Corruption Ch 3 - Fracture
Book Four: Corruption
Chapter Three - Fracture
The scene faded to black, and remained that way for a moment.
“We know that’s not how it ended,” Sweetie Belle finally spoke up. “You’re here with us now, so you must have escaped.”
“Yeah, tell us what happened next,” Scootaloo added and jumped up to her hooves. “Did you have an epic battle?”
Luna managed to smile down at the fillies. “I’m glad you’re all paying attention, because the next part of this tale is important,” she said, and pointed her hoof towards the floating screen. “Honestly, I was even surprised by it.”
The scene flashed with bright pink magic. The darkness that had enveloped everything was blasted away, and Pinkie Pie stood beside Luna, now as a pink alicorn. The two of them stared across the barren wasteland at Nightmare Moon, whose piercing stare was aimed directly at the former earth pony.
“What are you?” Nightmare Moon growled, her voice full of anger.
Pinkie Pie smiled and set her horn aglow. “I’m Pinkie Pie!” she responded cheerfully, and then suddenly took on a serious expression. “Other than that, I have no idea. I just knew I had to repay Princess Luna since she helped me, and the only way to do it was to use magic. So I did!” She turned her head towards Luna as she spoke.
Luna glanced at Pinkie, but kept her attention firmly locked on Nightmare Moon. “You must have somehow used all the magic I just poured into you to transform,” she said. “I’ve never heard of such a thing happening. Because of it, we stand a fighting chance.”
Luna tapped her hoof against the screen and the scene froze. “I should explain, now. It seems that my intuition about Pinkie Pie had been correct. She was indeed an anomaly, as you can see. Dreams often have aspects that are strange, that don’t fit with the rest of the dream. I’ve never seen an anomaly like Pinkie Pie, though,” she said.
“Actually, Princess,” Twilight interrupted. “So far, Pinkie has been like that in every dream we’ve visited.” Luna blinked and furrowed her brow in thought.
“It’s true,” said Celestia. “I detected Pinkie as an anomaly within Twilight’s dream as soon as I entered it, and found that she was a marvelous conduit for magical power. She has been instrumental in our success, and is a key part to our strategy if this ‘rule of Pinkie’ holds true.”
“We’ve got this little pink gem, we can use it to communicate with all the other Pinkies we’ve met, among other things,” Twilight said, rooting around in her saddle bag. “Or… we did have it. Oh no, did I drop it?” She rummaged around desperately.
“There’s no reception in here, though!” said Pinkie. Everyone turned and looked at her. She had the pink gem in her ear, and she was tapping against it, a look of concentration across her face. “Helloooooo! Moonbase Pinkie to other Pinkies! Do you read me, other Pinkies?”
Twilight looked at her saddle bag, then back at Pinkie. “When did you…?” she asked. Pinkie just giggled in response and winked. “Nevermind. Princess, the point is that if Pinkie ends up being like this in all the dreams…” she started, but then trailed off, spotting the changelings sitting off to the side.
Luna blinked with confusion. “Yes? What of it?” she asked. Twilight nodded her head towards Linnai and Mulcibar, and Luna turned her gaze toward them. Linnai rolled her eyes and sighed while Mulcibar stared back calmly. “Yes, I see. I shall continue my story, in any case.” She swiped her hoof in front of the magic screen and the image upon it zapped into motion again.
“Although there’s not much more to tell,” Luna narrated as the screen showed a barrage of magical blasts between Nightmare Moon, Pinkie, and herself. “Even though it was two of us against one of her, we were evenly matched, unable to gain any ground. However, something strange happened that ended the battle.”
The scene showed a sudden jolt of magic sweeping across the sky. Like a storm had abruptly formed, lightning blazed down and struck Nightmare Moon. Her eyes erupted in a red glow and she vanished from sight.
“I didn’t see her again for several days within this dream world, but I knew that she was not truly gone. I could sense her, and I knew that I had to stay here as her jailer, keeping her from going out to other dreams. It wasn’t until she reappeared that I sensed what she had been up to,” Luna explained. “As you know, she and I are like two sides of the same coin. We are connected, and if I wished it, I could have communicated with her, just like she could communicate with me… and that she did. I am not sure why she told me as much as she did, but listen to her own voice as she reveals her plan. This, my little ponies and changelings, is the important information that this has all been leading up to.”
Nightmare Moon’s voice echoed across the chamber, a twisted and evil version of Luna’s own.
“You and I will be one again. There is no way for you to stop this now. No way for anypony to stop it. These changelings should never have meddled with Equestria, not while you and I still lived. After tonight, a new era will begin, led by us! Nopony can not stop us! The only things in this world that can rival our power are the Elements of Harmony, and after tonight, there will be nopony to wield them!”
“What have you done!?” Luna’s voice shouted. Nightmare Moon laughed loudly in response.
“Let’s just say after tonight, they’ll be having a nice, quiet nap! Permanently!”
“She spoke no more words, but she didn’t need to. Our minds were one, and I knew what she had planned -- I saw it all. If her release of magic into the dream worlds goes unchecked, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony will be trapped in eternal sleep.”
“Eternal sleep?” Fluttershy asked nervously.
“So her plan is to put us into comas?” Twilight questioned, her expression having hardened with fear. “Would we keep dreaming? How would we know if we’d been put into a coma?”
Luna shook her head. “Have any of you received a fatal wound and lived through it?” she asked.
Twilight’s heart sank. “I have,” she said quietly. “Not that long ago, either. But, it was from one of the changelings. Does that matter?”
Luna sighed. “It may. I can only hope that it does. For all of our sakes, the Elements of Harmony must be available to be used.”
Discord threw his arms into the air in frustration. “You’re telling me!” he said loudly, his eyes twitching. “Imagine if I’d helped you all out and had to mind-meld with Celestia for nothing!”
“Calm down, Discord!” Celestia shouted. “There’s no point in getting up in arms about it now!”
Discord sighed and flopped to the ground. I’d turn into a puddle of goo at this point if I could, he thought. At least the mind-meld is broken in here so she can’t hear me wallowing. I can just hear what she’d say...
Has it really been all that bad? Celestia's voice rang out in Discord’s mind. Do you hate helping us that much?
Oh, leave me alone, he thought and sighed.
“Even if she were to succeed, she’d have to deal with Cloudsdale’s considerable military might,” Celestia said. “Surely she’s considered that.”
“I would assume so, though I am not certain,” Luna responded. “This chamber blocks all magic other than my own, and that includes her magic and my link to her. However, I would think she has a plan for that if it happens.”
“So there’s truly no way but to fight her?” Celestia asked.
“Yes, but it will be dangerous. I felt some of her magic when we opened this place to let you in. She’s used her lucidity to change the rules outside, so to speak. I am not certain of all the conditions she’s set, but one hit me very fast: the essence of mortality.”
Fluttershy hid her face beneath her wings and Twilight looked toward the ground. “What does that mean?” Twilight asked. “The essence of mortality?”
“It means we can die out there, you idiot,” Linnai said with frustration. “The stakes are higher than ever. We set hoof out there, and it’s our real lives on the line.”
“Is that true?” Twilight asked, two of the three Cutie Mark Crusaders now huddling beneath her, along with Fluttershy. Luna nodded her head.
“You can count us out,” Linnai said with certainty. “We didn’t come here to die!”
“You were plenty bloodthirsty before,” Twilight snapped. “Besides, nopony is asking for your help!”
“Calm thyself, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “Save your strength.” Twilight hung her head back down again and took a deep breath.
A quiet voice broke the silence. Sweetie Belle, the only one of the Crusaders who was still standing normally, looking up at Luna, spoke up. “This probably isn’t important, but if this place blocks all magic, how did we talk to you in our dream, Princess?” she asked. Celestia and Twilight blinked and tilted their heads, staring down at the filly. “Sorry, I’ll be quiet now. It’s not important.”
Luna stepped forward and down from the platform she had been standing upon, gazing down at the filly. “No, child, you’re right. That is one mystery I have not pondered since it happened. Tell me, what happened when you were able to speak to me?” she asked, looking down at Sweetie Belle seriously.
“Well, we had these strange glowing emblems on our chests, and…” Sweetie Belle started nervously as Princess Luna reached a shaking hoof out towards her chest. “Later on, they turned into these pendants. They let us use magic, even Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. It was different from the lucidity.”
“They almost looked like the Elements of Harmony,” Twilight added. “The pendants were made of glowing gemstones with dark metal necklaces… not golden like the Elements, and the power they made felt different.”
Luna pushed her hoof gently against Sweetie Belle’s chest. An explosion of magic streamed out of the filly with vibrant intensity, flooding the chamber with bright, colorful light. The other two crusaders reacted similarly, their power pouring out, filling the air with their auras. Everypony looked around in awe. Twilight , Celestia, and Luna stared down at Sweetie Belle, whose eyes were now tightly shut and her horn glowing brightly.
Luna took a step back nervously and shook her head. “This is impossible. No magic should be usable in here but my own,” she said, then bringing a hoof up and placing it against her forehead. “What… is this? My head! My head is pounding!”
Celestia leapt towards Sweetie Belle and ducked down in front of her. “Sweetie Belle, please, try to grasp the power like you did before,” she said calmly, though her eyes were anything but calm.
“I can’t!” Sweetie Belle howled loudly.
“It’s too much! It won’t stop!” Scootaloo cried, tears pouring from her eyes as the magic burst outward uncontrollably.
“What sort of marvelous power is this?” a voice screeched, filling the room. “Your little sanctuary is breached!”
“Nightmare Moon!” Twilight shouted, looking up at Luna who was now fighting against the flow with her own magic, but it only seemed to be adding to the effect.
“No!” Luna screamed, staring wide-eyed down at the foals before her. “How can this be? How can you three be wielding my magic? How have you come to possess this power?”
Nightmare Moon’s laughter echoed across the chamber. “How, indeed! And yet, there they are! My little fillies, you shall be the bringers of my ultimate triumph!”
“Stop them!” Linnai screeched, jumping towards the center of the group and right at Sweetie Belle. Mulcibar reached a hoof out to try and stop her, but it was too late.
“Don’t you touch her!” Twilight yelled, jumping towards Linnai with her front right hoof pulled back, ready to strike.
“ENOUGH FROM ALL OF YOU!” Luna shouted at the top of her lungs, then firing a massive blast of energy out in all directions. The magic pushed outward, forcing everypony to the ground.
Celestia pulled herself up to her hooves and took a step towards her sister. “Luna, you have to let us help! You have to disable the magic cancellation spell!”
“She’ll get in here within seconds of that happening! And those changelings will regain their power, too!”
Celestia placed a hoof against her sister’s shoulder and leaned her head towards her. “Then we’ll have to deal with it all in a matter of seconds,” she said, her eyes burning as she stared at Luna.
Luna nodded her still-pounding head, and with a flash and a sound like howling wind, the magic cancellation field vanished. Celestia and Twilight’s horns lit up immediately, and they concentrated their power on the Crusaders. Luna did the same, but glanced over at the two changelings. Linnai had stood up and was looking back at her brother, who was channeling bright blue magic into the glowing gem at the base of his horn.
“Come on, Crusaders,” Twilight said. “Try again! Try to get ahold of it now that the magic field is down!” The three crusaders were straining as hard as they could, concentrating on the power that was still flying freely from their chests.
Pinkie smiled and lit her horn up as well. A staticy voice began to shout at her from somewhere, and she remembered the communication gem was in her ear now. Her eyes rolled upward as the tiny voice spoke to her.
Linnai grinned and turned her gaze back towards the other ponies. She walked calmly towards her brother. “You were right, Mulci. Our time to act has come, now,” she said. The gem at the base of her horn shone a bright red color. "Let's get out of here! Let them deal with the Nightmare!"
Mulcibar shook his head and stepped forward, pushing a hoof into Linnai’s side. He glanced at her as he passed. “You never did know how to play the long game,” he spoke calmly. He walked right up to the group of ponies who were concentrating on containing the magical outburst and joined them in their effort.
Linnai’s jaw gaped open and her eyes burned with anger. She screamed and let loose a blast of magic straight towards the ceiling, but with a flash, Discord appeared in it’s path. With a snap of his fingers, the blast vanished.
“Temper, temper!” he said. “No need to bring down the house.”
Linnai glared up at Discord, then looked back at Mulcibar. “I can’t believe this is happening,” she muttered under her breath. Discord appeared beside her and sighed.
“You’re telling me,” he replied.
The magic pouring out of the Crusaders died down to a small trickle. Nearly 30 seconds had passed, and Luna was beginning to look worried. Her eyes darted around the room, her ears twitched, and the glow of her horn grew brighter than before.
With a squelching sound, the magic finally shot back into the Crusaders, and their pendants from the previous dream formed around their necks. The jewels on each chain still glowed brightly with power.
“I think that does it,” Twilight said, breathing heavily.
“Indeed!” Luna shouted, and her horn burst outward, putting the magic dampening field in place once more.
However, just a second later, it happened.
Like a surge of water, a massive blast of red and purple energy crashed outward from the Crusaders. The fillies screamed in pain. Everypony was blasted away by the force. The walls of the chamber cracked and the ceiling began to give way.
Nightmare Moon’s voice once again filled the sanctuary.
“You fools can no longer stop me! I’ve not the slightest clue how it happened, but those three fillies are absolutely full of your magic! Our magic! Like a bridge through your forcefield, I can push my way in no matter what you do!”
The building exploded outward, boulders and shards of stone flying out across the dark landscape at the bottom of the crater. A ball of dark magic formed around the area and compressed, pulling everypony in and eventually forming into a sphere in which they were all trapped. The sphere rose slowly into the air, and Nightmare Moon descended from the sky to meet it.
“This is the end! The end of the elements! The end of Celestia’s reign! The end of the changeling invasion!” she howled, her face filled with demented joy and her fangs dripping with saliva. The sphere began to compress. “I’ll crush you all into a pulp! Only you will be spared, precious Luna. You and I will have so much fun after this, trust me!”
“Fight it!” Luna shouted, her horn glowing with power. “We have to stand together against her!”
“I… I can’t!” Twilight said, struggling to channel any magic into her own horn at all.
“Oh my gosh oh my gosh!” Fluttershy cried.
Discord’s face drooped as he frowned, snapping his fingers to no effect but a flash of light. “this can’t be how it ends!” he said angrily.
“You will never win! Outside of this dream world, you will be crushed!” Linnai screamed at Nightmare Moon, who responded with more laughter.
Mulcibar frowned and turned his head down towards the three fillies who were huddled together in the center of the ever compressing magical sphere. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed their pendants glowing brighter and brighter.
Pinkie Pie noticed the glowing pendants as well and slid down the inner sphere towards the girls. She put her forelegs around Scootaloo and nodded her head. “Yeah, they’re still glowing real bright!” she said as if she were responding to someone. “Well okay, that’s worth a try. Makes sense to me!”
Pinkie Pie pushed her head in the middle of the three fillies and began to speak to them. The ever-growing glow from their pendants had now attracted everypony’s attention, and they all stared down at them, observing Pinkie’s seemingly calm demeanor as she spoke unheard words.
“Princess, you were right!” Apple Bloom finally shouted as the sphere had shrunk to the size where everypony was beginning to touch one another.
“We’re gonna fight for Equestria!” Scootaloo shouted.
“That’s right! Get ready, girls!” Sweetie belle said. “Go!”
The three Crusaders began to glow with magic, their whole bodies radiating colorful light. The shrinking sphere ceased its advance and began to change color from red to a lighter purple.
“What are you doing!?” Nightmare Moon yelled at the fillies.
In the distance, seemingly miles away, a pillar of pink light shot up from the ground and into the sky. Shortly after, an orange pillar appeared, and then a yellow one shot up as well. The sky lit up brightly with the magical energy and the sphere changed completely to light purple, and then began to lose all color, turning a brilliant white.
“Girls, what’s going on?” Twilight asked, her horn now glowing much more brightly.
“It was the only way,” Pinkie said, her eyes closing. “If these girls have the same magic as Luna and Nightmare Moon, then they should be able to nullify their magic by pumping out as much of their own as possible.”
Celestia gasped. “But that comes with a price, Pinkie Pie!” she shouted.
Pinkie nodded her head. “It was the only way,” she replied.
Princess Luna, a look of pure fear on her face, stopped channeling magic into her horn and wrapped her forelegs around Celestia and Discord. “Brace yourselves!” she called out. “This is not going to be pleasant!”
“What’s going to happen?” Fluttershy asked nervously as Twilight grabbed ahold of her.
With a deafening bang, the sphere exploded, and everypony shot out in all different directions with a cacophony of screams. They flew into the sky, blazing through the air at high speed. Bright streaks of magic trailed behind them, giving them the appearance of comets sailing through the night.
Nightmare Moon scowled and shot straight up into the air. The pillars of light that had appeared earlier had faded, and the others had been shot miles away by now. She growled deeply at the bottom of her throat.
“If any of you somehow survive, make no mistake, I will find you all. Mark my words, you will not make it out of this world alive!”
Princess Celestia awoke with a start. She shot up to her hooves, visions of her flying through the air uncontrollably flashing through her head, as well as the orange pegasus she had been cradling in her forelegs as she flew. She now found herself standing on a large cloud. She looked around in a panic.
“Scootaloo!” she called out, and then spotted the foal a short distance from her, sleeping peacefully enough on the cloud. She walked to her to make sure she was okay, and then proceeded out to the edge of the cloud. Looking down, she saw the city of clouds stretching out before her.
“Cloudsdale,” she said to herself. “I suppose it could have gone much worse."
She turned her gaze toward the moon. “Be safe, sister. I hope everypony is okay. We have no time to waste,” she said to herself, turning her head to look back at Scootaloo. “We must find one another again and take a stand against Nightmare Moon. There truly is no other way.”
Luna quickly realized she couldn’t breathe. Her ears were ringing, her body was cold, and she felt pain the likes of which she was not used to experiencing within a dream -- unless Nightmare Moon was involved.
Nightmare Moon! she thought. Her eyes shot open, and she finally realized she was underwater, and sinking. Before she could even start to cast a spell, she felt the grip of a taloned hand around her left foreleg. The claw pulled her upward with great speed, and she crested the water’s surface. Luna gasped for breath and blinked her eyes. She saw Discord floating above the water in front of her and felt the claw release her leg. It floated through the air back to Discord’s arm and reattached itself.
After coughing up water for a moment, the princess regained her composure and considered Discord, looking directly at his face. “Thank you for thy assistance, Discord,” she said, formally.
Discord sighed. “Don’t get used to it,” he said, then snapped his fingers. A raft appeared on the surface of the water, and he and the princess teleported onto its surface.
“Do you have any idea where we are?” Luna asked, repositioning herself on the raft.
Discord nodded his head. “From what I can tell, we’re in the ocean to the west. I spotted land due east from up high, doesn’t look like very forgiving territory. I’d say it’s the San Palomino Desert, if I’m not mistaken.”
Luna gasped. “We’ve been shot that far off?”
“Couldn’t you tell? It’s your dream world, after all. By all means, whenever you’re ready, use your lucidity to get us someplace more civilized.”
Luna closed her eyes. She tried to concentrate, tried to sense her dream around her, but something was stopping her. “I can not,” she said sadly. “There’s something wrong. I don’t think it’s from Nightmare Moon this time, either. It’s almost as if… there’s something missing. Something from inside of me.”
“Well, that’s rather inconvenient,” Discord said with a sigh.
“Until I discover what’s wrong, we shall have to press on without.”
“Well, we’re gonna need a bigger boat, then!” Discord said with sudden glee. The raft contorted and transformed into a ship. A pirate flag with Discord’s smiling face on it flew above the main mast. Discord carefully placed a patch over one of his eyes and took hold of the wheel in front of him.
Luna smirked. “Well done, though I question your taste in accessories,” she said. Discord snapped his fingers and a patch eye appeared over Luna’s left eye.
“I don’t know, I think it’s rather stylish!” he said.
This is going to be a long trip, Luna thought. At least his magic is powerful, and similar enough to lucidity. We should be able to face any danger that we encounter.
Discord turned the wheel and whistled. “You know, I was upset at first, but this is just fantastic!” he said cheerfully. “I never thought I’d end up being shipped with you, Princess Luna!” He turned his head and winked his non-patched eye at her.
Luna smirked and shook her head.
When Twilight came to, she found herself suspended in the branches of a tree. Thick vines hung down from the tree’s limbs, acting as a net. She struggled for a moment before finally freeing herself and dropping down to the ground below. The earth under her feet was soggy and wet, and the smell of peat filled her nostrils.
A swamp, eh? she thought. Where am I? That explosion could have launched me halfway across the continent… it’s amazing I’m in one piece. She looked up to the stars in the sky and used them to orient herself. She began to move northward, going on the assumption that she had been shot to the swamps of the southeast. She heard a snapping twig to her right and stopped suddenly.
“Is somepony there?” she asked quietly, staring into the shadows where the sound had come from. There was no response. She nervously continued walking, casting a light spell on her horn.
From the cover of a thorny bush, a pair of eyes stared out towards Twilight Sparkle. Breathing slowly and quietly through her open mouth, Linnai followed Twilight from a short distance, taking deliberate, careful steps. She seems to know where she’s going, Linnai thought as she stalked. I’d better keep my distance, though. I can’t afford to have her discover me.
As she was thinking, she took another careful breath in through her mouth, and a fly buzzed right in. She choked and wheezed, falling forward into the sludge. Twilight came running, pushing the thorn bush aside with magic. She stared down at the convulsing changeling, a frown forming across her lips.
Linnai continued to hack and pound her hoof against her chest, not even noticing Twilight was standing in front of her. “Blech! No!” she said in a panic, and then finally noticed a purple hoof pressed into the mud in front of her. She slowly tilted her head upward, her eyes tracing the foreleg and body up to Twilight’s scowling face. She scooted back slightly as Twilight unhappily stared back down at her.
“I think I ate a bug,” Linnai managed to say, her voice rasping. Twilight shook her head, turned around, and began to walk away. Linnai stumbled back up to her hooves. “Wait, don’t leave me!” Twilight stopped in her tracks. Linnai cringed.
Spinning around to face the changeling again, Twilight stamped her hoof into the mud. “Why in Equestria would I want to help you?” she asked. “It’s not so nice when the tables are turned, is it? What did you say, again? That we’d be out of our minds if we expected help from the two of you? Well, that’s fine! I don’t want your help, and I don’t want to help you!” She breathed heavily, her mind full of memories of the fight against the changelings in the Crusaders’ dream.
“Look, I know we’ve had some rough patches, but…” Linnai started, but was cut off.
“Rough patches? You nearly killed me! You tried to kill the princess! Who’s out of their mind, now?” Twilight shouted, staring at Linnai and noticing that the gemstone that was normally socketed into her horn was now gone. “So, what now? Now that you don’t have your little magic focusing jewel, all of the sudden you need help?”
Linnai fumed and snapped back. “Yeah, so what? I could still kick your flank, even without it! You should feel honored that I’m choosing to not kill you again!”
Twilight clenched her teeth, her eyes widening in anger. She caught herself, took a deep breath, and sighed. “Just stay away from me,” she said. “And don’t follow me!” She started to walk northward again. After a short distance, she heard a sloshing sound from behind her. She turned and saw Linnai following her.
“What!” Linnai yelled. “I’m not following you! I just happen to be going the same way!”
“Whatever,” Twilight groaned, and continued to trot northward through the swamp. After about a mile, she turned her head back again and saw that Linnai was still following her. “You have wings! Why don’t you just fly away?”
“None of your business!” the changeling snapped.
“And honestly, if you wanted me to help you, why didn’t you disguise yourself as one of my friends? That’s what you changelings do, isn’t it?”
“That’s also none of your business,” Linnai said with a frown. “Besides, you don’t seem like the type to be so easily fooled. You saw through the Queen’s disguise. Why waste the energy?”
Twilight shrugged and started to march on once again, thinking to herself. I don’t like this. She has to be planning something. I can’t let my guard down.
Linnai trailed behind, her eyes locked on Twilight, also thinking to herself. Why did this have to happen to me? Of all the ponies I had to run across, why did it have to be her? I could have manipulated the foals or the yellow one so much more easily. Guess that’s just my luck…
“Wake up, Pinkie!” a tiny voice shouted into Pinkie Pie’s ear. She groggily opened her eyes. As they came into focus, she found herself lying in a room on a bed. Broken debris lie all around her, and a hole in the roof above her revealed the starry night sky.
“Where am I?” she said, placing a hoof on her head. Her body ached as she moved.
“I don’t know, but you’re lucky!” the familiar voice said to her. “You went flying and crashed into this house! We tried as best we could to cushion your impact. The fact that you managed to break through a thin-roofed building and land on a bed certainly helped, too!”
“I don’t feel so good,” Pinkie said, rolling onto her side.
“No time to rest, Pinkie. I know just the thing to pep you up, too!”
“Wait!” Another nearly identical voice protested. “We don’t know what will happen. She already has Princess Luna’s magic. Can we really give her Celestia’s magic, too?”
“Is that the other Pinkies?” Pinkie Pie asked, trying to force herself to sit up. “What do you mean give me Celestia’s magic?”
“I don’t know,” one of the other Pinkies responded. “There’s nothing in any of Twilight’s books regarding magical transference from two alicorns.”
“The fact is, we need her in the network. We can’t connect her unless we give her magic that’s on the same wavelength.”
“She’s Luna’s Pinkie, I’m sure it’ll be fine!”
“Do I get a say in this?” Pinkie asked, shaking her head groggily. A second later, she felt a jolt of magic zap across her brain.
I guess not, she thought.
Keep your hooves crossed! A voice shouted inside Pinkie’s mind.
A second later, there was a massive explosion. The building that Pinkie had been in was completely demolished. Debris flew everywhere.
Out at sea, Luna and Discord were sailing toward land in their ship. An explosion of pink magic from the northeast caught their attention. Luna shot to her hooves and stared towards the barely visible city. “We should change course,” she said. “That felt like my sister’s magic.”
Discord nodded. “We’re shipping off to Las Pegasus! Set sail!” he cheered.
Fluttershy awoke in a dim place, lying upon a pile of hay. Searing pain shot through one of her hind legs, and she cringed in response. Looking around, she spotted light coming through an opening just to her side. She crawled with her forelegs toward the light. As she pulled herself away from the hay pile, she felt a ground made of cold, damp rock underneath her.
This is some sort of cave. I have to figure out where I am. Have to find the others, she thought.
She pushed her head through the opening and into a large cavern. The light was coming from a flickering fire to her right. The heat coming from the flames was soothing, despite the incredible pain in her right hind leg. She turned her head to look at the fire, thinking to herself, one of my friends must be here with me.
She barely kept herself from gasping as she turned her gaze.
“You…” she said, and then fainted from the pain.
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This whole dream worlds thing has my head in knots. I don't which way is up anymore.
i.imgur.com/6g97KSV.jpg
4400268 Never read the fanfic "Hard Reset 2: Reset Harder" It will screw you up.
4400351 The original Hard Reset trilogy is one of my all time favorite stories. Hard Reset 2 is something I gave up at Chapter 3. It's just so chaotic it makes it unreadable. Maybe I'll give it a second chance one day.
(Not to mention that the fact that both sides are looping, including Celestia on the good side, makes the whole fight futile and pointless from Twilight's point of view.)
Oh, that Twilight and her one-upsmanship.
4400366 The rabbit hole goes deeper, much deeper, it only gets more confusing. More than once I have paused reading to think for a minute or two about what exactly might be going on, I love it.
Damn, where to start?
First of all, the Cutie Mark Crusaders have access to Luna's magic, and by extension, Nightmare Moon's?
And the tactic they used to get away from Nightmare Moon...are they all still even in the same dream world?
And Pinkie Pie with double princess power? Damn, if you'd been faster with this, that would have seemed totally OP.
Lame pun is lame. You should be proud of yourself for that.
4400714
4400737 How would that scare people?
If you ask me, it would make it easier for them to find all of their friends in time!
Nerf, PLZ?
WHY would you ever nerf a good guy!
Nice chapter. Also, Pinkie with two sets of Ali magic is pretty sweet, regardless of Twi's four.
4400268 dreams don't make sense period dude.
4400394 don't bet on that besides looks like chrysailas is being controlled herself and the version that seemed canon was a forced personality. Oh they really need to find spike he might be just able to help.
4400400 dude I'm starting to think you should submit these dream worlds as loops for the mlp loops.
4400714 I agree with that lame pun I much prefer celecord and fluttercord than lunar cord.
4400737 oh their still in the same world they haven't found the rift yet. And I'm starting to call those items the cmc hold the elements of dreams. The element of creativity for bloom, the element of adventure for scoots, and the element of rythem for sweetie because even dreams have their own unique traits. I think the cmc can use them to rewrite nightmare moon into a filly and maybe redeem her. What they need all the help they can get to free chrysalis and stop whoever put this into motion. Heck I'm starting to think it was tirak as it looks like something his g1 incarnation can do.
4400873
They'll be named soon enough. Not exactly like you're thinking, though. Oh, and LunaCord is totally fun. Luna's so traditional and serious, I always wondered how she would deal with Discord if left alone with him for any extended period of time.
4400873
Wha?
I was talking about the author's note.
So many Pinkies and dream worlds, so little time.
Points acquired: zero. Linnai's tactic in this world with big probability causes suffering to herself.
you have to remember twilight's special talent is magic, odds are she has a much larger resevoir of magic than the other alicorns to begin with also discord's magic was plaid...
4403052
So very true, but...
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/5/10/622960__safe_solo_animated_screencap_discord_hub+logo_hubble_hub_loop_spoiler-colon-s04e25.gif
4403052
Celestia and Luna are at the very least three thousand years older than Twilight. Their talents are controlling the very heavens themselves. There's almost nothing to say that Twilight has more magic than the Sisters... yet.
4409024
There's also nothing saying they're all that much older than 1,000 years old. At least 3,000? Where is that coming from? Everything in the distant past in the show that has been referenced so far is simply "a thousand years ago" - I take that to mean that everything that is said to have happened at that time all happened in a relatively short period. Discord being defeated, Sombra being banished, the Crystal Empire vanishing, and then Nightmare Moon's rise and fall. All those things likely happened within a period of time so short that it's insignificant in comparison to the thousand years since.
In fact, some background story in this fanfic that's gonna be coming relatively soon involving Nightmare Moon will represent that part of my headcannon pretty vividly. I've got a lovely set of flashbacks involving Luna and Celestia planned, I hope people will enjoy them.
Speaking of which, I intend to start typing up next chapter tonight after work. I do not intend to let another month go by this time.
I get this strange feeling that Fluttershy and Mulcibar are going to end up in love by the end or at very least very good friends. Seeing as Mulcibar is a very strategic fighter/manipulator and Fluttershy though appearing to weak and defenseless actually holds up the greatest façade to her own abilities in playing mind games (ex: The Stare, her plan to reform Discord) Mulcibar also fears being unable to protect his family and friends which is certainly up Fluttershy's alley.
Twilight and Linnai I'm unsure about based on Linnai's dreams of power thus creating a wide rift between them from becoming friends, or at very least friendly acquaintances.
4410767
Castle Mane-ia, when Twilight's reading the diary. The word "thousands" is used in conjunction with "years". Considering that diary was written while Celestia and Luna lived in the Castle of the Royal Sisters, obviously while Luna was still there prior to NMM and banishment, that's PLURAL thousands (at least 2000), and then 1000 for the banishment. 3000 at the least.
4413716
I was ready to accept some headcannon shattering. I've escaped unscathed this season, unlike so many others. I went through all the scenes where she was reading from the diary and checked the transcript, bracing myself for head breaking, and then I found... I think it's not quite so cemented.
Still safe, somehow. I'll put this like this: My house is like 80 years old. I'm not. It's not implausible that that castle is older than the sisters. I'd rather not make any assumptions.
SO FAR there is still absolutely no evidence supporting alicorn immortality/longevity. Only Celestia, which I still hold that a hint was dropped about that in season 3.
4412957
You and Servant Phoenix are gonna be the death of me with these shipping predictions, I swear!
4413880 Sorry
4400749
I dunno, the idea of them being pushed out to other dream worlds would be scary lol...
That said, my mind was blown by Zoarvek last night. He said it would have been interesting if at the beginning of the fanfic, it was revealed that the false memories go back even further, all the way back to Twilight going to Ponyville - that the changeling coup happened at the Summer Sun Celebration. That Twilight thinks she is friends with these five other ponies because she's dreamed it, but they actually don't know her - so she would have to convince them that they have to join forces to stop the changelings. And of course, she'd have to prove she's not crazy, too.
Of course that's the kind of story that would be just that, a completely different story! But an interesting one.
4403113
that image has to be nightmare fuel for children... but its hilarious, to make it better, make it so the head is like a split skull showing brains and all that
Discord... Why the jokes? WHY!
Just pointing out a typo. Don't mind me.
5157701
I hope you mean the lowercase I, otherwise this means I don't know how to spell something :o
I feel like we need atleast 20% more LunaxDiscord in this fic.
Also, I predict Twilight and Linnai falling in love for sure. The setting is way too perfect for just that. 83
Discord's terrible pun.........