Ponywar

All of a sudden, I started feeling things again. This sensation of cold was more intense than before. I remembered entering a sort of portal, but I had no memories from what happened between that moment and the present. Nor did I know where I was.

“Of course you don't know where you are.”

I recognized that voice... although I wasn't sure if I should be scared or not. Ahead of me was a white and gray landscape. The trees stood still beside the calm lake, and the mountains that could be seen in the distance were so high that their peaks were playing hide and seek in the clouds. The sky itself was a strange mixture of light gray colors. All of this looked immortal, frozen in time. The only sign of life was my own breath, along with that mysterious cold stream of air.

As I slowly began to turn around, I noticed there were ancient Greek looking columns, yet they were not supporting any roof. They were simply aligned to form a kind of path. I took a few steps on the marble floor, until I was able to see two doors a few meters away. A couple of seats and cushions were delimiting half a circle in front of them.

There, sitting in one of the chairs, was an odd looking man. He seemed to be wearing a simple metallic armor, with a red royal coat laying on his shoulders. Before I could do anything, the man slowly stood up, as if he had sensed my approach. A small crown, apparently made of the same metal, covered his forehead and part of his long dark hair. But what hooked my attention were his eyes; never in my life had I seen anything close to these. The irises were red, and instead of being white, the rest of the eyes was filled with bright green. And vertical pupils, like those of cats, completed that frightening aura surrounding this man.

“I wish I had the time to explain all of this to you,” said the man, again with this dark low voice of his, “but I don't have it. Someone else will take care of that, though.”

“But, where am-”

“Let me interrupt you: as I was saying, we have no time. Please enter the door to my left.” While speaking, he moved his left arm in a circular motion to show me the said door.

I started walking slowly. I didn't really have the choice: I didn't know where I was, what I was doing here or even if I was still alive. Was this some sort of purgatory? As I was about to take my first step inside the door frame, I took a glance back. The last things I saw were a silver bracelet around the man's wrist, and his eyes glowing. Suddenly, I recognized him.

“King Sombra,” I whispered.

A last sinister laugh from him is all I got before losing consciousness again.

“You can come now, my dear,” said Sombra. “I believe our new friend did not see you; that is a good thing.”

From behind one of the columns emerged a changeling. He walked to Sombra slowly. No sound could be heard as his pierced hooves clopped on the marble ground.

“Do you remember your tasks?” asked Sombra.

“Perfectly, my lord,” replied the changeling. His voice sounded unnatural, as if more than one person was speaking.

“Great. You should go then.”

As the insect-like pony made his way towards the left door, Sombra added, “Oh... and tell her to plan it big. This is something all of Equestria might want to hear of.”

When I woke up, I felt pretty dizzy, just as if I was recovering after being stunned. My head was an heavy load to carry, and it took a few efforts to stand up. I didn't really feel my legs either. I tried to walk, but immediately fell on the ground. I had no choice but to lie on my back until this strange feeling went away.

As I looked at the course of the clouds in the sky, I noticed that something was not quite right about the sun. I realised after a while that it was moving faster than usual; I could see it slowly go down towards the skyline and the mountains far away. The sun's light was bright and pure, giving the clouds some peach tones as it swiftly went through and around them. A couple of minutes later, and the sun was reaching the top of the mountains. Strange patterns covered up the sky, ranging from fierce red and pink flames to frightening purple and blue waves. A sudden mild breeze pushed the last clouds afar, and the night began.

I was not expecting a huge moon like this, though. I knew something strange was going on (and that giddy feeling refused to leave my mind), but this was the most unreal thing I had seen so far. I simply closed my eyes in an attempt to get some rest. This place was so silent and calm that it didn't take long for me to fall asleep. At least that's what I thought at first.

I was awoken later at night after hearing a distant sound. I could not be sure of anything because of my condition and the odd timespan of this place, but after a quick glance, the moon didn't really seem to have moved, despite the impression I had of sleeping for hours. I heard the sound once more: it sounded like flapping, almost as if a bird was flying near me. I opened my eyes for good to see what caused this midnight melody.

Everything I considered strange up to this point was nothing compared to what I saw. I must have still been dreaming, because what was before my eyes was undoubtedly impossible: somewhere between me and the moon was a flying creature, gently descending in my direction. The distance was too big for me to clearly tell, but the four-legged horse-like vision seemed to have a horn, and its color was similar to the gradients of dark blue surrounding the moon.

I started to chuckle at my own imagination. "It has to be a dream." I repositioned myself and tried to get back to sleep. "Everything will be fine tomorrow, no more strange stuff. It's just a dream."

"You are not dreaming... I mean, this is your dream for me, but reality for you."

As these words were spoken, the dizziness disappeared and I almost instantly felt better. I managed to get on my feet, but I was still uncertain about if this whole scenario was real or not. I had a weird impression about my body. Right before me, a few meters away, was standing what I was afraid I had seen flying in the skies: an alicorn, the name given to unicorns with wings. I had no idea of how to react in front of a character of My Little Pony, but it was unquestionable: Luna was standing there. Princess Luna, to be accurate.

"Creatures of your kind are not meant to exist here. Not in this dimension," added Luna.

"What- what do you mean?" I asked in a shy voice.

"My sister suffered obscure premonitions lately, and so did I. The moon has been speaking of an old and forgotten hallow place, one of which nopony besides us could have known its existence. Your aura is full of this millenary energy, young pegasus," she continued.

"Young... pegasus?" I said, struck by confusion once more.

Her horn glowed brightly for a moment, and a few seconds later, we were standing by a calm pond, under the branches of a willow. A mild fire was burning close to where we stood. Its warmth comforted me. She gently invited me to step to the edge of the water, and to bend over it. I was not expecting what I saw in this moonlight improvised mirror, yet at the same time, it seemed natural after the journey I had so far.

I don't know how much time I spent there, looking at my new self. Instead of seeing the usual me, the reflection showed a creature similar to Luna, but smaller. His coat was of a light purple, lilac like, and as Luna stated, it was indeed a pegasus, seeing the folded wings laying on his back. The mane was relatively short, gently sliding down the neck to end up in three short spikes, with a similar tail. The tones reminded me of a deep night, alternating between royal and midnight blue. The eyes were sapphire blue, just like my own. When I raised my hand before my eyes, the image in the water moved, and I could now see a hoof instead of fingers; all of this was so strange. At least it explained the new body sensations: new morphology came with new anatomy.

Without a warning, my wings spread out, and I almost suddenly felt a sort of pain to my new wing muscles. At least I got to know where they were immediately. As the first sensations disappeared, I was able to normally activate these parts of my body, and my wings began to flap. I would have tried to actually fly if Luna didn't interrupt me at this instant.

"We do not know what happened to you. I think that it was planned by evil forces." She looked at the moon, gathering her thoughts. "You might know soon, in which case, please do tell us what is awaiting our world. We do not have much time before us."

She sat by the fire, and after one last glance at the night sky, she closed her eyes and solemnly said, "May your journey help us all. Now, sleep well, my children.”

I suddenly felt exhausted. I couldn't resist but to fall in a deep, calm sleep under the moonlight, by the remaining embers of Luna's fire.

I dreamed of flying between clouds and skies. The sun was feeling nice on my skin – no, my coat – and the wind was gliding under my body as I soared up in the blue. When I reached a certain altitude, I folded my wings back to prepare a risky swoop. The high speed made me close my eyes, full of tears. The ground was coming; I could feel the tension in my muscles, getting ready for the last minute change of direction. A few more seconds...

And I opened my eyes. I was laying on my back, wrapped up in my wings. Above me was a blue sky without any clouds. Waking up as a pony wasn't really different, except that I now had four legs instead of two, and that my back had been upgraded with a tricky pair of wings, which were not quite helpful to get up. As soon as I was standing firm on my new hooves, I panicked. I was not on the ground but on a cloud! The fear instinctively made me walk back, but I was not paying enough attention, and I fell off my only safety platform.

I screamed for help, but I had to admit it to myself, who seriously would, by any chance, be passing by to rescue me? I put my front hooves over my eyes and hoped that my death would be painless. When I hit something, I thought my life was done and that I became a puddle of flesh and blood on the ground, but to my surprise, the ground shouted, "What in hell?!"

The ground was not supposed to talk, of that I was sure. Either I was already dead, or all of this was a big hallucination. I still had the impression of going down, and as a matter of fact, me and the talking piece of soil crashed onto a pile of hay. When I managed to get my head out of there, I saw... wait, was this really what I thought it was? The hay was stacked on the wall of a barn, which happened to be located on a nice looking farm surrounded by orchards. Not too far away, I could see a town, with that recognizable crystal-tree castle in the background.

Then out of nowhere came a pink pony, bouncing on her four hooves, and singing some welcome song to me. At the same time, I felt something moving under me, and a few moments later, I saw a rainbow-colored mane emerge from the hay. The pain in my head was not lying: this was happening for real.

"Rai- Rainbow Dash?" was all I could mutter, before falling unconscious once more.