Dream Whisper

Chapters

Chapter 2: An unpleasant meeting
Chapter 3: The aftermath
Chapter 5: A real journey
Chapter 6: The meeting
Chapter 7: The rescue
Chapter 8: Another view on things
Chapter 9: Awakening
Chapter 10: Evening the scales
Chapter 11: Unexpected help
Chapter 12: Finding life
Chapter 13: Wandering about
Chapter 14: Vengeance
Chapter 15: You've done what?
Chapter 16: The mare in the forest
Chapter 17: Arriving home
Chapter 19: Cheating
Chapter 20: On their way
Chapter 21: Similiar situations
Chapter 22: Foalhood memories
Chapter 23: Doing their thing
Epilouge: And now?
Chapter 1: Unpleasant dreams
Chapter 4: A journey through their dreams
Chapter 18: Another pony's eyes see another pony's world

Chapter 2: An unpleasant meeting

I woke up in a strange, big room. I immediately recognized, that I was inside a dream, but why? Did the sleeping potion not work? My head knocked and knocked. Somehow, I seemed to have lost memories of the hours before starting to sleep. Usually, I can remember it quite well, because I enter a dream fully consciously. This was ... different.

I looked around: There was nothing special in here, a couple of bookshelves, two beds, a short table with some letters on it and a big brown door. Usually, I wouldn't disturb the privacy of others, if I had the possibility not to. However, I wanted to find out, what had happened to me, why I was inside a dream. So I went straight for the door and opened it. It was heavier than expected and I had to carefully use some magic. The inside of the tower was completely black, though. Just nothing. I must have come to the edge of the dream already. I turned around and looked back. The only other option was the window, but I wasn't sure, how I should get out of a tower like this. I looked outside and tried to recognize these sourroundings. The dreamer should be out there somewhere, too.

Then it hit me: This is Canterlot. Somepony was dreaming of Canterlot.However, the houses looked unnaturally small, which probably meant, that the dreamer had to be in some kind of tower, too. If the dreamer would have been on the ground, he or she would experience the houses as normally sized. If however, the dreamer has fear of heights, he or she does experience height much more dramatically. Furthermore, the dream edge would probably have not ended behind the door when the dreamer was down there. To do anything, I would have to get out of this tower. The walls were definitely not fit to climb on, because the uppper part was completely flat and the lower part was covered with long thorns, that went off the tower surface in every possible direction, much like a berry bush. The opposing tower seemed to have the same structure as my own, but before I could start making any plan, the dream location seemed to change. The ground beneath my hooves started to lean towards the window.

I tried to grab onto anything, but it was already too late. I fell through the window right after banging my head against the wall. In the air, I was thrown around as if somepony was playing with me as a toy. Behind me, the tower collapsed in a big cloud of smoke. I could get a glimpse of somepony standing in one of the rooms in the other tower, just before I was thrown up again. I was not falling as you would expect, the force didn't seem to let me go. A brick hit my back very hard, destabilizing my flight once again. The world was turning and turning in circles, while it was getting smaller too. I was being lifted somewhere up. As my back crushed against something, I lost my senses just for a short moment. When I regained them, I was lying on the moon, at least that is what I thought it was. The dreamer was right beside me, also lying, but didn't seem to be hurt very badly. I slowly stood up, while everything was still blurry. Up above us there were the two towers in the distance. They were hanging from some kind of a ceilingn now, which was totally mindbending. Some parts were still collapsing, but instead of falling down on us, they were falling upwards.
I don't know if it was this strange sensation, or the hard landing, that caused me to collapse again.

When I woke up, the surface of what I had believed to be the moon had drastically changed. The dreamer sat next to a big fire, just a couple of hooves away. We were in some kind of forest now. It is always impressive, how dreams can still change, even though you are inside them. There were only trees around us, and it seemed to be night. The dreamer was a yellow pegasus, with a pink mane. Her cutie mark seemed to be a couple of flowers, but it was hard to see in the dim, alernating light of the fire. The dreamer asked first, before I could even say anything: „Who are you? If you don't mind telling me. I mean, I don't want to be rude or anything. You can also stay quite, if you'd ...‟ The rest of her words were too quiet to understand. I decided to tell the dreamer about me, before the situation could get dangerous. The forest seemed too dark for this to just be a dream. The recent events led me to the conclusion, that this was a nightmare; And in nightmares, sometimes ponies get hurt.
„I am Dream Whisper. Now, please, listen carefully:‟
I did not like to tell them this, but sometimes it was necessary.
„This is a dream‟.
The dreamer's eyes told from disbelief, then from fear. At least, I did not say, this was a nightmare.
„We both, you and me, have to get out before somepony gets hurt. This dream is real. I know it sounds stupid, but you have to trust me.‟
I should really make up a better explenation in the future. This all just sounded ridiculous, even to me.
„Hello Dream Whisper, I am Fluttershy. Your story does not sound stupid, I believe you.‟
She smiled at me. Not something usual, when you invade somepony's dream.
„Okay, we just have to find some water. Water wakes you up. We should better make this fast.‟
The dreamer, Fluttershy, did not seem to disagree with that idea anyway. I stood up, and realized, that I could hardly do it. My leg was badly hurt and I would need to rush into a hospital as fast as I could.
Inside a nightmare, there are never hospitals; Except scary ones. As if standing up had been a signal, we instantly heard a growling sound.
„Timberwolves,‟ screamed Fluttershy „HIDE!‟
The last part she shouted as loud as you could not even imagine for such a shy mare.
„Hiding won't help! They will find us. We have to run!‟
The timberwolves seemed to be far behind us, but their growling was quickly catching up. After a short amount of consideration, finally the dreamer began to run. It was about time we got away from here. As it was the nature of nightmares, we were stopped very soon. I just had jumped over a couple of sticks in my way, when my landing was not successful anymore. It was not the inability to jump or anything similar, but the ground itself was falling apart beneath my hooves. The forest had suddenly ended and right before us there was a giant cliff. A cliff? This was a pegasus' nightmare. Why in Equestria a cliff? Fluttershy stopped earlier than me and was standing a couple of hooves to my left.

„Not a cliff.‟ She was obviously frightened. „Not a cliff.‟
Obviously I had found the first pegasus with a certain fear of heights. We both turned around. I could hear crumbling beneath my hooves and just hoped for the ground to hold on. We were cornered in, our only chance to escape was fighting.
The growling got closer and closer. The heartbeats were tense, nothing moved, except a light breeze through the leaves of the dark trees. The first timberwolf was as suprised as I had been and jumped a little bit too far and fell right into the cliff. The second timberwolf however, stopped in time. It turned around towards Fluttershy, ready to jump. Without thinking, I used my magic to remove bits of ground below the wolf. It worked, but I already saw the price incoming. If I would take off too much ground, I would also fall. Going forward was no option anymore, as another 3 Timberwolfes jumped in front of me. I removed the earth below them, but it caused me to be taken with them. The world flipped around while bits of dirt and small stones were flying through the air. Then everything went black.

The pain was the first sign of the consciousness I regained. The first Timberwolf had stopped my fall, but had been crushed under my weight. The other Timberwolfes had also been crushed by the fall. Somewhere up on the edge of the cliff, I saw a bright light.
Another, bigger pony came down from the sky, right next to Fluttershy. I could hear her echo down here:
„shy, shy , shy, got to, got to, nightmare, nightmare. Find, find, find, nightmare, nightmare, come again, come again.‟
Suddenly, I heard growling again, followed by another echo:
“beasts, beasts.”
Then, two screams. One of them belonged to Fluttershy; I couldn't indentify the other pony. Until she fell down.
The growling had stopped, turned into whimpering, as the rest of the timberwolfes fell down with the other pony. My body felt incredibly heavy, but I had to get up. The sound of crushing sticks filled the abyss. I tried to walk forward, but after two or three steps I collapsed again. In the distance I could see the blue skin, much similar to mine. First I was surprised: Did I somehow managed to get stuck in this dream a second time? Then I realized the bitter truth. It was Princess Luna.

I had only heard stories of Princess Luna entering nightmares to calm her subjects down. However, the dreams I enter are different. Not even princess luna could have known that. I tried to stand up again, and after a couple of tries it finally worked. I carefully stepped forward. Towards the remainders of the timberwolves.
Towards whatever horror might await me there. Step by step. I needed a couple of heartbeats after every one of those, to regain my will to do another. I fought against the pain.
There she lay. She looked like she was sleeping. The puddle of blood before her told other stories. I closed my eyes. This was my fault. If I had not entered this dream...

What should I do now? I had no power over this dream. I could not change anything. I was just in it. Almost as if you watched the fireworks; Everything explodes in the distance, but in the end you caused the explosion.
My blood was pulsing through my body. It was my fault. My legs stopped holding me up.
„P-P-Princess?‟
I knew it made no sense. A tear was dripping down on the cold ground. Have I really just murdered Princess Luna? Is this all just some bad joke? Is this my own, personal nightmare? I wasn't even paying attention to my surroundings anymore.

I just murdered. I just murdered.

After some time I awoke again. The same cliff, the same terrible picture. How long have I been unconscious? In the far distance I could hear the growling of timberwolfes. Most of the sticks in this cliff had been broken with the fall; No threat for me right now. It would take them a long time until they would be able to grow the sticks together again. I looked around: Nothing but rocks and death. I tried to do something, but my legs were not able or willing to get up.
Only this one thought: I just murdered.

I almost went back into unconsciousness, but then I heard a loud rumbling. Every stone was jumping up and down. The cliff started to swing to the left side, then to the right side. In a matter of heartbeats, the whole cliff turned upside down. I fell down, out of the cliff, while the world around me was being deformed.

Chapter 3: The aftermath

I woke up. The sun had just risen over the horizon. Was all of that real? It took me just a moment to realize. It was real. The pain started to pulse once again. This time there was no unconsciousness to ease it.

I somehow had to get to the hospital in Frozenfalls, which was the closest one right now. How could I get there in my current state, though? I looked at my body: Front left leg probably broken. Several rips either broken or just sprained. I would only be able to walk properly after stabilizing the leg, but first I had to get the bandages out. Furthermore, I would need a couple of strong sticks from the forest to support the leg. For that, I could use my magic. I pulled myself into the kitchen, where my medical aids hung in a shelf right next to the door.

After dripping some strange medicine – Don't ask me what it was, the pony from the shop never told me – on my bandages, I finally put them on. I found a stick outside my window, which was perfectly straight and seemed strong enough to carry me. After opening my front door, I was able to hover it in and fix it onto my leg with the bandage
As soon as I was finished, I started to prepare with supplies, I was ready to head off, leave home for an uncertain time. I also took the sleeping potion with me, not knowing, if it worked or not.
I hobbled a bit, when I started my journey, but it was fine for now.

When I finally arrived at the shop in the town, my whole body was hurting with every pulse of blood flowing through my limbs. It was bearable, just a deep knocking, but it started to get more and more intense. The sun had climbed up to the zenith by now, warming me up and brightening the day. Most clouds had moved to the south already, so we were left with wonderful weather. There were even two ponies outside, but neither did I want to speak to them nor did they want to speak to me. I headed straight towards the shop to ask the shop pony what the matter was with this sleeping potion. To my surprise, he was not there. His doors were closed and locked. Wondering what might have happened, I decided to go on. I had all the supplies I needed and it would be a long trip. The thing I feared the most right now, was dreaming again.

I wandered for a while through the calm forest; Sometimes stopping to rest my legs, sometimes just to check on the bandages. After my fifth stop, I had a strange realization. The sun was still in it's zenith; Immediately those throughts returned. It was my fault, that the sun did not lower. Princess Celestia was probably too busy with her sister right now to lower the sun. This was bad, very bad.

If anypony knew, who I was and what I had done, they would probably try to capture me, imprision me, hold me there until I was a rotten corpse. As much as I knew from my guilt, there are days in your life when you just have to lie, because you are unable to face the consequences of the truth.

My steps faded one into another, repetitive and slow. My mind wanted to go back to the bitter truth, but I forced myself not to. I was not ready to embrace it anyway. Step by step. Much like a walk of shame, but more like a walk of regret. I didn't even look up. My eyes were focussed on my hooves. Slowly lifting from the ground, gliding forward and dropping down again, leaving some proof for whoever might find it.

This trotting with feelings of pain, regret, fear and still a little bit of disbelief went on for a long time. A very long time. For myself, it felt like time was standing still. After this whole march, at some point, I got tired. Not the kind of 'I want to sleep now'-tired, but the 'I am dying for sleep'-tired. My steps were not straight anymore; One hoof was catching me right before I fell, and the other ones were bringing me out of balance again. My eyelids were falling down from time to time. Without even noticing it, I seemed to have passed out again. The dream I entered wasn't fully developed when I got inside. It seemed like my magic did not fully put me inside the dream. All I could see were black and white schemes floating through a grey space. There was no gravity here, not physical laws. Somehow, in some strange unexpected way, it was nice to finally be able to relax.

I wonder what pony dreamt that dream. The dream must have been from an unconscious pony as only those dreamt these weird dreams with nothing inside.

When I woke up again, the sun was still high in the sky. Although that didn't mean no time had passed. I started walking again, some power recovered, but still weaker than usual. The city, Frozenfalls, was not really far away from my home. Usually one day of journey, however that was measured in case you could gallop. In my situation, it would probably need 2 days. How in Equestria should I know, how long a day was, though? My part of the journey before collapsing would have been at least a quarter day, because the sun was half way over the sky, but after it stopped moving? How long would it take me? It was not only the boredom and the impatience, but I was also really serious about my injuries.

After what seemed like an eternity, the city finally rose from the horizon. I was standing in a clearing on a hill just inside the forest. In the distance I could hear the dim roaring of tons of water crushing against the stone relentlessly. The city was very flat, no high towers or such, but it was huge nonetheless. Like a giant puddle it expanded to all sides around the river. I would probably arrive at the borders of the city very soon, but the hospital was on the other side of the river.

When my small forest walkway met the giant street leading towards the city, the tranquility was over. The clopping of hooves and voices of these hundrets of ponies had been drowned out by the sound of the waterfall before, but now it crushed into my face. I tried to evade an old pony, who was slowly walking along the side of the busy road, but to my great displeasure, I stumbled right into the masses. First, I got hit by a young colt, trying to catch up to his mother. I could barely evade the giant stallion, which was pulling a carriage filled with all kinds of colored bottles. As I just got my balance back, a magically powered strange cart thingie hit my side.

„Well, lookie what we got here, brother of mine, it's the same on every road.
We really should have taken our magical boat.
Seems like every pony on their way, is forgetting where to go...‟
„...and where not to show.‟

I was kinda surprised. What were they talking about?
„H-h-hey you?‟

„Well what a luck we have again...‟
„He is Flim‟
„And he is Flam‟
„We're the world famous Flim Flam brothers Traveling salesponies nonpareil.‟

Why do I always have to run into crazy ponies, if I run into any?
„Can you please just stop?‟

„Seems like this pony is not so easy to impress. Maybe you, maybe me, maybe we should confess.
We have the greatest cider for lowest prices in all of Equestria...‟

„...showing all ponies just our best, that's how we are.‟

„I suppose by now you're wondering 'bout our peculiar mode of transport...‟

This was going too far.
„No, I am not. STOP.‟
I would not have thought it could work, but they actually stopped singing.
„Can you just bring me to the hospital, please?‟
They put their heads together.
„It would mess up our appearance around 9'oclock at the Fallsranch. We could lose lots of time and time is money, brother of mine.‟
„If we let her through, we could get in trouble. Serious trouble, worth more time and money. Look at her.‟
Just how far was this going to go?
„Hey, I can still hear you both!‟
Now they turned towards me again.

„We take you with us, but only because we are so unbelievably...‟
„...unconcievably...‟
„...I can't believe-ably...‟
„...impeccably...‟
„...immaculately...‟
„... the friendliest ponies in this whole big world.‟

Maybe I would be better off, walking to the hospital. This was really terror for your mind. Their machine was designed for two ponies, but I would fit on there somewhere. Of course, the two brothers sat on the sofa, while I was lying on the ground. I didn't care, at least not walking anymore; I would not have been able to handle the masses anyway. For now, I could relax.

Luckily enough, the two did not annoy me any further. The one with the beard started to sleep after a couple of minutes of their strange machine rumbling along the road, the other one seemed to ungulacurei his hooves. It was much more interesting to look at all these ponies streaming into the city like water streamed through a creek. How many different ponies could even walk on a street? Small fillies and colts, huge stallions, friendly mares, thin unicorns and big, bulky pegasi. Not something you would expect: How could they even fly? The big white pegasus, I am referring to seemed to be very strong, but had tiny wings. How often do you want to flap those if you want to fly? I guess, it works out in the end. As if he had heard my thoughts, he yelled 'YEAH!' for no appearant reason. You really see some strange ponies in big streets.

I arrived at the middle of the city in a while. With a magical cart I was a little bit faster than by foot. The hospital was still some minutes of trotting away, since we had yet not crossed the river.

Then, something strange happened. Most ponies were leaving the streets, in a rush to see something else. Even the Flim-Flam brothers stopped moving their strange cart. They jumped off without a word to me, running into the streets to my left. In a couple of minutes, the streets were empty. There was complete silence. Silence. Where there had been the roaring of the waterfall from before? A strange feeling, to miss the loud crushing noise. Why was it gone?

I have only heard stories. In some rare occasions, every ten years or so, the river completely froze down. This freezing was not, as you would expect it, bound to the seasons. The water was turning into ice without notice. Some say, when the water fall freezes, you could see your biggest dreams in the frozen crystals. Some people even tried to aquire some ice crystals.

Until now, no pony had been able to actually cut into the ice. It is told, that the ice is incredibly powerful with storing magic. It had become a great tradition to try to get some ice crystals out of the frozen fall before it started flowing again. For the next couple of minutes, the whole city would try it's luck on this rare occasion. If you could get one of the ice crystals, it would be worth a fortune. Most people were stunned by the sparkling ice crystals, which were supposed to fall down from the cliff, but seemed to be stuck in time. I have never seen it, but I always dreamt of it. Now, I had to go to the hospital. This was a not a hard decision: I also sprung down from the cart, nearly crushing under my own weight. I had to catch up.

Even though I had problems with walking, I managed to arrive at the huge bulk of ponies surrounding the frozen waterfall. The area was crowded and I would probably not get through to see the beauty of the drops of water, which are not only frozen, but also frozen in time. After a short while, I finally found a way to get closer. The crowd was getting thinner the closer to the cliff you got. I just had to walk along the cliff to get to the waterfall.
It was not very pleasant to look to your left and just see the ground missing. After a couple of hundrets of hooves you could see the white bed of clouds. However, I was willing to find my way.

If the frozen fall had only a fraction of it's described effect, it would blow my mind away. I came closer and closer to the frozen fall. I could smell the catchy smell of water and a cold, fresh breeze from the countryside. Believe it or not, it literally got colder the closer I got to the stream of frozen water; Almost as if the cold was creeping out of the river bed and latching onto the surroundings. A chill ran down my spine. The crowd was not in commotion as I had expected. The crowd was standing quietly, without words or movement. I further approached this rare event.
Then, I had my first glimpse. It was super-duper-tremendeously-incredibly-hyper-dazzling. By no means I could fully describe it, but I will try to anyway:

The first impression that outclassed every other impression was the reflecting light. Not only one color, but every possible color was refracted into the sky, into the city, onto the clouds. Everything shined and glowed and sparkled. In addition to that, the colors didn't stay on one place: There were multiple movements, the darker colors moved faster, while the lighter colors were almost standing still. In every heartbeat, you could see a new arrangement of colors, a new wonderful picture in the sky, down on the clouds and just everywhere. The second impression was the steady glowing of the crystals. They did not only reflect and refract the light, but they somehow glowed in themselves. It was a cold, white glow, but it was somehow calming. This calming glow was the reason for the incredible, unexpected silence. It was also baffling me. I could not have brought out a word. It was just... glowing, as if the water was replaced with white light, which was now flowing through the crystals.

The third impression came to me only after a while, but when I saw it, it caught me, took me with it into some other land. From one heartbeat to another I was lost in the shards of ice. The world around me faded as I was being pulled in. It sounds stupid, I know. This is the part, that is not really easy to describe. Sometimes you get the feeling, that you are standing somewhere else and your current life can be seen like a movie. My mind was just suddenly blank. I was staring. Without the slightest urge to ever stop.
You could say, I lost myself.

There is just one thing, when you are so deeply entranced by those shards, that can lower your mood. That is, if you are forced to stop watching them. I would have probably stood there for the rest of the day and the following night, which is as long as the freezing lasted. If I can trust my sources, that is. I was just watching a yellow circle hushing over a red surface, while a green twinkling arose from it. Then, a blue, long and sharp line cut through the surface. There was a purple triangle just about to join this fight, when suddenly my left hoof lost a bit of ground. Looking there out of reflex was probably the best thing that happened to me for a while. I was standing right on the edge. Just a few crumbling stones were holding me from falling. Somehow, I must have slid downwards without noticing it. I jumped back, making some kind of weird noise, probably to scared to even scream properly. It was about time, I headed towards the hospital.

The way towards the hospital was not hard to walk. My legs had recovered a bit already from the long march and now it felt good finally moving them freely again – At least as free as the supporting stick allowed it. I don't even know, how long I stared at those ice shards. Time was difficult to measure, now that... things had happened. I guess, today was my lucky day. The hospital was opened. Harder than the way to the hospital was the way inside. Even though ponies care quite much for each other, sometimes there are just one or two of us, who deny any ponial interactions and the mare from the check-in counter was one of those.
Her first words were:
„Hey you, over there. Stop making a diry floor with your bandages.‟
I don't know about you, but have you ever tried to pick up bandages with your hooves? Not? Well, I can tell you: It's nearly impossible. Not that is was a problem for me as an unicorn. But earthponies? Or pegasi? What are they supposed to do? Some parts of my bandages seemed to have loosened while I had watched the frozen falls. I quickly gathered some magic to pick them up and throw them over my back. Then, I went to the desk to register:
„Could you please be so nice as to ask a medical pony to help me – I have got some serious injuries.‟
„No.‟
She obviously did not want to speak with me.
„Could you at least tell me, where I can find somepony to help me. Please, I am in serious need for medical aid.‟
„Ponies like you are so annoying. You come in hear, with such dirty bandages and filthy excuses and expect me to help you? This is a hospital, not a daycare.”
I stared at her, completely caught off guard by that behaviour, then she resigned.
“Fine... There should be somepony somewhere.‟
What a great help. I probably could have figured that out all by myself. I would have liked to know, whether her grumpy mood was a result of not being allowed to leave her working place and watch the frozen falls, or whether she was just generally a grumpy pony.
This called for searching: Firstly, I went to my left, hoping to find just anypony that could help me a bit more. In the left wing though, there was just nopony. It was completely quiet. I turned around to the right wing and there he stood: An old, but seemingly friendly unicorn. He had a cutie mark of a droplet of blood.
„Hello! May you help me?‟
Hopefully he was not as grumpy as the lady from the check-in counter.
„Hello! Oh dear, you look like you need help. Come on into this room right here.‟
His right front hoof pointed at the door at his side.
„Most ponies are gone for seeing the frozen waterfall. Only us, who we need to care about sick or injured have to stay. Don't worry, I have seen it often enough. Another time would be another time too much. Life is short and I don't want to waste any. You know, it is a beautiful event, and it is a beautiful distraction.‟
A beautiful distraction? Probably. I gained nothing by looking at it, except losing my time. Then again, it was just magnificant.

The room for operations was very small. There was just a big bed and a couple of sharp hoof attachments. Some ponies operate with their mouths, but I like it more when they have the control with their hooves. The thing about being operated is mostly, that it usually hurts very badly, except the hospital has good coverage with medical plants.
I mean, you could use magic, and it was quite often used to help with the wounds. However, magic is not the answer to everything. On the one hand, it is quite hard to use the magic to heal. On the other hand, you have to be very exact and knowledged. In the end, it was just more professional to do the operations with hoof attachments. Not that magic was overall bad to heal. It's just not the best possible method for serious injuries like mine.
You need to know, where exactly the muscles run and if any veins were cut. You need to know, how to precisely limit your magic to a small area.
The bigger problem was getting ponies to a deep rest.

Sleeping potions were quite common, but so were medical plants, who just numben your body, instead of getting you to sleep altogether. The old stallion was quite surprised when I took my own potion out.
„Ahh, you already have something. Can I take a quick look at it? I just want to make sure, that it serves it's purpose.‟
I guess, it was alright. Even though, I had no idea, how he should see, whether the potion worked or not, I gave it to him. His horn started glowing as he lifted the potion in the air. He took out a couple of leaves and dropped some into it, taking them out again. Some changed color, others did not react.
“I am sorry, but you cannot use that one. It's a simple imitation. Take this one instead. It just arrived last week.”
He showed me the bottle from the hospital. I can just thank Celestia, that hospitals in Equestria do not charge you for your needs. Only the care above the needed often has it's price.

Chapter 5: A real journey

I opened my eyes. Without orientation, slightly confused. The room was not stable, it was swinging from side to side, making me slowly sick. It was just shiny, the lights were overwhelming me.
I could make out a blurry bed, somepony lying on it. With time my vision got better. I was in a hospital room, the sun was shining, projecting the shadows of a flower vase inside the window onto the ground. The window was openend and a fresh wind was coming inside. The rumbling of some machine was heard in the background, sometimes going under in the voices of speaking ponies, hushed through the thick walls. Fresh air? I was probably not in the same room agian. Maybe not even in the same hospital. A mare voice from somewhere out of my vision alarmed me:
„Ahh, you have finally woken up? You have had quite a struggle. Thankfully, you were strong enough. We have relocated you after a couple of days. It's good to have you back conscious.‟
„What do you mean? A couple of days? How long have I been... asleep?‟
„Just a couple of days...Your relocation was just two days ago. The air out here did well. As it always does.‟
The air? What was she talking about?
„And... Where am I now?‟
„Oh, I have already wondered when you would finally ask. You are at the Mending Meadows, the best place to recover. The air here has healing attributes, due to the crystals in the nearby forest. They get absorbed by the trees over centuries and the trees become strong and some even invulnerable to natural diseases. That is why their produced air is so good for any patient around in Equestria. The Princess herself has ordered your relocation. You have mighty friends.‟

I was quite surprised about that, even though I should have probably not been. It was the only way, I could still be alive.
„Ah, and before I forget it, she also told me to advise you, that you should take a train to Canterlot as soon as you can. Your wound has nearly fully healed, and I think, you are ready.‟
She was actually about right. There was not much left from the intense pain from yesterday... I mean, from a couple of days ago.
„I don't know my way around in this... town? city ? place?‟
„Place. Even though I like to call it rural area.‟
The other pony, whose name I had not yet asked for, sounded a little bit hurt.
„There is a small train station. You just have to go outside, turn left, and follow the road. You can't miss it.‟
Maybe I should ask for her name.
„Sorry for my bad behaviour, but I have not asked for your name yet.‟
I turned my head a little bit more to finally see the pony I was talking to. It was a young nurse, sitting on a chair, reading something lying on the table next to her.

It was somehow really unfair. Earth ponies and pegasi had just the biggest problems with doing specific tasks. They were not able to hold small things up with magic. I mean, pegasi can at least fly, but what about earth ponies? I always think, they are left out. They are not in a socially lower class or something like that, but they are just not able to do, what unicorns or pegasi can. Pegasi and unicorns can do what earthponies can do, though. It's an unfair world we live in. I know, I know, there is always the thing about 'natural connection' and that stuff. Life is harder for them; It is a fact. They may have some really awesome talents, but life is generally harder. I was just really astonished, when I saw, that her page was magically flipped over. Right next to her appeared another nurse.
The earth pony nurse was quite pleased:
„Always right on time.‟
„Of course, I am always right on time. You know that best.‟
The other nurse was an unicorn:
„Your pages don't flip themselves.‟
„How true, how true.‟
„Did you meet our new patient by the way? If I am not misstaken, she is called Dream Whisper.‟
„Oh, what a beautiful name for such a young mare.‟
The unicorn turned towards me:
„Well, I am nurse Limbed.‟
The earth pony nurse also turned towards me:
„Ahhh, and before I forget. I am nurse Sugarpie.‟
What an unusual name for a nurse.
„Oh, and if you want to catch the next train, it is going to depart in fifteen minutes. You probably need ten minutes to get to the train station.‟
About time to head off:
„Thank you nurse Sugarpie and... Limb?‟
„Limbed, my dear.‟

The unicorn smiled at me:
„Nothing to thank us for. I hope you get there safely. I don't want you to end up in a hospital three times in one year.‟
How had she known...? Well, probably just a wild guess. She knew that I had been relocated from Frozen Falls to here and usually ponies do not get into hospitals much more often than that.
I packed my supplies, which were conveniently placed on a table next to me and headed off. At the check-in counter, I wanted to pay for the stay, but I was rejected: „The royal family has paid for your stay. They want you in Canterlot as soon as possible. They also advised me to tell you, that you should have a safe trip. Have a safe trip.‟
Why were all the ponies at the check-in counters to strange? Maybe it was the job.

Why I thought, that I could have been required to pay for the hospital? The 'hospital' seemed more like a place of cure for rich ponies. Everything was ornamented. It was probably not a public hospital. I opened the hospital main doors and the sun was breaching inside. It was a wonderful day. You rarely see such a beauty outside. From my position, I could look down into a beautiful valley: There was a river running through it; The whole valley was filled with trees in every color you could imagine. Blue, red, orange, purple, turquoise, green, yellow. Well, that were just seven colors, but you hopefully get the idea. With a soft warm wind, the whole valley seemed to move back and forth. My mane was a little bit muddled, but it should suffice for a train journey. I started to gallop down the road, awaiting to finally arrive at the train station. It felt so good to move freely again. I was still questioning, whether it actually just had been some days or rather a much longer time.

As a Unicorn, bookworm and magic-user, I was not really found of galopping down the road, but you got to do, what you got to do to catch your train. After a short trip through a rather short avenue with the forest on either side, I finally arrived at the small train station - if you want to call it that way. There was only a small staircase to get up to a paved platform. Not much else. Not even a sign, saying where you were. Lost somewhere in an empty landscape, waiting for some train, alone on a sunny podest. To my great pleasure, the train was already arriving.

The 'train' was not really a train after all. As it came closer, I realized, that it was just a cubicle on wheels. At least, it was steam-powered. The porter was alone in his cubicle.The first words of his sentence went under in the noise of breaks:
„... you Dream Whisper?‟
„Yes, yes.‟
„Then come aboard.‟
Even though the train was nothing more than a cubicle, the ride was not as boring as I had expected. Inside the train, there were three small beds and one bigger bed. There was a table for every passenger to eat at and some seats, which were very cushioned. A cabin for rich people obviously. The biggest bed was probably for the porter. I have never seen a train like this before; Small, but comfortable. In addition to that, also laid out for long rides. The reason for me not being bored was not the excellent comfort, which was nice nevertheless, but instead the landscapes outside of the train.

The first part of my ride went further north. The only central station was up in the north close to Frozenfalls. It seems like these 'Mending Meadows' are a bit south to Frozenfalls, and far north of Canterlot. To get further south to Canterlot, you had to get fully north to the central station near Frozenfalls, then get down south on the main road towards Canterlot.
The most valleys were just beautiful. A green sea of trees; Or sometimes a colorful grassland. Sometimes small valleys, surrounded by giant mountains, whose tops you could not see through the clouds. Sometimes the train even passed through ravines. It was impressive. On either side there were just walls climbing into the sky. The thick stones always looked like they would fall onto the train and crush us. Of course, nothing happened. For the most time, I was sitting on my chair, looking out, not exchanging any words with the porter.

When we arrived near Frozenfalls and after nearly a whole day, the train stopped for the first time. Looking out of the window, I could see Frozenfalls lying further down the river. In the central station we had to wait a little bit longer, because they had a hard time organizing our small train in between all the bigger ones, but I didn't notice much of that. For the longest time, I was just lying there, partially awake and partially asleep. I didn't notice much around me, but I was not asleep either. I was thinking, about what was going to happen from now... and about my talent.
It was impossible to prevent anypony from dying in the long run. There was really no solution to that problem. I could neither prevent the ponies from having nighmares, nor could I get them to safety every single time. Moreover, I could not just create water like Princess Twilight Sparkle to wake dreamers up. I guess, life gave me lemons and I will somehow have to make lemonade.

The second part of the ride went down to the south. You cannot imagine, how impressed and overwhelmed I was by the completely different climate. I have lived my whole life in the cold, but steady climate of the north. This was definitely different. It was a lot hotter, which made me have to pause from while to while. Especially in the first days it felt like getting burned.
The climate also changed a lot more. Up in the north, it is just always freezing. Down in the south, there is so much more sunshine. Not all the storm, rain, snow, hail and cloudy days of the north. You couldn't fault the pegasi though, I wouldn't work in the empty, cold north either.
There is also a good side to the extremely hot southern weather: It is filled with life. Every valley, every mountain, every cliff, every house, every town, every forest, EVERYTHING is filled with life. In the north, you can walk days and not find a living thing. Here, you trampel a bug with every step you make. It's great.

The central station of Canterlot is inside of the city; Or let me say: Canterlot grew as much as to surround the central station, that was once not part of the city. I was ordered by the Princess herself, but I was still surprised a little bit, when there was a pony waiting for me with a sign. Princess Twilight seemed to have taken care of everything already. Quite impressive.
Canterlot is surprisingly small. You would expect a giant city, that fills the area from horizon to horizon. Despite of it's number of citizens, actually much of it is just the castle, and the rest is small compared to other cities. You could see though, how in every corner rich ponies were eating exquisite deliciousnesses. Everypony was in fancy dresses or smokings. The best example for this 'higher class' was Fancy Pants. I never liked the 'higher class', because I always feel arrogance in their words... or maybe I am just jealeous. The stallion, which was supposed to lead me, trotted right beside me. He knew, that I could see the giant castle myself, so that his position was basically unnecessary. He did not complain about it as he was probably getting paid for just watching me.

When we finally arrived at the castle, it was already dark. Princess Twilight was already waiting at the door, surrounded by a couple of ponies of the royal guard bathed in the lights of the lanterns they were carrying. This time, I remembered my manners and bowed to her. Her voice was strict and serious: „Don't think you had my trust, only because I gave you a chance. I will watch you very closely, so don't try anything stupid. You will stay in the chamber designated to you. Tomorrow Princess Celestia and I will have a meeting with you at the round table.‟ The round table, a sign for the equality of all ponies in Equestria. A sign for every pony's equal right on their own lifes and on their own rights. A sign, that even though the Princesses are royal, they are not superior ponies. They are the regime, but not a dictatorship. It was a symbol for the chance they were giving me: I was still a part of the community. Maybe that would stay that way, but my hopes for that were not that high. After realizing, I would not say anything, Princess Twilight ordered a guard to take me to a chamber.

The stallion was quite handsome, especially in his armor, but I was not interested in such things right now. I was deep inside thoughts: What was I going to say tomorrow? How would I spend this night? My sleeping potion was obviously not worth the money. Maybe I could ask somepony to fetch some new potion for me. Canterlot should offer enough. „Here we go, young mare.‟ The royal guard interrupted my thoughts. I looked around; We were in the middle of the hallway, almost 20 hooves away from the next door. „Where do I go?‟ I asked carefully. Was I supposed to have seen something? Did I miss anything? „Right here.‟ He pressed a secret button to his left and a stone door slowly pushed open. „Haha. I love the look on your face right now. You should really see it. It's hilarious.‟ I had thought, that that stallion was handsome - So much about that. „Thank you, kind sir.‟ I almost spit out the last words. Who was he to make fun of me? At least his facial expression changed from joy to an ashamed frown. I trotted through the stone door and it closed behind me. This was clearly a sepcial chamber, designed to hold the biggest enemies of Equestria. Well, those, who could be held in cells, I guess. They probably knew, I would not be able to teleport out of the room.

The chamber was sparely lit by two lamps. I could make out a bed, a small cupboard, a couple of bookshelves, a chair and a table. Even though I had hardly noticed it before, but now that it was a little bit calmer, I really noticed, how tired I had been. I fell asleep before I had even prepared the bed.

I woke up again in a location I had hoped to not wake up in: As it seemed, this was another dream. The location of the dream was probably a bakery or something of that sort. A confectionary maybe. There were a couple of cupcakes neatly placed in a display case. There was sound coming from upstairs: The sound of a party. I went upstairs, even though I hated parties, but maybe I would find the dreamer there.
I did; The dreamer was a pink mare, an earthpony with curled hair and baloons for her cutie mark. She was totally over-energetic. It was hard to listen to her fast speaking. „Hey there, I am Pinkie Pie. Who are you? No, no, let me guess. You look like Dream Whisper.‟ How did she know? „You are probably asking, how I can know that. Well, you appeared in Fluttershy's dream and then in Twilight's dream and then you were in the hospital after you were wounded and then you were brought to Canterlot and now you are in my dream and I am so exciteeeed.‟ So, she knew Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy. This was actually quite interesting. Usually, I don't get into dreams of so closely befriended ponies very often as there are enough ponies to enter the dreams of. „I am Pinkie Pie and your new friend. Are you going to do some crazy stuff to my dream? I am sure you will. This is so awesome.‟ I was not sure how to react. „Well, probably it is, but probably it isn't. We have to be careful.” - „Why be careful? We are at the old shop, so why don't we make some cupcakes? It's perfectly save here. We could make a cupcake bake party and have some cupcake bakery fun.‟ Maybe this was a dream, not a nightmare. If this was really a dream, it should be safe, but you could never be careful enough. This pony, Pinkie Pie, actually started to dance around. I had to end this quickly as I did not really find myself really comfortable here. However, there was nothing in range to get her to wake up. So I had to stay the entire time in the dream. Instead of being the least bit relaxing, it was more stressful than anything. At least, I was not lonely in the dream. Actually, I was doing Pinkie Pie a lot wrong here, as it could have been much worse: She could have hated me, she could have ignored me or she could have had a nightmare. All three are scenarios, where I would not really want to be inside the dream. This was, comparatively to the last dreams, relaxing. Except maybe for that one dream, where the dreamer seemed to be unconscious.

When I woke up the next day, my back felt like it had been crushed. I found the reason for that in the same moment. Appeareantly, I was lying on the ground next to the bed; I hate, when that happens. To get the time around in my chamber I started to read one of the books, which I found in the bookshelf. It was called „The secrets of teleportation‟. Something, that I always had wanted to know. It was kinda hard to understand though. What I understood was following:
Teleportation has much to do with how time works. Time is like a flowing stream of water, always running down. Once it is down, it doesn't flow up again. With a bucket for example, you can lift some water up. The following problems exist: 1. The bucket has limited size. So you can only move objects of limited size through time. 2. The further you want to get the bucket back, the harder it is. You spend more magic on getting further back into the past. 3. Living things are the hardest to take back because they move. Not only their limbs, but also their organs. You have to be extremely careful.
In order to move your location without needing time for it, you don't have to turn back the time, only to stop it for a moment. Thus you have to make a bucket, but not have to move it.
Teleportation remains a big and dangerous task to master and I am not even sure, if I want to try it. There were a couple of things you can do to train teleportation. At the end of the book, but I was not sure, if I could do them. How do you create that „bucket‟? It was told, that you had to create something like a door to get into the bucket, but this was when the book got really cryptic. You were supposed to jump through the door into the bucket, move the bucket where and however you want, then create another door and jump out of it again.
I skipped the rest of the book, because I could not understand a sentence after that. I looked up the training methods. The first one was to create a shield around a small object of your choice.
My first tries were horrible. The shield was often incomplete, just some unconnected areas. I had been able to make shields a long time ago, but I had not trained for years, so that was probably the reason.
After a couple of failures, I finally managed to make a full shield again. It was not the usual sphere, rather a ugly thing, that looked like a crumbling potatoe. It was a shield nonetheless. I was just trying to make another, when a loud crumbling noise startled me. The door behind me was being opened and a guard came in: „It's time to move. The meeting will be at the round table. Follow me.‟

Chapter 6: The meeting

I was quite surprised when the door opened. At the round table not only Princesses Celestia and Twilight were sitting, but also five other ponies. One was Pinkie Pie, one was Fluttershy and there were three I had not seen yet.
One seemed like a rural earth pony: A cowcolt hat, freckles, apples for a quitie mark, and common fringes. She had an orange coat and a yellow mane. Green eyes, by the way.

The next one was obvioulsy an urban unicorn: Possibly the adviser of Celestia or something. She had purple hair, curled as if she had just recently been in a beauty salon or something like that. She had a white coat and diamonds as a cutie mark, matching her eye color. Clearly a pony of style and appeareance, something I hated to the deepest. How can you spend your life for 'the trend' and not realize, that friendship, kindness and generosity were much more important than your own beauty.

The third one was impressively colored. Never before had I seen a pony, that assembled all colors of the rainbow. Quite impressive. Even Princess Celestia didn't have such a broad spectrum of colors. The pony's mane ranged from vermillion to indigo and her coat was as blue as a clear summer's sky. She was a pegasus with this certain expression on her face; I think the impression was what most impressed me. She was so content, it almost felt like her aura was spreading into the room. Her cutie mark was also quite strange. A colorful lightning from a white cloud. You see many ponies, especially when you enter their dreams. In the dream of every dreamer are a couple of friends or relatives, but I have never seen a pony colored only closely to this. She was the embodiment of amazingness. I could have stared at her for hours, if she wouldn't have looked back at me angrily.

Princess Celestia had the first words:
„Dream Whisper. The recent events have lead us to believe, that you are involved with the murder of Princess Luna. However, we cannot justify any premature actions. Today you will have to speak the truth and only the truth before all of us. Interrogating you will be Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Clestia...‟
It was a common thing to name the royality first even though you had to name yourself before others then. To still be modest you can name yourself in third person.
„..Apple Jack...‟
She actually pointed towards the orange coated earthpony.
„...Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and Rarity.‟
She continued pointing at the corresponing ponies. Rarity was the unicorn and Rainbow Dash was the incredible pegasus. Quite a matching name. Celestia stopped for a moment, then proceded with the introduction:

„The five ponies, you were probably not expecting to sit here, are some of the most important ponies in Equestria. They represent the Elements of Harmony together with our beloved Princess. If you try to do anything stupid, be warned, that it will not end well as their power is unmatched. However, if you cooperate, you will be granted a reward.‟
She magically hovered a glass of water to her mouth, drank a bit and then carried on speaking:
„The five ponies, representing each an element of harmony are here, because there seems to be a special connection of you and them. Have you been in the dreams of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie?‟
A special connection? Probably not. If there would have been a special connection, shouldn't I have been in their dreams earlier? I would call it an unlucky coincidence:
„Yes, I have been in their dreams.‟
Princess Celestia just carried on. There was nothing she had to say about that, or she actually had something in mind, she didn't want to tell me.
„Where have you been born?‟
‟What?‟

The question had really surprised me. Why did the princess want to know where I was born? What does that have to do with all this? I decided to answer anyway, so I would not sound suspicious:
"I have been born in Dustshire.‟
Now it became apparent, that the princess indeed had some kind of suspicion, which she wanted to verify. You could see her brain working behind her eyes.
„Can you tell us the name of your mother?‟
„Her name was Moon Struck.‟
Celestia nodded. Probably just what she thought. The other ponies in this circle seemed as confused as I was.
„Your father was Duskbringer?‟
How did she know? Was my family known to the royal family? I had never heard of something like that. My parents have told me nothing about some special connection.
„Dream Whisper, do you know about the secret behind your ancestry?‟

Secret behind my ancestry. You know, at this point, you have 2 opinions storming at you at once:
1 You think whoever is telling you such thing must be a crazy pony. A very impossible thing with Princess Celestia, but possibly more possible than it actually being true.
2 You feel like in a strange dream; Or in such a bad novel, only a bad writer would write. A novel with a completely expected turn. Hopefully, it's at least written well.

Really, how should I have reacted? Somepony was telling me, that I had a secret behind my ancestry. Imagine, somepony would tell you the same thing. It's right, you can't, but I can tell you, what I did:

First of all, I started to laugh. After a short while, I realized that it was no fun matter and everypony was looking at me seriously. It felt like their looks were piercing my skin. Then I looked on my own hooves, not able to understand anything anymore. I actually hoped something would happen, but it was just this awfully long time, in which nothing happened. They looked at me and I looked down on my hooves, unable to react. They meant this nonsense.

I probably could have known something due to my special talent, but other ponies have special talents, too. So why should my family have some secret? Why on Equestria should my parents not have told me? This was not making any sense.
„No.‟
Celestia didn't seem surprised, most likely due to my reaction on her words.
„Then I shall reveal the truth:
Your family has a long history, dating back more than 1000 years to 'Dream Cry'. The similarity to your name was the first thing I noticed. Dream Cry was a big threat for Equestria. He was a strong wizard, who had the same talent as yours. With his talent he started to bring havoc to Equestria. He made every dream to a nightmare and then he used his talent to bring the creatures of nightmare into reality. In a major attack on the kingdom he overexxegerated. He died from his own magic in the end. A terrible fate, even for a murderer. After that, we had thought, that the threat had been terminated forever, but obviously you have his heritage. It had been clear that some day it could happen, that there could be somepony like you. We had to observe your family for all those years. Now we have to deal with this situation, even though we all hoped it would never come so far.‟
A pretty nice way of saying, that I was a threat to all of Equestria and they had to stop me. Maybe I wasn't a threat to all of Equestria, but I was a threat to every dreamer in Equestria.

Princess Twilight was the next speaker. Her voice was a lot angrier:
„Why have you been in our dreams? Even though you are here, you are not free of any guilt.‟
She earned a reprehending look from Celestia:
„I am sorry for Princess Twilight Sparkle. She is still upset. Tell us your version of the story, please.‟
Okay. This was my time to hopefully dispose of my guilt.
„Well, as you probably know already, I have this talent to enter other ponies' dreams. I like to call it a talent, though it is somehow more of a curse. I cannot actively decide, whether I want to go into any dreams or not. In whose dream I arrive is purely random, at least it was for the entirety of my life. Every time I sleep, I enter somepony's dream, except I use a sleeping potion. When I enter somepony's dream, their dream gets much more dangerous. The pain and the wounds of the dream start to become real without my intention or aim. You have to undestand, I do not want to hurt anypony, but every pony is hurt by my appeareance. When I entered Fluttershy's dream, I had no idea that Princess Luna would enter it. When the Timberwolves attacked us, we had no real chance to defend ourselves. I could only see the princess' death from down in the cliff. It was never my intention, but it is my fault.‟

Princess Celestia was thinking. Princess Twilight was even angrier now:
„How dare you lie to us so untroubled? We will not let your actions go unpunished. You will have to suffer for what you have done! You could have used a sleeping potion. It is all your fault. Why are you doing this to us?!‟
Why was she so angry? Had something changed? Had not she been the pony granting me a chance?
„Twilight Sparkle. Calm your mouth. We will not come to premature conclusions. Your emotions are of no matter in this meeting.‟
Maybe Twilight Sparkle was scared, because I was in the dreams of her friends and there was nothing she could do about it. Maybe she knew more about my ancestory than me.
„You will have to stay in your chamber as long as Twilight Sparkle and me have a discussion about the legislation in this case. Your meal will be brought into your room. Now please excuse us.‟
There was a high amount of anger in her voice. This was not the way she had expected Princess Twilight to behave.

I spent the rest of the day in my chamber reading in the book about teleportation. I managed to cast some major shields and tried to stop the time inside them. It did not work. I mean, stopping time sounds easy enough, but seriously, I don't feel the flow of time like a third limb. I have no idea how to influence time and all the books teach the same: 'When you use the flow of time to your advantage...', but there was not a single book saying: 'This is how you manipulate time: ...'
However, it got easier and easier for me to create shields. I started to create shields around everything, trying to apply the same magic inside the whole volume. Somehow, it is a lot easier to use magic in confined areas, because then you don't have to worry about the exact strength of the magic. It was just overall easier to cast magic inside the shield. Something, I began to like more and more during the rest of the day.

As Celestia had said, there was actually a guardian pony coming by, bringing meal. It had not been the same pony, which was a little bit disappointing, but only a little bit. As the supper was brought in, I was already creating shields like a madmare. Everything in the room was covered in shields, which I dispelled just before anypony came in. After the supper, I actually started to feel the exhaustion kicking in and decided to take a short nap.

I had a slight headache; Obviously the nap had extended to a whole sleeping session. There was something different here; Something, that was not usual for dreams.
„Hello Dream Whisper.‟
This was a stallion's voice.
„Do you know me? Do you know, who I am? Probably not. The least ponies actually know, who and what I am.‟
Oh, this stallion was obviously either slightly confused or completely crazy.
„I am not a stallion.‟
Holy mother of Celestia. Either the crazy stallion was good at guessing, or this was some serious case of dream logic messing up my mind.
„I am just good at guessing, don't worry. Nothing is messing up your mind. You can call me 'Discord'. You are 'Dream Whisper', if I am not mistaken?‟
He stopped for a moment. This was definitely a case of messed up dream logic.
„Hah. You don't even need to answer.‟

Suddenly a dragon mutant snake with hooves and horns and stuff appeared in front of me. Am I crazy? No. Just look it up in a book. The creature called Discord represents the spirit of disharmony/discord between us. It is assembled by all possible body parts. It's the weirdest thing you will ever see, if you ever see it.
„Now you are here in my own dream. Finally... I have waited for you. You will help me have my fun. In return, I will help you with the case of Princess Luna.‟
Yes. Always trust the dragon snakes.
„Why should I trust an abomination like you? Do you believe, I was some crazy pony? I will not trust you. Ever. You are a dragon snake thingie guy.‟
He started to smile:
„Don't you feel bad for discriminating against dragon snake thingy guys? I would have expected more from you. Once again, I only earn distrust and hatred for my miserable appearance.‟
He leaned over as if he wanted to cry on my shoulders: „Oh well, distrusting me wont bring Luna back. Seems like you had not much chance. What do you think, how they are going to react on your murder? Didn't you hear how agressive Twilight Sparkle was? What do you think: Will the star student convince Princess Celestia, or somepony who murdered Princess Luna, her own, younger sister? You see, you are condemned to be guilty. Whether you really were, or not. I know, you were not, but Twilight Sparkle believes you were. You will have to trust me.”

Damn. I hated, I really really hated, when other ponies - or dragon snake thingy guys - were right. He was right about everything. I didn't want to go to be punished with death or imprisonment and Twilight Sparkle hated me for doing what I couldn't stop. She would get Celestia to believe her eventually. He may be a dragon snake thingy guy, but he was right.
„What is your proposal?‟
I could still refuse it, if I didn't like it.

„It is pretty simple. I will show you, how you can get Princess Luna out of the dream and you will do this one thing for me. You will save Luna. I know, this sounds strange for the vilian, but actually I just want to have a true enemy. Fighting with Twilight Sparkle has become predictable and she has enough power to stop me. So I need another target. Don't worry though, I will not harm her. I swear.‟
He held his both hands up to swear. I was really sure he lied. He had another plan, a better plan with better motives for himself, but he did not want to reveal anything of it.
„I wouldn't be a true gentleman, if I hurt anypony. I just want chaos to reign, but you cannot reign chaos without an enemy. Even chaos is boring when there is no one to live in it. A true enemy is like bread on your butter; Or the ice cream on your topping.‟

Still, I was not convinced on the whole thing. There was something in his eyes, that told me, that it was partially true, but not the full truth. There was a deeper plan behind it, but well, this was the only chance I had. This could be the help I needed. Discord may have been a dragon snake thingy guy, but he was a helpful dragon snake thingy guy. Maybe you shouldn't enclose yourself in a wall of prejudices too early; And maybe this plan would horrifically backfire. Well, when there is no choice, there is no choice.
„Okay, we have a deal. You train me in getting Luna back and I will get her back, so you can have your fun with her.‟
Still better being the target for Discord's evil plan than being dead.

„Here is what you have to do, my young padawan.‟
„Padawan? What do you mean. What is a padawan?‟
He had a broad grin right now:
„Don't worry. It doesn't matter. Let us start: What are you seeing right now?‟
I looked around, for the first time in this dream. A room, which was just painted with every possible color. Sometimes you thought, you had just found some pattern for the colors, but you were always proven false.
„Well, I am seeing a room.‟
He laughed:
„Exactly, you are seeing the room, but you are really seeing the behind of your eyelids. To get Luna back to the living, you will have to get her out of a dream and to do that, you will have to see and feel the dream instead of what is represented inside of the dream.‟
There was this thing again: Saying 'You have to feel the dream' instead of saying 'This is what you have to feel and how you feel it:...'.

„Don't worry, Dream Whisper. It is quite easy. Do it as following: Relax. Try to ignore anything that is happening around you in the dream. Then concentrate on the dreamer as much as you can. I don't know, look at her or him and count his or her hair; Or you can count the hairs in my magnificant beard; Or you could estimate the height, length and maximum speed of the dreamer.‟
This. This was an instruction, finally. Okay, first part: Relaxation. Breath in, breathe out. Ignore all of your thoughts. Breath in, breath out. You don't need to think at all. Now concentrate on the dreamer.
1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9... There was something. I could see Discord, but I could also see wispy lines floating around. These lines, light blue in color and very transparent, were floating around me and through the whole room.
„I... I am not sure, if this is what you meant, but there are some ... lines or something.‟
Discord grinned and laid back on a seat he had just magically put below him:
„Exactly what you need. Now, if you would please, try to make a shield around me and yourself.‟
Hmm, okay. I created a shield as I did for the whole day before. You could see the bright light blue-ish color of my magic surrounding the whole shield now. They were much clearer now, much more opaque. It was wonderful to just look at it. Sometimes when two lines crossed, the dream behind them was actually hidden.

„Haha, I think you have got this. You only need training now. One last tip though: Don't try to throw me out of my own dream, it is not going to work.‟
How did Discord know so many things about dreams anyway? Why was he so nice? Discord meant discord, not harmony, didn't it? Despite all the distrust, I was finally able to do something. With some training, I could probably do something effective in the dreams.

The rest of the dream I relaxed, concentrated on Discord and created a shield. Again and again and again and again and again. You can believe me, it was an eternity to me. I didn't even know, dreams could last that long. After that eternity, he told me to leave the dream, but with a shield and a little artifact. He created a small cup of chocolate milk. I surrounded the cup and myself with the shield, concentrated on the dreamer and counted to ten. I was really getting good at this. The whispy lines started to appear around me and the cup and bent around the shield.
“Now I am going to wake myself up, you just have to keep your shield up. Remember to catch Luna for me, will you?”

The dream started vibrating, but inside the shield, I felt none of these vibrations. In front of me, the dream slowly disappeared into complete blackness. The only colors were the whispy lines and the shield. Within a heartbeat, reality took place of these colors and the whispy lines faded into the contours of the room.

Chapter 7: The rescue

The morning went exactly as I had thought. I tried to learn teleportation, but it was completely useless. Even though I now knew how to effectively work with shields inside the dream, I still did not know how to work with time at all. After some minutes, a guardian pony came in and led me to the room with the round table. All the seven ponies were waiting for me. Celestia greeted me:
„Good morning, Dream Whisper. Princess Cadence will be meeting us this evening. Until then, we will discuss, what we are going to do about your situation. We have aknowledged the threat you are to Equestria and you will be held in a chamber for an undetermined time. When Princess Cadence has finally arrived, we will be able to judge your actions and determine a justified punishment. Do you have anything to comment about this plan?‟
She waited a couple of moments:
„No? Fine. You will be lead back to your chamber then.‟
I was quite surprised, that Twilight Sparkle was not saying anything. She had a grim face and looked like she wanted to burn me, but she did not say anything. She swallowed her own anger.

Back to my chamber, back to my training of shields and teleportation, and back to failure. After another eternity of trying and trying and trying, I stopped. It just made no sense. I would never be able to just sense time. Instead, I just started to concentrate on making perfect shields. If I really wanted to use my newly acquired knowledge, I should at least be able to use it properly. After some time, the same guardian pony came in again and lead me to the round table. This time though, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, the two most admired ponies in all of Equestria were sitting next to Princess Celestia.
Celestia and Cadence were still speaking with each other when I entered.

Princess Cadence, always smiling in every photo you see, looked angrily at me. I was the fault for so much misunderstanding and anger.
„I have a plan.‟
These first words of mine made the room silent immediately. Exactly the effect I had wanted to achieve.
„There is a chance to get Luna back. It is dangerous, but I think it is worth it. Inside a dream, I can take one pony with me, out of the dream. It will require enough magic and is thus extremely dangerous. If and only if I would be allowed to do it, I would prefer to do it in the deepest dungeons somewhere away from the city. It will probably be bound to my complete exhaustion, but I am ready to do it.‟
Everypony was astounded. The room laid in extreme silence.
„Dream Whisper, please excuse us for a moment, we have to discuss this ... new information.‟
I stood up and went out of the door, but stopped right in front of it. I think I had their attention, but to be sure, I tried to catch parts of their sentences if they were loud enough:
„can do it?‟
„how would it even work?‟
„ridiculous idea‟
„we have to try‟
„probably just to escape‟
„we cannot allow her‟
„if it brings back luna‟
„She can't be that powerful!‟
This last sentence was yelled by Rainbow Dash.

„Dream Cry was that powerful; And so is she.‟
This was Celestia's voice, also tensed by the discussion. After another while in which I could hear nothing from inside, the door was finally opened again.
„Come in.‟
I followed the command, knowing it was an offer they would probably not refuse. Celestia was proceeding to talk:
„We have decided to let you try it. If anything goes wrong or you try to do something stupid, be warned for the worst punishment: Banishment.‟
Banishment really was the worst possible punishment. Some say, it was worse than death. Some ponies become insane, trying to commit suicide. They hear voices, they lose the sense of themselves, they lose the ability to speak and they lose their own character. After banishment every pony is just an empty body or insane.

Everypony started to stand up and made themselves ready for the next steps. The royal guard came and I followed them to a small carriage with iron bars instead of windows. I was handeled like a prisoner, understandable in these circumstances. The drive through the city was very boring; I just stared at my hooves for the whole time. I was not interested in seeing the faces of the city ponies staring at me. This was either my ride to success or my ride to banishment.

I hate the bureaucracy at judicial trials. The first meeting, the second meeting, a third meeting and now this 'transport of dangerous goods'. Everything so unnecessary, but somehow it is still required. To not endager other citizens with my appearance, I was kept in the carriage and the carriage could not be stopped during the ride. Not for me having a pee, not for me having a crap, not even if I would have died in the carriage. Well, probably then, but not being allowed to pee is just the worst thing. After the nearly a quarter day long journey, I was finally allowed to pee. Magnicificant relief.

Then, the journey went further by hoof, down under. The facility had a unusual entrance, a small concrete hill with a huge metal door on the front. Twilight Sparkle seemed as surprised about this 'facility' as every pony else. Celestia started to explain it to her:
„This facility was the place we tried to banish Dream Cry from, before he... killed himself. The walls are strong and thick, there is no chance to hurt citizens even when extreme amounts of magic are used. Furthermore, this is the training room for us, when we perform... uncontrollable tasks.‟
Most of the way to the destination was just downwards a giant stairway. I cannot even describe how far it went down. It got colder, darker and scarier. I wouldn't want to be alone in this dark, terrifying shaft. Furthermore, it was just going downwards, without words, just step for step. After a time that seemed like another eternity, we finally arrived at the bottom level. There was another huge metal door, that was so thick, that Celestia nearly couldn't open it with magic. As it swung open, the muggy air hit my face. As we passed the door, I noticed that it was about ten to eleven hooves thick. Behind us, it was closed again. The lights from Twilight and Celestia did not even fill this giant room. We walked further.

I coughed a couple of times, because the air was burning my lungs. In the middle of this giant hall were a couple of seats surrounding two beds in their mid. Every pony would watch me while I and another pony would sleep, which was a very very very creepy thought. I laid down on the bed. At least it was soft, almost as if it was regularly changed. Probably not though. The pony, that was lying down besides me, was Rainbow Dash. The only pony brave enough to try this.

It was actually easier to get to sleep than I had thought. It was quite an unusal task to sleep in front of people, but once I had closed my eyes, it was actually easy to blend them out. I was a bit tired anyway and the bed was quite comfortable. Furthermore, I could now sense the dream. The whispy lines appeared, without me having to do anything. As fast as they appeared, they disappeared again.

I woke up right next to the dream edge. I was standing at the end of a field of trees.
„Hello there. It seems you have found your way into my head.‟
Rainbow Dash had discovered me already. She slowly flew towards me. The dream edge was expanding further behind me, so Rainbow Dash herself would never see it. It was interesting how this worked, even though I had not really expected it to. I mean, wasn't it completely random where I appeared? Obviously, I must have subconsciously changed something. Rainbow Dash seemed quite relaxed in this situation.
„I reckon you don't do anything stupid. I don't have much patience.‟
Yeah, sure. I had not expected anything else. Where distrust is laid as seeds, it can grow without care.
„You will be fine. There are two things we will have to do: 1. We will have to find Princess Luna, but since it is your dream, it should be easy enough for you to get her here. 2. We will have to find some water‟

Hopefully, it was easy enough for her to get Princess Luna here, but as I was finishing that thought, the moon already started to get brighter and brighter. Then, a blinding light announced her appearance. She slowly descended from the moon, just like she had done it in Fluttershy's dream.
„There you go. Now do your dirty work.‟
Dirty work. I would probably not ever get their trust, even if I would bring them their every desire. It wasn't time to think about distrust though, it was time to bring Princess Luna back. I started to concentrate on Rainbow Dash. It was easy, because her colorful mane was something, you could get lost in.
„Your look is creepy. Stop it.‟
Well, staring at somepony really is creepy, but it is the easiest way.
„You will be fine. I thought you were brave enough to withstand the stare of your biggest enemy.‟
This had the desired impact. Her mien started to harden and was filled with that strong willpower I admired her for. I could never have such a willpower. I always thought about 'what if' and 'I can't'. She definitely had no such thoughts.

The wispy light blue lines appeared like an overlay above everything in this dream. Now it was time to surround Princess Luna with a shield. I started to cast a shield, but holy horseapples, it was difficult as hay. Sorry for the strong language at this point. Rainbow Dash had already arrived at a nearby river, ready to use the water.
“Okay, you have to wake up now. Just go inside the water.”

Rainbow Dash thought about it for a heartbeat, then said:
„Sure. As long as you don't destroy Canterlot from down here, everything is cool.‟
The wispy lines grew in size and opaqueness. I could almost do it. Now just a little bit more, before it worked. As I had understood Discord's lesson, I needed to have the full control over the shield. Princess Luna didn't move, so that was great. With the completed shield, I could start to slowly try to get her back out of the dream, but it was actually harder than I had thought. It almost felt like trying to pull the Canterlot Castle through a key hole.

My head was already aching from the magic I was casting, but I would need more to complete my task. I had to find another way to get her through. There was only one way, I knew, to make the connection between dream and reality easier: Using enough magic. It would be uncontrollably dangerous, but it could get Luna back. I started to do the thing, every unicorn pony is warned of: Creating things from nothing. You can transport things over great distances, or use the stuff in the air, but you should never create something from nothing. It will use amounts of energy, nopony can handle. This was not reality though, this was a dream. Here, dream logic would work in my favor. In addition to using obscene amounts of magic, I also created a little lightshow, showing Rainbow Dash how hard I worked. Luckily, dream logic did it's work. More and more magic was flowing through me. When too much magic flows through you, it is not the usual feeling of magic, it is more like a giant pain in all of your muscles. You clench and try to relax, but you cannot, and your head starts to ache incredibly. Every heartbeat I cringeg, but I had to continue. To use enough magic, this was probably the only way.

The 'Canterlot Castle', I was trying to pull through a lock hole, was getting lighter and lighter. Soon it felt like trying to pull a house, then it felt like trying to pull a stubborn donkey. After all, it was still not enough. Until, suddenly other whispy lines appeared. They were not light blue-ish in color, instead had a deep indigo. It reminded me of my mother's magic. Instead I could hear roaring. A drop of blood started to run from my nose.
The shield was so close to being strong enough. Suddenly, everything was ready. I did not even see anything around me anymore, just the ache in my head. I screamed 'NOW' as loud as possible. Immediately the dream started twisting and turning. It quickly receeded.

Then everything started to break apart. The shield broke apart and suddenly I began to fall down.
„All those years, now I have returned.”
The impact was 'crushing' - Yes, I am bad with puns, I know - It was crushing several rips, that is actually true. When I looked around, I found myself in complete darkness. Rainbow Dash was trying to recover from the unexpected conditions. She was floating somwhere up in the sky.
„Where are we?‟
I asked, knowing she would not be able to answer.

Chapter 8: Another view on things

My dark prison was silent. As for the last thousand and some years. Then, I could finally feel the dream. It was a strange feeling after all those years, but I immediately knew what to do. Only the slightest grasp was enough for me. I was slightly out of practice, but it was nothing you would ever forget. I grabbed the dream, not letting it go. Climbing closer into it with every beat of my heart. It was finally time. All those years for this final moment. It was finally time. 'Now' somepony screamed. You cannot save a pony from a dream, at least not without paying the price. The price of bringing me back to reality. In the end it was also me, who did rescue that puny Princess Luna, but that was a price I really did not care about. She should have her life again as long as I would be unleashed agian.

It was time to bring chaos to the world again:
„All those years, now I have returned.‟
I had thought about what I would say as my first word for a long time. These I had found to be matching.
As I entered reality, it was a good feeling to finally feel gravity again. To feel the rules applied to you, because without the fundamental rules of nature, there is just chaos. I hope everypony knows, what happens if you have more than thousand years to train your magic; You become very good at it, even in real conditions. Now it was time to use my improved skills to do right, what was done wrong. Here she sat: Princess Celestia, the banisher. She would get the punishment.

„I see, you have grown incapable of defending yourself, dear Celestia. Or should I say, Molestia? Haha, I love puns. No, but seriously, you and me will have a great time.‟
I looked at her. At her fear, anger and disgust. Exactly the combination I had hoped for.
„Haha. Have I baffled you?‟
The first one speaking of their little group wasn't Celestia herself, but a young mare:
„Who... Who is that?‟
Now I could finally hear Celestia's voice again after all those years:
„Twilight Sparkle, you and your friends should leave this room... And Dream Cry, this is between me and you. The other ponies are no threat to you.‟
I already wondered, if Celestia had forgotten me. Obviously yes.

„Dear Celestia. You should be the pony to know that I have interest in all ponies, not just you. Yet, for what you have done to me, you will suffer more than anypony else.‟
The ceiling was crumbling as I created my way up. A cylindrical hole, just large enough for me to fit through. I created a disk of mud below me and started to lift myself up. It was quite a deep hole, but every hoof closer to the exit was a hoof closer to my victory. Yet again, Celestia crossed my plans. As I arrived at ground level, she was already waiting for me. I hate teleportation, such an unfair spell.
In a matter of a heartbeat, I started to assemble the energy of the sun, creating a ring of fire around us two. Celestia was the first one to attack, throwing a couple of stones at me, then teleporting behind me.
„Haha. That's all you've got?‟
I destroyed the stones in their flight, so only little pebbles arrived in front of my feet. Then, I turned around. From the sky the first meteoroids were falling. The thing about magic is: Don't use it excessively. If you want to rain chaos from the sky, don't create your own. Use what is around you. It was easy to nudge the comets in space toward this very location, but it's hard to create fiery balls of massive stone with a high velocity. Magic is about knowledge of everything that is around you.

The first meteoroid crushed a field of trees behind Celestia. Another one was flying towards her, but she deflected it. However she deflected it with such low power, that the meteoroid's impact still threw her from her feet. More and more meteoroids were raining from the sky. This is how I imagined it for all those years. I slowly trotted towards Celestia:
„Where are all your fierce manouvers? Where is your wild spirit? Have you grown old and weak?‟
Celestia slowly stood up:
„I will never surrender to you.‟
Funny, how there are always these heroic sentences, even though they were facing certain destruction. An itch, nothing more, but it was enough for me to notice, that somepony else teleported right behind me. Maybe he or she wanted to attack me with the element of surprise. A huge root crawled up from the ground, piercing through small pebbles, reaching towards the pony behind me. The defender of Celestia had not expected my awareness.
The mistake number one: Underestimation.

I turned around, but not before letting a tree fall onto Celestia. That should stop her from doing anything crazy for the moment. It was not, who I had expected.
„And you are the Twilight Sparkle, who had just been ordered to stand down? Well, you should have listened to Celestia.‟
The young mare was surprisingly quick, burned the roots and teleported to Celestia. That's what they always do. Help the wounded, even though the danger is still there. She started to lift the tree in the next moment, trying to relief Celestia of some of her pain. The ground around them formed three of my new creations: Molten Crawlers. Just a being of molten lava, burning everything around it. You know, what I said about excessive use of magic? Screw that, it was time for vengeance. The three crawlers should be enough to finish them off, if they did not escape in any moment. The damage was done to Celestia and I would not overstay my welcome. I knew where I was; This was no good place to fight. I just saw them teleporting away, then I turned around. I had to find a place, where I could hide, until I could meet with him again. Then, I would have the chance to end the misfortunate life of Celestia and all of her fellow ponies. I carried myself up in the air with another plate of earth, hovering above the ground. I would be waiting to meet with Discord before revealing my cards.

The direction was north, at first. The further north, the further from civilisation. I turned to east after a while. The landscapes below me were passing by in incredible speed. I thought about my arrival. Maybe I had shown them too much already, they would not underestimate me again. Then again, Celestia was wounded and would not recover very fast. It had been an old tree, about 20 hooves at diameter. That was about enough force to crush every of her bones. Most likely not lethal, though. There were two big questions still remaining:

1) Why in all of Equestria had Celestia been so weak? She was a bucking Alicorn and she had the Elements of Harmony with her. It was enough magic to fight me, but she had just been a sack of potatoes, unable to fight even a small filly.

2) Who was this other Alicorn? I have never seen her before. She was young, probably born after my ... enforced disappearance. Twilight Sparkle. She was also weak, but not even as weak as Celestia. There was something about this pony, I could not get my thoughts from. She was a threat and I would better not underestimate her. She had immense power and probably was the student of Celestia. This was the most probable answer: Celestia had grown old and weak and Twilight Sparkle would be the heiress to the Elements of Harmony, if she did not already had some.

I found a suitable cave, hidden at the edge of the forest, I was just flying over. I landed and walked towards it. This was perfect. The cave was just a couple of hundrets of hooves long. I made light inside, starteling some bats. Then, I created a soft and comfortable bed. Now it was the time to wait. Wait until I could complete my vengeance.

When dusk finally arrived, my time had come. Meanwhile, I had prepared the cave for my further stay. Some furniture made out of branches and leaves. I lied down, waiting for my body to calm down. It was a strange feeling to be tired again, after all these years. My body was following the rules again. Hunger and thirst were two problems, I would care about tomorrow. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, I was already in a dream again. Now the time has come. I used the dream to my full advantage: I assembled enough magic for one strike, which would contain all of my hatred. I could feel the energy of the dream slowly drained, adding to my magic. I could feel, how in the end, I was taking the energy from the dreamer. What was a pony's life worth, when it's for the greater good? My plan? To create a giant river of lava, which would destroy all of Canterlot. There was enough lava, deep in the earth, waiting for a way to get up here. I just needed to create the way, nothing more.

It should be nothing, but a mere taste of my magic. They should taste my bitterness, that I had assembled in the last years. Maybe, my plan is crazy, but then, why shouldn't it be?
Somewhere, I could feel the earth crumbling. The dream veiled the quaking. I was still draining the dreamer's energy, until he collapsed. Into the next dream then. My spell was not complete yet. I started to suck the energy again, broadening the lava canal, until it finally broke through.
I could almost feel the fear in Celestia. She knew, which ancient power she had provoked. I created a small window in which I could see Canterlot at this very moment. A firery hell, burning trees, burning houses, burning ponies. The lava was slowly crushing everything in it's way. After all, it was still molten, heavy stone. Then, I looked over to the Castle. Celestia was standing at her tower, Twilight Sparkle at her side, helping her to stand upright. They could see my face in their sky, but they could not see the fear on their own faces.
„Oh, dear Celestia. I have waited an eternity for this moment. Now watch your beautiful Canterlot burn in flames. These flames are your doing, Celestia. You are the reason for the death of thousands of ponies. You should not have killed them. What they did may have been wrong, but what you have done is unforgivable.‟

Another eruption from the stream of lava surrounded the castle. It was a horrifically beautiful landscape. The castle just above the neverending sea of lava, once called Canterlot. I closed the window and stopped the eruption. Enough pain caused for today. There were enough situations for me to taste my wrath. Meanwhile, I already had used six ponies, all collapsed from the leak of energy. I was not the murderer, I was just the judge.

Chapter 9: Awakening

"What have you done to me?‟
Rainbow Dash was furious. The problem is, I don't even know, what just happened. There had been some catastrophic event, but otherwise? I tried to feel, whether I was in a dream or not, but it was quite hard. On the one hand, every law of physics still applied, on the other hand, it felt as distant as any other dream.
„I don't know. I have no idea, where we are.‟
After completing the sentence, I realized, that it was not complete darkness. It was dark, but there were even darker shades around us. It seemed like a dark forest. This idea was further verified through the smell of leaves and logs.
I had the sudden idea, with which I could probably test whether I was in a dream or not. I just had to use some magic: If it was easy, I was in a dream. If not, then I was almost certainly not in a dream.

I started to unroot a tree. This was some dream, because obviously, I could not unroot any tree in reality so easily.
„Hey Rainbow Dash! This is some sort of dream and I think I know how to get out.‟
Rainbow Dash turned around to me again, after she had tried to fly up to explore the area around us.
„You think you know how to get us out?‟
Her voice was so angry, it was almost creepy:
„Do you know, how the last time ended, when you thought you could do something? Yes, we got stuck in this bucking dream. You have killed Luna, you nearly killed Twilight, you got me stuck in this dream. You are a threat to every pony in Equestria. Why in Celestia's name should I trust you? That's right. I won't. You are a terrible pony, who should have been imprisoned years ago. I don't even know, why Twilight gave you another chance, but obviously you have wasted it. You have wasted your chance, you have imprisoned me here and you have killed Luna. I don't even want to listen to you anymore. It's all just lies anyway.‟

I closed my eyes, opened them again, unable to even stutter a word. My mouth was wide open now, my breathing had stopped. I slowly let my breath out, still unable to say anything. Rainbow Dash just turned around and flew away. I would have loved to just give up now. The problem was not Rainbow Dash's aggressive attitude. I have met many aggressive ponies before. The problem was, that she was right. She was right in every single point of her accusement. At some times, the truth is just crushing. I laid down, dropped my head on my hooves and started to slowly weep. I don't usually weep, but at this point, I was in a dead-end. Not with some duty or some idea, but with my whole life. I had messed it up without the intention to. After all, what do intentions count, when nopony believes you? It's right, they don't count a bit. After a while, I somehow drifted from wheeping to sleeping. There was nothing I could do or should do, so I didn't even care.

There was no dream I woke up in, probably because I already was inside one. The next thing, I could sense, was already the sun reaching my nose. I sneezed and slowly stood up. I was very tired even though my sleep should have been resting. I was still in some forest, but it was a much friendlier place now. Not so dark and scary anymore. I started to look around, searching for food. Somehow it must go on. Not because I deserve living, but because the ponies I hurt deserved reparation. I found some berries. They were not very tasty, but they alleyed my hunger. After trying to find Rainbow Dash without success, I started to regret my choice of food. A terrible stomachache grew stronger and stronger. After a couple of steps, I had to lay down. The world around me started to delay a bit, and I could not fully see my environment anymore. For an eternity, there was just pain and the inability to do anything at all.

That's how life works. In one moment, you are perfectly fine, in the next moment, there comes a catastrophy, but life doesn't stop there. When you are at the lowest point you can imagine, life hits you once again; or maybe I hit myself. I was the one murdering Luna, eating the berries. Life was just providing the possibility for me to hit myself. Maybe it was a good thing, that I was punished for my doings. I have ruined multiple lives, spreading nothing but chaos and death. I was not worthy living in Equestria, not worthy of any friends. The only thing I was worthy of, was feeling the pain. Sometimes, there is no solution to the problem.

I felt the slight tingle at my back, somewhere between the strong feelings of pain and regret. I turned around, at least tried to. Half way through turning around, I fell on the ground, as the pain struck again. There was some light on my side, but I was unable to see any further. Luckily the source of light slowly arrived at my field of vision. Up there in the sky, there was something unusual, hard to describe.
Much similar to the frozen falls, but a little bit more awesome. It was a circular pane of rainbow. Yes, a strange description, but you should have seen it: It was magnificent. Behind the rainbow pane, there was Rainbow Dash flying through the sky, leaving a rainbow trail behind. The pane itself expanded in every direction, filled with every possible color, but it only got really awesome after the sound arrived at my ears. It was a mixture of 'boom' and 'swoosh'. The wind was blowing through every tree, through my mane, nearly taking me with it.

Even though I messed up every little thing in my entire life, I could not let Rainbow Dash rot in this dream. I had to get her out. Somehow, this light gave me the will power to change what was wrong. I should stop living for myself, and start to do something for others, understand their position. It was time to get out of here. Sometimes in life you are in a depression, but you have to get out of it at some point and this was the right point to finally do something. Another blast of wind rippled through my body and I started to channel my magic. She deserved to get out and it was my duty to get her out. If I wanted to change my life around, I would have to start somewhere. And this was the point to start at.

I saw the whispy lines swirling around the shield. Rainbow Dash was quite surprised about the shield and tried to get rid of it by flying away. It was hard to focus the shield around her and not let her go, but I was determined to do it. With a big thunder, Rainbow Dash finally disappeared. The magic slowly declined, until I was fully alone with my pain. The wind howled through the trees. Everything else was quiet.

Chapter 10: Evening the scales

I laughed, even though the situation had gotten much worse. Sometimes you need to laugh so you don't frown. It was time to visit old friends to win this battle. After destroying several cities all around in Equestria, there had been an unfortunate turn of events. Princess Twilight had assembled with five other ponies to crush me and I underestimated them.
Mistake number 1: Underestimation.
They are the new, assembled Elements of Harmony. Luckily their strike was only hard enough to save the city I attacked. In their moment of dealing with the situation in the city, I was able to get away. They have had the power to stop me, but no pony said, that I would have to fight alone. Old friends always have great ideas and that is why I was heading off early.

I had already made out a meeting with him, even though it had been hard to find him in the first place. We would meet in the ruins of Frozenfalls. Why Frozenfalls? Well, the city is the place, where we first met. I had always been a pony of the north. The cold weather was calming and not so blinding.

Where was he? I had already been waiting for long hours, but he was still not here.
„Did you miss me? You know, I can't just appear here or there in time. It's my duty to always be late or early or both.‟
Yes, he still had the same kind of humor.
„Ohhh, don't make that look on your face.‟
He created a seat for sunbathing and a cocktail on a table next to it.
„Relax. The plan is working just fine. You and me will rule the world. You will be the chaos in their dreams, and I will be the chaos in their lives.‟
Sounds good to me, even though I am more interested in the vengeance than in reign.
„Good old Discord. You know, that I don't quite enjoy the pleasure of ruling. You will have the throne all for your own enjoyment. As long as you continue to spread your chaos all around.‟
I smiled at him.
„Haha. You always know, what I want. So, how are we going to spread chaos today? Do you want to turn the sun into a moon? Do you want to make every bit of water in Equestria become a stream of fire? We could make the trees run around and eat the birds, which had been living on them and eating their fruits.‟
He was still the same draconequus, who is not able to win on his own, but under my leadership, he will have his victory:
„No. The time for your chaos will come, but first we have to dispatch of the Elements of Harmony...‟
He made a frown when he heard that phrase. The Elements of Harmony seemed to get him every single time.
„... and I have just the plan for it. I will take the focus of the Elements of Harmony, then you will have the power to surpass them for a short moment. You will have your reign and I will have my vengeance.”

Discord laughed, turned a tree to his bed. Then he created two glasses of whine and gave me half a glass. It was strange to see the fluid resisting it's urge to flow down at the open side of the half glass. Discord then drank his own half and threw the extra glass into a puddle of water, which turned into a bubble bath in the next moment. I wasn't quite sure anymore, if I should drink the whine, but in the end I decided to at least try it. It tasted like orange. Good old discord, always good for a surprise.
“One week, then we shall meet again, right here.”
With these words Discord made a hole under his feet, just to fall upwards onto a cloud, in which he slowly sank until he was gone. I could still hear his laughing echoing through the landscape. One week. It was about time to spread distrust among the ponies and make myself the bigger target.

It was number 1483. The last pony in this week. Sometimes I had only spent a minute or so in their dreams, but that had still been enough time to convey my message. For this last pony, I would take some more time. The female earth pony had a grey coat, black hair and a purple treble clef as a cutie mark. Obviously a fan of classical music, she even had an instrument in her dreams, but I was about to get this dirty. I put her on a stage, a big audience, listening for her every note and then I made her instrument occasionally make terrible sounds. Like hoof on chalkboard or the scream of a deafbird – known for their deafening screams – or iron scratching over chinaware.
She was surprised and confused. The instrument made these sounds on random occasions, which she tried to evade, but you can't evade randomness. She tried everything to get her music to play normal again, but I couldn't let her. If every tone would have been terrible, she would have probably just stopped playing, but this was much more brilliant: She knew, that her instrument was working, because most notes were right. Only sometimes they were wrong and she was searching for the reason. It would drive her insane in the end, but I didn't want to spread insanity, I wanted to spread distrust and make myself a target. I created the illusion of Celestia's magic aura, well known to me, on the instrument, then placed an illusion of Celestia in the audience. For this dreamer, it had to seem like Celestia was causing her troubles.
“Why are you doing this? Please, stop! Princess? But why? I don't understand!”
Torture sometimes is a necessity for the greater good. As the dreamer went beserk, I knew, my work was done.

“Dream Cry, I have been waiting for you. Are you ready to strike? I'd love to spread some chaos again.”
Discord had just appeared on the tree bed, he had created one week ago. This time he sat on it, upside down of course.
“I was born ready. The better question is, are you ready?”
Discord laughed, a deep, long laugh:
“I am the spirit of disharmony about to spread disharmony. It isn't even possible for me to not be ready.”
Almost to prove his statement, his tree bed spontaneously turned into fireworks, which flew up in the air and exploded:
“I will see you in Canterlot, Dream Cry.”

He snapped with his finger and was already gone. I laid down again, as so often in the last week and closed my eyes once again. Not that it got hard, it was even getting easier. It was just a little bit repetetive after this time, which would change in these very next heartbeats. I pulled the dream closer to reality, not even caring for what was inside. I didn't need to enter it, just harness the power of the world of the irrational and unreal. My face appeared over Canterlot, where Discord was already shuffling on top of one of the towers.

Without losing a single heartbeat to hesitation, I crushed the first tower, breaking it into thousand bits, falling down into the lithified lava. Celestia was standing on another tower, protecting it with a shield. The six Elements of Harmony were assembled behind her.
“Today is not the day of thou victory. Today neither you nor Discord will reign over Equestria. The Elements of Harmony have beaten you once, they will beat you again. You will not win.”
I laughed. It was quite funny to see her expectations on my motives:
“I have not come to win today. I have not come to reign either. Today is not the day of my victory or Discord's victory, ...”
Discord was looking at me with a surprised face.
“...today is the day, when the scales are finally evened. Today is the day, when disharmony is not surpressed by harmony anymore. The 'good' side had always been stronger. What 'good' side does imprision their sisters and murder other ponies? You know, there is no 'good' side in Equestria. Today, I will finally even the scales between the Elements of Harmony and Discord. I don't need victory, I just need vengeance.”

Another tower started to rumble, crumble and resisted, but in the end it had to bow to my power.
“The bad side can never win.”
It was one of the Elements of Harmony speaking: The Element of Magic.
“Yeah, show him Twili!” answered the Element of Loyalty.
“I am sorry to disappoint all of you, but your dear Princess Celestia is not as good as you believe her to be. She would not be the ruler of Equestria if it had not been for ... terrific measurements. Did she tell you, that she banished her sister for 1000 years? Did she tell you, that she killed other ponies, my parents just to get her throne? Oh, Celestia. What a name for such a cruel pony.”

Other towers bowed to my will. Only 3 more towers were standing. The Elements of Harmony were creating a formation. They wanted to crush me, of course. They believed in the lies of their beloved Celestia and they believed in mine. As long as I was the target, Discord would have free reign. They fired at me, and Discord finally had all the time in the world to take his place. I was, if you want to call it that way, crushed. I had to leave the dream, seriously in danger of losing the power to sustain my own life. The dreamer died, when I took the last bits of power, necessary to survive somehow. My work was done, I would not die and in some days, I would be recovered. Until then, it would all be in the hands of Discord. The elements have used their power against me, now they were weak and vulnerable.

When the sun rose over the horizon, while the moon was rising on the other side, I knew, that he had won and I had my vengeance. The wind only flew upwards, while the leaves of the trees were hanging down still. They were colored in every possible color but green. Some trees just stood up and ate the birds, that had been pooping on them for their entire lives. This was Discord's world now.

I got up and created a small field of grass under my hooves, which I then lifted up in the air. I flew towards Canterlot to see the throne of success and that description is not an understatement: Discord had built a giant throne, where he sat and drank some water, while giant pigs flew threw the air and a windmill was turning so fast, that it was creating a twister. Meanwhile, some bees began to grow in size until they were as big as a tree, then they exploded into millions of new bees, which all started to grow again. There were a couple of grasshoppers, which, every time they jumped up, caused a small earthquake around them. A snake, which was eating it's own tail in an infinite loop, while still growing bigger and bigger. A couple of ponies tried to run through the grass land, but every couple of hooves, a bird unearthed from the ground, just to explode in hundrets of feathers. You could say, it was the complete and utter chaos.

“Discord, old pal. As I can see, you have done it. The world is your playing ground. Tell me, where are the Elements of Harmony?”
Discord laughed:
“Oh, don't worry. I am just going to have some fun with them. They cannot win against me anymore. I have won.”
He laughed again. What a maniac.
“Discord, listen closely: Do not underestimate them. Seriously, do not do it. I don't care what you do with them, but don't underestimate them. I will go back into my world, the world of dreams. Reality is a bit too chaotic for me.”
I smiled at him: He knew, that I meant it as a joke.
“Maybe the frozen north is a bit more comfortable for both of us.”
Discord agreed: “Let us keep the destroyed Canterlot. Just as a statement of our victory.”

Discord jumped down from his throne and just before he hit the earth, he disappeared and with him his throne of success. I followed him willingly. The frozen north was such a nice place. When I arrived there, I laid down again. This was what I had lived for more than thousand years. Yet, it was not the victory I had wanted. I had my freedom and every possibility, but something was missing. There was just this barely fought victory and nothing else. I was empty. Not even the vengeance could fill the hole of thousand years in banishment.

Chapter 11: Unexpected help

After having brought Rainbow Dash out, nothing happened for an eternity. I was not able to move because of the pain, but I was not really dying either. After the pain had receded very slowly, I was not quite sure, what to do. I had to find some food, but I was too spiritless to do anything. Luckily, nature is always prepared. When my stomach started to growl, the hunger surpassed my depression. I went around and found some other berries. I stood there, for a moment, not sure, if I should try again, but my stomach forced me to eat something. I swallowed some berries and thought about my further stay; If I could get up to full power again, I could try to get out of this strange dream, but did I want to? What was out there for me? Just rules and punishment. There was nopony waiting for me, nopony caring for me, nopony for whose sake I should return. If there had been a reason to get out, I would have taken it.

Obviously, I decided to stay in the dream for the while. I built up a small home for myself, made from some logs and a lot of branches. It was quite nice, almost like a camping trip. I had to still improve my house with the time, but it was still better than nothing. I did live a life, not really great, but not awful either. It was like living a stagnation. Nothing really happened. It was, if you would call it that way, just plain boring. You had to do your work, like finding logs or making fires, but it was not fitting. I didn't feel like that was what I was supposed to do, if I really was supposed to do anything.

After finishing my second floor, I went to go fishing with a newly made fishing rod. This was the moment, when finally something happened. Almost like an excuse for me to finally stop wasting my own time creating this happy illusion; Finally time to get back to reality, not having to tell myself beautiful lies to let me forget the pain of my failure. This whole 'I can stay in this dream' thing had just been an excuse, but I had not wanted to realize it. In that final moment, I could let the lies fall down like autumn leaves and finally leave this delusional place.

What happened? Well, you could say, I had some unexpected help by an unexpected visitor. In midst of the bright day, there was some light starting to shine close to the sun. It got brighter and brighter, until I had to look away. A big shadow descended down to the ground. It was the one pony in all of Equestria, I had never expected to see ever again. She was standing right there.

Princess Luna. When the light started to fade, Luna fell to her side.
“Princess Luna?! What... How... Why?”
I was unable to stumble more than these few words in utter surprise. I ran towards her to help her getting up again. She was calm, but serious.
“Dream Cry, I have come here, because we need you.”
I spoke before she could finish her reasoning.
“Why did you come to me? I am a murderer. I have failed everypony.”
Luna was still calm, but her voice was filled with visible impatience.
“Calm down. We need you now and there is not much time to explain.”
I wouldn't go without a reason. At least I wanted to know, why they needed me.
“You will have to spend the time to explain it to me. I am not coming with you without knowing, what expects me.”

Luna was annoyed, but luckily she understood my concern.
“Fine. You will have your answers:
First of all, you are no murderess. I was attacked by the Timberwolfes and well... I know, you have somehow caused that dream to affect me more than I would have liked to, but it was not your intention. You have proven your good intentions often enough. I am not saying, you have done everything right, but we need you now. It's not about right or wrong anymore. I know, you can help us. In the end, you have brought me back.”
I was stunned. What kind of threat could lead them to this decision? 'It's not about right or wrong anymore'. What else is it about then? The look in her eyes was too serious to be ignored. Something told me, that I should go with her. There was nothing of interest here anyway.

“And... Have you decided to help yet?”
Luna asked carefully. Even if I came, how should I help? I don't have the best talents. How should I help them in reality by entering a dream? Where and how should I help at all? So many questions, which were not answered yet.
“Yes.”
My own voice was surprisingly definite and determined.
“I don't know, if I can even help, I can't make any promises.”
Luna was visibly relieved.
“Then let us not waste any more time. I can explain much more, when we are finally back in Canterlot.”

Then she disappeared. Now it was time to get out of this strange dream. I still did not know, whose dream this was. There was no dreamer I could see or feel. It was time to use magic again. This time, I had to do it without the help of Rainbow Dash's rainbow explosion, but this time, I also did not have to create a big shield for anypony. It was hard, very hard. It took me almost a quarter of an hour to build up enough energy to sense the whispy lines. However, once those lines arrived, it got much easier. It was time to pull myself back

I shielded myself, feeling the pain of the magic running through my body. I managed to keep my composure and carried on. The whsipy lines got more and more opaque, until they finally obscured everything. Then, everything disappeared. Only darkness around me, no noises or anything, but when I shouted
“Hello?”
somepony answered:
“Hello!”.

I was not sure, where I really was.
“Hello. Where am I?”
The other pony answered again:
“am I?”
I should have known. It was only my echo... However, if I had an echo, I must have been in a hall or in an abyss. I made a light in the room with my magic, illuminating my surroundings. Ugh. Seriously, if I would get money for each time I made a stupid discovery, I would be rich by now. Of course, I was still in the same giant hall, I had entered Rainbow Dash's dream in. I don't know, how I could have not thought of that.

I turned around, nopony here. If I remembered this right, the exit was down further in the hall. I headed towards the staircase. It would be an eternity getting up there again. Instead, I could use some magic. Without wasting another heartbeat, I lifted myself up, slowly but steadily. This was definitely faster than walking up all those stairs, but probably not really easier. Performing magic often uses the same amount of power as manual work. Except you find shortcuts.
For example, if I would like to lift up a bucket with magic, it would take me the same amount of power as it would take, if I would do it manually.
However, if there was a giant wall between me and the bucket, I could still lift the bucket with my magic easily, but I would have big problems getting to the bucket by hoof in the first place.

When I finally got to the top, I was really exhausted. Why did they build so many stairs anyway? I tried to open the door, but obviously I was too weakened to do it. I waited for my strength to recover, but when I tried it again, nothing was moving. I slowly got angry at the door for not opening. I threw my whole body against it, but again, nothing. Then I took all my power, backed a bit off and tried to magically open it. Nothing. Either I have gotten completely weak, or something was blocking this door. I already had another idea: If I couldn't go straight through the door, maybe I could go upwards a bit. So I started working on the ceiling with my magic, slowly digging into the cement. For an eternity, I was just able to crumble small pieces of cement every once in a while and get some hooves deeper.

Then, suddenly, the whole ceiling crushed onto me. I luckily didn't get hurt badly, but it was hard to get rid of all this debree. The dust in the air didn't make the breathing easier. When I removed the first bits of debree, I started to wonder why the sun was still not shining into here. It was completely black outside, I couldn't see anything. After freeing myself from most of the debree, I started to investigate. When I got closer and closer to the exit, I noticed, that there wasn't fresh air either.
Something was wrong. I leaped out, at least I tried to. Something blocked me in flight and I fell back down. When I climbed up again, I noticed that, in fact, it was not outside, but there was a black stone, one I had never seen before. I should have been outside by now; The hill of the entrance had not been so incredibly steep. I further investigated the black stone. It was pitch black, only ... spongy. I started to rip the spongy stone apart with my magic. Sometime I would have to finally get out of the hill.

It took some time to finally breach the surface, but when it was finally done, it was worth it. The sun and the fresh air were quite a refreshment after the time stuck down there. I slowly climbed upwards. When I finally got out, I could have almost gone back down again.
I looked around: Only the black rock all around me and in midst of this black stone sea there were two towers standing. One, crushed down to to the base, and the other one, only standing halfway up. This once has been Canterlot. I looked around. Nothing but these two towers and the ground made of black stones. I slowly walked towards the two towers. How long have I been gone? This question really hit me hard. I mean, one day Canterlot is in all of it's beauty, then you come back some day and everything is gone. How in Equestria, did this happen? I mean, a whole city replaced with a black sea of stone? That's insanity. When I got closer and closer, I started to spot some rooftops sticking out of the ground.

Holy Celestia! Rooftops out of the bucking ground. This meant, that the houses were crushed by this black stone. If you think of Canterlot, it's not a small city, the houses are tremendous. They were covered in this black stone up to the roofs. The only way I heard of stone being liquid was from an eruption. Which meant, that ... oh buck. How many ponies did live in Canterlot and how many could get away fast enough in case of an eruption? This was terrible. I was walking towards a giant, black graveyard. How in Equestria could this have happened? I mean, Canterlot had never been a volcanic area.
Maybe a misguided spell? Maybe a new experiment by Twilight Sparkle, which had failed? Maybe even my fault, when I tried to bring Luna back? I decided to not think about it further, to save myself from breaking out in tears over this catastrophe. I hoped, I would find at least something within the towers.

Step for step I trotted forward, over the giant black graveyard. The rooftops all were burned and you could even see into some houses through the burned ceiling. Mostly, there was just the black stone, but sometimes, there were ponies, burned to ashes. A mare cowering in an edge with her filly, knowing of the fatal fires spreading in their room. I stumbled. I could almost hear their screams. Meanwhile, clouds had already arrived, blocking off the sun. Without the control of pegasi, it would start to rain here very soon. Almost in the exact moment, when I finished that thought, the first drop of water fell onto my back. Some houses were big enough for people in the upper floors to have survived. When I encountered such a house, I decided to go inside, even though my legs started to hurt badly.

I got onto the 3rd floor or so, had to climb a little bit up to get into the broken window. This floor was just wasted from the fire, nothing was close to being alive. The stairs in the room to my left were so badly destroyed, that I would not even be able to get up any higher. At least I thought so in the first moment. Upon returning in the room, I had entered, I saw, that there was a hill of debris, just high enough to get me through the hole in the ceiling above it. The fourth floor was also empty, even though it was not crushed that badly. You could still see the burned ashes of the tables, of the cupboards and even of the ceiling. The stair case was just intact enough for me to get up. Two of the steps broke down, when I tried to step on them and I had to skip both. Luckily, the other stairs were holding my weight. The fifth floor didn't bring any good news either. I looked around in several rooms, but I only found the bodies of four dead ponies: Death from either the smoke or their wounds. There was nothing I could do here.

There were no living beings in this graveyard anymore. I should not even have tried looking for any for my search had been doomed to fail from the first moment. This was not Canterlot anymore; It was now a city of death. A wasteland, where once had been a place filled with life. I remembered, how the ponies ran around here, happily, unaware of their future. They had families, they had hobbies, they had friends, they had love, they had memories, they had lives. Now, everything was crushed. It was utterly disgusting.

The rain had turned into a fully grown storm with lightning and thunder, when I finally arrived at the end of the graveyard. I had tried to enter a couple more houses, but every of my attempts to find something living had failed. When the weather had started to get worse and worse, I skipped my visits and started to gallop away from this doomed place. The tower I was looking to get into was just ahead: the royal tower. The sun was now fully blocked, and it was as dark as in a night. The thunder roared in the background and I had to enter this creepy ruin of the royal tower. Luckily, there was a window just on the height of the... ground.

Chapter 12: Finding life

I climbed up inside, looking around: This floor was almost empty, but there were a couple of stairs leading upwards. I followed them, knowing, that if there was nothing in this tower, I would have no clue of what to do next. I climbed up the last step and got into a long corridor. Left and right were rows of beautifully ornamented doors, but the catastrophy had also shown its face here: Most of the ornaments were already broken. I entered the first door to my right; The room was not as completely wasted as the rest of the city, even though it probably has seen better days: Parts of the ceiling had fallen down onto the ground, the walls were bended inwards slightly and the furniture was mostly crushed into pieces, but the bed was surprisingly good in shape. Maybe somepony was still using it for their sleep.

“Hello?”
I screamed, hoping for an answer and I was not disappointed:
“Hello! Who is there?”
It was the voice of Princess Luna. It came from down the corridor. I gallopped outside and towards the giant door at the end of the corridor. When I pushed the door open in fury, I realized, which room this was: It was the throne room. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of this place. Even though most windows were crushed, this place was obviously the throne room. I remembered it from magazines and newspapers. It was glorious, even though the dark weather diminished the effect.

There was not only Princess Luna there, but also Princess Celestia, Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. They were all wounded, not dangerously, but I could almost see the fights they had fought. Their eyes filled with pain and exhaustion, but there was also something else, something I would have never expected: Hope. I had expected, distrust, denial, hate, refusion and rejection, but it was hope. I had brought Luna back, but I was the one, who had made her death possible in the first place. Who I was I to have hopes depending on me? I looked in their eyes, knowing I would disappoint them.

“What happened?”
I asked, just to break the silence. There was no answer. They looked at me thoroughly, almost if they were staring into my soul.
Twilight Sparkle had pity with me and finally answered:
“We have lost Canterlot to an eruption, we have lost Frozenfalls to massive fire, we have lost some of Ponyville to earthquakes, we have lost Cloudsdale to massive storms, we have lost Trottingham, Fillydelphia and many more. Our enemies were stronger than we could have ever imagined. They defeated us in a heartbeat of weakness and took the Elements of Harmony away from us. In your absence, we have lost... too many... ponies in Equestria due to these new enemies; No magic was big enough to stop them. You are probably asking yourself, who could be so strong to defeat all of us.”
Yes, indeed; I was already more than curious. I mean, I have never seen anything like that before. The whole city just brunt to the ground, and as it seemed, it had not even been the only one.

“We are facing two big enemies right now, not knowing, who is the worse:
The first pony is an old enemy, we had thought to have rehabilitated. It is Discord, the ancient spirit of disharmony and well, the name says it already: discord. He had been a good guy for a while, helping to maintain the only friendship he ever had with Fluttershy here. After that, I started to trust him, because I thought, Fluttershy could not be wrong with creatures. Then followed Pinkie Pie, because she hates not being friends; Rainbow Dash, out of loyality for me; Apple Jack and finally Rarity.”
She looked at each pony, while she was talking, so I at least knew, who she was referring to. Although I already had met most of them, it was still a nice gesture. To be honest, at that point I did not recall all their names.
“He likes to make fun of ponies and spread his chaos all around. Furthermore, he likes to talk in these damned riddles just to confuse us. Discord is a draconequus, which is a combination of some animals. Do not trust him, no matter what you do.”
That tip was a bit too late now. His plan, involving me for some reason, had already been completed. How should I have known not to trust him even before I had even met him?

“The other one is Dream Cry.”
I was baffled for a moment. Did I really hear Dream Cry? She already started speaking again:
“I know this is confusing, but apparently he has managed to exit a ... banishment of Princess Celestia. Although she had thought he must have been destroyed by his own magic, it seemed that he had only been banished into somewhere. Bringing Luna back has also brought Dream Cry back. You probably would not have been strong enough to get Luna back yourself. The truth is: Nopony expected it to work. We wanted you to try it, not knowing there could be such extreme consequences.”
When I had to bring the living Rainbow Dash back, that had already been hard enough. I had realized after that, that there had not been a chance to bring Luna back, but through bringing Dream Cry back. That was the whole reason, why Discord had made the offer.
“Dream Cry has been the reason for all this trouble. Somehow he has managed, to get Discord go wild with him again. Dream Cry had forced our attention with his certain talents, bringing destruction to Canterlot. Meanwhile, Discord had sneaked up and in the moment of our weakness, he had taken the Elements of Harmony. Dream Cry is incredibly dangerous, as he harnesses the power of the dreams.
That is why we need you to help us. You are the only other pony in all of Equestria, who ever had your talent other than Dream Cry.
The problem is just: We have no idea, how we can defeat them, even if you help us. However, now we have a better chance than before.”

Wait, wait, wait. What should I do about Dream Cry? I mean, I don't even know anything about him, except for him being my ancestor in some way.
“If, however, we somehow acquire the Elements of Harmony, we can strike. We know, that Discord and Dream Cry are in Frozenfalls. There is a high chance, that they wouldn't leave the Elements of Harmony unguarded. So our best guess is, that they are in Frozenfalls.”
Well, they probably were, but first we had to get to Frozenfalls without a working train station; Then we also had to get into Frozenfalls unseen; And then we also had to snatch the Elements of Harmony.

“We are going to head off tomorrow. There is a small camp in Ponyville, where we can stock up our supplies. The train station in Ponyville and in Frozenfalls are both destroyed, but there is still a steam train along the track. If we can get it running again, then we may not have to walk all the way.”
That sounded like a plan, but I was still not fully convinced. Ponyville was about a day of galloping away, so it should be around 2 days for us, considering their new and my old wounds.
“We will head off a little bit later today, but first we want to leave a note to anypony, who is searching here for us.”
Princess Celestia already had started to write the note before Princess Twilight had finished her sentence. I trotted a bit forwards to be able to look at what she was writing; Yes, my curiousity is a little bit annyoing. She wrote following using the quill, a bit of ink and her magic:

“My dear, fellow ponies. I know, the times are hard for all of us, but we have to stay strong. I know, that in these hard times you need a strong leader, but I have to pass this task to somepony else:
As long as Princess Twilight Sparkle and I are going to be fighting Dream Cry and Discord, Princess Cadence will be leading you. You can meet her in the makeshift capital in Ponyville.
I am truly sorry for every loss of yours. Nothing can restore the loss brought to us by Dream Cry and Discord, but we will have to stop him, before all is lost.

Yours sincerely, Princess Celestia.”

Finally we started to trot away from this graveyard. Through rain, thunder and lightning, but at least away from this terrible place. For the first couple of hours, I made a shield to save us from the rain, but as we trotted further and further, I realized, that it was consuming too much of my energy. The problem was not really getting wet, but getting cold. We were all wounded and getting a cold would not help us.
We progressed along the road; Down the mountain, which Canterlot was built upon, and then further south. Due to our high position, you could already make out Ponyville from a distance. Meanwhile, I thought about how I could help them. Really, my only talent was entering dreams.

In the last days, I had the tendency to somehow enter the dream of the ponies, who represented the Elements of Harmony, but I could not be sure, that it was anything but coincidental... or maybe planned? I thought about my problem and actually had an idea: The next time, I would start to sleep, I should create a shield around me. Maybe I could put myself into a dream of my desire. It had worked, when coming out of the dream, so why not when entering the dream. Then again, you can't really sleep while making a shield. Yet, I still use magic in my dream anyway... It shouldn't be that much of a difference.
I got pulled out of my thoughts by a big dirty puddle, I just accidentally walked into. In the distance, I could still hear the thunder, but it was definitely becoming less frequent. We were inside a thick forest right now, and something had changed; I needed a couple of heartbeats until I realized, that everypony was trotting faster now, almost galloping.

“Why so fast?”
I screamed from behind, but my voice drowned in a particularly loud clap of thunder. I didn't hear any answers, either. Before I had to scream again, I suddenly realized, why they were galloping now: The tree rows receded and we stood on open fields; This was obviously Ponyville.
I had not even realized, that the time had gone by so fast. I looked at the sun: Celestia already had lowered it to the horizon, but it was not dusk yet. Either we have been really fast, or the distance has been lower than it had seemed from up on the mountain. In front of us, there was this small city most houses broken down. As we galloped towards it, I noticed, that in the middle of Ponyville, there was a giant cliff, almost three hooves wide. I also recognized the tree, I had seen in Twilight Sparkle's dream among the houses.

We just passed a collapsed barn, when I could finally make out the 'makeshift capital', that Celestia had written about: It was a small assembly of restored buildings and some huts, which were obviously just build as temporary shelters. We arrived in Ponyville, when the sun just went under the horizon. Princess Celestia ordered us to stock up on supplies, meet our relatives and then get to sleep. We would meet tomorrow morning.
Since I had neither relatives here, nor the task to assemble food, – which went to Applejack and Pinkie Pie by the way – I pretty much had nothing to do for the rest of the day. I decided, I would just try to test the thing with sleeping while casting a shield.

That would have been easy, if I would have just found a nice place to sleep. Every hut was crowded with ponies. In the end, I decided to take some cloth from the ground and hang it up above me so it repelled the rain. It wasn't really most comfortable lying on the wet, cold ground, but it was still better than lying on the wet, cold ground with rain falling onto you from above. I created a shield around me and tried to relax further and further. I listened to the clopping of the hooves of the ponies running around, the soft voices speaking somewhere in the distance and the calming sound of rain dripping on cloth. The sound of rain is not repetitive, but not too various either; It has different rhythms, but stays at the same volume and pitch. I created the shield and just continued to listen. After a while, I started sleeping, without even noticing it.

Subsequently, the strangest thing happened: I was neither dropped into a dream of my choice, nor did I just wake up at the next morning. Actually, I did somehow wake up, but not really. It's hard to explain. When the sounds had disappeared, I had opened my eyes again. I saw Ponyville, but it was all black and translucent, except for some lights. When I approached one of these lights, I could see, that they were actually like a window into a dream. The dreamer was running around somewhere. I looked around: There were thousands of lights, almost like the stars in the night sky, only disturbed by the translucent walls. I walked to another dream and watched, what the dreamer was dreaming.

A little bit creepy, when I think about it now, but at that time it was just fascinating. I could see all the different dreams; An amazing feeling. I was all alone in this mostly dark world, but then again, around me were hundrets of dreamers running around or speaking. If I listened closely, I could even hear whispering. I trotted around, from dream to dream, looking at what the dreamers were experiencing. I admit that I sometimes trotted against these translucent walls, – They were almost transparent - but it didn't hurt as you would expect from a wall. It was more like running against a wall made of moss. Suddenly, I was pulled into one of the dreams and dropped through the 'window' into the dream.

It was too late, when I realized, that I had unconsciously stopped casting the shield. I looked around again: Still in the same situation I had seen from outside. The dreamer - a light aquamarine unicorn with a harp as a cutie mark – was sitting on a bench. Instead of sitting like any normal pony though, she actually sat on her back. I don't know, I can't even describe it. Ponies are not meant for sitting on their back. When I think about it now, her cutie mark was actually less of a harp and more of a... lyre is how you call it, I think. Next to her was a yellow-ish pony with a pink and blue mane. The cutie mark on her flank was some candy. They were talking about how the aquamarine pony was sitting.
“Hey liar, why is it you have to sit like that every time we come to the park? Can't you sit like a normal pony one single time?”
At this time I was a bit confused about the 'liar'. I did not even listen to the whole conversation, only until I understood, that her name had actually been Lyra, not 'liar'. After all, it was just another normal dream, so there is not really much to talk about. Lyra had a long conversation with her friend and then just headed home. Sometimes I don't get, what the point of that dream was. Maybe dreams do not really need a goal, maybe they don't need logic.

When I got up again, I was unnaturally tired. Sleeping on wet and cold stone had not really been a good idea. Today, we would try to head for the train, which was obviously somewhere close to Ponyville on the rails. The rain was finally gone and I was able to look around in Ponyville. It was impressive, how parts of Ponyville were severely destroyed and still everypony was friendly and happy. I thought, that after a disaster which destroys so many lives, ponies would lose their hope.
Instead, they all comforted each other; They all helped lost ponies find their families;They all helped building up the destroyed buildings; They all helped each other getting food; And they helped each other stay happy even in such horrific times. It was really memorable. At the lowest point, you could see the highest level of care for each other. That's what makes this pony society possible. Helping each other no matter what situation they are in.

However, it also made me wonder: Why is the idea of helping only bound to catastrophes? I mean, we could help each other much more in our daily lives, but often we forget each other under the circumstances of our every-day life. Why is there need for a catastrophe to bring out the good sides in everpony of us? I am not saying, we were generally disliking each other or something like that, but true friendship only shines in dark moments.
It is quite the twisted idea: Friendship cannot shine without dark times, help cannot be given without the need for it, and satisfaction cannot come without discontent. The 'bad' side seems to be a strange necessity for a 'good' side.

I met up again with Princesses Celestia, Twilight Sparkle and her five friends. They were so inseperable, I was already wondering, how she could have been alone in her dream. It was strange to see her friends always at her side, but what did I expect from the Elements of Harmony? A strange question arose in my mind: Could the Elements of Harmony exist without Discord? On the one hand, they were artifacts, so how could they just disappear, when Discord would be gone? On the other hand, it would be improbable that Discord would ever be gone. He was an embodiment of an abstract idea. Furthermore, what could destroy them? The Elements of Harmony seemed to only be able to turn him into a statue. Maybe they really cannot exist without him.

My thoughts got disrupted, as we had already found the missing train. It was a wreck - In lack of worse words. I did not even have an idea, how we should bring it up back on the rails; It had been thrown off into the trees on the side of the track. The whole area was burned down and in the midst of the burnt trees, there was the train; Half of it black and in an not identifiable state, half of it covered with dents and fissures.
It almost seemed as if the train had started to burn in Frozenfalls and had driven all the way down to these faulty rails. The train was so torn apart, I didn't believe we could get it running again, especially because we wounded and we were in a haste. Nonetheless, everypony seemed quite certain.

Firstly, we cut the whole back of the train off the front bit. Afterwards, we cleaned it up with a bit of water. Then, Princess Twilight did some mechanical things, I did not even know existed. For them, probably just some things, they had learnt in magic kindergarten; For me, high-technological, advanced stuff. However, the result was not really convincing. It did not appear to have changed much, except for the two of them being a bit more tired now.
After a short pause, we lifted the thing, that once had been a train, onto the tracks.
“Everypony, come aboard!” yelled Twilight Sparkle, as she had just jumped into the locomotive.
My distrust into this piece of rubble did not change, until, with horrible cracking noises and squeaking, it finally started to slowly roll forwards. I was actually quite surprised, it didn't instantly fall apart. For now, it actually moved and I was really thankful for it. I went to the locomotive and started to throw the coal into the locomotive oven to power the engine. The others decided to have a pause in what was left of the passenger compartment: The front half of it was still intact, the back half of it was completely missing, though. I would not have liked to be back there, because flying horseapples, you had the risk of falling out every heartbeat. Even when they asked me, whether I wanted a pause or not, I did not leave that secure place.

The train served better, than I had expected it to. It actually did not fall apart, until we were up in the north already. When it fell apart though, it was from one heartbeat to the next. I just threw a couple of additional pieces of coal into the engine, when the locomotive started to rumble and squeak. Without any further warning, the oven in front of me just exploded, throwing the heavy oven door and other pieces of metal towards me. Having seen the signs, I reacted fast enough and created a shield. The metal however, broke through the shield and threw me back into what was left of the passenger compartment. The whole train started to uncontrollably swing to the left side, eventually disjointing from the rail and crushing into the snowy trees on the side. I was thrown out into the air, everything turning around me. Luckily, I landed in the thick snow; It stopped my fall completely without breaking every bone of mine.

There were a couple of flames all around me, but no fire was big enough to become a threat in this snowy landscape. Immediately, I started to search for the others. They had been in the passenger compartment, which was now hanging down from a tree a couple of hundrets of hooves further down the rails. I found Princess Twilight and Pinkie Pie first, followed by Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash had somehow even managed to get out of the passenger compartment while it was flying through the air. She must have had quick reflexes and incredible agility. Together, we found Fluttershy burrowed deeply in the snow. We were only able to find Rarity because of her purple mane – Her coat was nearly invisible in the white background. Only Princess Celestia seemed to be impossible to find. When we found her, it was terrifying:

All of us had only gotten a few scratches, but Princess Celestia had been hit a lot harder: A long, sharp piece of metal stuck deep down into her body, starting in her front left leg and showing through her back.
Twilight Sparkle started to pull it out with her magic. The wound was deep, but Celestia started to heal it already. Not many ponies actually knew, how to heal. I guess, Celestia had had eons to learn every secret of magic that was known to ponyhood.
“You have to get to a hospital.”
It was Rainbow Dash, obviously worried about the wounds. Celestia just brushed that objection off.
“I will be fine.”

Without many words, we headed off. I was still only slowly recovering from the explosion. Everything had been to fast for me to really grasp it. I mean, there had just been a bucking explosion for pony's sake. I trotted a little bit behind the other ponies, needing time to understand what actually just had happened. My head was still swirling around and my legs were not really stable, more like rubber. I came to the conclusion, that we had been really lucky. All of us, even Princess Celestia. We should not have ridden a destroyed abomination of a train, but in some way we had to. We would have lost days and lives in every other way.

From here, I could actually spot Frozenfalls just on the horizon. At least, what should have been Frozenfalls. The city, which had been there once, was dominated by complete and utter chaos. There were many things you could only see close up, but for the sake of not having to interrupt myself later, I am going to put all crazy things into following list:

Flying buildings 2. Chocolate rain 3. Checkerboarded grass 4. Water in rivers replaced by flowing fire 5. Birds digging deep holes 6. Trees turned upside down 7. Spiders flying through the air 8. Diamonds randomly erupting from the earth 9. Those diamonds then randomly explode into ants. 10. Leafes of trees running around on long spiderlegs. 11. Flowers constantly dying just for a new seed to grow inside the dead body again. 12. Clouds bouncing around on the ground.

To be honest, there were probably even more things, but I could not see everything. In midst of that chaos was a giant throne. Somepony had a big ego...

We actually got into Frozenfalls before the sun went under the horizon. The whole city was empty and that instantly reminded me of Canterlot. What once had been a city filled with thousands of ponies, all minding their own business and galloping or trotting around in their own pace, was now another graveyard. The city was completely burnt down, every house was only a mere hill of black and grey ashes with some burnt logs sticking up into the air. Even Pinkie Pie, usually speaking nonstop and being a bit annoying at times, was silent now.

You could only hear the sound of our hooves, when we slowly trotted over the street. Sometimes, you could also hear Discord laughing in the distance. We had to stop, when we encountered a big hole in the ground, where once the road had been. Unfortunately not everypony had the quick reflexes. Rarity actually fell down, into a muddy, dirty water puddle, right next to water pipes – At this point I have got to add: Luckily, those were not sewage pipes, because the ranting of Rarity, which came afterwards, would have destroyed our ears.

Her fall had been a misfortunate event, but at the same time, it had been a lucky hit. The water pipes were an excellent hiding spot for us: Walking over the streets would have been madness, but when walking through the pipes, we would practically be invisible. Although Rarity expressed her... discomfort... with this idea, we still agreed to do it, despite of her continuous lamenting. The problem with trotting through pipes is your orientation. The system of pipes under Frozenfalls was actually way more complicated, than we had expected. Every couple of hooves you walked were at least twenty entrances and exits of other pipe systems. Of course, that description is a bit hyperbolic, but I think it displays our discomfort. There were actually a couple of times we stood at the end of a pipe, where only smaller pipes lead forward. The light, that Twilight had created for us not to run against walls was not helping too much, because we could see, that there were a lot of other ways, but we still did not know, which one was the right one.

However, exactly this fact we complained about, was the luckiest thing that could have ever happened. Through our random straying, we found something quite unexpected:
We had just arrivedat the end of another pipe, without the possibility to get any further, when we turned around and randomly went into the crossing pipe at a T-junction. I must have stumbled on a glibbery rock or something, because I started to slide. I tried to hold myself up, but I eventually slid towards another, smaller pipe on a side. I slid downwards, faster and faster, until I finally just dropped into a room from the side. There he stood; I immediately knew it was him. He looked so... familiar. I had never seen him before, but somehow, I saw myself mirrored somewhere in those blue eyes. It was Dream Cry.

The sudden realization was followed by a reaction of pure shock. However, he seemed quite as unprepared as I was: “How... did you find me?”
I immediately backed off and created a shield. Startled as I was, I attacked, without thinking about it. He, who had killed thousands of ponies with immeasurable amounts of magic stood right in front of me, and I just attacked blindly like a foal. I used a pipe, somewhere in the wall on my right and threw it towards him. He was hit, flew to the side and laid there, bleeding. I ripped one of the pipes just above him apart, letting hot steam burn his flank. He screamed in pain, but he didn't defend himself. Something was wrong here. I had expected him to fight me, to try to kill me like all the other ponies, but he did not do anything.

“Dream Whisper, are you alright?”
Twilight Sparkle screamed from somewhere up above me. I wanted to answer, but Dream Cry interrupted me:
“They ask you, whether everything is alright, and still they don't come to help you. I know, you will not trust me, but I have got nothing to lose. Do you know, why I tried to get rid of Princess Celestia before my banishment? No? I thought so.”
I was alone down here, alone with him. I could not let him find a weak spot of mine.
“I will tell you the story and it will probably be the last story, I am ever going to tell. So please, do me the favour and pay close attention:

I was a young colt, when I first met Princess Celestia. She, Luna and my parents were friends. My parents were their advisors, coming with them wherever they would be needed. They fought together, purging whatever evil from the world. One day, Celestia turned against our family. My parents were asleep and I was sitting in the living room, playing with toys.” He looked like a grandpony remembering the good old times.
“The door blasted open and Celestia came in. She looked at me and in her eyes, I could see, that she would do something horrible. She ran towards the bedroom, followed by hundrets of guard ponies. I was scared and I hid under the table. The scream of my mother was the last thing I ever knew of her. They took me away, dropped me off at an orphanage home. There I swore my revenge.”
Why was he telling me this ridiculous story? In the background, I could hear somepony climbing through the pipes:
“I am coming down, careful.”
Hopefully, they would come as soon as possible. Although he had not attacked yet, he could decide to fight at any time.
Dream Cry got a bit calmer and quieter:
“I did not get my revenge for a very long time. I tried to get Celestia for her crimes, bring her to justice. She had killed my parents and when it got apparent, that I would develop the same talent as my parents, she did the unspeakable: While I was in a dream, she killed the dreamer. Not knowing how to save myself, I drifted into banishment. For more than 1000 years, I was isolated. That time is longer than you could imagine. Every single thought of yours, I already have thought at some time. Every single thing you imagine, I have already imagined. Every single thing, you have ever done in your whole life, I have done before. 1000 years of life is a punishment in itself.
When I got out, I was already dead. You cannot kill a dead man, so go ahead, try it. In the end, you will not be better than any of us. Maybe, someday you will see her real face.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle dropped out of the pipe first, followed by Princess Celestia. I could hear Fluttershy complaining about being stuck somewhere and everpony else complaining about Fluttershy not moving any further.
Celestia was furious.
“Dream Cry! For your actions you will be punished with death. Tell us, where are the Elements of Harmony?”
Dream Cry just laughed.
“And if I don't tell you, how are you going to punish me? You took my parents, you took my life already. There is nothing for you to take anymore.”
Celestia smiled, but it was the kind of smile you never wanted to see.
“There is no punishment big enough for what you have done. Your family tried to overthrow the monarchy and you tried to take vengeance for a lie. Your whole life, more than 1000 years, it is all a lie.”

Dream Cry's face lost all of his composure:
“You cannot win. You do not even know, what to fight.”
He stood up and started to turn the very ground below us into a molten sea of fluid iron. Celestia and Twilight just teleported away, leaving me the task to stay alive somehow. I made a shield and cooled the ground below me so it turned solid again. Cooling actually requires more magic than heating. If you want to get more information about that, you have to ask Twilight Sparkle, though.
After evading the imminent death, I hovered the solid piece of ground below me up and to the side. I dropped down in the corner of the room, totally exhausted. Meanwhile, Dream Cry had thrown a couple of iron spikes towards Celestia and Twilight, who defended themselves with a shield. They threw lightning at him and he just absorbed it with a makeshift lightning rod. I heard Fluttershy screaming something and was reminded, that, if they would somehow manage to get through the clogged pipe, they would fall into a sea of molten iron. I actually cooled the whole ground now. If I would have been a great magician, maybe I could have found an easier way, but I was not. Completely exhausted, I had to lay down.

The fight went on, but I was just lying there, catching my breath. What were we actually doing here? We were attacking an insane pony, who never got over the death of his parents. The worse part was, that I didn't even know anymore, if it was right to stand on the side of Celestia. She had not denied killing his parents, which made her not much better than him. They all have the blood of their enemies on their hands. Somehow, I landed right here in the middle of this all. I decided to stop helping Celestia or Dream Cry at this point. They were all murderers. So I sat there, watching the fight, doing nothing.

Celestia's face had turned into a horrible grimace. She was screaming:
“Just die. Be purged off this world, you filthy parasite. Just die!”
With every blow of the combined power of Celestia and Twilight, Dream Cry had lost a bit more of his position. However, with every blow of their combined power, Celestia had gotten more and more furious, too. You could see in Twilight Sparkle's face, that she had noticed it as well. There was something more behind this anger, something untold by both of them. Celestia's face turned into a showcase of insanity. Twilight had already stopped her attacks, disgusted by what Celestia had turned into.

“What have you done to her, what have you done to my sister?”
All her anger and pain exploded into a final attack. Dream Cry died so abruptly, in one single heartbeat. Then there was nothing left, except a heap of flesh, a meaningless corpse. All of the incredible power had suddenly perished into the void. Another life had been destroyed and still, death had not found it's end.
When Fluttershy and the others finally came through the pipe, Celestia had already started to rip the corpse apart. Twilight Sparkle tried to stop her fury, but she was just kicked to the side. When Celestia had finally finished her work, she began to cry. Everything was silent now.
We retreated in silence. Nothing could have been said, nothing should have been said. Even the clopping of our hooves on the ground and the occasional sobbing of Celestia were too much to bear. We all had seen, what Celestia had done. I was not sure anymore, if I wanted to fight anything. Fighting just lead to insanity. I had to take my time to think about all this.

When we reached the end of the tunnel system, I did not follow the others. I headed north instead, I headed home. They did not even try to stop me; They were as shocked as I was. Who was this Princess Celestia really? She had seemed like a beacon of hope, but I would not be so sure about it anymore. Maybe there was no true greatness; Maybe there is no ideal leader; And maybe everypony has his or her dark secrets. I had loved to think, that somewhere out there was the Princess of the Light, capable of changing the world for the better;

Now I have lost that hope.

Chapter 13: Wandering about

I just walked through the snowy forest, not caring for anything around me. I just wanted to sleep. Even though I was totally exhausted, I only had the one goal: To finally get home. To ignore everything, that had happened, bury it deep inside my brain, where it could never be found. Step by step I got closer to that goal. I didn't even care about the time anymore. Just step after step I marched forwards.
It was very late in the night already, when I opened my door. I just trotted to the bed and then just fell onto it. Time to forget it all. I created a shield as I did not want to drift into somepony's dream right now. After some time of silence, I slipped down into the strange, dark world. It actually felt much darker here now. If I looked to the south, I could see some lights in the distance, but surrounding me, was nothing; Only darkness. So I wandered off, not to the south, but actually to the north. I wandered into loneliness, hoping to forget, but the image stuck to me.

For some hours, I just found nothing, but darkness. I made a light with my magic, but it did not really help. I was surrounded by darkness and wanted to just stay here for all eternity. Heartbeats went by, turned into minutes, which turned into hours. Being cut off from everything was nice at first, but with every further heartbeat it got more and more stressful.
I realized, that I was wasting my life. This realization hit me more, than I could have ever expected. Every single second in here was a second less I could be doing something, maybe even something good. This was a dead-end, exactly what I have had before. This should not turn into another banishment dream again.
I decided, it would be time to stop myself from drowning in my self-pitying. It was time to do something, although I was not quite sure, what I should do. I decided, I would search for a goal. My whole life had been empty to this point, although I had never realized it. It felt as if these horrible events had woken me up from my trance. I knew, that my life had just been flowing down the drain, wasted in every second. I had done that to myself, I had lived the boring life, which was just not a life worth living. This all had not really been, what I had been looking for. Without hesitation, I just released my shield, which I had kept up all the time.

I should have probably just tried to pull myself out of a dream, because now I landed inside another dream.The dreamer was an orange coated pony with a purple mane, which had light blue strings. She had a rose behind her ear, giving her a nice colorful touch. We were in an alley and she was sitting in a corner. I already wanted to leave the dream, when she started running. I realized, that she had been hiding from something or somepony. Furthermore, I realized something else, far more important: Maybe everypony had their bad side, maybe nothing was perfect, maybe there were no heroes, but even if that all was true, there was no reason for me not to be a hero. There was no reason for me not to help, to be somepony, all the ponies can look up to. I may have caused an accident with Luna, but in her own words, it had not been my fault. I may have caused Dream Cry to come back, but I had also managed to resurrect Princess Luna. Maybe I can be a better pony, somepony to save the dreamers. If I wanted to get out of my self-pitying, out of all this emptyness, maybe I should finally step up and do something good, because it seemed as if even the most idealistic ponies like Celestia were not doing enough.

Bringing me out of these thoughts was a roaring and rumbling behind me, which I suddenly heard. Although the dreamer had been running for the whole time, she had not moved after all. It was one of these mind-bending illusions caused by the logic of your dreams. The rumbling was caused by a fully grown dragon chasing her. Ponies are often split about dragon. Most small dragons were cute and friendly, but older dragons were just scary for almost all ponies. This one was a dragon in a nightmare, so I was pretty sure, it would not start playing with her or me. I created a shield around us both and deflected the fiery breath. She was an earthpony, so she would not really be able to aid me with magic.

The dragon did not even seem to bother the shield, when his mighty foot just destoyed it like a soap bubble. “Run!” she screamed and again, she was not moving a bit. Instead of trying to run or hide, which both were bad ideas in a nightmare, I decided to fight the dragon. However, instead of just trying to throw my spells at the dragon, I wanted to try something, that I had never really managed before: I tried to make the dreamer believe, I was a mighty magician. The only other time, I had tried that idea, was in Twilight Sparkle's dream and it had been doomed to fail from the first second. Twilight had known well enough about the limitations of magic to know, that I could not be infinitely strong. Before that, as I had said often enough, I had tried to evade the dreamers or take a sleeping potion.

The light I created to make the dreamer think, I would be mighty, had the same color as my magic aura, but this time I made a much higher effort in getting every sprinkly shiny detail right. While the glowing was increasing in every second, I could feel the power streaming through my body. A final explosion should finish the dragon off. I took all together, what I had and threw it into a mighty exploding ball of fire. Everything got blinding for a split of an heartbeat, then there was only smoke. My shield had protected us from my own explosion. I already wanted to turn around to the dreamer and wish her good luck or similar, when the dragon started roaring again. It stepped through the smoke, trying to crush us with his mighty feet. I channeled another attack, but this time I went completely wild on the illusion of my magic aura. It seemed to be a giant spiraling stream of hot magic, causing the air around it to flicker like the hot air in the desert. I created additional spheres of magic circling around my horn, just to strengthen the effect. A glowing background radiation, a firey aura, a blinding center light, alternating colors and a thick stream of light in the middle of it all.

Thankfully, this pony believed in what I did. When the foot of the dragon almost reached the shield, I theatrically released the energy in my body to cause another explosion. This time, my magic started to grow and grow, flooding through me into the explosion. It started to hurt my horn and I had to cancel it very soon. The problem was, that I lost control over the spell. Instead of the energy stopping, it just went completely out of order. It started to flow through every inch of my body, almost like a fire having found a barrel of oil. I feared getting ripped apart, and to be honest, that had been a reasonable fear. These amounts of magic would have killed any magician trying to deal with it.
The only reason for me not dying there was the dreamer believing in me. The dreamer believed, that I had everything under control. I could almost feel the magic looping faster and faster to a point, where it would become irreversible. With a deafening bang and a blinding lightning, the dream just ended. I still don't know the exact reason for that. Either the dreamer had been woken up by the light and sound, or the magic had been too much for the dreamer's mind to handle.

When waking up, I found out, why it had been a bad idea: After a split-heartbeat of silence, all the magic stored inside the dream just erupted inside my small forest hut. It was terrific, everything was too loud and too bright and impossible to fully grasp. Almost instantly I drifted into unconscious, but instead of being in the well-known blackness, I still had the image of the light glowing in my inner eye.

When I woke up, I felt like something had driven over my body. There was a giant crater all around me, still glowing in blueish color, almost as if my magic had still not ended. Everything had just been evaporated and I was quite confused, why I was still alive; It could have only been the result of the dream logic saving me in reality. The air was still buzzing from all the energy. When I got up, I was still very weak, and I almost fell down. In the next couple of minutes, I slowly crouched up the crater. When I got to the edge of it, I looked around; I got completely startled. The whole forest around my house was moving, but not as you expect trees to move in air. Instead, there were hundrets of Frost Birches and Pines, standing around the crater, attracted by the glowing remnants of the magic. A couple of them had already advanced into the other end of the crater and were not letting their roots suck up the magic.

However, most of the Frost Birches and Pines were not advancing, they were just staring at me with their empty eyes made of resin and sticks. I just wanted to hide, but there was nothing to hide behind. I could hear whispering; Not the usual chatter of ponies, not even the usual whispering of ponies. It seemed as if the wind was carrying the voice of the Frost Trees. The feeling of fear was creeping up my legs, into my brain. Every little part of me wanted to flee. I did not want being eaten alive, especially if eaten by being pierced with roots, which slowly creep into every part of your body and suck you dry.
Another breeze of wind blew through my hair, and the Frost Birches and Pines were taking that as some kind of signal, slowly starting to tread towards me. Without any more hesitation, I stepped onto the remnants of what had been the door and assembled my magical energy. An explosion right below me flung me up into the air, right over the circle of Frost Trees. The explosion itself had not been my intention: Instead, I had wanted to hover the piece of the door below my feet and myself with it; The apprentice version of teleportation.

My flight ended quicker than I had hoped for. I fell somewhere through the thick dark green roof of trees below me and was surrounded by leaves and needles, slowing me down, until eventually I landed in the soft, white, cold snow. The whispering - appareantly coming from the Frozen Trees - now came from behind, but it was louder than before. I turned around and looked directly into the resin eyes of one giant Frozen Pine, through whose needles I just have fallen. Its roots were already piercing through the snow, trying to reach my feet. I started to run immediately, without thinking, just following my reflex. I think, I have never run faster in my life. The adrenalin was pumping through every part of my body, giving me the strength to flee as fast as I could. I ran, until I was just completely exhausted, but I still had to get further. So I continued trotting, as fast as I could. When I finally arrived at some town, I just fell down – There was blood in my mouth and my hooves felt like I had tried to rip them apart. Despite that, I was finally in safety. I slipped into the darkness again, but it was not a dream; It was just exhaustion.

When I woke up again, – how many times have I been knocked out in the last days? - my body had not recovered by then. My feet were still hurting, but at least there was no blood in my mouth anymore. The next thing I noticed was the shift in my surroundings. I was actually not lying on the snowy road leading into the village anymore. Actually, I was inside a room. Somehow, I have the talent to pass out somewhere and wake up somewhere else. This time, I looked around and got mightily startled. There was a pony sitting right next to me.

“Oh sorry, I didn't want to startle you right after you wake up.”
It was exactly the same mare, whose dream I had entered. Was that still just coincidence?
“I am Candy Pop.“
I should have probably said: 'I am the pony of your dreams.', but then again, that would have been mightily creepy. I was actually quite surprised, that she had taken care of me. I would have not saved the pony invading my dream and causing a giant explosion. Somehow, I had only caused pain yet. Nevertheless, I did not want to give up already.

“I am Dream Whisper.”
I decided to just tell the simple truth instead of even referring to the dream. Instead, she did.
“You are that pony from that dream, aren't you?”
Of course I could have denied it all, but what would have been the sense of that?
“Well, I am. I am really sorry for causing so much commotion.”
The reaction of her was actually totally different to my expectations.
“Oh, that is so cool. I always wanted to be in somepony's dream. Can you be in anypony's dream you like? It must be so awesome to see their dreams. Can you take me with you?”

At first, I had fumbled for words, then I tried to answer as calmly as possible.
“Now I can actually choose, which dream I want to enter, but that was not always that way. I don't think I want to take you with me. Don't misunderstand me here, it would be nice to be accompanied, but I fear for your well-being. You got almost killed in that last dream and maybe next time you won't be as lucky.”
She seemed disappointed, but after a while her mood started to become brighter again.
“What was the coolest dream you have ever been in? What was the worst one? What was the scariest dream, you have been in?”

It was nice to see, that somepony actually had an interest in my talent. Most ponies disliked the idea or were even hateful. “Hmm... Those questions are actually difficult to answer. I think, the coolest dream was, when a pegasus made a huge colorful explosion, which shined in ever color. It was bright, it was loud and it was awesome.The worst one was probably the dream where I had been stuck for a week, doing nothing but self-pitying myself.”
I did not mention, that both had actually been a very recent dreams.
“The scariest dream I can think of was the one, where the dreamer had actually been in a hospital, but that hospital was filled with crazy nurses and doctors. If we speak about non-dream things too, I think the events that have lead me here were the scariest.”
Candy Pop was totally excited. In her eyes was only curiosity, not even a bit of anger or refusal for my interruption in her dream. Maybe that was the reason, why she had taken me to her home.
“Tell me. What has lead you here? Were you coming to look for a magical artifact? Have you found mysterious ancient runes? Have you come to tell us from the imminent ending of the entire world?”
She theatrically lifted her hooves in the air, when she said 'entire world'. I actually liked her, the way she spoke, the way she acted. She was not like most ponies: She was open and straightforward, but not overly extrovert.
“Okay. It all started with your dream.”
Already with those words, I had her hooked.
“You remember the giant explosion?”
She nodded fastly, curious to hear, how my story would continue.
“A bit of that explosion actually carried through the dream and destroyed my home.”
“Oh, that is terrible. I am so sorry.”
“Don't worry, it had been my decision to use the magic, so I had to bear the consequences for it. I am glad, nothing happened to you.”
She laughed.
“Well, something happened. Bits of my sheet have caught fire. I was already wondering, how that had happened.”

I continued with the story.
“After that, there were hundrets of these Frost Birches circling around my home. Just barely I had managed to cause an explosion, that threw me into the air. However, I landed just in front of a giant Frost Pine. It had its roots already trying to crawl up my hooves, but I was just fast enough to get away. Then I ran all the way here.”
“Wow, you have such an interesting life.”
She frowned.
“All I do is making candy.”
To see her so sad made me pity her a bit, but then I had an idea, how to lighten up her mood again.
“At least with your talent you make ponies happy. All I do is destroying dreams.”
“You are a heroine.”
I had not expected those words and I fumbled for words again.
Somepony in this crazy world actually believed, I was worth something. She believed, I was a heroine; I was her heroine. It was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world. However, it took me the ability to speak properly.

“Well... You see.. Err...”
She laughed.
“You can stay here for a while, just to relax yourself after doing all these adventures.”
Although I really had not wanted to get on somepony's nerves, especially not on the nervers of such a nice pony, I had to take the offer. It was only the truth, that I was still a bit exhausted. I decided to stay just a little bit longer.

For two hole days, Candy Pop and I had lived together peacefully. I had really started to like that pony. She cared for me and she was always nice to me. It was like finding a best friend in the most unexpected place. She had been the greatest company of all.
I just loved to sit by her side and tell her stories of dreams I had visited or telling her stories of what I had experienced in reality. Within these two days, she probably found out more about me than any other pony before. In these two days, I also found out a lot about her, a lot of things, that made her only more sympathetic. I have really liked her. She always made me feel special, but in the good way. For her I was the heroine, and I just loved to be that. There was nothing more satisfactory than actually being the hero for somepony.

Instead of visiting anypony's dreams, I had actually preferred to meet her in her own dreams. In the first night, we had actually gone for an epic adventure, through all of Equestria to find a hidden treasure. We had worked together and helped each other out. We laughed and we lived.
The second dream had been a lot different: Right in front of me there was a white pegasus with a blue and cyan mane. She was standing behind a desk, on which some vinyl disks were lying. There was a brief moment of total silence, until the sound crushed onto me like a wave. Not only the rhythmic techno beat, but also the voices of hundrets of ponies screaming. The DJ-Pony seemed to enjoy herself quite much. I actually found out her name when looking around for Candy Pop: “DJ-Pon3”. I could have thought of that for a DJ-Pony. Although I never have had any interest in partying before, it was one of the best feeling to just dance with Candy Pop, drink with her and have fun with her. I have to say, it had been the best night of my life. However, life is not nice. Life doesn't let you life happily forever. Everything ends. The bad times end, which is nice, but also the good times end.

At this next morning, everything changed: I woke up from a loud noise, but I was still too exhausted from the dream; I laid there for a couple of minutes, until finally deciding to stand up and greet Candy Pop. She would have probably prepared a breakfast by now. Her breakfast was always containing muffins and candy and deliciousness. Before I opened the door, I realized that there was something, I hadn't heard for days: Silence. You may think, silence would not have been strange in the early morning and I completely agree. However, this was total silence; No birds, no market ponies, not even leaves rattling in the wind. I opened the door and got shocked:

Usually there was a door on the other side of the corridor, beautifully ornamented with some shells, a bell and a bit of fabric. Now there was no door, just ashes. My room and the dining room were the only two rooms still standing of her house. The rest was either covered with grey ashes or completely burnt down to the ground. How? That was the first thing, I was asking myself. Why would it hit the rest of the house, but not my room? Well, the latter question was easy to answer: Probably just luck; The dining room was also still standing. Another question, that crushed onto me was, if it was my fault. Had I done anything in a dream, that I had forgotten? Had my magic spontaneously combusted everything? I came to the conclusion, that it would have been also impossible, because my room would have exploded first. It had been some outer force.
When I stepped out of my room into the hallway without a ceiling or walls, I was able to see the rest of the city. Everything was burnt, exploded, destroyed. Only sparely, there were some ruins still standing.

More and more questions arose, but they got interrupted: There was a quiet whispering, not even loud enough to be understood, but still enough to be heard. It came from the ruins behind me on the left. The ceiling had crushed everything; Candy Pop's room. I ran towards the room, while I was still completely in shock. The whispering got louder, but it was not getting any clearer. I lifted up some wooden joists, until I uncovered her face.
I will never ever forget the image. Her face was horrifically burnt, flesh exposed, skin dripping like water, blood surrounded it all. Her eyes looked into the distance, trying to search for a reason, trying to search for help, for my help. Maybe I could have prevented this all. Why had it hit the innocent, not me? Her eyes knew the reason; They knew what had happened. She was still coughing blood.

Suddenly, she moved her empty eyes and looked at me, through me. I was unable to do anything, but staring at this image. This grotesque image of pure devastation. She had been as innocent as a pony could be. What had she done in this conflict of harmony and disharmony to deserve this? A tear ran down my chin, where it dropped into the ashes. Her eyes were seeking for the answer.
The next minutes were rather a dream than reality. I tried to get her out, but I was not actually strong enough. The harder I tried, the more hushed her whispering got. With every minute I got more frantic, but she only got weaker. I tried, I really tried. Even before I had started to do anything, I had already lost her. I wanted to scream, but nothing was coming out. There was still this image of her burnt face searching for an answer. Every part of my body burned in exhaustion, but I could not stop. She was already gone, but I could not stop. Yesterday she had asked me, if I wanted some more apple juice, now she was gone forever. She had been the only pony, I had ever really liked. I forced myself to stop.

This had to end now, right now. There was no more time for toleration. I didn't care about good or evil anymore. Nopony was good, but at least Celestia didn't hurt innocents. There was only one being in Equestria, who could have done this: Discord. I would not stop, until I would see Discord suffer for everything, until I would find the same look on his eyes as on her eyes. He had to suffer, he had to be exterminated; He had to be ripped apart in every single way; He had to be reduced into nonexistence; His very essence had to be destroyed. For everything he had done, for every explosion he had caused, for every pony he had hurt, for every pony he had killed, I would make him suffer. I was not longer able to hold my tears back. I would be the judge for all of his actions. It felt good to let the rage grow inside me. Every of my steps was powered by the growing need for vengeance.

The sun had just risen over the horizon, the birds were singing again and the wind was making the leaves chatter with each other. I however, could not have cared less. Like an upcoming storm, I cleft my way through the forest, not even bothering to use the normal path. I wanted justice – As soon as possible. I wanted to see Discord dead.

Chapter 14: Vengeance

When I arrived at the borders of Frozenfalls, Discord already knew I was there. I had not even tried to hide my arrival. He was grinning and looking down onto me and I just smiled back, knowing it would be his last grin.
“What makes you think, such a pathetic little pony like yourself could just march through these great streets of mine?”
He laughed.
“I am just kidding. Actually, I am quite curious about what you are doing here. It would be a pleasure, if we could discuss it with cookies and tea.”
He created a small table with some teapots, teacups, dishes and spoons on it. He sat down on a chair next to it, dressing in a suit and hovering a monacle in front of his eye. I was – to say the least – not amused by his childish behavior.
“I am not here to drink your tea. I am here to take vengeance.”
Discord laughed again, but certainly unsure this time.
“To take vengeance for death is like trying to extinct fire with a lighter.”

Without giving him further time to fool around, I threw a ball of liquid stone towards him. It had been supposed to just be a big stone, but while it was flying, I could feel my magic echoing behind uncontrollably, heating the stone, until it turned into a ball of lava.
He easily defended himself, but not quite as expected. Instead of simply changing the trajectory or evading, he created a straw, took one step to his left and drank the whole ball, while it flew by. Afterwards, he spat out little cobblestones towards me. I easily created a shield and the cobbles bounced off. Instead of attacking again, he was waiting for my attack. I created molten steel, which erupted from the ground below him, but he was just standing on top of it, without even getting burned.
Again, I had wanted to create spikes to pierce him, but my magic had just continued long after I had used it.
“I am a draconequus, do you really think, you could hurt me with fire?”
He did the same thing as last time, sucking up the molten steel and I already prepered to be fired at by bullets. Instead, he created a falling anvil just above me; However my shield just deflected it. Then I tried to crush him with a giant, amphibious island of stone. Although it did not turn into lava again due to its massive size, the trees on top of it still started to burn. Normally, I could have never lifted such a huge thing, but the explosion seemed to have caused more than just an attack of Frost Trees. It almost seemed as if also some of the strength from inside the dream had carried over into reality.

At first, he withstood the weight, but within hearbeats he had to give in. He got crushed by the immense island of rock and dirt. The island had even two houses on top of it, so I thought he could never withstand such a weight. I already wanted to turn around, when he theatrically cracked open the whole island and jumped out with a lot of confetti and streamers.
“Haha, is that all you have got?”
He would stop laughing soon enough.

I, myself, was not powerful enough to really fight him. Without further playing around, I relaxed to a point, where I could feel the distant pull into another world. My shield saved me from drifting into there. Today, I wouldn't journey into that world, I would just use it's power. I could feel the bond getting stronger and stronger, while it was getting harder and harder to not drift away. Despite that, I could also feel my magic potential still growing. The stars started to shine through reality, as if it had become translucent. Discord had placed himself on a seat by now, laughing at me and my magic.
“Haha. You want to fight me? Your tiny stones and spikes cannot harm such a beautiful creature like me!”
He created a mirror and some makeup just to underline his statement. I threw an electric charge at him, which erupted with sizzling and cracking into many lightnings towards Discord. He created, out of nothing, a giant wall of metal, which lead the current down into the earth:
“Do you need more evidence to be convinced, that I am invincible? There is no way to beat me, I am unbeatable, impenetrable, incomprehensible, virtually impossible, but just real enough to beat you. How is your friend doing, by the way? Don't blame me for her death. I just started a fire... Who could know, it would start to burn the whole city?”
In the next moment, I released all my tension into one single explosion. Every single bit of my anger, my disgust, my hatred, my sadness flowed into this explosion. It felt like the final moment; The light blinded me and it even shined through my closed lids. I could feel all my energy draining, until my shield collapsed and I embraced the well-known darkness. Still, I was sure to have my victory.

Was it over? It had been the final moment, hadn't it? Still, time was going on. I was not far from where we had fought, lying in an avenue. By judging the ground below me, I must have been thrown over here by the explosion. I wanted to check, whether I had been truly successful or he was still there. Slowly, I trotted towards the area where we had fought. There he was, fallen over onto the ground; Not dead, but not alive either. He was a statue of thick black stone, glowing in a light-blue light. This was impossible! Was he invincible? At least, he wouldn't hurt anypony anymore.
My work here was done.
What now? Should I go home? Better not. There was still a risk of another encounter with a population of Frost Birches. Go to the small village? The memory of her death was still too fresh and only hurting. I should have not even mentioned it here. Her face is still there, in my unconsciousness, waiting to be revealed whenever I think about it. The last place, I could have really gone was the encampment in Ponyville.

I tried to hover Discord behind me, but I realized, that this immense magic definitely had disadvantages. Instead of neatly following me, the statue just flew through the air, thousands of hooves high and to a point, where I could not make it out anymore. I knew, that I would have to pull the statue with ropes instead of just hovering it with magic. Luckily, I was still inside a city, even though it was completely ravaged. The buildings, that had flown through the air had just crushed onto the ground. Most creatures were normal again, but still behaving strangely. The city was still chaotic, but at least it was clear, that it was not reigned by chaos anymore. I found a suitable rope and a harness, to which I would be able to knot the ropes to. After that, I started to trot towards where Discord had landed.

While I was slowly trotting around, firstly without the weight of Discord and afterwards with the weight of a huge statue behind me, I had enough time to think about everything. There was one question, which followed me: What did this mean? With this power I would be stronger than... even Twilight Sparkle? There was something definitely wrong here. She was the Alicorn Element of Harmony and I was a mere unciorn. Although I was not sure, if that really was the right idea, but somehow I just had to ask somepony about all of this. I had to know, what was happening to me. There were just a couple of ponies in Equestria, who could possibly answer this. Excluding ponies, I didn't know, and excluding ponies, I definitely didn't want to see, there was only one choice: Twilight Sparkle.

So, I actually started to make my way down south with the huge weight of Discord behind me. Into sun, into warmth, into life once again. It would take days for me to arrive.

Chapter 15: You've done what?

“You have done what? You have to be kidding me.”
There was no reasonable explanation to this, but as the famous Shercolt Heymls would have said: 'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.' There were not many other choices for me right now other than trusting her information. It would require intensified testing of that statue and of that pony.

There she was standing, the inconspicuous pony, who declared to just have won over Discord, without even using any magical artifact. She was just standing there, looking at me, almost as if she was listening to my thoughts. When she saw my doubting stare, she looked away. I decided to take a closer look at Discord, who was stuck as a statue once again. For all his crimes, this was probably the right judgement. Who am I to judge that? I may be an Alicorn, I may be a Princess, I may be the Element of Magic, but still, does that give me the right to judge over other lifes? No, it doesn't.

Banishing somepony into a prision was about as much as I wanted to be able to judge. However, it had not been me banishing Discord. After saving myself and my friends from the continuous troubles by Discord's chaos, we had not been able to do much. Every day we had to defend against something else. Floods, fires, earthquakes, even a volcano once. Even with the help of my friends, these tasks were almost impossible.
Even before I had been able to have a closer look at the statue, Dream Whisper could not wait any longer.
“I hoped you could help me."
It was quite confusing to hear her asking for help.
“You are telling me, that you have just banished Discord with immeasurable amounts of magic – And you need my help?”
If what she had said was true, this was almost as if Pinkie Pie would have asked me about how to be funny.

“I may have the ability to use this much magic, but that doesn't mean, that I would know why... or how to control it. I have no idea, how that all works. Magic is no substitue for knowledge.”
For a moment I thought about just turning around and letting her behind. This was a little bit much for the moment. In the end, I decided to find out, what was happening to her. She could be a valuable source of knowledge in these times of spare research. My own curiosity had won once again.
“My hou... The library is just a little bit further.”
It was not strange to not live in the Ponyville library anymore, but I was a princess now, so it was not a residence, I could have possibly chosen.
She seemed to be thinking about it for a moment, then she asked:
“Who will watch him? Discord?”
I had already planned that out.
“Rainbow Dash is watching us from above right now. Even though Pinkie Pie may be good with costumes, you should be able to see her lurking right behind you.”
Dream Whisper turned around, just to get a full load of streamers and confetty blown into her face. Pinkie Pie used the moment of surprise to jump behind supplies of hay.
“Where is...? Okay, I think Discord is safe.”
Luckily she had not been too upset about Pinkie Pie's gesture.
“Let us go then.”

The book I needed was, hopefully, within the bookcase four on the top right. 'Mysterious magical diseases and cures.' under 'Magcial enhancements'. Probably in 'Magical artifacts' in the bookcase two on the lower right corner. That would be, if she had some special artifact with her, but it didn't seem like Dream Whisper was carrying anything. Maybe 'Strange sources of Magic' in bookcase five just in the middle, but that book was not really descriptive. We could use 'The Magical Compendium of Everything: Part 23 – Magic in Extremes.' to find out, where we could search. However, I didn't know, where I had left that one, but it should be easy enough to find. Maybe, just maybe 'Magic from other Dimensions', but I was quite sure, Dream Whisper would not have entered other dimensions. The door almost opened itself, it had been quite a while.

“SPIIIIKEE?!”
I screamed, until I realized, that Spike could not have been here already. He was probably still helping Fluttershy listing the bunny population. Time to search the books myself. We had 'Mysterious magical diseases and cures', 'Magical artifacts', 'Strange Sources of Magic' and 'The Magical Compendium of Everything: Part 23' – or was it 24? I think it was 23. “'Magic from other Dimensions' it is. Bookcase 7 in the middle of the 2nd row from the top. This book had always fascinated me as a small filly.“ What I didn't tell her was, that I actually had liked it more for the beautiful drawings, than the poor content. The other dimensions were mostly described very sparely. Anyway, it would be a good place to start. There were some strange things this book, for example: 'These devices actually create doors for some Dimensions.', 'The species once had been just monkeys, but with time, they had lost the fur and learned to walk upright.' and 'The inmeasurable size of the smalles possible object.' I decided to let Dream Whisper look through that old book and concentrate on the Magical Compendium myself.
“Here you go. I think, most interesting for you are pages twohundretfourtyfive to twohundretninetysix.”
She started knittering the pages, which made me want to get the book back immediately.

Although the Compandium really did not contain close to any information, it was still a good place to start, to give a general direction. Mostly interesting were the book suggestions for further reading. The book was actually quite discriptive of possible ways to strengthen your magic. The first couple of pages were about potions, then a couple about naturally growing plants. A couple about magical artifacts – They now had added the 'Alicorn Amulet' to this section - and a couple about summonings. The last couple of pages were the only pages that were even close to what could have happened to her. Maybe, if she could have told something more useful, it would have been an easier search. For example, how she had been able to banish discord exactly – Which spell had she used, where had she used it, when had she used it. She should just tell me, what was wrong with her.

“If you want to know it, I will tell you. Tell you, what exactly happened to me.”
I was quite surprised by that statement. Finally, she would reveal her secret. The curiosity grew inside me. I really wanted to know, what she had done.
“I have the talent to enter dreams, as you know.”
I nodded, no new information yet.
“When I am inside a dream, the dream becomes more real than before. Instead of waking up, the dreaming pony could actually die. It... It's a big burden.”
I felt a bad now, for judging her so fast. Maybe her special talent really had its disadvantages and she wasn't just one-sided. Then again, she had only brought chaos yet.
“When the dreamer believes in something, in the dream, that something is actually real. I call that dream logic. If you think of a pony circus inside of your dream, that pony circus will be there. However, when I make the whole dream more real, it actually affects everything inside the dream. When the dreamer thinks I had more magic, inside the dream I do. When however, I use magic inside my dream, it seems to get more and more real.”
I understood her problem immediately and expended beyond that thought.
“And when the dreamer thinks, you use enough magic, it creates an unstoppable effect. Somehow, that all carried through to reality, because too much magic was used.”

That was a possibility, I had not thought about yet. Her talent was breaking the laws of reality, because it all happened inside the irreal dream. Now she probably had problems with handling these extreme amounts of energy. I would have to tell it all to Luna, so she could do some experimenting on that.
“Thank you.”
I wanted to get it out there, because I realized, how hard her time must have been. Maybe, just maybe, we have been making a false picture of her all along.

Back to the last few pages in the Compendium. The first half page was about demonic creatures with immense power, like Discord or the Timberwolves, the page after that was a list of all known magical beings in Equestria, who were able to use more magic than regular unicorns. I found myself and was actually quite proud of that. Soon, she would have to be added too, but hopefully on the list of the good beings. The last page was about references to other books about this topic, finally. Three books had their names printed and under each book was a short summary of it's content.

“'The magic of luminescence.' - In this book you will not only learn about natural substances, that emit light, you will also learn, how the light in Equestria is created. How does the sun work? How does the moon shine without the sun? How does magic shine? Can magic be reflected like light? To all these questions, you will find answers in this book.”
Definitely not, what we were looking for. Despite that, I had read that book already anyway.
“'The world of shadows' – This book reveals some unknown truths about another world, undiscovered by most. Using old transcripts from thousands of years ago, Prof. Hoovstein, author of this incredible book, has managed to discover truths beyond our understanding.”
After reading those two titles loudly, Dream Whisper already interrupted me.
“I think it may be that one.”
Dream Whisper had to have some strange opinion about books, but I decided to give it a try.
“I don't think I have that book down here. Look around you, I have many many books in my library, about almost everything. However, if you are really sure, there are some books unpacked in boxes somewhere upstairs. They were saved from the Canterlot library. It's a shame, that there had not been enough time to save all books from the fire.”
Dream Whisper, without saying any other word, just stood up and went upstairs. I followed her, but only after neatly restoring the order in my house. Upstairs, I found Dream Whisper just cramming through the books, searching furiously. Although I was much more careful with the books, I joined the search. Even though she may have searched faster in her careless way, I was still the first pony to find the book. It was heavily damaged and I doubted, we would find anything useful in it. However, I wouldn't complain about it, because Dream Whisper had seemed quite sure, that we would find the answer in there. “Here we go.”

I opened the book, not willing to give a book in this state to anypony else. Especially not to anypony with that rude behavior towards books. The first pages were all been completely blackened by smut. Then, there were a couple of pages and the rest of the book was just completely missing. It had been hard enough for me to read the cover in the first place. I read the cover once agian, this time loudly.
“The world of shadows – Unrevealed truths”
Although I hated reading out loudly, giving a book like this to a pony, who cared for books like that, was even worse.

“Chapter 3: ” - Wow, we had to skip quite a lot already - “The ancient forces. Although Celestia is often believed to be the single most powerful being in Equestria, that is a common misconception. Ancient runes indicate immeasurable power, the ancient forces. The most powerful of our artifacts are often forged by, or even made out of the essence of these ancient forces. Deciphering the names of the ancient forces was impossible, since there was a single rune for every name. However, I could give them names depending on their character. There seemed to be only opposite characters for every force. That is why I divided the ancient forces into those two groups. On the one side, there are the forces trying to balance the world for harmony, on the other side, there are the forces trying to bring chaos to the world. It is told of an ongoing fight between those forces, each trying to reach the corresponding goal. However, no side will ever be able to win, because it is itself dependent on the other side.
How could harmony exist without chaos, how could chaos exist without harmony? The ancient forces seem to exist only in pairs and that is their problem. To defeat the counterpart would be to defeat themselves.
It seems as if there were long pauses between the fights of the ancients, which were only initiated again by... “
There was a big hole in the middle of the page.
“... and still they cannot undo...”
Another, smaller hole and a lot of ink spreak across the page.
“...seems to."
"As almost ... excludes ... this ... is a ...”
I was, to be honest, a bit confused by this book. That there were ancient cultures believing in ancient forces had always been known, but the thing about how they cannot exist without one another and how there were pauses in between these fights had been quite interesting. Here in Equestria we had a pause of 1000 years, until evil started coming back. It was a shame, that we could not read, what re-initiated the fights. There had to be a way to find it out. I thought about it for a minute, but then I had just the idea.

“I may know a pony, who could help us. It is a zebra mare called Zecora. She may or may not know something about these ancient forces. However, I suggest we at least try it. I will tell my friends, that we are going to go there this afternoon. I expect you to come.”

Chapter 16: The mare in the forest

Until the afternoon, I had nothing much to do. Twilight Sparkle went off and tried to get her friends to join us. I don't know, why exactly we need those ponies, but well, her friends are her friends. It was actually impressive how the Everfree Forest – at least that is what Twilight Sparkle had called it - had obviously not even been touched by anything that had been going on for the last month. Although it was the darkest forest I had ever seen, it was still pulsating with life. Everywhere were things moving and red eyes in the dark. Scary, but alive, unlike much that I had seen. Soon, Twilight arrived with her friends behind her. This time, I was able to greet everypony.

“Hello Princess Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and...”
I was confused for a second, but to be honest, their names were really quite descriptive
“...Rarity and Applejack.”

“Howdy there!”,
“It's nice to meet you.”,
“Let's do this!”,
a mumbled “Hello.”
and a loud “Let's do an epic adventure and afterwards we can have a party!”
were the answers.
Twilight did not even bother to greet me again.

Stepping through the forest, there were enough times, when Twilight Sparkle had to stop me, just before I would tread into some deadly flower or another trap. Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was entertaining the group, if you'd like to call it that way. She laughed and sang and tried to cheer me up. However, I was not in the mood to be cheered up. To be honest though, she made me laugh more than one time.
When we arrived at the zebra's house, Twilight went ahead and knocked the door. The house was filled with strange potions and masks and all that zebra-stuff. Most zebras don't live like that anymore, however some still try to go with their traditions. Maybe their old knowledge was just what we needed.

“Unexpected guests here I see,
for I have not made enough tea.
The reason for your visit you will soon share,
but until then, please sit down on a chair.”

Rhyming was an old zebra tradition, continued by even less zebras in Equestria. We sat down in some chairs at the back of the room, just under a mask which was yelling at some distant place. The zebra prepared some tea for us and after she was done, she put the pot onto her fireplace.

“I should really be ashamed,
I didn't ask how you were named.
You can call me Zecora,
which stands for 'dune flora'.”

I was not quite sure, whether I should answer in rhymes or in normals sentences.
“Dream Whisper is my name and for the rudeness you are not to blame.”
That was really the best, I could come up with. I felt a bit awkward trying to rhyme, but failing so badly was even worse. I also asked myself, whether all Zebra names rhymed on their meaning.

“Zecora, we are searching for something called the ancient forces, do you happen to know anything about it?” interrupted Twilight, not even trying to use rhymes.

“If the ancient forces are what you seek,
I'll have to tell you: My knowledge is weak.
Old zebra lore is hard to find,
for it all has to be rhymed.
If your need is strong,
just follow along.”

Zecora went towards an empty corner of the room, just to suddenly stop and push a carpet aside. Under the carpet there was a secret door in the floor. She opened it quickly and started to walk down the stairs, which were lit by a couple of torches.

Down in the basement there were a couple of bookshelves, all of the usual living room furniture, but of course in zebra-style. I quite liked it, although some of the masks were a bit strange.

“Stored in all these pages,
are the information of all the early ages.
The ancient forces were an ancient idea,
maybe you will not be finding them in here.”

Zecora pointed at one book in the shelf on our left.

“What you seek might be in this documentation,
but be sure not to get this old book into too much agitation.”

Twilight Sparkle hovered the book out of the shelf without any hesitation and started looking through it. After a couple of minutes of awkward silence – except of course the boiling tea upstairs and the wind outside, hushed through the walls - Twilight finally found something.
“Here we go!
The ancient forces once 'lived' in peace together. However, when some strange force invaded, a chain-reaction started. The ancient forces began to shift in balance, causing ponies to suffer. However, the ponies were the ones to stop the imbalance and return the ancient forces to peace. The question is just, how we actually regain balance. Why do these books always have to be so cryptic?”

“There is an ancient force of fear,
which you should search right here.
The Everfree forest is full of supernatural powers,
they slumber in the animals, in the trees and in the flowers.
Maybe in the center of these trees,
an ancient being spreads like a disease.”

This Zebra was actually quite helpful and had a lot of knowledge. I had always thought, that zebras had a strange culture believing in some mystical entities, but maybe I had underestimated them. Maybe there was more truth behind them than we expected.
If she was right, we had to find some entity of fear in the forest. How were we going to find some random entity of fear in there? Then, I had an idea. There is one tale, that you tell every filly and colt in Equestria: The tale of the Timberwolfes. The Timberwolfes, who again and again are in people's nightmares. Maybe destroying the Timberwolfes would bring the forces back to balance. - A bold idea, but maybe worth the risk - Destroying a force of fear could only help, couldn't it?

Of course, it all would not help me to control my magic any better, but somehow we had found out something more important. If there really was an initiation for all the commotion in the last years, from Nightmare Moon over Discord and Chrysalis and that shadow king in the north – I had only read newspaper articles – to the recent events with Dream Cry. If there really was an initiation for all of it, we would have to stop that before thinking about a single pony's problems. I had vowed to myself to stop self-pitying and start to actually be a heroine. Maybe I could become what Candy Pop had believed me to be and here was the opportunity for me to take.

“If we search fear in the Everfree Forest, there is just one logical thing to search: The Timberwolfes. In all of the nightmares I had visited, the most were filled with Timberwolfes. When we destroy them, it could restore the balance.”
The others weren't as convinced as I was.
“Y'all know, that it could also fail. We are not sure, how to stop it all.”
Applejack had a point there.
“It's our only trace!”
I would not have thought, that Twilight Sparkle would defend me. Applejack still did not agree. After drinking the tea made by Zecora, she resignated to Twilights arguments, because she could not come up with anything else either.
“Buck it. Let's just kick those Timberwolfes' behinds. I still ain't sure about it, but heck, it's our only chance.”
.There were a couple of other dangerous animals in this forest, but finding the Timberwolfes couldn't be that hard. I mean, you can smell their breath over thousands of hooves. We headed off into unknown areas to fight strange forces.

“I can smell them!”
Applejack yelled. I was kinda concentrated on the rustling of the leafes, just to get my mind ordered. Meanwhile, the penetrating howling of the Timberwolfes echoed through the whole forest. This unpenetrable forest was the home of the Timberwolfes, they would use the dense treeline to their advantage. Maybe we should have tried something else. Their penetrating stench was now also coming to my nose, just to make me back off a little bit. Behind me was just Pinkie Pie, staring at me.
“Do you fear the darkness? I know something that could help you.”
She literally started to sing, even though the howling got more and more intense and we could hear rushling around us.

“When I was a litte filly and the sun was going dooown,
the darkness and the shadows would always make me frooown.
I'd hide under my pillow from what I thought I saaaaw,
but Granny Pie said, that wasn't the way to deal with fears at aaaall...”

“Not now Pinkie!" interrupted Twilight Sparkle. I was not really happy about her saying that, but although Pinkie Pie may have been giving away our position and overwhelming the sound of the Timberwolves, at least the song had been calming.
We arranged us, so we were standing back to back, making a perfect circle. Another growl came from right in front of me, but the leaves of the trees just made shadows fly throughout all of the forest. I could not make out any wolf. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie pushed me back and I fell over, right towards, where the growl had come from.

I turned around just to see, that a fight had already ensued. Twilight Sparkle was trying to get a giant Timberwolf off of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, who both had been crushed by it. Another, smaller Timberwolf just jumped out of the bushes to attack Applejack and Rainbow Dash came for her rescue, just to be attacked by a third Timberwolf. Another one was coming, getting Twilight Sparkle from the side. I had to react, but using my magic was too dangerous. I tried to stand up, but already a fifth direwolf had found me. I was thrown around and against something hard in my back. Just buck it. I assembled some magic, just enough to throw the wolf away from me. Again, the spell had a mind on its own. It started to literally rip the wolf apart with a giant ball of fire, which was not about to burn me.

Somehow, Applejack had evaded the next attack by the Timberwolf attacking her and it had fallen over from its own momentum. Now, Applejack galloped right towards me and just jumped me down, trying to get me through the explosion and out of the claws of the next Timberwolf, whom I had not noticed before. My spell, just finishing, blew us both away into the forest. In the end, I just landed on the ground somewhere, completely without orientation. The one Timberwolf had disassembled and still burned. That one would hopefully not reassemble. When seeing what had happened, the other Timberwolfes just got more furious and even stronger.

I stood up, feeling quite a pain in my back. Although the pain was insane, I had to help them. I decided to go for Twilight Sparkle, as she would probably offer the most value in the fight. She almost had an even fight with the Timberwolf, but he was gaining an advantage over her. I just jumped towards him to get him away, but his prank was faster than me. He just deflected me and I landed on the other side, barely able to catch my fall. I had to use magic again. This fight would not be won without it. I took a deep breath and focused my energy on the Timberwolves – If I would be able to turn them into stone, we could stop them once and for all. This time, I tried to calm myself, not making any mistake. As soon as I would enter the dream world, I could start to harness the energy.

Another Timberwolf – now counting six already – made its appearance. It leaped towards me, threw me to the ground and opened that disgusting mouth and a drop of saliva dropped down onto my face. The Timberwolf started to swing the mighty prank. Then, he released his prank, but I also released the power of the spell. In a matter of a heartbeat, I was being sucked into the dream world. The energy just flew through me. Every part of my body began to hurt and became tensed. The energy tried to rip me apart to flow faster and faster. The other Timberwolves turned around, while the one on top of me was already turned into the black stone, his paw right in front of my face. The other wolves were not able to do anything either, but the magic was still flowing and it seemed as if it would never stop.
At the same time the stone Timberwolf on top of me was crushing my bones. Rainbow Dash started flying towards me and just kicked me away. I lost consciousness, but the spell was stopped. To this point, I still don't know, how she knew, that I had lost control over the spell. I can only imagine, that she had seen Twilight go out of control sometime and had the quick reflexes.

When I tried to stand up, I realized, that I had not managed to get along without a scratch. Some blood was running down my back leg – The wounds from my fall into the cliff from Fluttershy's dream had opened again. The leg had not been broken, just sprained. Now it was most definitely broken.
“Let us just... go back.”
said Rainbow Dash. You could hear the pain in her voice. Her left wing was partly ripped apart by the Timberwolfes. It must have caused her enough pain to still get over to me. Applejack also had wounds on her side and back; Both, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were not as injured; Rarity seemed to have been hit at her flank, cutting through her cutie mark; Twilight Sparkle had a deep wound in her flank and her hair was stuck together by blood. Without using any words, we all agreed to Rainbow Dash. There was no need for words.

It was a silent march, slowly trotting backwards, trying not to lose the balance. It was a march of shame, a march of failure. We should have known, that although we were strong, the old forces were no easy enemies.
Twilight was being partly carried by Fluttershy and Rarity, while I helped Applejack and Pinkie Pie to carry Rainbow Dash. She was even more wounded than anypony had expected; The claws had been burrowed deeply into her skin.

After the first half of the journey, the situation of walking with three legs had just gotten worse and worse, so Applejack and Pinkie Pie had to carry both me and Rainbow Dash. I don't know how long it took us to get back to Ponyville, but it was too long. I repeatedly started to drift away, but tried to stay awake.
To be completely honest, it had been an awful idea.

Chapter 17: Arriving home

We arrived in Ponyville at dawn, the most ponies were already in the spare tents placed there to give them any home after everything had been destroyed. A visit at a hospital was inevitable.
A star exploded in front of us. At least, it seemed like exactly that. We were blinded by some light and a wave of heat streamed through the street. It threw me back into the corner of a house. What I saw next, struck me very hard. A siluette arose from the exploded star. It was Princess Celestia, but somehow it wasn't her at the same time. She wore no crown and her mane was not translucent, but blinding. The scariest thing about her were her eyes, though. Instead of the purple eyes with that certain twinkle in it, there were two holes in her head out of which a bright, blinding substance slowly flowed down like blood. It was not scary, it was bone-shaking, tremendously terrifying.
She looked straight at me, but I couldn't see any expression on her face. Almost out of reflex, I wanted to create a shield around me.
“Celestia? What are you...?” started Twilight, but was interrupted by Princess Celestia:
“Dream Whisper!” She was talking in her royal voice and the echo went through all of Ponyville.
“You are the abonimation of Dream Cry and my sister. After purging Dream Cry, you will be the next. You will not remain the artifact of what he has done to her.”

A bolt of energy suddenly struck down from above. Luckily, I had already started to create a shield. Just before I would have been burned to crisps, I managed to finish it. Celestia did only start to burn brighter, until she almost became like the sun. A giant ball of liquid fire flew towards me already. It was to broad to evade, so I had to use my shield again, but this time my shield started to crumble. I was just too weak to defend myself. Within heartbeats there came another bolt down from somewhere in the sky. Only the shield created by Twilight Sparkle saved my life in the last heartbeat. I had already broken down and was lying on the ground, defenseless. Was this the end? It could not end this way? We had just won...

Celestia didn't stop with her attacks. She threw everything at the shield of Twilight. Then, Twilight Sparkle and her friends did an incredible sacrafice: They used the Elements of Harmony against Celestia herself. The rainbow-colored beam shot up into the air, just to then crush down onto Celestia. As the blinding light faded, Celestia was lying there, herself again, but unconscious and wounded. Twilight Sparkle slowly walked towards her. Those were the last images I had before drifting into the well-known blackness.

I woke up in the hospital – again. Although my whole body was hurting, the pain from my leg was the biggest. A cold metal bar was pressed against my skin. Cold air was blowing in through the window. Outside it was dark, Luna had risen the moon. I tried to stand up and after a few attempts, I walked out of the room, which was filled by a couple of beds, of which some were occupied by sleeping ponies and others were empty. When I stepped out, I was slightly confused about my location, until I reminded myself, that I was in the hospital. A loud argue caught my attention:
“How could you possibly think, that its not over?”
“How could you think, that it's over?”
“Well, we defeated everypony, including Celestia.”
“Yes, we may have defeated her, but not the reason why she turned into... whatever that exactly was. We cannot let this chain reaction continue. It is not going to stop, when we just do nothing. Do you want us to turn into something like that?”
“No ... you have to understand: If we fight again, we are not going to win. Look at us. We are all exhausted, hurt, we cannot fight anymore.”
“Yes, but if we don't fight, we will turn into something... evil. I don't want to fight you.”

The tension in the voice was becoming higher. As I trotted around the next corner, I saw the fighting parties. On the one side, Twilight Sparkle, supported only by Rainbow Dash. On the other side, Applejack supported by Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Flutterhsy was standing quietly in a corner, not really expressing any opinion.
“I don't want to fight you either, but seeing you dead would be even worse. We are not up to it.”
“We are up to it. We have defeated so much evil already. Imagine what could happen, if we would not fight.”
“We can't fight!”
“Don't be ridiculous. How can we not fight? We are strong together.”
“I am not going to let you suicide against an unknown enemy.”
“How are you going to stop me from doing it?”
I was almost shocked as Fluttershy opened her mouth and screamed louder than everypony else.
“Girls, stop!”
The argue was stopped for now.

I felt a sudden pain in my back like a dagger ripping my back apart. I felt blood starting to run down the wound, which obviously had just opened again. Although I had been taken care of, I started to feel worse and worse. I tried to move forward, but it made things only worse. I sat down, trying to easy the pain flowing through my body. I tried to speak up, however, I only got out a painful “Ples... Help” I drifted away, but this time I was not unconscious.

This time I woke up in the dream world. My whole body was still hurting and shaking a bit. Suddenly, some stars started to disappear. There was something coming closer and closer. A strange shadow was reaching out to me, the dark hand coming ever closer. I tried to create a shield, but the shadow just pushed through it.
“Puny pony. Did you really think, any of your actions could stop us?”
The laugh of the shadow shattered through me, vibrating within my body. I could feel the cold smoke surrounding me.
“Have you thought you could win? There is no winning. Not even Celestia could withstand us.”
The voice seemed to come from every direction. I wanted to speak up, but when I opened my mouth, the cold thick air went into my mouth; It felt like drowning.
“You are mine!”
The cold feeling started to spread throughout my body. Even after closing my mouth, it didn't stop. I concentrated on my magic, trying to burn the shadow away. I could feel the cold around me fading, but my whole body was still cold. In the weakest moments, it tried to get me. I was not even sure, what it was. A shadow being? The ancient forces? 'Not even Celestia could withstand us' – Maybe the source of all of this chaos.
Of course, they showed themselves in my weakest moments...

Everypony was standing around me, blurred faces started to move. I could hear voices, but I was not able to understand a word. Something was terribly wrong. I wanted to stand up, but it was impossible. Yet, I continued trying without any success. Suddenly, I lost the power to keep my eyes open. I drifted away again, feeling only numb. From that point on, my memory consists of a couple of images, but nothing more.

I remember chaos in the hospital, ponies running towards the exit, me following them. Some explosions behind me, while I was trying not to fall with the supports for my leg. The ceiling was breaking down.
I remember being trapped in a room with Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity. They were digging at the wall in search for Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Fearful screams out of their mouth and weakness in my body. The same cold feeling as before, just more intense.
I remember casting a spell, although not the spell itself. I looked around, searching for something. Screams of pain again. I felt fear and tension. I knew that I was under pressure, but I couldn't find the thing I was looking for. Twilight Sparkle entered the room, screaming something at me, tears in her eyes.

Another fragment: Before me were Twilight Sparkle and her friends. United again, but I could see their pain. They had the Elements of Harmony. I saw a shadow behind me, but I just didn't turn around. Fear, anger, regret and confusion. My body was cold as ice, way too cold to survive. Twilight started to hover in the air slightly, they would activate the Elements of Harmony. I tried to run, but I was not fast enough. The feeling of immobility slowly climbed my feet. A warm feeling in my cold body. I shook, but my legs were bound in place. I looked down: stone.
I looked up and saw the pain in Twilight's eyes.

Chapter 19: Cheating

If you would ask me, what the strangest feeling is, which I have ever experienced, I would answer 'getting turned into stone'. It was this indescribable feeling of immobility coupled with a certain warmth. There is more to it, once the stone reaches your head. When you become this immovable statue, every sense fades. You don't see, you don't hear, you don't feel, you don't taste, you don't smell. Basically, nothing exists for you anymore. You are alone with yourself; You become much more self-centric; You think about what happened, what you did and who you are.

After a long time – or at least what you perceive as such – your brain starts to go to places, imagines things. My mind started to wander off, into places, I had never seen. I was already confused, when I realized the truth: At some point, I must have slipped into sleep. I had the realization, when I suddenly felt a form of gravity again, which had been absent while my whole body had been numb. I enjoyed moving, which sounds strange, but after being imprisoned in your own brain, it is one of the best possible feelings.

There was an idea slowly developing in my brain: In this world, I was still able to move freely, to use all my senses. If in this dream I still had my mobility, my ability to cast magic, wouldn't I be able to get into other ponies dreams? If I used just any spell, could I affect reality after all? How could I reverse the effects of the Elements of Harmony, though? That would be impossible.

Before trying out, I decided to have a look around. Because of my inability to cast anything before slipping into sleep, I had not ended up in the dream world, but instead inside of a dream. Twilight was there, but she did not seem too happy. She was running from somepony. I tried to evade her path of escape, but she mimiced the evasion and ran into me nonetheless.
“Ahh. Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Just for a moment, I was thoroughly confused. Did she not realize, who I was? I mean, not many ponies look like me. Then I realized it: She was actually not the dreamer of this dream. She was just the projection of the dreamer of what Twilight was. When a bolt of fire struck right next to us, Twilight began running again. I watched her running through the forest for just a heartbeat and then turned around to see, who was actually chasing her. A blue unicorn with a lightblue mane.

“Hey, stop that!” I yelled, more of a reflex than something that actually made sense. The dream Twilight was not really real, so why should I have cared? The dream Twilight had not even known, who I was, because the dreamer had not known, that she had actually met me. Although that was a reason to just ignore the issue, there was better reason to not ignore it: The effects of the Elements of Harmony were irreversible, at least for me. However, maybe Twilight Sparkle could remove it herself. Of course, I did not know, in what relation the dreamer stood to Twilight, but I had to risk it. There was just one question left: How should I get Twilight to remove the spell? This Twilight didn't even know about casting it nor did I look very stone-y.

The dreamer just galloped onward, trying to hunt down Twilight. When she nearly had passed me, I noticed an amulet around her neck. I remembered the form of that amulet. I had seen it before, in a book, but what had been its purpose?
Ruby amulet? No, definitely not. Ancient amulet? Of course not. Alternative amulet? Probably not. Alignment amulet? Too ridiculous. Hmm... I got it. Alicorn amulet. I should have paid more attention, when reading that book, but it had been such a nice summer day and I just had to watch the giant crow fighting with that squirrel; Such things don't really happen often.

I decided to follow the dreamer, until I would remember more about the amulet. What was special about this dreamer? The speed? Average. The size? Also average. Maybe intelligence. Maybe just power.
“Trixie. You have to stop!”
It was Twilight's voice, although much more powerful than in reality. She must have had a better time before I had met her.
Seeing no other pony around in this dream, I had just assumed that the dreamer had to be this pony called Trixie. She continued throwing balls of fire and energy towards Twilight, until one actually hit. Twilight screamed in pain. Guessing by the amount of used magic and no signs of exhaustion, the alicorn amulet – if that even was the right name – was really an amulet of immense power. The biggest weakness of amulets however is, that they hang loosely around your neck. Everypony can just get rid of it and then you are suddenly as weak as everypony else.

Around that little fact my plan revolved: I would cause a distraction, then try to get the amulet from behind. A small spell – a flashing light - deeper in the woods actually caught Trixie's attention. She turned away from Twilight, trying to make out the source of the magic. I started to gallop towards her, getting closer and closer, I jumped, and I actually caught the amulet on my horn; A masterly artistic performance. Instead of just being ripped from her neck, the amulet clung to her, stopping me at once. Now I was in an awkward position.

I decided to better get the hay out of there, which was the best decision. Immediately a giant lightning bolt crushed into the ground, where I had just landed two heartbeats ago. Taking the amulet off was obviously impossible.
“Why are you doing this Trixie?”
Twilight yelled, but there was no answer. Somehow we had to get rid of the amulet. If however it just clung to her body, there were only two possible solutions.
Solution 1: She had to take it off herself.
Solution 2: It was impossible to take off, which basically would mean the defeat of Twilight and after that action probably me too.
It was still questionable, how we could get her to remove it. It took me too long for my liking to get the answer, because I had used the same technique before already. If this was all not real and just a dream, maybe I could use the logic of the dream to my advantage. The problem with this was just: The dreamer had to believe something to happen. I had to make it believable.

“Hey Trixie. Your alicorn amulet is nice, but haven't you heard of its greatest weakness?”
Silence, not a good sign.
“It may grant you immeasurable power, but there is a way to reverse the effect. All I have to do is to reverse time itself.”
I knew, that I could never do that and wasn't even sure if anypony could ever do it, but she only had to believe I could. I started creating a spell, that did nothing but making light, which changed in color, ornamented by small orbs flying around it and some other magical effects. However, after a while I made the change of color and the other effects slower, then, I started to speed the same changes up again, but reversed. I also had to imitate backward noises, and for that I remembered parts of the song of DJ-Pon3.
Luckily - ! - Trixie fell for it; In the end, she reversed her own dream. It was weird to feel yourself going backwards in time, thinking backwards. sdrawkcab txet a gnidaer ekil tsomla s'tI. Thankfully, Trixie created the parts, where I was not actually there and made it look for herself as if I was just standing at the same position.

When we arrived at a small shop in a town unknown to me, she made it stop. She had obviously just purchased the amulet and it was not around her neck yet. I used my magic to snatch it from her and made it disappear.
Suddenly, Trixie started to burst out into tears:
“Thank you. It is a nightmare to be forced to do this. I...I...I could not control myself.”
She was shaking all over her body. I had been mistaken: This was no dream, this had been a nightmare all along. I had really not expected this outcome. Was she lying, or was that really the truth?

Well, the problem was solved for now, but how had this all actually helped me? I was still encased in stone somewhere, still unable to really control my magic. Then came a good idea.
If Discord had actually managed to get free, maybe it was possible for me, too.
Especially, considering that Twilight and her friends had been through a lot of trouble in the recent days.
“Twilight?”
I knew she was the only pony, who could in any way; She had created it, although not really this dream she. I at least hoped, it would work that way. The dream Twilight turned around to me.

“You have to help me! By reversing the time, I have used too much energy. I am going to turn into a statue, if you don't help me.”
This was my only chance, I could just hope, I didn't overdo with the dream logic here. It sounded pretty ridiculous, but hay, it was a dream. As long as Trixi believed it all, it didn't matter. The real Twilight would have known, but it was a dream Twilight. In addition to my worry about credibility, I now actually started to turn into stone. Damn dream logic, you have to watch out for everything. If Trixie believed, that in her dream I would turn into stone, I would turn into stone in her dream. I could just hope, that Trixie also believed, that dream Twilight was strong enough to get me out. In reality, I was quite sure, Twilight would have never been strong enough to reverse the effects of the Elements of Harmony. Nevertheless, this was a dream.

The feeling of immobility slowly crept up my legs, into my body - again. Slowly higher and higher, until again, there was just nothing, but this time actually nothing nothing, not even thoughts.
In hindsight I realized why: How should Trixie have known, what happens to ponies encased in stone? If she didn't know that, neither could she simulate it in her mind, nor was it really important for her, what I did or thought while being just a mere statue for her. Her brain didn't think about the possibility, that being encased in stone was not the end.

The sound of crushing stone was the first thing I heard. Just my right eye had a small gap to look through; Still, the same dream. It took me less than a heartbeat to take further steps. If I wanted this dream Twilight's magic to actually affect the magic of real Twilight, I had to get out of the dream while the magic was still working. I pulled my magic together and made something fall out of a shelf right next to Trixie. That it had been a potion was nothing but pure luck. If there had not been a shelf of potions in this shop, what would I have done? Then again, how many mystical artifact shops do not have potions? Trixie started to wake up and the dream began to fade. Another piece of stone fell down, I could see with both eyes now.

The whispy dream lines started to surround me and they got more and more opaque. Everything turned into the light-blue-ish color of the dream lines. Would it actually work? Was the dream magic strong and real enough? I threw myself back into reality; Darkness; Still the same warm immobility; Nothing had happened.
I waited.
Every beat of my heart seemed so loud, that it could actually burst through the stone.
1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... still nothing ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8... 9... 10.
This would not work, the dream magic was not strong enough. It was just impossible to reverse such a massive spell, even if it had not been used directly on me. I was getting more and more impatient; If it would have been possible, I would have screamed in anger. I would have to go back into another dream and try other things or be encased forever. I started to calm down, count to ten. Relax. WAIT!

My heart was still beating too loud. My heart was still beating, too loud; Too bucking loud. The realization of that fact made my heart stop for just a moment: It had worked. If I could hear my heart beating to loud, that meant I could hear. However, if I would have been fully encased in stone, I would not have heard anything.
By concentrating, I slowly noticed other noises. Chirping of birds, just loud enough to be heard, but too quiet to really give anything away. I concentrated on every sound I could hear, sucking them in. Then, there was another feeling.
A breeze of wind was actually passing my ear and my leg, and my ... horn.
I was almost exploding in satisfaction and joy and happiness. I had actually done it. Yes!!
Okay, calm down. I was still encased in stone with the rest of my body.

Suddenly, I picked up the smell of the stone surrounding my nose. That got me to another interesting realization: If I could smell and feel the stone around me, that meant, that it actually was only normal stone. The magic of the stone, however, which prevented every sense of mine, was broken. That meant, all I had to do was break free. I tried to move as much as I could, knowing that using magic was too dangerous for myself right now. Slowly, bit by bit, parts of the incredibly thin stone crust crumbled and fell down. It was impressive, how actually just the magic itself holds you back, not the ridiculous crust of stone. No stone could hold beasts back like Discord.

Soon, I could actually see again. I was still in the hospital, which was now more debris than building. Nopony was anywhere close, but hey, I was bucking free! I looked around, just because it was great to be able to. After another minute or so, I could actually shake my head. Another minute, until my right front foot was free and another couple of minutes for my left front food. It took another hour to get the rest of my body out. I jumped around, even sang a song, just to celebrate actually being able to do all of that.

Now it was time to fix the real problem. Although a giant shadow had been destroyed, we still had not found the source of all this desperation. Afterwards, we would have to fix the thing with the magic. I only had to find Twilight first.
'Only' - It's not like she had left a note or anything in case, I would casually abuse the power of imagination to free myself from an impenetrable prison.

Chapter 20: On their way

So, what was the plan? Find Twilight, find the source of evil. Easy enough, except if you don't know, where she is nor whom to ask about it. At first, I searched in Ponyville, not really sure about how I could find her. I decided to ask around, maybe somepony in Ponyville actually knew something about Twilight. That was, guessing from her stay in the tree-library-house at least. Although none of the ponies I spoke to in the next hours actually knew, where Twilight had headed towards, most of them had a good relationship with Twilight. She must have left without really telling anypony here. There were only two ponies left, who might actually know, where she was: Princess Luna and Princess Celestia. Speaking with the former would be much more pleasant than speaking with the latter. Celestia had always been the princess of light, honesty, forgiveness and a big heart in my foalhood. Now that picture was a lot different.

Celestia and Luna were in a slightly bigger tent, given that Celestia is also a very tall pony. The 'royal tent' as it was called didn't look very royal at all. It was just like every other tent, except slightly bigger. I was not sure, if I was allowed to just go in, but I decided to just try it. Of course, I was instantaneously stopped by a guard, who looked at me as if I was a ghost – Seeing somepony who had been encased in stone was as likely as seeing a ghost.
“How in Equestria did... Err... The princess isn't here. She headed off towards the Crystal Empire, where supposively a hospital is still intact. Furthermore, they are informing our Princess, Cadence, and Prince and head of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, about the situation.”
It was good to be recognized, because otherwise I would probably not have gotten so much information. However, this meant, that I had to get to the Crystal Empire now, which was up in the north, but a bit further south and a lot further west than my home town or Frozenfalls.
Given the destruction of most trains, it was quite possible, that I would have to gallop the whole way. Since there was nopony with a 'mode of transport' like the twin brothers, who I had met on the way to Frozenfalls, I really had to gallop all the way.

It took three days and it was terrible. The cold air, the long times of just galloping, the short stops for recovering and the deep snow to thread through got me really exhausted. Still, that exhausting was still a nice feeling compared to the inability to do anything. I arrived in the late evening and even though I was used to the snowy biome, it was still a terrible difference. However, seeing the shine of the Crystal Empire was really wonderful. The snow just ended from hoof to hoof. A clear line, the protection of the empire. Inside the giant round area, grass grew as if we were in the midst of Equestria and not so far in the north. Even more impressive was the Empire itself; Shiny and colorful and bright. The ponies welcomed me as if I had been their long time friend. A couple of them asked me, if I would like to rest in their houses. I denied, even though, I could have needed a rest: I wanted to at least meet Twilight Sparkle before the end of the day.

I headed towards the biggest building in the Crystal Empire, where obviously they would be. At least, that was what I had thought before realizing something right on the doorstep of the tower. They wouldn't be in the royal tower, they would be in the hospital. I turned around, annoyed and exhausted, and headed towards the hospital. My wounds had not really been hurting badly in the last days and I was glad about that. The support for my leg was also still holding tightly. I had to wander through the city for a couple of minutes, but after some time I finally found the hospital.

By a lucky coincidence, I actually met Twilight in the main hall. She was walking into some corridor without noticing me and I decided to just follow. She trotted into a room, which I entered just after her. The whole group was assembled there.
“Dream Whisper?!” Applejack obviously didn't believe her eyes.
“Finally we can do something.” Rainbow Dash yelled.
“Dream Whisper? How in Equestria...?”
Twilight asked after turning around and getting quite startled by my sudden appearance.
“YAAAAY. Now we can give a welcome party.” Pinkie Pie and her usual charm.
“It's a long story...”
or rather a story I didn't want to tell.

“You have to help us!”
Twilight Sparkle's voice was filled with a sense of pressure and tension.
“It all comes from the dream world. It must have been these shadowfrights. You have to take us there.”
What? The shadow fights? Inside the dream world? It felt almost as if I had missed something. Somehow, Twilight must have had some research. Furthermore, she must have found out, that what I encountered had not been the only thing. It was a bit overwhelming, but she seemed so tensed, almost as if the time was running out. I was really not sure, whether I should tell them I was ready, or that I still needed sleep; Both were true at the same time. I was totally exhausted, but at the same time, I would probably not be able to sleep, when knowing, one of these shadows could come again at any time.
Furthermore, I had vowed to help, and I was not going to break that vowel. It was quite the decision, but in the end I decided to agree just to not turn them down. They needed my help and even with my exhaustion, I could probably still take them into the dream world.

“I have to warn you at least: I am very exhausted. If I am not able to get all of you through, we will have to cancel the whole thing.”
“Okay, try your best!” Applejack said, knowing I would appreciate it;
Anypony would, in this situation, because it relieves a lot of pressure. Anyway, it was time to get calm:
“We will have to stand in a close circle, I will be in the center. Thus, I don't have to create a giant shield.”
I was not sure, how we should find the source of all of this in the dream world or if we would find anything after all. However, Twilight seemed so sure, so determined.

We quickly organized our position inside the small room, just about enough place to fit. I hoped, it would work, but I wouldn't have made a bet on it. I relaxed at first, calming down, counting to ten. Being sleepy was the only way I knew to reach the magic of the dream. Once reachable, it would be easier to get into the dream with active magic. It took a couple of minutes for me to come down from the exhaustion and heavy breathing from the long walk. It was also hard to clear my mind, but I had all time in the world.

When I finally saw these whispy blue-ish lines floating around me, whose purpose I was still not fully aware of, I knew it was time to actively use magic. Within seconds, I created a shield, around which the whispy blue lines bent again. While the lines got more and more opaque, the background of the hospital room faded behind them. Then, it got darker again and the star-like lights started to shine through. We arrived in the middle a field of stars. It seemed as if the whole Crystal Empire had to sleep.

“It's... beautiful.”
Twilight was surely impressed. Somehow I had the need to spoil this perfect moment.
“And dangerous.”
It wasn't the time to gaze upon the beauty of this place, but rather the time to defeat what was ruining it.
“So where do we find the source?”
Rainbow Dash asked. It was a really good question: How would we find the source? There was not really an easy solution to the problem.

We did not even start to trot forwards. This time, I saw the sudden change. Light after light in front of us went out. The change was still incredible subtle, but I actually paid attention to my surroundings this time:
“Look over there!”
“There is noth... oh wait.”
Rarity seemed quite confused. It was time to fight again. We prepared, as best as we could, tried to stand together and keep each other save.

As more and more distant lights faded, we started to worry. Thoughts came up about losing, about failing. I had to get those out of my mind as soon as possible. Slowly, almost without noticing we backed off. The shadow rising in the horizont was giant, but that was not the big deal. The big deal was, that we realized, it was not just one shadow, it was a multitude of shadows. When it got clear, that those were too many shadows to fight, Twilight made a hard decision:
“Abort!”
Before I could do anything, the shadows already surrounded us. I tried to create the shield and pull us out, but the shadows seemed to just suck up the whispy lines. A slightly bigger shadow fiend came a bit closer than the others. He was – I think – the one, who spoke. You couldn't actually see him/her speaking, you could just guess, where the sound was coming from.
“Puny ponies. Just give up your senseless struggle. We are not trying to get you. In fact, we have already got all of you. Every single one of you is infected by our very essence. Trying to escape us is like running from your own shadow.”
He started to laugh a deep laugh for a while.
“We are not scared of you!” screamed Twilight.
I couldn't have done that; Screaming in the face of my nightmare.

The shadow fiend just started laughing louder.
“Did you notice, that saying that implies you finding us scary? If you wouldn't think, we were scary, why would you have to express, that you aren't scared?”
Twilight Sparkle was confused by that logic for just a heartbeat. Her voice was much quieter, but also stronger now: “Because being scared is something different to finding something scary. You may be scary, like a scary clown or a dark night, but we are not scared of that.”
The shadow fiend stopped laughing, which gave Twilight back some of her courage.
“We have not come here to run from you. We are going to fight you.”
Now the shadow fiend bursted out in laughter.
“F...F... fight us? Are you kidding? That pony must be kidding!”
Twilight and her friends got into their formation. They activated the Elements of Harmony. The giant bright, shiny rainbow erupted, but suddenly, it stopped.
“As we said, you are already infected.”
The last word echoed in my head, as I saw Twilight falling down first, followed by her friends.

Before I could do something, blackness surrounded me.

Chapter 21: Similiar situations

I woke up in the hospital in the Crystal Empire. Twilight and her friends were lying in the circle they had entered the dream in. I tried to wake them up, but nopony responded. It was unusually quiet and I decided to trott outside. Nopony in the streets, but a warm summer day, at least in the boundary of the Crystal Empire. I turned towards the royal tower and started to walk along the street. Some happy ponies were selling their goods and some were just walking along. I was quiet glad and relaxed, but suddenly my mood changed.

Right there in front of me, Celestia came around a corner. She looked happy, until she saw me:
“You. You disgusting monster.”
The anger in her eyes was almost coming out.
“You are the product of abuse and thus not a bit better. Your father made a terrible mistake, when he took my sister in her weakest moment. Your death is the only thing between me and my sister.”
Celestia had grown while speaking and was now seemed to burn. Her eyes were filled with anger, trying to kill me just by staring at me. Without a further warning, fire started erupting from the ground. Most of the ground fell down into a deep pit of lava, leaving me on a small platform. Celestia was floating in the air, laughing maniacally.

Stop. Wait. I had been in enough nightmares to notice one when I see it. An overabundance of happiness? A turn of events into the pure opposite? Mostly unlikely, except in the world of dreams. I had never dreamt before, so it actually felt quite strange to now be inside of one myself.
If my hypothesis was correct, I just had to get out; I created a shield and jumped. In hindsight I can say: I would probably never do it again. The risk of it not being a dream was just too high. Before hitting the lava, I woke up. Well, I was not really awake, but not caught in the nightmare anymore. It was the Dream world, where we were being guarded by the shadow monsters. Twilight and her friends were still all asleep and it would be impossible to fight the shadow fiends alone. I decided to at least try to sleep in the dream world, something I had actually not tried before. I relaxed, even though that was quite hard, considering we were surrounded by a bunch of shadow fiends.

I arrived in the dream world, but in a different dream world. Everything was filled with a dim light, not really bright, but not dark blackness either. Only six lights were shining here, everything else was completely empty. When I got closer to the lights, I realized, that each of those lights were representing one nightmare. A dream world inside a dream world? Maybe there was an infinite plane of dream worlds. I wanted to think about all the possibilities, but for now, I had to get them out of their miseries. I started with the closest light, showing me the dream of Pinkie Pie. To free them, I would have to wake them up, but keep them shielded.

There was a house, a bakery or something like that. I pushed the door open, which made a deep squeeking noise. Since the room was dark and I couldn't see anypony, I decided to go upstairs. There I met Pinkie Pie, but Pinkie Pie didn't look the usual Pinkie Pie way: Her hair was completely flat and she looked a lot .... darker. Maybe just the result of the absence of a real light-source, but still very creepy. When I got closer, I could hear her whispering to herself.

I tried to get her attention, but I couldn't make a noise. It was almost as if I was muted. It got even scarier: When I tried to touch her, I just pushed through her like a ghost or something. If I couldn't get her attention, I would not be able to get her to wake up. Using magic would result in some uncontrollable result, maybe killing us both. Not the best idea – I had thought about using magic already. My luck with the spells getting cancelled before them killing us all was not really a reason to test the risk. I did not know what had happened to me and to be completely honest, I did not want to test it either.
At this point I was out of ideas. The only thing, that could possibly help, was water. I went out of the room again. Pinkie Pie's nightmare was probably about being alone and forgotten, the only plausible reason for me not being able to contact her. Stupid dream logic.

Water. Water water water. Seriously, why is there no water in any dream? It would make things so much easier, if every dream had just a bucket of water standing around. For almost an hour, I was searching for water now, but just nothing. I looked around: Cake, chocolate toppings, cupcakes, delicious pastry and finally an idea. If this worked, I could have saved me a whole hour of searching. I took a cupcake with my mouth and went upstairs.

I just threw the cupcake at Pinkie Pie and completely missed. The intended effect however, was still achieved. For a second, Pinkie Pie was just confused, but then her brain processed: If there had been a thrown cupcake, there had to be a cupcake thrower – At least I think, that is what she thought. Within seconds, she noticed me and her expression was completely confused:
“Dream Whisper? How? Why? You here?”
Her face lit up and her hair got suddenly fluffy again. I got so surprised, that I acutally winced. When I opened my mouth, I was finally able to speak again:
“Pinkie Pie! The flood is coming.”
I was impressed, how fast that idea came and by how convincing I actually said it.

Now she just needed to believe it, but why shouldn't she believe me? The sound of a door bursting in was far more pleasant, than anything else. Now I just created a shield around Pinkie Pie and all this should be done. It was impressive how I had literally been searching for an hour, trying to find water, just to then end the whole dream in a matter of some heartbeats. A brown fluid slowly crouched up the stairs. Chocolate milk flood? I could just hope, it worked as well as water. The fluid rose and rose, slowly crouching up the legs and covering our bodies. When it touched her face, the dream started to weaken. When we got out of the dream - after creating the shield of course - we arrived at a place, but not to where I had expected; We were in the grey-ish dream world again, together with 4 remaining stars. Due to entering the dream from here, that was probably the reason for exiting the dream here.

I decided to not think about it too much and continue with the next one: Rarity.
I took Pinkie Pie with me, knowing it would be better for her than being alone in this empty place. Furthermore, I did not want to test what would happen if I would just stop casting the shield around her. Maybe she would drop back to reality, maybe into the dream world, alone with all those shadow thingies.

Rarity's dream was a lot different. Instead of emptiness, there were lots and lots of rich people, probably the high society of all of Equestria. They were all looking at something particularly interesting, which I could not make out yet. The giant crowd really made it impossible to get anywhere. It appeared, we had arrived somewhere in the midst of some kind of public showcasing. After a couple of confused heartbeats, I finally made out Rarity. She stood on top of a podium, on which some dresses were presented. Those were probably the ugliest dresses, you could ever see in your entire life. Even from down here in the crowd, I could see Rarity's confusion mixed with shame and embarrassment. I tried to get her attention, but my voice was not louder than a whole laughing crowd of aristocratic ponies and such. Again, I had to find a way to get her attention and to make her wake up. Only if all six of them were together, we could get out once and for all. This time, though, I got unexpected support:

Pinkie Pie, who I hadn't really noticed before, started yelling:
“A giant crowd? A giant party pony crowd? Let's do a giant pony party, crowd!”
Of course most ponies were not really interested in what she was saying, but the pure presence of her caught some of the ponies attention. Then – you might guess it, it's Pinkie Pie after all – she erupted with balloons and streamers and sweets and lights and the sound of these party whistles. Either that was dream logic at work, or she was really carrying all that stuff with her at any time in case of party time; And of course, of course, she began singing, yes, singing. Usually ponies, especially in the north don't really sing. I know, ponies living further in the south sing a bit more often, but Pinkie Pie? She even sings, when she is in a dark forest full of scary trees. To be quite honest: At that point, I didn't really know, she sang so often: She told me afterwards. I just had never heard a pony sing with that enthusiasm. Just maybe that was just what we needed.

Most ponies turned around and trotted towards her, leaving Rarity alone. I was able to get through to her. Again, I used the dream logic to full effect:
“Those water balloons at Pinkie Pie's party are really dangerous, aren't they?”
Almost as to verify my words, a stream of water balloons erupted from where Pinkie Pie stood.
“Yes, those balloons can really ruin your day. Once my beautiful new haircut got completely ruined.”
I had her now. The only problem was, that still every water balloon missed her, but that was not hard to change:
“Watch out, right above you.”
Splat. The water-balloon exploded in her face, right when she had looked up. It is impressive, how things in dreams start to exist only because they were mentioned. Without wasting more time, I created a shield around Rarity, Pinkie Pie and myself to get us out safely.

Just for your entertainment, that is the song Pinkie Pie sang:

“Hey, come on you there, I know you want to party:
Beeecause a party party is nothing like a party party, without the ponies partying.
A party with ponies not partying is more like a phony pony party, because only the real pony pony party have lots of ponies partying the pony party. Unless of course it's a phony pepperoni pony party, because phony pepperonies are better for ponies than common pepperonies. Howeveeeeer, a common phony pepperoni pony party is still better than a phony pony party party with common pepperonies. If how ever, you happened to be on a phony pony polka party, bring a common pepperoni and turn the phony pony polka party into a prime pony polka party with a pepperoni. Iiiif the common pepperoni turns out ot be a phony pepperoni afterall, cancel the phony pony polka party, because the phony pony polka party will turn into a poor phony pony polka party with a phony pepperoni. If you bring a phony common pepperoni to a poor pony polka party, though, the poor pony polka party turns into a phenomenal prime pony polka party with a phony pepperoni...”

I didn't get the much more of the song, but you can imagine how it continued.

Again, we arrived in the gray-ish dream world. I am still not sure, how I should call it. The dream world 2? The dream dream world? The dream-ception world? I don't know...
I made the suggestion to continue the search.
“We should help the others.”
I would have helped the rest anyway, but knowing, I wasn't just taking Pinkie Pie and Rarity against their will, was much better. Now, I also felt bad for just taking Pinkie Pie and making the decision for her last time.
“Okeylidokey.” and “Yes, true friends help each other.” were all the statements I needed to get ready again.
I created the shield again and went to the next shining dream: Fluttershy.

Fluttershy's dream was a lot different to the other two dreams: Instead of being about ponies, it was actually about a field of giant pillars, of which you couldn't even see the bottom. This pegasus pony really had a problem with height. She was cowering on one of the other pillars. Pinkie Pie, Rarity and I were on three different pillars, but all quite far away from Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy?! Are you okay?” yelled Rarity, but Fluttershy didn't seem to hear her. This would be a lot harder than the last dream. Suddenly, a pillar to the left of Fluttershy just fell into the black depths beneath. However, it didn't stop there; Within a couple of heartbeats the next pillar started to fall. Whenever one pillar just fell into the darkness beneath, the next one followed the example. I threw a small pebble down from my pillar...

Nothing, even after 20 heartbeats, there was no sound of it landing. Either down there was a liquid, or this was truly a bottomless pit.
“Rarity, can you shine down there?”
I wanted to be sure, before taking the risk. If down there was water, I could just push Fluttershy off and she would land in the water, causing her to wake up. As Rarity let a shining light fly down into the pit, I realized, that this truly was bottomless. The problem with a bottomless pit is just, that there is still a dream edge, so it is not really bottomless. I didn't intend to fall into eternal nothingness and either dissolve or be forever trapped. I couldn't continue my thoughts for very long as the pillar below me began to crumble. Within a heartbeat, I was pulled downwards into the pit. I decided to take a serious step, not because it was rational or good, but just because there was nothing else possible for me.

I used my magic to lift a part of another pillar in my way, so I could fall on it. Again, my spell didn't work as expected. Instead of moving a part of another pillar, the part started to shine in a bright, blinding light, starting to fly like a shooting star, faster than I have ever seen anything moving. Instead of stopping, it completely exploded under the pressure of acceleration. A giant light below me was the first thing I noticed and after almost 3 heartbeats, the shockwave reached me and I was being pushed upwards with a brute force.
There was a terrific noise, that caused everything afterwards to be muffled. The good news were, that I was thrown so far up, that I could actually just barely land on another pillar. The bad news was, that now every single pillar started to collapse. Within heartbeats, I saw everypony falling down into the darkness.

Then, something unexpected happened: Fluttershy suddenly opened her wings and began to fly. She started to do loopings and barrel rolls and other flying art. That didn't really help us, instead, by her resisting the fall, the dream edge would come closer and closer. Suddenly, there was ground in reach: Seemingly Ponyville, but I could only guess - From the bird's eye perspective it's really hard to recognize. The feeling of actually being able to fly must have brought Fluttershy to better thoughts, thankfully.

However, there was now Ponyville coming closer in an alarming speed. Suddenly it stopped and I was thrown to the side, then back and afterwards slowly down. When being dropped on the ground, I realized, that it had been the dream version of Rainbow Dash, who had saved all 3 of us. Fortune favors fools, I guess, because it certainly wasn't anything but luck.
Down here in Ponyville it would be easy to get some water. It was a really strange feeling to speak to a pony, of whom you know, that he or she is not real, just inside this dream. They seem so real and yet they are only the perceived illusion of the pony. After a while, I noticed, that this Rainbow Dash was actually a bit different: She was a bit more beautiful and a lot... I don't know, what the word should be... I guess friendlier... or maybe something else. However, we managed to convince to let her get Fluttershy and take her to the river. After a couple of minutes, both came flying side by side towards us. A bit to close, but who am I to judge their relationship.

“Fluttershy. Finally. This is just a dream and we have to get out. So, if you would please, just take a bath in that river.”
Apparently Fluttershy did just believe me. Although it had also convinced the other two to, I would have to get a better version for Twilight, which was easier to believe. Fluttershy was just following my 'advice', which was more of a command. She slowly climbed down into the water and within a heartbeat or two, the whole dream started to collapse. Of course, I had created the shields earlier, so nopony would be lost forever in an empty dream.

In the second dream world, there were three lights left. It was slowly getting exhausting to jump in and out of the dreams, but it had to be done as fast as possible. I didn't even want to know, what was happening with us in the first dream world. The next dream we entered - after asking everypony, if they would come, of course - was the dream of Applejack:

Inside the dream, we landed on an apple orchard or something like that. Something about this place seemed familiar. After a while I noticed, that it was actually sweet apple acres, from the picture on my cider bottles. It seemed a bit different, but when does advertisement seem like reality? Over by one tree, there was a pony looking like an artificially weakened Applejack. It was strange to see her so thin and weak. She was actually trying to get apples down from a tree, but not even one Apple fell down.

This was actually a quite pleasant surprise: With this kind of dream, it would be quite easy to get Applejack out.
“Applejack, you need to come!”
I yelled, thinking she would just come. Instead of reacting, she continued trying to get the apples down.
“I don't need your help, I don't need the help of nopony!”
As I already wanted to enrage, Fluttershy slowly trotted forwards and started to speak with Applejack. She spoke so quiet, that I could not actually hear her very well. It took a couple of minutes, but the wait was well worth it. The strangely weak looking Applejack came closer and yelled from a distance:
“Thank y'all for comin' over. Fluttershy told me, that I would have to fix that water problem of yours. It's all fine.”
I did not really pay attention as I was already thinking about the next dream. What would Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle dream? How could we help them? What would we do afterwards?
It took a couple of minutes for us to reach the river flowing through Ponyville, but I was glad it had not been like Fluttershy's dream. Applejack just went ahead and dove into the water. How the hay had Fluttershy done that? She had completely convinced Applejack in a matter of minutes. I could not have done that, but then again, I was not the closest friend to Applejack either.

The dream quickly receded into nothingness and we all arrived in the grey dream world again. I was glad, that this dream had not taken hours again, because to be honest, I really wasn't sure, how long I would be able to hold on. There were only two lights left in the dream world: Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. I don't even know why, but I decided to go for Rainbow Dash's dream first, a bit curious, what she could have a nightmare about. Why did I think it would be a nightmare? Well, all the other dreams before also had been nightmares, so why not this one too?

Rainbow Dash's dream was a lot more like a 'normal' nightmare: I arrived in a giant hall, with two flood lights. In the middle, there was a light centered at Rainbow Dash. A big iron chain was clinging to her feet. Another light was centered at a big cage in the air, in which all her best friends were contained. I was not inside there, but that was nothing I had really expected. The terrific thing about the dream was, how spikes were slowly pushed into the cage by some crazy machine. Pinkie Pie was already severely hurt and the others didn't fare very well either. Rainbow Dash was trying her best to get to help them, but the chains kept her bound to the ground. It was almost an obscure scene of struggle for her friends.

“Up here. You have to help us!”
They had noticed me.
“We are the real ones.”
I was so confused, nopony else was here anymore. Furthermore, it had been Twilight's call and that had caused my mind to be blown. The dream Twilight seriously also said, that she was real. That was a point, where I really got scared. There were some questions arising from that statement: What if the dream ponies actually completely felt like the real ponies? What would the Rainbow Dash in the other dream had done, if we had told her, that she would left behind and brought into nonexistence? How should I know, which ponies were actually real? I decided to do the only logical thing: Trying to save them all, even if they were all just dream illusions.

I spoke to Rainbow Dash, the only real thing, I could do other than exploding the whole place with my magic:
“Rainbow Dash, I am going to pull that lever over there, which will free them, okay?” I trotted into a corner of the room, eagerly waiting for a lever to appear from Dream Logic. However, Rainbow Dash did not really trust me. “There is no lever.” That sentence felt like being hit in the face. Disbelief is your worst enemy in dreams. Once they start to not trust you, you can try as much as you want, you are not going to get anything done with dream logic. In my confusion, I still tried to convince her – without much success of course. My heart was beating so very loudly, that I thought everypony would hear it. I didn't know what in Equestria I should do. At this point, I was basically screwed. Dream logic wouldn't work and her friends – my friends – would be impaled by spikes; I was slowly losing my calm.

“Twilight, use your magic to open the cage!” I screamed up there. If Rainbow Dash did not trust me, maybe she would trust in Twilight. Twilight began casting a spell on the thick metal bar. Only the belief in Twilight could save them now. The spikes slowly further advanced and for a minute I thought, nothing would be happening. Then, with all of her magic, one bar slowly bent to the side. The opening was small, but enough for them to squeeze through. I tried to catch Rarity, who fell down from the hanging cage first, but was crushed by her weig...errrmmm... her velocity, of course.
Pinkie Pie followed, then Fluttershy, and finally Applejack and Twilight almost at the same time. Twilight also removed the chains of Rainbow Dash, who came in an instant to help us up. She was so happy to be reunited, that the scary background of the dream actually was changing. It was strange to just see everything changing: In one moment, it had been a terrible hall of torture and now we were suddenly all in Ponyville, again. Obviously they all remembered Ponyville as a place of happiness.

There was still one thing, that had to be solved: Twilight Sparkle. I couldn't just leave her here, but how should I take her with me. At that point, I wasn't even sure, whether the other ponies were real or just dream ponies. It took me almost ten minutes to come up with a suitable test to identify, who was real. Rainbow Dash was obviously the dreamer, so I got her to stay aside – after a bit of a discussion.
I started to ask everypony the same question:
“What did you last dream?”
Pinkie Pie answered: “A scaaaaary nightmare, where everypony left me.”
Rarity answered, after a short while of hesitation: “A dream, in which everypony laughed at my collection for absolutely no reason. Those dresses were more than marvelous.”
Applejack was also a bit hesitant about her answer: “A dream in which I was too weak to buck any apples and everypony wanted to help me, but I just couldn't live with that embarrassment.”
Sometimes I forget, that the dream doesn't start when I enter it. I can only wonder, what had happened to all of them before I got inside their dreams. Fluttershy had problems with speaking loud enough for me being able to actually hear her, she was most uncomfortable: “The p...p...pillars.”
She almost began to cry. “Okay, that is enough, Fluttershy, thank you.”

Lastly I got to Twilight Sparkle:
“What did you last dream?”
She thought about it and she continued thinking and she just couldn't give an answer. I knew it, my plan worked: How could Rainbow Dash, the dreamer, create an illusion with really exactly the same memory of Twilight? The answer is simple, she couldn't. She couldn't know what Twilight had dreamed as her last dream.

Even though I now knew, that it wasn't the real Twilight, I couldn't just leave her behind, could I? I looked at her. She was completely confused. She looked back at me and there was fear in her eyes. That dream Twilight wanted to live, to be real as much as anypony is. She had saved all these lives, but nevertheless, we couldn't just have two Twilights in reality. However, I could not just kill an innocent pony, especially not Twilight. What was I supposed to do now?
“Twilight, you have to remember your own dreams!”
Rainbow Dash was totally confused as I had not explained her the whole thing yet. How could I leave that pony behind, if she was so real? Yet, it was obvious, that she existed only in this dream. I was scared about what would happen, if I would leave her here and at the same time, I was scared to take her with us.
It was actually dream Twilight herself, who spoke these words:
"You have to leave me behind.” In her eyes was the same fear, but mixed with certainty. Girls, don't you remember the Pinkienvasion? I have to go, because I am nothing but an image of the real Twilight. I couldn't replace her, nor could I live together with her.”
She could not actually mean that, could she?

“Twilight, you should not try to...”
I could not continue the sentence, knowing she had already made the decision. Maybe I could just get her out. It was not time to play a hero, when you do not have to. The others were also furious:
“Twilight, no, you can't.”
“You just saved us.”
“But...But...you can't...”
I tried to just make the shield and get us all out, including dream Twilight, but before I finished casting the shield, she was gone.
In the end, she just disappeared into a magical purple hole, without even leaving me any choice. A teleportation into somewhere beyond the dream edge, she was gone. I only now noticed, that I had actually held my breath. Everypony looked devastated. Somehow, we lost our friend, but then again, she would be in the next dream. It literally hurt my head to think about it. I couldn't really grasp it.

What would happen, if I actually took a dream pony with me into reality? Would they become real, be what the dreamer always thought they were? Would the real pony just be replaced? It was impossible to tell and I never wanted to try it out.
I pulled us out and we had to take a pause until we would enter Twilight's dream.

Chapter 22: Foalhood memories

The pause was silent. Nopony was in the mood to speak. Although it had been an illusion, it had felt like leaving a friend behind. After a minute or so, Rainbow Dash was the first one to talk:
“Girls, I know how you feel, but we have to get the rea... we have to get Twilight now.”
It took a moment, but in the end we all agreed. It was the last light in this dream world. After breathing through one last time, I jumped through, taking everypony with me. The dream was actually very similar to Pinkie Pie's dream. Instead of being placed outside a bakery, it was the same tree library house again. We stepped inside and there was Twilight lying on her bed and staring out of the window. This would be easier, than I had thought.
“Twilight? You have to come down here.”
I just yelled, not knowing if she would actually react. She responded:
“Why should I?”
She got me slightly confused:
“Well, you need to get together with your friends and use the Elements of Harmony.”
Twilight turned around, rage burning in her eyes: “I have got no friends!”

That answer was as unexpected as dangerous. The dream started to shake, almost like an earthquake. Everypony fell down, when the dream shook harder and harder, turned upside down, downside up. I landed hard on the side and all the air left my lungs. I started to pant for air. The dream stopped shaking, but my head was still swirling. Something big had happened, but before I could make it out, I had to stop my mind from being so jumbled. When I looked up in the room, it looked a lot different.

The walls were painted red and only a small white bed and a brown drawer gave the room texture. Everypony was gone. After looking around some more, I discovered stairs leading down. I decided to take them, because what else was there to do? Downstairs, I found a long corridor with mostly same doors except for one, that looked a bit different. I decided, that that would probably be the main entrance and I was right. I stepped out to a place, I had never seen before. It was a gigantic city, ponies walking everywhere. I decided to follow the masses; Exquisite botiques and fine bakeries. After a while, I realized, that I actually knew this place; It was Canterlot, just much brighter, than I had memorized it – even before it was turned into one huge cementary. I had to turn around, when the dream edge came in sight, but this walk actually had it's advantage; By the direction of the dream edge, which was mostly a sphere around the dreamer, I could guess in what direction Twilight had to be.

I walked into orthogonal direction to the approximate plane representing a tangent plane to any point on the sphere, thus along the line with the normal vector of the pane, which should be exactly along the radius of the circle. If I would also consider the concavity of the sphere and create a cone of a distinct size, Twilight should be on the top of that cone...

Let us just say, I was trying to find Twilight. (with math)

After an eternity or two, I finally found her. I was walking around the same block, where I guessed she had to be, for the 20th time. I had already resigned and started looking into some windows; And there she was, filly Twilight, staring out of the window of something, that seemed to be... Yes, it was a kindergarten. A small sign on the front read: 'Magic kindergarten of Canterlot' - Canterlot was impressively ornamented - 'Home of the future'. So, that is where Twilight had had her foalhood. I knew we had to end this dream, but I could not just take Twilight with me in filly form. What if she actually stayed a filly afterwards? At that point, I wondered, if all the fillies, I had met in my dreams had actually been fillies or grown ups, who had a dream about their foalhood. I realized, that her own words had somehow caused Twilight to relive her foalhood.

Maybe, if I could help her out, she would stop dreaming about her foalhood. Another problem of mine was, that everypony else was missing too, so we would have to find them all again afterwards. To solve Twilights problem, I had to realize her problem first. Right now, she was just staring out of the window of her kindergarten class. At this moment, the bells rang and everypony trotted out into the inner playground, except Twilight. The teacher was looking at her in pity. Twilights eyes told even more: They told stories about a lonely filly, just seeking for attention, for friends, for somepony to have fun with and drowning it all with books. The teacher left the room and Twilight was all alone.

How could I help her? I could not just walk in there, I was still a grown pony, so it would be the strangest thing for me to walk into a kindergarten. Even if I got in there, how could I help her? How could I get her onto other thoughts, thoughts of being grown up, preferably? The only way to get anything to work was using dream logic. I had to get closer. For that, I had to be a filly or her supervisor. I decided it would be the easiest way to become her supervisor, by dream logic of course. I opened the doors and walked into the long corridor. Luckily, everypony except Twilight was playing outside. The supervisors were occupied at watching all the fillies, so I was able to sneak to the door of her kindergarten class. I opened it, only looking through with my head. Twilight had noticed the door opening and turned around. I was a bit unsure, if this would work, a bit scared of the consequences, if I would be caught:
“I... I am the new pony.”

Twilight obviously misunderstood me; Or dream logic failed; Or my face happened to be very very young looking. Within a single heartbeat, I came much closer to the floor. I looked at my body and it was disastrous; I had actually turned into the filly version of myself.
Not even the real filly me, but how you would guess that I would look like, guessing only by my face. It was almost scary to see, how dream logic could do that, transform me this way. I wondered, if it was really stronger than any magic and I came to the conclusion that yes, it had to be. No magic could do something like this, because magic was rational and a dream did not have those boundaries. However, maybe I just didn't know the real power of Twilight and her friends. I decided to take the chance and just walk in. If I lost more time, Twilight would just turn away again. It felt so weird, so really really weird to walk as a filly again. I almost tripped over twice. I decided to sit at the closest free chair to Twilight, which was actually the one in front of her... and the one at her side... and the one behind her. She was truly not a famous pony.

“What is your name?”
I went ahead. If I was given this chance, I had to take it. She was very shy, but her voice was unexpectedly strong:
“I am Twilight Sparkle. What is yours?”
It was strange to hear her as a filly. It sounded so innocent, but at the same time, so did I.
“I am... I am Dream Whisper.”
I was totally confused: I didn't usually stutter. Probably just another part of the picture, Twilight had made of me. I shouldn't have been so nervous when entering the door. I should have found another way, and now I was stuck like this, until I got her to think about being grown-up again.
“That sounds so famililah.”
Filly Twilight actually smiled for the first time.
“Do you want to be my friend?”
I asked and smiled back. I don't even know, what got me to do it. Either Twilight's wish for a friend was too big, or I had fully turned into an innocent filly. At the same time, it felt really good to just be so open. Nothing you had to hide, no need to beat around the bush. When she said yes, I felt a certain feeling of relief. Maybe I had never forgotten how to be a filly.

“Let.. Let's play something.”
I suggested and my grin got even bigger. This stuttering was really annoying, but well, I had to live with it now. We played a math game, a kindergarten math game. It literally was about addition of one-digit numbers and because of Twilight's advanced knowledge even about multiplication. In the end, I seriously lost. Sometimes, when it was my turn, I just forgot the answers to the problem. Afterwards, they all came back. At this point, dream logic started to get scary. What could it actually do to the ponies inside the dream?
We played for the rest of the morning and noon, until the kindergarten ended. We didn't only play math games, by the way, we also played catch and hide and seek and similar games. At the end of the kindergarten, I realized, that I had a problem. Where would I go as a filly? Twilight had not changed the dream. I didn't know, if it was because I was a filly now, or because it was utterly scary, but I almost peed myself, when a mare and a stallion, who asked for me, tried to take me home. It got even scarier: I didn't even resist.

When I think of it right now, my heart is still beating as fast as a purring cat. When I finally arrived at some home with my 'parents', I was sent into my room. I closed the door behind me and at first, I was just breathless.
This was indeed getting a bit out of hand. I was still a filly and Twilight didn't even look like she wanted to remember another time or place. For now, I was stuck here as a filly. It was so strange to see your own body, which isn't your own at the same time. The back of my body was a lot brighter and I was a lot thinner. Furthermore, I didn't have the same tail, I normally have, but a very bright one, matching the back of this... my... body. Maybe, she had taken the mental picture of a filly, she had seen sometime, but not actually met. I can only reiterate, how scary it was for me. What if I would come out of the dream as a filly? What if I couldn't get Twilight to change the time again? What was I supposed to do with these 'parents'? What, if they wanted to give me a good-night kiss or something? I looked at my body for a bit more and then I decided to just lay down.

Before even starting to sleep, the world suddenly changed again. I almost hoped, I would be grown up again, but I was still the same. Instead my 'mother' came in and told me to get ready for school. Obviously, Twilight's mind had skipped her sleep. It would have been weird to sleep in a dream in a dreamworld in a dreamworld anyway. I followed my dream mother and did what she asked me to. In the end, she took me to the kindergarten, where I met Twilight again. It was a big relief to see her again, as she was the only pony right now, who I actually knew.
There had to be something – an action or some words - , which had to lead her to skip the time back again. At first, I was a bit resistant, but I found more and more joy just playing and forgetting the world around me.

This friendship actually continued in the same way for one more day. I started the day by doing what my dream mother told me to – She was a nice lady after all and a good mother. I went to kindergarten, playing with Twilight and not really getting forward with the problem. I ended the day with going to bed and thinking about how I could end it all. I would have been fine, if there had not been following concerns:
I knew that, if I would come out of the dream as a filly, I would not have the ability to enter dreams anymore, leaving me as a filly for probably forever.
I knew that the clock was ticking and I had no idea, what the shadows were doing to us.
I knew that we still had not found the other girls and I didn't know, what implications it could have to lose real ponies inside a dream. I tried to maybe by accident say or do something, that would get her back, but nothing.
To be honest though, I also just kept enjoying the friendship with Twilight so much, that I actually almost always ignored those problems, saying to myself that there was enough time.

At this third day, I realized, that I actually had to get out of this dream as soon as possible. Although everything seemed normal in the morning, something happened inside the kindergarten. Me and Twili were playing a game of bloopaloosa, where you have to push a figure towards somepony without getting seen. Twili's use of magic made that quiet easy for her, whereas I didn't allow myself to do anything, knowing what could happen. Or let me say, not willing to risk anything. Twilight would probably not believe a filly would be able to use immeasurable magic. Winning was not worth the risk, though.

As Twilight just won through a brilliant strike, where she distracted me with a flashing light, a wave of distortion came through the wall. Everything touched by the invisible wave got distorted for a moment, then returned to normal. When it moved through me, I realized, that it actually changed the dream. It was suddenly late in the afternoon already and Twilight just laughed about some joke, I had not actually told. I didn't know, if that even was good or bad. Either it was good, because the dream was skipping into future, or it was bad, because Twilight was waking up without me having done anything at all. I hated myself for not doing anything earlier, but it had been like a trance. Now, I didn't even have time to hate myself anymore. How could I get her to become grown up again?
What if she would wake up before everything was restored to normal?

Almost an hour went by and I sunk into the joy of playing with Twili again. I think my filly-self wasn't really able to grasp the weight of the situation. Maybe the dream logic had changed more than I had expected, or maybe it was just some inner need for just playing with somepony, something I had not done since... well, since my foalhood.

Another wave stopped my playful attitude once again. This time, it didn't advance the time to evening, it actually blacked me out for a couple of heartbeats and then it was a couple of years later. I was definitely in Ponyville, at the library tree, but there was an unicorn Twilight at the door, waiting for somepony.
When she yelled “Dream Whisper, over here!”, I realized, that she had been waiting for me.
I looked a lot closer to my normal self now, almost everything had returned to normal. It was a relief and a sad moment at the same time. On the one hand, I was normal again, which took a lot of my worries about the dream and made it possible for us to start searching Twili's friends. On the other hand, I had lost the possibility to just be a filly and play filly games. I know it sounds stupid, when you know, that I actually had to get everypony safely out of the dream, but it had been a nice time to relive. Even now, I still recognize it as one of the nicest times in my life, even though it had been so incredibly scary at the start. I guess the playing with Twili was the good part, the rest was just scary.

Now, arrived in Ponyville, we just had to find Twilight's friends.
“We have to find your friends.”
I just went ahead quite frankly. Twili did respond with a question.
“Who do you want to find? You are my only friend.”
The realization hit me like a hoof: In her dream, Twilight had never met her friends, only met me. Which was weird, absolutely weird. I didn't even want to be a replacement friend for her real friends. I mean, being a part of her friends was nice, but being her only friend? That was really weird. I decided to get her to meet her real friends. Maybe, they would become friends again:
“Err... Yes, yes... I meant, that we should find some other ponies around here and maybe become friends with them.”
This time, Twili actually agreed: “Okay, where do you want to start?”

Good question actually. If I knew, where Twilight had met all of her friends, it would have been to easy. I was quite desperate for an answer, until I remembered the following fact: In both dreams of Pinkie Pie, I had been in a bakery in Ponyville.
“Let us go to the bakery.”
I smiled at her. It almost felt, as if we had been friends forever. At the same time, I knew, that as soon as the dream ended, this feeling of friendship would be gone. Replaced by maybe agreement or in the best case mutual sympathy.

Twilight had not been too happy about the location, where I supposed to go, but she didn't disagree either. Some cupcakes would be good for her, even if my idea didn't work. Instead of us finding Pinkie Pie, Pinkie Pie actually found us. Like a storm, she rushed through the streets and upon noticing us, she got lots of lots of streamers out of a carriage, she was pulling. 'Prepared like a Pinkie Pie'... Maybe that could become a thing.

Although I thought her cheerful attitude would win Twilight over, instead Twilight just shook her head and continued going. “Pinkie Pie? A stupid question, but do you remember me?”
I was proud, how smart that actually had been: If she still knew me, it would be stupid for me to ask, if she actually knew me. If she didn't know me, it would be stupid for me to ask, if she actually did. She answered:
“Of course I remember you, you big dummy.”
“Well, that is at least one bit of good news.”
I started catching up to Twilight, leaving the poor Pinkie Pie a bit behind, but she quickly recovered by starting to storm through the streets again.
“Who was that crazy pony?” Twilight asked.
As I had expected, she believed that she actually had no friends.
“I don't know, but she was certainly crazy.” I smiled at her.

After ordering some cupcakes, we went out again.
“And whew u wanf tu gow nou?”
Twilight mumbled with her mouth filled by tasty iceing. I tried to remember another place from the dreams.
“To the sweet apple acres.” I answered.
Twilight was confused again, but she didn't say anything.
Twili actually enjoyed the Apple Family's hospitality very much, but so did I. In addition to the cupcakes, we now had a giant apple meal and enough time to talk. Just during the feast, Twilight suddenly stopped eating. She had obviously felt more and more comfortable with Applejack over the course of the feast, so I was slightly confused. I looked closer and I saw something in her eyes; She was remembering.

I can only guess what made her remember. Maybe the general feeling of friendship, although she seemed to have that for me in her dream, too. Maybe the friendship towards Applejack was anchored deeply in her unconsciousness and now she remembered that feeling. Maybe the dream was too far and she was just waking up, and that is why the feeling returned.
In any case, I could really see her remembering. Another wave moved through the dream. This time it moved us into the future again. Although Twilight was now right next to me, everypony else was also here: Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Furthermore, Twilight was an alicorn again. A sigh of relief slipped from my mouth. Everything would be just fine again... if there had not been these shadow beings. I looked around; We were in Ponyville again.
“Twili, you have to go into the ponyville river. I know it sounds strange, but it's really important.”
Twilight looked at me, as if I had just summoned a demon, but she didn't oppose to it. I created the shield around the others and myself, just before the dream started to recede.
We all arrived at the grey-ish dream world again. Too much had happened to just go into the first dream world instantaneously. I had a bit time to think about what happened, especially why Twili's dream had been so different to Pinkie Pie's dream.

I think Pinkie Pie's dream had been about being left alone by everypony. Simply showing her, that other ponies still existed, solved that problem. Twilight's dream had been about not having any friends. The strange thing for me was, that even though Twili and I have had a friendship, that had not solved the problem. Maybe it had to do something with the Elements of Harmony, but who knows. Still, our friendship had been enough to make her skip time to being half-way grown up again. I wondered, how much of the feeling of friendship had come through the dream.
Was I feeling closer to Twilight now, or was that just imagination, a placebo?

Chapter 23: Doing their thing

“Girls, do you really want to take that fight?”
I asked. I could have understood, if they had said 'no'. Instead, everypony agreed to take the fight as fast as possible. It was true, we had no idea, what those shadow things were doing to us in the dream world.
I created a shield again and slowly counted down. The whispy lines appeared again, and this time, they quickly vanished again. I had become much faster. The dream world was empty. Of course, there were stars and such, but the Shadow fiends were missing.

Only much much later I found out that mysterium: The shadows had a limited span of energy. They could only do so much and they had not been able to do enough. The nightmares were supposed to keep us busy and occupied for much longer, but luckily, we had broken every single barrier they had created.
I guess nothing is purely unlimited.

“Let us concentrate. Where could the source be?”
Twili looked at everypony of us. I got an idea and just bursted out with it.
“Maybe, to find the source, we trace back the consequences.”
Twilight just went ahead, listing the events that had happened, that were somehow related to evil forces.
“There was Nightmare Moon, there was Discord, there were the changelings under leadership of Queen Chrysalis, there had been Kind Sombra. I don't think, the Timberwolves and the Windigoes really count, because they were always there, but who knows, they may have been agitated or something. There had been Discord and Dream Cry returning, there had been ... Celestia ... and lastly that shadow entering reality through you.”

You could hear, that Twilight still had not forgiven Celestia her rage. Was there still a bit of rage left behind inside of her? Would she also turn into something worse? Wait. Left behind... I had an idea once again.
“We have to find something evil, that has been left behind. As far as I know, Princess Luna hasn't left anything behind, so we can cancel that. What about Queen Chrysalis?”
“Not as far as I know. My BBBFF said, that everything had been cleaned up agian.”
“What about Discord then? I mean, he returned shortly before this all began. I just don't know, if he is the reason or the effect.”
“I think I know who it could be. When we banished King Sombra, we thought that we had defeated everything, but something must have survived. I wasn't really sure at first, but those shadow things... they exactly reminded me of him. I am sure, he is banished forever, but what, if the secret room under the throne wasn't the only secret chamber. What, if there is still something in the Crystal Empire, that is strong enough to create these shadow fiends and turn ponies into...? We should start searching in the Crystal Tower.”

To be honest, everything I knew about King Sombra was, that he had been a shadow pony, coming from within a shadowy cloud with pure hatred. That was surprisingly close to the picture, I had of the shadow fiends. Maybe, it was the indirect influence of King Sombra, that kept creeping up in everypony and turned them into something... evil. Maybe not even King Sombra was the real reason. I only knew one thing: Whatever the source was, that was causing destruction in all of Equestria, it had to be destroyed. It was like a virus spreading throughout our home, infecting everypony with hatred. Then, it also created those shadows, which were creeping through cracks into reality. This force was too huge to be ignored.

Twili seemed so sure, that they had actually defeated King Sombra, so I decided to trust her about that. If there really had been another secret?
“I agree.” Rainbow Dash was a little bit faster than me.
“Me too.” I added, feeling a bit dumb with that statement.
However, everypony else also made the same statement, so I was fine:
“We come with you, darling.”
“Yeehaa!” - I guess you can interpret that as agreement
“O...Okay.”
“Afterwards, we go and throw a big party.”
Now, that we were sorted, it was time to get back. There was one thought still nagging inside my head: If the source of the shadow fiends was inside the Crystal Empire, why haven't we seen the source there? It really had to be hidden very well.

Creating the shield was something, that I almost instinctively did, when leaving or entering a dream now. Something, that would be useful in every coming year. The whispy blue-ish lines started to flow around the shield faster and faster, until we were finally in reality again. Getting up, moving around, everything felt as if I hadn't moved for days... and maybe that was true. I had moved inside of the dreams, but inside of reality?
“Okay girls, we need to get to the Crystal Tower. Inside, I will try to turn it evil agian. The crystal heart won't leave us much time, it will restore everything again. We have to be fast with our search.”

We were already outside, trotting towards the huge tower. It seemed to be dark outside, but I couldn't say, how long we had been in the dreams. Maybe the dreams had taken hours, maybe days, maybe just seconds. I started to wonder, how much the dream could do to you. Luna had actually died, but with the help of Dream Cry, she had come back. The dram logic had also changed a lot of things, even things like age. Could it change somepony's cutie mark? Could it create new ponies out of nothing? I would have to further investigate it at some point, but now we arrived at the Royal Tower.

We went up, through corridors and up stairs through doors, all lead by Twili. I had expected either Princess Cadence or Prince Shining Armor to be in there, but it was actually empty. I realized, that they had been ordered to Ponyville to help the other princesses rebuilding Equestria.
“So Twilight, how are you actually going to open up Sombra's secret passage or hiding place?”
I asked, actually quite curious. There was nothing to see anywhere.
“It's easy as this: King Sombra actually had a Shadow Empire, not a Crystal Empire. We have to use his kind of magic, a magic of hatred to restore the Shadow Empire. The Crystal Heart however will fight the dark magic, so we work with limited time. Alright, everypony spread up!”

We all went to a different part of the room. I was close to the door, where the wall had suspicious figures engraved. It was a strange spectacle I now witnessed: Twilight used her magic, the usual purple magic and I was almost doubting her, but then the purple slowly got darker and darker and turned to a black aura. Then, her magic actually became a dark purple and green blistering as also streams of the same purple magic came out of her eyes. I thought, I had collected enough scary experiences for many many nightmares, but obviously it shouldn't ever end. A black stream of magic erupted, hitting the main crystal above the throne, which turned the crystal black.
It started to cast a shadow throughout the room, revealing a hidden staircase. As she used more and more magic, more and more parts of the room were becoming dark. There was nothing. Not even the suspicious engraved figures were there. Just raw crystals. We started to look around everywhere, but there was just nothing.
“Faster!”
Twilight pressed through her teeth. Then, I had a sudden idea: If the shadow fiends were in the dream world, wouldn't their source also be there? We had not seen anything, but maybe that had been because the throne had not been 'activated'.

I decided to go deeper, relaxing. The whispy lines appeared, and I tried to pull myself as fast into a dream as I could, without losing control. It was the dream world, but something seemed to cast a shadow in front of me. Not an usual shadow though, a shadow, that was brighter than the surrounding. I turned around and there it was. A crystal heart, casting darkness, not light, into the dream world. I tried to get a step closer, but suddenly it just disappeared.
Only the dark glow remained, but too weak to really shine over the stars. We had finally found the source. I decided to enter reality again to check what had happened.

When the whispy lines left my field of vision again, I saw that everypony looked unsatisfied. Except Twilight, she was just totally exhausted. The magic had stopped and the Crystal heart had turned everything back to normal.
“I found it. I found the source.”
I couldn't really contain the information much longer.
“Where?”
Rarity was obviously confused, but when I looked around, so was everypony else.
“I found it inside the dream world. It was a crystal heart, the same as down under the tower, just black.”
“Oh yeah? Why haven't you found it before then?”
I wonder why Rainbow Dash was so agressive towards me.
“Because only Twili's magic made the source visible.”
Twilight thought about those words for a moment, then she went ahead.
“Okay. I have got a plan. We all stand close together here. I cast enough magic on the crystal for us to have a bit of time, then we enter the dream world and destroy the source immediately, before it can hide again. I don't want anymore corruption, not anymore shadow beings, not anymore agitation of all these evil creatures.”

Twilight started to create the black magic again and channeled it into the crystal throne. After two long heartbeats, she pressed a 'Now!' through her teeth. I created the shield and went over into the dream world again. The giant glowing black crystal heart was now hovering in front of us now. Twilight and her friends began to use the Elements of Harmony instantaneously. The well-known rainbow erupted from the crown, flying into the air and then down onto the heart. This was too easy.

Just before being reached, the black heart exploded. Not a normal explosion, but instead an explosion of black light. We were blown away, but luckily the landing didn't hurt. When I got up again, I realized, that now there were seven shadow fiends. Each shadow fiend had a part of the black crystal heart inside it. The black crystal heart had somehow managed to evade the breaching hit.
This would be a lot more difficult than we had imagined it to be. However, through this first missed hit, it seemed as if the parts of the black crystal heart would not disappear again. Twilight instantly created a shield around us, defending us from the shadow monstrosities. They went ahead and tried to attack by expanding her shadow arms towards us, but the shield blocked the streams of black smoke coming towards us. After a moment, everypony was ready to fight back.

They organized themselves in a circle and started to hover slightly. A rainbow erupted out of Twilights crown and finished off the first shadow fiend. This time it had not been able to split into even smaller parts. The part of the heart was being filled with the rainbow color, but it didn't withstand the pressure for long. There was a huge black explosion, almost blowing the shadow fiends away, that stood too close.
They quickly recovered and continued firing onto the shield with their smoke arms. Twilight Sparkle was a bit slower. It took her almost half an minute to channel the next shot at another shadow fiend. This next explosion was so hard, that I could see Twilight's shield crumbling. I had to do something and I decided to use my own magic.
I created a shield, but I also took some of my strength and I put it into what had been supposed to be a bolt of fire. If I would have waited for them to destroy all six other dream monsters, they would have died of exhaustion before actually winning.

Instead of exploding upon impact, that fire bolt consumed more and more energy. It didn't really reach the shadow fiend, but the giant blinding explosion was enough to completely blow it apart. Only the following black explosion ripping through the clouds of fire and smoke showed me, that it had worked. The shield of Twilight had been completely obliberated, but my shield still held on. These shadow fiends were incredibly strong; It took all my concentration to keep that shield up, but I realized, that I couldn't keep it up for long. “Fast!” I yelled, knowing, that it was as fast as they could go. Another rainbow started to swirl up and crush down onto the fourth shadow fiend. That fiend took almost two heartbeats trying to recover, until it finally exploded from the massive rainbow beam.
The explosion almost ripped my shield apart.

This was getting increasingly difficult and there were still three shadow fiends left. You could see, that everypony was too exhausted. They had used the Elements of Harmony for defending us from the combined power of seven shadow monsters and additionally channeling three attacks now. Instead of hovering above the ground, they were standing on weak legs, barely able to keep themselves up. Rainbow Dash was probably still the strongest, but even her strength was coming to an end. It was a hard decision to make. Should I use my magic again? If I didn't use my magic, my shield would not keep up against the force of three shadow fiends. However, if I did use my magic, my power would be totally consumed by the three shadow fiends very soon. I looked at Twilight's struggle to keep upright and decided, that the only way to defend us was attacking the remaining shadow fiends.

I tried to fire another fireball at the shadow creature to my left. Instead of the ease, I had with firing the last one, I really felt the exhaustion growing and growing. The fireball also didn't just explode before even reaching the shadow fiend, instead it flew half way through him. I already thought, it had been a complete waste, but right there inside the shadow fiend, the smoke was sucked into the fireball for a heartbeat, then it exploded with unexpected force. My shield broke down under the pressure and we all were thrown through the air. This time, the landing pressed all air out of my lungs and probably got all my pre-acquired wounds to open again. The support for my leg was definitely gone now, flown off into the air upon impact, and and my chest felt as if there was a knife inside there. I coughed and I felt some kind of liquid inside my mouth, which was not a good feeling. It tasted like copper, so I was pretty sure, it was my own blood.

There were still two shadow fiends around. Through the explosion, we had been blown away far away from them, but they were already coming closer again.
I tried to retreat, I tried to pull us all out. However, as the first whispy lined appeared, they did not flow around the shield as it had used to, but instead it flowed right towards the two left fragments, splitting up and being absorbed by both of them. I tried to go deeper, not giving up. The parts of this shadow heart just kept absorbing the whispy lines from afar, without me getting anything done. Although they had done it before, it was still scary. They did not let us retreat. This was definitely not good. Twilight was still lying there unconsciously, while Rainbow Dash and Rarity tried to help her. Pinkie Pie was helping Fluttershy, while Applejack slowly got up.

The shadow fiends were coming ever closer though. It would not be enough time.
“Dream Whisper, you have to take us back.” Rainbow Dash was furious.
“I tried, it didn't work. They just suck up these whispy lines.”
I really needed to get a name for them. Dream lines? Nah, that sounds awful. Then again, shadow fiend or shadow monster is probably not the best name either.
“Then we have to fight!” It was impressive how confident she still was.

The last two shadow fiends laughed:
“Give up. You are all on your own now. You are too tired, too exhausted. Anger will always rise in the shadows, it will always be there, maybe not even in sight, but you cannot destroy it. Even if you could defeat us, that wouldn't destroy the dark side in anypony. Celestia had her dark secrets, so did Luna. Even your friends are not perfect, none of them. Everypony is infected with our very essence. You can try to deny it, but it will destroy you eventually.”

In this moment I had to think about Celestia. Her face, when she said: 'You are the abonimation of Dream Cry and my sister. You will be purged off this world.' It had been the hatred of a thousand years. Then I had to think about Candy Pop, about her deformed face, her search for the reason. This was the reason; I had found it. Now it was time to destroy it, destroy the real reason. Discord may have been the pony killing her, but this source had been releasing him onto the world. The shadow creatures were still coming closer and closer, I had to do something. I looked to Twilight, she was still unconscious.
There was only one power strong enough here to kill the two shadow fiends. I didn't have enough magic left after defending all of these attacks. Only one path was left: The amplification of my magic by the dream.

“Run, please!” My order towards my friends could not have been any more imploring. They started to retreat, too slow for my liking. I tried to wait as long as I could, but when the shadow fiend stood directly in front of me, I had to do it.
I fired a small fireball at the shadow fiend. Nothing, that would even amuse him, if he noticed it at all. I could feel the spell growing and growing, taking my power.
Instead of stopping, I just let go. I put everything into it; Every bit of power that I had. Every emotion of mine. I remembered the face of Candy Pop. I remembered Celestia maniacally laughing. I remembered the graveyard that had been Canterlot. I remembered all the pain, that the black crystal heart had caused, all the wounds it had opened, all the lives it had destroyed. If we would have only known it before this all happened. This black crystal heart itself was weak, but it's power to strengthen the anger in others was mighty.
This was the reason for all this misfortune. Even though it would take everything, I was ready to give it, to just maybe become the pony, I had been for Candy Pop.

The unreal power of the dream just streamed through me, starting to hurt immensely. I used every single dream, every single bit of power I could get my hooves on.
Instead of using only the dreams, I used the whole plane of this world, every dream in Equestria, the unreal magic. The spell was growing stronger with every beat of my heart, but at the same time, the magic was ripping me apart. I gave everything, I could, and more. Just like a rubber band stretched to far, everything suddenly stopped
–
But not without a huge explosion.

Epilouge: And now?

I must admit, Celestia has done a really nice job when rebuilding Canterlot. That was the first thought I had, when entering it. She had used her magic to split the black stone into parts. These were then used to build houses everywhere in Equestria. Canterlot however, has been majestically rebuilt with its original materials. It looks almost the same, except for the roll of honor, made from the black stone. It was called obsidian, I think. Every city now has a roll of honor for all those, who died because of the effects of the black crystal heart. It is strange to see the causality of events afterwards.

Many things just become clearer: The crystal heart seems to have been stored on the dream side since the first reign of Sombra or even before. That is, why it was neither ever found, nor vanished with the kingdom. Over time, it had infected ponies like Princess Luna with hatred, and turned her into Nightmare Moon, who then had been banished by Princess Celestia. After the banishment, the heart had been calm for thousands of years, but then it returned. When the time was right and the stars helped with the escape of Nighmare Moon, it seemed as if the black crystal heart had also awoken, bringing forth creatures of evil again and again and again. Discord, Queen Chrysalis, the Wendigoes, Timberwolfes and lastly the return of King Sombra, with whom also the whole Kingdom came back. I am not saying, they were all the products of the black crystal heart, but they had probably been agitated by it.

Luckily, Sombra never had enough control over the Crystal Empire to get to the black crystal heart again, or I could only imagine, how strong it or he could have become. Would we have been able to still free the Crystal Empire?
The whole time, there had been hatred coming from it, only to creep into ponies and destroy our harmony. With the escape of Nightmare Moon, it seemed as if the black crystal heart had gained momentum, maybe because of the fear and anger caused by the event. The time periods between new catastrophes had dramatically declined. The return of Dream Cry and Discord together was one of the two highest peaks of the black crystal heart's power. The other one was reached, when Celestia was infected and a shadow demon actually leaked through into reality, probably taking Dream Whisper as a host or as a medium of transportation.

I think Dream Whisper took a big part in all of these events. Without her, we would have probably needed years to find out, how to enter the dream world, if we had found it out in these troublesome times at all. She has made a lot of mistakes – Getting Luna killed, bringing Dream Cry back, getting us into trouble with that shadow being and a bunch of more stuff - But in the end, I think you could consider her a heroine.
I still wonder sometimes, how she felt after being in my foalhood. I have mixed feelings about her. On the one side, she is a strange pony, a dangerous pony, very introverted but in a different way to Flutterhsy. On the other side, she is a heroine and in a way, she saved me from my re-occurring nightmares of my foalhood in magic kindergarten. She saved all of us from our nightmares, without questioning our ideals, even though she had seen what Celestia had done. I chill ran down my spine, when I thought about what had happened to Celestia. Nopony had been save.

After the last battle, we have not been able to return into the dream world yet. Princess Luna is probably the closest pony to finding out the secrets with her research. We can only guess, that Dream Whisper has won the battle... or maybe in some years, some decades, some centuries the last fragments will gather enough power again to try to turn the world evil. That is, why we need the most accurate descriptions of these events. I wonder if in thousand years, there will be a pony just like me, reading old tales and facing new enemies. Maybe they would read my own books about the history of this new era.

I arrive at the Canterlot castle a little bit late for the meeting, but as a Princess, I should be allowed to have some time for myself. The meeting has been invoked by Princess Luna, maybe something about the coming Nightmare Night, maybe even new results from her research. I go straight to the throne room, why waste time? It was actually quite unusual to have the meetings here, so maybe I could actually hope for new results to add to my book. I have not tried to enter this world of dreams myself yet, however, when I get my hooves on some free time, I could at least try it.
The door was thrown open in front of me.
"I have found her. She was inside a dream, which I had just visited.”
A pony was lying right there on the floor. It took me a moment to recognize her; Dream Whisper.

DISCORD BONUS: YOU ARE NOW AWARE OF YOUR BREATHING

Chapter 1: Unpleasant dreams

What is good and what is bad?
Are there really bad ponies?
Is it just a type of behavior, some ponies have and others don't?
Is it something, that sticks to you like globs of mud, after you ran through deep puddles?
Or is it maybe something, that comes with birth and is a part of your character?
Am I damned to be bad?

My story begins in a situation, I had not expected to be in. Most nightmares are easy to detect: Either it is dark and cold or it is dark and scary. This nightmare however, was completely different. I was standing on a wonderful beach, while the sun slowly lowered beyond the horizon. The whole sky was painted in warm colors. The reflections in the calm water made the whole picture even more enjoyable. Behind me, there was a huge forest of palm trees, slowly swinging from side to side with every breeze. The beach was completely empty except for one filly. The filly had an orange coat and a dark red mane.
It was strange to know, that that pony was the creator of this whole situation; She was the dreamer. That is how I call the ponies, who dream the dreams, which I then enter.

My special talent had led to many problems already, especially when I entered nightmares. I would have liked to just leave the dream right now, but I neither knew how to get out of a dream, nor did I know, how to enter the dream; It just happened. Well, to be honest, I knew one way to get out of the dream: Waking the dreamer up. It is an unpleasant experience and I rather like to just let my magic run out with time.

I only found out, when a growling sound blew through the forest of palm trees. I tried to calm the filly down, hoping to prevent further fear in a nightmare, but the filly surely was not calmed by my appearance; A dark blue skin, an even darker mane. Much like Princess Luna, but not nearly as shiny and without all these stars and stuff in the mane. Just a regular pony with an irregular talent.

When the ground started to vibrate for the first time, I knew the filly had already created some devilish creature from her fear. After the next vibration, a shadow slowly rose over the forest of palm trees. It was a giant Snow Wolf, something I had really not expected here. The tale of snow wolfes is a tale, that we tell young fillies to get them to do nasty duties. The whole situation would have not really been dangerous, if I would not have been here. Usually, you would just wake up, when you die inside of your dream. However, something strange happens to dreams when I enter them. My special talent does not only force me into these dreams, it also does change the dreams themselves.

Whilst I am inside of a dream, wounds are possible. Although you do not die inside the dream, the wounds can be fatal. I may be forced into these dreams, but somehow it is my duty to prevent any wounds so they couldn't carry over into reality.
The glowing of my horn reminded me of another fact about my talent. The magic, that holds me inside the dream seems to be my own, although I cannot control it. Once in my foalhood I used too much magic, which caused the bond between me and the dream to intensify. Somehow, my magic had spiraled out of control causing a huge explosion. My mother was furios.

The Snow Wolf came closer and closer and I decided to finally do something. Magic against such a huge foe would not really work, especially considering my magic potential. I decided to take another route, one that I have relied on in most dreams: Dream Logic. The logic of the dream is quite impressive, as the dream is nothing but the illusion of the dreamer. If the dreamer imagines flying horses, there will be flying horses inside of the dream. I only had to convince the filly, that there was no danger. As my previous attempts to just calm the filly down had not really worked, I decided to use another strategy. “Don't you worry, the crab nation is here to save us.”

Utter nonesense, to be honest, but as long as the dreamer believes in your words, even utter nonesense can turn out to be quite helpful. Instead of calming the dreamer down, I had given her an opportunity to give herself some help. Suddenly, the ocean began to foam, until a couple of giant crabs rose from the depths. Although they started to fight the Snow Wolf, it became clear, that they would not win. However, they gave me enough time to use a bit of my magic towards my advantage: I hovered just a bit of water out of the ocean, towards the little filly and blasted it into her face. Not to be mean, but instead to wake her up.

It worked, at least as far as I could tell. There are a couple of signs of being in a dream: Dream logic, which is affected by the dreamer, the dream edge, which I am going to explain in a second, and of course, the glowing of my magic.
So, what is a dream edge?

In a dream, there is not a whole world, not all of Equestria. Why would the brain think about a raindrop falling in Canterlot, while you dream of being in the Crystal Empire? When you enter a dream, there is always an edge to it. It is a sphere around the dreamer with a size depending on how far the dreamer can see in his current situation. It moves along with the dreamer as the dreamer moves through her or his dream.

When I looked around in my house, I realized a bitter truth: I had to go out into the town. On the one hand, most of my food supplies were gone. On the other hand, all my sleeping potions were empty, which was the reason for today's adventure.
Somehow, I was a little bit scared every time I had to leave the house; Other ponies might remember me from their dreams. I didn't want to be asked the same crazy questions every time and I don't want them to stare at me as if I was Nightmare Moon standing right in front of them.

I went out early in the morning, prepared with a long robe above my coat. The reason was not only the cold weather outside, even though the sun was blocked by big black clouds. The main reason was anonymity. I was not really welcome in most places, but the small village shop, somehow had to sell its goods. I don't live very close to the town, but a long walk in the morning isn't bad at all. The wind was causing the trees to rumble as if they were in a bad mood. There are not many scary creatures in our forest, but I was always careful anyway. Enough stories of encounters with Frostbirches have been told in the past month.

Frostbirches behave like normal trees for most of the time, but when the temperature drops below zero degrees, they start to walk around and search for frozen food in the ground. They use their roots to grab whatever they can find and thus are often not dangerous to ponies. However, sometimes the frostbirches don't find enough food, and then they can be harmful. I never got attacked by a frostbirch, though. Usually they hide deep inside the forest.

The walk through the forest was shorter than expected. It probably only seemed so short, because I couldn't really see the sun behind those darned clouds. The town was empty, as always. Not only did most people leave the town after the last big snowstorm, but they somehow knew, how long I would need for my supplies. Maybe, they tell the stories of the dream pony having appeared again. I smiled at that thought; Just like a ghost spooking in their nightmare.

The town did not really deserve that classification. Just a couple of small houses, usually 10 or so, depending on whether the last snowstorm knocked one down or not. The only thing in this town, that was somehow stable, was the shop I used to buy in. It was small, but it had an incredible variety of things to sell. The black house with small windows was not appealing, but it stood against every storm. If there had not been a big sign saying 'Shop' in the front, you would think it would be a house for some secret demon summoner or voodoo practicer. I stepped inside, looking forward to the warm air. Only the shop pony was sitting in an edge, seemingly ignoring anything that happened in his shop, but his eyes crusing around the place as if he could stop shoplifters with his bare looks. I had to smile again. With the amount of ponies living in this town, shoplifters would probably not be a huge problem. I took some of this, some of that, nothing special. Mostly food, some common things and the same potion as every time. The potion came directly from Canterlot and was thus very expensive. Despite that, these sleeping potions were the last resort I had, if I didn't want to be in danger of appearing in somepony's dream again.

The problem with my talent was, that I could not control it. I couldn't decide, whether I wanted to enter somepony's dream or not. I couldn't decide, whether I wanted to make somepony's dream more real than they or me would have liked it to be. This inability to decide scratched at my sanity.

That is, why I liked to use the sleeping potions. If I didn't dream, I couldn't hurt anypony.
Sometimes, I hate the exclusion from others, just for being different. Then again, it is probably the best for me. I'd rather live alone than live together with somepony, whose dreams I know and appear in.
Dreams are supposed to be something personal and not something, that can be invaded.

People hate me for knowing, what even their closest friends are not supposed to know. I cannot blame them. I have seen things in their heads, nopony would ever like to let any other pony in this world know about. Things, either disgusting or just terrific. I have to live with them now. As long as I dream, there will be new memories. That's why I don't like dreaming. I hate dreaming, I hate being thrown into their worlds. Still, there is a certain fascination with dreams. Almost like a moth is attracted to light, I am attracted to dreams. The infinite possibilites are overwhelming.

When I stopped myself from thinking about my talent, I was already home again. Time flies by if you don't watch it closely. Inside again, I prepared for my bedtime. Although the way to the town had seemed to be short, the way back must have taken me much more time. It was already dawn, when I stored every little piece I had bought in my shelves. The sun just touched the horizon, when I got the potion out to sleep without dreaming.

Chapter 4: A journey through their dreams

I awoke, but to my great pleasure, not in another dream. I woke up in a soft, comfortable hospital bed. The pain in my leg and back had receded and been replaced by a deep pressure. I tried to move it, but it was not really possible. When I looked down on myself, it was mostly bandages. 'Feeling like a mummy' could have been a great title to describe this. After a while, the old medical pony came in.
„Oh, you are finally awake. Is everything okay, or do you still feel pain?‟
„No, just a little bit of pressure.‟
„That's completely normal. You had one fractured rip, two sprained rips and your leg was also sprained.”
He paused for a second. I really had thought that my leg had been broken, but I am not the medical pony here.
“I don't know about you, but when I was bound to my bed, I always liked to hear what was happening in the world. It is your decision, but I could bring you a magazine with the news and other topics. There is not much to do here anyway as most ponies are still wasting their time.‟
What a great service here.
„Yes, please. And... Thank you!‟

After a couple of minutes, which seemed like an eternity, he came back with one of these new magazines, that praise strange ponies like Photo Finish and Fametrimmer beyond understandable level. I hovered the magazine in front of my face:

Page 1:
Photo Finish and her big secrets:
Discover her young days and how she got famous. (Includes rare new photos)

How to improve your magic:
Tipps and tricks for all unicorns.

Fly like a lightning:
No pony will overtake you anymore.

Workout like the stars:
How to be as thin as Twin Spin.

The secret section with A HUGE STORY

THE WEEKLY FROZENFALLS

Page 2 – 10:
Something about Photo Finish with many big pictures of her early foalhood and some of her first photos. I did not identify with such ponies. I mean, where does fame get you? You are in every magazine, but do you actually find friends? Sometimes, you get around, but only to be in another shooting location. You have no time to freely move around. No time to meet, no time to make friends. Fame takes your time, freedom and privacy. I don't think it's worth the money.

Page 11-12:
Just some random jokes. A couple of riddles. A cooking recipe.

Page 13-22:
The thing about improving your magic. The beginning was quite interesting. It was about relaxation and training. If you are calm, you are usually more focussed on your magic and thus it is easier to cast. Training also helps a lot. Then, there was the main part. Only some 'secret' spells, which were not secret at all. Finally, some spells, that were just plain useless. I mean, which pony wants to be able to put ink into their skin. That is utterly strange.

Page 23-30:
Something about pegasi and aerodynamics: I don't understand that stuff; Something about different seasons and how their temperatures effect the thickness and controllability of the wind; Something about the ideal position of your outest feathers and something about how wings work ideally when performing different maneuvers. So, nothing of interest for me.

Page 31-37:
This part was just not necessary. I mean, why would you want to be such a trained pony? To show off? To work harder? I am modest and lazy. So nothing for me at all. I don't need the big muscles. Even the part about the aerodynamics was more interesting.

Part 38-58:
The big secret. I think, I am the only pony in all of Equestria, that already knew this secret. It was very decryptic, but the basic was about some kind of sickness that Princess Luna had caught. If they knew the truth, I had a big problem. They wrote the biggest part about how they aquired their information: How their heroic reporter jumped through a couple of explosions to find a top-secret note at the end. Not exactly that, but I think you get what I mean.
So. It was in magazines already. Probably it had even been in the newspaper, but I haven't read any since I left home. I was still not sure what to do. I mean, really. What could I do? I was not able to bring dead ponies back to live and I was not able to reverse time. Obviously I was able to murder though. This was a situation without a way out. I could not admit my crime, nor could I reverse it.

In hindsight, I admit that my following actions were actually quite paranoic. Even if Fluttershhy would have given around information about me being a murderer to every single hospital in Equestria, I still would not have been killed for it or imprisoned forever.

Still, I thought, I would land in prision for the rest of my life: There is no higher good than time. Because time just flies away on feather wings and never ever returns. Time is the only thing, you cannot aquire, you can only lose. That is what caused me to go a bit insane. I actually had one of the stupidiest ideas I have ever had and I never ever tried to do it again. It was plain impossible and I should have known it, but I thought I was out of options. I know, how stupid that sounds, but my thoughts were not really working that well. The plan was to use a dream to escape in reality. With the use of dream logic I wanted to cause my location to change. It was a stupid idea, because you always wake up, where you have been in reality. To really change my location, I would have needed to cause a self-boosting process inside the dream.

Remember how I told you about using much magic in your dreams? Usually the magic, that holds me in the dream, is only strong enough to affect the ponies inside the dream. If, however, I would actively use enough magic, the bond between me and the dream would be stronger. The stronger bond would result in the magic easier flowing inside the dream. The increase in magic would cause the bond to grow stronger and so on. Basically at some point, it becomes an uncontrollable spiral of destruction.

Today I can only reiterate, how stupid that idea had been. Instead of actually moving in reality, it would have only caused massive destruction in reality and proably killed everypony including myself in a huge radius.
Now you might ask: „Why can you use so much magic anyway? Aren't unicorns restricted to a level of magic?‟
Yes, we are, but here is the reason, why it is possible anyway:
I don't really cast that much magic. Nopony would ever achieve that amount of magical energy. The dreamer actually has to believe in my magic. In the dream, my magic is actually just as strong as the dreamer imagines me to be. Only if the dreamer imagines me to be incredibly strong, I could actually cast that much magic. The price is nothing but destruction. It was never actually worth it, nor will it ever be.

This is the reason, why I have sworn to myself never to use my magic to that extend. Given my situation, I decided to break my own vowels. Again, probably the stupidiest moment of my life.

Close your eyes. Count to twenty. 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 ... 9...10 ... 11 ... 12 ... 13 ...
Where was I? I opened my eyes, I had lost track of counting again. How should I ever sleep, when I lost track every time. I looked around and was surprised: Some kind of tree in front of me. A big one, with doors and windows, laterns and balconies. At second thought, I finally realized: This was the dream already. Surrounding the tree was just the dream edge. Whoever was inside that tree did not look outside very much.
I had not thought about what I wanted to cast yet, because I knew it depended on the situation of the dreamer. Well, time to improvise. I started to create colours and lights and wanted it to seem as if I was using an immense amount of magic.
I felt the change in the dream first, even before I actively noticed, how the dream edge expanded far behind a new horizon.

Some voice came out of the tree.
„What the.. You!‟
Obviously, I had been discovered.
„Muhahahaha. My power is infinite!”
I yelled, trying to sound like a powerful vilian. Dream logic would do the rest: The dreamer just had to believe. Suddenly, I fell over on my face. Not because I am bad at keeping balance, but because something pushed me from behind; Or somepony. The next thing I remember is hanging up in the air, pulled up only by my tail.
„You. You are the one from Fluttershy's dream.‟
This was not good. Of all the millions of ponies in Equestria, I had to arrive in the dream of a friend or relative of Fluttershy. Time to do something: I magically lifted the other pony behind me by her tail, then I tried to turn around. Before I even had fully turned, she teleported directly in front of me.
Wait a minute. Purple-ish coat, stars as cutie mark, wings and a horn.

Holy Horseapples! Of all the millions of ponies of Equestria, I had to get into the dream of exactly this pony. The star student of Princess Celestia, priced for her incredible use of magic. The Alicorn with the biggest amount of magic in probably the whole of Equestria. A little bit younger than me, but probably a lot stronger. I had to find a weak point, probably this tree, because it was in her dream. Things in dreams are always either strongly positive or strongly negative connected to the dreamer.

I started channeling a fire spell right behind me, so she would not immediately see it, when I was finished.
„What is your plan? What are you trying to do? Are you trying to stop the night and bring eternal daylight? What does Fluttershy have to do with your evil plan? Answer me, or I will...‟
She didn't end the sentence, because the fire had finally started to spread.
„My home!‟
From nowhere appeared a bucket of water. I started to channel some other fire spells, all in different locations.
„Stop that!‟
The Princess jumped around, trying to manually extinguish every fire. After the third fire though, she stopped. You could see from her face, that she now was using immense magic. I could see giant dark clouds heading to this direction unnaturally fast. Instead of making it easier for me, I had made it even harder by angering her.

At this point, she should have realized the consequences of me being the pony from Fluttershy's dream. However, she still thought, this was reality. Which was good. I could just hope, her dream logic would protect me from the realization long enough for me to cast enough magic. I started to blow rough winds to get rid of the clouds, something I could have never done without Twilight Sparkle at least believing a bit in my magic. Maybe now I could... Twilight Sparkle had noticed my doing and created giant chains, that bound the clouds to the ground below them. How did she do this? No idea. It would remain her secret, because I would not start to ask her during a magic fight.

I had to use a different tactic. I started to let pieces of the ground floating around me like a shield, and from time to time, I threw pieces of dirt at her. This way, I would use small packages of magic for every piece of ground and thus still be able to maintain control. (That's what I thought, not my today's opinion. I now know that it would have backfired in the exact same way) Twilight Sparkle crossed my plan easily. With a shuttering noise, the ground below me just evaporated, leaving a hole for me to fall into. Before I could do anything, the hole was sealed with a platform of glass.

She was really talented, you had to say that. However, I already had an Idea. I started to drill through the walls of my cage. Until of course, I hit a thick wall out of spidersilk.
„What the...?‟
„Haha. Didn't you know, that spider silk is probably one of the strongest materials per hoof? It can contain the force of a fly, flying perpendicular to its plane. Calculated to your size, this would mean, you would have to push with a force of an ursa minor. Taking the circular movement in account, many trapped flies start to exhibit, you could say, it is inpenetrable.‟

Okay, taking in account, I only understood half of what she said, it was probably a thick wall of spider silk. I did not have to get out to cast further magic. A lightning coming from the stormy clouds was just what I needed. I magically redirected the energy of the lightning to... well, somewhere. Halfway through my spell, I lost control over the lightning. Even though I was in a dream, I was not almighty. The lightning, searching a way to the ground struck somewhere behind the Princess. Not harmfully close, but it showed false intentions. She probably thought by now, I was trying to kill her.
„Trying to kill all the Princesses?‟
Well, that verified my idea.
„It is not going to happen!‟
Twilight Sparkle teleported us both into a big chamber. Yes, she teleported us both. How ever in the name of Celestia you could do such thing. I shouldn't forget: She was an alicorn now.
The chamber had no advantages for me. Neither could I use the weather against her, nor could I do anything else to the tree. She immediately threw a ball of fire towards me. She obviously felt really threatened; If I wasn't careful, I would not get out of this dream alive.

I started to build a shield out of bricks, because I had no better idea. It defended me against the ball of fire, but her next was already coming. While I had been building up the wall, she had teleported behind me and threw heavy rocks towards me. I was able to jump out of their trajectory, but she was relentless. Two huge stone walls came from my left and right, leaving no place I could evade to. In a moment of sudden genius I just used her own ideas against her: I created some spidersilk sticking the walls to the ground. Their own speed made them fall towards me. I was lucky, that no debree hit me. As I was planning my next defense, it was already too late. I had not watched my surroundings carefully enough. From up above a rain of sharp pieces of glass started to rain. One especially sharp piece struck through my back. It was cruel; I stopped moving immediately, forced down by the pain. If I was not out of this dream in the next heartbeat, I don't know if I would survive. I had nothing to help myself though.
I counted down, knowing, these were the last moments. 10 ... 9 ... 8 ... 7... 6... 5... 4... 3.. 2... 1...

Nothing. She had stopped.
„Why?‟
I brought out this one word, but I regretted it afterwards. The pain was just too big. Some blood was assembling in my mouth.
„Look at you. Why did you do it? I mean, why did you kill her?‟
This whole plan had been condemned to fail form the start. What had I thought? Even when I had had enough energy, I would still not have been able to awake anywhere else than I was just now lying. The realization I should have had before this failed attempt was crushing. Again, it had probably been the stupidiest idea of my entire life.
„I... I did not want to...‟
A tear was running over my face. The pain alone would kill me.
„You did not what? You ... But ... You ...‟
„It was...‟
I had to cough out some blood to continue speaking:
„I was forced into there.‟
„Into where?!‟
You could nearly feel her anger:
„Tell me the truth! I don't want to hear your lies anymore.‟
„I... I did not want to be in that dream!‟
Twilight Sparkle was suddenly calm now. Still angry, but she would not harm me any further. She thought about what I said. Hopefully, she would make the right decisions. My eyelids fell down. I tried to open them agian, but they resisted. The pain was the only thing I sensed now. Heartbeat for heartbeat.

When I woke up again, I did not even try to open my eyes. There was still blood in my mouth and still the same pain in my back. The ground, I was lying on was a little bit softer. Somehow, it felt like it was moving. Some noises got into my ear, but I could not decipher anything, except some voices, speaking about something. It was all indistinct.
After a while, my body was lifted up and laid down onto another surface. It was colder and also smoother. My mouth was opened and I was given a potion. I drank it, because there was nothing much else, I could do. The fluid mixed with my blood, resulting in a bad taste, but that was the least I had to worry about right now. The effect of the fluid kicked in momentarily. My thoughts got slower and I drifted into nothingness again.

Chapter 18: Another pony's eyes see another pony's world

It had been some huge fighting, I can tell you. Fighting evil Celestia – Twilight doesn't like that name, but I think it's awesome – had been a pain in the back. After my wing had been taken out by these damn Timberwolves, I had not even been able to stand upright and help with the way home. Out of nothing came the evil Celestia, trying to kill that mare, Dream Whisper. It had been hard enough coming to Ponyville, but then also using the Elements of Harmony had completely exhausted me. We defeated her with a big bang and she was returned to normal again.

Luckily, some other ponies came to help us, when we needed to get to the hospital. Inside the hospital, they tried to fix the wounds as good as they could. After that, we had this crazy discussion: Should we do something about the 'threat'. At that point, I had just been happy surviving the second attack of the same day and Twilight Sparkle already wanted to go hunting again.
“Girls, we need to do something right now!”
I did not agree with the 'right now' part, but I didn't agree with Applejack either, who had the opinion to just do nothing about it.

I tried to defend Twilight, but wasn't really able to argue all that much. In the end Fluttershy thankfully stopped the argue. Then, it got really crazy. Dream Whisper came around, obviously she had just woken up from the anesthetic. Then, she collapsed right there on the floor, asking for help. She was lying there for a couple of minutes, and when she woke up again, her expression had changed to a painful grimace.
After that, smoke literally came out of her body. Suddenly, an explosion happened somewhere to our right. I was knocked off my feet and fell right onto my wounded wing, which was not helping my pain. After a heartbeat of complete silence and without movement, everything became chaotic. Everypony ran towards the exit as good as they could. Looking at my friends, I realized, that nopony had been hurt, luckily. Applejack yelled something, but was only slightly louder than the sound of screams mixed with the sound of hooves clapping on floor.

“We need to help the ponies, who can't run for themselves.”
Another explosion shattered, this time much further up the hallway. The smoke started to fill the room, and we ran out and searched for other ponies in need of help.
I went into the next best room and looked for anypony, who would need help. There was more than just one pony needing my help. I helped up an Unicorn with heavy bandages all over her body. It was hard enough to suppress the pain of my wounds, but the explosions from time to time made it even worse. Suddenly the ceiling in front of me just collapsed. I looked around: Most ponies had already galloped away, only badly wounded ponies were left. After a couple of heartbeats Applejack also came by, carrying two earthponies on her back. When she saw the collapsed ceiling, she turned around. Another explosion, right inside the hallway.

For a heartbeat everything was just bright, then dark. I was now actually lying on the ground, without recognizing to have fallen.
i]“Going back there would be suicide!”
Applejack also yelled something, but it was only hardly understandable.
“Did... see... happened?”
A muffled voice pierced throught the debree.
“Applejack, Rainbow Dash, are you still in there?”
It was Twilight. Everything went so incredibly fast, almost as if it had been sped up by some mysterious spell.
“Yes, but we are trapped in here.”
“Don't worry, we are going to get you out of there.”

I could hear the noise of digging through the debris. Suddenly she screamed:
“What...”
The debris busted in our direction. Twilight came flying through the opened gap with incredible speed. Without hesitating, I dropped the unicorn gently and flew over to her.
“It's all her.” she repeatedly yelled. “It's all her.”
Applejack was slightly faster with asking than me. “Who?!”

Twilight Sparkle was confused for a heartbeat, then answered:
“Dream Whisper. We have to...”
The sound of another explosion interrupted her. I saw Dream Whisper just sneaking into a room in the other hallway.
“I think I know where she is.” I pointed at the room. Twilight Sparkle did not waste any time. She just ran in there, without even waiting for us. We followed her, not quite sure what had happened. A lot of explosions, for sure, but what was the reason? Had Dream Whisper just become insane? Or was there another reason?
Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Fluttershy were also coming from the other side. When Twilight entered the room, she screamed:
“Dream Whisper. You have...”
Another explosion, which knocked me down, right before entering the room myself. After getting up, I stumbled through the door. There I saw it:
A giant shadow, right behind Dream Whisper. She looked at a point somewhere behind us, her face without expression. We grouped up and from somewhere Twilight acquired the Elements of Harmony. Since we had used them earlier this day, she still had them with her.
We activated the Elements of Harmony; It feels as if I am alone with them, with my friends. Just us. All the memories of our friendship flooding through my brain. The last minutes, hours, days, weeks, years.

The weakness came back instantaneously. I saw the rainbow-colored stream of energy go up to through the ceiling, just to come through it again to crush down onto the shadow. Dream Whisper shook her head, looked at us, at the rainbow, at her feet, which were already covered in stone, back to Twilight. With the expression of confusion she was encased in stone. We had not wanted for this loss to happen, but what happened had happened. It was irreversible, even Twilight knew that. There was no way to get her back. She was gone now. How should we stop this all? There was one thought, that repeated in my mind:
How could we stop this all from ever happening again?