//------------------------------// // Blow Out the Nighttime Stars // Story: Remembering to See // by IsabellaAmoreSirenix //------------------------------// Panic. The citizens of Canterlot were not strangers to the concept. As residents of a city nearly torn apart by riots, an outbreak of panic would have been a natural, ordinary response. But of course, the citizens of Canterlot were not your ordinary, average pony. Living in the cultural center of the world, these were Equestria’s best and brightest, and whether their hooves wielded a telescope, a paintbrush, or a simple feathered quill, all were dominated by a mind armed with wit as sharp as a rapier. These ponies were intelligent, rational creatures, blessed with the ability to not get caught up in the middle of a situation, but rather analyze it, control it, and rise above it. It was a reputation in which the city Canterlot held the highest regard. Nopony would have guessed anything of the sort that night. Those who were not cowering in their homes now filled the streets, everypony stumbling about in a blind panic. Like a detonated bomb, the terrified throngs mowed down everything in their path as they ran like Cerberus was nipping at their tails. All around, fires started to spring up to watch the horrid scene, with their crackling embers applauding the spectacle and their demonic faces twisting into a mockery of laughter. Yet the ponies remained blind and deaf to their audience; amidst the confusion, their sights were set solely on the gates at the outskirts of town. That gate was their lifeline, their passage to freedom. If they passed through, they would be safe. Nopony made it that far. One by one, ponies fell to ground as bolts of fire and lightning crashed to the cobblestone like meteors. They lay motionless among the ashes and smoldering coals in the streets, where the bodies piled up higher and higher, only to be trampled underhoof by those who would just seconds later succumb to the same fate. Every time a bolt struck, over the wailing and crying, there came the unified scream: “Look, look up at the sky!” At the warning, Sunshine Diamonds raised her eyes to the sky, where she saw the bolts of fire streaming from the single white beam of light coming from the highest spire of Canterlot Castle. “Celestia,” the mare breathed, horrified. Then, without a second’s thought, she began her arduous trek towards the castle. At the beginning, it was like swimming upstream against a raging current, but as the crowds thinned, Sunshine was able to pick up speed before breaking into a full-on gallop. She kept her eyes set on the castle, daring not to look above or below her. And if she closed her eyes, she could almost trick herself into thinking the squelching of flesh and breaking of bones was nothing more than the squish of mud and snapping of twigs underhoof. But of course, she couldn’t, so she instead she let her mind switch to autopilot as she fell into the steady rhythm of evading fiery death. Soon enough, Sunshine reached a completely deserted area of the city. There, bodies lay draped across every surface like discarded ragdolls, with the faint rise and fall of their chests the only evidence to the contrary. In the stark light of a distant fire, each of their features was thrown into relief. A sturdy pegasus stallion crushed under a fallen beam. A unicorn mare slumped at the base of a lamppost. A pair of teenage colts huddled motionless in the shadow of a doorway. A small unicorn filly surrounded by shards of glass from a broken window. A pegasus mare with her tangled pastel blue mane stained with dirt, puke, and something worse. A million pictures flashed by Sunshine’s eyes in a matter of seconds. The hairs of fur on her back stood on end as she felt fear pour into her veins like ice cold water that was enough to make any mare drop to her knees at the sight of those unfortunate souls, each wearing an identical expression of terror. Yet with a shudder, she cast off the sensation. She would not let herself become one of them. So plowed forward through the silent wasteland, picking up more and more speed until the only thing she knew how to do was run far, far, far away, her steps in perfect rhythm with the beating of her heart. “What in Tartarus is going on?” That was the only introduction Sunshine gave from the moment she saw Apple Harvest’s head peek out the opened castle door. “Does this have to do with Celestia? Is she alright?” “I am… uncertain,” Harvest admitted. “The Solar Tower has been sealed off with a particularly… volatile force field. Any attempts to reach the princess have been unsuccessful.” He shuddered. “I doubt those scorch marks will ever come off the portraits in that hallway. …But at least nopony’s hurt, so that’s alright, I suppose,” he finished on a bleakly positive note. Harvest’s meager smile faltered as he saw Sunshine bite her lip and turn away. “Your grandparents' portraits were in there, weren’t they?” Harvest asked with a sinking feeling in his gut. Sunshine swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yes,” she replied, tears welling the rim of her eyes. “Err… if you don’t mind my asking… how much did they cost?” “1.6 million bits,” she told the financial advisor with a sniffle. “Shoot,” he muttered before giving Sunshine a reassuring smile. “Hey, don’t worry! When this is all over, I’m sure the Crown can replace all of them! And ruin my budget plans for the next five years,” he murmured as a bitter aside. “If any of us are here at all when – if – it’s over,” Sunshine corrected. “Well, I hope at least the castle staff will be spared,” he said. “I’ve ordered a full lockdown on the castle. Most of the ponies are gathered in the West Wing, so I believe they’ll be safe.” “What do you mean by most?” Sunshine asked. “Well, Grand Mage Starswirl insisted that he stay in his tower,” Harvest answered, pawing at the floor in nervousness. “He says he’s working on a way to fix whatever’s happening, and… well, it seems like something a unicorn would have more expertise in, and besides, he’s my superior, so what else could I do? I do hope he’s okay up there,” he added with a worried glance at the trembling ceiling before putting on his usual confident smile. “He’ll be alright, of course he will,” Harvest said, more to reassure himself than Sunshine. “It’ll take more than magical hellfire to faze him.” “Do you really believe that?” Harvest gave her a surprised look, as if the answer was obvious. “Of course I do. Princess Celestia obviously trusted him, so I will as well. I believe that he’ll be able to save us all.” He let a small smile brush upon his lips. “Just as I believe you’ll be able to help us too, my Lady,” he finished with a respectful bow. “I believe her help will not be necessary,” commented an approaching voice. The two ponies turned their heads to watch Starswirl, looking haggard but triumphant, join them at the front of the grand hall. “I’ve been able to counter Princess Celestia’s magic,” the mage announced proudly. “The Solar Tower is now safe to enter, and with the guard informed, I believe this crisis will all be over quite soon. In the meantime though, I think it wise that you escort Lady Diamonds to the West Wing, Apple Harvest.” “And what will you do in the meantime?” "I'll be organizing the princess' guard, of course. After all, I'll want to have adequate backup in the possible event that things go awry." Starswirl paused, then looked back to Apple Harvest. "That isn't going to be a problem, is it?" The two stallions looked at each other dead on, each expecting some sort of a challenge. And even though one had the upper hoof in years and experience, it was painfully clear who held the final authority. Harvest opened his mouth, attempting to speak, but he just ended up swallowing the words. "I... very well then. Come along now, Miss Diamonds, let's get you to the West Wing." Sunshine initially fought against the order until her stubbornness faltered under Harvest's imploring gaze, after which she grudgingly allowed his hoof to guide her to the left staircase. "What do you think you're doing?" She demanded in a whisper as he whisked her away. "You do not truly intend to just walk away, do you?" "What else do you expect me to do?" Harvest snarled out of the corner of his mouth. "He's a unicorn, but more than that, he's Princess Celestia's right hoof; Equestria is under his authority in the princess' absence. He is Celestia in her absence. Do you have any idea how much she's done for me, how much I owe her for her graciousness? Forgive for my blunt rudeness, Miss, but I won't undermine her, not now, not ever, and not simply at your behest." Then, a bit more kindly, "Starswirl doesn't ask for many things, but one thing he does expect is respect when it comes to his field. He wouldn't ask for my lack of assistance unless it was truly important." Sunshine nodded her head. "I see," she conceded finally, "and I respect your viewpoint, Apple Harvest." At that, he broke out into a most genuine smile. "Thank you, my Lady," he sighed in relief. "It helps a great deal to know I have your understanding and cooperation in this—“ "Which is why I hope you'll respect my viewpoint when I say I disagree entirely," she interrupted, all with the same patronizing smile that had now dripped off Apple Harvest's face like sap turned sour. "Oh, Grand Mage Starswirl!" She called sweetly as she briskly trotted over to him. "A word if you will!" Horsespples. When she skidded to a halt, the smile was wiped from her face entirely. “I want you to take me with you,” she said, her voice deadly serious. “No.” There was no sugarcoating it; the word just fell like a blunt axe. Sunshine revealed no sign of disappointment; rather, her icy eyes swept over him, appraising him, in the way a jeweler would examine a priceless diamond. “You are a stallion of reason, are you not, Starswirl? Then I will not give you a heartfelt, sentimental speech about why you should take me. Instead, I will give you a perfectly logical, practical reason, one that in all honesty I am surprised you did not reach yet, given your knowledge of the castle’s magic wards. Although, I suppose your ignorance should not be too surprising.” That struck a chord with Starswirl. “Make this quick,” he snapped. “I don’t have all night for pleading and excuses.” The young mare sneered. It was smooth sailing from there. “Very well then. As you know, when the castle is under lockdown, magical wards set in place by the Mage Council – including your prestigious self – are now activated in the Solar Tower for the princess’ protection. All main pathways there are closed off; even if you undid your enchantments, you don’t have the time to undo the others.” “The servants’ entrance isn’t enchanted,” Starswirl countered. “I was intending to go that way.” “You can’t,” Sunshine said with a shrug. “That defense mechanism is a stone slab over the entrance. Earth pony designed, you see. You could break it down if you wanted, or at least, if you wanted half the tower to fall with it. “But that’s where I come in. You see, there’s a secret passage in the tower that leads to an offshoot of the princess’ chambers. It’s used solely for non-official visits, and known by only a few of Princess Celestia’s closest friends. And it just so happens that I’m one of them.” Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “How was it that I was not informed?” he asked suspiciously. Sunshine shrugged. “Maybe you should stop by for tea once in a while,” she teased. “Then tell me where it is and how to access it,” he demanded, brushing aside her comment. “And give away my trump card?” Sunshine asked, feigning shock. “Heavens, no! I want to go, and you’re taking me with you.” “I thought you weren’t giving me a heartfelt, sentimental reason.” “I’m not,” Sunshine retorted with her intense, chilling glare. “My motives remain my own. Nor do they matter to you. You don’t have time to debate this with me. No guards, no backup; they'll just get in the way. If you want to save Equestria and Celestia, you must take me with you.” “Grand Mage Starswirl, if I may ease your worries,” Apple Harvest said, stepping in between the deadlock glare, “I will gladly accompany you and Lady Diamonds. Perhaps my presence will keep her from being… ah, a hindrance.” Starswirl looked back and forth between Sunshine and Harvest, until finally he resigned himself to fate with a sigh. “Just keep up, because I won’t be slowing down for you,” he said before trotting up the spiral staircase. The two ponies waited until Starswirl was out of earshot before sharing a small hoofbump. “Success!” Harvest exclaimed happily. “Wonderful job, Lady Diamonds; I knew you could get us in!” “Excuse me?” she asked, half out of disgruntlement and half out of amusement as Harvest practically skipped up the steps. “What’s that supposed to mean?” “Oh, you didn’t expect me to actually confront Starswirl, did you?” he remarked in his same lighthearted tone. “That would be like trying to slay a full-grown dragon! No, you were much more suited for the mission.” “So you used me?” Sunshine asked, a hint of a playful smile traced in thin pencil on her lips. “I prefer ‘mutual trading,’” he said with a wink. “Then what do I get in return?” “A 1.6 billion bit portrait of yourself, naturally.” Laughter bubbled to Sunshine’s mouth. “You know you’re going to regret that later.” “Yeah, well I’m just going to conveniently forget the consequences for now,” Harvest decided to Sunshine’s amusement. “By the way,” he added, “is there really a secret passage to Celestia’s chambers?” “Pft, certainly not!” Sunshine laughed. “No, we’ll be taking the servants’ way. By then, it’ll be far too late to turn back—“ Suddenly there was a blast from outside shook the tower, sending Sunshine and Harvest stumbling into the wall. “Woah,” Harvest remarked as he stretched out his hoof to Sunshine once the trembling stopped. “Are you alright?” “Yes,” Sunshine said. She nodded her head, half to affirm her statement and half to rid herself of the ringing in her ears. “Just a little… fazed, is all. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” “We should be moving along then,” he said, nervously glancing at the fiery sky. He gave a quick jerk of the head before carrying on, not noticing the swoosh of flight over his head. But Sunshine lingered by the window, looking out at the apocalyptic scene before her. This wasn’t nearly as worse as the Lunar Rebellion, but then again, that wasn’t saying much. Still, she couldn’t help but think back to all those bodies lying still in the streets. What being would they face at the top of the tower that had so much power upon those below? Not quite dead, not quite alive; not physically hurt but emotionally terrified. Suspended animation was inaccurate. A coma, questionable. Sleep, too nice a term. The ponies outside weren’t resting in peace. So then, in what? Fear consuming her, Sunshine’s eyes couldn’t look away from the flaming orbs of hellfire, littering the sky with numbers as numerous as the stars, growing closer and closer, until her entire vision was filled with burning light. “Celestia?” Sunshine called. Her voice echoed strangely throughout the deserted garden, like the silent ringing of a hollowed bell. The whole world was quiet: no screams, no wails, no crashes of fire. It was the silence of a graveyard, of one who wished not to wake the dead. It was here in the royal gardens that Sunshine stopped to breathe. In the back of her mind, she knew she should be in the tower with Apple Harvest and Starswirl, but it never broke the surface of her consciousness, as if the rest of the world was lying dead on the bottom of the ocean. All Sunshine knew was a feeling, an intensely burning sensation in her heart that Celestia was here. A rustle. Sunshine turned her head, only to come face-to-face with a bed of flowers, their bright red petals glowing in the moonlight. A sob. Her tensed nerves sent her head jolting to the side, but not fast enough. All she saw was a bush of gnarled thorns. A laugh. This time, she turned with near neck-snapping force, sending her flying into the side of a large stone fountain, engraved with unknown runes. Brackish water from a choking angel fell silently into the basin. A song. Sunshine didn’t even have to turn, for the cause of it could already be seen. One, two, three, four, five, six; there marched one by one out of the shrubbery the most appalling abominations Sunshine had ever seen. They were six young mares, each with coats as dark as midnight and curled manes that shone like silver starlight, but that was where the loveliness stopped. Those features alone could have given them otherworldly beauty if they had not been horribly mutilated. Buttons had been placed over gouged out eye sockets, while red thread had sown their mouths shut into an eternal leer. A gold chain with a blood red crescent moon threatened to choke their throats, lined with scars that reopened into gashing wounds. Their appearance was like that of a broken doll, hastily fixed but still coming apart. The leader’s buttons would continuously pop out of place, revealing a cracked eye that shattered into nothingness, only to revert back to normal in a blink. The sixth one would keep having to stop and re-sow a skull patch back over her blank flank. In the meantime, Number Three would break the stitches on her mouth and scream out a barrage of nails that impaled themselves on the back of the second pony, who would take them and arrange them into a heart over her chest. Number Five would laugh manically at the others’ suffering, at least until she broke out into a seizure, undoing the sown patches of black hide to reveal a white skeleton. But perhaps worst of all was the fourth one, whose head would do a 360 degree spin, faster and faster, until it flew off its body, connected only by a spring that would snap back the head back into place before starting the whole morbid sequence over again. But Sunshine paid them no mind, even as they paraded around the garden, singing the song from Celestia’s nightmare. She couldn’t allow herself to focus on them. She had to find Celestia. Just as the thought crossed her mind, her eyes caught on a glint of gold, like that of the princess’ crown. Turning her head, Sunshine saw that it came from the depths of a deep, deep pond. There was no hesitation; it didn’t even cross her mind that she should hesitate. All saw was the promise of Celestia below, and the water as still as glass standing in the way. Not even taking a deep breath, Sunshine shattered the glass as she plunged headfirst into the water, into to the darkness below. Or at least, there would have been darkness below if it had not been illuminated by a breathtaking light. A pure white light bathed the world in its radiant glow, splitting and fracturing against the swirling water to create a kaleidoscope of stars. Sunshine kept turning to find the source of the ethereal light, but it followed her every movement. Only when she stretched out her hoof did she discover that her whole body was now composed of living diamonds. A whoop of laughter popped from a bubble issuing from her lips as she gazed awestruck at her reflection. Light danced on the surface of her skin, turning her into living, shining light. She was light. She was beautiful. When Sunshine finally looked away from her reflection, she saw to her further delight that a school of fish was swimming happily around her, with their scales reflecting her light to create a dazzling arch of rainbows that encircled Sunshine like a halo. She watched as they danced around her, smiled at her, revered her, like planets forever spinning around the glorious sun. It was intoxicating, and she quickly lost herself in the euphoric bliss of her own radiance. So lost was she in her own little world that she didn’t notice at first the pain of the fire inside her. At first, she believed it was a flame within her that supplied her with light, but as the burning grew more intense in her lungs, she realized its more serious purpose. With a powerful kick, she propelled herself away from the fish to break the surface of the water. No sooner had she taken a deep gulp of air than she choked on it as she saw what lay above her in the garden. While she had been underwater, a statue had been erected of Celestia, around which the six broken dolls now danced, cheering and singing and giving praise to their idol that glowed with the pure luminesce of the sun itself. Sunshine held back tears as she saw that light weakly bounce off her diamond skin, once so radiant and now so grey and dismal. A reflection. An imitation. Nothing else but that. As despair sunk into her heart, a new, boiling kind of feeling rose to the surface. Her face twisted into a scowl at the spectacle. The water rose up around her in a fearsome tempest, growing more and more turbulent until the waves rose nearly thirty feet into the air, brushing against the stars as it prepared to crash onto the shore. Then the water stopped in midair as the six Clara Dolls turned their gaze on Sunshine. For a frozen second, all was silent as Sunshine locked eyes with those blank, unfeeling buttons contemplating her. She braced herself for an attack when suddenly, as if by some unspoken command, they picked up brittle twigs and with eerie synchronicity brushed them against the stars, setting the ends on fire. Armed with torches, the Clara Dolls proceeded to set the statue of Celestia on fire. Faces contorted into hideous sneers, they skipped happily around their creation, all the while singing the same nightmare melody as she burned. Satisfied, Sunshine lowered herself under the water once more. Now, her diamond skin glowed a spectrum of blazing reds and oranges. Imaginary tongues of flame licked at the fish, which fearfully sped away in a spurt of bubbles, leaving Sunshine alone. She scoffed at their insolence. There was nothing to fear from her. Now that Celestia was burning, she would be the sun. Her own radiance and beauty would shine across Equestria. She could feel it now, the grandiose power of the sun radiating from her core, seeping to the surface, searing the nape of her neck… An underwater scream caught in her throat as she turned and saw Celestia, now a vengeful mare of fire, lobbing solar flares at the water, while the Clara Dolls waved their extinguished torches and cheered her on, their garish faces grinning in satisfaction. A deafening roar issued from Celestia’s gaping maw as she assaulted Sunshine’s pond with fire. The water boiled to an unbearable temperature, heat melting her diamonds into a dull coating that cooked her skin bloody raw. Her eyes dilated, part in fear, part in pain. Either way, she had to escape Celestia’s wrath. She started swimming deeper into the pond, but Celestia was causing the water to evaporate so fast that soon her hind legs were left exposed to the blows that singed at her fur. Any tears that sprang to her eyes were indistinguishable from the receding water that would soon be her grave. Fire was all around, blazing upon the water, swirling in her deprived lungs, and flaming in her eyes, filled with the vision of a demon, the last thing they would ever see. Her hooves scraped the bottom. She was trapped in a corner. Her fish lay dead on the shore. Only a little water remained to stand between her and hellfire. There was only one thing for her to do. Shutting her eyes, she begged the resilient final dregs of water to wrap around her, mixing with the melted diamonds to form a hardened substance that left her immobile. It engulfed her, rising from her legs and spreading across her torso, preserving her for time immemorial. As her heart ticked the final countdown, it spread over her eyes, leaving her blind. Even still, as she lay broken and defeated, she sent up her final prayer. I wish I could see a statue of myself in that garden. With a resounding crack, Sunshine became encased in ice. A loud cry was strangled in her throat as her eyes snapped open. Her eyes darted around wildly, first at the pure white ceiling, then the pitch-black night outside, and finally the clear shards of glass circled around her before the colors all blurred into one. She held back a moan as tingling waves of pain came from her legs and the back of her neck, all stiffened and bent at odd angles. Her heart was beating rapidly, sending blood pounding in her ears and gushing with dizzying force to her head, worsened only by the vigorous shaking of two hooves gripping her shoulders. Collectively, it was enough to make Sunshine lose her temper as she snapped, “Would you stop it already? I’m up, I’m up, you don’t need to shake the brains out of me to know I’m not dead.” Starswirl merely brushed the comment aside as he let go of her and watched her pick herself up from the cold cobblestone staircase. “For all I knew, you could have been.” “I thought you weren’t going to slow down for me,” she demanded, narrowing her eyes into slits. “Why did you wait?” “Information.” The reply was impassive. “In case you couldn’t figure it out, you were hit by a fireball. What happened to you?” Sunshine scowled, but answered quietly with, “A dream. A strange, disturbing dream. No, more than that. A nightmare. A terrifying one, more so than I’ve ever felt before.” The Grand Mage nodded. “Just as I predicted. This magic isn’t Princess Celestia’s; though from my analysis, it takes her form. The core of its power comes from the corrupted Princess Luna. She’s controlling her.” “Then what are we waiting here for? We need to go and save Celestia before she destroys Equestria!” Starswirl shook his head. “We can’t.” “And why not?” she snapped. Wordlessly, he stepped to the side. A gasp caught in her throat. Apple Harvest lay motionless across the floor, with a trickle of blood dripping into his vacant eyes. When Apple Harvest opened his eyes, the world was green. The lush green grass lay underhoof in the morning dew, while the green leaves of trees swayed in the breeze before fluttering to the ground like snow. Row after row of trees continued on into infinity, blurring into one virescent hue. Even the domed sky above bore a green tint, as if even the sun in the heavens wanted to emulate the vibrancy of nature’s humble dress. Nature’s presence was everywhere: in the fragrant aroma of the tiny green apples in the trees, in the sweet melody of chirping birds, and in the simple, raw, authentic aura of the loving earth. Apple Harvest hated it. Without even thinking, he took off running, somewhere, nowhere, anywhere but this monochromatic prison. The uniform trees closed in on him, merging into two walls on either side, but he was fine with that. It only told him the path on which to run away. He didn’t look back, not even once, just as he had done when he was seven years old. You never looked back when it came to the heart. The route was just as he remembered it. Right, right, left, right, straight, left, right, as he made his way to freedom. His hooves trod along the dirt path with the familiarity of an old friend. It would have been a fond reunion, a revisiting of happy memories, except happiness was never here, not for him. Everywhere else was made happy for being the place where this was not. Harvest skidded to a halt just seconds before he would have crashed into the green dome around the apple orchard. He didn’t bother trying to break through it. That was what he would have done before, but now he was different, changed. He had intellect, and that intellect was telling him to analyze. Up in the sky, there was the sun at its acme. Unlike the rest of the world, it shone a beautiful white, but more than that, its light highlighted flaws in the forcefield, flaws that all converged on that bright white vanishing point. That was its weak point. It needed to be broken. Harvest picked up a fallen green apple and rolled it in his hoof curiously. A young colt in another life had once played a game like this, where he would stand twenty yards away from a basket and still toss the apple in with flawless precision and confidence. Now, it sat in his hoof and filled him with doubt. He hadn’t played, or even thought about this for years. His aim was perfect. The apple disappeared into the light as green tinted glass shattered and came crashing down into nothing. Harvest looked up at the beautiful blue sky and took a deep gulp of a breath before choking on it as he watched the branches of trees reach up like fingers clawing towards heaven. They scratched viciously at the blue sky, which flaked like dry paint to reveal a raw and bloody backdrop beneath. Now tainted with splotches of rusting red, the branches stretched and merged together to form one grand ladder leading into the heart of the sun itself. Harvest grabbed onto the lowest rung and quickly scrambled up the ladder. Higher and higher it went, creaking and moaning in the wind. Even as he nimbly skirted around the more spindly branches, it still groaned under his weight and threatened to give out any moment, sending him plunging back down into the green world. He released a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding as the last rung dispelled into mist and turned into a platform beneath him. Now, at the very top, there was no green to be seen below, only white. Blank white walls were everywhere, above and below and on all sides. Featureless. Empty. Silent. Like a blank canvas or a blank page, it held the potential that only new beginnings had. The only remnant of the old green world was the little green apple he had thrown that now sat in the center of the white. He held the apple in his hoof and scrutinized it carefully. It was a softer green than he had remembered, easier on the eyes, and yet even its faded glaucous color stood in stark contrast with the surrounding white. It did not belong here, a fact that filled him with an unappealing mix of pity, contempt, and nostalgia, but mostly shame. It didn’t belong there. He could stamp it out right then and there, but that wouldn’t be right. It should at least be aloud to ripen to a bright, shiny red. He looked around. A misty fog was encroaching. The apple wouldn’t last long out in the open. It needed to be tucked away in secret, never to see the light of day. So Apple Harvest did the only logical thing. He shoved the apple into his chest. With a bright glow of magic, the apple passed through the skin and tissue seamlessly. It was not a painful or unpleasant feeling, much to his surprise; rather, the apple merely hung suspended inside for a moment, as if becoming acclimated to its new home, before settling into a cavity in his right breast, where it stayed like a second heart. It was a little heavy, but bearable, even when made all the heavier by a gloomy music hanging in the air, singing of doom and despair and foreboding and death… Wait, what? From out of the swirling mist, there emerged the six Clara Dolls, all singing Celestia’s nonsensical nightmare song as they marched about with cheerfulness on borderline insanity. This time, however, they were adorned with royal cloaks, crowns, and scepters, each piece being so disproportionately large it was almost amusing. But Apple Harvest couldn’t do anything than tremble in a decidedly unamused manner as their bright red clocks dragged behind them, their bejeweled crowns slipped and severed their button eyes, and their golden scepters scraped across the floor in a single drawn-out screech. The morbid procession stopped when the leader suddenly turned her head, as if hearing her name, and marched straight up to Harvest. She stood mere centimeters in front of him, her rattling breaths sending shivers down his spine, shivers made all the more intense when he felt a moist and sticky substance drip onto his chest. Looking down, he saw a paintbrush held in her hoof and a dollop of white paint smeared on his fur. He recoiled in disgust. The Clara Doll cocked her head to the side curiously, innocently inquisitive. Protection, her soft, child-like voice whispered, even as her lips remained stitched up. That stands out too much. With her paintbrush, she pointed to his chest, now pulsating a neon green. Apple Harvest nodded in compliance. Tentatively, he took a step forward, now in reach of her paintbrush. Closing his eyes, he felt the paint hug the contours of his body, melding seamlessly. As the other five Clara Dolls joined her, the process sped up, with paint quickly swirling up his legs, along his back, rising higher and higher until it engulfed his face. The paint solidified into a second skin, as natural as if it was his from the day he was born. Harvest opened his eyes and looked down to find in relief that the glowing green light was completely obscured. A grateful smile graced his features, as he tried to hold out his hoof to the Clara Doll. It wouldn’t move an inch. His heart dropped into his stomach. A Clara Doll giggled as she held up a black string tied to his front leg. Four others did the same, revealing strings crisscrossed around his legs, neck, and face. Meanwhile, the leader smiled affectionately as she held up the brush to his face. Trust me, you’re better off not seeing this. Then she swiped the brush across his eyes. At once, everything slowed down. His mind fell under a deep fog, and his heartbeat faded to a steady glug. The now white-tinted world swirled with a dense mist that obscured the Clara Dolls as they pulled his strings, making him dance and bow and smile like a puppet. As he fell into a lulling rhythm of these motions, he felt no need to resist their control. He was in the land of white, where nothing would be unpleasant or sad. As long as he was not in the sad land of green, he would be happy. He didn’t care what happened to him so long as the apple was safe. Like a sudden pause button, the Clara Dolls’ laughter was cut short only to instantly be replaced by far lovelier one. The beautiful sound rang out across the white abyss, like light breaking through storm clouds. Apple Harvest’s heart soared at the innocent, lighthearted laugh, and his smile muscles strained against the tight black strings. A doll yanked his head up to watch as Celestia skipped into existence from the mist. Her pure white coat made all else look the drabbest grey in comparison. Radiance poured forth from her smile like the incarnate sun she was, and like all life on earth, Apple Harvest strained to be near her. He fought to match her smile, to make himself noticeable, but the strings kept his face blank and impassive. Luckily for him though, Celestia was already on a direct course straight towards him. Her magenta eyes studied him curiously, as if searching for an answer beneath the mask of white. Suddenly, her head jerked upward as she lifted her ears to catch a voice unheard on the wind. Worry briefly flashed across her eyes as her head pivoted to face an unseen figure off in the distance, before she regained her previous smile. “It’s alright, Sunshine; there’s nothing here,” she called to another room of infinity. Then she turned back and looked Harvest straight in the eye. “It’s just an empty husk.” Before Harvest had time to react, Celestia simply lifted his head off his neck to reveal a gaping hole where he himself should have been, was actually there, but no longer present. He mentally shuddered as he felt a cold draft whistle through the black void of emptiness. Well, almost empty. His breath hitched in his throat as he felt Celestia reach inside him, take hold of the apple, and lift it out. His heart beat frantically, not daring to bear witness to the moment of truth, the undeniable evidence of the land of green that would be his ruin. When Celestia realigned his head, he almost didn’t believe she had done it right. Surely, something had gone wrong, had turned the universe upside down, for it couldn’t possibly be true. This was worse, far worse than what he could ever imagine. Celestia held out an apple as white as death. “I don’t want to talk about it.” This was Sunshine and Harvest’s universal reply any time Starswirl opened his mouth, a cycle that resulted in graveyard silence as they made their way up the Solar Tower. Thoughts swirled about both their heads, scary thoughts of inner feelings and questions to which they didn’t have answers. Like pulling on a rubber band, they stretched out five minutes into five eternities, with one end tied to them and the other stretched across realms to that other nightmare self, one that might be closer to home than either dared to admit. During all that time, they tried to push those thoughts deep into the farthest recesses of their minds, while Starswirl fought the inquisitive instinct to pull them to the surface. Finally, he stopped and turned around. “Alright, this is getting ridiculous,” Starswirl stated bluntly. “If you two aren’t going to tell me the details of… well, whatever happened to you, then I’ll have to get them myself.” Apple Harvest only displayed a brief moment of surprise before asking with his usual composure, “And how do you propose to do that?” “Simple. You two were hit by those magic fireballs, were you not? I don’t find much obstacle in doing the same to myself.” “With all due respect, Grand Mage Starswirl, I don’t believe you want to do that,” Harvest advised as a shudder went down his spine. “This isn’t the time for such an experiment,” Sunshine chimed in. “We must get to the princess quickly, remember?” “But what of when we reach the top?” Starswirl countered. “I doubt Princess Luna’s power will be quelled without confrontation, and to do that, I will have to fight her magic, which will most likely be similar to what you experienced. If I can figure out how to fight off her nightmare visions, then it will be all the more easier to fight it off in reality.” “You’ll get lost in the nightmare,” Harvest warned him. “Whatever you see, you’ll think it’s real.” “But unlike you, I will be entering with awareness. I won’t lose control.” “But what if you can’t get out of it?” Sunshine asked, thinking back to all the motionless bodies she had run past in the streets. “Nopony else in Canterlot has been able to.” “That is because they were all hit simultaneously, with nopony else around to wake them,” Starswirl explained in full confidence. “Just give me five minutes; it is all I ask. If I do not find a way by then, you can wake me up.” Starswirl looked directly into twin stars of jade and aquamarine, both filled with apprehension and worry for him. Unwillingly, he felt his voice catch in his throat. “I’ll… I’ll be counting on you.” Then without waiting for a reply, Starswirl smashed the nearest window and let his vision burn in flaming light. When Starswirl opened his eyes, he found himself looking up at himself. Well, himself times a thousand, more accurately. All his faces looked down at him with identical expressions of slight surprise as they were flattened against the ceiling into the realm of two-dimensional. At once, Starswirl knew where he was. This was one of the crystal caverns of Myrtania from his expeditions beyond Equestria. Every facet of every crystal was in its remembered place, as if he had been transported back in time. He keen eyes studied the scene fascinatedly, trying to take in the slightest of details and record them for the sake of research, but more so, understanding. He didn’t have any particularly significant memories from there, just that they held crystals used in making rune stones, so why the nightmare had decided to take place there was unknown to him. But never mind that, he chastised himself, remembering the task at hoof. In the center of the cavern stood a solitary candle, distorting the copy-and-pasted faces in the flickering light. His reflections watched as he approached the candle and lifted it experimentally with his magic. So he could use magic here. That was the part he had been most concerned about. He then cautiously dipped his hoof into the flame, only to recoil with a yelp. Starswirl studied it curiously as he rubbed his burning red hoof. So pain could be felt in these dreams. That was important; it suggested something more powerful than a mere illusion. Breaking off a piece of crystal, he carved a rough pentagram in the ground around the candle. Then he took a step back so he was just outside the line, placed a thoughtful hoof to his chin, and decided on which spell to use. Planting his hooves in a steadying position, he began channeling magic, forming strands of pale blue light that flowed into the pentagram. When the last leyline fell into place, a wall of light flared into existence around the candle. His Deconstruction Spell swept over the feeble source of light, only to remain resiliently in existence when the magic faded into wisps of smoke. Starswirl shrugged off the temporary failure. He could figure out a way to defeat Luna’s corrupted magic in due time. A Mental Disruption Hex. Nothing. A Magical Composition Analysis. Zilch. A Distortion Bypass Enchantment. A slight breeze. A Headache Relieving Incantation. That only helped a little. Starswirl could feel the eyes of his thousand reflections boring into the back off his neck, evaluating his every action, and boring straight into his soul. He repressed a shudder as he gritted his teeth in resolve. It’s just a dream, just a dream, just a dream, he repeated like a saving mantra as he continued on. Finally, when his last spell puttered out, he fell to the floor gasping for breath, while he glared down that impertinent little candle. As its tiny flame mocked him, so too did his reflections look down disparagingly at himself and his incompetence. Starswirl felt the blood rise and burn in his veins. Looking up into the endless crowd of laughing faces, he desired nothing more than to smash each and every crystal, to watch as their jeers shattered into pieces that littered the floor amidst their broken bodies… He mentally shook himself. None of this was real. He couldn’t let them get to his head. He had to make plans. It was obvious that his attempts at magic were getting him nowhere. No matter how differently time flowed in the dream, his five minutes wouldn’t last forever. The wisest course of action would be to explore as much of the nightmare as possible in order to hopefully work out its inner machinations. And escape those watching eyes. With a plan now in mind, Starswirl turned his attention to the lone, impervious candle. While it would be nice to have a source of light in the caverns, it was welded firmly into the ground, and the wax wouldn’t snap off from the base. So instead he approached it carefully, while his reflections followed his every movement. The hairs on the back of his neck tingled. For the sake of his sanity, those needed to be destroyed. But smashing every one would neither be practical nor efficient. So he settled for the next best thing. Out of sight, out of mind, after all. Laughter ringing in his head, Starswirl blew the candle out. …Only to see another source of light off in the distance. A stronger yet softer light than the candle spread out before him, splashing a silver glow onto the shadowy features of Princess Luna’s chambers. It trailed on the floor like a swirling path, bending and contorting only to flow out into the adjacent room. With a sharp intake of breath, Starswirl fought to repress the memories that now accompanied this place. It was just the dream trying to get under his skin. This was not the time to be getting emotional. He had to be rational if he wanted to get out of this, and right now every rational bone in his body was screaming not to follow that silver light. And yet all that screaming was drowned out by the quietest murmuring that swelled from that room. It quickly rose to a fierce yet subdued crescendo until the mysterious chant could be heard. “Regubaru Kuriyan, Zandasuatibon, Regatoruaruban, Zandoraimouru. Regubaru Kuriyan, Zandasuatibon, Regatoruaruban, Zandoraimouru. Regubaru Kuriyan, Zandasuatibon…” The words were utter nonsense, but that was unimportant. The only thing that mattered to him was the speaker, whose voice he could place amidst a roaring din of thousands. Almost unwillingly, his hooves were drawn to the silver path of jagged light. To his surprise, it stung like a bitter cold wind, yet he persisted, spurred onward by curiosity and an even graver sin, until he threw open the door and tumbled headfirst into the light. At the sound of the door swinging shut, the bright illumination dimmed to reveal Rose Petal, though not the one he knew from the land of reality, wherever that was now. Gone was the servant apron in which he had seen her last, replaced by a black religious gown with a matching lace veil down the back of her head. Wilted bouquet flowers were punctuated with barbed wire that crisscrossed like a corset around her chest, dripping with blood from the wounds. She was the mockery of a bride as her joy changed to pain, but not from the barbs. Rather, it came from the weight she had to carry. Tied to her right hoof was a cross, now turned upside down into what looked like a wooden sword. Upon the tip, she balanced the flaming orb of the sun, and on top of it, the silver sphere of the moon. While not even the size of the room, Starswirl could tell the weight was causing Rose Petal great pain. Her hind legs trembled violently from the pressure, tears trickled from her dilated eyes, and sweat like blood dripped from her temple. She moved the cross beneath the celestial bodies like a child trying to balance a plate on a stick, as the sun teetered and threatened to fall at any moment. And yet she still kept madly chanting gibberish like a prayer, even as her jaw unhinged into a gaping maw. Starswirl watched the spectacle with absolute horror. She was surely going to break from the strain; no mortal could cradle the divine. The part of him that had driven him to open the door wanted to rush over and help, but other that had blown out the candle hesitated. How much of this illusion was real? Was Rose Petal really in his dream? Was she really feeling pain like he did, or was this merely a hologram acting as if she could? There was no way of telling without hurting her by his magic. ‘Whatever you see, you’ll think it’s real.’ That was the only information he could trust. If he wanted to survive the nightmare, he had to go on the assumption that everything and everypony was just a figment of his mind. Trying and failing to avert his eyes from Rose Petal, Starswirl made his way across to the door on the other side of the room in the hope that it would lead him back to reality. However, just as he crossed halfway, Rose Petal abruptly jerked her head around a terrifying degree to look him in the eye, as tears glistened in hers. “Help,” she just managed to croak out. Starswirl bit his lip but stayed silent. It’s just a dream, just a dream, just a dream, he told himself. He remained unmoved and turned away, wanting to continue onward, when a motion out the corner of his eye made his breath catch in his throat. He whipped around just in time to watch Rose Petal tilt the cross just enough to let the moon roll off the sun and into her outstretched hoof, in which it shrank down to the size of a marble. Rose Petal tilted her head and studied him curiously, while he looked back petrified, like a bystander watching someone about to jump off a bridge. She pursed her lips in a mocking frown, her eyes glinting with malicious intent, before she ever so slowly let the marble moon fall to the ground. Somepony screamed. Then right on cue, from the next room over, the six Clara Dolls processed in, holding smashed pomegranates. This time, they were clothed in black mourning dresses, each with a black veil concealing her smiling face as they cheerfully sang, “Gott ist tot! Gott ist tot!” Like faithful followers, they rallied around Rose Petal, who looked down on them patronizingly. “Is the deed done?” she asked in a cold, aloof tone. When they simultaneously nodded, she motioned with a jerk of her head for Starswirl to follow her. Not knowing what else to do, he fell into line. Dread made his heart thrash wildly in his chest as the Clara Dolls respectfully parted the curtains for them to peer into the ominous gloom beyond. Giving Starswirl a pointed glare, Rose Petal turned on her heel, still balancing the sun on her sword, and flounced off to the side, leaving him alone at center stage. He edged forward cautiously, nervously, as the shadow of the arch fell over him, giving way to the solemn grey moonlight. His eyes followed the trail of light up the windowsill, under the ledge, and down, down, down. Then the light shattered around Princess Luna, dead on the floor. A curious thing about the dead. Corpses always seemed smaller in death than in life, as if they were hiding from the life around them, no longer wanting a part of the game. They were nothing more than huddled masses of shrunken skin, brittle bones, and empty eyes curled into fetal positions like mockeries of children. In Luna’s deserted body, Starswirl did not see the evil and misanthropic Nightmare Moon, but a child, a filly. She had smiled, had laughed, and had loved. And now she was dead. A tear slid down his cheek. Then another, then another, until they formed veins like rivers of blood shining in the moonlight on his face. He didn’t know how long he stood there. It wasn’t like it mattered. Nothing mattered anymore. All he knew was that there came a point when he couldn’t bear to watch the world around him shrink Luna into a dead pile of nothing. Not wanting to see anymore, he violently turned away, only to come face to face with Celestia. She had replaced Rose Petal entirely, even donning her black bridal headpiece like a mourning veil. In her fragile hooves, she held aloft the sun, now burning low on the wooden sword like a torch. The dying red light drained the vibrant lifeforce from her, turning her eyes the dullest grey. “Do you wish to see nothing too?” she asked like a condemned mare complying to her fate. She held out the dim sun like a candle, illuminating Starswirl’s tears reflected on her own face. A gasping sob wrenched itself from his throat. He looked back and forth between the dead Luna and the dying Celestia before giving his silent answer. Closing his eyes, Starswirl blew the candle out. With a shocked gasp, Starwirl resurfaced to reality, where Sunshine and Harvest stood above him with worrying eyes. Harvest gently placed his hooves on Sunshine’s trembling ones, forcing her to stop shaking him awake. Her lips formed a silent O of surprise before launching forth with a stream of questions. “Well, what happened?” she demanded. “You couldn’t get yourself out in time. What was stopping you? You did know you were in a dream, right? Were you attacked? What did you see?” Nothing. I saw absolutely nothing. “I… I don’t want to talk about it.”