He dreamed a dream…
He couldn't get up; he was held down by his wounds and weakened body. He couldn't budge one inch to save the galaxy.
He peered upwards as he lay on his right side, holding the other with a free hand to hold the wound in place. The malevolent project was growing stronger and bigger, growling and booming loudly. Darkness covered the room, accompanied with the crazed laughter of one malevolent emperor in particular, and a chill as cold as death and as brisk as a moth in frantic flight whipping his face and hair.
With the…monster escalating in size and power, and his being too weak in body to stop it… who would?
HE would.
A grim yet fired up glare ignited on his face, he struggled to get up. He might nearly be out, but to be out?
He groaned and grunted to push himself on his limbs, proving how hardy his fighting spirit was!
But his body resisted, trying to pull him down, to urge him to rest and lay there for someone else to stop this new creation of Zurg's from stepping outside the Science Lab and breaching the Galactic Alliance's boundaries. He pushed himself again and again to get up, but all traces of strength were rapidly fading…
Suddenly…a voice. A singing voice echoing through the shadows peaked for all to hear. Zurg's laughter and the creature's growl ceased, as if in fright by the sudden power the song emitted.
He turned to face the direction of where the source may be, and lo, there it was. He gaped at the mysterious sight. The singing stopped.
A pair of silvery white lights-no…teardrop shapes floated and glowed brightly against the creature. The lights shone so bright that he had to squint his eyes at them. The teardrop shapes then looked to him, as if to send him a message of hope and triumph.
Another shape formed around the teardrops; the shape appeared round with a small narrow part. The shapes waved and moved as it began to create a more noticeable structure.
The song ceased as the structure solemnly commanded the creature, "YOU WILL NOT WIN. YOU WILL PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO TY. TY! TY!"
"TY! Wake up!"
Ty bolted awake as he jumped forwards in his seat. As he breathed in and out, in and out, he darted his eyes around the cockpit before they finally came to rest on-
"B-Buzz?"
The man in question drew back his hand away from shaking his friend. "You alright?...You were having quite a dream there, Ranger."
Ty didn't respond immediately. Instead, he looked away and slapped a hand to his forehead as he tried to fathom his recent dream. That wasn't…that wasn't anything like he dreamed of before. No, it was…it was different. Instead of him meeting with…with that thing from his long ancient past, he was met with strange and glowing shapes. White lights, a cold wind, a fierce growl and Zurg's laughter.
But what did it mean?
"…"
Both men stayed silent for a while more before Buzz broke it. "…Ty?"
The slightly louder query prompted Ty to stop pondering and look at Buzz, even if he was appearing more haggard than usual.
"I'm…I'm alright, Buzz." He rubbed any traces of sleep left in his eyes away.
But Buzz didn't believe it.
"Are…are you sure? You were groaning like you were in pain. You really certain you're alr-?"
"BUZZ. I said I'm FINE." Ty didn't realize how terse he was until Buzz snapped his two hands up to show he didn't mean any harm. Ty softened his tone. "I'm….I'm sorry. I just…" He cleared his throat. "Let's just get going on our mission, ok?" He looked towards the windshield, wanting to get a move on and his mind off his recent dream.
Although Buzz appeared worried for his friend, he wasn't about to push it if he needed space to calm down. "…Ok."
The Pride of Star Command gave Ty one more concerned glance before he began pushing buttons to prepare the ship for takeoff. "All set?"
Ty pushed in a few buttons on his side of the cockpit before professionally affirming, "All set."
Buzz nodded as he pulled the lever backwards and the ship's rockets roared to life.
It was the first step to Ty's journey.
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The portal continued to swirl, faster and faster as the electricity danced and struck all around the library. The wind's speed increased bit-by-bit, shrieking and howling louder than before. Its black abyss glared at the Princess of the Night and her subjects.
But Luna wouldn't let it scare her and her subjects, not if she could help it!
And so...she gathered her courage, stood straight up, stretched her wings as wide as she could muster and glared straight up into the hole. The princess's horn glowed as she built up her power and snorted in defiance. It was time to stare right back into the abyss against all odds.
But first... she quickly picked up Twilight's book, currently lying on the floor, and brought it over to her. Flipping and skimming pages, she searched for any answers that Star Swirl wrote on anything pertaining to turbulent gateways. Nothing, nothing...
Ah! Finally. She knew what she had to do after she read up on the section.
Putting down her book, she took a step forward towards the portal.
Glowing a shimmering yet bright blue, Luna fired off a blast of magic towards the threshold. The magic reached its destination and engulfed the gateway as Luna took hold of it to tame the distorting and destructive pathway. Once the portal was caught in Luna's magic...
The portal seemed to have fallen into a suspended state and moved sluggishly.
But its power was stronger than what Luna anticipated.
The alicorn, having closed her eyes to concentrate on her power to keep the threshold from escaping her grasp, peeked out from one of her eyes at an alarmed Twilight and frightened Spike, who clutched to each other tightly. Grunting underneath her efforts, she gruffly uttered, "Twilight...Spike..."
They almost didn't hear her until they heard theirs name being called again.
Once she succeeded in gaining their attention, she commanded, "You two must get out and get help...I will attempt to keep this portal from growing. Tell my sister-!"
A boom shattered her order and almost broke her hold. She whipped her eyes forward and squeezed them tightly to regain her control over the portal. After she refocused her power over the gateway, Luna urged her subjects once more, "GO! Get my sister and tell her what's happened!"
Twilight and Spike shared a worried and hesitant look. They knew what they needed to do, but...
After peeking out from an eye again to see if they obeyed, she roared,
"I SAID GO! NOW!"
That was the final straw, and the two of them sprang into action. Twilight levitated a scared Spike onto her back. Once he was safely perched on her back, gripping his arms around her neck, she galloped as fast as her legs could carry her and Spike out the door. But not without using her horn to pick up a spare feather and piece of parchment paper from her desk along the way out. Once they were caught in her magic, she levitated them over to the dragon situated on her back and he picked them up in his claws.
Within a few minutes, they were outside in the night and outside the library.
The bluish glow, although shining brightly within the tree's interiors, was dimming on the outside, thanks in partial to the small windows and bushels of trees covering part of the windows. It was safe to say that nopony was disturbed by the lights and could have resumed sleeping. But the strange booming noises did bring out those who were very light sleepers out of their homes to observe what was going on tonight.
And by the time Twilight came to a screeching halt, she was bombarded by questions from various ponies, all centering around the same idea. What was going on and what were those noises?!
Twilight held up a hoof as she silently motioned for them to give her a minute to breathe. Spike patted her neck as she regained her breath within a few minutes before she finally caught her breath. "Everypony, there's no time to explain, but right now, we need to contact Princess Celestia!" She turned her neck to look at Spike. "You know what to do, Spike!"
The little dragon rapidly nodded and began to write. As he wrote, he was struck by a sudden question.
"Uh...Twilight...should I write that you invited Luna in or that you let her in?"
He only received an irritated glare.
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The alicorn persisted in holding her power over the portal, its own force pushing back against her own. In all of her days as a Princess, she couldn't recall ever encountering this kind of magic...not unless she counted the days when she was someone OTHER than Princess Luna. THAT pony's power was as great as this swirling vortex's... but this vortex's...aura, was not as malevolent as that pony's power.
No, instead its aura, its core was grandiose and mysterious, about as unknown as its point of location. Where would this portal lead in all of the land?
As much as Luna would have loved to find out, this portal was just simply too dangerous for anypony to enter into in its wild and savage void.
Which was why she was now going to tame it and banish it somewhere beyond Equestria!
Grunting underneath her efforts once more, she pushed herself to grow her magic and use it to shrink the portal to a manageable size. The portal's electricity and swirling slowly declined as did its size. It grew smaller and smaller...
But then-
Luna felt a wave of radiating warmth flash across her face, and she peered.
"What's that?"
An explosion blinded her and reality was lost.
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The light through the windows illuminated brighter and brighter, reeling in the attention of the ponies, and dragon, who were outside. Twilight and Spike looked at each other before Twilight ran off again, with Spike hanging on to her neck with one claw and holding onto the quill and parchment with the other claw. They neared the entryway, even as the light threatened to stop them in their tracks.
But even then, the source of the light, the threshold, was strong enough to prevent them from coming in to help Luna.
There was nothing but white illumination and no alicorn to be found.
Twilight yelled out, "Princess Luna! Can you hear me?!"
The unicorn glowed her horn to push back the light, but before she could summon a spell that quickly came to mind, the strange white source disappeared and evaporated into thin air. All was dark through out the library.
Twilight blinked and shared a confusing glance with Spike, who shrugged helplessly at the random incident.
Driven by curiosity, Twilight carefully treaded inside into the blackness. As she entered further in the darkness, she used her magic once again, emitting a small orb of light on the very point of her horn to act as a makeshift lantern. The glow flared out and lit up a large portion of the room.
The mess of tossed and torn up papers and books and pieces of wood was enough to send Twilight and Spike gaping in total silence.
But one of the still-awake ponies, who by now peeped by the door, broke it by asking the question that Twilight and Spike were wanting to know very badly in their worries.
What happened?!
...And where was Princess Luna?!
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Elsewhere, high above all ponies and in a kingdom near the mountainsides... a royal pony awakened out of fear and horror.
"LUNA!"