Noxious and disorientated by the sudden mist of blue enveloping me, I wobbled and staggered side to side, a feeling of daze instilled within my head irritatingly. Stilling my footing, I felt a portion of my composure returning as I dazedly stood.

I bit my lip softly, the distasteful migraine still plaguing the corner of my skull.

"Ugh," I muttered out, cursing out words under my breath, my eyes clenched shut as a migraine-like pain drilled itself into my head. Shrugging it off, I opened my eyes.

Hazy, for as far as my vision went, everything was obscured in the bluish mist. As vapor, however, the midnight blue mist, glittering with cinders of magic, began to dissipate. Soon enough, everything became clear... however, one particular entity struck me as off.

It was the Nightmare who was with me prior. He stood, motionless and stilled, his head tilted curiously towards me. Still, suspending loosely with a chain-like necklace, was the audio device hanging just below his neck.

With the nausea dimming down, I spoke up to him, "Why... are you still here?"

He adjusted himself, setting his head upright as he glared at me. "I shall be your guide for now. Her majesty, Nightmare Moon, personally instructed me to do so as Equestria has changed drastically over the past several months."

I widened my eyes a bit. "Oh... is that so?"

He nodded simply. "I take it that you're somewhat astonished that I could talk?"

"You were awfully quiet during my talk with Nightmare Moon," I answered. "I presumed you to be mute, actually."

"I'd prefer not to interfere with her majesty." He slithered about, circling around the area, his tail slithering and bolting side to side in an almost entrancing pattern.

"Has... Equestria really changed this much?" A bit pensive, I loosened my wariness, my head shooting glances left to right, my eyes calculative and striving to catch even the slightest of details.

"Take a look for yourself..." He motioned his front legs together, spreading them to each side overhead.

Promptly, I glanced around.

I was currently in some dark room of some sort. A skyline in the form of a large, wide glass pane with a black frame was present, embedded within the ceiling's surface. Moonlight seeped into the room from the large window, partially lighting up the darkened room. Through this skyline, I could see that it was nighttime--the black canvas strewn with brazened stars and the imposing moon apparent within the skyline.

I cast my gaze downwards, observing the things adjacent around me.

A grand oak table was present within the middle of the room--I stood just to the left side of it, eyeing it with a bit of incredulity and amazement; such a table like this? Here in a decrepit place? Still in pristine quality? Impressive.

Chairs, sharing much similarity in their quality and wood with the large table in the table that they're encompassing, stood idly. They too seemed to have been an artisan's masterpiece.

'I ponder... could this have been a meeting room of some sort?' I shut my eyes a bit, indulging myself with my thoughts. 'Could this be Canterlot? No... Can't be.' I motioned myself towards the middle of the room, piercing my gaze upon the sizable, circular window tinted somewhat with black.

Trees.

...and Lava.

Trees for as far as my eyes could see. The ground beyond this building was a pallid, ashen black. Rivers trailed across the ground, but instead of fresh water, the rivers were instead brimming with lava. Cinders were strewed everywhere; heaps of ash and fluttering, glowing cinders decorating this desolate-yet-living place.

I could see no more than glades of trees of charcoal trunks and ashen gray leaves through the distance, blurring everything in the horizon; I felt somewhat claustrophobic even. These myriad trees seemed to have mantled on for miles... Just how expansive is this forest that we're in?

'Where is this even?'

Suddenly, I noticed that the land was basked in purplish radiance. This purple light were eerie and cool, yet it still gave off a faint warmth. Extending my hoof towards the pane of glass of the window, I indeed felt the warm of the purple rays gleaming through the window.

I glanced upwards, spotting the purple, nebulous canvas stretching forth through the entire horizon, masking the natural skies of Equestria.

I glared at this new sky of Equestria, a certain disbelief and aghast feeling evoking in my chest as I continued to behold the purple, glittering skies.

It was as if it was night, but the lighting was just as clear during the daytime as purplish beams of radiance beamed down from the firmament. There was not a meager, lone patch of clouds anywhere--as if all of the nimbi have seemingly dissipated into nothingness. Instead, within the distant void of space, with full clarity, were celestial figures.

Halos of stardust veiled across the purplish space, shining out like carpets within the endless vastness of amethyst. Stars dotted across the canvas, piercing their light into Equestria as they kindled within the celestial abyss. Novas flared and promptly dissipated, forming blinking lights within the spacial curtain.

I reared away from the window, my steps faint and faltering. Inch by inch, the window distanced itself from me as I stood back.

"This is not Equestria..." I muttered out, defiance roaring throughout my tone as I staggered away from the window. I shot a look at the Nightmare mere feet beside me, craning my neck swiftly. "Tell me... please. Tell me that this isn't Equestria!" A well of tears began to brim at the grooves of my eyes, blurring the corner of my vision a bit.

The Deceit simply shook his head, the glow in his eyes fading from view as he closed his eyelids. "I'm afraid that if I told you that, that'd be little more than fallacy."

"What... what had they done to it?" I demanded, affirming my stance still, stiffening my legs. "What have they done to my home?!" Thundering, the magic around me responded to my ire, cascading torrents of crackling, arcane sparks whirring around me.

He leveled his gaze upon my own, opening his burning red eyes once more, casting a collective stare at me. "This is but the process of merging two worlds together. Please secede your wrath before you burn this building to the ground."

I snarled a bit, but nevertheless, the tension ringing throughout my presence began to quell, my anger being sated by my logic. "Fine... I suppose there is no benefit of becoming enraged. If I have to find a way to stop all this, I have to move... quickly."

"Indeed." The snake-like Nightmare slithered towards the table. Slanting his figure, he rested upon it, planting his right frontal leg on its maple surface. "See if you can figure out which part of Equestria we're at." He gestured towards the window that I was just viewing through earlier with his free leg, waving me off.

Disregarding that particular gesture with a shrug, I went to look through the window once more, nothing but caliginous dirt and thorny trees streaking through the land as far as I can see.

Wherever this place was, it was situated in an area with a vastness of greenery, ivy, and trees. I doubt that Canterlot can turn into something like this... Not to mention that Canterlot is situated on the side of a mountain.

I continued idly glancing at the broken earth, my mind still befuddled with thoughts. There's a piercing sorrow crying from the soil... Bit of sadness tugging at my head, I glanced at the pallid dirt, seeing nothing but promising death within their murk. 'And the miasma heralds nothing but solemnity.'

I broke my train of though, sighing as I did. Returning my attention towards the maple-wood table in the middle of the table. I was captivated by its adornments; engravings depicting spirals and bends of ivy amidst the refined wood were capturing my appeal for it.

Running my hooves along its grandiose surface of golden brown emblazoned and glazed with shining varnish, mostly out of enticement, I felt its cold touch searing into my hoof. I retracted back my hoof, a bit of a grimace forming on my face; it wasn't exactly freezing, but it was uncomfortably cold.

Looks can be deceiving, I suppose. I backed off a bit from the table, sighing somewhat disappointed.

I returned to examining the room, furthering my glances around this chamber. Portraits hung around the walls, riddled with dust and their arranging crooked--presumably due to age. I narrowed down my vision onto the ponies of various statures and appearances depicted within the canvases. There was a dreading familiarity within them... but I just can't discern them at all.

I sighed. This inability to name somepony who seemed so familiar just by looking at them was dauntingly annoying. 'Perhaps it's because of the dust obscuring their images?

"You can't recognize these ponies?" Slithering beside me, the Nightmare pointed at these canvases.

"No." I shook my head courtly. "I don't seem to recognize any of them."

"Unsurprising." Hissing, the Nightmare slithered towards the wall. "They all donned cloaks , yes?"

"Cloaks..." My eyes widened a bit out of spite and surprise, but mostly out of spite. "Ah... I see. So these figures are the Dreamcatchers..."

The tailed Nightmare glided throughout the room, edging towards the archway that lead further into this decrepit mansion-like facility. "Not only just Dreamcatchers, but the leading figures of them."

"Yes." The Deceit nodded at me. "Come now. Time is valuable," he began slithering towards the middle corner of the right side of the room, approaching the exit of this room. "We have to find something that lies within these corridors... something in particular that will undoubtedly help you."

"And what is that 'something' to be exact?" I cocked my head slightly to the right as I asked, tailing just behind him as he began to take the lead, descending into the next room.

This room, or more specifically hallway, was dim, but I can vaguely make out discernible objects within this lowly corridor. The barely spaced out walls were streaked with moss, emanating a miasma of pungent mildew. The flooring, made of wood, were creaky and unstable, caving in just due to my weight alone--I'm not heavy, mind you... unlike my cake-addicted sister. The ceiling hung loosely from both my and my friend's heads. Shattered and battered, I could see depressions within the ceiling, giving me a view through cracks within it.

Suddenly, the Deceit ahead of me stopped, coiling himself in place. "Do you smell that?" he asked, his voice hushed and harsh as he turned his head towards me, shooting me a stern glance.

I blinked a bit momentarily, uncertain. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath through my nostrils, drawing in a spacious amount of air as I intently searched for whatever scent has caught the attention of my friend here.

I opened my eyes as I exhaled, arching my eyebrow at him. "No... I smell nothing."

"Figures. After all, I am part-serpentine... Snakes have good sense of smell to make up for our poor eyesight and hearing, you know." he stated as he shrugged. Slithering forwards, he spoke up, "It's oil... by the intensity of the smell, I'd say that it's either near us or are in very large quantities, or possibly both."

I flared my eyes wide as I trotted after him. Catching up to him within this long hallway, I whispered back to him, "Oil? Why do you seem so relaxed about this? Somebody could be attempting to burn this building down--while we're still in it!" I couldn't help but raise the pitch of my voice a tad bit at last bit of that sentence.

"We simply have to locate it, make certain that nopony is around to ignite it, and leave." He concluded, "After that... we may return to our search for that particular 'something'."

I sighed as I followed him further, this seemingly endless hallway taunting me. "And could you please elaborate on what this 'something' is, exactly?"

"Oh." He uttered out in a deadpan voice, "A Dreamcatcher--not the member of an insane cult, but the weapon manufactured by aforementioned cult. Quite flummoxing that they decided to name their weapon after their organization name, don't you agree?"

I nodded as I stared at him a bit... off-putting. "Yes... I agree. I thought so too of that."

Author's Note

Editors still wanted...

Please help.