//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7 
// Story: Dreams Can Be Real 
// by Flutterpoof 
//------------------------------//

 As we arrived in Ponyville, each of us gasped. The small town was on fire, ponies were running in every direction trying to escape the fiery hell that used to be their home town.
“Son of a bugger!” I exclaimed. “This place has had better times.”
“No, this is obviously the best Ponyville has ever been. Goddess, do you need glasses or something?” Lightning smirked at me. I felt like kicking him right there in his spot, before Twilight hit him upside the head.
“Thatta girl, Twilight!” I cheered, and she scowled at me.
“Lightning, now is not the time to mess around. We need to go save White Rose!” she hit him in the head again, as I whooped. Lightning bucked me in the stomach, which sent me hurling backwards. I hit the ground, and looked up to see Lightning laughing above me, holding his hoof out. I grabbed it as he helped me up, and I slapped him across the head. I smiled as I ran away from him towards Ponyville, laughing hysterically. I slipped my M16 further up my neck as I stretched. I turned around to see Green frowning at the ground, and Lightning patting his back, whispering to him. I shrugged as I continued heading towards the small town.
Upon entering the town, the shrieks of the ponies grew louder, as I felt a weird pain in my chest. It’s like this whole situation was familiar and I knew how it was going to turn out, which was odd. I shook my head, trying my hardest not to think of it. I readied my M16 as I slipped around the corners of buildings, trying to find my way to White Rose’s house. Just then, it hit me.
“Hey guys, I have absolutely no clue where this mare lives. Why am I leading the way?” I asked. They all looked and me, and Lightning sighed.
“C’mon, follow me everypony,” he said blandly, as he took the lead. We all followed him as we walked through Ponyville. I cracked my neck to the side, looking through the sights of my gun. I was kind of surprised how good I was at using it, considering I’ve only used it twice in my entire life. My Dad had always been good at using guns; maybe that’s how I got so good at it. I don’t really know, but now is not the time. After rummaging through the place for about ten more minutes, we arrived at a small cottage not far from the library. I heard Green gulp as he stepped forward to the door. He knocked a few times before stepping back. We waited, and no one answered. I stepped up, and wailed on the door. Twilight held my hand back with her magic, gasping.
“What are you doing?” she said between gritted teeth.
“Uh… If you hadn’t noticed, there is a lot of noise out here, and it wouldn’t be surprising if she couldn’t hear Green’s knock,” I rolled my eyes. She looked at me, before nodding and releasing my hand. We waited a little longer, and we left after about five minutes and no answer.
“Is it possible she ran away in all the commotion?” I asked the three ponies. They all shrugged in unison.
“It’s possible, but where could she be?” Twilight asked quietly.
“Do you think you could locate her with your magic? I mean, we have two unicorns and an alicorn here, I don’t think it would be that hard,” I suggested. Twilight’s eyes opened wide, before she grinned broadly.
“Jeff. You. Are. A. GENIOUS!” she exclaimed before tackling me. “If we put our magic together, we would be able to get her exact position! Without the three of us, we would only get a guess of where she is, but with three ponies, it’ll be much easier!”
“Uh… Twi? Could you please get off me? Please?” I asked politely.
“Oh! Sorry,” she blushed as she climbed off me.  I gave a quick thanks to her as I stood back up. I looked to see the three ponies already preparing the magic. I ran up to them and joined the small circle they had formed, and I closed my eyes. I opened them to see a trail of white smoke leading to the other side of Ponyville. I groaned.
“Well, this is going to be so fun,” I said sarcastically. I started following the smoke trail, as did the other three. We followed it, not really paying attention to where it was taking us, until everything went dark except for the smoke trail. I looked up and around to see nothing but darkness.
“Uh… guys? I think we might have entered the Everfree Forest,” Lightning stated the obvious. I gulped as I turned around. In a second, the forest was illuminated by Twilight’s horn.
“Oh yeah, right. Magic,” I laughed. I turned to follow the trail again before all I gasped. I turned around again to face the ponies.
“Uh… We are in the Everfree Forest, correct?” I asked, and they all nodded. “And White Rose is here, correct?” They all nodded again, before seizing up.
“Uh oh… ROSE!” Green yelled before running ahead of us, following the trail. I flicked my gun around so I could aim it, and we all followed.

“Rose? White Rose?” I yelled through the caves entrance. “Hello?” I grunted. Lightning flew up to the cave entrance, peaking through it.
“Hello? Rose, it’s me. Lightning!” he exclaimed. Just then, a shriek sounded through the cave. It was a blood curling shriek. As the last bit of color drained from Green’s face, we ran into the cave, with Lightning’s horn illuminating our surroundings. We came to a dead end in the cave really quickly, and we all stopped.
“Wh-What?” I asked, dumbfounded. “How is this possible? This is the only way through the cave!” I huffed as I went to lean against the dead end. Only, the wall never came, and I was flung through the wall and into a pit. I screamed as I fell, quickly joined by three other voices from above. We fell through the pit of darkness before we contacted with the ground. The weird thing is, it was soft rather than hard stone, like the rest of the cave was. I quickly stood up as I looked around, to see the other three ponies looking just as confused as I felt. I heard a small groan from behind me, as I readied my gun and pointed it at the source. There lying on the ground, sat a white earth pony, with a red mane. I quickly brought my gun back, realizing who it was.
“Wh-White Rose?” I asked quietly. She looked up at me, terror in her eyes as she stared at me. “Sshh, it’s okay. I’m friendly,” I reassured her as she backed away slowly. I grunted. “See? I’m with Twilight Sparkle, Blue Lightning, and-“ I cut myself off. I breathed in and out slowly. “-Green Cloud.” I saw her eyes light up as she heard the ponies’ names, and she shot up.
“Twilight?” She said in a high pitched voice that sounded weirdly close to Pinkie’s. “Is that really you with Blue?”
“Yeah! It is!” Twilight exclaimed, before being attacked by White Rose with a hug. She blinked, before hugging her back. White Rose let go of her, before quickly attacking Lightning.
“Aw Blue! It’s been too long!” she squealed. Lightning smiled.
“Hey, I told you to call me Lightning, not Blue!” he said quietly, and Rose smiled. When she let go, she looked at Green who smiled sheepishly.
“Hey,” he said quietly. Rose looked at him with squinting eyes.
“YOU!” she growled. “YOU BUCKED UP MY LIFE SO MUCH! YOU HAVE SOME NERVE SHOWING YOUR FACE IN FRONT OF ME AGAIN!” Lightning and I quickly ran up to the duo and held them back from each other.
“It wasn’t me! I can explain, and Lightning can back me up with the facts I have!” he pleaded. “Give me a chance, please!” Rose looked at him, before sighing.
“Fine… but you have ONE shot! And if you mess this up, I will kill you,” she muttered. Green sighed before taking a seat on the ground.
“You might want to sit, it’s a LONG story,”



“Wow,” Twilight and Rose said in unison. I was still trying to make up what the story exactly meant.
“So, to recap: You were at your house alone, when a black pony came into your house and tied you up. He stole some of your mane, and put it in a drink, and he became you, and this is who harassed Rose?” Twilight asked. Green nodded slowly. Twilight gave another ‘wow’ before looking at the ground, biting her lip. Rose had tears forming in her eyes as she looked at Green. She quickly hurled herself at him, and hugged him.
“Oh Green, I am SO sorry! If only I would’ve let you explain, none of this would have happened!” she cried. Green looked at her for a second, before hugging her back.
“It’s okay, I forgive you. Right now, we should focus on getting us out of here,” Green suggested, as Lightning nodded and readied his horn. In a flash, we all arrived at the entrance of the cave. We all breathed a breath of relief, before we heard clapping of hooves.
“Congratulations. You made it out. Too bad you’ve only walked right into a death trap,” We all heard a voice say. I whirled around to see the black pony smirking at us.
“You!” I growled at him. He laughed.
“Yes, ‘me’. I take it you figured out I’m the one from Green Cloud’s story?” he asked us. We all nodded quickly. I aimed my M16 at him, aiming for his chest. He laughed.
“You are stupid aren’t you? I can’t die from your stupid little machinery. I am much more powerful than that, you filthy human!” he spat. I cracked. That was enough. I emptied the entire clip on his chest and forehead, as he just stood there and laughed. I gasped as my gun fell out of my clutches, the strap snapping. “Told you,” he grinned. I looked at the four other ponies.
“You ready to get your hooves dirty?” I asked, grinning. They all nodded, as we ran at him, the pony from the day before.
Shadows.