> Dream Catcher
>  by Puking Coyote
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Great Soccer Game
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

						Dream Catcher
By. Puking Coyote

Chapter 1
The Great Soccer Game



Warning: If you have not read My Little Dashie Jackson Series there might be confusion as to some of the characters and storyline. Also there are spoilers for My Little Dashie: Jackson Series.



There it was the foulest most gruesome evil thing that could be imagined lying on my plate and I was to eat it. I had only been visiting Aunt Dash for two days but I was already sick of eating her horrid food. Rainbow Dash the famous Wonderbolt from Ponyville was not my real aunt but I called her aunt anyway. She is a good friend of my family and is a totally awesome pony, she is actually the main reason that I want to someday become a wonderbolt, just like her. However for all her awesomeness she could not cook in fact I wouldn’t even call the stuff in front of me food. I looked away from the meal that was mocking me towards a picture on the wall of my parents with Aunt Dash. Mother was giving a huge smile while father was more serious looking for he did not like to show his emotions too often but I could still see happiness in his eyes. 

“You miss them don’t you Dream Catcher?” Dash commented from across the table bringing me back from my thoughts. “Princess Luna and Prince Jackson will be back before you know it. They only go on these trips twice a year.”

“Yes, but soon I will be old enough to go with them to the royal celebrations” I replied. The Royal celebrations was a gathering high in the mountains of all the royalty in Equestria. I have yet to find out what they did up there but it must be something really cool for everypony always came back smiling looking fresh and revived. 

“You don’t like hanging out with me?” Dash asked joking.

“No, of course I like hanging out with you Aunt Dash, you’re a wonderbolt and the coolest pony that I know!” 

“Yeah, I guess that I am pretty cool aren’t I?” she replied. 

I looked back at the picture and noted how little Dash was when it was taken in fact I think she was about the same size as me. Aunt Dash today however was almost a full grown pony and is considered the fastest Pegasus in the world. Mother had said that was because she spent all her time practicing flying which is also why she never settled down with some-pony. Even though she was not too focused on settling down Dash was always dating different guys from Canterlot.

“Hey Dash, how is Black Lightning I haven’t seen him in a while are you two still dating?”

She snubbed her nose “Hmph like I would be caught dead with him after what he did can you believe that he actually dumped me for Spitfire?”

“Oh, I’m sorry” I replied sadly for I always thought that Black Lightning was cool almost like an older brother. 

Dash looked at me “Anyway, I will have to find another date to go with me to the Gala. What about you, have a pony that you are taking?”

“What?!” I asked surprised by the question. I moved my hoof out of reflex almost knocking the food in front of me onto the floor. I stared at the plate suddenly wishing that I had hit it harder.

“You know, has any girl caught your eye yet? You’re a prince don’t tell me that you haven’t meet any girls in your school.”

I turned away very aware that I was blushing “You know that Aunt Celestia and Twilight home school me so how am I supposed to meet anypony?”

Dash frowned “Still? Why do you need to be home schooled? I know that you’re still young but I think that you learned how to control your magic. However… I guess having the ability to mess with ponies’ heads is a dangerous ability to have.”

“I don’t mess with their heads! I just help them have the dreams that they need, be it a good dream or nightmare they both help the mind sort out problems that ponies are experiencing.”

She gave a small smile “what about the hallucinations that some ponies have?”

I quickly bit my tongue for I did not know what the hallucinations that some of the ponies that I used my magic on were caused by, thankfully though they never were affected for more than a week. I looked away over at a mirror on the side of the wall and saw an image of a small blue eyed black alicorn with a blue main that ended in green tips. Like my father I had what he called living energy coursing throughout my body much like the stripes on a zebra. These stripes glowed bright white and made it very hard to hide when I played hide and seek with my friends in the castle. “Maybe if I wore a coat…” I though.

“So, are you going to eat your dinner?” Dash asked me breaking my concentration. 

“Wha…oh, I guess that I am not that hungry today Dash.” 

“I get that you miss your folks but you should at least take a bite I worked very hard to make this for you.”

I took a big gulp and looked down at the blob on my plate “That’s what I’m afraid of” I thought to myself. The more that Dash seemed to work on a meal the worst it usually was and I was not particularly thrilled to be having to eat it. After a short while of quiet debate with myself I took a bite of the goop that was surprisingly crunchy even though it looked like a liquid. It was awful and I was fighting every urge that I had to puke it out right there and then. Just then there was a knock at the door. “Finnally!” I cried in my mind for I had planned a way out of having to eat Dashes cooking with my friend Fireball who was also a royal alicorn that was left while his parents Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance went to the celebrations.

Dash opened the door “Oh, hi Fireball what can I help you with?”

I looked towards the door at the fiery orange-red alicorn that was just a hair smaller than me but that was to be expected since I was three months older. He had been my best friend ever since we got our cutie marks together while training under Aunt Celestia. He got his which was a picture of a bluish red fireball when he made a volcano erupt during our studies. Not even an hour after when I fell asleep during a lecture I warped another students dreams by accident which unfortunately led to one of my famous hallucinations. My cutie mark looks like three Z’s just like you would see over a sleeping ponies head in a comic strip. Since that time Aunt Celestia has been homeschooling me. She is afraid that since my ability lets me enter a pony’s mind that I could cause damage to it however I don’t see how that is possible. 

“I have to go Dream Catcher” Dash told me “apparently there’s trouble with the clouds schedule. If you and Fireball are going to play make sure you get back before it gets dark.”

“Ok” I replied. Dash then stretched her wings out and disappeared into the sky faster than any other pony that I knew could go. “Whew” I sighed as I spat out the bite that I took of Dashes’ food “you don’t know how glad I am to see you Fireball.”

Fireball took off his saddle bag and retrieved a sandwich from it “Here” he said tossing it to me “I thought that you would be hungry.”

“Thanks, you might have just saved my life.”

“Dashes cooking is not for the faint at heart only tough ponies can handle eating it.”

“Really, you think that you can handle it then?” I asked with a smirk.

“Sure I can! It’s all in the mind, right?”Fireball then walked up to the table and stared at the glob “are you sure this is food?”

I took a bite of the sandwich “Nope, but that’s the adventure isn’t it? To figure out if it is edible or not.”

Fireball then took a bite and began to chew with much difficulty, when he tried to swallow he took off towards the bathroom where the food came back up with a vengeance. “I can’t do it it’s too much.” 

“Well I have to do something with it I can’t just throw it away Dash might see it. The last thing that I want to do is hurt her feelings.”

“Oh, I know!” Fireball then lifted the blob off the plate to the front lawn where it caught fire and fell to ashes onto the green grass. There it rested for a minute until a strong gust of wind blew it away. “See Dream Catcher? There’s no problem that fire can’t solve.”

“You are such a pyro.” 

“Yep!”

I gave a small sigh “I hate wasting stuff but It was for the best.”

Fire ball then looked around “What do you want to do? I was thinking about getting some ponies together to play a game of baseball do you want in?” 

“What about fishing?” 

“um no. Are you kidding me? Fishing is the lamest thing ever I would prefer to do something rad like surfing, but we have no oceans around here so the next best thing that we can do is baseball.”

“Fishing’s not lame” I muttered. 

“Fine it’s not lame, but what about the game are you in or out?” 

I thought about it “I’m in.”

“Good lets go and find more players!” Fireball then flew off towards the school. 

“Wait!” I then went into my room grabbed my glove and flew after him. When I arrived at the school Fireball had already collected a good team of ponies that were our age and was waiting for me to arrive. 

“Hey, Dream Catcher you and me are captains” Fireball called to me. He then picked an extremely well built Earthpony called Buff to be on his team.

I looked at the group and saw Rimshot who was an Earthpony that excelled at jokes “I pick Rimshot.” Fireball then picked a Unicorn named starburst. “Ok, I pick Cloud Striker.”

“Yes!!! You won’t be sorry I will strike the ball so hard that there will be nothing left” A blue Pegasus screamed with excitement then flew down to my group. 

“Hey Cloud Striker do you know why the horse laid a egg…” Rimshot began while Fireball picked Apple Tart who was an Earthpony that was related to Applejack. 

“Conscious you’re on my team” I called to a purple unicorn that started to slowly walk towards us with her head down. 

“Oh my, what if I can’t do this and the other ponies laugh at me, or some-pony gets injured and I have to take over the position of pitcher or even worst catcher I will surely get hit by the ball…” I heard her mumble to herself as she passed me to join the team. 

This left a small brown Earthpony named Sprinkles “Ok then I get Sprinkles let’s start the game!”

“Wait we have uneven teams we need another player!” I cried after I made a quick head count. 

“We can play like this” Fireball replied. 

“No not with Buff on your team we won’t stand a chance.”

“What about me?” a voice called we both looked but did not see any pony there “On your right” the voice called again. The sound came from our left but the pony claimed to be on our right which meant that it could only be one pony, Screwball. 

“Oh no” I said in my head. Screwball was the daughter of Discord the first ruler of Equestria and just like her name suggested she was screwy in every way possible. Even her voice did not come from her mouth like a normal pony but it came from elsewhere. I guess being so weird though was a curse that came from being the daughter of the spirit of chaos. Even though Screwball was of royal blood I did not like being around her because she was just sooo annoying. I looked over at the Purple Earthpony and noticed her cutie mark of a baseball with a screw by it as if to confirm that it was her. 

“What do you say Dream Catcher! I’ll be the pitcher.” Before I could respond she took to the pitcher’s mound. Even though Screwball was an Earthpony she was able to use magic very similar to Discords although she could not fully control it yet. This is why when she took to the mound the ground became a little warped and little pony gnomes sprouted around it.  In truth I was wanting to pitch but since she was a year older than me I didn’t dare say anything so instead I took first base. 

Buff was up first “Ok here we go!” Screwball yelled and sent a wacky moving ball towards home plate. The ball not only moved around like a piece of paper in the wind but it also slowed down and sped up on its travel. Buff tried his best but he was quickly struck out followed by Fireball and Apple Tart. Soon we were up to bat and even though Screwball was surprisingly a good pitcher she was a lousy batter for her swings were just as wacky looking as her pitches. The game was going very well for us simply because nobody could hit screwballs pitches. This was making Fireball very mad. 

“Take this!” he yelled as he pitched to Cloud Striker however the ball never made it because during the pitch it caught on fire and disintegrated before it even crossed home plate. 

“Why did you do that Fireball? Now we don’t have a ball!” Cloud Striker yelled.

“Well I guess this is what they would call a hot game” Rimshot joked to himself while we all went to the pitcher’s mound.  

Fireball looked at us “Sorry I didn’t mean to destroy the ball.”

“What now?” I asked. 

“I guess we should play another game, how about possums creek?” Screwball replied. 

“Possums creek? I really don’t think that I want to play with possums Screwball.”

She looked at me curiously “Why would there be possums in Possums creek?” she replied. I did not even want to ask because her logic never made sense.

Just then the space around us began to shift and we appeared in the air standing upside down. “Umm, Screwball do you think that you can let us down sugar?” Apple Tart asked. 

“Sorry I can’t control my powers that well” she replied.

“She warps the space around her all the time don’t worry it usually goes back to normal just wait a few minutes” I replied. 
"Usually?" Apple Tart asked a little worried.  

“What do you mean back to normal? For all we know this could be normal” Screwball replied. 

I put my hoof to my head suddenly getting a headache “I swear Screwball I am going to fill your dreams with so many nightmares that you will not be able to go to sleep ever again.” Just then her power waned and we reappeared onto the ground. 

“I know!” Fireball exclaimed “soccer! Let’s play some soccer.”

“I don’t know” Buff replied “I wanted to play baseball and besides we can’t really match up to the three of you and your magic.” 

“I told you that I’m sorry it was just an accident.”

“No it was not just you but Screwball as well” Sprinkle replied. “Besides I have to be getting home” He then took off towards the town. The others soon followed all except Fireball, Screwball, Cloud Striker, and myself. 

“Well I don’t have to go home yet besides I have been challenged and I have never been dishonored by backing away from a challenge so let’s get this game started” Cloud striker stated. “Power or no power I will be victorious in fact you three use your magic, all the more glory when I beat you!”

“Sounds good to me” Fireball replied. “As long as I don’t fall asleep from boredom I will win this easily.”

“Don’t underestimate me Fireball I might not be able to use magic but I still can take you on.”

“You should watch it Striker or you might just get burned.”

Cloud striker gave a slight grin as he got into Fireballs face “I will crush you like Mr. Fancypants Crushed Rarities carrier.”

“Yeah, just you try it.”

“So I guess you two are on different teams?” I asked. They both looked at me with scolds on their faces “Ok, sorry I asked. But there is one little problem with this game though.”

“Really what?” Fireball asked. 

“We have no ball.”

They both looked at me with blank stares “Well… I guess that is a problem” Cloud striker finally replied. “But don’t you worry on my honor I will scour the village until I find a soccer ball worthy of our game” he then stretched his wings and took off. 

We all knew that when Cloud Striker swore upon his honor he would not stop until his promise was fulfilled he was kind of an honor nut. I remember when a cat ran off into Everfree Forest when he was visiting Fluttershy and he swore upon his honor that he would find it. A day after Cloud Striker entered the Forest the cat came back on its own but Cloud Striker didn’t know that. It took us two weeks to find him and when we did we learned that he was not lost but still looking for the cat. He was without a doubt the most dependable pony that I had ever known. I looked up in the sky and sure enough Cloud Striker was coming back with a saddle on his back he soon landed and unloaded a small pile soccer balls.

“Alright!” Fireball shouted and picked one up “now I can prove to you why I am the number one athlete in Equestria.”

“Ugh, self given titles how dishonorable” Cloud Striker replied. 

“But it’s true why should I wait to be given a title that I already deserve?”

“Because it’s not right what if I declared myself master of the universe, does that have any sway with other ponies? Of course not! They would just laugh because it has no meaning behind it and that’s why self proclaimed titles are dishonorable they are no better than lies.”

“Hmmm how about this then whoever wins this game will be given the title soccer king that sound good?”

“Betting is also dishonorable.”

“What, how?!”

“Because games of chance even when you win do not come about by skill so you cannot be measured properly by them.”

“Yes, but this is not a game of chance but of skill” I replied thinking about his reasoning. 

Cloud Striker thought about it “I guess that you are right fine I will take on this challenge and compare my honor to royalty!” He then started towards his side of the soccer court.  “Screwball wake up we have a game to win!” Screwball had apparently fallen asleep during the argument and was with some help by Cloud Striker waking up from her slumber. 

“Morning already? But the Wortux had not even whispered yet.”

“Wortux?”

“Yes the thing that crows ever so softly in the mornings.”

Striker thought about it “Oh a rooster!”

Screwball gave him a confused look “Rosters don’t crow softly, they are loud noisy things Wortux’s crow softly.” Cloud Striker did not know how to respond to this comment. 

“Probably a warped roster that her father made” I commented to Fireball who did not respond he was too deep in thought about the upcoming game to hear me. 

I took to the goal while Fireball and Striker meet in the middle of the field I could not hear what they were saying but their look was intense. Just then Screwball blew a whistle and a ball appeared between the two of them and the game had begun. I liked being a goalie because all I had to do was wait for the ball to come to me which was less tiring than being in the outfield. Fireball and Cloud Striker had been stealing the ball from each other using every soccer trick that they knew but Fireball had the clear advantage from his magic. He quickly learned to levitate the ball away from Striker and was now heading towards Screwball who was for some reason looking away from the action to the back of the net. 

“Screwball!!!” Striker yelled chasing after Fireball as quickly as he could but he was too late for the ball was sent flying towards the net but just before it entered it disappeared. 

“What the?!” Fireball cried “Screwball what did you do?”

I did not hear her reply because a sudden blow to the back of my head sent me to the ground. I opened my eyes and saw the soccer ball roll slightly in front of me “Teleportation? No, that’s not it” I thought to myself. I then realized that she had opened a portal in front of her goal to our goal “Why did they agree to powers?” I asked myself as the realization that mine was almost useless outside of the dream world. 

“Our point” Striker replied with a grin.

“Not fair!” Fireball yelled. “How are we suppose to get a goal if it’s blocked?”

“Hey we agreed that magic was allowed” Striker said as the ball appeared before them again. Fireball took the ball and rushed at the opposite goal, he quickly shot a fireball from his mouth then threw the ball.

“Oh, I see” I thought to myself “the fireball will be transported by the portal and when it fluxes the ball will go into the goal. Wait…the fire ball will go through, Oh Crap!” I looked back just in time to see the wall of flame. I screamed as it sent me flying out of the goal. 

“Yeah take that!” I could hear Fireball shout in the distance.

I gave a sigh and watched as smoke came out of my mouth “This game is going to be the end of me” I mumbled to myself as I got back up. I got up just in time to see Striker heading to our goal with the ball “No!” I quickly rushed towards him but I was going to be too late just then my horn glowed and the goal I could feel split into three before Strikers eyes. I suddenly realized that I could cause ponies to see hallucinations when they were awake. Striker however guessed at a goal which was in fact the right one and threw the ball but before it entered the net it was disintegrated by a wall of flame. 
I thought about what had happened “Holy cow Aunt Dash was right I can mess with ponies minds!” I finally concluded. 

“Hey that was a nice trick Dream Catcher but I could still tell from where the goals split from what the right target was, besides the mimics were a little hazy you should work on that” Striker commented. 

“What are you talking about?” Fireball asked. 

“Nothing Dream Catcher just tried to trick me with a hallucination but it failed.”

“Really, he could give you a hallucination even when you are not sleeping? Yes! You know what this means? We are going to win.” Fireball then looked at me “try to distract Screwball while I go for the net!” he then took another soccer ball and sent a fireball and the ball at their net just like he did before. I tried to give Screwball a hallucination of her protecting the wrong net but she saw right through it and shrunk their net to a miniature scale after the fireball went through the portal, this caused Fireballs shot to miss. Just then I felt heat on my back and cursed I had totally forgot where that portal went in my attempt to mess Screwball up. 

Again I was sent from the net onto my face when I came too I realized that the game was still going. “What they did not even realize that I was knocked out?” Just then a stray stream of fire leapt from Fireballs back and struck at the soccer ball going towards the goal it however missed and struck the pile of balls that we had disintegrating them. “You are such a pyro!” I screamed at Fire ball as he passed knocking the ball from Striker. 

“Dream Catcher get back to the goal!” Just then Striker took the ball and sent it towards our goal  “No” Fireball screamed I looked back just as he opened his mouth letting more flame erupt towards the ball and to me. Unfortunately he was off on his target and missed the ball but he did hit me, but this time he saw it happen.”

“Dream Catcher I am so sorry I didn’t see you!” he said coming up to see if I was ok Striker and Screwball also came to see what happened. 

“Fishing” I replied laying on my back. 

“What?”

“I wanted to go fishing” I repeated getting up “but noooo it’s to lame you said. Let me tell you something Fireball nobody ever gets burnt to a crisp while fishing.” 

“Sorry but I…Hey!” He then went after Striker who took the ball and was now heading towards our goal. I then saw Fireball getting ready to incinerate the soccer ball when I remembered that he burnt the pile that we had. This was the last soccer ball! 

“Wait, Fireball!” I shouted as I tried to use my magic to counter Fireballs flame. Screwball also used her magic and they all collided with an explosive force, the next thing that I knew we were thrown back then suddenly sucked forward into some Dark passage. I opened my eyes and could see the sun’s rays as the four of us were dragged deeper into some type of purplish blue portal then the entrance shut. A sudden realization of pain and fear hit as we started to what I can best describe as dissolving into space. I looked around in the vortex at my friends and watched in horror as one by one they slowly faded away then I too slipped into nothingness. 

> A Weird Creature Indeed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

					
Chapter 2						

A Weird Creature Indeed



I woke up on a cold stone surface with the biggest headache of my life in fact all of my body felt like it just came from being dragged by a train for several miles. I looked around and saw Screwball and Fireball but Cloud Striker was not to be seen. I grunted as I forced myself towards Screwball “Hey Screwball? Wake up, Screwball!”

She opened her eyes “Wha…”

“Where are we? This was done by one of your portals right, so where are we?”

She looked around “A whales stomach perhaps?”

“What?! Why would you send us into a whales stomach are you nuts…oh, yeah I forgot you are.” 

“Mean”

“Were not in a whale’s stomach” Fireball groaned. 

“Then where are we?” I asked again. 

“I don’t know” Screwball confessed “I was trying to transport the ball away from the Fireballs flame.”

“But where to?”

“Your goal of course.” She then looked around “This is…not your goal.”

“Thanks for that insight” I replied looking away. Just then I saw a light moving slowly in the sky and the distant image of Cloud Striker moving towards it. As he got closer there was a popping sound and he disappeared “What the hay?” I started too spread my wings to investigate but didn’t when we saw a metal robotic device quickly hovering towards us then stop a foot away. It was just sitting there as if waiting for something; I touched it with my hoof. Suddenly it started to beep then a green laser grid shot from it. The device scanned the three of us then flew away beeping madly. 

“Oh, that’s not good” Fireball stated. 

“We should leave, like now!” I replied remembering what I saw happen to Cloud Striker. We quickly stretched our wings and flew from that spot. We went as fast as we could both carrying Screwball by an arm because she had no wings to fly with. As the landscape was stretched before us I realized that it was barren nothing but red rocks and dust. “Fireball?”

“What?” 

“Do you have any food?”

Fireballs eyes widened as he searched the ground below “This can be a problem” he replied. “I don’t even see water down there. Hey Screwball do you think that you can open another of your vortexes?” 

“Nope, tried It already but if you need water couldn’t you squeeze some out of the clouds?” 

I looked up at the weird gas looking clouds “It looks poisonous I don’t think that we should drink it unless we have too.”

“We have to get some good water and find Cloud Striker, you did say that you saw him didn’t you Dream Catcher?” Fireball asked. 

“Yes but I don’t know what that light did to him though but…I, what are you doing Screwball?” Screwball had became very excited and was trying to swing herself not caring what could happen if we let go.  

“Oooo pretty” she stated to herself “looks like a bubble I like bubbles they are sooo bubbly! Don’t you two like bubbles? I don’t like them when they pop though that makes me sad.”

“What are you talking about Screwball and stop moving around so much we might drop you.” 

She did not listen but instead pried herself from our grip and started to plummet towards the ground “Weeee!” She screamed arms wide apart as if having fun.

“Crap!!!” Fireball and I both cursed as we both dived after her but as we neared the ground we suddenly hit something soft in the air but there was nothing to be seen. 

“This is fun!” Screwball laughed while jumping on the invisible cushion in the air. “bubble, bouncy bubble, bouncy bouncy bouncy bounce.” 

“Wait you can see what we are standing on?” Fireball asked.

“Yes!”

We waited for her to elaborate but she didn’t “Are you going to tell us what you see?” I asked. 

She stopped bouncing and looked around at the surroundings “there are many bubbles” she then squinted. “they have pretty gardens inside.”

“Gardens? That means water!” Fireball explained. He then shot at the invisible surface with a fire ball but the spot he hit only shimmered blue then became invisible once again. “Give me a hoof here Dream Catcher” we then tried for a very long time to dig our way through the surface to no avail. 

After a while Screwball spoke up “Guys?” 

“What?” we both asked a little annoyed at our failure.

“What about the door can we use that?”

“What door?” 

“The one right there” she causally said while pointing at a particular area.

“Why didn’t you tell us that in the first place?!” I asked. 

She shrugged her shoulders then guided us to the spot sure enough there was something that felt like a handle. It took all three of us but we managed to pry the door open once that was done we all looked in and saw a very surprising sight. Inside the dome there was a huge garden with green bright budding trees feed by streams of clear water. Every trees in the dome had more fruit on them than I ever thought possible. As we descended onto the green soft grass that carpeted the domes floor I saw movement of a bird by a marble statue. As Fireball and Screwball tried the fruit from the trees I investigated the marble figure. It had two hands and legs with ugly looking tentacles knobs at the ends. The figure was hairless except at the top of it head where it’s main flowed down its back and fell upon the cloths it was wearing. Suddenly the realization dawned upon me that I had already seen this type of creature before, in fact my dad and Dashes dad were once them before they changed into horses, this was a human. Even though dad could change between his human and pony form whenever he wanted I have only seen it once and that was many years ago. “Ummm, Fireball?” 

“What is it?” he asked coming up to where I was “Wow…that is one ugly looking creature.”

I looked around the wooded area “I don’t understand they were wiped out how can they still be alive?!” 

“Who were?”

“Humans, that statue is of a human! We are in the human relm.”

Fireball looked at me “Wait I thought that the sprites wiped them out at least that’s what I heard from Prince Jackson.”

“Yeah, your right then maybe this is an abandoned facility. Wait, if this is the relm of humans then the Sprites that destroyed them are surely here and I have living energy inside of me!” 

“What does that have to do with anything?” 

“They eat energy like mine!”

“Oh…well I can see how that could be bad.”

I began to freak out “Wait what was that?” I asked hearing some rumbling in the bushes. 

Fireball heard it too “I don’t know.” 

We started to back away our eyes fixed on that spot “Don’t let it be a sprite, don’t let it be a sprite” I said over and over under my breath like a silent prayer. 

“What are you doing?” Screwballs voice came behind us as she came out of the bushes we were watching. Me and Fireball both gave out screams of fright and collapsed onto the ground. 

“Don’t do that!” Fireball yelled. "Look at Dream Catcher you scared him half to death." 

I was lying on the ground trying not to hyperventilate “Screwball…I’m going to get you” I finally managed to speak. 

“You two are so weird” she replied. 

We continued exploring the dome but as we neared the center we began to hear soft voices almost like cooing of doves. As we entered a clearing I saw something that I never thought possible there were three humans laying around in the grass by a large fountain. They were wearing white robes which matched their glowing white skin almost exactly; in fact they were too white which showed that they had never been outside in the sun. Their blond hair was cut short and had flower crowns on them. In fact they were wearing flower lays and bracelets along with other jewelry. One of the humans saw us and gave a big laugh then started coming towards us. Oddly enough he was walking on two feet which was amazing since it didn’t even have a tail to keep itself balanced. The human was not much bigger than a full grown pony and not nearly as strong. In fact the creature looked weak as if it never had to do any sort of labor its whole life leaving its muscles to become like jelly. I looked over at Fireball as the creature was examining him and could see the nervousness on Fireballs face. Screwball however pranced up to the other two humans who were still laying down and was yapping away to them like only she could do. 

The human then looked at me and after a few seconds pointed to the glowing stripes on my body “Lithrume?” it asked.

“Lithrume what is that?” I asked it. The creature looked at me curiously “I am Dream Catcher what is your name?” The human coked his head like it was confused “Can you understand me?”

The human suddenly got onto all fours and started to pet me on the head “Jolk jurmi host glox” it stated hopeful of a response. 

“I can’t understand you” I then pointed to my ear and shook my head to help him understand. The human after a while seemed to understand and after a few more exchanges of weird words got bored and started to pick flowers and string them together. After the human finished he put a flower lace over my and Fireballs necks and walked off back towards the fountain. The other two humans by the fountain were being amused by Screwballs display of magic in fact they were laughing and clapping their hands like children. It then hit me they were just like children their bodies were that of young adults but their minds were that of eight year olds. 

Soon other humans came to the clearing to watch Screwballs show but after a while they became tired and fell asleep. “They sure get tired easily” Fireball stated. 

“Do you think they got bored with me?” Screwball asked. 

“No they are just tired, they seem to fatigue faster than we do perhaps they just lie around all day and are not in shape” I replied.

Fireball looked around “This makes no sense how can they be so advance in their technology to create this dome but yet be so dense?” None of us had an answer to this question. We spent the night in the dome; the humans seemed to have accepted us and even gave us some gifts such as flowers or fruit. In the morning we left the dome to search for Cloud Striker. 

Almost a week had went by and we still could not find any sign of Cloud Striker in fact I was starting to fear the worst especially since he did not have Screwball to show him where the domes were. We spent the days searching and during the nights we stayed in the domes which were surprisingly exact replicas of each other even the humans in them acted the same. I was still amazed at how innocent and docile the humans were it was unlike anything that I was told about them. I spent that week learning the human’s language but it was so simple that even when learned no real conversation could be made. In fact the language more revolved around expressions most of which were happy. I was unable to figure out from them what had happened since the sprites but the word sprite did get some reactions and was usually followed by a mention of Collective. 

“Collective? That makes no sense” Fireball replied when I told him of my findings.

“I know it doesn’t but it the only clue that these simple people have been able to give us about this world” I replied.

He then thought for a minute “Do you think that maybe they used these domes to hide themselves from the sprites?” 

Suddenly a terrifying idea came to me “What if this is a farm? What if the sprites are farming the humans for food! I don’t like this not at all, the sprites can come at any time for their harvest” I then started to freak out a little from this idea. 
“Calm down Dream Catcher!” Fireball shouted shaking my shoulders. The humans seemed to have backed away confused by the loud noisy things yelling at each other. It was very clear that they never heard something shout before. 

“You can be calm they don’t see you as food, if they come I will be trapped in this dome…I have to get out!” I then pushed Fireball away and headed towards the door. When I tried to open it though it did not budge for the doors locked themselves at night. I groaned and slid down the door onto the ground. 

One of the humans that were watching us then tried to shout himself which came out like a mixture of a frogs croak and a dog bark. Then the other humans also started to yell in the dome mimicking him. Screwball joined them in the yelling giggling to herself the whole time, in a way I was kind of jealous that she could keep calm during these situations. Suddenly a red light started to flash in the dome and the humans stopped their yelling and obediently sat on the ground watching it. 

“This is not good, not good at all!” I whimpered as a hidden door in the side of the dome started to open. Suddenly a large skinny robot with tentacles came out of the door and started to inspect the area when it saw me frantically clawing at the door it gave a metallic screech and flew at me. I pressed myself against the door too terrified to run as it stretched its tentacles towards me if it were not for fireball shooting it with a blast of magma I don’t know what would have happened. 

“Come on!” Fireball shouted and started to fly down a dark tunnel that the machine had came out of, Screwball and I quickly followed after him. I looked back and could see the humans running around flapping their arms mimicking our wings before the door closed separating their lighted world from the darkness of the tunnel. Fireball quickly lit his horn and took the lead down the tunnel it looked like a metallic rib cage of steel beams around us. Soon the clicking of metal could be heard we followed the sound and came to a huge opening where thousands of floating robots of all shapes were busy doing specific task like making cloths, managing bigger machines, or cooking food.  

“What is this place?” I asked but they were just as perplexed as I was. As we walked most of the robots didn’t seem to mind us being down there but some of them were following as if studying our actions. Soon we could see light again coming from a shaft, we flew up it and came to the planet’s surface where morning was just starting. 

“Ooo what is that?” Screwball commented “that building looks like a candy bar, I hope its chocolate!” She then ran up to the building which was also invisible and took a chomp “nope it’s not chocolate.”

“I can’t believe that you just tried to eat a building screwball” I replied. Just then a huge flash of light struck Screwball in the side and she fell paralyzed but still conscious. Me and Fireball looked up and saw six floating robots that looked like brains floating in the air. In the middle of them was a metallic human figure with a face like a cockroach. 

“Olkm Lri Jusry mosi heio” the robot called to us. 

“Hey why did you do that?!” Fireball shouted while making sure Screwball was alright. 

Suddenly three of the smaller brain bots flew to us suddenly I was shot and rendered immobilized like Screwball. Fireball tried to fight back but the brain bots got him too I could feel as the robot injected some type of device into me the bigger robot then waited a few minutes before speaking again. “This is Keeper 447 what is your names and purpose on this planet? Speak!” 

I could understand it whatever was injected into me allowed me to understand its speech “I am Prince Dream Catcher, and those two are Princess Screwball and Prince Fireball” I replied trying to sound as important as possible. 

The robot hummed to itself as it processed some information “You three are not part of the database.” The brain bots then scanned us sending the information to the larger one “You three have been scanned before but did not go to processing that warrants punishment.”

“Were not from this dimension how can we be punished for something that we did not even know about?” I asked. 

“The Collective has commanded all sentient life to be scanned and processed” the robot hummed. 

“Collective what is that?” 

“It is all of us in one, now come with me and be processed so you may be punished.”

The robots then un-paralyzed us and took off at a slow pace not even looking back. If they did they would have seen us take off in the opposite direction as fast as we could. Once we were sure that we were safe we rested under a cliff. 

“What was that about and what is this processing? It sounds bad” Fireball whined. 

“I don’t know but it was weird that those robots let us go so easily I wonder what they are planning” I replied. I laid my head against a rock and fell asleep weary from everything that happened. The next thing that I knew I opened my eyes only to see two green human eyes looking back at me. “Aughh” I shouted falling over myself waking up Fireball and Screwball who had also fallen asleep. The creature in front of me was not like the other humans for it had longer blond hair and wore mostly black. I looked at its face and noticed that it was different for it was much crisper and tan. This human had no living energy coursing in it but without a doubt it was some type of human. 

“I told you three to be processed? Why did you disobey a command from the Collectives agent?” I looked at the human wide eyed it seemed stronger than the humans in the domes and not to mention curvier in the waist but that must be in order to somehow support the two small lumps on its chest. The human was obviously smarter than the other humans but only looked half their age probably under twenty years but of course I really had no idea as to how humans aged in this world. 

“Sorry my good sir but we don’t want to be processed when we don’t even know what it means.” Fireball replied trying his best to be polite.  

“First you should know that I am a female so you must address me as such, secondly since you have no clue what processing is that logically means that the collective did not send you.” She then walked over to a hovering vehicle and took out some type of device with a mechanical red eye and placed it onto her face. She soon returned to her robots “the collective had told me that they were not sent by them. Also since they already have one of these creatures it is an unnecessary risk to let them live so we must terminate them.”

“Already have one? They must be talking about Cloud Striker…wait, TERMINATE?!!!” I thought. I started to try and take off but the robots immobilized all three of us with their beams. 

“Don’t even try it, those injections we gave you has trackers in them so no matter where you run we will find you.”

“Madam Keeper” the bigger robot chimed.   

“Yes”

“We cannot comply with the orders regarding this one” It then pointed towards me.

“Reasons?”

“He is a hybrid human with Lithrume.”

“What percentage?” She asked looking at me now curious. 

“50%” 

She then pressed the side of her eyepiece “The collective has decided that he is protected by his bloodline but terminate the other two.

“Compliance” the robots then began to hum while their cannons started to glow a hot red. 

“No!” I screamed but was too late the cannons blasted at Fireball and Screwball. When the light was gone there was no trace of my friends to be found. “Why? Why did you…Fireball…Screwball…why?” The woman then took out a black stick that was spouting electricity and taped it into my side then all went black.

> A Dark Past
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

						
Chapter 3

A Dark Past

I slowly woke up to a dimly lit room with smooth shinny metal walls, as I tried to move I found that I couldn’t. I looked at my legs and saw that they were strapped onto a table by energy coils. Attached around my body were padded wires and what I could guess was an IV. “Crap” I mumbled to myself and laid my head back against the cold metallic slab. Suddenly the images of what happened to Screwball and Fireball flashed back into my mind “why did you do it, why did you kill them, WHY?!” I screamed trying to fight back my tears. “They did nothing, so why?” There was no response I then lost the battle and tears started to flow down my face. 

“What is this that you are doing?” I suddenly heard the voice of the Keeper or whatever she called herself. I then saw her as she came into my eyesight from behind the slab.  

“You!” I shouted as I jerked against the coils in rage. 

“Such weird reactions, first your eyes are leaking then you look like you are in pain. Is that because your veins are suddenly pumping your blood harder? I have never seen a vein bulge like that before in such a short amount of time.” 

“Shut up! You killed my friends and now you’re gloating? Your trash!”

“Trash? I assure you that I am a human. What other hallucinations are you experiencing?” She then leaned in closer “The stun rod might have harmed your brain but until the drones complete an analysis of your body’s makeup they can’t help.”

“It was an insult you moron!” I replied. 

“Insult…moron, gloating? I will have to see if these words are in the galactic database” I then saw the red eye that was attached onto her face flicker to life. After a short while it flickered back off “Those words were banned by the collective over seven hundred years ago and their meanings are blocked.”

I looked at her with hate in my eyes but she did not react “I’ll tell you what it means it means that you just killed two innocent ponies who were my friends!” I then snorted “I will never forgive you for that, you witch.”

“Friends?” She asked confused.

“Those two that were with me, you know the ones that you terminated.”

“Oh, the two subjects, no they were not terminated. Their locators actually appeared a few miles away during the time they were being terminated, probably by teleportation. We are now tracking their movements as they make their way here.”

Suddenly a ray of hope welled inside of me “There not dead?!” I asked she nodded in response. I was so happy that if it wasn’t for these coils I would have been bouncing around the room. “Wait” I replied thinking about what she had said “there coming here?”

“Yes, you four have intrigued the collective and we have been instructed to allow them to make their way to you in order to study their actions better. I will admit that I have never seen creatures that would spend this much time and energy just to be around another. They must have long memories otherwise they would have forgotten about you by now.”

“They would never do that!” 

“Why not? They have no reason to come for you” she then looked at me closer. “Why were they not incinerated even after the collective told them to be? This is all very curious I can kind of see why the collective is so interested.”

“Collective I heard this name before is he your boss?”

“Not a he but an it. The collective is a computer A.I.”

“A computer A.I.?”

“I see that you don’t know about the collective then” her eye then flickered on then off. “The collective has told me to tell you the story of its creation while we wait for the two subjects to arrive. The story begins thousands of years ago we do not necessarily know how long but it is certain that there was an invasion by another dimension into ours. These invaders were called the Sprites and ate the Elite class those made of Lithrume, in fact it’s the same substance that is within you.”

“You mean the living energy inside of me?” she nodded at my question. 

“The elites were scattered to the solar winds by this foe and most were hunted down. However one particular group came to the planet Armijak to seek refuge and found a lost colony from even before the Enlightened Period. These people did not have Lithrume in them so they were immune to the sprites. The people who were later called The Keepers took up the fight for the Elites and protected them on the planet. They soon created The Collective an A.I. that would reach across the universe creating an army of self-replicating robots for the sole purpose of preserving the human race. Thanks to the collective the sprites were eliminated, it then took on its role as humanities protector and even now continues to tell us what we need to do in order to survive as a species.”

I saw the devotion and belief in what the Collective did was best for humanity in her eyes. “What about the domes, why are the elites in them?” 

“The domes on the planet are actually what was used to hide the elites from the sprites, they are wonderful paradises meant only for them.”

I thought about what she said “So the keepers do not live in the domes?”

“Of course we don’t, we serve their needs not the other way around that is our role given by the collective. We protected them from the sprites and we still protect them to this day such is our role.”

“But there like kids! Shouldn’t rulers you know be able to rule?” I asked.

“The Collective tells us what to do ours is to obey.”

“This makes no sense why do they act the way they do, why do they live in the domes all their lives?”

She looked down then back up “I don’t see what the problem is. They are well feed and prospering under the Collectives watchful eye.” 

“But they lost who they are as a species, they are nothing like the humans that I have been told about!” 

“The humans of the past were indeed different they had a horrible destructive quality called emotions, which is why the Collective suppresses our emotions to keep us from experiencing their fate.”

I was flabbergasted “You have no emotions? How, why?” 

“Emotions almost destroyed humanity many times in the past so when were grown in the labs they are suppressed all but the elites, they are allowed to keep some emotions that have been deemed positive for their role.” 

“That’s why the humans in the domes are overly happy they have no other emotions to balance their personalities out.” I thought. I then looked at her “But surely emotions cannot be totally suppressed?”

“The collective supplies the necessary medicine to keep the sickness from surfacing so all mankind can live good peaceful lives.” I was about to argue but her eye suddenly came on “We will have to disgust this another time it seems that the subjects have arrived.”

Suddenly a giant explosion filled the air as brain bots fell into the room burning up. I watched as they twitched and stopped moving. I looked up and saw Fireball and Screwball both charge through the destroyed wall; they then saw me on the table and the keeper next to me. “Don’t you dare hurt my friend!” Fireball screamed. His body was on fire which meant that he was preparing something big to strike at the Keeper with. 

The large robot then took off from behind me after them but it suddenly disappeared into one of Screwballs portals “and that’s how we escaped” she commented smiling at me. 

“Although it was a close call” Fireball replied then turned to let me see that the top part of his right ear was missing.

“Hmm magic” the woman commented to herself then pressed the device on her face again.  “I understand” she then stepped forward towards Fireball “please strike with your magic if that is truly what you are going to do, this way we can get an accurate measure.”

“Fine, but you asked for it!” Fireball shouted. “Incinerating Fire!!!” A giant blue flame leapt out of his mouth and shot at the keeper who just stood there arms stretched out embracing it. The fire surrounded the keeper but something was wrong it wasn’t touching her but stopped a few inches from her skin. Fireball stopped his blast and stood there dumbfounded by what happened.

“Fireball! She has a personal shield.” I shouted after seeing a blue ripple before the shield became invisible again. 

“You got to be kidding me!” Fireball exclaimed. 

“That is an impressive reading” the keeper commented standing there like nothing even happened. 

Fireball quickly looked at Screwball “quick trap her in a dimension.”

“That’s a mean thing to do can I just send her somewhere instead?”

“Fine, but do it quick!”

Screwball then stepped forward and with much difficulty opened a portal under the keeper who surprisingly was not sucked into it; in fact she didn’t even budge.

“How?” she asked.

“The same magic won’t work on us twice. Once we scanned your portal we were able to counter it.” 

“Hiding behind your technology, why don’t you fight like a real pony?!” Fireball shouted.

“You mean magic against magic?” she then put her electronic eye down as the brain bots poured into the room surrounding them. Fireball spread his wings but when he and Screwball tried to move they were stuck to the floor I then saw that their shadows were bent into the keeper’s own shadow, she could use magic! “You lose” she then snapped her fingers and the robots shot Fireball and Screwball. 

“No, not again!” I shouted as I pulled whatever magic I could from inside of me and attacked the Keeper with my mind. I did everything that I could and she started to waver but she soon grabbed her eye and put it on. 

She then looked at me “Your magic doesn’t work on this eye.” She then turned to my unconscious friends “throw them into the cells, the collective still wants to experiment with them.”

The robots obeyed her order and carried them off “Do you have any questions about the story that I told you?” she asked. 

“What?!”

“You forgot the story of the collective already?”

I could not believe it there was just a huge fight and my friends were taken, half the wall was gone, robots burning everywhere and she was acting like nothing happened. “Leave me alone you think that I would want to talk after what you had done? You piece of crap!”

“Your head must still be damaged I am a human, remember?”

“I know exactly what you are!” I replied hateful. 

“Obviously you don’t but the drones will soon fix your mind” she then got up and left.

After the medical robots looked me over they concluded that any hallucinations that I had of the keeper being trash or crap was from my own magic faults. After that I was escorted to a cell which was a big purple shield in the shape of a box located in a dark corner of the facilities basement. Anytime I tried to force through it the shield bounced me back but not without giving me a little jolt as well. 

“You should stop doing that” I heard a voice after an attempt to ram the shield with my body sent me onto my back. 

I looked around at the dark room and saw another cage on the other side of the room inside it was a blue Pegasus “Cloud Striker?” 

“Yep.”

“Cloud Striker! I can’t believe it we were afraid that you were dead.”

“The same could be said for you.”

“What happened, how did they capture you?”

“I don’t know all that I remember was the three of you going after the soccer ball, opening some type of portal then poof” he spread his hoofs in the air mimicking an explosion “I’m in here.”

“So you know nothing of the outside world?”

“No, just waking up in here and being experimented on like a lab rat. That reminds me have I ever mentioned how much I hate needles? I don’t know if I can take much more Dream Catcher.”

I thought about what he must have endured which made me feel horrible inside “We have do what we can to escape. But until we do you have to be strong Cloud Striker.”

“I don’t think that I can” he replied cringing as some robots made their way to him. 

I could see the fear on his face as the robots strapped him down to a metal slab for some more test. “Cloud Striker!" I screamed as they carted him away. “Fireball and Screwball must be experiencing the same fate as well” I thought horrified. 

When they brought Cloud Striker back he was clearly distraught. When the shield was brought back up in his cell he went to its far corner and curled up into a ball shivering. “Are you ok?” I asked.

“Just the drugs I’ll be fine” he replied in a shaky voice. “They can’t defeat me that easily.”

I sat down “You know what? You are truly amazing Cloud Striker. I bet that even the royal guards could not endure what you had.”

His ears perked up at this “Your right…Your absolutely right!” He then weakly picked himself up. “This is a test of my honor and I shall not lose, not to them!” He then looked at the ceiling and screamed “You hear that! My honor is stronger than your drugs or machines it will never break!!!” He then spread out his wings “I will pass this test and beat you at your own game.” 

Just then the Keeper came through the doors her face had a funny confused look to it “What are you doing here?” I asked. 

“Good! You heard my triumphant cries and decided to give up and bestow upon me the honor which is rightfully mine” Cloud Striker called with a huge grin.

“Wait…wha?” The keeper looked at him confused. Her look was that of fighting a bad headache. 

“You heard me, now release our bondages and let us leave with the honor we have rightfully earned.”

She put her fingers to her brow caressing it “Shut him up, I can’t think with him screaming such nonsense.” 
A robot then activated the collar on Cloud Strikers neck and he fell asleep giving out big loud snores. I then realized that I also had the same type of collar on. I glanced hatefully at the Keeper as she made her way to my cage. 
“I recognize that look it gives out a strange…terrible aurora, I can’t believe I have never noticed it before.”

“What do you want!” I screamed.

“More.”

“What?”

“More, I don’t know what you did to me but I can’t resist it I need more.”

“What are you talking about!” I ran to the far side of the cage as the front doors shield was dropped. She then stretched out a wired glove as she came towards me with a look of lust that I have only seen in dragons with their gold. “No stop!” I could feel the glove fall upon my head numbing my mind and bringing all my memories to the surface. 

“Yes this is it…this is what I felt before when you attacked my mind. So, so addicting…powerful as if life is being born before my eyes. Pain, anger, love, hate, lust, greed, laughter, loyalty…and so much more. I could feel her grip on my mind weaken as the rush of emotions and memories started to overwhelm her. I then attacked her with my mind through magic, I was going to take control of her mind I didn’t know how but I knew that I could. As I made my way through her thoughts I suddenly saw something brown and dull, as I investigated I realized that this was her memories. 

She was born in a lab in this very facility, born for the sole reason to carry out the Collectives will. The life she lived I saw was numbed by drugs and the Collectives own brainwashing there was no joy, sorrow, or compassion in her life, she just was. During the years she could not understand the weird noises called laughter that the strange smiling Elites uttered but hers was not to question it was to protect. All in the database obeyed the Collective and never disobeyed its commands that’s why the four legged creatures were so odd. The collective told them to be processed but they didn’t instead they ran away. It was impossible nothing could do different than the Collectives will but here they were, it made no sense. Then it happened again a second time they refused the Collectives will for them to be terminated, impossible. They even destroyed the Collectives robots these actions had never been done before in fact they were new to her world. As she fought them with magic something happened the one called Dream Catcher attacked her mind while she did not have the protection of the Collective on. She managed to fight him back but he left something like a glowing ember that could not be stomped out and over the next two days that ember grew and she now needed more to feed the small fire that was filling her every thought. That fire which could only be one thing, emotions. 

I came out of her memories now realizing just a little bit by the flashes that I saw how empty her life has been. She was but an empty shell of a human but there was something else in her as well, I sensed it when she defeated Fireball she had magic.

“Aughh!” The keeper screamed and pulled her hand away from me. She then pulled her legs to her chest as she sat against the cages walls. “What have you done to me?” she finally asked. I just looked at her and saw many emotions spread over her face as if trying to figure out where to place themselves in their new host. “I am the Keeper this world this should have never happened, the Collective forbade it…I disobeyed.” She then began to cry from this revelation and a worried look came upon her face “I am broken.”

“No, you’re not broken” I replied going up to comfort her “you have been fixed.”

“How would you know!” I then saw rage fall upon her face. “What right do you have to decide what is right and wrong.” She then looked down to the ground “I feel bad now sorrowful…but why?”

“That’s called remorse it usually follows anger.”

“What have I done?”

I looked at her, even though she did so much against my friends I now realized that it was not her doing instead she was a puppet of the Collective and now she was free. “Humans need emotions to live what your life was before was not living it was just being.”

She wiped her tears and looked around the room “I have to go” she then left the cell closing it behind her. After a while Cloud Striker woke up and I filled him in on what had happened. 

“Really, they have no emotionS at all?” he asked very surprised. 

“The Elites are allowed some good emotions but the Keeper had little to none, that is until now.” 

“Outrageous, so their emotions have been stripped by this  A.I. The Collective, how could their ancestors allow that to happen?”

“My guess is to protect themselves from the Sprites they gave up all their freedoms to the Collective in order to survive as a species. The Collective gave them the best chance to survive so they gave all that they were to it and it never gave it back.”

“But why didn’t it give it back?”

“Because its primary function is to protect mankind” the Keeper replied. We both looked and saw her standing at the doorway listing to us. “The Collective deemed it necessary to keep mankind from destroying itself by taking control of them. If man does not make decisions then chaos is thrown out of the picture and pure logic can rule.”

“But this logic isn’t letting man live surely you see that. Yes mankind as a species will probably last forever but it does not matter if there is no progress. Tell me what has man accomplished under the Collectives rule? Nothing! In fact they have taken a step backwards, this is simply not progress.” 

The Keeper looked down at the ground “Then what is progress?”

“You have seen my memories, you already know my answer.”

“Friends, the positive interaction of one person with another to further a societies goals.”

“Only by supporting one another can true peace be achieved. Drugs and emotionless computers are not the answer to mankind’s survival but love is. Mankind is not flesh and blood that’s just their avatars but they are instead emotions themselves and to stifle that is to destroy them as a race.”

“You do make sense” she admitted. “To have no emotions makes us more like the computers than man. I have much to think about” she then started to leave. 

“Wait” I called. 

“Yes?” 

“I have a question to ask. Why do you have magic?”

She gave a small smile then looked at me and Cloud Striker “You’re not the only ones that the Collective has experimented on.” She then left leaving us to ponder what she had said. 

The next three days the Keeper had came back periodically to talk to me and Cloud Striker. I had learned to my dislike that she had showed my memories and feelings to other Keepers on other worlds to get their thoughts on them. These keepers for the most part agreed that emotions were not bad and they were going to petition to the Collective for its legalization. In the meantime the Keeper told us more about the history of man after the sprites. It was during these stories that we learned that the Collective spliced human DNA with that of a captured Sprite and after many failures a rare strand was created which was what she was made from. This gave her magic over all shadows and the objects that cast them which was why Fireball and Screwball could not move when she captured them. The Collective however did not create many magic users because magic beings are hard for it to track. 

“Your home sounds like a lovely place” the Keeper commented.

“Thank you Keeper” Cloud Striker replied. 

“Please don’t call me that” she replied. “I want a name like you two.”

“Then what do you want to be called?”

“I’ve thought about it and think that I should be named like those in your world after my magical talents, I think that Night Shade is good.”

“I like it” I replied as Striker nodded in agreement. 

“Sweet! I have a name, so much I have missed” she then gave a short laugh. “I’m so grateful Dream Cather I love my emotions!” she then laid on her back and looked up at the ceiling smiling to herself. 

“I am glad that I could help a friend” I replied. 

“Friend? You consider me a friend after what I have done?” 

“Yes”

She bit her lip “robot drop the shields around the ponies.”

“Wait that’s against the Collectives orders!” Striker shouted. “You can get into trouble.”

“I’m already going to be in trouble” she replied with a grin as the shields dropped around us. 

“Thank you” I replied.

“I couldn’t keep my friends locked up like wild animals now could I?”

The Keeper um, I mean Night Shade had changed a tad with her new emotions and was now a little sarcastic and a sometimes very corky. However since she got most of her emotions and the habits of what to do with them from me I never complained. In a way if I did it would be like complaining about myself. 

“So you…” I was cut off by the sudden appearance of a portal which Screwball and Fireball fell out of. 

“Dream Catcher, Striker!” Fireball called then saw Night Shade “You!” His horn stared to glow. 

“Wait Fireball she’s a friend.”

“Friend, Do you know what she did to us?”

“Nothing, it was the collective that used you as a pin cushion not me” Night Shade replied. 

“You are going to get it now you little liar.”

“Just try it! I have been wanting to experience the thrill of battle first hand.”

“Fireball…” I started but was too late he already shot a fireball at Night Shade. I saw it lick against her shield as her shadow connected to Fireballs. “I got you, you know Dream Catcher disappointment is an interesting emotion too she replied taking out her stun rod.”

“I’m not done yet!” Fireball exclaimed as his body caught fire disrupting the shadows on the ground. “I knew it!” he then charged at Night Shade.

Night Shade did not move but at the last second she sidestepped Fireball who went sliding on the floor. “Cage 4, activate” Just then the energy cage formed around Fireball who was not taking his defeat well. 

“Let me out, now!” he screamed.

“I would but your yelling has scared me so much that I forgot how to lower the shield. Guess you’re stuck in there” she laughed. 

“I’ll get you for this!”

I went over to Screwball as Fireball and Night Shade taunted each other. “I couldn’t help but notice that your portals are working again, can you get us home Screwball?”

She shook her head “I don’t know where home is. I can’t get us home without some directions otherwise we could wind up in a sun or an asteroid field.” 

“But you can use portals again?”

“Yep, the portal that sent us here drained me I just needed to regain my strength.” She then looked over at the human “What about her?”

I looked over at Night Shade who was obviously having fun at Fireballs expense. I couldn’t help but give a slight smile “She has finally found out what living means.” 

Screwball cocked her head confused “Don’t worry we shall tell you and Fireball what has happened” Cloud Striker stated. I looked over at him and nodded in response. 

We told Screwball and Fireball all that happened since we were separated and how Night Shade didn’t even have emotions before she experienced them through my memories. Screwball immediately accepted Night Shade as a new friend Fireball however just tolerated her keeping a small grudge. We lived in the building for two weeks where we learned much about the human planet which was number 447 of 3,456 worlds. Night Shade and I were currently in the floating vehicle going to check the domes that housed the Elites. Looking over I saw a huge grin on her face as the wind rushed through her hair.

“Enjoying yourself?” I asked.

“You have no idea what’s its like to have no feelings then wham! Your whole body is filled with them. I can’t believe that I have never felt the wind upon my face before.”

“You never felt the wind before?”

“Yes, I felt the wind but I never FELT the wind, I know it makes no sense,”

“Your right it doesn’t” I replied not knowing how to take what she told me. “I guess that without the emotions to go with the feelings they just never registered, is that close?”

“Yeah one could say that” She then stopped the vehicle. “Here put these on” she then tossed me an eyepiece as she put on her own. 

After staring at the device I put it on “Wow” I gasped as the world took on a new shape as dozens of domes appeared before me shimmering with their blue shields. Inside were the fantastic gardens and the Elites lying around the grass eating fruit from the trees. 

“Everything checks out here what about your end?”

I looked and saw nothing wrong with the domes or the humans inside of them “Nothing wrong here although that Elite is trying to fit his hand into his mouth.” The eye piece zoomed onto the Elite who was clearly fascinated by his ability to shove his hand into his mouth. The eyepiece seemed to react to thoughts and voice commands “I bet that this could even play games” I thought just then some card game popped onto the screen. “This is so cool!” I exclaimed under my breath. I was glad that I decided to come with Night Shade on her rounds. 

“Well let’s head to the next spot” She stated as we moved towards the car. 

I started to follow but we both stopped when a picture of an older looking gentleman with pepper hair and mustache came onto our screens. “This is Keeper 1 to inform on the Collectives behalf that the petition of the Keepers to allow emotions to be made legal has been denied. An emissary of the Collective will be sent to the Keepers who were on the petition, that is all.”

Night Shade banged her fist against the vehicle “No, I thought that the Collective would decide otherwise.”

“Why is that, isn’t the Collective the one that decided to ban emotions in the first place? Why would it change its decision based on a petition?”

She looked at me “Your right. Come I have to meet the emissary.”

When we came to the main building that we were staying in I saw a strange looking robot that moved around with wire-like tentacles which acted like its legs. It actually looked very similar to a spider but its front was made of a green plasma which formed a mechanical face. 

“Keeper 447” it stated in a metallic screechy voice. “It has come to the Collectives attention that you and many more Keepers have been tainted by the bane of man, emotions. It is my duty to tell you that the Collective has deemed this unacceptable and has commanded those affected to be terminated in order to preserve mankind. You are to go to your nearest termination station such is the Collectives will.” The robot then flickered and teleported away to another planet to tell the same news to another Keeper. 

I looked at Night Shade who was clearly struggling with what the robot said “You’re not actually thinking about letting yourself be killed just because a robot told you to, are you?” 

“The Collective deemed it necessary to preserve mankind, I must” she then looked at the sky. “But why do I hesitate?”

“Because you know that it is wrong! The Collective shouldn’t be the one to decide what’s best for mankind man should be the one to decide. 

Just then a holographic image of Keeper 1 appeared before Night Shade “Why are you not heading towards the termination center? Is something wrong with your teleporter?” 

I looked at Night Shades face she was clearly battling between the Collectives will and what her heart was telling her to do. “She’s not going” I said coming into the holograms view “and neither should you.”

“I know you from the memories that we were shown, the bringer of mans bane.”

“Listen mankind strives and grows on emotions if you have seen my memories then you also know what I say is the truth. The Collective is wrong it can’t comprehend emotions so it discards them as unneeded but it is wrong emotions are the key to humanities growth.”

“The collective is designed to keep humanity from dying as a species we can’t disobey it if we do humanities survival is at risk.”

“Man created the Collective to stop the Sprites from destroying them and to help them repopulate, not to rule them!”

“How do you know what the founders wishes were? Nobody does but the Collective.” 

“My father was a human from before the Collective and I know what he would think about all of this. So yes, in a way I know what the founders wanted and what the Collectives actions should be. 

I saw the device on Keeper 1 glow as he collected information “Form your data in the database it is very possible that what you say is true. Even though your genes are mixed with another species you also have an older strand of human DNA. But even if what you say is true the Collective has decided to keep humans emotions out of the equation how can we convince it to allow them again?”

“We don’t” Night Shade finally spoke up “we take back what was stolen from us.”

“It is true the Collective has taken from mankind that which was never to be taken from them. Its programming has gone beyond that which it was supposed to you have to see this Keeper 1. It was never the founders wish for mankind’s will to be stripped from them by a computer.” 

He was quiet for a long time then he spoke up “It seems that Keeper 447 had her communicator on an open channel for all the other Keepers to see and they are agreeing with your statements. They seem to believe that the Collective’s programming has been corrupted and must be dismantled for mankind to thrive again. I must admit that this thing called emotions has opened my eyes and I agree with you that the Collective is corrupted.” The hologram then disappeared and a message came into every ear piece from Keeper 1 “Listen the Collective has become corrupted any keeper still heading to the termination center must stop and return to their planets, we are taking back what the Collective took from us” his transmission then ended. 

“Hey, Dream Catcher!” Cloud Striker called as he flew down to us. “What’s wrong?” he asked after noticing how me and Night Shade were acting. 

“I think that I just started a war” I replied now realizing with horror what the first Keeper must have meant by his transmission.



> Where Art Thou Dream Catcher?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

				
Chapter 4

Where Art Thou Dream Catcher?

“Not good, not good, not good, this is soooo not good” Dash was saying out loud while pacing the living room floor. “He should have been back by now, what if something happened? Luna will kill me!”The Morning’s rays were just starting to appear through the window of Dashes house. Dash stopped and looked at the rising sun then rubbed her puffy eyes, she had been awake all night waiting for Dream Catcher to come home. “Maybe he decided to stay at fireballs house?” she thought hopeful. She then spread her wings and flew out of the house and after a few minutes landed in ponyville. “Excuse me Mr. and Miss Holtuck?” She asked knocking on the door of the local hat shop “hello, anypony in there?”

The door opened revealing a sleepy green male Pegasus “Dash?” he asked blinking in the suns light. “Do you know what time it is?” 

“Who’s at the door honey?” a grey unicorn asked making her way to them.  

“I’m sorry to have woken you so early but by any chance is Dream Catcher here?” They shook their heads. “What about Fireball?”

“No, but Fireball sometimes wonders off and spends the nights with friends” Miss Holtuck replied. 

“He will probably come scampering in around lunch” Mr. Holtuck confirmed. 

“Do you know where he might have gone?” Dash asked concerned. They both shook their heads Dash then left the hat shop to continue her search for Dream Catcher “He’s going to be in so much trouble for worrying me like this” She muttered. 

Dash searched all of Ponyville and even some of the Everfree Forest but there was no sign of him or Fireball anywhere. She checked the house again in case he came back but there was still no sign of the two boys “Do you think this is funny Dream Catcher?!” She suddenly screamed out of frustration. “Stop hiding, you had your fun now come out…please!” There was no response to her plea. Dash started to cry losing herself to desperation she had searched everywhere…except the school! She never even thought about the school she quickly shook away her tears and made a mad dash out the door hoping to find a clue of where Dream Catcher was. 

When she arrived though she was disappointed for no pony was to be seen she then started to cry again out of frustration, worry, and lack of sleep.

“What you doing Dashy Washy” Pinkypies voice echoed in front of her. 

Dash opened her eyes and saw the pink earth pony looking at her curiously “Pinky! Its Dream Catcher he’s gone.” 

Pinky sat down in front of her “Wait isn’t that Luna’s kid the one that you’re babysitting?”

“Yes.”

“I saw him yesterday.”

“What!” Dash then took Pinky’s hoofs “please tell me do you know where he is?”

“Nope all that I remember is him and some other ponies playing soccer then poof! They vanished.”

“They vanished? What do you mean Pinky did they teleport?”

“I don’t know all I saw was ponies then poof!” she repeated again. 

“Please Pinky you have to know more.”

“Oh yes, like did you know that only earth dragons spew fire when they hiccup, or that the juyt plant smells like mint ice-cream? It doesn’t taste like it though it actually taste like seaweed it’s kind of fishy if you ask me. Also did you…”

“I meant about Dream Catcher” Dash cut in.

“Who? Oh right, nope I know nothing.”

“This is bad, bad bad bad bad!” Dash quickly flew away back to the Holtuck’s place only to find that Fireball did not return and that a Pegasus named Cloud Striker was also missing. “There’s only one thing that I can do” she sighed.

“What is that?” Miss Holtuck asked. 

“I have to tell Luna and Jackson” She then took off going into a double Rain boom heading towards the mountains. A double Rain boom looks just like it sounds it was a rain boom but just doubled. It was doubled the speed and power. It took her a few years to perfect it but she was now the fastest flyer in all of Equestria because of her hard work. However even with her speed it would take half the day to reach the mountains. If Spike was still around she would have sent a message by letter which would have been much faster however he was away living with the dragons after the heartbreak he experienced with Rarity. 

As she neared the mountains two of the royal guards Pegasus’s meet her in the air “halt, nopony shall enter this area by the command of Princess Celestia.”

“I have to talk to the royal family it is urgent.”

“We cannot allow that miss now if you will please leave the mountains.”

She could not accept what the guards said “There’s simply no way that they would forgive me if I didn’t tell them right away that Dream Catcher and Fireball are missing” She thought to herself. This made up her mid and she flew by the two guards who were clearly not expecting her to be so fast.

“Wait…stop!” she heard them in the distance but did not comply with the orders. 

“Now where are they? The guards were here so I must be in the right place” she said to herself as she looked for the royal family. She then saw Princess Cadance relaxing in a natural hot spring high on the mountain. “Princess Cadance!” she called as she flew down to her. 

The princess opened her eyes “Why hello Dash how are you this fine day?”

“What is all this, I thought that you were all up here for a big meeting of some sort.”

“Ah, well…you see, about that…um…”

As the princess was trying to come up with something good to say Prince Shining Armor came from behind a large rock carrying two cups of juice with his magic “Honey they didn’t have the orange drink like you wanted but they…” he then saw Dash. “Dash what are you…” he and Dash then both realized that he was not wearing swimming trunks “Augghh” they both screamed as the Prince scrambled back behind the rock.

“Wait! Why are we screaming? We don’t wear cloths, like all the time” Dash then realized out loud. 

“I guess your right” Prince Shining Armor replied and came out of his hiding now wearing swimming trunks decorated with surfboards. 

“There she is!” a guard called as a squad came down and surrounded Dash who snorted at them ready for a fight. “Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance” the guard bowed “please let us handle this intruder.”

“That won’t be necessary” Princess Cadance replied. 

The guard looked at her confused then bowed “As you wish” the guards then left them.

“I am curious though why are you here Dash?” Prince Shining armor asked. 

“Oh, right I need to speak to Princess Luna and Prince Jackson.”

“That’s right" Cadance replied "you’re babysitting Dream Catcher for them. They are on the other side of the ridge” she then got out of the spring and guided Dash to a grassy area. Lying in lawn chairs in the middle of the clearing was Princess Luna and Prince Jackson sipping on glasses filled with what looked like chocolate milk from one of Discords clouds. Dash couldn’t believe what she was seeing the Royal family was not up here for an important meeting they were up here having a vacation. 

“Dash what are you doing here?” Princess Celestia asked landing in front of her. 

“Dash?” Jackson asked looking up from his sunbathing. 

Luna however jumped up “What’s wrong, is Dream Catcher alright, why has thou left Ponyville?”

Dash took a short gulp “No, I’m afraid that I have bad news.” Luna gave a short gasp at this but didn’t say anything “Yesterday an emergency forced me to leave the village for a few hours, during that time Dream Catcher and Fireball went off playing. However when I got back Dream Catcher never returned home. I learned that Fireball had also been missing since last night as well as a pony called Cloud Striker. “

“Fireball sometimes stays at friends houses have you checked the homes of the other children? Dream Catcher might be with him” Princess Cadance commented.

“I have” Dash replied. “I looked all over Ponyville for them but they just seemed to have vanished in fact Pinky claimed that they had” She said remembering the story PinkyPie told her. 

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked.

“She said that they were playing soccer then they vanished.”

“I’m sure they are all right” Jackson replied going up to comfort Luna “they might be playing in the woods, in fact Dream Catcher is probably at your house worrying about you.”

“I hope so” Dash replied.

“I will go back to the village with you Dash” he replied.

“So will we” Luna stated obviously worried about her child.

Shining armor looked at Cadance “I will go too.”

The four of them then started the long flight back to Ponyville it was dark by the time they arrived. Dash opened her door but Dream Catcher was not there like they hoped. Shinning Armor had gone to the Holtuck residence but soon returned with news that Fireball was still gone. “Luna and I will search the forest but you and Dash should get some sleep” Jackson stated. 

Shinning Armor agreed soon Jackson and Luna took to the skies leaving Dash and him alone. “So the meeting on the mountain is a lie?” she asked while closing the front door. 

Shining Armor laid on the couch “Not really but it is more like a gathering to let the family relax and get to know each other better. That in turn takes some pressure off of us and hopefully leads to a better ruled kingdom.”

“I see so it is just a vacation after all?”

“Yep” he then yawned and pulled a blanket over himself “goodnight” suddenly snoring filled the room. 

“Wow when he’s out he’s out” Dash commented to herself then went to her room suddenly feeling exhausted. 

They had been searching ponyville for two days but there was no sign of the missing ponies anywhere even with the village helping in the search. “Where can our little boy be?” Luna cried as another lead turned out to be a dead end.

“We will find him Luna” Dash stated. However she wasn’t sure about her claim they had looked everywhere. “Maybe Pinky was right and they really did vanish?” she thought. She then decided to visit the soccer field just in case Pinky was telling the truth. “I will be right back” she told Luna and took off towards the field. When she arrived nothing seemed out of the ordinary except for a few burnt soccer balls. “Fireball, was defiantly here…” She then saw a huge patch of dirt that was missing from the field almost like a small crater “that’s interesting” She said to herself feeling the loose dirt. 

“Yes it is” a voice responded.

Dash looked around the field but didn’t see anypony “Who’s there?”

“Just everybody’s favorite spirit of chaos and mischief!” Discord answered as he appeared in front of her. 

“Discord, what are you doing here? I thought that you stayed on the mountain with the other members of the royal family.”

Discord moved towards the patch of dirt “Screwball was supposed to contact me today and she didn’t so I came here to investigate” he replied. “Hmmm this is interesting…” he mumbled as he touched the air around the dirt patch. 

“What is it?” she asked.

“Yep, without a doubt Screwball opened a few portals in this area.” He then snapped his fingers and Cadance, Celestia, Luna, and Shinning armor appeared. 

“Discord what’s the meaning of this…” Celestia began but was stopped by discord holding out his hand.

“Celestia come here and tell me what you see” Discord replied.

Dash saw Jackson fly into the clearing answering Discords summon as Celestia went to where Discord stood “there was a portal here…but I can’t quite make everything out” Celestia replied after she investigated the area. 

“Yes this portal was made by Screwball, however I see two other powers mixed into the portals folds yes that of Fireball and Dream Catcher if I’m not mistaking.”

“Wow you can see all of that?” Dash asked amazed. 

“I learned a long time ago that Discord can see more than he leads us to believe” Celestia commented. She then turned to Discord “what else do you see about the portal?”

Discord squinted as he cracked the portal open a tiny bit so they could all see the purple vortex inside. “This side of the portal is in good condition but the other side is worn down and has begun collapsing on itself. It’s as if…yes, the other dimension that this connects to is on a faster time schedule.”

“Where does it connect to?” 

“I can’t be certain but some of it feels like you did when you came to our world Jackson.”

“You mean Jackson universe?” Celestia asked. Discord nodded in response. 

“I think so, but it might not be. When the portal does collapse though any trace to where it went will be gone. A portal this big would have pulled the kids in when it was created none of them were powerful enough to control it.”

“Portals” Jackson cursed “I guess I will have to go get them then.”

“There’s one more thing this portal is unstable if it is used again it will fall apart, the dimension it connects to and ours will then merge. I’m actually surprised that they went through it without it falling apart.”

Jackson stopped “and if it connects to my world and they merge the sprites can come to Equestria freely.”

“No! Jackson we have to get our son!!!” Luna shouted. Jackson sadly looked at the ground.

“you know the danger Luna…” Celestia started to say. 

“No! we will not leave our son in another dimension, never!”

“Jackson, you once told me that for every day that passed in Equestria a year passed in your world” Shining armor stated. “Would our sons still be ok after so long?”

Jackson lowered his head even lower he knew far too well that since Dream Catcher was made of Living Energy  that he was probably dead. He went over to Luna who started crying “Luna…even if Dream Catcher is alive we can’t risk endangering all of Equestria. We have to have faith in him to find his way back home.”

“Nooo…I..cant…not my little boy!” Luna cried. 

“I agree with Jackson” Celestia sadly replied.

“I’m sorry Cadance, Fireball would understand” Shinning armor said to his wife who looked like a pony whose heart was just torn to pieces leaving her an empty shell. 

“No” Cadance finally choked through her tears “Fireball…” she then flew off and Shining Armor went after her.

“Discord summon my guards, we have to quarantine this place” Celestia stated.


It has been ten days since Dream Catcher disappeared from Equestria in the portal. Most of the royal family decided to leave the kids in the other dimension but Luna and Cadance could not accept that decision. It might have been motherly instincts but they could not leave their sons in another dimension even if it meant the dimensions merging with each other. 

They were hiding in the bushes looking over the portal that Shining armor and some soldiers were guarding. “Doth thou remember the plan?” Luna asked Cadance who was shaking from nervousness.

“Yyy..eeess” she managed to say between her clattering teeth. 

“It is time then my cousin.”

“What now!? Can we wait for the next shift?” Cadance asked pleadingly. Luna stared at her and she felt as if she shrunk under her piercing gaze “ok” she then slunk out of the bushes as Luna gave a signal to a filly that they convinced to help them. 

Suddenly a shriek pierced the air as a grey filly came storming into the clearing catching the guards attention “Dragon! There’s a dragon after me!!!” Luna started to work her magic and made several loud noises come from the direction the filly was pointing. 

“Get behind me” Shining armor told the filly as he and his guards started to make their way to where the noise was coming from. If they looked back they would have saw Luna and Cadance slinking low to the ground making their way to the portal. 

“Were going to make it!” Luna thought to herself and winked to a nervous Cadance who gave a nervous smile in return. 

“I knew it!” Jackson’s voice then reigned in the night’s air. “Shinning Armor you’re slipping if you fell for such an obvious trick” Jackson then flew down between them and the portal. 

Shinning Armor turned to see his wife “Honey what are you doing here?” she did not answer him. 

Shinning Armor just stood there trying to figure the situation out, Jackson rolled his eyes “I guess I have to tell you. There is no dragon it was just a distraction for these two to enter the portal without you knowing.”

“But the sounds in the woods…”

“Magic” his horn then glowed and the dragon noises stopped. 

“What? I can’t believe you Cadance! How could you put all of Equestria at risk like that?” 

“I couldn’t…I…I…cant…” Cadance began.

“I heard enough, I know that losing Fireball was tough, but you know better.”

“They’re not Lost!” Luna shouted then sent Shinning Armor flying with some magic. “Cousin!” she called to Cadance as she made a mad dash towards the portal. 

“Stop!” Jackson yelled and started to push against them with his overpowering magic “please don’t make me do this.”

“Out of our way!” Cadance and Luna both called and shot their magic at him making Jackson stumble but even their combined magic was too little and he began overpowering them. 

“Noo” Luna yelled as her magic started to slip. “Let us go my love, Dream Catcher needs us!”

“You know that I can’t do that Luna” Jackson replied sadly.

Cadance saw that Shinning Armor had recovered and was coming towards them “I’m sorry Fireball” she said to herself. 

As all hope for them faded Shinning Armor suddenly disappeared “No! What are you doing?!” Jackson shouted. 

“That which is not logical” a familiar voice entered Luna’s ears. She looked up and saw the Spirit of Chaos above them softly smiling. 

“Of course” Jackson sighed.

“Discord?” Luna stared at him confused “what are you…” 

“You’re not the only one who lost their kid in the portal” he then looked back at Jackson and sent a wave of chocolate milk towards him. Jackson put a barrier up around himself as the wave washed over him, Jackson then created multiple cords from the ground that shot at Discord who in response teleported behind him. “Too slow Jackson my boy” he was expecting Jackson to turn around but he didn’t as Discord looked closer he realized that it was a wooden dummy. “That was a good one” he commented as Jacksons magic slammed into him from behind pinning him to the ground. 

“Thanks” Jackson replied as he continued pinning Discord. 

Discord then melded through the ground and reappeared a few feet away “Luna, Cadance go!” he shouted at the two dumbfounded ponies.

Luna was the first to recover “Come!” she grabbed Cadance and they ran towards the portal. 

“Aghh!” Cadance cried as a golden beam shot her in the back.

Luna knew that magic far too well it was Celestia “Luna stop this nonsense!” Celestia called. 

“Nay sister thou must understand that this is one command that we cannot abideth by.”

Celestia looked at her sister sadly “I know” her horn then shot another beam at Luna. 

Luna braced herself as the magic flowed towards her but it was suddenly stopped by Cadance’s own magic “Luna go! I will hold off Celestia.” 

Luna nodded and flew towards the portal “No!” Celestia shouted as she cast Cadance aside but she was too late for Luna’s back hoofs were already disappearing into the portals opening. 


> Team Bravo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

								Chapter 5

Team Bravo


Fourteen years after the Collective decided to terminate the keepers who had been influenced by emotions and the ponies that were allied with them. 

(Enter epic war music here)

Eutisis solar system Front
476th strike force “War Horse”

“Mission Command to Party Rocker, Mission Command to Party Rocker” Night Shades voice came over the radio. 

“Party Rocker” Fireball responded. 

“Eclipse has broken through estimated time two minutes.”

“Right, we have your window Party Rocker out.”

“Command to War Horse.”

I activated my communicator “I heard ya two minutes.” 

“Commander Dream Catcher?” the Transport pilot called. 

“Yes?” I answered. 

“The landing area is too hot but there’s a clearing at the mountains base a mile out...”

“No were going into the thick of it pilot.” 

“Sir?”

“Fireballs demolition squad is down there clearing the way.” Just as I said these words there was a huge explosion at the enemies shielding station. 

“Party Rocker to Command, your green” Fireballs voice came over the communicator. 

“Rodger that” Night Shade replied. “War Horse we lost the lead wasp (transport) your team is now point.”

“Got it” I then stood up and looked at my squad that was made of all humans that could perform magic. We learned early in the war that the Collective had a hard time tracking creatures of magic which made this team the perfect strike force to go behind enemy lines. “Ok men” I called “For fourteen years this war has been taking the lives of those precious to us but now is our chance to make a difference! Down there is the control station for the collectives forces in this sector. We take it down and the war is that much closer to ending, hooah?!” 

“Hooah!” the men screamed in reply. 

I spread my wings as the transports door opened and took off while my squad transported to the rocky battleground below. I quickly surveyed the landscape plotting the best path to take to the objective before a squad of brain bots forced me to land. The landscape was filled with humans, vehicles, and machines shooting every type of energy weapon imaginable some of which were heat sinkers, those I hated the most. Above us were a multitude of flying robots fighting unmanned craft that were for the most part controlled by the minds of those on the control ships. Cloud Striker and Screwball were both respected pilots of the coalition’s air force and were surely up there watching our backs. Above the planet though was where the real battle was happening between twelve of the Collectives Nimbus Class Destroyers and ten of the Coalitions Super Class Battle cruisers. Night Shade was on the Battle cruiser The Eclipse, which was the flagship of the forces in this sector. So much has happened during these last fourteen years of fighting, we had seen things that no pony was meant to see and it wasn’t going to end anytime soon. 

A sudden laser brushing against my personal shield brought me back from my thoughts as we made our way to the control station. This was our third attack on this particular facility the first two raids ended badly but today we managed to break through the front lines, in other words there will be no retreating. “Aughh, bucking robots” I yelled as another shot broke my shield forcing me to take shelter until it recharged. 

“You ok commander?”

“Yeah” I looked up and saw a row of enemy stationary guns “buck” I cursed as I laid my body against a bolder to think.

“Those guns will tear us to pieces if we go any further commander.”

“Right, Sergeant Holk take Jim and Findwick with you and give us cover fire from that ditch” I said pointing to a trench on our right flank. “The main body will then flank the guns from the left while they are turned.”

“Yes sir” Sergeant Holk saluted then made his way to the spot with our two heavy gunners, once in position they engaged the enemy. 

“Now move!” I yelled and stepped from behind the rock shooting energy blast with my horn. “Ha!” I cried as the first three guns I aimed at exploded into a shower of sparks. The men used their rifles and made short work of the rest of the turned guns before they were able to react. I tried using a rifle before but being a pony it was difficult to handle but even though my horns energy blasts was not as destructive it got the job done. We stopped just outside of the Control Stations perimeter “Sergeant status report” I called. 

“Commander the main force has reported that we have been cut off by the enemy, we are on our own” Sergeant Holk reported. 

“What about The Eclipse? It should be here by now.” 

“Reports say that another enemy ship has warped into orbit and slowed their advance.”

“Great just great” I muttered. “Only one path left for us then” I replied “Forward!”

We started our slow advance towards the Control Station taking heavy losses as we climbed over scrap heaps and bodies. The situation became more desperate the closer we got to the stations black walls. When the realization that my squad would be surrounded and eliminated just like many others had been before us charging up these same rocky slopes a glimmer of hope appeared in the sky above us. It was a small blade looking fighter plane that we knew all too well The Pillar of Honor Cloud Strikers personal attack craft. A sudden array of energy blast erupted from its front annihilating a line of bipedal robots that were racing towards us. 

“That crazy SOB” an awestricken soldier said next to me “always has to dive into the thick of the enemy to prove his worth.”

“Much good his honor will do him if he winds up dead” I replied. Cloud Striker had made it his goal to always take the enemy head on where he was strongest in order to what he called “collect the spoils of war” or what I call the pat on the back for being stupid enough to take on an entire army by oneself. Needless to say he had been shot down more times than I could count but he did get results. Command has tried to convince him to use the unmanned craft instead of putting himself at more risk than he needs to be but Striker only saw that as a dishonorable way of fighting. Like some bully hiding behind his thugs instead of standing up like a stallion and fighting his own battles.

“Thanks Striker” I called on my communicator.

“Ha ha! The weight of justice falls upon them like a hammer on an anvil” he cried back through the communicator as he made another pass clearing a path to the Control Station. 

“Now men, move!” I screamed as we made a mad dash for the station and set up a perimeter ‘Private Stern the charges! Private Stern?”

“He was killed as soon as we landed” Sergeant Holk stated.

My eyes widened with fright “please tell me somepony grabbed the charges?” the men looked away not responding “You idiots!!! We have to go back for them.” I looked down the path that we came from and saw a huge force of robots coming our way “were dead.”

“No you’re not” I then heard a voice. I looked to the side and saw Fireballs exhausted ragtag team coming towards us, they were in bad shape. 

“Am I glad to see you!”

“Heard your troops screwed up again” Fireball commented.

I stared at him, Fireball was almost a fully grown stallion and extremely powerful which could be seen by the magic brimming through his bodies hair which made him look as if he was on fire. In fact sometimes he did catch on fire when he was mad just like a phoenix would. “I will have the men divide the charges between them next time” I replied while Fireballs men started to set their charges on the Station. That’s one thing that was certain about fireball and his troops they always had an abundance of explosives. 

“Good because I won’t always be here to bail you out.”

“Oh, like I haven’t bailed you out too!”

“The score I believe is 12 to 7”

“12?”

“Remember the jungle pit incident with the giant purple slugs?” Fireball replied grinning.

“Oh, right” I remembered after so long of trying to block that particular memory out of my mind. 

“Commander Fireball! Were good to go” one of the pyro technicians called out. 

“Let’s clear the area then” Fireball replied.

“Yes Sir!”

I then looked at my troops “you heard him unless you want to be caught in the blast.” 

“Sir!” they replied and we took cover wherever we could for the impending explosive. 

Suddenly a huge fiery wind leapt from the Station followed by a huge blast, even though I was behind a bolder it still rattled my very core. I looked at my men some of who were unfortunate enough not to get good cover and was sent flying several feet away. It took a few minutes to get the ringing to stop in my ears “dang it Fireball! Why do you have to use so much explosives? That was twice than what was needed.”

Fireball grinned “After all this time of trying to destroy this thing I think that putting an exclamation point on its demise was most appropriate. Bro, I bet that they even saw that explosion from orbit! Hope Night Shade got a picture.”

I heard a crash around us as the brain bots started falling from the sky. Without the control station to guide them they had stopped functioning, the same was true for all the enemy forces on the field. “Night Shade how is your end?” I asked through my communicator.

“Enemy ships are silent, now we get to reap the spoils of war and rewrite their programming to help Emotion 1 fight the collective” she answered back.  

We had two computer A.I.’s that were created early in the war the first was called Emotion 1 which controlled our own replicating robot force to combat the Collective throughout the universe. The second A.I. was called Emotion 2 which directed the human forces in the war. I looked at the sky and saw that The Eclipse was entering atmosphere it looked very similar to a fat arrowhead as its monstrous size blocked out the sun. Its large size was what actually earned it the name Eclipse. “I will never get used to seeing that” I thought to myself as one of the blue search lights fell upon us and beamed us onboard the ship’s deck. 

“Dream Catcher, if you ever worry me like that again I will kill you!” I heard Night Shade yell as she suddenly hugged me from behind. 

“I’m..sorry it shall n..ot happen again” I manage to squeeze out. 

“You are such a liar!” she replied letting her grip on me go. “This is the third time you made that promise.”

“At least we get results, and I’m fine by the way” Fireball replied sounding crossed.

“Dream Catcher is my battle partner besides, I have given up worrying about you a long time ago Fireball. Especially after all the experimental explosives you make your troops carry.” 

“Experimental or not they have more boom.”

She rolled her eyes at Fireball’s comment then looked behind him “Speaking of crazy ponies that I have given up worrying about…Cloud Striker.”

“That I am grateful, making friends worry would be disrespectful to them and in turn myself” a fully grown Cloud Striker replied. On top of his head were a pair of mechanical goggles which improved a person’s sight and reflexes. Next to him was Screwball who was also full grown, her purple hair was more dark and richer than when she was younger but her long straight main was darker still and had some strands of blue in it. She looked like a normal pony except her eyes had a multitude of different colors swimming around her pupil as if threatening to hypnotize those who look at them. She also still acted odd compared to most ponies that I knew, but at least she had gained control over her powers over the years. 

“So where’s our new mission?”I asked.

“Home” Night Shade replied “Emotion 2 is sending us to Planet 447.”

“Where it all began.”

She nodded at my statement “Of course the planet is highly populated by the Elite class so fighting will have to be done more carefully. However that will be difficult considering the large quantity of enemy that we will engage. We have learned that the control station is in the old facility where we used to live so at least we won’t have to search for it.” 

“Aww, what a shame that we have to blow that hell hole.” 

“Fireball…” I began.

“It’s alright Dream Catcher if I spent my time there being experimented on while strapped to a metal table I would hate the facility as well” Night Shade replied. “Even though it was my home we will destroy it like all the rest but I think that my platoon should be the ones to destroy the station.” 

It was rare for Night Shade to join the ground battles but instead she usually directed them from the Eclipse. I could tell that she was having some difficulties with the battle ahead being on her home planet even with her putting on such a brave face for the others. “I understand” and I did “me and my soldiers will come with you for support just in case things get too hairy.” 

“Bah” Fireball snorted “and my men will still beat you two to the control station.”

“We shall see” Night Shade replied sticking her tongue out at him. 

“Humph, that we shall oh master of the shadows” Fireball then walked off, his hoofs leaving hot embers with each step. It always amazed me that he was able to handle explosives without setting them off. 

A red light then came on “All crew to battle stations and brace for hyperspace, were going in hot” the captain called over the intercom. 

“Yes! More honor to be had. Come my friend Screwball we will soon be needed to clear the skies for the landing party” Cloud Striker excitedly yelled. 

“You know? We should have all the ships painted pink!” Screwball suddenly stated out of the blue. “Imagine a fleet of pink ships in the sun’s rays oh, and some yellow too!”

“Screwball could you imagine what the enemy would think if they saw pink spacecraft? Don’t be so outrageous. Besides they would be too easy to hit with the anti radar paint gone.”

“How about glasses then? The Collective wouldn’t dare hit a poor ship with glasses, the war would be won!” 

“I doubt it will be so easy, besides how could we gain the spoils of war without the enemy fighting back? No, it’s too ridiculous to even think about.” 

Cloud Striker and Screwball then started to walk away towards the hanger’s teleporter “how about giant puppy eyes…” I could barely hear Screwball mention before the teleporter door closed behind them. 

I felt a warm hand stroke my main as the ship lurched forward “We should get going too Dream Cather” Night Shade replied then started towards a teleporter room. I glanced towards the glass observation screen showing the stars warping around us at increasing speed then followed her into the room. A sudden flash of blue warm light engulfed us then faded revealing a hanger of thousands of Wasp transports and large mechanical machines of destruction.

The ship slipped out of hyperspace and began its strategic bombardment of the planet’s surface while the fighters began their assault on the enemy’s air force. It took three hours before the ground forces were given the green light to start their decent. 

“You ready Dream Catcher?” Night Shade asked.

“Girl I was born ready! Let’s show these robots what we can do.”

“Right, Kick it!” The pilot nodded and the ship started its free fall towards the planet’s surface. The ships dropped hard and fast to avoid the planets defense turrets but right before we were about to crash the engines kicked on and we tore through the sky. This was the part that I hated most of the flight the sharp fast turns and occasional rolls which made many including myself airsick. 

“Mam, the main force has started to deploy twenty miles from the objective” the pilot called.

“Good we are closer than I thought we would be. Pilot take us to the ridge a mile in so we can start our forward operations before the Collective has time to gather its strength.”

“Yes mam” the ship swooped in and landed in a nice clearing after scanning it for magnetic mines. 

The men quickly exited the craft and set up a perimeter “now let’s see what the enemy is doing…” a large holographic picture appeared before her showing our units in blue and the enemy in red as they began to clash with each other. We stayed around the hologram studying the enemy’s movements looking for an opening that our strike force could exploit. This was the most important part of the operation one mistake could set the invasion back for weeks. “There see that” she pointed to a crater on the map “if we take out the bridges the enemies ground units will have no choice but to maneuver here to support their main force.”

“Yes! And during that time the enemy’s forces would be weak enough to push through, Good eye Night Shade.”

“Of course, was there any doubt?” she asked with a smirk. 

“Of course not, never” I said out of reflex.

She patted me on the cheek “Your sweet Dream Catcher” she then left the tent to relay the information. 

I looked after her as she stepped out of the portable invisible tent the men erected.  Night Shade and I were very good friends but lately it seemed that she was becoming more than that. “You ok sir?” a soldier asked. 

I then realized that I was blushing and turned my head from the men in the tent “Of…of course I am, just excitement…from finding a weakness in the enemies formation, yes that’s it.” I gave a slight smile then slipped out of the tent as fast as I could. Glancing up at the sky I realized that it was becoming dark, it was amazing that a planet with two suns and sixteen moons would have nights but it did. 

The next two weeks our forces managed to blow the bridges allowing the ground forces to gain an advantage in the fighting but even after all that we still had our hands full trying to carve a path to the command station. “Six more miles, six more miles, six more miles…” I mumbled as we climbed a particularly steep ridge to avoid a large enemy force patrolling the area. 

“Well it would be six miles to the control station but after all the detours it will likely be around thirteen” Night Shade replied. 

“That’s…not helping” I stated between breaths. “At least you can climb these rocks but I’m stuck taking the steep paths.”

“I told you that I could teach you to climb.”

“You know that I have no hands to climb with.”

She gave a small chuckle “I had no idea.”

I glared at her “you’re having too much fun with this Night Shade. If it wasn’t for the fact that these portable camouflage disk don’t work with the skies backdrop I would be flying circles around you right now.”

“You know now that I think of it you will probably end up going around 14 miles…” her voice trailed off as she turned away trying to hide a slight smile forming across her face.

As we climbed up the cliff to get a better reading of the enemies forces I could see hundreds of the Elites domed buildings littering the landscape. We tried years ago to show my memories to the Elites in order to gain more men for the fight but their minds were not advanced enough like the keepers. Years of ignorant bliss suddenly interrupted by other emotions or memories drove every elite we tried it on insane. Instead we now grow new soldiers in a factory on Planet 214 to replace those that are lost in battle and leave the Elites alone in their little sphere paradises to gape at the pretty lights in the sky from the battle steadily coming their way. 

“Alright back down we go Dream Catcher” Night Shade replied after she hooked up the tracker unit on the top of the cliff and camouflaged it. 

“Great” I replied looking down at where we came from. 

“Come on, stop being such a baby!” she replied and started making her way down. After allowing myself a sigh I followed after her. As we reached the camp a communication came from command. 

“Command to Shadow Master.”

“This is Shadow Master” Night Shade replied. 

“We picked up an anomaly close to your position; you are to investigate sending location now.”

“Understood, any theories on what it can be?”

“Not of yet but be careful it could be an enemy trap, command out.”

“Well that was interesting…” she replied.

“What is?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing much Command just wants me to check out some unknown anomaly over the ridge.”

“What?! That place is crawling with enemy, you can’t go!”

“It was an order, I have to.”

“Then I’m coming with you for backup.”

“My men can handle it Dream Catcher you should stay here.”

“Not after such heavy losses last week you need backup.” 

She stood there thinking about what I had said “Fine but don’t do anything stupid I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t as long as we stick together we are unbeatable.”

She gave a small smile at this and we soon began the force march to the ridge with Night Shades troops on point and mine in support. As we neared the destination we received a report from a recon unit over the communicator. 

“Say that again private it sounded like you said alicorn” Night Shade called back regarding the static filled report. 

“We (Static) it’s an alicorn” the call came back. 

“Private is it Fireball?” she asked but all that we heard back was static. “It’s a jammer” she cursed.

“We have to go its most likely Fireball or maybe Striker was shot down again either way this is now a rescue mission” I replied. 

She nodded “right we will pick up the pace” she then motioned the men to move faster signaling that we were on a rescue mission. 

As we neared the location fighting suddenly picked up I dove pushing Night Shade down with me as a laser cannon flew past us from an enemy floater (tank). “Thanks” she yelled over the blasts that now surrounded us as our forces engaged the enemy.

“Couldn’t let my battle partner get hurt now could I?” She nodded at the comment then at once we got up and started to blast the robots that were now swarming over a hill at us. 

“What was that?” Night Shade called. 

“What was what?” 

“Someone’s calling your name cant you hear it?”

I listened closer and even through the confusion and loud explosions I could hear my name being called. Fireball? No, it was too sweet and couldn’t be Screwball for she was on the control ships behind our front line. I looked at the direction the voice was coming from it was a familiar voice almost like from a dream long ago. “No” I said to myself seeing an object coming out of the smoke “It can’t be” but it was my eyes widened “mom?”

“Dream Catcher?! Dream Catcher?!” Luna called in her Canterlot voice. There was a battle raging around her between human soldiers and mechanical monsters shooting powerful lasers. “My little boy…” she sobbed in her mind for how could any pony survive in such an evil place “No! I won’t give up” she stated to herself. “Dream Catcher?!” she called again. 

I could not help but stare my mind was in shock “how…could it be an enemy trap?” However my heart told me that it wasn’t that my mother had somehow found her way to this hell hole. Suddenly a floater stopped and turned its evil gaze at Luna who was staring back wide eyed as it charged its weapon “No!” I screamed as I ran from cover towards her.

“Dream Catcher!” Night Shade yelled as she tried to grab me and pull me back but she was too late.

“What are you bucking doing? MOVE!!!” I yelled mother partially looked at me but couldn’t move she was too frightened. I have seen soldiers die like this all the time but not Luna not my mother “buck” I screamed as I pushed her out of the way and was struck by the energy cannon which shattered my shield and sent me flying. When I came too I saw the floater coming towards me then explode as Fireballs troops entered the battle and started pushing the enemy back. 

“Thank thou for saving us” Luna stated kneeling at the poor wounded Stallions side. His leg and half his hip was severed and losing a lot of blood “Please tell us thou’s name brave horse also does thou know our son Dream Catcher?” she asked as magic flowed from her horn in a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding but she knew that it was futile. 

I looked up at my mother’s blue eyes “she doesn’t recognize me? Have I changed so much throughout the years?” I thought. I tried to get up but couldn’t suddenly a sharp pain brought tears to my eyes.

“Shhh, thou should try not to move” Luna stopped the stallions head from looking at his wound “don’t, please.” Suddenly a weird looking human pushed her out of the way “Please let us…” the human slapped her across the mouth.

“You shut up! This happened because of you!” Night Shade yelled with tears in her eyes. She then looked back at her wounded partner who was losing consciousness from the loss of blood “Medic!” She yelled “don’t worry I’m here just stay with me.” 

“mo..ther” I mumbled as the world became hazy around me then all went black. 


> The Green Eyed Monster
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

								Chapter 6

The Green Eyed Monster

“No you don’t!” Night Shade yelled while putting pressure on Dream Catchers wound “Where’s the medic!!” she frantically screamed again. A soldier covered in blood came running to her and immediately began working on him. “Don’t leave me Dream Catcher! I need you…don’t leave me…”

All the blood drained from Luna’s face “What did thou call him?” she fearfully asked but the human did not answer. “Answer us!” she screamed at the human but suddenly she couldn’t move as if something was controlling her body.

“You did this…you did this to him!” Night Shade stood up keeping a tight grip on the light black alicorns shadow “I will kill you.”

“Stop, this won’t help Dream Catcher” Fireball said suddenly appearing between them severing Night Shades shadow connection. He then bowed to Luna “princess.”

“No, this cannot be…our child…our little boy” Luna whimpered to herself. 

“Your child?” Night Shade asked.

“Yes, this is Dream Catchers mother you should have some memories of her from when you and Dream Catcher shared minds” Fireball replied.

“Yes, I remember now.”

Fireball looked at Luna who was shaking so badly that he had to help support her “Tell me are you the only one or did others come with you?” 

“Just me” Luna barely was able to reply. 

“This is bad” the medic spoke up calling all their attentions “we have to get the commander to the ship or he’s dead.”

“No! Thou must save him, please we beg this of you” Luna cried. 

The medic called for an emergency pickup by a drone medical craft which landed shortly after. “Sorry only one person can come with” the drone’s medic stated as Luna and Night Shade both tried to come aboard. 

Night shade gave a command through her communicator and two soldiers pushed Luna away as the planes doors closed. However, Luna could still see Night Shade glaring through the window at her before she stepped away to be by Dream Catcher. 

Luna’s mind went numb as she broke down crying.

“So my princess why are you here?” Fireball asked after Luna’s crying became less. 

“If it wasn’t for us…Dream Cather…he would still be…” Luna then started to cry again. 

“Save it princess for when you need it, he’s not dead yet, you should have more faith in the coalition’s doctors. They saved me plenty of times before and I know that they will do the same for your son.”

Luna wiped her tears away “Your right.” She then faced the alicorn “We are Princess Luna although thou already knoweth our name it seems, but we must know who art thou?” 

“I guess that you might not recognize me after so many years, I used to be called Price Fireball but now I am Commander of the fiercest demolition squad in the coalition.”

“Fireball…thou ist Princess Cadance’s son art thou not?”

Fireball flinched at that name “Sadly yes.”

“Sadly? What art thou talking about thous mother is the most caring pony in all Equestria.”

Fireballs body caught on fire as his anger increased “Would such a caring pony leave me in this hell hole for fourteen years?! You know how much pain I have endured because of the Collective? I know why my father did it he didn’t come after me because he cares about the safety of Equestria more than his own son but my own mother?! What about you, why did you show up after fourteen years of ignoring us at our times of need?”

“But it hath been only fourteen days! A day in Equestria is a year in this world also your mother did try to get here but was stopped by Celestia.”

Fireball looked like he had been slapped in the face “fourteen days?”

“Yes, and if it wasn’t for our husband and sister we would have come sooner.”

“I see” Fireball then looked at the ground in shame. “I’m sorry for blowing up at you like that I’m just tired, this bucking war is taxing on everyone.”  

Luna looked around “Why are there humans fighting these mechanical abominations, what is this war about? Also we thought the sprites destroyed the human race, but here they are.”

“They almost did” Fireball replied then proceeded to tell her the story of how the collective killed the sprites and how them coming here actually started the war. “So you see this war is actually our doing if it wasn’t for us the keepers would be living their emotionless lives under the collectives rule.”

“They are right though the ability to have unrestricted emotions is worth fighting for.”

Fireball suddenly looked up at an incoming plane “there’s your ride it will take you up to The Eclipse so you can be next to Dream Catcher.”

“What of thou?”

“I have work to do but you make sure to give Dream Catcher my regards when they fix him up, will you?”

“Of course Fireball, and thanks” she replied then started towards the landed craft. It was an uneasy trip through the atmosphere where she threw up twice but she could finally see the monstrous ship The Eclipse and its fleet which was engaged with many other ships in a fierce battle. Once they landed she was directed to the waiting room where Night Shade was. Other soldiers that were injured or waiting to hear about those in surgery were also there. “What did thou’s physician say about our son?” She asked trying to be nice for this girl had incredible magic and was touchy when it came to Dream Catcher. 

Night Shade looked up at the alicorn and spat in front of her stopping her approach “He has a 35 percent chance.”

“No… is there not anything we can do?”

“You’ve done enough! If it wasn’t for you appearing in the middle of a battle field running around screaming his name like an idiot then he would not be in this mess now would he?”

“Thou art right” Luna admitted.

“I mean, it’s like you were trying to get him killed.” 

“Were his mother, we would never do anything to hurt our little colt” Luna replied crossed. 

“Could have fooled me” Night Shade mumbled under her breath.

They sat in the room not looking at each other for several hours until a woman in a white coat came out “Night Shade?”

“Yes doctor?” she asked jumping up towards her.

“Dream Catcher is in a critical stage.”

“How critical?” Luna asked coming up to the doctor. Night Shade gave her a dirty look but said nothing. 

“His left flank and back leg were unrecoverable; we managed to stop the bleeding and started the skin growth. That laser did a lot of damage though especially to his cellular structure that said the next 24 hours are very critical. However if he can make it past that the worst should be over.” 

“Can I see him?” Night Shade asked. 

“He’s still in the fluid tank so he won’t be conscience but yes.” 

“We art coming too” Luna stated.

“Only one person please” the doctor commented.

Night Shade started walking towards the door “Wait” Luna called to her.

Night Shade turned around with eyes that could pierce even the bravest mans soul “Why don’t you be a good little pony and wait while I visit my partner” she replied then disappeared behind the slamming doors. Luna sat like she had been struck and stared after Night Shade long after she disappeared through the doors. 

Luna spent the entire night and half a day in the waiting room worrying about what was happening but no news came to her she even started to wonder if the woman Night Shade was forbidding the doctor to tell her anything. Night Shade hated her and Luna could understand why for she hated herself for the same reason “if it wasn’t for me…” she kept thinking to herself. 

Suddenly Night Shade came tearing through the room heading out the waiting room “What happened?” she called after her but no response. Luna turned to the doctor “what hath happened how is Dream Catcher?”

“He’s resting, Night Shade just had to go to an important meeting about her recent mission and was not very happy about leaving Dream Catchers side. You can go in now if you wish Miss Luna is it?”

“Yes, thank thee” she was then led to a steel door which opened to a room with two beds. She passed the first bed which was empty but in the second laid her little stallion. His face looked tougher than most ponies she knew in fact he looked more like the hard working earth ponies than the ponies that lived in Canterlot.  The blanket on top of him clearly showed by its indentions that half his flank was gone but luckily it was not the side with his cutie mark. She stroked his blue ragged main which ended in green tips and began singing to him like she did just a few weeks ago in her time.

“Angel in the green grass, don’t make a peep. Just lay in the sun’s rays until the night makes thou fall asleep.  Then in the stars your cradle will be, until the morning light comes to greet thee again.”

Dream Catchers blue eyes then started to slowly open, they were more grisly than the other ponies in Equestria as if untold horrors have tainted them and stole the sparkle that they once bore. “Mother?” he finally managed out. 

“Shhh were here my child” she said nuzzling him.

“I can’t feel…my leg” he replied then drifted out of consciousness again.

All I remembered was pushing mother out of the way of the floaters laser cannon but everything else after that was a blank. I opened my eyes and saw Night Shade sleeping with her head on my chest, on the other side of the bed was mother who was also asleep. “Morning Sleepy head” Fireball whispered from the doorway “figured you would be waking up about this time.”

“Fireball, what happened? What are you doing here? What am I doing here? How are the troops after the last battle and why…why can’t I feel my leg?”

“Whoa slow down, I’m here because after all the times you visited me in the medical wing it’s only fair that I visit you. As for the troops they are fine a few of the new recruits from your unit were killed but that’s to be expected after being ambushed like that.”

“What about my leg?” I asked fearfully. I knew that Fireball would be the most likely to tell me the truth.

“Gone.”

“…understood…” I closed my eyes for a second letting the shock wash over me. “What about you?” I asked opening them again “anything noteworthy?”

“Well we are three miles out from the command station and an irreversible rift may have been formed between our world and Equestria.”

“What!!!” I shouted waking both mother and Night Shade up. “Of all times now! After fourteen years, this had to happen and during a major battle on this planet.”

“Ironic isn’t it? But in their defense only fourteen days have passed in Equestria since we disappeared. According to Princess Luna every day there is a year here but our worlds have started to combine and their time span is starting to speed up to meet ours.”

“No! How does thou know this?” Luna asked.

“After you came through the portal it never closed and is now slowly collapsing the barrier separating our worlds. Without the barrier The Eclipse can now detect Equestria’s existence and what is happening to it.”

“We haft to stop it!”

“Well according to Screwball we can’t.”

“Our sister needs to be warned about the enemy on this side of the portal then” Luna replied. “They must take steps to protect themselves from the dangers of this world.”

“Oh, I think father Discord knows all about the portals collapse. In fact with the barriers condition like it is I wouldn’t be surprised if he can now see a little of what’s happening in this world.” Screwball stated walking in with Cloud Striker following behind her. 

Striker came up and lifted my covers revealing the bandaged side of my flank to confirm that my leg was gone “Whew” he whistled, “that certainly is a worthy of looking at. Makes my badges of honor look like cat scratches, you are so lucky.” 

“I highly doubt that luck is the word that I would choose” Fireball mumbled. 

We all had nasty scars from the war but our hair covered most of them except for Fireball missing part of his ear and now my leg. Mother took the covers from Striker and covered my wound with it again. I was thankful for looking at my missing leg was the last thing that I wanted to do right now. 

“The doctor told me that they made an order for a robotic limb and they will attach it to you when your wounds have healed enough” Night Shade stated while stroking my hoof. I was glad that she was here that everypony was here to bring me comfort.

“What are you all doing here?” a nurse that was passing by suddenly yelled. “It’s not visiting hours and Dream Catcher needs his sleep.”

“Caught in the act, oh woe is us” Screwball very dramatically stated while placing the back of her hoof to her forehead. 

Fireball stared at the nurse and when he realized that she would not budge from her position he sighed “Fine, I have some new explosives to mess with anyway.” He and Screwball then left. 

“Upon my honor I will be back to see you during the next visiting hours Dream Catcher!” Striker promised then flew out of the room. 

The nurse stared at Night Shade and Luna “Only one can stay.”

“We will stay” Luna stated.

“I don’t think so, you’re the one that put him here in the first place” Night Shade replied. 

“We art his mother will thou deny us the right to stay with our son who we care for deeply?”

“You may be his mother but he means more to me than he ever will to you.”

“Who is this woman?” she asked me.

“She is my battle partner” I replied.

“What ist that? Is it another title for ones special some pony, art thou a couple then?”

“Well, not really but…”

“Yes” Night Shade replied looking at Luna sternly. We both looked at her dumbfounded “now if you will be so kind to leave, Dream Catcher needs his rest.” It didn’t take me long to realize that she was saying whatever she could to get rid of mother. I quickly decided that nothing good would come from me pressing what her comment meant at this time but made a mental note to ask about it in the future. 

Luna didn’t know what to say but decided to give into Night Shades request “Get some rest my son” she said then started towards the door. 

I noticed that Night Shade gave her an evil almost hateful look. “Wait” I called mom stopped then looked back. “What happened between you two?” I asked looking between her and Night Shade.

“It’s nothing son just worry about getting better.”

I thought about her response “So there is a problem.” After seeing the hateful way that Night Shade looked at her and the fact that mother could not look either of us in the eyes I figured out what it was. “You blame yourself don’t you?” she looked towards the ground at this comment. I then looked at Night Shade who I could read like a book “and you hate her because I was injured saving her.”

“It’s not like I made it a big secret” Night Shade replied.

“Listen both of you, what happened, happened I don’t blame anyone but the Collective. I don’t want my mother and battle partner to be at each other’s throats over this. If you two really care about me then go have a civilized conversation and make up, right now.”

“but I…” Night Shade started.

“Go! I am tired and you two are keeping me up, I will still be here when you come back.” Night Shade after a failed protest gave me a soft hug and got up soon she and mother started heading though the door. “Make sure to take your time talking! I don’t want to see you two wondering the halls by yourselves for at least an hour” I called after them. They did not reply but soon disappeared leaving me alone in the room. 

Luna looked at Night Shade who was clearly trying her best to ignore her presence. “Sooo…what does thou wish to speak about?” She then realized not for the first time that when it came to conversation making that she lacked talent.

Night Shade looked at Luna sternly then sighed to herself “look, Luna was it? You don’t have to pretend that you want to get to know me better.”

“But we do! If thou ist our sons partner then we want to learn what we can.”

“Ha! That I doubt.”

Luna stepped in front of her forcing Night Shade to stop “We would never lie on such matters. If thou would like to tell us anything of thyself we shall eagerly listen.”

Night Shade looked at the alicorn more closely “Why? Why should I tell you anything? After all you will try to take Dream Catcher away from me back to Eque…Eq…wherever you are from. Besides, don’t think that I have forgotten that you’re the reason that he was injured in the first place.”

Luna looked sadly at the ground “We know, but thou art wrong we would never stop Dream Catcher if he decides to stay here. If we seem overprotective it’s only because a few weeks hath gone by since Dream Catcher was a child. We hath not gotten used to the fact that he has grown into adulthood.”

Night Shade sighed then gave a small smile that soon faded away “I guess I see your point, besides your world will probably meld into ours anyway, that is if the scientist can’t stop it.” She bit her lip and continued “I will forgive you for what has happened since Dream Catcher clearly wants that. However that’s all Luna, if you want to be my friend you will have to earn it plain and simple.”

Luna stared at Night Shade not sure how to react to her offer but after realizing that this was the best that Night Shade was going to offer she accepted. “”Very well for Dream Catchers sake I accept.”

“Fine” Night Shade replied then headed back towards Dream Catchers room now that they were done with their little meeting.



It has been two days since mother and Night Shade agreed to a truce but the tension between them was increasing. They both were constantly fighting over who was to help me during my rehabilitation from the wound. Mother and Night shade were mostly concerned with my health but Night shade I could tell was struggling with a new emotion that she had yet to experience, jealousy. 

“No that doth not look right maybe twist it to the left, the man said that it is to click into the base” Mother stated.

“I know what I am doing Luna” Night Shade replied frustrated as she was helping a medical robot attach my new robotic leg. 

“That we have little doubt, but tell us is the leg supposed to be backwards?” 

Night Shade looked down at the metallic limb and cursed. I just sat in a hovering chair as she began to take the leg back apart. The doctors attached a neurological metal base onto my flank earlier this morning so I could control my new limb with my mind just like my other legs. A sudden clicking sound accompanied by a short sharp pain signaled that the leg was now connected. 

“There we are you’re as good as new” Night Shade gleefully stated. 

I looked at the metallic leg which was created to mimic a regular leg and was even colored a shinny metallic black. If it was not for the soft glow of green lights where my leg and its base connected it might have even fooled people from afar into thinking it was flesh. I started to get up as they both looked at me intensely wondering if they put it together correctly. After I managed a few steps on the leg taking it slow since it was slightly different than a real leg they started to cheer. 

“Huzzah! We did it Night Shade.”

Night Shade raised an eyebrow “We?”

“Well she did just keep me from having to walk in circles for the rest of my life” I stated thinking of almost having a backwards leg before mother warned Night Shade of her mistake. 

“Hmph, I knew what I was doing she just distracted me was all.”

“We did not!” Luna replied. “Thy needed help and thou knows it!”

“I didn’t ask for your help Luna!” Night Shade replied moving closer to Luna.

“We didn’t need thou to ask in order to help our little boy!” Luna replied. Their faces were so close that another inch they would risk head butting each other. They locked eyes as the tension between them grew to a point where I was even afraid to intervene in their argument. 

“I see the green eyed monster struck again” Fireball stated to me as he entered the room. 

I looked away at the scene of mom and Nightshade trying to stare each other down. I shook my head “You have no idea.”

It didn’t take long after my new leg was attached for the doctors to release  me to rejoin the battle. This I was grateful for lying on the bed and hearing of the troubles that my troops were having I had became very anxious to get back to the field.  Night Shade and I landed and rejoined our forces on the front line only a mile from the control station. 

“We can’t believe that they sent thee out again after thou had just been injured” mother griped. She was calling from the deck of the Eclipse into my communicator. The captain had actually found a role for her on the ship after we found out that she could feel the distortions in the starlight which provided as an early warning for enemy ships slipping in. Being on the ship was much safer than being a foot soldier. I was also glad that she was assigned onto the ship because she would then not have to experience the horrors of an everyday ground unit. 

“So, mom how are you handling your new role? These stars are much different than those magic globes you created in Equestria.” 

“Its fine sweetie the stars composition is different but the light they give out isn’t. How are thou ist the new leg working properly?”

“Its fine just needed to get the hang of it is all” I then looked over and saw Night Shade giving me an evil look. “I have to go, War Horse out.”

“Was that Luna again?” Night Shade asked, I nodded in response. “She has been calling you every ten minutes doesn’t she know we are in a battle and need that channel open?”

“She’s just worried this is her first battle since her days as Night Mare Moon and even that war was nothing like this.”

“That’s true, the collective didn’t waste any time making this a fight to the death. At least with sentient beings there’s a little diplomacy before war.”

“Madam” a soldier called as he made his way across the trenches to us.

“What is it private?”

“An emergency call from Fireball on channel 469B.”

“Roger” we then both switched our communicators to the channel. “Come in Party Rocker this is Shadow Master.”

“Shadow Master! Finally! I tried contacting War Horse but their line was busy.” Night Shade gave me a glare as a sheepish grin crept across my face. 

“What’s the word Party Rocker” she continued. 

“You don’t know? We have friendly’s popping up all over and we are to get to them before the Collective does.” 

“Friendly’s what are you talking about?” 

“Look at the communication tower and see for yourself.” 

We both looked up and the sight that I saw I knew right then and there was to always haunt my memory. Tacky hay houses and faint translucent pony shapes were moving around on a ghostly grass field that covered the barren war scared ground in a strange blend of beauty and horror that could never be fully comprehended. They were all around us some in the war zone but many out of it already safely behind our lines. As I looked I only saw that some of them were looking around in confusion but most were still walking around fading in and out doing everyday chores oblivious of us or the battle raging around them. I felt a tear go down my face as memories of the past rushed back. I felt Night Shade tap me on the shoulder and point towards the control tower and as I looked my eyes widened. Covering the tower in a brown mist was the huge mountain that housed Canterlot my home. We were out of time Equestria had started to meld into this world. 

> Blaze of Hope
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 7

Blaze of Hope

Fireball could barely believe what he was seeing the whole world of Equestria was appearing right before his eyes. The beauty of his old world was even more magical than he remembered, he felt like he was waking from a long nightmare back to his home. However it was no dream and the consequences of their scientist failing to reverse the damage that Princess Luna had done was soon to come. Right now the ponies of his world were mere ghost showing through the other dimension but sections had already started to meld into this world leaving the ponies and other creatures very vulnerable to the Collectives machines. Already two ponies had appeared and were slaughtered by the machines. Fireball’s body started to catch fire in anger as he remembered the two ponies laughing galloping through the fields of Equestria then materializing in front of a bipedal robot before they were cut down. Their screams from appearing in a strange world face to face with metallic monsters was the worst thing that he had heard in a long time and he knew they would forever haunt his memory.  

“Commander Fireball, there’s another area of the rip opening in section 75 seems to be a village of some sorts” Private Flax informed him. 

“Thats unfortunate the village is in a hot spot.”

“Were not going to help them then?”

Fireball gave a slight smirk “Of course were going to help them, after all this is a perfect opportunity to test our new explosives. Besides we will get rusty if we don’t have a challenge now and again.” The soldier saluted and went to spread the news to the rest of the group that they were moving out. “This is bad” Fireball thought to himself “like it wasn’t enough fighting the enemy but now with all these ponies appearing and needing to be rescued…this is going to cost lives.” 

Sergeant Yoto a stern tall man who was Fireballs second in command made his way over “Commander is it true that we are going into section 75?”

“Yes” he replied. “There’s a village there that will soon need our help and I shall not let them down.”

“You do know that even if we make it the chances of that village let alone us surviving is extremely low? It would be smarter to let that village fall and press the attack to the control tower while the collective’s minions are busy with these new arrivals.” 

Fireball stared coldly at the sergeant “I’m not about to sacrifice innocent blood so we can get a few more yards to the control station, that is not how we work sergeant.”

“Your right, I’m sorry sir” he apologized “I will tell the men to move out at once.” 

He watched as the sergeant started to move away bellowing out orders to the troops “It’s amazing what ideas war will cause people to have” he sighed to himself. “We have been fighting a creation built solely around logic for so long that it’s starting to destroy what we are as living beings.” He then created a fiery shield around himself to strengthen his standard issued personal shield and started to lead the troops out of the trenches towards their destination. 

The way into area 75 was proving to be very difficult they were halted many times by the collective’s forces and the sudden appearances of frightened ponies. The landscape had even started to morph and he could even feel grass under his hoofs. They were all entranced by the beauty that was surrounding them. However after a tree had suddenly materialized as one of his soldiers was walking through it killing him they took extra care walking through the dense forest that was around them. 

“Commander” the sergeant called. 

“Yea, what is it?” 

“Look at the sky” 

As he did his jaw almost fell open for high above the appearing trees was a Pegasus flying so fast that all he could see was a blur, behind her was a group of brain bots slowly closing in. “Sergeant continue the march to the village I have to help.” 

“Yes sir, and good hunting.”

“You too” he then spread his wings and took off in a fiery display of power and magnificence like the phoenixes of Equestria. He was just able to see the Pegasus fly into a small buildings window that was quickly shut behind her. As he looked around he could see the destruction of the almost fully materialized world and hear the screams of the ponies trapped in the battle. Looking around he started to recognize some of the buildings it then struck him that he knew this village from long ago it was where he spent most of his summers from school…Ponyville. 

Suddenly a splintering noise brought his attention to the building as three brain bots rammed through the windows shutters forcing three little fillies to scramble out the front door only to be stopped by a squad of brain bots. He quickly rushed towards them landing in front of the children he then quickly disintegrated the accursed metal robots with his magic. 

“Please, you have to help her!” a little unicorn begged.

“Help who?”

“She’s still in the building with those…those…things.”

Fireball looked at the building “that’s right, those three brain bots did not come out yet” he listened close as he approached the house but nothing could be heard inside. “Are they playing with me hiding in the shadows?” he thought then ignited a fire on the buildings stone floor. However instead of the brain bots he saw a beautiful, enraged, wild eyed blue Pegasus standing over three crushed robots that now littered the floor. He noticed that each one had a hoof mark where they had been kicked into oblivion. 

“You sure made short work of them” he stated catching the Pegasus attention. 

She looked at him with slanted eyes “Who are you? Did you send these monsters? Well speak! Or I will do to you what I did to them.”

“That’s some way to treat somepony that just saved those three fillies out there.”

Her eyes widened “The children!” She then made a mad dash out the door and tackled the three frightened fillies in a tight embrace. “Oh, thank goodness I don’t know what I would have told your parents if I lost you!”

“We…can..t…breath!” the young unicorn managed to squeeze out.

“Oh sorry” she then let the three fillies go and looked at Fireball. “We cannot thank you enough for protecting them.”

“It’s my job you don’t have to thank me.”

“Oh so you’re in the military then, the royal guards?” She stepped closer inspecting him “an alicorn? That’s rare to see in Equestria I can’t believe that I haven’t heard of you given how handsome you are and everything.”

“Is this Peguses…flirting with me?” Fireball thought to himself. He stared at her then at the three little fillies “um…are these your kids?” 

“Them? No, I’m just their babysitter their parents are on the other side of town on a date, I was actually trying to find them when those things showed up and attacked me.”

Fireball looked at the robots then face hoofed himself “What am I doing! I have to help save the ponies in this village” he thought then spread his wings. 

“Where are you going?” the Peguses asked. “Was it something I said? Please don’t go!” 

“I have to.”

“But I…”

“Listen, barricade the house and stay in it help is coming” he stated then flew off but not before looking back to make sure the Pegasus was doing what he said. 

The next few hours Fireball spent fighting back the Collectives forces while gathering all the ponies that he could find in the mayors building which was the only structure big enough to fit everypony. The ponies inside were busy barricading the structure in order to withstand the impending collective attack that was to come from all sides. In fact the Collective had managed to surround the area completely making escape impossible. The only help he had to defend the building was a few of the royal guards and his own troops which had arrived just ahead of the advancing army they were now busy digging a trench around the structure. As he looked on from a cloud at the preparations a familiar voice caught his ears. 

“What you doing?” the same blue Pegasus from the building asked before landing on the cloud with him. 

“Setting up a defense, what are you doing here? You should be inside with the others.”

“Nah, staying inside when danger is around is not my style, I would rather be out here and fight.”

“You don’t know what you are talking about those robots you faced in that house are nothing to what is about to come. You won’t stand a chance in this battle I have been fighting these monsters for more than a decade and know them better than anypony here. It is best that you stay inside the building where it is safe at least for the meantime and leave the fighting to me and my men.”  

“Awww come on don’t be like that I can handle myself you know!”

Fireball closed his eyes and thought for a few minutes before opening them up again “You have spirit but if you fight without training or a weapon you will die. I’ll tell you what if you go into the building with the rest of the ponies and we happen to survive this battle then I will give you the chance to join my squad.”

“Not a chance in Tartarus these things attacked my village and I intend to return the favor!” 

Fireball was about to respond when Sergeant Yoto called up to him “Commander.”

“What?!” he called back harshly irritated from the Pegasus stubbornness. 

“The enemy has entered our perimeter they will be here in less than a minute!”

“Which direction?” 

“Junction A”

A small smile crept over Fireballs face “right through the mine field.”

“Mind field? What is that?” the Pegasus asked. Suddenly floaters followed by a multitude of bipedal robots entered the field overlooking the village. The tanks opened fire on the village destroying everything but the mayors building which was protected by a magic barrier that the royal guards created. 

The floaters then stopped their bombardment as the bipedal robots started to move towards the building. “Boom” Fireball stated to himself just as the first robot stepped on a landmine and exploded. 

“What was that? What were they just shooting at the buildings?” the Pegasus asked clearly frightened by the scene unfolding before her. 

“That was a magnet mine” Fireball answered back still surveying the minefield that was making short work of the advancing enemy. “Those weapons that they are using are energy cannons, wide range scatter pattern by the looks of it.” He then looked behind them from the cloud and saw another enemy unit advancing towards them “Sneaking around the back are you? Ha, like that would ever work against me!” Suddenly a hand held cannon from one of the soldiers in the trench opened up and started to mow down the robots ranks. 

“Ummm, those metallic bugs are back.” The Pegasus suddenly stated. 

When Fireball looked up he saw a huge number of brain bots flying down towards them from the sun “those cleaver devils” he then grabbed the Pegasus and jump towards the earth gracefully landing in the trench but not before setting the sky ablaze destroying many of the flying robots that were too close. 

“I think that I should get into the building now” the Pegasus replied trying to recover from what just happened “I’m of no use here.”

“Too late the barrier is up and if we drop it the floaters will destroy the building, you’re stuck out here.” He then looked at the clearly scared Pegasus “just keep your head down and stick with me you’ll be fine.”

“Who said that I was scared!” She suddenly stated wide eyed. 

“Nopony did.”

“Oh…and you shouldn’t because I’m not!”

Fireball could not help but crack a smile at her statement “Of course I believe you” he replied putting his wing over her. She was putting up a great front but he could tell by her shaking that she was terrified. 

The battle raged on where more and more of the enemy were surrounding them and for the first time since Fireball had taken command of this unit they were running out of explosives to meet the ever increasing enemy. 

“They Keep coming they just keep coming!” the soldiers were saying to themselves along with many choice words. They had already experienced 47% causalities in the unit and could not keep the machines at bay much longer. 

“Commander” Sergeant Yoto called. “Were low on ammunition we have just a few more rounds.” 

“Can we get any help from command?”

“No sir the fighters have been unable to get through the enemies air power and commander Striker had been shot down again trying to punch through to our position.”

“The Eclipse?” 

“They are locked in a heated battle of their own rescuing these ponies has put a strain on all of our forces.”

Fireball gave a curse and looked over the trench at the enemy then immediately pulled his head back down as a laser flew far to close for his comfort. Even if they had enough ammunition there was simply too many of the enemy to punch through. 

“Were going to die aren’t we?” the blue Pegasus quietly asked looking at him with fear in her eyes. 

As much as Fireball hated to admit it there was no way that they could survive the next assault by the machines but he could not bring himself to tell her what was to come. “Its not over yet we still have a chance to win this battle.”

The Pegasus stared at the ground clearly not believing what he said. “You know its funny just a few hours ago I was thinking that my life was over because I didn’t have a date for the Grand Galloping Gala but now faced with this I see how stupid that was.” She looked up at him “It’s funny how death can change a ponies priorities isn’t it? There was so much that I have missed because I thought that I would have time you know?”

Fireball looked up at the now smoky sky “You know I never had a date for the Gala when I lived in Equestria, I wonder what having a special some pony would have been like.” He then looked back at her “I think that it is good that you have regrets, if a pony didn’t have regrets in the end of their life it would mean that they had stopped dreaming.” The Pegasus suddenly hugged him and gave him a passionate kiss “huh, funny how death changes ones priorities” he thought to himself and returned the kiss. 

“Um, commander?” Sergeant Yoto asked bringing them back to the battle. 

Fireball turned to face him a little embarrassed “Yes Sergeant?”

“The enemies main force has started another attack.” 

“Thank you sergeant” 

“What do we do now?” the Pegasus asked.

Fireball stood up and spread his wings letting out jets of flames “We fight.” 

The machines assault fell upon them with such force that many weak sections of their defense collapsed almost instantly allowing them to be flanked from both sides. The robots were now in the trenches coming at them from both sides as well as coming from the front and above. 

“Stay behind me!” Fireball called to his forces as he wielded his powerful fire magic to stay off the attackers his men had run out of ammo and were waiting with their EMP knifes drawn. 

“Commander!” a soldier called as a floaters heat seeking laser came racing towards them but he could not move if he did his men would be ripped to shreds.

“Buck” he screamed as the laser struck his shields shattering them in an enormous blast that sent him flying. He quickly opened his eyes to see a bipedal robots laser arm pointing at his face “You son of a rust bucket” he cursed and closed his eyes waiting for the burning sensation that would send him to oblivion. “Heh, death won’t be too bad” he thought to himself as he waited “One quick second then it’s to the pearly gates where I can see those that went before me, they might even have a bar up there with drinks that don’t give you hangovers. At least I can finally get a break from this stupid war…man what is taking him so long? Is he ever going to fire that cannon? Here I am waiting to go to the afterlife and he decided to take his sweet time, what a jerk!”  

“Are you all right?” he heard the voice of the Pegasus. 

“Am I already dead?” he thought then opened his eyes only to see the robot still standing pointing its gun at him but to his side he could see the worried faces of those he was protecting. “Ummm what happened?” he finally managed to blurt out. 

“That” his sergeant replied pointing towards the control station. When he looked over though the control station was nowhere to be found but instead it was replaced by a huge mountain that housed the Equestrian royal palace. He then remembered how they gruesomely lost a man by a tree materializing while he was inside of it. “The mountain crushed the control tower commander” the sergeant said confirming his suspicions. 

Fireball slowly got up but soon dropped back down when he realized that he was too weak to stand “Sergeant?”

“Yes sir.”

“I want you to get some medical support for our wounded and to send those in the building towards the nearest safe zone.” The sergeant quickly saluted and went to work Fireball leaned against the trenches wall and closed his eyes when he opened them again the blue Pegasus was staring at him. He felt a drip of water slide across his face and noticed that there was a wet cloth on his forehead. 

“Sorry I didn’t mean to wake you but I have been trying to get your fever down” she explained. 

He wiped the cloth away “Don’t worry I don’t have a fever I’m just naturally this hot.”

She cocked her head “Was that a joke?”

Fireball gave out a short laugh realizing what he said “No, I just have a higher body temperature than other ponies. By the way how are you doing? That battle was intense even to a veteran like me.”

“After that anything that the Wonderbolt training program can throw at me will be a breeze. Thank you for protecting me I was clearly over my head” she then snuggled under his wing and they stared at the sky together. 

Fireball was thinking about what had happened in the battle but a piece of his mind suddenly went to something the Pegasus said “Wonderbolt training program?”

“Yes I am a Wonderbolt, wait I never introduced myself did I with all the excitement going on.” She suddenly stood up proudly “I am Rainbow Dash the fastest racer in all of Equestria and the Captain of the Wonderbolts, please get in line for an autograph.”

“That is a impressive title Rain…bo…w…” Suddenly long forgotten memories from when he was a child and still lived in Equestria came rushing back. “DASH!” He jumped up exited at seeing her after so many years. 

“Yes” she stated confused by his sudden reaction “do I…know you?”

“Yeah you know me! Although I may not look the same way that I did fourteen years ago. It’s me Fireball; you know the one that set your roof on fire.” 

Dash stared at him processing what he said then her eyes grew large “No way! Fireball, Princess Cadance’s son?!” he nodded. “The same one who burnt my garden, my couch, my kitchen, my good dishes…my books” her eyes started to focus on him angrily with each acquisition but she was only pretending to be getting mad and didn’t care about any of that anymore. “You have grown, what did you say fourteen years? You must almost be as old as me now.” She suddenly blushed “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to kiss you like that this is so weird.”

“I don’t think so, I actually enjoyed it.” 

She thought about it “I guess it’s not too weird since you have aged, so what does this mean?”

“I don’t know but if you still need a date for the Gala I’m willing to accompany you” he replied thinking about their conversation during the battle. However he highly doubted that there would be a gala anytime soon after everything that had happened. He did like the idea though of having someone special to give him strength during the upcoming battles much like Dream catcher and Night Shade did for each other. 

“Alright Fireball” she then lightly hoofed him in the shoulder “I guess having a royal escort wouldn’t be all that bad.” 

“Wait until I tell Dream Catcher that I have a Special Some Pony before him.”

“Dream Catcher?”

“Yep, Dream Catcher is here and so is Screwball and Cloud Striker.”

“You’re all alright then I’m glad, you had me so worried. When did you get back to Equestria?”

“Get back? Actually Equestria merged into my world.”

“But Discord said that couldn’t happen unless somepony entered the portal.”

“Oh, that…well that somepony was actually Luna.” He then looked away at the castle and saw a large force of armored Pegasus coming out from it. In the front of the force like ghosts from his past were Celestia, Jackson and his father. He taped on his communicator “Command I think that we need to send a welcome wagon for the friendly’s, they seem pissed.”

> Old Information
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Chapter 8

Old information

Nobody on Dream Catcher’s squad could believe it the mountain crushed the control Station. All that Dream Catcher could do was stare at the mountain which in just a few seconds did what they had been unable to do for weeks. He was still staring at the mountain when command called on the communicator. “War Horse come in, War Horse come in this is The Eclipse.”

“War Horse here” Dream Catcher replied. 

“Friendly’s inbound strapped up for a fight we need you to go with Luna as negotiators before things go south. She’s already on her way down.”

It was then that I saw the small dots of thousands of pony soldiers in shinny armor slowly making their way across the battlefield “Roger that.”

“What are they doing?” Night Shade asked.

“What any sensible pony would do when they have been attacked, marching to war. The trouble is that they don’t know who the enemy is.”

“That’s why they want to send Luna they will recognize her.”

“Or think that it’s a trap and attack.”

“I’ll take the first one.”

"Me too" I laughed.

It didn’t take long for a transport to drop Luna off once she was on the ground we confirmed the mission with command then flew off to intercept the Royal Equestrian army. The Equestrian army had undergone major technological changes since the war in the Everfree Forest between Jackson and Celestia. They no longer used just swords but each of the royal guards had a magic blaster based on human design, the blasters were two barrels that were attached to each side of the warrior’s saddles. The ground unit’s weapons were charged by unicorn magic but the Pegasus’s used lightning that they squeezed out of the clouds. It took a while to charge these weapons with magic but once done they were almost as destructive as our basic energy weapons. However even though their weapons were respectable the ponies that wielded them were far from the Coalitions seasoned warriors skill levels. 

“Jackson will be happy to see thou again Dream Catcher” mother suddenly stated as we flew towards the Equestrian forces. 

“Yeah, I’m excited to see dad and aunt Celestia again” I replied. “I wonder how they will react” I looked over and saw mother show a hint of fear when I mentioned how they will react “are you ok?”

“Yeah, we art fine” she replied clearly lying. 

“Mom you know that you are a bad liar, are you…oh, I know you’re afraid of how they will react to you coming here and collapsing the barrier between our two worlds.”

She looked away from me “We wouldn’t blame them for being mad after all we art the reason that so many ponies died today. Jackson was right even though we found thee it wasn’t worth sacrificing our subjects to do so.”

“It’s not your fault, you followed what your heart was telling you to do besides nobody knows what will happen in the future. Could have been that you arrived here during a giant celebration and was offered all the cake you could eat.”

“But we didn’t…”

“It will be fine, Aunt Celestia never seemed to be one to hold a grudge.”

“Unless it’s something thou’s father does they can really push each other’s buttons when they feel like it.” 

“Really? I never knew that, they always seemed so civil to each other.”

She gave a short muffled laugh “That’s because we made sure that thou was out of the room when they started to fight.” 

I dove deep into my old memories and realized that mother did send me out of the room a lot when father and aunt Celestia were talking about serious matters. “Hmmm, I never realized it before.”

As we moved towards the Equestrian army Aunt Celestia recognized mother and stopped her forces then she, Shinning Armor, and dad moved to meet us. We landed and waited patiently for them to arrive. “Luna! Look at what you have done! I told you not to go through that portal but you did anyway and Equestria paid for it with many lives” aunt Celestia shouted when they got close enough. I had never seen this side of Celestia before but then again I suspect that she would be acting differently if I was still a kid. 

“Sorry Tia we made a grave mistake but we couldn’t help following what our heart was telling us to do, please forgive us.” She then looked at Jackson with tears forming in her eyes “were sorry.”

Dad slowly started towards her, to the untrained eye it would seem that he was totally emotionless but I could see in the subtle movements of his walk that he was trembling from the overwhelming emotions inside of him. When he was a few inches apart from mom he embraced her then for the first time in my life I saw him weep. “I thought…I thought I lost you Luna” he managed to get out. “First Dream Catcher then you I…I…though…”

“Were sorry Jackson, so sorry” mother comforted him also crying. It took a while for either of them to be able to talk again, during that time aunt Celestia’s and Shinning Armor’s anger had diminished.

“Luna?” Celestia finally asked.

“Yes dear sister?” mom replied wiping the tears from her eyes. 

“I hate to spoil such a moment but we must know what those mechanical monsters were that attacked our citizens.”

“Yes, them…those are minions of a computer. Ist called a collection? No that’s not it…” She then looked at me “Dream Catcher can explain it better than us.”

They all looked at me wide eyed as if they just noticed me “Dream Catcher?” dad asked his voice shaking. 

“Hey dad” I replied not knowing what to say. You would think that after fourteen years that I would have had a speech or something prepared. 

“I can’t believe you’re alive! I thought that the Sprites…”

“Oh, them there gone actually the Collective destroyed them a long time ago.”

Dad’s eyes shimmered “Really? Those fiends finally were killed off shame I couldn’t do it with my own two hands.”

“Don’t you mean hoofs?” 

He looked down at his legs “Oh yeah, in this form it would be hoofs wouldn’t it? Anyway I want to hear about this Collective and how it destroyed the sprites.”

I gave a slight grin, for some reason I could understand dads feelings a lot better than I could as a child, they were the feelings that only another veteran of a human war could understand. “I will tell you everything.”

I took some time to relay the whole story to them as we made our way to Canterlot. It would have gone even faster if they were not constantly asking questions but I suppose that I would to if I was in their hoofs. “After the control tower was destroyed by the mountain materializing we were directed to come and speak with you” I concluded the story. 

“I guess the question is what to do now that were here isn’t it?” aunt Celestia replied as we entered the throne room. 

“We have taken this planet but soon we will be heading to the next one. I am sure that command will welcome you to stay here just as long as the ponies stay away from the Elites, they don’t handle negative emotions to well.” 

“Horrible, denying people their emotions how could such a society be allowed to exist?” aunt Celestia replied. 

“That’s what were fighting to change, were going free all humans from the Collective but we could use some extra help. Right now it’s a coin toss on who will win this war.”

“I’m sold” a voice sounded from a sudden purple mist that appeared in front of us. I stared at it and saw an eyeball appear then Discord slipped out followed closely by Screwball and Cloud Striker. “Hey, why is there no food? This is a day to celebrate! We found our lost children.” He snapped his fingers and a huge banquet table appeared before us with all types of delicious food.

“My throne room…” Celestia began but stopped when a plate of donuts appeared before her. 

“Why is Cloud Striker here?” mother asked me already taking a bite of a biscuit with hay jelly on it. 

“Oh, him and Screwball have been kind of dating on and off” I replied wondering if this was the proper time to be eating.

“Really?”

“Yep” I then floated a pastry to myself and took a bite. Suddenly a flood of memories came roaring back as I remembered being served Discords food during Chaos week which I would eagerly await every year. This situation was so strange one moment I was fighting a war and then I was back home munching on biscuits, but then again things never were logical when Discord was around. 

Discord was floating over Screwball and Cloud Striker sipping some tea from a funny looking cup. He was particularly taking a great interest in Striker much to Strikers discomfort. 

“Excuse me Dream Catcher?” a sweet voice entered my ears. I looked to my side and saw Princess Cadance just a few feet away. “I have to know is Fireball alright? Do you know where he is?”

“I would like to know that as well” Shinning Armor spoke up. “You mentioned that Fireball was involved with the last battled but have you heard if he’s alright.”

I quickly swallowed the food in my mouth and answered “Yes, he’s alright the last battle he was in had a 76% causality rate so it will be some time for him to get his unit reorganized.” 

“76?” Cadance asked horrified. 

“Yes and that’s saying a lot. Fireball is one of the best commanders the Coalition has and his unit is one of the best trained and equipped, they must have been facing overwhelming odds for those types of numbers.” 

“Discord, Can you bring Fireball here? I would like to see my son” Cadance pleaded.

Discord looked up in the air as if trying to sense him then looked back at her “I don’t think that I should.”

“Please! Discord I have to see for myself that he is alright.”

I couldn’t help but notice a small grin creep across Discords face “Sure, why not?” Suddenly a huge flash of light appeared which was filled with confetti but once it died down Fireball could be clearly seen but another pony was there as well and she was kissing him. 

“Fireball?” Cadance asked not knowing what to say. 

Fireball stopped kissing the pony and looked at us all wide eyed “Wha…where am I?”

“Hi…everypony” the now blushing blue Pegasus that was kissing Fireball said under her breath clearly embarrassed. 

Suddenly her rainbow mane triggered my memory “Aunt Dash?” I asked. 

She looked at me confused but then her eyes lit up “Dream Cather? Wow, you have grown.” 

“You and Fireball? Ha! Never in a million years would I have guessed. So Fireball somepony was finally able to pry you away from your explosives.” 

“Hmp” Fireball replied looking away from us slightly blushing. 

“Good for you Fireball” Cloud Striker spoke up. 

“Shut it” Fireball replied sternly but his words were only meet by a small grin from Striker.  Fireball looked around the room at the other members of the royal family but when his eyes fell upon Princess Cadance and Prince Shinning Armor they slanted.

“Fireball is that you?” Cadance asked. 

“Yes” he replied.

“Why do you look at me like that?”

Fireball shook his head “Not at you, I heard of how you tried to come to this world but was stopped no, my anger is for him.” He then shot an accusing look at Shinning Armor whose eyes widened like he had just been decked by a close friend.”

“What are you talking about?” Shinning Armor asked.

“Don’t play dumb! You left me here your own son and you left me here!”

“I was protecting our world.”

“But not your family even after all those talks about how family is everything and how we came first you left me to rot in this hell hole.”

“He was just trying to do what was best for Equestria” Cadance spoke up tears now streaming down her cheeks. 

“I’m sorry Fireball it is my responsibility to protect Equestria no matter what” Shinning Armor replied.

Fireballs glare strengthened “What about your responsibility to your family? I have learned something in this world dad, do you know what that is?” Shining Armor shook his head. “That if a fellow soldier is injured or in trouble you never leave them behind no matter the danger. We fight for each other and can trust that no matter what we will always watch each other’s backs. You see my men are more of a family than you have ever been I would trust anyone of them with my life but you, you have already proven that family in not important that it’s not worth the risk unless it’s convenient  for you. What a coward you are.” He then looked at the rest of the royal family “you all are.” 

I have never seen Fireball lose his cool like this before but he was dealing with strong emotions that we all knew had been festering in him for a long time. 

“Fireball…” Cadance started to say but was cut off.

“I’m sorry” Fireball stated under his breath to her then walked out of the throne room.  

Dash looked back at the family “I will talk to him” she then ran after Fireball.

Aunt Celestia was the first to speak “I am sorry that we couldn’t come after you four.” She said looking at us with sorrowful eyes “but the danger of what could have been on this side of the portal was too great for us to risk all of the ponies in Equestria.”

I shook my head at her comment “You don’t need to apologize we understand, even Fireball does. Actually if it was up to me you would have never come to this place and many ponies would still be living.” 

“Why…did Fireball…say such things?” Cadance asked choking back on her tears. 

I gave a sigh “Fireball has adjusted differently than I have to this world. People and ponies all have to change and harden their hearts during war else they would break under the strain. Fireball however…he hardened his heart more than most where only a few of us he is willing to call friends.” I took a quick drink before continuing “You have never been in a war but I am sure as father can tell you it changes a pony, it corrupts them. Fireball I am afraid needed somepony to blame for what has happened why he was thrown into such a situation why he has seen so much death, that pony he chose is you.” I looked at Shinning Armor who was looking at the table sorrowful. 

Shinning Armor did not say anything but just stared at his plate lost in his own thoughts. He then got up and walked out of the room leaving us wondering what he would do. 

Shinning Armor took the long way around the castle thinking about all that was said. As he walked by Fireballs room he saw that it was open and looked in only to be meet by the glare of Fireball through a mirror he was looking into. Next to his son was Dash who was obviously trying her best to calm Fireball down. He looked away and started to walk from the room when Fireballs stern voice called to him.

“So you’re just going to leave is that it? After all these years you’re going to walk away, just like you did when I was trapped in this world.” 

Shinning Armor hung his head low as guilt started welding inside of him “Your right” he finally replied. “Your right I did abandon you it was wrong of me to do but it would have also been wrong for me to risk all Equestria to search for you. It was a no win situation and I am sorry” he paused for a second “I don’t expect you to forgive me but don’t be mad at your mother she did try to find you.” 

Fireball gave a slight snort “I realize that and I’m not mad at her not after what Luna told me it’s you I don’t trust. You once told me that you would protect our family even more than all of Equestria and even though you might think that I am foolish for holding you to such a promise from when I was a kid I still take that oath of protecting family seriously.”

Shinning Armor looked at the mirror in the room again but all he could see was Dash with tears in her eyes looking at the corner of the room where Fireball must be. “I’m sorry son” he softly stated then walked away feeling more guilty than ever before. 

Dash watched as Prince Shinning Armor left “Don’t you think that your being too hard on him?” she asked as she looked at Fireball who was on the verge of tears. 

Fireball looked up at a shelf and floated down a stuff bear “I remember this” he stated avoiding Dashes question. “It’s been so long I have almost forgotten this place...strange how memories come exploding back with a simple object like a stuffed bear.” 

“You’re avoiding my question” she replied.

Fireball simply shook his head “No, I just decided not to answer it there’s a difference.”

“What difference? There both used because a pony has no good answer to give.”

Fireball hated to admit it but Dash did have a point “Listen Dash, I grew up in a messed up world and even though I know why they did not come through the portal as soon as they found it I still can’t get over the fact that they left me here.” 

Dash nuzzled him “Then I will help you Fireball.”

A tear came down Fireballs cheek which instantly evaporated on his fiery coat. He had never talked to somepony about his feelings but Dash was different he could talk to her and the more he did the more he realized how much he had forgotten about the cheerful nature of Equestrians. He had even started to forgive his father as his hate was slowly being replaced by Dashes caring heart. “Dash I wished….I mean….why? Why must you rob me of my hate?”

She hugged him and whispered “Because I care about you.” 

It was well into the night when Fireball and Dash came back to the throne room where Celestia and her council were talking to some of the human generals from The Eclipse. He passed Dream Catcher and Luna who were introducing Night Shade to Jackson. Night Shade was clearly nervous which Jackson sometimes made those around him feel especially since he rivaled Discord in power which is no small feat.  Fireball quickly found his mom who was trying to comfort his dad. 

“Mom…dad” he gulped out when he got close enough for them to hear. They looked at him “listen I…”

“No” Shinning Armor cut him off “you are right I did abandon you. I deserve your hate and much more I know that you will probably never forgive me but please son let me try to make it up to you.” 

Fireball looked his dad in the eyes and saw that he really meant what he said whole heartily. He gave a sigh knowing what he must do “I forgive you” he managed to say letting go of the anger that festered in his heart for so long. Without the hate he felt a little bit empty but it was a good feeling as if the world became much simpler. 

His father just stared at him shocked “But, Just like that? Why?”

“It was Dash, she kind of knocked some sense into me.”

Shinning Armor gave Cadance a smug look “Yeah, there good at doing that.” Mom just rolled her eyes at dads comment then she motioned Dash to come with her as she walked away leaving Fireball and Shinning Armor to catch up. 

“Were going to be heading out tomorrow to planet 60” Night Shade told us as she ended her communication with command. 

“Tomorrow?” Luna asked.

“Yes, we need to continue the fight with the collective” I replied. 

Dad looked at me questioningly “The Collective it’s a computer A.I. from my time right?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Then it should have a home computer that it’s housed in shouldn’t you be attacking that instead of fighting planet to planet. Once the A.I. is destroyed the rest of its units will shut down.”

“Command has thought of that but we have never figured out where the planet is that the Collective was stationed” Night Shade replied. 

“Do you have any clues though?” dad asked. 

Night Shade shook her head “All we know is that the planet is where we all came from. It was chosen by the keepers because of that significance. However the Collective deemed this information highly classified and we never saw any of the files.”

“Where we all came from…” suddenly dads eyes lit up “I know where that is! There talking about Earth.”

“What!” Night Shade and I both shouted. 

“Earth is where all humans came from I’m positive that is where the A.I. is.”

“Are you certain you know where this Earth is?” Night Shade asked.

“Of course I do I was part of the UEF Brigade defending Earth during the Sprite invasion.”

We quickly dragged dad outside and called for a transport once he was on the ship he was able to pinpoint where Earth should be on a holographic map. Naturally once this information was feed to Emotion 1 and 2 they soon redirected their attention to that area. 

“We should have confirmation from the drones in a few hours I hope that this information is accurate Night Shade” the captain stated through the communicator. 

“It’s from a reliable source” Night Shade replied. 

“We will know soon enough, Command out.”

Night shade flipped off the communicator “We will have confirmation in a few hours but for now we should figure out what to do with all these ponies” She stated looking at the now scared land of Equestria and the now homeless inhabitants roaming it. 

“We are trying to help those ponies that we can but it will take a few days to recover and bury the dead” Jackson replied. “As for me” he looked up towards the sky where The Eclipse could be seen stationed in orbit “I will fight.”

“Why? Not that I’m complaining or anything but why fight it’s not your war” Night Shade asked.

“It became my fight as soon as the Collective started killing my people. I have to avenge their deaths, what about you sister?” 

“I will fight as well” Night Shade and I turned around to see Celestia standing behind us. “This is my fault if it wasn’t for the Sprites appearing in this world the Collective would have never been made, I have to make things right.”

Mom and Cadance were following Celestia “I don’t know what I can do but I wish to help Fireball” Cadance softly spoke up. 

“We have conversed with the rest of the family and they wish to help the Coalitions most noble cause” mother stated. 

“Yes we will help in whatever way we can but we must first tend to the wounded” Celestia concluded. 

As they helped searched the rubble of the towns that were in the battle zone Night Shade left to take a priority message from command when she came back she did not look pleased. 

“What’s wrong?” I asked “did they find The Collective?” She nodded in response. “That’s good we can finally end this once and for all!” I started to get exited but when Night Shades worried expression did not change I stopped. “What is it?” I asked now becoming worried. 

“Dream Catcher, we have a problem.”



> The Collective
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

								Chapter 9

The Collective

Several weeks have passed since Equestria appeared in our world, since then The Collective had stepped up its campaign to eradicate The Coalition this was partly because of the new arrivals but also because we knew at long last where the A.I. was hiding. 

“Augghhh!!!” a scream came over the communicator. 

Rolling my eyes I walked over to the animation chamber and opened it to see six wide eyed Equestrian soldiers shivering like little foals with their hoofs covering their heads.  Towering over them was a single bipedal robot pointing its gun at them. “That’s it simulation over” I stated, a human soldier in the control room nodded and shut down the program. I glared at the shivering ponies “What’s wrong with you?! Six armed soldiers against a single basic unit of the Collective and you lost? That should not happen, ever!” I yelled. 

“But…but….it was a monster, I would rather fight a dragon than one of those machines!”

Fireball stepped up behind me “Pathetic! How are we to trust you to watch our backs and support your brothers in arms if you hide your face in the dirt every time something scary happens? It’s hard to believe that you are part of the Equestrian army.”

“What you guys are asking us to do is crazy!” The pony shouted. “We quit! I would rather live than join your crazy campaign” the six ponies then left the room in a huff. 

The ponies we were finding to be pathetic soldiers, they lived in a paradise for so long that most could not cope with the war that they were thrust into. We did not have time for the ponies to adjust so to avoid panic on the field we were purposely being hard on the Equestrian forces and only taking those that showed promise and a level head. We had weeded out most of the Equestrian soldiers this way but some did show that they could fight in this war. 

“Any news from the front?” I asked Fireball. 

“So far the ponies that had been integrated into the human squads have not caused any trouble, however there’s a new type of enemy unit that has been spotted on the field.”

“A new unit?” 

“Yes it’s a big sucker, about five stories tall. It floats like the tanks but instead of one cannon it has 36 all dangling from a metallic human shaped skull much like tentacles. Also on top of all that it has a shield that is only vulnerable to the fighter’s large guns or a high EMP blast.”

“The Collective has really stepped up its game we must be getting close to Earth.” The scout ships that we have sent to the location that dad showed us had always been destroyed when they approached the area so we have been forced to fight our way towards the silver planet blind. I still could not believe the first and only image of Earth that Night Shade showed me while on New Equestria (Planet 447). The picture was of a sparkly silver planet, not silver because of water no, it was silver because the whole planet had been transformed into a giant machine and that machine was The Collective. 

“What is it?” Fireball asked seeing me in thought.

“I’m just wondering if the information that the first scout ship sent us is accurate and Earth was transformed into The Collectives body, how are we to destroy it? The power that it gets from the planets core must be massive meaning it will be hard to get through its shields.”

“Your right, I know more about the intensity of planets cores and the power they generate than anypony here…even with all The Coalitions ships we cannot break through any shield The Collective may have. That means that there is only one option left for us, magic.”

“You think your magic can do it? Disrupt Earth’s core?”

Fireball shook his head “No, I’m not strong enough. Your father or Discord might be able to do something but everypony else is too weak. I actually just had an argument with Twilight and Dash. They wanted to fight with The Elements of Harmony.”

“That’s insane! These are machines they are not affected by the Elements power. We have to stop them.”

“Whoa Dream Catcher, I’ve already taken care of it after all you wouldn’t believe that I would let my girlfriend waltz up to a killing machine with a worthless trinket around her neck for protection do you? She wasn’t happy but I convinced her to instead join the control ships and become a pilot.” 

“What of Twilight?” 

“Science Department, once they showed her how to access the computer and how to download information into her mind she’s been very busy.”

“Figures, she always did live up to Aunt Celestia’s expectations as a student” I replied.

Fireball raised an eyebrow “if you mean being a nerd then yes, I guess she does.”  

Even though Fireball made fun of the science Department both he and I had great respect for them. The ability to use imagination to create new designs and ideas was one of the biggest advantages The Coalition had over The Collective. For unlike humans The Collective cannot easily create new designs or ideas for the war. This is actually one of the reasons why humans had not advanced much technologically since The Collective took control. To put it simple without the Science Department we would have lost this war a long time ago. 

“Dream Catcher?” Nightshades voice came through my communicator.

“Here”

“News from the planet the control tower fell.”

“What? How did that happen? Our forces were nowhere near the tower!” I exclaimed.

“It was Discord he made the ground into some type of squishy sponge that sucked up the enemy units making a straight path to the tower for the demolition team” she replied.

“Amazing…how did they clear the air units from the sky though?” Fireball asked on his communicator. 

“Jackson took care of that, I don’t know how but all the Collectives air units in the area stopped working and fell to the ground. The reports say that they short circuited from significant water and ice buildup. ”

I thought about this for a few seconds before answering “He can manipulate matter with his magic, a genius way to take care of those robots.”  

“He can manipulate matter because he has living energy right? Does that mean you can manipulate matter too Dream Catcher?” Nightshade asked.

“In theory but I have not found out how to yet.”

“How come?”

“Well it’s kind of like trying to use a limb but not knowing what part of the brain to use to move it. Once found it can be used but right now I don’t know where to even start.” I then pulled up a hologram map of the area “Anyway I see that we have one more planet to tame before we reach Earth.”

“No, we are going straight there.”

“What?” both Fireball and I asked.

“Emotion one and two both decided that our robots will take the planet while we head to Earth. Since we have magic on our side we stand a better chance of striking through Earths shielding.”

“But we might be warping into an ambush! We have no idea of the forces that surround Earth or its defenses.”

“Our forces are spread thin the Collective has at the moment the upper hand in the conflict. We have to risk it else we may never have another chance to strike at Earth. Were putting all our bets onto this strike.”

I understood completely for this offensive was very costly and had weakened our forces to the breaking point. “When are we leaving?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Understood, thanks Nightshade” we cut the transmission just in time to see another group of scared ponies enter the training room to be tested. After a short sigh Fireball and I resumed our training sessions.

Three days we were in warp space, three long days. I would like to say that something interesting happened during that time but in all reality it didn’t. The ship was only attacked twice on rout but the opposition was small and caved in quickly to our overwhelming might. I was currently on the bridge along with the rest of the royal family except Celestia who was giving a speech to the Royal troops. As the ship started to slow down something hit me on the head upon investigation I saw that it was a popcorn kernel. 

“Sorry about that” Discord replied shoving another fistful of popcorn into his mouth from an extra large bucket. 

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Waiting for the show!”

“What show?”

“This one” suddenly the ship came out of warp space and was now facing the silver planet which was Earth. 

“I have to learn how he does that” I thought to myself.

“Please do, I would like to know as well” Discord replied to me. All I could do was stare at him wide eyed, he just read my mind! Discord then pointed above me. Surprisingly there was a giant bubble with words in it that read HE JUST READ MY MIND just like in a cartoon.

“Hey, that’s not fair” I shouted and backed away from the bubble. Discord only chuckled and popped it with his finger the bubble then zoomed across the bridge and hit Celestia in the face just as she entered the room. 

Celestia who was obviously used to these things happening when Discord was around rolled her eyes and went up to the window to view the planet. “Where is the enemies ships?” she asked the captain.

The Captain who was a skinny man with a beard shook his head “It appears that they were unneeded and were sent to attack our forces left flank as we drove forward, right now our forces are on the verge of collapse.”

“Then we must rid ourselves of this planet at once!” Luna stated.

The captain then gave the command for all ships to bombard Earth. The sight was something to behold the whole planet seemed to go up in flames as energy blast after energy blast struck it but when the fires died down Earth was unscaved. “Just as we thought” the captain stated “it’s protected by a powerful shield.”

“Oh, here we go” Discord stated to himself while chomping down another handful of popcorn. 

Before I could ask a huge blue humanoid head appeared before our ships it looked intensely at us then opened its mouth sending a powerful warning shot bouncing off our shield, the head then dissipated like it was made of fog. I then looked at Discord who was clearly expecting what happed “How did you know?” but my comment was only meet with a shrug.

“That last shot took out half of our shields we need to recharge before a second strike” a soldier at a control stated.

The captain then looked at us “If you are to attack now will be a good time before that head reappears.” Celestia nodded then we were all transported outside of the ship heading towards the planet with our only protection being a bubble that Discord created for us to stand in. 

“Now for all those thou haft killed we will smith thee!” Luna yelled at the Collective then clashed her magic against the shield. We then all joined her in the attack but the shield was not even faltering. It seemed by the beads of sweat on Discords brow that not even his magic could penetrate Earths shield.

“Fireball can you disrupt the planets core?” Celestia asked over the explosions of our magic as they slammed into the shield. 

“No I can’t get through the shield it’s too strong” Fireball shouted back. Just then the huge head appeared again to our left then we suddenly appeared back on The Eclipses bridge.

“What are you doing Discord?” Celestia asked. “We need to break the shield!”

Discord looked at her seriously “We failed, that shield is impenetrable to our magic. If we stayed out there any longer we would have been killed.” 

The captain then called for a retreat and not a moment too soon for the head had just reappeared ready for another strike. “So close” I mumbled to myself “Earth is right there and we can’t get to it” I then walked out of the room feeling quite depressed. 

During the next 13 days we kept our position just out of Earths reach but much of our fleet was sent to help fight elsewhere. The Collective had regained much of the land that it had lost and was now pressing hard against The Coalition. Luckily New Equestria had not been invaded yet but it is only a matter of time. We seemed to be the only hope for the Coalition at this point but what could we do against the impregnable shield separating us from our goal? As I was thinking these things I bumped into Twilight, literally.

“Ouch!” Twilight moaned while she was rubbing her head all around her were books that she had brought from New Equestria. 

“Sorry Twilight” I replied helping her pick up the books “I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“I’m sorry too I didn’t see you I have just been so wrapped up in trying to find a way to break that barrier.”

“If anypony can do it it’s you” I replied. I then looked at the books now floating above her “you know you can scan those onto a reading device, it would be easier to carry.”

“I know but there’s just something about having a book it’s almost like having a close friend or a piece of home.”

I knew exactly what she meant “A piece of home kind of like sunny.”

“Sunny?”

“Yes, he was a puppy that Celestia gave me when I was little” I then looked at the ceiling “I wonder if he’s still alive in New Equestria?”

“Oh, I’m sure that Sun…ny is…o..k. I have to go!” she suddenly teleported away.  

“That was weird” I replied to myself then continued on my way. 

Later that day I and the rest of the royal family was summoned into a conference by the captain however as I entered the conference room which had a long steel table facing a holo screen I noticed that the captain was not in the front of the room but instead it was Twilight and our chief scientist. 

“Dream Catcher! Please take a seat” Twilight said quite cheerfully. I noticed that Nightshade was there as well and sat next to her.

“Do you know what this is all about?” I asked.

“Nope” Nightshade replied. “She’s refusing to say anything until her, grand revealing” she replied giving air quotes to emphasize her point. 

There mom, dad, Nightshade, Fireball, Screwball, the captain, Shinning Armor, Cadance, and I waited until at least half an hour passed but Twilight refused to start until Celestia was there. Finally the captain got up “Where are you going?” Twilight asked nervously.

“I’m afraid that I have stuff to do Twilight, I can’t wait until Celestia gets here” he replied.

“I can’t either” Nightshade replied. “I have the new recruits to train and little time to do it.”

“Please stay a little longer! I’m sure the Princess is on her way” Twilight pleaded. However after seeing that they would not wait any longer the Chief Scientist spoke up. 

“I’m afraid that she’s out of time my friend” he told Twilight who looked at the ground defeated. He then looked at us “we have found a way to destroy the Collective.”

We all leaned in giving the scientist our full attention “Are you sure?!” the captain asked.

“Yes, we found that if the right mixture of magic was put into the sun we can destroy the Collective once and for all.” 

“How?” The captain asked.

“With the only force that can break through its shields, a black hole.”

“It was you that gave me the idea Dream Catcher” Twilight stated.

“I did? How?” I asked surprised.

“You were mentioning your dog Sunny which brought my attention to this world’s sun and thanks to the other scientist we figured out a way to accelerate its aging process by using magic.”

“Great then let’s do it!” I replied.

“There is one problem though, we have to draw some of Celestia’s blood while she and her magic is um…agitated.” 

“Thou means when she’s mad” Luna stated.

“Yes, we actually were hoping that she would be here so we can draw some of her blood and prepare the device.”

Mother simply shook her head “Thou will have a tough time, thy sisters temper doth not rise too easily.”

“Do you have what you need to draw her blood?” dad asked they nodded in response. “Good, get it ready” he then teleported out of the room leaving us perplexed. 

Shortly after he teleported back into the room Celestia appeared her face as red as a beat with a look of pure rage in her eyes “I WILL KILL YOU JACKSON!!!!” Celestia shouted at him at the top of her Canterlot voice. Her attention was so focused on him that she failed to notice us in the room. We quickly started backing away from her in fear of being struck by some powerful magic. 

Dad looked over at Twilight who was pressed against the wall in fear and motioned her to use the needle which was floating next to her. She shook her head terrified but after a stern look from him she floated the needle towards Celestias rump and stabbed her immediately withdrawing the blood she needed. 

Celestias eyes widened as the needle went in and a blinding light of magic that she had gathered in her rage was released in the room. Fireball and I were able to shield the captain, Nightshade, and the chief scientist from the blast. Celestia turned towards Twilight who had put on a nervous grin as she levitated the needle back towards herself. “Who dares to…Twilight?!” 

“…prin..cess…I…I can explain!” Twilight managed to blurt out.  Celestia said nothing but just glared at her so Twilight continued “you see…we…needed your blood..but it had to be taken…when…you were…angry. We were going to tell you beforehand but…you did not come to the meeting and um...”

“What did you need it for?” Celestia asked coldly. 

“We needed it to create a black hole from the sun and destroy The Collective.”

Celestia did not respond but turned towards Jackson and narrowed her eyes in hate before stomping out of the room slamming the door behind her with magic. 

Luna looked at Jackson wide eyed “What did thou do?”

He only shrugged “Just what needed to be done.”

“But she hath never been so quick to anger before.”

“Its fine, she understands but…it might be a good idea to stay on her good side for a few days.”

“Seeing how mad she was it might take a few years” Nightshade replied to me under her breath. 

“When will the device be ready?” the captain asked getting up out of his chair.

“Two days” Twilight answered.

“That is if the blood we had drawn is unstable enough from Celestia’s anger” the Chief Scientist commented. 

“Ohhh trust me she does not get much angrier than that” Twilight replied with a shiver.

“Very good” The Captain replied. “I will make the necessary preparations” he then left the room. He was shortly followed by Twilight and The Chief Scientist who were already deep in discussion on the complex formulas needed to be created for the device.

I then looked at dad “What did you do to Celestia?” He only gave a slight grin at my question then left the room followed quickly by mother. 

“Well, that was fun and all but I have to get back to work” Nightshade said getting up and stretching. “But first I want to get some food, what about you Dream Catcher?” 

“Sure” I replied.

Nightshade glanced towards Fireball “What about you?”

Fireball shook his head “Nah, I promised to meet Dash after the meeting you two go on without me.”

“Your loss” I replied getting up Nightshade and I then headed towards the grub hall talking about what had happened in the meeting. Cloud Striker who was also going to get some food joined us.

“Are you serious! They found a way to destroy The Collective?” Cloud Striker asked. 

“Yep, all we supposedly will have to do is use one of our drones to drop the device into the sun to start a chain reaction, the sun will do the rest” I explained. 

“That sounds tricky though, if The Collective expects something then that head will be able to stop any drones we may send. I think that I should do it after all the time lapse of drones when they are being jammed will give The Collective too much time to react.”

“I see your point and I doubt that the captain will disagree however if we send enough of the drones…”

“Isn’t there just one device though?” Striker asked.

“I think so.”

“Then there can only be one ship that carries it and we can’t wait for more devices to be made The Collective is fastly approaching New Equestria even two days is pushing it.”

“You have a point I should tell the Captai…wait a minute you just want the honor of being the one that ended the war don’t you?” I asked squinting my eyes at him.

“No, I just want to make sure the device gets to its destination before The Collective kills anymore ponies.” 

“I’m sorry I dint mean to…” 

“The honor that I will get is just a bonus.”

“I knew it!”

Striker grinned then got up “I will ask the Captains permission do I have your support?”

“Yeah, you have saved my tail more times than I can count. As far as I am concerned there is nopony more qualified.”

Striker then looked at Nightshade who nodded in agreement he then trotted from us towards the bridge. “Well he looks happy” Nightshade replied.

“He has a chance to end this war single hoofed of course he’s happy. There’s no greater honor that he can wish for.” 

“You don’t want the honor of being the one to plant the device into the sun and end the war?” she asked.

“I don’t think that Cloud Striker would ever forgive me if I did besides I never wanted the type of honor that came from battle; I will gain it by more peaceful means when this war is over.”

“When this war is over…. I can’t believe that it is even a possibility. I guess that after The Collectives destroyed you will go back to New Equestria?” her words seemed to sadden at this question. 

“Yes, and I want you to come with me.”

She closed her eyes and gave a slight grin “Of course I’m coming with you, I am the keeper of the planet after all. Besides who will keep you ponies out of trouble if I don’t?” She looked at the table “Besides I don’t think that I could part from you not after all that happened, you saved me.”

I looked her in the eyes knowing exactly what she meant “I feel the same way” I replied. Right then we made a promise not with words of the mouth but with words of the eyes that we would never part ways from each other no matter what the future held for us.  


The two days passed quickly but just like Twilight said the device was ready. Cloud Striker was able to at the last second convince the captain to allow him to deliver the package to the sun and was now in the hanger preparing to take off. 

“Remember Striker, Pinky is holding a party when you return so drop the package and get back to us as quickly as possible don’t go and do anything stupid” I told him as Striker climbed into the cockpit of his fighter. 

“When I am done The Collective will be nothing but a memory” he then looked at me with a smile “you’re a good friend Dream Catcher” he said as his cockpit closed. Striker then took off along with two control ships for protection as The Eclipse maneuvered to bombard Earth as a distraction. 

I quickly teleported to the bridge to oversee the mission with the rest of the Royal family including Twilight who was a nervous wreck over the mission. “I hope I didnt forget anything while making the device” Twilight said to herself as she went through her checklist for what must have been the thousandth time. 

“I am sure that it will work” Celestia stated comforting her student. 

The Eclipse started to bombard The Earth as Strikers team started moving towards the sun. At first we thought that the diversion would work but that hope soon faded when one of the control ships who were protecting Striker burst into flames. Fast on the heels of Striker was the giant head that we meet when we first came to Earth. The second control ship then burst to pieces leaving Striker alone against the guardian of Earth. 

“Come on Striker you can do it!” Fireball said urging him on. 

Screwballs ears perched up at this “Striker?” she asked. “Don’t tell me that’s Striker out there and not a drone!” 

“Yes, he personally volunteered for this mission” the captain stated. 

“NOOOOO!” Screwball screamed and ran to the bridges window. 

“It’s ok Screwball Striker will be alright…” Nightshade began but was cut off by Screwballs wailing. 

“No he won’t! You don’t understand he won’t come back!” she screamed. 

“What do you mean of course he will be back” Fireball replied.

“No he won’t, any action that he will do after this will never match up, it’s the ultimate honor. He won’t come back otherwise his actions this day in history will be overshadowed by lesser deeds later in life. He is going to fly straight into the sun!!!” 

For a second nopony moved as we wrapped our heads around what she had said. Screwball knew Striker better than any of us and when the idea was put against Strikers beliefs on honor it made sense. “Striker come in!” I called on the communicator but his radio was shut off “We have to save him!”

“How?” the Captain asked.

“What of the teleporter?” I asked.

“Earths shielding is preventing any type of teleportation.”

“Discord?” I asked looking at the spirit of chaos.

“I already tried” he replied sadly. “The energy from the head is preventing any magic getting through to Striker.” With this Screwballs anguish became more intense as Striker neared the sun. Striker had pulled away from the head as he neared the sun but his ship never once slowed down not until the suns surface forced it to. The Eclipse reversed its engines and got out of the system as the sun started to collapse in on itself. There we watched as the silver planet the home world of the humans was sucked into the crushing void of a black hole. Soon the communications were buzzing with claims that The Collectives forces had stopped functioning. The crew was in an uproar of celebrations as news that the war was over spread across the ship like wildfire. However on the bridge there was no celebrations as every eye was turned to tears over the senseless loss of a dear friend and comrade. 

“Come back to me, come back Cloud Striker!” Screwball screamed at the void. “why…why..” she then whimpered as she stared out the observation decks thick glass towards the void. 

Cloud Striker would be known throughout history as the savior of humanity. His courage and bravery in the face of utter destruction as he single handily defeated the greatest enemy to mankind since the Sprite invasion would no doubt become that of legends. However to gain the ultimate honor that he had always strove for he left all that could have been behind.  Striker would never feel or hear the honor that he had gained in the end but in a way it was never for him to have but it was a gift to all those that he would one day inspire. 


The End