The next moment of serious consciousness, I find myself in a somewhat familiar scene. I remember this exact setting from just a month or so ago: the final battle with the sirens, Svengallop and CHS Spitfire.
“The field between Ponyville and Canterlot? Is this even the same day?”
As I scan the area, no one is even in my sight. That is until a portal opens up thanks to Grogar’s bell when I face a destroyed Canterlot. Stepping through is Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow. While Tirek appears no different from when he drained the villains’ magic, Cozy and Chrysalis have considerable changes. Chrysalis resembles herself from before befriending Twilight, only with full regalia, wider wings, green tinted horn and her pro-Thorax eyes, and Cozy is an alicorn, but unlike during the battle, she also wears a chestplate.
“W-what? Tirek, what happened to my castlemates?”
Tirek extends his arm halfway to the side, cueing Cozy and Chrysalis’ response.
“Castlemates? Do we know you?” Cozy suspiciously asks.
Chrysalis smirks and laughs like her old self. “Don’t pretend you don’t know. We’ve been buffed by the bewitching bell.”
I gasp at this behavior. Chrysalis hasn’t been like this since she first lost her hive. And… they don’t know me?
“Are you serious?!? But… but Chrysalis, Cozy, we’ve been through so much together! You can’t let all that growth go to waste!”
Tirek cackles at me. “Silly nymph. We’ll always prevail, despite what those pathetic ponies say.”
As I crouch in front of the trio before me, I turn around to a screech from behind that resembles a chicken cluck, but at half the speed. I gasp at the monster standing opposite Tirek, Cozy and Chrysalis, the head of a chicken with the body of a snake.
“A cockatrice!!!” I look away for a few seconds, tears starting to stream from my eyelids.
I only stop once crackling sounds come from behind. Moving my tail and back legs are still perfectly easy, but turning back around, the trio is now turned into a stone statue.
“Chrysalis! Cozy! NOOOO!!!” I scream, getting on my hind legs before falling forward.
Having just solved and escaped a claustrophobia puzzle, I’m free to roam the caves to get back to the library. On my way over through, there’s some sobbing going on. Sure doesn’t sound like any of my friends.
To my left, bright doors appear, so going through them, I’m greeted with the meadow between Ponyville and Canterlot. Front and center is the “dream walker” in front of a stone statue of Tirek and Chrysalis alongside fellow student Cozy Glow. She’s the source of the sobbing, given how broken down she looks.
I walk through the door and approach the unreformed changeling, calmly breaking conversational ice. “Hey… what’s wrong?”
She pauses before answering and pointing to the statue. “It’s my castlemates…”
“All of them are?”
The changeling shakes her head. “Where I come from, Tirek went back to his land a better centaur. The other two went on to live with me at Twilight’s old castle.”
With a face of confusion, I take a closer look at the statue. “I didn’t know Cozy would become a princess. Did she and Chrysalis ascend or something? Awfully weird to see Cozy and her side by side like that… and turned to stone? What did happen? And what’s your name anyway?”
As she tries to explain her story to me, she becomes more hysterical. “Aita. It’s just… I ended up here, and none of those three recognized me; Cozy, Chrysalis, not even Tirek! Then a cockatrice turned them to stone like Cozy described when I woke up and-”
“Whoa whoa whoa,” I interrupt, putting a claw on Aita’s mouth. “One thing at a time. I think I know what’s going on. If it’s anything like I went through, this is just a test; it’s not real.”
“But it will be!” she counters. “I could very well lose them to insomnia! I don’t wanna live alone so young!”
As Aita lays on her stomach in tears, I hold her shoulder. “I understand. It’s like being trapped. Truth be told, my test involved a room that kept shrinking. But then I solved the puzzle and found the way out; I had to face my claustrophobia.”
“Wha… really?” Aita and I lock eyes with each other before I nod.
“Aita, everything’s going to be fine. You know Twilight, right?”
“She used to be my caretaker until she moved back to Canterlot to rule Equestria.”
Aita’s answer surprises me a little. Twilight? Ruling Equestria? Who will run the school when that happens? I pull through though with a poker face.
“Well, in this ‘dream’,” I air quote. “she made sure the school of friendship happened regardless of the EEA’s objections. So, regardless of what you see while dream walking, Aita, your castlemates are going to be okay… I just didn’t expect one of them to be Chrysalis.”
Aita lets out a smile. “It’s okay, Gallus. I come from a present where Chrysalis reformed because Carve and Mom survived and lived with urban explorers.”
“What about Cozy and Tirek?”
“Tirek lost his magic, and me and Twilight’s friends were able to convince him to help them escape the caves of Canterlot. As for Cozy, she was one of my friends… the map sent me and Chrysalis to Fillydelphia to help her before that.”
After mentioning all three in the stone statue, that statue fades with an slow, elegant, white shimmer. The door behind us magically opens on its own once the statue is out of our sight. Aita hugs me, realizing she passed her test with my help.
“Thank you, Gallus. I guess I just needed to look at my friends’ contributions instead of worrying about their futures.”
“Hey, what are friends for?” Aita and I exit the field, and back into the cave beneath the school. “Okay, Aita. We’ll split up and see if anymore of our friends need help.”
Aita nods yes to my command, and we diverge.