but there was no way she could move them. She saw the Weather Factory growing bigger and bigger under her. In a last attempt to avoid damaging herself more, she stuck the wings to the sides of her body, curled herself into fetal position and closed her eyes. The impact against the roof of the Factory was strong but it didn’t hurt as much as she expected. She went through the cloud roof and finally landed back in the snow-flake making room. When her body hit the floor she felt no pain. Relieved, Rainbow Dash stood up. The whole place was an absolute mess. The tables were burnt down, there was a huge gaping hole in the left wall caused by the rainbow tornado, and the room to the rainbow processing wing was gone. She was surprised there were still rainbow pools full inside.

Rainbow Dash stood up as she spread her wings to see if they were okay. She sighed in relief when they flapped and no pain came from them. She smiled, though that didn’t last for long. She got her leg caught on something on the floor and when she looked at it her eyes widened in terror. It was a yellow talon. Another yellow talon appeared from under the floor and grabbed her by the neck, pulling her face against the clouds and muffling her breathing. She felt like she was being smothered with a pillow. The talons pulled up the body of shadow Gilda, or what was left of her. One of the wings was gone. The other was a deformed stump no one could dare call a wing. The face was distorted and nothing was left of Gilda’s pointy eyes. The were stretched and pure white. The beak was shattered and when she talked it crumbled; pieces of shadow going up and vanishing into thin air.

“I...am not...done with you, Dweeb!”

Shadow Gilda used Rainbow Dash’s temporary panic attack to throw the Pegasus pony into the rainbow processing plant. Rainbow Dash turned around right when Gilda jumped onto her, but she wasn’t strong enough. Gilda threw her talons against Rainbow Dash’s chest, nailing one of them inside the Pegasus’ flesh. Dash screamed when she felt the four claws digging inside her body, the nails scraping her ribs and tearing apart her muscles and tissue. She managed to stop the other claw, though it scraped at her skin leaving long, irregular marks.

“You afraid?” mocked Gilda “I told ya I’d beat ya!”

Rainbow Dash looked at Gilda. That thing wasn’t her friend. That wretched pile of anger wasn’t Gilda.

“Quiet…” muttered Rainbow Dash “Shut UP!!!”

Rainbow Dash tightened the muscles of her neck and head-butted Gilda right between the eyes. The gryphon squawked and backed up, taking a claw coated in Dash’s blood to her right eye. It had exploded. Dash cleaned the black goo from her forehead as she ignored the pain in her chest, jumped towards Gilda and grabbing her by the neck took her to the nearest rainbow pool. Without mercy, Rainbow Dash grabbed her friend’s shadow head and dunked it in the liquid rainbow. The shadow struggled and squirmed as bubbles started forming in the surface. Rainbow Dash grabbed the body of Gilda tighter as tears started to form in her eyes. I am not killing her, she said, no, not killing her, not killing her! This is not Gilda! It’s not her! She was crying, streams of tears running down her face and to her chin. How Gilda abused Fluttershy. That wasn’t her. How Gilda insulted her friends. That wasn’t how Gilda was. It was those bad memories, those feelings, that shadow fed on and Rainbow Dash had to get rid off them.

“You’re not her.” said Rainbow Dash with the weakest voice “You’re not my friend. YOU’RE NOT MY FRIEND!”

Rainbow Dash felt how the Shadow of Gilda tightened her neck and chest muscles. The screams could still be heard from under the rainbows as fewer bubbles appeared on the surface. The tail shook from side to side with agony and the lion paws pounded the surface leaving claw marks. Rainbow Dash kicked Gilda on the flank again to make her stop moving.

“YOU ARE NOT HER! NOT!!! HER!!! JUST DISAPPEAR!!!” Rainbow Dash’s crying hurt her. The tears burned her skin and her eyes “GO AWAY!!! GO AWAY!!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!!”

As the struggles of Shadow Gilda to get her head out of the rainbow pool grew weaker, Rainbow Dash’s anger and bad memories grew thinner. All the bad feelings vanished. All those bad memories and frustrating arguments with her disappeared. When the muscles on Gilda’s neck and chest gave up and relaxed, Rainbow Dash felt something inside relaxing too. A tension, a pent up strain located between her chest and her head that had been there for years, was now gone. The feeling of relief made her cry again, big warm tears rolling down the wet paths the others left. The body of her friend finally let go and collapsed on the edge of the rainbow pool with the head still under the surface. Rainbow Dash stood back and sat down on the floor, as she saw the body flickering and vanishing. The shadow disappeared before her very eyes leaving just a trace of black smoky smudges.

“It’s gone.” said Rainbow Dash “The pain is…gone.” She couldn’t believe that. She had been living with that pain for years, that guilt that ate her from the inside, and now it was completely gone. She smiled as she looked around at the destroyed Weather Factory. Seeing the ruined building made her snap out of her shock. “Twilight! Luna! Pinkie! I gotta go meet them!”

She spread her wings ignoring all the cuts and bruises that stung her skin and muscles, and lifted up from the factory through the hole she made in the roof. Flapping her wings, feeling free for the first time inside that dream, she flew as fast as she could to reach at her house as quickly as possible. As she flew through the clouds, she hoped her friends were safe and sound, but out of all her friends it was Pinkie who was the most present in her mind. She quietly prayed for her friend to be okay.

Entrance to childhood.

Luna, Pinkie Pie and Twilight galloped to the Palace after what felt like several hours. The Everfree forest in Celestia’s nightmare seemed oddly deserted. The trees moved out of the way and spread out so the path they took was open enough to let them see the night sky and allowed the moon light to illuminate the ground. Twilight felt the creeping fingers of fear crawling on her neck. At every turn there seemed to be a shadow transforming into something else. The elongated black shapes scurried between the trunks and over the rocks, turned into arms and claws that licked at her body when she walked near them. But then she moved her head or the moon light would pour over them, and there would be nothing there. It only added to the feel of detachment her mind was going through. She had to stop her chain of thought to remember where she was. I am inside a nightmare, inside Rainbow Dash’ bedroom in Cloudsdale, inside a carriage carried by Fluttershy in Manehattan, while lying on the bed of Princess Celestia in her Castle in Canterlot, she thought, I am in a dream, within a dream, within another dream. This was affecting her. No matter how much she tried to rationalize it, she could feel the threads with reality being cut off.

“Twilight!”

Luna’s voice sprung her out of her thoughts.

“Focus!” said the Moon Princess with a firm voice.

Twilight appreciated Luna’s intervention as she went back to the world before them. The forest opened now in front of her eyes, the trees on the sides of the path moving away into a gallery of trunks and treetops. At the end of this natural hallway rose the remains of the Palace, a decaying monolithic structure, once a proud ruler over the landscape and now a victim to the voracity of the plants and the tree roots. The walls were cracked and from within the bricks leaves and branches could be seen. There was dirt and dust around the base and over the steps going up and inside the Palace. What used to be a front made out of columns had turned into a peeled off rib cage made of stones and wooden beams. Twilight and Luna stopped, as Pinkie Pie stepped closer to take a better look. She removed her straight hair off her face and turned to Twilight.

“This place needs a few parties, don’t you agree Twilight?” said Pinkie Pie.

“It certainly does.” said Twilight with a discrete smile.

Luna flinched and dragged her left leg as she walked towards the entrance. She thought she saw something behind the broken windows, a white figure with a colorful mane waving with the wind. Luna’s heart started pounding frenetically against her chest, making the wound in it hurt even more. It was like knives stabbing her, an endless fistful of blades plunging inside her chest all at once. The pain didn’t let her think clearly.

“I think I just saw my sister.” said Luna.

“Let’s go in then!” shouted Twilight.

But as Twilight tried to take a step forward the ground trembled under her hooves making her fall on her side. Pinkie bounced towards Twilight and helped her to a safer spot as the ground between them and the Palace rose with an explosion. Chunks and lumps of wet soil caked with weed and roots flew over their heads and landed on the ground shattering with a deafening crack. They saw something coming from the ground. No, no, it’s not coming from the ground, thought Twilight, it’s the ground itself.

“Move away from the Palace!” shouted Luna

Twilight, Luna and Pinkie Pie moved away until they were covered under the left line of trees on the path, as the entire section of terrain that circled around the Palace moved and lifted, squirming and throwing the trees that got over it. In the drier areas the dust didn’t let them see what that thing was, a thick wall of dirt blocked their view. The areas closer to the Palace’s moat, being soaked in water, didn’t lift dust and let them see what rose. It had a cylindrical body shape, with sharp scales and spikes over the upper part and an armored belly on the lower part. The parts of its body that were not covered in scales had trees and chunks of ground sticking out; rocks glistened in their broken grains with crystalline brightness. As it kept rising, Pinkie Pie, Luna and Twilight saw it had no mouth, eyes or distinguishable facial features. The head, what they could consider the frontal part, looked wormy and empty, the tip curled inside out as it moved side to side. Twilight realized what it was doing.

“That thing is sniffing.” said Twilight “It’s sniffing for us.”

“What do we do now?” said Pinkie Pie “It’s too big, it’ll eat us!”

“Not if we cut it in half.” said Luna with a whisper as she moved swiftly behind them. “Come on. I have an idea.”

Luna moved behind the trees as Pinkie Pie and Twilight followed her. They could hear the worm made out of ground rocks and snapped tree branches move away from the Palace and drag his disgusting body away down the path the three ponies just followed. It groaned and moaned with a revolting wet roar that reminded them of animals in agony from illness or broken limbs. Ignoring such disturbing sounds, Luna looked between the trees and saw, to her dismay, how the Palace started to move away. The dream space expanded and pulled the Palace a few miles away from them. The towers and the walls grew smaller before their eyes as the pale colors of the stones fused with those of the trees and night sky. Soon they were left in the middle of nowhere, with their goal away from them.

“Darn it!” shouted Luna, realizing too late of what she just did.

The ground worm turned around and aimed its faceless head to where the three mares were. Twilight, Luna and Pinkie Pie jumped out of the forest and into the opened area, mere seconds before the worm threw itself against the forest and crushed the area into the ground. When it lifted its head there was a deep crater where Twilight and her friends had been standing just mere seconds ago. Twilight looked at the worm and she could feel it looking back at her. She turned to Luna.

“Your plan! What is it!?” said Twilight.

Luna couldn’t reply. When they stepped out of the forest she miscalculated the distance with one of the trees and had the bad luck of hitting her injured shoulder with one of the branches. Her wound didn’t get worse, but the pain was so intense she couldn’t even talk. She tried to though.

“P-Pinkie…Pi-Pinkie distra…” she was gasping for air, her moans were of agony.

“Pinkie! You distract it!” said Twilight to Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie made a military gesture to Twilight and she charged against the Worm while calling it names.

“Hey!!! Hey you!!! Mister Slimy Slimer Sloppy Schlock!!! Follow me!!!”

The worm took the bait as it started following Pinkie all around the expansive clearing. It was enormous and the ground trembled under its weight when it moved, but it was also really slow. It could snap its head like a whip, but it couldn’t drag itself that fast. Twilight knew Pinkie Pie would do okay but she wouldn’t last long. One of those impacts could turn her into a bloody pulp. She turned to Luna.

“What do we do now?” said Twilight.

“I…I will s-support your magic attack.” said Luna, feeling slightly better from her injury “You h-have to shoot a lightning bolt…right a-at its mid-section.”

Twilight looked at the worm and how it moved. Every time it waved its body it made a curl and a swipe, leaving a deep trench in the soil. It lifted rocks and made dust fly away. The rumbling of the ground and the stones under its weight deafened Twilight and Luna, and they couldn’t even hear their own voices. Luna shouted something at Twilight, but her weakened health and her particular soft voice didn’t let the purple unicorn hear a single word. Twilight stopped paying attention to the Princess and focused her horn on the worm. She didn’t have many opportunities left before the worm decided to crunch Pinkie Pie.

“Alright, I’m ready when you are!” shouted Twilight to Luna as she adopted a fighting stance in the middle of the clearing.

Luna started charging up her spell as Twilight aimed with her horn at the worm. She had to calculate carefully where to aim her magic spell. If she aimed right at the worm her attack would miss because of the distance between them. If she didn’t compensate the distance correctly, her attack would miss before the worm arrived to her targeted area. It was a mathematical jumble and she had to do it on the fly, as Luna’s horn glowed with a glass cutting shrill. There was no time to waste thinking and doubting. Pinkie Pie was only a few meters away from the Worm’s body, almost lost in the mist of dust and small bouncing pebbles.

“Now Luna! NOW!!!” shouted Twilight.

Luna transferred her magic energy in the form of a beam that connected her horn with Twilight’s. The beam charged up Twilight’s magic energy so much she felt she would be thrown backwards. Digging her hooves on the ground, leaving marks and scraping her horseshoes, Twilight leaned her head forward and aimed three inches away from the ground worm’s body. It might have seemed easy to an outside viewer. The ground worm was a big monster, possibly the biggest creature Twilight had seen since the smoke snoring dragon. That however wasn’t a point in her favor. She was really far away from it and at a distance so Great even the biggest target is small. Her first attack missed the ground worm by four meters. The beam hit a line of trees that bursted into flames. The leaves flew up in the sky engulfed in a blue and white fire.

“Again!” said Luna “Are you ready!?”

“Hold on!” said Twilight out of breath, panting with her tongue hanging out.

A thick layer of cold sweat coated her brow and her neck. That attack left her exhausted but not just from the unbearable, unfathomably Powerful magic energy. When Luna charged Twilight’s attack it also transferred her emotions to her. Everything she was feeling right now went inside Twilight’s head. Twilight could feel the stabbing inside her chest, the guilt tearing her guts apart and the remorse for not being able to get Princess Celestia to a safe place yet. All that left Twilight confused and broken for fifteen excruciatingly long seconds. She turned around to Luna.

“Don’t worry…I am okay. We w-.”

Twilight couldn’t finish her line. She didn’t notice at first but Pinkie had managed to outran the ground worm and return to their side. Twilight couldn’t explain why the ground worm decided to stop dead in his tracks, but she figured out it had something to do with the terrifying cackling noise coming from the other end of the forest.

* * *

Fluttershy’s plans were not working. None of them had worked out. Escaping the Mechanized Alicorns had failed. Doing flying maneuvers between the buildings to lose them only gave her a couple of seconds before they caught up with her again. Not even doing the flying tricks she saw Rainbow Dash doing had worked out. She ran out of ideas, and felt she couldn’t give her friends anymore time. Judging from the clock in Manehattan’s City Hall it had been 10 minutes since she left her friends. That was just half the time Twilight asked her to give them, but if she remembered correctly…

“Twilight said twenty minutes was more than enough. Maybe ten will be good too.” said Fluttershy.

She looked behind her to see six Mechanized Alicorns relentlessly following her. She couldn’t hold them back and she couldn’t fight them. Those were machines; they were immune to the power of her Stare. She was also far too exhausted to even try it.

There was no other way out. If she didn’t want to lose her mind and fall into Limbo, she needed to execute the Fall. There was no other way. She knew deep within her heart that her friends would be okay. She knew Twilight would pull all of them safe from there. She remembered her words. “If the first Fall doesn’t work, we can also wait for the second one”. She wasn’t a coward. She was not acting cowardly. With one last effort, she flapped her wings harder until her joints burned and her nerves felt as if they were being electrocuted. A jolt of pain crossed her back due to physical strain but she didn’t care. Her flight traced a curve upwards shooting up into the sky as high as she could get. She looked down and made sure she was gliding over the river.

“Yes, there’s the river…” said Fluttershy.

She wasn’t sure how high above the river she was. She had flown as high as she could without getting out of the dream’s boundaries. She hoped it was high enough to give her friends time to prepare their Fall, rescue Celestia and get out in time. She looked at the Carriage and through the window, checking out and making sure they were alright. To her they seemed okay and safe.

“I am sorry girls.” she said. “I hope you are ready.”

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and folded her wings to her sides. As soon as she did that the carriage plummeted to the ground, dragging Fluttershy with it. The wind whirled on her ears and the rush of adrenaline made her perceive the world around her in slow motion.

* * *

Rainbow Dash saw her house in the horizon. It was impossible not to distinguish it. It was the most lavish and richest house of all Ponyville. She always felt very proud of how it came out. She was about to set hoof upon the spongy cloud surface when everything around her trembled. The wind stopped. She looked up in the sky to see it changing colors into a psychedelic nightmare. It went from blue to black, to white, to purple, to yellow and finally sea blue. An invisible force assaulted her from behind and pulled her up and over the surface, making her fly against her house. She tried to flap her wings but she couldn’t do it. They didn’t respond to her properly. She closed her eyes before the impact as she felt her head going inside the spongy cloud, blocking her vision temporarily.

Despite her head being stuck inside one of the pillars of her house, she could feel her body being lifted. It felt really odd since she wasn’t using her wings to be lifted. As she made Great efforts not to vomit from the uncomfortable feeling, she realized what was happening inside the dream.

“That feather brain activated the Fall!” she shouted inside the cloud.

* * *

Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Luna saw what caused that rumble and the snapping cackling sound. It was loud and terrifying enough to make even the ground worm stop moving. In the horizon, the mountains were collapsing onto each other. The triangular shapes shifted and raised above the tree line, the mountains shattered and split in two, fragments the size of carriages and small houses flew up into the sky. Twilight followed one of those fragments with her eyes. She panicked when she realized it was going to fall right where they were.

“Oh no.” said Twilight with the faintest of voices “RUN!!!”

Before she turned around to run away from the rain of fragments she could see the trees next to the mountains bouncing and collapsing before been engulfed by an unseen force. They were yanked and pulled down into the ground. Twilight ran away as a guilty feeling spread in her chest. She felt guilty for being the first one in running away. Even when Luna and Pinkie Pie caught up with her she still felt guilty. Behind them the noise and the explosions of rocks colliding into each other grew louder and closer. Twilight could feel the wind, caused by the rumbling and the shaking of the terrain as it collapsed into itself. Twilight didn’t need to see it. The mental image that terrifying noise gave her was clear enough.

“We’re…not…going to…make it.” said Twilight half breathing half panting.

The noise was dangerously close now. She looked to the left and saw the line of trees disappearing. They fell back and turned into a pile of splinters as they got crunched by the falling ground. The ground worm made an agonizing noise of surprise as it got swallowed by the gaping terrain wound too. Twilight started to cry. She cried as she galloped, from exhaustion and fear. She felt really sorry. She felt sorry for not been able to get her friends out on time, and bring them all the way down to rescue Celestia. She would never forgive herself for such actions as-

“Y-you are s-s-still worrying…Too much!”

Luna’s words came from behind Twilight as she felt lifted in the air. When she landed, she did it on Luna’s back. Princess Luna, injured and exhausted, pushing herself to the limit, pulled Pinkie Pie from her tail and pulled her upwards, making the pink pony land next to Twilight. Pinkie Pie was as surprised as Twilight, but the violet unicorn guessed it was because Luna didn’t let Pinkie use one of her contraptions, or summon a handful of balloons to fly. Luna took a leap forward, landed on her fore hooves and propelled herself up, lifting from the ground as she flapped her wings. The motion of her wing muscles didn’t hurt her at all, but the wind force pressed against her chest wound, making her flinch.

As they moved away from the ground, Twilight grabbed tighter onto Luna’s back. Pinkie Pie grabbed onto Luna and Twilight, as the two watched the destruction of the Everfree forest. The surface of the forest, everything underneath the bushy tapestry of trees, disappeared into a sea of falling rocks. Twilight saw them crashing into each other and down to oblivion, a sea of deep darkness that left nothing behind. That humongous maw swallowed the forest in the shape of an expansive wave. Twilight worried for a moment, thinking it would destroy the dream space and leave them there floating on Luna’s back. With relief, she saw the crumbling stopping right before reaching Zecora’s hut. Twilight felt the grip of fear leaving her chest as she realized the hut was empty. There seems to be no projections here, thought Twilight, this is a nightmare after all.

Luna landed with difficulty a few meters away from where the collapsing had stopped and let Twilight and Pinkie down to the ground. Pinkie Pie hopped and bounced around as her straightened hair waved. Shaking her head and her legs she looked at Twilight and at the Princess, inquiring for answers with a perkily annoyed expression.

“What the hay was that?” said Pinkie Pie, her voice scratchier than usual.

“Luna, was that the Fall?” said Twilight.

“Y-yes Twilight. That was the Fall.” said Luna, half exhausted from the flight and half pained from her chest wound. She took a hoof to it. It stained red and black.

“We missed the fall? How are we going to wake up now!?” said Pinkie Pie, her expression even more worried than before.

Twilight walked to the edge of what was now a bottomless cliff. She couldn’t comprehend the gargantuan void below them. There was literally nothing, just blackness, pure, raw emptiness. That wasn’t Limbo though. Twilight knew that, if she jumped off that cliff, she would just wake up in the previous dream layer. She turned to Luna and Pinkie Pie.

“If Fluttershy is already falling that means we don’t have much time left.” said Twilight. “How high is the highest point in the first dream layer?” asked Twilight, her voice tense and hesitating.

“I a-am…I am not sure.” said Luna.

“Take a guess!” inquired Twilight, angry.

“M-maybe one…one thousand two hundred meters.”

“Twelve hundred meters…” Twilight made a series of calculations, her brain working over time: Speed, gravity, air resistance, friction, weight of the rain drops, angle of falling… “Twelve hundred meters, force of gravity…Divided by total velocity…That means Fluttershy will hit the water in fifteen seconds, if she is falling from the highest point. That gives Rainbow Dash about five minutes, which gives us an hour and forty minutes.”

It was too tight. There were just too many variables and her calculations were not exactly at 100%, but that was the closest she could get. All of this based on a supposition, she thought. What if they were falling from a shorter distance? They had to act like they only had thirty minutes.

“S-so we h-h-h-have one hour and forty m-minutes…to find and rescue my sister before the next F-F-Fall activates.” said Luna.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!” asked Pinkie Pie, slightly confused but catching up with them. “What next Fall?”

“When the carriage sinks into the river.” sentenced Twilight.

Yanking up the chain.

Fluttershy was fifteen seconds from falling into the river.

She had her eyes closed and could only feel the rain drops over her coat, the mane whirling up into ringlets and the weight of the carriage pulling her down. Inside the carriage the gravity shifted and every one inside lifted from the floor and their seats. Rainbow Dash, asleep as she was, had her body elevated from the seat as she floated in the middle of the vehicle.

* * *

Rainbow Dash pulled her head from inside the column and tried to stand on the floor before her house. She couldn’t. The lack of gravity didn’t allow her to stand firmly on the floor as she scraped at the clouds with her hooves, chipping off little specs of mist. She flapped her wings but they served no purpose. Without gravity there was nothing pulling her down to the ground, and without that there was no reason for her wings to keep her afloat. She bent her body, pulling it forwards to grab the column with her fore hooves and approached the front door. Suspended in front of her house, she pushed the door open to see it was empty.

“Where’s everypony?” she said in a muttered that followed a potent “Hello! Is anyone here!?”

Rainbow Dash closed the door behind her as she floated up inside her house. She looked left and right to see the rooms empty. The tables floated and bounced inside the dining room, and the sofas in the living room made odd positions as they collided between each other. Rainbow Dash felt awkward. She had never floated around without flapping her wings and having them folded while she floated inside her house made her feel odd. I just wonder how we are going to fall without gravity, she thought. She left the lower floor and floated up to the bedroom floor. She grabbed onto the stair steps until she finally arrived to her bedroom door. She pushed it open and the scene made her groan in impotence.

“Aaaaargh, horse apples!”

Inside her bedroom all her friends floated in mid air. Celestia and Luna were above her bed, their bushy manes flowing under their bodies. They looked peaceful, sleeping a dream Rainbow Dash would never see. Twilight and Pinkie Pie were on the other side of the room, one floating above the other. Pinkie Pie’s bushy mane remained immobile under her head, while Twilight’s straight hair floated all over her body. Rainbow Dash looked at the scene, terrified. A piece of paper floated before her eyes. It was creased and had Twilight’s writing on it. She took it with her hooves and read it.

Rainbow Dash, by the time you read this we will be down another dream level trying to rescue Princess Celestia. I am sure you will do everything that’s in your hooves to activate the Fall on time. Please be careful, your friend, Twilight Sparkle.

Rainbow Dash furrowed the note into a paper ball and threw it against the wall. The paper ball bounced against the walls without stopping until it tangled in the curtains.

“How am I gonna make you fall without gravity?” she muttered.

If there was no gravity, there was no fall. If there was no fall, there was no waking up and if there was no waking up there was no way they would return home. She had to think of something and she had to do it fast. If she remembered Twilight’s calculations correctly she had just a few minutes to figure something out. But what? There is no way to simulate gravity in a freefall unless I tie them to…her chain of thought stopped dead in its tracks, as she pushed herself forward towards her wardrobe.

“I have an idea…” she said “It’s not pretty, but it’s an idea.”

* * *

Twilight Sparkle was exhausted. She was beyond out of breath, her heart ached and her lungs were on fire. When she stopped to take a break she felt the back of her tongue go numb and a disgusting metallic flavor spread inside her mouth, between her teeth. She looked behind and saw Pinkie Pie with her tongue out, dragging her straight pink hair over the soil, and further back was Princess Luna, with a crimson stain over her chest. Luna looked tired and pained, and her step was doubtful. She couldn’t hide the limping. Luna looked at Twilight as she got closer and the indigo unicorn stared back.

“We need to slow down.” said Twilight “Just for your wound.” she added looking at Luna’s injury.

She examined it despite Luna’s complaints. The wound was deep enough to see the bone and the bright muscular tissue torn apart. Twilight couldn’t see any blood vessel and the wound didn’t have any visible external bleeding. With an internal hemorrhage her possibilities were smaller. She was definitely not coming back with them on the Fall. Twilight looked at Luna and the Princess just smiled with the corner of her mouth.

“Y-you will come to f-find me…W-when I f-fall into Limbo.” mumbled Luna.

Twilight nodded without saying a word as she turned around and resumed the galloping. They trotted slower as they got closer to the Palace. Twilight calculated around five minutes had passed since they sensed the first Fall. That didn’t worry her that much though. She was worried about Luna, and about bringing her back. How would she do that? The only way to follow Luna where she was going was by dying. Would she kill herself to rescue Princess Luna? She had to. She promised her, she promised they would be friends again in the real world. A cold feeling of fear and regret spread inside her heart as she gasped for air. Twilight panicked. The concept of dying, even if it was a dream, terrified her. The concept of dying and having her mind get lost into Limbo just made her consider everything she’d learnt about magic. All her knowledge, all her power, gone. Everything she was would vanish if she couldn’t get out of Limbo with Luna.

“We are here.” said Pinkie Pie with an uncharacteristic serious voice.

Twilight didn’t realize but they were standing right in front of the Palace. The steps were clear and there seemed to be nopony in the surrounding areas. The trees remained calm. The air was still, so calm that Twilight couldn’t feel the slightest breeze over her mane. The steps, still cracked and crumbled after years of erosion, invited them to climb them and step inside.

“Come on.” said Twilight, stepping forward and starting to climb.

Pinkie Pie and Luna followed her with a steady rhythm. Once they were up at the top of the stair, Twilight pushed the derelict door with one hoof. The creak it made echoed throughout the entire forest like a sick melody. Twilight’s fear scurried down her spine as she stepped inside the Palace. The last time she had been there, Nightmare Moon was about to bring eternal night all over Equestria. She wasn’t afraid of Nightmare Moon though. The Dark Mare was gone and Princess Luna was back. Twilight knew for sure her bad memories wouldn’t betray her like it betrayed Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale. She pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the architecture to calm her nerves.

The room they were in was shaped like an ellipse. There were columns that once held a magnificent roof, and windows with beautiful shattered stained glass. The floor was covered in dead weed and dust. In the center of the room laid a statue with five platforms prepared to hold five spheres. It was everything that was left from The Elements of Harmony, at least in their memories. The place was so silent that even the slightest rattle of a rock falling over the cliff was loud and alarming.

“Where is she?” said Pinkie Pie “Where’s the Princess?”

Even though Pinkie Pie talked in whispers it served no purpose. From the other side of the room came a voice that sounded faint but authoritative. Even within the suffocating silence they couldn’t make out what the words said but they caught the tone. It was the tone of a ruler, tied down and imprisoned. The sound of hooves against the stone made the hopes of the three ponies rise as they saw a glowing light coming from inside a hole. The glowing light cut out a profile of the hole, from the inside of the wall located in the further end of the room. They realized it was an old door frame leading downstairs. The light grew more intense and finally they saw a figure coming from the inside.

“Celly…” mumbled Luna.

Princess Celestia stood in the edge of the door frame. She was so tall her horn scraped on the ceiling of the tunnel leading downstairs. There was a smile on her face and hope in her eyes. She was only a few meters away from them. They didn’t say a word. Celestia and Luna galloped towards each other, with equal expressions of joy in their faces. Pinkie Pie and Twilight followed closely. It was only for a little while, but hope filled Luna’s heart and opened the gates of her memory; to Luna it felt like an ocean of time. She looked at her sister as her figure grew larger in the distance. Flashes of memories came to her mind: The smell of her hair; the sound of her giggle; her voice when she was telling her anecdotes about Canterlot. Her laughter. She felt she would recover all those memories and bring her sister back with her. They would make more photos together and Celestia will encourage Luna to stop making the houses look so flat in her paintings. They would return to their normal life. They would be friends together again.

“ENOUGH!!!”

The voice interrupted Luna’s thoughts painfully as a blinding light rose from the center of the room. The statue that used to contain the Elements of Harmony shattered in a cloud of rocks and shards and a bundle of lightning arms interjected between Luna and Princess Celestia. The sound of the sparkles and the electricity crackling between them deafened Twilight as their furs and their hairs stood up and caught electricity. Pinkie Pie was thrown back against a column after a bolt zapped her. She stood up dizzied and sat down again, her vision blurred due to a throbbing headache. Celestia looked around her, panicked. Luna had never seen her big sister so scared.

“Sister!!!” screamed Celestia, her voice barely audible from beneath the lightning.

“Celly!!!” yelled Luna trying to move forwards and into the wall of lightning.

Twilight grabbed Luna and pulled her away. She didn’t need to make any big effort. The Princess was weak enough from the blood loss.

“No! Luna stop!” shouted Twilight.

“I don’t care Twilight, it’s my sister!!!” shouted Luna, trying to get Twilight off of her.

Celestia looked around her, scared. Fear paralyzed her. She had never experienced magic that Powerful before. Inside a dream everything was enhanced. Inside a dream, her God-like powers were not better than those of anypony else. Inside a dream she was mortal. Then the presence spoke again and for the last time in that dream, its voice shaking the foundations of the palace.

“I! Have!! Had it!!! WITH YOU!!!”

The lightning storm surrounded Celestia from every side. A cage made out of lightning and thunder encased the Princess of the Sun and lifted her in the middle of the air. Luna and Twilight looked at it, impotent and unable to stop it. Celestia got struck by a lightning bolt. Then another. And another. And another. A seemingly endless barrage of lightning crossed Celestia’s body from every angle. It passed through her head. It passed across her stomach and through her legs. They penetrated inside her hooves and sprouted out of her eyes. She stopped feeling the pain when her nerve endings burned. When it felt it was over, the lightning turned solid. The twisted yellow, white and blue shapes turned solid and shot against Celestia, piercing the Princess’ body. There was an explosion of crimson liquid that rained under her legs. The stain that formed below her had a sick purple tone, the red mixed with the blue of the stone. Her white body turned pink with deformed streams of red coming from the countless wounds. When the lightning retracted her body fell on the floor like a dead weight and the storm vanished as suddenly as it arrived.

“No…”

Luna’s mind couldn’t comprehend what just happened. She had to take a few steps before finally getting a reaction. Her heart swelled with rage and hatred, unable to take the eyes away from her sister’s dead body, she galloped to her, ignoring the pain, with tears running down her face.

“CELLY!!!!”

Her shriek tore through the silence. She screamed so loud, and in such a desperate state, that her throat ached and her voice broke mid scream. She fell to her knees as she buried her snout under Celestia’s forelegs. Her sister’s blood stained Luna’s snout with black marks. The tears mixed with it leaving pink marks over her white body. Luna didn’t care. She didn’t care about anything anymore. Her sister was dead. She had her dead body right before her. She had recognized her. She saw it in her eyes as they ran towards each other. She didn’t even get the chance to tell her how sorry she was that she didn’t like the last photo she took. Luna let go a moaning sob of despair and guilt as she buried her head into her sister’s bloodied coat and cried disconsolately. Her chest ached but this time it was from anguish and not from her injury.

Twilight just sat down and cried in silence. Her teacher, the person that cared for her during her whole life now lied dead on the dusty floor of that Palace. Deep down Twilight still remembered that it was a dream. None of it was real. But Celestia’s death meant that her mind was now gone. Celestia was now in Limbo. Twilight couldn’t focus on anything. She just couldn’t. Her mind was a boiling pot of terror and preoccupation and she had no idea what to do next. Her organizing skills crumbled under the pressure and her magic powers didn’t include resuscitation. It was over. Her mind, her good judgment, couldn’t stop her from muttering.

“It’s all over…We’ve failed.”

Behind her, Pinkie Pie walked towards Twilight and passed a hoof over her shoulder. Twilight’s eyes filled with tears as she closed them and hugged Pinkie Pie tighter than she had ever hugged someone before. The tears ran down her face as she hid her snout inside Pinkie’s straight haired mane, muffling her agonizing moans. The Palace remained in silence as the three ponies mourned the loss of Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, now trapped in Limbo.

Obliterating two souls.

Fluttershy’s carriage was fourteen seconds away from the water.

She felt weird. With her wings stuck to her body and the sense of falling surrounding her, Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel a wave of panic taking her heart and crunching it. Besides that pinch that was nothing but a small bother, she was alright. She had, however, a deep feeling of concern. Would her friends be okay? Would they be safe?

* * *

Rainbow Dash floated all the way to her wardrobe and opened it, hoping that inside that dream also her things would have been transferred. She sighed in relief when she saw that was exactly what happened. With a big smile on her face she pulled out five harnesses for bungee jumping and five Jet-Packs. She checked if they still had fuel inside them and that the straps were secured enough. Then she checked over the bungee ropes and the straps which seemed to be in order too. Everything was safe and ready to use. Rainbow Dash smiled at her flawless responsibility. I can be a bit impulsive sometimes, but this ain’t child’s play, she thought.

She floated towards her friends as she prepared to strap them into the bungee harnesses.

* * *

Pinkie Pie couldn’t bring herself to cry. She was paralyzed and confused. Celestia was dead, which meant her mind was gone into Limbo. She didn’t understand the concept of Limbo as well as the others, but she knew it wasn’t a good thing. If they woke up and Celestia was still in Limbo, her mind would be gone forever. That she understood. She kept hugging Twilight, not sure of what to say or where to start saying anything. She hated these situations.

“Twilight…What’s gonna happen now?” said Pinkie Pie.

Twilight snorted and passed a hoof over her face, clearing the tears off of it. She didn’t reply but at least she stopped her crying. The lack of responses made Pinkie feel impatient. The pink pony grabbed Twilight by the shoulders pulling her up from behind her straight mane and looked at the unicorn right in the eye.

“Twilight, why don’t we go get her?” said Pinkie Pie, surprised to hear her own words. She couldn’t explain where they came from.

Twilight’s face changed from sad to shocked and then confused. What did Pinkie just suggest? Twilight wasn’t sure if Pinkie understood what was happening. The implication of going inside dreams, the complexity of the dream levels, how they affected each other…

“Twilight…”

It was Luna. Her voice sounded weak and distant, but there was a characteristic calmness in it. She wasn’t crying anymore. She lied over her big sister’s dead body, but she wasn’t crying. Maybe Pinkie Pie is really onto something, thought Twilight. She realized that Pinkie Pie put her hoof on a Great idea. Twilight grabbed Pinkie Pie by her arms.

“Go on Pinkie.” said Twilight, encouraging her friend. “What’s your idea?”

“Well…” said Pinkie Pie, making a gesture with her head to throw her mane over her back again. “Why can’t we get down there and rescue Celestia? That’s like…It’s like another dream, right? We can get inside her head, and find her. And when we find her, we make her fall in there and she will wake up here. And then all we have to do is make her fall here, and then Rainbow Dash makes us fall, and then we all fall inside Fluttershy’s carriage, waking up.” She remained silent and ended up her plan explanation with an innocent tone. “Or is it a terribly terrible baddy bad idea?”

“It’s a Great idea.” said Luna from the distance “Well it’s…the only idea.”

“But it will work.” said Twilight, walking towards Luna and the cadaver of Princess Celestia “Pinkie, you’re the greatest.”

Twilight didn’t want to hide her enthusiasm as she gave her friend another hug. Pinkie Pie felt really happy, a warm and fuzzy feeling spreading over her chest and inside her heart, as for a moment she felt one of her hairs curled into its natural form. Twilight lowered her head under Princess Celestia’s body and pulled her up. Luna and Pinkie Pie imitated her and between the three of them lifted Princess Celestia. The red ichor poured from the gaping stabbing wounds and over their bodies. Twilight ignored it, surprised to realize there was no foul smell. With Great pain, she started moving upstairs.

“We have to put her and us in the highest tower of the Palace.” said Twilight.

It took them ten minutes to walk all the way up the tower as they left a trace of red blood and white feathers on the steps. Endless times they slipped and almost fell downstairs. Twilight had to grab Pinkie Pie by her mane and her tail so she wouldn’t go downstairs or, even worse, down and out of the Palace. The tower’s steps were not fully covered and there was a section that was fully exposed to the outside. A soft wind passed between their legs. Twilight welcomed the fresh wind passing over her sweaty stomach and her exhausted limbs, a much needed relief. Once they arrived at the top of the tower, Twilight laid Celestia next to the edge, over a platform without walls that seemed clean enough.

“Alright.” said Twilight “Luna, this is the plan: Pinkie Pie and I will go down to Limbo to get Celestia back. You stay back and look after us as much as you can.”

“Why h-her?” said Luna pointing at Pinkie Pie “Why c-can’t I go with y-y-you? I am about to d-die, Twilight. I can h-h-help you down th-there.”

“We need somepony with magic strong enough to keep us safe in here.” said Twilight “Pinkie Pie could use her dream bending powers to protect us, but her abilities will be much more useful down in Limbo.”

“If I…Urk!” Luna had to stop; the wound yanked her so bad her breath got cut for a couple of seconds. When she resumed talking she did so without breath. “If I s-stay h-here…Alright T-Twilight. I will s-stay h-here and protect you f-f-f-for as long as I can.”

“Don’t forget to make us Fall before you slip into Limbo.” said Twilight.

Luna nodded, as she got close to Twilight and Pinkie Pie and hugged them. Luna spread her wings and hugged her two friends closely and tightly. She got as far as breaking protocol and nuzzled each other over their cheeks, the closest they could get to a formal kiss. Twilight broke the embrace first as she looked at Luna.

“I won’t forget.” said Twilight “I will come to rescue you. I will come to bring you back.”

“Before…Before I turn into a little filly, scared without her mother…”

“Waiting for her big sister to save her.” finished Twilight. “I will come to rescue you, I swear.”

Twilight turned around and laid next to Celestia’s dead body. Pinkie Pie let her body fall next to Twilight as she looked at Celestia’s bloodied face. She moved her eyes away from it before the feeling of puking grew bigger. Luna’s horn glowed with a black light that threw purple shadows and violet reflections over their bodies. Twilight knew there was only one way to get into Limbo. As she looked at Pinkie Pie’s face, she realized the earth pony knew that as well. Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle held their hooves together and closed their eyes, when they felt Luna’s magic inside their chests, squeezing their hearts. Twilight didn’t expect it to hurt so much.

“It hurts!!! IT HURTS TWILIGHT!!!” screamed Pinkie Pie.

“It…It will be over…soon, Pinkie…” replied Twilight, her teeth gritted and and hooves holding Pinkie’s tightly.

She felt her chest was about to explode. Her heart stopped beating, strangled by Luna’s magic. Luna felt every single second of their heart attacks. The agony, the short breath, the pain and the fear sheered through her mind and body as she looked at Twilight and Pinkie Pie agonizing and spasming on the floor. Twilight felt her neck tense up, the muscles about to snap and her blood vessels on the edge of rupturing. She saw Pinkie Pie gagging and gesturing like she was about to vomit; nothing came from her mouth but raspy breaths. The last thing Twilight felt was Pinkie’s hoof over hers, and how they slipped over the floor. After that a black emptiness surrounded her, and then nothing. No panic, no fear, no happiness, no depression. Nothing but a complete void of emotion. Luna walked towards the two friends and checked their pulse. They were gone. She took a few steps backwards and sat down on the floor, tears coming to her face. She was alone again. And even if Twilight or Pinkie or even her sister returned from Limbo in time, Luna would be gone by then. She took a moment to breathe as she passed her hoof over the wound. There was a crust around it, but it was still stained with red and brown. The inside felt worse though. She could feel the pool of warm blood formed between her lungs. Her left lung was pierced and made her breathing more difficult.

“Twilight…” she whispered, looking at Twilight lying next to Celestia and Pinkie Pie “Twilight…don’t get lost in there…Don’t get lost down there.”

* * *

Twilight felt absolutely nothing at first. She also saw nothing. Everything was black. The first thing she did was listen. She heard the sound of waves crashing against the shore. She felt her coat covered in water and sand. Lifting her head slowly, she blinked until her vision cleared. Before her a yellow smudge focused into a yellow line, and finally into a beach line. She looked behind her to see an endless mass of water.

END OF CHAPTER 3.