Prism Star and the Nightmare Winter

by CherryRush

Chapter V: Five Tickets to Paradise

Midnight Shine
**10 Hours After Shieldfall**

Midnight woke up with the mother of all headaches, laying on what felt like a wooden pallet. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was his brother, Sour Apple, sitting over him with his rough-cut red mane even more scruffy than normal, along with a skinny red dragon. After a moment, it registered to him that she was the dragon he'd seen with Sour Apple in the bizzare series of visions he'd had after his encounter with the Princess Luna from an alternate Equestria... a concept that he decided to shelve for the moment, considering that his head and horn hurt enough as it was.

"We are now one hour from arrival at Ponyville Air Station." The voice was a stallion's, but tinny as though from a speakerphone, and oddly muffled. "Passengers in the Luxury and Economy class will soon be able to see the spires of Ponyville Castle from the port bow."

"Where..." Midnight coughed a little and his brother put a hoof on his muzzle to silence him.

"Easy kiddo. Talon here was scared you wouldn't wake up." This lead to the dragon scoffing and muttering that she didn't really care, but Midnight noticed a slight flush under her scales. "You had a really crazy experience. I've never seen anything like it. You-"

"You destroyed everything!" Talon laughed gleefully. "The Finders, the windigos, all of it! I mean, until you collapsed."

Midnight felt the blood drain from his face. "I... I what? I..." He trailed off as he remembered what he had seen towards the end of his visions - murder and mayhem, radiant power, beams of pure moonlight... "That was... that was real?" His face took on a cast of horror as the realization came to him in slow, sickening waves. "I... Oh, Celestia, I killed..."

Sour Apple quickly pressed his hoof back to Midnight's muzzle. "Don't- don't think about it. Okay? Whatever you did, you did what you had to. They were going to give you to the Queen. Do you have any idea what she would have done with you? Six Point told me-"

"I don't care what Six Point told you!" Midnight quickly found his hooves under him as his horn flared with anger, pushing Sour and Talon back onto their backsides with a wave of silver energy before he fell back forward onto his belly with a groan. The accidental spell had drawn a flare of pain from his horn, and now it was throbbing like it was going to fall off. "I... ugh... I killed those ponies, Sour." He sniffled. "I know what you're trying to say, but those were ponies with, with families and lives, and I just... I just ended all of that."

"Well, they knew what they were getting into," Talon said. This drew sobs from Midnight, and Sour Apple glared at her as he took the younger colt into a hug.

"Don't you have someplace to be?" The earth pony asked pointedly. Talon threw up her claws and left in a huff, while Sour rubbed Midnight's head gently. "You look pretty terrible, Midnight. Do you feel like talking about what happened?"

The younger boy sighed. "I'm not sure I understand what happened, Sour. I..." He hesitated, trying to figure out where to start. "Alright, so after you left, I decided to go to the market for a bit. I know I'm not supposed to," he quickly said, putting a hoof up in a defensive gesture, but Sour didn't seem interested in admonishing him and instead made a gesture for Midnight to continue. "I got caught. The Finders chased me into an alley, and then I learned I could teleport, but then I got caught anyway because they had pegasi."

Sour interrupted him here. "Wait, you teleported? That's amazing! That's the most powerful magic you've ever done! That's something most grown unicorns can't do!"

"That's not the point!" Midnight snapped at him angrily, then started crying again fresh. "I... I'm sorry, Sour... I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Shhhh..." Sour Apple rocked him gently back and forth. "I'm sorry I interrupted, keep going."

Midnight Shine took a deep breath before he continued. "I woke up in a cell uptown, in the part of the city where ponies don't like to live anymore. I think it might have been an old police station. And then I saw some stuff I don't really understand. I saw some kind of vision of Princess Luna, from like... another world, or the dream realm, or something like that."

"The what?" Sour Apple looked confused. "Um... nevermind, I'm sorry. Keep going."

"Yeah, I don't really understand it that well either. She... kind of tried to explain it, but a lot of it went over my head. She, um.. .she put her hoof into me. Through me. And then I saw a bunch of really crazy stuff that I don't understand, including myself..." He took a breath to try to keep from crying again, only half succeeding. "Myself hurting all those ponies and fighting the windigos. And then I saw you, and then I woke up here. What happened? Were there really windigos?"

"Well... yeah. The shields went down in almost every city, for hours. A lot of ponies froze and... you know." The teen sighed. "When we came up from the job, we ended up uptown too, pretty close to you. That was the first time we saw that the shield went down. And you were there fighting. Your... your eyes were glowing, pure white, and there was light coming off you like I've never seen before. You looked like a hero out of some old story, bro." He chuckled and ruffled Midnight's mane as Talon returned. "And then... I think your horn overloaded. Something like that, I don't know... it was crackling with lightning, and then your aura just flickered out. You fell into the snow and we had to go save you."

"We? You-"

"We both saved you." Talon gently punched Midnight on the shoulder. "Don't get a big head. I kind of owed your brother."

"What happened? I mean, with you two. You seem really... tight now. Even though you just met."

The two older creatures exchanged a knowing look. "That's... a pretty long story too," Sour said. "I'll let Talon start off, while I get you some food."

He left with a kiss on the top of Midnight Shine's head, and Talon sighed and settled in. "OK, so we were on this job to raid an old vault, from some private collector who abandoned it centuries ago. Bunch of other ponies, all super organized." She made a waving gesture with one claw. "And we were going to go in last, after they got to the vault. We're both small and fast, so we were going to get around the last of the defenses and shut the place down so the others could get the goods..."

Talon
**30 Minutes Before Shieldfall**

The dragon walked behind her new friend quickly down the low hallway. They'd just climbed down the elevator shaft after a massive earth pony carrying an electric lantern in his mouth. It was time for their part in the heist. The hall was littered with the remains of ancient, half-crumbled clay golems, their limbs broken and their crystal animation cores shattered like tiny sapphires all over the floor.

"I guess Black Cherry was right to bank on golems." Talon patted Sour Apple's back.

"I hear she's usually right," he replied with a nervous expression. "She's pretty calculating.."

"What's that supposed to mean?" The dragon stepped gingerly over the legs of a badly hurt pony who was currently being healed by a unicorn.

"Well..." He hung back a little to bring his head closer to her, so he could take a quieter tone. "It means we need to be careful. I have a pretty good sense for danger. It's what's kept me around this long. And right now that danger sense is telling me that something is not right... but I can't figure it out yet. I feel like, um..." Sour Apple gestured vaguely with his head as he struggled to articulate what he was feeling.

"Like... this is too good to be true," Talon finished for him. "If she wanted agile, why not a pegasus? No offense."

"No, you're right. Maybe... Talon, have you ever been on any jobs like this before?" She shook her head at this. "See, neither have I. Why get two creatures with the least experience to do the most important job? I can't figure it out yet, but just be careful."

By the time they reached the vault, it had already been blown open with blasting charges. The ground was littered with big pieces of twisted shrapnel that the two of them had to carefully step over and around to avoid.

"Now what?" Talon asked.

"Now... now we go in. And we get ready for things to go wrong."

Midnight Shine
**10 Hours After Shieldfall**

"So... did they go wrong?" Midnight Shine cocked his head at Talon.

She laughed in response. "Yeah. Yeah, they really did. The security was pretty tough to get around, sure, but your brother can really move when he wants to. That's not where it went wrong, though."

Midnight was about to ask what happened when Sour Apple returned, pressing a foil-wrapped sandwich into the younger pony's hooves and then pressing a hoof to Midnight's forehead and then his horn. "Wow.. you still don't seem very well. You're burning up, Mid. Even your horn feels hot." Sour sighed. "I don't get it. Maybe when we get to Las Pegasus we can afford to take you to a doctor."

"You spent half our bits just getting us onto this airship," Talon grumbled. "All for this 'pony on fire' stuff."

This caused Midnight to nearly choke on his cheese sandwich and sit upright suddenly. "Wait... 'pony on fire'? How did you know about-"

Talon interrupted him with a harsh laugh. "You talk in your sleep."

Sour Apple gave her a reproachful look and then returned his attention to Midnight. "Yeah. You kept talking about a pony on fire, said we had to go to Las Pegasus if we were going to save her. I don't really understand it, but you seemed really intent on it. And after what I saw at the police station, I think..." He sighed. "There's always been something special about you, Mid. And it's not just your special talent - you've got good instincts, too. If this is important to you, then I'll follow you anywhere."

Midnight looked over at Talon. "And... what about you? Why are you following with this?"

"Your brother saved my life." She huffed softly. "Dragon Code, I owe Sour a life. I help you two help this mystery pony and we're even."

"Huh... Well, I guess I can respect that," Midnight said after a moment. "How did he save your life?"

"Well... here's what happened when we got into the vault."

Talon
**15 Minutes Before Shieldfall**

"Well, showtime." Sour Apple chuckled a little bit and stepped forward , though he just took a few steps before Talon grabbed him.

"Hey, careful. Pressure plates." She pointed at the ground, at a line of slightly raised tiles.

"Yeah, thanks." He looked back and then carefully stepped over them. "Who knows what could have happened... Let's take this slow. Even if we are surrounded by amazing treasure." The room was only dimly lit by what remained of the electrical lights, but everywhere they could see the glitter of gold and gems. Talon greedily started pulling a small pile of gold bits into a bag while Sour looked at the leads from the pressure plates, following them to the wall. "These look like beam gems - I remember from the briefing. No way to disarm them without a unicorn." He shook his head. "Thanks for the save. These would have sliced me apart.."

"So it's the same as we thought going in. We find whatever generator is still providing electricity and we turn it off." Talon cinched the bag onto a strap that she threw over one shoulder.

"I'd talk about how you're already skimming, but I'm really starting to get a bad feeling that we're not getting paid. I... think we might not be heroic treasure hunters so much as test dummies."

Talon looked at Sour Apple skeptically. "I know we agreed we don't trust Black Cherry, but..." She stopped talking when she saw the horrified look on his face, and followed his wide eyes to look behind her shoulder, and took on the same expression when she saw a massive golem. "You're... you're not fireproof, are you?" Sour Apple shook his head in response as they stared at the golem. Its roughly segmented clay body was formed in the shape of an adult dragon, easily as big as twenty of either of the two kids staring at it, and many of its segments were covered in what looked to be iron plates. There was an odd contraption mounted where its mouth should be, and Sour had a feeling that this thing probably could breathe fire just like a real dragon.

"We should... probably run."

Midnight Shine
**11 Hours After Shieldfall**

Talon was interrupted by the PA blaring out in the canned voice of a bored stallion, "We are now arriving at Ponyville Air Station. All ponies disembarking should exit on the port side of the ship." Midnight looked around, and now that he was getting a good look at where they are, they were in a hold surrounded by crates, and maybe a handful of other ponies.

"So why are we in here with all the cargo?" Midnight asked.

"Well, tickets on a ship like this are expensive." Talon shrugged and sat back. "Air travel is safe, and safe means valuable. But we had to get you to your 'pony on fire', so..." She paused for dramatic effect. "We paid maybe a third of what we would have paid for actual tickets to instead bribe somepony to let us hang out down here."

"It sounds like you really didn't get out of there with much money."

"No, we really didn't," she said with a shake of her head. "I got my bits, and while we were fighting, Sour got hold of this really valuable-looking choker and-"

Midnight tried to sit upright at this but then groaned in pain and laid back down quickly. "Ugh..." He shook his head. "Sorry. You said a choker?" He tried to think as Talon nodded with a look of concern. "Heavy, solid gold, huge ruby in the shape of a lightning bolt?"

"I- yeah." She looked surprised. "How did you know?"

"I... I saw it when I was having those visions, Sour was wearing it and... and loyalty... and rainbows... rainbooms?" He scrunched up his face with the effort of remembering the details, while Talon looked at him like he was crazy.

"Rainbooms? What's a rainboom?" She grabbed the swaying foal by the shoulder and shook him gently. "Hey- hey! Stay with me, kid. Don't start babbling again."

"I..." Midnight stopped, and took several long, deep breaths. "You're right. You're right. Tell me about the dragon thing."

"Alright," Sour Apple said. "I'll take it from here - Talon mostly spent the encounter running."

Sour Apple
**10 Minutes Before Shieldfall**

They ran, stringing the dragon through the vault and often just barely avoiding the traps. Their first idea was to head back to the entrance, but they quickly found themselves cut off - the moment the dragon first roared in its mechanical voice, the ponies outside had barricaded the door as best they could. So instead, Sour and Talon split up and ran in different directions, Talon yelling to try and draw it off- she was fireproof, after all, and Sour Apple wasn't. It worked at first; all the golem saw was noise and movement, and as it melted the room's many treasures with its gouts of fire, Sour Apple slipped away and started looking desperately for anything that might help. But there wasn't anything he could see. There were gold bars and bits everywhere, priceless gems, long-forgotten works of art and first editions... but no weapons and no apparent ways out.

"Hurry up!" He could hear Talon from the far side of the huge vault, her shouts echoing off of the domed ceiling. "The beam gems aren't hurting it and fire just made it more mad!"

"I'm trying! There's nothing useful!" That was when he spotted a glint of bronze from the corner of his eye and ran for it- one thing that he'd learned very well as a cheat was how to tell gold from baser metals at a glance, or the other way around. The only thing made of bronze that could possibly be valuable enough to keep in this vault had to be a weapon, or armor, or... or a shield. Sour Apple skidded to a halt as he saw a tall glass case with its own internal light still working. A small sign in an elegant hand read, In Memory of COURAGE, and LOYALTY. Flash Magnus (b. Unknown d. 1512) and Rainbow Dash (b. 1485 d. 1519), and in the back of the case he could see that a handpainted backdrop had been set up depicting a dark yellow pegasus in ancient bronze armor, holding a kite shield to deflect a stream of fire- a dented, scorched shield with nocks for a pegasus' wing roots, which hung on hooks in front of the backdrop. Next to the ancient warrior was painted a blue pegasus mare with a windswept shock of rainbow-striped hair and beautiful eyes filled with determination. On her neck was a gold choker with a red gem in the shape of a lightning bolt- the same shape as the rainbow-colored lightning of her cutie mark. That same choker was hanging next to the shield, and as Sour Apple reached to press his hoof against the case, it throbbed with red light in time with his heartbeat... somehow slow and steady despite his fear.

As he stared into the light, the noise of the battle behind him seemed to melt away and take his fear with it. Of course he would fight the fake dragon. Talon was his friend now, after all, and what was fighting a dragon for your friends? It didn't matter that he didn't have a plan, because he had to try. In that light he saw the answer to his problems in the form of Flash Magnus wielding his shield - he called it the Titus - against the dragons. Everyone thought his friends were lost, but Flash had to try, even if trying was insane, because he could never leave them behind. In the light, he saw ponies battling Nightmare Winter - they were losing and dying and the princess of friendship - her name was Twilight Sparkle - was bound in chains. Rainbow Dash couldn't alter the outcome but she could stay loyal and she could fight, and Sour Apple saw her sacrifice herself so that the others could escape. Somehow he knew that the light he saw was the strength of Magnus' courage, and the power of Rainbow Dash's sacrifice, and in between he saw Celestia and Luna standing up to a patchwork despot called Discord, and he saw monsters walk right out of the old pony tales to be defeated by Rainbow Dash and her friends- Chrysalis and Tirek and the Storm King. It was calling him, tugging on his heart and demanding that he add his own stories of valor to its litany.

Sour Apple's reverie was interrupted by a scream of pain from Talon, and he quickly turned around and bucked at the glass with his back hooves, shattering the case and starting an alarm that was met with a roar of fury from the dragon. Too late for second guessing now. It was time to act. He put the choker on, feeling a rush of warmth and strength into his limbs as he did so, and then grabbed the shield, slinging it over his back and running towards the sound of the thundering dragon golem.

Midnight Shine
**11 Hours After Shieldfall**

"Wow, that's incredible. It's just like I saw in my visions." Midnight Shine sipped at a cup of water Talon had gotten him as his big brother checked his temperature again.

"That's nice to know, I guess, but I could do with less accuracy if it meant this fever would go down. It's like you've gotten sicker than I've ever seen, in just hours, and I have no idea what to do." The earth pony sighed. "I'm... I don't know. Ponyville has a big magic school, right? Maybe we'll get lucky and some wizards boarded the ship while we were there. I know it's a long shot, but this has got to be some kind of unicorn thing, and I have no idea how to help you." Sour Apple kissed him on the head and went back to the upper decks as Talon continued the story from her perspective.

"So there I was, right, fighting that big fake dragon- well, if I can be honest with you, kid, it was mostly running away from the big dragon. I might be fireproof but that thing had claws as big as you!" Midnight shuddered at the thought of that. "Im just about cornered, and that golem is breaking or melting everything. But then your brother shows up. He's got a big, garish ruby around his neck, and he's flailing around with this shield strapped to one of his forelegs, and I think that he's going to get burned alive for sure. The golem spits this big burst of fire out of the weird tube where its mouth should be, but then Sour holds up that shield and it just bounces right off! It didn't just go around the shield or something like that, it bounced right off and hit the ceiling!"

"Wow," Midnight managed to exclaim weakly. "That's actually really cool."

"Hey, I'll let you get away with the weak cheering this time because you look like you're dying." She put a hand on Midnight's chest. "Serious note, please don't die. Not until your brother gets back at the very least." Midnight returned this sentiment with a laugh that turned into a racking cough. "That really didn't sound good. Are you sure you don't want to just go back to sleep?"

"Tell me the rest of the story, please. So he fought the dragon but how did he beat it."

"Well..." Talon rubbed the scales of her neck and flicked one of her wings. "Truth be told, I didn't really see all of it because they were both moving around so much. Sour was able to get in close where the dragon seemed to have trouble hitting him, and I saw him trying to jam the pointy end of the shield in between its armor segments. He, um... he sort of pried them open like the shield was a crowbar and he stuck his hoof inside of the gap. He must have hit the soulstone, I think. It just shuddered and fell apart after, and I flew in and grabbed Sour before he could get crushed."

"And then what happened?" He tried to sit up but Talon forced him back down. "What happened to the choker? I saw it in my visions and I think it's really important."

"We still have it, don't worry about that. I just want to sell it myself, but your brother seems obsessed with it. I think he was going to die rather than give it up."

"Why would he have to? It was that Black Cherry you mentioned, wasn't it?"

"She cornered us in the vault after we killed the golem. They were waiting to see what would happen... sick-" She said some words in the Draconic language that Midnight didn't understand and felt were probably best not repeated. "The shield was out of reach, but Sour still had the ruby. She was with..." Talon made a look of disgust. "She had Finders."

"Finders? They came for me too!" Midnight shook his head. "That... that can't be a coincidence, can it? They must have known about me and Sour, and-"

"-and made a deal with her." Talon's orange eyes were filled with hate. "The whole thing was a trap. She sold us all out so that the Finders could get that thing- they called it an Element of Harmony - and you. If she wasn't already dead, I'd be tempted to kill Black Cherry for that."

"Talon..." Midnight put one of his hooves on Talon's hand. "That's what they do, though. They turn ponies against each other. They don't care how much hate they spread if it'll get Nightmare Winter what she wants. Don't... Talon, don't let them do it to you, too."

"How can you say that?!" Talon looked incensed. "Listen, you're still pretty young- I don't expect you to understand these things. But just because we don't follow the law doesn't mean we don't have our own rules, our own honor! Midnight, every pony that went on that treasure hunt- every single creature except for your brother and me - they are all dead or worse. And it's all because Black fucking Cherry sold out to the Finders!"

"She didn't have a choice!" Midnight came as close as he could to yelling with his hoarse voice, clambering unsteadily to his hooves. "They would have killed her or her family if she didn't!" It dimly registered in the back of the colt's mind that it might be unwise to spend so much energy defending a pony who tried to hurt his brother, but he knew the chaos that Flurry Heart's Finders left in their wake. "If you're going to hate anyone, hate them! This is what they do... They bribe and they threaten and they take hostages. They trick or force ponies into doing the queen's bidding. They spread hate and anger and fear just because they can! Talon... you're a good dragon. You're honorable and you're honest, and I know how angry you are that you were betrayed."

The dragon shook her head. "You don't know me, kid."

"I know... I know that you'll make the right choice when the time comes. I've seen it." He sighed. "You won't believe me until it happens, though. I saw that, too."

Prism Star
**11 Hours After Shieldfall**

Prism Star stood on the top deck of the airship, propping her front hooves up on the railing for a better look around the oblong balloon above them; the filly was wearing her school robes and wrapped up in a too-big pink scarf that flapped in the bitingly cold wind, and where most of the passengers on the deck were looking out at the land passing under them, Prism's wide, round eyes were directed up at the sky, and the round yellow sun that was slowly descending towards the horizon.

"Um, Prism, dear..." Shimmer nudged her on the shoulder. "Don't stare at the sun. I feel like I probably shouldn't have to say that."

"I can't help it. It's so... pretty." Prism sighed and laid her head down on the railing. "I can't believe I never noticed how pretty the sun is."

"Ponies are going to think you ate a weird mushroom!" Shimmer hissed into Prism's folded-down ear, looking around nervously at the other passengers. "We're supposed to be blending in!"

"But... but Shimmer, it's like it's calling me..." The filly closed her eyes and channeled magic into her horn. "I'm... I'm going to touch it."

"Touch... WHAT?!" Shimmer quickly smacked Prism's horn to cancel out the spell before grabbing the unicorn to pull her aside. "Are you crazy, Prism?"

"I'm not crazy!" Prism glared defiantly up at Shimmer. "I'm clearer than I've ever been! Shimmer, if I'm really some sun pony or whatever, then I have to, I have to-" She stammered a little in her anger and Shimmer sighed.

"I know, but... not here, okay? This won't be your only chance to bond with the sun, or whatever you're trying to do, but right now it's too dangerous. Did you even think through what could happen if you succeed? What happens if you get a sun cutie mark right now in front of every pony?"

"A sun cutie mark? Hey, are you-" The colt who was speaking quickly fell silent as Shimmer rounded on him, her horn glowing brightly and casting a menacing green cast over her glaring face.

"I would consider very carefully what you're going to say about my sister. In fact, I would be careful about saying anything at all," Shimmer told him quietly.

"I... I'm sorry..." He gulped nervously but stood his ground. The earth pony looked about the same age as Shimmer, with pale green fur, sloppily cut red hair that came down his head and neck in a shaggy mess. His yellow eyes betrayed his fear despite his stoic, square jaw, and Prism could see the cutie mark of a green apple with a bite out of it. She wanted to nudge Shimmer and point it out - it was one of the symbols they'd seen over the Cutie Map - but it might not be the best time. "I won't make trouble, I promise. Are you magic students?"

"Yeah," Prism said. "We're going from Ponyville to visit family."

"Well, um, I need your help." He looked between the two of them nervously, and Shimmer sighed at him and doused the magic in her horn.

"Listen," she said. "I don't know who you think we are, but I think you have the wrong ponies. Like my sister said, we're just going to visit family and we want to go back to our cabin and have our trip in peace."

"N-no! Please!" The colt stepped to block their path, earning him an angry growl from Shimmer that made him tremble. "Look, um... um... Look for a spark when the night is darkest!"

Shimmer slammed the pony against the wall, drawing a shout from Prism. "Hey! Stop it! What happened to blending in?!"

"Who told you that?" Shimmer asked, ignoring Prism's protests. "You get one chance."

"The pony who gave me my brother! He said if I ever met anyone from his order I'd know it from that phrase!" Shimmer dropped him in surprise, and he gasped for breath. "My... my brother... he's sick. I... I saw the way your sister was staring at the sun, and I thought she must be special like my Midnight, and if that's true then you must be with that pony's order, because you two are definitely not blood sisters, and if that's true then maybe you can help Midnight!" He gasped a little more after getting all of this out. "I'm Sour Apple, by the way. Six Point - that's what I call the pegasus who gave me Midnight when he was a foal - he said that if Midnight was in trouble I should look for a pony with a brand like his and say those words to them."

"Sour Apple, what did that brand look like?" Prism asked curiously, putting a hoof on Shimmer to calm her.

"It was a six-pointed star."

The two females exchanged a knowing look before Shimmer said to Sour Apple, "Where's your brother now?"

******

When the three of them reached the hold, Talon was explaining to Midnight in graphic detail how windigos had been attracted by the fight between Sour Apple and Black Cherry - for his part, the colt seemed a little nauseous from the depiction. "This is my little brother, Midnight Shine," Sour explained. "And the dragon is Talon. She's been with us since the shield fell." He gestured towards the girls for the sake of Midnight and Talon. "Midnight, Talon, these two are Shimmer and Prism Star. I told you I'd find some wizards, little bro."

Shimmer rolled her eyes at this and stepped over to examine Midnight. "Hmm. Look at the cutie mark, Prism."

Prism came up to Shimmer and responded in a tone just over a whisper, "A full moon. Just like we saw." She shook her head. "Apple... moon..." She glanced at Talon. "Claw... this is a really weird coincidence. So what do you think is wrong with him?"

"I don't know, I'm not a doctor." Shimmer shook her head. "But we have to do something."

Prism knelt down over Midnight. "Hey, you don't look too good. Want to tell me how you're feeling?" She leaned into look at his eyes closely, but fell back onto her rump with a yelp as a spark of energy arced from the tip of Midnight's horn into hers. "Ow... what the hay, you jerk?"

"I'm sorry!" Midnight whined in pain. "That hurt for me too, I didn't do it on purpose."

Shimmer leaned in to look at Prism's horn with an expression of concern. "Might be an energy overload of some kind. I've read about it, but never actually seen it- That's when a unicorn takes in more aetheric energy than their body can handle," she added with a glance at Sour Apple. "Do you know how it happened?"

Sour Apple shook his head. "He didn't say how. He went missing, and all I know is that when we found him, he was-"

"-kicking butt," Talon finished with a grin. "Beams of light everywhere, lifting automobiles, holding off wendigos and Finders. He was awesome for such a little guy."

"Wow... you did all that?" Prism's mouth was gaped open a little, and Shimmer shut it gently for her.

"You'd have needed a massive amount of aether to do that..." Shimmer said thoughtfully.

"Or another source of energy," Prism noted, her eyes lighting on Midnight's cutie mark. "Can we help him?" she asked Shimmer.

The older filly considered this for a few moments, sitting down as she looked over Midnight, and then looked at Sour Apple and Talon. "I... I think... I might have an idea. But you guys can't be around for it - that's the only thing I want from you."

Sour looked about to protest, but then looked at his brother and just sighed. "Fine. Just... fine. Come on, Talon." Talon gave Shimmer a threatening glare before following Sour away from the others.

"Alright, um... listen, Midnight... I'm not going to lie to you. This is probably going to really hurt, considering the state you're in. But I think it's the best way to help you. The normal thing we'd do to treat an overload would be to have another unicorn siphon some of the energy out of your body and into theirs. But you've taken in so much energy that it wouldn't be safe for me or Prism to try that."

Prism looked up at her. "The shard? I... I don't know if I can be around that thing."

Shimmer ran a hoof down her mane. "You have to try, okay? If he can do it in his state, you can."

"What shard?" Midnight looked alarmed. "What exactly are you going to do to me?"

"Well, the shard we're talking about is an ancient artifact that was dug up in the north," Shimmer explained in the vaguest terms that she could. It probably wouldn't be very reassuring to Midnight if she mentioned changelings right now. "It... it drains magic and magic energy. So my idea is to have you light your horn. You know a basic light spell, right?" Midnight nodded at this. "Good. Just keep casting that, and the shard will siphon off your magic. It's... probably going to hurt, just because the flow of aether in your body is so messed up."

Midnight took a couple of deep breaths to stay calm. "Alright..." The colt lit the tip of his horn with a little whine of pain, and Shimmer took the small metal box out of an inside pocket of her robe.

"Just keep channeling, Midnight. Ready? 3... 2..." Without waiting for one, Shimmer opened the box and the light was immediately extinguished as silver energy flowed from the tip of Midnight's horn into the shard like mist caught on a gust of wind. "Keep it up," she said to the colt who was currently writhing on the improvised bed.

"It... it hurts," he groaned. "My horn feels like it's going to explode!"

"Your horn isn't going to explode," Prism managed. She'd flopped down beside Midnight and was panting slowly to try and control the waves of nausea rippling through her body as the black shard's proximity disrupted her normal energy flow. "Uuuugh... I might throw up, though. Please get done quickly."

The colt cried out in pain and Prism quickly put a hoof over his mouth to muffle it. "Just... just hang in a little more. I know you can do it." Her skin was crawling, and she could feel her tail twitching in unconscious annoyance.

Midnight's breathing was quickly becoming slower and more shallow, and after a few more moments his eyes closed and he went still. "Um... Shimmer," Prism started.

"I know. I know!" Shimmer quickly put away the shard. "You, we, um... let me think." She controlled her breathing and tried not to panic, but Prism could feel a faint tickle of Shimmer's fear somewhere in the back of her mind that certainly didn't help her own feelings. With what was going on, it didn't even register with Prism to question why she was certain the feeling was coming from Shimmer. "Alright, we need to get him breathing again. Prism, you're going to have to give him mouth-to-mouth."

"What?! No!" The filly shuddered at the thought of pressing her mouth to his. "Isn't there some other way?"

"Just do it!" Shimmer glared and pushed down on Prism Star, and Prism sighed before taking a deep breath and pressing her muzzle to Midnight's.

'Don't think about it, don't think about it,' Prism thought frantically, but of course that just made her think more about the fact that she had her lips pressed against a colt she just met. She came up for air and then went back down to breathe into his mouth again.

"Alright, now you need to jump-start his body's magical energy. Use Boro's Lesser Sparking, send some electricity into his horn."

Prism nodded as she came back up and summoned the energy to her horn, before sending a spark into Midnight's horn - and then everything seemed to happen at once. Midnight suddenly sucked in air as he woke up, and Shimmer stomped her hoof excitedly, telling Prism that she was proud of her for managing to do it- but the words barely registered, blending together like the sound of raindrops falling on a roof. Instead, what Prism noticed first was a surge of painful feedback as her horn brushed against Midnight's, and then her eyes met his, and then her gut fell into the floor as she felt like she was falling.

Prism fell through his eyes into utter blackness, and suddenly hit the floor with a painful thud. She was sitting in a huge, lushly appointed room- a massive throne of ice and crystal rose at the top of a flight of steps, and the alabaster marble of those steps was covered by a long, dark blue carpet that ran from the throne to a pair of huge ebony doors on the other side of the long hall. The walls were studded with tall, arched windows covered in a webwork of ice, and along them stood guard ponies in black and violet scale-mail.

And on the throne sat the Queen, who Prism had previously only seen in portraits and on the face of Equestrian bits. She was a tall, white alicorn with wide wings and long pink and purple hair that flowed in wide curls under an elaborate crystal crown. Most of her form was covered in a long, shimmering gown, and the overall effect of her appearance was nothing short of beautiful. But Flurry Heart's benevolent smile didn't quite make it up to her eyes - cold blue eyes that drove a wedge of ice into Prism Star as the alicorn seemed to look through her and towards the opening doors.

"My Queen," cried a terrified-looking herald pony from the doorway. "It- it is my pleasure... t-to present the Princess P-prism Star," she stammered before stepping aside.

'Prism Star? But... but I'm standing right here. What is she talking about?' Prism thought, and she opened her mouth to shout, to declare her presence despite her terror, but nothing came out and the will to say anything died in her throat as a gangly pony only a head taller than her stepped through the door. She was... the only way to describe her was terrifying. Her white coat was marred by streaks of orange, and she wore a light breastplate and barding enameled with orange and detailed in gold. The pony's orange mane flowed like fire around her long horn, and it took Prism a moment to realize that her mane and tail were both made of fire somehow- as were her alicorn wings. Prism saw her own green eyes over a leering mouth of sharp, predatory teeth. 'That can't be me, that can't possibly be me,' Prism thought to herself as she quailed in terror.

"I'm so glad you decided to join us, my dear. Guards, leave us," Flurry Heart said, and as soon as the guards and the herald had gone, and the doors were shut, the queen began to transform herself with the mirage shimmer of a glamour being dispelled. Her true form was clad in dark armor and a purple cape that flowed over her hindquarters, her mane was hidden by a black helmet, and her mouth was full of the same predatory teeth as the newcomer, but the eyes were unchanged- the same cold blue of her illusory form. This... this was the real queen. This was Nightmare Winter.

The flaming filly began to speak, but her words were muffled and indistinct; Prism suddenly felt a heavy weight on her ears, and felt like she was watching the scene from deep underwater. "Now, now. We don't want any spoilers," a smug, sneering male voice said behind her. Prism turned around and saw the most bizarre creature standing behind her on two mismatched legs- one the leg of a dragon and the other that of a pony. His long, sinuous form seemed at once snake and horse, and his crossed arms were the talons of an eagle and the paw of a lion. His face was so much like a pony's, but he had two mismatched horns, his sneering mouth was full of fangs, and his orange eyes were filled with more malice than Prism had ever seen in her life. "As amusing as your distress is, you shouldn't be here."

Prism was dimly aware of a duel going on behind her, fire and ice meeting in explosive violence, but the strange creature in front of her seemed the greater concern. "What are you? And where am I? Am I dead?"

"What? Oh, of course you're not dead. You could be looking at the future... or maybe another world far away... or it might just be a dream. Oh, but it is wonderful, isn't it? You ponies tearing each other apart just like I know you always will - you've made me stronger than ever." He grinned cruelly. "I am Discord, after all."

"You're... what?" Prism gave him a nonplussed look. "How can you be discord? That's... that's some kind of emotion or something, it's not a creature. Discord is a metaphor for what happens if ponies don't work together or something like that."

"Is that what you were told?" He popped out of existence and re-formed inside one of the windows on the other side of the hall, forcing Prism to run across the fight to keep up. Thankfully, the roaring flames seemed to pass right through her. "Oh, I am very real, my little pony. And as soon as I'm done helping you, I'm going to have some fun after what you ponies did to me."

"What... What did we do to you?"

Discord slithered out of the window to come face-to-face with Prism, forcing her to take a couple of steps backwards. "Your precious queen imprisoned my dear friend Twilight. She murdered my Fluttershy in cold blood. And then your own ancestor Starlight, the last pony I had left to trust, sealed me away for a thousand years to save her own hide! I've lost everything I loved in this world, and soon you'll know what true Chaos is!" He paused and stepped back with a laugh. "Oh, but not yet. It's not nearly time for the fun part yet." He held out his lion paw. "Time to go home, Prism Star. I'll see you again soon." He snapped his finger and the world dissolved in a swirl of color and sound, and then Prism found herself sitting over Midnight Shine once again; Midnight was looking at her with shock, and Shimmer was looking down at her with concern.

"Hey, are you alright?" Shimmer asked.

"I... yeah. I'm fine." Prism shook her head. "It was really nice meeting you, Midnight. We'll tell your brother you're alright."

Sour Apple
**12 Hours After Shieldfall**

When Sour Apple returned to his brother, he found the colt sitting up in his blankets, sketching with some paper and a pencil. Clearly his horn was working again at least, but Midnight didn't normally draw... "Hey... how are you feeling, Mid?" Sour sat next to his brother and wrapped a foreleg around him.

"Trying to figure things out. I had another vision, and I got one of the other passengers to lend me a pencil and some paper so I could draw what I saw."

Sour looked down at what Midnight was drawing. It was a pony with hair and wings made of fire. "Wow... you're actually pretty good. So is this the pony on fire?"

"I... I don't know. I can't figure out how it all comes together, but Sour... Sour, you know that little filly who helped me?"

"Yeah. She was pretty cute, huh? I bet if you combed your mane you'd even have a chance with her." Sour chuckled and nudged his brother, but Midnight didn't seem to be in the mood for jokes.

"I don't get how, but... it's her, Sour. She's the pony on fire."