Surprise bounced along. Her mane was limp, but there was a bit of satisfaction in her heart. The guards didn't try to stop her. They knew her as Silver and Night's guest, and she didn't misbehave, so they stopped trying to chase her off a while ago. She appreciated that. She didn't want to run away from ponies.
So it came as a surprise when she crashed into a guard in her heavy thoughts. "Move aside," he ordered.
She looked up at him and saw why he was even more stiffly formal than normal. Princess Celestia was with him. "Oh! Um, sorry." She slunk to the side, but Celestia was looking at her.
"Excuse me, what book is that?" She lifted a hoof to point to Surprise's book strapped to her side.
Surprise glanced back at it and to Celestia quickly. "Oh, this little thing? I wrote it."
"And what is it about?"
Surprise felt a momentary urge to withdraw, but that wasn't like her. She stood up instead in defiance of herself. "It's a journal, of my past."
Celestia raised a brow at that. "Curious. I seem to be coming across so many journals of late." She stepped towards Surprise at an even pace. "This will sound improper, and perhaps it is, but may I see it?"
Surprise blinked with surprise up at the princess. "Oh, uh, I mean, sure! If you want." She didn't imagine Celestia would want to read about her past, but... If she remembered, then it'd never be forgotten. Her friends, her family, and all her past would be immortal, in a way. She grabbed her book in her teeth and pulled it from its straps as her hooves took hold of it and held it out towards Celestia. "Please be careful with it, K?"
Celestia's golden magic gently lifted the book from Surprise's grasp. "You are the Watch's friend, aren't you?"
Surprise swallowed heavily before she nodded. "Um, actually..." There she was. This was finally the chance! "I mean, I am! For sure, but there's more to it than that."
Celestia gave a wan smile. "There always is around that stallion. Walk with me. I'm certain there are things to discuss."
The doctor had finished his work, placing Silver in what amounted to a huge cast and having him placed gently in a bed to recover. "You say a single kick did that?"
Night frowned at the doctor. "It was by a very large pony."
"I should certainly hope so. She should be more careful with her size and strength."
"She certainly should." Night sat beside the bed that held Silver and reached out for him with a wing, draping it over his still form. "Did you sedate him?"
"Funny thing about that." The doctor shook his head. "He was far beyond a normal sleep. I didn't sedate him in case it complicated things. We don't need our patients going into a coma. He may already be in one, only time will see on that, but, at least physically, he should be on the road to recovery."
Night wrinkled her snout at Silver. "Trying to show me up? Broken wing not enough for you?" She rested her head on his body-cast. "Still fighting..."
The nurse put a quiet hoof on Night's shoulder in support.
It was a battle on at least two fronts. There was the tantabus itself, trying to break free, but there was also its nightmarish creations generating fear to give it the power to do just that. "It's just like an umbrum..." Silver directed his long horn at a collection of impish creatures harassing ponies below, turning them into various-shaped rocks that would frighten nopony again.
"You have to forgive yourself," drifted a voice from below.
Silver perked an ear at it and drifted closer. His hooves touched the ground and he trotted briskly towards a clearing in the town that held the form of Luna, clearly struggling and the center of the dream network that bound all the dreams together.
"I have done terrible things. I deserve to suffer..." Luna grunted with obvious effort. "I will defeat it on mine own!"
Twilight was also there. "You don't need to do it on your own. Luna, look, you're surrounded by friends. You aren't the same pony you once were. You've changed."
Luna's eyes met Silver's. She shuddered. "Nay. I have not..."
Silver emerged from around the building, coming into plain view as he closed the distance. "We can talk about this, like adults, after that's taken care of." He thrust a hoof at it. "It's from your past. It has nothing to do with today."
Twilight tilted her head, clearly not knowing who it was that stood beside her. "Right. That's your past. Nightmare Moon is defeated. The fact that you're trying to battle it is proof enough that you're not her. It's time to let go."
The dream suddenly froze, but Luna's mane was still flowing, and her eyes were set on Silver. He tried lifting a hoof and found he wasn't frozen either.
"Even here you pursue me?"
"You have enough power to do this?" Silver tilted his head. "I thought you were pretty tired-looking just keeping up what you had."
"This won't last long. Are you here to gain justice? Will you attack me when the time is right?"
Silver quirked a smile. "The time would be right about now if I wanted that, which I don't. Why did you kick me like that? I'm not a manticore, you can talk to me."
Luna scowled a moment. "I will not discuss that, not now."
Silver pointed up at the tantabus. "Then master your past. Bloody hell, if I lived my past, I wouldn't be in any shape to be with my friends and family. Let it go. You made a mistake, we all make mistakes. Sometimes they're big or small, but you have to learn from them, not wallow in them."
The dream resumed, and Silver found himself not near Luna, but across the town, casually pushed away. He frowned a moment, but took a slow breath. "Fine, talk to the ponies you know." He turned away. Clearly, Luna did not rate him among their number. But why should she? He was a foreign element. An alien, as comfortable as it was wearing the flesh of a pony, still an alien. He was literally the stuff of her nightmares, at least the nightmares that he had endured.
He drove a hoof to the ground with enough dream strength to rend the ground. "So what if I am?!" He spread his wings wide and took to the air, going directly to the tantabus with new fury in his eyes. "I won't hurt Luna, but no such thing protects you." A fireball formed over his head, only to be joined by another, and another, swirling around one another in a rapid orbit. He brought them together with a terrific clap, creating a new form of matter, plasma. He held a sun over his head even as he began to fashion orbs of cold. Not ice cold. No, he was an educated man. He aimed far lower. Low enough to stop atoms in their place. The two spheres of opposing spectrums played off one another in brilliant, horrifically beautiful swirls of colors.
With an angry neigh and a thrust of his hooves, the two orbs were propelled, plasma rushing for the thing's front end while the zero kelvin orb rushed at its back end. Even as they flew, he began gathering a new force, one not made of elements at all, but of despair, pain, feelings of helplessness and agony. He smirked a little, realizing how emo that attack would be, but he fashioned it anyway.
The elemental balls slammed into the creature and it recoiled from the rift it had been about to use even as its hind legs froze quick to the ground. He couldn't tell if he had actually inflicted any damage, but it was held, for a moment.
He raised his forehooves, the ball balancing between them before he gave a mighty heave. The condensed ball of misery moved like a stroke of lightning, crashing into the creature, but it did not harm it. It lived for all those things, and grew suddenly, shattering the ice around its hooves. "Oops."
Nefertari crooked a finger under Samantha's snout. "You're a very naughty pony."
Samantha looked away from her, even if her muzzle was held straight. "I want to help everypony."
"By locking them in a closet? Curious methods..."
"They won't let me!" Samantha looked back at Nefertari. "I just want to learn, and to share. There are so many questions everypony has, but they won't help me look for answers."
"There remains something about you... You are a question." She poked the pony in the chest. "Why don't you answer yourself first."
"M-me?" Samantha perked her ears and sat up fully. "My name's Samantha. I'm a unicorn, fairly standard."
"Lies."
She scowled at Nefer. "What part?"
"There's more to you than a unicorn. I can feel it, but not place it. Come now, I rescued you from captivity. You'll have another chance to chase your answers. The least you could do is answer my question, hmm. Isn't that what you like to do, provide answers?"
Samantha clucked her tongue softly. "Will you still be my subject?"
Nefer raised a brow. "I am no one's subject. Others bow to me, little pony."
"No no no!" Samantha clopped a hoof on the table she was seated on. "My test subject. I want to study you more, please?"
Nefer leaned in, nose-to-nose with Samantha. "You are a delight. Even unmasked, you would continue the path?"
"I-I may not be a... licensed doctor, but that doesn't mean I can't learn things, and write about them. I want to, please?" Samantha squirmed in place.
"And you were Silver's wife's midwife? I imagine what she will say when she learns of this..."
"Don't tell her!" Samantha's eyes went wide with terror. "Oh please don't tell her! She's my star subject... I'm taking care of her, I swear!"
"Perhaps I won't... Assuming I can trust you to be a good pony, and do as I say." Nefertari gave a sharp smile as she set a hand on Samantha's head, petting her gently. "Now are you going to be a good pony?"
Samantha bobbed her head quickly, almost catching Nefertari with her waving horn. "If you help me keep her as a subject, I'll do anything you want." She smiled suddenly. "I'll be good with you too. No blood, promise."
Nefer raised a brow. "What is your fascination with blood? Blood is for battles won and lost, not idle curiosity. To spill it for nothing is obscene."
"Right right." Samantha hopped down from the table, starting to look around as if all the tension had simply fled her. "No blood, promise. So where do you keep your examination tools?"