The sight of it all seemed enough for Celestia. The endless trekking through the dead forest, healing wounds of Twilight and Luna, the dispute Twilight shared with Celestia, and the state of their affairs. Celestia looked around and saw that they had a rather good place to return to. A forward camp so to speak, until they can find at least somepony in the goddess forsaken wasteland. Celestia could feel the dead that they were standing on, it was faint and their whispers almost unable to be recognized, but they could be heard. Dark whispers that put Celestia slightly on edge.

Celestia crossed her hooves and stated, "Well we can't stay here, at least not for very long. Thought I doubt it very much, we would need to find at least somepony in this place."

She offered her gaze to Luna as she explained, "If we might be able to say something, we think that this was the sight of a most recent battle. At least that is what we can sense from the earth around us. If we are going to have any chance at finding anypony we are going to have to leave this place and this place is at least a thousand square miles. It will not be easy."

Celestia released a sigh of irritation and stated, "Then we have to move quickly."

"But we don't even know which direction to go?" Twilight said, "At least not during the day, I'm sure that both Luna and I could navigate the stars here so we know which direction to go."

"And I as well advise us not to fall asleep unless we really need to," Luna added, "Concord has changed the Dreamscape, once you enter it will be difficult to open but I can do it."

"Well what of the council members?" Celestia asked still keeping her eyes on her sister.

Luna shrugged her shoulders, "Even if I knew where they were they would hardly be any help, I would need two or three of them at my side at least. It would take me too long to find them, it seems that Concord thought this out very well."

Celestia had to give credit to the two thousand year old spirit of time. He separated the three princesses of Equestria from their homeland in who know's where, taken control of the Dreamscape, scattered the Council of the Scape, and holds Equestria in a titanic grip. And to make matters worse they had three months to escape or Luna would die. That is unless she can find a way to control them. This pressing for time put a damper on things, Celestia was not a fast learner. She preferred to master something over the course of many centuries. To be thrust into a situation where tensions are high with her former student and she missed Discord dearly, not only that but her favorite niece died. It all put so much pressure on her shoulders, without Twilight the elements of harmony are ineffective and the seeds of chaos were out of the question.

Celestia moved her gaze to Twilight as she asked, "Who is Concord anyways?"

They met gazes, filled with obvious tension but dare not say a word considering Luna's condition. Celestia explained, "Concord is the Spirit of Time, or at least he used to be. He protected the time waves as I protect the day and Luna protects the night. He is as well Discord's older brother. They were noble members of the Draconequus Empire that existed so long ago. They were just normal practitioners of magic when we first met them, it was only when Elmashul returned did things change. Elmashul was a dark god, ancient when the world was young. We could not defeat him normally, so Concord decided a few things. He had already ascended to the position of Spirit of Time and had enough magic that he could do a few things. He could make relics of masterful craft and power to protect Equestria. He created the Tree of Harmony."

Luna jumped in, offering Twilight's attention, "But in order to keep magical balance he needed to create something of chaos as well. He initially offered to sacrifice himself so that we had a chance to defeat him. But Discord offered himself instead and so created the Seeds of Chaos. The magic tainting Discord's mind and corrupting him into something awful. But, with the tree we were able to defeat Elmashul and protect Equestria once more."

Celestia offered everypony's attention as she looked downcast and said, "Yet, with every villain we stopped, seemed to go to him to drive him to this point."

Twilight saw the dour look on Celestia's face and, trying with all she could, offered her hoof in sympathy and said, "You can't pin this on yourself, if anypony is to blame it's me. They were my enemies, not yours."

Celestia could sense that she really still felt sour about their earlier argument, and it was that fact that Celestia stood back up straight and shrugged Twilight's hoof off her shoulder. They returned cold stares and Luna picked up on the feelings and said, "Perhaps we should move as soon as possible."

The air was not much better as it had been a few hours before. They rested for a good five minutes, long enough that neither of them slipped into the Dreamscape. But it was not enough for Twilight to fully rest her still stinging wounds. It seemed that they were much more permanent than her teacher had thought. The dust plains were soft against her hoof falls. She looked down and saw stained rags wrapped around her hooves, her chest, stomach, and shoulder. It seemed that they had sustained a lot of wounds, and she could feel the residual magic that affected them all.

As opposed to common public opinion she was not the princess of friendship, she was the princess of magic. Which offered her sense she never knew she had. She could sense magic by a few miles out, it just depended on whether or not she was paying attention. It was a subtle feeling in the back of her mind, but unmistakable if she was paying attention. And the magic that stained their minds and bodies was that of Concord's, it felt dark and ancient. Beyond compare of anything Twilight has felt thus far. But it seemed as though Luna had more of it staining her. She knew it had to deal with the curse that was on her. Twilight could not begin to understand what it feels like to have souls tearing apart your psyche every minute of every day. It was not even within her willingness to comprehend as she has already said to herself.

The dust was a dark ashy looking color, and the sky grey with large wisps of dark green, no sun peaking through the curtain of ash. Her gaze moved to the large swirls of green. They were not auroras, they would be much thinner and more wavy of they were auroras. She as well would have felt a sense of wonder looking at the large waves of celestial light. But these filled her with warning and alertness, it was odd. She decided to move her gaze away from anything but those strange waves of light. And looked over the dead looking wastes they were standing in. There were large plateaus that stood eerily quiet at their approach, large pillars of stone that stared blankly at her. Wherever they were, it was not Equestria. It could not have been. Equestria always felt alive and peaceful. This was a dead feeling.

But unfortunately her gaze set on something that she was not willing to look at, the back of her mentor's head. How could Celestia have done something so selfish? How could she be so short sighted that this would not have some sort of effect on her. Every time Twilight looked at her she thought of the countless times that her magic had suddenly failed her. And that handicap was still on her. Perhaps if Twilight could find the spell she could remove it and she could evolve her standing as an alicorn. Grow to her full height.

The crunching of the dry sand resounded to take over their ears. Twilight mades sure to put a locator spell where they were in case they needed to return. Though, she needed to avoid expending too much of her magic. Wherever they were, it was not pleasant and was not strong in magic like Equestria was. Equestria was practically bleeding it, magic was in so much abundance. Twilight kept her death staring gaze at her former teacher. The nerve of that mare.

They walked down some loose stones and the land opened up. Vast and sprawling was the dead desert. Grey ashes staining the ground. Rocks and boulders jagged stabbing upwards towards the sky. Spears stabbing into the sky above. It all filled Twilight with gloom and depression. Something that was not exactly new, Twilight had faced it before in the past and was not about to face it again. She tucked the feelings away and looked over the vast ashen plains. They stopped to see it in its dark majesty. Twilight heard Luna ask, "Can you feel that?"

Celestia nodded, "Yes, like a thousand screams all calling out for help all at once. A host of dead souls.

Celestia began trekking and lead the group down the hill, "Keep your guards up, Tartarus knows what creatures might reside on this planet."

Twilight shook her head and added, "Nothing too friendly, according to the climate nothing should be living in this pla-"

Twilight's words died in her throat as she heard an ear splitting roar that rumbled the ground and shook the earth around them. They all shot their heads around to see what was making that noise. Twilight looked around and with the daze of the shaking she barely made out the shape, but she turned around and saw a large lumbering beast charging towards them. It could not have been more than sixty feet tall, huge arms and short legs with little patched of fur. The rest was scale and it held a vicious mussel on its head, soulless eyes glued to the three appetizing ponies that was in its field of vision. From working with Fluttershy and her animals a few times she knew, she knew signs of aggression and signs of intimidation. This one showed intimidation. Jagged stones erupted out of the sides of its head and elbows, like it had once belonged to the landscape itself.

Now they all turned to see the lumbering beast and Luna proclaimed as it began to charge towards them, knocking down everything in its path, "Great, not even a day in this mysterious world and already we found the largest creature and it wants to kill us."

Celestia shouted, "Shut up and run!"

Author's Note

Long over due and a little short compared to the others I know, but just soak this in and wait for the next update.