Out of my Element

by TheLostwriter

Networking

 “And that is what I looked like before I came here,” I pointed at the computer screen, like everything else in this universe it showed everything in an almost pastel color tone. The Image was a picture of myself two years ago leaning on the hood of the old station wagon.
       
 “That’s what you looked like,” said Pinkie Pie stifling laughter as she spoke.
       
“Look at those little eyes they're so small,” added Rainbow Dash actually laughing.
       
“This device makes more sense, seeing those hands, hands right, that’s what they’re called,” commented Luna still examining the computer.
       
I sat there listening to the mares question and comment on my former appearance. Four of the eight stayed silent, Luna was interested in the devices of my world, Rarity wanted to know of the fashion, the pink one and the rainbow pegasus continued to laugh. I had gritted my teeth throughout the harassment but finally I had to do something.  “Twilight,” I called a little sharper than intended. I winced a little and calmed my voice down for the rest of my statement, “I need you to manipulate the computer for me again.”
       
The unicorn nodded and stepped forward her horn glowing, “Just tell me what to do.”

“There are two folders I want you to open, the ’08 trip’ and the ‘Ranch.’” The unicorn was a quick study, I had only just explained how the computer worked and she was already manipulating the machine like she had been around them all her life. “Okay the trip file first,” I instructed.
       
She clicked on it from the taskbar, and selected the first image file bringing up the viewer.
       

“This is one of my country's larger cities there are several bigger in my world, I went there on vacation a few years ago, go ahead scroll through the pictures.” The city was Chicago, and the initial pictures were not that impressive just me hanging out in front of the brick wall of Wrigley Field, but once the pictures of downtown showed up and specifically the Sears Tower, the mockery ended. Twilight continued through the pictures with silence in the air but when the pictures of the city from atop the tower, every pony had a hushed comment that made my chest swell with pride.

“Next I want to warn you, we have animals in my world that appearance wise are similar to you ponies, in fact several of your descriptors are the same as ours for these animals. We call them horses, and they are relatively intelligent however I do not believe any have come close to passing a sentient test.” I nodded at Twilight to encourage her to open the Ranch folder, when she did there were gasps of surprise from most of the ponies present. Once over the initial shock these images spawned a conversation between the ponies. I glanced at Celestia and noticed none of this was fazing her in the least; in fact she was staring off into the distance beyond the computer which was in her way. I walked over to her and in a hushed voice said, “So have you seen most of this before?”
       
I assume my question caught her off guard because she jumped a little as I asked. Then she sighed and said, “Yes or at least Star Swirl told me of your world,” she looked sad as she talked. I was still amazed as to how expressive the pony faces were. I knew the emotions she was feeling because I made the same face when I thought about my family. “Do you mind if we talk outside,” she asked looking down at me.
       
I stayed silent and nodded that it would be alright. Then followed her out the door. Once outside she sat down and looked out at the stars over the town.
       
“There is something that I want to keep a secret from everyone, but I feel you should be told, because he was your friend, and brother. Star Swirl was one of my advisers after I became a princesses of Equestria, and he was one of my best friends. After I banished my sister to the moon, he told me more of you and how he had felt the same way after losing you in the dimension gate. He spent his last few decades, keeping my regret over what I had done to Luna from driving me insane. If it wasn’t for him and the stories of your world I fear I would have become a tyrant in the truest sense of the word. He was a public figure, playing it off as his own grandson and he was loved by the land. However he eventually became unstable. He told me of these dreams he was having before I banished my sister. The dreams were of a great darkness spreading over the land, initially I thought it was about my sister, but the dreams only intensified with her banishment.” She stopped talking and took a deep breath, letting it out with a shiver.
       
“This is bothering you Princess you can stop now, we have plenty of time,” already I felt an empathetic connection to her. I didn’t want to see her like this. She was sad and it was so evident that it pained me to look at her.  
       
“No, I must continue, I don’t know if I can convince myself to discuss this again.” She took another breath and let it out slowly before continuing. “He was the one being that I could relate to after I lost my sister. As I came out of my depression over banishing Luna I noticed he had changed. Soon I became aware of, well his breaking mental status. He had done a fantastic job hiding it but eventually it became ever present, talking to himself, laughing, a crazed laugh for days on end. This is also the time that some of the greatest developments in Equestrian spellcraft occurred, including several spells that I deemed illegal immediately after he created them. Eventually he became so unstable that the staff of the castle fled in fear of him. So I sent him with a few dedicated housekeepers here to his home. This structure, the library was one of five houses that he grew all in the same style but this one was always his home. No other pony could discover the method he used to grow the structures and only one remains to this day.”

She stopped, looked at the tree and smiled at the memories it brought forth before continuing. “He stayed hidden for several decades and was closing in on his six hundredth year in Equestria when he arrived at the castle. The night he arrived was the night of mourning for the loss of Luna that eventually became Nightmare Night and as such the castle was empty save for me. He walked in laughing, I could see the stress in his face, and it looked as if a war was going on behind his eyes. He looked at me, and to this day I remember what he said word for word in a voice so calm against the chaos in his eyes. ‘Run Princess, the darkness has taken hold of me I can’t stop it anymore. It’s too strong, I only slowed it down, only you can stop it.” At this point in her story every sentence was punctuated by a ragged gasp and tears reflected the moonlight as they flowed from her eyes.
       
My heart felt like it was in a vice, I was hearing about my friends fall and watching a being with powers beyond my comprehension, crying, appearing weak and alone. I could feel the tears in my eyes as I approached her, back home in the same situation, without the godly powers, I would have given her a hug. Is it right to give a princess a hug, or a deity level being for that matter. Ah to hell with it I thought as I put a hoof on her shoulder and squeezed slightly in the most awkward shoulder hug of my life.
       
 
“He was the first, to do that to me,” she said with a little smile, wiping her face with a foreleg “I miss him.”
       
“He pulled you out of a dark place,” I said trying to comfort her.
         
“Yes, but I failed him, I let his darkness control him, I ran from the castle as he told me just in time a huge explosion engulfed my home.” She continued to cry, leaning in on me as she did. “I covered for him. I told everyone I had destroyed the castle that it reminded me to much of Luna and the dark time, and that it did. I told them that if I was to rule the country I needed to be in the capital and I had the castle built in Canterlot. The first statue I had placed in the garden is of him.” She was silent for several minutes and I let my hoof slide off her back and back to the ground but she still leaned on me, trying to regain her composure. “I will not let my failure to help him with the darkness cause him to be labeled as a villain.”
       
After several minutes she leaned away from me, I looked up at her and said “Princess, two days ago when I woke up from my coma, I had a dream where a voice said, ‘the darkness is coming.’”
     
The princess gave me a worried look, then she leaned forward and touched my forehead with a glowing horn.

I was enveloped in a white light that dissipated quickly, "What was that," I asked with wide eyes.

"Just something to help you sleep easier," she looked back at the library and added, "stay with these six ponies.” She gestured inside, “they will help you, and if you need it, contact me, I will not fail you as I failed your brother.”  
       
I sighed and looked at the princess, “Thank you, I don’t know what to say, but he had what three, four hundred years at least before he started going mad, I hope I can help out where I can.”
       
“One last thing, Star Swirl introduced several concepts to ponydom including the idea of banks; he made me promise near the end in one of his more lucid states to ensure that if you ever arrived that you were given this.” She magically handed me an aged envelope that appeared out of nowhere. Inside was a flat piece of paper that had identification numbers for the Central Bank of Equestria.  She smiled her composure had returned completely, she stood up and said, “Now let us go inside I’m sure they have more questions.”
       
We opened the door to Luna saying “She has her reasons for not speaking in our presence, let them be.” She was blocking the other ponies’ approach and appeared to be in the middle of a debate with the others.
       
“Thank you dear sister for ensuring we were not disturbed,” she nodded to Luna then looked at the others, “I suggest, you ask Steel any questions you have, and then get some sleep. He has business in Canterlot, and I would like some of you to accompany him on his trip.”
       
I stepped forward into the house and was swarmed by questions, it was almost overwhelming “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I said trying to get their attention to no avail. Eventually I let lose a bellow that surprised even me “Make Silence Now!”  My shout silenced the questions, “Now everybody gets one question, we go until we are done, or I get tired.”  The blue pegasus raised a hoof, and I looked at her, “You first, Rainbow Dash, right?”
       
“Yeah, I’m Rainbow Dash, so what do you think about ponies like us being able to fly.”
       
“Well,” I paused to collect my thoughts, “We have legends of flying horses, and one was named Pegasus and served the Greek gods. As for being able to fly humans have had flying machines in one form or another for the past hundred and fifty years, we have even been to the moon. Before I got here I ran in a company that's sole purpose was to put things in orbit.”
       
“You can fly?” cried Rainbow Dash with more emotion than I thought should be placed on those words.
       
I could see Luna’s surprise at my answer as well.
       
“Yeah we can, now I don’t mean to be rude but next question,” the hooves went up so fast that I couldn’t see who was first so I picked at random, “Fashionista, your next.”
       
“Who me,” asked the white unicorn, I nodded and she continued, “Oh well I must ask what was your jacket made of I have never worked with such material.”
       
“I’m not sure how to answer that,” I paused knowing this wasn’t a question I wanted to answer. “And no matter how I do you won’t like it, see in my world, my humans are omnivores, and we eat plants and animals. Some of us believe that wasting parts of said animal is a bad thing so we use the skins for clothing and other things.” Their collective eyes widened at my statement, and they put the dots together very quickly. Celestia, however was mostly ignoring the Q&A session but she had probably heard this before.
       
“You don’t mean?” asked Rarity her voice elevating in pitch as she did so.
       
“Yes I do, that jacket is made out of leather, animal hide, specifically cow.”
       
I heard someone mutter something and I looked around it sounded like it came from the yellow pegasus. Fluttershy if I remember correctly. Her head hung down looking at the floor. I walked over to her and asked “what was that, little one?”  I could barely make out her words, “can you say that again?” She did and I heard her question, “Can you look up, I want to see your face, I promise I won’t bite, wait I’m sorry that’s not a good joke.” I eventually coaxed the mare to lift her head, I looked her in the eyes and said “That was a very good question. As far as I can tell, and from what I was told by Jack before coming here. I would become whatever was the equivalent creature to human in this dimension. So unless it is usual for ponies to eat animals I don’t think I do.” I tried to tussle her mane but she shied away.  “Alright next,” I looked up at the group.
       
“What do you know about Star Swirl the Bearded,” asked Twilight.
       
“You know I don’t really want to talk about him right now, he was my best friend and as far as I know he is long dead, it’s a little hard on me right now, I can talk to you later though.” It was true and I didn’t trust myself not to let any of Celestia’s secrets slip.
       
“Oh okay,” she answered looking quite dejected.
       
The questions continued for what seemed like hours, I eventually heard the warning chime on the computer that the battery was low. “Excuse me ladies, I need to get the computer shut down, and seeing as I still haven’t seen where I will be staying, I think I should call it for tonight.”
       
They all looked dejected at the news, but the princesses both agreed, “You will have plenty of time for questions later,” added Celestia.
       
I gathered my things and looked at the group, “Thank you for this evening, it was a learning experience for me and I do wonder who will be accompanying me to Canterlot.”  
       
The two unicorns, quickly and emphatically said they were coming. Pinkie said she had a party, Rainbow Dash had to work, rain storm tomorrow.  Fluttershy had to help the animals because of the same storm. Applejack added that she would have to check what needed to be done at the farm but odds were that she would be free as she can’t do much with it raining.
       
We all left the library, Luna and her sister said fair well and flew off towards the north-east as they passed out of town several small shapes flew up to meet them and collectively they flew off into the distance.  The rest of the ponies split off from the library heading towards their home, I followed Applejack out to her farm.
       
As we went she looked at me and then looked away as if she wanted to ask a question but couldn’t.
       
“What is it?” I asked after her third glance.
       
“I was wondering’, how you were able to stay so calm. I mean if I ended up in your world, I don’t know what I’d do.” She paused, and looked slightly embarrassed, “I have tried picturing’ myself in your world. I don’t know if I could even look at myself, yall look so alien to me.”
       
“I was panicked when I first showed up but I knew I needed to get back to my dimension, but that didn’t turn out like I had hoped. Then I woke up in the hospital, I guess part of my mind accepted this while I was out. I still had to fight the urge to run when I first saw the nurse, and I still have panic attacks when I don’t see myself, just a pony, in the mirror but that might dissipate with time."

“I guess I never thought of us as that frightening’ before,” she said shaking her head.        
       
“Believe me, compared to some of the things my world has come up with y’all aren’t. I'm just happy I didn't end up in some universe full of tentacle monsters or any other weird weird world." I took a breath and muttered, "Xenomorphs," with a shiver, I hated those movies.
       
“So do you miss it?”

“Some, from my perspective I have only been here two, three days, and most of those have been in the hospital. Everything is still new to me, and you have critters here that are only myth back home. I will prolly end up homesick but knowing I can’t go home.” I paused to swallow before continuing “I don’t know, even if I could go home I would miss this place. There is a feeling of adventure here like in so many stories. I guess I have always been easy on accepting changes and other than appearance you're not all that much different from everyone back home. Just like you ponies, we have our failings but that makes our triumphs shine brighter.”
       
She was silent for a bit. Then she laughed and said, “You know you're right from everything you've told us your world sounds terrifying but it also sounds amazing. I would love to see it."

"We have our moment's," I paused for a thought to finish forming. "How many sentient races are there on this world?"

"Well don't know much about anything other than pony racing, what's a sentient?"

"The way I’m using It, it is a being that is aware and has some form of knowledge like you or me, how many different species, races, whatever you call them are on this world?"

"Let's see, there's the three pony races, along with the alicorns, dragons, griffins, diamond dogs."

I cut her off with with my next statement, "On my world there is only one race. So include everything all of them have done good or bad. Like you all we forget on occasion what we have done, but for the most part we remember and learn from our mistakes. In the grand  scheme we're not that different."    
       
We walked in silence for a while then she broke that with, "I have been listening' to you talk, you have a driftin' accent.”
       
I smiled at that, “Yep, I have lived so many places back home that I start talkin’ with the accent I hear,” I drawled with my best Texas twang.
       
She steered us off the main road and out onto a pasture trail, “Well, if once you’re settled you need a job, you’ll be able to find one here at Sweet Apple Acres.”
       
“We’ll see about that, Celestia told me that Jack the Swirl Bearded left me something at the bank. I guess I’ll see what I have.”
       
“We’re here,” she announced indicating a dilapidated barn; she opened the door and ushered me in. It was dark inside and I could make out the shape of the wagon against the emptiness of the rest of the barn.
       
I was still scanning the barn trying to pierce the darkness with my eyes when I heard a scratching noise, and the barn was soon filled with light. Turning around I saw Applejack striking a match beside a lantern. “It must be hard to do things without magic,” I said without realizing it as I watched her attempts to light the lantern.
       

“It’s not that bad,” she said finally picking up the lit lantern. “Your bunk is back in the old office,” I could barely make out the last part since she was holding the lantern hasp in her mouth. She led me back to the office, set the lantern down on a low table and said “here you are, home sweat, home. Now get some rest I’ll be by in the mornin’.”    
       
I nodded my thanks and after she had left, I looked around my new bedroom. There wasn't much in the room, just pictures, lots of pictures. I sighed and walked around looking for my bunk, turns out it was an old cot set up with blankets. Oh well, I thought, beggars can’t be choosers. I climbed up onto the cot and burrowed under the covers, for a restful night’s sleep.

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It had been a long time since Celestia had dreamed her own dream. One of the blessings of being as powerful as she was that she had the ability to step into others dreams. She never interfered only watched, it was fun to see what other ponies true selves where, but she didn’t do that tonight.  
       
She dreamed of the night that she ran from her home, and lost one of her best friends. She relived the entire night, as she fled she took to wing. She noticed as she flew that the land of Equestria was more modern than it should have been and the air, even the sunlight felt dirty. In the distance a shadow the size of a mountain was lumbering away from Canterlot. Her city, the capital, she thought as her mind raced, she had to go see if it was safe.
       
         As she flew across the sky she saw the land in turmoil, ghastly creatures chased ponies into the night. She wanted to help but the thought of her sister in Canterlot steeled her will and she flew on.  She flew on past a crater that enveloped the western edge of the Everfree Forest, past demented parasprites with red eyes. Tears fell as she flew past sights of horror that singularly she would not allow, past a little white rabbit slaughtering any pony that came close, past a spreading black flame engulfing the land to the courtyard of the Canterlot Castle.
       
“Luna,” she called, “where are you?”
       
         She ran through the collapsing castle looking for her sister. As she ran past the door out to the garden, she heard a familiar voice call out to her. She came to a stop sliding on the stone floor and walked out into the garden. Outside she found Discord leaning against a tree beside his pedestal. He was wearing a pair of gaudy sunglasses, and cleaning his gryphon claws with his thumb.
       
“Discord,” she hissed as she spoke his name.
       
“Now, now Celestia, can I call you Tia, anyway you should be happy to see me,” he said with a laugh.
       
“I have had enough of this,” she muttered, and she focused her mind on bringing herself into a lucid dream.
       
Discord bounced himself off the tree and walked over to her saying, “Oh, Tia, don’t strain your mind. This is me, the true Discord, you’re in my mind, well sort of, more of an amalgamation of both of ours.” He dropped gryphon arm, and spun as he past her, reaching out he traced her jaw with the back of a lion’s claw. “My body is still in that lovely stone state but thanks to some unique circumstances I’m able to talk to you.”            
       
Celestia, fought an involuntary shiver as he touched her face. “What do you want,” she asked with a slight snarl.
       
He laughed, “Well this is nice, and I just want a civil conversation. Tia how do you think I’m able to do this? It’s because of him,” he pointed at the mountain sized shadow in the distance. “He is on his way here, the closer he gets the more powerful I will become.”
       
“So why tell me this? You know I’m going to stop him then.”
       
“Oh, dear, dear, dear, my dear Celestia, order is something that is natural for a singular world but to understand me you have to understand chaos, order, and there balance.” Discord tapped his glasses and they became a pair of bifocals. “For chaos a multiverse is its home, every world exists in a balance, think of history. The pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies, fought there was a nice healthy mix of order and chaos but then they joined together and created Equestria.”  As he said this he hugged her neck and swept an arm out across the land.
       
“Let go of me, Discord,” she growled through clenched teeth, she hated him but he couldn’t hurt her yet.
       
He did, and stepped back before continuing, “Alright after that I appeared, to bring chaos back, and I was a little, well I was rather excessive in it's application, but you have to agree without chaos it is a little boring. Then to counter my rather exuberant use of chaos you, your sister and the elements appeared, tell me this how much of your parents do you remember?”
       
Celestia stopped to think, it made some sense but her near hatred of Discord made her wary to believe anything he said. She slowly nodded, before saying, “I don’t remember them, I know they exist though.”
       
         “Just keep telling yourself that,” Discord said with a sly smile, “now back to the history lesson, as we all know you and your lovely sister turned me to stone. Order reigned triumphant again, that is until chaos was manifested in an entity known as Nightmare, which you banished to the moon, with your sister. Chaos now finds itself mixed with the general populace, that dear Pinkie Pie, is a prime example. However now the embodiment of the Chaos in the multiverse is being drawn here.”
       
She started drawing the lines together, “That’s him, that huge monster,” she asked when the realization struck her.
       
“You’re so much faster when you’re awake, you know that,” he said with a smile. “Yes that is chaos incarnate even more than I am.”
       
Celestia laughed before she said, “We defeated you we defeat him just as easily.”  
       
“Yes, yes, I always found your arrogance to be one of your most attractive features. You can’t defeat him, you can either, run, hide and hope to survive, or try to stop him from arriving.”
       
“No, I’m not letting you go; this is just a foolish trick,” Celestia said with a smile. “I’m not going to fall for this again, and I’m not coming back,” she finished with a huff and turned around to leave the
       
”Oh dear Celestia, I’m not lying, and I don’t want it to win, I have a little order in myself just like you have a little chaos. I want to have fun and I can’t have fun when the world is burning.” He watched her leaving and yelled in an urgent tone he had never used before, “Before you leave I have two last things to tell you.”
       
She stopped and looked back at him, “Very well.”
       
“First before he arrives I will be free through, your action or his, and Nightmare will rise again. We are both beings of chaos and his powers will fuel us. Secondly use your wonderful powers to spy on ponies dreams to watch your Elements. They are tied to the balance just as much as we are but unlike us they are not divine, there just mere mortals.” Once he finished speaking he climbed up onto the pedestal continuing to speak as he began to shift back into stone, “I’m not going anywhere so come back for a visit sometime.”
       
Celestia walked into the castle and cleared her mind as she went, evidence of this was that as she walked the world began to reform back to proper. She however couldn’t get Discord’s idea of looking into Twilight’s dream out of her mind. It’s not like this would be her first time looking into her students dream. What could it hurt, she thought.

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“Spike,” Twilight called as she approached the crying dragon.
       
The little dragon was kneeling in front of a gravestone, crying and muttering, “Twilight,” over and over again.
       
As she approached her friend she could see the tombstone and the writing on the face.
Here lies

       
I’m dead? She thought, she then held a hoof up in front of her face and blinked, several times. It was transparent, I’M DEAD, her mind screamed.  How, what happened, where? Her mind raced, she had just been at Steel's party with everyone.
       
“Come on Spike we need to head out,” said a familiar voice.

Twilight looked up at the voice and recognized the pony, just as Spike said “Just a minute AJ,” he murmured something to the grave and then stood up to follow the orange earth pony.
       
As she followed the little dragon she saw two more markers that made her stop, the first.

The second.

Her heart beat faster and she sprinted after Spike and AJ. They lead her to the library, a giant bubble enclosed the tree, and everything inside the bubble was cleaner than the rest of the land.
       
“Come on Spike time to hope on,” said Applejack as she knelt down to allow the dragon on to her back.
       
“Right,” he muttered as he climbed up. Once AJ stood back up, Spike pulled out an amulet and pointed it at the bubble. A red beam shot out and it spread out opening a path through the orb.  The two walked through and the path collapsed.
       
Twilight watched them walk into the library from outside the shield, how am I going to get through this, she thought before an idea hit her, I’m a ghost, it’s worth a shot. She walked up to the bubble and put one hoof up to it and pressed slightly, it passed through without issue. She walked through the shield and the same method worked on the door. Once inside she saw the two disappearing into a hatch in the middle of the floor. When the hatch closed she walked over and looked if she hadn’t just seen it she never would have known it was there.  Looking around she saw that she was in the exact middle of the tree, she phased through the floor and onto a staircase in the trees tap root. She continued to phase through the stairs until she caught up with Applejack and Spike. It was the first time she had gotten a good look and AJ, a patch covered her right eye but she still had her hat and an air of confidence around her.
       
“I’m glad Steel shut down the defenses to Star Swirls lab before,” Spike said before trailing off into silence.
       
“Yep,” agreed Applejack, she paused looking at the ground, then looked up a dangerous glint in her eye, “I hope when it’s my turn to go I go out with a bang half the size he did.”
       
“Yeah, I’d just be happy to take that Angle out, after what he did to Fluttershy, even if we both went I’d be happy taking him with me,” said Spike with a look of determination that Twilight had never seen before.
       
Twilight furrowed her brow and followed the two down a stone hallway and into a large cavern, tent’s were set up and hundreds of ponies had gathered. Several were shaking and shivering, Cheerilee, was trying to maintain order over several younger ponies.  As Applejack walked by hushed whispers and looks of respect followed her. Eventually the two walked to the back and into a smaller cave to the side. Twilight followed phasing her head in through the door.
       
What she found inside amazed her, her four friends, Derpy, the two princesses along with Trixie, Discord, and a pony made entirely of shifting dark blue light.
       
“We’re ready,” said AJ as she bowed before Celestia.
       
“Very well,” said Celestia her voice a mix of numerous emotions, “My ponies, my friends, tonight I will give what may be my last order. Tomorrow, Applejack you will lead the Elements of Harmony, and Spike on an escort mission. You are to take my sister to Appleloosa, and then out somewhere, keep her safe.”
       
“Sister,” Luna began to protest.
       
“No, while you are safe, it ensures that the natural order will be maintained, and your existence will enable Discord and Nightmare to fight alongside me. The three of us will lead the monster into an ambush with the last of the Dragons.”
       
“But sister,” Luna’s protest continued.
       
“No sister, I know you wish to fight but you and the elements are our last chance, if we fail.”

"That's why we should be there with you one shot with everything we've got," said Applejack her one eye meeting Celestia's.
       
"No if we can't defeat this monster without you, your aid will not help," Celestia said, "You all will be responsible, for protecting what you can of this world and waiting until it leaves."

"Running away seems awfully cowardly to me and I ain't no coward" grumbled Applejack as she stared back at the princess.  

Twilight had to focus to hear this last statement it felt like she was being pulled away, what was going on, she thought fighting to stay here, to hear what was being said how did she die?
       
“If only Twilight was still here,” said Spike.
       
“I am!” yelled Twilight, her body felt like it was being stretched, and she could feel her head being pulled back through the door.
       
“Yes in the end it wasn’t ability that doomed my protégé, she ran out of spells, she ran out of options,” said the alabaster alicorn. She then stepped forward and spoke in a strong voice, “Tomorrow is going to be a momentous day, I don’t know if the plan will work, and if it does how many will survive, but we have no more options. I plead with you to do your best, do it for Twilight, for Fluttershy, for everyone we have lost.” The Princess then walked up to each of her friends, and spoke, “Rarity, pull your head up; trust your friends they won’t betray your generous trust.”
       
Twilight looked at her friends as the princess spoke they were all wounded in some way. Rarity had scars covering her face, and a discolored eye.
       
“Rainbow Dash, last of the Wonderbolts, never forget you are a symbol of loyalty to the ponies of the land, and the blood of Hurricane's warriors flows within you. Trust the loyalties you have, and always remember those ties can lift you up.”
       
Rainbow Dash looked up, she was in a Wonderbolt uniform, tears fell from her eyes.
       
“Pinkie Pie, your laughter will be needed once this is over.”
       
Pinkie’s hair had gone straight, and she was overweight, but she nodded.
       
“Derpy Hooves, you are one of the kindest ponies I have met, you need to remember you have big hooves to fill.”
       
Derpy, gave the princess a salute and nodded, she looked the best out of everyone.
       
“Trixie, even though you are an outsider to this group, thank you for helping my sister and you will never be alone as long as you have your friends.”
       
Trixie looked disheveled; she had gotten rid of her cloak and hat, and sat down staring at the floor.      
       
“Now I must go speak to the rest of the ponies,” she said with a swallow. She looked up and walked out through the door Twilight was looking through.
       
The door slammed into the wall and Twilight slammed into the floor of the library she had fallen out of bed, she was coiled in her bed sheets and couldn’t easily get free no matter how much she struggled. "Spike, Spike, I need some help." She really didn't, she could get out of this easily with magic but she needed an excuses to wake the little dragon, after that dream she needed someone to talk to.            

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Celestia woke up disturbed after observing Twilight's dream; both her dream world and Twilight's had been similar. She wasn’t sure what that meant but she knew it wasn’t good. Standing up she stretched the sleep from her limbs and set off to find her sister, she wanted to talk with Luna about what she had discovered. Maybe it was nothing but it felt true, maybe between the two of them a plan could be formed.