Wavering Perception

It had been a long day. A rather tiring day, and one that had taken everything Twilight had to end it.

Starlight Glimmer had returned, and in her mild madness, had attempted to change the very history of Equestria. Only through some desperate thinking was Twilight able to save the timeline, and see had seen far too many alternatives.

Far too many places where devastation and death were common. Where the villains had won, where her friends were either gone or evil themselves.

Or timelines where nothing had survived whatever had taken the world.

Starlight was within the castle now, regretful and already attempting make some kind of reparations. That was comforting to Twilight, especially seeing as how she nearly…

Twilight shook her head as she got into her own bed. It was worthless to think of that.

It was over and done with and she was never going to have to worry about something like that ever again.

She closed her eyes and relaxed, and soon, she was sleeping…

It was a hard life. A hard time. A war.

The Empire had returned, and with it, Sombra. Stronger than ever, and leading an army with wisdom. He wasn’t allowing what had defeated him in the first place to happen again, and his long imprisonment had only hardened his hate and tempered his anger.

He wasn’t making mistakes, and he was determined not to.

It was a hard time, a hard life, and it effected everypony. Little happiness could be found, but some drops yet remained.

But every day, the empire pushed farther, and every day, it grew a little bleaker for the ponies of Equestria.

Twilight woke with a yawn, and stretched as she climbed out of her bed. She stood on a wooden floor, and she smelled apples. Lots of apples, and the faint tang of smoke.

Her eyes shot open, and she found herself… someplace she didn’t know.

A small room, a bed not her own behind her, and a distressingly familiar sight outside of the window.

A smog chocked sky, and apple trees, sickly but still strong as far as the eye could see.

She felt a sudden terror, and ran out the door, and down a set of stairs, through a house so familiar and yet so changed, and exited outside to stare in horror.

She knew that farm. The air filled with smoke, the dark, dirty appearance of everything as far as the eye could see. Apple trees, neglected.

She was… she was back here.

Why? How? How!?

It didn’t make any…

She had to get back to the,

Her panicked thoughts were interrupted by a cough. She turned, and saw Applebloom regarding her with a confused expression. The filly had a mask on, but even so, she coughed, and Twilight could tell she was ill.

“Where’d ya come from?” Applebloom asked, her voice muffled and raspy. “I…” she coughed again, “I ain’t never seen ya’ll afore.”

Twilight didn’t respond, her mind almost shut down from shock. But she still worked, and she acted instinctually.

A little bit of magic to clean the filly, and a touch more to determine what she suffered from. Identifying a growing problem, due to inhaling too much smoke, and using a more complex spell to clear the worst of it away from her windpipe. Symptom relief alone; the real problem would take much more.

Applebloom blinked at the vague tingle, confused at the magic, and suddenly, she could breathe easily again.

Twilight turned and ran toward where she knew her castle should be, and Applebloom watched her go, noting the wings on her.

Behind her mask, the filly gaped, her eyes growing huge. And then she ran to find her older sister.

Twilight skidded to a stop in an empty field, and stared.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing was there, not even an indication of it being there.

There was no table, no map, and no spell.

She was trapped. Transported by some unknown method, and trapped in a nightmare. One action removed from her friends, her life, everything she knew. Trapped in a mockery of her… her world.

In the face of it, Twilight simply sighed and fell over. She couldn’t handle the idea of being trapped. It was too much for her.

So she denied it, and faced with irrefutable proof, she fainted.

A life of dreams. An endless dream of happiness, while the body wasted away. Where ponies slept in cocoons, and the changelings gathered them, and harvested their love.

A world where the queen had won, and in her success, was going farther.

Ponies weren’t the only beings to feel love after all…

Twilight stirred once again, but she kept her eyes closed.

She didn’t particularly want to see what lay on the other side of them.

“She moved.” A deep voice said.

“Twilight?” a familiar voice said, and Twilight opened her eyes.

She saw Fluttershy, and for an instant, she calmed. Then she saw better.

Fluttershy had a scar on her face, and a minotaur standing next to her, and the flickering light form a lantern revealed the surroundings to be some kind of cave.

She looked closer, and saw the fire in Fluttershy’s eyes. She had seen that before.

That Fluttershy had once threatened her with a spear. Hiding in the Everfree from queen Chrysalis, after…

But hadn’t she just been in the other place? Time? Reality?

“Twilight.” Fluttershy said, waving her hoof in front of Twilight’s face. “Twilight, are you alright?”

She shook herself. A mystery to be found later. She should try to focus on the here and now.

“I’m O.K.” she said, righting herself. “And hello Mr.…” she looked at the minotaur.

“Iron Will.” he said, his voice gruff and harsh.

“Iron Will. Where am I?”

“This is the lower sanctuary.” Fluttershy told her, Iron Will watching. “Where you just… appeared on my bed.”

Twilight nodded, getting to her hooves. She looked around, noting the rough nature of the cavern, and seeing the signs of recent digging. The cave wasn’t particularly old at all.

“…What happened to the forest?” she asked. Fluttershy frowned and looked down.

“…Most of us didn’t make it.” the pegasus said softly, and Twilight froze. “We fought, but the queen herself came. I got four others and we ran.”

“We managed to find a cave, and Iron Will found us. Apparently, the minotaur and the diamond dogs have been hiding and fighting like we had been, and offered us shelter.”

“But… Every day, we go deeper. Hiding and running. Five ponies, a dozen minotaur, and about a hundred diamond dogs.”

“It’s less a resistance than…” Fluttershy trailed off and then shook her head. “It’s bad Twilight. Really bad.”

“…I thought you were supposed to escape back to where you came from… That you wouldn’t end up like us…”

Twilight shook her head softly, stunned. “I did go back.” She said, and Fluttershy looked confused.

“But,”

“I went back, and I fixed it. I changed it back, I returned to my home, my place. I saw the things I know, I talked to the ponies that I… I walked into my own bed, and I thought it was over...”

“But I… I woke up here.” she finished, omitting the other timeline she had fainted in. She felt that she shouldn’t bring it up for some reason.

Fluttershy gave her a pitying look. “Is there a way back?” she asked, and one look at Twilight’s face was enough to tell her the answer.

She sighed. “Well… you’re welcome here Twilight. Fighting and running and digging until the changelings catch up to us all.”

A sudden rumble made Fluttershy flinch, and yelling came from elsewhere.

“Digger!”

Fluttershy glared with near bloodthirst, turning to go as Twilight hesitated. “Burn it!” the pegasus yelled as she shot out.

Twilight reached out, yelling, “Burn it!?” with absolute shock. “Fluttershy!”

She had barely begun to move when something shook the cavern, and without any real warning, a rock broke free of the cavern ceiling, and fell with near perfect accuracy.

“Fluttershy, wai,”

A time of eternal night. A world where light was rare and precious, but not unknown.

The moon above shone bright. It was enough to see by, but color was mostly forgotten, and life was very different. It was peaceful, but at a high price.

Equestria was a military state. Enemies from without were met with weapons and spells, not words or kindness. Anypony within who chose to try something often met the same fate:

Execution for the leader of a resistance, and incarceration for the members until they agreed to serve in the armed force.

The lunar guard.

Twilight groaned, coming to once again with a splitting headache. She wasn’t entirely sure what had hit her, but it had been big and heavy.

She reached up and rubbed at her head, where she felt a large bump and a bit of dried blood. She must have been knocked unconscious by some rock knocked loose form the cave during the… attack?

She gave a little thanks that it hadn’t hit her horn, and that’s when she registered what she was lying upon.

It was soft. Softish. A lot softer than stone should be.

She opened her eyes and saw a stone wall, and a barred window. She could see the moon outside of the window, and noticed that her bed was little more than a cot placed on a bare stone floor.

She turned, and then froze.

The room was small, with a sturdy stone door the only exit. Three ponies were with her inside the room.

Two dark ponies with dour expressions wearing dark armor. Two unicorns to be specific.

And the last was Nightmare Moon. Staring at her with a perfectly neutral expression, but Twilight could see something terrible in her eyes.

Nightmare Moon obviously remembered her.

“Welcome back.” she said, her voice cold and hard, but Twilight heard a note of curiosity in her voice.

“I thought you had escaped, off to do whatever it was you planned. And yet… Here I find you, seemingly willingly imprisoning yourself in my own dungeon, in the most secure place.”

Nightmare Moon frowned faintly, but she was confused more than angry. Suspicious, looking for an answer, but she wasn’t mad. Yet.

“Why?” she asked rather pointedly. Twilight gaped, and she added, “Careful; the answer might mean the difference between you, alive, and you, dead.”

Twilight stared at the dark alicorn. She was off-balance, confused, mildly terrified, and was in a poor condition to think. But in the face of fear, she somehow found the strength to think past it. In some sort of strange, crystal clear clarity, her mind worked.

Nightmare Moon needed to be kept confused. She wasn’t going to fall for the same trick twice, and she would be watching for any indication of trickery. She needed to be convinced that Twilight was harmless, and being smart was not going to do that.

But acting the part of a mad mare might.

“I just wanted to enjoy the luxury in here.” she said, blurting out the first thing she thought of.

She felt a lot calmer when Nightmare Moon blinked, confusion visible in her body language. The two guards glanced at one another, uncertain.

She kept on talking, “It really is nice, I mean, the moon view, and the way you can just barely see the trees outside. The bed is just the right amount of soft and hard for a good sleep too, and the isolation really helps the mind work.”

Seeing confusion remaining, her hope grew. Babbling a little, she continued, “Dealing with everypony is sometimes just tiring, you know what I mean? Peace and quiet and having meals delivered to you, now that’s luxury. Ten out of ten in my own, humble, opinion.”

“I enjoy the tiny space too, since,”

“SILENCE!” Nightmare roared, unable to hear anymore. Twilight stopped talking and gave the dark alicorn her brightest smile, which upset her more, but it was distressing her. It wasn’t making her mad.

“I have lived for millennia, and I never once heard such… such…”

“Kindness or flattery?” Twilight offered, sounding as if she only wanted to help Nightmare Moon finish her sentence.

Nightmare’s eye twitched, and she stomped, growling a little.

“That’s it.” she said. “You have obviously concussed yourself.”

“I feel fine.”

Nightmare Moon huffed, and her horn lit and a fog passed over Twilight. Twilight fell silently, the sleeping spell working perfectly.

“Take her to the hospital.” Nightmare said, glaring a little at Twilight’s unconscious form. “And when she is lucid, bring her back to me.”

“I have great plans for her…”

Time no longer really mattered. Nothing really mattered. Not anymore.

Anything could happen, and everything that did, did so at the whim of a mad god. Life was…

Ponies lived, but many, most, all of them…

Didn’t want to.

Twilight woke, relaxed, even refreshed.

She opened her eyes and saw a bright sky over her and blinked in confusion, the memory of the dark cell coming back to her.

“What?” she asked, rolling over.

Right off of the cloud she was on top of.

She screamed as she fell, but only made it a few feet down before impacting a giant pie.

That dissolved as she sputtered out of it, evaporating away, and Twilight found herself standing on ground that bent under her hooves as if it was a giant pillow.

She glanced at herself, before she looked around, her eyes huge in shock at what had happened and then what she was seeing:

A world of bright, often clashing, colors, where nothing made sense. The sky was splashed with colors, the ground and earth rippling and shifting in spots. Fantastic sights were scattered everywhere.

Clouds that raced each other, a tree waving a flag. A fire, an actual fire, burning in a lake. A bright green lake. The ground look like patchwork, with stitching visible in several spots, and many, many more things that defied any explanation, even one of magic.

She was surrounded by chaos. This was the time where Discord had won.

She had to leave, really quickly, before Discord found her. If anypony could stop her from slipping between times every time she fell unconscious, it was him.

And Twilight wasn’t about to become trapped as a plaything of chaos.

However, she soon discovered that chaos left things a mite unpredictable. Ideas like hard and soft seemed to be one of the things chaos effected, and it was fairly often that Twilight found hard things turning soft when she attempted to knock herself out on them. And that was when she found something that was hard.

As Twilight struggled to pull her horn free of a rock that had suddenly had the consistency of tar, she felt her quest there a bit impossible. Every second had her growing more and more tense, and it showed on her rather obviously.

And watching it all with a faint frown was Discord.

He reached out, his arm extending, and grabbed onto her, turning her to face him. Twilight froze and then stared at him with huge eyes.

“What are,” He began, only to yelp as Twilight headbutted him, desperation driving her.

He dropped her but she managed to get back up, and shot at him again, with every intention to headbutt him again.

He dodged that, and stared in mild outrage as she turned and came back.

“Alright, we’ll do it your way.” he muttered darkly, appearing in a baseball outfit and wielding a bat. He assumed the correct position, and chewed on a wad of bubblegum as he lined up.

Twilight noticed, and straightened her flight. She closed her eyes and braced herself, flying a little faster.

Discord noticed that she was lining herself up perfectly, as if she wanted to be hit, just as he swung a home run.

Nothing…

Twilight woke once more, with the worst headache she had ever had. She was mildly amnesiac for a moment, and she shook her head as she got to her hooves and looked around herself.

A land of swirling dust and howling wind greeted her. Dark brown, dusty earth as far as the eye could see, nothing to break the monochrome.

This time too… This… This desolation…

This terrible, horrible place too?

She kept staring. The swirling dust sang of… nothing. The land gone, wiped away, buried in dust. Nothing left, not one…

She looked down, and noted that she stood atop what seemed to be a patch of brown moss. That was on top of bare stone, cracked and dry, dust starting to cover it again, but she was in a circle of cleared ground at the base of a small hill. In the center was a burnt log, and she looked at it, and stared.

The sheer oddity of it made her hesitate. Nothing left behind, and yet, a log? A burnt log? Brown moss?

This place reminded her almost of… of some kind of campsite. A sort of savage campsite, but a campsite all the same.

A brief magical touch of the log told her it was cold. But…

Had somepony been here? That had to be true…

Twilight looked up, her eyes firming. The swirling dust seemed ready to already erase the campsite, ensuring that was not going to be a trail to follow. But there had to have been one.

She looked at the hill, and began walking up it, reasoning that she could both see better, and that, unable to see anypony right then, that the only place they could have feasibly gone to ‘hide’ was beyond the hill.

A short while later, Twilight reaching the peak of the hill, and hesitated there, looking around her.

And as far as she could see, she saw nothing but dust. The shape of the land and nothing more, not one thing. Nothing but the swirling dust.

She remained atop the hill, for a time, the wind growing stronger around her, until the dust began stinging her. She flinched before a shield appeared around her, deflecting the dust. She frowned, more and more of her sight slowly stolen by swirling dust.

Then she just began moving forward.

Twilight walked nearly blind, struggling to keep moving in a swirling storm of dust. She near pushed a wall of dust ahead of her, the dust pressing against her bubble.

The wind howled mournfully, distant calls of nothing. The dust screamed near her, little, barely heard sounds. She walked atop the dust, feeling its odd nature. It was soft and silken, and yet, the stuff pinging off her shield felt hard and sharp. The wind felt strong, stronger than any natural one, propelling the dust toward her.

Twilight kept walking. Forcing her ways forward, only her horn’s light to see by, and that only the few inches of space her shield gave her.

Someplace out there was somepony who had made the place she woke at. Someplace in this dust there was somepony alive. There had to be. There was no other explanation as to where her place of waking had come from.

Someplace out in this desolation, there was a hope.

So, she resisted the howling winds, and she forced her way through the storm. She resisted the sounds that had so scared her when she first noted them, and resisted the… almost oppressive feeling of the dust.

The storm bore down on her, but she kept walking, one step at a time, her head lowered and her horn glowing.

She felt tired. So tired.

The storm raged, unabated. The dust swirling around her had yet to change, despite the time she had spent walking. How long had she walked in this… this terrible place?

Hours maybe. It felt like days. Nothing but dust and winds and nothing…

Each time was so terrible, but this one, this… this desolation was so much worse than any other. It weighed down on her, the dust screaming around her, nothing to see, nothing to do save walk, nothing to even fin,

Stop. Stop that.

Twilight forced those thoughts away, and refocused.

Somepony was out here. Somepony other than her was in this dusty desolation. There was somepony out there that she could find.

There had to be.

Twilight kept walking.

Keep walking. Keep going.

The storm howled around her, forever present, never changing.

Keep walking. Keep going.

Twilight forced herself forward, tired and worn, but forcing her tired body to move. If she stopped, she would sleep.

And to sleep would be to be buried in the dust.

Step by step, she moved. The dust weighed her down, the storm filled her senses, her horn flickered and weakened. Motes of dust would break through the shield, sting her, waking her a little more so she could reform the bubble.

Keep walking. Keep moving. Don’t sto,

A sudden change in the wind made her startle. After so long of no change, it was suddenly… less. The howling grew in volume, but the dust in front of her was slowing.

She moved forward, and the wind grew less and less, until her shield bumped into a rocky wall. She stared at it, before she glared suddenly.

A single beam bore a hole into the stone, and Twilight hurried inside, finally free of dust. In her little cavern, she sighed, her strength leaving her. she found a semi-comfy spot, and soon slept, even with the storm still howling outside.

… Home?

“Twilight! Twilight, wake up!”

Twilight stirred, the weight of the desolation still with her. She didn’t want to wake.

“Twilight!”

She felt a tiny clawed hand shake her, and she woke instantly.

She sprang up and seized Spike in a crushing hug, the drakling yelling in surprise.

“Twilight!” he squeaked, a bit squished in her hug, “Twilight, you’re…”

Spike trailed off, his objection dying in his throat.

Twilight was crying in happiness. Nearly sobbing as she held him, a faint laugh audible despite the crying.

Spike was baffled, but after a moment, he hugged her back, confused.

Why was she so upset?

Twilight slowly calmed again and let Spike go, sniffling and wiping at her face with a hoof.

“…Are you alright Twilight?” Spike asked after a moment.

“I’m… just happy.” Twilight said, swallowing hard. At Spike’s confusion, she added, “I had a bad dream.”

Spike nodded slowly. “But… All better now?” he asked, worried.

Twilight nodded, getting out of her own bed, in her own castle. She looked out of the window and saw Ponyville, and the sun, and bright blue skies, and bright green fields, and not one indication of something terribly wrong.

Really, if it wasn’t for the fact that she still had a headache, it all seemed like a long nightmare.

“Breakfast is ready.” Spike said, heading off, Twilight following after him, growing a touch giddy as she went.

It was so very, very nice to be back. She was back. She was back home once again.

The pair had breakfast, and Twilight went back to her library, finding a new appreciation in everything she saw. The luxury of having a castle to live in, the simple delight of eating breakfast like she always had, and the sheer joy every time Spike said anything.

She hadn’t really registered it before, but she had missed him dearly during her… whatever that was.

Living for a day without him by her side was surprisingly empty. She hadn’t really noticed, but Spike was filling a hole that she hadn’t felt until right then. Healing a part of her she hadn’t even noticed was hurt.

She didn’t comment on it, simply feeling happy and content as she went to her library, Spike by her side.

It was all perfectly normal as she selected a book, a relaxing one, and sat in her usual spot to read it.

She soon became caught between her thoughts and the book, idly reading as her mind worked.

What had happened?

Had she actually been transported to those times and places? And if so, how, and why?

Or was it all a dream?

She had never had such a vivid dream before, and pain wasn’t supposed to happen in a dream… Maybe she had just thumped her head on the baseboard, and hadn’t woken fully.

It would explain the slight headache she still had. And though the dreams were vivid and powerful, they weren’t real.

Just her imagination and tension over fighting Starlight Glimmer. Seeing all those times must have upset her more than she thought they had.

But it was over and gone now, and she could relax.

Nothing was going to upset her anymore. She had seen far too much to become upset over something stupid and petty.

She was perfectly calm, and happy.

“Twilight?” an unfamiliar voice asked.

Perfectly at peace.

“Twilight, Spike told me that you were crying when you woke. Is everything alright?”

Absolutely…

Was that a stallion’s voice she was hearing?

“Twilight?”

Twilight looked up and then froze.

There was a pony in front of her, but he was the blackest of blacks, and his eyes glowed white. Dark tendrils wove their way around him, and even his form seemed to waver, as if he was made from smoke.

“Twilight?” he asked again, in a perfectly normal voice, Spike walking next to him to regard her with mild concern. Her, not the… dark stallion next to him.

“You don’t normally have bad dreams.” Spike said. “And you never cried at one before…”

“Twilight, I…” The dark stallion paused, and regarded her. The pair stared at each other, and then he leaned a little forward, staring into her eyes.

Then he slowly and carefully reached out.

He poked her, and Twilight didn’t move or make a sound.

He waved a hoof in front of her, and she didn’t even blink.

He hesitated, and gently pushed her over. She fell like a doll with its strings cut, giving a gentle sigh as she fainted.

The stallion and Spike stared at her in confusion, and then Spike looked up at him.

“Is she alright?” he asked with some worry.

“I… I’m not entirely sure Spike.” he responded. Darkness wrapped around her, and lifted her up next to him. “I’ll put her back in bed and go to talk to a few ponies. Keep an eye on her for me.”

“What’s happening to her, Noctem?” Spike asked, leaping onto his back as Noctem carried Twilight back to her room.

“I don’t know Spike. I don’t know.”

“Twilight! Twilight, wake up!”

Twilight stirred once again, and opened her eyes.

Her friends were around her, staring in concern. Spike was right next to her, shaking her, though he stopped the moment her eyes opened.

“Thank Celestia.” Starlight said, giving a massive sigh of relief as she sat down.

“Twi, what happened?” Applejack asked as Twilight stumbled to her hooves. “Ya just,”

“I really need to know if there is a black stallion with glowing white eyes anywhere nearby.” she interrupted, looking around her with a mild fear. “And if there is, I’d like a really potent sleep spell cast on me please.”

The group paused, and looked at each other in concern.

Rarity gave a little laugh and went to her side. “You are just feeling a touch… strange darling. Why don’t you just relax?”

“Tell me.” she said rather firmly, making the rest hesitate all the more at her insistence.

“…No, there ain’t, an I ain’t never heard o anypony who looked like that.” Applejack told her.

Twilight nodded and sighed in relief, relaxing greatly, leaning on Rarity a little. Fluttershy moved to her other side, and helped support her as well.

“You wouldn’t wake up.” Spike said.

“No matter what anypony did.” Starlight added. “It’s been hours of us trying, but you just… kept sleeping. Barely breathing.” She added in a whisper, her final comment unheard by anypony else.

Twilight blinked. “What time is it right now?”

“Four.” Spike said bluntly.

Twilight thought for a moment, and then shrugged. It was all just a really, really, strange and vivid dream.

One that had apparently incapacitated her as well, but it was a dream.

She wasn’t about to face the idea that it hadn’t been a dream.

“I was just dreaming.” Twilight told them. At their looks, she added, “A really strange dream.”

“But it’s gone now, and I feel fine.”

“Ya jus asked about a black stallion with glowin eyes.”

“… Just checking to make sure this wasn’t a dream too.”

“Well, it’s not.” Starlight said. She hung her head and sighed.

“You terrified everypony Twilight. I thought…” She shook her head and looked back at Twilight. “You are better now? No… confusion, or headaches or anything?”

Twilight nodded, pointedly ignoring the faint ache she still felt. It wasn’t real, and she was only imagining it. It was all just a very strange dream. Nothing more than that. It wasn’t real.

She was home. Safe and sound in her own home, and nothing was going to take her anywhere.

All just a dream…