Switched

The sky was as red as blood. It stretched endlessly over the ruins. Broken glass windows. Walls, that had crumbled down over the decades. Signs of burned marks on the stone. Dusty chairs and furniture, half broken and destroyed. A rethorn carpet. On the ground laid old metall boxes, cans and glass bottles, which were empty, their liquid had digged itself into the dry ground.

A crow was flying over the ruins. It low cries echoed over the lifless place. The wings were bashing the air. The animal flew through a window and landed on the bottles. It croaked again before with a few more powerful flaps of its wings it flew out of the ruins and glided down the valley.

The crow passed another landscape. It was hard to tell, what had been here before. The ground and gras was buried under thousands of bodies. Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies. Their eyes were blank and their maws rethorn in grimaces of agony. The bodies were twisted and laid on one another, next to one another. Every single free space was filled with fur, hooves, legs, heads, horns and wings. The horns were partly snapped off and wings rethorn. Blood ran over the corpses. The smell of death laid on the area.

Luna stood on a small spot. She was not sure, where to place her hooves. The dead ones were everywhere. Even now her ancles sank into legs, opened bellys and bodies, that laid here. Luna's eyes were wide as she looked around. The pile of corpses seemed to stretch endlessly. Every breath she inhalled, filled her longues with the smell of death, decay, misery and suffering.

What has happened here? Luna did not know. Fear and terror stroke her. This situation...it was too large. So many dead ponies. How could they all lay here in this place? Why was nopony doing anything? And what had killed them?

Hopelessness washed over Luna. No matter how hard she looked, there was no sign of life. How many ponies were laying on this hill? Hundreds? Thousands? Millions? Luna knew, if she tried to count she would go insane. It was just unimaginable. Her mind could blow if she tried to reason with this sight.

The dead bodies started to shiver. They moved up and down like waves of the sea. The ponies fell against one another. Some lost their legs or wings. It felt as if something large was laying underneath the dead ones and now tried to break free.

Luna gulped. What is that? She was not sure. Fear rooted her legs and made sure, she could not take another step. The mare watched the waves of dead ponies fly higher and higher, until finally a large, giantic mare broke out of them.

She rose and rose, until she towered above Luna. It was an Alicorn mare. White coat, a dark red mane and firey eyes. Luna almost stumbled over her own hooves. "Creator“, she panted. This ancient being had created all of Equestria, so said the legends. Apparantly this Equestria had its very own Creator as well. She had a cool, but desinteressed look on her small face.

"Luna!“ Creator's voice boomed over the blue Alicorn. She had a wide, weird smile upon her face. "The solution to the riddle is actually quite simple.“ She leaned forwards. A dead unicorn hang on her shoulder. Carelessly Creator flicked it away. The head broke over the jaw and fell down. Luna screamed in shock and jumped backwards. "It lays within our emotions.“

This cannot be. What is going on? Why is Creator so evil and...and like this?! Her wings were partly spread and her mane and tail tousled from the wind. Creator explained: "So we create the shadows. And the shadows create us.“ Her horn flared and she created several wooden crosses, while she spoke the next words: "Do not forget the message of Celestiar. That is the key.“

Thine ropes fell down from the crosses. They connected themselves with the dead bodies on the floor. Creatore slowly made them rise. Luna gulped in shock. The dead ones were rising from their graves. They danced on their strings, eyes wide and blanc, maws twitched in agony.

"Hopp“, said Creator as she used the crosses to make the corpses dance around Luna like some crazy pupeteer, "Hopp and hopp and hopp.“ They surrounded Luna, who had partly risen to her hindlegs. The Moon Princess looked around and followed the movements with twitched ears. This was a circus. The insane circus of the subconciousness and she was spectator and artist at the same time.

"Love and jealousy.“ Luna lifted her head and looked up at Creator, who had curled her lips into a disdainfull sneer, "Why is it that this feeling can be such a double-edged sword?“ The white Alicorn goddess brought out into wild, crazy laughter. "Love and jealousy!“

The dead bodies crashed against one another. Luna saw their limps fall off. Heads rolled and blanc eyes found her sapphirre glance. Ribs stuck out of the flesh, but there was no blood. The pile now was growing higher and higher as the corpses got ripped off the strings that held them together.

They rained down on Luna. The mare panted. No, no, no! Her hooves sank into the wet, soft flesh, which made her slide down. A dead pony hit her shoulder, another one laid its hooves on her hips, holding her. The massive sea of dead had come to live and Luna was drowing in it.

"Help! Help!“, Luna called, "Anypony, help!“ She yerked her head upwards. She was gasping for breath, but the smell of dead and misery slammed itself against her nostrils, choking her. Luna tried to fight herself through the bodies like a lost child. And all she could see was Creator laughing manically.

"Gah!“ Luna's head yerked up and she tried to catch her breath. Sweat ran down her neck and forehead. The navyblue Princess was sitting in her bed and had a throbbing headache. Oh, not again. She rolled her eyes and sighted. The nightmare had left a bad taste in her mouth.

This could not continue. So much had happened since she had found herself in the world of Reflections. Luna could hardly believe that already a month had passed. And this month had been the most eventfull in her entire life by now: Ursa Minors, her friends were her foes and her foes her friends, a creepy cult meeting, the murder of Starlight Glimmer. And her dreams.

Oh, her dreams. Again this nightmare had felt incredible real. Luna still had the scent of dead in her nose and mistaked the sweat in her coat for blood. Her head hurt. She shook it violentley. Going back to sleep was no opinion. I should try to take my mind away from the things.

There was for Luna one simple method she liked to do when she had too much going on in her head and wanted to get a clear mind: Catching shadow rats in the library. Those beings sometimes escaped into the real world and tried to destroy books and knowledge. Not a big surprise. They ate away the brain cells of the dreamer, in which dream they were right now.

The Moon Princess was standing at the entrance of the library. She peerked up her ears and listened. Her saphirre eyes reflected the pale light, which made them glow like the one of the cat. She slowly scanned the library. Shelves, growing out of the shadows, forming walls around her. The pages of the books rustled as Luna entered the library as if they either wanted to warn the rats or show the Princess the way.

Luna walked around a corner and stopped. Ah, there they are. Active as usual and waiting for Day X, when they will take over the world. The rats had black fur and between their legs stressed itself thick, grey skin like some sort of wings. Eyes flashed yellow in the pale grey darkness of the library.

Luna focussed on one of the rats, which was slowly dangeling at a book, digging its teeth inside the leather, trying to pull it down. Oh no, you won't! Opening her wings Luna carefully took into the air. The navyblue Princess hovered over the rats and enlightened her horn, ready to fire a beam.

The animal turned its head around. Squeaking in anger it opened its wings and flew away, trying to get into the labyrinth of books, hiding. Luna angrily flew after it. The rat and the Alicorn were chasing one another, bumping into the shelves. Despite flying in sharp circles the rat always was a few inches away from Luna's snout. Wait, until I get you, foul beast!

In the Dream Realm these beings were usually bigger about the sieze of a model pony. The danger here was not that large, but Luna still took joy in hunting down these beasts. The wild energy and excitement. Luna could simply focuss on catching the shadow rat. She felt the thrill of hunting. It always eased her mind. The rat threw itself away from the shelf and swooped past the Princess. Luna almost crashed into the shelf. She stopped and whirled around.

Her hip hit one of the books painfully and it fell down besides her. Before the rat could try another reckless jump, Luna fired a beam and killed it. Good. One more crazy brain eater is gone. The Princess yawned. Turning around she wanted to pick up the book to store it back, when she gave the cover a closer look. What is that?

The book had no title. Dust covered the brown leather as if it had not been used in months. There was a Cutiemark printed on it. A stylzed sun with a pitchblack centre. That is Celestiar's cutiemark! What was this book? Curiously Luna flipped through the pages. They were pale from the lack of sunlight and the ink so fair it must have been written in ages.

This must be my sister's countarpart's diary! Luna slowly walked to the bookrest, taking the book with her. The mare placed it on the shelf and sat down. „Maybe I will get some information about the events at last“, she whispered, „Because Celestiar has to be the source of them, hasn't she?“ She slowly opened the book and started reading. Now let's see what you have got, evil princess.