//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Realms Undreamed Of // by Ardashir //------------------------------// Chapter 2 Twilight would wonder later just what part of John’s dream caught her attention first. Was it the cold, winds roaring like a herald of Sombra? The horrid noise, equal parts screams and curses and sobs and that endless ear-shattering roar? The shrill bugles and the thousands upon thousands of cracks! and bangs! like the world’s largest strings of firecrackers all cracking endlessly all over and along the barren rocky ridge she and Luna stood on? Or was it the smell, hot iron and a wet raw fertilizer like Ponyville’s fields in planting time and the reek of sweat and fear and rage? Or would it be – A roar rose from the valley before her, sending her into the air, wings grabbing for altitude, before she controlled herself. She saw what looked like a whole city’s worth of men in thick padded jackets, their hair black and their faces contorted with fury as they charged right at her and Luna. Weapons like prodless crossbows in their hands, some long with blades like spears at their tips, some short with snouts of perforated dark metal and large round drums slung beneath. Their yells and those bugles reached her anew, and she knew, just knew that they were aiming every single one of those weapons at her. Her horn began to glow as she sought a defense only to stop when Luna shoved her nose into her ear. “Fear them not!” Luna yelled. Twilight wondered if she used the Royal Canterlot Voice. She barely heard it. “They are but Shadows to us, and we to them. Only thy friend John will see us as we are. To all others…” “Here come the Chinks!” A voice yelled behind her, and, “Open fire!” A harsh metallic roar like half a dozen dragons sounded behind and above Twilight. Dream or not, she threw herself down with a shriek and buried her face in the hard frozen earth. “Look not!” Luna cried out. So naturally Twilight did. And regretted it ever after. She saw what made the roaring. On the rocky ridge behind her were men that looked something like John as she remembered, but younger. Young as those human-shaped ponies from Canterlot High. Their clothes were different from the men charging up the ridge, thick but not quilted, dark olive rather than earth brown, with plain round helmets. They frantically worked half a dozen massive machines set with four long staves apiece that cast streams of what looked like red-hot magic bolts down into that charging mass. Where they touched those men, they ripped them apart. A red mist rose above them, and Twi choked as she realized what it was. Twenty-four streams of fire hosed all down and along the line from all six of those weapons at once and screams filled the air along with cries of fury and, yes, determination. And to her unbelieving horror despite the bodies and pieces of bodies piling up before them they still came on. Luna grabbed Twilight, there came the somehow still audible snap of teleportation. For an instant as she felt her atoms scatter Twilight thought one of those weapons had struck her and wanted to scream in terror. She clung to Luna like she did to her mother when she wakened from foalhood nightmares. Then her body rushed back together and she found herself looking at the ridge from what must be a hundred lengths behind it. The noise was still horrible, but it didn’t feel like her head was about to come apart. “Twilight!” Luna looked her in the face, blue eyes locked on violet ones. “Remember, we are safe! These are things that have happened. So long as I am here, and near thee, they are but visions without substance.” She looked around and frowned. “Though I have known few, however much combat they saw, that could summon up such dreams as this. I wonder who or what feeds its strength into this nightmare?” “Th-those hu-humans, what I s-saw happening to them…” Twilight gasped, took several deep breaths, and brought herself back under control. She could still hear the weapons firing, hear yells of words that she remembered the human Dash and Applejack using when they were stuck beneath the stage, and tonal monosyllables that didn’t sound like they should ever come from any kind of a person. “John told me he’d seen war, but I, I thought it was like what I heard Shiny telling Mom and Dad about that one time with those raiding minotaurs, not like, like this.” She waved one forehoof at the carnage all about, like when Thorn sent the Timberwolves into Ponyville but a million times worse. “I have seen worse in other worlds, as has my sister,” was all Luna said. “I regret that thou have seen this, but remember. Thy friend sees this in his dreams near every night of his life. And it is being made worse, in some way,” Luna looked around, snorting and ears pinned back, the Protector of Dreams even here. “Let us find him and begone from this Tartarus.” “Yes, Princess Luna, of course.” Twilight got up and followed her. Her horn glowed and she took the silver guitar string from her pack. Focusing on it, she got a feel of ‘to the right, half a league from here’. She looked and saw rocks there, as barren and cold as everything else here. She wondered why anypony, or human, would fight for a place like this. “He’s there, or nearby. Maybe a dozen furlongs away. Or so my magic tells me.” “Indeed.” Luna nodded. “Then let us go.” And she strolled off, ignoring the flying lead and and explosions as though this were a mere walk in the park. Her hooves clicked lightly against the stones beneath them. Twilight made to follow, wondering uneasily if it was Luna’s long life or what she’d seen in dreams or both that left her so unaffected by this. Those bugles blew behind her wildly, triumphantly, as the thunder of those weapons faded and screams rose. Twilight looked despite herself. The charging men were overrunning the ridge. However many of them were slain, they’d just kept coming until the guns ran out of ammunition. The men who’d worked them didn’t run either, but fought back. It was soon over and the men in those quilted coats were spilling past it and looking like they headed for her and Luna. “Foolish tactics,” Luna said, and Twilight almost jumped. The Night Princess stood right beside her, watching the battle with clinical detachment. “Those men were ill led to do that. Or desperate. Soldiers’ lives ought not to be thrown away so wastefully.” Several somethings whistled overhead and came down in the midst of those men. The earth shot upwards and some of them flew shrieking through the air. But they came on, still yelling and blowing those bugles. Twilight hurried to follow Luna and did not look again. # # # Twilight forgot later how long they walked across that battlefield. Wounded and dying humans were all around, some begging for someone, anyone, to help them. Some were missing – pieces, and a few just seemed to be too terrified to move. Others cursed constantly under their breath as they saw to wounds or just laid by rocks or under cover, weapons in hand and watching their enemy come at them. To her shock Luna walked past it all without paying much notice. Twilight couldn’t resist. As they passed someone who reminded her of Flash, a spreading crimson stain on his clothes, laying there helpless in snow and on stone, she went to lay down beside him and try and do something, anything. Maybe her magic could heal his injuries? Real healing magic was hard, it could take as much out of the injured as the original injury, but just stopping the wounds from bleeding? “Twilight, no.” Luna walked past her and set her hoof solidly on the young human. It passed through him as though he were an illusion. “They are not real, remember? They cannot touch or be touched.” “I know, but,” Twilight looked at the dead and dying men all around. “Can’t we do something?” “We are,” Luna said. She turned and began to walk away. “We will be removing these images from thy friend’s mind, or at least strengthening him enough to control them.” Twilight gave the man one last hurting look and hurried after Luna. Luna looked back at her. “Besides? Look back. See what has happened.” Twilight did and gasped. Those barren and snowy rocks were still there but the young human was gone. Much of the battlefield behind them seemed empty of both sides. “Princess Luna, what’s happening?” “We are real beings,” she said. “In Dream, the shadows one sees often fade into nothing as soon as one passes them by. And we are outsiders here.” Luna looked back towards a stony ridge. “Do you remember what you saw there?” “What?” Twilight looked at it, empty and lifeless. “Wait, we saw humans there, didn’t we? They, they fought, and...” She tried to remember and tossed her head in annoyance. “I know we saw them fight! And there was something, several somethings that roared like dragons.” She frowned and her horn began to glow. “I’ll use a memory spell – Hey!” “Not in here!” Luna forced her horn down with her own. Twilight’s half-formed spell shivered and fell apart. “Magics are dangerous in this place! We stand on the threshold of thy friend’s mind, and carelessly employed magics used here can cause him damage.” She looked back at the ridge. “Or summon back the memories we saw. Would you put him through that again?” Twilight shuddered. “No. I wouldn’t.” She looked back one last time and froze. Something moved in the mist behind them, several somethings. “Princess, I thought you said that when we left part of a dream behind, it faded?” “What now?” Luna looked carefully beside her. Both alicorns focused their sense against the storm around them. Twilight wished she dared cast a simple spell to focus her eyesight. But then she saw them. A small group of roughly a dozen of those men in the quilted clothes were moving. They went quick and quiet, using the rocks for cover. They held weapons in their hands – not the short prodless crossbows with the drums beneath, but longer ones, long as spears. No details at this distance, but... Twilight strained her eyesight. Their forms blurred from one moment to the next. Not quite invisibility, but definitely some sort of distortion magic. It seemed to Twilight that they looked different, somehow, from the other humans she’d seen, whether John, Thorn, or through the portal. Their limbs moved as though boneless, or at least jointed differently. Like changelings to ponies. Twilight looked closer. Her hooves scraped against the stones, sounding oddly loud with the noise of the battle now moved away. The figures froze. They seemed to slither behind the rocks. Twilight didn’t see it, but she felt their eyes on her. Muscles twitched under her coat like she was bitten by a fly. “I distrust this and them,” Luna summed up Twilight’s own thoughts, her voice cold. She took a pair of steps forward, her head half lowered as though setting her horn to thrust. “I think we should meet these beings before we speak to thy friend, Twilight.” “Uh, Princess, are you sure that’s a good idea?” “If they are but of the dream, they will not even notice us.” Luna ruffled her wings, tossed her head and snorted. “And if not, then we are Princesses of Equestria, I am defender of the dreams of Equestria, and John has aided us in the past. I shall know why they sneak about in his dreams.” Luna said those words like she meant them, and she did, starting back towards the figures. Twilight followed. She remembered something John told her back when they met, about how useless it was to flee evil. Because then it would chase you, and if it caught you, then what? But at the same time she remembered her own recklessness in dealing with foes like Tirek, and how disastrously that almost ended. Then again, she thought as she followed Luna, maybe these are other friends of John’s. Maybe they want to find out why his dreams are so terrible. She somehow knew the argument to be false even as she thought it. By now she and Luna were close enough to start picking out details about the figures. To Twilight’s dismay the sounds of the battle began to return as well. By the scowl on Luna’s face she noticed as well, and was not pleased. The figures rose up as they approached. Twilight noticed they kept a firm grip on their weapons, those elongated crossbow tillers. Dragon-like eyes shone at the ponies, the pupils slits that ran up and down. Another tribe from John’s world? Like those pony-like humans in that other one? Like donkeys and zebra to Earth Ponies? But he didn’t mention anything like this. “Greetings, outsiders,” Luna’s voice was neutral, neither welcoming nor threatening, but Twilight noticed how she kept herself ready to fly. The strangers said nothing, they just eyed her coldly. “I and my friend,” she indicated Twilight with a wave of her wing, “are here seeking the one who dreams this dream. What do you here?” “Our business is our own,” one of them muttered. Twilight blinked to see their faces, flickering from their former countenance to something odder. Those slit-pupil eyes, long lank black hair framing cold, lean, hard faces. The weapons they held were nothing she’d seen here, brass-bound with levers that cocked back. Something about them gave her a feeling of both familiarity and disgust. “Our business is our own,” the speaker repeated himself. “Return to your own proper place. We hunt an enemy. Meddle not in affairs beyond the reasoning of a beast.” “Beast?” The Alicorn Major quirked an eyebrow. She mantled her wings, a Pegasus ready to either run or attack if need be. “You have ill manners, outsider.” “For you we have no manners.” Some of those weapons rose slightly; Twilight wondered if their owners didn’t quite dare to point them at beings they knew nothing of. But again, something of those weapons felt all too balefully familiar to her. “Go now. Before we destroy you.” Luna pinned her ears back and snorted. Twilight moved to the side, her own wings flaring, making sure she had room if she needed it to fight. A fight… In here? After Luna told her to be wary of using magic? Well, she had her wings and Earth pony strength, but still? She swallowed and hoped they could talk this through somehow. “I care not for threats.” Luna’s voice felt chillier than the snowy wastes around them. “And if the enemy thou speak of is who I think they art, thou hast declared thyself MY enemy as well!” She spread her wings out wide and sent magic along her horn, illuminating her eyes and turning her voice to thunder. “NOW BEGONE, WHILE ‘TIS STILL THY OWN CHOICE!” Any being on Equestria less powerful than Discord or Tirek would have turned and ran. Twilight’s hopes were dashed as the strangers simply raised their strange weapons and aimed them right at Luna. “No!” Unknown dangers in the use of magic here or not, she had to stop this. Twilight gathered the power for a shielding spell. On sudden impulse she used the variant she’d learned from John that night in Zecora’s ruined hut, and all but unused since. Five Kings of the North, who stand as a shield against evil… Five Kings, whom none should invoke save when in mortal danger… Five Kings, I trust in your protection… A shimmering field of energy flashed between Luna and the strangers as their weapons belched flame and black smoke. Twilight gasped to feel something potent and horribly familiar slam into her shield. And more, try clawing around it, scratching at her mind. Luna prepared to hurl herself at the attackers, only to freeze at Twilight’s words. “Princess! Their magic! It’s like Thorn’s!” Twilight’s hope that the headstrong Moon Princess would control herself went shattering down as she said, “If they be allies to Thorn, they are enemies to me!” Then to the strangers, who showed no surprise as they recharged their weapons, “NOW YOU VERMIN WILL LEARN WHAT IT MEANS TO THREATEN THE PRINCESS OF NIGHT!” One of the strangers stepped forward. As he did the others all stopped aiming their weapons and looked to him. Twilight guessed he must be their leader. He looked no different, save perhaps slightly taller and with clothes of a slightly better cut and material. When he opened his mouth to speak she saw all his teeth were the pointed ones of a carnivore. “Those who defend our enemy, die with our enemy.” Luna snorted her fury at the leader’s words. He raised his hands, fingers outspread. Twilight didn’t fail to notice the oddness of them, five fingers tipped with pointed claws, the fourth longer than all the others. They were predators, she thought, predators stalking their prey. Lean and hungry beasts. Hungry for John’s life, and theirs? “You have sought to stop us,” he said, his voice soft but somehow far more fearsome than Luna’s bellow. “You have interfered in our vengeance. You have made yourself our enemy, and now you will suffer for it.” As he said those words the others behind him seemed to focus all their attention on him. He reached under his clothes and took out something on a thin gold chain that filled the palm of his hand and showed a dull yellow-white like old bones. A single small gemstone, red as a drop of heart’s-blood, glittered at the center of it. Luna held back, power arcing along her horn like flickering heat lightning. Her wings flared; muscles bunched under her hide; she scraped a silver-sabatoned forehoof against the ground, readying for a charge. And then the lead stranger spoke words Twilight had hoped to never, ever hear again. “I made my wish before,” he said, pointing his forefinger at Luna in a spellcasting gesture. And the words crawled in Twilight’s mind like Thorn’s; she felt the force building up behind it. “I make my wish now. I never saw the day my wish went unfulfilled.” “Princess, we have to get out of here!” Twilight flew between Luna and the beings. Luna, about to hurl herself at the attackers, hesitated. Twilight dared hope that they’d get out of this in one piece, then… A thing of sparkling blue smoke leaped from the caster’s finger at the Moon Princess. “What horrors haunt you, blue horse?” The sparkling blue swirled around Luna’s head, disappeared into her horn. Her blue eyes went wide. And then narrowed into poison-green slits. “No,” Twilight said. “NO!” Luna cried. “Not again!” But her voice was already changing, turning deep and throaty as she wheeled about as though seeking an enemy to gore with her horn, a horn already lengthening while the hide turned from deep blue to purest ebony, not a black coat but an absence of light – all light. “Not again!” Luna stared at Twilight in horror, her teeth fangs like the strangers’ as she became a pony Twilight had seen only twice before and thought never to see again. “NO! I refuse to become her! I will not! I AM NOT HER!” Luna’s – no, Nightmare Moon’s – horn flashed and she was gone. Twilight turned to face the thirteen strangers who’d already cast out her guide, the one being keeping her safe and oriented in this nightmare. And saw them pointing their weapons at her. # # # Clip-clop, clip-clop, clip-clop… Golden-sabatoned hooves sounded on mosaic and terrazzo; the back corridor of the Sun Palace brightened as if in full sunlight as Princess Celestia sneaked out of the Throne Room. Her aide Raven trotted at her side, trying to keep up with the Alicorn Major twice her size. Day Court today had been thankfully brief, with no foolish squabbles or feuding ponies to deal with. “Anything else today, Raven?” The white unicorn adjusted her glasses, flipped through the clipboard levitating before her. “No, Highness. Not until sunset.” “Not even a wedding in the Outer Gardens? It’s a perfect day for one.” Flip, flip, flip… “One scheduled, at two.” Celestia smiled. Time to surprise them; not everypony gets married by their Princess for the cost of a slice of the wedding cake…. Royal Unicorn Spellguards stepped back and bowed as the two entered the Royal Apartments of the Palace – Just in time for Luna’s Royal Canterlot Voice to boom through the entire wing of the Palace like the roar of a dragon. “NO! I WILL NOT BECOME HER AGAIN!” “Sister!” Celestia didn’t even notice teleporting to Luna’s inner sanctum in the Observatory Tower, blasting the heavy silver-inlaid ebony doors apart, lighting the darkened chamber with her horn. On the far side of the room, Luna rose, shaking herself. No, shivering. Celestia knew of only one thing that could do that to her beloved sister. “LUNA!” The Sun Princess hurried to the Moon Princess’s side, taking in the inlaid conjuration circle in the floor and the third, smaller Alicorn Minor lying within it. “What happened? And why is Twilight – Twilight!” Twilight’s legs twitched, her sides worked, as though she fled something in the dreams that held her. Sweat began to run down her flanks, turning thick and foamy. A long shallow gash opened in her side and blood began to run, thick and dark. “Twilight!” Celestia lowered her horn to touch it to her forehead and bring her forth from this nightmare. She only stopped when Luna’s horn caught and held hers like a sword parry. “Luna! What are you doing? We have to awaken Twilight, something is hurting her!” “We dare not!” Celestia stared at her in shock. Only now did she notice the wide-eyed horror in her sister’s eyes, the way her sides heaved like the billows of a smithy. Luna shook her head, her words nonsense to Celestia. “I brought her into another world’s Dream Realm… Seeking her human friend who aided us against Discord and his ally. We encountered hostiles, stalking John – human warlocks, a herd of thirteen, walking those dreams as Sombra walked the shadows. They conjured my own fears, set it upon me… It forced me back into HER!” “You left Twilight there? Among those creatures?” Celestia looked helpless at her former student. Twilight shivered, as though from great cold. The wound on her side had closed, but still trickled blood. “Twilight’s body is here. Can’t you simply return through her dreams?” Luna looked at Twilight. The hurt in her eyes faded before newfound determination. “I shall try.” The dark Alicorn Major laid on her barrel beside Twilight, legs folded beneath her; closing her eyes, she set her horn against the smaller Alicorn Minor’s. Silver-blue magic flowed from horn to horn while Celestia watched; then she felt the magic reverse. “They have set some sort of wards,” Luna muttered, her eyes still closed. “Strong ones, and alien. Like Thorn’s magic; so different Equestrian magic cannot well counter it. They want none to interfere in their quest to destroy John, and if Twilight is inside his dream as it dies…” As if on cue Twilight shrieked. Celestia gasped to see many small somethings peppering her hide as though small rocks pelted it. Luna broke contact, opened her eyes, looked up at her sister. “I don’t dare break through by force. ‘Twould damage the realm itself, and the dreamer. As though somepony meaning to aid Twilight smashed down the castle walls to find her.” Celestia looked down at her sister and her protégé. “Can we simply awaken her?” “Not without grave risk,” Luna looked at Twilight where she kicked. Fear thickened her voice. “The dreams we found are dangerous ones. Violent, more so than I expected. It is the Red Lands.” Luna hesitated as though expecting horror from Celestia. The Sun Princess simply nodded once, her eyes hard. Luna nodded herself and said, “To awaken her could wound or even kill her, and John. More, it might provide a path for our attackers to follow back into Equestria. And if they nearly seized control of me by surprise, in my own realm…” Her voice trailed off. “I understand,” Celestia said. When she’d finally caught up with Thorn, she’d cast him back between the worlds instead of blasting the warlock where he stood. She hadn’t dared to leave any trace of him in Equestria, anything that could be used as a link or portal by others like him. Now it was the Princess of the Sun who spoke, the mare who’d faced down Discord and Sombra beside her sister, and Syhlex and his sons without her. “We cannot sacrifice John,” her voice filled the room. “He aided Equestria and saved the lives of the Element Bearers among others. But we must save Twilight, and swiftly.” She looked at Luna. “Can you return to aid her?” “It would be a grave risk, but aye, I can and will.” Luna’s horn glowed a cold blue as she floated the potion bottle over to herself – only to have it halted, held in a sun-gold aura. “Not alone,” the Sun Princess whinnied. “What if you took companions to keep you reminded of who you are? Those who saved you from the Nightmare once before?” Luna nodded. Hooves pounded on the stairway outside; Raven galloped through the smashed portal, along with half a dozen Royal Guardsponies. Raven skidded to a halt, gaping in shock while the Guardsponies continued into the chamber, horns lit and armed. Celestia ran her eyes over them, settled on the guard captain, and neighed four words. “Summon the Elements of Harmony. NOW!” # # # “Get away from me!” Twilight hurled more of the snow and rocks at her pursuers. They hissed more of those weird whispering curses – she didn’t understand the language, but the tone left her no doubt of what they said. They dodged away and fell behind her as she raced across the battlefield. She paused to catch her breath. Something snarled and clanked and growled almost in her ear. “AHHH!” Twilight shot upwards, her wings snatching at the air, as something massive and squat, covered in some sort of armored hide, rolled under her. Not until a moment later when thunder roared and fire blasted from the long proboscis atop it did she realize it to be another machine. Something screamed through the air until it hit and exploded like a magic blast. The top half of another human showed through the open hatch in the machine’s roof, grasping the handles of one of those shooting staves and calling something down into its interior. Then more thunder and explosions. Then more screams, her own with them as she fled. How do John’s people even survive this? How did he survive it? Something or somepony yelled, and what looked like streams of hornets, burning bright, flashed by her eyes. She hurled herself back down to earth as the massive armored wagon ground its way across the snow and rocks. Others of its kind followed, line abreast like Guardsponies formed for a charge. As soon as she landed she began running again, towards where she remembered Luna guiding her. Luna, what did those creatures do to her? Twilight glanced around, looking and listening for that familiar face and voice. All she heard was explosions and screams and yells and curses. And somewhere behind her, those other-humans. How did they do that to her? How many of them working together? She frowned to remember something John told her that long-ago night in Zecora’s hut, about groups of thirteen evildoers bound together to unite their power and wills and one. Like how we unite as one bearing the Elements…. Something whistled in that dank gray sky above. Twilight threw up as strong a shield as she dared and dodged aside. The whistling met the ground and exploded, blast after blast after blast hurling rocks and dirt high and everywhere. Somepony shrieked, loud and shrill. More blasts, more rocks and invisible hornets whizzing through the icy air, and the shrieking stopped. “John! “Twilight raced across the bloody field, stampeding in blind equine panic. “John, Luna, somepony, anypony, please! Help!” That patch of barren rocks grew larger in her vision as she got closer. Part of Twilight reminded herself that she’d faced creatures capable of scouring this field from end to end without even slowing down, faced them and won. But then she’d had friends with her, and now, now she was alone and – No! She slowed as she reached the rocks and went down behind the cover. I am an alicorn, an Element Bearer, and a Princess of Equestria! I will NOT let myself be panicked into stampeding like, like some animal! She slowed down, calmed her breathing and let her magic flow through her body, examining herself. Aches and pains and bruises and she badly wanted to ‘drop some fertilizer’, but no injuries. Good. That’s settled then. She looked over the field from where she was, careful not to raise her head too high as she remembered what John told her. He was a ‘sniper’, like a Spellguard sharpshooter; holding back in hiding to pick off enemies at range without being spotted. She took a moment to feel thankful that none of her Equestrian foes ever planned that coldly or cleverly. Okay, so think. Remember those few months you spent alongside the Night Guard before going to Ponyville. Where would be the best spot for something like that? A place where you can see but not be seen? “Animal.” Twilight ducked out of sight and froze. It was those other-humans, or their leader anyway. But why couldn’t she see them? They must be using their own magic, like the kind from John’s world, using it to hide. “Animal,” that voice came again. “We defeated the other, weaker one.” Twilight smiled to think of someone seeing her as stronger than Luna. Maybe the leader sensed her amusement somehow, for they said, “We have no quarrel with you. Not yet. We only seek to avenge ourselves on the one who dreams this. Leave him to us and you can flee in safety.” Twilight rose snorting, her ears down, to see the leader of the strangers just on the other side of the rock. He wore clothes that looked all wrong for this cold and climate, a long black frock coat and wide-brimmed hat like the pictures of Pinkie’s father. In one gloved hand he held its mate, both gloves made of what looked like pale cream suede. High boots set with buttons covered his feet and black pants that even she could tell must have been cut to his figure covered his legs. A high-buttoned white shirt, pale earth-brown skin and long lank black hair that looked almost feathery. He raised his ungloved hand as though to call halt. Twi once more noticed that the third finger on it was longer than the first two, and all were tipped with short sharp claws. That red gem necklace hung at his throat, glittering with evil promise. With him were his followers. No. They were some of the beings from this dream, the ones in the heavy quilted uniforms with those short crossbow tillers with the drums hanging below. They seemed frozen. Under his control? Luna said strong enough dreamers could seize control of an other’s dream and start to manipulate it. “You listen to me,” Twilight hoped she sounded more angry than afraid. Whatever he thought, none of it showed on his face. He stayed expressionless as she said. Calling on every memory of defiant speeches she’d made to others from Nightmare Moon to Discord to Tirek, “That man is my friend and I’m here to help him. If you try hurting him, I’ll make you sorry you ever even thought of it. Now you turn around and I’ll let you flee in safety!” He looked at her coldly. Twilight hoped he’d listen. “Foolishness is its own punishment, and none are more foolish than those who defy the Shonokin.” He turned to the armed men with him and spoke something to them in tonal monosyllables, adding for what she knew to be her benefit: “Kill the beast.” Flame burst from eight weapons at her, ripping the air with a staccato BURRRRRRRP! Twilight tried to take flight but screamed as a red-hot bit of dragonfire ripped at her right wing joint. She dropped and rolled down those rocks to find herself before the humans and the, the Shonokin. The dream-soldiers looked at her without emotion. The Shonokin matched them with ease. I’m going to die they’re going to kill me and to them it’s just stepping on a bug. She tried to summon her magic, but even as she did the Shonokin gripped the gem at his throat and made a gesture. Something seemed to lash across her mind’s eye like a horsewhip and the magic fell apart. He stepped aside, his feet crunching in the snow. The soldiers raised their weapons and sighted. Twilight fought to gather her strength, to dodge or leap at them like Rainbow Dash would. Something. Anything. Nothing. She closed her eyes just as the shots came. Not the dragon burps, but – BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Followed by a high metallic ping! Twilight opened her eyes and stared. And screamed. The quilted-suit men lay before her. Their heads, their heads were just not there anymore. Only mangled meat sat atop their shoulders, turning the nearby snow into crimson slush that stank like a griffon butcher shop. Something hissed like a snake, but not quite. Snakes lacked the malice in those words. She looked up and saw him vanish, unweaving like an image of smoke, and she was utterly alone in this Tartarus. The icy wind cut into her; the stench of blood and death filled her nostrils, the noise filled her ears, the aura of dark magic swirled around her. Cold… Blood… Death… She curled up in the rocks and snow and started screaming. Something crunched on the snow behind her. She kept screaming. Then a voice she hadn’t heard in almost three years filled her ears: “Twilight Sparkle? Whatair are you a-doing here?”