How can one simply walk onward after such trauma? This was a question The Princess of the Night was unable to answer. Even now, she still struggles to come to terms with what she saw, what she experienced through the memories of a complete stranger. Moreover, unlike the human she had become acquainted with, this one had killed others of his own kind. This one had fought in the war that brought about the end of mankind's reign over the Earth.....................
"I give you a fair warning sister, this tale will disturb you." Luna warned.
Celestia remained silent at first, more out of giving her sister the time she needed to recount her tale rather than being unnerved by her statement, although it did carry enough weight to slightly unsettle her, which was what ultimately convinced her to ask.
"What did you see, Luna?" Celestia inquired.
Luna sighed, one undeniably born from anxiety.
"I didn't just witness an ordinary dream." Luna explained. "I...........watched what he went through. I saw The Conflict."
.........................................The Morning Prior.........................................
As Luna's eyes opened, her immediate surroundings were instantly familiar, finding herself in bed in her guest quarters of Twilight's castle. Her body ached, feeling sore in muscle as much as she did in mind, though not nearly to the extent she felt previously. After conjuring every fiber of magical power she could to kill the beast that came through the portal, Luna could barely manage to walk on her own. After that ordeal, she was quickly escorted back to her quarters to recuperate.
As she climbed out of bed, stretching out the stiffness in her limbs, Luna noted that the hour was now late, so late that the moon had risen in her absence. Deducing that her sister covered for her while she rested, Luna felt a sense of gratitude towards her elder sibling. With one of her nighttime duties taken care of, and earning some well-deserved rest, now seemed a good time as any to address the other tasks that made up her nightly routine. However, just as she was about to set out to them, she was able to recollect on her previous arrangements to discuss the subject of Tim's recurring night terrors. Taking a quick glance at the clock, she noted the time.
"Just a quarter after midnight, Tim must already be asleep by now." Luna insisted. "I guess there's no sense in waking him at this hour, but.....perhaps I can take the time to continue my assistance?"
Luna's horn began to emit a glowing aura of magical energy, her surroundings taken by a wave of encroaching darkness. When the darkness finally converged on Luna, she opened her eyes to the never-ending expanse of the dreamscape. She immediately began her search for the same web of shadowy spheres she had encountered the night prior, the entryway to Tim's dreams. She spent several minutes in this endeavor, zipping past the innumerable dreams of other creatures of the realm. As she did, the number of these spheres began to diminish quite rapidly. A dead giveaway that she was getting close. Soon, Luna found herself in a barren void of the dreamscape, save for one singular object, the very thing she had been looking for. Its appearance had not changed since the last time, maintaining both its shape and shadowy appearance.
"Same as before, no surprise there." She thought to herself. "I wasn't able to do much last time, other than simply observe. I need to see if I can't interact in some capacity. Only then will I be able to truly begin helping him."
Luna did not hesitate to get to work, compelled by the need to help the one she had come to call friend. Knowing that entry into the dream sphere would take quite the effort, Luna prepped herself. Mustering all the strength she could, she was ready to face whatever opposition laid ahead. Her horn instantly flashed in a light of pure white, her eyes taking a similar change. a massive orb of energy grew from the tip of her horn, more powerful than the one she had conjured previously. Luna approached the shadowy mass, as the orb made contact with the exterior she instantly felt the resistance try to fight her back, though not nearly as effective as it had previously been.
The intensity of the spell seemed to do wonders in combating the mental resistance she had experienced prior, but it came at a cost of Luna's direct and unwavering focus. So much so, that she failed to see the see the string of spheres that had emerged behind her. Several akin to the shadowy black one she currently entered, and one whose obscurity had been cleared, the sight of a sewer tunnel taking its place.
Luna pressed her advance, the sound of howling winds and unyielding black winds following suit. A few seconds passed, and with a flash of light, any resistance had suddenly subsided. Luna began to dissipate her spell, as she had successfully entered the dream. Taking a moment to familiarize herself with her surroundings, she found herself in a similar situation as last time, where had seemingly entered into a realm of nothingness. But, this is where the similarities with her previous experience had come to an unexpected end. Only a few steps in, and Luna felt her hoof step in some sort of grainy substance, like that of sand. Looking down to investigate, she found that she in fact had stepped in sand, arid and rigid, sticking to the bottom of her hoof in a dusty smear. Suddenly, her dark surroundings began to emit various glows at infrequent intervals, flashes of red and orange lighting up in the distance, like if a sunset were but a brief moment.
Before Luna could even ponder their nature or significance, she became startled at the sight of something moving towards her. A swirling mass of grayish-black shadow rushing past her right, just shy of ramming into her. Soon another emerged, though not nearly as close as the previous one, and soon another, and another. Luna suddenly saw herself surrounded by these things, as the number of them only grew. Some would race past her, others seemed to almost collapse in on themselves, others huddled together in groups, and all the while, the red and orange glows she had seen in the distance had transitioned into clearly visible streaks, racing back and forth at lightning speed. An array of popping and snapping sounds filled the air, though heavily muffled. Suddenly, she heard words spoken clear as day, as if somepony were standing right next to her.
"What did you do exactly?" asked a female voice.
"I don't want to speak about it." A masculine voice replied. "It's best it stay that way."
As if on que, her surroundings became more vivid and detailed with every passing second, as darkness gave way to desolate ruins, a she could make out what looked like buildings, though shattered and crumbling. The swirling masses began to take on a more human-form, as Luna could make out the parts of the body in motion. The noise around her became louder, increasing in volume to a point where every pop and bang became nearly ear splitting. This caused her to jump and back-step from the direction it came, though it almost seemed to be coming from all around her. She could hear muffled shouting echo across the landscape, increasing in intensity. Voices around her came in and out, gradually drowning in an out of earshot, and in some cases, Luna could swear she could hear screaming echo in the darkness beyond. The unnerving nature of these occurrences were beginning to take its toll on the Princess of the Night, despite Luna’s best efforts to keep her nerves in check.
This continued for nearly a minute before her surroundings returned to a pitch black. Puzzled for a moment, Luna worried that something may have gone wrong when an almost blinding flash of red from behind her caught her attention. As she turned around and directed her gaze towards it. The intensity of it began to fade, leaving in its wake of what looked to be a silhouetted figure kneeling on the ground facing her. Luna couldn't help but feel a slight sense of anxiety creep up inside her, as something about the figure ticked off every box in what you would call ominous. But she approached it nonetheless, figuring that it that it was important if the dream was showing it off in a significant light. Every step forward carried with it a new sense of dread and fear, eliciting apprehensive feelings in Luna, as if she were walking directly into danger.
Upon her last few steps, the shadowy blackness cascading over the figure dissipated in an instant, and a jolt of pure shock coursed through Luna's body. She reeled back in horror of what she saw, for before her knelt a man, who didn't resemble Tim in the slightest other than age, and even then, this man seemed much younger. However, his youth did little to sway Luna's reaction. He was breathing quite heavily, practically hyperventilating, his expression amounting to an unblinking, wide-eyed stare of pure terror, completely out of his senses. Everything he wore, from his dusty raggedy desert fatigues to the vest strapped to his chest was splattered in a dark coat of crimson. Splashes across his face, torrents across his body, and his arms and hands were completely stained in it. Luna instinctively backpedaled her way back from the figure, stricken with terror at what was before her.
"Blood!?"" She thought, as it was the only word she could coherently muster.
It was then that she looked down, unable to draw her eyes away from what he was kneeling over. The sight almost made her vomit, for the arid ground below him gave way to a pool of red, it's source, the body of another man, his face and features contorted and mutilated. Beside the dead man was a bloody brick, the tool of his misfortune. Luna was beginning to question so many things at once, why the dream showed this, how it related to Tim, and whether she should turn back and leave this hellish nightmare or press forward and face that which frightened her to her core. However, any train of thought was abruptly ended the moment her surroundings became clear as day. How Luna wished that they hadn't.
The surrounding dark gave way to the ruins she saw before, but now in complete and vivid detail. However, this wasn't simply a wasteland, as she quickly found out. It was a war zone. Luna's thoughts immediately turned to the explosion that erupted just several feet behind her, sending debris dust flying skywards. Echoes of those faint popping sounds had given way to blistering cracks erupting all around her. Quickly locating their source, Luna watched as human soldiers, one after the other, charged past her position, giving neither her nor the human before her a moment's notice. The sounds of battle made it impossible to think straight, even for Luna, as any thoughts were drowned out by shouts of alarm and fury, screams of pain and agony, yells of panic and rage. Weapons flared with fury of fire and lead, as red and yellow streaks were exchanged back and forth, flying over and beside her with lightning speed. Luna's head swiveled and darted in all directions as she watched the chaos of battle unfold around her, and upon turning her gaze past the kneeling man, she could see where most of the shots were being directed.
More humans began to emerge from the decimated buildings resting atop a hillside she was looking at. However, their garb, while just as dirty and patchwork as the others, varied enough to warrant them as the enemy of the humans that currently surrounded her. Soldiers on both sides began to engage in what Luna could only speculate was pure, unbridled ferocity, a ferocity fueled by madness, by pure hate. Luna could hear many a soldier curse or shout out in anger, an anger that could only emerge from bitter conflict. They descended upon one another in a torrent of fury and bullets, turning an already chaotic scene into one of slaughter. Round after round in a fiery hell storm of rage, becoming an almost never-ending barrage that made impact on anything and everything. She watched in fright as bullets ripped through men as if they were nothing, as rounds tore through cloth, flesh, and bone, before finally exiting in a bloody spray. Some bared the worst of it, as rounds severed limbs, blew out chunks of the body, or split men open sending innards to the ground. Others just simply dropped in an instant, their advance and in turn, their life, halted by a single projectile. Others met a more gruesome fate by the surrounding detonations, as Luna watched one explosion utterly obliterate three men before her eyes , leaving one without his right leg as he screamed in agony from the pain of dismemberment.
Amidst all of this, one of the buildings on the hill exploded in fiery spectacle, collapsing what was left of the decaying structure. Luna turned around to see a massive machine approach the hill. It had a large chassis, propelled forward by some sort of interconnecting metal plates that were intricately patterned in both depth and shape on their underside, spoked around a series of metal wheels. Sitting atop of its main body was an interconnecting box that rotated on a swivel, sporting a massive tubular gun, smoke venting from the end of the barrel. The men seemed to fall in behind it, using it for cover as bullets rained down upon the metal behemoth, but to no effect. It in turn returned fire, as bullets came soaring out from a much smaller tube adjacent to the far larger one. It continued its advance without challenge, shaking the ground as it passed Luna and the kneeling man. Suddenly, just as it passed a few feet away, the ground beneath its plates suddenly exploded, sending scraps of metal and debris into the air and those nearby, inflicting serious injury. The machine halted its advance as the interconnected plates slipped from the wheels that held it in place.
A loud hiss emanated from one of the other buildings, as a fiery projectile soared out from one of the upper levels and hit its mark on the machine, as the inside erupted in an intense flame. The few soldiers that had been using it for cover began to retreat from the burning wreck, as the fire began spreading within the interior. A hatch from atop of the machine swung open, and out came a man, desperately crawling out from the burning mass as flame shot up from the opening, swallowing him alive as if the fire itself were possessed by some malevolent demon. Luna watched as the flames seared his clothes and body, ceasing to extinguish despite his best efforts. All the while, Luna could hear his blood curdling shrieks as he was burned alive. It was something she would never be able to forget, never be able to unhear.
Her attention was once again diverted away as the two sides grew closer and closer in proximity to one another triggering them to resort to brutal close quarters fighting. Small blades were brandished; some in hand other fixed to the end of rifles where they ripped men open or stabbed others. Some withdrew small spades or hatchets, weathered but sharpened as they slashed out, caving in bone and tearing through muscle. Others withdrew additional firearms, though smaller in frame to where they could be wielded in one hand, unloading round after round with ease. Some resorted to what their environment could give them, like the human drenched in blood before her. Others either held onto their current weapons, using them as they did before or sometimes smashing the blunt end of them into their foe. Some were forced to resort to simply using their hands, inflicting some of the worst injuries upon one another in fits of unbridled rage.
Such atrocities and acts were an affront to nature and sanity, and yet they continued to unfold before the Princess of the Night, practically sending her into a petrified state. Any sense of staying calm and collective had all but withered and died in Luna's mind. For the first time in her life, she was terrified, despite merely being an observer. Well aware that this was a memory and that she was far from harm, her relatively successful entry had resulted in a state of presence where she could feel her surroundings as though she was there. The shake of every explosion, the gust of every wind, the heat of every fire and bullet, fully immersed as she watched as these creatures waged battle, neither side willing to give even an inch of territory in what looked like a suicidal undertaking. What unfolded around her didn't seem real, didn't seem possible, and yet she knew what she was seeing. A firsthand account of the war that almost annihilated humanity, this "Conflict" Tim had spoken of. It was just as horrifying and relentless as Starswirl had described, if not more so. The carnage unfolded around her as the same duo of echoed voices returned.
"Andrew, it's okay, it's over, we can talk it about it."
"I said no Jess. I know you've had your share of suffering, we all have. But you don't know what it's like to cause it."
The words caught Luna by surprise, and while she heard them with clarity, she puzzled by the use of that name.
"Andrew?" she inquired.
Luna's attention was brought back to the battle, when amidst the chaos; a loud battle cry suddenly erupted in close proximity to her, fraught with ferocity as she watched an enemy combatant charge at the blood-soaked man, a short blade fixated to the end of his rifle. He began closing the distance at remarkable speed, but just as he was about to fall upon him, the man in question darted for the blade sheathed to his back along the belt. Luna watched as the bloodied man narrowly dodged his enemy's blade thrust toward him, just inches away from its razor edge. The young man, quickly recovered, bringing his own blade around and proceeding to plunge it into the back of his enemy, following it up with a flurry of stabs. A few short seconds passed and he let his foe fall to the ground dead.
A callout suddenly caught her attention, and turning around Luna saw three of his comrades approaching his position, only to be gunned down in quick succession in a hail of bullets. Following what had to be the source, two more enemy soldiers had emerged from the top of the hill, one armed with a rather massive rifle, where rounds fed into it from some sort of interlinking belt. This man used it to devastating effect as he laid low many of the young soldier's comrades, but had not yet noticed him. However, the second soldier did, and attempted to sling his rifle around to unleash death onto him. He pulled the trigger, but something went wrong, as the rifle did not fire. The young man wasted no time in taking advantage of his enemy's sudden mistake. With almost lightning reflexes, the young man unholstered one of those smaller handguns and proceeded to unload four rounds amongst the two. The first one missed while the second made contact, lodging itself into the second man's neck, causing him to fall to the ground in an instant, choking in his own blood. The other two rounds were directed towards the first man, the one gunning down his comrades. Firing them off, they both made their mark into the man's torso and head respectively as red splattered against the side of nearby wall.
With the two enemy combatants eliminated, the young man proceeded to turn his attention to where it was needed most. The fighting around him, had only increased in its brutality, as explosions erupted across the battlefield, decimating an already war torn landscape. However, the close quarters combat began to die down, as those aligned with the young man seemed to be turning the tide in the battle. More reinforcements came up from the rear, crossing the battlefield like a swarm of angry ants, their war cries amassing in an audible wave that marked their approach. This had effectively pushed their enemy back, no doubt from fear of being overrun. The young man wasted no time in rearming himself to join in this renewed assault, taking the weapon of the man who tried to charge at him. He reloaded it with a fresh magazine, looted from the previous owner's corpse, and began to open fire on any enemy he could see through his sights. The voices returned, silencing everything around her.
"Andrew.............."
"You don't need to worry yourself about it, okay. It's in the past, I promise."
The sounds of war reemerged, and with it, the enemy combatants around her were routed from their foothold in the buildings. They began to retreat, as the young man's forces chased them down without mercy, gunning them down at any given chance. One of his allied ran up to him, shaking him by the soldier and giving him a directive to press the attack. The young man didn't reply, but complied without hesitation as he began to join the others in their assault. Luna followed, as the dream had connected itself to this character. T the young man and his allies had pushed the enemy back over the hill and upon reaching the top, Luna saw that they were chased down the other side towards the mouth of a large basin of crumbling ruins. The seemingly random explosions didn't cease, if anything, they seemed to escalate, increasing in more detonations around them, taking more to the grave by the second. While the young man aided in the push, something in the distance caught his eye and made him stop in his tracks. Luna could see it too, several flashes in the distance, faint but noticeable to the keen eye, lasting for about five seconds before finally stopping. His expression turned to a frightened stare when the voices returned.
"The one thing you said when we started out was that we need to learn to trust each other. Do you not trust me enough? Are you afraid of what I'll think? Whatever you did in the past doesn't have any hold on the man you are now and regardless of what it is Andy, I promise it won’t change my feelings toward you."
"....................Maybe one day Jess......................just not today."
At that moment, the man who Luna had been observing this whole time, spoke, his voice carrying with it alarm and desperation.
"THEY HAVE US ZEROED IN!!! FALL BACK!!!"
His warning, of whatever unfortunate fate it entailed, fell on deaf ears. He tried desperately, pleading for any one of his allies to listen, but none would. Luna could not ascertain as to why they would ignore him; perhaps they were too entrenched in the moment to notice. Perhaps they simply didn't care, and would rather let fury guide their actions instead of any sense of logic or reason, preferring to fight and kill the enemy despite whatever danger would come. Whilst that would sound like pure insanity, Luna couldn't completely cross it out as a possibility, for so many of them had died at this point, so many committed such terrible and horrific acts to get to this point. After sacrificing so much, would his comrades have the heart to turn back around and retreat? The obvious answer was a "no", but Luna couldn't bring herself to answer it. Therefore, there the young man stood with a blank wide-eyed look on his face as not even one of his fellow soldiers would heed his warning. His gaze then turned upwards, towards the sky, that ashy-brown abyss that polluted the once brilliant blue that it had once been in the old world. The voices then returned for one last exchange, as something loud and approaching began descending towards them.
"Well........................................if you feel more comfortable that way, fine. Just promise me there's no more secrets."
"I promise...................I love you."
The surrounding area began erupting in massive clouds of fire and debris, much larger in radius and intensity than those witnessed before. It started low towards the bottom of the hill and quickly made its way upwards towards the young man Luna followed. Their encompassing spread practically swallowed droves of his fellow men alive, as the shockwave of each blast made the ground quake upon impact. Luna witnessed all of this from atop of the hill, and found herself devoid of words as she watched an unseen force of death sweep across the ranks of his allies making its way towards the man she had been following this whole time and in turn, herself. She noticed the man had let his weapon drop to the ground, and watched as he fell to his knees, the telltale gesture of a defeated man. He was ready to accept his death. Luna however, was unable to bear any more of this madness. With every bit of magic she could muster, she charged a spell that would simply halt the dreams progression, one used when Luna wished to speak with the dreamer directly. As it was cast in a wave of Cerulean blue, time and space stopped in an instant, with all the chaos, death, and fire of war frozen in place.
With the chaos of war now subsided, Luna could now collect herself, finding herself short of breath and a stinging sensation in the corners of her eyes. She wondered if she had been crying this whole time, and quickly deduced that she had. However, a movement caught her attention, and upon the shift of her gaze, found herself staring at the young man, still kneeling though moving. His body language spoke of confusion, as though something had gone awry. His head titled slightly, no doubt picking up the sound of Luna's crying. When he turned around, his youth was absent. The man was now older, squinting back at her with a set of eyes, tired and battered by conflict while the years weathered his other facial features, his once bare face sporting a rough scruff. The spell Luna cast should have paused all of her surroundings, bringing the dreamer to her front so that she could speak. It then donned on her, that this man was the dreamer. This revelation sent thoughts racing through Luna's mind, as dozens of what would be unanswered questions arose.
"What? H-how is this possible? Who is this? How did-"
Her train of thought stopped, as she felt herself slowly but assuredly piecing this puzzle together. The name she had heard from the two voices, Andrew, this was his dream, not Tim's. How then could she have entered his dreams? Creatures needed to be within Equestria itself or somehow connected to it in order for Luna to enter the dreams. For as far as Luna knew, Tim was the first human to enter their world, which made a connection to Equestria impossible. That left only one other possibility. Luna's dismay gave way to feelings of betrayal. There was another human in Equestria, despite Tim's assurances he was alone. The stability of the dream began to fall apart, as their surroundings gave way to empty blackness. As this Andrew faded into it, Luna spouted one word, a word that appropriately vocalized summarized her thoughts and feelings at that given moment.
"Liar." She seethed through her dried tears.
"When I returned to my quarters, I was.....I don't know, scared, shaken." Luna recounted. "It took me well over half an hour before I managed to return to my senses, maybe longer."
Celestia simply sat there across from her sister, a cold, somber expression stricken across her face from the unnerving tale Luna had just shared with her. Hearing such vivid descriptions of the violence that was committed, the levels of depravity humans had stooped to seemed so foreign from the man she had come to know. Nonetheless, Celestia knew better than to doubt her sister on such knowledge. The Conflict had sounded horrible when summarized, but the level of detail Luna recounted painted a clear picture on just how bloody a war it had devolved into. To hear how her sister became subjected to such a sudden exposure of that level of carnage not only elicited a massive sense of sympathy for Luna, but had shined light on what no doubt motivated Luna's more irrational behavior that night. Celestia thought the sudden change in mood seemed to come out of left field almost randomly, but with this now in context, she could see why her sister was so paranoid.
"Is that why you accused Tim of deception?" Celestia asked.
Luna didn't respond right away, feeling a sense of shame for what her rash action had brought about.
"I was so certain Tim had knowledge of their presence." Luna admitted. "I felt lied to. Nevertheless, I should have let cooler heads prevail, tried to coerce Tim's friend rather than subdue him. Maybe then we wouldn't be in this predicament."
"There's no certainty in that Luna." Celestia stated. "Even if Achmed had come quietly doesn't mean we could have avoided this situation."
"It would have at least avoided Tim's death." Luna mentioned. "But like you said, there's no going back now. What's done is done, best we do what we can to salvage the situation as best as we can."
Luna exited from her seat, clumsily so with the added leg brace. Celestia got up to assist her when the windows transitioned from the dark of the tunnel to the serene landscape of Equestria, viewed as far to the horizon as the raced along the mountainside railway to Canterlot. They were getting close, well within half an hour's time.
"These next few days will be a challenge." Luna stated.
"They will, but whatever awaits us Luna, know that we'll be doing this together." Celestia informed her. "You're not alone Luna."
Luna found a little comfort in that fact, knowing she could count on her older sister being there when she needed it. However, despite this, Luna was fearful. Not of the ramifications that awaited her in Canterlot, but of what the humans could bring now that they were undoubtedly hostile. Perhaps a miracle could save them from such a fate as she saw, perhaps if war did break out; it could be quickly resolved through some sort of settlement or diplomacy. But the thought of seeing Equestria laid low into ruins would never escape her mind, for if mankind was willing to slaughter one another, what qualms would they have in killing her own people? Her time spent with Tim showed they could be reasoned with, and yet the memory she recounted showed that they could also devolve into mindless slaughter. Two halves of the same coin so to speak. But which side would Equestria meet with, and would it be at the negotiating table, or the battlefield?