“Get rid of them, get rid of them, they don’t deserve to share the same space as you,” a gravelly and quite old sounding voice resonated in the dark room where a very young Konata in a black gothic style dress was.
Not many details of the room could be seen, and the very little light there was barely showed a dark curtain where an imposing silhouette sat tall in its throne, due to the darkness of the room no features of the silhouette could be seen.
“Why are you against me sharing my time with them, Father!?” Konata asked to the figure behind the curtain.
“They are a waste of your time; mere mortals should be serving you. That is the only purpose for such beings, my daughter,” Konata’s father said.
From the sidelines Luna was watching the whole situation developing.
‘So this is Lucky Star’s Dream Realm, it’s darker than I thought considering her personality,’ the Princess of the Night thought.
“That’s not true!” Konata stomped her hoof on the floor, “they are not some servants! They are my friends!”
The figure let out a sinister chuckle, “friends you say? What gain could you get from such miserable relationship with inferior beings?”
Konata greeted her teeth, “stop insulting them!”
“You have the spirit of our race, you don’t need anyone. Those who are inferior have no place among us, this rebellion of yours is your mother’s fault, she’s been too soft but that is going to change,” Konata’s father said threateningly.
“Don’t you dare involve mom into this!” Konata snapped at him, for a moment her black irises flashed gold.
Luna just now noticed that detail; Konata’s eyes weren’t an amber color like she saw them be, but black like her mane instead, ‘what could be the meaning behind her eye color in this dream, could she be projecting herself wrong in her mind? No, there has to be a deeper meaning to this, I wonder if it would be rude of me to ask her...’ she thought, but her inner monologue was interrupted by another creepy dark chuckle from Konata’s father.
“Why are you…” Konata stopped speaking and her eyes shrunk when a creepy hand emerged from the curtain, but the limb wasn’t what left Konata silent, it was what the hand held instead.
The dark red leathery limb held an unconscious girl with very wore down clothes from the head; obviously she was one from the poorer areas of the kingdom.
Luna felt something change in the dream realm, a heavy atmosphere covered the whole space, even she found difficult to breathe under such pressure, ‘Ugh! What is this!? This is no normal dream.’
“Let her go! She has nothing to do with this!” Konata desperately tried to convince her father to not do whatever he had in his mind at the moment.
Nothing was said in response as a dark purple aura emanating from the hand covered the girl.
“Stop!” Konata let out a painfully loud scream.
After that the whole room went black, not a second after Luna was expelled from Konata’s dream realm but she didn’t notice the subtle change on Konata’s form during that last moment.
Konata woke up suddenly, she was breathing heavily while bringing a hand to her face.
It took a moment for her to notice she had hands again but that wasn’t her biggest worry at the moment, ‘I let my guard down, that’s why that memory made its way to the surface again,’ she then took a look of her hand, ‘it seems the shock returned me back to normal, still is ironic how I needed to relive that moment for this to happen,’ she let out a sigh, ‘but I don’t think this is a permanent change. I can feel the influx of energy weakening, and that’s good, because I don’t have any clothes with me, going around like this would be a problem and I don’t want a Rarity all over me again anytime soon, thank you very much.’
She was rubbing her eyes a little and let out a yawn when she heard soft snores from her side, when looking that way Konata saw Rainbow calmly sleeping at her side, she also felt something latched at her midsection which she soon found out was Pinkie also cutely snoring while hugging her like a teddy bear.
A smile appeared on Konata’s face, her worries dissipating at the moment just by looking at how serene these two looked.
“I’m being silly by thinking this aren’t I?” she whispered while petting Rainbow’s mane, ‘I’ll make sure you don’t have to go through that, sure my father is still sealed away, but if there’s something I learned is that peace does not last forever. But I’ll think about it when I get home, so enough of gloomy topics for the time being.’ A light glow covered her body.
Rainbow got slightly annoyed by the little light and opened her eyes slowly.
“Good morning sleepy head, had a good night?” Konata asked.
Rainbow just took a blurry glance a Konata’s normal form, she blinked a few times and rubbed her eyes with a hoof, but by the time her vision was clear all she saw was Konata in her pony form again, “yeah, I suppose…” she let out a yawn, “what was that light just now?”
“Magic.”
“What?”
“It was a magical reaction, no biggie.”
“Oh, ok.”
“By the way, why are you sandwiching me with Pinkie here? Did I miss something last night or something?”
Right then, Rainbow noticed what was happening, a second after she was out of bed and right at the door no daring to face back at her friend.
“Did I say something wrong?” Konata asked with confusion.
“Not really Koni, Dashie just won’t admit that she wanted contention after a bad dream,” Pinkie said suddenly.
“Oh…” Konata got closer to Rainbow and put a hoof on her withers, “do you want to talk about it?”
“I… I saw you guys… in my dream; I saw you in this dark place unconscious and… those two.”
Konata wondered for a bit to which two, Rainbow could be referring to. But soon it came down to her, “Tailmon and Kurumi,” she said getting a nod from Rainbow, “what else happened?” she asked softly.
“They were laughing, and… Kurumi held you while aiming you with that thing she used…” Rainbow was shaking slightly “and…” she stopped there.
“And what?” Pinkie asked but got no answer from Rainbow.
Konata replied instead, “she fired.”
Hearing that made Pinkie’s heart sink a bit, getting that image in her head didn’t make her any favors.
Konata felt the ambience getting grim; she had to do something to ease things off, fortunately her deviousness was still intact.
Blowing softly into Rainbow’s ear she got an interesting reaction.
“Oooh~” Rainbow cooed for a short while before jumping away holding her ear with a hoof and a bright blush on her face, “What was that for!?” she said more confused than angry.
Pinkie looked at Konata with a knowing smile, the latter replying, “Oh shush. I had to get you out of the depressive zone and besides you seemed to like it. Now if you excuse me I need to use the little filly’s room,” with that she left the room, Pinkie wasn’t there anymore and Rainbow just tried to process what just happened.
She didn’t come up with an answer to that, “why would she do that? If she wanted to get my attention there were other ways… but why did she chose that of all things?” remembering the situation only flustered her more, she let out a groan, “that idiot saying I like it… I didn’t like it… that much…” her voice decreased in volume until it was just a whisper.
Then Konata’s yelling was heard, “PINKIE! I SWEAR TO GODDESS IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN, I’LL END YOU!”
Then Pinkie was heard, “YOU CAN’T END ME KONI! THAT WOULD RUIN THE STORY!”
“WHAT IS THAT EVEN SUPPOSED TO MEAN!?”
Rainbow who recovered just enough from her own fantasies decided to fly over there to stop the noise; it was quite early in the morning after all, ‘heh, I’ll get her for that later.’
Meanwhile in the Princesses room.
Luna woke up abruptly, confused and worried about what that was just now, ‘Lucky Star… she… her past… there’s so much I need to ask her, but this is not the time for that, besides that pressure was not normal, that nightmare was no act of fate, it was forced on her. I don’t want to think of the possibility of her having something to do with this, but there’s no other explanation, somehow she managed to manifest physically once again.’ Luna thought with a frown.
“Is something wrong Luna? You seem to be annoyed,” Celestia said noticing the shift in Luna’s mood.
“Sister, when did you wake up?” Luna said with surprise.
“I wasn’t able to fall asleep, with everything that happened yesterday I couldn’t stop thinking if I could have done something different to avoid at least some of the hardships we went through, that feeling of guilt kept me awake,” Celestia confessed.
“You could have told me, I could have used some of my magic to give you a pleasant sleep sister.”
But Celestia shook her head in negation, “You very well know that I would have refused to accept that Luna.”
Luna giggled some, “I know, but I would have tried anyways,” she stopped for a moment before continuing in a more serious but relaxed tone, “you don’t have to carry such weight on you Tia; we did what we could, if anything we should be thankful that they were here to help us prevent a major disaster from occurring.”
“I can’t thank them enough for saving us and probably all of Equestria as well. I don’t want to imagine what could have happened if an attack of that caliber were to occur without them here to help us.”
“I understand what you’re saying Tia, but their objective was little Rinna, this encounter was just a matter of chance.”
But Celestia wasn’t convinced, “I’m not too sure about that Luna.”
“What do you mean by that?” Luna was confused.
“I do not believe Rinna was thrown here by mere coincidence Luna, remember what Lucky Star told us, they didn’t know Equestria even existed before getting here and Ingrid had to research without resting just to make it here as soon as possible,” Celestia explained and stopped briefly to gather her thoughts before continuing, “But don’t you find strange that the ones who attacked us knew exactly where to look for Rinna? They knew Rinna was here in Ponyville, they knew she arrived in Equestria and they knew we were in disadvantage, even with Lucky Star’s and Ingrid’s help the Elements weren’t able to beat Kurumi, they just managed to stall the battle for just enough so Lucky Star’s sister could make it in time.”
Luna didn’t think about it too much, so details like that went over her head at the time, “now that you mention it, it is strange for such a chain of events to occur by mere chance, but how did they knew?”
“I’m not sure Luna; we can discuss it with everypony later, for now we should wait until all of us recover, that reminds me,” Celestia then used her magic to bring the sun up, while Luna withdrew the moon to start the new day.
At that time in Rinna’s and Twilight’s room, Tailmon was sleeping on the bed Rinna is currently at some point during the night she got there. Shana was apparently sleeping in the chair at the side of Rinna’s bed; Fluttershy was also in a chair but on Twilight’s side. However she wasn’t sleep, she could barely do so anyway, every time she managed to get some sleep she woke up soon after because her mind flashed that same image of Rinna bleeding in her hooves.
Because of her kind and worrisome nature she would check on Rinna to make sure she was alright, looking at the serene expression on Rinna’s face made her worries fade some. But she would be lying if she said she wasn’t tired, after all constantly waking up after minutes of sleeping would drain anypony’s energy quite fast.
Fluttershy wanted to take a closer look at Rinna before going for a glass of water, but at the moment she was at the edge of the bed she found claws in her field of view just mere inches from her eyes.
“Tailmon, you know if you were to harm this one in particular you would have a really nasty backlash on your way,” Shana said from her chair while holding Tailmon’s arm from advancing any further.
Fluttershy looked terrified and let out a quiet “eek” before falling on her haunches.
“Well, I accomplished what I wanted with this so it doesn’t matter,” Tailmon said with no signs of remorse. “Can I go now?”
Fluttershy felt a change in the ambience of the room just before Shana let go of Tailmon’s arm, the digi-cat hastily leaving the room soon after.
“Are you alright?” Fluttershy heard Shana speaking to her and saw her extending a hand to help her get up.
“Y-yes I’m fine… thank you…” Fluttershy said while taking a hold of the hand and getting up.
“Don’t mention it, but you really should rest you don’t look good,” Shana advised.
“I know I should but… I can’t do it, not after everything… not after seeing Rinna like that…” Fluttershy said weakly.
“I figured you would be the most sensitive of the group just by looking at you, I apologize for what we made you go through, but if I have something to say to you it would be, thank you,” Shana said while petting the yellow pegasus.
“W-what? W-why are you…” Fluttershy tried to say something but was interrupted.
“Thank you for being there with her when I couldn’t, thank you for helping her. I would like to reward you for what you did, just tell me something you would like and I’ll make sure it is done,” Shana offered.
But Fluttershy shook her head, “Oh no, I couldn’t ask for something in this situation, I just couldn’t.”
“Don’t be shy, you deserve something for what you did,” Shana pushed.
“Well… in that case,” Fluttershy then extended a hoof in Shana’s direction, the latter looking at her with confusion, “would you like to be my friend?”
Shana was taken aback by such simple yet strange request, “are you sure you don’t want anything else?” she asked.
Fluttershy smiled at her, “I’m sure.”
Shana took Fluttershy’s hoof in between her hands and smiled back, “very well, your name was Fluttershy right?”
“Yes, and yours was Shana right?” Fluttershy asked back.
Both just smiled at each other and nodded, and without raising their voices anymore, they said in unison, “nice to meet you.”
Tailmon meanwhile went to the rooftop of the hospital, “I probably shouldn’t have antagonized Shana back there,” she remembered the stare Shana gave her, it sent shivers down her spine, “my only consolation is that I’m soon getting out of here, just a little more time.”
Some hours later.
“Did ya really do that Pinkie?” AJ who was in her early check up asked.
Pinkie’s response was to giggle while rubbing the back of her head with a hoof.
“Yeah keep laughing it out, see how much good that does to you,” Konata said with some annoyance.
“Come on Kona, can’t you take a prank?” Rainbow asked with a hint of laughter.
Pinkie came out of Kona’s mane and tried to make her smile with her hooves, “yeah Koni, don’t be grumpy, smile!” she got a rolling of eyes from her friend at least.
Shaking her head still with Pinkie on her back, Konata just let out a sigh, “Ok, you win Pinkie but please don’t make a habit of that, or I’ll get mad.”
“Okie dokie lokie!”
“Anyways, how’s Applejack doing Redheart?” Konata asked to the nurse.
“She’s almost perfectly fine, and that’s strange…” Redheart admitted.
“What do you mean?” Rainbow asked.
“When we checked her yesterday she would barely be able to move for a long time, but now… she recovered almost completely, at least that’s what her physical exam shows,” Redheart explained.
“Do you feel that way Applejack?” Pinkie asks from Konata’s back.
“Ta be completely honest, yes Ah’ do feel that way, but even Ah’am confused fer that, Ah’ don’t know how it happened,” Applejack wasn’t sure herself if she explained that right.
“It is because Rinna’s passive magic was still on effect,” Konata said suddenly.
“Huh? Rinna’s magic? How does that work? I thought her magic had the effect of making us release our inner potential or something like that,” Rainbow asked with the same confusion everypony else had at the moment.
“Her magic does indeed produce that effect, but by doing so your metabolism increases exponentially, making you more resilient and also heal faster than normal, this last reaction is just temporal though. If the battle from yesterday were to be held some hours after it actually happened none of you would be as healthy as you are now,” Shana said from the door frame surprising everypony in the room, Fluttershy being behind her.
“Oh sis, it’s strange to see you here and not in Rinna’s room.”
“Well, Fluttershy wanted to see her friend and even if I’m worried for her I know Tailmon will watch Rinna accordingly.”
“Ah’ wouldn’t trust that cat ta watch over her, it’s risky,” Applejack said.
“I know what you mean Applejack, but even being as mean and annoying as she can be, Tailmon is totally loyal to Rinna,” Konata added.
“Umm… we should stop talking about this here, it doesn’t seem right,” Fluttershy spoke up.
“Fluttershy is right; we should be relaxing now and not worrying over this, sorry for the scene Redheart,” Konata apologized for the inconvenience.
“Don’t worry, I know how tense things can get after a crisis,” Redheart said with a wink and a smile, “regarding Applejack here, she is good to go if she wants to, I’ll go tell the doctor about it.”
“Thank ya sugarcube,” Applejack said, she would have tipped her hat gratefully but she didn’t have it right now.
“You’re welcome,” Redheart said before going out.
“What do we do now?” Rainbow asked.
“Oh… I came here to tell you Twilight is free to go too, I wanted to tell you… but I forgot, I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said apologetically.
“Did she go out already?” Konata asked out of curiosity.
“Oh no, she’s sitting at Rinna’s side now.”
“Well, let’s go check on them, there’s not much else we can do anyway,” Konata said forgetting a little detail, but it went over everypony’s head as well so it didn’t matter.
“You go ahead I need to check on something,” Shana told them before going out.
The group then went to Rinna and Twilight’s room.
When they got to the door they could hear some giggling inside.
Confused they opened the door to find…
“Are you comfortable? Do you need a drink or a snack, even a softer pillow? You name it and I’ll get it for you,” Lyra in a maid outfit… attending Rinna who wasn’t even awake right now, and Twilight sitting away with a nervous smile.
The group was shocked as well, except for Konata she just shrugged.
“Hi Miss Heartstrings, you look great on that outfit, even better than I do,” she said getting their attention.
“Oh! Hi! I mean emm… this is… not what it seems?” Lyra said not so sure herself of what she wanted to say.
Pinkie had to say something, and yes she still was in Konata’s back, “That’s not true Koni! You also look pretty good in uniform!”
Some awkward seconds passed with everypony in total silence.
Rainbow let out a cough, “hmm… what’s happening?” she asked.
“Twilight, can ya tell us?” AJ added to the question.
Twilight felt extremely uncomfortable about the whole situation but composed enough, “how do I put this… em…” she had some trouble coming with an explanation.
“Miss Lyra came to see how I was doing myu, she’s so nice…” Rinna said weakly.
“Rinna/Rini/Rinna-sama!?” everypony shouted, even Tailmon joined which was on the window frame.
Rinna has awakened, she didn’t look so well.
“Rinna, how do you feel?” Konata asked with concern.
Rinna blinked a few times, but her expression keep being one of tiredness, “I’m… kind of thirsty myu…” she coughed some.
Before anypony could react Lyra already went and got a glass of water in her magic, “here, let me help you drink, just don’t rush it,” she said Rinna nodded.
“Thank you myu…”
Konata smiled, ‘she’s good, I must admit that.’
“Where did you got that?” Rainbow asked.
“I came prepared,” Lyra said proudly.
“Ah’m more surprised as to how the cat didn’t jump at ya for being all over Rinna here, Lyra,” AJ pointed out.
“Hey Orange,” Tailmon called out getting her attention, “shut up.”
But Applejack held her ground, “come and make me.”
“Oh! Getting confident all of the sudden aren’t we? Well, let’s-“ she was about to say something, but a glimpse of Rinna’s weak and tired appearance made her think otherwise, she turned around in the window frame, “never-mind,” With that she got out of there.
“What was that?” Rainbow asked confused by that strange turn of events.
“Ah’ don’t know mahself Rainbow, Ah’ thought she would act in a different way,” Applejack admitted.
“She has it rough,” Konata said suddenly the others looked at her.
“What do you mean by that?” Twilight inquired a little bit.
“Tailmon knows better than to stress Rinna in a moment like this,” Konata told them with a serious tone.
Rinna was still too weak, so she couldn’t think of anything to add to the conversation but she felt relief knowing that her friend was still caring like that.
Konata then focused on the other topic at hoof, “anyways, it’s not that I don’t appreciate you helping Rinna, miss Heartstrings and I already stated my opinion on the getup, but I have a simple question, why though?”
“First of all thank you for the compliment, my roommate thought it was silly but I knew that was just jealously speaking, she’s too chubby to use this maid outfit after all,” Lyra said openly, “second of all, Rinna proved to me that there really are other worlds out there and that I wasn’t just crazy.”
“Crazy is an understatement,” Rainbow murmured.
“Third, I want to go with her to that world and explore it, so I thought maybe if I’m her maid then I could go when she gets back?” that last part was rather surprising confession even for Konata.
It was rather hilarious to her actually, so as the silly pony she now accepted to be, she started snorting and laughing quite audibly with Pinkie following. Rainbow and Applejack joined them short after.
Fluttershy couldn’t help but to giggle into a hoof, Twilight tried to stare at them disapprovingly but failed to hide her own amused grin.
Even Rinna was tempted at this point.
Lyra with a blush on her face stared at the floor to try and hid it.
The situation could’ve lasted longer but Konata recovered her breath, “Oh... I apologize Miss Heartstrings it wasn’t my intention to laugh like that but what you said caught me off guard, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, I have to admit it was a rather dumb thing to say,” Lyra admitted still blushing.
“But I have good news for you,” Lyra perked up at that, “You can go with us there if you so desire, there’s no reason for you to become a maid just to do that,” Konata said reassuringly.
“Wait… really? Can I really go with you?” Lyra asked getting a nod from Konata. She then hug tackled her to the ground, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
Konata wasn’t amused though, “What’s with you guys and constantly hug tackling me all the time?”
Pinkie who was ejected from Konata’s back now appeared on her face, “it’s because you’re too soft and fluffy and huggable Koni! Your cheeks especially, those are the best to rub on!”
A tired sigh escaped Konata.
Then they heard the door opening, Shana was there carrying Dejiko.
“What are you doing nyo?” Dejiko asked to Konata.
“Nothing much, just being molested again,” she replied with sarcasm.
Shana approached Rinna to have a closer look at her.
“Rinna…” Dejiko said with a hint of sadness, “I should have tried harder nyo…”
“It’s not your fault myu…”
Shana kneeled so Dejiko could hold Rinna’s hand, “Rinna…” a tear left her eyes, “can I stay here with her?” she asked Shana.
“I’m afraid that you can’t do that, Dejiko,” but a not so new voice joined the group.
“Ini?” Shana, Konata and Dejiko said at once, the rest just stared at the little bunny girl wearing the oversized robe.
“Greetings my friends,” Ini said formally.
“Who’s the kid?” Rainbow asked to Konata.
“Rainbow!” Twilight called having figured out who the little girl was.
But Ini just giggled amusingly in her sleeve.
“What?”
“She’s the one with the most knowledge in our world, she manages the arcane library, leader of the research team and is the top teacher in the magic academy,” Konata explained for her confused prismatic friend.
“That I’am, it’s a pleasure to meet you all, I’m Ingrid Sorveig Sorgrims and before you say something else-“ shelowered her head and tilting her body downwards she did a reverence, “thank you for saving Rinna, we are in your debt.”
“Woah, there’s no need fer that miss,” Applejack quickly said.
“She’s right, we were the ones who were saved here Miss Ingrid, we are the ones in your debt,” Twilight stated sincerely.
Ingrid lifted her head once again, the ponies seeing her happy expression with glints of tears at the edge of her eyes, she would have used her sleeves to wipe those off, but Pinkie happened.
“Oh, it’s interesting to see I’m not the only one being molested out of nowhere around here,” the now free Konata commented.
“C-could you please take her off me?” Ingrid said calmly but with a hint of annoyance in her uncomfortable position.
But seeing as the rest of the room just laughed or giggled without moving a muscle to help her, she sighed tiredly.
A red purplish aura surrounded her, Pinkie started levitating and something else happened no-one could move at all Rinna being the only one she didn’t affect with it, Ingrid’s body then stood up without her actually moving, she looked like she was in some sort of invisible breeze, her hair, ears and clothes were flowing in a majestic manner.
“What’s happening? I can’t move!” Rainbow said.
“Me neither!” some of the others said too.
“You let your guard down Shana, you shouldn’t normally be affected by such a low level spell,” Ingrid mentioned.
“Excuse me for relaxing from time to time Ini, I thought you of all people would like that for once,” Shana replied.
“How is this considered a low level spell!?” Twilight pointed out.
Ingrid giggled and soon after the aura banished making the rest recover their ability to move again.
The ponies lost their balance and fell down for being given control without prior notice.
“Surprisingly it is Twilight, is just that Ini has way too much magic for her own good, or she’s just being a prick like always,” Konata without a hint of sarcasm.
Ingrid was not amused.
Shana then asked the question most of them had in their minds, “Ini what are you doing here? Did something happen? And what was that about us not being able to stay?”
Ingrid got serious as well, “the portal is very unstable thanks to a certain someone who apparently was in a rush and forced herself in this world without any restrain.
“If the portal stays like that, there’s the possibility of severing the connection with this world permanently,” she finished telling them the bad news with a sympathetic look.
All of them were shocked to hear that, and now only one question arises, what can they possibly do now?