//------------------------------//
// The first struggle 
// Story: Rise and Fall of Nightmare Star 
// by sykko 
//------------------------------//

As the seven former humans and eight ponies sat around the map table, introductions out of the way, they tried to wrack their overtired brains on what to do.

Sunset groaned in frustration. "I need coffee." She pushed away from the table and trundled through castle in search for the kitchen. Pausing outside a door, she turned an ear hearing a familiar voice sobbing softly. Gingerly lifting a hoof, she paused, debating on whether or not to knock.

As Sunset heard the soft sobbing continue, she decided to knock softly.

"Who is it?", Spike's voice said, the sorrow dripping off of it through the door.

"Spike? Are you okay? It's Sunset."

"I'm fine."

Sunset wasn't convinced. "I know you're not okay. If I were in your place, I think I'd pretty torn up. Why don't you come out and talk about it?""

Sunset's ears perked up as she heard Spike's claws click on the crystal floor approaching the door. Her ears flattened slightly and her sunk as she heard the lock on the door latch and the sound of claws clicking on the floor, retreating away.

"Go away, Sunset. I said I'm fine." Soft sobbing soon came from behind the door again.

Sunset took a slow, even breath, She wasn't about to let Spike sit alone in his misery, that could lead to outcomes that weren't...not good. She lit the magic in her horn and started reaching out with her aura. Let's see if I still know how to do this. She began feeling the lock on the other side of the door, looking for the latch. She had done something similar years ago, but this time she wasn't undo magically sealed locks and bypass spell crafted alarms, or even having to overpower royal guards to gain access to the mirror portal, she was trying to help a baby dragon who was beside himself with grief.

Success! Sunset found the latch and started slowly turning it, so the lock wouldn't make too much noise. With a soft click, she undid the lock and reached up with a hoof to open the door.

As the door swung open, the sobbing became louder. Sunset saw Spike sitting on the side of his bed, facing the window, his shoulders heaved with each sob. She walked over and gently laid a hoof on the drake's shoulder.

Spike turned his head, looking up at Sunset, his face was an absolute mask of grief, eyes red and bloodshot from crying, trails of salt cling to the scales on his cheeks as fresh tears poured out, dried and fresh snot clung to his snout, strand of saliva clung to his lips, connecting them. Overall, the purple dragon looked a mess and the amber unicorn couldn't blame him one bit.

Spike went to speak, but his words died, instead being replaced with blubbering. He buried his his face in Sunset's chest fluff and she wrapped a leg around him in a tight hug. Tears stung her eyes and began leaking down her cheeks.

After some time Spike's weeping became anguished screaming, muffled by Sunset's fluff. He pounded his fist on her chest, making her wince slightly.

Soon Spike wore himself and fell asleep. Sunset gently laid him on his bed and he curled up in a ball. Walking to the door, she paused when Spike spoke.

"Sunset?"

"Hmm?"

"Please don't go. I don't want to be alone."

Sunset turned seeing Spike half awake, his sad expression pulling on her heartstrings. "Of course I'll stay." As she walked over, he scooched over. She climbed up onto the bed and lay down, he snuggled up close.

The physical and emotional exhaustion caught up to Sunset and she drifted off to sleep with Spike nestling close to her. The last thought to go through her brain just before sleep overtook her was that she need to write in the journal on this side of the portal to Principal Celestia.


***


As Principal Celestia walked up to the front of the school, slurping down a cup of coffee, Sunset's journal began to chime, glow and buzz in her purse, making the woman jump with a start, accidentally spilling spilling some of the coffee on her blouse.

Celestia muttered a few curse words as she brushed the coffee from her blouse. Opening her purse, she pulled out the journal and started reading.



Dear Principal Celestia.

First I want to say that everyone made it safely over, however, there has been an incident. I won't go into much details right now, but the portal has been destroyed, stranding everyone over here. Nobody's been hurt and when we finish dealing with the problems here, Princesses Celestia and Luna, along with the greatest minds will be working around the clock to try and recreate Starswirl's spell that first created the portal. Please tell everyone's family where they are and that they're safe. We'll all try and write every weekend.


 your friend and student, Sunset Shimmer




Celestia felt her heart sink and a pit form in her stomach. Seven of her students were now stranded on the other side of the portal in pony world. The world felt topsy-turvy. The seven girls...strike that...six girls and one pony were stranded in a completely different world. The walls of the school started to tip backwards.

Luna walked up seeing Celestia holding the journal in her hand. "Good morning, Celly. Did Sunset..." Her words were cut off, seeing her older sister fall bacwards. "CELLY!", she shouted, rushing forwards to catch her.


***


Sunset spat the quill out of her mouth after finishing writing in the journal. She hoped that the message made it to Principal Celestia.

She levitated the journal into her saddlebags and made her way into the dinning room where the smells of breakfast wafted in from the kitchen.

Her six friends and Spike were sitting around the table, their rumbling bellies loudly announcing their hunger.

Princess Celestia trotted in from the kitchen, levitating eight plates in her aura and glasses of juice in her aura. "Breakfast!", she said loudly in a sing-songy voice.

"I said I would have cooked breakfast.", Spike said grumpily.

Celestia rubbed the drake's back with a gold-shod hoof, placing the plate holding a short stack of pancakes with faces make from fruits and caramel syrup and a glass of juice in front of him. "Nonsense. I need you to help with finding Twilight." She paused looking at Sci-Twi. "Oops, sorry, I meant to say Princess Twilight."

"It's alright, Princess.", Sci-Twi replied, "You didn't hurt my feelings or offend me. I want to help her as much as possible." "I just hope my Spike isn't worrying too much.", she muttered and tipped her face downwards. Her glasses slid off of her snout and onto the table. With a grumble, she fumbled with her forehooves trying to pick them up, before grasping one of the arms between both hooves and holding them up to her face. "Well, crap.", she grumbled as she squinted, seeing the crack in the lens, "And here I am with my spare."

Celestia placed the plates in front of the seven former human girls and levitated the glasses away from Sci-Twi. "Here let me see if I can fix them."

Mabel wasted no time with breakfast. She grumbled and curse as she tried to pick up the fork with hooves she wasn't used to yet, then said loudly, "Ah, screw it!", and buried her muzzle into the pancakes, taking bites and chewing loudly. "Shese are aweshome!", she announced with a mouth full of food, spewing crumbs across the table.

"Rainbow Mabel Dash!", J.B. scolded, "That's not how a lady behaves at the table."

"Well J B,  Ah'd like tuh see how a 'lady' eats, 'specially one that ain't used tuh hooves an' other pony parts.", Jackie said before leaning her snout down and started munching on the pancakes.

"Yeah Jonly, show me how a human girl stuck in a pony body eats like a lady.", Mabel said with a snicker.

J B narrowed her eyes at Mabel, then twisted her face up in concentration as she tried to pick up the fork with her hooves. "No, ah, no, uh, no." With a sigh, she finally resigned herself and slid the plate as close to the edge of the table as she could. Spreading the napkin out on one side of the plate, she leaned her face down to the edge of a pancake and took a bite. She wiped her muzzle on the napkin as she chewed delicately. "Most delicious. My compliments to the chef."

"Ah must agree here. Y'all've made some good grub.", Jackie said as she buried her muzzle back into the pancakes.

Moonchild and P Dianne said nothing as they ate. The former taking bites of the pancakes and wiping her snout on a napkin, the latter simply planting her face into the place, everyone swore they heard the sound of a vacuum just before the girl-turned-pink pony raised her head, her cheeks bulging as chewed, syrup dripping off her face. The pink former human girl swallowed, let out a loud burp and licked all the syrup off her face.

"Mmm-mm! That was sooper-dooper fan-yummy-tastic!"

"Pinkies' gonna Pinkie, no matter the world they're in.", Sunset said with a chuckle as she levitated the fork with pieces of the pancakes on them. She shoved the pieces of pancake in her mouth and her eyes fluttered. "Oh dear sweet everything! I've missed your cooking."

Celestia chuckled softly at the six former humans' and her former student's expressions at the breakfast as she continuied to inspect Sci-Twi's crack lens in the glasses. "I must say young mare, the crystalline structure in these lenses are quite intricate."

Sci-Twi finished the last of her pancakes, wiper her snout on the napkin. "Does that mean you can't fix them?"

With a flash of gold, Celestia repaired the cracked lens. "Nope! It just meant it took me a little longer than normal because I had yet to see a structure or grinding like that before." She touched her horn to the glasses and levitated them back onto the former human girl turned unicorn's face. "There! I've also put an enchantment on them so they won't fall off your face again, unless you actively take them off.

Sci-Twi blinked as she looked through the glasses. "Dear sweet...whatever you ponies swear to! You've fixed them like they're new, you even removed the scratches and fingerprints."

At that moment Shining Armor burst into the dining room, looking exhausted, with a fussy Flurry Heart on his back. "Princess Celestia! Twilight attacked the Empire! She was possessed by the--Twiy! You're here! You managed to..."

"Prince Armor, that is not your sister. That is the Twilight Sparkle from the other world.", Princess Celestia said.

Shining Armor took a moment to walk over to Sci-Twi to get a better look. "I see it now. No wings, not as tall, not as muscular and Twily hasn't worn glasses since she was eight, when mom took her to Dr. Lasik to get corrective surgery."

"What about the Empire Shining Armor? Is my niece okay?", Celestia asked.

"I don't knw. She gave me Flurry and told me to get the civilians to safety. She said she she was going to hold off the nightmare as long as possible.", Shining said. "Oh dear sweet Celestia! Twily managed to break through once after Flurry managed to blast her, but the nightmare took hold again."

"Hold that thought Prince Armor. Allow me to fetch Luna and then you tell that again." Celestia vanished in a flash of golden light.


***


Cadance groaned. The first thing she was aware of was a constant, annoying, rhythmic beeping. The next thing she was aware of was her everything hurt. With great effort she opened here eyes. Looking around the blurry scape she was in, everything slowly came into focus. She was lying in a hospital bed, a series of wires ran from her body to several nearby machines, a clear plastic object was over the end of her snout. She slowly raised her head, seeing a blurry figure on the other side of the room. "Wh-wh-where..."

With a snort, the crystal pony nurse who was dozing the the chair woke with a snort. Seeing the princess raising her head, she quickly jumped to her hooves and hurried over. "It's okay princess! You're in the hospital. You're safe. That bad pony that attacked left."

"Sh-Sh-Shi-Shining? F-F-Fl-Flurry?"

"You bought enough time for the Prince and your daughter to get away along with a bunch of crystal ponies."

Cadance nodded weakly and laid her head back down.

The nurse patted the princess gently on her hoof and said, "The told me to tell him as soon you were awake. I'll be right back. Okay?"

Cadance nodded her head on the pillow weakly.

The nurse hurried out of the room.

Cadance's thoughts turned to her husband and daughter, at least they made it to safety, her sacrifice wasn't in vain. Her thoughts then turned to Twilight and the nightmare that had taken hold of her, tears welled up in her eyes.

A few minutes later the nurse returned with the doctor.

"How are we feeling this morning?", the doctor asked as she started checking the princess over.

"H-h-hurts."

"I'll say. It was a little touch and go there for a while."

Cadance groaned as she went to turn to get out of bed.

The doctor gently placed a hoof on her chest. "Though I cannot keep you in here against your will, I urge you to stay in bed. You have several broken bones, some spinal trauma and suffered several burns." She pointed a hoof.

Cadance saw that both her hind legs and one wing were in casts, held in traction, How did she not notice this before? She groaned in defeat and laid her head back. "H-h-how bad?"

"Fortunately the burns to your body wasn't that bad, but we had to shave the burned fur away. Your feathers were nearly burned to a crisp and we had to pluck them. You have at least four broken ribs, two fractures to your skull, the primary bone in your left wing was snapped in half and the first and second spans have suffered compression fractures, both hind legs have multiple compound fractures and you suffered several ruptured discs in your back. If you weren't an alicorn, I don't think you would have survived.", the doctor said. Her expression turned slightly sour. "We had to put pins in both your legs and wing. Sadly we don't know enough about alicorn physiology to say for sure, but you have have to wear braces on your wing and legs. But don't worry, we'll send message to Clodsdale for the finest wing surgeon and as we speak, a message is being sent to your husband that you're injured, but alive."

Cadance laid her head back and closed her eyes. "Th-thank you doctor."


***


Luna sat with a stern expression on her face as Shining Armor recounted what he was witness to in the confrontation with Nightmare Star. Once he finished, she sat there musing for a moment. Finally she spoke. "That does sound grim. Though it is good that there is a sign that Twilight Sparkle is fighting the nightmare and sometimes it loses its rip on her. That shows she didn't willingly surrender to it like..."

Celestia gently laid a hoof on her sister's foreleg, cutting her words off. "No need wasting your energy on the past Lulu. It does us all better to focus our energies on the present and future. For now I'll send a runner to the Crystal Empire and check on Cadance."

Shining and Luna nodded, then the three turned to to the six former human girls, the one unicorn and the drake.

"It's good that Twilight is fighting the nightmare.", Spike said, wiping a tear away from his eye with a claw, "I just want the thing gone from her for good."

Sci-Twi lowered her head, bangs hanging over her eyes. "The way you described Nightmare Star, it sounds a lot like..."

Sunset wrapped her foreleg around Sci-Twi's wither, pulling her in close. "That wasn't your fault. Principal Cinch manipulated you into using something neither she nor you really understood."

At this Celestia and Luna each raised an eyebrow. "Pray tell young Twilight Sparkle, what happened?"

Sci-Twi recounted the story of her modifying a basic EM detector and discovering Equestrian magic, the creating a small device that could detect and contain it which could be worn like a medallion. Finally she recounted how with strong urging and veiled threats from Cinch, she used the device, unleashing equestrian magic which corrupted her, transforming her into Midnight Sparkle and how she ripped open portals everywhere to Equestria with the desire to consume all the magic and finally how Sunset shattered the medallion, grew fiery wings and managed to help save her from herself.

Upon hearing this, Celestia turned her head to Sunset, rose to her hoove and walked over inspecting her former student with her eyes and magic. "Fascinating."

Sunset shifted uncomfortably. "Uh...Celestia...what are you doing."

Celestia muttered quietly to herself, "Could it be? Were the ramblings of the mad prophet Marestrodomas true?"

Sunset raised an eyebrow. "You means that Itailian pony who wrote nonsensical poems?"

"The sun shall lay witness to four take flight to the heavens. The first two shall sail on wings of love, then from the far north a third shall take flight, in glittering light the sister of chaos shall reveal her true form, finally the fourth who abandoned the herd shall return to the fold with a new herd and take sail on wings of vengeance.", Celestia whispered to herself, "I'm sensing no mass increase in her wellspring. No surges of magic."

Sunset looked to Luna. "I think your sister has gone senile."

Celestia gave a small grunt. "I guess he was just a crazy old poet."

********************************************************************************************************

For two day and two nights Nightmare Star stood in the ruins of the Castle of Two Sisters watching the sky. On the night of the full moon, she waited for the moon to reach its zenith and reached out with her magic.

Luna stood on the balcony of the tallest tower of the Royal Castle. She stood tall and proud diving into the dream aether of ponies searching for any sign of the nightmare or the abducted foals. She parted from the dreams to peer through the enchanted telescope, searching for threats.

As Luna was preparing to dive back into the dream aether, she paused, feeling blighted magic grasping her moon. She felt it lurch ever so slightly from its orbit and immediately reached out with her magic to grasp the celestial orb, holding it in its orbit.

Beads of sweat appeared on Luna's face and began to trickle down as she and Nightmare Star engaged in a titanic magic struggle for the natural satellite. "Guards!", she cried out with urgency. When two night guard hurried out, she turned an eye to them.  "Go with great hast and alert Celestia. The nightmare is attempting to pull my moon from the sky!"

The two guards glanced at each other for a split second, then bolted inside.

Upon the moon, clouds of regolith swirled into the dark sky, mountain rages trembled and the lips of many craters collapsed as the two powerful ponies struggled in a titanic battle of will and magic, one trying to pull the celestial orb down onto the planet below, the other trying to keep it in its orbit.

Celestia appeared on the balcony in a flash of gold. Seeing Luna fighting to hold the moon in its orbit, she chose to act immediately and interwove her magic with her sister's. Now that the titanic struggle for the moon had two alicorns working in tandem to keep the celestial orb in its orbit, it was a fight the nightmare was going to lose.

As Nightmare Star relinquished her hold on the celestial orb, the two sisters traced her magic back to their old castle. The sisters vanished in flashed of golden and dark blue light, reappearing in their rooms. They flung open old cabinets holding armor they had not worn since their campaign against Sombra.

As the armor whirled around the two sisters, Celestia lifted an ancient ceremonial dagger and closed her eyes. "The first time I faced the nightmare, I hesitated and it cost me my sister. If the time comes, I shall not hesitate again." Celestia placed the dagger in a pocket dimension and finished donning the armor.

The two sisters strode out into the hallway, their armored hooves ringing loudly on the polished stone floor. As guards in battle gear ran up, Celestia waved them off. "Go to Ponyville and protect the element bearers and the mares from the other world. Have them await our summons."

The guards quickly popped salutes and rushed off to complete their orders.

Nightmare Star knew she didn't have long before the two sisters arrived. Grasping the moon had been a ruse. She reached out with her magic and grasped several asteroids, altering their orbits, instead of passing by the planet centuries from now, they sailed towards the planet and would make impact in a manner of weeks.

The sisters appeared in a flash of light.

"First you poisoned my student's mind and soul, now you try to drag the moon from its orbit, threatening the lives our little ponies. You really have made this personal.", Celestia snarled, "I will give you one last chance to willingly release Twilight Sparkle and I shall be merciful by making sure your destruction is as painless as possible."

Nightmare Star threw her head back in laughter, fangs gleaming in the moonlight. "An if I don't."

Luna slapped her face guard down and drew her twin swords from their scabbards. "That's what I'm here for, abomination. I have no desire to harm my good friend Twilight Sparkle's body, but if that is what is required to drag you kicking and screaming from her soul, then I consider it a small sacrifice."

Nightmare Star locked her eyes on Luna and smiled maliciously, "Dear sweet Luna, I was only trying to do what you failed to do, make the night last forever. I just needed to bring the moon a little closer to do that."

Luna charged forward with a snarl and swung her swords in a pair of arcs. Nightmare Star ducked and weaved away from the attacks. Celestia teleported in, wielding her battle scepter and swung in a downwards arc, attempting to know Nightmare Star unconscious.

Nightmare Star cast a blink, teleporting several paces to the right, avoiding the attack. As the two sisters squared up up to take her on in another rush of attacks, she pouted and mocked them, "Aw, no fair. The two of you have weapons and I have none. Not very fair." In a flash of purplish-black magic, she vanished in a teleport. The two sisters followed her spell trace and followed with their own teleports.

Flashes of purplish-black, golden and dark blue light appeared seemingly at random across the Everfree, followed by the clattering of weapons or explosions of magic as the three battled. Nightmare Star appeared in the hut of Zecora, startling the zebra and waking her. "What is the meaning--", she shouted as Celestia and Luna appeared in flashed of light, cutting the zebra's words off.

Nightmare Star grabbed Zecora's cauldron with her magic and hurled it at Luna, who had to teleport to avoid the heavy iron pot.

Zecora hurled several objects Nightmare Star. "Shoo! Shoo! Do not attack the princesses in my hut! Away with you! I don't want to hear an if, and, or but!" She yelped in shock when the corrupted alicorn grasped her in her magic and hurled her at Celestia.

The white alicorn caught the zebra in her magic and set her gently down on the floor. Luna teleported back in the hut, Dozens of potions, tinctures and other things created by the zebra healer were grasped in a purplish-black aura and hurled at the two sisters. They threw a shield around themselves and the zebra simultaneously.

As the various potions, tinctures and whatnot shattered against the sister's shield, Zecora's eyes became pinpricks as the various alchemical substances mixed. "That is not good! Get our of here we should!"

Luna sense Nightmare Star charging up a teleport and she swung her swords. The mare of the moon felt one of her blades make purchase a split second before the corrupted alicorn vanished as the alchemical substances reacted with each other violently, creating a fiery explosion. The two sisters coughed as they drug the zebra out of her hut. Multicolored smoke billowed from the windows and door as flames of odd coloration cast strange shadows in the Everfree Forest.

"Are you unharmed, Tia?"

"I am fine Lulu."

The two sisters lit their horns and snuffed the flames in Zecora's hut. The zebra rushed to the doorway of her hurt and peered in, her breath caught in her chest seeing her gutted home. Years of work were gone in matter of seconds and she fainted from a combination of shock and smoke inhalation.

The two sisters quickly teleported themselves and the zebra to Ponyville hospital.

In a flash of purplish-black, Nightmare Star materialized atop a peak in the foal mountains. She rubbed a hoof across the cut on her right foreleg where Luna had caught her just before she teleported out. Using her magic, she closed the wound, then reached out grasping more asteroids, hurling them towards the planet. Bracing herself for another round of fighting, after a few seconds when the two sisters didn't appear, she used her magic to check on the asteroids. dozens of them of various sizes were still tumbling through the void towards the planet. "Giving up so soon? Very well, I figured you wouldn't have made step two easier. No matter." In a flash of purplish-black, she vanished.

The two sisters walked side by side towards the Castle of Friendship. Celestia took off her helmet and scrubbed the soot from around her eyes. "I know I caught her with my sword, sister.", Luna said, "It should have disrupted her teleportation spell...unless she already had it primed." The elder sister scowled. "She may have had the spell already primed, remember this nightmare has all of the memories and abilities of Twilight, that includes her obsessive planning. We need to use our knowledge of Twilight, regroup and press her hard again so she'll make a mistake." The younger sister nodded her head.

As the two entered into the castle, they saw Sunset constructing a strange box with an antenna sticking out the top and Sci-Twi instructed her. "What are you two doing?", Celestia asked.

"Oh! Princi...Princess, I'm giving Sunset the instructions on how I made my EM detector that first picked up equestrian magic. Though it has been a little difficult doing so in a world that hasn't invented micro-circuitry yet.", Sci-Twi said.

"Micro...circuitry?", Luna asked.

Sunset tightened the last screw and then showed her work to Sci-Twi. "Is this right?" After the former human girl nodded, she continued, "Micro-circuitry is kinda like the circuits that carry electricity to ponies' houses, except tiny and uses electrons to carry information rather than power lights. I told her we could use silver wire and magically imbued crystals to track down whoever we need to. This is just a prototype and is a bit over-designed. In order to compensate for the background of all the magical ponies, we added a reservoir that can contain a small piece of the pony we're trying to track...", she used her magic to open a little drawer on the side, "...here. If we're right, all it needs is a strand of hair or drop of blood."

"How accurate is it?", Celestia asked.

"Honestly, for an average pony, it can probably only tell if they are up down, left, right, near or far from your relative position.", Sci-Twi replied, "But if my hypothesis holds true, the more powerful the individual is, the more precisely we can track their position. But that's just a guess."

Sunset plucked a hair from her mane and slipped it into the little drawer. "Alright everypony, I need you all to make as much magical interference as possible while I go hide." She passed the detector off to Rarity. "Help Twilight  with whatever she needs as she doesn't know how to use her horn yet." She vanished in a flash of red sparks.

The unicorn guards lit their horns, some of them making them glow, others levitating and tossing balls. Rainbow, Fluttershy and several pegasi guards flew lazy circles around the room, some of them using their magic to cling to walls or ceilings momentarily. Applejack ran from plant to plant, making them bloom. Spike help up several blank scrolls and sent them to avrious ponies in the rooms with green puffs of flame. The sisters joined in, lighting their horns and extending their auras around the room. Sci-Twi directed Rarity to sweep the detector around in slow, wide arcs to ensure they weren't getting false positives from the other ponies in the room. The needle raised and lowered as the detector swung back and forth, their white unicorn mare and the lavender former human girl quickly zeroed in on Sunset's position a trundled across the room. Sci-Twi lifted her hoof and opened the door to a broom closet, revealing Sunset sitting inside.

"Success!", the lavender former human girl exclaimed, "The prototype works, but it did have a little problem with the background interference. The next model will have ways to adjust for a narrower field of detection."

"We may not have the luxury of having enough time to build another model.", Celestia said.

"Why? What happened?", Sunset asked. When the elder princess balked, she pressed, "Celestia, I know that look. I saw it when I first looked into the mirror portal. Something bad, happened didn't it?"

Luna sighed. "There's no need to keep secrets, sister. Yes, Sunset Shimmer, something did happen. The nightmare grabbed my moon and tried to pull it down from its orbit. Without Celestia's help in breaking its grasp, I would have been locked in a struggle keeping the moon locked in place, permanently interfering with the planet's tides."

"That dun make a whole lick o' sense.", Jackie said, "If'n th' nightmare's wantin' tuh take o'er th' whole world, why risk breakin' th' whole world up if'n she succeeded in pullin' th' moon down."

Luna's went wide with a sudden realization. "Sister! I think I know why she snatched foals. She's not wanting to take the world over, she's wanting to start over from scratch."

"Are you sure Luna?", Celestia asked.

"Verily! That's why I haven't been able to find the foals in the dream aether. They're in stasis somewhere underground! I need to check the meteor showers!"

Before you go, Luna. You said you managed to strike the nightmare just before she teleported out? your sword might have some blood on it."

Luna quickly drew her swords and tossed them to Celestia, then vanished in a flash of dark blue. Sure enough, there was a small amount of dried blood on one sword.

Sunset quickly grabbed a sterilized specimen dish and scalpel from the basement and started scraping some dried blood into it.

"What did she mean she needed to check the meteor showers?", Sci-Twi asked.

"For the past three thousand years, Luna and I have kept several of asteroids in orbit around the planet to for the annual meteor showers. All was have to do is occasionally break one up into small particles and throw them at the planet, the gravity and natural magic of our world makes for a spectacular light show."

"Uh...I'm no expert in space and whatnot, but how do you keep from...ya know...having your eyes bug outa your heads and your bodies from exploding?", Mabel asked.

"As long as the magic in our wellsprings hold out, we alicorns can keep replenishing the air in our lungs. Plus there are natural bubbles of air on the moon. If Luna needs a fresh breath of air or to quickly recover from decompression sickness, she can quickly to one of them.", Celestia replied and then her countenance fell, "I sent her to one of those when I banished her all those years ago."

Luna reappeared in a flash of dark blue wild-eyed. "Sister! Asteroids! Hundreds of them! Couldn't deflect them all! Ran out of air and had to turn back!"

"Couldn't you, ya know, break them all up and have the tiny pieces fall into the air? Ya know giving the whole world one massive light show for a few weeks?", Rainbow asked.

"No Rainbow Dash.", Celestia said, "That many meteors would heat the atmosphere us and at the very least creating massive droughts."

"If that's the best, then what's the worst?", Moonchild asked with a shudder.

"Do you remember in chemistry class when Hoops held his butt up to the Bunsen burner, farted and set his pants on fire? Think that, but with the whole planet.", Sci-Twi said.

The gathered ponies and former humans had a visible shiver run across their bodies.

Sunset cleaned her mane hair out f the detector's drawer and poured the collected flakes of dried blood in. Almost immediately the needle jumped to life. "I can't sure what her exact location is, but she's definitely on the move."

In the cave that held the Tree of Harmony, a cloud of sparkling white light swirled around the tree. It coalesced into a sparkling white feminine draconequus for a split second, before merging back into the tree.