The resistance was gone, and he fell. Silver didn't fall long or far, simply reappearing in a new place. He caught a sight of Luna and ran after her, but the alicorn was, herself, running. From one dream to the next, or so it felt. It seemed clear she was doing something, and Silver had second thoughts. Perhaps he shouldn't just barge in on her in the middle of her job.
A dress draped over him and gnawed at him with fabric teeth. He waved the evil garment away, refusing to pay it much mind, which seemed to be what the clothing most wanted, so he was left alone to trail behind Luna.
"It's jumped into another dream!" Luna was looking at the strange sparkling thing Silver had spotted once in her dreams, and dived after it when it fled, and he followed after her, determined to keep her in sight.
Following her was easy. Too easy. He became complacent and lost her. He dove after what he thought was where she had gone and ended up somewhere very different.
A tall horse rose before him. Was it Luna? No wings, no horn. She emerged from the darkness and he recoiled several steps. It was Shei, the saddle arabian he knew from his dream. "Why are you here?"
"You left us." She stepped forward. "You left our world to be destroyed, scattered... Even my sister's body... Everything was destroyed." She locked eyes with him. "Don't you even feel guilt?"
"W-what? But I, what?" Silver fell over onto his haunches in confusion and terror. "I didn't decide to wake up from your dream. That's what dreams do. Why are you even here?"
She smiled a sad smile. "I learned the magic you paid for, my cowardly prince." A hoof reached forward, brushing over Silver's back. "Though you hardly seem a prince at the moment. Were you truly so small? Was it all a lie?"
Shei was a truly looming creature. Easily as large as Celestia. She was a horse, not a pony, and he did feel very small compared to her. "I missed you," he said in a small voice.
"Do you? You miss your dreams?" She frowned at him.
Dreams, yes, right. Silver glanced around and it became clear. He was in a dream right then. He had a task that this apparition was keeping him from. He suddenly grew, becoming his dreaming self, Silver Stars, with great leathery wings and a long pointed horn. Alicorn prince, survivor of war, victor in battles against creatures beyond rational thought. With a powerful beat of his wings, Shei blew apart like sand in wind. He took off at a gallop, more determined than before to keep Luna in sight.
He found Luna just as she was giving up hope. "This isn't working..." She ended the dream, and he was ejected back to the lily pads. His powerful wings brought him in for a gentle landing and he looked around before gazing down at himself.
"Huh, dream world, dream logic. I don't have to be a little unicorn here if I don't want to be." He spread his wings and gave them a shake before he smiled. Being an alicorn prince was kind of fun, even if only in his dreams. "Luna, what are you doing?" He pawed at the pad lightly to no effect, waiting for her to fall asleep again.
The night guard recovered from his shock and put his spear across the hallway, barring the way. "None but Princess Luna are permitted past this point."
Celestia smiled gently at the agitated pony. "Thank you for your loyal service, but this is still my castle." She gestured beyond him. "And you have my ambassador. I will see him now."
The guard frowned at her. "My orders are clear, Your Highness. None are to pass until Luna says so."
The day guard with Celestia scowled at the night guard, advancing, only for one of Celestia's hooves to bar the way. "My my, we have a conundrum then." Celestia smiled that gentle smile at the night guard. "I certainly wouldn't wish for any guard of mine to disobey an order."
"Your Majesty," hissed the day guard. "He's not letting you past."
"It's quite alright." She wrapped a wing around the day guard. With a bright flash, they were gone. They hadn't gone far. With the hallway behind him in clear sight, it wasn't hard for her to skip into the hall of cells past the guard and begin walking along the cells, looking for her quarry.
The night guard came rushing in. "Stop right there!" He was red in his cheeks and face in a combination of fury and shame. "You're under arrest!"
The day guard raised a brow at the night guard. "Did you just put Princess Celestia under arrest?"
"It's alright," insisted Celestia. "I'll happily go to jail, but only after I've seen to the safety of my ambassador."
"Over here!" Night called out from her cell, waving a hoof excitedly through the bars at the bright light of Celestia. "We're in here!"
A new smile overtook Celestia's feature as she cantered up to the bars that separated her from Night Watch and the prone and sleeping form of Silver Watch. "Are you two safe?"
"No!" Night caught herself, slapping a hoof over her snout. "Sorry... Silver's badly hurt and being down here is doing no favors." She clopped the ground. "Your sister..." Her gaze fell. "She's mad."
The night guard arrived with a scowl. "You're guilty of assault on royalty, to say nothing of intrusion and resisting arrest. Perhaps he'd be luckier if he faded away here."
Celestia wheeled on the guard, a new fury in her eyes. "Did Luna teach you that?"
The guard shrank away from the angered solar princess. "N-no, ma'am..."
Celestia snorted loudly. "I should hope not. Telling a pony to hurry and die, terrible." She leveled a hoof at the night guard. "I thought you were a good pony and guard, but perhaps I was hasty in my judgement?"
His ears down and trembling a little, he retreated several slow steps, glancing left and right. "H-he attacked your sister!"
"Did he hurl a ball of fire?"
The question confused the guard. "No?"
"Was it some other feat of creative magic?"
He shook his head. "Does teleporting count?"
Celestia raised a brow. "I know this pony well. If he wanted to attack us, we would be attacked in a fashion either outrageous or dramatic. Did my sister come to any harm?"
"N-no, other than being intruded on, and her personal space violated." The guard stood tall suddenly. "What difference does all that make?"
Celestia shook her head. "Then she wasn't assaulted. Intruded, oh yes, I will accept that easily." She smiled gently. "He is a stubborn pony at times. It's one of his better qualities. Of course, so are you. Can you tell me what the difference is?"
"I'm following my orders!"
"I'm certain you are. He follows orders too. His high commander, his princess, is his conscience. If he insisted on speaking to my sister against her wishes, he had something to say. Something important, I would hope, or he has a scolding coming his way." She turned back to Night. "Can you carry him without harm?"
Night tapped the bars with a hoof. "There's still a matt--" She trailed off as Celestia's golden magic swung the bars open easily. "Right..." She returned to Silver's side and slowly wriggled beneath him. Golden magic rolled over him and lifted him up slowly, helping to get him onto her back. Her wings flared out, helping to hold him steady. "Got him."
"Good." Celestia turned to the night guard. "I am taking him to the infirmary. No prisoner in my castle will be denied basic medical care. You may accompany us, if you wish. I am, after all, under your arrest."
The night guard did follow after them, but didn't try to bar their way any further.
Celestia looked to her day guard. "Go ahead of us and inform the doctor on duty that we are on the way and to be ready to receive us."
"Of course, Your Majesty." He saluted sharply and galloped down the hallway and up the stairs out of sight.
Samantha approached her new subject of the moment with a cotton swab. "You won't let me draw blood, but a little saliva from a cheek dabbing certainly won't be out of bounds?"
Nefertari raised a brow at Samantha. "Every humiliation will be returned twice as badly."
Samantha clopped her hooves as the swab bounced in her magic. "Worth it! Now say ahhh."
A guard rushed into the room and came up short. "Where's the nurse?"
Samantha smiled at the guard. "That's me!"
"You're not the nurse." He raised a brow. "I wasn't informed of any new staff in the infirmary."
Samantha shrank back a step. "But I am... I'm a doctor!"
"Are you a nurse or a doctor?" The guard scowled at Samantha with building suspicion. "Where are they?"
Samantha pointed at a closed door and looked away.
The guard approached the door quickly and threw it open to reveal two ponies tied up on top of one another, squirming frantically the moment the door was open.
Nefertari burst into laughter. "By the spirits themselves! You truly are mad..." She hopped down from the examination table, approaching Samantha. "There's no way you thought this would work forever, or even long...?"
Samantha's eyes were wide and brimming with tears. "I just want to do science... I could... I could change the world, for the better." She put her hooves on Nefer's front. "They won't let me! They won't even give me a chance!"
Unbound, the doctor and nurse ponies stood up. The doctor leveled a hoof at Samantha. "Arrest that mad pony!"
Samantha shrank away, her magic fumbling over the medical tools on the countertop before Nefertari was suddenly holding her snout in one hand and her horn in the other. Sam's magical grip faded from the makeshift weapons. "Enough. I will see this one to proper punishment." Nefer grinned. "I have something in mind."
They were both gone, carried off in Nefertari's intense speed. The day guard shook his head. "Princess Celestia is on the way with an injured pony. Please be ready."
The nurse began cleaning up and preparing space. "Now that we're not cooped up in that closet, we'll be ready, don't you worry!"
He smiled with some relief. "Who was that mare?"
The doctor raised a brow at the guard. "That was no mare. That was an anubite. The ambassador, I believe. I didn't catch her name." He went to the sink and got to washing his hooves clean. "Back on task, we'll be ready for the patient as soon as they get here. It'll be good to be back to business without some mad mare locking us away."