Insomnia

I never lost consciousness, but I came as close as one pony could to doing so several times on the flight back to the headquarters.

The signal flare Crush had lit shortly after we were ambushed had been a sign that the mission had a complication, and after a short while a pair of pegasi with the mark of the Lunar Offensive on their cloaks had flown in with a sky-carriage to extract us.

Starfire mumbled curses under his breath throughout the trip, and Crush only sat in silence. He didn’t betray any feeling in his expression, but I could only imagine he was shaking with anger.

Not only was Aura, a friend I had barely begun to know, now dead, but Candy’s fate was uncertain as well. There was no way of knowing what those who had taken her planned on doing with her.

As much as I thought I should be mourning for Aura, I felt no sadness. I had only known her a couple days, after all. What I did feel was anger, anger toward the unicorns who had attacked us... attacked me. We had taken care of two of them, but there was still one more who needed to pay.

Why is it that every mission we’ve gone on I’ve been in the line of fire? These ponies are going to get me killed no matter how good of a cause they may think they’re fighting for. They’re putting an innocent pony like me on the front lines, all just because I bumped into the wrong stallion at the wrong time.

I was determined that I would bring this up to Princess Luna, surely she couldn’t stand for her followers putting others in danger without good reason. If she did, then she wasn’t worth following to begin with.

After making our way back to the base and taking some time to clean up, we were finally going to have a debriefing with the princess.

I sat down at the table, across from Crush and Starfire. We sat for only a brief moment before Luna made her way into the room.

“We understand that this mission did not go as planned,” she stated, “You have lost somepony?”

Starfire swallowed.

“Yes ma’am.”

Princess Luna turned to me, her eyes narrow.

“We have noticed a trend with missions that you have been a part of, Miss Silver Charm.”

She paused, so I took the chance to respond.

“I’ve been noticing it too, Princess. I find it upsetting that ponies should put other ponies in danger like this when they’ve done nothing wrong.”

“We agree.” Her tone was cold as she levelled her gaze with me. “So why would you do such a thing?”

“B- I... what?” I found no words to express my thoughts. She thought I was endangering them?

“We have had major successes with nearly every mission we’ve sent out for the past few months due to our discreteness and member cooperation. That is, until we started sending you along, and we do not believe in coincidence in this matter.”

Starfire and Crush were both staring at me expectantly from across the table.

“How, how could I have been doing that? You’ve been watching me like a hawk ever since I got here!” I reasoned.

“Your body, yes. Your mind though, we do not know where it has been.”

I felt a pinch in my hindquarters, causing me to jump up and yelp. When I turned around, I saw an empty syringe enveloped in a magical aura.

I was immediately filled with a feeling of lethargy.

“Sweet dreams.”

I found myself once again in a dream filled with darkness. The familiar light-pony stood in the distance.

“Alright, what is this? Why did you bring me here again?”

“I did not bring you,” the light-pony responded, “you were sent.”

“Why would anypony even do that?”

The light began moving further away.

“You have to come alone, I will not speak to you this time. She can see us.”

The light kept moving, until eventually it dissipated. Then, suddenly, the room was bright again. I was still in the room with the large table. Princess Luna stood in the shadows.

I awoke from the dream somewhere new. The floor was cold and bare, and just a small bed of hay lay in the room. On one side of me was a door of steel bars.

I could see Starfire on the outside of the bars, staring in. He had the look of a madpony in his eyes.

“What the hell just happened?” I asked, standing up, “and why are you looking at me like that?”

“Luna told us what she saw in your dreams. She told us you were talking to some strange creature about us.”

I shook my head.

“I have no more idea what those dreams are about than she does, they’re just dreams, what do they have to do with any of this? Why am I in a cell?”

“If you believe Luna can walk in your dreams, why would you doubt somepony else could? I ain’t stupid,” Starfire said disdainfully. “This is all your fault. Aura is dead, and Candy is probably dead or dying, and it’s your fault.”

“I don’t know what the hell is going on, why aren’t you listening to me you idiot?” I banged a hoof on the steel door.

Starfire slowly got up and began walking away.

“I ain’t got time for you anyway, they’re gonna wipe your mind like we shoulda done to start with.”

I tried to grab at him with my magic, only to feel the familiar pain of an anti-magic ring reflecting it back into me. I had no way to see it in the empty room, so I tried to inch my magic slowly up my horn to see if I had enough room to perform the shockwave spell.

As it turned out, they seemed to have used one big enough to combat that, as it sat around the very base of my horn, preventing any magic use at all.

I sat down.

How can they just turn on me this suddenly, when I’ve only been doing everything they tell me? And what is up with this dream-treason business? I thought Luna was the one that walked in dreams. Even if somepony else had the power, why would they be in my dreams specifically?

I spent a long few hours seething in the empty room in total silence. There wasn’t the sound of other ponies at all. I had thought Luna would come to question me some more, but she had apparently decided she had done all she needed.

It would only be a matter of time before there were going to come wipe my brain, if Starfire was to be believed. I decided, if I couldn’t get somepony to talk to in the real world, I could make one last try at the dream world.

I found myself in the large table room again, but Luna was not lurking in the corner this time around. I decided to try for the only pony I could.

“I’m alone now.” My voice echoed, and there was no response for several moments. Then, the room began to grow dark.

The darkness slowly set in, until only the shape of the light-pony remained.

“Why did you bring her to me?” the voice questioned.

“I got forced into that one, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about alright? I want real answers this time.”

“Forced, you say? What is it that you seek now, then?”

“I wanna know who you are, and why you’ve been in my dreams.”

The light spent a few moments in silence, then began to slowly take a more corporeal form. The body transformed from yellow light to a pure white. The long mane and tail slowly took on the colors of the spectrum, and a sun cutie mark prominently appeared on the pony’s flank.

“Does this answer your questions, my little pony?” Princess Celestia asked.

Her true appearance was almost doubly as blinding as the light-pony had been, her very form and her smile radiated warmth.

“I must thank you for keeping an eye on my beloved sister,” Celestia walked towards me, head high, wings erect in a pose more regal than I had even seen her represented. “Luna has been acting strange again, and I feared she might be making plans in the night.”

“Of course, Princess Celestia... but how did you know how to find my dreams?”

“That’s quite simple actually, do you recall the insignia on the cloaks of Luna’s minions? When the guards were investigating your disappearance at the request of your parents, they found a piece of paper bearing the mark in your home. So, I was able to find out who you were, and who had taken you.”

I recalled receiving the parchment the night before I had been taken, and how I had only thrown it aside, so the story actually made sense.

“Now tell me, my little pony, they have wrongly imprisoned you, if I read your memories correctly. Tell me where you are being held and I shall rescue you from your misfortune.”

“Actually, I think we’ve heard enough from you, sister.” Princess Luna emerged from the darkness.

“What the-?!” Both Celestia and I responded with equal shock to Luna’s emergence.

“You’ve grown too comfortable in your power, sister, and you underestimate mine.”

Celestia’s mane began turning from its usual multicolored self into one of flame as her face contorted in anger.

She quickly leaped into the air, charging at her sister.

“Wake up, Silver!”

I shot up onto my hooves, only to immediately lose my balance. Crush supported me to keep me from falling.

“What’s going on, why are you guys here? Where are we?” I frantically looked around at the walls of what seemed to be a large wooden carriage. About a dozen of Luna’s followers sat around me, including Crush and Starfire.

“Your memory should be returning any moment,” a well-read looking unicorn wearing glasses told me.

“My memories, what are you-” As sharp pain shot through my head, my mind was becoming clearer. “We’re... we’re on the way to somewhere.”

“That’s right,” the pony, whom I now recalled to be Doctor Neighfario, assured me. “We’re going to save your friend.”

I remembered the shot the doctor had given me during a conversation with Princess Luna. She had found out I had been talking to somepony in my dreams, and was determined to find out who.

Her plan required me to be oblivious to it, since the light-pony seemed to read my memory. Since I was unaware of Luna’s presence, so was Celestia, allowing me to question her. The shot allowed me to forget a few hours of time temporarily, including the conversation we had. I only remembered waking up in the cell, and Starfire’s acting convinced me I was being blamed.

We had also found out that the three unicorns that had ambushed us were three of Celestia’s archmages, in charge of an outpost a few miles outside of Canterlot. We were headed there with a small platoon in order to quickly extract Candy, if she still lived.

We had the element of surprise, since Celestia had been fully focused on my dreams, and probably preparing some of her forces in case I revealed Luna’s headquarters to her.

“We’re nearly there,” Starfire informed me, “You got all those memories sorted out yet?”

“Sorta....”

“Just follow Crush, and take out anypony flying Celestia’s colors.” Starfire set his jaw. “We never wanted to kill nopony, but since they don’t seem to mind doin’ it, I’ll happily join in.”

The carriage stopped. I looked around at our company.

“Are a dozen ponies gonna be enough to take out an outpost?”

“Guess your  memory isn’t quite back.” Starfire opened the carriage door, and we filed out of it.

I was stunned to see seven or eight more carriages.

“We’re a hundred strong.” Starfire flew up above the crowd, and made a signal with his forehoof. “Lights out.”

I noticed that the only light was coming from a few large fires and lanterns dotting the walls of the small fort. Several of the unicorns in our company powered their horns, making forcefields around each flame. They were quickly depleted of oxygen and extinguished.

I could hear a lot of movement in the base, and one by one, unicorn’s horns started glowing within its walls. By removing the large lights, we had forced them to reveal many of their exact locations.

“Everypony pick a target,” I heard Starfire whisper. “Three, Two, One... Go.”

The horns of thirty or so unicorns in our company lit ablaze with power and vanished as I heard many wings take to the air. The earth ponies began running toward the fort, and I followed closely behind Crush.

As we made it inside, much of the fighting had already ended. Dozens of ponies in garb depicting Celestia’s cutie mark lie incapacitated or bleeding upon the ground. There was still a few dogfights going on above us between pegasi, but they grew fewer with each passing second.

I followed Crush inside as some of the ponies who had finished fighting followed behind us. We made our way through, taking out some of the stragglers who had been hiding within. As we made our way past a fork in the path, a blast of energy knocked Crush hard against the wall. I turned the corner, charging the best lightning spell I could muster, hoping the unicorn would be too taxed to shield himself.

Unfortunately, he was able to ward off my spell with minimal effort. However, he didn’t seem as prepared for the half a dozen ponies that followed behind me. They kept him on the defensive for quite a few minutes before finally cornering him and giving him a shiny new anti-magic ring.

Starfire and Crush walked into the room. Starfire approached the now helpless unicorn.

“Where’s your prisoner?” he asked simply.

The mage grinned.

“Do you know, I am also skilled at regenerative healing spells? It’s very helpful for getting information.” He sighed. “She sang so beautifully.”

“I don’t know anypony too good at those spells,” Starfire said, looking at Crush.

Crush walked over to the mage, towering over his body. Crush put a forehoof onto one of the mage’s hind legs and slowly applied pressure.

The mage shouted as his leg snapped in two, I felt sick at the sight of the malformation.

“In other words, only way that’s getting fixed is if you find a way to get us to take that ring off of you,” Starfire continued.

“Just kill me, I’m not afraid of death.” The mage growled between breaths.

“Well see I’m not too fond of killing defenseless ponies, so I’d just leave you here, no magic, no medicine. That leg of yours would get infected, and then it’d be a race to see if hunger or bacteria killed you first.”

The mage chuckled.

“You would have done well as a torturer.”

“Starfire we found her,” I turned to see one of the pegasi that had accompanied us at the door to the room.

“Well that’s too bad. We were having fun.”

“At least take this ring off of me, it’ll take me hours if not days to heal the mess you’ve made of this leg. I won’t be able to do a thing,” the mage bargained.

Starfire clicked his tongue.

“We got no use for a three-legged pony, I’m afraid we gotta put you down.”

Crush placed a hoof on the unicorns head.

“Wh-What happened to not wanting to kill defenseless ponies?” the mage panicked.

“I only said I don’t like to do that, nothin’ about my friends.”

I averted my gaze, and heard the cracking of bones and the popping of flesh. I thought I felt some warmth splatter my coat as well.

We followed another pony to the room where they had found Candy barely conscious on her back on an operating table. I looked her over, and although there was a lot of blood on the table and surrounding floor, she didn’t appear to be injured.

Guess that mage wasn’t kidding about regenerative torture....

Crush, for once since I had met him, showed some sign of emotion. He smiled and nuzzled his sister. She also smiled weakly, and looked like she was trying to speak to him, but no words came out.

“Let’s get her out before somepony calls reinforcements or something,” Starfire commanded.

I began following him out as some other ponies helped roll Candy onto her brother’s back, and they promptly followed after.

“Thanks Silver,” Starfire said to me, still looking ahead.

“I can’t really say that was my plan, I don’t even remember half of it.”

“I ain’t treated ya with too much respect, but if you hadn’t decided to use your connection to Celestia in your dreams to our advantage, we’d be short two good ponies now.”

“Well I’m glad I could save your marefriend for you.” I smirked.

“S-she’s not... I don’t know why I even try bein’ open with you,” Starfire grumbled.

“Me either, I am just a Canterlot snob, after all.”

“Just save your sarcasm for later, alright?”

We made it back to the carriages without meeting any further resistance. I overheard some ponies talking, and learned that by some miracle, we hadn’t lost a single pony in the rescue, and only a few bore minor injury.

Candy had been put in a carriage with a bed and some medical supplies separate from the rest of us, and the doctor I had met on the way had been assigned to the carriage to examine the extent of her injuries.

We had also secured some supplies, weapons, and a new crate of anti-magic rings. Once everything and everypony had been loaded onto the carriages, we started back to Canterlot under the cover of the night.